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Kidnapping #1 | 4/26 | Rating: 5/10 | Stratt’s Vat (Making Friends)
Dr. Dimitri Komorov had heard what the younger (or newer) Task Force members whispered about when they thought no one on the leadership team was around. Simon Anguilla-Fiesher was the first to bring it to his attention, slightly bemused by the entire thing, and had asked what the scientists were going on about.
Dimitri had taken the other man aside and explained that a new expert in xenobiology would be joining them in short order and that this man had discovered more about the black dots in a week with plywood and TV science than the rest of the world's experts combined. Most of the rumors going around the developing Task Force was who this expert was.
Several people thought it was a microbiologist from some government's chemical warfare project. Some speculated on whether this was some upstart from a university whose advisor had pulled onto the project. The general consensus was that, if there was anyway it wouldn’t be, it was hopefully not Ryland Grace. Well, Dr. Ryland Grace. (The man had a doctorate in Molecular Biology and a handful of degrees in other fields that were known to no one. Well, no one beyond close relations, Ryland himself, Stratt, and her filing cabinet.)
One of the Biologists that had been studying the newly named Astrophage (and where had the name come from? The rumors for that choice spread like wildfire) and was hoping to become the Lead for the department had confided in his assistant that most of the Biologists knew Grace to have a hairtrigger temper and razer-edged wit that could (and probably would) slice any recipient to ribbons, if given half the chance.
His assistant, half terrified that he was going to be torn to shreds, had told one of the chemist’s assistants, who had told someone in medical, who had told one of the support staff, who had asked Simon what they should do if one of the researchers were unkind to them. Simon, concerned for the young Korean woman, had brought the rumors up to Dimitri in hopes to have some reassurance to bring the woman.
Dimitri reassured both that if something like that was to happen, there were protections for the staff in place to safeguard against this. And that Stratt wanted the project to succeed. For that to happen, infighting would not.
All that to say, when Dimitri found himself in a conference room early one more with German Minister Voight, Dr. Xi and Eva Stratt, presumably waiting for another person, he was slightly nervous about who was going to walk in. The Dr. Grace from the previous evening was pleasant enough, for all that he had been talking purely in science and math almost the entire time Dimitri had been watching him. Surely this Dr. Grace and the so-called “infamous Dr. Ryland Grace” were different people.
So when the door opened and a lithe blond man wearing a punny t-shirt and dying converse bee-lined for the food before turning back to Stratt for answers, Dimitri could be forgiven for basically adopting the man on the spot. The short conversation about Astrophage findings and puns had been enjoyable enough that Dimitri had offered to give the man “The Tour” of the Vat.
Stratt had seemed less than impressed, but had motioned for the two to go ahead. The black man in the suit followed behind them, obviously having orders from Stratt to follow the American.
”Come, my new American Friend, let me show you your new home.” The Russian man held the door for the two to pass before pulling it shut behind him.
”Thank you. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind.” The man’s right hind rubbed down the back of his neck, looking up at the slightly taller man over his very crooked glasses. “Feels like Carl was helping me build a model Venus and next moment I was here. That’s Carl, by the way.”
He motioned to the security agent who nodded at Dimitri, eyes alert and tracking those moving around the American.
”Oh, yeah, we’ve not been introduced, have we?” The man shot Dimitri a cheeky smile before extending his right hand to the Russian. “I’m Ryland Grace. And I think I owe you a drink.”
Dimitri could say for sure that he had no idea what the Biologists were smoking, but could he get some? Because whatever had caused them all to fear this being of absolute sunshine had to be some kind of hallucinogen and Dimitri was wondering if it could be marketed to the public. The scientists were all delusional.
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”Ry, I don’t think that counts as a kidnapping” the blond felt the teasing shove to his shoulder from where he sat with his companion, shoulders pressed against each other on the upper deck, watching the waves roll in frothy, white crests away from the aircraft carrier.
