✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Three - Part VII: Damage Control

           Temetor One, the Bridge

          Prime Sentinel Ledda was the only Daxut left on the bridge; every other staff member was pulling overtime and double duty, even the few residents that weren't officially 'employed'. Even adolescents with passable skills were sent to deal with the various obstacles plaguing the mothership, which included the captive humans running amok from the power outage on the prison deck, the various injuries and casualties, and of course, the group's imminent escape. As far as she knew, Novala was still alive, and he would be solid proof to everything Nova and Temet would surely claim.

          "We've got the Archsentinel," Sudala's voice suddenly rang out from her earpiece when she answered the call. "En route to the medical deck as we speak... she's unresponsive."

          "Do your best," Ledda said coolly. "And prioritize her over anyone else."

          Just as she ended that transmission, another two alerts appeared on her console—one from the hangar, and the other from the main generator. She pressed the button for the hangar staff first.

          "They've disembarked," a masculine voice squawked urgently. "We tried to stop them, but... the clone—"

          "Follow them," she ordered. "Take three vessels and surround them. Try to take them alive; Nova is valuable after all."

          The Daxut on the other end whistled affirmatively, and before he'd even finished fully, Ledda switched over to the other staff waiting for her.

          "Power has been restored to C-2," a younger-sounding Daxut reported.

          "Thank you. Reallocate to rounding up the remaining humans."

          She cut him off before he could formally sign off as well. She sounded level-headed and collected when speaking to her subordinates, but her huge neon green crown was puffed up in frustration, even despite the small beads and fastenings adorning her feathers. Her heart was thudding fast and hard in her chest as she waited for news from the pilots in pursuit and Archsentinel Jarah, as well as the other Daxut that could still be saved with medical intervention. In the meantime, she brought up the controls to move the mothership and began to follow the four ships that were now streaking away from her.

          Ledda watched as her pilots tried to shoot to incapacitate the rogue vessel, and the thought occurred to her that she needed to punish Temet for her betrayal. She hailed one of the ships while she made up her mind, and firmly came to a conclusion when the transmission went live barely a second later.

          "Yes, Prime Sentinel?"

          "When you catch them, execute Temet on sight. She is a traitor to our species."

          The Daxut on the other end paused in surprise. "As you command."

          She knew that Jarah would likely not agree with this decision, but she was not in a position to be making any calls; she didn't know if she would even live. But she needed to send the message that treachery of that sort would not be tolerated, and if Jarah was the Daxut she thought she was, she would eventually come to her senses about it—if she came to her senses at all.

~~~

          Sudala and another apprentice of similar skill named Neyli rushed the incapacitated Archsentinel to the transport pods on the General Research deck as quickly as they could manage it. The seizure had ended by the time they got to her, but by all appearances, she was in full arrest. Her feathers had been singed off where the energy current entered her body on her left shoulder, and there was a nasty burn on the now-exposed grey skin.