Chapter Text
Hell was trying to explain what a bathroom was and how human bodily functions worked. Then specifying privacy and that the walls not to be made of glass. Then learning that his cell was technically transparent to them and they could see him at all times.
He might have freaked out a little.
Then apologized profusely and told them it was okay, he understood, this was part of his cleansing, just let him have water and he'll shut up. One of them wanted a sample of his blood, right side. Simon sniffed and let them take both some blood and flesh. The small wound was taking a while to heal, because he kept on undoing and redoing the bandages with his teeth, just to check it was still normal bleeding underneath and not irradiated burns.
He wasn't sure why Adrian sounded so angry when they visited again.
"It… It's my fault for yelling," he mumbled when they ran a claw over his bandaged arm, back limb tapping rapidly on the floor. "I'll listen, just let me have water. Please."
Adrian proceeded to nearly destroy the airlock at the speed they ran out. Even from inside the cell, Simon could hear them shouting, discordant melodies in all five vocal chords, bouncing off the walls. It lasted for around twenty minutes before Adrian came back inside, sat down, released their vents, and informed him they took the sample because they needed to figure out how to make food for him.
Not punishment.
"… Oh."
Heaven was water pouches that haven't been recycled and filtered ten times over and food that wasn't in the form of ration bars. Simon doesn't even give a fuck that they're apparently made out of his own flesh, at least these were guaranteed to only contain his and not any other humans. He desperately wanted to see how the technology worked, even if he knew he was never leaving this cell. They were apparently working on synthesizing other nutrients his body needed, but this was already leagues better.
He let them take one of the fangs and some more blood. Adrian stressed over and over that he did not need to do this in order to get food and water, he could ask for such things at any time.
He wanted to believe it. He still kept a small stash of food and water pouches under his pillows. Just in case.
Purgatory, however, was spending days learning an alien language through fucking puppet shows of all things.
Simon pressed the stylus against his forehead with a frustrated groan as Adrian made a warbling, soothing sound, tapping his leg gently. There had to be a difference in their brains. The Eridians understood him only after a couple of explanations, while he only just managed to get the basics down. A slew of xenonite models were scattered in front of him.
If he shone his flashlight at the window partition they installed for him, he would see Zircon, a brown-orange Eridian with bright yellow and blue stripes, making more models. Another Eridian, colored dark pink with green-yellow inclusions, had given him a tablet of sorts that allowed him to write, draw, and erase. The stylus left raised textures, precise enough for thin lines.
The alien technology itself was already boggling his mind. One of his favorite things to do was watch them "weave" xenonite. Zircon had taken to making the models at the partition so he could watch when Adrian wasn't around.
<Simon learn?> They once asked, holding up the tools, remarkably similar to the soldering iron straps. <Simon want learn?> Zircon offered. Simon blinked, tilting his head.
"You'd… let me?" It was dangerous to teach convicts. Give them just enough instruction to complete the task, no more. Simon couldn't even lie to himself, he was itching to get his hand on the alien technology just to see how the hell it worked.
But everybody knew you didn't give convicts the good tools. No, they got the hand-me-downs. The binders with crossed out text. The bare minimum for the job. A piece of shit rust box.
He's already been provided with way past the bare minimum.
Zircon scuttled into the darkness and came back with another set of needles. They paused upon looking at Simon again, rumbling. <No arm. Might be hard.> They still put the toolset into the compartment along with some xenonite. <New arm. Make new arm for Simon.>
"What? No!" Simon paled. That would be an unfathomable amount of resources. "No, you don't need to—"
<New arm… good. Good ♪♭♬ for engineers.> Zircon mumbled, scuttling away with no attention to Simon protesting against the partition.
He tried again to convince the Eridians that came by later to measure his arm and stump that they didn't, shouldn't waste such precious resources on him. However, his Eridian was only on par with a child (according to Adrian), and he was still trying to get used to using his new vocal chords as a whole.
At least the eel mutations were useful in that sense. They still brushed off his denial, took his measurements, and scuttled away.
