Chapter Text
SPACE – KUIPER BELT – 32 AU DISTANCE FROM SOL – 1 FEBRUARY 2052
“Taumoeba Time!”
Yáo grunts in acknowledgment of Ilyukhina's yell from somewhere further down the ship.
They'd decided early on that because eating taumoeba was so disgusting (the frog-spawn like texture truly was unbearable), they needed to hold each other accountable.
Hence, ‘taumoeba time’ – which was effectively ‘family meal time’.
His lip quirks in amusement as he focuses back on the code input for the Hail Mary's extended deceleration once they reach the edge of the solar system.
Their solar system. It's been a long four years on their journey back, and Yáo knows that everyone is physically and mentally exhausted.
They'd even considered using the coma systems once more, but they would have run out of coma slurry only months into the trip, if all three of them had gone under – and neither of them wanted to leave each other alone.
So, the coma slurry and the taumoeba got consumed whilst fully awake and conscious, unfortunately.
He shudders at the thought.
“Yáo!”
“I'm coming!” He yells back. Professionalism had died a quick death once the concept of four years stuck in a small space together had sunk in. Yáo was probably the only one holding up those boundaries anyway – it's not like Ilyukhina and Grace were winning any awards for maintaining professional workplace formalities. Not that this situation fitted that context anyway.
He takes a final glance at the deceleration schedule – it's the same as before; no abnormalities. He knows this, Ilyukhina and Grace know this. But he still has to check. It would be embarrassing to survive the entire mission and then crash into Jupiter or something at the last minute because the Hail Mary veered off course.
He heaves himself out of the pilot chair, knees cracking in the process. God, he feels old. Or maybe it's just the complete lack of nutrients slowly decaying their bodies.
He won't think about that too much.
He finds Grace and Ilyukhina in the Don't Go Crazy Room. Ilyukhina's got her legs over Grace's lap, and Grace's head is slumped into Ilyukhina's neck. They've got the third season of Brooklyn 99 playing on the screens, and three bowls of taumoeba ready and waiting.
Ilyukhina ribs him for being late as he slumps down next to them, pulling Grace to lean against him.
Grace looks up from the notebook he'd been scribbling in, “Systems all okay?”
“Everything is on schedule,” he responds, before taking a bite of the beige sludge. He could forgive the taste (mostly because it didn’t really taste of anything), but he wished one of the many experiments they’d conducted had been successful in getting rid of the slimy texture.
Ilyukhina takes a photo of her bowl with one of the handheld recorders. Yáo doesn’t even blink when she tells him it's for posterity.
“Look,” she says as she shoves the photo in his face, like he hasn’t got his own personal bowl of taumoeba in front of him.
“Fascinating.”
Grace sits up slightly, almost hitting his head against Yáo’s in typical Grace clumsiness, “They should have picked up a signal by now, so they know that something is coming, just not what – they’ll be preparing for a BEETLE.”
Ilyukhina messes around with the leg of Grace’s jumpsuit, “Got to keep those dusty data analysts in suspense, and then, Surprise! Those astronauts you left for dead are back, bitches.”
Grace snorts at Ilyukhina's snide comment, squirming closer to Yáo when Ilyukhina tries to stick her foot in his face in retaliation.
Yáo coughs to try and bring at least some semblance of seriousness back into the conversation, “We need to discuss what we will be saying. It will take approximately twelve days for the Hail Mary to be within radio signal, and we'll finally be able to communicate with Earth. It will only be ascii text file style until we get to about Mars, then we'll be able to send audio files through.”
“I want to type the first message-”
“No.” The thought of Ilyukhina being first contact after 26 years is slightly terrifying. “Besides, the delay for each message will be over thirty minutes. We don’t need them blocking us because you’ve offended an entire nation.”
“I can be professional!” She protests, “Maybe I am only holding a slight grudge, just a little tiny one. I promise I won’t let it affect my work!”
Grace snorts again.
EARTH – UNITED SOVIET FEDERATION – 20 JANUARY 2052
Dimitri gets the text message at three in the morning.
The last time Eva Stratt had contacted him directly was probably over two decades ago.
Oh, they'd been in communication of course. Dimitri had been a witness at many of her trials, and they had reunited in person when the Petrova Taskforce had been brought back together in preparation for the BEETLE returns – but the woman never was much of a texter.
