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There is an Eridian in my room.
It isn't Rocky. Or Adrian. They're still busy with the conference, or the Eridian version of one.
Rocky and Adrian are presenting the biodome (My giant fish-bowl / enclosure) and some parts from the Hail Mary as part of the big gathering for passing along discoveries and deciding new avenues of study.
Adrian, as the bio-dome specialist, gets to talk about how they designed my bio-dome to meet my alien requirements for living.
Rocky gets to talk about human technology and how aspects of it can be interwoven with Erid's tech.
Rocky is now Erid's specialist in human tech, though he was Erid's specialist in everything human related for a while, which was definitely an experience for him. Adrian was deeply amused by the fact that their mate was part of first contact and therefore was basically a diplomat / cultural representative.
For the entirely of Erid.
Personally, I think Rocky did a great job but I'm biased.
The Thrums for their respective studies and individual Eridians have started to specialize though, so Pearl (Very shiny, very pearl-like) is the current head of human health or the "Make Sure Grace Doesn't Die" project, for example.
But Rocky and Adrian are still doing the smaller Thrums after the main presentation. Rocky had grumbled and wanted to go back with me, but Adrian managed to convince him to stay.
Under the condition that I would be watched, as always.
One of my medical team (I have a medical team, now), should be behind the window, outside of my little tent/dome they set up so I could attend the conference.
I say little, it's really not.
It's got the sleeping area then a bunch of tunnels going throughout the building so I can attend the various presentations and/or Thrums.
Someone should not be in here though.
The Eridian is in one of the Xenonite suits, though it's oddly loose in some areas. I don't recognize this one. They're not one of the medical team and Rocky and Adrian had made sure I had met and was introduced to everyone (directly) working on keeping me alive and happy on Erid.
I don't know who this is.
My heart rate spikes.
I can't make out any of their carvings at this angle. They're slightly above average size for an Eridian, not that it matters. The smallest Eridian could snap my bones like twigs.
They stiffen.
Heartbeat. Crud.
What is a very sweet, albeit sometimes annoying, way for Rocky and others to fuss over me, is going to be a very big problem. They can hear my heartbeat. They know it spiked. They know I'm awake.
I try to wrestle my heart rate down into resting levels, but they've already noticed.
It approaches. It's looming over my bed now.
I twist my head to look at it. It already knows I'm awake, why bother to pretend?
I can see it better now. The suit is definitely not theirs, though I'm not sure which of the medical team it belongs to. They're a dark brown, with what looks like streaks of lighter shades across their carapace. Their carvings are a brilliant bronze, either a underlayer to their carapace or inlays. They're distinctive, enough that I know I haven't seen them before.
Based on their carvings, they're from one of the smaller groups, I think some kind of variation/specialization of architecture? A niche one, though I don't fully remember the symbol.
"W-Why are you in my room?"
My voice is rough from sleep and overuse from my barrage of questions I asked at the conference.
It twitches oddly, a subtle reaction of disgust.
It leans forward, filling most of my vision. I flinch backwards. It exhales air from it's vents, angry.
Liar, it hisses at me.
I have no idea what they're talking about. It could be anything, it could be saving the star, it could be anything to do with the Hail Mary, it could be about Rocky, it could be-
Radiation, it all but spits at me, you lie.
They clamber up onto my bed, pinning me to it.
If it had eyes, it would be glaring daggers at me, hovering about three inches away from my face.
Liar, liar. Expect us to believe, expect us to-
They break off into a hiss.
You have threat only you can detect, you "save" us from it, you expect all of Erid to worship you for it.
It drops two of it's arms to squeeze at my wrists. The bones grind against one another and the bruising will probably be there for at least a week. Nothing broken, not yet.
It shifts it's attention to the skin of my wrists, watching the capillaries break under it's grip. I struggle against it. Uselessly. My fleshy, weak human body can't damage it even at peak performance and I am so far away from that.
I'm hyperventilating and my heart rate is through the roof. I hope it'll be loud enough for someone to hear, to alert someone.
It seems distracted looking at the inner workings of my body, which was disturbing enough when it was the medical team getting a front row showing of all my organs, let alone when it's some sort of Eridian conspiracy theorist.
I manage to suck in a proper breath, before screaming my lungs out, hoping someone will hear.
It jerks backward, startled by what is the equivalent of someone throwing a flashbang in it's face. It unfortunately lands on my legs, though not with it's full weight. It's full weight would have shattered them, and I think they're just highly, highly bruised. It hurts. It hurts so bad.
I scream again, this time from pain.
It vocalizes something at me, though I'm too distracted by the pain to make it out.
