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AUTHOR'S DISCLAIMER: Landmark Entertainment and Mattel – even though
they probably aren’t looking for anything.
AUTHOR'S SUMMARY: In the wake of Pilot’s death, the team finds a new base before being forced back out onto the battlefield to encounter a new, familiar foe. AUTHOR'S NOTE: The original version of this story was started back in 1988. While working on a Power Rangers fanfic involving a future, war torn world, I remembered this series and went and unearthed this story. I’ve changed a key element in the plot based on an idea from another unpublished fic of mine to give it a different twist. Enjoy! SPOILERS: End of season 1, references to leaked info for unfilmed season 2. (Originally started 1988; new sections & revisions Jul/Aug 2009) TO LIVE FOR TOMORROW48-1 Mark 10 Jonathan Power tried to sleep, unsuccessfully, in his bunk in the new auxiliary base in the Arctic Circle - Northstar. It had only been three weeks since he and the team had left on a wild goose chase and he had sent Jennifer - Pilot to the base alone. To her death. Once they had realized what had happened, he and the rest of the team had raced back to try and prevent what was to come. He had tried to persuade her to leave the equipment. To save herself. Desperately he assured her that they would find another way of stopping the Warlord-Class Bio-Dread Blastarr that was inside the base. He had struggled frantically to come up with something that would buy her, THEM, time. To solve the seemingly unsolvable problem of destroying their base and everything inside it, lest it fall into evil hands, AND get Jennifer out safely. But she refused, insisting that there was no other way. She had said that the auto-destruct was out and that she had to activate it manually. He remembered every syllable, each inflection as she had said the words to him. He could hear in her voice that she was hurt. Badly. At the time, his insides had knotted up at the thought of what she had been through, what she was enduring. Then she had told him that she was all broken up inside, and he knew that she wasn't lying. She was dying. With or without the auto-destruct. Yet he knew there was still a chance. There were still a few doctors that could help her; could save her if he could just get her out… He tried again to reason, bargain with her, yet it was already too late. He could hear the fear in her voice, the alarm resonating throughout the base. Then what he had feared the most since they had all realized what was going on happened. In preparation for death, she chose to let go of every mortal secret she owned. She gave him as a parting gift what she had hoped to give him in life - her love. She had told him that she loved him. The words had sent chills of fire through his veins and over his body. Everything in him screamed to stop her; to not let her leave him after such a declaration. He’d lost too many people who cared for him over the years… But there was no time. Before he could do more than say her name, he heard Blastarr's mechanized voice rumble behind her. She’d growled out a curse, pushed the button and there was what seemed like the longest pause and then the sound of explosions followed only by static. Jon and the others watched in horror as the base exploded; fire, rock and metal cascading through the air. It was over in an instant that seemed like an eternity. In his ears, he could hear Matt softly say "Oh my God" as he held his head in his hands, his eyes tightly shut, as if to try and deny what they had just seen. Masterson didn't know the half of it. She was gone; the first personal casualty since his father to this war. The one woman who had somehow touched him deeper than he’d realized during this madness. And he knew his life was never going to be the same. The team had followed a beacon, leading them to a skybike; some of the others had been hoping beyond hope that there was a chance that she had survived. Yet he knew there wasn't. They were one team member less and less than whole now. HE was less than whole now. They had nowhere to go and limited resources, a situation that Jon had never faced before. Demoralized and defeated, Matt had suggested a retreat to the closest safe haven: The Passages near where Los Angeles had been. They were well fortified, and would be a place to regroup. Without really thinking about it, he had agreed. They had stayed there for a few days before being able to access Mentor’s backed up system (another of Pilot’s last gifts) and learning of the existence of Northstar. He’d been shocked, as had all the team, that his father, Dr. Stuart Power had set up and hidden a secondary base without their knowledge. After learning of the new base, they had packed up the Jumpship with whatever supplies they’d had on the ship as well as ones they’d been able to scavange from The Passages as they were unsure of what exactly they would find when they got to Northstar. Once they were loaded up, they headed north, following Mentor’s directions. When they had arrived, they had found almost everything they needed: charging station for the suits, hangar bay, spare parts and equipment, control room and other fundamental areas. It had taken a while to settle in, but now the base was running fairly well and even their personal space was feeling a bit more like home. Yet in the three weeks since the explosion, Jon had walked around feigning both interest and leadership. Inside he was tormented by his memories, just as he was plagued by the nightmares that kept him up at night. He just kept remembering HER. Their first meeting, when he and the others had helped pull her from the influence of the Dread Youth. The process of re-educating and humanizing her, and in the process reminding themselves what it meant to be human. Worrying about her when she didn't arrive on time to a rebellion meeting with the heads of the resistance; the time she had kissed his cheek as she had struck off, searching for help as he laid there, his leg injured. The time when he had kissed her, for luck just before going into a dangerous situation; their dancing after their last major victory and then their last talk before… He’d made the error of not finishing their talk, of actually telling her how he felt. And now he would never have the chance to rectify his mistake. Sighing, he tossed the covers from his bunk and got up. Sleep wasn’t going to come tonight, just like it had been elusive for the last three weeks. Still, there was work to do and the extra hours would help them get back to where they could actually return to the field and start hitting Dread again. There was still a war to win, even if Jon felt as if he’d already lost everything that made the thought of winning worthwhile. Tossing on his uniform, he headed to the command room to scan the frequencies and see what was going on out there, and maybe, just maybe, find the strength to keep going for at least another day. Corporal Jennifer Chase woke to pain that seemed to radiate from her gut through her whole body. She blinked, confused, as the last thing she remembered was… Her skin turned to ice and the blood in her veins froze as her memory replayed the last moments she recalled. Finding out the disk was blank; the assault on the power base; opening the communications link to the Jumpship to warn the team; Blastarr’s arrival and the self destruct’s failure… and then her last words to Jon followed by the explosion. But there was something she was missing. She remembered Blastarr in front of her, his arm directed towards her as she spat a curse at him before reaching for the self destruct button. The sound of the explosion was there, but it seemed… fuzzy, as if she was hearing it through something else. Then she realized what had happened. She’d been digitized. In the last seconds, Blastarr had chosen not to hit her with his laser but with the digitization beam. So that meant… She turned her head slightly; agony pierced her skull as she did so and her heart lurched in her chest. She was in a Dread lab. Using her hands, she pushed down on the cold metal slab below her and then tried to move her arms with no success. Trying to rise from her prone position, even though her entire body rebelled against the movement, she finally was able to see that she was strapped down, dressed in a medical gown and surrounded by technology that she had never seen before. Fear spread through her body and she started to thrash in her restraints, desperate to escape, even if she didn’t know where she was or if she could even stand. Once she began, there was a sound of a door opening and she felt her anxiety increase. Suddenly there were people in white coats surrounding her, one of which held a syringe filled with a bluish colored liquid. The others held her still while the one with the syringe shoved the needle into her arm, depressing the plunger to shoot the liquid into her vein. Slowly she began to feel her body start to go numb. “Please,” she said thickly, her voice sounding unused and gravelly. “Do not struggle Youth Leader Chase,” replied one of the people in the coats, a man. “We’re here to help you.” “Don’t want your help,” Jennifer slurred as the injection they’d given her started to affect her speech. “Of course you do. We’ve been working to fix you so you’re better than ever. Fit for your role with the machine, as Lord Dread’s newest Overunit.” Jennifer’s eyes widened in fear at his words; she had now lost her ability to speak, yet her mind was still functioning and she could comprehend just what he was saying. In a matter of moments, her body was totally paralyzed, yet she was still conscious, her eyes flicking around in dread of what they planned to do to her next. “Alright everyone, let’s get started. There’s a lot of re-conditioning to do, and not a lot of time. Lord Dread wants her active in a week.” With that, the men and women surrounding Jennifer’s body hurriedly began to work, fitting wires, electrodes, sensors and a variety of circuitry on her body. A wide visor was placed over her eyes, which were now frozen open. Once they had finished, the first man in the lab coat turned a switch, and electricity began pulsing down the wires into Jennifer’s body, activating the electronics nearly encasing her head as well as the other points along her body. There was an infinitesimal jolt that seemed to shimmer across her skin, and the techs all looked around at one another. “Good,” said the main lab tech, moving to a console and typing in a sequence of keystrokes. “Let’s get Youth Leader Chase back.” A second later, the programming began streaming through the system and into the conscious form of the woman strapped to the bed. And in her mind, she screamed. It had been another long week, totaling a month now since the destruction of the power base and the loss of Pilot. And the team could see that their leader was still only partially there with them. They’d just gone out on their first major mission since settling in at Northstar, striking a Dread patrol near what used to be Seattle. While they’d destroyed the patrol and gotten the chance to direct some of their anger out at the Bio-Mechs, Dread’s mechanized soldiers, it really hadn’t done anything to ease the pain of their loss. During that action though, Captain Power had continued to walk as if in a fog. He did what was needed of him; directing the team and taking down some of the Bio-Mechs, but it seemed… perfunctory. He didn’t even seem to gain any satisfaction in the destruction of the metal heads. So now, the following day, the other three members of the team were sitting around the command center’s main consoles with the sole purpose of addressing what was next for their team, and their Captain. “Hawk, we’ve got to do something,” Scout insisted. “I’ve tried talking to him, but he just shuts down and refuses to discuss it. I just don’t know what more I can do…” Hawk complained, looking to the two men who had lost their friend and comrade in arms just a month ago, just like he had. But their Captain’s pain was much deeper than their own, he thought forlornly. Maybe too deep… “If anyone can reach the Captain, it’s you,” Tank assured him, his normally gruff accented voice sounding more subdued than usual. Hawk nodded, conceding the truth of the matter. He had to get Jon to acknowledge what was going on; that the loss of Pilot was affecting his judgment as well as putting the team at risk. They couldn’t keep doing this – something had to change. Matt turned and left the command room, looking through the base for where Power might be. Finally he found him in the Jumpship, pulling apart a panel to rewire part of the scanning system. It was something that needed to be done, for sure, but with everyone elsewhere, it allowed him to be alone in the ship. In Pilot’s chair. “Jon,” Matt spoke, leaning his hand on the head rest of the seat his friend was sitting on. “Matt, what’s up?” Jon said distractedly, his eyes fixed on the open panel before him. “We need to talk.” “About?” Matt tried not to sigh. His friend, their Captain was doing his best to bury himself in the mindless busy work around the base so he wouldn’t have to face the fact that Jennifer was really gone. But as much as he wanted to join his friend in his grief, they still had a job to do, and they needed to all be focused on it. “The team. The mission.” Jonathan Power turned then and stared at his friend and trusted right hand. He knew what Matt really meant; the unspoken issue that was affecting the mission and the team. He frowned and turned the spanner tool he held in his hand end over end for a minute before speaking. “You’re afraid I’m not focused any longer,” he replied, not even phrasing his response as a question; as if he knew what Matt and the others must be thinking. “That I don’t care about winning the war anymore…” Matt swallowed heavily. This wasn’t how he wanted things to be, but since Pilot’s death… they were down one team member, and they needed everyone at 100%. “We know you still care about the war, the resistance Jon. But we need you engaged all the way. We need your tactical mind, your leadership.” “Matt…” “Look, we all care about the fact that she’s gone. It’s hurt us all, and to be honest, if it didn’t, we wouldn’t be human,” he explained patiently, moving to sit in the co-pilot chair beside his friend. “But we have to get past it. You need to get past this. If you don’t deal with it, at least enough so that you can really function, we’ll never be able to go back out there and beat Dread. And she wouldn’t want that.” “How the hell do you know what she would have wanted Matt? It doesn’t matter what she would have wanted anymore because she’s not even here! She’d dead! Jennifer’s dead, and I can’t deal with it. I need her back, damnit!” Power swore suddenly, throwing the spanner into the windshield of the Jumpship, causing it to bounce and clatter on the metal floor. Matt reached over and grasped Jon’s hands. He wasn’t sure if it was a gesture of solidarity and friendship, or if it was to keep his friend from grabbing something else and throwing it as well. “I know. I want her back too. But there’s nothing we can do but let her go.” With a hitching breath, Jon nodded, pulling his hands from Matt’s and shoving the heels of his hands into his eyes, unwilling to let even Matt see him cry. Deep within Volcania, Lord Dread waited for his report. “Overmind. What is the status of our project?” “The technicians have reported 100% success in their reprogramming of Youth Leader Chase’s brain patterns. She has been tested extensively and shown no signs of her previous… rebellious behavior or inclinations.” “Good. I want Overunit Chase in charge of the cleansing of Johnstown.” “Power and his team will most likely come to the rescue of the organics,” Overmind intoned. “Yes, I’m sure that they will come, and when they arrive, Power and his team should find themselves relieved to see Overunit Chase alive. And then she will destroy him and her former comrades. The conditioning will see to it. Still…” Dread murmured, his metal fingers tapping on the arm of his chair as he consider all the potential threats and complications to their project. He was certain that the conditioning done by his technicians and medical staff was a success. Yet … “Have the technicians rig a fail-safe. If she does falter in her programming, then she is to be destroyed.” “As you wish Lord Dread.” The team had been surprised by the emergency call from the settlement of Johnstown. There were few places that had a radio, and those that did were reluctant to advertise the fact. But being as they were under attack by Dread’s forces, they had little to lose in using it to call for help. When the Power Team arrived on the scene, the battle was still underway, parts of the town aflame. Using the Jumpship scanner, Scout began a sweep of the area. “Captain, I read two score of Bio-Mechs, about six humans, maybe a few Dread Youth and then a pair of Overunits?” Scout reported. “Seems like a lot of firepower to cleanse a town of maybe a hundred people, most of whom are probably elderly or young,” noted Hawk, suspiciously. “Maybe it’s a trap?” Tank questioned. “You always say that,” retorted Scout with a light smile, and then he turned his attention to Power. “Orders Captain?” “Let’s land and then we’ll split up. Scout, Tank, you take the North end. Hawk and I will take the South and we’ll meet up in the center of the town. Do your best to save as many as you can, but we have to be quick before Dread realizes we’re here and sends in Soaron as backup.” The others nodded in agreement. With the mass of forces already