March 16, 2035
15:31 Eastern Daylight Savings Time
Canadian Countryside
Van woke with a start, not expecting to find herself on a cold metal floor surrounded by debris and the air reeking from her unwashed body combined with her feces and urine.
It took some time for her to remember that she was on the Avenger, not the alien base, but now she understood all of her fears. They didn't seem so irrational now. Or maybe they were and what she "remembered" was just the result of those fears.
There was movement to her left and she slowly turned her head, suddenly aware of just how much she hurt. The movement had come from Steele who had wearily gotten to her feet, her skin looked sallow and there were dark bags under her eyes. "Welcome back, Athena."
"Thank you. I think." After a great deal of deliberation, Van managed to get herself into a sitting position and couldn't hide her distress at the damage done to the psi lab. Not only were the contents of the cell she was in destroyed, it looked like a similar storm had occurred in the other lab. "Zoria? Is she all right? Is that why she's in the infirmary with Sarin?"
She'd reached out with mind without being conscious of doing so. Van was just…aware of all the people on the Avenger, not that she was trying to read their thoughts. The presence she felt the most was John's and he was already making his way down to the lab.
The blonde woman considered her. "Well, that answers one question. And yes, both Zoria and Jay will be all right, they just need a few more days to recover."
"So what exactly happened? The last thing I clearly remember happening was you initiating the activation sequence." There had been brief flashes of other things, but she wasn't sure if those were real, or her mind making things up while she was what? Reliving a memory? Had it even been real? Or was it some nightmare her overloaded brain came up with?
Some part of her was firmly convinced that it had happened.
Steele scrubbed her face. "When we started the activation sequence, it triggered some sort of traumatic memory. Jay and I couldn't get clear details because when we touched your mind you thought we were enemies. That's when the lab got blown up. The chief and her people managed to get some emergency shielding in place so you wouldn't affect the rest of the ship."
She paused for a moment to let Van think that over. Van frowned as a new worry stood out. "If I can sense everyone on the Avenger, I didn't…do anything to them, did I?"
"You're fine on that score. You didn't project anything telepathically, just telekinetically. That only became a problem when Geoff used his gremlin to give you subcutaneous injections so that you wouldn't dehydrate or starve to death."
Van grimaced. "I think I remember him asking me not to destroy one."
"It was one of your rare semi-lucid moments." She hesitated. "Central spent a lot of time down here since his presence seemed to soothe you the most."
"Speaking of whom, he'll be here shortly." She looked around at the destruction around her. "I don't suppose the shower is working?"
"I'm afraid not, we had to shut off the plumbing. For obvious reasons we couldn't send someone in to see to you, and the way you reacted to the gremlins…"
"Right. Since I'm not really picking up any distress, everyone is doing all right?"
The blonde woman nodded. "Yes. We've been laying low since the destruction of the Forge Facility. That really stirred up a hornet's nest. Otherwise everyone is fine, just worried about you."
She couldn't suppress her sigh. "So much for keeping it low key."
"These things can't be helped. You're not the first one I've seen overload during activation, but you are the first to come out of it sanely." Steele gave her a long look. "I suspect in this case it's the relationship between you and Central. He gave you a touchstone to stay connected with reality."
Well, she had called John her bedrock and she already knew the crew knew about the two of them. "So what do I have to do to get out of here?"
"Just a few tests, even though I'm fairly certain you've amply demonstrated what you can do." They both shared a wry smile at that. "We'll start with the basic display of power."
Having seen both Steele and Sarin do just that, not to mention the aliens, Van concentrated and called up a small ball of psionic power without the ridiculous hand gestures. They were using their brains for god's sake, not wizards from some fantasy setting. She didn't expect to get a ball of bright cerulean light. Every psionic she'd seen in action, human or alien, had always been some shade of violet.
Steele pursed her lips as she considered the ball. "I'm not sure which is worse. That you don't gesture or that you're already messing about with what you can do."
"I promise, this is how it manifested without any input on my part. As for the gestures," her lip curled slightly without meaning to, "we're not wizards."
