I've talked a little bit about how I think Rocky would avoid getting too physically close to Adrian upon returning to Erid because this rock can fit so much ocd in it and he thinks if he gets close to Adrian then he'll give them acute radiation syndrome. But like.
Like he tells no one that he's doing that and he definitely doesn't tell anyone why.
And he's controlling and constantly panicking and seems on the verge of attacking anyone who even remotely suggests that maybe immediately pouring every resource they have into [saving Grace's life] isn't something Erid is capable of and surely we can take our time and spread these resources out a bit more? the alien has some form of mass atp storage like we do right? and Adrian has to be the one to correct their math because if they don't Rocky will correct their carapace from being sealed to open. And Adrian emphasizes that no, the time crunch for keeping Grace alive is definitely real and yes Erid is perfectly capable of sustaining the alien because it uses less than half of the nutrients an Eridian needs, but more complicated tasks like repairing its ship can wait until Erid recovers a bit more, and yes even though the dome isn't ready yet leaving Grace on the Mary for longer than absolutely necessary would be torturing it so if we'll turn our attention back to photic layer lab λ where we already have personnel with high-oxygen environment safety training--
And he's running himself ragged to keep up with it all because he's the only one on Erid who understands any Earth language and he can't leave this up to the translation software, he can't, and more than that he can't just leave any aspect of Grace's care to the experts, he has to be there making sure everyone stays on task and isn't secretly planning on dissecting Grace or about to accidentally give him something poisonous, and it's torture. After 50 years without another Eridian he thought he'd be happier. Normal. Instead, too many voices at once leaves him overwhelmed and terrified, and forget joining a thrum. The last thrum he was a part of was with his crew, trying to figure out what was making them sick.
Eridians are full of heavy metals and their cells are protected by a thick, inorganic stone carapace. I think the point at which the crew would have been exposed to lethal amounts of radiation would have been while they were eating, when there's nothing protecting their insides. It would've burned them, and mercury decays and becomes radioactive itself when it's exposed to radiation. On top of the initial dose they got, their own blood would be giving them another dose, either continuous (some mercury isotopes have very long half lives) or some mercury isotopes have a half life measured in minutes (which would be more dangerous).
And if any of that blood got outside their bodies (and it probably did, I don't know by what means the Eridian carapace reseals itself but it's described as like... folding, in the book, I imagine that doesn't go so well after radiation exposure) then congratulations the next person who eats nearby is getting a dose, too, even if they're not in a particularly radioactive part of space (which I don't believe happens much out in interstellar space, but 40 Eridani a's heliosphere would be protecting them somewhat until they left their system). Rocky spent 46 years thinking a novel but otherwise normally behaving space illness took out his crew, because that's exactly what it would have looked like. They probably thought the life support system was broken, somehow, and been desperately trying to fix it. They definitely would have thought Rocky was a carrier, would've asked him to watch them sleep (and be watched in turn) from his workshop, to slow the spread.
Fun fact about atoms, they can emit light when struck by radioactive particles, like the ones coming from an exposed Eridian's blood. Fun fact about Eridian brains: they're crystalline structures and they think using light rather than electricity.
So we can probably add involuntary movement, memory loss, confusion or delirium, false memories, and hallucinations to the list of Eridian ARS symptoms.
Imagine joining a hive mind with your crew only to find that despite the fact that your species has near perfect memory recall, the smartest people on your planet can barely think.
And I don't think Rocky’s talked about What Happened On The Blip-A much but I do think Grace puts a lot of it together based on what Rocky has told him about.
So when Rocky is busy torturing himself to save Grace, Adrian comes up to the Hail Mary because it's the only place they can go where they won't feel awful for being the only one whose loved one returned and "complaining" that it's still not enough. Essentially, she goes to the Mary to cry, since she can do that outside Grace's hearing range. No one has to know.
Except humans might not be able to hear infrasound (look the book specifies lower octaves mean deeper sadness when Eridians cry, it'd be infrasound if you're trying to vent your feelings where an alien can't hear you) but if it's loud enough we can feel the vibrations (and some people report feeling nauseous and a general sense of dread), so like. Grace catches them and asks them what's wrong, freaks out a little bit when they say "Rocky" but eventually, based of what Adrian is saying, puts together "oh Rocky must be self quarantining because he thinks he's still contagious and I'm pretty sure me bleeding from the mouth because of the scurvy and possibly having cognitive symptoms depending on if the beriberi is dry or wet (or sometimes other vitamin deficiencies can cause memory loss) after being on a ship for four years with only him for company isn't helping him not think he's going to get you sick if he gets too close to you"
So Adrian goes to confront Rocky the next time she has to sleep and Rocky has a full on breakdown because he can't lose anyone else, he has to fix it, he has to save Grace and keep Adrian from getting sick too, he can't lose a twenty-third, he can't be the last survivor again, he can save this one, he has to save this one. He wants to save Grace, because Grace is his friend, but deeper than that Rocky is terrified of Grace dying, because unlike the other twenty-two members of his crew, if Grace dies no one will be able to tell him it was from something he couldn't have fixed. If Grace lives, if Adrian lives, then that means he's not poison, he's not carrying a disease, he's capable of protecting the people he cares about the most.
If Grace and Adrian live, then maybe Rocky can deserve to live, too.
pixelskylines
gummygunk
gracieabrams
origamiaround
discoholicmusic
dailybridgerton
andulkaphoto
