“Go for Technica.” I was commanded by her slightly tense voice, after the dial-tone faded.

“It is I, your apprentice. I’m nearly at the island and need a hidden place to land. You know the drill.” I answered, not even mentioning my name, just in case someone was listening in.

“Good. I will upload the required information and notify the appropriate groups.” with that, she terminated the connection and Galatea told me that the information was placed onto the server-space Technica had made available to us.

I needed Galatea to follow the instructions, especially when it came to transmitting the information to flight-control, so that they knew not to take official notice of us, if they even managed to track my flight-frame, but the frame was only flying thanks to her, so it was a wash. I would certainly be unable to keep my flying brick balanced on vectored thrust.

Flying above Accord Island was a little strange. The various clusters of buildings stood out against the otherwise natural environment, showing just how much effort had gone into limiting the impact human habitation had on nature. But that was only on the surface, as I knew, I doubted anyone had an idea just how much went on underground, in Technica’s realm. Over the last few days, I had learned a little more about the operation of Accord Island, the amount of energy siphoned off from the, admittingly impressive, fusion generator, the amount of purified seawater, it was staggering. And it demonstrated something I had known but never quite acknowledged, that a low environmental impact needed resources, as contradictory as it might seem. And those resources were, generally, limited, unless you had access to fusion-power and even then, there were problems. That train of thought had reminded me of my decision to keep my generator a secret, in the knowledge that entrenched interests would do everything to suppress such an idea. But maybe, with Technica’s help, I might make a go of it. The Guild had some influence, after all.

The instructions led to a open hangar, quite a distance from the other buildings and Galatea flew into the it. It was the same hangar we had left from, in the morning, and the tunnel that led down into Technica’s workshop was open, allowing us to directly fly inside. It was a slightly strange feeling, flying into a tunnel, but it was spacious enough, given that it had been constructed to allow a far larger helicopter to traverse it.

After I landed next to said helicopter, Technica approached me, still in her armour, including her helmet.

“Good, you are here. Your friend is in the Guild’s medical center under narcosis, receiving treatment.” she briskly told me, as soon as I stepped out from my flight-frame.

“Is something wrong?!” I asked, panic creeping in. I had left to take care of Clark, once and for all, hoping that Sophia would be as well as possible, given the situation, but now, I was wondering if that had been the right call. For the first time, I realised just how off-putting powered armour could be, hiding most non-verbal cues beneath a steely poker face.

“She is a Powered that has been kidnapped and tortured, we don’t know her exact powerset so she could be a ticking time bomb, waiting to go off. Shit, we don’t even know if she has a healing factor that is purging the narcosis used to put her under, so the docs have to walk a fine line, hoping not to mess up. And if she wakes up, in an unknown location, with strange people surrounding her? I know what I would do and it would not be pretty.” Technica started, startling me a little with the harsh language, whenever we had talked, she had been calm and pleasant, even when we had been about to storm a hostile building. Now, she was cursing.

“How do I get there? I worked on her before, I know her and I know some of her powerset.” I told her, calmer now that I understood the situation a little better.

“Come.” was her only reply, still in a tone that reminded me of her official rank and power.

She went to one of the many elevators, before activating it using her power. I felt the elevator rapidly moving up and we ended up in a small hallway, windowless, maybe still under ground. I had no real idea how expansive her underground lair was and it was not the right time to ask.

I hurried after her, through nondescript hallways, quickly reaching a small ramp that led into different hallways with a faint smell of septic cleaners that I associated to medical work and hospitals.

“Are you staying in your armour or do you want to appear as a civilian consultant?” Technica asked, still moving quickly.

“I need the armour, there are a few scanners installed that might help me.” I explained.

“Then we need to decontaminate it, you can hardly scrub in wearing it. Will your friend recognise the helmet? Remember, part of you being here is to give her a friendly and known face, something our helmets hardly qualify as.”

“She knows my helmet. But even then, I might simply take it off once her treatment is done. The personel here is trustworthy, I assume?”

“They are amongst the best and know full well that patient-confidentiality is paramount around here. The hospital might be amongst the safest buildings on the planet.” she answered and there was a little bit of pride in her voice.

Before I could answer, she opened something reminding me of the airtight doors I had installed in my bio-lab, stepping into a small white room after me. The smell of disinfectant was strong and stinging, making it obvious that we were in a decontamination-shower.

“Decontamination begins in… 5 seconds.” a mechanical voice announced after Technica typed something in a control field.

“Please stretch out your arms and spread your legs.” the mechanical voice continued and I did just that. After the five seconds, strong blasts of liquid shot from small nozzles all over the walls, ceiling and floor and my scanners told me that we were also blasted with harsh ultraviolet, infrared and even x-ray radiation, strong enough to cause harm to exposed skin. There was no way any germ could survive the treatment and it seemed a little overkill so I asked, while we waited for the liquid to drain off.

“Is this form of decontamination really necessary?”

“Depends, right now? No, but it’s the fastest way to get your armour clean, this one is rated for pretty much any hazard out there, so we are erring on the side of caution. Normally, you’d go in here with hazmat-suits but our armours work just fine, as you saw.”

The radiation cut off and the other door opened again, into an empty locker room. Again, I followed Technica and after we walked through another shower, this time without it, followed by another locker room, we were in the operated parts of the building we were in. There were a few people in light-blue scrubs, a few nurses walking the off-white corridor but overall few patients.

I felt a little strange, walking amongst people in my armour without anyone doing more than batting an eye but it was obviously because of Technica in her very similar armour walking in front of me.

She walked up to the nurse-station, patiently waiting for the nurse. When I started to speak up, she silenced me with a sharp hand-gesture.

“We are guests here, inside here, the medical professionals rule. We give them the space they need to work and they keep everyone alive.” she informed me in a calm voice. I could see the nurses face twitch a little as I was told off and moments later, she looked up.

“Yes, Councillor?” she asked, not even acknowledging my existence.

“I brought a Powered here, about two hours ago. Where is she?” Technica asked, her voice still calm but far more pleasant, deferent even.

“Let me check for a second.” the nurse went back to her screen, typing something, before looking up again. “Ah, yes. She was brought into room P-324 and should, barring any Powered effects, wake up in an hour or two.”

“That’s one of the private rooms, right? Third floor?”

“Yes. You can go right ahead, you have access. Do you want to take that one with you?” the nurse asked, now pointing at me.

“Indeed. You can add her to the approved-list, her file is listed under Metis, she’s my apprentice. Who knows, given her powerset, she might even work here on some cases.” Technica explained, now with a little pride in her words.

“Oh, I heard in the grapevine that you took an apprentice, but nobody seems to have any real information.” the nurse typed again before continuing. “File is linked, you are good to go.”

“Thank you, Nurse Leighton.” Technica nodded before heading deeper into the building, with me hot on her tails. Another elevator took us up, to the third floor where we were given a curt nod by another nurse before proceeding into a room marked 24. There, on a white sheet, lay a pale Sophia.

Seeing her, something within me froze and memories came crashing back.