#emergencydispatch

The comm center had buzzed like a busy hive all day. All available units out on every call, and every call was a disaster. Denla was frazzled. Maybe more than frazzled, but who wasn’t? She keyed up to her comm crystal again. 

“Checking for an available unit for a code 3 response at 44 Fraternity Drive, Unit 954 is requesting a second for an Oracle Disturbance.” It took effort to not finish the transmission with a grumble of “damn kids!”, but she managed not to. 44 Fraternity Drive was the Divinity Fraternity house for the undergrad mage academy, and one that should have been shut down years ago if police visits were any indication.

With every unit on a call, she was going to have to pull from somewhere, even though every event on her console scroll was a priority 1… After a moment she decided to pull from one of the events that should be close to clearing by now… 

The comm crystal sparkled and twirled as the sounds of shuffling and running amplified in her ear. “Central from 928, requesting one more!” Another?!

For Pete’s sake! That was the unit she was going to reassign! Denla bit back a curse and checked her scroll to confirm his location. “928 requesting one more for his Wand Offense at Sorcerer’s Grove, 9986 Grove Lane. 954 requesting a second for an oracle disturbance at 44 Castle Drive, requesting code 3 response. 944, are you direct?” 

The last part was for the field supervisor, who today was her least favorite sergeant. He liked to keep his radio turned down at inopportune times. Are you direct? was less a polite question of ‘did you hear all that?’ and more of a  HEY, ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?!

“Direct. Enroute to 954. Check for an available unit from Thoroughfare Patrol, please.” Came the curt response.

She shot back a little sassy retort in her head. Yeah, I bet you were. But it was too busy to waste time being sassy. She had calls to make. 

Just as her comm crystal started to swirl with numbers she dialed, though, a voice made her stop. 

“912 enroute to 928’s call.” A bit of feedback from a spare radio screeched feedback from someone’s office down the hall. 

Out of pure habit Denla replied ‘Copy!’ and repeated the unit’s traffic over the comm, but it took a moment for her to realize… she had no idea who 912 was. She hopped up in her seat. 

“Hey, uhh, Gnash?” 

“WHAT?” Her supervisor’s voice sent the room physically trembling. The ogre was in rare form with his grumbling this evening. Denla snatched her comm crystal out of the air before it nearly careened into the next console’s. Gnash was clearly not having a good day either. He was filling in on phones for the evening since Luna called in sick. 

“Hey, uhh… who’s 912?”

“I am.” It wasn’t Gnash who answered, though. A rumbling voice that didn’t shake the whole room continued. “You’d best remember, dispatch. 912 is your Paladin Knight Captain for Silver Precinct 7.” The words were stern but carried a tone of amusement as the captain emerged from his office. He towered in the hallway, holding his badge in the air for her to see. 

“Oh!” Denla peeked over her scroll console, agape. “Oh! Captain Dragoran!” 

Dangit Denla, now you’ve done it!, she thought, coloring in embarrassment.

“You forgot my badge number, Denla.” Despite how annoyed at herself she was, relief flooded to her with his chuckle. “Maybe you forgot I worked here?” 

 She almost shot back a reply but he was disappearing out the door, holstering his service wand and vest.

Without any time to spare to laugh at herself, Denla refocused on her status icons at the console’s scroll. A couple units had cleared themselves from older calls without advising over the radio. She busied herself with sending their paperwork to the transcribing goblin, anxiously waiting the couple of moments before the captain would arrive on scene. 

“Center from 928. Civil issue, 10-8.” Perfect. She checked 928’s call scroll. For a unit that had recently requested another unit, he sure wrapped it up quickly. With a lacquered fingertip she flicked through the notes, chuckling. 

Coupla kids with a crone’s stick. Stick returned to crone.

So much for the ‘Wand Offense’ it’d originally been called in as, and the request for backup.

She looked up anxiously as the comm crystal lit up again.

“Center, show 928 enroute to 954’s call.” She confirmed his traffic, and then heard the unit she’d been waiting for.

“912 on scene. Units stable.” Even better. She breathed another sigh of relief, but it wasn’t for long.

