Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Violent quaking. A shout. Drowning static.

Roman was disoriented. Fear made his vocal cords freeze up.

 Green smoke. Increasing heat. A chilled blast of air from his left. Darkness.

Roman came to violently, with the overwhelming smell of burnt coppery eggs clogging his airways and the eerie, loud hum of a windstorm rocking their ship. He coughed, choking on the fumes as he fumbled with his straps and let himself fall from the pilot seat to the clearer acidic air near the floor. Something in the ship– almost definitely the copper sulfate in the engine– was burning, and Ro didn’t have time to figure out if it got to their cargo or the spare bio-fuel that could spread faster than kindling with a spark. If he had time, he could cut off the supply valve and drop it: their ship could switch to full wave-power easily due to its small size. If it survived this fire that had surely compromised it.

Roman realized the wind during the descent was the only thing that had put out the exterior entry fire. Roman just hoped it didn’t tear their vessel apart any more than it definitely already was. He couldn’t go out to check unless it was their only option. Comms were almost guaranteed to be down, so he needed to find some way to contact their headship crew. Remus would never let him hear the end of it once they got out of here and Patton was probably…

…shit. He remembered he wasn’t alone. Patton was with him this time. Ro needed to find him. 

Ro crawled with low, hazy visibility towards the exit door; it didn’t bode well that the heat got more intense the closer he moved to it. Their vessel was compact and efficient by design. So long as the main exit wasn’t blocked by flames, he’d get Patton— the life-astronomist had been securing precious samples in the minilab for a rough landing but they’d had short notice on it being a crash— and get out immediately.

With the system down and the back-up system pulsing ominously for manual restart, Roman wouldn’t know of any breaches to the interior immediately. They were still able to breathe, so that was something. He didn’t know if starting the ship immediately would turn it into a plasma ball or not. He would not risk their lives to find out.

“Pat’n!” he called, voice hoarse from strain and the words garbled as he realized he’d inhaled more smoke than he thought. 

He fought his body’s natural urge to breathe deeper in the panic, as the fumes were absolutely making things worse. His nose was overloaded with too much information, and his vision was getting more frayed by the ting. That probably wouldn’t be great for his next med check.

“Here, Ro!” 

Roman looked over towards the light and saw a small open hatch leading outside. The outline of a small creature stood out like a shadow to the bright grey beyond the ship. Ro shuffled faster towards it, and it took everything in him to not just grab the small Hedd-ri and hold him close immediately. He had to fight back the instinctive need to huddle up for now. Outside was safer than inside.

Pat crawled out first only to make way for Ro to escape the side-hatch. Immediately Ro was hit with a very unpleasant, dry cold. The burning ship suddenly didn’t seem that bad to his unprotected skin.  

The first thing Ro noticed was how difficult it was to breathe normally. But given their ship had not imploded and the fact he nor Patton had blacked out (or worse)…there was some sort of thin atmosphere of this place. At least they were able to respire at all.

But Ro felt incredibly sluggish; his body’s ability to pull nitrogen from the air was limited. Patton seemed to be faring better than him. His kind easily adjusted to high altitudes with thin air. He caught a glimpse of the carnage in their minilab— the collected flora samples laid scattered across the floor, their dirt escaping the transport crates entirely. Samples could be replaced…but this would not be easily explained to the flagship.

Patton was worriedly clicking at him, setting down one of the items he’d dragged off the ship with him. He hurried over to where Roman had stopped and small hands held Ro’s head off the ground. 

“Ro,” he called to get his attention, and then there was a series of concerned clicks that didn’t need translation to a common language. 

And in his arms, one of the PL-3 samples he had dragged from the back, as tall and fluffy on top as he was, but somehow almost entirely fine. Of course Pat had tried to save a plant during a crash. Roman decidedly didn’t thump at him for his priorities. Pat wasn't harmed...he must have gotten strapped in in time in the back. It didn’t matter right now, but if Roman had lost him for a plant...

