Archive of Our Own

“What about rest of Grace crew?” Rocky asks.

He can hear the stuttered breath in the alien’s throat, the loud swallow, the way the other’s body tenses. It’s still so strange to hear the shift of the other’s muscles over each other, how Grace’s strange physique gives so much away with even the slightest movement. It’s almost like humans purposefully leave themselves open for scrutiny, a mass of squishy, leaky parts that reveal far too much about what they’re thinking and feeling.

“Oh, uh, well, there were three of us,” Grace says, pitch wavering, “And now there’s only me.”

Rocky pauses, not having expected such a response. “Only us,” Rocky finally says. Apparently it’s the right thing to say, as Grace’s body relaxes.

“Only us,” Grace agrees.

Rocky doesn’t press further, doesn’t know how to broach the subject, because it sounds like Grace believes the words he’s saying. Rocky’s pretty sure he’d be able to sense if the other was lying, if he was trying to hide something either out of malice, but there’s no change in heartbeat or awkward shifting of weight.

‘No one else…’ Rocky thinks, pressing his feet firmly against the ground. ‘Then why…?’

He can still feel them. He’s sensed them ever since Grace first crossed the tunnels to Rocky’s ship, the faint sensation traveling through the xenonite to the sensors on the ends of Rocky’s claws. There are vibrations of two others beyond the tunnel, echoing faintly from the interior of the Hail Mary, soft as whispers but completely unmistakable. There are two others on the ship, and Rocky has no idea why Grace is playing dumb.

Grace continues to be oblivious to the two presences that Rocky senses, to the point that Rocky reasons he must actually not be able to see them in the same way Rocky does. It had made Rocky incredibly uneasy at first, leading to him insisting that Grace sleep out in the tunnel so Rocky could watch the other and make sure these strange beings didn’t try anything that might hurt him, but as time passes and Grace remains unharmed despite his returns to his spaceship, Rocky uneasily accepts that whatever these presences are, they don’t mean Grace any harm.

That’s not to say Rocky’s just going to accept their unquestioned existence.

He tries to ask Grace indirectly about it - absolutely hating how much the translator chops up his more complex questions - but he gathers that Grace truly has no idea what Rocky’s talking about when Rocky brings up potentially hearing anything strange or seeing anyone else aboard his ship.

“You’re gonna make me [paranoid]!” Grace laughs.

“Not have word,” Rocky says.

“Oh, it just means being scared or suspicious of things,” Grace says, “To an unreasonable extent. Like… you think someone’s following you when there’s no one there, or that someone is watching you every second of the day.”

The second option doesn’t sound all that scary to Rocky, but he knows humans get a little more sensitive about things like ‘privacy’ (another thing Rocky still doesn’t completely understand even with Grace trying to very emphatically explain it on multiple occasions).

“Ah, understand,” Rocky half-lies.

“But it is weird you keep hearing things on my ship,” Grace says, rubbing his chin, “Do you think there’s something wrong with the systems that I should be checking?”

“No,” Rocky says, “Ship would warn you if something was wrong.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Grace says, the warmth in his tone sounding reassured. “Anyway, going back to the model-“

The conversation falls off there, but Rocky is still unnerved by what he can feel from the ship. That said, he doesn’t want to make Grace - what was the word? - paranoid. It sounds like that might be too much stress on his squishy brain in addition to everything they’re working on currently… which means the only solution left is for Rocky to handle the investigation himself.

Good thing he already has something in the works to handle that

“You listening, bud?” Grace asks.

“Rocky always listening,” Rocky replies, reviewing his flawless memory to replay what Grace had been saying. Ah, right, the xenonite model. “Grace very clumsy, will take long time to construct.”

“Hah, don’t count me out yet,” Grace says, “I’ll have you know I created a fantastic model of the solar system back in my classroom!”

Rocky hums in disbelief, wishing it came off as absolutely devastating as it would have sounded on Erid. Grace at least seems to hear his disbelief and proceeds to squawk in outrage, though Rocky can tell from the other’s light heart-beat that he’s not truly mad.

“Can tell made for children,” Rocky says smugly, “Grace models [elementary].”

“I don’t know what that last word was, but I’m pretty sure it was an insult,” Grace huffs.

Rocky picks up the model Grace had made of Rocky’s ship out of dried food. “[Elementary]. Rocky make better models at thirty years. Even younger than Grace. As new hatchling.”

“Alright, whatever, wise guy.” Grace snorts.

Though Rocky’s primary goal of discovering just what the strange vibrations coming from Grace’s ship are hasn’t changed, he can admit that his next plan has a few other benefits as well. For starters, he’s pretty sure he’s going to get to hear Grace huff in frustration a lot more, and that’s rapidly becoming one of his favorite sounds.

“You’re in a ball,” Grace says. Rocky can practically hear the sheer befuddlement in the other’s voice, and it makes him laugh internally.

“So Rocky no die in Grace atmosphere,” Rocky says, as if Grace is the one being ridiculous. “I come up.”

“Oh! Okay, you’re coming- ack!”

Rocky nearly bowls Grace over in his xenonite sphere as he rolls up the gangplank and aboard the Hail Mary. He can admit later that he gets a bit distracted, senses going haywire as he tries to get a sense of all the new machines, shapes, and structures aboard. Despite the seriousness of the situation they’re in, Rocky can’t help his own innate curiosity. After all, how many times would any Eridian get to say they’d gotten to board an alien vessel?

And then Rocky quickly learns that Grace is… dirty. He’d tried to give the other the benefit of the doubt hoping that the materials scattered around the work stations might be some form of… nesting? Or something similar? But no, Rocky thinks mournfully, Grace is just disorganized as [hell].

“Why this room so messy, question?” Rocky asks, hoping Grace will actually have an explanation for why fabrics and boxes and- oh wow, are those food containers?! Do humans actually eat where they work?! How the [hell] is that sanitary?!

“Well, I wasn’t expecting company!” Grace huffs, collecting various articles of clothing from the floor and tossing them into a corner. It doesn’t clear the trash so much as concentrate it.

“Ugh,” Rocky mutters.

It’s then that he hears it. It’s so unexpected that Rocky freezes, xenonite sphere rolling to a stop as he strains his senses. The vibrations are back, closer now, enough that Rocky can practically visualize them in front of his carapace-

There’s a sound that Rocky recognizes as a laugh, a human laugh, then faint footsteps that walk across the floor and draw closer and closer to where he’s waiting. All the while Grace is giving him some kind of lecture about personal space and boundaries or whatever, but Rocky is only listening with half a sensor, instead straining to focus on the source of that unfamiliar noise.

“Wow, so this is Rocky!” The voice matches what he heard earlier. It’s higher pitched than Grace’s, and a little more melodic. Rocky stiffens as the source of it comes closer, drawing right up next to Rocky’s ball, “Aren’t you [cute]!”

Rocky’s legs tense at the unfamiliar word. What is this thing saying?

“He looks like a [crab]!” The presence drifts back a little. “Hey! Hey, [Yáo] come check this out!”

