Child of the Hail Mary AU
There are some PHM fics where Eridians mistakenly think Grace is a pebble because of his age which got me thinking: what if there's an AU where Grace is genuinely a kid during the events of the book/movie?
What if the rate the astrophage dims the sun is slower than cannon so Project Hail Mary has time to add more food and breed enough astrophage so that the suicide trip becomes a really long round trip. Added bonus of more advanced tech for a variety of more situations.
What if one of the astronauts on the original Hail Mary crew is unknowingly pregnant when they all blast off into space? Everyone enters their comas none the wiser. For the next nine months, the little baby grows with Armando doing its best to care for this unexpected development. It doesn't wake anyone because the astronauts are all supposed to stay asleep until they reach their destination, so it delivers the baby and does everything it can to care for him as he grows into a toddler. The Hail Mary plays him TV shows for babies and toddlers that teach alphabets and words from the stuff Stratt pirated to try to keep him occupied. The child slowly starts to learn to talk to the Hail Mary, asking questions like who are these people ("She my mama? What's mama, Mary?") and why aren't they waking up, getting answers he sometimes doesn't understand. The Hail Mary doesn't have a name for the child, so he picks Ryland from a TV show and Grace from his mother. He often curls up on the bed beside her, wrapping her limp arm around him to pretend that she's giving him a hug like on the TV shows.
Meanwhile, the coma systems start to fail one by one as Grace grows up. He doesn't understand why Armando starts taking away the sleeping people (sealing them in their pods). Scared that his mama will be taken next, Little Grace tries to learn about the coma machines and why they aren't working. He asks Mary to help him learn, so the ship directs him to kindergarten and 1st grade level science materials on the laptops. Grace feverishly pours over everything he can, but his mother, the last astronaut, dies before he can even get a solid grasp on the basics. Devastated at her loss and the fact that he's now alone, Grace throws himself into learning everything he can so that something like this will never happen again. He'll know everything there is to know and maybe he can fix what went wrong.
Time passes and Grace soaks up everything like a sponge. At some point the crushing failure tainting his education journey lessens and he starts to really enjoy learning new things (especially since there isn't really much else to do). As both his body and mind grows he comes across scientific journals discussing astrophage which leads to him discovering the astrophage crisis. Cue a deep dive into what the internet had on Project Hail Mary up until launch. Grace learns who his mama and the astronauts were and why they were all in a ship in space. He wonders why there's no mention of him, though. He decides that since his mama can no longer solve the astrophage problem, he will instead. He declares as much to the pods holding his dead crew, promising that he'll fix it.
With renewed enthusiasm, Grace throws himself into building his understanding of the universe to greater heights. Math, science, physics, biology (oh, so that's where he came from! Ew) chemistry, history, language, programming, everything he can get his hands on. He studies like the world depends on it ('cause it does) as the clock counts down to his arrival at their destination. Grace makes sure to know every inch of his home the Hail Mary inside and out so he knows what everything is, how it works, and what exactly he's working with. This leads to him discovering what he eventually dubs the "don't go crazy room" where he can experience scenes from Earth in a much more immersive way. Sometimes he'll load up a video of a classroom and pretend to teach everything he's learning to the other kids on the screen. Not only does it help him retain the knowledge, it also makes him feel like he's making a human connection, at least for a little while. His love for Earth grows and adds to the physical ache of loneliness in his chest. He wonders how he can miss a place so much that he's never even physically been.
The years pass (Tau Ceti is not the destination, I want Grace to grow up a little before he meets Rocky so they're heading a bit farther out. Again, the astrophage isn't dimming the sun as quickly in this AU, so Earth has some time to spare) and Grace has absolutely devoured everything the laptops have on science and other subjects, becoming a child prodigy in the process (not that he knows that). He finds and corrects the error in the feeding tubes for the coma system, feeling both elated at the solved mystery and depressed that it was too little, too late. The Hail Mary arrives at its destination and he experiences zero gravity for the first time (he feels sick at first but grows to like it). Excited to finally start solving the problem that is his entire reason for existing, Grace fires up the Petrova Scope and quickly notices Rocky's ship. When he realizes that there's another intelligent person in this solar system he gets super excited to actually try to communicate with his first real person EVER.
Events progress until they're finally face to face. Grace is hyped, nervous, enthusiastic, and in general a little overwhelmed at his first real conversation with a real person. Rocky, in the meantime, is starting to get suspicious about how hyperactive and giggly this small alien is. He acts more like a pebble than an adult. It isn't until they've established numbers, a bunch of common words, and Grace proudly showing him his math of his calculated age that Rocky realizes that this alien is, in fact, an actual child and is completely alone with only the corpses of his crew and his parent for company. Horrified, Rocky decides that he'll have to watch over this strange child since there's no one else to do it. When he offers to watch Grace sleep, Grace gets excited at his first sleepover with his first friend. He runs back to the Hail Mary to get his bedding and makes a very quick video log to gush about it.
Grace and Rocky continue to collaborate their information, making a solid plan to go to the planet in the system with the Petrova line and find out why it isn't eating the star. Rocky is impressed with Grace's expansive knowledge, especially when he's able to figure out what killed Rocky's crew and explain relativity to him. He feels hopefull that with Grace's advanced scientific knowledge and Rocky's own engineering prowess, the two of them together can save their respective stars. He needs a better way to keep an eye on this kid, though.
