Chapter Text
Days Till Launch: 3
Thunder roared somewhere distantly as it stormed, hair plastered to your face and clothes so thoroughly drenched they clung to your skin as you sprinted through the sheets of rain. Each pounding thud of your sneakers on the flooding bitumen had your socks squelching and water pooling around your numbing feet.
You might have thought yourself cold if not for the hot, flushing adrenaline that accompanied the panic thick in the back of your throat, pressing on and filling your chest.
So blinded you were by the heavy fall of rain and the hair plastered across your eyes you almost missed the road you meant to turn down, and your feet skidded on the slick road and sent muddy water flying as you stumbled before recovering your sprint.
Street lights did little to illuminate the houses so you tried desperately to see something you recognised to guide you to the right door. A flash of lightning reflected off a familiar, beaten down car and you went straight for it. The car was parked in the drive-way and you found yourself unable to slow enough to dodge past it to the front door and collided straight into the side as you slid across muck and puddled water.
The impact punched the wind from you, “oof!” Thunder crashed again and you scrambled for purchase on the rain slick car to run to the front door. In your panic you forgot to also stop for this and you slammed against it, a yell pitching from you.
“Colt! Colt fucking Seavers open this door!” You suddenly remembered Grace’s keys in your pocket and you fished them out with shaking hands, started to pick through the keys dangling there and promptly dropped them with an expletive. You banged on the door with an open palm as you crouched and searched for the keys in the dark. “Colt! Colt I swear to god open this fucking door or I’ll-”
There was a crash from inside and a muffled voice, like someone had stumbled over something. You stopped banging down the door and tried to hear more over your thundering heartbeat in your ears.
After a moment of silence you pressed an ear to the door, “Colt-?”
The door swung open and you stumbled through unceremoniously with a yelp of surprise.
Colt jerked back and stepped back swiftly as you tripped and hit the floor in front of him. You groaned.
“Whoaaa, whoa, what the fuck are you doing?”
“Was it too much to fucking warn me?” You scrambled to your feet and Colt blinked in surprise.
“Warn you?” He shook his head like a bear with a swarm of bees, trying to shake you off, and gestured to you violently, “Warn you? Why didn’t you warn me?!”
Thunder rolled outside in a steady booming and Colt finally seemed to notice your terrible state, he glanced around behind you as though searching -
“He’s not with me,” you gasped, suddenly aware how out of breath you were, “Colt he’s not here, he’s-” you drew in a sharp breath, emotions suddenly clawing up your throat and stinging at your eyes. A terrible combination with your general out of breathness. You put a hand against the wall and leaned, the other coming to your chest as though you could sooth the tight pain there.
Colt still took another moment of searching the dark, storming night before he turned back to you, nodding slowly before letting the door lick shut. He took in your appearance and felt a wash of anxiety coming over him.
“Where is he?”
You shook your head, droplets flicking across your face and dropping down onto the floor where it had started to pool. “I dont, I don’t know- there’s alot I need to tell you, but I don’t know where he is really and that’s the fucking problem-” You cut yourself off with a pained, frustrated cry. “Colt, I think they’re going to kill him.”
A beat.
“What!?” He moved in several directions, as though needing to do multiple things all at once. He decided on moving further into the living room, ripping open some drawers and pulling a handgun out.
“No, no- not like that,” He spun to you, jaw tight and eyes burning, you moved into the living room after him, trailing mud and water, “in three days, the Hail Mary launches.”
Colt knew this, everyone knew this, “what has that got to do with-”
“There was an explosion,” you explained quickly, gesturing wildly, “Ryland, he called me and he told me both the scientists died. Stratt- the, the boss- she asked him to go instead. But he told me he was going to say no, that- that he didn’t want to go.” A hand shot to your mouth as bile suddenly threatened to climb up your throat, “Oh god.”
You took a steading breath just as Colt moved frantically closer, “and what, who’s going to kill him?”
You grabbed the back of a chair to steady yourself, other hand falling back down to your chest in a futile attempt to quell the panic.
“I haven't heard from him since, I thought maybe- I don’t know- but it’s going straight to voicemail now. It’s been hours, Colt, hours and nothing and he was meant to have told her this morning! He should’ve called me by now but his phone isn’t even working!”
Colt pressed his hands to his head, still clutching the gun as he let out a shaky exhale and you watched him, heart hammering like a bird in a cats’ teeth.
“I think they’re going to send him anyway.” Colt’s cheeks puffed on his inhale and he peeked from behind his fingers to meet your eyes. “I don’t think they care what he wants, they’re sending him. And he’ll die up there.”
Colt turned slowly, relenting his handgun to the table you leaned by to face the wall away from you.
You had always considered the twins as quite different, but having not seen Ryland in weeks now, the sight of Colt’s messy blond bed head ached painfully in your chest. You looked away and stared at a framed photo of the brothers on a shelf. Tears threatened, hot and burning at the back of your eyes.
