Chapter Text
Less than a month left. Less than a month left. Less than a month left...
That was the mantra that had been going around in Ryland Grace’s head constantly these past few days. Replacing the old mantra of “just a little more than a month left”. Him and Rocky were so close to Erid now that they could taste it, feel it. Hell- Rocky could probably hear it with those God forsaken dumbo ears of his that had been driving Grace completely mad. Speaking of madness and Rocky, he’d been going a little crazy thinking about Adrian as of late. That combined with his constant worry for Grace was slowly aiding in further development of hysteria and a slow death by annoyance. Figuratively speaking.
But oh yeah. Grace was dying. Who would’ve have though that with all they’ve been through, scurvy and extreme iron deficiencies would be the thing to knock one of em’ down. Just like a buncha’ pirates. Grace giggled despite the grimness of it all.
“Grace Grace Grace! Grace awake finally!”, Rocky tumbled towards him, his five legs going everywhere like an excited spider.
“Hey buddy”, turning on his side where he was laying on the floor, Grace put and arm forward to touch the xenonite glass surrounding the overexcited little alien. It was quite the sight. Grace and his Rock. He would have for sure died if it wasn’t for the alien’s company and insistence of watching over him as he rested. His eyes had begun to sink and the skin around them had darkened despite sleeping for hours on end. His cheekbones were more pronounced now too, and his skin lacked colour as of late.
Rocky could not see any of that, but he could hear Grace’s shortness of breath and accelerated heartbeat. He could not do anything to fix it. But he had tried everything he could think of.
They had rationed the different types of IV bags that were stuffed into a multitude of storage spaces in the med bay and sleeping area, resulting in a fun little treasure hunt where the more you find, the longer Grace got to live. There were saline-based, sugar-based, and protein-based fluids available. Unfortunately, none of them had any iron or c-vitamin added into them, leading to his less than optimal state of health. They were almost out of the salt- and sugar-based solutions, having saved the protein-based fluids for last just in case, as those fluids were used to treat extreme blood loss rather than just helping with malnutrition.
“Grace sleep for twelve earth hours. Grace need eat now now now”, he drove home his point by putting one of his feet down hard three times. Grace sighed.
“What have you got on the menu? Any specials?”
Now familiar with the joke that Grace had made several times, Rocky played along, just happy that Grace wasn’t protesting.
“Yes yes yes. Very good special soup for weak human. Make strong-”, Rocky pretended to do a push up, his underside clanking on the floor before he pushed up. Grace smiled. “and healthy, good good good. Taomoeba soup and intravenous drip feed for honor guest!”
That’s how most days looked like these past weeks. Grace was starting to get too weak to do anything but walk, talk, and eat some days. The only thing that kept him going mentally was the sentient rock cheering him on. But despite that and his mantra reminding him of how close they were to Erid, Grace knew that he would need a miracle to make it in one piece. But who would waste a miracle on a single person? His luck had run out, used on saving the stars.
He looked at Rocky and smiled. At least it didn’t feel like a waste.
The pressure of getting that fucking backpack out of that goddamn submarine was somehow stronger than the pressure causing blood to rush in from all sides of the submarine. It was, however, not stronger than the jaws of the eel. The welded walls weren’t strong enough either. Simon wasn’t strong enough.
He was spread out like the man the Christians of earth had worshipped. He had been lectured about that man and how him and his followers had been wrong, for Eden worshipped the snake of the heaven’s gardens. And now, just like Eden had betrayed him before, the serpent had its teeth at the butcher’s throat, keeping him from breath and filling his lungs with blood. Just like his mouth had been filled with blood and his voiced stuck in his throat when father had preached and punished.
It seemed that what he had said had become all too true.
Those who betray thy gardened green home of Eden. The true place of rest and life, shall suffer the almighty rage of the snake. A beast once again awakened in the rapture to test thy creatures of faith with hunger and blood! Those who fall shall feed the almighty tree. If the be right in hunger and blood, thy shall grow from roots to apple, and thy sinner shall rot in the roots!
Simon had never fully believed. Now he was forced to. It was hard to deny in the face of truth. He would rot in the serpant’s belly.
The boiling hot blood kept rising, soon covering his nose. Simons eyes were glued to the life vest and the box bopping in the middle of the iron lung.
CRACK
He still didn’t close them as the roof and floor caved in as the serpent stopped toying with him. His last moments above the blood, before being ripped apart, he did however look towards his right hand held above his shoulder for one last prayer. The seed was covered in blood. He could not see it. What a fucking waste of a final moment.
