On the shoulders of astrophage

by OneMarsyBoi

Summary:

Based of staurnissicks work and my own ideas. A Mere two decades after earth and Erid solved the crisis they learn they aren't the only two civilization affected

Notes:

Big thanks to saturnissick for inspiring me to write this. He has given me permission to use his characters and the like. Also this is the very first story (outside of school assignments) that I'm writing so and advice is greatly appreciated

Chapter 1: Unexpected traffic

27 years. Twenty seven exiting years since i woke up on Hail Mary. Well more like 77 (thanks Einstien) but still its hard to believe And even harder to believe I’m back out here, flying between stars for the fourth time. Fourth! Me—the guy who almost threw up at the thought of rollercoasters—is now humanity’s expert on interstellar travel and alien rekations.

Going home was... surreal. I never thought I'd see Earth again, and when I did, it wasn’t exactly home anymore. There was cheering, hugging, crying, too much ugly crying and questions—so many fucking questions. I remember the first time Rocky and I made formal contact with each other’s planets. Awkward doesn’t begin to describe it,(well from earths perspective we did just show up out of the blue). but we managed. Rocky, of course, was instantly famous. I guess I was too, in  a weird kind of way. 

Earth and Erid started trading almost immediately—ideas, goods, solutions for astrophage-related problems we hadn’t even thought of yet. Turns out, the astrophage engines that almost ended life on both our planets were exactly what we needed to reach each other safely again and again.

But today feels different. Maybe it’s because it’s the anniversary of my rude awakening aboard the Hail Mary, I don't know. Theres a collective feeling of anticipation what for? Beats me. But Lucas seems especially on edge. We’re not scheduled for anything unusual, but space travel has taught me one thing above all else: schedules mean absolutely nothing out here.

And, speak of the devil—Luke just pinged me. Something’s happening on the radar, he says. Something weird. Of course. Because why would anything ever be easy? 

Alright, let’s think logically.

 

Either we’re looking at the first interstellar traffic jam, or we just made history—again.

I stare at the radar, watching as the blip—definitely a ship—moves in perfect sync with us. It’s not a rock, not a chunk of debris, not some weird gravitational anomaly. It’s a controlled object with controlled motion.   And it’s watching us.

"Still nothing on comms," Luke says, scanning the console like it personally offended him. "No standard hailing signals, no broadband radio, no laser pulses, nothing. They either don’t know how to say hello, or they’re choosing not to."

I shift my focus to our trajectory map. The Pathfinder is moving at cruising speed, nothing unusual about our heading. The Seeker—and yeah, I’m calling it that until we get a better name—appeared behind us, slightly off to the side. It adjusted to our speed before we even realized it was there.

 

That’s intelligence. No doubt about it.

Rocky clambers in, moving with practiced ease in microgravity. His body tenses the moment he sees the display. “Earth question Erid question"

"Negative," I say, keeping my voice steady. "Unknown contact. Tracking us. No response to comms."

Rocky’s carapace shifts slightly, a sign of thought. "Strange. Strange."

Yeah, no kidding.

Kaityn follows, adjusting the fit of her atmospheric suit—Eridians need a different pressure environment, but she’s adapted well to mixed-crew ships. She glances at the radar, then at the flight data, then at me. "Bad."

Luke raises an eyebrow. "Great insight. Thanks.”sarcastically.

Kaityn’s eyes narrow. "Observation: No standard greeting. No signal matching known languages. No explanation for presence. Conclusion: Bad."

Luke grunts, but doesn’t argue.

I exhale and rub my face. "Okay. Options. We keep hailing them, keep sending out a universal greeting, see if anything sticks."

"Move toward?" Rocky suggests.

"Or move away," Luke counters. "We have no idea what they want. If they wanted to board us or intercept us, they could’ve just dropped right in our path."

Kaityn tilts her head, thinking. "Possibility: They are cautious. Like us."

It’s a fair point. The “dark Forrest” solution to the Fermi paradox If this were our first time seeing an alien species up close, would we be the ones to make the first move?

Oh, right. That was me. And Rocky. And it was weird as hell.

"Alright," I say, leaning forward. "We send something simple. Something they have to recognize if they’re intelligent."

Rocky clicks in agreement. "Math."

"Exactly." I type out a simple binary signal and transmit it via laser pulses. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21… Fibonacci. Nature’s favorite sequence.

We wait.

A minute passes.  Two.

Luke shifts impatiently. "I swear, if we’re sitting here broadcasting to space just to get ignored—"

Then the Seeker pulses its engines.

Three short bursts. A pause. Three more. Another pause. Not random.

