Chapter Text
“What the hell is happening right now?” I asked, practically jogging across the docking platform as something enormous slid into place against the edge of Erid’s research sector.
The ground beneath my boots vibrated with the weight of it.
I wore one of the pressure suits Rocky had helped design for me years ago. The suit was bulky but comfortable enough now that I barely noticed it anymore. Without it, Erid’s atmosphere would cook my lungs and boil the moisture right out of me. Inside the sanctuary dome they’d built for me, I could survive normally—Earth pressure, Earth temperature, Earth atmosphere. Outside? Suit or death. Simple as that.
The object sitting on the platform looked like a freight container from Earth, if freight containers were dragged through hell first.
It was long. Metal. Mangled.
And absolutely covered in blood.
Dark red stains streaked the entire surface, baked into grooves and seams. Parts of the metal looked melted inward like something impossibly hot had clawed through it.
“Rocky?” I called out, scanning the area. “Adrian?”
“🎶🎶!”
Rocky hurried toward me over the xenonite floor, his carapace clicking rapidly with excitement.
“Rocky, what is this thing?” I asked, motioning toward the container. “Where did it even come from?”
Rocky didn’t answer immediately. Instead he climbed halfway up the side of the container while several other Eridian scientists swarmed over it. Their claws tapped rapidly against the bloodstained metal as they inspected it.
I followed closer, unease crawling up my spine.
Before I could touch the thing myself, frantic chirping erupted from the other side of the container. The entire group froze.
Then Adrian abruptly grabbed the arm of my suit and yanked me backward.
“Hey—”
Heavy xenonite straps were quickly attached around the container, and with horrifying efficiency the Eridians tilted the entire thing onto its side. The torn-open section rotated upward toward the ceiling lights.
“Adrian?” I asked.
She released my arm slowly. Her gray shell reflected the red emergency lights around the docking area.
“🎵🎶,” she warned quietly.
“Yeah, I gathered we should be careful,” I muttered. “Thanks for almost ripping my arm off, though.”
The Eridians began spraying the surface clean enough to inspect it properly, and that was when I saw the damage clearly.
Something had torn through the metal.
Not cut. Torn.
Jagged edges curled outward like paper peeled back by enormous claws. The opening looked less like damage and more like something had escaped.
Whatever had done that had to be huge.
I immediately decided I never wanted to meet it.
“🎶🎵🎶!” Rocky suddenly chirped from near the opening.
I looked up sharply. “Rocky, what do you mean there’s something inside?”
I started forward again, but Adrian stopped me with another sharp whistle.
“Yeah, yeah, dangerous. I know.”
Rocky scrambled back down toward us, movements frantic enough that even Adrian seemed nervous now.
“What did you see?” I asked.
“🎵🎶🎶🎶!”
“Rocky, slow down.”
He forced himself calmer before chirping again, more carefully this time.
“A worm?” I repeated blankly. “You’re telling me there’s a giant worm thing in there?”
Rocky nodded enthusiastically.
Adrian stared at him.
I stared at him.
Then the scientists above us erupted into frantic chirping again as a pulley system lowered into the container. Honestly, the Eridians could engineer something faster than most humans could make coffee. Within minutes they had a woven xenonite cable system feeding into the opening.
All three of us watched in tense silence as the rope tightened.
Something heavy was being pulled up.
Slowly, inch by inch, a shape emerged from the darkness inside the ruined container.
At first all I saw was blood.
Then fabric.
Then skin.
My stomach dropped.
“That’s not a worm,” I whispered.
It was a person.
A human.
Or at least something horrifyingly close to one.
The man hung limp in the pulley harness, soaked in blood from head to toe. Shoulder-length dark hair stuck to his face in wet strands. He had a thick beard matted with blood, and leather straps crossed his chest in a way that looked more utilitarian than decorative. His entire appearance screamed dystopian nightmare.
And unlike me, he wasn’t wearing a suit.
Instead, the Eridians had already sealed him inside one of the portable atmosphere bubbles before bringing him fully out of the container. Transparent walls shimmered around him, filled with breathable Earth air.
“Okay,” I breathed. “Smart. Very smart.”
The bubble settled onto the platform floor with a hiss.
I didn’t need my suit removed. Didn’t need to transfer him anywhere yet. I could just step into the airlock attached to the bubble directly from my own suit.
Honestly, after years on Erid, the efficiency still impressed me.
I moved to the bubble’s entrance while the others watched carefully from outside. The inner seal opened with a soft click, letting me step inside while still protected by my suit.
