Sanctuary Falling

by Pamela Foland

  Angela grunted at herself, when had she started calling the women around her girls? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Angela was old enough to be their grandmother, or perhaps it was because she had moved into an addle-brained state of semi-senility. She shook her head just to see if her brains would make a rattling sound.

  Time to splatter more paint, Angela selected a nice bright pink and began by sticking her hands in it, then she began putting pink hand prints everywhere, she even levitated herself up to the ceiling to put some up there. After the pink can went empty, Angela began laying violet footprints on the ceiling. She brought her feet down to the floor and smiled at the track she had made, going nowhere. That was where she hoped her career would go, nowhere.

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  Chapter 17

  Bouncing Off

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  The increasing number of dimensions being destroyed by the dark had bad consequences for Annette. Annette frowned at what her pop-pad was telling her, dozens of factors had lodged nasty complaints over Sanctuary abandoning dimensions that were about to be destroyed by the dark. The field factors were incredulous that the worlds where they were stationed would be destroyed without the least bit of an attempt to save some of the people living in them. Most of the people howled their complaints at a level well above Annette’s tolerances and Annette had switched her pad to mute as she reviewed them. Despite the aural pain the complaints caused, Annette couldn’t help but agree, and that was why she chose to hunt down Angela and make a case for evacuation, in person.

  Annette had consulted with Prima and Central computer on where the best place to pin down Angela would be, and both had come up with the same answer, Annette strolled down the familiar corridor to the Angela’s paint room. She tried the door, but it didn’t even acknowledge her presence.

  “Prima, what’s up with the door,” Annette asked.

  “It has been manually disabled,” Prima replied.

  How like Angela to seal herself off from the people around her, after all the woman walked around with an assumed mask of authority. Annette suddenly realized how much of an intrusion it must have been, her stumbling over this room, during the Kavir incident. Annette knocked on the door firmly.

  “Who’s there?” Came Angela’s muffled voice.

  “It’s Annette and I need to talk to you, should I come in?”

  “No,” Angela quickly shouted back, “I’ll be out!” There was the sound of empty paint cans jangling together then a spotlessly clean Angela appeared next to Annette. “So,” Angela cleared her throat, “What is this about?”

  “Factors are loudly complaining about our abandonment of doomed dimensions. They want to know why they aren’t trying to save as many people as possible. To be honest I’d like to know the same,” Annette blurted.

  Angela stood, face blank, mouth opening and silently closing like a scared goldfish.

  Annette tried again, “I mean they may already be collapsing from crunch bombs but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t evacuate people, so at least something of those worlds would survive!”

  “We don’t have the room,” Angela finally answered firmly.

  “There’s plenty of room in Refuge,” Annette replied, “I could even go and set up direct portals to Refuge.”

  “You can’t leave now!” Angela’s face showed sheer panic for half an instant, “I’m calling back all of our strong kinetics we need them to shore up our defenses. A leader needs priorities.”

  Annette put her shoulders back and prepared to argue, “Entire planets need rescued. I’m not gonna let them down.”

  “Send someone else from your team,” Angela suggested.

  Annette wondered why Angela was arguing so hard against Annette going, “No, I need to be there, doesn’t a leader need to look out for those that follow?”

  Angela raised an eyebrow and looked directly into Annette’s eyes. Annette met the look and set her shoulders. After half a century and less than a minute Angela glanced down at the floor. When she looked up there was definite satisfaction in her eyes. She didn’t say anything more she just gave Annette a twitch of a nod and turned back towards her room.

  Annette stared wide-eyed at Angela’s back for a moment before the elder woman disappeared into her paint room again. With a chill, Annette realized that Angela was no longer fit for command. Annette considered Sanctuary’s population, only the prime factors had been officially informed of Sanctuary’s peril, though the deadline was very nearly upon them.

  Annette started off down the hallway towards the communications room, “Prima, has Angela really called back the higher level telekinetics?” Annette asked.

