Chapter Text
No one was particularly surprised when the ICC arrived at Baikonur. If anything, they were surprised that it took them an entire two weeks after launch to show up. Eva Stratt had spent every waking moment of those fourteen days making sure that everything was prepared for her “retirement” from the taskforce. She knew that an arrest warrant was being written and would be served before long; Stratt also knew that the delay was only due to the ICC needing to finalize her charges. Murder probably. Sending Yáo, Ilyukhina, and DuBois on a one-way suicide mission could be presented as premeditated murder. Enforced disappearances and imprisonment as well. There was no feeling of guilt over the last two potential charges, the science team that she had collected from around the world was the only reason that the Hail Mary was even able to launch. If said science team had very limited access to communicate with their loved ones, then so be it; sacrifices must be made for the good of all mankind.
“Grace, come with me.” A week after launch, Stratt caught up with Ryland Grace as he was leaving the lab. Even though there was nothing more to add to the Hail Mary, Grace was not one to just sit idle while he had full, unrestricted access to the best scientific equipment that the Earth had.
“Sure, Stratt. I’m at a stopping point anyways. The astrophage breeder needs to run for a while, I may or may not have used up almost all of what I had left after launch.”
“Yes, yes. Come along. I have something I need to discuss with you.”
“Is everything okay?” Grace had hoped that after the crew launched towards Tau Ceti, Stratt would finally take a break, however, it seemed as if she was working even longer hours.
“No, it’s not. That is why I need to speak with you and the rest of the core team. Come, everyone else is waiting.” Stratt pushed open the door and pushed Grace into the conference room. She wouldn’t say it out loud, but Stratt did appreciate being on land over the aircraft carrier, if only for the conference rooms instead of a walled off section of a hanger.
Grace was confused as Stratt steered him towards the chair at the head of the table. Throughout the entire project, he had always sat to the right of Stratt- wherever she had sat at the tables. Being directed to take the seat at the head of the conference table was slightly unnerving and Grace hoped that it was only an accident.
“Lovely weather we’re having this afternoon, isn’t it?” The anxiety he felt came out as a joke that fell flat. The only response that Grace received was the unimpressed stares of the rest of the Project Hail Mary team leaders.
“Stratt, why have you got us all here? Some of us are trying to get out of here so we can go back to our lives now that the ship has left.” Lokken was more annoyed than anything. She was trying to get out of the Cosmodrome and back to Norway. However, Stratt had been impossible to reach over the past week. And Lokken was still holding out hope that maybe Stratt would pay for her to get home. It was only fair after she had been “recruited” on such short notice.
“There is no easy way to say this.” Stratt paused and took a deep breath before she continued. “A contact I had from before the Petrova line was discovered reached out to me today. She informed me that The Hague has been making noises about what to do with me now that the Hail Mary has launched. She wanted to let me know before the ICC showed up at my door so that I could ‘get my shit together before they knock’ as she so elegantly put it.”
“The ICC? Why would they be coming for you? You were given immunity for all actions done for Project Hail Mary.” Grace was even more confused now. Stratt had immunity. The UN itself had selected Stratt to lead Project Hail Mary. “You know, the project to save our sun from dying?”
At this, the rest of the team leaders started to whisper between themselves. Grace couldn’t catch much from the head seat that Stratt had put him in, but he caught a few words such as “He doesn’t know?” and “You would think by now….”
“Grace,” Dimitri stared directly at Grace as he said this. “Stratt has done many things on this mission. I don’t think the UN had ‘Nuke Antarctica for methane’ on their list of what she would do.”
“Exactly. I have done too many things to get the Hail Mary out of Earth’s orbit and heading to Tau Ceti. I have made many people mad. These things had to be done, and I would do it again if I was asked to. If nothing else, they will want me on murder charges for the crew.”
“They signed up for that. Everyone on the primary and secondary teams knew it was a one-way mission and they would die at the end.”
