Beginning Anew

Mission

Barbara trudged through the front door with a groan, her head swirling from the insanely long day. Not that the crazy hours were too surprising, but she really wished they had more people to help at work.

She had managed to work through the rest of the night, catch a little bit of sleep at the hospital, then work through the day again. She rubbed her tired eyes as she closed the door behind her.

"I'm home," she called out of habit, then realized... Jim wasn't here... She shut her eyes, fighting off the urge to cry.

Soft clicking drifted to her ears from the living room, almost like the sound of computer keys. The thought that Jim might be back made Barbara's heart leap and she rushed to look for him, but the sight of a green changeling sitting on her couch with a laptop stopped her short.

The computer wasn't the only thing with him; all around Walter were stacks of books and papers. Two books lay open on the couch and the cradle stone sat on the dining table half a room away.

"Hello," Walter addressed her without even looking up from his laptop. "How was your day?"

Barbara smiled, amused at the outright ordinary comment coming from the odd-looking creature sitting in her living room. "Hellish," she admitted. "There were sooo many people, and absolutely not enough staff." She dumped her bag by the stairs and went to look at the items Walter brought back from his excursion. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes, thank God." Walter let out a relived breath. "So, one of the answers we needed is, as long as the children are inside the cradle stone they will be fine. No nutrients are needed, and they will not grow at all. They are in a sort of stasis," he supplied. "Thankfully it is possible to remove each baby individually; however, once removed, they will have all the needs of a normal baby."

"I see." Barbara pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "So, they're alright?" Barbara asked.

"They are quite safe," Walter replied.

Barbara looked at the webpages Walter had up on his laptop and blinked in surprise. "Orphanages?" she asked.

"Over a thousand infants reside inside that stone. What else are we supposed to do with them?" Walter asked, looking up at Barbara. "There are many countries that offer the possibility of giving babies up for adoption anonymously. We can't just dump them all at one single adoption center. We will have to spread them out - travel to as many countries as possible and as many states here in the US as we can. We must deliver them without being seen and move on. I would do this myself, but I can't." He started to say something else, but hesitated.

Barbara pushed aside the open books and sat down on the couch beside him, waiting for him to continue.

"I will... need your help," he finally added.

"Giving them up to adoption agencies?" Barbara asked.

"Of course, we'll only be traveling to first-world countries," Walter assured. "I won't just drop them off in the middle of the poorest country in Africa or the middle of a civil war. Wherever we leave them, we'll make sure they're safe."

"I see." Barbara nodded. "Your plan does sound like the best thing we can do for them," she admitted, looking at the screen again. The site Walter was on was in a language she didn't recognize.

"This one is in Switzerland," Walter pointed to the red and white logo at the top of the page. "Their adoption agencies seem quite ideal, and there's a Gyre's station inside the country."

"Gyre?" Barbara asked.

"It's for fast travel. Trolls have a tunnel system underground that spans the entire globe. The vehicles are called Gyres," Walter explained. "We can travel into most of these countries using the Gyres; however, the stations are far away from cities. I won't be able to move around on the surface before dark, so I will need you to rent cars and transport us during the daylight hours."