The second I got closer, my blood ran cold.
“Oh my god.”
The man was missing an arm.
Not recently severed cleanly either. The wound at the elbow was horrific—burned and melted like something had cauterized it instantly.
I crouched beside him carefully.
His skin felt freezing cold through my gloves.
For one horrible second, I couldn’t find a pulse.
Then—
Thump.
Weak. Slow.
Alive.
Relief hit me so hard my knees nearly gave out.
“He’s alive!” I shouted toward the Eridians outside the bubble.
Excited chirps exploded around me.
I looked back down at the unconscious stranger. Up close he looked even rougher. Bruises. Deep cuts. Burn marks. Old scars layered beneath fresh injuries.
This guy looked like he’d survived a war.
Or maybe crawled out of one.
“Hey,” I said gently, tapping his cheek with the back of my glove. “Can you hear me?”
Nothing.
Not even a twitch.
I stood quickly. “Rocky! I need a transport gurney in here now.”
Within moments the Eridians were already moving.
God, I loved these little space spiders.
A hovering medical platform was slid through the bubble’s lower hatch. Rocky entered wearing one of his own protective suits while Adrian supervised from outside.
Together we carefully moved the stranger onto the platform.
Even unconscious, the man was heavy. Solid muscle under all the blood and torn fabric.
“You got him?” I asked Rocky.
“🎶!”
“Good.”
The bubble detached from the container platform and began gliding toward my sanctuary sector with us inside it.
As we moved through the tunnels, I kept glancing back at the ruined container.
Something about it bothered me.
Not just the blood.
Not the damage.
The shape.
The size.
It looked less like a ship and more like… a coffin.
A giant iron coffin drifting through space.
And somehow, against every law of probability in the universe, there had been a living human inside it.
“Alright,” I muttered several hours later, stepping back from the bed. “That should hold.”
The spare bedroom in my sanctuary had officially become a hospital room.
The man had been cleaned up as much as possible. Most of the blood hadn’t even been his, which honestly raised more questions instead of fewer.
Now that he was clean, I could actually see him properly.
He looked somewhere in his thirties maybe. Strong jaw hidden beneath a thick beard. Long dark hair curling against the pillow. Broad shoulders. Built like someone used to hauling heavy equipment around manually.
Or fighting things.
A lot of things.
Bandages wrapped tightly around his missing arm. Several stitches crossed his ribs and shoulder. Bruises darkened nearly every visible inch of skin.
Yet somehow… he was still alive.
I pulled another blanket over him carefully. His body temperature remained disturbingly low.
Rocky stood near the foot of the bed while Adrian and Armando hovered nearby.
“So,” I said, rubbing exhaustion from my eyes, “currently we have no idea who he is, where he came from, what that container was, or why he was floating around space looking like he fought Satan himself.”
“🎵.”
“Very helpful, Rocky.”
Rocky clicked his claws together before gently touching the bandaged stump of the man’s arm.
“Yeah,” I sighed softly. “I know.”
Armando drifted closer, scanners humming quietly over the unconscious man’s body.
The room filled with tense silence while the scan processed.
Then Armando let out a confirmation tone.
“Human,” I whispered.
Rocky chirped excitedly. Adrian gave a softer whistle of relief.
I stared down at the unconscious stranger.
A human.
Another actual human.
After all these years.
The thought hit harder than I expected.
I swallowed thickly before sitting down beside the bed.
“Hey,” I said quietly to the unconscious man. “You picked a hell of a place to crash.”
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the man’s fingers twitched weakly against the blanket.
All four of us froze.
His breathing hitched.
Slowly—painfully slowly—his remaining hand curled into the fabric beneath him. His brow furrowed like he was fighting his way through a nightmare.
And then, in a raspy voice rough enough to sound torn apart from the inside, he spoke.
“…where…?”
My heart nearly stopped.
“Oh my god.” I leaned forward instantly. “Hey, hey, easy. Don’t move.”
His eyes cracked open.
Dark. Bloodshot. Terrified.
At least—one of them was.
The other side of his face was covered in thick white bandages wrapped around his head, stained faintly pink near the socket underneath. For a second my brain didn’t fully process what I was seeing. Then realization slammed into me all at once.
His left eye was gone.
Not covered. Not swollen shut. Gone.
A sharp breath caught in my throat before I could stop it.
Jesus Christ.