“Fuck ok, I don’t know that much about what the Patrova mission group thing Ryland is working for,” Colt turned and made to speak again but startled as though he was only just now seeing you. “And you can tell me everything, after we fix, well… this.”
You looked down at yourself as he gestured to you and the sudden wave of exhaustion knocked you clean off your feet as you stumbled back and slumped on the floor. Adrenaline leaving you to the freezing cold of your soaked clothes and throbbing ache of your cold joints.
He seemed to hesitate, “did you… did you run here?”
You seemed surprised yourself, “honestly it’s all a blur really.”
—--
Colt managed to find some sweats and an old shirt of Rylands laying about in his drawers for which you were so grateful to have that words didn’t seem enough. But he must have understood by your silence and red rimmed eyes as you clutched at it when he first handed it to you.
It had felt so uniquely strange to be alone in Colt’s house with him, using his shower and his spare towel and wearing his pants. But the strangeness was easy to ignore when you could think of nothing but the crushing finality of what you were certain to be true.
Neither you nor Colt would ever get to see Ryland again.
And now, in one of Rylands old science pun shirts, staring at your reflection in Colt’s bathroom mirror, you felt crushing defeat and drowning shame. Why’d you come here? What could either of you possibly do?
But you refused to let anyone take Ryland from you, like it didn’t even matter - like he could just be stolen and sent to his death. And you knew for certain Colt felt the same. Your shared love for Ryland was one of the only things you both had in common, and the ferociousness you protected it with was matched only by him.
If this was a delusional, hopeless thing, then Colt would be just as delusional with you in pursuit of Ryland.
Colt was waiting at the kitchen table, drumming his fingers across the table top and biting at the nails of his other hand. His eyes snatched to you as you stalked into the kitchen.
You wasted no time, jumping into an explanation as you started searching his cupboards for mugs.
“Ryland was recruited to the Patravo task force last year, it’s why he quit teaching so suddenly. It’s also why he’s been so hard to contact.”
You found the mugs, pulled one out for yourself and gestured one at Colt in question, “he was always really upset he couldn’t talk to you more… coffee?”
Colt stood, looking like he needed to busy himself. “Yeah, I’ll make them. And yeah… I know he was, he didn’t really say it often but I could tell.”
You stepped out of his way as he busied himself with the kettle and started to reach for the coffee, slumped into another chair at the table and started to pick at the skin around your nails.
“Ry was the lead scientist in Astrophage, he led all the major findings and research and he’s been training the astronauts for the mission and he does more, but he doesn’t tell me- can’t tell me, I should say.”
The kettle clicked softly and quietened as Colt poured hot water into the mugs of instant coffee. He placed it down in front of you without offering sugar or milk, but you hardly cared as you wrapped your fingers around the mug and shivered at the heat of it. Colt sat directly opposite you and stared at the grain of the wood as you continued, jaw working.
Your breath shook with your shoulders, “Yesterday, there was an explosion, and the scientist Ry had been training for the mission, to be sent into Space. They both died.”
Colt looked up at you then, face hardened but his eyes swam.
“Um, they died. And Ry said there wasn’t anyone else. He called me, and Stratt, who runs the whole thing, told him that he was their best chance. Gave him three hours to decide if he would go. It’s a one way mission, as you’ve heard. There’s no coming back, the astronauts will go, wake up at Tau Ceti in 12 years and then they’ll send back anything they find to us. And they just-”
You took several deep breaths, trying to control the tremble that had leeched into your voice and hands, trying to keep the burn in your eyes at bay.
Despite it all, your voice cracked, “They die out there. At Tau Ceti.”
You lifted the coffee up and blew gently on it to cool it before attempting a sip. Clearly at the end of speaking.
Several moments passed in silence until Colt cleared his throat and adjusted in his seat. Your eyes flicked to him, red rimmed and glassy.
He looked at your trembling hands, eyes catching on the simple engagement ring on your finger.
He hadn’t seen it in person before, he realised faintly, a fresh wave of sadness crashing over him. He sniffed and brought a hand to his face, ready to swipe at the tears gathering dangerously behind his eyes. He was sure he looked just as distraught as you.
“So Ryland,” he had to clear his throat again, “They’ve taken him you think.”
“Yeah,” you croaked, “there was no one else, Colt. Only Ry had known Astrophage well enough, and now I haven’t heard from him since.”
Colt sniffled and aggressively wiped at his face with both hands before meeting your eyes again.
“So, know where it happened?”
You cracked a smile. Another thing you had in common, both of you had no concept of what wasn’t possible.
“Yeah,” you grabbed your phone from the table and waved it at him, “I’ve been tracking Ry’s phone for months now.”
Colt stood, chairing screeching across the tiles as it slid back. “Well what are we waiting for, let’s hit the road.”