The Backup Plan (Ryland Grace, Project Hail Mary)
A/N: cannot humanly stress how much i love project hail mary, ive seen the movie twice - which isn’t nearly enough - and i cannot wait for it to come out on streaming so i can watch it everyday for the rest of my life. I have also preordered the hardback book that does not come out until december, cannot wait!!! I was hit with inspiration whilst standing over the sink, and had to furiously type some notes into my phone with bubbly, wet hands. It was worth it, my phone is replaceable but my thoughts are fleeting. Enjoy :) {also, for anyone who knows me from before, i had a slight revamp of my account}
Pairing: Ryland Grace x Fem!OC.
Summary: Ryland Grace was their very last choice, and yet Eva Stratt even had a backup plan for him as well.
Warnings: fluff, established friendship
I am tempted to make this into a proper fic, but we shall see.
It hadn’t even been five months since Ryland Grace was sent into space as the replacement scientist, and yet Project Hail Mary hadn’t stopped. Whatever fleeting relief had been felt by the people on the base had been swiftly dissolved as Stratt started up the next phase.
This phase hadn’t been part of the original plan, it had been in a folder, buried deep within her files, that she only created for the very small - miniscule, really - chance that Ryland would be part of the space mission. Unfortunately, that fear of the near-impossible was warranted and her contingency plan was put into full effect a week after launch.
Really, it’s fairly simple to understand.
The Backup Plan (The Grace Contingency)
A new, smaller aircraft will be made.
An existing scientist will be trained over five months.
Enough fuel will be created from the Astrophage to follow the Project Hail Mary ship.
The fourth person will dock and join the team to assist where Ryland Grace cannot.
They will die there, a hero, with the rest of the Project Hail Mary crew.
Of course, some people were against it. Having already given up some of their best people who either died in the explosion, or are one of those in space.
No one wanted to give up any of their own scientists again, not for a mere backup plan that would almost certainly not be needed. But Stratt convinced them, her own daunting concerns - that she voiced quite loudly to the board - slowly sinking into their heads and getting them to join the preparations.
Still, no one was willing to give up any of their own scientists for what was still viewed as an even longer shot than their original plan. So Eva Stratt had to rely on someone, or, more accurately, guilt someone into being their contingency scientist.
Monroe Larke met Ryland the exact same time as most of her team, when he was introduced as the man who had duplicated the Astrophage.
Once he joined them on the boat, his American team would work across from her British team, and she would often see him in his little office opposite hers. Wearing some of the best cardigans she’s ever seen, and eating more twizzlers than they had the budget for. He, at first, was just interesting, but after she bought him over a coffee and realised just how likeable he was, he became much more than that.
They shared ideas, small breakthroughs, and passed notes practically all day. They had every meal together and were conjoined at the hip - more often than not, if you wanted Grace, you could find him with Larke, and vice versa. Even to the point that Stratt let them work next to each other in the same, small, seethrough office, because they always worked well together.
And, knowing how devastated Monroe had been when she learnt that Ryland was the one sent to space, and she never got to say goodbye, Stratt knew it would be all too easy to send her after him.
Monroe had family in England that she was leaving behind, and despite that, she gave in to Stratt’s guilt-tripping much quicker than expected.
So, a scientist that had worked very closely with the man who discovered the duplication of Astrophage, five months of training for being up in space as they created the ship and breaking the news to her parents. They tried desperately to get her to change her mind, but she refused, she knew that she would be able to help the crew in space.
Selfishly, she also really wants to go to space. Even if she never comes back.
In less than five months after Ryland Grace was forcibly sent to space, Monroe Larke was following right behind him.
Monroe was violently woken up as her breathing tube was removed, her mind struggling to comprehend what was happening as lights flashed and her lungs worked through the burn. Mumbling, drooling, as the machine overhead whirred and asked her questions.
