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Ryland’s self-esteem and obliviousness to social politics meant that what was obvious to the rest of them wasn’t obvious to him; everyone knew he was Stratt’s number two, except for Ryland himself. He joked that he was Stratt’s ‘little science lapdog’ following her around all the time, and he didn’t seem to realize the power and the influence that his word had over the ship and the people on it. It was almost baffling to Marissa, how Eva Stratt trusted him so implicitly when it came to the science side of things. Sure, he broke it down for her better than anyone else could have done for a layperson, and she definitely knew more about the science they were doing than the average non-scientist would, largely due to Ry’s influence. But some of it was just too complicated to understand on the necessary levels without an advanced degree.
When it came to these matters, Eva Stratt yielded completely to Dr. Grace’s opinions on the matter. She knew that Ryland assumed that she looked at his detailed notes and simplified explanations on each proposal that she had passed through him to get to her, but Olesya told her that she once watched Stratt receive a batch of the proposals in the very distinctive color-coded folders Ryland used to separate them by category and level of urgency and, instead of actually looking at the notes, skip right down to the part at the bottom where Ryland put his recommendation. With a flick of her eyes, Stratt had stamped either “approved” or “denied” on each proposal simply going off of Grace’s opinion.
On the one hand, Marissa trusted Ryland more than anyone else in the world, especially with this kind of power. Even if he stopped being socially oblivious enough to realize how important he was (which, she thought, was unlikely, especially when his low self-esteem was factored in), he was the one person in the world she trusted not to abuse it, or to be petty, and to consider the more personal impacts of their decisions where Eva Stratt only saw Humanity.
On the other hand, however, it was fucking terrifying just how deeply the most powerful person in the world seemed to value her friend, because Eva Stratt was, essentially, a vampire. She would absolutely take everything from anyone and demand more if it meant saving the world. Sure, she might feel bad about it, but she would be unable to stop herself. Marissa knew that being Valuable to someone with that type of ruthless humanitarianism was a Very Dangerous Thing.
Ryland wanted nothing more than to go back to his classroom after the ship was launched. He had, while sobbing into her shoulder a few weeks ago, realized that his sabbatical from teaching was going to be a lot longer than his original semester of forced medical leave, but he felt a moral obligation to stay and see it through. Which was good, because otherwise Marissa would have had to fight Stratt when she inevitably refused to let him resign from the project.
But he still wanted to go back to his kids as soon as the ship was launched and spend the next 26 years teaching them and protecting them as best he could from the horrors of the world that they were going to grow into. Marissa, however, knew that Eva Stratt, were she to remain in power, would insist on keeping Ryland close to her to continue to feed off of his genius, his care, and his kindness, and that she would use his love of the world and his compulsions as a people-pleaser to take and take and take until his weakened body finally gave in and collapsed from the sheer stress of it all. She would feel bad about it, sure, but she would do it. She was a vampire, and the only way to stop a vampire was to stake it through the heart. Or, in this case, put Eva Stratt in jail as soon as the ship launched. Even if it was, objectively, an unfair thing to do to ask someone to make impossible decisions that nobody else would for the ‘greater good’ and then punish them for making them, Marissa didn’t give a flying fuck because when it came to Ryland Grace, she didn’t care about ‘fair’ and she sure as hell didn’t give a rat’s ass about the ‘greater good.’ Ryland Grace had already done more than enough for the ‘greater good’ when he stood between his class and a man with an automatic rifle and nearly lost his life over it.
So yeah, she was keeping a diary (handwritten, in a lock-box under her bed: nothing that could be traced or hacked because even with their personal devices, nothing in their cyberspace was beyond Stratt’s reach) of every shady thing Stratt had done and was doing, dated and time-stamped and in excruciatingly minute detail. When the Gansu employees were, no doubt, called to testify one day, she would be ready.
______
Ryland didn’t have a lot of free time these days, which is why he was taking the five minutes between the end of the last meeting Stratt dragged him to and the beginning of his class with Drs. Shapiro and DuBois to run through a few of the physical therapy exercises for his elbow. Progress was slow, but he knew better than to push himself too hard, so despite his frustration, he didn’t bend his elbow very much or clench his fist too hard. Stop when you feel uncomfortable, he’d been told by the physical therapist Stratt had brought on board (and hopefully not kidnapped, although you could never be too sure with Stratt… but the man said that he was happy to come on board to work with Ryland, and he had no choice except to take him at his word).
