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It was a Thursday, or at least what passed for one on Erid, and the final day of school for the week.
As with most things in their society, Eridian weeks were also counted in multiples of six, not seven like on Earth, and so I had named the days Monday to Friday and then just ‘Weekend’ for the final day. To paraphrase one of my favourite Earth podcasts, scientists really shouldn’t be allowed to name things, and yet here I was with an awful lot of things to name.
During the periods of the year when I taught younger age groups, I ran my classes for four days in a row with a two-day break, which meant Thursday was the new Friday. In keeping with how I ran my classes back on Earth, the final day of the week was always more relaxed. Most weeks I would let the pebbles dictate topics, share educational photos and movies from Earth – David Attenborough was always a favourite no matter who I was teaching – or just let the pebbles ask questions about Earth and do my best to answer.
Today, however, I had one of my favourite laid-back lessons planned: Show and Tell. I’d run this class occasionally on Earth too, but back there I’d kept them to a minimum; there are only so many geodes you can pretend to enthuse over as a middle school teacher after all. On Erid, though, Show and Tell was as much for me as it was for the pebbles. They all loved it because they could bring in the most mundane items imaginable: the Eridian equivalent of a spoon or a bar of soap, and I’d have probably never seen it before. They all loved being able to teach me stuff too, and so it was also a subtle but effective way to get the more shy kids to come out of their carapaces, so to speak.
I always brought my own item for Show and Tell and had the pebbles guess what it was and its function. Today I had brought the mop, and the class went wild trying to figure it out. Their guesses included a human stand-in for a puppet show, an item of sports equipment, and a sculpture of an Earth animal. That last one did prompt me to show them a photograph of a Komondor dog which they all went crazy for. Earth animals were a perennial favourite topic in all my classes.
Once I had put the mop away, we went around the group, and each of the pebbles came up to the barrier to show me their item. I always sat on the floor close to the barrier so I could see their items as clearly as possible. Their choices this class included a kind of shoe worn when working in dangerous environments (that pebble’s parent was an environmental scientist), an Eridian audiobook ‘tape’, a stylus used to etch designs into thin sheets of metal, and a kind of ball used in a sport I still hadn’t the faintest idea how to understand. It was all fascinating to me.
One of the pebbles, clearly the class clown who I had named Robin, came up and presented something that made the entire class erupt in a mixture of embarrassed horror and utter disgust. Once I had settled everyone back down, I figured out it was a tool used in the preparation of food, and I had to remind everyone that food wasn’t taboo in my culture, whilst also reminding Robin to be more respectful of their classmates. Middle schoolers apparently like to cause chaos no matter what star system you’re in.
Finally, one pebble was left, a shy student I had named Bella. They came forward and opened a small, strange-looking bag, holding it sideways right by the floor and jiggling it slightly. I squinted, trying to see what I was looking at, then suddenly gasped. A very small creature had rolled out of the bag and was now snuffling around on the floor in much the same way I had once seen my friend’s pet hedgehog do. The creature looked a bit like when you make a ball of fluffy iron filings with a magnet, but the thing it reminded me of the most was the Soot Sprites from My Neighbour Totoro, although without any eyes. It could have comfortably sat in the palm of my hand.
"What is that?" I asked in wonder, realising I had shifted myself as close to the barrier as I could physically get.
"It’s a 𝅘𝅥𝅗𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅱𝅘𝅥𝅱", Bella told me. They had been gauging my reaction and seemed to have relaxed upon seeing my obvious delight. I decided to translate the name as Soot Sprite. "It’s a kind of exotic pet. We keep them in special tanks but they can come out for a few hours at a time. Mine is called ♭𝅝𝅘𝅥𝅲𝅘𝅥𝅲, and my parents got it for me for my birthday. They’re kind of a rare pet because they originally come from a part of the planet that’s quite inaccessible, but they’re getting more common now."
I nod along, unable to tear my eyes away from the adorable little critter.
"You know, this is the first Eridian creature I’ve ever seen apart from you guys?" I tell the class, and Bella actually seems to preen a little at this. They carry on talking for a few more minutes, explaining about the creature’s dietary habits, care and maintenance, and lifespan, which is something akin to my own. I’ve never seen them so animated, and it reminds me of why I love this job so much.
