Chapter Text
One-point-five years into our journey to Erid. So far, I haven’t regretted the decision to ditch earth for Rocky, though I doubt I ever will.
I was maybe more than a little worried about the three year journey to Rocky’s home planet, I’ll admit. The reason I (and the other two members of the Hail Mary) were in comas was because Stratt had been worried that we would try to kill each other while being cooped up for years with only each other to talk to. There was a (large) part of myself that had been stressing that spending that much time with only Rocky around would have me ready to murder either him or myself, but the urge hasn’t emerged in the slightest. In fact, the first year and a half passed by a lot faster than I was expecting. I can’t say the same for Rocky, honestly he might be getting ready to murder me as we speak, I have the tendency to talk more than I probably should, and while he is aware of that, I have no way of knowing if it’s starting to annoy him. But maybe I’m not annoying to him, if I was, chances are higher than not that he would let me know.
It’s a strange feeling, being self-conscious around the only other being in the whole ship. I’m quite literally his entire basis of the human race, anything I have done, am doing, or could do, he could just interpret as a normal “human-thing” and not a “Grace-is-kind-of-an-idiot-thing”. Whatever, he can’t judge because he doesn’t know. (And yet, the self-consciousness persists).
***
“Grace, Grace, Grace! Import issue, please wake!”
My eyes peek open. Rocky had, a while ago, reinstalled the xenonite tube that ran over my bed to be a larger room, big enough for him to lounge in, and close enough that if I sat up at all, my head would smash into the clear surface. I know that Eridians tend to watch each other sleep by sitting on each other’s bodies, but wow, he was close. I guess I don’t really mind, at first I didn’t have the heart to tell him that humans tend to enjoy not being boxed in when they sleep, and really it only took me a few weeks to get used to it. It’s like a bunk bed, in a way. It’s cozy now.
He’s hunkered down, his carapace tilted towards me, and so close that he’s blurry. I snatch my glasses up from where I had left them next to my pillow and shove them on.
“Um. What’s up, buddy?”
“There is another human voice in control room. Very muffled, hard to make out,” Rocky twitters, a claw tapping almost rapidly on the xenonite underneath him. This wasn’t a “him trying to see me better” type tapping, more like “leg-bouncing” type tapping. Nervous.
“Um,” I say again. “What?”
“Grace come,” Rocky orders, tapping twice more then scampering out of the dormitory, presumably towards the control room.
I ease my way out of bed (I had learned the hard way one too many times about why I shouldn’t try to get out quickly, knocking one’s head into xenonite is not particularly fun) and grab my sweater from the floor before following after Rocky.
And yeah, sure enough, a garbled, rough approximation of a human voice was straining through the radio I didn’t know we had. I guess Stratt really did want to make sure we had everything. Seems a bit pointless, but I guess we needed it in the end. Honestly, I would say that it was insanely impressive that Rocky was able to make it out as a human voice, but… c’mon. It’s Rocky. (By this, I obviously mean everything he does is impressive.) How was it even possible that we were getting a signal? As far as I’m aware, we’re the only ones out this far in space. And I should definitely be the only human this far out. Did they send someone out as backup a few years after they sent me as a redundancy? In case I couldn’t get the job done? That seems like both a waste of resources, and a little insulting that they would think so lowly of me. Though given the way I was forced off the planet, I guess it makes sense.
“Grace!” Rocky shouts, snapping me out of my several trains of thought. I blink a few times, my eyes finding him.
“Sorry, I- uh-” I stammer before shaking my head. “Mary, where’s the radio?”
“Next to the navigation system, Doctor Grace,” Mary says.
“Oh. Yeah. Makes sense.”
The voice comes through the speakers again, sounding like it was coming through a garbage disposal. Before I lost contact, I scramble over to the seat, ignoring when Mary informs me that a pilot was detected. I found the radio and kinda mess around with it until the voice coming through was as clear as it was going to get.
“Can anyone read me?? Hello?? This is Simon—” the frequency cuts out for a moment, filling the air with static before finding the signal again. “From-” static again, “-station. your ship was pinged on my radar, please respond if operational!”
