Restaurant
The restaurant had been doing a booming business since it opened. Many people remembered the fine restaurants that existed before the wars and wanted one again. It was open 24 hours a day, every day. There were some banquet rooms for large parties, smaller rooms for private affairs, and as an added bonus, secluded tables behind movable screens for couples who wanted a little privacy.
After an initial recon, Jon had reserved a private table at a time when the restaurant had few guests. It was in an area where no one could see them unless they knew to look for them. The one thing Jon wanted was to not get anyone's attention… not that that could be entirely avoided. He didn't want their relationship to become common knowledge.
At least, not yet.
He knew their situation couldn't stay secret. The rest of the team knew. Greta knew. The fact they were friends meant they wouldn't say anything until Jon and Jennifer were more secure in the relationship. Others wouldn't be so considerate.
After what Christine had told him, he was worried more about what Dread believed rather than what he knew. If he believed that he and Jennifer...
No, he wasn't going to think about any of that. Not at that moment. He'd think about it later. He had a dinner date to go to, and yes, he was going to call it a date.
And if people saw them, well, then they saw them. They couldn't hide the truth forever.
Jon hurried down the corridor toward the restaurant when the lights suddenly went out. Moments later, emergency backup lanterns lit up the area. An alert sounded over the speakers. "Attention. The generator for Section L has gone down. All non-essential locations will be closed until further notice."
Section L was more of a rest-and-recreation area in the facility which was why the restaurant had been located there. It was non-essential, so it would be shut down. Still, he was supposed to meet Jennifer there. He walked in as the restaurant personnel were putting everything away in preparation to shut down for a while.
"Ah, Captain Power," the maitre'd approached with a covered plate. "I'm sorry about your reservation for you and Corporal Chase. She was here, but once the alert was given, we had to ask everyone to leave. She returned to your jumpship." He handed the covered plate to Jon. "Unfortunately, we have to close until the generator is back online, but I've got supper for the two of you. It's a deep dish pizza, sort of."
"Pizza?" Jon asked. He didn't remember that being on the menu.
"Ingredients came from hydroponics. Looks like one of the scientists down there likes your team and insisted that she contribute the tomatoes when she heard you were coming. Just bring the plate back later."
Jon smiled. Maybe Scout's flirtations had more advantages than he thought.
"But if you're being shut down -"
"Captain, after everything your team does for us, I think I can break protocol by not closing the very instant the alert went out and prepare a plate for you."
Jon accepted the plate with a smile. "Thank you."
"Oh, one other thing - there's going to be a Christmas party this year. Food, a tree, a band. I hear they're planning a dance too. Keep that date open so you two can come to the party," and then the maitre'd ushered Jon away from the restaurant.
A dance, huh? Parties at the Passages were always fun, and maybe Jennifer would like going to a Christmas dance?
Wait… how did the maitre'd know about them?
Jon mentally kicked himself. Oh, well…. so much for secrecy.
He quickly walked through the dimness back toward the landing bay when another alert was heard. "Attention. All generators in Sections K through P will be taken offline for the next two hours for maintenance in order to assure that they don't fail like Section L's generator. All non-essential locations will be closed until further notice."
The landing bay wasn't 'non-essential,' but it would be on limited power. Good thing the jumpship had its own internal lights.
He walked through the darkened landing bay toward the jumpship. The upper deck of the ship was dark, but there was a light coming from the lower deck. He shut the hatch and walked down the stairwell.
"I brought dinner -"
Jon stopped when he saw the small table set for two, fettuccine in a bowl in the center. He glanced down at the box in his hand. Pizza and fettuccine? That'd be a rare treat.
"Be right there," Jennifer called back from the next compartment.
He recognized the sound in her voice. It was that focused-working-on-a-problem voice. That also meant she could get so focused on a problem, she'd miss several meals and not realize how much time had passed. Better go get her before the food gets cold, he thought to himself. He put the pizza beside the fettuccine and then removed his gun belt and placed it on a nearby shelf. One of their rules was to never be unarmed off-base, but this was a special dinner. What gentleman would go on a date wearing a blaster?
He walked into the next compartment. Jennifer was looking at a computer monitor, watching some comparative diagnostics of some data.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Scout found something new on the sensor readings from our trips through the gates over the last two years," she answered. "He sent over the summary. It took about a half hour for the computer to run through some simulations. He found something."
Sensor readings? Right. The anomaly he was searching for. "Something new?"
