Chapter Text
The eridians had about a month to come to terms with the news as the Hail Mary approached; and to prepare for its arrival. They'd heard that the mission was successful, that there had only been one survivor, and that they were joined by an alien.
An alien without whom they never could have found the cure, or made it home. An alien that had drastically incompatible biology to Erid, was on the brink of death, and desperately needed help.
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Rocky carefully maneuvers the Mary into position next to Erid's space elevator. The scanners show him that the docking apparatus and airlock receiver match his exact specifications. The engineers had built an entirely new, smaller station below the main one; which could travel along the elevator cable; just to receive the Hail Mary. Rocky had also instructed them to build a thin lining of astrophage into the outer walls, to protect them from the newly discovered threat that outer space posed.
The moment the ship connects, Rocky's world expands and he senses the first eridians he's heard in half a century. Rocky has a little time to ‘have a moment’ as the station lowers out of geostationary orbit to a level with low gravity. He rests in his tunnel in the medical bay, watching over Grace as he waits.
When the station stops Rocky moves to open the airlock. Eridians representing almost every intellectual hive await in the elevator lobby; Rocky recognizes several of them from the original mission. Each group takes turns bowing a formal greeting to him, referring to him as Savior Rocky and presenting their family crests while stating their names and hives. Rocky misses many of their names as each hive group speaks in unison, and can only chirp out affirmatives in response.
Introductions done, things begin to move very quickly. Engineers and doctors flood the ship, taking measurements and making plans to modify the existing zenonite tunnels to accommodate medical staff and equipment.
The first thing Rocky does is hand over the packets of formulas and samples he and Grace had assembled years ago; detailing Grace's atmospheric and nutritional requirements; to the chemists so they can begin researching and synthesizing. To the linguists he gives a guide that Grace referred to as a “Rosetta Stone”; a collection of matching recordings and texts in both human English and Eridian. Piecing together a proper translation from it will be an immensely important step before the scientists and doctors can make use of Grace's gifted Thinking Machine of All Human Knowledge.
And of course, Rocky presents the astrobiologists with the taumeba farms and all the research and calculations for breeding and sending it to Threeworld.
All the while Rocky's attention is split, always partly focused on Grace's heartbeat. It is so shallow that there are moments when he can't make it out over the activity. Several times Rocky leaves conversations abruptly; running up to the xenonite barrier to focus his echolocation until he is sure it still beats. Grace lays unnaturally still on the medical bed; Armando diligently monitoring him in the coma he had slipped into just before the Hail Mary made contact with Erid.
After everything on Rocky's list is settled, and it is up to the various research groups to get to work, Rocky is offered a ride to the surface. He declines; he can not leave Grace. The doctors try to explain that there is nothing more he can do; that they will take good care of Savior Grace and he can go home to his mate to recuperate. Rocky, with no energy left to explain himself further, dons his xenonite suit and cycles through the airlock into Grace's atmosphere. He climbs carefully onto the bed and loafs by Grace's legs to watch him sleep.
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They'd told him his mate was on their way.
It has been three weeks and things have stabilized promisingly. Thanks to many large thrums on the surface, much progress has already been made: the taumeba are replicating steadily and should be ready to send in just a month, the human language has been translated as well as it can be without a native speaker to guide them on certain cultural concepts, and the most vital supplements have been synthesized and slowly introduced into Grace's daily regimen. He still hasn't woken but Rocky swears that his heartbeat is getting stronger. It has to be getting stronger.
The scariest part of the process for Rocky was when the plans to modify the ship were overturned; through a large engineering thrum it was decided instead to move Savior Grace and his medical suite into the space elevator proper. His place in the back of the ship made it difficult to add equipment without making significant changes to the Hail Mary, and was a long way from the elevator lobby and its connected laboratories. They'd explained to a very protective Rocky that the move would enable more efficient and safe care of Savior Grace, while better preserving the Hail Mary. Rocky only agreed under the condition that he head the construction team for the remodel.
Now Grace lays in his medical cot in a clear xenonite chamber that takes up about a quarter of the elevator lobby. Armando, the medical equipment, as well as lighting from the Mary are in place and hooked up to the ship through a xenonite tunnel large enough for Grace to walk through, so he can roam the ship again when he wakes.
Things had calmed enough that non-essential visitors could be allowed up to the station. There was one eridian who was inarguably at the very top of that list, and not because they were one of Erid's top zoologists.
Rocky clicks nervously, swaying and tapping the ground in a tight rhythm. He stands next to the xenonite barrier overlooking Grace's medical area, but most of his attention is across the lobby, on the space elevator door and its approaching platform.