“Oh. OH, my god.” I stumble out of the seat, my eyes wide as I stare at the speaker. I guess even though I was expecting to hear someone speaking, I wasn’t prepared in the slightest. I’m regretting not getting ready emotionally for what this was going to feel like. This is almost exactly like expecting zero-g’s but not preparing for it. I’m holding on but I don’t have a barf bag.
“No understand. Where other human from, question? Came from Earth like Grace, question?” Rocky asks, pressing himself closer to the barrier of his tunnel.
“I- I- I don’t know. Pro- probably? I don’t know,” I stutter. I can feel my heart beating in my chest, am I having a heart attack?
“Heart beat very quickly, Grace okay, question?”
“Yeah, I- I’m fine. I’m-” I press my hand to my chest like I could keep my heart contained.
I was interrupted by the radio going off again. “Hello? Please respond if your ship is operational!”
Simon sounds panicked. I guess I’m also probably panicking, so that made sense.
Rocky rolls up in his ball, bumping into my legs. He must have run off to get into it after he asked about my heart and I hadn’t noticed. “Grace going to answer radio, question?”
“Shoot, yeah!” The idea of answering seemed so far away in my mind until Rocky suggested it. It was just so… strange.
My finger hovers over the outgoing signal button. “What if the person on the other side of this transmission is like, a murderer?”
“Rocky wasn’t. Grace wasn’t. Other human might not be,” Rocky suggests
I press the button. “Hello! This is Dr. Captain Ryland Grace and Rocky from the Hail Mary! What- what are you doing out here?”
There was a painful moment of silence, then the radio crackles back to life. “Holy shit!!! Jesus fucking christ, you’re actually alive?? I thought maybe your ship was either a false alarm or empty remains of an old ship. Holy shit.”
I cringe, kneeling down to press my hands against the sides of Rocky’s ball like that would stop him from hearing that. Old habits die hard.
“No understand words. Explain, question?” Rocky chirps, tapping a claw against my hand through the xenonite.
“Um. Swear words. He’s doing a lot of swearing. Which is like… bad or offensive words that a lot of people don’t like to say,” I sighed.
“Oh, understand. On Erid we have these too. Rocky does not usually use these words.”
“Yeah, me either. Teaching kinda took it out of me.”
I stand back up, my finger finding the button. “Yeah, we’re alive. Are you… um… needing assistance, or-?”
“Yes! I- I mean, it would be great if you’re able. I didn’t think anyone was out here, you’re kind of a miracle!”
“A hail mary,” I mutter to myself. Rocky snickers. I shouldn’t have told him what the phrase ‘hail mary’ means, but he asked and I’m unable to say no to him.
“Yeah, well- give me a second,” I say through the radio, then find the screen with the fuel. Even after having to ditch a couple fuel pods, the amount Rocky gave me was enough to make it to Erid and have a decent bit left over. A small side quest might make our arrival a few months later than anticipated but nothing huge.
I return to the radio. “What are your coordinates?”
Simon responds after a short silence, and I type them into one of the several computers. “Oh shoot. He’s- really close to us, actually.”
We’re passing him as I speak, I quickly shut off the engines much to Mary’s dismay. She complains heavily as I work on slowing the ship. I ignore her.
“Grace Rocky save other human, question?”
“Grace Rocky save other human, nervous statement.”
“Why nervous, question?”
“Because this person could get onto our ship and immediately kill us, we have no idea who he is!” I say, pulling my glasses off one ear and rubbing at my face.
“Human will not kill,” Rocky mutters.
“I love your optimism, bud,” I say, and smile despite myself. I nudge his ball with my leg.
I return my attention to the radio. “Hey. Simon? We- we can make a quick detour. But, uh- we’re going to 40 Eridani, and we don’t have enough fuel to take you anywhere. You- uh- you cool with going to an alien planet and staying there for… an undisclosed amount of time?”
What am I saying??? Am I cool with him joining us for an undisclosed amount of time?? I don’t even know this guy, and I’m inviting him to come with me to be one of the only humans on an entirely human-uninhabitable planet?? This is probably a terrible idea, the Eridians are going to have to make accommodations for a second person??
“Grace invite human to Erid, question?”
“I don’t know why I said that, Rocky. Oh, my god, this is a disaster. I totally messed everything up,” I whisper. My heart’s thudding against my ribs again. I think I’m going to die. “Oh, my god, I’m such an idiot.” Not sure why I'm panicking so hard. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that this is the first human voice I've heard in years.