Which is why he's squinting at the message in front of him, bleary-eyed.
Leave it to Eva to keep it cryptic.
He sighs as he heaves himself out of bed and starts stumbling around in the dark in an attempt to put together an overnight bag.
He then goes back and packs a suitcase instead. He has a feeling this isn't going to be a short trip.
NASA CONTROL ROOM – 14 FEBRUARY 2052 – 00:23 AM
Dozens of NASA and ESA employees are talking over each other in light of the communication with the apparent Hail Mary. The central members of the Petrova Taskforce are instead further back, exchanging looks and whispers with each other. Eva Stratt hasn’t stopped staring at the text on the large display screen. Lokken looks like she doesn’t know what to do with that.
“We need to be absolutely certain it's them. Yes, the signal can't be tracked to anywhere on Earth, but maybe somebody's figured out a way to completely cover their tracks. This is too big to cover up, so we need to be 100% confident that we are talking to the actual Hail Mary crew – god bless them – before we go public.”
“And how are we going to do that? How are they going to prove it's them?”
All eyes slide towards the various members of the Petrova Taskforce.
“...What?” Hatch asks dubiously.
“You guys knew them best – what's something only they would know? And remember, these transmissions will be public.”
It takes them twenty minutes to decide how to reply.
[PLEASE PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT CANNOT BE FOUND WITHIN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN]
“There, now we just need them to provide evidence it's the Hail Mary crew, and not some snotty teenager in their basement tormenting us for a laugh.”
“I’m not sure anyone would bother to do that, but okay.”
They wait thirty five minutes for the response.
[PROJECT HAIL MARY WAS CREATED ONLY THIRTY EIGHT DAYS AFTER ARCLIGHT PROBE RETURNED. RECRUITMENT FOR ASTONAUGHTS BEGAN 5 WEEKS AFTER THAT, THROUGH INTERGLOBAL RECRUITEMENT NDAS SIGNED]
Someone sighs disapointedly, “Everyone knows that. I mean- not everyone, but it's not exactly a secret.”
They reply.
[THAT IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION. PLEASE PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT CANNOT BE FOUND IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN]
Thirty-five minute delay, and then two messages in quick succession.
[IT WASN'T PUBLIC INFORMATION WHEN WE LEFT – ILYUKHINA]
[DUBOIS AND SHAPIRO WERE AN ITEM – ILYUKHINA]
Someone snorts from the back of the room.
Lokken and Hatch exchange glances, “I mean, that's not common knowledge, but it was hardly a secret amongst the Taskforce. They'd frequently decide to have sex with each other whilst in the middle of conversations with other people,” Hatch answers to the curious faces in the room.
Dimitri laughs deeply, “Yes – they liked announcing it. So not necessary public domain, but there were over 300 people involved with the Taskforce – any of them could have this information.”
The director of NASA sighs, “So it's no good.”
“It is good, it is just not concrete proof. But there might not be any thing that they can use as concrete proof – we might just have to wait until they are in range of audio and video communication,” Dimitri replies to the man.
“We can't wait that long; we need to be able to give the public something. Ask again.”
[PLEASE PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT CANNOT BE FOUND WITHIN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN]
There's a longer delay than usual, before three responses come through at once.
[MY LAST WORDS TO EVA STRATT WERE]
[YOU'RE ______ING ME]
[THIS IS GRACE BTW]
All eyes turn towards Eva Stratt. She's still staring at the text on the large screen, but its clear to see how her shoulders lock up, body tense.
The director of NASA breezes past any awkwardness, “Why did he blank it out? Can we verify that? Stratt – you were one of the last people to see Grace, before his coma was induced early. Do you remember what his last words to you were?”
She doesn't respond.
“Eva?” Dimitri asks, voice unusually gentle.
“Yes,” she chokes out.
“What was the word?” He asks her, and watches in real time as she almost shuts down. She lets out a shuddery breath. Dimitri doesn’t think he’s ever seen her so uncomposed.
“Murdering,” she chokes out. “His last words were – ‘you're murdering me.’”
Oh.
It’s silent in the control room. What do you even says to that?
Lokken puts a hand on her shoulder in awkward comfort, “I'm sure he didn't mean it like that, Eva.”
She doesn’t reply. The silence stretches.
