Chapter Text
Ryland Grace was the first person who would tell you that he is a coward.
He would tell you that he is selfish and cowardly and that the word brave should never in any circumstances be used to describe him.
No matter if anyone tried convincing him otherwise, he wouldn't believe them. (Well, the only other being up here with him was Rocky, there wasn't exactly anyone else to try convincing him. Still. Point stands. He's sure the people on Earth wouldn't call him brave if they knew the circumstances leading him onto the Hail Mary.)
So of course, when the Hail Mary's trajectory gets thrown off course by a giant celestial body's intense gravity (a celestial body of which Grace was absolutely positive didn't exist a minute prior), he freaks out.
"Grace calm! Grace pilot! Pilot ship! Grace Rocky need to leave, statement!" Rocky's robotic voice from the translator droned out at the scientist who was currently trying to wrap his entire body around a chair, screaming all the while. The musical chimes of his voice conveyed his urgency a bit better.
When Grace didn't stop, Rocky angrily stomped his foot. The human looked towards his rock friend and sobered slightly at the slight tremble in Rocky's carapace. Right. Of course he was scared too. If they died here, getting the taumoeba and rescuing Rocky would be for nothing.
As soon as Grace had gathered his wits about him and moved towards the cockpit, something suddenly collided with the ship and Grace most definitely did not let out a shrill scream in response to the sudden movement and most definitely did not face plant into the cold metal floor.
And then the ship stopped moving all together.
Rocky and Grace froze in place, both of them surveying the ship. Nothing was moving. At all. The lack of gravity from the lack of movement was quick to show itself as both of the Hail Mary's occupants began floating.
It was quiet, too much so and Grace decided very quickly that he did not like this. Rocky didn't seem to either if his consistent claw fidgeting was anything to go by. But neither of them dared to break the silence.
"Blip E detected."
Mary did. She dared to break the silence. Thanks Mary.
Grace stared blankly in shock while Rocky immediately flailed over to his handholds. He barely registered as the Eridian latched onto the holds and immediately began clamoring towards the cockpit.
He was sure Rocky was yelling something at him but right now he was pretty sure he didn't want to deal with whatever situation that has decided to show itself. He can't catch a break. Get roped into fixing the stars. Gets launched into space against his will. Almost dies retrieving the solution to Astrophage. Currently halfway to starvation.
What's another issue for Dr. Ryland Grace? If it can't go correctly, then every bad thing should just happen, right? Sure. That's what the whole universe apparently thinks.
Grace doesn't move with the same urgency that Rocky had, instead opting to leisurely float through the corridors. Maybe if he ignores it long enough, the problem will disappear. He pulls himself against the walls of the corridor and passes by the reinforced glass window that lets him see the darkness of space colored only slightly with a red hue reminiscent of blood and a shadowed tan color.
He floats onwards for all of five seconds before pausing.
Grace quickly pushes himself back to the window. He pulls off his glasses and harshly rubs his eyes enough to sting for a moment before returning the glasses to the bridge of his nose.
He floats towards the window and immediately tries to take in every detail in front of him. Every detail that is so clearly not the vast expanse of space.
Whatever was covering the window was only barely illuminated by the lights of Mary. A red blood like tint (he shuddered at the thought and willed himself to stop referring to the color as blood red for his own sanity) seemed to spread along parts of whatever was covering the window. And if Grace looked close enough, he could make out small, thin grooves. It was like a solid, textured object was pressed against the hull.
He continued to stare at the window, marveling at whatever could possibly be outside the ship and obscuring his view to the stars surrounding them. He could handle Rocky yelling at him for being late. This can easily be passed off as investigating the situation. Especially since this had to be the object that crashed into the Hail Mary. It just did nothing to explain why she stopped moving all together.
And then the thing covering the window moved.
A sharp gasp escaped Grace and he quickly shoved himself back away from the window. The force against his back as he hit the wall hurt but he couldn't care less. It didn't quite matter because whatever was covering the window moved. Which could be nothing. It should be nothing.
But as he stared and examined the object, the more it looked like the palm of a hand.
He must've made too much noise or whatever that is out there felt him shove off of the window because the supposed hand began to pull back. And sure enough, that is definitely a hand. A hand with crimson webbing inbetween almost humanoid fingers that were tipped with sharp claws.
Yea no. He doesn't like that. Nope. Not happening.
The fates, like always, don't care. They like to mess with him. If it can't go correctly, then every bad thing should just happen, right? …He really jinxed himself with that one.
The hand moved down and latched somewhere else onto the ship, jostling her once more. And of course, the hand was followed by a scaly arm. A rather muscular arm to top it off. What in the world does something in space even do to get muscles like that? He's jealous. He gets malnutrition and the giant space alien fish thing is jacked. Not fair.
What's also not fair is how the ship begins to tremble as this strange something moves. He grabs at the wall until he's sure his knuckles are turning ghostly and screws his eyes shut, desperately trying to swallow down the scream building in his throat. He's actually fairly certain that he hears Rocky cussing out a long musical tone and that he hears some undercurrents of fear. At least he hasn't seen the thing causing the ruckus. Or, well, hmm. Sorry, hasn't heard the thing causing the ruckus. Yea. That'd make more sense.
He kept his eyes screwed tightly shut until the shaking subsided once more and the ship was silent once more, save for his shaky and labored breathing. Nothing was happening. His back really stung… ok, that's actually not as important right now. Pretty low on the list of priorities.
You're fine Ryland. It's fine. The space fish human thing or whatever it is has finished moving and literally rocking their world. It's fine.
He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He's fine. He needs to go join Rocky in the cockpit so that they can get out of dodge. He forces his eyes to open back up and steals a glance at the window.
A large golden eye is staring directly at him through the window.
Grace screams.
He's immediately fighting the lack of gravity and scrambling to pull himself through the halls to reach the cockpit. Nope! He does not want any part of this!
He desperately tried to ignore the way that the eye stayed locked onto him the whole time. He could still feel that weighty stare as he disappeared around a bend and left the window out of sight.
He all but threw himself into the cockpit and was immediately bombarded with an angry song from an angry Eridian.
"Why Grace take so long?! Grace leave Rocky! Rocky not able to fly ship, statement! Why Grace so slow, question?" Two angry taps against the surface closest to him, making Grace wince.
"Ok, ok! I'm sorry! But I need you to stop hitting the ship right now before it hears you!"
Rocky froze and faced the flatter side of his carapace towards the human. Grace could only imagine the incredulous look he'd have on his face if he somehow had one.
"What hear Rocky, question?"
Grace glanced over his shoulder with a poorly concealed shudder.
"I think we have a massive alien problem, bud."