Project Hail Mary

Highlights

Page 14

The boy’s family demanded immediate exile or death. They were powerful, and this was their eldest son. They might permit a king to burn their fields, or rape their daughters, as long as payment was made. But you did not touch a man’s sons. For this, the nobles would riot. We all knew the rules; we clung to them to avoid the anarchy that was always a hair’s breadth away. Blood feud. The servants made the sign against evil. My father had spent his life scrabbling to keep his kingdom, and would not risk losing it over such a son as me, when heirs and the wombs that bore them were so easy to come by. So, he agreed: I would be exiled, and fostered in another man’s kingdom. In exchange for my weight in gold, they would rear me to manhood. I would have no parents, no family name, no inheritance. In our day, death was preferable. But my father was a practical man. My weight in gold was less than the expense of the lavish funeral my death would have demanded. This was how I came to be ten, and an orphan. This is how I came to Phthia.

Page 579

I have a pendulum. Cool thing about pendulums: The time it takes for one to swing forward and backward—the period—won’t change, no matter how wide it swings. If it’s got a lot of energy, it’ll swing farther and faster, but the period will still be the same. This is what mechanical clocks take advantage of to keep time. That period ends up being driven by two things, and two things only: the length of the pendulum and gravity.

Page 048

Stratt raised an eyebrow. “I don’t follow.” “Believe it or not, light has momentum,” I said. “It exerts a force. If you were out in space and you turned on a flashlight, you’d get a teeny, tiny amount of thrust from it.” “I didn’t know that.”

Page 304

“How—” Abby began. I’d never seen her at a loss for words. “How long before this happens?” “Climatologists think it’ll happen within the next thirty years,” I said. Just like that, all the kids relaxed. “Thirty years?” Trang laughed. “That’s forever!” “It’s not that long …” I said. But to a bunch of twelve- and thirteen-year-olds, thirty years may as well be a million.

Note: I know I didn’t feel this way when I was ten years old. I remember crying when people talked about the planet being unliveable in 75 years. But I guess everyone is different.

Page 745

“It is pleasure to meet you,” he said. “I am happy to report that we can actually make interstellar voyage.” “No, we can’t,” I said. “Unless you’ve got an alien spaceship you never told anyone about.” “In a way, we do,” he said. “We have many alien spaceships. We call them Astrophage. You see? My group has studied the energy management of Astrophage. It is very interesting.” I suddenly forgot everything else going on in the room. “Oh God, please tell me you understand where the heat goes. I can’t figure out what the heck it’s doing with the heat energy!” “We have figured this out, yes,” said Dimitri. “With lasers. It was very illuminating experiment.” “Was that a pun?” “It was!” “Good one!” We both laughed. Stratt glared at us.

Note: Dialogue is his weakest point. Cringe af. He’s at his best in an empty room, like the Martian

Page 781

“We have ideas for finding the energy,” said Stratt. “Your job is to make the breeder. Start small and get a prototype going.” “Okay, sure,” I said. “But I didn’t exactly love the ‘militaries of the world’ grand tour on the way here. Can I take a passenger jet home? Coach is fine.” “You are home,” said Stratt. “The flight hangar is empty. Just tell me what you need—including staff—and I’ll make it happen.” I looked at the others in the conference room. Xi, Voigt, and Dimitri all nodded. Yes, this was real. No, Stratt wasn’t kidding. “Why?!” I demanded. “Why the heck can’t you just be normal, Stratt?! If you want fast military transport, well, okay, but why not just work at an air base or something sane people would do?!” “Because we’ll be experimenting with a bunch of Astrophage once we breed it up. And if we accidentally activate even a couple of kilograms of that stuff, the resulting explosion will be bigger than the largest nuclear bomb ever made.”

Note: This character is such a child. He has the most exaggerated reactions to everything.