In a last fit of rage, he cracked the resin covered seed in his hand. Simon would die in violence just like his brothers had doomed him to do ever since filament station.
There was no peace in this death. Nothing would waste peace on the butcher. Still, he wished for it. Wished for his mother one last time.
The last thing he heard was a thunderous roar of pain. For a fleeting moment, covered in the scalding blood and overridden with agony, he thought that the scream might have been his own.
Grace was sitting with a blanket in the “don’t go crazy room”, looking at a nature documentary when Rocky came rushing in like he usually did.
“What’s up Rocky?”
Rocky just stared at him for a moment before the translator crackled to life.
“Rocky ever tell Grace how best of friend he is? Grace very smart human, despite leaky, Grace is strong and handso-”
Oh fudge
“What did you do?”, Grace tried to squeeze every ounce of attitude out of his single raised eyebrow to show Rocky how unimpressed he was.
“...”
“...”
“RockywantchangeHailMaryroutetocelestialbodywithmuchiron”
Grace raised the other eyebrow. It might have been intimidating if his mouth hadn’t also fallen open and the nature documentary on deep sea isotopes wasn’t still playing behind him.
“What-” Grace dragged a hand down his face, “what did you just say Rocky?”
“Rocky fix Grace food problem. Rocky find celestial body that is in way of Erid. Went to investigate, mysterious because it was not there on way to Adrian-planet. Rocky see on human thinking machine textile translator that body consist of carbon, iron and H2O”
Grace snapped his head up at that.
“That’s... how? Are you sure it wasn’t there on your way here?”
“Yes Rocky not stupid. Not forget like human, dumb dumb dumb-”
“Hey you were just being nice to me!”
Rocky ignored him. “Rocky and Grace can orbit celestial body and study how can harvest nutrients for human body!”
Grace sighed and stood up, keeping the blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He turned his back on Rocky and hit the switch on the wall the shut the screens covering the walls off. He turned and sat down on the steps with a quiet sigh and his head in his hands.
Rocky stood still for a moment before making his way over to grace. He was wearing his little xenonite suite today, almost like he had dressed his best for the occasion. Without hesitating, Rocky made his way to sit down in between Grace’s feet. Letting Grace rest his arms on his carapace.
“Rocky we can’t do that. You know that”
Rocky jumped Graces teeth clonked on his suite
“Ow Rocky!”, Grace rubbed a hand over his mouth to soothe the ache and check if he was bleeding. “I’d prefer to lose my teeth to scurvy. Why did you do that?”
Rocky stomped angrily on the ground. “Grace refuse help! Rocky fix is easy!”
“Bud, we need to get to Erid as soon as possible. Have you even calculated how long an orbit to a whole unkno-”
“YES YES YES minimum three earth days, maximum we stay one earth month on ship!” Rocky waved two of his limbs as if a little dance could convince Grace that he was right. He had to admit that it was entertaining.
“How close is the celestial body to our route? How could we possibly get there and somehow get a sample of the iron and water in just three days?”
“Minimum three day. Grace hearing no good. Celestial body is very close, almost too close. It is also small. Not planet, maybe moon or extremely small dwarf planet. Sample will be easy, Rocky make long chain and scrape. Maximum time spare one earth month. Safer to go to Erid if Grace and Rocky cannot find human nutrients on celestial body in one earth month. If find nutrients, Grace will not still starve after land on Erid. Best solution”
“Jesus, you’ve actually thought this through”
“Rocky better scientist than Jesus”
“I think every scientist is a better scientist than Jesus Rocky”
Rocky tapped his way back in between Grace’s feet and spawled out onto the floor without answering. He had seemed so sad lately. He was happy that he would see Adrian soon, but the time they had spent apart had really taken its toll on the little guy. What a loser. Couldn’t be Grace haha...
Grace had never craved the touch of another human so much before in his life. Before the whole Hail Mary shebang he would never really think about hugs, handshakes, or just feeling the heat of the person sitting next to you on the bus. He never craved contact and he rarely sought it out. Now he would hug and rest his arms on Rocky and pretend he was actually touching him.
Rocky did the same. He would always rest while leaning on Grace’s legs and refused to watch over him from afar while he was sleeping. Full contact was mandatory or Rocky went apeshit. Rockshit?
During one of his outbursts, Rocky had revealed that he was never allowed to say goodbye to Adrian. They had dragged him off during one of Adrian’s sleep-cycles while he was watching over them. Rocky sounded so sad when he, with his caraplace hung low and limbs sprawled out under him, wondered aloud how confused and maybe even scared Adrian must have been to have awoken to a stranger watching over them instead of their mate. Just to later learn that they wouldn’t see their mate for decades.
