Chapter Text
I curled around my best friend as the last episode's ending theme finished in the background. Rocky had insisted on watching the whole series in one sitting and in that moment I seriously regretted showing him the anime folder on the Hail Mary. Rocky had become obsessed with show after show after he had gotten over the concept of animation. A few of them were actually good although I refused to admit that to him, it would only fuel his desire to trap me in a never-ending anime kick. My eyes were drooping as my mouth let out an involuntary yawn.
"Are you tired, question?"
"Just a little bud, we've been watching this for hours!"
"Each episode ended in a cliff-hanger! We had had had to watch the next one, statement!"
The first time Rocky had been hit with a cliff-hanger was a bad day for my eardrums. We hadn't used 'need word' in a while but apparently eridians weren't so rude as to leave a storyline unfinished for suspense. There was a lot of human slander before he had calmed down enough to come up with his own version of the word which roughly translated to 'human-story-disrespect'. Laughing at his decision had been a mistake on my part and earned me a lecture on human shortcomings. It hadn't stopped him from watching the shows, he just insisted we watch them in 4 hour sittings.
"Alright well shall we head back home? Adrian will be annoyed if we stay out any later."
Rocky let out a trill of agreement before scampering onto the sandy beach outside, his xenonite covered claws slipping as they always did. Even after years of practice he'd still failed to adapt and he resorted to placing the blame on me for his clumsiness. He'd reserved a lot of less polite language for the grains of sand in my old enclosure. The cool air tickled my nose, the feeling of dipping your toes into a fresh stream in the back of my mind. Compared to eridian air, this was practically a freezer and I shivered absent-mindedly. We cycled the airlock and the scent of ammonia filled my lungs, luckily no longer smelling absolutely terrible to me after years of breathing it in. I still couldn't get used to the fact that I could actually stand here on the surface of Erid completely unprotected. I loved my mate and all the hard work he'd put in to give this all to me. I helped him get out of his suit, my fingers had an easier time with unsealing the joints, and picked him up with ease as I hugged him tight. Eridian strength for the win! Just 4 hours of touch-starve had made me feel a little itchy inside and there was no cure better than snuggle time with my rock. Rocky protested vocally but didn't try to loosen my grip so I held him closer with a smile.
Eventually I had to put him down so we could make our way down the winding streets to head home. The darkness that used to feel constricting to my human eyes 'lit' up in sound as Rocky clicked gently. I couldn't 'see' as far as he could much to my chagrin, but it was enough for me to get around without tripping on a random rock. Being able to visualise my surroundings did nothing for my clumsiness though, and I tripped on a random rock. My face slammed into the ground with a loud crack, Rocky frantic at my side.
"Grace! Grace okay, question?!"
I was not okay but I wasn't about to say that to Rocky. My ears rung and pain laced up my nose, most likely broken as blood dribbled down my lip. I could smell the iron as claws shook me in panic. It was only when it got too close to matter that I heard it. I understood why he was screaming as he pulled on me, the truck in front of us barrelling at too fast speeds to be safe. I wondered why the driver didn't just break, they would have heard us way before I heard them but speculation did nothing to change the outcome as it approached. I wanted to tell Rocky to get out of the way, to save himself, but no words came out as the force of the vehicle hit us at full speed. The brief second of pain that flared through my body felt like I had been turned into a paste as my body shut down.
Opening my eyes was not something I had expected to do after The Truck Incident. Opening my eyes to a bright blue sky with soft clouds drifting lazily across it was also not something I had considered possible as my hair was pulled around my face. The deep breath I took felt clean, not recycled or polluted, something I had never really smelt before. Something about that was wrong. Something about the sun that sat high tugged at my brain. I tried to piece it together when a shrill shriek cut through the silence.
"Rocky in Grace atmosphere, Rocky in Grace atmosphere!! Rocky should be on fire! Why Rocky not on fire, question?!"
I blinked. That didn't sound right. I turned my head with effort and saw my friend tearing up the grass around him. The grass? I jerked up in surprise as my fingers dug into the blades. Grass was something I had resigned myself to never seeing again, but now I was touching it! Wait no, Rocky was in distress, much more important. I slapped myself and focused on Rocky.
