Chapter Text
I'm scared.
I have been watching ♫♪♬♩♫ sleep for hours now. They were ill, like the rest. I try not to sleep myself. I try to stay and to keep watch. It's the least I can do. I'm only a mechanic. The ship's doctor and the scientists were some of the first to fall ill. Followed by the navigators.
I'm scared. I'm scared scared. I'm scared that ♫♪♬♩♫ won't wake up. I'm scared for when I fall ill. It looks painful. It sounds horrid. Their voices quaver. Their bodies… crumble. It's faint but you can hear it. if you listen you can hear their carapaces crack and their very being disolve over several days. It's a sound that has become familar. It's the sound I listen to now.
I'm watching ♫♪♬♩♫ closely. My claws are touching their carapace. All of them.—which is tricky to do in zero gravity. I hear the sound of their body dying strongly through my own arms, but I can't pull myself away. Usually I work while I watch someone sleep. But not tonight. Tonight, all of my attention is on ♫♪♬♩♫. Well, them and the mission being a total failiure and that Erid will die and that Adrian—Oh, Adrian, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that I am not home. I am sorry I am not there to watch you sleep. I am sorry I am not there each time you wake. I am sorry I have not been part of the thrum. I know you can always somehow find my voice in that hive. You always know how to make me feel not alone. the fact that if they don't wake up I will be alone and—
I wish I wasn't alone. I hope that ♫♪♬♩♫ wakes up. I will need to sleep myself soon, and I don't want to sleep alone.
I've never had to sleep unwatched before. And what better than to sleep unwatch while lost in space surrounded by a dead crew?
The sound I hear from ♫♪♬♩♫ changes. It's subtle, but unfortunately it's there.
The song of death.
When you know an eridian won't wake up, you feel it. Their body is still. more still than if they were asleep. Their heart stops. The water in their body liquifies. they grow cool.
♫♪♬♩♫ already was not warm before sleeping. But I had hoped that maybe, maybe this time they would heal, and wake up.
There's a sound from the back of the ship. It crackles. the hull hasn't withstood the atmospheric pressure as well as we had designed. I leave the sound be. It is concerning and I am a mechanic, but Erid lost hope of this ship finding a solution to the Astrophage problem a long time ago.
I am tired. And hungry. I have not eaten in Vλ days. Eating makes you tired, tired means you sleep. I was going to try and wait for ♫♪♬♩♫ to wake up. But ♫♪♬♩♫ is not going to wake up. I know this now.
I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to do.
My ship is dying, my friends have died, my planet will die, and I am all alone.
"fuck."