  “No, miss. Angela has only called back those factors directly in harm’s way of the crunch bombs,” Prima responded.

  “Has she begun evacuation plans?” Annette asked.

  “Not to my knowledge, nor has she scheduled an announcement of our present difficulties. In truth Central Computer is quite concerned,” Prima’s tone was one of electronic panic.

  Annette stopped dead in the hall, if the chief wasn’t acting like the chief then who was in charge? “Prima I want you to call a meeting. I want all the factors, everyone, call them in from the field. I also want every priest, minister, and rabbi. Call in all the school administrators and all school councilors. Make sure all the department heads come too,” Annette paused to scratch her mind for anyone else that needed to be there.

  “Does that include Angela?” Prima asked.

  Annette considered it, “Yes. Send all messages immediately.”

  “The one of the only rooms capable of holding a crowd that size is the main practice cavern,” Prima said.

  “I’m fine with that, book it for tomorrow morning at ten!” Annette stepped into the communications room.

  Immediately several operators took notice one, Ruth, came over to Annette, pop-pad in hand, “Miss Peterson is there something I can do for you?”

  “Yes, I’m going to make an announcement tomorrow and I want it taped for playback on all media channels two hours later. What do I need to do to get it?” Annette asked.

  “You’ve just done it, tell me when and where we need to be with our cameras,” Ruth replied.

  “Main factor training cavern, tomorrow, ten in the morning,” Annette replied.

  Ruth tapped at her pop-pad, “No problem, anything else?”

  Annette stared blankly past the woman for a moment, trying to bring her thoughts into focus, “No, not right now. Ask me again tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Could you give me some idea of what the announcement will be, so we can prepare appropriate graphics?” Ruth asked in a tone which indicated the question was more motivated by curiosity than preparedness.

  Annette frowned, “I think you’d sleep better tonight if you didn’t know. Really that’s all I need, don’t worry about beautifying the message. Nothing is going to make it pretty.”

  Ruth smiled confusedly and went back to her console. Annette noticed a box of doughnuts sitting on a table near the coffee pot. Her stomach growled so she used her telekinesis to grab a chocolate one on her way out.

  “Messages sent,” Prima piped up as they left the communication room.

  “Thanks Prima!” Annette mumbled around a mouthful of doughnut. Now she needed to get back to her team to let them know the bad news, tomorrow the deadline goes public. Annette trotted through the hallways at a brisk pace, and no one took any note of her. She remembered thinking no one saw her when she was a child, but this wasn’t like that. No, people passed her without making note of it because she belonged there, whatever she was doing. It was a good feeling, and a good feeling was what she needed.

  Annette made it to the design room, and found it full. People scurrying around one another monitoring monitors and checking projected data against the reality of construction. Most of Refuge was finished, there were still a few minor cosmetic details, but those could be dealt with
after moving in, besides time was running out. No, Annette had drawn a line in the sand, time was up.

  “People!,” The whole room turned to face Annette, her mouth went a little dry, but as silence fell she moved on, “We are en-bubbling today! Make it happen!”

  A mousey haired plain looking woman, blinked loudly at Annette, “But we aren’t ready there are still details, finishing touches, it isn’t finished!”

  Annette smirked, “Nothing is ever finished, time just runs out! And it is gone people, make bubble now!”

  “Chief Jr. are you trying to say Sanctuary’s death day, a.k.a. our deadline has been moved up?” Mike peeped from somewhere in the corner. Frightened murmurs hissed out of the rest of the room.

  “No, I’m saying we are moving in! It’s ready enough now, and we really don’t want to cut it close in the evacuation end of the project. I want our designated white-hat guides moved in by the end of the week. They need to familiarize themselves with it so that on moving day everyone is on the same page. I’m taking the chief on her tour tonight so leave the lights on.”

  Carl stepped forward, “I’ve already let the white hats know about the new time table, Annette. Do I need to modify the information packets too?”