When the door opens Adrian explodes into the room; Rocky's name and every nickname they've ever given him repeating and overlapping within their desperate song.
Rocky hesitates for a single hearts-beat before barrelling toward them, warbling broken notes as his vents catch and strain.
The two crash hard and loud. Several scientists and doctors jump then click at them to check they haven't cracked their carapaces.
Rocky and Adrian cling to each other, deaf to the world as they entwine limbs and rasp claws over one another. They twitter, exchanging frantic messages of love and longing, trilling out relief painful and raw. Some eridians in the room become emotional at the reunion and unconsciously coo comforting notes.
Rocky reaches two of his limbs horizontally; as far around Adrian's larger middle as he can reach; a gesture that is strange but that Adrian immediately reciprocates without question, wrapping their limbs around him and cradling him in a crushing grip. They listen to all five of Rocky's heartbeats and sigh out a long, low, broken note, Rocky harmonizes into the note to feel their whole body at once.
The two settle on the floor where they collided, the others in the room working around them as respectfully as they can. Adrian settles two limbs around Rocky's base like a makeshift nest, a third with claws interlocking his. Rocky's limbs are draped over Adrian's and pressed against their carapace; touching them at as many contact points as possible.
Rocky chirps hoarsely of fear and isolation, vents hiccuping as he weeps into his mate. Adrian rumbles comfortingly, a claw trailing his side. Rocky squeaks out his fear that Adrian might not have still been waiting; feebly grasping and tapping at Adrian's mate-mark as if unable to tell if it is really there. But it is just as it was when they parted so long ago. Adrian croons promises that they would have waited until the ground froze for Rocky. Would have spent eternity searching for him in the Great Thrum after everything was gone. Rocky keens a painful sob and clutches them.
Through Rocky's trembling he pushes out a hum, and Adrian attunes to the frequency. Rocky struggles to layer notes at first, but slowly their shared song builds into a harmony. He holds his mate with all of his being, lost in the first share-song he's experienced in decades. Adrian feels his overwhelming pain and hope: beautiful and terrifying and too much to bear. Rocky feels Adrian's longing and faith, hollow but enduring and never once faltering.
Rocky needs Adrian to know everything. He needs them to understand why he is changed and how important the alien barely clinging to life nearby is. So he elevates the harmony until it is a thrum of two. He starts the story, right there on the station floor. He tells it exactly as it happened, the thrum allowing Adrian to experience it almost as if they were there.
Unable to ignore it completely, nearby scientists notice the thrum is focused to the Blip A, which several on the station had helped design or build. Overpowering curiosity leads several of them to tune in to the thrum, joining as unobtrusively as they can.
Rocky sings of the crew; the hope and determination they emanated as the journey began. Then the trepidation as they began to fall ill. More eridians on the station join until the thrum reverberates down through the elevator cables to the surface of Erid.
Rocky cries as one by one his crewmates collapse and never get back up, experiencing the loss anew. Those in attendance cry with him, pushing and spreading the thrum until the entire city below has joined in the mourning song.
Then Rocky weaves the 46 years of isolation for all to know. Laying bare the guilt of being the only survivor, the terror of sleeping alone again and again, the hopelessness of not knowing what to do once he got to Tau Ceti. The numbness as he orbited aimlessly after exhausting everything he knew to try.
Then suddenly hope. Hope so loud and hot it threatened to tear his fragile mind apart. Another ship, another lifeform, another chance.
The thrum expanded through the outskirts, into neighboring cities and beyond; echoing previous chapters of the story to catch newcomers up; as Rocky told of Grace the squishy alien with knowledge and science, who was there with the same goal and had also lost its crew. He sang of learning and fixing and friendship. He sang of danger and triumph as the whole of Erid harmonized; eridians young and old everywhere joining until the planet itself was hanging on every detail of the story.
Then Rocky sang of a bittersweet farewell: with pride in their joined success, hope for both of their stars, relief at being able to send Grace home from his one-way trip; but also the heartache of leaving his best friend with no way to see him again, and the emptiness of being alone on the ship once more.
And then when hope slips again through his claws and he believes that he has failed Erid for the last time, mercy knocks on his door anew. Grace returned for him, sacrificing his own life for him and all of Erid.
Rocky quiets within the thrum, his story finished.
The whole planet cheers.
The thrum swells with thanks and praise and awe. With love for Enduring Rocky and Friend Grace, the Saviors of Erid; most honorable Eridians. Rocky can only cry softly, resonance failing as exhaustion pulls on him. All of Erid promises to watch Rocky sleep as he drifts into unconsciousness; he will never sleep alone again.
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