Chapter Text
“I can’t believe you are the one making first contact.” Dr Lokken grumbled.
“Are you jealous?” Grace asked.
“No, just deeply concerned.”
“Aren’t we technically all the first contact? I mean we’ve met Rocky before the events of this film so…” Annie reasoned.
Grace shot her an upset look. “Don’t take this from me.”
Annie shrugged, amusement clear on her face. She pointedly looked past Grace and to the screen and he muttered to himself as he turned around as well.
Grace was hard at work, soldering on an attachment to the star map to symbolize Earth. He was no engineer, but his soldering ability was good enough for what was needed. “I’m a long way from home too.”
He stood in the open airlock, preparing to throw the container with the updated star map. He swung the object back and forth, trying to build momentum for his throw but the object flew out incredibly slow.
"I take back my sports team compliment." Ilyukhina winced.
While he waited for it to travel to the alien ship, and to receive a reply, he began preparing the ship for easier movement during zero gravity, setting up a rope system to lever himself around.
“Blipp-D detected.” Mary announced. Grace checked the computers, observing the arc of the object before heading to the airlock. He stood preparing himself to leave when the container made its way perfectly into the airlock and into his hands.
“That’s an incredible level of path calculation, I’m quite impressed.” Dimitri praised Rocky who puffed himself up at the compliment.
Grace opened this new container, pulling out what looked like a replica of the alien spaceship connected to the Hail Mary by a tube.
As Grace watched out the window, long poles shot out of the spaceship, attaching to the Hail Mary before a tunnel formed to meet the airlock.
“Woah.” Ilyukhina whistled, the others in the room nodding in agreement at her awe.
“That level of technology…” Dimitri sounded wistful, like he would do anything to test the Eridian technology for himself. “It’s amazing.”
Grace used a flashlight to check down the tunnel. The tunnel was completely dark except for the small pinprick of light from the Hail Mary’s end. Grace took some steadying breaths, lowering himself into the tunnel and leaving the relative safety of his ship.
“That is straight nightmare fuel.” DuBois muttered.
Annie nodded, helpfully adding, “Imagine this just becomes a horror movie right before our eyes.”
Grace whipped around in his seat to look at her, pure terror on his face. “Don’t say that! Why would you say that?” He swung back around to look at the screen, sweat breaking out along his brow, “Oh god.”
“I’m sure it will be fine.” Annie tried to reassure him.
Grace moved around the tunnel, struggling in the zero gravity due to the lack of strong handholds along the wall. Eventually he reached the end, finding a wall made of a variety of different materials.
He searched around the wall until he found a small section of glass, acting like a window into the spaceship. He looked into the darkness, searching for any sign of light. Hesitantly he tapped on the glass.
As he watched, a three fingered hand smacked the glass, disrupting the eerie stillness of the tunnel.
The whole room gasped, jolting back in their seats.
“Jesus christ!” Grace shouted, a hand clutching at his chest as he tried desperately to catch his breath.
“Oh god, it is a horror movie.” Annie gasped out between heaving breaths.
“Rocky, what the fudge, man?” Grace complained.
“I’ll say it like an adult, what the fuck, Rocky?” Ilyukhina added.
Rocky, who was physically incapable of being snuck up on due to his hearing, did not understand why the humans had reacted in this way. But he found it slightly amusing, although part of him was concerned about how their heart rates had increased so intensely. And for how they all had started leaking slightly from their skin, especially above the organs they used for sight.
It seemed the humans were trying to make up for their fear by justifying why it had happened. Rocky thought they were strange creatures.
“He’s like a spider, jumping out in the middle of the night.” DuBois complained, although his tone of voice showed he wasn’t actually upset with Rocky.
“What word, question?” Rocky was intrigued by the term, which had no equivalent translation.
Grace laughed. “On Earth, we have a scary, deadly creature called a spider. You look like one of those, just so you know.”
