Chapter Text
Rocky came to him on his day off with the news. He had a feeling something was going on way before that, however.
The day wasn’t anything special. Grace had put in a small request for a soft drizzle all day in his bio-dome. The eridians never understood why he likes such dreary weather, which only made him laugh to himself. Something in the similarities between humans and eridians always got him smiling. Back on Earth, he would always get questioned for why he likes the rain too. He’s always been a little alien, even on his home planet.
Thankfully, his own little alien buddy seemed to have the same problem because Rocky enjoys the rain too. Maybe it was actually just a side effect of being alone in space for so long, or maybe it was a side effect of having a weird human as his best friend.
Once Grace put in the request, he was already sandwiching in some time for him and Rocky to curl up and watch movies together. It was something they’ve gotten so used to doing together. While they didn’t have nearly as much free time here as on the Hail Mary, they still try to have at least one movie day every once in a while.
Rocky was late today.
No biggie! Rocky had a busy life now that he was back on his home planet. Grace was understanding!
Except, it was kind of a biggie.
Not long ago—barely a week ago, if he were to follow his internal human schedule—Grace was pulled into the Eridian Anthropology Center (EAC as he calls it) and was retested on various things. Stuff like his health, bodily functions, tolerance towards eridian medicine. Dozens and dozens of things that had his head spinning at some points. He’s been through it all before. It wasn’t too alarming, just out of the blue. When he was still recovering from being pretty much dead-on-arrival to Erid, he was here almost daily, but he hasn’t needed to come by in months. Usually when he did go, Rocky was the one to escort him to and from, sticking by him as much as he could, the designated translator for scientist that needed help deciphering Grace’s Grace-isms. This time, scientists and doctors he barely recognized pulled him out of class and gave him no explanation for it.
Something was going on, and now Rocky was late for their movie day.
It was reminding Grace a lot of Earth the last time he was on it. Government officials and people that know so much more than him, carting him around and telling him nothing.
It left him anxious. And maybe a little nauseous. A lot nauseous, really. He hasn’t heard any word about repairs and improvements on the Hail Mary, but he knows Rocky has a team on it. He hopes everyone is not getting ready to kick him off of Erid too without him made aware of it.
He knows Rocky would never allow it, but Grace also knows if someone is powerful enough, they can make anything happen. Anything.
But, it was a little heartwarming to think that Rocky would definitely drop everything and go after him if he was kicked off Erid. It helped him through the anxiety a little bit.
As the minutes ticked by on both his human and eridian clocks, Grace kept himself patiently waiting. As patiently as he could ever be, absently throwing his little Earth bean bag up in the air while lying in his bed. He caught it most of the time. Other times he got distracted with all the different thoughts and memories and worries running through his head that he missed and it would hit him straight in his face.
He’ll be fine.
Knocking rattles his door all of a sudden. Grace shoots out of bed immediately, tripping over the blankets tangled around his legs.
When he answers the door, he couldn’t help a sigh of relief that it was only Rocky. No eridian officials with a needle waiting and ready were anywhere in sight. It was just his dear friend in his xenonite suit, claws tapping away on the ground, brimming with joy.
Rocky waves and trills. “Hello, Grace!”
“Hey, Rocky!” Grace leans against the doorway, letting the door fall open for his friend to trot inside. “You’re not late at all.”
“Grace confused. Rocky right on time. Heartbeat elevated. Is Grace okay?”
So much for trying to act casual. “I’m fine,” he lies, then feels a twinge of guilt that makes him change his mind. “Okay, maybe I’m a little worried. You’re usually pretty punctual and around more. I get you have Adrian and a whole community that I’m not a part of, but it feels like something’s changed.”
Rocky turns to him and his pitch was a little off. Too high to be normal. “Nothing wrong. What movie we watch today? Rocky want comedy. No horror.”
“Sure, yeah, we can do that,” Grace follows after his friend, quickly doubling back to shut his front door. “Buddy, really, what’s going on? Is something actually wrong?”
