Chapter Text
Eva Stratt walked along the path by herself on the cloudy cold day just three days before the Hail Mary launched.
Three more days. Just three more. She told herself. A growing unease had settled in her stomach two weeks ago and it only kept growing. Things had been going too smoothly since they moved their operations onto land and she didn’t like it.
She took a deep breath to will away the unsettledness that resides in her. The warmth from the coffee cup she was cradling was nearly the only thing grounding her at that moment. That and the fact she will not allow herself to break just mere days before their goal is reached.
She paused in her step to take in her surroundings. The base was quiet and felt very lonely at that moment. However, she knew that just inside the buildings all personnel of the Petrova Task Force were working hard in preparation. She glanced at the building where Dr. Ryland Grace was giving DuBois and Shapiro a lesson on Astrophage.
A small smile creeped across her face against her will as she thought of Grace teaching the two scientists how the small alien life forms can produce such high levels of energy for the fourth time now. For some reason the two just couldn’t get the grasp on Astrophage that Stratt would have liked so she pushed Grace to keep helping them understand.
She would have normally had Grace right by her side. They had fallen into a sort of routine of slowing their pace while walking between the barracks and the science buildings to take a moment to breathe before heading straight into the thick of their responsibilities. But making sure DuBois and Shapiro were as fully up to knowledge took a much higher priority than a silly little walk.
She chuckled softly thinking back on a stupid science joke Grace and stumbled through during their walk yesterday. She didn’t even fully remember it. It was something to do with math being the unive-
The sky lit up orange.
The world fell silent.
Then the world exploded.
She was knocked backwards forcibly by the shockwave. She tumbled across the ground and the air was knocked out of her lungs but she didn’t think she had even been breathing before.
She scrambled up onto her feet and bolted. She pulled out her radio and started demanding answers. She couldn’t hear herself over the pounding of blood in her ears. She ran towards the inferno as she prayed to a god, one she didn’t even fully believe in, to have please, please, have saved at least one of their scientists.
She no longer believed in any god as she stared at the folder that held the files of Martin DuBois, Annie Shapiro, and Ryland Grace.
She sat in a conference room with Olesya Ilyukhina, Yáo Li-Jie, Dr. Lokken, Dr. Lamia, and a few others. They were arguing and quite honestly freaking out over the fact that all of the astro-scientists for the Hail Mary and the leading scientist of the program are now dead. She continued to stare at the folder before closing her eyes. She mentally drowned out the others as she tried coming up with a solution.
Had Grace not been in the accident she would have chosen him to take DuBois’ place but that was not reality. Not here. Not for her. None of the other scientists are close enough to be chosen. They either don’t have the knowledge needed for the mission or they don’t have the gene necessary for the trip to Tau Ceti. She knows everyone who holds that damn little gene. She snuck in the testing for it in all of their physical exams when they were taken on for the taskforce.
She ran through her mental list of potential candidates with that gene. Her brows furrowed as she realized that none of them would be near ready in three days time. They didn’t have the luxury of waiting nine months for the next launch window. The candidates she would maybe choose don’t know near enough about the equipment that’s aboard the Hail Mary.
It would be a disaster if they needed to use spectroscopes and none of them know how to properly operate it. Or if they forgot a detail about Astrophage, like how with thermal energy they-
Her eyes flung open.
Oh.
She knew enough about Astrophage. She had that gene. She knew everything to do with the Hail Mary. She knew how to work most of the equipment.
She was the best candidate for the Hail Mary’s scientist role and it was all thanks to one Ryland Grace.
Grace had this habit, whether it was on purpose or subconsciously, of explaining the science behind everything in a way that she had been able to follow along with easily. And he had been doing that since his first day working with Astrophage. At first she was annoyed by this habit, as it took up more time than necessary, but she chalked it up to him being a middle school teacher and let it slide at first. But as time went on it became an endearing habit she found she oddly looked forward to.
She glanced around the room allowing their voices to return to her ears. Their debates were getting heated now. Tensions and anxieties were high. She took a grounding breath before opening her mouth to speak.
“I will go.”
Dead silence.
…
They stared at her like she had three heads. She understood why; she was the director of the taskforce. She was a bureaucrat not a scientist.
“You’re not being serious, right?” Dr. Lokken said her voice was oddly filled with pain and confusion.
“When am I ever not?”
All they could do was stare at her. She was their boss after all, it wasn’t like they could tell her otherwise. “Commander Yáo,” She turned to him. He had a conflicted look on his face. He seemed proud of her but also saddened. “You and Ilyukhina will train me in all of the astronaut duties and operations that I do not already know.”
She stood up. “We start in one hour.” With that she left them still reeling and processing her decision.
She entered her office and immediately got to work. She started writing up what she wanted the taskforce to do in her stead now that she was no longer going to be there to guide them. After spending most of the hour on writing she hurried herself to the astronaut training building. Yáo and Ilyukhina were already waiting for her.
She threw herself into learning and training as much as she could and when she wasn’t doing either of those things she was making future preparations for the taskforce. She didn’t allow herself to stop working until the launch. She couldn't risk letting herself dwell on the implications of her choice. She didn’t sleep for three days because she knew she was about to sleep for a very, very long time.
Word spread fast around the base about her new role. As she walked down the halls people would give her many looks. Mainly looks of admiration, respect, and sadness. She managed to keep the news from spreading off base. The world would know soon enough.
She could feel the exhaustion seeping into her body by the morning of the launch. She knew the bags underneath her eyes were the worst they had ever been but she pushed past it and ignored it. Yáo and Ilyukhina were in high spirits, she was glad of that. Their ride to the Hail Mary was being broadcast on every news channel in the world. The vehicle they rode on had no roof to allow the cameras and the rest of the taskforce to see the world’s heroes one last time.
She knew many of the cameras were being pointed at her. She never really liked social media attention so she ignored them and allowed herself to breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the feeling of the wind across her face and hair one last time.
Ilyukhina and Yáo stepped off first, waving and smiling at the cameras. She stood back, allowing them to have their moment but Yáo glanced back at her and frowned. He stepped towards her and grabbed her wrist without saying a thing before pulling her forward letting her join the two of them. She would never admit it out loud but she felt warmed by his gesture however small it may have been.
When it was time to board the three of them took turns. Ilyukhina was first, she walked up the ramp waving and smiling before doing a classic Olesya double peace symbol turned double middle fingers. She cackled at the reporters’ reactions of her crude gesture before stepping foot onto the ship.
Yáo was more graceful. A slow walk up the ramp with waves and even a blown kiss for his family. He smiled softly as he took one last look of their surroundings. He stepped through the airlock door.
Now it was her turn. She saw every camera pan to her and she ignored them as she stayed rooted in her spot. She closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and soaked in the warmth of the dying sun. She slowly opened her eyes. Staring straight ahead, she took a step forward without a motion of hesitancy.
Eva Stratt boards the Hail Mary.