The Synthetic Era

The First Contact

**This story takes place many years before the rest in this series**

One morning, somewhere near midday, you have a knock at your front door.

Who on earth could that be? The phone had rung a few times, but you weren't expecting any visitors today.

You swing open the door, and gawk in wonder at the being standing there.

"Okay, so... I'm, uh, not at all sure what I'm supposed to be doing," the insectoid creature says, the translator device barely disguising his native language, a sort of purring clicking sound. He fumbles a bit with a piece of paper in his hands before handing it over, and you notice it has your address on it.

"That's you and me both," you say quietly, staring dumbfounded at the information therein.

You'd heard about the possibility of native goodwill ambassadors hosting some of the newly discovered alien allies, but you'd never though you'd be one of them. And you hadn't even known the paperwork was done being processed; you'd just applied last week. You're suddenly beginning to wonder if you should have checked those messages after all...

Nevertheless, here you were: in your pajamas with messy hair, the news on in the background talking about the newly signed treaty with the Inserrians. And here was one standing before you.

You look up at them.

They were a lot bigger than you'd thought they'd be.

The Inserrian standing outside your door was somewhere near the 8 foot mark, as he was about a head taller than your door. You notice that he was wearing something vaguely resembling human clothing, a sort of long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans, but tailored to fit his unique frame. He was carrying a large knapsack, with a few keychains dangling from it. You blink when you realize that they came from the Earth spaceport gift shop. You glance up to his face and see what looks like an embarrassed expression on his face.

"I'm really excited about being here, and I didn't want to wait to pick up a few souvenirs," he says, a grin spreading over his face.

You can't help but giggle, and he rubs his neck in a nervous fashion.

"I'm sorry; I don't mean to laugh, but it's funny to think that anybody would want to have souvenirs from Earth," you step aside and motion him into the room. He ducks to avoid the door frame, and steps inside. "I suppose it's because I've lived here my entire life."

As you shut the door, you smile. He was kinda cute, if awkward. You turn back to your new guest to find him staring at the news report. You take this moment to look him over.

He was built strongly, and had two sets of arms: larger ones that came from his shoulders that ended in three-fingered hands, and a smaller set that came out from the middle of his sides that ended with small claw-styled details. This second set was held close to the body. His legs were long, strong, slightly heavier looking than his body, and ended in feet that each had two toes on the front of each, with a single toe on the heel. He had a plated external skin that had iridescence in direct light, and small ridges dispersed over those. He was a interesting mix of yellows and greens, with some slight brown tones here and there. 

Whenever he moved, there was a whispering sort of clattering of his plated exoskeleton colliding. His face was sort of human, but with insectoid details, such as the plating and ridging around his eyes and mouth. His eyes were interesting, mostly black with a bright yellow-gold iris. He had mandibles on the sides of his mouth and jaw, and some small, repetitive ridges that followed the line of his head and down the back of his neck, sort of like an alligator. There was a sort of crested horn on the front of his forehead that reminded you of a beetle. It was inexplicably funny to you to have an 8-foot beetle in your living room, and you start to giggle again.