The unknown being then reaches through Rocky’s xenonite sphere. Rocky trills in alarm, leaning back from the strange touch, completely shocked that anything managed to pierce through the barrier. His sphere is supposed to be sealed tight, completely solid against any leaks between his own ammonia-heavy atmosphere and Grace’s deadly oxygen-based one, but this creature moves straight through the shell like it’s not even there in the first place.

It keeps moving forward, and there’s no space for Rocky to move further back. He tries to raise his back claw in warning, but the being pays no heed to them. Then the most bizarre thing happens - the strange new thing’s presence passes right through Rocky.

There’s a strange tingling sensation, a chill that feels more neurological than physical. It hadn’t felt like anything really, and yet he has the strangest sensation of a breeze blowing through the openings in his carapace. It feels both solid and insubstantial, a confusing contradiction of sensory experiences that’s making him feel-

“Okay,” Grace says in that moment, clapping his hands together.

He’s clearly expecting some kind of response from Rocky, but Rocky hasn’t been paying attention. Instead he’s more focused on the fact that the second strange presence has joined them in the work station, standing right next to the first. It’s starting to feel far too crowded, and Rocky dreads the thought of the other thing trying to touch him as well.

At that moment, all Rocky can think is that he needs to get out of there, or at least create some distance between himself and the strange beings that Grace can’t see. He needs some kind of reason to leave, some kind of foolproof excuse to get him out of the situation-

“Where my bedroom?!”

It’s only after Grace has gone to sleep that Rocky decides to attempt communication with the two strange beings. They hadn’t gone very far since Rocky had come aboard, and he can feel them doing the human thing where they ‘watch’ him, studying his movements and actions in a way that set every one of Rocky’s primal instincts on high alert.

Rocky’s been ‘watching’ them just as much, standing guard over Grace while he sleeps. Just because these two creatures haven’t hurt Grace yet doesn’t mean they won’t, and Rocky’s not about to lose his new alien friend just because the other’s senses are too dull to realize they aren’t alone on the ship. Of course, Rocky is still incredibly wary of the two creatures on the ship, but he can’t afford to be scared.

He can’t lose another crew mate

So Rocky steels himself and goes on the offensive, trying to look as large and threatening as his stature will allow him. He rolls over to the strange presences and stops a few paces from them. Behind him, he can hear that Grace is still breathing deeply, clearly asleep. Good.

“I guess he is pretty [cute],” one of the creatures says, startling Rocky. The voice is more similar to Grace’s in timbre than the other one had been, but there are still many distinct differences. The voice sounds similar to Grace’s when he was amused.

“I told you!” the other, higher voice says. “Aw, I’m so glad that Grace found-!”

“You know Grace,” Rocky blurts, “How know Grace, question?”

There’s a long pause, the two figures freeze. Rocky waits in tense silence as their forms waver.

“Is he talking to us?” The higher-pitched one asks.

“That’s… not possible,” the other voice replies.

“Who are you, question?” Rocky demands, stamping his claw. “You say you know Grace. Are you-?”

“Oh my god!” The higher-pitched one exclaims loudly, making Rocky wince. He quickly listens behind him, but Grace continues to snore, fully oblivious to the noise. “He can actually see- er, well, maybe not see, but he knows we’re here!”

“Amazing,” the other says, “Perhaps there’s some kind of biological sensor-“

Rocky lets out an exasperated noise. “Who are you both, question?” It’s less of a question and more of a demand, but it clearly gets the two beings’ attention again.

“Oh shit, right!” The higher-pitched one says, waving a hand. “Sorry! My name’s Olesya Ilyukhina! But you can just call me Ilyukhina!”

“I am Commander Yáo Li-Jie,” the other says. “Yáo is fine.”

Rocky senses that one bend at the waist, ducking its head to Rocky in some form of a greeting. They’re distinctly different from the greetings Grace had given the first time he’d met Rocky, but they both seem like some kind of formal recognition in their own right. They sound polite enough, and something about their names…

The first figure, Ilyukhina, seems to be jittering in place out of excitement. “I can’t believe you can see us, Rocky!”

“How Ilyukhina know Rocky name?” Rocky asks.

“Grace talks about you all the time!” Ilyukhina laughs, “Hasn’t been able to stop ever since you two met!”

“Unsurprising though,” Yáo says, “After all, he did meet an alien.”

Rocky searches his memory, going back through days of conversations with Grace until he recalls exactly why the names sound so familiar. He abruptly stiffens, legs going rigid. It doesn’t make sense, not with the information he has, but unless Rocky’s own mental faculties have become addled beyond repair then he can only be talking to…

“Ilyukhina, Yáo,” Rocky approximates their names in his language. “You are Grace’s crew. Grace’s crew is dead.”

There’s a long pause. Rocky sees Ilyukhina turn to Yáo, some unspoken conversation passing between them.

“That’s right,” Yáo finally says. “We are- were Grace’s crew mates… and we didn’t survive the trip to Tau Ceti.”

Rocky’s carapace shakes in confusion. “Not possible.”

He’s never heard of anything like this before. On Erid, dead was dead, no coming back. Rocky’s spent enough time with the deceased to know the truth in that. But then again, humans weren’t Eridians. There were plenty of biological differences… perhaps there were others? Differences between what ‘death’ encompassed? But Grace hadn’t acknowledged Yáo and Ilyukhina previously, and he seemed fully convinced that the two of them had passed on in the same finite way the dead on Erid did.

Rocky has been frustrated many times with the limited vocabulary the translator afforded him before, but it was nothing compared to this. He has so many questions right now, and many of them he already knew it would be impossible to give voice to. He nearly vibrates out of his exoskeleton in frustration.

“Not possible,” Rocky repeats, agitated, “Not possible for dead to speak.”

“I’d say the same if I wasn’t taking with you right now,” Yáo agrees.

“Humans survive after death normal, question?” Rocky asks.

“Mm, I guess you’d call us [ghosts]?” Ilyukhina says. The last word is foreign, something not yet translated by Grace’s machine. He assumes it means some sort of being that humans believe to exist postmortem, if the context clues are anything to go by.

“Not have word,” Rocky says.

“Ah, okay, well… I suppose we’re here in spirit but not physically,” Ilyukhina says, “A [ghost] is supposed to be a sort of floating consciousness, I guess. Sorry, I don’t really understand it myself. I didn’t believe in [ghosts] before I died. I thought death was just… the end.”

“If it makes you feel better, I also didn’t believe in [ghosts],” Yáo offers. “I thought they were just stories meant to scare children into behaving.”

Rocky isn’t familiar with any sort of stories like that on Erid. Death was something as feared as it was final. Any stories of the dead were simply songs in their memory, a symphonic recollection of their lives used to inspire and grieve. These ‘ghosts’ that the two humans are referring to sound like something else entirely.

“Grace cannot see you,” Rocky states.

“No, he can’t,” Ilyukhina confirms. She sounds distinctly sad about the fact. “He can’t hear or feel us, and we can’t interact with anything that might let him know we’re here.”

