Smoke. There was smoke everywhere as Jonathan Power made his way through the remains of his Base. He knew she was in there somewhere . . .

"Jennifer? Jennifer, where are you?"

At first, only the crackle of fire answered him. Then he heard the faint sound at his feet.

"Jon . . ."

He fell to his knees. He could see a hand sticking out of the rubble. He grabbed it.

"I’m here, Jennifer. Hold on. I’m gonna get you out of here."

"Don’t leave me . . ."

"I won’t leave you, Jennifer. Just hold on. I’ll find a way to get you out."

Her hand gripped his tightly, and then – impossibly – it was gone.

"NOOO!!!!!"

48-1, Mark 6. Just past midnight.

Power woke from his nightmare with a start. He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep, sitting in the chair. It took him a moment to take in reality again. He shook his head, then leaned forward, reaching out for the hand of the woman lying in the bed in front of him. He was half-afraid she was going to vanish again – like she had in the nightmare – like she had nearly two weeks ago.

He sat there, thinking about all the events of those twelve days. It was enough to set anyone’s head spinning. His base had been lost along with his teammate. No, more than a teammate. Pilot had been his friend – and could have been so much more.

The rest of his team had spent three days hiding in The Passages before venturing back out into the open. They’d left to protect their friends in The Passages – deliberately allowing themselves to be spotted out in the desert. Then they’d spent almost a week hiding in a bombed-out warehouse, trying to figure out what to do next.

Then two revelations came on 48-1, Mark 3. The first was when Scout discovered the hidden message in the Jumpship’s computer, telling them about Northstar, an auxiliary base Stuart Power had constructed in case something should ever happen to the Power Base. The message included a homing beacon to lead them to their new home in the Arctic Circle.

The second revelation came hot on the heels of the first. It was a transmission from Volcania, put out on all Dread frequencies so Power would be sure to intercept it. Pilot was alive. Dread had even shown a live close-up of her bruised and battered face as proof. It was a dare to Power to try a rescue before Dread had her executed.

If he’d had his choice, Power would have headed straight to Volcania, to rip out whatever served as Dread’s heart. But he knew they couldn’t do that. Northstar had to come first. There, he hoped the team could recharge their suits and come up with a plan to save Pilot. If they had enough time . . .

When they reached Northstar – they found almost everything they needed. A working charging station, plenty of fuel for the Jumpship. Only one hitch . . .

"The whole comm system’s out, Captain," Scout said.

"What?"

"It’s all fried. Probably from solar flares over the years, since this base was abandoned.

The rest of the mainframe’s okay, but if you want to talk to the outside world, I’m gonna have to practically rebuild the comm from scratch. It’ll take at least a week."

"Well, we’ll worry about that when we get back."

"Get back?"

"Can you plug Mentor into the system?"

"Yes, but–"

"Do it."

Scout obeyed quickly and Mentor emerged on the vidscreen.

"Mentor, do you still have the schematics on Volcania that Pilot entered into your data banks?"

"Affirmative."

"Display."

A three-dimensional map of Volcania plotted itself on the screen.

"Mentor, analysis. What is the most likely location of prisoner Jennifer Chase?"

"Several possible locations. Most likely she can be found in the interrogation block, Level Three."

A highlighted section of several rooms appeared on the map.

Scout’s forehead puckered as he studied that section.

"Right in the heart of Volcania. Talk about heading into the depths of hell . . ."

"Mentor, where would Dread be most likely to keep a captured Power Suit?"

A highlighted section of several more rooms appeared on the far side of Volcania.

"Research laboratories. Level Two."

Power frowned. "We’ll have to split up the team to go after them both."

He studied the map more closely, and stuck his finger at a point almost equidistant from the two target locations.

"What do you think, Hawk? Can we cloak ourselves and sneak in to one of the supply bays here?"

"I don’t know. It’s risky. On the other hand, we pulled it off once before. Dread may not think we’re really stupid enough to try the same trick twice."

"It’s all we have to go on. Tank, I want you to refuel the Jumpship. Then I want you and Scout to stock the ship as fully as you can with medical supplies. I also need you to make sure the medi-bunk is ready for Pilot. "

Tank nodded.

"You know, we’re getting ready to do just what Dread expects of us," Hawk reminded him.

"I know, Matt. I also know that I can’t leave Pilot in there to die. Besides, if Dread figures out how her suit works, we’re all finished, and so is the Resistance."

Power straightened up. "Hawk, I’m going to send you and Tank after the suit. Recover it if you can, destroy it if you have to. Scout, you’re going with me to find Pilot. I think the interrogation rooms’ security will be tighter than the labs’. I’ll need your skills there."

Hawk played devil’s advocate. "What if you’re wrong and the labs are better secured?"

"Then you’ll have to rely on Tank’s brute force to wreck everything, but I can’t take that chance where I’m going. Besides, I think I know how Dread’s looking at this. He knows the premium I place on human life. If he’s concentrating his security in one place, I’m sure it’s around Pilot."

Power turned to Tank. "Let me know the moment the Jumpship is ready. I want us back in the air the second those tanks are full."

"Jon—"

"It’s no good waiting around any longer than that, Hawk. We won’t come up with any more information to help us plan than we’ve got already."

Hawk looked away, grim-faced.

"One more thing. Scout, I want you to bring Mentor along with us. Rig up an auto-destruct for the Jumpship. Give a trigger to each of us. If none of us can make it back to the ship, I want the last one left alive to blow it – and Mentor along with it."

The group stared at him, stunned.

"That’s meant as a last resort. But you know there’s a good chance none of us will make it out of Volcania. There’s not much for them to find here without Mentor, but we can’t risk them getting their hands on anything else."

Power looked around at his team.

"I know I’m asking you all to take the biggest gamble we’ve ever taken— "

"Save it, Captain," Scout told him.

"We’re ready," Tank added.

"You know we’d all go to hell and back for her," Hawk declared.

"Yeah – and maybe that’s exactly what I’m asking you to do."

