Chapter Text
“Dinner, Captain Grace.”
“Get lost.”
The captain held the foil packet of food in the slot for a moment, then yanked it back with a growl. “Fine. Fucking starve then. See if I give a shit.”
Grace smirked as he heard the stomp of the other man’s boots down the hall and up the stairs, though he felt his stomach growl. His little hunger strike couldn’t last forever, this he knew. Humans could technically go weeks without food, but Grace was neither tough nor determined enough to last that long. He’d have to give in eventually.
Still, though, for now he was enjoying being purposefully difficult. He had always had a petty side, but now he found a righteous satisfaction in being a nuisance. If this man was going to keep him here on this ship, fine, but he was going to make his dissatisfaction loud and clear.
That, and it distracted him from the fact that he was alone with this man on a strange ship, with his only friend for lightyears around currently speeding away through space with his only method of escape. All because of the intergalactic equivalent of a fender bender.
***
Skrrrrrrrrrrr-CLUNK. Grace’s laptop hitting the floor with a thunk. A beeping noise.
“What the heck was that?”
“Something hit starboard side of ship.” Rocky intoned, sensing through the wall. His familiar warble was deep with urgency. “Large. Shape like Earth ship.”
Grace scrambled up the ladder towards the cockpit, heart pounding in his chest. Rocky followed close behind in his xenonite tunnel.
What could it be? More aliens? Another ship from Earth? Neither thought was comforting — Grace felt the same sense of dread he had upon first seeing the Blip A.
And that scraping noise hadn’t sounded healthy. What if the hull was damaged? Or the fuel tanks, or the engine? Were they about to have a repeat of the fishing incident? Grace shuddered as he reached the final rung and clambered up into the cockpit.
A steady beeping noise was coming from the main console, which showed a model of the Hail Mary with the starboard side highlighted. Where the ship had hit them, Grace gathered.
“Impact from foreign object detected. Damage to hull insignificant. No further action required,” said the Hail Mary’s computerized voice.
Grace breathed a sigh of relief, but his pounding heart didn’t slow down. What was another ship doing all the way out here? What did it want? And why hadn’t the Mary warned them about an object so close? It was meant to alert them of any abnormalities within a few kilometers, so why hadn’t it detected this until it collided with their darn spaceship?
Grace scrambled over to the window and peered out. Rocky’s hypothesis was correct — it was a ship, alright, and it appeared to be human-made, though it wasn’t like any ship Grace had seen before.
It looked new and old at the same time, he observed. The design was futuristic-looking, but it looked run down, with the paint worn away from most of the hull. There was a dent in the side and a long scrape mark, leading to a rectangular portion where the metal was a different, shinier color. It looked like something had been knocked off the side of the ship.
“Movement detected,” Mary observed, and Grace pressed himself against the window to get a better look. Rocky, now in his xenonite atmosphere suit, clambered beside him.
“Other ship attaching airlock to our airlock. Like Rocky with Blip A. Want to talk to us.”
“Or kill us.” Grace’s stomach turned. Sure enough, a mechanism on the ship’s hull was attaching itself to the Mary’s airlock.
“Or kill us,” Rocky agreed. He paused. “Grace talk to them? Question?”
“Me? You go talk to them!”
“No, Rocky stay here. Rocky give Grace words of great encouragement!” He ducked behind his front legs. “From Hail Mary.”
Grace huffed a sigh. “I’ll talk to them. But we’re going over there together.”
Rocky let out a little eep but stood and followed Grace to the airlock. Grace took a deep breath, squared his shoulders. Let’s do this.
***
“You fuckers broke my ship.”
Grace stared at the… Man? Alien? Creature? standing in front of him. He seemed human, for the most part. He had soft features — deep brown eyes and black hair that fell in loose waves around his face, half tied back in a loose bun. His clothing was nondescript and worn, threadbare fabrics in green and brown layered around his muscular frame and heavy brown boots on his feet.
Some of his features, however, looked decidedly… not human. For example, the rows of sharp teeth protruding from his cheek. It looked as if he had a second, monstrous mouth on the side of his face. The “mouth” was surrounded by heavy scarring, which looked partially but not all the way healed, much of it encased in gnarled scabbing. The sight made him feel slightly squeamish.
Grace couldn’t quite tell what was scabbing, though, and what was scales — from the man’s ear down his neck, he realized with wonder, traced what looked like a network of inky black fish scales. His ear itself had a fin-like quality to it from what Grace could see, asymmetrical spines jutting out through his curls. The man looked frightening, sure, but Grace found that his curiosity far outweighed his fear. He itched to get one of those scales under a microscope, to poke and prod and see exactly what was going on with this man.
His left arm was completely gone, covered in bandages and gauze. Grace wasn’t sure he wanted to see what was underneath. Or maybe he did.
