Szx'ee and Wantu'u's minds wandered as their commander yammered on at them about learning all that they could about the dominant species on this new planet they had found. While they tuned out his broadcast, they were in private telepathic communication with each other.
"What do you think that tall brown creature is outside the craft?" queried Szx'ee.
Wantu'u, like Szx'ee and all the rest of its kind, didn't have shoulders - it didn't even have a physical body - but if it could, it would have shrugged in response. "I do not know. It must not be a danger, though, as we are surrounded by them."
"Are you reading me, ff'kyutes? I want a 'yes sir'!" The commander turned a deeper shade of florn as it waited.
"Yes sir!" both crewbeings broadcasted back.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Commence mission!" The plasma screen above them opened up, and they drifted onto the wind that rustled through the surrounding trees. Realizing that they had missed most of their commander's instructions, they quickly made a choice and headed toward the lights in the distance.
To the naked eye, the ff'kyute beings appeared as mere wisps of smoke. It would take very advanced spectrometers to spot them as anything but.
Within a few ticks they were hovering over a populated area. Squat domiciles were prevalent on either side of a manufactured grey stone trail, along which rolling metal objects went back and forth. The agreeable smell of burning fossil fuel was received by the pair.
A short telepathic exchange and the two gaseous beings descended. A repetitive harsh barking kept them from one domicile.
"What an annoying sound," said Wantu'u. "Let us instead go over here."
They found a crack in one of the walls of another building, near the ground. They pushed inside, and felt the warmer air as they looked around.
Two strange beings were here. They were pink, carbon-based, and had five appendages each, though the one on top was bulbous. As Szx'ee and Wantu'u watched, one of the beings elevated themselves with their lower two appendages and moved to a cabinet, extracting two metal cylinders with its side appendages. It then returned to the other being, reclining onto a long stuffed object as it relinquished possession of one of the cylinders to the other. They were pointed toward a box in the corner which radiated light and sound.
After floating about the room for several minutes, Wantu'u was confused. "What do we do now? They obviously cannot sense us. Were we to make contact?"
Szx'ee floated around the bulbous top appendage of one of the two creatures. The two seemed different, but it could not tell how. "I seem to recall the commander telling us to find out about the dominant species. I think we have found them, as the objects in this room are manufactured. They are definitely intelligent."
"But what are they DOING? I don't understand." Wantu'u floated between the two beings, then finally, in frustration, entered one of them through the holes in its uppermost appendage.
"Wantu'u?! Are you all right?" Szx'ee broadcasted in a panic. Nothing. The creature Wantu'u entered hesitated, then turned to face Szx'ee. The creature could see it!
