Pitch
Twenty-two years after Ryland Grace chose Erid over Earth, the impossible happens.
Rocky comes to him with a signal.
Humans are coming.
Earth survived.
Humanity rebuilt.
And with the last stable reserves of astrophage, they launched one ship to Erid: part delegation, part science mission, part thank-you note to the man who saved them.
But there’s a problem.
Astrophage is dying.
Not everywhere.
Not yet.
But in the Sol and Erid systems, the organism that made interstellar travel possible is failing to breed, losing energy density, and becoming increasingly vulnerable to Taumoeba contamination.
The Earth ship left before anyone understood the collapse.
Now it may not have enough viable fuel to brake.
Grace and Rocky have one chance: take one ship, meet the humans in deep space, rescue them, and preserve enough astrophage to keep Earth and Erid connected.
Not forever.
Just long enough to find out whether the miracle can be understood before it disappears.
ACT 1
Chapter 1
Twenty-Two Years Later
Rocky found me in the classroom.
That was bad.
Rocky never interrupted class. He believed education was sacred, which was annoying because I also believed education was sacred, and I preferred being the morally superior one.
I was halfway through explaining orbital transfer windows to fourteen Eridian children, all of whom were better at vector math than I was by age seven.
“Grace,” Rocky said.
The room went quiet.
Eridians don’t do quiet. Quiet means danger, death, or someone has miscalculated a pressure seal.
I turned.
Rocky’s carapace was dusted with frost. His tool belt hung unevenly. One claw tapped against the floor in a fast, nervous rhythm.
“What happened?”
He lowered himself slightly.
“We heard something.”
I waited.
Rocky’s translator clicked.
“From Sol.”
My mouth went dry.
He stepped closer.
“They are on their way.”
For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
Earth.
Not memory. Not guilt. Not the tiny blue ghost I carried around in my head.
Earth was coming.
I looked at the children. They were all staring at me with their little expressionless nightmare-faces.
“Class dismissed,” I said.
No one moved.
I pointed at the door.
“Seriously. Go learn something emotionally devastating somewhere else.”
They scattered.
Rocky waited until the last one left.
Then he said the part I already knew was coming.
“Problem.”
Of course there was a problem.
There is always a problem.
Chapter 2
The Signal
The signal was music.
Barely.
It was chopped up, stretched, Doppler-shifted, and buried under twenty-two trillion kilometers of cosmic garbage, but it was music.
Human music.
I stood in the Eridian observatory listening to static and ghosts.
Then came a voice.
“—to Dr. Ryland Grace, if alive—”
My knees almost gave out.
Rocky caught me with two claws.
“I am alive,” I said stupidly.
The recording continued.
“—United Earth Vessel Hail Mary Two, diplomatic and scientific mission to 40 Eridani. Estimated arrival in—”
The rest dissolved into noise.
I stared at the waveform.
Hail Mary Two.
Very subtle, Earth.
Great branding.
“How old is this transmission?” I asked.
“Signal travel time adjusted. Vessel launched approximately sixteen years ago.”
“Sixteen…”
My brain did the math before my heart wanted it to.
“They’re already most of the way here.”
“Yes.”
“And they’re using astrophage.”
“Yes.”
“And our astrophage reserves are failing.”
Rocky clicked once.
“Yes.”
I rubbed my face.
“Please tell me you have good news.”
“I do.”
“Oh thank God.”
“You are not dead.”
I stared at him.
“That is your good news?”
“Yes. Very good.”
I sighed.
I had missed Earth for twenty-two years.
Apparently Earth had missed me back.
And now, because the universe has a sense of humor, the first humans I might ever see again were flying straight toward us in a ship powered by a dying microorganism that ate starlight and occasionally ruined civilization.
I looked at Rocky.
“Show me the fuel math.”
Rocky hesitated.
That was worse than bad math.
That was Rocky knowing I would hate the math.
“Show me.”
He played the model.
The incoming ship had enough astrophage to reach Erid.
Probably.
It did not have enough to brake safely.
Probably.
It definitely did not have enough to return.
Definitely.
I watched the numbers scroll.
Then I saw the final projected intercept point.
Deep space.
Too far from Erid for conventional rescue.
Too close to ignore.
I laughed once.
It wasn’t a happy laugh.
“Okay,” I said. “So we go get them.”
Rocky’s claws stilled.
“We?”
“Yeah.”
He angled his body toward me.
“Grace. You are old.”
“Wow. Thank you.”
“I am also old.”
“You’re making a terrible case.”
“Our ship may not return.”
I looked back at the waveform.
A human voice flickered through the static again.
“—if Dr. Grace survived, tell him—”
Then nothing.
I swallowed hard.
“Rocky.”
“Yes?”
“They came all this way.”
“Yes.”
“For us.”
He was quiet for a long moment.
Then he tapped one claw against mine.
“Then we go get them.”
