Chapter Text
It hadn’t even been two months since I rescued Rocky when it happened.
***
“Blimp D detected,” declared a robotic voice as Rocky and I sat in the mental health room arguing over whether a sunset (as the screens displayed before us) was beautiful or not if it was only beautiful to one of us. At the voice, a shot of adrenaline lightninged from my core through all of my extremities and I leapt up, Rocky straightening in alarm more in response to me than the announcement, it seemed.
“What?” I choked.
“What is “blimp”, question?” Rocky asked immediately, an anxious edge to his tone.
“It means there’s something in space close to us,” I panted, already jogging out of the room and toward the cockpit with him in tow. “Or someone. It’s what your ship and the little capsules you sent me showed up as.” I arrived and frantically began searching for the screen that would be displaying the all-important Blimp D. “It could be a fluke, but—”
“Amaze amaze amaze!!” Rocky exclaimed, waving two of his arms as he couldn’t contain his excitement. “Other human ships launch from Earth? Rocky thought Hail Mary was only ship!”
“No, I’m the only one,” I murmured, trying (and failing) to make my hands stop shaking as I pulled up the telescope. “This is something else…” Rocky’s whole demeanor shifted, all of his limbs going completely still. “You guys didn’t happen to—”
“No. Rocky ship only Eridian ship too,” he said quietly. He thought for a moment. “…Other ship mean possible great discovery and great knowledge, but also possible great great great danger…” he murmured, almost to himself.
“Yeah, I know, buddy,” I sighed, taking another peek in the telescope. “But, I mean, are we really gonnaaaAAAHHHH!!!!!!”
“WHAT WRONG?! GRACE HURT?! WHAT HAPPEN QUESTION?!”
I slumped back into the pilot seat. I felt lightheaded, but I managed to push the words out anyway. “They’re… already docking…”
Rocky screeched discordant a note at least nine times that I inferred was visceral alarm, and, honestly, same. Though mine was more of the silent panic attack flavor. “WHERE DOC?!?!” He yelled much louder than was necessary, “WHERE GRACE SEE SHIP DOCK?!”
I assured Rocky that this tunnel was moving much slower than his, but at his repeated (and loud, jeez) requests, I finally found the strength to push myself up and sneak another peak at Blimp D. A cylindrical bridge much like Rocky’s was veeery slowly spiraling itself into existence toward our ship, and it looked like it was aimed at… My brows furrowed. “It’s… It’s aiming at the airlock.”
“Confusion… Confusion!!” Rocky exclaimed exasperatedly. “How aliens know human ship design, rhetorical question?! Rocky no understand!!”
“I… have no idea…” I said. “Maybe they’ve found a human ship before?”
“Grace.”
“Orrr they’ve, like, heard about it from aliens who’ve seen them?”
“Grace!”
“Or maybe they’re just really lucky??”
“GRACE! Listen, statement!”
I jumped. “Oh! Sorry, Rock, I got caught up in the theories. It’s just so interesting that—”
“Yes yes yes no important now,” Rocky interrupted. …Rude. “How much time estimate until alien ship attach, question?”
Oh yeah.
I checked the scope again, did some quick math in my head, and quickly had a tsunami sized wave of adrenaline just, absolutely pummel me.
“…Why Grace quiet, question?” Rocky said with equal parts suspicion and horror.
“Uh…” I cleared my throat, “we’ve got like, max five minutes.” I guess it was going faster than I thought…
Rocky screeched up a storm as we flew to the airlock and I got in my EVA suit, just in case the new guys didn’t get the concept of different life systems. Just as I finished getting everything set up and had double checked the seals of both sets of doors, there was a loud THUNK. We both jumped. I think Rocky swore in Eridian. They had connected.
After that, there was a long, TENSE stretch of time. Like, waiting for either your doom or something better than every Christmas combined can do things to a man, jeez louise. (And an Eridian, from the way Rocky was standing.) Finally, though, we heard a faint tap, tap, tap.
“Alien knocking on outside door,” Rocky breathed.
I glanced at the override controls. “Do I…”
“ROCKY NOT KNOW!” Rocky cried. “WHY ROCKY NEED DECIDE, QUESTION!? GRACE’S SHIP! GRACE DECIDE!!”
“OKAY! Okay, jeez!” I said. “I… Uh…”
A sudden, continuous, crackling sound.
Rocky groaned musically. “ALIEN,” he ground out, clenching his metaphorical jaw in both fury and terror, “CUTTING HAIL MARY.”
Because of course they were.
I blanched and laughed nervously. “Well!” I said with too much teeth through my anacondaed ribs, “They’re comin’ in either way, might as well keep the other doors intact!” I reached forward and pushed a few buttons, and the doors in front of us slid open with a hisss. Rocky cringed and I covered my ears as the screeching of alien chainsaw-on-metal intensified tenfold. It occurred to me suddenly then that we probably should’ve brought weapons. Not that we had any space blasters or Lightsabers or anything, but a metal pipe couldn’t’ve hurt. Well, too late now, because the alien had just finished their circular outline, and the incessant noise had finally subsided, the blade the alien had been cutting with pulling back, though the cut panel stuck. A moment later, though, Rocky and I jumped as the alien kicked in the new-and-improved door.
My insides turned to Nerve SoupTM as I squinted to see what eldridge horror—…
It was just a guy.
Like, a human guy.
