✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Two - Part XXIX: Luck

          Novala untied the long piece of hide he was still wearing and secured his too-long sleeves near his elbows so that they were out of the way. He offered to take over compressions when Nova struggled to keep up the pace as the pain meds from earlier faded completely. He stayed off to the side rather than on top of him and looked around in search of the drug infuser he'd seen Sudala use earlier while he pushed into Gabriel's heart.

          Nova gently propped his mouth open in the meantime and saw the source of the blood and saliva around his lips—he'd bitten off a tiny piece of his tongue and the wall of his cheek. He winced, but beyond that, his airway seemed to be clear, so he plugged his nose to breathe for him.

          Novala paused and let him do that while watching the monitor. He remained in full arrest, but his oxygen level began to rise with Nova's repeated mouth-to-mouth.

          "C'mon, Gabe..." Nova pleaded with him as he caught his breath to continue, "you gotta come back..."

          "His oxygen is improving," he assured him. "I need to look for something... can you—?"

          "Yeah."

          Nova shifted to start compressions again and Novala moved to the other side of the room to a small glass panel that housed two infusers, one large and one small, and several bundles of neatly stacked cartridges beside them. He opened it and took out the smaller one, and quickly turned it over a few times as he inspected it further. He found the cartridge slot and the singular button to release the drug within, then looked up at the colour-coded pharmaceuticals. He was pretty sure the drug Sudala had used had a bright orange casing, and he easily found what he was looking for.

          "I don't recognize the name of this drug," Novala admitted as he turned around with the infuser and a bundle of cartridges in hand. "But I'm ninety-nine percent sure this is what Sudala used to restart your heart..."

          Nova stopped mid-cycle to administer another round of rescue breaths and looked up and saw the familiar infuser he held. "Anything is worth trying at this point."

          While he prepared the epinephrine analogue, Nova continued to breathe for him. It was difficult to perform chest compressions right now, and it pained him in more than one way. Even though the suit had been clearly supplying him with oxygen somehow, he had likely been in cardiac arrest for a long time, and he wanted nothing more than to remedy that right now. He leaned back upright and moved his hand away as Novala pressed the now-front facing infuser against his sternum and held down the button. They both watched as the liquid substance drained from the chamber and into his heart.

          The asystole alarm broke a long moment later, and a PVC danced across the trace. It was followed by another after a too-long pause, and then a single cycle of something that looked like sinus appeared, and yet another premature ventricular contraction came after that.

          "That's it..." Nova cooed at him and stroked his chest again as Novala turned to interface with the defibrillator's touchscreen. "You're doing great."

          "It... it doesn't recognize the rhythm, but it says to shock anyway," Novala reported once he'd adequately translated what he read. He pressed the charge button, which had the recommended 200J displayed inside of it.

          Nova silently moved away as the device charged and kept glancing between Gabriel and the trace. The irregular heartbeat continued on, but he found himself grateful to see electrical activity of any kind at this point.

          Novala warned him to stand clear and delivered the shock as soon as it was available. Gabriel's chest contracted with the defibrillation, and then he began to take shallow, labored breaths as his heart attempted to restart.