Kent/Feldspar

[videointhenoise]

"Just once more," they had said when Ellie's team petitioned for it. She was busy with Palmer, falling in love with science while he fell in love with God, and Kent was left to pick up the pieces. He wanted another damn go at it. The Machine had a pricetag in the billions; it was begging to be used again.

But they wouldn't let Ellie go. They wouldn't let just anyone go. They wanted someone who knew how it worked, who had been there from the beginning, but someone who isn't completely taken in by Ellie's words.

That leads them to a dozen people and they end up with Kent. He's blind, but that's not what decides it. They claim that he wouldn't hallucinate the way Ellie did. That he has a unique perspective.

And, he's already proven himself steady and loyal.

He experiences it all the way that Ellie does, but something goes wrong on the other end. Maybe another terrorist attack. Maybe not. All he knows is that he's in the sphere and then, suddenly, he's floating, unable to find his footing until a great crash and he slams into the bottom of the machine.

He groans, pulling his helmet on with a grunt and a wince.

"Fuck this," he mutters, finding the edge of the sphere with his hands. There was a door there somewhere. He just - has to find it.

Comments

[videointhenoise]

"We have two...well, two main sexes. Male and female. There's a lot of societal pressure involved with each, but most mammals, animals like humans, have male and female for sexual reproduction."

[getfeldsparred]

“Oh, okay, okay,” Feldspar nods. “Yeah, there are animals on Timber Hearth that have two different…what did you call them? Genders? Live birth, right? That’s interesting, males and females.”

Societal pressure sounds…stupid.

“How does all that work then? Who raises the hatchlings?”

[videointhenoise]

"Hatchlings," he laughs. "Uh, we call them kids. Children. And - the parents do, typically. Mother and father. Male and female. The female carries."

He runs his fingers along the top of his helmet. "But I was raised by my grandparents. My mother's parents," he explains. "So it's not a hard and fast rule."

[getfeldsparred]

“Children,” they say, frowning to themself. “Children. Huh.”

Not hatchlings, children. Mother and father. Grandparents. All of it just sounds so weird to them.

“So…you’re one or the other? Which are you?”

[videointhenoise]

"Male," he answers. "So we use - he. Not they."

[getfeldsparred]

He, not they. Oh, they’re going to have a hard time remembering that, but they’ll try.

“Male. So you lay the eggs or ah…carry the child? Is that right? Do you have children?”

[videointhenoise]

"Nope, we just contribute half the genetic code. The female carries the children and they're born after nine months gestation," he says, steeling himself on the floor again as he loses his grip a little.

"How does it work for your people?"

[getfeldsparred]

“Oh.”

That seems like a lot of work on the female, and then they don’t even really have the help of the community to raise the child. Doesn’t seem fair, or really even sensible.

“Uh, well, some of us lay eggs, some don’t. When we…uh…you know, copulate, I guess if you want to call it that, sometimes an egg gets fertilized. Not all the time, else we’d be overrun, but occasionally. We bring the egg to our hatching grounds and when the new hatchling is born we have a ceremony to bring them into the community. The hatchling stays with the elders until they’re old enough to join the communal living space we have for our youngsters.”

[videointhenoise]

"Wow. That sounds like a utopia," he says with a laugh. "We have a saying on our planet. It takes a village to raise a child. Guess you all seemed to take that seriously."

[getfeldsparred]

They laugh quietly. "There's a similar saying on Timber Hearth, but we take ours much more literally. There aren't a lot of us, and our species went through a lot to get to where we are now. But other than the fact that you can't have a private thought in your own head without everyone in the village knowing, it's a good way to live."

They slow down the ship a bit when they feel a little rattle in the controls, letting it coast a little as they pass the Attlerock.

[videointhenoise]

Kent tightens his grip on the wall and closes his eyes behind the helmet's visor.

"You can't have a private thought? You - can read minds?" he wonders, taking him literally.

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar laughs a little louder. “No, no, nothing like that! We’re close, that’s all. It was exaggeration. You doing okay over there?”

[videointhenoise]

Oh thank god. That would be one too many weird things for Kent to take.

