Chapter Text
“colt!”
colt’s eyes sprang open, his once peaceful sleep disturbed by his girlfriend's call of his name. that tone could mean many things, it was usually reserved for when colt had done something incredibly stupid or incredibly awesome, so it was really a hat toss.
it didn’t help that colt couldn’t remember anything stupid or awesome that he’s done lately. he can only hope for the latter.
the bed underneath him was so comfy, all he wanted to do was cuddle into the dark comforter that jody had brought over one day, and had since lived on his bed, honestly at this point their bed. her things were mixed in with his to the point of genuine confusion, the eventual acceptance of sharing everything finally happening. which is to say, if they ever break up, he is absolutely stealing this damn comforter.
“what? i’m up, i’m up,” colt promises as he rubs his hand into his eyes, blinking at the sudden light filtering in from the window. he glanced towards the door where jody was walking in with a disbelieving grin on her face. okay, that was a good sign. she wouldn’t be smiling if he had royally fucked up, unless she was planning some major revenge (which she notably loved doing).
“this is- how did you guys do this so fast? it’s incredibly,” she shook her head, hands opening up before they dropped to her thighs. she stared at him, eyebrows raising as she waited for a response that colt’s brain was trying very hard to get out. it was still processing waking up, and then her words. it was stuck on thinking about how good she looked, getting ready to head out.
“do… what?” colt asked, wracking his brain for anything he could have done between now and last night, when he had peacefully drifted to sleep curled up against her back. he was pretty sure he wasn’t a sleepwalker.
“the-” she cut herself off with a small laugh, rolling her eyes, “the project hail mary movie? i saw the teaser you left for me on the tv, colt.”
colt squinted as he sat up, running a hand through his hair. “the what? i haven’t done anything. is someone making a movie about the… space thing happening?”
jody looked at him with a confused expression, eyebrows furrowed as they squinted at each other for a few seconds, waiting for the other person to laugh and go ‘ha! got you!’, but neither of them did. “you’re being serious?”
“...yes?”
“wha- come here-” jody huffed finally as she leaned over and grabbed colt’s arm, tugging him out of bed, his movements sluggish as he stumbled out of bed and followed her dutifully. he was still in his boxers as she plopped him in front of the tv, staring up at the screen.
it was paused on a shot of what looked like a big ass spaceship, a news line underneath saying ‘project hail mary ship launches today’ and three photos of people, he could only assume the astronauts on said ship, given the context clues.
he had vaguely heard about this stuff, but he wasn’t really a science or news guy. it boiled down to something he figured th scientists of the world would figure out, like they always did when some shit went down with mother nature. it was way above him, is what he knew.
colt was confused at why she thought he was involved until he looked at the photos, specifically the last one, and saw an uncanny image of a man who looked just like him. well, almost just like him. with the same face, jaw, eyes. colt’s nose was more crooked, probably due to the numerous injuries, plus the man was wearing glasses and had far fluffier hair. but otherwise, the two were practically identical.
dr. ryland grace, molecular biologist
“that’s not you?” jody asked, frantically pointing at the picture as if colt wasn’t staring at it in shock and disbelief.
he had a feeling they were both feeling the same way right now.
“no,” he shook his head slowly, quickly grabbing the remote and unpausing. the news coverage continued, with an overhead shot of the ship, project hail mary, as an off screen voice provided context.
“due to the recent ‘astrophage’ incident, the project hail mary team has decided to launch a ship into space, to the tau ceti system, to find a solution to this sun ending problem. we have received word from an inside source that this ship will not be coming back. this is a one way ride, folks. we can only hope that these brave astronauts sacrifices will not be in vain-”
“colt,” jody spoke over the news footage, standing in front of the man who seemed shocked into place, “it’s just a weird coincidence. people report doppelgängers like.. all the time. i mean, he looks a lot like you but it probably doesn’t mean anything.” she had a frown plastered on her face, eyebrows pinched together as she took his hand.
“i…” colt wanted to believe her, for the fact that it would be easy, he could go along with his day, his life, but there was a part of his mind… that part that always wondered about his parents, his real parents, why he got put into foster care so young. he had never considered the possibility of him having a sibling out there, a brother. it was too much to pass up.