"He found the pattern. We know that Dread knows we must be able to teleport so we began comparing our trips, certain events, timing, teleportation scans, mission records, jump ship inventories and then we noticed... this." She pointed to two waves. One was moving faster than the other. "And it's happened many more times over the last -"
"Wait," Jon interrupted her. Scout and Jennifer knew more about the gates than he did, so if they found something odd… "What does two waves mean?"
"When we enter the gate, for one single moment, we cease to exist. It's that moment we jump from one site to another. We have no mass, no weight and no substance, yet there is a disturbance created by our movement. The greater the mass, the slower we move. The disturbance is depicted by a wave. All five of us in the jumpship with full fuel and complement makes this disturbance." She pointed to the faster moving wave. "This other wave is also all five of us in the jumpship with a full complement -"
"But it's moving slower?"
She nodded. "It means something else went through the gate at the same time we did. Increased mass."
Jon shook his head. "We'd see them if someone flew in behind us."
"Not if whoever followed us wasn't in the air," Jennifer countered.
Jon had no idea what she was talking about. Not yet. "I don't understand. That's where the gate is."
Jennifer brought up the gate map of North America, each site with a gate over it clearly indicated. "We power the gates from the jumpship or the bikes. When we're not using them, they're dormant. When we send the signal to open the gate, the underground generators activate and open to the gate system. The generators' sensors read the coordinates we put in for the next gate and create a bridge to that one particular gate so we can fly through. According to these readings and the theory that Rob is working on, someone goes through a gate that forms on the ground when we activate them from the air."
That made absolutely no sense. "But a gate doesn't form on the ground," he said. "There's no way anyone could know when we use them. They'd have to know where they are. They'd have to be waiting on the ground near the generators. Somehow, they'd have to actually create a physical gate on the ground, and they'd have to move quickly -"
"Not really," Jennifer disagreed. "As long as something is going through the gate, it stays open. And from what some of these readings suggest, there's a gate forming on the ground at the same time we generate one in the air, but as long as something is passing through the gate on the ground, that one stays active even if the one in the air shuts down. Some of these waves last several minutes. Also, according to these readings, the mass going through in addition to us during these jumps always varies, but they seem to be going in a particular direction. West. Northwest. Southwest. It's only when we've entered those specific codes and traveled in those directions that we see these dual wave readings. It's never when we travel eastward."
Was this even possible? The concept was astounding. Mind-boggling. "That means someone else knows about the gates, how they work. Everything. But they just can't open them themselves?"
"I hope not," Jennifer muttered. "We've changed the codes every few months for years. Plus we added an additional layer of security after Andy Jackson broke in. Maybe our theories are wrong, but they also fit the data."
Scout would have undoubtedly told the others before sending the information to Jennifer. Mentor would be re-running the data, creating other theories. But if someone else was using the gates...
If security had been compromised...
If it was Dread…
Could it be Dread?
He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I brought pizza," he said suddenly. For once in his life, he was going to worry about problems later. He knew the rest of his team would be working on the new Intel. He and Jennifer would help when they returned to the base. For maybe the first time in his life, he was not going to think tactics or warfare. He was going to think 'dinner.'
She brought her hand up and held his. "I brought fettuccine," Jennifer said as she looked up at him with a smile. "When the alert went out, we were all rushed out of the restaurant, but the maitre'd gave me some food to take with me."
He held out his hand. "Shall we?"
Jennifer took his hand and walked toward the first compartment when she noticed something. "You're not wearing your gun? Isn't that against protocol?"
"A gentleman never wears a weapon when he escorts a young lady," Jon said in a rather dignified manner as they walked back to the table. He pulled her chair out for her in a very gentleman-like way. He didn't mention that she wasn't wearing her gun either.
Jennifer smiled. "Rules of a more civilized world?"
"Used to be," he said as he sat down opposite her.
Pizza... fettuccine... old world repasts in a shattered world setting, sheltered in one of the few remote oases of civilization. They were two people at the forefront in the fight with Dread, risking their lives every day, sitting at a small table in the lower deck of their jumpship eating pasta and pizza. It was out of the ordinary, but Jon didn't want to be anywhere else.
"I've never had fettuccine before," Jennifer told him. "It's good."
"I haven't had since I was a kid," Jon told her. "Pizza though, that was something we had every week. Mitch and I would climb up into our treehouse and Mom or Dad would order us a pizza. We'd have a party up in our crow's nest, eat pizza, trade baseball cards."
"Sounds like fun," she said as she took a bite of pizza.
