Solena didn't wake up; she was woken up by Sarah knocking on the door, calling Solena's name.

When Solena finally managed to open her eyes, she took in the room, and the awareness of her situation hit her all at once.

Solena stood up and then immediately sat back down as her pressure had dropped too much, and she felt dizzy. That didn't fare well for weird gravity and atmosphere, she thought.

But then again, her doctor wasn't worried at all.

When Solena managed to open the door, she found Sarah nude on the other side.

"Oh," says Sarah. "We all thought you would have slept in the nude."

Solena smiled. She almost did.

"Wait, did all three of you undress?"

"We are about to get on the pure oxygen."

Panic set in. "Wait, I overslept!"

"Linda wanted to wake you up, but the reality is that on the shuttle, you will have a direct communication link with Torg, so I thought it best to let you recuperate so you wouldn't need to sleep anytime soon."

On that, Solena laughed. "Do you know where the shuttle is taking us?"

"To Jupiter?"

"To Torg himself. The flight is just long enough that by the time we arrive, if I haven't slept yet, I will be tired and not my best self."

"I... didn't think of that. Sorry."

"No, you did good. Did they brief you all along?"

"Yeah, together and alone. I had countless details about how to deal with aides, while Philippe got briefed on the various stakeholders back on Earth, and Grant did whatever Grant does."

Solena nodded. "I guess I'll leave the dress here then."

She went back into the room, left the dress and the shoes on the bed, and accompanied her colleague, turned friend, turned assistant.

Grant had already gotten his injection and was on pure oxygen. Solena noted that it wasn't just his head and beard that were shaved; his whole body was.

Philippe had more body hair than Solena expected for a man his age and then realized she didn't know what his age was exactly. She assumed it from his beard, which is not a reliable milestone.

Apparently, they were being set up in reverse order of body weight, with Grant first, with his rather large biceps and legs for someone his age.

Sarah asked why and was told, "The injections were dosed by body weight, and the doctor had arranged them from heaviest to lightest so he could monitor each response before moving to the next. Larger bodies carried a greater inert-gas load, so he wanted to give them more margin to clear it."

Solena initially felt some regret that Sarah would come last, but at the same time, menopause and the stress of losing her husband had affected her waist line.

The briefings didn't stop, but the questions did. They could have typed on a keyboard, but the new experts were more rough around the edges, and it's Linda who demanded the clarification questions that Solena would have asked.

To her surprise, the director of national security himself was one of the last speakers, but in truth, he was mainly thanking the team for their sacrifices. He seemed ill at ease with the nudity, though he hid it well enough for everyone but Solena. Not quite well enough for her diplomatic eye.

She did wonder if alien races had non-verbal communication, but she would figure it out one way or another.

The ceiling let out a satisfying "thunk." A marine soon came to say, "The shuttle has landed."

The doctor did a few examinations of the crew members, but Solena felt like it was mostly to reassure her team. Dissolved nitrogen doesn't leave traces that are visible to the naked eye.

But the 2 hours wasn't quite done. The shuttle was being unloaded from the "gifts" from the Siluvor, and their own materials were being loaded by marines in astronaut suits. Not that Solena saw them; she was just briefed about it.

An alarm rang on the doctor's phone. It indicated that Sarah, the last one of them, had received her injection 2 hours ago and that they were now all cleared to get in.

They had to keep their oxygen mask on until they got into the airlock on the roof, built and assembled by an engineering crew from the navy, under the guidance of NASA.

Linda shook everyone's hand, thanked everyone, and the door was closed behind them.

It took 3 minutes for the air to be changed to pure oxygen, allowing them to finally remove their masks.

Solena wanted to make one last speech, but all that came was "Let's do our planet proud."

Still, they had to wait another twenty-five minutes while the airlock slowly bled down to shuttle pressure and filled with argon.

At first, the unfamiliar thinness of the air made them breathe too quickly. The technician told them to slow down, take deeper breaths, and let their bodies trust the oxygen that was there.

