Chapter Text
Life on Erid is comfortable, different, routine. It was better than earth, that much was certain. They abandoned him, sent him to space against his will, and considered him lesser because he was alone. At least here, the Eridians like him, they care for him deeply, and they do everything to make things as peaceful as possible. There is no strife, no worries, no fear. He never has to stress about money, paying his bills, cleaning his apartment.
Unfortunately, that meant his bike remained in its spot on earth, his classroom empty, dust covering his decorations. Tests ungraded, assignments half finished, lessons barely planned out. He’s sure they threw out all of his stuff, his apartment, his classroom, his space. Nothing of him remained, that he was certain of. He left no impact, and did nothing noteworthy.
And yet, here, on an alien planet, he’s made a difference. He helped develop taumoeba with his friend, Rocky. They solved the crisis of the Petrova line and helped save the stars. (Grace Rocky save stars.) He has students, he’s able to impart knowledge on them, he’s able to be something. He learns and grows, he helps develop new things all the time, and most of all…he’s not alone. He’s not alone.
That didn’t negate the feeling of loneliness though. He misses the touch of a human, the warmth of another person, the humanity of it all. Sometimes, despite all he’s been through, his disdain for people and aversion to them, he wishes someone was there for him. But, here he was, alone. He misses intimacy, finding that his own hands and pillows are simply not enough. He wants the normal human experience on an alien planet.
Rocky quickly noticed his bummer attitude, and offered a solution; space trips. They couldn’t go that far, the Hail Mary was in need of repair, mostly because when asked to return to earth, Grace said no. But they could at least get off the planet given the current state of the ship. They needed to check on the stars anyways, to make sure they were healthy and developing correctly. It was more of an excuse to prevent Grace from falling into a depression. But, hey, it did work. He doesn't like space all that much, yet it's less scary when he's with his friend. Sometimes he has to remind himself that while, yes, he's deprived of human touch, he still has other forms of contact. Humans aren't all what they're cracked up to be anyways.
They ditched you, expected you to die in space, there's nothing good about other humans. That's what his brain says occasionally anyways, it's hard to know if that's necessarily true. He's simply…touch starved. It felt like a sense of cruel irony though, since the last time he was touched by a human was…when they pinned him down, stripped him of his rights to say no, and sent him off on suicide mission. Wanting to be touched yet fearing it is nothing sort of a joke.
Of course that was an insane shot in the dark, so many dots had to connect in the most perfect manner possible, it was highly improbable. He would say impossible, but given all the strange occurrences in his life in the past few years, nothing is impossible. They monitor the atmosphere, in case of the odd chance a new blip comes into view. What if there was a small chance of someone alive? Or something alive? It didn’t even have to be human for him to be happy at this rate! Just something, anything, heck, even a bacteria! Okay, maybe not that, he couldn’t deal with bacteria again.
If his math is correct, and it almost always is, this specific adventure was only their fifth trip into the nearby atmosphere. It has been rather uneventful, which he expects, but some part of him was disappointed each and every time. Was it so bad to want, to long, to just…see something new? He adores the Eridians, each and every one of them, his students, the scientists, the pebbles, Rocky, Adrian…every single species was loved so deeply by him. But they all lacked a certain something, a something that was hard for them to even accommodate; touch. Not touch between a xenonite barrier, or behind a glass wall, or through whatever other specialized means there was; simply plain, human touch.
He obviously doesn’t want another person sent on a suicide mission into space, against their will, sedated, put into an early coma, even when he said no– That…that wasnt the point, his hesitations around finding life had absolutely nothing to do with his circumstances for being sent into space! None. Zero. Zilch. It was a complete and utterly moot point. Maybe a dog– jeez Grace, no, Laika was sent into space and died! Never even came back home, completely and utterly tossed aside for an idiotic experiment. Maybe a cat– No no! Feliciette, she was sent into space, survived, and brought back to earth and killed. She never deserved that. Okay, maybe stay away from animals. Perhaps a plant– I don’t think any plant came into space and died so there’s that. Oh, wait, right, I literally have plants already. That’d be pointless. Food? Dear goodness gracious, no! That would be inedible and probably toxic. That’s a surefire way to bring a contagious disease back to Erid.
…
Was there even an ethical wish here? Could he wish, hope, pray, that someone, anyone, anything, would be found? Just thinking it made his skin crawl with disgust, disgust at the circumstances of an item being found or the circumstances of an alive person being found. In the end, he can’t be selfish, he has to be selfless. He has to believe that he was and is the only person sent into space on a suicide mission against his will. You’re murdering me, I screamed, and they just said, You’ll do great. I didn’t want to do great, I wanted to live on earth. And that choice was ripped from me. And I’ll always resent earth, humanity for that.
Always.
“Blip A detected,” Mary says suddenly, cutting through all the noise, making both Grace and Rocky shout “What?!” in unison.
