✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter One - Part XXVIII: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

          Nova stood up when he felt the ship touch down. And while he'd checked to see if they were being followed on the radar earlier and found nothing, everything that had transpired in the last little while had him on edge. He could feel his heart thudding hard in his chest as he played with the interface near the side hatch to open it. It took a few seconds to do so and it groaned as it did from many months of disuse.

          He had landed on the outer edge of the floating hangar. Directly ahead about fifty feet were two spacecraft—one was rather nondescript, and the other he recognized as a Sentinel Defense Corps scouting ship. Right next to them was the building that acted as both a paystation and convenience store.

          Nova hesitated before stepping outside. He peeked around the doorway to the left and then quickly to the right, but he didn't see anything amiss. He turned back to the console on the inside and pressed the button to close it again.

          "The SDC is here, I can see the ship," he said to Gabriel as he moved outside the door. "I'll be qui—augh...!"

          Nova cried out as a large humanoid figure in a full-body armored space suit tackled him from above. It looked as though they'd jumped from the top of the ship, and shortly after they both hit the ground together, two more armored figures closed in on them and started to help the first one get to their feet and restrain Nova.

          "Nova!" Gabriel exclaimed as he ripped the mask off of his face and struggled to get to his feet. He was still very dizzy and weak and fell into the wall when he tried to stand up. "No!"

          He stumbled forward in a vain attempt to get to his rifle and stop the hatch from closing completely. His legs wobbled and gave out from under him, and he caught himself on his arms with a grunt. He could only watch helplessly as one of them effortlessly slung Nova over their shoulder, who was still desperately struggling to get away from them. Another figure took something from their pocket and stuck it in Nova's neck, and he promptly went limp. The last thing Gabriel saw before the hatch closed were the three unknown saboteurs taking off in an almost inhuman sprint toward the ship right next to the one with the SDC colours and logos all over it.

          He could feel himself panicking in his mentally and physically sensitive postictal state, but thought he could use this strong frenetic energy to do something that would actually be of use to him. He crawled over to the piloting console on his hands and knees, and even surprised himself in how quickly he managed it.

          He dragged himself up into the chair, oriented himself in it, and activated the engines as quickly as his incapacitated and uncoordinated body would allow. While they were warming up, he interfaced with the console and brought up his tractoring device. Just as the unremarkable ship started its liftoff sequence, Gabriel managed to lock onto it.

          "Target locked," the verbal component of the ship's A.I surged to life when Gabriel turned it on. He continued to fiddle with the interface devices on either end of the chair's arms, and it confirmed further: "Stealth tethering successful. Following at a distance of five hundred nautical miles."

          Gabriel sighed deeply in relief and let the autopilot do its thing after that. He leaned back into the chair and closed the digital interface that took up much of the windowed hull, and watched, quietly tense, as the ship he was following abruptly disappeared from Earth's atmosphere. His own vessel automatically sped up in response, and again, he was relieved that it could keep up with it at all.

          As the minutes passed, it just kept picking up speed. Eventually, they passed the main asteroid belt, and then a short while later, it started to drastically slow down. Gabriel wondered where they could be stopping—there was nothing in this neighbourhood of the Milky Way that was notable. Then, as his vessel came to a complete stop, he saw it—a vast, complex mothership that was nearly the size of a small planet itself. His heart sank into his stomach as he got closer to it and realized that he actually knew this particular mothership, and that the smaller vessel he'd been trailing was now in the process of docking securely inside of it.

          Julia had told him in confidence that as head of Project SETI, she's in regular contact with not just major government and military officials, but the Daxut officials themselves. Once, when their mothership was stopped in Earth's vicinity, Julia saw it up close and managed to sneak a photo of it. Naturally, she showed it to him as a sort of brag, but right now, many trains of thought ran through his head at the gut-wrenching realization. As a key player himself, he had been informed from the start that the sole purpose of the project was to save the species from extinction and allow them to return to their former glory as a stalwart, technologically advanced society. In return for healthy Daxut offspring, the humans received information that greatly accelerated their scientific advancements and stimulated societal growth as a whole, as well as a form of galactic currency that would enable trade with other advanced alien species.

          "Oh, my god... fuck," Gabriel swore out loud when he connected the final dot. Julia had told him, also in confidence, that an impromptu meeting with the Daxut officials had been called about two weeks prior, and she'd felt it hadn't gone very well. She hadn't been very specific, but she said that they tactfully tried to make an offer on a human being—a surrogate—and seemed a little dissatisfied when the answer from Julia and the government alike was a staunch no.

          It was Nova they wanted, Gabriel thought as he played with the interface again and prepared to pilot the ship manually. Being able to produce more than one kid... they wanted him for his fertility... and wouldn't take no for an answer. Of course...

          "Of fucking course!" Gabriel exclaimed. And they thought they could distance themselves from it by hiring human mercenaries, then having them rendezvous far from Earth... but...

          "Why? Why not just leave him with the project?" He thought aloud again as he flew closer to the mothership, which was now emitting a loud whirring sound that vibrated the entirety of Gabriel's comparatively tiny vessel.

          He kept thinking about their intentions, and what he, personally, could do about it. He knew he had to do something now, too, because the mothership was most definitely preparing to go somewhere and go there fast.

           "Target locked. Stealth tethering successful. Following at a distance of zero nautical miles—surface tractor successful and holding at 100% integrity."

          "I'm not letting them do this to you, baby..." Gabriel growled through gritted teeth as the vibrations gave into almost unbearably strong tremors that kept increasing in intensity. He pressed a button on the chair's arm that released two belts from either shoulder and quickly locked them in place at his hips. "Whatever the fuck it is... I'm not gonna let them do it!"

          The whirring and quaking reached a climax, and the mothership, along with Gabriel, seemed to blink out of existence.