Chapter Text
be-beep, be-beep, be-beep, be-beep
Cooper fumbled with his watch, “Alright, alright, I’m up.”
The timer on the jukebox clicked. Cooper started the Mr. Coffee in the corner.
“-came up from the country with a smile for everyone. She left her blue horizon just to find another home..”
That was the weirdest dream Cooper ever had, aliens? Seriously? He really had been in here too long. Well, time to make some breakfast.
“... A lonely girl who traveled many days, a lonely heart that could not find no way…”
Grilled spam and hardtack had started to get old. So, Cooper thought he’d try his hand at bacon and pancakes.
“... And she said, ‘Mama, it’s a hard life, now you’re gone, Mama, it’s so hard to carry on…”
He broke open a package of bacon and set a couple strips on the griddle. He set it down on the burner. It sizzled, lifting a haze and the smell of an easy-going diner into the air.
“Huh, wuh- Morning already? What’re you up to?”
Oh. Uh-huh. Not a dream. That’s cool.
“Uh… breakfast. Want some pancakes?”
“I’ll have whatever you make.”
Cooper nursed his coffee down and started to work on the batter, he mixed in the usual ingredients and a little butter. It just seemed a little utilitarian, though. What did his mother always do? Right, vanilla. Maybe there was some in the… Yup, he had a glass of extract tucked under the counter. Solanum slowly roused herself with a yawn and rubbed her eyes.
“Доброе утро.”
“Oh, hey, good morning.”
“Morning, Solanum, you hungry?” Cooper mimed bringing a spoon to his mouth.
“Oh, да… yes.”
Cooper removed the bacon from the griddle and the griddle from the burner. A pan replaced it and batter was poured in. He put a few strips on one plate, and the rest on another. The plate was laid onto a tray alongside cups of coffee.
“Here’s some bacon and coffee, I’m gonna call Francis while the pancakes are cooking.”
Laz and Solanum both selected a strip of bacon and inspected it.
“You just eat it. And the coffee is like wake up juice.” Cooper fiddled with the F.A.X. machine, “Hey, Francis, you up? Come in.”
“... Morning, Cooper. I was hoping you’d call soon. I wasn’t able to make much sense of the translator data, but I think I found the code responsible for conversion. It’s a linear algorithmic process, so I copied the data and reworked it to reverse the process. It should automatically detect the language and work automatically from there. There’s also some new code that should let the screen display the alien language.”
Laz lifted his attention, “Oh, sweet!”
Cooper gnawed on his bacon. “Geez, you finished already? Well, thanks, but did you get any sleep?” Cooper flipped the pancake.
“Technically, no. No, I didn’t sleep at all. This was just so exciting.”
Cooper could hear him yawning through the tiny, tinny speaker.
“Alright, well send it over. And get some sleep, you sound like you’re about to fall outta your chair.”
“Tell Francis we say hi.”
“Laz and Sol say hi.”
“Oh, hey. Data’s on the way now, hard drive’s also… moving. Connection’s been slow so the hard drive might get there before the data finishes sending. Good night.”
“Yeah, Good night, Francis.”
Laz and Solanum had emptied their plate. A whole day on s’mores, hot chocolate, and granola bars must not have been very filling. He slipped the pancake onto their plate and handed them a set of forks and knives.
“Here you go, don’t dig in just yet, lemme get you some syrup.” Cooper poured more batter into the pan and rustled through the cabinets for a bottle of maple syrup. He returned to the duo, bottle in hand.
“This is the good stuff, from up north.” Cooper poured a gratuitous amount on the large pancake.
“Thanks.”
“Спасибо вам.”
ssssssssSSSSSSHHHHH-THNK… ding!
“Special delivery! and yeah…” Cooper looked at the ones and zeroes filling the F.A.X. machine’s screen, “... wireless data is really slow right now. Pneumatube got the drive here before it was even halfway finished. Let’s see if this works, we still have a backup copy if we need it.”
Laz excitedly hurried over to the terminal and Cooper pinned the connectors back into the translator as Laz set it into maintenance mode. Data started flowing in. Cooper barely had enough time for another pancake before the transfer finished. It was only a patch after all.
Cooper retrieved the translator and handed it to Laz. They expectantly looked at Solanum. She eyed them, confused, before writing.
