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This work is inspired by this fanart
It happened when Ryland and Rocky had their daily beef. Rocky, being an overly concerned crewmate, is worried about Ryland not eating properly. Ryland on the other hand argued that they needed to save supplies if he wanted to be alive when they reached Erid. When Rocky is about to insult Ryland with unknown Eridian words, suddenly the ship light turns bright red.
“Warning. Blip E detected. Warning. Unknown spacecraft detected,” Mary announced and both Rocky and Ryland went to the cockpit. “The current distance to the Hail Mary is 1500 meters. Warning—”
“Yes, yes, I heard that, Mary!” Ryland yelled as he put on his safety belt. He turned off the spin drive when Mary announced their current distance. 700 meters, it’s less than Blip-A approached him back then. And then Rylan turned to the window to see.
It was a spaceship—no, a space station is more fit to explain what he saw. It’s massive, probably almost as twice as Blip-A; with one single shaft in the middle, something that looks like an umbrella—its shield maybe?—at its upper section supported by 8 iron pillars to its main shaft, and obviously a rocket nozzle at its lower section, and two ring-like structures on its middle shaft which is supported by several rigid wires both on above and below the structure to the main shaft. Ryland took off his belt and flew closer to the window. The lower structure appears to have windows so maybe its the crew compartment with the shaft acted like a propulsion system. There’s no sign of activity as the windows look dark. Ryland could’ve just ignored it and set the course back, but being a curious scientist he is, curiosity killed the cat.
“Let’s take a look closer,” he said as he flew back to his seat, buckled up, and turned on the spin drive to get a closer look.
“Grace reckless, what if they are enemies, question?” Rocky asked.
“Well, you approached me back then not knowing if I was dangerous or not,” Ryland shut him up. “We’re even, Rock.”
“Rocky not reckless,” the Eridian protested back.
“Whatever.” Ryland flew to the airlock and proceeded to wear his EVA suit.
As he wore his helmet, something shocked his spaceship. He had no time to see what happened but through the airlock, he saw the station reach him, like how Blip-A extended its bridge to Hail Mary back then. Ryland wore his helmet and tied his makeshift rope—and Rocky’s xenonite baseball bat on his waist—to Hail Mary’s airlock before he flew to the station’s airlock. Whatever those wires are, it kept Hail Mary in place, as if it invited Ryland—and Rocky, to some extent—to the station. Ryland knocked, not hoping it would answer, but the airlock opened itself. Ryland peek in and enter its airlock. As he stepped inside, the lock shut and cut his rope. Rocky shrieked from his com and it caused him a headache.
“Grace stupid! Grace come back now! Grace will die!” Rocky shrieked. “Back, back, back!”
“Rock, stop yelling! I got a headache!” Ryland hissed.
“Apologize, apologize, apologize!” Rocky cried.
“I’m fine, Rock! Jesus,” he whispered and entered its main room.
Like other space stations, its airlock room connected directly to its main corridor. The light softly turned on as Ryland stepped out. The corridor looked different, it is more futuristic, maybe? With windows on its wall and floor. He knew technically it’s not a wall and floor but the configuration looked like one. Lights—now shine white instead of warmer color—and ventilation vents are arranged alternately on its ceiling. It took time to find the door to the main room because he felt like he was just flying in a circle—the module is a ring after all. He pushed the door open and inside, there is a massive room, similar to an amphitheater with four monoliths on its ‘stage’. Its floor, dome roof, and floor are made of marble—or maybe similar material because marble is a rock and not suitable for a space station. There is a machine inside each of the monoliths, maybe a battery? Power source for the…observatorium? Ryland held his breath, realizing what this hall was. An observatory, no, it’s a planetarium. The machine in the middle looked like a relic, majestic version of a gyroscope, maybe it acted like a projector.
“Wish you could see this, Rock.”
“What? What Grace see, question?” A two-taps on his xenonite ball. He sound impatient, more than when they capture the astrophage samples,
“The most majestic planetarium I’ve ever seen,” Ryland replied as he floated to its center, inspecting the machine.
“Grace careful?”
“Yea, bud.”
The gyroscope-projector machine looked absolutely stunning. Ryland couldn’t help but in awe. Everything is made of gold, maybe similar. Unknown constellations, glyphs, and words engraved on each of the rings. Ryland looked down and saw the pedestal below and flew there. Back when he was a school teacher, he often went to the observatory and planetarium with his students. He even knew and memorized how to turn on the projector, but this pedestal looked nothing similar to Earth’s planetarium. There are buttons and levers in some languages he doesn't know but is familiar with. Their language is almost similar to English but different. Curiosity killed the cat again, Ryland pressed the buttons and dragged the levers down and suddenly the whole room vibrated as if the room was active. The gyroscope spinning and the projector shine, and then the golden light illuminated the whole roof and then the whole room. The once-white dome now turned black with tiny dots of an unknown galaxy. No planetarium could’ve done this. The stars, constellations, galaxies, they’re different from what Ryland learned and taught. They’re not just a projection to the wall and the dome above, they’re interactive holograms. Ryland could touch, move them, even gain information from what he touched or moved.
