Arden ventures deeper into the plant infested ship and gets a puzzling message.
- 📖 The thick walls made it harder for signals to penetrate, so he had to go deeper into the ship. Arden began to doubt his decision, but he was to deeply invested now to turn around. He followed another infested hallway into a small room. There were tiles on the floors and walls. Rows of lockers were partitioning multiple showers. A possible water source for the plant life.
- 📖 The vines were indeed a bit denser here and he could see, similarly to the first time he saw it, several bodies hanging from the ceiling. A network of roots covered them, making it almost impossible to see their decomposed bodies underneath. He slowly backed out again and continued his journey to the signal.
- 📖 It all looked the same. Instead of having a detailed map of the ship he only had a vague signal he could follow, even though most starships followed a similar pattern. The next room contained a wall full of monitors, most of which were destroyed, severly damaged or fallen to the floor. The remaining consoles and chairs indicated that this was once a security room.
- 📖 At the sound of a strange hissing, Arden twitched around and surveilled his surroundings. Did the thing from the storage bay follow him? Or did the plants learn to speak? To his relief it came from a panel near the door at the opposite were he entered. A small two-way radio. It still seemed to be intact.
- 📖 Arden had to get rid of some of the vines covering the small apparatus partially recessed into the wall. The plants around it came to life so he had to act quickly or else. He connected the radio with his comms in the helmet.
"Hello? Anybody?"
He repeated the message multiple times and waited for an answer. Nothing came. As he was about to give up, he heard a short message.
"Safe yourself!" - 📖 "Hello! What is going on here? Where are you?"
There was only static as response.
"What do you mean by safe yourself? Is it the plants?"
More questions filled Ardens head, but all of them go unanswered. Frustrated Arden disconnected from the radio. - 📖 Why would they broadcast a distress call, only to scare him off again. Something wasn't right. Arden was intrigued. A puzzle to solve. It was as exhilarating as it was frightening.