It's showing...a city. Specifically, one of the plazas of the city which is being used as a marketplace. There are people milling about. They seem to be traveling in groups – basically no one is walking alone by themselves. And a lot of them are wearing uniforms? Or at least have unusually coordinated outfits. Most of the stalls are selling foods of some sort, either raw ingredients like vegetables or snacks and such.

The people distinctly do not look like Krissan, being taller and bigger and being hairless and having plates of shell, like sea shells, on their shoulders and head. And having six retractable tentacles emerging from their back.

The architecture of the place is also unusually coordinated. It's definitely giving an Art Nouveau vibe, with lots of curves and plant-inspired patterns. The tiling on the floor and the buildings and the stalls have a unified aesthetic, and a significant number of the people walking by have outfits that match it.

The weather is warm, but not hot, like late spring. Indeed, it is late spring in the Old World, the lower continent, where Kosfor City is located.

It's also not fully aligned with the plane everyone looking at the ring can be imagined as standing on - rather the floor is parallel to where their floor would be if the portal ring was fully upright. It is, instead, leaning, and if any of the aliens look through it they'll be treated to the view of a bright blue sky and a few surprised faces - eyes and nose and mouth all on the front of their faces like humans, but eyes somewhat bigger with slit pupils and jewel-tone irises, and noses somewhat flatter with flexible nostrils that can seal closed, with silky hair on their heads that's gotten pretty oily with all the seaspray around, mostly in a muddle of striped colors, and faintly shimmery skin. And, also, large furry ears on the sides of their heads.

An adolescent with hair in stripes of a darker peach with faint bands of yellow and pink says, "Should we go through?" Peach leans a bit more over, squinting into the portal like peach is considering just jumping. 

The current project lead, an elder with very faint pastel hair that's probably mostly green, puts a warning hand on peach's shoulder. "Wait," eld says, clearly a bit exasperated. Eld then twists, and signals one of the twitch-dogs to alert the relays and pass on an urgent message to - probably honestly straight to Beloved of Water Lilies, if this isn't a collective hallucination. 

(A twitch-dog closer to the portal - one with a blue and green brindled coat - helpfully confirms with a few twists and barks that brindle can see the same thing through the portal. So, probably not a collective hallucination.)

A warbling howl arises from the messenger twitch-dog, probably readily audible through the portal if sound carries at all. 

The people on the other side do not try to look through, and instead are busy running away from the area. Half of them write very urgent messages to the Imperial government's special hotline. The other half take out cameras and are taking pictures of the portal at what they consider to be a safe distance. 

The aliens do have colored shells, with quite large variation in coloration. Their eye anatomy is humanoid, but they have nictitating membranes, and their irises tend to match the color of their shells. Can't close their nostrils, though.

People are Alarmed over the howl and some of the photographers join the people running away.

Wow, that's...a lot of reports. With pictures. A lot of reports, all signed with valid keys registered in the government databases. So this isn't some sort of prank.

He convenes his cabinet and the Senate and the ministers immediately.

- Oh no they did not mean to scare people! Also they have no idea what to do in this situation, which means the project lead can very easily take charge and insist on no, really, nothing, this is so extremely weird they're jumping straight to Beloved of Water Lilies (whose soon arrival is quickly confirmed via return howl; Beloved will be approximately two fragments of a day). 

They'll... Discuss plans, get things secured on their end, and watch the portal until then? If anything on the other side changes then they might change their plans, though. 

The Kosfor City Government Office is very unequipped to deal with this situation!! Help!!

The Consul and his court have decided that they should take these actions.

- Quarantine the portal site.

- Put out a notice strongly discouraging people from entering or leaving Kosfor City until further notice, the announcement being released in Kosfor and in nearby cities. Zmavlipre take freedom of movement very, very seriously and would not tolerate an actual city-wide quarantine.

The Imperial Government will send people: scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and other people to Kosfor at once. It will take several hours up to a day. Consul Restem will be there too.

Does the Kosfor City Office have hazmat suits? Follow biohazard protocol. Also follow protocol for potential hostilities. Do they have measuring equipment? Can they try to find out anything about the portal aside from 'it's a portal'?

