SHORT FIC - Memory #strattland
Summary:
When someone is gone, what's the first thing people tend to forget? Scent, Voice or their Face? For Eva, It start with his scent
Notes:
Hello everyone! This fanfiction is a translation of a Thai fanfiction I wrote. English isn't my native language, so please forgive any mistakes. I hope you enjoy it! I included a small reference to a quote from Number Six in "The Gray Man". If you've seen the show, you'll know which line it is. I did quite a bit of self-doubt before finally posting this. I hope you'll leave some comments. Thank you, and God bless you.
Trigger Warning – Mentions of death, funerals, imprisonment
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When someone is gone, the first thing people forget is their scent.
His… Dr. Ryland Grace's signature scent was the coffee he drank cup after cup to keep himself awake, mixed with fabric softener that smelled like sunshine, or perhaps just ordinary deodorant, nothing remarkable. Probably because he worked at a school, wearing cologne like some vain young man wouldn't have suited him. And once he holed himself up in the lab, these academics never cared about anything except their discoveries anyway.
Because it wasn't particularly memorable, a strong woman like Eva, who devoted herself to work more than to sleep, had already forgotten it.
Next comes the voice.
The voice that she remembered was probably his soft humming in the lab. The song "Memory" from Cats, the musical, which Eva assumed must be a favorite of his, judging by the T-shirt Ryland always wore.
"Memory All alone in the moonlight I can smile at the old days I was beautiful then I remember The time I knew what happiness was Let the memory live again"
Whenever he was caught humming while working, he'd scratch his head awkwardly to brush it off, then turn back to whatever he was doing, or report his latest findings in a stern voice. As the days passed, a feeling Eva hadn't felt in a long time came rushing back. It always showed its telltale signs whenever she encountered Dr. Ryland Grace, her sly fox. (The crew called him that; how could she not know? The ship wasn't that big.)
"Please. I'm begging you. Don't do this."
The last words she heard from Ryland's lips weren't even a farewell. They were a plea, a helpless supplication with no room for resistance.
Deep down, Eva wished their parting could have been simpler, more dignified. But since the one being forced into a one-way mission couldn't come to terms with it, she had no choice but to take a harder approach.
She must have fallen in love with his brain. They had both fallen in love with each other's brains. Strip away the emotions and leave only the science: falling in love is just a chemical process in the brain. What she was responsible for was far too great to let brain chemistry take control.
When the Hail Mary finally launched into the sky, all she could do was say a silent goodbye, hoping quietly that the little fox charm and the Saint Christopher medal for travelers would keep him safe on his journey. That was something she could accept and do without betraying her principles.
The last thing to go is the face.
Time passed slowly as the Hail Mary traveled through our solar system before crossing into another star system. The first signal received from the Hail Mary was not good news. Instead, it was data confirming Captain Yáo's death. Though they had lost one, hope remained. Stratt continued to insist on the success that would come if the Hail Mary reached its destination.
Countless things can go wrong in space. Years later, when the signal from the Hail Mary returned to Earth, it was bad news once again. What was supposed to be a progress briefing became a memorial service for those lost in the depths of the cosmos.
The faith that the international community and the public had placed in the Hail Mary flickered out. Yet Stratt stubbornly maintained, believed with all her heart, that Ryland Grace was still alive.
The memorial was held simply, lasting one week for people to pay their respects. Photos of all three were arranged together in the great assembly hall, adorned with flowers and wreaths according to each person's religion.
Eva hated that photo. But she couldn't find a better picture of Ryland. The face of the man who had traveled billions of miles from Earth looked far too solemn in that memorial frame.
On Grace's side, former students now grown enough to accept that their favorite teacher had departed on a mission to save the world came to lay flowers and letters.
When the enormous international budget was wasted, and humanity's hope was extinguished, the world naturally needed someone to bear responsibility for this despair.
On an ordinary Thursday, leaders and nations around the world betrayed her just as she had betrayed him, sending him unconscious on a journey to the great beyond, above the atmosphere. Her immunity from prosecution was revoked. Eva Stratt, the iron-willed woman who had held absolute authority over the project, became a prisoner in a high-security French prison.
They spared her the death penalty but gave her something worse: life imprisonment. An orange uniform replaced the dark-toned clothes she usually wore. Its color resembled a space suit. As time on Earth passed, days into months, months into years, wrinkles began to show clearly on her face, and her hair started to fade. The routine inside her cell wasn't so different from a routine in space, really, everything had to follow a schedule and assigned duties. Wake at the designated time. Eat at the designated time. Work. Sleep at the designated time.
His face in that memorial photo haunted her for a long while on sleepless nights. In that state between sleep and waking, she half-dreamed of seeing him in his yellow jacket, standing still and watching her from a corner of the room. Eventually, he would fade away. As the days went on, the repetitive daily routine made her forget his face at last.
And yet, Eva still believed in the Hail Mary. Even as her memories of Ryland Grace grew hazy with time. In the end, through connections she had built over her career, she finally got herself out of prison.
The world had changed by now, just as expected. Wars had broken out in many regions. People were beginning to starve as the climate grew colder by the day. She assembled a small team to revive tracking of Project Hail Mary once more.
And on an ordinary Thursday, hope arrived safely on Earth.
He didn't look much different from before. Time in space was a wondrous thing. Her memories of him began to return, vivid once again. This time, it seemed Ryland Grace was no longer alone.
"You're a smart person. You'll figure out what to do."
So that's what his voice sounds like. A shame the little beetle couldn't bring back his scent.
Stratt smiled, then softly hummed the song she once heard Grace singing in the lab.
"Daylight I must wait for the sunrise I must think of a new life And I mustn't give in When the dawn comes Tonight will be a memory too And a new day will begin"
-End-