Eridians can't forget. Eridians are physically incapable of forgetting things. Unlike humans' fragile memory, Eridians’ every waking moment is recorded and stored in their brain, and every piece of information is easily accessed within a fraction of a second. Every meeting, every name, every new experience, every event, every goodbye, every laugh, every heartbreak. An Eridian can never forget.
Yet, lately, Rocky finds himself absentminded.
He would wake up from a deep slumber and chirp a habitual 'Good morning' to his human mate.
He would get a great idea for a project, and his first instinct would be to go find Grace and tell him about it.
He would imagine his human's presence behind him, and he would turn around with 'Grace!' already poised to whistle between his vents, as the chord would fizzle out into the silent emptiness.
Lately, Rocky finds himself forgetting that his Grace is gone.
As if, as he went, he took with him an intrinsic part within Rocky, a part that made Eridians incapable of forgetting. A part that made Rocky Eridian.
Decades of solitude in deep space has irrevocably changed him. But decades spent alongside his alien mate has equally altered him as well.
Rocky was no more human than Grace was, and Grace was no more Eridian than Rocky was. But together, they created something whole. And now that he's gone, Rocky has lost a piece of himself in the process.
Rocky is broken. Adrian has affirmed it. Psychology Eridians have affirmed it. Biology Eridians have affirmed it, no Eridian can ever forget, that's impossible.
But Rocky is no stranger to the impossible. And Rocky doesn't mind that it makes him crazy, or a freak, or irreversibly broken. Not if it means just for one fleeting, singular moment, his Grace can still be alive in his mind.