“but what if it not?” colt looked at jody with a small frown, vulnerable in a way that he very often was not.
what if he just found out he actually does have family? family that is currently being rocketed into space as they spoke?
jody frowned back before her face hardened, holding both of his hands and squeezing gently, “then… i guess we do some research.”
as it turns out, dr. ryland grace was very easy to research. he wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or not. he was a molecular biologist who got into some trouble after a stint with another scientist, wrote a paper a lot of people didn’t like, blah blah blah, then got a new job as a middle school teacher. quite a history, if you ask colt. after that he kind of went under the radar, but his name cropped back up in the media after it was revealed that project hail mary had hired him to help research astrophage. astrophage was something that colt knew absolute jack about, but it seemed like the guy was an expert on the stuff, which is probably the reason he’s one of the people going up into space. he couldn’t imagine they would send someone unqualified to save the sun or whatever they were doing.
colt wasn’t really getting much useful information, well, he didn’t really until he came across an obituary for what he was pretty sure was ryland’s mom, delilah grace. she died from pancreatic cancer when ryland was 15.
there wasn’t much more colt was able to find about her, except a facebook profile where she had mostly posted photos of ryland through his childhood. she started posting him when he was about 4 from the looks of it, which was probably when he got adopted. it was less a facebook profile and more a photo album of the two. it was obvious she was a single mom, and cared about him more than anything else. from what he could glean, it didn’t seem like they had much family, and ryland’s birthday pictures were sparse of other kids.
colt felt kind of bad, like he was prying into someone’s personal life, especially when the photos started to get fewer and far between, the occasional one showing that her health was obviously worsening. the last one was the two celebrating ryland’s 15th birthday, they looked so happy despite the circumstances.
he shook off the nasty feeling and decided to look at ryland’s facebook as well. it seemed he used it more as a social media than his mother, the occasional photo of himself at a work gathering, corny science memes, the stuff you expect from a guy teaching middle school science. colt did find something useful, the name of the middle school ryland worked at. he was pretty sure that it was some safety concern that he found that out from his facebook, but it’s probably fine.
it was only a few states away, a quick plane ride.
he was hesitant on up and leaving, but jody encouraged him to go, even going so far as to buy the plane ticket for him as he (romantically, he might add) promised to never leave her again.
“if i wasn’t shooting this movie, i’d go with you,” she promised, kissing his cheek, “but text me. i want to know what you find out.”
“you sure you aren’t just trying to get rid of me?,” he quirked an eyebrow playfully as she shoved him towards the door lightly.
“be safe,” she warned him, pointing a figure accusatorily at the man, like she knew exactly who he was and what he was prone to doing. it’s not like she was wrong.
“i will!” he promised, crossing an x over his heart with his finger before rushing to her to give her a hug, squeezing and lifting her in a way that made her giggle every time. he lingered for a few seconds, but steeled himself and headed to the airport, kissing her temple gently.
colt waited impatiently to board by trying (and failing) to read the paper that got ryland grace ostracized in the science sphere. he didn’t understand a lot of it, any of it really, but he smiled a little at the realization that this guy was arguing against something so normalized, against loads of people that he knew would oppose him. he had some balls, that was for sure. he seemed like he grew up okay, into a good guy. he probably would have benefitted in having ryland around growing up.
colt thought back to his childhood, it was rough to say the least. he was a handful as a kid, and one that wasn’t worth the effort usually. he pinged from foster family to foster family, always pissing someone off. he got abused more times than he could count. he let himself briefly wonder how different his life could have been, had he and ryland been able to stick together. if ryland’s mom had taken them both. he understood why she didn’t, one kid as a single mom was hard enough, and colt has always been difficult… and maybe colt wasn’t even there when delilah got ryland. there’s a good chance they were separated far before that. colt felt a bit of sadness, at the fact he couldn’t even remember. honestly a lot of his childhood has been dutifully blocked out of his memory, just the way he liked it. wasn’t much worth saving. colt didn’t like to dwell on the past, preferring to live in the here and now of it all.
he’d never once wished to remember it, until now. at the very least, the early memories, of them together, if he had them that is. he wasn’t sure what age kids start making memories, or really anything about kids at all.
he let out a slow sigh, shuffling onto the plane finally and dropping into his window seat haphazardly.
he flicked the shade up, staring out into the sky. it was already dark, he spent pretty much all day doing this. he looked at the stars, studying them. he had never been into astronomy, but they sure looked pretty.
he wondered where ryland was now, how far the ship had gone in just a day.
he’d figure this out, find out if they were actually truly related, or if he was wasting his time. and if he wasn’t… well, how hard was it to fly a spaceship anyways?