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When Rocky first contacted Erid from its orbit, the star exploration thrum had summoned me immediately. In lieu of any other reunion, he’d asked me to watch him and his Dr. Captain Ryland Grace sleep, though he just calls the strange creature “GRACEMATE GRACE GRACE”, mostly. I learned our new mates full name from the device, the “thinking machine” as Rocky calls it. It’s very fascinating, and it helps me pass the hours of leisure time I have watching our new mate “sleep” in his coma while he builds a home for him on the ground.
I learn that “Rocky” is my mates “human” name, and “Adrian” my own. I’m not opposed to all of this, but there’s a certain lack of decorum that bothers me. I do some digging after realizing our new mate had renamed both of us already and I watch their story unfold on the screen. Maybe I don’t feel So bad about their mateship happening the way it did.
When I get bored of the computer, I observe Dr. Captain Ryland Grace. My secondary-mate. He is so, so small. I feel a flutter of fear as I realize just how fragile this being is. I tap near him, very quietly, though I know he is not going to wake. His body is so liquified the sound ripples through him, almost like looking into a puddle. I shudder. My love must have been very insane from the isolation of space to not just mentally but PHYSICALLY embrace this almost immediately… I cannot imagine I would not have been afraid if I had not gotten context from the computer.
Wait… I tap again… that can’t be… An Egg? One of Rocky’s. I’d recognize the ridges and fissures anywhere. I lean away from it, I feel like I’ve been burnt. I can’t believe… That is so-this is so much worse than any other thing they have done in this relationship. This isn’t just uncomfortable or unprecedented-this is hurtful. This is a betrayal. I sink down where I am. I look at the egg again, picking it like a scab.
I flinch as I sense movement. A VIABLE EGG?! How dare they make offspring without me! I feel sick. Are they even compatible? He had given me eggs before he left, tokens of intent to say “We will”, but he has never, ever, laid a viable egg before. My bitterness coalesces into fear when this thought resonates through me. I’m terrified to look closer at the thing. I tap and suddenly there is so much noise that all I can see are the blaring alarms. Something’s happening to my secondary-mate. I scramble for the call button, hitting it haphazardly as I attempt to get a look at Dr. Captain Ryland Grace.
Rocky arrives to the medical bay almost immediately. I don’t know how he got here so quick, he must be working somewhere close.
“What’s wrong? What’s going on? Adrian do you know what’s wrong?” He’s skittering and chittering nervously, bumping against the clear xenonite cube that holds his other mate. And their offspring. I feel the anger rising back up but I repress it. I can address this when my secondary-mate isn’t actively dying. I step back as Rocky and the medical team swarm the cube, Rocky at least having the presence of mind to stay out of their way as they hooked up their controls for the robots inside the sealed habitat.
I settle down and simply watch, this truly is very fascinating. They zero in on the egg, just as I did. I take a look at it again as they begin carefully trying to lift it. Oh holy fuck. What THE FUCK IS THAT?! The doctors attempt to lift the egg only for it to crack apart, revealing that a part of it has already been removed. Consumed, it seems, by a horrific looking creature. My mates’ spawn, I assume, that sick feeling returning.
The creature- which seems to be attached to Dr. Captain Ryland Grace with several rows of grotesque, barbed, teeth, forming some kind of port- flinches away from the claws of the robot.giving me a better look at something that chills me to the bone. If I thought my secondary-mate was terrifying at first, there are no words to express the impossibility wriggling and moving beside him. I tap quickly to ensure I am not seeing things, that there is no bleed through in the image so clearly seared into my mind, but there is no mistaking it: the thing on the bed looks like an early gestation pebble, its surface soft and slimy, even more fragile than Dr. Captain Ryland Grace and— meatier than expected. There are speckles of what could pass for an Eridian carapace and all at once I am reminded of the stories of old. Hoaxes, I would have said until this moment. A hybrid creature.
Oh.
The thing was built similarly to Dr. Captain Ryland Grace, with features that reminded me of Rocky… and me. I feel fear running through me, on the front of its head…it’s my mating stone, a piece of my home that I gave to Rocky when we became mates. A part of me… Passed from my mate to this small creature. My fear thrums through my body, but something joins it, something warmer and more beautiful. I’m tentatively acknowledging it as the creature stills against Dr. Captain Ryland Grace. I realize that Rocky has come back toward me and is, more than likely, attempting to speak to me. I know he is still mostly focused on the creature as well. “How did this happen, Adrian. You were supposed to be watching.” He repeated this several times, chittering and pacing around.
