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“Grace! Grace!” Rocky was banging the door. Again. Why? Ryland didn’t know. It’s not like it was locked. Plus, couldn’t a man just get a decent nap without his best friend slash alien boyfriend waking him up?
“Jesus, Rocky. Just come in. Why are you being so loud?”
“Earth probe on Erid. Grace must come now.” He stomped his foot. Claw. Whatever. Ryland was too sleepy to think about it.
“I’m sorry?”
“Don’t apologise for not understanding. Grace brain slow, unlike mine.” He tilted his carapace to the side. “Adrian and their team are on their way. We need to meet them at the airlock.”
Okay. Crap. “They’re coming here? With the probe? Why?” Rocky gave him that look, the one that screams You’re so stupid omg. Grace knew he earned it, and the lack of a response. “Lemme put m’shoes on.”
They walked fast. Well, they tried to walk fast. Grace’s arthritis was getting in the way of Rocky’s excitement. The cane was useful, but Rocky really wanted to haul him and run.
“Grace! Rocky!” Adrian’s excited trill just added to the sense of urgency that the Eridians had that Grace didn’t really share. There was a few other Eridians, all humming excitedly and pacing in place. Adrian’s new team, no doubt. He waved at them. Rocky groaned in a one Grace would only describe as Oh my God, bruh. When they got to the little office by the airlock, little was the understatement of the century, he got comfortable on a padded chair.
He hoped they at least had a cure for his joint problem in that probe.
“Would you do us the honour, Grace friend?” Adrian pointed to a button that was supposed to do... something. He pressed it, too ceremoniously for his liking, and waited. The office opened up in a manner Grace had never thought it would. Adrian had designed the space so he was sure they had put in some serious specs that he might have never known. Like opening up. Then, after three of the walls and part of the roof had disappeared, the biodome walls started shifting.
This is it, he thought to himself. This is how I die.
“We’re not killing you, Captain Doofus.” Rocky sighed in exasperation. Grace kept his eyes facing forward, even though he really wanted to make a face at Rocky.
There was one thing Rocky had failed to mention when he had gone to Grace’s home to get him. The ‘probe’ was literally the size of his ship, the Hail Mary. On the other side of the moving wall was another wall, further away. One of the Eridians handling the transport explained that the old wall had remained intact so the probe, ship, could properly cool off without disrupting his environment.
“You guys are so nice to me.” He wanted to tear up. The probe had writing on it’s side. The letters were big and white on its steely grey exterior.
RG-12
Ryland didn’t want to get ahead of himself but, it was his. It was addressed to him. RG for Ryland Grace. On top of that, twelve was his favourite number. There was a bit of yellow, his favourite colour, on the side. Yup. He definitely wasn't reading too much into it.
He jumped and started jogging to the door. It was kinda hard to miss since it was the only bit of bright colour on the entire surface. Rocky trailed after him, clutching Ryland’s cane in one claw and constantly trilling about not falling over. Ryland didn’t care. For the first time in a long time, his joints were completely fine.
“Welcome to the RG12, Doctor Captain Ryland Grace and Rocky, saviours of Earth and Erid!”
The voice used by the vessel’s AI system was a punch to the gut. The first human, well kinda, voice he’d heard in years. It sounded so familiar, like someone whose voice he’d forgotten. The tears threatened to spill again. He reeled it in.
“Hello. What do I refer to you as?”
“Seavers, Doctor Grace.”
He didn’t bother with the tears.
“Why is Grace having a face leak, question?”
“It’s my brother’s voice, Rock. And his name. Part of it anyway.”
The vessel was packed with a lot of things. Most of it was covered in plastic and secured by duct tape. Always trust NASA to use an ungodly amount of duct tape.
“There are messages for you, Doctor Grace. And for Erid. I was instructed to advise you to listen to your personal messages first.”
Adrian and the team of Eridians started backing away from the door, likely to give Ryland some privacy. “Could you stay, Adrian? And Rocky too, of course. Please?”
Adrian hummed in affirmation and Rocky followed Grace to what looked like a screen. An advanced version of what they had on the Hail Mary at least. Once the other Eridians were out of range, the message started. It was a video. Ryland rolled his eyes. Of course it’d be a video. The girl on the screen looked to be in either her mid to late twenties or early thirties. Ryland could never really tell, and it was obviously worse since it’d been so long since he’d seen a new face.
But then again, her face was so familiar. Her tightly coiled hair was in a half up half down do. The half up part was in two buns and the half down was, well, down. And framing her face.
He felt like he knew her.
“Hello. This is my fourth time making this video, if I’m being honest.”
Her eyes were puffy and swollen, like she had been crying. Ryland’s heart broke a little for her.
“I should probably start by introducing myself. I am Doctor Rayland Evelyn Grace of the Mars Restoration Taskforce. Daddy said he named me after the two bravest people he knew. My family and close friends call me Ray. I have a Doctorate in molecular biology, and a Masters degree in botany. I am making this video to go along with the numerous files we have sent to 40-Eridani in an effort to make friends with others in the pocket of the universe we call our own.”
She sniffed again and a hand came into the frame and rested on her shoulder in a supportive gesture. Ryland looked at Rocky and Rocky seemed to know what he was thinking.
“Her name. She’s Doctor Grace. Like you.”
Part of what he was thinking then.
“I’m sure by now that Seavers has you alone. With Rocky and maybe Adrian. I hope you’re seated for this. Seavers, initiate operation Skittles.”
The video was paused and Seavers went “Operation Skittles initiated.” Overhead. They heard whirling and a small robot came out of nowhere. Holding a bag of, oh my fucking God, sour Skittles. His favourite kind. Cue more tears.
