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Rocky's second, slightly calmer tour of the Hail Mary paused for a moment, and for only a bare moment longer Grace was thankful for the chance to catch up. Then the regret started.
"Grace, explain panels question?" Rocky said, gesturing at the wall he'd stopped by. "Sound like Eridian art! Very shiny! Have pictures question?"
Grace looked at the wall, then froze. He had 100%, completely, honestly, forgotten about those.
"Grace question question? Is art question?"
Rocky already knew Arabic numbers. He was picking up English writing very fast. He would figure this out far too quickly unless Grace got out ahead of things.
"Those are made to be like a very important Human cultural artifact," Grace said. "They sent them along so that the crew of this ship would remember what they mean, because they mean a lot to all Earth people. I will tell you what they are, but if I do, you have to promise never to mention them again. Deal?"
"Is very important to human that I not talk about question?"
Grace nodded. "Yes." It was very important to this human, anyway. Or it was going to be in about two minutes. "We talked about boundaries and cultural things. This is a cultural thing. I don't want to hide it from you," because Rocky, unlike some people on this ship, wasn't an idiot, so there was no point trying, "But it's not a thing we can talk about more, okay? Deal?"
Rocky bobbed affirmatively. "Deal. Grace see Rocky eat, Rocky understand. Will not talk about."
"Okay. Deal. I'm holding you to it. These are based on the engraved panels that were on the very first interstellar ships Earth ever launched, a generation before the Astrophage. They were unmanned probes that visited the outer planets in our solar system, and then just kept going. A one-way trip." Grace took a breath.
"We knew that eventually we wouldn't be able to communicate with them anymore, but we also knew that in the vacuum of space, a ship might last a very long time. It might outlast Earth. And a lot of the ones we sent kept talking to Earth for a long time! Longer than anyone hoped for. Some of them were still going when the Hail Mary was launched! And since we had no idea how far they would go or who would find them, we put plaques like these on them. They're plated in a metal that is very hard to corrode or dissolve," Grace sped up as he spoke, no point drawing it out, "and they have messages on them that are designed to be as easy as possible to decipher for any alien life that might stumble on them some day." He got the last part out as fast as he could and while the translator was still catching up started backing toward the ladder.
"Grace," Rocky said, "Grace Grace Grace. Hail Mary contained panels engraved just so sonar alien could read and learn about Earth question?"
"Grace forgot, now no more talking about it, remember? We had a deal!" Grace said, halfway up the ladder.
"This one has star map just like Rocky sent Grace in Blip! Hail Mary contained important cultural artifact panels made just for Rocky to read and Grace brought Rocky a clock with tape on it statement question"
"Remember the deal!" he shouted down from his temporary sanctuary.
"No deal no deal!" Rocky said. "Deal fake!"
"Too late! You made the deal! Everything I said was true!"
"True that it is important to humans that Rocky not talk about panels for talking to Rocky question?" Rocky said skeptically.
"Very important to all humans in Tau Ceti system!"
"All humans in Tau Ceti system are dumb!"
"You made a deal!"
"Deal also dumb," Rocky muttered.