Chapter Text
The Hail Mary Project was in full swing aboard the aircraft carrier lovingly nicknames Stratt's Vat. The breeding project was highly successful and had been replicated in many satellite sites around the world. This of course meant that many personnel, both scientific and engineering, were rotated off to assist with various projects and more were rotated on to bring coverage and new ideas.
One of these new arrivals was Doctor Riley Ingram, holder of a PHD in physics. At 36 years old he was equal parts honoured and terrified to be pulled into the heart of the effort to safe the world.
He, alongside six other new arrivals, were waiting to be inducted in the secretive project that was based here and were just being escorted to a conference room when Riley saw a group of four coming from the opposite direction. Leading the way was a mature Chinese man with a stern face and greying hair followed by a younger but no less stern man with dark skin and behind them, chatting, was a grinning woman with a Russian Accent and finally...
“Ryland?!”
The fourth man looked up from his conversation with the woman. The man's eyes widened when he saw who spoke, “Riley?”
“Hey man, it's good to see you. It's been years” Riley went in for a hug forgetting how uncomfortable it had always made Grace in the past. He settled on an awkward left handed handshake.
“Ooh you two know each other? The Russian woman asked, delighted.
“Er yeah,” Ryland said with a slightly nervous look. Riley couldn't work out why he would be nervous; the toe of them had always gotten on well. For a short while they were known as the two Ry's. The Woman raised her eyebrows at the ensuing silence giving the 'tell me more' signal.
Riley took over, “We went to college together, did our Post Docs at the same times, were in the same dorm.”
“Went to conferences together.” That was Ryland.
Ah, maybe that was where the nervousness came from. While he obviously wasn't at the infamous Denmark conference where Ryland's career imploded, he knew people who were and...it was bad. Still, Riley had always thought the outcome of that incident was incredibly harsh and and a terrible way of ending a promising career. As his own career in science had continued in an upward trajectory culminating in a stable if uninspiring job in technology, he had lost track of where Grace had ended up. He had heard he'd become a school teacher or something similar. He hadn't seen him in years, until now- here in the middle of the most important scientific project the world had ever known.
He was a little surprised to find Doctor Ryland Grace here.
“They pulled you in on this too?” Riley asked.
“Hmm hmm” Grace hummed, “Feels bizarre doesn't it?”
“You're telling me,” Riley answered, relieved to have someone verbalise what he was thinking. All of the other new arrivals were older, looking incredibly confident. It would be nice to have someone else to professionally panic with.
By this point the rest of them had walked in to the conference room.
“The whole thing is bizarre,” Ryley continued. “Little microbes eating the sun's energy. Astrophage- I bet someone somewhere is proud of themselves for that name- actual aliens. Bizarre.” Ryland laughed a little at his rant and nodded.
“You been involved on the project long?”
“About a year, since the probe confirmed what the Petrova line was” Riley replied. “You?”
“Yeah about the same,” Grace said gesturing to Riley to go into the room.
“Yeah I can see the need for all the microbiologists. Still all of the thousands of scientists in the world and we were picked to be here. Pretty incredible.” Riley said looking at the small group of men and women in the room.
Riley assumed Grace and the others he had turned up with has also just arrived to the base and had been on a parallel tour. The facilities here were incredible. Well, the cabins were incredibly spartan (his own room which he would share with another person was basically two bunks and a table) and the Rec facilities seemed to consist of a canteen, a bar and a vending machine but the Labs were incredible. State of the art equipment, some of which Riley had never seen before. He couldn't wait to get his hands on it all and get contributing. And now his old friend was here he was was looking forward to doing it together. Ryland will probably be out of practice and might need someone to show him the most recent equipment but it would be nice doing that together too. He hoped Ryland didn't feel out of his depth, he really was a great researcher and a really smart guy and although Riley didn't really know why he was here, would have something to offer he was sure. But first it was time to find out what they were here to do.
There was a coffee machine on a table at the back of the room that everyone except Ryland had migrated to. Riley turned to find the Russian woman grinning at him.