“Good. Proud. I am scary space monster. You are leaky space blobs.” While the tone was abrupt, it lacked any of the anger or sting Rocky had been using towards Grace previously. Grace smiled, even as his heart still beat far too fast, his adrenaline slowly draining.
Grace launched himself backwards, doing multiple somersaults as he scrambled for a hold in the tunnel. Finally stopping himself, he took a few heaving breaths before approaching the glass window.
The hand appeared again, tapping on the glass.
Grace let out a breath of surprise, still unable to fathom he was face to… hand with an alien. The alien made a melodic cooing sound, bringing in a small figurine made of the same material as the containers.
It somewhat resembled a human, with two arms, two legs and a head, although the face looked vaguely froglike. “Is that me?”
“Aw, that’s so cute. I want one.” Ilyukhina gasped.
“Rocky make when back on ship. Rocky give.” Rocky promised. Ilyukhina beamed at the alien, incredibly excited for her future present. Who cares if she was going to die soon? She’d get a cool figurine before she went. Hopefully.
The hand pulled out another object of the same material, this time it resembled the Hail Mary. It tapped the object, sending it spinning like the Hail Mary when it’s centrifuge was on. “My ship.”
The hands brought the small human figurine into contact with the ship, showing the figurine bouncing along the pole which symbolized the tunnel before bringing it behind the ship.
“It’s a puppet show.” Yao remarked, thinking of the puppet shows his nephew would put on for the family. Those puppets were made of socks rather than a material humanity had never seen before, but the concept was the same.
“I don’t understand.” The alien repeated the motion a couple times before Grace asked, “You want me to go back in my ship?”
Grace frowned. Was he being rejected by an alien? He thought Rocky liked him, or at least had liked him before the whole ‘the Hail Mary was a suicide mission’ thing but now it looked like the alien wanted nothing to do with him.
Grace sounded defeated and upset, “But I just got here.” The alien continued the motions, shaking the objects, “Okay. Okay.” He gave a thumbs up before looking at it, realizing the alien probably wouldn’t understand the signal. “I’ll talk to you later. Bye!”
Grace slowly drifted back to his airlock, leaving the alien and his puppet show behind. Sealing the airlock, he watched as the tunnel withdrew from position.
“What are they doing, Mary?”
The alien spaceship began spinning, mimicking the Hail Mary’s centrifuge capability.
“Oh, that’s smart.” Ilyukhina whispered, realizing what Rocky intended.
Grace threw himself around the ship to watch this take place, finding the biggest window. Back in the control room, he set about turning the centrifuge back on.
“It’s not advised to modify the centrifugal settings on the ship.”
“Thank you, Mary.” Grace dismissed before modifying the centrifugal settings on the ship. The Hail Mary began to spin at the same speed as the alien spaceship. Both ships spun in sync, with the alien ship sending out the tunnel to attach to the airlock again.
Grace took his time tearing apart different sections of the ship, gathering flashlights and a long strip of wires attached to small lights. Arming himself with a wrench, just in case, he opened the airlock. The air rushed in, not the same pressure as the inside of the airlock due to the depressurization the room had undergone. Grace was knocked back, landing with a groan.
Checking the readings on his suit, he discovered the air pressure was 21.1kPa while the temperature was 22 degrees Celsius. “What?”
Grace shuffled his way inside the tunnel, dropping down with his supplies. Once he reached the end of the tunnel, he set his lights up, observing how the previous materials had been replaced with a wall of glass. “Oh my. This is new.”
“Damn, Rocky works fast.” Carl mused.
After having finished setting up his lights, Grace knocked on the glass wall. “Anybody home? I like what you’ve done with the gravity.” He gave a thumbs up before pulling out an object made of dried ramen noodles, formed into the approximate shape of the alien’s ship.
“I made you a ship,” He looked at his creation, “It’s ramen.”
The room chuckled lightly. Stratt opened her mouth as if about to comment before closing it again, deciding it wasn’t worth it.
