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His first step on Erid has him nearly hitting the ground.
Knees buckling under its gravity, he clutches his bag with all his might.
Oh stars above, it's way stronger than he had previously thought.
The 1.5G of his ship has nothing on the brutal way Erid's atmosphere presses on his joints. He has to wobble in place to prevent himself from falling face first into his temporary new place. His suit is made to sustain falls, but he doesn't really want to risk it.
He refuses for his first impression to be… well, his usual, clumsy-self. Or to be cooked alive by past-boiling point ammonia. That can come after (the boiling ammonia aside, even though he can withstand a bit of it, please and thank you). It will, inevitably. He was born with two wrong feet and a brain that could never truly pinpoint where he is in a room. Even in 0-g, he's able to break tubes and pipettes. So here? Where gravity is two times his Earth's gravity? He has packed more than enough spares inside his ship for this reason.
He doesn't know if it's a curse or an incredible skill. The jury is still out on this.
The xenonite panels echo under his feet as he finally exists his spaceship. A simple press on its outside walls locks it entirely. He looks at it with fondness. It has been his home for the past four years. Before that, they had spent two years getting to know each other. He knows it better than the lines of his palms. It feels weird to leave it there, flooded in the artificial eridiand lights. Sure, he will go back to it. He won't stay on Erid for more than a few months. He's here for a little vacation before his big dive into the galaxy. He was quite lucky to get a personal spaceship - not that fuel is a tough thing to get. Astrophages are everywhere under multiple suns after all. But it's quite a difficult task to be awarded a solo mission. He couldn't believe his luck, up until his launch (16 years ago for Earth, wow how time flies!). He had fought tooth and nail for his project to be even considered. So to have it crowned as a potential groundbreaking thesis and funded? To be allowed a few months off so he can sight-see?
Yeah. He's one lucky bastard. His beloved Pathfinder will await here, at Erid's First Docking Station, until he's ready to leave for the stars again.
His bag falls on the floor. Damn. He really thought he had it! There's an eridian walking towards him now and here he is, fumbling like a newborn foal. What should he do? Get his bag first? Greet Earth's oldest friends?
He settles on correcting his balance. His mother had raised him right. When you meet your neighbor, you have to be your best self.
"Hello, friend from Sol !" comes the melodious voice of an eridian.
"Hello, friend from Erid." He replies, whistling the simplified eridian all humans learn.
He refrains himself from squealing. An eridian! An eridian living on Erid! He used to dream about that moment and now he's living it!
The eridian comes into the Docking Station's lights. They're a pretty orange color, their entire "face" painted with peach colored streaks. He immediately thinks of a cornelian stone. The top of their carapace is smooth and almost shiny, no doubts polished to the latest fashion trend. Around their five legs, he spots and hears bracelets. Their clicks resonate nicely with their voice.
He's beside himself with joy. Sue him! His eridian teacher and neighbors back on Earth were just as eridian as the one in front of him - but they were on Earth, not on Erid and now he's finally taking the first step on his life mission and this beautifully colored eridian is probably wondering why he's shaking like a leaf, but he's too happy to care.
Erid! He has been dreaming of Erid ever since he was a little kid!
"Did you have a safe travel?" the eridian asks politely.
"It was perfect, thank you!" He replies cheerfully.
"Should we wait for another crew member?"
"No, I'm alone."
The eridian lets out a small honk. They seem embarrassed by their reaction, because they immediately apologize. He chuckles, knowing exactly what caused their outrage.
Some things never changed, no matter how old their friendship is.
"It's alright. I know you guys aren't fan of sleeping alone. But I'm good. I'm very excited to visit Erid!"
"Then welcome again, friend from Sol. I'm Joyous-Thrill-Spaceship Maintenance-Crew-at-First-Docking-Station! I'll be taking care of your spaceship until you're ready to leave. Have you named it the human way?"
"Pathfinder. Nice to meet you! My eridian teacher used to call me Echoing-Melody." He struggles a little at his given eridian name.
His old teacher had insisted on it. Every human kid was assigned an eridian name based on vibes alone. He doesn't know why he was assigned Echoing-Melody specifically, but it will make his stay a bit… easier.
"I'm a doctor at UNSA's Exobiology program. But I'm here for a little vacation."
Joyous-Thrill hums before turning towards the dock's exit.
"Come! We'll light the path for you!"
Somebody must have been waiting for their cue, because the entire area lights up. Hundreds of kilometers of lights come alive. He lets out a small gasp. As expected of eridians, they know how to welcome guests.
Their best friends from Sol even more.
His first look at Erid has him gawking. The cloudy blue planet he has seen up there was already a jewel, so similar to Earth yet so entirely different in its size and composition. As he steps away from the elevator platform, tipping on his personal tablet to correct his knee braces' strength, he takes in the beautiful landscape.
Earth is green with trees and grass. He has left a planet blooming with life.
