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Abby didn’t want to go to school. The world was ending, so why did anyone have to go to school?
“We have to go to work,” her mom said distractedly, trying to finish packing her lunch box. “You need to go to school.”
Her dad left an hour ago, as usual.
It was like they didn’t get it. The world was ending. The Sun was dying. Abby wanted to stay home and sit on the couch and do nothing until the Sun was gone, and her mom was updating their grocery list for more peach cups.
She let her mom push her towards the door and the car, dragging her feet as best as she could without tripping.
It was a silent drive. Neither of them wanted to listen to music, and the radio would be more people talking about the Sun dying. They had already talked about it last night. Abby didn’t know why her parents had sat her down and asked if anyone had told her about the Sun.
“No? We’re still on the rocks chapter in science.”
They were learning about the different types of rocks, and Mr. Grace brought samples for them. The winners of the lightning round got to keep the rocks.
Her parents had looked at each other and then back at her. Abby squirmed in her seat, something heavy sitting in her stomach.
“Nothing is official, but we wanted to talk to you first so you don’t panic.”
That didn’t help. She didn’t panic, but the worry got stronger. This wasn’t normal. Her parents never did this. It reminded her of when TV parents had to tell their kid that the dog died, but Abby didn’t have any pets, and those conversations didn’t have anything to do with the Sun.
“Some scientists,” her mom had said slowly, “found something weird with the Sun, and they’re doing some research to figure it out and fix it.”
“The Sun,” she had repeated. “What’s wrong with the Sun? How do you fix the Sun?”
“We’re not sure yet,” her mom had answered, still speaking slowly to find the right words. “But it’s going to be okay.”
The feeling in her stomach was like an igneous rock, sharp and heavy. It didn’t make sense when her parents first told her about the Sun, and she didn’t sleep well enough to feel better the next morning.
They can’t just put a bandaid on the Sun. It was the Sun. It was–far. They didn’t get to the space chapter in science yet, but she wasn’t stupid enough to think they could just send an astronaut to fix the Sun.
“It’s going to be okay,” her mom said again in the car.
Abby stared out the window. She’d only have a few more days to look at everything before the Sun died, so she needed to focus on remembering the streets, the trees lining the road, that one corner where she fell off her bike and still had the scar on her knee. She couldn’t hear anything outside the car, but she would need to remember to listen to the birds and the wind. There were people to call, all sorts of aunts and cousins and old friends who moved away.
Despite the Sun dying, Mr. Grace didn’t change his lesson.
They kept talking about rocks, and magma, magma forming rocks. Mr. Grace had a bag of obsidian for the winners for the lightning round. The Earth beanbag felt small in her hands.
She threw it back at him.
“Is the Sun dying?”
Mr. Grace fumbled with the beanbag and the question. “Oh that’s not about–”
Andrew stood up quickly. “My parents said we’re all going to die because it’s getting cold.”
“No, that’s not–we’re talking about metamorphic rocks.”
Beside her, Rose stood too. “Is something eating the Sun?”
Eating the Sun? Her parents didn't mention that, how could something eat the Sun?
“You can’t eat fire,” Abby said to her, unheard as someone else asked another question.
The classroom got louder as everyone tried to tell Mr. Grace about what they heard. It was clear that everyone heard about the Sun, and that no one knew what was happening. Her parents had said that, after all, that nothing was confirmed and that the scientists were working on it. Abby only knew what her parents told her, but others were asking about the scientists who first discovered that the Sun was dying.
“Okay, okay,” Mr. Grace said loudly over the noise, holding up a hand.
One by one, the class quieted.
“Okay,” he repeated. “No one knows what’s happening, but some scientists over in Russia–”
It got even more confusing. She knew Venus, of course, but Mr. Grace talked about infrared light and Earth cooling down and all life dying. A few degrees colder didn’t seem too bad, Abby liked the winter, but Mr. Grace was saying that it could be another ice age.
“But I can promise you guys one thing,” Mr. Grace calmly met their panicked looks. “The best minds in the world are on it.”
Her parents had said the same thing, but this felt different. Mr. Grace was a scientist. He wouldn’t lie about this.
The rock in her stomach got a little lighter.
-
She still didn’t want to go to school, but the world wouldn’t end for at least 30 years, so she had no choice.
-
Mr. Grace wasn’t there. Instead, there was a substitute who said that she didn’t know why he was gone, only that she was called to fill in.
