Chapter Text
Ryland had decided he was going to communicate with the Eridian.
While Colt watched him pace and think, Court had retreated toward the Hail Mary. He hadn’t said a word since their altercation and Ryland was glad for it. He wasn’t in the mood.
The Eridian talked in whale song. It was beautiful and fascinating. Colt had tried to “communicate” by singing Eye of the Tiger back at him, but that didn’t seem to do much. The Eridian had however mimicked the small dance moves Colt had made with his arms. So at least that confirmed he could see, somehow.
When Ryland ran back into the tunnel holding a modified clock, Colt tilted his head at him.
“I’m testing a theory.” He slapped the clock against the wall. The Eridian immediately approached, just like every time Ryland had done anything. He was clearly just as curious about them as they were about him.
The Eridian observed the clock for a second or two. Then it raised a claw in a ‘wait a moment’ gesture he had learned from Ryland, and scuttled back into his own ship.
“Did you offend the alien?” asked Colt.
“I think they see by echolocation. No eyes, yet he can sense his environment. His language is musical. It makes sense.”
“Huh. A space bat.”
The Eridian ran back in, holding a little device which he plonked proudly in front of the wall. Ryland watched as it popped open, and little dials started to turn at very specific intervals.
“That’s a clock!” he said in triumph. “I showed you a clock, you’re showing me a clock! We’re… clock bros!”
“Oh my god.” Colt put his head in his hands.. “Stop embarrassing the human race, I’m begging you.”
“Shut up,” Ryland mumbled, his face going red.
“Why are you the one with the ideas? Why couldn’t it be me? At least the Eridian would talk to someone cool.”
Ryland rummaged through the bag he’d brought with him, half to hide his embarrassment.
“I said shut up. Rocky’s fine with it.” He pulled out a laptop and a bunch of wires and plugs.
“Rocky?!” Colt repeated in a strangled shout. “You called the rock alien Rocky?”
“You sang Eye of the Tiger at him!”
“It was a joke!”
“Well-... that’s also a joke! I’m joking.”
“No you’re not. You’ve called the first alien we’ve ever met Rocky because he looks like a rock.”
“Hey! I came up with Astrophage too! That’s a cool name!”
“I’m demoting you. You don’t get to name anything anymore.”
“Court’s the captain, you can’t demote me.”
“I thought we were ignoring Court.”
Ryland made a non committal sound and focused on setting up his computer for a little while. He glanced toward Court, who had barely moved from where he was, clearly listening and watching everything but not making any attempt to take part in it. Ryland couldn’t really read anything in his steady gaze, but he felt a little… bad. Like he’d kicked a puppy who had barked at the postman thinking it was defending the household.
… okay, that was maybe a bit of a humiliating comparison. But still.
“Court?” he called, and Court startled just a tiny little bit, obviously not expecting to be addressed. “Can you throw me the extension cord at your feet?”
“Uh? Sure…”
“Thanks.”
“What… are you doing?” Court asked carefully.
“Coding a few rudimentary things. If I do it right, we should have a way to communicate that’s a little more interesting than exchanging jazz hands.”
That was how, an hour or so later, Ryland started to actually talk with an alien.
After the sixth time Ryland yawned in the span of fifteen minutes, Court piped up again.
“I think we should take a break.”
“Oh I’d love to,” Colt said with a sigh.
Ryland frowned. “We can’t stop now. We’ve only just managed to establish what a kilogram is!”
“And as fascinating as that is,” Court said evenly, “Colt’s about to pass out.”
While Colt immediately protested this statement, Ryland took a good look at him. He was sitting in shadows, away from the light of the projectors they’d dragged in. Leaning to the side, as if he didn’t have the energy to keep himself up anymore, beads of sweat on his forehead. He had been sitting since… the beginning, which had been hours ago. Since Ryland had stumbled into him and made him fall.
Understanding fell on Ryland like a bucket of cold water. He was an idiot. He was the worst brother.
“Yeah, actually,” he said immediately, putting the laptop to the side. “We should go and rest.”
“What?” asked Colt, surprised. “I’m fine!”
“Your back is killing you.”
“I- that’s- it’s just- I’m fine. There’s an alien here, Ry!”
If Ryland had felt bad about how he’d treated Court, the guilt over how he was treating Colt was twice as painful. Of course his twin wouldn’t want to leave until Ryland himself wanted to leave.
He turned to Rocky and raised a finger. “We’ll be back,” he said. He grabbed the clock and put a tape marker four hours from now. “See this? This is when we’ll be back. Got it?”