The anger I had repressed in response to my secondary-mates medical emergency rose back up.
I tip my carapace over him, slowly. It’s an intimidation tactic, one I have ground out of myself over years of discipline and restraint. But I’ve never needed those around Rocky.
“I don’t know, tell me how you gave AN ALIEN you’ve known for a fraction of your life an offspring before your first partner!! Tell ME why we fought about this every cycle for about 73 years and ALWAYS it was you who was hesitant to hatch a clutch. Then you HAD to go to space and I was fine with you bringing home a mate BUT YOU BROUGHT HOME A CHILD? Not just a child, but one that has a part of ME? Tell me, please, Rocky, how I am supposed go know more about YOUR egg than you do. YOUR egg that’s killing OUR mate, if you even care. OUR mate that I had to come to know MYSELF all ALONE in this stupid ROOM.” I stomp for emphasis, shaking the room, with exception of the xenonite cube our mate is in.
If there’s one thing I love about Rocky, he has never been afraid of me. He lifts up his carapace and hisses.
“Adrian, I know I did it all wrong you have to believe me I-“ I decide I don’t want to hear it and stomp again.
“You can stay here and watch our mate and your PEBBLE yourself. I need some air.” I close myself into the elevator and start the process of going down to the surface.
“Adrian I didn’t know! I wasn’t even sure I COULD have fiable eggs, I didn’t know it was viable!” His voice follows me down the shaft, even as I descend, growing fainter and eventually disappearing as I fall out of range. He didn’t know? Is that true? I really do need to clear my head. I exit the elevator and make my way out of the port, walking out and along the road until I hit an intersection that I know will lead me out of town.
I’ve always loved this place. Growing up, I had to learn quickly that people were going to be worried about my expressions of emotion due to my size. Self regulation has never been optional for me, one wrong move, one step uncalculated, I can easily hurt or kill someone just by brushing them with one of my claws. These claws have since pushed and shoved their way into academia but they’ve never lost that easy confidence that I can crush anything in my way. Here, I can, and I do. I have no idea how long I spend crashing through rock formations and throwing chunks of the hard blocks to make them explode into smithereens, but when I’m done I feel much better.
Rocky may be… strange… but that didn’t mean he’d lie about something this serious. He hadn’t known that his egg, given to Grace in blind desperation, was going to result in a new life. I make my way back up the elevator, the medbay coming into focus as I rise. The door opens and I step out next to Rocky. I sit down next to him, humming in apology.
“I am sorry, I was being irrational. I’ve missed you. I am scared about Dr. Captain Ryland Grace. I want him to be safe. I want to speak with him, to get know him more than what his video logs can tell me. I even want to meet.. the pebble creature… eventually…” I’m so nervous, I hope he accepts my apology.
“Oh, my Adrian.” He answers, “hugging” the leg that is closest to him. “Thank you.” He doesn’t say anything else. He’s very busy watching Dr. Captain Ryland Grace.
“So, what’s going on with our mate?” I’m scared to ask. It may be worse that he isn’t actively dying-I think we would’ve heard Rocky from the ground itself if he were- because that means there’s more to be scared about.
Rocky hums. “The… Pebble Hybrid, that’s what the doctors are calling them, is siphoning nutrients and genetic material from Grace, and has fallen into dormancy with him. Waking Gracemate up now to remove them would cause a shock to his system, do all we can do is supplement his nutrients and keep an eye on them both.” He is quiet. He is scared, too. I move my claw to lean against his carapace, and he nuzzles into it.
“What are we going to call them?” I ask, I don’t know why. I just need to fill the space of waiting.
Rocky lets out another hum.
“Star of Earth and Erid, child of RockyGraceAdrian.” He is decisive, despite his nerves. I feel that warmth they felt when I first looked at the baby. Our baby.
“Can Adrian watch GraceRocky and Star of Earth and Erid sleep, please?” Rocky asked, climbing up their claw. I take the hint and lifted him up to a fork in my carapace, a place especially formed by years of lifting him up there to sleep safely near me. When he nestles down, I open up the laptop again. I want to learn more about Earth.