Dr. Grave and Eva Stratt are (platonic) soulmates with the "name/first phrase on your skin that turns black by death" thing.

Eva still has to send him up to space, to the horror of everyone but especially Grace, but then--around the date of arrival at Tau Ceti--everyone starts fucking giving her the 👀 periodically to see if "who's there? Not good at jokes who?" has turned black yet and it just... never does.

Not in a few months past the arrival at Tau Ceti's system, and even after that.

There's just this period of everyone around Eva Stratt getting less pitying and more impatient while waiting for her sacrificial soulmate to croak.

A few years pass and they calculate he is completely out of usable food even if he was the only one to eat it the whole time.