Ethan 🌌🪽

Grace stared at the cells in front of him. He adjusted the settings of the microscope slightly.

Okay. That wasn't normal. Staring him dead in the eyes were a combination of circular, oval and rectangular cells. Huh.

He leaned back in his chair and sighed. This wasn't making sense. The tree root thing that had sprouted from Hemo's arm had been cut into extremely thin slices and placed in sliders. On one such slider was a little portion from near the base of Hemo's arm. This couldn't be possible. Plant, human and animal cells couldn't exist in the same body together, let alone thrive like these ones were. It really shouldn't have been possible.

Grace sucked in a deep breath. The implications of this were astounding. Would Hemo be exothermic or endothermic? Did he even hold heat at all, considering the plant matter apparently in his body. Maybe he was endothermic but also poikilothermic— he could hold heat in his body, but it majorly fluctuated based on environmental influences. But even then, that wasn't possible. Could he change Hemo's environment enough to test this? Probably not, since he knew Hemo would think of it like an experiment (it technically was), and he might not like the idea of experiments done on him. Besides, to get the medical lab hot enough for long enough for Hemo's body to change temperature would certainly mean he couldn't go in for hours. He would pass out immediately in that heat. And Hemo needed to eat. So, no doing that.

He shifted in his seat, causing Rocky to look up. The Eridians who worked on the Hail Mary to put it back into commission installed seats high enough that Rocky could comfortably sit under, but also low enough for Grace to climb into. They were hesitant at first, but Rocky said it was for safety during sleeping in the lab, so they obliged. He was now sat underneath it, using one of his many tools for a blanket of some kind.

'Grace friend, what is wrong?' Rocky spoke softly. Him and Grace had a very long, very uncomfortable talk after he went to go talk to Hemo.

He was scared.

Eridians knew very little about radiation still, even with Grace's teachings. He was scared that they had missed protections against it while rebuilding the Hail Mary. He lost his first crew to it once; he wasn't ready to lose another. The only reason he went on the mission was because Grace did. He wasn't going to let him go alone back up into space. Not without his best friend.

'These silly cells. They can't exist in the same biome together. Plant, human, animal. Probably some kind of eel, considering Hemo's mutations. They just- this science is not possible.' The human put his hands to his face and sighed again, this time deeper. The chair squeaked as he turned in it to see Rocky. There was a headache brewing behind his eyes. There always seemed to be a headache whenever he discovered something new. Maybe it was his brain recalibrating to the information. It hurt when he met Rocky, when he first experimented with the Astrophage. Hell, it even hurt when he landed on Erid.

Rocky was quiet for a moment.

'Radiation was not possible science to us when we first set out into the stars. Now we know, and we study it.'

Grace felt his heart crack a little. He didn't mean to remind Rocky of that. An apology bubbled in his throat, and he caught it before it came out. Rocky would just change the mood around to berating Grace. The man had quite the habit of apologising when he didn't need to. Rocky didn't like when he apologised for things he didn't do, so he grew into a habit of telling his human off for it. If he couldn't control it, he shouldn't apologise. Radiation wasn't his fault.

Grace cleared his throat softly. 'I-uh. Yeah. So, the cells are from three different categories of species. I don't know how they could exist next to each other without either rejecting or just simply dying.'

'Grace friend, I think I know how.'

The human looked down at Rocky in confusion. The alien friend pointed up at an overhead screen. Grace always put it on just in case he needed to move around the room for some reason so he could keep watching his experiments. Rocky was fond of watching him work, so he sat with him and watched the screen too. The scientist almost fell out of his chair in shock.

Two cells were clinging to each other; a human blood cell and a plant cell. The human blood cell was slowly being consumed by the other. Heterotypic cell fusion. That's how they all survived. The plant cells were consuming the human blood and animal cells in fusion. However that could happen, Grace had no idea, but he didn't particularly care right now. All he knew is that he finally got an answer. They survived through consummation and survival of the fittest.

Without even thinking about it, Grace started bouncing in place, his feet performing short, sharp stomps while a laughed ran its way up his throat and from his mouth. The table made a creaking noise as he threw his body against it, eye pressing against the microscope. And yep, sure as ever, were the two cells merging together into one. The nuclei seemed to want to be separate, however. Good for them, and good for Grace! He now had a multinucleated cell; a syncytium made of human and plant origin. He buzzed with excitement. Rocky made small chittering noises from under his chair, showing his own excitement at the discovery. He didn't exactly know why this was so exciting, but yay! More science! Science no one else has touched!

