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A few small containers of taumoeba were scattered over Grace’s table, surrounded by hastily scrawled notes such as “30g:300ml suspension?”, “reaction to recycled water - stable”, and “is sticky note adhesive toxic if consumed”. They’re still pretty early into the trip, but he wanted to be sure he has a plan now instead of when he‘s stupid with starvation and malnutrition. It isn’t a fun project, but it’s a necessary one.
He’s spent hours testing taumoeba in different carriers, testing their reactions to different chemical additives, and sometimes poking them with this reeeaaally thin, very scientific stick/needle he had begged Rocky to make him.
Okay, it was a little fun.
“So you’ve been speaking to me in BABY TALK?!”
“No understand.”
Grace whipped around in his chair toward where Rocky was sitting nearby and working on something in his tunnel. Two of Rocky’s claws were holding long instruments, and a third was occasionally taking a small bit of xenonite from a box full of them and sticking it to the main piece. The small tink-tink-tink continued as he kept working.
They’ve spent a good chunk of their time working on things near each other since they set off to Erid, not necessarily talking or acknowledging the other at all, but not alone. A peaceful, companionable silence.
The first couple of weeks had involved a lot of ‘bonding time’, after their time apart. Grace tried showing Rocky some of his favorite movies (‘Why humans eat in movie so much, question? Disgust.’) or teaching him about Earth and Earth science (‘Earth Science with Dr. Capt. Grace’).
Rocky would indulge him a lot of the time even if science wasn’t his specialty, but the other times, he was looking up curse words using Grace’s thinking machine when he knew Grace was too deep into science to notice (‘Why you no let Rocky say FUCK, question?’ ‘Holy guacamole, Rocky. Where did you hear that? When did you put it in the translator?’).
They decided to give each other a bit more space sometimes when Rocky got bored one day while Grace was poking taumoeba and found the archive of Buzzfeed quizzes (‘What Grace role in group chat when crisis, question?’ ‘Huh, what, Rock?’ ‘Rocky find out Grace second gender.’).
“This WHOLE TIME?”
“Explain new word, before talk. Is phrase, what mean, question?”
Grace let out a loud groan and dragged a hand down his face.
“Baby talk. It’s a special way of speaking humans use when talking to babies - very young offspring - so that they are easier to understand, because the babies are too young to understand complex grammar and vocabulary.”
“Oh,” Rocky paused for a moment, “Yes.”
Grace groaned louder, exasperated, and leaned back as far as his chair would allow, glasses dangling precariously off of one ear. He brought both hands to cover his face and sighed.
“Rocky, buddy.”
“Yes, question?”
“We’re going to Erid, right?”
“Yes, statement.”
“And if I survive the trip-”
“When.” Rocky said sharply, the chords of his voice a full octave lower.
“Sorry, yes. When I survive the trip and we arrive, there are going to be other Eridians, yeah?”
“Obvious,” he sets his project down and turns to ‘face’ Grace, “Eridians live on Erid. Is home planet. Squishy human brain not can remember, question?”
“Rockhary,” Grace braced his hands on his knees and leaned forward.
Rocky settled his carapace down a bit and let out the equivalent of a huff - he knew it was serious if Grace pulled out his Nicholas Name.
“I’m going to talk to other Eridians at some point,” Grace paused for a moment. That’s kind of a scary, but exhilarating, thought. Other Eridians! “They’re not all going to use baby talk with me forever, right?”
“They can. I tell them.”
“Well I don’t want them to do that. I’m an adult human! A scientist, even!” Grace waves his hands toward the ceiling petulantly. “I haven’t had to use the translator in some time now, and we talk about all sorts of things.“
It had been a couple of weeks since they last used the translator for anything other than inputting the occasional new word they come across. Usually the words were specialized words helpful for life in the Hail Mary.
Sometimes they would encounter a new cultural word or idiom, which would lead to interesting conversations, like when the subject of religion came up one day after Rocky startled a freshly awake Grace and Grace let out a string of not-quite-curses (‘Holy- Oh my- Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Rock! You can’t sneak up on a guy like that!’ ‘Did not sneak. Was here whole time.’ ‘Well I didn’t see you! It’s dark!’ ‘Human light-sense inefficient, statement.’).
