Chapter Text
Grace POV
I can't help but get the feeling I'm a little too excited for my next meeting with Simon.
I'm on my way across the beach towards the biodome lab, my laptop, along with a notepad, in hand. Simon has been recovering at a slow and unstable rate since the Eridians found his ship(?) slowly drifting closer and closer to Erid's orbit. The Eridian scientists are still trying to figure out exactly where it, and he, came from.
I haven't gotten the full picture on what exactly happened to him, but whatever it was has had significant effects on his biology. At first, he hadn't seemed to be responding to any kind of treatment, something the Eridian doctors and I suspect had a part to play on why he slept for nearly a month and a half.
Then, of course, there are the mutations. He was missing an arm, but as insane as it feels to wrap my head around, I have watched the appendage slowly regrow itself. Its not perfect, as is the territory with mutations. His arm has nasty scarring not too unlike my own from the ammonia burns, though they make up closer to his entire arm and their pattern is more reminiscent of intertwining and swirling cuts and gashes.
Anyway, the reason I'm so excited is because Simon has finally agreed, if I can call it that, to the two of us sharing some information both about what happened to him and how we, the squishy humans, ended up on such a hostile planet.
I approach the biodome lab door, an airlock that has been cut into the rock not all that far to the right of where the window is for my classes for the pebbles. Inside the airlock are two doors, one to my right that ventures into a tunnel of Erid's natural environment, and one directly in front that follows a hall into the actual lab. Since the lab also functions as a human care center, its good that it can operate and sustain its inhabitants separately from the biodome incase something happens.
Once the inner door opens, I make my way down the hall and to the right where the patient wing is held. Simon's room comes into view almost immediately, the last one on the right side towards the end of the hall with small bay windows on each side of the door.
As I approach, I grab a small remote from the hooks by the door, their circuitry a combination of human tech and eridian engineering. Simon wasn't exactly the calmest when he first woke up and he seemed to get random episodes as a psychological side-effect so the Eridians became adamant that the door could only be opened from the inside with a remote, mainly to keep the staff safe outside the room but also so Simon doesn't accidentally make it outside into "burn your flesh off your bones" Erid air.
I cant say I approved of the idea but the safety concern was valid and besides, its been a week without incident at this point and I'm planning to give him the option to roam within a few more days once he's medically cleared to start walking. I step inside the room, letting the door shut behind me as I approach the bedside chair and round lunch table.
"Hey Simon! How are you feeling today?" I ask with a smile, taking my seat and setting my laptop and notepad on the table. Even with my gaze on the device's screen, I can feel the other man's scrutinizing stare on me, watching my movements with mistrust.
"Better. I guess." Comes his response, his right hand closing and lowering his book to his lap. Its a comic book, one of the few that had been added to the hail mary crew's personal items, and something I thought would give Simon some kind of healthy stimulation now that he's finally been conscious enough to use them.
"Well that's better than nothing?" I suggest with a small amused exhale through my nose, my gaze dropping to Simon's left arm resting on the bed by his thigh.
"How's your arm? does it feel any stronger?" I ask, watching as the raven turns his attention to the limb and gives a small scowl. Its regrown down to the very end of his wrist, not quite started on the hand and fingers yet.
"Its fine." He answers with a snip.
"Are we gonna small talk or are we gonna share info?" He gripes. I give another amused huff through my nose before turning back to my laptop.
"Alright then, I suppose I can go first." I start, pulling up my notes document of points I specifically wanted to share.
"Lets just start at the beginning. Project Hail Mary, the ship I used to get here to Erid, was put into development because there were tiny alien microbes eating our sun's energy. We call these alien lifeforms, Astrophage." I start my explanation, the sentence pulling what seems like an involuntary reaction from Simon. His expression creases, something maybe angry? His emotions are a little hard for me to read, though I suspect whatever life he's lived has contributed to his rough personality. Either way, its clear Simon has strong and disagreeing thoughts with just my first sentence.
"Once the Hail Mary was finished, two others and I were put into comas and we traveled to Tauceti to figure out why it was the only star in our part of the galaxy that seemed unaffected." I continue.
Between the amount of information and technical explanations of several things Simon seemed to struggle to understand, it takes roughly an hour for me to explain everything to a point I'm mostly certain Simon understands what Project Hail Mary is, why we needed it, how I got to Erid, and how the Eridian's made contact with their second human resident.
"This is fucking ridiculous." I hear the man to my right swear, my eyebrow raising.
