Chapter Text
Ryland Grace walked along the top deck of the ship, lost in thought. He’d been called back into research by a favor from an old friend of his, Ricardo “Rocky” Velazquez. It was the early in the summer, but the nighttime air was almost chilly above the depth of the ocean.
Rocky was working on a research vessel as their head engineer and mechanic. They’d found a strange substance in the water while researching the migration patterns of an endangered species of whale and needed someone without any prior commitments to fly out and take a look. Most other researchers of his level were either stuck in their current jobs or unwilling to spend a month or two on a ship. Or Rocky had just gotten Grace a huge favor by specifically asking for him.
He had no commitments during the summer, he was a teacher and uninvolved in any extracurricular that might’ve conflicted. Plus, he would do anything to hang out with Rocky and his spouse, Adrian, who was the lead marine biologist on the ship.
“Can’t sleep?” Someone asked. Grace jumped about three feet into the air with an incredibly childish squeak.
“Oh my gosh, don’t sneak up on me like that, please,” Grace said, hand pressed to his chest in an effort to calm his racing heart. His brain caught up with his body enough to recognize Simon Fischer, one of the many divers on the ship.
“Sorry. I thought you heard me,” said Simon, a wry smile on his face. So he wasn’t that sorry- but it was okay, because he was cute (where did that thought come from??).
“And yeah, I can’t sleep,” Grace said after a moment’s pause, “I always struggle for a few days after getting to a new place. Need to… settle in, I guess.”
Simon nodded, his neutral expression softening into one of understanding. “I get it. I’m just a night owl naturally, I guess. Only really need about six hours of sleep every night.”
“Ugh, I’m so jealous,” Grace admitted, dragging a hand down his face, “I never get enough sleep and I’m just… always tired.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, you don’t look tired,” Simon said, his eyes flicking up and down Grace’s body. That action immediately caused him to flush and look away, embarrassed. The ocean was calm and the sky was clear, with hundreds of millions of stars visible in the sky. It was almost overwhelmingly beautiful. He desperately wished that he could have seen this view from his backyard.
“Uh, thanks,” Grace stammered, “I guess that’s one good-looking thing about me.”
Simon smiled. It was small, but it still lit up his whole face, smile lines sprouting by his eyes. He was stunning, really.
“I wouldn’t say that,” He said quietly, stepping slightly closer, “You’ve got a lot of… admirable qualities, Doctor Grace.”
Grace tried to think of a witty, flirty response and came up with absolutely nothing. He just stared in shock, eyes wide. Simon’s smile got a little wider and he backed away with a tilt of his head.
“See you around, yeah?” He asked.
Grace nodded mutely, his brain completely offline. Simon stepped away towards the center of the ship, presumably to wherever he slept. Grace sucked in a deep breath. It had been a long, long time since he’d been flirted with- or, it had been a long, long time since he noticed someone flirting. That was probably more accurate. Most of the time, it didn’t really matter to him much. He would politely turn them down and that would be the end of it. It wasn’t since Linda that he felt anything like what he’d just experienced with Simon, his heart racing and breath coming in short pants.
He stayed on the deck for a long time, watching the waves and the few clouds in the sky pass by. The ocean really was beautiful, blackish-blue and vast, stretching endlessly in every direction. He lived near a beach that had an ocean that stretched endlessly into the horizon, too, but he never realized how much he took it for granted until he was on a ship, so close to the water but unable to touch it.
What must have been hours later, the first signs of sunrise lighting up the horizon, Grace nearly got a concussion.
A massive submarine surfaced from under the water out of absolutely nowhere, the only warning sign a slight light from under the water that Grace barely registered until the entire thing broke through the surface, brilliantly white and shining against the backdrop of the ocean. Grace yelped and stumbled backwards, only just dodging a pole as he caught himself against a handrail.
He scrambled to his feet and looked down at the sub. It wasn’t even that much smaller than the enormous research vessel he was on. And so much of it was still hidden by the water! He almost started laughing at the absurdity of the situation, a shocked breath escaping his mouth.