Slowly, a stinging wave of memories surfaced from the base of her skull. Bright flashes of her times with Ryland, working for Project Hail Mary, and the bite of the needle that had put her into the coma. Allowing the machine to pick her up and begin stimulating her muscles to help them regain some functions, staring blankly as she came to terms with where she was.
Wanting to see space is an entirely different feeling than actually being in space. There is a heavy pull on her heart, a metallic taste in her mouth as panic swirled in her stomach. Thick and unyielding.
Eventually, she waved the machine away, grunting as she smacked her lips, shivering at the odd feeling of her tongue being so swollen, and the phantom reminder of the breathing tube.
Sucking in a deep breath as she climbs the ladder to the main body of the ship. It’s much smaller than the Project Hail Mary rocket, with only the room where she slept, the cockpit and a small cubicle that separated them. Blinking heavily as she walked into the cockpit, grateful that she woke up while the ship was still following the path of the Hail Mary.
Sitting down in the single chair, she buckles herself into the pilot’s seat. Unable to do much but wait to catch up.
Double checking the details from when she was sleeping, and the fuel remaining, making sure nothing had gone wrong during the years she was in a coma. Once again, the phantom tube felt stuck in her throat, and she pressed the base of her palm to her chest and rubbed slow circles to try and calm it down.
Feeling the things she’d learnt in her five months start to be implemented before she could remember them fully. Her brain still a couple clicks behind her hands.
Checking her controls, everything was still in place to get her to Ryland. He must’ve made it by now, and she’s only five months behind him, perhaps a bit less considering she has a much smaller ship. Quietly muttering the numbers, calculating size and speed, plus the fuel left, to figure out how long she’s going to be by herself.
Three months - or maybe three and a half - before she joins the rest of the crew.
Before she gets to Ryland.
“Well, Stratt demanded a video diary, so I suppose I should comply or else she’ll fire me or something.”
Sucking in a breath for a small laugh, a grin appearing on her face. Looking down at her lap, where her book had been left partly open. Notes filling the margins in all different colours, for every time she’s read it.
“Honestly,” she lifts her head, giving an irritated puff of breath before meeting the camera again, “I think these are a bit stupid and don’t want to do this. But I’ve read Pride and Prejudice about four times, and I’ve just highlighted his confession and called him a pathetic bitch. So.. felt like I should take a break.”
It’s not like there’s anything else to do, she bought so many books, and got very tired of them very quickly. And if she doesn’t start talking out loud soon, she’s going to start ripping up the books.
And these are mostly her own books from home, and that would actually break her heart when she finally came back to her senses.
“Anyway, I’m only in my first lonely month. Day 32, so technically month two but who’s counting. Fuel is good, books are slowly getting boring. And I’ve done so many notes that my pens are running out of ink, have to go back to the dark ages soon. Pencil, gross. Uh, there isn’t anything else to do, but I’m going to take up running while I still have gravity and pretend that I’m doing some stupid marathon. Going to have some crazy maladaptive daydreams, can’t wait.”
“It is day 58, I am now out of alcohol, and I think it’s my breaking point.”
Luckily, she was smiling, a pencil tucked behind her ear and her hair in two braids. Honestly, she’s a couple more months away from giving herself a fringe and starting to treat her pencil like a real person.
“I can probably recite half of Pride and Prejudice by heart now. I uh, see the words in my sleep and Mr Darcy visits me in my dreams. Nothing nice, unfortunately, he just keeps saying that I’m ‘not very handsome’, and other old Englishy ways to call me ugly. We’re going to have problems soon.”
With a groan, she falls back onto her bed, shoving her book off the bed.
It’s gotten a little messier, to be honest. Her books are scattering the room, plus some loose pages where she decided a plot line wasn’t one she liked anymore, and there wasn’t anyone to stop her from tearing out the pages.
It wasn’t Pride and Prejudice, that bitch is still intact, even though she really wants to throttle it somehow.
Pushing her back up onto her elbows, she glares at the screen as the red light blinked; recording.