"As well as I can be in a literal rocket ship I can't see with no safety features. What's our ETA?"

[getfeldsparred]

“Few minutes,” Feldspar answers. Gossan’s gonna love this alien, especially considering they’re going to side with them on safety features.

“When we land let’s keep your space suit on. I’m going to take you to ground control.” Which is just a cabin outside of the crater at the moment, but hey, everyone’s got to start somewhere!

[videointhenoise]

"Trying to hide me? Is ground control your code word for a zoo, because if I don't get fed three times a day, I might bite," he says with a laugh.

[getfeldsparred]

“Don’t promise a Hearthian a good time,” they snort. “But seriously, keep that helmet on. You’ll be rushed by the entire village if you don’t.”

[videointhenoise]

"Yeah, I figure I'll be very popular very soon," he snickers.

"But I'll do whatever you tell me. Not like I can wander off."

[getfeldsparred]

“I mean, you could wander off, but you probably wouldn’t want to. Might walk into a geyser.”

Feldspar chuckles and picks up the radio, calling down to Hornfels again. “Approaching the launch pad. ETA seven minutes.”

[videointhenoise]

"And launch myself back into space? No thanks," he laughs because that's an absurd thing to happen to anyone.

Seven minutes, though. He can do that. His heart is pounding in his ears and he thinks maybe he might faint, but the need to know is so much stronger than fear.

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar shows far more care than he would normally in their descent, utilizing their thrusters and cameras and even pausing to hover when they weren’t quite aligned with the launch pad. It makes for an almost elegant touch down, which they know someone’s going to comment on when they get themselves out of the ship.

And surprise surprise, all of the members of Outer Wilds Ventures are standing there with various levels of worry.

Feldspar sighs and pulls their helmet off. “We’re here. My team’s waiting outside. Are you ready? Do you need a few more minutes?”

[videointhenoise]

He stands up and finds his footing, shaking his head. "No," he assures them. "No, I think I can walk out now."

He stretches his arms in front of him. "You can go first," he laughs.

[getfeldsparred]

With their helmet off they can get a better, more clear look at the alien space suit and anatomy. And really, nothing seems all that different except the fingers and the fact that their suit is neater and sleeker.

“Brilliant idea,” they reply, hopping off their seat and undoing the hatch in the center of the ship. They poke their head out, and much to their chagrin see a few of the hatchlings coming around to see the landing. Feldspar frowns and whistles loudly, catching a worried-looking Hornfels attention and waving them over.

“Get the hatchlings outta here, will ya? This is…this is big, and we can’t cause a scene.”

Hornfels frowns and tries to look around Feldspar - either at their spacesuit to see signs of an injury, or inside for some strange discovery. They’re blocked as Feldspar weaves around.

“I’m fine, but I mean it. I need a clear path to HQ.”

They’re rarely this serious, and Hornfels luckily picks up on it and nods quickly. “I’ll have Gossan take them back.”

[videointhenoise]

Kent leans down, over the hole of the ship, not yet going down the ladder. Hatchlings? How many are there?

Their security isn't all that strict, then.

He stays where he is, waiting for Feldspar's consent.

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar sits back with a soft exhale. “Hatchlings love to watch the ships come back,” they mumble, “I’m sure they saw us touching down and dropped whatever they were doing to see if I brought back some artifact or a wild story.”

They pause, then chuckle softly. “I mean, they’d be right, wouldn’t they?”

Talk about a wild story, meaning and bringing home an alien! They’d love to sit around the campfire and brag about this one - except Kent. Kent’s a living, breathing being, separated entirely from their own kind. It must be incredibly lonely.

After another check they start down the ladder, finding that Slate also came up from whatever pile of tech and explosives they’d been working on to see why Feldspar had returned so soon. Feldspar waves slightly but doesn’t approach the small group, instead they wait by the end of the ladder to help the newcomer down.

[videointhenoise]

Kent swallows hard, his throat dry as he tries not to cough. The world around him is so unsteady but he descends the ladder with minimal effort, his breath a little ragged now.

He reaches a gloved hand behind him, trusting the flighty being to be there for him. He has so far.