Episode 12 -- The Rose Of Yesterday

Author’s Note: This tag fought me the entire way. A long story developed when I read the episode synopsis, but it was much too long and involved for an episode tag and didn’t match the Afterwards formula. In order to solve that problem, I decided to write two stories: the Jon/Jennifer tag for the Afterwards series (told from the perspective of others) and a separate story detailing more of what happened to Tank. This tag is also a segue that will bring in concepts and characters that I’ll need in the tags for the later episodes. J Silly plot bunnies – they just won’t stop making up stories, will they?

In an effort to destroy all remaining books, Dread orders his troops to burn city after city. The Power Team races against time to evacuate the residents of a particular town when Tank is seriously wounded. He takes refuge in the library and must depend on the librarian to save his life. The problem: not only is the librarian refusing to leave her books, she is refusing to leave until her husband and son return.

~*~*~*~*~

Episode 12 - The Rose of Yesterday

Since this was a never-televised episode, we can only guess at what the actual episode would have been like. This particular version is purely my own imaginings.

~*~*~*~*~

Doctor Greta Royston sighed as she patched up another wounded soldier in the medical tent. Since she earned her medical degree, she had worked in all manner of battle situations, in all kinds of places and all types of weather. It was part of the job as a Resistance doctor – on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. No rest for the weary -- that was the Resistance doctor’s motto.

Dread’s latest offensive had forced Greta’s medical teams to work around the clock for over a month. The stream of wounded settlers and soldiers seemed never-ending so extra medical stations were set up in tents outside the main hospital to help handle the overflow.

Day after day, subsisting on fake coffee and meager snacks, Greta took her turn in triage, the exam room, the operating room, the emergency room – after a week of being indoors, she was eager for her shift in the medical tents. Being outside allowed her to breathe… just a little.

Too bad that she would be working inside again the next day. Reports from the outer stations stated that more refugees and patients would be arriving, and the routine would start all over again. She was going to take advantage of the fresh air while she could.

Greta tied off the last stitch in her patient’s shoulder. “There, see? That didn’t hurt at all.”

“Depends on who you ask,” her rather comical patient told her. “Needles hurt, you know. Where’d you go to medical school, anyway, Doc? The Marquis de Sade University?”

“As a matter of fact, that was my alma mater.” Very little in Greta’s life made her smile, but the annoying, irreverent, pain-in-the-butt that called himself Andy Jackson did give her the occasional grin. Sometimes, she could return the sentiment. “Want to know where I interned?”

“Ha ha,” Andy responded. “Any word on Jim?”

That was the point where everything annoying, irreverent and remotely infuriating about Andy Jackson flew out the window – his partner. He and Jim Mitchell would walk through fire for each other. Greta had tended to their wounds on more than one occasion, most of them inflicted when one partner was rescuing the other since neither one of them could stay out of trouble. They weren’t just partners or military buddies; they were true friends. In the post-Metal War world, trust and friendship was a rare commodity. To see it still exist reinforced Greta’s hope that there was a future for the human race. “He’ll be all right. We just want to keep him under observation for a while. Concussion, sprains, being shot – good thing you got him here as quickly as you did.”

“Yeah, but maybe not quick enough,” Andy said as he put his shirt back on. “He could’ve been killed because I screwed up. Got caught by those clickers and he had to rescue me.”

The anger and worry in Andy’s voice was nothing new. If she didn’t say something quickly, Andy would blame himself for Jim’s injuries instead of realizing that it was a typical outcome from fighting Dread’s troops. “And how is that any different from the time you went after him at that research lab and you got shot?” Greta countered.

Andy thought for a second, took a breath, thought about his answer, blew out the air and then stared at Greta. “Ya know, Doc, you’re one of those folks who has a very bad habit of arguing logically,” he grinned.

“Really? Annoying? I always thought that it was a good habit to have,” Greta countered with a grin.

“Doctor Royston!” someone shouted for her from outside.

Greta rushed toward the tent flap just as Wesley, a medic, rushed inside. “Doctor Royston! We just got an emergency transmission from Captain Power. He’s coming in with two wounded, one serious.”

Power’s team? Wounded again? “Get E.R. One ready –”

“Casualties from Thurston are coming in, too. They’re maybe two or three hours out. A lot of wounded, don’t know how bad though.”

“How many’s a lot?” Greta asked him.

“Power couldn’t give us numbers. He just said a lot,” Wesley told her quickly.

Greta shook her head in frustration and sighed. “Has the supply convoy arrived yet?”

“Not yet. They’re still half a day out.”

No new supplies. “How do the stores look?”

“I did a quick inventory about an hour ago. We don’t have enough supplies for a prolonged O.R. session much less the wounded from an entire town.”

Andy raised his hand. “If you need someone to make a run to the convoy, I’ll volunteer. They know me.”

Greta thought for a moment. She mentally ticked off their situation. Too many patients had stressed their resources past their limit. More were coming. They were short-handed. Time was in short supply. All their transports were damaged.

They were in trouble.

Looking at Andy, she said, “We’ll have to find a transport first. Ours were hit in the last attack. We’ve got no choice but to make do with what we’ve got until we can arrange to get the supplies here.”

Greta took a deep breath and instructed Wesley in the what-was-now routine emergency procedures. “Tell the other doctors to keep the anesthesia for the most severely wounded and use a local for others. Some will have to go without. Get anyone who’s not unconscious to help in any way they can. We’ll need cots, clean bandages and bed linens. Check our blood supply. If the wounded need transfusions, we’ll need donors.” She heard a familiar engine’s roar, looked out the tent flap and saw the Power Team jumpship fly overheard. Greta rushed out of the tent, followed closely by both Andy and Wesley as the jumpship came in for a landing just beyond the hospital. By the look of the hull, the ship had been through some serious fighting. The engine was running rough, gears grinding and braking thrusters protesting as she touched down.

