Chapter Text
Something was happening. Simon didn't know what exactly. Nothing made sense.
Everything had happened very fast. The monster, the light, the sub going directly into it… and now?
He was clinging to one of the pipes. His right arm burned from exhaustion, but he couldn't let go. After the light nothing made any sense. Of course, he knew what weightlessness felt like. On stations it usually meant something had gone terribly wrong. On rare occasions the artificial gravity would be turned off for maintenance, but that was usually announced beforehand. So when the sub suddenly felt weightless, he had panicked. It shouldn't be possible! He was deep in the blood ocean. How could there be no gravity there? Without it, the blood didn't stay where it should. With surface tension it clung to all surfaces, the floor, walls, ceiling, chair, desk, pipes, and of course, Simon himself. He'd almost drowned. While fighting to keep the blood from his face and to keep his head in an air bubble in the middle of the sub he managed to make his way to the camera, but when he pressed the button, nothing happened. There was only a quiet mechanical click from the button, but not the usual noise. No picture appeared either. Then the lights went out.
The hull groaned, the blood was drifting within the sub and just when Simon though he might die from a heart attack before getting the chance to drown more things started happening. The blood suddenly began to flow towards him and pool where he stood. Was it coming for him? No. There was gravity again, not much, just enough for the blood to pool. But it didn't go where the floor was, it was where the subs back was, right next to the camera and terminal. Coughing and spitting up blood, Simon somehow managed to climb up the pipes towards the controls in the dark. His remaining arm was wrapped around one of them and he managed to wedge his feet between two pipes to push himself along, and felt an almost irrational relief when the blood didn't follow him.
And that was where he stayed. At the nose of the sub, clinging to a pipe with his arm, fighting against the pull towards the blood pit. The burn in his arm started to turn into a numb feeling. He could feel himself slip. A sob broke out from his chest, wide eyes unseeing in the total darkness. What was happening? Hadn't he suffered enough? Couldn't this just be over? He just wanted to live! Tears cleaned the blood off his face in streaks and his sobs filled the small room, drowned out by the horrible creaking sound of the hull. His heartbeat slowed again, his sobs started to die down from exhaustion, and he suddenly thought about… letting go… and accepting the inevitable. Why was he still clinging to life? Believing Avas lies. He was never meant to survive this. He had been stupid for clinging to hope. He should let go. It only made sense.
His fingers twitched, he closed his eyes.
With a jolt the gravity disappeared again. "What-?" It was still dark, but he could feel the blood spreading out over the walls again. Still blind he reached towards where the control station must be and when he found it he clung to it instead. It was in the middle of the room and the air would form a bubble there. He was making an effort to prolong his life again… It wasn't that he had found hope again. More that his hopelessness was being overshadowed by confusion.
The blood… it felt different somehow, now that he thought about it. Using his legs to stay put he let go with his hand and rubbed the bloody fingers together. They felt sticky. Less slimy. The blood was thinner and it was drying. Even as it was moving due to the zero g it felt less… alive then before. "What the hell?" His voice came out choked. He breathed in slowly. Hicc. Shit. This always happened after he cried. The hiccups.
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"Adrian awake, question!" Captain Jack studied the readout from ris texture screen as ri waited for an answer from ris second.
"Yes, Adrian awake in workshop. Busy studying radiation device that broke from alien ship hull."
The captain held up the screen. It showed a 3D rendering of the strange ship they'd found yesterday. The inside was hard to make out due to all the noise from the bending hull, but on the inside there was a big blob of something soft. And the something was making a very peculiar sound.
"Sounds from inside ship like friend Grace voice when sad! Get Adrian. Best human expert we have on ship."
The other Eridian let out a surprised squeak and scurried away. The other Eridians on the bridge murmured excitedly. The captain pointed to one of the engineers. "Ready xenonite tunnel and spin saw. We open up ship for rescue." Then ri instructed another. "Make life chamber, quickly. Probably need human atmosphere. Take sample from alien vessel to make sure."
Ris assistant tapped a foot on the ground twice. "I check with biology if still have drinkable water and human food."
Captain Jack chirped in agreement. "Good idea."
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Pretty early on the Eridians had installed what was basically a glorified fax machine in his house. It held a sheet of a very soft metal alloy inside and when it received a message through something similar to a fiber glass cable, it pressed the letters into the sheet and ejected it with a low beep to alert him. When the message was read and he reinserted the sheet, the machine heated it to its melting point to erase the letters. It could then immediately be reused. The fax machine was usually used to keep him up to date on all things science and dome development that concerned him, but today the machine made a shrill repeating beeping noise that only stopped when he picked up the sheet. It was the Eridian version of marking an email as urgent.
Now Grace stared at the message.
Blip-G in orbit around Sixworld found alien space craft there. At first crew thought was abandoned. Ship breaking apart rapidly. But found life form inside. Adrian thinks is human! Amaze! Rocky prepare Hail Mary. Sent chauffeur James to pick up Grace for transport to elevator. We go meet Blip-G halfway.
Grace dropped the sheet onto the fax machine, not bothering to reinsert the thing. He ran to his bedroom and began throwing clothes and toiletries into a duffel bag. Technically the Hail Mary had everything he needed, but most of his favorite things were here on Erid. And if there would be another human, it couldn't hurt to have more stuff. Another human… Out here? How? His thoughts raced. Rocky and him had arrived on Erid less than twelve years ago. To be here now, any human ship, even if it was as fast as the Hail Mary, must have been sent way before the beatles had even arrived!
Knocking interrupted his thoughts. James was here. He quickly zipped the bag closed and hurried to the door. The Eridian was a little smaller than Rocky and had a mute yellow color, a little like sulfur. "Josephmobile ready for transport, friend Grace. Will be at elevator in four human hours. Rocky already up in ship, preparing for journey. Bones with him."
Grace nodded. Bones, the eridian human doctor, never went far from where Grace was, and especially now that there may be another human out there, possibly injured, it only made sense to take him along. "Thank you, James."
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Adrian held kes claw against the alien ships hull. Even through kes astrophage lined xenonite suit and the strange thick goo on the inside of the alien ship ki could hear the human noises. Breathing, heart beat, sad leaky sounds and a strange repeating high pitched breathing. Ki could also make out the blurry outline of a human figure clinging to a structure on one end of the ship.
"Sounds like human. Is on other end of ship. We can drill open ship right here. Get chamber ready. I go in and lead human out."