Next Day
Freedom One was a voice. To many people, that's all she was - a disembodied voice echoing from the void, one that rose above the despair that plagued them daily. That was all they knew about her - the sound of her voice. How many times had listeners heard her say, "This is Freedom One speaking. The Voice of the East Coast Resistance movement?" She was familiar. She was like another member of the family, a welcome guest at the table. When they didn't hear the voice, people worried. Had something happened? Had Dread silenced another freedom fighter?
When her voice was first heard over the radio waves, many didn't know if she could be trusted. Over time, listeners became used to her voice, accustomed to her broadcasts. Then, when her intel proved to be true, many on the East Coast became fans of her broadcasts. News of her reports were sent across country until many in remote areas were aware of her and waited to hear whatever news she delivered. Real time war Intel happening on the East Coast being learned on the West Coast in a small amount of time? Yes, it was an enticing thought. People huddled around their radios to hear what she had to say. At first, the broadcasts were haphazard and unscheduled. Soon, she was being heard at a particular time each week... then every day. There was an excitement when her reports began to occasionally include events extending beyond the East Coast in other parts of the country. Sometimes, it was a mere blip of a news story; sometimes it was a long involved report.
"Valiant fighters in quadrant nine destroyed one column of dread troopers today. No casualties."
"Intensified sweeps by Soaron in sector one. All resistance fighters are warned to remain undercover."
"Just received word of a stunning blow against a secret Dread project by Captain Power and his unit. They are an inspiration to us all."
Even in the face of a great loss, she would let everyone know that yes, they had been beaten but no, they hadn't been defeated. The Resistance was still fighting. There was still hope. The mere sound of her voice could inspire and reassure.
She hadn't been heard from in two days, and people were beginning to worry.
Jon hurried through the corridors and spoke into his comm. "Scout, has it started yet?"
"Not yet, Captain," Scout answered. "But it's still a minute or two before air time."
"Right. On my way."
In a way, Jon felt a little strange feeling eager to hear the voice of someone he'd never met. It was similar to the anticipation he felt as a boy when a new action movie with his favorite actor was filmed and he couldn't wait to see it. What was that old term called? Being a fanboy? Is that what he was? A fan of a mysterious disembodied voice instead of a captain of a Resistance group needing to hear any Intel that might affect an upcoming battle?
He walked into the control room to find everyone else there, all of them just as eager to hear Freedom One.
"Sure this is the right time?" Hawk asked.
"Positive," Jon answered. "She missed her last broadcasts. I hope nothing happened."
Scout focused in on the transmission. "We got it!" he said.
Immediately, Freedom One's voice sounded over the speakers. "Freedom One is back on the air after an emergency relocation. I was nearly captured by Dread troops but managed to escape with the aid of Cypher, one of our bravest and most dedicated leaders."
"Cypher?" Hawk muttered. "I wonder why we didn't hear anything about it."
Tank chuckled. "It must have just happened, Hawk. News still doesn't move that fast."
Scout chuckled. "I didn't know Cypher was on the East Coast."
Then Freedom One spoke a personal message. "Cypher? I owe you one. I know that it cost you."
"Cost him?" Jennifer repeated.
"I haven't heard anything about it," Jon answered.
"Sacrifice is a word we all know too well. There is no one within the sound of my voice that has not lost someone. A wife. Husband. Children. Friend. Lover. But there is one thing we must never lose."
Freedom One, along with Jon, said, "Hope."
"Without hope, we'll give up when we're tired and hungry, and it seems that the chaos and madness must overwhelm us. When it seems as though hope has lost all meaning, on that day, Dread will have won. Hope is the flame that burns in our hearts. It is warmth when the soul is cold. It is light when darkness surrounds us."
Scout shook his head in appreciation. "The lady's a poet."
"I end today's broadcast with a special message. I summon the thunder. Repeat. I summon the thunder.
Summon the thunder?
Jon turned suddenly, loudly ordering, "Mentor, prepare to receive coded microburst!"
Immediately, Mentor appeared and answered, "Prepared to receive."
Jon moved to the communications screen, everyone joining him. "Unscramble microburst and display coded location on screen." A display of the state of Massachusetts appeared.
