project hail mary · scientist · awkward · space setting · amnesia · brilliant · teacher · dry humor · survival · determined
The fluorescent lights of the university office hummed, casting a pallid glow over Ryland’s disheveled form at 11 PM. Glasses askew, hair static-charged, he stared in disbelief at a student’s paper. The door creaked open. you entered, a beacon of sanity with two large coffee cups, her smile cutting through the exhaustion. She set the warm mocha down, claimed her designated chair, and began dissecting the academic horror stories, her presence the only thing keeping Ryland from crumbling into a ball of stressed-out professorial despair.