Rocky makes himself comfortable on the couch, tucking in his many legs, on what Grace likes to affectionately call, loafing. He chirps again in that too-high tone. “Rocky fine, Grace fine, now we watch movie. Statement.”
“No, not ‘watch movie statement’.” Grace steps in front of Rocky, conveniently also standing in front of the screen they watch their movies on. It wasn’t necessary. Rocky couldn’t see the screen without his screen reader, but it got the point across. He put his hands on his hips. “Something is going on. Just a few days ago, I was dragged to the EAC for some tests. Out of the blue! You weren’t even there! I know something is up and I would like to know what.”
He’s not trying to raise his voice at his friend, but gosh darn it! Grace was frustrated and scared and has been stewing in it for some time now. He never expected Rocky to hide something from him. They were always in things together. They had only each other for years, Grace sacrificed going back to Earth for him. He couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed that there was something happening behind his back and Rocky was in on it.
The similarities were making the back of his neck sweat.
Rocky realized his blunder, or maybe he always knew the conversation would end up going this way. His carapace shudders and he fidgets on his legs.
“Sorry.” He chirps. “Rocky is hiding from you.”
Grace drops his arms back to his sides. He wasn’t any less tense, but at least his friend was admitting something was up. “It’s okay. Just… maybe warn me next time? A simple, ‘hey, Grace, there’s some stuff going on that I can’t tell you about’! I’d like a small heads up.”
“Heads up.” Rocky repeats with a nod of his so-called head. Then, he said something truly unbelievable. “Eridians found human life in space.”
Grace stares. He waits. Maybe for Rocky to start laughing. He didn’t start laughing. He was still as… well. As still as a rock.
“You what?”
“Eridian scientists have been studying stars. Found new discovery! 🎶🎵bring human into space.”
“What is—” Grace made an off-tuned attempt at what Rocky said. His friend doesn’t cringe this time, very used to Grace’s poor attempts at copying his language by now. “What—what does that mean? Describe it.”
Rocky lets out a low tune. “Light. High, smooth texture. Hole in space. Found before, but then ship comes through light! Scientists very excited to see ship and say hello! Transmission sent.” While telling his tale, Rocky had perked up more and more off the couch, talking animatedly with two of his arms. As he had gotten to his last words, however, he settled back down. “Message returned, but human was not well. Human needed help.”
Grace swallows. He sat down on the floor in front of Rocky, legs crossing at the ankles with his knees pulled up. He leans his elbows against them, and then his palm against his mouth. He sighs through his nose.
“Could you help them?” He asks as calmly as he could. In reality, his whole body was taunt as he tried not to swan dive into negative thoughts.
Rocky shifts on his legs, trilling something softly that Grace couldn’t translate in his head. “Eridians built attachment to our ship. Like chain. We hooked chain onto human’s ship. Then, we pulled ship to Erid. This is when Rocky came in. Rocky brought to ship. Made bad. Rocky and team had to cut open ship, no other way to open.”
“No other way?” Grace questions.
“No door. Window welded shut. Ship welded shut. Rocky and team had no other way.”
Grace’s heart rate definitely spikes hearing that. He rubs his hands over his face for a moment, then waves his hand in a circular motion, telling Rocky to keep going.
He does. “Human in bad shape once ship opened. Leaking everywhere. Oxygen den contaminated. Human… human very scared of eridians. Human scream, scream, scream. Fell asleep after screaming so much. Rocky sorry for not doing more for Grace and human.”
“No, no, no, Rocky,” Grace held out his hands towards his friend. “It’s okay. It’s fine. It sounds like you guys have had a heck of a time. I really think I could’ve helped with all that, but I get it. This probably went over your head too, huh?”
Rocky chirps in confirmation, sounding pretty frustrated too. Yeah, despite being the heroes of stars, there’s still so much the government will share with an engineer and a school teacher, even in a pretty cooperative society like Erid.
