Chapter 5: Hello Mr. Sal

"Hello new friend."

Akikta wandered into the site known as Cryogenic Hopetown. He nearly lost balance with each step he took as the icy ground was slippery and unmaintained. The effort was for naught as he slipped and busted the back of his head onto the frozen ground.

When he sat up, he was disoriented. So much so, he'd get flashes of various residents roaming throughout Cryogenic Hopetown. Akikta, while rubbing the back of his head, took off his mask to get a better look at what he saw. He'd see scientists conduct various tests; some were on a few of the marine life they used for research rather than food.

He remembered this site was mainly used for research into cryogenics. It was an effort for them to further preserve themselves down in Alterna. Akikta found it unfortunate that all that research only benefited him.

A frown curled onto Akikta's lips. The constant reminder that everyone he knew was gone and dead crept into his mind yet again. He stared up at the simulated sky, gazing at the artificial sun. It wasn't as bright as Father Axe described the real sun, or, at least, it wasn't if Akikta could stare right into it. Some things just couldn't be perfectly replicated.

"It was our dream to see the sky together. All of our dreams..." Akikta said, not taking his eyes off the simulated sky. Almost everyone down in Alterna, aside from the elder scientists, wanted to see the real sky. It was why they built the Spirt Lifter to begin with. What was it? Were their ambitions too great? Was seeing the real sky too much to ask for? Were they too greedy?

Akikta's brother wanted to see the sky more than anyone else. It's all he would talk about sometimes. The teen inhaled deeply before lowering his gaze back down to his mask.

"Father Axe, Chaska, Father..." The faces of Akikta's loved ones appeared one by one on the blank canvas of the mask. They may have been gone physically, but so long as he kept this mask, they would remain with him in spirit. That thought made him smile. "I'll see the sky for us. I promise."

Akikta vowed. Not only to his family, but to the other denizens of Alterna. He did not want their dreams to go unrealized. If Akikta were fated to die, it wouldn't be down here. It'd be under the soft glow of the sun. The real sun.

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange static gurgling noise. Someone tried to speak underwater through a radio, or so it sounded like.

He jumped to his feet, startled, but immediately slipped and fell back down. He groaned in pain before hearing the gurgles again.

Akikta raised his head and looked around for the noise. Around him were snow, ice, and broken-down buildings that stretched out for yards. He slowly rose from the icy ground and carefully slid his way over to where he last heard the static gurgles. When he stepped onto the snow, he heard it again; this time, it was slightly louder.

He tilted his head forward and stared intently at the ground. Akikta kneeled and dug through the snow, which was not as cold as he had expected it to be. After he lifted away three handfuls of snow, he uncovered a black object with a small antenna sticking from the top of it. Akikta was hesitant to pick it up, but he couldn't resist the temptation of finding out what the object was. He grabbed it by its antenna and gently raised it from the snow. Akikta wiped the patches of snow that stuck to the black-colored object and examined it more closely.

At first glance, it appeared to be an ordinary handheld radio. There were a few buttons on the left side and bottom part of the radio. The radio also had a screen covering its top half, which was turned on. The screen displayed a small map of a large circular area. Thanks to the six sites on the screen, Akikta could tell this was a map of Alterna, but not just that. There were surrounding locations around Alterna, too. Locations he did not recognize.

"What is this? Some kind of GPS?" Akikta questioned, only to have a static gurgle blare out from the radio afterward. With the radio out of the snow and right in his face, he could decipher that someone was speaking, or at least trying to. He couldn't understand what they were saying. "Wha- hello? Hello?!" Akikta had been under the assumption he was the last human this whole time, so naturally, Akikta quickly tried to communicate back with the strange voice on the other side. At first, he got no response. "Hello!?"

After his third hello, a new noise came from the radio. "You... You can speak mammalian?" The voice of a man broke through from the radio. It sounded nothing like the static garbles and gurgles Akikta had heard earlier, but the faint tone of a slight gurgle could still be heard within the man's voice. Was there water stuck in his throat? And what did he mean by mammalian? Akikta spoke English. He wasn't sure how to respond to that question, so he chose not to acknowledge it.

