✅ Project SETI 2: The Daxut Plan

Part I: Abroad

         Nova's consciousness returned to him slowly. The first thing he became aware of was the mask on his face, and the steady stream of oxygen that flowed from it. Then he zoned in on something that sounded like a heart monitor, but it was different from anything he'd heard before. It was low and deep beeping, as opposed to high and shrill. When he opened his eyes, he couldn't really see anything—his vision was blurry. Sources of light streaked down and sideways, and all he could make out was that the walls were a bland, non-descript light beige.

         He felt that he was quite stiff, so he tried to shift position and found he couldn't. His wrists and ankles had been bound. Then he remembered being stuck in the neck with a sharp before he lost consciousness and started to panic. There was a sudden swip noise as the door to the chamber slid open and closed again, which was followed by an urgent clicking against the floor.

         "Please remain calm," a strange, feminine voice said. "You are not in any danger here."

         Nova turned to look at the source of the voice and saw a large figure standing over him. He couldn't make out anything distinguishing about it though, aside from the fact that the outer edges of its silhouette looked feathery and avian. Then he felt something soft against his hand for a second, and everything went black again.

         When he came to again, it felt like a blink—like no time had passed at all. Strangely, he couldn't remember what had happened when he last closed his eyes, and the memories drew further and further away the more he tried to think about it. Then, everything that had happened before he woke up in this place flashed through his mind at a rate so fast, it was hard to process.

         He remembered that he had barely fallen asleep when he heard someone attempting to break into the delivery room Gabriel had left him in. He'd pressed the call button, then tried to get dressed, but barely got half-way through it when the first of his pursuers burst through the door. Gabriel immediately knocked him to the ground, and then shot out his eye and slit his throat.

         Nova lingered on that detail for a few seconds. He remembered asking himself at the time, just how Gabriel managed to brutally and fatally assault that guy and then keep moving like it never happened. He was grateful for it, but at the same time, unnerved at his apparent capacity for violence.

         He continued to run through it in his head. He scaled down the outside of the building using the fire escape, jumped into the parking garage, got into Gabriel's ship... Nova frowned when he remembered he had been hit shortly after that, and the seizures and code that followed. He recalled stabilizing him, and then trying to get help, but...

         He'd been attacked from above, and now he was here. He consciously thought that he didn't even know where here was, so he woke himself up more fully and looked around.

         It was a rather large room, but it was mostly empty. The only things in it were the large, surprisingly comfortable bed he was lying on, a high-seated stool and matching table, and the console that was built into the wall on his left side. The tubing of the oxygen mask ended there, as did the wired pulse oximeter he was wearing. A small screen displayed the trace of his stable heartbeat and respirations, alongside a ream of unrecognizable symbols.

         The metal door at the far end of the room slid open, and Nova whipped his head around to look at what it was. He tensed and shot upright upon seeing a tall, feathered biped, unlike anything he'd ever seen before. She had a proportionately large parrot-like head that was punctuated by two beady pupil-less orange eyes. Her entire body was covered in jet black feathers, except for the large neon blue crown she bore on top of her head. It was in a relaxed position, and it flowed halfway down her back like a mane. As she glided gracefully across the room, Nova saw just how enormous she was—at least eight feet tall, with thick limbs that ended in large talons at her feet. He couldn't quite make out her hands—they appeared to be completely shrouded by feathers. She wore a loose-fitting white tank-top type garment that left her freakishly long arms unimpeded, and from the waist down, she wore loose trousers of a similar colour, along with an elaborate utility apron that held a variety of tiny instruments in pockets and little straps.