"Woah woah woah buddy, calm down. You're okay!"
"Yes yes, Rocky okay, ROCKY SHOULD NOT BE OKAY?!"
My brain felt slower than normal today, slower than it had even before I'd become more like an eridian. I moved over to him and held him as his limbs twitched sporadically. There was a mirror image to this scene, the first time I had touched eridian atmosphere. I had been just as terrified as he was now but he was right, he shouldn't be okay. When Rocky had shoved me into an airlock unprotected, he had done so with the scientific knowledge that it would be safe. Right now there was no logical explanation as to why he could exist in an oxygenated environment. He should be catching on fire, not screaming his head off about the illogical nature of his situation.
"Make no sense! Rocky should be dead dead dead, statement!"
The words sent a chill down my spine.
"Okay, but you aren't dead. So something is keeping you alive. Lets just focus on the positives for now before we freak out about scientific impossibilities."
It took a while for the shaking in my lap to calm down but he was still trembling slightly when he spoke again, voice light as a feather.
"Grace, where are we, question?"
It was a good one. Up until now I had been living on Erid, a planet a little over 16 light years away from Earth. I had decided to spend the rest of my life there but now I sat with my alien best friend in a plains that felt suspiciously like the Earth I knew before the sun began to dim. As I moved the pressure of gravity felt light against my muscles. I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through the sea of green, a mix of happiness and fear settling in my stomach.
"Rocky, we- we got hit, right?"
His voice sounded sad as he replied.
"Yes, statement."
"How are we even alive right now? Are we on Earth and if so, how? It makes no sense."
My head hurt just thinking about it so I tried not to. Right now we needed to just act, if we stayed here eventually we would starve to death.
"We should get moving, try to find some civilisation."
"Yes yes yes, good idea. We will find humans to send us back home and then never think about this again!"
I let myself laugh at that. Maybe if I were alone I would have panicked more, let the fear incapacitate me but with Rocky next to me I could get through this.
We walked for hours. On Earth I had tried to go on hikes, a recommendation from my therapist after the staggering waste of carbon incident. It had never worked. I had always just felt sticky and out of breath halfway through, my limbs would feel like lead and moving them a chore. Now I was skipping, dancing in the reduced gravity. My lungs took in the crisp air easily despite the exercise and each step was more a bounce as I underestimated how much power was needed to move forwards. It didn't help that I was not only used to higher gravity, but also higher physical strength. Rocky was having similar strength issues despite how long he had spent on the Hail Mary. It had been a while. He kept bouncing too far forward and tumbling over into a tangle of limbs causing both of us to chitter in laughter.
A forest had begun to form on one side but we steered clear of it, the clear plains would be safer to navigate. It had started to get darker, the sun dropping in the sky when Rocky yelped in excitement before stopping with a confused carapace tilt.
"I can hear a town ahead, many many humans gather there, but it doesn't look like the Earth cities you showed me. Looks more like- No no no not possible."
"What's not possible bud?"
He hesitated before answering.
"City looks like city from show we watch, not developed. Walls made from pointy sticks."
I just stared at him before shaking my head.
"You must be mishearing things, Earth doesn't have any towns like that any more. Unless..."
"Unless?"
"Unless astrophage really messed up human development? Maybe humans returned to the middle ages?"
"You are being stupid again. Earth has enough technology to put Taumoeba on planet. I have a better hypothesis: we are not on Earth."
The idea was both exciting and terrifying. On one hand, a new planet to explore that held life. On the other hand I still hadn't mentally recovered from our first trip to space. But wait. Rocky had said-
"You said humans! If this isn't Earth why did you say humans?"
"Some look like humans, but their insides are slightly different. Some look almost human with some slightly different outsides. Some don't look human at all! Many different people!"
I clenched my fists together. Humans, but not humans. Just like me. We were still moving, and now that we had gotten closer I could hear what he meant. I felt dizzy as I listened to the many different bipedal creatures go about their day.
"They're speaking English!"
The revelation confused me more than it answered my questions and I stared at Rocky for confirmation.
"They're speaking English, statement. This makes no sense, they are not Earth humans, how do they know English, question?"
