termination shock
i take astrobiology as an elective, and today’s class had me crying about aliens, so i decided to write out my feelings. again. this is set around s1, e2 or e3-ish. please enjoy!
In which Hunk has a minor meltdown over verifiable proof of extraterrestrial life.
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It’s around the time when Hunk is wrist deep in green goo, relaxed in the almost meditative task of fixing the ‘food’ dispenser, that it hits him.
“Oh gosh, aliens exist,” he says.
Pidge, who’s sitting at a nearby table and working on Rover, squints at him.
“No duh,” she says.
Hunk drops his alien tool into the alien goo in the alien ship and plops down to sit on the floor.
“Aliens…exist,” he repeats, mind whirling with the actual, real, indisputable and undeniable confirmation of their existence, and before he has any say in it, he begins to cry.
“Whoa, hey!” There’s a scrape of alien chair against alien floor, then a small hand on his shoulder, awkwardly trying to soothe him. “Hunk, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” he wails, wiping at his tears.
Even the woosh of doors opening sounds alien, more digital than anything that’s been designed by humans, and the reminder of existential validation sets off another round of sobs.
“What’s all this? Pidge, what’s the matter with Hunk?” asks Coran, alien Paladin trainer, and Hunk has to lean against Pidge for support.
“I don’t know! He just said ‘aliens exist’ and then he started crying!”
Pidge sounds alarmed. It grounds Hunk to the present, helping him pull himself together because he didn’t want to scare Pidge.
“Sorry,” Hunk sniffs. “I’m not sad, it’s just…Coran, you’re real.”
“Of course I’m real, I’m standing right in front of you,” says Coran, all straightforward business, and it makes Hunk smile.
“No, I mean…aliens are real. Extraterrestrial life exists. It’s not even rare, it’s all over the galaxy, and we’re not—” His breath hitches as a fresh wave of tears roll down his cheeks. “We’re not alone.”
The confusion on Coran’s face clears up as Pidge’s gets worse.
“Ah…and your planet is so far away from the inhabited zones…there’s no chance of first contact using your primitive means,” Coran mutters to himself. “Whoo, that much pressure would be scary!”
“Let me get this straight,” Pidge starts. “You’re crying because…Earth isn’t alone in the universe?”
“Yes!” says Hunk.
“That’s ridiculous,” Pidge tells him. “Of course we were going to find extraterrestrial life. Do you know how many Earth-like exoplanets are supposed to be in our galaxy alone?”
“Billions,” says Coran.
“Billi—wait, what.”
Coran crouches down to join them on the floor, his hand warm on Hunk’s other shoulder.
“There isn’t any other life in your solar system, is there?” Coran asks.
Hunk shakes his head, still sniffling.
“We’ve looked on Mars and some of the moons of our gas giants, but…no,” Pidge says.
“So, for all you knew, you were the only example of life to ever arise?” Coran continues cheerfully. “And if your planet died out for whatever reason, all life would die with it and leave no chance for the universe to know itself before heat death makes the concept of existence meaningless?”
Pidge blinks, then frowns.
“I didn’t…think of it like that,” she says.
Hunk collapses into Coran’s arms, gratefully sobbing into a comfortingly alien shoulder, and Coran pats his back.










