Chapter Text
”What’s two plus two?”
Simon’s tongue felt too heavy to respond. His mouth tasted like iron. Not that it wasn’t something out of the ordinary in the Iron Lung, but it still made his stomach churn to wake up to. He swallowed back the blood in his mouth and tried to move his lips.
Perhaps to curse at the offending female voice, perhaps to give an actual answer. Regardless of his response, he found himself unable to speak. His lips were cracked and tongue too swollen to move. Just how much of the blood had he swallowed?
“What’s two plus two?” The annoying voice pressed again. He would guess it was Ava’s but it’s lack of rage made him think otherwise.
“Hrglrk..” he managed to choke out, throat raw and scraped. Simon’s eyes finally peeled open, watery and itchy from dried blood. Immediately he was blinded by a horrible light. Brighter than his metallic coffin had been.
He cursed into open air, reaching up to cover his eyes. In the sudden movement, he ripped out an IV. It stung, and he could feel blood run down his forearm. He rubbed his face with a groaned, brushing the crust out of his eyes.
Then it finally hit him.
He wasn’t in the Iron Lung anymore.
Simon jolted upright, shouting profanities as more tubes were yanked out of his skin. A metallic arm grabbed and pinched at him and he punched it. The robot stuttered and retreated, to which Simon looked around. The room was bright and smelled like rubbing alcohol and fresh rubber. He looked down, kicked off the white sheets, and stared down at his outfit.
Was the monster seriously playing jokes with him.
It felt real, but he didn’t even know if he could trust sweat pants. Sweat pants? Seriously? This is how the world decides to fuck with him?
Sweat pants and a shirt with strange symbols reading ‘I wear this shirt periodically’. Obviously a joke he couldn’t understand, but it made him more angry all the same. He slid off of the medical cot and wobbled a little, caught himself on the railing of the bed, and walked towards the door. Which was pressure sealed.
Simon banged the door and tried to kick it a few times and fought with the handle until it opened with a hiss. A tall chamber with bunks attached to the walls. Three of them were out, one very obviously slept in.
A person was here. A real person.
He stamped down the glimmer of hope the second it arose. He had to find some way to return to his senses. He had to get out of this. The monster was surely right around the corner-
Nope. Just a ladder. A tall ladder.
Simon stared up in disbelief, doubt settling into his already fitful stomach. This felt too real. Did Ava really pull through after all?
He tried to shake off the thoughts as he slowly climbed up the ladder. When he had just reached the top, before he could even touch the handle, the robotic arm tapped his hand away.
“What is two plus two?”
“Four, fucker, now let me out!” He shouted, pushed the arm away, and hit the metal until it gave and he could push it open. Simon heaved himself through the hatch, appearing into a long corridor. This was good. This was really, really funny.
He took off, strides long and heavy down the hallway, fists clenched at his sides. His gaze was set, staring at the opposite end of the hallway. Another heavy door and he crossed over a suspended bridge in a room of white panels forming a dome.
It was far too high-tech for the COI, even the more impressive station held no candle to… whatever this was.
He passed through two more sets of doors, and paused at the last. Voices. Real voices spoke casually behind the final door. Real voices of real people and Simon had no weapons. He could fight, but fists were no match for sedatives and guns. He shuddered, then took a few paces back and searched for anything he could use. In a bid of desperation, Simon pried a panel off the wall and held it tightly. It’s corner was sharp enough.
He crept forward, slowly pushing open the door a fraction. The walls were made of only screens. There was two chairs, two voices. One sounded less real so close. Robotic and fake, but the other one was almost warm. Masculine and lazily talking about… something.
Simon snuck closer, his grip on the panel loosening when he finally saw the body of the first voice.
A blonde man in a sunny yellow sweater and striped pants with a white shirt beneath it. Fluffy hair, glasses hanging from his ears, and bright blue eyes Simon swore had gone extinct with the stars. A light and life in them no one at Eden had ever had. He was partially turned away, and Simon leaned over to see the inhabitant of the other chair.
It was a spider. Or a rock? A spider-rock in a glass suit sitting in the chair beside the man. It spoke with a robotic voice, but Simon could also hear the musical tones coming from it.
“Hah, well, Dr Stratt is just gonna have to figure it out,” the man chuckled, relaxing back into his seat.
“A few months give or take is enough to make it back at this rate… God, I can’t wait to see my students again..”
“Grace friend happy to see students too, question?” The robotic voice asked.
“What friend?” Simon could practically see the gears turning.
“OH- he’s not a friend, Rock. Well, hopefully when he wakes up we can work something out… But he’s still a stranger, and we have to be respectful. So be respectful, Rocky.”
“Grace stranger awake.” The spider-rock lifted a claw and tapped it in Simon’s direction. Realising he was caught, the possibly ex-prisoner ducked down around the corner.
“What? Are you serious? Hello?” The man’s voice dropped down to a soft whisper, as if Simon was a feral animal needing to be consoled.
The man hopped out of his chair and slowly walked forward, hands held up.
“My name is Ryland. Do you have a name?”
Simon held his breath for a few moments, until he was sure he had been found out. He carefully peered around the corner, studying the man- Ryland- up and down. He seemed… harmless. Almost too harmless. But he seemed harmless enough. It wasn’t like he could take him back to prison on just a first-name basis.
“S.. Simon,” he said quietly.
“Simon? That’s… a nice name. Do you know where you are?”
“No.”
“Oh. Well, uh.. This is the Hail Mary. She’s a space ship. In space.”
“A… space ship?”
“Yes..?”
Simon squinted at this strange man. Did he think Simon was that stupid?
“Where did you come from?” He finally asked.
“Erid! Well- Earth, technically. It’s a long story,” Ryland explained.
“Earth? Now you’re just fucking with me.”
“I know, it’s strange to see a human all the way out here- but how did you get so far from Earth?”
“Earth is a myth. Something they tell kids at Eden to give them an illusion of hope,” he spat. Ryland looked almost confused. Looking back at the spider before staring at Simon like he was ill.
“Earth is real. It exists, you know..”
“Sure, it does. Next you’re going to say stars are still around.” Again, Ryland traded a look with invisible eyes on the rock-spider.
“Uh… just, come with me,” He walked past Simon, waving a hand. Against his better judgement, Simon followed. This was so strange. He was aboard some possibly rogue faction’s space station with a human talking nonsense and his… dog?
And now this man- Ryland, was bringing him back from what he assumed was a cockpit of sorts. Ryland stopped in front of what Simon had assumed was another screen. It was not. His breath disappeared in an instant, drawn painfully from his lungs as he stumbled forward, pressing scarred palms to the freezing glass.
Stars.
Real stars.