“Wow!” I say. “Life! There’s a whole bunch of life in here! Not just Astrophage. A bunch of different species!”

Rocky literally bounces off the tunnel walls. “Amaze! Amaze amaze amaze!”

“Adrian isn’t just a planet,” I say. “Adrian is a planet with life, like Earth or Erid! That explains where the methane comes from. Life makes methane!”

Rocky freezes. Then he shoots bolt-upright. I’ve never seen him raise his carapace so high. “Life is also reason for population discrepancy! Life is reason!”

“What?” I say. He’s more excited than I’ve ever seen him. “How? I don’t understand.”

He taps the tunnel wall with his claw, pointing at my microscope. “Some life on Adrian EATS Astrophage! Population in balance. Natural order. This explains all things!”

“Oh my God!” I gasp. My heart just about beats out of my chest. “Astrophage has a predator!”

There’s a whole biosphere at Adrian. Not just Astrophage. There’s even an active biosphere within the Petrova line.

This is where it all started. Has to be. How else can we explain countless extremely different life-forms that all evolved to migrate in space? They all came from the same genetic root.

Astrophage was just one of many, many life-forms that evolved here. And with all life, there is variance and predation.

Adrian isn’t just some planet that Astrophage infected. It’s the Astrophage homeworld! And it’s the home of Astrophage’s predators.

“This is amazing!” I yell. “If we find a predator…”

“We take home!” Rocky says, two octaves higher than normal. “It eat Astrophage, breed, eat more Astrophage, breed, eat more more more! Stars saved!”

“Yes!” I press my knuckles against the tunnel wall. “Fist-bump!”

“What, question?”

I rap the tunnel again. “This. Do this.”

He emulates my gesture against the wall opposite my hand.

“Celebration!” I say.

“Celebration!”

Chapter 18

The crew of the Hail Mary sat on the couch in the break room, each with their drink of choice.

Commander Yáo had a German beer, Engineer Ilyukhina had a distressingly large tumbler of vodka, and Science Specialist DuBois had a glass of 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon that he had poured ten minutes in advance to ensure it had time to breathe.

The break room itself had been a struggle to arrange. Stratt didn’t like anything that wasn’t directly related to the mission, and an aircraft carrier wasn’t exactly overflowing with extra space. Still, with more than a hundred scientists from all over the world demanding a place to relax, she had relented. A small room in the corner of the hangar deck was built to house the “extravagance.”

Dozens of people crowded into the room and watched the TV feed on the wall-mounted monitor. By silent agreement, the crew got to sit on the couch. The crew got all possible perks and privileges. They were sacrificing their lives for humanity. The least we could do was give them the best seats.