Sanctuary Falling

by Pamela Foland

  That last job, where he’d saved those future scientists, had been what he signed up for. He hadn’t signed up to defend the earth from rampant Tanerian hormones!

  The thought of rampant hormones brought back to mind the Agurian girl he’d made contact with on his last two assignments. Yllera Vllett, he rolled her name around in his mind. It was just so Agurian. The thought of her brought a smile to his face. There was just something about her. She wasn’t really beautiful, at least not in the conventional way, but she had something he just couldn’t shake. It was probably just time for his hormones to flare up again. He was approaching thirty fast, and still hadn’t formed a pairbond. While mostly briaunti, his lineage was far from pedigreed. Somewhere in his mixed genetic heritage his parents each claimed some Agurian, but then they claimed a lot of things. Maybe that minute Agurian ancestry was enough to set his nose to declaring her an adequate genetic match. He shook his head, it didn’t feel like the usual driving lust which he only barely ever kept under control.

  Suddenly he remembered she wasn’t just a pretty face. She was a factor and that was perhaps the answer to his dilemma. Max smiled again and opened his locker. He pulled out the communications pad Yllera’s supervisor had given him and tapped the screen.

  An unfamiliar male face appeared on the screen, “Hello, sir, how may I direct your call?” The man seemed bored with his job.

  “I’m a contract bound catalyst, and I’m thinking of quitting my job. How does one become a factor, and how long would my training contract be?” Max asked.

  “One, moment, I’ll connect you with factor training,” The man’s hand rose and filled the screen before it flickered to a written, “please wait,” message. Max felt a surge of hesitation as he waited.

  Shortly another face filled the screen. , “Hello, my name is Sinclair Chavez, I’m the head of factor training. I hear you’re interested in becoming a factor. We have certain standards which must be met but we welcome all applicants,” The man’s voice was full of false cheer, and Max had the sinking suspicion he was dealing with a recording. The suspicion quickly panned out as the screen went from showing the man’s face to a menu, “If you would like to arrange for testing please tap >testing center’. If you would like information on our standards please tap >records department’. If you have a factor sponsor please tap >sponsorship’. If you need additional help tap >assistance’.”

  Max almost deactivated the pad, instead he tapped assistance. It was almost a minute before the face of a clearly busy woman appeared on the screen. “I’m here,” She said before she even glanced at her pad, then when she did, “Who are you?”

  “Max Xandari, I’m a catalyst thinking of becoming a factor,” He answered.

  The woman grimaced, “Let me guess, you tapped >assistance’,” the woman shook her head and mumbled softly, “That son of a . . . I’m in charge of everything he doesn’t want to deal with but far be it from me to have a clue about who should or shouldn’t be a factor.” Max felt uncomfortably like he’d been drawn inadvertently into the middle of an argument. The woman sighed and focused on his face again, “I’m sorry for that outburst, Max. You don’t deserve that. I’ll arrange to transport you here if you like. If you’re a catalyst, I don’t see why you couldn’t make the transition easily. I can arrange for your pad to transport you to Sanctuary immediately if you’d like. You could look around, see the training facilities and talk to some of our people. That should help you decide.”

  “I’m pretty well decided. I just have a few questions, ah, um, Miss,” He responded.

  “Oh, my name is Niri Everett, and I think I can answer some of your questions before you ask. Factors don’t receive any sort of salary. We operate under a system of allotments. Every resident of Sanctuary receives a minimum allotment, providing the necessities, clothing, food, and quarters. People with jobs or in some kind of vocational training receive a larger allotment. Factors receive the largest allotments allowing for large quarters, and pretty unlimited food and clothing choices, and all reasonable field expenses are covered. We may not pay but we do take good care of our people. That includes state of the art medical facilities. The family and friends of factors are welcome and receive augmented allotments. That’s the main stuff, what else do you need to know?”

  “I just want to clarify a few things. You don’t generally assign people to baby-sit Tanerian princesses, do you? Do you provide moving expenses?” Max asked, liking what he heard.

