ghost fairy

 The sound of the elevator whirring to life had Adrian at full attention again. They listened as Tonk and Orion grew closer, coming back down the elevator. As the doors opened up, panicked notes hit Adrian at full force.

 “Adrian! Adrian, it’s a vessel!” Tonk was flailing a bit, two arms waving in the air.

 “There’s something alive inside, we can hear the heartbeat!” Orion was the one holding the vessel, being delicate with his hold and barely moving despite the way he sounded.

 Adrian was taken aback by the sudden onslaught and it took a moment longer for them to really process what they were saying. “What? A heartbeat?” Was the thing Adrian decided to focus on. The two moved their carapaces in a quick nodding motion, though Orion’s was still more subdued.

 “Listen, listen!” Tonk said and Adrian did just that, honing in on the vessel and listening inside.

 There was, indeed, a heartbeat, and breathing, and movement. The noises the creature was making painted a picture that Adrian wasn’t sure they even believed. But there it was, right in front of them.

 “It looks like Grace.” Adrian said their realization out loud and the two other Eridians nodded sharply.

 It was a human.

 A tiny human, only 5 inches tall, though that was just an estimate. Grace had never mentioned anything about humans coming that small, but it was hard to deny that everything else about them screamed human.

 “We need to get them to the right atmosphere.” Adrian held out their arms and Orion handed over the vessel as gently as they could. “Prepare Grace’s old room.” The two Eridians nodded and quickly went off to do just that. Meanwhile, Adrian was as careful as they could be, holding onto the small human vessel, as they made their way toward the airlock that led to Grace’s old room.

 It was the room Grace had stayed in when he had first landed, so not only was it fitted with a human atmosphere but a bed, table, and some other things that made Grace feel more at home while he had been cooped up inside. When Grace’s biodome had been completed, they had decided to keep the room running, just in case.

 Adrian was glad for that foresight now. They set down the vessel to quickly get into their xenonite suit, before picking it back up and moving through the airlock. Once Adrian was actually inside the room, they placed the vessel onto the table. They tried to be as careful as possible, but the tiny human inside seemed to have been caught off guard by the movement still. Thankfully, they hadn’t fallen.

 Adrian scanned the rest of the vessel, looking at the thing more clearly. It seemed bulky and bare, made from a weaker metal than Grace’s ship. It didn’t appear to be made for space travel…which only raised more questions, considering they found the thing in space. But, maybe most importantly, as Adrian was quick to take notice, there didn’t appear to be a way in or out of the thing. It seemed welded shut.

 How was the human meant to get out of a welded shut ship?

 Adrian decided to tuck that question away for later, knowing they weren’t going to like the answer. They focused back on the human, taking a closer look at them. They really did look like Grace, though Adrian noted the lack of noise coming from their left side. It took them a moment to realize it was due to the fact that they didn’t have a left limb.

 The human inside winced and grabbed at their lack of arm and Adrian realized how serious this had just become. They needed to get them out of there. “We need a way into the vessel.” Adrian said, focusing their notes toward the Eridians on the other side of the xenonite wall. “The human appears injured, we need to get them out as soon as we can.” 

 Tonk and Orion noted that they heard and Adrian listened as Tonk ran off in order to find a solution. Orion stayed behind to continue monitoring the room. Knowing that was now being taken care of, Adrian listened back into the ship, only to let out a sharp tune when they realized the human was no longer moving but pressed up against the side of the ship. “Hello? Tiny human?” Adrian tried to ask before realizing that the human inside probably wouldn’t be able to understand.

 They needed Grace’s old translator and, thankfully, the computer had been left within this very room. Adrian grabbed it off the top of the bed and brought it closer to the table. They set it up and pressed the spacebar to activate it. “Hello, tiny human alright, question?” Adrian made sure to speak slowly and simply. They wanted to give every chance to this tiny human to understand them.

 “H-Hello?” A voice, one similar to Grace’s, spoke up within the ship. Adrian perked up at the sound of their voice and even more so when they saw that the tiny human was moving again. Though they seemed a bit startled.

 “Yes, yes, yes! Hello! Tiny human alright, question?” Adrian waited, listening closely. They needed to know the extent of the human’s injuries, to help as best as they could. But they weren’t expecting what they heard next.

 “Is…Is this real?” The voice was quiet, soft and broken and Adrian realized a few things all at once.

 “...Yes. Is real.” Adrian said, keeping their tones low, thankful the translator picked up on it and did the same. They tapped their claw against the ground in thought.

 “Promise?” The human’s voice shattered Adrian’s hearts.

 “Adrian promise. Adrian is real. Tiny human safe. Promise.” Adrian was quick to reassure. And then the tiny human started to cry, leaking water from their eyes just like they had seen Grace do many times. But it was unlike anything Adrian had ever heard from Grace. This tiny human was sobbing so hard that Adrian feared for their health even more.

