Chapter Text
They spent almost all day in the ship, Lokken and Dimitri got bored very quickly, though Grace seemed to not even notice that time had passed. He had spent so much time on this ship without a concept of time that he never really could tell what time it was or how much time had passed. Dimitri was standing at one of the counters in the lab with Lokken standing next to him, the two watched Grace mess with
Dimitri let out a sigh and straightened up.
“Grace, mind if I look around in the other rooms?”
Grace looked up from the computer at Dimitri, then looked back to the computer.
“Yeah, don’t take anything though.”
Dimitri nodded before walking over to the other ladder on the wall, he looked over at Lokken
“Are you coming?”
Lokken looked over at Dimitri and stood up. Once she reached his side, she lowered her voice when she spoke.
“I'll stay with Grace.. I don't think it's a good idea for him to be alone here. You go ahead, and if you find anything, yell for me.”
Dimitri gave her a thumbs up before moving to climb up the ladder, Lokken went back over and sat next to Grace. She watched him type and change tabs over and over, it was very confusing to anyone who had no clue what he was trying to do, like her.
“What are you doing? You've been doing that for an hour now.”
Grace looked at her, actually making eye contact instead of just looking back at the computer.
“Well, as you know, Rocky is an engineer, and when we were close to his planet, he rigged up a program on this computer so we could talk long distance.” He jested to the computer in his lap. “We tested it a few times and it worked, but to get it functioning from very, very, long distances, it takes a lot of extra steps.”
He turns the computer screen to face Lokken, showing her the screen.
“I’m almost done, it's just taking a while to load.”
He moves it back to face him, looking back at the screen and rubbing his neck.
“I hope it actually works.. We spent a lot of time getting this functional but I don't know if Rocky set up his side of the communications. He told me he would when he got home but I don’t know if.. Whatever”
He goes back to typing, though it was obvious he was still caught on the idea of not being able to talk to Rocky.
“Rocky doesn't lie. I trust him and he trusts me.”
–
Dimitri climbed down the ladder into the dormitory. Three beds connected against the wall opposite of each other. Two of the beds looked like they hadn't been touched in forever, while the third one, most likely Grace’s, had the blanket hanging off the side, and the pillow had fallen onto the ground.
Dimitri instantly noticed the clear wall that was on the other side of the room from Grace's bed. Grace had told them about how these were rocky areas, and the walls made it so their atmospheres wouldn't collide. There were holes cut into the walls once in a while, and were being used as storage now that Rocky wasn't here to occupy the areas.
A lot of things in the room had been tossed around during the crash, boxes were scattered around and some had been thrown over, whatever it was holding now laying on the ground
His eyes went to the white board that was attached to the wall, there was a calendar written on it, all the days were crossed off, and at the very top there was an outline of a ship and inside it ‘Rocky’ was written.
Grace had told them about how at one point he had gone back to find Rocky because there was a problem with the fault, and luckily they were able to fix it and go their separate ways, for the second time.
Though there was some old writing that was barely visible on it as well, it must have dried and was never cleaned off. It looked like a list of some kind, he could make out some words, “Good at math!!!”, “Carl…(Frend??)”, “Bay Area”, and "Scientist". Dimitri stared at the words “Who am I?”. He knew that Grace had some memory loss from the Coma but he didnt think it was that bad..
He would talk to Grace about that later.
—-----
Grace is sitting outside on some deck. Rain was pouring down and had been for hours.
They had left the ship a while ago to take a break, the other two had gotten tired of standing around and he needed time to think. And honestly, Grace didn’t mind. It was nice to have grass under him for once, without the fear of anything too bad happening. Plus, that ship made his head hurt.
It was downpouring and it hadn't stopped raining all day. At some point Dimitri walked over, standing slightly behind Grace. He was standing in the doorway, avoiding the rain altogether.
“Hey Grace, someone called.”
“Who?”
“Your brother..”
….
Grace looked up at Dimitri, he had to be lying.
“My what?”
“Your brother.”
Grace was surprised his brother even tried to call, or even knew he existed, to be honest. They hadn’t grown up together, so maybe his sister Andreya had talked to him? Whatever. He looked away, watching the rain hit the ground.
“What was his name, did he say?”
“Colton.”
Grace nodded, he should try and remember that for later, or at least write it down.
“What did he want..?”
Dimitri walked closer, pulling his own hood over his head to stop the rain from soaking his clothes. “He said your sister told him you were working here, they want to meet up.”
“...Do they know about the mission?”
“Everyone knows about the mission Grace.”
“Good point.”
The two are quiet for a moment before Grace speaks again.
“Where did they want to meet?”
“A coffee shop in San Francisco, near your old apartment if I remember correctly.”
Near his apartment.. Andreya must have remembered that he had moved into that area when he moved out. She must have told Colton where he supposedly lived and then decided to go somewhere close to there.
Grace paused for a moment. When he was 23, his sister was 26. But because of time dilation, she's now 52, and he's only.. 31. And he had no idea how old Colton was.
“Do you know how old Colton is..?”
“Well,” Dimitri pulled out a folder, flipping through the pages. “He was born about the same year you were, so he’s about 49, give or take.” He flipped the book closed, looking back at Grace. “So if you’re wondering if they will notice your age.. It's probably a yes.”
Grace buried his face in his hands
“Frick..”
Of course they would notice. On the slim chance they didn't know it was him on the mission, they would notice his age almost instantly. He looked exactly the same as he did when the launch had happened.
Dimitri walked up behind him and put his hand on his shoulder, a silent comfort in the rain
“You don't have to go Grace, there has been a lot happening recently. They’ll understand”
Grace put his head in his hands, he wanted to see them, but he had zero memory of the two, he knew his sister's name and that was it, and he barely remembered his brother's name! It would be obvious that he doesn't really know them.
But… he did need to start talking to people that weren't just other scientists and whoever else was on the aircraft carrier.
“Ill… ill go.”
Dimitri nodded
"I'll go call them."
with that he turned around and went back inside, leaving Grace in the rain to think.
He looked back at the ground from where Dimitri had been standing.
hopefully his siblings like him.. it would be nice to have family again.