Page 924

She rested her chin on her hands. “Getting to Mars with 1970s technology would mean using a Hohmann transfer trajectory, which means the crew would have to spend just over eight months aboard a ship. So the Soviets tested out what happens when you put people together in a cramped, isolated environment for several months.” “And?” “After seventy-one days, the men inside were getting in fistfights every day. They stopped the experiment on day ninety-four because one of the subjects tried to stab another one to death with broken glass.” “How big will the crew be for the mission?” “The current plan is three,” she said. “Okay,” I said. “So you’re worried what happens when we send three astronauts on a four-year trip in a 125-cubic-meter compartment?” “It’s not just about them getting along. Each crew member would spend the whole trip knowing that they’re going to die in a few years. And that the few rooms on that ship are the only world they will know for the rest of their short lives. The psychiatrists I’ve talked to say that crushing depression is likely. And suicide is a real risk.” “Yeah, that is some rough psychology,” I said. “But what else can we do?”

Note: Such a contrivance. Just so that he could kill the other two crew members and make the main character amnesiac.

Page 230

Now in the suit, I push steadily against the airlock wall with my legs to push the open rear flap to the wall. Once it gets to within a few inches (centimeters, I should say. This is Russian-made after all), a light turns green on the chest-mounted status panel. I reach up to the panel with my thickly gloved hand and press the Autoseal button.

Note: As if NASA would use inches

Page 416

“No, I said we’ll do it.” Stratt stood up. “You’re with us now, Dr. Lokken. Pack a bag and meet us at Genève Aéroport. Terminal 3, private plane called Stratt.” “What? I work for ESA. I can’t just—” “Yeah, don’t bother,” I said. “She’s going to call your boss or your boss’s boss or whatever and have you assigned to her. You just got drafted.” “I … I wasn’t volunteering to design it personally,” Lokken protested. “I only meant to point out—” “I never said you volunteered,” Stratt said. “It’s not voluntary at all.” “You can’t just force me to work for you.” But Stratt was already walking out of the room. “Meet us at the airport in one hour or I’ll have the Swiss Gendarmerie drag you there in two hours. Your call.” Lokken stared at the door, flabbergasted, then back to me. “You get used to it,” I said.

Note: Ugh. No one in charge speaks or acts like this. I imagine the person in charge to be like John Lyle. That’s an effective but not abrasive approach.

Page 487

After a quick scan, it tells me the cylinder is made of xenon.

Note: Hahaha, I actually laughed. Enjoyable 😊

Page 571

The doohickey floats off toward the Eridian ship and I head back into mine. “Okay, guys,” I say. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If Astrophage is your enemy, I’m your friend.”

Note: Even spoken words without another person present sound clichéd.

Page 666

I clutched my little sample container like Scrooge with a bag of coins. “I’m not happy with this.” “Oh, hush,” said Stratt. “I’ve only made eight grams of Astrophage so far, and I’m supposed to just give away two grams of it? Two grams may not seem like much, but it’s ninety-five billion Astrophage cells.” “It is for a good cause, my friend!” said Dimitri. “I promise you will like it. Come, come!”

Note: I don’t know if the character is actually supposed to be this childish or he’s just acting this way so childish readers have their point of view heard and addressed

Page 847

“Why is Eridian science and human science so similar? Billions of years, but almost the same progress.” It’s been bugging me for a while. Humans and Eridians evolved separately in separate star systems. We had no contact with each other until now. So why is it that we have almost identical technology? I mean, Eridians are a little behind us in space technology, but not a ton. Why aren’t they in their stone age? Or some superfuturistic age that makes modern Earth look antiquated? “Has to be, or you and I would not meet,” Rocky says. “If planet has less science, it no can make spaceship. If planet has more science it can understand and destroy Astrophage without leaving their system. Eridian and human science both in special range: Can make ship, but can’t solve Astrophage problem.” Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. But it’s obvious now that Rocky says it. If this happened when Earth was in the Stone Age, we would have just died. And if it happened a thousand years from now, we’d probably work out how to deal with Astrophage without breaking a sweat.

Page 908

Rocky was dumbfounded by relativity. For the first couple of hours, he simply refused to believe me. But then, as I showed more and more about how it explained his trip, he came around. He doesn’t like it, but he accepts that the universe uses rules that are much more complicated than we can see.

Page 124

thought the hull couldn’t melt. It was cooled by Astrophage! But of course it can melt. Even if Astrophage is a perfect heat absorber (and it may be), the heat has to conduct through the metal before it can be absorbed. If the outer layer of the hull reaches its melting point faster than the heat can transmit through the thickness of the hull, the Astrophage can’t do anything about it.