Grace is ecstatic when Rocky moves in and happily shows him his favorite videos of earth. He answers Rocky's questions to the best of his ability, but he is saddened by the reminder that he only knows facts and has never experienced Earth for himself. He doesn't know what its like to swim, he's never touched a tree let alone climbed one, he's never seen any of the animals on these videos, and he's never walked the streets of a big Earth city. Rocky, in an effort to cheer up this sad little pebble, shares stories about Erid and what life is like there. Grace soaks it all up eagerly, asking what his family is like and what is it like to have living relatives (Rocky's hearts can't catch a break with this adorable walking tragedy). The two grow close, bonding over lost loved ones and dead crewmates. Rocky asks why Grace has kept their bodies aboard the Hail Mary. Grace admits that he talks to them sometimes so he doesn't feel so alone, but he's always wanted to give them proper funerals. Rocky helps him research what to do and gives him the emotional courage he needs to finally say goodbye after all these years. One by one they commend the bodies of the astronauts to the stars until his mother is the only one left. Grace tearfully thanks his mama for bringing him into the universe, promises to her that he will solve the astrophage problem, and shakily gasps out his goodbyes before commending her to the stars. Once her body is gone, he collapses to the floor, sobs wracking his body. Rocky settles down next to him, huddling as close as he can while Grace reaches his little arms as far as he can around his xenonite ball and cries himself to sleep. Rocky makes sure to remind his little alien friend to take care of himself when he wakes up, nudging him to go eat and hydrate. He's Grace's emotional rock. The two become even closer, looking out for each other and supporting each other. Rocky does his best to help in whatever way he can.
Grace finds life in the samples they collect at Adrian, kick starting their plan to capture astrophage's predator. It goes just as catastrophically as it does in the book/movie, with Rocky not wasting a single second before bursting out of his atmosphere and into Grace's to save his motionless little pebble. Grace wakes up after receiving medical treatment from Armando and nearly hyperventilates himself into a panic attack at Rocky's condition, the fear of losing his only friend overwhelming his tiny body. He promises to watch Rocky sleep before he falls apart, pressed against the xenonite as tightly as possible. He's not ready to say goodbye, he's not.
Grace works to study the predator samples they collected in order to distract himself. The moment he realizes that the answer to the astrophage crisis- the entire reason his mama and the crew died in space, his reason for existing- is right there in front of him, he has a small meltdown before feverishly working to make sure this amoeba could survive in a partially nitrogen atmosphere. Rocky wakes up to a massive hug from Grace and the solution to their problems. The two celebrate, giving each other gifts before realizing that it is time to part ways. Rocky is reluctant to leave his pebble and Grace doesn't want to go back to being alone. They both, however, know they need to go back to their planets. With heavy hearts they say goodbye and part ways. Neither are okay.
A little while later, Grace awakens to the alarms that there's a leak. He quickly deals with the escaped Amoeba, realizing that Rocky is going to be stranded in space if he doesn't do something. He makes the decision to turn back for Rocky immediately, surprising himself with how easy it is to give up on going to Earth. He thinks he understands the phrase, "home is where the heart is" a lot better now. Grace stuffs the beetles with Amoeba and everything he's learned about it, as well as a few personal vlogs that explain who he is, details everything that happened aboard the Hail Mary, and declaring what he's going to do next. With that, he launches the beetles and turns back for Rocky. He's sad to leave Earth behind, but excited to be heading towards the person he loves. Soon enough, he finds the Blip-A and reunites with Rocky.
The two head to Erid aboard the Hail Mary. Rocky officially adopts Grace as his own pebble much to Grace's delight and many tears. Rocky watches as Grace begins to grow up over the years they spend on their way to Erid. It's definitely a learning curve for both of them (puberty, yikes). Grace is a teenager by the time they arrive.
Adrian is very quickly charmed by this gangly, clumsy pebble tripping over his two feet with strange voice cracks sometimes changing his pitch when he speaks. They and Rocky both do their best to raise the little alien into a fine young man. All of Erid officially claims Grace as an Eridian and looks out for him. A therapist visits him twice a week to help him work through his trauma. Grace, meanwhile, is really enjoying teaching everything he knows to classes of little pebbles, running lots of experiments in his lab in his biodome, and slowly healing while surrounding himself with his new family members. He's home.
Meanwhile on the Earth, the beetles make their way back home. Humanity eagerly looks forward to the knowledge the astronauts sent back, hoping for a solution to their eminent extinction. The first video reveals an unknown child dressed in ill-fitting clothes aboard the Hail Mary. Humanity is first shocked and then horrified as this child solemnly reports the deaths of the original crew and the circumstances for his own presence on the ship. A child born in space outside of their solar system, raised in isolation, and yet functional enough to study and learn until he was able to send back the thing that would save a whole world he had never even seen with his own eyes. A child who spearheaded the first intergalactic collaboration and sent back knowledge on their neighbors in the 40-Eridani system. A child who, with tears in his eyes, informed humanity that as much as he longed to see the planet he came from and meet the people of Earth, Rocky was family and he would be taking him home to Erid. A child who asked if his hello could be passed on to any living relative of his mother and father. A child who had tucked away a few of his drawings into the beetles and asked if someone could hang them on a fridge somewhere, that would be nice, thanks.
Copies of the pictures are made and sent to every space agency on the planet for them to hang up on their fridges while the originals are delivered to the remaining family of Ryland Grace's mother. More and more copies are made until almost every family on the planet have one on their fridge. The Amoeba is sent off to Venus and the sun begins to brighten once more.
And Humanity comes together once again to launch a second interstellar mission with the intent to travel to the 40-Eridani system and bring messages and pieces of Earth to Ryland Grace, Child of the Hail Mary.
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