Rocky examined the clock for a second, gave them a thumbs down then made a sound. Ryland looked at his laptop.
Okay. Thumbs up.
“Oh… no, bud, that’s a thumbs down. Thumbs up is the other way.”
Ryland and Colt demonstrated at the exact same time. Rocky chirped and gave them a thumbs down.
Yes. Thumbs up.
“Okay… I guess that’s fine. See you later!”
Ryland stood. His joints creaked after being in the same position for so long. Colt must have been in agony.
“Come on,” he called to his twin, offering him a hand.
With a sigh, Colt accepted it. Ryland pulled to get him up but Colt let out a horrible noise of pain and Ryland froze, eyes wide, apology on his lips.
Then Court was there, slinging Colt’s other arm around his shoulders and giving Ryland a look. Ryland copied him.
The both of them managed to drag their brother back inside the Hail Mary, but then had to pause.
“We can’t get him down to the dormitory,” Ryland said. “He can’t take the ladder.”
“I’m right there,” Colt grumbled. “You can ask me.”
“Can you take the ladder?”
“... probably not.”
Court thought for a second. “Hold him. I’ll bring a mattress up there.”
And that was how, after a bit of back and forth, Ryland and Colt’s mattresses were on the floor of the lab. Court also brought up painkillers graciously offered by the medical robot, which Colt swallowed immediately, not even waiting for water.
It took a while to get him out of the EVA suit, but they managed, despite his hisses of pain. Each new noise out of his twin pushed the guilt further into Ryland’s heart.
Eventually, Colt was lying down, a blanket tucked around him. Ryland sat and took his hand.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I’m fine, Ry. This is nothing compared to what I went through after the accident.”
Ryland winced. “I can’t imagine how much pain you’ve been in.”
“Yeah, well, I’d rather you didn’t imagine.” Colt squeezed his hand a little. “Go back to your alien.”
“What? Are you kidding? I’m staying with you!”
“You’re learning to communicate with an alien! That’s way more important. I’m just going to sleep.”
“It’s not more important,” Ryland said with a frown. “You’re important.”
“Oh, please. I’m not one of your kids, I don’t need words of affirmation.”
Maybe you do, Ryland thought, looking down at his twin and the dark circles under his eyes, the tightness around his mouth. Ryland himself was tired, but he also hadn’t slept in something approaching 48 hours.
He settled down. “I told Rocky I’ll be back in 4 hours. I can take a nap.”
Colt sighed. “Fine.”
It only took a few minutes for Colt to fall completely asleep. Ryland, still holding his hand, was too restless. His brain was too busy imagining everything he wanted to talk about with Rocky, how they would go about solving the Astrophage issue…
“Hey.” Court came in quietly, back in his normal clothes. Ryland couldn’t see the gun, nor the outline of it under his brother’s shirt.
“Hey.”
“He’s asleep?”
“Yeah… what are you chewing?”
“Gum.” Court reached into his pocket and produced a pack of it. Watermelon flavored. “Want one?”
“... Yes.”
He took the offering, and the two of them spent a minute in silence, chewing. The little sugar rush was nice.
“I’ll be in the airlock,” Court said eventually. “If either of you need me.”
“Oh. Why?”
“Keeping an eye out.”
“They’re friendly, Court.”
“The one we saw was friendly. Who knows about the others.”
Ryland tapped his fingers nervously on Colt’s hand. It took him a while to find the courage to ask.
“What happened to you?”
Court looked taken aback by the question. He stopped chewing altogether, staring at Ryland.
“Nothing that is either your fault or your responsibility to fix,” he said eventually as he stood.
“Maybe I don’t want to fix it? Maybe I just want to help my brother.”
“There’s nothing to help.” He paused, before adding, “You know I would never hurt you, right?”
“Huh?” Ryland’s eyebrows went up. “I-... I mean, yeah. I’m the one who stepped in front of the gun, which, I’ll admit, was stupid.”
“Yes it was. Incredibly stupid. But that’s just you, incredibly smart and incredibly stupid at the same time.”
“Oh, come on!” Ryland protested. “I thought we were having a nice brotherly moment! Why is everyone ganging up on me tonight?”
Court smiled a little. He looked at Colt. “Keep him warm,” he said. “Call me if you need anything.”
And he was out, going to stand guard by the airlock. Ryland couldn’t say he didn’t feel a little bit safer for it.
When Mary dutifully asked him to wake up four hours later, Ryland had barely slept. Every cell in his body protested as he sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning until his jaw ached.
