"We were not aware that this system was inhabited when we chose to approach it," Trout said.

  "Understandable, Captain," Rain said. "We chose not to advertise ourselves to the wider universe, and left the matter of who would find us first to chance."

  Trout raised an eyebrow. "You were certain you would be found?" While humanity had hoped for centuries that they were not alone in the universe, with people spending whole careers calculating the odds for and against there being intelligent life besides humans in the galaxy, no one had really been sure until humanity had encountered the Changers, who had been equally surprised to finally meet someone else besides themselves. Both sides had been amazed to meet a form of life that their respective understandings of physiology considered impossible.

  "Of course. Why wouldn't we be?" Rain said, tilting their head like a curious cat, an impression enhanced by the triangular protrusions on their helmet. "You're here, after all. Eventually. Although we were surprised you came straight to Surcease. It's not really what most species would consider livable, except for maybe the hunters stalking the woods. We thought for sure that first contact would occur because any visitors would be attracted to Nightmare."

  Trout blinked at the name. "Nightmare?"

  "Yes. It's the fourth planet away from Dancer. It's about… over there this time for year," Rain said, pointing at one corner of the room. "Blue skies, blue seas, sort of yellow green with plants on the parts not covered by snow. It's very nice this time of year, great weather for holding snow wars."

  Ah. Trout had noticed the planet in question—GRN-2814-4 in the survey reports—but it had been secondary to their aims. "We noticed it as well, but your planet—Surcease? It made us curious because of its atmosphere." It…wasn't exactly a lie. The planet's atmosphere had piqued interest. "I apologize if this seems rude, but I must ask how you managed to get on the hull of the ship," Trout said. "And how you intend to make your way back to your people."

  "Oh, I was launched out the air lock and had to make a self-controlled intercept with your ship," was the reply. "It was all very sudden, since you took us by surprise when your ship activated its Alcubierre drive once you were in-system. We had to scramble to get into position when we realized you were heading here instead of Nightmare, since we hadn't realized the hunters had exchanged the technology with you. From the transmissions we'd picked up, we thought humans were still limited to star-to-star transits."

  Trout chose the more immediate of the many questions that arose from that answer. Launched from an airlock? "If you were… launched from an airlock, then may I ask where your ship is at?" he asked.

  "I wasn't launched from a ship," came the reply. "I was launched from Stargazer Fortress, our primary orbital base. You were just in range, and it was decided that it would be the quickest way to get me to you without frightening you."

  Trout suppressed the urge to frown. Even if the facial expression that wasn't translated between their species, they might ask what it signified.

  There had been a dearth of orbital bases in the vicinity, according to their sensors. Their scans of the planet so far had only been able to pick up the presence of the planet itself, the QTG reading that had been very similar to a Shinky drive… and large areas of bad scan data. He was starting to develop a suspicion about that scan data. "We didn't see any orbital base around… Surcease."

  "Naturally not. How are we supposed to counter-ambush an alien invasion if they can see we have countermeasures ready? Though we'd be really glad if the first people to visit us aren't coming here to invade."

  "Ah. And do you think we are here to invade?"

  "Do you come in peace?"

  Trout opened his mouth… and paused. He considered how to answer. "My crew and I come in peace," he said. "I cannot speak for those who come after us. However, we who are here now are not here to invade you."

  "Then we don't think you're here to invade."

  Despite himself, Trout smiled. "You would trust us that easily?"

  "You're giving us your word that you come in peace and aren't here to invade, just as I am. If I don't trust you, how can I expect you to trust me?"

  That sounded so na?ve, yet Trout had to remind himself that they supposedly had measures in place to counter-ambush an invading force. Even so… "There are many in this universe who would take advantage of such trust," he said.

  Rain tilted their head. "Are you one of them?"

  "… I try not to be," Trout said. "So far, I've managed to do it."

  "Then I don't think our trust is misplaced," Rain said. Despite the helmet, Trout got the impression there was a smile—or equivalent thereof—behind that visor.

  …

  History was going to crucify him if this went wrong.

  Keeping the thought off his face, Trout pressed on. "It's clear that your people already know much about us, yet you claim this is your first contact with another species."