Suddenly I realise what the time is and tear myself away from the barrier and the soot sprite. I ask Bella to repeat the word for it again so I can add it to my translator and then dismiss the class, reminding them of an assignment I’d set earlier in the week that’s due on ‘Monday’. They all troop happily out of the room, shouting various forms of "Goodbye, Mr Grace" and "Have a fun weekend!" That never stops making me happy.
I’m tidying up the room for the end of the day when Rocky knocks from somewhere behind me. He’s in his new EVA suit and plonks himself down at the border between the beach and my classroom.
"Hello, Rocky," I attempt to trill in Eridian; it sounds awful as always and makes him laugh.
"Good afternoon, Grace. Did your classes go well today?"
We chat for a while as I finish tidying the room. I tell him about the things my students brought in to show me, and Rocky has just started telling me about the thrum he attended when I see movement on the other side of the xenonite barrier. I frown and walk over to see Bella frantically skittering around inside the Erid side of the classroom, their parent standing in the doorway and vibrating in a way that I've learned signifies anxiety.
"Bella?" I ask, grateful to have not packed away my translation devices yet. "Is everything ok?"
"Mr Grace!" They trill in such a high pitch of panic that my software can’t detect it. I only know what they said because my name in Eridian is so familiar to me by now. "I can’t find ♭𝅝𝅘𝅥𝅲𝅘𝅥𝅲!"
It takes me a moment to place the word, then it hits me; it’s the name of their pet soot sprite.
"I was showing it to some people outside the classroom, and someone knocked into me, so I dropped it. It was busy, and I don’t know where it went! Can you see it with your light sense, Mr Grace?" Bella asks pleadingly.
I crouch down and peer into the classroom on their side. I look as hard as I can, but there’s no sign of the little creature anywhere. Rocky has joined me by the barrier, and I can feel him sending out special low-frequency echolocation tones to search for it too, but there’s nothing there.
"I’m sorry, I can’t see it anywhere," I say.
"We’ve looked all over the lobby area, and there’s no sign of it," Bella’s parent says, sounding concerned. The lobby area outside my biodome is always a hive of activity, filled with Eridians going to and from my various lecture theatres and classrooms, into the permanent exhibits about Earth and the Astrophage missions, and into the secure maintenance rooms that control my environment. It’s also where the main air lock into my atmosphere is located.
My stomach suddenly drops.
"Rocky," I ask, trying to keep my tone casual so I don’t accidentally alarm Bella even more. "When did you come through the airlock?"
"Rocky came through just as Grace’s class was leaving," he replies, and I can tell he’s had the same horrible thought I have.
"I’ll check," I tell Bella’s parent, and Rocky and I both run out of my classroom and skid awkwardly across the beach toward the area on my side of the airlock. The creature is tiny; if it somehow slipped through the airlock at the same time as Rocky, even a few seconds in my atmosphere would be catastrophic. We spend several minutes searching together using our different senses, but to no avail.
"Rocky will go into the airlock and check inside," Rocky tells me and he disappears through the door to cycle it through. I look around for a few more seconds before making my way back to the classroom. I arrive just as Rocky enters on the other side of the barrier.
"I’m sorry, there’s no sign of it in here," I say, feeling weirdly guilty.
"Nothing in the airlock either," Rocky trills sadly.
Bella begins keening and is comforted by their parent.
"Thank you for searching, Dr Grace," their parent says to me. "We will expand the search on this side. Hopefully, ♭𝅝𝅘𝅥𝅲𝅘𝅥𝅲 will turn up soon."
"I hope so. Please let me know when you find it."
They trill in agreement and start ushering Bella out of the classroom, leaving me and Rocky alone. I sit down hard on the floor and sigh heavily.
"Grace upset?" Rocky asks.
"Yeah," I agree, running my hand over my stubble. "I feel like it’s my fault, you know? If I hadn’t told the pebbles to bring things to class today, then it wouldn’t be missing now."
"Not Grace’s fault," Rocky insists.
"I know, I know," I mutter, getting to my feet and finishing up tidying the room. "Hey pal, would you do me a favour and go help them look? I feel useless stuck in here not being able to do more."
I rarely get frustrated at being locked inside my biodome, but there are moments, and this is one of them.
"Grace does not want to hear about thrum?" Rocky asks.
