Chapter 12

WIDE — Ryland asleep in zero-g bunk, food floating nearby. The ship hums. Somewhere above, Rocky waits.

WIDERYLANDSTILLNESS

"Tap-tap-tap. The sound barely penetrates my consciousness. It's far away."

INSERT — Rocky's limb tap-tap-taps on the divider wall. Sound waves radiate outward. Again. And again.

INSERTINTRUSIONERIDIAN SIGNAL

"Tap-tap-tap. I wake from a dreamless sleep. 'Huh?'"

CLOSE-UP — Ryland stirs, eyes half-open, consciousness crawling back. "Tap-tap-tap. Breakfast," he mumbles.

CLOSE-UPRYLANDWAKING

"'Breakfast,' I mumble."

MEDIUM — Mechanical arms extend from wall compartment and hand Ryland a packaged meal, steam already rising.

MEDIUMRYLANDSHIP SYSTEMSROUTINE

"The mechanical arms reach into a compartment and pull out a packaged meal. It's like Christmas every morning around here."

INSERT — The breakfast burrito, foil torn open, steam wafting in zero-g. All the food is good.

INSERTSMALL JOYPROVISIONS

"I pull the top off and steam wafts out in all directions. There's a breakfast burrito inside. 'Nice.' All the food is good. I guess they figured if we're going to die, we may as well eat good stuff."

MEDIUM — Ryland drifts in zero-g, burrito floating nearby, sipping coffee from a Capri-Sun pouch with pinch-straw.

MEDIUMRYLANDMUNDANE ZEN

"A mechanical arm hands me a pouch with a pinch-straw in it. Like a Capri Sun for adults. Zero-g accommodations."

MEDIUM — Ryland checks the LCD screen taped near his bunk. Rocky is in the tunnel, tapping. Has been for hours.

MEDIUMRYLAND+ROCKYALARM

"I check the LCD screen taped near my bunk. Rocky is in the tunnel tapping on the divider wall. 'Computer! How long was I asleep?' 'Patient was unconscious for ten hours and seventeen minutes.'"

CLOSE-UP — Ryland's face: wide eyes, open mouth. "Oh crud!" Ten hours. Rocky has been waiting ten hours.

CLOSE-UPRYLANDGUILT/ALARM

"'Oh crud!'"

WIDE — Ryland wriggles free of his bedding and bounces up through the ship toward the tunnel, still carrying burrito and coffee.

WIDERYLANDURGENCY

"I wriggle out of my bedding and bounce up through the ship toward the control room. I carry the burrito and coffee with me because I'm starving."

MEDIUM — Rocky balls ONE fist. Points to popsicle numbers and then his clock. Ryland clasps hands in supplication. Rocky unclenches.

MEDIUMRYLAND+ROCKYTENSION/GUILT

"Rocky balls one of his hands into a fist. I clasp my hands together as if praying. He unclenches. Maybe it was a mild admonishment. He could have made five fists, but he only made one."

MEDIUM — Ryland grabs his duct-taped laptops — waveform analyzer on one, Excel on the other — and presses them to the tunnel wall.

MEDIUMRYLANDTECH SETUPPREPARATION

"Hopefully this next trick will make up for it. I grab my duct-taped laptops, launch the waveform-analysis software on one and Excel on the other. I press them against the tunnel wall and secure them there with tape."

INSERT — Ryland holds up popsicle-stick "I" and points to it. "One." Points to Rocky.

INSERTRYLAND+ROCKYFIRST CONTACT LINGUISTICSBREAKTHROUGH

"I pull the Popsicle-stick numbers off the divider wall. I hold up the 'I' and point to it. 'One,' I say. 'One.' I point to my mouth, then back to the Eridian number. 'One.' Then I point to Rocky."

TWO-SHOT — Rocky points to "I" and says "♪" — two simultaneous notes. Ryland notes the frequencies.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYLINGUISTICSFIRST EXCHANGE

"He points to the 'I' and says '♪.' Rocky's word for 'one' is just two notes played at the same time. I type 'one' into the spreadsheet on the other computer and note the relevant frequencies."