"How long are you going to keep pretending we're on an actual planet? How goddamn easy do you think I am?" He questions, this time clearly addressing me as he looks up with what I can only assume is rage in his eyes. I feel a pain in my chest, something a little anxious but also sad for my fellow human. I've had my fair share of trauma but whatever Simon has gone through is clearly much worse.
I take a deep breath, trying to clear my head before I start spewing unnecessary thoughts. Anything I can do to avoid antagonizing the mutated, very muscled, and almost hostile man is preferable. To say the least. Not to mention, he's the first human I've been able to interact with in the 5 years I've been on Erid and the prior 8 years aboard Mary.
"Well.." I start, pausing to think. Simon's only had a steady rate of consciousness for a week and has very limited knowledge of who he's with. He freaked the first time he saw an Eridian(rocky certainly wasn't much help), and whatever life he's lived has, clearly, been a huge mess of issues.
"I don't know what happened to you or why you've been insisting we aren't on a planet so...we could start from there? Can you tell me what you think happened to the planets?" I finally ask, watching the man's expression twitch.
"For fuck's sake" He grumbles, then lets out a heavy sigh a moment later as his gaze finally drops back down to the book in his lap.
"...For whatever unknown reason, all the planets and stars just up and disappeared one day. Those of us left that had been off-planet had to scramble for survival. We called this The Quiet Rapture." Simon begins, his brows furrowing. I grab my notepad and start to jot down notes as he explains, my own thoughts spinning at the bizarre explanation.
"I was put into a submarine, The Iron Lung, and sent down into a blood ocean on a blood moon, the closest things to 'planets' left after the rapture. I was supposed to find information, see if there was something down there that could help humanity....but..." He pauses, my gaze eventually rising to look at him.
The man is shaking, emotions of horror and pain in his expression.
"There....was something in there, some kind of alien monster." He says, the realization dawning on me why exactly Simon had been so freaked out by Rocky and the Eridian doctors. Simon's explanation doesn't take as long, aside from my few questions, because he either doesn't have as much to share or just doesn't want to share any more.
"So....the blood...caused this?" I ask, pointing to the man's scarred arm and the jagged teeth on his face. I can see the question brings up bad memories and I internally wince, except before I can backtrack, Simon suddenly flinches as his attention snaps up to the door behind me. I frown, turning to look back at the bay windows and seeing a few of the Eridian staff skittering through the hall. I silently but carefully stand, venturing over and drawing the curtains closed on each window before turning and giving Simon a sheepish smile.
"I don't think I blame you for being skittish around aliens." I say, hoping to assure him somewhat. Simon seems to calm once the curtains are closed but he doesn't respond to my attempt at comfort. I take a step with intentions to return to my seat when something in my peripheral catches my attention, turning to glance out the small window in the door.
There are more Eridian staff scurrying through the hallways, what I'd originally thought was just their normal work has now turned into something more frantic. I can recognize most of these Eridians, I know what their jobs are and where they usually are at this time of day. This unusual, frantic, rushing around clearly says something is wrong.
"Sit tight for a sec, I'm gonna see what they're doing." I explain, giving another quick reassuring smile before pulling the remote from my pocket and stepping out into the hall.
Immediately, something about the air smells...off. Its subtle and I can't quite place what it is, not ammonia thankfully, but something I recognize having to do with the lab's filter. I quickly look around, my brows furrowing in thought. Even though there had been staff running through here literally just a second ago, its now very clearly deserted.
That's when the alarms start blaring, a small jolt spearing through me.
'What on Erid-...?' I wonder, starting my way down in the direction Id come from when I entered the lab. I approach the first turn, only a couple meters away when a very dark and very fast shape suddenly rounds the corner, about the size of a border collie. I jerk with a small yelp of surprise as I jump to the side to avoid getting my legs knocked out from under me. "Holy fudge!"
The shape stops almost instantly after my exclamation and I'm able to see the familiar 5 legs of an Eridian, one of which I've never met before.
🎶"Savior Grace!"🎶 They screech loudly, their tones so high and excited they sound more 'claws on chalkboard' than anything actually understandable to my human ears. The strange Eridian instantly starts rambling, a lot of what they're saying too high for me to decipher so I take the chance to get a good look at them.
Their carapace is very black and almost shiny, something reminiscent of obsidian or black tourmaline. Their shape is somewhat round at the bottom and grows cylindrical and jagged as it goes up. Just to makes things easy for myself, I decide to refer to them as Tourmaline.
Tourmaline has started skittering around my legs in excitement as they continue chirping and trilling, then abruptly coming to a stop when they seem to remember where they are.
