Chapter Text
‘♫♪♬’ Rocky repeated, as if the word was any more familiar the second time. Grace Frowned, wandering over to the open laptop resting upon a surface. The translator software sat open as usual, reading Rocky’s sentence.
‘DO HUMANS NOT HEAR. QUESTION? ‘The text read. The culprit was the clearly missing word, leaving an untranslated gap in the middle of the sentence.
Grace considered himself to have a fairly decent grasp of the Eridian language at this point. It’d been nearing two years of immersion, and if anything he prided himself on his ability to learn. He’d turned the spoken side of the translator off a year ago, forcing himself to focus upon the complex song-language instead of that live text-to-speech he’d relied upon for convenience. He didn’t have all the words down yet, often having to rely on context clues or ask Rocky to repeat if the Eridian spoke quickly or near the edges of his hearing range.
This, however, was new. Be it a word he’d simply forgotten to add to the translator (unlikely, he was meticulous when it came to their communication) or one Rocky had never mentioned... welp, learning opportunity!
“Ehhh, translator’s blank too.” Grace hummed, scooping up the laptop as he fell into the chair, slowly spinning to face the xenonite orb “Need a word, Rock.”
Rocky hummed something Grace didn’t quite out, but the mildly annoyed warble was familiar enough for him to make a guess.
{Is like…} Rocky fidgeted, claws clicking as he thought for a long moment {♫♪♬ is like… soul-note. Speak without sound.}
“Body language? Coulda’ sworn we discussed that before.” Ryland chuckled, tilting his head questioningly as he typed in a placeholder translation.
[♫♪♬] > ] SOUL-NOTE]
{No, no, no, soul-note not body.} The Eridian twisted his carapace from side to side in a distinctly human fashion {Soul-note inside living Eridian, living animal, living plant. Soul-note inside all.}
“Oh, so it’s really like a soul?” Grace suggested, tone jumping with a confused chuckle. Was Rocky… religious?
It was a strange thing to think about. Grace had never felt any particular draw to practice religion during his travel through space, the patchwork memories of his life he’d gathered thus far revealing similar convictions during his time planet-side. Religion was only ever something he brought up to explain archetypes, phrases or scenes in the many books and movies the two watched together.
Rocky had never even mentioned Eridian religions, and Grace honestly felt a little silly for assuming so quickly that they had none to speak of. Religion was hard baked into humankind. Pretty much every society in earth’s history had produced a belief system of some description, desperate to explain the unexplainable. Weather, plants, animals, life, death and everything between!
It wouldn’t take a stretch of the imagination for him to believe Eridians have their own pantheons (the idea that they didn’t would’ve probably been more surprising, honestly) But then again, perhaps he was just projecting his human-centred ideas of society again. Maybe Eridians were beyond such primitive attempts to explain the vast world around them, and human religion was yet another weakness of their soft, fallible brains…
{Grace understand, question? Know soul-note, question?} Rocky continued, body cocking to the side in a parody of Grace tilting his head.
“Oh- uhhh, I think?” He laughed again “Are you talking about, like, a religion, Rock’?”
{No, not religion. All Eridian.} Rocky buzzed, stressing the second ‘all’ with a forward nod of his carapace {Necessary for Eridian to thrum. Use soul-note and voice together like…} Rocky tapped his claws against the xenonite, likely seeking a comparison that his squishy human self would understand {Like music: soul-note is bassline, Eridian sings melody. No soul-note, no thrum.}
Grace hummed, half confirmational and half prompting Rocky to explain further. Perhaps this confusion was inevitable when it came to something like this, maybe it was something so intrinsically Eridian that he wasn’t even able to conceptualize it without a perfect crystalline mind and a body studded with hypersensitive auricles…
{Rocky have quiet soul-note, but some Eridian loud loud loud. Can use soul-note for more than just thrum. Healer, teacher, leader.} Rocky gestured vaguely, Grace perking up at the mention of his prior occupation. {Rocky crew navigator soul-note loud. Could hear stars always, Hear Tau-ceti, set course. Rocky crew medical officer soul-note loud, use soul-note to help heal, help…}
Rocky paused at what Grace assumed to be a memory, drooping slightly {…To help star-sickness…} His song whistled mournfully, and Grace’s heart ached for him {Not enough.}
Grace patted the ball sympathetically. The xenonite orb clunked a few facets closer, coming to bump against his knee
The Eridian tilted his carapace towards the human, pressing a claw against the barrier between them {Grace soul-note loud. Is why Rocky ask if human hear soul-note. Loud, loud, loud.}
“Oh, sure.” Grace chuckled, rolling his eyes before searching for a tremor of humour, a waver of a joke in Rocky’s intonation. Anything to hint the Eridian was anything but serious as he spread his claw against the xenonite, almost reverent. He hooked a hand on his hip, continuing to feign insult “Adding to the list I see. gross, stupid, leaky and loud, what next?”