Honestly, it sounds like a nightmare to Rocky - to be able to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ but to have no one else able to see or hear you. It makes his hearts squeeze to imagine an existence where one lived on a plane beyond any other creature’s conscious understanding. He imagines them drifting through the corridors of the Hail Mary, desperately trying to communicate with their stranded crew mate, with no success.

It reminds him too much of the many long years spent alone on his ship, drifting around with little more than a numb body, unsure if he was alive or dead himself

“…Can Ilyukhina, Yáo leave, question?” Rocky asks.

He can see Yáo’s ‘ghost’ do what he recognizes Grace call a ‘shrug’. “We’ve tried passing on, if there is somewhere to pass onto. Either there’s nowhere else to go, or there’s something we need to do to pass on ourselves.”

“We’ve tried all the methods we can think of,” Ilyukhina agrees, “We don’t know why we’re still lingering here… but I personally think it’s so we can help Grace.”

“We all had this mission before we left,” Yáo says, “It makes sense to at least see it through.”

Rocky hums, troubled. “How help if Grace cannot see, question?”

“Yes, that has been the question,” Yáo says.

“Though maybe not such a big one now that you can hear us!” Ilyukhina exclaims. “You can help us help you!”

Rocky jerks back in surprise. “Rocky help Ilyukhina, Yáo, question?”

“Yeah!” Ilyukhina says, “I mean, we were both pretty well-qualified before the whole death thing, if I do say so myself!”

“Rocky qualified,” Rocky mutters.

“I’m sure you are,” Yáo says reassuringly, “But you aren’t as familiar with human technology, are you? And Grace, while a brilliant scientist, wasn’t an engineer or a pilot.”
And to this, Rocky has to agree. The pilot part especially worried him considering their maneuvers to collect astrophage and other data might require collecting samples and traveling via the Hail Mary to the planet Adrian to find a solution. Grace, while doing his best to learn how to fly the ship, had clearly never sat in a cockpit before.

“Rocky agrees,” Rocky says, nodding, “Could use help. Rocky not familiar with systems aboard Hail Mary or language used.”

“Then we’ll all help each other!” Ilyukhina says, sounding excited, “Oh wow, my sister would never believe this!”

“It certainly is beyond anything I could have imagined before,” Yáo says.

Rocky agrees wholeheartedly. Even beyond meeting aliens, even beyond finding a solution to cure dying stars, he’s pretty sure ‘speaking with the dead’ blows everything out of the water.

Yáo and Ilyukhina manage to convince Rocky not to tell Grace about their existence, much to Rocky’s reluctant agreement.

“Rocky not like lying to Grace,” Rocky mutters.

“I’m sorry to make you do so,” Yáo says, “But I believe alerting him to our existence would only cause undue stress. I’m only asking you to keep your silence until the mission is over.” He bends at the waist again, similar to the motion he’d used to greet Rocky initially.

“Yeah, he’d probably think you were going crazy talking to people who aren’t there as far as he can tell,” Ilyukhina adds.

It’s not an unfair point. If Grace cannot see or hear the ghosts like Rocky can, Rocky would likely appear to be talking to himself and giving attention to nothing at all. It wouldn’t be a stretch for Grace to assume that the extended isolation might be having an effect on Rocky, or worse, that Rocky might be sick in some way.

He remembers humming to himself on the ship, speaking aloud in the most cavernous areas just to hear something echo back to him

“…Agree,” Rocky says, “But only until end of mission.”

“Thank you,” Yáo says, “I don’t want to put more on his plate than he can handle.”

Distantly, Rocky can see why the other had been chosen to be the leader of the original mission. He reminds Rocky a lot of his own captain, confident but personable, fully devoted to seeing the mission through and caring for the rest of their crew. Rocky remembers how much his own captain had blamed themself when the first members of the crew started getting sick. The other’s final words to Rocky had been an apology for leaving such a heavy burden for him to carry alone.

“But until then, just think of us as guides!” Ilyukhina says, snapping Rocky back to the present. “We’re just here to offer some advice whenever needed, but otherwise you can just pretend we aren’t here.”

Rocky hums. “Do ghosts need to sleep or eat, question?”

“No, we don’t need to do any of that anymore,” Yáo says, confirming Rocky’s theory.

“Hm…” Rocky’s about to ask another question, but at that moment Grace makes a noise in his sleep - and really, that never stops being strange - causing them all to freeze. Thankfully the other just rolls over and continues to sleep.

“That might be all we have time for now,” Ilyukhina says, “But I look forward to working with you, Rocky!”

“We’ll both do our best to assist you in whatever way we can,” Yáo agrees.

And at that something in Rocky’s hearts feels lighter. For decades he’s only had himself to rely on, and unfortunately those years of loneliness had more than illuminated all the ways in which he’d been lacking. To have three others willing to share their knowledge and assist him moving forward… it’s a relief in a way Rocky hadn’t known he’d needed.

“Rocky is grateful to Yáo, Ilyukhina,” Rocky says, nodding to them. “Will all save stars together.”

Ilyukhina laughs. “It’s a promise!”

Having Ilyukhina and Yáo around to assist proves to be a boon to Rocky very quickly. Though Grace is clearly competent in the realm of science and biology, the other struggles to explain what he needs when he comes to Rocky for requests of building specific devices out of xenonite. Whenever that happens, Ilyukhina is more than happy to step in and explain exactly what Grace is talking about when his technical terms start devolving into [doohickey’s] and [thingamajig’s].

Ilyukhina seems absolutely awestruck by the flexibility of xenonite, and Rocky finds himself preening a bit under her compliments. While his skill had been recognized on Erid – he wouldn’t have been asked to be on the mission if he was incompetent after all – it was still nice to hear that even an alien could determine his proficiency. That said, Ilyukhina was no slouch either. Though she was unfamiliar with xenonite, her natural curiosity had prompted a few experiments of their own with the material to test the limits of its capabilities.

Additionally, Rocky was more than grateful to Yáo for his own expertise. It’s clear that Grace is lost when it comes to the Hail Mary’s controls. Fortunately the ship is largely automated when it comes to piloting and activating the centrifuge, however it was clear even from before Rocky had met Grace in person that the other’s erratic maneuvers were a result of his non-existent piloting knowledge.

More than once Yáo helps Rocky catch Grace before the other can do something like jettison a fuel tank they need or accidentally switch off life support systems. Rocky shudders to think of what might have happened had the other not been present to prevent the absolute worst case scenario as they all learn their way around the ship’s helm.

“He’s not very good at this,” Yáo had said at one point, sounding as close as Rocky had heard him come to exasperation, though not necessarily at Grace.

“Grace very bad,” Rocky said then, out loud so both Yáo and Grace could hear him.

Grace had thrown his hands up. “I’m trying!”

“Die. We die. Grace, Rocky, plural, die,” Rocky teased.

Still, it’s a bit sad Rocky can’t offer thanks or his own compliments and gratitude to the two other crew members until after Grace is asleep. Of course, the two of them wave him off every time he expresses as much.

