Part two of the Random lil Bloodymary x reader fanfic idea i’ve had drilling around in my head
Like what if you met them after being left in space yourself- completely alone and resigned to your fate and then boom. Chaos. Omfg i cant stop thinking about it. (cross posted to ao3)
Part one can be found here yall- <3 (also on ao3 but i’m too lazy to link it) Thank you for all your notes it was super motivating!
i’m currently working on pt 3 🌱
So Earth?” You questioned, disbelief evident in your voice. “You actually came from Earth- like just as a stop on your way or?”
You leaned forward, tipping slightly into the space between them, it left Simon silently sliding toward Grace. You noted the movement with an internal eye roll- this guy had issues with paranoia. It wasn’t exactly unjustifiable. Anything could happen.
“I was born there…” Grace spoke with uncertainty, as if it was obvious fact she was questioning.
Liar. If he was born on Earth he’d either be rich enough to be eating endangered species out of gold bowls or part of the Federation. And those guys were loud and proud about that- they’d have already mentioned it. Not to mention the distinct lack of a uniform.
“Who are you?” You scoffed “What the hell are you doing this far out if you were born on Earth?” You were getting impatient now- if they were going to lie they could at least do you the courtesy of making it believable.
“Like I said, I’m Ryland Grace. I was sent from earth as part of Project Hail Mary. I was meant to study the Astrophage around Tau ceti and report my findings back to Earth.” Grace spoke.
His words came slowly, like he was talking to a child. Continuing the same explanation, despite being told already that it wasn’t adding up for you. Either he was dumb or he thought you were.
“No, Im sorry but why would they need to study Atrophage- it’s fucking redundant. Not to mention they wouldn’t send an Earthie to do something when they could make a Corpo do it.” You let your words fall over the three people in front of you- each pulling themselves back from the table slightly as your voice rose.
“You come on my ship- talking crap about Astrohage of all things. And you seriously want me to believe Earth sent up you two up here when there’s enough bondsmen in Corp galaxy and the Federation to build a human bridge to tau Ceti and back.”you huffed out, dragging a sweat sticky hand over your face.
“Look, we’re not asking you to believe us, we’re just telling you what happened. Whether you accept it or not is on you.” Grace snapped.
Simon looked at him with what you could only describe as a sense of relief, why his crewmates bitching brought such a reaction was a mystery to you.
It did however reminded you of how Captain Akita and First Officer Jameson interacted before the ‘Darren incident’. The pair were always batting power between them like it was a hot potato neither wanted to grasp, but strangely, they were obviously proud when the other found themselves a firm grip. It was cute to see, until it wasn’t. Those dynamics had a habit of ripping apart messily.
“Ok, let’s just say you are telling the truth. Earth is 13.2 billion light years away. You’re a little far for someone meant to be relaying data.” You spoke not to Grace this time but Simon.
Maybe he’d be the one to crack. Unlikely given his whole silent brooding aura but hey, you might be in for a surprise.
“Don’t look at me- I haven’t seen Earth since I was a kid. Not even sure if I believe it’s actually still there.”
“What the fuck does that mean- of course it’s still there.” You were seriously confused and now wondering if you’d managed to unfortunately find a ship full of madmen.
“Not where i’m from. Grace, yeah he knows Earth. But where I come from everything is gone. There’s nothing left but stations and the light of dead stars.”
Ok now you were thinking of seriously getting ready to make a break for the security deck. What kind of apocalypse propaganda was this? Were they some sort of travelling space cult? Was this how they initiated people- confuse them into submission? You’re not sure you could outrun Grace but Simon would be easy to knock off balance with an arm gone.
“Simon and Grace bad explain. Rocky help. Statement.” The aliens first words since entering the room and she’d never been so grateful- at least there was one other person who could see how insane this was.
“Rocky leave Erid when science team discover Astrophage. Bad. Bad. Bad. It ate our Star. Star was dimming, not enough heat for Erid life. Not enough heat for Earth” Or not.
If you suspended your disbelief, as hard as it was, it could maybe make some sense. You remembered learning about the Astrophages sun eating capabilities, but there were so few cases of infections it was more of a distant fairy tale than a reality. You’d only ever known it as fuel, old ass fuel that no one used anymore because it was so unstable during fusion.
“Grace find Rocky alone in space, crew all die but Rocky. Rocky was alone long time. Grace and Rocky save stars by fishing for Astrophage predator. Grace go home to Earth with predator but Rocky ship broke, Grace find Rocky and now Grace, Rocky, Simon go to Erid home instead. Statement.” The voice from the computer blended in the musical notes from what she assumed was rocky’s carapace.