Letting out a dissonant interval, Rocky taps a claw against the floor, “Grace say Grace is adult, but is 33 Earth years. Is infant, fresh hatch, still in nest. Small, squishy brain, not can hold beautiful superior Eridian words.”
“Golly gee, Rock,” Grace runs a finger through his hair, “Tell me how you really feel.”
“Grace is baby.”
He rests his elbows on his knees and steeples his fingers, digging a pair of fingers against the bridge of his nose, and ignores the melodic chittering.
Rocky shuffles his weight from limb to limb, “Many words in Eridian, many kinds. Phrases, grammar, much to learn. Much to remember.”
“Yeah, bud. Same for English. Besides,” Grace looks up through his eyelashes at Rocky’s carapace in approximately the place a face might have been, “I taught you spoken AND written English.”
“Okay okay okay, point receive.” Rocky tilts his body to the side, a gesture he’s picked up from his time with Grace. “I speak casual Eridian to Grace. Grace say will understand. But no can use translator, even if difficult word. Is challenge.”
“Yeah, okay. Is challenge.” Grace nods emphatically with a grin.
…
“Come on, Rock.”
Grace is sitting on the floor in front of the xenonite separating his side of the lab from Rocky’s workshop, elbows resting on his raised knees and hands outspread, pleading. Even without a face to read, Grace can tell that Rocky is pointedly ignoring him as he knits together small pentagons of xenonite.
“Rocky, buddy, pal.”
Rocky turns his carapace about 45° clockwise.
Grace sighs loudly, dropping his head forward in defeat.
“Please, I am actually begging you,” It’s been 2 Hail Mary-days since the challenge began, and Grace is desperate. He slides the taped-together laptops closer to the xenonite barrier, “I’m sorry, you win. You were right!”
“Am always right,” a computerized voice says from the laptop speaker, just loud enough to hear over Rocky’s chords, “Grace break rules. Turn off translator, turn off note, or Grace get only ‘baby talk’.”
Reluctantly, Grace closes Excel, closes his waveform analyzer, and holds both power buttons down until the bubbles stop and the computers shut off.
“There, done. Will you talk to me now?”
A beat, then Rocky uses a free limb to give him a thumbs-down. Grace returns the gesture with a scowl.
“Now that you put that ♬♪♩♫shit away, I’d be happy to explain what I’m doing.”
Rocky holds up the connected pentagons he’s been working together and gives it a shake. It’s loose, like fabric, and ripples as he pulls it wide to show its uneven shape.
“I’ve ♩♭♫woven the xenonite ♫♮♩𝅗𝅥♩𝅗𝅥tesserae together, and ♩♬♩♪bonded them with an epoxy that’s flexible enough to allow for a wide range of ♪♩𝅗𝅥♬articulation and ♪♩𝅗𝅥♫circumrotation.”
Rocky speaks quickly, only taking pauses to gesture and point out different things and parts of things he’s holding, “These tools I’m using take the raw liquid materials used to ♬♪♪♮♩synthesize xenonite and mixes them in the 𝅗𝅥♪𝅗𝅥♭♫cartridge here and then ♪♫♩♪extrudes the new mixture as a ♩♪♩♮♫♮filament that I can ♬♯♪♬♪♯manipulate with the long, thin nozzles themselves. It works ♫♩kinda like your 3D printer, but better.”
“Right, okay,” Grace nods firmly, “You are absolutely doing this just to be a jerk.”
“But you said it yourself. ♩♪♪You’ll need to get used to Eridian life,” Rocky counters, waving a free claw dismissively.
“Yes, but we have years. YEARS!” Taking off his glasses, Grace pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath. He knows Rocky well by now, he should have expected this when he accepted the challenge. “Can we at least ease me in? Compromise?”
Rocky shifts his weight between limbs pensively, before raising the ball-joints of two in his approximation of a shrug.
“Okay, okay. Was fun to tease Grace, but will teach you properly now,” he says a bit more slowly, making sure each note of each chord is audible, “I won’t baby talk, but will use simple grammar for now. Will ease into complex grammar, like more ♬♪♯𝅗𝅥𝅗𝅥contraction and ♪♭♫♩♪conjugation. Eridian ♪♭♫♩♪conjugation maybe difficult for human hearing, too high and low range.”
“Thanks, bud,” Grace smiles and scoots closer to the barrier, “Now what was that word after ‘Eridian’?”