  “No, and we can make arrangements,” Niri answered, “I have a couple questions for you. How much longer is your council contract?”

  “Five years, but there’s no problem with my resigning. I’ve served the bare minimum for repayment. What’s left is the gravy years that would get me my freelance license.”

  Niri smiled and nodded, “Why did you get into catalyst work?”

  “To protect and serve, that was a while ago, way before they chose questionable uses of my time,” Max answered.

  Niri smirked and nodded knowingly, “Ah, the Tanerian princess, nuff said. How did you hear about us?”

  “One of your Agurian factors was involved in a few of my recent assignments, Yllera Vllett,” Max answered.

  “Oh, you know Yllera, she’s a good kid. Do you want to let her know you’re coming? I can put us on three way,” Niri offered.

  Max considered it; Yllera was a large part of his willingness. Then again, surprising her with a completed fact might be fun. She was so pretty when she was surprised. “No, I’d rather tell her when I’m sure it’s going to work out.”

  Niri’s smile widened, “Sure, I’ll set up transport.”

  “Give me a few minutes,” Max sat down the pad, and picked up the file. This was going to be fun.

  - - - - - - - - - -

  Annette woke up, ready to go back to bed. In the last few weeks she’d readjusted to waking at around five-thirty, but that was the only thing that had completely returned to normal. Annette climbed out of bed, yawning. Everything was sore from her day of endurance training yesterday. She knew the muscle aches would subside with exercise so Annette did a warm up stretch which blended into the complicated exercise routine Niri had tailored specifically to increase Annette’s strength and endurance. Even with the stretches, her muscles still gave a slight objection to yesterday. It was enough that Annette didn’t look forward to the evening run

  Then she hurried to shower and dress, in one of the jumpsuits Niri had given her. It was in the style worn by most first through third year factor trainees, but not in one of three common colors. Red was worn by the first year trainees, purple by the second, and navy blue by the third year students. Hers was a mid-range shade of sky blue. Few people wore that shade, it was mostly for exceptions like herself.

  By the time Annette was dressed, Tawny had her breakfast, a compact pastry pocket filled with eggs cheese and breakfast meat, waiting on the study desk and her school work listed by subject on the media screen above. Annette said her prayers and picked up the pastry, one bite told her it was as good as she’d come to expect. It had taken about a week for Tawny to understand Annette’s food tastes and the size of her appetite. Since then breakfast, at least, had gone off without a hitch. Lunch usually worked out too, about half the time Annette ate lunch with Niri or in the cafeteria. Where meals got complicated was dinner, Tawny frequently chose to fool around with the menu. Annette hadn’t wanted to argue at first, but when Tawny tried to serve her a traditional bug soup from Trilanta, Annette tried to draw the line. They had argued. The ultimate result was that Annette could have anything she wanted for dinner, but, as long as she lived in that room, she would have to taste any strange recipe Tawny came up with. Annette had appealed to Niri who had taken Tawny’s side on the grounds that factors often had to consume strange things on assignment. In the end the experience caused Annette to make a serious mental note, almost a rule, “It’ll probably be best not to ask what is in the local cuisine.” She applied it to everything Tawny fed
her.

  Annette thanked Tawny and then she began attacking both breakfast and her assignments in force. Her school work was another thing that changed. At first Niri had insisted Annette put as much energy into her school work as she did into her factor work. Back in school the lessons had gone by only as fast as the slowest person in the class. Now Annette was effectively the only one in her classes. Every day she covered more than she would’ve in at least a week of school. The more she got done the more she was assigned. In a little over a month she had covered more than a year of course material. Until now she’d never thought herself very smart, but then she’d never really bothered to put much determination in her school work. Most of her energy had been focused on other goals.