“Anyway, I’m going to start making some origami out of the pages since there is nothing else to do. I can’t wait to get to the Hail Mary and finally talk to some other people. My bitch ass is rude and I don’t like talking to her. She’s mean to me.
Monroe smiles at the camera as she turns it on, before practically tiptoeing over to the bed and sitting on it. Very careful not to crush any of the bountiful origami swans covering the room. Her hands were covered in plasters from a million tiny papercuts.
Running her hand through her hair, which she had cut short to her shoulders after deciding it was too boring to brush it every single day. And it uses up less of her hair products.
“Day 100 and uh, you know, ignore the swans. As it turns out, they’re the only animal I can make out of paper, and a snake.”
She holds up a rolled up and crumpled piece of paper, shrugging before tossing it away behind her. A sigh on her lips, even as she continues to smile.
“Or a worm. Whatever boats you float.”
Gesturing towards the cockpit, her smile seemed to grow a little more hopeful. Clearing her throat before shuffling and picking up her legs to cross them.
“I can actually see the Hail Mary on my longer range sonar now. They probably won’t be able to see me yet. But Captain Yáo should be able to see me in a week or so and hopefully connect our radios.”
Her eyes hadn’t left the screen for twenty minutes, her hands white and rigid on the arms of the pilot seat. That feeling of the breathing tube clogging her throat slowly starting to emerge, something she hasn’t felt in months now.
There was something next to the Hail Mary, something much larger than the ship, and the grainy picture she had on her screen seemed to show the.. thing connected to the Hail Mary.
When she could finally bring herself to move, joints stiff as she grabbed the radio, fixing it to the frequency that the Hail Mary was set to and starting her call out.
“Hail Mary, this is the Contingency, do you copy? Uh, over?”
She hadn’t done much training with the radio, and she probably didn’t need to be so formal. But whatever was next to the Hail Mary honestly freaked her out a little.
There wasn’t any response, and she gave a shaky sigh. Buckling the seatbelt once more and starting the procedure to cancel autopilot, put herself in control and finally lose gravity in the ship.
“I repeat, Hail Mary, this is the Contingency, are you there?”
Still nothing, and she groans in annoyance. Using that annoyance to drown out the worry that something had happened to them. Flicking the last switches to get control of the ship, the automated voice warns her that autopilot is going to be disengaged before a countdown starts.
Keeping one hand on the joystick as she reaches over to grab the transmitter, gritting her teeth as she activates the radio again.
“Captain Yáo? Can you respond? I need to dock.”
Ryland is losing his damn mind. Rocky has practically moved into the Hail Mary, and he hasn’t felt a moment of peace since. Don’t get him wrong, he loves Rocky, he loves having someone to talk to.
Even if the someone is a sassy space rock that would absolutely charge him rent if he knew what that was.
He almost misses being alone. At the very least, he misses his privacy.
“Alright, alright. I’m awake.”
With a groan, he sits up, looking over at Rocky, who was already in his ball. The rock enjoys waking him up at some ungodly hours, so he’s been pretty tired lately, he’s sure he’s been hearing things. Like right now.
Scratching his ear as he sits up, shoulders tense as he faintly hears a female voice float through the ship. He’s losing it.
Then, he hears it again, and even Rocky gives a musical hum as he rotates his ball towards the sound of the noise.
“Woman’s voice, question?”
That wakes him up, if Rocky can hear it too, then that means he isn’t hallucinating. Scrambling out of bed, and rushing towards the cockpit, Rocky hurrying after him in his ball. Asking a million questions about this voice that he can’t answer yet.
Practically slamming into the controls, he spreads his hands out as he looks for the radio, he hasn’t had to use it and doesn’t know where the hell it is.
Then a light flashes on the console and it gets his attention, a scratchy voice coming through the static.
They want to dock?? Who even is this?!
He grabs the radio and makes an uncertain noise before pressing the button on the side and speaking.
“Uh, hello? I’ll uhm, I’ll prepare the second docking port, hold on.”