That got her a smile. "And here we were taught that way to help us to be able to always be able to channel our energies consistently. Once the lab is restored, we can try to figure out how to test this out."
"Or we could take one of the small unused chambers, have it shielded and give us a practice ground that way. I'm sorry I didn't think of that before."
That a wave of dismissal. "You've only had us for a week and a half, and half that time you were otherwise occupied. Anyway, since we already have a good idea of what your telekinesis can do, let's test the telepathy."
"What did you have in mind?"
"We'll start with the Avenger, then work our way out. Though I'm not sure how much you'll pick-up since we're pretty far out in what you Americans call Northern Bumblefuck."
She couldn't help smiling at hearing that term come out of the British woman, then turned serious about the matter on hand since John was waiting patiently outside the door for the all clear to enter. She rubbed her forehead. "So how do we do this? We link up somehow and you, well, go for a mental ride along or something?"
"Yes, that is pretty much the idea."
"All right, let's get this over and done with so I can get out of here."
Steele sat back down in the chair then extended a mental "hand" that Van found that she was able to easily "clasp" then let her mind surge up and out of her body. First she did a quick sweep of the Avenger, making sure to keep to the public areas, then she "flew" outside.
The view held her captivated for a time.
They'd settled down in a mountainous area still covered in snow, overlooking a slow moving river that had a fine glazing of ice. A gentle poke from Akadia, and they were on a first name basis for the moment due to the nature of the link they shared, broke her from the contemplating of icy glory. Taking her cue from a nearby hawk, not that she wanted to try to read that razor wire mind, she began to make slow lazy circles out from the Avenger.
While she didn't sense any human or alien minds, Van enjoyed the virtual sensation of flying and seeing the gorgeous, if stark, scenery.
Oh, Akadia said in the back of her awareness, you truly are seeing this.
Yes, why?
Neither Jay nor I can see anything unless we're viewing it from another's mind. I think that perhaps Doctor Tygan was wrong. You aren't prescient, you're clairvoyant.
I'll admit, I prefer that to seeing the future. Even if the whole situation seemed surreal. Granted life had started off feeling that way when the invasion started, but now was just weird.
Can't say that I blame you.
Since it seemed like there was nothing around the area, she decided to head south. Feeling the murmur of mental voices, she adjusted the direction to the southwest. There was a small town that seemed to have seen better days.
That looks like Pond Inlet, which is easily forty kilometers from here. Akadia commented in an awed voice. I think that's enough for one day.
A sudden wave of exhaustion made Van silently agree and pull back to her body. When she opened her physical eyes the first sight that greeted her was John standing at the entrance to the cell. He looked as haggard as she felt and wondered if he'd gotten any rest during the last few days.
Steele got out of the chair with a soft groan. "She's all yours, Central. I'm going to check on Jay and Zoria then crash for a day or so."
"Thank you," he said without taking his eyes off Van.
The woman nodded easily and walked away. Van looked up at John and tried to decide the easiest way of getting up. Forcing her abused body to move or using her abused mind to move her body.
John strode through the door to her and held out a hand to her. While she appreciated the sentiment, she was truly revolting. "John, I'm pretty sure you don't want to touch me right now. I know I don't want to touch me right now."
He frowned at her. "Why not?"
She knew he had a working nose so the smell should have told him everything. "I haven't had a shower in five days and…" Her cheeks flamed with shame, she was not about to say out loud that she'd shit and pissed on herself. That was also when she became aware of the sorry state of her jumpsuit which was partially shredded and had dried patches of blood. Apparently she hadn't spared herself in her frenzy. "Other things. I'm disgusting beyond any words I have to describe."
The frown cleared. "Oh. Angel, I am a soldier."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I've dealt with worse." Then his voice shifted to an annoyed growl. "Now let me help you up, or I'll pick you up."
Van cautiously put her hand into his and somehow got to her feet, then would have fallen back down if John didn't grab her. Her legs felt like they were made of half-set gelatin.
