Chapter Text
When Alfred opened his eyes that morning, he was greeted by the same surroundings he woke up to every morning on the International Space Station. The dull hum of the thrusters that kept the station stabilized in low Earth orbit reminded him where he was before he opened his eyes to the padded white walls of his living quarters, decorated with the myriad of wires and monitors where Alfred conducted his research. Yes, he was not on Earth anymore. Alfred had already completed one research trip to the ISS, and when the opportunity arose for him to return to the space station, he eagerly jumped at the chance. After all, the only thing cooler than going to space was going to space twice. Sure, it was a far cry from his childhood dream of building a giant robot to save the planet from global warming, but building robots in space to help conduct weather research was close enough, he figured.
The young man stretched lazily, then turned to unravel himself from his sleeping bag, which was fastened to the wall with velcro to keep the sleepy American from floating away while he was slumbering. Once free, Alfred zipped up the sleeping bag and pushed away from the wall lightly, sending himself floating away from the wall and towards the monitors on the opposite wall. He grabbed ahold of one of them to steady himself in front of his keyboard, and once stable, he dragged his fingers haphazardly across the trackpad to wake up his desktop from standby, still blinking the sleep from his eyes.
Alfred moved his gaze to the corner of his screen. 19:35. That meant Matthew was probably awake. Alfred had set his computer clock to match the time at his stepbrother’s location in Vancouver, though it mattered little to Alfred’s sleep schedule, since there was no sunrise or sunset when you were circling the Earth every 93 minutes. Sure enough, he had a few messages from Matthew flashing at the bottom of his screen. Alfred tabbed over to the chat application, where Matthew’s contact was positioned next to a green dot, signaling that he was online.
[19:02] Hey Al, give me a call when you are online. I have a favor to ask you
[19:02] If you have time
[19:18] If you don’t thats okay
[19:23] I’ll just ask someone else
[19:31] Actually I can’t ask anyone else since it has to do with the fact that you’re in space
[19:31] Anyway just give me a call when you’re awake
Four minutes ago. He was probably still at his computer. Alfred shot a quick message back, saying that Matthew could call now if he wanted. A few moments later, a call came in from Matthew and Alfred answered it, taking a few moments to adjust his webcam before the call patched through. After a short delay, Matthew’s face filled Alfreds screen.
“Hey Al! Just woke up, eh?”
Alfred grinned sleepily and nodded. “Good to see you Mattie. How are ya?”
“Oh you know, busy with work, same as always… Where are your glasses?”
Alfred straightened up, and glanced around his room. He hadn’t realized he wasn’t wearing them. Had he forgotten to take them off before falling asleep? As if to answer his own question, he then spotted his glasses floating around uselessly a foot above his head, and he grabbed them.
“Ah, I can see again! Thanks, Mattie.”
Matthew chuckled. “Be careful with those. If you lose them, they won’t send a rocket up with another pair.”
The two step-brothers bantered a little bit before getting down to business. “So, what do you need, Mattie?”
“It has to do with my research,” Matthew started. “Both of ours, actually. More mine than yours, but your research will definitely help here.”
Alfred raised an eyebrow. “What do my robots have to do with your creepie crawlies?”
Matthew sighed. “Tardigrades don’t crawl, they sort of swim through the air, and… anyway, that doesn’t matter. I wanted to ask if I could use your robot arms to help me study my samples in the vacuum of space. In fact, I have a colleague on board with Roscosmos who has everything ready for you. I just need your help collecting the data. I figured you would rather be the one to use the equipment than have someone else touch your precious robots.”
Alfred wrinkled his nose and pondered for a moment. He supposed he could help his brother with his research. Matthew was a microbiologist, but unlike Alfred, who was in perfect health, Matthew wasn’t qualified to make the trip to space. Something about a heart murmur or frail health. Alfred just thought he was a wimp who didn’t want to get in a rocket, but Matthew insisted he had a good reason to stay on the ground. Either way, Alfred did need to test his equipment outside, and the purpose of his mission was to ensure that his robotics could be put to use to collect data. Sure, it wouldn’t hurt. “So who’s the Russian?”
