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“Brood parasites!” Grace exclaimed.
Rocky regarded him skeptically. After several years stuck on a ship together, it wasn't terribly unusual for one of them to have an odd outburst here or there. But this seemed odd, even for Grace.
“Rocky, I just realized what Eridian naming conventions remind me of: brood parasites!”
Trying to keep the irritation out of his tone, Rocky said, “Eridians carnivores, not parasites. We already discussed.”
“No, no, no,” Grace tried to backpedal. “I mean your naming practices are similar to what some Earth birds do to protect their nests from brood parasites.”
“Explain,” demanded Rocky.
“Okay, so some birds – I forget which ones – are regularly targeted by other birds, cuckoos, for example, that will push the original bird’s eggs out of the nest. Then the cuckoo will replace the other bird's eggs with cuckoo eggs.”
“So now I crazy bird, question?”
“No. I mean, yes, cuckoo can be a synonym for crazy in English, but in this scenario, you’re the other bird.”
Rocky folded two of his arms over each other in a deliberate imitation of Grace's “I'm not amused” posture.
Undeterred, Grace continued, “The mother bird obviously doesn't want to waste resources on baby chicks that aren't hers, but it can be hard for them to tell that it's the wrong baby chick. It’s even harder to tell unhatched eggs apart. And the sooner the mama bird can tell that her eggs have been replaced, the sooner she can cut her losses and build a new nest somewhere else and try to hatch some new eggs.”
“Continue.”
“So the mama bird starts singing to the unhatched eggs when they’re just a few days old. She sings a few notes, then pauses, then sings a few more notes. Each mama bird sings her own personal tune, making it basically a familial identifier.”
“How that help, question?”
“Well, after a few days of the mama bird repeating this, the baby birds still inside the eggs learn the pattern. So when the mama bird starts only singing the first part, the babies still in the eggs sing the notes after the pause. Like a call and response. If a cuckoo tries to replace her eggs, she will fly up to the nest, sing her notes, and the unhatched baby cuckoo will not know that she expects it to sing notes back to her (and even if it did, it wouldn't know which notes to use, because, like I said, each mama bird uses her own tune). If the mama bird doesn't hear the correct notes, she promptly abandons the nest.”
“Make sense. But Erid not have Crazybird, so not need to protect against Crazybird eggs in nests.”
Grace guessed – correctly – that Rocky had just combined the Eridian words for ‘crazy’ and ‘bird’ into his term for a cuckoo bird, but he was too excited to slow down and ask. “But don't you see, Rocky? Maybe in the past, Erid did have the equivalent of a cuckoo that it needed to protect against.”
“Rocky not able to see. Grace know this,” Rocky said in a teasing tone.
Rolling his eyes, Grace just ignored the jab and continued, “But don't you get it? You told me that parents sing to their unhatched eggs, and the chord they use most frequently becomes part of the name for each group of hatchlings, with unique notes being added to the names after they hatch. Maybe in the past, parents used that to identify if all the hatchlings in their nest were really theirs.”
Rocky grew very still. Then slowly said, “Old legend…sometimes used as cautionary tale. Neighbors both had clutches of eggs at same time. Hunting very dangerous in those days…made decision that three parents would go out hunting because safer. One parent would stay behind, protect eggs.” Rocky's voice filled with emotion as the next part clearly hit close to home, “Terrible storm affected whole region. Two hunters were killed. Sad sad sad. Survivor headed home, only to discover village devastated by storm, many houses destroyed. Sad sad sad. Survivor went to Neighbor's damaged home and told them each of their mates had perished.”
“Sad sad sad,” Grace agreed.
“Survivor asked for clutch back. Neighbor sadly told him that five eggs died, only five survived. Said all five surviving eggs part of their original clutch, so Survivor should leave him alone: Neighbor needed to grieve lost mate, Survivor needed to go home to grieve lost mate and lost clutch.” Rocky paused.
Grace gave him a minute, then asked, “So what happened?”
“Survivor furious. Accused Neighbor of abandoning Survivor’s eggs or maybe even killing on purpose. Big trial…whole village in uproar. Half want to punish Neighbor for grievous crime, half think innocent. Judge from nearby city brought in to adjudicate. During trial, eggs hatch. Four sing one song, one sing different song. Judge get idea, make Survivor and Neighbor each sing to hatchlings separately. Neighbor's song only matches one hatchling, Survivor's song matches rest.”
Grace gulped. “So the Neighbor lost four of his eggs but was too sad to admit it, so he kidnapped the eggs that had belonged to the Survivor and his mate?”
“Yes,” agreed Rocky. “Judge returned four hatchlings to Survivor, and Survivor immediately left village to raise them in parents’ hometown. Then Judge made verdict that Neighbor had gone crazy with grief, so not to blame for actions. Shamed villagers for taking sides instead of helping both Neighbor and Survivor with grief. Villagers helped raise hatchling…hatchling grew up, became famous spiritual leader.”
“Wow,” said Grace.
They both sat in silence for a while.
Then Grace asked, “What would your song be? If you and Adrian had eggs…do you know?”
“No,” Rocky said shortly. “Bad luck to plan song before clutch.”
“Sorry,” said Grace, chastened. “I didn't mean to overstep.”
“Not overstep,” Rocky admitted. “Just…just complicated.”
“Well,” said Grace, “We've got time.”
“Long time, I not want eggs. My family…make me not want to have family. Move to far away cluster as soon as old enough. Go to school, make friends, find mentor…good life. I not think I missing anything. Then one day, Adrian move in as neighbor. He…exciting. He interesting. He artist… I never think I care about art, but when he talk about it, I do.”
“Aww,” said Grace, “You were falling in love.”
“Yes,” agreed Rocky. “Not something I expected. Was different different different than what I learned from my family. I not even realize what it was at first. We move in together. We talk about becoming mates. We mate. But…” he trailed off, uncomfortably.
Grace understood, “But you never talked about children.”
“Adrian try. Try many times. But I always find way to put conversation off.” Rocky started tapping his carapace with his claw in the odd rhythm he used when he was anxious or upset. “I know Adrian want eggs someday. I tell him I fine with it – tell myself I fine with it – but never have deeper conversation than that. Then Astrophage come. No one want to talk about having eggs after that.”
“Oof. That's rough. I'm sorry,” Grace said sympathetically.
“But now, question? Want want want to have eggs with Adrian.” Rocky’s carapace drooped as he said, “But maybe not even have Adrian anymore.”
Grace thought about it, then said, “I understand why you’re worried about it, and I'm not going to tell you that you have nothing to worry about. But… I really do believe that Adrian will be waiting for you when we get there.”
Rocky’s carapace tilted up ever so slightly. He said, “In my mind, I can hear our song.”