Chapter Text
Grace checks his math on the trajectories and timetables. He can’t believe they’re so close.
“Only a couple of weeks left until we arrive in your star system!” he says to Rocky. “So we’re going to be in radio range of Erid in the next few days. We’ll get to talk to other Eridians. Wow.”
Rocky has been skittering around the ship, checking and re-checking everything to make sure it’s as functional as it can be. Grace isn’t sure how much of it is excitement and how much is nerves.
“Soon, soon!” Rocky agrees. “It has been a long time.”
“Yeah, it’s been a long journey for you, huh? But it’s almost over. You get to go home, buddy.”
Rocky makes his way over to Grace’s side where Grace is curled over his laptop, and says, “We will make a home for you there, too. I will make sure of it.”
“Thanks, bud,” Grace says.
He doesn’t know what living the rest of his life on Erid will look like, but he will take it.
Survival is looking pretty likely. Grace has been tired; he’s been short on a lot of vitamins. There were some things they couldn’t synthesize, and others that they’ve had trouble with maintaining adequate production.
At least he isn’t falling apart at the seams, thanks to the bugs that they found in the slurry system. The acetobacter farm has had its ups and downs; keeping it alive has been the priority, over getting full doses of vitamin C every day. So maybe he has a little scurvy. But not bad.
Grace has so much to be grateful for.
Eating the slurry got a lot more pleasant after the synthesis experiments had produced capsaicin, vanillin, menthol, and a few others, not a huge selection but enough flavorants to make a difference between dinner and dessert slurry, which does a lot for Grace’s mental health.
But boy, does he hope the Eridians can help him get a little farther with the nutrition and the flavor of his food.
And maybe the living space could be a little less cramped. He really doesn’t need much.
“I’m sure it’ll be great,” he reassures Rocky. “And you’ll get to see Adrian again!”
“Yes, yes, excite, excite,” Rocky says, and Grace still isn’t great at telling the mood of Rocky’s words from their tone, but it sounds a little off. “Tell me more about environmental needs for humans. I will make sure they know how to build you a home.”
Grace lets that change of topic go for right now. If Rocky doesn’t want to talk about what’s bothering him right now, that’s fine.
“I’ve been brushing up,” Grace says, bringing up a document full of notes. “I definitely don’t need to have exactly Mary’s environment. There’s a pretty good range of most factors that humans can take.”
“Can you live on Erid surface?” Rocky asks. “In cold oxygen, of course. We can make your home have less pressure than Erid but not sure how to make less gravity. You can stay on the space elevator until we learn how.”
“Actually I can take a lot more pressure than this,” Grace says, “like five times more, easy, even more than that in a pinch. I just have to adjust gradually.”
“Five times!” Rocky exclaims. “Why so different, question?”
“Well, see, Hail Mary only has the oxygen content of Earth’s atmosphere, but on Earth, we also have a bunch of nitrogen and other stuff in our atmosphere. All we really need to live is the oxygen, so we just put that in Hail Mary. It’s low pressure to save wear and tear on the ship, not for the sake of the humans.”
“Ah, because Mary is made of aluminum,” Rocky says. “We can give you Earth atmosphere on Erid surface, easier pressure to maintain.”
“Yeah, but it’s still nothing like Erid atmospheric pressure. Probably not that much easier to engineer for. Although there have been studies that suggest spending time at higher pressures might actually extend the human lifespan. About seven times this pressure. But you gotta be careful if I ever need to go back to a low pressure, like up to Mary. I’ll need to go slow or the nitrogen will boil out of solution in my blood and the bubbles can cause big problems. Like, immediate death type problems.”
“Scary scary scary!” Rocky chirps. “Will make sure everyone knows.”
“Yeah, I don’t want that to happen to me,” Grace agrees.
“What about gravity?” Rocky asks.
“Well, I’ve been spending a lot of time at 1.5 Gs acceleration, which will help,” Grace says. “Human systems can adjust to a lot of gravity, too, especially with some help. I flew in a fighter jet once, I had to wear a special suit to stop the G forces from damaging me the way Mary’s spin did on our fishing trip. With special suits and training, some pilots can work with forces up to 9 G for a sustained flight without losing consciousness. An average human can tolerate about 5 G’s for a few minutes without the suits. And quick changes shouldn’t be much problem.” Grace laughs. “Erid’s gravity is actually less than the average roller coaster on Earth will give you.”
“Roller coaster, question?”
“It’s basically a machine that exposes you to fluctuating G forces for fun. Like a train, but the track has all kinds of bumps and twists and spins. Some of the older, more dangerous ones could produce forces up to 12 G’s for very short time periods. When I left, they tended to top out at 5 or 6 G’s. And that’s basically something a fourteen year old kid does just for fun.”
“Amaze amaze amaze! So Erid gravity will not be a problem for Grace?”
“I don’t think so,” Grace says. “There are humans on Earth who weigh more than I will on Erid. It’s doable, but a little rough on the joints and circulatory system. I’ll have to be careful with that. But other than that, I should adapt pretty well, yeah.”
“Good good good,” Rocky says. “Radio should be ready. Integrated with Mary’s systems to receive Eridian signals or Earth ones. Sending test signals every three hours.”
“Sounds good,” Grace says. “I guess we can’t really plan what to do when we get there until we make contact, so all we can do is wait.”
“Want to watch Star Trek,” Rocky says. “The one where Scotty builds an enclosure inside oxygen ship for whales.”
