Chapter Text
“What’s that one?”
Ryland points to the sky and looks up at his mom.
“That one is Ursa Major”
She grabs his hand and directs it to another spot in the sky.
“And that one is Ursa Minor.”
“What’s that one!” His brother shouts from the other side of their mom.
“I believe that’s Jupiter.”
“How can you see a planet?” His brother questions in his annoying little voice.
“Well, our moon shines down on us despite being just rock. It works the same way. Our sun shines on all the planets and they reflect the light back at us.”
“Woah, that's so cool! Our sun is the best! Right Rylie?”
“Very cool!” Ryland agrees with his brother and curls into his mom more. His mom was so smart. She knew so much about the stars. She was truly the cool one. As cool as the sun is, it will always come 2nd to his mom.
“I’m bored; I’m going back inside!” His brother gets up and runs back inside. His mom sighs.
“What am I going to do with that kid?” His mom laughs softly. She looks at her phone. She looked sad. Ryland doesn’t know why.
“Hey little star, it’s getting pretty late I suppose we should go back inside.”
“No, not yet!”
“Come on Ryland it’s bedtime.”
“Ok mom, but we’ll come back out tomorrow, right? There’s going to be a meteor shower!”
“Of course, Ry, we’ll be here. Now it’s bedtime. Go join your brother…I’m going to stay out here a bit longer.” Ryland got up and looked at his mom. She was so pretty in the moonlight.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, everything is perfect, little star.” She smiles at him, the most beautiful smile. Ryland hugs her.
“I love you, mom” His mom hugs him back.
“I love you too, Ryland.” Ryland pulls away and runs back inside.
He sees his brother laying on the top bunk of their bed reading a comic book. He climbs into his part of the bed and tucks himself into bed.
“Good night, C….”
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Grace wakes up in his bed. There’s knocking at his door.
“I’ll be there in a minute.” Grace groans as he drags himself out of bed. It was just a dream. A good dream, a memory, he thinks. He can’t really be sure it’s a memory, but it felt real.
He quickly put on proper clothes and answered the door. He found Adrian standing at his door. That made sense if it was Rocky he would have just barged in after a few seconds.
“Hello Adrian, how’s your day going?” He smiled at Adrian. They’ve grown closer over the last few days. Usually, they would just talk about science but sometimes they would talk about daily life too. Progress is progress.
“Hello friend Grace, I am doing well. You agreed to that study we talked about a few days ago.”
“Oh, shoot I forgot. It’s not too late, is it?” So much for getting closer to Adrian; they're probably mad at him now.
“No, I came to get Grace as soon as he didn’t show up.”
“Great! Lead the way; I’ll follow.”
A couple days ago Adrian approached him about something they and other scientists were curious about: his vision. He’s not surprised by their curiosity. Eyes were pretty cool and to a species that can’t see light, they were incredible. Adrian said they wanted to test his vision and learn more about it. He obviously agreed. He’s always happy to help with their research.
Grace followed Adrian to the lab. They had a lab attached to his dome. Part of the lab was his atmosphere while the other part was theirs. Their side was bigger of course; there were more of them. Grace also didn’t run many experiments anymore. He hoped to one day get back into research but…well the past couple of years were enough for a lifetime. They were still kind enough to make him a space in their lab. It was really helpful for a day like today when they want to observe him.
“Hello Grace!” Copper chimes happily from the other side.
“Grace, ready for test?” Indigo chimes beside Copper. They stood taller than Copper, not as tall as Adrian of course. Indigo and Copper were always nice to him. They were the younger researchers. Bright eyed and full of curiosity. They were very enthusiastic about humans. Indigo was a bit shyer than Copper, but they have really come out of their shell. He also recently found out that they were mates. Apparently, that was a recent development. He’s glad he brought them together.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be…what exactly are you testing?”
“We want to see just how far humans can see.” Adrian chimes in.
“Yeah of course! I will say you have a pretty boring human in this case. My vision is not the best compared to other humans. I need glasses to improve my vision.”
“Is fine, it makes Grace more interesting.” Adrian chimes to him.
“Thanks!” Grace smiles at Adrian, grateful for the reassurance.
“Ok Grace look into this machine.” Copper chimes excitedly.
“We built this machine to simulate something far away. You will see an image that we will move further and further away. Grace ready?” Indigo explains to him. Ok this test seems pretty straightforward. It probably doesn't work as effectively as how humans test vision but decides he shouldn't argue and will maybe bring it up later. They seemed very excited for this test he didn't want to hurt their feelings.
“Yeah sure. Though I am a little confused. You just want to know if I can see the image?”
“Correct” Indigo chimes
“Well, it will eventually get blurry but if I can still see it, I’ll let you know.”
