Chapter Text
First contact with extraterrestrial life was no extravagant event. In fact, Ryland Grace only found out via email. An email he promptly deleted out of his inbox because really? Are the Nigerian princes not enough? Now they’re running scams involving stolen scientist emails and possible UFO sightings?
Ryland found out two new things that day.
First, aliens exist.
Second, the government will kidnap you if you ignore their email.
The supposed Big Boss is a… nice lady. Her name is Eva Stratt. European in her accent, elegant aging, and cold weather fashion. The shiny buttons on her Paddington-esque coat are incredibly distracting as the fluorescent lights glint off of them right into his eyes. Ryland takes off his glasses as an excuse to look away for a moment as he rubs off nonexistent smudges on the lenses.
“Do you understand, Dr. Grace?”
“Um— Yeah! Yeah, of course Ms. Stratt.” No, he doesn’t.
She seems to catch this, sighing deeply. “What don’t you understand, Dr. Grace?”
“So… this is about the Petrova Line.”
He got that email a while ago and disregarded it too. He isn’t in the scientific community anymore, he doesn’t need to mess around with that stuff.
Stratt nods and he continues. “This line of infrared light connects Venus to the sun, which you’ve been told is the result of alien microbes that migrated to our solar system. And apparently these microorganisms have been known to substantially dim stars with the amount of energy they consume, to the point where their surrounding planets have dropped several degrees in temperature. And an event like that for us would be downright catastrophic, had it not been for something magically keeping our star safe.”
“Yes. Yes, that’s about it.”
“And what’s this got to do with the intelligent extraterrestrials?”
Ms. Boss Lady takes a big sip of her coffee. Ryland is only a little jealous. If they had to kidnap him, they could’ve given him coffee too. “They’ve come here seeking the answer. There is only one other star within the range of these microorganisms that has been unaffected as ours, Tau Ceti, and they’ve already been there to try and figure it out. They discovered another microorganism–”
“Do you have to say microorganism every time?” Ryland asks. “You guys didn’t name these things?”
“We’ve all had more pressing matters to attend to,” Stratt says, which… Alright, that’s a valid argument. Aliens and all that jazz.
“Um… okay. Continue.”
“They discovered an organism similar to an amoeba in the atmosphere of Tau Ceti E. It preys on the sun energy eaters and keeps their population at non-destructive levels.”
“Like wolves! Eating the herbivores and keeping them from becoming overpopulated and eating all the wildlife and wrecking the environment–” Ryland’s excitement fizzles, mouth pressing shut as a thought crosses his mind. “Then… if they have the solution, why are they here? The aliens, I mean.”
“The microbes migrate between planets like Venus and Tau Ceti E to their respective stars because they require the carbon dioxide in their atmosphere to live. The primary issue is that the planet the aliens’ Petrova Line leads to has a different atmospheric makeup. Carbon dioxide, yes, but other gases that the amoeba life forms are not adapted to.”
“The other gases kill them?”
“Nitrogen.” Stratt nods. “The 8% of Nitrogen that makes up that planet’s atmosphere is deadly to the predator lifeforms. Their solution won’t work.”
“So we’re their backup plan.”
“Indeed. Well, not us per se. Our star and Venus. They only came to us after discovering our existence via our deepspace satellites. They traced the signal to our planet. Since we’re also an intelligent species, they wanted our input and perhaps our help.”
First Contact being a cosmic coincidence…
“There hasn’t been any public news about it. No leaks, no UFO sightings, no nothing?”
“We’ve grown skeptical as a species,” Stratt says, though there’s something like relief in her tone. “I’m quite sure there have been pictures taken and posts made about something spotted through telescopes, but the public as a whole is not aware. They probably wouldn’t believe it even if we did announce it.”
“Another War of the Worlds publicity stunt, surely,” Ryland snorts. “Right, so… You’re in charge of this?”
“As elected unanimously by every UN member nation, yes.” Whatever relaxed energy her posture had steadily taken is immediately wiped away, professionalism returning as her back straightens. Makes sense. Sounds like a very important job. “I’m the official lead on the project. We plan on aiding the extraterrestrials in their hour of need.”
“Out of the goodness of our hearts?” Ryland raises a skeptical brow.
“They offered resources,” is her immediate response.
“Of course.”
“They have access to a material unknown to us, a solid made of Xenon.”
“Xenon is a noble gas.”
“I know.”
“Xenon can’t be solid.”
“I know.”
