August 10, 2005 -- East Farragut, New York

Heather sat at the desk in her office, a letter in hand, a smile playing on her lips as she read the letter. She stepped out of the office and into the next office down in the small building.

"Tom, we have them Branford Industries has agreed to comply with the DOE and let us complete our survey of the grounds", she smiled widely, dropping the letter in his desk, "There it is in print".

The man looked up and returned her smile, lifting a phone from his desk, he spoke briefly into the receiver before turning back to Heather, "45 minutes in the garage, we will take the van."

The team was gathered in the garage, Heather looked over the members. There was Tom, the owner and boss also a brilliant waste management engineer with experience in many superfund site cleanups. Then there was Rachel, computer tech and also a skilled biologist as well. The last was herself, chemistry being her specialty.

They piled into the van with much excited small talk occurring. This particular thorn, Branford Industries, had been plaguing them since 2003, when Heather had joined the company, at the time still going to Rutgers, completing her degree and working for them during the summer break. This was a big break, The DOE had been mounting pressure on the non-compliant superfund sites to undergo mandatory review and testing to determine if cleanup was occurring at the sites. Branford Industries had finally acquiesced to the review under mounting scrutiny by the DOE.

The drive to Branford Industries in Lowell Mass was long and quiet after the initial burst of enthusiastic conversation soon the only noise was the sound of breathing and the radio. The drive was uneventful and the team checked into a hotel that evening in Lowell.

That evening the conversation was hushed but steeped in anticipation, tomorrow was the appointment at Noon. The three tumbled to sleep in the three twin beds in the crowded room, the only sound in the over warm room was the soft breathing of the sleepers.

The next day brought a silent breakfast, and repeated checks of class IV hazmat suits and other gear. The checks and rechecks complete the team piled into the van at 11 AM and drove to Branford Industries. The team was greeted by a gentleman named Paul Killingsworth, straight as an arrow comportment and all the personality of a manniquin but he was quite courteous and businesslike.

"Good Day, welcome to Branford Industries, plant 2.", his voice was clipped with the accent of a life long New Englander, "Your guides will be here shortly. We will be sending you out with one of our own science teams that are working on the clean up."

Heather and the rest of the team were guided back out the gate, following the Branford Industries van with their own out to a warehouse like structure on a plot of land that looked alot like a moonscape. No vegetation only mounded grey silty mud and earth everywhere around the building.

Both teams suited up and with various sensing instruments in hand they carefully walked out onto the property taking readings. This first part was a repeat, they had taken readings here before, but had never been allowed back toward a fenced in area. The readings out here went well and soon the gates to the back were opened and the team led in. Here the class IV hazmat suits kicked in, air vents closing automaticly at the presence of certain chemicals and tanked air filled the suits to allow breathing in the heavy fumes of the waste materials here. Warning lights blinked on sensors and on the suits themselves, indicating deteriorating conditions.

**CLICK**, The voice activated mike inside the hazmat suit powered on at the sound of Tom's voice, "Ok team we have 30 minutes, we are on tanked air."

**CLICK**, "In and out we just need a half dozen samples, should be easy", was piped in by Rachel, before the radio's again went silent as the team worked at a quick pace to complete the needed samples.

Fifteen minutes later the team was on a ridge of bulldozer piled earth and stone above what looked like a lake of steaming greenish water. again the radio crackled, this time the corporate scientific team's leader spoke, "This is the legacy we are trying to clean up"

A closer look at the lake revealed it was not deep, the carcasses of several thousand rusted out barrels visible poking out from the sludge. After a quick conference the team agreed they had to have a sample of the fluid to confirm what they were dealing with. Tom carefully climbed down while the others held his lanyard cord to be able to pull him out if there was a problem. Things however went well and the team proceeded to help pull him up the hill. When Tom was almost all the way up one of the corporate team members in a small Cat bulldozer topped the rise and hit Rachel with the blade and the accumulated pile of sludge, sending her sprawling into Heather and both of them over the edge and down the steep incline to the sludge some 40 feet below, dragging Tom with them as they fell.

Heather paniced as she felt herself falling, tumbling headlong down the incline. She hit the edhe several times, one of the times an remnant of a rusted out barrel tore open her suit and her belly from the hip up alomost to her sternum as she fell. The searing pain made her black out just as she felt and iron grip on her ankle, and heard, something about 'too late for the others...' and then comforting darkness.

Several times over the next 4 or 5 hours she drifted into consciousness to pain, red darkness and burning sweat. So weak and hurting everywhere she drifted back to the darkness again and again to escape. Then the darkness cooled and she felt almost seperate from the pain, sticky everywhere, in a pool of wet on a hard stone floor, her eyes flickered open to a man above her, her look of surprise, mirrored in his eyes, a voice almost lost in the seas of thunder that was her breathing, 'She lives', was all that was uttered before something warm and salty was poured down her throat. Next thing she knew the pain was gone though she still felt so weak as the man leaned down again, and the bliss of darkness closed again. Now she could never again leave the darkness...

The second night in Manchester -- 4:57 PM

Heather awoke, laying in the bed in the Holiday Inn, her face damp as she awoke with a start, looking down at the small red stain on the pillow. She sat upright slowly, a hand coming up to wipe away the tear streaking the other cheek. She tore the pillow case removing the traces of her blood staining the cloth, pocketing the scrap before she turned resolutely to walk out the door, Tonight... she would find this Prince. The ruler of this city and maybe a new home as well.