✅ Project SETI 2: The Daxut Plan

Part XXII: Blueprint

Temet had been silently recording the entire ordeal from the corner of the room—Jarah was in the shot, as well as the holographic interface on the window, and Gabriel beyond it was visible too. She was tense and unnerved; she knew that her mother had great capacity for harm, but she'd never seen it expressed in such a way before, and it frightened her. And even though the scene unfolding in front of her was horrific and traumatizing for her in its own way, she knew that whatever Gabriel was experiencing was tenfold. Her hands began to shake as she continued to watch, and the video on-screen on her tablet began to shake along with it.

She wondered if Jarah was even aware of her presence anymore. She hadn't turned around a single time since she began; her focus was solely on the human behind the glass and channeling her voice to him. Her mind raced at what she should do next—surely, this half-hour of video and audio footage was enough proof; she didn't need to linger here any longer.

Temet stopped recording and carefully slid the tablet into a pocket, then looked up at the section of the HUD that displayed Gabriel's vital signs. She noticed that both traces were moving very fast, and the thought struck her that maybe she should stay, in case something happened to him.

But... what would I be able to do about it? she lamented internally. I need to get back to Novala... we'd have a better shot together.

She slowly sidled over to the door and made a stealthy exit, even though she knew she was allowed to come and go as she liked—she thought it best if Jarah knew as little as possible about her movements at the moment. The metal door automatically slid shut behind her, and again, her gaze wandered over to the two aerospace mechanic workspaces. As she passed the first one and looked inside the small gap in the shelving fixtures that created the entrance, she noticed that the female Daxut working had her back turned at the moment. She was currently tweaking the design of a new type of heavy artillery weapon meant to be mounted on a spacecraft and seemed to be quite engrossed in the task.

Thinking fast, Temet located the compact energy cell she'd seen earlier, quickly shuffled over to the shelving fixture, and reached inside while the purple-crowned engineer still had her back turned. When she grasped the cylindrical object, she carefully lifted it so that the metal wouldn't scrape against the shelf, then swiftly pulled it against her body and turned around so that she had her own back turned to the Daxut within. She walked along the wall that led to the exit with an anxious spring in her step that she couldn't help, but managed to slip out of the workshop floor before anyone noticed she or the energy cell were gone.

Okay, she thought as she made her way down the hallway and to the front end of General Research, act natural. Act like you're supposed to be carrying this thing. Most normal thing in the world—it's for one of my projects, she nodded to herself. Yeah. That's technically not a lie.

"Have a wonderful rest of your day, Temet," one of the Daxut from behind the desk called to her as she passed.

She shrieked in surprise and her feathers shrunk in embarrassment. "Yeah... thanks."

Her shoulders dropped once she was inside the transport pod. She punched in the code for the private residential deck and silently prayed that there was no one walking about right now. The Temetor One was sparsely populated, so it was likely that she would be alone, but she was highly anxious right now and had to consider every possibility.

She held her breath as the transport pod opened, and she kept holding it as she brusquely walked up the hallway and turned into the doorway of her living quarters. She flashed a small card at a scanner near the door and slipped through as soon as she physically could. She locked it behind her before proceeding straight to her bedroom.