Page 126 of Project Hail Mary

“Look later. Get sample now.”

“You’re pushy.”

“Yes.”

I climb along the hull, bathed in Adrian-light. Everything has a light-green tinge to it. I find the sample collector right where it’s supposed to be.

It’s not as big as I expected. It’s a half-meter square or so. There’s a lever beside it with red and yellow stripes all around it. Text on the lever readsPULL LEVER TO RELEASE ECU—???????? ????? ????? ??????????ECU—????ECU.

I clip a tether to a convenient hole on the unit (presumably put there for this exact use), and pull the lever over to the open position.

The sampler floats free of the hull.

I work my way back across the hull to the airlock with the sampler in tow. I cycle my way back in and climb out of the suit.

“All is good, question?”Rocky asks.

“Yes.”

“Good!”Rocky says.“You inspect with science gear, question?”

“Yes. Now.” I bring up the Centrifuge panel. “Prepare for gravity.”

“Yes, gravity.”He grips handholds with three of his claws.“For science gear.”

Once the centrifuge spins up, I get to work in the lab.

Rocky scurries into his tunnel in the lab ceiling and watches intently. Well, not “watches.” Listens intently, I guess.

I lay the sampler on the lab table and open one of the panels. This is the side that faced Tau Ceti. I smile at what I see.

I crane my head to look up at Rocky. “This panel was white when we started; now it’s black.”

“Not understand.”

“The sampler’s color changed to the color of Astrophage. We got a lot of Astrophage.”

“Good good!”

Over the next two hours, I scrape everything off of both halves of the sampler, putting each group in their own containers. Then I give each sample a good rinse with water and let the Astrophage settle to the bottom. I’m sure a lot of that sticky substance came with the Astrophage when I scraped it off, and I want it gone.

I perform a series of tests. First I run a few Astrophage through DNA-marker testing to see if they are identical to the Astrophage found at Earth. They are—at least, the markers I checked are identical.

Then I check overall population of each sample.

“Interesting,” I say.

Rocky perks up.“What is interesting, question?”

“Both halves had approximately the same population.”

“Not expected,”he says.

“Not expected,” I agree.

One side of the sampler pointed toward Tau Ceti, while the other pointed toward Adrian. Astrophage migrate to breed. For every frisky Astrophage that heads to Adrian with a twinkle in its eye, two should return. So, broadly speaking, there should be twice as many Astrophage going from Adrian to Tau Ceti as there are going the other direction. But that’s not what’s happening. The outgoing population is the same as the incoming population.

Rocky climbs along the tunnel that runs across the roof of the lab to get a better look.“Flaw in counting, question? How you count, question?”