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Grace took a deep breath as he continued to pace back and forth in front of the Mary’s airlock in his EVA suit. It had been three hours since they’d arrived in Erid’s orbit, after a week and a half of the Hail Mary being close enough for Rocky to send Erid information via radio communication. His friend had been almost vibrating with anticipation for the past month.
In other words, they were a very short time away from docking at Erid’s space elevator and Grace was starting to freak out a little. Well, freak out more. Sure, he’d lived with an Eridian for almost five years but that was Rocky. His best friend. Grace was about to be representing the entirety of the human race to an alien planet! More specifically, to the most intelligent scientists on that alien planet. It was normal to be nervous, expected even.
Rocky was clearly nervous too, if the way he suddenly scrambled around in his ball and rolled frantically towards his side of the control room was anything to go by.
“Rock?” Grace called, startled. “Where are you going, buddy?”
“Rocky do something then come back!” Rocky called, disappearing behind the extra wall of xenonite inside his half of the ship that Grace had deemed to be Rocky’s ‘bedroom’.
A handful of shuffling noises came from behind the wall, the sounds of someone searching for something they hadn’t used in a very long time. Then a few minutes later, Rocky scuttled back into view and re-entered his ball. He exited his side of the ship and rolled back over to Grace.
It took a second for Grace to realize what was different. Rocky was wearing an outfit Grace had never seen before in his life, a fuzzy green shirt that looked like one of those sweaters people put on dogs. It had clearly been made for him—or an Eridian—to wear because it had five holes for limbs.
“Is that your formal wear or something?” Grace asked, confused.
“Maybe.” Rocky hesitated, kicking one of his lower limbs at the bottom of his ball in a movement that Grace had determined was equivalent to a sheepish expression. If Rocky had eyes, Grace was certain his friend wouldn’t have been making eye contact.
“Oh man, am I not dressed right?” He asked, looking down at his own outfit in a panic. “Should I change clothes?”
“Rocky has something to tell Grace but Grace promise not be mad question?”
“Okay, sure.” He shrugged, unsure where Rocky was going with his confession statement.
“Rocky wear clothes.” Rocky said plainly.
“Like on special occasions?” Grace suggested. “Like your fancy bracelet things from our ‘universe savior’ victory party?”
“. . . no.”
He waited expectantly but Rocky didn’t elaborate.
“Well,” Grace said finally, “you look nice?”
“. . . thank.”
“Okay, weirdo.” He said, confused but supportive.
"Rocky not weird."
"That's not what I . . . never mind."
Maybe he should change clothes, Grace thought. His EVA suit wasn’t exactly comfortable. But he needed to be prepared and it wasn’t like he could attempt any sort of movement towards the space elevator wearing space pajamas and a nerdy t-shirt. Not that he anticipated going anywhere. Obviously he wouldn’t be able to enter the space elevator until Erid figured out safe transportation for him. Despite the thrill of finally arriving at Erid, Grace knew logically that it would be a while before he was actually able to leave the Mary.
His train of thought was interrupted when the radio at the control panel suddenly lit up and a thrum of Eridian voices chimed through the Mary’s speaker in a literal chorus.
“♫EridSave♪♪ReadyReceive♪TunnelDock♬WallWallTunnelMove♪Gra♪ce♪RockyRocky♩♩.”
Grace tried to parse through the message, relying mostly on reading Rocky’s emotions and expressive movements since he could only pick up every fifth word from the overlapping voices. But he understood all the same.
Erid was ready to receive their ship.
The Mary docked at the space elevator. It was, thank God, forgettable. Another hour later, Grace had forgotten all about his friend's weird behavior when the Eridians in the space elevator successfully attached their tunnel to the Hail Mary’s airlock. They’d created a passageway between the ship and the elevator for ease of communication, though their side was blocked off by a wall of xenonite.
