✅ Project SETI: Surrogates for Extra-Terrestrial Insemination

Part XII: Metaphysical

          Upon entering the strange sprawling compound, Nova noticed that everything about it looked oddly sterile and off. There were people working, walking around, doing tasks—but none of them spoke to or acknowledged each other, and he was deeply unnerved by it. He couldn't even really discern what it was they were working at. People sat behind desks, some had computers, some didn't, but the longer he observed them, the harder it was to see what they were doing.

          He suddenly felt someone watching him and looked around. His vision faded to bright white, and he thought he could see Gabriel's concerned face looking down at him—but he instinctively squeezed his eyes closed in an attempt to will the image away before he could really think about it. When he opened them again, he noticed a figure that stood on the second floor balcony of the weird nondescript office lobby-workspace area, and it appeared to be observing him. He thought it looked sort of like Frak, from before, but before he could get a good look, the figure noticed they were watching and turned to walk away.

          "Hey!" Nova called as he looked around for a way up to the second floor. "Wait!"

          He wasn't sure why, but he felt like he needed to get to that person for help. None of the other entities around seemed to notice him, except for the mystery figure that was now inconspicuously walking among everyone else.

          Nova ran up an escalator nearby and spotted the figure again. Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn't Frak, but another person who looked like they could be related to Gabriel. They had dark red hair that registered as black at a glance, but in light, the red undertones could be seen. They also wore a long satin-y black dress that seemed to flow around them like smoke, and their skin was a deep freckled brown.

          "Hey!" Nova called again as he caught up with them. "You can see me, right?"

          The figure abruptly turned around, and Nova couldn't help a surprised gasp when he saw it was blind. Their eyes were covered in a white weathered bandage that was wrapped around their head.

          Nova tensed up when the figure lunged and grasped his hand. "Uh—"

          "I need proof that you can hear me," the figure whispered intensely.

          "Um—"

          "Yell! Anything!" It continued in a shrill, unpleasant screech.

          Nova squeezed and tapped the figure's hand, as if to say there, there, and then nervously released when the figure seemed appeased by it. They cleared their throat and straightened.

          "Ah, sorry about that," the figure said in a more lucid voice. "I don't know what came over me there. You're different from everyone else in here, aren't you?"

          Nova didn't know what to say to most of that. "Do you know where... in here is?"

          "It's whatever your mind needs it to be," it crooned cryptically.

          He went to ask them another question, but the figure promptly shrunk down into the dress and rapidly dissipated into a thinning smoke, until not a single trace of it remained. But before he had a chance to process any of it, he felt himself become inexplicably turned on.

          What the fuck is going on, he asked himself, for about the fiftieth time since waking up in this place.

          He took a quick look around and saw a dark hallway that seemed to lead away from this area. He stepped into it and out of the many lights that illuminated the main part of the office-lobby, and right away, his surroundings shifted to yet another hospital room. This one was different than the one on the boat—it had that same familiar and nostalgic aura, but something about it felt a little less off-putting.