A synthesized voice answered: "Pattern matches no known human or alien linguistic database. However, it appears to be an abbreviation."
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.
Aris froze. His hands trembled as he pulled up the internal sensor grid. Nothing. No life signs but his own. He grabbed a flashlight and followed the signal's source to a sealed maintenance shaft — one marked with faded red letters:
Niv Ewb.
"Abreviation for what?"
It wasn't a glitch.