“She says, ‘Am I eating this wrong too?’”
“Ha! No you guys are fine.”
“Alright, let’s see if this works…”
[ He says you’re fine, we’re just trying to see if the translator works both ways now. ]
At the press of a button, the translator took the English writing and turned it into crude rows of lines, dashes, and rings. Just without the spiralling shape that Solanum’s writing had shown. Laz turned the screen to face Solanum. She looked surprised before squinting and taking a moment to mouth out the words. Solanum started excitedly bouncing in place.
More writing.
[ This is amazing! We now have a means of two-way communication! I apologize for taking a moment to read, ends of lines are typically to denote the end of an idea or phrase in my language. I see now that it is a rather simple matter of left-to-right and top-to-bottom. ]
“Curves would be the only way to get one big line to fit on anything…”
“This is amazing! Tell Francis he’s a genius!”
“From what I heard from him all the hard work was already done in there, you must have put a lot into this thing.”
Laz started looking sad all of the sudden, he sat down. “Yeah, I mean I built it but… Hal did all the hard work deciphering the language.”
“Who’s Hal? was he… Oh.”
Solanum set a hand over Laz’s shoulders. “They were my best friend back there, I miss them. I miss everyone, but I’ll never see them again. They’re gone.”
“... I’m not really in a good position to say this, but I may never make it out of here, ever. Everyone I know has probably given up on looking for me, but I push myself. I get out there nearly every day and keep going. Even if I’m not doing it for me, I keep going, because if I stop… I guess I wouldn’t be doing right by them. You gotta keep moving, it doesn’t matter what direction, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know where to go, so long as you keep moving.”
Laz quietly reflected on Cooper’s words, Solanum seemed concerned.
“... Yeah that was awfully sappy, but it’s true… How’s about some more pancakes?”
They spent the rest of the half hour just talking. Trading stories and experiences. Turns out that Solanum was ancient, two-hundred and eighty-something thousand years, but no older than Laz, some quantum weirdness or something. When the time came, Cooper got up and made for the car.
“It’s nearly seven and I want as much daylight driving as possible, I should head out soon.”
“What should we bring?” Laz started relaying the conversation to Solanum.
“You’re not- It’s waaaaay too dangerous out there. You can’t come with me.”
Laz stared him down and crossed their arms, “Trust me, I’ve dealt with danger before, we can handle ourselves.”
Solanum read and nodded in affirmation.
“I don’t think you understand, ‘abnormal is normal’ remember? Out there, the laws of physics hold just about as much weight as paper mache in a rainstorm. It’s not safe.”
“Not safe? We stared down the big bang! I’m an astronaut for crying out loud and you don’t know the half of what I’ve been through.”
“I can’t keep tabs on two other people!” Cooper held his hands out in front of him, exasperated.
“You don’t have to. Astronauts remember? We both flew through space on the regular.”
[ And I, for one, am very interested in the differences found on this planet. ]
He put his fingers on the bridge of his nose, “...Alright, fine. We’ll have to make more fuel stops to make up for not having tanks in the back, but it’ll be fine. Come on, load up, get your jackets on, we got places to be. Oh, and Solanum, you’re gonna need these.”
He held up a pair of oddly shaped boots.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I took some measurements and cobbled together some proper winter boots before I went to bed, these’ll keep you warm.”
Solanum took the boots and gave them an appraising look before fitting them on.
“And Laz, you’re probably gonna wanna wear this, you got long ears, lots of surface area. You’d do well to cover them up. Frostbite’s a bitch.” Cooper handed them a hat lined on the inside with, you guessed it, cotton. It had two flaps to cover the ears and an exposed area of cotton was folded up over the forehead area.
[ Thank you, Cooper, but if you did not want us to join you, why did you make these? ]
“Maybe I just wanted to see how much you really wanted to get out there. Come on, we’re burning daylight.”
He really didn't, those were just supposed to be gifts. What are you gonna do?
Cooper locked in the destination and the front garage door lifted open. The snow had stopped, but it had easily packed to two feet in height.
“Whoo, nothing like a trial by fire, or ice in this case.”
The car glided over and through the snow. The plow forced it to the sides, it’s like it wasn’t even there. These two had done a great job. They’d have made great mechanics.
[ Question: What are we doing? ]