“Jennifer must have pitched a fit when she saw what the Dreadheads did to her ship,” Greta muttered. “The way she babies that thing…” she stopped talking when she saw Hawk and Scout carry an unconscious Tank out of the jumpship. “Wesley, get a stretcher. Fast!” Greta ordered as she ran toward the newcomers.

Tank. Unconscious. The two words just didn’t go together. The man was a fighting machine made of the sturdiest material she’d ever seen.

Greta almost stopped in her tracks when she saw the captain carrying an unconscious Jennifer from the jumpship, fear and worry practically radiating from his eyes.

“What happened?” she shouted as they placed both patients on the ground so Greta could perform a cursory examination.

Hawk stood up, placed a hand on his sore back. “We evacuated Harrington and Bendale well ahead of the Dread forces and got them to safety. We reached Thurston after the clickers showed up. We had to fight while the townspeople evacuated. Tank got hurt during his recon and took cover in the library. The lady there didn’t want to leave, but she helped Tank, and he finally convinced her that staying was a bad idea.”

Greta checked Tank’s vitals. She didn’t like what she was seeing. “Shot, beaten, signs of trauma… looks like a building fell on him.” She motioned for the medics running toward them. “Okay, get him inside. He gets priority!” she yelled as they ran towards them. “Get him to O.R. One. Get Doctor Peterson to prep him for surgery.” She quickly moved to Jennifer. Her condition wasn’t quite as serious. “What happened to her?”

“She was ambushed at the docks by a squad of clickers,” Jon explained. “We couldn’t reach her until Tank radioed us a different way to the docks. The lady helping him told him about it.”

That made sense. “The lady in the library, was it Rose?”

“You know her?” Jon asked, not leaving his place beside Jennifer.

Greta noticed Jon’s proximity, noticed how worried he was about Jennifer, how he needed to keep physical contact with her – apparently something had changed between them in the last few months. “Yeah. Her husband was killed during one of Dread’s early raids and she lost her son, Jason, about the same time. She lives in her own little world and believes that her family will come back one day. She would fight anyone trying to make her leave.”

Scout stood back, out of the way of the other medics. “I think that’s what she did,” he said to Greta. “Tank told us he was trying to convince her to get out but she was putting up an argument.”

Greta checked Jennifer’s pupils. She was showing signs of a concussion. Thankfully, her wounds weren’t as bad as Greta first thought. She looked up and saw Andy Jackson standing nearby, out of the way. Given the last time Andy and the Power Team met, this little “reunion” could be interesting. Then, Greta had an inspiration. “Andy, I may be able to take you up on your offer sooner than I thought I would,” she said.

That was when Jon, Hawk and Scout realized that their intruder was standing nearby. “Jackson?” Power said his name, the tone of his voice indicating that he didn’t believe the man was there.

“Captain,” Andy tipped his hat to Jon. “Me and my partner had a couple of cuts and scrapes we had to get cleaned up. Doc’s the best sawbones in the business.”

Greta moved so the medics could pick up Jennifer and place her on a stretcher. “Get her into the exam room. Have Eva get a workup.” Greta took a good look at the three men still standing, at least standing for the moment. They looked like something the cat dragged in, dragged back out again and then buried in the back yard. All were bruised and bloody. Scout was holding his shoulder – it was probably dislocated or sprained. Hawk’s clothes were singed. Jon looked like he had gone ten rounds with a biodread. “You three have seen some action too. Get inside; get these wounds taken care of. No need for you guys to be falling down unconscious.” Then, to Jon, “Our convoy is late. Andy volunteered to get the supplies here. Our transports are out of commission at the moment. Can we use your jumpship to meet the convoy?”

Jon put up his hands and shook his head. “We’ll go meet the convoy, but that’s Jennifer’s jumpship. This is the intruder who sneaked into it. If I let him near it –”

“Jennifer would never forgive me for asking or you for allowing it,” Greta finished for him. She moved closer to Jon and said in a low voice, “I know you think he’s a security risk, I don’t blame you, but the convoy leader knows Andy. They’ve worked together before. I need every one of my people here when the wounded start arriving and the convoy chief won’t give up the supplies to anyone else. You know me, Jon. I only worry when I have to, and letting Andy go with you for this reason isn’t something that worries me.”

Jon shook his head and thought for a moment. Finally, he sighed. “All right, he can go, but I’m flying the jumpship.”

“No, I will,” Hawk suggested. “You need to be here when the townspeople get here.”

Greta thought that reasoning was a bit suspect. The townspeople? Did Hawk think that anyone would believe that explanation? Greta noticed that Andy wisely said nothing but he did shuffle his feet. Apparently, Andy knew there was more to that little statement just as she did.

“I don’t think they need --” Jon protested.

“Jon, I’m a better pilot than you when it comes to flying the jumpship. You know Jennifer doesn’t let just anyone in the pilot’s seat.”

Greta refused to snicker or smile at that comment. Given how much trouble the team would be in for letting Jackson on board, they would be in even more trouble if anyone but the best available pilot flew the ship.

“Captain,” Scout moved closer to Jon to whisper, “Jennifer and I did upload a few extra fail-safes. Just in case.”

“Uh, can I say something?” Andy got their attention. “I promise – no tricks, no stunts, no shenanigans, no computerized gadgetry of any kind. I just want to get those supplies and get them back here.”

Jon finally nodded his head. Nothing more needed to be said, apparently.

~*~*~*~*~

Greta walked into the O.R. prep room where Doctor Peterson was scrubbing up. “How’s Tank?” she asked as she watched the operating team preparing Tank for surgery.

“His vitals aren’t good,” Peterson answered. “We can’t wait to operate. Do we know what happened yet?”

“All I know is that they fought the clickers in Thurston, and something about Rose refusing to leave.”

Peterson grabbed a towel and dried his hands. “Rose? The librarian? Oh… she wouldn’t have left those books behind for anything.”