He didn’t want to think about it anymore. Roman struggled to get his arms under him to prop himself up. “’m a-alrig’…we need…t’ get away f-from this.” 

It was hard to say more right now. Every move felt like it took more of the last ounces of energy quickly leeching away from him. They were lucky they were still alive at all, on an unknown barren body of some kind.

More worried popping noises. His friend didn’t look at all convinced, but tugged at his face to ensure Ro did in fact move with him.

Ro would have gasped if he had enough breath to. Even all his exposed skin was barely able to compensate his needs here like it could easily in natural water. 

…He really wished he had some water. Why couldn’t they have landed on an ocean planet…preferably with life beginning for his nitrogen fix? Roman could thrive on that.

Roman dragged himself towards the fresh air, hoping that’d do enough to clear his head. The gravity was moderate— less than their ship’s artificial magnetic gravity, and so easier to move. Small comforts. 

He saw it before he was fully free of the ship: they were on some icy wasteland of a…moon? It had to be. No other planet fit this look. Certainly not the gas giant they’d been falling into. Roman looked up. The sky was filled with a view of said gas giant, and it was like they were hanging over it, gravity all that kept them from falling into its crushing forces. Ro shuddered at how truly massive it was: at how lucky they got to not be dragged right in entirely and to fall onto one of its moons instead. Its stunning red stripe wispy clouds like a swirling painting would be a sight to behold if they weren’t terrifying. He decidedly didn’t look up— down?— into that swirling eldritch abyss anymore.

He fixed his gaze instead on the moon they were most likely on. The place was icy and debris-covered from frequent (hopefully old) impacts. It was not reassuring, being they were stuck there for at least the next rotation. Ice was extremely promising, however it was thick. Any liquid water buried impossibly deep. And cold. Or may be nonexistent. 

Their ship had fallen onto a slope, which was lucky to have eased their descent. He wondered if he’d managed that on purpose, but the sheer damage to the vessel showed proof of a hard uncontrolled landing. They’d almost shot past the moon entirely, and would have continued to plummet into the gravity of the gas giant…but they’d managed to be pulled down onto it’s inner face.

The ‘hill’ was actually a very long, windswept ridge that went on as far as Roman could see in both directions away from the ship. Ro shivered, looking in all directions, trying to blink his vision clear. There were many more of these ridges along the crust of this place, in semi-regular intervals, as far as he could see. They at least weren’t very tall; these weren’t steep mountain ridges, but more like white icehills making grooves all over the surface. It might have been kind of pretty if they weren’t stranded here. 

How was Patton after such a violent stop? Ro tried to get a good look at his shipmate, but the amount of thick fuzz on him made it difficult to tell any damage beneath it. But Pat was moving fine, if a bit shivery— he was understandably on-edge. No limping or favoring any limbs that he could see. 

…he was staring at something intently, not speaking. Ro turned to see what he was looking at. But what he started to make out on the barren, cold moon…was a little disconcerting. He stared as if his eyes might be lying to him, trying to see if things changed. Not far from where their ship had landed, there were…what even was that? 

The more he looked, the more…unnatural structures were seen dotted across the expansive permafrost in the distance. Huge shiny tower-like pillars had been erected in the ice. They looked to be spaced equally but far apart. Ro could see 7 of them just from where they were. Maybe the tops of 2 more. 

They were not made of material obviously native, either. But this star system– it was one of several forbidden for colonizing. Sure, there were many shady outposts made anyway…but this place was watched closely because it was so newly discovered and isolated on a galactic scale. It was why they were essentially being audited for their excursions to continue here. It  would be insane to put a mining colony or illegal satellite post in such an obvious, resourceless place. 

Roman squinted, displeased and annoyed with how off this all was. He reached out to Patton and pulled him in, feeling far too exposed with his mottled reddish skin. 

“We need…shelter.”

