He tapped the console. "Station AI, run phoneme analysis."
"Unknown. But the signal is originating from within the station."
It wasn't a glitch.
He cracked the seal. The air inside was ancient, tasting of rust and something sweet, like rotting flowers. The shaft opened into a circular room he'd never seen on any blueprint. In the center, a single glass cylinder stood, filled with a dark, shimmering fluid. And inside the fluid, floating motionless, was a humanoid figure — pale, featureless, yet unmistakably alive .
Aris realized with horror: NIV EWB was a cry for help. An alien, trapped for centuries in a human-built station, had learned just enough of their data language to spell out its needs phonetically.
The signal grew louder. Niv. Ewb.
Then, softer: "Need. I. Voice. Extract. Water. Breathe."