Erid is a myriad of tones, a painter's desk splattered in all nuances and hues known to the human eyes. It's mineral and rough at first glance, but as he's guided towards the eridian equivalent of a train, his greedy eyes latch onto the gentle slop of a mountain plateau. Here, the rusty color of the mountain splits into rich burgundy and gorgeous quartz inclusions. He can distinguish houses near th station, but he leaves that spectacle for later. It's where he's heading after all. His human-appropriate hotel is waiting for him. But before, he takes a few seconds to let the view wash over him. The others before him hadn't lied. This, truly, is Erid's second jewel - and it bears its name quite well. The city is fully alight, as it is customary when humans come to visit. It sparkles all the way from here.
"See you later, Echoing-Melody! Enjoy your stay on Erid!" Joyful-Thrill sing-songs as he boards the train.
He fights back a groan at lifting his feet in his Erid-Suit paired with double gravity. He feels like a grandpa.
He whistles a polite hello to the other passengers, all eridians. They wave back at him before going back to their conversations, subsonic voices leaving only a shake within his bones.
He smiles.
Probably too wide and full of teeth.
He can't help it. He's finally here, on Erid! Ever since he was a boy, his eyes had been glued to the starry sky. He has moved to the Southern hemisphere to make sure he could see Eridani-40 every night. He had talked his parents and twin's ears off so much about Erid that they had no choice but to urge him to enroll in the exobiology program. To be here is a dream come true.
And his first stop? It's all he has been thinking about ever since he had woken up in Pathfinder, five months before his arrival.
They don't have glass in their train, but they do have clear xenonite, purely for the humans and other kinds visiting.
His blue eyes look outside, seeking his destination.
Illuminated by thousands of lights, the City of Saviors offers itself to him.
Grace smiles, as bright as the Sun.
*******
"Preface :
The Astrophage crisis proved to be Humanity's biggest challenge, but also its greatest opportunity. The exo-organism originating from Tau Ceti, as we all know, contaminated Sol and the resulting consequences were counted in billions of lives. We won't dive deeper into History - all of us, today, know what price our ancestors paid.
However, the Hail Mary Mission proved itself to be a pioneer in exobiology and intergalactic contact. Savior of Stars, Dr. Captain Ryland Grace and Esteemed Savior of Stars, Rocky, through their immense sacrifice, gave us the cure we were hoping. They gave us what would become the tools we needed to save our star and ourselves. Moreover, they gave us the path to our great friends of Erid, with whom we have cultivated a friendship that has spanned over three and half millennia.
Said friendship gave us, humans, longevity and sturdiness. It gave our eridian friends a protection against radiation and a reinforced immunity. It gave our species adaptation (to an extent!) to each other's worlds.
These evolutions wouldn't have been possible without similarities between our lifeforms.
Our goal for this research is to be a fraction of their groundbreaking discoveries. We aim to search all the other stars and their planetary system for the common ancestor they were talking about in Log 43. The panspermia theory has been discussed wildly ever since the First Contact, but never fully studied. Our research will focus on gene sequencing on Tau Ceti's immediate neighbors, as a way to construct a phylogenetic map and understand our species' functioning. "
Grace cracks his back as he arches in his chair. He yawns immediately after. His excitement, up there, didn't help his… more than questionable sleep schedule. He's long overdue for a good night sleep and in truth, he shouldn't be writing on his research right now. Synthesizing only comes after years of work, he had that drilled in his mind since his undergrad. However… the simple act of walking the City of Saviors' streets had him brimming with such energy that he figured he could spare future him a bit of work and write down a preface. It's not the core of his research. It's mainly to "catch the readers' attention" or whatever.
He purses his lips as he ponders if he should add more to the genic therapies brought by astrophages, taumoeba, immunotherapy and worker cells, but decides against it. He will probably cite it later.
"Okay, time for a break!" He exclaims, clapping in his hands for good measure. "Let's go and explore!"
His room for the next several months is a funny blend of human and eridian styles, mineral and metallic yet decorated with bright and colorful furniture. His bed is too wide for a singular human, more akin to a nest than anything (does he mind? Absolutely not.). The clear xenonite window gives a very nice view on the stone garden, decorated in crystalline fake trees. He looks at them fondly. He's sure that for eridians, they're perceived similarly as earthian trees.
He wonders if they're as old as him. His namesake.
Ryland Grace. The first human on Erid.
He wonders if someone had built these trees for him, whenever he was able to visit. He knows about the biodome, of course. He will visit it - after all, it was made for humans, so they're more than welcome to stay there. It's right here, in the middle of the City of Saviors. Going to a hotel was kind of a caprice of his. Whenever he looks at the biodome's pictures, there's something tugging at his heart. It was easier for eridians to open the biodome to other humans than to build hundreds of hotels all over Erid. However… Grace kinds of see it as a mausoleum. He'd feel weird to sleep where Ryland Grace had lived and given his last breath, even if thousand of humans had done it before.
At first. Nowadays, humans are as welcome all over the planet as eridians are on Earth.
Grace ponders a few seconds more on that simple, clear quartz tree. He does wonder if it's as old as Ryland Grace. Probably not. His era has come and went. No one, on Erid, can confidently says they knew him personally.
But he was so loved on Erid that it wouldn't surprise him if some remains of his days still linger.
He observes the tree for a few minutes. Unmoving. Nearly unblinking. Tearing his gaze away is an effort he doesn't quite understand.
