✅ Project SETI 3: Eve's Advent

Part XXXVIII: Benevolence

Prime Sentinel Nedias was an abnormally tall and humbly distinguished Daxut. She towered over her peers at a startling 9'1, and she was evidently an elder of their species—her scaly shins and talons were heavily weathered, as were the exposed muted gold scales on her lower abdomen. She was 'scantily' dressed, compared to the other Daxut the group had seen up until this point—she wore a modest dress-like garment that came down to her knees; it was dark grey in colour and embroidered with an understated geometric design that had many overlapping long lines and sharp angles. Decorative silver-toned vambraces adorned her forearms, and a matching headdress decorated with bright green precious stones was woven through her lengthy purple crown. Its intricate design forced her iridescent feathers to fall in a neat thick line down her back and legs.

"Warm greetings to you all," she said to the group of humans that had gathered at the bottom of the entry ramp. She noticed right away how ill Nova still looked from the delivery, he couldn't even really stand up on his own; Gabriel was supporting him. "I am Prime Sentinel Nedias. I'm pleased to see you're all here in one piece..."

"I have... so many fucking questions," Julia said incredulously as she looked around. They were inside some kind of high-tech facility, but the actual shape of the room they were in was irregular; more in line with some kind of cave or small canyon formation. Several feet above them, there was a huge glass panel that revealed the evening sky beyond—it was still a blue, Earth-like sky, but it had a more turquoise hue to it, and several rings of naturally-formed glass and ice dominated the horizon. Nearby was the vessel Jurark had come in, and a few others were sitting silently by as well.

"We'll get to that right away," she said as she approached Nova. "Temet told me you just gave birth to a Daxut child... you don't look well."

"... no," Nova quietly admitted. "I'm exhausted... it—it was a hard labor..."

"Let me see if I can do something about that."

Julia rushed back into the medbay when she realized they'd forgotten the incubator in there, and when she returned, Gabriel had lowered Nova to the floor and was supporting his upper body in his lap. "We've got him here. This thing will feed and support him in general for a little while."

"Very well," Nedias nodded at her as she kneeled down to Nova. "I'm going to hold your hand, like this," she paused and gently but firmly grasped one of his hands in both of her own, "and I'm going to make some funny noises in your ear, but it will help, I promise."

"Okay," Nova whispered and tried to relax. The Daxut's feathers were almost ethereally soft, and there was something genuinely kindly and maternal about her voice that further comforted him. It made him wonder if it was simply just more speech-magic, but he realized quickly that it wasn't until she moved her beak to his ear and began to make long soothing tones that divided and became two at once, harmonizing with each other through the phrases. It was vaguely musical and intensely calming, and he could feel his pain and exhaustion lifting. He also became aware of some kind of energy force moving through him and down his arm to the hand Nedias was holding, and she didn't stop until that flow of energy ceased. When she did finally release her grip and stop vocalizing about fifteen seconds later, his hand felt strangely heavy and fell to the floor, but the worst of his exhaustion had gone away and barely a trace of his physical pain remained.

"You okay, baby?" Gabriel asked as he got his wits about him.

"... yeah," Nova replied questioningly and leaned forward. "I feel... good, actually. A little tired, but... way better than a minute ago..."

"I'm glad," Nedias hummed as she took the incubator from Julia and inspected it and the child within. "I still insist that you rest here, at least for a few hours... it'll give us all a chance to get acquainted and get some other affairs in order."