A new beginning.

I was put on a flight to Vancouver the following day, General Woodman came with me because he said that all candidates had to be accompanied by their recruiter. One we got to Vancouver we were put on a private jet and flown out. I looked at my clock, it couldn't be much longer or we would end up over the Arctic Ocean. I stared out of my window at the endless fields of snow and clouds; everything was white, every square inch of the sky and land was white. The sun suddenly came out and burnt my eyes so I hastily put the window blind down. Woodman was sitting in the row next to me and was reading a book about Pompeii. It was so typical of his character, he would always study disasters but then again he was only doing his job. I decided to go to the cockpit and talk to the pilot.

-"How long until descent?" I asked closing the door behind me. The pilot turned around briefly and looked at his controls.

-"Around a quarter of an hour lass, say what brings you up here?" He was bald and wore a pair of Reyban glasses, I huffed and sat down in the first-officer's seat.

-"Boredom. Why are there no other crew members?" He chuckled and adjusted the auto-pilot.

-"You are a smart one aren't you lass, I thought that you already knew that this place is top secret." I looked at him in confusion, was it that secret?

-"I knew that but are they being that cautious?" He smiled and read one of his instruments.

-"Belt-in lass, it's going to get bumpy." I clipped the seat-belt together and much to my surprise he entered a dive.

-"Not to sound panicky or anything like that but what the hell are you doing?" He smiled and increased the engine power before pulling up. We were heading straight for a mountain, he pulled out his radio and started talking.

-"Alaska 1 this is Bravo Tango Charlie, we are now on final approach." We were still a few miles away from the mountain.

-"Bravo Tango Charlie, you have clearance for landing on runway 3." I looked around but saw no airport or airbase.

-"Runway 3? What runway?" I asked him deeply confused. He once again smiled and pointed towards the mountain. Suddenly two doors opened into a cave and I finally saw Runway 3.

-"Didn't expect that did you lass?" I laughed a little and stared in amazement.

-"Not really." I saw some surface to air missiles on a ledge next to the runway, the pilot must have noticed that I looked nervous.

-"Don't worry, they won't shoot us." It must have been difficult to land the aircraft in the cave for the pilot. If he missed, we were all dead. He did manage to land without scratching the paint of the aircraft or killing anyone.

-"Lieutenant come with me please." Woodman ordered, I smiled at the pilot who waved. I then grabbed my bag and descended from the plane, there was a tall slim woman waiting for us.

-"General Woodman and Lieutenant Mai I presume?" Woodman nodded, the woman handed a clip-board that we both signed to confirm our presence.

-"Follow me please." She said directing us to a tube with some seats. She sat us all down and we started moving at a surprising speed. We finally stopped and the doors opened. I unbelted myself and prepared to get out but Woodman stopped me.

-"For goodness sake's, do not make a fool of yourself on your first day." I nodded and he got out. We were greeted by a tall black women with wavy hair, she smiled at Woodman and hugged him.

-"It's been a long time Russel, what have you been up-to lately?"

-"Training Blue-Berets and sorting out Aliens, nothing out of the ordinary my dear Tia." She smiled at him but as soon as she saw me, the smiled faded from her lips.

-"Is that your recruit? I thought that of all people you would choose wisely." I felt tears in my eyes, and tightened my fists.

-"I know that Lieutenant Mai may not look a decent soldier but I can assure you that she is. I trained her since she was fifteen and just out of an orphanage, she's a number one graduate from Westpoint." I stood perfectly still as she circled around me, examining me. She pulled out a knife and tried to stab me, I grabbed her hand and threw her so she landed on her back. I then took the knife and stepped back at little before dropping it on the ground.

-"I guess that appearances can be deceiving. I apologies Lieutenant, I should have known better than judge a book by the cover." I smiled and handed her the knife, she then shook my hand.

-"I'm General Tia Johnson and welcome to Alaska 1."