“We’re just happy to help,” Yáo says graciously.

“The last thing we want is more ghosts in space!” Ilyukhina laughs.

Even so, Rocky is looking forward to the day he no longer has to hide his conversations with them. Despite the ghosts’ concerns, Rocky thinks it might offer Grace some measure of peace to know that his crew mates are still with them, at least in “spirit”, watching over their movements and offering advice even though the other is still unable to see or hear it himself.

Rocky knows he would have appreciated that

But either way time marches onward, and eventually their many tests lead to results. After collecting a sample from the Petrova line, Grace and Rocky realize that Tau Ceti carries astrophage’s natural predator, an organism they name taumoeba and quickly make plans to breed up to survive in their respective atmospheres.

“We’ll need a bigger sample though,” Grace says. “I have no idea how the fudge we’re going to get enough of it though-“

“Easy,” Rocky says. He’s already been working on it for about one and a half of their standard hours now. “I make chain.”

“Wh-? A chain?” He hears Grace turn toward him. “Do you even know how much chain that would take-?!”

“Already calculate,” Rocky says. “Five kilometers.”

“And I double checked!” Ilyukhina exclaims cheerfully.

“And already start,” Rocky adds. He holds up a length of chain links for proof. “Will need much more though.”

He can practically hear Grace’s stunned silence, and he hears Ilyukhina snort at whatever facial expression Grace must be making.

“I don’t envy how much chain you’ll need to make,” Yáo muses.

“And by hand,” Ilyukhina groans, “I can already feel my fingers cramping.”

‘Human fingers too fragile,’ Rocky thinks, but doesn’t say aloud.

“That’ll- that’ll take weeks!” Grace cries, voice shooting up an octave.

“Grace have somewhere to be?” Rocky asks dryly.

“Get his ass,” Ilyukhina mutters.

“I- ugh. No.” Grace sits down next to Rocky’s sphere. “Alright, show me what I need to do.”

Rocky nods. “Watch careful. Cannot have any weak links.”

“Fortunately, we don’t seem to have any of those aboard,” Yáo says. He sounds proud. Rocky allows himself to take some comfort in that.

Once the chain is near completion, Grace and Rocky immediately set course for the nearby planet of Adrian. According to the ship, the journey is planned to take at least eleven days. Finishing the chain takes three of those, but that still leaves eight more before arrival where Grace and Rocky have nothing left to do aside from lounging around the ship.

They fill most of the time chatting, watching Earth movies and playing Earth ‘video games’. Grace tells him that the leader of his task force back on Earth had filled the Hail Mary with pretty much every piece of Earth media known to man. Rocky finds himself more entranced by the movies, especially the action ones, though he also indulges in playing “Tetris” and “Minecraft” occasionally, mostly because the simple shapes show up on screen reader easier than some of the other Earth games aboard.

“You know, I was never really one for video games either,” Ilyukhina says. She reaches for one of the controllers, and her hand passes right through it. “Everyone was playing [MMORPG’s].”

“Not have word,” Rocky says.

“Don’t worry, you aren’t missing out on much,” Ilyukhina says, waving a hand.

“My son enjoys video games,” Yáo says, “But we tried to limit how much time he stared at a screen.” The silence that follows is pensive.

“Yáo has son, question?” Rocky asks, surprised.

“Yes,” Yáo says, sounding proud. “He’d be- mm, he’d probably be in high school by now. I hope he’s studying well.”

“There were a few pictures on the ship of his son,” Ilyukhina says, “They’re probably tucked in with the rest of Yáo’s things.”

“Grace did send me off with one,” Yáo says fondly. “He’s a good man.”

Rocky recalls Grace telling him that he’d sent his deceased crew members’ bodies out into space since there was no place for Earth’s traditional burials or cremations aboard the ship. Both Yáo and Ilyukhina had been quick to say they hadn’t minded, but it’s still disorienting to hear someone talk about their own funeral rites.

Rocky is silent for a long second before he speaks again. “Is… hard to leave those you love.”

He thinks of his mate waiting for him back on Erid. It’s been nearly half a century since he’s seen Adrian at this point. Were they still waiting for him, or had they moved on? Even as it makes his hearts hurt to consider the possibility, he wouldn’t blame them if they had. It’d be reasonable by now to have assumed that Rocky had followed his crew mates to their tragic ends.

Both Yáo and Ilyukhina glance at each other, then back at Rocky.

“I’m sure you’ll get to see those you care for again soon,” Yáo says gently.

“And you’ll be a big damn hero to them,” Ilyukhina laughs, “They’ll buy you drinks for the rest of your life!”

Though it makes Rocky a bit queasy to think of his fellow Eridians buying him any kind of consumable as a gift (he was rather disgusted to learn how commonplace such a thing apparently was for humans based on all the movies and books from Earth he’d read), he appreciates the sentiment. “Am… excited to see them again. And nervous.”

“Understandable,” Yáo says, “It’s been many years for you.”

“Too long,” Rocky agrees. “Far too long. Rocky worries we are both… too different now.”

After so many years of isolation aboard his ship with only the bodies of his former crew mates to keep him company, Rocky knows such circumstances have changed him in ways he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to fully recover from. The prospect of spending the rest of his many years surrounded by others who don’t, who can’t understand all he’s gone through is intimidating, to say the least.

“…Have you considered speaking to Grace about this?” Yáo asks.

Rocky pauses. “Speak to Grace?”

“He’s the only other person who’s really in the same situation as you,” Yáo says. “You may be quite different biologically, but considering the circumstances…”

“He’s kind,” Ilyukhina says, “You know he is. He can- well, both of you might be able to help each other.”

Rocky mulls this over silently. “Is not bad idea. Will consider.” He lets out an embarrassed noise. “Thank you.”

“Advice is what we’re here for!” Ilyukhina says cheerfully.

“Speaking of which, tomorrow you and Grace should work on Grace’s piloting skills again,” Yáo adds, “He has a long way to go still, especially to pull off the maneuver you’re planning.”

Rocky nods. “Is good idea.”

He continues to chat with Yáo and Ilyukhina late into the night, making plans for the coming days and learning more about who they were in the previous ones. It’s good, light conversation, the same kind he used to have with his crew mates back when their ship had first left Erid and, despite the severity of the mission they’d been given,  they’d all been steaming with excitement about what adventures they might find amongst the stars.

They’re different voices than Rocky remembers, but the same warmth.

“Shit, Yáo!”

“I’m trying! I can’t do anything!”

The mission had started so well

Dropping the collection device had gone off without a hitch, the chains dutifully unspooling with the press of a button to drag the collector through Adrian’s atmosphere. It had popped open without incident, and the part that Rocky had been concerned about the mechanics of the most - the part where it had to be reeled back up - had been similarly successful. Rocky had thought they’d been, as Grace would say, “home free”, but then the time had come for Grace to start his space walk to retrieve the collection device, and everything had gone rapidly downhill.