“Hello? Do you speak English?” The man buried his face in his hand, letting out a deep sigh. “Of course he doesn’t, you dumbass, why would you just assume he can speak-“
“Um. Yes! Sorry. Yes, I do speak English,” Grace shook his head to reorient himself. “Umm. Sorry. Hi.” He straightened up, squaring his shoulders. “I am… Ahem. Dr. Captain Ryland Grace, of the Hail Mary. Of… Earth.” The other man quirked an eyebrow.
Somehow he was reminded of the time he was in eleventh grade and accidentally backed out into someone’s car in the grocery store parking lot. Don’t admit fault right away. Call your insurance first.
Grace sure as heck didn’t have insurance for this situation, but still he said, “It appears that… um, our ships have… collided.” Good job.
The other man let out a dry chuckle. “Yeah, no shit!” He pointed out the window. “You knocked off part of my engine. My ship’s fucked. I don’t have anything to repair it with.”
Grace threw up his hands in indignation. “Okay, buddy, how do you know I hit your ship? We were just cruising along and all of the sudden, bang!” His voice rose. “Clearly you need to look where you’re going.”
“I need to look where I’m going? It’s not like I was doing fucking donuts out here. You’re the one who came out of nowhere.”
“Okay, fine, fine, whatever. We’re not getting anywhere with this. Just —“ Grace pinched the bridge of his nose. “What do you need in order to fix your ship?”
The other man sighed. “A new part, that’s for sure. But I have no clue where I would even start with that. Unless you have one miraculously laying around on your ship. It’s not like I can go back to— whatever.” He shook his head. Grace sensed genuine fear creeping into his voice under his harsh tone. “I mean, I don’t know. Maybe if I had some scrap metal, but… I’m not a good engineer. I don’t know how I would even—“
“Rocky can make.” The Eridian had been by the wall, sending out sound waves to sense the damage to the ship.
“What’s that, bud?”
Rocky ambled over. “Can fix,” he hummed. “Simple part. Designed similar for Blip A. Can make from xenonite to fix ship.”
“Really?” He turned towards the other man. “Rocky says he can— oh yeah. This is Rocky.” Grace placed a hand on his carapace. “He’s an Eridian — that’s an alien from Erid, which is… you know what, long story.” The other man stared at him like he had three heads. “Anyways, he’s saying that he can make you a new ship part. He uses this material called xenonite, which is like a metal form of xenon — really cool, by the way — anyways, he made some replacement parts for my ship so he should be able to make something compatible for yours.”
The other man paused. He squinted suspiciously, but there was a hopeful glimmer in his dark eyes. “Really? He can just… do that?”
Rocky trilled in a low tone, the Eridian equivalent of huffing under your breath. “Yes. Other human is stupid, question? Grace just said this.”
“Um, yeah. Like I said, he’s made stuff for my ship before. He should be able to fix yours just fine.”
The suspicion didn’t leave the other man’s eyes, but his face softened a bit. “Wow. Um, yeah, if you’re sure… that would be good.”
“But… is small problem. Grace.” Rocky warbled.
“What’s that?”
“Rocky calculate. Is… not enough xenonite materials on ship to make. Have to go back to Erid, then come back.”
“Oh.” Grace frowned. Looks like this wouldn’t just be a quick pit stop, after all. He looked at the other man. There was no way they were just going to leave him stranded out here. Sure, he was being kind of a jerk, and Grace still wasn’t convinced this whole situation was his fault in the slightest, but… no way were they going to just leave him stuck here. Grace knew Rocky would agree. After all, they both knew what it was like to be stranded, hopeless, in space.
“What is it?” The other captain looked up at him, worry in his eyes.
“So… Rocky says there’s not enough materials on the ship with us now to make the part. We’ll have to go back to Erid to get more materials, then come back.”
The other man barked a laugh, his gaze sharpening once more. “Oh, sure. I’ve heard this one before. Go back for more materials and leave me stranded here.” He shook his head. “Fine. Yeah, I bet all this shit was made up anyway. You can’t really make me a new part. It was all a bluff. Whatever.”
“No, seriously, we can,” Grace said. “We’re not just going to leave you stranded here, it’ll just take us… How long, Rocky?”
“Three months two days and forty-eight minutes there and back. Plus time to dock ship, give taumeoba instructions to Eridians, and gather supplies. Approximately seven months.”
“Um. Seven months. And then we’ll be back.”
The other man huffed. “Seven months. Okay, fine. If you’re really telling the truth... you go back and get the supplies, and bring them back here." He paused, squaring his shoulders. "But your little… rock friend… stays here with me.”
“No!” Grace cried, at the same moment Rocky screeched something indignant he didn’t quite catch. There was no way he was giving up Rocky again. No way he was leaving him here with this stranger. “Why?”
“I need to know you’ll come back. That you won’t leave me here. Clearly, he’s important to you. If he’s here, you’ll come back with the supplies.”
“So, like a hostage.”
