Andy Weir
1. A man wakes up in a bed and finds he cannot speak or move. A computer asks him simple questions, but he cannot get anything out. He focuses on opening his eyes and when he does finds he is in a bright white sterile room. He tries to concentrate on moving his extremities, but they are mostly numb. He is covered in tubes and sensors. He falls asleep and wakes up again with the computer asking him questions again. Once he is able to answer a simple math question, the computer asks for his name. He realizes he doesn’t know what it is. He seems to remember basic things and many scientific numbers and calculations. He figures he is American by how he measure things and guesses his name is John. The computer tells him that is incorrect. He is able to start moving his body, but the computer sedates him and he welcomes the rest. The next time he wakes up, the mechanical arms from the ceiling are in the middle of shaving his face and retract when he wakes up. He is able to move himself and tries to get out of the bed. He falls out and painfully rips out the remaining tubes. There is a thin line of blood on the floor from the catheter being pulled out. He remembers an email he read saying a Russian Scientist found an arc of infrared light coming from earth and was able to confirm it with another scientist that specializes in infrared light. He still cannot remember his name. He gets up to find the other two beds have people in them, a man and a woman, but they are both dead and have been decaying. He realizes he has been there a long time despite his body and muscles seeming physically fit. He sees a hatch on the ceiling and tries to climb to it. He ends up falling and is caught by the arms that put him back to bed. When he wakes up again, there is a tube of food on his chest. He eats it and is surprised by the wonderful taste. He eats it and requests more, but the computer tells him that is all he is allotted right then. He is able to get through the hatch this time and finds himself in a lab where everything is new. He pulls the tab from a stopwatch to allow the battery to connect and the device to start working. He uses a test tube to time how quickly it falls. He does some calculations to find gravity is roughly 1.5 times what it is on Earth and he is not there.
2. He makes a pendulum and uses it to count how many rotations he gets in 10 minutes to try to figure out how big of a place he is in. When the calculations tell him he would have to be in a very large place for the gravity to be what it is, he determined it is somehow artificial gravity. He has a memory of going to dinner with his friend Melissa like he does often enough for them to have a usual table at their preferred restaurant. When he arrives at the table, Melissa has already had several drinks and asks the waiter for more. He tries to joke with her about her cushy government job, but She tells him how they found the sun is losing its brightness. They have found that the infrared arc now called the … going from the sun to Venus is stealing light from the sun. They will be thrown into an ice age relatively quickly. When the memory ends. He checks out the two dead bodies and realizes they were his friends and crew mates. He is sad to see them dead and mourns them. He looks at the equipment and determines the machines stopped giving them any assistance as soon as they died to save resources. It wasn’t like in the sci-fi movies where they are frozen. They were put into medical comas (very dangerous) and he was the only one to survive. The mechanical arms from the ceiling would take care of him and the electrodes would keep his muscles from wearing away. He remembers being in his apartment for the new show that was the biggest broadcast everywhere. The most powerful countries in the world all worked together to get a manless vessel, the Arklight, to Venus to get data on the … . The broadcast is live when the first data comes in. There are black spots that the scientist first assumes is some sort of dust. When it starts moving, everyone starts claiming there are aliens. The man thinks about how excited he is to tell his kids about it. Back on the ship, he thinks about his apartment and realizes he doesn’t seem to have a wife or kids, but he likes kids. He determines he was a school teacher.
3. He remembers quizzing his students on different science facts and rewarding them with little beanbags they could trade in for prizes at the end of the week. He spent a lot of time building up the reputation of the cool teacher. After class one day, a woman, Eva Stratt, comes to tell him they are going to be studying the matter that comes back from the Ark Light. He learns his own name when says it: Ryland Grace. He is confused why she is telling him all of this until she says they want him to be the first to study it. He is surprised because he left the field of academic research with an article that was a sort of “fuck you” tot he entire community. It turns out that article about how life can survive without water is why the selected him. He is taken to a lab and told they will have fighter jets bring the samples to him. When the day finally arrives, he is put into a biohazard suit to study what was brought back from the … . He finds that it is a sort of Ameba that eats solar energy and calls it an Astrophage. Back on the ship, he is finally able to tell the computer his name and the hatch opens. He is able to get to the ships’ control room and see the anomaly the computer warned about. The ship, the Hail Mary, is slowing down. He figures out the gravitational force is so different because the star he is approaching is not the sun.
