Chapter Text
The first time Ryland Grace gains consciousness, there are sirens blaring around him… Oh that's probably not good… He tries to force his eyes open, but they just won't budge. He's in a very uncomfortable position, but he can't move his arms either… He's just stuck… Why is he stuck? Is he dying? Is that what the sirens are about?? He feels exhausted… Well, if he's going to die, there's not much he can do about it if he can't even open his eyes.
—
The next time he gains consciousness, he's a little bit more aware… The sirens are still blaring, and he can see flashes of light on the other side of his eyelids… He's got something on his face helping him breathe?… He tries to reach up to touch it, but his arms do not work… Actually they might be being held down?
Oh, yeah, he can definitely feel something on his wrists, and he's in a different position than he was before—he tries to open his eyes but only manages to flutter them a bit—it dawns on him that he's being dragged.
Oh good, someone's come to save him.
—
He wakes up again cold, very cold. His body shivers. The air feels weird as it moves over his body, too thick… No… No, it feels like water! He takes a startled breath at the realization, his eyes flying open, but he can't see much, just a blue haze… definitely underwater…
Why is he underwater??? Who the heck puts a sleeping guy underwater? Heck?… Really? He can't move, and someone's dragged him into a very cold body of water, and his natural reaction is to say. "Heck"? What is wrong with him? He shivers again.
At least he has oxygen… Though that does raise more questions than it answers. What could possibly be the reason for someone to drag an unconscious person into a body of water if not to kill them?
He hears something like a middle clunk echo through the water around him, and then the person drags him up out of the water. "Welcome aboard, Captain. All systems online." A robotic voice greets as they struggle up through a hatch; Grace tries to help, but his body is still failing him.
Someone in a wetsuit—the 'captain' of whatever thing he is now in—is looking down at him like they are not sure what to make of him. "Your stasis sure is wearing off fast…" they say. Grace tries to say something back, but it comes out extremely garbled. "Yeah, you're okay, just rest," they soothe. "I need to get us out of here," The guy turns and climbs up a ladder, leaving him alone.
He can hear the same voice from earlier announce, "engine powering up," and the whole place shakes, but he doesn't have much time to think about it; his eyes already drifting back closed.
—
When he wakes up again, he can hear a whirring: the engines? they're surprisingly quiet… He opens his eyes and is pleased to find his vision is a lot clearer than before. He slowly sits up. Oh! His arms work! That's great!
He looks around the small white metal hallway he's in. There's a door on either side; the one closest to him is open and shows the round hatch they came up through. There's a label over it that says DIVING CHAMBER; the other door is closed; it also has a label on it, but it's hard to read from where he is without his glasses. (Oh, okay, so he has glasses), but besides that, there's not much else here. Just the ladder the captain went up and some panels. Maybe lockers?
The hall way is barely wider than the doors at the bottom but it starts getting wider at the top. which confirms his thought that he's in the hull of a ship, but he still cant figure out why… he was in air before… and there was sirens… was he on a ship that was sinking and this guy saved him? he deffiently feels like he was saved from something… maybe that's why he cant remember? something hit him while the ship was sinking and knocked him out? he looks up the ladder but cant see much outside of more ceiling.
Hey! he calls out, though it sounds more like a quiet wheeze. He tries to get up, but his legs just don't want to support his weight. He pants a bit and leans back against the wall. He feels something hit the hull from the outside with a quiet clunk.
He closes his eyes again and lets himself drift off.
—
This trip is taking forever, it feels like its been hours and hes just now starting to get more mobile, he's more crawling that walking but hes so bored he's making do, right now hes snooping, he knows he shouldn't but he still cant talk and he needs something to entertain him.
He was right with the panels being lockers, though when he looks through them they're all empty, that's weird… there should be stuff on a ship right?… why would they just have 5 empty lockers? he sighs and looks up at the shut door. hes close enough now that he can read the sign marking it as leading to LOWER DECK 02.
He shrugs and tries to open it. It's an airlock where the handle needs to be pulled out and twisted to unlock it, but once he does, the door swings open with surprising ease, hissing softly like it's on hydraulics. on the other side is another short hallway This one's dark gray instead of white and has what looks to be a seam in the floor.
He walks through it, leaving a trail of water droplets as he glances around. It feels… wrong. like it's far more advanced than it should be, more than anything he's seen before besides maybe… Um… Something?… He can't quite remember but he's been in a room like this before.
Wait, did they say he was in stasis when they first pulled him on? Maybe he misheard them? He was dipping in and out of it… Maybe they said sleepiness?… no… what did they mean? was he in a coma or something?
He opens the next door and enters another hallway with a ramp at the other side, a lot of pipes and wires covering the ceiling, and one wall. This must be the maintenance hall… At the other end of the hallway, there are two ladders, but they are way shorter than the other one, only five rungs tall, and he can see something large spinning up there. probably the engine.
He takes a break at the bottom, just watching it spin for a while.
As he sits there The whirring stops despite the engine still turning which means this thing runs completely silently, that is some crazy tech, he pulls himself up to standing and climbs up into the engine room, heaving for air by the time he makes it to the top and flops against the wall again.
There are a few small movements, like someone's parking? or maneuvering around something tricky, and a moment later the voice announces, "Engine powering down," and the spinning stops.
He hears the captain climb down the ladder, then pause. "… Well, at least he's mobile. That's a good sign…" He hears them mumble.
He lifts his head and tries to call out to them. "H-ey," His voice comes out slurred and cracked but not quiet like last time.
He hears their footsteps come over. "Did you climb all the way into my engine room?" They call from the bottom of the ladder.
"Yesss," he responds, slowly moving to look down.