There’d been parts of the hull that had come loose, then Grace had been struck by one of the supports that had ripped free. The collection device had fallen as well, and for a moment all had seemed truly lost, but then Grace had managed to recover both the device and his own faculties and return to the cockpit. Grace had fired up the engine desperately, fighting against Adrian’s gravitational pull, and for a second it had looked like they’d somehow managed to pull it all off despite the odds, but then-

“Grace!” Rocky screams, slamming his claws against the sides of his enclosure. His xenonite sphere has rolled too far away from the transfer panel for him to slip into, a dire miscalculation as the Hail Mary continued to spin wildly out of control.

It’s nearly impossible to move, the centrifugal force of the death spiral forcing Rocky to use every ounce of strength he has just to stay upright.

“He has to jettison the other fuel tank!” Yáo is yelling. Rocky can see the other’s hand passing through the button again and again, like if he does so enough times he might be able to reach right into the wires and fix it.

“Shit, shit!” Ilyukhina yells, voice tight with stress and fear. “Grace, don’t you dare fucking give up on me-!”

And Rocky can see it, Grace’s hand stretching out to flip the switch Yáo is hovering around. It’s mere inches from his fingertips, but Rocky can see the other is pinned too tightly between his chair and the console in front of him. His distress grows as he hears Grace’s heartbeat fluttering weakly, lungs wheezing from lack of oxygen accompanied by the dull scrape of broken ribs.

“Grace!”

He knows his words aren’t getting through to the other, can hear Grace’s heartbeat slowing to a dull thump. Grace sags against the helm, and Rocky can hear the other’s final gasps stuttering in his throat. He’s going to die. He’s going to die, he’s going to die, he’s going to die and Rocky is going to lose a friend again-

SMASH!

The air burns.

Rocky had told Grace many times before how insane it was to him to hear that humans breathed a gas as toxic as oxygen, and Grace had only laughed in turn and said the same about the “ammonia” present in Rocky’s environment. It’d just been a conversation in passing, an offhand remark that there was no way they’d be able to survive in each other’s atmospheres, but to know something and to experience it are two very different things.

“Rocky!” Ilyukhina’s shriek is horrified, haunting enough that Rocky is pretty sure he couldn’t forget it even if he tried.

It feels like being cooked alive, like a thousand sharpened stones are digging through the cracks in Rocky’s carapace and stabbing into his organs with each agonizing breath through his vents. For a second he’s nearly frozen by the pain, by the way his whole body rejects the air around it, but then he hears Grace’s similarly pained breaths and suddenly that’s all he can focus on instead.

He forces himself forward, one painful step at a time. It feels like hours, though it’s likely only a matter of seconds, before he reaches the control panel. His claw wavers as he reaches up, senses swimming as he tries to locate the right switch. He relies on Yáo’s voice as he blindly hits one, smacking his claw against the control panel.  The Hail Mary lurches as the punctured fuel tank is jettisoned, and Rocky is thrown to the ground.

“Oh my god, Yáo we- we have to-!”

“I don’t know how- there’s nothing-!”

Rocky can hear panicked voices swimming over his head, but he can’t focus on anything more than a few snippets. It’s already taking almost all of his energy just to keep himself awake, but he knows he can’t allow himself to pass out yet. Grace is still injured, still trapped in his chair, unconscious, and losing blood at an alarming rate. Rocky can hear the other’s heart trying valiantly to keep pumping. Rocky struggles back to his feet and reaches out to grab the other’s arm.

Grace’s body involuntarily flinches like he’s been struck, Rocky’s comparatively superheated carapace likely burning the other’s fragile flesh. Rocky lets out an distressed noise through his steaming vents. He pulls the chair back and rips the straps free from Grace. He can practically hear the sizzle of the other’s skin under his own touch.

“Apology-“ Rocky wheezes, even as every note hurts to dredge up.

The med bay is too far, nearly on the other side of the ship, and Rocky’s echolocation is already starting to fail. It’s hard to stay on his feet or think around the pain. His senses have gone weak and wavering, and Rocky feels like he’s stumbling forward more than walking. He has no idea how he’s going to get Grace back to the med bay, if it’s even possible to navigate so far. His thoughts begin to blur together, memories and reality merging into one as his brain feels like it’s cooking right in his own carapace.

How many times has he done this?

How many bodies had he dragged to their final resting place, pulling his crew mates one by one through the empty corridors of their ship toward what he desperately hoped wasn’t their final resting place? They’d deserved so much better - deserved to see the end their lives amongst their friends and mates and siblings on the soil of Erid. They shouldn’t have died weak and sick in the uncaring void of space, victims of circumstance and Rocky’s own incompetence when he couldn’t figure out what was happening, how to save them, how to fix them-

“Keep going!”

The voice cuts through Rocky’s spiraling tangle of thoughts. Rocky sends out a weak series of clicks to see a wavering form in front of him, pointing him forward.

“Just a few more steps, Rocky!” Words and melodies clash together in his head, all of them encouraging him that extra bit forward.

Just a few more steps, for Grace, for the only friend he can still save-

He feels something tugging Grace’s weight from his arms, and nearly lashes out blindly, only to realize it’s Armando pulling Grace into the bed. Rocky senses the robot’s many arms racing around in a dizzying display he can barely keep track of, but there’s no time left for him to worry about the medical procedures. He can feel he’s reached his limit, that if he doesn’t get back into one of his enclosures soon his body will give up on him.

Rocky stumbles to the nearest xenonite tunnel he can sense, forces his way through the transfer panel with the last bit of his strength, and finally collapses on the ground. He can’t even muster up the energy to echolocate and get a sense of where he ended up. All he cares about is that he can still hear Grace’s heartbeat down the hall, weak but still present.

“Good job, Rocky,” someone says, “Don’t worry, we’ll watch you both sleep.”

A wave of relief crashes over him. For once it won’t just be him awake, hoping against all odds that his crew will wake up. It won’t be another marathon of sleepless nights, straining every one of his senses to their limits until he’s dull and aching. It won’t be the endless terror that if he goes to sleep he might lose someone else, that someone might die without anyone to hear their last words.

“Watch… Grace…”

The world goes dark.

When Rocky wakes again, it feels like every cell in his body is angry at him. He can feel the aches and creaks as he slowly moves, vents sending out soot-filled breaths. Groggily, he sends out a burst of echolocation, only find he’s still at the bottom of one of his tunnels. It’s the one in the hall across from the med bay, he quickly realizes. And beyond that-

Rocky hums as he realizes a very familiar heartbeat is thumping against the edge of the xenonite, its steady pulse beating at a comforting tempo. The owner of the rhythm is slumped against the tunnel, back pressed against the barrier and snoring loudly.

‘Grace is terrible at watching others sleep,’ Rocky thinks fondly.

And then his memories come crashing back into him. Rocky winces as he recalls the circumstances that had led to where they both currently were. Clearly the Hail Mary had managed to stabilize if they were both alive, but beyond that…

“He’s awake!” Rocky jolts as Ilyukhina’s voice pierces his sensory organs. “Oh shoot, sorry!” This is said at a much more manageable volume.