Rocky had made sure to tell them it should be transparent for Grace’s benefit but that they should build in an airlock as well. So Rocky could move back and forth between Erid and Grace. Something deep down inside of Grace held a very real fear that Rocky would abandon him as soon as he was able to return to his planet but he knew it was ridiculous. That Rocky loved him just as much as he loved Rocky and would never leave Grace to be dissected by alien scientists. But the fear was still there.
The worst part was, he couldn’t even call it an irrational fear because he knew there had to be at least one Eridian who was dying to get their claws on his intestines. In the name of science, of course. Rocky had assured him that Grace wasn’t edible by Eridian standards. He’d had to, after a poorly aimed joke about his clutchmates devouring Grace’s malnourished stomach lining had been described far too realistically.
Jesus, he was so ready to not be living off Taumoeba smoothies anymore.
A clanking noise rattled the tunnel, echoing from the Eridian end of the passageway. It was pitch black on the other side of the tunnel but Rocky jumped excitedly, then rolled forward towards the airlock until he bounced against the barrier in his anticipation. He spun, turning back to face Grace so forcefully that he nearly spun all the way around in his eagerness.
“Rocky can hear Adrian!” Rocky exclaimed. “They are waiting! Adrian here here here!”
Grace and Rocky had both heard Adrian’s voice over the radio but he knew it had to be vastly different for Rocky to hear his mate's real voice after being separated for half a century. Grace couldn't hear anything yet, but Rocky's hearing was a lot better than his and his friend unquestionably knew what Adrian sounded like. He swallowed thickly, pushing his nerves aside to support Rocky.
“Go to them, buddy!” He urged. “We both know I’ll be stuck here for a while. You deserve to see them as soon as possible. It’s . . . I’m okay, really.”
“No, Rocky will not leave Grace.” Rocky protested, uncertain. “Rocky can wait.”
“Rocky, go.” Grace urged, trying to be a good friend. Rocky turned to face towards the airlock again, then turned back to Grace, conflicted. “All you have to do is come back, okay? Just promise me you’ll come back for me. Besides, I can’t wait to meet the famous Adrian. I’m sure I’ll love them.”
“Rocky will come back for Grace with Adrian.” Rocky said finally. “And with more Eridians. Promise. Do not know how long but will always come back. Grace be okay, question?”
“I promise.”
Rocky carefully proceeded to the airlock, turning to face Grace on his way out until Grace gave him a thumbs up, then rolled his ball into the tunnel airlock.
Grace watched as the chamber between the Mary’s airlock and the tunnel depressurized and filled with a hissing noise, the smell of ammonia seeping past the barrier. Then Rocky exited his ball and rushed down the tunnel into the darkness.
He watched until he couldn’t see Rocky’s shape in the dark any more. The important thing now was to stay calm. Rocky had promised he would come back. Rocky was his friend. His best friend. Erid would do everything they could to keep him alive, just like they’d promised. Everything would be okay.
It took less than fifteen minutes for Rocky to come back. The darkness and silence that surrounded Grace in his friend’s absence still seemed massively oppressive.
When Rocky came back, however, he returned with four other Eridians.
Man, Grace should have made himself look more presentable for second contact. He noticed immediately that one Eridian in particular walked extremely close to Rocky, their front limbs touching as they moved forward. When they got closer, Grace could see a mating patch the color of Rocky’s carapace that matched Rocky’s green one on the Eridian’s limbs. They were twice as tall as Rocky and their carapace was a deep, emerald green with thin fissures of gold that wove themselves along their limbs.
“Adrian♪, is Friend ♪Grace!” Rocky exclaimed, excited. “All ♫♫ are ready to meet!”
Adrian was wearing a sweater that looked just like Rocky’s new outfit. It was fuzzy and gray but it was the same style of clothing. Clearly something commonly worn. The other three Eridians—scientists that Grace mentally dubbed Alvin, Simon and Theodore after the first trio he could think of—were also wearing sweaters as well as tool belts. He managed to catch bits of their conversation but they were going so fast and almost certainly incorporating tones that his range of human hearing couldn’t register, so he let Rocky take the lead. As planned, obviously.
