Chapter Text
This can not be possible.
Out of all the things Ryland Grace has ever done, which could certainly be classed as impossible, this is the one that there is truly, utterly no way this could be happening.
Because he's getting a comms signal. Over ten light years from any chance of human life, and he's getting a signal. He seriously thinks he could be hallucinating right now, because there really is no freaking way.
Incoming transmission. Accept? Y/N
The robotic voice repeats, seemingly with an air of impatience, but really, Grace could be hallucinating that too. It's just been so long since he's actually talked to a real, living person who speaks, and breaths, and doesn't eat like a scene from a horror movie. Ahem.
"Yes! Yes, accept, uh, please, Mary," he splutters out, hands fluttering hesitantly over the overwhelming display of flashing buttons. Grace can feel his heart thumping almost in his throat, the mere thought of real human life prompting him to launch immediately into overdrive, squirming in the rotating chair as the voice states, Transmission connecting.
For a moment, there's nothing. Silence. A couple bursts of static that Grace leans in eagerly to listen to, but then disappear just as soon as they came. It almost feels like he's being teased, being given a taste of what human connection could feel like again, and immediately having the sweet taste of it ripped from his tongue. Jeez, he thinks to himself, slumping back into the chair with a sigh, maybe it was just a rogue radio wave or something feeling sociable-
"G-God, please-!"
A weak, crackling voice bursts out from the speaker, startling Grace so much that he almost topples onto the floor in his haste to lean in and listen. That's a person! Definitely they seem, like, completely out of it, but a person!
He fumbles his finger onto the flashing red button to talk, immediately letting words spill from his mouth, "H-Hey! Hey, uh, are you okay? Do you need, uh, help? You sound- pretty, ah, pretty bad, although I really, really have no clue why you're out here, I mean, I thought it was just me, but now you're here, and-"
Grace cuts himself off as his ears strain to catch the unknown person's shuddering sobs, falling into an uncomfortable silence. Their voice sounds so raw, like they're been screaming for hours on end. Grace can talk a lot, but he's never worn out his voice like that. He hesitantly opens his mouth to speak again, but-
"Please. I can't do it any longer. It's- It's not worth it-! Whatever you want me to get, it isn't worth whatever's down here, because I know-" The rough voice takes in a deep, painful sounding breath, regaining some strength to their tortured vocal chords. "I know there's something fucked up down here! P-Please, I don't care if you throw me back in a cell, or just kill me, because- because anything is better than THIS! G-God, please, Ava, anyone, just- just get me out .."
Silence. Silence apart from the person's pained cries, as Grace runs a hand down his face in both horror and awe. Whoever this is, they've been, or currently are going through, literal hell, it sounds like. Compared to them, Grace has been skipping around in fields of daisies and rainbows. For one of the first times, he can't think of an immediate response, wracking his brain to think of something, anything, to say.
"H-Hey, look, listen, I don't know who or where you are, or whoever this Ava lady is, but- I'm going to try and find you. You- You really don't sound okay, man. Do, uh, do you have any clue of where you are? Coordinates, anything around you, seriously, anything is helpful. Can you .. try and do that for me?"
He waits in silence, grimacing at his awkwardness. Still, with his first human contact in, four years, was it? It was good progress, at least! Static crackled through the speakers before he got a flat reply.
"Shouldn't you know where I am? You're C.O.I, are you not? You- You're the assholes who sent me into this goddamn creepy blood ocean! S-So, just look me up on your stupid X-ray cameras, which don't even make- hah, any goddamn sense and pull me up!"
I think this guy might be insane, was Grace's first thought before dispelling the thought. Has no human contact made him mean or something? Definitely Rocky rubbing off on him ..
"Look, I'm being serious, okay! I don't know who the heck those C.I.A guys are or whatever, isn't that from Men in Black or something? Anyways, my name's Grace, Ryland Grace, and I'm with the, uh, Petrova guys or whatever, from the Hail Mary? You know, the Petrova line? Eating up the sun?"
Even in the silence, Grace can tell the other person has absolutely no clue what he's saying. You'd think they aren't speaking the same language, like, come on!
"Okay, well, never mind that. I'm going to try, well, my best, to find you. You sound like you're not doing so great, and I can't just let that be. You know, not that typa guy. Never have been really. Too nice for my own good, most of the time, really-"
"Please .. just help me. I'm- I'm begging you. I- fuck, I don't know where I am at all, I've got- hah, my coordinates, but if you're .. not C.O.I, you're nowhere even close to me. 'm sorry, I can't- oh god-"
The voice trails off, becoming increasingly breathy before a loud clang echoes through the speakers. It sounds like whoever he was talking to just actively passed out in the middle of their conversation. And they seem to have completely different views on the usage of expletives. Well. Off to a great start.
Grace sits back in his chair for a second, before immediately lurching back up again. He needs to find this guy! Well, assuming it is a guy, which it kind of sounded like from when they were talking, so .. random guy! Don't fear! Captain Pilot Ryland Grace is on his way to save you! If that's any reassurance at all.
"Hey, bud?" He calls out, pushing off from the chair and making his way through the halls of the ship a little more rapidly than he would usually do. After a couple seconds, a thumping begins to follow him through the glass tubes snaking around the halls.
"Yes, Grace friend?" Rocky trills, rolling around with more excitement than usual. "Is Grace Rocky saving stars today, question? Or is Grace doing the waiting thing again, question?"
"Procrastination, bud. And no. We're doing something equally as dangerous, but also probably not as important." Grace replied, taking a seat next to one of the tubes as the alien eagerly rolled up to him.
"What doing then, question?" they ask, legs pattering against the glass of the tube as they constantly shifted, waiting for Grace's answer.
He stared off into the distance for a beat, then nodded with a sense of determination.
"We're going on a rescue mission."