The substitute wasn’t fun, but she wasn’t terrible. The first day, they were told to make up any assignments they didn’t finish.
By the end of the week, Mrs. West was giving copies of her lesson plan to the substitutes, frowning at the empty desk. Mr. Grace didn’t leave any notes for the substitutes, and none of the adults were willing to tell them where he was.
“It’s personal,” Mrs. West replied, scandalized that they would ask her.
They tried to ask Mr. Grace’s teacher friends, fellow science teachers and one English teacher, but it was the same answer. That it was personal, always said with a spark of worry in their eyes.
“My mom called the front office,” Andrew told them. “They said he’s taking a leave of absence.”
No one could remember if he looked sick before he left. Stressed, maybe, but everyone was stressed about the Sun. The adults especially worried, saying that 30 years was nothing at all.
Mr. Grace said that the scientists would figure it out. Abby tried to remember that when the worry got overwhelming.
Eventually, the substitutes ended.
A blond woman stood at Mr. Grace’s desk, smiling at them. She wore a sweater and had glasses like Mr. Grace.
“Good morning, class! I’m Ms. Sandra Morgan, your new science teacher.”
She was fine. Abby still missed Mr. Grace.
-
Abby didn’t want to watch the news, but she couldn't help but lingering when her parents put it on. It was always the same–people in suits talking over and over about the astrophage. Government people in suits, then scientists in suits, and then news people in suits, all talking about the astrophage. Then, after the news, her parents would talk about the astrophage until they remembered she was in the room. Abby had a few hours of peace until she was back at school and everyone was still talking about the astrophage.
She wished Mr. Grace was around to explain. He always made them feel like it would be okay.
So, she didn’t care about the news, but it was on, so she watched as she stood by the doorway.
There was a woman talking, wearing a suit and surrounded by both suits and labcoats. The news was about a new global initiative, something called Project Hail Mary.
“A little on the nose,” her mom had said during a commercial break, sliding back against the couch in relief .
The woman explained the plan to send three astronauts to space to do more research on the astrophage. All of the nations agreed to work together, she told them, both in funding and in research.
All the best minds, Mr. Grace had said. It was true. He wasn’t just saying that to calm them down.
Behind the woman, Abby could see more than a dozen different flags on uniforms. The US, and China, and Canada. She would have to pay attention in social studies, because there were dozens of flags she couldn't recognize.
The woman was done talking and walked off, ignoring the reporting yelling questions at her. She kept walking, and Abby also turned to leave, but then the woman on the TV said something to a man in a yellow coat, and Abby knew that face.
Mr. Grace was on TV.
He was one of the scientists on Project Hail Mary.
She couldn’t explain the sudden tears, not to her parents.
“They’re going to solve this,” her mom assured her, making the wrong assumptions.
Why would she recognize Mr. Grace. They’ve only met once during her school’s open house with dozens of other parents and teachers.
But Abby knew. She spent months hoping to see him again, back at his desk instead of Ms. Morgan, throwing his beanbag and asking lightning questions.
Maybe he would come back, after the Hail Mary launched. It was still a few months away and Abby would be in 8th grade, but he would be back. Maybe he would even teach 8th grade instead, and she could finish middle school with him.
With the announcement of Project Hail Mary, it got easier to find Mr. Grace on TV. Every time there was an official press conference with Eva Stratt the blonde in charge, Mr. Grace was beside her. He never wore a suit or a labcoat, instead wearing tee shirts with science puns. Eva Stratt was the one talking, but if she needed a technical answer, it was Mr. Grace who stepped in and explained.
Mr. Grace was busy while he was gone. Abby didn’t understand all the papers coming out, especially when they started using Greek letters in the math or weren’t English at all, but she could recognize Mr. Grace’s name. They called him Doctor, and he was part of the team that discovered the astrophage. Eva Stratt respected him, and the other scientists respected him, and he was doing important science.
Abby felt incredibly selfish wanting him to teach middle school science.
Mr. Grace was saving the world.
The whole school was proud of him. They were already talking about surprising him with some kind of memorial, maybe a plaque. The teachers said they knew he would do great things, but there was something else there. They sounded surprised, like they didn’t know he really was that smart.
The launch of the Hail Mary was the most watched event in history. Every single TV and computer was showing the launch that would save them all.
Two astronauts in yellow were waving at the crowds.
A final goodbye, Abby knew.
