Chapter Text
1463 Days Until-
I’m going to live. Somehow against all odds I am surviving a suicide mission and all I have to do is last four more years.
Rocky has busied himself with moving the last of his belongings onto The Mary while I take inventory of what I have available to me. Thanks to the water recycling system I have all the water I could need, my clothes situation may get a bit dire if I can’t figure out how to properly wash them but that’s not too concerning, medicine is still fairly well stocked and should hold out as long as we don’t have too many injuries, and Rocky and I finished the last of the repairs this morning. I’m in the lab sorting the food supplies I have remaining. I’ve put “real food” in one pile and the bags of coma slurry in another. I jot down the counts of each on my arm and pause. A pit starts to form in my stomach but I push it aside as I recount it all. “Fudge…”
Rocky stops in his tunnel and sets down his bags. “Why fudge question? Grace ok?”
I click my pen as I start to recount it all. “Uhh yeah bud I’m alright just thinking.” It’s not enough. We’ll be traveling for roughly four years to get to Erid. 1463 days to be exact. The lowest amount of calories I should be eating per day is 1500 which means I would need 2,194,500 calories total. Which I don’t. I have closer to 1,578,375.
“Grace overthinking. Grace rubbing stick on arm.”
“It's a pen. I’m writing just keep moving your things.” I continue to cover my arm with math. That many calories at the minimum of 1500 a day only gets me 1052.25 days. That's not even three years. I pace. Alright I’ll just have to ration. If I only eat 75% of the minimum that would get me 1403 days. Which is better but I’m still missing roughly two months of food. And that’s if we don’t experience any delays.
I’m pulled away from my scribbled math by Rocky tapping at his wall. “Grace stop writing! No overthink! Grace Rocky go home! Happy!” I give him a strained smile and a thumbs up. “Mmhmm! Very happy! Now finish moving in so we can get started!”
I carefully put away the food. I can’t let any of it go to waste. I’m going to have to tell Rocky at some point. I can’t lie to him forever, he's going to notice. Even if I was eating the minimum there would be changes but at this rate I’m going to experience some form of malnutrition. Probably best to softball it after he finishes moving his things.
—
We disconnect The Mary from the Blip-A and day one of our voyage has officially started. Rocky skitters through his tunnel excitedly and comes back adorned in his celebratory clothes. I can’t help but laugh a little. “What’s all this for rock?”
“We go home! Excite Excite Excite!” He waves his claws. “Grace change too! We celebrate!”
I chew at my lip a bit. “Are you sure we aren’t celebrating too early? Maybe we save it for when we get there.” If I get there that is.
“We celebrate again when there! Grace worry worry worry. Bad. Now is happy!” He holds up a Xenonite cylinder. “Gift for Grace!” He runs over to his nearest permeable Xenonite panel and pushes it through.
“O-oh! I wasn’t aware we were giving gifts. I would have gotten you something.” I take the cylinder and look it over.
“Open open open!”
I twist it open and do not huff the ammonia (I have learned my lesson from last time). Once the ammonia dissipates I look inside. I pull out a necklace that matches Rocky’s adornments. I immediately tear up. I’d love to say it was because of lingering ammonia but no I’m just a sap. “I- wow… I don’t know what to say!” I laugh a little while wiping my eyes. “Thank you, this is wonderful!” I smile genuinely.
“Grace put on! We celebrate! We watch fireworks in do not crazy room! Grace can eat since it human celebration!”
“Ok! Ok! You win!” I pull on the necklace. I’ll tell him tomorrow tonight we celebrate. “And I can skip the eating. I know you don’t like it and I didn’t know we were celebrating so I’ve already eaten.” It’s a lie but hey now I just need to figure out 59 days instead of 60.
“Rocky race Grace there!” He takes off down his tunnel.
I linger for a second which won’t make much of a difference. I clutch the necklace and take a breath. 60- no 59 days is nothing. We can find a solution. I know it. “Hey, not fair! You didn’t even say go!” I run down the hall to catch up to my friend.
1462 Days Until-
Ok I’ll admit I had fun last night. It even helped me get my mind off of the whole “you might starve before you get to Erid” thing. But it’s time to face what’s ahead.
I rub the sleep out of my eyes. Rocky lays above me in his tunnel and I smile as I tuck his gift under my shirt collar. There's no way I’m taking it off.
“Friend Grace awake!” He gets up when he realizes.
“Morning Rock.” I yawn and roll out of bed. “Coffee please.” A robotic arm hands me a cup and I sip on it.