The submarine was truly a marvel, shining brilliant white, blue, and orange with strips of white light all along it’s surface. He couldn’t believe that something like it would exist while his classroom was nearly falling apart back home.
Behind him, one of the doors to the interior of the ship burst open, revealing both Adrian and Rocky. They seemed very tired, but also incredibly excited.
Adrian’s typically well-kept locs cascaded about their head like they’d just ripped off their sleeping bonnet and rushed upstairs without even bothering to look in the mirror. Rocky’s typically voluminous brown and white hair was sleep-pressed and wild. He looked… crazy. Grace grinned, wondering why they were in such a rush.
“Grace!” Adrian said, their voice quiet as always despite their excitement. They rushed to the edge of the ship and looked over, Rocky right beside them.
“Do you two know what’s going on…?” Grace asked, half-confused and half-amused at their antics.
“That’s The Arronax!” Adrian shouted, pointing down at the submarine. Grace tilted his head, wondering where he’d heard that name before.
“Is that the submarine that recorded the first footage of the colossal squid?” He asked, having heard the news when his students brought it up in class.
“It’s so much more than that,” Adrian groaned, pressing their forehead against the cool metal of the railing. Next to them, Rocky was furiously typing on his aac device, glancing between the Arronax and the screen. He’d even switched to full keyboard mode, which meant that he had a lot to say, with specific words that he didn’t have on his main screen. Rocky also sometimes used ASL to communicate, but preferred the grammatical structure that the AAC device allowed him to use.
The device read out a short keysmash (So Rocky was very excited) and then moved on to actual words.
“That is Arronax, greatest engineering project ever on entire earth! Has state of art everything everything everything. Dream dream dream to see it in person! Used by the Nekton family to study underwater, is so so so amaze amaze amaze.” Even with the slight monotone of the device’s text to speech, the excitement that Rocky had carried across in his body language and three-word repetition.
“Wow. Just one family can use it?” Grace asked, wondering how exactly that worked.
Adrian spoke up, “The Nekton family, Grace. Aka, their family line discovered and invented so much for underwater science that they have basically infinite money. They literally wrote the book on underwater exploration. Plus, they’re so friendly and share all their research that basically every marine biologist dreams of meeting them in person to thank them for advancing the field so much. I’m literally shaking right now, look!” Adrian held their hand up to Grace’s face, where a visible jitter in their hands caused him to laugh, slightly concerned.
“Well, I’m glad you got to see their ship. It scared the hell out of me when it came up out of the water, though,” Grace admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.
“GRACE SAW SURFACE?” The AAC device spoke on full volume. It was surprisingly loud when turned all the way up.
He nodded. “Couldn’t sleep.”
Rocky made an upset face and began to type (though he thankfully turned the volume down before the next sentence). “Grace need sleep. Grace tired tired tired but never sleep. Also Rocky jealous going to push Grace over ship.”
He stepped towards Grace threateningly, but Adrian laughed and stopped him with a hand on the shoulder.
“Rocky, it isn’t Grace’s fault that we got a little… distracted when we woke up this morning,” Adrian teased. Rocky’s face became a textbook-perfect visage of embarrassment, down to the slight flush on his cheeks.
“Shut up shut up shut up!” He said. That button was used frequently enough that he didn’t even have to look down at the screen to know where it was.
Adrian cackled and kissed his cheek. It seemed that that was when they realized the absolute state that both of them were in- that is to say, they both looked like they just woke up after a huge bender the night before.
“I can’t meet Kaiko Nekton looking like this!” They shouted, grabbing Rocky’s hand and dragging him away from the railing. “Come on, we have to get ready!”
Before Grace could even get another word out to ask who Kaiko Nekton was, Rocky and Adrian were both gone, vanished back into the ship. God, he loved those guys.
