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One hour after the death of Doctor Captain Ryland Grace, all of planet Earth held a moment of silence in his honor.
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One week after the death of Doctor Captain Ryland Grace, a funeral was held.
The location of his resting place was kept private until after the procession, lest half the planet show up to pay their respects.
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Three weeks after the death of Dr. Ryland Grace, a memorial was put up in his honor.
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Four weeks after the death of Dr. Ryland Grace, the memorial had to be expanded, as gifts and tributes flooded the grounds.
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One month after the death of Dr. Ryland Grace, a deep-space transmission is sent in the direction of 40 Eridani.
It was only right to inform them, after all they had done for him.
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16.3 years after the death of Savior Grace, Erid would experience its third planet-wide thrum in honor of their human friend.
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32.6 years after the death of Dr. Ryland Grace, that old transmission finally received a response.
Erid was sending a ship in honor of one of their saviors.
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34 years after the death of Dr. Ryland Grace, an Eridian ship was detected near Mars.
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34 years and 6 days after the death of Ryland Grace, the International Space Exploration Administration welcomed Earth’s first interstellar visitors.
Among them was a figure everyone could recognize. The other half of Earth and Erid’s saviors, the one whose name always appeared right next to that of Ryland Grace.
Rocky.
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Earth is beautiful, thought Rocky. The screens on the Hail Mary did not do it justice. As much as Rocky missed his friend, as much as he never wanted him to leave, as much as Earth had hurt him…he could understand why Grace wished to see it one last time.
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34 years and 11 days after the death of Grace, a secure escort brought some of humanity’s representatives as well as the Eridian delegation—including Rocky, his mate Adrian, and a few others Grace had befriended and even taught as students on Erid—to the grave and memorial of the man who brought two planets together.
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As much as he missed his Grace, Rocky was not sure he could do this. Adrian, as always, was steady beside them, understanding. They missed their fellow scientist too.
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The air was quiet as everyone stood respectfully around the memorial, the security teams and representatives of ISEA and individual space agencies all watching as the Eridian delegation approached the resting place of Dr. Grace.
Rocky stood in front, Adrian standing close beside him in quiet, solid support.
Slowly, steps so careful and gentle as if he were simply trying not to disturb his human’s sleep (Grace always slept so lightly), Rocky approached the grave.
For a long time, he stood silently. Replaying every moment from the first meeting with that strange, leaky space blob to the final goodbye with their still so strange yet beloved friend, as Grace made the final journey to the planet he still missed so dearly even after all his years on Erid.
As his perfect memory played out before his mind, a soft tune began to play from his vents.
The tones grew steadily louder, filling the air with a gentle, powerful, mournful melody.
Adrian’s lower, deeper tones joined in harmony with their mate’s. The Eridian mourning song evolved as the remaining Eridians one by one spun their own voices into the melody.
The flowing tones filled the air, weaving a tale of impossible meetings and impossible friendships, of cooperation, of grief and of joy, of stars dying and living again, of a beach, of a home, of long years, of final goodbyes.
The song saturated the air, blocking all other sounds, filling every empty space, the notes embedding themselves deep in the very bones of everyone present.
The humans present found themselves barely able to breathe, the song so profound and overwhelming. A song carrying a memory and a grief that stretched light years, across a scale too large to carry alone (but they were never alone in the cosmos). Not a single eye would be left dry, that day.
When asked later, none would be able to answer how long the song had lasted. Be it seconds, or minutes, or hours. But they would say it felt like every moment Rocky and Grace were together.
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He could have gone on for days and it would not have been enough. It was Adrian whose nudging tones finally brought Rocky down from his mourning song. In the silence that followed, Rocky held his favorite memory of Grace, imagining for a moment he was there, on a beach on Erid, hearing the waves with his friend beside him.
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34 years and 11 days after the death of Beloved Grace, decades after saying goodbye for the final time…Rocky got to visit his best friend again.