“She had to choose between books or people’s lives. That had to be a heart-wrenching decision for her,” Greta observed.

“Is she okay?” Peterson asked as he walked toward the operating room doors.

“I don’t know. The townspeople haven’t arrived yet, and there hasn’t been time for any storytelling. Look,” Greta got very serious, “Hawk and Jackson went to meet the convoy, but there’s no guarantee they’ll get back before the people from Thurston arrive. Supplies are scarce.”

Peterson stared at her for a moment, then nodded his head. They both knew the drill. They wouldn’t be able to save everyone they might have otherwise. “What about Tank? Do we use extraordinary measures for him if we need to?”

Greta hated that part of the job -- when a friend was under her scalpel and she had to make the life and death decisions. Yet, when supplies were low, when a doctor had to sacrifice a few to save the many… this time, the answer was simple. “Do everything you can,” she ordered. “Tank’s risked his life too many times for us. I know he’d understand if we couldn’t save him because we had to ration supplies, but this is one time we’re not making that choice.”

~*~*~*~*~

Hawk flew the jumpship at top speed toward the coordinates Andy gave him. The ship lurched repeatedly, maybe from the external damage, maybe from the power fluctuations to the engines, maybe from the ship herself because Jennifer wasn’t piloting her. Whatever the reason, Hawk felt like the ship was fighting him.

Hawk patted the console and whispered, “Come on, sweetheart. We need to get the medical supplies. Tank and Jennifer are hurt. Work with me here, okay?” Within a few moments, the ship began to fly more smoothly.

From the co-pilot’s seat, Andy asked, “You talk to the ship?”

Hawk cleared his throat. “Yeah. We talk to the ship.”

Andy waited a moment. “Does she ever talk back?”

Hawk looked over at Andy, a confused look on his face. “No. She’s a ship. It’s just that she’s our ship.”

Andy laughed. “You mean she’s your pilot’s, and not a single one of you will cross her when it comes to this ship.”

Hawk nodded as he kept watch out the window. Finally, just to break the silence, he asked, “How do you know Greta?”

“Met her at the end of the Metal Wars. She was one of the interns at a MASH unit I was sent to. We help her out when we can; she patches us up when we’re hurt. It’s probably the same story for a lot of people out here.”

That was true enough. Greta’s history with the Resistance and her attempts at getting medical care to everyone she could over as vast an area as possible were well known. “Good thing we have her,” Hawk said. “She’s had to take care of us more than once too.”

They were quiet again. Then, “Hey,” Andy stammered, “last time we met, I said a few things that maybe I shouldn’t have.”

“Said?” Hawk asked, incredulously. “You broke into our base. I’d say that was a big something you shouldn’t have done.”

“Proved my point that I know my stuff, didn’t I?” Andy asked him. When he didn’t get a response, he said, “Look, I didn’t know the whole situation with you guys, and I shouldn’t have said a few things that I did to that pretty little pilot of yours. I just didn’t know the score.”

Hawk wondered at that. “What score?”

“Been hearing some stories. Like your pilot used to be in the Dread Youth, nearly died escaping, joined up with you guys, had to learn about the real world. I guess I didn’t exactly win any points with anyone given what I said to her. Or any of you.”

That was a very whitewashed version of events, Hawk thought. Not that he was going to put Jackson right. “No, no points,” Hawk agreed as he veered the ship slightly west.

“I didn’t know anybody ever got away from the Dread Youth.”

Hawk had heard that before. “As far as we know, she’s the only one.”

Andy was quiet for a moment, then, “Just out of curiosity, how does someone who used to be in the Dread Youth join up with one of the best known Resistance groups?”

Hawk looked over at Andy and smiled. “Believe me; every single one of us earned our place on this team.”

Maybe Andy got the veiled reference to his ‘attempt’ to join, maybe he didn’t. Hawk didn’t really care. He just wanted to get to the convoy, get the supplies and fly them back to the hospital as quickly as he could. The idea that Tank’s life could be decided on the amount of bandages or the availability of anesthesia worried him.

“So,” Andy tried again, “given that look the captain had on his face when he carried your pilot out of the ship, I’m guessing he’s figured things out.”

That statement surprised Hawk. “Figured what things out?”

“She likes him, he likes her… you know. Things.”

Things? Jackson saw things? Hawk’s hopes that no one outside the team had noticed what was going on between Jon and Jennifer were dashed. He, Scout and Tank wanted to keep it quiet until Jon and Jennifer figured things out for themselves. Vi had noticed, undoubtedly Greta had noticed… things, but Jackson? There could be trouble if others had noticed the growing attraction. It would give Dread another weapon to use against Jon.

The sensor beeped, announcing the convoy coming into range. Hawk would have to worry about Jackson’s discovery later.

~*~*~*~*~

Jon sat down for the first time in what felt like days. No, it actually had been days since he could just sit and do nothing, but he wasn’t doing nothing. He watched Jennifer sleep as the medic, Eva, took her pulse. For the moment, he could breathe easy. Jennifer was alive, Tank was in surgery, the rest of them walked away – they all made it. For that, he was grateful.

Yet the day’s events wouldn’t leave him. He kept hearing the voices on the radio. Voices overlapped, the words ran together. The stress was evident in their voices.

“Pilot, Tank, you have biomechs overrunning your positions!”
“I’m hit! Armor’s gone. They’re advancing. I’m at the library.”
“Pilot’s position has been flanked and I think she’s wounded.”
“Captain, there’s a woman in the library who won’t leave. The biomechs are trying to get in. We’ll have to hold them off for now.”
“I can’t reach the library. There are too many clickers in the way.”
“No one is being left behind. We’re all getting out of here alive.”
“Jon, get to Tank. He’s hurt. I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”
“Jennifer? Jennifer, can you hear me?”
“Captain, we’re leaving the library. Take the alley between the two tool sheds on the north side of the dock to get to Pilot.”

