“So it’s been pouring pretty much all day for like the past week,” grumbled Luke, holding the phone up to his ear, “I haven’t been able to go out in forever.”

  “I didn’t know you wanted to?”” said Harrison over the phone, “And it’s been sunny here all week.”

  “Hey, shut up! And no, I didn’t really,” Luke admitted.

  “Did you check out the observatory? Is your dad still ghosting you for some college chick?”

  “Well I heard him talking on the phone once when he dropped by the house and he doesn’t sound dead inside, so I’m gonna guess yes.”

  “Should’ve gone to check out the observatory yourself then. Given your dad a little surprise.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “What, and walk in on those two making out?”

  “No really,” said Harrison seriously, “What if the key to breaking through to him is, like, meeting him in his element?”

  “Fine! Things got better for a while,” Luke admitted, “I was up there a few times and yeah, it was almost like he wasn’t burying himself in work and hiding from me for the past two years. But I…uh…don’t think I can go up there anymore. And he doesn’t really come to the airbnb much.”

  “Shit, did something happen? Did you find out what dark matter is and he didn’t agree?” needled Harrison.

  Luke closed his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts for a long moment. He softly crept over to the window and opened the curtain, letting a faint trickle of grayish light enter the room. The clouds were thick overhead, to the point that the sky gave no indication as to the time of day, and promised rain soon.

  His thoughts raced as he remembered the day at the observatory, when the soldiers rolled up out of nowhere and locked the place down. The long walk home in the rain. How a disheveled and exhausted Scott had come home at 3 AM that night and said that maybe it was best not to talk about the aliens for a while, before crashing in his day clothes. And how, a couple days later, they’d seen a drone in the sky as they’d come back from their weekly grocery run, and Luke had glimpsed one once or twice more over the following week. Though now he couldn’t see any drone in the overcast sky. He shut the curtain again.

  “...Luke?” said Harrison.

  “Uh…uh…the powers that be didn’t want me there. I guess cuz I’m not an astronomer. New management doesn’t want us unwashed masses poking around during work hours,” stammered Luke, “Hey, I don’t really wanna talk about this boring shithole. Is anything going on in the land of the living?”

  “Er, well, my parents keep talking about me joining the Army after senior year.”

  “Surely you’re not! Why would you even?”

  Harrison paused. “I mean…it does kind of run in the family, I guess. And maybe they’ll finally stop being all like ‘why can’t you be more like Dennis?’ Oh right, and how the hell am I gonna pay for college otherwise?”

  “Fair. Good luck, I guess. And try not to get sent to wherever the dart lands.”

  “The dart?” Harrison asked, befuddled.

  “Yeah, the one the government throws at the map to figure out where to invade next,” said Luke.

  “Very funny,” said Harrison dourly. Quietly, almost as if talking to himself, he added, “It’s not all like that.”

  “Hmm…” Neither of them really knew what to say after that. “Hey, did you know they’re making Three-Body Problem into a Netflix series?”

  By the time they hung up, the ominous clouds had given way to pouring rain. Luke slapped himself a lazy, halfhearted sandwich and continued doing what he’d spent most of the summer doing: bouncing from the big screen on his desk to the small one in his hand and back again, shifting whenever he got bored. At some point, he found himself Googling ‘hypervelocity X-ray emitters’. The preprint by Scott and Lauren was still up, and even a thread on an obscure German forum. Through Google translate, he learned that some netizens thought these objects were very strange, someone thought the paper was ‘sloppy and rushed’, and an anonymous student had confirmed that they could see them from their university’s telescope. Luke smiled. He knew what he would do to kill the boredom.

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  The timing of Scott’s visits to the house may as well have been determined by RNG; today, it was 1:17 A.M. Luke was in his room, controller in hand, the only light coming from the glowing screen. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?” asked Scott from the doorway.

  “Shouldn’t you?” said Luke without looking up from his game.

  “Honestly, probably.”

  “I genuinely can’t figure out when you sleep.”

