After the initial greetings, Fey guided us into the school, after I made sure to lock the plane. While nobody but me could actually fly it, we had tons of supplies with us and if those were stolen, it would be rather problematic.

Inside the school, we were met with a mix of local authorities and foreign immediate responders, all trying to coordinate the search and rescue efforts. Luckily, at least language would not be a problem, everyone I heard was speaking English, likely due to the fact that the area was normally a tourist hot-spot. Fey introduced us around and it quickly became apparent that we had our work cut out for us. What I could see showed me that they were currently trying to organise and gather information, to get started on the rescue-efforts.

“Anath, could you please get Boxes 3 through 6 from the hold?” I asked her, keeping my voice quiet. She turned, walking right back out, while I started to address Fey.

“I am not certain what Councillor Technica told you about my abilities, but the first order of business should be to establish communications.” I told her, now pitching my voice to carry.

“We are trying to do just that.” A distinguished looking gentleman told me. He had been introduced as the local coordinator, a Mister Tharanga and he looked like he was trying to juggle far too many balls, making him rather frazzled.

“I thought as much, but I have a few advantages.” I began, and just then, Anath entered again. She must have hurried quite a bit and was easily carrying the boxes I had asked her for.

“The biggest one is this.” I continued, opening one of the boxes that was filled with the small communication-units I had designed months ago. Technica had quickly agreed that having solid communications was necessary in a crisis and we had managed to make almost two-thousand of the small units.

“How would they help? There are no cellphone towers, no repeaters, nothing.” another man, this one in uniform, objected. And he was right, normally that would severely limit the range of communications, especially with the amount of ruins that needed to be scouted. But I had already a fix for that.

Without speaking, I opened another box, taking out a normal display-tablet, slaving it directly to Galatea and sending a data-stream, from the plane outside to me, to the tablet, showing the view from above, at first the whole area my drones could see, which was a lot, before zooming in.

“I have a fix for that. These images are updated in real time and part of my power allows me to coordinate the communications. I would suggest that every Powered gets a communication-unit and every team going out there. In addition, we can supply power and the plane that brought us here has a couple of small water treatment plants loaded.“ I explained, causing looks of surprise and even disbelief.

“You say you can supply power? How long and in what form?” another man asked, I think he was either one of the Doctors or an engineer.

I gave him the figures and again, disbelief reigned.

“So, your power seems to be similar to your teachers, that is useful. It also explains why she sent you here, instead of taking you with her, doubling up would be a waste. I assume you need to stay in the plane, like she would?” Fey asked, giving me an out, if I wanted to take it. Personally, I felt a little strange due to the disbelief shown by the people present, but at the same time, I could understand it. Normally, what I had said would be utterly ridiculous, so maybe I should have expected such a reaction.

“I will stay inside, yes, mainly to coordinate the efforts.” I stated, before showing those present how to set the communication-devices up.

Soon after, the Guild-members present left the main-meeting room, leaving all the others to discuss further activities. We, on the other hand, took over another room and started to make teams under Fey’s direction. The teams were roughly what I had assumed they would be, based on utility and experience, for example, Anath was teamed up with Hancock, giving them the ability to move mountains. Well, almost.

I was the obvious exception to that but even I was assigned a buddy, the one I had heard over the radio earlier, Fey’s student, Mordred. Given the name, I was not quite sure what to expect, but at the end of the day, names could be deceiving, one simply had to ask Tenderiser.

The briefing continued, not that there were many more hard facts known, but it helped and would prepare us for the next morning. At the end of the meeting came the assignment of sleeping quarters, something Anath and I opted out of, stating that we could sleep in the plane. And we could the plane was designed to act as an autonomous outpost so sleeping quarters for me had been part of the design from the start and I was quite happy to share my bed with Sophia.

We all trooped back to the aircraft, the others unloading some of their gear and Anath and I climbing back in, going into the back and closing up for the night.

“It feels wrong.” Sophia said, right after taking off her mask.

“What does?” I asked, stretching bit by bit while taking off my armour. It was comfortable, very much so, but after over nine hours of sitting in a chair without moving, my body was a little stiff.

“We just got here and go to bed. I thought we would help.” she grumbled, sounding unhappy.

“And we will. But not everyone has integrated low-light vision, love. The way to maximise the effect we can have means we need to work with everyone, not just the few Powered. All in all, Powered will likely be in specialised roles, doing things mundanes cannot do, but the majority of the work will be done by mundanes.” I explained, remembering one of Technica’s lectures.

“The biggest advantage Powered have is that we can be rapidly deployed and can bend a few rules. In the next days, mundane help will arrive and the biggest effect we can have is stabilizing things until they get here. For more, we would need more people, but there are only so many of us. Do you remember Technica’s lecture on the balance of Power between the Guild and the United Nations?” I asked, seemingly in a non-sequitur.

“Sure, you mean the one about the war between Powered and mundanes and it would be one without winners?” Sophia asked, obviously wondering what I meant.

“Exactly that one. Mundanes could not win the war, at least without Powered on their own, because our, well, Powers allow us to do things others cannot. How would a mundane go about fighting someone who can read their mind and change what they find inside? On the other hand, the Powered could not win, simply because for every Powered there are thousands of mundanes, we could win every battle of such a war, which I doubt we would, and still lose the war. But at the end of the day, both sides would have lost more than anyone would ever want.” I explained, noticing a look on Sophia’s face that told me to get to the point.

“Here, it is the same, numbers can make up for power. But lower numbers are easier to shift, so we act as a stop-gap, until more help is here.” I finished.

“Intellectually, I understand that. It doesn’t change that it feels wrong to climb into bed with you while out there, people are dying.” Sophia said, her voice still a little heavy.

I opened another hatch, showing her into the sleeping quarters, which she had yet to see, while I continued to speak.

“Would you rather sleep on the floor, so you can be exhausted and grumpy when you get to work tomorrow?” I asked, slightly amused. “It will not help anyone, but if you think it will assuage your guilt, you can do that. I would rather that you do not, but it is up to you.”

Sophia looked taken aback for a moment, before conceding my point. Suffering simply to suffer was a little pointless. I had no doubt that she would have given up her bed, if it helped anyone, or charged out into the night, but luckily, she saw that it would be pointless. Especially since she might give up her bed, but I would not let anyone but her sleep next to me.

Turning, I noticed that she looked a little taken aback. The sleeping quarters were quite nice, compact but comfortable. The bed folded down from the side but it was easily large enough for both of us and there was even a shower in the small added bathroom.

“Home away from home.” I grinned, suppressing a yawn. Flying down had been a little exhausting, so I took off the black bodystocking I wore under my armour and slipped under the covers, waiting for Sophia to join me.