✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter One - Part XXVII: Postictal

         Nova jolted awake again when Gabriel flinched and sucked air through his teeth. He glanced down and saw his eyelids fluttering, then quickly looked up at the clock to estimate how much time had passed. To his surprise, it had only been about twenty minutes since he last looked at it.

         "Hey daddy," he said softly when he noticed he was looking up at him. "You with me?"

         "Hi..." Gabriel replied hoarsely with the same slur from the last time he spoke. He squeezed his eyes closed and flinched when the sun shone through the windowed hull and onto his face. "Light hurts... my head..."

         Nova looked down at him with pity and concern. He was relieved to hear him speak again, but he sounded incredibly out of it. "Gabe... can you tell me when your birthday is?"

         "... oh, why... don't you know by now..." Gabriel said distantly.

         "Mmm... I forgot," he lied.

         "November... seventeen," he spoke slowly and sounded like he was struggling to articulate the words. "Yeah..."

         He was appeased by that; it was enough to indicate he hadn't sustained any serious brain injury, and he could safely say he was postictal now. "How are you feeling?"

         Gabriel groaned. "Sore... literally everywhere..."

         "I bet you are," Nova purred sympathetically. He turned to observe the monitor, which was still chirping along with his now normal heartbeat. It was in resting range, and his blood pressure had normalized, too. His respiratory rate was high at over thirty per minute, but he thought he could forgive him for that right now, given the amount of pain he was in. "You were seizing really bad..."

         He looked frustrated but relieved at the same time, since his condition made sense to him now. "I'm... I'm sorry... for putting you through—"

         Nova tutted. "All that matters is that you're okay now."

         Gabriel cringed when he tried to take a deep breath, and Nova immediately placed his hands on his chest and started to gently massage him. He then peeled the defibrillator pads and blood pressure cuff off of him, but opted to leave the oxygen mask on for now.

         "Does that help?" Nova asked as he continued to rub his sternum and pectoral muscles.

         Gabriel nodded and relaxed into his touch. "I have pain meds... the bottle is blue..."

         He was relieved to hear that. He carefully shifted out from under him and placed his head on the floor, then found the aforementioned bottle and opened it. "How many?"

         "Two..."

         He returned, meds in hand, and kneeled down near his head again. "I'm going to help you sit up, okay?"

         He nodded, and Nova heaved him up against the wall that was just behind him. His face tightened with guilt when he winced and cried out softly with the movement.

         "I'm sorry," he said as he took the mask off of his face and let it rest on the top of his head. "Do you need something to take these with?"

         "No... they dissolve..." he said as he leaned his head back into the wall and closed his eyes.

         Nova briefly caressed his cheek and gently pushed down on his chin so he could slip the tablets between his lower lip and front teeth.

         Gabriel looked up at him and raised his eyebrows in surprise, then repositioned them under his tongue. "Thanks..."

         "You should probably sleep," Nova said as he pulled the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose again. "Do you have a bed on this thing?"