We both stood there in a stupor as the sun sunk deeper behind the skyline. Neither of us really paid attention to the dimming light as we focused our hearing on the life in front of us. It was fascinating to hear them move around in groups, laughing and talking about what they planned to cook for dinner, or what they were going to do tomorrow. People stood behind stalls making a few last sales before they began to pack up the rest of their unsold goods. I froze as I watched the interaction.
"Rocky, listen! The stalls, where they're selling stuff. The numbers, I've never seen them before but I know them. Can you read them too?"
The text was carved into a thin wooden slab, propped up in a bundle of produce
"Rocky can read them, the closest one says 12. I have never seen them before either, how can I read them, question?"
He spoke in the base 10 numbers we had devised to make splitting human and eridian counting easier. Standard human practice, but with foreign numbers.
"Hypothesis: They are not speaking English, we just understand what they are saying, same as numbers."
It was a sound theory. It wouldn't make sense for a completely different species on a completely different planet to understand one of Earth's many languages. I tried to focus harder but it still sounded like English to my brain.
"We should try to get closer, make contact!"
The idea shouldn't have been as scary as it was. I had already successfully navigated meeting alien life! This wasn't a new thing to me so why did my hands shake as Rocky nudged me gently towards the mass of people? The tall wooden walls towered over us as we approached, a burly man in very thick plate armour standing by the opening. He had an actual spear in his had, glinting in the light the crude fire torches provided.
"Hey you!"
We both flinched at the loud sound as it rung out around us. I stared at the man as he glared pointedly at us, spear still held tight in his hand.
"I'm talking to you, or are you just going to ignore me?!"
I cringed and forced myself to smile as I tried to come up with a reasonable reply.
"We're not ignoring you, sorry! What was it you wanted?"
"Rude rude rude man!"
He didn't react to Rocky's speech at all, there was no understanding whatsoever. I glanced down at Rocky and I could see he was angry, exacerbated by the fact that he couldn't express it verbally to anyone but myself. It was confusing. My own speech had clearly been understood as the man had relaxed ever so slightly at my reply, so why wasn't the Eridian? I whistled out a few words. No reaction. That was going to be difficult.
"It's getting dark soon or didn't you notice? If you want to enter you'd better do it now before we close the gates, monsters will be about soon."
Monsters? I'd forgotten that humans worked around the sun and why darkness was so problematic sure but monsters? I slowly made my way closer to the gatekeeper, Rocky sticking very close to my side as we approached.
"Uh yeah, that would be a good idea... How does that work exactly?"
He looked at me like I was insane, his eyes narrowing at my incompetence. Clearly this was something I should know from his perspective.
"You fill out some documents and pay the gate fee. That's 50 krensa or 5 medium bronze coins. If you got an adventure or merchant card you can waive the fee, but since you're asking I assume you don't got one of those?"
I shook my head as cool sweat trickled down the back of my neck. We didn't have any money. I had basically forgotten about money on Erid. It's not like they didn't have a money system, but saving the world came with benefits, like a practically infinite equivalent of a human credit card. Just one tap and you can buy anything you want. Adrian had monitored our spending so we didn't buy anything too stupid, but plenty of Rocky's engineering experiments would have burnt a hole in our wallets otherwise. I tried not to think too much of our mate as I panicked about funding. We would have time to figure that out later, not right now. My eyes stung a little as I looked back up. I was about to open my mouth when Rocky spoke up.
"Grace, look in right leg pocket, bag inside!"
I blinked. How had I not noticed that? Sure the bag was way too light for me to notice physically but I should have been able to hear it rub against the fabric of my trousers. I grabbed the offending pouch and turned it in my hands. It felt too light for it to fit heavy coins in, but sure enough when I pulled my hand out of the bag it held a small amount of different sized bronze coloured coins.
"Bag of holding!" Rocky squealed.
Of course it was. It would be useful, sure. It was also another blaring flag that I was desperately trying to ignore. I counted out 5 of the medium coins, put the rest of the coins in the bag and held my offering out to the gatekeeper.
"Hold on, let's get you inside first. Can you write?"
I stumbled. I hadn't really considered if my ability to write translated into this new language.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, it's not a very common skill."