Beside him, Colt still slept, the painkillers keeping him under. Ryland smoothed the blanket over his brother. In his sleep, the tightness the pain had brought with it had disappeared, leaving Colt pliant and relaxed, something Ryland hadn't seen in... maybe a very long time.
Ryland stood, stumbling over his own feet. He had promised Rocky he’d be back, and he wasn’t the kind of person to break promises… at least not to his knowledge. Glancing around, he grabbed a post-it and wrote a quick message to Colt before sticking it to his twin’s forehead. Then he picked up another laptop, opened a few things on it to be ready, and went to find his alien.
Court was not in the airlock. The door to the tunnel was half-opened. Ryland panicked, until a voice floated to him.
“--just asleep. Everyone’s fine.”
The reply came in the form of a melodic whale song.
Court was sitting in the tunnel, Ryland’s modified laptop on his knees. Rocky was on the other side of his divider, “sitting” with his legs under his carapace like a cat. More importantly, Court was not holding any sort of weapon.
He looked up as he heard Ryland approach.
“Morning.”
“Morning,” Ryland answered cautiously. “You two are… talking?”
“Sort of. I heard some noises so I went to see what was happening. Turns out he saw me doze off in the airlock and had a little freak-out.”
“He saw you? Through the door?”
“Apparently,” said Court with a shrug.
Ryland looked at the Eridian, who was making little sounds that the translator wasn’t picking up on. He’d jumped to his feet at Ryland’s presence, and when Ryland looked his way, he did his customary jazz hands. Ryland put his laptop down and answered in kind.
“So why was he freaking out over that?”
“He's tried to explain it but I don't think we have enough words for now.”
“Huh. Well, Colt’s still sleeping but he’s fine.”
“You don’t look like you slept at all.”
Ryland shrugged. He grabbed the laptop from Court and went to work. He’d had the idea while lying awake in bed, and the idea still held up to the light of day, so it should work. Soon enough he had frankensteined the two laptops together and written a few more lines of code to improve his software.
“Okay,” he said, clapping his hands. “I think this should work. Rocky, please state your name.”
The Eridian complied. The melody of his name was beautiful, dancing its way to Ryland’s ears.
“You done?” Ryland asked flatly once the alien settled. “All right.”
He activated his software, and a voice came out the computer “Rocky.”
“It works!”
“Oh that’s nice,” said Court encouragingly. “We won’t have to read to each other all the time.”
“Exactly my thought. All right. Rocky, can you say my name?”
A fart-like noise came out of the rock spider. Court snorted a quiet laugh and Ryland tried not to give him a middle finger, as the computer dutifully repeated, “Ryland”.
“Fine, whatever. Can you say his name?” he asked, pointing at Court.
The sound that came out of Rocky was much more melodious. “Brother Court,” said the translator.
“Uh. Just ‘Court’ is fine.”
“Brother Court.”
“Yep… okay. What about Colt? Other brother.”
“Brother Colt.”
“Why are you Ryland and we’re “brothers”?” Court asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“I'm his favorite." Ryland rummaged through his bag once more, locating the thing he actually wanted to talk about. “All right, Rocky. Look at this.”
He held up a vial of Astrophage. A small hiss came out of Rocky as he cowered, his carapace low to the ground in a defensive pose.
“Rocky, that’s Astrophage.” Rocky repeated the word in his language, and Ryland entered it into the computer. “It’s killing our star, Sol.”
“Astrophage on me star. Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad.”
Ryland nodded. “So we do have the same issues, huh.” He put his hand on the wall, and Rocky copied. He could feel some heat from the Eridian’s hand, though it was greatly muffled by the xenonite. “You people can’t see, and yet you still made it to the stars.”
“Have to solve Astrophage before Erid dies.”
“Yeah. We have to save Earth before it dies too.”
“Ryland Rocky save stars!”
Ryland smiled. “Yeah, bud.”
“What am I, chopped liver?” grumbled Court quietly.
“What Brother Court say?”
“He’s grumpy because you didn’t say he was gonna help.”
“Brother Court can help. If not harm Rocky.”
Court didn't say anything to that, so Ryland took over. “He didn’t want to harm you. He just wanted to protect us.”
“Understand. Rocky… Rocky also want protect family. Mates.”
Ryland couldn’t help it, his eyes watered.
“Why Ryland leaking?”
“Leaking?” Court repeated.
“I’m just crying, it’s okay.”
“Why are you crying?!”
