Chapter Text
Ryland Grace wouldn’t lie, ok he totally would, but not about how much he hated space travel. The views were amazing and he’d seen some of the most interesting things imaginable, and things he would have never even imagined, but after three years it kind of becomes a drag. How Rocky and Adrian had got him to agree to go back to Earth was beyond him.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go home. No, he missed Earth like no one’s business, but the actual going back part? Yeah that sucked. He, along with Rocky, Adrian, and ten other Eridians, had all been shoved inside a modified Hail Mary for the past couple of years and he was getting a little tired of it.
But, he was in luck, as his years of yearning to not be locked inside of a big tin can hurtling through space as a speed that he doesn’t really want to think about will soon come to an end. Either they make it back to Earth, talk to someone there, he’s still not really sure who, and kinda sorta crash land into the ocean, or they die in the process. Yay.
What Ryland wasn’t prepared for was the conversation about the whole landing thing. You see, the Eridians were far smarter than humans in some respects, and a big one was their reentry into their atmosphere. Rocky probably knew that humans had some wild way of returning home, considering he had been part of several human plans that involved near death experiences by this point, but the rest of them didn’t really have any of that experience.
“What Grace think about” Rocky chittered, rolling his ball into Ryland’s room. Well, really it was his shared room with Rocky and Adrian, but that was less of the official arrangement and more of a separation anxiety issue that he really didn’t want to confront today.
“Yeah, I was just thinking about how close we are, we should be able to make radio contact with Earth soon bud.”
“Grace excited,” he pitched his tone up a bit at the end, mimicking the way that humans asked questions, it was something Grace had taught him on their trip back to Erid so they could stop using the translator all the time. Judge him all you want but lugging a laptop around all the time was tiring. Plus he maybe, just a little, wanted to be the first human to understand an alien language.
“Yeah Rock, I’ve missed Earth. Erid is wonderful and all but I miss it.”
“Yes, yes, Rocky heard. Grace miss fog, and real food, and rain, and real food again. Won’t shut up about food.”
It was true. The taumoeba and meburgers had been enough to prevent him from dying but he really really missed having normal, human food to eat. The pancakes from the dinner near his school, that one sandwich place near his apartment that had the best Dutch crunch bread, he would do some seriously heinous things for Taco Bell at this point in full honesty.
He just laughed at Rocky, leaning against the Xenonite ball that kept his friend from dying in Grace’s atmosphere.
“Adrian tell Rocky that Mary starting to sense radio waves.”
“Shoot! Why didn’t you start with that.”
Grace scrambled up, running towards the computer that housed the coms system. He was no expert in radio systems but he was blessed with the fact that the Petrova Taskforce had thought to set up a nice handy NASA button that he could just select and talk over. However, they did not give him any training in what he should say once he keyed up on the radio.
“Uh… hello?”
Great, now if someone did hear him back on Earth they would think he was the dumbest man in space. A few minutes later he watched the PTT light up, indicating someone else was using the same frequency.
“NASA Actual, identify yourself,” A feminine voice carried over the radio, the first live human voice he had heard in years.
“This is Captain Dr. Ryland Grace of the Hail Mary.”
There was no response, even after the several minutes he had calculated it would take for the radio waves to reach him. He nervously checked the logs, he hadn’t keyed down at all, he had just spoken into the microphone for nothing. He made sure he was keyed down and tried again.
“This is Captain Dr. Ryland Grace of the Hail Mary.”
“This is who? Of the what?” Several seconds of silence followed, “uh over.”
“Dr. Ryland Grace, guess I’m a Captain now too, isn’t that cool? Anyway I’m assuming you got the Beetles because the sun isn’t dead.”
“Yes, of course we did, we’re just a little confused. Didn’t you go back to Erid?”
“Mhm! Yeah I did, they convinced me to go back to Earth, although I have a couple of them with me so I don’t get myself killed in space, isn’t that nice?”
“I suppose, anyway I’m being told that someone else will be talking with you from now on as I’m just an intern so it’s been nice.”
Grace talked back and forth with NASA for a bit, just the boring talk about the plan to reenter Earth’s orbit and how they were going to keep the Eridians from dying once back on Earth. He had signed off when the PTT flashed at him, just a radio bump, but he doesn’t think that whoever runs the radio at NASA is accidentally keying up, the second and third time solidified that belief. He pressed the radio button once, trying to show whoever was trying to reach him that he was still listening. It was being pressed in a pattern, same pattern over and over. The next time it started he started to write it down.
-- .- -. / ... - .-. .- -. -.. . -.. / --- -. / -- .- .-. …
Man stranded on Mars
.-- .... .- -
What
-- .. ... ... .. --- -. / .-- . -. - / .-- .-. --- -. --. / -.-. .- -. / -.-- --- ..- / ... - --- .--. / .- -. -.. / .- ... ... .. ... -
Mission went wrong can you stop and assist
... . -. -.. / -- . / -.. . - .- .. .-.. …
Send me details
Grace spent the next thirty minutes writing down all the instructions and details about how he was going to intercept this astronaut who was going to essentially launch himself into space in a tent. Towards the end of the conversation he asked what the person’s name was.
-- .- .-. -.- / .-- .- - -. . -.--
Mark Watney
The name rang a bell, he searched his brain, trying to parse through memories he hadn’t fully recovered. Wait! He knew a Mark Watney; he had just published his first article on turning normal crops into extremophiles when Grace was knocked into a coma and blasted off into space. Grace never got around to reading the article but he could ask all the questions ever about it once he had Mark safe and sound on the Mary and no longer stranded on Mars of all places.
“Rocky! Adrian! We’re taking a detour!” Grace called across the ship.
“Why,” Adrian questioned.
“NASA accidentally stranded a different astronaut on Mars.”
“Humans bad bad bad at space trave;. First Grace now accidentally leave man on Mars.”
“Yeah, I don’t really have any defense on that one. They really only gave me the basics, and they did it in morse code so something tells me this rescue may not be approved by NASA itself.”
“Oh Grace Rocky Adrian break space laws.”
“Well technically I’m still functioning under the jurisdiction of the Petrova Taskforce, I just talked with NASA because they have a button on the radio monitor.”
“Grace Rock Adrian space criminal. Save man on Mars.”
“Sure Rock, we’re space criminals saving a stranded astronaut.”