Chapter Text
Art by ApplyArmy or Pas on discord.
ship was quiet, too quiet for Tommy’s liking. He turned on the radio and channeled it to Earth, Phil looked up from the control pad and smiled as Tommy hummed along to the 2000s pop song that was now flooding into the room.
Tommy tapped his finger as he looked out the window, stars zoomed by them. His leg bounced, they hadn’t landed in ages.
God what was taking Tubbo so long, he’s never takes this long in the lab. Tommy huffs.
“You bored mate?” Phil asks, his voice betraying him as It lets his amusement peak through. Tommy groaned, “yes. I am. Wonder what gave it away.” He grumbled as he leaned further against the wall.
“Why are you guys always so busy anyway, this is neglect, I’m being neglected.” He accuses dramatically.
He slides to the floor, “I’ll call cps on you, don’t think I wouldn’t. Leaving me all alone with only Britney Spears hit song toxic to keep me company!” He whines.
Phil let’s out a chirp of a laugh, “oh come now Tommy, Tubbo’s only been in the lab for like an hour and a half. Plus I’m hanging out with you.”
Tommy glared at him, “no you’re not, you’ve been staring at the control panel the whole time and haven’t said a word.”
“Well I am now, so you can stop sulking. Come on, how about we talk about this song instead. Now what did you say it was called? Toxic? I think I like it, it’s quite different from the other songs from earth they’ve played.” Phil changed the subject.
Tommy smiles, “well yeah of course it would sound different, all those songs were super old. You know, I’m actually really glad to hear a more recent song for a change-“ Tommy paused, his eyebrows pulled together in thought.
Phil looked over to him with concern, “you sure are thinking hard, What’s up?”
Tommy hesitated, “how is it playing a 2000s song? The radio waves I mean, how is it reaching us from so far away? We usually only get songs from the 70s.” He states as he gets up to look at the map, which isn’t useful since he can’t read it. He can read common, but a map? Who do you think he is, some kinda map reader?
Phil looked over at him with a surprised expression, “oh! I forgot to tell you! We are passing by your neck of the galaxy, your system is a few systems away.” He smiled and swiped his finger over the touchpad to move the map. He zoomed in, “and~ there we are, see that system highlighted in red? That’s yours and we are over near that system that’s green.” He said as he pointed them out, they weren’t far at all. They could just pop over if they wanted.
It was surreal, last time he was this close he was still on the planet. He reached up and touched the map, dragging his finger over Earth. An ache settled into his chest, a longing for home. To touch the grass, to breathe earth fresh air, to see the oceans.
He wants to show it all to them. Wishes they could see it.
Sure he didn’t have the best life on earth, but he longs to show his family his home, his people. He wants them to meet other human.
It’s just out of his reach, the stupid space police would probably try to arrest them if they tried to get that close. If only he had videos from earth, or at least some photos, he can only draw so much.
If only he had like a flash drive or CD from earth or something…… what a second…. Didn’t they send some disc into space in the 70s? Wouldn’t be far enough away from earth for Tommy to just…… you know….. take it?
“Hey Phil? Can this thing like….. zoom or something? Or can you do some, like space radar or something, I want to see something.” He said with a kind of determination that made his voice firm.
Phil zoomed in towards earth, “yeah, I can do that. Are you looking for something specific?” He questions as he pulls the solar system into view. Tommy nods, his eyes scan the screen, “yeah. Can you scan or something, see if there are any probes from earth really, really far out?” Phil clicked a button and a red wave washed over the screen, two red dots appeared on screen.
Phil hummed in surprise, “There’s a probe just outside of the heliopause, and one that’s pretty close its self. I didn’t know humanity had traveled so far goodness.” He turned back to Tommy with a smile, “these what you were looking for?”
Just as Tommy was about to answer, Wilbur and Tubbo walked in, smiling as they talked about “science stuff” as Tommy called it.
“What are you two up to?” Wilbur asked as looked at the screen. Tommy looked at him, expression firm and sure, “we are going to steal that.” He states as he pointed to the probe.
There was a pause.
Wilbur walked quickly over to Tommy, putting his hands on Tommy’s shoulders, “I’m sorry, could you repeat that. I thought you said that you wanted to go steal a fucking probe, but that cannot be right as you see, “ he pointed to the red label that said restricted zone ”that probe is an earth probe!” He yelled exasperated, eyes wide.
