AUTHOR'S NOTE: An additional two minutes to the end of Interstellar when Coop joins Brand on Edmunds planet.

#

NINETY PERCENT

#

Doctor Amelia Brand knelt over the grave and took off her helmet. The air was cool and dry, but breathable. With what remained of the Endurance and CASE as her only companion, she had scraped her way to Edmunds Planet over the course of several months only to find Wolf Edmunds already dead. Decades before, in fact, due to the time slippage with only his bones left underneath some wreckage. He must have died in an accident. CASE had dug him out and now he was buried again near where he had fallen on a small hill beside where she had set up camp. He had died even before they had passed through the wormhole. She had once loved him and he her. Now, after years of her time and decades of his, she didn't know anymore. His love and death were distant and vague. She felt worse about losing Cooper than Wolf, but that was likely because it was so recent. Or was there more? She stood and looked about. The planet was indeed hospitable, and held a definite beauty, but it was difficult for her to see it. She felt drained and defeated.

Amelia was utterly alone in both space and time. Everyone she had ever known were dead. The Earth itself perhaps more barren now than the planet she was on and she might be one of the last humans alive. And yet, down below in the camp, the future waited. Down there was Plan B, unharmed by the incident above Doctor Mann's planet and ready to start. In fact, the incubators were powered up and she and CASE were to start the next morning. And then, nine months in hibernation as she waited for the babies to mature. A new human civilization that she would help birth about a planet orbiting a normal G2 star on its periapsis passage near the Gargantua black hole in a galaxy far removed from the Milky Way.

CASE was already down at camp and it was getting dark, the sun having set shortly before. Gargantua would set in a couple hours, and then the unknown stars of this new galaxy would shine in all their brilliance. She made her way down the rocky path resigned to her fate when suddenly she heard a double sonic boom from overhead. She looked up and scanned the sky and saw a contrail streaking across, still illuminated by the sun. CASE moved up the path quickly to her side.

"Do you recognize it?" Amelia asked, suddenly breathless.

"It has the basic configuration of a Ranger," CASE replied. His optical processers could zoom in on the craft and track it across the sky.

"Can we contact it?"

"We have not set up the communications equipment. You deemed it a low priority."

She had thought she was alone, after all. But now, who could it be? She found her heart racing at the thought of seeing someone again.

"Doctor Brand," CASE said, interrupting her thoughts. "I'm not sure how, but I believe I detect TARS's transponder aboard that craft."

"TARS?" Amelia replied. "How is that possible?" If TARS was on that Ranger, could Cooper be as well? The grief she had felt moments before seemed to evaporate away at the thought that Cooper was alive. Was it the thought of seeing someone again making her feel this way, or was it specifically the thought of seeing Cooper again? She wasn't quite sure what to think.

The ship was close enough now that even to her eyes it was unmistakably a Ranger. It circled the camp and started to descend towards the level area to the south. Amelia started moving closer to the spot once it became clear where its final landing place would be and CASE followed close behind. Immediately after setting down, the Ranger's hatch opened. Amelia and CASE stopped just a few meters away and waited. The pilot climbed down, still in his flight suit and helmet, followed by a marine robot. It was TARS.

"Hello TARS," CASE said.

"Hello CASE," TARS replied. "Hello Doctor Brand."

"TARS?" Amelia said, but her eyes were on the pilot who was now removing his helmet. "Cooper?" she whispered. Cooper lifted his helmet off and smiled. Amelia leapt forward and the two embraced. She was laughing and crying. "But how? I saw your ships enter Gargantua."

"They must have saved us," Cooper replied. "After we got the data on the singularity. After I was able to relay it to Murph. They placed us outside the wormhole near Saturn."

Amelia pulled back slightly and shook her head. "I don't understand."

"I don't know where to begin," Cooper replied laughing. "Plan A worked. There are ships, ones your father helped build, heading out right now. One is expected to make it here one day. There are some who stayed on Earth, hoping to use gravity in a way to rid the planet of the Blight. Everything has changed."

"Did you get back in time to see your kids?" Amelia asked. She knew it was the one thing that motivated him before. He had made a promise.

Cooper swallowed hard. "Murph was still alive," he finally said, a catch in his throat. "I met my grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. It was all a bit overwhelming. I felt out of place."

They were quiet for a time. CASE and TARS had moved off, heading back towards the camp. It was darker now with the light from Gargantua's accretion disk illuminating the landscape in a bluish glow.

Amelia had a million questions. Her father's gravity equation solved? What had happened to him inside the black hole, and how did he get out? There was one question, however, that bubbled to the top of the list. "Why are you here?" she asked. Why had Cooper left all that? Murph, his grandchildren and descendants. Earth.

Cooper lowered his eyes. "Do you remember on the Endurance when you spoke about love?" he said. His voice low, almost a whisper. "How it, like gravity, transcended space and time. You were right Amelia. I saw tangible proof of that with Murph, the love between a father and daughter. The love between …" he started, but then faltered.

Amelia didn't reply. Was Cooper really saying what she thought he was saying? They still held on in each other's arms. For her part, the despair she had felt just moments ago was gone and she was unwilling to let go. It felt good and natural. She was not alone in the universe. But did she love this man? Did he love her?

"I don't know Amelia," Cooper continued, his voice a little clearer. "I thought of you here alone, possibly for years before the colony ship arrived from Earth. I wanted you to know. I wanted to be here with you. I wanted, ah…"

He was treading on new territory and seemed reluctant or unable to articulate what more he wanted to say, but he had said enough. She suddenly knew the answers to her questions. Amelia lifted her hand and pressed her fingers against Cooper's lips. "Shut up Coop," she said with a grin, "we agreed, ninety percent." She then leaned forward and kissed him.

#

The End

Author's Note: Interstellar is my favorite movie. In the post-apocalyptic film genre, it is perhaps the first "false dystopia" entry. What looks like a dire situation for the human race during most of the movie turns out just fine. As for the ending, I do wish it had an extra minute or so depicting something like what I've written here, but we can imagine what happens and that's what fanfiction is all about.