🎶"Must hurry, Savior Grace. Come with."🎶 They state, reaching up with a claw to grab at my cardigan's sleeve and starting to pull me down the hall.
"Woah, hold on, where exactly?" I ask, my brow raising in amusement. My first assumption is that an overzealous fan snuck into the dome to meet me, something I'm not entirely bothered by, considering I'm the alien that saved their planet. Except, I can't help but be worried since my atmosphere is deadly to them and not all Eridians are as familiar with it as Rocky and my biodome team are. Though, looking at the suit Tourmaline is wearing, even if its not as high quality, they've clearly thought that far at least.
We're halfway down the hall towards the airlock when Tourmaline pauses to think about my question, more tones too out of my range to understand before they drop my sleeve and turn to 'look' back at me.
Something....'tickles' the back at my mind at their body language, though I can't quite put my finger on what the feeling is.
🎶"Must get Savior Grace!"🎶 Tourmaline finally says, their two claws closest to me doing the jazz hands. I smile at the gesture but now my brow raises in confusion.
'What do they mean by 'get'?' I think.
I'm about to ask my question when my gaze rises from the small Eridian at my feet, blinking away slight surprise as another Eridian I've never seen before, not much smaller than me, approaches us and pauses behind Tourmaline. They exchange even more tones I don't understand and with a jolt, I realize the small Eridian called their much larger friend for help.
That tickle in my mind becomes an itch.
🎶"Must retrieve grace."🎶 The larger one says. This one looks like green beryl ore, their carapace very asymmetrical with the protrusions of the slightly opaque and green stones scattered around their milky white and marbled body. Their shape is similar to Adrian's in that it comes to a somewhat jagged point at the top.
"Retrieve?" I question, though instead of an answer, I suddenly feel Tourmaline's claws clamp down on my wrist.
Strange fear suddenly erupts through my chest, my head swimming with confusion. I give a small tug, wincing at the painful level of strength gripping me.
My mind buffers a second, my heart starting to thunder. I can feel the color drain from my face as I realize why my thoughts are so jumbled. I've grown so accustomed to the Eridian's treating me as someone to be worshipped that my subconscious mind completely ignored the fact that they are, very literally, Erid's dominant apex predator. My breathing immediately hitches, panic settling into my nerves and making my body shake.
"Who are you?" I ask. "What do you want?"
Both their carapace's tilt towards me.
🎶"Want Savior Grace."🎶 Comes the oh so helpful reply.
🎶"Grace come!"🎶 Tourmaline says, suddenly yanking on my wrist. I instantly cry out as knife-like pain explodes up my forearm, the noise clearly startling the smaller Eridian as their grip suddenly vanishes. My breath catches in my throat, my gaze snapping up to the two aliens in front of me. In the next second, I turn and start sprinting back down the hall.
Something scrapes behind me but I ignore it, slowing only a fraction before my body slams painfully against the wall at the turn before resuming down the hall to the right. The Eridian's have tried their best to strengthen my body in the last 3 of the 5 years I've been on Erid, an attempt to improve my heart, joints, and cardiovascular systems for double gravity. I may have bad stamina and limited flexibility but I've been given back my ability to run.
At least, I thought I had.
I'm halfway to Simon's room when something yanks on my right leg, immediately throwing me off balance. I instantly fall forward onto my stomach with a yelp, my frantic breathing much too loud in my own ears.
"Stop!" I yell in both anger and fear, attempting to roll onto my back as I try to kick the grip off my ankle. Beryl, what I'm calling Tourmaline's friend, is over me in an instant. Three of his legs cage me in underneath him, one still on my ankle, and the last managing to pin my wrists together. Adrenaline makes my head swim again, lightheadedness slowly making it hard to tell which way is up.
I can feel him start to drag me across the floor, my focus finally returning to find us already inside the airlock facing the tunnel that had been to the right.
"Wait- Your atmosphere will kill me! stop!" I shout, resuming my struggles. A hiss sounds through the small room and I immediately tense in anticipation for the burns, my chest heaving.
Except, no ammonia even enters the airlock.
Instead, I find myself looking closer at the earlier tunnel, realizing that instead of the airlock leading into Erid's atmosphere, there seems to be a small dark room sealed against the structure. When the airlock door opens, we're moving again, Beryl shuffling forward and shoving me into the room.
I make contact with a wall, the material firm but compresses just slightly under pressure. My mind instantly brings up the time Rocky showed me the sound-proofing material Adrian used when they built my house to give me more privacy, and just like that I feel heavy dread in my stomach. My head snaps to the door in time to watch Beryl seal the little room, plunging me into complete darkness.