Page 95 of Project Hail Mary

It’s pitch-dark. I turn on the lamp mounted next to the bed.

Rocky has an entire workshop set up on his side of the tunnel. He’s always making modifications or repairs to something or other. Seems like his ship is constantly in need of repair. Right this moment he holds an oblong metal device with two of his hands and uses another two to poke at the innards with needle-like tools. The remaining hand grasps a handle on the wall.

“Mornin’,” I say. “I’m going to eat. I’ll be back.”

Rocky waves absently.“Eat.”

I float down to the dormitory for my morning ritual. I eat a prepackaged breakfast (scrambled eggs with pork sausage) and a bag of hot coffee.

It’s been a few days since I last cleaned up, and I can smell my own body odor. Not a good sign. So I sponge off at the sponge-bath station and get a clean jumpsuit. All this technology and I haven’t seen any means of cleaning clothing. So I’ve taken to soaking it in water and putting it in the lab freezer for a while. Kills off all the germs, and those are what cause the smell. Fresh, not-clean clothes.

I pull the jumpsuit on. I’ve decided today is the day. After a week of honing our language skills, Rocky and I are ready to start having real conversations. I can even understand him without having to look at the translation about a third of the time now.

I float back to the tunnel, sipping the last of my coffee.

Okay.FinallyI think we have the words needed for this discussion. Here goes.

I clear my throat. “Rocky. I am here because Astrophage makes Sol sick but doesn’t make Tau Ceti sick. Are you here for the same reason?”

Rocky puts the device and his tools on his bandoleer and climbs along the support rails to the divider. Good. He understands this is a serious conversation.

“Yes. No understand why Tau not sick but Eridani is sick. If Astrophage no leave Eridani, my people die.”

“Same!” I say. “Same same same! If Astrophage continues to infect Sol, all the humans will die.”

“Good. Same. You and me will save Eridani and Sol.”

“Yes yes yes!”

“Why did other humans on you ship die, question?”Rocky asks.

Oh. So we’re going to talk about that?

I rub the back of my head. “We, uh…we slept all the way here. Not a normal sleep. A special sleep. A dangerous sleep, but necessary. My crewmates died, but I didn’t. Random luck.”

“Bad,”he says.

“Bad. Why did the other Eridians die?”

“I not know. Everyone get sick. Then everyone die.”His voice quavers.“I not sick. I not know why.”

“Bad,” I say with a sigh. “What kind of sick?”

He thinks for a moment.“I need word. Small life. Single thing. Like Astrophage. Eridian body made of many many of these.”

“Cell,” I say. “My body is many many cells also.”

He says the Eridian word for “cell,” and I add the tones to my ever-growing dictionary.

“Cell,”he says.“My crew have problem with cells. Many many cells die. Not infection. Not injury. No reason. But not me. Never me. Why, question? I not know.”

Each individual cell in the affected Eridians died? That sounds horrible. It also sounds like radiation sickness. How am I going to describe that? I shouldn’t have to. If they’re a spacefaring people, they should already understand radiation. We don’t have a word for it between us yet, though. Let’s work on that.

“I need a word: fast-moving hydrogen atoms. Very very fast.”

“Hot gas.”

“No. Faster than that. Very very very fast.”