“On way home Grace and Rocky find distress signal from black box. Rocky and Grace explore signal and find Bloodmoon.”
“AT-5?” You questioned, that moon was trouble and there was very little way of describing it but calling it a blood-moon was definitely a start.
The crew had passed it weeks back, the aura was enough to send the more superstitious lot into a frenzy. They didn’t stop for long- just enough time to realise what that it was made of. What was in it. They were lucky not to stay long enough for it to see them back. The mention of it here was enough to send goosebumps up her arms. Rubbing them slightly to push the missing heat back in.
“You know It?” Simon asked, it could’ve just been a question but the anger, no fury, in his voice was hard to miss.
“We passed it, can’t miss a moon made of Blood. We didn’t stay.” You replied, watching his back relax back down.
“Good, I wouldn’t recommend the trip.” He sighed “I was meant to die in a research submarine- whatever was on that moon should’ve killed me 1500ft under the ocean. Instead I woke up floating on the surface, to these morons screaming in my face.” He pointed to Grace who smiled back at his frown.
“Well, when we saw you we could hardly believe it, completely alone on a moon in the middle of space- you shouldn’t have been possible.” He laughed out, like it was as trivial as an inside joke and not an explanation of eldritch horror in the form of a moon.
“Simon found weird, but Simon ok now. Friends. Statement.” Rocky added, sliding closer to the now smiling man.
“There were things down there, stuff with no explanation. You wanna know how we got here- well frankly so do I. Not everything is simple.”Simon stated cleanly.
Whether or not he was telling the truth you didn’t know, but you believed him. Nothing was quite the same after that moon passed you by.
“If you’re telling the truth and there’s planets and people out there for you, and Grace thinks that he’s Earths only astronaut this far out. It seems like none of us are where we started.” He said, deep voice steady against your growing dread.
“The wormhole.” It was all you needed to say, it should’ve been if that’s what he was edging around.
But the pair looked at you like you’d grown two heads, and if Rocky had a face you were sure it would match.
“Wormhole?” Grace questioned.
“Yeah, it’s what we were sent out here for- at least partly.” You were really doing this, was it stupid? yes. But maybe they had answers you didn’t. “This is a science vessel- a scout per se.”
“There was this black hole, it’s been sat at the edge of the explored Galaxy for years. It was in the Federations sector for as long as I can remember- shit it might have even been theirs before they became a Federation.” The two men looked at you quizzically but kept silent, allowing you to continue.
“They gave my Corp a licence to explore it- which was weird. Those guys take socialism to a new extreme- not likely to let data fall into corporate hands but I guess we thought they’d given up. Maybe they got all they could from it and were just leaving us scraps. Corporate thought it was worth it to check anyway.”
“They sent us up on a 5 year mission, that was two years ago. We made it to the black hole- and got ourselves dragged into it for our trouble. I’m not sure how- it shouldn’t have been possible because I calculated our obit more times than i needed. It wasn’t my work that was bad, the data they sent us with was.” You could remember their anger clearly.
It wasn’t your fault, it couldn’t be.
“The next thing we know we’re back in orbit but the Federation station was gone, so was our signal to comms. It was impossible for them to have all just moved, not so much for us. At first we assumed we were just a little off track. The Captain insisted we must’ve got spat away- that some radiation leak or flare messed with our systems and that’s why we couldn’t get a response from base.”
“He was wrong, we’ve been out here months- maybe even a year now. There should be stations everywhere, debris fields, dead ships or even pirates- but there should be something, anything!” You cried out, pointing a finger to the barren space outside the porthole.
“It wasn’t a fucking black hole, it was a wormhole. They sent us out here as guinea pigs, I don’t think they wanted us to come back.” You said flatly, you’d given up thinking Corp cared a long time ago.
“So theoretically the crew just got sucked into a black hole and what? Used a wormhole to Jump realities? Your ship would’ve been ripped apart by the sheer force of trying to orbit it. It’s not possible.” Grace said, brow furrowed.
Ok now you were offended- of course the ship could orbit the a blackhole it wasn’t exactly state of the art but Jesus Christ she was still a beast.
“Negative. Ship has near infinite tidal force resistance.” Vi’s voice crackled in through the speakers, of course its ego couldn’t take that hard of a hit- what a baby.
“No. This isn’t a movie- there’s no way you can make a hull with infinite anything! theres parameters and rules to this. That literally violates the- the speed of light! not to mention you can’t have infinite density in a single localised object! This is insane.” He cried out, freezing under the pressure in your offended gaze.
