#phm x reader

𑄝 Pairing: Once again, this is a Ryland Grace x Reader x Yautja (oc?) pairing, but they won't show up 'til way later in the story!

𑄝 Summary: After seven years of searching for life and finding nothing, you and your crew finally discover something drifting through the endless void of space. Despite your doubts, you choose to bring it aboard, hoping this will be humanities first true discovery of other life.

𑄝 Warnings: A curse word is hiding away somewhere in there , other than that, none as of now.

𑄝 Word count: 2,051

//Part 1//Part 2(You are here!)//

The retrieval bay had never been this quiet.

The cold, recycled air made your skin prickle. Usually, the room is filled with the sounds of maintenance drones and the occasional argument between Sean and Mother over why a machine he repaired some time ago has suddenly decided it hates him and is making his life miserable.

Now there was nothing, well, not quite nothing. The sounds around you were kind of muffled as you kept your focus on Erna and Lucan while they prepared to retrieve it.

The thing floats outside the observation window, dark, its surface shimmering faintly in the light. For the first time, they weren't looking at another dead end but at something alive, something that had come from elsewhere, and that something might be the reason they wouldn't go back home empty handed. “Everyone, remember the procedure," Sirius says, breaking the silence. His voice is calm, but everyone knows it's forced.

"Full quarantine. No direct contact. No unnecessary decisions without consulting with either Sirius or me," You command the two as you turn toward the medic.

"Casey, you are to monitor their vitals every second they are out there." You are not taking the risk of anyone on your crew getting hurt. The words come out steady, but your chest is tight, too tight for your liking.

You try to keep your face unreadable, but the thought of losing someone on your watch gnaws at your mind, and as you glance around, you notice that everyone else don't seem that much bothered by the fact that two of their own are going to be out there with the thing, other than you.

There's a cold awareness that this mission could go wrong in ways you cannot imagine. You force yourself to take a deep breath and stay collected, giving the crew something solid to lean on, even though it doesn't seem like they need it. But you can’t ignore the way your heart's pounding in your ear just by thinking about the decision that you've made and that you’re sending two of your crew out there. It feels wrong. Something about this screams at you to just leave it alone. Find something else. STAY AWAY.

You know this is the whole point of the mission. The reason why you all were sent out to space in the first place. “To find proof of life other than on Earth.” But you still can’t help the feeling of wanting to leave that thing out there and keep everyone on the ship where they’re all safe and away from it.

With a sigh and a shake of your head, you turn towards Oskar as a distraction. "Oskar, you are observing only." He nods his head as he doesn’t move his gaze away from the glass.

You know he constantly pushes boundaries because he is always chasing answers that nobody else dares to ask for, convinced that if someone just tried a little harder or looked at things from the wrong angle, the impossible might finally give way.

"Observing only." Osker sasses back, and you roll your eyes at his attitude. "You said that last time…"

"I did."

"And you still tried to touch an unidentified fungus sample before it was cleared, barehanded! May I remind you? The one with those translucent thingymebobs and the strange bluish dust."

"It was technically already dead."

"Oskar.." You pinch the bridge of your nose as Oskar finally glances away from the window.

Erna steps closer to the glass, her helmet tucked beneath her arm. "I still can't believe this. I spent my entire career looking for signs of life," she whispers. "Microorganisms, fossils, cell traces. Anything..."

A hint of awe is behind her words, her hands clutched tight around the helmet. She recalls all the previous missions on empty moons and the disappointment that usually followed. Now, standing only a pane of glass away from the impossible, she feels excitement flare in her belly, but doubt and uncertainty quickly creep in. Her eyes stay fixated on the thing, and with an unsure smile, the retrieval process begins.

You stand behind the airlock glass, hands tense against the cold metal frame, feeling lightheaded by the second as you watch them help each other put on their spacesuits. Sweat runs down your brow as you chuckle at Lucan fumbling with his cooling garment before Erna groans and helps him.

Erna and Lucan check each other’s suits one last time before exchanging a thumbs up before cycling through the decompression chamber. The air drains rapidly, and a thin layer of frost blooms across the glass as the outer hatch opens into the endless dark.

The safety lines snap taut as they anchor themselves to the rail just outside the hatch. Erna leads the two of them, bracing herself against the metal frame as she activates her suit thrusters, sending a tiny pulse of air to nudge herself closer to the object. Lucan follows, his movements slower than Erna's and more measured and controlled, adjusting his line every few centimetres to compensate for the ship’s subtle drift.