Those were some of the scariest moments Jon had experienced as a team leader. He still couldn’t understand what happened. One moment, they were under fire and losing, and then they… weren’t. That was the only reason they were all still alive.

Eva wrote down Jennifer’s vitals. “She could use a visit to the regenerator, but we’ve got patients in worse condition waiting in line for that. She’s going to have to heal on her own.”

“Will she be all right?” Jon asked.

“She’s still unconscious, but her vitals are good. Wounds are a little worse than we first thought, but nothing critical. She’ll be in a lot of pain when she wakes up. I hope she doesn’t have an aversion to scars because she’s going to have a few new ones.”

Scars. Sometimes, they were a joke amongst the team. There was a game called a scar-off contest they would play, comparing scars and making up stories of how they got them.

Eva left, passing Scout in the doorway.

“How is she?” Scout asked as he looked down on his unconscious friend.

“New scars and bruises and still unconscious but the medic said she’ll be fine,” Jon told him. “What about Tank?”

Scout sat down on the floor, leaned against the wall and adjusted his arm sling. “He’s in surgery. I haven’t heard anything more than that yet.”

Surgery. Thank goodness for Greta and her hospital. She’d had all of them in her operating room over the years. Jon attributed the fact that they were all still alive to Greta as well. “How are you?”

“Bruises, pulled muscles, sprained shoulder. I’ll live. They wanted to give me a shot for the pain, but I told them to forget it. There are others coming who’ll need it worse than me. Have you heard anything from Hawk?”

Jon shook his head. “Nothing yet. I think it’s too soon, but no news could be good news.”

Scout leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. Days and days of battles and relocations -- they were all so tired. “Captain, I still don’t know what happened in Thurston. We were fighting the clickers, Jennifer’s position was being overrun. Tank was shot and in the library with Rose who was refusing to leave. We were outnumbered, outgunned, losing and then everything just turned around for us. Rose decided to leave, she told Tank how to get to Jennifer -- I don’t think any of our battles ever worked like that before.”

“I don’t know, Rob,” Jon said tiredly. “I don’t know why Rose changed her mind all of a sudden. She was willing to die rather than leave her books, and then she left her library to burn. I don’t know if Tank said something or if something happened to convince her to leave… maybe this is one time we just need to be glad it happened and not question it.”

“We lost the library,” Scout murmured. “Dread got his wish about destroying all the books there.”

“We lost the library in Thurston, but we were able to get a lot of people to safety. We saved the libraries in Harrington and Bendale though. More importantly, we were able to save a lot of the people.”

Scout crossed his legs, trying to find a more comfortable position. “Dread’s wiping out towns in order to destroy books. We could have lost Tank and Pilot… I know we’ve been trying to salvage as many books as we can but how much are we willing to pay?”

Jon chuckled, but it was a sad sound. “When I was a boy, we had a neighbor who used to say that print was dead. Everything was electronic. Books were nothing more than words on paper. My parents loved books. They didn’t like hearing them disparaged like that. I remember my mom saying that even though a book was made up of words on paper, they were much more important than that. Everything was in books. Thoughts, ideas, dreams, opinions, history, literature, everything could be found in those pages. The neighbor couldn’t really argue that.”

“Yeah, but ideas are in people’s heads. Why does Dread think that just destroying books will destroy ideas?” Scout asked.

Jon glanced at Jennifer who was still unconscious. There was no sign of her waking. “Because it works,” Jon said. “Remember when we first met Jennifer? There was so much she didn’t know. Dread took all that from her by controlling the information the Dread Youth were allowed to have. Do you remember the first time she ever saw a book?”

Scout smiled at the memory. “She had no idea what it was. Then she read every one we had and every story Mentor had stored in his memory banks. She was like a kid in a candy store.”

“Candy?” a voice repeated. “That’s a word I haven’t thought about in years.”

Jon and Scout looked up as Greta walked into the room.

“How’s Tank?” Jon asked, too tired to stand.

“Still in surgery. I just checked on him. Everything looks good so far.” Greta leaned against the wall as she read Jennifer’s chart. “Just got a message from Jackson. They’ve reached the convoy. They should be back with some of the supplies within the hour.”

“Good,” Jon said. Glancing back at Jennifer, he said, “What about the rest of us?”

~~~

Us? Greta raised an eyebrow at that. Jon wasn’t that good at hiding his feelings. He wanted to know about Jennifer.

“Jennifer’s half-unconscious, half-exhausted. I’m thinking you five haven’t slept in days either. She was hurt and knocked out, and her exhaustion put her in a deeper stage of unconsciousness than she would normally be in. Ordinarily, I’d put her in a regenerator, but I’ve got some seriously wounded patients using it. Scout’s shoulder will be fine, but he could use about fifteen minutes in the regenerator as well. Make sure both of them take advantage of yours when you get back to your base. Hawk had essentially more superficial wounds, nothing serious but painful, and you’re bruised up a bit, again, nothing serious. My guess is that all of you are going to be sore for a few days, but you’re all walking away from this one intact.”

“Small favors,” Scout said, his voice sounding tired.

Greta smiled. “We take what we can get.”

She noticed Jon trying to gather up some strength to move, but just sitting and doing nothing seemed like a gift. “Is there anything else we can do?” he asked Greta.

“No, not right now. We’ve prepared as best we could,” Greta stood up reluctantly, loathe to leave her leaning position but knowing she had to. “Sensors show we have a large group heading our way. Hawk and Andy should get back just before the newcomers arrive. And speaking of Thurston, what happened at the library?”

~~~

Jon forced himself to stand up for a moment. Maybe if he moved, the lethargy and fatigue would go away. “We don’t know. We’d separated, were communicating over the radios, Tank told us he was hurt and found Rose in the library but that she refused to leave. Jennifer’s position was being overrun. Hawk and I tried to get to her, Scout was closer to Tank, and then Tank told us that they were leaving, heading for the jumpship and for us to get Jennifer by going down a hidden alley that would let us get around the clickers.”