  Annette finished her school work and began going reviewing the technical schematics of the factor gear Niri had shown her yesterday. Each scanner and device was designed not only to work alone to serve specific purposes but could also be interlinked with others to perform more complex tasks. They were also often disguised to resemble technologies used by the people of each field locale. The technical department went to great lengths to ensure that the disguised devices could also be used for the same purposes as the items they were disguised as. Annette’s early research hadn’t told her that, and she now needed to memorize not ten or twenty items and usages but hundreds or thousands of items and usages, especially how to use the disguised items as intended or for their factor purposes.

  After her review, Annette finally gave in to the urge that had driven her this far. It had been almost four weeks since Tina ran the molecular cytoplasmic scan, and Annette had yet to hear back from Tina on her test results. During that time Annette had waited with decreasing patients. The memory of Tina saying, “I’ll get back to you with the results,” was wearing a hole in Annette’s mind. The idea that all doctors were closet sadists was looking increasingly like fact. Since then she had sworn that the next day she would call for more information, but put it off to the next. Today she would do it. “Tawny, do I have any messages from Tina this morning?” Annette asked.

  “No, for like the billionth time,” Tawny answered back snappishly, “Don’t you think, that after you’ve asked this many times, I would tell you immediately?”

  Annette grimaced, “Sorry, I’m just getting tired of waiting.”

  “I know, but it may take some more time, those scans are hard to take and harder to process. They might have to look at each cell before they can give a definitive answer,” Tawny said reassuringly, and not for the first time.

  “I know, it’s just that I want to know now,” Annette responded.

  “You need to take a more relaxed view of life kid. Knowing whether some part of you may or may not be briaunti won’t change who you are. Or who you’ll become. That stays the same regardless of any scans or other people’s opinions.”

  “But, I’ll know,” Annette answered, suddenly feeling the desperate need to know.

  The speakers carrying Tawny’s voice made a disgusting sound, like an angry laugh, “Kid if you don’t know what and who you are by now, you aren’t half as bright as I thought you were. By the way, Niri’s just outside, she’s probably ready for you.” A picture of Niri about to knock on Annette’s door filled the media screen. “One final thought kid, remember when Angela came and spent a few minutes talking to you a while back? I think she saw who you are, if you’re really worried about it you might just talk to her instead of her cousin.” Annette nodded at the air, wishing Tawny hadn’t brought up the morning of Angela’s strange visit.

  Knocking came through the speakers and Niri’s voice, “Hey, you ready in there? I received a message saying you’d filed your homework.”

  Annette rushed to answer the door. “Yeah, I’m on my way,” she said while opening it. Her stomach churned remembering the intense way Angela had looked at her and then tapped something into her pop-pad. Had that been part of the test? Had Annette failed? The conversation had been so short, and so innocent seeming, but it had disturbed Niri to no end. Just thinking of it brought back so much.

  The next morning Niri had intensified the training even further, starting earlier, going until later, and introducing Annette to the time dilation function of the transport pods. At first the days had blurred for Annette. Lessons flowed like water, no matter how much she got done there was always more, names, dates, times, places, events, devices all to memorize. Almost an entire week was spent getting into and out of locked rooms. Then there was self defense practice and the constant never-ending fight for just enough time to adapt. Her head felt like it was going to explode. Annette held onto the doorknob with white knuckles. She heard a faint whispering at the edges of her mind which rapidly grew to a roaring torrent flowing straight at her. The door swung the rest of the way open as she fell back trying to dodge the maelstrom in her mind. Niri rushed into the room to help Annette as she swooned.

  Just as suddenly as it had appeared the swirling noise left Annette’s mind in silence. “Annette! Can you hear me? Are you okay? Annette!” Annette heard Niri calling her, trying to get her attention.

  Annette focused her eyes on the woman. Niri was afraid for her. Annette knew it but wasn’t sure if she was feeling the woman’s fear or just seeing it in Niri’s eyes. Despite the experience, Annette was strangely calm. “I’m okay, I just felt, a little dizzy I guess.”

  Niri’s eyes opened even wider, “Are you sure? I think I should take you to see Tina,” then Niri sighed heavily and looked at the time display on the media screen. Annette looked too, it wasn’t even nine o’clock. “I’m probably working you too hard. You haven’t had a day off in a month. We’ll go see Tina, and then you are going to get some rest!”

