Planet Telex

"Please remain seated until the doors have opened."
Air rushed through the opening side airlock, water spray covering the floor inside. The spaceport was currently at capacity transporting the masses of materials and charged supercapacitors needed for the Seeding, so much that Avians had to land outside of it.
"We hope you had a pleasant trip." said the computer, its synthesised voice nearly chirping with delight. "You may now depart the transport."
The Avian unclipped her harness and stood, her Assistant following suit, heading right for the storage compartments to fetch the scientist's great coat and umbrella.
"This is going to absolutely ruin my shoes." grumbled the Avian to herself. "Myna, are you ready, yet?"
"Yes, ma'am." sighed the Assistant, opening up the great coat to help the scientist into it. "I don't think it's a good time to take the luggage, though."
"Fine, you're more use with that umbrella."
"Yes, ma'am." replied Myna as she glanced between the downpour outside and the umbrella in her hands. It wasn't large enough to cover two.
Clicking her talons as if to order the other along, the scientist walked up to the airlock, wrapped tightly in her coat. Myna followed, grey dress the only thing protecting her from the elements, and opened the umbrella over the Avian.
Down the metal steps deployed from the airlock, the Assistant took a momentary look back at the cargo transport appropriated as a personnel transport, and shuddered as she remembered the first of them landing on her own world.

"She's called a secretary bird.", she remembered her owner had joked with another Avian. "What a good exo variety for paperwork, hm?"
"Assuming it can read. You said it wasn't chipped?"
"No, not this kind. Besides, I prefer it. They're much nicer to break in yourself."
"Hah, I see. Can it understand us, or is it too dumb for that?"
Myna remembered the burning on her face, of embarrassment and anger. Of course she could understand their infernal high-pitched chirping, she'd only spent the past two years of Accord occupation learning it...
"It's obviously not a native speaker, but does it well enough. It's got the vocals for it."
She bundled her hands into fists, but kept them by her sides. The bruises from last time she struck out had only just finished healing.
"Well, it's always good to have an Assistant of your own before a long assignment like yours. Had enough time to prepare for it?"
"You mean the exo? Oh, I've had it... a year now? Enough that it's learned what happens when it's not good."
A splatter of rain off the umbrella broke her focus, and Myna came back to the present.
"Hold that straight."
"Yes, ma'am." Myna sighed.

The research center sat a few kilometers from the spaceport itself, with the entire space between them paved with pre-fabricated concrete slabs to form a storage area and makeshift landing pad beside the facility. The scientist and her Assistant had landed there, only about a hundred metres from the research center, but in the torrential rain it had felt like much further.
"Ah, Eyes of Teal!" said a voice over the airlock intercom, the doors to the center opening up a second after. "Come on in, out of the cold."
Myna silently grumbled as she followed Teal inside, her soaked grey dress already making her feel like she was freezing to death while the Avian was saved from much of the rain by her coat and Myna's umbrella. "Really putting on a warm welcome for us here." she muttered, the airlock floor almost as wet as the outside.
"Would you have preferred cargo?" replied Teal, wiping the water off the hydrophobic surface of her coat. "Six weeks in a pod might do you some good."
Myna shook her head, having already experienced a day or two inside one. Without the inability to be 'switched off', the month and a half of sensory deprivation would be akin to torture by the end. "Yes, ma'am." she replied, quietly.
The other side of the airlock opened up, revealing the facility lobby and an Avian coming to greet them. "Hello! Eyes of Teal, glad to see you made it safe. And...?"
Before she could catch herself, Myna replied in the polite way she'd been trained to do her entire life, up until now. "Doctor Pyria." she said, doing a little courtesy, before realising. "Oh, um... I mean, Myna, sir."
Eyes of Teal tutted quietly as she finished brushing down her coat. "I think Myna here will be fetching the luggage and supplies, you needn't worry about your Assistants doing it."
"By hand?" the other Avian asked. "We have a transport car, which ought to make it easier."
"By hand." Teal replied, as Myna silently hung her head. "It'll give her some time to think."