He tried to learn how to use the needles. Sitting by the window, he followed Zircon's instructions, sighing when his first attempt came out more as xenonite squiggles. Zircon trilled and pointed to a tube along the underside of the straps, teaching him how to unspool it and try again.
<Adrian ♪♪♬♩, not ♫♪♪♭♭. New at xenonite weaving too.>
"A what?"
More puppet shows and language lessons. At some point, a box was added to his cell so he had a place to store them all.
Adrian was not an angel, but a scientist that studied flora and fauna. Due to their size, they could carry around record slabs comfortably. They had only recently started learning xenonite weaving, on account of their growing list of duties.
Zircon was a writer, in charge of recording discoveries and trips. Too small to carry slabs around in the wild, they would instead make a model, etch the details inside, and do a proper breakdown once home. If Simon understood correctly, they worked in several fields, so their modeling was much more detailed and varied.
Apparently, Simon's puppet models were extremely easy to make because they didn't have to make the interiors.
"… So we are on a planet," he mumbled, Adrian letting out a vent and one foot stomp. "And we are in a solar system."
<Yes yes yes, why Simon not understand? Said many times.> Adrian puffed, prodding at the model they made of the solar system. The sphere representing Erid was made of crystal with thin wires to show off its magnetic fields and surrounding rings. They even put a little stick to show North and South.
Simon stared at the model, at the many different little planets and stars all extending out from their sun. A side thought muttered that Zircon was full of shit, Adrian's models were very pretty, excuse them. He forcibly reeled his train of thought back.
Did the Quiet Rapture not reach this part of space? Or did not even happen here?
How far away was he, even? This solar system looked nothing like his.
"Do… you know where Mars is?" Simon asked, Adrian tapping their claws together to signify no.
<Show where Simon from.> He drew out the Sun and the planets on his tablet. He drew a star on Earth and a heart on Mars. Between them, he added little space stations and dots for stars.
"This is our Sun. Humans came from Earth, but also made a home on Mars. I was born there, then moved to Eden." He pointed to the station with a tree on it. "There's also Mercury, Venus, Jupiter…" Down to Neptune. He added Pluto, out of nostalgia.
Then he erased the entire board in one go. Adrian made a grating squeak.
"The Quiet Rapture happened, and all that was left were those on space stations, and the moons," Simon muttered bitterly, drawing in AT-5 and the other blood moons. He added some faint stars along the edges, erasing them after. "Only the ghostlight of stars were visible."
<Sun eat also on Sun?> Simon blinked, trying to rearrange the translation. One quick model craft after, Adrian held up a small, spiked ball. <Sun-eaters. Eating our Sun. Dimming it slowly.>
"No, just one day, everything just—" Simon snapped his fingers. "Just like that."
<Not sun-eaters then?>
The light. The light must be forgotten. What did it see in you?
I see you, Butcher.
"… I don't think so." Adrian set the ball back down. "Wait, what do you mean sun-eaters and a dimming sun?" Simon asked, tilting his head.
Adrian tapped their claws together, opening and closing on nothing before holding up one claw in "wait a moment". One bathroom break, snack time, and some water, Simon widened his eyes as Adrian brought back a much larger model of a spaceship.
The lowering heat. Discovering the sun-eaters. The whole planet banding together to build their first space elevator and ship. Adrian's voice warbled a little as they described the process of breeding the sun-eaters and how it lowered their ocean's temperatures and wrecked havoc on the ecosystem.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
<Was necessary. Found no other way in time.> There never was enough time. Simon nudged Adrian's arm, urging them to continue.
Their first foray into space and space travel. Simon stamped out the brief strand of envy when Adrian described the sun-eaters potential as fuel. If such a thing existed, all the space stations would've gone to war for even a small handful of the stuff. The one time he wondered out loud why don't they try to work with the C.O.I., wouldn't it be better, the welts took ages to heal. Nuclear fusion was the best they had, and look where that got them.
The discovery of the sun-eater line and Tau Ceti. The creation of their first star-faring space ship. If there's one thing he learned about the Eridians, their understanding of math and engineering was unparalleled. He kept on running his fingers over the ship model, wondering what each room's purpose was and how the engine worked.
