Chapter Text
Grace
For a guy who’s almost certainly going to die, I’m feeling surprisingly cheerful.
It’s been two days since I arrived back at Tau Ceti and found Rocky in the Blip-A, derelict and drifting with his fuel tanks full of Taumoeba. Now, the silence that swamped me during our weeks apart has been replaced by a buzz of activity and constant chatter. We’ve been busy moving Rocky’s stuff into the Hail Mary and preparing for our trip to Erid (where I’ll probably die, don’t think about that). Rocky’s grateful reaction to being rescued didn’t last long: he went back to bossing me around almost immediately. He’s very particular about where I place all the boxes and supplies that he wants to take with us. It’s annoying, but it’s kind of nice having my old task master back.
Scratch that, it’s amazing. He’s so annoying and it’s the best.
It will take us a few more days to finish organizing the cargo, making repairs to the ship, and expanding Rocky’s xenonite-enclosed area. And then I’ll be setting off for a new planet! I’ll be the first human to see an alien civilization.
Assuming we make it that far. This is interstellar travel, after all.
Even if we actually get to Erid and save Rocky’s star, I’ll probably starve. My food will run out a few months after arrival, or earlier if we’re delayed on the way (and when have things ever gone well for us, so far?). Eridian food is laced with heavy metals that would kill me quicker than starvation, so that’s no use. If I’m very lucky, maybe the Eridian scientists will figure something out, especially since I’ll be bringing laptops loaded with all the Earth information Stratt could get her hands on.
Rocky has also suggested I try to eat Taumoeba. It’s not appetizing in the slightest and I have no idea if it has any of the nutrients I need, but it’s a living organism so it probably has calories. And we’ve got plenty: the Blip-A’s fuel tanks are full of the stuff by now. Which, of course, is the whole reason I’m here.
Both the Eridian food breakthrough option and the Taumoeba option are obviously long shots. Another Hail Mary.
So yeah. I might die in space after all, or I might die on an alien planet 16 light years away from my home. Conclusion: I’m an idiot.
Still, my relief at finding Rocky still alive and my curiosity about Erid are stronger than my fear of starvation for now. Or maybe I’m just in denial.
And anyway, what else could I have done? I couldn’t leave Rocky and his entire species to die.
A little voice in the back of my head reminds me that I might have done just that, once. I’m not proud of how I acted during my last few days on Earth. Stratt was an enormous jerk and basically an attempted murderer, but I wish I’d had the courage to agree to join the mission voluntarily.
This time, it wasn’t about courage. It was about Rocky. I guess Yáo was right and you just need to find someone to be brave for.
(But sometimes I think that if Rocky orders me to move one more box, I’m going to leave him here and he can get himself to Erid.)
“Blip-G detected,” says the ship’s voice, and I pause in the middle of loading yet another container of Taumoeba into the storage room. Did I hear that right?
Even if I did, it’s probably nothing. This isn’t the first time the Hail Mary has warned us of a nearby object: we’ve already encountered blips A through F. Usually it’s an asteroid and we just need to make sure it isn’t going to hit us. I drop the container (but carefully, because the absolute last thing we need is another Taumoeba escape) and start to head towards the control room. I’m already running through the steps we’ll need to take to detach the tunnel between the Hail Mary and the Blip-A in hurry. Trying to take evasive action while hooked up to another spaceship would be asking for trouble.
“Blip-G detected,” the ship says again.
Come on, don’t be headed for us, I really don’t want to deal with the tunnel right now. I want to go back to my fun box-moving project.
When I arrive in the control room, I see that Rocky is already there, his light-reading camera pointed at the Hail Mary’s screen. He is completely still.
“So, what’s out there?” I ask.
Rocky doesn’t answer. After a moment he starts to shake.
“Rocky?”
I turn to look at the screen.
It’s a ship.
Both of us are frozen for a moment. Me shocked into silence, Rocky tense and trembling.
Finally I manage to speak. “Rock, that looks like... is that an Eridian ship?”
He doesn’t answer me.
“Rocky? You’re scaring me, bud.”
Something in him shifts and he notices me for the first time. “Grace... I hear Eridian ship on screen. Is real, question?” His voice, usually so confident, is quiet and small.
“It looks real to me, Rocky. I’m not an expert in spaceships, but it looks a lot like the Blip-A.” I am having a hard time believing it too. How can it be an Eridian ship? How can it be any ship at all?
“Blip-G detected,” says the Hail Mary, as if to confirm that we aren’t hallucinating.
Suddenly Rocky’s legs collapse under him and his xenonite ball rolls jerkily around the control room as he spasms. He is shrieking high, discordant notes that I can’t translate. I can’t tell if he is excited or terrified.
“Rocky!” I grab the ball and hold it steady. Rocky is still shaking inside it.
His squeaks resolve into words. I think he’s saying “Eridians here, Eridians here, Eridians here!”
“Yeah, that’s – Holy fucking shit, Rocky! Erid sent another ship!” I don’t swear (years as a middle-school teacher will do that to you), but I make an exception when I see an alien spacecraft. So sue me.