4. Ryland realizes he is another solar system and starts to freak out as he looks at the monitors. He sees the screens give him information about the ship, including a map. He sees the spin drive and tries to bring up a memory about it, but nothing happens. There is a meter for astrophage and figures that is the fuel source since astrophage can propel itself. There are temperature readings all over. He sees 96.415 degrees and remembers talking to Stratt. He tried to change their temperatures but didn’t have any success. he asks why he is the only in working in it. She says it is because it is alien and they don’t want to risk it infecting the whole world. He is the Guinea pig. He finds some nano syringes and pokes a hole in the astrophage. It goes clear and then dissolves into goop and sucks it up to study what it is made of. There is carbon and nitrogen, but it is mostly water which proves his paper was wrong. On the ship, he has the computer open a supply space and finds it is filled with soft white containers. Bye opens one to find a bunch of uniforms. The first one is for Commander Yao. The next he pulls out is from the Russian Space Agency for Olesya Ilyukhina. He finds the ones for him that has his name. He dresses the bodies in their uniforms knowing they deserve to have a proper burial. He starts with Olesya. He puts her in the airlock and jettison her body. He the dies the same with Commander Yao. Ryland remembers another day at school after his work in the lab where he was trying to get the students to classify rocks. A student asks about Astrophage and he explains that it is changing the temperature of earth. He points out global warming effects started to show after an increase of only 1 degree. The Astrophage could drop the planets temperature by 10 degrees. When the kids hear it won’t be for 30 years, they think it is a long time away. He realizes they will be the adults facing the brunt of these issues. He freaks out and leaves to go back to the complex. Stratt asks what he is doing there. He asks what the technicians are doing in his lab. They are splitting them up to send out to 30 different labs around the world. He demands she leave some for him so he can save the dozen of kids he sees everyday. She agrees to leave three. He thinks he is in the new solar systems to find an answer to the Astrophage. He sees there is something labeled beetles and of the four are named after the Beatles. He sees they are ships. They each have 5 TB of storage. He realizes he is going to need the extra fuel to get back. He figures he will run out fuel in 40 days meaning this is a one way trip for him. The beetles are how he sends information back to earth.
5. Ryland tries to figure out why the Astrophage would chose to go to Venus and it’s basic life cycle. The Belgians were able to steer the Astrophage with magnetic fields. Another group finds DNA and mitochondria. It goes to the sun for energy. But why go to Venus? They have been able to figure out their velocity. They go in and out of Venus’ atmosphere without any issues. He sets up a dark closet with an infrared camera to watch them. He wants to see the yellow flash from them moving. Their navigation is based on light. He uses a led light, but they don’t react to it. He decides the frequency of the light Venus emits. He uses incandescent lights and adjusts the brightness until it has the same frequency as Venus, but the Astrophage doesn’t respond. He switches to Spectroscopy signatures. He makes a box that has the signature of carbon dioxide. When he adds it to the closet, the Astrophage bolts and he can’t seem to find it. He gets IR goggles from one of the army guys while he tapes up the lab to keep the Astrophage from escaping. He looks for heat. He sees a circle of light on a filter. When they saw what they thought was Venus, they bolted for it. When he goes to put them away, he finds there are four. He finds they go to the sun to get heat and then to Venus to reproduce. That is the Petrova line. After another experiment to confirm, he calls Stratt and tells her. The nice army guy, Steve, takes him to an airfield to fighter jet. He gets in behind the pilot and is given a pill and water. The pilot isn’t allowed to tell him where they are going. Ryland falls asleep in a few minutes and wakes up in Hawaii. He is put into another jet and then lands on an aircraft carrier. He is out in a helicopter that takes him to a Chinese aircraft carrier. He is taken to an officer’s conference room where Stratt sits at the head of many leaders and scientists . She introduces him as the man who learned how to breed Astrophage. He tells them about the tests and conclusions. He tells them how to make them breed in mass. They quickly figure out the doubling time is figures to about 8 days. He is taken to get some rest and Stratt says they will fill him in on Project Hail Mary when he wakes up. He wakes up to find a post it note on his forehead. He has a duffle with personal supplies and he is able to shower and put on clean clothes. Stratt and the German Minister of Foreign Affairs meet with him. They have found Astrophage spreads from star to star. They dim by 10% and the. The Astrophage moves on. It isn’t much, but enough to kill them. They have found a star among the infected that the Astrophage have not gone after. Demetri a Russian, tells them the Astrophage takes heat energy and converts it to mass and convert it back to energy when needed. They are going to make an Astrophage powered ship. They need him to make the breeding space for them to power the ship. Stratt has them working on an aircraft in case there are any accidents that cause explosions. He will work from there with everyone else and Stratt will get him anything he needs.
