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Rocky rolled around the Hail Mary. Every day he was finding something new in the ship. Yesterday he discovered (with the help of Grace) that the room he initially just rolled through and called boring was in fact a simulation room. He just couldn’t see the screen due to them being flat.
He had built himself a spectrometer so he could read Grace’s screens. Now he could understand more of what is going on around him without having to bother Grace. He could tell Grace would get frustrated at times with having to explain everything on everything screen around them.
Rocky continued to roll down the hallway toward the lab, one claw held his spectrometer as the others pushed the walls of the ball. He moved it around everywhere as he went. Everything human interested him. Rocky’s favourite thing he’d found so far was the engravings on the metal panels. They told the story of the Hail Mary and its crew, not unlike Rocky’s carvings on his surface. He had looked at the gifts Grace’s people had given him for the trip, photos are fascinating to him. They have nothing like it on Erid. Of all the Eridians to get to make first contact with another species, Rocky just couldn’t believe it got to be him—
“Augh—” Rocky stopped as Grace fell over. A loud thunk ringing out across the ship as he fell. Grace did not move. Rocky hadn’t been paying attention to where he was going properly, and he had wiped Grace’s legs out from under him.
“Grace, question? Grace okay, question?” Grace gave Rocky no response. Rocky rolled around so he could see his face. He tapped against his ball and let out a couple of chirps. Grace’s eyes were moving, and his eyelids were flickering against his eyes. Grace’s eyelashes (as Grace had told Rocky) were fluttering against his face.
“Grace, question? Grace wake up, statement!” Rocky rolled into his side. He did it a couple of times until Grace groaned in response. Rocky waved his hands around in what Grace called jazz hands. “Grace!”
Grace blinked a couple of times, the lights around him hurt his eyes and his head. He didn’t remember going to bed. Why does he have a headache? Where were his glasses? Grace felt around until he found them, hanging on his shirt collar. Grace slipped them onto his head as he rolled over onto his back. He rubbed the sore spot on his head. He looked up at the roof of the lab, so not in bed then.
“Grace!” The sound of the voice from laptop scared him for a moment. He looked to his side, there was something solid but warm at his side.
“Rocky—? What happened—?” Rocky’s carapace sunk down as he tapped his claws together in front of him. Grace could sense that Rocky had something to tell him. Despite the fact that they had only met a few weeks ago, Grace had learnt to read Rocky’s body language quickly.
“Rocky not mean to. Rocky get excited about human technology. Rocky bumped Grace. Grace fell, statement.” Grace let what Rocky just said to him sink into his brain. Granted it took him longer than it should have to figure out what Rocky said, but he realised what Rocky meant.
“Oh. Well that explains why my head hurts—” Rocky let out a howl.
“Rocky apology apology apology. Rocky not mean to hurt friend Grace.” He was throwing his claws around trying to explain himself. Rocky shrunk back down into his carapace once he was done.
“It’s okay, Rock. Accidents happen. You just gotta be more careful when you are racing around the ship alright?” Grace rested one hand against Rocky’s ball as Rocky nodded his carapace, perking up. Grace sat himself upright. His head throbbed with pain. His mouth became flooded with saliva as nausea overcame him.
“Oh crud.” Rocky tilted his carapace at the censored curse word.
“No understand. Grace okay, question?” Grace breathed for a moment, trying to keep the bile at bay.
“Yeah, I’ll be alright. I think I might go see Armando just to make sure.” Rocky adamantly nodded in agreement.
“Yes, yes, yes, Grace get checked over, statement.” Rocky rolled away from Grace to allow him to get up.
Grace slowly got his legs under him as he checked around him. There was no sign of blood anywhere so that was a plus if nothing else. He pushed himself up onto his feet as he tested his balance. He seemed to be alright on his feet — at least he was until he tried to take a step, then the ship span around him.
Grace braced himself against the wall for a moment, in the hopes that the spinning would pass. Just his luck then that it did not.
“Grace, okay, question?” Rocky rolled around Grace at his feet as if he were searching for some kind of obvious wound. “Grace need to go Armando, statement.”
Grace nodded, Rocky was right. He took a couple of shaky steps toward the infirmary, Rocky staying at his feet as if to catch him if he falls again.
It took a while but eventually, Armando was within sight. Armando was waving his many arms around in a panic. It really was not helping Grace’s spinning head.
Grace groaned again as the nausea came back twice as bad. He stopped where he was, breathing for a long moment.
“Grace no stop. Grace go to Armando.” Grace waved his hand at Rocky for a moment before he continued taking tiny wobbly steps. Armando quickly took over and scooped Grace up to get him on the bed.
“Armando. Scan and diagnosis.” The machine whirred around him for a moment.
“Doctor Ryland Grace, head injury detected. Diagnosis: Concussion. Treatment: Sleep only for two hours at a time and bed rest.”
Grace groaned. He did not want to be stuck on bed rest, but he also understood how bad head injuries are.