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A spaceship.
Or... a submarine?
-
When Rocky had hurriedly skittered to Grace's house in the biodome, he hadn't expected to open the door to frantic chirps of 'Human! Human! Rocky Adrian found more human for Grace! Human!"
Grace had blanched at that. Another human? One human being getting to Erid was improbable enough. Another... the chances were terrifically low.
He had blindly followed Rocky across and out of the biodome, and following painfully long seconds while Grace's xenonite suit morphed over him and he had to run to catch up with Rocky, they reached it.
The crash site.
-
Now, Grace had seen a lot of blood in his life. Like, at least a reasonable amount. Most of it from himself on the Mary, but even so.
Never had he seen this much anywhere. It was like the ship (submarine?) had bathed in a sea of it. Weirdly enough, none of it had evaporated in the ridiculously hot Eridian atmosphere on the way down.
It had sunk into every groove, crack and score in the submarine's surface, looking like burst capillaries on metal skin. Grace cautiously stepped forward, as if to move towards and touch the wreck, but a gargantuan arm stopped him from getting too close.
Ah, right. He wasn't alone.
Adrian chirped gently, but with warning. As Grace came back to himself, he felt that his eyes and cheeks were wet, tears seeping into the stubble on his jaw.
Had he really missed human contact this badly?
Grace had convinced himself that he was better off without humanity when he had met Rocky, and reinforced this belief when he had landed on Erid. But...
The feeling of a hand entwined with his.
Eyes staring into his.
Embraces where arms were snaking round him and vice versa.
Warm lips touching any skin they can find.
Humanity had left its fingerprints on Ryland Grace, and despite all it had done to him, he couldn't help but treasure every line and whorl.
"Grace. Need let Rocky Adrian Eridians look through heap. No jumping in not seeing."
Adrian was right, Grace noted frustratedly. It was rash to dive in blind to a heap of jagged metal and weird blood.
"Okay, but I'm helping you guys. I refuse to stand back while a human is literally metres away from me right now."
Rocky hopped from leg to leg excitedly while Adrian seemed to also concede.
"Happy happy happy! Rocky Adrian Grace fun time together!" Rocky chirped. "Fun time threesome!"
Grace spluttered as they set off onto the wreckage. "Rocky, bud. We need to have a talk about connotations."
The Eridians knew how to inspect foreign bodies. The ones actively near or touching the submarine had all donned their xenonite suits and were swabbing everything before bringing their samples to scientists to put in tubes, cases and other paraphernalia to take away for testing.
Rocky was meant to be with the other Eridian scientists helping test the wreck, but instead he chose to climb around with Grace and Adrian collecting samples.
The sub looked incredibly... odd. As the two of them (Adrian stood next to them on the ground, too big to climb with them) climbed to the top of the back section, the damage became exponentially more clear.
The SM-13 (as the almost unintelligible writing on the side suggested its name was) was a strange shape, having been twisted so that Grace and Rocky were stood on the underside of the back hull, while the front remained upright. There were also gores in uniform patterns along the whole bloody surface of the SM - looking like something had tried to take several huge bites out of it before giving up.
Grace had a plan though. It was almost like he could sense the other life-form - the other human, he thought desperately - in the front of the submarine.
Of course. Of course he took two steps before tripping over a jutted piece of metal and hitting his head so hard he saw stars. The xenonite suit may protect against extreme temperatures, radiation, sharp objects and more, but good old-fashioned blunt force impact was just too good for even this advanced technology.
With a groan, he turned his head to see Rocky chirping frantically at him. It was alarming how it took a moment for his brain to translate.
"-fall! Big fall! Scare scare scare Rocky! Medbay question?"
"Uh. Hmm. Nope I'm good, thanks bud, just gotta-" Grace tried to get up but was immediately hit with a wave of nausea and dizziness. Oh, he was definitely concussed. Brilliant. "Just, uh, give me a minute Rock."
Rocky was hopping from leg to leg again, this time from worry instead of fear outright. Adrian stood stoically by the SM, calmly suggesting that Grace should go to the Medbay on the Mary.
"Grace head hurt, brain moved in head, not supposed happen Grace. Go Medbay!" Rocky chittered anxiously, scuttling towards him.
He's too close.
"Yeah, I'm fine Rocky, just- I really need to see this person. Please? I can go to the Medbay after, I promise."
Adrian rumbled "I keep eye on Grace, my harmony."
