Page 152 of Project Hail Mary

“Oh…” I say. “Oh no…”

I didn’t blow soot out of his radiator. I blew the scabs off his wounds! “I’m so sorry! I was trying to help.”

“Is okay. If you did earlier I die. But I heal enough before you do it. Removing help a little. Thank.”

I put my head in my hands. “Sorry,” I say again.

“No say sorry. You save me when you put me here. Thank thank thank.”He tries to stand again, but only rises for a second before collapsing. “I am weak. I will heal.”

I step back and sit on my bunk. “Would you be more comfortable in zero g? I can turn off the centrifuge.”

“No. Gravity help heal.”He adjusts his legs into sort of a bed for his carapace to rest on. Probably a comfortable sleeping pose.“Sample container is safe, question?”

“Yes. It’s in the lab now. I made an Adrian environment in a sealed container and put some Astrophage in along with the sample container. I’ll see how it’s doing in a bit.”

“Good,”he says.“Human light sense very useful.”

“Thanks,” I say. “But my human brain wasn’t as useful. I don’t have a way to get the sample out of the container.”

He tilts his carapace slightly.“You seal sample and can no access sample, question?”

“Yes.”

“Usually you not stupid. Why stupid, question?”

“Humans are stupid when we need sleep. And when we take medicine to stop pain. I’m tired and drugged right now.”

“You should sleep.”

I stand up. “I will in a bit. But first I have to stabilize our orbit. Our apogee and perigee are…well, it’s not a good orbit.”

“Adjust orbit while stupid. Good plan.”

I snicker. “New word: ‘sarcasm.’ You say opposite of true meaning to make point. Sarcasm.”

He chimes the word for “sarcasm” in his language.

—

Between exhaustion and drugs, I sleep like a baby. I wake up feeling a million times better, but my burns feel a million times worse. I look at the bandages. They’re new.

Rocky is at his workbench, tinkering with his tools. He’s cleaned up his area. It looks good as new.“You are awake, question?”

“Yeah,” I say. “How are you feeling? Are you healing?”

He wiggles a claw. “Much more heal needed. But some heal complete. Cannot move much.”

I plop my head back on the pillow. “Same.”

“Robot arms do things to you arm while you sleep.”

I point to the bandages. “It changed the cloth. It’s important for human healing to change the cloth.”

He pokes at his latest invention with various tools.

“What’s that?”

“I go to lab to see device that store Adrian life. I made device now to collect sample from inside and not let you air in.”He holds up a large box.“Put you vacuum chamber in this. Close this. This make Adrian air inside.”