What Solena didn't expect is that her voice seemed deeper under Argon. Sarah too, but both Philippe and Grant seemed pleased with the change in their voice.

Finally, the other side of the airlock opened, revealing a tube leading to the door of the shuttle.

Solena gasped, as 10 feet in front of her stood a door made from metal extracted, melted, and molded in another star system.

The tunnel tilted up to reach the door on a little incline.

The door, weirdly, was ajar but not completely opened. Solena remembered someone mentioning that the air on this side of the human airlock was supplied by the shuttle itself.

She was still on earth, but she was already breathing air that was extracted and canned on another planet. A planet she would never visit.

Grant proposed to go in first, and no one complained. He needed to physically push the door aside, revealing the sterile interior of the shuttle.

Philippe followed him. "It's ladies first when proven safe, but men first when not."

Sarah said nothing, so Solena didn't either.

Solena went next and was stunned when she saw the pilot.

His gray skin and hairless body made her wonder at first if the gray alien theory wasn't based on the Siluvor, but the four arms and three fully circular eyelid-less eyes should have been in the conspiracy theory. So is the lack of a nose and the reptile-like mouth with no lips.

But what took Solena by surprise was the four triple-jointed fingers arranged around a circle in each of the four arms.

"Hello, I am Ambassador Vasquez, pleased to meet you," she said, once Sarah was inside.

The interior was filled with crates, but one of them was the computer box, with a lid placed to cover the keyboard and the tiny screen.

The pilot moved with a weird gait, as his legs had triple segments, so it's like he had two knees working in sequence.

He closed the door, and a speaker in the shuttle spoke.

"Pleased to meet you, Ambassador Vasquez. I am Torg."

But the pilot wasn't speaking at all.

"Ah finally, we get to," began Solena, but she was interrupted by Torg.

"Just beware that this channel isn't directional. To speak, a talk button needs to be pressed. The pilot has one, but there is a button near the door you can use to talk."

The pilot was already in his seat and in the process of pressing buttons.

Sarah located the button and showed it to Solena.

She pressed it. "Nice to talk to you. I can't wait to meet you in person."

She let go of the button.

"Same for me. The pilot, Turx, doesn't understand or speak your language. He is probably doing pre-flight checks. Perhaps your team can sit on the floor during the launch?"

When she was sure he was done, Solena pressed. "Is the launch rough?"

But Torg replied. "No, but you will feel some movements. We wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Your English is wonderful."

"Thank you! I've been practicing with the Mars crew. I am very gifted with languages."

Solena looked around. There were only 3 doors in the shuttle. The one going outside and two interior doors, one in the ceiling and one in the floor.

"I was told there were toilet facilities in the shuttle?" Said Solena.

"Right, you are now in gravity, so you can't access it, but after launch, you will be able to reach the door on the ceiling. It's there."

"And the one on the floor?"

"Engineering access."

"Got it."

Torg said a few words that sounded like "Pralac Kolag Turx."

And Turx replied, "Rexis Gratok Torg."

He then pressed a few buttons, and the engines seemed to turn on.

The quartet all sat down on the floor and basically each grabbed a crate. They noticed that elastic straps connected them and were hooked with various parts of the shuttle near the floor. Notably, it seems to be a ventilation grill.

It doesn't take long for Solena to feel a little dizzy, but it soon passes, and she feels suddenly light.

The launch would feel less like a rocket than an elevator. The straps ended up only preventing the crates from moving in low gravity.

"And you are now cleared of your atmosphere and on your way to us," says Torg on the speaker.

While thanking him, Grant jumps to the top door and clears it easily.

"It's not zero gravity, but it's almost nothing, he says, on the ceiling.

"The acceleration might just be enough to keep things on the floor," says Sarah.

The door on the ceiling closed, and Solena looked around.

The crates were all identified. "Shuttle supplies" was on a small one. "Ship supplies" was on a bigger one. "For council" was on three of them.

Someone had understood how little briefing they would get and made it fully safe and secure.

Grant came back.