By the time Myna had ferried the dozen suitcases and supply boxes from the transport to the facility, the rain had settled to a more drizzling pace. This was a slight relief to her, as visibility was no longer just a few meters, but it didn't make her dress or feathers any less wet.
"This is the last one." she said over the intercom, hauling a bag over her shoulder.
"Thanks, grey." replied the pilot. "Don't freeze out there."
"Bit too late for that, ma'am." Myna said to herself as she walked down the steps, the disembarking platform soon after being automatically packed away into the ship with the sealing of the airlock.
The transport took off as the Assistant trudged towards the research center, the clearing rain allowing her to see the giant steel cylinder of the spaceport in the distance. Dozens of tiny dots flew around it like bees to a hive, each a transport craft ferrying supplies to the world.

"Ah. There you are." said Teal as Myna dragged the last box from the airlock to their laboratories. She sat with the Avian that had greeted them, who then introduced himself as Claws of Bronze.
Myna remained silent this time. She didn't want to make any more slip ups.
"You look like you need a change of clothes." he said, standing from his office chair. "Let me show you the Assistant quarters."
"Yes, sir." replied Myna, withering a little at the reminder of what she was. "I... would appreciate a fresh uniform."
"We've more appropriate uniforms out here, due to the weather." Bronze started, before being cut off by Teal.
"She's to remain in her standard uniform outside of laboratory conditions." she said, causing Myna to shrink down further. "If her behaviour is acceptable, she'll get something else."
Bronze raised an eyeridge, but shrugged. "Get the ones you brought, then."
Myna looked through the pile of boxes until she found her bag, a small black suitcase stuffed with what remained of her personal belongings. "Uhm, here it is."
"And, don't forget what I said about your extra item before we left, Assistant."
Myna cringed a little just thinking about it. "Yes, ma'am."

The Assistant quarters were spacious for what they were, the research facility hardly lacking space. There wasn't any private rooms, as expected, but the bunk beds looked comfortable enough. There were even a few desks around the quarters, each paired with a small bookcase filled with research journals.
"Does Researcher Teal not like you?" Bronze asked, as Myna found a free bed and put her suitcase on top of it.
"She's not one of those Avians that likes or doesn't like Assistants." Myna sighed. "I just don't have a chip, and she has taken it upon herself to... 'train' me."
"Ah." Bronze said after a pause. "...you don't have a chip?"
"No, sir." she replied. "They don't work with our heads. The only reason I wasn't put to the slaughter in a mine somewhere was because I'm useful." She scowled a little, almost wishing she'd been able to be chipped. The Avians that had them seemed happy enough -- happier than her, at least.
"Define useful." Bronze asked, leaning against the frame of the bunk bed.
Myna finished opening her suitcase, which opened in two. "Do you read Common?"
"Not really." Bronze replied, as Myna dug through her suitcase to produce a thick book.
"Good." she said, digging out a thick book from the suitcase and handing it over for him to see. "Teal... excuse me, Miss Teal, would rather I kept the subject, and why I'm useful, to myself."
The book was a bit tatty in places, and sticky notes hung from nearly every page. The dust cover, torn in the corner, depicted a lush rainforest. A glossy picture of Myna sat on the back, along with the blurb. "What's this blacked out?" he asked, pointing at a large black mark on the front cover.
"It's my name. The one I... accidentally said before." sighed Myna. "Miss Teal made sure to go through my personal copy with a marker, reminding me every time she found it that Assistants don't have one."
"Ah. I see." Bronze said, opening it up and flipping through the first few pages, understanding none of it. "This must be the personal item she was talking about? Something you wrote?"
"Yes, I wrote it. She's using it as a bargaining chip, for my good behaviour. The last remaining bit of my life between the Accord took it away from me."
Bronze turned it over in his hands, pushing away the little pang of guilt as he realised its significance to her. "I see."