The thing floats only a few centermeaters away, spinning ever so slightly. Erna extends a hand, fingers trembling inside her thick gloves, and calls out each step of the way through the comms, "Approaching target. Contact in three... two... one." She clamps her hand softly around what passes for an arm.

Lucan reaches in to steady her, one hand stretched out to secure the safety rope around the thing’s torso.

The small challenge is getting the thing still. As Erna holds it steady, Lucan fits the rope around it, tying a few knots to secure it and making sure they are tight.

The ship’s robotic pincers that are just under the hatch, which a crew member from the bay operates, are already extended, ready to draw them back inside if anything goes wrong.

Every movement is deliberate, rehearsed dozens of times in drills, but now the tension is real. "Rope secure. Preparing for retrieval."

With careful coordination, Lucan triggers the reel, and the trio is drawn gently back toward the hatch they came out of. The object's head bobs slightly, its limbs rigid as it enters the gravity transition field.

As soon as they cross the threshold, you hear the shudder of the inner hatch cycling, the atmosphere returning with a sharp, loud rush.

Back in the bay, Erna and Lucan guide the thing onto a transport cart and lock it into the already prepared quarantine enclosure. As standard for biological unknowns, the enclosure seals automatically once the thing is inside, and a double barrier of transparent composite slides into place. Decontamination mist begins to fill the enclosure, and remote sensors start running continuous scans for any anomalies. The retrieval was a success. But now that it is inside, everyone’s voice is hushed, the tension in the air sharper than ever.

Oskar watches the quarantine enclosures' thermometer sensors with the utmost fascination as he operates the robotic arms inside to scrape and collect a teeny tiny sample.

When the sample is taken out of the enclosure, Oskar rushes to get it under a microscope. "Huh, its temperature is extremely low."

“That’s expected...” Casey replies. “It’s been exposed to space”

“No.” Oskar shakes his head. “That’s not what I mean.” That makes everyone look at him. “The cells aren’t frozen.” Silence.

“What?”

Oskar zooms in on the sample under the microscope. “There is no cellular damage from radiation exposure. No crystallisation from the freezing cold out there. No signs of decay.” You step closer and look at the sample from over his shoulder. “Meaning?”

Oskar gives you a tight knit smile as he tilts his head away from you. “Meaning it’s not dead.” The room suddenly feels colder.

Sirius looks away from the thing inside the enclosure and at Oskar “You’re saying it’s alive?” Oskar doesn’t answer, he doesn’t need to.

You frown, voice quiet but sharp. “That shouldn’t be possible unless it has some kind of hard shell or different cellular fucking something like that, right? Maybe it's adapted to survive in deep space?”

Lucan crosses his arms, brow furrowed. “Maybe it just shuts itself down completely to survive the cold vacuum of space.”

Erna leans closer to the glass. “Its biology could be based on something other than what we know.

Sirius speaks up again, tone cautious. “Maybe it has a way to repair itself almost instantly. Like some extreme regeneration abilities we can't even begin to imagine, like Wolverine? Or is it something engineered for space?”

Oskar doesn't look up. “Erna could be right. It might be a form of biochemistry we haven't encountered before. Something that can endure the extremes out there.” You tear your eyes away from the sample under the microscope and look at the thing lying perfectly still on the transport cart. It hasn’t moved. Not so much as a twitch.

“Mother, can you do a more thorough scan on it?” You keep your gaze on it, not daring to look away.

A pause.

“No detectable neural activity,” Mother finally speaks.

You shake your head. “So no brain activity…” You mumble to yourself before Oskar scoffs.

“But the cells are active. How can something be alive without... You know, being alive?” Casey speaks up.

“I don’t know,” Oskar admits, his mood shifting quickly from annoyed to excited. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Uneasy at Oskar's quick mood change, you walk to the quarantine enclosure, stopping just by the edge of the yellow line painted on the floor.

Up close, the thing looks even stranger. Smooth skin, almost polished, reflecting the light like wet obsidian. Its limbs are long, and its tail is even longer. Its head is elongated and curved backwards, with no eyes or ears.