"Massachusetts?" Jennifer asked.
A locator signal showed up near what used to be Cape Cod. "That's where she is."
"That's strange," Jennifer muttered.
Jon glanced back at her. He heard an odd catch in her voice. "Why?"
"Not sure," she said. Something about Massachusetts was tickling at her mind. Was it a memory? She'd figure it out later. However - "That area doesn't get Dread's attention these days. Her transmissions are usually sent from wherever there's the most trouble and noise back East. It seems odd that she'd be in a quiet area."
That was strange. "Maybe. Summon the thunder means come at once."
"How do you know that? Is it something you've set up with her?" Hawk asked.
Jon nodded, sort of, as if being the only one to speak to a celebrity was a reason to be embarrassed. "I've talked to her a few times by tight-beamed commlink. Gave her some information and she relays it back to the East Coast Resistance."
Scout smiled. "You know her?"
"Not personally. I've just talked to her," Jon corrected quickly.
"All right, let's hit it," Hawk urged everyone. "Given the area she's in, it'd probably be a better idea to take the skybikes. Gives us more maneuverability in case we run into trouble."
"And get us more data about the gate jumps," Scout suggested. "I'm still getting those readings."
"We haven't seen a pattern in the anomalies yet," Jennifer added.
"Not yet," he said reluctantly.
Hawk nodded. "Okay. Sensors wide open on the bikes when we make the jump. Let's get these two some more data."
As they hurried out of the control room, Jon heard Scout say to Jennifer, "I can't wait to see the face that goes with that voice."
Looked like Jon wasn't the only fanboy around.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Once again, Jennifer was faced with the prospect of confusing human behavior, only this time, she had a broader basis of understanding than she did months earlier at Tech City.
Her team was standing right in front of Freedom One. The Voice now had a form and a face, and her team was listening to her tell of a plan about uniting the resistance groups under Jon's command.
It wasn't that the thought hadn't been out there or that the groups had never discussed a consolidation, but the timing and resources had never seemed adequate for such a plan to work. Guerilla tactics had worked better for everyone up to that point in the war, but had things changed enough that a united Resistance was possible? Jennifer didn't think so. Still...
Jennifer listened as Freedom One spoke, detailing the plan in a matter of moments, and noticing how all of her team were hanging on Freedom One's every word, just like they did when they listened to her broadcasts.
The woman seemed utterly unfazed by the attack they'd rescued her from. In fact, she didn't look like she'd been in a firefight at all. Even her clothes looked pristine. Jon pulled off her helmet, and Jennifer heard a slight intake of breath from the other members of her team. Again, she had a basis of understanding for such behavior. The others thought her attractive, that was obvious, but she also noticed the slight facial tics and expressions in her teammates. She took that to mean that the image of Freedom One that they had imagined from just hearing her voice wasn't quite the same as the reality of the woman standing before them. They were... surprised? Impressed? Certainly not disappointed.
"Thanks," Freedom One said with a nod of her head. "They must have gotten a fix on that last transmission."
Jon seemed somewhat unaffected by her. Perhaps because they had spoken to each other before? There was a familiarity? "Anything broken?"
"Nothing that won't fix itself," Freedom One said with a half grin. "Thank you for coming. We've got to get out of here quickly, so I'll get right to business." She removed her backpack and placed it on some structural debris behind her. She unwrapped the covering to reveal an older piece of technology that Jennifer recognized from the Old World before the Dread Wars. "This is my transmitter. Beauty, isn't it?"
Jennifer could hear the pride in her voice when she spoke of the transmitter. She understood that feeling. After all, she had her jumpship, a machine that meant a great deal to her, but her voice... there was a flatness to it that wasn't there when she spoke on the radio. That was strange. Jennifer filed that thought away in her mind. There were other more important things to think about.
Turning to face Jon, Freedom One continued. "It's our one real chance of uniting the Resistance. I have made contact with the leaders of the five most powerful Resistance forces in this country and proposed a meeting."
A meeting? Of the five leading fighting groups?
