Chapter Text
He didn’t expect it would feel so weird; to not see Rocky or Adrian for a time.
But they deserved to take the time to themselves. And grow their family. They just couldn’t realistically brood their eggs around Grace, of course. The biome was rather close to Rocky and Adrian’s home, yes, but eggs were delicate, and it was pretty much non-negotiable that both Rocky and Adrian would be doing the very customary guarding of their nest site for the next 5.5 Eridian years. Half of that watching over their eggs, the other half rearing their freshly hatched semi-precocial pebbles while their carapaces hardened enough to leave their nest. Just about 232 Earth days in Grace’s timescale.
Sure, the nest site was really a specific room of their house with a fancy sandbox, and perfectly safe against egg-thieving predators, but they would still refuse to leave the nest outside of eating.
Their families and friends would bring them all the necessary food and sometimes gifts during the brooding period; mostly pebble-care supplies and sentimental heirlooms. Grace had fun explaining that human cultures had a lot of parallels to this when Rocky was describing how the brooding period worked.
Rocky was nervous to leave Grace for so long. But both of them were finally in good health… good enough after puttering to the finish line on fumes. Hard to believe that was already over four Earth years ago. The hardship of space travel would haunt their bodies for the rest of their lives, yet doctors had cleared his friend for reproduction (that felt like a weird way to put it, but it’s how the doctor had phrased it). Rocky was severely anxious to have kids.
Totally baby fever, Grace realized after watching his friend play with their sibling’s children a few times. They’d coo and giggle over the pebbles so much, letting them climb all over him. It was honestly a miracle they held off starting their family until Grace was settled in his new permanent home.
At least Grace had classes to teach now. That helped, getting to see his students four days on, three days off on his human schedule. This was his first class of students, still, and would be for a total of six Eridian years, when all was said and done. They were fast learners; so Grace would get to teach another group of kids afterwards.
However, that would still leave him with a lot of time to himself. Outside of the rare appointment or meeting.
That morning, before Grace went to teach, Rocky and Adrian stopped in for a final time: they’d leave to lay their eggs and begin the long, long process of brooding. Rocky and Adrian were so darn excited, too. Grace only half-jokingly admitted that he was going to be so lonely without them around, especially with the start of his three-day weekend tonight.
Adrian then said cryptically, “Don’t worry. I have a plan.” And nothing more after that. Could Eridians cackle? Grace thought Adrian would have in that moment.
That’s how Grace found himself sitting in cozy silence at his kitchen table after dinner, around 6:36 PM ‘human’ time, with an unexpected knock on the door.
Who the heck could that be?
Grace, hummed, closing the lid to his laptop on the book he’d been reading, and answered the door.
”Treat, Trick; choose one!”
Grace blinked, tilting his head to one side. Then grinned, “Heyyy, long time no see, Polaris! Um, but it’s ‘Trick-Or-Treat’. You can’t change the word order. Also, pretty sure it’s not Halloween.” Probably, at least. Grace’s local human calendar that benefited no one but himself said it was September 23rd.
The dark-grey Eridian at his doorstep chirped in confusion, scratching a claw on their carapace, “I swear human archives said that was customary greeting given at a human door.”
“Only regionally, and once a day per Earth year, I’m afraid, and not today,” Grace shrugged, “So… what are you doing here?”
“Oh!” Polaris straightened up on their tippy-toes, “Adrian asked Polaris to keep Friend Grace company while they brood with mate. Very excited for Adrian and Rocky, of course. Adrian made a schedule! I haven’t seen Grace in 1,131,963 minutes! Did you get shorter? I am in town for three of your days! Do you want to meet my mate and children? They’re in the commons room!”
That was a lot to digest, best to take it one step at a time, “Ah. Explains why Adrian was being cagey this morning. They made a schedule of visitors for me?” Grace tapped his knuckles on the doorframe.