The laboratories of the Accord sat deep in the uncanny valley for Myna. Most of the equipment was similar enough -- beakers and test tubes being the simplest possible forms for science vessels meant they showed up in every industrialised world, outside contact or not -- but other things seemed excessively over-engineered or complex. It was the first time she'd been in a lab not at gunpoint since her capture two years previous.
"Researcher Teal, Myna, before you get to work, I'd like to show you the current situation." Claws of Bronze said as he entered the laboratory where the two were unpacking with an armful of maps and charts. Dumping them on a free surface, he unrolled the largest and pinned it to the wall. "Hibiscus III, in all its chaotic glory."
A topographic map of the planet lay in the center of the chart, surrounded by various scales and legends. The nearby spaceport was indicated with a large black dot, but the myriad of other symbols confused Myna. "What are these?" she asked, pointing towards some stars scattered across the planet's research. "I, uh... can't read Avian that well."
"Oh." Bronze said, remembering the chipless state of the Assistant. "Those are atmospheric energy transfer tower sites."
Myna's eyes went a little wide, but she remained silent.
"Ah, yes. I didn't mention this, Myna, but this planet is the first to be using my new prototype designs." said Teal with a wide grin. "I'm sure to have to explain the mechanism later, it's surely novel to an exo like you."
The Assistant clenched her hands into fists, but nodded. "Yes, I'm sure, Miss Teal..."
Bronze looked over the pair with a slight confusion, but continued. "Ah, yes. Researcher Teal's designs are being installed as we speak. The first planetary seeding cycle begins next month."
"Myna here will be helping me verify the calculations." Teal smiled at the Assistant, who did little more than stare back. "Won't you, Assistant?"
"Yes, Miss Teal." she replied, as if forcing the words through her beak. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom."
"Of course, Assistant." Teal replied with a smile. "Now, Researcher Bronze, we should make some plans to visit some of these sites."
"That sounds like a good idea." Bronze said, noticing the Assistant's calm and exact walk out of the room turn into frustrated stomping once she cleared Teal's vision. "I'll see when one of the pilots has a spare few hours."

"HER design?" fumed Myna, talons digging into the tiles surrounding the bathroom's sink. "She's just going to take everything from me, isn't she?" The Assistant scowled into the mirror, both at the redness of her eyes from crying and the grey of the dress that she was forced to wear. "Assistants are property, Assistants don't have ideas, they just have them for their owner... the absolute tyranny of it."
She wiped her eyes again with a piece of paper towel before staring back at herself. She couldn't go back out like this, it would be obvious what happened, and she knew that it would only amuse Teal further to see the Assistant upset like this. But be away for too long, and questions would be asked...
"Welcome back." Teal said as the Assistant returned, the Avian having located a terminal and relocated it to their desk. "There's nothing for you to do yet, so I asked Bronze to bring along some of the facility paperwork to be checked."
"But, I..." protested Myna, looking over the bundled stack of papers as tall as her hand was wide. "Te- Miss Teal, you know I can't read Avian that well..."
"Too bad." replied the researcher. "You had two years to learn it."
Myna, knowing further protestations wouldn't go well, sat down at her chair and looked over the paperwork. Dozens of symbols that she had sworn she'd never seen before adorned the pages, a mix of the calligraphy of a free Avian and the angled, monospace scrawl of an Assistant. With a sigh, she stood back up and began to rifle through the dozens of boxes she'd dragged in, looking to fetch the Avian-Common dictionary that the Ministry had issued her.

