After finishing my second readthrough, I felt like I needed to write an epilogue to close some loose ends for my own head cannon. Thought some people here might enjoy it
“It’s going to a vote at the UN later today. We should be there to observe the outcome.”
Stratt’s reply came after the slightest moment’s delay. “We know the outcome. It will be yes and will be unanimous. This is my punishment, finally.” Her eyes darted back to the tablet she was writing on.
“Punishment?” Prime Minister Bakker asked, half sarcastically. “This will be a reward for your years of diligence resulting in the success of the Hail Mary.”
“Yes, it will be a great honor which will conveniently remove me from the political landscape by removing me from the solar system entirely. I’m nearly seventy years old and a bunch of little people are threatened by me.” Stratt put down the tablet.
“So be it. There’s no changing the outcome. It’s in everyone’s best interest. No public punishment for the tyrant of the interregnum. Sending the orchestrator of the Hail Mary to lead the delegation to Erid, it’s fitting. There are too many moving parts to stop and no country with veto power would vote against it. It is a waste of energy to fight it and god knows I have little enough energy left as it is.”
Her prediction was correct. The UN voted unanimously later that day to authorize a diplomatic delegation from Earth to Erid, in the 40 Eridani system, using an astrophage powered spaceship, with world-renowned hero of the Petrova Crisis, Eva Stratt, as lead. The spacecraft was nearly ready to go, as well.
-
In the twenty-seven years since the launch of the Hail Mary, spacecraft technology had developed at an unprecedented pace. For once, capitalism, state economic planning, and human survival instincts all aligned. Investment from the public and private sector poured into space-based infrastructure and the proportion of Generation Petrova that acquired STEM degrees far surpassed any generation before. At the end of the day, there was almost nothing else to invest in. Anything that wasn’t related to securing food, terraforming Earth, colonizing space as a failsafe, or mitigating the Petrova problem was simply a bad investment. And so, year on year record rocket launches brought more and more material into LEO.
Once the Hail Mary launched, the abundance of astrophage led to a boom in commercial development, while simultaneously providing economic uplift to the African nations to which the Saharan astrophage production facilities belonged. Traveling within the solar system was no longer difficult. Shuttles brought colonists to Mars on a routine, if one-way, basis. Several research facilities turned settlements had arisen on Luna. Space stations orbited not only Earth but also Mars and Venus. The station at Venus was designed to collect astrophage directly from the Petrova line. A constant stream of drones carried depleted astrophage into close fly-bys with Sol to re-enrich them and resupply spacecraft all across the solar system. Entire asteroids had been captured, hollowed out - mostly by melting them with Petrova light - and turned into hydroponic factories sent into highly elliptical orbits around the Earth, all powered by astrophage.
There was still death. Earth had been teetering on overpopulation even before the astrophage-induced climate crisis. But for twenty-seven years, humanity survived while waiting for an answer that might never come. And then it did.
Three of the Beatles came back, parking themselves around the orbital distance of Saturn, and radioed their information to receivers on Earth, the ISS, and the several redundant receiver systems set up on Luna and Mars.
“Dear People of Earth, this is Ryland Grace of the Hail Mary. Enclosed within this spacecraft is a self-contained life support system for a predator of astrophage. A genetic predecessor of this microbe was abstained from the upper atmosphere of a Venus-like planet in orbit of Tau Ceti, which my crewmate and I named ‘Adrian.’ This microbe, named ‘taumoeba,’ is a naturally occurring predator of astrophage which we believe evolved alongside astrophage within the Tau Ceti system. Over the course of several months, taumoeba was selectively bred to adapt it to live on Venus. Diatomic nitrogen is toxic to the wild-type strain of taumoeba, but nitrogen resistance to a level of 8.25% was successfully bred in. During return transit to Sol, the life-support system replicated the Venusian upper atmosphere. The Petrova Crisis can be solved by delivering the contents of this container to the upper atmosphere of Venus where taumoeba will begin breeding and consume the astrophage, returning Sol to its natural luminescence. The life support system is constructed of Eridian steel and can be cut using a diamond drill bit.