Power paused, then looked back at his team with a new gleam in his eyes.

"Let’s go."

The others nodded assent and they all headed for the charging station.

"POWER ON!"

Three and a half hours later, the Jumpship successfully jammed Volcania’s security systems and landed in the docking bay Power had proposed. Scout concealed the ship with the HoloCam.

"Anyone besides me feel like we got in a little too easily?" Hawk asked.

Power nodded. "We’ve been assuming this is a trap, Hawk. We have to get the bait without setting it off. Now, everybody synchronize watches. I figure we’ve got less than an hour to pull this off before . . ."

He broke off.

"You know the plan. Let’s move. Hawk, Tank – good luck."

"You too, Jon." Hawk returned – and then they separated.

Power hid in the shadows behind Scout, letting him take the lead in decoding each door and lock. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally made their way to the interrogation block. There was only one Overunit on duty, and he was looking the other way. Power made his move – grabbing the Overunit around the throat and pointing a blaster at his temple.

"You know who I am and you know who I’m here for. Now tell me what I want to know or you’re dead."

"You won’t kill me," the Overunit snarled.

Power pressed the muzzle of the blaster harder against his head.

"Wanna bet?"

The Overunit said nothing, but Scout noticed that his eyes darted to a door at the end of the hall.

"Captain?" Scout indicated the door.

Power nodded.

Scout looked through the window and nodded back.

"Thank you." Power knocked out the Overunit with the butt of his blaster.

He joined Scout and looked through the window.

Power gasped. It was Pilot. She was blindfolded and strapped into a chair. There were electrodes all over her. God.

Then it hit him. "This was too easy."

Scout nodded. "Could be a hologram."

"Yeah, I thought of that. Any way we can be certain before we go in?"

"I’ve got a jamming device. It’ll break up any hologram within a 50 foot radius . . ."

"But . . .?"

"There’s a small chance it could set off the alarm system."

"It’s too perfect a set up . . .We’ll have to chance it. Set off your jammer."

Scout nodded.

"Cross your fingers," he said as he set it off.

Before Power’s eyes, the figure in the room shimmered, shifted, and turned into a Bio-Mech.

Power skidded down the hall, looking through other windows. Empty. Empty. And then – yes, this time it was the real Pilot.

"Dread thought he’d try a little bait and switch on us," he whispered to Scout.

Scout looked around. "I don’t hear any alarms yet, Captain."

"Yeah, but I’m sure he knows we’re here. Hurry up and get this door for me."

"You don’t have to tell me twice."

Scout hastily picked the lock and the door slid open. Just then they heard an alarm and a laser blast hit the wall just above Scout’s shoulder.

"Go! I’ll hold them off!"

Power dove into the room and immediately reached for his blaster. He pivoted around in a full circle, looking for anything coming out of the shadows. When nothing did, he ran to Pilot’s side.

"Jennifer? Jennifer, it’s Jon."

He ripped off her blindfold. She turned her head slightly and stared blankly at him. Her eyes had never looked so dull and lifeless.

"Jon?" Her voice was very weak.

"Yes. Don’t try to talk. I’m getting you out of here." He began ripping at the straps and the electrodes – damn – there were so many of them!

"Jon . . .I’m sorry. " The words were soft and slightly slurred – they seemed to take incredible effort.

He looked up briefly and could see tears in her eyes.

"I . . . didn’t . . .tell them . . .anything."

"Sshhh. It’s okay, Jennifer, it’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you."

"Jon . . . look out . . ."

Her voice was growing clearer, stronger . . .

He almost had the last strap now.

"Sshh. It’s okay, Jennifer. Just a little longer . . ."

Some life snapped into her eyes.

"Jon . . .no . . . it’s a trap . . ."

He had her freed.

"Come on, let’s go."

He threw an arm around Pilot and was lifting her to her feet when he saw it. A new Bio-Dread standing right in front of him. Slightly smaller and sleeker than the other two, it was obviously meant to be female. How had it sneaked up on him like that? It couldn’t have come through the same door he had – he could see that Scout was still in front of it, fighting off a squad of Bio-Mechs.

And behind this new creation was . . .

Dread.

"You’re not going anywhere, Power," Dread announced in sonorous tones.

For answer, Power raised his blaster and drilled Dread in the chest. His blast was answered by a flash of light and a shimmering of the figure.

"I detected your comrade’s jamming device and counteracted it," the hologram of Dread replied, as if reading his thoughts. "However, I believe you will find my newest creation is all too real.

"As I said, you’re not going anywhere, Captain, and neither is the traitor Chase."

Power and the new Bio-Dread aimed their blasters simultaneously.

"You won’t shoot me," the She-Dread purred in a silky, yet mechanized voice.

"Give me one good reason why not."

"Because of my name."

This was insane.

"Your name?"

"She is Morgana. Morgana Power. She is your mother," Dread announced.

"No. No, that’s impossible!" Power cried, but already his mind was piecing it all together. His mother’s last visit to Volcania – the day she disappeared. She hadn’t died in an accidental shuttle explosion, as Taggert had told him and his father. She must have survived . . . and Dread had downloaded her into . . . or maybe there hadn’t even been an accident. Maybe Taggert had been making plans for her when he and Stuart Power first started working on Overmind . . .

It was too much. His beloved mother had become one with the enemy.

"You don’t want to see me die all over again, do you?"

Power winced and his blaster hand began to shake.

The hologram of Dread began to glitch, but neither Power nor Morgana noticed. They were focused entirely on each other.

"That’s what will happen if you shoot me. You can choose one of us. Me or the girl. Only one of us will leave this room alive. Make your choice."

Power hesitated – then fired.

The blast only made Morgana flinch for a second.

"So much for a son’s love for his mother. I have the same affection for you, son!"