"The world needs someone to be upset at. It is going to be twenty-six years at the earliest for any chance of a beetle to make it back. In that time the world is going to get colder, and people are going to die. I knew when I agreed to what the UN was asking of me, I risked becoming the Earth’s whipping boy. As such, we need to decide what will happen with the team once they come for me.”
“What do you mean? Isn’t everyone about to head home anyways? I’ve been cramming as many experiments in as I can because I know once I get back to San Francisco, I won’t have access to any of the excellent lab equipment anymore.”
“That’s what we need to discuss. You have been the Number Two on this project since you arrived on the Gansu. You have been present for every major discovery and decision that has happened. I have kept your name from as much as I could because I needed to keep you safe for after the launch. I cannot allow someone who does not know the Project to take over and I cannot allow for the Project to fall apart until after the beetles return. I know that you want to return to the classroom and your students, but I must ask you to take over for me after I am arrested.”
After Stratt finished, Grace was in shock. He hadn’t heard much after Stratt had said “You have been the Number Two”.
“What do you mean, take over?”
“Exactly what I said. I am going to be arrested soon. Sooner rather than later. If we have any hope of recovering data from the beetles when they return, we need to keep the Project together. I need to know that whoever is in charge is going to keep things running.”
“And you want me? A disgraced, washed-up academic who teaches middle school science. I can’t take over!” Grace knew though that his arguing would be pointless. In the end. Stratt got what Stratt wanted.
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Over the next week, Grace found himself in too many meetings. Meetings about how to raise funds now that the governments of the world were tightening their purse strings in anticipation of the oncoming crisis. Meetings about how to manage resources. Meetings about how to tell when the beetles were on their way back. Meetings about how sometimes, even though you made the best choice that was available, there would always be someone who found fault with your choices.
“Can’t you just make a run for it?”
“And go where Grace? The whole world knows my face and my name. And if I run, the world will go after you instead. And you don’t strike me as someone who would do well in prison.”
“And you will? You do know they don’t have venti coffee with enough sugar to rot your teeth in prison.”
“I’ll manage. Now, remember, the beetles are programmed to start sending a radio signal to Earth once they reach about Saturn. We planned it that way so that the information can be downloaded before they try to pass though the asteroid belt. Hatch thinks they’ll be able to make it through, but better safe than sorry.”
“Stratt, I’m aware of how the Beetles will let us know they’ve returned. I just don’t think it’s right that the UN itself asked you to find a solution, but now they won’t defend you for what your solution is.”
“The Earth needs someone to blame is all.” Stratt looked towards the door. With Grace having his back to the window in his office, Stratt had been able to see the black SUVs pull in about an hour earlier. She knew that her time as a free woman could be measured in hours, if not minutes.
“We’ll get you out as soon as we can, you know that right?” Grace still couldn’t believe that Eva Stratt, the most powerful woman in the world was going to give up as easily as she was.
“Don’t bother. Focus on continuing to work with the astrophage. I’m fairly certain that you can come up with a way to use it to help keep the earth alive as we wait for the beetles. It’s just going to get much worse over the next twenty-six years. I am going to be arrested, tried, and put into prison. Don’t make a fool of yourself trying to stop the inevitable.”
Stratt could feel, rather than hear, the boots of soldiers coming down the hallway. A loud knock on the door echoed though Grace’s office. Grace looked at Stratt, and she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded her head once.
“Come on in!” Grace shouted at the door.
The door opened, and a tall man in what appeared to be a regular suit, much like the kind Carl wore, stepped in.
“Eva Stratt?” he asked.
“Yes?” Stratt squared her shoulders as she turned to look at the man.
“I am Jacob Bakker from the ICC. Eva Stratt, you are hereby under arrest for crimes against humanity. There are related charges for Ecoterrorism, kidnapping, forced imprisonment, and murder.”
As Eva Stratt was led away in handcuffs, all Ryland Grace could do was stare at her and wonder “What is going to happen now?”