Chapter Text
Grace looked at the collection device on the ship. It was a simple device, it had sample collecting slides for each direction with a bit of a sticky gel to keep the astrophage in place. The sealed backing would help with escape attempts as well. It looked like an old fashioned camera and Grace always wanted to work one. Maybe when he went back home. It wasn't an if anymore for him, it was a when. And Grace knows he's a coward, he wishes he knew why he said yes to this journey. But that blocked memory seemed unwilling to free itself. Grace sighed and went back to prepping the sample collector.
Rocky was somewhere in the background, rolling around loudly and looking for anything Grace may need for the space walk. They'd been in Tau Ceti-E's orbit for about an hour now and Grace still had concerns about the planet's gravity. He called out, saying it was time to get in position and orient themselves to the Petrova line.
Outside the ship, Grace stared at Tau Ceti-E. It was beautiful. Swirling green and red clouds in the atmosphere hid most of the geography on the actual planet but nevertheless he was in awe. When he asked Rocky their thoughts, they replied with boredom. Echolocation had its perks but not being able to see the beauty of this may not be one of them. He rambled about the human tradition of the discovery naming conventions as he prepped the slides. He switched his own goggles to the Petrova Line frequency, wanting to be sure he was aligned correctly. And God it was beautiful. Beautiful enough to make him believe that maybe God is real.
Grace let go of the slack on his line, floating up and letting himself be caught by the Line of astrophage. It was a beautiful scene, these dots that were releasing energy to breed or eat, bathed in red light, existing on a frequency he couldn't see. If only they weren't so damn destructive, their use could be endless.
Grace's timer went off, letting him know they collected the necessary samples and began to pack up. He finally mentioned the possibility of naming the planet after Rocky's mate, Adrian. Grace had no one he wished to immortalize in that way but he'd love to immortalize someone Rocky loves.
As Grace re-entered the airlock, a sensor on the ship went off.
Blip D detected
Grace immediately made his way to the computers, confused by the alert. And he saw a small oval shaped blip, slowly making its way to him and Rocky. Maybe they also wanted to figure out the Astrophage problem. Grace wondered aloud if they would try to hail their ship down.
Rocky sang out, saying they should try getting closer, approaching to see what was up. Grace was proud of himself for how quickly he was picking up on Eridian, most of the time he didn't need to look at the translation program he'd written. Grace nodded, working to carefully pilot the ship towards this blip.
Once within 500 meters of Blip D, Grace could get a better look with the Petrovascope. Upon seeing the vessel, Grace backed up in shock. There was no way that hunk of metal should be floating in space. It resembled a submarine more than a space ship, the Hail Mary had been thrown together but it was still done properly. Maybe it was another alien species? Maybe it had a new metal that was more equipped for this, or they had different needs for life. Maybe this would be more proof of his theory about water based life.
He sent out a radio signal, hoping there may be a way to contact whoever was in that ship. He did the same with light signals. He completely tuned out Rocky trying to get his attention. Until the Xenonite ball knocked his knees out from under him.
“Grace, it's human. Same heartbeat as you. Statement.”
"Rocky there's no way that a human is surviving in that ship, it's soldered together and looks like it's held together by duct tape and a prayer. Maybe we have similar heart beat patterns. But that metal looks like the vacuum of space would make it implode if it didn't get melted by stars first."
“Maybe Rocky is wrong, but there are other concerns. The ship is full of liquid. It's thick, viscous, like the blood that leaks from humans.”
"Weird, and none of my signals are working to reach them. Maybe we should try docking with the vessel?"
“Can you do this without the use of xenonite? question”
"Rocky, Mary has universal docking, I didn't need the xenonite tunnel in the first place. Yes we can dock. Heck, it's small enough it could probably just fully be brought into our docking bay."
Grace carefully began navigating the Hail Mary towards this "Blip D", trying to get a good view of the ship as he worked on aligning it with the docking bay. Grace noticed writing welded into the side of the vessel, "SM-13".
So it was supposed to be a ship, likely for exploration if the streamlined design was anything to go off of. It really did resemble a submarine more than any other type of ship, down to the porthole window at what seemed to be the front of the ship. He couldn't quite figure out the mass on the other end of the ship, nor the claw with some type of organic mass gripped in it. Maybe it was a for sample collection of some kind? And what kind of samples were they studying , other alien life? new species on their own planet? What was their planet like? He really wanted to study the way this group lived and why they thought this would be the best way for travel and exploration. They couldn't be humans either, no human could survive in something like this. And what is that sample? It doesn't look like it's from Earth at all.
Before Grace could really fall into the rabbit hole of questions and hypotheses, Rocky once again knocked into him.
“Grace is very distracted and stupid, does Grace need sleep again? question”
"Shut up Rocky, I am hypothesizing about the ship and its occupants."