You stare at the thing for so long that you don’t even realise that most of the crew have slowly, one by one, left the bay to do their own things. Now it’s just you, Anahì, and Oskar left in there with that thing

“I’m going in to collect a tissue sample.” That snaps you out of your thoughts as Oskar starts putting on gloves. “You are not going in there,” you hiss. “I am not letting you step one foot in that enclosure with THAT. We don’t know what it is and if it’s even alive.” Oskar slides down in his seat with his shoulder up to his ears.

“Use the robo arms.” You say, using your thumb and index finger to rub your eyes. “Alright, alright…” Oskar raises his hands in surrender and hurries to take off his gloves while you look around and finally notice that it’s just the three of you left in the bay with the thing.

You let out a breath of relief that, for once, he doesn’t argue with you on something like this. “Good. That’s good.”

We really need to find a name for it. You can’t keep calling it "the thing" forever, or “it”… Well, you can, but it’s just easier to name it.

Humming in satisfaction as you watch Oskar move to the control panel for the robo arms and manoeuvre a few keys to make the arms pick up a tiny surgical blade.

You and Anahì collectively hold your breaths as Oskar moves the blade up to the thing's thigh and presses gently against its glossy surface.

Even just a small sliver of this thing's tissue could tell you something, where it comes from, what it’s made of, or if it's carrying any risks or some disease that could pose a threat to you all. Nothing. Oskar increases the pressure. Still nothing. Oskar furrows his brows in frustration. “Come on…” He continues to add more force to it, and the blade scrapes against its skin before snapping, and everyone jumps at the sound.

“I reckon we should call it a night, yeah?” Anahì speaks up. “We’ll have another crack at it tomorrow, when we’ve got a clearer head.”

No one moves at first. The sound of the blade snapping still hangs in the bay, and you notice Oskar’s hands shaking slightly as he moves them away from the control panel, and you can’t tell if it’s from nervousness or something else.

“Yeah. We’ll call it a night.”

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿

@dessathealien @camcvpidd Tadaaa)

a/n: I have no idea what I am writing about (,; ⩌ ;,) Thoughts on my boy Oskar?

PS: I didn't really think to Google anything biology related while writing this, so... I hope it's not noticeable. Gulp. It's for the plot

He’s there to pick you up if you’re too drunk to drive back home, maybe from a bar or a get together with friends. He always pays the bill when you go out to eat with him, despite his teacher's salary. The staff at the diner you frequent assumed you were blood related siblings until you corrected them.

Ryland offered you one of his oversized jackets after a bad storm/ cold weather, which you never returned. If he’s feeling mean, he’ll tease you whether he’s getting his shirt back (it’s no, it’s always a no). Ryland forces you to ride bikes together, insisting that it’s good exercise. You can never keep up with him while riding around hills and need to take frequent breaks.

When he’s engrossed in a project, whether it be work or otherwise, you bring him back to reality. You practically have to pull him away from his work to make sure he’s eaten. And afterwards, make him play a game (maybe a video game or a board game) or watch an animal documentary.

You get into frequent bickering spats (which you typically instigate), but it’s always playful and never taken too seriously. You like to piss Ryland off by declaring that the Earth is flat or insisting that lizard people are real. It’s such an easy tactic to ruffle his feathers, and he falls for it every time. It’s a strategy you pull when he isn’t listening to you or ignoring his own needs.

I like to imagine you’re one of the few people to call Grace by his first name. Grace is basically a nickname for him, but you’ve always called him by his first name because that’s how he introduced himself to you. Or maybe you’ll shorten it and call him ‘Ry’ instead. And you probably call him a nerd (derogatory), all the time. Ryland sometimes talks about you at school, maybe in passing with his students. His colleagues know of you as well.

Ryland Grace who once he has a taste of you, wraps his arms around you to try and hold you as close as possible because stupid physics says he can’t be under your skin no matter how badly he wants to be.

Ryland Grace who feels his knees go weak when you tilt your head to deepen the kiss AND card your fingers through his hair.

Ryland Grace who swears you can hear how fast and loud his heartbeat is when you kiss him because it’s clear as a bell to him.

Previous - Part 7 - Next

"Xú qo xe tuehaw pivaqho… No paxaw!"

Nova's voice sent a chill down my spine.

The instant she was on her feet, she shoved me aside and lunged after the creature.

I was left dazed on the floor for a moment.

It was just like the first time we'd met.

That same feral instinct.

you get yourselves your fun beverage of choice and just browse the stacks for hours. it's the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.

ryland stares at you as you suck at the mango slice.

or well the synthetic mango.

