Chapter Text
In the context of spaceflight, launch period is the collection of days and launch window is the time period on a given day during which a particular rocket must be launched in order to reach its intended target
The soft beeping of machinery reminded Olesya of the smoke alarm that her grandmother never had replaced.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
It's slow, steady and atonal. If she wished, it'd turn into a comfortable drone she could fall asleep to again. Her mind would slowly sink into sleep, and her head would smush against the cold pillow.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
She's tired. It felt like an understatement. Every limb is weighted and pressed against the medical cot in a way that felt impossible to lift up from. Exhaustion pressed into her every joint. She urged herself up. What was keeping her down? The air was unusually heavy.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Was it getting faster?
She listened carefully for the intervals. That was definitely getting faster. Her heart was getting faster. Her brain slowly, but surely, joined the two as the same. She was connected to a heart rate monitor. Was she in hospital?
Her eyes wouldn't open. Her lips parted in a feeble gasp, and her fingers struggled to loosen. What kind of hangover was this? Drugs? Heroin? The fabric of the bed didn't feel medical. It was comfortable, cool, and the smell of antiseptic wasn't there. It wasn't a normal hospital.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Olesya focused on what she could hear. Footsteps. They were many, frantic, running past almost constantly. How many people were outside? She couldn't follow their patterns, but her hearing wasn't amazing with a lifetime spent welding and sawing off screeching metal.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Somebody was playing an organ or theremin badly a room over. Multiple. Cacophanies of sounds, tapping and scratching, strange and alien, followed. It covered up the steady beat of her heart from the machine. She urged herself awake.
Open.
Her eyelashes fluttered. She could do this. With great effort, she opened her eyes to see what was going on around her. It was titanium white. A strange looking light fixture, which looked sort of like if somebody hung up a flashlight from the wall, illuminated the room. It reminded her of the lights in the backyard shed she used to tinker away in with different scrap metal parts. The bedsheets weren't bedsheets, but a quilt, sewn with patches from people who were supporting Project Hail Mary. Collections of handmade pictures of the Earth, Sun and different people, connected together with multicoloured thread.
Project Hail Mary.
Olesya felt confused. This room, while welcoming enough, was not any of the rooms on the Hail Mary. Not any she remembered, but perhaps something happened last minute and things were changed around. The tiling looked more like compressed rock, like someone had made it out of a granite countertop, and the medical equipment didn't look like anything she had seen. Large, made of a grey-ish material Olesya couldn't quite figure out. The keys used were raised, and the numbers looked odd from the angle she was. Why a numpad with six digits? Everything about it all was very confusing, or, perhaps the coma was in for longer than she thought, or there were complications, or …
Thinking about it stressed her out.
"Remain still. You are waking up from an induced coma." A robotic voice informed her. It sounded like a text to speech voice from one of the older editing programs. Olesya frowned at what it was telling her. She knew that. The Hail Mary was going to take them all in induced comas to Tau Ceti, and then they were going to do some science and then die. It was nice for the reminder, she supposed. She grunted and tried to get herself upright, to little success. The voice spoke to her again. "Remain still. You are connected to medical equipment."
Medical equipment?
Olesya glanced down to her wrists and stomach. Tubes connected in and out all over her, in a web of thick and thin wires. The coma feeding systems, perhaps? She didn't remember them looking like this, and she had studied those diagrams very well. She had to, given the fact that if something went wrong with Grace's before he woke she was supposed to fix them. As well, she had to know how all of the medical equipment on the Hail Mary worked. There were distinct similarities, but it was a little bulkier and darker in colour, and appeared to be woven together, instead of one solid block of material indicative of the plastics generally used for this kind of medical equipment.
The robot was communicating was speaking English. Unsurprisingly, really, they never bothered to try put translations in for Russian and Chinese for the majority of the ship's working parts. It was easier to put it all in the shared language of English, though Olesya knew there were Russian manuals on board if she needed to consult them. She cleared her throat, choking a little on spit. While this was all quite interesting and possibly concerning, she did need to figure out why Yáo wasn't unhooking her from this junk already. He should have been up hours ago, if they were really on the Hail Mary.
"Where's Yáo?"
Her throat choked on the words, and it sounded more like a feeble grunt. The robotic system paused too long before its answer. "Unknown word."
"Unknown- what?" Olesya huffed, forcing herself upright. That heart rate monitor was getting annoyingly loud. Maybe it hadn't heard her.
"Yáo. Commander Yáo. Hail Mary."
"Dead." The system confirmed.
Fuck.
That wasn't the thing she wanted to hear. Was the mission doomed? Yáo was the pilot. If they needed to perform any kind of positional maneuver towards whatever planet had a Petrova line, they would be struggling with the complex controls of the Hail Mary. Yáo was the glue for their little rag-tag team. Would Grace take command? Would she? She was so caught up in her thought she missed the robotic system announcing it had contacted a supervisor, which it was definitely incapable of doing if it was just the Hail Mary.
She was so fucked. She was going to die in space. She was-
"My name is Adrian, statement. I will be entering to remove the medical equipment."
Olesya's thoughts screeched to a halt.
