Dr. Grace

Uh— well—

alien. Rocky.

Nice meet Teacher Grace friend!!

They’re actually a child, but I’m pretty sure they’ve been alive longer or just as long as me..? Not totally sure.

It isn’t careless. Only some can have access, and this one is using a computer I’m teaching them about during class.

I mean— if you met an alien and could get access to their internet, wouldn’t you want to?

I’m just a teacher there, for gosh sake—! That’s basically it! They’re much better at being civil than humans ever can be because they live so much longer.

<You put friend Grace in space against will and now he slowly starve to death, statement. Every day Grace leak blood and finger nails fall off. Is disgust and you fault. Grace sit and make bubbling concoction of scrap food items and nose blood tissues, talks to and eats from it and calls it [humonculi]. Is you fault again.>

<Pipebomb in beetle obviously no work, so Rocky think of something more drastic.>

Now, his spiraling thoughts were interrupted by a loud crashing thud against one side of the biodome. Grace jumped and let out a regrettably embarrassing screech, spinning towards the noise to see a large indent in the clear xenonite— and some large object that was probably what caused it.

After taking a couple of breaths, Grace stepped over to the wall, trying to see the object through the thick atmosphere of Erid beyond. He could see a couple Eridians hurry over, scuttling around in something of a panic. The ship looked… vaguely human-made. And… was that English on the side of it..?

"What the hell are those...?" She whispered, leaning as much as she could to get a better look at the creatures outside of her ship. She couldn't let herself be distressed by them for too long.

Over the years of space travel, she knew better, and she knew she had to get her bearings and she had to get them fast. It was the only way to survive. Her mind was still hazy as she realized her ship was moving.

Many of those roughly dog-sized creatures were pulling her ship.

Thoughts spiraling, Grace wondered if the person inside was okay or not. The landing sounded rough, to say the least— and from what he could see, the ship had definitely fallen apart a bit on atmosphere entry.

A loud thunk and hiss spurred Grace from his mind, turning to the airlock. Hurrying over, he bounced on his heels impatiently, hearing some faint sound of metal, then oxygen flooding the airlock.

Finally, the airlock beeped, confirming it was stabilized— and the ship was probably on the other side— so he opened up his side of the airlock. On the other side, secured and sealed to the open airlock door, was the other ship. It was human made if he ever knew it.

Was she dead? Had the heat become too much? She had never been frankly religious, but she would not be surprised if this was an angel.

But as the angel came into better view, her eyes widened. Grace?

A look came across her face akin to someone seeing a dead man claw himself out of his grave.

Dr. Maverick recognized him, but this was no face that Grace recognized himself.

His expression settled into an awkward, anxious smile that was higher on one side than the other. Desperately, he tried not to excitedly burst out words of relief and excitement and— whatever— instead, taking a slow breath.

“H—Hello—!” Grace waved awkwardly. “This is the planet Erid in the Star system 40-Eridani. Lucky for you, you crashed right into the one planet for light years that has a place suitable for Earth life!”

Her arms wrapped around Grace with a startling tightness. With the rigorousness of the action, it could have been seen as an attack if it were not for the way she loosened her grip. She was hugging him.

"I don’t know what this is," she managed to say as she drew back. Her shoulders trembled. "I might be dead," she muttered to herself, glancing back at the airlock behind her before looking at Grace.

"Wait," she stood up straighter, "40-Eridani? Don't you mean 41?" She leaned in close, inspecting Grace's face and squinting, "are you real?

Then she pulled away and he blinked out of his thoughts. Right. New person. And she’s freaking out. Reasonably.

“No— you’re not dead,” Grace said sincerely, with the tiniest bit of an amused smile. “I’m telling the truth. The rocks you probably saw dragging your ship are called ‘Eridians’. They saved my life. And helped save Sol. The— the sun. And their sun. Y’know. Astrophage.”

He doesn’t remember me? Eridians? Like-

Mav realized she wasn’t responding and cleared her thoughts. She pinched the bridge of her nose, massaging the corners of her eyes before speaking, “My name is Dr. Maverick. You can just… you can just call me Dr. Mav.”

Mav gripped the side of the airlock to lift herself onto the sand. Honestly, she was surprised to feel the sand crunch underneath her doodled on sneakers. How long had it been since she felt that feeling? She hadn’t been to the beach since she was a kid.

Mav cast her look to the Eridians. They were fidgeting with their fingers, if that’s what they were, and chittering in various tones amongst themselves.

“Eridians?” She whispered. “I know you,” she pointed a finger at the creatures, swinging her point over the crowd, “I mean, I know what you are!”

She looked from the Eridians to Grace, back and forth one more time before taking a sharp breath.

“Seeing you know who Eridians are— does that mean the beetles arrived on Earth? Is the sun back to full luminosity? Did… did I go fast enough?” He rambled off the questions before stopping himself to take a breath and think.

But if Earth was fine, why would they send someone up to 40-Eridani AB?

“…but, then— why are you here?” He mumbled.

“Ryland Grace, you’re… you’re supposed to be dead.”

She squared her shoulders, tense as she gave her surroundings a better look.

