✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Three - Part XXXIX: Home Away From Home

          Four Earth months later...

          Nova recovered from the labor and subsequent cardiac arrest without complications. Temet, having been quite attached to the Daxut he birthed from the start, insisted on taking him in as her own. She named him Valaren, as a private homage to Novala... she wished he could be here with them, too. They'd all decided to take Nedias up on her offer of a safe haven, and she delivered—above and beyond what they'd ever imagined.

          On Saelan Majoris, Daxut lived in tightly woven communal settings, grouped together typically between eight and thirty members. Using the records available and Temet's own knowledge of her lineage, they were able to identify the last common ancestor shared with the Daxut on the Temetor One and thus, Temet's current-day family. Even though they were only distantly related, the fifteen-strong commune welcomed her and her human friends warmly and readily. They were positioned on the top of a large mountain, where a small fresh-water lake had formed on a sizable plateau near its peak. The surrounding cave formations and cliffs housed the cluster of Daxut living spaces and a few small farms where they raised local wildlife for their high-fat meat, as well as vegetables, fruit and herbs to season them with. The lake and the connected water systems within the mountain provided their water source, which they continually recycled and cleaned as well.

          Gabriel, Nova, and Julia were told to scope out the land so they could have a dwelling that was built to their proportions, and they quickly decided to have it near the water's edge. Nedias also sent a talented architect to reason out the actual design of it, and she urged them to really, truly build it the way they wanted it—money wasn't an object because the very concept had been abolished. It took some getting used to, but once they'd adapted, they wondered how they'd ever lived any other way.

          Nova and Gabriel decided they wanted a space that was entirely their own, and Julia agreed that this was a good idea, but they still constructed the building much like a duplex—there was a basement between the two houses that could be accessed from both sides, and within was a shared entertainment area where they spent most of their free time. They had the option to take up jobs or certain roles within the Daxut society, and it was made abundantly clear to them that they weren't obligated to—but as the group settled in, they found things to do.

          Julia used her experience at Project SETI to become a midwife at the nearest medical facility, and with the help of a special real-time audio translation device, she flourished in the role. She also provided medical care to Nova and Gabriel when the need arose, but in the months since their arrival, nothing aside from the odd scrape or bruise had befallen them.

          Temet decided that she would follow in her mother's footsteps after all, and took up an education in the advanced medicinal Saelan-speak that had revolutionized the Daxut's medical care. With the help of her friends and the Daxut within their community, she was able to do this as well as care for Valaren with ease.

          Gabriel still suffered from epileptic seizures, but once it became apparent that very powerful Saelan-speak could correct it, he began to see a Daxut therapist in twice-weekly half-hour sessions. It worked, to a certain extent—but Temet was convinced that there was a way to make the seizures go away completely. With the help of some talented Daxut medical engineers, she was able to bring her idea to fruition: a device that Gabriel could wear that would monitor his brain and emit the anti-convulsant frequencies and sounds of Saelan-speak when it detected the abnormal waveforms of a seizure. Once the tiny device had been implanted in his ear canal, he hadn't suffered a single epileptic episode since.

          Gabriel also provided medical care to Julia when needed and to Nova whenever he wanted it, of course. The two of them were content to use the skills they'd learned from living with Rey to help with the growing of the greens, and they took up animal husbandry as well. They also planted the marijuana seeds Gabriel had salvaged from the last stalks he'd brought from Satyrs, to much success—it became a hit with the Daxut too, and soon the new herb had spread beyond their crop and become an item of demand.