Greta listened, but Jon noticed a confused look in her eye. “Rose left her books voluntarily? That’s a new one. Clickers or not, it would take a crowbar to pry her out of there.”

“Why?” Scout asked. “She would have died if she stayed there.”

Greta didn’t seem surprised by the question. “Rose loves books. She lives for books. She can quote some of the most obscure references you ever heard of. She was the librarian before the Metal Wars. Her husband, Thomas, worked at the power plant. Their home was destroyed in one of the initial attacks, so they lived in the library after that. One day, Thomas went out to look for food but he never came back. Their son, Jason, went to look for him. He didn’t come back either. It turns out that there were some biomech squads in the area.”

Maybe Jon was more tired than he thought. It took a few moments for the son’s name to register. “Wait, did you say the son’s name was Jason?”

“Yeah. He was her only son. She never thought they were dead. She always believed that they’d come back, and she’d wait there for the rest of her life for her family to come home.”

Scout asked, “So Rose wasn’t just protecting books, was she?”

“No,” Jon answered. “She was protecting a memory.” Then, to Greta, “How old would her son be now?”

Greta thought for a moment. “About your age, I think. He was a teenager when he disappeared. Why?”

“A few months ago, I met a man named Jason who was with the Dread Youth. He was masquerading as me, leading people into a trap so they could be digitized by Soaron.”

That made Greta get her second wind. “Are you thinking that the Jason you met and Rose’s son could be the same person?”

“I don’t know,” Jon explained quickly. “If he was really in the Dread Youth, he didn’t look like one of them. Besides, Dread would have changed his name as a way of separating him from his true identity. He did that with his other soldiers.”

“He changed their names?” Greta asked. “Interesting. Then the man you met wouldn’t have been Rose’s son.”

“Unless he wasn’t a typical Dread Youth…” Jon thought for a moment. What was it Jennifer had told him about Jason?

“Then he wasn’t raised in the Dread Youth. For whatever reason, all Dread Youth soldiers fit the same general profile with blonde hair and gray eyes. Your double was probably an older volunteer who worked his way up through the ranks or did something that got Dread’s attention and was appointed as an Overunit instead of earning the position.”

“It’s possible that the Jason who impersonated me joined Dread’s troops when he was older, but I have no way of knowing if he was Greta’s son.”

Then again, would he ever know? How had Jennifer explained it when they discussed the Dread Youth?

“He took away everything that made us an individual. He hid all the records of our identities, our names, our birthplaces – all of it was buried in the computer files. There was even some reference to some possible genetic changes, but I couldn’t find anything out about that.”

“I don’t think it is. At least, it isn’t according to the data archives. I searched for Jennifer Chase as well as the names of a few other youth leaders and overunits I knew. None of them were there. The names that were listed in the file had complete histories -- who they were, where they were born, their full names – but I had never met any of them.”

If any Dread Youth soldier who was raised in Volcania had their name changed, that didn’t necessarily mean that others who joined later or who were older underwent the same process.

That meant that the man impersonating Jon, the man Jon gave up to Soaron, could be the son of the woman who saved Tank’s life.

Irony was cruel.

“Let’s hope he wasn’t Rose’s son,” Greta said as she put Jennifer’s chart back, “ and it might be a good idea if no one mentions it to Rose.” Greta looked at both of them with an appraising eye. “Look, guys, neither one of you will be any help to anyone if you’re falling down exhausted. Get some sleep. I know we’re crowded, but there are a few blankets and pillows somewhere, and there’s plenty of floor space in some of the rooms –”

“Maybe you need to take your own advice,” Jon suggested, smiling for the first time in days. “How long has it been since you slept?”

Greta laughed and shook her head. “Too long, and I’m not getting any sleep any time soon. Like our motto says, there’s no rest for the weary,” she said as she walked out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~

“All right, let’s close,” Doctor Peterson instructed his surgical team. Looking at the face of the unconscious man, he said, “Well, Tank, looks like you’re lucky. This time.”

One of the medics began collecting the surgical instruments and tossed them in the sterilizing solution. “I thought their power suits protected them from being hurt too bad.”

“Nothing’s full-proof,” Peterson answered. “A strong enough blast focused on a particular area – it could really do some internal damage. It’s just that they can take a powerful beating and still keep walking.” Then, to another medic, “Go tell Captain Power that Tank came through with flying colors and we’re moving him to Recovery.”

~*~*~*~*~

Hawk yawned, tried to shake his head to get rid of the fatigue. He shouldn’t be flying, he knew that, but he was also the only one in any condition to fly the jumpship. The others were hurt too badly to cater to the temperamental craft.

Good thing Jackson had kept him alert by talking the entire way back.

Good thing Jackson understood that he needed to keep talking the entire way back to help keep Hawk alert.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t annoying.

“Hospital just ahead,” Hawk announced as he steered the ship lower and prepared to land. He could land, get off the ship, unload the supplies, maybe get some sleep…

Jackson glanced back at their cargo. There were a lot of crates in the hold. “Think we beat the folks from Thurston?”

“Barely,” Hawk indicated motion on the horizon. Hundreds of people were moving toward the hospital. “Greta’s going to have her hands full for the next few days.”

“She’ll need help,” Andy surmised needlessly. “Good thing my dance card’s empty.”

“We haven’t heard anything about Tank yet,” Hawk said aloud without meaning to.

“No news is good news, right?” Andy asked.

“Let’s hope so.”

Just as Hawk landed, Andy made a suggestion. “Hawk, I should probably apologize to your captain, but do you think I should maybe, you know, apologize to that your pilot in person? Would she even listen to me?”