He taped the ramen ship to the glass wall. “I only made one, I’m not sure how many of you there are.”
Rocky made a sad noise, “Just Rocky.”
Grace’s eyes widened, looking down at the alien in shock and despair. While he could have just been sent alone, a ship so big for an alien so small seemed ridiculous and the sadness emanating from Rocky’s slumped figure did not bode well. “What?”
Rocky did not answer.
A small alien made his way to the tunnel’s glass. Grace took a steadying breath, taking in the sight. The alien looked similar to a rock, with five legs and no head in sight. The top of its body was made of multiple sections, which moved as melodic noises echoed from it. It seemed to be observing Grace as much as Grace was observing it.
Grace threw up a hesitant peace sign. “Hi.”
The alien moved from where it had been perched slightly above Grace, towards the ground. It hesitantly grabbed at the glass, before planting its feet and lifting its underside to face Grace, making a noise akin to a human scream.
Grace screamed right back, fear swelling in him as every horror movie featuring aliens he had ever watched swept into his head. What a way to remember that he did not handle horror movies well. The alien screamed right back.
The entire room screamed, more out of shock than fear before chuckling in embarrassment at their actions.
“Not a great first introduction.” DuBois said after calming down.
Grace lifted up his wrench, ready to use it as a weapon, swinging towards the glass.
“Put the wrench down! You’re just going to hurt yourself. Also, you’re making us look bad.” Ilyukhina pleaded.
Grace leant forward, patting the top of Rocky’s sphere in apology without thinking. He froze after a second, worried Rocky would find it infantilizing but the alien made no reaction. “Sorry.” He whispered, both for his future-self wielding the wrench and for patting the sphere.
The alien fell backwards, scrambling away in fear, using one arm in a striking motion as it tried to defend itself. “No, no, no, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Grace called out, dropping the wrench. “You scared me when you went ‘AHH!” He lifted his arms above his head, making the screaming motion.
The alien copied, lifting its front two legs. Grace dropped his arms, watching the alien do the same. Lifting them again, the alien copied.
Ilyukhina cooed at the moment. For once, Grace was joined in his embarrassment by Rocky.
Grace bent his knees, watching as the alien rushed to mirror each of his actions. He opened and closed his eyes, wondering if he was going to wake up and it would all be a dream. Upon opening his eyes, he found the alien was still there.
He decided to test it further; moving in a weak imitation of the salsa, doing an arm wave, a strong man pose, and finally the Usain Bolt. He chuckled at the imitation.
“Are you really dancing with an alien? As our first contact?” Dr Lokken questioned.
“Dance is the most universal language.” Grace responded, mostly making the justification up on the spot.
“I don’t believe you’ve danced a day in your life.”
“Actually, I was a musical theatre nerd in high school. Did all the productions, which included dancing.”
Dr Lokken thought back to the Cats shirt she’d seen him wearing occasionally and also just his personality, “That makes a lot of sense.”
The alien repeated the noise, a whistling imitation of the laughter. Grace slowly walked forward until he was face to carapace with the creature. “Wow.” Using one of his lamps, he observed the alien in closer detail. It had sections of a blue, gel-like substance on some of its limbs and deep scratches in what looked like artistic designs. “Can’t seem to see your face. Mysterious. Faces are overrated.”
The alien tapped against the glass, a melody leaving it. Grace repeated the taps. The alien did it again, the same melody.
If Rocky had a head to shake, he would be doing so. Why didn’t the human understand? He thought his future self was being pretty clear. Then again, none of the other humans looked like they’d figured it out either, if they had surely they would be correcting Grace. Maybe humans just do not understand pointing.
Grace chuckled, “You like tapping, huh?” Grace imitated the melodic rhythm as he tapped again.
The alien tapped faster, Grace joining in. “This is fun!” The alien grew increasingly more intense until it seemed deeply frustrated. At the frustration Grace turned around, looking where the taps were pointing to. There was a package for him, resting on one of the tunnel walls.
