Work Text:
Eva Stratt had not anticipated this.
Less than a year after the Hail Mary had left Earth orbit, carrying two volunteers and a conscripted scientist, a fleet had appeared on the edge of the solar system.
There was no other way to describe them. Almost a hundred massive ships, all golden as they glittered in the slowly dimming light of the Sun. Most stayed at the edge of the system, little flares of red making it obvious they were using astrophage to stay in their positions.
Three smaller ships had come closer. The people who had been making noises about removing the powers they had bestowed and bringing her to trial suddenly shut up.
Eva, once again, ruled the world.
Typical.
Now she sat across from a familiar face.
If it wasn’t for his eyes, Eva thought that the aliens that stood beside him had kidnapped Ryland Grace from the Hail Mary and brought him back.
She had considered the issue. That these Eridians had found Hail Mary and taken the humans into their possession. Maybe Grace was the one who spoke for them because he was the only one who survived. Maybe he was the only one to agree. She had no idea.
He must have been so confused when he woke up.
But he has been the face that has been broadcast to every device capable of displaying video and sound. Saying that he was here with a group called the Eridians, who were aliens who had solved the astrophage situation for their world and came to offer help to the humans of Earth. And that they wished to speak to whoever was in charge.
Two minutes later, Eva learned that was definitely still herself.
Now she looked at Grace, and his eyes looked old. Far older than the last time she had met them. When they had been full of fury as the sedatives took him.
Eva did not regret her choice.
“You say that they have the solution to the problem of astrophage?” she asked, tone sharp and disbelieving, aware that, at the moment, they were meeting like equals. Behind her was a pair of guards. Behind Grace was a pair of Eridians, dressed in what appeared to be glass suits.
Guards? To protect him? Or control him?
“Yes,” he said with a lazy roll of his shoulders. All of his mannerisms were different. The Grace she had put on the ship would have closed in, arms tight to his side as he prepared to defend if she had spoken in that tone before.
Now he seemed more amused by it.
“But we aren’t here for that,” he said, leaning back in his chair, resting his elbow on the arm and leaning against his hand. “I mean, we said that so we could have this meeting.”
The hand he wasn’t leaning on waved between the pair of them. “You and me? We need to chat.”
Eva did not know if she liked the sound of that.
“What do you wish to talk about, Dr. Grace?”
A smile. “You know,” he said with a smile. “Though I suppose I could start by catching you up in my life.”
He hummed, still relaxed. “In about twelve years your time, I am going to wake up on the Hail Mary. I will be the only one who does.”
Time travel? Had something happened with the coma? Or was it meeting aliens that drove Grace mad?
He tilted his head, something flickering across his face. “If I calculated it right, Yao is already dead and Ilyukhina is starting the slow slide into dying as well. She managed to hold out for a while, but neither of them made it long.”
Grace sighed, shoulders weighed down. “I will always be curious if they knew. If they at least suspected that I had been kidnapped from my life and sent to die.”
A smile. “Suppose it doesn’t change anything. I still mourned them, even if they allowed me to be murdered. They were the last humans I would ever be human with. That’s worth something.”
He would be human with? “What do you mean by that?” Something about the casual way he said the words sat wrong with her. What did he consider himself if he was no longer human?
Grace ignored the question. “I didn’t remember a thing. Not at first.” He lifted his hand and shook a finger at her. “Not a smart choice on your part. I didn’t know anything about the mission or where I even was. And there was nobody alive to explain it to me.”
He hummed. “Eventually I remembered.” A sweet smile, though there was just flatness in his eyes. “I remembered astrophage and Tau Ceti and that I was going to die alone in space.”
He hummed. “Then I met Rocky.”
One of the Eridians trilled, the smaller brown one. The other, large and dark with a glittery seam of copper wrapping around him, stayed still.
“He was looking for the same thing I was. A solution.” Grace reached down and the one who made the noise before came up to stand beside him. “We found the solution together.”
Grace smiled. “I also told him the story about how a school teacher ended up in space. I finally remembered.”
He smiled. “There isn’t a lot of crime on Erid, you know. Too much social binding for it to be a wide scale problem. But there are always outliers.” Grace hummed.
“But they really only have three major crimes. Murder is pretty easy to figure out.” Grace lifted his hand with one finger up, waving it back and forth. “Including putting people into situations where they have no chance of survival.”
A sharp little grin now sat on his face. “Sure you know what I mean with that.”
Then he lifted a second finger. “Disobeying a direct command from the Entities. That one sounds major, but not really. The Entities rarely give orders. The last one was to build me a home. Before then, it’s been ages since they gave an order.”
Now he added a third. “Forcing someone into sleep in order to cause harm.”
Grace spread his hands. “You did two of the three. You are -very- naughty.” He tutted at her, waving a finger at her. “I had to argue them away from coming back to have words with humanity, as Eridians hold grudges. I couldn’t quite bring myself to be as angry as I probably should have been, given that you murdered me for a good cause, so they held it for me for a while.”
“I did what I needed to save humanity,” she said, voice tight. “And it worked. You have the solution.”
