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"No!" One of the astrophage scientists, Marie, shouted at another, Grace stepping into the room to see what all the commotion was about. "That much astrophage at once will blow the whole building!"
"One nanogram is not that much astrophage!" The other, Ida, shouted back. "And I'm using less than one for this experiment! It's within regulations!"
"Guys, guys," Grace called, stepping closer to see what was happening. "What's wrong?"
To say Grace was tired right now was an understatement. A severe understatement for the man who was awake only by the fear of Stratt, a half dozen packs of sour skittles, and three Monster energy drinks in the past 6 hours - overdosing on caffeine and sugar like he was a doctorate student finishing his thesis last minute. Again.
He'd been awake over 96 hours already - more than 4 days - from needing to finish writing his reports on astrophage and watching over the astrophage experiments to following Stratt to yet another meeting with the world leaders at the UN for Project Hail Mary that was scheduled for later that day.
"I'm telling you it's too much!" Marie shouted back, neither even bothering to look at or acknowledge Grace's presence. "You'll blow us all up!"
"I will not!" Ida argued, refusing to let this go.
"What is wrong?" Grace asked again, giving them one more chance to let him help them solve this as their lead researcher. "Is there something wrong with-"
"Fine then! Blow us all up! See if Stratt cares!"
"I can wait," Grace muttered out, crossing his arms over his chest, a disappointed look on his face as he sat patiently for them to acknowledge him.
The two bickering turned silently towards him as the rest of the room watched on, realizing who is was that they had been ignoring - their boss and Eva Stratt's science lapdog. They were so fucked and the whole room knew it.
"Oh, Dr. Grace," Ida gasped out, hands coming up over their mouth. "You see, I was just-"
"No, I was-"
"I don't want to hear it right now," Grace leveled with them, his voice low, striking fear into them as he checked his watch. He had 15 minutes to get across to the hangar room for his presentation today.
"Shoot!" He swore to himself. "I'm going to be late! Come and see me after class," he demanded before taking off, leaving the room silent in fear.
"We're so getting fired, aren't we?" Marie asked, no longer willing to argue - all lust for it driven out by the terrifying sight that was a pissed off Grace, something that was as rare as a unicorn on Stratt's Vat.
"We'll be lucky if Stratt doesn't skin us herself for pissing off her second in command."
~~~
Stepping closer to the hangar room, Grace yawned loudly, not caring who heard him or saw the bags under his tired eyes.
Grace was tired, he was dead on his feet and just wanted a pass out for the next week, but yet, Stratt needed him to present his findings today, no chance for a nap or even a 10 minute break. Grace was pissed and exhausted, not a great combination for dealing with world leaders, but he persisted nonetheless.
Stepping into the room, he was greeted by Stratt and Steve, a friendly army man who was seen by Grace as often as Carl was.
"Good morning, Dr. Grace," Stratt said, sipping on her extra extra large coffee with 6 shots of espresso - what Grace lovingly called the Atomic Antarctica for it's caffeine content that could blow up the pole again if she so chose to.
"It's morning?"
"Yes," Steve confirmed, checking his watch before going back to standing at attention. "It's currently 10:58, Dr. Grace."
"Oh good," Grace sighed out. "I'm not late."
"You're just on time," Stratt added, typing away on her tablet. "Please, get your presentation ready within the next 2 minutes," she asked kindly, but Grace knew it wasn't a simple request - it was an order disguised as one and not meeting her expectations would have consequences.
Giving her a sharp nod, Grace did as she asked, pulling up his presentation on the computer with bleary eyes, biting back a yawn as he prepared himself to present his findings to the UN, who were arriving in person as he stood at the front of the room, all bickering with each other and Stratt as they came in.
"I'm just saying," a woman remarked, rolling her eyes as she walked by Grace, "Finland would be making far more progress than the American scientists."
"And I'm telling you," a man argued back, "America is doing a fine job. We just need to pool our resources together."
"Like hell we will-"
"Well, I think-"
"Oh fuck off-"
"Ahem," Grace cleared his throat at the front of the room, watching the clock tick by as his desperation for some sleep grew as did the voices of the UN members.
Despite it being a life or death situation for the whole planet, it seemed that politicians would always be politicians - nothing would satisfy them unless it was their plan in particular.
"Ahem!" Grace coughed louder, still being ignored as he became impatient.
