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The subject of their search was staring right back at them.
    There were four of the natives. They wore no clothing. Tellenberg was not surprised by their nakedness. How would you clothe something that looked like a stack of sticks encased in translucent rubbery jelly? Attached to a ganglion of nerves, what must have been eyes floated around in the top of the vertical mounds. The shadows of other internal organs were clearly visible. Where the base of each mound had split, the gelatinous material had hardened into a pair of flat-bottomed, hard-edged runners. Their method of locomotion and the source of the peculiar dashed tracks N’kosi had found were revealed when one of the creatures retreated slightly. They slid, rather than stepped.
    Upper-body appendages curled to grip sharpened sticks. A couple of these were aimed in the direction of the two explorers. One stick-wielder used his primitive weapon to make what could have been construed as threatening or warning gestures in the humans’ direction.
    “This is too abrupt,” Tellenberg found himself arguing aloud. “We tracked them down. That kind of action leaves too much room for misinterpretation.” Keeping his hands in plain view, he started to backtrack. Not too rapidly, lest it suggest fear.
    “I agree.” An utterly enthralled N’kosi lingered, reluctant to leave. “But just think of it! Contact with intelligent indigenes, in the
first week.
” As he joined his friend in retreating, his enthusiasm was matched by that of his more cautious companion. “Physically, they’re different from anything in the directory.”
    “I’ve certainly never seen anything like them.” When possibly hostile stick thrusts were not followed by an attack, Tellenberg began to relax. Their ear-mounted recorders continued to document every aspect of the encounter, from the natives’ physical appearance to internal heat and anything else their bodies might be emitting. “I suggest we leave now and try to reconnect tomorrow, after both sides have had time to digest their reactions to first contact.”
    “Also, we can come back with the others, and with trade goods and other gear,” N’kosi concurred. “What a fabulous first day!”
    They continued to back up until they were out of what they guessed to be stick-throwing range. At that point the gelatinous natives turned and slid away into the forest. Tellenberg noted that throughout the course of the entire encounter the natives had not made a sound. It left him wondering if the indigenes were not capable either physically or intellectually of verbal communication. With luck, they would find out tomorrow. He could not wait to share the discovery with Haviti, Valnadireb, and the others.
    But as he and N’kosi retraced their steps back toward the beach, he still could not escape the nagging, irksome feeling that despite everything they had seen and accomplished in the course of a single day, something was not quite right.
             
    Valnadireb stood frozen halfway between the forest’s periphery and the river’s edge, staring out of glistening, attentive compound eyes at the same sight that had caught his human colleague’s attention. There were four—no, five—of the natives. Each was as tall as Tellenberg, who was the biggest member of the science team. All five were slim of body and covered from head to foot in fine gray fur. Bipedal and bisymmetrical, their attenuated torsos left little room for legs and necks. Proportionately short arms terminated in hands that boasted opposing thumbs but no fingers. Aside from these limbs they had no tails, horns, or other outstanding appendages. The eyes were small but with disproportionately large, round pupils. Pencil-shaped tongues flicked rapidly in and out of small, round mouths. The function of an oval fur-rimmed crater that dominated the center of each forehead was not immediately quantifiable. Ragged attire fashioned from various plant materials hung from high, bony