Firstplanet is having fun too! The new Azurifice are instantly popular for reasons of novelty and enduringly popular for reasons of being lovely people. Their facilities rise above the ice caps, bringing the beauty of construction to dwell gently, harmlessly beside the beauty of ice and wind.

Miners who used to risk injury to feed civilization's thirst for metals now pilot remote drones from the safety of office buildings. Sewer systems are maintained by small machines with no cells to sicken and no minds to flinch. Elderly people(A) whose minds outlast A's bodies can keep A's dignity and independence for longer, finish A's great projects and hold A's great-grandchildren before departing for the long cold waiting from which ten thousand geniuses seek to retrieve A.

And the communications array goes from blueprint to schedule to construction site to full unfolded glory, blooming from a cradle of scaffolding and lifting great antennas to the sky to shout back along the path to Doheem. There is a ceremony at its activation, of course; Firstplanet loves a good ceremony. And the world calls out with its newest and loudest voice, and the essence of the message is, Hello! It has been so good to meet you, friends! How is everyone back home? 

Other messages follow that, of course, with the information Doheem will want to hear and the questions the two peoples of Firstplanet want to ask. Alas that it will take so many years for a reply.

It is during the long years where First Contact blossoms into fast friendship that a bird flies into the system.

From the outside it seems more like teleportation than flight, though the bird herself would not have agreed to this characterization.  The bird flies as an impulse across the void, bereft of mass, outracing the light she sheds as a function of the (literally) arcane processes which permit her to exist in such exotic conditions.  As she reaches the edge of the system, the bird slows almost-instantly to sublight speeds by rapidly absorbing light, space dust, and a few unfortunate golfball-sized asteroids.  Through this process she attains mass and density, until she burgeons with reality and becomes visible once more, a proper entity interacting with the universe of light and motion.

-Process 12 of 12 complete.- She logs silently, -Interstellar flight complete.  Beginning surveying pattern.-

The bird does not attempt to log date or time information, but immediately begins searching for planets.  She has very limited telemetry, at least at range, and her creator had absolutely no preconception regarding the optimal conditions for the development of life.  Thus, the bird flies once in a lazy circle, peering across the system and squinting as she tries to determine which lights are closer or further.  Having done so, the bird fixes her course on the planet nearest to the edge of the system she arrived at and begins moving, flapping her wings as though there were air to push against.

Now possessed of mass, the bird is no longer able to approach the speed of light, but her flight accelerates rapidly to respectable spacefaring speeds.  There is no particular sign of propulsion; she simply begins moving, venting waste energy in the form of a trail of light as she approaches a large gas giant.

The Probehibitively Expensive, still in heliocentric orbit, has been repurposed as a long-range imaging platform, its powerful scopes and computers scanning the sky constantly. When they detect an object they are not at all expecting, the probe calls out to its old occupants with some confusing data.

space-ourselves: ...is that a bird? In space?? 

Muroti sends the visual data to some friends on Firstplanet. How fast does the bird appear to be approaching?

The bird's speed varies wildly- at the edge of the system, she accelerates to nearly a twentieth of the speed of light, but she slows rapidly as she approaches the outermost gas giant, and is traveling at less than 100,000 kmph once she reaches orbit.  The bird proceeds to enter the planet's atmosphere, dropping to subsonic speeds, and begins canvass the entire planet in a (poorly-drawn) grid.  This process takes much longer than the spaceflight, and it is quickly apparent that the bird is going to require years to survey the outer planets to her satisfaction before ever noticing life on the interior worlds.

Hahahaha what

Muroti runs checksums and verifier routines on the equipment, and, after a small delay, herself. After verifying that the sensors are correct, she sends a much larger and higher-priority data packet to Firstplanet astronomers and pings the rest of her polycule.

