Chapter Text
★・・・・・・★
Grace wakes to the sound of Mary and Rocky talking over each other. Blinking away the haze of sleep, Grace groans as he tries to focus on understanding what the heck is going on. Given Rocky’s voice is both closer and louder, his brain parses what he’s saying first.
“Grace, what’s that mean, question? What’s going on, question?”
Ok, not the most helpful. Sitting up, sleep properly leaves Grace’s mind as he listens to the message on the overhead.
“Forward star detection, lost. Aft star detection, lost. Starboard star detection, lost. Port star detection, lost. Ventral star detection, lost. Dorsal star detection, lost. Autopilot offline.” Mary says, repeating the message.
The exterior cameras on the Hail Mary use the positions of the stars around it to calculate it’s own position. That’s how the autopilot knows when to make course corrections.
“Sounds like the autopilot system isn’t picking up the stars anymore.” Grace says with a yawn as he unstraps himself and begins to float up in the direction of the cockpit. “It’s probably a solar flair. The cameras are outside the ship, so they can get knocked offline by radiation. Mary, exterior camera status?”
“All exterior cameras are online.”
“Huh. Ok well, maybe the lenses got dirty? Maybe they somehow gained a static charge when we were in Adrian’s atmosphere. We could have flown through a dust cloud and they got covered.” Grace speculates, though he isn’t so sure on the haul maintaining a static charge for that long.
“Easy fix, question?” Rocky asks, floating through his tubing after him.
“Yeah. Nothing a rag and a spacewalk can’t fix.” Grace says, though having to go and clean off all the exterior cameras is going to be a bit of a pain. Rocky pauses above Grace.
“Not having autopilot emergency, question?” Rocky asks. Grace shakes his head.
“Not in the short term, no. But we definitely want it back before we get to Eridani” Grace says as he drifts up.
“Then Grace should finish sleep cycle. Tired during spacewalk, unnecessary risk.” Rocky says, though Grace isn’t listening anymore. They’ve drifted up enough that the viewport is now beside them. Beyond the glass is nothing but darkness.
Not the darkness of space. Just. Black.
Grace grips the ladder, staring in disbelief. Floating over to the window, he looks around. His mind races as he takes in the exterior of the ship.
There are no stars.
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Simon opens his eyes. It doesn’t make much of a difference. Body aching, he feels around. With both hands. Ok, that’s good news. Maybe that was all just another hallucination?
Or maybe he’s dead.
Both feel equally possible, especially given the floating sensation he’s feeling. Though after some feeling around his fingers run against a pipe. Blood on metal. He’s still in the Iron Lung. Not dead then. Unless this is hell. Which who knows, maybe it is? Simon’s disbelief is pretty well suspended at this point, so he’d be willing to accept any explanation.
With a groan, pulls himself closer to the wall, trying to orient himself. His body might still be put together, but he certainly feels like he’s been recently ripped apart. Why is he floating? Feeling around, his hand collides with droplets of what can only be blood also suspended in the air with him. He’s not submerged in anything. Is he falling? Probably not, that would be a pretty long way and there’s no rushing sound coming from outside. It’s just as likely that the monster has him in some gravity bubble. Yeah… that’s a thing that exists right? It seems reasonable enough all things considered. If stations can have artificial gravity, why can’t the monster make anti-gravity?
Feeling further along the wall, he makes his way back to the camera. Red light fills the room as he presses it, bright enough to stun him after so long in the dark. Eyes adjusting, he flashes the camera again, but the display screen is coated in blood. Swearing under his breath, he does his best to wipe the blood aside, though given the sticky texture on his skin he knows he’s not going to be able to get it clean.
Firing the camera again, he realizes his efforts are for naught. A blank screen looks back at him. No ground, nothing. Maybe he’s suspended somewhere in the water column? Blood column? Whatever. Either way he has no idea where he is.
Feeling his way back to the controls, he takes a seat. Or more accurately he hooks his legs under the chair to keep himself in place. Struggling against the flesh still growing around the levers, he pushes forward. The Iron Lung hums with the sound of spinning motors. After a few moments, he goes back to the camera. Still nothing. Is it broken? He supposes he has no way of knowing.