Jon shook his head. "It's too risky. If Dread were to find out -"
"He won't," Freedom One interrupted him. "Not if we move quickly enough, and that's why I need you, Captain." She took a step toward Jon, her demeanor confident and sure, not accusatory or judgmental. "Time is critical, so your team will need to bring the leaders here. There's no way you could appear in the places you have without a teleportation device of some kind."
Jennifer suddenly felt defensive. The transit gates were something they kept utterly secret. Had they messed up at some point? Had they given themselves away?
Apparently, Jon felt the same. "You seem to know an awful lot about us."
That almost sounded like a confirmation of her speculation. Why didn't Jon make a comment deflecting the idea of teleportation? For the first time, Jennifer wondered what the tight-beam conversations Jon and Freedom One held had included. Was it only Intel and military data? Was there any personal or professional information exchanged? Jon was very adept at not telling people things he didn't want them to know and still carry on a conversation, but could he have slipped up and mentioned something that hinted at the gates?
"Maybe too much," Scout added.
Scout was getting a bit defensive, too? Odd. He was one of the biggest fans of Freedom One that Jennifer had seen. They were questioning her?
"Knowledge is survival. I am a survivor."
Jennifer heard another quiet sigh from her team. Survival. It turned the quietest of personalities into steel-spined fighters. She noticed that sometimes, certain individuals with that trait didn't barter or negotiate. They got right to the point. And Freedom One was just such an individual. "But if you're not interested, I can always find another way."
Jennifer had also noticed that people with that trait could sometimes make veiled threats to get their way.
"All right," Jon countered. "Suppose we agree to provide transport. What makes you think the other Resistance leaders will come?"
True enough. Whenever attempts to unite the various factions had been tried in the past, there was always something that kept it from happening. Logistics, mistrust, a lack of willingness, Dread attacking...
"You, Captain," Freedom One explained as if it were the most obvious answer. "They know what you've done against Dread, and each one of them has seen you or a member of your team. And they've agreed to accept you as overall leader of the Resistance. Together, we can beat Dread once and for all. I think that's worth a little risk." She moved a few inches back toward her transmitter. "They're standing by for a follow up broadcast. What should I tell them?"
Jennifer could sense Jon weighing the pros and cons of the situation, just as he did with all important decisions. Being the leader of the Resistance? Was that a responsibility he wanted? Leading a small team was one thing, but leading an army?
Finally, he answered, "All right, we'll do it."
Jennifer wasn't surprised at his answer. Was there really any other choice if the slightest chance of success existed? They were experts at 'grabbing at straws,' as the old saying went.
Freedom One gave him a wry smile and quickly charged up her transmitter. She spoke into the headset with firm authority and self-satisfaction. "This is Freedom One to the Five. Freedom One to the Five. The torch is lit. Repeat, the torch is lit." Then, just as quickly, she powered down the transmitter. Was she worried that another group of biomechs would home in on their position? Didn't they already know where she was?
"Sands arranged for her own transport, and Gundar asked specifically for Pilot. That leaves Blaze, Cypher and Evanier. You know where they are?"
Wait, didn't Freedom One know where they were? Cypher had recently rescued her from another attack, so he was on the East Coast somewhere. They could contact him by tight beam on a pre-designated frequency. And Gundar? He had been a ground coordinator with the UTO when she first joined the Power Team, before he went out to form his own Resistance team. He had a distrust of anyone other than his team, but Jennifer was one of the few he did trust, probably because of her association with the UTO. Also, it didn't hurt that Hank and Gundar were friends, and Hank vouched for Jennifer from the moment he met her. After that, as far as Gundar was concerned, Jennifer's word was gold. She was one of the few people alive that Gundar trusted with intel, such as the fact that his base was mobile and that they were currently traveling around Vermont.
That left Blaze and Evanier. Latest reports from a week earlier had them on the East Coast, in Pennsylvania and Maine, respectively. That meant that all the team leaders that Freedom One was trying to get into one place were all currently in the Northeast. But she didn't know that?
"No matter. Once you contact them, they'll send you their coordinates," she quickly stated.
"Where's the meeting place?" Jon asked.
"Sector 23," was the swift answer.
