✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Two - Part XXI: Extraction

          When Temet and Jarah entered the room, Sudala and Mikren were already in the process of disengaging Nova from the pod. The blue liquid-adjacent substance had drained about two thirds of the way and continued to at a steady rate. Temet noticed that Nova didn't appear to be wet or even slick from it and made a note to ask about it later.

          Jarah quickly surveyed the other four clones and their vital signs before she turned her attention to Nova and his current attendants. They whistled at her and flicked their crowns, and she did it in turn.

          "Temet is here to observe the procedures and inspect the fertility pods for her own education. She can do as she likes," she paused and they nodded in acknowledgement. "How is Nova doing?"

          "Without the fluid to sustain his body's resources, he's destabilizing," Sudala replied. She gestured to his vital signs:

          HR: 137 BPM
          SP02: 90%
          SYS: 107
          DIA: 71
          TEMP: 36.7C / 98.1 F
          RR: 0 (15)

          "I see. We're going to need two incubators," Jarah said as she grabbed a pair of gloves from a utility fixture on the wall nearby. Mikren immediately ran off to retrieve the requested equipment before she'd even finished speaking. "But I don't think a simple extraction is going to work in this case."

          "What makes you say that?" Sudala studied the detailed sonogram-like image closely and clicked her beak when she couldn't discern what Jarah was referring to.

          "If you look here," Jarah pointed near the bottom of his womb, "his cervix is facing the wrong way."

          The red-crowned apprentice whistled thoughtfully. "Ah. I see it now."

          "We will need to cut them out. This works in our favor, really—there's no risk of him accidentally delivering the two eggs we want to remain inside of him, as he might have with induced labor," Jarah explained more thoroughly for both her pupils' sake. "We'll take him to a proper OR for that."

          Mikren returned with two cylindrical incubators under one lanky arm. "Shall I bring these to the surgery, then?"

          "Yes. The one down the hall, not upstairs," Jarah commanded. She interfaced with the console when it beeped at her that the pod had been completely drained and pushed the analog stick to guide the chamber forward and down along the fixture on the floor. "Come back when you're done. Be ready to disengage the two clones that still bear single eggs."

          "Yes, Archsentinel."

          Temet watched closely as Jarah moved and opened the chamber, and she made a note of how to do it on her tablet. She felt pity when she observed Nova's vitals for herself; she wasn't that well-versed in medicine, but she understood enough to know that he was unstable. And while Jarah and Sudala were moving fast to take him to surgery in order to remove the catalysts of his worsening condition, she understood they were only doing it because it was in their best interest—not necessarily to spare him out of the goodness of their hearts.

          "I'll take him," Sudala volunteered. When the chamber opened, she reached inside and swiftly disconnected the intravenous line in his hand and the cables for the leads, then gathered him up in her arms. She rushed over to the door and disappeared into the corridor beyond, and while she was leaving, Mikren returned.