✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Three - Part XXIII: If At First You Don't Succeed...

          As reality normalized again, Temet's nausea intensified and came to a head. Just as Gabriel finished speaking, she folded over herself in the pilot's chair and made an awful groaning noise as she vomited onto the floor.

          "Just get it all out," Gabriel rubbed her back as she continued to throw up. "You'll feel better afterward."

          "Where are we...?" Julia wondered aloud as she entered. She looked through the windowed hull and saw nothing but a huge expanse of empty space glittering with small stars.

          "... uncharted galaxy," Temet managed between labored gasps. "Unknown—to humans..."

          Nova approached Temet from the opposite side Gabriel was standing with an unused cartridge in hand. He held it out where she could see it. "This is the drug I infused you with... I just wanted to make sure I gave you the right one."

          Temet coughed and spat out the last of the bile caught in her throat. She nodded when she got a clearer look at it.

          Nova blew out a sigh of relief. "I gave you the whole cartridge, I hope that was okay."

          "Yeah... those are designed to be single dose," she explained further once she'd caught her breath. "Thank you..."

          "I'm glad to see you're okay," Julia said with a smile. "You gave us all quite a scare."

          "... honestly... I'm still not really feeling that well," Temet admitted. "I feel better, but... not good."

          "Think you can walk back to the medbay?" Gabriel asked. "I don't mind carrying you again if not, though."

          "No... I think I'm okay," Temet replied as she tried to stand up. Her legs shook and threatened to give out, but Gabriel moved to support her before she could fall over. "Ugh..."

          "It's okay," Gabriel started to walk her back out of the cockpit. "Let me help..."

          The four of them returned to the second stall in the medbay, and after replacing the electrodes on her chest, Temet laid down in the prone position on the low-set gurney. Her vital signs once again appeared on the small portable screen of Gabriel's defibrillator:

          HR: 174 BPM
          SP02: 98%
          SYS: 115
          DIA: 89
          TEMP: 42C / 107.6F
          RR: 25

          "I don't like how fast that pulse rate is," Julia said when she'd taken in the information in full. "And her blood pressure's kinda low, too..."

          "Well... that chip is probably still producing and releasing that neurotoxin," Gabriel replied. He was crouched over one of his supply bags on the floor, in search of the drugs to sedate and numb her again. "We need to get it out before it reaches a critical level again."

          Temet switched which side of her head she had pressed into the gurney so she could look at the monitor herself. She looked panicked when she saw the sinus tachycardia and less-than-optimal blood pressure, and she tried to shove it down when her breathing and heart rate spiked in response. "You can... use the antidotes more than once, if needed..."

          "Good to know," Julia ran her hand along the exposed feathers on her back while Gabriel drew up some more diazepam and local anesthetic. "We're almost ready to start. Same deal as before—we'll give you an intramuscular diazepam injection to make you sleepy, and then a local anesthetic in your back. I'll need to open you a little more than anticipated so I can cut those tendon-like growths effectively, okay?"