  "How could we not? Earth has been sending out signals for hundreds of years. Normally, we'd only be up to your 2300's, but because you learned how to send transmissions through the void to get around radio's lightspeed limit, we've been able to get almost real-time signals. Though did you have to make a 28thTop Gun reboot? It seems so unnecessary, and the storylines of the previous continuity hadn't been resolved yet!"

  "… you've been listening to our public transmissions?" Trout said, a sense of racial embarrassment filling him at the thought that was another species' first introduction to humanity.

  "Oh, yes," came the cheerful sounding, seemingly guileless reply. "We've been listening to everyone's transmissions! They Who Change Through Life, the hunters stalking the woods, the children of Tianiata, the peoples of the rakido, the Free Peoples of the Hegemony, the Hienlvheessim, the Tephamirre, even the dragon nomads! Some of them make excellent offerings to Yamiryuusei."

  That last word was utter nonsense, so it was probably a name. Names, onomatopoeia, literal and figurative baby talk, and nonsense words that had no meaning were among the few things the universal translator didn't touch. Trout didn't know how the UT could tell them apart—the quantum computer was a black box, even for a captain like him—but it could, and translate in real time.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Regardless, he decided not to touch that last. People could be touchy about their local traditions, especially when 'offerings' were involved…

  "I hope I've satisfied your curiosity?" Rain said. "I still have to give you the treats I promised."

  It took Trout a moment to adjust to the shift in the conversation. "Treats?"

  "Of course! It's all in the picnic basket."

  "Picnic basket?" And now Trout couldn't see the container on the table as anything but a picnic basket.

  "Yes! It's traditional to welcome new arrivals to the neighborhood with something to eat so they don't need to cook anything that day and can concentrate on moving in." Rain said. "Admittedly, we couldn't fit enough for everyone on the ship in a picnic basket since that much mass might damage your hull, but consider it a sampler for when we can send you food. Unfortunately, we're still in the process of preparing the logistics of decontaminating enough food to send to you for a proper welcome party. We wouldn't want you to get sick from our local bacteria, after all. However, we were able to thoroughly decontaminate a small batch without affecting its taste, and I brought enough for your nutritionists to analyze the composition and still have just a little bit more for someone to be able to sample it normally."

  Rain turned some kind of mechanism where the handle met the… picnic basket, which released a lock and let their visitor fold the handle out of the way. They reached for another lock on top of the basket. "I brought—"

  The entire picnic basket lifted up, which seemed not to be the intended result, because Rain paused. "Ah… A moment please, I need to unlock this…" They placed their hand firmly on the top of the picnic basket, seemingly pressing down for a moment, then turned some kind of locking mechanism. There was a 'pop' of air, and the top of the picnic basket came off. "There we go. We have a flask of unleaded leadberry juice… oh good, it didn't leak. Some deep-fried knugrind nuggets… ah, it should still be good if you reheat it, although it might be less crispy. Omunotrice with haharoot sauce, be careful with that, it's a bit spicy. Goes great with the leadberry juice. And for dessert, we have unleaded leadberry pie! Oh, and we also have some raw leadberries. Uh, I wouldn't recommend eating that if your physiology has a problem with heavy metals, the lead content is very high. But if you can handle it, it's very sweet and delicious.

  Trout looked at the little container of egg-sized green fruits with some trepidation. "Did you say 'leadberry'?"

  "Oh, don't worry," Rain said. "The lead and all other heavy metal content have been removed. Well, on everything except the fresh fruit. Lead is poisonous to us, but aside from that the fruit is edible and nutritious, so we've developed the means to remove the lead from the pulp. I'd eat some to demonstrate how safe it is, but I'm not supposed to remove my suit so that I don't accidentally expose you to any bacteria that you have no resistance to. Starting a deadly epidemic negates the point of presenting you with delicious food to welcome you to the Dancer system."

  "… we thank you for the consideration," Trout said.

  Rain nodded, then reached into the picnic basket once more. This time the container was a heavily secured box, each side of which was emblazoned with the same symbol: a biohazard sign. Two of the sides also featured heavy, spring-loaded latches that were obviously using a lot of force to hold down the lid to keep it sealed shut. "These contain culture samples of the most common airborne and infectious bacteria and viruses that one is likely to encounter in the populated areas of Surcease. While far from being as appetizing as the food, these might be of use to your medical staff so they can determine which of the medicines you already possess might be effective against these infections." They carefully placed that on the table also, well away from the containers of food.