He repeats the process a few times before he notices something. Specifically, a lack of something. There’s no sound of blood moving past the haul. He’s not moving.
Dread wells in Simon’s guts. He’s stuck. Desperate anger bubbles over as he slams his fists into the now useless control console. As the echo fades, he hears a popping static from the speaker.
“Where the fuck am I!” He demands.
“*You wanted to live, didn’t you?*” The voice says.
“Answer the damn question!” Simon shouts. Anger probably isn’t going to get him anywhere, but he can’t help it. Besides, begging for mercy is what got him in the Iron Lung in the first place.
“*You are with us now.*”
That makes him pause. Floating back to the camera he fires it again. Still nothing.
“What, so you ate me? Am I inside you?”
He knows that can’t be the case. The monster is huge, but not so big that the camera wouldn’t be able to see it while inside.
“Inside. Outside. They do not mean what you think they do.”
Anger flashes in Simon’s chest, but he stays quiet for a while.
“Why can’t I move?” He asks. The thing seems to be more forthcoming than usual, so he’s going to take what he can get.
“Because there is nothing to move through.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Simon demands, though the voice doesn’t answer. So, he sits and thinks on it. Then it dawns on him. No gravity. Nothing to move through.
He’s in space.
But that shouldn’t be possible. Aside from the normal reasons the Iron Lung being in space shouldn’t be possible, there’s no way this thing is vacuum proof. Floating back up to the window, he runs his hands along the seam. Unlike the humid heat of his prison, the coagulated fluid along the window is cold to the touch. The sub must be in a frozen chunk of blood. A comet of gore. Well, that’s one mystery solved.
He lets himself float for a few moments, droplets of blood splashing against him.
“So, what then? You keep me here until I die of thirst? Or suffocate?” Simon asks, defeat edging into his voice.
“No. You will live.”
Simon scoffs.
“I don’t see how.”
“Time is not what you think it is. But you will understand more soon.” The voice hums. “Those things you worried about, food, water, air, you will not need them.
Simon isn’t sure he understands, but the idea doesn’t give him any comfort.
“I want my freedom.”
“You are free now.”
★・・・・・・★
“What does Grace mean no stars, question?” Rocky demands.
“There’s just… There’s nothing out there! I can’t see them anymore.” Grace says, pressing his face to the window to try to get a better angle. Well, at least that solves the camera problem. Obviously, that doesn’t make Grace feel any better.
“Object in way, question?” Rocky asks.
“Mary, anything showing up on the radar?” Grace asks.
“There are no objects in detection range.”
Grace claps his hands together.
“Ok! No need to panic! I’m sure there’s a perfectly normal explanation for what’s going on!” Grace says, mind racing as he rotates in the air. “Maybe whatever is blocking my view of the stars is just too far away from us to be picked up on the radar?”
“But all human light hearing machines can’t hear stars! How could object be all around and too far?” Rocky says. Grace starts back towards the control room.
“Well, maybe the objects aren’t too far then? They could just be made up of something the radar isn’t detecting. Like a dust cloud.” That idea seems to put both of them a bit at ease. Because that makes sense, right? A big dust cloud would block out all the stars, and would be hard for Hail Mary’s radar to pick up on.
It’s not like all the stars could actually disappear, right?
★・・・・・・★
They look into it for a few hours. Grace even hops into EVA to try to sample the alleged space dust, but comes up empty. Still, it doesn’t entirely rule it out. Space is big, and a large dust cloud could still block their view even if the particles themselves are too dispersed to sample.
“Well, regardless of what’s blocking our view, we really don’t have any choice other than to keep going.” Grace says, taking his glasses off and leaning back to face Rocky. “Did you guys run through this on the way here?”
“Rocky doesn’t know. Blip-a not measure starlight to travel like Hail Mary does.” He says, gripping the top of his part of the lab. He turns towards Grace. “Grace is still worried, question?”
Grace sighs.
“Yeah, but it’s probably nothing. It’s just… really creepy not to be able to see the stars.” Grace says, going back over the wealth of sensor data the Hail Mary is constantly logging. He pauses.
