Two weeks into the trip to Erid, Rocky breaks the quiet sitting comfortably between them, as Grace calculates Taumoeba populations, and Rocky mixes additional Xenonite. "Want to understand naming ship convention better. Grace explain more about Hail Mary name?"

Grace is honestly surprised, turning away from his laptop to focus on Rocky at the other side of the lab. "Oh uh, sure bud. I… Thought you said it was silly, since Eridians don't do that."

"Eridian's not have chance to develop naming convention for interstellar ship." Rocky retorts before softening. "...Want to understand why, question? Humans have so little time for Hail Mary mission. Earth have so little time to save Sol. Yet still effort put into naming Hail Mary. Why, question?"

Grace feels his throat close for a moment, taking a second to gather himself. "Well it's um... It's sort of a customary thing. Easier to refer to the ship with a distinct name, since we do have a few different space programs, it’s kind of a necessity to stop people getting confused." Grace pauses for a moment. They both know he's not providing the whole story.

"...But it's more than that.” He admits with a shrug. “Humans... We've always tried to put the best of ourselves into space exploration. Even I did, when you and I first met," Grace snorts softly, "I kept trying my best to be on time when meeting you in the tunnel, and I tried to do things accurately, show you good team work, and that I was smart… I wanted to show you what humanity was like, make a good impact."

"Grace make questionable impact on Rocky when first meeting," Rocky jests, but he's completely stopped work on spinning the Xenonite, crowded close to the barrier, rapt with attention. It makes Grace smile slightly.

"Yeah, I was never a model human," Grace jokes back, still smiling, as he gets up from his lab stool, steps over to where Rocky's seated; and sits cross legged on the floor in front of him. "Anyway, we tried to name our interstellar devices after the best human qualities; at the start it was more basic, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 were these interstellar probes launched in the early 1970s because to Pioneer means to be a settler in a new location.”

Grace crinkles his nose, “We don’t use that word much anymore though, it… Well it reminds us of a time when humans treated each other really badly. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were sent out in the late 1970s, they both passed by Saturn, Jupiter, and then kept heading out to deep space. Voyage means like, a journey, so cool word but not much imagination to come up with it."

"Then you've got the telescopes, which I think got a bad deal with the naming system. They're grouped by the type of light they capture in photos; like the exact wave lengths of light, or even radiation that the camera sees. But their names are things like, Proton 1 and 2, Gamma, or sometimes a person. One of the recent ones when I left earth, was the Hubble telescope which is named after astronomer Hubble, or the Einstein Telescope- though I personally think Einstein would be a bit concerned by how many things were named after him. One, two, or five would have been fine, but- Actually, I’ll save that rant for later." Grace shakes his head to clear it.

"Now, my favourites of all time were the rovers," Grace tilts his head for a second. "I think it might be the best thing America did- were the rovers and their names the best thing America did? I think they might be, I think they might actually be- maybe also something in medicine? Possibly? But- anyway, the rovers." Grace blinks and focuses on getting his speech back on track.

"China launched one in 2021 that wasn't related to the Astrophage problem because, well it takes a long time to plan the missions. They did what they could to make it useful, of course, but their options were to not send their rover to Mars, or to send it and see if they could figure out anything useful on the way there. To their credit, I'm pretty sure the CERN report about Astrophage used some of their modelling, or data, I can't quite remember which part. That rover was called, um. Well I can't pronounce it but I can get the computer to read it. They named the rover after one of the sun gods, because Mars is associated with fire. It's a very hot, desert-like planet-"

"Mars actually like desert, or Mars like 'earth desert' meaning cold enough to freeze Eridian life form to statue." Rocky interrupts pointedly. “...Sarcasm.” He adds for good measure.

