Project Hail Mary - Osgate version
I'm not going to write this as a fic but @itsonlydana and I were making each other sad with thoughts of this Osgate AU last night and I want to share.
Kate in Eva's role, Osgood as Grace, UNIT being a key part of the Petrova taskforce
There's some handwaving around the universe being populated by aliens in the Who world and how that relates to the possible solutions. Let's say aliens have left earth alone in terms of help, too concerned with their own worlds perhaps. Go with it.
As for the Doctor... We'll come to them.
As UNIT comes up with the plan for the Hail Mary, Kate's instinct is to keep Osgood on earth - they'll need her to survive the 20 years of the mission, UNIT will have their work cut out for them and Kate needs her scientist by her side for that.
It's easy to push aside any thought of whether it's selfish to keep the woman she loves with her while there's other viable options for the mission.
Until the disaster happens and they are left without a trained scientist.
Kate is frantically looking through files and records for another option. Osgood knew immediately when she heard the news of the disaster.
She knows she has to go but that doesn't make it easy. Both of them crying at home, Os saying "I have to go, don't I?" and Kate sobbing because she doesn't want it but there is no other way
(there is also a version of this where Kate acts like Eva and forces Os to go but I think Osgood knowing and volunteering fits them better)
So Osgood goes, knowing what she's there to do, no memory wipe, just a little bit of fuzziness from the coma.
She meets Rocky who's the same as PHM canon and it's not her first alien but it is her first time finding this level of connection with another species.
They figure out the solution, pack up their ships ready to take them off to their respective homes. Osgood is conflicted. Of course, she's happy to be going home, happy that she'll be able to see Kate again. But Rocky is now such a close friend, and the earth she's going back to will be 20 years out from where she left even though it feels like she's only been away a few months.
(in the version where Kate forces her to go, she'd have mixed feelings about returning to that Kate too)
Either way, when disaster strikes again and she has to go back to Rocky, a little part of her is relieved about it.
Before she sends the beetles off, she records two final video diaries. One official, explaining the situation. And one for Kate.
Osgood saves Rocky, goes back with him to Erid, spends her time there on scientific research and collaboration with the Eridians
Let's return to Kate. It's been 20 years, she's in her 80s now. She never fully retired (of course), and spent the decades holding earth together fuelled by coffee and determination to ensure that Osgood's sacrifice wouldn't be for naught
She thinks she's made peace with not seeing her again. But then the probes come back alone and the full force of her grief hits her.
But she watches through the video diaries anyway. It's the last she'll ever see of Osgood, she has to.
Presses play on the first one and it's the same Os from her memory. Nothing's changed there. She catches up on everything Osgood's been up to - learns about Rocky, marvels at them communicating, imagines the two of them working in one of the UNIT labs on earth.
And then Osgood mentions that Rocky can give her fuel and Kate goes so still. There was a chance. A chance that Osgood would come home to her.
But she's not here so what went wrong? Kate leans in closer to the video player, trying to work out what might have happened as she continues watching.
The penultimate video is from just before Osgood leaves Tau Ceti and there's hope in her eyes as she tells the camera - tells Kate - "I'll see you in a decade, put the kettle on for me"
She considers not watching the remaining two videos. She may not be technically retired but she's not in charge any more - there's other people who can watch it all, implement Osgood's plans. Can't she stay with that hope? Like she's still waiting for Osgood to come home?
She makes that cuppa for them both and sits with that 'what if' until there's only the dregs left
And then she presses 'play' on the last official video and learns the truth.
Osgood's last video for her is a love letter Kate will keep close to her chest for whatever time remains. She doesn't apologise for making this choice, for not coming home when she could have. She signs off the video with “I know you would have done the same” and Kate sees the truth of that
What is worse? Loving someone so much you will send them on a suicide to save the earth or loving someone so much you go on the suicide mission and know she won't hate you when you find out there is a way to go back but you won't go because someone else needs you just as much now?
There’s only their duty and all the promises they’ve made to themselves about saving people when they can
The final addendum in this AU concerns the Doctor.
They waited as long as they could, to dispatch the Hail Mary. But they couldn't wait forever, they had to act.
Still Kate expected that he would show up eventually. Perpetually late, but at some point one of them would cross paths with her and she could frogmarch them to the TARDIS with strict instructions to fetch Osgood and bring her home.
She doesn’t get a chance to yell at him. He doesn’t show up for the rest of her life.
She records her own video message, sometime after the probes come back and Earth is saved. Or, no, two. One for the Doctor, yelling at him, releasing every scrap of anger she's ever borne him. And one for Os, for the Doctor to deliver.
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