The structure behind the woman was an upside-down community recycling container with a crudely cut doorway. They’d placed it on what looked like a softcrete children’s playground area. Rylando gave the town extra points for the creative solution to the problem of no pop-up emergency-shelter domes.
The woman stepped up and vanished inside, leaving Rylando, Taz, Moyo, and Shen standing in the noonday sun. Water shimmered everywhere. Apparently, the earthquake had ripped underground water pipes that flooded this part of town, including the flat greenspace. The playground looked like an island.
Taz tilted her head to indicate the Verdigris Mountains that loomed to the northwest. The dust kicked up by the earthquake made them look gray instead of blue-green. “Planetary weather AI says the wind will pick up this afternoon. It’s been a dry year.”
The last thing the town needed was the possible threat of a wildfire, but disasters didn’t care what humans needed or didn’t.
A booming deep voice came from inside the container. “...get someone to cut windows for the cross breeze. We’re stifling in here.”
A big, burly man with brown skin even darker than Hatya’s and a wild shock of black and gold hair exited the doorway. He shaded his eyes from the sun, then strode to the edge of the hardscape. “I’m Eli Yanoshi, Chief of Regional Law Enforcement. Your pilot said it’s just you and your service anim…” He glanced down at the dogs, then did a double-take at Moyo. Though she wore an official GSAR harness and vest, her party-colored fur often startled people. “We’ll take all the help we can get.”
Taz gave him a casual salute. “That’s why we’re here.” She told him their names. “Are you still wanting us to check out the Citizen Activity Center?”
Yanoshi deftly tied his coils of hair in a knot on top of his head. “Yeah, like we said, we don’t have high-power extraction equipment. “ A sour look settled on his face. “The CAC is built like a frellin’ fortress. Supposed to withstand anything up to a planet-buster bomb, but you saw the images. The two-story end collapsed like an exploration spacer on a chems binge. We hope to chaos that no one was in that part.”
“How many people are likely to be in the building?” Rylando tilted his head toward their shuttle, about fifty meters back on a buckled plascrete ground-vehicle parking lot. “Our shuttle’s scanners indicated seven or eight lifesigns, but the thick walls are interfering with the readings.”
“Dunno.” Yanoshi made a face. Behind him, the loud-voiced woman came back outside and headed their way. “The settlement company built it to be the town hall, but the government moved out fifty years ago. They lease some space for commercial use and run the rest like a commons. No one had reservations to use it today, but the private businesses have entry codes and can do what they want.”
“Still no-go on the ground-based comms,” said the woman, “but we’ve got satellite comms up. Pinging the outlying hubs now. Anything I should tell Planet Gov?”
“Yeah,” said Yanoshi. “Tell them to evac the medical center first. RSI built that one, too. Chaos only knows what kinds of corners they cut there.”
The woman nodded and went back inside.
Yanoshi brushed dust off the front of his tunic. “We’ve put out an area call for equipment. My husband is riding in on our farm’s excavator, but it’s a snail, and the roads are iffy. We can use it to start clearing some of the debris.” His lips tightened briefly. “And recovering bodies.”
“Are you doing okay?” asked Taz gently. “I’m guessing this kind of work isn’t exactly what you signed up for.”
Yanoshi blew out a gusty breath. “Yeah, I’m good. Family’s okay. Our greenhouses are a total loss, but we’ve got savings and insurance. Good thing my husband is a plant-affinity minder, or we’d probably lose the business.” He looked at Taz as if seeing her for the first time. “Thanks for asking.”
She nodded respectfully, then lifted her arm to show him the rugged GSAR gauntlet-style percomp she wore. “It’d help if you share everything you can about the Citizen, uh, the CAC. Architecture specs, use plans, access codes, infrastructure, occupants, the works. We know Perlarossa construction regs, but it sounds like the settlement company built the facility before they were enacted.”
Yanoshi lifted his arm to tap on his similarly-styled gauntlet. “I’ll send what we have now and more as we find it. Unfortunately, the CAC was not only supposed to be our emergency-relocation facility, but it housed the regional hub for comms. Data access is slow as an ice flow until we stand up a replacement. A lot of little towns rely on us for comms, too. Planet Gov—that’s Perlarossa government—is reallocating someone else’s backup unit for us.”
Rylando made a snap decision. “We have an extra standalone hub we won’t need. It’s old, but it’s got extra capacity and range. You’re welcome to borrow it.”
“Yeah?” Yanoshi’s eyes narrowed. “What’s it gonna cost?” He blinked, then ducked his head. “Sorry, that was... It’s just that GSAR is part of the Citizen Protection Service, and we haven’t had… They don’t usually, er, share unless there’s something in it for them.”
Taz waved his apology away. “It’s okay. GSAR is outside the main chain of command. Some days, we’re not fans of our agency, either. Like Subcaptain Delroinn said, the hub is a spare. But we’ll need it back when we leave.” She twitched a smile at him. “Our boss gets a little twitchy when our tech doesn’t come back with us.”
“Deal,” said Yanoshi. “We should only need it for twelve, maybe eighteen hours at the most. Planet Gov promised to deliver ours by the end of the day.”
Shen bumped his knee. Rylando could feel her wanting to do something besides stand in the water and listen to humans chatter. “We thought we’d set up our temporary base on the Center’s front courtyard. Does that work for you?”
Yanoshi cast a dubious glance toward the shuttle. “The fault really tore up that section of town.” He snorted. “This is supposed to be a geologically stable ancient lakebed, but we’ve already had two aftershocks.”
“How about we take our airsled for a quick survey?” asked Taz. “That’ll give you time to get the hub off our shuttle. Captain Wa’ara can sort it for you.”
“Works for me,” replied Yanoshi.
Thirty minutes later, Rylando sealed the entrance to the sturdy pop-up dome that was their new temporary command center. The lock was keyed to only GSAR Unit 1051 personnel, thereby thwarting looters or overreaching local incident commanders. Only one small area near the target building was flat enough to set it up. The rest looked like a road glass recycling yard.
He’d already loaded his team’s crates on their airsled, and Taz wore her GSAR fully enclosed, armored, tech-powered assist frame, popularly known as a mech suit. The gleaming, streamlined version, modeled after the Jumper combat version and shown in all the publicity vids, looked nothing like the real ones used in the field. Shiny coatings rarely survived the first few rescues. Instead of shoulder-mounted hellrail guns, GSAR mech suits had grappling and construction tools, plus a variety of hooks and straps for holding more gear. Each user customized their suit according to their own preferences and skills. With Taz’s enviable gift for tech and eye for decoration, hers was practically a work of art.