6. He is approaching the star Tau Ceti to find out why it isn’t effected by Astrophage. He tries to find out how to control the ship. He find there is a Peteova scope that will allow him to see if there is a Petrova line from the star. He cannot use it while the spin drive is on because it uses Astrophage as fuel. So he decides to wait until the ship is scheduled to stop to use it. He thinks back on meeting with Stratt while she had a difficult decision to make. She was drinking (unusual for her) and told him her dilemma. They only have enough space in the shuttle for three people. If they stay awake, they are likely to kill each other is such a small space. Russia attempted trials of people living in small spaces and by 70 days there were fist fights everyday. The other option is to put them in medically induced comas and leave it to machines to take care of them. She points out that machines are fallible and people generally don’t do well in comas. There has been research that some people contain a DNA strand to be better at comas than others, but it is fairly rare (about a million people on Earth total). They also have to develop the technology to take care of the people. He tells her she already knows what to do and just needed to her her thought out loud. He doesn’t think they can justify torturing three people for four years knowing they are in a suicide mission. When the ship stops, Ryland is freaked out by zero gravity. He vomits into his clothes and ends up back in the dormitory to change and get cleaned up. He then returns to the lab to use the Petrova scope and sees the Petrova line coming from the star, but then another ship blocks his view. It is also propelled by Astrophage and alien.
7. Ryland notices the alien space ship, Blip A according to his monitor, is nothing like what humans would have built. He doesn’t think it should be possible for it to be the shape that it is. He decides to communicate with it by moving slightly. The other ship matches his movement. He then dies patterns of power blasts and they repeat them. Then the alien ship moves slightly and a robot appears. It lets a cylindrical object go towards the Hail Mary. Ryland suits up and goes out to get it. He tries to be patient for safety’s sake, but he cannot help being excited. He rushes inside and takes off his space suit. He can smell ammonium coming from the coffee-can-like canister. He goes to touch it and it is hot enough for him to pull his hand away. He doesn’t know how it could be hot after all that time it spent in space. The lab wasn’t set up for zero gravity and he tries to figure out what he is missing.
8. Ryland remembers meeting Dr. Lokken in Geneva. They argue over his paper for a second before Stratt stops them. The Dr. Lokken tells Stratt they have an issue with the ship they need to talk about. Stratt clearly doesn’t like her and isn’t very interested in listening. She goes on anyway and talks about how to use the ships weight differences at different ends to create a centrifuge. Stratt recruits her, but Dr. Lokken doesn’t want to go. Ryland warns her it isn’t voluntary or a choice. If Stratt wants her, she will have her sooner or later. Ryland finds the controls for the centrifuge and turns it on. Once he has gravity, he is able to go back to the canister. It has cooled enough for him to touch and he tries turning the lid to open it. When it doesn’t budge, he turns it the other way and it opens. He finds a diorama of the solar system they are in and how it is connected to another solar system. He realizes the aliens are telling him where they are from, Erid in the 40 Eridani system. He uses what he can to add the sun and earth to the model and goes out to send it back. He allows it to travel a bit faster this time to let them know it is okay for them to send another message back faster. He waves before going back in the ship to wait for a reply. It feels like forever before he sees the canister floating back towards the airlock door. He is able to get the canister easier this time and brings it back in. He opens it as quick as he can and sees a model of their two ships connected by a tube. The aliens want to meet.