He's looking up with their hands on their hips. "Can you make it back down?" they ask, sounding mildly amused, like you might when a kid gets stuck on the top of a play structure.
Grace grimaces. No… he can't.
They sigh. "…That's alright… ah… You can stay here for now," they decide. the more they talk the more grace is starting to realize that he can't place their accent… he's heard a lot of accents but this ones completely unknown to him… "You'll be safe as long as you don't touch anything, and I'll get you some food?" They offer, sounding slightly unsure. "Should help get your strength up."
Should he even be eating? He was just unconscious, might have a head injury, or was in a coma… neither of which really makes it a great idea to be eating, but his stomach growls at the thought, twisting itself with hunger. "Please."
They nod and head back out the hatch. Do they plan on catching him live food?… No, no, they must be docked somewhere…
He just wishes he remembered what he was doing. He… He definitely feels like he was on a boat… He remembers the waves and the sea salt; he's standing next to a woman, they're both looking out over an icy ocean spotted with chunks of glacier. Neither of them are dressed for the weather, but the cold feels nice burning into his lungs; the air around them is tense and somber…
"Here, I hope this isn't too rich on your stomach," the captain interrupts, holding out a bowl of very liquidy mashed something.
Grace takes it. "Thank you…" he says softly. So he needs simple, easy-to-process foods right now. Which is definitely leaning more towards coma and less head injury.
The captain nods and sits down across from him so close the tips of their knees are touching.
Grace tries the food, and damn, it's way better than it looks, slightly sweet and starchy. He starts shoveling it down.
"I'm Ryley, by the way," the captain offers once he's about halfway through the bowl. "I realized I never introduced myself."
Grace nods and opens his mouth to introduce himself as well but… He… he doesn't remember his name… that is not good. Not remembering what you were doing last night is one thing; not remembering your own name?… He sticks another spoonful of mush into his mouth, hoping they won't push him for his name, and they don't, just watching him until he's done eating.
"You feeling any stronger?" they ask. "I got us as close as I could, but it's still a short swim from here to shore."
Grace stretches and rotates both of his arms; they are definitely a lot less stiff than they were. "I think I could make it…"
"You wouldn't be doing much swimming; I can tug you along, and I made you this," They pull out a little blue glass tablet and tap at it; there's a blue shimmer in the air, then a white tool with orange fabric pouches on either side materializes in front of him. "This is an air bladder, so you'll just need to get clear of the cyclops—that's the ship we're in—activate this, and hold your breath so you don't drown, and it will take you right to the surface," Ryley continues, moving right past the fact that they just- what? summoned something???
"Wait, hold on," Grace waves his arms in front of him.
"Hm?" They look up at him, having still been looking at their tablet.
"What was that??? How did… How did you do that? The air bladder formed from nothing; it just materialized. How?"
"Ah… it's not from nothing; it's stored in my suit's personal storage," they explain. That… just raises more questions. They are wearing a skin-tight suit, so there's no pockets, and that thing is too big for a pocket anyway, plus it just appeared he didn't reach into his suit or a bag or something.
"How is it stored in your suit? Where is it stored? And how did you access it from that tablet?"
"Um, well, the PDA catalogs my suit's personal storage, and when I click a button, it… uses 'integrated energy and molecular synthesis' to bring out the item?" They try to explain, half reading from the PDA; they don't seem like an expert on the topic.
"That is amazing. I- holy moly, I must've been in a coma a while. I've never even heard of anything that could do that before, can I see?" He asks excitedly, holding his hands out for the PDA.
Ryley clutches it closer instinctively. "Ah yeah… um, you've really never stuff like this before? I mean, even if you don't work for Altera, this kind of stuff isn't exactly uncommon."
"No, never," Grace shakes his head. "I would really, really like to see how it works," He prompts, glancing down at their PDA, they seem rather protective of it, but maybe he could get them to let him watch over their shoulder as they use it?
"Yeah… That's understandable if you've never seen anyone use one before… I um… I have extras inside I could… give one to you," They offer, their voice breaking just a bit.
"Oh, you don't have to," Grace says quickly.
"No, no, it will be really beneficial for you to have one. Come on, let's head in, shall we?"
Grace nods and slowly clumsily follows them to the exit.
"All right, once you're free of Cyclops, hold it with both hands and push this button here. It's going to bring you up really fast, so hold on as tight as you can," They say, making sure he's got a good grip on the air bladder.
"Right, thank you."
They nod. "You'll go out first, and swim that way" they gesture as they open the hatch. "It will be easier to get clear of the cyclops."
Grace nods and looks out of the hole into a deep blue ocean. He can see a cliff face that probably leads to the shore they are talking about, but jeez, it's got to be at least 100 m down before you hit any bit of ocean floor. He takes a breath and glances back at Ryley before slipping in.
The water's warmer here, actually rather pleasant; Ryley gently shoves him out in the right direction, and once Grace is clear of the cyclops, he presses the button on his air bladder. Ryley was right; it shoots him up to the surface so fast it's just two seconds of whirlwind bubbles, then he's bouncing on the surface.
He gasps and paddles, glancing down to see Ryley swimming up behind him with fins and a scuba mask now on. Huh, those must be stored in their suit too; how cool, he wonders if he can get a suit like that to go along with the PDA; his clothes aren't exactly built for swimming.
Ryley surfaces and grabs his hands, tugging him forward to shore as Grace looks around, taking in his very non-Earth surroundings. The plant life is completely foreign to him; even the sounds of the life here are wrong. There's no bird song; instead, there are squeaks and chitters.
His eyes widen. "Where… Where are we?" He asks, turning to Ryley as they get up on shore, their mask and flippers fading with the same blue shimmer as the air bladder formed.
"This," Ryley gestures around. "Is 4546B, your new home."