”It does so, Si! I was innocently teaching my kids one minute, the next I’m being hustled to a lab and from there to a fighter jet. I didn’t even have time to pack my bag, grab my mail or anything. I had to beg Carl to make sure they got the photo of my brothers from my nightstand.” The blond whined slightly, jostling the Korean man he was leaning against as he shoved back. “And I’m not allowed to leave. That is literally what Abduction is!”
”Fine, fine. But if you get to count that one, I get to count one you don’t agree with.” Ryland pouted at the other man before holding his hand out to shake on it.
The engineer gazed at his companion fondly, a smile settling around his eyes and mouth before he stole the twizzler hanging behind the blond's ear and taking a bite, ignoring the other’s outstretched hand completely.
He shoved the rest into the other's mouth when the American yelped in protest.
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Kidnapping #2 | 5/31 | Rating: 2/10 | First Case of “Re-abduction” Identified
Carl wasn’t sure what the kidnappers (Yes, Dr. Grace, these were kidnappers. And no amount of calling them ‘Abductors’ was going to help your case) had thought would happen. What was their goal with grabbing Dr. Grace in particular?
Don’t get him wrong, Dr. Grace was an amazingly talented scientist and was quickly becoming one of the best friends Carl had ever had. But the man was also one inconvenience away from having a major break (whether that would see him earning a Nobel or into a psych ward was one of the many bets going around since the initial lecture on not killing the entire crew with Astrophage) and removing him from his plethora of experiments, mid-cycle, was sure to have earned them some kind of fileting from the man's rapier wit.
Because while, yes, Dr. Grace had spent the last years since the infamous UNESCO conference teaching middle schoolers about the light spectrum, he had also called the leading scholar in his field a “Staggering Waste of Carbon” (an insult now circling the Vat and bringing great enjoyment when said scholar and SWoC had reacted to an engineer calling him that to his face. Carl would have paid any amount of money to watch Simon do it again. That he had been defending Grace when he did it had only added points in his favor) at said conference.
The man was not infamous for his temper for nothing.
Based purely on that, and the way Grace got cranky when he was interrupted mid-experiment, Carl had been expecting the man to be a bloody, crying, terrified mess when they found him.
What Carl had not expected was for the kidnappers to turn themselves in.
The security team had gotten an alert from the Australian government that several people had walked into a local police station, Dr. Grace in the lead, and immediately turned themselves in. Dr. Grace had (apparently) explained that the group was trying to protest the use of a particular resource that would cause later resource shortages and had been unable to get anywhere through official channels. One of the group had known someone local who could make the grab, and had found Grace alone after some conference lecture.
That Carl had been on Stratt’s detail that week while Grace was at the conference, and the temporary replacement had not seen fit to follow Grace on a bathroom run, had provided the perfect situation.
That the abductors had sent proof of life and were waiting for a reply had worked in the Task Force’s favor this time as Dr. Ryland Grace, with all the poise of a Middle School teacher who was used to difficult students, had de-escalated the situation and gotten to the heart of the issue with enough time saved to be back to safety before Stratt could pull a retrieval team together.
That the group was correct, and the material was actually nearly depleted was never explicitly, or publicly, confirmed. A new direction was announced with the plan for the Hail Mary and no further attention was brought to it. (That the main orchestrators of the abduction had received a card in prison with a letter explaining what the project was now using as an alternative, a ‘thank you’ for pointing it out, and an expectation to use their smarts for less illegal activities in the future was a secret between Ryland and an immeasurably relieved prison warden).
*****************
Simon stared at the American as the other man continued down the hall. The other turned back when he paused to draw breath, having now realized that his companion had stopped walking.
”Hey,” the biologist tilted his head in confusion. “you ok?”
Simon stared at the other man, completely non-plussed.
”You just… led the group of kidnappers to the police station?” His voice croaked as the words scraped out of his throat.
”Yes.”