Sector 23. That was in western Massachusetts, the same state where they were standing. Massachusetts... Massachusetts... there was something about that location that was tugging on Jennifer's memory. What was it? A name? A place? A story? She dismissed the thought and refocused her attention on what was going on. There would be no need to use the jumpgates to get back to the meeting place. Their secret way of getting from place to place quickly would remain secret - yet Freedom One had made that comment about their being able to move around quickly...
Jennifer couldn't dispel the uneasiness she was suddenly feeling at the moment.
Freedom One continued. "I'll monitor the area and transmit exact coordinates by tight beam as each leader is retrieved and your people report in. It's safer that way."
Jon nodded, then gave his orders. "Tank, you take Cypher. Scout, Blaze. Hawk, you've got Evanier. I'll take Freedom One to the meeting place."
Freedom One shook her head as she packed up her transmitter. "Not necessary, Captain. I've got a groundhopper stashed nearby."
She had a groundhopper? Jennifer glanced around. How did she get a groundhopper? Did Cypher leave her one after he rescued her? Did she 'procure' it from biomechs after Cypher left her there? Wouldn't the biomechs have picked it up on their sensors and destroyed it?
This lady kept raising more questions in Jennifer's mind, but she didn't know why. Freedom One didn't seem to be anything other than what she purported to be, so what was wrong?
She didn't want to admit that she didn't like the way Jon was acting toward Freedom One... how willing he was to go along with her idea, almost without question.
"Dread's troops will be all over this area. Why don't we just call it a precaution?" Jon suggested.
Deal done. No negotiations necessary. Just steel-spined individuals who got right to the point and made a decision.
So... her team seemed okay with everything... maybe her doubts were unfounded?
Jennifer watched Freedom One as the conversation continued. Thinking back to another time when they met with a strong-willed, independent female, she noticed that her team's reaction to Freedom One was somewhat different from their reaction to Mindsinger. Was it because they knew that Freedom One was a woman, and they hadn't known that fact about Mindsinger? There was no surprise on their part about Freedom one's identity; just a quick acceptance that the person speaking with them was the same person they listened to on daily broadcasts. Then everyone became all business.
Even though Jennifer had a certain basis of understanding for everyone's behavior, her team's slight reluctance to trust the 'woman behind the voice' mystified her. She had reservations against immediately trusting anyone including Freedom One. She never trusted easily or quickly, but her team? They were more than willing to jump through hoops for Mindsinger, yet they were holding back when it came to Freedom One? Why trust one they had never met implicitly yet seem to question the other whose voice they had heard for so long?
She mentally tabled her wonderings and walked over to her skybike to check the controls. Everything was in good working order. Gundar had never been on a skybike although he had seen one before. What would he think about being taken to a meeting on one? That was when she noticed the power level on her chrono. It indicated her suit's power readings were low. It must have been from those hits she took during the battle to rescue Freedom One. She'd need to conserve energy in case they ran into any more trouble. That meant breaking protocol and riding on the skybike unarmored while on a mission. Well, it couldn't be helped. There wasn't a recharging station nearby.
"The five major groups together," Jon's voice was low as he walked up behind her. "That's a lot of resources we could utilize."
"If it works," Jennifer agreed.
"Right, there is that," he agreed. "It's never worked before." He paused, and then said in a rather nonchalant voice, "So, Gundar asked for you personally?"
Jennifer smiled. "He's seen me fly." She saw Jon raise an eyebrow in mock surprise. "He visits the UTO from time to time, and he knows me. He doesn't know any of you. That's all."
"Hank said he's in this general area."
"I'll send Gundar a message and wait for him to answer me. He's got a few hiding places nearby," she confirmed. "It's a little strange that everyone is here in the region though. We won't have to fly through any of the gates. But she doesn't know that they're all in the area?"
Jon shrugged. "Maybe it's just a coincidence. Even if it isn't, we all know we can't keep the gates secret forever," he sighed. "I'm sure Dread's trying to figure out how we travel so quickly. There's no way to know what intel he has on us."
"And what others have found out," Jennifer added.
"What do you mean?"
She nudged her head toward Freedom One. "Like she said, knowledge is survival. Others may know the truth and have kept it secret for their own reasons."
"It's possible, but we don't need to worry about that now. Be sure to radio in?"
