Pairings: pre-Ryland Grace x GN!Reader
Summary: Prequel (of sorts) to my last fic. You wake up with no memories in what appears to be a medical lab. At least you're not alone.
A/N: I intend for the reader to be a living being/medical expert, both there to study the living competent and properties of astrophage and to help with any medical emergencies the crew would’ve had (let's pretend there’s not a med bot for most of that shhhh). I am also a fashion major, and I am absolutely shit at science and math, so please do not expect scientific accuracy or knowledge from these fics.
Also, it’s confession time, I haven’t seen the movie yet lol. So I'm basing the wake-up sequence on the book. And I changed some aspects of it just bc a. I think having another person in the beginning would have influenced the events a bit and b. I don’t fully remember it lol.
A voice is speaking to you, but your limbs feel so heavy, and you're so comfortable, so you let the voice lull you back to sleep.
The next time you're aware, the voice is still speaking. You groan and try to lift your arms. They don’t move. Startled, you try to respond to the voice, but all that comes out is something akin to a groan.
Ok, think, your name is… shit. You don’t remember your name. Panic starts to set in, but you push it aside the best you can.
Ok, next thing, where are you? There’s something soft beneath you; you assume it’s a bed. You can feel things on your body, likely electrodes and tubes, that your brain supplies. Maybe this was a hospital? Maybe you were in a car crash of sorts. That would explain the apparent amnesia. Your heart starts to race at the thought, you hear the voice speak again, before a heaviness floods your limbs, and you fade into unconsciousness.
The next time you wake up, you're able to peel your eyes open, and you groan at the light above you.
“What's two plus two?” That same voice is speaking again.
“Four,” you respond, delighted to realise your voice is working again, never mind how hoarse it sounds.
With considerable effort, you're able to get your arms to push your upper body up. You take stock of your body, you're naked (lovely), but the electrodes and tubes you had felt before appear to have all been removed, and, damn, you're ripped as hell.
You spend a moment ogling your newfound arm muscles before a groan, followed by the sound of something hitting the floor, snaps you out of it. Your head whips around until you spot a man lying on the ground next to another bed in a daze.
“Hello?” Your voice comes out raspy and quiet, so you clear it and try again, “Hey, can you hear me?”
This seems to snap him out of his daze, and he looks up at you.
“Do you know where we are?” are the first words out of his mouth.
You shake your head, “No clue, I assume you don’t either?”
Before either of us can speak again, the computer interrupts us, “What is your name?”
Were both silent before he sat up and turned to you
“You don’t happen to know my name?” he questions.
“Man, I don’t even know my own.” Your car crash theory might actually be sound.
This guy could've been in the car with you. Or maybe he hit you with his car, or vice versa. But double retrograde amnesia, huh, that is odd. It’s relatively hard for a human to sustain significant TBI, and for the amount of memory loss you're both exhibiting, the range would have had to be moderate to severe damage to your temporal lobes. The information comes to you naturally, along with several other more scientific terminologies and possible diagnoses. This might mean you knew the medical area, maybe you were a doctor?
The man was now struggling to his feet, his legs seemingly still unsteady. You slide off the bed, eager to test your own legs. As soon as they hit the ground, you're struck by the fact that both of you are starkly naked in the presence of someone you're not sure if you know or not. A very handsome someone nonetheless.
Your face heats slightly, and you grab a sheet off the bed and wrap it around yourself till it forms a makeshift dress of sorts. The man’s attention is drawn to you by the shuffling of fabric, and he instantly comes to the same realization you did. Murmuring a few apologies under his breath, he also wraps a sheet around himself. The two of you stand there for a beat until he speaks again.
An awkward smile graced his face. You allow yourself to let out a short laugh at his attempted joke, and some of the tension seeps from the room. Looking around, you notice two other beds,
“Let’s try to wake them,” you say, and make your way over to the bed closest to you.
If it truly was a crash, maybe these people were also involved in the crash; hopefully, they still had their memories. The chances of all four of you having amnesia from brain injuries were extremely low.
And… They are very much dead.
You stare at the withered body of the person lying there. Their skin was sunken, close to decaying, and you couldn’t make out any features. You look out to see that the man had come to the same discovery at the other bed.
“Fuck”, you breathe out and run a hand over your face
“Incorrect. Attempt two. What is your name?” you startle slightly at the voice, one you now realise has a slightly mechanical tinge to it, likely an AI or computer built into the room.
“John”, the man replies, and you whip your head around to face him.
“Incorrect. Attempt three. What is your name?”
He frowns and turns to you, “Hey, I’m a white American male, I was just playing the odds.”
You survey the room again until you spot a hatch “Hey, help me open this.”
The two of you get the hatch open and climb into another room, this one filled to the brim with scientific tools, graphs and machines.
“Shit, I think I'm a scientist.” The man next to you remarks, and after a confused look from you, he elaborates, “I know the names of everything in here. I have to have some experience with this stuff.”
You nod, “I felt the same about some of the medical stuff downstairs, even now I can’t recognise some of the things in this room, but I know a few. And some of them I can relate to some sort of medical use. I think this room disproves my car crash theory, though.”
He laughs, “I think it might help my theory. I’ve been thinking we're in quarantine for some sort of disease.”
“Might be. Let’s take a look around, see if we can find anything.”
At your suggestion, the two of you spread out, surveying the room. You come across a group of boxes labelled various things,s but one box label stands out to you: Astrophage-Earth-Samples-1.