There was a moment of silence, and he wondered if he’d been heard as he reached over to start the procedure for a ship to dock. Thank god they’d installed two of them considering Rocky is currently monopolising one.
After a while, the voice spoke back, still a touch too static for him to make out who it is, but the word came through clearly.
He had sent Rocky to the lab, to stay there for now while this person docks. They’d had to stop the centrifuge and they were now floating, Rocky in his tunnel in the lab, and Ryland waiting very impatiently for this person to dock.
Whoever it was, they knew his name, so it had to be someone from Earth. Which makes no sense, he is their Hail Mary, so why would they send anyone else out here?
It’s also why he told Rocky not to leave the lab, because he doesn’t want to frighten this person by immediately introducing them to an alien. Rocky is great, but definitely a shock to the system.
As the voice echoed the ship, letting him know the docking had been completed, he felt his heart in his throat, his palms itching as his anxiety rose. Finally seeing another person in years. Sure, he’s only been out of his coma for a few months, but it has been so many years since he left Earth, and he’s been really lonely.
Even with Rocky, he’s still pretty lonely.
The air rushes and whistles as the pressure is equalised, and the door opens.
Realising his glasses are still hanging near his chin, hurrying to stuff them back onto his nose as he heard someone using the walls to float out of the docking port. Dropping his hand, and gripping the bar even tighter to stop himself from floating away.
With the first float of brunette hair, he feels his chest contract. His pretty vacant memories suddenly flood him with a single face, a name, a pretty laugh.
Monroe Larke, his best friend, the person he worked alongside for months. Her hair is shorter, but it’s still her. A wave of disappointment in himself rises as he can’t believe he ever forgot her. How could he?! The woman he spent practically every second of time on that boat glued to, someone he never got to say goodbye to.
The only thing that Stratt mentioned when she was telling him he had nothing left to miss him on Earth. No family, no dog, only Monroe.
When she finally sees him, her eyes immediately fill with tears, using the wall to push off and fling herself at him.
For the first time in years - and something he never thought he’d feel again - someone was hugging him. Tightly clinging on as heavy sobs left her lips, the momentum sending his back into the wall, the pair of them floating down the hall as he let go of the bar to hold her just as tight.
Every part of them that's touching sends a burning sensation through him, tingling as he finally gets to hug someone again. A piece of him he didn’t know was struggling, finally relaxing as he buried his face in her hair, his glasses becoming skewed.
They’re slowly floating through the ship, pretty much making their way back to the cockpit.
She pulls back, and his grip tightens, refusing to let her get away from him. He’s full of a warmth that he doesn’t ever want to be devoid of ever again, but she just reaches up to correct his glasses as she sniffles. A watery smile pulling at her lips as she looks up at him.
A soft smile immediately greets her as he pulls her closer, hitting into a wall as they continue along - up, technically - to the cockpit.
“Hi Larke, fancy seeing you here.”
They don’t say anything else, they don’t really need to, not yet. A full explanation can wait, right now they’re just revelling in someone else’s company. In each other’s company, really, sure seeing someone else would’ve been great, but the fact that it’s the one person they wanted more than anything else, it’s indescribable.
As they get to the cockpit, he reluctantly tears a hand away from her to activate the centrifugal force. As soon as it’s done, he immediately hugs it round her again, the two of them trying to reorient themselves as gravity is brought back to the ship.
Once they’re standing, neither of them know what to say yet, just smiling and looking at each other. Gently raising a hand to brush his thumb through the wetness on her cheeks, lips parting as he struggled to find something to say.
“Grace friend, question?”
He felt Monroe go rigid and they both whipped to look at Rocky where he was in the tunnel in the cockpit, pressed up against the glass to get as close to Monroe as possible, wildly curious.
And a terrified scream ripped through Monroe before he could reassure her, slapping a hand down on her mouth so that Rocky didn’t freak out either.
This may have some more parts, I don’t apologise, I want nothing more than to make more of this and subject you to it :)