SCREEN INSERT — Waveform on the analyzer: two frequency peaks. Rocky's word for "one." Ryland types it into the spreadsheet.

INSERTFREQUENCY ANALYSISDISCOVERY

"I pause the waveform analyzer and scroll back a few seconds. 'There we go…' Rocky's word for 'one' is just two notes played at the same time. There are a bunch of harmonics and resonances in there, too."

TWO-SHOT — Ryland holds up "V." "Two." Rocky: "♪" — four distinct notes. Another one-syllable word.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYLINGUISTICSMOMENTUM

"'Okay…' I return to the divider and hold up the 'V' symbol. 'Two,' I say. '♪,' he says. Another one-syllable word. The oldest words in a language are usually the shortest."

CLOSE-UP — Rocky anticipates "three" before Ryland speaks. Points to "λ" and says "♫♪" — first two-syllable word. Rocky is getting excited.

CLOSEROCKY5-NOTE CHORDJOY/EXCITEMENT

"I hold up the 'λ' and before I can even speak, he points to it and says, '♫♪.' Excellent. Our first two-syllable word. He's starting to get excited. I think he knows what I'm up to."

INSERT — Waveform for "three": syllable 1 has 2 notes, syllable 2 has 5. Rocky can make at least five notes simultaneously.

INSERTLINGUISTICS DATABASEBUILDING

"The first syllable has just two notes and the second has five! Rocky can make at least five different notes at the same time. He must have multiple sets of vocal cords or something."

TWO-SHOT — Rocky anticipates "λ," points first. Ryland correctly says "Three." Jazz hands from both. First bilateral word celebration.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYDELIGHT/MOMENTUM

"He does jazz hands. I throw some jazz hands back."

TWO-SHOT — Ryland stands still, then does jazz hands. "Yes." Rocky mirrors it and says "♫♩." We have "yes" in the vocabulary.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYJOY/BREAKTHROUGH

"I stand still for a moment so he'll know there was a break in the conversation. Then I do jazz hands and say, 'Yes.' He does it back to me and says '♫♩.' I note and record the frequencies."

TWO-SHOT — Rocky holds up a finger, then balls TWO fists and taps them together. "♪♪." Ryland: "Ohhh. That's 'no.' At least I hope so."

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYLINGUISTICSTEACHING

"Rocky holds up a finger for a moment. Then he balls two of his fists and taps them together. '♪♪.' I'm a teacher. What would I teach someone who just learned the word 'yes'? 'That's 'no.'' At least I hope so."

CLOSE-UP — Ryland confused. "No?" "No." "So, yes?" "No, yes." "Yes?" "No. No." "Yes, yes?" "NO!" Interspecies Abbott and Costello.

CLOSERYLANDCONFUSION

"'No?' 'No.' 'So, 'yes'?' 'No, yes.' 'Yes?' 'No. No.' 'Yes, yes?' 'No!' He balls a fist at me, clearly frustrated. Enough of this interspecies Abbott and Costello routine."

TWO-SHOT — Rocky balls a fist at Ryland. Clearly frustrated. Ryland has no idea what went wrong.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYFRUSTRATION/COMEDY

"He balls a fist at me, clearly frustrated."

TWO-SHOT — Ryland holds up a finger. Rocky unclenches. Brief reset. "I enter the frequencies for what I think is 'no.' If I'm wrong, I'm wrong."

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYRESET/PATIENCE

"Enough. I hold up a finger. He unballs his fist and returns the gesture. I enter the frequencies for what I think is 'no' into my spreadsheet. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong and we'll work it out later."

INSERT — Ryland types the "no" frequencies into the spreadsheet. Hands on keyboard. Working through it.

INSERTLINGUISTICS DATABASEMETHODICAL

"I enter the frequencies for what I think is 'no' into my spreadsheet."

WIDE MONTAGE — Hours pass. Vocabulary explodes to several thousand words. "Language is kind of an exponential system."