Tubbo’s wings buzzed, he looked deep in thought, “well….. I mean…… it’s outside of the solar system. We could theoretically take it without getting in trouble….. If we wanted to.” He pointed out.
Tommy shook Wilbur’s hands off his shoulders, “AND WE DO WANT TO.” He said loudly, looking at Wilbur and then to Phil with a pleading expression. He put on his best puppy dog eyes, Phil caved.
Phil sighed and combed his talons through his ruffled feathers, “ahhh, fine. It’s not too out of our way. We should still be able to make it to the Raxmar port on time.” Wilbur shot over to look at Phil, “I’m sorry, What! You are just going to let him steal an earth probe?! Have you gone mad?” Tubbo laughed, and an evil grin spread across his face.
Hell yeah! Theft! Let’s go steal that probe!” Tubbo cheers.
Phil rubs his eyes and sighs, “okay, someone go get Techno. I need to tell him first, then we’ll set course for earth.” He said as he closed the map.
‘Then we’ll set course for earth’
The words echoed through Tommy’s mind like music.
——————————-
“Absolutely not.” Techno said flatly as he looked at the map. Phil jumped a little in surprise, “mate I haven’t even asked the question yet!”
Techno turned his head, rising his eyebrow at Phil, “so you aren’t plann’in to go to the edge of the solar system and steal a probe?” Phil stumbled over his words as he tried to answer.
“Umhmm, that’s what I thought. There’s not why I’m letting you do that. Why would you even want to do that, What? Did Tommy beg you to?” Techno let out a huffed laugh.
Phil looked down at the control panel, avoiding Techno’s gaze, “what?! Pff, no of course not…….. OHH COME ON! HE DID THE THING WITH HIS EYES! YOU KNOW I CAN’T RESIST!” Phil whined.
Techno sighed, “you know how much trouble we could get in?”
Phil smiled a touch of mischief slipping through, he bumped shoulders with Techno, “me? Get into trouble? Noooo. I would never.”
Techno glared at him, “this is a lot bigger than robbing random ships or taking on mercenary gigs you know, if we get caught the government is going to freak out.” He levels.
Phil shrugs as he sets course towards earth, “I guess we can’t get caught, now can we.”
————————————-
Tommy pears out the window, foot bouncing anxiously. Tubbo and Wilbur were sat next to him, both looking out as they drew closer.
Phil puts the ship on auto pilot and joins them, his robe dragging gracefully behind him as he walks. His eyes scanned over the little specks, he smiled as he landed on one in particular. He lifted his hand to point at it, “there! Tommy, do you see that one? That one is earth.” He said as he looked at Tommy’s face, his eyes lit up and he pressed his hands on the window as he leaned in to get a closer look.
“Woah…… it…..it looks so small from here…” he mumbled, he didn’t even notice his eyes begin to water till he felt hot tears rolling down his cheeks.
Tubbo brought his sleeve up to wipe them away, “are you okay?” He asked softly, Tommy just brought his hands to cover his face as he sniffled.
“Sorry, must have got space dust in my eyes or something…..” he said as he took a shuttered breath, more tears fell and he covered his face again.
He sat like that for a moment.
When Phil brought his hand up to rub calming circles into Tommy’s back, he broke into a full on sob. Phil looked between Wilbur and Tubbo in a panic, “oh, shhhh, it’s okay Tommy. Just breathe.” He whispers as Tommy shutters.
It took a minute, but Tommy finally calms down and starts breathing normally again, “sorry. It’s- it’s just…. This-” he gestures around the room, “-all kinda didn’t feel real. Like it all hadn’t fully hit me, but… now….” He pauses.
“Seeing earth….kinda just made me realize how fucking crazy this is.” He continues as he wipes his face.
He takes a deep breath, “OKAY! NOW! LETS STEAL OUR SELVES A FUCKING PROBE!” He yells, eyes still red as he grins evilly.
Phil smiles at him softly and patted his shoulder, “okay.” He pulls out his compad and types out a message.
“Techno is already at the canadarm, I’ll start lining up the ship so he can grab it.” Putting his compad back in his pocket he headed over to the control panel. Taking the ship off autopilot and gently stirring the ship to line up with the probe.
The ship stalled as he shut off the thrusters, a buzz then Techno’s voice came over the intercom systems, “probe in sight, startin’ extraction.” He said in a monotone voice.
The ship shook slightly, “probe secured, openin’ hangar.”
There was a pause.
