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The next few minutes were loud and chaotic.
Grace slipped on nothing as he often did in his EVA suit. "You're like me! Oh my gosh, I have so many questions!"
"𝅗𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅝♪♬, 𝅘𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅝 ♬♪♫??" They chimed back.
Problem. Grace has no idea what he (she? They? let's go with he.) just said. It's reminiscent of this ancient game his caretakers gave him way back in the day. The little characters would speak something that sounded very much like normal English to him. But it wasn't. In fact, it had impacted his language learning to the point that it was taken away a few years later.
He was currently coming to the realization that he was the one speaking strangely. This was another member of his species. Or at least, he was speaking one of their languages. It's incredibly likely that they had many, much like Earth.
But the single most important goal was communication.
Grace spoke up, holding up his hands to grab his new friend's (hopefully) attention. He'd been going on and on with endless notes. Time to turn on teacher mode. "Hold on."
The stranger paused. Actually, this 'stranger' needed a name. In his head, he decides to call him Rocky. Unimaginative, but he's busy trying to make history. Doesn't help that he's exhausted.
But his friend had something else in mind. He held up small items. Two were very clearly the Blip-A and The Hail Mary. The third was a very simple ball. Rocky used a fourth hand to point at the sphere, then at Grace. (Then he reached out to catch himself before floating away.)
…Oh! "Me! That's me!" He returned the gesture, pointing to the orb, them himself.
A gesture that looked just like the one the hull robots showed. It's not too much of a leap to guess that that was something of the affirmative. Yay, celebrate, elation, but most importantly, yes. One of the single most important words to get down.
"Yes." Grace repeated as he made the motion. "This is yes!"
"Yes." Rocky repeated…he thinks. "𝅝♪♬♪ 𝅘𝅥 ♬♪♫."
That was Greek once more to him. Much to the stranger's chagrin. He huffed through his vents, holding up the ships. He positioned the sphere between them, reiterating that it was indeed Grace. Due to that, he thinks he gets 'you' out of the mix.
As the teacher watched, Rocky slowly toddled the little Grace back to the Hail Mary. It took one more repetition before- "Oh! You want me to go back?"
He pivoted, mimicking returning to his ship.
"Yes! Yes, yes! You 𝅘𝅥 ♬♪♫!"
He'd require a little more effort, but he's banking that fully translated to: 'you go back'
"Okay! I go back." Grace nodded. Does he want to? No?! He's made the most incredible discovery of his life. He's like a kid on Christmas Eve. But he has to go, lest he make his new friend upset. "See you soon!"
He kicks off the tunnel, returning to the Hail Mary. He closed the hatch for safety, but tried to see regardless. He watched as Rocky nervously drilled a hole in their wall, holding something right next to it. Probably a sealant. He's waiting for several moments, then an elated trill.
After that, he quickly began to tear down the wall keeping them separate. If he wasn't dying…that meant their environments were the same. Of course they were! Grace had hyper specific needs, and it would make sense that another member of his species would share them. (In fairness, every species has distinctive needs. His were just the most extreme Earth had to learn to replicate.)
Soon, Rocky is at his door, knocking like a friendly neighbor.
Grace opened it, giddy. "Hello!"
Rocky hummed what he assumed to be a greeting, but it wasn't certain. "𝅝♬♪."
What was certain, is that this odd fellow seemed…perplexed by Grace's suit. He reached out, plucking at it with a claw.
"It keeps me safe." He knows that Rocky couldn't understand…it's impossible to not chatter when he's excited.
A rumble. Rocky yanked harder. Oh! "You want me to take it off?" He mimicked removing it.
"Yes."
Well…if he wasn't collapsing, it was clearly safe for him. Grace still felt nervous, it's hard not to. "Okay…"
He went through the process of taking off the EVA suit, putting it back in its place near the airlock. Now things were more crisp. It was always a little fuzzy when he had something between himself and whatever he was looking at.
Rocky was handsome. Well, okay he doesn't really have much to compare to, but Grace thinks he is.
Just about the same height, but he was just so much more sturdy. Heavy legs with beautiful engravings etched along the surface. Grace recognized something. A set of arcs and spheres…he grabbed his leg before realizing it was probably impolite.
"Sorry!" He released Rocky.
"♬♪, ♬♪♪ ♬♪♫." He chimed before offering the limb.
The teacher studied the markings before twisting his body to show the mission patch on his flight suit. The symbols showing the goal of Tau Ceti. "Same?"
Rocky leaned closer, focusing the same level of attention. "Yes, ♪♪."
Safe to say that was 'same'. "Same mission."
"Yes. You 𝅝 same."
Okay, he really needed to buckle down on the whole language thing.
They've been at this for hours, and they have a decent level of words. Grace had invited Rocky into the ship, that way they had more space to work with. Sometimes the puppet shows got quite dramatic, but they always gained the pair more words to work with.
Rocky's name was actually something close to a very formal wording of 'hard working' or 'tenacious'. But he insisted he liked Rocky just the same. So much so that he ignored when Grace said his real name.
But it was getting 'late'. Grace stretched his legs, shaking off his aches and pains. "Hey, I really need to get some sleep."
"What is sleep, hm?" Hm or question was a very common modifier in their language. He came from the first planet in the 40 Eridani system. Erid as they'd dubbed it. So Grace called the dialect Eridian.
Which, he guessed, he was as well.
Point being, he'd started to mentally throw out the constant clarification words.
"Uh, sleep is when you go unconscious for at least 10800 seconds, then wake up." Grace mimicked sleeping and waking up. He's never been out for less than that.
"Oh, you mean ♬♪𝅝♪." Rocky hummed. "I observe."
"It's okay, I'm sure you have things to do." Grace chuckled, heading towards the dormitory.
"What? No, I observe." Rocky refuted, somewhat confused by the denial. "I bring my work. Small. Easy."
"Why do you want to watch me sleep?" He wondered curiously. "It's boring. I mean, you know we don't do anything until we wake up, right?"
"Yes, I know. Not stupid." His companion was clearly getting annoyed. "You no feel safe without watch."
…"Rocky, I've never had anyone watch me sleep. On Earth, humans-"
"New word?"
Ah, crud yeah. "Human is a species on Earth. Like Eridians on Erid."
"Ah. Understand." Rocky nodded. "Humans stupid. Eridians need to be watched. What if someone tries to ♬♪♫ you?"
Now it's his turn to seek a translation."What ♬♪♫?"
That was a little more difficult. One that required a bit of pantomime. Rocky pretended to hit himself and collapsed.
"Hurt. If you don't wake up, kill." Grace confirmed. He's eternally grateful that he and his friend had such good memories for sounds. It made language learning significantly easier. At this point they were creating an entirely new dialect of their own. Sometimes using Eridian, sometimes using Gracese.
Gracidian? Eh, he'd work on it later.
"I guess if someone tried to hurt me, I couldn't stop them." He shrugged as he crawled up into his bed. It had been heavily modified to accommodate his weight. Not that it changed anything in micro-gravity. In fact, he'd need to use the buckles so he didn't drift off.
"That's why I observe. Keep Grace safe."
"Okay! You can watch, fine. You win." He relented, venting a harsh breath. Grace sighed as he settled into his nest. "Good night, Rocky."
"Good night, Grace."