Chapter Text
Fog was a beautiful thing to see in the calm of early morning, on days like these when the fog is around 45%, as the sun rises it shines brilliant oranges, pinks and gold through the whiteness. With fog often came a sense of heavy cold, a cold that would have most people snuggling into thick scarves or fluffy jackets, this fog however was impressive for another reason. The fog that enveloped the inhabitant of this lovely seashore cottage, perched atop a sandstone cliff, was one made by a being who had never seen fog, a sunrise, the ocean or sandstone cliffs, this picturesque view was made by aliens for an alien.
The alien who called this view their home, stood on the stoop of a quaint little cottage, situated at the centre of a dome with an earth-like atmosphere, for one Ryland Grace; Savior from earth, the patron saint of one-way trips. The only human for 16.3 light years had this whole 2.2km parcel of land and sea to call home on the planet of Erid. The dome was very similar to the vivariums of Earth only hundreds of times bigger, its roof was so tall and its artificial sunlight so warm it was functionally its own weather simulator, although, through some advanced Eridian technology, Grace was able to control every aspect of the weather cycle.
If it was up to him, he’d have it foggy every day, but the lead scientist for the human’s care; an Eridian he’d named Adrian, made sure to have a few days of full sun for his vitamin D needs. The temperature controls took some getting used to in the biodome but working closely with Adrian, their mate Rocky, who is also the human’s best friend and a team of other well respected Eridian scientists, they managed to make a perfect place for Doctor Captain Ryland Grace.
Watching the sunlight diffuse through thick fog making the whole sky golden, Grace stood welcoming yet another day he gets to live; taking a deep breath of cool, slightly salty, foggy air to wake himself up, in awe of the view he gets to look at for the rest of his life. The cliffs flanking the bay of not quite salty enough sea water, contrast the deep blue of it with their limestone-sandstone ridges, arches and boulders. It took a lot of trial and error to convey to a species that had no way of seeing the colour spectrum that their artificial sun should create oranges, pinks and reds at sunrise. Explaining chemical compositions for the reaction was easy but explaining the way light splits through different substances was a whole other kettle of fish. As the teacher admires his little habitat, he is suddenly brought out of his peaceful thoughts by a rhythmic, song of garbled notes all but screamed by Rocky, scrambling excitedly towards him.
“-Human, Grace, second Grace!” Was all the schoolteacher could translate as the small warm brown, five-legged spider-like alien yells down the beach. As he approaches, Ryland gauges whether his friend will slow down or intends to bowl him over, quickly side stepping just in case.
“What! What? Rock slow down!”
“Adrian say Rocky tell Grace secret now! Petrova team find human! Find Second Grace!” All five of his legs tap excitedly as the Eridian engineer explains, “Second Grace very unhealthy, almost die, Adrian save! Grace second Grace meet, question?” The small rock spider tilts his body up towards the human to await his response.
“Second Grace? Do you mean another human?” Grace says apprehensively, trying to get as straight an answer as he could possibly get out of the cheeky Eridian. Ever since the scientist taught Rocky about sarcasm and white lies for punch lines, he’s had to take some of Rocky’s more outlandish comments with a pinch of salt.
“New human yes yes yes!” Rocky chants in excitement, pushing on the back of the man’s legs to encourage him to move toward the air lock at the other end of the beach.
“Okay, okay! Stop pushing!” The schoolteacher chides with a smile, both at his friend’s antics and at the prospect of being able to see and hear another human for the first time in what feels like a decade.
Rocky leads the way down the beach, scuttling slower so that he doesn’t lose Grace in his chaotic dance across the sand. Once they reach the air lock, a series of anti-chambers open for both Rocky and Ryland to step into, firstly for decontamination and secondly for donning and doffing their xenonite suits. Beyond lies a rabbit warren of tunnels and rooms all with different uses, some for human atmosphere-based experiments like growing plants, synthesizing nutritional minerals and vitamins as well as medicine and astrophage experiments. Other rooms for Eridian atmosphere-based experiments sit further down the warren of halls and anti-chambers and many air locks, away from the biodome in case of contamination of either’s atmosphere.