”And they followed you?” Ryland’s eyes flicked around the hallway, looking for an out.
”Yeeessss.”
”After you…what?…Asked for their concerns and listened?” Simon was pretty sure his jaw was no longer a part of his face and had a new home on the floor.
”…Yes?” Ryland just looked more like a confused puppy than normal. “I mean, after realizing what their demands actually were when they sent Stratt the demand video, I figured we had time before anything would happen and some of the things they brought up were actually decent things to keep in mind.”
Simon just watched the other shift from foot to foot nervously before ushering them bother forward again with a hand on Ryland’s lower back.
”You are something else.”
(They were nearly at the end of the hallway when Simon paused again.
”Hey, why was that a 2/10?”
Ryland’s laughter echoed behind him as he booked it away from Simon, the engineer scrambling to keep pace.)
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Kidnapping #3 | 6/30 | Rating: 4/10 | Class 106: Stranger Danger
Eva Stratt, Director of the Petrova Task Force and Project Hail Mary, could feel the headache building behind her eyes from the moment Carl stormed into her office and demanded to see the references and checks on Dr. Grace’s alternative security team.
”And, why, Carl, do you need to see those? They have been cleared to work with Dr. Grace, even if you don’t like it.” Stratt had been dealing with Carl’s overbearing (overprotective, not ‘motherhen-like’, Dr. Grace, please be professional) attitude since she had assigned him to Grace in San Francisco. The man was just as much of a workaholic as Dr. Grace and would work himself to collapse to stay on duty with Dr. Grace at whatever strange hours the man decided to use his lab at.
When he and Grace were both on the edge of collapsing from exhaustion and ended up in Medical, Stratt had put her foot down. More guards took up rotation around Ryland while Carl finally took some time off.
Not even 6 hours later and Carl was seething on the other side of her desk.
”I need to see them because the person who ran them needs to be fired. One of the Engineers, Simon something, reported that Dr. Grace was seen being led towards a helicopter by one of them and nearly got on the damn thing.”
Stratt froze.
”And where, exactly, is Dr. Grace now?” Her voice was crystalizing on the window and misting her breath as the temperature in the room plummeted.
“Reviewing some schematic with Dr. Komorov and Simon. That engineer has some quick instincts. He grabbed Dr. Grace's attention with something, practically ripped him away from the kidnapper, and brought him straight to Dr. Komorov.” Carl glared out the window behind Stratt. “Dr. Komorov, who called me and asked where I was and who was on duty.”
Stratt went still. Only department heads knew who was broadly assigned to each scientist, and specifically to Dr. Grace and herself. For Dimitri to ask….this wasn’t an approved guard.
”Where is the kidnapper?” She hissed the last word, spitting slime off her tongue and attempting to remove the disgust that word still brought her.
”In the cells, on the lower deck.” Carl turned back to her slightly as she stood. “Ma’am, next time, either let me clear the Detail, or introduce them to Grace and myself. That man has no self-preservation instincts when it comes to his health, and even less awareness of his actual position on this Task Force. Stranger Danger barely peaks on his radar and it’s causing an issue.”
The terse nod he got as she crossed to the door and stormed down the hall was enough of a dismissal as Carl was currently likely to get.
Who knows, she might actually listen to someone besides Grace for once.
**************
”I want to change that score!” Grace protested from his position atop his lab bench, watching Simon fill in the data on his string of abduction attempts. The engineer smirked at him and continued writing as though he hadn’t heard him at all.
A gruff snort from behind the pair had Ryland rolling his eyes.
”Shush, Court. 4/10 is too low a score for what came of that attempt.”
Ryland’s brother moved forward until he was leaning on the table beside the younger man, holding out a bag of sour skittles with a smirk. He gently bumped shoulders with his baby brother before allowing the molecular biologist to lean against him while protesting the abduction attempts rating again.
”No, seriously, c’mon, Si! It needs a higher rating than 4/10!”