"Looks like you're not in any shape to walk on your own." He gave her a stern look. "Don't argue."
Before she could figure out what he was talking about, he scooped her up in his arms.
Stubborn pride almost caused her to argue with him, then realized that was stupid. She really was in no shape to walk and if she did try, he'd end up carrying her anyway, which would probably annoy him to no end. Instead she let her head settle on his shoulder and tried not to think about how rank her hair must have smelled.
Without thinking about it, Van did the mental equivalent of her head on his shoulder, enjoying the feel of his presence. He stopped abruptly just before leaving the door, which caused her to jerk her head up and withdraw back into her own mind. "I'm sorry, John, I didn't mean to invade your head like that."
"So it was you, good." John resumed walking, then shifted his grip to get her to settle back into place. "It wasn't unpleasant." He gave her a surprisingly sweet smile. "Liked it actually. So until I tell you otherwise, you have my permission to do whatever that was."
"Just the mental equivalent of what I'm doing now." Carefully, she extended the mental feelers again, then snuggled against his mind when she felt his welcome. Contentment settled over them both and she could see some of the worry lines easing from around his eyes and mouth.
She started to drowse a bit until it sank in that the corridors were suspiciously empty. There were heavy concentrations of people in Mission Control, Engineering and the crew quarters as well as a number outside. "Why is the area so empty? And everyone is either bunched up in certain parts of the Avenger or just outside?"
"Respect. They don't know the details, Jane made sure to keep Hause quiet about your condition, but they knew you were in bad shape."
"And that it was likely someone was going to end up carrying me around like a sack of potatoes?" Though she bet it was the smell.
"Wouldn't put it quite like that."
"True, that was probably more like when you got me away from ADVENT."
She felt his smile more than saw it, but he didn't say anything. They remained quiet until they got to her quarters. When John carefully put her back on her feet, and despite feeling utterly disgusted with herself, Van leaned in to kiss him. When she leaned back shakily, she smiled. "Thank you. Though that seems inadequate for everything you've done for me."
He smiled. "As always, angel, you can thank me like that any time. C'mon, let's get you cleaned up, you'll feel better then." John gave her a gentle nudge in the direction of the bathroom while keeping a hand at her back to keep her steady.
Van frowned a little at his clear intention of assisting her there too. "John… you don't have to do this."
That got her a sharp look, but he didn't stop moving. "Nope. Want to though."
The conviction in his mind surprised and confused her. Van had always only had herself to rely on, even as a child, and that was something she'd grown to be proud of. Add in previous relationships didn't involve this level of care, it made things awkward for her.
As they entered the bathroom he asked, "What's really bothering you?"
"I never thought of myself as the high maintenance type."
He didn't say anything as he deposited her at the sink where she managed to find the wherewithal to brush her teeth and he started to run the shower for her. "Don't have to worry about running the shower as long as you like since we're getting water directly from the river."
She nodded a little and he put his hand on her shoulder to make her look at him, as well as a strong invitation from his mind. When she curled around his mind, she felt like she was basking in the warmth of a friendly fire, then he caressed her face. "Van, there's nothing wrong with one partner leaning against another when they're having a bad time of it. My god, you've been back for less than two months and look at everything you've been through."
John gave her a stern look. "And before you say anything, yes the past twenty years were bad, but it didn't get thrown on me all at once."
She gave him a weak smile and said something she'd never said to anyone before, not even her birth family. "I love you."
The way his face lit up made her think she'd given him the world. Maybe she had given the feelings that poured out of him. "Love you too, Vanessa McKenzie." He kissed her lightly, but meaningfully. "Now let's get you out of those rags and into the shower."
The next half hour was one of the more humiliating ones for Van since John ended up helping her get undressed, then into the shower then finally in cleaning up. Though she was given a chance to stand under the pounding hot water on her own and that felt amazing.
Later, over egg salad sandwiches and potato salad, she tried to get caught up on what she missed. She didn't need her newfound telepathy to tell her that he was irritated by it. He pointed his fork at her. "I'll give you a quick summary, then no more work for the day for you."
