Chapter Text
Grace’s Perspective
My head feels… fuzzy, yeah that's the best way to put it. I can’t really open my eyes, when I do they flutter shut again. What was I doing? It's really hard to think but I can’t figure out why, I was with rocky, we were in Erid’s orbit, trying to figure out how to land, well more Rocky was, I wasn’t doing to hot, the trip from Tau Ceti to Erid was long, and I didn’t have enough food to get me all the way there, I’d rationed it all out but even then I wasn’t able to eat often…
So by the time we got there I was practically half dead, how did we land? Did we land at all? I have no idea where I am anyway. Well, use your other senses then Ryland, it's cold, I’m lying down that's for sure, I can’t hear anything, yet. I try to open my eyes again, this time with a little more success. I know it’s dim, I can still see but it's dim, and I can see the same clear xenontite material Rocky uses to separate our atmospheres.
My eyes close again, dammit. I kind of just lay there for the next few minutes, trying to listen, maybe I’ll hear Rocky, he’s probably just around the corner somewhere.
♩♫♪♬♩♪♪♫ The sound was muffled, like it was behind a wall but that's the familiar sound I’ve been hoping for, those silly little notes, though that does not sound like Rocky, another Eridian? So they do have different ‘voices’ like humans do, I really shouldn’t be focusing on that, I have other worries, like am I actually going to live? Are we on Erid? Where is Rocky?
I try to open my eyes again, it's the same dim room, and I’m looking up at clear xenonite, so I attempt to move my head to the side. I do this successfully, about 4 metres away is more clear Xenonite, but I can see past it, there's a wall, made of several colours of brown rock, about 5 metres between the ‘glass’ and the rock.
♫♩♪♪ I recognise those notes, that’s my name,“Grace”, and I recognize that voice, Rocky. I turn my head to the right this time and there he is, Rocky, all in one piece thank god, though why wouldn’t he be.
“Hey Rock” I smiled at him, as much as I could smile at least.
♫♩♪♪ ♬♩♪♪♩♫♪ He ran up to the glass once he heard me, clearly very excited. I know a few Eridian words, my name, Rocky’s name, and most of the words that were in the translator database but he was saying some garbage I couldn’t understand yet. I briefly heard the sound of footsteps, can you call them footsteps if they don’t really have feet? Another thing that does matter right now.
Two Eridians rushed in! They both were completely different in shape, colour and size to rocky, one was a bit larger than him and was a light orangish, the other was a lot more jagged around the edges with a flat head, lower body and was black apart from some speckles of greys and white.
♬♩♪♪♩♫♪ ♩♫♪♬ What the hell are they all talking about, it soon becomes just a jumble of notes, and I could only catch a few words here and there like my own name, awake and a bunch of others, but I can’t understand the context of half of them.
Rocky seemingly gets annoyed at scuttles off, out of my very limited view. A few minutes later, his xenonite hamster ball rolls in front of me, from where I’m lying I can only see the top of it.
♫♩♪♪ ♬♩♩ ♫♪♬♩ “Grace okay, Question?”
“Yeah bud, just really tired.” And my head hurts like hell now but I don’t want to worry him “How long was I out?”
♩♪♬♩ “One week” That long? It’s not a surprise I desperately needed to conserve energy.
“What did you feed me while I was out?” Rocky didn’t respond for a minute, and he answered slowly.
♪♫♬ ♫♩♪♪ ♩♪♪♬♩♬♩♪♫♩ “Feed Grace human-safe cells…”
“You don’t seem very sure.” I gave him a look of suspicion, then looked up at the ceiling. “I thought it was pitch black on your planet, and we’re inside, where’s the light coming from?”
♪♬♩♩♩♬♩♫♩♪♪♫♪♩“Use lights from Grace ship”
“Ahh, understand” I sit up, slowly so as to not make my head hurt anymore. We were in a xenonite dome inside a cave of sorts, in front of me the dome formed into a walkway, down a turn in the cave.
“I’m surprised you guys were able to set up a safe atmosphere so fast.”
♪♩ ♪♩♬♪ ♩♪♫♪♫♪♩♫ ♩♩♫♪ ♩♩♪♩ ♫♪♩♫ ♩♩♫♪ ♩♩♪♩ “Was already made when got here”
“What? How? We didn’t send any radio signals to Erid.” He paused again, ♩♩♩ “"Surprise” What does he mean surprise? I can’t be bothered to ask.
“When do I get the grand tour then huh?”
Rocky does a quick circle in his ball, ♩♪♪ ♩♩♩ ♩ “Bring surprise first”
“Umm.. Okay?” Rocky scampered down the walkway and round the corner, I can still hear him but the sound of his ball hitting stone is muffled. I’m left sitting there by myself again, I look over to my right and have a look at those two Eridian’s again, they're just standing there motionless, staring at me probably, saying a few things between themselves on occasion.
I hear Rocky’s ball again, he rolls back in, standing in the entrance of the walkway.
♫♩♪♪ ♪♪♬♩♩♪♪♬♩ “Grace close eyes!” I closed them, best not to argue with him. I can hear some muffled footsteps, but those stop. What was he planning on showing me? Maybe his mate? I am quite excited to meet Adrian.
♩♩♩ ♩♩♪♩ ♪♩♬♩♩♪♪♬♩ ♪♩♬♩“Suprise here! Open eyes! Open!”
I opened my eyes and looked at Rocky. Standing next to him is a human! An actual honest to God human! He’s just a bit shorter than me, with messy black hair that reaches his shoulders, loose strands falling over his face, tired eyes and he’s rather muscular. He had.. Scars? Not scars, it looked like his skin had bubbled and blistered, it had left a mark. But none of that mattered because standing in front of me was a real human! All the way out here on Erid, light years from earth!
I stood up immediately in excitement, which in hindsight was a big mistake. My vision went all blurry, then it went black and the last thing I felt was gravity doing its work.