Patton’s fuzzy pincers latched onto the metal pot but he let Roman pull him over.

“Are we…gonna turn on the distress signal? The others need to know what happened.”

Roman didn’t really know how to tell him about the state of their transmitters. Roman had flipped the distress beacon the minute they’d been yanked in by the gas-giant’s gravity. It was inescapable without enough momentum. Roman didn’t even know how it had happened. He’d been following their navigation exactly, and Janus was never wrong to this degree—

“Ro.” The slight stress in the way Patton said his name got his scattered attention again.

“…I just need a few minutes to make sure our ship won’t explode. Then I’ll go mess with ‘em. But uh…it should have sent an alert soon as we star`ted getting pulled far off our course. So they p-probably know something’s wrong. If not now, then when we miss the coordinate check window. They’ll come get us.”

Ro just hoped their equipment was intact for retrieval. That Remus and Janus would realize they weren’t actually falling into the planet.

Pat nodded slowly, settling against Ro to watch rather helplessly as the smoke engulfed their ship. He hoped the fire would put itself out from the lack of components.

“So…are others here? Should we…try to get help?”

“…you see someone?”

Patton had better farsight than him, and he started to click uneasily, “Not exactly, just…that’s tech, of some kind. What are those…? Were those out here last time we passed through Sol-4R15?”

Ro was quiet, because he didn’t know.

Roman paused in his thoughts were taken by another thing, and he slowly pulled Patton closer as it put him on edge. There was another structure, seemingly set into the ground…he could see the top of what appeared to be a dome, blending in with the low-light of the thin atmosphere. It only shimmered in the strips of staticky light streaking across the upper atmosphere, which was how Roman had eventually noticed it at all, huge as it was. There were also lights over that way. Ro wanted to get a higher vantage point, but couldn’t really exert himself to get up even the shallow slope they were on. 

Ro’s eyes drifted around them, observing the horizon and structures more closely for…anything that could be of use to them. Somewhere to hide…to see if anything was coming their way.

“...we…might n-not have picked up the ac-activity…this is the inner side of the moon, fa-facing the planet. Something about the moon or planet probably hid their presence f-from us…”

“So you think it too. T-There’s…others here.”

Roman grimaced, squirming uncomfortably. “...others who don’t w-want to be noticed.”

By who was anyone’s guess, but Roman didn’t want to find out while stranded here. He looked around them for somewhere to go. Despite being half-way down their icy hill, they were too high up. If they could see the dome, it stood to reason they also could be seen by anyone looking the right direction. He spotted a dip in the ridge wall nearby. Likely a small meteor impact from over a century ago. This landscape was riddled with them, but they all looked so old…smoothed and weathered over. It wasn’t quite a deeper enclosed cave like he’d prefer, but it was a safe and close enough distance from their ship. 

“Let’s get lower and hide out. We can barely s-see anything, so maybe they didn’t notice us…if they’re from Sol-3, then…we know their signal technology doesn’t register our ship.”

Patton thought that just sounded a bit like Roman trying to convince them both there weren’t people coming right for them right now.

“...but…they could have seen us crash,” he whispered, feeling bad to say it. He didn’t want to contradict Ro, but if people were going to show up where they saw the ship go down…they’d be found immediately.

Ro started to scoot slowly down the soft-icy slope. There was nowhere to run out here, really. It was too open. The ship was all they had. They’d be in dire trouble either way. 

“...let us h-hope that they didn’t.” 

—-

“Alright, flyling, no golfing off and getting dissected, okay? Did you pack your lunch and all that extra crap you’ll never use for your day trip? Got your tracker on for when you get lost?”

“Shut up, Rem, it’s protocol equipment!”

“More like baby’s first spacewalk overkill! When will you ever use a firestarter? Gonna burn down the forest as a distraction? And what, is the rope for abducting the witnesses to your fuck up?”