“Well, Grace, we will need to get into vessel to answer questions so figure it out.”
Grace, with the help of Mary and some manuals worked out how to bring the vessel into their docking bay safely.
Upon doing so, Grace put on his space suit, cautious of the atmosphere that may differ in the ship and infect his, before making his way with Rocky down to the docking bay.
Grace looked around the ship, inspecting it. There was a strange red-brown film, some type of dried down and dehydrated liquid coating the vessel. He grabbed felt around the ship, grateful for the space suit he was using to inspect it. Who knew what that film was made of. As he felt, Grace noticed a raised section, weld lines, and a depression on the side. Some sort of door probably, but it was obviously welded shut. Even the bulky gloves of his suit could feel expert weld lines. "Rocky, can you sense any way in?"
Grace knew his question was stupid, it was unlikely Rocky could sense anything using his echolocation, but it never hurt to check.
“No, it seems solid and the liquid inside is weird. Is Grace's blood alive? question”
"By technicality yes, but it's not, like, sentient or conscious."
“Hmmm Grace be careful please. Rocky is suspicious.”
"Will do bud," Grace says, before deciding he'll break the weld using the plasma torch. He was glad to have it on him, it would save some time. He should be careful knowing the vessel is full of liquid but Grace's need to know was drowning that thought out. He started with the weld lines on the vessel's door. As he worked on it, Grace continued wondering about the type of being was inside this submarine full of a viscous liquid.
As the plasma torch broke the welded seal, Rocky was the first to notice the leaking red liquid from the broken seal. It seemed to move far quicker than they expected for a mass of thick liquid like human blood without the necessary way to pump it but Rocky had never seen human blood outside of the body. Maybe he was wrong about the way it should move. Still, Rocky bumped Grace to get his attention.
When Grace looked down at Rocky, he noticed the blood flow. That was a lot of blood leaking from the vessel and it was definitely more than any entity that could fit in a vessel of this size should have. Grace decided he would need to seal the crack and maybe try from the top of the ship to open it. He really hoped the being in there didn't need the blood as an atmosphere. He searched the area around the airlock and couldn't find anything for the crack except for a roll of duct tape. There was a chance it would work but if the adhesive got wet, well, even duct tape's adhesive wasn't more powerful than that. But, if he could stuff the hole with something first then use the duct tape to seal it, that would be more likely to hold. The ship didn't have anything that flexible though…except for fabric. He could use one of his now deceased crewmates' clothing pieces but that was a good 4 minute trip in zero gravity at least. The blood would flow out in that time and possibly flood the area. He needed something nearby.
Rocky could tell Grace was distressed and thinking through a problem based on his heartbeat and blood flow, it was elevated from it's normal levels. Even moreso than when he was working on breaking the welded door. “Grace ok? question”
"Yeah but I need to plug the hole with a fabric of some kind and can't travel to the crew quarters for clothes. It's too far and the blood is leaking so quickly. I don't know what to do."
“Grace have clothes. Grace use Grace's clothes.”
Grace did not know why he didn't think about that but he wasted no time taking off his space suit and stripping off his shirt to plug the hole. There was no time for him to consider any of the repercussions of it. He was just glad he repressurized the airlock so he didn't have to worry about his oxygen. Grace quickly shoved his shirt into the crack he started, making sure the fabric was collecting the blood, before he taped it in place. He made sure it was properly covered in multiple directions and properly held before stepping back. He was not blind to the fact that he had created a makeshift bandage for a bleeding ship. But it was holding. Man, Mark was right, there really isn't anything duct tape can't do.
Grace then decided he would move to the top of the ship to start trying to get in again. It looked a lot like a submarine which tended to have a side and a top entrance and exit. Using the ladder on the side, Grace climbed to the top and began searching for the door.
He found the hatch door, also welded shut and covered in the weird reddish brown and viscous liquid. He shook it off and started to use the plasma torch to make his way in.
It took a long time to break the weld, it was clearly expertly done. But he finally was able to lift the hatch door up and see what was happening inside the ship. He called down, hoping his voice could be heard and shone one of the flashlights inside. The sub was full of a thick red liquid Grace would bet money on being blood. Then, a hand shot up. A human hand. Then a head. He heard a hoarse voice call out for help.
Grace jumped into action and tried to secure himself well enough to reach down and grab the hand. Thank god the sub was so full and he had the tether rope with him. When Grace pulled the person out of the submarine, they looked at him for a moment then tried to say something and promptly passed out.
Grace panicked, fearing they needed the blood to survive but Rocky informed him that he was breathing, just unconscious. Grace nodded then grabbed the person he saved and brought them to the med bay in hopes of cleaning them up and administering medical care.
Left in the care of the NannyBot and Mary, Grace went back to the sample collector. Time to figure out what was going on with Adrian.