She raised a blaster in her own hand; Power ducked to avoid the blast. She quickly fired off a second shot, aiming this time at Pilot. Power saw and moved to shield Pilot with his body. The blast hit Power’s arm as he and Pilot fell to the floor together. Quickly collecting himself, he grabbed his blaster and turned on Morgana. But she fired off several quick shots into his chest plate in succession. He lost his grip on Pilot as the impact of the shots knocked him backward. This thing moved much faster than the other Bio-Dreads. Dazed, Power could only watch in horror as it reached down and easily picked up Pilot by the collar with only one hand.

"And what should we do with you, traitor?" it asked, holding Pilot like a rag doll.

Gasping for breath, Pilot stared out into space and said nothing.

Power raised his blaster, though he knew it was a bluff. From this angle, he couldn’t get a clear shot at Morgana – and he couldn’t risk hitting Pilot.

"Put her down," he called out, trying to keep his voice steady and cool.

"Finish her," Dread said at almost the same instant.

"Of course," Morgana replied. Then she hurled Pilot across the room.

Pilot’s head hit the wall with a sickening thud. Power let out an inarticulate scream of mixed fury and horror as she slid down to the floor. No longer caring what happened to him, he dashed across the room and quickly dove on top of Pilot’s still form.

"Pilot?! PILOT?!?!"

She lay there, limp and unresponsive.

He looked up just in time to see the She-Dread – it was impossible to think of her as Mother – taking aim at him. He thought quickly and grabbed his own blaster – drilling her weapon hand. It let out a howl – good – he’d done some damage. It was only then that he noticed that the hologram of Dread was breaking up. Had Scout been able to . . .?

The Bio-Dread – Morgana – dropped the blaster and turned back to him. The voice that came out this time was different, softer.

"What have I done?"

Power froze. Was this some kind of trick?

"Take her and get out." The voice sounded like . . .

"Mom?" It came out in a whisper.

Morgana pointed to the door.

"Get out – before –"

Power wasted no time. He scooped Pilot up in his arms and ran as fast as he could.

"Scout!" he yelled as he reached the doorway.

"Right with you, Captain!"

"Run like hell, Scout! And whatever you do, don’t look back!"

By now the BioMechs were upon them. Scout was providing cover as best he could. Power tried to keep one hand free for blasting while he clung desperately to the unconscious Pilot.

Power was never entirely sure how they all made it back to the docking bay. But suddenly, there they were. Tank and Hawk were standing beside the de-cloaked Jumpship.

"Tank! Cover us! We must have half the Bio-Mechs in Volcania on our tail!" Scout hollered.

Tank whipped out a rocket blaster and fired into the doorway behind Scout and Power. The phalanx of Bio-Mechs disappeared in a fiery explosion.

"We got the suit, Captain!" Hawk shouted as they reached the ramp.

"Let’s get out of here! Now!"

Power looked over his shoulder as the hatch started closing. To his horror, he saw Soaron bursting into the bay.

"GO! GO! GO!" Power screamed as he ran down the length of the ship with Pilot.

Seconds later he felt the ship lift off, just as he reached the back of the passenger hold and the medi-bunk. As he sat down, still holding Pilot, Tank appeared in front of him.

"Pilot?" he asked quietly.

Power looked down at the small figure in his arms. "She’s still alive."

Tank turned and ran back up to his station.

Power gently put Jennifer on the bunk. He prayed she wasn’t going to die because he had screwed up again.

"We’re out of here!" Hawk yelled. "Hang on back there! It’s going to be a bumpy ride!"

"Hold on, Jennifer," Jon said under his breath. "Just hold on – and I swear to God I’ll never leave you alone again—"

A violent blast shook the Jumpship, and Power fell across Pilot’s body. She moaned in pain and opened her eyes.

"Jennifer? Stay with me, Jennifer. Stay with me!"

But her eyes closed again, and she lay still.

Another blast rocked the ship. Power continued to hover over Pilot in an instinctive desire to shield her.

A third blast hit the ship.

"How much farther, Hawk?"

"About another hundred meters and we’ll clear Volcania, if that’s what you’re asking me. If you’re asking me how much farther we can outrun Soaron before he shoots us down or this—"

Hawk was interrupted by a fourth blast.

"— rusty bucket of bolts falls apart — your guess is as good as mine!"

Scout jumped up from his seat and bolted down to the hold. "Captain, let me fly the XT-7 for a diversion. It’s our only chance. We’re sitting ducks otherwise."

"No, Scout. I’m not going to leave someone else all alone to die out there! Besides, if anyone’s going to fly the XT-7, it should be me."

"Dammit, Captain, Hawk and Pilot need you here. Besides, Soaron knows your flying style – he doesn’t know mine – it’ll throw him off balance. I can do it – you know I can! And I’m not willing to do any less than Pilot was for this team!"

Power looked up into the blazing eyes of his sergeant. "All right. Do it. We’ll rendez-vous at NorthStar."

Scout nodded and strode toward the elevator.

"Scout!"

He turned around.

"Good luck."

"You too, Captain."

Power stood up and headed for the pilot’s seat that Scout had vacated.

"Tank! Keep an eye on Pilot!"

Tank nodded and left his station for the rear of the ship.

Power hesitated for just a moment – then slid into Pilot’s seat.

"Let’s hope this works," he muttered as he took the controls.

The diversion worked beautifully. Soaron began firing at the XT-7 as soon as it deployed. Scout piloted the craft skillfully – wheeling and turning in masterful arcs and turns. After a few close calls, Scout managed a good shot across Soaron’s right wing, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"That did it, Jon, we’re clear," Hawk said.

Power stood up. "Good job, Scout!"

"Thanks, Captain. See you on the flip side."

"Jon, I think the best thing to do would be to take this zigzag course back to NorthStar. It’ll take half an hour more, but I want to make sure there aren’t any stragglers on our tail."

"Okay, Hawk."

"And it’ll also give us extra time to go ahead and check Pilot for transmitters," Tank said as Power re-entered the hold.

Power nodded. It would be just like Dread to have planted a homing beacon on Pilot’s body, counting on the team to take her straight to their new base.

"I’ll do it." Power said quietly. He stared at Pilot’s broken, battered body, hoping that an implant under her skin was the least of their worries. Then he got out the scanner and set to work.

