“Rocky!” I yell as loud as I can. “I don’t know if you can hear me! But I’m here, buddy! I’m on your hull!”
I wait a few seconds. “I have my EVA suit radio on! Same frequency as always! Say something! Let me know you’re okay!”
I turn up my radio volume. All I hear is static.
“Rocky!”
A crackle. My ears perk up.
“Rocky?!”
“Grace, question?”
“Yes!” I’ve never been so happy to hear a few musical notes! “Yeah, buddy! It’s me!”
“You are here, question?!” his voice is so high-pitched I can barely understand him. But I understand Eridian pretty well now.
“Yes! I’m here!”
“You are…” he squeaks. “You…” he squeaks again. “You are here!”
“Yes! Set up the airlock tunnel!”
“Warning! Taumoeba-82.5 is—”
“I know! I know. It can get through xenonite. That’s why I’m here. I knew you’d be in trouble.”
“You save me!”
“Yes. I caught the Taumoeba in time. I still have fuel. Set up the tunnel. I’m taking you to Erid.”
“You save me and you save Erid!” he squeaks.
Rocky waits for me on the other side. His clothes are a mess. Covered in the all-too-familiar gunky Taumoeba residue. And there are burns all along one side of his jumpsuit and two of his arms are in pretty bad shape. Looks like he had a pretty rough time. But his body language is sheer joy.
He bounces from handhold to handhold.
“I am very very very happy,” he says with a high pitch.
I point to his bad arms. “Are you hurt?!”
“I will heal. Attempted many things to stop Taumoeba infestation. All failed.”
“I still have two million kilograms of Astrophage. Bring your stuff aboard. We’re going to Erid.”
“Happy! Happy happy happy!” He pauses. “Need to make nitrogen wash. Make sure no Taumoeba-82.5 get into Hail Mary.”
“Yes. I have full faith in your abilities. Make a sterilizer.”
He shifts from one set of bars to another. Those burned arms are hurting him, I can tell.
Learning that Rocky is hurt does something to me. Yes, it's special that he's so excited, he tries to ignore the pain, but the fact itself that it hurts him? 🥺 And that it's Ryland who's unscathed?
He trembles. “No. You no can die. You are friend.”
And this. I know Ryland says that Eridians are his friends, that Rocky is his best friend, but it feels special to me when Rocky expresses/confirms that Ryland IS his friend.
IDK. It all makes me feel. That was a good ending (also, hello, Grace eating meburgers that are made from his own meat? lab grown meat? amazing). I liked it way better than the movie's.
Oh, and I pretty much loved that there was way more interactions (and conversations) between Rocky and Ryland in the book. That Rocky had Opinions. He and Ryland bicker, almost verbally fight. The movie just... doesn't show that?
Like I said after I watched the movie, it should have been a mini series. I had no idea how right I was. The movie is not enough to properly represent the book, but the it's too much (too long) as a movie imo.