"It's a simple tree…"
Perhaps his hero worship is running deeper than expected? But who could blame him? He was named after the greatest astronaut and molecular biologist who has ever lived!
His namesake left a mark, a bright, glowing mark on two planets and their history. Earth historians marked the day of his death as the start of the Bright Summer. Eridians, who know no summer and no brightness, called it the "Loud Songs from the stars", for suddenly, both parties knew the other existed. Both parties looked for others, advanced species able to cross the stars. Metaphorical doors opened, centuries-old problems were solved, communication ran from one spot in the galaxy to another and suddenly all the star sailers were cruising towards a new era.
If Grace hadn't been born within the full bloom of the Bright Summer, he would have loved to live through these ages. His scientific (nerd-) side would have thrived during the time were human lifespans were pushed back centuries - or eridians were gifted another layer of protection towards radiation, allowing them to travel as much as they wanted without any lingering fear. The intricacies inherent to gene therapy, moreover from species from a totally different planet, must have been as challenging as they were rewarding. It must have been glorious to work in a lab back then, to work towards something so grand and universal. And to live through Second and Third and Fourth and Fifth and Sixth and Seventh Contact(s)!
He hopes to follow in their footsteps.
He hopes to unlock the last piece missing, the Common Ancestor to all.
Savior of stars, Ryland Grace and Rocky had been convinced it existed. No one truly followed through their theory, for there were, to put it simply, too many things to work on, for a long, long time.
Sadly, Ryland Grace lived before all these discoveries. He died peacefully on Erid at 79 years old, surrounded by his family. He was mourned by an entire planet. Then, when the first human crew set foot, five years after his death, he was mourned by another world. One he had left unwillingly, one he had settled on with joy, both he had saved through blood and tears. Both he had loved to the deepest part of his soul.
He would have loved this new era. Grace can only hope he will approach a quarter of his scientific glory.
"Okay, time to go out!" He says, more forcefully than before. "First step, a shower!"
He doesn't know why he's suddenly daydreaming about a dead hero. His hero worship has never ran as deep - but also, he has never been in Erid before.
Hm. Oh well, it must be misplaced wistfulness.
Grace gets up and heads to the bathroom to freshen up. The shower is absolutely perfect at unknotting the last pains in his muscles after his atmospheric re-entry. He unties his long braid when he gets out, letting the dark blond hair spill down his back. It has really grown over the past five months. He's quite happy about it. For some reason, as soon as he had been cleared for his mission, he had the urge to grow out his hair. His mother had said a new chapter required a celebration. He had shrugged. Grace has never done well at explaining the weird decisions he takes. So far, growing his hair past the dip of his back isn't the craziest thing he has done.
Grace mentally sets a course to his first job : he ought to find an eridian jewelry shop. Their clear quartz and diamond drops are perfect as little sun-catchers. He's been waiting to get his hands on a set since his neighbors' mating ceremony. Braided in his hair, they will look perfect!
As he brushes it, he looks at himself in the mirror. There's a frown making its way on his face and he doesn't know why. He's happy to be here, so overwhelmingly happy he's going to word vomit on his family vlog (they won't see it for years but it's the thought that counts!). He's starting a new chapter in his life exactly where he has always wanted. So why does he feel… weird?
He's as bad with emotions as he's good in a lab. He doesn't understand the feeling that seems to beat alongside his heart. He doesn't understand the crawling sensation in his throat. It's like he's… waiting for something? Is it trepidation?
"Hm." he hums. "Must be the space travel."
His body must be dying to be outside. He should sleep at some point.
Yeah. He should.
Grace redoes his braid, gets out the bathroom, whistling his eridian name again and again to engrave it in his mind. He makes a quick work of dressing comfortably, then he's out towards the Storing Room to pick up his Erid-Suit.
He wants to explore his surroundings first! There's a bar in his hotel but c'mon, he's not on Erid to emulate his usual Friday night. They have music caves he's been dying to try. Apparently, the low bass and rhythmic notes work quite well on humans. It forces their heart to harmonize, resulting in a trance-like state.
As he exits his hotel and starts walking, he leaves behind the weird sensation he has been feeling. There's a world out there ready to be discovered!
*******
Okay.
So.
Woops, there was a step-
Ah nevermind, he's on his two feet, it's alright! Everything is good!
Grace shakes his head and regrets immediately. It sends sweat flying in his suit and his vision swims.
Damn, he has to sit down or something or else he's going to fall head-first into the ground and pass out there like a forgotten piece of garbage. At least his superiors are far, far away… Unlike that time they saw him inhaling shots the night before his thesis defense. Aha. What a crazy moment. To be fair to past Grace, he was stressed out to the high stars.
To be fair to present Grace… He didn't know music caves could be so potent!
Okay, perhaps he had overstayed just a little, but eridians should really add a warning to their touristic ads because those caves are deadly.
Well not in the literal sense of course, he's feeling more than amazingly alive but-
"Oh no I'm rambling in my head." He mutters out loud. "I really need to sit down."
The problem is, when he moves his eyes from his feet (he's very unsteady right now), he… doesn't recognize where he is.