9. Ryland goes out to a part of the ship’s hull that used to hold fuel and chips a piece off. He launches it towards the Blip A so they can understand what his ship is made of. When the robot grabs it, it waves back at him before taking it into its own ship. Ryland remembers being back on earth in Dimitri’s lab where hi steam has made a very powerful spin drive. They plan to equip the Hail Mary with 1,009 small spin drives to prevent failure. The alien ship connects the two with a tunnel. Ryland goes out to investigate and finds the tunnels are divided in half so he can fill his hat with his own atmosphere. He takes off suite and heads towards the wall. There is a knock on the door.
10. After knocking back, Ryland looks at the hex wall. He goes back to the airlock and leaves the door open while he grabs some tools. He finds the tunnel is made of Xenonite like the cylinder, but a slightly different composition. He is about to go back to his ship when he sees movement. There is a small clear piece like glass for him to see through. He presses his head against the wall to see through. A rock is put over part of it. He quickly realizes it is a claw-like hand of the alien. Two hands show a figure of him going into a figure of the Hail Mary. Ryland goes inside and closes the airlock. The robot comes out to do some work in the tunnel. When Ryland goes back out, the barrier between them are clear and he can see the alien he has named Rocky is like a giant spider with 5 legs and clothes. Rocky sends him the formula for his atmosphere and Ryland’s atmosphere as a comparison. The Eridian lives in 29 time the atmosphere as him and breaths ammonia. Rocky speaks in tones and chords. Ryland wants to keep talking but he hasn’t slept in 48 hours and can’t think clearly. He brings a clock in to try to tell Rocky he will be back in 2 hours. When Ryland goes to leave, Rocky taps on the glass to bring him back. Rocky goes in and brings back his own kind of clock that operates on base six. Ryland notices Rocky’s ship is completely dark and wonders how Rocky sees. Ryland grabs his stopwatch to find how their time compares. He then goes in to sleep.
11. When Ryland wakes up, he doesn’t feel rested. He wants to sleep more, but goes back to find Rocky has added a box for them to trade things back and forth between them. Ryland gives him a measuring tape to try to show Rocky how they measure things. The rubber on it instantly melts off. The temperature of the rubber liquid doesn’t bother rocky and he just sticks it to the wall. Rocky plays with the tape measure. Ryland grabs another to try to show him the markings. After a while he realizes Rocky can’t see the tiny markings. Rocky uses sound to see. The US Supreme Court brings Stratt in for a lawsuit against her because her team is using patents and copyrights without paying the people that own them. As soon as the Plaintiffs’ representative starts talking, she interrupts to move to dismiss. She tells them she doesn’t have time for it because they are trying to save the entire species. When the judge insists she comply with the law, she presents her papers for a treaty and pardons allowing her to do what she needs to do to compete the project. The judge tries to keep her and when she tries to leave, the bailiff threatens to restrain her. Soldiers from the US Army come in to get her out. Ryland writes a script to start translating Eridianese to English. He is surprised to find Rocky isn’t in the tunnel when he returns. He is able to use a spreadsheet to find out how what Eridian time he will return for 8 hours of sleep. He uses Popsicle sticks to write out the time hoping Rocky will be able to see it and then goes to his bed to sleep.
12. Ryland is woken up by Rocky taping on the glass in the tunnel. He has breakfast and coffee. He was asleep for 10 hours, so he is two hours late to meet Rocky. Ryland tries to apologize, but isn’t sure how. He uses two laptops to start putting data into a spreadsheet while using the other to record frequency. They start with numbers and yes/no. He writes a script to translate in real time. He notice Rocky doesn’t need to do this and seems to have photographic memory. They then figure their words for astrophage and then the names of the starts in their solar systems. They then discuss sleep. Ryland says how many seconds he will sleep for. Rocky wants to watch him sleep and grabs some work to keep himself busy. Ryland brings his sleep stuff and seeps in the tunnel. They increase their knowledge of each other’s languages. Rocky sends him a ball and says to measure the mass and compare; he says it is 26. Ryland thinks the mass of the ball is 26, but Rocky says that isn’t right. Ryland goes into try to find the mass in zero gravity 325g. When he goes back to Rocky, rocky says it is element 26, not the mass. It is iron. Rocky says he has to sleep and he wants Ryland to watch him because that is what Eridians do. Ryland tells him to have one of his other crew do it. Rocky’s response comes out in a new octave and Ryland has to change the octave to translate. The rest of Rocky’s crew died.
