Sixteen-Ninety-Four and I set course for 40 Eridani. Its species needs help convincing their star that it’s worth watching again. I have a laser, a spider the size of a dog, and a lifetime supply of green rations.
Sixteen-Ninety-Four extends a limb. I clasp it with my burned hand. No translation needed. I don’t go back to Earth. I can’t. My memories finally returned on Sol 14. I was the lead scientist who opposed the temporal astrophage project. The burns on my hand are from sabotaging the first sample container. My crewmates aren’t in comas—I put them there. They were military. They were going to force me to complete the mission. project hail mary
Here is original content inspired by Project Hail Mary (the novel by Andy Weir), focusing on a similar premise but with new characters, a different problem, and original scientific dilemmas. Log Entry: Sol 1 My name is Dr. Aris Thorne. I am awake. That is the full extent of my current certainties. Sixteen-Ninety-Four and I set course for 40 Eridani
Then we do the unthinkable. We don’t take them home. We point the ship’s laser array at Tau Ceti’s photosphere and shoot them back into the star . Not to destroy them. To satisfy them. A star’s entire chaotic fusion process is an all-you-can-eat buffet of unresolved causality. Sixteen-Ninety-Four extends a limb