And for a good reason.
It's entirely black.
The only light around is two lights on his suit, situated on his shoulders. Otherwise, Erid's darkness is as encompassing as a moonless night.
"Oh shit, where I am?"
He doesn't hear eridians scuttling around. Actually, if he focuses, he doesn't hear anything at all.
Great. Not only he's sound-drunk (and man, isn't that the weirdest feeling ever), he's also lost.
He turns around to try and locate the city main's part, where lights should be-
Wait.
Lights do get cut off during "Humans Sleeping Hours", between 2am and 6am Universal Time. He had left his room around 8pm. He had bought a gorgeous set of hair drops and a pair of earrings, then had gone to the music cave around 9. He hadn't missed his curfew, hadn't he? He hadn't spend five hours in the cave, hadn't he?
… It would explain a lot of things, actually. Mainly, his state.
"My first night on Erid and I'm sound-drunk, lost and I've missed curfew!" He groans. "What am I, 70?"
If his twin could see him, he would be laughing to tears. Thankfully, he is all the way to Proxima Centauri B, so Grace is safe. For now. He doesn't put it past his brother to somehow telepathically admire his 140 years old, adult twin with a whole ass PhD and a life mission being an absolute disaster.
He's very glad eridians don't have the habit of recording strangers being stupid. Nobody except him will ever know about-
Grace trips over seemingly nothing and tumbles down a narrow street. He stays on his feet by the mercy of gravity but the gentle downwards slope carries him away, further away into the darkness. By the time he's somewhat stable (his ears are still ringing), he's… somewhere.
He looks around. Tries to access his surroundings.
Well, his hypothesis is proven.
He's lost.
Okay. No more music cave for him.
"Well done Grace, you've really outdone yourself!" He grumbles. "Let's see if I can use the map."
He hobbles towards what he thinks is a bench. His lights don't go past 10 meters so he's walking with a faith in his abilities only a drunk man can have.
The ground changes under his feet. Instead of the flat stone panels that compose all eridians cities, he hears the crunch of small stones grinding against his suit. As he looks down, he notices several patterns that look like circles, patterns he's severely disrupting. They're brown, teal and gold, laid together in a succession of three. His gaze travels further. The circles give way to flower-like shapes. Some stones are glimmering softly under his lights - polished quartz, he guesses. They're laid between each iteration of rust-teal-gold. Grace softly smiles as he admires the beautiful work laid down on the ground. He's quite sure every single one of them was placed with utmost care.
Then electricity sparkles in his mind and he wants to slap himself.
He quickly glances to the left, where he sees the stone path.
Grace realizes he's destroying a park.
"Oh by all the stars above!"
He jumps out of the stone beds before he's arrested for committing public disruption.
His first night on Erid is a disaster.
Grace all but falls down on the low, smooth bench and puts his head in his suit-covered hands. He lets out a low groan that encompasses everything : embarrassment, frustration and the very distinct feeling that he's an idiot with a PhD in idiocy.
He feels like a kid who has the house keys for the first time, invites his friends and wrecks the house.
Not to be dramatic.
Okay, full drama, because he's lost, the sound-drunk effect is vanishing under a pounding headache and the lights won't switch on until-
Grace checks his tab. It's 4am.
So as he was saying, the lights won't switch on for another two hours and he should be checking his GPS but not before wailing a little before.
"… Have I downloaded the newest map actually."
For his mental health's sake, he's going to assume he has. Otherwise, his next stop will be Erid's active volcano.
Grace breathes in. Breathes out.
Before checking his tablet, he's going to try and assess where he is. Perhaps it will ring a bell.
It's a park, that he knows. The pretty stones still glitter in his artificial lights and if he squints, he can more or less see xenonite lamp posts. The lights bounce off the curves. They look like flowers and leaves, which surprises Grace. Usually eridians don't bother with that type of patterns, preferring an almost brutalist approach to architecture, especially things they have no use for. The lampposts and lights are pretty much reserved to human uses (and others species), so eridians had built them in series. They're tall, flat and thin. Straightforward.
The ones in front of him aren't like that.
Tiredness forgotten, Grace gets up and approaches the nearest one. The xenonite is wonderfully crafted. Several thin strands are entwined together like roots on wisteria trees. Curls and loops sprout from within, ending in a hook where fairy lights dangle. As his eyes go up, he notices fourth strand connecting to other lampposts. He reaches out his left hand. The suit connects to wind-chimes. They ring in the silence, gentle yet deafening.
Feeling like he has just broken the law again, Grace backpedales.
"What are you doing, question?"
He should react with poise. With elegance. He had refrained himself from dancing on the tables back at the cave music, for eridians' memory is absolute, even sound-drunk. However, this is his first one-to-one with an eridian from Erid. He can't mess this up.
Wistful thinking.
Grace is only a man.
He shrieks in fear and jumps so high he nearly sends himself into orbit.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to startle you!"
Grace cannot put a hand over his heart due to the suit, but the sentiment is here. It feels like the organ is about to burst out of his chest, if it's not his lungs who burn to ashes before.
"I'm fine!" He manages to say.
