Out came the swarm, seemingly from nowhere. People ran bent over with arms splayed, carrying signs and gear. They flowed in from a few directions, originating from points that must have been tucked away in folds of the land, to form up outside the fence of the biological research station. This was one of the most remote areas in the high-industry Expansion 6 Federet. These people should have been seen coming from very far away. By the time the staff were aware of the situation, the demonstrators were massed outside of the fence, and there was a stadium full.

Within the facility’s established emergency response system, the combination of numbers and proximity already ranked medium threat. Their projects were sensitive, delicate and volatile, with consequences of disturbance.

The perimeter monitors became the central fascination. While lab staff were recalling their failsafe procedures, they came to stare at screens full of people. There was a pervasive hush while everyone tried to figure out what was really happening, and what they might need to do.

This piece of paper was left behind in a tent, in the great meadow.

It’s been so long since the great cataclysm of our lifetimes took away our beautiful planet of Hirylien. Some of us held the memory of that place so dear that it became our lives ever since. Now we’re the bullet in a beast too big to comprehend, eyeing the vulnerability of a power so all-encompassing that most don’t even perceive it. What we do may only be one small thing, but it was impossible until we carved our stairway step by step into the side of the mountain. This could take away only one weapon, break only one illusion, but here we, the Remainder, may very well triumph over what nearly destroyed us all. Then, we can make peace with our ghosts by giving our strength to the life which yet waits to be lived. We offer our breath so that others may breathe, as our loved ones did once, without the threat of this menace. We have forged the keys to unlock every door, discovered the fine print between the lines, examined the blueprints of it all, the documents, so many documents. The help we have – the allies, the brave hearts – it’s beyond anything we could have imagined at first – and we are also just a piece of their picture, which makes this feel more real. This is really happening. I’m thankful, so thankful, for these ordinary people who’ve left their homes because they know this is a cause for humanity; thankful for these beings of other dimensions who aligned with us, relations who want to help because they want to do something right. I hope we do right by them, and each other, and everyone. It’s better, easier that Raev isn’t here, even if this is his moment. We might actually pull this off. The cooperation that’s brought us here, that supports us here, it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I believe.

“This is a strange way to mobilize,” mused Arjun Woollibee to the key group seated at the Peak while reviewing the process list, “mobilizing to immobilize. Getting everyone not to do anything is almost harder than getting everyone to do something. We even have to set things up, so that no one has to do anything, for even a short span of time. It’s not quite like any of our practiced emergency drills, but we’re at least that prepared.” He turned to the Princess nearby. “Are you ready to give the instruction and the signal, Your Grace? Throughout the building, everyone is in group and in place.”

Preparing to direct a building full of people to a mindstate, Soleil was partway to that mindstate already, eyes half-hooded. She decided there would be something right about wearing her dragongift visibly for this; her lips, where she’d laid a kiss of compassion on the tooth of the Dragon that killed her mother, showed blackest black. She didn’t explain that to everyone, because it was still difficult to explain to herself, except that it felt like one of the most human things she’d ever done.

“Sure,” she said, reserved and concentrating. She brushed her hands down the light fabric of Marian Waters’ mental escape sundress, something she’d been offered to change into while giving her Vedani control suit a break. “It’s probably more evocation than instruction, but yes, I’m ready.”

“First, we’re going to emergency dim, then you’re on the system speakers.”