Hawk slowly turned his head toward Jackson. One thing he was certain of – Jon wouldn’t want Jackson anywhere near Jennifer, but for an apology? Would Jon let Jackson in the same room with Jennifer?

Then again, was Jackson being sincere or was this just another attempt to worm his way onto the team?

Hawk was saved from answering when someone slammed their fist against the ship’s hatch.

“Hawk?” It was Jon.

Hawk opened the hatch. Several people entered and started hauling the crates out of the hold. Jon weaved his way through all the people to the pilot’s seat. Hawk knew immediately that Jon hadn’t had a catnap either. “Any trouble?”

“None,” Hawk told him.

Jackson turned and said, “The convoy got slowed down by some clickers. We could only get about one-third of the supplies. They’re bringing in the rest.”

Hawk politely ignored his passenger. “How are Tank and Jennifer?”

Jon rested against the console. “Tank just got out of surgery. Doctor Peterson said he’ll be fine. Scout’s waiting with him in the recovery room. Jennifer hasn’t woke up yet. Greta thinks that it’s from being unconscious and exhausted. She’s not worried.”

That was good news.

“Do we know what happened in Thurston yet?” Hawk asked him.

“No. We won’t know until Tank wakes up.”

~*~*~*~*~

CRASH!

Jennifer woke up at the sound. She looked around… where was she?

Old paint peeling off the walls, cracked floor – definitely not the base infirmary. She was at one of Greta’s hospitals.

What happened? They’d been at Thurston, she’d been surrounded by clickers, Hawk was flying in, Jon was coming, Tank was hurt badly and trapped at the library, Scout was going to him --

Where was everyone else?

Another crash – it was the sound of metal trays falling. Something was happening out in the hallway. Jennifer tried to sit up – oh, bad idea. The entire room began spinning and her head felt like it was splitting.

A hand suddenly had her shoulder and helped her lie back down. “Hey, don’t get up too fast,” Jon told her.

Her head sank back down into the pillow. Jon was there. That meant he was alive. Good. “No, getting up is not a good idea,” she stressed. “What happened?”

“Our luck turned. We got out of Thurston and made it here. That was –” he looked at his watch, “yesterday.”

Yesterday?

She glanced up at Jon. He was bruised up a bit, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He looked exhausted. “What time is it?”

“Almost three in the morning,” he told her as he sat back down in the chair. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”

Almost three in the morning? He’d been waiting for her to wake up for hours? Had she been hurt that badly? “What about Tank?” she asked quickly.

“Doctor Peterson said he’s going to be fine.”

“Good.” Jennifer closed her eyes for a moment and willed her spinning, hurting head to stop spinning and stop hurting. She felt Jon’s hand on her arm. “How did we get out of Thurston?” she whispered.

“Long story short -- the librarian decided to leave. We don’t know why yet. She and Scout helped Tank get to the ship, Hawk and I got you, we escaped, came here, Greta got Tank into surgery, and Doctor Peterson patched him up.”

“Everyone else?”

“We’ll live,” he smiled at her.

Jennifer smiled back at him. Then, she asked, “What about Thurston?”

“The town’s gone. It, the library, the books, but most of the people survived. They’ve been arriving here for the last few hours. We’ve been helping out where we can, but other than lifting and carrying, I think we’re just in the way.”

Jennifer’s head hurt too much to laugh, but she added, “If they want this room, I’ll volunteer to leave early.”

Jon took hold of her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Later. I’m in enough trouble as it is. Greta would never forgive me if I let anyone leave before she gave us the go-ahead.”

That sounded strange. Jennifer looked up at him. “Why are you in trouble?”

Jon cleared his throat. “I, uh, did something you’re not going to like. It’s not that I wanted to do it, but Greta’s back was up against a wall and…well, it seemed like the only solution at the time. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”

He was stalling. That was never a good sign. “Jon?”

Finally, Jon said, “Okay, I let Andy Jackson go with Hawk to pick up the medical supplies from the convoy.”

Andy Jackson? He was at the hospital? That didn’t make Jennifer happy, but, so far, not bad. “You’re in trouble for that?”

“No, not for that,” he answered quickly. “The convoy was some miles out and all of the hospital’s ships are out of commission, so --”

“Wait, stop right there,” she interrupted him. “Please don’t tell me you let Jackson on my ship?”

“Hawk flew the ship, and he didn’t let Jackson touch the controls,” Jon added very quickly. “The convoy chief knew Jackson and would give him the supplies. It really was an emergency situation.”

“He broke in last time by –”

“I know,” Jon raised a placating hand before taking hers again. “I know. Scout was absolutely certain that the fail-safes you and he loaded in the ship’s programming would keep Jackson out if he tried to hack the systems. Also, he promised not to try anything. He has apparently kept our base secret, so…”