"You're lying. Your heart rate is louder than a thrum." the voice replies with the inflection of doubt.
"You scared me." Grace breathes out, trying to calm down. "I didn't hear you."
"Incredible. Human earing is just as bad as they say."
Grace snorts. Of all eridians, he has apparently found one with an attitude.
"I take it's the first time you're interacting with my species?"
"Yes. The other humans don't come around here."
Grace flicks his head around, trying to locate the newcomer. They must be outside of his lights' range, because he doesn't see even a shard of a carapace. It's a bit unnerving to hear a voice coming from the dark. It tickles a small, ancient part of his brain that he quickly shuts down. He's not in danger. The eridian isn't an enemy. It's very likely that they perceived him walking around, disrupting the stone garden, touching wind chimes he shouldn't have touched and decided Grace had done enough for tonight- today- whatever the time was on Erid.
"Where are you? I can't see you."
"Apologies, apologies, I forgot the lights were off."
A scuttling noise comes from his left and suddenly, bathed in the crude, white lights of his suit, appears an eridian no taller than his hips. They're a light rusty brown, with patches of glittering orange shards like amber, but they're not smooth like Joyous-Thrill. Their carapace is rough, sharp edges and cracked in some places, although none of them seems like scars. Grace's gaze travels down their right front arm where he sees a beautiful aquamarine embedded within their family crest.
For reasons unknown, the sight of this eridian brings a blinding smile to Grace's lips. He attributes it tiredness.
"Hello there."
"Hi friend from Sol! What are you doing here?" the eridian thrills, seemingly just as happy Grace.
He's no doubts overjoyed at meeting their first human.
Grace debates whether or not he should tell them the truth - that, like a teenager on his first drinking night, he has overshot and had gotten in trouble. He could lie to make himself sound wiser. He supposes he can be metaphorically transparent because their echolocation makes it hard to be anything else than perceive-through, for them. There's a gentle urge in him to be honest to the eridian, though. He isn't one to follow on some whimsical thing like an instinct, but for once he's going to listen to it.
"It's my first night on Erid." He sighs. "I went to a music cave to celebrate and I got lost. I also lost track of time. I don't know where I am. I was trying to see where I was."
The eridian stills and boy, for a species without a proper face, Grace can see very well the absolute appalled look they're giving him.
"Wow. Human-friend-from-Sol is a disaster." The eridian laughs.
"Hey!"
Grace's protest dies in his throat. He shrugs. He supposes it's well-deserved considering his situation. He wants to facepalm, but he can't. He can withstand Erid's atmosphere for half an hour all thanks to Human Eridian Adaptation, but he can't risk it so far from his hotel.
"Where I am anyways? I assume it's a garden."
"Yes, yes." The erididan replies. "The City of Saviors' oldest garden. Humans don't know about that one."
Grace raises an eyebrow. Color him interested.
"Why is that?"
"It's a secret. Eridians want to preserve this place. That's why I stopped you from touching the decorations." The eridian says with a frustrated tone. "I forgot you can't see the statue right now."
"Well, can you show me, please? I won't say anything."
The eridian seems to debate for a few seconds before approaching Grace then bypassing him. The human follows until they reach a platform, marble-like, where hundreds of brightly colored stones decorate the several steps leading to the statue.
Grace reads the plaque. It's difficult, because it has been withered by time, ammonia and the acid rains that regularly pour down from the sky. It takes him a while to understand the eridian, until he realizes it's old eridian. The words appear clearer. Grace loses his breath.
"Merciful-One-From-Sol-Savior-Of-Stars-Friend-Of-Erid-Teacher-Doctor-Captain-Ryland-Grace, who was given the eridian name of Kindest-Harmony-From-Distant-Star. He who saved our star lays here, always beloved, never forgotten. His family sings mournfully for him."
Another plaque tells the passerby they can leave a piece of their carapace to honor him.
Tears spring to his eyes as a strange emotion grips his heart. It rises steadily inside of him like a tide, a whirlpool of sadness and gratitude for the love this planet had for him - for an alien who sacrificed everything.
"I thought he was buried in the biodome." He manages to say.
"He is." The eridian replies softly. "Before he died, he asked for his heart to be buried here. Eridians of that time knew humans would come to honor him. They knew of the reason why he was in space and decided this grave would stay hidden. He was much more Erid than Earth, so they saw it as fitting. There was a Thrum and everything."
"Is it… okay for me to be here?"
"I though it was fitting." The eridian's voice is laced with hesitation. "I don't know why."
"Why here?"
The eridian points behind the statue, but Grace cannot see. The eridian huffs, no doubts irritated by humans' lack of perception, before they add.
"It was Savior-of-Star-First-Engineer-Honored-Pilot-One-Who-Saw-The-Void-Loud-Winds-From-The-Mountaintop and One-Who-Waited-Hundred-of-Years-Estimeed-Architect-Rolling-of-Waves-Over-Smooth-Stones' house." The eridian kneels in reverence. "An earthquake destroyed it and as per their family's request, it wasn't rebuilt. We are in what was their garden. They make sure the statue was preserved after the earthquake. Eridians come here to honor Savior Grace."
