Second Chance — The Human Side
EP.01 — Shadow of a Hero
영웅의 그림자
"Heroes are made after they die.
Living people are too complicated."
The Myth
The Ryland Grace Memorial stands on the outskirts of Geneva.
I had never been. Never wanted to. Held out for 31 years. But today my feet brought me here. Tomorrow I give the briefing. Tomorrow the world panics again, and when it does, people will think of this memorial. Surely another hero will come and save us, just like last time. So today, I had to come here first.
The memorial is large. Unjustly large. Ryland Grace was a middle-school science teacher. If he'd seen this building in his lifetime, he would have said: "This budget could build three schools." I know this because I knew him. That's the kind of person he was.
A portrait hangs at the entrance. Heroic pose in a spacesuit. Smiling. My stomach turns every time I see it. Grace did not smile when he put on a spacesuit. He was terrified. Or rather — he never even had the chance to be terrified. He was loaded onto the ship in a medically induced coma.
My name is Park Jaemin. Seventy-two years old. Former Project Hail Mary researcher. I handled Astrophage energy dynamics on Eva Stratt's team. After Stratt disappeared, almost no one who knows the truth remains. I am one of the "almost."
On the second floor, a 1/50 scale model of the Hail Mary. Children on a field trip stood before it. The guide was explaining.
"Dr. Ryland Grace volunteered to board this ship. He chose a journey he might never return from, to save humanity. Brave, isn't he?"
The children nodded. Innocent eyes. Innocent eyes believing an innocent lie.
I wanted to walk up to the guide and correct her. He did not volunteer. Stratt tricked him and loaded him aboard in a coma. He woke up already light-years away. It was not a choice. It was abduction.
But I said nothing. As I have said nothing for 31 years. Why? Because heroes are needed. Humanity always needs heroes. A simple myth is more efficient than a complicated truth. Stratt would have said: "What does truth matter, Dr. Park? Results matter."
Stratt was right. Grace did save humanity. And he never came back. If that makes him a "hero," then he is one. But what made that "hero" was not Grace's choice — it was Stratt's decision. She stole one person's life and gifted it to humanity.
Calling that heroism is — structurally — a lie.
I turned from the portrait. Tomorrow the world will need another hero. And this time — we have to find volunteers.
· · ·
SCENE 02
0.003%
UN Interstellar Crisis Committee. Closed session. Fourteen attendees. Myself included.
On the screen: solar luminosity over 30 years. At first glance, stable. But zoom into the last three years —
A tremor.
0.003% periodic variation. Invisible to the layperson. But to an astrophysicist — a scream.
Chair
"Dr. Park. How should we interpret this data?"
I was standing in this room again after 31 years. Same room, same table where Stratt first reported the Astrophage. Then I was a young researcher. Now an old one. The room hasn't changed. Only I have.
Park
"Astrophage aftereffect. The Sun's internal thermal equilibrium was disrupted, and the recovery is producing nonlinear damped oscillation. In plain terms — the Sun is still sick from the Astrophage."
Chair
"Is it dangerous?"
Park
"The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star with high energy output, so aftereffects are milder than for a K-type dwarf like 40 Eridani. But 'milder' does not mean 'none.' Worst-case simulation: global average temperature could rise 4 degrees within 80 years."
The room fell quiet. Four degrees. Sounds small. But everyone here knows — the last Ice Age was only 5 degrees colder than today. Four degrees up means civilizational collapse.
Chair
"Solution?"
Park
"Earth alone cannot solve this. We need to correct the energy dynamics externally, which means learning things about Astrophage that we don't yet know. The only beings who know Astrophage better than us are — as far as we know — the Eridians."
Chair
"Can we reach them?"
Park
"Tau Ceti — 11.9 light-years. With 30 years of propulsion advances, we can reach 0.5c. One-way approximately 25 years. Hibernation technology has also improved — current-generation torpor is safe for decades. Theoretically possible."
Chair
"...Theoretically."
Park
"If not theoretically, then practically. And practically means someone has to board."
· · ·
SCENE 03
Legacy
After the meeting, I smoked in the corridor. Smoking is illegal in UN buildings, but at 72, on the day you've announced the Sun is dying, rules feel trivial.
Someone approached.
Shin Hyunseo
"Dr. Park Jaemin?"
Young woman. Early thirties. Korean. Short hair. Her eyes were — unusual. Not curiosity but resolve. The eyes of someone who has already decided.
Shin
"Shin Hyunseo. Astrophysics professor at KAIST. One of the authors of the Astrophage aftereffect paper."
I knew the name. I'd read the paper. Mathematically elegant. Conclusions ominous.
Shin
"A ship will be sent. Correct?"
Park
"Probably."
Shin
"Put me on it."
I nearly dropped my cigarette.
