Chapter Text
On Earth (STRATTS POV)
……It wasn't the Beatles that came back to earth…it was the hail mary herself, hurtling in like a comment from space, shock is not a word I use often but I think it's a word that needs to be applied here. We tried to talk to the hail mary but all we got back was static. We had not idea of anyone alive was on there but at minimal it still had the Beatles so we had to treat it as such. we calculated the area it would fall in the ocean and made a balder to protect it. we watched as she burned in the atmosphere and landed with a thud that sent shock waves across the water.
Into the ocean bladder pad we go. The outside of the Mary was destroyed and covered in soot and ash. I had a dozen men ripping the entrance opens an climbing inside.a few moments later they carry a thrashing and screaming grace out of the ship to my stunned silence. After another ten they pulled no one out and confirmed it was safe to explore. Grace was still fighting the men and clearly gone insane so I gave the signal for sedation. They do so without hesitation.
They have sedated grace for now, which may be a mercy considering how he was responding. They have loaded him up for examination and hospilization and I know it's my duty to follow him. As I turn to follow him in the black auv I hear screaming and gasps from those going into the broken hail mary. I watched servel scientists who had climbed in moments earlier climb out with haste. I walked away from the suv to ask what the hell was happening only to see two recover experts vomit onto the grass. None would meet my gaze and moved out of the way as I approached our makeshift entrance and climbed inside. What I saw had me take a step back
Claw marks…everywhere….but not randomized. No these…this was a language engraved into the very haul of the Mary. A language I could not read. And it…was…everywhere. On the walls, on the floor, even the two windows. But that wasn't what stunned me, it was the glass wall that seemed to divide the ship into ¼ and ¾ sections. The ¼ section seems normal…no markings, no damage, though these odd rust marks in seemingly concentrated parts of the ship alarmed me. But the other side…the glass half ... .filled with all those markings….and one word I'm assuming was repeated again and again in-between what I'm assuming other sentencers, and these small figures and models ... .what the hell had grace come in contact with?! I noticed the video log machine was still in good condition and told my men to offload everything with the beetles.
With that I stumbled back outside and took a deep breath and marched for the car. It was time me and grace had a talk.
When I got to the hospital. The doctors are waiting with clipboard and grace expressions. Grace barely weights 102 pounds, he has chemical burns all over the left side of his body, he has a bizarre x shaped burn on his right arm. But oddest yet…his left eye has been gouged out. Not rotted, not fallen…gouged out with something that has needle-like claws. There are other bizarre Injuries on his body, that look oddly like the writing on the wall appearing on his leg, his neck, and the eye socket of the gorged eye. There precise and clean.
He slept for nearly 30 hours. In those 30 hours they have managed to unload the Beatles and are currently unencypting the tapes. They hadn't found heads or tails of the other two astronauts and more rust stains had appeared. I have been told the rust may be caused by blood. I don't flinch, I just nod and tell them to continue to be careful in deconstruction. Finally after 30 hours grace opens his one good eye and bolts upright in the hospital bed with what little strength he has. He looks around like a wild caged animal.
I stare him down not with cold indifference for once but with concern…with what I hope comes across as care. “Doctor grace.
"welcome back to earth, it's been a long time sense we have seen you" I say smiling softly hoping it comes across to the damaged man as warm or inviting, just like the karoke night.
Grace stares at him, he stares with the force of a man haunted by trauma before he speaks “I made it….? I survived going back….oh God I survived going back" he whispered
“Indeed you have and I would like to know how…and why…and what the hell happened to result in the shot looking the way it does. I promise you will be given the best medical care possible in the mean time to ensure full recovery and save as much- “ I was cut off by grace looking at me with his one good eye, his face gaunt and frail. “No strat…I don't want you to save me…..I came to warn you….I .ah have fucked up a little….and now ..I think I may deserve death for what I've done"