"....is it good?"

"delicious. you gotta try it."

"can't even possibly taste like a real mango"

"no but it's still amazing"

then he gets hard from the slurping

the end

𑄝 Pairing: This is a Ryland Grace x Reader x Yautja (oc?) pairing, but they won't show up 'til way later in the story!

𑄝 Summary: After seven years of searching for life and finding nothing, you and your crew finally discover something drifting through the endless void of space. Despite your doubts, you choose to bring it aboard, hoping this will be humanities first true discovery of other life.

𑄝 Warnings: None as of now, but later chapters will contain horror like themes, graphic violence and mature themes.

//Part 1(You are here!)//part 2//

"The universe is so disappointingly empty."

Seven years floating through deep space. Seven years searching for signs of extraterrestrial life, or even the faintest trace of a habitable world, and you and your crew had discovered exactly nothing.

You would think that, in a vast universe full of planets and stars, you'd find at least something. Anything!

We can't be truly alone out here, can we?

The faint beep of the terminal echoes through the empty corridor as you continue writing your mission report for the day, though there is nothing to report.

The bright screen illuminates the walls around you, casting a faint green glow as you stare at the words for a moment before letting out a sigh. You save the report to the ship's digital archive with a tired groan, then tilt your head to stare at the endless darkness beyond the small window at the end of the corridor.

You are just about to push yourself away from the terminal when Mother's robotic voice chimes throughout the ship.

You frown, surprised by the sudden interruption.

"Unknown object detected."

Mother repeats, "Unknown object detected."

You blink, trying to process the words as the terminal screen goes dark.

You shoot to your feet in shock. "What?" Seven years, and Mother has never uttered those words before. The ship's sensors have never detected anything unknown or anything remotely interesting in general.

Always the same old asteroids and comets. Well, except maybe that one satellite they passed by about 3 years ago.

"Unknown object detected…" Mother says. You are already moving down the corridor before she can finish her announcement.

The cockpit doors slide open with a hiss.

Your crew is already crowded around the motion detector, bodies pressed close together, their faces drawn tight with tension.

Sirius, one of the pilots and second in command, stands at the front with his arms crossed. He quietly observes the readings. Oskar the ship's botanist and biologist, hovers nearby, shifting nervously on his feet. The other pilot Amara glances at you for reassurance. Her jaw tight as she chews the inside of her cheek and drums her fingers restlessly on the console's edge.

The low hum of the ship suddenly grows louder, filling the tense silence as Erna, knuckles white on the telescope's rim, leans in for a better look at the unknown object.

You notice the faint, overlapping sounds of anxious breathing and the loud beeps of the sensors. The air in the cockpit feels exceptionally heavy.

"What happened?" You finally ask.

None of them answers immediately. Amara, points to a dot on the motion detector.

It's right next to us.

Something is right next to the ship. It moves slowly near them.

Your stomach drops, a cold shiver crawling over your skin. Something is out there, something that’s not an asteroid and definitely not space debris. The tension prickles along your arms, making your fingers twitch against the console.

Something else.

Something alive perhaps?

The thought hangs heavily in the air until Erna breaks the tension at the telescope with a sharp breath.

"I've got visual on it."

Every head in the cockpit turns towards her.

"Well?" asks Sirius. Erna doesn’t answer immediately, instead, she presses her eye closer to the telescope, her shoulders stiffening.

"That is… strange."

"What is?"

"I don't know."

You quickly transfer the telescope display to the big screen, mostly used as a navigational map and occasionally for movie nights.

A grainy dark shape appears on the screen. At first, you can’t make sense of what you’re looking at. The thing is roughly human sized, maybe a bit bigger.

It drifts slowly through space, only a few meters from the ship. “It almost looks like… a person?” the engineer Sean mumbles before silence settles over the cockpit.

You step closer to the screen, and the pixels blur together. It has a head, two arms, and two legs, at least, that's what it looks like. Its limbs are tucked tightly against its body as it drifts through the endless space, slowly rotating end over end.

"Could be a dead astronaut," Erna suggested

You frown. "From where?" No one answers again, and you sigh.

Earth is light years away. Every vessel you and your crew would pass had been accounted for before your mission launched. There shouldn't be anyone out here.

