Chapter Text
Grace did not expect Rocky to react the way he did when he heard Grace whistle.
As soon as the first notes left Grace's lips Rocky perked up in his ball and immediately skittered over.
"Grace can make sounds like that, question?"
"Mhm? Oh yeah it's called whistling" when Rocky heard that he made did the 'jazz hands' and let out a few excited trills.
"Rocky can teach Grace Eridian! Grace can learn Eridian!" Rocky hopped up and down in his ball, almost knocking Grace over.
"Woah hey man calm down" Grace chuckled and put his hand on Rocky's ball in attempt to calm him down "I'm physically incapable of speaking Eridian remember? I only have one set of vocal cords"
"Of course Rocky remember, perfect memory" the Eridian circled Grace a few times and let out a few excited trills "but Rocky can teach Grace simple words, enough to communicate"
"Wait really?" Grace immediately perked up, chance of actually learning how to speak Eridian? Count him in!
"Yes yes yes, Grace take the human thinking machine"
Grace jogged a little around the Hail Mary until he found his laptop buried under a pile of clothes, god he really needed to do some laundry.
He took it to the 'don't go crazy' room and sat down on the floor, Rocky followed him close by.
"Turn off the voice, Grace hear better, Grace hearing very bad"
Grace scoffed nudged the ball with his elbows before turning the voice over of the translator off. He understood enough Eridian to not need the translator anymore but there are still some words that he struggled with.
Over the course of the next few weeks, as Hail Mary approached Erid, Rocky taught Grace how to make simple Eridian words with the limited whistling ability that he has, at some point Grace figured out to make a slightly more complex melodies with humming and cupping his hands by his mouth but they were still quite.
But the words he knew were enough for some basic communication and he was very glad about that.
But there came another problem.
Grace must have brought in some kind of micro virus from one of his space walks and it somehow got into Rocky's xenonite ball.
The Eridian was now sitting on the floor of the cockpit with all his arms curled under his body, letting out labored clicks that made Grace's heart clench.
"Rocky is there anything I can do? This sounds really bad and we don't even know what that virus is or what it does and-" before Grace could spiral any longer Rocky let out a small trill to calm him down.
"Grace calm down, space cold virus survive, Rocky's body very warm virus not survive long"
"Are you sure? I doesn't hurt or anything right?"
"Rocky sure, nothing hurts just, uncomfortable" Rocky shifts his position.
Well that was good enough.
Grace wondered, human body recovered better from illnesses when it was asleep, so maybe Eridians could he similar.
"How about you go to sleep? I'll keep watch"
"Why, question?"
"You won't burn off as much energy, giving your body a better shot at recovering faster"
Grace could see that Rocky was thinking about that.
"We're so close to Erid,I need to respond to the radio communication from the scientists"
"You taught me enough Eridian to be able to talk to them, I'll respond to the radio while you sleep"
Rocky shifted in his ball again, Grace knew that he desperately wanted to be back home again, to hear another Eridian song. He's already been away from his planet, from Adrian for far too long for Rocky's liking.
"Alright, Rocky sleep while Grace watch, Grace not say anything stupid to scientists" Rocky uncurled one of his arms from under his body and tapped it against the floor to emphasize before curling it back under.
"I won't I promise, now go to sleep Rock"
Grace watched as Rocky settled himself and listened to the sounds of the labored clicking slow down until it died down completely. Finally he was asleep.
Well now all Grace has to do is sit down and wait for the Eridians to contact the Hail Mary.
It took about a day before the communicator crackled to life, Rocky was still asleep but Grace immediately scrambled closer to answer.
"Unknown spaceship disclose your reason for approach" a sharp tone came out of the communicator, it sounded much more harsh than Rocky's melody.
Grace cleared his throat and swallowed the gull that formed in his throat before whistling back.
"Am Grace, friend Rocky on my ship"
There was a clatter of inaudible tones for a moment before the same Eridian answered.
"Engineer Rocky on your ship, question?" This time the melody came out slower, almost scared.
"Yes yes yes, friend Rocky on ship, friend Rocky sick, bad bad bad"
"Is engineer Rocky's illness reason why you are answering, question?"
"Yes, friend Rocky sleeping, I watch"
There was another set of murmurs before the communicator sounded again.
This time it was a different Eridian, their melody sounded a bit more drawn out.
"What illness engineer Rocky have, question?"
"Space, cold sick, Rocky very warm, Rocky sleep to be better" Grace explained as well as he could with his limited vocabulary about Rocky's situation.
"We have medics, how did you meet engineer Rocky, question?" The same Eridian from before came back to the communicator.
"Grace sun die, Rocky sun die, Grace go space to fix, Rocky go space to fix, Grace find friend Rocky alone, friend Rocky on Grace ship"
There was silence for a few minutes, probably processing the fact that from the crew of 23, only Rocky remained.
"Did you find the issue with sol, question?" Change of topic, got it.
"Yes yes yes, life is reason, little life, eat the warm, warm eater Grace and friend Rocky find little life that eat warm eater"
There was another moment of silence before a loud cheering could be heard from the other side.
"Great great great, we connect to your ship and come inside"
Oh no no no that was a very bad idea.
"No no no, Grace breath hurt Erid,danger danger danger!"
"Then how is engineer Rocky on your ship, question?"
"Rocky made ball"
"Xenonite, question?"
