When I awoke, I felt a stinging sensation in my head, as if I had been hit by something very hard. Now remember, I was barley conscious during the impact, so I didn't really know what had happened. On the other side, Katie completely remembered the descent and crash landing, which was quite a test of the lander's structure. The vertical speed on impact was around -150 feet per second; the lander is designed for a max of -155 feet per second.

Once we got the landing (more like lucky crash) behind us, I explored the surface as Katie attempted to salvage the radio. The plant life is moss-like but very crunchy, and the soil on this planet is rather soft. The tallest plants were only up to my ankle but they seemed to have a rather large top compared to their stem. There was no taller plants in sight; only some small hills surrounded our landing site. There was also a considerable white cloud rising about a quarter mile away, it didn't seem natural at all so I decided to go and check it out.

A short walk later, I noticed how the steam appeared to be coming from a small plate-sized deformation in the rock. Maybe this could be a signal flare or a part of our spacecraft? The object was rather wide compared to its height; the tallest cords seem to reach to my knee while the base of the object reached a bit above my ankle. The object seemed to cover about two square feet of land and it was definitely not natural.

Upon returning to th lander, Katie told me that the radio is extremely damaged, but salvageable. Just then, a small squeaking sound came from the plant life. "Did you make that noise?" Katie asked. "When was the last time I made a noise that high pitched, first grade?" Katie looked insulted, then her eyes widened suddenly and she nearly fainted. I spun around, naturally looking upward. There was nothing to be seen, so then I looked down at my feet. My brain nearly exploded as I spotted a man about an inch tall. Surely my eyes are deceiving me? A man of such small proportions is just not possible. But then, the moss-like plants, the soft soil, the lack of tall objects, and the smoke emitting object made sense to me. I bent down and picked up a handful of the moss-like plants, and sure enough, they resembled tiny trees. The trees resemble young oak trees, as if they were recently planted. The soil shows small signs of burning; there was a fire here and this is the people's forest restoration program. At least they care about their planet, unlike us Earthlings. A day where visibility on Earth is above 15 miles is considered once in a lifetime, yet they say that back in the 10's and the 20's visibility under 15 miles was considered unhealthy. If there is one thing us Earthlings needs, it is the people of this planet who are able to keep their environment in such good shape. Speaking of which, there are more tiny people approaching me and Katie.

"What the-" sputtered Katie as she started backing away. There really was no reason to back away, being about 400 feet tall compared to the tiny people. The tallest of the aliens seem to be shorter than my pinky toe, and most of them don't even seem to be as tall as my footprints! Surely it would be easy to make a peaceful first contact with these tiny aliens.