Ro shoved past Remus in the cramped hanger full of all their extra junk more than ships. 

“As if we’ve ever been seen! There are barely any Solians in the area after dark, it doesn’t matter how close it is to civilization. We’ll be in and out faster than you’ve ever been AND we won’t forget a third of the damn plants we are going for, so.”

“Spare me, you couldn’t find a stick in a forest,” Remus snickered.

“Wha– you’re one to talk!! You couldn’t find a TREE in a forest!”

“You can’t steal mine, protozoa-brain!!”

“Yeah, well— you couldn’t find sand at the beach! Impossible when you barely have two neurons to rub together.”

“Look, when Pat and I get back with all the required samples, you’re going to look real stupid. You’ll be buying us the new equipment too.”

“Right, we’ll see that happen when sol turns to ice. You have yourself a bet—“

“Why haven’t you two finished loading the shuttle?! Departure is in 10! Hurry up!”

“Ughhh we are!! You have no heart, Jan, can’t you see we’re bonding before Ro’s 10-turn trip?”

Janus’s flagella rattled. “He’ll be back in two rotations,” he deadpanned. “But I’m more than happy to find room to shove you on board with him if you’re soo torn up about it—“

“Nooo, no thanks! Pat and I are sooo good, more than enough help thanks! He should definitely stay with you and continue making a great impression on the core team.”

Janus hissed irritably. “No thanks to either of you, they actually are interested to continue funding our sector. If you still want a job and thisss ship when you get back, don’t screw this up.”

“Your confidence is inspiring.”

“Well I can’t exactly leave anyone else to watch Remus and host our guests, so I’m making do. Don’t get separated out there.”

“We won’t, Mom. Thank you for your loving concern.”

“I swear to— just hurry up. The sooner this is over, we can get back to getting paid and our other objectives.”

—-

Roman slumped against the crater wall, shielding Patton with his webbed arms. They needed to get back to them… he wondered if they had noticed something was even wrong. Their ship’s comms being offline should get noticed…but how would they know where to look? Would they assume the worst?

Patton looked up at him worriedly as Roman’s shivering was definitely noticeable. But there was nothing they could do about it. Their singed tarp was working overtime barely covering the entrance to their hiding spot.

It would be much worse in the open wind. They just had to be grateful they had that much…though an actual fire would be nice. 

Pat set the plant down beside Roman and Roman’s hazy thoughts got just a little clearer. He blinked. “...oh. That’s…a lil better.”

Pat looked at Ro questioningly, then down at the plant before it clicked for him. “...oh. That’s right! These can help you! I completely forgot…it’s not the plant. The soil--bacteria are denitrifying…which makes nitrogen for you to breath.”

Pat’s smile fell marginally. “I-I just…don’t know how to make sure they stay alive here. It’s…really not much for this one pot.”

“I don’t need much at all if I’m just sitting here. It’ll buy time.”

Pat glanced at the ship but Roman held onto him, worried he’d go for it. “No. Just stay here, we…we can think about that if we need them. 

“…I don’t like the look of those clouds.”

Patton looked up at their thin golden hue and the static charge felt through the thin atmosphere. Static was drawn to the tops of the towers in an increasingly intense light show. It might have been cool outside of the circumstances. He grimaced, tucking in closer to Roman. 

“…do you think we’re covered enough? You can smell that too, right?” 

Roman’s sensitive nose crinkled. “I smell ozone…definitely plasma in the atmosphere…we just need to stay in here. In case it’s a bad lightning storm and not just ion blasts.”

The sky rumbled, and a few sparks flashed above them in the atmosphere. Again, Roman thought it strange there was any atmosphere at all.

Patton curled up beside Roman’s leg, his long plumy tail curling around his friend anxiously. He pressed the side of his face to Roman’s chest and Ro knew what he was doing. What his friend was listening for.

“Pat, I’m okay, really.”

“We need to find you food. I know you need it soon.”