Twenty three of their best were sent into space. Adrian ran a claw over a brown spot on their turquoise carapace, smoothed to a polish.
<My mate. Engineer.> Their entire body slumped. <Built half of ship. Best choice.>
"What was their name?"
A long, drawn out melody, higher pitched than theirs. They caressed the brown spot as they did, Simon wondering if that's meant to be some kind of marriage ring. Did their mate have teal spots on their carapace, for Adrian? To have a part of your partner embedded into your very being. Still connected even when separated by impossible distances.
He doubted he ever seen such love before. All he remembered was Mom and him back on Mars. He never cared to find his dad. Eden wasn't much better. He stopped thinking about love the moment his brothers left him behind.
Simon wobbled and shifted until he could rest his arm against Adrian's. He ran a thumb over their claw. A soft, quiet trill.
<Sent to Tau Ceti. Find solution for sun-eaters.> Before he could overthink it, he rested more of his weight against Adrian. They pressed one limb along his back, keeping him from falling. <Past expected return date years ago. Unsure if ship successful or failed.>
The sun was still dimming.
It's bigger than me. It's bigger than us.
Adrian began to sing a somber tune, leaning against Simon. The glass barrier was warm. From the very few snippets he could understand, it was a song asking for somebody to come home, the home was ready, they were waiting. He's sure he's missing several more layers and meaning. He tugged at the fraying edges of his shirt, rubbing the threads between his fingers.
A dimming sun, infected stars, doomed solar systems. The only evidence he had so far that it wasn't another Quiet Rapture was the existence of Tau Ceti.
Would its light have reached them? Could there have been stars in the ghostlight, still alive? Was there a salvation in the stars, and they were too cowardly to just see, see if the stars really were dead? Did a Tau Ceti even exist in their universe?
He thought about the light and decided to turn back around before he spiraled further.
Adrian finished their song with a fading rumble. Little tap taps on the hard floor. <Anything else Simon want know?>
"… How did I end up here?"
A few more models were made. One Adrian had to ask one of the Eridians outside for help. Simon noted that he hadn't seen Zircon in a while, though he guessed they were busy with another field.
Adrian spread out the models in front of him. One more story.
<Simon.> A human shaped model with a missing left arm. Simon snorted. <Moon.> A large sphere with… a tree growing out of it?
With a click, Adrian opened the sphere up, Simon stilling as he saw a rounded cylinder at the core, surrounded by roots. Inside were more roots. Adrian wedged the little Simon into the roots, closed the submarine, and closed the moon. AT-5.
<Moon appear around Erid. Make strange radio sounds over and over.> They chirped three times, beeped three times, then chirped three times again.
"… That's S.O.S." That wasn't possible. The blood short-circuited everything in the SM-13. One of the last lights he saw was the oxygen, ticking up a second bar, because somewhere down the fucking line, the walls were more flesh than metal. The SM-13 also exploded. The branches and trunk tore it apart.
<What mean?>
"Save our souls. It's morse code for help." Drawing out the dots and lines, he clicked and hummed out loud. "It's a radio language, used to send short messages quickly." He clicked a couple more morse code shorthands that he could remember.
Though it was largely outdated, they still used it during emergencies when the connection was shit or too unstable. Simon had noted Eden used it a lot more than the C.O.I., though he chalked it up to Eden's penchant for the old traditions.
<Erid have similar language!> Instead of clicks and hums, Adrian made short clicks at varying layers of melody. <Radio language very simple.>
"Not that simple for us," Simon scoffed, erasing his board with a small smile. "It's old, but can't be beat." It was easier than Eridian as a whole. He'll consider picking up morse code again if it made communication easier. "So… it was putting out S.O.S.?"
<Yes yes yes, for many days.> Adrian picked up a space ship, smaller than their first one, and flew it from the Erid model to AT-5. They attached a xenonite tube onto it, connecting it to AT-5's core. Bouncing the Adrian model along it, they finally opened the submarine back up and dropped little Simon onto little Adrian.