Don’t get me wrong, he was a ridiculously cool guy— had the whole space-mercenary slash pirate thing going on with his metallic armor and this really freaky mask with these really spooky deer antlers and his, like, five guns (I could only assume, of course, but that was my best guess)— but I could see his definitely human-flesh colored hands, and the eyes poking through his mask were definitely human-looking eyes, not to mention the tiny bits of dried blood, red blood, I caught on his hands. (Even if this was some other type of being that had somehow evolved to just be freakily similar to humans, I thought, or heck, even like some sort of shape-shifting species or something, they would’ve had to have an astronomical dose of luck to have the exact same insides as humans, too.)
The Human Guy assessed both of us faster than I could blink and instantly sprinted toward me— making Rocky let out a cry of alarm— situating himself between Rocky and I as one hand flung out as a ‘stay behind me!’ and the other grabbed a gun (?) so fast I questioned whether he’d always been holding it. “STAY BACK!” He thundered, pointing the gun dead at Rocky. “GET AWAY FROM HIM!”
Rocky froze. “Wait!” He blanched. “Rocky friend! Rocky—” —screeched and ducked as a flash of hot light blasted into the wall just above his ball.
“That’s the only warning I’ll give,” the man growled, and just then, somehow, I noticed another robotic voice echoing his words in what sounded like Eridian from some device at his hip, “so back away and follow my orders or—”
“Woah, woah, woah!!” I said louder and more high-pitched than necessary, and definitely failing to hide the absolute overwhelming anxiety in my voice, “there’s no need for that!!” I tried to lower the man’s arm, but the look he gave me made my hand quickly fly back to my side. Coward, I said to it. Instead, I tried, “He’s right!! We’re best friends!! I promise! So we reeealy don’t need to be shooting space guns all willy-nilly—”
The man looked back at me again, taking off his mask to better do that, evidently, this time with brows furrowed. He hadn’t lowered his gun, and if I was sweating buckets I couldn’t imagine what Rocky must have felt like. God, the guy was staring into my soul. Those eyes were paralyzing, and not in the good way. (Not that I swung that way, anyway. I think.) Eventually, though, after what felt like hours of sweating some of my not-so-pg parts off and having to manually breathe, his face softened into a sad, pitying frown. Huh. I think I liked that even less.
He said softly, almost as if talking to a scared puppy, “It really convinced you, huh?” He made a sad noise in his throat. “It’ll be okay, you’re just confused. Why don’t we get you on The Prodigal Son, get you some food and sleep, and I can—”
“What? I’m not confused,” I sputtered, confused. “Rocky saved my life, and my sun, and my— our planet. He’s my best friend! Right, Rock?” I looked desperately to the being for backup.
“Yes! Yes yes yes!” Rocky supplied shakily. (Human Guy still hadn’t lowered the gun.) “Rocky and Grace best friends! Grace also save Rocky and Rocky sun and planet. Rocky like Grace! Rocky no hurt Grace! Rocky only engineer!! Rocky not dangerous! Promise, statement!!”
The man looked back to me one final time, searching my face for… something, before finally relenting with a sigh and lowering his gun.
THANK EVERY GOD! My butt can finally unclench!! Also!! My best friend is okay!!! Good things all around!!
“Fine, I’ll believe you,” the guy said, “but if you even think,” he seethed this part toward Rocky, “of trying to harm us, I kill you. Understand?”
“Understand understand understand!” Rocky cried quickly in relief. “Thank no kill now!!” The guy mumbled a reply under his breath as he holstered his gun.
“Yes, we both really appreciate that more than you know!” I groveled.
“So,” he turned on me suddenly, “you really are human?” He whispered wonderingly. Uh, clearly this guy’s never heard of tone, but, okay.
“Uh… Yup. Bonafide human right here.” I jabbed my thumb stupidly at my chest, which was actually pretty impressive knowing I still had my full EVA suit on.
“Well, I’d love to discuss if you’d come inside,” he smiled.
Smiled.
“I haven’t talked to another human in forty-nine years,” he explained, “It would be nice to talk to someone like me for once, and catch up with what’s happened on Earth.”
I blinked. “Well—… uh—…” I looked desperately to Rocky again. He glared at me. ‘IDFK!!’, his face screamed.
Yes. Thank you SO MUCH, Rocky. SO helpful right now.
Okay, fine. I’m a scientist! Let’s be scientific— let’s weigh the pro’s and con’s. Well, the guy looks like he’s definitely killed people, so one point to ‘con’s’. Aaand he was just about to kill my best and only friend in the universe, so I’ll just sprinkle in a couple more to that side.
Althouuugh, he seemed to want to not kill either of us anymore, so, I guess like a half point to ‘pro’s?’. Plus, I also haven’t talked to another human in… a long time, and it would be nice.
WAIT A GOSHDARNED MINUTE.
I gasped internally. HE SAID HE HAD FOOD. I don’t know how my brain didn’t register it before; this is monumental!!!
NO MORE TALMEOBEA!!!!!
I had been eating nothing but the stuff for about five weeks now, and after about the first it had become a living hell, so you can’t really blame me if I blurted “UhhHHSURE!”
My voice cracked and I cleared my throat. “We’d, uh, love to come aboard your ship!” I glanced at Rocky. “Uh, you’ll let Rocky come, right?”
He sighed, but finally let out a disgruntled “Yes.”
I pumped my fist hopefully unnoticeably, and didn’t miss Rocky’s happy chords.