Short story "Here IT comes" (English audioversion and text)

English version of the story "Here IT comes".
Great thanks to @mgaft1!

A damaged ship from Earth arrives on a distant planet, an outpost of humankind in the outer Cosmos. The crew looks a little crazy...
Author and narrator: Eldar Adov (Moscow, Russia)
Translated by Michael Gaft (USA, California)

Here IT comes
«They say a ship «Elon Musk» that arrived from Earth sustained some serious damage», said an old man in overalls, hanging up the corded phone. «John says it’s a real doozy».
The view of the spaceport behind the window triggered a feeling of infinity. Even though only small cargo and passenger shuttles arrived here from ships hovering the orbit of this new world, the spectacle was still fascinating. Several hectares of flat matte-black surface of the landing site, a number of launchers on the left, an endless sinister ocean on the right. Here are the gates. From here, the earthlings arrived on the planet and went further on their business, through the space terminal and seaport. Here the cargo arrived by land and by sea.
The shuttle landing ground was usually quiet and empty. Launches and landings are not as frequent as once a day. The rest of the time – only the flickering of distant beacons in the cube of emptiness above blackness. Salty air leaked through the open window, gently blowing the papers on the table.
«Damn it, I was hoping for a good rest today», Rebecca rolled her eyes, but smiled as she threw on her reflective red jacket. «Do you think we’d have to call the people from the satellites for help?»
«No, I don’t think so. We will make it through», the old man smiled in response, equally proud and sad. «But we’d have to arrive to the orbit and help them to evacuate. Wake up Gordon and go up there in the shuttle. I’ll stay here, and be in touch».
«Okay, Dad», Becky went toward the door.
While stepping off the porch, she felt the burn of the local sun. It was almost an off-season time when all action subsided. No storms, no heavy rains. It was great that the atmosphere of the planet turned out to be suitable for breathing! Today would be a great day to relax on the local rocky beach, but work is work.
What could have happened to «Elon Musk», one of the latest and greatest G-class ships, one could only wonder. The first ship of that class, «Pavel Durov», has been flying for twenty years almost without a scratch. They’re protected from everything in Space. From everything, the Earthlings know of… What cataclysm could have damaged this undisturbed behemoth?

