Chapter One
The lab was rough, merely field equipment set up in a small cave in a volcano several kilometres south of the capital. Folding tables laden with crystal tools and related apparatus gathered around a framework; a metal slab shaped like a sprawled humanoid, with bars looping over the limbs and crowned with two crystal grips, one holding a golden hourglass-shaped stone and the other a frosty blue one that caused the air around it to condense into a chilling mist. White-coated scientists bustled about, all but one ignoring the bodysuit-clad woman sat in a flimsy chair beside the frame.
"Alright, Heron, we should be good to go shortly." The Merb scientist said to her. A device behind him buzzed and one of his colleagues checked its screen.
"Another quake. I don't think Pangaea is going to hold much longer." They said, pressing a button. "A few more days and the whole lot is going to give."
"I heard the area around Zartacla has already gained several large sinkholes. They go almost all the way down to the mantle, apparently." Another tech mentioned, fiddling with the framework, tightening knuts.
Everyone paused as the ground began to shake, rattling beakers and alarming the group. A few seconds later, the shaking stopped, and everyone immediately sprang back into action.
"It is time." The Merb declared, flicking some dust off of his coat as Heron rose. She clambered into the framework, sliding her hands and feet through the bars. As she settled into place, the Merb touched a small Engine Crystal to a wire and the frame rose and rotated, until she was standing in the frame facing the team of scientists who had stopped working to watch their masterpiece put into action.
"Are you sure you are ready for this, Heron?" The lead scientist, a thickly-spectacled wiry fellow asked. "It is not too late to back out, you know. Spend the last days with your family. Your friends."
"I've already made my farewells, Nelson; I made them the day I became a Guardian. My family never approved of my career choice." Heron answered. She closed her grey eyes and leaned her head back against the metal. "I am ready."
"Everyone, stand back. Aegis, activate the crystals."
"Wait; where are my-" At the last moment, someone handed Heron her twin swords, and she rested them across her body, blades pointed to her feet.
The room grew quiet as the Merb again powered the machine, and the two crystals began to tilt toward each other. With an almost imperceptible click, the two stones met, and around Heron the air grew colder and colder. Ice began to form around her as her breathing slowed and she was soon encased in a thickening layer until the framework was completely engulfed, crystals and all.
I hope this works… Heron thought as she faded into unconsciousness.
…This is an automated recording broadcasting on all frequencies… Seismic activity detected… Structural integrity of housing cavern is compromised... Authorised personnel please attend Project Rogers site Alpha immediately… Current status of Project Franklin Member HE2510 is… stable... Current status of crystal apparatus… stable… This message will repeat…
"…Uh, guys, she's waking up!" a young voice came from nearby as Heron slowly regained consciousness. Between the throbs of her pulse through her head she could hear the automatic alert system's broadcast emanating throughout the cave and other anxious movements around her.
She opened her eyes to a pair of worried faces, one with highly spiked blond hair and the other with dark freckles and a small horn on his nose. They separated as she sat up, her swords clattering to the ground, and she stiffly turned towards the radio apparatus where another pair were fiddling with buttons and knobs – none of which affected the broadcast.
"Nothing's working! How do we get this message to stop?" The tall redhead said, flipping a lever back and forth.
"I don't know but we have to stop it before the Remnants find it!" The other turned as she spoke, dashing towards the other equipment on the other side of the cave. A faint rumble caused a little dust to fall, which they all ignored.
"End broadcast; authorisation Hero 9." Heron croaked. The signal fell silent, and all faces turned back to hers.
For a second, everything went dark again, and when she next opened her eyes, she was slumped in the edge of the frame, supported by the blond.
"Easy now; don't push yourself." The young woman crouched before her and passed her a flask. "Have some water."
"What is all this stuff?" The blond man asked, poking at the various things scattered around the cave, much of it covered in a thick layer of rocky dust. "Man, Stork would have a field day with this!"
"Finn! Not now!" The woman admonished him as Heron sipped the flask. "Junko, can you see if you can get the crystals out? They might still have some use."
