"They look strange."

"We've seen stranger."

"Not intelligent. Things become stranger when they have technology."

"They certainly become deadlier. There's no room for error here."

---

The iris valve opposite to the airlock opened, and two people stepped through. The Jhingese entered on all fours, their forelimbs clicking on the plated floor while the rear legs shuffled quietly in padded footwear. Their suits were rigid and form-fitting, like a second carapace, white with red outlining wrapping around the grey and pink of their bodies. They carried weapons, compact and somewhat blocky, as well as what appeared to be surgical tools on a belt, tightly fastened around the lower portion of their torso. The smaller sets of limbs on their torso fidgeted nervously, the top and most developed pair lingering near the shoulder holsters of their weapons.

The second through the door immediately skittered up to the nearest alien, getting very close and inspecting their suits, occasionally standing up on their hind legs. No matter how close it got, however, it was careful not to touch. The other simply walked circles around the group, once or twice stopping to lean in. 

"Flesh suits?"

"Is the arthropod of the same species? I'm not sure I've seen such radical sexual dimorphism."

A few minutes passed like this before they broke off from their examination and stood in front of the iris valve. A screen next to it flickered to life, previously almost invisible against the wall. It displayed an animation similar to the alkay's own, but the Jhingese ship instead continued along its present path and looped back around to the moon, where the corvette redocked and a bubble with a live feed of the contact team from the camera moved between the science ship and the corvette. The [i]Jetha[/i] then joined its sister in orbit around the gas giant. The animation played several times.

"We mean no harm. Come."

The iris valve opened and the Jhingese left through it, beckoning with their forelimbs.