This seemed to be enough for Rocky. "Sigh. Safe safe safe, Grace. Anything happens-"
"I get it Rock. I'll be okay, promise."
Grace used Rocky as an aid to help himself get up, leaning heavily on the top of his xenonite-protected carapace to stagger to his knees, then his feet. He had to get to this human, just to see - just to prove it was real.
Together the three of them continued climbing slowly across the submarine. It had never been that big, Grace could tell, it only took a while to get across because of the SM's malformations and Grace's obvious head injury.
Hopefully it wasn't too bad, but judging from the black spots at the edges of his vision and rising urge to vomit with every step he took, he was running on adrenaline only, which would soon run out.
He just tried not to think about it too much.
After what seemed like eons, they got to the front of the sub. The suspense was freaking killing Grace. He couldn't tell whether it was the anticipation or the mild head trauma that was making him tremble.
The Eridians had to weld open the front of the SM-13, as it didn't seem to have a door? It took ages as well, because the whole submarine had incredibly thick walls, and seemed to be filled with... more of the strange, viscous blood as was on its surface.
Grace quickly moved forward towards the newly cut hole in the front of the sub. Blood had spilled out in viscous puddles on the ground, permeating the already thick air with a reddish vapour. It condensed on the front of his suit in a thin sheen. He wiped it off and kept going.
Then abruptly paused.
There...
"There's something moving in there." he stated. Just... spoke quietly to himself, as though having the fact voiced made it more believable.
It was a man. Maybe? A man, drenched head to toe in the foul blood, with a stump that looked like the arm it usually possessed had been ripped from it, and teeth growing out of a long tear in his face, resulting in a toothy rictus grin on one half of his mouth.
His shoulder length dark hair was plastered to him with the blood, and his eyes were wide with shaky fear.
Staggering towards Grace, he mouthed something, the same thing over and over. Eventually, as he got closer, it became apparent he was actually speaking, but his voice was so hoarse and tired that all Grace could make out was "You 'n 'ngel?"
He didn't even have time to formulate a response before the man passed out a couple of feet in front of him, grabbing Grace's arm the process. His shoulder was yanked and twisted painfully to the right from the action - toppling him over. As Grace leaned into the darkness also taking over his own vision (the adrenaline must have finally run out), his last conscious thought was simply;
Another one...
-
Grace...
...alive, question?
Grace immediately registered a weight on the end of what felt like a very hard mattress. Woozily blinking his eyes open, he saw it was indeed Rocky, as it always was Rocky, perched on the end of his bed in the very bright Medbay (ex-dormitory.) Son of a biscuit, his head hurt a lot. As he moved his arm up to shield his eyes, the ball of concern at his feet jumped up, crawling quickly but carefully up the mattress, so as to inspect but not injure Grace.
"Grace okay! Relief relief relief. Grace really okay, question?"
"R- ocky..." he slurred. Oh, geez, it was so hard to speak. So dry. Reminiscent of when he first woke up on the Mary. "Water..."
"On table, statement."
"Th-thanks." Grace tried to just tip the water into his mouth without having to sit up - he wasn't sure if he'd actually be able to achieve a sitting position. After being suitably moistened, he tried to speak again.
"I'm okay, Rock. Mary, painkillers please." Rocky did his jazz-hands.
"Grace, Mary said word Rocky not understand. Mary, what wrong with Grace, question?"
He barely had a chance to realise what was happening before the Mary was also speaking. "Dr. Ryland Grace, head scientific specialist of the Hail Mary spaceship, is currently at 46% optimisation, having just woken up after 4.1 hours of unconsciousness, suffering from mild bruising and scratches around the body, hyperopia, a rotation cuff injury and a severe concussion. Dr. Ryland Grace will require medical care in the Medbay for upwards of 24 hours. Painkillers will be unavailable to Dr. Ryland Grace as they have been administered less than 4.5 hours ago."
"Oh, concussion?" So he was clearly right earlier then. Obviously, it would explain all of his symptoms. The dizziness and nausea, slurred speech, light sensitivity and cognitive delay. Oh, and the headache. "Uh... my head hurts, Rock. Real bad. Mild brain trauma, like on the Mary, remember?"
Rocky seemed to understand. "Grace need alone time, question?"
"Yes please, bud." Uh oh. Speaking of nausea... "Actually, could I get a bucket, pl-"
That was all he could get out before expelling bile on the poor Mary's floor (and hearing a faint “Disgust!” close to him.)
And passing out again, though this time thankfully from exhaustion.
