Ellen Spitzer waved around her. “Surely there’s a way to disable the ray. Couldn’t they have sent in science teams to bring you back?”
Cabell shrugged and walked on toward the caves and the Vanguard personnel. “That would’ve been the easiest thing, you’d think.” His foot kicked a stray stone skittering off toward a rubble heap. “Problem is, it wouldn’t work. After a week of existing, the thought of leaving this planet horrified me.” Ellen Spitzer kept step with Cabell, but Louise lagged behind. Something resonated in her, an odd twinge, that something Cabell had said gave her insight to the alien race that had lived in the sprawling city. Lost in thought, she dimly heard Ellen ask Cabell, “You feel attached to this planet?”
“Yes.” His voice came as if through fog. “For some it was almost immediate. Some days, or weeks. Others, months, and some, never. They weren’t happy. Those that felt the connection found peace with this planet.” Cabell stopped his walk short as a stream of some twenty watchmen walked past, heading for the caves. He scowled at the Spitzers. “For having taught you at the Institute, I’m surprised you would breach protocol like this.”
The Spitzers exchanged a confused glance. Ellen was the first to speak. “Breached protocol? In what way?”
“That’s the last thing we’d do,” Louise rejoined.
Cabell gestured around himself to the receding line of Watchmen. “Such a glaring misuse of resources. All these Watchmen. We were never so wasteful with the security officers in my day. No one in Starmada would dream of it.”
The Spitzers smiled knowingly at one another. Ellen fixed Cabell with a firm gaze. “That policy was changed once you got into the Institute.” The confused expression on Cabell’s face prompted Louise to add. “That was the first thing you changed once you were promoted to Counter-Admiral.”
Cabell stood silently for a moment. After opening his mouth a few times like a gasping fish, he managed to mutter, “Why would I do such a thing?”
“I think the landing on Vullatrix IV had something to do with your decision.” Louise said.
“You mean the time I remember, or did my twin go back to that sand trap for some insane reason?”
Ellen patted his shoulder. “That and every other situation like it. You realized just how many officers were lost to landing and first contact incidents…”
“…so you suggested that rather than waste the lives of well trained leaders, run the risk with security…”
“…since they’re trained for it anyway.”
Try as he might to look flustered at that moment, the Spitzers could see that Cabell was pleased. “Come on.” He huffed, his voice gruff,
***
Louise Spitzer stood at the mouth of the cave system, watching the storm approach from over the city, lightning flashing, and the distant, echoing boom of thunder. She could feel with each gust of wind the soft pelt of dust and debris kicked up by the storm. For a disorienting moment she felt as if she were home in Les Plaines on her family’s estate, looking at an afternoon thunderstorm. Her ether communicator chirred and she brought it out of her jacked almost unwillingly. Just as she was about to answer, the last of the watchmen climbed past her, into the caves.
She flipped the toggle and punched two of the many buttons and was greeted by the voice of Dr. Rasmussen. “Captain – how goes the mission?”
Louise was grateful this wasn’t video, but fought against the frown that quirked at the corners of her mouth. “Well enough, Doctor.” She watched a flash of lightning. “Once this electrical storm passes, I’d like you to run a scan for life signs in and around this city. Now that we’re closer we might get better resolution on the observation pallets.” The wind picked up and Louise clapped her cloak around her. “I’m fairly certain one of the Nai’s are dead. We’ll need to retrieve his body.”
The radio hissed with two strikes of lightning not far distant. As the static cleared, the Doctor could be heard again. “…Captain? I repeat-understood, Captain. Your signal’s weak, with that storm moving in. Get to shelter. We’ll send down a well-equipped search party when it clears.”
Louise buttoned the flaps of her cloak to her belt buttons, and held her hair from whipping around, the wind picking up fiercely. “Good. Contact us when you’re on your way. We’ll get you directed to a suitable local landing site.” Louise deftly closed the communicator and slipped it into the folds of her cloak. A flash of lightning lit the far city. In the depths of her field of vision, she could just make out the shadow of a large tower. Repeated flashes of lightning lit the city like a strobe, and in her vision she could see a tower falling, as if in a stop-motion film. From the distance, she could only guess that it was near where they had lost Nai, and where he would quite likely have to remain.
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