That particular tengu body bows back with wings slightly spread.

"Thank you for the food! This is very good." Seems like the others are enjoying it too, although Siamek passed his meat strips to the catfolk.

"What kind of meat is this? 

We have gift for you too!" He puts on the table the following objects from his pocket: 

A fipple flute made of rock, like the emergency whistles they all have around their necks but larger and with finger holes. It makes a quiet low sound. Looking into the holes will show that the internal bore is all coiled up.

A ring of rock about 12cm wide, holding several thin layers of glass, mostly clear but with colored bits, arranged to show a pastoral sunset landscape, with a 3d effect from combining the layers.

A metal ring with an iridescent rainbow finish. Close examination will show that it has tiny parallel grooves, uneven, with tool marks resembling those left by a hand chisel.

A stone bracelet which unscrews into two separate parallel rings, revealing compartments in one of the halves containing tiny woven-reed sculptures. The other half has a small hole on the inside, feeding into a single toroidal compartment in which there are loose fibers of reed.

A pair of brown-and-grey gloves sized for a human, made from yarn with nålbinding. They're soft.

A wooden brush with wooden bristles, carved from a single piece of wood which, if the grain is to be believed, grew into that shape, bristles and all.

"Thank you for the gifts. We didn't expect you so we didn't prepare anything, but we can find something I'm sure."

Seems like mostly art objects? Diplomatic enough. They will be passed around appreciatively. The glass landscape is pretty. The wooden brush gets the most interest, that would be really difficult to do normally...

"The meat is called Scop. It did not come from an animal. We have made a species of tiny life that grows into Scop when fed properly. It's easier to look after than animals in some ways, and more difficult in other ways. It's safe and good for humans to eat."

"I'll make sure to convey the compliment to the kitchen staff."

"Wow! 

Do you want to talk about trade now? Scop is a very good thing. We trade magic for learn how to do scop?"

"We might want to trade. I want to learn about each other before we do. Can we learn how to do magic? -We should all say who we are and what we do."

Lucy, Mary, and Dr. Montero already did that earlier. The four aides introduce themselves and give a brief description of their occupation. An engineer, a security person, someone from maintenance, and a nurse.

"I am Shen Takagi, I - operate flying things like what you came here with. When I'm not doing that I organize things."

"Can't learn magic. Many species, one species have one magic. Can't learn, doesn't need to learn, just have magic. Miguel say you don't have magic, but maybe, you have only one species, you have magic but you can't know you have magic. Maybe talk and then you know you have magic.

My name is Hester." Which is easier to pronounce for English speakers than [ˈxḛɕʎɘrɜ]. "I think about aliens for a long time, think about how to talk to aliens, how to trade. Now my job is to talk.

His name is Audron. He think about flying things. He also see things happen and talk about things. Everyone like when Audron talk about things. 

Her name is Chime. She use magic to look at wind. If a mountain is in front of us, she say 'mountain! go left!'.

Their name is tengu. They use magic to talk to people far away."

HELLO! MY NAME IS SEE AH MEHK. I USE MAGIC TO SAY WHERE NIVIS.

"His name is Leslie." As Tolesli choose beforehand. "He use magic to do fire, flying thing go fast. I use same magic to same.

This planet have many countries. This important we here talk to you have people three kind of a country, names is FD and Lei and Allheart. I and Audron and Siamek have country FD. Chime and Leslie have country Lei. Tengu have country Allheart."

He translates all that into Sotalese and asks if anyone wants to add anything.

"I want to know how they fly- Why else would they have a runway and a thing that tells where to land! But it can wait."

He brought a lot of paper and his hands are warm enough to start writing things now.

...These people need actual air navigation instruments that aren't someone listening to the wind.

'Magic exists and you can't have it. It's not like we're keeping it from you, you just can't.' Convenient. Should she be thinking in terms of international relations, not first contact? They're speaking English, their mannerisms are remarkably human. It probably is a better model...

"It's nice to meet you all! I think we can probably both do good from trade. That's almost always the case when people choose to trade."

Miguel has been teaching them English. Has he been giving science lectures? Who knows? There's no point being stingy about basic knowledge, it'll inevitably come out either way and that would just leave everyone suspicious and resentful of each other, and it's just a bad look even to everyone else in Nivis.

"As a gift, we will make three PDAs with some teaching on them, one for each country. They will take some time to make. Fire magic might be useful, finding things magic might be useful, but I do not know what other kinds there are. It sounds like there are a lot."

"Thank you for the very good gift!

Good you want to trade. Yes, we have many kind of a magic. I want to talk to you about five best kind of a magic, this I think, you most want.

'Werewolf': change stone's shape. Music gift, werewolf make this. Werewolf can change big stone's shape, make house.

'Kappa': create air and water.

'Aasimar': hold things in place so they can't move or change. Aasimar can hold big things in place.

'Frogold': put things and take things." Hestlierre hands over another object: a hollow glass ball half full of water. "This is a gift and this is a example. In the past I didn't give you this, because this is not good gift, but now give you because this is good example. How does the water inside glass? Frogold put water. Also. How do we do glass?" He mimes sticking together two hemispheres with a burst of flame from his hands. "Glass need hot. If no frogold, frogold doesn't take air and put air, glass break. If frogold, glass doesn't break.