Rocky and Adrian's house. Grace nearly stumbles over the revelation. Ryland Grace chose for his heart to be with his family, always. Rocky and Adrian had watched faithfully over his long sleep until it was time for them to join him. He was always there and not here, a remanence of his alive self, like a white dwarf is a remanence of a star. No wonder why Eridians have kept this place a secret. No one wanted this sacred ground to be treated as a touristic trap. He suddenly feels very out of place.
Something forces him to stay. Perhaps the knowledge that he will be further lost if he ventures in the dark. Perhaps the same low, peaceful thrumming he feels in his bones.
Uh. The eridian must be sensing his emotions and singing in subsonic voices.
Grace tears his gaze away from the plaque and raises it towards the statue itself. And once again, all thoughts leave him.
See, he had seen many, many statues of Savior of Stars Ryland Grace. They're everywhere on Earth. They always depict him as this towering, imposing figure, with harsh lines and a faraway look, the epitome of a man on a mission. Holding the breeder tanks, with a Petrova line looping around him, holding Earth in one hand and Erid in the other, or fist-bumping Savior of Stars Rocky, in every statue he's a confident and powerful hero. Moreover, as terrible as it sounds, humans back then didn't have a lot of pictures to work with. Twenty-six years of battling the cold had left its dent into data-centers and world communications. Many had simply frozen over and their data were lost forever. Eva Stratt's perfectionism had saved the day with several hard drives filled to the brim with humans knowledge, the same she had sent with the Hail Mary. It's like somehow, in the labyrinth of her mind, she had known something like this would happen. To put it simply, they had close to no picture of Savior of Stars Ryland Grace. Copies of copies had made his features wildly different from the statue he has in front of him. Many of these statues are only echoes of the real thing.
This statue is so entirely different that Grace can't help but bow.
The man etched in sand colored stone is not the regal astronaut he has seen so many times. He's sitting down cross-legged, his cane laying besides him, head thrown back in an eternal laugh. His short braid falls behind him. On his ears, around his neck, on his wrists and ankles, jewelry hang. Celebration gear for some, gifts for others. If he had been wearing all that, then he must have been a real symphony to listen to. They're so delicate and gorgeous, yet it seems like they're an addition. The necklace he wears move in the apparent breeze blowing through the garden. Beads of colors, midnight blue, teal, copper, citrine and opaline shaped into perfect pearls. They're arranged neatly, too neatly to be a coincidence.
Grace sees the shapes in the space between his legs. Pebbles. Five brightly colored pebbles climbing onto his legs. Then he sees the shape behind the human. One eridian is on the smaller side, with deep cracks in his carapace. He has an arm around Ryland Grace. The other is taller, smoother and holds both of them in their outstretched arms. One is brown, the other is blue.
Grace's eyes latch onto the jewelry again. The wrists, the ankles bracelets, the earrings and the rings…
They're colored too, rusty brown and turquoise.
Rocky and Adrian's carapaces.
The necklace. Midnight blue, teal, copper, citrine and opaline.
The pebbles' colors.
All of the eridians surrounding Ryland Grace wear something of his color. There's a distinct patch of sandy gold on Rocky and Adrian's right arms. The pebbles are crowned with eridian necklace-tiara, wearing their third parent's color.
The statue has faced the brunt of time and weather. His features aren't as clear they used to be. The earthquake might have contributed to that.
Yet the utmost care and love poured into every details is so overwhelming that Grace can't help but starts weeping.
Ryland Grace was loved, so very loved during in life and after his death. Here, his family rests with him. All of them are gone but the love they shared has faced three thousand five hundred years and still glows as bright as a thousand stars.
Somehow, he has found his real resting place.
It was so unfair, that he was gone so soon.
His heart constricts. He can't explain why. He has to tear his eyes away and rubs at them (he has to wiggle his arm in his suit for that), commanding the tears to stop.
It's so beautiful. He attributes his emotion to a pretty strong case of Stendhal's Syndrome. How can someone not be overwhelmed by emotions, when faced something so transcendental?
"Humans are truly leaky." comes the melodic voice of his eridian friend.
"Way to ruin the moment, bud." Grace chuckles wetly. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me. It's very beautiful."
"It is. And I understand. I come here to sing to them often."
Grace turns to face the eridian.
"Are you from their family?"
"Yes. Twelfth generation. My parents named me after him." The eridian points at Rocky. "Loud-Winds-From-The-Mountaintop. I also go by Astronomer-Space-Explorer-Rocky. What's your name?"
Oh shit.
"Echoing-Melody." Grace replies quickly.
"No, not the eridian name." Rocky's tone sounds like they would rolling their eyes. "I don't understand why eridian teachers on Earth insist on naming you. It's stupid."
"Hey, I like that name you know."
"I want to know your human name, statement."
Oh stars above, that's one bossy eridian. Grace prepares himself mentally for the scolding.
Many humans were named after Ryland Grace until Erid put a stop to it. In eridian cultures, only members of the same cluster can inherit names of their ancestors. It makes perfect sense that this Rocky was able to be named after his great-great-something-grandparent. Erid was and still is, fiercely protective of Ryland Grace's name (of Ryland Grace as a whole actually), as he was an eridian as much as he was a human. Thus, by law, no one named Grace or Ryland or Gracie is allowed to dock on Erid. They couldn't forbid humans on Earth to name their kids Grace, but they stomped their foot down for their space travelers.
