OneHappyBoo



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  1. Public Bookmark 56

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    The file I’ve found is named: Grace Don't Look Until Beetles Launched

    Creepy. Ominous, even. There’s a little code attached to the file that hides it from a system search. The only way I could have found it was an accident.

    I open the file and a video log pops up. The play button blinks mockingly. The date at the corner of the log is two years before I first woke up on the Hail Mary. It would have been recorded when I was deep in coma-sleep. When everyone on board should have been deep in coma-sleep.

    Ilyukhina’s slightly pixelated visage is sprawled across a pilot chair and she’s mid-chew on a twizzler.

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    14 Jul 2026

  2. Public Bookmark *

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    A good day, a bad day, and an okay day on the Hail Mary's journey to Erid. Rocky's POV.

    Chapter 1: Grace introduces Rocky to the Mythbusters
    Chapter 2: Grace has been asleep for 41,400 seconds, and is still sleeping.
    Chapter 3: Love to the point of invention

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    14 Jul 2026

  3. Public Bookmark *

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    "Mild sedation will be beneficial to avoid further damage.” Mary says, cool as a cucumber. Right. That sounds good. Great, even.

    And there was a needle coming towards me.

    Wait."
    ...

    Grace has made peace with not going home. Grace has made peace with his choice, and he would choose Rocky every time. Grace has not made peace with what happened to him before he left.

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    14 Jul 2026

  4. Public Bookmark *

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    I’m safe. I know this. As foreign as it feels to give myself credit, I know I helped save Erid, and that every sentient being on the planet knows it too.

    And yet, something small and primitive in me can’t fight the brief flash of fear that zips through me when Adrian skids to a halt before me and I am forced to look up at them.

    For a moment, they just stand there. I am reminded of the first time I saw Rocky, atavistic horror battling with fascination, coming together in a trembling awe. I feel no different looking at Adrian than I felt looking at Adrian, a vast expanse of green before me, knowing I am the first human to ever witness it, finding beauty in it as much as knowing it could spell my doom under the right circumstances. The light of my dome shines down on them, casting a dozen towering shadows over me.

    “Hi,” I manage, forcing myself to swallow through a dry throat. If this is who Rocky chose to spend his life with, they’re cool. They have to be.

    /////

    Or: Rocky introduces the two people he loves most.

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    14 Jul 2026

  5. Public Bookmark 74

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    “I think little humans love you,” Rocky says. “Must. You are—”

    He hesitates, thinking.

    “Need word. Love very much, but not person. Love thing. Love doing. Need nothing else.”

    He has a way of working his limited vocabulary into just the right order. I turn to look at him like a starving animal that’s just been offered food, crumpling under how warm it makes me feel.

    “Passionate,” I say weakly. Rocky sings the Eridian word, a multi-layered crescendo of chords that each seem to pour into the next, one by one by one. “I guess I am.”

    Rocky gestures with a chain link he’s picked up, getting back to work. “Everything you do, you are focused. Work work work. You teach me language. You teach me human ways. No give up until problem is solved. No rest until stupid. Passion.”

    “Darn,” I say, for lack of more intelligent words. Rocky briefly looks up from his chain.

    “What, question?”

    “I never thought about it like that.”

    /////

    Or: With nothing to do besides putting together a chain one link at a time, Grace and Rocky find time to have a moment.

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    14 Jul 2026