Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

HAL 9000 this computer is not.

It’s like…getting to the scales of mass conversion. E = mc2 kind of stuff. These tiny dots have more energy stored up in them than remotely makes sense.”

This star I’m looking at…it’s not the sun. I’m in a different solar system.

“I penetrated the outer cell membrane with a nanosyringe.” “You poked it with a stick?” “No!” I said. “Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick.” “It took you two days to think of poking it with a stick.” “You…be quiet.”

He led me through a maze of twisty little passages, all alike, until we arrived back at the room I’d been in the previous day.

“Eleven point nine,” said Xi. “Very good. Most would not know that.” “I teach junior high school science,” I said. “These things come up.”