45-8 Mark 30 Next morning

As Jonathan walked down the hall towards Jennifer's room, He wondered if she was a morning person. She had not been up this early since she had come to the base. The only time she had been up early was when she had one of her nightmares, which she still was having, just not as often.

He stopped outside her door, which was still half-open.

It was still amazing to her everyday, that her door was always left open and never locked. However she left it the night before, was the same way she found it in the morning.

He knocked on the door as he walked in. She rolled over and looked at him. She had a look on her face as if to say that it was too early for this. Slowly she sat up, pulling the blanket up around her.

"Good morning Jennifer, how are you?" "I know it is early, but I am going for a little ride this morning." "I thought you might like to go along with me." "It will be just you and I, if that is ok?" "We will take the X-T7."

Still trying to shake her sleepy feeling, she looked up at him with a confused look on her face.

"Yes, I would like to go." "But how?" "That would mean that I would see the outside."

"I will blindfold you until we are in a safe place and then I will take it off", Jon smiled as he said it to her.

"I am going to get something to eat." "Get dressed and then meet me." "We will leave after we eat."

He got up to leave and stopped to look back at her as he reached the door. She still had the same confused look on her face. As he walked down the hall he smiled to himself. Another first for him. It had been a long time since he had been on a date.

Well, this was really not a date, but he had never gone anywhere like this, alone with a young girl, and a beautiful one at that. He shook his head. I am a soldier in the middle of a war and something like this would never work.

He was almost to the galley when Scout caught up with him.

"Good morning Captain, the X-T7 is ready to go." "The Passages rang a little while ago." "They need some medical supplies and clothing." "Late last night they received some women and children, so, would you like us to drop some goodies off to them?"

"Yes, have Hawk and Tank go." "I need you here to watch out for Jennifer and I."

The two walked into the galley and began making food for all those whom were awake. After a few minutes, Hawk and Tank strolled in followed by a still half-asleep Jennifer. She looked at all of them with her confused look as each one smiled at her. Scout began passing out bowls of replicated oatmeal which had become a favorite of Jennifer.

When they had all finished, Tank and Hawk headed out the door with Scout behind them, trying to tell an early morning joke. Jennifer had a half smile as she heard Hawk yelling, "Stop! I can’t take it anymore."

Jon smiled, thinking to himself, the same as always, just what would we do without Scout to keep us all in good spirits? He looked down at Jennifer who was just now starting to fully wake up.

"You ready to go?" "I know I am." "Ever seen the ocean, Jennifer?"

She looked up, nodded and said, "Yes, I am ready to leave, and no, I have never seen the ocean." "Is that where we are going today?"

"Yes, well what do you say we get going?"

They walked down the hallway toward the hanger. The others were already there loading the Jumpship with supplies. Jon shook his head as they walked by. Scout was still at it and from the looks, driving Tank and Hawk crazy. He was glad he was leaving. Scout got into one of these moods every once in a while and when he did, you could be sure that something would happen.

Jon placed his hand on Jennifer's shoulder as he led her aboard the XT-7. He looked back and smiled at the others.

Once inside, Jennifer stood there in a daze. She was in the aircraft of her dreams. She loved to fly and wished she could learn more. There was only so much they taught you in the Dread Youth, she thought, and now she and the Captain were going to take it some place together. Would he let her fly it? Did he want to see how good her piloting skills were? Did he want to see what she had learned while in the Dread Youth? What was his reason for wanting to get her outside, she thought?

Jonathan placed a blindfold on her, covering her eyes. He took her hands and led her to the seat and sat her down.

They took off and blasted away from the Power Base. They were in the air for a while and then he landed. When he removed her blindfold, her eyes took a little time to adjust, but once they had, she gazed around at everything.

She looked up at him and he smiled, as he always did, and said, "Are you ok Jennifer?"

"Yes I am." "It is just that things look different now than they once did." "Does that make sense to you?"

"Yes it does, Jennifer." "You are seeing through your eyes for the first time." "Not through the eyes of the machine."

He got up and took her hand and together they walked out side. They looked at everything. Talking about where they were and how the area once was. After a bit they went back inside the XT-7 and took off for their destination.

Jon explained about the places around them. He talked about the once huge cities and all the people who were once in them. She got lost in listening to his tales about the past.

Before she knew it, they flew over a group of buildings and headed for the largest one. The whole place was empty. It looked like it had been left in a hurry a long time ago. They landed in the center of the large building.

They left the ship and walked around looking at everything in all the buildings. Jon told her the story of the old flight school here in San Juan. He told her they were on the island of Puerto Rico, which before the wars, was one of the most beautiful places he had ever been to.

He gave her a little history lesson on the old fort, the Spanish war and some of the famous people who had come from the island. He told her that in a place once called St Augustine, that was in what was once Florida, was another fort just like this one.

They walked to where a sea wall once stood by a part of the old fort. Just below the wall was a small ledge that led to a small cave inside the fort. Jon stepped over the wall and onto the ledge.

"Come over ... you will not fall ... take my hand."

She looked over the wall to see a 20-foot drop but never said a word. She reached out, grabbed his hand and stepped over onto the ledge.

They moved along the ledge and into the fort. They went into a small room where the wall facing the ocean was now gone and revealed a splendid view of the ocean and the sky. She stood there and stared at it for a while. Then she turned to look at him.

"Why did you choose this place to come to?"

"Because of this view." "I think it is lovely to see, and I thought you might like it, plus it is a great place to talk, and I wanted to talk to you." "Let’s sit for awhile."