Thankfully, there was no transmitter, but Power was more concerned with Pilot’s medical condition. Even with only his portable medical scanner, he could tell that she was badly injured. There were small burn marks all over her hands – God, what kind of torture had they inflicted on her? Power pushed up her sleeves and saw more of the same burn marks running up and down the entire length of each arm. He turned her left arm over to double-check her pulse and gasped when he looked at the underside. It looked as if somebody had driven huge nails up the veins of her arm – from the wrist all the way up to the shoulder. The right arm was the same.

There were a few burn marks on her face similar to the ones on her hands. Her face was also peppered with small cuts and bruises. He checked her eyes. Both pupils reacted to light, but were very sluggish. Damn. She was bleeding from her nose and her left ear – had that been there before the struggle with Morgana? He wasn’t sure. He knew that either way it could be a sign of serious head trauma – Oh God, please don’t let there be brain damage – but he had no way to do a full cranial scan here. He silently cursed the one weakness of the portable scanner.

He ran the medical scanner over her torso. She hadn’t lied about being broken up inside. He could detect evidence of extensive lacerations to most of her vital organs – and of the use of medical lasers to close those wounds. Dread’s med-techs must have done marathon surgery to save her from fatal internal bleeding. Thank God, there was no evidence of any of these old injuries re-opening, and the blood from her nose and ear appeared to be from popped blood vessels near the surface – not spillover coming from the brain. Power took a deep breath. It wasn’t as bad as he had first feared. Several of her ribs were cracked, but her spinal cord looked intact. Her pulse was weak but steady, as was her breathing. The head injury was what frightened him most . . .

"Please, Jennifer," he begged under his breath as he gently wiped the blood from her face. "You survived this much. Please, just hang on. Hang on. We’re taking you home."

Power’s quiet pleadings were interrupted by a sharp exclamation from Tank.

"What is it, Tank?" Power headed for his lieutenant’s station.

"See for yourself, Captain." Tank pointed to the radar. Power stared in horror at the mass of red, green and yellow – mostly red – completely covering the upper portion of the screen. It was impossible – a massive electrical storm over Canada in the middle of winter?! But the radar couldn’t be wrong . . .

Damn, this is all we needed, Power thought, but all he said was:

"It’s pretty bad."

"Yeah."

Neither of them had ever seen a storm system so huge. Not even the great hurricane of 42 compared to this.

"You see this, Hawk?"

"Yeah."

"Any way to fly around it?"

"Not without putting us at least another 3 hours off course to Northstar–"

"And we can’t afford to waste that much time or fuel," Power finished Hawk’s thought.

"It may be a blessing in disguise," Hawk offered. "I doubt Dread thinks we’re crazy enough to fly into a monster storm like that."

That last statement was just Hawk’s way of whistling in the dark. Not one of them, least of all Hawk himself, actually believed it.

"Well, in any case, we’ll have to chance it. Scout, hook back up with us immediately and then start fastening down anything that could come loose. Looks like we’re in for the ride of our lives, gentlemen."

And I just pray we survive it, Power thought to himself as he rushed back down into the hold to secure Pilot as best he could.

Power had barely finished fastening the straps around Pilot when they hit the storm. The first jolt threw him across her. The second jolt threw him backward across the hold.

"Good God, what have I gotten us into?" Power asked himself aloud as he struggled to his feet.

Lightning and thunder crashed around them as the winds buffeted the Jumpship around like a child’s toy. Power heard Scout swearing loudly as he took his place in the pilot’s seat. He breathed a short prayer of thanks that his teammate had gotten back in time.

The pitch of the winds rose to a scream. Even though he couldn’t see Hawk or Scout from his seat down below, Power knew his friends were fighting with everything in them just to keep the ship on course.

There was a bright flash and the ship plunged downward for a few terrifying seconds.

"We’re all right, Captain!" Scout shouted as the ship recovered.

"It just grazed our wing, it wasn’t a direct hit!"

Power could see Tank using a fire extinguisher at his station.

"Damage report!"

"The whole comm system’s fried! The navigational computer’s hit too, but we can still make it home with what we have!" Tank yelled.

"Mentor?"

"He’s okay! He wasn’t plugged in!"

The pitch of the winds rose again, and they couldn’t hear each other no matter how loud they shouted. The Jumpship was tossed and flung about every which way. Then, just when Power thought they couldn’t take any more, they came out the other side of the storm.

It was an exhausted team that limped into Northstar almost four hours later. Power ordered Tank and Scout to reinstall Mentor and set about fixing the comm systems of the Jumpship and Northstar. He carried Pilot to sickbay himself, with Hawk following close behind.

The results of the new medical scans didn’t tell them much more than they had learned on the Jumpship. Pilot had suffered a severe concussion. Brain swelling was minimal and miraculously, her skull wasn’t fractured – but there was no telling when she would wake up or what brain damage there might be. Blood tests also showed she’d been injected with a huge cocktail of drugs. Power hadn’t seen any of these concoctions before, but he could guess their purpose. They’d been meant to increase Pilot’s pain for interrogation. As for what their long-term effects would be, he couldn’t begin to imagine.

Power couldn’t voice his fears aloud. Even if Pilot woke up – there might be permanent damage – she might never be the same – might never be again the woman he had fallen in love with.

He couldn’t let himself think about it. All he could do was bend back over her – praying, pleading . . .

While the rest of the team worked frantically to restore the comm systems, Power kept a vigil by Pilot’s side. For two whole days he sat by her bed, neither eating nor sleeping. Then he accidentally nodded off and had the nightmare.

He woke from his bad dream, relieved to find Pilot still on the bed in front of him – and still alive. But even as he squeezed her hand, he couldn’t keep his hopes from fading. The latest tests had shown no more brain swelling – no bleeding within the brain – and the drugs had apparently passed out of her system. Why didn’t she wake up? Maybe she never would . . .

