2.12.2

A Specialist’s Call

Throughout that night, those in the women’s quarters slept through the sporadic glimmer of pale blue light that glowed in the dark while Astrid read.

Twice she cried. Once, for the details reminiscent of the horrors discovered on their first tour against the Static Opposition. But a second time, for the brutalities perpetrated on fellow humans for much smaller and crueler reasons; described in great detail amongst the pages between Astrid’s palms.

She failed to determine which disturbed her the most. Those she could imagine, or those so terrible she couldn’t bear to.

The Channeler closed the volume. To consider the bravery of the men and women that first dared to fight for their lives and dignity -and how often their efforts were returned with further cruelties visited upon their families and allies- brought yet another cascade of silent tears.

Astrid found herself muttered her training’s mantra into the dark. How unfairly easy, she thought, to consider the pain temporary when the worst of it was endured centuries ago. And how shameful, she decided, that time buried lessons that should have never been forgotten or denied.

By morning, her heart ached for reprieve. A breath of the familiar and safe. The yearning went rejected when the ship-wide comm interrupted her hunt.

“Specialist Hale to the Bridge. Crew prepare for planetary descent in one hour.”

Far from the first time they prepared for groundside, Astrid noted the unusual request for her personally.

She booked it to the Bridge as fast as she dared without breaking into a jog.

Captain London, Navigator Hammond, and Officer Shaely all waited, with Ricks at the helm.

“Captain?” she queried immediately.

“We received a distress call and established a line. It’s from Mercedes.” London stated brusquely. He turned to Shaely, where the Comm Officer held the call.

Focus wrestled Astrid’s panic into submission. “How close are we?”

“Two hours,” Ricks reported. “Maybe less. I’m doing my best,” he assured her.

“Mercedes,” Shaely spoke not to the crew, but to the other end of line. “Standby. Opening your call to the bench.”

After a few adjustments, the instruments at Shaely’s desk awakened to broadcast the sound.

A speaker fizzled to life and pinged at the edge of Astrid’s senses.

“Come again, Aldebaran?” An unknown male voice made it through to fill the Bridge.

Astrid looked to Shaely, then the captain. But with a single, meaningful nod, London indicated the specialist should proceed.

The Channeler steeled her nerves. To take lead on a Sanctuary in distress seemed an overwhelming responsibility. But she stood in Service fatigues, now. Dog tags hung next to her crystal. With a heartened, deep breath, she knew what she needed to do.

She crossed directly to Shaely’s comm bench.

“Sanctuary Mercedes. This is Energy Specialist Astrid Hale of the Aldebaran. I hear you.”

The comm fizzled, though whether from her side or theirs, she couldn’t tell.

“Energy Specialist Hale? I don’t believe it. The rumors were true.”

“Do I know you, sir?” She extended.

“No, but we’ve heard of you. I am Keeper Karsten Lloyd. My Sanctuary is under siege from an unknown enemy.”

“We’re on our way, Keeper,” Astrid bent over the officer’s workspace, where Shaely kept the signal stable. “How many are there? Are you safe?”

“The Guardians have barricaded the doors. The internal structure of our facility has helped. They can only access us through the surface, but the majority of our construction is subterranean, under a large vault door. It seems to have slowed the invaders, but they show no sign of giving up and leaving.”

“Where are your children located?” Astrid asked next. “Are they deep? Are they away?”

“The Channelers are beneath the vault door. Most of the Sanctuary utilizes the natural underground caverns along the coast. I can only presume the Guardians have relocated our most vulnerable charges to the deepest holdings before the enemy breaks through. There’s no other way out.”

Astrid palmed the air, to gesture for anything to jot down the Keeper’s words.

Navigator Hammond answered her request with a pen and, after the shuttering of drawers, notebook paper.

“We suspect they're going to come for your children, aged six to fourteen. They’ll also likely target two of your teens, one male and one female. Do you know who’s most likely to put themselves in the middle? Those that will stay with the kids?”

