Teen, Gen, No Archive Warnings

Ryland Grace & Rocky, Ryland Grace & Ryland Grace, Rocky & Rocky (Project Hail Mary)

Ryland Grace, Rocky (Project Hail Mary)

Crossover, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, POV First Person, POV Ryland Grace, Ryland Grace & Rocky Are Best Friends

For decades, the unusual observed properties of the Tau Ceti system have baffled astronomers, sparking endless academic debates and defying any easy classification. The system is rife with orbital periods and stellar motion that don’t make sense without Tau Ceti having a partner in its gravitational dance, one which should by all other evidence be visible from Earth, and yet the fabled Tau Ceti B eludes observation.

Now, with the Astrophage crisis threatening the stars, all eyes (and carapaces) turn to Tau Ceti with another question in mind: what has slowed its dimming?

The salvation of our homeworlds won’t be found in this universe.

Concept for the AU is, after the Hail Mary’s launch, Earth cools dramatically more than predicted, and some nations create Frostpunk’s Generator sites to keep some small sliver of humanity alive as the planet freezes. Stratt commandeers one of these sites to serve as the last operating base of Project Hail Mary, in addition to its original purpose of housing survivors. She names the city St. Rita’s, after St. Rita of Cascia, the patron saint of impossible causes.

During the cooling and the rapid destabilization of human civilization that followed, Earth lost its spaceflight capabilities. Re-establishing these capabilities by building a new space centre is a longtime mission goal for Stratt and St. Rita’s, but by the time the beetles make it back to Earth, they haven’t yet managed it. Resources are just too thin for too long. The beetles sit stuck in orbit, while St. Rita’s is only able to watch them go by with telescopes, so close and yet so far.

Meanwhile, Grace and Rocky make it back to Erid, and while Erid is able to produce food for Grace, living on Erid long-term proves infeasible for him. It is decided that he, along with a contingent of Eridians including both Rocky and Adrian, will return to Earth immediately, to return Grace to an environment where he can thrive and to offer their aid to humanity.

The first thing the Eridians do upon arriving in the Solar System is seed Venus with Taumoeba, as it has become apparent that Earth was unable to do so themselves. The second thing they do is boot back to Earth and scour the little white snowball for signs of life while Grace tries not to have a mental breakdown about potentially being the last of his species. Eventually, they establish radio contact with St. Rita’s.

Grace goes down first, alone in a lander module built for human life standards. St. Rita’s uses Astrophage (which they still have the ability to produce, in limited quantities) to bomb a hole in the sea ice large enough for him to splash down safely, pulls him out of the water, and rushes him to the city to receive care.

The Eridians don’t immediately follow. They need St. Rita’s to build habitats for them first, but the resource expenditures involved are a high cost to pay for the little city on the brink, even with the Eridians offering what assistance and supplies they can from orbit. This, combined with good old xenophobia, leads to a political crisis in the city. Stratt is no stranger to these, of course, she’s had well over a decade of experience running the city, but they’re never easy, especially with the weather taking a turn for the worse.

Grace’s presence also isn’t quite the boon it should have been. He’s a hero, yes, but he’s a shrivelled wreck with a long road of recovery ahead of him, and he’s not used to human social graces anymore, let alone the extra delicacy needed to handle his new celebrity position. His strong endorsements of the Eridians stir passion in the hearts of citizens who want to bring them down to Earth, while his aggressive derision for their opponents in the city only widens the divide. Many naysayers see his ill health as a sign that the Eridians will be ineffective allies at best, and potentially dangerous at worst.

They forgot to look up