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squishroom · 2 years

Text

Signing Off

"My name is Ryland Grace, aboard the Hail Mary, signing on for the first and most likely only time to say, we did it."

Grace makes a video log.

(1400 words) Gen.

The camera comes to life with a buzzing sound, the lens facing diagonally towards the floor. The edge of a table or desk fills a third of the frame, but beyond it lay scattered pieces of metal and a strange looking device resembling a welding torch. The camera moves to face a middle-aged man dressed in a onesie with the word Grace written on the breast pocket. The man shimmies the camera until he's centered and sits back with a grin. He looks away after an energetic tune sounds off camera. He frowns, cocking an eyebrow, but the expression is filled with fond exasperation. "Yes, this is necessary." Another tune, just two chords, replies. The man laughs. "I'll hurry, yes! You know, when this reaches Earth, after they fix the sun, everyone is going to make fun of you for being impatient. You'll probably end up a meme." Three chords responded. "I thought you wanted me to hurry?" The man teased, crossing his arms. Three more chords. "Well bugger off and let me finish my 'stupid human thing' then."

The man's eyes finally return to the camera and he takes a preparatory breath. "My name is Ryland Grace, aboard the Hail Mary, signing on for the first and most likely only time to say, we did it. We found a way to save our homes. Though you've probably gathered that from all of the rest of the data attached to the beatles." He cards his fingers through his hair. "I wanted to do this... video log, I guess, to absolutely make sure that you don't mess this up." He cracks a grin, but his tone was only half joking. "We didn't spend weeks making chain links just for you guys to lose the Taumoeba. Which leads me to the savior of our worlds."

He half faces a clear box behind him, tapping it twice. "This farm contains a few trillion Taumoeba, the only known predator of Astrophage. It also has been conveniently bred to withstand Venus's upper atmosphere. You're welcome."

He pushes away from the boxes of Taumoeba. "I've already loaded the beatles with all the information you need to breed them and release them on Venus. Rocky was a bunch of help with the math." He gives the camera a fond smile. "I didn't tell him, but Rocky's the real reason I'm making this video. There's a good chance I won't survive the trip home. Oh yeah, there's a trip home now. That's thanks to Rocky too. I'm hopeful, god I want to see home again, but I'm also a realist, which is why I didn't want to join the mission in the first place. I didn't like the idea of dying lightyears from home. I still don't." He crosses his arms again. "Remind me we need to have words, Stratt, when I get back. Don't die before then. But enough about personal grudges because this is more important. I owe my life to Rocky. Everyone does. Without him, this mission would have never been a success."

"I suppose I should start at the beginning. I woke up with complete amnesia, thanks again Stratt, but the real problem was that I was the only one to wake up. Yao Li-Jie and Olesya Ilyukhina died en-route to Tau Ceti. I won't regale you with my struggles in trying to find a solution by myself. Not long after I woke, I encountered another spaceship. From a real, alien planet." He pauses for the expected shock at learning life outside your planet exists, an almost childish smile dominating his face. "Trust me, no one was more shocked or more excited than me. And his ship used long, flat faces to create a pyramid shape. Don't worry science nerds, I included a picture. It's actually thanks to that tech that we made the farms," he said, pointing back to the Taumoeba container. "Turns out, we weren't the only ones with an Astrophage problem."

He shutters a breath before continuing. "Rocky is so smart. So incredibly smart that I feel like an idiot around him. I tell him something, once, and he's learned it. That was the only way we could communicate at first. I was never good in music class, so it took me a little longer to understand him back. What else? His people don't have eyes. They invented space travel and they can't even see. He went into space literally completely blind. He was able to create everything that the Hail Mary lacked that we needed to make this mission a success. Not to mention he risked his life to save mine, the idiot. His name isn't technically Rocky by the way, but his language doesn't really translate well, so... yeah."

"He was the engineer for his crew. They all perished along the way, meaning by the time I showed up, he was all alone. Sound familiar? Some would say it was lucky that a scientist and engineer survived so we could work together to save both our species. God knows I would have been useless without him here. And Rocky was floating here for nearly half a century, if that gives you any reference."

He shakes his head, dispelling some haunting memory. "The point is, Rocky is a gosh darned hero and that fact deserves to be known by the people, the species, he helped save. So, yeah, see everybody in four years, or twelve depending."

The screen goes dark.

It's their fourth time checking everything. It's a cycle. Check the farms, check the fuel, check the ship, check the math, check the math again, and repeat. They're stalling, he knows. Rocky keeps finding "structural weaknesses" that he insists on fixing. It's adorable. Grace estimates that his entire ship will be covered with Xenonite by the time they part. He frowns. Because they do need to leave eventually. Their planets depend on it.

Rocky re-enters the room, rolling along the wall in his little ball. He pauses at the lab table. "Finished with video, question?"

He nods. "Yeah. I just need to upload it to the beatles. I'll leave it for my return journey though. I'll need something to occupy my time."

Rocky is silent for a moment, two of his claws opening and closing in an abortive movement. "I make video, question?"

Grace pauses before crossing his arms and facing Rocky with an amused expression on his face. "I thought my video was stupid."

Rocky crawled around in his ball, something Grace knew was an embarrassed reaction. "Could be informative for Grace-people."

"You liar," Grace laughed, heading towards the camera anyway. "If you wanted to make one you could just say that." He ignored the grumbling denials of his friend and set up the camera again. "Do you want me to translate for you?"

Rocky quieted as he thought. "No. Rocky can do this by self. Give Rocky privacy, question?"

Grace gave him a strange look but obliged. "I'll be in the control room. Give me a holler when you're done."

The video begins with the image of a five-footed spider-like creature shuffling in a clear sphere reminiscent of a hamster ball. Two of the legs are shooing away something off-screen and a small musical phrase repeats, something the people on Earth will later decode as the word "go."

The creature does not say anything for a few seconds more, not until the sounds of the human resident fade away. "My name is Rocky," he chirps, arms snapping in emphasis. "I am here on friend-Grace's ship because he is stupid human who forgets about his safety so I must make sure of it for him." He pauses, feet shifting slightly. "We have fixed Astrophage problem and saved Earth and Erid. Grace says this is friendly gesture." He holds up one claw and waves it side to side. "Hello from Erid. We are grateful for your help and hope Erid and Earth can become great friends. If Earth is full of great people like friend-Grace, then Rocky knows this will be possible. Once Erid and Earth are safe and Astrophage is defeated, we can make this happen. Rocky has given friend-Grace lots of Astrophage so that he can return to Earth quickly. Rocky thought all humans very fragile and clumsy, but this is apparently unique to Grace. The ship has been Grace-proofed for return journey." Rocky's body lowers slightly and his voice takes on a melancholic tone. "Take care of friend-Grace once he returns. He is precious friend of Rocky and friend of Erid."

Rocky rolls off-camera abruptly and the video ends with the noise of someone walking up offscreen.

When Earth receives the information from the beatles, after fixing their Astrophage problem, they see the videos and smile. Ryland Grace never returns home, but eventually Erid Ambassador Rocky is there to tell them where he ended up.

#project hail mary #andy weir #rocky #ryland grace #fanfic #ao3 fanfic #cross posted on ao3 #OnePieceDoesExist #1400 words #sir i love them #we stan rocky #and grace #they are so precious #my boi <3 #happy ending #goodbye #half of his video is a fuck you to Stratt

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