The Arronax didn’t seem to be doing anything, so Grace decided to go get breakfast and change his outfit. If the Nekton family was so important, he needed to look at least somewhat presentable. Other crew members were eating, Grace recognized Eva Stratt, a historian and behavioral analyst. She’d been called in to help analyze historical migration patterns or something like that- he wasn’t sure, she was way too intimidating to talk to. Standing next to her table was Ava Ironsmith, the Captain herself. Grace caught part of their conversation as he walked past.
“I apologize, Eva,” Ava said, holding an apple in one hand and a cup of steaming hot coffee in the other, “But I have work to do, and can’t sit with you today.”
Eva nodded. “Of course. I’ll see you later.”
Ava smiled slightly, the expression shocking on her usual ‘I don’t give a fuck about you’ face. In fact, both of them usually wore that kind of expression, but talking to each other, it was like they came to life.
Grace wondered if there was a betting pool on them getting together or not. He would put twenty bucks on them dating by the end of the month.
He continued on, getting his breakfast and sitting alone at a table while he ate. He really tried to recall all the things he’d heard about the famous Nektons over the years, but he just kept drawing blanks. It was likely that he wouldn’t even get to meet them, since they were apparently showing up for a specific reason, and he doubted that he would be included in whatever discussion they were having with Captain Ava or one of the other people in charge.
There was another dive scheduled for later that day. The original samples of the mysterious red liquid that strongly resembled blood were too small to do much more with than look at them under a microscope and figure out what they were made of (mostly hydrogen and oxygen, of course…). Grace had been making do with what he had, but the other biologists aboard wanted more samples and to potentially send them to other labs with more equipment than the bare-bones floating lab he found himself in.
He wondered who was going to go down. Maybe it would be Simon, and Grace would get to see his muscles covered by a skintight diving suit rather than a loose flannel that stretched around his shoulders despite its otherwise good fit…
Grace needed to stop. He finished his breakfast and returned the plastic tray to the kitchen, forcing himself to think about the mysterious liquid instead of strong arms and a devastating smile. It really freaked him out how close the cells resembled blood. Even if it was just a case of convergent evolution, he wished he could have seen what the divers saw while on the ocean floor. The photos had all been lost when the two cameras had simultaneously malfunctioned, completely frying the memory cards and leaving what exactly was down there a mystery to all but the divers themselves.
Grace had read Simon’s report. The blood-like stuff was leaking from a small crack in the ocean floor. Originally, they’d assumed it was fish blood (because what else would it be?) and just continued their survey. But as they drew closer, the blood moved of it’s own accord towards the four divers. Because they were all resonable and sane adults, they moved away quickly, eventually losing the blood-stuff (they needed to come up with a better name).
They decided to cut the trip short after their comms began to fail. It took a long time to readjust to the pressure on their way back up, but all of them made it safely with no cases of the bends. However, unluckily for Simon, some of the blood had hitched a ride on his flippers. Once he got back to the surface, they managed to contain it and sterilize his suit before it could touch anyone. That was where Simon’s account ended, but Grace knew that they studied the strange blood for a few days before calling him in. Almost every biologist on board was a marine biologist, and while they were very knowledgeable in a lot of areas, tiny cells was not really one of them. Though, that made it sound like he thought he was smarter than them, which he was not. Adrian had ten times his brains and they were eight years younger than him.
He made his way back up to the top deck, hoping to watch the divers go out. Even if Simon wasn’t going down, he was still interested in the procedures that divers had to undergo. However, what he saw instead was a gangway being opened between the Arronax and the ship, the top of the submarine having opened to reveal an enormous storage hangar with stairs up the sides. The Arronax was shockingly close to the ship. He could almost reach out and touch it. Glancing down, he saw the typical boat fenders (at least, that’s what he thought the weird squishy things they hung down from the boats were called) pressed against the Arronax, keeping their hulls from touching. He wondered if that was standard practice for going between two boats or if the massive high-tech submarine had some special procedure.