“Good to see you finally up, Rocky,” Yáo says. “We were worried you might…”

“It really doesn’t help that you look like you’re dead when you sleep!” Ilyukhina huffs. “Grace was…”

There’s a long pause.

Rocky can only imagine the kind of distress his friend might have been in, recovering from his injuries on his own with only Rocky’s unmoving form for company. His hearts squeeze in sympathy, all too familiar with the desperation and loneliness that came from those kinds of circumstances. It’s what finally prompts Rocky to get to his feet. The unfamiliar motion has him stumbling slightly, but he finds his balance after a few seconds. He reaches out and lightly taps on the xenonite barrier, but Grace doesn’t so much as stir.

“He only ‘sleeps’ when he’s up for so long that he passes out, and he refuses to sleep in his bed,” Ilyukhina sighs, though she doesn’t sound truly angry, “Stupid man.”

“Grace very stupid,” Rocky agrees, similarly fond.

He walks over to his transfer panel, only to see that at some point Grace has re-attached his xenonite sphere to it. Rocky knows he’ll have to try and create a new locking mechanism to keep it in place – maybe a new suit as well – to prevent what happened before from happening again, but for now he climbs back into his ball. It clunks loudly as he rolls forward, but Grace still doesn’t wake.

“That can’t be good for his back,” Yáo mutters, disapproving of the hunched over position. “You’ll have to tell him to start sleeping in his bed again.”

“And to start eating regularly!” Ilyukhina adds.

Rocky pauses. “Grace not eating?”

“He’s barely been doing anything but working in the labs on your breeding tanks and recording video logs for you,” Ilyukhina says.

Rocky lets out a string of musical notes with distinctly negative connotation. “Grace idiot. Need to tell Grace.” And really, there’s a whole world of things he needs to tell Grace, but for that to happen…

He rolls his sphere closer and closer to Grace’s sleeping form until he’s only a step away. Grace obliviously snores on. Rocky taps a claw against the ground. Well, he’s sure Grace will forgive him for this. He rolls forward and bonks the other full-on.

“Wha- ah!” Grace jerks back, flailing as he falls over. “What-?!” Rocky can tell when the other finally realizes what’s happening. “Rocky!”

Rocky lets out a series of happy trills as Grace all but flings himself at his sphere, smushing himself against the xenonite like he’s trying to mold straight into the cracks of it. “Grace leaking.”

“Yeah,” Grace says, voice wavering, “I’m gonna be doing that for a while, sorry.”

“Is okay,” Rocky says, “Rocky knows Grace is leaking in a good way this time.”

Grace laughs. “Yeah. I- yeah. God, Rocky, I have so much to tell you.”

Absently, Rocky hears Yáo and Ilyukhina slipping out of the room to give the two of them some privacy. He appreciates the consideration. “Good, good, good. We have much time.”

“It’d be pretty cool to see your ship.”

Grace is awkward as he maneuvers the xenonite suit through the tunnel and aboard Rocky’s ship, but Rocky is patient enough to wait up for the other, even as he feels like he’s vibrating inside. He doesn’t know why he’s so nervous, it wasn’t like his ship was dirty by any stretch of the imagination, but it was still the first time he’d be showing Grace (and two other guests) the place he’d been living for the past half-century.

“An alien ship!” Rocky can see Ilyukhina’s ghost jumping up and down as she grabs onto Yáo’s shoulder. “A real alien ship!”

“So you’ve been saying for the past two hours,” Yáo says, though he sounds amused. Despite his comparative lack of reaction, Rocky can see the other’s head turning this way and that as they board the ship. “It’s incredible your team built a vessel this big.”

Rocky preens at the compliment, though he can’t respond. The ship was a marvel of Eridian engineering, by far the biggest project ever attempted by a group of Eridians and a landmark for their technological development. Rocky is privileged to have been chosen to contribute, and he’s never been able to forget the pride he felt the day he’d received his mission etchings with the rest of his crew.

“This is amazing!” Grace says, gasping as he wanders the corridors, running his hands over nearly everything he passes.

“Come see this!” Rocky orders. He moves to the communications system, a series of strings set to reverberate throughout the entire ship. He plucks one, and a note echoes through the very hull.

“Woah!” Grace makes his way over. “What is that?”

“Is similar to human ‘intercom’ system,” Rocky says proudly, “Rocky design. Can send messages to anywhere on ship!”

“It must be set into the hull somehow,” Ilyukhina speculates. “But to get the sounds without too much reverberation-“

“Much special insulation,” Rocky says, an explanation and an answer to both audiences, “Carries messages very fast.”

“Can I…?” Grace’s hand is already extended.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Rocky nods vigorously.

Grace gingerly plucks one of the strings, and pure, clear note rings out around the room. The other laughs before strumming his hand over a few of them. “Woah, they light up too!”

“What?” Rocky asks.

“They- oh, right,” Grace laughs, “You can’t see it, but they light up when you pluck some of them!”

“Ah,” Rocky says. He takes the other’s word for it as ‘light’ is still a strange concept for Rocky. Sometimes he wonders if Grace is pulling his leg about the whole thing, but the other was always confident when he pointed out things like “colors” and “brightness”.

“It looks like those videos when you’re learning to play an instrument,” Ilyukhina remarks, “You know when you’re still learning the chords.”

“Hm,” Yáo sounds pensive. “It’s almost like… what if you asked Grace to play them in order as they light up?” Rocky isn’t quite sure where the other is going with this, but he relays Yáo’s request aloud. If nothing else, it might be an interesting experiment considering Rocky can’t see the light himself.

“Huh? Oh, sure!”

Rocky’s expecting some nonsense words, maybe a frequency that he could attribute to the xenonite - actually, that might be worth studying - or even just some accidental obscenities that he might be able to laugh at later without Grace’s knowledge, but then-

“He-ar us, q-ues-tion?”

Rocky goes very still. For a second he thinks his senses are betraying him, making connections that aren’t there, but the melody replays in his head again, and no, it’s unmistakably a full phrase. Rocky pushes the thought from his mind. It has to be coincidence, a random combination of notes that just happens to make a comprehensible melody.

“You alright, bud?” Grace asks, sounding concerned.

Rocky forces himself to nod. “Strange. Sounded like words. Coincidence.”

“Oh!” Grace laughs, “Want me to try some of these other lights I’m seeing?”

Rocky wavers. He knows he’s being ridiculous, looking for patterns that aren’t there, but another part of him whispers that he knows it’s too close to be a random occurrence. There’s no way Grace, who still struggled with even the most basic Eridian phrases, would be able to pluck out something like- like-

“Try more,” Rocky agrees.

“You got it!”

“Who- is- that- stra-nger? Is a-lie-n R-ock-y comm-un-i-cate wi-th, q-ues-tion?”

“Oh wait, that middle part sounded familiar!” Grace says, “Wait that- that’s your name, right? Is this like a recording then?”

“…” Rocky can’t bring himself to speak, completely nonplussed by what he’s just heard. He can still feel the phantom vibrations of the melody through the tips of his claws, and part of him wants to dig his claws so far into the hull that he’ll be able to sense them long past when they’ve faded to nothing.

