Innu-Akku

Extant's

Covered in debris, the tier sank into darkness and suffocating putrefaction. The settlement was originally designed to be genius, the location was perfect, but now it appeared terrifying in its silence and decay.
The vertical city resembled more of a gaping abyss, with partially destroyed remnants of levels spiraling down into its depths.
From the lower levels, a chill and dampness emanated, indicating that they had been flooded, while the greenhouse was unbearably hot due to broken light filters. Artificial marble debris and concrete dust crunched underfoot, mixed with dry lumpy soil. Somewhere, a piercing drip echoed loudly.
Everything pointed to a catastrophe that had occurred long before their arrival. But what kind?
"Well, this is quite the puzzle," - Esma tried to reassure herself as she surveyed and cross-referenced her suit's data, her body, and the reconnaissance drones.
The results were puzzling: there was no indication of any technological or biological factor. Not a single trace was found by the sensitive sensors. Not a hint of what had happened. As if the people simply disappeared, and the technology along with the city had fallen into disrepair.
After searching several upper levels, Esma picked up a faint signal. Her instincts told her that someone must have found shelter and survived. Especially since the fortified rooms with bunk beds could serve as a bunker.
She had to descend to the very edge of the flooding. Unfortunately, the descent didn't go as planned - the gravity rope unexpectedly snagged on something and instead of a smooth and fast landing, Esma landed in the lake with a loud "splash."
Her body immediately became paralyzed, turning into a heavy stone sinking sharply. Strange buzzing mixed with bright electric flashes could be heard. Her thoughts once again became muddled, and her organized and carefully planned actions were replaced by a frantic struggle to stay afloat. Her arms and legs wouldn't cooperate, and if the rope hadn't started working again, the search might have ended before it even began.
Time was running out and barely allowed for a new body to be sent.
Hanging over the waters for a while, the rescuer looked around, breathing heavily. The mechanical body didn't require oxygen, but the habit of taking a few breaths at least for calming purposes couldn't be easily shaken off. It came out strained and spasmodic, much to Esma's annoyance - after six months of flying, being disconnected from her body had caused her mind to lose its ability to control or even maintain something. And no amount of training could compensate for that.
Her head spun, her vision wouldn't focus, and something told her: the problem wasn't with Martian nearsightedness.
Luckily, there were two others besides herself (not including the drones) assisting in the mission. They didn't have full access to the military body, but their voices slipped into Esma's thoughts.
This time the twilight was much more familiar and pleasant, diluted with aquamarine flashes and strange sounds resembling a choral singing, although not a single word could be distinguished from it.
"Did you hear that?" - the Martian asked her partners. But the only response from the team was a message that made her think:
"Hear what?"
"Never mind ," - she quickly sent back the message, thinking she had just experienced another glitch due to desynchronization and exhaustion. Descending and sitting down, Esma reached for the station.
Once again, she had to wait a few minutes for the signal to calibrate, during which new information arrived.
According to Esma's plans, she was close to her target. On this level, just a few dozen meters away from the dormant reactor, was the server room. Just like on Titan.
Jumping through the debris to the airtight door and prying it open with metallic claws, the rescuer entered the spacious room.
The white light was blinding and disorienting. It smelled of some medication and camp fluid. The emergency systems were diligently performing their last breath. The devices were beeping. But it didn't matter at all. Instead of brains in the nutrient fluids, the guest found empty flasks with dried remnants of dust on the bottoms.
"No! I don't believe it! This can't be!" - Esma repeated, denying the obvious, slowly walking down the rows.
The fears of the crowd turned out to be justified, making the situation even more frightening and shocking! Everything was repeating: the Earthlings had abandoned the colony to fate, pretending like nothing had happened.
The feeling of a cosmic graveyard induced paralysis and shock. If something, the canpic fluids and their contents remained intact under almost any circumstances. Because of this, it was bootlegs with familiars who were not afraid of neither the environment nor cosmic radiation that were the first to land on planets. This was the utilitarian purpose of "death cycle" - not just abandonment of the body, but also of the boundaries between worlds.
"Hhss... We are broken, - the signal turned into a recording, at the end of which a quiet and timid voice said, - Is anybody hear me?"
Esma didn't understand the question right away. The strange accent was recognized with a delay as "Russian." But when the realization suddenly struck her, the Martian immediately rushed to the call. Imagine her surprise when she found at the end of the long room an altar adorned with angular symbols and surrounded by strange frescoes depicting... familiars.
