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“Grace! Grace! Come now! Grace!” Rocky bursts into Grace’s home. Strange, but not unheard of. He normally knocks, so Grace knows it’s something big if he’s literally breaking the door down. Last time he did that was probably when his pebble hatched 12 years ago.
“Rocky, you know you’re gonna have to make me a new door now. I don’t want to hear you complaining when-”
“Grace shuts up.” Oh. Ok, rude. Rocky grabs Grace’s leg and starts pulling him towards the section of his biodome where his classroom is set up. There's a monitor, a camera, and a mic facing Grace’s chair. Rocky forces him into the seat, ignoring all of Grace’s questions, and powers up the monitor.
“Grace. Watch.” Rocky runs to Adrian and starts hopping excitedly. On the screen, a woman in her 60’s is being interviewed.
“So, Dr. Andrews. You’ve been the leading scientist on Taumoeba for the past 13 years.-” Taumoeba? There’s no way this can be real? Grace has been on Erid for 23 years. The Mary obviously didn’t have information on something that didn’t exist yet. This has to be editing. It has to be.
“Rocky. This isn’t cool. It’s messed up.” Grace wants to run back to his house and slam his door. If he had a door. Someone had to break it down 5 minutes ago. Rocky runs over and pushes Grace back into his chair.
“Grace. Watch, statement.” Rocky has never given Grace a reason to not trust him. He doesn’t know what’s going on, but as his head stops spinning, he decides to just listen.
“When the beetles got to Earth, I was 39 years old. I knew whatever was in those canisters I was going to get my hands on.” What? “Mr Grace is the reason I went into molecular biology.” What? “He’s the reason I love science like I do.” The girl is speaking with so much excitement that she reminds Grace of his students. One thing is clear. Rocky somehow got his claws on an Earth news segment. Grace is crying. The woman keeps answering questions about the Taumoeba as Grace turns to Rocky.
“Is this what you’ve been working on for the past 12 years?” Rocky has been so secretive about his big big big project. He wouldn’t even ask Grace for help when he was stuck for months.
“Part of. Adrian helped. After Adrian finished their work.” Adrian’s work was huge. It somehow only took them 5 years after Grace landed on Erid. Their team worked day and night; there was always someone on it. Only 5 years. Grace only had to age 5 years. Adrian found a way to make it so Grace aged at the same speed as the Eridians. He was 73, maybe 74; but physically and mentally he was 42ish. They did it, somehow. Someway, by the will of the universe. No, that’s not right. The will of Rocky and Adrian. Grace will live alongside the Eridians he loves for their entire lives. The Eridians letting Grace live there was enough. The biodome was enough. They were always doing more than what Grace felt he deserved.
“Tell us, Dr Andrews. What was your relationship with Ryland Grace?” Relationship? That’s not possible. She would have been 13 when Grace was stuck on Mary. Wait. 13? That’s the age of-
“He was my science teacher. He taught me the year he joined Project Hail Mary. I remember the last day we saw him. It was third period, and he shot up, told us to keep studying, and then he just ran out.” Andrews. Little Josephine Andrews. Probably the smartest girl he ever taught was standing on screen in front of him. She still smiled the exact same. “When the principal came in and told us that Mr. Grace was joining the Astrophage project, the class was torn between ‘we’re all doomed’ and ‘oh shit we’re so back.’” Sounds like his kids. Also, since when can you say “shit” on the news?
“I was so excited for him to come back and tell us all about it. I was plotting how to track him down and hear about it. I mean I knew I wouldn’t see him that school year, so I had to find him on my own.” Josephine trails off
“But then he never came back.” The reporter finishes for her. She nods.
“He never came back. The lab had that terrible accident. He had to go to Tau Ceti- to Adrian. I was devastated. Mr. Grace loved teaching us about space and the stars, but he always made it clear that he was terrified of it. One of my classmates said he’d love to go, and Mr. Grace responded with ‘that’s all you, kid.’”
“What did Dr. Grace’s students think of him?” Josephine smiles.
“He wasn’t just our teacher. Every single one of us loved him like family. He was like our dad or cool uncle. Not that we would have ever admitted that Mr. Grace was cool.” Josephine starts to tear up. “I never had a teacher like him again. He loved us with his whole heart.”
“What is your favorite memory of him?”
“I have to pick just one?” The reporter nods. “I’ll try to keep it short. I guess we don’t have much time left. He told me I was brave once. I was being bullied. I went to him sobbing for help. I was so depressed and lost.” Grace remembers that day clearly. He also remembers trying to decide if jail time for beating the living hell out of her bullies' parents was worth it. It just barely wasn’t. “He never judged me for crying; hell, he cried with me. He tried not to, and I pretended I didn’t notice. He listened to me for an hour; I didn’t even know he could go that long without talking. He nodded and told me I was so brave for coming to him. He told me he would take care of it and walked me to the front of the school. I still don’t know what he did.”
Ok. Grace thought that the way she worded it made it sound like he went all Godfather on the kids. All he did was call a meeting with the parents where he said some very professional things.
