Chapter Text
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
Armando buzzed from the living room; his little nannybot, now turned alarm clock, seemed to be trying to wake him up. Grace resolved he’d get up eventually, just not yet. He didn’t have a class this morning, so there was no rush.
He pressed his face into his pillow, feeling his longer strands of hair under his cheek as he groaned and finally gathered the strength to sit up. His joints creaked as he stretched and looked around his room.
Dirty, dirty, dirty… As Rocky would say.
Not like he had any other guests in his room to worry about. His hands came up to rub his eyes and reach for his glasses. Fumbling around for them until he realized he didn’t put them on the side table. Sighing as he didn’t see them anywhere, he probably rolled over on them and lost them in his tangle of blankets. Again. Figures.
Rocky could always fix them if they broke with xenonite, but he was lucky his frames were apparently sturdy enough to bear the brunt of his weight. Especially after all the times they've fallen off his face during his time in Mary.
Speaking of Mary, he was supposed to be getting ready to talk with Rocky about getting a good few of his items from there. He was a scientist through and through, and Rocky was always kind enough to give him samples to tinker with.
It was growing harder to really do anything with what he was given without his equipment in his house.
The Eridians, after the success of solving the Astrophage problem, began expanding outward, or so Rocky says. Now that his people knew about radiation, credited to Grace of course, they were much more vigilant about being out in the expanses of space.
A few Eridians had also apparently made an expedition to a new moon; Rocky should be bringing some samples for him to tinker with.
With a hand over his face, he rubbed the uncomfortable crust from his eyes and began to get ready to spring out of bed. It was always better for him to get up quickly; if he settled back, he would never get up. The Eridians truly spared no expense to make sure he was as comfortable as possible.
He was convinced the gravity had something to do with his struggle to get up, but honestly, it was probably just how comfortable they made his bed. For a species made of hard carapaces and literal rock, they really seemed to know how to synthesize feathers.
Bang bang bang.
…And there was Rocky. Punctual as ever, while Grace lay in bed too long, again.
“Coming!-...”
With about as much elegance as a newborn deer, he fumbled for his glasses. Finding them in the tangle of blankets as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He haphazardly threw on a shirt and a jacket before making his way to the door.
He didn’t bother with pants yet; Rocky was gonna have to wait a minute for him to have breakfast anyway.
A few more insistent bangs to the door later, Grace was finally opening it. Seeing his friend always cheered him up, even if it meant the banging.
“You always gotta knock so loud?”
Rocky didn’t seem bothered, pushing past Grace's legs into his house. Rude. He was chittering too quickly for Grace to follow; he’d gotten good at his language but not that good.
“..-. --- .-. . .. --. -. / .-.. .. ..-. . ..-. --- .-. -- -.-.-- / ..-. --- .-. . .. --. -. -.-.-- / --. .-. .- -.-. . / --. .-. .- -.-. . / --. .-. .- -.-. . -.-.--!!!”
Rocky threw his hands up in the air in his ever-so-familiar ‘Jazz hands’ motion. Whatever they had found during their expedition had him excited.
It didn’t help Grace any, though, if he couldn’t understand him.
“Hey, bud, leaky stupid space blob doesn’t understand unless you slow it down,”
He shut his door and walked over to Armando, giving the robot a gentle pet on its head? Grace was calling it a head.
Finally, Rocky seemed to understand Grace wasn’t getting what he was saying and stopped rambling and chittering.
“Eridians find life! Life! Excited, excited, excited!”
Armando handed Grace a fresh cup of coffee, while all Grace could do was gawk at his friend.
“…Like Taumoeba? Other foreign cell life?”
He raised his coffee to his lips to blow on it. New cell life was cool, but not unheard of for space exploration. Especially after Astrophage and Taumoeba and…
“Human life!”
Grace blew too hard on his coffee in shock and felt the scalding liquid hit the ground. Right on his foot, too.
“Sugar honey iced-tea!-.. What?!..”
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
After clumsily cleaning the spilt coffee and putting on his pants, he was buzzing with excitement. A living human!
…Or so Rocky said, he’d hope his friend would be able to tell the difference.
He hopped out of his bedroom, finally managing to get his shoe all the way on to meet up with Rocky at his door.
“How far out were they Rock?! We’re talking lightyears here. It hasn’t been long enough for anyone to build another Hail Mary… Right? I think it would have at least taken-..”
Rocky chittered, obviously frustrated by Grace’s ranting. He loved his leaky blob friend, but he wasn’t even given a chance to explain.
“-Right. Sorry, bud, you first.”
He pulled his front door shut right as Rocky began to walk away, already beginning to talk as Grace picked up the pace to follow along. He couldn’t go into the Eridian atmosphere to get the samples himself, usually, but they set up an airlock situation for him to retrieve them.
Rocky liked to walk with him sometimes just for fun, but he seemed much more inclined to talk about this specimen.
“Lifeform is weird, weird, weird. Small, much smaller than Grace. Size of newborn Eridian pebble.”
Grace felt his blood run cold all the way down to his toes. Small, like a pebble. Rocky referred to Eridian children by that. Oh gods above, he hopes Stratt didn’t go off her rocker and send a child into space.
Why would she send a child?!
He felt himself subconsciously picking up the pace and speedwalking to the collection zone. Already feeling his fear mounting.
“Small, how Rocky? How small?”
Rocky didn’t struggle to keep up with Grace, but he did see the spike in Grace’s heartbeat.