"Hey, it’s a desert according to the earth definition!" Grace flicks the Xenonite between them teasingly. "Anyway, the American Rovers were named starting around the 1990's. I remember hearing about this worldwide competition to name a rover when I was a kid. You sent in the name of a lady, and wrote an essay explaining how her contribution to the world would connect to the rover mission. I didn't participate because... I kinda thought I didn't have a chance. So I just didn't... Try. I was pretty young then, so... I dunno. Not worth being angry at yourself being a scared kid, right?" Grace laughs a little, but he knows it comes out clunky and awkward.

"...Never good to be angry at pebble self." Rocky says, abandoning his jokes for a tone of pure assurance, stepping even close to Grace. "Eridian's have concept, The water smooths the stone. It mean, environment have big effect on rock. Even toughest material on Erid, break down under certain conditions. Xeonite strong enough to build space ship, to keep Rocky atmosphere from crush Grace- and yet Taumoeba find way through.” Rocky explains, moving both of his hands towards and then past each other, to demonstrate moving through.

“Nothing flawless. Is only natural to be imperfect. Is helpful Eridian's not all the same, to have different strength and weak, better for thrums, better for social groups. Better for all Eridian's, and even other life form on Erid. We believe much of this come back to pebble self. Pebble self must be loved, must be cherished, must be given as much freedom and encouragement as possible. Create best outcome as Eridian grow up…” Rocky hesitates for a moment, and decides to continue.

"Might be only reason Rocky not... Open airlock on Blip-A when crew pass. Must stay- Not just duty. Not just Adrian… But for pebble Rocky. For pebble Rocky, loved, cherished, free. That rocky… Inside of current Rocky. Still here." Rocky sits up a little, leans even closer to the barrier, and lifts a hand to brush at the Xenonite in front of Grace's chest tenderly. "Pebble Grace not deserve anger. Not deserve sadness. Pebble Grace, still right here."

Grace leans away just a fraction, swallowing roughly, and taking the opportunity to pretend he’s just doing it to save Rocky from his leaking. In reality, they probably both know it’s simply because of how affecting Rocky’s words are.

“Grace still leak like pebble… Huh?” Grace murmurs, attempting to lighten the mood, and clearing his throat again to return his gaze to Rocky.

“Grace far leakier than average pebble,” Rocky hums warmly. “Is okay. Cannot help leaking. Part of Grace. Even when disgust, leaking part of Grace. All Grace, good.”

“Would the rest of Erid agree with you, or is that just a you thing?” Grace can’t help but question.

Rocky chitters softly, a deep chuckle. “Rest of Erid… Unlikely agree. Have standards. But Rocky spend much time with Grace, and… Grace is Rocky’s leaky space blob now. Rest of Erid could be disgust at Grace, and Rocky will not let anything happen to Grace. Rocky do better than earth. Rocky love, cherish, free Grace… Promise.” Rocky says achingly gentle.

The words are too much for Grace. He can’t- engage with this directly, right now. This -whatever it is- that exists between them. It’s so precious, and he doesn’t want to mess it up.

And a part of him is aware that Rocky knows. That every time Rocky says something a little too overt, a little too important, Grace shys away. And Rocky lets him.

Just like their very first meeting, Rocky extends a hand, and waits for Grace to take it.

Rocky’s not the type to chase people down.

Rocky will let Grace come to him.

“I’ll um, tell you about the rovers now. The first one we sent out was called Sojourner, after Sojourner Truth- she was an african american slave protester who fought for women’s rights. The kind of person who worked so hard for things that were… People like me, educated, white, men, they didn’t want Sojourner to have the same rights as them. She fought for body autonomy. The right to choose what-” Grace realises abruptly that his hands have fisted in the polyester material over his thighs, and that his jaw feels too tight. “-What happens to your body.” He whispers.

Grace stares at the floor between his crossed legs, and finds his right hand clutching his upper arm. He can feel the force of several people holding him down, pressing him into the earth so hard he can barely breathe- the breath in his throat feels harsh, and he’s crying out, he’s pleading- he wants their hands off his body, get away, get away, stop you’re hurting me- I can’t breathe- don’t do this, don’t put me to sleep, don’t make me- stop, stop, stop!! I don’t want this- I never asked for this, don’t force me-

“Grace?” There’s a nudge at his side, and Rocky's warm body startles him back to the present.

