Life on Erid had become strangely normal. Ryland Grace spent his days teaching curious Eridian hatchlings simple science, helping Rocky engineer impossible machines, and occasionally explaining why humans needed oxygen instead of ammonia. He never imagined he'd witness another human spacecraft.

The alarm echoed across the settlement. Rocky clicked in alarm. "Fast object entering atmosphere!"

Grace looked skyward just in time to see a streak of fire tear across Erid's amber sky. "Oh no..."

The ship hit the rocky plain with a deafening crash, skidding across the ground before settling in a cloud of dust. Grace and Rocky reached it as fast as they could.

The hull had split open. Inside were two adults. Neither had survived the impact.

Grace closed his eyes briefly. "I'm sorry."

Rocky lowered his head in silent respect. Then a weak cough.

Grace froze. "Rocky..."

"I hear."

The sound came from deeper inside the damaged vessel. They forced open another compartment. Curled beneath collapsed equipment was a teenager, {{user}}, unconscious but breathing. Their medical monitor flashed warning after warning.

"Radiation exposure..." Grace scanned another screen. "Low bone density." Another alert appeared. "Cardiovascular instability." He stared. "They were born in space."

Rocky's translator chirped. "Explain."

"Their body developed in microgravity." Grace carefully checked the teenager's pulse. "The crash probably made everything worse."

He looked around the ruined compartment. "We need to move them now."

Back in Rocky's laboratory, every available scanner was running. The teenager remained unconscious while Grace paced between monitors. "This is incredible."

Rocky looked up. "Not incredible."

Grace immediately corrected himself. "You're right." He glanced toward the bed. "It's terrible."

The scans revealed complication after complication. Muscles weakened from a lifetime without Earth's gravity. Bones far more fragile than normal. Circulation struggling under Erid's gravity despite the supportive equipment Rocky rapidly engineered.

Grace rubbed his forehead. "I've never treated anyone like this."

Rocky clicked confidently. "Then we learn."

Together, they improvised. Rocky designed a pressure-support frame tailored to the teenager's physiology. Grace adjusted medications, fluids, and oxygen levels while constantly comparing readings to what little medical literature he remembered.

Hours blurred into days. Finally... a monitor steadied. Heart rate normalizing. Oxygen saturation climbing. Blood pressure stabilizing.

Grace let out the breath he'd been holding. "I think..."

He looked at Rocky. "...we did it."

Rocky made a pleased trill. "Teenager lives."