They will do that.

In about seven minutes, there's the sound of loud sirens as several vans with government insignia arrive on the scene, and quickly put up tape barriers. A dotted line circle is drawn twenty four meters away from the portal. 

All of them are wearing orange hazmat suits. Half of them seem to be working on setting up equipment of some kind, with the other half being security personnel bearing guns. They set up recording equipment and various detectors for radiation or signals and also biology and chemistry portable labs.

To Restem: Should they try to communicate?

No! Not yet! They should wait for Restem and the other officials to arrive. But if they talk or say or transmit signals they should record it. Record everything.

What if something comes out. Are they authorized to use lethal force.

...try your best to tell them not to go past the dotted line. But if they do, then yes, yes you are authorized to use lethal force.

They observe from their side but don't come through, and don't seem to have any kind of modern weaponry. Or weaponry at all, unless a utility knife or spade counts. Someone has a fishing spear strapped to their back? They're talking among themselves but mostly quietly and mostly not near the portals - they also set up their own monitoring equipment, of course. 

And after about three of the Imperium's hours, a person steps slowly through the portal, flanked by a thin dog whose shoulders come up just below Beloved's hip and another older member of Beloved's species. Beloved's hair is much darker than anyone else they've seen peering through, nearly black (whereas the dog has speckled greyish-blue and white fur, and the other krissan has a nearly uniform light purple hair). Beloved is totally unarmed - not even a utility knife - though the krissan standing behind Beloved has a spear, and the dog isn't additionally armed but has some pretty significant teeth (and is wearing a utility vest made of straps and bags and sturdy stretches of fabric). 

All three pause just outside the portal, coming nowhere near the dotted line. 

Entities are emerging through the portal! Entities are emerging through the portal! There's a remnoid and a quadruped. Here's a picture. Please advise!!

They'll be arriving in sixteen minutes. Stay the course.

The remna near the portal will continue doing what they've been doing until Restem arrives. Does Beloved do anything before Restem's helicopter arrives?

Attempts to talk to them! In what might be a few different languages? The sound patterns of each distinct phrase are very different from each other, at least. 

These will be transmitted to Restem and his advisors, although they won't have much time to pore over them because it's time to learn the other person's – people's – language in person.

They suit up and cross the barrier. 

There being a language barrier was expected. Restem brings a linguist, Dedan, through the circle. The other advisors and the guards stand back.

The hazmat suit hampers speech, but they're equipped with external speakers that should transmit the sound. Hopefully that's enough? The speakers are of good quality but there is the chance they don't have the fidelity for linguistics work.

He's...scared scared scared, but he did equanimity exercises on the way. He reminds himself that he ran for Consul not just because he wanted to earn a lot of money, and that this is for the good of the Imperium.

Dedan has brought various picture books and other resources which he's going to hold out for Beloved and her dog to see. He's not...anticipating the dog to be capable of speaking Standard Imperial but they're aliens so.

This simple book has very detailed and realistic pictures – all of them are photographs – of a walk in a forest. 'This is a forest. I go to the forest. I walk to the forest. I see trees. I see leaves.' 

He sounds out each sentence, gesturing at the letters and the words.

Is he going to have to stand here for weeks teaching the aliens how to read. He is willing to do that, and not just because he's being paid lots of hazard pay for it.

Tiny smile. "Kajint-ti-awa neveq-we. Kajkaj-ti-awa kajlit-ap-ka kajint-we. Lasari sar-ewet-ebe krissan-ti-awa kajint-we. Kajkaj-ewat si krissan-le-ewat."

Beloved's eyes rapidly skim over the words, though, even as Beloved speaks - 

And then Beloved exactly repeats what Dedan said earlier, accurately identifying which printed word corresponds with which sound, nearly eerily mimicking his voice. Then the most common word with the mouthfeel of a noun/ verb and not a particle - they're often longer - 'forest', Beloved says, and taps the word 'forest,' then taps multiple trees in quick succession and then draws an imaginary circle around them. "¿La 'forest' la?"