Note: This occurred to me earlier when he was explaining it

Page 517

“Hey,” I say, sipping my coffee. “How come you and I hear the same sounds?” He keeps working on the armatures inside his device. “Useful trait. Both evolve. Not surprising.” “Yeah, but why the same frequencies? Why don’t you hear much higher frequencies than I can? Or much lower?” “I do hear much higher frequency and much lower frequency.” Didn’t know that. But I should have figured that was the case. It’s an Eridian’s primary sensory input. Of course he’ll have a wider range than I do. That still leaves one unanswered question, though. “Okay, but why is there overlap? Why don’t you and I hear completely different frequency ranges?” He puts the tool in one of his hands down, which leaves two hands still plugging away on his device. With the newly free hand, he scrapes his workbench. “You hear this, question?” “Yes.” “That is sound of predator approaching you. That is sound of prey running away. Sound of object touching object very important. Evolve to hear.” “Ah! Yes.” It’s obvious now that he points it out. Voices, instruments, bird-calls, whatever—they can all be wildly different sounds. But the sound of objects colliding isn’t going to have much variance from planet to planet. If I bang two rocks together on Earth, they’re going to make the same noise as if I bang them together on Erid. So we’re all selected-for by being able to hear it. “Better question,” he says. “Why we think same speed, question?” I shift over to lie on my side. “We don’t think at the same speed. You do math way faster than I can. And you can remember things perfectly. Humans can’t do that. Eridians are smarter.” He grabs a new tool with his free hand and gets back to tinkering. “Math is not thinking. Math is procedure. Memory is not thinking. Memory is storage. Thinking is thinking. Problem, solution. You and me think same speed. Why, question?” “Hmm.” I ponder it for a while. It’s a really good question. How come Rocky isn’t a thousand times smarter than me? Or a thousand times dumber? “Well … I have a theory for why we’re about the same intelligence. Maybe.” “Explain.” “Intelligence evolves to gives us an advantage over the other animals on our planet. But evolution is lazy. Once a problem is solved, the trait stops evolving. So you and me, we’re both just intelligent enough to be smarter than our planet’s other animals.” “We are much much smarter than animals.” “We’re as smart as evolution made us. So we’re the minimum intelligence needed to ensure we can dominate our planets.” He thinks it over. “I accept this. Still not explain why Earth intelligence evolve same level as Erid intelligence.” “Our intelligence is based on the animals’ intelligences. So what is animal intelligence based on? How smart do animals have to be?” “Smart enough to identify threat or prey in time to act.” “Yes, exactly!” I say. “But how long is that time? How long does an animal have to react? How long will the threat or prey take to kill the animal or escape? I think it’s based on gravity.” “…

Page 699

The hardest part about working with aliens and saving humanity from extinction is constantly having to come up with names for stuff.

Page 099

“But you’ve had years of direct training. You know the ship and the mission inside and out. And you’re a world-leading expert on Astrophage. We’d only have a few days to get Cáceres up to speed. You know how I operate, Dr. Grace. More than anyone else. I want to give Hail Mary every possible advantage. And right now, that’s you.” I looked down at the table. “But I … I don’t want to die.…” “Nobody does,” said Stratt. “It must be your decision,” said Yáo. “I will not have someone on my crew who is there against their will. You must come of your own volition. And if you refuse, we will bring in Ms. Cáceres and do our best to train her up. But I urge you to say yes. Billions of lives are on the line. Our lives matter little when compared against such tragedy.” I put my head in my hands. The tears started to come. Why did this have to happen to me? “Can I think about it?” “Yes,” Stratt said. “But not for very long. If you say no, we have to get Cáceres here in a hurry. I want your answer by five p.m. tonight.” I stood and shuffled out of the room. I don’t think I even said goodbye. It’s a dark and depressing feeling to have all your closest colleagues get together and decide you should die. I checked my watch—12:38 p.m. I had four and a half hours to decide.

Note: Disgusting. I can’t imagine wanting to cling to life like this.