From what it sounds like, eridians found the ship while they were discovering more about space, maybe finally trying to reach out to Earth with their own friendly Arecibo message, so to speak, and happened to get a bounce back from an actual ship. When the human responded back, they sent something out to retrieve the ship. Rocky said they made some sort of chain; maybe a tow? Or their version of a tow. It could have easily been an actual chain.
That was already a lot to take in, but there was more to it that really concerns Grace. Rocky said the ship had been sealed shut, no doors, no airlock, just a window. One that they couldn’t get past either, from the sound of it. That means it was welded around them. Like a tomb. Something not made to come back out of.
The last Grace saw of Earth, he was getting knocked into a coma and sent away against his will. Putting two and two together, Grace didn’t like the conclusions his mind was drawn to.
If Earth sent another spacecraft out to follow after him, he’d hate to think why. And under what circumstances.
“You said they were in bad condition?” Grace whispers.
A chirp from Rocky.
He swallows again. “What condition was that?”
A softer note, this one less sure. “Burns. Burns like Grace's arm, but very bad. Face burned. Human’s arm could not be saved. Radiation poisoning. Lacking nutrients. Eridians working on fixing human like eridians fix Grace. Hard work.”
Burns? How had they gotten burned? And the radiation—how shoddy of a job did they do with this ship that they had been irradiated? And burned at that! Bad enough to lose an arm…
Gosh, he’s spiraling.
“Yeah,” the word came out quietly, absently. Grace lets out a trembling sigh, feeling like he hadn’t breathed throughout the whole conversation. His nausea still hasn’t gone away. He probably was going to hurl after this. “Yeah, that sounds like a tough time, pal. It sounded like a long time, actually. How long has the new guy been around?”
The fidgeting returns. Rocky taps his claws together as much as he could with double the xenonite barrier between them. “Rocky has known for 13.5 days. Eridian scientists have known for… much longer.”
Grace purses his lips and sighs again. Alright, that made sense. Depending on how far away the ship was and how fast they could’ve towed it all the way back to Erid, they would have known for some time now. And doing some quick math, them opening the ship and getting the human out probably lined up with the tests they put him through. It wasn’t like it’s been too long, they just decided their resident human didn’t need to know about it just yet.
Great.
“So the tests I was brought in for?”
“Human in bad shape, much different than Grace when first arrived to Erid. EAC needed new information to study.”
He figures. Nice to have that confirmed, though. There was still a lot that Erid didn’t know about humans. Earth has been struggling with that for centuries and they were still struggling by the time he was evicted. Erid had the privilege of a photographic memory and said centuries worth of information on humans from the Hail Mary’s computer system. Even so, there’s only so much a Wikipedia article can help you with when you have extremely limited subjects to actually study.
Okay, so maybe Grace can understand why no one had wanted to tell him yet. It had been a miracle Grace had lived through the trip to Erid, this human they had just found was in much worse shape (he hadn’t forgotten Rocky’s use of the word “leaking”). If the eridians had come to Grace immediately with this information when chances of the human’s survival was still up in the air, all the hope he built up would come crashing down to a dangerously low level. One of the few things Grace could recall from those terrible days of slowly starving to death was how bad his mental health had gotten. He could only imagine what having the chance to see a human being again only to lose them before he even knew them would do to his head.
Even now, Grace couldn’t stop his growing hopes. This was a dangerous line to tread on. He had to walk carefully, try not to shake too much with adrenaline and fall off the balance beam. Everything needs to be done just right to get out of this alive, for both him and the newcomer.
He still allows himself one indulgence. With utmost care, he asks Rocky one question.
“Do you think they're gonna make it?”
Rocky lifts his carapace, oozing with as much confidence as he can possibly summon up. “Eridians will fix human. Eridians have to fix human. For Grace.”