here, they really didn’t need to have to face a Bio-Dread as well. Hawk landed the ship slightly outside of the settlement, and they all got out of their chairs and moved to stand before the closed door. “Power on!” In an instant, four armored men stood in the place of the uniformed group that had arrived. With their armor, they hopefully they had a greater than average chance against the overwhelming forces inside the city. Scout pushed a button and the door to the Jumpship opened and they hurriedly exited, moving swiftly through the grassy plains, knowing that they were most likely in for a rough fight. Scout and Tank waded in quietly, hoping to pick off some of the outlying force before engaging the humans leading the assault. They moved to corner a group of Bio-Mechs, blasting them to bits before finding the two Dread Youths helping oversee the rounding up people for either extermination or digitization. With a series of defensive maneuvers and a couple of therm grenades, they’d gotten the Dread Youth to surrender. The fact that the Overunit had also been killed probably had something to do with the surrendering Dread Youths. Scout and Tank tied up the unarmed Dread Youth and locked them up in an outlying building to keep them out of the way and away from the potentially hostile locals. Power and Hawk had circled around to enter from the far side of the city. Immediately they encountered their Bio-Mech foes along with their Dread Youth counterparts. They took cover, alternating firing into the advancing mass of metal as they tried to keep from being hit too many times and not injure the Dread Youths as best they could. After a serious fire fight, Power and Hawk had finally cleared the way of the Bio-Mechs, and had gotten one of the Dread Youth to surrender. Hawk tied the young man up to what probably was a hitching post for the time being. The other Dread Youth lay dead on the ground along with his metal allies. Power frowned at this, but there was often no way around it. Dread trained their human allies to believe they were just as expendable as the machines they fought with and served. Power knew that the Overunit that was in charge of this group of Dread Youth and mech soldiers was still unaccounted for and he waved to Hawk to signal their move into the city center to hunt for the second Overunit. As they got closer to what might have once been a main square, flames from a few buildings raged; the burning orange color illuminating the area as the sky began to darken with nightfall. From the darkness and smoke of a wrecked building to his right, Power saw the silhouette of a person begin to emerge. As they slowly moved out of the shadows, he recognized the metal glint of an Overunit’s badge and the shape of the uniform. Realizing this was their missing Overunit, Power brought his weapon up to zero in on them. “Drop your weapon!” he shouted, and the figure paused at his words. The Overunit then began to move again, walking further into the dying light mixed with the firelight. Power and Hawk watched the figure come closer, blaster in hand. As they watched the figure, their walk and form seemed… familiar. And then the light fully hit the female Overunit’s face, and Power and Hawk stood in stunned silence. “Pilot?” questioned Hawk, dazed past that one simple utterance. Before them Jennifer Chase stood in the uniform of an Overunit, her face, her eyes just as they remembered her. But instead of being filled with recognition, they were filled with animosity. And she menacingly leveled a blaster in her right hand at them. “I order you to surrender in the name of the machine, or you will be destroyed,” she demanded, her weapon pointing directly at Power. “Jennifer?” Power breathed, his heart thundering in his chest at the sight of her alive, standing right there in front of him. “I am Overunit Chase of the Machine Empire.” Hawk and Power both stood dumbfounded. They had been sure she was dead, killed in the explosion of the base. Somehow she had survived, and now she was here, siding with Dread and threatening their lives. It was as if she didn’t know who they were… who she was any longer. “You are Jennifer Chase, member of the resistance and the Power Team,” said Hawk, hoping to gauge just how far gone she was. She simply stared at them, not a single hint of recognition crossing her features. Power was certain that somewhere inside of her was the woman he remembered. Somehow he had to break through whatever Dread had done to her to find her again. He’d been through something like this before with Athena Samuels, yet this time he had so much more riding on his every word and action. Ignoring every rule of warfare that had been drilled into him, he suddenly reached up and tapped his actibadge, letting his armor evaporate and leaving him vulnerable to the blaster trained on him. “Jon,” hissed Hawk, watching in apprehension as his Captain took a step, then two, moving closer to the obviously altered ‘Overunit’ Chase. “Your name is Jennifer Chase. You’re a member of my team. You’re our friend. You’re my friend…” he said softly, tentatively stretching an empty, gloved hand out to her, as if afraid he would spook her. “I have no friends. I am a tool of the Machine,” she intoned, but the words sounded somehow more forced than before. “No, you do have friends. You aren’t a part of the machine. You’re human. You have feelings… you feel happiness, sadness, pain… love.” At Power’s words, her body began to minutely shake, the blaster in her hand wavering slightly, and then more vigorously. He and Hawk watched stunned as her eyes blinked once, and then a few more times in rapid succession. When they opened again, they both thought they saw a spark of the woman they knew. “Love?” she whispered, her voice confused and almost inaudible to the man before her. Before she could say another word, a visible electrical shock shot out from the earpiece that all Overunits wore, making her gasp in pain. In all their time in the battlefield, they’d never seen an Overunit’s head gear do something like that. Her hands came up to cradle her head, her uniform hat falling to the ground and her blaster hanging limply in her grasp as she shuddered with pain. Jon watched in horror, unsure if he should try and remove the earpiece but without knowing if it would make things worse he didn't want to risk it, but he did feel a rush of hope that maybe the electrical shocks meant that she could be reached. The electrical surge had started after she had seemed to waver in her threat to shoot him after he’d spoken to her. Perhaps she was trying to fight off whatever Dread had done to her, and the shock from the earpiece was some kind of modification enforcement device that Dread had attached to her… to keep her in line and stop her from throwing off his brainwashing. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d seen something like that, and if that was the case, and Jennifer was fighting her conditioning, he just had to help her by somehow getting through to her enough to break it. “I am of the machine,” she all at once intoned, her body suddenly straightening and her hands coming back up into place. Her blaster was once more clenched in her grip, her finger moving to tighten on the trigger as Power stared down its barrel. “I am Dread’s eyes and ears. There is no emotion, only the precision of the machine.” Power inched ever closer, his face a mask of determined agony. He had to get through to her. He had to get her back. There had to be something… suddenly a thought came to him and his eyes closed for a second as he took a deep breath. Maybe this one truth would break down Dread’s walls… “You do have emotions… you feel love; you said so yourself. Remember, you said you loved me,” Power said softly, his words making Hawk catch his breath behind him and the woman before him flinch, and then he impulsively added, “and I love you Jennifer Chase. Come back to me…” This time the reaction was nearly immediate. With a tremor visibly running through her body, the blaster in her hand clattered to the ground. Her empty hand seemed to minutely inch towards Jon’s outstretched one before she was struck again by the electrical voltage from the earpiece attached to her head, this time even more powerful than before. She screamed at the pain from the electricity surging through her, the sound ripping through the twilight and piercing Power’s very soul as he shared her agony. He crept closer as she suddenly bent over in half; both hands cradling her head as sparks and popping sounds began to shoot from the earpiece. It was almost as if the electrical components were being burnt out as it forced the higher voltage through Jennifer’s form. And for it to be doing that, Jennifer had to be fighting hard enough to make the hardware melt. “Come on kid… you can do it,” Hawk murmured behind Power, his eyes riveted to the sight before him; Jon and Jennifer together waging a battle against Dread’s mind control, the stakes Jennifer’s very mind and soul. A final arc shone like a white and blue halo around her head and without warning she abruptly fell to a heap on the ground. Power was instantly at her side, pulling her limp form in his arms, cradling her body to his as he looked down at her face. His hand ripped away the earpiece that had been nearly electrocuting her before his eyes, flinging it across the square in disgust. That Dread could do this to her… enslave her again after all the hard work she had done to break free of his grasp nearly broke his heart. He brushed his hand along her cheek and was rewarded when her eyes fluttered open. “Jon?” Jennifer questioned softly, her voice sounding confused while her eyes seemed to be glazed over with residual pain. “I’m here. You’re safe now.” She didn’t turn to look at him or even really react to his words or presence at all. Her eyes simply drifted closed, her body slowly slumping in his grasp and Jon immediately panicked, fearing the worst. “Jennifer… Jennifer, stay with me!” When she didn’t respond, he abruptly drew a gloved hand to his mouth, biting the leather and ripping it from his hand. He pressed his bare fingers to her throat and breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the pulse there, his glove falling forgotten from his mouth to settle on her stomach. Her pulse was slow, but it was there. She was alive. Any injuries she might have as well as what Dread had done to her mind could be dealt with once got her into the ship and back to safety. “Hawk, Captain?” queried Scout oddly as he and Tank rounded the corner to see an unarmored Power kneeling in the dirt, an Overunit in his arms. An Overunit that looked like… “Pilot?” Tank nearly exclaimed, his surprise matching Scout’s. “Yeah,” answered Hawk, still overcome by the astonishment of them having found Jennifer alive. “Captain, what do we do about the people…” Tank asked, bringing Power’s attention back to the mater at hand. “Call the UTO and have them pick up the surviving Dread Youth and see if they can take them to The Passages. Maybe some of them can be helped. The people of Johnstown need to either prepare for Dread to come back or head out to the next safe settlement,” announced Power, his voice ringing with an authority that they hadn’t heard in nearly a month. “And Pilot?” asked Scout, staring at Power with the Overunit clad Pilot in his grasp. Power finally forced himself to look away from Jennifer’s unconscious face to turn and regard the others, determination and passion written across his features. “We’re taking her home.” After Jennifer’s collapse in Johnstown, the team had taken her to The Passages to be seen by one of the doctors there. The doctor there had scanned her and couldn’t find anything significantly wrong with her, except the slight burns from the electrical charge and the fact that she had yet to wake. Since the moment Jon had picked her up in his arms and carried her to the Jumpship in Johnstown, he had refused to leave her side for a second. Now he sat on the edge of the medical bunk in their new base as he watched its sole occupant, his emotions roiling within him. He held her hand tightly in his, afraid of letting go, lest this all be a dream and he woke up to find her gone. The team was still worried of what she would be like when she finally woke. The doctor didn’t know if she would still be controlled by Dread, or if the fried circuitry of the Overunit earpiece had been because she had broken the brainwashing Dread had put her through and she was now herself once again. They just had to wait for her to wake on her own to find out. Yet he felt certain in his heart that when she was conscious again that she’d be the same woman he’d fallen in love with. Still, whatever Dread’s tech heads had done to her, she had somehow fought the programming earlier. The fact that she’d dropped her gun instead of firing gave him hope, and it was the only reason he was alive right now. He was trusting in her own innate humanity; that the personality of Jennifer Chase was enough to overcome the decades of Dread Youth training in conjunction with whatever brainwashing that they’d imposed on her. And if, God forbid, she was still Overunit Chase when she woke, then he’d do whatever it took to deprogram her, to find a way to undo what Dread had done to her, just like they’d done before. He silently swore to himself that he would sacrifice anything, move heaven and earth to bring her back. “She awake yet?” Matt asked as he came into the room that served as their medical bay. “No,” replied Jon somewhat despondently, his eyes never leaving Jennifer’s face. Behind Matt, Robert and Michael appeared, joining the impromptu vigil. “What do you think happened?” Robert asked as he and Michael moved to either side of Matt, creating a half circle around the medi-bunk and Jon. “I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait for her to wake up,” Jon stated matter of factly, his eyes glancing back to look at his team, his friends. “What if she doesn’t?” questioned Matt, worriedly. In the ten hours since their return from Johnstown she had yet to stir. The doctor’s scans had been inconclusive, but the longer she stayed unconscious, the less likely it was that she was coming back. And they all knew it. Jon turned away and shook his head, unwilling to voice the thought; he wouldn’t even consider it an option. She had to wake up. “What do you think happened to her suit?” asked Michael suddenly, and everyone looked around at one another, including Jon, each of them realizing they’d forgotten about Pilot’s power suit in the emotional upheaval of finding her alive. “It wasn’t on her, and Dread hasn’t let on that he knows how they work. Maybe it was damaged in the explosion?” suggested Matt. “Or maybe if she got digitized it was fried?” hypothesized Robert, thinking about the effects of digitization on technology. “Who knows,” Matt said as he shrugged. Either way it really didn’t matter. What did matter was that Jennifer was alive, if still unconscious. And Jon… even with his unwillingness to leave Jennifer’s side, in that moment in Johnstown their Captain was suddenly himself once again. It seemed that Pilot’s return had brought him back as well. “Jon, it’s late; we should all get some rest. You should get some rest.” “I will, but later. I just… I don’t want to leave her, you know? I don’t want to have this be a dream,” he said, and the others understood; her return was all their prayers and wishes come true. As the others left, Jon turned back to the woman in the bed that he knew he loved and picked up her hand in his. He brought it to his lips briefly before laying it back down on the bed, but not releasing it. “Come on Jennifer, I need you to wake up. I meant what I said; I love you. I promise, I’ll never leave you again. Just please, don’t leave ME again.” Days turned to a week without any change in Pilot’s condition. Hawk had finally forced Power into sleeping in his own bunk for a few hours a night with the promise that one of the team would stay with Pilot. So it was Hawk who was startled from his thoughts by the soft groan coming from the bunk. “Jennifer?” he said stunned, looking down at the stirring form of their team mate. “Matt?” she murmured, her head slowly turning towards him as her eyes fluttered open and she focused in on him. She blinked a few times to be sure she was really seeing him there beside her. His face lit up at the realization that she recognized him, meaning the Dread programming looked to be history. He immediately hit his wrist comm., knowing he had to let the Captain know… now. “Jon, she’s conscious!” Leaning forward, Matt laid a hand on Jennifer’s arm, looking at her as she blinked at him, almost as if she was unsure if she was alive and he was real. “Hey Kid. Good to see you awake finally.” Before either of them could say anything else, the door nearly blew open as a disheveled Jon Power burst in and moved to the bed, looking down on the woman that was now awake and aware and intently staring at him. Matt pulled his hand from her arm and backed up instantly, slowly leaving the room. Giving them some privacy was the least he could do. While he and the rest of the team had wanted her back, Jon needed her. “Jon…” she whispered, tears starting to leak from her eyes as she realized that this, that he was real. “I’m here,” he replied thickly, kneeling beside the bed, his hand coming up to her face and brushing at the tears that were now slowly tracking down her cheeks. “I thought it was a nightmare; that maybe I was dead and in hell. With Dread and the Overunit uniform, burning the town, threatening Hawk, you…” she said her voice choking slightly