Chapter Text
“Eye movement detected.”
I looked up bleary eyed at the robot arm 2 inches from my face. I jumped, or at least my body tenses a little. I was much too weak to “jump” properly.
“What is two plus two?”
I tried to speak, but my lungs, my throat, and all my face muscles did not move to my command. I stumble,
“Hhhmmbth.”
I meant to say…well I don’t know what I meant to say but it wasn’t that. I attempted to raise my arm to swat at my metal assailant. Only to realize, nothing made contact.
Right.
It came flooding back to me. The moon. The sub. The ocean. The monster. My mission.
What was I doing here? Did I succeed? Is this…Am I dead?
“What is two plus two?”
Ignoring the voice, I took stock of my body. I am clean. My left arm was missing. It ended in a stump about mid bicep, albeit covered in bandages. I was in a thin, plastic looking covering. There was intense scarring all over my body. That blood was bad. And there's a wire inserted into my right arm.
I look around. Beyond the robot…thing, it's a white, sterile room. Or at least, it would be if it weren't absolutely covered top to bottom with stuff. There were piles of clothes, papers, blankets, strewn everywhere. If this was some sort of medical bay, it wasn’t a very clean one. The room was cylindrical, with a ladder on one wall leading up a hatch at the top. There are two other identical beds above where I lay.
Okay, it certainly doesn’t look like the afterlife. Who made this mess? Is there someone else here?
Suddenly, I heard loud clunking and crashing noises from above. I started to panic. But my body was still too weak to move. I can’t run away. Whatever that was, it did not sound too jazzed that I was awake. Then I heard another sound.
“ROCKY! Slow down! Let me go in first! I don’t wanna freak her out!”
That voice was human. For sure. What followed, however, definitely was NOT.
A cacophony of chords and melodic chirping responded (???) to the human voice.
“Okay, well, I just think it would be more helpful if she saw another human. She can’t communicate with you! At least we know that she speaks English!”
The other being is quiet for a moment, before answering shortly.
“Thank you, Rock. Just wait out here. You’ll be able to hear everything anyway.”
Well, that’s unsettling. Panic was rising even more now as the hatch was twisting open.
Appearing was a woman, with long messy hair swinging down through the doorway and glasses hanging by her neck. She spoke with a slight squeak of fear.
“Um, hi.”
She looked down at me with caution. I watched her with wide eyes as she climbed through the door and descended the ladder slowly.
“What is two plus two?”
“Oh my God, sorry about that. I thought I turned that function off.”
The other woman crossed the room to my bedside.
Now that she was closer, I could see her better. Her glasses were hanging off one ear as she looked up at the robot. How are her glasses staying there? Her hair was unruly. It had choppy layers and stuck out in odd directions, like she had cut it herself. She wore a black t-shirt with the words “I had potential” across the front. The pants were bright orange and were...tied around her waist? Somehow? My brain was still addled. I was baffled by the appearance of another person. Not on the other side of the sub window, here, in the room, with me. Wasn’t I supposed to be alone? Wasn’t that submarine my execution? Why was I here, and not at the bottom of the ocean where I belonged?
She leaned over me to press a button on the side of the robot arm, returning it back to wherever it came from. Adjusting her glasses so they were actually on her face, she examined me, looking me up and down with poorly hidden curiosity.
“You were…pretty beat up when I found you,” She said plainly. Understatement of the century. I must’ve been absolutely covered in the blood. Not to mention the missing arm. ”You're looking better now. Erm, how are you feeling?”
I stared at her.
This wasn't real. That was the only explanation. There is no way I made it out. I felt the ocean closing in around me, felt it go down my throat and into my lungs, I died, I was supposed to die. This was another twisted hallucination.
“Um, introductions are in order, I suppose.” She grinned widely. “I’m Doctor Captain Ryland Grace. You can call me Grace, everyone does. What’s your name?”
Doctor Captain? What kinda fuckass title is that? She looked stupidly proud of it.
I didn’t respond, and I attempted to sit up. I need to get out. The pain is so intense I start to slump on my back again.
Grace reacted, bent over and caught me effortlessly.
“Woah, take it easy there. You’ve been through a lot. Just take it slow.”
With one hand on my back and another on my forearm, she lifted me into a sitting position. So gently.
I looked down at her. She was now kneeling by the side of the bed. She had a sharp nose, and behind wire frame glasses sat soft blue-green eyes with crinkles on each side from years of smiling. Though now, they were looking up, widened with worry. Her hair was long and golden, spilling over her wide shoulders. Grace was pretty well built. Lean muscle cradles my back as she continues to scrutinize my injuries.
“Where am I?” My voice came out low and gravelly. I winced at the ache in my throat. Everything was so sore.
She snapped her eyes back onto mine. This was the first time I had spoken.
“Well, okay, that's a complicated question." She spoke haltingly, her eyes shifting around, hands remaining on my back and arm. “You are on my ship, the Hail Mary. About, uh, 16.4 light years from Earth. On the way to Erid. Where I live. So, uh, I guess it's not that complicated.” Grace looked at me and paused for my response. When it did not come, she continued. “I tapped into a signal that showed the vitals on your sub. Once I realized there was someone down there, on that moon, I knew I had to try to save them.”