“Center, call over to the Academy. Have them get some Campus Aurors over here. We’ve got a full-fledged eldritch… thing… here.” Aaaand there it was. Just the news no one wanted to hear. 

The room trembled. “Awww, come on!” Gnash complained. He was half out of his chair, coffee mug in hand. 

“Hey, I got this,” Denla laughed. She snatched her comm crystal before it collided with the one across from her and started dialing. 

“Mage Academy Public Safety, this is Serena.” She recognized the answerer’s musical voice immediately– they’d gotten certified together.

“Hey girl,” she started. “Your kiddos are real smart tonight.”

Serena groaned. “What did they do?” 

“I’ve got units, including the captain, over at the frat house trying to contain a full-fledged eldritch horror. You think you can send some aurors over?”

“No problem! I’ll get ‘em goin’!” She could hear the scroll of the other dispatcher scratch furiously on the other end of the line.

“Ugh. Undergrads.” 

Serena’s voice brimmed with annoyance. “You’re telling me. This is the third time this week. What is it about Spring Break that makes kids want to summon otherworldly beings?” 

Denla laughed. “You’re welcome to join the Big Time with us over here when you get sick of drunk under-mages and broom unlocks.” Gnash was returning from the break room with his coffee cup, filtering amazing aromas her direction, but also scowling. She sank back into her seat just a little to avoid the scowl. Her boss was famous for his searing temper. “Gotta go, byeeeee!” She keyed up her comm stone again. “Units out at the Divinity Fraternity, Campus has aurors enroute.” 

Despite her always teasing Serena about joining the “Big Time” by getting hired on at the regional dispatch center, Denla couldn’t deny there was an allure to not working with her supervisor. Sure, the work was slower, but at least she wasn’t constantly having to keep her comm crystal from being knocked out of orbit. She considered the application in her console drawer again. It was already filled out, safely underneath some policy binders.

Without warning Gnash appeared over her scroll. 

Well, no hiding from that ugly mug scowling now. He wasn’t really that ugly, as far as ogres go, but the scowl ruined any approachability he may have had in regular life. Denla had never seen him without one though, so she wouldn’t know. Until now. 

His face split into a huge toothy grin. He suddenly looked… warmer… despite his sallow olive green skin. In his enormous hands he extended a second smaller cup of coffee.

“Captain texted me. Said you might need this.” He sat it on the warming stone on her console. 

He started to turn away, but paused. “Oh, and. Good job today. That part is from me.” The ogre ambled away, chuckling. 

Denla took a cautious sip. It was strong, like any self respecting ogre made it, like it’d been brewed twice.. It was just what she needed. He told me I did a good job. She closed the drawer, leaving the application untouched. 

Maybe Gnash wasn’t so bad after all. Some days weren’t so bad here in the Big Time. Without another thought to the application, she sipped her coffee happily and finished out her notes for the captain’s call and sent off a note to the unit’s broom displays. 

“Hey Gnash,” I said as I passed my supervisor. “How’s shift?”

He harumphed a giant sized harumph my direction. I might have felt the whole of the comm center building tremble a little.

 “That bad, huh?”

“It’s a full moon. What more is there to say?” The center trembled a little more from his grousing as he keyed up his crystal. “Units 956 and 947, copy a transfiguration with injuries.”

That was my cue to sashay with a bit more haste to my console. A long shift could make Gnash an ogre in any situation. I mean. He is one. But full moons are a whole other stalk of beans. 

Sinking into my chair at my favorite console, I took a long sip of my coffee for a fleeting moment of zen. It passed all too quickly. 

Every other report crystal was lit up at the consoles around me, and the faint chime sound meant there were more calls holding, too. Time to plug in. I set my mug on the warming stone and swiped my spell chip over the headset dongle.

As if calls waiting weren’t enough to ruin my moment of zen, my partner Luna was bound to. The tip of her conical hat waggled behind her scroll screens, clearly frustrated. Her quill scratched out a transcription that was surely of a caller who hadn’t taken a breath since the fall of Rome.