“Hey, check this out.” Grace says, putting his glasses back on. Rocky swings down, bringing up his screen reader. “We’ve been getting these bursts of x-rays.”
He taps a few keys to isolate just the x-ray sensors.
“Huh. The angle we’re picking it up from is changing a lot. Like it’s coming from somewhere nearby.” Grace says before his heart starts racing. Most things that make x-rays in space are also things you don’t want to fly your ship close to. Pulsars, the disks of black holes, that sort of thing. But… nothing like that is supposed to be between them and Erid. That, and what they’re picking up on isn’t strong enough to be a celestial body. Besides, they would be producing a lot of other detectable radiation types too. Not to mention being very very bright.
It’s not consistent either. The bursts seem almost random.
Using the changing angles, Grace crunches the numbers in his head to make a guestimate of where they’re coming from.
“What’s making them isn’t too far ahead of us. It’s not that far off our course either.”
“Grace wants to investigate, question?” Rocky asks, shifting uncomfortably.
“Investigate is a strong word, but yeah. I think we should at least adjust our trajectory to pass close to it. It might explain why we can’t see the stars.”
So, they make a slight adjustment then go about their normal business for the next few days. It’s been almost a year and a half since they’ve set off from Tau Ceti, so they’re both pretty set into their routines by now.
Then Grace passes by the viewport, and for the second time that week, he has to stop in disbelief.
There, floating in the starless void, is a submarine.
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The voice wasn’t lying. Simon really doesn’t need food or water anymore. Probably not ‘not anymore’, Simon figures. Just not in the timeless wherever the fuck space the monster has put him. He still feels the hunger and thirst he had back in the blood ocean, which sucks, but there’s nothing to be done about it. What feels like days pass in the dark tube of the Iron Lung. Though, who knows how much time is passing, really. Time seems to do whatever that thing wants.
It’s left him alone, for now. Simon isn’t entirely sure how he feels about that. While he knows the monster isn’t his friend, the human part of him longs for someone, anyone to interact with. Even if that someone is an incomprehensible monster who has abducted him. Though, thinking back to the C.O.I., has his situation even really changed?
The unfairness of it all causes hot tears of helpless rage to pool weightlessly around his eyes. Maybe if he cries enough of them it will fill the Iron Lung and drown him. No, knowing his luck he would just be stuck in an endless loop of asphyxiation.
Occasionally during his floating up and down the length of his prison, he flashes the camera. Being able to see, even if just for a short moment, is better than nothing. Float back and forth, back and forth, camera, back and forth. If he wasn’t going insane already, this is definitely going to get him there. Fancy that. All the crazy blood ocean monster shit, and it’s being alone in a box that breaks him.
His hands press against the button, and the screen shows a ship.
He’s already pushed off to float back towards the controls when his brain registers what was on the screen. Catching himself on one of the pipes, he flings his way back to the camera, slamming his palm into it.
There, clear as day, is a spaceship.
Simon pushes back into the main body of the Iron Lung, feeling his way over to the speaker that he’s been largely avoiding, as much as one can manage to avoid anything in the cramped space. He assumes that it’s broadcasting on some sort of radio frequency. At least, it’s broadcasting on a frequency that the C.O.I. ship could pick up on through the blood. Hopefully, this ship can tune into that.
“Hey! Hey, can you hear me?” Simon says, his voice horse from disuse. Cool, so no need for food and water, but little things like that still change. After a few moments of silence he tries again.
“Hey! Answer me! Please! Please answer!” Simon voice trembles, unable to fight the hysteria that’s starting to creep into his voice. He swallows, trying to keep himself steady. If he acts crazy, they’ll just leave him here.
“This is Dr. Grace from the Hail Mary, we can hear you, um, what’s your name?” A man’s voice crackles through the speaker. It’s one he doesn’t recognize. That’s promising.
“Simon! My name is Simon!”
“Nice to meet you Simon.” The voice says. There’s a pause. A dreadful silence that Simon can’t help but fill. His fist slams against the haul next to the speaker.