Jon remembered the first time she ever tried pizza. It hadn't been the tomato-sauce-cheesy type of pizza they were eating at that moment, but the concept of 'pizza' had fascinated her. Food for the Dread Youth was unappetizing and plain, nutritious but almost tasteless. The idea of varied flavors had never occurred to her until she escaped and was introduced to a greater variety of foods, scarce though they were.
"So," she said between bites, "how did the meeting go with Larabee?"
He scooped out another spoonful of fettuccine. "I picked up a few new bits of Intel," he told her. "Some, we already knew. Such as Dread soldiers aren't told the truth about Dread's defeats, and they think Dread is infallible and a god."
"That's not anything new," she told him. "But I have a feeling that the lies are coming faster than they were when I was there. He wasn't getting beaten in fights on the same scale then as he is now. Anything we can use?"
"One or two things." He didn't want to tell her at that moment that Dread had found out that their relationship had changed. That could wait until later. Maybe the next day. He wanted that night to be just the two of them. No talking shop. Just leave work at the office... "We could talk about that tomorrow if you want," he suggested.
"Something's bothering you now," she explained quickly. "I can tell."
He looked into her eyes. He knew that she needed to know. Their future, if they had a real future, depended on them being honest with each other about all things.
"Dread underestimates us. He seems to think that the Resistance is run like a military group where you can get rid of the officers and the enlisted will scatter, so to speak. He wanted to kill the leadership because he thought that would stop the Resistance altogether. There were a few other things, but all in all, Larabee is a diehard believer."
"Amazing," Jennifer shook her head and glanced around the semi-lit room. "She lived out here, she saw life out here, and she still believes. I'd say she's in denial."
"She's with the Psych people. Maybe they can get through to her. I know I didn't, but she doesn't have a high opinion of me, that's for sure. Thinks I'm naive and innocent."
"She definitely doesn't know you," Jennifer countered.
"No, she doesn't."
"You believe that people can do the impossible if enough try. That's not naiveté. That's hope and optimism in the face of absolute destruction, and that's in short supply these days. No one in Dread's army could even imagine it. That's why you have an edge over them. They have no imagination."
Jon shrugged. "I proved I didn't have any on this last mission. I almost got us all killed."
"That could happen on any mission."
"But there's something else," Jon told her.
"I'm not going to like this, am I?" she asked.
Jon shook his head. "Dread chose her because he thought she'd remind me of you. He wanted her to get close to me because he knows things have changed between us, and he believed that I would be more interested in her since she wouldn't be a teammate."
Jennifer stopped eating. She put down her fork and sat back. She took a breath. Then she smiled a little. "Dread knows. That's a bit... uncomfortable."
"To say the least," Jon agreed.
"I think I like the fact they're underestimating you. Gives us an edge."
Jon could only smile and nod his head.
"It's strange though," she added. "Dread knows you. He should know better."
"I'd say he doesn't know me as well as he thinks he does."
They were silent for a moment as they began eating again. Garlic bread. That's what was missing from their meal. His mom would always make garlic bread with pasta. Wheat was not a harvest that was easily grown any longer, so bread was being made out of other grains and certain comestibles.
He remembered how his mom and dad had what they called "date nights." Just the two of them, sometimes going to a restaurant, sometimes having dinner at home alone. His dad would get a bottle of wine… he put that memory away. His parents had a good marriage, and they found their way to keep it like that during their time together. He and Jennifer would have to find a way all their own, even if all they had was pizza and fettuccine in the hold of the jumpship.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
Chocolate!
It was a rare treat, and the restaurant had couriered over some chocolate cake for dessert!
Unfortunately, with chocolate being so rare, it was one thin slice per person, no second helpings.
Jennifer ate her cake slowly, savoring every bite. Jon laughed at the site.
"Good?"
"I've always loved chocolate," she told him as she scraped the cake crumbs from the plate.
"Always?" Jon asked her.
Always. She did say always. She nodded her head. "Yeah. Always. Do you remember, a few years ago, when Hawk traded a piece of scrap metal for some chocolate so I could try it? Well, I remembered the taste from before."
Jon pushed his plate away slightly. He knew Dread would have considered something like chocolate to be subservient to the senses, a luxury, therefore 'not of the Machine.' So when she said 'before,' that definitely got his attention. "From before you were taken?"
"I think so," she explained. Once, she read that sensory memory was more powerful than actual memory. Now, she had no doubt that she had tasted chocolate as a child before she was taken. "I guess I had tasted it when I was a child."