Ro bumped his tail against Pat’s reassuringly. “It isn’t dire. I can last a while just fine.”

And there was probably little to no organic matter on a moon this far from the only inhabited planet in the star system…Ro tried not to think of those implications.

“...if we have to, we can find the edible samples. And draw from food we can salvage in the ship.”

Pat didn’t say anything, because he already knew how little there was. Their ship was only equipped for a rotational round trip. They’d brought 2 meals along each, and emergency rations would give them an extra 4. If repairs or rescue didn’t come when those were up, then…  

Patton tensed, small hands clinging to Roman’s uniform, distracting them from their current crisis. 

“Did you h-hear that? Something’s out there, Ro, I heard something,” he whispered in a rush. Eyes wide behind his foggy visor. 

“Shh, it’s okay, it’ll pass,” he murmured, tucking Pat further away from the entrance. Their shelter spot was shallow, and their ship was anything but hidden. But the broken cloak would just have to work well enough on the dark terrain. He tried to recall what information they had on the outer system of Solis. He didn’t think the further planets were even inhabited by anything living. Certainly no complex life they’d noticed in their scans of the planets. Only Solarian…Sollian signatures ever appeared…but…surely those guys hadn’t gotten to somewhere so far and desolate in only the past two-hundred years? 

…

“Pat, if that thing is dangerous, you have to run.”

“I-I’m not leaving you here! I don’t want to be alone,” Patton whispered frantically, curled against Roman’s chest.

Roman looked from the approaching figure to Patton. He didn’t want to stress the Herian further, but this was serious. “Pat– t-the others will surely come for our distress signal. At least one of us should still be here when they do. Shh.”

“No!! No-no data is worth splitting up, we both have to make it, I won’t let you–”

Roman’s body vibrated defensively (and for a bit more warmth) and he quickly covered Patton, muffling his noise as the approaching figure paused, listening. He would protect Patton if nothing else. They had to get back home. The plant would only buy Roman so much time…it was doing poorly in this thin atmosphere compared to its environment of its nitrogen-rich home. He felt too weak to fight if they were a threat…or eventually brought more of its kind with it. First Contact was never supposed to go like this. They were alone, outnumbered— practically defenseless with no useful tools to speak of. 

…he really needed to know if they were a threat. Roman risks peeking out after some motivation to.

The creature was smaller than Roman by about a head or so…at least Ro had size to his advantage. Ro hid again. Maybe they’d go away…? But they couldn’t be so lucky.

Roman peeked out the opening once more to see the being was closer. Apparently, the scans were correct. How can they survive in such a cold place? 

Roman pointed to the long probe the Sollian had and the spiny scales along his back flexed unhappily. Patton just looked curious. “What are they doing?”

“...they must have seen our ship come down out here,” Ro admitted unhappily. 

He eyed their weird bendy 5-appendaged grabbers at the end of their upper limbs uncomfortably. What did a being evolve all of those for? They’d never quite figured it out, in all their distant studying. They were probably for tearing, but with blunt claws, it seemed at least inefficient for his thick skin. 

“Maybe they came out to help, then.”

“Are you kidding, Pat, because it’s not funny. Sollians are hostiles. Zero contact for a good reason.” 

Pat shifted uneasily in Roman’s grasp. “We need help, or we’ll never get back up! They’re also a cross-communal species. If they know we aren’t a threat–”

“Then they’ll capture us!” Roman argued.

Patton sighed. “Ro, we have to take the chance!”

“No, we don't! We could take a chance and one of us gets hurt! I want you to make sure you're safe and I can't do that if they capture you, or separate us, or- or whatever else they may do.”

“Patton. This isn’t worth the risk! I-I can’t lose you like— you of all beings know what those ones do to their fellow creatures— and even other Sollians, when they want to learn about them! I’m not letting it happen to you!”

