Chapter Text
Ryley is sitting in his office, their elbows on their knees as he stares at the fish tank full of infected sea creatures, trying desperately to figure out how the hell he's going to cure this disease with no scientific background and only broken scientific technology (that he has no idea how to use!).
They sigh and lay their head back, staring out the domed glass ceiling instead. He's going to be trapped alone on this damn planet till they die– wait… is that…? He sets up a little straighter; it's just a speck in the sky, but… it's too far up to be a bird… No… No no no.
Memories of the sunbeam flash through their minds; he rushes to his radio, trying to use it to contact them. Whatever ship is in this airspace needs to get away before they get shot down. They need to be warned. His radio isn't meant to send out long-range messages. only receive them, but since the failed rescue mission, he's been working very hard to perfect his long-range radio so he can actually broadcast, and now's as good a time as any to test it.
They won't be able to actually speak, but if he did this right (which he probably didn't), their radio signal should at least ping their ship. He turns it on and off and, (with the PDA's help to remember the code), gets out the universal sign for danger.
It's a long shot, but he has to try. He runs back out to his lab to check on the ship; if they got his message, they should be hopefully backing away or at least acknowledging his presence, but they don't. As he watches, they slowly get closer. It doesn't seem intentional; he can't see any light from their thrusters or any other indication that they are doing anything more than just unknowingly drifting into hostile space.
He rushes out onto the beach, feet thumping in the sand as they run to the alien structure. its not long before it comes into sight, the tip of the gun just starting to turn to the ship. no no fuck. he stops near the base. "It's just passing," he tells it. "Let them pass" they will it, but its no use. the ship continues to drift closer, pulled in by 4546B's gravity.
As its form gets closer, the weapon starts to power up; they can see it better now, smaller than the sunbeam, and it looks older too; his stomach twists. Maybe it's unmanned, just a probe or something. They truly hope it is; he should be the last person forced to die here.
The shot is loud just like it was with the Sunbeam, though this ship doesn't explode into a million pieces; in fact, it seems to keep rather intact, all things considered, but it doesn't matter; the ship comes down, crashing into the water. Not actually too far from where he is currently, maybe out where the reapers are on the other side from the wreck? Not a great place to land, but definitely close enough that they might not have fallen into the void that surrounds his little 'paradise.'
He hops into his sea moth and then pauses and reconsiders. If there are people still alive on that ship, they won't be able to fit in his Seamoth, and that place is absolutely covered in leviathans. It wouldn't be safe to swim. He doesn't even know if they would be capable of swimming…
Now might be the time to make that sub It will only take him the couple minutes longer and hopefully they won't die in that time, he pulls out his PDA checking what he'll need—Enameled Glass, Plasteel Ingot, lubricant, advanced wiring kit, lead—he should have all of that. he rushes through their stores, grabbing everything they need before rushing out to the open water and dropping the vehicle Bay.
He taps his foot anxiously as he watches as he watches the little robots do their thing. "Be advised: the Cyclops is designed to be operated by a three-person crew. Only experienced helms-people should attempt to pilot this vehicle solo."
"Great, thank you, but I neither have experience nor a crew of three, so we'll have to make do," he grumbles to it.
Oh, this thing is huge; it's even got a spot for their Seamoth, amazing. Let's hope this thing can go fast… It… cannot. If he pushes, it goes a little slower than his Seamoth, and it gives them near-constant warnings that doing so WILL set the engines on fire. useless.
He will just have to hope that they're alive, that he can get there in time, and that they are not in the chasm. Oh and also that he can find them because he doesn't have a good visual on where they went down, just the general direction. He pushes the Cyclops the whole way there, having to take speed in short bursts to avoid the engines overheating, but he makes it.
Once they get to the edge of the mushroom trees, he slows down and turns on silent engines, trying not to attract whatever lives over here. He scans the surrounding landscape with about as much hope as they look for his fellow life pods with—which is to say, not much—though he spots the ship rather easily as it has kicked up a rather large and easy-to-spot dust cloud as it settled.