Martin DuBois was two minutes early, and Ryland startled, hissing in pain as he went beyond what limited range of comfortable movement he had worked up to. Then he flushed deeply, realizing that Martin had an HD view of the gnarly surgical scars and the numerous screws holding the bones in his elbow together.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, mortified, scrambling for his cardigan and pulling it on, too quickly and with a wince as a flash of physical pain decided to pile on top of his embarrassment. “I know it’s ugly.”
Dr. DuBois blinked at him, caught off-guard. Was the scarring so unsightly that it rendered the man speechless? Ryland wanted to melt into the floor and become one with the sticky residue of spilled coffee and industrial floor cleaner.
“No, it’s a perfectly good elbow. Aesthetically, I mean… perhaps you ought to put the sling back on?” he prodded tentatively, noticing the way the man was unconsciously cradling the limb with his other hand. “I apologize for scaring you and causing you pain.”
“No no, oh Copernicus, please don’t be sorry, what do you have to be sorry for?” Dr. Grace replied to him, and Martin realized with mounting horror that he and the world’s leading astrophage specialist were entering the dreaded Socially Awkward Feedback Loop of Doom that often happened when scientists tried to talk about things that weren’t science.
Instead of speaking further, Martin grabbed the man’s discarded sling from the table, shaking it out and holding it like an invitation. Dr. Grace, although still red to a degree that concerned him but that he had been assured many times by many people was normal for caucasians, allowed him to assist him in putting the sling back on and buckling the strap.
“Uh, thanks… for that…” Dr. Grace stammered.
“It is no problem, Dr. Grace,” he replied formally, stepping back.
“Uh, you can call me Ryland,” Dr. Grace said.
“No I cannot; I was not raised that way,” Martin responded. “But you may call me Martin if you would prefer. I do not mind if my friends call me by my first name, so long as they do not mind my preference for using their titles.”
“Uh, okay, sure,” Dr. Grace agreed. “Martin. So, Martin… what’s new with you?”
“Dr. Shapiro and I have entered into sexual congress.”
Dr. Grace squeaked, and Martin found it very charming. Before he could continue the conversation, Dr. Shapiro entered.
“Sorry, sorry,” she panted, out of breath. “But I had to pee like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Ahh, Dr. Shapiro, welcome. I was just telling Dr. Grace about our sexual relationship.”
Annie smiled brightly at the two men. “Oh good!” It was just like Martin to take the initiative; it was one of the things she found so sexually arousing about the chemist. Then she turned to Dr. Grace with a megawatt smile. “I’d suppose we better pay attention; we’d hate for you to have to punish us.”
“Umm… I don’t believe in that kind of classroom management,” he stammered, looking confused. And oh, he was oblivious. That was so cute.
______
Ryland had learned three things so far during their first astrophage class:
1. Martin and Annie (and holy snickerdoodles, The Doctor Shapiro had asked him, Ryland Grace, to call her Annie; he was definitely going to have to fangirl about that later) were very good students.
Dr. ShapiroAnnie was way better at lightning rounds than Martin.- Martin called Annie “Dr. Shapiro” during sex.
He really wished he didn’t know that last one.
_______
“It’s very warm in here, Ryland. Aren’t you too warm?” Annie asked their friend/co-worker/teacher/hopefully would-be lover. The room was about 75 degrees fahrenheit, so it wasn’t too transparent of an excuse to get a look at his arms. “I’d be happy to help you out of your sling so you can take off your cardigan.”
“Uh, no… that’s okay, thank you though,” he mumbled, steadfastly avoiding their eyes as he loaded up the review quizlet (and he had the pro account, so they could play the asteroid blaster version; Annie was excited).
“Dr. Grace is under the impression that his surgical scars are unsightly,” Martin informed her, and Annie tutted.
“Oh, I’m sure that’s not true, Ryland! Do you know, Martin has a scar on his chest from falling out of a tree as a child; I actually find it quite arousing.”
“Uh… good for you,” Ryland replied. “But really, the temperature is fine for me… they uh… the doctors told me I might start to feel a little colder because of the um… the heart condition. But I could lower the thermostat, if you’re too warm?” He offered earnestly.
Oh right, Annie remembered. The pacemaker. Hmm… she’d forgotten about that, and she grabbed her phone to send off a text to Martin.
“Oh wow,” Dr. Grace said. “You guys already have your phones out and ready, huh? Here’s the code for the Quizlet.”
Annie was just as good at asteroid blast as lightning round.