When he finally spoke, his voice was steady. “It wasn’t an attack. Neither was it chance.” His crewmates leaned closer, desperate for an explanation. Nathaniel’s gaze fixed on the horizon, where the pod had vanished. “It was protection. It knew I couldn’t survive the ocean alone. And it carried me.”
The research vessel turned for shore, engines humming beneath the weight of disbelief. Nathaniel sat wrapped in blankets, every muscle trembling. Crew members hovered, torn between relief and awe. The coastguard’s escort loomed beside them, silent testimony to an ordeal already mutating into legend across radio waves and headlines.