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The Beatles had finally returned to Earth. Stratt almost couldn’t believe it. There had always been a part of her that worried Grace wouldn’t even complete the mission as a strange act of rebellion. As revenge for what had happened to him. But here it was. A cure. And videotapes. So many of them. Stratt let out a shaky breath and felt each tape in her hands. They were each labeled with numbers so she could watch them in order. She chuckled. Of course he had thought of that. A note also came with the pods. It read; “Tell Carl I say hi. And that he was right. You were right. P.S. You won’t believe it until you watch the videos I sent you, but I met a sentient life form. A real alien. Not just Astrophage, like a talking, living, breathing alien. Oh, and don’t be confused when you see a new human in the videos. That’s Simon. It will all be explained though, don’t worry. Thank you for believing in me. Goodbye. Signed, Dr. Ryland Grace.”
Stratt read the note at least four times before she set it down. A sentient alien life form? And how on Earth did he find another human? And why hadn’t the other crew members sent a note as well? She figured the tapes would answer her questions. She tenderly picked up tape #1 and stuck it into her TV.
In the first one, she learned quickly that Yao and Ilyukhina had died on the way there. Leaving Grace alone, with no help. It made her feel ten times guiltier, and amazed her that he was able to solve this problem with just an Alien. Well, and whoever Simon was. He had to have come from Earth. He was human, obviously. Unless… there were humans on other planets. Stratt would’ve known if someone sent another spaceship to where the Hail Mary was. She was in charge of the project. Yet, this Simon person seemed to have shown up out of nowhere.
In tape #3, Grace leaned towards the camera and grinned. “So, I met an alien.” Stratt was fascinated by Rocky. How he was able to survive in such intense heat, and how Grace had figured out how to communicate with him. He was the first human to ever interact with an actual Alien that could speak and think.
Around tape #7, a man started walking by in the background of where Grace was talking, sometimes asking him questions before leaving. Grace explained that they found him floating in a submarine type thing filled with blood, which didn’t answer much, but that was all he said. Simon was large, yet slightly shorter than Grace. He had shoulder length dark hair and scar and burns marks covering almost half of his skin. Dr Grace didn’t seem to quite understand that he was only supposed to share his scientific findings on the tapes, because many of them were just random things he did, like trying to swim in zero gravity or having movie nights with Rocky and Simon. (Yao had packed movies in Chinese, Russian, and English so that they wouldn’t get bored.)
But Stratt had begun to notice something. Grace and Simon seemed to be much closer than normal friends, which would make sense, considering they were the only humans on the ship. But they seemed oddly romantic. And her suspicions were proven true when, in one of the tapes when Grace was explaining how he and Rocky bred the taumoeba, Simon had walked into the room yawning and holding a cup of what looked like coffee. “Ry, why are you still up?” He asked, barely awake.
Grace turned around. “I’ll come to bed in a bit, okay?”
“You said that two hours ago.”
“This is important!” Rocky rolled around the corner.
“Grace finish next day. Grace too tired to explain.” Simon set down his mug and picked Grace up and threw him over his shoulder.
“Hey! I have important science to do!” He squawked, flailing and trying to free himself from Simon’s grip.
“Finish it tomorrow, love.” Grace groaned. “But-” Stratt couldn’t hear the rest of their conversation as they went further down the hall. Rocky rolled up the camera. “Goodbye Earth Humans! Rocky go watch Simon Grace sleep to keep safe! Simon Grace have weird human mating ritual where they hug in same bed while they sleep. Human mating is strange, Rocky doesn’t understand.” Stratt chuckled. This alien was truly unique. And seemed to have some sort of idea of how humans "mate." It must be different in his culture.
Stratt spent hours watching every tape, taking notes every few seconds. Apparently they were heading to Rocky’s planet, Erid. Rocky sometimes made videos himself, mostly just talking about how stupid and weird human customs were. She found that he was quite excited to return to his mate, Adrian. He hadn’t seen them in over 50 years.
Finally, after two days, Stratt watched the last tape. It was shorter than the rest. Grace sat, smiling. “You know, I would say I told you so, but you were right.” He took a deep breath. “I may never come back to Earth, although the Eridians are working on fixing up the Hail Mary. But I’m happy here on Erid. I’m continuing my work as a teacher, teaching younger Eridians. They’re much easier to teach than humans, since they remember everything they learn and don’t need review days. You’ll be getting this message in 30 years. Well, at least in your time. For me it’ll only be about 5.” He chuckled. “And… Well, you could probably tell, but I fell in love. And I can’t imagine myself ever leaving this place. I do hope the Beatles return in time for you guys to fix the sun. This is Doctor Ryland Grace officially signing off.”
Stratt smiled. She knew he could do it.