as she spoke. “It’s over now. You’re safe. We got you back and everything’s going to be okay,” Jon insisted, his hand drifting now to reverently thread through the loose blond strands framing her face. “I remember standing there with the blaster. I could feel the trigger cutting into my finger. I was pointing at you, and I wanted to shoot you…” she stated, her voice filled with pain as she reached for him and he pulled his hand from her hair and caught her hand with his own, reveling in the solid feel of it in his grasp. “But you didn’t. Whatever mind games, brainwashing Dread did to you, you were stronger than it was. You fought it and won.” He couldn’t help but stare at her in awe. All those days and nights he’d been haunted by the memory of losing her, and somehow she’d survived and made her way back to him. He had no doubts that Dread had sent her to Johnstown hoping to have her find him and the team. Her orders were probably to kill them, but they’d beaten Dread’s influence and now she was back where she belonged; with the team and with him. “Where are we?” she asked suddenly, her eyes reluctantly pulling away from his face and seeing the unfamiliar surroundings. He berated himself for not thinking about the fact that she might be confused. She’d lost a month of time, and had no idea what the team had been through since her ‘death’. She didn’t know where they were or what they’d been doing during her absence. “You remember the base exploding?” She briefly closed her eyes and then nodded the memories still fresh in her mind. At her reaction, Jon felt his heart ache for her again; still unsure of what she’d gone through in the last month. “We found the skybike and the equipment you’d gotten out. With the base gone, we regrouped in The Passages. While we were there Scout got Mentor operational again, and he let us know that my father had built a secondary base. That’s where we are right now, near the Arctic Circle and somewhere Dread doesn’t know about.” “So everything’s okay? The team…” “You saw Hawk. Scout and Tank are fine too. As soon as you’re ready, I’m sure they’ll be in here, wearing you out…” “How long?” she asked, and he sighed, knowing what she was asking. “A month.” She looked at him, shock evident on her face. She didn’t remember more than a week at most. “I didn’t know.” “Jennifer, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re back and safe.” There was a knock on the door, and Jon realized that the rest of the team had most likely been anxiously waiting for him to let them know they could see her. Most likely Hawk had been holding them at bay so he could get some time alone with her before everyone converged. “Are you up to some company?” “Yeah. But I want to sit up,” she insisted. Jon slid an arm under her shoulders and eased her into a sitting position. She pushed herself backwards until her back was pressed against the wall, where he quickly shoved a pillow behind her, padding her body from the hard concrete surface of the wall. “Okay, you can let them in.” Jon reluctantly left her side to go and open the door. Almost immediately Robert was through the door, rushing over to give her a hug. Michael was behind him a half step, his arms replacing Robert’s and she braced herself for the bear hug that didn’t come. “I promise Michael, I won’t break,” she chided, and then felt her ribs groan in protest as he squeezed her harder. “It’s great to have you back,” Michael said as he backed up, ceding the space beside her head to their Captain. “It’s good to be back. I didn’t think I’d see any of you again…” “Next time you listen to the Captain and you leave,” admonished Robert, looking to where Jon now sat at the edge of the bed, his hand laid over hers once again. “Got it.” There were smiles all around at the light conversation with the woman they all thought they’d lost forever. But they still didn’t know how this had all happened… how they’d gotten so lucky. “Do you know what happened?” Matt asked her suddenly, giving voice to the question they all had been pondering since they’d encountered her in Johnstown. “We… we thought you’d died in the explosion.” “Blastarr digitized me,” she replied sullenly and the others shared dark looks. “We thought that might have been what happened… after we saw you in Johnstown as an Overunit,” remarked Michael. “Did they ask you anything? Locations, people?” Robert asked. Jennifer shook her head. She had wondered why they hadn’t asked her to divulge that information while she was under Dread’s influence. She’d assumed it was because they already knew, but since none of the team had indicated that any of the resistance bases had been destroyed or leaders had been killed, she had to wonder if that was true. “I’m not sure what information they had. When I woke up, they’d already gotten me out and fixed my injuries. Then when they finished…” she trailed off, then pushed on, “reprogramming me to be what they wanted, they immediately sent me out. I’m sure that Dread expected me to kill you. Kill all of you. Or at least bring you back to Volcania as prisoners.” “Lucky for us you’re too thick headed,” Robert teased, and she smiled. “Just like the rest of you,” she countered, and they laughed. Matt was sure that it was the first time since the base explosion that they’d laughed like this. It was almost as if time had turned back and they were getting a chance to start over again. For the next week Pilot had spent her time getting reacquainted with the team and learning the layout of the new base. Once Hawk scanned her and had the doctor in The Passages review the scans and clear her medically to be up and moving around, she naturally fell into the routine as if she had never left. A new room for her was set up, and she’d moved in as soon as they’d moved the last box out of it. She’d luckily had a uniform stowed on the Jumpship, so she had something of her own to wear until they could replace some of her things back in The Passages or with other resistance cells. As it was, the guys had donated shirts and boxers for her to use as sleepwear, for which she was grateful. But she refused to tell them that the only ones she would wear were the shirts Jon had given her. Her first sight of the Jumpship again had given her a lump in her throat and she’d joined Hawk on a test flight as soon as she was able. Her reflexes and intuition for flying hadn’t degraded a bit, and Hawk had checked with Power to certify that she was ready to take them out whenever they went on their next mission. Before she could join them though, there was one last issue they had to deal with. When they were sure that she was 100%, the group had sat in the new command room and discussed the situation with the power suits. Scout’s hypothesis about the suit being destroyed by the digitization beam still seemed to be holding up, but it left Pilot without a suit. It meant that her suit was gone. But she’d saved the spares by loading them on the skybike. There wasn’t even any debate about her wearing one of the spare suits. After dressing in the circuitry covered fabric, she’d stepped into the charging station. In moments she’d appeared before them all in a copy of her old armor, much to her delight and the praise of her team mates. So it was at the end of her first week with things nearly back to normal that a knock on the door of her room pulled Jennifer up short. It was pretty late, and she didn’t expect that they’d need to go on a mission. “Come in.” The door opened, and a figure stood in the doorway, his form outlined by the darkness of the hallway behind him. She didn’t need to see his face to know who it was… it was Jon. “Hey… I just wanted to check on you,” he nearly stammered out, and she couldn’t help but smile at him. “Make sure you were sleeping okay.” Jennifer got up from where she’d been sitting on her bed and simply stared at the man in her doorway. Ever since she’d thought she was going to die and she’d told him how she felt, over the open comm., she’d wondered what it would be like if he felt the same? And then when she’d been under Dread’s mind control, she’d heard him say to her the words that had allowed her to break free. Yet they’d been here for a week and all that time she’d been waiting for him to make some kind of move, some gesture or say something that would let her know that he really meant what he’d said. He slowly came further in the room, leaving them just feet from one another. She was standing there in his shirt, and he felt a rush of desire course through him at the sight. As they stood there, the room was filled with tension, and neither of them seemed to know what to do next. “Thanks. I hadn’t fallen asleep just yet. Of course if I had been sleeping okay, you checking to see if I was would have woken me up.” “Uh, yeah…” There was a long drawn out silence between them. “I should let you get some sleep,” Jon said as he started to turn to leave. “Jon, wait,” Jennifer said softly, her hand moving quickly to catch his wrist, stopping him from moving away. “You had another reason for coming here besides checking to see if I was able to sleep, didn’t you?” Jon paused a moment before turning to face her. He was thankful that she was back; there was no question about it. But now that she was fitting in with the team as if nothing had ever happened, he was afraid of pressing the issue about what they’d both said. How they felt. He could lie, tell her he’d just needed to make sure she was okay and walk out. But he recalled the nights when he’d wished he’d had that second chance to tell her how he felt. He had that now. And if he didn’t say anything now, act on his feelings, what was to say that he couldn’t lose her again without ever telling her… “I did.” “But you were just leaving now…” she noted, her voice wavering ever so slightly as she feared he’d actually leave without saying what he came here to tell her. Jon stood there, not sure what to say or do. He watched her as she stared at him, her blue eyes stripped bare of everything except how she felt. He knew what he should say, but if he said it, everything was going to have to change. He swallowed hard as he realized that he owed her the truth, and he needed to be honest with himself as well. “I wasn’t sure if I had the right to say anything to you,” he began tentatively, his other hand reaching to lay over where hers still clutched his wrist. “There are a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t tell you how I feel about you… but only one reason why I should.” Jennifer released his wrist as she moved closer to him, and he didn’t back away. Instead, he closed the distance until they were almost touching. Then Jon let himself raise his hands to her face, cradling it in his palms as he looked down on her, his own heart beating wildly in his chest. In response, her hands moved almost instinctually to settle on his chest, feeling his heart beneath them; the pounding of it matching her own. “I love you. I never expected to fall in love during all this… but… I did. There were times I thought I could never tell you because of our roles with the team, because I didn’t think you could ever understand how deeply I love you… but you proved to me that you knew better than I did. Because you told me first that you loved me.” Staring into his eyes, Jennifer couldn’t help but be moved. The years that she’d spent learning to be human, to recognize and feel emotions had been under this man’s tutelage. How could he not have realized how well he’d taught her? “How could I not love you?” she finally said, her voice cracking and her eyes welling with tears. “You are the most honorable, kind and, well… handsome man I’ve ever known. I don’t love you because of what you did for me, but because of how you make me feel when I’m with you. I admit, it took me a while and a few sessions with Mentor to understand what I felt, but once I did… I couldn’t not love you.” He smiled at that, his thumbs moving to swipe at the sudden tears that had broken from her lashes and were rolling down her cheeks. Then, with the gentlest of pulls, he leaned down and brought her lips to his in a soft, sweet kiss that made him lightheaded. Beneath his lips he felt her sigh, and her lips parted, letting her breath out. He immediately opened his mouth to breathe her in, and somehow the kiss deepened, tongues moving to meet and caress as their bodies pressed closer. Feeling as if this moment might be too much, too soon, he slowly eased back, pulling his lips from hers ever so reluctantly. When they had broken apart, he instead moved his hands to her back, pulling her flush against his chest as her arms went around his waist. Jennifer’s head tucked against his chest and he leaned his head down to lay upon hers. They held one another like that for what seemed an eternity; neither wanting to shatter the moment. They’d found one another now twice. It was all they could do not to revel in the feelings swirling within them. “So, where do we go from here?” she asked, her voice muffled by his shirt. “You mean this? Us?” he replied quietly, still savoring the solid feel of her in his arms. She nodded and he felt sparks along his skin through the t-shirt he wore at the movement. He clutched her tighter as he pondered everything. With so much at stake with the war, was it right for them to be selfish and want this for themselves? Or would accepting and fully realizing it be a validation of everything they were fighting for? “We still have a job to do,” he began, and he felt her begin to tense in his embrace, steeling herself for his next words. “But we can’t deny what we feel. We shouldn’t let Dread or the war keep us from letting ourselves have whatever happiness we can take. I want us to be together. And let the rest of the world be damned.” She eased away from him and smiled upwards, her eyes sparkling with emotion. “You realize the guys are going to tease us mercilessly?” “It will be worth it.” “So… what are we then? What happens next? You have to remember, I’m still new at this,” she jibed, moving a hand to poke his side with a finger, making him laugh lightly and smile back. “You are my girlfriend. And maybe, one day we can say maybe… wife?” he tentatively offered and watched her mouth drop open as she stared at him, stunned. “You… I… are you…” Jon leaned down to kiss her lightly but briefly before pulling away to regard her seriously. He hadn’t really meant to sort of propose, but the reality was that he couldn’t imagine loving anyone else like he loved her. And he’d found that being without her for those torturous 30 days was like loosing a piece of himself. He never wanted to feel that way again. “I spent a month of my life believing you were dead,” he said seriously, and she continued to stare at him in shock. “I was a wreck. I just couldn’t cope with loosing you. And I realized now that I don’t want to live the rest of my life without having spent whatever time we have together… well, together.” “Does this mean I get to move in with you?” she said with a slight smirk and Jon’s eyebrows raised slightly as the full implications of what he was proposing sunk in. Then the thought of waking up with her in the morning, laying down to sleep at night, and other… activities that couples shared streamed through his mind, and he had to admit that they all were very appealing and tempting. “Not tonight. I think we should take this a step at a time. Have a lamp light meal of rations in the desert, do some more dancing…” She chuckled slightly. In her re-education process, she’d learned what dating was. Now here was the all powerful master of the power suits talking about dating her. “Do raids on Dread forces count as a date?” He laughed at her question and pulled her back to him for another kiss, this one deeper than the last. When they finally broke for air, he couldn’t help but run a hand though her hair and along her cheek. He loved her so damn much. “Let’s spend time together as a couple and go from there. Besides, Matt and the others will need time to get used to the idea. And we’ll need to build in a double sized bed in my room if you’re going to be moving in…” “Sounds like a plan Captain,” she answered with a seductive grin before he leaned in and kissed her again. “That it does. But for now, I’m pulling rank and ordering you to get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll make some announcements and start planning our next steps. Until then…” With one last kiss, he pulled away from her, making his way backwards to the door. She held his hand briefly, but let it go finally, knowing that he would keep his promise, and come the morning this new dimension of their relationship would still be there, and that they’d start to make the most of everyday they had together, just like he’d said and they now both knew they wanted. As the door slid behind him, Jennifer stared at it briefly, still surprised by the turn of events. Then she turned and climbed under the covers of her bunk, flipping off the lights and settling in for sleep. On the other side of the door, Jon took a deep breath and had to fight to keep the grin off his face. Moving down the hall he made his way to his own room and promptly went in and stretched out under the blanket, his mind and heart both racing at the idea of one day soon having so much more with this woman he’d thought he’d lost. The next morning Power woke and with a spring in his step, dressed and headed into the command room to see what kind of activity was on the radio frequencies. When he got there, Hawk and Scout were already at the consoles; Hawk with a cup of what passed as coffee in his hands. The two men turned and regarded their Captain with curious looks