Commander Yao and Engineer Ilyukhina walked to the Hail Mary, neither smiling. Even the waving felt forced. Abby couldn’t see the American scientist, but more importantly, she couldn't see Mr. Grace. Eva Stratt was there in the command room, surrounded by the engineers who would get the Hail Mary up.
Mr. Grace was not with her.
The two astronauts entered the Hail Mary.
No one asked about the missing third astronaut because no reporters were allowed in the command room, but that didn’t stop them from asking the audience if something had gone wrong before the launch.
The scientist was the most important person, wasn’t he? Sure they needed an engineer in case the Hail Mary broke, and there had to be someone in charge, but the scientist would do the actual work to solve the astrophage problem. They couldn’t launch without him, that would make no sense.
The Hail Mary’s engines rumbled in preparation.
Inside the command room, someone was counting down.
The yelling got louder, languages overlapping as everyone wondered the same thing–where was the final astronaut?
The command room didn’t care. The countdown hit zero, and that was that. The Hail Mary’s engines, powered by the astrophage, ignited and the rocket launched upwards.
The yelling reporters quieted, watching the rocket rise up and out of the atmosphere.
The cut to the command room showed that Eva Stratt left for one final press conference for Project Hail Mary on the lawn. The space next to her where Mr. Grace would usually stand was still empty.
Eva Stratt had her own mic, but that didn’t stop the reporters from trying to shove more mics in her face, all demanding to know why they didn’t see the science specialist board the Hail Mary.
Eva Stratt wasn’t smiling. She never did when she was talking to the press–no one working on Project Hail Mary smiled. Eva Stratt just sent two humans to die in space to save everyone. Abby wondered if those were her friends.
“Our science expert was anxious regarding the launch and requested to be put in the medical coma before the flight. Rest assured, Dr. Grace is safe on board and will be remembered for his sacrifice for humanity.”
Oh.
Oh, that’s why he was missing. It made sense. Mr. Grace was an amazing scientist. He was second in command on the project. Of course he would be the one on the Hail Mary. There wasn’t a better person for the job.
Eva Stratt continued talking.
“Several days before the launch, our original and back up science experts passed away in an accident. Dr. Grace, having trained along with the other crew members and being the primary expert on Project Hail Mary, stepped up and made this noble decision. We are grateful to him for this sacrifice.”
Abby was supposed to see him again after the launch. He was supposed to go back to teaching and take back his classroom. No one touched his posters or solar system model. Red tape still connected the Sun and Venus, a poor imitation of the Petrova Line that he tried to explain to them.
Now, he would actually see the astrophage in space, and find out how to save them.
Now, it would always be Ms. Morgan’s classroom.
They didn’t show Mr. Grace in the Hail Mary. Abby already saw him for the last time, and she didn’t even know it.
-
The adults were right. Thirty years were nothing.
Abby graduated middle school, then high school, and then college. She considered being a scientist like Mr. Grace and imagined how inspirational that origin story would be, but life didn’t go that way for her. Still, life continued.
It took twenty six years. It took no time at all.
Everyone fought for resources, and then they agreed to share as best as possible. The planet cooled down a little more every year, but there were periods of stable temperatures that kept crops alive just long enough. Eva Stratt was put on trial and then acquitted on every count. Humans lived and humans died the same as any other time in history.
Abby was at work when the news broke. The Hail Mary’s probes were back. Three landed into the ocean to be retrieved by the Hail Mary team. Everyone watched, work abandoned, as crew in hazmat suits retrieved the probes on boats to put on a helicopter. Abby was sure that experts around the world were being gathered again to study the results. The world watched as a familiar face showed up. Eva Stratt, surrounded by both the old team and new members, stood again in front of dozens of reporters. Some of them must've been kids with Abby when the Hail Mary launched.
“The Hail Mary team was successful,” Stratt said.
It was the first time Abby saw her smile.
All around the world, joyful shouts rang out at the confirmation. The probes had the solution to the astrophage. They were going to fix the Sun. They had a future again. They were going to live.
She looked up out the window. It was a cloudy day, hiding the sky and the Sun. The Hail Mary sent the probes back to Earth thirteen years ago. It was still in space, circling a distant star. Mr. Grace was still there. He would be there forever.
Abby turned off her computer. It was a day of celebration. Coworkers around her were hugging and laughing. Two had a very passionate kiss that Abby knew was a long time coming. She would buy some alcohol and see if she could find some flowers. They were rare now, but she was sure she could find some daisies for Mr. Grace’s statue.
It was the least she could do for her favorite science teacher.