The wide, elevated meadow full of people was in a somewhat festive mood. They’d just done something harrowing and hard, but they had done it. They believed in themselves that much at least. Captain Wendel Harper’s runners from the field had been tying up the passenger organization so people could get aboard and they could go. The fuels money was there, she believed them. This was actually a nice place for a breather. There was a mist of flowers over the ground. Flowers. It was just her again on the road, plus this next bunch.

Wendel had been called in to redistribute people in an inaccessible meadow. Vedani throughports had already sent some of them home. If this worked out, Wendel might be hiring more shuttle power to help, and this could go faster. Sending everybody somewhere specific wasn’t as easy as doing it the way they’ve done it before; conundrums like this are situationally unique, as tend to be their solutions. Only so much could safely be done at a time, given the energy resources. They’d ported out a fleet of soldiers all at once, but that had been improvised on the spot with the emergency inspiration of a unique set of embodied forces. Vedani formulae had to respect some laws of nature, so things progressed steadily apace. People were doing well enough hanging in there, prepared and lighter-hearted, even celebratory. There were no Vedani in this meadow, just humans. They did all know Vedani, and confirmed that the ride was called for them.

There were still a lot of people left here, but not too many. That’s what the encoded request for service had said when it came to her through Drift X. The message popped up through an obscure node of the system that she’d barely remembered was active. It was written in knowledgable cargo/passenger format, but came over a Vedani signal. They had her number, alright. So did a lot of people, and Wendel usually didn’t mind too much. So, she took the weird job, going somewhere weird to take some people home. Long way to come for just another forty people (out of a lot), but they’re the next most important forty people, all going to their own homes. It’d be some work.

She’d just taken people to safety, now she was taking them home. There was lots of hugging and exchanging of information. The sun was shining. Moments like these, she loves her job. Wendel has high job satisfaction, though. This is when it’s simple. This is when it’s easy to be proud of herself.