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Grace frowned. He knew that knock. Frowning he got up from the sofa, slowly, as he was still adjusting to being in double the gravity he'd been used to for years.
"I'm coming!" The effort to walk to the door quickly left him slightly out of breath. The knocking had gotten faster, louder, and harder. He wondered if the door was going to be dented as he reached for the knob.
Looking down he saw Rocky and two other Eridians in the sleek EVA suits they used on the rare occasions they had to enter his biodome. Most of the time they met in conference rooms around the perimeter where each could stay safely in their atmosphere. An EVA meant something important. Or Rocky was bored.
"Hello Rocky." He nodded to the others. Rocky would introduce them in proper time. He'd learned more of Eridian culture over the years.
"Grace. We come in." Rocky still was more Earth-blunt with Grace and pushed past him. The other two paused and waited for Grace to indicate they were welcome. They moved quickly, almost furtively, into his home.
"Grace. We have problem." The three of them faced him like one of the dissertation boards and he got a momentary spike of fear, complete with the line of cold sweat down his spine. Reminding himself that he did indeed pass his dissertation and this was something else he sat down.
"What's wrong?" So many things had gone wrong and could still go wrong. Heck, one wrong thing could kill him before he knew it. "Is there a problem with the dome?"
"No. Dome is good. '♩♫♫♪' and '♬♩♩' have question." He settled down on the floor. "I translate."
"Oh. A question about what?" He'd been in great demand as the Eridian scholars dove into the laptop he'd given Rocky and wanted clarifications. He himself had learned a lot as he had to explain things that were never his field.
"'♩♫♫♪' has questions about texts on A O 3". Rocky carefully enunciated the letters and number.
Grace frowned. He'd never heard of that field. Was it chemistry? It sounded like chemistry. But that didn't make sense. Eridians were experts at chemistry. "I'm not familiar with that reference."
"Look at laptop." Rocky waved one arm towards Grace's desk. "We wait."
Biting back a groan Grace stood up, picked up his laptop, and returned to the chair. He typed in the letters and number, wondering what he'd be learning today.
"Oh. Oh no." His eyes grew wide as he realized what they were talking about.
"Yes. Explain please." He could sense the pressure of attention from all three of them. It wasn't pleasant.
"Um. Humans enjoy writing about stories and characters they like. They write what they want the characters and stories to be, rather than what the authors wrote. They expand on them." Please, please, please let that answer their questions.
"There are words here we do not understand."
That did not answer their questions.
The next three hours were some of the most excruciating in Grace's life as he fumbled for ways to explain just how creative humans could be. He had to take a break (and a painkiller for the headache he'd gotten) when they started asking what some of the tags meant.
When he sat with his head in his hands they conversed in the high tone he could barely hear, much less understand. He usually hated it when they did that in front of him. Now it was a blessing.
"We have problem." Rocky stood up and stretched. "This was released with other human stories to Erid."
Grace's eyes went wide as he realized what that meant. Eridians were very prolific in their radio broadcasts and their own 'shows' similar to TV shows on Earth. He knew that Earth's stories were being incorporated into Eridian culture but .. oh no.
"Does this change anything?"
"No." Rocky's flat statement had him relaxing. "And yes." Rocky's statement had him tensing again. "Eridians now have new type of stories. They call them A O 3.2". He saw Grace's blank look. "Means A O 3 also."
"Oh no.."
"We send selection to you for you to hear. All have tag 'G R O C K Y'." Rocky held himself in the stiffness that said he was annoyed.
It took a minute for Grace to process the letters into a word then realize the possible horror of what he was going to find on his laptop. "You don't need to do that!"
"I listen. You listen." Rocky was pissed all right.
All three stood up. "After listen you find stories on yours to compare. We come back and discuss." '♬♩♩' was all but vibrating with what Grace hoped was academic curiosity. "Earth fascinating!"
With that they made their way to the door. He stumbled behind and escorted them out. Rocky waited until they were down the path a bit.
"Humans leak more than you tell me."