“You have to get me out of here! Please! Please don’t leave me here!” He pleads, unable to hide his desperation any longer.
“Oh! Yeah, uh, we can do that! Get you out of there, I mean.” The voice says. For a moment, Simon just sits in a stunned silence.
“...Really?” He’s not even sure the word is loud enough for the shit microphone in the speaker to pick up, as if speaking might cause the ship to disappear as suddenly as it arrived.
“Yeah! It might take us a second to figure out how to do that though. I… Don’t see an airlock on your ship.”
“There isn’t one… I’m welded in.”
There’s a sort of silence. Simon can hear… whistling? whale song? Birds? Something strange in the background.
“Ok, we should be able to work around that. Might be a little bit though. What kind of atmosphere do you take?”
The question makes Simon pause.
“Excuse me?”
“Like, what gas do you breathe?” There’s a pause. “Oh, unless you’re breathing a liquid? We can make it work either way.”
Simon’s mind stalls on the strange question.
“Oxygen. I guess.”
“Oh, good! We have lots of that around.” Another pause. “Ok, this is going to seem like a weird question, but I have to ask, are you Human?”
A few weeks ago, Simon would have been insulted. But given the very not-human monster that’s obviously lurking around here, he guesses it’s a reasonable thing to ask. It’s not like this Grace guy can see him.
“Yeah.”
“Ok, cool, cool. Right, ok, we’ll get to getting you out of there and into here! Just holler if you need anything!”
Then the line goes quiet. Simon desperately wants the man to come back, to keep talking, but he knows that won’t help him get out of here. He hopes the ship isn’t going to just up and leave.
With nothing else to do, he floats in the main compartment of the Iron Lung, thinking over the short conversation. Grace. The name makes him worry this is another hallucination. It’s a pretty on the nose name for a savior after all. Why not something like Ryan, or Mark? Though, maybe it is something like that. He mentioned being Dr. Grace. So Grace is probably his surname.
He keeps thinking the conversation over, praying that it was real.
★・・・・・・★
For a moment, Grace just floats there. Then he realizes Rocky is talking to him.
“Why other human so far off course, question? Why ship so small, question? Why no airlock, question?” He chitters as they float down to the lab.
“Your guess is as good as mine, bud. How are we going to get him out of there?”
Rocky thinks for a few moments as he gathers his tools.
“Brought tunnel printer, for when Hail Mary needs to dock at Erid. Attach to Hail Mary, attach to small ship. Use laser cutter to get through welded spot.”
Grace nods.
They get to work. Finding the welded hatch on the space sub wasn’t hard, and Grace re-positioned the Hail Mary so the tunnel would attach there. Putting on his EVA suit, he patches the radio through.
“Hey, Simon, it’s Grace again. Just letting you know we’re going to be connecting our ships. So, uh, don’t worry if you hear any noises.”
“Yeah. Yeah, sounds good.”
The man sounds nervous. Makes sense. Given their earlier conversation, Grace figures he’s stranded. Who knows how long he’s been in that space sub.
It’s so weird. All of this is just so weird. It gets even weirder when he floats down the tunnel and sees the thing up close. From a distance he thought the haul was just rusty. But now he sees it’s coated in a layer of reddish brown ice. It looks a lot like frozen blood, though obviously the space sub isn’t coated in blood. He knocks three times on the haul.
“I’m here. I’m going to start cutting. You should, uh, probably stand back.” Grace says.
“... Thank you.”
He sounds exhausted.
As Grace starts carefully cutting an opening in the hatch, Rocky chirps over the intercom.
“Rocky see in ship. One human inside. Lots of fluid.”
Grace frowns.
“Can you tell what kind?”
“Hard for Rocky to tell. Viscous. Moves like fluid Grace leaks when hurt.” Rocky says, the worry tones in his voice matching how Grace feels about the information.
“Is Simon bleeding?” Grace asks as the laser cutter makes it’s march along the welded panel.
“Cannot tell. The fluid is all over Simon.” Rocky pauses. “Fluid is all over everything in small ship.”
