#ditbow fic

Simon waits.

"Hurt Grace."

Oh, he's holding a grudge. That's what this is.

"I apologized. It's over and done with."

"Still do it."

Simon raises his eyebrows. "What else do you want from me? Huh? I can't un-throttle your friend."

Rocky taps a few times on the interior of his glass ball, then says in a slow, deliberate kind of way, "Grace is Rocky friend. Grace bravest human Rocky know. Grace good." Rocky pauses, body very still. "Rocky try to be good to Simon. If Simon hurt Grace, Rocky will not be good."

A laugh simmers in Simon's chest at the thought of being tackled by a flurry of xenonite and stone, but the sincerity and warning in Rocky's voice cools it quiet.

"Got it."

There's a stretch of uncomfortable silence, then Rocky takes a clawed hand, balls it into a fist, and sets the "knuckles" of his fist to rest against the glass. He waits, as if wanting Simon to do something in response.

"What?"

"Deal," Rocky says.

"Okay." Simon points at Rocky's gesture. "The hell is that?"

"Is human agreement sign. Simon mirror sign." Rocky taps his fist on the glass twice for emphasis. "Deal."

Simon rolls his eyes, but raises his own fist to the glass. "Deal."

"Good. Simon-Rocky not have problem."

Chapter 2 - An Agreement: - BT: Simon encounters the Light, which asks Simon if he would truly give up everything just to survive. Simon agrees, and is transported to CT. - CT: Simon wakes up on the Hail Mary, and stumbles around the ship at 'night', believing the vessel to be of C.O.I. origin. He finds a distracted Grace and elects to avoid him before he is seen.

Chapter 3 - Unidentified User: - Grace does some math and determines that—as long as new Astrophage generations are kept relatively isolated from Taumoeba—Astrophage has very little chance of evolving a defense within any fathomable length of time. - Simon hides in the Enrichment Bay, falling into fitful sleep in the room's control pit.

Chapter 4 - Contaminant: - Mary detects a foreign contaminant that leads Grace and Rocky to the Enrichment Bay. - Grace enters and finds Simon passed out in the bay's control pit. He pats Simon down and touches a broken rib, which sends Simon raging awake. Grace is half-strangled but manages to incapacitate a weakened Simon.

Chapter 5 - Astrofuel Initiative: - BT: A year after the discussion in chapter 1, Stratt and Hatch are finishing up the launch of Anchor I, the first Martian space station and the debut vessel for the longstanding "Astrofuel Initiative"—the world's current collaborative space program. - CT: Simon—delirious and semi-conscious—remembers his post-arrest interrogation, and remembers agreeing to the C.O.I's Conviction Realization program. In a fit of pain and rage, Simon attacks what he believes is Captain Ava, but turns out to be Grace. - Grace and Rocky manage to get a fully passed-out Simon to the ship's infirmary. Chapter 6 - New Human: - A few days pass, and Simon is healing up incredibly well. Simon wakes up confused but accusing Grace of being a C.O.I. agent. - Rocky barges through the door and greets Simon, who, to both Rocky and Grace's surprise, is familiar with Eridians as a concept. - Grace determines from this revelation that Simon must be from the future. Chapter 7 - Spacewalk: - Simon refuses to trust Grace on his word alone that the stars outside the Hail Mary's viewports are real, and that Simon is likely from a different time. - So, Grace takes Simon for a spacewalk, and Simon sees the stars in person.

Chapter 8 - Everett's Interpretation: - Grace, Rocky and Simon have a whiteboard meeting to work out details about their respective timelines. - Grace explains that, since Simon is from the future and speaking with him without causing any space-time disruptions, Everett's Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics must be true. Basically, by traveling to CT, Simon has caused this timeline to branch off from Simon's original timeline (BT). - Simon is careful NOT to go into much detail about Eden, or explain that he was a prisoner to the C.O.I.

Chapter 9 - Phase III: - BT: The beetles have returned to Earth, but the Astrophage Initiative is still going strong. - Stratt meets with Earth's leaders to discuss what she thinks is going to be the Initiative's shutdown and reallocation of funds towards Project Hail Mary's completion, only to be told that, no, Project Hail Mary's closeout will languish at half-funding, with the remaining funds put towards Martian colonization and Astrophage breeding efforts. - Stratt speaks with Hatch about their options. If the world's leaders can't be swayed, the Initiative needs to pull off Martian colonization for much cheaper than estimated. That way, the needed funds can be put towards PHM's completion. - Hatch suggests the Martian Geodomes be printed directly onto the planet out of xenonite, which would cut building costs down to a thread. The only problem is...the primary use of these habitats would be to breed Astrophage. If Astrophage is bred in xenonite domes, the storage tanks would be very vulerable to Taumoeba infestation.

Chapter 10 - Laundry: - CT: Rocky and Grace tidy up the ship and discuss Simon while he sleeps. Rocky tells Grace he thinks Simon may be hiding something. - Grace washes Simon's clothes in the lab sink, rinsing blood-tinged water down the drain and hanging the clothes up to dry.

Chapter 11 - Deal: - Simon wakes up ahead of Grace and finds his clothes drying. He's confused as to why Grace would do such a thing for him. - After finding his Eden pendant, Simon has a flashback of moving to the Station, then sees a vision of the explosion that killed DuBois and Shapiro. He's not sure what he's seeing, but whatever it is, he knows it doesn't feel like a memory. - Rocky shows Simon the little plants in the lab. Chapter 12 - Qualifications: - Grace and Simon take some time to ask more about each others' past. - Grace learns that Simon used to be a 'tiller's apprentice', and that Simon's mother was a scientist. Simon confesses that he and his mom moved off Mars due to interplanetary tensions. - After noting that his coffee tastes odd, Grace zones out into a strange vision where he is a child and speaking to a woman he doesn't recognize. Simon literally snaps him out of it, and Grace only vaguely remembers the hallucination.