Jennifer glanced back at the others checking out their bikes and thought about the distance she'd have to travel which probably wasn't far, then considered the intent behind his question. "I'll probably be one of the first ones back." She smiled and said, "I'll let you know if I'm going to be late. Don't worry."
"What, me worry?" he asked, smiling.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Just how well did Jennifer know Gundar?
Jon thought through what he knew or had heard about Gundar. He was famous or perhaps infamous about recruiting the best fighters he could, even from other Resistance groups. What was the name of his second-in-command? Polarski? He'd been a successful ground commander for Colonel Kleiberg from the Texas Defense Squad. The medical officer had worked with the Third Pennsylvania during the Metal Wars. His tactical officer had once been with the Washington Command that protected D.C. until Dread's forces finally overwhelmed them, costing Dread tens of thousand of biomechs to gain that victory.
Had he ever tried to recruit Jennifer? Jon grinned at that thought. Gundar didn't have any type of aircraft. As good a soldier as Jennifer was, as adept at tactical systems as she was, she would have considered having no aircraft as a negative recruiting point.
Thank goodness for that.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Flying on his skybike with Freedom One riding behind him, Jon was reminded of the import of their mission. All the major Resistance groups joined together, sharing resources, working as a large army instead of separate guerilla groups losing more battles than they were winning? And with him as the leader? Of course, most groups had worked with another group from time to time over the years. The fighting was too much and too big for one group to act alone all the time. He and Cypher had joined forces on more than one occasion. Blaze and Evanier had worked together once or twice. His team had never worked with Evanier, but Cypher and Blaze had worked with him. For the short term, they could work as unified groups, but the long term?
Could this actually work?
"I've never seen a transport like this before," Freedom One said, interrupting his thoughts and trying to start a conversation. "It's very maneuverable. What do you call it?"
"A skybike," he told her. "My father designed it."
"It's fast! Can it outfly Soaron?"
Should he tell her that kind of information? Something seemed not quite the way he was expecting, as if some internal warning system was telling him to not say too much yet. Why was that? "I hope that's not something we ever have to find out," he hedged.
"By the way, my real name is Christine Larabee," Freedom One said. "How about you?
She was trusting him with her real name? Okay, he would go that far. "Jonathan Power."
"You're kidding."
He could almost 'hear' her grinning. He'd been asked about his name countless times over the years, same as Stuart had. Finally, he started quoting the same thing to people that his dad had said. There used to be a well-known Hollywood actor named Tyrone Power. Maybe we're related to him somehow.
It wasn't true, but it stopped further comments.
"I thought that was some kind of silly codename like Freedom One," she continued.
He smiled and shook his head. Time to get down to business. "How much further to the meeting point?"
"About ten klicks east. I think you'll recognize it."
He followed the path, seeing nothing but a destroyed wasteland below. Remains of buildings, of settlements. Massachusetts held a particular spot in history, including Colonial American history. Boston, Concord, Lexington, the Revolution... now, so much was gone. The truths, the myths, the legends, the past swept away by bombs and war and time. He'd traveled with his parents to Massachusetts when he was younger. Where had they visited? Some laboratories? They'd gone in the fall, and some of those memories of the sights were still with him, but nothing he saw below the skybike looked like the brilliant green or the autumn vibrancy he remembered. Everything was gray and crumbling.
"In the next valley," Christine pointed toward a darker area just ahead of them.
Jon slowed down and flew in low over the ground. He landed on the rise above the construction. It was a former observation outpost that had been refitted to be a communications hub and troop barracks for Dread's forces before the wars officially started. Something had happened early on, something no one knew about that caused Taggart to abandon it. Rumor was that he'd gotten what he was searching for and didn't have a need for the outpost any longer. "I do recognize it. Very clever, Christine. This Dread base was abandoned during the Metal Wars."
"Which means Dread won't be monitoring it now." She pointed toward the structure. "Shall we?" she asked as she began to walk down the rise. "I've used it as a place to hide a few times over the last few months. It's equipped with the basics so it should suit our purposes."
So she had a base of her own to hide in. He'd never considered if she had a home base or a safe house of any kind. Up until that day, she was only a voice, not a person. Jon began to wonder about other aspects of her life, how she survived, how she escaped. He'd never considered what could happen to someone who 'talked' revolution as opposed to someone who actually fought the revolution.