“Rocky help me out here.” He sputtered.
“No Grace. Human might say what Grace thinks is impossible, but Grace said before to rocky that Readers ship was not possible. Too large to get out of Earth orbit. But new friend isn’t from Graces Earth. If moon made of blood real then maybe ship real. Maybe wormhole too.”
“As insane as it sounds, I believe them.” Simon crossed his arms over his chest, setting in the chair as he stared at Graces frown.
“Ok let’s pretend I can just forget every fundamental rule of Physics for a moment. If your ship is strong enough to get to the other side of the wormhole- and you did it before.” He gestured and you nodded, letting him continue without interruption.
“Then why not just go back and though it again? You said the Captain disagreed but maybe we could just talk to them and explai-“
“Because of what we found.” You sighed, interrupting him.
“And what did you find?” Simon asked, concern slipping across his poker face for a moment.
“We called it Doomsday, probably a little dramatic but VI has a-bit of a theatric side.”
“Reader can you take a look at this- We think we found something!” Darren’s voice pulled through the radio as you straightened out the last of the Rovers suspension issues.
You almost banged your head on its underside as you slid out, can’t these guys give you a moment to work at your actual station? Was it so hard to exist without you for 10 minutes.
“Darren i’m working on the rover- the one you broke trying to float down to that fucking moon.” The feed crackled and you wondered for a moment if he’d even heard you.
“Rodger that, still come see this. I think you’ll like it.”
Mysterious asshat, you were willing to bet a lot of units that this guy was bluffing. Whatever it was can’t have been anymore interesting than what they just passed.
You slammed the manual release on the hanger door open, letting the Recompression alarm blare as it screamed against the vacuum of space.
“Superior Crewman reader, It is advised to follow proper precautions when opening airlocks into hanger 5. Consequences include a breach in inter-“
“I know what can happen, I’m the one who fixes it. Stop hassling me. It’s fine.” You groan, was there a moment of peace anywhere on this fucking ship.
If everyone could just leave you alone for 5 minutes you’d just be able to think.
“It is not fine, your actions may result in harm to yourself or othe-“
Oh for gods sake this fucking Ai- It meant well, you knew it did but it was programmed with such a bitchy personality- where it had picked it up from you couldn’t work out for the life of you. It used to be rather sweet actually.
“Command Override- Please shut up.” Ok well maybe you were a little hypocritical.
“Command accepted- unhappily.” VI flicked the light above her in protest as the door slammed up to the ships interior.
You loved VI but sometimes it was like being in the hands of a manipulative toddler. Lucky for you they were easy to appease.
“I’ll try and plug in some of the files from that submarine tonight, if you like.”
“Forgiven, when the data touches the hub and no sooner.” It cracked out in response.
You huffed out a laugh, touché. Two can play at that game VI. It wasn’t like you’d deny it new Data- that be like VI denying the crew water. But you could mess with it a bit, put an extra encryption over it as a little treat. It loved a good test- Nerd.
“Are you arguing with Vi again?”
Darren laughed from his office as you approached, a fat bundle of files and new data pads lying out on his desk. Whatever testing he’s conducting- it was causing a mess.
“What’s with the special news, I feel like this could’ve been done over the radio.” You grumble out.
It wasn’t fair to take it out on the crew, but being a jack of all trades was becoming something you’d long started to regret. If it wasn’t an inferior officer needing an opinion, it was a superior arguing. It wasn’t exactly anything new to you, but it had become concentrated the moment you’d pulled up to that stupid moon. It had given you a headache just looking at it, you had practically begged Akila to let it go. You hadn’t quite forgiven them yet for ignoring you.
“If it’s another of your special moons, leave me out of it.” You said, rolling your eyes in mock annoyance to try and lighten the mood.
“It’s something different.” He pulled her over to the porthole, “Look.”
What were you supposed to be looking for? There was nothing out here.
“I know” He replied, nodding to her like he was just waiting for her to…
No stars, no moon still fading in the distance behind them. It was wrong. The kind the creeps up on you when you’re in bed, the lights are off and just as you close your eyes there it is. A figure in the dark.
“It’s massive.” You breathed out, pulling your face close to the porthole, trying to stretch your eyes up as far as you could.
“It’s gotta be four, no five times the size of us.”
“Do you think it’s another ship?”Darren asked.
“No, VI would’ve notified us. She’d be able to sense life on there.” You replied.
