Chapter Text
3 days before the hail mary launch Stratt had called Grace for a very important meeting regarding replacements for the now dead scientists who were originally supposed be on the hail mary mission, as soon as Grace entered the meeting room he could see Ilyukhina’s concerned expression and Yao who was usually calm and stoic fidgeting nervously with his hands.
Once Grace sat down Stratt began.
“As you all know the deaths of Dr DuBois and Dr Shapiro were a great loss, their families are being told of their passing as we speak, but the launch of the hail mary cannot be postponed.”
The tension in that meeting room was so thick you could cut it with a knife, nobody knew where this meeting was going and it showed on all of their faces.
“So what are you planning on doing? Are you going to get more candidates and have me teach them about astrophage?” Grace asked wearily not liking where this conversation is going.
“No” Stratt said simply.
She sighed before continuing.
“I have decided to volunteer myself to join the hail mary mission crew, I had myself tested for the coma resistance gene and I tested positive for it, I feel that I am the best candidate for the mission as I know the ship inside and out and I also know everything I need to know about astrophage.”
“Are you serious??? Stratt you’re not an astronaut, hell you’re not even a scientist! just get someone else more qualified and i’ll teach them about astrophage before take-off, also who’s going to take care of the petrova taskforce if you’re gone?”
“Thank you Dr Grace for reminding me that i am indeed not a scientist” Stratt was starting to get annoyed now “and we do not have enough time to teach someone everything we know about astrophage, we need someone with that knowledge already, the only people here with both the gene and the knowledge is me and you, you don’t want to go on a suicide mission to space, do you Dr Grace?”
That was Grace told, he shook his head no.
“As for what will happen to the taskforce when I’m gone, you Dr Grace as my second in command will take over in my stead.”
A long painful silence enveloped the room as everyone processed what they were just told.
“Are you sure about this? I don’t know if I'll be capable of the taskforce on my own.”
“You won’t be on your own, Carl will be your second in command.”
Everyone turned to Carl who was standing by the door uncharacteristically flustered.
“A-are you sure ma’am? I was only hired as a bodyguard for Dr Grace.” Carl spluttered
“Yes, I'm sure, you have creative problem solving skills and you seem to work very well with Dr Grace, you helped him to discover how astrophage breeds which was the biggest pivoting point of project hail mary, you are more than capable of being second in command.”
After that Stratt dismissed the meeting but Grace hung back to talk to Stratt.
“Stratt-” Grace began.
“Dr Grace please make this conversation quick, I have a lot to prepare, it's going to be a long trip” she said with her back to Grace as she gathered her things.
“I just wanted to double check that you’re sure about this.”
“I am.”
“I….I just don’t know what to do.” Grace said solemnly
“Dr Grace…” Stratt said as she turned to face him.
“You’re smart, you’ll figure it out” she said as she left the room.
It was the last thing she told Grace before leaving him to fend for himself.
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2 days before launch and word got around quickly because not even a day after the meeting everyone was panicking about Stratt joining the hail mary mission, rumours ran rampant throughout the taskforce and it was Grace’s job to stamp them out before they started to do any damage to the mission.
Grace was not looking forward to his task, really this should be Stratt’s job, but alas she always had something more important to do and the job fell to him.
At 6:30am he’d received an email from Stratt telling him to let everyone know about what will be happening in the near future and that staff members on site be informed in person, unfortunately this led to a problem for Grace because they were so close to launch staff couldn’t be distracted.
So Grace made his way around the facility informing everyone of Stratt's decision and what's going to happen to the petrova taskforce in the near future, luckily the facility wasn’t that large and there weren’t that many people to inform but the task did take him the whole morning to complete.
After Grace had lunch his job was to have a video meeting with the international taskforce letting them know what’s happening too.
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1 day before launch and the final preparations for the launch are in order, Grace’s job today is sorting out the mission crew’s personal belongings.
Yet again Grace was not looking forward to his job, it’s not that the job itself was bad… it was the guilt surrounding it, Grace didn’t like the idea that he was packing for people he grew to like and sending them to their deaths.
But as always he had no choice in the matter.
He sat in what was once Stratt’s office, it had been completely stripped of her presence, it’s not like she had many personal items in her office before, a name plate on the desk, a paper weight here and there and very few framed photos of her with people she didn’t care to elaborate on.
Stratt was cagey about her personal life, especially with people she might have once known. Grace had asked once about the other people in the pictures but was shut down very quickly.
Grace had asked other people in the taskforce about it but nobody knew, there were theories going around about who those people were to Stratt and why she never liked to talk about them, Grace didn’t like the fact that whoever those people were would only be informed about Stratt’s sacrifice after the news broadcast was released, at least with the other mission members their families and friends were informed before lift-off.
Grace could think about that later, it’s time to pack, three yellow jumpsuits all with the mission patches but one was missing it’s name with embroidered gold wings…odd, Grace thought but he continued first he packed Yao’s things, then Ilyukhina’s which were fairly standard items, photos of friends and family, their personal clothes and other little personal trinkets.
Then he got to Stratt’s belongings, her clothes, a rosary and a bible, no photos, just those items, Grace wished that even just one of the photos was left just so she could take that with her too, he searched the office ceiling to floor and no photos were found, so instead he slipped a polaroid of him and Stratt into her luggage.
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The day of launch, it was oddly still, Grace thought that it would be absolute chaos, but no everyone was calm, this was planned out to hell and back but that didn’t stop Grace from worrying.
He’d gone around asking if anyone needed any help, the answer he got was “no” and honestly he was getting in the way more than actually helping.
There were broadcasters that somehow got onto the facility, Stratt must have given them clearance before going into her coma, Grace was bombarded with questions in which he spent the next couple of minutes answering.
Until he saw the crew members' families and friends (excluding Stratt’s) in which he went to greet them (with the help of two translators) they were crying, telling Grace all about them before they joined the taskforce, sharing stories and they all grieved together as the rocket launched.