Stranded On Santa Astarta -v1.1.0 Beta- -doc Ba... -

He becomes home .

Doc Ba’s medical tricorder, the one device that still works, reads them all as having zero neural activity. Flatlines. But their bodies are breathing, metabolizing, repairing minor wounds with impossible speed. They are not dead. They are installed . Stranded on Santa Astarta -v1.1.0 Beta- -Doc Ba...

In the center of the circle stands Captain Valerio. His mouth is moving, but the voice coming out is not his. It is a chorus of forty-seven voices, layered on top of each other, whispering a single phrase over and over: He becomes home

I open my med-log. I type one last line. In the center of the circle stands Captain Valerio

Today, I found the beacon. Not mine. A ship’s black box, half-swallowed by a glowing fungal mat. It was stamped with the Gilgamesh’s hull number, but the casing was warm, pulsing with a familiar rhythm. My pulse.

-Doc Ba...-

Santa Astarta. A name meant to evoke saints and purity. The reality was a seething, iridescent green hell.