“I didn’t say life, I mean what if this is another ship. Left here, like us.”
The implication was a sobering thought.
It wasn’t like you guys hadn’t considered it, what would happen if you couldn’t find inhabited space. When you ran out of enough waste to recycle though the synthesiser. Your fuel was almost a perfect system of self sustainment, but it wasn’t enough. It would run out one day and if you were lucky it would long after you and the crew were dead. But where would that leave VI? Alone in space and then gone, cold metal just floating.
“Just because there’s a weird floating object in space doesn’t mean it’s a ship of dead people. Stop being so morbid Darren.” You sighed, patting the man’s shoulder as you passed him.
“Have you spoken to Akila and Jameson about this?” You asked.
“No I wanted to check with you first.”
What was this, opposite day. You find a strange space object and you don’t notify your Captain? Had he hit his head or was he just getting cabin fever from squatting in his lab day and night.
The anomaly ship? Or Unidentified space mass- whatever it was, it wasn’t responding to anything they threw at it. Radios, light- they’d even literally thrown a large piece of chalk from the lab at it. It just bounced off. There was nothing, nada. You couldn’t help the underlining thought that a silent beast didn’t mean it wasn’t a threatening one. You didn’t voice it though, they all thought you were batshit enough at the best of times.
Still, the way it loomed over your ship was strange, you were technically travelling at a good speed- not light but fast enough that it would have to make an effort to match your trajectory, such a careful effort. It made you feel like you were both standing still, letting space more around you instead.
“Reader, what’s your best guess.” Akila asked, leaning back casually in her captains chair, like this was just another day.
“Fuck if I know. It’s a big space thing. Not exactly something you come across everyday.” You sighed out, “If it’s keeping so close to us though- there might be purpose there, intent. We don’t even know for sure when it caught up to us- if it even did. If we’re lucky we could’ve just dragged it into our orbit.”
“That’s not possible, it’s way too big- we don’t have enough mass to pull that in.” Jameson argued.
She was right but it was the best explanation you had- better than any she’d come up with so far.
“We need to keep trying to make contact- I say we send a shuttle out.” Darren spoke up.
He’d been suggesting new and creative ways to get us all noticed by our new space companion, you didn’t know if it was his natural curiosity as a scientist or if he was the kind of man that just liked poking a bear, but whatever that was hovering by- you wanted to leave it well alone.
“We need to get it away from us- not get inside it!” You said, looking to the captain for help.
“It’s not a bad idea, we don’t need to approach it but a closer observation won’t hurt. If we cant seem to shake it off- i don’t see any harm in sending the shuttle. Besides, maybe if we come to a stop it’ll drift out of our trajectory and leave us behind.” Akila appealed.
She was probably right, you had little idea of how to shake it off and your first idea would’ve been to just slow down and see if it carries on without you- stopping couldn’t be much worse. It wasn’t helping that your gut was starting to feel like it was sinking.
God what if this was a terrible idea.
It really was- Watching half your crew leave in the space shuttle was like watching your liver and kidneys float off without you. Your stomach was in your mouth as you pressed down the button for coms.
“Captain, how are you guys doing in there.” The edge on your voice gave away everything, you hoped Akila couldn’t hear it through the crackling of static feedback that was interrupting the line.
“It’s amazing, way bigger out here than you could tell from the observatory. You’re missing out.” She replied. “Darren and Sing are freaking out.”
You still didn’t know why they sent Sing, she was up the last shift. She was meant to be resting and not to mention she was an operations officer, Darren was just as capable of recording data. It was sheer stupidity to have her risk being on board. But Darren had to have his little pal with him. It was making her itchy, they had a half crew now. If anything went wrong they’d be fucked, it’s not like the rest of us could afford to come and get them.
“Tell Sing she’s not gonna be excused if she’s late to her next shift cycle.” You radioed back.
Jameson laughed next to you, feet propped up in the captains chair courtesy of her new position as temporary stand in. She was trying to look relaxed, but you knew if your kidneys felt like they were floating, her heart probably felt like it was out there in space with Akila right now.
“What’s O’Neil think of this?” You asked, he was probably asleep but it didn’t hurt to try and distract yourself.
“I haven’t woken him up, no point having all of us awake at once- someone’s gotta man the ship later.”
“Negative. VI is completely capable of running operations in peak efficiency independently.” Its interruption was soothing in its simplicity.
“Yes you’re right, Sorry VI.” Jameson called back.