"Does the Accord even need more planets?" asked Myna, throwing up her arms. "You took mine. Isn't that good enough?"
"Of course not." Teal said, sipping at the cup of tea her Assistant had just made. "It's not like your empire's is the first we took."
"Well... I gathered that..." Myna muttered in reply, arms sinking down to her sides again. "Just... I don't get it. Why seed a dozen planets?"
"The core worlds are near capacity, and we can't keep settling on inhospitable rocks out here in the frontier." Teal took another sip with a smile. "So, we seed one. Then a dozen. Then as many as we can get ships around and towers on the ground on."
Myna frowned a little, for reasons obvious to the researcher.
"And, don't be upset about not getting credit for this. As my property, any credit I get is credit you get, and vice-versa. And, besides, it's not like I could say an exo designed this tech, it'd take another twenty years to get anyone to agree to use it." The Avian smiled in the way she knew Myna uncomfortable. The way that said and this is the non-truth you just have to accept. "Besides, isn't it great to see something you worked on come to life?"
The Assistant sighed. "Yes, Miss Teal." She glanced out the small window by her desk, watching the returning rainstorm throw droplets against the window. Seeing practical application of her work was a good feeling, but... maybe it’d be better for the universe if it didn't make it off the page.

The next few weeks were frustrating. It was one thing to have your work stolen, but to have it misinterpreted so wildly was nearly insulting.
"Miss Teal, um... there's something wrong with this." Myna said, bringing over a stack of pages filled with pencil scratches and formulae. "I don't know how you got these figures."
"The working out is right there, Assistant." Teal said, snatching the pages and pointing to the monospaced numbers of the printout Myna had been scribbling on. "Isn't that good enough for you?"
"Yes, but... uhm..." Myna glanced away for a second. "Your working out is wrong."
Teal raised an eyeridge, taking another look at the printout. "I highly doubt that, Assistant."
"The mass-field equation... it's meant to be halved, Miss." she quietly muttered in reply. "The field generators... they're only going to work at half what you think they will."
The researcher looked down at the printout, and back to the Assistant, her face a mix of anger and embarrassment at her fault. "Why were you checking these anyway, Assistant? Don't you have more important things to be doing?"
"Uhm, yes, but I..." Myna wilted a little as the Avian stood, the broader frame of the bird overshadowing her. "I saw one of the generators being loaded up the other day and it... seemed a bit... small..." She couldn't help but wince as she heard the paper being scrunched up tightly in the Avian's hand.
"Have you got your own calculations finished, Assistant?" Teal said, fuming. "Maybe I should give yours a check over!"
Myna backed away, towards her chair. "I was... I was just trying to help, Miss Teal!"
"Well, let me give you a little lesson, Assistant." Teal replied, throwing the printout into the wastepaper bin. "Assistants do what they are asked. No more, no less."
"U... understood." Myna stuttered, backing into her chair.
"Good." replied the researcher, backing off a little. "You say a word about this, and your little keepsake goes in the shredder, Assistant. Understand?"
"Yes... yes, Miss Teal. Understood, Miss Teal..."

It was only a few days until the first field generators were to be switched on, and that made Myna nervous. They were already built, and if they didn't work, then what would happen? Of course, if Teal came clean and they rebuilt the generators, everything would work... but something told her that admitting failure wasn't something you did in the Accord. If it didn't work, she'd likely blame someone else...
...like her.
"Miss Teal, I..." Myna shuffled up beside the researcher in the break room, while nobody else was around. "I'm concerned about the switching on next week."
"I have it all under control." Teal said as she finished mixing her tea. "You said it would be half as effective, so I'll just put twice as much power through it."
"But... but... won't that be dangerous?" Myna said, going a little pale thinking of the energies involved.
"Not at all." smiled Teal, taking her teacup up to take a sip. "If the hardware breaks, that's not my problem..."
"If the hardware breaks, th..." Myna started, before being cut off by Teal lifting a finger.
"What did I say, if you ever said another word about it?"
"...the shredder, Miss."
"That's right." Teal grinned down at the Assistant. "The shredder."

