Rashida ab Owain, MS, clicks her field recorder on. With it clipped to her bag's strap, this means tapping at her chest.

The metal-and-glass thing on the ridge taps, with mechanical jerkiness, at its own.

She scratches her head with her pen. The thing scratches the pointed lower section of its cranium. Its cranium-like structure, Rashida reminds herself.

The thing is taller than her, shorter than an adult Eliksni. Bipedal, two arms, bilaterally symmetrical. A light bisects its cranium-like structure, its blue-white glow brighter than that of the glass in its middle. She leans forward to get a better look at its contents; again, the thing mirrors her, its fan-like crest catching the light.

Rashida ducks her head towards her recorder, aware of every small motion she makes. "New discovery needing investigation," she mutters into it. "Mechanical or biomechanical being, suspected sentient. Clear window on the ventral side filled with some glowing matter. Maybe liquid crystal? A power source?"

Rashida is a mechanical engineer specializing in the design and maintenance of hydroponic systems. She is in no way qualified to initiate contact with a potential second non-human species on Kepler.

"I need… language specialists. Anthropology. Biomechanics. Programming. Holy Anomaly help us all, I need the evolutionary biologists."

The thing takes a rocking step closer. Rashida looks it up and down.

She steps once towards it, mimicking its motion. It points at her; she points first towards it, then towards herself, waiting for its response.

Rashida needs experts. What she has is herself.

"Hypothesis, testing, iteration," she murmurs, the mantra calming. "Amen."