“Don’t apologise to it, you’re inflating its ego.” You pointed at Jameson with an accusing finger. “VI you might run this beast but the Artemis can’t be maintained without us. It’s symbiotic.”
“I am not talking to you until you give me my data” It spit back.
Jameson rose their eyebrows, a hint of laughter brushing their mouth before it soured. The frown on their face deepening as their eyes took in the monitor before them.
“What’s is it?” You asked
They ignored you, typing something in and then restarting their padd all together- like they couldn’t believe what they were looking at.
“Radio them.” They shouted, already reaching over you to the comms.
“Akila! Akila, baby, come in!” They were frantic, looking back and forth between the speaker and their padd.
There was no response. Not even static on the line. It was like there was nothing there to receive it, it wasn’t possible for them to get that far in the shuttle. It wasn’t built for distance travel and was slow enough VI would’ve mapped their path.
“I’m sorry Superior crewman, Shuttle 8B is gone from my range.” Its voice was cutting in and out, like the connection between it and the speakers was spasming.
“What do you mean gone!” Jameson shrieked, pulling their padd out again only to throw it at the desk when it came up blank.
You knew you had to wake O’Neil up, Jameson was adamant on taking another shuttle, you had thought she might sense but it wasn’t working.
Maybe it was selfish, part of you just didn’t know what to do with her fear. It was like you were frozen, everything you knew was in there. But you couldn’t get your brain to think clearly enough to recall anything that could help.
“VI, where’s Jameson now?”
“Still by hanger door 8, I have kept it locked per your instructions but First Officer Jameson has authorised an overtake command.” Vi responded, still coming out fuzzier than they should.
As grateful as you were, VI really shouldn’t be able to do that. It was a problem for another time.
“Thank you, get O’Neil up for me please.”
You were already making a break for the hanger, hoping VI would have enough understanding to direct O’Neil to you. The corridor was darker than usual, dead of the usual star specked light that drifted through the portholes, all snuffed by the looming darkness next to you.
“You can’t take the shuttle, we’ve talked about this!” You shouted down the corridor at Jameson’s distant figure.
“No! You’re just fucking scared- you did this at the worm hole!” She screamed back. “You froze then and let us drift into a black fucking hole!”
She turned to smash her Padd into the wall, banging it again and again in the same spot. She was trying to pull a panel off the wall.
You picked up into a run, pushing your legs as fast as you could against the rattling floor.
“Stop! Jameson- Zora, I said stop!” You screamed.
You attempted to grab the padd, only to get it smashed between the wall and your hand. It’s glass screen lodging pieces into your skin upon impact. You howled out, retaliating by slamming her down to the floor with a side sweep.
“What the fuck are you doing?” O’Neils voice carried in, still thick with the strange accent You had never quite been able to place despite all your best efforts.
“Readers fucking selfish, they’d rather let them all die then risk their precious neck!” Jameson screamed out from behind you, shoving your hunched form and head straight into the wall in front of you.
You were probably going to get a concussion, your hand and now burned. A slow trickle of blood was beginning to work its way down your fingers. The red sight was making your stomach turn in a knot. Gushing and bubbling up like that deep red pool of a moon. Stop thinking about that stupid moon.
It was an active effort to shake it off, it was everytime you thought about it but right now the paranoid side of you couldn’t help but keep thinking that place had cursed you.
“It’s not selfish to not want to die! Akila and the others are gone, god knows where- do you really think it’ll end up any different for you if you go out there.” You shouted back, ignoring O’Neil brushing past you to Jamesons side, lifting her back up from her lean against the door.
“We need to do more tests before you go out running into danger. Just give me a few hours.” You said, the plea straining your voice into a higher pitch.
“You said the others are gone? What happened.” O’Neil asked, keeping a tight arm around the first officers shoulder.
“There’s an anomaly, a ship…maybe. They went out to check after we couldn’t get into contact.” They broke into a sob but continued through it, letting the tears colour their voice.
“Darren wanted to take a shuttle out, just have a quick look. They said they wouldn’t get too close.” O’Neil pulled her further into his side, straightening them both out, never breaking his questioning gaze.
“The next thing I know, their video feed on the Padd dropped, I couldn’t even see their location on radar.” She finished, finally pulling a hand up to wipe the snot that had gathered amongst her tears.
“How far were they VI? Standard protocol is 30k right?”
O’Neil asked the first meaningful question in the last half hour. You were ashamed you hadn’t thought to ask it yourself. Why couldn’t you just think, it was all you were here to do and you were screwing it up royally. Jesus christ you might have just gotten your friends killed.
