PACOYMA First Contact Landing by Robert Gaspari
How would the first contact with alien beings take place? This is one such possible tale.
A navigational failure leaves the factory ship Pacoyma lost in the depths of the dark matter stream used by their interstellar drive. The saucer is not a warship but an unarmed mining and space materials retrieval vessel. This alien humanoid race exits the dark matter realm and discovers Earth, an inhabited planet with the resources they need. The numadi, a species with a hive mind, seek aid in returning to their sector of the galaxy, if they can find it.
Unlike other doom and gloom scenarios, the US helps the stranded craft as the world watches. This is their story and the tale of the ad hoc team assigned to help them. Major Reece Strong develops a symbiotic relationship with the advanced Artificial Intelligence onboard the saucer. His help becomes instrumental saving the ship and the numadi crew members during a mining expedition to the asteroid belt. Major Strong leads the defenseless factory ship to an astonishing impromptu victory over a marauding insectoid species.
His military expertise is what the numadi need and the self-aware AI integrates the human into their hive mind. The hive queen names the human as the ship’s ambassador to the human race, and the president appoints the NASA officer as the US ambassador to the numadi people. Major Strong acts with a single-minded, focused determination to help provide armaments to safeguard the weaponless numadi.
The riveting question is, can they find their way home or back to Earth without encountering hostile forces?