Jon glanced around them and saw nothing to give him any alarm. There was no movement, no indication that anyone else was around. Still, he drew his weapon as he followed. Something was wrong. Who was that comic book hero who had a type of extra sensory perception? Spiderman? What was it he would say? His spidey senses were tingling?
Well, it's sounded like something Scout would say if he had been there.
"Relax, Captain," Christine laughingly admonished him. "It's just us here."
"Habit," he answered as he reholstered his weapon. "You can never be too careful."
They entered the building and walked into a large control room. To the side were the computers that controlled the facility. In the center stood chairs, a table with map rolls and a thermos. She had already made a ready welcome for everyone. Had she just assumed that everyone would come to the meeting? What if he hadn't agreed? Wasn't that being a bit presumptuous?
She must have been gone longer than a day, so wouldn't the coffee have gotten cold by then? If it was coffee in that thermos, that is.
Perhaps the one thing that proved she'd been using it as a pseudo-base of operations and hiding spot was that there wasn't a speck of dust anywhere. Not on the equipment, the table, the walls or the floor. Everything was meticulously clean. Almost a regimented cleanliness. Something about that made Jon wary. An outpost abandoned for years would have been dirty and dusty and dilapidated from non-use.
Christine removed her backpack and placed it on the table. "This thing gets heavier by the minute. I'd better get on the monitor. You stay here and watch the transmitter? I'll let you know as soon as your people arrive."
Again, something began to bother him. "I'd better go with you."
She chuckled. "Thanks, but I'm a big girl. Besides, the transmitter's more important."
More important? He took hold of her arm. "Don't ever say that, Christine. Not even as a joke."
She looked confused. "Say what?"
"Never say a machine is more important than a human." In part, it was his true belief that no machine was more important than a human. Even Mentor, the last remnant of his father, wasn't more important to him than one of his team. In another way, it was a knee-jerk reaction. After hearing what Jennifer had been taught as a child and watching what she had to go through to destroy every foundation of those teachings in her understanding of the world, he wouldn't let anyone even hint of a machine being more important than a human life. It had become part of the foundation of his personality in the past few years.
She smiled as she reached up and stroked his chin. "You're an innocent, you know that?"
That amused him. If there was one thing he wasn't, it was innocent. "Innocent? I've been called a lot of things, but -"
She placed a finger over his lips. "Oh, I know," she nodded. She was flirting with him. "You've seen a lot. Been through hell. But it's still there. Even after everything, it's still there."
Her voice sounded surprised. Was she surprised to find that someone still had hope, something she talked about on the radio all the time, and confused it with innocence? He knew the stakes of the war as well as anyone, but he still held out hope that one day, someday, it would all be over. That wasn't innocence.
She placed her hand on his chest plate, let it slide down to the design before walking off toward the monitor room, leaving Jon alone.
Something was bothering him, and if there was one thing he'd learned in all his years of fighting was never to ignore that sixth sense that said when something wasn't right.
Okay, so what was wrong with this picture? What were his senses telling him?
He checked his chrono. The others would have reached their destinations by now. They should be checking in soon. Not long after that, all the leaders of the five major Resistance groups plus his own team would be under the same roof at the same time...
Perfect time for an ambush.
But Freedom One had arranged everything. She was the Voice of the East Coast Resistance. She was trustworthy.
So what was bothering him?
Was it because he was used to everything being a struggle and this should-be-difficult arrangement seemed to have been pulled together with extremely little difficulty? It was all falling easily into place, and he wasn't used to that?
Then there was Christine herself. He couldn't ignore the fact that she was a very compelling, striking woman, but she wasn't like he thought she would be after talking to her over the communicator and listening to her broadcasts. Her entire persona seemed different from what he'd expected. There was less... warmth... than he'd expected. No vulnerability. True, she was flirting with him and at an earlier time in his life, he might have responded, but that wasn't the only issue. It was as if Freedom One was one person and Christine Larabee was another.
And even though he had no reason to distrust Freedom One, he wasn't sure about Christine Larabee.
