✅ Project SETI: Surrogates for Extra-Terrestrial Insemination

Part XX: Lockdown

         When Gabriel woke up again, he noticed that they'd both slept through until morning. As he read the digital clock, which told him it was 06:47:23, he noticed the bright streaks of orange in the otherwise blue sky, but the sun hadn't quite broken the horizon yet. He glanced at the monitor afterward and saw that everything was still okay with Nova's vital signs. He was still sleeping, and it didn't surprise him—he'd been down a long time and surely needed rest to recuperate from it.

         He wondered if the lockdown was still in effect and realized that he would need to get up to find that out. He sighed; he was quite content to remain just where he was. After a few minutes, he carefully climbed out of the bed and set it to lie at a less severe angle. When he was done, he pulled his scrub shirt on and took a long admiring look at Nova before he left. He took delight in the contract between his bulging belly and flat chest, and as his gaze trailed up, he glimpsed his just-visible neck pulse—then his eyes finally settled on the soft and boyishly handsome features of his face. He decided that the oxygen mask was unnecessary and replaced it with nasal cannula as gently as he could, and then he allowed himself another moment of appreciation before he turned to leave. With a smirk, he wondered just exactly how the small tubes of the cannula could accent his perfect jawline so much.

         Gabriel chuffed quietly to himself as he crossed the threshold and stepped out into the hallway. It was still eerily silent in Project SETI, but as he walked around and listened a little more intently, he could hear the hum of machines and computers and the occasional shuffle of other people walking around. A few minutes later, he arrived at Julia's office and noticed that it was still dark behind the thick airbrushed glass. He rapped on the door, just loud enough that anyone inside could hear.

         The door clicked open a crack a few moments later. A very drowsy-looking Julia, wrapped in a hospital blanket, peered through the small gap. She squinted at Gabriel, then opened the door and pulled him in. She promptly closed and locked it when they were both inside.

         "Were you here all night, too?" Gabriel asked. He watched as Julia went back over to the loveseat she had in her office and threw herself back into it.

         "Yep," she croaked. "Remind me to get a better goddamn couch in here for times like this."

         "Okay..." Gabriel filed that away for later. "So, uh... did you ever find out what was—still is?—going on...?"

         "Someone's trying to stage a break-in," Julia explained. "As far as I know, they haven't caught them yet."

         Gabriel frowned. "Well... I guess a lot of interesting stuff happens here that the general public doesn't know about..."

         Julia groaned in a way that sounded like a verbal shrug. "Whatever it is... all our shit's suspended for now. I had two patients in here waiting for their milestone sonograms, but the higher-ups took 'em off my hands when I asked them to... and since no one's in or out of here... I thought I'd sleep."

         "Yeah, of course you'd sleep," Gabriel mused. He paused to clear his throat. "Er... did you ever find out what happened to Melika...?"

         "God, Gabe, you're asking me too many fucking questions for this time of morning..." she yawned and stretched dramatically, then settled back into her spot on the couch. "Seth and Caleb couldn't hand her off to the general hospital. Lockdown was already in effect. So they revived and stabilized her themselves."

         "And—?"

         "Alprazolam overdose," Julia cut him off. She begrudgingly sat up again when she realized Gabriel wasn't going to leave her alone until his curiosity was sated. "She hasn't regained consciousness yet, to my knowledge, but... there was a bottle of three milligram instant release pills missing from the pharmacy. The bottle was found—empty—in her scrub pocket."