“Dr. Braginsky. Ivan Braginsky. We met in the Arctic, actually. He is an astrobiologist. Our research overlaps in a lot of ways. He’s currently conducting research on the ISS on plant growth in zero gravity environments. He has agreed to grow my microorganisms in his soil so that I can test them. That is, if you are willing to lend me a hand…” Matthew trailed off, giving Alfred an expectant look.
“Well I guess I could take time out of my very busy schedule and collect some data for you,” Alfred replied, dryly. They both snickered. Both Mattie and Alfred knew there was nothing to do on the ISS outside of collecting data, and Alfred’s daily tasks took little time at all, leaving him with a lot of spare time and nothing to do. He had been complaining to Matthew constantly about being bored and practically talking his ear off whenever he could, just so he would have some company.
“Thanks, Al. I owe you one,” Matthew beamed.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, just don’t say I never did nothing for ya. So, where can I find Braminsky?”
“Braginsky.”
“Whatever.”
“Well, he’s with Roscosmos, so you should be able to find his lab on the Russian side of the station. He’s a big guy with blonde hair and purple eyes, you can’t miss him.”
“Good to know you’re both freaks.”
“You’re too kind, Al.” Matthew rolled his own violet eyes in response.
The two brothers chatted for a while after, catching each other up on life on Earth or life in space, then said their goodbyes. Alfred ended the call, pushed away from his keyboard and soared off down the corridor leading to the rest of the NASA living quarters. After freshening up, Alfred began his rounds, making his way around the station to the various places that his robotic arms were installed, checking temperature and range of motion, running maintenance protocols and troubleshooting problems as they arose.
Despite the tedious nature of his work, Alfred enjoyed being on the space station. He could stare out the windows of the space station for hours, gazing down at the Earth beneath him, or at the solar sails framed against the perfectly black void of space. He loved the feeling of soaring weightlessly through the air, kicking off from wall to wall like an Olympic swimmer doing laps. Alfred would get carried away sometimes with the pure novelty of his zero gravity environment, making mock gestures as if he were a shark swimming underwater, or he would grumble and roar like a jet engine, flying through the corridors with his arms straight out from his sides like an airplane. The fact that he was in space made Alfred's heart thump with childlike glee, and it was in one of these reveries that Alfred didn't notice he was about to collide with something headfirst.
"Ow!! Shit, my head…" Alfred tumbled through the air until he caught hold of a railing, orienting himself to see exactly what he had crashed into. To his horror, it wasn't a what, but a who.
"о нет, мои семена…!"
A rather large man wearing a beige Roscosmos jumpsuit had been thrown in the same direction as Alfred, having to let go of whatever he was holding to keep himself from hitting the wall, and as Alfred gained his bearings, he noticed the cosmonaut was hurriedly trying to grab what looked like little specks, which were now flying around in every direction as a result of the crash.
"Y-yo, I'm sorry, dude! My bad! Let me help you," Alfred stammered, hurriedly grabbing each of the little specks and handing them haphazardly over to the victim of his carelessness.
The man deposited the specks into a paper seed packet, which had a handwritten label on it in a language Alfred couldn't read and a picture of carrots. He then fixed Alfred with a violet-eyed glare, the rest of his expression hidden beneath a scarf. He muttered something under his breath in what sounded like Russian, ash blonde locks floating loosely behind his head as he began to turn away.
"Wait!"
Alfred reached out and grabbed the end of the cosmonaut's scarf. "You're uh…" Brazinky? No, that's not right. Alfred's head went blank, staring into the man's violet eyes, which softened a little upon seeing Alfred's expression. "Do you know my brother?"
The man blinked.
"Matthew Williams?"
His eyes widened a bit in understanding.
"You do! Great. You must be the guy he was telling me about then. Sorry I don't really remember your name. Evonne? Isn't that a girl's name? Well, it probably isn't a girl's name in Russia. Anyway, my name is Alfred, Alfred F. Jones. I'm Matthew's stepbro, and it's great to meet you! Where's your lab? I'm just about finished here, so I figured I could start by grabbing those samples…" Alfred trailed off as he took notice of the bewildered expression on the man's face.
"Uh… hello?"
The man blinked again, opening his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His expression hardened, regarding Alfred for a moment before he finally spoke.
"Sorry, no English. Goodbye now."
Alfred, stunned into silence, did nothing to stop the Russian the second time he turned away, and by the time he snapped out of it, the cosmonaut had already disappeared down the corridor.