Ryland Grace, as everyone knew and knows, didn't have an immediate family. No sisters or brothers, no kids of his own.
By eridian laws, Grace is committing more than a felony by being here. Hence why he has gone by his eridian name ever since landing.
He could go by his family name, Wheatfield. But he has always find it dumb and ill-fitting.
He could pick another name. He doesn't want to.
He fiercely attached to Grace.
He could lie-
No. Not to Rocky.
He exhales, closes his eyes and whispers.
"I'm Grace. Dr. Grace Wheatfield, UNSA's exobiologist."
Rocky doesn't say anything. Grace counts to ten before slowly backing away.
Rocky all but pounces on him. Grace shrieks. There it is, he's going to be murdered in hot mercury blood before the start of his long-life mission just because he was an idiot with a big mouth-
"An exobiologist! Amaze, amaze, amaze!" Rocky all but shrieks. "What are you doing on Erid? Are you going to study life here? My mate is an exobiologist too! They have a deep passion for oceanic life across the galaxy! What about you? I'm a pilot and engineer! Me and my mate go on missions together! Where is you crew?"
All five voice-boxes are exploding with a cacophony of notes that Grace struggles to pick up.
"You're… You're not mad?"
"Why?"
"Well… My name."
"Oh, not important at all. Many years have passed. Law stupid. I don't care. I think it suits you." Rocky thrills out a laugh.
Against all reasons, Grace blushes.
"Thank you. Rocky suits you too."
"Thanks, thanks, thanks. Now you go sit on the bench and you tell me everything."
"I do need to sit down…" Grace muses out loud as he walks.
"I know. I can see your muscles cramping." Rocky's voice is smug.
Grace sits down. The statue is covered in darkness once again, but he knows it's right in front of him. Rocky settles in front of him, loafing on the ground like an expectant cat. And Grace… He's so excited he's vibrating down to his quarks. There's something happily singing inside of him. The coincidence is simply too funny!
"Okay, let's play twenty questions!"
"A hundred questions. Statement." Rocky orders.
"As long as you guide me back to my hotel. I'll need to sleep at some point. Or I'll fall asleep here."
"I'll watch."
"That's pretty bold." Grace points out.
"I don't care." Rocky replies serenely.
The entire conversation is crazy and everyone else would be weirded out by being watched by a stranger, but Grace is crazier because he nods, more than happy by Rocky's offer. It's so normal to accept he doesn't entertain the idea of refusing for a single moment.
"Okay Rocky, ask away!"
Rocky does. Grace follows. They talk and talk and talk and talk until the lights switch on again and the garden is alight with colors. However, Grace doesn't give the grave another glance, entirely focused on Rocky. They talk some more, they laugh, they exchange on their deep passion for space, they re-tell childhood memories, they marvel at living this insane era, where all sides of the Milky Way are connected. Tiredness vanishes for a long, long time as Grace launches himself into a lengthy explanation of what he's trying to accomplish with his travel. Rocky jumps up and down when they remember a very specific type of amoeba they and their mate have found on the faraway TRAPPIST 1-c. They call their mate to tell them they have to meet with him, someday during the week. Preferably when Grace has rested. Preferably very soon. Their mate are at work and can't talk much, but they sound just as excited.
Grace starts to trip over his words at some point. However, Rocky doesn't let him go. They proceed to treat Grace with stories of their adventures, their mate's work and Grace is mad that Earth scientists never told him there was two bright minds on Erid he could have contacted. He hopes he can meet Rocky's mate as soon as possible -who, he has decided, won't be named Bubbly-Foam-On-River-Coast, but Adrian. Sue him, he's playing that incredible coincidence like a fiddle.
Words flow between them like a gentle river : endless yet gentle, a constant push and pull between two passionate beings. They talked like old friends meeting after decades. At some point, Grace decides he would rather sit in front of Rocky, on the ground. Rocky extends two arms so they can rest on his crossed-legs.
They can't stop. In truth, Grace doesn't want to stop talking to Rocky. Rocky is exactly the same, it seems. There's no lull in their conversation. Every time one stops, the other presses on.
It's pleasant. No, it's more than that.
'It's everything' Grace thinks.
Eventually though, Grace is yawning every thirty seconds. He's dead to the bones.
"Grace needs to sleep." Rocky seems to sigh.
"I do, buddy. I'm past my curfew- oh shit." Grace exclaims as he looks at his tablet.
It's 9am, Universal Time.
"Oh my stars, I need to go back to my hotel before I faint." Grace, this time, slaps the Erid-suit above his face.
"Bad, bad, bad. I'm sorry, I kept you too long." Rocky's voice is meek. "I talk too much."
Grace refuses for his new friend to feel bad. Seeing Rocky dejected is a crime against the Universe.
"And I loved every seconds of it. You're a bright- uh, sorry, pleasant-loud little guy and I… I hope we can meet today, after I've slept?"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes !" Rocky jumps to their feet. "Let's go, I'm talking you to your hotel! Sleep now and come back quick! I will ask my mate is they're available too!"
