Anthimia 3, 230 AC

Temuera here again, with another report from the Surakosan nouergic rescue and relief team in earthquake-stricken Eridu.

As I have said before, nouergists are not super-heroes, no matter how the media and cinema depict them. They may be able to do amazing high-energy feats, but their endurance is limited and they will tire and fail just as any living being will. They can only do so much before they have to stop.

All the nouergists and nouetists were well aware of this as they worked to rescue as many earthquake victims as they could. By nightfall, the nouergists were unable to use high-energy telekinesis to lift fallen walls and floors and beams, no matter how urgent the rescue. To restore their powers, they would need to spend many hours resting, preferably in a deep sleep.

But there was no sleep to be had in the destroyed city, only a world of distant fires and shuddering aftershocks, sputtering engines, shouts and whimpers, and a mindworld filled with unceasing distress and pain. Ariadne sat on a folding chair under a tent at operations, her dark face lit by the blue light of a few screens. The gateway back to Surakosai was supposed to serve as a source for supplies as well as an evacuation outlet for badly injured people who had a chance to survive with intensive help. But the two novice Gateholders could not maintain it. Palamidis had lost a Gateway in a scary collapse and now refused to go anywhere near a high-energy working. Narseh Ardan, meanwhile, could not maintain it on his own, and lacked the energy to go on. That Gate was supposed to run for a specified time every few hours, but as night went on, there was no gate. The medical staff had set up small isolation tents for the nouergists to regenerate in; Mereth had assembled his own geodesic escape pod, shining with tiny protective lights, where he rested in relative luxury.

The Aurians were also experiencing supply problems. They had expected to be able to refuel their lifters and rotocraft either from flying tankers or from trucks which they had prepared for the relief effort. But neither of these re-supply efforts had gotten through the chaos of the city and the blocked streets. The plaza was now full of parked and inactive aircraft, though some of them were still airborne with enough fuel to fly. Ariadne snatched some time away from ops to talk onscreen with her husband Buc and her young children Aziareh and Asafa back in Surakosai. She was more than glad to see them, but there was something else on her mind. Tanheu was missing, both from electronic and nouetic communications. Tanheu was the director of the Surakosai Institute and a top-level nouergic master. They could not afford to lose him. Something was going on at the nuclear power plant. She could receive only fragmentary impressions from Barandigi, his operations partner. Something dangerous. Something that threatened the whole region. Midnight passed, in this blackest of nights, as Ariadne kept her weary vigil.

Three hours after midnight, and Ariadne is woken from a fitful sleep taken on a pad under the ops table by the clatter and bright spotlight of a rotocraft coming close. People scatter from under its landing gear and it clunks down ungracefully. The side opens up and two men emerge carrying a bundle wrapped in a dark blanket, along with some equipment. Barandigi leaps out after them, wild-eyed and disheveled, and runs to Operations, shouting for medical aid.

The bundle is Tanheu. Horrifying stab of fear: is he dead? Is he dying? What happened? Barandigi can hardly catch her breath. The medical team arrives; they've left others in need to attend to the Director. He's not dead …but he's unconscious and unresponsive. There is a scuffle and a rush to set up a pallet for him. Where are the others who were with them at the nuclear plant? All evacuated. The rotocraft is already in the air and on its way back to the northern suburbs. Barandigi must be debriefed, but she needs to be calmed down. She accepts a bucket of water, drinks deeply from it, and then pours the rest over her head, splashing water into the dust and the broken pavement…

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted at 3:55 am | link

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