She blinked at that and had to remind herself, again, that the invasion was over. While they needed to stop the Avatar Project, it wasn't like the war where they had constant barrages to deal with. As she kept being reminded, they had limited resources, which meant picking and choosing their battles carefully.
That included her personal ones. Maybe John was being overprotective, but she understood rightly, the past five days had scared him shitless. "I promise, no more work after this, but I was worried after Steele mentioned something about the reaction to us blowing up that facility."
He nodded and the tension flowed out of him. "Understandable. It's why we're out here. All of their facilities are on even higher alert than normal. There was some pursuit of the Avenger, but we've evaded them."
Van slowly put her half eaten sandwich down, her stomach suddenly felt like it was full of molten lead and she suddenly felt faint. She swallowed back the fear as John got up and came around the table. "I'll be all right, it's just… Well, I'll go over it once you've given me your news."
There was silence for a moment as he studied her and she reached out to take his hand. "Seriously, John. I will be all right. Please, sit down."
He squeezed her hand in return before returning to his seat at her request. "It's been largely quiet, though while we were performing the evasion maneuvers, Tygan detected a distress signal." John took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It was one of our original signals from the time of the evasion. Think… think it might be from Big Sky. It's a close fit to the transponder on his skyranger."
She knew that they didn't know what happened to Big Sky after the hit on HQ. Adam and Duane had said the squad had come to the decision with the pilot to scatter in the middle of nowhere. None had heard from him since.
"Shen has some drones carefully investigating the location. Maybe in a day or so it'll be quiet enough for us to investigate."
"Yes, we have to know. Maybe it isn't within our overall mission, but if this is one of our people, we have to know."
The smile he gave her was small but still warm. "Knew you'd understand." He ate a little bit. "So what did you want to tell me?"
"Before I go into it, I want to say I know I am me, between everything that's happened and Tygan's tests."
Dark brown eyes peered at her with worry under beetled brows, but he just gestured for her to continue on. After taking a deep breath of her own and letting it out, she told him about the hell she had relived because that little voice that kept insisting that it was real was the same one she'd learned to listen to about trouble.
When she finished, John leaned back in his seat and gave a low whistle. "No wonder you had those worries. Not that you really needed more reasons than the ones you had before." He rubbed his chin for a moment. "Think that's how you had an idea of what this Avatar Project is?"
"Yes, but I have a strong feeling they're not just taking over random bodies." What happened to her made her skin crawl. It crawled even worse at the thought of it happening to other people. Any alternatives she could think of weren't much better.
"Probably right and there might be an answer in the stasis suit. Tygan's been acting… What's that term you use? Squirrelly?"
Wasn't that just great? Duty demanded she go see what had Tygan so wound up, but the truth was she was just tapped out. Eating lunch or dinner or whatever it was, had used the last of her reserves. There was also the fact she'd promised no more work and with the way John was eyeballing her meant that he was going to hold her to it.
"Do you think it can wait until tomorrow or the next day? I'm about ready to crash." She tried to stifle a yawn. "And I would also really love it if you'd join me if I'm not taking you away from anything."
"My pleasure. Was planning on getting some sleep soon myself. Go to bed and I'll clean up."
She frowned. "I am capable of cleaning up my own room."
"Right now you need sleep more and nothing wrong with accepting a little help."
"Says the man who got upset when I tried to get him to take it easy when his leg was bothering him," she grumbled as she got up and started picking up dishes. She was quite proud that her hands didn't shake while she did so.
There was a flash of a smile. "If I'm in that kind of situation again, promise to let you fuss over me without complaining."
"Right." The doubt in her voice drew another smile as he gave in gracefully. Not that there was all that much to clean up.
Once the dishes were stacked in their carrier and the few crumbs wiped away, he firmly took the carrier then kissed her on the forehead. "Get into bed, I'll be back shortly."
This time she didn't argue and by the time he returned she was already sinking into her first real sleep in five days.