Work Text:
Imagine if years later on Erid, Grace is teaching a class of young Eridian pebbles. It’s been long enough into his Eridian teaching career that his students are entrusted into his very direct supervision, on a “field trip” inside the actual human habitat, all kitted out in one tiny transparent xenonite suit apiece.
And then a group of anti-alien Eridian extremists break into the human habitat in stolen suits, brandishing weapons and headed straight for the class.
Grace sees them coming. He’s in touch enough with Eridian news that he knows of the xenophobic position held by some segments of the Eridian population. He knows that there is no good reason for *any* Eridian to be inside his human-safe dome carrying any kind of weapon.
The memories of active shooter training back on Earth, long-buried, never touched in all his time on Erid — Erid, which loved Grace unreservedly for all he had done for them, or so he had thought — those memories come roaring back.
When Grace thinks back about this incident later, the precise details of what happened are blurred by a haze of gut-wrenching terror. Maybe the hostile Eridians wanted to abduct or harm or kill Grace, heedless of the trauma that would cause to his young students. Maybe they wanted to abduct or harm or kill his students, to make Eridian parents too afraid to entrust their offspring to the alien’s care in the future (and break Grace’s heart).
Grace’s memories of the incident are foggy. His students, on the other hand, are blessed with precisely accurate Eridian memories. When it’s all over, when the angry invaders are safely disarmed and in custody, when Grace has been rushed away to the care of his dedicated medical team for the wounds he sustained, they tell the Eridian authorities and their families and anyone who wants to hear about it exactly what happened.
How their fragile teacher had placed himself between them and the attackers. How his heartbeat (that everyone present but Grace could hear oh, so clearly) had accelerated to a faster speed than any of them had ever heard, so fast that some of them wondered for the first time if that organ had a top speed and what would happen if that speed was exceeded.
How the clever human entrusted with their care had played to his strengths (no foolish action-hero-style tackling of one attacker, which would’ve helped no one and likely let another attacker slip past him and reach the pebbles) — fingers flying on the machine that let him speak in fluent Eridian. Trying to talk them down, trying to work his awkward humanish charms, to distract and persuade and de-escalate and taunt by turns, doing anything to keep the hostile adult Eridians focused on him and not on the little group of students, huddled behind him and crouched low to the ground in fear. Buying enough time for Rocky to reach the dome a little earlier then scheduled, and notice the mess left behind in the entryway, and call in absolutely every form of the Eridian cavalry he could reach to get to Grace and the pebbles and keep them safe.
Maybe some of his young Eridian students had previously observed their goofy alien teacher and his engineer friend, and never gave a thought to their shared reputation among their parents’ generation for peerless heroism and unmatchable dedication to the well-being of the Eridian people. (This, by the way, is the exact phrase etched on the medals that were given to Grace and Rocky once Grace was well enough to receive his. Grace’s medal is stuffed in the back of his sock drawer; he hasn’t thought about it in years. Rocky’s medal is currently in service propping up one leg of Grace’s clothes dresser that’s just a little too short to reach the floor below it, and if you ask Rocky, the polished xenonite in that medal could aspire to no higher or more noble calling.)
Well. None of Grace’s students will ever attend one of his classes again without remembering exactly who it is that’s standing in front of them chattering about light, and spaceships, and the wonder and privilege of getting to set foot on two different planets and take part in all the varied and precious life upon them.
In the end, Grace missed only a few of his classes while recuperating from his injuries. During that time, Substitute Teacher Rocky was more than pleased to introduce Grace’s students to the Earth Human concept of the ‘Get Well Soon’ card.