Chapter Text
“And why am I here, Stratt?”
Grace asks as he takes a seat on the leather chairs in front of the German-Dutch women’s desk, the evening sunlight seeping through the windows and curtains.
“I asked you here because we have run into a problem, Dr. Grace.”
Stratt says calmly as she takes out a manila folder. She places it on the dark oak desk with a soft thud before sliding it towards Grace, who looks at it with uncertainty and nervousness.
“Do you remember the ship that we sent out years ago?”
She asks, already knowing his answer anyways.
“Yes, of course I do. It was on all of the news stations when it launched off. There were five or seven people in the crew, right?”
The blonde says as he opens the folder to see four papers. One with a report, two with a profile on a crew member and an incident report.
“Yes, and it seems that an incident happened aboard the ship and not one that seems to be caused by an accident.”
Grace gave the ginger a look of confusion and worry before his gaze went onto the papers. He looked at the crew member’s profile which were the profiles of scientists Dr. Martin DuBois and Annie Shapiro.
Grace shuffled the pages to the back of the pile to look at the report made by Captain Yáo Li-Jie. It stated that both of their scientists were found dead in the laboratory.
Wait, what?!
“Wait, the scientists are dead?!”
Grace yelps as he looks up to the ever-so-Tranquiled Stratt. Stratt simply nods, giving Grace a look that tells him to finish reading. He sighs shakingly as his eyes went back to the papers that suddenly felt heavier.
He skims the report quickly, trying not to look at the photos of the disfigured people who were his friends. He shuffles the paper to the back and reads the incident report and according to the report, the bodies were found at 2:37 PM by the Medic Elliot Bull who noticed that both of them were missing that morning and went to check on them.
Grace felt like he was about to vomit right here and now.
He looked up at the women in front of him with wide eyes, making a noise of worry, fear, and discomfort.
“This… This happened on the ship…?”
Grace asks in a shaky tone, his hands shaking from what he just read and saw from the photos. He knows he’s being emotional but he can’t help it, it’s just too much for him.
Stratt nods, her face completely devoid from any distress, worry, disgust– you name it. She leans in forward so her elbows are resting on her desk and her hands are folded together.
“Yes, and now we need a scientist for the mission.”
“Okay, but what does that have to do with me?”
Grace looks at her. Stratt looks at him back. Grace looks at her.
“Wait, you want ME to go up there?!” Grace yelps as he realizes what's happening now.
They want to send him into space.
“Yes. No one else on earth knows as much about astrophage as you, Dr. Grace. And without at least one scientist aboard the Hail Mary, the mission will fail.”
Stratts says calmly, taking the manila folder back to her side and sliding it underneath the desk.
“Then train another person on astrophage!”
Grace says desperately. He couldn’t go to space. He thought, I have kids to teach, I’m not brave. I don't have the Brave Gene, unlike Colt. I can’t do this.
“There isn’t enough time, Dr. Grace. We have to give them a new scientist as soon as possible and that scientist is you, Ryland."
Grace looked at her before slouching into his chair, rubbing his face with his hands while Stratt looked at with no emotion revealing itself.
“Can I at least think about it?”
“You have three hours, Ryland.”
Grace looked at her for a long moment before nodding and sighing one more time. “O-Okay. Okay, thank you, Stratt.”
Stratt simply nodded, watching the blonde man stand from his seat and walk out of her office.
______
The three hours went by, yet it felt like waiting on death row for Grace. He thought and thought, his mind spinning and turning with now fast his mind was running. He knew that if he didn’t go, he would die with everyone else from the dimming sun. But if he did go, his kids would have a chance of living another day.
He was walking back to Stratt’s office to tell her his decision. That he wasn’t going to go, he knew it was selfish and cowardly but it was the truth.
The soft clicks of his shoes felt heavy as Stratt’s office door came into his view. He stood in front of the oak door with a nervous aura dripping off of him. He inhaled deeply before his hand turned the golden door knob.
Stratt looked up from her desk once Grace opened the door, straightening up in her chair as the blonde walked into the room and sat on the leather chair.
“So?”
The ginger asked with a raised eyebrow, looking at Grace expectedly.
Grace’s gaze blurred as he took a shaky breath and took off his beanie. Rubbing his eyes with his free hand as he spoke.
“I can’t, Stratt. I–I’m sorry, I can’t.”
Stratt just raises an eyebrow at Grace, but lets him continue as tears run down his face.
“My place is in the classroom, Stratt.” Grace lets out a breathless, bitter chuckle as he rubs away his tears and puts his glasses back on his nose.
“You’ll find a solution.”
“You are my solution.”
Stratt counters swiftly, her voice cracking so slightly at the end it's hard to notice. She takes a deep breath before turning her eyes to Grace’s. A mix of guilt and determination shimmering in her hazel eyes.
“Grace, we will lose a quarter of the world’s population in the next 3 decades. And that's assuming the nations of the world work together to ration.. Which they won’t.
If you truly and wholeheartedly care for the children, or anyone else, you’d go to that ship.”
Grace just nods and listens to Stratt, letting his hands rub and pull against his beanie. He sighs heavily as he puts his beanie back on and shifts in his seat. “I understand the stakes.. I do.”
The blonde chokes back a sob as he sniffles softly, after a moment of Grace trying to compose himself he exhales heavily and speaks. “But my mind is made up, I–I’m sorry but you can’t take me out of it…”
Stratt nods, sighing heavily before she sat up straighter. Putting a strand of her hair behind her ear before speaking again, her voice more shaky than before.
“I’m not trying to take you into it, I’m trying to make you understand what I'm about to do next..”
She says as her gaze goes behind Grace’s head and she nods. Grace gave her a look of confusion and was about to ask what she was doing before a pair of hands wrapped around Grace’s chest and mouth.
Grace makes a sound of distress as he struggles against the arms. His frantic questions and screams muffled by the hand over his mouth. His gaze flickers all over the room, looking at everything and nothing till his eyes look at Stratt with unfiltered fear in his eyes.
Stratt looked at him with a mix of pity, worry and sadness before she spoke. “Mission plan is to put you in a medical induced coma to maximize your safety.”
She strides over to Grace till she’s right in front of him, she turns her gaze to the man holding Grace. “Move your hand away from his mouth.”
The man nods and removes his hand from Grace’s mouth, his hand going to Grace’s other arm. The blonde gasps for air, panting heavily as panic practically radiates from him.
“You’re murdering me!” he spat after a moment of catching his breath, his vision getting blurry as hot, thick tears rolled down his face like a broken dam. “Betraying me! Stratt, please!”
He sobs as a doctor quietly comes into the room. The doctor takes out a syringe and flicks it a few times before walking up to Grace, who is still struggling in the other Man’s arms.
“You will be remembered as a hero, Dr. Grace.”
“Hold him still, sir.”
Said the doctor as he walked closer to the group, flicking the syringe one final time once they were right next to him. The man holding Grace moved his head to the side so the Doctor could give him the Coma inducing liquid.
Grace tried to fight it, moving and trying to get out of the man’s grip, yet once the liquid was shot into his body it became incredibly hard to think or move clearly.
“I want to live”
Grace thought quietly as his vision blurred and his mind began to fog up.
“I just want to live, is that so bad?”