Oskar breaks the silence, his voice barely above a whisper. "Maybe it's from another expedition we never heard about. Could it be a probe that malfunctioned?" Amara shakes her head, eyes glued to the screen. "Or maybe it's not from Earth at all." The possibility lingers in the air, unsettling and strange.

Seven years of searching, seven years of empty planets, silent moons and endless fields of stars and now something is just… here. It's almost too good to be true.

"Mother, run a scan, please." You finally order as the ship's systems hum quietly. The seconds feel longer than they should be as everyone waits.

"Scan complete." You turn your head toward the console. "Object contains organic material." Your heart skips.

"Organic?" Oskar repeats.

"I am unable to determine if it is alive." Mother continues.

Oskar slowly steps away from the motion detector, where everyone is crowded, toward the big screen, his expression caught somewhere between disbelief and fascination. "You're saying it's biological?"

"Affirmative," Mother confirms.

A dozen thoughts race through your mind at once. An organism, a living thing? After years of absolutely fucking nothing, humanity has finally found proof that we’re not alone.

Anahì, one of the scientists, lets out a breathless laugh. "You're telling me we spent seven years looking for any life and one just… floats right into us? How come the ship didn't detect it sooner? Mother should have alerted us long before it came anywhere near the ship."

Anahì is right. You think to yourself, Mother should have alerted everyone, especially you, days in advance before it got any closer, but she didn’t. It’s right there, now almost close enough to touch.

"I mean, the system has been a bit buggy these past few days…" Sean replies sheepishly. "There was a fault in a few of the ship's sensors, so I had to shut it down for a while to recalibrate and replace some fuses. Just managed to sort it out and get everything in working order again this morning…"

You stare at him, disbelief and frustration brewing in your chest. With the system offline, the ship's external sensors weren't running their full scans. Anything could have drifted right up to the ship without us knowing. You look at Sean, disappointed. "And you didn't think to tell me—"

"We need to bring it aboard." Oskar interrupts you before you can continue to scold Sean, and you send him a nasty glare. "Oskar—"

"Think about what this means." His eyes never leave the screen. "An extraterrestrial organism. The first one ever discovered! We can't just leave it floating out there."

Sirius uncrosses his arms. "And if it's dangerous?"

Oskar hesitates for a second, then looks back at the image of it drifting out there. "We won't know unless we study it."

Lucan, the ship's astrophysicist, finally speaks up, his voice steady but tense. "We have strict safety protocols for a reason, Oskar. If we bring anything on board, we need to run a full quarantine procedure and decontaminate the thing, the bay, and everyone handling it. No exceptions." The reminder hangs in the air, bringing the real risks back to all of them.

You remain silent, watching the shape slowly rotate on the screen. Your mind races, weighing the risks of bringing an unknown specimen on board.

Years spent logging empty findings, the bitter departure from each empty planet, the faces of your crew growing more disheartened with every dead end.

So much time, so much distance, and nothing but endless black to show for it. What if it's dangerous, infected with something, or somehow threatens your entire crew? The thought twists your stomach. These people are your responsibility, and you promised yourself you would never make a reckless call. But what if this is the only chance you'll ever get to make a discovery, real proof that humanity is not alone?

You remember every message from home, the pressure to find something, anything worth the journey. If you turn away now, will you ever forgive yourself for passing up the moment you've been chasing for seven years? The possibilities burns through your hesitation, even as doubt claws its way out of your gut.

You clench your jaw tight, mind running through every possible consequence, searching for reassurance and finding none. The weight of responsibility hammers against your ribs.

What if opening the airlock brings disaster?

What if you lose someone who trusted you?

Behind your fear is the smallest ache of hope, a voice that has grown louder across the years of disappointment. If you walk away, what does that mean for the mission, for humanity?

You hesitate, drawing a breath in as indecision threatens to pin you in place. The faces of your crew hang on your next words. You let the silence stretch, forcing yourself to look at each and one of them and feel the risk, knowing there will never be a chance to go back if things turn for the worst

After a long and heavy sigh, you make a decision. "Prepare the retrieval bay." A wave of nervous excitement spreads throughout the cockpit.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿

𑄝 Word count: 1,5k

@dessathealien @camcvpidd here you go!)

a/n: This is the first time I'll be posting my writing on social media for others to read, so please enjoy! And PLEASE let me know if I’m tagging things wrong. I'm still a bit confused by the tagging system (´ཀ`」 ∠)

Also what do you guys think of the crew:p