The unyielding grit in her tone convinced Idan, and he rose, helping her up.
She tore at her tee and wrapped a strip of material tightly across her shoulder, sealing the wound.
With a jerk of her chin to him, she plunged into the chaos with him close behind.
Hours passed in a blur of rescue and triage as the pair advanced through the devastation with grim economy.
Idan lifted fallen beams, cleared paths, and hauled those hurt free while Sheba patched up the injured.
In a few cases that were appalling and critical, he stepped in and took them on.
The golden radiance enveloped them, and they healed, bones set, wounds drew together, and pain relieved.
Wonder clung to those he aided, and they stared at him with veneration.
He waved away their thanks and moved on, never far from Sheba as they negotiated the debris to reach the most urgent cries for help.
In time, dawn crept pale and thin over the hills, light seeping through smoke and ash in narrow bands that lit up the twisted metal and scorched earth.
Sheba huddled with Toma and Linh, their faces somber as they discussed how to proceed next.
‘Idan, may we please speak?’ Sheba called out to him as he finished raising a demountable and setting it upright.
He prowled to her side, crossing his hands over his chest.
‘We’re keen to evacuate all staff and patients,’ she explained as Linh and Toma looked on. ‘The buildings are gone, we can’t stay here. We’re thinking of heading to the capital, Tansinian Prime. However, we have a problem, we have no craft we can take.’
He thought for a moment, then turned his gaze to the raider-class ship that lay half-buried in the valley floor beyond.
Its framework appeared buckled in parts, its engines choked with sand and stone, but it was still intact. Yet, its mass was too great for any mortal crew to shift.
Idan prowled to it, stepping to its undamaged tail section and setting his hands against the scarred alloy.
The air tightened around him.
Power rose from deep within his frame, bending gravity as sigils along his skin burned to life, gold light threading dark ink.
The hull groaned as, with a single breath, he hauled the vessel out of the trench. Stones and rocks cracked underneath his feet, and sand avalanched away.
The ship tore free from the earth inch by inch, metal screaming in protest as it surrendered to a will not of its own.
He dragged it clear and set it upright, the impact shuddering through the air.
Those watching, including Sheba, stared at him in awe as he strode back to the group.
‘Sante,’ Sheba murmured.
‘Not a hardship. Who among you can pilot this thing?’ Idan rasped.
Toma jerked his chin. ‘I’ve got my flight wings for commercial piloting.’
Idan nodded to him. ‘All yours then. Make sure it can fly because Ty will be back, and this time he might scorch everything in his sight.’
Toma climbed into the cockpit, coaxing life from damaged panels, rerouting power, muttering under his breath as he tried to figure out the vessel’s setup.
Sheba, Idan, Linh, and Matteo followed, climbing to the bridge, waiting as Toma cranked up systems.
After many long, anxious minutes of fiddling with the controls, the lights whirred on, and the console came to life.