Rocky and Grace hurry through the medical wing past Eridian scientists working on vitamins, minerals and hormones he needs to survive, all miraculously synthesized from the man’s own body. With a very small sample size, the Eridians really could make anything. They were currently working on recreating wild mustard varieties of vegetables from dehydrated broccoli and cabbage found in the Hail Mary’s food supply storage (only after they removed Armando the medical robot from the ship to gain access to it). Ryland was kind of looking forward to being able to eat broccoli again, the iron supplement he’d been stomaching had been making his urine weird colours.
Rocky slowed at the air lock between the research lab and the infirmary, turning to Grace abruptly, if he hadn’t heard the tapping of the Eridians xenonite covered feet stop on the cold hard floor he probably would have tripped over the barely meter high alien. Rocky stayed still for a moment as if trying to figure out what to say, the scientist stayed silent, the pensive silence clearly meant something. Usually, his best friend has words for everything, non-stop, all the time.
“Rocky warn Grace, second Grace hurt bad bad bad, very unwell.”
“It’s ok rock, I can take it.” Ryland reaches a hand down to rest on the top of Rocky’s xenonite suit. The Eridian engineer presses the release panel for the air lock and steps inside; and the schoolteacher shuts the door with a chunky click before adjusting his eyes to the dim light of the infirmary. The daylight filters in the infirmary were still a little dated, when the man first arrived on Erid, on the edge of starvation and malnutrition, this was where he spent his first 6 months, 2 of those almost completely bedridden. It’s been 18 months since then and they haven’t needed the space since, but now back in action rather suddenly and unexpectedly many of the fixtures are still from the initial set up. Much of the furniture and décor was Eridian in nature, a lot of columns and support struts, many pointy and inhuman forms. Stepping inside, Ryland worried for this other human, whether seeing the inhumanness of the space might freak them out.
Adrian stands next to the occupied bed in the back of the room, their tall, triangular turquoise carapace tilted towards the person lying in the bed like a worried mother hen. They whistle in greeting to their mate and gently sway back and forth in greeting to Ryland.
“Rocky Grace nice to see, statement.” Adrian’s lower, harsher register sounds very much like the crashing of waves, they wave a leg at the schoolteacher, and he smiles at their greeting. “New human very sick, unconscious for 13 Earth days, is stable now.”
“13 days?” Grace steps forward, confused, “Why wasn’t I told sooner?”
“New human nearly die, not want Grace to worry if new human die.” Adrian drummed out, their cold tone concerns the scientist, but he quickly understands why as he finally leans in to see this new human. Around a breathing apparatus and monitor wires he can see why Adrian and Rocky kept this information from him, the stranger has thick bandages around the mid humerus portion of left arm, a stump where a forearm and hand should be, bandages around their throat, forehead and left side of their face. Any other damage is hidden beneath dark wavy hair and the hospital blanket, looking down the strange man’s body, two legs and feet jut up off the bed, no other missing limbs then.
In awe of this man’s existence, Ryland reached over to touch the bandaged side of his face with a feather light touch, “What happened to him?”
“Petrova team found new human in metal ship, bad ship, poor design. New human inside, covered in blood, unconscious, very damaged, Rocky say radiation poisoning.” Adrian explains, stepping away from the bed and raising the lights on the panel on the wall beside them.
The brighter light reveals the man to be very banged up, his eyes are sunken, his skin is grey and what looks like new scars surround his mouth and jaw; one down from his bottom lip to his chin and another from the right corner of his mouth to nearly his ear, he must have smashed his face on something at some point. The left side of his face is covered in thick bandages; Ryland hopes the damage isn’t too extensive as it may have adverse effects on the man when he wakes.
“New human not all human, Rocky say radiation cause mutations.” Adrian explains, handing the fellow scientist a chart with some of the differences noted during the man’s time here, “mutations grow while asleep, radiation gone, mutations continue.”
Ryland stares at the metal sheet in his hand, looking over the marks on the outline of a human silhouette, without proper visual examination and comparison it’s hard to tell how much of this man is fully human, but by all accounts, is a Homosapien of Earth, just with some odd upgrades.