  “No, really, I’m okay! I want to be a factor, and this is my only chance! You haven’t worked me any harder than I’ve worked myself!” Annette protested, suddenly terrified at the loss of one day of training with so much at stake.

  Niri started to look convinced, then shook her head. Annette heard a soft, “No, we could both use a break. Besides, I know Chavez isn’t having that much luck getting his boy to study.” She started to object again, until she recognized a strange quality to the voice. Suddenly, almost loudly Niri seemed to begin to repeat herself, “No, we could both use a break, and I think Tina should have a look at you.”

  Annette closed her half-open mouth. Was she really hearing thoughts again? It had been some time since she last thought she heard any. She had almost come to think she’d imagined it. “I don’t know if that’s necessary,” Annette objected. She started to push herself back to her feet, but was stopped by a moment of lightheadedness. “Maybe you’re right.”

  Niri smiled and helped her up, “You should know by now that I usually am.” Niri did something strikingly unusual then, she teleported them both to the clinic. If the experience had not made Annette nauseous, she might have spent more time wondering at it. Until then she hadn’t even been sure Niri could teleport. Niri helped Annette to a chair and walked up to the receptionist. “I need Tina now.”

  “The assistant director is busy with another patient right now. It’ll be a few minutes. Another physician could see you immediately,” The politely blonde woman answered.

  “Let her know, Niri Everett is here with Annette Peterson,” Niri responded tersely

  “The assistant director is a busy person. You may have to wait,” The woman quickly tapped a touch screen built into her desk then spoke into a telephone-like handset. The response she received surprised her, as evidenced by her face and sudden change in demeanor, “I’m to take you to an exam room immediately and assure you she’ll be with you when possible.” The woman stepped from behind the desk and retrieved a wheel chair for Annette.

  Annette watched the interaction and response. As the receptionist approached with the chair, she wondered which name had drawn the attention. It had to be Niri, after all, Niri was practically the head of factor training. Besides, though Annette considered Tina a friend, a
nd thought perhaps Tina felt the same way, not even Tina would make that big a deal over Annette. Would she? The receptionist gingerly helped Annette into the chair and quickly wheeled her down the hall to the first available exam room. On the heels of the receptionist’s retreat, Tina arrived.

  “What seems to be the problem?” Tina asked addressing Niri as much as Annette.

  “She just had a dizzy spell, and,” Niri hesitated, “I’m worried I’m pushing her too hard.”

  Tina nodded and retrieved a few scanners from a cupboard, the last of which looked like a streamlined helmet. Annette recognized it as an Everett scanner, it checked for telepathic abilities. Annette looked at it suspiciously. Tina noticed Annette’s focus and smiled, “Yes, an Everett scanner. Telepathy can cause dizziness. How about we start with this one.”

  Tina placed the Everett scanner on Annette’s head and started it. Annette felt the usual pressure, and the lightheadedness return, but she didn’t say anything. While the Everett scanner worked, Tina ran the other scanners. By the time the Everett pinged that it was finished the rest of the examination was too. Tina put the scanners away and picked up her pop-pad.

  “Your blood sugar is a little low right now you’re a little dehydrated, and your mineral balance is off. None of it is serious. What does bother me a little is the Everett scan, but it may just be that you still haven’t quite recovered from the concussion. Annette, have you had any headaches recently?” Tina said rapidly.

  Annette thought about it, “No, I haven’t had any headaches, or anything else recently. I’ve felt normal until this morning.”

  “Then you heard something, didn’t you,” Tina asked, tapping at her pad, “it sounded like a roaring wind, or a mumbling crowd or a hurricane?”

  Annette hesitated, “Yeah, what was it?”

  Tina made a face, “What did you think it was?”

  Again Annette hesitated, she didn’t really believe what she suspected it was, “I don’t know, stress maybe?”