"It works like our toilets. I don't know how other aliens work, but this fits human anatomy, but no toilet paper."

Solena smiles. "There are some in this box," she says, pointing to the shuttle supplies box.

Torg's voice was on the speaker again. "Perhaps we can start to connect now that the shuttle is en route."

"I'll take care of this," said Grant. Philippe also went to him.

Sarah spoke up to Grant. "Just give me the clipboard."

Solena replied. "Sure, and I have a few questions."

"Go ahead, I have all my time for you."

But soon enough, a crate had been pushed next to the button so that Solena and Sarah could sit on it, with Sarah holding the clipboard, and Solena could manipulate the button.

The first, as the utmost priority for the team...

"Torg, we were told there was water on the ship. Can you tell me where to get it?"

"Sure, next to Turx is a pipe. Press the button to get water in the pipe."

Grant didn't need to be told. He filled a zero-gravity cup with a rubber lid you would press open and then began using various test strips and test liquids to test the water.

The next question was one that Linda's team decided to let Solena ask.

"How long to reach the galactic council?"

"Oh, we don't have the fastest ships, so I am afraid it will be a good two days to make it. Sorry."

But the team had asked how much food to keep, and Torg had answered "about a week," so that meant that Torg had little confidence that the council would find food for them after enough.

They packed over a month of food, so they should be ok.

The next question was loaded and kept for her specifically.

"You said that the Siluvor benefit from introducing us to the council. Can you explain that to us?"

It took a few minutes for Torg to answer.

"The council ranks members. It's not easy to rise, but it's easy to lower in rank. My race isn't very capable militarily. We aren't great scientists. What we are is explorers. We like to visit new places, learn new languages, and meet new cultures. But each member we sponsor helps us get more prestige. We can rise in the rank. And we get first rights to negotiate trade treaties."

That's something off script. It's the first time the right to negotiate trade treaties is mentioned.

"What do you mean, first rights?"

This could complicate things...

"Most races have limited resources to trade. So, when they open resources to trade, their sponsor gets the first chance to negotiate. If you want to sell things, you have to offer them to us first."

This sounded like the mercantilism era of humanity. When colonies could only trade with their home capital.

"But we can trade with anyone, right?" Solena answered.

"Yes, for anything we won't want for us."

"But you have priority."

"Sure, we found you. If you have steel to sell, we get to try to buy it first if we like the price."

"We set the price, not you?"

"How else would it work? The seller sets the price, no?"

She looked at Sarah.

Sarah replied. "It looked like they don't have commodities markets."

"Maybe they have implied ones. Like, if we charge too much, no one will buy, unless there is a shortage?" Said Solena.

But Grant had an idea and told Solena a question for Torg.

Solena agreed. "Could we know what the Siluvor have for sale?"

Torg was ready for the question. "We sell shuttles like the one you are in and starships like the one you are going to, but most powers don't like them, so we sell few of them."

This made Solena smile. Getting our own FTL ships was a top priority, but a good shuttle wasn't to be neglected.

"How could we pay for those?"

"Oh, steel is always in demand, as are all metals. We do not excel at metal making, so we are always importing refined metals. If humanity can supply refined metals, we could trade for ships."

Linda spoke in the speaker.

"Hi Torg and Ambassador Vasquez. This is Linda from Earth Command. The voice terminal you gave us was online for a few minutes, and now we have the transmission working."

"Glad to finally talk to you directly, Linda from Earth," said Torg.

"So... How many ships can you send us, and how much metal do you need? We are buying," said Linda.

The answer took longer. Torg had to contact his home planet. But within a few minutes, 11 faster-than-light ships, each with 3 shuttles, were en route for Earth.

10 will stay the property of Earth, plus all the shuttles save four in exchange for charging two of the returning shuttles with steel ingots and the others with aluminum and tungsten ingots.

From Torg's tone, Solena suspected the Siluvors thought they were exploiting Earth. For us, it was the bargain of human history!

Linda accepted, provided Earth could inspect the ships on their arrival, in about a week's time.