The horned lad reached towards the crystals on the frame, which upon contact with his fingers crumbled to dust. "Oops; sorry!"
"Never mind, then."
Just then, a deeper rumble resonated from the walls, and they were all coated with another layer of dirt. A stalactite at the back of the cave smashed on the floor. Heron struggled to her feet, swaying slightly before slumping back down.
"This cavern's collapsing; we've gotta get out of here." The red-haired man said.
"Give her some time, Aerrow." The girl replied, gently taking the flask back. "What's your name?"
"Heron… My name is Heron…"
"Heron, how long have you -" Another, longer rumble interrupted the woman, and her amber eyes widened, looking past her. Heron turned around and saw that, at the back of the cave, the walls had begun to buckle, and more of the rocky teeth began to shatter and shake.
"We don't have time!" Aerrow, apparently the leader of the group, cried. "We need to go, now!"
Heron rose again, and took a few wobbly steps towards the entrance to the cavern. I thought that had been sealed after I was frozen… It must have reopened in a terraquake…
A small device on Aerrow's hip crackled, and he held it up. "What?"
"Dudes, you gotta get out fast! She's gonna blow, eh?" Came the cry from the other end as another rumble began, this one louder and unending, joined by the loud cracking of shattering rock and the smack of falling pebbles.
"Alright, Hawks, let's go! Junko, can you carry Heron?"
"Sure!" The horned man came barrelling over. "'scuse me!" he said as he scooped Heron over his shoulder, then bent and retrieved her swords with the other.
With that, the four ran from the cave, darting through into the access tunnel just before the ceiling came crashing down. Heron watched over Junko's expansive shoulder as the dust billowed towards them, then again lost consciousness.
When Heron awoke once more, she found herself staring up at a metal ceiling. Her head throbbed with every heartbeat, and she swore she could hear her eyes moving as she blinked. She carefully lifted herself up onto her elbows, and looked around.
She was in a small room with a single porthole looking out on a clear blue sky, lying on a blue medical bed. There was a comfy looking chair in the corner opposite, occupied by the slender girl with dark blue hair, currently asleep with her arms crossed and her chin on her chest; a narrow line of drool came from her open mouth as she quietly snored.
On the wall opposite the window, a clock ticked loudly, and the door was open, leading out to the rest of wherever she was. An airship of some sort, judging by the continuous faint engine hum.
She sat all the way up, her head pulsing; she wobbled and stuck her hand out for balance, knocking over a small table sending miscellanea scattering across the floor and waking the girl with a start.
"Whoa, careful!" She came rushing over and held onto Heron's arm, helping her steady herself into sitting on the bed, her legs almost touching the floor. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm-" Heron swallowed as a wave of nausea hit. "-alive."
"Here, hold this on your head." The girl gave Heron a small, pale blue-green crystal. "It should help with the pain."
She did as she was told, and immediately a wave of relieving coolness washed over her from head to toe.
"Where am I?"
"You're on the Condor, in our medbay. You've been unconscious for about three hours."
'The Condor?' Heron thought as she sat, head in hands. 'Must be their sky-ship.'
"You should get some proper rest." The girl – no, young woman – advised, gently pushing Heron back onto the bed. "Who knows how long you were down there but you still need to recover. I'll send someone by with some food later."
Heron found she hadn't the energy to resist, and lay back, tucking the little crystal into the pillow behind her head to free up her hands. It was a bit uncomfortable, but still preferable over how she had felt without it.
Somehow, she must have dozed off for an hour or two, because the next thing she knew the room was bathed in an orange sunset glow. Turning her head, she found next to the bed a small table with a bowl of cold, congealed soup on it. Amusingly, whoever had left it had seemingly been so focused on getting it to look nice and centred on the table that they had forgotten to include a spoon.