“It only took a week, and the kids never bothered me again.” Not helping the Godfather allegations there, Josephine. “I think he’s the bravest man I’ve ever met. I’m not even talking about going to space. I’m talking about teaching 13-year-olds. When my daughter Gracie was 13, it was a constant war zone. He went to work every day with a huge smile and more patience than I could ever have. He dealt with all of our teasing and found ways to deal with us when we were being difficult. Mr. Grace helped make me who I am today. I’ll always be thankful for him.” Grace looks over at Rocky and Adrian and loses all composure. This is the best thing they could have ever done for him. He will never be able to thank them properly.
“Well, unfortunately, we have run out of time for today. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Andrews.” Grace hears someone yell “CUT” in the background, and Josephine goes to step away. The news segment has ended, so why could he still see everything?
“Rocky, how did you get this? The broadcast is over.” Rocky shakes his head.
“Grace, dumb, statement. Grace think this recording, question?” Rocky asks as he makes his way over to Grace.
“Well, yeah? If it wasn’t, that means this is live, which means you somehow created interstellar communication, which is-”
“Dr Andrews, we have a surprise for you,” a man in a uniform similar to what Carl used to wear says. Grace’s head starts spinning. This is live? Is it not a recording? Interstellar communication? It’s a good thing he’s sitting down because he feels like he’s about to pass out. He’s stopped crying, mostly because he’s so overwhelmed.
“What would you say if we told you you could see Dr. Grace again?”
“Well, I’d call you a liar. He was sent on a suicide mission. Which it's a damn good thing that Stratt will die in jail because if I ever see her. I swear.” She takes a deep breath to calm herself down. Something Grace taught her when she came to him for help years ago. “Anyway. Best case scenario, Mr. Grace made it back to Rocky, and he somehow figured out a way to live on Erid's atmosphere. Most likely, one, he died in space. I just hope he wasn’t alone when it happened. So, yeah, you’d be lying.” She shrugs and goes to walk off.
“Just, give us a chance. Please, sit. Dr. Andrews.”
“You have 2 minutes,” she retorts. The red light above the camera comes on, and suddenly Ryland Grace can see himself next to Josephine. “Wow, a video. Haven’t seen those before. I’m leaving.”
“Grace say hi to student, statement!” Rocky yells, and Josephine freezes. She slowly turns back to the screen.
“It’s not possible. Interstellar communication is still centuries away.” She shakes her head.
“For us, yes. For them? No.” the man responds and sets a hand on her shoulder.
“Grace, say hi to student.” Rocky repeats. Grace takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself down. Josephine stares back at him. They just stare at each other, confused. After a few minutes of just silence, Rocky chirps.
“Grace dumb. Rocky say hi to student for Grace. Hi student!” Rocky pushes himself on camera and waves at Josephine. This snaps her out of her disbelief.
“Hi, Rocky.” She responds. “Mr. Grace? It’s not really you, right? I mean, you haven’t aged at all.” She trails off
“It’s me, kiddo. Look at you. You’re all grown up! And studying Taumoeba? You have a daughter? You lived?” Grace is rambling. And crying. He gets to talk to another human again, and she was one of his students! He can’t believe it.
“Mr. Grace, you’re doing it again.” Yapping. She means he’s yapping again. “So you made it to Erid? How are you not, like, 110?”
“First of all, I wasn’t that old when they shipped me off. Second, it’s a long story. Speaking of being shipped off, does everyone know that I ran?” Grace asks, thinking about that day, which always embarrassed him. He hated how much of a coward he was in that moment, and he hopped to whatever higher power there may be that not many people knew about it.
“Only the ones with high enough clearance,” Josephine responds. Good.
“Communication not the best yet. Can only hold for another 34 minutes. Rocky will fix so talk longer later.” Rocky trills. Makes sense. It’s still new technology, and it’s tech Earth doesn’t fully have yet. Erid is holding both ends of the line here. Josephine shows photos of her wife, daughter, and grandson. Tells Grace about the Hail Mary museum and the crimes Stratt had to commit to save everyone. Grace understands. He may not ever forgive her, but he understands. She had the ultimate trolley problem; it just sucks that the only way to solve it was to tie Grace to the tracks.
“Two minutes,” Rocky chimes in from off-screen. They say their goodbyes and Grace tries to stop crying. It doesn’t happen. The screen goes dark, and the camera shuts off. Time's up.
“Grace, leak still. Happy leak, question?” Rocky asks tentatively.
“The happiest. I can’t even begin to explain how happy you’ve made me.” Grace will spend the rest of his very long life expressing his gratitude to his Eridian family. When he finally calms himself down, Adrian walks over to stand by the equipment.
“This mean Adrian can yell at Stratt finally, question?” They ask. It’s not really a question. They’re going to yell at Stratt. Even if she was dead, Adrian would come up with necromancy to bring her back, yell at her, and kill her themself. Rocky jumps in excitement.
“This mean Adrian AND Rocky yell at Stratt, statement!” Rocky can barely contain himself at the idea.
“Rocky, did you invent interstellar communication to yell at my old boss?” Grace asks. Rocky and Adrian go suspiciously silent and do the Eridian equivalent of side-eyeing each other.
“No, question?” Rocky responds. So yes. Yes, he did. Grace will allow it. He may understand why she did what she did, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a few choice words for her.
“Grace need new door, Rocky make now.” Rocky changes the subject and runs up to Grace's house. Grace shakes his head and follows his friend. Grace smiles to himself and remembers. If he ever has a problem, Rocky will fix; and Grace would do the same for him in a heartbeat.