Imagine... decades have passed since the Hail Mary made its final voyage to Erid. Dr Grace passed away peacefully in his sleep, leaving behind two planets of mourners, a legacy of bravery and kindness and love, and Rocky.
Rocky, who has been working on the Eridian-Earth space program. Rocky, who is given the unquestionable right to be on the first manned space flight between the two planets.
He lands on Earth, which is still recovering, still rebuilding, but which has been holding its breath waiting to meet the being who helped to save it from extinction.
After the wars and the famines and the freezes, after the horrific atrocities commited by people who were honestly doing their best in the worst circumstances, I like to think that humans might have become just a little kinder. A little less concerned with spectacle.
And so, when Rocky arrives, filled with grief and excitement and scientific curiosity at finally seeing the birthplace of his best friend, his first true interaction - after the landing and logistics and atmosphere testing that had to happen to keep him safe - the first humans he meet are all middle-aged to old. There's dozens of them. They all have different careers, different homes, different lives. Many of them have never met each other before.
But they're all Dr Grace's old students, and they all have stories to share with the being who saved him from his lonely fate in the unrelenting dark of space, working to save a planet that betrayed him.
Imagine that conversation. Imagine Rocky knowing their names, sharing stories, because Grace loved his students and made sure that people knew that. Imagine these apocalypse-hardened survivors of humanities darkest hour turning oh-so-briefly back into tweens delighted by science and space and the wonder of learning.
I think they would laugh. I think they would cry. I think, for a moment, in that achingly sweet place between joy and devastation, that every person in that room would feel like Grace was back with them. Close enough to touch.
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