Dedan will write down what he hears Beloved say in the Imperial Phonetic Alphabet, along with what the Standard Imperial sentences that prompted the speech was. He'll assume that Beloved is translating it into B's language.

That's a very accurate mimicking of his voice, but all government employees are trained in impassivity, so it won't show on his face.

"Gohi. Rišfoj" Yes. Forest. "Lohi-trišu se-gunma lo-rišfoj." Centrally-defined forests are composed of trees.

It makes sense that they would send someone over who's quick with languages.

Given that they're working with a trained representative and not a child, they'll move quickly to this other book that explains the government.

This one has cartoons and diagrams rather than photographs.

"This is the Imperium," followed by city skylines and the flag and the spiral insignia and the seal. "The Imperial government governs the Imperium. Keepers can vote on who gets to govern the Imperium." It gets very repetitive in the style of children's books but it's very helpful for learning.

Eventually it gets to the point where it explains the Consul, and Dedan points at Restem.

Restem waves, and says, "I am the Consul. I am Consul Restem Talset Meden. Call me Restem [optional, highly recommended]." Names are morphologically different from other words in Standard Imperial, so it would be unambiguous where the title ends and the name begins, even if it wasn't hinted at in the earlier sentence.

Beloved furrows own brow and says, slowly, "I am the Consul of Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit, I am Consul Sarilril-au-Qatl-ne Lijhan. Call me Lijhan [optional, highly recommended]."

(There are... A lot of very, very alien concepts in this government explanation.)

Do they have two names? He'll try to clarify.

"I am the Consul of the Zmavli Imperium. My name is Restem Talset Meden."

He gestures at Dedan, who produces an illustrated dictionary. On the 'name' section, there's several examples: someone holding a child saying, "I name you Misen," and someone with a collar labeled 'Tak'.

...Was that confusing? "I am the Consul of Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit. ¿la 'I govern Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit' la? ¿la 'Consul Restem Talset Meden governs the Zmavli Imperium' la?" (Beloved's been framing guesses at how the language works with 'la' pretty consistently.) "My name is Sarilril-au-Qatl-ne Lijhan."

There we go. "Sarilril-au-Qatl-ne Lijhan governs Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit. Restem Talset Meden governs the Zmavli Imperium."

Hm. Actually they should cover interrogatives now. It will be very useful later.

He asks Dedan to produce a book about that, and here is one. It's about drones asking a demanding Keeper over and over what he wants, and the Keeper rejecting it, and the drones asking why. This one is drawn in the classic 'children's parable or Bible story' book style.

"Do you want to eat šimilus (dessert soup of coconut and purple yam), Master?"

    "No, I don't."

"Why, Master?"

    "I don't want to eat coconut cream."

"Then what do you want to eat, Master?"

    "I'm not sure. Suggest something."

"Do you want to eat donuts, Master?"

It continues very repetitively for many cycles until the Keeper finally decides on kucintan, a sweet lye pudding.

...Hmmm. "la 'Do you govern the Zmavli Imperium' la?"

(Beloved is, and pretty thoroughly has been, suspending judgment on how boring the aliens' books for adults to learn local vocabulary and grammar norms are. Maybe the aliens don't find this boring? The nonfiction at least makes sense that it's simple, it's good to start with basic vocabulary for common concepts, buuuuuut this is such boring fiction. Luckily Beloved is unusually good at dealing with being bored.)

"Gohi." Yes. Literally, 'the previous statement is correct'. Standard Imperial has different words that correspond to the many meanings of English 'yes'.

"Why did you come here? How did you come here?"

Head tilt. "Why did I come - ¿Al-la I'm not sure al-la?"

Pensive frown, and Beloved gestures to Beloved's krissan assistant, who has so far been standing quietly at the ready. "How did I come..." The assistant pulls out several pre-prepared images showing: krissan and spottan (the remnoids and the quadrupeds - both seem to be part of the category 'jhannan') digging in the ground with tools, a ring emerging from the ground, the ring filling with an odd color, the ring showing an eerily accurate drawing of the city, the krissan and spottan startling and jumping back, a spottan howling with some wavy lines drawn to another spottan with tan's head cocked and ear raised, standing next to a krissan dressed like Beloved.

