"Tru, your mother is very sick," the dark haired human man-her father-said to her as he held back tears. He was holding onto her tiny arms.
"Is mommy going to be ok?" The innocent child's voice didn't surprise Trudy as she immediately recognized it was her own. She tried flexing her stubby fingers and found that they did not move at her command. Her father shook his head in response to her question.
"I hope so."
"Tim and I have decided to join the military." Trudy felt older than she had moments before. She was sitting on a couch in a living room between the youngest boys in the house. The oldest two stood in the middle of the room as they addressed their family. "I enlisted in the Army. Tim joined the Marines. We want to honor you dad and everything you've done for our country."
"You'll honor me no matter what you boys do," Trudy heard her father say with pride and with a hint of sadness in his voice.
She was a teenager and she was standing at the front door just behind her grey haired father.
"Mr. Chacon. Ms. Chacon." The man acknowledged them by name as he'd appeared at their door in uniform three times already. "Could I come in?" Her father nodded and the man removed his cap. He stood stiffly in the living room. "I'll get straight to it. Second Lieutenant Trevor Chacon was reported killed in action-"
Trudy felt a tightness in her chest as these old feelings flooded within her anew. Trevor's smiling face flashed through her mind and she barely held back a sob.
"I'm sorry Ms. Chacon. Your father," the doctor said to her as she stood alone in the white walled hospital. "It doesn't look too good."
Suddenly she was standing over a gravesite. Six tombstones ending with Chacon, the latest one was still a mound of dirt. And instead of pain, she found herself feeling nothing more than loneliness and numbness…a feeling that was beginning to overwhelm her with its numerous appearances in her life.
"You're to report to the Fort for boot camp at 0600 hours on the first of September." The man stamped a letter then handed her a packet of papers. "Welcome to the Air Force Chacon."
She found herself in a bunker watching a newscast with some of her fellow airmen. The anchor was wearing a purple blouse and heavy makeup. Trudy began to wonder when was the last time she felt feminine. "The excavations to Pandora have produced unsavory results as the mining of the expensive mineral Unobtanium comes to a standstill say some officials."
"The Resources Development Administration is in need of more recruits for their Security Operations division on Pandora. We have called on you as you are not on active duty within your respective branches and you fit a profile proven acceptable for the circumstances."
"Means we got no responsibilities as civilians," Trudy smirked at her new acquaintance's whispered words ignoring the slight sting from the truth of them.
"While you will serve mostly as security personnel , a tour there equates to about three here both physically and monetarily."
"That's where they get you," the guy leaned into her ear again. "Guy I know says they freeze your account here for about twenty years here but it's while you're gone. You sleep 12, age six. Come back, two years or so and bang- you're back on the front."
"So why you do people do it if we're getting cheated?" She whispered back.
"The pay's out of this world."
"I was sent to formally welcome you into the RDA Secops division and to confirm your enlistment." Trudy looked around at her old house where her family used to sit but now with the furniture either packed away or covered in dust from non use she confidently turned back to the suit at her door.
"18 years of not seeing this place…count me in."
"You report at 0600 hours at the Base. Again welcome, Captain Chacon."
"The name's Wainfleet. Lyle Wainfleet. I'm on your crew for Samson 16." Trudy smirked at the cocky bald guy standing in front of her as they stood in the air fleet's 'garage'.
"First that's a funny name. Two, I haven't even seen her yet so you mind showing me my wings?"
"I like a straight forward girl." He winked. Trudy shook her head amused. "Right this way."
"You're being assigned to the AVTR wing," Colonel Quartich said and it surprised Trudy that she instantly knew his name, could pinpoint him and had a flurry of feelings that rose within her at the simple sound of his voice. His back was to her as he verified some things for a few assistants. "You'll be flying Augustine to and from wherever she needs to go." He finally turned to face her, giving her thorough look over that she chose to ignore. "I know it sounds frivolous but it just so happens that the science nerds like to play in gardens that are worse than a mine field in hostile Nigeria." He finally locked onto her eyes all she felt at first was respect and admiration with just a tinge of attraction. But a sickening feeling began to well up inside her.
"Rogue One is hit! Going in."
Fire. Pain.
"Sorry Jake."
A Na'vi falling to his doom.
Darkness.
Trudy gasped for air as if she had been drowning. Her arms were shaking and on reflex she started to pat her body down as if trying to extinguish the fire she had just felt consuming her. There was no fire. She wasn't in her dying moments and she certainly wasn't a human.
But it had felt so real.
She tried to calm her nerves. Even though she had just envisioned an everlasting heat it felt as if her body was going into shock from being doused in freezing water.
It was as if she were just waking up after a very, very long sleep.
But the images, the memories didn't feel like memories. She knew with memories that the mind can sometimes diminish the actual feelings but it was as if she were reliving moments of a life complete with the knowledge of what was happening before and after the moment in time.
She gasped as she looked up at the tree. She reached to unhook her queue but it was already hanging at her back. She stumbled backwards knowing what she had seen, knowing what she had just experienced.
But not quite believing it. Not wanting to believe it.
"Trudy?" She heard her name being called but she couldn't respond and the eerie familiarity that came along with it was not as lost on her as it should have been. "Trudy, your mother said you were out here. We missed you at evening meal." Jake emerged from the forest a happiness coating his voice since he was convinced that Trudy had finally done what was asked of her but when he noticed her lack of response his tone grew serious. "Are you alright?" She started shaking her head before she had realized it.
"Jake-I mean dad I'm-" she stuttered because it seriously felt as if two different people, two different souls were trying to control the same body in that moment. "I'm… Trudy."
And with those two words, she knew she was starting to wig out.
"Of course you are," he said with a quick laugh thinking she was teasing him. "Who else would you …" he trailed off when she turned and he saw her serious expression.
"I'm Trudy Chacon."
A/N: Updated 7/12/10: I know it's short but I wanted it to be so I will try with all my might to get the next chapter out before I go to bed but I'm still editing it so no promises. Hope this chapter wasn't too confusing. Next chapter will explain more and THANK YOU for all the reviews and alerts and favs!