”Yes, yes. Polaris first visitor! Adrian said ‘Visits are good for human health,’” they did an oddly impressive mimic of Adrian, even holding their limbs up in approximation of Adrian’s propensity to hold their favored claws up, “Then they said ‘Humans are social creatures and Grace requires more behavioral enrichment.’ Then Polaris wanted to stop listening because they talked boring talk about temperature and water purity. But I agreed to see Grace again!”
Grace couldn’t help but roll his eyes; Adrian sometimes took to the role of ‘head zookeeper of alien biped’ a little too well. But it came from a place of caring, so… he’d let it slide for now.
”Anyways, you said your family is in the commons?”
A whistle: Yep.
”Well, I am due for an evening walk.”
Polaris waved a pair of jazz hands.
———
The commons was another one of the biome alcoves that looked into a half-shadowed Eridian room. It did have an organ-like instrument installed; a new addition that could let Grace communicate with Eridians who weren’t familiar with his language yet (surprisingly, most did. Apparently conversational English wasn’t very hard for Eridians to pick up via thrumming, and a ton of them learned it during the course of the biome development and construction). He was still learning all the chords, though. It was pretty much a multi-purpose meeting space, although less formal; No half-torus-shaped divot in the ground.
And it was filled with a bunch of new people.
Grace put on his best introductory teacher’s voice, “Hello, everyone! I’m…” before he got a good look at the occupants, then turned to Polaris, “When you said your children were here, I thought…”
”Oh! No no no, all mine and mates’ kids are adults!” Polaris chuffed, “Hey all, meet Friend Grace!”
Eight definitely adult Eridians. Grace figured out a while back that pre-adults did not have engravings. The presence of decorated limbs was the easiest indicator of being adult age; since size was not. A good number of his current class was already Rust’s size, and many were still no bigger than a small honeydew melon (oh, that was another flavor he should ask Adrian to try and get the food scientists to chemically mimic), despite all being the same age; roughly the equivalent of 10-year old humans. He tried not to think about them being his own age too much.
”This is my triad-mate, ♪♪Stable♬OfGlassPlains♬Mathematician♫♪SmoothStoneClan!” Polaris stood next to the glass, gesturing a claw to the Eridian on the other side of the clear partition on the far left. They were light-grey stone in coloration, with a massive green patch of what looked to be copper carbonate on their underside, “And these are a-a-a-all of our kids!”
Said adult children waved hello politely. They looked nothing like their parents in terms of coloration, but most of them had a similar body shape to either Polaris or Stable. But their mineralization was mostly amber-yellow, with patches of blood-red glossy stones. Grace was going to have to go browse through the A.E. Seaman digital gallery again to see if we could figure out what their mineral composition was. They must’ve been raised in a different location than their parents had grown up in.
”Very nice to meet you all,” Grace waved back; and there was only the buzz of observational hums for a few long seconds. That was a pretty normal reaction to meeting your first alien: get a better echo-view.
The next reaction was either one of lots and lots of chatter, or silent awe. Polaris’ family was the latter.
Grace shifted from one foot to the other, straightening out the hem of his knit cardigan. He cleared his throat a bit, and that startled one of them into jumping back an inch.
Thank god Polaris finally interjected, “Want to give them human names?”
There was a tiny chorus of approving whistles from all of Polaris and Stable’s offspring, their collective nervousness worn off at the prospect of a new alien name.
Grace smiled, “Yeah, sure!” This was always fun to do. Some Eridians were ecstatic to receive a ‘human’ name, rather than a translation. It also usually made it easier for Grace to remember and distinguish between Eridians with the common name segments. He had met sooo many Gracefuls over the years.
Oh, dear, that meant he did have to figure out eight new names. He frequently grouped them based on something pop-culture; much easier to recall that way. And it probably wasn’t going to be a proper personality match, but Grace was getting better at coming up with things on the spot. Oh, but he already had a name for one of their parents! Easy enough: Constellations.
”Okay… Do we have an oldest sibling?”
One of the Eridians in the center of the line-up chirped and stepped forward, “I am the oldest by 32 seconds.”
