Ryland Grace sends back home the key to salvation and left none for himself as he hurtles back to Rocky. He's saved anyway, and he lives the rest of his life in his dome with the Eridians and Rocky and Adrian and all the Eridian children he's taught everything about Earth. He lives a pretty nice human life in an alien world with his human lifespan, which is too damn short, as per Erid's consensus. It happens anyway.
But way, way before that, when Rocky and their science team put a stop to their mission to rebuild Hail Mary because Grace decided to stay, they didn't exactly get rid of the craft. It's probably in a museum, if they managed to get it down, or tethered in their atmosphere, partly functional, as if waiting still.
Earth research didn't stop either, not when they have a very good resource of information right beside them. It takes them, maybe years, to throw something to Earth's general direction and hope it lands? A part of them initially thinks it's a bad idea, but then something is thrown back at them, decades later, and it's Earth's answer. Earth is now stable, and is glad for Erid's help, and for taking care of their hero. Grace still doesn't return, but it does open a line of communication. Like Grace and Rocky's method when their ships first lined up, throwing things back and forth until both planets figure out a FTL way.
Maybe Earth and Erid become good planet buddies after a long, long time of talking. Their technologies advancing much faster, with the combination of both their planets' geniuses. Rocky is well and retired with Adrian, their kids are probably the ones leading their space program, and Grace is now a popular name among the new generation of Eridian children.
It isn't until Rocky's kids come forward and say "I think we can try and go see Earth." And Rocky thinks "space hadn't been kind to me, nor to Grace, nor to the rest of my crew," but also thinks, "I'm old and my carapace is brittle, and the stars did lead me to a friend." So Rocky and Adrian and a few more Eridian scientists jump aboard to a ship built with the parts of Hail Mary.
They land on Earth, and the humans made it sure they're as welcoming as they could be. Eridians brought their own Earth-safe suits, and humans built a dome that mimics Erid environment. It's nice, joint research teams are formed, and Rocky is asked quite a lot of times what was it like to work with Dr. Grace. Questions are answered as politely as possible, because Eridians have impeccable memory, and the story on how Grace was sent to space still isn't lost on Rocky.
Rocky is still quite respected anyway, and the humans take it upon themselves to guide Eridians on (replica) Earth landscapes. Rocky sees the beach (the one they built for Grace is better), the mountains, the cities. Rocky doesn't take in as much.
Only then when something so achingly familiar ripples in their vision— the human guide talking beside a statue, as if the Eridians had only met that man and hadn't housed him in their planet for years— does Rocky still. As still as the face of his friend that had left them long ago. Grace isn't looking at them— he's looking at nothing in particular, really. But he's there.
For a good few days, Rocky skitters around that particular memorial, tapping on the stone every once in a while and letting out clicks and trills, talking to Grace. Humans ask the Eridian scientists about it. Something about how Eridian memorials couldn't quite get Grace's likeness right. Angular and blocky, and not the relaxed way Grace's statue sits on a platform, head tilted to the side as if listening to conversation. An empty space where someone could sit beside him, a space Rocky had diligently occupied for the better half of their visit in Earth. Speaking to, well, a rock. Maybe saying something about "for how much of some bastards the humans that sent you out there to space, they're still quite loving in the way that they carved you, looking so human." Immortalizing Grace as someone who didn't carry his courage with his chin held high, but with his head tipped down to his heart.
And maybe when it's the Eridians' time to go back, carrying human knowledge with them, they come to a full circle where Rocky decides to stay. "I am old and my carapace is brittle," and there's only so much risk and stress their bodies (as durable as they are) could take in their age. Adrian stays, of course. But it's not like it took long, that if they had gone back, Rocky would lay himself to rest in their ship.
But they didn't go back, and instead, Rocky was curled up on the empty space beside Grace's statue as the sunrise falls on both of them.
And maybe years later, for the second visit of the Eridians to Earth, they'll see a new addition to the memorial, where you can still sit in conversation beside Dr. Grace and Rocky.
just finished Project Hail Mary and now i have thoughts and nowhere to scream out my love for the movie i watched on a pirate site, too dark to see anything happening in some scenes while a guy walks in front of the camera. Epic.
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