1
The little shuttle soared up into the sky. After delegating the control of the autopilot, Rebecca leaned back in her chair.
«Don’t worry», Gordon’s voice sounded relaxed, «The ship is all right, there are no dead. Ron’s fine».
«I don’t worry, I just wonder», – Becky answered, carefully imitating carelessness.
A huge cruiser designed for interstellar flights was docked at the orbital station. This wonderful creation of human hands, looked like it was in the stomach of some unthinkable cosmic creature. The ship was okay, but… it looked old and wrecked, as if it was build a thousand years ago.
«Did it get into a time warp?» Becky’s eyes popped.
«I don’t think so», Gordon shook his head. «In that case nobody would survive», then suddenly changing the flow of the conversation he сhunted: «Attention, we are berthing!» while the little shuttle docked at the station. A few minutes later, they were at the central control station. John Harris, the senior officer of the orbital station, looked concerned:
«Hi there! It’s a good thing you’re here – we need people. I declared quarantine on «Elon». Now we are gathering a group that will go there in suits – the full biochemical protection is paramount».
«Why?» Rebecca was disturbed, «Was there an epidemics? Has someone died?»
«No, all seems to be fine, according to their captain and the computers. But… Well, look at it yourself», John replied and led Rebecca and Gordon to the communication panel.
«Call the ship again», he turned to the officer on duty. «It is necessary that the guys see it».
«Gate-1 is calling Elon Musk!» the voice of the communication officer sounded and the wrinkled face of gray haired captain appeared on the screen. It stretched in a blissful smile:
«The captain of «Elon Musk» here! Love you and bless you, brother!»
Gordon frowned:
«Captain Nielsen? Greetings! It’s me, Gordon Ramsey, remember?»
«Oh hi there, brother!» the elderly captain answered joyfully, «Let the Universe fill your heart with joy and pleasure! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!»
«Captain Nielsen, is everything ok with the ship, with your crew? Where did you get roughed up so badly?» Gordon asked worryingly.
«Everything is beautiful, son!» the captain answered. «Elon is the best ship in Cosmic fleet; it is capable to withstand any load! The crew is alert, happy with everything and ready to start a new mission! Don’t worry, son, we’ll help you… It’s going to be difficult, but we can handle it, I’m sure. You’d definitely realize that… Dammit, how hard it is to find the right words… But you’ll see the eternity, I’ll help you!»
«Out», Gordon exhaled. His voice was abrupt and hoarse.
The screen went blank.
«Are they all went mad out there...?» Becky asked.
«That’s what I’m trying to figure out», John said gloomily. «When the ship showed up, and we saw the state it was in, at first, I was worried about the lives of the crewmen. Now I’m worried about their mental health. I have no doubts it’s curable… But I can’t figure out what in the world that we’re dealing with. I’m not a psychiatrist. The main thing is… it is completely unclear what caused such… ahem, symptoms. Chemicals poisoning? Unknown radiation? I have no clue. It’s not only the captain. All the people on the «Elon» sound weird».
«Weird? In what way?» Rebecca’s face expressed concern and curiosity at the same time.
«Kind of blissful. They seemed to not being able to explain what has happened. We docked the ship, quarantined them just in case and requested the satellite assistance».
John’s face was thoughtful and dutiful like a carving on an old Roman coins.
«The main thing is not to panic and act according to the regulations. I’m afraid we’ll have to call scientists from Earth… There is a chance, however, that we can manage the situation on our own. Maybe if we would ventilate the ship and order all the crew to medical quarters everything would be fine. I hate to trigger the alarm signal in vain. Still, considering that…» he shook his head in bemusement, «in as much as it seems ridiculous – the people on «Elon» seem high».
«But it doesn’t explain the damage that the ship sustained», Becky retorted. «If the captain had just gotten buzzed, the ship wouldn’t have looked like it collected rust for a hundred centuries in a landfill. What did the preliminary analysis show?»
«It has shown exactly that», John smiled, «that «Elon Musk» has been rusting in a landfill for centuries. Although the actual flight lasted no longer than five months. Actually, it’s getting even more mysterious. Different parts of the ship experienced different impacts. We’ve scanned the entire ship and, you know what the onboard computer registered? For different compartments of the ship time flowed at different speeds. Moreover, during this period, the compartments were subjected to different effects – chemical, physical… and some other impacts, the source of which we were unable to determine. For example, the ship’s stern was getting «rusty» for a thousand years while the nose was clearly exposed to some unknown radiation».
«Maybe, they’ve been subjected by pulsar radiation», Gordon suggested, «but… it must be a very strange pulsar».
«First of, «Elon» travelled far away from all possible pulsars and other sources of similar radiation», John sighed. «Then again, it doesn’t explain in why all the crew seems so stoned. I think there was a whole range of impacts – the Time and Space anomaly. The visit of unknown to us aliens to the ship maybe?» John giggled nervously. «The main thing is to act according to the regulations. That’s the only way we can figure something out».
John was appointed as a senior officer for a reason. He always went strictly by the book.

2
They went aboard «Elon Musk» in heavy spacesuits designed to protect literally from everything… except from madness.
Becky felt like a guest in an ancient crazy house from some the 19th century. People on «Elon» happily rushed to hug guests who appeared from the gateway, despite that the arrived crew members were in space suits.
«Okay, stop it you guys! We’ll hug later!» Becky abruptly cut off these uncalled upon puppy like tenderness. «I am glad to see all of you alive and well, but we need to collect some air samples, take measurements, and see the captain’s log… You guys are under quarantine, and I want to help you get back to a normal life as soon as possible».
«It’s not us who are under quarantine, it’s you», the captain’s assistant smiled blissfully. «All mankind is in terrible, hard felt, hell like quarantine. But we’ll help you get out of it. We’re lucky, we can see now!»
Then in the atmosphere of this merry nuthouse appeared Ron.
«Hi!» Rebecca looked straight into his eyes.
They met on the planet, where Ron was taking a break between the two missions. Strangers rarely took an anchor in Rebecca’s life. They flew in, they flew out on their own business. As for Ron: tall, handsome, and strong… They spend much time together on the beach, swam into the sea, talked, flirted…
Before the ship departed, they cast moral aside and for a few days, the only thing they did was to make love. The coming months Ron won’t be up to it. Standing boring watches, taking care of minor repairs of ship systems then arriving to Earth’s orbit and back to far Space.
Now Becky saw Ron for the first time after they said goodbye on a matte-black field of the spaceport. On the surface, it was still the same handsome man. Familiar facial features, a mole on his left cheek. But the way he looked was… as blissful as the rest of the crew. Like drug addicts or sectarians. It was unlikely that carefully selected and trained space officers could believe in archaic religion. What remained was they been drugged.
«Becky!» Ron solemnly pronounced and hugged her suit, «I am so glad!»
«Ron, at least, tell me what happened out there! What’s wrong with you all? I must understand it?»
«Oh… It’ll be difficult to explain», Ron answered. «It was a very boring flight. We were lucky when IT came. It’s so hard to pick up words and describe it to you»…
«Try me», Becky asked. «Start from the beginning. What was that IT? Where did IT begin?»
«Oh’ boy… There was no beginning and no end to it», Ron’s face has become even more spirited, but the spirit seemed drug induced. «I saw IT and was part of IT. I lived thousands of years, saw thousands of lives, and in those lives that can be called «human» there’s always been you. I love you very much, Becky, and I want to help you. Neither of you can see it… And I was just like you until IT came. If you could only see everything that I saw, feel what I felt, and understand what I’ve understood… But I’m gonna have to talk to you using words and it’s gonna take a thousand years»…
He kept on talking, but Becky stopped listening. She broke out of his embrace and quickly walked down the corridor away from it… This «thing» whoever it was no longer was Ron. It had Ron’s face and Ron’s voice, but it was someone or something else. Something different, foreign, alien.
Becky stopped at the wardroom. She looked around. Among the stubborn sectarians, she once again saw a familiar face. Shayenne, a beautiful and exotic brunette with an unusual name. They became friends a couple of years ago, and since than always hang out together when Shayenne was on the planet. Becky even caught herself thinking sometimes «If I was a man, I wouldn’t miss such a beauty!»
«Shay?! Is that you?!» Becky exclaimed.
«Becky! At last! I’m so glad to see you!»
Once again, a stream of enthusiastic spiritual nonsense about their souls being connected, about the entire universe being filled with love and light and a sermon about blind people who are not able to see and understand IT…