Jon sat down with his back to the stone wall. He looked up at Jennifer, smiled and signaled her to sit. She sat down next to him, and leaned against the wall.

She turned and looked at him. She looked serious, and almost sad.

"May I ask you something?"

"Yes, you can ask me anything you like", Jon said as he turned to look at her.

"What do you think happened to my family?" Her words were filled with the sadness of years of wonder.

"I am guessing that I was not born in Volcania, like I was told." "I believe that I was taken from my family at some point in time, like all the others I have seen taken."

Jon gave a sigh and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"I do not know the answer to that, Jennifer." "My guess is that at some point you were taken away from your mother and father, probably during an attack on where ever it is that you are from." "As far as being born in Volcania, I have never heard of anyone being born into the Dread Youth."

"Did that help?"

She looked down at the ground and was trying to hide the tears in her eyes. Jon placed his arm around her and pulled her close.

"Jennifer, I can not even begin to think of how you must feel." "I do know what it has been like not having my father or mother for all these years, but to not even know who they were or where you’re from, must be very hard for you."

"You have a family now." "We are your family, the others and I."

They sat for a while and talked about how and what she was feeling. She told him that she now understood why the overunits lied to them. They had to hide the truth or every youth cadet would run away.

Jon looked at her and gave her one of his famous half smiles. Together they got up, walked around a bit, and then headed back the way they had come in.

As they stopped to look at the water, Jon turned to face her with a serious look on his face.

"Jennifer, there is something I would like to ask you." " I want to offer you a place on the team." "That is, if you can make it through our training." "It's not easy but I think you will be able to do it." "It's up to you." "I know it would require that you turn your back on everything you have ever been taught, but, I don't think that you believe any of those lies anymore."

She paused and looked at him with confusion and surprise registering on her face, all at the same time.

"Why me?" "I am sure that there are others who are better trained and know more that I do."

"Jennifer, you have more to offer than you think you do." "You are incredibly smart and you know all about the security systems in all of Dread's compounds." "You have already shared that information with us and you have even given information that helped save our lives." "Do you remember that?"

She smiled at him, which was very rare, and without words, they both knew the answer.

They walked around while talking about all she had to learn and who would teach her. He told her that the training would be hard. But he had no doubt she would be able to do it. He also explained how the Power suits worked. And that when activated for the first time, the user had a 50/50 chance. She shot him a look as if to say what a way to go.

After a while they stopped talking about the training and the Power suits and began talking about each other. They shared secrets and very personal things about themselves.

He told her he could not think of spending life as a machine. You would never have the feeling of the wind or rain on your face or the soft touch of another person. You would never have a first kiss or have a chance to fall in love. He told her that he liked life this way.

He told her that one day after the war was over, he wanted to have a wife and children. He had spent the better part of his young adult years fighting the war and had lost a woman he cared for very dearly.. He told her that each day he wished that the war was over and that on some days he found it unbearably hard to keep going. When it got tough like that for him, he would sit with Mentor for hours remembering the world the way it once was. It helped him to realize why he had to keep on fighting.

Jennifer told him that she used to get this empty feeling inside and she never knew what it was. At times she wanted to be held but she never knew why. It was not very machine like and she would bury those feelings deep down in her.

She shared with him about herlife growing up in the Dread Youth. How pride was all she knew about. How they showed pictures of people fighting like animals over clothing and food. How men would attack women and how no one cared for any other person. That never seemed to make any sense to her. If there were people fighting against the New Order then some one cared.

She told him that sometimes at night, if you listened very carefully, you could here other cadets crying. She always thought something was wrong and felt like she was on the wrong side, but it was all she knew, and she was scared of the outside world. After all if Dread was right, and the people were the way they were made out to be, she would be better off were she was, rather than being hunted down like a dog.

Before they realized it, the sun began to set and a voice came over Jon’s comlink.

"Scout to Captain Power, you have a small patrol heading your way." "You are not in scanner range yet, but you will be in less than 15 minutes." "You need to get out of there before they pick the two of you up."

They looked at each other. It was the first time all day, that someone had tried to get in touch with them.

Jon shook his head.

"We are on our way home. "Thanks for watching out for us." "How have things been there?"

"They have been quiet",Scout replied, "Hawk and Tank will be back in about a half-hour or so." "Dread has been busy doing something other than bothering us." "See you two in a bit."

"Ok Scout, Power out."

Jon thought to himself. If he had been here by himself or with any other person, he would have called in several times, but he had lost track of time while talking with Jennifer and had not even thought about anything else.

There was something different about her. When he was around her he felt at ease. And he could tell that she felt the same way. But he thought this could never work. She is going to be part of this team and that would mean treating her as one of the guys, which meant that he could not get involved with her. She was not ready for something like love. She was just too young. He kept filling his head with excuses.

Finally, they turned to leave, but took one long last look at the setting sun and then they boarded the XT-7.

Jennifer waited for Jon and the blindfold. But as he came up to her, he was smiling, and he did not have the blindfold in his hands.

"You're in the wrong seat, Jennifer, that is where the co-pilot sits." "As a part of this team, you are now the pilot, so it is your job to fly this thing home, with my help of course."

"I know you can fly this ship, so lets go home and eat dinner." "I don't know about you, but I am starved."

She turned towards him and looked him in the eye.

"And so, where is home from here Captain?”

The two smiled at each other as they took off for home. Jennifer flew them right around the patrol. They took their time. Jon had wanted to see for himself just how good she was. As they flew, he got the answer he had already known. Like Hawk said, she was good.

Jon smiled to himself. He knew at that moment she would have no problem with her training and he knew that he had found the fifth member to the team he had been looking for..............................