Some of the frozen red substance melts around the cutter, clinging to the haul in little sticky orbs. Grace has changed his mind on the blood verdict. He’s almost certain it’s exactly what it looks like.
“Ok, that’s terrifying.”
“Rocky going to get Armando ready.” Rocky chirps anxiously.
“Yeah, good call.”
The lines of freshly cut metal meet up, and Grace presses a suction grip to it. With a hefty tug, it comes free. What lies beyond looks like something straight out of a horror movie. Large amounts of blood floats freely in the cramped compartment of exposed metal and pipes, clinging to each other in large amorphous globs. A result of the platelets holding the fluid together, Grace guesses. The surfaces are coated in… some sort of fleshy growth. And it’s dark. The only light is the one coming from his helmet, and the work-lamp he brought for the tunnel. And floating in that beam, blinking, is a man.
Simon shields his eyes from the light streaming in. After so long with just the occasional bursts from the screen, the radiance almost feels like it burns, like it’s part of a world that he fundamentally doesn’t belong to anymore. But his eyes adjust(though his head still hurts like hell) and he can see that the light is coming from the head of a man. His spacesuit is immaculate. No patches, no worn spots. Clean, golden hair dances about the man’s kind eyes. Though he isn’t young or old, his features are unweathered. Grace certainly seems like a fitting name to him.
Part of him doesn’t seem real. Damn. Maybe he really is dead.
Simon has never seen anyone like him. And, by the look of shock on Grace’s face, the feeling is mutual, though Simon figures much less flattering. He can only imagine what he looks like. Still, Grace holds out a hand, light wrapping around his body like a halo.
“Let’s get you out of here, ok? Everything is going to be alright.” Grace says with an alien gentleness that makes Simon want to trust. Want to take his hand instead of just darting out past him.
He doesn’t even realize he’s already taken Grace’s hand until he’s being gently pulled out into the tunnel. It’s then that Simon really sees himself for the first time since the lights went. The red blood covering his entire body is like an unholy mirror of Grace’s suit.
“Lets get you onboard.”
꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─ ๋︶꒦꒷︶꒷꒦
Simon seems kinda dazed as they enter the Hail Mary. That sort of doesn’t surprise Grace. The guy looks like he’s been to hell and back at least twice, and is coated head to toe in blood. He knows it’s blood now that his helmet is off. While Grace has a million more questions on top of the ones he had before opening the space sub, right now his priority is getting Simon down to Armando.
As they get into what has become the Hail Mary’s hospital, Simon pulls back.
“What is that!” He asks, raising a fist as the robo nanny grows near.
“Oh, it’s ok! It’s a medical robot. We call it Armando. On account of him being an arm.” Grace says, letting go of Simon’s hand to float over and pat Armondo. A classic demonstration of harmlessness. He takes the cot’s seat belt and holds it up.
“It’ll be easier if you buckle in. We’re a little low on gravity right now.”
Simon looks at Grace in confusion.
“You… want me to use your medical robot?”
Grace gives him a once over and nods.
“Yeah. We don’t want to leave that unaddressed.” Grace says, gesturing to all of him.
“You would share your medicine with me?”
“Oh, well, yeah of course!” Grace says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
Rocky watches the two from one floor up, tapping along the walls. From what Grace has told him, he knows that other humans wouldn’t know about Eridians, and since his people apparently look like an animal most humans are scared of, he figures it’ll be best to let Simon settle in before introducing himself. Also all the fluids are wigging him out.
He makes his way over to the starboard side of the Hail Mary, tapping the walls to get a better look at the tiny ship. It’s so different from the Hail Mary, though given how much longer humans have been making spaceships it makes sense to him that there would be some variety in designs. But how does this thing even move?
“Rocky.”
Rocky freezes. He hears his name all the time. His human name. But the voice that comes over the loudspeaker speaks his Eridian name.
It’s been decades since he’s heard someone else say his name. A wave of relief rushes over his carapace, as if just hearing his name in his own vocalization made him more real, more Eridian. Then it dawns on him that the voice doesn’t belong to someone he recognizes.
It had come through the speaker. Did Grace upgrade Mary’s voice?