before he moved to join them. “Any news?” Power asked as he moved to flank Scout’s seated position at the communications station. “Not much. UTO took the Dread Youths to The Passages and the docs there are working with them to get them sorted out.” “Good news then. Anything else?” “We’ve got a request to come out with some supplies to a resistance cell in Freeland. Nothing too complicated. But while we’re there we can pick up some stuff… some more uniforms for Pilot,” Hawk remarked with a smile. “Clothes?” asked Pilot as she suddenly came into the command room, followed by Tank. “That would be great. I could use some clothes my size…” “You mean you want to stop wearing the Captain’s shirts to sleep in?” questioned Hawk, and Pilot blushed red. “How…” Power started to ask, stunned at what his best friend seemed to know about what Jennifer wore to bed. “Please,” Scout interjected, making everyone look to him. “Like we all haven’t been here to see you two circling around one another. Of course she’s wearing your clothes.” “Plus,” added Tank, his eyes looking away guiltily, “all of our things somehow magically reappeared in our rooms.” Power looked to Pilot, and she bit her lip as she blushed deeper. “I didn’t want the rest of the team to be short things… so I kinda put back what I wasn’t going to use.” “So you’ve only been wearing my shirts to bed,” Power asked, moving towards her with a smile on his face. She nodded, her face a deep red. She had never been so embarrassed in her life. Of course, she had only been embarrassed a few times in her life, since understanding what that emotion was. Then she was looking up at Power as he nearly loomed before her. And she couldn’t help grin herself. “I can’t say that I’m not secretly pleased about that,” he said, his voice barely loud enough to be heard, but the room’s acoustics let everyone hear him. “Besides, they look good on you.” “Compliments on her clothes? Is there something going on here that you want to share with the rest of us?” joked Scout as he watched the way Power and Pilot seemed more emotionally comfortable with one another than they’d been since before the base explosion and Pilot’s declaration. Power looked to the woman in front of him, and decided to just show them, rather than say a word. With that he reached around her waist and pulled her to him, kissing her soundly albeit briefly on the lips. Hawk whooped in appreciation of the action and Scout yelled out a “yeah”, while Michael stood there and grinned at the display. “I guess we can take that for a yes then,” commented Tank as Power broke the kiss and Pilot settled into his side, laying her head against his chest contentedly. “You guys know you have to keep the mushiness down to a minimum around us poor single guys, or we’re libel to get jealous,” teased Scout. “But really, we couldn’t be happier,” Hawk insisted, giving his friends a pleased glance before moving to rap Power on the shoulder. “But just be warned, you hurt her and we’ll make you sorry.” Pilot and Power laughed as did the others. The group was back together once again, and the change of Pilot and Power’s acknowledged relationship would only serve to make them stronger. Power grinned at the others as he clutched Pilot to his side, looking at the rest of his team who were still smiling and laughing. He was a lucky man on so many counts… With Pilot beside him, the rest of the team supporting them, and the continuing efforts of the resistance, he wondered if maybe they could stop Dread sooner rather than later. It was as if he could now see the future laid out before him that he’d never thought would arrive. Tomorrow was coming, and with it, a new chance to change the world for the better. 48-2 Mark 12 It was their first outing as a full team again following Pilot’s miraculous return. The request from the resistance cell in Freeland meant they needed to go to The Passages and see what supplies were available to transport to the fighters in the field. And while the rest of the team was loading the Jumpship with supplies, Pilot could replace some of the things she’d lost when their base had exploded. Pilot reverently climbed into the Jumpship and headed for her seat, the rest of the team following. She strapped in, listening to the sounds of the others climbing on board. Hawk scrambled into the co-pilot seat beside her and started checking instruments, and she smiled slightly. Even though she’d been back nearly two weeks, she still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that she’d been given a second chance; that she was really here with all of them. She’d almost lost all of this when she had detonated the power core at the old underground mountain base, but Dread and Blastarr had unintentionally saved her and in a way all of them in the process. Hawk turned back to see her smile and flashed one back at her. They all knew how lucky they were. Pilot back meant the Captain was back, which meant the team was complete once again and they had a real chance now at winning the war and starting to work to rebuild everything. “Everyone ready to go?” Power asked as he boarded the plane last, closing the door behind him and moving to sit in his chair, swiveling in place to face forward. “Systems check out Captain,” Hawk replied. “Okay Pilot, take us up.” At his order, her hand curled around the throttle and with a firm push she engaged the engines and the thrust fired from the exhaust ports, letting them lift off. She negotiated the Jumpship out of the hangar bay and out into the snowy air outside their base and flew them towards their destination. It was just like old times as she directed the ship to a transit gate. Now that their base was located north in what had been Canada, it was a different route to get to the closest transit gate, but that helped keep them from Dread’s prying eyes. Once on the other side, she guided them to the lower western part of the country where The Passages were. The ship flew over expanses of destroyed cities and landscapes until they came on the area that hid one of the largest concentrations of free people who were working on both fighting the war as well as trying to create some semblance of society. “Bring us in Pilot,” Power said from his command chair, the decisive tone of his voice making her smile in her seat. Years of working together superseded their new relationship, and it was as if nothing really had changed. Of course, she was very well aware that it had. “Descending now Captain,” she replied. In his seat, Power watched as the ship slid through the air and then touched down without the slightest bump. Pilot’s skills at flying had always been excellent… She was good at what she did. It was one of the reasons that she was part of the team. And it reminded him of what they had lost for those thirty days when she was gone. “Alright, let’s go see what we can get on their grocery list,” Scout piped up as he unbuckled from his seat to move to the Jumpship door, his joke making Pilot laugh lightly. After exiting the ship the team made their way through the vast tunnels that made up The Passages, connecting with people there who were able to let them know what supplies were on hand. With a list and instructions on where to find everything, Power split everyone up into teams to go and collect the items they needed. Tank and Power went to locate the heavy boxes of tools and hardware that were needed to repair the resistance group’s vehicles. Hawk, Pilot and Scout went the opposite direction to pick up medical and food supplies. Once the three of them had collected four boxes of food and two of medical supplies, Pilot evaluated the load and figured she better get what she came for before they were ready to leave. “I’m gonna go check on those clothes,” Pilot said to Hawk and Scout. “I have no doubts that you two strong guys can carry those supplies in a couple of trips – I’ll meet you back at the ship.” “Okay, but don‘t be too long. We wouldn’t want to have to leave you behind,” admonished Hawk in a teasing manner. Pilot left Hawk and Scout to take the boxes back to the ship while she made her way past the galley area where they’d picked up the rations. Continuing past it, she finally reached the section where clothes were not only brought and sorted for distribution but in some cases even made. Dread needed materials to make uniforms for his soldiers, and sometimes those materials were ‘liberated’ and made into clothes for the resistance. “Hello?” After a moment, a thin woman with dark skin and long dark hair appeared from a back doorway to what probably was a makeshift office or something. She smiled as she noted Pilot’s uniform and actibadge. “Corporal Chase! It’s good to see you. What can I do to help?” “All my things were destroyed when we lost the base,” she began nervously. “I was hoping you might have some clothes to replace what I lost?” “I’m sure we do. There are some new UTO uniforms that a contact was supposed to pick up later in the week. Did you want to go through what we have and take a few before we bundle them for pickup?” “That would be great,” replied Pilot as she followed the woman to a pile of familiar jumpsuits and dug through the clothing. Luckily for her, she found a few that were her size in the tan color she liked. They even had the UTO patches in place already. “Got a couple pair,” she noted to the woman who’d been helping her, holding up the clothes. “Good. Anything else? I know when the others were here last month they didn’t have ANYTHING.” “All my underclothes are gone too,” she replied with a touch of awkwardness. The woman smiled with a gleam in her eyes that gave Pilot a weird feeling in her stomach. Then she waved her past the utilitarian items that made up the section of The Passages ‘clothing depot’ and took her to a storage space in one corner of the room, where Pilot had thought an office had been. “We salvage things from the outside besides making new stuff. You never know when we’ll need them, and it’s funny how some stuff is somewhat useless while others…” In plastic bins, different kinds of garments were stacked. The woman led her to one section in particular, filled with women’s undergarments in a variety of colors, but the material some of them were made of… “What is this?” she asked as she picked up a pale pink colored pair of panties that felt similar to the material her power suit’s underskin was made up of. “Silk. You’d think it would have degraded, but it hasn’t. Of course, it’s a natural material, made by worms if you can believe it.” Pilot nodded. She’d learned about different kinds of materials in a session with Mentor when they’d gone over how different kinds of materials were affected by blasters, lasers and the acids you could find in Darktown. But she’d never seen silk, lace of any of the other materials making up the garments in the bins before her. “Take whatever you need. No reason you can’t feel feminine under those uniforms, right?” Holding up the same pale pink panties that had started the conversation, she pondered the idea of being feminine. She’d learned to be human in the time she’d been with the team after leaving the Dread Youth. But one thing that had been glossed over by the guys was being a girl. For Hawk, Tank and Scout, it was most likely something that they didn’t feel all that comfortable with explaining. For the Captain… she had to wonder if he had shied away from it because he didn’t want her to think he was suggesting anything. Most of what she knew was from Mentor and her time before joining the team… and silk underwear and lacy nightgowns hadn’t been brought up. Looking back down at the bin, she recognized more underclothes, including bras and nightgowns… and a wicked smile formed on her face. Jon wouldn’t know what hit him when they finally took their relationship to the next level when he found her wearing something like the little black lace thing in the box to her right. With a new purpose in mind, she started combing through the bins to put together some sets of clothes that she was sure would be useful for a few different purposes – both standard utilitarian selections and some ‘special’ ones. “This okay?” she finally asked the woman helping her, pointing to the items she’d selected. “I think any man you set your sights on is in for a pleasant surprise,” the woman replied, laying a hand on Pilot’s arm and giving her a wink. “Let me get you a bag to wrap all these up with.” A few moments later, Pilot had her new clothes bundled up and was heading back to the ship. When she got there, she saw the team loading the last box into the cargo hold. “Did you find everything you needed?” Power asked as Pilot walked into the Jumpship, the wrapped bundle under her arm. “Yeah,” she murmured, fighting to keep the blush from her cheeks as she quickly stowed the clothes in her locker on the ship before turning back to the front and moving to her seat. Power turned slightly to watch her, a curious look on his face. “Okay, we’re all secure,” said Scout. With Scout’s voice, Power shook off his mental musings and fell back into commander mode. He moved to his chair and watched as his team settled into their positions, the ship’s engines powering up. “All right, let’s go Pilot. We have a delivery to make.” It had been a busy week. After the Freeland supply run they’d gotten information on a supply convoy Dread was sending into sector 18 that might be able to replace everything they’d picked up in The Passages times ten. They’d planned out the attack to the minute and had been lucky in how easily it had gone. Once the Bio-Mechs and the Overunits had fallen or run, they’d hurriedly gotten everything on the Jumpship and gotten out of the area before either Soaron or Blastarr arrived. After assessing exactly what the convoy had been transporting, they’d taken almost all of it to the Passages, but had kept a few boxes for their own uses. Now they were doing needed maintenance or restocking the spare parts and miscellaneous supplies from the raid at the new base. Jon had just finished checking on where Matt was changing out components for the security systems and was walking down the corridor leading from the command room to the hangar bay when he found Jennifer going the opposite direction. With Matt in the command room and Robert and Michael working on repairing the air filtration sensors and filters, he and Jennifer were alone in this part of the base. When she saw him, she smiled and kept moving towards him, but now with purpose. He smiled back, feeling like a teenager who was meeting his girlfriend on the sly. In moments they were nearly touching, standing in the low light of the corridor, caught in one another’s gaze. “Finished for the day?” she asked, the silky tone of her voice making his heart beat faster. “Nothing around here is ever really finished, but I think we’ve done enough for the day,” he replied, his voice dropping as he nearly whispered the last. Closing the gap between them, he caught her waist in both hands and turned her so her back pressed against the cold concrete of the corridor. She looked up at him eagerly as her hands moved to wrap behind his back. Without preamble he leaned in and kissed her, his lips slanting across hers as they pressed against one another. With no one to see them, they allowed themselves the opportunity to indulge their passions. As they kissed, Jon’s hands moved from her waist to tangle in her hair while her hands pressed him against her tightly, her fingers slowly tracing his spine from his waist to his neck. His lips coaxed hers open and his tongue slipped inside her mouth, teasing her own as the kiss deepened. “Captain?” called out Robert’s voice from the wrist comm. Jon pulled his lips from hers with a soft swear and then he sighed as he broke from Jennifer’s embrace to answer it. “What’s up Scout?” “The air filtration system is working at full capacity, but we had to jury-rig a few parts. When we go back to The Passages, we’ll need to see if they have something that works better before our patchwork repairs fall apart.” “Alright, add it to the list for our next run. Power out.” Jennifer smirked at him as he looked back to her. She looked beautiful in the limited light of the hallway as her eyes burned into his. She looked like she’d just been kissed senseless by the man she loved. Her ponytail was askew from his hands in her hair and her uniform was rumpled. Of course, he had to imagine that he looked similarly, and ran a hand over his hair before tugging at his uniform with both hands to straighten out the front. “I guess we’d better get back to work,” she said softly, the smile that had been there slowly fading away to be replaced with a business-like expression. “Let’s go out tonight,” he said suddenly as he realized that he wanted to spend time with her away from the base and the others. “Where?” she asked, stunned. “I have an idea. Instead of eating with the others in the mess, I’ll come and pick you up at your room and we’ll go somewhere. Okay?” “I guess it’s a date then.” Matt watched intently as Jon packed up a box for his ‘date’ with Jennifer. Since her return the two of them had finally acknowledged how they felt about one another and were attempting to have some kind of normal relationship during the quiet moments of the war that they were in. Matt didn’t begrudge them in the slightest. He and the others were genuinely happy that their Captain and their Pilot had found one another. But things like tonight did worry him with the potential exposure to attack… “We’ll be gone a couple of hours, tops,” Jon told Matt as he snapped the lid closed on the box he’d just packed. “Are you sure about taking just a skybike? If you get caught by Soaron out there…” replied Matt, the serious tone of his voice matching his concern. “We’ll be fine. I want to leave the Jumpship for the team in case something comes up.” “And if we do have to go out, you know we could go without you and Jennifer…” “No. You call us if something happens. We’ll meet you and the rest of the team,” Jon rationalized as he turned to his friend and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Heaven forbid we not drag you two along. You’d rather we disturb… things,” Matt added as he smirked and patted Jon’s shoulder in return. He knew that Jon was thinking of what the team needed rather than what he and Jennifer needed – time alone. “It’s just dinner, sort of. Nothing that can’t be interrupted,” Jon argued, but without any enthusiasm. “Just behave yourselves out there. