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The time spent on the new planet was nice, sure they did not have the best temperature for the water, but he could not appreciate it more. Today was different, Rocky and Adrien had a date, so Grace was left to his devices. He would not have any visitors today. That document found on the ship weighed heavy on his soul; he kept it in the draw around the makeshift grave he made. The one that rested on the side table between his bedroom and door. Locking the document in a cabinet seemed logical, he did not want to relive the grief of finding a document like a death certificate of his fiancé. He did not even have the rings.
Stratt had raided his house for photos of them, he placed them around a xenonite model that Rocky had made of Simon, detailed of his face. The narrow eyes, long curly black hair and the small smile he always seemed to have in most of the photos. His bones ached a little as he stared at them.
Photos strung on the wall of them, kissing, the proposal, the plans for their wedding. Early mornings, afternoon sun with a fireplace. Every morning like always he left a small kiss to his finger, bringing it to the top of the xenonite head. Rocky did not mention how much he cried, apparently Adrien was very confused.
Before he knew it, he felt the sand under his toes, the water was a lot warmer today. not enough to boil a lobster but like a nice, lovely bath. He liked to sit and watch the water melt over his toes, it was a nice feeling, reminded him of his soul on days he woke up thinking the library was across the road and Simon was not far away.
He held his breakfast cup in his hand, resting it on the table as he ran over, a bright red figure resting on the sand, the water lapping at his legs, dying it a deep red.
Then he saw what looked like a bloody blob, something with tissue like legs and an arm. He noticed the absence of one. A horrible thought stroked his head, what if the me-burger had made a me-person of Grace. He drew in a breath sharply watching as the waves crashed around, washing blood off the trousers and top. It was all it could be by how he was placed. No amount of blood possible, as he grew closer. A light jog that stilled as he froze, he saw the rise of a chest. The difference in facial structure, outlined by blood.
He ran back to the house, grabbing the breakfast cup and swilling it out with the sea water, rushing tot eh man’s side. His knees skidding. Resting at the edge of someone he should probably not be hallucinating, it had been a few years since grief consumed him so strongly. It was like the waves around them, washing his grief back and forth in some odd taunt. But despite the science he believed in the bloody form in front of him.
“Simon…” he whispered, gentle to the ghost. The one he thought had died years ago, casted away into the ocean 10 minutes before Grace was set to launch into space. That forever sentence of his mission and death only puzzled Ryland. His vulnerability creeping through, bringing the still blood-soaked man into his lap. His arm was a stump, looking burnt around the edges. if he was in the water, he knew that the iron motor to spin the water would cause burns, he still had a scar on his leg from it.
“H-hey” he breathed, exhaling out into the sky, staring at men across his lap. Peering closer to his head, moving his fingers across the man’s face to cradle his head. “Simon” he coughed, sobs escaping his face.
The name curling with the waves but not being claimed by them. How the man he loved seem to crane his head. It was that feeling like showing those photos with pride on Earth. The guilt and grief plaguing to scar his bones, seemed to heal over.
He grabbed more water, from the ocean into the cup that once held his breakfast, casting it gently over his face. The blood was thick it barely moved, so ever so carefully tapping the man’s face with his hand, he poured more water over it. Watching as the man’s missing arm, burnt by the motor was leaking a small but finite flood of the man’s own blood.
It was as the third water washed over his face, he saw the moles he knew so well, those few freckles, that scar he always had just on his forehead. The small twitch of an eye.
“Si” Gasped out of his throat, it was like all the oxygen that the Eridian’s had made for him were sucked out of the room. He began to tap almost in a rhythm begging with tears flooding down his face, like a waterfall like the words tumbling out of his mouth. “Simon! Hey c’mon. Love, C’mon” over and over. He would not need air; he had all the oxygen he needed laying in his lap.
The cameras, watching him on monitors with devices just like what Rocky had made but that was only for emergency’s, with a shrill scream, he yelled out “ROCKY!” into his artificial paradise. Hoping that Rocky would be able to help.
—
Stratt had been working tireless for some time the world did seem to work together, then the arctic froze and the climates went out of wake.
It was something that had pulsed her for quite some time, pouring over Simon Grace as she knew him under, it was about honour. For them both, that man who was sent to the depth of the ocean, a mystery was formed about the blip. The fact the submarine had disappeared entirely. No explanation or shipwreck. A deceased notice, a retrieval plan, then one day nothing. No dot on the grid, sound wave.
Just gone.
She had poured over research, accompanied by Carl on the ship as it strode through the arctic. Other than scares amounts of ice, the small ship had a collection of books. Something to keep the mind stimulated, dulling down to all the panic of work.
Work she had never stopped doing. It’s only later on it was the notion of the physics books, the theories.
A time in space that seemed to be plague her mind. So, she poured over research, in her spare time. Even as her bones creaked as did Carl. Looking over books, that Grace had checked out, not in public of the common library but the military. Labelling them under a small note “Si”, it seemed he
Something he had researched, it was like when discovering they were fiancés. The rings in his home. The ones they found after the ship throughout, the rumours. They were clever people; assumptions were not in their category. Certainty and probability were essential.
