Narratively, maybe the Astrophage is phase one, weaken the stars since the Absolute Solver and the Zombie Drones are weak to starlight. Then the Solver comes in and takes over the improperly destroyed drones, this would be way after Grace left for Tau Ceti all the way during phase one.
You may be asking, where does Iron Lung come in? Take a break, traveling way back before the phases. There’s a colony sent out to the other planets, they get pocket dimensioned etheria style(she-ra pop reference) by the light. That there is the Quiet Rapture.
Back to the present, and Cyn has already eaten Earth and most of the human solar system, Grace is asleep in the coma. Simon is in COI prison right now, I think. He was decently young when filament station happened. After a few years, Grace wakes up, befriends Rocky, and solves Astrophage. Of course the Astrophage bit itself takes years. Now they’re on the way to Erid, but WAIT- GO BACK TO AT-5.
Simon is now in the SM-13. The events of Iron Lung happened. He’s on the brink of death, being encased in the ever growing tree with a ripped off arm and some mutations. He gets warped out of the pocket dimension and appears in front of Grace’s path.
LETS GO TO COPPER-9, the story of Murder Drones commences. In the last bit, Cyn gets “trapped” in Uzi’s tail, but she can obviously travel bodies. So it finds another infected drone and uses that one. It disguises itself as Tessa again, and somehow stumbles across the Hail Mary.
Grace without a second thought takes these people in, even though one won’t remove her helmet and the other is part Eel. Simon doesn’t like Cynessa at all. The part of him that connected to the Light can tell that she’s a fraud, that she is the Absolute Solver. The thing is, he can’t articulate the feeling. The thing is, now Simon is labeled as a “like-object” which means that Cyn can’t use her powers directly on him.
And honestly, there are a few ways this could go, epic battle to save the universe against Cyn, or, Cyn becomes endeared by these humans and is slowly befriending them and vice versa. Grace would remind Cyn of N very much.
