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Ughhhhhh!
Grace groaned, thunking his head on the table. Rocky, who had been fixing up something, made that curious sound, double thumping a foot. This was what he'd long since stopped registering in a sentence, but if he'd say…had him on a translator? Would be picked up as 'question?' every time.
"Nothing's working." He whined complained. "I can't find anything. I'm checking everything, not even the spectrograph is finding them. I've given any potential predator a nice tasty meal and it's just…bupkis."
"…What is meaning?"
"Uh…it means 'nothing'. I can't pronounce the real word, but it's pulled from an Earth phrase. It used to mean goat-poop at some point, but now it just means 'nothing'." They'd gotten so good at their unique dialect that it was almost harder when he needed to find a new word.
"So you find nothing…what if bulb too hot?" Rocky motioned towards the experiment set up. "Adrian upper atmosphere must be so much colder than ship air."
"No, it shouldn't matter…these things eat astrophage. They gotta like it pretty hot." He refuted, doing something along the lines of a glare at the results.
Rocky hummed in acknowledgment. "Ah."
"Maybe our theory is wrong…" Grace feels so stupid. What was he missing?
"No?" Rocky scoffed. "Theory right. Only answer. We just not found it yet…maybe predator lower down?"
He paused, registering his words before perking up. "Wait, yeah! That makes sense!"
"Of course it does." His friend chuckled. "I make sense lots."
The pair throw theories back and forth, Rocky specifically wonders if it's an altitude thing. Okay, that's theoretically sound! If it's altitude, how do they figure out where? Ahhhh, yes. Petrova scope. His friend was always good at common sense solutions like that.
"Control room?" Rocky wondered.
"Control room!" Grace chimed back. He stripped off his PPE, grabbing his companion by the wrist, excitably maneuvering into the Eridian side of the space.
He'd noticed that, while they were far more 'cuddly', his people (or rather, the culture Rocky hailed from) weren't nearly as touchy as the American's that primarily raised him were. Humans in general were very prone to using their hands, but two of the first carers he had were married. So Grace had come to be used to the idea.
Much to…actually? He doesn't know if Rocky minded this. He had struggled with what a hug meant, but seemed to settle into it fairly quickly.
He may have realized that the Earth-Born was just taking every opportunity to touch someone that wouldn't suffer from it. Humoring him as it were.
They crowd the read out, both of them comparing their different tactile pads. They realize that there's some strangeness going on with the cloud layer. After a bit of napkin math, they think they've got their predator's breeding ground…hopefully.
So how close can they get?
According to Rocky, not close enough. They'd burn right up. Grace had personally seen just how dangerous his spin drives could be. Man, if they just had some way to fish it out…"Hey, Rock'?"
"What?"
"How much xenonite could you mix up? It's a liquid, right?" Grace knows this sounds stupid. He's doing caveman solutions to spaceman problems.
Rocky sat up. "How much you need?"
"Uhh-" He punched a few numbers into his program. "Can you spare 0.4 cubic meters?"
Something he'd become very familiar with as Rocky laughing at him. "Yes. Have so much. Could make 0.61 from reserves. More if we go to Blip-A."
Yeah, well, Earth is on a tight timeline. All the numbers he's given are from his perspective. He always has to keep the dilation in mind. Every second counts, and that concept was foreign to his friend.
Well…they've got a plan. An astronomically stupid one, but a plan nonetheless.
So…remember how two seconds ago we discussed the stupidity of this? Ready for it to get worse?
After they'd spent some time talking about why the Blip-A had so much astrophage, Grace had the pleasure of teaching his friend what relativity was. Hooray! Hey, at least they had something to discuss while they did busy work.
Or while Rocky did. Grace was not good at mixing xenonite. He'd nearly injured himself in the process. As much as he called it a 3-D printer, it worked with liquids. His only experience was with traditional filament style. This was way easier to screw up.
Besides, it's nice to let the Eridian take the lead, gives him time to relax. Neither of them had any idea of what was about to happen.
It took the pair roughly two weeks to assemble all that chain. Grace was so unbelievably sick of it. It haunted him in his sleep. For all that 'relaxing', he was still linking pieces together and helping Rocky make molds to speed up the process.
Not to mention, they had to mount all the lowering and retrieval spools using the hull robots. Terrifying!
They expected the most dangerous part to be keeping the craft at the perfect angle. And it was! Even with Rocky able to help, he was (as expected) less of a pilot than Grace was. He could work his own ship, but they had totally opposite systems.
But as long as everything went to plan, they'd have the sample soon.
Naturally, it has to go wrong right at the end. The retrieval spool hitched as Grace micro-adjusted the controls. A link must have jammed it, but it was so close that forcing it could ruin everything. It can't pull it any higher…and the hull robots aren't capable of manipulating the chain how they need.
"…Rocky?"
He was so tense like a clock spring ready to snap. "What?"
"I need you to trust me like I'm about to trust you." Grace hopped out of his seat. "You hold Mary steady. Use both our pads."
"Why? You need-"
"I'm going to get it." Grace doesn't give time to argue. He kicked the control room shut behind him.
Rocky's voice came through the general speakers. He'd flicked them on before heading out and would feed into his EVA. "Grace, no! You'll be blind!"
He leaned towards the mic as he suited up. "That's what you're here for. You know how to use the cameras."
"I can't-!"
"Rocky."
"What?!"
Grace was in the airlock, shaking like a leaf. "I trust you. Please. Earth can't wait for us to go again. I trust you…so please. Trust yourself."
