There be Dragons!

Time to approach the weird space thing and do Science at it.

That'll help.

Chapter: 5. Magnetic abnormality. Fandom: Project Hail Mary / Iron Lung. (Gen BloodyMary) Warnings: Gore / violence / body horror (in later chapters) Relationships:  Grace & Rocky & Simon.  Everyone is going in the friendship wiggler, whether they like it or not.  It’s just gonna be a bumpy ride. Words: 2105 Summary:  Approaching the source of that unnerving radio signal, Grace and Rocky discover something that apparently does not exist. Time for Science! And concerns. Quite a lot of Concerns.

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It took a while to get close enough for any clearer details to resolve, and Grace quickly gave up bothering to look at Mary’s unchanging readouts, his attention wholly focused on the shape growing larger in the window’s frame.  It looked… organic.  The whole thing was violently red, and had a smoothly-irregular shape that kept forcing his mind back to words like ‘distended’ and ‘bulging’, which had absolutely no place being applied to space phenomena.  It was also glowing, overwhelming the softer light of backdrop-stars and making the whole thing look as though it was sitting in a pool of deeper blackness.

This was emitting radio signals?

Grace finally managed to tear his attention back to the ship’s controls as they got close.  He had been planning to stop, circle around a bit, see if whatever was confusing Mary’s sensors was happening from the back as well; but it didn’t work.  The ship moved — he felt the faint press of acceleration from the spin drives, and all the usual engine readings poured across their reports — but the view didn’t change.

Some sort of optical illusion?  Or was it moving with them?

Don’t like that.

(Upload consistency, who is she.)

Chapter: 4. Playing your anthem.

Fandom: Project Hail Mary / Iron Lung. (Gen BloodyMary)

Warnings: Gore / violence / body horror (in later chapters)

Relationships:  Grace & Rocky & Simon.  Everyone is going in the friendship wiggler, whether they like it or not.  It’s just gonna be a bumpy ride.

Summary:  The Hail Mary intercepts an unexpected radio broadcast, and a decision is made.

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“Grace breathe too fast!” Rocky skittered alongside beside him, tapping meaningfully on the tunnel walls. “Do slow counting.  In out, in out.  Message still there if Grace faint or not.”

He did try, but honestly it was an all-or-nothing sort of thing right now, so he skidded into the cockpit with panic congealing in his chest and little sparks starting to swirl at the sides of his vision, flashing in time to Mary’s beeps.

“Welcome, pilot.  Receiving unknown radio transmission — ”

“Yes, yes I get it.  Where’s it from?  When?” Grace swung his glasses into place and the screens came into focus. He scanned across them frantically, looking for whatever dealt with radio signals. There it was, off to one side; little white text on a glowing black background and for a moment he swore he’d forgotten how to read.

It was — it was —

Not from Earth.

(These early chapters are quite short, but hopefully it’s setting a reasonable balance between setting up the Situation, and not just spending half a novel wallowing in academic angst inside a big space can.)

Chapter: 3. Situational gravity.

Fandom: Project Hail Mary / Iron Lung. (Gen BloodyMary)

Warnings: Gore / violence / body horror (in later chapters)

Relationships:  Grace & Rocky & Simon.  Everyone is going in the friendship wiggler, whether they like it or not.  It’s just gonna be a bumpy ride.

Summary:  It’s almost time to fire up the engines. Just a few pre-flight checks to do, and a mild existential crisis to finish up. Y'know; the usual.

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“Grace already do big, important science. Most important! Field trip not for being — being research assistant.”

Grace laughed as he crouched down, bringing himself more level with Rocky, and shook his head ruefully.

“Hey, sometimes that’s just the postdoc experience, bud.” He tapped his fist against the clear panel, quietly marvelling at how long it had been since they’d needed to interact like this. “I don’t mind. It’s nice to feel useful.” 

“Grace not need to be useful.” Rocky stomped a few times, ignoring the proffered hand. “Grace is — is Grace. Can do what like!”

“I know, Rock,” Grace sighed and tapped again, more gently. “But I… I’d like to feel useful.”

Alright gang, we’re going in.

Title: The means to an end.

Chapter: 1. An end in itself. (Prologue)

Fandom: Project Hail Mary / Iron Lung. (Gen BloodyMary)

Warnings: Gore / violence / body horror (in later chapters)

Relationships: Grace & Rocky & Simon.  Everyone is going in the friendship wiggler, whether they like it or not. It’s just gonna be a bumpy ride. Summary:

He was expendable, because he had to be, and they had spent him on one last roll of an unthinkable chance. Whatever the outcome was, there wasn’t supposed to be an *afterwards*.

It turns out that afterwards has problems all of its own. There’s an impossible wound torn into space, leaking the dying entropy of a broken universe; bloodwork nightmares are pouring out of the Hail Mary’s walls, wreathed in the ghostlight of half-spoken guilt; and something that turns physics into fever dream is stirring just behind that failing veil.

Ryland Grace is having a midlife crisis on the shoulders of giants. Simon absolutely, definitely should not be alive, let alone *here*. Rocky doesn’t even have cultural touchstones for any of this.

But they may be the only ones who can do anything about it.

Also consider Mikinakoos' as they're extending support beyond their traditional service areas due to the scale of this emergency!

Donations for Namaygoosisagagun First Nation:

Donations for Whitesand First Nation:

"i'm so basic.....i just like a lot of butter or jam :(" (as though those are not god's best and most beloved condiments and his greatest gifts to mankind)

"FUCK health guidelines FUCK my cholesterol and most importantly FUCK diet culture i'll put a dumpster full of butter on my toast and not even GOD will stop me" (no notes. god would encourage this)

doxxing one's self by mention of polarizing regional delicacies (i am so curious about vegemite i must admit)

"does a grilled cheese count as toast?" (not for the purposes of this post)

"i don't like toast please don't kill me" (i appreciate the honesty but i fear this post is not for you)

people who put full ass meals on toast (based)

people who do not but eat toast as a full meal (based)

melty peanut butter (absolutely based)

"it's a guilty pleasure but...nutella 😳" (relieve yourself of fear and enjoy your dessert toast)

They wear suits, but they don't even know basic etiquette.