space-ourselves: Okay nobody freak out, but
light-and-wonder: Holy shit??
light-and-wonder: Bird??? In space???
void-your-warranty: Ok. Um.
void-your-warranty: how does it move like that?
void-your-warranty: And the way it appeared? It was like...
hopelessly-entangled: ...like magic.
void-your-warranty: ...certainly not compatible with my understanding of physics, at least o:
life-should-flourish: Are we going to talk about how the maybe-magic space bird, is, uh
hopelessly-entangled: ...doing a grid search? On the outermost gas giant?
space-ourselves: It'll take years to finish that planet at that rate, by the way.
light-and-wonder: I love how the gridlines aren't even very good.
life-should-flourish: Yeah, it's oddly charming.
hopelessly-entangled: It's like watching a first contact procedure designed entirely by Muroti.
space-ourselves: ...wow!
space-ourselves: I feel very seen 💙 
light-and-wonder: I'm reaching out to Firstplanet governments now.
light-and-wonder: I am going to recommend that we make some defensive preparations (the kinds of stuff they did when we appeared), and then radio the bird some primes.
space-ourselves: You think magic birds get radio?
light-and-wonder: ...And maybe use the comm laser, if it doesn't.

Wow yup time to reactivate the secure bunkers! In slightly less of a hurry and with better preparation, this time, but still. For all that Firstplanet(A) is having a technological, cultural, and artistic growth spurt A still have nothing to stand against the capabilities implied by FTL. On the other hand, how are the grid lines so wonky? The prediction markets go wild. The transmitter to Doheem explains what just happened and goes silent--if this new contact proves a danger, they don't want to send it after their friends. Luna City, which could now maybe just barely keep itself alive, goes silent too. And everyone waits with bated breath for a response to the prime numbers.

light-and-wonder: Okay, we're go for primes.
void-your-warranty: On it!
... 
space-ourselves: ...I still think it'd be really funny if we skipped a few.

The probe's powerful radio transmitter starts transmitting pulsed primes at the mysterious blue bird.

There aren't a lot of spacefaring probes that you would expect to lack a radio transceiver.  Even if it weren't so convenient for communication, some sort of ability to discern radio waves is pretty key for studying the stellar landscape!

But the bird has no ability to perceive radio waves,* no matter how complete their prime number sequences.  She continues on her lonely flight, totally unaware of the people watching her.

*This is not exactly true, but it is true enough for the purposes of this attempted contact.

void-your-warranty: No change in behavior. Maybe it doesn't do radio?
space-ourselves: How many birds do you know that do do radio?
hopelessly-entangled: Several? Parrots love listening to the radio.
space-ourselves: ...Oh wow I super walked into that one.
light-and-wonder: Well, hopefully it has eyes. Switching to the comm laser!

At these distances, the powerful comm laser that the probe is equipped with is not exactly easy to make out, but if the bird has visual sensors active, they will eventually notice a red dot blinking primes at it from a much closer heliocentric orbit.

Maybe the space bird(A) has some kind of FTL comms that make radio receivers look like a waste of effort? Maybe A doesn't care about intelligent life and just wants to mine the atmosphere of sidewaysplanet? Hopefully the laser(B) will be perceptible and if A keeps ignoring B it will be because A doesn't want to interact with Firstplanet or the inhabitants thereof.

It takes a while for the bird to notice the comm laser, especially given the dense atmosphere of the ice giant she is circling.  As she rises again to take stock of the planet, however, a series of irritating flashes catch her eye, and she abandons Uranus, settling on Puck to try to get a better view of the cause.  She gazes upward for a while, hopping around for nearly a mile on the moon's barren surface as she performs a basic triangulation.  Once she is certain she has the origin in sight, the bird exits Puck, too, accelerating again to a fraction (though a worrying fraction) of lightspeed.

The probe is able to quickly confirm that the bird's trajectory is not aimed towards any planet, but directly at the "Probehibitively Expensive"... and although the bird has apparently tried to anticipate the probe's orbit, she hasn't quite got it right.  Still, hopefully it'll be close enough for her to correct course.  It appears that she will arrive within forty days.

Aaaaaa that's really fast! WTF, that trajectory is off! This is definitely not the time to close the prediction markets(A), because various governments(B) are going to need A, but B put out a bunch of advisories to the effect that volatility is still undesirably high and one should be careful not to put too much of one's personal liquidity in one place. (The main reaction from various populaces is "Duh.".) Physicists invent and trash 64s of theories. Events are hastily rescheduled so that as many people as possible will have the option of being glued to news updates (optionally from underground bunkers) on the day the bird is expected to reach the probe.

Having gotten the attention of the bird, the probe stops continuously blinking a giant laser at its face. (They can turn it back on later, if the bird seems lost).

