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Eva Stratt's been through it all. In the ninety two years of her life, the world was turned upside down so many times it no longer resembles the one she was born into. In the twilight of her life, she finds peace, her sins are forgiven, her Wikipedia page is long and detailed, and she's mentioned in the newest history textbooks. Despite her age, she stays relatively healthy, mobile and independent, capable of living on her own, a caretaker robot assisting her with daily tasks.
If the weather is good, she sits on a bench in front of her small house and enjoys the sunlight, now as warm as it should be. Plants in her garden grow just fine, and starlings poke tasty worms out of the ground. It was almost a miracle that during the Astrophage crisis plants turned out to be much tougher than expected, yet genetic engineering was unavoidable. Though, as Eva Stratt's scientists had predicted fifty years ago, half of the population was lost, hunger and disasters hitting developing countries hardest, which were lacking resources and infrastructure, and those who had the least suffered the most, in the cruel injustice. When Eva Stratt escaped from prison and took the wheel again, she gently convinced governments to cooperate and mitigate the damage. Losses would have been far severe without her, yet the still guilt doesn't want to go away— what if I haven't done enough? What if I worked harder, longer? What if my decisions were rushed? What if they were too slow?
Nevertheless, the world is healing now. The four billion souls lost to the catastrophe is and will be mourned, and in the same time life goes on, science and technology advance even faster than before — much faster than in Eva Stratt's youth. People are craving a better life after decades of misery and fear.
An interstellar mission to Erid is already being planned, probably an unmanned spacecraft first, with information about the great victory over the Astrophage and an invitation for contact. Providing that Doctor Grace had found Rocky and Erid was saved, a potential interspecies cooperation is a tempting idea. Eva Stratt knows her time is running out, and she won't live long enough to ever hear back from Eridians — to hear back from Grace, who maybe, just maybe, is now the first human ambassador on an alien planet.
Eva Stratt learnt the position of 40 Eridiani on the night sky, and whenever the sky is clear, she looks up, letting her mind wander freely. Sixteen years ago, when the beetles returned, it was proven once and for all that humanity is not alone — and the most importantly, Grace is not alone. Eva Stratt doesn't know whether Grace and Rocky made it to Erid, but she chooses to believe they have. They're smart, they figured it out.
Now it's Sunday morning, fresh and peaceful, with spring flowers blooming and bird singing, no trace of extreme weather and environmental collapse from the past. Eva Stratt sits in her garden with a book, and her robot tends the garden with an incomprehensible agility.
"That's perfectly enough, Armando," she says to the robot, and Armando stops pruning the apple trees. "I could use some tea."
"Of course," the robot replies and disappears behind the doors. Armando is a huge help for Eva Stratt, yet she's still not quite used to having a humanoid robot hanging around her, and probably she'll never get fully used to it. Such robots are nothing new in 2072, though to Eva Stratt it’s still so abstract, so unrealistic.
Someone's silhouette materialises next to the gate.
"Ms. Stratt!"
It's Lauren, the neighbours' daughter who always visits Eva Stratt a few times a week to keep her company and check if everything is okay. Lauren waves her hand and smiles widely. She clutches something in her free hand, a bag — probably a new gift for Eva Stratt, like homemade cookies or bread. Lauren is such a good kid, born a few years before the arrival of the beetles which secured the future for her generation.
"Good morning. Come, come, please," Eva Stratt invites, "have a seat."
Lauren closes the gate behind her and joins Eva Stratt on the bench in front of the house. Armando comes back with a cup of tea.
"One more, please," Eva Stratt asks when the robot places the cup on a small garden table.
"Certainly."
"Ms. Stratt," Lauren opens the paper bag, "I baked cupcakes with my friends yesterday. I brought you some. All sugarless!"
"Thank you," Eva Stratt smiles and looks into the bag. "Wow, there's a lot of them."
"Yeah, we... didn't exactly follow the recipe and finally ended up with tons of dough. It was supposed to be one cup of flour, not one... bag."
Eva Stratt chuckles. Deep inside, she's glad that Lauren is too young to remember times of real hunger, and now she can use a whole bag of flour for her cupcakes, without having to worry about flour disappearing from shops.
"Do you know bananas have returned?" Lauren asked. "When dad noticed them, he immediately bought two kilograms."
"How do you like them?"
"Felt weird at the beginning, I didn't expect a fruit to have such a texture. But I understand why my parents are so happy about them. It's very convenient to have a fruit that is already grown in a package."
"That's true. They have a lot of potassium and vitamins."
"Ms. Stratt, have you checked the news today?"
"Oh, obviously no," Eva Stratt shakes her head. "No screens in the morning. Only a paper book. Life is better this way. Did something bad happen?"
"Yes, but not bad," Lauren grins. "NASA confirmed that 40 Eridiani has returned to full luminance."
"O-oh," Eva Stratt gasps. "Are... you sure?"
"Yes! It's everywhere on the news. And I'm sure someone has already sent you an e-mail with more details."
So Grace and Rocky figured it out. It took thirteen years for Hail Mary to reach Tau Ceti, then another thirteen to arrive to Rocky's homeland, then sixteen years had to pass until the light from the healed star got caught by Earth's telescopes. Forty two years. And Eva Stratt is lucky to survive these times of hardship and live long enough to learn that Grace and Rocky made it. They both made it — Rocky's ship must have been abandoned since it was made of xenonite, so they had to travel in the Hail Mary, which requires a human to steer it. So Grace is alive, and so must be Rocky, and they both delivered taumoeba to Erid. Because of the relativity, only eight years had passed for Grace instead of twenty six spent in travel. He's in his fifties. And Eridians treat him well for sure. They organise science conferences about him, and he attends them and tells funfacts about squishy, leaky humans, and—
"Ms. Stratt," Lauren's voice brings Eva Stratt back to reality. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, yes," Eva Stratt assures, her eyes a little bit glassy. "I was just thinking of what doctor Grace may be doing now on Erid."
"Maybe teaching little Eridians?"
"I hope so," Eva Stratt smiles. "Nothing would make him more happier."
✩──────────✩─────────✩
40 Eridiani is visible on a clear sky tonight. It doesn't look any brighter than usual, but Eva Stratt knows the changes in luminance are too subtle to be noticed with a naked eye.
"You know, Grace? I wonder what you eat there," Eva Stratt says to the star flickering on the sky. "Did they figured out how to produce human food for you? Or maybe plants and animals on Erid are edible? Do they even have plants on Erid? It must be dark there since Eridians didn't evolve eyes. Or maybe they have fungi? Scary, alien, bioluminescent fungi?"
She wraps herself in a blanket tightly. It's spring, but air is still chilly.
"I'm sure you're surrounded by friends, but I wonder if you still get lonely," she continues. "Do you miss humans? Earth sunsets and sunrises? Flowers? Grass? Sea? Crowded trains? Cafes? Your bike rides to school? Calling other scientists a waste of carbon? Arguing with me?"
"I'm sorry I took that from you," she adds after a minute of silence. "I wish we could meet again. You'd be very angry with me for the first five minutes, but then you'd show how Earth is healing, thanks to your taumoeba, and you'd probably cry a little bit. And when you're done crying, you'd show me Erid, explaining science behind all these weird creatures living there."
For a brief moment, she feels like Grace was really listening to her, her voice magically carried across sixteen light years.
"Maybe we'll meet again. In a different place, in a different time. This is what I want to believe in. I don't know how, but... We're smart, we'll figure it out."