He hadn’t even heard Rocky get into the Xenonite suit, or the air lock.

“Hey,” Rocky murmurs, and after a moment, he climbs into Grace’s lap. “Grace safe now. Grace far away from place where humans hurt humans. Grace good. Grace cherished. Grace free now. Grace never forced against will ever again. Rocky protect Grace.” Rocky’s tone is deep, something resonant and protective rumbling out from him, and pressing deep into Grace's bones and organs.

Thinking about the last time he was on earth has the blood in his body freezing, leaving him shivery, and cold.

But Rocky… Rocky is so warm. No matter what they’ll ever do, Rocky will always be warm and comforting in comparison to Grace. There’s something cosmic in that fact. Rocky’s very being is warm enough to melt the ice that feels like it’s been lodged inside Grace’s DNA for as long as he’s lived.

Grace hugs him tightly. Snuffles a little. Lets himself be free, and disgusting, and fully Grace in a way he’s never been with anyone.

Somewhere between a few minutes, and a few light years later, Grace’s sniffing slows to a stop, his heart rate returns to a normal rhythm, and his head feels clearer.

“Grace feeling better, question?” Rocky asks, tone flecked with fondness.

“Yeah,” Grace heaves in a breath, and pulls back a little.

Rocky lets Grace be for a moment, and then shifts a tiny bit. “Grace say rover names favorite… Tell Rocky about Grace's favorite rovers?”

Grace can’t help but smile weakly. Such a simple sentiment -Tell me about a thing that makes you happy- but it’s never been such literal music to his ears.

“Okay,” Grace says, voice still a little rough. “So,” He swallows again. “After that one, there was Spirit, which- God how do I explain that? Spirit is a human concept that means… Imagine you, but without your body. If I take you out of your body, the thing I took out… Everything that’s you but not your body, that’s what spirit means. All the pieces of you that can’t be found in the body. People also call it essence.”

“Eridians have this idea too,” Rocky says softly. “We call, Structure. Separate from body, part of Eridian not located inside of body. Is whole self. When Eridian die, Structure is gone, body is left behind. Same concept, question?”

“Same concept, statement.” Grace murmurs softly. “The other rover at the same time was called Opportunity, that’s one of my favourites,” Grace can’t help but smile softly. “There’s a model of it on earth, in a museum only a few hours travel from where my home was. I never got to see it though… Never got around to it.” Grace thumbs the back of his neck absently.

“Funny, I never made time to travel a few hours to see Opportunity because the distance seemed like, way too much, even within the same darn country. And now I’ve travelled further than any human ever has, and a few hours to see it… I dunno. It’s funny how life goes.”

Grace shifts a little, stroking the Xenonite over one of Rocky’s legs absently. “Opportunity is a word that means, potential. It’s like, how there are different options to choose from. Any time you choose between different things, we call those opportunities. It’s meaning comes from how, there are so many different choices you could make. Opportunities have a positive meaning; it’s about how there are so many good choices available. Both Spirit and Opportunity were named by this nine year old Russian-American girl. I remember her essay, it was really good. About looking up into the sky, and feeling the spirit that drives us to look outwards, and all the opportunities in front of us.”

“...Is beautiful.” Rocky agrees.

“Yeah,” Grace nods. “And the next three are also my favorites. In 2012 they launched curiosity, which is kind of an emotion, and kind of an experience. Curiosity is what makes humans go towards something we don’t really know. It’s this… Innate feeling, it’s usually slow, we approach something we don’t understand, observe it, and try to work it out. Curiosity is the thing that makes all of that happen. It’s the want to understand, the drive.” Grace licks his lips.