“Mary, question?”
“Yes, Rocky. How can I help you.” The ship says, speaking in a definitely human voice. Rocky pauses.
“Nevermind.”
Maybe he just imagined it? Maybe Grace’s human ability to simply invent things that aren’t real is rubbing off on him. But no, neurological behaviors aren’t contagious. He definitely heard his name.
꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─ ๋︶꒦꒷︶꒷꒦
Armando gives the Hail Mary’s newest passenger a good scrubbing, bandaging, and medicating before deeming him free to go. Considering the state they found him in, his injuries really weren’t all that bad. A concussion, some broken ribs, and a torn rotator cuff. And situs inversus, which is interesting but also neither here nor there at the moment. Not really ‘coated in blood’ type injuries in Grace’s opinion, though given the sheer volume of of the stuff in the space sub, he had assumed it was mostly not Simon’s.
Maybe he was simply transporting blood for the interstellar blood bank, and the packages all exploded at once.
Grace floats back into Hail Mary Hospital with some welcome aboard snacks. Water and a peanut butter jelly sandwich. He hands them off to Simon, who looks at them like Grace just handed him the keys to the whole ship.
“You’re… sharing your food with me?” Simon asks in disbelief. Grace gives him a questioning look.
“Yeah? We did all that work to bring you on board. We’re not going to just let you starve.” Grace says, hooking one of his feet into a handhold on the wall.
Simon’s disbelief shifts to suspicion.
“What do you want in return?” He asks, looking at the sandwich, mouth watering. Only years of knowing how the world works keeps him from taking a bite. This isn’t some MRE or nutrient paste. This is real actual food. Real, actual bread. He’s never had the chance to try it. It feels so soft under his fingers. Grace looks at him like he’s crazy.
“Um, for you to eat the sandwich and gain nutrients from it?” Grace says.
Well, you know what they say about gift horses and mouths. Taking a bite, Simon quickly forgets his suspicions. He’s never tasted anything like this. It’s sweet, savory, and so rich. And the textures, the bread is soft and it’s contents are smooth and creamy. Nothing about it feels stale.
Ok, yeah, he’s definitely dead. Spent some time stuck in the Iron Lung to repent for his sins, and now this kind eyed angel named Grace is here to whisk him away. Bring him up into a heaven of clean ships, fresh food, and gentle medicine.
Grace watches as some of the tension leaves the man’s sturdy body. He looks a bit rough around the edges to be an astronaut, though he figures he’s not one to talk. His mind pops out a few more questions, which he adds to his ever growing list.
Floating there, Grace finds himself just… watching Simon. Wow… it really has been a long time since he’s interacted with another human. It’s been a long time since he’s interacted with a stranger. Well, a stranger that isn’t Rocky. For some reason he feels like that doesn’t count. That meeting an alien stranger isn’t the same as meeting a human one. It takes him a moment to realize Simon is staring back at him, his eyes dark pools behind curtains of wild, freshly cleaned, black hair. Grace feels the warmth of embarrassment on his face, which he quickly remembers Simon can see, and looks away.
“Sorry. I, um, I haven’t been around another human for a while.” Grace says, looking directly at the nearest wall panel as if it will have instructions for how to navigate this conversation.
“You’re alone? You were talking before like there were others on the ship.” Simon says through a mouthful of pb&j.
“Oh, uh, I’m not. My friend, Rocky, he’s also onboard. But, he’s um, how do I put this.” Grace says. “He’s an alien.”
Simon tenses. The face of the monster, lurking deep in the blood ocean, comes to mind.
“Oh, but don’t worry! He’s a great guy.” Grace says, seeing Simon’s change in demeanor.
“Sure. Why not.” Simon sighs before finishing project eating sandwich and moving on to the water. Grace isn’t entirely certain what to make of his response. Does he not believe him? Or maybe aliens existing just doesn’t seem crazy to the guy who came out of a space sub. Eridian whale song hums down the corridor behind him.
“Rocky reveals self now, question?” Rocky asks from the other room. Grace nods, velcroing the translation laptop to the wall.
“Yeah bud, we’re good.”