13. Stratt and Ryland arrive at a high security prison in New Zealand to talk to Dr. Robert Redell. They go through security to talk to him. When they ask about why he is there, he tells them there was an accident when he wasn’t even at the lab where the accident occurred when someone thought they were starting a virtual test only and several people died. He embezzled money for the project. He admits he was away on vacation gambling away his money. He tells them there is a quicker way to breed astrophage using black panels in the Sahara desert. They would have all mass production places making panels. After the project is complete, Africa will be allowed to keep the materials. Stratt welcomes him to the team. Ryland glues his mattress to the tunnel and sleeps there. When he goes back in, he goes into his ship to eat and clean up. When he comes back to the tunnel for a serious conversation about why they are there. Ryland explains the astrophage is eating their sun and will kill his planet and he came to Tau Ceti to find out why it isn’t affected. Rocky confirms he has come for the same reason. Ryland says his people were put into a special sleep to get there and only he survived. Rocky tells him his crew mates were attacked at cell level and he doesn’t understand why he survived and they didn’t. Ryland explains radiation to him. Back on Earth, Ryland meets with Dr. Lokken. She explains how astrophage works with its energy. She needs to understand how space radiation works because she wants to make sure astrophage is going to protect them from it. They plan to line the hull with it and keep in in the dark. She has already planned for making sure it is not killed in the process of travel. Ryland thinks it is brilliant.
14. A new scientist is brought n to estimate how long humanity can last. He estimates half of the human population will be gone within 19 years. Stratt says they need more time and has them start looking into making more greenhouse gasses to combat the effects they are already starting to see. Ryland finishes explaining radiation to Rocky. Rocky tells him about about his home, Erid. Their orbit protected them from radiation and they could take an elevator to space, but didn’t have a need to until this. Rocky was saved because his workshop is near the fuel source. Ryland tells him to stay near it as much as possible. When Rocky asks why he doesn’t need it, Ryland lies and says his species his evolved against it. To increase the greenhouse gases, they send nuclear middles to Antarctica. The results will still be a disaster and will predictively, but much less worse than if they didn’t do it. Eridians have sacks to store energies. They are steam powered. They don’t breathe, but do use oxygen. Their sleep is more of a paralysis. Rocky is interested in how the eyes work. While humans use ears, the Eridians use their entire body. When Rocky first out up the wall, the different hexagons where different materials and Ryland chose the one that allowed the light to pass so he could see. Rocky thinks human technology is far more advanced and wants to see it all. Ryland takes his thinks back I to the control room and starts cleaning up for company.
15. Rocky comes aboard the Hail Mary in a ball with magnets to regulate him. Ryland shows him around the ship and Rocky suggests he move in. Ryland approves of the plan. There have been thousands of astronauts volunteering for the suicide mission aboard the Hail Mary. Ryland is surprised at how few their numbers are as they look for people with the gene they need. His own blood is taken for examination. Ryland loads Rocky’s things onto the Hail Mary and is surprised at how much stuff he is bringing. Rocky says he has been waiting a long time for someone else to come along. Ryland asks how long and they convert their numbers for days and years. Eridians live on average about 689 human years and he is 291. He has been waiting 46 years. He asks how long humans live.
16. Ryland rushes to get back to work on how to kill the Astrophage. Rocky doesn’t understand why, so Ryland explains his planet is colder than Erid and will die quicker. He has to send back the information as soon as possible. Rocky is confused why Ryland won’t go back. When Ryland tells him he won’t have the fuel, Rocky says he has enough to give him and still have enough to get himself back to Erid. Ryland thanks him with tears of joy and they get back to work. Ryland meets with the people that will be going on the Hail Mary as well as their backups. He will be teaching them everything he knows about Astrophage. The American man that will be going, zzz, lets out that Ryland also has the coma gene. Rocky has been studying the solar systems since his arrival. They decide to move to the planet that has the Petrova line from Tao Ceti and find what they can. Ryland gives Rocky the duty of naming the planet since he found it first. He names it after his mate so Ryland has to come up with a proper noun to match it. He uses Adrian. Rocky says he needs to eat and sleep. Ryland asks to watch and Rocky is hesitant at first because he says it is gross. Ryland convinces him it is for science. Rocky goes into the dormitory and opens up a part of his exterior hard skin and expels something gooey. He then cracks apart food and puts it where the other stuff came out of. He then curls into a ball to sleep as Eridians do.