He feels his chest seize for a moment, a shudder running through him so suddenly it makes him gasp. He knows the tears are coming, but he tries to keep them back a little longer. Grace smiles at his friend. “Thanks, Rocky. I can always count on you to stick up for me.”
Rocky comes off the couch and stands in front of Grace instead. He skitters around him, trilling and cooing in that worried manner that was basically just the human equivalent of stuttering over his words. Grace watches fondly, figuring what Rocky was trying to suggest. He lifts one of his arms and Rocky is quick to duck under it, leaning as hard as he safely can against Grace’s side.
“Rocky always stick up for Grace. Grace have human to live with soon. Eridians will fix, and Grace will have human!”
He laughs shortly, pressing his cheek against the xenonite. “They’re their own person, Rocky. You don’t know if they’ll even like me.”
“Human will have to like. No other human around to choose from.”
“That is true…”
“Name for human?”
“Hm?”
“Does Grace have name for human, question?”
Grace lifts his head off of the suit. “What? Why would I know their name? I don’t just know everyone’s names on Earth.”
Rocky shakes his head and starts interrupting him before Grace could even finish talking. “No, no, no, Grace name human. Grace name planet Adrian, Grace name robot arm, Grace name predator. Grace name human!”
“Those are all inanimate objects or non-intelligent beings!” Grace was flushing at his childish habit of personifying everything being thrown back in his face in such a ridiculous way. “I am not going to name a human who already has a name that they can tell us when they’re better! I already told you they’re their own person! I can’t just name a person!”
“Grace name Rocky.”
He does have a point there. There’s a lot of frankly embarrassing things Grace did when they first met that he wishes he could go back and change. Naming and pointlessly gendering an alien species based on their looks wasn’t the smartest, most thought out, decision. Still, naming a grown human being wasn’t something he wants to do. At all. You only get to do that with babies and aliens that you cannot ever physically speak the same language as.
”My answer is still no.”
Rocky backs up, turning to Grace. And he didn’t need a face to see that his friend was cooking something up.
“Rocky will name human.” He chirps in the most cheeky way an eridian can chirp. And he rudely talks over Grace as he tries to shut him down. “Human will be named ‘Loud’ as human very loud with eridian saviors. Loud human scream, scream, scream. Loud scream too much.”
Oh, how amazing! This poor guy is going to survive being burned, losing their arm, and being thrown into space, just to wake up to a silly name from a silly alien creature. Good grief. Grace buried his face in his hands.
“That’s a terrible name.” He says. Removing his hands after a moment, he rolls his eyes at the warbled laughter from his friend. “You know humans are not all named like that. Most of them aren’t, actually.”
“Rocky knows. Grace is not graceful. Not fitting name for Grace.”
Grace sighs. Not for the first time, he wondered how he had gotten to this point in his life. He thought now that he was living a semi-normal life on Erid, he’d stop having back-to-back mind boggling happenstances every once in a while, but it didn’t look like that was ever going to stop. And to think, he had such a normal, average American life on Earth before the Petrova line was discovered.
Rocky leans into Grace’s space again. “Loud will be saved. Grace will not be alone.”
Okay, well. Average smaverage. Grace wouldn’t trade his life of Erid for anything. Not when he has Rocky. He leans into the warm heat coming from Rocky’s suit. “Like I can ever be alone now. You are the clingiest eridian I’ve ever met.”
“Grace shut up now.”
“Love yah too, buddy.”
A low whistling grumble came out of his friend, but he didn’t pull back. In fact, he pushes into Grace harder. Grace lets him hold the majority of his weight, all the tension that has been building and building for so long starting to leak out of him. Literally even. He can feel a wetness start sliding down his cheeks. A tremble takes hold of him and soon he’s clinging to Rocky, wrapping desperate arms around his friend for some sort of relief. Rocky coos and crows, trying to soothe him with words playful and dumb. Grace shudders and sobs anyway. He doesn’t understand why he feels so scared. He’s not the one who should be scared.