Ruth Abel

Threshold Institute · Staff record

Name

Ruth Abel

Role

Surveyor; later the technician who tested the objects

Years

Years 29 to 40

First file

T-028 Tether

Last file

T-042 Endless Battery

Ruth Abel was a surveyor. In year 29, walking point on the land's western arm, she felt something catch at her ankle and saw only a line running off toward the edge. It dragged her to about six paces from the edge before Viktor Saar's shots along the line freed her (T-028). Her report of voices below the rim sent the survey that found the choir (T-029).

In the years of the retrieval runs she was the technician who tested what the runs brought back. She asked whether a person standing beside the clock aged with the stores, a question that was not tested, by the Director's order (T-037). She turned the radio to the top of its dial and recorded a forecast for "the field and the colony" under a sky of rust and green (T-038). She asked the compass for the nearest exit and watched a stalker in the cell beside her turn to face the same door (T-039). She opened a cell door with the key, and both doors of the corridor locked behind her; the cutters took four hours to reach her (T-041). Of the battery she proposed that it did not make its charge but drew it from whoever held it (T-042).

Papers under their name

• Addendum T-028-1: interview with surveyor R. Abel, Year 29, month 12, day 11. Interviewer: T. Rehn. Present: Dr. H. Ek, in T-028 Tether

In the case files

Ruth Abel is named in 7 case files. The last column says where in each file.

Part III: Going through (the places and creatures)

File	Found	Where named
T-028 Tether	Year 29, month 12, day 8	Discovery, Addendum T-028-1, Addendum T-028-2
T-029 Choir	Year 30, month 7, day 15	Discovery

Part III: Going through (the objects)

File	Found	Where named
T-037 Rewind Clock	Year 36, month 1, day 27	Addendum T-037-C
T-038 Tomorrow Radio	Year 36, month 10, day 5	Addendum T-038-A
T-039 Wish Compass	Year 37, month 6, day 14	Addendum T-039-A
T-041 Skeleton Key	Year 39, month 5, day 22	Addendum T-041-A
T-042 Endless Battery	Year 40, month 8, day 30	Addendum T-042-A