“I don’t know! The thought that familial love and friendship exists across the galaxy in two completely different species just made me cry, okay?”
“You are unbelievable,” said Court fondly. “And for what it’s worth, Rocky, I actually am sorry I… threatened you. I know now that you didn’t mean any harm. I hope the rest of your crew doesn’t either.”
Rocky fiddled with his two front limbs, fingers clicking together. “Crew is not threat.”
Ryland, Court and Rocky spent a few hours acquiring more vocabulary and setting the basics of what both species knew about Astrophage.
The Eridians knew remarkably little about Astrophage or space, which made their journey to Tau Ceti all the more astonishing. Ryland kept being surprised by how smart these little guys were.
Eventually though, Rocky seemed to slow down. His answers, previously tinted with what Ryland could only describe as ADHD on crack, came slower, lower in tone.
“Rocky need sleep,” he explained after a little while.
“Oh. Okay,” said Ryland, surprised by the abrupt change of subject. “Well then… uh, good night. We’ll be in the Hail Mary if you need–”
“You observe.”
Ryland blinked. “I what?”
“I sleep. You observe.”
“No… I think I’m fine. I need to do some–”
“Yes yes yes.”
Ryland looked to Court in confusion, but his brother shrugged. “I told you he was being weird about sleep.”
“Why do you need me to watch?” Ryland asked.
“Eridian thing.”
“Then get someone from your crew.”
The answer didn’t come immediately, and when it did, the tone was so low that the translator struggled to decipher it.
“Rocky alone. No crew anymore.”
He looked so sad on the other side of his tunnel, a lone little Eridian against the darkness of his ship. Ryland understood he didn’t need light, but it also seemed incredibly quiet.
“Why?” Ryland asked quietly as he knelt before Rocky.
“Rocky not know. Was 23 Eridians. Now only one.”
Ryland looked at the empty darkness behind Rocky, the way his chords echoed in the emptiness of the tunnel. The way they would echo through an empty ship.
“Did they… die?” The saddest jazz hands answered him. “I’m sorry, Rock. I’ll… I’ll watch. You can sleep. I’ll be there.”
“Thank thank thank,” said Rocky, still sounding very much like a small, frightened child.
He pulled his limbs under himself, and then… conked out. Ryland’s heart jumped to his throat for a second, as it looked like the Eridian had just died in front of him, his formerly animated body suddenly going eerily still and utterly silent.
“I hope that’s just sleep for them,” he said after tapping against the xenonite a few times to test if Rocky would wake up.
Court hmm’ed. “If they go that silent and still when they sleep… I guess it would make sense to have someone watch over them. I can do it, Ry. Go back to sleep.”
“No,” said Ryland immediately. “I promised him I’d watch, so I’m watching.”
“He won’t know whether you’ve been here the whole time or not.”
“I’m not lying to the alien, Court.”
Court shrugged. “Don’t complain when you get a migraine.”
“You’ve been awake longer than I have at this point.”
“I’m used to staying awake and still being operational.”
“Operational?” Ryland repeated. “You’re not a robot.”
Court didn’t answer. For a few minutes, Ryland observed him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Eventually, he slid closer to his brother and sat beside him. Then, he poked him in the meaty part of the arm -hard.
“Ow! Ryland, what the fuck are you doing?”
“Sorry. Just testing whether you’re a robot.”
“Are you insane?”
“Look, I don’t remember most of my life, you never know.”
Court rolled his eyes. Silence stretched in the tunnel. Ryland started fiddling with his translator, regretting not bringing a book or something. Court seemed content enough to sit there and do nothing, which was anathema to everything Ryland was.
“Court,” he asked eventually, once his thoughts grew too loud to ignore.
“Mmh?”
“Why-... is there a distance between us?” Ryland’s voice was barely a whisper. Court shifted by his side. He continued. “Colt and I are twins, it makes sense we’d be very close. But… you’re our older brother, right? I’ve had… very few memories of you with us. And the ones I did have were not, um. Happy. I-... I can guess we didn’t have a happy childhood.”
“No,” Court confirmed quietly. “We did not.”
“I just don’t want to feel weird around you, that’s all,” said Ryland. “I think I trust you, but sometimes you seem very far away and I have no idea what to do. I feel like I should leave you alone but I also don’t want to. I don’t know.”
“That’s not your fault,” Court said. “It’s mine.”
“How?”
“I haven’t been in yours or Colt’s life for years, Ry.” Court finally looked at him. “For over twenty-five years.”