"I...I thought I was the only one left. I thought..." Akikta started to tear up. An overwhelming amount of joy surged through him. He knew he shouldn't have believed O.R.C.A. Even if the man sounded strange, he was all Akikta had. How could an AI determine if all Humans were dead except him anyway? "Orca made it seem like I was the last one left. I knew he had to be wrong." He wiped a few of his tears away and sniffled. Nothing came from the radio for a few moments. Akikta was worried he might've spooked the stranger away, so he quickly introduced himself. "S-sorry! I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Akikta, Akikta Miles. I thought I was the only survivor down here, but I'm glad I was wrong."

More static emitted from the radio before the stranger replied. This time, he sounded less confused and more amicable. "Well met Akikta! The others call me Mr. Sal, but please, just call me Sal."

Akikta perked up at Sal's word choice. "Others? There are more of us?"

Sal made a casual "err" sound on the other side of the radio, as if he wasn't sure how to answer that basic question properly. "You say that is if there's not supposed to be any of us?"

Akikta was left speechless for a few moments. Didn't Sal know of the devastation to befall their home? "Well...you've seen the state of this place. Haven't you? Alterna is-"

"ALTERNA?!" Sal boomed abruptly, which almost made Akikta drop the radio.

"Y-yea. Our home. Wait, are you not in Alterna?"

"Sorry, our people have only heard of that place in worn-down books. I wasn't even convinced it was real until now." Akikta furrowed his brows as he processed the information Sal suddenly dropped on him. The man implied that he wasn't even from Alterna to begin with. He thought back to what O.R.C.A said about not all humans having died when the launch made Alterna collapse.

It has been over twelve thousand years. Perhaps the humans from one of the holdout zones left Alterna amidst its wreckage and found a way to survive on the surface? That would mean Akikta is talking to a descendant of an Alternan resident.

Because Akikta remained silent for an awfully long time, Sal broke that silence by clarifying a few things. "I've been searching for Alterna for years now. It's said to be where we all come from. I sent a team to investigate the location you're in now, but then the connection dropped. When it came back, it was just you. Do you know where they've gone?"

Akikta looked around, having seen no traces of life being here previously. Maybe that camp he came across earlier was built by the team. If so, he wondered if they were still around. "Sorry, I haven't seen anyone. I found this radio buried in the snow. It's... It's just me." Akikta wanted to say more but decided not to spook Sal with what he knew was down here. He didn't count O.R.C.A as an actual person, and he was NOT about to mention that terrible ink monster from before.

It took Akikta a moment to realize he was being vague about his response. "I-I swear I did nothing to your team, if that's what you're thinking. I found the radio buried in the snow, honest!" Akikta said defensively, not wanting to make Sal distrust him. He hadn't even considered that prematurely defending himself looked suspicious in of itself.

"It's fine, I believe you," Sal responded casually. Akikta breathed a sigh of relief. "Say, you should-" Sal's voice deteriorated into static as the GPS started bugging. Akikta started to panic, tapping the radio's sides a few times frantically.

"Hello? Sal? Sal?!" Akikta called out to the man, but the only response he got was the garbled static noise. The reception in this place was terrible. So, for the time being, he'd be alone once more. The teen sighed in disappointment. There were a lot of questions he still wanted to ask Sal. He supposed that'll have to wait.

Akikta inspected the radio one last time, catching two new things he hadn't noticed before. One, the buttons were labeled with these strange symbols and words he had never seen before. Akikta figured the language of humans would evolve over twelve thousand years, though that didn't explain why Sal could speak English if it were "out of style" now. A bunch of studying maybe?

The second thing he noticed was a small slit on the underside of the radio. It was a port, though he didn't have any USB cables to plug into the radio. He hoped the port wasn't to charge the device.

Akikta gazed upward at the blue rocket in the distance. He was only a few sites away from the Alterna Space Center. With any luck, the reception will be better within the control room. He stuck the radio in his pocket and strapped his mask back on. "Alright." Akikta stretched his legs one last time before he continued his journey through Alterna.