“Holy shit, you’re from afar?” he whispered, now knowing he just swore.
“Grace language.” His alien crewmate chirped, teasing him and Ryland just rolled his eyes. This moment is worth swearing.
One of the stars moving weirdly as if it's showing something. Ryland slowly flew there and touched it. It wasn’t a star, it was this station.
“Galleria Stellaria—Gallery of the Stars,” Ryland said, realizing that the word written is Latin—Earth’s Roman Latin. “This is your name?”
The stars are blinking. One of the doors swished open and Ryland turned to it. “You wanted to show me something? Is it dangerous?”
The stars did not answer but kept blinking.
“Alright. I'm a dead man walking anyway.”
“Grace not dead. What Grace see, question?”
“They wanted to show me something. I’ll be back.”
Ryland flew to where the stars were pointing. Another corridor, just expected. The lights were different, they’re warmer, like a guiding light. The warmer light stopped at another door. Ryland pushed it and the room was dark. No, the ceiling was dark, but the floor, they’re dimly lit as if it was made entirely from light panels. There is a strange block in the middle of the room, surrounded by unknown indigo flowers. This room grimly reminded him of a mausoleum, like a tomb. He then realized the roof isn’t entirely dark, it’s illuminated with tiny dots of stars and constellations. Ryland stopped flying and held the block, now he realized it’s a sarcophagus, to anchor himself. The top of the sarcophagus, the lid, has a screen and it blinks as if to show signs of life. Ryland swept it to see it clearly and suddenly the whole sarcophagus lid shone. Ryland yelled and flew backwards. As the lid slid open itself, Ryland raised his bat and ignored Rocky’s train of concerned questions on his com. Something, someone, rises from it and it turns its—their—head to Ryland. Ryland screamed in fear as the air blew at him hard.
Ryland opened his eyes. He woke from the bed and exhaled in relief when he realized it was just a dream, before he saw a blond hair woman—and dog feature?—standing before him. At first, he thought the woman was Stratt. They both had the same authority aura emitted, but she has blond hair with weird head pieces on her dog ears? Hair? He also realized the room had gravity now and it felt very right compared to Hail Mary’s artificial gravity. Ryland screamed and the woman raised her hand, her head tilted in confusion. Ryland raises his bat and hyperventilates. He realized he wasn't wearing his helmet, which made him panic. But he’s breathing alright. The room is filled with oxygen.
“Please calm down,” the woman said—she spoke in perfect English. “I sincerely apologize for attacking you before. You were, ah, surprised me, to say the least.”
“Wha—who—” Ryland asked.
“Kristen Wright,” the dog woman said. He looked fascinated at him, her tail wagging. “You are?”
“Gr—Grace. Dr. Ryland Grace,” Ryland replied. “You’re a dog?”
“A Perro, actually. Dog, ah, how to put it? You can say it’s my base DNA,” she happily replied, surprisingly not offended at all. “But I’m not one.”
“I’m sorry, that was rude of me,” Ryland inhaled and Kristen just smiled and nodded. “Oh, God, this is so unprofessional of me.”
“Maybe we should invite your friend,” Kristen said, looking at the helmet. “They sound worried.”
“Fudge, Rocky!” Ryland scrambled down and reached his helmet. Rocky is screaming, shrieked in total panic. “Rock, hey, bud, I’m fine. I’m sorry.”
“Grace bad! Grace leave Rocky! What happened, question? Why did Grace scream, question? Is Grace hurt, question!?,” Rocky asked, chirped in panic.
“I’m fine, don’t worry,” Ryland exhaled. “There’s some misunderstanding between me and the crew. Anyway, go to the airlock now, I’ll pick you up there.”
“Something happened, question?”
“You have to see it yourself, Rock!”
Kristen walked him to the airlock and waited for Ryland to fetch Rocky. He knew Rocky weighed over 300 pounds—or 160-ish kilograms—but zero gravity helped him to pick him up. Rocky made a brand new xenonite EVA suit around a year ago, it’s almost similar to his EVA suit back when he visited Blip-A. Rocky already waited in the airlock when Ryland entered the room. The space station flipped itself 90 degrees with its umbrella-like structure in parallel with the Hail Mary. Its ring structure spinned and that explained the gravity. Ryland used the strange structure that attached itself to one of Mary’s fuel tanks—basically to park Hail Mary to where she’s now—to guide him back to the Hail Mary. Kristen told him about how her ship’s computer gained sentience when she was asleep and it wished him to use the structure as a bridge between their ships. It took time for them to reach the Galleria’s airlock but he managed. He knew it was very risky, a rope attached to Rocky is literally his lifeline. but it seemed like Kristen helped him. The ring positioned itself right where Ryland would arrive and the calculation was precise. As the Galleria’s airlock door opened, Ryland and Rocky flew straight to its room. He saw Kristen standing inside the corridor and he raised his thumb. As oxygen filled the room, Ryland took off his helmet and inhaled slowly. He opened the main door and greeted Kristen.
