✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter One - Part VI: Off the Clock

          "Hey Jules, do you have a minute?"

          Julia turned to face Gabriel, who had just finished his last appointment of the day: a follow-up on a surrogate very late along in the experiment. She had finished up her own end-of-day obligations as well, and was just on her way out herself. "What's up?"

          "I wanted to talk to you about Melika, if you had a sec," Gabriel spoke with a hint of a frown on his face. He crossed his arms; he felt a little unsure of himself.

          "Yeah, of course," she turned around and gestured to her office.

          "It's just..." he sighed and waited for the door to close behind them, "well, I'm not sure if you noticed, but when we were in the theatre with Nova..."

          "I did notice, actually," Julia spoke when Gabriel seemed to struggle to find the words. "Her reaction time was off. Like, a lot."

          "Yeah," Gabriel cautiously agreed, "and she was late turning off the anesthetic, and I think she might have fucked up the dosage of the reversal agent."

          The head doctor frowned and her brows wrinkled and narrowed. "What makes you say that?"

          "Well, it took him longer than usual to start breathing on his own," he broke eye contact while he explained and let his gaze wander. "And when it came time to extubate, he briefly stopped breathing."

          Julia had begun typing at her computer as he spoke. She was making up an incident report. "Anything else?"

          "He was markedly impaired upon waking up. Both times," he stopped to clear his throat. "I know there's some margin of error with the reversal agent, but this was well beyond that."

          "Y'know, Gabe, you're not the only one that's noticed this," Julia closed the screen of the computer into the desk upon finishing the report. She pitied the clear anxiety on his face when she looked up at him again. "There was something... off about her in the last procedure we did together, too."

          He let out a sharp sigh. "I am relieved in one way, but worried in another."

          "I'll approach her about it," Julia led him out, and the door to her office locked automatically. "She needs to know that these things haven't gone unnoticed."

          "Be kind about it," Gabriel said as she walked away. He was worried about the harsh tone she'd taken there. "She's alluded to some kind of trouble at home, so... just be mindful, okay, Jules?"

          "I will," she waved to him with one foot out the door. "I promise."

          Gabriel watched as the main door closed and locked behind her. Some of the clinic's lights were off now, and the receptionists had packed up and left. They had already been replaced by the night staff – usually, there weren't any patients in at night, but often enough, one would call in and need to be seen promptly. A specialized nurse stayed until morning, along with a doctor from one of the other areas of the medical facility, and either Julia or Gabriel would be on-call as well.

          He made his way back to the fancy recovery room, and once inside, he found that Nova had gotten dressed and then seemed to have promptly fallen asleep again. He had his feet on the ground, but was splayed out diagonally across the bed.

          Gabriel smirked upon seeing he'd remained connected to the pulse oximeter, and his smirk turned into a smile when he saw his heart rate and temperature were still normal.