“I do,” Grace agreed, relaxing back into his chair. He held out a hand and Rocky reached into a bag and pulled out a jar.
“Taumoeba,” Grace told her, holding the jar up so she could see that there was some sort of biological sample inside of it. “A predator from the planet Adrian, which circles Tau Ceti. We found it and worked for weeks to make it a viable predator for astrophage on Threeworld.”
She didn’t want to ask, but Eva needed to keep Grace talking. “Threeworld?”
“Third world of the Eridani system,” she was told, as Grace tapped his fingers along the top of the jar in front of him. “Where the astrophage breeds. Like Venus for us.”
This was what she had sent him on the mission for, Eva realized. The thing that would save their world.
“You brought it back to us,” she said slowly.
“Did I?” His expression was calm, still absently playing with the jar in his hand. “Or did I bring it to show you that it could be done.”
That was very bad. She wondered how to alert people, to bring them in so that they could take this taumoeba from Dr. Grace and get it in production. She shifted, debating.
Behind her, Eva’s guards twitched as she moved, and she knew they understood what she wanted.
Then the unnamed Eridian moved. Almost a flash, and it was between her guards, both of them dropping without much sound after taking solid blows to the head.
Eva was pretty sure at least one was dead, given the sound his head made when the Eridian hit.
“Thank you, Copper,” was Grace’s only comment about the attack. Then he continued on, handing the jar back to Rocky. He patted Copper as the other came back to stand beside him. “Copper here was one of my first students, once I got to Erid. They adore me there, you know.”
A pleased humming sound from Copper, and a noise that sounded very like a laugh from Rocky.
“Anyway, I started back towards Earth, and then had a choice either to keep going that way or to save Rocky.” Grace shrugged, smiling softly. “I am sure you can figure out which I did.” Grace was watching her, eyes bright, curious. She had seen that look before, when he was learning something new in his lab.
“I went to Erid and they made me a home. A biodome on their world at first.” Grace beamed. “But then they surprised me. There was a small moon not around Erid itself, but on the next planet along. It was perfect to terraform, without as many heavy metals and poisons baked into the very bones of the world itself. Likely a traveler that got caught in the gravity of the system.”
Grace beamed. “A perfect match for me. They have spent decades getting it ready for me. Now it’s perfect. Also has a lot of colonies for various Eridians who want to try living on this moon base with me.”
He reached down and patted Rocky again. “Rock and his whole family already have their place picked out. Right next door to my home. We shared a wall so we can watch each other sleep. Only the best for the saviors of the planet.” He sighed. “But I was the only human there. Still human enough to need other people. Problem is, by then, well, humanity wasn’t really around.”
Grace sighed. “So then we had to figure out how to come back early enough to pick up humans to bring home with us.” He hummed and smiled. “Maybe have a few words with the powers that be as well.”
He spread his hands. “And so here we are.”
Eva’s phone made a noise, and she pulled it out to look.
On the screen was Grace’s face, obviously a recording that had been set to play at a certain point.
As it played, she started to realize what was going on. He claimed that they were not able to stop the astrophage that was eating the power of the sun. But that the Eridians had come bearing an offer of sanctuary. That they would take anyone under the age of fifteen, and a selection of others, up to a million people over the age of fifteen. They would not force anyone to go, but if people were interested, they would be able to sign up at various stations the Eridians were setting up. Grace on the screen noted that it would be a lot of work, they would be given basic homes and such, but if they wanted more, they would have to build it themselves.
“We’re also raiding Svalbard,” Grace told Eva with a smile. “We’re saving the children, animals and plants. So, congratulations, your gamble saved humanity.”
Eva stared at him, allowing the horror of what she felt to show. “You would kill most of the world for a grudge?” she asked.
Grace smiled. “I told you. Eridians are excellent at holding grudges.” He smiled at her. “I may be biologically closer to humans than Eridians, but I know where I belong.”
He glanced at Rocky. Who set the jar down.
And then crushed it.
Grace looked at Eva, who felt her entire body go cold.
“Taumoeba can’t survive in our atmosphere,” Grace said easily. “Too much nitrogen. Too bad.”
Eva could only stare at the space. “Do you think you’ll get enough people to come with you?”
A considering look and then Grace shrugged his shoulders. “We’ll get enough. People who want to live bad enough that they’ll take the chance. Enough people to have a viable population. And if some of them decide to be problems, well, dealing with problems isn’t that hard. You taught me that.”
The man beamed at her, eyes icy cold. “I will never force anyone to go with us, you know. We only want volunteers. But we won’t take just anyone. Skilled workers, people who understand how to live with the land. Those who are willing to work hard to survive. The children, of course, must be protected. It’s the teacher in me. I plan to personally go and invite my students. Maybe their families, depending on what the kids want.”
He stood. Smiled at her.
“Told you I belonged in a class room. You didn’t care. I did the job. I found a predator to deal with astrophage. I found a way to save humanity.”
Grace spread his hands and smiled at her.
“What do you think of your solution?”
Then the trio walked out of the room, leaving Eva to stare at the shattered remains of glass.
Humanity would survive. On a world that was not Earth.
Eva just wasn’t sure if this was a win or not.