Grace let him sleep next to him after that. He even put his arm over him sometimes and Rocky would let out a soft chime that the translator couldn’t pick up on. Grace teased him once and said he was purring like a kitten. Rocky didn’t know what that was but still kicked Grace hard as shit in the chin for making fun of him. Maybe he shared another thing with Balboa other than his name.
Grace looked down on Rocky through his xenonite suit. This was a crazy idea. Absolutely insanely stupid and dangerous. But he knew deep down that the eridians would need a sample to recreate what he needs for nutrition. They had been avoiding the subject of “what if you make it there but then die in front of the people you helped save because they didn’t have McDonalds and skittles on their planet” talk for a long time now. Grace guessed that this would be his only hope. A quick stop, sample, and blast on out of here. Easy as pie.
He put his forehead down on Rocky. Not really in defeat... just because there was nothing else to do. He wrapped the blanket over his head and let it fall over Rocky and him. He wished the world wasn’t so big all the time. His sigh made condensation on the xenonite suite.
“Okay. We’ll try it out, bud”
The detour to the mysterious celestial body took just three earth hours after they had traveled the four days it took to get to the point where they could make the turn off. It was thankfully possible without a pilot thanks to the marvelously intelligent Hail Mary robot lady.
The celestial body was semi lit up by far away stars, and had what seemed like a big red birthmark surrounded by ground that seemed to be lit up by how bright and reflective the birthmark was. Almost like it was water. Speaking of water, Grace couldn’t see any pools of water on the celestial body. Rocky had said there were readings of water and iron from the astral imaging on the Hail Mary, so he had to trust that to at least some degree. Lord knows he could barely trust his own eyes on account of his glasses being everywhere but in front of them.
More curious was the fact that the body didn’t seem to be orbiting anything. By its size, Grace would have guessed it was a moon, but there were no stars or planets near- so from what planet would the “moon” have broken off from? Even more strange was the fact that there were three other blips on the radar pretty close to the celestial body. They were far away enough that they couldn’t see them, but the radar showed that they were in similar size as the one in front of them. Was this some kind of mini-dwarf planet cluster?
Well, it didn’t really matter.
Grace tapped his fingers on his lips while looking out one of the windows.
God he was curious.
They were probably the first living beings to ever look at this dark celestial body. He was the first human to make contact with alien life. First human to visit another planet. And now he would become the first human to visit three other planets. The competition wasn’t even close. In fact they were dead and floating around in space somewhere.
Grace pushed away from the window to make his way to the lab. It was time.
Due to the celestial body being so small, they were able to put the Hail Mary into orbit at a distance where they could see more details. Right now, they were looking right at the iron red birthmark and a few grainy and sharp white rocks.
The plan was for Rocky to make a similar xenonite chain, like with Tau Ceti, only this time with a large claw-like structure on the bottom that would hopefully be able to pick up some rock or mud from the birthmark so they could test it. Grace also had to bitch about radiation to Rocky for about half an hour before Rocky just gave up and built the claw with one of their geiger detectors embedded into it.
“Dumb human. Cannot hear in space vacuum, Rocky not understand why-”
“I can see colours Rocky! How many times do I have to explain the concept of colour to you?
“If radiation has colour, why need beeping radiation detection device, question?”
“Rocky. It. Changes. Colour.”
“Amaze amaze amaze!”
Grace breathed hard. Lugging the large claw was pretty difficult when his only remaining large muscle was his gluteus maximus. But he got it done and he and Rocky were now watching intensely as it was lowered by Rocky and the xenonite chain. Just a little more and it would touch the birthmark. Just a little more and they would be able to do some quick tests, hopefully make some nutrient dense paste, and then Grace would be fine until they arrived on Erid. Just a little longer.
Both him and Rocky leaned forward and both started muttering under their breath when the claw was about to hit the surface.
With one last breath from Grace and one length of chain from Rocky, the claw touched the, hopefully iron and c-vitamin rich, birth mark.
Both Grace and Rocky were, however, silenced as it did. Because the claw had suddenly disappeared into the birthmark.
The screaming from the radio had transitioned into empty static a while ago. Everyone was silent, staring at the control board, waiting for a sign of life from their captain. It was the consolidation of irons only hope, and when nothing happened, David lashed out.