…
What?
Planet? Earth? Erid? What is going on. This was one crazy hallucination. Some weird pretty girl shows up to save me and we are going to a planet. Okay. Maybe this is the afterlife? Is Grace some sort of angel? That would explain the name.
“Am I dead?” I say, stupidly.
Grace's eyes widened in surprise. “No!” Her arm tightened around me. “No, of course not! We were worried for a second there, but Armando patched you up good.” She gestured vaguely to the robot arm.
My brows furrow. “We?”
The hatch opens suddenly. And out comes a…ball? It's moving very fast and erratically. It's made up of triangular panels to make a geometric sphere...thing, but more concerning was what was inside of it.
A giant rock with 5 legs was scrambling towards me.
“WHAT THE FUCK????”
Grace let go of me, leaving my arm strangely empty. She stood, holding out her hands, and stopped the ball in its tracks. I tried to scoot away from the strange being.
“ROCKY! WHAT DID I SAY!” She squatted down as she held either side of the ball. “I told you I was going to talk to her!”
The creature made the same melodic trilling noises from earlier, but was overlaid with a robotic voice echoing from the comms overhead.
“Yes, yes, yes, Grace say new human cannot understand. Rocky turn on human thinking machine, now can understand.”
“Okay, but, you're still freaking her out!”
“WHAT THE ACTUAL SHIT???”
She twisted to look in my direction while maintaining her hold on the squirming ball. “Sorry, uh, still don’t know your name,” She spoke sheepishly, gesturing with her head towards the rock with legs, “That's my friend Rocky. He’s an alien. An Eridian, to be more specific. Erid is his home planet.” She huffed, annoyed. “I wanted to wait to introduce you to him, to avoid, you know, panic, but here we are.” She stood to push the ball with the talking rock creature in it out of the room.
“Hello, new human friend! My name is Rooooocky. Grace Rocky best friends. It is nice Grace now has human friend as well as Eridian friend!!” The alien tumbled around in his glass enclosure like clothes in a washing machine as he tried to get as many words in as he could before Grace rolled him out.
“Ooooookay bud, lets give our new friend some space, yeah?”
“Cannot give space. Space is vacuum, what Grace mean, question?”
“Just means we need to give her some alone time, okay?” She spoke to it like a child. She spoke to this other worldly life form like she was scolding her little brother.
Grace rolled the ball out through his grumbling protests. She shut the door and turned back to me.
Who was this woman?
“I’m so sorry about that.” Grace pushed up her glasses as she rubbed the side of her face. “Rocky can get…really excited. Especially around anything to do with humans.” Her glasses were crooked on her face again. She didn’t move to fix them.
I was huddled in the corner of the bed, up against the wall. I wanted to shrink as far away from “Rocky” as I could. Grace seemed to trust him, but I didn’t. Hell, I didn’t trust Grace yet.
Still breathing hard, I decided to get some answers. Maybe this was real.
“...Who are you? Who do you work for?”
She bent over to my eye level, hands on her knees. “Well, as I said, my name is Doctor Ryland Grace, and I guess I technically work for…humanity?” She half chuckled, moving her glasses to hang off her ear again. “Well, I’m actually a teacher, but I was a scientist before that and I was hired, erm, more like forced, to-”
“No, what station are you from?” I cut off her rambling. “Are you from the C.O.I.? I don’t recognize you from Eden.”
“...Station? Like…the International Space Station?” She cocked her head and smiled quizzically.
My face heated. I looked at her idiotic grin with anger. What was her problem? Was she not taking me seriously? Was she being a pain in the ass on purpose?
Before I could think, I grabbed her by the collar, pulling her face close to mine. I spoke in a low snarl.
“Listen. I don’t know what the fuck your deal is, but I am not going back down there. I did your dirty work, I found the black box, I saved it for you. For all of us.”
I jolted as a voice came from the speakers above.
“NEW HUMAN HURT GRACE, QUESTION?”
“S' alright bud! I’m okay!” Grace yelled in the voice’s general direction. She looked at me again, her eyes flitting between mine, her jaw set. I held her firmly. I felt her swallow. She lowered her voice and spoke gently. “You don’t trust me. I get it. This is all very new and scary. But I am not going to hurt you. I never intend to put you back on that moon. You are safe here.”
The strange woman spoke with such conviction, my grip faltered. That or the adrenaline was wearing off and the soreness was returning. But the way her eyes met mine told me she was telling the truth. Maybe she was right. Maybe I finally got a lucky break.
Slowly prying my hand off her shirt, Grace did not break eye contact. She lingered, now holding my hand in both of hers.
She stood to her full height, - tall, I realized - still holding my hand. She exhaled sharply with relief. When she spoke again it was slow and patient. “So, I would love to know more about you, and I’m actually dying to ask you a million questions right now, but there's no rush. I want to go at your pace.”
I stare. It was all I could do. She was being, so, so kind to someone who absolutely did not deserve it.
“Can I start with your name?” Grace smiled again.
A beat passed.
“Simon.”