{Grace leaky noisy space blob yes-yes-yes.} Rocky tutted quickly, rhythmically shifting his legs, a motion akin to a human impatiently tapping their fingers {Soul-note different! Everything alive, always noise! Loud is good good good! Best! Grace loud good good good!}
A small drop of discomfort settled in the human’s stomach at that comment.
“You said you were quiet.” Grace frowned. The idea his friend could be sick, especially with something he couldn’t even understand, was… “Is that bad, Rock’?”
Rocky’s legs bent, his posture bowing for a moment before he whistled {Rocky… always quiet soul-note… Less ♪♪♪ in Rocky. Always always, since hatchling.}
“Wait- less what? It’s something congenital?” it took a moment for him to remove the eagerness from his voice (rocky could be talking about his longstanding chronic illness or disability, he shouldn’t seem excited!) But if it was physical, something cellular, Grace could work with that! He knew cells, he could know this!
{Yes.} Rocky chirped, Grace perked up
{Also no.} he drooped again, Rocky continued unbothered.
{♪♪♪ is inside cell. Special. ♪♪♪ resonate with other ♪♪♪ . Make soul-note, make Eridian able to thrum. More ♪♪♪ resonate more, make soul-note loud! Hatchling use as first notes, before vocal sacs open fully. Hatchling with many ♪♪♪ have strong soul-note. Soul-note help parents. Tell if hatchling sleepy, hungry, scared with no song, keep safe.}
A brief, flitting memory of a biology class, a particularly enthusiastic presentation about birds by a student. She’d spoken at length about fairy-wrens and incubation calls, the special notes taught to unhatched chicks for their parents to recognise later in their cries for food. It was… similar to what rocky described?
“Does the note come from somewhere? Can Eridian babies, uh, hatchlings hear in the eggs? Theres a bird on earth that-” Grace queried, stopping when Rocky dipped to one side, whistling with a mimicry of Grace’s exasperated sighs.
{What? Why Grace- No. No, Eridian soul-note unique. New. ♪♪♪ resonance different in all. Soul-notes help keep nest-mates together, help warn of danger and safe from predator in old times. It is like… like…}
Rocky puffed with mild frustration, presumably unable to find a close human equivalent. His vents rippled with heat before the Eridian settled, curling some legs to sit.
{Does not matter, statement. Continue first answer. Some hatchling with less ♪♪♪ can be loud with soul-note teacher, teach to resonate.} Rocky lowered further, volume dipping as he fully curled up {Hatchling Rocky never taught.}
Grace made a soft sound, half sympathetic, half mourning. Why wouldn’t they teach him? If he was quiet, but loud was good, and it could be fixed when he was young? He’d always had this idea that Eridians were just… beyond humans, that they were too intelligent for societal inequality! Rocky could’ve been taught, but now he suffered that quiet song, whatever that meant for him…
It… brought back a memory.
-An unexpected flash of a student, a boy barely fourteen years old. He’d stood next to Grace, who leant against his board with a small frown. The student’s copy of their most recent exam, marred with an ‘F’, sat on the desk beside them. The boy’s eyes darted about, flashing with fear each time they met Grace’s concerned ones through a curtain of overgrown hair, He could see the tremble to the boy’s fingers, picking at the sleeve of his jacket, pointedly avoiding looking at the test itself, he noted.
“I don’t want you to think I’m upset.” Grace had said, voice soft “Really. I just want to know if there’s anything I can help with. Anything I can explain a little differently or add to class to make stuff a little clearer for you?”
He didn’t even have a chance to say another comforting word. The tears fell quickly, a rushed explanation tumbling out of his mouth. His need for glasses had been long left unheeded by his parents. It was something he was able to keep up with before, squinting at the board and studying after school, but now his siblings were getting older his parents needed help to keep them all wrangled. He didn’t have the time to study, and the headaches were getting worse and worse, making it hard to focus on everything, not just Grace’s classes.
His parents just didn’t have time to take him to an appointment, he said, too busy taking care of his siblings, working their own jobs, cleaning, cooking, etcetera…
Grace made sure to reshuffle the seating plan the very next lesson. The boy was moved to the front, near his desk. Grace always ensured his diagrams were drawn big enough to see even with blurry eyes, his demonstrations handled with bright colours the other children simply assumed to be quirky additions to an entertaining display. A list of bullet point facts was subtly handed off at the end of each session, to ensure he never missed a point like before. The boy was allowed to retake the test two weeks later, and got-
Grace blinked as the classroom disappeared around him, replaced by sterile spaceship walls.
