Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

There’s nothing to suggest a woman in my life. Am I divorced? Gay?

I’d spent a blissful week doing nothing but science. No meetings. No distractions. Just experimentation and engineering. I’d forgotten how much fun it was to get immersed in a task.

The oldest words in a language are usually the shortest.

Rocky, meanwhile, doesn’t use any system to record what I’m saying or doing. No computer, no writing implement, no microphone. Nothing. He just pays attention.

“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.”