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do – or half of what I would.” Jon’s jaw dropped briefly before he recovered and then began laughing at Matt’s suggestion. He reached for the box on the console and tucked it under one arm before turning to leave. Hurrying along the corridor, he arrived at Jennifer’s door, his heart pounding in his chest. Lifting his hand, he knocked lightly and waited while he heard her moving inside. When the door opened, his breath caught for a moment, and he smiled brightly at her. “Ready to go?” he asked as she stood there in the doorway of her room, still in her uniform jumpsuit but with her hair down, the blond strands brushing her shoulders and cascading down her back. He could count on one hand the number of times he had seen her wear her hair like this, and each time he was reminded how lovely she was. Only now he could actually say something about it and show her how attractive he thought she was, if he could just find a way to actually form the words… “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she replied, as she walked out of her room to stand beside him. Catching her hand with his, the box under his other arm, they walked together to the hangar bay. Once inside, Jon moved to the skybike and secured the box on the far back before he climbed aboard. Usually he’d let her ‘drive’ but since he was surprising her, he’d have to pilot the bike. Once he was on, Jennifer climbed on behind him, her arms wrapping around his waist tightly, and he laid a hand over hers for a moment before turning back to the controls. Punching in his code, the bike roared to life and he lifted them off the floor of the hangar bay, headed out into the cold night. He pushed the bike to go as quickly as it could to get to the transit gate, wanting to keep them from getting frozen. It wasn’t long before they were no longer in the frozen north but in the southwestern skies. Jon steered the bike across the sky until he slowed near a tall red-brown pillar of rock, hundreds of feet from the ground below them. Guiding the skybike to a soft landing, he waited for Jennifer to climb off, and then followed her, turning the power off on the bike as he gathered an emergency blanket from the back of the bike along with his metal box. He spread the blanket across the top of the mesa, and then encouraged her to sit down. He set down the metal box and opened it, revealing a utility lantern along with a few food items that could easily be packed up and brought with them – a pair of bottled water and some protein bars. He turned on the lantern and set it out on the blanket as he passed her one of the protein bars and her bottle of water. Jennifer grinned lightly at the ‘picnic’ he’d created for them. It was as traditional a date as could be expected in these times. She took the protein bar from him and peeled the outer cover from it before taking a bite. She looked up to find him watching anxiously, and she gave him a beatific smile and he instantly relaxed. They ate and drank, punctuating the meal with conversation about her repair work on the Jumpship and the results of his feelers to the other resistance cells about Dread’s new plan of attack. When they’d eaten and drunk their fill, Jon reached over to grasp her hand and gave a light tug. She slid across the blanket and when she was beside him he pulled her up across his lap, his arms wrapping around her as her head leaned into his chest with a soft sigh. All around them was darkness, only broken by the light trying to pierce the dark sky of dusk and the lantern beside them. Being there together, Jon was reminded of campfires under the stars and a bright moon that shone overhead. But those days were long gone with the devastation the war had done to the planet. “Before the war the sky would have been like a black velvet curtain filled with pinpricks of bright white light if you were out in the middle of nowhere like this,” Jon noted as he held her tightly. “I wish I could have seen it,” she mused, imaging as best she could what Jon had grown up seeing and remembering. “Maybe one day, after the war is over the environment will change…” “Do you really believe that?” Jennifer asked as she turned in his arms and looked up to him. “I have to have faith that it will. Miracles do happen,” Jon said sincerely, and then looked deeply into her eyes, “You’re proof of that.” “If you believe that, then maybe it will happen,” she replied, her lips parting as she inched closer towards him. He didn’t hesitate a minute, and lowered his face to hers, capturing her lips with his as he let his heart fill with the miracle that was Jennifer Chase. Within Volcania, the changes within Lord Dread since his merger with Overmind were even more apparent as he looked to find the failing of his plans. His outer form held only the shell of a human being now. No flesh remained any longer as his transformation to resemble the machine now was complete. But the vision of a new world was still not realized. While the setbacks from the destruction of the New Order project were still being felt and repairs to Volcania being completed, new plans were underway to change the tide in the favor of the machine once again. Yet there were still… failures. Following the debacle in Johnstown, the entire lab tech group who had reconditioned Overunit Chase had found themselves summarily executed, whatever value they might have had to the machine had been deemed irrelevant due to their failure. Now Power was back to his full strength while Dread was not. It had been a bitter defeat… if he still felt emotion, that was. “Power and his team are still operational,” Overmind reminded Dread. “They continue to pose a threat.” “Yes. But they are a small threat in the scheme of things. We must identify a way to eradicate the organics and create a better, mechanized world. We must change the minds of the organics… make them want to bow to the will of the machine.” “Digitization or extermination is the only sure recourse for conversion.” “We may still be able to… alter them. Their minds are malleable…” Dread insisted to his sole equal in the world – the machine that had led to the purge of all deficient organics. “The organic mind is unstable. The reconditioning of Youth Leader Chase failed,” Overmind intoned starkly. “The perfection and logic of the machine is incompatible…” “No… WE have merged minds,” Dread quickly remarked, “it is possible for an organic to see the way of the machine. The New Order will assure this.” “Organic minds are imperfect.” Dread could not say anything to that. The machine was perfection, the perfection he was trying to attain. “We must eliminate all forces that oppose the will of the machine. This world must be of the machine.” “Yes, yes of course Overmind,” Dread validated his machine overseer, “and when we do, it will be the final blow to Power and his people, and the victory will be all the greater.” Days drifted together in a string of repetitive tasks; reconnaissance missions and busy work at the base were punctuated by Pilot and Power’s blossoming relationship. More than once one of the others had teased them over catching the two kissing in the hangar bay. Of course, the one thing about being in a war was that they all knew the calm couldn’t last long. “Captain, we have a priority one message from the East Coast resistance group,” Scout yelled from his seat at the communications console in the command room. “Put it through Scout,” Power instructed as he quickly moved to the comm screen to view the incoming message. Hawk, Tank and Pilot all hurried from their other stations in the room to cluster around Power and Scout. The screen crackled to life and the image of Cypher, leader of the East Coast resistance filled the space before them. He looked haggard, and Power was instantly wary. “Captain, we have a problem. One of our squadrons was scouting a Dread installation along the seaboard and they’ve been discovered and pinned down by several squadrons of Bio-mechs. Without reinforcements they’ll all be killed or digitized. We could really use your help.” Power knew that Cypher wouldn’t be calling for aid unless they were in dire straights. He didn’t even hesitate a moment. “We’re on our way. Send us the coordinates and we’ll be there in less than thirty minutes. Let your team know they just need to hold out until we get there.” “Understood. Thank you.” “Don’t thank me yet. Power out,” he said, and then turned to the others who had converged on the command center of the base. “Power up everyone.” Everyone rushed to the charging station, and in a matter of moments the electrical surge that recharged their power suits flowed through them, leaving them ready to do battle. “Pilot, Hawk, go get the Jumpship warmed up. Tank and I will get some extra firepower from the armory. Scout, get the coordinates from the transmission and redirect it to the Jumpship’s navigation computer. We don’t have a lot of time people. Let’s go!” As Pilot and Hawk rushed to the hangar bay, Power and Tank headed to the armory, grabbing as many therm grenades and laser stars as they could easily carry. They were coming out, arms laden when they nearly ran into Scout on his way to the Jumpship. The three of them got to the ship, Tank taking all the weaponry and stowing it while Scout input the coordinates into the Jumpship computer. Power took his seat; his eyes anxiously watching Pilot and Hawk make the flight plan to get to the stranded resistance fighters. “All set,” called out Tank as hurried from the cargo hold and buckled into his seat. “Let’s go,” Power announced quickly, and the ship instantly was up off the ground and heading for the hangar bay doors. Pilot and Hawk had the ship on high burn, hoping that any time they could cut of the trip would mean another few people they could rescue alive. Scout’s review of Cypher’s data had indicated that there had to be over two dozen resistance fighters on the mission, and they were now situated in small clumps across the rocky landscape above the Dread installation. Bio-mech soldiers had them pinned down, but due to the inaccessible rocks, they were able to hold off any significant assault on their positions. The Atlantic Ocean was visible in the distance, meaning they were getting closer to their destination. Pilot was starting to bring the ship lower, knowing that for Scout to scan the area they’d need to be closer to the ground. “We’re about five minutes out,” she stated as she and Hawk guided the plane towards a rocky formation along the coast. Suddenly the cabin of the ship filled with lights and sound – a familiar alarm to all of them. “Captain, I’m getting a Bio-Dread reading heading straight for the coordinates of the resistance fighters,” Scout announced grimly. “Damn. I’ll bet Dread sent Soaron to flush the soldiers out of the rocks,” Power stated angrily. “I can drop you off and Hawk and I can keep Soaron busy,” Pilot quickly suggested. “Good idea,” Hawk added. “I can get out there now and Pilot can join me once you guys are on the ground. Then that metal bird will have to chase one of us and the other can blast him outta the sky.” Power sat and considered the suggestion, and nodded his head in acknowledgement, admonishing them both, “alright, but be careful you two.” With that, Hawk climbed out of his co-pilot seat and headed to the emergency hatch to the Jumpship and popped it open. Slipping through, he extended his wings and took to the sky, the hatch closing behind him. Once Hawk was airborne, Pilot sped the ship to find a safe spot to drop the rest of the team off close to the action on the ground before she headed back up to assist Hawk. As the others powered on their armor, she watched and waited. “I’ll see you in a bit. Good luck,” she said, staring at Power intently before his head swiveled to catch her gaze through his visor and she felt the instant connection of his love and concern through his eyes. “Will do Pilot. Give us a minute and then take off.” The Jumpship door opened and Power, Tank and Scout all rushed out it, Power turning to close it behind them. As they moved to the rocks close to the ship, she recognized that they were clear and she engaged the thrusters to get the ship back in the air and up to help Hawk with Soaron. Once on the ground, Power signaled to Scout and Tank, directing them towards the sound of blaster fire. Power took point, letting Tank and Scout follow. It wasn’t long until they met their first contingent of bio-mechs. With the metal soldiers focused on the human resistance fighters holed up within the mountain before them, they never knew until it was too late that they were under attack from behind. As Power, Tank and Scout worked to eliminate the Bio-mechs, Pilot rushed to aid Hawk as he eluded Soaron’s laser fire, doing his best to get in a few missile strikes himself. He banked left as he saw Soaron closing, hoping to put enough space between him and the Bio-Dread as he waited for his backup. “Could use that hand anytime,” growled Hawk as his suit took another hit as he tried to evade Soaron. The Jumpship appeared on his right accelerating quickly as Pilot sped the vehicle towards his position. Soaron had yet to see the ship, and Hawk dove to keep the Bio-Dread’s attention. “Hawk, get out of there! I’ll cover you,” Pilot yelled as she suddenly maneuvered the Jumpship between Soaron and Hawk; the massive metal of the vehicle shielding Hawk’s smaller form. She felt the ship groan and buck as Soaron’s lasers struck the ship, and she yanked on the yoke of the controls hard to keep the ship on its course. Another blast brought smoke and crackling sounds to her attention, and she realized one of the blasts had fried Scout’s comm panels. “Damn,” she swore as she swung the ship around and engaged the lasers. She lined up and pushed the button, firing at Soaron’s backside. The Bio-Dread bucked in the air with the impact of the lasers, and then flipped around, facing her. She smiled darkly and fired at him again, this time hitting him square in the chest. There was a mechanical scream before it spun end over end and plummeted to the ground. “Good shooting there,” called Hawk via the comm link as he flew beside the ship. “Let’s go help the Captain.” Hawk was able to fly directly to where Power and the rest of the team were while Pilot had to land the ship before she could join them. Hawk landed close to the others, folding his wings and pulling his blaster. Power, Tank and Scout had already been able to rescue three of the four holed up resistance groups, directing them to retreat back to safety. The last one had dug in fairly close to the Dread installation and still needed help. An Overunit was directing over a dozen Bio-mechs to keep trying to find a way of breaching the rocky barrier that stood between them and the organic soldiers. “Need some help?” asked Hawk as he moved to join the others as they surveyed the situation from a rocky outcropping overlooking the standoff. “Glad you were able to join us,” retorted Tank through his helmet and Hawk gave him a wry grin. “Where’s Pilot?” questioned Power anxiously, and everyone fought to keep from smirking at the obvious concern in his voice that even before the change in the Captain and Pilot’s relationship had been there for nearly forever. “Landing the Jumpship. She already sent Soaron for repairs.” Power smiled at that, and turned back to observe the last entrenched group of resistance fighters. To get to the Bio-mechs, they’d have to expose themselves more than they had before. They could try throwing in some therm grenades and laser stars, but there was a bigger opportunity for casualties. “What’s the plan Captain?” queried Scout, continuing to survey the scene below them. “If we could just distract them enough, we could probably…” Power started to suggest when a presence behind them sent him and the others spinning around, blasters drawn. “You guys are awful jumpy,” Pilot joked as she held her hands up in mock surrender. Power and the others sighed in relief and Pilot moved to stand beside the Captain, her armor rubbing slightly against his as they leaned over the rocks concealing them from the view of Dread’s forces. “Do you think we could flank them?” Hawk suggested, pointing to the opposite ridge of rock. “It would take time,” Power remarked just as another volley of laser fire erupted from the combatants below them. They were running out of time; the Overunit was yelling something that he couldn’t hear and pointing at the rocks the resistance soldiers were sheltering behind. “Which it looks like we just ran out of… We’re going to have to just rush them; it looks like they’re going to try and overwhelm them.” Below them, the Bio-mechs were suddenly moving forward, no longer trying to evade the laser fire coming from the resistance people. And from behind