Page 210

The first seeds of panic started to grow. This lunacy might actually work. “No! You can’t do that! I won’t do it! This is insane!” She rubbed her eyes. “Believe it or not, Dr. Grace, I kind of like you. I don’t respect you very much, but I do think you’re a fundamentally good man.” “Easy for you to say when you’re not the one being murdered! You’re murdering me!” Tears rolled down my face. “I don’t want to die! Don’t send me off to die! Please!” She looked pained. “I don’t like this any more than you do, Dr. Grace. If it’s any consolation, you’ll be hailed as a hero. If Earth survives this, there’ll be statues of you all over the place.” “I won’t do it!” I choked on bile. “I’ll sabotage the mission! You kill me?! Fine! I’ll kill your mission! I’ll scuttle the ship!” She shook her head. “No, you won’t. That’s a bluff. Like I said, you’re fundamentally a good man. When you wake up, you’ll be good and angry. I’m sure Yáo and Ilyukhina will be pretty mad about what I did to you too. But in the end, you three will be out there and you’ll do your job. Because humanity depends on it. I’m ninety-nine percent sure you’ll do the right thing.” “Try me!” I screamed. “Go on! Try me! See what happens!”

Note: This is completely out of character, hence poor writing. But I guess this bit was necessary for that amnesia part.

Page 760

She stood and meandered around the room. “For fifty thousand years, right up to the industrial revolution, human civilization was about one thing and one thing only: food. Every culture that existed put most of their time, energy, manpower, and resources into food. Hunting it, gathering it, farming it, ranching it, storing it, distributing it … it was all about food. “Even the Roman Empire. Everyone knows about the emperors, the armies, and the conquests. But what the Romans really invented was a very efficient system of acquiring farmland and transportation of food and water.” She walked to the other side of the room. “The industrial revolution mechanized agriculture. Since then, we’ve been able to focus our energies on other things. But that’s only been the last two hundred years. Before that, most people spent most of their lives directly dealing with food production.” “Thanks for the history lesson,” I said. “But if it’s all the same to you, I’d like my last few moments on Earth to be a little more pleasant. So … you know … could you leave?” She ignored me. “Leclerc’s Antarctica nukes bought us some time. But not much. And there’s only so many times we can dump chunks of Antarctica into the ocean before the direct problems of sea-level rise and ocean-biome death cause more problems than Astrophage. Remember what Leclerc told us: Half the global population will die.” “I know,” I muttered. “No, you don’t know,” she said. “Because it gets a lot worse.” “Worse than half of humanity dying?” “Of course,” she said. “Leclerc’s estimate assumes all the nations of the world work together to share resources and ration food. But do you think that will happen? Do you think the United States—the most powerful military force of all time—is going to sit idly by while half their population starves? How about China, a nation of 1.3 billion people that’s always on the verge of famines in the best of times? Do you think they’ll just leave their militarily weak neighbors alone?” I shook my head. “There’ll be wars.” “Yes. There’ll be wars. Fought for the same reason most wars in ancient times were fought for: food. They’d use religion or glory or whatever as an excuse, but it was always about food. Farmlands and people to work that land. “But the fun doesn’t stop there,” she said. “Because once the desperate, starving countries start invading each other for food, the food production will go down. Ever heard of the Tai Ping rebellion? It was a civil war in China during the nineteenth century. Four hundred thousand soldiers died in combat. And twenty million people died from the resulting famine. The war disrupted agriculture, see? That’s how massive in scale these things are.” She wrapped her arms around herself. I’d never seen her look so vulnerable. “Malnourishment. Disruption. Famine. Every aspect of infrastructure going to food production and warfare. The entire fabric of society will fall apart. There’ll be plagues too. Lots of them. All over the world.…

Page 805

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, President Bush had done some things right, including swiftly and consistently trying to tamp down anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States—no small feat, especially given our country’s history with McCarthyism and Japanese internment—and mobilizing international support for the early Afghan campaign. Even controversial Bush administration programs like the Patriot Act, which I myself had criticized, seemed to me potential tools for abuse more than wholesale violations of American civil liberties.

Note: Potential tools of abuse my ass. It was being abused.

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