"Half a year to get here seems like a long time. But it's just a joke compared to the time humanity needed to get this far."

"Dave, did you just use a remix of the Armstrong-quote as the first words spoken on Mars?"

"Yep, I said it. Those were the first words on Mars. If the third time somebody steps his or her foot on a new planet, and if that someone thinks like me, we'll have a tradition!"

"Oh, whoever will be that person, please don't participate in this stupidity."

"You two are aware that we're still transmitting?"

"I hoped so! Raises the chance to really create a tradition out of this. So, let me check my suit. I'm still talking, so it does at least somehow protect me. Pressure values are good, sensors are… Locating a structure? Guys, please check the data I'm transmitting, is that an error or is there a hidden trapdoor in front of me?"

"Stop joking, Dave. This is Mars, how could there… Wait. Sorry, I'm getting the same result! Wait a moment, we're coming out. We need to investigate that."

"Understood."

The group of three men soon found the position. All their suits located the same structure, and as soon as they started digging, something reacted. The ground started to move, to raise into a ramp, releasing a stair that led straight down.

"Seriously", Dave asked his co-astronauts while walking down the steps, "how likely has it been that this was here? I mean, a structure on Mars is unbelievable on its own, but a quarter mile away from our first landing spot?"

"Actually, not half as unlikely as you might think", Brian started to explain. "This landing site was chosen because of the geographical features. For who knows how many years, this exact region almost didn't change at all. Whoever built that must have seen and preferred the same conditions we did, causing us to land almost at the same position as they did."

"They. Are we already confirming aliens here?"

"What else? Do you think someone from earth built this without shouting it from every roof? An actual Mars colony? No man could ever hold back like that."

"True. Aliens it is."

When they reached the end of the stairs, they found themselves at an intersection. "Three directions, three men. Anyone else having horror movie flashbacks?"

"You're the only one of us wasting his time with that stuff. We'll split, I'll go into that direction."

After a while of walking in silence, Dave continued to talk. "Do you think we'll find one, in a cryo pod, maybe?"

" What, an alien? Not really. Why should they have left one of their kind behind?"

"Might be that the ship that was supposed to bring him home got destroyed?"

"By what?"

"An opposing species, perhaps?"

"So we aren't just talking about two alien races now, they had a war against each other right here in our system? You have to stop watching that many movies!"

"Guys? I guess, I found something."

"What is it?"

Silence.

"Hello? What did you find?"

Still no response.

Suddenly, the lights flicker in the whole plant and illuminate the gray, steel corridors with the artificial glow of fluorescent tubes. "The light switch, I guess", Dave finally responds.

"Damn, Dave! Don't do that ever again!"

"Sorry. But you need to get here, quick!"

The astronauts found Dave in something that resembled a control room. Screens on the walls were showing all kinds of TV programs, switching the channels with an incredible speed. Dave just stood there, his arms spread as if he wanted to receive his companions with a hug. "What do you say?"

"I say we turn it off again. Who knows what the hell it's doing there."

"I guess it's scanning for signals. But why?"

As suddenly as the lights were turned on, the screens went offline. Next, an electronic voice starts speaking. "Translation system calibration completed. Welcome to the Nekkai Surveillance Station. Please identify."

"That's why", Dave commented. "My name's David Taggert, scientist aboard the first manned Mars mission in human history."

"Identity unknown. Classification guest. Initialize first contact protocol."

"What does that mean?"

"First contact protocol establishes a connection to the nearest active communication relay, transmits a data package about the newly uprising species and initializes negotiations about to join the galactic community of space traveling species."

"Why do I feel like we just called the police?" Dave turned towards the other two, clueless what to do now.

"We have to get back to our ship. We need to report what we found!"

As they're turning to leave, the computer starts to speak again. "Request confirmed. Enrides-fragment exploration unit 58 assigned. Estimated arrival in two local hours."

Earth was in turmoil. Confirmation about intelligent life, and this close to them? Everyone looked forward to this contact. They just weren't sure if the visitors would fly to Mars or Earth, so they prepared on both planets. And almost exactly two hours after the machines' confirmation, a ship appeared over the entry, gently hovering down, landing beside the humans ship.

All three men stood between their ships, waiting for something to happen. And on the point, after two hours, a door opened in the alien ship's side and the pilot steps out. The long head, the posture and the enormous tail didn't leave any space for misinterpretation, at least in Dave's eyes. He immediately shouted: "A dinosaur! Oh my god, space traveling dinosaurs, how awesome is this?"

The first questions were quickly answered. Despite the first impression, the lizards did not originate from the earth. And this particular being wasn't actually a lizard, it just chose the shape of the stations builders for this contact, expecting other lizards to wait here. It invited the men into her shuttle, offering them a fast journey back to Earth. Inside the shuttle, it established an Earth-like atmosphere and offered them to put down their suits during the flight. It led by example as it removed its own space suit right away. It had a green bark, and sometimes it's movements caused the noise of creaking wood. The astronauts were especially surprised when it suddenly started to change its shape, now resembling a human woman. Then, it introduced itself as Enrides-fragment exploration unit 58, just as announced. It suggested that they should act to it like towards a female, and she offered to be called Explorer 58 for short.

This is part of a greater universe I'm currently working on. Over there on the Index, I named this part "Unexpected Neighbors"