The gangway was being set up on the deck just below the one he was standing on, stretching across to the Arronax like the branch of a tree. Since the upper deck was slightly smaller, he could see the group gathering to meet the Nektons.
Captain Ava was there for obvious reasons, along with Adrian and Rocky since they were project leads, but he was surprised to see nearly the entire diving team there as well. Well, he hadn’t necessarily been invited, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t go down one deck and watch the proceedings.
He raced down the stairs, briefly composing himself before he stepped out onto the lower deck. He wasn’t even a huge fan of these guys like Rocky and Adrian seemed to be, so he could be normal. He was more interested in their ship than their personalities, anyway. Or at least, that was what he told himself as he settled off to the side. He definitely wasn’t there to stare at Simon’s butt in his diving suit. Definitely not. It looked great, though.
Adrian whispered something to Rocky, who very quickly signed something back at them. Probably ‘shut up,’ if he had to guess.
Just as footsteps sounded on the other end of the gangway, Rocky glanced back towards Grace. His face lit up and he gestured for him to come over. Grace shook his head, but Rocky shook his head too and used his incredible talent of being bossy to get Grace to reluctantly join the large group awaiting the Nektons. He tried not to block anyone’s view, remaining in the back, but Rocky just reached through the crowd, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him to the front with an awkward stumble.
He shot a sheepish smile back towards the people he’d just been pulled in front of and turned his attention back to the Arronax, watching as the Nektons themselves stepped onto the deck of the ship.
They looked like a pretty standard family. A mom, a dad, and two kids. They even acted like it, based on what happened the moment they made it onto the ship.
“Good morning, I’m Captain Ava Ironsmith. Welcome to-” She was suddenly cut off by the youngest Nekton, a boy with a blue and orange wetsuit on, began to speak.
“The Investigator! Only the largest research vessel in operation! And you’re Captain Ava Ironsmith! You’re so cool!” He shouted. Ava raised an eyebrow, glancing between him and his parents while somehow maintaining her aura of ‘don’t fuck with me.’ The kid’s wide smile fell slightly, but he still exuded so much joy that it barely made a dent. “Uh, sorry. I shouldn’t interrupt.”
“That’s right,” The mother, who was presumably Kaiko Nekton, said, pulling Ant back towards the Arronax with an apologetic smile. “I apologize, he’s just a big fan of yours, Captain Ironsmith. We’re glad to work with you on this project.”
Ava and Kaiko began to talk, but Grace was only half listening. The two kids were whispering to each other and pointing at him. Like, directly pointing. It reminded him of walking past a group of gossips in the hallways at the middle school and feeling their eyes on his back.
Adrian seemed to notice that as well and pulled Grace closer. “The young boy with the fish backpack is Ant Nekton. His sister is Fontaine Nekton, and their dad is William Nekton. Just so you know,” They whispered, keeping their eyes focused on Ava and Kaiko. Grace nodded. He wondered what Ant and Fontaine were saying about him (they’d even turned to bring their dad into their gossip session!). Ant seemed to be about middle school age, but Fontaine was probably older.
“Adrian over there is our lead biologist,” Ava said, apparently having moved on to introduce the rest of the crew, “And next to them is Rocky, our lead engineer. He’s the one who designed the collection device, by the way. Behind them is Simon, one of our diving team leads. Our other team lead, David, has a cold, unfortunately. Everyone on deck right now is either under my command or one of theirs.”
Kaiko nodded, watching as each person mentioned raised their hands in a polite wave. The image was so similar to Grace’s classroom that he almost laughed.
“Thank you for your help, Captain,” Kaiko said, “We can take the rest from here. We’ll report back with our findings in a few days. I wouldn’t recommend sending another diving team down in regular suits, if it can be avoided.”
Ava blinked, somewhat surprised. “But… I was under the impression that we would send our divers with you. Was there some miscommunication?”
“Sorry, we just don’t usually let others into the Arronax, since it’s our home. But when we’re done fixing the issue, we’ll give you all of our data and leftover samples,” Kaiko explained. Ava nodded slowly, but as she did, the two kids in the back spoke up.