'Liefling': change people and animals. This is a gift and example." He takes out a small bag, like the gloves but not as well made, and from rougher fiber, and he opens it to show leaves inside it. "Eat leaf to see more when dark. When liefling most safe, do magic for one person. When liefling safe, do magic for species. When liefling maybe safe, do magic for all people. Liefling do this magic many times for all people and we experiment eat leaf and all times this is safe, but this is liefling do magic for all people, not liefling do magic for Lucy Carver or Dr. Montero. Maybe safe but not most safe. In the future three days, leaf doesn't have magic.

More kind of a magic we write." He gives them flat stone with very small indented writing, describing the same list of species that the Lei emperor asked Miguel about earlier. (Including undines and mouselings. The name of the species which is translated here as 'tengu' is written with a phonetic transcription of the Sotalese word for tengu, which matches what Hestlierre said was the name of the individual tengu.)

Magic drugs to enhance night vision? Magic drug synthesis targeting individuals? Oh he wants to do SO many experiments. It's a shame the pharmacological analysis equipment, what pieces of it have survived or been salvaged anyway, is more desk-sized than PDA-sized. Hmm... Drugs do decay quickly in some cases...

Anyway. Yoink. 

"We also experiment to see whether things are safe to eat. I will use things to look at the leaf and what it does, and then maybe someone can try it. We must be careful with our health."

"The pressure differential from cooling gas would be rather troubling if you're trying to do this by hand... It looks like it's by hand and, uh, magic, I guess. When we make light rods our glass machines fill them with special gas just before we melt and pinch the ends shut."

What kind of things should they put in the gift of knowledge? Grade 9-12 stuff? Maybe college 101 level. General math, physics, biology, maybe 101 level engineering topics. Some user manuals for electronics. No detailed technical information, nothing that could build industry by itself... Sell that as a bonus later on. No nuclear beyond brief mentions. Maybe redact modern explosives and firearms to the extent that's possible? Include history and social/government topics, or no? Ugh, her bright idea is already giving her a headache.

She reads down the list. Looks Concerned at a couple of entries, pointing them out to Mary. Mind reading, and illusions, and animation of reed figures. Mary nods.

Lots to say. Lots to think about, if you take the 'magic' at face value.

"...We, the people of Exodus, are living here in the place we call Nivis because it is near where we crashed, not because it is the best place to live. We are not going to die here, but we are not very happy here. It is hard to build on the ice. Making houses or other places, places to work, places to put machines, that would be good. Is there - places to go that are not on the ice and not where people already are?"

"I think I don't understand kappa. If an aasimar holds a thing, is it held like that forever?" That would make a good rocket launchpad. Or foundations. "Can frogolds move things they can't see? I will let Dr. Montero ask about lieflings and understand them."

That reminds him. "There is a danger you cannot see in the crash site. It is called radiation and is made from a broken reactor. If you get radioactive dust - dust that makes radiation - on you it can make you sick now, and make things grow inside you that should not grow years later. We had some people get sick this way. If it is okay, I can go get a machine that sees if you have radiation on you." 

Because they didn't go through the standard decon in Maintenance because someone didn't want to show them Maintenance. He gives Lucy a slight look.

Well, so much for not mentioning nuclear tech at all. She nods, accepting the rebuke.

They really need to find the bridge. Did someone KNOW the 'aliens' were here? Is it a competing colony that got here first and then was forgotten about for ages? Has the world just gone insane? The world doesn't make any sense anymore... Very little of this shows on his face.

"Yes. If you want werewolf magic to make houses, this is more easy in places where there is no ice, where they can change the stone in the ground.

There are many places where there is a no ice. Some places are dark and some are bright. Now, no one live in these places. But we work hard to find Nivis and we find ice too. Ice is very important. Now, no one live in these places, but soon people live on ice and make water. Water is very important for live in bright places. Soon, we have many water and we want to live in the bright places too.

There are many places. Places for all countries and places for Nivis and many more places.  We all live many places and we all are happy. But this is important to say: if no one live in place now, in the future we don't know who live there. Not: if no one live in place now, Nivis live in all places.

Also, there is one place too, the safe place where Miguel is. People live there... and some Nivis people come live there too, so this is more easy to talk to all countries?

Kappa make air and water. In the past, no air and water. Now, there is air and water." He mimes being surprised by a flame appearing in his hand.

"Assimar hold one thing. If they want to hold a new thing, they must put down the old thing.

Frogold can move things they can't see. They think about a place and move the things in the place, not think about things.

Machine to look at radiation is good. This is not a big problem, but this is a small problem, thank you. Liefling can fix things grow inside person, but... fix so they don't die, not fix so they don't hurt."

"If a kappa was in a room and made air and water, the room would weigh more than it did before? If a kappa room was floating and made air and the air went out a small hole, would the room move?"

That is... Impossible. But everything is impossible until it happens.

Also it would be infinite free propellant. The tyranny of the rocket equation, shattered even more than the Brigman Cores did. But you could do it with much less high-end equipment than the thirty-billion-dollar Brigman Cores. You could do it with a simple nuclear core rocket, a few tens of millions of dollars at most, not that dollars is the correct measure for their capabilities now,  creating superheated steam instead of the usual hydrogen. The specific impulse doesn't matter if you're getting more.

He brings five leaves with him as he leaves to get a Geiger counter.

Mary goes with him to tell the guards Dr. Montero is allowed to leave and come back.

"May we live in interesting times..." She muses quietly.