Chapter Text
Grace was trying to teach Rocky to play cards when the signal came through.
"Alert," Mary's cool AI voice rang out "signal detected. Signal detected."
"Another alien ship, looking to solve the astrophage problem?" Grace looked up at Rocky who shimmed in a way he learned was like a nod. "Maybe we can give them our research."
They rushed up to the command module. "Mary, where is the signal coming from?"
"Anomaly A," Mary named the object. Her sensors displayed a moon shrouded in darkness. "Radio contact may be established."
'Yes, try to establish contact." Grace cleared his throat, bracing to address another alien species. How did this keep happening to him? "Hello, my name is Captain Ryland Grace of the Hail Mary, we we received your radio signal. Over."
He cringed. Over? Why the hell did he say that? He highly doubted aliens would understand what he meant by that.
"Hello?" a scared voice answered back in perfect English. 'Who's there? Who the fuck are you now?"
"Grace what that word mean question."
A million questions raced through Grace's mind, top being "how does an alien speak English?"
"Hello, hello, I'm Ryland Grace of the Hail Mary."
"Who the fuck are you with?"
Why did it sound so sloshy? "Um. NASA I guess."
Under the waves of the blood ocean, Simon paused. NASA? Who the hell is NASA? "Who the fuck is that?"
"You know, the space agency? On Earth?"
Simon knew he must have gone crazy. Earth was long gone, snuffed out in the Quiet Rapture. A quiet thought tickled his brain. "Hail Mary?" he muttered, unsure if the mic could pick it up. "Full of Grace?"
He was even more confused now. That was the opening of a Catholic prayer. He found a Catholic human in some sort of ocean on a moon surrounded by darkness. "I guess," he replied. "Listen, are you hurt? Do you need help?"
"Yes, Simon breathed. "I want to live."
The transmission crackled and Grace heard more of that sloshing. Whatever ship the other man was on sounded like it was taking on water.
Rocky was pouring over the scans Mary was taking of the moon. "Found ship," he said "in liquid."
Grace looked at the readouts. "This doesn't make sense. Rocky that chemistry makeup, it's blood."
"Blood like inside squishy human Grace question."
"How do we get that ship out?" He ignored Rocky's question, he couldn't think about how weird that was right now.
"What ship made of?" Rocky asked, already starting work on some sort of Xenoite sling.
"Hey, hey you down there. What's your name?"
"What?" the voice answered back.
"What's your name? I'm Ryland."
"Simon."
"Okay, Simon, do you know what your ship is made of?"
"Iron."
"Rocky, what do we have that's magnetic?"
"Rocky make strong magnet. Time go fishing question."
"Time go fishing," Grace steeled himself. Last time they almost didn't make it. He unconsciously touched the scar on his arm, hoping this time it would go smoother.
Inside his ship, Simon didn't know how much longer he had. He managed to make a weak tourniquet from straps he ripped off the chair at the front of the sub. He felt tired. The depth read out showed he was bobbing at the surface, and he could still hear shuffling and muffled voices from the radio. Grace, and another voice that sounded like a computer. Maybe it was his ships AI.
"Simon, do you read us?" Grace's voice crackled through.
"Yes," he sighed.
"We're making a pressurized elevator of sorts. Can you get to your airlock?"
Simon laughed. Airlock. What a joke. "I was welded in."
Grace felt his stomach drop. Welded in. Who would do this to another human being?
"Still can work!" Rocky chimed in. "Ship small, make bigger elevator. We attach to ship and cut!"
"We're coming," Grace hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. "Just hang on"
Within the hour, the sling slash elevator contraption had been rigged up and they were in position. Grace in his EVA suit was stationed at the airlock where Rocky had built a Xenoite chamber where they could deposit the ship and open it up. They hadn't received another message from Simon, and Grace hoped they weren't too late.
"Magnet go," Rocky muttered as Grace launched the rescue pod. "Words of encouragement."
"Thanks bud," Grace replied, uncharacteristically quiet.
The minutes waiting were agonizing. There was silence from all sides, and Grace kept chewing on his cheek to try to relax. It wasn't working.