“Ma’am! Ma’am! MAAA’AM!” Luna practically shouted into her mic. A couple heavy thumps meant she was banging on her desk in exasperation at her caller. “Ma’am, I need you to listen to me. Is the effigy changing color? Ma’am?” She huffed and the thumping sound came again. 

“Hung up on you?” I asked.

“Of course. Nothing like calling Tilde-Star-Star and then hanging up on the crone trying to help you.”

“Another goblin screaming ‘just get them here’?” 

“Mmmmmhm.” Her annoyance could have curdled butterbeer. The sparkling gem twirling above her scroll twirled faster as she hit voicemail on redial. “Well of course.” The gem suspended above her workspace winked out as she flicked the scroll over to Gnash. 

“You’re killing me!” The room rumbled with the boss’s displeasure as he stared at the new scroll. 

“Nope. That’s why they pay you the big ingots!” Luna shot back his direction, winking at me. I hid my chuckle behind another sip of coffee.

Luna’s wide-brimmed headwear popped up over her scroll as she bounced forward to squint at me. “Hey, aren’t you off tonight?”

“I was.” I sighed heavily. “But Jakub called out at dusk. Full moon.”

“Ohhhh, bummer.” She didn’t sound disappointed for me, though. In fact I would stake my first wand on the bet that she was glad she wouldn’t be the only one on calltaking tonight. I didn’t mind. I’d prefer to work with Luna than some of the night walkers I could have been stuck with.

“Yep.”

She wrinkled her nose thoughtfully. “You’d think he’d take the potion for–”

“Iiiii know. But you know how New Age werebeasts are. Anyway, I don’t mind padding my coin purse and it’s supposed to be mostly cloudy tonight.”

“Mmmmmmhm”. Her response brimmed with skepticism. 

My crystal shot out a beam of scarlet light accompanied by soft chimes. “So it begins.” I groaned and tapped the crystal, now blinking furiously. “Tilde-Star-Star, where is your emergency?” My quill floated up, scratching out the start of a new call for service.

A distinctly thick accent sputtered in my ear. “Forbidden Forest, Grove Seventy Seven.”

“Okay, and what’s going on there?” Nothing good, I would bet. The Forbidden Forest is dicey to visit at the middle of the month, let alone the end. 

The translator critter on it’s pedestal protested as I gave it a little nudge and raised my eyebrow. It’s feathered antennae twitched some wordless backtalk at me. Translating critters were notoriously dodgy in the twilight hours. Who could blame them though, really? 

The voice coming through my headset coughed nervously, but was clearer this time. “So, uh… my friend and I were totally not doing anything illegal but my friend has Witches Cough and I’ve been feeling pretty ill myself.”

I sat up a little straighter. “How long has your friend been sick?”

“I dunno, maybe… a couple hours?” Gnomes. Always can trust them to wait until it’s too late to call. “Not to worry, we’ll get some healers headed your way,” I reassured the voice. “Are there any spells or hazards we need to know about?”

The answer tumbled out in a barely intelligible rush, despite my critter’s efforts. “Well I think we might have set off some tricky charms here, because one of my other friends here is running from a really, really mad pixie right now, and I think she’s summoning her family.”

GAH! GNOMES! 

I wanted to punt the crystal. My fingers itched to pound my desk like Luna had only moments before, but I managed to remain still. Why does no one lead with the most important details?!

Barely containing my irritation at the caller, I flicked the scroll flying away to Gnash with more force than strictly necessary. He rumbled again. 

“It’s gonna be one of the nights, Gnash!” I called as he started to key up his crystal.

“What did I tell ya!” The floor shook a little harder.

That’s when I really started to regret coming in. All the console gems started to spin and pulse colors at once. 

“Looks like the clouds cleared up,” Luna cackled.

 I swore a half-uttered curse under my breath. “Just my luck!” 

Reluctantly I tapped my crystal and recoiled as screams of a banshee hit my ear. 

“Ma’am!” I started, biting back another curse. As the wailing continued I made a mental note to come down with potion poisoning on the next full moon. A little case of Mutation Sickness could be easily faked. 

More crystals chiming interrupted the thought. Banshee or no, I was sure of one thing.