-
When Grace woke up again, he surprisingly felt a bit better. Things weren't as bright, at least, and the nausea had almost completely dissipated. His arm still ached though.
Oh, and he loved Rocky, but it was also a bit helpful that he wasn't looming over him with questions and overbearing worry. He'd make a good parent one day.
Instead, he noticed as his eyes focused, Adrian was quietly stood just outside the doorway to the Medbay, being too big to actually access it. Grace had found this immensely funny when he first met them and had had to laugh in private so as not to hurt their feelings.
"Hello, Grace. Well, question?" they rumbled.
"Uhhhhh... better?"
"Good. Adrian Rocky wondering, if Grace well enough, Grace talk to other human, question?"
Oh boy.
Oh golly gosh.
He-
"I would love to, Adrian! Mary, can I get an oh yeah?"
The Mary paused in a way that could be considered sarcastic if she was human. "Dr. Ryland Grace is still only at 67% optimisation. According to current monitoring, he will experience extreme dizziness if he is fully mobile."
Ah. Right.
"Was worth try," Adrian murmured "Human will just have wait-"
Grace flushed with desperation. "Ah ah! let's not be so hasty..."
-
And that's how the Eridians ended up floating Grace's bed to the room the other human was in (the lab, turning gravity off in the dorm to easily be dragged there by Eridians in protective suits was... fun. The hatch… it was like being born again…)
As soon as he got comfortably situated in the lab (difficult due to how cramped it was, there was only so much they could clear out), he saw the other human again.
He was...
Beautiful.
Clearly he'd been put under short-term sedation, he'd heard the thrashing and screaming from the Medbay. His face looked so peaceful in sleep, even ravaged by the strange mutations and scars on his-
Wait. Scars? But he shouldn't have healed anything yet?
Were the Eridians sure he was human?
Sure, Grace thought, he looks human enough. Does he need to be human? As long as he's willing to be my friend.
Maybe more.
Grace pushed the thought out of his mind. Holding his horses, and all that. He'd been alone (in a species-specific sense) for years now, but that was no excuse to delude himself with the idea that this guy would even want to look at him, much less be with him, platonically or... in other ways.
He looked back at the human. He had a lock of wavy black hair caught in his slightly open mouth, the rest of it tied back into a short messy ponytail. His hand was curled inwards, towards his torso, and his legs were also scrunched up towards his insanely jacked chest.
Seriously, did he spend his whole life working out? Like, straight from the womb?
Suddenly, he twitched. Cheese and crackers, he was probably waking up. Grace tried to not look like he was intently watching every move he was making, as that would probably come across as kind of creepy. The man's face screwed up as though shielding his eyes from something, and suddenly he threw his arm out in front of his face, before sitting up with a yelp.
Holy moly, what a deep voice... PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN!
Grace needed to lock in. He was still kinda woozy, but he'd be darned if he wasn't going to be fully present for his... well, his second contact with humanity.
The human's eyes swiveled round the room, clearly unfamiliar with his surroundings, and Grace noticed a wickedly red glint in both of his enlarged pupils, despite the fact that there was no red light in the lab.
He looked frightened.
Then he saw Grace.
"Who-" his voice cracking from lack of use. "Are you... real? You're the- the angel, the one who saved me... wh-where am I?"
His voice was very hoarse, unsurprisingly so. Grace tried to keep calm. The human, however, did not. Jumping out of bed with a cry as he realised how weak he was from the sedation, he backed up against the wall and grabbed the nearest thing to him that could be used as a weapon - in this case, an empty glass.
"Where am I?! This isn't real, I know it isn't. Ha-ha, Ellie, you got me good this time! Right?!"
Poor guy. He sounded so confused and terrified.
Eridians - doctors and scientists - came rushing into the room, chittering wildly at him to try to calm him down before he hurt himself or someone else. Meanwhile, Grace had not said a word.
You probably should.
"Um, excuse me?" he spoke quietly from his bed. Naturally, the commotion didn't stop. Okay, this was going to hurt his head. Grace let out a shrill whistle, louder than both the Eridians and the human's freakout. The Eridians stopped, and the human locked eyes with him once more.
"Yeah, uh, hi. If we could all calm down, I'm sure it'll be a lot easier to explain everything. On both ends." Grace rubbed at his temples with the base of the hand on his uninjured arm he spoke.
The Eridians backed away as the other human made his way towards Grace's bed. "What are you?"