"Yes yes yes, make special cover to come to Grace ship"
"Good good good, we make suits from Xenonite, wait"
Grace sighed with relief, Rocky is finally back home. He just needed to wait until the scientists build their Xenonite suits which shouldn't take too long considering that Eridians can work very fast.
Before Grace could fully relax the communicator crackled back to life, it was the Eridian from before that spoke in drawn out tunes.
"Grace not Eridian, statement"
Grace leaned over the console again.
"No, Grace home far away"
"How Grace speak Eridian, question?"
"Friend Rocky teach Grace"
"That's good, how does Grace feel, question?"
"Not bad but not good"
"Understood, how old is Grace, question?"
They wanted to know his age? Well that was a bit odd but hey, you don't make contact with an alien species every day of your life now do you?
"Grace IℓV years old"
There was a short, sharp sound on the other side of the communicator that Grace couldn't exactly decipher.
"Help come soon Grace"
And there was silence again.
Looks like he has to wait again.
Soon enough there was a knock on the airlock of the Hail Mary from the outside.
Grace immediately opened the airlock and a group of three Eridians carefully walked in.
The tallest and thinnest one was the color of sandstone and had small brown gemstones at the top that reflected light.
The middle one looked like a bright malachite ore, they had multiple armbands with pockets on them.
The shortest and definitely the most excited one to be there, looked like rutile, they kept walking from side to side to take in as much if the inside of the ship as possible.
Rutile and malachite walked up to where Rocky was sleeping in his ball and unrolled what looked like a stretcher, they gently picked up the ball with Rocky inside and transferred it onto the stretcher before lifting it up and making their way out of Mary.
Sandstone walked up to Grace and placed their claw on his leg.
"Hello Grace, my name is Lotto. Engineer Rocky will be alright, our medics will take good care of him"
"Good good good, friend Rocky get better, see Rocky mate"
"Ah, Rocky told you about Adrian"
"Rocky talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk" that got a delighted trill out of Lotto.
"Yes, engineer Rocky love mate very much" Lotto walked around the cockpit of Hail Mary before coming back to Grace's side "scientists are working on a temporary placement for you filled with oxygen"
"Yes yes yes" Grace put his hands around his mouth and let out a trill that he hoped carried out his happiness as well as possible.
It must've worked because Lotto let out a trill back.
"Others are working on a suit for Grace to go down the elevator"
Oh, right the elevator. Not the biggest fan of that.
Lotto must have noticed his uneasiness since they put their claw on their leg again.
"Elevator not scary, do not worry"
"Grace big for elevator, Eridian small" I put my arm at around the height of the top of Lotto's carapace.
"Grace will fit, elevator big enough"
I started fiddling with my finger, while he didn't mind being in smaller spaces he sure wasn't a big fan of them, and besides he doesn't know if the elevator will even fit him, it will hold his weight that's for sure.
Soon enough, rutile comes back into Hail Mary and handed Grace a Xenonite suit. Grace put it on after a few moments of worry.
The suit was much more fitting than the one he had on when he entered Rocky's ship.
He slowly made his way towards the air lock with Lotto close by his side.
When he stepped into the space elevator he found it to be much more spacious than he expected it to be.
Grace still sunk onto the floor in the corner.
Lotto came closer to him and took something out from a sash that Grace didn't notice that they had on themselves before.
It looked like a mix between the ball in the maze puzzle and a rubic cube just more spherical, it kind of hard to make out the details in the dark of the elevator.
"It is only a V++ℓ second ride down" so around 10 minutes.
Lotto scrambled the puzzle and handed it to Grace.
Grace accepted the gift and fiddled with it in his hands.
He spend the entire ride trying his best to solve the puzzle in the dark.
Once Grace stepped a foot on Erid he couldn't believe it.
He was finally seeing Rocky's home.
It was around midday on Erid if he had to guess but the world around him was much darker than what it would've been on earth, it wasn't dark enough that he couldn't see but it was still comparable with earth's evening.
"Follow me Grace" Lotto gestured at Grace.
Lotto lead him to a small dome that was build near the space elevator, it looked almost like an igloo.
He went into the small corridor, there was a sharp hiss before Lotto told him that he could take off the suit.
Grace gave the Eridian the puzzle back and shed the Xenonite and took a deep breath, fresh air, it's been a while since he felt it.
"Emergency dome build close to ship for efficiency, bring stuff in soon" Lotto explained as they stood in the middle of the dome's floor.
"Can bring machine arm, question?"
"What for, question? What does it do, question?"
"Machine arm Grace ship health help"
"Health help, question? Oh an automatized medic. Correct, question?"
"Yes yes yes" Grace made a trilling sound again.
"Good good good, I tell coworkers, they are bringing nest in now"
Nest? Oh right they must mean the bed Rocky did call Grace's bed a nest one time.
A single Eridian walked into the dome holding the mattress above them with two of their arms, they placed it by the wall, clicking a polite 'hello' to Lotto, ignoring Grace.
They hurried out as soon as the mattress was on the floor.
The mattress still had all the blankets and pillows on it.
"Grace go to sleep while Eridians work, I keep watch"
Grace stared at Lotto for about a minute before slowly crawling under the blankets. He could see Lotto settle down right next to the pillows.
Grace closed his eyes and was out cold in seconds.