Rocky gives Grace a small metal ball that Rocky knows the weight of. In the book they can’t spin the centrifuge as long as the tunnel is connecting the ships, so they’re in zero g meaning Grace can’t weigh the ball.

Rocky tells him the ball “is 26”. Grace goes “oh right it’s twenty six in your units”. Rocky says “no, ball is 26”. Grace doesn’t get it. Rocky tells him to wait and goes back into his ship.

In the very short window Grace has to wait, he gets an idea and dashes back into the Hail Mary and start an experiment (that I’m not going to explain bc I think I get how it works but I’m sure I’m going to butcher it if I try to summarise but I’ll put the quote in the replies if I can) that is clever but also simple and a rudimentary in a “tony stark in a cave with scraps”-kind of way.

He figures out the weight and, quote:

“I return to the tunnel to tell Rocky all about how smart I am.”

Rocky is pissed that he ran off and Grace very proudly tells him, quote:

“I measured the mass! I made a very smart experiment.”

Rocky shows him a beaded string with 26 beads (same concept as when he explained in their second meeting that there’s O2 in Grace’s part of the tunnel, which is included in the movie)

The following happens, quote:

[Rocky] holds up a string with beads on it. "Twenty-six."

The beaded string is just like the ones he sent me back when we talked about our atmospheres—

"Oh," I say. It's an atom. That's how he talks about atoms. I count the beads. There are twenty-six in all.

He's talking about element 26—one of the most common elements on Earth. "Iron," I say. I point at the necklace. "Iron." He points at the necklace and says, "♫♩♪♫♫" I record the word in my dictionary.

"Iron," he says again, pointing at the necklace.

"Iron."

He points to the ball in my hand. "Iron."

It takes a second to sink in. Then I slap my forehead.

(Rocky) "You are bad."

It was a fun experiment, but a total waste of time. Rocky was giving me all the information I needed. Or trying to, at least. I know how dense iron is, and I know how to calculate the volume of a sphere. Getting to mass from there is just a little arithmetic

He does the math and comes up with a number:

"I was only off by one percent," I grumble.

I bring the ball down to the lab. I get a piece of nylon string and tie each end around a plastic sample canister. I now have a string with little buckets at each end. I put the canisters next to each other and pull the now-folded string taut. I use a pen to mark the farthest point. That's the exact center of this contraption.

I wave the ball back and forth with my hand to get a feel for its mass. Probably less than a pound. Less than half a kilogram.

I leave everything floating in the lab and kick my way down to the dormitory.

"Water," I say.

"Water requested," says the computer. The metal arms hand me a zero-g "sipper" of water. Just a plastic pouch with a straw on it that only lets water through if you unlatch a little clip. And inside is 1 liter of water. The arms always give me water a liter at a time. You have to stay hydrated if you want to save the world.

I return to the lab. I squirt about half of the water into a sample box and seal it. I put the half-depleted sipper into one of the buckets and the metal ball into the other. I set the whole thing spinning in the air.

The two masses clearly aren't equal. The lopsided rotation of

the two connected containers shows the water side is much heavier. Good. That's what I wanted.

I pluck it out of the air and take a sip of water. I start it spinning again. Still off-center but not as bad.

I take more sips, do more spins, take more sips, and so on until my little device rotates perfectly around the marked center point.

That means the mass of the water is equal to the mass of the

ball.

I pull out the sippy. I know the density of water-it's 1 kilogram per liter. So all I need to know is the volume of this water to know its mass and therefore the mass of the metal ball.

I get a large plastic syringe from the supplies. It can pull a maximum of 100 cc of volume.

I attach the syringe to the sippy and unclip the straw. I draw out 100 cc of water, then squirt it into my "wastewater box." I repeat this a few more times. The last syringe is only about a quarter full when I empty the bag.

Result: 325 ccs of water, which weighs 325 grams! Therefore Rocky's ball also weighs 325 grams.

Simon seeing Grace without the baggy clothes for the first time hahah 😀

Simon Grace Gay as fuck, statement.

*Clears throat* …

<-Part 31 & 32

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Not alone

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Based off this thing I saw where Simon gets pissy, shouts at Grace and throws something and Grace, being the sensitive guy he is, starts crying and Simon, not used to his words having any sort of power like that, instantly is like I'm the worst person ever. Grace has been nothing but kind and patient with him and here he is making him cry. He apologizes over and over again, sent into a baffling state of desperation and hysteria to try to make up for it.

Grace shows him mercy, sinking down and giving him a hug and a kiss to the forehead to talk him off the edge. He then tells Simon he still needs time to get over it and the hurtful words Simon said, but that Simon doesn't deserve to punish himself so severely, just be more controlled next time. The start of Simon learning hes the only one in control of himself, he can't make excuses here and he won't be punished severely which creates even more pressure for him to grow as person.

Omg Rocky we missed you. This should go well!!

<-Part 27 & 28