Patton stopped, startled at the outburst, but…he knew Ro. Ro wasn’t yelling at him. This was stress. Rightfully so. Ro had a point. They had seen it in their own studies of the planet…being another spacefaring species did not guarantee they would be safe and welcomed as fellow scientists. The Sollians could see their constant monitoring as some threat to them, easily. It was a reasonable assumption to have about beings more advanced were certainly capable of harm and to be avoided.

Pat looked down. He didn’t want that to happen to them. But then what were they supposed to do…?

The being stilled as they stopped beside Ro and Patton’s ship, and then turned to look directly at them, noticing Roman’s barely-there movement. Were their senses that heightened?

Roman’s arms twitched at the direct eye contact. A lone Sollian had found them. Then the Sollian started to make a low, droning series of noises that was their speech. Roman didn’t know what to make of it and just moved back out of sight. 

The being lifted the stick in their hand Ro had assumed was some sort of walking support, still making the repetitive low tones. Even though it wasn’t pointed at them, it instantly read as a threat to Roman and he stood, making himself bigger. His webbed arms helped with the bluff, and the Sollian scrambled back a few feet.

It set the stick down and started talking faster, pointing and waving with their palms at them.

Roman looked confused by the gestures, then frustrated. He slowly lowered to sit again, but he didn’t recognize any basic Sollian words for this conversation…how was he supposed to know he would ever actually talk to one??

Oh. But maybe their translator had survived? He knew its scanners could roughly decipher basic Sollian writings…he’d never used it for audio there, but it should be capable of it. It had a log of a few hundred words some researchers had worked out. Sollian was one of the least decoded auditory languages that existed, however.

“Pat…can you go check the ship for the translator? It might be of use for this. The ship isn’t smoking anymore, so…maybe it’s the best time to check on things.”

He wasn’t willing to leave his small companion defenseless with this unknown. It didn’t seem to have natural sharp parts or any tools– anything could be in that bag, though. At least Roman had size going for him. He was a head and a half taller than this being.

Patton skittered out, though not without an uneasy glance back at them. 

Roman sat in tense silence, staring at this…new development. While he didn’t look away in case they tried anything, the Sollian seemed intent on not making eye contact, looking everywhere else with only an occasional darting glance at his face.

Patton was thankfully back before Ro or the threat could get antsy. He thanked him and looked at their translator: a triangular clunky device with a handle. It was old tech and not anywhere near as nice as the updated ones…but it was all they had, given they weren’t expecting to need to translate much on these missions. Ro could regret it later and complain to Janus to finally shell out for a new one. 

He turned it on and fidgeted with it before speaking near it’s flat microphone. “Here. Translator. You pause and press this button between exchanges to use it. It isn’t entirely accurate and translate extremely literally, but use the most basic words and we can hope it’s close enough.”

The Sollian took it when it was offered out, tilting their head.

“Oh. Even my words you understand?”

Patton perked up. “Oh! Yes, I understood that! Love that it works for them!”

“A miracle, truly. Alright, Sollian, let’s cut to the chase. We don’t need any of your other kind coming out here to find us. You aren’t even supposed to know we exist. Did you tell anyone else you came out here?”

The Sollian looked at them, and their posture tensed a little. 

“No. I thought ship was other … vessel. My people but of Soil.”

Roman and Patton exchanged confused looks.

“...right. Dirt people. Okay…well, no. It was ours. And we won’t have to do anything drastic if you cooperate, not like anyone would believe–”

“Roman,” Patton chided. “Don’t do that! Let’s hear them out and make nice.”

Patton looked to the Sollian, tail flapping slowly. “Hello! You can call me Patton.”

“Sure, just give the being your name, that’s totally protocol–”

“And my friend and I are just hoping for a little assistance to get off your lovely moon? It’s quite nice, don’t get me wrong, but we need to get home to our crew. But our ship…crashed here. Is there any way you can help us?”

The Sollian listened as the translator played back a rough translation that sounded a lot longer than what Patton had thought he said.