Adrian. What the fuck was an Adrian.
It sounded like such an Earth name, and how did it know English? Were these things from Tau Ceti? Was the Hail Mary snagged by some hyper-advanced alien species? That felt like a wild stretch. The only alien Olesya knew of was the astrophage, and that didn't talk and that didn't enter rooms to remove medical equipment.
Was she on Earth?
If that was the case, the entire mission was doomed. The time window had been tight. She struggled to try remember whether anything went terribly wrong when she entered the induced coma. Had she dreamed it? Was this hell, or an afterlife, or some kind of heaven? Would she see a human enter through the large mechanical door?
The door slid open.
Olesya tried not to scream as her first reaction at seeing an alien. If she could scream, considering her condition coming out of the induced coma. She wanted to scream, because how on Earth, or well, how, in all things that were possible, was there an actual alien near her. Tall, and reasonable large, it was coloured like something between emerald and malachite. It bore no resemblance to anything familiar to Olesya. It wasn't shaped like a feline, or a dog, or a bird. It wasn't like a sea creature and it wasn't human. It was closest to a rock, if anything. Olesya tried to tamp down on the instinctual fear response that threatened to have her bolt, which was exactly what the computer told her not to do. She didn't want to damage her organs, or something similarly stupid, by yanking the tubes. It entered, welcomed by a soft hiss from the door's airlock.
It's covered in a thin material that resembled a protective mesh. Several triangle shaped polygons formed from a glass-like material held together with something that sort of looked like a solder. Adrian approached, relatively slow and wary of Olesya's reaction.
"Please remain calm." Adrian ordered, and Olesya felt too tired to complain while the alien carefully took the tubes that ran up along her arms and down her nose. They dropped onto the floor with a wet plop, before Adrian began setting them on a tray and messing with some of the devices in the room. Olesya was fine with them gone. There was a scratchiness in her throat that Olesya hadn't noticed before. She must be dehydrated, even with the feeding tube keeping her alive and not starving.
Adrian was slightly craggy, like a rock that might have been found by a cliff shore. Its body was covered in markings that resemble some human features, and a claw print from another of the alien species. There was a small imprint of brown rock in its arm, and a golden band slightly below it. It glinted in the light.
Olesya watched it as it stepped back. She squeezed her hands together. It was nice to have more feeling in her body, but parts of her still ached and she felt terribly stiff and sore everywhere. She wouldn't be able to walk for a few days properly, which did place her in the mercy of this strange alien. "Where am I? Tau Ceti?"
"Erid, planet located in system 40-Eridani." Adrian corrected. Erid. Olesya had never heard of it, but she was somewhat glad these aliens decided to come up for a fun English word for their planet. And they knew the star name. And that their English translator was so comprehensive, it was actually a bit weird. Maybe they used the internet. 40-Eridani had been in the infected star range, from Olesya's memory. Her running theory was that an Erid person came to Tau Ceti too, and collected the Hail Mary for some odd reason. There were too many "whys" and far few answers for her comfort. She tried to remember where exactly 40-Eridani was, and whether it was close or far.
"You'll be going here, Olesya?" Her sister's hand was smaller than her own. It drifted to the star chart, hung over Olesya's bed, hanging patterns of the stars for her to stare at and drift off to every night. She had memorised constellations, now, so enamoured by the stars. She'd only just told her sister about the Tau Ceti thing. She could hear the apprehension in her voice, especially as her finger found its way to Tau Ceti on the map. "It's so far away!"
"I know," Olesya murmured. She exhaled, before reaching over to her sister and ruffling her head to mess up her hair.
"You don't have to worry, though. I'll always watch you from where I am in the stars, I promise."
Her sister relaxed, but Olesya could still see the conflict in her eyes. Olesya huffed, and settled closer to her sister. "I mean it. I will always be looking towards you, whenever I can. I'll make sure you do all your important work. I'll tell Babu if you don't!"
She giggled.
Adrian did something with a needle in the corner while Olesya blinked away the memory. "I will need to immunise you against diseases here. You will remain on a liquid diet. It is capable of preventing starvation, statement."
"Okay…" Olesya was fine with letting the alien do whatever, at this point. She was afraid, but at the end of the day, this was still a suicide mission. What could really go wrong, at this point? She would never have enough fuel to get Tau Ceti and she would never be able to finish it on her own. She was too far from anything meaningful. Adrian carefully slipped the little needle into her arm and it's was as painless as those medical procedures usually end up being. The prick of it was rather meaningless in comparison with everything else going on, in Olesya's eyes.
"Do not exit the airlock without guidance. The atmosphere will kill you in seconds. It is ammonia." Adrian warned, gesturing to the door for Olesya's sake. Her eyes widened at the kill you in seconds. Was that why Adrian was decked out in protective mesh suit? Ammonia was mostly nitrogen, if Olesya's brain would work properly. Deadly chemical that smelled like cat piss. She wasn't totally certain if that was correct, though. She didn't smell much of anything right now. The thing that was really interesting Olesya was Adrian's mesh suit thingy. That would be beyond human ability. Was their materials science capable of keeping said deadly atmosphere in such a small area? If Olesya didn't die, she really wanted to learn about whatever they were doing that kept ammonia so neatly contained.