“Soooo, you know Grace. Tell me everything about him” Ryland had always attracted the women. It was probably the mixture of nerdy good looks and complete lack of awareness that made woman (and the odd man) want to get close to him.
“Um, great microbiologist, great researcher with some odd ideas. One of those guys you just can't help liking but honestly probably not as successful as he should have been. In college we all thought he would be the one who would go far in academia but it's great that he's here. I'm really pleased for him. Researching on the Petrova taskforce could really kickstart his career again.” Riley was worried that he might have shared too much there, but hell, if they were all going to be working together it was good to know about each other. And it wasn't like Ryland didn't have stories on him.
Everyone was beginning to sit around the oval conference table opening their notebooks.
“I assume we're waiting for one of the big guns to arrive?” That was from one of the other scientists, she sounded Australian.
The Russian woman laughed again. Riley liked her, he hoped she worked in his department, she seemed fun.
To Riley's surprise Ryland stood up and pressing a button on his remote a slide flashed up on the screen with the title 'Project Hail Mary'.
With a completely and uncharacteristic serious face Ryland started speaking, “I hereby grant you top secret clearance to all relevant information pertaining to Project Hale Mary.” A pause then his face split into a grin, “Welcome to the project. My name is Doctor Ryland Grace and I am one of the scientific leads on Project Hail Mary. My job is... well, I'm not exactly sure what my official title is but it's my job to make sure you can do your job. Any problems, any barriers then you go to your line managers who will come to me.”
He looked at around the room noticing Riley's open mouthed expression, “Now let's get on to the main event.”
The next two hours of Riley's life was spent learning about the impossible project of sending a spacecraft into space to a distant star to try and find out why that particular star isn't dying. Of sending three astronauts on a suicide mission to find a solution to global extinction. Of using Astrophage as fuel. It all seemed unlikely, but here it was, clearly already in motion. And somehow Ryland Grace was in a position at the centre of it all. Ryland finished the presentation.
“And here are the heroes who have volunteered as astronauts aboard the Hail Mary.” Ryland gestured to the three who had arrived with him. The two men nodded and the woman - Ilyukhina he now knew- gave a little wave. Riley couldn't take his eyes off Ryland however. Ryland, who was gathering up his papers and getting ready to leave. Riley couldn't let him go without saying something though.
“So you've been here a while then?” He asked.
“Uh yeah, since the probe. I told you that.”
“You didn't tell me you've been here the whole time. One of the science leads? How did that happen?”
Ilyukhina sauntered over and put her hand on Ryland's arm, “He's being modest, as always. He's not one of the science leads; he's the science lead. The top dog, the big gun, the most important person here.”
Ryland huffed a laugh, “Pretty sure that's you guys, Olesya”
She pretended to think, “ Nah, definitely you.” She turned to Riley, “This guy not only discovered how to breed Astrophage, he named it. He's the Astrophage guy.”
One of the other astronauts, Yao, spoke for the first time, “Plus, I'm fairly sure Stratt would be lost without you by her side.”
“Just don't let her hear you say that,” That was Dubois, the third astronaut.
Ryland shrugged clearly feeling uncomfortable.
“Well I think we can all agree that Stratt is the person in charge here, and with that I'm due in another meeting. It was great to see you Riley, we'll definitely have to catch up if I ever get a spare moment. It's been a pleasure meeting you all.” Ryland Grace, apparently one of the most important people in the saving of the planet, left the room practically jogging.
Ilyukhina put her arm around Riley's shoulders, “Come. Tell us all about Grace in college. Embarrassing stories only.”
Riley didn't see much of Ryland around the carrier. Usually in the labs at odd hours of the day and night, or next to a woman Riley later learned was Eva Stratt, de facto leader of the world. When their paths did cross though Ryland always has a smile and wave for him, even as he looked more and more tired each time.
And when he heard that Ryland had volunteered to go into space as a last minute replacement? Well, there wasn't much more the man could do to surprise him.