The melody came again, although it had a clear annoyed edge to it.
“You’re pointing. You’re not tapping.” Grace shook his head at himself, “Sorry!”
“Oh, that makes more sense.” Annie reasoned, the others nodding. Grace had expected to be judged and feel embarrassed but it seemed everyone else had just assumed the tapping was for fun.
Grace picked up the package. “Another present.” He opened it up, examining two rings with eight crystal-like balls on each. “I don’t have one of these. I love it. Thank you.”
The alien showed the top of its carapace, motioning towards it. Grace examined this before asking “Do I put this on my head?” The alien made a loud noise, before trying to motion again. “Take off my head?” Another motion. “Take my helmet off?”
“Ooh, don’t do that.” Ilyukhina was honestly pretty impressed with how well Grace was communicating. He obviously was not perfect at telling exactly what Rocky was saying but he showed a lot of patience and was able to piece together the little clues he got pretty well. Still, he should not take off his helmet.
The alien made the sound akin to laughing again. Grace shook his head, eyes wide, “No. It’ll-” He blew a raspberry to symbolize the effects of depressurization.
The alien repeated the ‘take your helmet off’ motion again. Grace gave it an incredulous look. “That’s a big ask.” One of the lights flickered. “This has taken a turn. Thank you for the- what I hope is not handcuffs.”
As Grace walked away, he continued apologizing. “Sorry about the whole, helmet thing. Unfortunately, I need oxygen to breath so.” He paused, thinking about it.
“Wait. The present. Two rings of eight.” Grace muttered. Dr Lamai gasped, putting it together at the same time. The other scientists quickly followed, realizing what it meant.
He held up the present, looking at the two rings. “Two rings of eight. O2. You little rascal.” He turned to face the alien, holding the present up for it to see. “This is oxygen.”
The alien made the laughing-like noise again, repeating the same motion as before.
Rocky grew excited. Grace had understood what he meant. It bodes incredibly well for their mission if they’d been able to communicate like this without any translations.
“I still don’t think I can do it though, sorry.” The alien deflated. “It’s just, uh, if I’m wrong, I’m really wrong.”
Grace began to pack up, looking at the alien who made a sad noise, watching Grace go. Grace watched this, empathy for the creature warring with his well-honed survival instincts. He went to leave before pausing, taking some deep breaths, savouring what might be the last oxygen he ever breathes if he gets this wrong.
“Don’t do it.” DuBois whispered, face scrunched up in nervousness. Annie winced.
He reached up, removing the helmet, shutting his eyes in fear. He took in a deep breath, amazed as he breathed in oxygen. Behind him, the alien celebrated. He turned around, showing the alien his helmet.
"Oh my god." DuBois dropped his head into his hands.
“That could have gone so badly.” Ilyukhina mused.
Grace nodded, kind of impressed with his own bravery. He wasn’t sure he would have done the same. But then again, he didn’t think he’d ever willingly sacrifice himself to save the world and yet, here he was.
Rocky was also impressed with Grace. While he was still frustrated with the alien’s apparent willingness to die, he could appreciate the level of trust the scientist had just shown in him. It made him feel even more confident in his mission, an energy and excitement he hadn’t felt in decades, stuck on his empty ship. He might solve this.
He might get to go home.
Grace was in the ship’s laboratory, looking at the first present he had received.
Dr Lokken eyed the Cats shirt he wore with amusement. He really was a musical theatre nerd, and clearly not just in high school.
He observed the strange ball with the arc, putting on his glasses to see it clearer, before it suddenly hit him. He almost felt annoyed with himself it had taken him this long to figure it out.
“It’s the Petrova line.”
“We’re there for the same reason.” Grace said with a smile. He’d assumed as much but the confirmation was exciting. Rocky and he could work together and solve this thing.
They could save each other’s worlds.