“Small like Rocky can hold, very small. Alive! Alive in small enclosure, same atmosphere as Grace, human!”
Nothing about what Rocky said made him feel better; he could only hope it somehow wasn’t a kid. Despite everything pointing to a child, probably even a toddler if Rocky can hold them.
They were getting closer now, and Grace had to slow himself down so Rocky could go ahead of him. His classroom wall now hosted a small airlock for Rocky and Grace if he so wished to don the Xenonite suit they made for him.
He saw Adrian on the other side of the airlock with a few other Eridians, all murmuring amongst each other. Much too quiet for Grace to pick out any details.
Adrian seemed to sense him first, giving a wave as he tapped his back leg and asked Rocky something. Adrian was much harder to understand; apparently, Rocky had been speaking more slowly and at a more comprehensible pitch. Adrian spoke too fast and too low for him to really make sentences yet.
Adrian was also quite a bit larger than Rocky, which was a bit of a shock when he first arrived to Erid. Not that Rocky seemed to care as he let out a rumbling purr and answered Adrian.
“Grace ready for life; others bring equipment, question?”
Adrian was quick to rumble a response and nod to other Eridians in the room, all scuttling away to get ready to make the transfer. With another wave, Adrian left with the others, leaving him and Rocky alone again.
“Grace wait back at home question?”
He wasn’t enthused with that idea, not in the slightest. If this were a kid, he wanted to be the first face they saw, not some Eridian scientists already ready to hum a million questions at them.
“I think I'll stay Rock, I don’t want them to be scared.”
A million questions were still running through Grace's mind. Why was there a kid all the way out here? Much less all the way, where Eridians bumped into them on a whim.
“Hey, bud, where exactly did they find the ship?”
Rocky began to form a response, but Grace's eyes caught the other Eridians coming back. One holding a small, toy-like sub.
That wasn’t a spaceship, and it was not big enough to hold a human, much less a child. This wasn’t a child; he didn’t even think it was human with the size of the ship.
“...Grace no listen, Grace zone-out, what on mind Question?”
His eyes were too busy locked onto the sub that was being held by an Eridian he had dubbed ‘Twig’. Apparently, they had also named themselves that, but he digressed. Twig was holding the sub, and as they entered through the airlock, encased in his own little Xenonite suit. Grace couldn’t stop himself from walking closer.
The sub itself wasn’t tiny; that wasn’t a fair descriptor. It was about medium-sized, probably about the size of a toy boat and could be held comfortably with two hands. He was about to reach for it until he noticed what was on the sub's surface.
Not only was there English lettering on the side reading SM-13, but there was also blood.
Lots, and lots of blood.
“Rock… Where did they find this? Like where?”
Rocky hummed in anger at Grace's terrible memory. Growing frustrated with having to repeat himself again. He digressed; at least Grace seemed entranced with the new life.
“Rocky already explain, when last sleep Question?? Found on nearby smaller moon circling nearby Solar system. Explorers go to map out and find ping on nearby moon.”
Grace's hands paused, unsure how to handle the small sub. It was covered in blood and by all rights should not have survived whatever journey it was on. It was banged up and bore no door. How did they even seal it??
A more pressing matter came to his mind. Rocky said the inside held a similar atmosphere to his. Whatever was inside, by all rights, was somehow alive and now probably scared out of its mind. Not only that, but Twig wasn’t exactly doing a good job at holding the sub still.
Whatever was inside also clearly had some form of intelligence. The sub did have English on the side after all.
Without second thought to the blood on the outside of it, he grabbed it with both hands. Cradling it close to his chest immediately and turning on his heel to his house.
“Nearby moon, got it, gonna just go and uncover a new scientific marvel! Thank you Rocky!-”
Rocky let out alarmed music notes, varying in pitch as he bumbled behind Grace. Bumping into his legs to try to get him to stop.
“Rocky help Statement! Grace need equipment, and need gloves, and-..”
Grace sighed and rebalanced himself. His hands readjusted to gently cradle both the front and the back of the sub. Hoping he was holding it somewhat steady so as not to jostle what was inside.
“-Grace appreciates it, Rocky, but!”
He gestured to the sub with his head, trying to emphasize his point to Rocky.
“Whatever is inside is scared, fearful, and it needs to be out of the sub first. If it has a similar atmosphere inside, it needs fresh oxygen.”
Grace was beginning to worry about how the creature inside was getting Oxygen now that he mentioned it. There was no sign of any portholes or a door for the creature to get out, just some sloppy welding to the side, ensuring it wouldn’t break.
Rocky grumbled and tapped his back leg, questioning something in his head while his front two arms opened their claws in and out. He was thinking about something. Grace knew his buddy wanted to help, and he would normally love his help, but he needed to keep whatever was inside calm.
“I’ll be careful, promise Rock. I’ll use my lab room in my house to be extra safe.”
Rocky looked up with his carapace and seemed to be in thought for a few moments.
“Grace promise with finger?”
Grace tried so hard to get Rocky to say some phrases right, but honestly, this one was too endearing to correct. A selfish part of his mind let it remind himself of his younger students; they didn’t know proper grammar either.
“I pinky promise bud, give me about 172,800 seconds and then you can visit, alright?”
Rocky mumbled to himself a few musical notes before nodding and walking to Twig. Content to leave Grace to his own means, at least for two days. Grace knew he would be back right at the end of the time he had given him. Rocky was always punctual.
For now, he heads towards his house.
While the small lifeform inside the sub clutched his arms and curled up whilst praying to a god that no longer answered.