“Right, so magic aliens and their magic xenon rocks,” Ryland says, because that totally makes sense. He pushes up his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose, a reaction similar to whenever his students say something outlandish. He almost wishes these aliens were just invaders. It would be more believable. How can he be sure he isn’t on some prank show right now?
“Most of their crew died on their trip, including all their scientists. They don’t have a full understanding of how to construct the material, but we’ll have the resources to reverse engineer the material and the ingredients used for it.”
“Most of their crew?”
“There are only two remaining. Their original crew consisted of twenty-four members.”
He doesn’t know these people. Or– these aliens. But that’s…
Twenty-two separate beings. Intelligent life forms of their own that he knows nothing about besides the fact that they left their home on a mission to save their world. And died for it.
Aliens are so human.
Stratt watches him carefully as he takes a few deep breaths. “One of the two is a diplomat. The other, an engineer. We haven’t learned much more about their species. Even with our best linguists working on it, our translation is taking time.”
“Right. Duh. Alien language is entirely different from human language. Different body parts, different cultural roots, different time and length and weight measurement…” Ryland presses up his glasses thoughtfully. “Surprised you made it this far. I’d have thought we’d dissolve into conflict with aliens by now. Military stuff.”
“The world leaders really want to know about that xenon material and their space technology. It could benefit our advancements greatly and while we could just take it with force, the potential loss of a galactic ally isn’t something they want to consider until after we know more about this alien situation.”
“Like what? If the next group of aliens are evil and you want these guys to fight alongside us?”
“Well, yes.”
“Ah.”
“You’re grown, Dr. Grace. I’m very sure you’re aware of how our species functions.”
Ryland nods. “Selfish.”
Stratt thoughtfully tilts her head. “I would say self-preserving, but you aren’t wrong. Our allies, other countries or other planets, are held close so long as we benefit.”
“I’m not going to be on your side if we end up fighting for oil on their territory.”
“I don’t expect you to. I doubt our deep space travel is suited for intergalactic war anyway.”
“That’s comforting.”
“Any more questions?”
In all honesty, he’s forgotten the point of this entire conversation. He just had a whole lot of information dumped on his head and he still doesn’t know what exactly he’s meant to be doing here.
“What do you need me for, Ms. Stratt?” Ryland asks. “I teach middle school science.”
“You’ve also got a doctorate and wrote a paper on theoretical alien evolution,” Stratt says.
His face flushes red, embarrassment seizing him by the throat. The look in her eye makes him feel like he doesn’t want to disappoint her with whatever she wants from him. “That wasn’t really a paper so much as a rant. I’m really not who you should be talking to about this.”
“I think you are. Our aliens are made of rocks.”
Huh.
~
The video is surprisingly clear, or maybe he’s just used to seeing found footage of aliens on shitty cameras. The ship takes up a full third of the screen and only because the camera isn’t angled directly at it. Surely it’s bigger. They’re in the middle of some kind of wasteland– a place he’s later told is The Great Basin. Sorry, America.
The first couple hours or so of the footage is boring despite his awe. There are mechanical hands doing things outside the ship, but it’s slow going. They construct a large tube, large enough for a human to walk through, fastened to the side of their ship. At the end of which is a collage of different materials of different colors, textures, and levels of transparency.
The human scientists approach, clad in their hazmat suits and carrying their scientific gear. They examine the panels and he’s told that they found them all to be alloys and mixes of that xenon material. They do their best to peer through the most transparent panels, only for the arms to return to work and bring the tube back into the ship.
According to the scientists, they saw something moving inside.
There’s radio silence for a couple more hours and he’s allowed to skip past until the alien actions resume. The hatch of the ship, one presumably made to be an airlock, opens up. It’s not a grand reveal. Most of the scientists were on break or busying themselves elsewhere. Those who are around seem to panic, running around and trying to call back their companions to see what’ll happen.
A ball falls out of the hatch. A rough geodesic polyhedron, really. A ball made of triangle pieces, all made of that clear xenon material. It’s not a very elegant fall. There’s no dramatic alien ramp to descend or any tractor beam to slowly lower it. It falls and bounces on the dehydrated earth, rolling forward a few times as the creature inside scrambles to make it stop.
Another falls, this one bigger and apparently heavier. Heavier enough not to go bouncing and rolling around. The creature inside this one is bigger too, a darker shape making up the figure that lacks the details a better camera might pick up.
Both creatures look like spiders and he tries not to let that bug him as they move around. The scientists seem incredibly taken aback, keeping their distance. The aliens approach, this time rolling on purpose with their movement inside these… safety orb things. And they get clearer as they get closer.
Yep. Those are rocks alright.