No one could have blamed him for thinking it was only his imagination when he saw the first flicker of her eyelashes. But then they fluttered again.

Power jumped as if a wasp had stung him.

It wasn’t his imagination. One blink, then two, and then Pilot’s eyes opened wide.

Eyes that looked tired, but not the dull, lifeless look he remembered from before.

"Jon?" It was barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, it’s me, Jennifer – it’s Jon. I’m here." All this came out in a rushed, hoarse half-whisper.

The hand that he had been holding squeezed back for the first time.

"It’s really you. You’re . . . " she broke off – the words obviously too much effort.

"Yeah. Don’t try to talk, Jennifer, it’s okay. You’re safe now. We’re all safe."

"Safe . . ."

He raised his wristlink to his mouth. "Hawk. Get Tank and Scout. She’s awake."

She moved her head on the pillow, trying to take stock of her surroundings.

"Where are we? . . . The Base . . ."

"The Base is gone. You activated the self-destruct, remember?"

She nodded.

"Do you remember anything after that?"

She closed her eyes and nodded again. A whimper of pain escaped her lips.

"It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about that right now."

Pilot opened her eyes again, but said nothing.

"We’re in the far North. We have a new base here. It’s safe."

Power reached out with his other hand to brush a few strands of hair away from her face. Pilot’s eyes brightened as she looked past Power to see her other teammates coming through the door.

Hawk was the first to reach her side. "Hello, Sleeping Beauty. Welcome back."

"Hey, Jen. You need to get well soon, okay? No one else here can be Ginger Rogers to my Fred Astaire," Scout told her.

"Right, and you promised you were going to help me get my bookends," Tank added.

"Of course, we’ll also want to find some books to go with them."

Pilot smiled wanly at all of them. "It’s so good to see you . . . All of you."

"Pilot, I need to run some neuro tests on you, okay?" Hawk asked.

"Okay . . ."

"All right, then. You two, get back to work. I’ll call you if anything new develops. And you," Hawk turned to Power and pointed to the bed next to Pilot’s. "Get in that bed over there and get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we need you."

Power didn’t argue. Pilot was awake – and apparently all right. That was all that mattered to him. But even as he closed his eyes, he promised himself he wouldn’t leave her side until she was completely healed.

48-1, Mark 7. 2 AM.

She was standing in the middle of a pile of rubble – staring at the worst imaginable horror. Pilot dropped to her knees and began searching frantically through the wreckage. She found nothing – nothing but fragments of concrete and metal, tatters of clothing, and ashes – ashes everywhere. Then she heard Dread’s hideous voice, "Did you really think you could keep them from us?"

Power was in the middle of a deep sleep when he heard the scream, but he was awake and sitting up before it repeated. He had only to look at the bed next to his to find the scream’s source. Pilot was sitting bolt upright with eyes wide open. As the rest of the team dashed into sickbay, her incoherent cries became words.

"NO! NO! OH GOD, NO!"

Power grabbed her by the shoulders, trying to soothe her.

"Jennifer! Jennifer, it’s all right! Jennifer!"

He moved his hands to her face.

"Jennifer! I’m here! Everything’s all right!"

Recognition snapped in her eyes. She stopped shrieking and began sobbing.

"Jon? Oh, God . . . Jon . . . it’s all my fault. They’re all dead and it’s all my fault!"

Power pulled her close and began stroking her hair gently.

"Shh, Jennifer, it’s okay. Everyone’s all right. We’re all here and we’re all safe, remember?"

"No . . .no . . . The Passages . . . all those people . . .all dead . . . all my fault!"

Then it hit him. Something they’d all been too busy to think about before. They knew Blastarr must have digitized Pilot either at the last second before the explosion or shortly after he regenerated. Athena had told him that when a person was digitized the machine read all of their thoughts – every last secret. Pilot knew the location of The Passages . . .

"Dear God."

With the shock there was also a brief glimmer of hope. Everything had been fine at The Passages during those two days they’d stayed there. True, they’d been under comm silence since their departure. They’d given orders for The Passages to contact them only in case of emergency until advised otherwise. But even if nobody in The Passages had had the chance to alert them . . . surely they would have gotten word from someone else in the Resistance if Dread had attacked the largest of the safe havens.

This was something they had never counted on. But Power couldn’t think about it. His only thought was to try to calm Pilot.

"Jennifer, we’ve been in The Passages. Everyone there is fine, as far as we know."

"No . . . they’re dead."

"You don’t know that, not for certain."

He paused for a moment. "Our communications are down. We don’t have any way to make contact with them right now. But as soon as we can, we’ll get a message to them and make sure they’re safe. Okay?"

She wasn’t listening to him. "I’m sorry . . . sorry I screwed up. I should have listened to you."

She sobbed even harder. "I should have died. I was supposed to die. If I’d died none of this would have happened."

Before Power could respond to this, she began pouring out her story – between sobs and hiccups. Her listeners were too horrified to interrupt her.

She had been digitized. She didn’t know if it was in the last second before the explosion or if she had survived the blast, only to be found unconscious by a regenerated Blastarr. She hadn’t even realized what was happening. There was only the bright white light of the explosion – the most excruciating pain she had ever felt – and her next memory was of being inside the machine. She had thought she was dead and in hell. She hadn’t realized she was still alive until she was re-animated. She described the worst despair at finding she was alive and had fallen into Dread’s hands. It wasn’t just that he had a PowerSuit because of her. She knew what her life meant to Dread. She was a wellspring of information about Power – about his team – about the safe havens – about the entire Resistance.

Time had no meaning for her. She had no idea how long she was in the machine before she was re-animated. She vaguely remembered the laser surgeries to save her life – and actually wishing they would fail. And then the interrogation began. Where were the safe havens? Who were her contacts in the Resistance? Where were their bases? With the questions came the torture. She remembered the electro-shocks, the injections, and an incredible variety of other physical and mental tortures they had used on her. The mental tortures were the worst. Holograms of her teammates were used alternately to abuse her and to try to wheedle information out of her – and that was the least of it.