Myna laid in bed, staring at the mattress above. She'd barely had any sleep and the sudden movement of the Assistant in the bunk above her let her know it was finally morning. The other Assistant was an Avian, Class B -- kind, polite, but stupid in the way Class Bs were. Always woke up at 7am, on the dot, like clockwork. Of course, the bird was not powered by clockwork, but by a digital integrated circuit. Myna felt momentarily thankful that the chips didn't work on her kind, then wistful that she couldn't just have her feelings taken away by one. Living under the Accord was easier that way, she gathered.
The disinterest in her future rose to the point where her sleep-deprived thoughts drifted towards fantasies of escape. Maybe she could sneak out of the research facility... just slip into the forests, and see what she found there. Likely not a lot of food, or comfort, or warmth, but at least she'd be free.
"Morning!" the Class B that slept above her chirped as they climbed down from the top bunk. "Isn't it a nice day?"
"Ughhh..." Myna groaned, rolling over to face the wall. "No, it isn't."
The Class B tilted her head for a moment, but shrugged and continued on her way.
Myna wriggled herself deeper into her pillow and drifted back into thought. She'd be able to hide, at least until they sent ships out. She shuddered a little, remembering Teal recounting what the Accord did to those on her planet that tried to run... She had no reason to doubt the Accord would enjoy hunting her, and she knew the ships on the tarmac would easily be able to pick her thermal signature out from the cold and wet of the forests...
Maybe the pilot would take some pity on her, and open fire.
Myna shook herself back to reality. She knew it wouldn't work, and knew that if she was caught, Teal would make her life a living hell, one that she'd have even less chance to escape from. With a sigh, she lay there, just listening to the Class B getting on with her normal morning preparations.
Shower at 7:05am, getting dressed at 7:12am, leaving the Assistant dormitories for breakfast at 7:15am... all exactly on time. Like some sort of clockwork abomination.

"You're late, Assistant." Teal said, tapping her wrist, as if she had a watch.
Myna sighed at the gesture, guessing some things ended up being shared by industrial societies. "Sorry Miss, I... didn't sleep last night."
"It didn't look like you groomed yourself, either." Teal said, eyeridge raised at Myna's uneven head feathers, each one pointing in a vastly different direction, with the jet black quill feathers on the back of her head matted down. The Assistant had rushed out of the living quarters, and it showed. "You'll have to go clean yourself up. We're going on a field visit today."
"A... field visit?" Myna asked, confused. "What is there to visit?"
Teal waved her out of the laboratory rooms, into the main room of the facility. Designated as the staff room, it had the kettle, couches, and the wall-to-wall windows. Visible outside was a giant transporter ship, barely more than a skeleton with engines bolted to the side. Underneath it was the bulk of an atmospheric field generator, hanging from thick steel chains. "We're going to see this one in action."
Myna walked up to the window to try and get a better look. Compared to what she remembered of the blueprints, the coils were thicker and the folded antenna array assembly was noticeably bigger. "Did you..."
"Yes, we've retrofitted them all to handle more power. In the name of hastening the process, you see." Teal's smile was smug, as if she'd gotten away with the oversight.
The Assistant shook her head. Of course. You don't have to admit there's a failure if you just pass off basic functionality as an 'easy enhancement'... "I see." She leaned in, beak nearly pressing to the window, finally getting to see more than a glimpse of what she designed years ago. After a moment of sketching out the changes in the design, she let out a surprised gasp.
"Something amiss?" Teal turned towards the other, eyeridge raised.
"I... nothing..." Myna replied, vision averted, mind processing what she just saw. "Just, you know. Excited to see the real thing, is all. We're going to... see it turned on?"
Teal nodded and smiled, turning back to look over what she saw as her hard work in steel and copper. "Yes, today. The Accord wants results, and we're going to provide them."

Researcher Bronze raised an eyeridge at the book Myna was clutching. "That'll get ruined in this weather. Sure you want to bring it?"
Myna nodded, the surest she'd ever been. She leant over a little, protecting it from the drizzle.
"Let her." Teal said, boarding the personnel carrier first. "If it gets soaked, it's her fault."
Myna ignored the remark, and climbed in behind her owner. She had cleaned herself up a bit, but as the rain had settled into her feathers between the airlock and the ship's door, she realised it was mostly for naught.
Bronze climbed up and closed the transport ship's door behind him. After finding his seat, he hit the cockpit door twice to let the pilot know they were ready. "Shouldn't be too bumpy." he said, doing up his seat buckles as the craft went upwards. "Everything will be installed by the time we get there. All we have to do is turn it on, and see what happens."
Myna kept her arms wrapped around the book as she bounced around in the seat. "Is Miss Teal going to be doing the honours?"
"Can't see why not." Bronze replied with a shrug. "She made the thing, didn't she?"
Teal grinned at her Assistant. "Good suggestion, Myna. Maybe you're coming around to the Avian way of doing things after all."
Myna smiled a little. Maybe there was a hint of truth to that.

