Chapter Text
Ryland Grace was, first and foremost, a person. To be a person was to be many things at once. He was curious, scared, kind, and sometimes selfish. He did his best to be, among the other characteristics, good. He tried, even when he was scared or feeling selfish, because he learned years ago that goodness had the power to save the world. Or perhaps, at the very least, one human soul.
When Grace caught news of an anomaly near Erid, his interest was thoroughly piqued. When he was brought up to the top of the space elevator in order to be shown pictures of the anomaly captured by Erid’s newest telescope, he was genuinely excited. When he caught sight of the pictures and finally figured out what he was looking at, Grace nearly collapsed from the shock.
Holy moly, wormholes weren’t just theoretical! And Eridian scientists didn’t even know that wormholes could theoretically exist. Suddenly Grace was the foremost expert on theoretical physics for the entire planet. Darn. To a large audience of Eridian scientists, he explained the concept of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge as best he could and then demonstrated the math that proved a Thorne-Morris wormhole was possible.
Once he had finished explaining, a scientist called Thomas said something that made Grace stop thinking for a hot minute. “Savior Grace, you claim wormholes last a short time, but this wormhole has been for a long time. What does this mean?”
Grace broke the silence that fell and asked in a quiet voice, “Could I please have a full report on the data you collected before I was called on?”
Within half an hour, Grace was seated and struggling to comprehend what was in front of him. The wormhole wasn’t impossible, clearly, but it was highly improbable. It could exist, but it shouldn’t. The thing was far larger than any human scientist had believed could be realistically stable, and it was steadily growing. It had been open a while, at least two decades. To be quite honest, even knowing the science behind how it might exist wasn’t helping Grace process the fact that it did.
The images Grace looked over were fascinating. The way light from the nearest stars bent around and inside of the wormhole was, frankly, amazing. Grace was particularly interested in the dark red color that filled the view he had of the other side of the wormhole. He and the Eridians theorized for a couple weeks on what the wormhole led to. It could be a different part of their universe, or an entirely new universe. Grace had an interesting time explaining the multiverse theory to his fellow scientists on Erid.
The Eridians sent a small ship, or at least one that was pretty small by Eridian standards, out to be closer for more accurate monitoring. The crew was planned to rotate every couple of Eridian years, a few months relative to Earth, so no one had to be away from Erid too long. On the current crew, Adrian was acting as the medical staff and ecology expert, just in case anything living came through. Of course, Rocky needed someone to watch him sleep, so, until Adrian came home, Rocky and Grace were back to cohabitating.
All-in-all, everyone was very excited to see what might happen with the wormhole in the near future.
About two months after Grace learned about the wormhole, his class was interrupted by a couple of Eridian scientists. These ones in particular he referred to as Isaac and Jane. Isaac was quiet, but insistent that Grace hurry to the space elevator. Jane excitedly rambled as they made their way to the elevator.
“The wormhole threw out an object! It sounds like a ship. A really weird ship, but a ship! The engineering sounds human. Savior Grace should come see.”
A ship? Like, a real ship that was probably man-made? By humans? And it could even have been created by people from an alternate universe? Grace was positively vibrating where he was standing and barely resisted the urge to flap his hands by instead folding them together in front of him.
When he made it to the point of the space elevator that broke through the top of Erid’s thick atmosphere, Grace took in the view of the stars with a sort of melancholy. They were beautiful, of course, but Grace had spent years staring at them, longing for Earth. Even now, he turned until he found familiar constellations and hunted for even a glimmer of light from Sol. Gosh, he missed Earth’s biosphere. He had a couple of smaller plants on his ship, including pothos for air recycling and certain herbs for flavoring and natural remedies, but he hadn’t seen an animal or even a tree in over a decade. The Eridians couldn’t create a living thing with no frame of reference.
Grace shook himself out of his thoughts and focused on that which lay ahead. He was about to help determine if the ship which came through the wormhole was actually human technology or not. Isaac led Grace to a room which sort of amounted to being the same as the mission control room at NASA. The Eridians had set up a live transmission line between the ship crew and the base connected to the top of the space elevator. Once Grace was in the room, an Eridian Grace called Leonard asked for Jane to give Grace the photos the crew sent over and for the crew to list their findings so far.
“We first scanned the other ship for radiation. We found much. Most is near one end and the other ship seems to have no astrophage radiation protection. We will keep crew far away from the ship unless protected by astrophage-layered xenonite suits. We then scanned for life. From inside the ship are vital signs similar to Savior Grace. Vital signs of the possible human are bad if the life is human. Request for permission to rescue possible human and bring it back to Erid for monitoring?”
Grace was horrified by not only what he was hearing, but also by the images he was looking at. Whatever had come through the wormhole wasn’t a ship built for space at all. It looked like a submarine. A really janky and messed up submarine but a submarine, nonetheless. If there really was someone inside that… how were they alive?
“Savior Grace. What is your opinion?” Leonard asked.
“Well,” Grace swallowed, “The engineering is certainly human, especially with the lettering and numbering on the side. SM-13 must be the name of the thing, though it appears to be a submersible, not a spaceship. Whoever is in there is probably in really bad condition right now and should be treated as soon as possible. But we also don’t know where they came from yet, so the crew should be very careful about touching anything related to that ship, not just the radioactive stuff. I think the crew should proceed, though they should do so with extreme caution.”
Leonard tipped their carapace in such a way that communicated agreement before they gave the crew the all-clear. Because the crew wasn’t too far from Erid and relativity was awesome, the trip back would only be a little over three days for them. Grace knew it was very easy for a human to die within a couple of days, so the moment the crew — or rather, Adrian — had the other human in their grasp, Grace started instructing them on how to apply proper care. He brought his computer up to the control room and restlessly communicated back and forth with the crew until they returned to Erid.
Grace was awoken from a short nap by Rocky, who gently prodded him through the xenonite suit Grace wore. The man yawned and rubbed at his bleary eyes.
“Grace, the new human is here. They arrived when you were sleeping, so Adrian brought them to your home for your medical machine to take care of them. Will you go down now?”
Grace felt very awake instantly.