Page 188 of Project Hail Mary

“I’m going to put one on each beetle. Just in case something happens to theHail Maryon the way home.”

“Good plan! You are smart! I can make these for you. Also, today I finish fuel-transfer device. Can give you Astrophage now. Then we both go home!”

“Yeah.” My smile fades.

“This is happy! Your face opening is in sad mode. Why, question?”

“Going to be a long trip and I’ll be all alone.” I haven’t decided if I want to risk a coma on the way home. I may have to for my own sanity. Total solitude and nothing to eat but chalky, nasty coma slurry might just be too much. For the first part of the trip, at least, I definitely plan to stay awake.

“You will miss me, question? I will miss you. You are friend.”

“Yeah. I’m going to miss you.” I take another swig of vodka. “You’re my friend. Heck, you’re my best friend. And pretty soon we’re going to say goodbye forever.”

He tapped two gloved claws together. They made a muffled sound instead of the usual click that comes along with the dismissive gesture.“Not forever. We save planets. Then we have Astrophage technology. Visit each other.”

I give a wry grin. “Can we do all that within fifty Earth years?”

“Probably not. Why so fast, question?”

“I only have fifty years or so left to live. Humans don’t”—I hiccup—“don’t live long, remember?”

“Oh.”He’s quiet for a moment.“So we enjoy remaining time together, then go save planets. Then we are heroes!”

“Yeah!” I straighten up. I’m a little dizzy now. I’ve never been much of a drinker, and I’m hitting this vodka harder than I should. “We’re the moss imporn’t people in the gal’xy! We’re awesome!”

He grabs a nearby wrench and raises it in one of his hands.“To us!”

I raise the vodka. “To ush!”

—

“Well. This is it,” I say from my side of the connector.

“Yes,”says Rocky on his side. His voice is low, despite his attempts to keep it high.

TheHail Maryis all fueled up: 2.2 million kilograms of Astrophage. A full 200,000 kilograms more than she left Earth with. Rocky’s replacement tanks were, of course, more efficient and had more volume than my originals.

I rub the back of my neck. “I assume our people will meet up again. I know humans will want to learn all about Erid.”

“Yes,”he says.“Thank you for laptop. Centuries of human technology all for our scientists to learn about. You have given greatest gift in history of my people.”

“You tested it in that life-support system you built for it, right?”

“Yes. That is stupid question.”He grips a handle on his side to keep in place.

Rocky had removed his direct connecting tunnel and resealed theHail Mary’s hull. He put the airlock-to-airlock connector in place to finish packing up.

At my request, he left the xenonite walls and tunnels in theHail Maryin place, but with a few meter-wide holes in them here and there so I can use the space. The more xenonite Earth scientists have to study the better, I figure.

The ship still smells a little like ammonia. I guess even xenonite isn’t completely immune to gas permeation. It’ll probably smell that way for a while.

“And your farms?” I say. “You double-checked them all?”

“Yes. Six redundant Taumoeba-82.5 colonies, each in separate tanks with separate life-support systems. Each with Threeworld simulated atmosphere. Your farms are functioning, question?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Well, it’s just my ten breeder tanks. But now I have them all set up with Venus’s atmosphere. Oh, and thanks for the mini-farms, by the way. I’ll install them in the beetles during my trip. I won’t have much else to do.”

He glances at a notepad.“These numbers you gave me. You are certain these are the times for me to turn around and the times for me to reach Erid, question? They are so soon. So fast.”