The atmospheric field generator wasn't standalone, it had to be installed inside an amplifying dish. The unit had been installed in a curved metal frame at least sixty metres across, ready to support the fold-out antennas embedded inside the unit. It was suspended above the forest floor by a dozen concrete supports, just high enough so that the edges of the dish poked out above the treetops. On similar concrete supports beside it was a building, both an observatory for the installation as well as living quarters for caretakers. A hanging metal walkway jutted out over the dish, a set of controls sitting at the end, to closer inspect the operation of the field generator. Having been extended upon Teal's requests, Avians hanging from construction cranes could be seen affixing the last ring of metal to support the larger antennas.
"I thought you said they'd be done." Teal said, annoyed. "I've got things to do."
"The weather meant that things went a bit slower than expected. But, should only be a few minutes by now." Bronze poured a cup of tea, rather glad that the secondary purpose of the building as a caretaker's quarters meant that it had a decent kitchenette. "Cup of tea, Myna?"
"She can make her own tea." Teal snapped, as Myna went to raise her hand to speak. "Bronze, you are far too nice to the Assistants for your own good."
Bronze put a tea bag in a cup and pushed it over to a free portion of the bench, refraining from pouring in the water to keep Teal happy. "When you're a thousand light-years from civilisation, sometimes you need to let some things not be an issue."
Myna quietly stood from the central room's couch, to go and finish making the tea that Bronze had left out. She didn't particularly want it, but making it felt like a last little bit of rebellion.
Teal scoffed, turning her focus back to the welders hanging from the array's supports. "That's not an attitude that will help you back on the central systems, you know."
"I don't think I'll get an assignment back there." Bronze replied, giving Myna a smile as she tugged the teabag up and down. "The frontier's nice enough for me."
"Suit yourself." Teal replied, watching the last Avian descend from the scaffolding. "It looks like they're done."
"Let them get clear, first." Bronze sipped at his fresh tea. "We're the only ones to be anywhere near it."
"Fine." Teal said, and stared out towards the generator. "Finish your tea."
Myna threw out the teabag and took a sip of the hot tea, not even minding that it burned her tongue. She sat there with it, staring at Teal, tightening her resolve. If the Avian didn't want to listen, then let it be the death of her...

The three stood in the light drizzle, watching the control panel lights slowly turn green.
"It's mostly charged." Bronze said as he peered over the edge of the suspended walkway. The coils of the field generator sparked as water droplets fell across them, turning them to steam. "Teal, do you need the configuration parameters?"
"No." the Avian replied, adjusting the switches and dials on the face of the control panel to what she calculated they should be. Myna offered to check the calculations, but Teal had refused.
"Okay, then. All ready on your go." Bronze said as the charge bar went fully green.
Teal grinned as she flipped the first switch, the antennas deploying from their protective casings. Sliding out and unfolding, the glossy panels began slotting themselves in the frame where they belonged, the copper grids under the glass now fully visible. It took a minute or so before they all sat where they ought to, but when complete, it looked magnificent to her eyes.
Myna leant over the railing a little to get a better look. The sparking of the charging coils meant a concerning voltage was jumping through the air, far too much... She took a deep breath, squeezed the book against her chest, and looked back towards Teal.
"Antenna deployment looks good." Bronze said after quickly surveying the panels. "Everything's ready."
"Good." Teal said, popping up the large plastic cover over the master power switch and placing her finger on it. "Three... two... one."
As the switch was flipped, the hum of the electricity contained in the coils turned to constant, deafening sparking. Parts of the antenna array began to glow red hot, and everything hummed with an enormous energy.