"1, 2, 3! Eyes on me!" He shouted out, silencing the room as he spoke, all of the UN turning to face him as Stratt smirked, biting back a chuckle - this was definitely the man from the 'waste of carbon' incident.
"Thank you," he added sarcastically before turning in to his presenter mode. "My name is Dr. Ryland Grace. I am one of the researchers here on astrophage and…"
~~~
After garnering their attention, the presentation had gone smoothly for the most part. Some small details needed to be smoothed over in terms of explaining the astrophage and what the research meant - Grace had forgotten that not everyone could understand what it meant when he rambled about its power potential.
When he concluded, reaching his final slide and shutting the projector off, the room quickly broke off into quiet, separate conversations between the UN delegates and their teams, all discussing the uses of astrophage and what it could mean for them outside of Project Hail Mary, their voices bouncing around the room.
"Dr. Grace, what could-"
"Grace, how can we-"
"What does this-"
Their voices layered over one another, echoing in the hangar room, as they all attempted to ask their questions at once.
Shutting his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose, fighting off a migraine and his body's plea for rest, Grace stood silent, hoping for all of them to get the hint that he couldn't answer all of them at the same time.
"Please-" he began, getting cut off before he could even really ask them to ask their questions one at a time.
"Dr. Grace, what can-"
"Does the astrophage-"
"How was this-"
"Can we-"
The echos bounced in his mind as his migraine fully realized itself, squeezing his head like a stress toy as pain radiated through his eyes into his skull.
"How about-"
"Excuse me!" Grace snapped, reaching his breaking point. "We raise our hands to speak in this room!"
Steve snorted, which he covered with a fake cough as the room fell silent, all questions paused on anticipatory lips in fear of invoking Grace's wrath - the wrath of Stratt's second in command, the one man who could control her warpath to some extent, and the world's leading mind on astrophage, the sole hope of the Hail Mary ever getting to Tau Ceti and saving Earth.
Gingerly, one of the UN delegates raised a hand, followed by the rest of the room as Grace took a deep breath in. He had his work cut out for him.
"Thank you. What is your question?" Grace asked.
"Um, Dr. Grace, could we possibly use the astrophage for other parts of the Hail Mary instead of just fuel? The engineer on my team had proposed-"
~~~
God, I just want to sleep, Grace whined to himself, holding back a yawn as he finished answering the final question, ready to retire to his room and get some well deserved and much needed rest. 100 hours without so much as a nap were getting to him and he was ready to collapse at this rate.
"Any other questions?" He asked gently, scanning to room for a missed hand or one going up last minute - a usual occurrence.
None were seen. He was finally free to leave.
"Thank you, Dr. Grace," Stratt said softly. "You are free to leave," she concluded, giving him a small clap that was followed with applause by the rest of the room - his theme song as he exited with one thought in his mind: getting to his room and sleeping for the next week.
Grace trudged through the halls, tripping over his feet once or twice - okay, maybe three times, but nobody saw that one so it didn't count - before he finally got to his room, fighting with the door before he remembered that he left it unlocked.
Letting himself in, Grace shut it behind him, not even bothering to lock it, as he fell face first onto his bed, collapsing in exhaustion as he gripped the pillow, burrowing his face into it and fell asleep, not even bothering to change or do anything other than rest right now. He had earned it.
"Dr. Grace?" A small voice at the door asked, knocking gently. "You said to see you after?"
"It's Ida and Marie," Ida clarified, standing beside their co-worker. "Can we come in?"
Nothing was heard on the other side, except a light muttering, which they took as an invitation to come in, ready to face the consequences Grace had ready for them.
Opening the door, they were greeted by the sight of the feared Dr. Grace curled up on his bed like a roly-poly, fast asleep, still in the lab coat he had left them in hours ago.
"Oh," Ida breathed out. "He must have been exhausted."
"Let's not bother him then," Marie whispered back, unwilling to wake him. "We'll ask him about it next time."
Ida nodded sharply as they grabbed a quilted blanket from the corner of the bed, balled up and pushed aside, that they gently laid over Grace's body, watching him grip onto it as he readjusted himself, uncurling slightly.
"Sleep well, Dr. Grace," they whispered, gently shutting the door behind them, locking it on the way out.
And so, Grace slept soundly, a bright pink sticky note on his door in cursive reading 'Please be quiet, nap in progress' letting him sleep without disruption again.