Jupiter

When you have nothing better to do on a space ship than listen to some gossip.

Obviously, the goal of this experiment is to grow the lobsters until they’re big enough to settle to the seabed and then release them, because they have a much higher likelihood of surviving to adulthood when they’re able to hide. Ideally, captive lobster hatcheries can boost the wild population and keep things stable, so we don’t have a major crash in a decade or two.

The first year we tried this was pretty bad. We had a lot of eggs, but very few babies. It turned out that the CO2 levels in the building spiked as more guests visited throughout the summer, and that settled into the water and threw off the pH and caused a chemical reaction that prevented a lot of the eggs from hatching. I think we ended up releasing three baby lobsters (which is still better than their wild survival rate but not great).

The second year was a little better. We added a de-gasser to the aquarium and got a ton of larval lobsters, but right as they were settling to the bottom we had a disease outbreak that killed most of them. We ended up releasing four babies at the end of the season.

But this year? Oh boy. We have so many lobsters that we had to release the first round early (usually we wait till September or October so guests can see them). We just released a total of FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE baby lobsters, and we still have over a hundred who haven’t settled to the bottom yet. I genuinely don’t even have words to explain how cool this is. OVER FIVE HUNDRED. We just added hundreds of lobsters to the wild population that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

"I forgive you." He says finally. "I will never return to Earth. I will never know if this reaches you. But I forgive you... You did murder someone that day. But... a new man was born out of it. I think I... I think I like him a lot more."

He adjusts the earrings he wears, now, "For all of my students, all of you -- every single one I've taught. I'm proud of you. You made me the man I am today, and I remember each and every one of you. You're going to do great things -- if you haven't already"

"Dr. Ryland Grace, signing off."

[End Recording]

Eva Stratt is in her 80s by the time this recording reaches their planet. She had been fighting to keep the connection up. She spouted many reasons, but everyone knew why. Just in case he was alive. Just in case he would return. Just in case. Just in case. Just in case.

He's not returning.

So like she gets the recordings and realizes Yao and Ilyukina are dead before he wakes up so he’s got no pilot, no engineer, and no memories.

And then you also have to remember that the EXISTENCE of these recordings and the fact they were accompanied by the Taumoeba means that an amnesticized Grace somehow managed to save earth without a pilot or engineer and shoddy memory that only vaguely gives him enough to work with as he works.

Gold, Silver, and Bronze!🥇🥈🥉

skinny people please reblog this one