I’m an Eridian. I want to build a tunnel that connects to the weird human ship. But I don’t know what the human ship’s material is made of. How can I guarantee any kind of attachment or seal? My xenonite knowledge is beyond dispute, but how do I connect it to “humanium” or whatever that ship is made of? I’ve sent the human xenonite models. So he knows what I have. But I still don’t know what he has.

They’ll need a sample of my hull. And they’ll need to know it’s a sample of my hull.

“Right,” I say to no one.

I don’t know if this is a good idea or a terrible idea. But I’m going to knock a chunk of my hull off.

I grab a set of EVA tools. They live in the lab in Drawer 17E. I found them a while ago. They’re on a tool belt that can clip onto the EVA suit and everything. Stratt and the gang made sure we had all the equipment we would need for hull repairs if needed. Normally it would be Ilyukhina’s job to fix stuff, but she’s gone.

Huh. Random memory. Ilyukhina was our engineer—our fix-it gal. Okay. Well, now it’s me.

I get back in the EVA suit, and back outside. Again. Bouncing in and out is getting kind of annoying. I hope this tunnel thing works.

I make my way along the hull, one tether adjustment at a time. And I get to thinking…

What good is a tunnel, exactly? I doubt we have compatible environments. We can’t just connect the ships with a tunnel and shake hands. I think there’s a lot of ammonia over there.

And then there’s the temperature. Those cylinders are hot when I get them.

Some back-of-the-napkin math tells me that first cylinder they sent should have lost 100 degrees Celsius or more during that forty-minute trip (depending on what temperature it started at). And it was still hot when I got it. So it was really hot when it left their ship. Like… way higher than the boiling point of water.

I try not to speculate too wildly, but come on. I’m a scientist and these are aliens. I’m going to speculate.

Do Eridians live in an environment hotter than the boiling point of water? If so, it proves I was right! The goldilocks zone is bull-puckey! You don’t need liquid water for life!

I should be more focused on the “first contact with intelligent aliens” thing or the “save all of humanity” thing, but gosh darn it, I can spend a moment to be happy about being right when everyone said I was wrong!