The stranger was no idiot, despite his lengthy submersion in the water. Luna and Mars stood outside the now-sealed door of the med-bay and spoke into the panel embedded into the metal wall of their subnautic home, instructing the stranger as to how he could answer their hail. After three tries, they heard the click of his response, meaning he had gotten to his feet to press the panel.
Luna, her eyes still wide with the insanity of the evening, took a step back and allowed Mars to speak into the panel: “Sorry about the lodging… we don’t have many visitors and I can honestly say, we’ve never had someone like you visiting us. On the topic of which, why don’t you tell us who and what you are?”
A lengthy pause ensued, during which, uncle and niece both looked to one-another and pondered how they would rid themselves of the Monstrum should he prove to be truly tainted. After a few scratches on the panel, the voice of the young man spoke: “I… I don’t know… where am I? Who are you?” His answer did little to inspire calm in his hosts, but the tone of his voice conveyed genuine confusion. It seemed he, like them, was none the wiser as to what had brought them together. Mars drew his mouth sideways into a thoughtful smirk and while rubbing his sharp chin questioned: “What’s the last thing you remember, then?”
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The visitor fell silent and instead, numerous beeps sounded from the display inside the chamber - the familiar sound of someone browsing what should be an unbrowsable screen. Both sharpened their ears and leaned closer, listening to what sounds bled through the green metal barrier.
“I can’t remember anything except vomiting on the floor… we’re at Site B. But something’s wrong - most of the systems are offline. And life-support’s been routed away from a lot of partitions. The fusion core… it’s down to ten percent power. Another year and it’ll be dead.” In an instant, the boy in the chamber had learned more about their station than most of its inhabitants - secrets that had been kept even from Luna. One year?
Mars’ eyes grew wider as he heard another beep. He grabbed Luna by the arm and dragged her backwards as the door slid open to reveal a calm, profusely wounded young man with wet, eye-long hair; naked, as the day he had been born.
The stranger blinked the salt from his eyes and looked out at the two hesitant hosts in the hallway with confusion, resting his eyes on the knife in the man’s hand. Only then did he realize his naked state and quickly stepped to the side to conceal his genitalia, but kept his expressionless face in their view to greet his weary saviors. .
“H-hello…”