The head of the ESA breaks it, “Was anyone else there when he said that to you?”
Stratt takes a deep breath, before seeming to come back into herself, “One of our trusted bodyguards, and two army members under numerous NDA'S. It is as airtight as we are going to get. We can assume it is the Hail Mary crew.”
It says something that Eva Stratt technically holds little power within the room, and yet everybody listens to her.
The head of the ESA nods, and then seems to prepare herself for the long night ahead, “Alright – then we move to the most vital questions. Let's get started, everyone.”
You know what they say – do not open Pandora’s Box unless you are prepared for the answers.
[PLEASE EXPAND ON PREVIOUS MESSAGE _MISSION SUCCESSFUL_. FOUND ANSWERS AS TO WHY TAU CETI IS NOT DIMMING?]
[FOUND ANSWERS. FOUND CURE. MICROBE THAT EATS ASTROPHAGE. WE HAVE BOUGHT IT BACK. WILL NEED PROBE TO RELEASE IT ON VENUS, THEN ASTROPAGE POPULATION WILL BALANCE AND SUN WILL STOP DIMMING]
[MICROBE NAMED TAUMOEBA – GRACE NAMED IT]
NASA–ESA JOINT CONFERENCE – PROJECT HAIL MARY ANNOUNCEMENT – 14 FEBRUARY 2052 10:15AM
The room is packed to the brim. Journalists and News Channel Representatives fill the chairs, with more lining the walls of the large conference room. Microphones and Cameras are already recording in anticipation of the most important news event for the last quarter of a decade.
The directors of NASA and the ESA stand united before them all.
“As you all know, on January 24th 2052, our deep space telemetry picked up an object entering our solar system from the direction of Tau Ceti, the destination of the Project Hail Mary mission.”
Papers rustle as notes are quickly scribbled. Shoes squeak from journalists leaning forward in anticipation.
“Until now, the object has been too far out for our systems to pick up any identifying details. Due to the object's deceleration in anticipation of its intersect with Earth, we had been unable to gain any further information.”
“Due to its location, the object was assumed to be one of the four BEETLE Probes that the Hail Mary was to send back to Earth; however, it did not fully match the BEETLE's estimated return velocity and fuel discharge output.”
Hundreds of eyes stare at the speaker, hungry for a newsworthy reveal. Hungry for hope.
“It was assumed that the probe had been altered in some way by the Hail Mary Crew for its return journey, which would explain its irregularities. However, as the object became in reach of NASA’s Warden Deep-Sight Scanner, it became clear that was not the case.”
“Yesterday, February 13th, the object came within Warden’s range, where it’s telemetry was able to pick up more details.”
The room holds its breath.
“We can now confirm that the object that entered our solar system on January 24th, was in fact not a BEETLE Probe, but the Hail Mary space shuttle itself.”
The room erupts.
[SCRIPT DIALOGUE EXTRACT – NASA–ESA 14.02.52 → download txt file? YES/NO
Journalist: How is this possible? Wasn't it a one-way mission?
NASA–ESA: We're looking into this
J: What did they find there?
NE: We're awaiting for data packages to acern the details of their mission
J: Did they find a cure?
NE: They state to have found a solution – Commander Yáo has confirmed that the mission was ‘successful’, claiming the discovery of a bacteria that can consume Astrophage. We do not have any further details at this time
J: How is the crew? How would they have had enough food to last for the return journey?
NE: All three crew members have been confirmed alive. We will be assessing their physical and mental health as we gain the ability for more communication. We will be investigating the food aspect
J: How do we know its not a hoax? Has NASA verified the messages and traced where they've come from?
NE: We have verified the messages through a range of checks and traced their origin as thoroughly as possible
J: Will NASA be releasing the messages between the Hail Mary and NASA control room?
NE: As with any NASA telecommunications and scanning, we will be releasing the contents to the public imminently
J: How will you be getting the Astronauts back down to Earth?
NE: We are working on a plan to get our astronauts back down to Earth, we are in communication with multiple space agencies to coordinate a rescue capsule that will be compatible with the Hail Mary's 2025 exterior
.
.
.
[EXPAND SCRIPT]
TXT FILE DATA DOWNLOAD – COMMUNICATIONS JOHNSON SPACE CENTRE HAIL MARY 13-14 FEB 2052 – YES/NO?