17. The next time Ryland wakes up, Rocky is hovering close by. They are close to Adrian and Ryland tries to describe the planet to Rocky. When they get close enough, Ryland sends out his machine to collect data use space flypaper. When it comes back in, he is surprised to find there are equal amounts of Astrophage on each side of the paper. He was expecting more in one side than the other based on where they were in the life cycle. He notices there are things other than Astrophage with the Astrophage. They have a natural predator. There is life on Adrian and this is where Astrophage originally came from.
18. When it is time to launch the Hail Mary, the crew in the aircraft carrier gather around to watch on the BBC. Stratt is not with them and everyone asks Ryland where she is. They all assume he is her second in command and that they are sleeping together. He admits they are not and is a bit disgusted by the thought. They watch the launch and celebrate right after take off as is astronaut tradition. On the Hail Mary, Ryland realizes that the things he found with the astrophage may not be predators. They need to get closer to the atmosphere of Adrian to get a better sample, but cannot get close enough to be in the atmosphere as it would crush the ship. Ryland asks Rocky if he can make more Xenonite. Rocky has plenty of the two liquids he needs to mix to make more. Ryland calculates how much they are going to need in order to go fishing for their sample. Ryland is using a supply closet as a temporary office. A guy comes to him to explain how data will be sent back to earth by the Hail Mary in the Beatles and won’t even have to reach the planet, just get near enough for them to download the information. He then asks to get some Astrophage to test it out. Ryland gives it and the overly optimistic scientist goes off to test with the prototype, Pete.
19. Ryland and Rocky work together to make a chain 10 km long to get into the atmosphere. When it is ready, Ryland puts the ship at a tilt to keep them from entering Adrian’s atmosphere and then Rocky releasees the chain. The ship is not happy and starts to overheat, but Ryland thinks it should be able to take it. To collect their sample, he has to go out onto the ship and bring in the chain in his suite and 1.5 G of gravity. He gets the sample and starts to make his way in when the ship jerks. Something is going wrong. He gets inside as quick as he can and tries to figure out what the issue is. He sees there is a breach in at least on of the fuel tanks and Astrophage is pouring out of it to go back to the motherland. The pressure increases as more astrophage leaves. He is able to eject one of the fuel tanks and then a second, but the force sends the ship off spinning. The seat is crushing him and he can’t breath. Rocky leaves his ball to save Ryland and then dies telling him to save Earth and Eric.
20. Ryland enters into manual mode and separates he two parts of the ship. Everything is upside down, but Ryland goes to get his gloves to try to lift Rocky, but has to use straps to carry him up to the lab and into the dormitory. He throws up the valve to allow Rocky’s atmosphere in and it starts to burn him. He is able to get out of the room and the computer intubates him and sedates him so he can deal with the pain. When he wakes up six hours later, he is in massive pain from the burns from Rocky’s ammonia atmosphere. He goes to the controls and gets them set up as best he so that everything is right side up and they aren’t spinning too badly. He gets the sample set up in an environment that matches Adrian’s as much as Ryland can make it. He then goes to patch a small hole in the ship. He isn’t sure how to help Rocky or if he is even still alive. He drills a hole in his environment to get a high powered blower in to get the soot out of Rocky’s airways. He keeps an eye on Rocky hoping he will be okay, but not really sure how to tell.
21. Ryland meets with the three astronauts chosen for the Hail Mary about how they want to die. Dubai says by nitrogen asphyxiation. Annie Shapiro wants Heroine overdose. Commander Yao wants a gun he can use if the other two methods fail. Rocky wakes up and is thankful Ryland saved him. He says the soot-like materials was his body trying to heal him. He was healed enough to survive by the time Ryland did it. He tells Ryland to sleep and does. Rocky updated the box with the sample in it so they can access it.