“Astrophage? That's what we're calling the stuff killing our earth now?” you say, raising an eyebrow.
A woman sits across from you at your dining room table. You had given her a cup of tea as a courtesy, but now it sat slowly losing heat in front of her.
“Yes, Doctor Ryland Grace coined it. The name will be released to the public in the next twenty-four hours.”
The name sparks some memories; you must have read one of his papers at some point. You make a mental note to check it out later.
“Huh, so I get ground floor access to this information for only a few hours, I feel so special." you say dryly.
“Yes, you are,” the woman says, either missing your sarcasm or purposefully ignoring it. “In fact, you have been selected to join us in the study of it.”
“Me?” you say, “I study living things, not space matter.”
“Astrophage is living, another discovery by Doctor Grace. Your research in the atomic to medical level of living things could be useful. We want to know its similarities and differences to other living things. Whether it has a weakness we can use or not. How could we weaponise said weakness against it?” She sips her tea now and makes a slight face at how cold it's gone.
You purse your lips, “I got a life here, I can’t just-”
“You will. humanity depends on it, and if you're worried about leaving any loved ones behind, imagine telling them you turned down the chance to research something that might save their lives.”
She’s efficient, you'll give her that, brutal but still effective.
“Ok, give me a few days to get my affairs in order.” you relent.
“No, you leave tonight,” she replies, pushing the still full cup of tea away from her.
“Fine!” You throw your hands up. “Tonight. leave so I can pack.”
The memory hits you like a truck. Finally, some information!
“We might be at a research base!” you exclaim, turning to your partner to find that he has constructed a swinging contraption made of string and a tape measure.
“And our planet might be dying,” he says.
“Yeah, because of a substance called astrophage."
He looks up at that and says, “Huh, I hadn’t remembered that far back yet,” before going back to his swinging contraption.
Although unsure exactly what he is doing, he seems focused, so you take the moment to silently observe the person you're stuck with. He’s tall, probably about 6 feet, his hair is blonde and quite messy, but it suits the whole hot nerdy look he’s got going on. Even in the ridiculously toga look you've both got going on, he’s an attractive man, in an awkward, probably talks about microbiology on the first date kind of way.
Wow, you've been stuck with the guys for less than an hour, and you're already thinking about how hot he is. You're internally chiding yourself when his voice finally cracks through the silence.
“I think I think we're in space.”
It’s been hours now. The machine had continued to pester the two of you for your names, and on a whim you had said Ryland Grace. This had worked and unleashed a new wave of memories into the man’s brain, causing him to remember that he was, in fact Ryland Grace and he was able to recall your name as well.
Thank god too, the man- Ryland and you had started brainstorming names you could call either other, and you really felt like Emperor Comatose really didn’t fit him.
After exploring the cockpit and storage area, you were finally able to procure clothing. The task after that was… hard. After staring at the bodies of your fallen crewmates for a few moments, you both decided the best option was to put them in space. You and Ryland carried Yao Li-Jie and Olesya Ilyukhina, as gently as you could, to the airlock and sent them one by one into space. You heard Ryland whisper something over them as their bodies faded away, and you let a few tears drop down your face. You may not remember them much now, but you did know them. The two of you stood there for some time, a moment of vigil for the fallen.
Eventually exhaustion crashed over both of you again, apparently comas weren't that restful on the body. Now you both sat on your respective beds silently eating the food paste the robot had procured.
A sniff pulls your attention towards Ryland.
“Shit, sorry,” he says, rapidly blinking and tilting his head back, “S’lot for one day.”
Can’t balance the guy at all, lord knows how many times frustrated and overwhelmed tears have pricked at your eyes in the past few hours. You place your, now empty, paste tube on your bed and walk over till you're perched on his bed.
“You’re ok, today… alot." That's putting it mildly. Today felt like getting hit by an actual car instead of a hypothetical one.
“We’re going to figure this out, Ryland. You're not alone out here, I might not remember anything as well but I’m sure everything will come back for us in time.” You hesitate for a moment unsure how he'll react before reaching across the bed to grasp his hand in yours. “You're not alone.” You repeat “I’m here. And I’m going to do everything I can to help us.”
He smiles softly and squeezes your hand in thanks. The comforting silence stretches for a bit before you let out a sigh and move to stand up.
“Bed, for both of us. I don’t want your legs giving out on me tomorrow.” You give him a teasing grin as you make your way back towards your own bed.
He lets out a small laugh and lays back in his own bed. “Night.”
“Night, Ryland.” you reply, your eyes already drifting close. A last thought drifts through your mind before unconsciousness claims you. At least you weren’t alone out here.
You: What the hell is going on and what the fuck am I doing.
Ryland: They're so confident and determined wow I’m so glad I’m stuck on this ship with someone so self-assured :)
I cannot imagine the horror of realizing you're alone in space thank god Rocky shows up for Ryland in canon.
Aroace spec Ryland is very near and dear to my heart. Personally I headcanon him as demiromantic/sexual, which means if I write more fics I’ll probably show him slowly falling for the reader as opposed to attraction at first sight. However, reader on the other hand is like god damn he’s hot asf within an hour of them meeting.
This one was just mainly about the reader but I hope you still enjoyed reading. Like before if anyone sees any grammer/spelling/storyline errors or if you just want to say hi feel free to comment!
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