The engineer looked over at him and raised an eyebrow.
Ryland flushed a deep red and seemed to decide counting the threads in his shoelaces was more interesting.
”Ok, you have my attention. Why was this attempt worth a higher rating?”
”Because….” Ryland huffed before continuing, eyes looking everywhere besides at his two companions, “It was the first time we, officially, met.”
Simon felt his own cheeks burn.
(Court would later tease the pair of them mercilessly about the stupid grin they had shared, all the while telling Claire to address Simon as ‘Uncle Si’.)
(“Oh,” Ryland piped up much later, head leaning against Simon during the crew’s Friday movie night. The pair had been invited by Olesya and Yao soon after first seeing the ‘Kidnap Board’. “The other reason that attempt needs a higher rating than 4/10 is because Steve heard Carl give Stratt an impressive lecture on ‘Stranger Danger’ before she came to Engineering.”
The Hail Mary Crew (+Court, Claire, and Simon) all looked at Ryland like he had spoken a different language.
”I’m serious! Steve even has security footage. I’ll get it for you, hold on.”
The movie was quickly switched to footage of the hallway outside Stratt’s office where Carl could be clearly heard.
”Seriously, Director, Class 106: Stranger Danger for Idiot Genius Biologists and their Boss.”)
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Kidnapping #4 - 7 | 7/19, 9/4 - 9/6 | Rating: 5/10 | Does it Count if the Work got Done?
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“If you have to ask that, yes it counts.” Simon looked up from the panel he was welding, his welding mask firmly in place. “And stop pouting. It doesn't change that it happened.”
”It should.” Ryland pouted harder, bringing his arms up to rest across his chest. “I don’t remember the July one at all. I’m pretty sure Carl and I were visiting Colt. Why did you even count it? And in September, I didn’t even realize I couldn’t leave the hotel room until I tried to go find Dr. Dubois about a theory I wanted his opinion on. I may have a way to refill the fuel tanks while the Hail Mary is en route to Tau Ceti.”
The entire department froze.
Simon turned off his blow torch and waved frantically for Dimitri to join them. Several people were furiously scribbling down notes on everything Ryland started explaining. One even got him a whiteboard.
The lecture that sprung up and filled two further boards turned into a Priority 1 Project.
(Months later, once the Hail Mary’s new refueling system was tested and installed on the ship, Simon took the chance to pull Ryland into his arms and hold him.
”Yeah, I don’t think those 4 abductions actually counted.”)
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Kidnapping #8 | 10/4 | Rating: 2/10 | Tied to a Chair
Dr. Li-hua Lamai prided herself on her professionalism, almost above her pride in her coma technology and its inclusion in such an important project.
She clung tightly to her mask of professionalism while gently treating the rope burns, abrasions, and injuries that had taken residence on Dr. Ryland Grace, else she break down in tears at seeing him like this.
Dr. Grace had quickly become her favorite person on the Vat. Had welcomed her warmly and checked in on her during the heavier research phase of the coma technology. He often brought her little pick-me-ups when he would stop by to chat, or a coffee when they had progress meetings. (And if she hadn’t seen the downright gooey smile on his face when around the engineer, Simon, she would have tried her luck. Poor Dr. Lokken still thought she had a chance.)
Each wince and whine that was dragged passed his teeth and into the infirmaries air made the inhabitants shift unhappily.
Stratt was standing nearby, tablet in hand forgotten in favor of staring at Grace as though he’d disappear.
Carl stood just inside the door, back straight and eyes shooting daggers at some invisible target on the ceiling.
Dr. Lamai gently wrapped the last round of gauze around Ryland’s arm and looked him over one last time.
”Nothing more I can do. Your injuries just need time.” She pulled his medical file up on her tablet and added the most recent injuries to the long list of lab mishaps that filled most of the page. (She made a note to have someone check if the Biology lab had enough bandaids, already planning the order for a resupply to have at least one box of science themed ones.)
