Chapter Text
On Erid, all the days blurred together.
Grace would roll out of bed, exhausted and groggy and fumbling his way around the room looking for a semi-put together outfit to wear. Armando would make him a hot drink and he’d sit in his little breakfast nook for a few minutes, enjoying the sound of the waves as they lapped along the shore. He’d eat and stretch, then Rocky would show up at his door. Sometimes Adrian was with him, other times he was alone. They’d walk the beach for a few minutes, talking about nothing in particular, then Grace would go to class. His evenings were sometimes spent alone, watching a movie or doing a puzzle or digging into Eridian physiology. Once a week he’d get an audience with Rocky, Adrian, and a bunch of Eridian scientists he wasn’t allowed to name to discuss human science and catch Erid up on the things they never found out. And if Grace was lucky, they’d teach him something of value too.
It was a simple routine that kept him fairly happy. Grace couldn’t ask for more than that.
Teaching Eridian students that were almost always older than him felt… degrading at times, but Grace loved his job. He’d always loved his job. Whether it was here or back on Earth, it was what he was born to do. Grace was allowed to nickname his Eridian students, as they appreciated the silliness more than the professional scientists did, but he rarely picked out joke names. Besides Rocky, of course, but come on. He had to. Grace found himself naming his students after his ones back on Earth. It made everything feel more normal.
He hadn’t been on Erid for very long, but he fell into the routine easier than he thought. Grace was a creature of habit. At least, he was until the only way to survive was changing everything about his life. That personality trait didn’t stick around after his first few months on Erid, even if his schedule had stayed constant for almost a year now.
Had it already been a year? Wow.
Although Grace found himself missing something. He wasn’t sure if it was because the days on Erid were so similar that he couldn’t tell them apart no matter what he tried. Or maybe it was because he couldn’t go anywhere else outside of his incredible biodome. The fact that it existed at all was a miracle. But something was just wrong. For the first time in his life, Grace didn’t need to worry about rent or buying groceries or capitalism. He didn’t need to panic over how much money he had in his bank account or figure out how to stretch out his teacher’s salary for the month. Erid let him live there scott free, and he could barely fathom the concept. Breaking over thirty years of habit from living on Earth in as short of time as he’d been living on Erid was probably contributing the off feeling.
At least, he hoped that explained it.
The sound of Armando’s electronic “good morning” message only made him want to sink into the bed further. Grace could hear the wave machine outside kick on and begin sliding back and forth along the grate under the ocean. Eventually, the clunky sound was replaced with that of water crashing against the shore. He buried his head in the pillows and groaned as artificial sunlight flooded through the windows, painting the floor in bright yellow and orange.
Eventually, Grace pulled himself out of bed and stumbled to the breakfast nook while wiping the sleep from his eyes. He wasn’t sure when, or how, but slippers were on his feet and a shirt had been pulled over his shoulders. Armando jittered around the space and held out a mug of warm liquid to Grace. It wasn’t quite coffee, but it had a similar taste and effect. It took some getting used to, but now Grace could barely tell the difference.
“Thank you, Armando.” He rubbed the robot’s arm and gently took the cup from its hands. The machine whistled and hummed in response.
His schedule proceeded as normal, sitting in the—surprisingly comfortable—wooden chair at the small table and taking slow sips of the liquid. Grace tried to keep his furniture in good condition, despite Rocky being able to create new ones at the drop of a hat. He just couldn’t help himself from resting his feet on the tabletop every so often. Soaking in the last few minutes of alone time, Grace sighed and tried not to settle in to the seat. He knew Rocky would be here soon, and ready to go bright and early. Just like always.
So Grace waited.
And waited.
And… waited.
“Hmm,” he said to no one, pulling himself from the chair and disposing his now cold coffee down the sink. Grace peered out the front door’s tiny window, looking for any trace of the Eridian, but still nothing. He glanced at the clock to make sure he wasn’t just being impatient, but Rocky was almost thirty minutes late.
He’s never late, Grace thought to himself.
Class wasn’t supposed to start for a while, so Grace found himself tidying up his house and doing other random tasks to fill his time. And to clear his questioning mind, but that part was harder to do. Normally, he’d walk on the beach with Rocky, but he only really did that to make conversation. Grace loved his beach, but it wasn’t the same walking alone. It was too lonely, and he just didn’t like it.
Once his house was spotless, which didn’t take long, Grace found himself becoming more and more impatient. It wasn’t a big deal Rocky hadn’t shown up yet. He didn’t need to be on time. He didn’t need to follow the routine. Grace didn’t need the routine. He’d grown out of hating change.
Totally.
“Ah, whatever,” Grace said to the space. He found himself talking to the open air more often than before. “I’ll just go set up early.”
He gathered his computer which held the Eridian to English translator deep in its code. Grace didn’t need it to understand Eridian, but it made his students know what he was saying a lot quicker than if they didn’t have it. They picked up on smaller English words and phrases, but when talking about complex science and mathematics, it was easier to listen in their native language. Grace would’ve needed the translator if they were attempting to explain those topics to him, but thankfully he was the one talking.