“Oh,” the woman simply said when she saw Rocky. “You’re interesting.”
“♪♫♪,” Rocky chirped happily as he raised one of his limbs and spread his claws..
“He said ‘hello’,” Ryland translated. “This is Rocky, he’s an alien inhabiting a planet Erid in a star system called 40 Eridani. Rock, this is Kristen Wright.”
“Kristen Wright, sole crew of Galleria Stellaria, I’m from a planet called Terra,” she now squatted to shake Rocky’s hand. Her tail wagged slowly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rocky.”
“♪♫♪,” Rocky chittered.
“That’s not nice, Rock, I’m not gonna tell her that.”
“Why do I have animal features?” Kristen guessed his question, she sounded delighted. She stood up. “It’s alright, Dr. Grace, I don’t really mind. How about we share our stories over meals in the planetarium?”
Kristen guides them back to the planetarium. It’s still online and there is a dining table at its center, not far from the pedestal and the gyroscope. Rocky pointed his ‘camera’ device upward and whistled in awe. Ryland glanced over Kristen and the dinner looked delicious. It’s been a while since he had real meals. Kristen invited them to sit and Ryland sat across from her.
“You look starved, Dr. Grace.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Wright, it’s been really a while since I saw a real meal,” he shyly said. “This is safe, right? Because Rocky would not be pleased if I fell sick.”
“We might be different in races but our appetite is still the same, I believe. Please, just make yourself at home,” she explained. “Galleria Stellaria was a stationary station before I repurposed it into a space station. I used to visit this place from time to time, I always loved space, the stars, and wished to reach them.”
Ryland took a bite on their food and his eyes glistened. “This is delicious.” He tried to eat gracefully like in a fine dining session.
Kristen chuckled as she rested her chin on her hand. She looked fascinated, amazed, in all very pleased as if she reached something. “Tell me about your journey, Dr. Grace.”
“Oh, me? It was—” Rocky chirped. “Yes, I will tell her, Rock! So anyway, our stars got infected by a space mold we called astrophage. All the stars within our cluster got infected except one and we went there just to see what’s up.”
“The stars get sick?”
“♪♫♪,” Rocky sang and Kristen chuckled, finding the space rock-crab interesting.
“Rocky is telling us how we found the ‘cure’. Long story short, we got it after a fishing trip gone wrong,” Ryland shrugged, which Rocky protested. “We are not going to tell her about the disaster, Rock.”
“Disaster?” Kristen asked, intrigued as she cut her steak.
Ryland went rigid. “Well. Our calculations were wrong,” he replied. “There was a leak on one of my fuel tanks and we went spinning out of control. My face was slammed into the mirror real hard and I was unconscious for several days because of a concussion. Rocky endangered himself to drag me to the med bay.”
“You’re very brave, Rocky,” Kristen said, which was replied with a musical thrill by Rocky. “Your adventure sounds fun, Dr. Grace.”
Ryland unknowingly let out a mocking smile. “It was but I don’t have another choice,” he said. “It’s originally a one way ticket for me. They planned to let me kill myself after I complete my mission and I was lucky enough to meet Rocky. We sent data and a specially-bred taumeba to my planet where I went to Erid, his planet.”
“Well,” Kristen put down her knife and reached for her drink. “This is also my one way trip, Dr. Grace. Allow me to tell you my story, then?”
“Please, Ms. Wright,” he sounded professional.
“Where I belong, the sky is always fake. The maximum flight was only 5000 meters, and beyond that? Unbreachable. I am always fascinated with the stars. I always dreamt of reaching the sky and stars like my parents. They died when they tried to reach it, the sky denied them. So I tried, I worked hard to breach and reach the true sky,” Kristen said, looking at her reflection on the tea’s surface. “Per aspera ad astra, they said, through hardship to reach the stars. I shed my blood, sweat, and tears just to reach it. I made my friends enemies and my enemies friends. I betray humanity. Everything for one sole mission, to reach the sky beyond. Galleria Stellaria was an orbital weapon before I took it and secretly modified it to be an orbital station. It wasn’t the best either as it was designed to never leave our sky, but I don’t take no as an answer.”
“Galleria Stellaria is your one way ticket,” Ryland murmured.
