The Amentans don't think it's odd at all that they don't have a lot of pollution, that's just responsible of them.

They will hang out listening in on the radio for a while, though they will say hi if it looks like anyone has noticed them.

Some people transmit messages saying 'Hi' or 'What/who are you?' with voice or using Imperial standard radio codes.

...there's a brief flurry of communications, and virtually all radio transmission ceases for six hours.

Huh. Hopefully they have enough to make some progress at piecing the languages together.

There are still a few people transmitting, but they're ships in the open ocean. Depending on how strong the Amentan's sensors are, they may or may not be able to pick them up. All of those transmissions are codes, though, and not voice or text.

There is one transmission now directed straight at the Amentan ship, which will be coming from a single source. It's a prime number sequence, a gap, and then the same sequence again, repeated, seemingly asking them to complete it.

Yeah, they will play prime numbers, that seems fine.

More silence for hours. Night has passed and is now dawn.

The Imperials have thought about how to do first contact but like, honestly not that much? At least with communication. You'd think that a planet where linguistics is popular would have something better, but they're not sure how to handle encoding schemes.

They'll choose to transmit a bunch of sentences from Standard Imperial language primers in audio, as well as the same in text, and then at the end ask the aliens to do the same.

Yeah, okay, they can have introductory Tapap primers.

They're kind of a bit slow on transmitting. They will learn Tapap. They will transmit more complicated sentences in Imperial, with what they hope are the correct Tapap translations.

At the end, they will say that they are interested in meeting. Is it safe for you to land here? Both for you and for us. We can prepare a spot for you to land on. Please transmit desiderata for landing areas.

They have tried having some probes scoop atmo samples so yeah they're pretty sure it's safe! They need this much room that can take this much force.

The Imperials will prepare a square of flat solid land near the capital, which is its own province, and then transmit the coordinates to there.

The landing spot will have a bunch of tents and temporary structures and people milling about it, and will also have radio towers transmitting 'land here' over and over so that it's clear they should land there.

There is a Very Coherent Aesthetic happening with the people and structures: there's a gold and red spiral symbol in many places, and in general people are following the color scheme of yellow/gold, red, blue-black, and white. 

Huh. Wonder what that means.

Down they go! Out they step!

The aliens' body structures and appearance are very similar to the Amentans, except that they don't have hair, and instead have plates like shell or nacre on their heads (and shoulders, but that's concealed by clothing), and also have six retractable tentacles on their back, which will be rhythmically oscillating – extending and retracting repeatedly, and are bigger. There seems to be two distinct types, with the ones that look like they're commanding others being taller than the ones who look like they're receiving orders.

There's about six people who have stepped up nearer to the shuttle, who are dressed in elaborate costume, in the same general aesthetic and color scheme! There is lots of gold embroidery involved. It's kind of over the top.

The one in front speaks.

"I am Consul Restem Talset Meden. I welcome you to the Imperium," he says in Standard Imperial.

He reads from a piece of paper saying the same thing in Tapap, except that 'Restem Talset Meden' becomes 'Testem Talset Meten' – it seems that the translators preferred not to simply say the name, but transliterate it.

Tapap may not have those sounds but greens and blues learn foreign languages and can approximately pronounce them. "It is good to meet you, Restem Talset Meden!" says a blue - very short, barely half his height. "I am Shenmi Asauki. Thank you for your welcome."

"It is also good to meet you, Shenmi Asauki. What is the name of your civilization? Are you authorized to speak on its behalf? I am authorized to speak on the behalf of the Imperium."

Restem will stand a bit farther than where he would usually stand so that neither of them have to angle their necks awkwardly to look at each other.

"We are from the nation of Tapa on the planet of Amenta. I am authorized to speak for Tapa in most matters."

There are remna – members of their species – recording the words being said in shorthand, and also people recording the audio of the conversation, but they're well away from the main conversation and are unobtrusive.

"I, and by extension, my nation, is very interested in peaceful trade and exchange-of-information between us."

Well. He's hoping that the Clearly Very Technologically Advanced And By Extension Militarily Powerful Aliens would want to trade. I mean, they did come here to talk. That's something, right?

"We are excited about both of those things! We have longed to meet aliens for lifetimes."

"Likewise!" he says, even though internally that longing has also been mixed with fear, because Potentially Hostile Aliens.

"We would like to create a more permanent structure for us to talk more and talk about our civilizations cooperating. What sort of amenities do you want for this structure? We can build it here or elsewhere. Or does your space-vehicle function as your home?"

"We can live in our space vehicle! We can also build a structure ourselves given some materials that would be silly to bring all this way."

"What materials do you need to build it? Could you provide samples of said materials so that we can see if we have them here?

We would like to set up mechanisms for treaty-enforcement and also language-learning so that trade and information-sharing can occur quickly."

"With your help I think our purples can build a satisfactory structure with wood and whatever you already use for electricity and plumbing, and local tools since your hands are like ours, though possibly versions for juveniles would suit us better. What mechanisms do you have in mind?"

"We will bring wood that we would personally use to build structures with. We can also connect your structure to a sewer line or set up a septic tank system, and also connect your structure to the electrical grid.

I'm not sure about the tools..." He checks for a few minutes with some other people.

"We can get you local tools, but they will have to be custom made and will take time to make – we don't have juveniles do construction work. However, we can help you with structure building if you give precise schematics – as a signal for our receptivity for prosocial interaction, and not just antiantisocial.

Could I get a translation check on 'purples'? That is a color, yes? How do colors construct things?"

"Purple is a caste. We have castes, and they are indicated by hair color. Tapap has words that are just for the castes, but those will not translate, and the colors are acceptable nicknames for all of them. I am a blue."

A pause while Restem gives the orders to get wood for construction, and another pause for Restem to consult with others concerning 'caste'.

"We don't know what a caste is. I'm not sure we have the concept. Could you explain?" 

The hair is indeed captivating. Many Zmavlipre are kind of jealous, but of course they don't say that. It comes it so many colors. The animals here which have hair usually only have black or brown or white – no exciting colors.