✅ Project SETI 3: Eve's Advent

Part IV: Project SETI

          "Shocking," the tall blonde medic called out when the defibrillator was charged for a third time in a row. "Stand clear."

          Gabriel's chest contracted and his limbs flailed, and everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath for a long moment while the monitor got a read on him. Finally, it beeped twice in quick succession to denote a premature ventricular contraction, and then it began to trace something that looked like fast sinus, but there was something off about the shape of the waveforms.

          The male attendant took his stethoscope and inched it around on his chest while his partner prepared to transport him. There was a soft thud as the vessel touched down, and he quickly took it out of his ears and wrapped it around his neck again. "Heart sounds are still abnormal. He could arrest again any second."

          "Let's get him out of here."

          Nova's attendant adjusted the bed so that it was inclined again and prepared it for transport as Gabriel was moved to the platform and lowered down into the emergency room below.

          "I'll walk," Nova said pointedly when he fully zoned back in. "I'm okay."

          "You sure?" the paramedic asked.

          He removed the blood pressure cuff and pulse oximeter. "Yeah, yeah."

          "A private recovery slash observation room had been prepared before your arrival," Sam explained as she got to her feet. "Let me take you to it. Temet, stay with me, please. This should go without saying, but if you try to flee, I'm going to have to forcibly detain you."

          Temet's feathers retracted and shrunk at the harder tone in Sam's voice when she turned to speak to her. She hadn't planned on going anywhere, and the pseudo-threat made her more anxious than she would have liked. She cleared her throat and increased the vibrations in her voice before she spoke, "I understand... but... I do genuinely want to help you—please understand that, as well. And I want to make sure Gabriel and Nova are okay... my—my intentions are not selfish in nature."

          "Very well," Sam nodded.

          Nova, Temet and Sam stepped onto the platform once it rose back up, and it promptly lowered into a designated room in the emergency department of the private medical facility. It was pretty empty, as far as emergency rooms go—it was apparent that the usage of such facilities was limited, which allowed the proportionally limited staff to focus as many resources to Gabriel as was needed.

          "Thirty-two year-old male, head trauma and probable intracranial hematoma—he was in full arrest upon arrival. Shocked five times in transit," the female paramedic reported flatly as he was pushed through a set of swinging double-doors at the far end of the ER. "We don't know the full extent of his injuries yet..."

          Nova unconsciously started toward the hallway Gabriel and his attendants had disappeared into, but Sam gently took his arm and pulled him away.

          "He's in good hands," Sam said with a pitying smile. She looked to the nurse's station situated near the middle of the room, in search of someone in particular who was supposed to be there, but they weren't. "Can I get a nurse, please?"

          "Yes, sorry, Ms. Lancaster," a staff member immediately answered. He gestured to another nurse sitting near him, who promptly stood up and started toward the group. They both stopped and jolted when they saw the Daxut standing with them. "Uh—"

          "Don't concern yourself with her," Sam cut him off. "Not a word to anyone, understand?"

          "Yes... of course."