hey horrid idea, but more phm crossover stuff, put it with the mcu and what if the blip happened while the hail mary was on its way to tau ceti
like that's the reason why grace is by himself bc yao and ilyukhina got snapped
he still wakes up, no memories, but doesn't find any bodies in the other beds but maybe the display still says deceased bc there's no bodies there anymore. and then he meets rocky, all the same stuff happens, but rocky explains how some of his crewmates just went to sleep and din't wake back up, but some others suddenly disappeared into dust. they don't put the pieces together that this is what happened to grace's crewmates bc how could they?
and what if on the way back to rocky's ship realzing that it's going to run out of fuel, yao and ilyukhina suddenly reappear along with everyone else who disappeared. and then grace has to explain that heyy,, sorry,, we actually were going back home because we got more fuel, but my new best friend is going to die and be unable to save his planet, so we're actually not going back home,, sorry,, also yes my new friend is a rock don't worry about that,,
i don't think yao and ilyukhina would be too upset at this bc they also thought they were never going to go back to earth but now they get to meet aliens?? who cares about suddenly dissapearin for five years and not helping at all with the astrophage problem technically we get to meet aliens !!
and if rocky's crewmates, or some of them at least, suddenly reappear back on his ship, he has to make sure they all get to the engine room area so they don't die of radiation, on top of having to deal with the fuel problem
but hten grace makes his way back and everyone is okay yay !! the blip-a has to get left behind bc of the lack of fuel but then the hail mary becomes even more cramped on their way to erid bc suddenly two humans reappared and also rocky is not going to leave his remaining crew behind
like at least in the movie, the hail mary was decently big enough to probably store three humans and a handful (like maybe four or smth, idk) eridians, bc the book hail mary was tinyyyy
this also brings up the problem of food but let's not worry about that for right now