“Good good good. We test now” Copper trills excited
Grace looks into the machine. He felt like he was at the eye doctor. When he looked in, he saw his house. Cute, they must have figured out how to take a picture of his house. Wait should he be concerned about that. He decided not to worry.
“It’s my house.”
“Yes, we will move it back further.” The image changed and now the house was further back.
“It’s still my house.”
They continued this for a while. Until the image became blurry to him.
“Ok it’s blurry now”
“We mark vision at 17 feet away from the viewing point.” Copper chimes. Dang that means his vision isn’t 20/20. Too bad he can’t update his prescription.
“Well humans are supposed to see clearly 20 feet away, so my vision isn’t the best.”
“Vision very cool Grace!” Copper chimes trying to make him feel better.
“You think that’s cool. That’s just how far humans can see clearly. Our vision is actually technically limitless.”
“Limitless!” Copper exclaims.
"Yeah, humans can see up until the horizon of Earth... I believe it's about 3 miles."
“No way humans see that far.” The other Eridian scientist chimes. He named them Frank when they first met. They just seemed like a Frank. Frank was older. He thinks they are older than Adrian and Rocky. Frank was well…he kind of gave off old man energy. They seemed very head strong in their beliefs and was skeptical of everything. He hated that Frank seemed scared of him. He was an alien, but he wished they would warm up to him.
“It’s true! We only see up to 3 miles because that's about when the Earth curves. However, we can also see stars that are lightyears away. As long as it’s big and bright enough, we can see it. Humans have been looking up at the stars for as long as we have existed.”
“You can see the stars from Earth?” Indigo hummed curiously.
“Yeah! Humans love looking at the stars.”
“What do stars look like?”
“Well, they’re dots that vary in size and sometimes color too, but they are usually white.” I wished he could describe it better. Stars were beautiful and together make an image that is unforgettable.
He looked through the xenonite screen to see all the scientists standing still giving him their full attention.
“Humans used the stars for early navigation. A lot of stars are the same year-round. If you know the direction of the star, you know what direction you are heading.”
"Humans cannot sense their magnetic field?" Copper questions.
"Nope, afraid that's an Eridian exclusive."
"Very interesting." Adrian chimes while typing into what Grace assumes is a computer.
"That not it, humans love stars so much they give them stories."
"Grace tell Copper story now!"
"Of course I will." Grace laughs at Copper's enthusiasm.
"Some stars shine brighter than others and humans liked to connect the dots and make images, we called them constellations. My favorite story growing up was the story of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. They were two separate constellations that both formed an Earth animal called a bear. Stick with me this mythology can be weird. There was a Nymph, which is basically a very pretty human woman that isn't actually human, named Callisto. Callisto had taken a vow of chastity, preferring nature over humanity. There was a God Zeus who took advantage of her, basically... mated with her when she didn't want to. This unfortunately led to them having a son, named Arcas. A goddess named Hera, who was Zeus... mate, was mad and jealous of Callisto. In her jealousy she turned Callisto into an ugly bear. Callisto could no longer enjoy her solitude, the woods around her were not the same anymore. In this form she also couldn't be a mother to her son. Callisto would roam the woods in rage and anguish until one day a young hunter came. This hunter turned out to be her son, Arcas. He however did not recognize his mother. Arcas attacked and Callisto refused to fight back. Just as Arcas was about to land a fatal blow Zeus stopped them. Zeus was angry at Arcas and decided to throw him into the night sky in the form of a small bear. Callisto didn’t want her son to be alone in the night sky, so she begged Zeus to put her up there with him. Zeus agreed and put Callisto in the sky near her son, so that she could watch over him forever."
“Human story is weird.” Copper hummed quietly but Grace still heard them.
“Human story is sad.” Indigo hummed.
“Yeah, it’s an old story, so it’s kind of weird but the more important thing is what the constellation represents. It’s a representation of a mother’s love. A mom who now watches over her son forever.”
“The human woman didn’t want her kid to be alone.” Adrian hummed
“Yeah…sometimes someone can’t be there for you, so it’s a nice thought to think that they are always with you. That they care for you so much they would spend the rest of their life watching over you, even when you are a part.” Grace felt…sad but he can’t remember why. The emotions were so real like he's felt them before. His mother’s smile flashes in his mind. He can feel his eyes water. Oh yeah…his mom. He wonders if she is alive on Earth…he fears he already knows the answer. He wonders if she’s proud of him. If she ever got the chance to be proud. Maybe she’s watching him from the night sky…yeah that's a nice thought.
“Adrian likes human story.” Grace smiles at Adrian. They always knew what to say.
Adrian hums and puts a claw to the screen. I put my hand up to meet their claw.
"Thanks Adrian, I appreciate that."