“Calm, Grace. Heart beat too fast again. Is not bad thing, invite human to Erid. Eridians will be excited to have more alien to talk to. Grace will be less lonely.” Rocky sings.
“I won’t be lonely, I’ll have you,” I whisper again.
“This is true. Human companion might be good for Grace, however. Potential mate, even?”
That last thing he said was very uncertain. He didn’t add “question”, but I know it wasn’t a statement. “What?? No! Not gonna happen, definitely not potential mate.” I almost-shout. Mostly in surprise at his audacity. Why would he even think to say that?
Rocky shifts. He’s smug?? Is he jealous? Get a grip, Grace.
“Um, thank you for the invitation, but I don’t need a lift anywhere. I actually just need help with repairs, but I’m… I don’t know how to fix any of it. Do you happen to have an engineer on board?”
My gaze finds Rocky. He shifts again, same movement as before. Definitely smug, though this time I think it’s because he was one of the two on board and an engineer.
“You’re in luck, we have two crew members and one is the best engineer in the galaxy,” I tell Simon, my gaze still on Rocky, watching as he wiggles around proudly.
“Not true, Grace is wrong. But appreciate compliment,” Rocky hums.
I’m seeing emotions out of him that I don’t usually, this time I think he’s bashful. His tone is different than usual, shyer. I grin at him.
“It’s true true true, you’re the best engineer I know.”
“Grace not know many engineer.”
“I know so many engineers! I worked with a ton back on Earth to assemble this ship, actually.”
The radio cuts in. “There’s only two of you? How small’s your fucking ship?”
“Geez, language,” I huff to myself before responding. “Yeah, only two of us. Got a problem with that?”
“I- no. I was just- I’m the only one on my ship, I was kinda hoping that either you didn’t have the same problem as me or that your ship was just… too small to fit any more.”
“What’s your problem?” I ask.
“Everyone’s dead.”
“Dead? Die?” Rocky says. “Human say crew die, question?”
I nod. “We- we know all about that,” I admit to Simon. “My ship had a crew of three, my companion’s ship had twenty-three. Now it’s just us.”
“Just us,” Rocky sings. “Sad sad sad.”
“Shit. That fuckin’ sucks man, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too. Okay, listen. We can meet you in…” I pause and check the coordinates of the Hail Mary in relativity to Simon’s ship and then the fuel gauges. I don't really have time to do the math, and I forgot to bring a pen. “I dunno. Probably a few days, maybe over a week. We don’t have a ton of fuel to burn so we’re going to drift over instead of accelerating the whole time. Do you think you can last that long?
“Yeah! Yes! Thank you so fucking much!” Simon says, the panic is starting to drain from his voice and be replaced by relief.
“Okay. Good luck, we’ll see you soon,” I tell him.
The radio goes silent and stays silent. I quickly (but thoroughly) maneuver the ship in the correct trajectory and give it a burst of astrophage to get it going.
I pause for a moment, looking out the window at the empty space.
“Rocky?”
“Yes?”
“I think… this might be a mistake.”
“Why, question?”
“Well first of all, I didn’t even really ask you what you thought about all this, I kinda just… did it. I don’t do stuff like that! Second, again, we don’t know this guy! Third, I’m messing up our route to Erid and now it’s going to be even longer before you see Adrian and- oh, I’m so sorry.”
I sink to the floor, my eyes are hot with tears that aren’t falling yet.
Rocky examines me for a moment, then rolls closer up to my knees. I unfold my legs from under me, opening them so Rocky can maneuver closer, in between my thighs. He presses a hand against the xenonite and I follow, pressing my hand against his.
“Is okay, Grace. You are captain, captain take initiative. Rocky take initiative when making first contact with unknown alien, if Rocky didn’t, then no Grace Rocky relationship. And is only few months, Rocky gone for long long long time, few months will not make difference.”
I sigh out a laugh, setting my forehead against his ball. The stupid tears welling up in my eyes slip down my cheeks. “Thanks, Rock.”
He presses his carapace to the ball too, leaning into me despite the dumb barrier. “Rocky think Grace brave brave brave for help other human Grace does not know. One of many reason Rocky love love love Grace.”
I snort, then sniffle. “Thanks. I love love love you too, buddy.”