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“Why won’t you listen to me, it’s real!”
“Dr. Geizler, surely you can see why we’re skeptical. Giant monsters? In the sea?-”
“Not in the sea. They come through the sea. There’s a crack in the sea bed...but to another dimension. That’s where they come from.”
Newt throws their glasses down onto the steel table in front of them, and rubs their temples, pulling the corners of their eyes taut.
“Newton…” a quiet voice suddenly pipes up and Newt quickly raises their head to see Hermann stepping out from behind Stacker. Newt’s eyes light up, happy in the knowledge their oldest friend has come to back them up. “Newton, you are hearing yourself, aren’t you? None of this makes sense. We’re both scientists, we know what’s possible, and that means you know that this can’t be.”
Newt slumps down from leaning white-knuckled on the table, into the stern, uncomfortable chair just behind them. Tears prick at the back of their eyes, but they just stare up at the ceiling, avoiding Stacker’s irritated gaze, but most importantly, Hermann’s obvious look of concern.
“Alright. Just let me go home tonight, I’ll feel better in the morning.”
****
Newt had stayed the night in what they’d previously fondly nicknamed the Shatterdome, but the surrounding walls and the floor beneath them suddenly felt alien and unwelcoming. A couple of colleagues had come in to bring them coffee or food, but no more made the attempt after hearing about picture frames, chairs, and even side tables being thrown around.
There was a cautious but urgent knock on their door.
“I swear to all that is holy, if you try to come in here-” They saw the foot of Hermann’s cane come through the cracked door before they saw Hermann himself, but they stopped short, and sat hunched forward on the side of the clinically uncomfortable makeshift bed they’d avoided sleeping in all night. “Herm, why are you here?”
Hermann walked slowly and purposefully over to Newt’s side, deciding against his better judgement to crouch in front of his friend.
“I need you to tell me everything, Newton.” A righteous and terrifying rage started to bubble up through Newt’s throat, but when they allowed themself to meet Hermann’s eyes, they saw not only honesty and interest, but the undeniable sparkle of someone who was ready to believe that aliens had finally come to Earth. The fire inside them was extinguished just as quickly as it had ignited.
“Okay,” they said, getting up and walking to pick up a metal chair that was resting, now on its side, against the far wall, “but only if you let me help you up, and then you sit here,” they placed the chair just a little closer than comfortable in front of the bed, “instead of crouching and hurting your knee like an idiot.” They smiled almost nervously at Hermann and quietly, more to themself than their friend asked, “Why would you do that, when you know it’s just going to hurt your leg. And for me? You ridiculous man.”
Newt was glad to see Hermann resting his cane against the bed and getting comfortable— well, as comfortable as possible— on the chair in front of them, and not hear him try to answer their question.
****
After hearing Newt explain what the Kaiju and the Precursors were, and where they came from, and their theory on what they wanted, Hermann sat in silence, staring at them.
Unsure if Hermann’s silence was one of fear, disbelief, or awe, Newt avoided his gaze— which they were pretty sure was going right through them anyway— and instead focused on chipping off some of the bright blue nail varnish that was left on their thumb nail. After the longest 2 minutes of either of their lives, Hermann finally broke his silence.
“And how exactly do you know all of this, Newton?” When Newt looked up again from his nail varnish endeavour, they saw that Hermann had grabbed his cane again so that he could lean forward, his nose barely more than a foot away from Newt’s own, and they felt heat flush through their cheeks.
“You know, you asking me to say it and suddenly I’m realising, maybe I am crazy. Maybe Stacker was right.”
“Nonsense, Newton.” Hermann’s brow had knotted and Newt had never seen a more sincere look in their life. “Now please, tell me.”
“I...I saw it.” Suddenly their nail varnish was very interesting again.
“H-how could you have possibly seen it. Where?” another pause as Newt could feel Hermann’s eyes on them, “Newton. I believe you. Please.”
“I don’t...I don’t know exactly, man. It’s like a dream, but I was awake. The first time, I was here in the Shatterdome, but suddenly I wasn’t and the, the dream thing happened, but I could feel the rain pouring down on me, and this awful rotten fish smell was everywhere and then...there she was. A Kaiju, she was huge and had this bright blue stuff all around her mouth and teeth, an she was staring right at me.”
Hermann looked at them, blinking back questions Newt could see trying to tear out of his mouth. “Listen, I know it doesn't make sense. And it's not like I think it was a vision from God or anything it just- I don't know, Hermann.” Newt hid their face in their hands, shaking their head almost imperceptibly.” They knew they couldn't come back from this. Aliens and invasions and imminent danger is one thing, but having visions and premonitions? You can't come back from that, and they knew they'd certainly be discredited as a scientist once this inevitably got out.
Just as they realised their hands were wet from being pressed against their eyes, Hermann gently pulled at their wrists, and held their hands in his lap.
“Newton, you're crying?” He rubbed his thumb along their palm, and waited.
“Stacker is going to throw me out. I'll never be a scientist after this.”
“We're not going to let that happen, we're going to find proof.”
****
Newt stayed at the Shatterdome another two nights— far longer than they were happy with, but Hermann had offered to stay with them, and the knowledge that he was just in the next room comforted Newt infinitely more than they'd ever tell him.
When Stacker was happy that Newt wasn't going to tell anyone about the Precursors, he let them leave, and they and Hermann sat together in Newt's dingy one-room apartment, scrawled-on paper scattered all about them, trying to work out how they could prove Newt was right.
****
“Breaking news,” Newt and Hermann had fallen asleep at the small round kitchen table and were startled awake by the TV, “we are just getting reports of some kind of giant creature appearing out of the Pacific just off Hawaii.”