Their third limb then shook AT-5 around as they had Simon and Adrian run back up the tunnel. Putting them back into the spaceship, Adrian flew it back to Erid, finishing with little Simon placed in front of real Simon.
Simon stared at the models.
"Is AT-5 still…" He pointed upwards. Adrian nodded.
<Still there. No more sounds. Last radio message was ... -.->
End of contact.
~~~~~
He's losing his mind.
The laboratory only had two Eridians shuffling around. Simon lied on his side and stared at his observation cell. The lamp they gave him sat by his head, lighting everything in a soft warm yellow.
They added a proper bathroom with allegedly soundproof walls. A sink and bucket were inside as well so he could take sponge baths. They also gave him a chair and desk, modeled after what Adrian claimed to have seen in the submarine and his own descriptions. He had a shelf for his water and food pouches, which he could ask for more at any time. The box laid open, the models used from their latest language lesson still strewn about. More lights were added around, so he didn't need to rely on the flashlight. By the window was his own set of needles, liquid xenon, and the beginnings of a lumpy sphere.
Simon rolled onto his back.
AT-5 was still up in Erid's orbit. The SM-13 was still up there. Adrian pulled him out of a fucking tree and the SM-13 was still up there. The blood ocean is still up there.
The Quiet Rapture must've happened.
But there were no other radio transmissions other than the impossible S.O.S. signal the SM-13 apparently managed to send out. Simon tried to give them the C.O.I. and Eden's designation numbers, despite their radios being unequipped for human numbers and letters. Adrian said they went looking around AT-5 and its surroundings already.
No responses. No other space stations. Not even the tow ship was there.
He was the only human. In a solar system with a complete different sun, planets, and stars. On a planet that's alive with abundant resources and intelligent music rock aliens. With a sun that's slowly getting eaten.
He still had to eat, drink, piss, breathe, and sleep.
Everything pointed to him being alive, against every impossibility.
He should be fucking dead.
His arm flopped back onto the floor, cushioned by the many more blankets Adrian added despite his insistence that he didn't need so much. He probably has more blankets and pillows than all of Eden at this point. Greedy, selfish, always wanting more—
Simon closed his eyes and turned off the lamp. One of the Eridians outside sang a short tune. It wasn't long before Adrian came through the airlock, the suit shimmering under the dimming lights.
The airlock wasn't some purification chamber. It was to cycle the air because he would die in their atmosphere and vice versa.
Adrian settled down by his bed and began to hum away. They explained the Eridian custom of watching each other sleep to him before. Though he found it weird and a little unnerving, it did help a little to know somebody was watching your back while asleep. He refrained from telling Adrian he was used to sleeping alone; the chances of getting shanked or attacked while asleep went down when one was kept in solitary. And he was very used to solitary.
<Simon okay?> They whistled, tapping twice.
"… Is this real?"
<What word mean?>
"You wouldn't lie to me, right?"
A couple grating clips. The equivalent to a snort. Adrian nudged his leg. <No reason to lie to Simon. Simon ♫♪♫♭.> He rapped a knuckle against Adrian's arm twice. <Means strong. Can handle words.> That was patently untrue, but he doesn't have the brainpower or the energy to refute Adrian's claims.
"... I'm not hallucinating or dead, am I?"
Another snort. Adrian paused in their humming to bunch one of the pillows against Simon. <Can hear Simon heart. Breathing. Very loud. Human body very noisy.> One gentler claw rested over his chest, pressing down just the slightest bit. <Simon alive. Promise.> One light tap. <Sleep now. Simon sleep too little.>
The lights turned off. He tugged the blanket closer around him and shifted just enough to feel the residual warmth coming through Adrian's suit.
He guessed it doesn't matter much now.
~~~~~
Simon was equal parts curious, wary, and terrified.
Learning basic Eridian was a lot like teaching pebbles, if they could forget and didn't have two other vocal chords necessary to pronounce longer words. Despite the difficulties, Simon still learned. He quickly picked up on tapping his foot twice for questions. For statements, he'd emphasize the last word, lightly flaring his gills, adding a reverb. He soaked up lessons with a fervor Adrian wished some of their apprentices had.