“While I was on earth people would talk about drive in a very specific way. There was the drive to have a family, this kind of sexual, or romantic, or family orientated drive. Or there are career people, and their drive is to achieve their dream job, and keep enjoying the work that they do. And there are progressive activists, who I think have the most moral drive of any of them - they fight for a better world as much as they can. But I always… I never fit in any of those boxes, because I think my drive was always curiosity.”

“I always loved learning, and then when I got into academia I realised it was way more competitive than I thought. It… I started to behave badly because of it. I felt like my idea wasn’t being respected, and I lashed out because of it. I’m not the kind of person who can run on anger, it was never me.” Grace breathes for a second, as he follows the train of thought in real time.

“I didn’t just leave academia because everyone thought I was wrong, I also I knew that my options were to just keep fighting with people for years, to stay in that anger, or get the fudge out… And I really did find something in teaching, a kind of drive to share the things I was curious about and find out what they were curious about- and I just wanted them to chase that. I told them to find whatever it was that makes you curious, and your brain light up, and you feel giddy with joy and passion, and follow that… And I guess I can only hope that it worked out.”

“Curiousity… Is reason Grace not keep running away from Blip-A,” Rocky realisises. “Grace, run away to start- scared, statement. But then, curiosity take over Grace. Grace approach, slowly. Grace observe. Grace interact, to work out Blip-A. Grace brave to enter Rocky tunnel from Blip-A. Bravery come from curiosity, question?”

“Sometimes, yeah. Stupidity also come from curiosity. Lots of times curious humans do things and get hurt.” Grace huffs out an amused laugh.

“When Grace open airlock without testing pressure, and hit against wall,” Rocky titters gently as he recalls.

“Yeah, well I wasn’t expecting 27 times more atmospheric pressure than my normal, okay,” Grace shakes his head in amusement.

“...Rocky glad Grace have stupid, brave, curious.” Rocky murmurs.

“Grace glad Rocky have stupid, brave, curious.” Grace puts a hand against the Xenonite over Rocky’s carapace, grounding himself. “The last line of the curiosity naming essay goes, ‘We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder.’ Wonder is also like curiosity. I always had that line up in my classroom.”

“Is good line,” Rocky clicks.

“After Curiosity was Perseverance, that one launched just before the Hail Mary mission really took shape. We were still studying astrophage, so the mission launched with some extra petrovascopes added, and some sampling. I remember this big debate in the scientific community about if the mission should be completely re-done to use the equipment to land on Venus, and see if we could work out more from there. But the equipment was never going to work on Venus- because the whole thing wasn’t meant for that kind of atmosphere. It would require re-starting from scratch, so NASA just sent it to Mars anyway, which kinda is summed up in the name.” Grace shrugs a little.

“Perseverance means, no matter what you keep trying to make something work. I tried really hard to teach my kids how to persevere in a healthy way, perseverance should always be checked by how much progress is being made. If you’re doing something over and over but not progressing, it usually ends badly. Sometimes you gotta take a break, or try something different. But if you’re persevering by writing a bit of an essay each day, then that’s positive, because you’re progressing each time. That’s what the perseverance rover did, it showed how each time we sent a rover we were trying something new, something different, pushing the boundaries as much as we could while not doing something too reckless that would harm the mission.”

“...Grace not good example of this, Grace very reckless. Grace destroy ship during predator collection, Grace pin against hull during predator collection, Grace nearly kill Grace Rocky during predator collection- Rocky now realise Grace very bad at predator collection… Grace will not be allowed in zoo thrum when arrive to Erid.”

“Well that works in our favor, I can barely handle one animal, I don’t need anymore,” Grace flicks Rocky’s xenonite again, and there’s a protesting squeal from inside.

“When on Erid, Grace is one closer to animal. Animal, alien- be careful Rocky not call Grace pet.”

“Okay please don’t do that,” Grace cringes, and it makes Rocky laugh-sing in delight.

“See! Now Grace not happy!” Rocky trills.