Stratt glared at the ground. Carl glared at the ceiling.
Ryland took in a steading breath.
”Dr. Lamai, could you put in a referral for a therapist?” He wouldn’t look at her, his thumbs tapping gently against each fingertip in a measured pattern. He continued, though everyone in the room had gone still. “For all of the main Hail Mary Crew, Director Stratt, Carl, the Leadership team, and myself?”
Lamai watched him silently for a moment before tapping a few buttons to send the referral off.
”May I ask why?” Her voice kept a deceptively even tone, though her eyes were darting between the three people currently in her medbay.
”The guy, Handstand, or whatever, mentioned my older brother.” He took another deep breath, still refusing to meet anyone’s eye. Carl’s face had twisted into surprise, Stratt’s eyes had widened and Lamai felt herself squint at the blond American in confusion. “Only…Court died in prison almost 20 years ago. And I realized, while Carl dragged him off to that place I’m not supposed to know about, that I never dealt with it. Never processed what happened. And if I never did that, then there is no way the Crew has dealt with the preparations for launch. And if they haven’t, I doubt the entire Task Force has had the time, or felt safe enough, to deal with everything we’re doing here.”
Ryland finally met her eyes.
”And there is a lot to process.”
He was right. They all knew he was right.
The Crew alone had enough to work through to keep a team of therapists busy for weeks. Between Ilyukhina’s …Ilyukhina, Yao’s role on the team, and Dubois and Shapiro’s tryst, unresolved trauma seeped from them. Saying goodbye to the friends and acceptance of the Task Force after years of working closely with everyone? That would affect anyone.
And now, Ryland was mentioning unresolved childhood trauma that was seemingly still affecting him…she would not be the one to say ‘no’.
”Done, Dr. Grace.” She kept her words soft. “Thank you for being brave enough to ask.”
Carl lay a hand on Dr. Grace’s shoulder and squeezed gently.
”We’ll get it done.”
********************
”Is that why Dr. Dubois and Dr. Shapiro started insisting on stricter handling and Astrophage requesting measures? They had….” Simon’s voice was the quietest Ryland had ever heard it.
”Appointments with their therapists, yeah.” Ryland let out his breath in a long hiss, letting it whistle through his teeth. “And I’ve never been happier that something as miserable as being kidnapped led to something like that.”
Messy blond strands flopped onto Simon’s shoulder as the American tucked his face into the other man’s neck.
”We’ve all been sleeping better and double checking our measurements. Martin and Annie had been worrying about what one careless mistake with measurement could do. They’d been a bit hysterical about it, actually. Once we all started talking to someone about it, they both started bringing forward measurement redundancies that probably saved more people than we can fathom.”
They lay in silence together, trying not to think about what could have happened if those measures weren’t in place.
(Ryland was almost asleep when he felt fingers ghost along his side.
He groaned and tried to push Simon’s tickling fingers away from his more sensitive spots.
When the other didn’t give up, he glared into the mans neck before grumbling.
”What?”
”Is it true you called your abductor ‘Mustache Lamp’?”
Grace took great pleasure in smacking the cackling engineer with his pillow until the other man begged for mercy.)
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Kidnapping #9 | 11/26 | Rating: 8/10 | Reunion
When Eva Stratt had told him to pack a bag for a week and then dropped him off at an expensive hotel with Simon and Carl (and Ryland’s, frankly, massive security team) for company, Ryland had almost been optimistic that this would be a nice week.
He really should have known better when, not even three hours into stepping through the hotel doors, he felt a gun settle itself against his side. An arm came around his shoulders, the hand hanging over his chest, and the unfamiliar weight of someone’s chin settled close to his neck.