I need to grip the xenonite ball harder as Rocky’s shakes intensify. His voice is shrill as he shrieks, “Is real, is real, is real! Amaze amaze amaze!”
I’m in shock too, but let’s be honest – if I shut down every time something absolutely insane happened, I would have died months ago. Rocky is clearly overwhelmed, but I need to get him to focus. We can’t miss this opportunity.
“Rocky. Rocky,” I say, keeping both hands on his ball and kneeling down to look him in the eye (if he had eyes). “We need to talk to them. You need to warn them about radiation and tell them about Taumoeba. Does your ship have a way to communicate with other Eridians?”
That seems to get through to him. His shaking grows less violent, and I can feel him turn his attention to my question. ”Yes. I go to Blip-A. Has Eridian radio, can signal other ship and organize meeting.”
“Great. You do that. I’ll, uh, wait here, I guess?”
“Good good good. Grace stay on Hail Mary or in Grace side of tunnel. Rocky will talk to Eridians, explain about Grace and how we save stars. They will want to meet Grace!”
I bet they will. I’m an alien, after all.
Rocky speeds off in his ball faster than I’ve ever seen him move, faster even than when he first came aboard the Hail Mary and nearly destroyed my lab in his excitement. After all, he’s been away from his own species for longer than I’ve been alive. I’d run like that if it were a human ship. (Would I? After what humans did to me?)
As reality sinks in, I wonder again how the heck this ship ended up here. I assume they came to solve the Astrophage problem and maybe investigate what happened to Rocky’s ship. That’s the why, but not the how. Sure, they knew the Blip-A was going to Tau Ceti, but space is huge. It took me a long time to find Rocky when I came back for him, and I had a pretty good idea of where he would be. The odds of the Eridians stumbling upon their lost ship in the vastness of the Tau Ceti system are... well, astronomical.
I guess that’s a question to ask the Eridians when I meet them. When I meet them! I’m going to meet aliens! Okay, I already have, but Rocky and I have spent so much time together that I sometimes forget he’s from another planet. I correct my thought to I’m going to meet more aliens!
After Rocky leaves, I adjust the Hail Mary’s camera to focus on the new ship more closely. It must be powered by Astrophage but is travelling slowly now, presumably to avoid vaporizing us with its exhaust or ramming into us. Very considerate. The new ship decelerates as it approaches until, around 50 meters away, it matches our velocity. We’re basically parked side by side.
Nothing happens for a long time. I assume Rocky is trying to hail the ship from the Blip-A and I wonder how his Eridian radio works. Does it really use radio waves? Can I try to hack the Hail Mary’s EVA comm system and listen in on their frequency? I’m getting impatient enough to consider it when I finally spot movement. The hull robots on the new ship are building something.
As the structure takes shape, I realize that the new ship is building its own tunnel, connecting itself to the Eridian side of our airlock tunnel. That makes sense: we still need a way to get between the Hail Mary and the Blip-A, and it’s a lot safer to connect the new ship to the Eridian atmosphere. I head to the airlock and into my side of the tunnel, then press myself close to the clear xenonite barrier: I don’t want to miss anything!
Rocky remains on the Blip-A while the hull robots do their work. I assume he’s directing the construction and waiting for the tunnel to be connected and pressurized, but I wish he was here so he could tell me what the heck is going on. After what feels like forever (but was actually only a few hours – Eridians are fast workers), I see him float down the tunnel towards me. With three ships connected by tunnels, it’s too risky to generate centripetal force: this reunion will be happening in zero gravity.
Rocky is more excited than I’ve ever seen him, unable to hold still from anticipation. I can’t blame the guy: he’s about to see other Eridians for the first time in decades. Soon after Rocky arrives, three figures float cautiously through the new tunnel junction. They are similar to Rocky in build, but varied in color. Despite being obviously unused to moving without gravity, their voices are full of joy.
Suddenly Rocky absolutely launches himself towards one of the other Eridians. This one is a blue-green colour, similar to the marking I see Rocky tap when he talks about Adrian –
Oh.
This isn’t just any old Eridian astronaut. It’s Rocky’s mate.
Their hard bodies collide with a crash, but it doesn’t seem to hurt them. Rocky’s momentum knocks Adrian backwards and the two of them scramble to grab hold of each other. They are both making high, singing cries as they hear each other for the first time in so, so many years.
The Eridians are all talking at once. Their voices make complex and layered chords that I can’t understand, creating overtones and resonance that I feel in my bones. I realize how much Rocky must be simplifying his language when he speaks to me. Nice of him to accommodate my limited human ears and brain.
Rocky is clearly ecstatic. He releases Adrian and bounces back and forth in the tunnel, making wild jazz hands. The only time he is still is when he presses his body against Adrian. His mate wraps their arms around him and the two of them clutch at each other. Then his excitement takes over and he’s moving again, back and forth, up and down, chattering in joy. The only word I can catch is “Adrian.”
Oh, buddy.
My eyes are wet. I am so happy for him.