WIDERYLAND+ROCKYLINGUISTICSMOMENTUM/TIME

"For the next several hours, we expand our shared vocabulary to several thousand words. Language is kind of an exponential system. The more words you know, the easier it is to describe new ones."

MEDIUM — Frustrated Ryland: two-laptop check-and-lookup is too slow. "I've had enough. I'll write a script." Excuses himself for an hour.

MEDIUMRYLANDFRUSTRATION/DETERMINATION

"Communication is hampered by my slow and clumsy system for listening to Rocky. I check the frequencies he emits with one laptop, then look them up in my spreadsheet on the other laptop. It's not a great system. I've had enough."

MEDIUM — Ryland at the lab bench writing his translation script. "Barely a program — more of a script. Computers are fast."

MEDIUMRYLANDPROGRAMMINGINGENUITY

"I excuse myself for an hour to write some software. I'm not a computer expert, but I know some rudimentary programming. It's barely even a program — more of a script. It's not efficient at all, but computers are fast."

DIAGRAM INSERT — Translation pipeline: Rocky's chord → Fourier analysis → note lookup → real-time English on screen.

INSERTTRANSLATION SYSTEMBREAKTHROUGH

"Fortunately, Rocky speaks with musical chords. While it's very difficult to make a computer turn human speech into text, it's very easy to make a computer identify musical notes and find them in a table."

TWO-SHOT — Laptop screen shows real-time English translation of Rocky's words as he speaks. New words entered once, known forever.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYTRANSLATION LIVEBREAKTHROUGH

"From that point on, my laptop screen shows me the English translation of what Rocky is saying in real-time. When a new word comes up, I enter it into my database and the computer knows it from then on."

MEDIUM — Rocky: no notes, no computer, nothing. Just pays attention. Remembers every word told to him once, hours earlier.

MEDIUMRYLAND+ROCKYAWE/CONTRAST

"Rocky, meanwhile, doesn't use any system to record what I'm saying or doing. No computer, no writing implement, no microphone. Nothing. He just pays attention. And as far as I can tell, he remembers everything I told him."

MEDIUM — Ryland retrieves a vial of Astrophage from the lab supplies. "I know it's too early, but I can't wait any longer."

MEDIUMRYLANDASTROPHAGEANTICIPATION

"I know it's too early, but I can't wait any longer. I get a vial of Astrophage from the lab supplies and bring it to the tunnel. I hold it up. 'Astrophage,' I say."

TWO-SHOT — Ryland holds the Astrophage vial up toward Rocky. Rocky's entire posture changes. He hunkers his carapace lower.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYASTROPHAGESHARED DREAD

"Rocky's entire posture changes. He hunkers his carapace a little lower. He tightens his claws a bit on the bars he uses to keep in place."

CLOSE-UP — Rocky hunkered down, claws tightened on the support bars. His voice goes quiet. His word for Astrophage.

CLOSEROCKYASTROPHAGEDREAD

"'♫♪♫,' he says, his voice more quiet than usual. It's not a word I've recorded yet. It must be his word for Astrophage. I note it in the database."

TWO-SHOT — "Astrophage on my star. Bad." Rocky: "Astrophage on me star. Bad bad bad." Theory confirmed — same mission.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYASTROPHAGESHARED CRISIS

"'Astrophage on my star. Bad.' '♫♩♪♫ ♫♪♫♩ ♫♪♫,' Rocky says. The computer translates: Astrophage on me star. Bad bad bad. Theory confirmed."

DIAGRAM INSERT — Star map: Sol and 40 Eridani. Astrophage route between them. Two ships, one from each star, meeting here.

INSERTASTRONOMYSHARED MISSION

"'You come from where, question?' He wants the name of my star. 'Sol. My star is called 'Sol.'' 'Understand. Eridian name for you star is ♫♪♫♪♩♩.'"

