As quick as lightning, it is gone.
Karen (Washington just after 6pm)
<<This morning she was out by herself, investigating a lead she had on the possible location of Sonja, however to her frustration it turned out to be a dead end. She had returned to her office and had just made it into the lift, when the silence happened.>>
There, in her centre, she could feel it. An inner glow. Her Heart.
Her Heart, her anchor, was within her. Without it in Heaven, in the keeping of Jean, there was nothing to guide her back, no means for return to Heaven. It was more than unheard of. It was almost beyond comprehension.
The lift doors closed behind her quietly. The lift stayed in place, awaiting a direction, but she could not bring herself to move to the buttons, not yet. She felt within herself, and knew that all the essence she had stored was gone, absorbed somehow into the Quiet.
Her mobile phone rang. Absently she answered. It was Melanie. Karen missed the first few words.
�... couldn�t hear anything or see anything, it was like being blind. What has happened?�
At the sound of Melanie's distress she managed to centre herself again, and tried to reassure her, although her first words were hesitant. "I felt it too...No, I'm not sure what it was...something has happened... something that has -never- happened before. Listen...we need to talk, and there's something I need you to do for me...where are you right now?"
"-You- don't know!?!... All right... I am in my office at the moment..."
"Can you meet me up in my office? I'll be there in about 10 minutes..."
"Count on it. I will be waiting."
She sounded confused, but as Karen spoke to her, she becames more concerned as to how Karen herself felt.
Karen tried to check for the locations of the ones she was attuned to. Currently this included Melanie herself, Melanie's husband James and her daughter Sally. She futilely tried to feel for the link with Sonja, but that link was long gone...
All the other attunement were present and accounted for. None had suffered any harm.
A deep breath, and then she hurried to press the button to take her, not to her office, but to the floor where the laboratories are. She was a regular visitor in this section of the labs, and even had a little, out of the way corner in which she worked when down here. Nodding to whomever she knew, she moved to the area where she works (around a corner, so out of sight of the main lab area). She was a little hesitant... aware that she had gained Jean's displeasure in the recent past, but she knew that Jean would prefer her to contact him if anything unusual arose - and if this isn't extremely unusual, she didn�t know what was!
Karen found the corner out of the way of the lab, which had mostly shut down work for the night, and booted up the fingerprint computer database. Typing in a password or two, and submitting a request for a fingerprint match, she tagged on a breif email to an unusual address, via an unusual server. Then she calmly sat back and waited next to the phone.
It rang once, and she pick it up before it finished.
The familiar voice on the other end spoke. "Unless you have something to report that you know about the Silence that I don't, I haven't got time for this right now."
There was an infinitismal pause. Karen knew she had approximately five seconds to make a consise response.
Karen simply said "Forgive the interruption. I was confused by the Silence and sought to see that you were alright and to attain any tasks or information you may have for me relating to the Silence. If it is your wish, I will wait until you have time to contact me, and in the intervening time i'll try to find out any information about the Silence that i can."
The curt voice on the other end did not soften perceptably. "Of course /I/ am all right. And yes. Unless you learn something /important/ I will contact you when I have time." Karen gets the not uncirtain impression that this will probably be a very long while. He sounded positively frantic.
She then logged off, headed up to her office, to plug herself into her desk for a while. Melanie was already waiting. Karen sat her down (cups of coffee all round) and asked her to explain in detail what she felt when the Silence happened. "Don't leave out any detail. I have contacted Jean, and believe that he knows little about it, so if there's anything we can figure out about it that may help, then we have to do that."
After this she explained to Melanie all that she felt during the silence.
Melanie frowned over her coffee - white, no sugar - as she thought about it. "Well, I am not sure, it was like an instant when everything sort of changed a fraction. I was standing there over the photocopier, with paper in my hand. Then I just heard something over my shoulder, like ... i don't know. A change in note? a shift in key from major to major seventh? Something like that. And I suddenly noticed that the lights dimmed and I felt physically weak. All trace of any of the essence of creation was gone from me. You know what I am talking about."
She shrugged. "So I called you. Was it some kind of attack? Or," she shivered, "something from below? It has been since she went missing since anything of that kind has happened, and before then not at all in my memory." You know who she is alluding to.
Karen nodded and touched her on the arm supportively, listening as she continued.
When Karen described the silence she looked blank. "I didn't hear a silence. My idea of the symphony is a bit hazy, I know, but From what you ahve told me, I would have noticed something like that I would have thought." She frowns. "No, no pause, just a infinitismal shift, and a loss of all energy."
Karen frowned, listening to this. "I heard absolutely nothing during the silence - no change in the symphony. I don't recall feeling a loss of essence...it simply wasn't there when the silence ended" She paused, then added "And my heart was".
Melanie frowned at this, worridly.
She continued "So it seems that angels were affected the worst, our friends not as much, and perhaps humans not at all. I'm very curious to know how those below were affected if at all. I don't believe it was an attack by them. But if it was it is a blow of truly frightening proportions! Do you realise how vulnerable we are if all angels now have their hearts with them?"
Melanie nodded again, openned her mouth to speak, and then changed her mind.
"Unless you have any suggestions, I think perhaps that our next move should be one of investigation. Perhaps gather a list of all those we know or suspect to be either of devine or infernal origins and try to speak with them or watch them to see what others felt. Perhaps also we might need to do a little surrepticious questioning of humans about it. Perhaps you could wander out into the tea room and mention in conversation that you wondered why the lights dimmed earlier? Try to judge if they seem to have noticed anything. Perhaps once essence returns i might try a song and see if i feel any difference to the symphony."
Melanie nodded. Paused. Then said, "I am wondering, if you are giving any thought to what you will do if anyone comes to settle old scores with you at this point. As you yourself said, you are really vulnerable right about now. Is it really wise to be wandering around like this by yourself. I mean, the station is probably OK, but what about when you are making your way home... And what would happen to you if you were badly hurt and have your heart within you?"
She went quiet. Then, "I'll go see if I can find out about the brown out, anyway." And started to leave.
Thinking about these matters, Karen has a few moments to think. She could feel the faint sounds of the chords and strains of the symphony building inside the energy of the computer, and absorbed them into herself as Jean taught her. Yes, slowly but surely, essence was returning.
Karen was aware of three angels in the washington area. Shebbath, Kyriotate of Laurence, who had a vessel (Sgt Francine Mills) working in the veterans assocition, Sicrem, Mercurian of Marc, working in the NSA (Mr H. Sicrem), and Jhedakiel, Elohim of Gabriel, working in the Justice department (Jed Fulcrum). Karen had the phone numbers of the latter two, and knew where the former worked.
Karen sighed and nodded to Melanie "I know...and am worried. I need to find a place or a person to keep it. I'm tempted to ask you to take it, and may do at least for the moment, but it's fairly well known that we are linked, and you will probably be as much a target as i'd be. It'd be the same if i gave it to James or Sally as well. At least I know you can protect yourself." She shrugged and after a moment "I guess i'll just have to think about it. I wonder why Jean is no longer caring for it though...something i doubt i'll discover in the near future - he is still displeased with me for losing Sonja...and rightly too... I have to find her...and can't let this distract me from that!"
Karen smiles wryly as Melanie started to leave "I keep having this urge to tell you to be careful..."
Melanie gave a tight smile in return. "For a change, it might be my turn to tell you that. Don't worry about me so much. Worry about yourself for a change." and she left her to herself.