[B]Monday, April 4 2022 -- 3am[/b] 

Naomi Wilde was only 3 hours into her first shift at the NYPD's Roosevelt Island Public Service Department, and yet it was already the most exciting day of her 3 years on the job. After leaving Maria and Beverly at the luxury condo of the latter's [i]one night stand[/i], Naomi headed back across the street toward the PSD, just half a block away. 

She found the sidewalk mobbed by at least two dozen people, a combination of Island residents, other New Yorkers, and tourists. On the sidewalk, two fires burned in metal containers, intentionally built to provide light to the area. 

"What can I do?" Naomi asked her Sergeant once she fought her way through the crowd to the [i]business side[/i] of the front desk. 

"[I]Hondo![/i]" Helen Davis called toward a group of men and women standing off to one side. A large, rather intimidating man wearing a cowboy hat, denim jeans, and a leather jacket came nearer. The Sergeant tossed him a reflective vest, saying with an feigned apologetic tone as she waggled an extended finger toward his outfit, "Sorry it doesn't match your bad boy look." 

"Reflectors?" he asked, chuckling. "Not sure there's anything out there to reflect off me, but..." 

To Naomi, Hellen said, "This is Frank O'Connor. Round here, we call him [i]Hondo[/i]" 

Naomi smiled, saying, "You [i]do[/i] look like him a bit ... only bigger still." When the big man didn't respond, she clarified, "John Wayne ... [i]Hondo?[/i]" She shrugged, explaining, "Grampa was a big fan of [i]The Duke[/i]." 

"Hondo here is Coordinator of the Roosevelt Island Neighborhood watch," the Sergeant told Naomi. "Go with him. He'll introduce you to the Block Captains. You're filling in for our Neighborhood Watch Liaison, who -- wouldn't you know it -- just happens to be the Officer you replaced. Congrats. Now, [i]go![/i] Go find out what we're facing." 

Naomi confirmed the order and followed Hondo and the others out to the street. By the time they got outside, they found Vladimir Federov speaking to the crowd. Vladimir was one of the other two Officers [i]RIPs Officers[/i] on duty at the time of the Blackout. (The nickname came from the station's acronym, RIPSD) 

From the park bench on which he stood, Vladimir was trying his best to explain how the current situation prioritized how the RIPs would deal with those situations, be they issues of life and death, missing persons, vandalism and/or looting, and more. 

The crowd was talking over Vladimir for the most part; each of those surrounding him thought his or her problem was the most important one, of course. Hondo pushed through the crowd and joined the lean,5'8" Officer on the bench; his own barrel chested, 6'6", 270# size quieted some of the crowd immediately, but it was when he scuffed the end of a road flare, bringing the bright red burning flame to light and hollered "Shut up!" that silence finally reigned. 

He chastised the crowd for the way it was acting, then told them, "We're all a bit scared ... and we're all a bit panicked. But trust me: the world isn't going to end tonight. We're not going to learn anything about what happened or [i]solve[/i] anything acting like a mob of lunatics." He looked to Vladimir again, telling him, "Go ahead, speak your piece ... again."

The Officer once again asked people to move off in three directions: life and death emergencies into the PSD; missing persons to the left of the doors; and everyone else to the right. "We will get to each and every one of you in priority order."

Hondo said with a firm voice, "And if you think that your expensive quiche thawing out and getting ruined is a life-or-death situation and get into that line ... you're gonna find yourself tossed out into the street and not helped at all."

"Continue your good work, officer," the big man encouraged Vladimir as he descended to the sidewalk. He joined Naomi again, telling her, "C'm'on, I'll introduce you to the crew."

But a moment later the pair were cut off by a panicked woman: "The Tram ... it's stuck, hanging over the river. There's people in it."

Hondo and Naomi looked to each other with the same expression that came from the same thought: [i]How come no one thought of that yet?[/i] Naomi's reason, of course, was that today was her first day working on the island; Hondo's was that -- despite having lived on Roosevelt Island for almost 5 years -- he'd never once ridden the aerial transport so it simply wasn't his first thought.