But he also spots a few reaper leviathans circling around it… He prays to whatever cruel God rules over this world and hops out, swimming as quietly as possible along the sea floor.
The ship is SMALL, just about the tiniest they have ever seen, and it is remarkably intact for being shot. It seems the only thing that has taken any damage is a few fuel tanks that are now leaking black sludge into the water. Which means hopefully there is still air inside.
It takes him a quiet minute to figure out the door, but it does open from the outside. And it only complains a little bit at the water flooding it. It even cycles it out fine, filling it with air.
He makes their way inside; the rest of the ship is much less pleased about being in the ocean than the airlock was. Sirens and red lights flashing about the damage to the hull, and excess pressure, and a whole bunch of other sensors.
"Hey just be thankful you're alive at all, The last ship that came here got obliterated," they tell it. no ones here trying to fix it, but the control room seems normal old but normal, He taps at the screen and tries to get the alarm to turn off but there seems to be just too much wrong to turn it all off… so he climbs through the hatch into the next room instead.
The sirens and flashing lights are still going on in this room, but holy shit, look at all of this lab stuff! Tons of machines and other science-y stuff is strewn all over the ground/wall in here!
It's all way out of date, but they still scan as much as he can and shoves the rest of it in their personal storage. He's got lab stuff now! Maybe that will make curing whatever this is easier, and he can get off this damn planet. Even if there are no people in here, this was well worth the trip out.
He moves on to the next room, starting to feel more hopeful now; this room has three beds, each with a body on them. The one closest to the wall he's standing on looks like it used to be a woman, but she is a mummy now… He checks the next bed, and it's the same… though this one looks like a man… no wonder they didn't respond; no one on the ship is alive, and they haven't been for a while.
They almost don't check the last bed. The way the ship landed would make it rather difficult… And he wouldn't have checked it at all if he didn't see tubes running off of it. Something the two corpses don't have… He climbs up and peeks over the bed… This human definitely looks more alive, still hooked up to a bunch of medical tubes and monitors. Holy shit.
They watch for a minute, and the man is definitely breathing, though he doesn't know how much that means with a ventilator. It could be just… making a dead man's chest rise and fall… but he's definitely more alive than the other two.
…They don't quite know how to feel… there's another (probably) alive human on 4546b, He has someone else maybe even a scientist! But now they are trapped here with him… he sighs and brushes his fingertips over the man's forehead and they mans eyelids flicker in response.
"Eye movement detected!" A robotic voice much like his PDA calls out, and arms extend from the. "ceiling" and gently remove some of the tubes. The man groans as it pulls a long one out of his throat. Definitely alive!
He moves back and watches the arms work. "What's 2 + 2?" The computer asks the man, but it doesn't get any response.
How is he going to get him home? Even with the Cyclops This man is still drifting in and out of consciousness and definitely won't be able to swim… And there are a lot of reapers outside.
They consider just waiting until whatever stasis he's in wears off so they don't have to try and drag a body past leviathans. But that might take a while, and he doesn't know exactly how long they have.
They are lucky this thing didn't flood right away. He doesn't know if they will be lucky enough to stay down here much longer…
He starts stripping off the remaining wires and tubes. The ship yells at him about crewmate safety and all that, but he's gotten pretty good at ignoring ai's by now.
The person is stark naked, which is… well, they think he'd rather have clothes if possible. But they don't really have a spare suit on them. He glances around the cabin and finds a hatch with lots of foam boxes inside. He opens the first few and finds uniforms; they are thin and lightweight too, so they won't add too much drag. Fantastic.
He dresses the man the best he can and starts to drag him to the airlock, Wait fuck how is he going to get him to the Cyclops without him drowning?… He pauses and fusses with his oxygen, Getting one of the tubes off his mask and sticking it in his own mouth then fitting the mask over Grace's face. All right buddy let's go.
He says another silent prayer as the airlock cycles and the water rushes in. He checks out the porthole for any leviathans, and when he doesn't see any, he opens the door… He stays low to the ground, dragging the man across the bottom of the sea floor until he gets to the cyclops. As he drags the man up inside, he feels him grip his hands back, and when he looks down, the man's eyes are open.