the Overunit, reinforcements were now coming from the installation. “Let’s go!” Power shouted, heading for the break in the rocks to their right that would lead them down to where the fight was. “Hawk, see if you can delay those reinforcements…” Extending his wings, Hawk took off, flying over the battlefield and firing a few missiles at the oncoming Bio-mechs. Those that weren’t destroyed went scattering, trying to regroup. He would keep firing at them until he had them all down or he got some backup; he had a job to do so the Captain and the others could rescue the resistance fighters… “Tank, we need some defense here; Scout, cloak and see if you can start taking out troopers as we keep their attention.” “Got it,” Tank replied, and took up point, providing the Bio-mechs a big target to shoot at. “Already gone Captain,” said Scout as he activated his cloaking system, disappearing from view. With the team assigned, Power and Pilot followed behind Tank as they got closer to the open space where the Overunit and the Bio-mechs were. At their approach, the Overunit realized he was being pinned between the two forces as the resistance fighters began firing nearly non-stop, desperately trying to keep the metal solders occupied while their rescuers arrived. “Power and his team are the priority!” the Overunit shouted, taking his own blaster and firing at Tank. Laser blasts bounced off Tank’s armor, and Pilot and Power shot around him as Tank used his own heavy artillery gun and shot back at the Overunit. As Bio-mechs fell around him, the Overunit realized his mistake and ducked under Tank’s return fire before turning to run back towards the installation. With his back turned, he never saw the shot from one of the resistance fighters hit him in the back, sending him sprawling in the dirt. Scout reappeared across the battlefield, his knife in hand and a Bio-mech crumpling to the ground before him. It was only a matter of minutes before the ground was littered with mechanical soldiers and the resistance members were able to come out from their makeshift bunker. Hawk joined the others with good news. “Reinforcements are taken care of. A few missiles and they were down for the count.” “Great job Hawk,” Power said, and then turned to the resistance fighters, “Do you have any wounded that you need help with?” “No one with life threatening injuries,” responded one of the fighters, his helmet pushed back so he could see Power directly. “A few casualties, but… we can get ourselves home. Thanks for the assist Captain.” “Understood. Take care,” Power replied with a quick salute before he looked back to his team. “Okay everyone, let’s go home.” With that, the team turned back towards the way they’d come in, heading for the Jumpship and for home. 48-3 Mark 2 Power had needed to split the team up again, sending Scout, Tank and Hawk on an intelligence mission. They were checking out a report of a new Dread military outpost popping up in the region where Chicago had once been. If Dread was massing any forces there, they needed to let the resistance in that area know so they could coordinate an attack to clear it as best as they could. So it had fallen on Power and Pilot to take the Jumpship to a remote settlement in the upper northeast with supplies Cypher had requested. The place had become a stop for the East Coast resistance, although they weren’t formally aligned. Power had never seen the place, and wasn’t sure what they’d find when they got there. When Pilot landed the ship just outside the settlement’s building line, he was tempted to have them power up. But not sure if they might need their suits later, he decided against it. Getting out of his seat, he moved to the door and pressed the button to open it. Walking out, Power waited briefly for Pilot to close and cloak the ship under the hologram program. Then they walked to the edge of the town, looking for their contact. “Captain,” called out an older man in the ragged looking button down sweater. “My name is Martin. I’m the senior council member here. Thank you for coming.” “It’s no problem. We have the supplies on the ship. Do you have anyone to help?” Martin waved behind him to where half a dozen youths stood anxiously. Obviously they were the ones tasked to help with unloading the Jumpship. Having ascertained that the situation was secure, Power and Pilot guided the townspeople back towards the ship. Pilot uncloaked it and moved to open the cargo hold. She and Power handed out boxes until only two were left. They hefted them themselves and followed the others and the community’s leader back to where everything was being stored. “Thank you Captain. Cypher said you could help,” said Martin. “We’re glad to assist. I didn’t know there were settlements still populated this far north, what with the winters here,” Power noted, glad that the circuitry base fabric of the power suits could withstand cold and heat pretty well. “There hasn’t been a hard winter since the wars,” the man replied as he walked along with Power. “Nowadays it’s just cool in the wintertime. Which is just fine. The mechs don’t like the cold. Messes with their circuitry…” Power dismissed the old man’s remarks as wishful thinking. He’d seen Dreads soldiers in cold enough conditions before… “That’s the last of it Captain,” Pilot said as she set down a box inside the building they’d been stacking the supplies in for the settlement. “While you’re here, why don’t you take a look around; let the people greet you. It’s not every day they meet Captain Power and one of his team. Eldin can show you around,” Martin said, waving to a middle aged man in a knitted cap and pull over sweater with holes showing through it. Their guide had walked them around the town, allowing people to come out of their homes and greet Power and Pilot. As they continued the tour, they passed the center of the town and Power was nearly brought up short. An old style movie theatre anchored the square, despite its battered condition it was obvious what the building was. The marquee and ticket window damaged, but the double doors into the building looked to be in working condition. “An old movie theatre?” Power commented as they stood there, his thoughts muddled by the surprising find. Pilot looked at him with a curious glance. He regarded her with a small smile. He would never get used to the idea of how few things she knew about the world outside of Dread’s control before she’d met up with them. His childhood, his education had given him so many things… and sometimes he got lucky enough to share them with her. “Yup,” Eldin informed him as he looked from the building to regard the two resistance people. “Is it operational?” “Sure is. We run it once in a while… not too often, but often enough. Say, you wanna see?” Eldin said pleasantly. Power looked flabbergasted. “If it wouldn’t be an imposition…” “Nah. What with all the supplies you brought, it’s the least we could do.” “Power to Hawk,” Power said as he raised his wrist communicator to contact the team in the field. “Hawk here.” “How goes the reconnaissance?” he asked, his eyes flicking to where Jennifer stood beside him, a quizzical look on her face. “Pretty smooth. We’ll report up when we’re at the base. Should be there in an hour,” Hawk replied businesslike. “Pilot and I are going to stay here for a bit; get to know the situation up here, talk to the people. We’ll head back in a few hours.” “No problem. Stay safe out there.” “You too. Power out,” he said and then tapped off the link before turning to Jennifer and smiling. “So, what exactly are we doing?” she asked as he moved to place a hand on her elbow and led her towards the double doors where their host had already gone. “We’re watching a movie,” he replied, holding back speaking aloud all the thoughts running through his mind about dates and movies and making out in the back row… “A movie?” “You remember how we explained that a few forms of entertainment from the previous centuries before the war were books and plays, right?” She nodded. In the years since escaping the Dread Youth she’d learned so much about what humans were capable of creating – things that were good and fun rather than evil and cruel. She’d found music and books to be some of her favorite things. They were hard to come by, but when she could hear or read something that had been created so long ago, she was always entranced by the idea it had been created by people. “Movies are representations of those kinds of stories, except they would get people to act them out, like live plays but instead of being in front of an audience; they captured the images and sounds so they could be replayed. Similar to recording music… They would then project the movie on screens so hundreds of people in cities across the country could all see the same thing.” “So all cities had theaters? You’re kidding.” “Not every city, but close. In the 1950’s a lot of towns built at least one small theatre. It looks like this place was one of them. I’m just surprised they have a working projector and any film still able to run…” They entered and moved past the empty concession stand to the doors leading to the theatre seats. Inside, rows and rows of seats were simply gone, salvaged for materials over the years, no doubt. But in the center there were still approximately 50 seats still in place. Their fabric worn out, springs poking through tufts of stuffing… but it was a theatre. Jon looked for a pair of seats in the best condition and guided Jennifer in. “All set down there?” “Yeah,” called out Jon as he and Jennifer settled in. The limited lights that had filled the room disappeared, dropping them into darkness and then the screen illuminated and then vibrant colored images began to cover it as the film started. It was an old romantic comedy, Jon couldn’t recall ever seeing it; it was over 80 years old. Still, it was a movie and Jennifer sat in her seat by his side, entranced by the sounds and sights being played out before them. Without really thinking about it, he wrapped his arm across her back and pulled her as close as the seats would allow as they settled in to enjoy this small piece of ages gone by normalcy. With the beating Soaron had given the Jumpship in their last battle and following the way the ship had handled going out to drop off the last delivery of supplies, Jennifer had decided that she should run a full series diagnostic check on the vehicle. With all the repairs she had had to make to it recently, she wanted to make sure they were enough to keep it in the air in another fight. Two days later she was just finishing the last series of system assessments when she heard footsteps coming up the ramp stairs. They weren’t heavy, quiet or slow, so she ruled out three of the men in the base, leaving her with one. “Jon,” she said without turning around in her seat, and then felt a hand land on her shoulder in a familiar way. “How did you know it was me?” he asked as he moved to co-pilot chair beside her, flashing her a grin. “Too loud for Robert, too quiet for Michael and too fast for Matt… simple deduction.” He was impressed. If he thought about it, each of them would have a different walk, and the metal of the Jumpship would amplify their steps making it easy for her to hear them climbing into the ship. Leave it to her to figure it out, he admiringly thought to himself. For a moment he sat there and just watched her in her ‘element’ – sitting behind the instrument panel in the Jumpship, perfectly attuned to this vehicle that she took care of like a member of the team. She flew this thing better than any of them and she was determined to make sure that it was in the best shape it could be every time they went out. He thought again how lucky and honored he was to have her with him and the team. “Jon?” she said, breaking his train of thought as he refocused on her and reminded him what he’d come looking for her for. “Sorry… anyway, I have a surprise…” “Do I have to power up my suit for it?” she asked in a wry tone. “No, but you may have to decide which side you want,” he countered lightheartedly, and her eyes narrowed questioningly. Getting out of the co-pilot seat, he moved to offer her a hand. She caught it and let him lead her from the ship and into the corridors of the base. It wasn’t long till they were in front of his personal quarters. Standing at the door, she swiveled her head to regard him with a questioning gaze. Instead of giving her a verbal answer, he simply pushed the door open and waved her inside, closing the door behind them. Once in the room, there was no doubt what the surprise was. Instead of a single inset bunk where Jon would have previously laid out, the space was fully taken up by a pair of pillows; where the edge of the bunk had been, now the mattress extended into the room, creating a large bed that two people could comfortably fit on. “How…” she began, her voice wavering with emotion. “Robert and Michael figured out how to do it. They used some scrap metal and bolted the additional framework to the wall below the bunk. Then it was just a matter of moving two smaller mattresses across the frame…” he elaborated, pointing to the now generous space that the bed now took up; it was nearly three times the area the inset bunk had taken up before. “It’s wonderful.” He noted the way her eyes were fixed on the bed, how her voice seemed to catch on the last syllable… If he was forced, he would have to admit that he was feeling a bit overwhelmed as well, but over the weeks since they’d taken that next step by acknowledging how they felt about one another; the feeling that they belonged together had just kept growing stronger. Each morning he looked forward to seeing her and each night he hated leaving her side again. Now, if she wanted it, they could stay with one another every night. Anything more than that… well, he was certainly not going to push… Jennifer blindly reached out and caught his hand with hers, twining her fingers with his. This surprise had been so unexpected, yet it was what she’d been waiting for now for weeks. “I know we said we’d take things slowly…” Jon ventured, knowing that he should explain himself. “But?” Jennifer asked as she turned to pin her gaze on the man beside her. “I thought, maybe you might hate falling asleep alone as much as I have been…” “Do you just want to have someone to curl up with at night?” she asked softly, her tongue unconsciously flicking out to wet her suddenly dry lips. “Yes… no, I…” Jon faltered, and then turned to face her, his hands moving to catch her shoulders, her face coming up to look at him with a pleading expression. “I want to be with you, but I don’t want to rush you into anything. More than anything I’d like to wake up with you in my arms every morning. And if that’s all we have for now, that’s enough for me. I just… I just want to be with you… however I can.” “But you’d like… well, you know… to have intercourse? It’s what lovers do, right? I mean, I know the fundamental process for, well, you know…” Jennifer trailed off, her voice nearly a whisper as her eyes slid away from him and she felt a slight blush burn her cheeks. Jon swallowed hard and regarded the woman before him seriously. He’d had youthful liaisons, fallen in love… but Jennifer had more than likely lived like a nun, even with men all around. Sex was not of the machine. Tenderly he slid one hand from her shoulder to cup her cheek, making her look at him again. “Would I like to make love to you Jennifer? Yes, I do… but part of me can’t even process the idea that you love me let alone believe that you would want to be with me like that,” he started carefully, his heart threatening to burst from his chest as his love and desire for this woman threatened to overpower him. Needing to show him that she felt like he did, wanted what he wanted, she stretched her body upwards, coaxing him to dip down to meet her lips in a kiss that went quickly from soft to heated. His hands moved to tangle in her hair and hers wrapped around his back, her breasts pressing flat against his chest. Their mouths melded and the passion within them seemed to come unleashed; the moment seemed to overcome them both and Jennifer finally broke away, her eyes burning with all the emotions that she’d never dared imagine she could feel for anyone. But she did feel for this man in her arms. “I want to be with you like that too. But… I need… you need to sort of take the lead here.” Jon nodded in understanding. With exquisite care, he let his hands trail down from her hair to the fasteners at the collar of her uniform. Undoing the closures, he started to part the material and then his breath caught at the sight before him. “Is that a pink silk bra?” Jon gasped slightly as his hands peeled back the edges of her jumpsuit’s collar revealing the silky fabric covering her breasts. She smiled again, this time mischievously. The woman in The Passages had been right – he was surprised, and obviously from the look on his face, pleasantly so. “It is. You would never guess the kinds of things they have stockpiled in The Passages,” she replied softly, her own hands pulling at the front of his jumpsuit as she moved them backwards towards the mattress, “So, how about we test this bed of ours?” Jon slowly woke up in his room at the power base and did a double take as his vision was filled with honey blond hair. Then he smiled. He couldn’t help staring for what seemed like long minutes at her there in their bed. Reaching forward, he brushed aside the strands of hair from the bare shoulder of the woman stretched out beside him. The pale skin that greeted him made him realize that the events from the previous night had not been another