  Scott stifled a yawn. “Neither can I.” He blearily stumbled into the kitchen, poured himself a glass of wine, and sat down. The instant he pulled out his phone, it buzzed with a message from Luke. “Did you just send me a thirty minute video?” Scott called out.

  “Yeah! You should watch it!” Luke responded from his room.

  “Can this wait until tomorrow morning…er, evening…er, when am I free? Tuesday?”

  Luke himself meandered into the kitchen. “Please? I’ll count it as spending time together. Like you promised.” He fixed Scott with a strangely pleading look.

  “Okay, okay…Jesus, you know how to push my buttons.” Scott played the video. It turned out to be a long, rambling video essay by none other than Luke entitled ‘Why Would Aliens Come to Earth???’ Luke sat down across the table from Scott, all too eager to hear himself talk again. Scott downed his first glass of wine and then a second as the video essay droned on, dismissing the idea that aliens would invade for Earth’s water as ‘stupid and lame’ and claiming that there were few if any resources worth fighting an interstellar war over.

  When the video was done, Scott poured himself a third glass and looked at Luke wearily. “Should I even ask why you thought this was a good idea after everything that’s gone down?” he asked.

  “What?” Luke’s expression was the picture of innocence. “I didn’t even mention the actual ships. And I can say whatever I want about hypothetical alien invaders, this is a free country!”

  Scott took a long sip. “Is that really what you think?”

  Luke’s face fell slightly. “Uh, maybe not. But, it got, like, what? 43 views? I think I’ll be fine.”

  “God, you’re such a handful sometimes, you know that Luke? I swear, one parent isn’t enough for you. If only…” Scott trailed off into silence. He pulled up an old selfie of him and Sarah and thirteen-year-old Luke on the beach, all grinning innocently, if a bit cheesily, into the camera.

  “You’re right. It’s not,” said Luke quietly, “I’ll try to be less of a handful.”

  Scott took another sip. “You’re a good kid.” He turned his attention to the news feed on his phone. Tech Jobs Reach Twenty-Year Low As Layoffs Continue.

  “Did something happen at the observatory today?” Luke asked suddenly.

  Scott tensed up slightly, but only shrugged and kept browsing. Public Health Lockdowns to Resume in 13 States on September 1.

  Luke tried again. “Did you get in trouble with the head honcho? With your department chair back home?”

  “No,” said Scott flatly. He drained his third glass and poured himself a fourth.

  “Are you guys onto something big? Is that why you’ve pretty much stopped coming by the house?” asked Luke, a faintly exasperated note creeping into his voice.

  “You know I’m not supposed to talk about it.” Scott continued his scrolling: 10% Inflation ‘Normal and Expected’ Says President Thorne.

  “Did you talk to the aliens? Did they talk to you guys?” Luke pressed.

  Scott just shrugged, taking another sip.

  “Get a closer look at the ships? Figured out what the aliens want?”

  Scott shrugged again, not looking up from his phone. Inside the $3 Billion Climate Conference Supercenter Under Construction in the Amazon.

  “I’m gonna guess it eventually,” said Luke.

  “Yeah well, this isn’t 20 questions. I don’t have to tell you if you do,” retorted Scott, taking another sip.

  “Your girlfriend dumped you?”

  “She’s not my girlfriend.” Scott’s eyes flitted over another headline, not even bothering to read the article this time. War in Iran? Defense Pundits Weigh In.

  “Fine,” said Luke, “If drinking and doomscrolling at 2 AM is our family bonding activity, then I guess I’m in.” He grabbed himself a glass from the cupboard and poured himself a drink. Scott didn’t even try to stop him, instead just scrolling past more articles.

  After they sat drinking in silence for a while, Scott was getting to the bottom of his fourth glass. “Dad…this doesn’t have anything to do with your work,” Luke said hesitantly, “But I couldn’t figure out in my video why they’re been traveling here for so long. I had to say I didn’t know.” Scott didn’t react. Luke took a deep breath and looked Scott in the eye, “If you had to guess…what do they want? Why come all this way?”

  Scott stifled a yawn, looking at Luke wearily. “I dunno…maybe they’re coming to help us.”

  “To help us?”

  “Yeah. We really need it.”