“Armando,” Grace said, holding out his hand for a fist bump, “I’ll see you later. Don’t leave me hanging, dude.”
Armando’s mechanical arm met Grace’s knuckles after a few more seconds. He smiled and opened the door.
The beach air flushed the space and tousled his hair. With Rocky not there to tell him to shut the door, Grace found himself leaving it open to freshen the house. His lesson today was only a couple hours, and if Rocky showed up late and ended up shutting the door out of spite, it wouldn’t be a big deal. It was a safe neighborhood after all, being the only human there.
Grace walked along the beach, shoes sinking into the soft sand as he made his way towards his classroom’s alcove. The clear xenonite window between his and Erid’s atmospheres stretched a ridiculously long way up, curling in over the ceiling and stopping way above Grace’s head. All his instruments were set up on various tables and moveable shelves around the space. It took a little bit of customization to allow Eridian students to see the screens and values written on the test tubes and scales that had been brought over from the Hail Mary, but Rocky had figured it out. Grace was jealous of his ingenuity sometimes.
But walking up to the outcropping, Grace was met with a grand total of zero Eridians. Not one student sat in the makeshift bleachers. He was a little early, but not enough to warrant nobody showing up.
“Oh, come on! What the heck!” Grace shut the laptop and slumped in a nearby chair. He threw his head in his hands and drug his fingernails lightly against his scalp. It didn’t do anything to calm him down.
He was starting to get worried. Sure, Mr. Punctual Rocky was absent from their normal routine, but his entire class? Fifty students and not a soul shows up? Something wasn’t right. His stomach tied itself in a knot.
Grace found himself pacing around the room, trying to glance out of the xenonite and into the darkness of Erid. He wished Eridians needed light to see. It would make snooping a whole lot easier. His classroom wasn’t closed off by walls on the outside, it was just some rocks cascading up to create seats. But no matter how hard he tried, Grace couldn’t make out anything in the shadows. Sometimes, he’d catch a glimpse of movement, but it wasn’t enough to figure anything out.
Rocky’s door to get in and out wasn’t too far from his current spot, but going there gave the same result as his classroom. Total nothingness. He knocked on the door anyways.
“Hey!” Grace called out, unsure if his voice would travel through the xenonite. Eridians had great hearing, but he’d never tried to yell through a wall this thick before. “Anyone out there? Just… a little confused, is all!”
He waited a few seconds before trying again. “I, uh, want to make sure everything’s okay! You know, cause no one’s here.”
Every attempt was replied to with silence.
Grace picked at the skin around his fingernails, a habit he just couldn’t stop. He walked back and forth from the door to the classroom, making sure to sneak glances at his house every so often to see if anything had changed. As he was about to give up, Grace heard the airlock door hiss from filtering ammonia.
Thank GOD.
Grace rushed back over, almost tripping over himself in the process. Finally, he’d be able to calm his racing heart as he came face to face with…
Oh. That’s not Rocky.
That’s… who is that?
The Eridian was in a xenonite suit similar to the ones Rocky wore while in Grace’s atmosphere. They were taller and wider than Rocky, but not as big as Adrian was. Most of their body was dark brown, but they had bright orange and yellow spots all over their arms and head.
“Apology Rocky absent,” they explained, voice high pitched and fluid, “Erid dealing with situation. Rocky help engineer solution to problem.”
“A situation?” Grace questioned, ideas running rampant in his head. Was it another Astrophage issue? Had the taumeoba given up after realizing how much they had to eat? Did they need to go on another expedition? What was Rocky engineering? How long would he be gone? Grace tried to wrangle his thoughts. “Is that why everyone’s gone? It’s important?”
“It exciting!” The Eridian chittered, shimmying around the space energetically. “And important! Erid found new ship!”
Grace’s heart might’ve stopped. His jaw definitely hit the floor. “What.”
“New ship found in nearby solar system while Erid do check on Astrophage problem.” They explained it like that was an everyday occurrence.
He blinked hard to bring himself back into the conversation. “Okay, wow. That’s incredible, but why’s Rocky gone?”
“To bring back ship onto Erid, need new biosphere. Rocky work on biosphere. Rocky made Grace biosphere. Make another.”
“Biosphere?” The word felt strange against Grace’s tongue. “Why… why do you need a biosphere?”
The Eridian stopped in their tracks, planting their legs heavy on the floor. They still shook lightly, almost as if they couldn’t contain their excitement. “For new human on board ship!”
Grace had to sit down. His ears started ringing and his heart felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. That wasn’t possible. Oh my god, that wasn’t possible. The Eridian he didn’t have the focus to try and name began spouting off various “Oh no!” and “Is Grace okay?” messages, but he couldn’t really hear them. Not when it felt like his head had been dunked underwater.
There was another place with life.
There was another ship.
There was another human.