✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Three - Part IX: Arrangements

          Julia left Project SETI after leaving her stethoscope with Nova. She first dropped off the blood samples with the designated lab, then went back to the emergency room in search of Sam. The hospital floor was generally empty and quiet aside from the few nurses at the station.

          "Has anyone seen Ms. Lancaster?" she asked with one arm resting on the high counter that encased most of the station.

          Emma hesitated for a few seconds. Sam had said not to talk about the Daxut, but Julia was the head of Project SETI, so she concluded it was okay to tell her. "She went into the family room with that... er, bird person."

          She nodded and flashed a small smile. "Thank you."

          She walked across the floor to the hallway that housed the aforementioned family room. As she approached, she saw Sam standing near the closed door. She was tapping intensely on her phone and stared down at it with a creased brow.

          "Ms. Lancaster?" Julia called.

          "Hm? Oh, hey," she jolted slightly and looked up. "You startled me."

          "Sorry," Julia sheepishly put her hands in her scrub pockets. "Just wanted to give you the full report on Nova," she continued when Sam looked at her expectantly, "despite everything he went through on the Temetor One, he seems fine. He told me that he'd been resuscitated several times, impregnated and subsequently cut open when he produced more eggs than he could carry. It's weird though—it doesn't look like he's had surgery at all, and there's little evidence that he was carrying either. He's still got a lot of the fertility potentiator in his system, but it doesn't seem to be actually doing anything."

          Sam nodded. "Good, good. Thank you."

          "I wanted to ask... did you find out what happened to Gabriel? Knowing the cause might help us treat him better..."

          "Actually... yes," Sam pocketed her phone and folded her arms over her chest. "That Daxut is Jarah's daughter—I know," she acknowledged Julia's surprise before she continued, "I know. Fortunately for us, she's quite privy to her mother's activities—she told me that Gabriel was subjected to a 'very painful weapons development experiment'. When I asked for more information... she showed me this... very disturbing video of it. It's absolute and damning evidence to everything she and Nova have claimed."

          Julia frowned at the clear disgust and nausea in her voice. "I want to see that video, if I'm allowed to..."

          "Trust me, Julia... you really don't want to see it."

          "Let me rephrase—I need to see it, to know what happened to my friend and find out if there's something more I can do to treat him," Julia replied firmly.

          The Executive Director let out a sharp sigh. "Okay, okay."

          "And... what have they claimed?" she asked cautiously.

          Sam thought about it for a moment and turned back to the door. "Come in and talk to her with me. You'll find all this out eventually anyway."

          When the pair entered the room, Temet looked notably distressed. Her feathers had shrunk and were tight against her body, and she shook while staring down at something on her tablet.

          "Are you alright?" Sam asked. She went over to the Daxut and sat beside her on the couch.

          Her beak made a fast clicking noise as she looked up from the screen and at Sam. She slowly opened her mouth and stuttered in her native language before she remembered to switch to English, "my... my mom... she's... Jarah—is dead..."