He smiled. "Captain Dr. Ryland Grace, head scientific specialist of the Hail Mary spaceship and resident human on this planet. Who are you? Do you know where you are?"
The other human seemed stumped. He placed a finger on Grace's hand, as if to check that he's-
"Real. I'm-" his voice broke. If he didn't know any better, Grace would think he saw tears welling up in the human's eyes.
Flushed, Grace tapped a finger on top of the human's. Probably to ground him. Grace wasn't really thinking straight. The small touch alone was electric.
The human suddenly sniffed. "Simon. My name." He looked relieved to remember.
Simon.
Simon.
The human's name was Simon.
"Do you- do you know how you got here, Simon?" Grace asked as Simon straightened up again.
"Uh, I can't... I can't remember... why can't I remember? Did they do something?" with the last part he jerked his thumb towards the Eridians currently watching the situation with curiosity. He paused, thinking. "Did you do something, Angel?"
Uhhh. Yeah. Okay. Gonna have to shut that down.
"Um. Not an angel, and no, I didn't do anything to you, we just found your ship buried halfway in the ground and wanted to help, myself included. Do you know which planet this is?" Grace kept asking questions, trying hard to figure out how much Simon knew, but it was difficult to focus with his painful head and shoulder.
After about half an hour, Grace had deduced three things without much elaboration: a place called Eden, lots of blood and something called the Seeowai(?) Along with this, he'd mostly managed to explain a lot of things about Erid, of which Simon was in disbelief, because "there were no habitable planets anymore?" Grace genuinely couldn't deal with this much right now so he noted it down mentally in order to try and process everything else about Simon's world that was apparently true.
He was too tired to get anywhere else, and Simon looked at him like he was an idiot every time he asked what felt like an obvious question. He didn't feel like Simon was gonna remember any time soon, anyway.
"Simon, I know you're confused, but I'm injured myself and need to rest. If you could be calm for a few hours while I sleep, I can explain more to you when I wake up?"
Anger flickered across Simon's face. "Why are you hurt? What happened?"
"Just-" Grace yawned. "Just clumsy. Hit my head. Don't worry." he was already drifting off, control over his wakefulness now a distant memory.
This better not be a dream...
-
About half a week had passed. Grace was quickly recovering, with Simon refusing to be anywhere else - staying in his cot in the lab despite fully healing from life threatening injuries in just a few days. It was fascinating. Grace was heavily considering the mutations being the reason for his speedy recovery.
They spoke. A lot. Despite Simon being unable to remember how his ship got from an apparent blood ocean on a different moon all the way to Erid, they found lots to talk about. Their homes, the death cult Simon grew up in (so that’s what Eden was), Grace’s kids, etc. However, a common topic they always ran into was discussing the traumatic experiences that led them to being here today (and there was the blood explained.) Grace had spent a surprising amount of time crying into Simon’s shoulder about something he knew literally nothing about, and vice versa.
To anyone else, this would probably be quite an unhealthy relationship, but to them, it was so helpful to talk to a fellow human after being alone for so long. Grace would have to do some more research on how being so touch-starved could affect a human’s mental state, as he wasn’t even aware it was til it was right in front of his eyes. Plus, they’d talked about boundaries and all that. Simon no longer believed he was an angel, but it took a weird amount of convincing. Grace no longer believed Simon was an alien, and that took a whole history lesson. Apparently humans colonised space accidentally centuries ago. It was a long story to say the least.
It was safe to say they were good friends now, and while Simon was getting accustomed to living on Erid with Grace he would be staying in the biodome as soon as Grace was better (he couldn’t go back to the space station he lived on because ‘they’ would ‘kill him for not getting them the black box’, as far as Grace had interpreted from his sleep-talking, he refused to say or couldn’t remember when he was awake.)
After everything, all was well again.
-
One day, months afterwards, they sat on the biodome’s carefully engineered beach together. Rocky and Adrian had come by earlier to say hello, and Grace still had an hour or so before he needed to go to class. His and Simon’s hands were tangled together as they lay on the sandier part of the shore. About a month previously, a long conversation went off on an even longer tangent concerning exactly how it would feel to kiss Simon with all the extra teeth, and Simon had taken it upon himself to demonstrate. Grace of course had been an enthusiastic participant.
So this is it.
But he actually felt good about saying that this time. For all the awful things that had happened where he felt the need to say it in his mind, this was far from one of them. As he pressed a kiss to Simon’s toothy cheek, all he could think was:
So this is it!