“So we had to take the chance,” Jennifer finished for him. “But why did it have to be him?” Jennifer muttered under her breath.

~~~

“But why did it have to be him?”

Jon smiled at her groan. He couldn’t help it. The very idea that Jackson was on board their jumpship, regardless of the reason, didn’t sit well with him either. What was that old saying? Needs must when the devil drives? He didn’t trust Jackson, probably never would, but time was short, people were hurt and they had no choice.

Still, it was Jackson, and none of them liked or trusted him. His behavior the last time they met was less than gentlemanly. He’d embarrassed Jennifer, and as far as Jon was concerned, that was unforgiveable. No amount of apologies would undo what he did.

Now, if he could just make sure he wasn’t in too much trouble and could be forgiven…

“We really had limited options,” he confessed. “You know I wouldn’t let him anywhere near your jumpship unless I absolutely had no choice.”

Her gray eyes stared directly at him, but there was no anger there. She knew. She understood. She would have had to make the same choice, but it was the fact it was Jackson that made the difference.

“Not an easy choice for you, was it?” she asked him.

“No, not really. I don’t trust him. Neither does anyone else, but –”

“No choice,” Jennifer said. Okay, he was forgiven. “So… how bad are the hospital’s ships?”

Interesting change of subject, Jon noticed. “They’re shot up pretty bad.”

Jennifer closed her eyes for a moment. Her head must still be hurting her. “As soon as I can sit up without the room spinning, I’ll see what I can do with them.”

There it was, that selflessness that seemed to permeate her character. It was something that Jon admired about her. She would always do for others before even considering herself. “Greta will appreciate that, but she’s not expecting you do to anything for a while. She even wants you to spend some time in the regenerator when we get back to the base.”

That got her attention. “What about Tank? He had surgery, then –”

“Greta has a line of patients waiting to use the regenerator, but she’s pushed Tank up toward the top of the list.”

“He was hurt that bad?” Jennifer asked him.

“Yeah,” Jon nodded his head, his voice starting to sound more tired than he realized. The day was truly catching up with him. “I think Greta was concerned when she first examined him, but she wasn’t worried. You know Greta. She only worries when she has to.”

Jennifer scrunched up her forehead as she tried to remember the events at Thurston. “I remember Tank telling us that he was hurt and that the librarian wouldn’t leave. I don’t remember much else that was said. The fighting was too loud.”

Jon couldn’t fill in many more gaps. “Tank radioed back that the lady had decided to leave. We have no idea what happened in that library to change Rose’s mind.”

“Rose?” Jennifer didn’t recognize the name.

“That’s the name of the librarian. And, I need to ask you something about the Dread Youth.”

Jennifer scooted up a little on the cot so her head was pushed up against the headboard. “Okay.”

“If someone was brought into the Dread Youth at an older age or someone was captured and brainwashed to be in it, would the caretakers have changed their name?”

“Older?” Jennifer thought for a moment. “How old?”

“Teenager.”

“No, they wouldn’t have changed their name then. They may have only changed the names of those of us they took at a very young age or those of us who had the right look as far as Dread was concerned. If a teenager was taken, they had an already established identity… changing the name would have been met with resistance. It wouldn’t have worked very well. Why?”

Jon ran his hand through his hair. “Rose’s husband and son were either killed or taken prisoner by a Dread patrol years ago. Her son’s name was Jason.”

Jennifer’s eyes grew wide in understanding. “Maybe we shouldn’t mention that to Rose?”

“That’s what Greta suggested,” Jon said.

~*~*~*~*~

There were times when Greta hated being a doctor. When she had to tell a patient that there was nothing she could do, when she had to tell a loved one about a sick or dead family member, when she couldn’t help someone… but at that moment, nothing could be further from the truth.

At that moment, she liked being a doctor.

She liked having good news. She liked seeing patients smile with relief.

She could even be amused that a patient had healed just enough to be bored.

She knew Tank was bored.

Bored. Boreder. Boredest.

He was intensely bored.

Greta understood it all too well. When lying in a hospital bed, the only break from the interminable boredom was when someone came in to take vitals. Other than that, a patient would do anything to occupy their mind: count cracks in the ceiling, the lines on the floor, the wrinkles in the curtain surrounding the bed…

She could hear Tank counting.

Greta knocked on the door. “Mind if I come in?”

From that smile, Tank had never been so happy to see a doctor in his life. “Please. Do. I would love to talk to someone.”

“You’ll be having visitors in about five minutes,” Greta said as she pulled a chair from behind the curtain nearer to the bed and sat down. “It has been so busy since the people from Thurston started showing up some hours ago. This is the first time I’ve been able to sit down since they started arriving.”

“Busy?” Tank asked.

“Very. In any case, that little trip in the regenerator did a better job on you than I first thought. You’ll be out of here by noon today. That means I get rid of all five of you at one time.” Greta smiled at Tank’s bemused expression. “None of you are good patients, you know that?”

“How are the others?”

“Hurt, bruised, but all will tell the tale,” Greta took another look at Tank’s chart. “You’re the one they’ve been worrying about. They’ve been getting hourly updates since you came out of Recovery.”

Something she said seemed to get Tank’s attention. “How close was it?”

Ah. That question. “It was close. They got you here in time. That’s what’s important.” Greta put the chart back and stood up, her moment of relaxation finished. “So if you’re feeling up to it, Hawk and Scout would like to check on you themselves.”

And that bit of news truly made Tank happy. “I think I’m feeling fine,” he told her.

~~~~~

Tank held his side as he laughed. “The captain told her, right?”

“I wasn’t going to,” Scout explained quickly. “And Hawk was gone. Seriously, which one of us is brave enough to tell Jennifer that we let Jackson on the jumpship?”

“It’s not about bravery,” Hawk told them. “It’s about self-preservation. Jon can at least stand behind a ‘command decision’ excuse,” he laughed. “But you won’t believe this – Jackson apologized for his behavior when we met him.”

That stopped Tank from laughing. “He apologized? After everything he said?”

“Yeah. He even asked me if he should apologize to Jennifer personally.”

Scout shook his head. “I don’t think the captain would want him anywhere near her.”

“I don’t like the idea much myself,” Hawk added. “He might have been telling the truth, then again, he might just be making nice with us to try to get on the team.”

“Not a chance,” Tank stated. “He’s not a team player.”

Hawk could only agree. “Could you imagine if he had been with us in Thurston? He may like to beat clickers, but he’s out for himself. He wants to be the hero.”

“Hero? Center of attention, you mean,” Scout corrected him.

Then, Tank turned the conversation back to events that had just happened. “What was the outcome at Thurston?”

Hawk leaned back in his chair. “We helped save most of the people but lost the town.”

“And the library?”

“It burned. I don’t know if anything is left,” Scout told him

Tank closed his eyes for just a moment. “All those books. That could destroy Rose.”

Hawk leaned forward and said in a low voice, “What happened at the library, Tank? How did you convince her to finally leave?”

