Chapter Text
A year or so, in human years, had passed since Ryland Grace had first stepped foot on Erid. And things had gotten much better after the scare during the first month, where the xenonite walls were slightly too weak and imploded, leaving his biodome exposed to the Eridian elements and almost killed him. Anyways, he was still alive and mostly healthy now, teaching a very enthusiastic class of pebbles about humans, Earth and all things related, when one warm evening, while he was grading papers, Rocky tumbled in, more frantic than Grace had seen him in months.
"Grace, Grace!" The eridian trilled, pacing rapidly around the human. "Strange news, yes, maybe bad, but strange!"
"What?" Grace raised an eyebrow and put down his pen, blinking. "Buddy, you're not making any sense."
Another Eridian, one Grace had named 'Lucy' after the muted rainbow of colours their carapace was, trotted in, their own xenonite suit a little bit too loose. "Teacher Grace, yes, very important! Come hear!"
"I'd rather see what's going on..." Grace joked drily, but he stood and followed the frantic Eridians outside his house, to the centre of his biodome. And when he saw what they were talking about, his heart dropped to the core of Erid.
"That's a black hole."
"What words, question?" Lucy was ignored as Grace stared upwards, towards the sky.
"Planet eater! Planet eater is going to eat Erid!" Rocky hummed anxiously. "Eats suns, stars, planets and moons! Danger danger danger!"
"If close enough to notice, it's close enough to hurt us." Lucy squeaked, fear thrumming off them as they paced.
Grace had no idea what to do. He couldn't fix a black hole. "Why are you telling- showing me this?" The object was maybe the size of a pea from his perspective, but if it was close enough to be seen with the naked eye, it was close enough to alter Erid's course.
"No no no, planet eater not reason," Lucy assured him. Rocky 'nodded', carapace tilting.
"Ship orbiting planet eater at fast speeds! HUMAN ship! Heartbeat inside detected as human!" Rocky whirred, lifting two arms. "Attempting to get human to Erid!"
A human. Alive. Oribiting a black hole. Not like Grace had enough impossible shit going on right now. "Right... What speed are they going?"
"In human measures..." Rocky seemed to hesitate before answering. "Trapped human going at 753 G's of force."
"...And there's still a heartbeat?" Grace felt faint. That much force was enough to liquify a human. Rocky trilled in affirmation, but Grace shook his head. "No, it's not possible. A human would be turned to liquid with that much force- are you sure it was a heartbeat and not the ship itself?" He was desperate for an answer because nothing about this made sense. A human could in no way survive that much force-
Black holes. They twisted time, didn't they? Being so near a black hole, near enough to orbit it, would probably mean that time slowed down. Which meant that if, for Grace, he spent a year waiting, maybe less than a minute would have passed for the unfortunate astronaut. So they might still be alive.
"Oh," He said. He'd figured it out. "They're still alive because time slows down near black holes."
"Still, what words, question?" Lucy seemed slightly impatient, and Grace shook his head, running a hand through his hair as he began to pace.
"Same thing as planet eater."
"Okay!"
"Bring human to Grace, question?" Rocky asked, shifting slightly. Grace nodded, still pacing.
"Yes, if there's a way to bring them here, then we should save them as soon as possible." Grace shuddered. "Humans are about 55% liquid on avarege, being turned into 100% liquid would feel horrible- worse than anything I have felt before." Rocky tilted up to 'look' at him.
"Worse than Planet-Adrian mission fail, question?" He sounded horrified, and Grace pushed his glasses up to rub the heels of his hands on his eyelids.
"How would you feel if you melted and became a puddle, Rocky?" Both Eridians flinched back, humming in displeasure.
"Bad bad bad!" Lucy cried. "Disgusting leaky eridian? No no no!"
"Exactly. That's what would happen to an eridian if they were in the same position as the human." Grace vaugely motioned upwards. Rocky let out a hissy sound and turned in a circle.
"Disgust disgust disgust! Save human! Stop human from becoming liquid!"Rocky suddenly seemed much more exited to get the human down to Erid.
Which is how Grace ended up inside his own Xenonite suit, attending an Eridian thrum on how they planned to get the ship from the black hole's orbit without dying or accidentally killing the human inside. He sat cross-legged on the floor, next to Rocky and Adrian, who, while Grace was sitting, towered over the human by quite a bit. Even standing Adrian (the Eridian and Rocky's mate) was a good few inches taller then Grace himself.
So far, the ideas to get the human safely out of the black hole's, nicknamed 'Eve' by Grace, orbit was a giant net made of xenonite, but even that might break considering the speed the ship was going at; and a hook, like fishing. Again.
Neither he nor Rocky were very on board with that second idea.
Until Adrian spoke up. "What about a magnet? Ship is metal, use magnet to stop ship and bring closer."
Ah, once again, logical and smart. Thank the heavens for Adrian the Eridian.
"Good idea, Adrian," Grace praised, and the teal alien let out a pleased trill, shifting slightly to loaf beside Grace.
The rest of the Thrum agreed, a massive magnet would be constructed. The more metallic eridians were banned from helping, unfortunately, but the risk of them getting stuck on the magnet was too nigh. It also meant Grace was unable to help, since his biodome was home to several metal life support systems, and the Project was too far to simply walk using the xenonite suit.
He did pitch in helpful ideas, though, sent through Adrian and Rocky.
Within two months, both the massive magnet and the device it was attached to was ready to launch The magnet was so powerful, they made astrophage cannons to launch it out of orbit.
Grace watched with Rocky and Adrian on a screen as they readied the magnet for launch.
5
Grace shuddered. This was life or death for the human they were trying to save. He couldn't help the dread, but Rocky and Adrian were there, ground pressures on either side of him.
4
Rocky let out a low whine, and Adrian pulled the two smaller beings closer.
3
The ground rumbled.
2
The astrophage ignited.
1
The magnet disappeared from sight, and the thick chain, as thick as three humans, rattled as the magnet shot out into space, pulled along by the suction force of the planet eater 'Eve'.
Grace swallowed, tensed so tight his muscles might currently be harder than Rocky's carapace.
The alarms went off as the magnet rapidly approached 'Eve'. The ship was close enough to be pulled from the black hole's orbit, and it seemed to be working as the blur of white and grey slowed down with every rotation around 'Eve'.
And then the chain shuddered, and the ship was slammed into the magnet- hard. Grace winced. He'd forgetten about that. He hoped whoever was inside was still alive.
"They are pulling chain back with ship." Adrian hummed, claws tapping gently against Grace's leg. So, they watched as the ship was brought to Erid.