"But I never talked. I knew they must have got all the information out of me when Blastarr . . . when he . . ." She couldn’t say the word again. "But they weren’t going to get it out of me twice. I answered them with math equations – I recited poetry – I – I – I spat that filthy garbage I memorized in the Dread Youth back out at them. I wasn’t going to tell them – I didn’t care if they already knew . . ."

She lost herself for a moment in hysterical sobs. She then told them of being brought before Dread, who was disgusted with her refusal to talk. He had told her he would use her as bait to draw Power to Volcania. She remembered being dragged in front of a camera – then more torture – then being left alone after a particularly prolonged torture session – and then Jon freeing her—

"You shouldn’t have come for me. I’m worse than a traitor – even if I didn’t talk. You should have left me to die!"

She dissolved into uncontrollable sobbing. For the first time since Pilot had begun her raving, someone spoke. It was Hawk.

"There’s something none of us has thought of. Why would anyone bother to torture someone if they already have the information they want?"

"What do you mean, Hawk?" Power asked.

"I mean, it doesn’t make sense. Why would they keep her alive if they already got all that important information about the Resistance when they digitized her?"

"To use her as a chip against us in the future, of course," Power replied impatiently.

"Well, yes, and they certainly did that in the end. But why continue to pump her for information in the meantime? It seems to me that their energies might have been better placed trying to brainwash her into coming back to their side. Dread and Overmind – there’s a purpose behind everything they do. For them to waste energy in interrogation to extract information they already know is illogical. So why the torture?"

"Punishment? Revenge?" Scout suggested.

"Punishment, maybe. Revenge, I don’t think so," Hawk replied. "Revenge is a human emotion, and we know what Dread and Overmind think of emotion.

"Think about it, people. We’ve known a few victims of digitization who were interrogated and tortured afterwards."

Nods all around as the others remembered.

A faint hope was growing in Power as Scout asked, "Hawk, are you thinking what I’m thinking?"

Hawk nodded. "I believe the reason they tortured Pilot for the information is because they never had it."

Pilot stopped crying and looked up at Hawk with an expression of mixed hope and fear.

"There are two possibilities, the way I see it. Maybe something went wrong when you were digitized, and the machine didn’t get all of your thoughts . . ."

"And that could be, especially if Blastarr digitized you right before the Base went and took him with it. We’ve never known what happens to people stored within a Bio-Dread when it’s destroyed and has to regenerate . . ." Scout said thoughtfully.

"You said two possibilities. What’s the second?" Tank asked.

"What if all digitization is just a giant mind game? The machine tricks you into thinking it knows all your thoughts, but what if it knows only some? What if there are parts of the brain it can't get into?

"These are just theories. I can’t prove either one of them. But they are the only logical explanations that I can see."

It was enough for Power. It was renewed hope, and a possible chink in the enemy’s armor. It was possible that the Machine wasn’t as omniscient and omnipotent as it wanted its victims to think.

Power turned back to Pilot, who was still shaking. "Jennifer, listen to me. You didn’t betray anybody. You may have saved us all."

"You don’t know that."

"No. But we’re going to hang on to that thought unless we’re proved wrong."

After that night, Pilot’s recovery went much faster than might have been expected. Hawk’s tests had shown no neurological impairment. Thanks to the bone healer they had on hand in sickbay, her ribs were healing quickly – in days rather than weeks. Two days after she woke up, she insisted on getting out of bed. Soon after, she was walking without assistance, and before a week had passed, she was almost back to her old self. Physically, at any rate. Everyone noticed the change in her – a sadness that had never been there before. And her nightmares continued.

Power was still having nightmares as well. Before they’d found her, he had dreamed of Pilot – and of how he’d failed to save her. Now he dreamed of his mother – no – of what had once been his mother. As far as he was concerned, Morgana Power was dead. If any trace of her remained, he was sure Dread would eliminate it before they met again. And even though she had stopped short of killing them, he could never forgive or forget what Morgana had done to Pilot. In his nightmares, that malevolent thing kept finding new ways of killing her – right before his eyes. He swore to himself he’d never let those nightmares come true in reality. He’d never let a Bio-Dread lay a hand on Pilot again.

48-1, Mark 12. 5 PM.

Pilot wasn’t in her room, and Power had been looking for her all over the base. He finally walked into the hangar to find her staring at the Jumpship.

"Jennifer?"

"I thought I’d never see it again," she said softly.

"Want to go inside?"

For answer, Pilot opened the Jumpship’s hatch. Power followed her inside.

She looked around the familiar interior as if she’d never seen it before. Slowly, she walked forward to her old seat. She didn’t sit down. She just rested her fingertips on the back of the seat, almost reverently.

"I never realized what it all meant to me."

"We never realized a lot of things." Power swallowed hard. When he spoke again, his voice had a choked-up quality.

"Jennifer, there’s so much I never told you."

Pilot turned around to face him. She’d never heard him talk like this before. The emotion on his face and in his voice was almost frightening.

"When I told you before, how special you were, how much you were appreciated – I didn’t mean just as a member of the team. And then when I thought I’d lost you—" he broke off, swallowing back a sob.

"Oh, God, Jennifer, it was – it was like losing a piece of myself. I haven’t felt anything like that since I lost my fa—" He couldn’t finish the sentence. He had to stop for a moment as a few tears spilled down his face.

"And I never even told you – even right there at the last I couldn’t say what I’d known for so long."

He stopped again to collect himself.

" Jennifer . . . I love you."

The words were coming faster now – tumbling over each other.

"I should have said it a long time ago. But I was such a hypocrite – more than I ever thought I could be. I lectured you so much on feelings and emotions and how they’re what make us human. But I got so caught up in this war – I wouldn’t let myself feel. I wouldn’t let myself practice what I preached to you. I had trouble admitting my feelings to myself, let alone to you.

