Chapter Text
Out in the endless expanse of the cosmos, two things happened at once.
Simon, the convict, the butcher, he had his own theories. About where the stars went. About the quiet rapture, the nature of what it is.
As he was swallowed, ship and all, blood climbing up his neck, blood creeping down his throat, (and it tasted exactly the same as the blood from the cut in his lip from earlier,) he prayed. He prayed, prayed, prayed, to the stars, to Eden, to the creature devouring him.
Something.
Anything.
Simon wailed, with his final breath, as the black box floated up and out of the port hole gushing blood, the final hope for humanity being sent up and up and up.
This is bigger than me.
And Simon let the blood fill his lungs. There was a moment, a split second before darkness overtook him, before he was lost…
He opened his eyes against the torrent of viscera.
And…
It didn't make any sense.
A square of inky blackness stood before him. A perfect doorway.
The blood dripped down into the expanse, freezing into crystalline little bubbles in the zero gravity, moons of themselves. Simon moved closer to it, pulled in by the suction, and…
It didn’t make sense.
It was full of stars.
The blood wrapped around his body, and the Iron Lung was pulled inside out through the hole by the vacuum.
—
Ryland Grace was, at his heart, an optimistic man.
It was actually one of his better qualities, depending on who you asked! Rocky sure seemed to think so.
They were navigating back to Rocky’s home planet, Erid. They still had quite some time on their journey, and Ryland was gradually coming to terms with the fact that he’d never see earth again. That he’d never see another human face ever again, except in recordings.
That he’d signed up to spend the remaining years of his life in a big glass bubble on a completely dark planet with twice earth’s gravity bearing down on his body at all times.
It was fine. Anything was better than dying alone in the cold vacuum of space. Doing science with aliens was the opportunity of a lifetime, anyway.
And besides, he wasn’t completely alone. Even though these thoughts kept gnawing at him, making him feel more and more panicked.
Nothing will ever get to touch you again.
Grace shook his head, pushing his hair out of his face. He needed to cut his hair again, badly. It was getting to the length where it was constantly in his eyes.
When he pushed his hair back again, he had a proximity alert.
That… didn’t make sense. It was close– really close. Closer than should be possible, it should have triggered the proximity alert way sooner than it did. But this thing just… appeared.
Blip-B.
“Hey, Rocky, I’m picking up something on the radar. It… I don’t know what it is.”
Rocky paused what he was doing, tilting his carapace to one side and then the other, observing the eridian-friendly interface.
“🎵Could be an asteroid, question?”
“I don’t think so,” Ryland squinted at the monitor. Now that it was even closer, they could get better scans on it. Ryland began slowing the ship, bit by bit. It’s not like they had fuel they could run out of— getting back up to acceleration speed might take a bit, but if this is what he thought it was… It’d be worth it. “It’s… it’s weird. It looks like a perfect ball, almost. Like, manmade-smooth.”
“🎵Hm,” Rocky supplied. “🎵Maybe someone else looking for taumeba, question?”
That’s what Grace was worried about. But at his heart, he was an optimistic man. “Do you think we should check it out?”
Rocky was silent for a moment. Processing. “🎵If more planet need Taumeba, we should help.”
Grace took a deep breath, and sighed. “Yeah, that’s what I figured. Adjusting course now— this thing is pretty small, and it’s basically right in our path. I think we can fit it into our airlock pretty easily if we thread the needle right.”
“🎵Understood. Preparing for—”
The overhead lights flickered, and an announcement began to play throughout the Hail Mary.
Incoming transmission. Incoming transmission. Incoming transmission.
That… was both promising and foreboding.
“🎵Grace,” Rocky fretted. “🎵Grace.”
Incoming transmission. Incoming transmission. Incoming transmission.
Either something was alive in there, or there was something broadcasting something.
“I know, buddy, I know,” he frowned at the speakers. “But what if it’s malicious? What if it’s something that’s going to commandeer the ship or something?”
“🎵What if need help, question? What if leave to die, question?”
Incoming transmission. Incoming transmission. Incoming transmission.
Grace rubbed his temples, pushing the sweaty hair back away from his forehead for the millionth time. One of the perks of having only an alien for company is that Rocky can’t tell the difference between a good and bad hair day. He sighed heavily. “...I hate it when you’re right.”
“🎵Am always right now play transmission.”
Grace did as he was told.
Text scrolled across the screen.
Black Box recording of SM13.
Grace sighed, sorrow filling him for a brief moment. A black box. That meant whatever was in there was dead.
Rocky made a sound of shock and horror that made Ryland jump.
“What? If it’s a black box, it means they’re probably dead.”
Rocky tapped his claws against the ground anxiously, and then asked the million dollar question that Grace had completely neglected to consider.
“🎵How transmission English, question?”
…Oh.
There was a long moment of static as the implications of that washed over the two of them.
“I… I don’t know if anyone will ever hear this,” said a voice, deep and harrowed, and most importantly in English. Ryland’s stomach dropped like he was on a rollercoaster. There was a strange rushing sound in the background. “I… I know I’m gonna die out here. They knew I wasn’t coming back when they sent me down here in the first place. Maybe that’s what I deserve, for all I’ve done. But please, please, god, let this survive. It’s bigger than me. Please,” the voice heaved, sobbing. “It’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than me.”
The transmission cut off as some liquid poured over the microphone, unseen.
Rocky and Grace sat in silence for a long, tense moment.
“🎵Grace,” Rocky repeated, high pitched and panicked. “🎵Humans send more humans into space, question?”
“N— no. Not since the Ares Mars missions, and a few space stations that orbit in Earth’s gravity.”
It didn’t make any sense.
The Blip-B moved closer to them, suspended in the void, surrounded by stars.