"Speaking of that, you remembered something else when we saw what used to be the Charles River. It was more than the festivals, wasn't it?"
Jennifer finished off the last of her cake. "I think so. I think I've seen that area before it was destroyed. There were some familiar things there, but I can't be sure. That dream I told you about? The one with the blue butterfly and the banister and the bird? There are other things I've dreamed about, but none of them made sense to me."
"Like a river," Jon suggested.
"River, ships, bridges, festivals. It may be that the area looked like a place I knew when I was a child."
"And statues. You mentioned statues," Jon prompted her. "Boston was known for a lot of them."
She shrugged. "Maybe. I think it'd be too coincidental if I had been born in that area, wouldn't it? Of all the places we fly to and visit, we just happen to come across a single location where I might have lived? I think the site just jogged a memory. That's all."
"Have you given any thought about trying to find out who you were and what your name really is?"
Did she really want to know? Did it make a difference? She was who she was, and she liked herself. She fought the good fight with people she cared about. Did it matter to her who she used to be? More to the point, did it matter to anyone who she used to be? Was there anyone alive to care?
"I haven't really given it much thought until..." she paused, trying to think of how to explain.
"Until last week when you had your memory jogged?"
She nodded. "The only thing I might find out is my name and the place I was taken from. Nothing more." She paused a moment before saying, "I would like to know why Boston seemed so familiar to me though. It feels like deja vu."
Jon leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment. "So maybe there's one positive thing we can say happened about that mission? It jogged a memory for you?"
Jennifer saw his sheepish grin and could only smile back. He's the only one who knew the full truth about what she remembered, but he was trying to find something good to pull out of all that could have been bad from last week's failed mission. "Maybe. You're going to feel guilty about all this for a while, aren't you? You don't need to."
Jon shrugged. "I should have seen it coming. I shouldn't have been so eager to jump in and go along with it all -"
"Oh?" Jennifer leaned a little closer. Time to pull him out of his down mood. A little word play should do it. "I think it's more than that. I think you're feeling a little guilty for being a fan of a celebrity."
"A fan?" his voice sounded unbelieving.
"Come on, Jon. You mean to tell me that you weren't the least bit interested in meeting Freedom One? Even Scout said he couldn't wait to see the face behind the voice."
"Maybe a little. At first," he admitted. "After all, we had exchanged a few messages."
"I think she wanted to exchange more than that," Jennifer hinted.
Jon shook his head and smiled. "But she wasn't my type," Jon protested.
"Really?" Jennifer countered. "Let's see, I've seen you with a few women in the last few years. You seem to have a type, and Christine Larabee definitely fits the description."
"I have a type?" he smiled, the look on his face showing that he knew quite well that they were about to trade some fun verbal quips.
"Strong -"
"Strong, yeah, I like strong. And stubborn. Someone who knows their mind."
"Independent," she added.
"Always a good quality in anyone," Jon admitted.
"Confident," Jennifer mentioned. "Come to think of it, those are the same qualities Mindsinger had. Hawk called her a rare woman," Jennifer pointed out. "I guess Christine Larabee would be considered that too."
Jon laughed. "Not in a heartbeat, she wouldn't. At least, she's not what I'd call a rare woman. Any more than Mindsinger."
"So she just didn't interest you?"
"Nah, not after the first few minutes," Jon told her.
"Really?"
"I won't say I didn't find her interesting because of who she was. I mean, she was Freedom One. We'd listened to her for months and wondered about her, but no. I wasn't interested in her. Looks like Hank Junior has designs on you though."
Jennifer shook her head. "He's sweet and a good friend, but that's all."
"Friends, huh? What about Elzer Polarski? I hear he was very friendly. Maybe he had a very strong interest in you."
She smiled back at him. "Our suits have a tendency to do that."
"No, it wasn't the suit," he said. "It was you."
She rested her hand on his arm. "All I did was block a blast from Blastarr and let an entire wall fall on me."
"Ah, came to his rescue. That would definitely make an impression on him. Did he show any gratitude for saving his life?"
Jennifer nodded her head. "He said thank you, not quite as well as you did, but he was sincere. And he was a gentleman."
A gentleman? "Knows how to treat a lady. I'm sure he had a few thoughts on that subject."
She shrugged. "I don't know what he was thinking, but he's not my type."
"Really? What exactly is your type?"
Jennifer thought for a moment. "Someone a little taller, I think," she teased him. "Maybe someone whose rank is a little closer to mine... militarily speaking."