On either side of the discovery were two opened hibernation capsules, next to which survivors huddled together - children in torn and dirty woolen clothes.
Intently watching, the colonists waited. They were clearly puzzled by the sight of the tall red-skinned stranger, with disproportionately wide chest and elongated arms and legs for Earthlings.
As Esma reached for the medicine and equipment, a nauseating buzzing sound rang in her temple. Someone from the bootlegs or familiars was nearby. The guest looked around, searching for a fellow tribesman, blinking her huge eyes. But to her dismay - besides the children and herself, there was no one else in the room.
The foundlings looked strange, but they were definitely not bootlegs - there was not a single working canpic jar left in the server room. This was confirmed by the tubes with respirators on the children, and the sensors in the spacesuit. Even the drones that had scanned the room from every angle.
Something didn't add up, someone was controlling the systems, not allowing them to shut down in anticipation of help?
The eldest of the children immediately seemed hostile, snorting contemptuously and turning away. The youngest, on the other hand, smiled with the kindest and sweetest smile Esma had ever seen.
Standing up and quickly turning around, he raised his hands up and began to mutter something in a sing-song voice.
- Djetivey eranegma hellven illartet! - was the only thing that could be understood from the strange and stuttering monologue.
Afterwards, the albino-looking child cautiously took something from the altar. Huffing loudly in the respirator, he quickly approached the adult and, handing over the item, babbled, sniffing as if sniffing:
- Innu-akku.
The item turned out to be a small flask in which a black flower resembling a rose was blooming. As soon as the canpic approached, a buzzing sound rang in her temple again.
The analyst, albeit with a delay, translated the phrase. After reading it, Esma doubted its accuracy and decided to clarify, casting a glance at the frightening children's drawings near the altar:
- Inu-aku? Demon dog?
- Innu-akku! - the child confirmed, nodding.
"Glia? Neurons? Nonsense! It can't be true!" - The Martian woman didn't believe her guess. As well as the sensors. Could human consciousness be dozing in a plant? Or maybe, it could? And was it even a flower? She had to hastily remind herself that there was no place for anthropocentrism in space biology, and life could not only be carbon-based, but also silicon-based.
The strange creature began to slowly circle, shimmering with a bluish glow and making a chirping sound. It was in it that the sensitive sensors detected both interference and that very voice from the recording.
- Ace Heyvana, - the older child shouted at the younger in surprise, taking out the cracked sphere from his pocket and holding it up to the guest, challenging her gaze.
- H...how? - the guest was even more surprised, still looking at the swaying bud as if in a trance.
Request to unite two minds. The gesture, so characteristic and understandable to all bootlegs, left no doubt about its interpretation.
Esma had already taken out her transmitter from her temple when she was stopped by two voices from the station.
Both of them doubted the correctness of the action, although not equally strongly. It's no wonder - titans and earthlings perceived similar experiences differently. For the former, it was akin to something wrong, an act of incredible trust reserved only for the closest. For the latter, the merging was a kind of analog to sex or a tickling nerve amusement, but nothing more. Esma understood the excitement of the titan-analyst: getting lost in the labyrinth of someone else's "mind" was quite a task. If the carrier himself didn't always understand thoughts and emotions, then what to say about outsiders? Not everyone could handle it. Moreover, it also worked the other way around, and not everyone was ready to expose themselves to someone else. Under the pressure of the analyst's thoughts, Esma also doubted, understanding the risk of breaching the neuroplatform's protective firewall. Especially because of signal delays, malfunctions, and glitches.
- Innu-akku...- the younger one sulked, tenderly pressing the globe to his chest, while the team deliberated, and Esma's eyes flickered on and off.
When the cracked sphere rolled to the guest's feet, the child cried:
- Innu-akku illariet!
- The bureaucrats will definitely gobble us up with the guts!- the team had no choice but to acknowledge. The enclave was waiting for results or at least coherent explanations, which the crew did not have. They themselves could hardly understand what was happening.
And they wanted even less to be the cause of an interplanetary conflict than another stain on their career.
After wavering and considering all possible risks, the pilot and the analyst still gave their approval for the merger, saying:
"If anything - call! We'll try to pull you out, Min'aas. There's about a minute delay, should be enough for emergency disconnection."
With permission granted, Esma resolutely brought the pulsating light ball to the globe.
It responded instantly, answering to a foreign call and transferring into the trapped "mind".