Over the next few hours, Grace introduced himself to Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. Then he met Luke, Han, Leia, Ben, and Lando. God, he was terrible at this. Maybe Rocky should be in charge of giving the Eridians human names. They were all wearing clothes too, though. Huh.
He also got to officially meet Adrian, who was just as incredible and smart as Rocky had described them. Clearly Rocky had been telling the truth when he’d claimed that he was attractive by Eridian standards, because Adrian was the most beautiful Eridian Grace had ever met. Out of the dozen or so he had actually laid eyes on, anyways.
Though now that the shock of meeting Adrian and the others was starting to fade a little, Grace was starting to get a little confused. He looked at the scientists on the other side of the wall. Then he looked back at Rocky as his friend re-entered the airlock and climbed into his xenonite ball for the chamber to be depressurized. He looked at the cute little sweaters everyone was wearing, then looked back at Rocky again.
“Do Eridians wear clothes?” He asked his friend slowly when Rocky rolled out of the transfer chamber and back into his side of the Mary’s airlock. He’d been moving back and forth between the Hail Mary and the tunnel for the past hour, if not longer, so Grace hadn’t had a chance to ask him non-essential questions until now.
“Rocky not know what Grace mean.” Rocky replied immediately, shifting in his ball.
“Do you wear clothes the way humans wear clothes?” Grace clarified, frowning.
He glanced at the other Eridians on the opposite side of the tunnel. Only Adrian, Lando, and Simon were there now, the others having gone back to deliver messages to the Eridians in the space elevator or acquire more tools.
“Rocky not know what Grace mean, statement.” Rocky said guiltily, shifting in place again.
“I’m sorry, maybe I need to be more clear.” Grace managed in disbelief. “Have you or have you not just been naked for the past four and a half years?”
“No.” Rocky said stiffly. “Rocky wear sometimes.”
“When?!” Grace demanded. He also knew for a fact that he had put clothes into the translator, which meant Rocky wasn’t saying the actual word because he didn’t want the other Eridians to know what they were talking about. “When have I ever seen you wear clothes on a regular basis? What the crap, dude?”
“Grace say bad word.” Rocky said quickly in an attempt to change the subject.
“Grace say bad word because Rocky supposed to wear clothes!” Grace exclaimed.
“Different context. Not all the time.”
“But more times than you were wearing them, clearly.” He challenged.
"Rocky did not think Grace mind.”
“You’re a rock-shaped space spider with five arms!” Grace stated in disbelief. “How was I supposed to know you were a nudist? What context would I have possibly had?”
“Rocky not know what last word in middle sentence mean, statement.” Rocky said hesitantly.
“It means you’re supposed to wear clothes, Rocky!” He said, almost hysterical.
“Eridians wear outside of home, not inside of home.” Rocky admitted finally. “Spaceship was home. No one else on spaceship. Rocky did not mind. When hear Grace space ship, too excited to find wear. Build tunnel. Come to tunnel. Forget. Grace not say anything when first see Rocky."
"Oh." Grace said flatly. "So you . . . it's like loungewear? I mean, it's like me wearing comfy clothes. Except not clothes. No clothes is comfy clothes."
Having more information helped a little, if he was honest with himself. He didn't want to even think about the weird outfit's he'd been wearing his first week in space. If Rocky was serious about Eridians only wearing clothes outside of their home, he’d basically just been doing the Eridian equivalent of wearing pajamas. For the entire time he was on the Mary, sure, but at least his best friend wasn’t a total weirdo. That Grace knew of, anyway.
It was slowly getting funnier, though. Even if it was probably some sort of egregious political oversight to be constantly clothesless in front of an alien. Even if said alien was your best friend. No wonder Rocky had been in such a hurry to put his funky sweater on.
“Rocky like comfort.” Rocky said carefully. “Grace like comfort too, statement.”
“I also like to wear clothes, Rocky.” Grace sighed, exasperated. “Come on, man.”
“. . . maybe not mention to Adrian, statement.”
“Buddy, you’re never living this down.”