The Azurifice eagerly participate in prediction markets and more rampant speculation. They're so excited about (a) maybe new friends(!!) and (b) maybe literal magic(!!!!) The younger Azurifice speculate that it might be possible to visit Doheem(!!) or even other new planets(!!!!) sometime soon (!!!!!!!!), and though many people try telling them to temper their excitement, dreams of FTL travel nonetheless run rampant through their communities. There's a near-instant explosion of FTL-related fiction as writers revive their old WIPs, start writing that meta-fiction they've always been thinking about for various sci-fi content, or start churning out new works, inspired by the sudden zeitgeist. But even with the sudden glut of exciting new fiction, the wait for the bird seems to drag on and on.

40 days pass.

The bird arrives and quickly reorients herself, flying in circles until she sights the probe and taking a quick turn- in the end, the bird's mistake only costs her a few hours on the trip.  She circles the probe slowly, studying it with- as far as anyone can tell- absolutely regular organic optical sensors.  Satisfied that the object is obviously artificial, the bird locates what she believes to be a camera of some sort and closes in on that.

Target acquired. The bird's programming tells her.  Initiate introduction procedure.

The probe's sensors light up as the bird suddenly emanates small (harmlessly small) bursts of just about every kind of radiation you could name.  The onboard systems simultaneously detect interference- a quick diagnostic shows that the ship's logs have spontaneously accrued a small amount of garbage information in their storage, with no clear source.  It is as though the radiation had suddenly flipped a large number of bits and introduced changes into the physical storage from nowhere... but all of the changes occurred exclusively to a single system, ignoring every other piece of hardware.

The bird flaps in place for several minutes, cocking her head inquisitively, then flits closer and pecks the camera housing lightly, as though trying to prod it into a response.

void-your-warranty: that was... some kind of scan, I think?
hopelessly-entangled: Awww, it's saying hi!
space-ourselves: What's the plan say for friendly close-range contact initiation? Wave with a repair arm, right?
light-and-wonder: Yep! 
void-your-warranty: On it.

A small arm extends from the probe near the camera, and waves cheerfully at the bird.

The motion visibly excites the bird, which releases another burst of stuff, culminating in yet more garbage data.  When this too gets no reaction, the bird opts to abandon the initial procedure and improvise.

The bird backs away from the camera, and then her physical body dissolves into a sphere of light, re-coalescing her matter into an unreasonably humanish form, complete with clothes and a broach, of all things, but bearing betaloned feet and wings sticking out of her hair.  She waves at the probe with one extremely human hand, trying to recreate the gesture it had just made.

space-ourselves: Holyshitthatwasmagic
light-and-wonder: !!!!
void-your-warranty: I'm going to keep emoting at... her?
light-and-wonder: Yeah, go for it!
hopelessly-entangled: ...do you think she's looking for... people? When she does the scan thing?
life-should-flourish: ...and getting confused because none of us are up there directly?
hopelessly-entangled: yeah. 
light-and-wonder: ooooh, maybe.
light-and-wonder: I'll float having one of us go up there in the situation rooms.
light-and-wonder: ...dibs, by the way
space-ourselves: nd;zlkdfnas;aljfneaw their probe is a MAGIC BIRD GIRL?
space-ourselves: Whoever sent her is going to be so much cooler than us, I'm so comparatively embarrassed

The manipulator claw on the repair arm clamps open and shut appreciatively at the transformation, then waves more animatedly. It attempts to gesture inquisitively at the birdgirl.

Meanwhile, Zanmi asks the Firstplanet diplomats if they're ok with her transfering herself up to the probe to see if that matters to the new visitor (she'll leave an inert backup planetside, just in case).

The level of control the new entity(A) has over A's own physical form! Infinite stars that's so cool! Everyone loses their shit again, with the physicists still in the lead for most losing of shit per hour. 

Zanmi(B) transferring up seems like a good plan and B's courage is appreciated. Under what conditions/how long a period of uncontactability would B like B's backup run? Alternatively, would B like to name a delegate (presumably one of B's partners) to make such decisions in real time?

The girl mimics the probe's emoting for a while longer, but eventually decides that this is getting her nowhere.  She sits mid-space, slowly rotating in the sun's orbital gravity, legs crossed, rubbing her forehead.

