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  1. Public Bookmark 69

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    Ryland Grace found the gun on the forty-third day.

    He’d been reorganizing the storage bay — not because it needed reorganizing, but because his hands needed something to do and his brain needed something small enough to manage — when his fingers closed around the case at the back of the cabinet. Compact. Heavier than it looked.

    He knew what it was before he opened it.

    Yao’s gun. Captain Yao, who had died in a coma before the Hail Mary reached Tau Ceti, along with Ilyukhina. Who had carried a gun on the mission for reasons Grace understood too well.

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    04 Jul 2026

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  2. Public Bookmark 67

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    "What that, question?" Rocky asks instead of answering the question. He's got his light gun thingy pointed at the screens.
    "Hm? You know what the stars are, buddy." Grace doesn't think much of it, but Rocky goes quiet.
    "Have not seen like this before."

    or: constellations as connection

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    04 Jul 2026

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  3. Public Bookmark *

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    I very carefully set the gun near the xenonite barrier. “Need a word. Fast moving projectile launcher. This is an object that can make small objects go very fast.”

    Rocky gets close to the barrier and seems to be inspecting it with his sonar. “Unfamiliar with concept. How fast can objects move with launcher, question?”

    “An object is made for the launcher. Cannot be any object. We call objects ‘bullets.’ We call launcher ‘gun.’ It uses gunpowder to make a small explosion, which is powder made from sulfur, potassium nitrate, and charcoal- Carbon. In high oxygen environments this creates a small explosion that propels the bullet forward at 100 meters a second.”

    Rocky scurries back. I would too, but I have the business end facing away from me and the xenonite barrier. “Are objects in this launcher, question?”

    “Yes, I do not know how to take them out.” I point to the end of the gun that houses the bullets. “In Earth’s atmosphere, they would be safe to remove. But in a high oxygen environment like the Hail Mary, I’m afraid of causing a spark that would make the bullets fire anyway.”
    -
    Grace finds Yáo’s gun.

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    04 Jul 2026

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  4. Public Bookmark *

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    "Grace, question?” Rocky says from his tunnel.

    “Yeah?” I peek my head up, wiping nonexistent dust off my pants. The storage compartment was almost completely sterile, but I needed something to do with my hands.

    All okay, question?” There’s a slight quiver in the notes of his voice that I’ve come to recognize as hesitance.

    “Of course, buddy.” I laugh disbelievingly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

    Ryland finds Yao’s gun and he is perfectly normal about it, thank you very much. He’s only been stuck in the same environment eating the same meals everyday for a year now. He’s fine.

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    04 Jul 2026

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  5. Public Bookmark *

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    Grace is dying. He's been dying half this trip. There's no point in ignoring it, though he and Rocky try to anyway. One particularly bad day, he finds he can't shake the thought of Yao's gun, hidden away down in storage and calling to him.

    ---

    "There's a gun on the ship.
    A gun on the ship for one very specific reason. A reason that Grace has spent years running away from, but one that keeps chasing after him. "

    Language:
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    04 Jul 2026

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