"I’m sorry I never told you before. I came up with so many reasons not to tell you. I told myself the team had to come first. I told myself you were too young – you still knew too little about feelings –you weren’t ready to deal with an emotion as powerful as love. I told myself there would always be time for that later – after the war. I told myself it could never work – for a lot of reasons. But the main reason I never told you was because I was afraid. I was afraid Dread was right and love was the worst weakness. He used Dad’s love for me against him and that’s why my father died. I was afraid if I let myself love you it would be turned against us somehow— "

The mad rush of words halted as he closed his eyes and gulped some air. He looked back down at Pilot and his voice was stronger, calmer.

"I’m still afraid – of what might happen in the future. But I know now we have this amazing gift. We have a second chance, and I don’t want to waste it."

Pilot stared back at him. Tears were running down her face as well. Mutely, she leaned her head against his chest. His arms enveloped her in a gentle embrace.

"It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything," he told her. "I just had to tell you."

"Jon . . .nobody ever . . . you risked everything for me . . ."

"You gave everything for us. And when we thought you were dead . . .I was so full of rage. At Dread, at that springer Locke, even at you – for sacrificing yourself for . . .but I knew you did it to try to save us. You did what you thought was right . . .

"You wanted me to teach you about love, but you proved you knew the most important lesson already. That Good Book that Tank told you about – there’s a verse in it that says, ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay one’s life down for one’s friends.’ And that’s what you did. You thought it was the only way to save the rest of us . . . so you laid down your life and gave all of yourself . . . out of love . . . for all of us. Just like my dad gave himself out of love for me . . ."

He closed his eyes, reliving the anguish.

Then he released her from the embrace and bent down to her level, gripping her by the shoulders and looking directly in her eyes.

"But I don’t ever want to see you throw away your life like that again. I thought I taught you that there isn’t any base, any machine, any piece of equipment, any data file out there that’s worth a human life. Especially yours. I would have been all right if we had lost Mentor and the extra suits. It would have been hard but we could have gotten by somehow. But I didn’t want to keep going without you. Do you understand that?"

She nodded.

Power gently wiped away her tears with his fingers. Then he straightened up, pulled her back close to him, and stroked her hair gently.

"You asked me to think about you sometimes . . . I couldn’t stop thinking about you . . . all the time . . . Oh, God, Jennifer, when we found out you were alive . . . I felt so many things then . . .anger . . . despair . . .hope . . .fear, all mixed up together. And I found I couldn’t just shut out all those emotions any more. Dread says all emotions are weakness. Hawk says love is a weakness that is also our greatest strength."

He paused again – this time not for breath or to collect his thoughts. There was something else he had wanted to do for so long. He wanted to be sure he did this right.

"One more thing," he said quietly.

As she looked up at him, he cupped her face in his hands, bent down, and gently pressed his lips against hers. She stiffened at first in surprise – then relaxed into the kiss.

It was only a brief moment but it was full of warmth and love. It was the sweetest, purest sensation either of them had felt in a long time.

"That wasn’t just for luck," he said softly, and she smiled back at him.

They heard footsteps outside, and they pulled apart as Hawk entered.

"Great news! Scout thinks he finally has the base comm system working again."

They all made a mad dash for the control room.

"We’re ready to fire it up, Captain," Scout announced.

"Great. Can you bring up a secure audio link to The Passages?"

"I can try, but if I get one I won’t be able to hold it more than five minutes. Any longer than that and we risk giving away our position – or theirs."

"That’s okay. We shouldn’t need any longer than that," Power told him.

"Ok. Here goes . . . Phoenix to Passages . . . Phoenix to Passages . . . Do you read us?"

The rest of the team clustered anxiously around Scout’s chair. Ten seconds passed. Twenty. Thirty. Power could see that Pilot was getting anxious – she was starting to tremble. Forty-five seconds – and then—

"I’m getting a response! Patching it through," Scout reported excitedly.

"Passages to Phoenix. Reading you five-by-five. Over?" The voice was unmistakable. It was Dedra, one of The Passages’ comm techs.

The group broke into smiles and sighs of relief. Power gave Pilot’s shoulder a squeeze, then reached over and gave Scout a congratulatory thump on the back.

"We’re reading you loud and clear, Dedra. How are all of you in The Passages?"

"Fine. Everybody’s fine," Dedra replied, sounding astonished at the question. "How are you?" she continued in the same unbelieving tone.

"We’re doing very well. And there’s someone here who’d like to speak to you." Power nudged Pilot, who was on the verge of bursting into tears.

"Hello, Dedra. It’s good to hear your voice," Pilot said. She barely got the words out; she was so choked with emotion.

"PILOT?! How . . ."

"It’s a long story," Scout broke in. "Let’s just say the reports of her death were . . . premature."

"My God."

"We’ll explain everything next time we see you. We’ve got less than three minutes to hold this link. Is there any news we should know?"

"Like I said, we’re all fine here. However, we’ve had a report from Cypher which is not so good. Dread attacked Tech City the day after you left us. They had no warning. The place was leveled."

"Any survivors?" Power asked.

"None that we know of."

This was sobering news. Mindsinger had been a real friend to the team. Not to mention this wiped out the last major bastion of technology they had any access to. And if Dread thought he didn’t need Tech City any more, what was next?

"Thank you, Dedra. Is there anything you need?"

Dedra laughed. "There’s always something we need, but nothing we can’t wait a few days for – this time."

"Well, we’ve got our new base established, so we should be able to get supply runs going again soon. Sorry it took so long, but we should be seeing you within the week."

"Thirty seconds," Scout warned.

"It’s just good to know you’re still alive out there."

"Same here. Out." Power signaled for Scout to cut the link.

Scout did so. "We made it," he said, with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Yeah. Yeah, we did." Power said quietly, looking around at his teammates.

Pilot was still trembling.

"You okay?"

"Yes . . . and no. I mean, I’m so sorry for all those people in Tech City, but . . ."

"You’re so relieved it wasn’t The Passages. We all are." Power put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Look, for all we know, Dread may have been planning this attack on Tech City for months. I’m sure he was furious when things didn’t go the way he had planned on Flame Street. He must have been waiting for the perfect moment for his retribution."