The team watched on as he threw a chair into the far wall. Some even had to run to the side as he clawed his way through the crowd to pick up the chair again, just to repeatedly slam it into the ground until nothing but smithereens remained. No one said anything or intervened. Most knew from before that David had a temper. Those who hadn’t known, did now. Everyone also knew that now that the captain was dead, David was officially the new captain and head of operation at the AT-5 station, and leader of the COI:s conviction realization program.
David rose from the ground where he had been crouched down. He looked furious. He wasn’t grieving, he was seething.
“At ease”
The melody of the teams feet sliding together and arms slapping their sides as they instinctively straightened up rang through the stations control-chamber. David smirked. Most also knew about his mood swings.
“Search the ocean for anything that can be salvaged from the wrecks. You have an hour, I won’t let us waste resources on something trivial, but we still hav’ta do it unfortunately”, he spoke as he moved back towards the control board to lean against it. He almost sounded like he was talking about something mundane. Something that bored him.
No one spoke. David smiled again.
“Move out”
Everyone quickly made their way out into the hallways to suite up for the search. Black military overalls and air filters hung on hundreds of hooks on the wall. Only a few were taken off the hooks. Humanities number had and were dwindling rapidly, and now they had lost another one.
David stayed back while his team moved out to the boat. A sound of an incoming messege broke his focus and he turned around to look at the screen.
[Contr station//Consolidation Of Iron]
Delivery for moon AT-4 postponed
Rations will be given further apart
New guidelines: one 1 loaf / day (C.O.I), one forth ¼ loaf / day (convicts)
Requesting report-convict realization program-SM-exploration 13
David typed a quick response
[--> Contr station//AT-5]
Operation failed-search for the SM13 & additional sub SM11 has begun
Captain Ava fallen-SM11
David-previous captain assistant-taking charge
New rations will be implemented
There was a sound behind him and a quite swear. David whipped around just to be met with Lola, bended over the broken chair on the floor and holding her foot in pain.
“Did you just trip on the chair? That was right in the open in the middle of the floor?”
The custodian looked around and tried to straighten herself. “Uhhh... No?”. David sighed.
In all of his six years as Ava’s assistant, he had never met a person as incapable as Lola. She always burst into rooms at the wrong moment, burped in the middle of meetings while cleaning in the corner, and one time she bumped into Ava and caused her to trip and splatter a blood sample from the ocean right into her eye. Even when she went blind and the skin around her eyes scarred, Ava refused to fire Lola. It was really beyond David.
“Sooooo... You’re finally boss huh. Did you kill Ava?”
David snapped his head up and looked around to see if anyone else was there before putting one of his hands around Lola’s throat, baring his teeth.
One time Lola had overheard him talking about possibly, maybe, definetly trying to get rid of Ava with another like-minded colleague of his. All she had wanted as pay for her silence was an extra ration of protein-loaf a day and David had un-happily obliged and used his own stolen extra-rations to feed his parasite.
Lola gasped for breath and tried to pull him off her.
“Mention it again Lola, and you’re fucking dead”, he let her go and she hunched over with a hand on her throat.
“You know-”, she coughed before continuing, “even if she’s dead, you would be fired and charged if you were found to be conspiring against authority”
“Ah okay, so I'll just kill you then”
He moved to grab her but she moved back and held her hands up.
“Wait wait wait! I have a solution to all your problems!”
“... I highly doubt that”
“Just listen- you know what an evil little captains assistant you were that constantly plotted Ava’s death so you could take over?”
“You little!-”
“And now one of the sargents are going to become your assistant if you don’t choose one yourself! And we both know that no one likes you except for that guy you plotted with a few years ago, and he died mysteriously- so... everyone is out to get you right now”
He hadn’t actually thought about that yet. Shit.
“Get to the point where you somehow solve all my problems?”
“I won’t tell anyone about that guy you killed and Ava if you make me assistant captain, and then you won’t have to worry about your next in charge killing you!”
Lola smiled like an idiot. David just stared dumbfounded at her.
“You? I should make you my captains assistant?”
She nodded and did a lopsided salute. “Here to serve and be your loyal minion sir!”
David was both horrified and impressed.
“You’ll do anything I tell you?”
“Yes”
“You’ll back me up on everything I say?”
“Yes”
“You’re hired”
“YES!”, Lola jumped up and ran around with her arms above her head, whooping in triumpf. She even tried to high five David, but settled on smacking her own hand when he left her hanging.
Fucking hell. The team is going to have a field day with this when they return
“Where claw go, question?”
Grace had his mouth hanging open and eyebrow furrowed. He had no clue where the hell the claw went.