So she was researching something about physics, something that Carl had stowed away. Apart of Ryland Grace’s apartment that Simon had been borrowing books from the library, long overdue by now. It was something to keep her mind going.
It was unfortunate she had only stumbled upon the rings in Simon’s workstation on the ship. It was a heart-broken day. At this point it was only a photo of them with rings on chains that managed to relax them slightly. Promise rings, not finance’s facing the world. Trying to save the world. Then the rings were found, the marriage one’s, the small inkling that this was a absence of permanent finality. They both shivered, like they could hear the cries through that window, or chasing Ryland down to the gates.
She had tucked the rings onto the news’s announcements, stating the sacrifice like all the other astronauts were being broadcasted as. It was a matter of hope to pulse throughout the world, to be reminded of love. They announced he had a partner; people caught on easily. His old job at that middle school made a tribute. That class always made sure to remember him.
Staring at the piece of metal, a plaque with his name on it. The man she saw become a blip in the sky. Simon did not get one. She would make sure to figure out what truly happened to him, pouring over research but also give Simon the same public respect that Ryland Grace had. A man who did not sign up for the mission, neither had Simon to such an extent with his earthquake job either. She got to work.
To figure it out for herself and Carl, to give out the finality of how Simon perhaps could have been saved. Like Grace had, with Rocky on that recording that Carl always laughed at. She wanted the truth of how Simon had although believed dead, had survived.
—
After that, it was all a blur. Rocky coming in with loads of robots. Adrian was there, their interact patterns similar to Rocky. Eridian marriage. If Simon survived maybe. It was then he felt the ghost of human skin on his lap, the way that Simon was been taken away. The same hundreds of medical teams awaiting to help him. A loud shout of “Don’t-” almost leaving his throat but Rocky knowing him the best seemed to understand what was to happen if he spiralled.
His best friend with small tunes muttered words of comfort “Mate will be ok. Statement. Grace can rest”. Grace then realised what shock could truly do to the body, he slumps over laying onto Rocky, who with his claws through the suit laid a gentle hand upon Grace’s head. “Grace will be ok. Simon will be ok” The added line, it was such a joy from those years ago on that ship.
For almost years, Grace heard that one tune that had only been uttered once before Grace had started having a panic attack. It was a tune with beautiful integrate melodies, like as Rocky went on about Adrian, the notes shinning and gliding so smoothly into the air. With small tears falling he grabbed at Rocky, embracing him as he watched the beach.
The water once bright blue and perfect for his walk, was stained red with thick blood.
—
Simon had been in a coma for a few days, drinking the same slop that Ryland had been stuck with for years, but it seemed to be working. According to Rocky it was the imbalance of bacteria, the minute influx of spinning in the water that was anticlockwise and irregular to the monitor. A black hole of some sort, just Simon. They never did find his missing arm, but skin grafting helped with most of it.
He still didn’t have an arm, only one hand to hold and Ryland carrying most of the weight when they danced. But the leaky blob had become a stub cut close to the shoulder, not infected. Healing nicely.
Before Rocky had left, he asked him for something sweet “Could you make the rings, the one’s l showed you” Rocky chittered happily.
“Sure, Sure-” HIs words were cut off by Grace raising his hand, pausing him for a moment.
“With Adrian, this is a wedding thing y-know” he gestured to the patterns on Rocky skin, the ones Adrian had and marched with proudly.
“Simon and Grace marriage” he laughed, jumping out of the room, from the window overlooking the decking he could see the splash Rocky took in the ocean. Hear the beautiful tunes with the arterial wind, it would die out every 20 minutes, but he was not complaining. Just before passing his head onto the love of his life, the one he thought dead, the true fate he knows knew. He could hear the happy beautiful melody of Adrian’s name. Rocky always wanted to see a human wedding. He even redid the Eridian ritual to show Grace. It was a beautiful song with his best outfit, even Grace wore a tie, if he shed a few tears, it was just like now, turning to the love of his life. Sobbing into their conjoined hands and kissing the knuckles.
He was certain of Simon’s fate, with him on this planet, maybe they could get married. Ryland brought a kiss to the hand resting just slightly off the bed. The Eridian’s had transferred the robot from his ship to help. One he had swatted at before it realised he was just holding Simon’s hand.
Finally, he was able to say the words he always wanted, too. “I love you Simon” the man was able to hear him. He was sure. For the first time in a while, Ryland’s mind felt in complete peace. His bones just right, there fate were together again.
Intertwined.
Just slightly always on a hook was the real rings on a chain, intermingling, gold xenonite. Ryland Grace smiled, bringing the hand he did not see holding ever again to press a small flutter of a kiss upon the knuckles. Thinking of something that made him show his pearl teeth and a small droplet from his eye. A factor that would make Rocky and Adrian tumble and melody in excitement, maybe they could be married under Eridian tradition. Perhaps even send a message of it to Stratt, or at least for the world of Earth to know too.
THE END!