Page 41 of Project Hail Mary

“Oh, you will. Believe me.”

—

I slept for fourteen hours.

Aircraft carriers are awesome in many ways, but they aren’t five-star hotels. The Chinese had given me a clean, comfy cot in an officer’s bunkroom. I had no complaints. I could have slept on the flight deck I was so tired.

I felt something weird on my forehead when I woke up. I reached up and it was a Post-it note. Someone put a Post-it on my head while I slept. I pulled it off and read it:

Clean clothes and toiletries in the duffel under your bunk. Show this note to any sailor when you’ve cleaned up:??????7??????

—Stratt

“She is such a pain in my butt…” I mumbled.

I stumbled out of my cot. A few officers gave me passing glances but otherwise ignored me. I found the duffel and, as promised, there were clothes and dental-hygiene stuff and soap. I glanced around the bunkroom and saw through a doorway into a locker room.

I used the bathroom (or “head” I guess, because I was on a ship). Then I took a shower with three other guys. I dried off and put on the jumpsuit onesie Stratt had left me. It was bright yellow, had Chinese writing along the back, and a big red stripe down the left leg of the pants. My guess was to make sure everyone knew I was a foreign civilian and not allowed in certain places.

I flagged down a passing sailor and showed him the note. He nodded and gestured for me to follow. He led me through a maze of twisty little passages, all alike, until we arrived back at the room I’d been in the previous day.

I stepped in to see Stratt and some of her…teammates? A subsetof the previous day’s gang. Just Minister Voigt, the Chinese scientist—I think her name was Xi—and a guy in a Russian military uniform. The Russian had been there the previous day but hadn’t said anything. They all looked deep in concentration and the table was littered with paper. They mumbled to one another here and there. I didn’t know the exact relationships going on, but Stratt was definitely at the head of the table.

She looked up as I entered.

“Ah. Dr. Grace. You look refreshed.” She gestured to her left. “There’s food on the credenza.”

And there was! Rice, steamed buns, deep-fried dough sticks, and an urn of coffee. I rushed over and helped myself. I was hungry as heck.

I sat at the conference table with a full plate and cup of coffee.

“So,” I said with a mouth full of rice. “You gonna tell me why we’re on a Chinese aircraft carrier?”

“I needed an aircraft carrier. The Chinese gave me one. Well, they lent it to me.”

I slurped my coffee. “There was a time when something like that would surprise me. But…you know…not anymore.”

“Commercial air travel takes too long and is prone to delays,” she said. “Military aircraft work on whatever schedule they want and travel supersonically. I need to be able to get experts from anywhere on Earth in the same room with no delays.”

“Ms. Stratt can be extremely persuasive,” said Minister Voigt.

I shoveled more food into my mouth. “Blame whoever gave her all that authority,” I said.

Voigt chuckled. “I was part of that decision, actually. I am Germany’s minister of foreign affairs. The equivalent of your country’s secretary of state.”

I paused my chewing. “Wow,” I managed to say. I gulped down the mouthful. “You’re the most high-ranking person I’ve ever met.”

“No, I’m not.” He pointed to Stratt.

She put a piece of paper in front of me. “This is what led to the Hail Mary Project.”

“You’re showing him?” Voigt said. “Now? Without getting him a clearance—”

Stratt put her hand on my shoulder. “Dr. Ryland Grace, I hereby grant you top-secret clearance to all information pertaining to Project Hail Mary.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Voigt said. “There are processes and background checks to—”

“No time,” Stratt said. “No time for any of that stuff. That’s why you put me in charge. Speed.”