There's a sound of movement from the the tunnels then Rocky-brilliant, amazing, best engineer on Erid, best friend in the entire universe-Rocky is barreling into the intruder with enough force to crater the ground where they land. Thank god for Xenonite's durability because if those suits were made of anything from Earth, they would have shattered on impact. I dive off my bed, jostling my injured legs, as I try to get out of the way of two extremely heavy aliens trying to rip each-other apart.
I duck into the mouth of the tunnel Rocky came from, with sounds of other Eridians rapidly approaching. Looks like my screaming has drawn a lot of attention. I recognize the tones of some of the medical team and slump against the paneling in relief.
I turn back to Rocky as a horrible snapping sound fills the air. It's not the same sound as breaking a bone, more rough and grinding, but it's pretty similar. I get a small flash of one of my kids taking a bad spill down a flight of stairs and staying with them while waiting for medical care before my brain resumes taking in the current moment.
One of the intruder's arms is wrong. Twisted and bent in a way that must be agony, with Rocky on top of them, pinning them down. There's another grinding sound as one of Rocky's arms starts bending one of the intruder's legs past it's usual limits.
The intruder is vocalizing, a mix of tuneless screaming and discordant ranting. Rocky starts yelling back, using some very impolite Eridian curses alongside his yelling.
Liar-why-you-failure-traitor-useless-liar-
How-dare-you-friend-savior-hurt-bad-bad-bad-
They're loud and somehow manage to ramp up in volume, causing me to cover my ears. Which really doesn't help and this is definitely past the recommended decibel levels, and my ears start ringing. One of the medical team, who I've named House, slips a pair of noise-canceling headphones over my head. Pearl pulls me deeper into the hallway and starts examining my wrists and legs.
I'm hooked into a a variety of medical devices as Pearl makes a unhappy sounding hum at the state of my wrists. They don't look great. Nothing's broken or sprained but I've got a nasty set of Eridian hand/claw shaped bruises wrapped around my wrists. I'm definitely not making class for the next few days between this and the legs.
I get gently tugged to the side as a group of security people run through the hallway. They start pulling Rocky and the intruder off of each other, which is mostly consists of trying to get Rocky to stop hitting the other one.
Which takes four security guards and about five minutes.
It probably would have taken longer if Adrian hadn't shown up and started trying to shift Rocky's focus to fussing over me rather than kicking the heck out of the intruder. It works like a charm, so now the entire force of Rocky's energy is dedicated to worrying about me. I end up getting carried by Rocky as the medical team finishes their checks. To be more accurate, I'm being cradled, in what would be a princess carry.
Which is slightly mortifying, but with the adrenaline crash, I'm not in a spot to complain.
It's actually really nice to get fussed over like this. I had friends and family on Earth but it was always a bit distant. Like a plane of plexiglass between me and the world.
It's bitterly ironic that on a planet where I literally have to interact with anyone through a barrier of some sort, that I feel more loved and connected than ever.
They care so much. All of them. Rocky mainly, my best friend in the universe but also Adrian and my medical team. Also all the others working to keep me alive and safe. Which is a lot. So many Eridians make my continued existence on this planet possible.
Speaking of, Rocky, having been assured of my safety and still carrying me around, whirls to face one of the security guards. They're working on getting the intruder out of my tunnel system, so they can treat them for what is definitely at least a broken arm and deal with whatever happens as a result of this whole incident.
This one is not one of the ones carrying the intruder out, so Rocky has chosen them to be the next target of his ire. Rocky gets halfway through a very strongly worded criticism of their failure to stop the intruder before Adrian stops him.
Stop. Take Grace home. I will deal with this.
Rocky seems to accept that and directs someone to start the process of transporting me back to my bio-dome. Which is a rather long and involved process, but ends with him still carrying me across the beach to my house.
I have been told that I am taking at least three days off of teaching, this having been negotiated down from the original week off, and that Rocky will be supervising my classes and general existence for those days. They will be raising security around my bio-dome and making sure this won't happen ever again.
Carrying me and fussing at me seems to have calmed Rocky down enough to not be literally shaking with rage, so at least that's an improvement.
I'm exhausted, between the incident and the fact that I was already tired even before. Rocky settles in to watch me sleep, and he probably won't be trusting anyone but himself and Adrian to do that for a long time after this.
I don't mind that though. It's always nice to have him there, doing a quiet humming noise we figured out works like white noise and just knocks me right out. It's probably partially Pavlovian in nature, but something in the frequency scratches my brain just right.
I drift off with my best friend beside me, feeling entirely safe.