For those still reading, you may have some questions. I said crewmate, not crewmates. During transit, both Yáo Li-Jie and Olesya Ilyukhina died. I awoke at Tau Ceti alone. However, just as Sol dimmed, so too did 40 Eridani A and, like Humanity, the Eridians sent a scientific expedition to Tau Ceti to find the answer to the Petrova Crisis. Together, an Eridian, named Rocky, and I were able to acquire the taumoeba sample, breed it, and construct the life support system needed. Nitrogen resistance to 8.25% was bred into taumoeba in order to adapt it not only to the Venusian environment, but also to the Venus-like planet in the 40 Eridani system.
Rocky was able to refuel the Hail Mary with astrophage for a return trip to Earth. However, an unexpected attribute of the selectively bred taumoeba allowed it to overrun the Eridian ship. So, I have sent the Beatles on the return trip to Earth as planned. Instead of returning with them, I am using the Hail Mary to escort Rocky and the taumoeba to the Eridian homeworld, 40 Eridani A b - ‘Erid.’
To all the people and creatures of Earth: good luck. I hope that these years between when I went into that damn coma and when the Beatles arrive in the Sol system were not too hellish. Take this taumoeba and stop astrophage. Take this Eridian steel and learn from it. Also enclosed is a marvel of material science, an Eridian compound called xenonite, as a gift from Erid to Earth. Enclosed in the terrabytes of data are full descriptions of the experiments performed in the Tau Ceti system, instructions for handling taumoeba safely, details of the Eridian people and planet, and as much data redundancy as I could fit. It was an honor to serve you.
To Eva Stratt: I remember.”
-
The Second Contact hurtled through space towards Erid. Other than being powered by spin drives, it was nothing like the Hail Mary. The Contact had been an asteroid before it was captured and brought into Lunar orbit. While there, it was hollowed out, reshaped into a mostly pyramidal shape, fitted with astrophage radiation shielding, life support, and all the other infrastructure to support a human crew. All told, a crew of nearly two hundred was on board the Contact with a living biosphere. Plants and small animals lived and died for generations under lights simulating the emission spectrum of Sol. A scientific crew performed an unending stream of experiments that could only be done in the interstellar medium. At relativistic speeds, the journey from Earth to Erid would only feel like four years to the crew of the Contact.
-
There had been a thrum of Eridians over the past week or so. Apparently, shortly after seeing the luminescence of Sol return to normal, another star appeared between Sol and Erid. Obviously it’s not a star, but it looked like a star. A bright light, visible to the Eridians’ telescopes, becoming more and more red with time. It didn’t take the thrum long to figure out what it was. A ship was coming to Erid from Earth, powered by Petrova light and it was slowing down. The light appeared to be higher frequency because it was blue-shifted by the ship approaching at relativistic speed. But as the ship decelerated, the light was approaching the Petrova wavelength. Humanity was coming to say hello and Erid was preparing to welcome them.
-
“Friend Grace, you are ready to ride the elevator, question?” Rocky asked me.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I hadn’t been back to the space elevator since coming down from the Hail Mary so many years ago. Everything felt heavy. My joints ached and my stomach was in knots.
“I haven’t seen another human in so long. I don’t know what to expect.”
“You are hero of humanity. Good good good. Humans will be pleased to see you well.”
“I don’t know how to feel about that. I don’t feel like a hero. I’m just a guy.”
-
A quick succession of musical chords played over the intercoms after the ship completed orbital insertion about Erid. Then, a digitized voice in perfect English continued, “hailing human ship, coordinates enclosed for docking with Eridian space elevator. Please confirm receipt of docking instructions and welcome to Erid.”
“Roger that, Erid. Docking instructions received. Executing docking maneuvers presently. This is the United Nations Starship Second Contact. We’re happy to be here. Thanks for the warm welcome.”
-
Eva Stratt floated out of the Second Contact onto the terminal of the Eridian space elevator which had been outfitted to contain a human-friendly environment.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I said, seeing her for the first time since she decided to kill me.
She didn’t even blink, as if she didn’t find my survival to be the least bit surprising. “Grace. It’s good to see you. You did a good job back there at Tau Ceti.”
“You think you can just walk - float - in here, following me to a literal alien planet, and expect things between us to just be ok? You killed me. It’s only by some real dumb luck that I got my ass saved by some really awesome aliens.”
“It’s not like that,” she said.
I glared at her.
“Ok, it’s exactly like that.”