“Yáo,” Ilyukhina says slowly. “You don’t think…”

“I think Rocky might have some guests he wasn’t aware of,” Yáo replies.

Ilyukhina squeals, “Oh my god! Holy shit, that’s amazing! Ghosts are real! I mean, I know I’m a ghost, but-!”

“Here, let me see…” Grace says.

“A-lie-n see-s us. Rem-ark-abl-e. We sh-ould stu-dy this ph-eno-mena.”

The way of speech reminds Rocky almost violently of his crew mate, a scientist who had worked the second shift in the labs. They’d always called things of interest to them [remarkable], an old and rarely used term by Eridian standards, but something they’d had a reputation for using.

“Rem-ark-abl-e. Who sa-ys that, q-ues-tion? That ter-m is as de-ad as we are!”

The morbid humor reminds Rocky of one of their navigators, one who had always been cracking rather dark jokes. Some of the crew had thought it was in poor taste, but they’d never let that stop them. They’d always gotten into one-sided fights with the scientist, taunting the other over their outdated manner of speaking. Rocky is pretty sure the two of them were bickering even up to their final moments.

“Qui-et! R-ock-y is lis-ten-ing!”

“Too-k him lo-ng e-nough!”

“R-ock-y, how a-re you, q-ues-tion?”

“We are so s-orr-y to hav-e left you a-lo-ne!”

“So does any of this mean anything?”

Rocky jolts, having forgotten that Grace had been the one playing the melodies of- well, there’s no denying it. It’s the words of those he’d thought long gone, the lingering spirits of the crew he’d said goodbye to decades ago. Had they been on this ship the whole time? Had they watched him like Yáo and Ilyukhina, unable to speak to him or offer any advice as he’d obliviously passed them by?

“Is… message,” Rocky says, “From crew.”

Grace’s hands drop in surprise. “Wait, like… your crew? But I thought-!” Rocky can practically hear the gears in Grace’s head turning. “Ghosts?!”

“Oh boy,” Ilyukhina says, “You might be in for a long conversation, Rocky.”

“It’s probably time for it to happen though,” Yáo muses, “After all, they’ve solved the astrophage problem.”

“True,” Ilyukhina says, “Guess it’s time to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!” She snickers as if she’s made some kind of joke.

Rocky nods and looks up at his friend. “Rocky has something to tell Grace.”

Grace pauses, then nods back. “I’m listening, bud.”

It ends up being a long conversation as Ilyukhina had predicted, one they’d tromped all the way back to the Hail Mary for, just so Grace could properly sit down for it. There’s a lot of disbelief followed by even more questions, and Rocky does his best to answer all of them with Yáo and Ilyukhina offering their own input over his shoulder. At one point Grace sounds a bit hurt that Rocky had kept such a big secret from him, but once Rocky explains that Grace’s crew mates had been the ones to request Rocky’s silence he seems to accept that.

“Sorry, my head is just spinning,” Grace says nearly two hours later. At least he no longer sounds betrayed that Rocky had been hiding the information, but Rocky can understand how overwhelming it can be. He just learned he has his own lingering spirits with him after all. “First aliens, now ghosts? I feel like my life is some weird movie that can’t decide what genre it wants to be!”

“Not like you watch much horror to know the conventions anyway,” Ilyukhina snickers, and Rocky relays her words.

“W-Well who likes to be scared for fun?!” Grace protests.

“You’re just being a baby!” Ilyukhina snickers.

“I’m not, I’m just-!” Rocky senses him looking around wildly, clearly turning to Yáo for support, though his gaze ends up about two feet above Yáo’s head.

“Don’t look at me,” Yáo says with a shrug. “I didn’t watch many movies in general aside from the ones my family went to. I’ve read a few Stephen King books, if that counts.”

“Wow, it’s still just… surreal.” Rocky hears the soft shift as Grace runs his fingers through his hair. “I never thought that somehow in the depths of space I’d discover…” He trails off. There’s a long silence.

“Grace?” Ilyukhina says tentatively, and Rocky echoes her concern.

“Is Grace okay, question?” Rocky asks.

“I… I just remembered something,” Grace says, sounding distant.

“Remember what, question?”

“…I think I need a second.”

There’s a lot of anger and tears and indignation that keeps them all up half the night as Grace recounts the final moments he recalls of his time on Earth. Apparently Yáo and Ilyukhina had both been ignorant as to how Grace had been sent aboard the Hail Mary, and Rocky hadn’t sensed either of them lying about that much. Yáo is the angriest Rocky has ever heard him, ranting that he never would have agreed to take on a crew member who was being sent against their will, while Ilyukhina had muttered a number of words in a language different from the one Rocky had been using to speak with Grace but had sounded incredibly volatile and incensed.

Rocky, for his part, had been beyond outraged. When Grace had described the circumstances, it had sounded like some kind of torture beyond anything Rocky would have ever dared to conceive. The idea of being forced to sleep then sent off into space to die? Just the thought of it had Rocky’s insides quivering with fear and then venting in anger that such a fate had been forced on as kind a person as Grace.

He found himself wishing he could go to Earth just so he could give this [Eva Stratt] a piece of his mind. Rocky had never thought himself to be a particularly argumentative or violent sort before, but the enormity of what Grace’s former colleague had done to him had Rocky practically hopping with rage. He’d been rolling back and forth across the floor so much he’d thought he just might wear a groove into the metal.

Grace had been… quiet.

Enough so that if Rocky couldn’t hear the tempo of the other’s heart he would have assumed Grace had fallen asleep at some point. But no, instead Rocky could hear the soft drip, drip, drip of the other’s tears hitting the ground. It wasn’t the usual heaving sobs he’d heard when Grace had cried before. Instead this stream of water was slow and ponderous, a consistent, near silent leak that scared Rocky more than any of Grace’s previous breakdowns had.

“Grace…” Rocky rolls next to the other, nudging as close as he could to the barrier. He still didn’t fully understand it himself, but he knew humans tended to value physical contact as a comfort mechanism.

“…I’m okay, bud,” Grace says, but the words sound hollow.

Lie, lie, lie

“Is not okay,” Rocky says, feeling frustrated steam rise from his vents, “Is not okay what happen to Grace.”

The other swallows hard. “I…I understand why she did it. Why she had to do it.”

“Was not right,” Rocky insists, “Should not have sent you.”

“Maybe not, but…” Grace finally lifts a hand and rests, “I’m still glad I got to meet you.”

And even through his own simmering indignation, Rocky finds some of his anger dissipating. Because at the end of the day, no matter how unjust the circumstance were, Grace was still here, and Rocky was incredibly grateful for it. Of all the humans it could have been, the three he’d met were were ones that were kind and honest and brave and- well, it could have been a lot worse.

“…Rocky happy to meet Grace too,” Rocky says begrudgingly.