  "Thank you," Trout said, eyeing the markings. On a second glance, they weren't exactly the same as modern biohazard signs, they were obviously some kind of older incarnation of the same, probably derived from some of the public access transmissions that had been mentioned . "I'll have it sent down to the lab as soon as possible."

  Rain nodded. "I hope that your medical technicians can analyze the samples to their satisfaction so that we can safely invite you and your crew to visit the surface of Surcease soon. We of course have medicines that are effective against most of them, but we cannot guarantee their efficacy or safety to most of your crew, so it would be safer if you found something of yours that was effective—"

  They halted off mid-word, glancing at the control panel at their wrist. "Oh. I'm afraid I must cut off our conversation short. If I don't leave now, I won't have enough air to make it safely back to Stargazer Fortress. Could you please escort me back through your airlock?"

  The sudden shift in the conversation temporarily threw Trout off, and it took him a second to realize what they were saying. "So soon? How much time do you have? I can have a utility boat prepared to take you to where you need to go."

  "Oh! While generous, I'm afraid I do not have the time to accept. I only have fifteen minutes of air left, and your ship is very large. Do not worry, I just need to be shown to back to the airlock. I shall return tomorrow with more air and we can resume our discussion."

  "In that case, may I request that you inform us that you're on your way with a transmission an hour before you arrive, so that we can prepare to receive you?"

  "It would be no trouble. And I find I must apologize for the abruptness of my arrival. I'm afraid I might have left footprints on your nice, clean hull."

  "Oh, don't worry about it. That's what the hull is for." Trout brought up the identifiers for the space armors in the room with their visitor. "Lieutenant, please escort our honored guest to the airlock that would be most convenient to them. It has been a pleasure speaking with you Ranger Paladin Rain, and I look forward to your next visit."

  "And I as well, Captain Trout. Until we meet again, I wish you good luck and boring work hours. May the mass times acceleration be with you."

  "Until we meet again," Trout returned, and cut the communication. Then made doubly sure that the communication was cut and no longer being streamed on the ship's network. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. That had been very stressful! When he'd been given this mission, he hadn't expected suddenly becoming humanity's—no, the Confederation's first ambassador to a new alien race!

  Still, he couldn't help the small smile coming to his lips. They wished him boring work hours, did they? That might be one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to him.

  On his screen, the feed from the room continued uninterrupted as Rain packed up their picnic basket and followed the Lieutenant in charge of the security team back towards the airlock of the quarantine room, leaving the food and medical samples on the table. Trout called up the various helmet cams of the armors, choosing the one that gave the best view of the alien. Thankfully, the Lieutenant set a quick pace, and in no time they were at the outer airlock. The air finished cycling, the hatch opened and—

  There was something between them and the planet. Trout froze for a moment, before quickly rising from his chair and rushing to the door that separated him from the bridge. It was a hive of activity, and on the screens was the view of the orbital structure. One screen was set to infrared, while another screen was showing a radargrammetry scan. It looked like a massive saucer, a completely round face oriented towards the Venture. Sunlight reflected off its surfaces, and Trout realized that much of the face was a large, segmented, semi-transparent dome. While the dome seemed to be tinted to reduce light, he could still make out what looked like copious areas of greenery through the glass.

  "Report, Commander," Trout said as he sat on his chair.

  "It just appeared, Captain," Robertson said. "One second there was nothing there but black planet, the next it was just there. Scans say its three kilometers wide, and about a five hundred meters thick. Beyond that, the scanning probes says there's more of the structure on the other side."

  As orbital bases went, it wasn't all that impressive. The Frontier Cooperative had been maintaining far larger refueling stations for hundreds of years before humanity had come to space. However, the fact that such a structure had been completely invisible and undetectable until now…

  Trout frowned. "How far away is it?"

  "It's about fifty kilometers off our starboard side sir, but we're moving away from it."

  "Rain said they only had fifteen minutes of air…" Trout said.

  Even as he spoke, something streaked into the screen, glowing blue as it flew unerringly towards the now-revealed structure.

  "Sir, we've received a report from the security detail," one of the bridge officers said. "They say our visitor's just left."