"I’d only be distracted. Tell me about it when you come by later with Adrian, yeah?"
"Yes, yes, OK. Rocky will help Grace’s student look for pet. Grace go home, do human things, get ready for tonight."
He skitters off back out of the classroom and out onto the surface of Erid and I feel a pang of loneliness seeing him leave, even though I know he’ll be back in a few hours anyway. It’s movie night with us and Adrian later, but they always give me time to do my "human things", like eating and showering after work in private. Adrian put up with a lot when Rocky came home from space years deep into a highly codependent relationship with a leaky alien, but they have welcomed me into their family with open claws; the least I can do for them is eat in privacy as often as I can.
I make my way home from work going the "long way", winding up and down the beach between the rock face and the water. I tell myself it’s for exercise, but I know that I’m really looking for the soot sprite. I can’t remember feeling so impotent and useless since I got my health back here on Erid, and I don’t like the feeling. I want to be outside helping, and instead I’m stuck in here. Heaven knows what I'd be like if there was any kind of real disaster if I’m feeling like this over a missing pet!
When I get home I make myself a meburger and eat it quickly so I’m definitely finished well before Rocky and Adrian get here, but I’m just not feeling it. I’m also not feeling like taking a shower, so once I’ve cleaned up, I change into my sweatpants and a soft T-shirt and make my way back down to the beach with my laptop to wait. I’ve probably got an hour or so before my mates arrive, so I settle down in one of my favourite spots near a collection of rocks that are the perfect shape to lean against and watch the faux sunset while I continue reading my book.
I’ve been sitting there for maybe thirty minutes when I hear the noise, and I freeze. Living in the biodome is weird sometimes. It looks like Earth and even sounds like it if you don’t pay too much attention, but if you do, you start to see and hear all the things that aren’t there. There are no bird calls; you never come across a shell or an unusual piece of driftwood along the shore. Other than the steady motion of the waves, there is no movement here, and there certainly shouldn’t be any unusual noises. But there it is again, a sort of haunting whistle layered over the sound of ball bearings being poured into a glass jar.
My first thought is that this is the latest enrichment addition to my dome dreamt up by one of the engineering team or by Rocky himself. My whole Eridian support team is (rightly) concerned about the negative mental health effects of me living in here long-term, and they like to try and come up with things to vary my days. The best one recently was when I woke up on a weekend to find numerous beach toys made from silicon scattered on the sand – that was a fun day. I’d kept all of it and spent a great afternoon teaching my pebbles how to make sandcastles as an experiment in physics.
However, I’m convinced that this is not an enrichment thing. For one, it’s too late in the day and right before I already have plans, and two, Rocky knows how easily spooked I am. He would never sign off on putting something in my dome that will make weird noises just as it’s going dark and I’m alone. The whistling starts again, and my heart rate skyrockets. I want to bolt for my house, lock the door, and wait for the two big rock aliens to show up. It’s the opposite of how I used to be on Earth; now I need the spiders to help me when I used to need help getting the spiders out.
I hear the noise again, and it’s definitely closer now. I’m scared, but I remind myself that I am a grown man in a controlled environment where a whole team of specialists work around the clock to make sure there is nothing here that could hurt me other than my own stupid self, so I steel myself and go to try and find whatever is causing it. The ‘sun’ has set, but there’s always low-level ambient 'moonlight' in here at Rocky’s insistence after the one time I thought it would be fun to go for a night time walk and fell over a rock within minutes, so I start crawling around near the boulders trying to spot anything unfamiliar. I catch a glimpse of movement and head toward it, which is when my eyes go huge.
It’s the soot sprite.
It’s snuffling around in the sand at the base of a large boulder, apparently perfectly content.
"Hello," I whisper, not wanting to scare it. "How are you even alive right now?"
The soot sprite ignores me completely and continues its investigation of the boulder, so I shuffle closer, and then I do something that, in hindsight, is incredibly stupid. I reach out to touch it. Never mind that it could be deathly poisonous to humans; the instinct to actually have my skin in contact with another living thing and not a xenonite barrier, no matter how thin, just takes over, and before I know it, I’m running a finger over the creature. Nothing happens other than the soot sprite letting out another odd whistle. I grin hugely, reach out, and scoop the critter into my hand.