Heron shuffled around until she was sat upright in the bed with the pillow propping her up, the crystal slipping down to rest near the small of her back. Not too uncomfortable, but sating her now grumbling stomach was more important right now. She swiped up a glop of the soup from the bowl and tasted it – it seemed to be mainly Merb Cabbage, with tomatoes and onion all blended and pureed together. While thick and very definitely cold, Heron ended up drinking it all straight from the bowl, wiping up what dregs she could with her fingers. And here I thought I didn't like Merb Cabbage…
Sitting back, allowing herself time to digest a little, Heron retrieved the little aqua crystal and lifted it into the waning light, studying its smooth facets and watching the refracted light dance across the walls. It resembled a nil crystal somewhat, but from what she knew of those they were pure green. Had they perfected crystal fusion in the time since she went under?
As the last of the sunlight faded, she tucked the crystal into her glove – she didn't want to risk going without it; the doctor had said that the after effects of cryostasis were still not completely understood, and she also didn't want to lose it – and slowly swung her legs off the bed and stood, using the frame to steady herself. She already felt more sure of herself than when she first woke, and when she let go of the bed she didn't wobble at all. It was, however, quite dark in the little room, so she used the wall as a guide to the doorway.
The door slid open quietly on approach, revealing a corridor lit by lights placed along the tops of the walls. There were more doors, spaced apart enough for a decent sized room beyond, many of them with a small keypad about four feet up from the floor aside them.
'Must be the crew quarters.' Heron thought, noticing one densely decorated with 'no entry' signs and band posters, another with a simple 'KEEP OUT' in gothic lettering with a skull and crossbones decal beneath, and a third with 'Starling's room!' scrawled on it in neat letters. The closest slid open as she left the room, revealing a small medbay lined with cabinets and a small cot in the corner. She must have been in a room set aside for longer convalescence, Heron reasoned, then started down the hallway.
The engine hum was louder out here than in the room she awoke in – there was usually some sort of soundproofing in the quarters of a sky-ship – but it wasn't loud enough to cover the sound of animated chatter coming from somewhere ahead, paired with a cool breeze.
Heron wanted to run towards the sound – it had been too long since she had heard the sound of such happy conversation; the past few months she could remember were all solemn meetings, scientific explanations, careful plannings and tearful well wishes – but she forced herself to walk slowly and steadily, not wanting to fall flat on her face in front of all these new people. There was a certain dignity expected of a squadron leader, after all.
At the end of the hallway, a staircase headed down to a small mezzanine then to where, Heron assumed, the garage and landing strip was. It was definitely where the chatter was coming from, as a quick nosey through the last door on the right proved that the main room, which apparently was the helm, command centre and recreation room combined, was empty of life.
Following the stairs down, the voices steadily grew louder as she passed a tidy row of skyrides. The various designs hadn't changed very much since her time, and it was relatively easy to work out which ride belonged to which crewmember. The one with the secondary pilot function would be the leader's, (though Heron had never seen one in which the secondary pilot function was routed through a tiny sidecar like this one) the one with the bow mount would be the sniper's – and an impressive crossbow was indeed attached to the nose of the bike – and the bulky one would be for the 'tank'. The other vehicles were not so immediately identifiable, one being a small scooter, the back and seat having been modded to have extra compartments from which, between the seams, a faint crystalline glow emitted, and the other the beastliest quadbike Heron had ever seen outside of muscle racing. It had attached an impressive roll-cage and was painted with vicious looking teeth across the radiator grill and, along with the huge headlamps like predatory eyes, proved an intimidating sight.
The other end of the room opened up completely to the flight deck of the sky-ship, on which the squad had set up deck chairs, a fire pit and another little table, a small radio sitting silently on top. The squad themselves were happily yammering away, talking about some recent exploit of theirs.
"…I swear! It was like fifteen feet, dude." The blond lad was saying as Heron approached, his arms waving above his head.
"It was five feet high, Finn, and you wiped out before it even crested!" The young woman from before corrected him, laughing.
"I took a dive so you wouldn't get too jealous of my prowess." Finn replied with a stubborn and prideful grin. Heron couldn't help but smile too.
"Hey! You're awake!" She was greeted by the young red-haired man who had taken the lead in the cave. "Come, sit with us! No need to lurk in the shadows like Stork!"
Heron chuckled as the Merb sat with them uttered a quiet 'hey!'. She liked these kids already.
