The trees talk for themselves

Sixmoon blinks, watching as the intertwined trees - they seem to have laced their upper branches together in order to maximize their options for mobility - move closer, blotting out much of the glowing crescent of Palisade in the starry sky. Two other moons can be seen flanking the visage of the three tree-things as they thump closer to the Athena. As the jabbing roots come thumping down, they tear gouges in the knee-high grass, ripping divots of soil and sod loose.

The rumbling leviathans twirl in their massive, branch-undulating and root-plunging ballet, and get within about one hundred feet of the Athena, casting the offworlders' vessel in shadow before coming to a complete stop. Their branches untwine and they straighten. Their roots dig into the soil. Within a few moments, the trees look as if they have grown here. They seem inert, unmoving, immobile. And then the broad lower trunks of each tree begin to glow blue in symmetrical patterns that appear to be forming letters. The first trunk reads: "With." The second trunk reads: "us." The third trunk reads: "come."