There was a heavy, clanking thud inside the airlock, as of something heavy falling to the floor. Putting his flask on the counter beside the repair crate, the synthetic lifted his pistol and steadied it with both hands, aiming at the approximate head-level of anyone that would be coming through the inner door. Whoever it was might not be a threat, but if they were all he'd have to do would be pull the trigger, and they'd be down.

The door hissed, and its halves slid apart. Tyler cocked his trigger-- and found himself aiming at empty air. There was no other human in the open airlock, but a tiny machine of some kind, and his line of fire was straight over the top of it. He automatically dropped his aim to bear on the little robot, even as he squinted at it in puzzlement. That was no make or model he'd ever seen!

It didn't look threatening, at least. Its arms were clearly for manipulation, and besides, it was too small to make a good weapons 'bot... Hell, he could probably go and kick it over if he wanted. It couldn't weigh more than a hundred pounds, maybe two... And it wasn't even moving. Having opened the inner hatch of the airlock, it simply sat there.

Tyler's view of the airlock was rather angled since he was over against the wall, so he slowly edged to the middle of the pod, and aimed both gun and eyesight past the small robot, looking to see if it had any kind of company.

"Doesn't look like there's anyone with it..." he muttered over to Chelsey. "You ever seen a-"

"Al salaam a'alaykum!" a tinny voice rang out.

Tyler jerked in surprise, staring back down at the little robot, from which the computerised voice had originated.

"Ni hao!" it went on after a moment, and again after another pause: "Bonjour!"

French? Tyler wondered, arching a brow and letting his gun drop slightly. Things didn't try to say hello if they were out to kill you, right? Besides, his reaction time was at least twice as fast as any human's-- he could get the gun up again if he needed to.

"I think it's trying to... greet us," Chelsey murmured, seconding Tyler's unspoken thoughts.

The robot continued reciting, with a pause between each utterance. "Shalom! Konichiwa! Hello!"

At the last, Tyler dropped his gun-hand back to his side, though he made the subtle "cover me" gesture to Chelsey with his free hand. Tyler didn't want to scare off whoever was remotely operating this little 'bot, for it was better to be found than lost, but he had no reason to assume it was a friendly that had found them.

"Hello," he said in return before the 'bot could move on to another language, and waited to see what would happen next.

For a moment, it seemed nothing would happen. "Buon giorno!" the purple 'bot continued to recite. "Annyong ha shimnikka!"

And then the little machine fell utterly silent, for several long moments. Frowning in confusion, Tyler was just about to go over and give it an unprofessional poke when it finally spoke again, this time in a very halting and unnatural mode of speech.

"Hello humans," the tinny voice rang.

"Medicine attention seeking.

"?

"Do Not Attack. Do Not Afraid Be.

"You are company in being of Gainai', Ssschahnchghiee Sss'chan ta.

"Medicine. Being this way.

"Come this way." And here the little robot paused, then began to turn around.

"Schan-gy-what?" came a bewildered query from Chelsey's direction. Tyler looked back over his shoulder at the human, their puzzled gazes meeting, and the synthetic shrugged cluelessly. Though the message was clear enough, Tyler had absolutely no idea what the strange, statical phrase had been meant to be.

"Bad radio frequency?" he offered with a quirky half-grin, then turning back to watch the robot wheel back through the airlock, then again looking past the 'bot to the inner ship beyond it. He couldn't see much, and couldn't recognise a wire of what he did see. The craft and style was completely... alien.

"And it said hello humans," he murmured to himself, holstering his pistol but leaving his hand on the butt. His half-machine mind was whirling furiously in thought, and he was frowning again when he looked back over at his companion. "Wouldja call me crazy if I said I thought we'd been picked up by E.T.?"