Chapter Text
Awareness was … not wanted. Awareness, for as much as he was able to process it, was cold and itchy and he was already sinking back under into blissful oblivion before he heard the feminine, robotic voice echoing above his head.
“Eye movement detected.”
Ilyukhina, sitting on her bunk with an open laptop on her criss-cross legs, glanced up and smiled. Some of the smile was excitement but most of it was relief- she’d been getting worried. Grace was the first to go into a coma, before they launched to the International Space Station even, and now he was the last to wake up.
Coma gene or not, it was still a dangerous state to be in for as long as they had been. That’s why she was keeping watch. Someone had to make sure nothing happened to their beloved scientist in the last stage of their journey. If anyone could hurt himself while unconscious, it’d be Ryland Grace.
“Computer, put me through to the cockpit.” Yáo was still running his own system checks and making sure they were on course. Ilyukhina’d already finished her checks and was monitoring from the laptop. She waited for the soft ding confirming the ship connected them. “Good news! Ryland is waking up!”
“Thank you for letting me know.” Yáo responded, polite and professional as ever. “I’ll be down shortly.” He kept his word but didn’t rush. It hadn’t been that long since both he and Ilyukhina had gone through the exact same process themselves; it was going to take a little while for Grace to be truly cognizant of his surroundings.
Still, Yáo wanted to be there for him when he did. Not only was it his job as the commander of the mission to support his crew, he was pretty sure Ilyukhina wouldn’t be as helpful as she thought she was. Her particular brand of cheer would likely be a bit much combined with the initial post-coma disorientation.
If he was being honest with himself, Yáo was surprised all three of them actually made it to the other side of the mission. He, like Ilyukhina, was especially worried about Grace lingering in the coma longer than expected. Part of it was planned- Yao meant it when he told Grace he and Ilyukhina would handle the hard parts and let him focus solely on the science- but even still. He’d already been in the coma about twenty four hours longer than he was supposed to be. With every passing second the chances Grace simply never woke up increased.
Even the process took longer than expected. There were a few false starts, the computer informing them eye movement was detected accompanied by no other signs of awareness, before Grace finally groaned. Yáo put a hand on Ilyukhina’s shoulder in silent celebration when she cheered, fists pumping into the air.
“It’s about time you woke up, sleepyhead.” She teased. “I was starting to get worried you were about to sleep through the entire mission.”
...Mission? It was hard to think through the fog that still clouded his brain, but that sounded like an important word. No, it was an important word, and it came from a different voice than the robotic one he’d caught on and off.
Was he supposed to be doing something? That made sense, people usually did things, the urge to do was an important part of humanity. But if he was supposed to be doing something, especially something that sounded that important, why was it so hard to think? And why did everything feel weird?
“What is two plus two?” The robot from earlier asked.
“Wauuhhhhh?” He tried to ask ‘what’, but his tongue wouldn’t work right. It was irritating and more than a little concerning. He couldn’t see and could barely move- was he injured? Had he been hurt in whatever ‘mission’ he was apparently part of?
“Incorrect.” The robot told him. Yeah, no duh, he hadn’t been trying to answer the question.
“You can do better than that, Ryland!” The other female voice, the real one, told him. “Try again!” He decided he liked her better than the robot. She sounded friendly. Were they friends?
Wait, were they friends? Was he Ryland? Oh crap- he didn’t remember. He had to have been injured, it was the only explanation that fit. A head injury severe enough to give him amnesia would also give him a concussion, which explained the brain fog and the blindness-
No. That wasn’t right, the darkness wasn’t complete. His eyes were closed. He’d never been blind before but he knew there were different versions of it, but he still had every reason to believe (hope) that when he opened his eyes he’d be able to see. At least when he had his glasses, sometimes.
Ooh, he really hoped the friendly woman knew where his glasses were. He needed those to read and examine things. ...Examine? Was that part of the mission?
“What is two plus two?”
“C’mon Ryland, you can do it!”
“Take your time, Dr. Grace.” A new voice, a guy, told him. Or at least, he assumed Grace was also him. The man was calmer than the woman, but no less friendly. Now that he thought about it, both of them had accents. How could he remember accents but not his own name?