TWO-SHOT — Rocky asks where Ryland comes from. They exchange star names. Sol. Eridani. Neither can pronounce the other's.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYASTRONOMY/LINGUISTICS

"'My name for your star is 'Eridani,'' I say. 'Eridian name for my star is ♫♩♪♪♪.' Unlike two humans fumbling to communicate, Rocky and I can't even pronounce each other's proper nouns."

MEDIUM — Ryland checks his stopwatch and discovers it has a clock feature. All day on language. Exhausted.

MEDIUMRYLANDSMALL DISCOVERY

"I check my watch — yes, I have a watch now. The stopwatch has a clock feature. It took me a while to notice. I had other things on my mind."

TWO-SHOT — Rocky stretches all his legs and says "I sleep now." First time he has needed sleep since contact. Ryland is astonished.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYSURPRISE/WONDER

"Rocky stretches his legs. 'I sleep now.' 'Wow,' I say. This is the first time he's had to sleep since we met."

WIDE — Ryland hauls his mattress through the ship and duct-tapes it to the tunnel wall to sleep near Rocky.

WIDERYLANDABSURD DEDICATION

"I pull the mattress pad, sheets, and blanket from my bunk. I bring the pad and sheets through the lab, awkwardly through the control room, and into the tunnel. I use a copious amount of duct tape to affix the mattress pad to the wall."

TWO-SHOT — Ryland duct-tapes the mattress to the wall. Rocky watches with sonar active and curious.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYODD INTIMACY

"'I sleep now,' I say. 'Sleep.' I turn off the lights in the tunnel. Total darkness for me, no effect for Rocky, who wants to watch me."

MEDIUM — Rocky floats free in the tunnel, all limbs curled inward, dead-bug still. First observed Eridian sleep.

MEDIUMROCKYALIEN WONDER

"I drift off to the occasional clink and scrape of Rocky working on his device."

MEDIUM — Ryland works on xenonite analysis at the lab bench while Rocky sleeps in the tunnel above.

MEDIUMRYLANDXENONITEQUIET WORK

"Every night, I sleep in the tunnel. He watches. I don't know why. We haven't talked about it yet. We've been too busy with other stuff."

MEDIUM — Rocky produces a small metal ball from his satchel. "I know mass of this ball. You measure. Tell me kilograms." He thought it through.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYMASS PROBLEMINTRIGUE

"Rocky produces a small ball from his satchel. 'I know mass of this ball. You measure. You tell me how many kilograms ball is. Then I know kilogram.' He thought it through!"

INSERT — The iron ball cools in the mini-airlock between sections. Temperature equalization before passing through.

INSERTAIRLOCK/EXCHANGEPATIENCE

"He hangs on to several support poles with various hands and puts it in the mini-airlock. After a few minutes of waiting for it to cool, I have it in my hands. It's smooth and made of a metal."

MEDIUM — Ryland floats in the lab, pondering. No gravity. Can't use a scale. How do you weigh something in zero-g?

MEDIUMRYLANDZERO-G PHYSICSPROBLEM-SOLVING

"How will I measure this? I could make a small centrifuge. But I'd have to build a consistent centrifuge. How would I spin it at a constant rate? Oooh! I don't need a constant rate!"

DIAGRAM INSERT — String centrifuge: nylon string, sample canisters at each end, center marked. Spin until balanced. Equal masses = perfect rotation.

INSERTZERO-G EXPERIMENTINGENUITY

"I just need a string with a mark in the center! I get a piece of nylon string and tie each end around a plastic sample canister. I use a pen to mark the farthest point. That's the exact center."

WIDE — The spinning balance experiment: water-filled canister vs iron ball, Ryland sipping and re-spinning until perfectly centered. 325 grams.

WIDERYLANDZERO-G EXPERIMENTPROBLEM-SOLVING

"I put the half-depleted sipper into one of the buckets and the metal ball into the other. I set the whole thing spinning in the air. The two masses clearly aren't equal. The water side is much heavier."

CLOSE-UP — The device spins perfectly around the center mark. Equal mass. Ryland triumphant — 325 grams of water = 325 grams of ball.