“This is Jody. She is named after your sister-in-law, Jody Moreno. Uncle Colt said the two of you were pretty tight.” Uncle Colt? “I wanted to have a little part of the people you loved in the ship. I hope I’m not overstepping.”
Ryland shook his head even though he knew that she could not see him.
“You’re probably wondering who I am and why I’m so invested in this. Well, maybe I should start by telling you more about me. Legally, I have five parents. It became pretty common when people started dying out but mine is a special case. My first set of parents are Carl Boyce and Dan Tucker. My second set was Colt and Jody Moreno-Seavers. My fifth parent is Eva Stratt, but not on paper. My fifth parent on paper, the second on my birth certificate, is you.”
Carl was pregnant when he left?
“Before you start blaming him, he didn’t know when he helped put you on that ship. They found out about it after, when he went to get checked for what he thought was menopause.” She paused as if composing herself to deliver a devastating piece of information. “He had me in prison. Which is where Uncle Colt and Aunt Jody come in. They adopted me legally and lived with me until the governments let Daddy and Aunt Eva out. It’s heartbreaking. I know. Anyway, this is my Dad, Dan.” The camera panned to the older man holding her like she was the most beautiful and most fragile thing on the planet. Ryland recognised him from when they were younger. He was Colt’s best friend.
“Hi Ry.” He waved like it was no big deal. Ryland waved back. “We’ve missed you like crazy back here.” He made a kissy face, something younger Ryland used to hate but older Ryland found bemusing.
“He’s the last of my parents remaining. And you, if you’re watching this. I really hope you are because it’d be a shame to let my tears stay in Seavers’ database forever without an audience.”
Ryland found the pause button and wept. The last of her parents. They were dead. Stratt and Carl and Jody. Colt, his big brother, was dead. Rocky and Adrian stood by his side and rubbed their bodies against him like they did whenever he was sad. They sat there for a few minutes before he found the strength to press play.
“I want you to know that they died happy. They saw the fruits of your work. They got to bask in the sun and swim in the ocean again. They got to raise me. They taught me everything I know, took me to the best schools and told me about you. So, I might not know you, but you did more than get Daddy pregnant. You gave them some of their lives back and gave me the chance to flourish. And for that alone, I love you.”
Tears were streaming down her face mirroring Ryland’s own. Now that he had looked at her carefully with the knowledge of her parentage, she looked so much like Carl. It was in her smile and the little furrow in her brow. There was parts of Ryland too. The shape of her jaw and the slight slouch.
“There’s more Skittles in the ship. Maybe you can share them. And movies, music, books. Everything you’ve missed out on. There’s also many videos and papers about many topics. I think you’ll be happy to know that we made new bases in other parts of our system. We have five on Mars now and one on Saturn. Yes, like in Interstellar. No, nothing too complicated like harnessing gravity. We are still using astrophage as fuel though so everything is safe so long as nobody does bad math.”
From how she winced, he knew she wasn’t referring to the explosion that involuntarily put him on the space mission.
“Aunt Eva told me to tell you that she was wrong. Not about sending you, she stood by that till the end. She was wrong about the other thing. You knew you wouldn’t come back so you tried your best to stay alive. You’re no coward, Daddy. You never were. None of us think that. You chose to save Rocky over coming back. So maybe, if there’s a part of you that thinks that, tell it your daughter says otherwise. And yes, I’m taking the highest authority on this one. Okay?”
Fresh tears welled in his eyes. Hearing it from Rocky, Adrian and his therapist was one thing. Hearing that Stratt thought she had been wrong? Hearing his daughter claim he was not a coward? It did things for him that years of therapy had not managed to do.
“Well, that was cathartic.” It was. “I’m sorry I made you sad, Daddy. There’s more videos for you. Seavers will play them when you’re ready. I’ve input my address in Seavers’ database so you can send me anything in a special probe in there that will reach me faster than any of the others they sent. Please give my love to Rocky and Adrian and their family who I know are also your family.” She blows kisses to the screen. “Oh, one last thing. Seavers, initiate operation Science paper.”
“Initiating operation Science paper.”
“Aunt Eva always made us use the goodbye you used in your last vlog. So, this is it for us. This is...”
“Dan Tucker, father of the year.”
They laughed. It was so melodious and joyful that Ryland knew he would splice it into his home system.
“And Doctor Captain Rayland Grace reporting from the Watney Space Station on Mars. As the Eridians say...” She rubbed the inside of her enclosed fist over the outside of her other forearm in Grace’s version of the Eridian ‘see you later’ and Dan joined her.
He did it back and Rocky and Adrian did it too.
Oh, how he loved her.
The video ended with a still. It was a photo of her family on what looked like her doctorate graduation. His family stood under the full glare of the afternoon summer sun. Colt was hunched over a cane, much like Ryland usually was. Jody and Eva sat on what looked like a mobility device with their hands intertwined. Dan was kissing Carl. They were all grey, except for Ray, of course. He wondered how he would fit into that picture.
"Grace pebble beautiful human. Look nothing like Grace." Turns out Adrian had their screen viewer with them so the pair had watched the whole thing as well.
"Yeah. She looks more like Carl." He touched the picture on the screen. Jody-bot handed him a stack of papers. The title had him smiling.
An Affirmation Of Previous Analysis Of Water Based Assumptions And Recalibrations Of Expectations For Evolutionary Models by Dr. Ryland Grace.
A DISSERTATION BY DOCTOR RAYLAND GRACE.
And so, before he watched any other video or read her Science paper, the first of many she had sent over, Ryland hit record on his own camera.
“Hi my Darling Melody."