22. Ryland is in his portable office in a desolate part of Russia when he feels the shockwave from an explosion. DuBois and Shapiro were working on experiments and blew everything up. There is almost nothing left of them or the lab. Ryland is upset, but Stratt tells him they must find replacements right away. Ryland is able to think better after getting some sleep. He is able to find the astrophage’s predator and names it Taumoeba. Shortly after, the lights go out in the ship. He makes his way to the control room and all of the screens are off and he is able to boot up an older style computer that tells him he has about four days worth of battery left. Rocky tells him they need to find out what is wrong with the generators and he will fix them. Ryland crawls into the storage compartment and reaches into one of the generators to find it is slimey and smells awful. Rocky suggests the Astrophage rotted. Ryland realizes it isn’t the Astrophage. It is the excrement of the Taumoeba that has eaten all of their fuel. Rocky says he has some Astrophage in his area that might get them back to the ship if they can get the generator working. While he was sleep deprived and trying to work out their issues and save Rocky, he carelessly Disney contain the sample fast enough. Ryland gets it out and gives it to Rocky. He remembers the Beatles are completely sealed off and have their own sets of fuel they can use to get back ti Rocky’s ship. Rocky insists Ryland sleep before he does anything else. After Ryland sleeps, he suits up and heads out to the nose of the ship where the Beatles are kept. He has to unbolt the nose that was designed to just break away. He will need the nose if he is going to attempt to make it back to earth. He gets John, Paul, and Ringo to Rocky so he can modify them to move the Hail Mary. Ryland insists on keeping George intact to make sure he can send information back to Earth seeing as he still might not make it himself. He then goes to the back of the ship and places the other three Beatles. He connects the two halves of the ships and warns Rocky that he might pass out from the spinning. Ryland does pass out and when he wakes up, they are on their way back to Rocky’s ship.
23. After the explosion, Stratt and the scientists gather together. Start tells Ryland the issue was that DuBois was trying to test out a rare scenario and was supposed to be given a small amount of astrophage. He was accidentally given a lot and the result was the explosion. They do not have time to teach another astronaut everything they know about Astrophage and decide Ryland is the best option to go on the Hail Mary. She gives him four hours to think it over and give her his answer. Ryland and Rocky work together to get the ship moving using the three Beatles. Ryland then decides to take advantage of the gravity to see what he can learn about the Taumoeba. Ryland remembers telling Stratt he did not want to go on the Hail Mary mission. She tells him he doesn’t have a choice and they are going to drug him and put him on the ship anyway. She will tell the others they sedated him because he was panicking. There is a French drug she intends to give him that will block out his memories but not his scientific knowledge. She says he will wake up at Tao Ceti and will probably have the Beatles loaded with information before he remembers he didn’t want to go. He is dragged away by a Russian guard.
24. Ryland realizes he is a coward, but Start was right. He has come too far to give up now. He tells Rocky his plan to give him gravity using the centrifuge powered by the Beatles so he can work on their 11 day trip back to the Blip A. Rocky is reluctant, but agrees to it. After a few days, Ryland figures out nitrogen seems to be what is killing the Taumoeba. Since nitrogen in present in both Venus and the planet that is the breeding ground for Rocky’s sun, he decides they will have to breed it to be resistant to nitrogen. Rocky creates 10 containers for Ryland to work on this with. They work together to get themselves back to the Blip A
25. They make it back to the Blip A and Rocky has connected them again with his tubes in the Hail Mary. They spend weeks breed Taumoeba. They have a breakthrough and have Taumoeba that can survive Venus. They plan to keep going until they have some that will also work on World 3. Rocky asks for a laptop for Earth’s information. He will come up with a system to keep it cool and Ryland will have to teach him some of the written language so he can translate it into sound his people can understand. Ryland asks for Xenonite in exchange and Rocky agrees. Ryland starts cleaning out the fuel tanks to make sure there isn’t any Taumoeba left that would eat his fuel source when he gets it from Rocky. He has to cut each open and clean out the sludge before he plans to use a nitrogen wash. Rocky gives him enough astrophage to test the tanks. He has to re-clean and sterilize two of them and then will have to do the fuel lines with a nitrogen flush as well. He ends up with 6 remaining tanks from the original 9. He realizes he won’t have enough fuel to get home in a timely manner and he will run out of a food in that time. Rocky makes him new fuel tanks to replace the lost ones. When they have finally bred the Taumoeba that will survive both World 3 and Venus, they test them out in as accurate of atmospheres as they can and celebrate their success. Rocky wears special clothes and Ryland finds some Vodka. It isn’t long before they each have the amount of the Taumoeba they need and are ready to go their separate ways. Ryland explains to Rocky they probably won’t ever see each other again because he’s only got about another 50 years to live compared to Rocky’s hundreds. They say goodbye and agree they are friends. Rocky disconnects everything and makes sure there are no holes in the hull of the Hail Mary. The float away from each other before Ryland sets his course for Earth. He plans to stay awake for the first part, but knows it will take almost four years for him to get home. The Beatles have been sent in case he doesn’t make it.