“Affirmative, Shuttle 8B was approx 30 clicks from anomaly object immediately before loss of contact.” VI spoke up from the speakers, voice coming in stronger now.
“So theoretically speaking here, it’s possible that it might just be some kind of field around the anomaly interfering with our instruments. Who’s to say they’re actually gone.” He said, looking at Jameson with hopeful eyes.
“You’ve got to be kidding me- VI don’t answer that!” You shouted.
What the hell was he playing at- was he seriously trying to encourage this madness? You wanted to grab them both and scream, tell them you needed to run. Hit the engine to warp and leave this thing in the dust behind you but you couldn’t get your breath in fast enough to speak.
“Are you that cold reader? You want to leave our crew out there?” He asked. “We can take extra cable from engineering, I'll wire us directly to the ship if it’ll make you feel better. But we’re going out for them.” He countered.
Jameson sobered up at that, pushing the leftover tears from her face as she seemingly steeled herself. It wouldn’t be worth it- nothing since the worm had been so far, how was this any different. They’d already lost so much, why keep loosing more.
You let the silence sit between your words a while longer, counting a few breaths to keep you grounded. None of your new acquaintances dared to interrupt it.
“They didn’t listen. I tired to keep the connection as stable as I could. Kept the hanger doors open for the cable line. We were physically connected, my hands were on the line. There was no way for them to just disappear.” Your voice was echoing back to you from the glass, your eyes prodding the vastness of space, searching.
“They didn’t even get half as close as shuttle 8B.” You sighed, finally turning to face the three strange visitors in front of you.
“I’m not sure what happened after that- I think something hit us, I must have passed out because I woke up to a low oxygen alarm in my suit and half the hanger all chinked up from the loose cables thrashing. Whatever it was it left an impact that damaged a lot of VIs external sensors. I know how to fix most of it but I'm not a scientist- Darren was in charge of those.”
The desperation you’d been icing out was starting to sink in again, you watched as Simon and Grace shared a conversation through a few gazes with a faint twinge. Jealousy maybe. You missed that kind of companionship.
“It’s my fault. I let Darren and Akila go out with Sing. And then I let Jameson and O’Neil die going after them.” You sunk back into the chair opposite, taking ahold of Simon's neglected whisky and swallowing it down.
You could feel the flush of shame pumping through you, the throbbing migraine still lingering in the back of your skull. Some part of you wanted to fear telling strangers too much, but what could they do with this but heed it as a warning. Your crew were gone but they didn’t need to be, if they knew this thing was out there then maybe it could be avoided.
Simon and Grace hadn’t moved much during your retelling, but Rocky’s steady fidgeting had finally stilled. The absence of his rhythmic taps was exactly what made you acknowledge it in the first place, you’d hadn’t even realised how much you missed the sound of just about anything else alive around you.
“It doesn’t sound like they gave you much of a choice.” Grace was the first to speak, letting the words settle before continuing, voice slow and steady.
“You did the best you could.”
“Bullshit.” You snapped, suddenly far too hot under his kind eyes.
“I was responsible for O’Neil, and Sing, they were my friends but they were also my inferiors- they were my fucking responsibility.”
“I’m not telling you this so we can throw a God damn pity party, I just don’t want you out there unprepared.” You finished, voice strained as you tried to keep your composure.
It wasn’t like this was fun for you, or them for that matter. But something about the way they were looking at you like a kicked dog was rubbing you the wrong way entirely. You might need help but you weren’t grovelling for it.
“Ok it’s your fault.” Simon’s words stilled the room. “You got them killed, now what?”
“Simon Bad! Simon is not speaking true-“ Rocky started.
“No let him finish.” You wanted to know what he was going to say, he’d been the only one to make sense thus far.
“You can’t sit here with Vi and wallow in your own self pity, You still have crew left, and it doesn’t sound like Vi blames you.”
“Superior crewmen may have acted unprofessionally and engaged in violent attitudes- they did make their objection clear. The crew was under no duress from reader when they made their choice, it was entirely their own. Reader, I don’t blame you.” VI said, almost affectionate in tone if you ignored the twinge sardonic humour that ever favoured their voice.
“VI and I can’t run this on our own forever. There’s a chance that thing will come back.” You sighed. “Without the sensors up and running we’re blind to it.”
“Then let’s get those sensors fixed.”
Grace said it like it was the simplest thing in the word. And maybe it was for a Dr/Captain and his Rock alien- and whatever simon was. You had no proof of their credentials but if they were offering a beacon of hope, who were you to turn it down.
