shoutout to book-canon dr ryland grace, who literally became second-in-command of the global scientific project to save the world, but still moped around thinking "i wish i could go back to the job i was actually respected in: teaching middle school science"
Hey so y'all remember that headcanon where Grace is in charge of science communication?
What if small AU where politicians prefer talking to Grace significantly more than Stratt or any other scientist on the task force. Stratt brought him along once he was able to break down stuff and answer their questions so easily they ask for him back every meeting afterwards.
What would have usually been many hours of explaining why they need funding for something and how they can't do it any other way, was shortened to a little over half an hour of answering questions and doing demonstrations with a handful beanbags he seemingly pulled from nowhere.
It was by far the easiest meeting Stratt had ever been to. As they leave, she plans to tell Grace he will be the main scientist attending these with her. Unfortunately he is busy puking his guts out saying how he barely held it in till the meeting was over and please never bring me back to one of these I will die.
Whoever she brings to replace him is trying to explain why they need funding for something, and the world leader are just like "Yeah we're gonna need the other guy."
Eva's external dialog: I will see if Dr. Grace is free for a meeting
Eva's internal dialog: Dr. Grace has puked every time I even hint at bringing him to another one of these meetings
One meeting gets so bad that Stratt just calls Carl and tells him to put Grace on the phone. Without telling him he's on speaker in a room of world leaders she asks him to explain a bunch of the things they are arguing about. The meeting is over within 15 minutes.
You know what would be funny? If among the entire pirated earth media, stratt included everything the petrova taskforce has. Including communications. Anything and everything the taskforce had.
You know people were emailing or posting on forum for taskforce about the project + general life things.
But mainly I want there to be photos, videos and written form of life.
Ok I just want eridians to find the gossip.
There are so many about grace, just imagine the eridians finding out about grace being second in command, and everything about that. But the gossip of him and stratt having something going on and there are pictures, edits, and probably even some of him taking a nap near her as there is a meeting going on.
Someone even posted the karaoke scene in the movie.
I just really want them to find life of grace before erid and just have them realize that grace is loved by earth.
Also grace seeing his team and crew, not just their last impressions
Grace goes for a spacewalk.
Lokken gets a shoutout.
Lamai voices her concerns.
The room explodes into a cacophony of swears in various languages. “No fucking way,” booms the loudest from further down the table.
Eva closes her eyes. Opens them. The image on the screen is still there. Her next breath in is shaky, and it leaves as an old half-murmured Dutch prayer she didn't realize she remembered the words to.
There is an honest-to-God alien spaceship on the screen.
link to first chapter: here
link to previous chapter: here
enjoy! come throw ur thoughts into my inbox (rattles it around like a can with change)
General Content Warnings: swearing, nudity, mature themes, graphic description.
Read it on AO3
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~7~
“Forget about the fuel and forget about the people,” Stratt ordered, still standing at the head of those tables. The light from the projector behind her made her hair glow. “Can a ship be made with human technology survive a trip to Tau Ceti?”
Hope repressed the urge to grind her teeth. Damn. Technically, yes. Fuel and survival were the two things that made travelling to another solar system basically impossible. If Stratt removed them from the equation, then yes, she could make sure they had a ship that could withstand the travel to Tau Ceti. The technology was already there, it just needed alterations and perfecting.
“Theoretically, yes,” she gritted out. “But you can’t just say ‘don’t worry about the fuel’ and if you want a manned ship, you can’t just remove the man part. And I don’t mean by sending only women.”
From the shadows, someone snorted.
Stratt ignored them.
“Theoretically,” Stratt repeated. “Your entire career has been to bridge the gap between the theoretical and the practical.” She grabbed a thick stack of papers up from the table, bound with a spiral on one side. She held it out to Hope.
Project Hail Mary was emblazoned across the top, with an emblem that was reminiscent of the mission patches used at NASA.
“Hail Mary,” she read aloud, quietly. Well, shit. A name like that could only really mean one thing. Humanities last ditch effort to save themselves. The long shot that meant to fail was to die.
“Fitting, I think. The Director of NASA referred to you as the ‘Holy Grail’ of Engineers,” Stratt continued. Hope, far more subdued than in her initial entrance into the room, frowned at her. She had heard the term used for her before but had tried to shut it down quickly. She wasn’t a superhuman, or some kind of ultimate Engineer.
She was simply someone who understood that the hands were just as important as the brain.
“I need someone who can take existing technology and make it better. I need someone that can read the schematics and know whether they will work before we waste time on creating the prototype. Time is our most precious resource right now. We cannot afford to waste it on dreams and theories that will never make it off of paper.”
Hope almost smiled. “You want me to check their homework.”
Stratt did smile, though it was small and was more similar to a smirk. She confirmed, “I want you to check their homework.”
Hope could already picture the shitstorm that was due to cause. Engineers did not like answering to someone they saw as both inferior, and too young.
Stratt motioned to the papers she’d handed over. “This packet has all the pertinent information you will need on the current status of Project Hail Mary. There are still many moving parts that need to be solidified, but it will not matter if we solve the other problems if we do not have a ship.”
Hope looked down at the insignia again. Hail Mary. How bleak; yet fitting.
