Chapter Text
Rocky almost fell over his own legs, as he heard the alert. Something was happening. He had been monitoring the system as much as he could for all the time he had been here. Hoping maybe Erid would send another ship, hoping he would no longer be alone. He reached the control room in a hurry and checked the readouts. There was something, emitting an incredible amount of energy. It was exactly the frequency Astrophages emitted. There must be a ship approaching but it came from a different direction. If this came from Erid, it would mean, they had flown a huge curve. What did it mean? Could it mean… was it possible that Aliens were approaching?
Rocky tapped he foot nervously.
Aliens.
Intelligent Aliens!
What should he do? He wasn't qualified to make first contact, he was an engineer. Would they even be friendly? He could just stay here, chances that they saw him were really really slim, as long as he didn't move it would be almost impossible for them, to spot him. But another ship approaching Tau Ceti could mean the aliens had the same problem and maybe they could help. And also maybe Rocky wouldn't be alone anymore. The ship wouldn't be so horribly, horribly quiet. He still had time to make his decision, the other ship was still far far away and would take a long time to arrive in Tau Ceti's Orbit. Rocky would use the time, to work more. Find out more.
He checked the readouts every day, watching it get just a little bit brighter every day, it was slowing down, the same as he did, decelerating as he was approaching the system, this is why he was able to see them as well, their Astrophage powered engines were pointing at Tau Ceti. It had taken a while of deliberation. But he had decided, he would try to contact them. He hadn't been able to solve the problem in the about IVℓℓ years he had been here, chances that he would were tiny, risking his life would most likely not slim the chances of Erid to survive, it probably didn't matter if he died soon by hands of an alien race or later, once his food ran out or his life support gave up. But if they would help him, he might be able to return home, bring Erid's salvation, see Erid again, maybe see Adrian again, if they would want him back after all this time.
And he waited and waited, hoping, they would want to help him, he had a lot of information that could help them, he had time to watch the movements of the planet, he had documented everything he could. Mainly in case other Eridians arrived after he had died. But maybe he could exchange these information for help. The time he had to wait felt agonizingly long, he had done the math of how long it would take for them to arrive. But knowing it only barely helped. He would possibly be able to communicate with another living being again. If they could figure out communication. Hopefully they would be able to. It was possible, the aliens were so different, they wouldn't be able to find a way to communicate but he had to try.
He used the time, figuring out a way to communicate. What would be important information, that he could get across. Where he was from might be a good start. Rocky scrambled to his workshop. He would be building a model. A space faring species should be able to understand it. Tau Ceti in the middle, putting a petrova line on it, then all the other stars in proximity and marking Erid so hopefully they would understand, that this was were he came from. And a model of the petrova line, showing them, why he was here. He started to build both, put his all in it, it needed to be precise so they would hopefully reach the correct conclusions. He still had enough time before they would arrive and hopefully, he would be able to send it to them.
Finally the engines of the other ship had been cut off. Rocky couldn't get a read on them anymore, they were to far away for his equipment to pick them up, but he had a pretty good idea, where they should be. He would approach them slowly, would put the ship next to their ship and see if they did anything. He didn't want to scare them away immediately so he had to be careful. He angled the ship to point towards them first and then he moved closer slowly, they were actually pretty close, they most likely would see his engine output. Halfway there, he turned his ship around, decelerating again. They must be seeing him now, he was very bright, approaching them in a careful angle as to not vaporize their ship with his engines. If they were here because their sun was also dying, they would be watching the petrova line, so Rocky decided to position himself between the other ship and the petrova line. He matched their velocity exactly, after being alone on the ship for so many years, he had figured out the controls precisely.
The ship seemed to be small only a third of Rocky's ship, maybe the aliens were a really small species. They wouldn't have sent just very few individuals for such an important problem, would they? There would be a bunch of aliens on this ship, so they must be small.
The shape was odd, everything was round, making perfectly round shapes like this was hard. Of course not impossible, Rocky was very capable of engineering round things, but it wasn't necessary so they wouldn't spend extra time to make their ship round. It was a horrible shape to deal with when living inside. But it would hold pressure better. This wasn't an issue for them, but Rocky had no idea what the living conditions of this species were. Maybe they lived in much higher pressures then Erid had. Or maybe their materials weren't as strong. He couldn't know what they had or how advanced they were. So round shapes to maximize stability, possibly. Rocky was running around excitedly, there was a really alien ship out there. He wanted to know everything about it, wanted to know what it was made of, how its engines worked, what the inside sounded like, what the aliens sounded like. He needed to know everything, everything. But for now he needed to wait and see if they did anything.
For a while nothing happened, Rocky tapped his feet nervously, waiting, waiting, it felt like ages, of course they needed to realize he was there first and of course decide what to do. Rocky didn't leave the screen unattended for even a second. And then the ship moved, suddenly, the engine had flashed for only a very short moment, moving the ship forwards slowly. They didn't do it to move away from Rocky, this must have been an attempt at communication. They wanted to communicate.
They wanted to communicate!
Rocky was scrambling desperately, he needed to reply quickly, before they decided, he didn't want to communicate. He quickly flashed the engines as well, for the same amount they had done and watched again, their turn.
It only took a short moment. Multiple engine flashes this time, three short, one long, one short. Rocky timed them exactly, copying them exactly. This time he had been prepared and had been able to react much faster. He wanted to communicate. He watched for a moment, no more bursts of light. Time to get back into position. He fired up the drives in a low intensity, to get the ship in the same velocity as the alien ship again, the same distance as before. Time to send the message, he decided.
He took the container that contained his models and put it into the airlock, for the hull robot to grab. He programed it to throw the container the same velocity the other ship has moved before. Just to show he was paying attention to what they did.
He had never stopped to hope, if he had, he wouldn't have managed to work for all these years. But now, now he felt like there really was hope, finally.