aircraft, except it was descending almost straight down. One of the boys let loose a barrage of expletives. Jennifer winced at the curse words. Looking in their direction, she saw that they were running for the stairs that ran from field level up the 100 feet to Emerald Street. The two people on Emerald had started slowly backing away.
The object was clearly making a controlled descent. It wasn't a helicopter, or any sort of VTOL aircraft. No exhaust plumes -- scarcely any noise at all. And it was getting bigger. Much much bigger.
Jennifer backed up to the western sidelines to give the object more room in which to land. The others were now out of sight. And still the vessel, because quite clearly it was some sort of vessel, grew ever larger.
"Oh wow!" she thought. "This is it. This is really it! First contact!" Followed a moment later with a tongue-in-cheek "I wonder if they know Klingon too!"
The vessel was beginning to look like some sort of stealth aircraft, boxy, angular, black, and big. As it cleared the trees at the eastern edge of the stadium, she came to realize that it had to be at least 200 feet long. The descent was now much slower, still with no exhaust to be seen, and almost no sound whatsoever.
Jennifer tried to control her excitement. She felt she had to appear relaxed and calm and unperturbed when whomever was inside came out. Exude friendliness, she told herself. Be open, friendly, and helpful. Why weren't there any courses in first contact procedures in high school? You couldn't hope that everyone who might be part of the first contact group would exhibit any common sense.
The landing pads touched the 8 year old artificial turf, and the vessel gently eased down into its resting posture. Jennifer took two slow steps forward, then stopped and waited for someone to exit the ship. Seconds later, a door opened, and a handful of bipeds dressed head to foot in shiny black and armed with weapons of some kind rushed out to take up defensive positions. "Crap," she said to herself. "Just like a bad 1950s SF movie. 'Klaatu borado nicto'." Another small group of bipeds came out and slowly walked towards her. "Nope. No giant robot." She took another two slow steps forward and waited. "It's showtime, Jenn."
As soon as they got close, she said, "Greetings. I sure hope you know English."
The individual leading this group said in a very slightly accented English, "Yes we do. This is one of the reasons why we chose to land here, rather than elsewhere." He took off the dark helmet that covered his head and handed it to one of the subordinates.
"Welcome to Jewel Nebraska. My name is Jennifer Hodges."
He was about Jennifer's height. His skin was coppery in color. The face looked to be slightly wider than a human's. The upper half of the face looked somewhat squished in and flat. Almost no nose bridge. The lower half of his face was slightly snout-like. Twin nostrils and a narrow almost lipless mouth. His eyes were larger than a human's, with larger irises, grey-black in color. His hair grew in scattered stiff-looking black tufts.
"Are you surprised by our appearance?" he asked her.
"No. You're bipedal, with stereo hearing, and stereo vision. This is what our scientists expected intelligent alien life would look like. Given your musculature, I'd say you're experiencing a little more gravity than you are used to. And the perspiration indicates that your planet is somewhat cooler than this."
"You're very observant, Jenniferhodges." He said the name as if it were one word. "I am the mission commander." He then told her his name. The first two syllables were easy to understand -- Myka. The third was impossible to duplicate and difficult to describe. It sounded like a humming sound with rolling Rs with the sound of crushing rocks mixed in. She didn't even notice the fourth syllable.
"Thank you. I'm afraid that I can't possibly pronounce the last half of your name. Would you mind if I just called you Myka?"
Jennifer thought that she could detect what looked like a slight smile. "That would be acceptable," he told her.
"And you should just call me Jenn or Jennifer. The Hodges part is my family name. How can I help you? Why have you come to visit?" In the distance, Jennifer saw another ship with a different shape approaching.
"We are the Wakira. This star system falls in the territory of the Empire of