Touchstone 1 - Stray

word on Tare, as well. I found that out…it’s four days ago now, I think. The day which was supposed to be Boxes Rotation.
    I spent the morning on the roof doing homework and enjoying the sunshine. It was a rare cloudless day, really nice. After lunch I lolled about on my bed, watching news and sampling dramas and trying to read the descriptions of online games I’m considering subscribing to because no-one would treat me as a stray in a game – just a noob. But they all look a bit daunting because it’s played inside your head and though they’re not ‘in-skin’, they’ll still be vastly more than I’m used to. The things you might do in a ‘full’ virtual reality are more than I’m willing to take on just yet.
    I was labouring through the description of one when an appointment was entered into my calendar, and I had just looked to see that I was supposed to be doing a ‘Retrieval’ starting five minutes ago when Zan “opened a channel” to me, which is Tare-speak for calling me, except that when someone opens a channel you don’t get any choice about answering your equivalent of a phone – their voice is just abruptly there in your head. Only people with a certain amount of authority can do that, generally for emergencies. This was a big one.
    “Cassandra, come as quickly as you can to Green Lock,” she said. “Ready for entry into the Ena.”
    I was glad I wasn’t still on the roof. “Something happen?” I asked as I quickly stripped off the clothes I’d been slopping around in.
    “The Pillar investigation teams have gone down,” Zan said, which was enough to make me run along the corridors, after I’d made a lightning-quick bathroom stop and had my uniform sprayed on. I was too scared to ask what exactly ‘gone down’ meant, just hoped ‘retrieval’ meant something more positive than bringing back bodies. First Squad are pretty much making this planet bearable for me, and the idea of anything happening to them made me sick.
    I wasn’t the last to arrive. Both Twelfth Squad and Tenth Squad were gathering, more than a few of them looking mussed and sleepy since they were on an earlier shift than mine and would have been in bed when the call came. The only person I’d worked with before was Zan, and the implications of that kept my mouth shut altogether as they waited for the last stragglers to arrive. To use two squads who had just come off-shift, and to put me with them when they’re not squads I’d tested with, was more than enough to underline how bad it was. I didn’t even need to see the worried glances they kept exchanging.
    This was the first time I’d seen any of the Setari really fretting. The Tenth Squad captain is a guy named Els Haral, who looks incredibly laid-back and speaks with a soft voice. He was having a really good calming effect on everyone else, but the situation wasn’t one you could tamp down on thoroughly. And there was one guy there from Sixth Squad called Juna Quane, who had brought the news back and was barely able to stand the delay while everyone assembled. Haral created a shared space for both squads, Quane and me, and began briefing everyone as the last few were heading toward us – one of the advantages of the interface.
    “Following our regained access to the Pillar space at the beginning of Shift Two,” he said, “all but one of the monitoring drones were recovered intact. These revealed an unvarying energy signature from the Pillar, but no other activity. The space itself is exposed to deep-space and heavily frequented by roamer Ionoth: primarily swoop-type, and some larger. Third and Fourth Squads were deployed to perform an external examination and, if satisfied, to commence investigating the interior. Given the calibre of Ionoth, First, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth were assigned as support.
    “Sixth Squad was stationed in the adjoining entry space to observe, and the primary teams entered without incident and commenced the external examination. Here is the schematic of the Pillar prepared following external scanning and observation. We’ll move into the near-space now.”
    We broke neatly into our two squads and Tenth Squad went through the gate-lock first. Zan had kept her call to me open and said: “Stay on my left as we travel, and tell me on this channel if you can’t keep pace, or feel any threat.”
    There wasn’t much I could say to this except “Yes,” and I looked over the schematic during the brief pause while we