"Why did I come - ¿la 'Jhannan don't want to come' la? No... ¿la 'I don't why' la? ¿la 'I don't how the teshren come' la?" (Beloved taps the picture of the glowing ring on 'teshren.')

Ah. It's an accident. Or at least, they're claiming it is. The technology was in the ground? Buried ruins?

He takes a moment to ask whether there have been any other portals spotted recently. Apparently there are none. That's a good sign.

He has Dedan pull up the Illustrated Dictionary entry for 'accident', which shows people spilling a drink or tripping.

"Was it an accident?"

A pause.

"We are most concerned about disease and aggression. We wear these clothes to avoid getting diseases from you, and you avoiding diseases from us. We have weapons to stop you from aggressing against us. We...do not want this to happen but it is possible and we have to prepare for it." He's having to carefully choose his words to minimize the number that haven't already been used in the books that they showed.

He gestures to Dedan some more – it appears that they have comprehensive sign language too – and Dedan pulls up the appropriate pictures. For 'disease', people vomiting and being in bed and having sores on their body. For 'aggression', people hitting and stabbing each other.

Serious nod! "It was an accident." Then: "We want to avoid disease and aggression against us and against you." (Comprehensive sign languages make such total sense Beloved would be surprised if they lacked one.) "We have - ¿la these clothes la?" (said with a gesture at the hazmat suits) "not here. We bring these clothes. We have - ¿la things to stop disease la?" Then, a thoughtful hum, and: "I do not have weapons. Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit has weapons not here. We do not want aggression to happen. We do not bring weapons here."

Um. But your companion brought a spear? That seems centrally weaponlike. In any case it's not as if Beloved or her* companion has tried to attack them, and in any case spears aren't the most powerful weapons in the grand scheme of things. He doesn't say that, and his expression remains neutral.

"That is good. Bring the clothes [highly recommended; I would be upset if you didn't comply]. I want to learn your language. I want you to learn our language. We will give you books about it. Is this good to you?"

* Standard Imperial pronouns are not inflected based on gender (because they do not have the concept), but are based on the first sound or sounds of the referent's name, as well as whether or not the referent is a person or a nonperson. However, pronouns have been translated into English style for ease of reading and writing.

It isn't Beloved's fault all the pictures of weapons were guns, which are clearly Things You Can Kill Many People With, which is definitely not the same category of object as a spear.

"This is good to me." She turns and gives the krissan with the spear some instructions; spear krissan goes back through the portal. "We will give you books about our language and the jhannan."

Dedan will place a bunch of books near the portal for them to pick up. There's the previous books he's shown, Walk through the Forest, The Picky Keeper, What is the Imperium, and the The Illustrated Standard Imperial Dictionary, but also the latest edition of The Standard Imperial Reference Grammar.

They'll also place a Standard Imperial parser with inbuilt dictionary with an e-ink display and a keyboard. It looks like a tablet with an attached keyboard that folds neatly like a laptop into a notebook sized thing. The keyboard is large and broad but it wouldn't be impossible for Krissan to use, if somewhat uncomfortable for the Krissan with relatively smaller hands. There's a pamphlet with operating instructions that talks about how to input sentences into it and how to interpret the results, and how to activate or deactivate this or that setting.

On another pile will be a few microbiology and disease textbooks, Grusil's Anatomy, an illustrated anatomy textbook, and sections from My Diary, which are portions from the late Imperator's personal diary that he made public. It's written in a very casual and conversational style, akin to Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. It's one of the closest things the Imperium has to 'the classics'. This version has faithful reproductions of the drawings and diagrams in it, but the text is printed in regular font for easier reading rather than having the original handwriting, as well as being translated from the original Towaň, a natural language spoken during that time, into Standard Imperial. This is one of the older sections, and Standard Imperial, which is a constructed language, hadn't been invented yet.

The selected sections contain the Imperator's reflections on the wastefulness of war and how he wishes that people would choose to negotiate rather than aggress against each other to get what they want, because that's less destructive to value. It also references his predictions about technology and various scientific hypotheses (which are explained and either vindicated or rejected in the annotations), and his wishes about technology and science being shared freely rather than being hidden to be used against each other in Scrolls That Are Copied.

