#rylan grace

Imagine being Eva Stratt getting Ryland Grace’s little beetles with the stuff you need to save your world. You took a risk, a massive gamble, almost 23 years ago. You were given all the power in the world to try and do the impossible and you were doing it. You had a talented crew of volunteers, a massive team of top tier scientists working around the clock, and poor little Grace, your resident pet genius. He’s funny and weird and endearing. You never wanted to put him in space, to send him to his death against his wish, but it’s your job to make tough decisions and the world needed him. So you put him and two others up in space and hoped that they would survive. Hoped that they would figure out a way to save the world. Hoped that the information would get back to you and that it wouldn’t be too late. Counting down the days until they should wake up, tracking the petrova line left by the ship and waiting for it to reach Tao Ceti. Then waiting another eleven years in the hope that the beetles were on their way. And then you get the beetle. And you find out that Grace, marvelous, awkward, nerdy little Grace was the only survivor. The one person who didn’t want to be there, who didn’t want to die. He didn’t just give up, he got the solution. He met an alien species and solved the issue and now you can save Sol. And you’re so proud. So, so proud of this man who was not prepared to do any of this but did it anyway. Imagine being Eva Stratt and almost crying from relief and joy and pride but having to hold it in because there’s still stuff for you to do to save the world. Just imagine.