“What? No, I –” He huffed a sigh. “It’s not like that. I’m not gonna- I’m not gonna hurt him or anything. Just… He stays here so I know you’ll come back. That’s it. If you’re really telling the truth, and you’re planning to actually come back, you’ll be fine with that.”
Grace let out a long sigh. The stranger had a point. He had no reason to believe Grace would come back on good faith alone. He was smart, maybe smarter than Grace. Or just more jaded. Grace wouldn’t think of something like this, but he had to admit it was clever.
He sized up the man in front of him. There was something... dangerous about him, to be sure. Grace got the feeling, not just from his numerous injuries, that this was a man who had seen combat. Who had seen a lot of things Grace could only imagine. He didn't think the man wanted to hurt them -- if he did, they would both probably be dead and the man would be commandeering the Hail Mary. Still, Grace got the sense he might resort to violence if he was desperate. Probably not the best idea to just make a break for it. He didn't want a fight; he knew he'd probably lose. His stomach dropped as he remembered how easily he was captured by Stratt's guards back on Earth. Focus.
The issue was, Rocky couldn't stay here. Not only was there the issue of his atmosphere – he could only go a few hours in his atmosphere suit before needing to go back in his tunnel – there was also the matter of docking on Erid and retrieving the supplies. He had no clue where to even start with landing on Erid, and of course there was the matter of communication. Grace understood Eridian fairly well without the translator by now, but Rocky was the only Eridian who understood English. Trying to communicate with the other Eridians would be like starting from square one.
Grace sighed. He knew what he had to do.
“Okay. That’s… understandable, actually. But… Rocky can’t stay here. He has a different atmosphere than us – he can’t be in that suit for too long.” Trying to explain all the other issues with that plan just sounded frustrating.
“Okay.” The other man frowned, crossing his arm over his chest. “What do you suggest, then?”
“I’ll stay here. Instead of him.”
He quirked an eyebrow. Rocky exploded into a symphony of high pitched whistles. “No no no. Grace! No, Grace. Rocky not leaving you here with 🎶🎶🎶 human. Grace come back with Rocky. Grace Rocky leaving now, statement.” He scrambled in front of Grace, nudging his carapace firmly into Grace’s legs to push him towards the door.
“Rocky, bud. Chill. I know what I’m doing.”
“Not chill! Grace not know what Grace doing,” Rocky warbled.
The other man just stared at them, arm crossed. He looked up at Grace. “Fine, then. Doesn’t matter to me.” He cocked his head at Rocky, who was still in the midst of his lecture. “He can… fly your ship?”
Rocky paused to point a claw at the stranger. “Of course can fly ship. Can fly ship better than Grace, statement. Is Rocky, not real rock. Stupid stupid stupid human.”
“Um, yeah, he can. He can probably do most things on the ship better than me, to be honest.” He furrowed his eyebrows. “The only issue is… food. We’re a little short on, you know, anything edible on the ship. I’m trying to stretch what I have until we get back, but-”
“Food isn’t an issue. I have enough here.”
“Oh. Okay, well…” He placed a hand on his hip, paused for a moment. “Guess I’m... staying here, then.”
“Not staying! Stop ignoring me, Grace!”
Grace sighed. He walked with Rocky a few paces away, probably not out of the other man’s earshot but far enough where he felt they could have a little privacy. “Look, buddy. I know you don’t want me to do this. But it looks like only one of us is making it off this ship for the time being, and we both know it can’t be you.” Rocky let out a low, growl-like hum. “I don’t want to leave you either. The last thing I want is for us to be separated, bud, especially when we’re so close to making it home.” He placed a hand on Rocky’s carapace. “But I can handle myself. I don’t think he’ll try to hurt me, because he needs you to make the ship part for him. It… won’t be fun. But we’ll make it through. Just go back to Erid, get the supplies, and come back. Easy peasy.”
Rocky grumbled. “Not easy. But…” He shuffled around, considering. “I will go back to Erid and get xenonite supplies. But if other human harm Grace?” He spoke louder, despite the fact that the other man couldn’t understand him. “I will rock his shit. Statement.”
Grace chuckled. Sometimes he was glad Rocky had finally forced him to teach him curse words. “Deal.”
“Tell him.”
“Um.” He stood up. “He says fine, but if you hurt me, he will, um. Rock your shit. Statement.” It had been a long time since he had cursed, but he figured he owed Rocky a faithful translation.
The other man chuckled dryly. “Noted.”
They stood, gazes unyielding, for a moment. “So,” Grace finally said. “I guess we should start moving some of my stuff onto here?”
“Guess so.”
“Okay. So,” He placed his hands on his hips, cocking his head irreverently at the other man. “If you’re going to be holding me hostage on your ship for seven months, I think it’s only fair I should know your name.”
“I’m not- Ugh. Whatever.” The man dragged a hand over his face, then threw it down to his side, narrowing his eyes at Grace. “My name,” he said, “is Simon.”