While the engineering thrums were still working on more lights for his enclosure, Simon had come up with increasingly strange ways to hold his light device. A favorite seemed to be with his teeth, as disgusting as it was. Adrian considered making a stand when Simon had dropped it for the third time in attempting to wedge it between his head and limb. He said a very short word and bent down to pick it back up. He said that word a lot.
<What does that mean?> Adrian asked. Simon tilted his head. He did that a lot as well. <The word, you just said.> He repeated it with two foot taps. <Yes, what does that mean?>
Simon made a questioning hum. He then reared his arm back and punched the floor.
Adrian shrieked and grabbed his hand, tapping rapidly to check for bone fractures. Humans were fragile! <Fuck! Why did you—>
"Fuck!" Simon copied. Adrian froze as they saw Simon's teeth wide, mouth corners upturned. He repeated his word, then "fuck!" again in Eridian.
A chittering, light melody echoed out of him. A laugh. Adrian joined in, uncaring that the scientists would reprimand them later for teaching the alien how to swear. For now, they'll enjoy listening to Simon's laughter, the first in what they hoped to be many.
He was also prone to frustration bursts, but then apologize quickly, fervently after. One of the first words Adrian learned in his language was "I'm sorry". He would cry that in his sleep, so many times. He whispered it on repeat when Adrian came for another language lesson and found his arm hurt.
Perhaps they should be a little ashamed at yelling at the science thrum for making Simon think he was being punished. They resolved to stay by his side more afterwards.
There were still some logistics to smooth out. Lorri and her team were still studying the branch sample they brought back from AT-5. A pile of grants and requests were waiting for reply. They needed to switch out another courting gift.
They wondered what kind of world Simon came from. Clearly it was not a kind one. Not even in sleep was he relaxed, several times having heightened heartrate, rapid breathing, and leaking from the eyes. A couple times he'd shoot upright, scream, and beg for something. Not long after, he'd collapse back into bed, leaking, trembling.
He does not seem to remember when he properly wakes, which Adrian is both thankful and worried for. Even awake, he'd have moments where his internal body becomes louder, panicked, stamped down in seconds.
Tonight was no exception. Even asleep, Simon moved around, turning and flailing his arm, thrashing whenever his stump wasn't enough to push or support him.
"Please… Please… keep it safe… Mom…?"
Adrian tucked another pillow against their leg and presesd it up against Simon. Doing their best to rearrange the nest without jostling him too much, they spread out the blankets so his limbs wouldn't get trapped or tangled. Extra cushioning around his left side.
One of the blankets slipped off his body. Adrian carefully pulled it back and began to hum an old Eridian tunnel song. Simon's sniffles and hitched breaths slowly eased back to normal. They continued to hum, watching him sleep.
Simon was already incredibly capable with what he had in the observation cell. If he had a proper place to relax and live…
They got up to retrieve the Simon figurine, the tree, and some xenon from the stash Zircon left for Simon. Settling back down near him and clearing out a space, they made a flat disc and placed Simon and the tree on top. Later, they'll ask for help with the interior detailing, but a mockup should be simple enough.
The thumping of Simon's heart kept them company as they expanded the platform to get a rough biodome size estimate. Considering the tree on AT-5, if Simon wanted something similar, the dome would need considerable height to allow for growth.
Adrian began to build up the sides, refraining from cursing out loud when the wall started bending inwards.
Rocky always made weaving xenonite look so easy. If he could see their models, perhaps he'd gently guide their claws, weave alongside them, reciting tips and fixing their errors.
No, he's more likely to laugh, then try to hold back his laugh, fail miserably, and make them a new set of jewelry as an apology for laughing at their misshapen models. They'd then put their lumpy figurine next to the one he first made for them, back when they were betrothed only by family decree, when he could barely weave a tune and asked, low and sheepish, for their help.
Readjusting their limbs, Adrian switched their song to one of their first serenades with Rocky, and continued to build up the biodome model.