lonely, late night fantasy, but the real thing. He was in the double sized bed in his quarters that were now going to be shared for the first time ever. “Jennifer,” he whispered softly, leaning forward to place a soft kiss along the arch of her neck. “Hmmm,” she murmured sleepily, and turned so she now faced him, her eyes slowly opening to pierce him with their icy blue hue. “Jon… I guess we fell asleep?” He grinned wider at her simple deduction at their current state of undress and awareness. The previous evening’s activities had led them to fall asleep. No doubt they’d be hearing about not joining the others for dinner all day. It was just supposed to be his showing her the bed, not… what it turned out to be. But damn, he was only human. How was he supposed to resist the temptress in pink silk that he’d found in his bed? He had never been happier that their power ‘softsuits’ reverted to the fatigues when they’re powered down than he had been last night, or else he would have had to peel off her power suit to get to the pink lingerie that she had been wearing under her jumpsuit. In fact, their suits were only there when they were armored after they’d been keyed to the wearer’s DNA. It made working everyday easier, and if they didn’t, the suits would have been sliced up more than once or twice when they’d been injured and not armored and working in the summer desert heat would be a nightmare. So when he’d seen those scraps of pink silk, he had to admit that the blood in his veins had taken up residence somewhere south of his gun belt. It had been a long time since he’d been with a woman, and even longer since he’d seen anything as sexy as the woman in the pink silk bra and panties that had pushed him onto his… their bed. And the things that they’d done… that she’d let him show her had made his heart sing and his soul ache. To have been granted the honor of having been her first – and if he had anything to say about it – her only lover still awed and humbled him now. He had never thought he’d have this with anyone again, let alone her. But now here he was… Jennifer propped up on an elbow, studiously regarding him as he mused about his continued good fortune to be loved by this woman. “Looks like. You sleep okay?” She smiled at him then, prompting him to lean forward and kiss her lightly on the lips. “Yeah. I think Robert and Michael must have added some extra padding to the mattress, ‘cause it’s a lot more comfortable than my bunk. Or maybe it was sleeping next to you…” Jon fought a blush at the compliment. He did have to admit that he had slept pretty well too. Shuffling on the bed, he sat up, the blanket pooling at his waist. His change in position prompted her to do so as well, although she pulled the blankets up in front of her, covering her body in a concession to modesty that he found endearing. “So, when are you moving your things in here?” he asked lightheartedly, his mind catching up with his heart on the subject of her being with him all the time now. “Are you sure you want to share this big bed of yours every night?” she replied with a small smile. “Absolutely. I love you. More today than yesterday, if that’s even possible. Whatever future we have: a life fighting Dread and someday hopefully a future with freedom and a family…” Her eyes suddenly closed and she swallowed hard, wrapping her arms around her chest, holding the sheets to her tightly. Last night had been amazing. Jon had been every bit the tender, giving lover that she’d expected he would be. They’d shared something so wonderful that she’d been willing to imagine that what they had, THIS, would be all they would ever need. But now, with his sudden suggestion about a future with a family; it brought forth a deep secret that no one outside the machine empire really knew. And it was one that she had been deathly afraid to share with anyone, especially Jon. But now… she knew she had no choice. He had to know. “Jon, there’s something I have to tell you…” she said softly, a slight tone of worry tingeing her voice as her eyes came up to catch his, tears starting to break from her lashes. Her sudden worried tone brought Jon up short. Something was definitely wrong here, and the way she was looking at him made his throat constrict in concern. What had happened that she needed to tell him something now, something that was obviously painful for her? Had what they’d done last night changed things? He’d thought she was happy with the change in their relationship… had he been wrong? The only thing he could do was to somehow give her whatever she needed… time, support, space… anything he needed to do to show her that he loved her, no matter what. “Jennifer, whatever it is, nothing is going to change how I feel about you,” he replied, his hand swiftly coming to cup her cheek as his thumb brushed at the tears. She swallowed hard, grasping onto Jon’s love for her in her soul as she unburied this ugly deed of Dread’s and drug it into the light of day. “Part of being a soldier for Dread… they… did things to all of us; things that made us… less human.” He understood, having heard some of this before… the repression of feelings, the revulsion of organic beings, and the litany of the machine. Dread had made the Dread Youth into shells of human beings. Jon shifted so he could catch her face in both hands now, patiently waiting as she continued to struggle to tell him whatever she needed to say. “Emotions are signs of weakness,” she reminded him, and he nodded slightly, not wanting to speak and disturb her. “One emotion is love, obviously, and in a way, so is lust… Dread wanted to make his human soldiers better than their base emotions, control them with chemicals… but they did more than that… they…” A sob cut off her voice as she closed her eyes, her hands moving to wring the cloth before her, the material barely covering her bare skin as she worried it with her fingers. He moved his own hands from her face to cover them into his own, holding them tightly, trying to infuse all the feelings he had for her into the touch. “All the Dread Youth, the Overunits… they’re all… they’re sterilized with… castration and… hysterectomies… before puberty,” she finally forced out, her eyes coming up to latch onto his, pain and regret radiating within their depths. In a heartbeat, Jon felt as if someone had sucked the air out of his chest along with his very heart. They… Dread… oh God, he thought, as he looked at the amazing woman before him and realized what she was trying to tell him. He’d never even considered that Dread would consider the natural biology of the Dread Youth to be such an issue as to surgically alter them all in such a permanent way. But if he had to look at it from a strictly totalitarian way, it made some sense. Sexless soldiers able to fight and serve without any of the physical detractors of their gender made for a more reliable pool of mindless slaves. In all the years that they’d been fighting Dread Jennifer had been the only Dread Youth to actually defect, so no one really had known what they went though… she’d never alluded to him, Matt or the others the physical scars she was forced to bear along with the emotional and mental ones. And the only reason she was even telling him this now was because… damn, he thought despairingly, he’d been waxing poetic about a possible future with her and she had realized that she had to tell him what she couldn’t give him; being with her meant that they’d never have children of their own. At one time that thought might have led him to ponder the choice he was making for a while, but following everything he’d been through without her there with him, the utter completeness and joy he felt being with her now on top of the agony that was so visible in her eyes, he knew it didn’t matter. What did matter though was making her realize that he loved more than anything and he moved to embrace her, his arms pulling her tightly into his chest as he felt her tremble in his grasp, her arms pinned against his bare chest as she sunk into his embrace. “I’m so sorry Jennifer. That Dread did that to you… to all of them. But… it doesn’t matter to me if we can’t have children. I need you with me, more than anything else. If my future is to simply be with you, the amazing, strong, kick-ass yet compassionate woman that you are, then it’s everything I could ask for… I love you; that will never change.” “I love you too,” she replied, her voice muffled in his chest as she let herself accept his words and love as she acknowledged that while Dread had cursed the Dread Youth and Overunits to a sexless, loveless, childless future, she had at least escaped to find the one man who would accept her and love her for who and what she was. They eventually had to pull themselves out of bed and make an appearance with the rest of the team. When they arrived together in the command room, everyone gave them knowing looks. But neither of them responded to or recognized them, leading to some questioning glances by the three other members of the team. “Scout, any news on getting that last piece of data on troop movements in the north?” Power asked, trying to focus on work even as Pilot busied herself with other tasks across the room. “Nothing yet Captain. We’re hoping to get something more from our contact in Tech City soon.” “Keep on it. We need to use our time wisely before Dread figures out we’re back to full strength.” “Well, just be sure that you don’t go and ‘knock up’ our pilot, or else we’ll be back down to four again and then Hawk’s gonna be the one stuck flying the Jumpship…” Scout’s teasing was quickly cut off as Pilot abruptly left the command center, resulting in confused looks from the others and a pained expression on Power’s face. Three sets of eyes turned to regard him and he ducked his head briefly as he agonized as to what to do, what to say. After long minutes of consideration over sharing what was a very painful and private issue, he realized that there were few secrets in the team that could be kept for any length of time. Plus, the information wasn’t just about Jennifer… it affected all of the humans Dread had ‘working’ for him. They deserved to know… even if it was hard to hear. “Captain?” Scout tentatively questioned, the worry in his voice evident. “Did I say something…” “It’s… no Scout… Robert, it wasn’t…” he verbally stumbled, and then took a deep breath before soldiering on with simply relaying the information in as straight forward a manner as he could without having it hit him in the gut again. “None of the Dread Youth or the Overunits can have children.” Once the words left his mouth, the silence in the room had been deafening. None of them had known, just like Jon hadn’t before Jennifer had told him. It was another sobering reminder of how evil Dread was and why he had to be stopped. The stretch of quiet became oppressive, and Robert and Michael made some excuses and left the room. Now alone with Jon, Matt regarded their Captain and his friend. The truth was that the older man considered Jon almost like a second son, and Jennifer… she’d looked up to him like the father he doubted she ever had. These bombshells about Dread’s human army… about Jennifer… it made his heart ache for both of them. “Jon,” Matt started, moving to his friend’s side before easing into one of the seats there as Jon slowly folded into the one across from him. “Are you okay?” Jon started to nod, but stopped himself. If he was honest, then no he wasn’t really okay. Jennifer’s stark admission had done three things: one, it had ripped away any fantasy he’d had of them having children and two, it had made her feel as if she wasn’t meeting his expectations, which hurt him worse than the idea of never having kids and three, it had cemented in his mind what kind of evil Taggart had become. “Not really Matt. The fact that Dread could do that to her… to all of them… it makes me angry, furious even. And the idea that she could think that I wouldn’t want to be with her because of it… it’s crazy. I told her I wanted her however long we can have… that I need her more than anything else. Because being without her… that’s something I can’t live through again Matt…” His friend nodded. He understood what it felt like to lose the woman he loved. It was not something he’d wanted Jon to have to face again any time soon. “And the fact that if you guys stay together… get married, that you can’t have kids…” Matt suggested subtly, wanting to know if Jon had dealt with that aspect of this yet. “I know,” he replied, running a hand through his hair as he faced that future once again. “But it hasn’t changed anything in my mind. Sure, carrying on the family name, raising a child with Jennifer would have been… but we’re still in a war Matt. We couldn’t do that even if we wanted to. So the reality is that what’s important to me is having her with me… the rest… it’s all icing on the cake, you know?” “Yeah, I get it. But it looks like she’s still upset about it, if that hasty retreat earlier was any indication.” “She’s worried,” Jon said simply, looking Matt in the eyes with a fearful gaze. “I tried to assure her it didn’t matter, that I loved her no matter what but…” “She’s being Jennifer and over-analyzing, huh?” Matt replied, and Jon gave a slight grimace. “You want me to say something to her?” Jon considered his friend’s offer. Maybe Matt could get through to her where he couldn’t, he thought. If Masterson acting as surrogate father could relieve Jennifer’s concerns and help him convince her of his sincerity on this issue, he’d do anything. “Are you sure?” “No problem. Just be sure that you two sit down and fix this for good once she comes to you… I don’t wanna keep having to play referee.” Patting Jon on the shoulder, Matt got up and went looking for Jennifer. Having helped with her re-education, he didn’t have to think where to look for her. His love of flying paled next to hers, and if she needed to think, she was either in the air or in the Jumpship. Entering the hangar bay, he saw the door to the Jumpship open, and climbed inside. Turning to the front, he barely saw the slight figure in the pilot seat. Making his way through the ship, he sat down in the co-pilot seat and glanced her way. She sat there, spanner tool and component chips in hand and wires poking out from beneath the navigation console. Matt shook his head slightly at the memory of finding Jon here nearly two months ago with the same kind of need to be busy while fighting off the pain of having lost her. “You two cannot make it simple, can you?” he said with a light, almost teasing voice. “Robert and Michael go to all that trouble to get you guys a bed and then you have to complicate things with worrying about the future. A future that isn’t even here right now and never may be, if we don’t win this war.” “It’s not that simple Matt,” Jennifer complained, flipping one of the component chips end over end with her fingers. “Why not? We all know you love Jon more than anything, and he feels the same way about you.” “If we do this… if he stays with me…” “Stop,” Matt said suddenly, cutting off anything more she might have said and making her swiftly turn her head to regard him. “Jon’s not with you for kids or a picket fence or some far off hazy future. He’s with you because he can’t be without you. I found him right there, where you’re sitting not more than seven weeks ago, ready to fall apart because you were gone.” “I…” “You didn’t see him Jennifer. He was lost without you. He would do anything, bear anything, sacrifice anything as long as it meant he had you.” Jennifer swallowed hard, her eyes misting over at Matt’s words. She’d wanted to believe Jon when he’d said it didn’t matter about her not being able to have children, but Robert’s joke had made her question his sincerity on the still raw subject. She shouldn’t have doubted him, she thought angrily. Of every single person she’d ever met, he was the one true, honest person that she knew. And if he said something… he meant it with his whole heart. Including loving her no matter what. She smiled at Matt, an honest to goodness happy smile and reached over to catch his hand in hers. “Thanks… I think I better go find Jon and have a talk with him.” “Good. Just remember… we’re all here for you, you know.” She nodded and moved to get up from her seat, her grip loosening on Matt’s hand as she pulled away, intent on finding Jon and assuring him that she had no doubts about how much she loved him and wanted to be with him for as long as they lived. 