His remaining eye darted wildly around the room, frantic and unfocused as he struggled to understand where he was. His breathing immediately picked up, chest rising unevenly beneath the blankets.
Then his gaze landed on Rocky.
The reaction was instant.
Simon jerked violently, panic flooding across his face so fast it looked painful. His body tried to lurch backward on instinct only for agony to stop him halfway. A broken sound tore from his throat as he grabbed at the sheets with his remaining hand.
“No no no, hey—easy!” I said quickly, moving closer but keeping my hands visible. “You’re safe. Nobody’s gonna hurt you.”
His breathing only worsened.
The monitor Armando had hooked him to started beeping faster. Simon’s one visible eye remained locked onto Rocky like he was trying to decide whether he was hallucinating or dying.
Honestly? Fair reaction.
Rocky froze completely near the foot of the bed, claws lowering carefully against the floor so he looked less threatening. Adrian let out a soft warning whistle from the doorway.
Simon finally dragged his gaze back to me.
“…human?” he rasped.
His voice sounded shredded raw, like he hadn’t spoken in days.
I blinked once before letting out a disbelieving laugh of relief. “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, human. Ryland Grace.”
He stared at me for a long moment like he couldn’t quite believe I existed.
Then pain twisted across his face suddenly as he tried to push himself upright.
“Whoa—absolutely not.” I moved forward immediately, easing him back down onto the mattress before he ripped half his stitches open. “You’re severely injured.”
Simon hissed sharply through clenched teeth, body trembling from the effort alone. His remaining eye squeezed shut for a moment as he tried to steady his breathing.
“You’re missing an arm,” I added carefully.
Nothing.
No reaction.
Not shock. Not confusion. Not horror.
Just exhaustion.
Like he already knew.
Like losing limbs was the least upsetting thing that had happened to him recently.
That realization unsettled me deeply.
“…Simon,” he muttered weakly after a long silence.
“That your name?”
A tiny nod.
“Okay,” I said softly. “Nice to meet you, Simon.”
Behind me, Rocky chirped quietly.
Simon’s eye immediately snapped toward him again. Fear still lingered there, sharp and instinctive, but now confusion had started mixing into it too.
Rocky slowly lifted one claw in what I knew was supposed to be a friendly wave.
Simon stared at him for several long seconds before whispering hoarsely:
“…what the hell is that?”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “Okay, uh… long story.”
“🎶.”
“Yeah, thanks Rocky, very helpful.”
Simon flinched slightly when Rocky chirped again, his eye narrowing hard as he studied him. Up close, Simon looked even rougher than before. Without all the blood covering him, the full extent of his injuries was impossible to ignore.
Burn scars disappeared beneath the collar of the medical shirt I’d put him in. Deep bruising wrapped around his throat like someone—or something—had tried to strangle him. Smaller scars littered his chest and shoulders, old enough to have healed long before whatever happened recently.
And then there was the eye.
The bandages wrapped around that side of his face sat clean and fresh now, but underneath…
I swallowed hard.
“What happened to you?” I asked quietly before I could stop myself.
Simon went completely still.
The room itself seemed to tense with him.
Even Rocky noticed it, lowering himself closer to the ground cautiously.
For a second I thought Simon wasn’t going to answer.
Then his fingers tightened hard enough around the blanket that his knuckles turned white.
“…moon,” he whispered.
I frowned. “What?”
His breathing became uneven again.
“There was…” His voice cracked badly. “…something in the blood.”
A cold chill crawled down my spine.
Rocky let out a low uncertain whistle beside me.
Simon’s eye unfocused slightly, staring somewhere far past the walls of the room.
“…heard it moving outside,” he muttered weakly. “Scratching… screaming…”
His breathing quickened faster and faster.
“It took my arm—”
He abruptly stopped speaking, jaw clenching hard enough to tremble.
I could practically see the panic rising inside him again.
“Hey,” I interrupted gently. “You don’t have to talk about it right now.”
Simon blinked slowly, like he’d forgotten where he was for a second.
Then his eye moved back toward me.
“…where am I?*”
I hesitated.
Honestly, there was no version of this answer that wouldn’t sound insane.
“You’re on a planet called Erid,” I admitted carefully. “About twelve light years from Earth.”
Silence.
Simon stared at me blankly.
Then, very slowly:
“…I’m dead.”
“Surprisingly, no.”
“Hallucinating?”
“Also no.”
Simon looked over at Rocky again. Rocky waved once more.
Simon stared another long second before muttering:
“…this is worse somehow.”