✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Two - Part XII: Captive

          Gabriel figured that the best way to find the hangar would be to navigate back to the main ventilation shaft that ran through the center of the ship and check the decks he hadn't poked around in yet in order from bottom to top. He felt better, having seen Nova and formulated a plan with him, but he was unable to fight off a pervading sense of hypervigilance and urgency that had his palms sweating and his heart thudding hard in his chest. Based on what he heard Jarah say, and based on how long it took him to get to Nova's room, he estimated that he only had a few hours before the Daxut would be back to inseminate him.

          He kept listening for drones as he made his way out of the hallway, and he managed to avoid them... until he arrived at the junction above the plaza. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a drone appeared from the last room he passed and began to follow him. He silently cursed and moved a little faster, in hopes of avoiding it by shuffling into one of the many passageways above the plaza. As he moved over the closed hatch in the middle, he noticed there were drones blocking the tunnels in every direction.

          "Shhhit," he cursed out loud as the hatch beneath him flew open. He tried to stop himself from falling by holding onto the tunnel with his arms, but he could feel two sets of hands already grappling at his dangling legs. He tried to kick at them, and heard one of them cry out when the sharp-angled tip of his outsole hit their finger just so. He could also hear the slap of bare feet against the floor steadily approaching at a very fast pace. A clatter of talons followed right after, and he could hear the Daxut loudly chattering at each other.

          "It's the escaped clone!" one of the Daxut in pursuit called out. "Catch him!"

          Gabriel barely had time to think about what was happening beneath him when the Daxut still trying to drag him out was abruptly swept downwards. The alien instinctively grasped at his boot to try to stop himself from falling and brought Gabriel down with him. He landed on top of him, and as he jumped to his feet, he saw a group of five Daxut coming at him from one of the corridors. He turned away from them and saw an unclothed human sprinting down the hallway directly across from the Daxut.

          Without thinking about it, he started after him. As he closed the distance a little more, he realized that this person had a striking resemblance to Nova, and he quickly came to the conclusion that the Daxut had already cloned him. He smirked at the fact that this particular clone was already rebelling and making things difficult for their captors. He kept running after him, but he disappeared behind a corner at the end of the corridor long before he could catch up with him.

          Fuck it, Gabriel stopped, turned around, and took the plasma rifle off of the holster on his back. Any version of Nova is worth saving. Maybe he can help me later if I help him now.

          He hastily switched it back from the torch-flamethrower mode he used earlier, paired it with his helmet, and squeezed off several shots at the group of Daxut in pursuit. He managed to hit one directly in the face, which killed him instantly; but the light-armor uniforms of the Daxut's paramilitary security force were clearly resilient enough to withstand the hot plasma—at least to some degree—the shots that landed on their bodies did little to slow them down.

          Gabriel started to move backwards as fast as he could without losing his balance and tried to aim for their unprotected faces, but the tall lanky aliens were lithe and almost impossibly quick as they employed evasive maneuvers and drew their own weapons.

          He swiftly turned his sights on the female Daxut leading the group and fired off three streams of plasma. She darted her head off to either side to avoid the first two shots, but the third grazed the hooked portion on the lower part of her beak and instantly disintegrated it. She winced and grunted, but held her weapon true and squeezed the trigger.

          When Gabriel saw the familiar blue electrical energy surging through the air, the only thing he could think of to do was throw himself into the right-hand wall to avoid it and try to shoot at them again. Just as he hit the floor, the other pursuing Daxut discharged their energy pistols, and several shots hit him at once.

          The massive electrical current quickly overwhelmed what remained of his suit's defense systems. The HUD in his visor flashed several error messages in fast succession, which quickly gave out into glitchy garbage readings as the current saturated his suit and reached his body. The last thing Gabriel saw was the HUD attempting to display some kind of warning in regards to his vital signs, and then everything went black.

          "The Archsentinel said to take them alive!" the leading Daxut shrieked as she stroked her wounded beak. "We didn't all need to shoot, god damn it!"

          Three Daxut whizzed by, still in pursuit of the clone. The remaining two quickly surrounded Gabriel and offered quiet, awkward apologies as they began to tend to him. One kneeled down and tried to take his helmet off so he could check his pulse, but it stubbornly held fast.

          "War—ning," a garbled and flat-sounding robotic voice boomed from the voice transmitter on the front of Gabriel's helmet, "life support—shhk— disconnect...—met is removed."

          "Get them to the med bay," the female Daxut commanded as she picked up the plasma rifle. One of her subordinates easily picked him up, and carefully held him against his body. "I will notify the Archsentinel."