It was always… disorienting to remember something. It’d been a long while since his biggest memories returned to him, but smaller ones still popped up from time to time. Movies, music, simple chores, anything could trigger one. Sometimes it was little, a ‘huh, I know that’ reminder before he moved on. Others were like that, sucking him in like a lucid dream. The world around him didn’t exist in those moments. Those memories asserted themselves, sorting and slotting themselves into his mental timeline before eventually releasing him to the real world once more.
The Hail Mary was quiet now, or as close as it could get.
Rocky’s vents shifted gently as he pondered. The soft hum of electronics surrounded them both, endless tiny sounds of mechanisms and machinery ticking away deep in the walls. Grace rubbed a thumb against the surface of the ball, grounding himself to the current moment with those soft ridges of welding between the facet panels.
“I’m sorry.” Grace muttered after a moment.
He wasn’t even a hundred percent sure why he was even apologising… For having a naturally loud soul-note? It was clearly important to Eridians, as intrinsic to them as life itself. He felt undeserving, having a loud soul-note without even knowing, while Rocky hadn’t had a chance to even try.
{Grace not apologise. No need. Rocky learn Engineering. Not need loud soul-note for xenonite construction and engine maintenance.} Rocky swayed for a second before rolling a facet back {If Rocky loud, might never have become engineer. Might never have met Grace.}
Grace’s heart swelled with emotion, eyes heating with the gathering of tears “Like fate, huh?”
Rocky laughed his squeaky little giggle, pushing himself to standing again.
{Fate.} The Eridian tittered, {Fate…. Yes. Chance of Grace Rocky meeting: Improbable. If Rocky loud soul-note, if Grace not chosen for Hail Mary.}
Grace kept his smile with practiced ease.
He hadn’t told Rocky yet, that he was forced to go. It was something Grace didn’t like thinking of at the best of times. He’d told Rocky of Stratt, of Carl, Yao and Ilyukhina, Shapiro and DuBois… He’d just… conveniently skipped over how he got on the Hail Mary. Rocky had never asked, either.
He was happy to keep it that way, with Rocky thinking he was brave, that he wasn’t prepared to run, to hide, to doom humanity to its cold decline to the void over nothing but his own cowardice…
{Grace understand soul-note now, question?}
“I… think I’m getting there.” Grace sighed, shaking himself out of his anxious thoughts “So… its not a religion, its in your blood.”
{All life. All living cell.} Rocky reminded.
“Is it kinda like mitochondria?” Grace suggested. Rocky made a soft disagreeing note.
He sighed, rubbing a hand on his face as he tamped the bubbles of frustration down. It felt like every time he started to understand what the Eridian might be explaining, it’d slip through his fingers like sand through a sieve. Rocky huffed a low, woodwind tone Grace had come to understand as his own expression of frustration, tapping a claw against the xenonite to regain Grace’s focus.
{Other. In all cell. Mitochondria not in all cell. Grace scientist, ques-tion?} The querying stamp was firmer.
“Hey.” Grace frowned “That’s hurtful, Rock’.”
Rocky’s vents hissed steam, but he whistled out an eventual {Apology, apology. More hard than expected to explain soul-note.}
Grace leant back in his chair, sighing deeply as he carded his fingers through his hair, leaving locks sticking up in every direction. There wasn’t anything in every cell like that, was there? Ribosomes were universal, at least on earth, but for Eridian biology he couldn’t be sure. He had no clue what their plants and animals looked like, But Rocky said he could hear it! Could the Eridian really hear protein synthesis???? Why would more protein synthesis make an Eridian a better teacher or doctor? And how could they be taught to… synthesise better???
Ugh, it couldn’t be right!
Rocky chirped suddenly, drawing the human from his own growing frustration. His eyes snapped back down as the Eridian tapped his feet excitedly, claws twitching into jazz hands.
{Solution! Rocky Grace thrum!} Rocky cheered, as if it was some obvious solution. Grace blinked blankly once, then twice, before choking out.
“H-huh?”
{Thrum like Eridian! Like crew! Rocky show Grace soul-note, Grace understand!}
“Yeah, uh- well-” He cleared his throat, a bewildered expression plastered over his face as Rocky continued undeterred.
{Grace want, question? Thrum with Rocky, know soul-note easy, easy, easy when Rocky thrum!} The xenonite rocked from side to side as the Eridian swayed with that sudden eager energy.
Grace shifted in his seat, his knee bouncing a second before he responded “Rocky, I don’t even… humans don’t-”
Rocky whined a soft, pleading noise, stepping from side to side like a restless crab before Grace finally sighed.
“It’s nothing personal, Rock. I just...” He gestured incredulously “Humans don’t thrum! I might not even hear what you’re trying to show me!”