A thin, reedy whimper. "…Okay. Have visual."
When Grace opened the lock, he has to force himself to calm down. He is so unbearably blind. The only thing he can see is his suit surrounding him. "Talk to me Rock'."
And he does. Rocky is incredible in this moment. He's giving precise measurements, using the length of Grace's legs rather than real numbers. He's so brilliant. Grace couldn't have asked for a better crew mate if he designed one in a test tube.
…but holy cow is this scary. Everything is riding on this single moment.
"Chain in reach. Hull robot ready, hook right two on arm. Fully reach left one forty five degrees up, fifteen degrees left."
Thank god he was good at angles. As far as right two left one, they mean arms. Counting from their 'face', they would be able to be more specific than just 'grab it'.
Grace found the chain right where Rocky said it was. He coiled it around his left arm, wincing against the drag. He takes it methodically and slow, winding like he was an additional spool. Rocky has him. If he's not freaking out? Grace isn't.
"LAY DOWN!"
He hits the deck as much as he can in the vacuum of space. He doesn't even flinch until he heard his friend's voice again. Unseen to him, a piece of the hull shot straight through where he had just been.
"Clear!"
Once he safely has the sampler in his front legs, he carefully used his back three legs to pull himself back to the airlock. Much like a spider. He never said the comparison was inaccurate. They get the lock closed, and after pressure returned, Grace could finally see again. He nearly collapsed, but now Rocky needed him.
Getting out of his suit as quickly as he could, Grace scuttled to the control room. They switch without even speaking.
Judging by how the tactile pads go blind every so often, the alarm lights must be flashing. Considering the audible ones were also screaming? That's not much of a shock. What is a shock?
The Hail Mary was fighting him.
He just had to get her into orbit. He and Rocky are chattering, trying to science their way out of panicking. Once they hit the sweet spot…gravity was still increasing. Grace tried not to lose his cool, but one warning had everything in him seize up.
There was a hole in the fuel tanks.
The pair tried to rationalize it away, but the readout doesn't lie. "Rocky…there's a leak."
"Why thrust?"
Why indeed? But it only takes him a split second for the reason to click. "The astrophage! It sees Adrian!"
"Bad bad bad!"
Understatement of the millennia, bud. Grace runs through his options. It quickly becomes clear what he needed to do. Gravity was worsening by the second, and if it's bad on Eridians? It was already in lethal territory for humans. He probably only has a few minutes before it hit that for them.
Grace can barely lift his arm to use the cockpit robot to hit the buttons. Even that was struggling. "Dumping…damaged…bay-"
The sound of a click and Grace blindly confirmed the command. Then they're both sharply thrown to the side.
"EXCESSIVE CENTRIFUGAL FORCE WARNING." The ship raised the alarm in English, Russian, and Chinese. Not Grace-ese. He understood all three before the mission had launched.
Rocky was collapsed in the entry way…still awake, but struggling.
Grace's chair snapped under the effort. His weight tore him from his restraint. He can see that the cockpit-arm was hanging uselessly against the force.
He had a choice to make. "'M sorry…" He whimpered.
With a surge of adrenaline, Grace used leg to shove his friend out, locking the hatch so it sealed. He can hear a shrill, horrified string of notes. Mostly his name. It doesn't matter.
Rocky had a family. He had a home. Grace had taught him how to use everything. He was a wonderful student. The sort that would make the Earth-Born incredibly proud. He would be able to do it. He could save everyone. He trusts him.
Grace fought the g-forces, reaching up and punching a hole in the divider so he can access the human side of the controls. Stretching as far as he can, the scientist engaged the centrifuge to get the ship stabilized. He can feel his carapace rip painfully against the jagged hole. Dark smoke billowing from him as oxygen choked his consciousness out.
As the gravity eased, he couldn't really appreciate it. But this time…he was willingly making the sacrifice.
Grace hadn't told Rocky…but he had fought tooth and nail to not go. He couldn't admit to how much of a coward he was. Willing to doom his planet out of the fear of failure. He'd broken a staff member's arm when they tried to approach him in an EVA suit in his tunnels. Eventually they'd flooded them with a sedative.
But this time, there was no hesitation. One of them had to survive.
As the last of his consciousness winked out, Grace could hear the door burst open.
God fucking damn it….
…Wow, he was in a lot of pain.
Huh.
Could you hurt when you're dead?
Distant clattering and the sound of true Eridian were soothing…
Hey, he wouldn't mind his last thoughts being of Rocky.
…Wait. Rocky opened the door, he must have been-
Grace weakly wobbled upright.
"Body movement detected."
"Thank you, Nanny."
"You're welcome, Rocky."
He can't really speak, his vision was terribly blurred. Hearing, whatever. His voice was a mushy blend of whistles and clicks.
"Grace can hear?" A hand found his carapace, pressing more gently than normal.
"Mhmm…" He instinctively leaned into the contact. "We died, huh?"
"No, stupid." Rocky huffed. His song was so much rougher than it should have been. "We alive."
…Huh. "Rocky fixed?"
"Rocky and Nanny." The Eridian pushed his way onto the bed. He's more banged up than he first appeared. How long was he out? "Grace need more sleep."
His vents wheezed. "What about you?"
"We sleep together. Nanny observe."
Ah. That had gone so well before…but both of them couldn't fight their biology. And Grace was already slipping back into the void. "Okay…I love you, Rocky."
He's out before he can hear the soft reply.
"Rocky love Grace too."