Emanuel waited until the smoke was high into the sky to leave his hiding place. As he'd hoped, there was a particular shape glinting in the sunlight above the trees. "Come on!" He glanced at Stephanie. "Unless you've got a vehicle, we're gonna have to seriously haul it to keep up with that thing."
Vega took a relieved breath as he let himself relax in his seat. "We'll be fine, now, right?" He asked Beta, keeping his eyes on the sky as the ship guided him.
"Yeah, hopefully," Beta replied.
Stephanie snorted. "You seriously think I would've walked five miles? Of course I drove my car here."
"Then led the way so we can follow that ship!" Emanuel smiled. He narrowed his eyes at the sky, noting which way the smoke and the ship's shape was going before they disappeared.
"Cool," she said before breaking into a run across the field towards her light blue car. Hopping in the driver's seat, she yelled out, "Come on!" and turned the car on.
Emanuel reach the car a few moments after her. "Dude, you're fast." He huffed as he buckled himself in. "Also, nice ride. Now let's hurry up…" He leaned forward in time to catch the sun shining in the clouds in a rather unnatural way. "I can still see it."
Vega's new coordinates seemed a little farther than the previous landing site, but he supposed it was just the system getting used to the way the planet's energy interacted with it. He realized that both he and Beta would need to do the same soon.
"Yeah, course I'm fast. I'm on the track team in school. And thanks, point the way," Stephanie replied, focused on the road, driving.
Beta suddenly realized that Earth's gravity seemed much lighter than on her home planet. God, this is going to take a while to get used to, she thought.
Emanuel watched the sky, then looked around the streets to see which way they could go without driving straight through a building. "Take a right at that stop sign." He said, pointing ahead.
Vega took a look below, making a curious sound. There were colorful objects moving along grey paths, weaving between buildings, some stopped on the path's edges. "Beta, what are those things zipping around down there? They look like artificials; Tillion doesn't use that kind of transport."
"Huh," Beta glanced down. "Oh, I believe humans call them… cay-ars."
Stephanie nodded and turned right at the stop sign, like Emanuel directed.
"Cay-ars. Well, I've heard stranger." Vega shrugged and put his attention back to the sky. It wasn't much longer until they reached their destination, a large area with many more trees than the field. Perfect.
Emanuel kept giving directions where needed until they were driving on a rather empty road. He silently panicked when he lost the ship for a moment, but then he saw movement in the treetops to their left, where the road swerved into a parking lot for a walking trail. "That's it; I think they're landing in there." He said, pointing to the forest.
"Cool, I'm going to stop here just in case they notice us beforehand," she said, slowing the car to a halt.
"Good idea." Emanuel nodded. He unbuckled, ready to go when she was.
It was a bit difficult finding a space open enough to land safely, but Vega managed it. The ship touched down in another clearing, far smaller than the other, hence the difficult landing, and Vega scanned the area.
Living beings detected
Majority docile
No humans detected
"Hm. This should go much better than before." He stood from his seat and looked contently at Beta. "Let's get our gear and check the immediate area before moving on."
"Alright, cool. Sounds good," Beta got up as well.
Vega went to the back of the ship to gather his mobile scouting gear. He opened the dock and stuck his head out, sniffing the air and looking around carefully. "Hmm. The air smells rather nice. Almost like my home, but less refreshing."
"What do you think these aliens look like?" Emanuel asked Stephanie, looking out the window in case the ship took off again for some reason. "Like, TV always poses them as these gross, mean-looking creatures, but what if they just look like us?"
Beta stuck his head out as well and sniffed. "It smells… different from my home world."
"I don't know…" Stephanie said, and got out of the car, having already unbuckled.
"What does your home smell like?" Vega asked. He stepped down the small ramp carefully, brushing his feet against the grass before fully stepping out.
Emanuel stepped out as well, leaving his Bluetooth in the car so it wouldn't snag on anything. He crossed the lot and pushed a branch out of the way. "Welp, shall we? It didn't look like it was too far away."
"Similar to what the humans call 'mint'," Beta answered.
"Yeah, just be quiet. Be very, very, quiet. Whatever you do, don't make a single noise. And,no talking to each other until we get back here starting… now," Stephanie said, setting down some ground rules to make sure they wouldn't be seen or found.
"Mint…like the blackmint on Tillion and Tetoa?" Vega wondered as he started up his equipment. The device on his arm beeped as he synced it up with the mobile gear.
Emanuel nodded, silently aggreeing to her rules. He pushed through the foliage and kept going in the direction the ship had landed.
Stephanie, after her encounter with the ship's laser, proceeded after Emanuel, but with more caution than last time. It'd been forever since something this exciting happened. Sure, the pranks she and her friends pulled on the kids at school were entertaining, but they weren't exciting. However, she didn't want her cause of death to be from an alien laser.
Once the gear was properly set up, it was automatically scanning the area. He hummed in satisfaction that the planet wasn't messing with his equipment as much as he expected, though he'd be sure to watch for changes. He crouched down to scan the grass… Healthy, clean, nothing toxic or otherwise dangerous to him or Beta. He headed over to start on the trees.
Emanuel took in a breath when he saw something of odd color and shape up ahead and to the right. Not knowing if Stephanie spotted it, he almost told her to look, but remembered not to speak and pointed through the trees instead.
Stephanie acknowledged his observation, but shook her head, signalling for them to stay put.
Beta also headed over to the trees to help Vega.
"Hmm. This planet's pH levels are odd. Or it could just be my equipment, but…" He trailed off, continuing to gather information.
Emanuel moved a bit closer, stepping lightly and looking down every now and then to make sure he didn't step on anything. The trees blocked out enough light to help hide them; he could see movement ahead but couldn't tell what the aliens looked like just yet.
"No, I don't think so. It is another planet after all, with differing ecosystems and animals," Beta remarked. Seeing a fox dart through the bushes behind him, they whipped around. Searching through the Earth Dictionary the Council had supplied them with on tablets, they finally found what it is they'd seen. A fox.
"What was that?" Vega had looked up quickly, his ears perked. If they had to deal with humans or anything of similar caliber again, he was going to scream.
"The humans call it, a… a fox," Beta explained, testing out the new word.
"Is it dangerous?" Vega's fur stood on end at the thought of another dangerous creature near them, though the ship's scan said the majority of the living creatures in the area were docile.