SD 03/11/06 - "Bjorn Haygyn" - Already the trip had a near-miss with disaster.
To begin with, the Ambassador stated no matter what shape the transporter was in, it could not be used. Even if it were in perfect working condition, he argued, because of the fears some of the natives have of higher technology, it cannot be used. Although that mostly-harmless incident fairly recently gives reason for pause, the Ambassador makes it missed, for once.
He's also been trading barbs with the rest of the contact team, especially Melvin Orlan. Ol' Mel has even less use for the Ambassador than I do, feeling the best kind of diplomacy is the threat of overwelming force. Unfortunetly, he comes across as saying it matters little how reasonable the other party is. Stuffis takes full advantage of this, as well as that Melvin comes from an alternate Earth at a time a few decades before ours errupted into its most destructive global war, "Such comments should be expected from a generation that nearly blew itself back to the Stone (Age)."
At least our Counselor is able to get through to him. Her soft words and flattery are able to break through that shell of his. Lynx does seem to have a way with words.
The barbs between "Stuffy" and Mel were interupted when the shuttle began going into a dive. Orlan's direct approach revealed it's more useful side when he went forward to see what the problem was. It was our pilot Droolin. The binocular-visual pannel used for getting close-ups had caught sight of a local woman bathing in a stream, and that was all it took for the "walking hormone" to forget all about the controls. Mel managed to get him back on track with his direct approach, wryly commenting, "... normaly I'm in favor of slacking off on the job, but you (work poorly) too much to get away with it without killing everyone."
The rest of the trip over was uneventful. We soon approached our destination, the town of "Bjorn Haygyn." It's too small to be considered a real city, but too big to be a simple farming village. Most of the structures are single-story, but there are a few two and three story ones. All of the single story ones have no windows, and most of the homes have a rustic, traditional look to them, especially those away from the town center. The place is surrounded by a wall, including the new landing field (presumably the wall here was recently set up), with several smaller walls dividing the place on the inside. Presumably, these interior walls were set up in case there was a breach in the main one durring an attack.
Looking further at my notes, the leader of this town, or rather it's council (or "Folkmoot" as they call it here) is an "Eric the Green of Redland." I think he'll be the one we'll be talking to the most. Let's hope he's of the more reasonable people here.