Chapter Text
"Blip-D Detected"
"What?"
Simon looks over at the screen from the pilot seat. It shows an object on their course to Tau-Ceti, which wasn't there prior. Confusion covers Simons face as he thinks it could possibly be just an asteroid in their way.
They stopped near Tau-Ceti to collect the samples, but now they were working on a plan to get more from the planet. Ellie is working on the samples in the lab while Simon was sitting near the window writing down notes on how they could achieve their goals. Nothing was near them before, why was there NOW something next to them? Simon looks out the window and sees-
That's not right.
What kind of spaceship is that?
"Hey-uh Ellie? Can you come over here and look at this?" Simon calls out to his alien friend.
He can hear items being moved and dropped, and then the sound of her multiple footsteps running over. Ellie, an eel like creature with multiple limbs, sharp teeth, and glossy like eyes, comes over to Simon. She's in her suit with a red liquid in it that's keeping her alive while avoiding Simon's atmosphere. She climbs over Simon's shoulders to look.
"What is that, Question?"
"I'm not sure. Mary detected it and I thought it was a meteor or an asteroid near, but then I saw that."
Both stared at the floating broken ship in confusion. The spaceship seemed to have started to fossilize and break away by some sort of impact. Multiple growths of stone and crystals where all over it like an infection.
Ellie has pressed her face more against the glass to see, really seeming to have focused in on something. Simon has set his notes down before jumping out of his skin when he hears Ellie yell right in his ear
"LIFE. LIFE ON SHIP"
There should not be any forms of life on that ship. Nothing should be alive in there. That ship is damaged to hell and looks impossible to get in. Simon looks at Ellie in bewilderment.
"Ellie, are you sure? That... thing is so broken and damaged. There's no way anything is alive in there!"
"Ellie, very very sure! Can see body heat in there! Ellie not joke or lie!"
Of course, how could Simon forget she's basically a thermal camera. She can see any forms of heat through any walls.
Simon pushes his glasses up to his head and rubs his eyes. He sighs.
"Okay. Let's get Mary connected to that ship."
Well, that was easier said than done.
It took several excruciating minutes to get Hail Mary perfectly in line to connect to the sub. Especially with Ellie constantly nagging in his ear about wasting time and hurrying. He really doesn't know how someone could be alive in there. Maybe it's an alien? It can't be another one of Ellie species since the ones that were with her has passed from radiation poisoning, and she would've recognized one of her own. A human wouldn't be able to survive this. Not without proper protection like Mary has.
Simon's mind is racing with different ideas and theories of what could be in there. Once they got Mary connected to the ship, he put on the EVA suit and opening the airlock door. Simon looks at the ship and sees the door to get in, but it was welded shut. Whoever was in there, was never supposed to get out.
After some time of welding it open. Simon moves the heavy metal door over and looks inside with a flashlight.
Red liquid pools under his feet.
The sight and smell made Simon gag. Looking at the ground frantically as he backs up. There's no way in HELL someone is alive.
"Body temperature rise. Everything okay, Simon?"
Ellie's voice is over the mic in the suit. Simon's breathing heavily before he takes one big breath and calms down enough to reply.
"Um.. yeah, everything is okay.. Kinda"
Simon looks into the ship and takes a step forward. The presume blood goes up to his knees as he walks carefully in.
The wet sounds underneath his feet made his skin crawl. He peaks inside the ship and looks around.
The ship was fossilizing inside too. Rocky vines and crystal clusters grow all around the space. What the actual fuck is going on?? Simon steps inside the ship and keeps looking. There's also punctures in the ship as well. Something big was trying to get in.
Simon is looking at one of the clusters and decides to take a piece for Ellie to experiment on. He's sure she can find a possible answer to all of this... Maybe.
He looks at the back of this ship to then the control panels upfront. He walks slowly upfront until he feels something hit his foot.
No, not something.
Someone
Simon looks at the floor and sees a person drenched in blood. It's hard to see their features with the clumps of blood on them, but he was able to discern the person had long hair that was in a braid, a blanket wrapped around their shoulders, and a long-sleeved shirt with one of them being ripped off on the left arm.
Simons bends down and places two fingers on his neck.
A pulse.
The person is still alive.
Astonished, Simon picks up the person. He had to tug and pull them away from the wall due to the rocks connecting both together. He's definitely heavy for how skinny he is.
"Ellie, I found them and he's alive. Get Armando ready, please."
"Yes Yes Yes! Ellie not lie! Will get Armando ready!"
Simon looks down at the guy's face. As he struggles to get out of that ship and back into his own. The half of the guy's face is also fossilized. He wonders if they can remove it or if it's stuck like that.
He's able to walk over to Armando. Staining the white floors of Mary red as he sets the guy down on the table.
"Disgust Disgust Disgust!"
"Yeah, you can say that again."
"Disgust Disgust Disgust!"
"Ellie, that was an expression. I was agreeing with you." He chuckled a bit. Ellie glared at him.
Armando started to work on cleaning and repairing wounds, Ellie climbs up to be on Simons shoulders as both Simon and Ellie watch for a bit. Later, Simon leaves the room to take off the EVA suit and get all the blood off of it.
After some time, he soon cleans off the suit and the floors from the blood. He detached the two ships and let the centrifuge do its job. Simon gave Ellie the crystal to see if it was some sort of weird growth thing. She is a scientist after all. He really didn't know what to do after waking up on Hail Mary and finding the other two people dead. The pilot and scientist. He was the engineer for the spaceship. Hell, he even helped build it.
But what is an engineer going to do about the astrophage?
That was the microbiologist job, something completely out of his field. But he didn't have one. It was just him on the empty ship. Man, he really wished Ava planned this out better instead of just sending three people to space. That's why he's so lucky to find Ellie.
After accidently frightening each other, they learned they were on the same mission. Both dealing with dying stars that could end both of their planets, and both dealing with grief of losing their crew. Fate has funny ways of working. Putting two aliens together to figure out a plan to save the stars.
Well, now three aliens.
Simon was folding up clothes and prepping some food for the new guy to have. While Ellie was in the lab working. Softly humming to himself as he walks over to the med bay. Opening the door and setting the stuff down on the table he hears,
"Eye Movement. Detected."