"Oh then, no, I don't-"
I was about to add 'think so' when I caught myself. That wouldn't make any sense to him and would more than likely make him suspicious of us. Unaware of my almost blunder, he directed us towards a flimsy door set in-between the spikes.
"Nothing to worry about, we can get someone to help dictate for you."
I nodded in appreciation as we stepped inside. It was dimly lit with another fire torch, but I could make out the lines of the room just fine. There was a lanky figure sat on one side of the table, long blond hair brushing the floor slightly as he turned his head in our direction. He gestured to the singular chair in front of him.
"Guess you're gonna have to sit on my lap, bud."
He harrumphed but reluctantly he settled in his usual loaf position on my thighs. It wasn't that he didn't mind being this close, he just hated being seen as cute, especially in front of strangers.
"Welcome! My name is Rowen and I will be assisting you today, yes?"
"Uhh, thanks, I'm Grace and this here is Rocky."
I could see him stifle what sounded like a laugh as he sorted out some papers.
"Right well, lets start with you first. First name Grace, no second name?"
Ah.
"Grace is actually my second name, I just haven't been called anything else for... Gosh a while now! First name is Ryland."
He dipped the metal tip of the white feather quill in the ink pot and scratched out letters on the paper. I couldn't see them from the angle of the light so I had no way of testing if I could read them myself.
"Species?"
Right, that was a thing. I couldn't exactly say human-eridian hybrid could I? I didn't even know if the ones that sounded like me were called humans. Rowen noticed my hesitance though and saved me from my own idiocy.
"I don't mean to be presumptuous but are you a hybrid?"
It still caught me off guard but I nodded, it was the most accurate description of my current state.
"Sorry, your voice is a dead giveaway. Do you know what with?"
I gave a simple shake of my head as my cheeks flared, not trusting my own words. He just nods in understanding before scribbling something else down.
"I'm aware that hybrid discrimination can be an issue in some places, but as long as you stay close to the capital, no one will give you any problems. If they do, you can always report it to the adventures guild. Lots of hybrids work there, so many are very happy to use their strength to show a bigot who's boss. Anyway let's move on, your hometown?"
I was a terrible interviewee as my face went blank. I hadn't even considered it. I didn't actually remember my Earth birthplace. I'd probably known before the French meddled with my brain, but now trying to recall the memory was almost painful. It was a stark contrast to the clear bright memories I had of that day in the grass and everything following. My actual childhood was a black strip of nothing with only the occasional blip of déjà vu or connected emotion. I answered as honestly as I could.
"I just don't remember."
I said it simply and I watched as he blinked in confusion.
"You don't remember?"
"I was in a coma a while ago and then experienced some pretty bad head trauma. Combine the two and I pretty much don't remember most of my early memories."
"That sounds like some awful luck. Your hometown is required to verify your identity and make sure that we aren't harbouring any criminals. It might cause some some issues, please give me one moment."
He unfolded himself from the chair and ducked out of the room.
"Are you okay, question?"
The answer was no but I didn't exactly want to tell my short tempered friend that. He would have a monumental fit and try to fix whatever the problem was. I just patted him gently while we waited.
A while later, Rowen returned with a clear crystal ball cradled in the crook of his arm. He held a wooden stand in his other hand. He placed the weird geometric shape on the table and settled the sphere on top.
"I hope you don't mind but we need to validate your story. If you really don't remember that's understandable but it would be an easy story for a criminal to get away with."
"It's fine, I understand. How does this work?"
"You place your hand on the crystal ball and I will ask you questions depending on your answers. The ball will glow red if you try to lie, and green if you are telling the truth."
It made sense he wanted to confirm what I'd said. I hadn't technically lied about the important bits, apart from saying I didn't know what I was species wise. Hopefully he didn't consider that a relevant thing to check. I pressed my palm against the glassy surface and yelped when it felt like I had touched dry ice. Gripping my hand in pain, I realised my mistake almost instantly. I'd still had my hand resting on top of Rocky before I'd touched the ball and the extreme difference in temperatures had caused a reaction. Air hissed through my teeth as both Rocky and Rowan panicked slightly.
"Grace okay, question? Did the stupid ball hurt Grace, question?"
"Are you alright? What happened?!"