"There’s nothing we could have done," Hawk added.

"You’re right," Pilot said at last.

"Hey, who’s hungry?" Scout was looking to change the subject.

"I could go for some munchies," Tank replied.

"Anyone else?" Power asked. He was met with nods and murmurs of agreement all around.

"Well, let’s see what’s in the kitchen."

Scout, Tank, and Hawk wasted no time in following the Captain’s suggestion. Pilot lingered for a moment, still staring at the comm unit.

"Pilot?"

"Yeah, I’m coming," but she didn’t move. "At least we know everyone in The Passages is safe. For now, anyway."

"Right. And I think we should get to the kitchen before those three eat our share. What do you say?"

Pilot grinned and took the arm Power offered her.

It was a simple meal of freeze-dried rations and distilled water, but it might as well have been a Thanksgiving feast as far as the team was concerned. Everyone was laughing and joking, just like old times. Pilot, in particular, as acting as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. However, in the midst of all the merriment, she suddenly went deathly quiet. Power noticed.

"Jennifer? Something wrong?"

She shoved her glass away and stood up.

"Captain, there’s one more thing I want to see about."

He knew what she meant.

"You should wait until you’re stronger."

"I won’t put it off any longer. I have to know."

Power sighed. "Okay. Scout, go get her suit."

A few minutes later they were all gathered in the control room. Pilot was now wearing her PowerSuit under her fatigues. She took her place in the charging station. The others clustered around her anxiously. Scout was holding a scanner and medi-kit at the ready.

"All right, Jennifer. Now, I’m yanking you right out of there if anything goes wrong," Power told her.

She nodded and placed her hands on the chargers. "Well, cross your fingers, guys. Here goes . . .

"POWER ON!"

They all watched, holding their breath, as she flinched under the blast of energy. But then smiles began all around as her armor and helmet began to take shape. The smiles widened as the process completed itself. There was a moment of silence as the last spark of light faded and Pilot stood there in complete PowerSuit.

"Yeah!" Scout shouted.

"Everything feel okay?" Power asked anxiously.

"Never better," Pilot smiled.

Scout was running the scanner over her. "Everything reads normal, Captain."

"They must not have had a chance to test it on one of their own." Hawk looked relieved.

"Then they probably didn’t learn too much from it," Scout said.

"We hope," Power added solemnly. Then he brightened. "Anyway, it still works."

Pilot stepped out of the station. "Should I go ahead and power down?"

"Might as well. If I haven’t picked up anything abnormal by now, I don’t think I’m going to," Scout told her.

Still beaming, she powered down. "It feels good to be back."

"Well, let’s celebrate. Who feels like a game?" Hawk pulled the battered deck of cards out of his breast pocket.

Everyone did except Scout, who was so thrilled he’d gotten the comm system to work that he couldn’t wait to get back to scanning frequencies. While the others sat across the room playing Hearts, Scout put on his headphones and surfed the airwaves.

Suddenly, he stood up and snapped his fingers. "Hey! HEY! You’ve got to hear this!"

The rest of the team jumped to their feet.

"What is it, Scout?" Power asked.

For answer, Scout ripped off the headphones and turned up the volume so they could all hear.

Nobody could believe it. It was the distinct tones of old-style rock and roll. Power recognized the uptempo music as a song from the 1950s, "Buzz Buzz Buzz."

"Where’s it coming from?" Tank asked.

"I have no idea. I can only tell you it’s a rogue frequency – not Resistance or Dread. I can’t trace its source."

"I can’t remember the last time I heard music on the airwaves." Hawk smiled.

"Maybe it’s a good sign," Scout grinned. "If somebody’s been able to put music back on the air— "

"Anything’s possible," Tank finished his thought.

"Well, whoever’s sending it, I think they meant for people to enjoy it." Power took off his gunbelt and dropped it into his chair – just as he had that night in December.

He turned to Pilot. "May I have this dance?"

Pilot smiled as she took his hand. The next thing she knew, he was spinning her around the room – not wildly but in a dance looser and faster than that sweet, slow dance they had shared to Glenn Miller. At first she was self-conscious but then she began to relax –

laughing as he spun her out, pulled her back in close, and twirled her around again. Power was laughing too. Pilot danced with at least once with each of the others, but Power was her partner for most of that evening.

It started out with rock and roll – light, fun songs about love and life and good times. Then suddenly it changed to big band music. Songs like "Running Wild" and "One O’Clock Jump" – and then the song Pilot and Power had danced to that night, "A String of Pearls." When that song first started, they all jumped from the shock. Then Power and Pilot smiled at each other and relaxed into a slow dance – not exactly like the first time – but close. The others just smiled and watched them, swaying to the music, enjoying the experience of déjà vu.

Then it was over. Right after "A String of Pearls" the music cut out. There was no static – just silence. They all stood still, as stunned by the sudden quiet as they had been by the music.

"Well, we should have known it couldn’t last," Scout broke the silence.

"It sure was nice while we had it," Tank said wistfully.

"Maybe it’s just as well," Power looked at Pilot. "I think you’ve had enough excitement for one evening."

"Are you kidding? I could have danced all night," she grinned.

Hawk yawned. "Well, we all should probably call it a night. Maybe it’ll be back tomorrow."

Scout nodded. "I’ll try scanning again as soon as I fix the comm system on the Jumpship."

They all went back to their quarters, wondering if the music that had been broadcast was just a coincidence – or some kind of message. Power and Pilot were both thinking about that first dance they had shared, and the last. Dances in celebration – celebration of what they had, and what they had managed to win back.

An uncertain future awaited them. They still had a lot of hard work ahead. And there was no guarantee The Passages would continue to be safe. Power and his team would have to be more vigilant than ever to keep the innocent people there out of harm’s way.

Still, they had hope. They had a new base. They were all still alive. The team was whole again. And that night, for the first time since Christmas Day, Power and Pilot both slept peacefully, without nightmares.