“You exploded with the vat of astrophage. Years ago,” she explained.

“I came here because I noticed the star for Eridiani 41 wasn’t dimming, even if it was supposed to. I wanted to figure out why.”

“No, I’m not— I didn’t die,” he said, his tone nearly baffled. “The other two scientists that were supposed to go on the Hail Mary are the ones who… who died like that. Wait— vat? Why was there a vat of astrophage?”

Grace rubbed his face, trying to breathe and sort out his thoughts. “I… 40-Eridani isn’t dimming because Rocky, one of the Eridians, and I found a predator for astrophage and sent some back to earth and brought some here. So— no more dimming.”

“I— That is the Hail Mary. And the vat, it’s where we held the astrophage, for fueling the ship, for its eventual blast off.”

Mav shook her head, picking at her nails as she breathed in.

“And I… I still have the beetles. In my ship,” she continued, “so one of us has to be wrong, or I’ve gone stir crazy from being alone. Maybe the coma did a few more numbers on me than I thought.”

Mav was nearly as confused as Grace was. She had to be in some kind of afterlife, right? She had seen the explosion Grace died in, she had seen a flicker in Stratt’s steely eyes when it happened. And then… well, then, Mav was sent away in the place of the dead.

“That… doesn’t make any sense,” he mumbled under his breath. “I sent the beetles back with the taumeoba. All of them that had fuel left.” He shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

Putting a hand to his face to rub his eyes, Grace made himself take a breath. “You’re not crazy because I’m not that crazy. The coma was… not great for me, either, but you’re not crazy,” he insisted.

“Sorry,” she murmured barely loud enough to hear, “It has been… a very long time since I’ve been on a beach.” Not to mention that the last time she had seen waves were when they were lapping at her fingertips as she got sand under her nails being dragged away.

Leading Mac up the steps to the house, he glanced back occasionally, not quite sure how to help when she sniffled, so just awkwardly going on. Finally, they made it to the front door and Grace opened it wide. “Home sweet home,” he let her look in, and enter first.

From it, the warm smell of fresh brewed tea floats on the air.

There's a sign on the door, carved by hand.

The Jasmine Dragon

( @oldgreydragon )

Confused, Grace stares at the door for a long moment. He could have sworn that door wasn’t there a couple seconds ago— and it was made of wood. There wasn’t any wood here, other than some small pieces.

Cautious, but admittedly curious, Grace stepped over to the door and opened it. The warm smell of tea wafted inside. After years of just eating what was available and had nutrients, the thought of tea made his mouth water.

He sets the broom away behind the counter, pulling out cups and a tea pot to set over a small burner.

As the pot boils, he steps through a curtain into the back, returning with two bowls full of noodles and broth, slices of meat and steamed vegetables. He sets one of them in front of Grace with some chopsticks. "There is plenty more, should you want it." He adds.

"But while the ability to bend is something you are born with, it is a skill that must be trained and learned."

Uh— well—

alien. Rocky.

Nice meet Teacher Grace friend!!

They’re actually a child, but I’m pretty sure they’ve been alive longer or just as long as me..? Not totally sure.

It isn’t careless. Only some can have access, and this one is using a computer I’m teaching them about during class.

I mean— if you met an alien and could get access to their internet, wouldn’t you want to?

The one thing Lyra knew about magic was it was unpredictable. You could practice and do something a million times, but there was always a chance of something going wrong. And with how often Lyra shadow stepped to get out of trouble, it was only a matter of time.

Exploring the Veil was dangerous for a half fae. Most beings there didn’t take kindly to the mixed blood. Lyra had been exploring the celestial when she got caught. Her instincts kicked in and she fell through the shadows….

“Wait! Aliens?!” Her wings fluffed up and she bounced excited. “No way! But why did they make this for you? Unless… oh.” The realization hit her harder than Ryland being human. The reason this place didn’t feel right was because it wasn’t Earth. Lyra wasn’t feeling Earth’s signature. She was feeling this planet’s.

She hasn’t meant to freeze up. Her feathers rattling in nerves. Shadow stepping shouldn’t take her so far away. Could she even step back? Of course she could… she thinks. She just needed to recharge her magic.

“I’m going to guess this planet doesn’t have much plant life.” Her laugh came out more as a huff. Oh boy. Another planet. Trying to not panic she focused on what Ryland said.

Blinking at the questions about what science he did, Grace… tried to keep himself from getting too excited and rambling about random things that probably wouldn’t make sense. He took a breath. “I’m a molecular biologist. There was… a bacteria thing eating the sun, so— they sent me to space to a star that wasn’t dimming to figure it out and fix it,” he shrugged. “Didn’t have enough fuel to help my alien friend who was having the same problem and to go home, so— I sent the info back and came here.”

———————

To say Grace was getting a bit bored while drifting through space towards Erid would be an understatement. Sure, he had Rocky and an almost endless amount of digital media to look through, but being in a small space gets to you after some time.

But really, Mary detecting an odd signal from some part of space made hum way more excited than it should have.

