The Ultimate of Civilisation

 Aria watched as half of her equipment fell down the cliff, falling for long enough to go completely out of sight. It wasn't quite the view she had come for, but she definitely wouldn't forget it. Strictly speaking she probably deserved this, amateur mountain climbing in the winter is already about five different kinds of stupid even if she hadn't done it completely alone.   

 She was really, really bored, though.   

 “Dying of exposure on a mountain top, though, that sounds like a party,” Aria commented on her own thoughts. She was probably already slightly delirious from oxygen deprivation given that she wasn't being sarcastic, and was completely losing the thread of her own internal narration. That was probably why she didn't question why there would be a very unnatural looking cave so high on the mountain, nor why it was so... convenient. 

 Being a fox, Aria's night navigation was pretty decent. She didn't require a lot of light, so being able to see was only suspicious rather than absurd. The fact that the cave was warming was also probably fairly plausible. The even, smooth nature of the stones was... more unusual, but it was an excuse to pull of her wet boots and let her paws dry out while she massaged her aching beans.   

 The alien spaceship at the end of it, though, that was definitely a hallucination. 

 Aria sighed and looked at her reflection in the spaceship. Clearly, she was already dying. It wasn't the worst way to go. Absolutely crazy levels of adventure were at least an interesting death, plus she'd made it pretty high. It's not like she was leaving behind all that much. A lower middle class sort of status, no girlfriend, job as a therapist listening to the wankers that weren't actually the ones who need fixing (and having to mostly just sit around and look pretty while they fixed themselves anyway)... still, she had hoped to at least make it out of her twenties before something ridiculous happened. 

 She had a really good metabolism and it was gonna be a shame to miss out on her remaining years of pigging out while staying skinny. 

 “Heh, 'had'” she commented as she fell asleep. 

 ...Only to wake barely two hours later, still leaning against an alien spacecraft. 

 Since she had already hit 'acceptance' for her own death, blowing through the five stages of grief for her previous worldview took only a couple minutes before she decided she might as well look for a way inside.   

 The ship was definitely crash landed, and not really oriented properly... but the extreme level of ruin allowed her to eventually find a crack, stepping through a burnt out husk of a ship, ruined metal free of corrosion outside of the initial wreck. Aria felt almost like she was sleepwalking as she went further into the machinery, slowly discovering parts of the wreck more intact, more connected... more alive.   

 She came to a stop before a sealed pod, tall and almost person shaped, with thick lead surroundings and a great hatch on the front that just screamed 'whatever I contain is extremely ominous'. Aria was pretty sure she didn't want to open it... 

 But she did still want to explore. 

 Examining the machinery surrounding her, she didn't really learn much besides just how out of her depth she really was. She considered herself pretty smart, albeit not educated enough that she'd know what to do in a regular rocket, and all she was learning from the machinery was that Clark might have been on to something.   

 She also learned to monitor her tail more carefully, though it was probably too late once she flicked a switch on one of the consoles. 

 A projector in the center of the room flickered on, a hologram springing to life in front of her eyes. 

 A hologram with no actual form, showing only an alien symbol. 

 “Behold! The glory we once had.” the hologram spoke in a clear voice, the image growing brighter as the voice went silent, intending to let it sink in. 

 Aria decided she had discovered the extraterrestrial equivalent of the 'broken image link' icon. 

 “That was our past,” the voice eventually spoke with despair, “And this is all that remains of our future. We are the people of the planet Oganesson, and we wish to welcome you...” The image error paused dramatically as the lights across the spaceship lit up in waves, about half of the bulbs failing to come on and at least one object recognizable as a music player briefly letting out a screech before catching fire, “To the Final Legacy!” 

 “I'm sorry to hear that,” Aria said sincerely. 

 “Once, our people roamed our corner of the galaxy freely. Unraveling the mysteries of astrophysics, pop music, and blimfog. Unfortunately, it was too good to last, and our people reached their inevitable demise...”   

 Aria looked around at the ship, genuinely humbled by the technology on display, somewhat... poor priorities of the recording or not. She wasn't even sure if it was interactive, but she asked nonetheless, “What happened? Solar flares ruined all your old government computers? Robot uprising? Robot NOT uprising? Couldn't get a cultural shift towards accepting colony ships nor FTL travel before your sun inevitably burned out?” 

 “No it wasn't any of those things, but thank you for helping us compile a profile on your species technology level rather than trying to show off to an advanced alien race.”

The program was definitely responsive, then. 

 “No, I'm afraid our death was something far more inevitable... everybody just kind of got too into VR to reproduce.” 

 “What.” Aria responded, losing her train of thought. 

 “I KNOW right? I told those fucking peasants, 'get your eyes out of the bloody headset and start schtupping or we're all gonna die' I knew, I -knew- I made them too cheap! I would have shut it all down but they jail broke every damn device. The tombstone of our civilisation said 'Here lies Oganesson, didn't make sure their video games were always online so as to properly control our consumers,” The broken hologram managed to pack quite a bit of emotion into their synthesized voice. 

 Frankly, Aria was disgusted, but she was good enough at her job to just swallow it and encourage more talking. “Damn, that's horrible... so what did you do then?” 

 “Well, created this ship, obviously... as controller of thirty percent of the planet's wealth, I was able to fund quite a bit of technology. Creating this ship, the stasis fields to preserve our planet's last children, and a computer of superior intellect set on a sole mission to optimize biology for the millions of years between our planet and yours!” 

 “It...” Aria spoke through clenched teeth, getting a very clear picture of the planet's fall “sounds like did everything you could.” 

 “Of course. Alas, now, ages on, there is only one of our species remaining. Mira, my darling daughter, preserved in the pod behind you. Our species lifetime of advancement condensed into a single being, the resources of a planet in one. To be honest, I myself could not tell you a thing about her biology at this point.”   

 “I'm sure you can! She's your daughter, no matter what changes you'll still have something to say.” Aria was becoming increasingly worried about what was inside that pod, images of tentacle monsters becoming more wild and explosive from reckless modification by an insane degenerate society flying through her head. Aria needed more information.   

 “You're sweet. I appreciate it. Once upon a time she was everything, now, though... she should be closer to your species. To recreate our people, we settled on a form close to yours, we will ascend one of your race to her perfected biology, and together you will restore our people.”   

 “Will she be okay?” Aria asked, shaking her imaginings like an etch a sketch, now imagining something like a glowing copy of an ex-girlfriend tearing up buildings. Leaning a bit into their rapport to make a bit of encouragement. “She has nobody to introduce her to the culture here, nobody to teach her the smoothest way to resurrect your empire, not all alone. Maybe it would be better if she stayed until she had an ally.” 

 “Perhaps it would... though, I am not sure for how much longer I have power. Tell me, are you the type that spends time with girls?” 

 “Yyyyes...” Aria answered, she hadn't denied it in years and suppressing those reflexes was dangerously difficult. She needed to focus on professionalism again before she took this down a bad road indeed.   

 “Shy. I appreciate that. Tell me, would you be our ally?” 

 “I am only here to help,” Aria started screaming internally the second the phrase left her mouth. 'Too professional!' She thought to herself. 'Way too professional!' 

 “Then you will be our ally...” the hologram blinked out, lights going off save for a single spotlight overhead, as robotic tendrils emerged from the wall. Aria turned to get out of the way, only to find her feet already strapped to the floor... and no escape to be found.   

 The machines pierced her arms, her legs, her entire body, and began pumping some foul ancient sludge inside her as her cells screamed in agony. 

 Then, still alive, she saw them withdraw, leaving her standing alone under a spotlight, where the only sound to be heard was her own breath... 

Until the changes started.