“Great. Your name can be ‘Andromeda’.” Grace tried his best to pick out the most distinguishing features on Andromeda— they were mostly yellow, very little other color. Polaris did also introduce them by their given name segments, so Grace could make the association in later conversations.
Down the group by age he went: “Orion, Cassiopeia, Hydrus,” Oh, he should avoid astrology ones, he’s already used those before on a science team that happened to be a perfect dozen, “Aaand Ursa and Pavo. Stable, would you like a name, too?”
Stable wheedled in indecisive-ness, shifting from one foot to the other, before finally saying, “I am alright, thank you.”
Hydrus and Pavo were chuckling quietly. Fair enough, some Eridians preferred to keep the exact translation of their name.
Grace also realized something at that point, “Oh, wow, how did you have such a big single clutch? I thought Eridians could only produce five eggs each.” Each Eridian had expressed how many seconds apart they were from each other; ranging from a few seconds to an hour or so.
“We are a triad mega-clutch,” Andromeda supplied, “Friend Grace not familiar with mega-clutches?”
Grace could figure it out, mentally, with this new context clue of ‘triad’. A single clutch, but seven eggs. Eridians frequently would have just one mate, but it was not uncommon for there to be triads, rather than a couple. Polaris was the first Eridian he’d met that was in a triad; at first he thought Polaris was just ‘remarried’, but no, they’d been mated to two individuals at once. Stable, currently in the room, and the late Mellow; who’d died on the Blip-A.
It made a lot of sense for triads to exist on Erid; you had another person to guard and care for you, especially if you did not have an extended family structure. It apparently happened more frequently in clans where they historically were more isolated and spread out; hunting in smaller packs. Sure, Grace was a microbiologist, but he was starting to become very interested in the science of anthropology here.
”I’m guessing that it means… All three parents laid and combined eggs at once? If each laid five eggs, you could combine them into seven viable eggs total. Is that right?”
”Yes, yes, yes!” Polaris cheeped, “Exactly what triad mega-clutch is. Polaris and mates only wanted one clutch; decided seven pebbles was not much more than five, should not be bad between three of us. We were so so so wrong… Seven pebbles are very exhausting to raise at once!” They threw two claws in the air for emphasis as their kids chuffed at the dramatics.
“Very cool,” Grace folded his arms over his chest with a nod. Hmmm, it did make him wonder, what did Eridians do with uncombined or unhatched eggs. He’d ask someone else, it felt like it might be rude to ask right now. Adrian or Rust would probably be good people to ask, they would understand it was curiosity over the biology.
“So-o-o-o, Grace said next time I see Friend Grace, I could teach you how to play Copper Claws,” Polaris scuttled toward a box they must’ve placed there earlier— Grace hadn’t noticed it until just now— and brought it forward. Even the family seemed excited; and he could see them bringing out more similar boxes from the depths of the darkness. Family Game Night.
Oh, oh no. He felt his smile drop a tad; and a bit of a cold sweat.
Grace did say that; he really should not expect that Polaris, of all people, would ever neglect that sort of statement. Eridians never forget. From what he’d seen of that game, it was wildly complex and well-loved. Rocky was convinced Polaris was a cheat, but Rust had explained Polaris was just very knowledgeable of the newest strategies.
He did know Copper Claws was a very popular game globally. And it seemed to be somewhere between Chess, Monopoly, and Settlers of Catan in terms of strategy, frustration, and potential to make friends turn on each other.
”Yeeeaaah, I remember that. Keep in mind, I do have to go sleep in a few hours— but we can spend a bit of time on it.”
He could survive a couple of hours learning a board game. He’d learned some cool ones in college. There were plenty of digital versions of popular board games on the Hail Mary’s archives, too. Rocky was a fiend for Wingspan once he knew it existed. And worst came to worst, he could feign sleepiness and excuse himself for the night.
But Copper Claws? Was it common for Eridians to throw game pieces at each other as part of the game? That was concerningly unclear.