Grace had been lazing about at the window while Rocky slept, though he should be close to waking, when Mary cut through the dead air in the ship with a loud announcement.

“Incoming transmission. Language unknown. Attempting to decipher…”

Grace shot up, nearly falling out of the little indent for the window as he scrambled up to his feet. “Wh— a transmission? What do you mean?”

“Unknown transmission.”

Climbing the ladder up to the control room, Grace huffed, “Yes, Mary. I caught that. Where is it coming from? Can you display the message?”

“Message coming sixty two degrees from the top of the Hail Mary. Displaying message.”

Grace pulled himself up into the room, grabbing the sides of the display screen and squinting at hit as he tried to fix his glasses. All that was displayed was a bunch of boxes with question marks in them. Like when someone puts in an emoji your phone doesn’t know or something.

His communication arrays would occasionally emit a call for help. Sig wasn't sure if any other iterators would be able to help him, but hey, they can at least keep him company.

Suddenly, his sensors detect something approaching. Something small, further scans showing it's... a vessel, of some sort. About the size of some medium-sized spaceships his creators would use before they left.

He sends another message:

Just as he was rubbing his face with his palms, Mary interrupted again.

“Blip-A detected.”

Grace shot up from his seat. “Blip— what now? Where?” He scooted over to the display screen, zooming out as far as he could.

“Blip-A detected.”

“Yes, thank you Mary,” he said pointedly as a dot lit up on the sensor map. His breathing hitched. There was something there. And, apparently, it was massive. “Oh. Oh wow. Okay, maybe let’s scoot a little closer. Maybe they’re friendly?” He hopped into the pilot’s seat, strapping in. “Hopefully.”

“Pilot detected.”

Grace huffs as he slows the Hail Mary to a stop a good couple hundred meters from the alien ship. Glancing out the window, he immediately thought — ‘oh. Wow. Weird.’— not really anything more. After Rocky, he’s fairly desensitized to alien ships. Unfortunately.

“How about an outgoing transmission, huh?” He said under his breath, spinning around the chair to open the radio transmitter. Finding a quick auto translator, he set a simple message through every known language and computer language— including morse and binary— and sent it all in the direction of the alien ship in a loop.

“Mary, can you scan the audio for any recognizable languages?” Grace asked, pushing himself over to the transmitter again to send a simple ‘hello’ in audio out to the other ship. Simple.

Thinking of Rocky, Grace had the wonderful idea to reuse the xenonite container Rocky had thrown to Grace at first to attempt communication. While he waited for any response to his audio, Grace made a shoddy replica of the alien spaceship and the Hail Mary, connected by a stick to try and show that they should hook up to each other’s ship to communicate faster. Then, separately, Grace put in Rocky’s little model of O2 so the alien might figure out that he uses that to breathe. It might work. Hopefully.

The overseers alert Sig of a new, smaller object approaching from the direction of the ship. He used one of his sample collectors to get it; they weren't much different than the overseers, other than the fact they had two mechanical arms. He brings it into one of his labs, doing some initial scans while it was on its way there. The object was cylindrical and hollow with some other items inside. He wanted to bring it into his chamber, but... getting it to the lab would allow for more detailed scans, so he opted for that. Besides, he can always bring it there later!

Some gasses escaped the container once he opened it. Good thing he opened it in a lab! The gasses couldn't harm him of course, but he wouldn't be able to analyze them in the chamber. It was mostly oxygen, which matched the two rings with eight beads, though there was also some carbon dioxide and ammonia. Now for the items inside... crude models of his superstructure and the spaceship, but the message was clear (finally!). They... wanted to connect? With a tunnel/bridge? How are they planning to do that? His superstructure didn't have the capability, and, to Sig at least, it didn't seem like the ship was able to create something like that, either.

Still, if they can do it... He'll at least show them where the airlocks are. It'd be a pain to find them without any guidance, after all. Sig guides one of the overseers to the lab, taking it apart with the mechanical arms in there. He just needs the hologram projector and the power source from it. After that, he programs the projector to show the ship's current location relative to the airlocks. Considering everything in Sig's superstructure is currently in a vacuum, he cuts open a small hole in the container with a laser. It's a win-win situation; it'll be easier for whoever is on the ship to open it, and he'll have a sample of the container to study!

“Blip-B detected.”

Perking up, Grace hurried over to the EVA supply area, shoving on his helmet— messing up his glasses, annoyingly. Checking the display for the speed and position of the message, he took it into account as he took a short but nerve wracking space walk to grab it.

Popping it down inside of the gas vent sheild, he opened it up to see, first, there was no gas in it— opening up the glass— and finding a device inside. Picking it up and turning it over revealed… was that a hologram—?? How— it’s possible!? That’s so cool—! Oh, it’s their ship— and… glowing points on it— maybe access points? Airlocks?

“Okay, yeah. Let’s do this,” he said to himself, heading back up to the control room.

Slowly, he brought the Hail Mary’s airlock very very close to the alien ship’s. With some effort, he used the xenonite making things that Rocky had given to him, headed out of the airlock, and started to seal the airlocks together. Easy peasy. Except it took a couple hours. His hands were sore.