{Still feel! Rocky read on portable earth thinking machine! Human feel thrum frequency!} Rocky was speaking quickly now, it took all his focus (and a couple stolen glances to the translator) to catch it all {Like Eridian! Some Eridian hard to hear, still can feel, and use soul-note, like Grace!}
Grace remained silent. A part of him still wondered if this was just an exceedingly long ‘gotcha’ Rocky was trying… but god, he sounded so earnest… The soft, thup-thup of his vents shifting held back the silence until he finally spoke again.
{Try... Even if not work, ques…tion?}
His song wavered with sheer desperation, yet his hesitance was clear in the reluctant tap of the ‘question’. Grace’s chest clenched with a sudden wave of sympathy.
Rocky was so far from his home, his crew had been dead longer than Grace had even been alive. He obviously yearned for home, his kind, his mate…
They’d spoken many times about what each of them missed about their lives Before.
It had started with a lot of Grace’s favourites (his students, foggy mornings, rain, diner bacon and eggs…) but they’d been focusing more on Rocky’s yearnings the nearer they got to Erid. Grace saw how he lit up when he got going about his home. He always urged Rocky into singing whenever the Eridian seemed down, and it never took much for him to start.
He spoke with such enthusiasm, painting beautiful pictures as he went. Their differing modes of perception meant nothing in those moments. It was as if Grace was there, looking through the Eridian’s eyes (ears, technically) as he described his home, the familiar peace of his workshop, the intricate textural artworks carved into the thick walls of the halls, the swooping music his mate preferred reverberating through the halls and their familiar greeting as they returned. Grace was convinced that if he suddenly appeared in Rocky and Adrian’s home, he’d know exactly where he was from the stories alone.
There was a particular fond memory that Rocky returned to, a familiar ritual he and his mate would perform at the end of each day.
Adrian would return from a long day of work, return their tools to their proper places while slowly increasing the volume of their favoured songs or soundscapes until they hummed through the walls their home. The larger Eridian would drift in, as if carried by the tune, to coax Rocky from the workshop he so often spent his days. Deft taps and tugs would dance against Rocky’s occupied claws until they finally fell away from whatever project held his focus hostage.
They were quickly taken up, captured and clasped before he could drift away. Adrian would pull, pull, pull the smaller Eridian away, away, away from the table. Long-still legs would unfurl, joints clicking softly as steam-heat flowed the long-cooled muscles within. Adrian’s low laughter would harmonize gloriously with half-hearted whines as he was guided into their main room, the song of their joy reverberating against the domed ceiling.
The two of them would twirl in soft, lazy loops, delighting in the comforting presence of the other, their singing voices intertwining as their claws. Their own personal Thrum would ring out, putting their days on display until there was nothing more to show. Until they would simply hum, relishing in the connection with the other, the closeness of the mind they could achieve in no other way…
Grace couldn’t image how much Rocky missed his home.
“I mean… I just can’t promise...” Grace sighed, hand coming up to press against his chest. His lone heart continued to beat its low, drum-beat rhythm beneath his skin. It would mean so much for Rocky to have something like home, like his mate, but if it didn’t… “I… don’t wanna get your hopes up, Rock.”
{Try, try, try.} Rocky begged, his fidgeting claws moving with more frantic energy as he spoke {Just try first note, start note. Rocky Grace try. Try with soul-note.}
Grace sighed again, long and low, leaning his elbows on his knees. What would it even feel like to try? How would he know if it was working? An obvious fail state was the note being ineffective, either incomprehensible to his brain or falling too far beyond his hearing…
Or, what if he could hear it, but his squishy human brain freaked out, some caveman part of him kicking in and registering the little alien before him was absolutely not from his world- certain low frequencies had been known to induce fear, and higher ones caused pain, he wouldn’t want Rocky to think he was afraid of or hurt by him...
Oh god, what if it really did hurt him? Ultrasonic weapons were something that Rocky had found when they’d discussed the hearing range of humans, how the high frequency sounds causing vertigo, nausea, pain, even lasting damage to human hearing.
The Eridian had been disgusted, spitting some pained notes between mutterings along the lines of {‘cruel, cruel, cruel.} and {Sound weapon worst. bad bad bad.}
Grace sighed again, letting the tension in his limbs release as he looked down to Rocky. Rocky’s legs shifted nervously, vents simmering with similar anxiety.
No.
He trusted Rocky. He trusted him with his life. All Rocky wanted was a chance, a chance to share a sacred facet of Eridian culture, to feel closer to the home he missed so badly.
What sort of monster would he be to refuse him that?
“Okay.” Grace huffed, nodding once before smiling “Okay. Grace Rocky try thrum.”