”Oh, that is good good good. Can learn piece functions today, board layouts and shuffle schematics tomorrow!” Polaris giggled excitedly, ripping the lid of the box off.
Oh dear.
———
Grace needed a cheat sheet to remember some of the finer details. Eridians had perfect memory, so some aspects of the game were built around that, but… wow, he was actually enjoying Copper Claws after finally learning the fundamentals. He’d gotten over the daunting fear of it, at least. He was pretty sure Polaris was going easy on him, but by noon the following day, he’d managed to spend a few hours playing and enjoying the back-and-forth taunts. Grace didn’t win any games, but he didn’t lose quickly either.
His family only stuck around for that first night’s games; they had some sight-seeing they wanted to engage in (… echo-observing?), but some wanted to stop by again the following day; Grace was more than willing to give a short tour of the biome every now and then, if they suited up for it.
Polaris hadn’t really been in the dome before, and was happy to take a walk around with Grace after lunch.
The Eridian warbled in admiration when they came across the dandelion patches that grew around Grace’s house, scurrying up to a big patch— half in seed, half in bloom. There were no true seasons in here, and Dandelions could reproduce asexually. Provided some water (Adrian’s teams were working on cloud-seeding for fun), simulated sunlight, and soil, they’d just keep seeding new flowers. And they were perennial, so any he didn’t uproot would come back eventually.
“Wow! Alien plants!” Polaris hummed, circling around the patch in a side-shuffling arc, “Heard from friend in dome maintenance that they existed here! What is it? They’re so skinny. Look frail. Can I touch touch touch?”
Grace chuckled, as Polaris was engrossed, “Yeah, you can touch. They’re called Dandelions. They’re all over the place now. And they’re pretty hardy.”
He’d been right, way back when, that a few seeds had managed to waft their way onto the Hail Mary; maybe caught on someone’s clothes, or stuck to a parcel as they loaded supplies onto the ship. Pulled in by the ventilation system on a spring morning.
It had taken a long time of looking through air filters and in the dim corners of storage hatches, but eventually, three dandelion seeds had been uncovered. A year later with some carefully filtered soil and compost (don’t ask where that came from), they were all over the place. Hundreds of them. He could collect the flowers and make tea from the petals; or salad from the greens. He was looking into the science behind making the roots into a coffee-substitute from some recipes he’d found, now that they were well established. It was easier to think of it as a science experiment rather than cooking; Grace had never been keen to cook.
It was a bit ironic that Dandelions were so often considered a weed where he had lived on earth. People would spend so much time, money, and energy trying to get rid of them. But the tenacious little flowers were now a tiny slice of Earth on an alien planet. They might even survive the cooling climate until sol regained its luminosity. It was still years off to know if Earth had received the Beetles and been able to distribute the astrophage predator to Venus. If humanity had survived.
Grace tried not to think about it too often; wondering if he was the last human; or going to be the last. It was a thought thread that might bring him to tears; it had before.
Polaris reached a pair of claws forward toward the nearest dandelion puff, humming in concentration. First they touch the tender green leaves, and then the tall purpling stem. When their claws touched the white fluff, the dandelion had had enough, and the seeds fell away.
”No! No no no!” Polaris chirped in alarm, “Apology! I think I hurt it!”
Grace couldn’t help but bark a laugh at their expense, before taking a seat on the ground, “No, you didn’t! It’s fine. That’s how they disperse their seeds. That one was ready to go. You’ll notice the ones with the more solid puffs on top are still in bloom— trying to attract insects to pollinate them; but, there’s no bugs here, so… I do it by hand; even though they don’t need it, they can reproduce asexually.”
Polaris whistled long and low in understanding, “Understood! Wow… Can I touch more of them?”
Grace shrugged, “Be my guest.”
“…I am already guest in biome?” They asked, unsure.
“I meant yes, you can touch more of them.”
Polaris chortled, and began to poke more dandelion puffs, observing them as they broke apart with the tiniest of pressures.
Grace picked one, too, and blew on the seeds, watching them scatter in the gentle manufactured breeze.