“Wait a second Rocky, I'll look for some binoculars”
“What is-”
“Makes it possible to see longer distances!”, Graces shouted from where he was running away to in the Hail Mary, despite Rocky’s excellent hearing.
“Okay take two. I have the binoculars, lift the chain up a little bit and I'll try and see if the claw is still attached”
Rocky did as he was told.
Rocky could see the chain moving and then there, all of a sudden, the claw started appearing again, but it was coated in... red.
“Rocky try dropping the chain fast”
And, just as Grace suspected, the birthmark rippled when he did and swallowed the claw again.
“What Grace seeing, question?”
“Well, you seem to be fishing Rocky, because that is an ocean. See if you can drop the claw down all the way to the bottom”
“Amaze amaze amaze! Grace and Rocky find ocean on foreign space object!”
Grace kept watching the chain intently until it hit something. Rocky started dancing excitedly and Grace went into the cockpit to get the Hail Mary to move in the orbit a little faster in order to scrape the bottom.
“Rocky was right! So easy to solve problem. Might even go faster than three earth days”
Grace rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, don’t be too humble now Rocky. Start bringing the chain up instead”
“Rocky best fisher”
Rocky slowly brought the chain up a few meters until it suddenly seems to hook onto something.
Grace leaned even closer to the window to look at where the chain dipped beneath the red further away and slapped at Rocky with one flappy hand to urge him to keep tugging. The surface started to ripple again, but it was not a claw with a little mud that caused it.
Up towards the surface came branches. Branches from a tree that seemed to be enveloping something.
“Oh my God, pull it up more, Rocky pull it up more”
A red covered tree seemed to emerge from the red pool. The branches flowed in the liquid, and it was clear that the branches were grown around something the more they were pulled up.
It almost looked like metal.
Rocky tugged even more, and suddenly the branches let go of the strangely shaped metal looking thing. It swung from the claw and splashed against the surface.
“Don’t drop it!”
“Human be quiet!”
They brought the swinging thing up even more. The one branch still connected to it let go when they had brought it halfway up towards the Hail Mary. The tree now stood crooked, but tall and on its own in the middle of the pool. Grace would have possibly commented on them finding a living plant that, and of that size none the less, if he hadn’t spotted the writing on the side of the now stabilized metal thing.
SM13
That looked an awful lot like germanic letters. Human letters. And the metal thing looked awfully man made.
“Rocky quickly bring it all the way up here. I’m going out the second I can”
“Yes! This object must have been made by living being. Celestial body must have what is required to support life. Grace saved by Rocky, statement”
Grace suited up and made one last check on all of his equipment before opening the Hail Mary and stepping out into the abyss. He pulled himself up and towards where the metal thing was dangling from the chain. Still far enough down to be slightly affected by the celestial body’s gravity. He pulled himself down on the chain eagerly. The aspect of finding nourishment was of course intriguing and exciting, but in Grace’s mind it didn’t compare to possibly finding a historical item proving previous existance of something with a similar language to them.
He finally touched the almost completely red coated metal thing, only after and began making his way around it towards the back to investigate. It had what looked to be screws and the metal looked like iron. It also didn’t seem to be whole. The front side of it was shaped like a tube, and the back seemed to have been crushed flat and sealed by pressure. The iron was covered by small scratches everywhere. Probably as a result of the accident that made it end up at the bottom of an ocean. The bigger scratches and indents were however... more mysterious. It almost looked like teeth marks in some places.
Grace had a shiver run down his spine with the thought.
He kept rounding it until he reached the front and more intact part of the thing. There, right at the center of the nose, was what looked to be a round window. Grace was too busy pulling himself hastily towards it to wonder why there was a window and no door.
He positioned his rope so that he hung right in front of the window. It really was a window. It was covered in the iron rich liquid, but he could see the weld work and the covered glass. He let out a laugh of triumph. Sign of life! He couldn’t even imagine what he would find inside. Maybe tools from beings similar in intelligense to humans. Maybe drawings showcasing a now dead society. Maybe even written language!
He wiped the window off with his gloved hand and pressed his face up against the window to timidly look inside.
He was horrified.
There were no tools. Or books. Well maybe there were but he wouldn’t know. His focus was placed entirely on the figure laying on its side inside of the metal thing. Black wet hair covered more than half of the being’s face, and the other half was covered by the red liquid pooling on the floor.
It couldn’t be alive. It was missing an arm for Christ sake. It was possibly drowning in the liquid too so Grace couldn’t even see all the damage because it looked like he was covered head to toe in blood.
Grace moved impossibly closer.
It was breathing. They were breathing.