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Working together with an alien to find a way to save Earth (and Erid) comes with a lot of questions. I mean, we’re from two different worlds. It’s only natural to be curious about each other. But sometimes the timing of these questions are unpredictable.
*Grace, question.*
I’m laying on my bed, tired from researching stuff all day long. I just had my last meal of the day and I'm ready for bed. Rocky is near me, ready to keep watch. “Yeah, bud?” I answer sluggishly.
*I noticed something while being up close. What are eyes doing, question*
That gets my attention. “What do you mean?” I asked. Last time I checked my eyes were fine, thank you very much.
*Grace did it again. Why, question.*
Huh, I did what again? I didn’t do anyth—Oh…
Yeah, Rocky doesn’t have eyes, so it makes sense that he doesn’t know how they work. “It’s called blinking.” I explained. “You have noticed that my eyelids," I pointed to them. “moves really fast. They do that to clean and protect my eyes.”
*Smart.* Rocky acknowledged. *But happens a lot. Must be exhausting.*
“Actually, it's more of a reflex.” I say. “My body does it without me having to think about it.”
*Huh. Weird human thing.* Rocky muttered. I smile. A lot of human things are weird to him, but this one…
“Other animals do it too, you know.” I respond nonchalantly. “Nothing weird about it.”
Rocky stared at me, despite not having eyes. *New word. What is animal, question.*
Oh…
Yeah, that’s gonna be a loooong explanation. Because there are billions of animal species, some of then still unexplored. Well, I'm a teacher, better go teach my alien friend some Earth things. I grab the computers that have the library function and I search for some animals like birds, cows, dolphins, fish, lizards. It takes a while to show him them all.
*I see. Humans not alone on Earth.*
“Yeah.” I say. “Kinda fun, huh?”
*Yes, amaze.*
Looking at these photos, I am getting homesick. I will never get to see those animals with my own eyes again...
*But If not alone on Earth, why only humans on ship, question* Rocky asks.
“Well, based on observations, it seems they don’t know anything about the planets and stuff. We humans are the only ones interested in figuring out the universe.”
*So no animal had been in space, question.*
Animals in space, huh?
The first animal that comes to mind is Laika the dog. She was sent into space by the Soviets as the first living creature to orbit Earth. The Soviets accepted that Laika wouldn’t survive the mission, since the ship wasn’t built for a return. But sent her up anyway, in the name of science. She died of hypothermia hours into flight. Alone.
Somehow I feel like I’m Laika. I mean, I'm not a dog. I don’t know what it's like to be a dog, let alone be one in space. What I mean is that our situation is similar. I will die alone in space, just like her. I’m in a shop that will not return alive to Earth, just like hers.
The only exception is that I'm aware of the situation. I travelled to a different solar system to save Earth. It’s a suicide mission, but I volunteered. I have to save the kids. I wanted to do it.
At least, I think I wanted to do it…
*Grace, question*
“Huh?” I looked at Rocky. Despite not having a face, he looked concerned. His pitch got higher. “Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking about your question.” I replied. Rocky relaxes when I respond to him and not drifting away in my thoughts.
“We did send a dog to space, but that didn’t go well. So we don’t do that anymore.”
*Oh…* His silence worries me. Please don’t ask me why it didn’t go well. We’re exploring space for the first time and for some reason we made it competitive. We normally don’t send dogs into space. Humans aren’t that bad.
*New word. What is dog, question.*
Oh, Thank God! I quickly searched for it and clicked on it.
“Ta-da! Dogs! "Men’s best friend.”