I managed to catch my breath to assess the damage, but there wasn't any. It's not like the temperature could actually damage my skin, it's just that my brain reacted to the dramatic shift in temperature as it saw fit. The pain wasn't from any actual damage.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, see!"
I held up my palm for Rowan's benefit.
"It was just the difference in temperature between Rocky and the ball, as long as I let my skin cool down I should be fine to touch it again."
"Ohhhh, makes sense."
My explanation seemed to calm the eridian down and I kept my left hand on his carapace. My hand felt cool enough so I attempted the movement again. It still felt cold, but not to a painful degree.
"Good to go?"
"Yup, fire away."
He cleared his throat and sorted out some papers before beginning what I couldn't ignore was an interrogation.
"Could you please restate your name for me?"
Well that was an easy one to start with.
"Ryland Grace."
To my confusion, the ball glowed red. What? That was my name and I'd never changed it so there was no other possible answer. Rowan blinked a few times, clearly he didn't expect someone to lie about something as simple as a name.
"Why do you look so confused? What's happening?"
I forgot Rocky couldn't see the colour shift and he didn't have his light texture display with him now. Maybe...
"Doctor Ryland Grace?"
My voice sounded less confident as I tried again. Still red.
"Captain Doctor Ryland Grace?"
Nope.
"Did you get your own name wrong, question?"
I was never living this down.
"I don't think so? The ball is red but I swear I don't have a secret identity! I don't understand!"
Rowan was watching us now, his eyes felt like they were looking into my very soul. He was suspicious which was incredibly reasonable considering I had gotten my name wrong. He didn't say anything as Rocky replied.
"Maybe try a calibration question, question? Has Grace lived on Erid, question?"
Smart idea, although my name really should be the calibration question!
"Yes."
The ball glowed green, which meant it was working. Rowan sat straighter at that.
"What did you do?"
I blinked over at him, I had almost forgotten he was there while me and Rocky brainstormed.
"Oh uhh, Rocky asked me a calibration question to check if it was actually working... Which means yeah I got my name wrong? I'm so confused."
The green light under my hands seemed to calm him a little. The knowledge that I was confused as he was proved that I wasn't lying intentionally least. Rocky jerked against my skin, letting out excited trills as he yelped a realisation.
"You said only human names! You also have eridian names! Say human name, then eridian name! Will work, statement! Also drop the captain, that was embarrassing."
That sounded dumb, why would a lie detector work on such technicalities? I tried it anyway.
"Doctor Ryland Grace saviour-of-Earth-and-Erid-mate-of-Rocky-and-Adrian-teacher-of-pebbles."
I breathed a sigh of relief as the glow stayed the same shade. Stupid pedantic lie detector ball. Rowen didn't exactly look happy, but he moved on to the next question regardless. It was mostly asking why we wanted to enter the town, if we had bad intentions. One stumped me.
"Have you committed any crimes, and if so what crime did you commit?"
My no had been thoroughly rejected with a red glean and I could see Rowan getting increasingly concerned as I sat there blankly. Rocky was twitching in my lap, trying to hold in his laughter and failing miserably. Crimes? As far as he was concerned, he had lived a perfectly normal- no wait scratch that he lived on an alien planet and had let them experiment on him genetically. He had lived a crime free life up until now.
"I swear I haven't committed any crimes to my knowledge."
The ball glows green again and my headaches gets worse. The colour change didn't reassure Rowen at all as he watched me. This wasn't looking good for us. He looked tired, like he was done with this interaction and I didn't blame him.
"I'll be honest, this is way out of my job description already. If you mean no harm, and aren't an active fugitive of the law then you can enter."
I responded in the affirmative and the ball stayed green. Rowan sighed again and nodded. He finished up the papers he was filling out and rummaged through a draw, producing a thicker wooden slab with engravings on it. He handed it to me.
"That's your entry permit. You should keep it on you at all times and if you lose it you may be fined so be careful with it. You will need to show it to whoever is on gate duty if you wish to leave the town temporarily and hand it back in when you wish to leave our town."
Like a visa. It was proof that we had permission to be in the town. I tucked it in my pocket next to the coin pouch. The man gestured towards the door he had exited earlier, an indication to leave.
It was only when we got out on to the street did I realise that he hadn't filled out any paperwork for Rocky. Weird.