The trees in PN-606 are taller than megaships, and the deep grooves in their trunks remind Flux of wrinkles in aging skin. She reaches some tentacles out to gauge the diameter, but even at full extension she can't wrap them around half of a single tree.

[Is that a hug?]

"Do I look like the hugging sort? How long have these things been alive, anyway?"

[A few millennia, judging by their height. This particular species of flora is capable of lasting for thousands of years without any intervention. If left undisturbed, no one is quite sure how large they could grow.]

"Are they often left undisturbed?" Yuri asks.

[Remember that wooden table? The one we saw in the VIP area of that immersive cinema?]

"That incredible rainbow thing came from these trees? But they're so...brown."

[Their true colours are hidden beneath the bark. Older trees are more valuable for that reason--with every cycle of growth, a different coloured ring forms around the trunk, depending on soil conditions and moisture levels.]

"Ritt, you're sure we can dig here?" Flux probes the ground. "I mean, these trees are way old, their roots are probably deep by now. Will we even be able to find the thing without chopping one of these dudes down?"

[All of them have very shallow roots. Once we get past the surface layer of soil, the rest should be easy.]

"Hey, wait," Yuri says. "This planet gets hurricanes during the off-season, right? How are these trees still here?"

[The root system of an individual tree is shallow but spreads a great distance. When growing in thick groves like this, each tree twines their roots with another--this method of interdependence allows them to weather harsher conditions than they would be able to withstand as a single tree.]

"Oh."

They continue on in silence. Shafts of sunlight filter through the breaks in the thick canopy of leaves, and the air smells thick and green.

The scanner starts beeping when they reach a clearing with a single tree--its trunk is much wider than most of the others and oddly-shaped, like an unseen hand took a few trees and idly braided them together into one. Flux checks the cylinder's position within the root system, and extends her tentacles through the dirt and past the complex tangle of roots on the surface, reaching downwards. She reaches a few more tendrils into the root system to help her steady the cylinder, closing her eyes so that she can better concentrate, and it almost feels like she's become part of the forest itself, like she's rooted herself in the dirt in this place where a single moment seems like it could last forever, a single being merging with something much greater than itself.

The container breaks the surface. Flux takes a deep breath, trying to recenter herself in her body, but the borders keeping her form in place seem a lot more malleable than usual. Her skin ripples and reforms, and she can't seem to maintain a consistent shape.

"Hey," Yuri says. "Hey, you okay? Breathe with me, in, okay, now out--Rittenhouse? Rittenhouse! Get over here!"

"Don't worry about me. The container," Flux says, wheezing. "What's in it?"

"Forget the container--okay, come on, you're going to be fine," and Yuri wraps her arms around Flux's body, steadying her. "Just breathe with me, okay?"

[Flux, I'm going to scan you now--]

Flux feels the cold metal of Rittenhouse's claw on one of her arms, the tickle of his inbuilt pulse sensor against her skin, and that plus the warm weight of Yuri's body pressing against her back lets her get back to reality, remember the boundaries holding herself in.

[Pulse is reverting to normal rates.] Rittenhouse's optical sensors are flickering in the I'm-really-worried-but-trying-not-to-show-it way.

"Are you okay?" Yuri peers at her, brow furrowed in concern.

"Yeah," Flux says, catching her breath. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

She's regained control over her tentacles, so she reaches them out to brush against Rittenhouse's claw, Yuri's hand, coiling around both of them, twining all three of them together as a reassurance.

[Is this a hug?]

"Shut up and take it," Flux says.