“Yeah, all right,” Grace says. “At least it’s not Devil in the Dark again.”
“I like when Spock uses his abilities to talk to people who can’t speak English,” Rocky says.
“Yeah,” Grace admits. “I like that, too.”
They have a pretty uneventful couple of weeks waiting for a signal. Grace supposes the Eridians have been too busy mitigating the effects of astrophage to do much work on their radio technology.
Grace is nibbling on one of his sandwich approximations, the enriched protein goo combined with enriched glucose goo and wrapped in dried taumoeba sheets which is starting to become as routine as peanut butter and jelly, when the signal alarm goes off.
Mary pipes the message through ship’s speakers.
“This is the Eridian space elevator research station. We are receiving your message of greeting. Who are you and what is your intention in the Eridian system?”
A jolt seems to run through Rocky’s whole body as he scrambles to the radio controls. They’re still almost three light-hours out from Erid, but the sooner they can confer on how to get the taumoeba to Threeworld, and everything else, the better, Grace supposes.
Rocky shuts off the automatic message and begins transmitting.
“This is Rocky, second engineer and only survivor of the Eridian interstellar vessel crew, and also my alien friend Dr. Grace, scientist and captain and only survivor of the alien ship Hail Mary. We are aboard the Hail Mary. We have brought back an astrophage predator.”
Rocky pauses, even though he knows they won’t receive a reply for another few hours, at least.
“It would be possible for us to change course and disperse the predator at Threeworld before coming to Erid, if the need is urgent. But Hail Mary is a low pressure aluminum hull ship and has been in operation longer than its designers intended and under conditions that it was not built for. We would prefer to dock at Erid’s space elevator and plan a second voyage to Threeworld.”
Rocky explains the pressure and atmosphere of Hail Mary, and his own xenonite enclosure inside.
“Alien friend Grace gave up the chance to go back home, so he could bring me and astrophage predator home. He needs a place to live and he needs special food. There are many metals in our food that will kill him, and many nutrients he needs that we have not been able to produce enough of with the equipment and supplies aboard. We would also prefer to start working on that problem as soon as possible.”
Grace had put down his sandwich-thing and come closer to listen, and now Rocky gestures in his direction.
“Grace, say hello to the Eridian researchers on the space elevator.”
“Hi!” Grace says. “Uh. Greetings from Earth? I’m what we call a human. Rocky helped me do what I needed to do to save my planet, and I’m happy to return the favor by helping yours.”
Rocky translates that, and then says, “Thank you for your attention. We will await your reply. End message.”
Rocky stops transmitting, and Grace heaves a sigh.
“I guess this is going to end up being a lot of waiting,” he says.
“Finish your food,” Rocky says. “Transmission time will get shorter very quickly.”
Yeah, despite the fact that they’re decelerating at 1.5 Gs and have been for years, they’re also still speeding towards Erid pretty fast, relatively speaking.
Grace picks up his sandwich-thing, and wonders what Erid will look like.
“Confirm that we have heard your message correctly,” the next Eridian message says. “Interstellar craft crew except Rocky have died. Rocky and alien friend are aboard alien ship with astrophage predator aboard. Astrophage predator can be released on Threeworld. Alien ship is made of aluminum and contains low-pressure oxygen, and is in need of repair. Alien friend needs help with specialized diet. Ship is currently on course for Erid orbit. If all of that is right, welcome home, Rocky. Continue course to Erid. We will make sure you, the alien and the predator are safe. We can send another ship to Threeworld.”
There’s a moment’s pause, and then the voice continues.
“Can you report what happened to the others on the interstellar ship’s crew? Was the ship destroyed? What dangers do we need to know about? What are aliens like?” The Eridian makes a nullifying noise. “There are so many questions. Some can wait until you return, but all of Erid is very curious. Please tell us more. We will await your reply.”
Rocky has that nervous energy about him all the time now. He spins in circles a couple of times, then hits the transmitter button.
“Yes, confirmed, previous message understood. We will continue to Erid.” Rocky’s feet tap nervously on the decking. “The whole crew died in their sleep except me. Doctors could not fix the sickness. Doctors got sick. I could not fix. The interstellar ship was still functioning but I could not complete the mission myself. Then Grace came. We completed the mission. Predator escaped and ate the fuel aboard the interstellar ship. It cannot be stored in xenonite. But Hail Mary was able to keep its fuel.”
Rocky taps his limbs on the floor again before continuing. “Hail Mary is also protected from the sickness that killed the interstellar ship crew. I will explain more once we get closer. I did not believe at first, when Grace explained. You will have many questions.”
Then, almost hesitantly, Rocky continues, “Now that I know Erid is not in urgent danger, I have one question, mostly. Is Adrian there? Have they been told? Do they know I am coming home?”
Rocky makes a sort of plaintive noise before signing off. It will still be almost four hours until they get a reply.
“You wanna watch some Star Trek?” Grace offers. “Any episode you want.”
Rocky skitters into the Don’t Go Crazy Room, and Grace follows.
It strikes him that he doesn’t know much about Rocky’s life on Erid. There are a lot of things that Grace would be nervous about if he were going back to Earth. But that was because of some very specific things that happened.
Rocky has always given the impression that he had a nice normal life before he volunteered to go to space.
But then, what does normal even mean? Definitely not the same thing on Erid as on Earth. And even on Earth, it’s not a particularly useful term.
Whatever is wrong, Grace hopes he can help.