They'll provide: 

-The cave novel, the absolute first novel ever written, which supposedly caused the invention of reading, and was integral to the founding of Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit, the oldest state in the world - originally a site of pilgrimage for the novel (which was, as the title suggests, written on every surface of an extensive cave system) and then for all knowledge. It's been rewritten in the formalized academic register Beloved has been speaking in, with hastily included notes that this is a common text for learning new sets of vocabulary since nearly everyone has the story memorized. It's extremely richly illustrated.

-An extensive book on the history of Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit, used as a companion for introductory lectures and so also written for students still getting used to the formal academic register. (It seems from this that their world doesn't have a single unifying government, but that Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit is very often 'the leader among equals,' one of a single digit number of major polities and very widely respected.)

-A book of illustrated poetry in a simplified form of the academic register, primarily about the sharing of knowledge and dreams of the future of all peoples. This is the closest Beloved can match to the children's picture books the Imperium is providing. 

-A set of introductory medical textbooks for pre-adolescents, including anatomy (of krissan and spottan), pathology, bioethics, and communal health management. (...This is not clearly labeled as for pre-adolescents and a reader could be forgiven for thinking it's for university students.)

-A slice of life autobiography/ journal of a well known polymath from Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit.

-A very thick introductory comparative anthropology textbook, covering the major geographic regions. 

-An introductory (and richly illustrated) astronomy textbook.

These are provided as hard copies, and mostly taken from nearby libraries or personal collections of volunteers. 

Sadly they didn't bring as many physical books along as the Krissan. They do have books stored on readers but maybe they wouldn't like that? They'll see how they react to the parser first, so they won't give them an e-reader with books right now. In any case the priority right now is ensuring they don't inadvertently (or advertently!) kill each other – cultural exchange is a very far second on the priority list.

Restem produces the last book which is another richly illustrated children's book about numbers and mathematical notation, and also an analog and a digital clock. Both of them tell twenty-four hour time.

"Please take these. These are clocks. Clocks measure time. The time now is 1155h. This is twelve seconds. One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...nine...ten...eleven...twelve. There are five dozen seconds to a minute. There are five dozen minutes in an hour. There are two dozen hours to a day. I want you to meet us in one day [suggestion/proposal]. When the pole of this clock," and he gestures to the analog one, "has done one full rotation, that is one day. When this clock," and he gestures to the digital one, "displays the same numerals, that is one day.

Do you want more or less time?"

The parser is usable, just strange, and Beloved can figure out how to use it with minimal poking.

Beloved does some math on being asked about the time. "A day to learn the language?"

"It is not enough to speak the language fluently. But it is enough to learn some. Enough so that we can talk about avoiding disease and aggression. That is very important. We cannot talk about other things or do other things until we talk about avoiding disease and aggression."

Serious nod. "Do you want more books? Books about disease and aggression. More books are not here. More books here in... Three hours. These are the books here."

Ugh taking a day to learn the language is going to be very obnoxious, because Beloved is going to forget the vast majority of what Beloved has learned of the language as soon as Beloved stops actively channeling it through a working memory shard, let alone after Beloved sleeps. Perhaps Beloved can record the contents of the working memory shard before the headache from doing that gets too bad, though... Or this might be important enough to create a longer lasting shard, but that takes time to get an ingrained one, and will require Beloved understanding more...

Well, Beloved will have a headache either way. Beloved will simply request some painkillers.

A day is important time for convening a meeting, and travel, and securing this site, and setting up contingency measures, though, and Beloved can repeat the language lesson tomorrow to refresh the working memory shard... 

"A day is good." 

"Yes. We can get the books from you in three hours. Do you have anything you wish to speak about before we meet again?"

There is going to be a lot to do in a day but he can delegate a lot of it to the other people. He'll definitely want to try and figure out as much about the Krissan from what they show. A lot of it might be carefully crafted deception – they were the ones who opened the portal here, even if they claim it's an accident – but even lies can be revealing.

He hopes that it really was an accident and that they're dealing in good faith but. It's his job to be paranoid for his people.