“A proof that there is always the sky beyond our sky,” Kristen put down her drink, but there’s an unknown sadness in her eyes.
There is a quiet, awkward pause between them before Rocky chirped and tapped his claw twice on the floor. “♪♫♪♫♪?”
“He asked, ‘So you're not coming home?’”
“I am not,” Kristen replied with determination. “Besides, my reactor will meet its end soon. This is my one way trip. I made my peace. If I die, I want to be surrounded by the stars.”
Rocky’s carapace fell down and his body language showed sadness. Ryland then explained that Rocky may develop PTSD and survivor guilt after watching his crew slowly die and how Eridian's sleep costume is to Kristen. The Perro lady couldn’t help but feel sorry. She told him that and Rocky looked more spirited again.
“You reminded me of my boss,” Ryland whispered after finishing his main meal and now staring at his reflection on the silverware. “She was tasked with the impossible by the world and she did everything to save it. She did some questionable things like you, just to save the Earth and our star, Sol. She once nuked Antarctica just to buy us a few more years to survive. There’s blood on her hands too. Like your Galleria Stellaria, my ship—the Hail Mary, is her brainchild. It was my one way ticket before I met Rocky.”
“There’s a story back in my world about a patron saint of one-way journeys. Her name was Laika, she was a Russian canine cosmonaut. The Russian sent her to space but she never went back, possibly dying on orbit. She may have died, but she found a forever home between the stars. She was then christened as patron saint and I guess I was blessed by her, I got a one-way ticket. I survived but won't go back home, instead I’m on the way to save another star. My one way is not Tau Ceti, it’s 40 Eridani,” he said as he looked into Kristen's eyes. “A one-way ticket does not always make peace with your end fate, Ms. Wright, but you’ll find another place and never look back. That’s my definition of one way.”
Kristen was taken aback. “You may be right, Dr. Grace,” she solemnly said, finally. “A patron saint. I bet she’s happy playing with the stars.”
“She is.”
They spent another hour talking about their missions. This time Rocky insisted Ryland told her the full story about his mission—the Eridian knew that Ryland also suffered from survivor guilt and telling his story might help him a bit. Kristen was genuinely shocked by the story but she understands it. In exchange, Kristen told him the story of how she breached the fake sky and how she killed an entire human civilization for it—something both Ryland and Rocky were shocked by. The right prize comes at the right price, as she said. She told him about her races—how most humanity has traits of animals and mystical beings, how the Predecessor was the one responsible for anything batshit crazy on her planet, and so on. She also told him about her planet system, how they’re located on a nebula not far from a black hole and the fact that her planet had two moons. Ryland found them interesting. He told her that he’s a PhD in molecular biology with a main speciality in speculative xenobiology and her story might prove one of two of his hypotheses—clearly he’s wrong about the water theory, but he was right with the Goldilocks zone. Kristen then told him that she’s also a PhD holder, her specialty was in particle physics. Rocky doesn’t understand what a PhD means and the two explained to him what a PhD meant.
Hours gone by without them realizing. Both of them knew they had missions, especially Ryland as he raced against time to save 40 Eridani. Kristen packed him a few supplies for him. Ryland was refused at first but she insisted. He had no choice but to receive it.
“I don’t have something with me, but Rocky has been making this when we share our stories.” Ryland took Kristen's hand and put something on her palm. Kristen examined it. Two miniatures, one that looked like her and one that looked like the gyroscope on the planetarium with tiny stars around it. “They’re made with xenonite. Rocky said this is the least we could do for you.”
“Oh, Dr. Grace, your incredible story was enough to repay me,” she said. “Thank you, Rocky.”
“I guess this a good bye?” Ryland asked.
“It was never a good bye, Dr. Grace, it is a see you again,” Kristen smiled, more soft this time. “Thank you for your time and stories. It was such a pleasure to meet another friend in this vast, unknown abyss.”
“May the stars guide you, Ms. Wright, may they hug you with their warmth,” Ryland smiled back.
“May the stars guide you home, Dr. Grace, Rocky.” She said as the airlock door closed. “May the stars guide us to our destinations.”
They used the bridge to go back to their ship. As they enter their airlock chamber, the bridge detaches itself. Ryland hurriedly flew to the cockpit to see the Galleria one last time as it fired its engine, flying slowly but surely to space beyond. One last blink on its ring module before Kristen went to her hibernation, probably waiting to be woken up again.
“Mary, set course back to Erid,” he said to the ship’s computer.
“Amaze, amaze, amaze,” Rocky chirped. “Kristen's ship is a very beautiful, statement.”
“It’s a gallery of the stars, Rock,” Ryland replied.
“Kristen friend will be alright?”
“She’ll be okay, and so will we be.”
“Good, good, good!” Rocky was thrilled.
“Well, let’s see what she packed for us!”