“Okay, okay, just one rover left- well, okay. Technically not a rover, on board the Perseverance rover was a small helicopter- the flying machines in the movie-”

“Mission not possible!” Rocky cuts in excitedly.

“Yeah, that one,” Grace nods. “Very small version of that was on the Perseverance rover, and we called it Ingenuity. It means, to come up with new things. New ideas, or ways to do things. Ingenuity means, using what you have to make something new, or thinking about existing things in new ways.” Grace lets his gaze trail over Rocky thoughtfully. “...You know, you do a lot of ingenuity. Making new things with barely anything, it’s very impressive.” Grace drops his gaze, cheeks red even as he hears Rocky purring proudly.

“Rocky like this one best… Wish Rocky could fly,” He murmurs.

“We’re in a spaceship, to humans, that’s basically the same thing,” Grace says, and Rocky waves a hand dismissively.

“Humans manage to make flying machine on other planet, Eridian’s not make flying machine on Erid yet.”

“Well you have all of human resources at your fingertips, and you’re the best engineer I’ve ever met. If someone can fly on Erid, I bet it’ll be you.” Grace can’t help but sit back on his hands, admiring Rocky. “You say I’m stupid and reckless, but I think you’ve got a lot more of that than you’re willing to admit,” Grace feels his smile curl up teasingly.

“Rocky did not use to be,” Rocky defends, and then hunkers down and shuffles shyly. “...Rocky get this from Grace.”

“Whatever you say bud,” Grace hums. “...I wish that there was a way to get new information on the laptops,” Grace laments, looking over his shoulder to the computer in the lab. “Wonder if the other missions that were planned after Hail Mary ever launched? I can’t remember any of the planned missions, except that the Australian's were supposed to launch a probe in 2030 called the Roo-Ver. I always thought their names were the best of all the English speaking countries," Grace chuckles.

"All Australian jokes Kangaroo based, question? Australian Soccer team Soccer-roos, catastrophic failure Roo-ined, Currency dollar-roos?" Rocky asks, genuinely perplexed, and Grace can’t help but laugh throughout most of his polite questioning.

"Ohhhh... Grace just make humour, give Rocky false information as joke," Rocky demands, stamping a hand twice, half annoyed, half fond.

"No, no!" Grace shakes his head, wiping away tears, "They- I mean, I dunno about those last two, but they were definitely supposed to launch a lunar lander genuinely called that." Grace sobers for a minute, his smile twitching, as he glances out of the port hole window. "I hope it went well," He murmurs.

"Grace brain not remember correct, still one to explain… Hail Mary name, question?" Rocky prompts gently.

"The Hail Mary is actually kind of an outlier. It has a slightly more... Negative association, I guess. Like I told you before, it means a final attempt, usually not the first idea, usually not the best idea, usually the idea you're left with when all the other better ideas have failed. That's what the Mary is." Grace lightly pats the aluminium floor next to him.

Rocky is quiet for a time, processing this. "But... Mary not fail. Every other plan before, not work. Astrophage still on Sol. Many humans predict to die. Mary work exactly as engineered. Beatles get Taumoeba to Sol. And..." Rocky presses closer. "Mary got Grace to Rocky. Mary got Grace Rocky to Adrian Planet. Now Mary get Grace Rocky to Adrian Eridian." He pauses for a second, and pulls his limbs in, a little smaller. "Rocky sorry, that Mary not get Grace to home."

Grace considers this, thinking. And then he pushes off his hands, sitting upright, and smiling way too wide, feeling his eyes get a little teary in tandem. "Nah. Mary did exactly that."

Rocky tilts his carapace up, confused. "What Grace mean?"

"I mean," Grace lets his arms encircle Rocky again, exhaling a deep breath, contented. "That you're right. Hail Mary should bring Grace home... But it already succeeded at that mission. It brought Grace to Rocky. I'm more home with you than I could be anywhere else."

"Grace more home with Rocky than on earth, question?" Rocky chirps softly, awed.