" - Can we message through the portal if we want to speak early?"

"Yes, but we cannot guarantee that we-exclusive* will be ready to speak with you. Speak with you for a long time about the important things. However there will be other people who are not me who will be near the portal who can be messaged by you. We have recording – we have tools that can hear what you say and say it to us later. It is useful if you want to message us."

He produces a voice recorder, presses a button and says, "I am Restem," to it, and then presses another. It repeats the sound with exactitude. He holds it out to Beloved with both hands along with a pamphlet that describes its operation. He guesses that the Krissan are more comfortable with speaking than with writing? When learning a new language Zmavlipre learn writing and reading faster than speaking and listening.

* Standard Imperial distinguishes between we-inclusive which includes the intended recipient of the statement, and we-exclusive which does not.

Beloved makes an interested noise and takes it. "Can we send writing as well?" Beloved asks, though. "Most will learn that faster, so I will not need to be near portal to translate. And we have tools for the spottan to write, since the spottan cannot speak our words."

(Beloved is very, very weird in many ways.)

The dogs are people!! This does not show on this face because Restem is excellent at impassivity.

"Yes."

Ah, so he was mistaken about his earlier hypothesis.

He repeats a line from one of the sections in My Diary. "I wish for us to have many interactions-of-mutual-gain now and in the future."

Bright smile! "I wish for us to have many interactions-of-mutual-gain now and in the future."

Restem and Dedan will bow, to a forty five degree angle, and then leave the circle. They do so synchronously. In the background a more substantial cordon has been placed around the area, and people are currently setting up opaque plastic curtains around the original chalk circle alternately colored yellow and red. 

Beloved executes an identical bow and then return through the portal, the spottan leaving after Beloved. 

Okay. There's a lot of work to do. They need to inform the residents of Kosfor City and the Imperium at large about what just happened. They need to make headway on understanding the Krissan language. They need to try and learn about their culture so as to figure out treaties as soon as possible. They need to analyze the surroundings to see if the Krissan have brought contagious diseases.

People will get to work on biologically sampling the books Beloved brought as well as where her and the spottan with her walked and try to culture them.

Other people will digitize the books and distribute them – not to the general public just yet – but to other linguists and anthropologists the government has in the civil service to try and learn as much about the language and culture as possible. There are already some on scene but they think the more eyes on this, the better. They don't anticipate it leaking but there's a good chance it will, although it's not a disaster if that happens, so long as Restem's letter comes out before then.

From the Office of Consul Restem Talset Meden | 1699-1-10-11*

Today at 1144h local time at Kosfor City, Sranam Province, a portal opened in the middle of Market Square, caused by an alien civilization known as the Krissan**. This has been confirmed not to be a hoax. [Picture of the portal.

Talks are ongoing to establish diplomatic relations with a representative of the Krissan known as Sarilril-au-Qatl-ne Lijhan** who emerged from the portal. [Picture of her and the spottan.]

A Special Hotline has been established for contacting the Imperium about Krissan first contact related matters, krissanfirstcontact@hotlines.im (public key: co'an vojij naxag gukog fuvaj fozac tiluc jujuj lomuc cejel megap suted recep jusal vulor majox)

ORDER O1699-1-10-11/1

It is now prohibited to enter Market Square in Kosfor City and it is now declared a protected area until further notice. Do not pass through the cordon; lethal force is authorized on trespassers. [Picture of the cordon.] [Picture of map of Kosfor City with Market Square shaded in red.]

ADVISORY A1699-1-10-11/1

It is possible that the Krissan have brought contagious diseases to our world. Study of Krissan microbiology and diseases is in progress. Kosfor City is now declared a potential contagious disease zone and it is strongly recommended that citizens living in Kosfor City not leave the city, or for those living outside to enter, until further notice. A cordon will be established around the city border. Once more is known about Krissan biology, more information regarding testing and decontamination or treatment will follow.

If you have symptoms of any acute disease, make a report to krissanfirstcontact.disease@hotlines.im. If you are lacking in basic necessities due to the cordon, contact krissanfirstcontact.relief@hotlines.im.

