United Nations

The United Nations, in an unprecedented act of collective self-preservation, became the constitutional foundation for the entire Hail Mary project. Facing the extinction of all life on Earth from the Astrophage-induced solar dimming, every member nation of the UN participated in a unanimous secret vote that granted Eva Stratt total authority to solve the crisis. This single decision, relayed to Ryland Grace when Stratt first recruited him, transformed the UN from a deliberative body into the source of a singular, unchallengeable executive power. Stratt herself explained the mechanism to Grace: "Every member nation of the UN" had voted, and the vote was both unanimous and secret, a combination designed to prevent political backlash and ensure immediate, unified action. The authority she wielded was not merely diplomatic; it was absolute, allowing her to command the militaries of the world, redirect industrial production, and override any national law or treaty that stood in the way of the mission.

Authority and Legal Supremacy

The UN's grant of authority placed Stratt above all existing legal frameworks. When the Intellectual Property Alliance sued Project Hail Mary for copying every copyrighted piece of software and literature without license, Stratt appeared in court alone. She informed the judge that she was "personally immune from prosecution for any crime anywhere on Earth" by virtue of an international treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate, and that she also held a preemptive pardon from the President of the United States. She dismissed the lawsuit as a waste of time, stating, "I don't have time for this bullshit. We are building a ship to literally save our species." When the bailiff threatened to restrain her, she summoned five armed U.S. Army soldiers who had been stationed in the courtroom, declaring, "I have the U.S. Army. And that's a damn fine army." This scene demonstrated that the UN's mandate had effectively suspended the rule of law itself, making Stratt's will the only operative legal principle.

Military and Logistical Command

The UN's backing gave Stratt direct control over the world's military and industrial infrastructure. She ordered the Russian space agency Roscosmos to land their Soyuz capsule in Saskatchewan, Canada, rather than its planned recovery zone, and had the Royal Canadian Air Force retrieve the Astrophage sample and deliver it to her lab in San Francisco via fighter jet. The U.S. granted the Canadians use of their airspace without question. When she needed an aircraft carrier as a mobile laboratory, the Chinese government lent her one, the PLAN Gansu, which became known as "Stratt's Vat." She explained to Grace that she needed military aircraft because "commercial air travel takes too long and is prone to delays" and that she had to be able to get experts from anywhere on Earth into the same room with no delays. The German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister Voigt, confirmed that he was part of the decision to give her this authority, and that she could be "extremely persuasive." The UN's mandate effectively turned the entire planet into a single, coordinated project under her command.

The Scope of Power and Its Limits

While the UN's grant of authority was nearly absolute, it was not without practical limits. When Stratt attempted to enter Auckland Prison in New Zealand without submitting to a search, the head guard, Mr. Easton, refused her entry, stating, "I'm fully aware of your authority, but it has limits. You're not magical." Stratt, after a brief standoff, surrendered her Taser and complied. This incident illustrated that while the UN could grant her power over nations and their militaries, it could not instantly override the ingrained procedures of individual institutions. The authority was a blunt instrument, effective at the highest levels of international coordination but sometimes resisted at the local level. Stratt herself acknowledged the temporary nature of her power, telling Grace that once the Hail Mary launched, her authority would end and she would likely be put on trial by "a bunch of pissed-off governments for abuse of power." The UN's mandate was thus a temporary, emergency measure, a suspension of normal governance designed to achieve a single, critical objective before being revoked.

The Ethical Foundation of the Mandate

The UN's decision to grant Stratt absolute power was driven by the existential threat of the Astrophage crisis. The climatologist François Leclerc, whom Stratt had put in charge of tracking the climate effects, estimated that half the human population—3.5 billion people—would be dead within nineteen years if no solution were found. This timeline, and the scale of the catastrophe, justified the suspension of democratic norms and international law in the minds of the member nations. The UN's action was a calculated gamble: to sacrifice the principles of sovereignty and due process in the hope of saving the species. The authority Stratt wielded was not a gift of power but a burden of responsibility, one that she accepted with the understanding that she would be held accountable for her actions once the crisis was over. The UN, in granting this authority, effectively placed the survival of humanity above all other considerations, creating a temporary global dictatorship in the service of a single, desperate goal.