Park
"Why?"
Shin was quiet for a moment. Through the window at the end of the corridor, Lake Geneva was visible. Sunset bleeding across the water. Thirty-one years ago, the light had vanished from this lake. When the Astrophage was eating the Sun. The water froze, the sky went dark, and the world was ending.
Shin
"My father died during the crisis. Food shortage. I was four. I don't remember much. But I remember one thing — the sky going dark. Daytime, but dark. For a four-year-old, that's the end of the world."
Shin looked out the window. Sunset. Light. Light that is still there.
Shin
"I'm not going to be a hero. I decided to become a scientist so I'd never be helpless again. But now the problem is here, and I'm just standing here writing papers. That's not enough."
I put out my cigarette. She meant it. A different kind of sincerity from Stratt's. Stratt's was "I will sacrifice one person for humanity." Shin's was "I will be that one person." Fundamentally different.
But I had to warn her. That is my role. The role of the person who knows the truth.
Park
"One thing. If you're going to become a hero, don't go."
Shin
"I just said I'm not—"
Park
"Let me finish. Grace was not a hero. He was a terrified science teacher. That's the truth. The portrait in the memorial is a lie. He did not smile in his spacesuit. He was sent by force, woke up alone and terrified in space, and still — he did it. Terrified, he did it."
I breathed. Words I had not spoken to anyone in 31 years.
Park
"What made Grace remarkable is not that he was a hero. It's that an ordinary, terrified person — despite everything — did it anyway. Professor Shin, if you go, know this. You will be terrified. You will regret it. You will want to go back. What saves you then is not a hero's sense of mission. It's taking the next step while terrified."
Shin looked at me. For a long time. Then bowed her head.
Shin
"I know. That's why I'm going."
· · ·
SCENE 04
The Memory of War
That night, the committee's military advisor James Cole came to find me.
Cole was a retired US Space Force colonel. UN Security Council consultant. Late fifties, still carrying a soldier's frame and stride. I didn't like Cole. More precisely, I didn't like the worldview he represented.
Cole
"Dr. Park. I expected the expedition talk."
Park
"And?"
Cole
"If the ship goes, security personnel must go with it."
Park
"It's a science vessel."
Cole
"A science vessel with the possibility of alien contact. Grace was lucky, Dr. Park. The Eridians were friendly. What guarantee is there that next time will be the same?"
I sighed. Cole's logic wasn't wrong. That's what made it annoying. In human history, "first contact" has rarely been peaceful — even among ourselves. Columbus arriving in America. Perry arriving in Japan. First contact almost always ended in one side's destruction.
But.
Park
"Colonel. Grace and the Eridians wasn't 'luck.' They cooperated because they faced the same problem and sought the same solution. Columbus and the natives wanted different things. Grace and Rocky wanted the same thing — their planets' survival."
Cole
"That was the first time. This time, we may meet unknown civilizations. Reaching out bare-handed to the unknown isn't brave — it's reckless."
Park
"And raising a shield isn't brave either — it's cowardice."
Cole's jaw tightened. I'd gone one step too far. But I had no intention of walking it back.
Cole
"Dr. Park. You can afford idealism because you're a scientist. But look at human history. When we met each other, what did we do? Exchange ideas? No. We conquered. We exploited. Given what humans have done to humans, approaching alien life unarmed is — naive."
I didn't respond. Because Cole wasn't wrong. Human history is the history of war. That is undeniable. The question is — what conclusion do you draw from that fact?
Cole concludes: "We've always been this way, so we always will be."
I — and perhaps Grace too — want a different conclusion: "We've always been this way, but this time could be different."
But "want" and "will" are different verbs.
After Cole left, I stood at the hotel window. Moon over Lake Geneva. Thirty-one years ago, even this moonlight had dimmed. As the Sun was dying.
Grace stopped that. A terrified science teacher.
Who stops it this time?
I thought of Shin's eyes. Solid eyes. Crystallized.
And Cole's eyes. Vigilant eyes. Fear wrapped in experience.
Both will board the ship. I knew it. And I knew they would collide.
Grace was alone. But Rocky was there, so it was all right. Shin will be with Cole. Same species, same ship, but entirely different worldviews.
We always think the enemy is outside. But the most dangerous enemy is aboard the same ship.
⟡
NEXT EPISODE
EP.02 — Volunteers Wanted
One-way, 25 years, no guaranteed return. Volunteers wanted.
Nobody comes. Grace's myth ironically stands in the way.
Then Cole steps forward with a condition:
"I'll go. But we go armed."
This series adds Ethics Notes alongside Science Notes, introducing real philosophical and ethical frameworks related to questions raised in the story. Not to provide answers, but to look deeper into the questions.
— 22B Labs · the4thpath.com