Grace found himself grabbing at the closest laptop to write all of this down. His hands could barely stay still enough to type. Metal squealed against metal as Grace slid the laptop onto the lab table, screen blaring to life. Rocky made a pleased sound and returned to his blanket-creation. Grace smiled, and that was all that mattered to him in that moment.

🚀

The man pushed back from the table, letting the wheels of his chair bring him over to Rocky. The friend had repositioned himself up on a xenonite table on the other side of the clear substance. The re-working of the Hail Mary resulted in a mishmash of human and Eridian metals. They had expanded some of the rooms out to include spaces for Rocky to work in his own atmosphere without need of the suit. Xenonite held the pressure well, so they used what they knew best.

Grace wheeled himself into a hole in the xenonite. He could put his legs under an overhang, much like a desk, and pressed his hands into the more flexible alloy of cerium and xenon to point at things Rocky was doing. At first of hearing that particular alloy, Grace was not keen on touching it, but when the scientists on Erid exposed some of his cloned flesh to it and nothing happened, his anxiety lessened.

'Whatcha doing, Rock?' He had wheeled over to just annoy his best friend. The report was getting boring. He knew he didn't need to write one, but Eridians were incredibly intelligent and could probably do something with this information. So, he wrote one anyway.

'Making a blanket. Insulation. You said Hemo might not be able to regulate his temperature well. I am making a blanket that can do that for him.' Rocky held up the blanket for Grace to touch. He pressed forward in the soft wall material and felt it. The material seemed to be organic and woven together like how humans would weave reed baskets. And it was very heavy.

Grace chuckled, withdrawing his hands. 'He threw you across the room and now you're making him a present?'

Rocky tilted his body before replying in short, sharp chirps of regret. 'Hemo was scared. He did not know where he was. I misjudged and approached without checking he was alright. It reminded me of you, Grace friend. I feel bad for upsetting him. Hopefully he will be calmer with the blanket.

Grace withdrew his hand from the blanket, a little stunned. Rocky was a very giving kind of guy, but this was excessive. But he could tell Rocky was proud of his creation— as organic material wasn't exactly his line of work, metal was— so he didn't comment on it. He just gave it a small nod and turned back to his laptop. Oh shucks. It died. A black screen stared back at the human instead of his hours of work and meticulously drawn diagrams. A short huff of breath left his nose.

.・。.・゜🩸・.・🚀・゜・。.

Simon rose from the medical bay bed once more, head pounding. The stump of his left arm was in absolute agony. A muffled groan slipped from his lips.

The demon twirled down from the ceiling once more. It assessed him for a moment. 'You require an additional dose of pain medication as your last dose was five hours ago. Hold still.' One part of the arm rose again, and there were the sounds of mechanical movement from above. The metal lowered again, this time bearing a needle. There was a red, slightly translucent liquid sloshing around inside. A terrified eye locked onto the sharp metal. Before he could realise what he was doing, Simon let out a deep, rumbling noise directly from his chest. His hand scrambled to find something to hold onto so he could pull himself away from the demon.

Clattering came down the hall. The door, previously with a handle but now automated, slid open with a short hiss. It wasn't the angel. It was Rocky.

He surveyed the scene for a moment. Then his little rock limbs were flailing as he ran inside. What sounded like angered chirps and hums filled the space. Simon automatically shrank back into the firm bedding. However, the alien didn't rush him. Didn't climb up and berate him for the physical harm he caused earlier (that morning? Yesterday? Time was hard to tell). Instead, the rocky amalgamation skittered up to the demon and began waving two arms about. The thing seemed to be able to understand it. The needle arm retreated back up into the ceiling.

Rocky turned to Simon. He hummed a low tune softly. A blank, brown eye stared forward with a slight crease to his eyebrows. He hummed again. Simon didn't respond.

The thing held a hand up, or was it a claw, and exited the room. He returned a moment later and made a noise similar to clicking.

'Can you hear me now?' A masculine voice spoke through a system overhead. Simon, admittedly, jumped at the sound. Had this tiny little rock thing actually turned on some kind of translation thing so Simon could hear him? How smart was this guy?

