Narrator is trying to explain our measurement system via the use of a tape measure. Fun thing, the tape measure he sends to the alien (who he calls rocky) has a rubber coating and the alien atmosphere is so hot the rubber melts off. Narrator tries to show Rocky the centimeters on the ruler but rocky doesn't seem to see it. Theory, Rocky can't see, he uses an advanced form of eco location like bats to "see" things. That's why the tape measure is no use, there's no texture to be echo located. Its just paint.
There's a fun flashback scene where boss lady is in court being sued by all software intellectual property holders everywhere because the Hail Mary didn't pay for any of the software it's taking into space. She show off her universal presidential pardon and the judge is like, you still gotta do the trial. She's like, no I don't. You got an army to stop me from leaving? Cause I've got the US army and a bunch of army guys come in and they leave.
This leads us to a scene where narrator is going to use this software to try to communicate with Rocky. But Rocky's not there. He thinks maybe rocky is sleeping. So he figures he'll do the same and using Popsicle sticks leaves a be back in 8 hours sign using Rocky's numbers.
C12 pg 198
He sleeps 10 hours and Rocky is Not pleased. He takes his laptops down to the tunnel and starts to "talk" to Rocky. He starts with the clock numbers and within minutes he knows how Rocky speaks those numbers. Things get more interesting when we get the the word yes and confusing when we try to say no.
Then we are learning other words and it's a little clumsy as narrator has too look back and forth between laptops. So he goes back and writes a script that can take the notes it hears and cross reference the spreadsheet and displays it to narrator.
Rocky doesn't seem to need to write things down or use computers or anything. He just sort of remembers everything.
They keep talking and its much faster now. They get to the point where narrator can intelligently explain sleep to Rocky. He'd like to sleep now. Rocky wants to watch. So narrator drags his bed to the tunnel to.sleep while Rocky tries to fix something.
They talk a lot more first a few days and they are able to figure out how much a kilogram is relative to Rocky's weight UM. Now Rocky needs to sleep and he wants narrator to watch him. This is what the aliens do, tgwy watch each other sleep. Narrator asks rocky why one of his shipmates can't watch him. Rocky explains they're all dead. They started with 23, but only rocky made it here.
CH 13/pg 221
They're flashing back to a guy in prison. He's there because a bunch of people died on a project he was in charge of. He claims he is innocent. The problem is that he also imbezled a lot of .money and that makes you look real guilty.
But we're here for is he has a plan for growing astrophage. It involves covering a quarter of the sahara desert with anodized aluminum foil and then in the hot sun and glass and some other details and vuala tons of astrophage.
Back in the present narrator and rocky do all their sleeping in the tunnel together. They have developed their language skills to the point where they can now real talk about the astrophage.
They understand they have the same problem and they're gonna work together to solve it. They talk about why the rest of their crews died. Narrator thinks Rocky's crew died from radiation. But rocky has no idea what he's talking about. Trying to explain radiation is hard.
We're flashed back to narrator talking to that lady that hates him cause of his no water life theory. They talk about neutrinos and how the hailmary is going to have enough a radiation protection.
They figure out that the astrophage is pretty much radiation proof. So the plan they come up with is to fill the hull of the ship with a thin layer of astrophage.
CH 14 pg 232
There's a flashback to a French climatologist. He estimates the earth has about 19 years before half the human population is dead. The solution is more global warming. They blow up a chunk of Antarctica and release a bunch of methane into the atmosphere.
In the present they figure out the way that rocky is alive when all the rest.of his crew died is because he was an engineer and spent most old his time surrounded by the fuel tanks and the fuel is astrophage, which protected him from radiation.
They talk a lot about their different biology. Rocky makes himself a space suit so he can check out the human ship. Human technology is far more advanced than Rocky's technology, but we think is technology is amazing cause he's got superior building materials.
Ch 15 pg 250
They meet the science lady that invented the coma technology. Stratt and narrator get tested.
Rocky brings all his stuff over to narrators ship cause they are gonna do science together on narrator's ship.
Rocky is real sad and not very optimistic. He's just an engineer. He's not a scientist. All the smart scientists that were on the ship died and rocky doesnt thinknhes smart enough to figure out the astrophahe problem. Narrator has enough optimism for the two of them.
They start talking about how much time they have to solve this thing and in doing so we learn that the aliens live way longer than people. Like up to a thousand years.
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