It doesn’t make him less indignant on Grace’s behalf, but it does help him see that his rage is ultimately useless, and in some ways unwanted. If anyone had the right to be mad, it was Grace himself, and yet the other seems to not want to dwell on how he came to be on the Hail Mary, instead celebrating the times he had aboard it. Grace is much more forgiving than Rocky could ever be.

“When Grace go home, should show Stratt punch from movie,” Rocky mutters.

That’s enough to startle a laugh out of Grace. “I’m not going Rocky on Stratt!”

“A shame,” Ilyukhina mutters.

“Ilyukhina agree,” Rocky says brazenly.

“Wh- Ilyukhina?!” Grace’s eyes dart around. “I’m not punching anyone!”

“Doubt he could throw a punch anyway,” Ilyukhina mutters.

“Well, he does have more muscle now,” Yáo says speculatively.

“Enough to maintain all the way back to Earth?” She sounds dubious.

“Mm, well… you have a point.”

Rocky decides not to relay any of the rest of the crew’s doubts about Grace’s physical strength. “But Grace should think about what to say when back on Earth.”

Grace pauses, and Rocky hears the sharp whistle of oxygen down his throat. “Yeah… I guess I’ve been trying not to think about that.”

Rocky can’t blame him. He’s been trying not to think about it either. Instead he just hums as Grace sits down and leans on the xenonite sphere. “Will miss Grace.”

“I’ll miss you too, pal.”

They don’t speak for a long time after that, simply resting against each other with only an inch of xenonite and a whole universe between them.

Rocky’s ship is far too quiet after the Hail Mary separates from it. He tries to distract himself at first, catching up on all the ship maintenance he’d been neglecting since he’d started working with Grace, but that doesn’t last very long. There are only so many times he can check the fuel tanks and flight path before the redundancy starts making his mind go dull and fuzzy. It’s strange to realize that only a year with company had made him forget how numb the decades of loneliness before then had been.

On a whim, he tries to communicate with the ghosts Grace had seen aboard his ship, but no matter what Rocky tries, he can’t hear the or ‘see’ the remnants of his deceased crew mates. He eventually gives up after about a week of attempts, trying to comfort himself with the knowledge that they are there even if he can’t see them. Sometimes it almost works.

He has a few long years back to Erid stretching out in front of him, and Rocky has no idea how he’s going to make it all alone. Usually the years would pass in a blink of an eye, but now…

And it’s just as Rocky is in the middle of musing such a thing that the ship stutters, shudders, and grinds to a halt.

“I think his mind is made up.”

“Me too.”

“The beetles are leaving. We should see them home.”

“Are you sure? Do you think Grace…?”

“He’ll be fine. After all, he’s got someone to help him get home.”

There’s a vibration shuddering through the ship, an echo that rings through the halls, high, clear and sweet. It has no words that Rocky recognizes, but he knows the meaning of this melody deep in his carapace.

“I’m here, I’m here, I’m here and you aren’t alone anymore.”

“This is everything?” Grace asks.

“Is all!” Rocky confirms, pushing the last of his belongings through the tunnels toward the Hail Mary. It’s enough food and resources for him to make it back to Erid, though he’s still worried about how Grace will manage to sustain himself for the rest of the trip and into the years beyond.

Rocky pauses then, realizing what it was that had been bothering him since the ships return. He sharpens his focus, listening closely to the hum of the Hail Mary’s engines, only to realize he no longer hears-

“Grace’s crew mates…”

“Oh, Yáo and Ilyukhina? Are they still-?”

“Gone,” Rocky says, shaking his carapace. “Cannot sense.”

“Oh,” Grace sounds surprised, but then pensive. “Maybe they moved on. I mean, I did send the samples back to Earth. Maybe that was what they needed?”

“Maybe,” Rocky says. He doesn’t pretend to know how the afterlife works, and he’s not about to start speculating. “Can Grace see…?”

“Huh? Oh, let me…” Grace walks over to the communication board.

“R-ock-y leav-e, q-ues-tion?”

“Will mi-ss y-ou”

“Hav-e sa-ved E-arth and E-rid, th-ank y-ou”

“St-ay st-ro-ng for one l-ast j-our-ney.”

“Sa-fe tr-a-vels, sa-fe tr-a-vels, sa-fe tr-a-vels…”

There’s one last noise, the drag of of stone against the line of grooves on an arm.

“I think that’s it, bud,” Grace says, “The lights are…”

“Understand,” Rocky says. He takes one last long moment to say a silent goodbye to the ship he’d lived on for nearly half a century. He hopes that his own crew mates have found a way to move on, that they no longer need to linger out of fear for him or Erid, that they can finally find the kind of peace Rocky hopes is in his own future. Rocky drags his own claw against the other, a final farewell to the crew that left far too soon.

“You okay, bud?” Grace asks.

“Yes… Rocky is… okay,” Rocky replies.

Grace hums. “You know, I think I saw them once. Yáo and Ilyukhina, I mean.” Rocky makes an inquiring noise, and Grace continues. “For just an instant when I sent the beetles off, I thought I saw… well, it’s kind of ridiculous, but for just a second I saw two extra trails of light heading toward Earth.” He laughs a little. “Maybe it was just wishful thinking.”

“Is okay if wish,” Rocky says, “Rocky has many wishes for crew mates too.”

When they leave Rocky’s ship behind, Rocky doesn’t feel as bereft as he’d expected to. He still has a ship, a chance to save his planet, and above all has his friend by his side. Erid was still many years of travel away, but for once Rocky didn’t mind the wait.

“You met with the last of your crew’s family today, right?” Grace asks. Around them waves crash against the shoreline. “How’d that go?”

“Was… as expected,” Rocky replies. “They were sad, but… happy to have the closure.”

“I guess that’s all they can ask for,” Grace says. He rests a hand on the top of Rocky’s new and improved xenonite suit. “Here’s to happier times then.”

“Yes,” Rocky says as he settles in at Grace’s side. “Happier times now that our planets are saved.”

“I haven’t seen any ghosts since,” Grace says.

“I have not heard any either,” Rocky agrees.

“I’m… not really sad about that though,” Grace says, “Is that bad? I mean I still miss them, but-“

“It’s not a bad thing,” Rocky says, “I doubt they would want us to watch them linger as time passes without them.”

“I guess you’re right,” Grace says. “What about when I die? Do you want me to hang around?”

And unfortunately, Grace’s death is something that’s been on Rocky’s mind as well as time passes and the gravity weighs heavily on his friend’s bones. Grace sleeps longer, moves slower, and begins to forget the things his mind was once sharp at. Rocky can hear the labored breaths more and more these days, can see the way Grace’s back has begun to stoop and how he’s all too quickly needed a cane for assistance to get around. Humans are so fragile, their lives far more fleeting than Eridians’, and yet despite that…

“I don’t want you to become a ghost,” Rocky says, “I don’t want you to be forced to stay in any more places you don’t want to be.”

Grace sucks in a surprised breath, but then laughs. “Don’t worry, bud. I got a few more good years in me.” He rests his hand on top of Rocky’s carapace. “And I promise, I’d want to stay here anyway.”