26. Ryland is bored as he makes his way back to earth. He turns off his engines daily to use the Petrova scope to see the energy from Rocky’s ship heading back to his home planet. He knows he should be writing papers about what he has learned and about Rocky. He has been holding on to the Beatles for as long as possible to make sure they have as little trouble as possible making it back to Earth. Rocky and Ryland designed the farm for Taumoeba to have enough astrophage to survive the trip back. He starts to carefully refill the Beatles with spare fuel when he smells rotten astrophage.
27. Ryland stops the ship to prevent any Taumoeba from spreading. He still seems to have enough astrophage and nothing seems to be wrong, so he thinks there might only be a small infestation so far. He gets into the space suit and fills the air with nitrogen 100% to kill an Taumoebas that might be lurking around. He lets the ship fill back up with air before he starts getting everything back in order after the zero gravity stop. There are pieces of Ringo all over the place because that was the one he was working on when he found the smelled the rotting Astrophage. He seals everything up when so he can see if something starts to fail, the seal will stop bulging. He is exhausted but has clean up before sleep.
28. He checks all 9 tanks before starting up the engines again. He sets an alarm for if a slide turns clear, he will be alerted. The tanks are fine, but he realizes one of the farms must be leaking. He does some experiments to check them. Ryland learns that when they evolved the Taumoeba to be able to withstand nitrogen, it also evolved be be able to escape through Xenonite. He is able to contain it with plastic. He realizes Rocky would have no way of containing the Taumoeba and would be derelict. He has to make a decision.
29. Six weeks later, Ryland has sent the Beatles to Earth while he goes back to help Rocky. He uses his engines to bounce light off of the Blip A to try to find a toothpick in the vast ocean of space. He sees flash in the Petrova scope and heads that way. He was able to leave Toa Ceti’s orbit and find Rocky’s ship. He gets his suit on and launches himself to the Blip A. He knocks on it and yells out that he is using their same frequency on the radio. It takes a while, but Rocky finally answers. Ryland gets back in the Hail Mary and Rocky gets the tunnel back in place. Rocky is in bad shape. He is happy Ryland has come to save him and his world, but becomes upset when he realizes Ryland won’t be able to make it home because he doesn’t have enough food. Rocky suggests Ryland eat the Taumoeba. Ryland realizes that might work.
30. Ryland lives in a giant dome on Erid and is studied while they do everything they can do to keep him alive. They have used the laptop to study what he eats and have been able to clone his muscle to create meat. They make lights in the dome to simulate 24 hour days. It has been about 16 years since they first got to Erid. Ryland is an old man and walks to the dome edge with his cane to talk to Rocky. He has news about Sol. It has returned to full luminosity. Ryland is excited. Rocky asks if he will go back to earth, but Ryland isn’t sure he’s up for the trip. The gravity has been hard on his human bones. Rocky is heading home to Adrian, but first asks if he thinks about other life. Ryland admits he does. They say goodbye and Ryland heads to a chamber where he has an organ to speak to and teach young Eridians.