'Uh, yeah. Yeah, I can hear you.' He murmured. The hand was still gripping the bedframe tightly. Rocky seemed to notice, responding by tilting his body towards it. Simon let go and shook his hand out a little.

'Excellent!' The rock figure clapped two of his claws together in an imitation of human joy. Next thing Simon knew, he was climbing up onto the end of the bed.

Simon stiffened once more. 'Where's Grace?' He found himself saying.

'Working. He never stops–' a pause in the translating voice, but not Rocky's chirping '–working when he gets excited about something.'

Simon found himself relaxing a little. Grace was just working on something else. He was close, just somewhere else. He could live with that fact.

'What was that pause? You said something else, but the human voice didn't say it.'

Rocky let out a few amused hums, sounding similar to human laughter. 'It is what Grace would call a swear word, a curse. He does not like cursing himself, so I do not do it around him. He does not know that my people use swear words. He has not programmed them in yet due to this.'

The human-like was surprised. It seemed these two aliens worked together pretty well and could understand each other's languages perfect. Yet a huge chunk was missing because Grace didn't like swearing? That seemed... counterproductive.

Simon lowered himself back down onto the bed. He was careful to avoid laying on his stump for an arm as to not cause more pain for himself. Rocky seemed to notice his pain and chirped something. The voice didn't speak aloud, so it must have just been a noise, similar to a human grunting or humming.

'Arm, give Hemo some of Grace's pain medication.' Rocky spoke up to the demon arm. Simon stiffened once more, back on guard within a second. He opened a mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Rocky. 'This will not be the needle. Grace does not do well with them, so he had our engineers program Arm to give him liquid or tablet medication instead. You will have some of his, do not worry.'

He couldn't help but worry. That arm could descend from the ceiling again and quick as anything give him a poke. He didn't trust it at all.

Bu, true to Rocky's word, it came down once more with two pills held in a metal scooper on one attachment with a bottle of assumed water held in the rubber grip. Simon was hesitant, but he took it all after a few beats of silence. He held the powdery white pills in his hand while the bottle slid in between his thighs. A glance was thrown at Rocky.

'It is just morphine, Hemo. It will help with the pain. Grace says it sometimes makes him sleepy, just a warning.' Rocky spoke as he skittered out of the room again, calling behind him as he went. Simon turned his gaze from the pills and to Rocky, then back to the meds. He didn't trust them. He should, seeing all of the help Grace and Rocky had given him, but he was still wary.

He bit his lip. If he wanted to feel better, he'd take them. They were easy. Grace wouldn't drug him like that; he was too nice and too nervous of a person to do that. So, he raised the pills to his lips and took them both. He tried twisting the cap of the bottle one way, but it wouldn't budge. He tried the other right as the pills in his mouth were starting to dissolve, leaving a bad taste. The water inside was quickly shoved down to get it off his tongue. He sputtered and coughed, bile crawling up his throat once he swallowed. They tasted fucking disgusting.

Simon was laid back down when Rocky came back into the room. The coughing had caused something in his chest to move, and he needed to curl up before he vomited. The alien was dragging something behind him when he re-entered. Hemo didn't even bother to open his eyes.

'Are you alright? What happened?' Rocky sounded a little concerned as he lugged the large thing behind him. A claw grabbed the end of the table so he could pull himself up.

'Just... sore.' Simon muttered. He didn't want to speak again. He felt the bile in his throat, threatening to spill over if he even dared to move a muscle.

Rocky stared at him for a moment. He then came up in front of the human-hybrid, large fabric in hand, and draped it over him gently. It was warm, and it felt nice against Simon's too cold body. He finally stirred to look up at Rocky blearily. Yep, the morphine had kicked in already, Rocky could absolutely tell.

' 'm sorry. F' throwin' you 'cross the room. Wa' mean of me.' Simon slurred as he wrapped his hand around the edge of the blanket. His feet pulled at the edges so he could pin them down, trapping the heat against his body. Rocky chittered softly.

'That was not your fault, Hemo. You were scared. You reacted the way any human would. I am not hurt. I forgive you.' Rocky pulled the blanket tighter around Simon's body. Sleep was threatening to claim the man once more. Involuntarily, he let out a small whimper of pain. He hated how much more vulnerable he felt close to sleep. His guard lowered automatically, his body failed to respond to his commands. By complete instinct Simon curled up more into himself, the cheek without the extra mouth pressed against a stiff pillow.