It feels weird, like a thousand tiny pinpricks, and as it moves around in my hand, it kind of tickles. It feels amazing, and I sit there in the semi-dark, cross-legged, letting it move from one hand to the other like a hamster until I hear panicked voices.
"Grace? Grace?!"
Rocky and Adrian are trilling at the top of their voices, and I feel a stab of guilt as I realise they must have come to my house and found it empty.
"I’m down here!" I call. I’m near the edge of the water, and I know the constant motion of the fake tide distorts their echolocation so they can’t ‘see’ as well here. They can find it fun in the right circumstances but not right now. I hear the sound of skittering feet and see both of them appear from around the back of a large rock.
"Grace!" Rocky trills loudly in admonishment. "Grace scared us. What are you doing here?"
"Look!" I say, holding my hands out and revealing the soot sprite. "I found it wandering around near the boulders."
"Why are you holding it?" Adrian asks in a panicked tone. "It could be dangerous to you!"
"I… I didn’t think about that," I admit sheepishly. Both of them trill what I know are Eridian curse words at me.
"I’m fine!" I insist. "And so is this. It must be able to survive in my atmosphere!"
Now the panic is over, Adrian moves closer and settles down beside me.
"That actually makes some sense," they say thoughtfully. "These creatures are found deep in a cave system near the northern pole of the planet; it’s much colder there, and the atmosphere in the caves is different from that on the surface. It's why we generally keep them in tanks; they don’t do well when exposed to conditions on the surface for too long."
"Bella brought it to class in a special bag," I tell Adrian. "If they’d had it in there exposed to your atmosphere for a while, maybe it wasn’t happy, so when it sensed my atmosphere, it tried to move toward it, then escaped in here when Rocky went through the airlock?"
"I think you might be right," Adrian agrees. "But we need to return it to its owner now. I will take it out through the airlock and contact Bella’s parent if you would like? Bella will be thrilled to know their teacher found their pet once they have recovered from their worry."
I hand the soot sprite over to Adrian, who takes it with astonishing tenderness considering their considerable size, and watch as they make their way toward the airlock.
"Grace sad again, statement," Rocky says.
"It was just," I swallow and sniffle a bit despite myself, "the first time I’ve consciously touched another living thing since I was on Earth," I explain. "The xenonite suits are amazing," I add quickly, not wanting Rocky to think for a moment that I don’t appreciate his work. "It feels great when you guys hug me and ruffle my hair and stuff, but in the back of my head I still know there’s something artificial between us; I’m not actually touching or being touched by you. This felt different."
"Rocky understands," he tells me. "Easy fix. Rocky get pet soot sprites for Grace if Grace want?"
A huge grin crosses my face.
"I would love that!"
"Good good, Rocky will organise. Make enclosure so pets not get lost in big biodome. Now, Grace come home. Adrian will be back soon and will want cuddles with Grace."
I don’t need to be told twice.
One week later I wake up and stretch out in bed. I tap the wall behind me three times in a "good morning" acknowledgement. The back wall of my bedroom butts up against a wall in Rocky and Adrian’s house, so they can watch me sleep even when they’re at home together. I hear three taps back to return my greeting. I know I’ll see them both later.
I quickly make my bed, then start hunting around until I hear the sound I’m listening for. The whistles are coming from the garden, and I step outside, where there is now a fine mesh dome over the house and grounds with a double airlock-style gate set into it. A group of three fairly large soot sprites are rolling around on the ground, and I stand in the doorway for a few moments to watch them play before grabbing a handful of the iron filing type powder that constitutes their food. I whistle back at them to get their attention, and they all move my way and start snuffling around my bare feet; it tickles, and I love it. I put the food down on a special plate and watch as they eat their breakfast.
Having something of my own to care for has been a wonder for me these last few days. As much as I appreciate the biodome team and all they do for me, being constantly "cared for" has been weird, so I really love having something of my own to look after. I’d even invited Bella and their parent to my house so they could teach me all about soot sprite care; I’d never heard them talk so much.
Once the sprites have finished eating, I sit down on the ground beside them and let them start to climb all over me like curious kittens. I’ll get my own breakfast later; right now I’m just going to bask in this sensation of actual physical contact between myself and another creature, no matter how strange it might be.