✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Three - Part XX: Escape Phase One

          Temet woke with a loud tap of her beak a short time later. The synthetic charcoal also neutralized the diazepam in her system, and to a lesser extent, the local anesthetic. She drowsily pushed herself up with her long arms, and Julia and Gabriel moved to help her sit up on the surface of the table, which was quickly oriented to lie flat again. She looked around but seemed startled and confused by her surroundings.

          "You okay?" Gabriel asked. He briefly touched the soft feathers on the back of her hand when she didn't respond right away.

          "... I feel weird, but yeah... I think so," she said in a slow and disoriented voice. "Did you get it...?"

          Julia softly cleared her throat and looked down. "No... we couldn't remove it safely here. We think you'd have a better chance aboard the Daxut vessel, with equipment that's suited to you..."

          Temet could hear the hesitation in Julia's voice. "Why...?"

          "She didn't know at the time," Gabriel responded when Julia frowned and struggled to find the right words, "but... you had something called a 'neut-chip' put inside of you—maybe you've heard of them?"

          "No..."

          "Under certain circumstances... this chip releases a neurotoxin that greatly incapacitates its victim," Gabriel explained solemnly. "Like if they try to remove it—like we just did—or if the person moves beyond a certain area."

          Temet looked panicked when the meaning of his words struck. Her feathers shrunk tightly against her body, and she made a very soft clicking sound as her beak vibrated. "What... what kind of neurotoxin...?"

          "It affects the central nervous system," Gabriel continued to explain, and at the same time, Nova sat beside Temet so that their legs were touching, and she let him stroke her arm feathers in an attempt to soothe her. "But we were able to mix up a substitute for the antidote. Unfortunately, it's temporary, even in humans—and I don't really know how long it's going to last for you—"

          "No—I mean—specifically, what kind," Temet repeated, a little more breathlessly than she had been up until this point.

          "Uh... it was synthesized from a botulinum toxin—I think," Gabriel replied questioningly. "Are you sure you're okay?"

          "It's... kind of hard to breathe," she admitted. There was a strained sound to it that almost sounded like light wheezing, but not quite. "Daxut military vessels and medbays carry universal antidotes to common neurotoxins and poisons... it—it should still be there... if the humans... didn't move it..."

          "Okay," Julia straightened and gathered herself a little more. "I guess we're leaving sooner than we thought."

          It didn't take long for the group to prepare to leave. They generally packed light, knowing that they would likely need to move very fast through the facility, once their superiors realized what was going on. The only one who didn't bring anything was Temet—she didn't really have anything to bring, aside from her tablet and the hide cloak Novala had worn during their escape from the Temetor One. She'd since modified it with a clasp so she could wear it around her shoulders, but Nova convinced her it would be safer and out-of-the-way packed up with his belongings.

          In the forty or so minutes it took them to gather a few bags of essential supplies, she remained relatively stable, but she could feel herself slowly succumbing to the toxic substance in her body. Every few minutes, she would have an intense rolling shiver that started in her head and traveled down her legs and arms, and her feathers would puff up or retract seemingly at random. Every time it happened, it seemed to increase in intensity, and she could feel that strained heavy sensation in her lungs growing slowly but steadily as well. Gabriel and Julia seemed relieved that that was all she was experiencing at the moment, and as they got their stuff together, Nova focused on monitoring Temet's condition and trying to help her through it. He trusted that Gabriel would know what to bring for him, and he was more worried about her than that anyway.