The com fizzled back on, “mission accomplished boys. Come on down guys.” Tommy practically ran for the door, leaving the others in his dust to catch up.
When he arrived to the hangar Techno was already there, opening the door. The door opened, inside was the probe, Tommy walked in and looked at it in awe. It was so much bigger than he thought it was, “holy shit” he said under his breath.
The others finally filed in, “WOW!” He heard Tubbo say.
Tommy ran his hand along it as he walked, “so why did you even want to steal this thing anyway?” Wilbur said as he walked up to the space craft.
“Here, let me find it.” Tommy walked around the thing, eyes scanned over it with purpose. His face lit up as he found exactly what he was looking for, “AHha! Found it!” A golden disc was stuck to the side of it.
He carefully pried the disc from the probe and gently turned it over in his hands as he looked over it curiously. He laughed at the irony of it all, this disc was never meant to enter another human’s hands. Yet here it was, in the grimy hands of some sixteen year old.
A disc that hasn’t been held by another human in 40 years. Though, Tommy had brought the disc to its target audience, so he doesn’t think humanity will really mind all that much.
God. It took a human teen for aliens to find this fucking thing.
The others walked up to stand next to him, “a record?” Tubbo had questioned, Tommy nodded.
Tommy smiled, “I think it’s meant more for you guys, not me.” He ran his fingers over the instructions ingrained on the back before handing it to Phil.
Wilbur peaked over Phil’s shoulder curiosity as he turned it over in his hands, “is the whole thing made of gold?” Techno had questioned his ear flicking as he hid his excitement.
“How do you even use this? Tommy, how do we extract the information off this thing?” Phil said in confusion as he looked over the instructions.
Tommy laughed, “the instructions are right there. I’m pretty sure the scientists tried to make it easy for any aliens to figure it out.” He said as he watched in amusement as Phil handed it to Wilbur who was equally confused. Wilbur’s eyes shot up to look at Tommy, “this was meant for aliens?! Humans are actually trying to contact us?!” He said in shock.
“Well duh, why else would we send a disc into space?”
Wilbur faltered, “I don’t know, it could have just been a time capsule….” He mumbled.
Tubbo’s eyes widened and he pointed at one of the symbols on the disc, “LOOK! Doesn’t that look like a diagram of two hydrogen atoms?!” He exclaimed as looks from the disc to Wilbur wildly.
Wilbur’s eyes widened, “hey! Yeah it does!” They looked to Tommy with excitement. “We should probably move this to the main bridge, this is going to take a while.” Phil said with a laugh.
————————-
They had turned on the space radio and channel it to earth while they worked. It was nice to have more recent music, stuff he had heard in his childhood.
They had been there for a few hours Tubbo, Wilbur and Phil leaning over the disc and writing stuff down as they tried to decipher the thing, Techno occasionally pitching in. Tommy sat and listened to them with a smile as he looked out the window over the solar system.
“WE’VE DONE IT!” He heard Wilbur yell as Tubbo and Phil cheered in joy. He turned to look at them, papers spread out over the floor and crazed look in their eyes.
“Wilbur, go turn off the radio so we can listen to this!” Tubbo yelled. Wilbur stumbled over to the control panel quickly, not looking at the keys.
He hit a button, the radio screeched as he accidentally turned it up.
“AHHH!”
“WILL! TURN IT OFF!”
“WILL!”
They screamed as they all brought their hands to cover their ears. Will put one hand over his ear as he used the other to press buttons in a panic, god which one was it again? The radio fell silent as he finally found the button, they all sighed in relief.
“Prime! Will are you trying to make us deaf?!” Tommy yells, Wilbur mumbles a few apologies.
“Okay. Let’s play this thing, shall we?” Phil had said as he looked around at them all.
They all nodded.
With the push of a button the disc crackles to life.
"Hello from the children of planet Earth." A young voice spoke in English, the crew looked to Tommy with joy at the disc having worked. They disc continued to greet them in other languages.
“Bonjour tout le monde”
“Herzliche grüße an alle.”
“Hola y saludos a todos.”
“Hartalijke groeten aan iedereen.”
“שלום”
“こんにちは？大丈夫?”
“Привет! Приветствую тебя!"
“잘 지내고 있나요?”
