First Contact (1945) by Murray Leinster
Good Reads meta-data is 25 pages rated 3.95 by 213 litizens.
Genre: SciFi; Species: First Contact.
DNA: USA
Verdict: A landmark.
Tagline: Mirror, mirror.
Interstellar space flight is routine, and Earth ship Llanvabon is on a research mission to study a double star in the Crab Nebula. This is such an unusual astronomical opportunity that, whoa, it has attracted another, alien ship.
First problem is to identify it. Definitely not from Earth. Yikes! Aliens. This is the first contact of any kind with an alien species after decades of interstellar flight.
Second problem how to establish peaceful contact. Many tentative steps are taken by each side.
Third, now that rapprochement seems to have been established the next problem to solve is how to communicate. Fortunately, Ensign Apple whipped up a translator app on his iPhone. [Sure he did.]
Fourth, the aliens are humanoid in the same way MAGAs are. They do not talk but use a radio wave telepathy.
Fifth, the ships swap two crew members to get acquainted. Still things are volatile. Why? Each ship has armaments intended to blast meteors that they are could use on each other and back track to the home world for invasion!
Six, it is a stalemate. Neither captain wants to attack if this is a good opportunity for cooperation, but neither wants to reveal their origin in case the other has hostile intentions. Indeed, they – both captains and both crews – begin to realise they are thinking nearly exactly alike.
Spoiler ahead!
The resolution is to swap ships, each denuded of any revealing information about origins as a kind of technology transfer of good will. Each leaves for its homeward with alien ship.