ADVISORY A1699-1-10-11/2

It is strongly recommended that citizens who spot similar portals or aliens make a report to krissanfirstcontact.spottings@hotlines.im.

BEGIN DIGITAL SIGNATURE

---

lopir malit gezij bobes siboc jo'ot keses xe'ax raxif maxel keciz malic

Numbers in hexadecimal have been converted into decimal.

* Year 1699, Season 1 (Spring), Jeftu (collection of twelve days) 10, Day 11. There are twelve jeftu to a season, and there are three seasons in a year.

** Transliterated using the Imperial Phonetic Alphabet.

Now that he's finished writing the letter and delegating a bunch of work to other people he's going to sleep for eight hours.

When he wakes up, he'll take a stimulant pill and eat, and then check on the progress of the linguists and anthropologists. He's already given instructions on what can and cannot be answered by the hotline responders and what sorts of answers they should give. How's the work going?

There are no reports of any other portals or aliens being spotted anywhere else. At least, none that make it to him. (There were some but they were investigated by local officials who concluded that they were hoaxes, someone mistaken, or someone having a mental breakdown.)

The linguists have done analysis on the Krissan texts and they've compiled phrases and words and their definitions for him to memorize, as well as guides on syntax. Oh, and preliminary analysis on politeness and emotional expression. The hypnotist is ready when he is.

It will take some more time to analyze the biological cultures but initial results seem promising? The internal prediction markets say so. It doesn't seem too different from Zmavlimu'e's biosphere, surprisingly, and it doesn't appear to be the case that there's anything virulent or lethal? The biologists still recommend caution and also convey that Restem should probably ask for samples of diseases or live organisms from the Krissan for them to analyze.

Great! You can't learn a language in a day but you can make a lot of progress regardless. Yes, he's ready to go under trance now to memorize Krissan vocabulary.

Krissan vocabulary: is weirdly simple and straightforward! Their linguists are pretty sure this is an artificially constructed language with possibly oddly restricted usage - from context it's probably either a formal court language or an academic language. Words are built on very sensible and regular rules from base roots, and the grammar is perfectly consistent, albeit a little odd.

Politeness: complicated! Possibly extremely culturally and contextually dependent! They're having trouble figuring this one out, honestly, except that the krissan are very, very casual with touch, which is seen as friendly. Also important conversations are maybe usually held while walking through a museum or some part of nature?

Emotional expression: exuberant! Sarilril-au-Qatl-ne Lijhan was possibly being very bizarrely reserved.

And Beloved goes home - and swaps out the stimulant wad in Beloved's cheek for a dark, bitter stimulant drink, followed by a very light meal of fruit with a side dish containing a few carefully selected seeds containing even higher doses of stimulant for Beloved to chew on. Beloved then places a new wad in Beloved's cheek - and gets to work.

First: reciting the language lessons to keep the working memory shard active, while Beloved travels at full haste back to the city. Beloved sends ahead messages even before pausing to eat, and by the time Beloved arrives there's already a collection of people summoned to help.

Not all of them ones Beloved's had a straightforward relationship with - but Ehtyandeeraydwantkletahbruutlyen (no, seriously, just use Awantkle, or whatever translation of Willow/ River-Bridge you like) is apparently willing to set aside the personal for the professional. "What's going on, Sarilril?"

Beloved relays everything so far. 

"Complicated..." Awantkle says, musingly. "Did you grab me for my language skills, then?"

"And your ability to code switch quickly and totally. When you feel like it, at least."

"You're also observant in places I'm not."

"You, admitting a fault? Something new happens every day."

"This day will contain a many years' worth of new things, then."

"Exciting."

"I'll learn this alien code, then. And I'll even follow the code, when following's important."

"Will you follow Weaving Knowledge's code as well?"

"Don't push your luck."

Laugh! "Fair enough."

And: relaying everything Beloved learned, very very fast. 

Awantkle is an even faster learner than Beloved, fortunately, at least in this particular field. 

Good. Beloved will have time to attend to other matters as well, then. 

And, a day after the two delegations parted, Beloved returns to the portal, a different group in tow than last time.