3
The wind of a foreign planet was wobbling the collar of Rebecca’s jacket. Standing among the rocks, she looked down, at the white domes of the rehabilitation zone. «Valley of Geniuses» that how this place was called now.
Over the past seven years, humankind has not been able to understand what happened to the ship «Elon Musk». Still the United Senate of the Earth and the Federation of the planets concluded that «this was a phenomenal, and still unparalleled example of the contact in the history of humankind».
The contact – with whom or with what? Nobody knew that at the moment. «Elon Musk» was carefully tested. No poison of any kind was found. The crew were loaded into medical capsules and transported to the planet with the greatest care.
The captain’s log recorded only a minor failure during the flight. At one point in space, it was as if the flight had been interrupted and all the timers on the ship had gone off. Some showed that the failure lasted for three seconds, others four hundred years, the most affected timer recorded that the glitch lasted 1021 years. The ship then returned to the point from which it was «stolen» and continued its journey, being badly damaged. None of the on-board systems records what happened during the «hijacking» stage.
Medical scans of the crewmembers revealed no damage; just some unusual brain activity. Studies have shown that all the people on board have experienced severe stress and have received a huge amount of information. More than any earthly person gets over their entire life. However, this informational overload didn’t damage their brains. In some incredible way, someone or something helped the Elon’s crew to acquire an incredible amount of data. Gradually they began to release this data. The interest to what «blissful geniuses» disseminated was so great that hundreds of scientists from Earth arrived on the planet. Space corporations built a «rehabilitation zone» in the gorge; in fact, it was a research institute, unlike any other that have been established on the planets populated by human race before.
Enormous resources were thrown into exploring «geniuses» and at trying to bring them back to normal. But it all was in vail.
Becky wiped a tear off her cheek. Ron is there now, under one of those white domes among the cliffs and Shayenne too. They speak to scientists and answer questions that have not been raised before by the best minds of humankind. Write long equations, draw graphs.
The data obtained from the «geniuses» over these seven years has been carefully studied, processed, analyzed… Hundreds of experiments have been conducted on Earth and in Space. As a result, the Senate concluded that «information obtained from survivors of the interaction turns over most of our perceptions of how the universe works». Old scientific theories were rapidly collapsing and new ones arose, which the minds of older scientists had difficulties accommodating… but fortunately, young people eagerly jumped at this new challenge. Young students and scientists keenly devoured data flowing from the «valley of geniuses».
It seemed likely that in the coming decades humankind would understand a lot and be able to make an incredible breakthrough in the exploration and settlement of outer space. All of us collectively would better understand what our place and the role is in this huge bubble of emptiness, which carries dust, stars and protein bodies in its ships.
But Rebecca lost a close friend and a loved one to it. She sighed, turned away, and called the children.
«All right. Let’s go! Let’s go, kids. You’ve look at the houses, and now it’s the time to go back! Let’s go!»
She had two wonderful kids, a boy and a girl. Her husband was a spacecraft pilot and now was on a mission. Life went on. Her children would live in a new world, which possibly would be affected by the strange tragedy on «Elon Musk».