“Blip A?” he asks, immediately running to the control room, glancing at the radar, “Blip A?”
“Blip A, Blip A!” Rocky exclaims in response, scurrying over to where he sat, “Find life, question.”
“Let’s not get our hopes up here, we have no idea what it could be.”
Grace stares intently at the radar, noticing that the anomaly is not moving at all. It’s just sitting there, sedentary, letting the atmosphere pull it along. Strange and mysterious, mostly intriguing though. He can’t help the grin that spreads across his face as he fixes his glasses to the proper position. He moves easily in the pilot’s chair, checking every angle possible, wanting to try and get an actual eye on whatever the heck it may be.
His thoughts immediately run to a satellite, an asteroid, a meteor, a stow away hunk of metal, space junk. These are all rational thoughts, thoughts his scientist brain has decided are most likely. Deep down however, in the deepest pit of his stomach, below reason, below guilt, and below his moral obligations, he hopes that there’s a human out there. An alive human. He gets out of his chair, heading to the window in an attempt to see whatever it may be. He sees the vastness of space obviously, the stars, miscellaneous planets and gas balls, the usual stuff. He scans and scans and scans, trying various angles, various methods, anything to figure out just what was out there.
“What Grace see, question,” Rocky hums, clearly as curious as him.
“Not much, bud,” Grace replies with a sigh, the disappointment palpable, “Obviously it’s out there, but I just cannot seem to get a single visual of it.”
“Maybe not visible to us.”
“Potentionally, but then why can Mary detect it?”
As if right on cue, Mary once again answers with a simple, “Blip A detected.”
“Where?!” Rocky and Grace exclaim together.
A beat quickly passes, and the duo grow increasingly more frustrated, each scampering all over to get the answer they so desperately desire. They’re going off of so little information, it’s almost maddening in a way. Okay, if I was a strange blip out in outer space, hiding out of view, where would I be? There’s no…way…is it still…could it be hidden within the Petrova line? It still exists, though diminishing as more time passes, but if something simply appeared out of thin air, it would have to be around there. Right?
“What Grace thinking, question,” Rocky asks, before quickly chirping, “Petrova line, Petrova line, Petrova line.”
“Exactly what I’m thinking! It has to be hidden! Maybe it’s not just a…craft, it could be something bigger, something hiding in plain sight. We know that the taumeoba are working, so it’s definitely not in relation to that,” he rambles on, “But it clearly has to do with the line, there’s no way it doesn’t. We’ll check with the infrared light and maybe the blip will be noticeable.”
Grace moves fast, aligning himself perfectly, his heart beating in his ears. Why is he nervous? Is it because he wants to find something or he doesn’t want to find something? Once he’s certain, he flicks the switch, and suddenly and mysteriously, that blip becomes visible. It appears to be a submarine, but he genuinely cannot tell. It does exist without the light, that much is certain. That is only because he’s able to spot it now. What an oddity, completely drenched in red, and he worries just what exactly that red is.
“Rocky don’t trust blip,” his alien friend immediately says, shaking his entire body ‘no’, “Don’t like it. Need to run tests on it before contact.”
“Rocky, this is amazing,” Grace replies with nothing but pure wonder, completely missing the worry, “There is something. There’s something! I don’t know what it is, what it means, what it could be…but it’s something!”
“Grace no listen, Grace no understand.”
“Buddy,” he says, taking a step back to look at him, “I know it’s scary and dangerous, potentially full of containgeons…but it’s worth it to see.”
“No. No. Rocky against it. Rocky not trust it.”
“We have to explore it.”
“How long since Grace last sleep, question.”
“Why?”
“Grace being stupid.”
Grace crosses his arms over his chest, allowing his glasses to fall down his face, basically pouting. He wasn’t being stupid, he was being curious! He’s a scientist first and foremost, it’s what he does best. Well, that and teaching. How could he not try and explore the unknown? Yes, it’s slightly reckless, maybe even risky, but it’s worth it! He could find something, make a first discovery. Wait, no, he already made a first discovery. So maybe make a second discovery. A second discovery no other being would ever hear about. Unless there was another being aboard the blip.
“I’m not being stupid,” he finally responds, shaking his head, “Think about it! We wouldn’t have met had we not made contact. You saved my life, and I saved yours. So, why should we not do that here?! What’s stopping us? What’s making us hesitate?”
Rocky taps his foot against his ball repeatedly, clearly contemplating his words. He knows he’s being pushy, maybe unreasonable, perhaps even dumb…but he needs to do this. He has to do this. He’s never been more certain of anything in his life. Okay, that’s definitely not true, but the sentiment is true at least.
“Fine. Grace wins. Explore ship.”
Grace grins uncontrollably, giving an immediate thumbs up, “Let’s do this!”