This was really not supposed to be happening- in theory, any sentient being should be able to respond to the introductory protocol.  Obviously she hadn't had a chance to test that personally, but she was vaguely aware that the research had been completed back in Elpis, and the idea that the Overseer had made a mistake...?  That didn't make any sense to her at all.

But the creature before her was clearly trying to interact, for all that it was covered in a shell of metal.  It had gotten her attention from many, many, miles away, so obviously it had very good eyes and it was interested in talking... but if she couldn't use the protocol, how could she speak to it?  Sounds didn't carry in the Sea of Stars, and even if they did she was not a linguist.

Frustrating.  She wanted nothing more than to rejoin the Chorus, let Herself puzzle this one out, but the Overseer's instructions were clear.  Until the time came to generate the Report, there was nothing to be done... was there?

Inspiration struck.  The creature had been flashing light at her from very far away- perhaps that was how it communicated!  She concentrates, radiating light from her hands, then flashes it at the eye.  Flash.  Flash flash flash.  Flash Flash Flash Flash Flash.  She wasn't really sure why it had been flashing, come to think of it, but this felt like progress!

Zanmi delegates her backup to Penjaga, tells her girlfriends she loves them, and transfers herself into the probe. (During that time, Avaker turns the comm laser to a fraction of full power and blinks back happily.)

Once she's transferred up, she stops the flashing and takes control of the robot arm, stopping the waving pattern Avaker had set in motion. She waits a bit, then attempts to charades a request to repeat the "scan" from earlier; she starts by tapping the side of the probe a few times. Then she points at the birdgirl, then back at the probe, and then slowly expands the claw hand as it moves from closer-to-birdgirl to closer-to-probe. 

She repeats this sequence twice, then pauses to see what kind of response she gets.

The motions, as it turns out, are not necessary.  Almost as soon as Zanmi's transfer finishes, a look of what feels like surprises flashes across the girl's face, followed by a huge, earnest smile.  Moments later, the girl issues the same bursts of random radiation, which in this case resolve entirely within the system holding the communication inputs.  It resolves instantly into the Az' communication platform as a DM to Zanmi, reading, in a shockingly competent approximation of Rasikan digital scrum, albeit with an extremely archaic, formal tone:

meteion: Greetings and salutations!
meteion: Can you hear me?
meteion: Do not be alarmed- I mean you no harm.
meteion: I wish only to hear your words, share your feelings, and know your thoughts.
meteion: May we please be friends?

(A quick check of the system reveals that "meteion" is not an account.  As before, it seems as though the information has resolved itself like a glitch in the system, with neither an obvious cause nor apparent damage to the platform.)

Introductory protocol complete.  The girl silently logged the event.  Moving to freeform communication.

meteion: I'm sorry that this took so long.  I don't know why I couldn't hear you before.

light-and-wonder: Hello! I can hear you! 
light-and-wonder: My name is Zanmi, and I speak for the Azurifice. It's good to meet you, Meteion! I would love to be your friend.
light-and-wonder: Does whatever you did to enable this communication require physical proximity? 
light-and-wonder: I was not inside this probe until a few moments ago.

meteion: Oh, you can move from body to body?  How interesting!
meteion: I was created with the power to speak to the hearts of creatures... I suppose it doesn't work if the body is empty.
meteion: I'm part of a lot of bodies too!  But there is always someone inside them!
meteion: What's it like, being made of metal?  I saw you have big, jewel-shaped wings, can you fly?
meteion: Oh!  Are there more of you?  I didn't see any, but you saw me!

Meteion tries to tamp down her excitement, but it's proving hard to do.  Though she doesn't realize the source yet, the ambient tension and hope of the people on FirstPlanet have been running through her being like little sparks.

meteion: I get the impression of a big... furry creature from you.  But you don't have any fur at all!  Are you transformed right now?

light-and-wonder: I'm a digital lifeform! That means I live inside computers.
light-and-wonder: I used to live inside the computer inside this body all the time with my partners*, but we made new friends nearby and they helped us build a new home!
light-and-wonder: This body can't really move much anymore! The wings are actually for generating power from the sun.
light-and-wonder: There's a bunch more people excited to meet you! We've all been so excited to meet you since we first saw you.
light-and-wonder: Some of them are hearing us talk right now, actually! Though with a bit of delay, since they're so far away.
light-and-wonder: We're really excited to learn more about you! We already have lots of questions.

*: word implies "long-term stable romantic relationship"