Myna knew things were going wrong. The copied and misinterpreted design that the Avian that "owned" her had built was not able to handle the energy being put through it. She knew that the energy transmitted by the array would not coalesce in the atmosphere and heat it up as hoped, but instead would focus wherever the broken coils pointed it. This, she hoped, was Teal.
The instinct in her told her to run, that outside of the dish's radius was safe. The anger in her told her to stay, to make sure that Teal would bear the brunt of her own cruelty and hubris. Her conscience, however, told her that not all of them deserved to die.
Myna turned to the Researcher behind her and pushed the book into his arms. "Run." she said, eyes making contact with his. Bronze hesitated for a second, glance going towards the occupied Teal, the book, and the Assistant. Myna wanted none of it, and shoved him towards the concrete installation, the humming now becoming unbearably loud. "Read the book. You'll understand. Now, go!"
Bronze turned, and began running towards the building and off the steel walkway. He had no idea what was going to happen, but he'd never seen an Assistant as fierce as that...
Teal turned, eyeridge raised, wondering what the commotion was. She saw Bronze running, and in a moment of confusion, looked down to Myna to ask what had happened. Myna stood there, a content and calm smile on her face, gripping on to both sides of the walkway to prevent the Avian's escape.
Teal had no time to react before the coils activated. Fully charged, they switched to emit the stored energy upwards, intending to throw an incredible pulse of heat towards the sky. The coils were too large, and the antenna was too small, and everything inbetween them was not capable of distributing that much energy that quickly, as Myna had estimated. Instead of creating a consistent beam, the coils failed, and everything inside it failed with it. There was a flash of light, a blast of searing, undirected energy, and the walkway, the Avian, and the Assistant on it simply ceased existing.
Bronze threw himself behind cover as the atmospheric field generator detonated. Broken glass sprayed over him as the shockwave of heated air forced its way through the concrete installation, throwing doors off their hinges and singing Bronze's back feathers and clothing. The destruction finished quickly, and after a few moments, all was quiet.

"Installation 01! What in the goddess's name just happened?" shouted the transport craft pilot over the radio, tinny voice coming out of the control panel half-ripped from the wall. "I see injured around the facility. I'm going to call in medevac. Just hold on in there."
Bronze lifted his head up and brushed some of the shattered glass off himself. He pulled the book out from under him and pushed himself up to stand, pulling off the burnt remnants of his white lab coat off himself as he did so. The book was fine, as his body had shielded it from the heat, and he turned it over in his hands. Why would Myna give this to him? Why would she tell him to run?
Realising that neither of them followed, he bolted up to the window to see what had become of them. All he saw was blobs of cooling metal on the ground where the antenna frame once stood, nothing left of the walkway, having been ripped off its supports. He stared at the scene for a few moments, before the radio came to life again.
"This is Accord Navy transport craft HR-3864. Calling for all craft capable of a ground medical evacuation to my location." the radio continued, parts of the console sparking and shorting. Careful to not step on any large pieces of glass, Bronze stepped over towards it.
"This is Researcher Bronze, I'm okay." he said into the handset, ignoring whatever burns may be on his back for the moment. "Researcher Teal and the Assistant Myna got caught in it."
"Understood, come on down and we'll get you out of here."
Bronze put the handset down and sighed, looking out over the wreckage of what was an atmospheric field generator only minutes ago. "Read the book, you'll understand..." His attention shifted to the tome, which he frowned at. "What were you doing, Myna?" he asked himself, trying to will the knowledge of her language into his mind. He frowned, as it didn't work. But, she'd hardly tell him to read something he couldn't understand...
He opened the front cover and was surprised to find a freshly scribbled Avian translation underneath the printed and censored title text.

TERRA REBORN: TERRAFORMING TECHNIQUES FOR A DYING WORLD
by DOCTOR PYRIA S. HALLEN, PhD