Finally they looked up. “Call me Logan. I am a … from Soil, but we built station here. Need what four help?”

Roman made a humming noise. “It’s skipping words it doesn’t have a translation for,” he muttered to Patton, and the alien– ‘Lo-gan’-- tipped the translator closer as it didn’t pick up what he said.

“Repeatable?”

Patton smiled at the progress. “That’s okay! It’s better than before. He’s just saying the translator isn’t perfect, but I think it’ll be fine. Nice to meet you! We…um. Hmm.”

Patton looked out at their damaged ship. What could they even do about it? It certainly wasn’t up to code anymore for space travel.

“We just need tools,” Roman answered, and Patton looked at their ship again. “Uh…Ro, I don’t think tools alone will help us…and they don’t even have the same technology–”

“I can try. We have tools. Parts. Ships. Risk. But need help too. Help each other. Need to leave now.”

Patton looked down at his feet, clearly thinking.

“I see. Well. If you help us get our ship running, we could probably–”

Roman thought fast, thinking of anything that could satisfy the Sollian.

“--bring you to Sol 3!” he blurted out before he had a proper chance to think about it. Why did he say that!?

Patton looked up, pure confusion on his furry face. 

That seemed to catch the alien’s attention. They straightened, attentive now to the deal at hand. “You are going… Soil? Home planet?”

Roman couldn’t take it back now. Not after getting the Sollian’s interest in helping them. 

“…yes. And we can take you there too if you help us.”

Logan clenched the strap of his backpack. Patton wondered if it was an air supply or belongings. “I need to get off moon…but all of … interplanetary ship launches are heavy guarded. I cannot pilot. This is opportunity when I saw … crash. I can look at … ship four you.”

Four? There weren’t four of them. This translator wasn’t working right, he suspected, and so he disregarded that. 

Ro somewhat doubted the Sollian could truly figure out what was going on with their ship. But what else was he supposed to do, say no?

“Fine. But don’t try anything. That thing isn’t too flyable right now.”

It wasn’t at all but this unknown alien didn’t need to know how helpless they were.

The Sollian disappeared to go look in their ship and Patton, while he thought they should probably be escorted for safety and security reasons, stayed back beside Ro to make sure his friend was okay. He’d been in the ship briefly and it at least seemed stable enough to not explode anymore. The smoke was gone, so…it was probably fine. 

After a while, Roman started to doze off, head feeling fuzzy. Patton worried right next to him and did end up going back into the cargo hold. He dragged out more of the most promising surviving plants. Half seemed to already be wilting. Logan noticed his efforts, poking his head out of the front cabin, translator mic pointed his way.

“What wrong with him? Cold?”

Patton looked over at Logan, who he hadn’t realized was out of the ship. He was honestly surprised it was a question, but then again, the body-covering suit and half-mask they wore might be compensating for warmth this planet lacked. It wasn't as cold as expected this far from their home star, though...he wondered if they Sollians had truly managed to do something to this moon's atmosphere. The lack of plants, however, made him second-guess it.

“He…is struggling in this atmosphere. The air. Used to more nitrogen.”

The Sollian tilted their head. Patton decided that must be what Sollians did when intrigued or confused, as Logan had a follow up question.

“We change to be like Soil. Not there yet. But plankton helping... what home planet is like?”

“Oh…Ro’s? it…it isn’t that different from Sol-3. But more bio water, and less land…less population. His people are spread through his star system on most of the planets…”

Pat trailed off as Roman looked unhappy with him saying so much. Patton didn’t know why telling them anything was an issue when they already found out other complex life existed outside of their area. But he figured Roman might know more there.

They looked at him as if waiting for him to continue. 

“What ‘bio water’?” Logan inquired.

“Um…we just use it to mean water with high biological content. Similar to earth’s. It’s more of…a soup than pure water and minerals. It has a high parts per million of stuff like algae and uh…microscopic life.”