Luke sits up straight. "Did they just—?"  Rocky’s carapace ripples. "Response confirmed." I swallow. "Okay. Okay. They’re watching. They’re thinking." Another burst—this time a slower, deliberate sequence.

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13…

Prime numbers.My stomach drops in the best possible way. That’s intelligence. That’s proof.Kaityn makes a soft chittering sound, adjusting something on her console. "Message received. Confirm understanding?" “Yeah," I breathe, already typing the next response. "Let’s make this a two-way street."

I send another burst. Simple atomic numbers: Hydrogen (1), Helium (2), Lithium (3)…

Seconds later, the Seeker responds in kind. Same elements, different notation.  "Son of a bitch," Luke mutters.  Rocky taps his claws against the console. "First-contact scenario begun."

I grin despite myself. "Yep."

I switch the comms back on, feeling the weight of history settle around me.

"Alright, new friends. Let’s see how much we can say without words

Chapter 2: ghosted

Summary:

after initial contact they try to find more efficient ways to communicate. with varying degrees of success before deciding to try something bold

Notes:

here's something from rocky perspective ant this time I wanted to give all my characters a role.
also a reminder that this is technically a spinoff of Saturn's work "we're finally landing (home)"

I chuckle at Grace's words. Not because it's funny but because it reminds me of the first time we met. 

“Ok, let's see, what else could we send that indicates intelligence? For all we know, they could be copying us or using pattern recognition.” Luke grumbles.

“You make a good point, besides that our translators aren't universal like Star Trek!” Naomi agrees.

The parallels between this and Earth-Erid contact are uncanny. Especially when I remember copying the spin up of the hail mary  But the point still stands. Working out a language is tedious at best. Absolutely infuriating at worst. Thought we could bypass-

“Universal constants!!” Grace announces confidently smiling.

“What do constants have to do with this?” Luke asked. 

“Think about it. If they had an understanding of maths and physics, they would know these constants. 

So we proceed to do just that. first the digits of pi (specifficaly 3.141592653589793238462643) then e. planks constant big G but over time we encounter a roadblock. Flickering a laser isn't an efficient way of communication. 

Kaityn balls her hand. 

“This is soOO slow.” 

“Agreed, this isn't providing us with any information whatsoever apart from the aliens' intelligence, which is a given since they have an interstellar ship.”

We spend some time mulling over other suggestions. Kaityn suggests trying the radio, but we don't know if they even have a transmitter. 

“Wait,” Luke perks up. “When Rocky and Grace met, how did you communicate initially?” 

Grace slaps his forehead so hard he tumbles into the wall. 

“OF COURSE THE CYLINDERS” 

Why didn't we think of this before? If it worked for Grace, why not here? 

Kaityn volunteers to make the cylinder, and Naomi volunteers to make the message. 

First we send out a cylinder with our location, Erid Tau Ceti and Earth, with the Petrova line as a basic sign (if it ain't broke, don't fix it). 

Adrian volunteered to operate the robot to throw it to the seeker.

We wait as it plods along. 

Nothing 

No robot, no EVA from them. Nothing to suggest they would receive it 

-Aaand it just clunks off the hull. rude. 

Guess these social eaters didn't think to mount a robot on their hull or the need to even go outside. 

“Great plan.” Luke mutters.  

So 

We tried sending radio signals again. 

Nothing 

Engine flares

Still nothing 

Even sending grace out on EVA to wave at them whilst travelling a good percentage of C 

NOTHING 

THESE DAMM ALIENS WONT TALK TO US

 

All the signs pointed to the seekers' crew having intelligence. 

And yet they didn’t respond (or, as my friend Grace calls it, “ghosting”).

“This reminds me of when Rocky didn't come back home on time when the blip a was being built.” 

"Do you have to bring this up?"

"What is even more hilarious is that I just went straight to him rather than waiting."

“Straight to them?” Naomi enquired. 

“Yeah, Can’t we just build the tunnel and wait for them to come out?” Luke grumbled. 

“I guess so.”  

Wait, didn't you have to chisel a part of the Hail Mary so Rocky would know his glue worked?

"ok we don't have to be that violent" cautioned Grace "after all we do have a handheld x-ray spectrometer

I can do it! “Naomi squealed.” 

“Aight, but try not to scare them,” Grace joked.

Notes:

yes I know its been a while
and I know it may seem unfinished but I wanted to post something to commemorate 100 days till phm movie and i dont want to let perfectionism stall my progress.
and i want to get as much done as possible in the lead up to the movie.
also next up will be my phm secret Santa assignment