“That would be Riley Ann and Menloh. We have a few others, but those two are always getting between the Guardians the wild ones. Riley has uh... well, she’s a very bright redhead. And Menloh, his eyes are sensitive to light, so he wears a hood most the time. That will probably be the easiest way to identify him. He completed training a month ago and now leads meditations for our juveniles.”

Astrid quickly jotted down their names.

“Can you get messages to your people, Keeper?”

A brush of noise came from the other end of the comm. After the disruption, the Keeper’s voice returned.

“Not well. We don’t use electronic communication. We can hear tapping through the floors. My people aren’t trained in Morse, though.”

“What can you tell us about your compound? Where’s the entrance and how do we find our way once inside?”

“The subterranean sectors face the sea, in some places, with glass partitions. The structure above ground is made up of one rectangular building, with a courtyard in the middle. There’s one entrance from the outside into the building, and two from the building to the yard. One to the north, and one to the south of center. But they didn’t use the front doors. These people dropped in from an airship, right into the courtyard and over the vault door.

“The Guardians kept them busy until they could seal the vault, but we lost many, and the rest had to barricade themselves behind the doors to the courtyard. We can’t really do much but watch and hope you get here before they get through.”

Astrid sketched as quickly as she could. Shaely gracefully moved over to give her room. As much as she could while maintaining control over her consoles.

“The caverns, the courtyard, and this door, will they be resistant to gunfire? Grenades?”

The voice on the other end shook, and Astrid realized the careful tightrope she navigated. This Keeper, much like her own, probably never expected to field such inquiries.

“Uh, yeah.” After a stagging breath, the man replied. “Yeah, it was tested for force resistance before we moved in. Of course. The courtyard is concrete, several meters thick.”

“Do you have enough people to mount a defense if you have to?”

“I… I don’t know. I don’t know how many we lost. We can’t engage for a full hour, I’m not even sure we have the armory supplies to sustain a fight that long, even if we had the manpower.”

Astrid looked to the captain, and London approached.

“Stay back, Keeper,” the captain advised. “Let them work. We’ll need your people alive if we want to make an effective push when we arrive.”

Astrid scowled. But she knew better than to question him openly.

“Yes, sir,” Keeper Karsten answered the instruction.

Again, London retreated from the exchange, and the specialist attempted to refocus, despite her misgivings.

“What’s next, past the vault?” She continued with her pen ready. “How do we reach the children first?”

It continued like that for some time. Keeper Karsten doing his best to verbally walk her through the facility, and Astrid ardently scribbling away. She went through a second paper, then a third, as her mind followed the wends of a Sanctuary carved into coastal stone and cliff rock.

The Keeper described an interior basked in the dim blue glow of the sea through its vista walls. Like a sublevel castle carved into a natural aquarium.

It sounded lovely, Astrid imagined. Even tranquil and soothing. If not for the persistent force with a head start on the Aldebaran and her crew.

For forty-five minutes, Astrid held the call. Three times their conversation paused for a clamor of noise that occasionally sounded from outside the Keeper’s office on the other end.

“Preparing for entry,” Ricks called from the pilot’s chair. “ETA thirty minutes.”

Astrid already felt her skin tingle in anticipation. Her tension rising, she needed to discharge, and soon. Luckily, this time, she knew just upon whom to dispense her anxious energy.

“Keeper Karsten, I need to pass you back to Comm Officer Shaely,” Astrid warned. “I need to gear up.”

“You’re coming yourself?”

“I’ll be there personally,” Astrid ensured. “We’ll see you soon.”

With a pat to Shaely, Astrid stepped away from the bench. She collected her papers, and while the comm officer made a shipwide announcement for the crew to return to stations and prepare for active operation, Astrid bounded down to the helm platform to press a quick kiss to the pilot’s cheek.

She didn’t miss how much time he shaved off their flightpath. “Thanks, Ricks.”

Under ruddy cheeks, the pilot grinned. “I can drop you on top of them, but then we gotta bug out. Go get ‘em, Gorgeous.”

Astrid saluted the captain on her way out.

Captain London folded his hands behind his back and returned to his post at the center of the room. She missed the gratified pull to a single side of his mouth just before the orange glare of atmospheric re-entry lit up the Bridge.