“Now, we will show you to your quarters for the duration of your stay here on the Ganzu.” Stratt motioned to one of the Officers in the room, waving the man forward. Hope’s hand shot up in a ‘halt’ gesture, the movement so sudden he actually obeyed it and ceased his approach.
“You’re the one who said, ‘time is most precious’, so let’s not waste it.”
A woman spoke from deeper in the room. “A rested mind is a working mind. You should sleep.”
Hope huffed. “I’m the Principal Architect at NASA, sleep is a concept.” She lifted the packet she had been handed. “Either you give me what I need here, or I stay up and read this thing. One will be considerably more efficient than the other.”
A silent stare down started between the women lasted only a few seconds before Stratt looked down at the person at the end of the table just to Hope’s right. Immediately, they vacated their seat and offered it to the newest participant. As the brunette took her seat, Stratt turned to the officer and made a request in Mandarin. He hurried silently out of the room.
The next several hours were a breakdown of the plans laid out so far. Thankfully, the officer returned with a large coffee he placed in front of Hope. A latte of all things. The Hail Mary was at the forefront of the information, but the use of Astrophage came along with it. New scientific instruments were already underway that could work in zero g. They would need to create probes that would then be returned to Earth with all the necessary information.
Alone.
The astronauts expected to complete this mission would be stranded in another solar system, without fuel and with minimal recourses. The plan only accounted for the Astrophage to get them there. They would knowingly be signing up to die.
But, hey, at least Stratt confirms they get to choose their own method. How kind.
Hope’s mental calculations immediately adjusted, even without her doing so deliberately. The ship didn’t need to make it round-trip. Not that it meant they could cheap-out or cut corners, but that would alter the calculations regarding the size of the craft. Half the fuel, half the food. No reason to pack enough to stay alive beyond the trip out and the time it took to collect the needed information.
Tau Ceti was nearly 12 lightyears away, but the speed in which the Hail Mary was likely to travel would also create a time differential that would shorten that trip by at least half, likely more.
“So,” Hope started, leaning back in the creaky chair and folding her arms. “Your entire plan is based on ‘let’s hope for the best’?”
Together, the room chorused, “Hail Mary.”
One arm remained crossed over her chest while her other hand raised to wipe at her mouth, exhaling deeply. “There are so many ways this could go wrong. So many possibilities that we can’t even account for.” She looked across the other faces in the room. “Can you say with complete confidence that the time and effort you put in to building this ship and all of its components, that there is no other option?”
She looked back up to Stratt, who had remained in front of the screen as she walked through the information thus far.
“You’re sure that in ten years, while your suicide astronauts are still en route to Tau Ceti, you won’t come up with another plan now that you’ve had more time?”
“You question us?” one of the other members of the board spoke up, across the way. A thick accent, one she couldn’t place.
“I question everybody,” Hope answered instantly. “I ask ‘why’ so I can implement. You might be some kind of super-force with the control of governments and being able to ask for anything you want, and get it, but you still need to be able to stand by your plans. Everyone answers to a higher power.”
Stratt cut in. “I am the higher power.”
“No,” Hope denied. “You think you are. We all think we are. Right now? Astrophage is the higher power. We are all adhere to a hierarchy of some kind; political, religious, militant, I don’t care which one. Today, Astrophage tops that hierarchy. It doesn’t care if you bankrupt the planet or sacrifice a thousand willing astronauts.”
The silence that encased the room was choking.
Hope felt the heat crawl across the back of her neck, discomfort settling in as she realized everyone was watching. Everyone was listening.
This is why she never went into the military. She did not want to plan around the death of other people. Her work at NASA had focused on keeping people alive. It felt painfully redundant to ask her for her help when it went against so much of her work.
This is why she liked to stay in her workshop.
“’Why did they have to die?’ ‘Why did it take so long?’ ‘Why couldn’t they come home?’” Hope rattled off the questions off the top of her head. Questions she knew would be asked. “All I ask is that you can confirm, without doubt, that when someone asks you ‘why?’ you will have an answer. And that it isn’t something as asinine as ‘we had to’.”
Stratt stood silently, holding Hope’s gaze with a resolute expression.
“If you want me to make you a ship, I can make you a ship. But you better be prepared to be questioned.”
In the time that she had been around Stratt, she knew this woman did not like to be questioned. She pulled in professionals and experts and got what she wanted. People may deny what she wants because it’s impossible, but very rarely was she outright questioned.
The rest of the people in the room lingered in an awkward, quiet pause.
“Very well, Doctor.”
Again, Stratt waved one of the Officers forward.
“We will bring you to your quarters and then show you to your workstation. For the foreseeable future, this ship will be your office and your home. When construction officially begins on the ship, you will be sent to oversee it personally. You will report to me directly.”
Even though she had gotten an agreement out of Stratt, it felt akin to making a deal with the devil. Her stomach seemed to cramp with nerves and her pulse thundered in her ears. What was she getting herself into?
Helping to create the ArcLight probe was one thing, this ship was going to be an entirely different beast. She’d be working alongside all other space agencies and basically vetoing what could and could not be used. It would be more responsibility and more risk than she had ever dealt with before.
“I’ll need my equipment,” she declared, standing up. Thankfully, she came across sounding far more certain than she felt.
She didn’t just have to worry about keeping astronauts alive this time. If she failed, if her ship failed, it was the entire human race that would face the consequences.