”Imagine my surprise, when you walked in those doors.” The voice reminded Ryland heavily of Mustache Lamp, and he groaned to himself at having to throw this shirt out. It was one of his favorites, with the mission patch on one shoulder and stripes stretching across his middle. This man may as well have drooled oil into the collar. It would never be clean again, even if Ryland used Shout (™). “I would have thought you would have learned not to return to places owned by those you burned, Sierra. But I suppose, it’s my lucky day. Walk”
The gunman (forever to be known as Halogens, second only to ‘Mustache Lamp’ in being too dim to be allowed to live) moved them forward, away from the door to the dining room Grace had been heading to, intending to meet Simon for a very late lunch. They walked in the opposite direction, towards the elevators away from half of Grace’s security detail. (Seriously, had this guy not noticed the many, many security personnel the hotel had gotten in three hours?)
”Well, I don’t know who Sierra is, but I hope you at least bought her a drink first. This is way too creepy otherwise.” Ryland kept his eyes forward, sweat beading on his upper lip. He felt the gun press more firmly into his side and fell silent.
”Ever the comedian, Sierra. I always enjoyed that about you. Though fained ignorance never seemed your play. Trying something new?”
The gun didn’t move. Ryland stayed silent.
The elevator dinged and added pressure to his kidney had him walking forward, eyes locked ahead of him, scanning the hallway for any chance to escape. The doors they passed were all closed, so he started scanning the room numbers.
They finally came to a stop outside of room 617. (Hey, the hotel was swanky. It had a whole 15 floors).
Ryland didn’t move.
”Well,” Halogens pushed him forward with the gun in his side. “What are you waiting for? Unlock the door.”
Ryland didn’t say anything. He dipped his head towards the weapon and stared straight ahead.
Halogens cursed and finally removed the weapon from where it was leaving bruises Grace would feel for days.
”Language.” The words escaped him before he could catch it.
The man laughed, surprise and interest coloring his voice.
”Oh my, Six. Are you trying to set some kind of example? How very educational.” Grace bristled.
”I’m a teacher, of course I am setting an example.” The words stalked out of his chest, growling like a pack of wolves. He glared at the hotel room door, still unmoving, though the gun did not return to his side.
The man behind him tightened his arm slightly before a laugh burst from his chest loudly.
”You? A teacher? You became a teacher” Halogens laugh was also slimy, and Grace would very much like to only ever be a chin rest for Simon for the rest of his life, thank you very much. Simon didn’t ruin perfectly good and much loved Task Force shirts when using Grace as a chin rest. That alone put him miles ahead of Halogens. “What do you teach? Hide and Seek for agents?”
”Middle School Science.” The words just didn’t seem to want to stay as inside thought today.
Halogens froze, arm still holding Grace in place, gun pointing at the ground uselessly, chin resting on Ryland’s shoulder.
”Drop the gun.” The growl came from behind Halogens and Ryland wished he could risk turning to see who had saved him so he could thank them. Maybe Carl would give them a permanent position now. (Grace loved his friend, but the man needed a holiday, some time away from the project, and a “good roll in the hay” as Olesya would say). The voice behind him was not Carl.
The gun dropped on the carpet with a soft thud and Ryland kicked it was from the trio without much thought.
”Step back.” The next order was followed by slow movements as Halogens slowly released the Scientist and backed away from him. The blond didn’t move, waiting.
The rattle of door knockers and corresponding thud told him that Halogens had hit the floor. The sound of zip ties being pulled taut sent Grace spinning around before he could force himself to stay still.
The man on the ground had what looked to be a sock shoved into his mouth and his wrists and ankles zip tied together.
Standing over the man, one boot planted into his spine, gun leveled at the mess of dark, greasy hair, was a very familiar form. One Ryland hadn’t seen in almost 20 years.
”Court?” The name ached as it creaped up his chest and into the hallway, eyes filling with tears as Ryland got a good look at his oldest brother for the first time since he was a child.
The older man’s lips twitched up into a smile, eyes softening at the corners, his voice unbarebly soft when he finally spoke.
”Hi, Baby Brother.”