Adrian sat by the side of the medical cot. Olesya assumed it was sitting, anyway, by the way it lowered its weight to the floor. She collected her thoughts, trying to think of what questions were actually needing to be answered.
"Where's Grace? Doctor Grace? Uh, other guy… would have," Olesya is cut off.
"Grace is busy. He has been notified you are awake, but he is quite far from this medical facility."
Grace was alive. Olesya felt relieved. She had a human to be around. She might not go insane, like the psychologists for the Hail Mary suggested. What had they suggested? Murdering eachother and killing themselves. If she was ever to go home, she could go with Grace, and she might make it all the way, safe and sound. That was if these Eridians gave her a way. Regardless, she wasn't eager to break out the heroin just yet, seeing as she just got to the alien world. She still had Grace. Olesya exhaled. "Okay. That's, er, great. Who are you?"
"I am Adrian. I am an expert biologist in many fields. Doctors are also present."
That must be doctors in the medical sense, Olesya reasoned to herself. A biologist. It was a little odd to have a biology expert with her as she woke up, and not a doctor. Maybe it was just an Erid thing, or, well, Olesya didn't really have any theories.
"Did… Grace tell you why-"
"Grace succeeded."
Olesya felt her heart drop to her stomach.
"With assistance of my mate, Rocky. The translation system is courtesy of Grace."
Olesya felt the horror of the situation crawling up her throat like a stubborn illness choking her out. She had missed it all. She was useless. All of this, all of everything, just for it to mean nothing because Grace was alone anyway. Olesya's eyes glanced to her hands, studying the patterns on her palms. "I overslept."
"Yes."
Adrian didn't sugar-coat it. Olesya squeezed her hands, trying to figure out a way of being cheerful about this. It was difficult to figure out a silver-lining to the very not astronaut Grace facing a very difficult space mission solo. And making first contact with sentient life. And somehow getting to their homeworld. While Olesya slept. Another creature, similar to Adrian, but smaller and resembling a piece of citrine, walked in. Citrine-looking Eridian paused. "Adrian, is human okay, question?"
"Yes." Adrian replied. Olesya noted the actual language was the chordal stuff she heard before, while she was still only half-lucid.
"Hi." Olesya waved.
Adrian pointed at Citrine. The other moved back, waving its arms as if completely baffled by the motion. "This is Citrus. Doctor now specialised in human care. Fluent in English."
"Are these actually your names?" Olesya asked.
"These are nicknames assigned by Grace." Adrian snorted. Or at least, Olesya assumed it was amusement. The robotic translation voice was able to inject a little emotion into itself.
Citrus shifted in place. "It is an honour."
An honour?
Olesya didn't guess Grace would become some kind of celebrity-hero person on an alien planet, but she also didn't guess any of this would happen. Citrus walked over and hovers close. "Organs sound functional. Adjustments made by Engineer-Captain-Saviour-Rocky seemed acceptable."
Rocky was an engineer. It fixed up the life support systems.
Olesya liked it already.
"Of course they were. Rocky made them." Adrian commented, and Olesya realised Adrian was offended by the comment. Citrus backed up.
"Apologies." Citrus wandered over to one of the tables beside Olesya and passed over a flask of water. "Drink. It is safe for consumption, statement."
Olesya finished the bottle in seconds. She was so thirsty. It didn't matter that the water was kind of lukewarm.
"Is it of liking, question?" Adrian tapped the floor.
"Uh, a little warm, but."
"Our oceans are boiling, statement." Citrus huffed, indignantly.
Adrian grabbed the flask and threw it at Citrus. It bounced off the other alien's head, and clattered on the floor.
"Fix it." Adrian scolded. Citrus skittered back.
"No, no, it's okay. It really is just water," Olesya tried to cut in.
Adrian's voice quietened. "No. Lukewarm water can cause human nausea."
Olesya hoped it wasn't Grace throwing up that caused them to figure that one out. Citrus squeaked, reaching for a small tool and pointing it at Olesya.
"Sorry. Adrian takes human safety very seriously."
Adrian scoffed.
"You are going to slowly regain physical movement. Erid has more pressure, so it may be difficult for you to adjust. We will expedite a second separate holding area for you, within the Biodome." Citrus tapped the ground toward Adrian. "Created by my boss."
"Biodome?" Olesya asked, as Citrus slowly moved her arms and legs up and down to help the muscles out a little.
"Large dome on Polar-Oceanside-Settlement Edge. Uses functionally human atmosphere and has light cycle. Grace live there." Adrian explained.
Olesya frowned at the name of settlement. Grace couldn't bother coming up for a name for that? "Okay. Where… am I now?"
"Southwest-Underground-Space Elevator Settlement Health Facility." Citrus chimed in.
"Did Grace not- whatever." Olesya groaned. "Can I give them shorter names than that?"
Adrian hesitated.
"Wait for Rocky. He can update the translator system, statement."
Olesya could wait. It wasn't like she had anywhere else to be.