The prospect of talking to Adrian is so incredibly exciting that Grace kinds of want to forget about sleeping (again). However, considering his wobbly steps as they depart the garden-grave, he's in dire need of a giant nap.
They continue chatting as they turn their backs to Ryland and his family. Grace casts one last glance at the magnificent statue and hopes they were able to meet in the afterlife.
Then Rocky asks a question about his ship and he promptly forgets everything else but his friend.
It doesn't take that long to find the hotel, all things considered. It's a half an hour walk. It's not that bad, as Grace was pretty certain he was at least three hours away.
"Oh, hey, here we are!" He sing-songs in english. "Thank you, thank you, thank you Rock!"
"You're welcome, Grace."
They stop in front of the entrance. It should be the time for "see you later" and all that.
"I'm here for a few earthian months." Grace blurts out. "Then I'm off to space. What about you?"
"We wanted to leave in one eridian year. But we have to rebuild our spaceship. It suffered during re-entry. They won't have all supplies ready until at least three eridian years." Rocky grumbles. "At least we will have plenty of time to talk. I have many questions."
Bossy, he thinks fondly.
Grace will never know what prompted him. He was never one for rash decisions. His work is the result of careful thinking, almost to the point of extreme perfectionism. Even his outing in the music cave had been planned since the beginning.
It's crazy, what he's about to say.
It's crazier, what he's hoping for.
The words leave him before he can stop them.
"There's enough space for three." He says. "In Pathfinder. I'm sure we can work something out."
It comes as naturally as breathing. Adrian's and his research can align. Rocky is an expert pilot with a hundred years of experience. He can stay awake while they cruise towards other stars. Three minds are better than one. The greatest discoveries have always been done with the power of many. And, to be fully honest with himself, even if he has known Rocky for a little less than six hours, he doesn't want to say goodbye just yet.
He kinds of doesn't want to say goodbye at all.
Something, etched within his bones, branded within his very being, is telling him to hold onto the eridian and never let go. It feels like he has been a starless planet hurling through the void, only to be plucked from his trajectory by gravity itself. Like he was made to orbit another planet all along.
Somewhere, on Proxima Centauri B and Gliese 832-c, his twin and his parents are bewildered at his boldness. He can feel it. He will tell them how nothing, until this moment, has never felt as right. Someday, when they will meet again on Earth (they have agreed on 100 years into the future), he will tell them how his entire soul had sang with joy as he offered his spaceship and companionship to Rocky.
"You're very bold." Rocky replies. "We have many things to discuss, and with my mate too."
"I know." Grace tries to scratch his head and fails. "I'm sorry-"
"I didn't say no." Rocky laughs softly. "It feels right to accept."
"It felt right to offer." Grace murmurs.
Rocky sways lightly from side to side, twisting their claws together.
"I will talk to my mate now now. Then you will talk to them too. If they accept, then we will all leave together. We have much time to prepare."
"Sounds like a plan." Grace nods. "I'll probably be asleep for a while. Around… Ten human hours? Accounting for a shower and food."
"Ew, food." Rocky shivers in disgust. "Okay, I'll come back here with Bubbly-Foam-Over-River-Coast. I have to sleep and they do too, after me."
"I can't wait to meet them." Grace smiles before a yawn threatens to break his jaw. "Okay, time for me to sleep. See you later, Rocky?"
"See you later, Grace."
The joy he feels is akin to how the Universe must have been when the First Light came to be. All encompassing, brighter than anything before and after, something so right and beautiful he wonders how he could have lived without it until now.
As he tucks himself into bed after a scalding hot shower (wearing his Erid-suit for so long made him stink like a pile of garbage), he giggles to himself, overcome by sudden happiness.
It feels like everything has settled itself in its rightful place. Like he's on the path he's been searching for but never realized before setting foot on Erid.
It feels like he has finally arrived to the place he's been looking for. It's strange, for he was born on Earth and dearly loves his home world.
Luck was on his side today.
Or the Universe.
Now, now Grace, you're thinking nonsense, he sighs mentally as sleeps carries him away.
He doesn't want to unpack that right now. The oxytocin released by his meeting with Rocky is probably drowning his brain right now and that's why he has those strange thoughts.
One thing for sure.
Tomorrow will be another bright day.
That night, he dreams of a foggy beach and round stones. Heavy weights on his shoulders and lighter weights in his lap. Musical voices and harmonious singing.
Come morning, he doesn't remember.
He wakes up with a smile. He goes on about his day.
He meets his new friends. Adrian is as amazing as Rocky, to the point where the poor rust-colored eridian begs them to explain what they're talking about when they go into too much details. It's perfect.
It's everything.
.
.
And when it's time to leave Erid, six months after his arrival, Pathfinder has gotten an upgrade, is loaded with enough food for centuries and his space has gotten significantly smaller.
They depart together, the three of them setting course to the stars.
Somewhere on Erid, the fairy lights cast the shadow of a smile on Ryland Grace's memorial statue.
Somewhere in space, Grace is home.