 Adrian, despite having spent plenty of time with Grace, felt ill-equipped to help. They needed experts and Adrian knew exactly who to call for. They paused the translator. “Orion, go get Grace and Rocky.” Adrian looked into the ship, where the human was still crying. “As fast as you can, please.”

 As Orion was quick to follow the order, Adrian felt themselves crumble, just a bit. They reached over and turned back on the translator. “Adrian promise. Tiny human safe.” They repeated. “Friends coming soon to help.”

 Adrian didn’t know if the human inside the ship was listening anymore, or could even hear them with their crying, but Adrian hoped their words brought them some comfort at the very least. 

 All Adrian could do now was sit and wait for Grace and Rocky to show.

***

 Grace smiled, content, as he watched the simulated waves. The Eridians were getting much better at replicating the actual ocean. Grace could barely tell the difference now, though the differences he did notice he never mentioned. He liked that he could tell it wasn’t quite the same, he liked the reminder that he wasn’t on Earth.

 Grace reached over towards the small wicker basket and grabbed for one of his ‘me-burgers’. He found it funny how the Eridians who brought him his food continued to wrap them up like a hamburger from McDonalds. Grace never said anything about that either. He peeled back the wrapper and took a bite. It wasn’t quite the same as an actual hamburger, the meat tasted more like pork than beef, but it was still good.

 Grace just tried not to think too much about the ‘me’ part of it all.

 “Watching you eat is so disgusting.” Rocky sang from next to him. Grace turned away from the water and towards his best friend, who was curled up on top of the blanket they had set up on the sand. Grace laughed.

 “We’re having a picnic, Rock. You knew what you were getting yourself into.” Grace said and then pointedly took another bite. Rocky shivered and made a series of notes in disgust.

 “That doesn’t make you eating any less gross!” Rocky huffed. Grace laughed again. They’d had this conversation more times than he could count at this point. He knew Rocky wasn’t all that serious, otherwise he wouldn’t look so relaxed. In fact, Grace had it on good authority that Rocky actually liked watching him eat. It stemmed from when Grace had almost starved to death when they had first arrived on Erid.

 Grace took another bite but Rocky didn’t say anything about it again.

 As Grace finished up he stood and stretched and watched from the corner of his eye as Rocky did the same. “Hmm…wanna play some chess?” Grace asked, looking down at Rocky.

 “Yes, I would love to beat you for the 56th time in a row.” Rocky’s notes held amusement and Grace rolled his eyes. He bent down and gathered up the blanket.

 “Hey, I was pretty close last time!” Grace tried to argue his case as he and Rocky walked side by side towards Grace’s house.

 “No you weren’t.” Rocky’s straight-forward tone had Grace laughing again.

 He hadn’t known, while back on Earth, that anyone could be this happy. He surely never thought he would be, especially when he had woken up alone on the Hail Mary 8 years ago. But living here, on Erid and with his best friend, Grace couldn’t be happier with how his life had turned out. He wouldn’t trade it for anything.

 “Oh, Orion is here.” Rocky suddenly said and Grace paused and looked behind him. Sure enough, Orion, named for their black color with dots of white that vaguely reminded Grace of the Orion constellation, was making his way down the beach and towards them.

 “Hey Orion.” Grace greeted as he finally reached them.

 “Grace, Rocky, I need you to come with me right now!” The panicked notes immediately put both Grace and Rocky on edge.

 “What? What’s going on?” Grace asked, setting the blanket down by his stairs.

 Orion fidgeted with his claws. “Our radars picked up on something in our orbit. Adrian ordered for us to go and retrieve it and…” Their melody trailed off for a moment.

 “And?” Rocky asked with two urgent stomps.

 “And it was a ship.” Orion sang. Grace felt like his heart stopped at that moment.

 “A…ship?” Grace felt his breathing pick up at the thought. “What kind of ship?”

 “Not sure. It doesn’t seem like a ship built for space but…there was someone inside. A human.” Orion’s notes were quieter at the reveal and Grace suddenly felt dizzy.

 He hadn’t realized he had collapsed onto the sand until he heard Rocky yell his name. “Grace! Are you okay?” Rocky came over and Grace put a hand on him. Even through the xenonite suit, Rocky’s touch was a comfort.

 “I-I don’t know.” His eyes went from the sand back up to look at Orion. “It’s really a…human?”

 Orion let out a low hum. “Yes, they look like Grace. But they are…tiny.”

 Grace’s eyes went even wider. “They’re a child?!” Grace immediately shot up, startling Rocky a bit.

 “No, no! At least, we don’t think so. No, they are only 5 inches tall, at estimate.” Orion explained quickly at seeing Grace’s reaction.

 Grace’s mind blanked for an entirely different reason this time.