CLOSERYLANDTRIUMPH

"I take more sips, do more spins, take more sips, and so on until my little device rotates perfectly around the marked center point. That means the mass of the water is equal to the mass of the ball."

TWO-SHOT — Ryland returns to tell Rocky how smart he is. Rocky greets him with a fist. "You left! Bad!" Then holds up the beaded necklace.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYCHEMISTRYCOMEDY/IRONY

"I return to the tunnel to tell Rocky all about how smart I am. He balls a fist at me as I enter. 'You left! Bad!' 'I measured the mass! I made a very smart experiment.' He holds up a string with beads on it."

INSERT — Rocky's beaded necklace: 26 beads. Like the atmosphere molecule models. An atom. Element 26.

CLOSERYLANDSELF-DEPRECATING DEFEAT

"He holds up a string with beads on it. 'Twenty-six.' The beaded string is just like the ones he sent me back when we talked about our atmospheres — it's an atom. I count the beads. There are twenty-six in all."

CLOSE-UP — Forehead slap. Iron. Element 26. Rocky was telling him the density the whole time. "You are bad."

MEDIUMRYLANDMEASUREMENTMETHODICAL

"It takes a second to sink in. Then I slap my forehead. 'You are bad.' It was a fun experiment, but a total waste of time. Rocky was giving me all the information I needed. I know how dense iron is."

MEDIUM — Ryland measures the ball with calipers: 4.3 cm. Volume × iron density = 328.25 grams. Off by one percent.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYWONDER/NEW TERRITORY

"I pull a pair of calipers out of the toolkit I keep in the tunnel and measure the sphere's diameter. It's 4.3 centimeters. I get a much more precise and accurate mass of 328.25 grams. 'I was only off by one percent,' I grumble."

MEDIUM — Rocky: "You observe, question?" He watched Ryland sleep — now offers the same. "Yes. Want want want." Tripled word: extreme emphasis.

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYINSISTENCE

"'You observe, question?' He watched me sleep, so it's only fair he offer to let me watch him. 'Yes. Want want want.' Through unspoken agreement, a tripled word means extreme emphasis."

MEDIUM — Ryland points to Blip-A through the porthole. "Have some other Eridian observe you." Rocky: "No." A long pause.

MEDIUMRYLAND+ROCKYLOGICAL SUGGESTION

"I point to his ship. 'Have some other Eridian observe you.' 'No.' 'Why not?' Rocky is quiet for a moment."

CLOSE-UP — Rocky goes quiet. His voice drops lower than anything before. The translator outputs complete nonsense.

CLOSEROCKYGRIEF

"Complete nonsense. Did my kludged-together translation software fail? The waveforms seem similar to the ones I'd seen before. But they're lower. That whole sentence seemed lower in pitch than anything Rocky has ever said before."

WIDE INSERT — Rocky's sentence as nonsense waveform — every note lower than normal. Ryland bumps it up an octave. The translation comes through.

WIDERYLAND+ROCKYGRIEF/SHOCK

"I select the whole segment and bump it up an octave. The octave is a universal thing — it means doubling the frequency of every note. The computer immediately translates the result: 'Original crew was twenty-three. Now is only me.'"

TWO-SHOT — Ryland puts his hand against the xenonite divider. Rocky places a claw on the other side. "Bad." "Bad bad bad."

TWO-SHOTRYLAND+ROCKYGRIEF/SOLIDARITY

"I put my hand up against the divider. Rocky puts a claw on the divider opposite my hand. 'Bad.' 'Bad bad bad.' We stay like that for a moment."

EXTREME WIDE — Both ships. The tunnel. Tau Ceti distant. "I'll watch you sleep." "Good. Me sleep." Rocky's arms relax and he floats free.

WIDERYLAND+ROCKYSOLIDARITY/HOPE

"'I'll watch you sleep.' 'Good. Me sleep,' he says. His arms relax and they go limp. He floats free in his side of the tunnel. 'Well, you're not alone anymore, buddy,' I say. 'Neither of us are.'"

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