“What is two plus two?” He didn’t answer. The robot wasn’t important, opening his eyes would get him answers much faster. It took a few false starts, including a few attempts where it felt like his eyes were opening but nothing happened, before his eyelids finally listened to him.
Painful whiteness overtook everything. He slammed his eyes shut again, because ow. Then he took a breath and forced himself to try again.
“Eye movement detected.” The robot said a few other things, but he ignored it for the moment. Forcing his eyes to stay open while they adjusted took all his effort, but it was worth it. Slowly, too slowly for his own impatience, both the eternal whiteness and the pain faded away. The first thing he saw was terrifying- a robotic arm hovering above his face.
He flinched back into the mattress as his pulse skyrocketed. Something beeped in response, but he felt gentle hands on his arm and shoulder. Familiar hands, hands he instinctively knew he was safe with. His heartbeat started to calm as he turned to look at his friends.
“Hey, easy.” The man, maybe in his early middle ages, told him. “Everything’s okay Dr. Grace.” He glanced up at the arm. “Computer, move the robot back.”
The computer complied immediately. The incessant math question stopped too, thank goodness. He blinked again, against his will. His eyelids were too heavy. He was tired.
“Sleep now.” The man seemed to understand. “We’ll try again when you wake up.”
Maybe he was part robot, because he also complied without a second’s hesitation.
“Well, that was… something.” Ilyukhina watched Grace slip back into the world of slumber. “You don’t think something’s actually wrong, do you?”
“It took both of us a few tries to wake up too.” Yáo reminded her despite his own misgivings regarding the situation. “Just give him time, I’m sure he’ll be okay.”
The third time was the charm. At least, it was the third distinct time he remembered waking up and the third time the robot asked him two plus two that he was able to actually answer it.
“Fffforrrrrrr.” Well, sort of answer it. The human woman cheered, so he’d take it. She was younger than expecting, with long brown hair pulled into a ponytail and a bright smile on her face. Intelligent eyes. Russian, as both her accent and the flag on her jumpsuit proved.
The jumpsuit was interesting- was that their mission? All he had was more questions and no answers.
“What’s the cube root of eight?” His hard work was rewarded with another question. Oh for crying out loud- he yell/groaned at it in frustration. He didn’t care about math, he wanted the stupid mask off his face. He wanted everything else covering his body- electrodes? Just how hurt was he?- off. He wanted clothes and for someone to explain what on earth was happening to him.
“Aaaarrrrrgh.”
“I know it’s frustrating, but please try to answer the questions.” The man said. He wore the same jumpsuit as the woman. The room around them gave no clue to their whereabouts- no windows, just round white walls and all sorts of equipment. And robots. “We want to make sure you’re alright.”
He wasn’t alright. He had amnesia. He just couldn’t say that yet.
“What’s the cube root of eight?” The computer asked again. Fine. If he had to play along to get the answers he would.
“Twoo.” At least the word came out easier now, only dragging on slightly too long.
“Correct.”
“Good job, Ryland!” The friendly woman told him. “You almost sounded human that time!” He let out a little huff of air in response. She was just full of jokes, wasn’t she?
“What is your name?” The computer asked. He couldn’t answer. Well, he could, but not because he actually knew it.
“Help?” He asked instead, trying to sit up.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” The man said.
“Want. Up.” He insisted. He didn’t want to talk to the computer, he wanted to talk to the people. At least his limbs were more inclined to listen to him now- he was able to start struggling his way into a sitting position. Apparently the other two decided it was better to help him than let him hurt himself trying, because they both quickly moved to help him.
The man had to unzip the plastic bag- which, what???- to fully let him up, but at least he had the grace to only unzip it down to his belly button. He appreciated it- a part of him knew it wouldn’t matter if the woman saw his… you know. Somehow he had the sneaking suspicion she probably already had. Still, he was glad to not be exposed in that moment.
“How are you feeling?” The man asked, concern coloring his gaze. He met the man’s eyes dead-on.
“I don’t know. I don’t know who you are, or who I am. Where are we?”
Yáo and Ilyukhina stared at him, momentarily speechless. Short of Grace actually being dead, that was the worst possible situation they could imagine.