“تحياتي لأصدقائنا في النجوم. نتمنى أن نلتقي بكم يوما ما”
“इस संसार के निवासियों की ओर से नमस्कार।”
“Tommy? Do you understand what they are saying?” Tubbo asked. Tommy shook his head, “not a clue, I only learned English, and a bit of Spanish…..” more greeting flooded through before sounds started to play.
The sound of thunder, volcanos, and earth quakes.
Cricket’s and frogs.
Wind and rain and waves.
Birds, elephants, and hyenas.
Dogs, heart beats, laughter, foot steps.
They were such simple sounds, yet Tommy found himself overcome with so many emotions. It was overwhelming, his eyes began to water. He hadn’t even realized he had missed the sounds of earth so much, space…… space was so, so quiet. There were no natural sound like this in space ships.
He brought his hands to his eyes. Phil wrapped his wing around Tommy’s shoulder, Tommy leaned his head on his shoulder.
Sawing, blacksmith, sheep herding.
Trains, buses, ships.
Morsecode.
Fire, speech.
The disc crackles, music began to play.
“Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans-“
Tommy laughed, it was rock and roll.
More songs played, then a slideshow of pictures popped up on screen.
The first was a circle like on the back of the disc, then a few equations before a picture from the surface of the moon.
“Look! That’s from our moon.” Tommy said, his face pulled into a grin.
A picture of Jupiter.
One of earth.
Tommy’s gasped, “look, that’s earth.” He said with a melancholy smile.
The others looked at his home in awe, the universe didn’t really come close enough to get such a detailed picture of the Earth. This must be the first they have ever seen the green and blue planet.
A diagram of chemical chains.
A diagram of DNA and DNA replication.
A diagram of a human embryo.
Oh wills going to love those later.
A woman and a man.
A baby.
A map of earth’s continents.
Animals.
People eating, building houses, fishing.
Buildings, Medicine, cars.
Planes, astronauts, spaceships.
Techno nudged him, “those really what humans use to get into space huh?” He teased, Tommy groaned, “oh come on this is from 40 years ago, we gotten better. I didn’t build those rickety old things.” He whined, they laughed.
The pictures end shortly after, Tommy popped the disc off and held it closer to himself. He took a shaky breath and looked to his family, he’s okay with only this, he has them. They didn’t see him smile fondly at the thought.
He looked up to them and put back on his mischievous grin, “you know…. There are two discs.” He lead.
Techno groaned as Wilbur and Tubbo’s heads shot up to look at Tommy.
“Nooooo not again.” Techno whined.
Phil smiled evilly at Techno as he walked over to the control panel.
Phil paused as he looked at the controls.
“Hey….. will?” Phil asked slowly.
“Hmmm?” Wilbur hummed.
“Has this red light been on for a while?” Phil asked, voice concerned.
“Umm? No I don’t think so, I must’ve hit something when I was trying to turn off the radio, sorry. Why? is it important?” Wilbur said casually.
Phil laughed nervously, “I mean it usually wouldn’t be important, it’s just broadcasting conversation we are having, which usually wouldn’t be concerning, but……” he paused.
Wilbur looked at him concerned the others looked worried too, “but?” Will questions quickly.
Phil sighed, “but the dish is still direct at earth from when we were listening to music…….”
A pause.
The room held its breath.
“Fuuuuuck….” Wilbur said as he face palmed.
Tommy couldn’t help himself a burst into laughter.
“Well, when that reaches them, there’s going to be some really confused scientists…” Tubbo said, also bearly containing him laughter.
“Phil? How long do you think it will take to reach them?” Tommy asked with a grin.
Phil thought, “I’d say 17 maybe 18 years.”
Tommy walked closer to the mic and began in English, his final message to earth.
“Hello citizens of earth, Tommy fucking innit speaking! I made it to space before you losers! And I stole your discs and there’s nothing you can do about it! By the time you get this message I will be light year away from you and the discs will be long gone, suck it!” He finished and turned the broadcast off.
That’s so going to make national news when it gets to earth.
.
.
.
Techno burst into laughter, “YESS! You are so going to be wanted when they get that kid!” Techno pats him on the back.
Wilbur looked at him in horror, “They are going to be sooo fucking pissed when they get that…..”
Phil put his hand over his mouth to contain his laughter, “come on guys, we still got to get that other disc.” He said as he tried to get them to calm down.
—————————-
Two discs hung on Tommy’s wall.
He says they are his trophies that he can hold over all of humanity, but secretly in his heart, they are souvenirs from his home.
His.
Made by his people
His little piece of Earth.