Chapter Text
Grace hit the wall hard enough to rattle the pipes and fingers crushed his throat before he realised that the man covered in blood was awake. He caught a glance of the haunted eyes before the patient was bodied by at least four Eridians in Xenonite suits.
“Don’t hurt him!” Grace said, thinking back to how heavy Rocky is.
“Don’t put me back in there!” The man screamed.
Grace considered the submarine filled with blood, the drowned ratman the Eridians had ladled out, and the same Eridians now having a skating lesson on the red floor as they tried to apprehend the one-armed man who was wearing a- a chest strap? Why? What did that even do? And, honestly, it was drowned ratman: 2 Eridians: 0. And he only had one arm. Oh, there it was, one of the Eridians had landed a blow on the head and he was knocked out. Grace was wondering how this had spiralled out of control so quickly.
Adrian and crew had been on a year-long mission to disperse more tau-amoeba into the local star system and returned with some curious cargo - a submarine filled with ‘fluid’ that was perfectly preserving a human inside. “New Grace!”
Well, it turns out that the fluid was so-much blood and the new Grace was an extremely scared, incredibly strong man with more fight than flight.
“Rocky, Rocky! I know you can hear me, get off him!”
“Bad man hurt Grace!”
“He didn’t mean to, just give him some space.”
Grace cringed. The man must have hit his head. Grace was going to check but there was so much blood it was futile, so he brought a bowl of water and he began washing at least his face and hair in a bowl.
“Rocky has questions.”
“I know, Rock.”
“Human attack Grace!”
“That was unexpected. Gah. My throat.”
“Grace hurt.”
“Umm, yes.”
“Grace is shaking.”
“Yes, that is a response to the shock.”
“Eridians eject human.”
“Nope, no? We don’t- what do you mean ‘eject’?”
“Eridians find mate for Grace.”
“What.”
“Eridians find bad mate. Mate attack Grace.”
“No, I did not ask for a mate, you- OK, we’re having a meeting. “
“OK. Meeting.”
“The Eridians rescued a heavily injured human, which was brave.”
“Brave yes yes.”
“And we are going to help him recover from his deeply traumatic injuries and also figure out where all that blood came from.”
“Help hmmmmmm.”
“And then we are going to talk to him, like we are now, you and I, and figure out what he wants.”
“Hmmm why. Question.”
“Because he made an error in judgement and that is OK.”
“Hmmmmmmm.”
“Like when you gave me a boiling ocean.”
“Rocky fix.”
“Yes, and it was OK, you made a small error in judgement and then you fixed it.”
“Hmmmmmm.”
“Or like the time when I rearranged your very precious welcome message that you had arranged in shiny rocks in my cottage because I didn’t realise what it was.”
“Hmmmmmmm Yes Grace apologise. Rocky understand.“
“It was very kind of you to see things from my perspective.”
“Hmmm.”
“And now we are going to apply the same generosity of spirit to this new human.”
“Hmmmmmm. Rocky wait for apology.”
Grace sighed, at least it was progress. And Rocky was actually listening to him when they had these huddles. He wasn’t so keen on the idea that the new human’s safety was conditional on an apology, or that there was a threat of ‘ejection’, whatever that implied, it wasn’t worth indulging.
Adrian, a jade green monolith, much larger than Rocky, walked over with an authoritative air.
“Grace was injured. How is Grace, question?”
They gave Grace a bag of water which he took with a nod of thanks and drained.
“A bit shaken, but I’m fine. Thanks, Adrian.”
“Adrian apologise to Grace. Eridians assumed all humans were friendly like Grace. Had not accounted for different circumstances. Again, sorry.”
“Adrian, this is not on you. Thank you for clarifying, but I don’t think there was any way of knowing how he would react when he woke up. I was just so surprised by all the blood I’d assumed he was dead or close to it.”
“Adrian makes amends. Eridians make arrangements.”
“What- please tell me you aren’t ejecting him?”
“Why eject, question?” Adrian said, turning their carapace to face Rocky who made an expression like he was sweating: “Rocky. Why eject, question?”
“Rocky hate new human.”
“It’s alright, bud.”
“Adrian love new human.”
“No why?” Rocky whined, genuinely whined, “Question. Betrayal, statement.”
“Rocky has human. Adrian has human.”
Grace hid his hand behind his mouth, there was clearly something going on here at the Eridian dinner table that he was not privy to.
Rocky turned around, tapping his feet on the ground in frustration.
Adrian turned back to face Grace: “We prepare introduction pod.”
“What does that mean?” Grace said.
“Keep Grace 2.0 in different room with window.”
“Let’s revisit naming him Grace 2.0 later. Actually, let’s prioritise learning his name.”
An introduction pod might even be a good idea, Grace thought, because while it trapped the new human inside it also meant that he was safe from the outside until they could communicate a bit more.
“Adrian need Grace clothes.”
“What?” He said, struggling to keep the thread of the conversation: “Question?”
“In human brain machine introduce wild animals to new enclosure using clothes. Introduce scents. Improve outcomes.”
“I don’t. Nope, that’s not how it works for humans. Our scent is very poor.”
“We avoid risk.”
“I’m not taking off my clothes.”
“Adrian sent Superman to get clothes.”
Grace held back a snort. He’d forgotten that he’d named one of the Eridians Superman and it always came back to surprise him. As the horror of Superman rifling through his cottage dawned on him, he saw some soft furnishing carried by a jet black Eridian bobbing past the airlock and into the newly built containment chamber which had been built so quickly. He sighed. That was his blanket.