“We should check Taumoeba farms. Make sure working.” Rocky climbs down from the tunnel over my bed to the ground.
“Mhmm I will let me finish this first.” I’m trying to savor the coffee since breakfast isn’t really an option for me and definitely not because I’m procrastinating the conversation that needs to be had.
Rocky tilts slightly. “Grace no ask food.” I stiffen. I knew he’d notice sooner or later but this quickly? It’s not like I even ate breakfast every day before. “Why question?”
I laugh a little. “You know I don’t always eat when I wake up.” I finish the rest of my coffee –so much for savoring it– and get up. I head for the lab to check the farms.
“Well Grace should. It good for Grace statement!” Rocky follows me to the lab.
“I know I know but I’m not always hungry when I wake up.” I check the farms and add new astrophage to them. “Alright everything looks good here.” I look over at Rocky and hesitate. I need to tell him now.
“What wrong question? Face look… hmm sad worried.” His feet tap at the floor anxiously. “Rocky fix. Something wrong with farms question?”
“No no nothings wrong with the farms.” I grab a chair and sit in front of Rocky. “Look, we need to talk.” I wring my hands nervously. “Yesterday when I was taking inventory I ran into a bit of a hiccup ther-“
“What word question?”
“What- oh um- hiccup it’s a sound humans make when their diaphragm spasms but we also say it to mean a small issue or proble- no that’s besides the point. What I was saying was I ran into an issue when taking inventory.”
“What issue question? Why not tell Rocky! Rocky fix where issue question?”
“Calm down bud let me finish first.” He quiets and sits down with his legs tucked. “Thank you. As you know this was supposed to be a one way trip for me. Unfortunately, they didn’t send enough food to get home.” Rocky trills alarmed but I hold my hand up before he can ask a million questions about it. “I did the math and I have a bit extra since… well… you know. I have enough for roughly 1403 days which is great but that leaves us 60… well 59 since yesterday was day one technically… days short.”
“WHAT!!” I have to cover my ears against the loud, high pitched screech. “Grace starve question?! Grace die question?! Grace can’t die!!”
“Woah! Woah! Calm down bud!” I put my hand against his wall. “It’s ok! It’ll be ok. We’re smart and we have 1403 days to come up with something. It’ll be hard and maybe a bit scary but I believe we can figure it out.” I try to give him a reassuring smile but in all honesty I don’t know if we can figure it out. If we can, great, but if not I’m looking at either being dead or on the brink of death by the time we get to Erid.
Rocky whines distressed as he considers what I’ve said. He finally places his claws against my hand. “Yes… yes Rocky Grace find fix. Rocky fix this. Grace live.” He seems more certain now that he has something to fix. It’s what he’s good at. “Grace get thinking box! We research!”
“Good thinking.” I smile and get up. I turn away to go grab a lap top and my smile falls. This is going to suck. I’m already hungry and we’re nowhere near mid day.
—
We research meticulously looking for solutions and by the time we take a break the wall is covered in a list of suggestions ranging from insane to plausible, a rough schedule of when I should eat each day, what day I’ll officially run out of food, and most disturbingly a list of symptoms we should be looking out for.
I get up to stretch. “I’m just saying eating my own leg as a last resort isn’t an awful idea!”
He screeches at me. “Bad bad bad!!”
I laugh a little and go to grab my meal for the day. “I’m kidding, I'm kidding!” I am but mostly because by the time I’m desperate enough to do that there won’t be much left to eat.
“Bad joke! Not funny!”
“Sorry sorry you’re right no more jokes like that.” I portion out what’s for today and sadly put the rest away. Then I sit back down with Rocky. “The taumoeba idea isn’t bad… The issue is we have no idea if it’s edible, if it has enough nutrients to be a viable option, or if it tastes good.” I try to eat slowly but it’s incredibly hard especially since I didn’t eat yesterday.
“We run test then. Don’t like skip meal option.”
“I know you don’t. Neither do I, but if it’ll help…” I try not to look at the list of starvation symptoms. “I’m definitely not looking forward to coma slurry. That’s bound to taste bad.”
“Taste not important. Eat important.”
“It is to humans.” I go to take another bite but my food is already gone. I sigh and go to throw away my trash. “Filling up with water is supposed to help with hunger pangs so at least I’ll be hydrated.”
“Yes yes drink lots.” Rocky gets up from his spot and stretches out his legs. “We have plan. Good good. Time for break. We plan more later.”
I nod a little and force myself away from the wall. “You’re right…” I pick up the laptop and head to the dormitory “How’s a movie sound?”