Contact

 "Planetary system ahead, captain." The navigator, Tara Lambert, was top of her field. "The sensors indicate a planet in the habitable zone."

"Ewan, what do you detect?" Ewan Kemp, the science officer, took a closer look at the readings from the sensors.

"Strange, captain. The planet in the habitable zone seems to be entirely made of metal. I am detecting energy usage consistent with life, however, and at a fairly sophisticated level, despite the absence of rock." Katy Lozano sat back in her captain's chair. Life in the absence of oxygen, sure. Life in the absence of water? Methane will do, in a pinch. Sophisticated life was found on rocky planets and moons, however. Sure, there are some lifeforms in the atmospheres of a few gas giants, relying on buoyancy and simple, waxy hydrocarbons.

But a metallic planet? How does it not oxidize, especially in the presence of life? Countless reactions should happen between almost any metal hard enough to make a useful surface and most any atmospheric gas except nitrogen and the noble gases. And life arising from metal? Sure, some cultures had developed robots sophisticated enough to be considered alive by some standards, but the organic life came first every time.

"Ewan, what of the atmosphere?"

"Nitrogen, oxygen, trace amounts of noble gases....no halogens or anything toxic. We can breathe it, though the composition is a little different than we're used to."

"Sorry to interrupt, captain, but I'm detecting signs of civilization."

"Tara? what do you see?"

"Cities, captain. Buildings, and what appear to be vehicles moving around, both atmospheric and terrestrial."

"Tara, pick a city that's likely to be a capital or something. Take us over it, and prepare to land if we don't encounter any hostility." Just then an unfamiliar voice rang out: "This is space traffic control. Unknown vessel, please identify and state your intentions." Well, Katy thought, intelligent life does correlate with cities, buildings, and vehicles.

"Send this response: 'We are the starship Deucalion, on an interstellar mission of exploration. We detected your system and found it unusual by our standards, so we came to explore it. We would like permission to land somewhere appropriate, and would like to meet some of you."

"Understood, Deucalion. Please hold position while we discuss this." Then, after a short pause, "Permission granted. We have detected no harmful creatures, but in general your readings are unsual to us. I am transmitting a flight path to our spaceport. Please follow it closely; unfortunately, there is low-level combat happening in some parts of our planet."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Deucalion landed. Captain Katy Lozano and some of her crew stepped outside. She saw several vehicles coming towards her ship, a large, red and blue truck-like vehicle leading them. When the vehicles parked, however, their doors did not open. No one got out. Or, rather, no one separated from the vehicles and moved towards her party. Rather, the vehicles themselves reconfigured into humanoid shapes: arms, legs, heads, and so on. Katy was stunned for a moment, then said: "I am Captain Katy Lozano. who are you?"

The red and blue former truck responded, in a deep, kind, somber voice, "I am Optimus Prime. Welcome to Cybertron."

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