Ryland stared at his brother. His ears started ringing.
#
“No! Don’t take him! Court! Court!!”
Hands were grappling at Ryland’s yellow rain jacket. The rain was making it slippery. Adults were talking to him but he didn’t listen, they didn’t matter. Only his big brother mattered, and he was being dragged away from Ryland and Colt by big policemen, the red and blue lights of the cars reflected on his pale face.
“Ryland!” he called, trying to escape from the police himself. “Ry, it’ll be okay! Just go with Colt!”
“No! Court! No! Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me! Please don’t, please, please…”
Ryland’s legs buckled and he fell on his knees. The rain was soaking through his pants. He tried to use his hands, scratching against the asphalt to gain some traction.
“Please!” he screamed.
He didn’t know who let go first, but suddenly he and Court were hugging in the middle of the streets. The adults were all watching, surrounding them both, tall and dark and without faces, hands that only hurt and wanted to destroy what was left of Ryland’s family.
Ryland had to be the one to hug Court, because Court’s hands were handcuffed behind his back. His broken fingers and his shoulder hurt a lot but he didn’t care.
“Ry, listen to me. It’s going to be okay. Do you hear me? I need you to take care of Colt, that’s your only job right now. You have to keep him warm, bud.”
“They can’t take you away! You didn’t do anything wrong!”
“I know. It’s okay. Ry, hey, look at me?”
Ryland looked up, sniffling. Court was smiling down at him. There was blood on his cheek, but the rain was washing it away.
“You remember what we talked about, right?”
Ryland nodded.
“Good. You promised, Ry. Remember that you promised. It’s my fault, not yours. Got it?”
“But it’s not–”
“Ry. You promised.”
Ryland cried harder. He buried his head into his brother’s stomach. And when the hands came back to pull him away again, he fought. He screamed. He pleaded and begged. But Court was pushed into the police car, and Ryland was pulled into the ambulance where Colt was being tended to, and he watched his big brother disappear.
Ryland could barely see through his tears, his head hurt. He curled up next to Colt, who hadn’t said anything in what felt like hours. Court had said he was in shock and needed to be kept warm. Ryland snuggled as close as he could to his twin, sharing as much of himself as he could, and let the adults work on his broken hand.
#
Ryland woke up to his ears still ringing, so loud that is drowned everything else and it hurt.
His head was pillowed on someone’s lap, a hand gently carding through his hair. And a song, sung low and warm, broke through the ringing.
“You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine,
You make me happy…”
Another memory came, this one gentler, a soft feather brushing Ryland’s bruised mind.
His older brother, coming home at midnight after a day of school then work, running up the stairs to see his siblings. Court, sitting by the bed they both used at the same time, giving Ryland a little smile when he saw he wasn’t sleeping.
“Go to sleep, bud,” he whispered. He brushed Ryland’s hair, and sung softly.
“Please don’t take my sunshine away…”
Ryland curled up on himself. Court stopped singing.
“Are you with me, Ry?”
Instead of answering, Ryland wrapped both arms around his brother, and buried his head in the other’s stomach.
“Please don’t leave me alone again.”
It took a second, but Court’s arms, free and strong, returned the hug, and his voice rumbled against Ryland’s ear as he said,
“Never again.”
When Ryland woke up, it was to the sound of something metallic falling over.
He startled, nearly headbutting Court in his haste. He’d fallen asleep on his big brother’s lap, and now Colt was here and trying to pile up a bunch of stuff he’d gotten from the lab, and Rocky was watching enthusiastically.
“What are you doing?”
Colt picked up the bit of xenonite that had fallen. He was moving fluidly enough and not wincing with every move, which was encouraging. “I am trying to recreate the solar system.”
“...why?”
“Puppet show!” said Rocky, jazz handing away. “Hellooooo, Ryland! Brother Court watched Rocky sleep, explained Ryland needed rest. Now Brother Colt tries puppet show to explain Astrophage to Rocky!”
“That’s- Colt, you forgot a planet.”
“What? Where?!”
“Mars is missing. You put Pluto in, but not Mars?”
“I’m doing my best over here, while you and Court cuddle and criticise! Oh, damn it…”
Another bit of his higgledy-piggledy construction fell off. During Ryland’s slumber, Rocky had handed over a bunch of little xenonite figurines, but also some random bits he must have had lying around. Colt had somehow made a precarious solar system out of it, fixing things together with tape, string, and pure faith.
“Just- let the experts do it,” Ryland said as he pushed himself to his feet.