"Magnet lock," Mary broke the silence. Grace flinched at the sudden noise. "Initiate reel in procedure."
"Simon, if you can hear me, we've got you. We've got an airlock ready for you." Please be alive. Grace added, internally.
He wasn't prepared for what he saw once the airlock had been pressurized. The ship, if you could call it that, was flecked with rusty stripes of blood. It looked like it was crumbling under pressure, cracks forming. Thank goodness the Xenoite could keep the vacuum of space out and now he could set to the task of cutting Simon out.
"Can you hear me?" Grace yelled, "I'm going to cut away here." He banged on the side of the ship. "Stay back."
There was no reply.
"Here goes nothing," Grace murmured and started.
Blood seeped into the airlock. It was clear the ship had been drowning in it. There was a hunched figure on the opposite side, chest still rising and falling but unconscious.
"Simon?" Grace rushed in, trying not to think about the gore around him. Simon was covered in blood, and missing an arm. "Simon, buddy, you have to wake up. Please," Grace shook him, no response.
"🎶 okay question." Rocky asked from inside the command module.
"I'm bringing him to Armando. Rocky I want you to stay there in the command module, I'm detecting some radiation."
"Bad bad bad," Rocky said. Grace could picture his worried claw clicks. "🎶 alive."
"Yes, he's alive but, geez Rock, he's not doing good."
Grace surprised himself with his own strength. Simon was more muscular than he expected, stocky and firm and handsome. Grace blushed and chastised himself for thinking that while fireman carrying the man, blood dripping across the clean floors of the Hail Mary. "Armando, we have an emergency on our hands."
Immediately the robot sprang to work. Mary's voice listed off a damage report.
"It would be quicker to tell me what's not wrong with him," Grace snapped.
"Brainwaves normal," Mary replied cooly.
Well at least he didn't have brain damage, Grace supposed. No foreign bodies were detected so he got out of his EVA suit, making a mental note to clean it off later.
Armando immediately set to work, and Grace tried not to vomit. It didn't work.
"Grace leaky human," Rocky must be watching through the walls.
"Yeah yeah I know. Rocky his arm is missing. And he's covered in blood and muck."
"Friend 🎶 be ok question."
Grace made a mental note to add Simon's name to the dictionary soon.
"I don't know Rock. I don't know."
While Armando worked, Grace cleaned up the gore. Simon had been exposed to some radiation but the dose seemed to be low enough he wouldn't be harmful to be around anyone else. His ship, however, was covered in it. With his still dirty EVA suit he quickly examined it for anything useful and finding only a handful of things he had the ship jettisoned out. The items would stay in the airlock bay until the radiation dissipated, it was far enough away from the living quarters the crew - Rocky mainly - would be safe.
Cleaning off the suit, he left it there too to decontaminate. Wearing only the white jumpsuit now he headed back to the command deck to check on Rocky.
"I got rid of his ship, it was almost dangerously radioactive."
Rocky shuddered, "Bad."
"We should be okay now, but I wonder what he was doing... Why didn't he have any shields?"
"🎶 not know about radiation question."
"I don't think so. He's a human. I have no idea how he's way out here, or how many more people are here, but he should know about radiation. Is that song what you're calling him?"
"Yes. Add to dictionary."
Armando worked tirelessly, and by the time Grace, followed by Rocky at a bit of a distance, came back to check up on things, Simon's arm stump had been cauterized and bandaged, most of the blood had been wiped off, though his hair remained dirty, and his clothes had been put into a decontamination bag to be laundered later. The only thing that stayed was a small bracelet at his wrist, resting over the blanket draped over him. Armando was monitoring the IVs as Grace went to look at it. Encapsulated in some sort of clear material were seeds. Earth tree seeds.
He took Simon's hand and squeezed. "I don't know if you can hear me, but you're safe here. We're going to fix you up, and you can come with us to Erid. I don't know how you got here but I'm glad we found you. I know you've been through a lot and we'll talk later I know. But for now just sleep. I'll keep watch."