the Refuge
A legend among Beacon's people of a hidden land beneath the ground, untouched by the sun, where the rotating planet's slow death cannot reach them. The recovered disc is, in their telling, the key to its door. Elegy believed in it strongly enough to stake the heist on it. Nomad privately suspects the truth behind the legend is more prosaic and less salvific than the leadership hopes. STD:TSM:Ch 8
Known facts
- on-unions-flight-latitudeNomad works out where the door must be from what the locals tell him about their geography. Union flies a straight line around Canticle at a fixed latitude. The Cinder King has been obsessed with the entrance for years and yet has never made special excursions to study it — so he must have been studying it on the city's normal route, during scheduled landings to grow crops. The entrance therefore lies on the line Union already flies. Nomad also resolves not to do the search himself: the Cinder King knows the exact spot, so let him lead them to it.STD:TSM:Ch 28
- nomad-believes-it-is-a-scadrian-research-stationNomad privately judges the Refuge to be a Scadrian research facility built to house a small group of scientists come to study how Canticle's sun works — a self-selecting group who would have watched Beacon's people with cold detachment, and whose failure to lift a finger for them in all this time is, in his eyes, its own proof. He tries to tell Rebeke this on the hill above the landing circle; she stops him before he can finish, telling him to keep his concerns to himself and leave them with hope.STD:TSM:Ch 40
- located-by-dawnchaser-prospector-where-cinder-king-landsWhen the Cinder King's elite squadron lands and circles a spot on the ground, rifles up, Rebeke takes the Dawnchaser in low for a prospector sweep. Its scanners read a large power source directly beneath that patch of mud — confirming the Refuge's true location is exactly where the tyrant flew to defend it.STD:TSM:Ch 42
- surface-is-a-buried-metal-disc-with-rising-elevator-and-defensive-fireSurface access to the Refuge is a large silvery metallic disc set perhaps two feet under the ashen mud; once uncovered, it answers a verbal asylum request from outside by raising a four-foot speaker pole and, after agreeing to parley, a much larger cylindrical elevator column that opens to admit a delegation. It also fires a deterrent blast straight up across an attacker's bow when its guest requests protection — a public announcement that the ground itself is armed.STD:TSM:Ch 43
- scadrian-science-vessel-buried-three-level-capsuleThe Refuge is in fact a Scadrian science vessel — a spaceship — embedded in the planet's ground to shield it while its crew of about two dozen TimeTeller researchers study Canticle's sun. The capsule-shaped main level holds workstations and wall monitors; two more levels below it house activities and quarters. With effort it could pack in perhaps a hundred and thirty-odd refugees — straining life support to the wall — but no more.STD:TSM:Ch 44
Events
- STD:TSM:Ch 44 First on-page interior — capsule main level with workstations and wall monitors, two more levels for activities and quarters below.
- STD:TSM:Epilogue Identified on the Admiral's table as the next stop — a Scadrian science ship embedded on Canticle that failed to register its presence with the Brigade and is presumed to hold recordings of Zellion.
Backreferences
- factBeacon
- factConfidence
- factBeacon
- factSigzil
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 39
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 40
- factthe Refuge
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 41
- factGlowing Eyes
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 42
- factBeacon
- factthe Refuge
- factcinderheart bomb
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 43
- factthe Refuge
- factRefugee and Lost Expatriate Bill of Silverlight Codes of Interplanetary Conduct
- factSigzil
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 44
- factGlowing Eyes
- factthe Refuge
- factTimeTellers
- factInvestiture cell
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 45
- factAwakened Steelmind
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 47
- factAuxiliary
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 49
- summarySTD:TSM:Epilogue
- factNight Brigade