  Annette shrugged, “Don’t see why, just mention that some of the paint may still be wet and that they shouldn’t bait the construction bots.”

  Carl smiled warmly at her, and Annette smiled back. Finished with him everyone else in the room clamored for her personal approval of their projects. Frustrated and overtaxed, Annette turned on her heels and headed back out the door. Behind her pandemonium broke out as everyone rushed to put her orders into action.

  Annette followed her feet and her nose back to Angela’s paint room. She knocked again. Again she heard Angela’s muffled challenge, “Who is it?”

  “Me, again!” Annette replied.

  Angela teleported back out of her room, this time not quite in as pristine a condition, a little bit of blue paint splatter stood out on her sleeve. Angela apparently caught Annette’s glance because the paint disappeared, “Come to scold me again?”

  “No, I’ve come to make a courtesy call and inform you of items of interest on your schedule. One, this evening I invite you to join me on a walkthrough of Refuge, not the whole thing by any means, but enough for you to get the idea. I’ve also called a major meeting tomorrow morning at ten. I’m announcing the situation to everyone on a time delay, and putting evacuation equipment at their disposal. I’m also sending out rescue teams where there is enough of a safety margin to try.”

  Angela looked blankly at Annette and nodded, “Okay, so I should meet you in the design room around what, eight?”

  “Yeah, that would be good, wear comfortable shoes,” Annette replied.

  “Okay,” Angela chirped then disappeared back into her room.

  Annette decided to take a page from Angela’s book and disappear for a while. Her bed was calling to her. She figured she should stock up on sleep now, while she had something resembling time on her hands. The next few days, and weeks could, would be hectic.

  Annette was almost to her quarters when she suddenly realized that there was one more place to go, one more errand to run to prepare for tomorrow. It was the one she dreaded most, she had to go make sure Sinclair had prepared the evacuation packages for everyone. She’d let him design them, and prepare them on his own, so she could avoid the issue, or rather so she could avoid him. Annette had no problem whatsoever with the idea of evacuation kits, she just wished she didn’t have to go through him to get them.

  Annette continued on to her quarters, she wasn’t going to face Sinclair in a third-year-blue jumpsuit. She changed quickly into her tie died t-shirt and embellished jeans. She automatically transferred Prima’s remote to the shirt. On her way out of the room she glanced at her still unworn prime jacket. Though wearing it would give her more confidence to deal with him, it wouldn’t be a good gesture to wear it to see a man who still doubted her right to be in training, let alone her right to be a prime. He would already be on edge with her without deliberately rubbing him the wrong way.

  For Annette, the walk down to Sinclair’s office held dread in abundance. It took an act of will to keep her legs from shaking. Just outside of the door to Sinclair’s office Annette paused long enough to pull her thoughts together. Then she raised her hand to knock, instead the door opened and Sinclair nearly trampled her on his way out.

  “Peterson,” Sinclair grunted as his expression turned sour, “I’m busy now, perhaps you can come back later. “

  Annette felt pressure to obey, but pulled herself together, “No, now, I need to know if the evacuation kits are ready.”

  Sinclair glared at her, as though his eyes could melt her, “Yes, I have thirty thousand units ready for distribution before the deadline.”

  “Are they ready to distribute tomorrow afternoon? Because I’m making the announcement tomorrow morning,” Annette challenged.

  Sinclair paused and consulted his pop-pad, “I can arrange that, but why are you making the announcement? I thought the chief. . .”

  “Angela is otherwise indisposed. To be frank, I’m worried about her,” Annette replied quickly.

  “Please do be frank, what do you mean? I’ve seen her at the morning briefings. She seems to be fine,” Sinclair responded.

  Annette paused, “She is good at seeming fine when she has to. I’m talking about the rest of the day. Have you tried talking to her at any other point in the day?”

  Sinclair paused, “Perhaps you are right? Still do you think it’s appropriate to be taking over her responsibilities? How do you think she’ll react.”