In an equally low voice, Tank answered, “We could hear everyone talking over the radio. She listened to the captain say he wasn’t going to leave any of us behind and that we were all leaving Thurston alive. She listened to Scout’s reports about fighting through clickers to get to the library to help me. It was when we heard Jennifer tell the captain to forget her and help me since I was injured that Rose understood what was happening. That’s when she realized that none of us were leaving because of her, and that we were in danger because she wouldn’t leave.”

“That’s it?” Scout asked. “There had to be more to it than that.”

“There was a little more,” Tank continued. “I basically said that the captain wouldn’t leave Jennifer behind for any reason, and the longer we stayed there, the greater danger Jennifer was in. The captain could lose her like Rose lost her husband and son. She didn’t want that to happen.”

And there it was. The semi-secret they shared coming more and more into play in their everyday lives.

“Well, let me toss one more wrench into the works,” Hawk kept his voice low in case anyone passed by the room. “Jackson basically said that he knew Jon and Jennifer are starting to figure things out.”

Again, they were surprised. Tank sat up just a little. “Jackson knows?”

Hawk nodded his head. “I’m beginning to think that the only two people who don’t know are Jon and Jennifer.”

~*~*~*~*~

Noon.

Greta took her ten-minute break on the second story ‘lounge’ that looked out over the hospital atrium. Wounded lay in cots all along the walkways, balconies and floor. Those who didn’t have cots were lying on pallets on the floor. Luckily, the numbers of the severely wounded from Thurston had been minimal. Most didn’t even require surgery.

Overall, they’d been busy, but they were managing the workload.

“Hiya, Doc,” Andy Jackson walked up beside her and gazed down at the atrium. “Jim’s getting checked out by one of the medics, so we should be out of your hair in a few minutes. Looks like you’re losing some more of your patients.”

Greta looked toward where he was pointing. The Power Team was standing together. Hawk was giving Tank a strong shoulder to lean on as he walked, Scout was making jokes and Jon was helping Jennifer remain standing. “Yeah, they’re healed up enough to go home to their own infirmary.”

“They’re a strange bunch,” Jackson observed. “I don’t mean strange ‘weird.’ They’re more like strange ‘unique.’”

Greta could only agree. “That they are. That’s what makes them work so well together. They… fit.”

Andy was quiet for a moment – which was never a good sign. “Doc, I want to ask you something. I know it’s none of my business, probably none of yours, but what is it about the captain? I don’t get him.”

“I get him, but you’re right. It’s none of our business.”

Andy wasn’t content to leave it at that. “Aw, c’mon, Doc. What gives? He’s got this pretty pilot who likes him and the captain won’t even… I mean, if it was me –”

“He’s not you,” Greta told him.

“I’ve never had any problem with the ladies. If he needs any advice –”

“Advice?” Greta laughed. “Andy, Jonathan Power is a gentleman. He wouldn’t take advantage of the situation, and I know that for a fact because I’ve known him since he was a teenager.”

“I don’t mean taking advantage of anything,” Andy protested. “I mean… uh, well… look, take it from me, it’s not every day a pretty lady is interested in you, you know. If that pilot gave me so much as a wink --”

“That will never happen,” Greta told him. “You’ve got a lot to learn about people, you know?”

“I’m working on it,” he told her. “But there’s got to be more to those two than the captain just being a gentleman.”

“Oh, there is,” she agreed.

“So share. What’s the story?” he wanted to know.

He was fishing for information but Greta wasn’t going to take the bait. “I don’t know. I know that neither one of them is impulsive. They’re part of a team. He’s the superior officer. More importantly, there’s a war on,” Greta reminded him. “There are a dozen good reasons.” Greta thought that maybe the biggest reason was that they had only started to realize what they meant to each other, but she wasn’t going to tell Andy that. It was dangerous for people who lived their lives on the front lines to form permanent relationships. “It’s a risk, and those two have risky enough jobs as it is. Who needs more danger in their line of work?”

Andy thought for a moment, then his eyes grew wide as if he realized a long-pondered secret. He slapped himself on the side of the head. “No wonder… I mean… Okay, just kick me, will you?”

“What? Why?”

Andy turned around and propped himself up against the window. “When I first met them, I kind of said some things I shouldn’t have. I thought I just embarrassed that pilot a bit. I guess what I said hit a little harder than that.”

Greta squinted her eyes. “You never did go into the details about that.”

“Nope.” Andy told her emphatically. “Not going to now either.” He turned around and watched the team prepare to leave. “I really screwed up big time when I met them.”

“That you did,” Greta agreed, “but I don’t think you completely screwed up your chances of working with them in the future.”

That perked Andy up a bit. “Really? You think?”

“Yeah. I mean, you went on board the jumpship without Jennifer’s permission, she knows and you’re still standing. Plus you kept your promise about no shenanigans. I’d say that bodes well in your favor.”

They watched as a woman approached the team and started talking to Tank.

“Who’s that?” Andy asked.

“That’s Rose, the librarian from Thurston. She’s the one who didn’t want to leave when the clickers attacked. I think she might be apologizing for that.”

“Think it’ll do any good?”

Greta nodded her head. “To that team? Absolutely. I’m sure they understand. Apologies can go a long way -- if they’re sincere,” she added for his benefit. “And in order to be forgiven, the person you’re apologizing to has to believe you. That involves a bit of trust which has to be earned, and understanding why someone did what they did in the first place.”

Andy was quiet for a moment, then asked, “Are you saying that they wouldn’t believe me if I apologized?”

Greta shook her head. “Right now, no, but let me give you a bit of advice.” She looked him in the eye and said, “When you do apologize to the captain and the pilot for what you did, make sure it’s for the right reasons and you mean it.”

Andy looked down at the group and saw them smiling as they talked with Rose. They seemed to be in a fairly receptive mood. “Think now’s a good time?” he asked.

“Don’t push your luck.”

The End

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