Logan didn’t seem surprised by this. They looked at Roman next, looking Roman over entirely…long enough that Roman started to grow uncomfortable. Logan didn’t seem to notice the way Roman’s body stiffened immediately. Patton was grateful that it wasn’t universally a challenge signal…or perhaps Logan just hadn’t noticed with how subtle it was.

“You need ocean or water four better?”

Roman looked Logan up and down in annoyance. “Not just water. It’s the nitrogen that’s important, and that this place lacks.”

Logan took a moment to puzzle out how that had somehow translated.

“This ocean nitrogen yes. Organic life high parts. Project … life start study. Nitrogen yes here.”

Roman couldn’t help looking a little hopeful there. Patton perked up. “Really?? There’s ocean near here? Can you show us?”

Logan faltered. “Ocean…beneath ice. Deeply. Apologies. Access holes covered in towers. Sensitive, but you need. Specific nitrogen kind?”

Ro slumped. “Doesn’t matter, I can make do with both common types. But we have no way to make our own hole here, it’s not really worth it.”

There was a long pause of silence. 

“Ice 95…deep, but not everywhere. Ship heat melt thin ice?”

“And damaged our ship more?? We aren’t leaving our ruined ship for others like him to find and reverse engineer.”

“Then new ship. Bigger. I help you fly understand control. You fly.”

Roman made a face at the idea of having to use the Sollian’s technology. It was less than ideal and would likely be very difficult without the instrument assists he was used to having. But what choice did they have?

“...you should teach me how to control it beforehand so we do not crash. You are an engineer.”

The Sollian’s mouth curved and its eyebrows bent. 

“Leverage no.”

Ro’s tail thumped at him. “And you have no experience in space flight. More than one of us should know how and I’m a pilot.”

There was a long pause as the alien made a series of scrunched expressions and then tapped the translator.

“You crash you space ship.”

Roman’s arm thumped his leg and Patton’s tail immediately wrapped around his arm comfortingly, trying to ease his irritation. 

“That was not my fault. We were just passing by! It’s not like we knew anything was here…why are you people here, anyway?”

“Largest moon in sol system. Exploration. Test satellite science station after local moon success.”

“...and on this side? Is there a reason?”

The Sollian just looked at them for a long moment before answering. “...safer from impacts and … radiation. Moon is tidally locked.”

“And…you want to leave. Why?”

The Sollian shuffled a little at the interrogation. “...ocean depth exploration. Don’t want to go. It is…dangerous. Two ships, 9 people lost this orbit year. Director say I get my navigation assignment next before could permission to leave moon on ice transport. You help me fly to Soil, I commandeer new ship. Water, food, supplies too.”

Roman barely even had to exchange a look with Patton. “Alright. Deal. But it needs to be soon. I doubt you are the only one to have seen us. And your people will not be happy about this, I presume.”

The Sollian– ‘Lo-gan’-- looked out at the towers for a long beat, as if watching for something.

“We go tonight. Storm is four cover.”

Patton flitted, his semi-plume fur lifting and lowering anxiously. “But it's…dangerous. That storm had to have damaged our ship’s instruments or something.”

Ro nodded, siding with Patton intrinsically and ever-suspicious of their reluctant new ally. “Exactly. And where exactly are you attempting to take us?”

They pointed out at one of the tall towers with their stick. “Short travel. We go to Well Rig. Big ships cut and move ice, quartz, silica off world to Soil. We take ship. Water pressurized to surface. Tonight during lockdown or can’t.”

Roman steeled himself for the walk and exertion, since there was no way he was trusting this alien alone with Patton to come back for him. He would simply carry the plant and hope it did not hinder them much. As futile as it seemed to bother.

“Fine. But you’d better keep your end of this deal.”

“Our goal is same. I help.”

Roman didn’t reply nor did he meet Patton’s gaze to see what he thought about that.