“Come on, Mom, we should let some of them come with us! I’ll even drive the rover!” Ant begged, grabbing Kaiko’s arm.
“As much as I hate to say this, I agree with Ant,” Fontaine said, “We could probably use some of their help.”
Kaiko glanced back at Will with a clear expression of hesitation, but Will shrugged.
“They both convinced me. It’s just for a few hours anyway, while we go down to get the samples,” Will said, an oddly mirthful expression on his face, like he knew something that everyone else didn’t.
Kaiko turned back to Ava, a somewhat apologetic look on her face. “We can take four.”
“Anyone in particular?” Ava asked, a hint of amusement in her tone. It absolutely did not show in her face. Or maybe she just had muscular damage from the scar across her eye.
“I know!” Ant said, surging forward into the crowd. He stopped in front of Adrian, Rocky and Grace. “You guys! Come with us.”
“Alright,” Adrian said, glancing at Rocky for conformation.
“Okay,” Rocky said, the robotic voice clearly startling Ant.
“Wow! Robot voice?” He asked, looking around for the source. Rocky snorted, meanwhile, Fontaine ran over and grabbed Ant.
“It’s a text-to-speech, bonehead,” She said, pushing him away before addressing Rocky directly, “Sorry about that, he has problems with speaking before he uses his brain.”
“Is okay,” Rocky said, “Was little funny.”
Ant stuck his tongue out at Fontaine and continued through the crowd. She looked at Grace expectantly.
“Well?” She asked.
“What- me?” He responded, pointing at himself. Fontaine laughed.
“Yeah! Come on, all three of you,” She said, turning to walk back to the gangplank where Will and Kaiko were waiting.
Rocky and Adrian both walked forward immediately, but Grace hesitated a second before following. He couldn’t imagine Will or Kaiko bringing him along without a reason, so if they wanted to switch him out for someone more competent, he would easily go back to waiting around on the ship for more things to do.
As he reached the gangway, Ant reappeared with Simon in tow. Oh god. He was going to have to be normal. So, so normal.
“When can we expect them back?” Ava asked.
“Probably around 1800 tonight,” Will responded. He was a good four inches above Grace in height, and had the bulk to match it. Grace immediately shoved the thought of him being somewhat attractive away. Will was married and had two kids, so he probably wouldn’t appreciate Grace staring at his muscles the whole day. God, he needed to be normal. His attraction to people was so weird- one day, he would feel like everyone around him was hopelessly hot, and the next, he would be completely uninterested in any and all human interaction. Ugh, why couldn’t today have been one of those days? Instead, he was all flustered because of some attractive guys in his vicinity. He was so pathetic.
He was also probably really overthinking things.
“Got it. We… will be here,” Captain Ava said, clearly not super happy about this development but unable to say anything about it.
“Yay! Party on the Arronax!” Ant shouted, taking off running across the gangway. Grace wondered how the fish in his backpack felt about that.
He glanced over at Simon, who seemed to be hiding his excitement for going on the Arronax. Grace assumed that any diver worth their paycheck would know about such an incredible ship.
Everyone else easily stepped onto the gangway, but Grace hesitated. He knew that he couldn’t fall because of the tall railings and that the ship was sturdy, but his anxiety seemed to think that he was doomed.
Simon noticed his hesitation and held a hand out. “Come on, Doctor Grace,” He said, “I’ll be there the whole time.” And then he winked.
Grace nearly died of a heart attack right then and there, but he managed to pull himself together enough to reach out and climb onto the gangway, though he didn’t let go of Simon’s hand as he did so. His anxiety had two things to wail about: Simon’s proximity and the height at which they were walking across the ocean.
He told his anxiety to shut up. He was Doctor Ryland Grace, and he was cool enough to hang out on the best submarine ever constructed.
He just hoped that agreeing to this wouldn’t come back to bite him.