48-3 Mark 7 Days had passed following a long, heartfelt discussion with Jon about their future wherein Jennifer had let her heart lead her back to his arms and their bed. Once she was certain that he knew what he was getting into and that he was okay with it, that he really wanted her with him, baggage and all, she’d agreed to move into his quarters and out of hers. Luckily she still didn’t have much beyond her clothes. Everything that she’d had been lost at the old base, just like everything the guys had. Still, Jon was trying to rebuild his meager library, having found a few books on scouting missions. Jon had cleared a few drawers for her clothes, and had taken some perverse delight in looking over her shoulder as she put away her underclothes. “Go away,” she mock-growled with a smack of her hand to his intruding arm. “Can’t I put my clothes away without you hovering? You’ll get to see these all in time.” “Promise?” She smiled and turned to give him a kiss. Then Jon’s wrist comm buzzed to life. “Jon… Jennifer with you?” asked Matt, a soft laugh in his voice obvious as he was sure the older man knew that she was with him already. “Yes Matt. What’s up?” “Robert has those data disks analyzed from our contact in Tech City. Sounds like Dread’s got a new plan.” “On our way.” Jennifer slammed the drawer shut quickly as she moved to the door of their room, Jon a half step ahead of her. They swiftly made their way to the command room where Robert, Michael and Matt were all waiting for them. “What have we got?” Jon asked as he eased over to stand next to Robert. “Dread seems to have started up a new project – the details on the disk seem to indicate a terror like campaign. There’s plans in here for introducing poisonous chemicals into the water supply… the first one looking to be the remains of the Colorado river.” “If Dread makes that water undrinkable, thousands of people will die of thirst,” Matt said quickly, horror tingeing his words. “And any plant or animal life depending on that water will be contaminated,” added Michael. “Do we have a location where Dread is sending his troops?” “They’re going to the source – the headwaters of the river in sector 27 – Colorado. They can’t go into the mountains, so they’ll be focused on the first flat stretch of the river… around here,” Robert noted, pointing to a spot on the map. “What about the lab Dread is using to make the chemicals? Shouldn’t that be our focal point?” asked Jennifer, her eyes cutting to Jon as she worriedly crossed her arms over her chest. Jon regarded her seriously. The data they had was identifying more than one location for the water contamination, but they had only one pinpointed place for Dread’s troops to attack. The best course of action would be to stop the chemicals from getting into the river as well as destroying the lab to prevent future attempts. But it all depended on time… “Robert, is there a timeline in there?” “Dread’s forces are supposed to deploy in 48 hours. Which means if we’re gonna take down the lab, we have to do it before then.” “Which means more like 24 hours,” Jon announced honestly, regarding the members of his team. “We’ve worked in tighter timelines than that before. Matt, Jennifer, get the Jumpship ready to fly in the next six hours – everything in the best condition it can be in. Michael, check over the armory and assess if we have enough therm grenades to blow a large size Dread installation. Robert and I will pinpoint the lab’s whereabouts and prepare a plan. Get moving people – we’ve got a lot of work to do.” Having gotten the location of the new lab Dread from the data disk, Power had analyzed information they had on the facility and established a plan to infiltrate and destroy the lab Dread was using to create the chemicals for his project. Once everything was ready, the team had boarded the Jumpship, headed west, just north of the first planned attack on the water supply. Pilot landed the Jumpship beyond the ruined trees that had surrounded the area closest to the lab, but still within walking distance. They had one shot at this, and they had to hope that the troop levels listed on the intelligence disk were accurate, or they’d be in a lot of trouble. “Alright everyone, suit up,” stated Power as the others moved to join him by the door to the ship. “Power on!” called the five members of the team as they activate their power suits. Moments later, armor in place, the team exited the ship. It took them a few minutes to clear the tree line that separated the ship from the clearing where the Dread lab was located. But once they were ready to step out into the open area, they paused, checking for any security patrol. “Okay, remember, quick in and out. We find the control room and the power generator and blow them both. Any resistance…” “We got it Captain,” Tank replied, knowing the directive on engaging the enemy. “Tank and Pilot, you have the power generator. Hawk, Scout and I will take down the control room. Fifteen minutes everyone.” With that the team carefully moved in. Scout jimmied the lock to the door for the facility and the team hurried inside. Just within, Tank and Pilot split off, heading to the left and down a ramp that they expected would lead them to the power core. Power, Hawk and Scout followed the main corridor, cautiously looking out for bio-mechs as they hunted for the control room that oversaw the facility. Tank and Pilot navigated their way past a few troopers and found the power core to the complex. Tank watched their back as Pilot set the timer, placing the device deep within the works of the machinery. With their part done, they headed back to the door, prepared to take down any bio-mechs they chanced into. For Power’s team, they weren’t as lucky, and had ended up using their laser stars and a knife or two to take out the clickers guarding several passageways and the doors to the command room. When they got inside, they’d quickly destroyed the bio-mechs within the room, and the human workers went running. The alarms began to sound, and they knew they were out of time. Scout quickly set the timers on his charges and inserted them into the consoles controlling the chemical manufacturing. Once done, the three of them hurried out of the room, firing at the bio-mechs trying to cut them off from the exit. Pilot and Tank were at the door, pinning the mechs between their blaster fire and the Captain’s team. With the floor of corridors littered with metal parts, Power, Scout and Hawk raced to catch up with Pilot and Tank, who were already out the door. They’d rushed out of the main doors, the sound of explosions following them as the charges blew, the last three members of the team being set flying at the force of the blast. As Scout, Power and Hawk picked them selves up, Pilot and Tank turned back to regard them, Tank moving to give Hawk a hand as Pilot watched as the building behind them spewed black acidic smoke and orange flames. “Bio-Dread!” yelled Scout anxiously as he saw the metal machine come into the clearing while he was getting to his feet. Pilot rapidly turned at the sound of Scout’s voice, blaster in hand and then froze. The Bio-Dread in question was twenty feet away but closing. It was the first time since the original base had been destroyed that she’d seen Blastarr, and the way he was now stopped told her that he remembered the explosion and HER as well. “You!” it growled menacingly, a roar coming through its circuits as its hand came up to point at her, lasers ready to fire. Before Pilot could move, she saw blaster fire hit Blastarr square in the chest, making the technological monster stagger. Then the Captain was suddenly in front of her, his arm moving backwards to push her back as he kept firing, almost wildly. They were alone against the Bio-Dread for only a moment before Tank, Hawk and Scout were there, throwing laser stars and therm grenades at the thing as well as shooting the monstrosity with all the firepower they had. In what seemed an almost unfair fight, Blastarr found itself assaulted by an onslaught of firepower. It didn’t even have the chance to fight back before it was over. As its head lolled forward, Power knew they had disabled it – for now. “Everyone back to the ship!” he called out, moving with a hand around Pilot’s upper arm as the others quickly headed to the ship. The team hurried through the makeshift barrier of the tree line that had hidden the Jumpship from the Dread facility. As Scout cleared the trees first, he had the door of the Jumpship open as Hawk and Tank arrived behind him, Power and Pilot following, but at a slower pace. “Power down.” Four unarmored members of the team stood by the Jumpship and moved to climb in. However one still hovered at the ramp, armor still in place. Power turned back as he realized that Pilot was still outside, standing stock still like she had when faced with Blastarr. “Hawk, can you fly us home?” Power asked, looking to where Pilot stood at the steps of the Jumpship ramp. “Sure. You guys can grab a couple of seats in the back, yeah?” Power nodded in reply as Hawk headed to the co-pilot seat to get the ship off the ground. Scout and Tank moved to their stations as well, noting their Captain’s concern radiating off him. Still worried about Soaron or more troops showing up after destroying Dread’s chemical factory, Power wanted to get Pilot on the ship quickly, but the fact that she was standing outside ‘her’ ship instead of being inside it told him that something was wrong. “Jennifer, are you alright?” Jon softly asked her, his hand coming to rest on the silver metal covering her shoulder. She slowly turned to him, the dark visor partly obscuring his vision of her eyes. Finally she powered down and he could fully see the haunted look in her eyes. “I…” she started, swallowing convulsively as she fought to control the overwhelming range of emotions surging through her before she dropped her head and let herself fall into Jon’s embrace. Jon caught her in his arms, pulling her tight to his chest. Seeing Blastarr had obviously disturbed her. They’d been out on raids and missions since her return, so he and the others had simply assumed that she’d moved past the ordeal of her captivity and brain washing by Dread. But they hadn’t run into Blastarr until now. And in seeing it… Carefully he led her up the Jumpship ramp and into the seats in the rear of the Jumpship. Seeing them enter the ship, Robert moved to close the door and then gave Matt the high sign to take off. Jon strapped them both in just before he heard the engine thrust roar to life. As the vehicle took to the air, Jon brushed a hand across Jennifer’s face, his fingers coming away damp. “Jennifer… talk to me, please?” “I’m sorry,” she said finally, her eyes coming up to meet Jon’s, a few tears slowly escaping them. She lifted her hand to lay over his where it rested on her cheek. “I don’t know what happened out there. It was just… seeing Blastarr… EVERYTHING just came back to me in a rush…” “There’s nothing to be sorry about. We… I didn’t even think that seeing Blastarr after everything that happened to you might trigger…” She smiled wanly at his attempt to redirect her reaction to Blastarr to somehow be his failing. But the truth was that she’d been unprepared for the memories that had flooded her mind at the sight of Dread’s monstrous creation. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she started as she gently wrapped her fingers around his hand and pulled it away from her face so she could regard him fully. His hand gripped hers, not letting her break contact from him. “I had no idea either. When I turned and saw him (it) there, I… I was suddenly back in the base, staring it down, waiting to die. I knew you… all of you would be safe so I was okay with it. But then the feeling of being ripped apart piece by piece by the digitization beam…” Jon didn’t know what that pain felt like. Having heard from Athena how she’d been willing to do anything to prevent going through it again; from having him have to experience it, he expected that the sensation was painful, and with Jennifer’s injuries, potentially more so. “I’d buried that feeling… and standing there looking at it so angry with me, I felt the pain again. Then suddenly I was waking up at that Dread lab again, feeling afraid… alone. I remembered that I should have been dead, but I wasn’t. I tried to recall what had happened… I remembered getting to the base, and Mentor telling me that the data disk was empty,” she said slowly, her tone grave. Jon felt a surge of anger spike his blood at the reminder of that betrayal. He had yet to encounter Locke since he’d lured them into the meeting with false information and the blank data disk. It had only been the promise he’d made to value all human life that he hadn’t hunted down the man who he’d thought caused Pilot’s death. That and his underlying belief that the man had to have been turned, perhaps tortured to cause him to deceive them. “Then the rest of it just rushed through my mind… I couldn’t move…” she said suddenly, bring his attention back to her from his violent thoughts. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there… you and the team. It probably would have blasted me before I could have shaken it off…” “But we were there for you… I was here this time…” he said softly, the old recrimination creeping into his voice from when he’d let her go alone last time… to what had nearly been her death. “You were. But what about the next time? If I see Dread in person, or Blastarr again… will I freeze again or have I gotten past it all now? Is it really over now?” “It’s over Jennifer,” Jon reminded her sympathetically, his hands raising hers to his lips where he pressed a light kiss to the back of her hands. “You survived Blastar, Dread… everything and came back to us, to ME even stronger. And you have my promise that you won’t ever face it or Dread alone. I’ll always be with you.” 48-3 Mark 14 Jennifer had been working at the work bench in their room at the base when she sighed and leaned back to stretch out her back. Jon and Matt had gone on a scouting mission and she, Michael and Robert were at the base, working on a variety of maintenance projects. Putting down the circuit board she had been fighting with for the last hour, she got up and regarded the room and all their things. Her eyes settled on the chess board that Jon had managed to procure somewhere in The Passages. He’d gone back for the one at City Lights bookstore after the incident with Athena, but it had been lost in the destruction of the old base. Now this new one sat on a small table in their quarters. Her mind wandered as she stared at the pieces. When they’d gotten back from dropping Athena off in The Passages so long ago now, Jennifer had gone to Mentor, looking for more information on chess. She’d wondered just what the activity was that Jon had shared with his father’s former lab assistant… and instead ended up having Jon himself explain and then teach her to play. Every so often they’d sit and play. They often played late at night, when one or the other couldn’t sleep or when they’d been wound up with a Dread raid. She’d found out that she was pretty good at the game once she knew the rules, and Jon had been a good teacher. Just like he was in a lot of arenas. She smiled as her gaze slid to their bed. She remembered the spike of fear when she’d gone with Jon to old San Francisco to locate Athena and he’d talked about her in such… affectionate terms. She didn’t know it was jealousy at the time, but now, so many months and emotions later, she knew she’d been fearful that he still loved Athena. Instead it was Jennifer that he’d been unable to live without… The door opened, and she looked up to find Jon coming in, his hands at the latch for his gun belt as he slowly stripped it off and laid it on the chair by the door. His eyes caught hers and she smiled. “Hard day?” she asked teasingly as she walked to him, her fingers trailing across the chess board as she moved to meet him. “Matt and I ran into company while on recon,” Jon replied as he rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the ache out of them from slamming into the rocky ground after being hit twice by the bio-mechs’ blasters. “You okay?” “A little banged up, but fine otherwise.” “Dread needs to be a little more considerate of my property. I do not like it when you come back from a simple recon injured,” she said with a mock-growl to her voice as she moved to kiss him lightly on the lips. “I’ll be sure to let him know next time we cross paths,” he replied with a grin as he moved to sit in one of the chairs beside the chess table. “How go the repairs?” “Slow, as usual. I wish we had better components but we’ll make do. Robert’s on dinner duty…” she remarked, looking at her watch and realizing they had an hour or two before Robert would ‘finish’ his attempt at cooking, “you want to play a game and then head down to see what he’s made?” Jon glanced from the chess board to Jennifer’s face and then his gaze glanced to the bed on the opposite side of the room. A wicked thought popped in his head and he turned back to regard her with passion-filled eyes. “That works. And after dinner, we can come back here, you can let me see you in one of those nightgowns you got in The Passages and I can read you some of that Tennyson we found last week and see if poetry really is as romantically mood setting as they say it is.” She gave him a small, wicked smile, knowing that just the sound of his voice rumbling in his chest as she laid her head on it as he read to her would be just the prelude to an amorous evening. “Sounds like a plan…” she replied as she moved to her side of the chess board, her fingers lightly playing with his before she laid a finger on a white pawn on her side of the board, and then sliding it forward one square, “but don’t think that I’m going to take it easy on you because of it.” “I never would want you to,” he answered in turn, his own hand moving to the black side of the board and mirroring her move with one of his own before reaching across the table to catch her hand in his. “I wouldn’t want it any other way than like this.” -End- Final author’s notes: 1. I made a conscious decision to make Pilot’s armor the same as before. My argument to my beta readers was as follows: I believe the armor is determined more by the biometric pattern/skills of the wearer than the armor being designated by the suit. If the suit itself had a certain type of armor pre-programmed, who is to say that they would match the wearers so correctly? 2. A big thank you to my beta readers. This would not be nearly as refined if you hadn’t given your guidance. Acknowledgements: The chess playing J/J in this story come from Windjammer’s excellent fic “Afterwards” as I never thought of this idea until I read it in this fic. |