With all the confidence in the world, Ryland started to fix the structure. About three seconds later, he tripped on it, and everything came crashing down.
Rocky and his brothers looked at him as blood rushed to his face.
“Is this expert move?” Rocky asked, and Court and Colt laughed.
“You just got sassed by an alien,” Colt pointed out.
“Shush! He's doing it on purpose, we already gave him a solar system, he knows what that looks like. He just wants to laugh."
"Yes," Rocky admitted without shame. "Human clumsiness very fun."
"You're on thin ice," Ryland warned, pointing at the alien. "We should make a model of the Tau Ceti system and try to figure out what’s different here compared to Erid and Earth. Right?”
Three sets of hands were not always better than one, but when two sets were apparently incapable of building anything without breaking it shortly after, it was good enough. Ryland could see clearly in his mind what he wanted to do, but unfortunately reality didn’t always follow, and it was getting frustrating. Thankfully Court continued to be handy.
“I made one in my classroom,” Ryland grumbled in his own defence. “It was all nice and colorful and the kids loved it. I’m not useless.”
“Not useless!” Rocky confirmed. “Ryland science brother!”
“I mean- I guess… Okay, I think that’s enough.” He picked up a long stick of xenonite discarded on the floor, and pointed it at the biggest of their little balls. “So, that’s Tau Ceti. And this,” he pointed at another one, “is Tau Ceti E. The Astrophage go there, probably to breed, and come back to Tau Ceti, but the star does not dim. Any ideas?”
“It’s not Astrophage,” said Colt with a shrug.
“The Petrovascope says it is.”
“Rocky says too! Astrophage!”
“The Eridians are clever, let’s go with him.”
“They go to Venus to reproduce, right?” said Court. “Maybe they don’t reproduce on Tau Ceti E, for whatever reason.”
"Bacteria can’t really be… infertile,” Ryland said thoughtfully, “but maybe there is something in that planet’s atmosphere that messes with their reproduction cycle. It’s possible.”
“Like radiation?” Colt asked.
“Astrophage absorb radiation, that’s why we’ve been safe after 4 years in Mary. It wouldn’t do anything to them.”
“What word, question? Astrophage absorb, question?”
Ryland grabbed his laptop, ready to enter the Eridian word for ‘radiation’. “Hm. Okay, you know how helium atoms travel through space-”
“No.”
“... No?”
“Space empty, statement.”
“Well, not entirely… There’s atoms and- ...” If Rocky could stare, Ryland would be on the receiving end of a look he knew very well, having seen it on his kids' faces every time he talked about a complicated physics subject. He put the laptop aside. “Rocky, do Eridians not know about radiation?”
“Not know word.”
“One of the fundamental principles of space travel! You have to protect yourself from radiation, you can’t survive–oh.” Ryland stopped.
“What?” asked Colt.
With careful movements, Ryland sat before the xenonite wall and put a hand on it. Rocky did as well.
“Rocky… what did you crew die of?”
“Rocky not know. Slow, sickness. Start small. Changed them. One by one, all Eridians die. Only Rocky left. Rocky all alone for 46 earth years. Not know what to do.”
The sadness in these few chords pierced right through Ryland’s heart.
"You've been alone in this system for forty-six years, Rock?"
"Yes. Very long time. Rocky wait, try to fix Astrophage by himself. Can't. Nobody to watch Rocky sleep."
"Jesus Christ," Colt breathed.
Ryland took a deep breath. He had no idea how old Rocky was, but that was an issue for later. Right now...
“Bud… I think I know what made your crew sick.”
He grabbed the model of the Blip A that Rocky had given them, and started the saddest lesson of his entire life.
It took hours until Ryland was certain Rocky understood the whole concept, including why he had escaped his crewmates’ fate.
About halfway through the explanation, as Ryland was doing his best not to cry, he heard Court and Colt have a whispered conversation behind him. His brothers disappeared, then came back hauling mattresses, blankets, pillows, and arranging them in the tunnel. A dormitory right there, too watch over Rocky and have him watch over them.
“Thank,” said Rocky eventually. He was staying eerily still, as if grief had turned him to actual stone. “Now Rocky understand why crew died.”
“I’m so sorry, pal.”
“Is okay. No you fault. Eridians not know about space. Ryland know lots about space. Ryland Rocky save stars together.”
“Yep,” Ryland agreed with a small smile. “You’re not alone anymore, Rock. I'm here.”
He heard a quiet “What are we, chopped liver?” from Colt in the back.