Rocky clambers down into the xenonite tube running along the top of the hall.
“Hello Simon! I am Rocky from Erid! So excite excite excite to meet another human!”
Simon takes a sharp breath, flinching back, a bit of the water escaping the pouch and floating freely past his head.
“Simon not need to be scared! Rocky might look like spi-der, but Rocky does not bite!” Rocky says, doing a little spin. Simon looks between Rocky and Grace.
“Ok. Yeah.” Simon responds with an expression that says ‘this might as well be happening’.
“Sooo, Simon. Gotta admit we have a lot of questions. I’m sure you do too. So I’m thinking you tell us how you got in your ship, and we’ll tell you how we got in ours.”
Simon grimaces. Of course they would want to know how he ended up in a submarine in what he can only imagine is deep space. Still, the thought of recounting his experience in the blood ocean isn’t exactly something he wants to do, especially right after the best meal he’s ever had.
“You first.” He says, immediately regretting it. Here these people have brought him into their ship, shared their food and medicine, and he’s making demands. Still, Grace doesn’t seem to be offended. For what it’s worth, Rocky doesn’t seem offended either, though Simon has no real way of telling.
“Yeah, sure!”
“Puppet show.” Rocky says, to which Grace gives him a flat look.
“Rocky, buddy, he’s a grown man. I’m not gunna to do a puppet show.”
“Waste to keep Hail Mary and Blip-a models if no puppet show.”
Grace takes a long breath before floating off to fetch the models. Simon sips his water in silence as the rock spider watches him.
“You are much calmer than Grace. Grace scream when see Rocky first time. Simon calm.” Rocky says.
“I’ve seen worse.” Simon says. Rocky tilts his body.
“Simon has seen other alien, question?”
Simon thinks on it before nodding. He never really thought of the eel monster as an alien, but that’s what it is, right? He opens his mouth to explain when Rocky puts up a claw.
“Uh, uh! Simon has already decided to tell story second! Has to wait!”
Grace returns with the models, and a fresh change of clothes. He passes them to Simon as he sets up his little show.
“Those should be about your size. Bathroom’s right over there.” Grace says, pointing. Simon looks down at himself, then goes to get changed.
The model of the Tau Ceti system is set up when he returns, and the pair explain the Hail Mary and Blip-A’s mission, the astrophage, and the taumeba. Rocky is very animated during the retelling, and Grace notes a few embellishments in the Eridian’s retelling. Grace decides to leave out his final memories of Earth. He hasn’t even really talked to Rocky about it yet. And hey, it only feels a little bit like lying.
While Simon has started to lean away from the ‘I’m dead’ theory a bit, the story Grace and Rocky tell him only elevates the angelic appearance of his rescuers. They’re actual, real heroes. The kind you hear about in stories that are supposed to give you some sort of hope. These two have saved stars. It makes sense that they would help him. Share with him. They’ve already shared themselves with their worlds. It makes him feel dirty. A sinner in a temple built for saints.
Sure, their story doesn’t line up with his understanding of the world, but since the Iron Lung was put into space he’s started to suspect things aren’t really following the rules anymore.
Simon shares his story, or at least his understanding of it. There are still a lot of things he still doesn’t understand. Regardless, he tells them about the Quiet Rapture, the Blood Ocean, and the monster that lived in it. How eventually it all lead to him waking up with the whole sub being transported into space. He leaves the details of why he was imprisoned vague. He would prefer if the Butcher died back at the bottom of the ocean.
Rocky and Grace are quiet for a bit after Simon finishes his story. It’s horrible, and Grace feels claustrophobic just thinking about it. And he thought his one way ticket was bad.
“Simon, the Quiet Rapture. You think space stations were taken into different reality, question?” Rocky asks. Simon shrugs.
“I always figured it made more sense than the whole universe disappearing.”
Rocky is quiet for a moment before a nervous whistle escapes his vents.
“Grace, the stars!”
Grace, who was still weighing the contents of Simon’s story, looks up at Rocky. His eyes go wide.
“Oh. Oh no.”
Nothing has been blocking the stars.
They’re just not out there anymore.