  “I already know how she’ll react. She’ll nod and say okay and go back into her manic painting. When I say I’m worried about her, I mean there is definitely something to worry about. I’m no longer some dumb kid, better to be ignored than admitted to training. I am an adult and I know what I’m talking about when I open my mouth. I’ve been her assistant for three years and a prime for nearly as long. I know what I’m doing and I’m tired of your callous disregard of that fact, “ Annette growled, finally tired of his attitude.

  Sinclair backed back into his room, blinking at the force of her eruption, “Okay, I believe you, and I’ll have those kits ready tomorrow morning for distribution. Anything else?” His voice and face were a mask of contrition.

  Annette swallowed her anger and paused to think, that pause was interrupted by Prima’s voice, “Miss, there is a very upset secondary factor requesting to speak with you.”

  “Put it through to my pad,” Annette said reaching for her pocket before realizing she’d forgotten to transfer it to her outfit when she changed, “Put it through your speaker.”

  “I want to talk to a person you dumb program! I mean now!” The remote pin’s speaker blurted.

  “You’ve got one, now what can I do for you?” Annette quickly stated.

  “Where’s your visual?” The voice growled back.

  Annette sighed, “Mr. Chavez may I borrow your pad?” Sinclair quickly responded handing her his pop-pad. “Prima put him through! Better? Now to whom am I speaking.”

  “Donovan D’lliano, secondary assigned to Earth alternate 1012206. My readings indicate that a crunch has been used and this dimension is toast. I want back up to get people off this rock! Now!”

  Sinclair, peering over Annette’s shoulder grimaced, “The chief’s policy is to pull the factor and write off the dimension.”

  Annette glared him into silence, “I know her policy. The policy has changed. Mr. D’lliano transmit me your exact coordinates I’ll get a team to you with evacuation kits ASAP.”

  “Thanks, I’ll be waiting!” Donovan said then cut the transmission.

  Annette handed the pad back to Sinclair, “You said you had thirty thousand units? Sanctuary has a population of just over eighteen thousand. Give me the spare units and as many emergency evacuation tags as you’ve got. Prima I want all unoc
cupied factors to meet me in the room 52 in five minutes! Tell them to make sure they have their stasis loops.”

  Sinclair’s expression changed to one of reserved amazement, “I’ll get the equipment to room 52.” He turned to implement his words without argument or backwards glance.

  Annette stood alone in the hallway. She knew she should start towards room 52 but was still overwhelmed by her personal victory over Sinclair. She closed her eyes, for the first time really feeling like she’d earned a prime jacket. Her thoughts went to the jacket, and she realized all she had to do was think a little harder to actually touch it. Annette opened her eyes and found herself in her room.

  It was the first time she’d teleported. Tina had told her she was able to quite some time ago, but this was the first time she’d tried it. She’d just been too busy with other things. Annette reached for the jacket and pulled it on. It fit perfectly. Remembering her pop-pad, Annette grabbed it and slipped it into a conveniently placed pocket. Then she focused her mind on the white expanse of room 52, trying to get straight as many details as she could. Closing her eyes, Annette reached that little bit harder with her mind, and. . . Found herself standing on the practice cavern’s bleachers. It wasn’t exactly what she was aiming for but she had teleported.

  Annette stepped down from the bleachers and started for a transport booth. She tapped in her destination and the activation key. She ended up right outside the room. She peeked into the room spotting a crowd of factors already waiting to find out the reason for the summons. Annette stepped inside listening to the group before talking. Mumblings within the group speculated that it had to do with the next morning’s announcement, and some even connected it to the rumor that Sanctuary was in dire danger. Hearing the speculations was very enlightening. More people knew more about the situation than she would have thought.

  Sinclair and several of his people finally arrived each carrying boxes full of large canvas bags. Annette took it for time to speak and stepped forward, “People here’s the assignment.”