"A captain might be more what you're thinking of?"
"A captain might do even though I did outrank a captain in my previous profession," she mused. "It might also depend on what other qualities he has."
"Such as?"
"He'd have to love my jumpship and respect my flying skills," she counted off. "After all, someone interested in me would have to understand about the special relationship I have with my ship." Her smile was utterly contagious.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Her ship. He knew everyone including himself would take a back seat to her ship. She loved that aircraft. Not as a living thing, but as something quintessentially hers. Something she cared about, not something she believed was alive. Looking at Jennifer, he wondered how anyone could think there could be any similarities in her and Larabee. They might have come from the same place, but they were nothing alike.
"I can agree with that," he said.
"But what about you? You took on Blastarr and an entire platoon of clickers. I can imagine the look on Larabee's face the next time she sees you once she finds out that happened."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "How do you know that I'll see her again?"
"I know you. She has information we need, and..." she paused before adding, "she's an overunit. It's one of the few times we've had one to interrogate. You'll get much more valuable Intel once the psych people have dealt with the brainwashing."
She did know him. That was it in a nutshell, and he knew her, but there was something he was still curious about.
"So... I don't have a reason to be jealous of Hank Junior or Elzer?"
In response, she asked, "Do I have a reason to be jealous of Mindsinger or Larabee?"
"Not in the least. I mean, you're the only person I'd ask to the Christmas party they're planning," he explained.
That got her attention. "A Christmas party?"
"Feasting and dancing-or so I'm told," he told her, a smile on his face.
Jon suddenly noticed the sound of soft, romantic music playing in the background. He didn't remember hearing it when he first walked in. When did...
Wait, it hadn't been playing when he came into the ship. Could it be...
Hawk, Tank and Scout were playing matchmaker for the two of them. They knew it, but they also knew that the others thought they were being sneaky. Neither Jon nor Jennifer had told anyone they were coming to the Passages for dinner, not even Mentor, so there was no way any of the others could have programmed a musical selection to play. Even if they had, why would they have chosen the jumpship? Wouldn't they have made arrangements at the restaurant?
So that left one other entity to play matchmaker.
Jennifer raised her head slightly when she realized there was music playing as well.
"That music's not in our database. Who programmed that?" she asked.
Jon smiled. "I think the jumpship is making her wishes known as well by tapping into the Passages' music library."
Jennifer glanced sideways at him, grinning at the idea. "Think she's conspiring with the others?"
"It wouldn't surprise me. Hawk may have asked her nicely," he answered as he stood. He held out his hand and said, "I'd hate to disappoint her. Since there's going to be a dance at Christmas, and I do believe that practice makes perfect - Miss Chase, may I have the honor of this dance?"
Willingly, she placed her hand in his, and he helped her rise from her chair. He put his hands behind her back and locked his fingers together. He held her close, their bodies swaying to the music. He noticed his belt buckle was rubbing against her. Deftly, Jon quickly removed the buckle and placed it on the table, and they continued to dance. Jon could hold her closer and wondered for a brief moment what a 'first date' for them would have been like if there had never been a Dread or a Metal War. It wouldn't have been in the hold of an antiquated ship, but in all honesty, he couldn't think of a more perfect spot at that moment.
Another song began, and they continued to dance. Maybe it was the way he was holding her, maybe it was how tightly he was holding her, but there was something that Jennifer was sensing from him.
"What else is there?"
What else? That was the loaded question, wasn't it. He reached up, pushed her hair behind her ear, his thumb lightly brushing across her cheek.
"Dread knows about us."
Jennifer nodded as they continued to move in unison. "You said that. That's why he sent Larabee."
"I thought we'd been more careful. I mean, the rest of the team know, and they've been pushing us to be together. Others are making comments that show they know, but for Dread to know -""
"He'd have found out eventually," she reasoned.
HIs fingers weaved into her hair as his palm gently cupped her cheek. "It means you're more of a target. He'll use you to get to me," he whispered. He leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose.
She leaned into his hand "We're all a target, but have you noticed that Dread isn't as good at contingency plans as he was years ago? He focuses on one plan at a time now. He won't have multiple plans to get to you in play at the same time. He wants to hurt you, and he'll come after any of us for that one reason. He just targeted me this time. Next time, it'll be another member of the team. We'll stop him then too."
Jon wasn't surprised with how swiftly Jennifer figured out Dread's motives. Her understanding of tactics had saved them more than once over the years. "Yes, we will," was all he said as he took her face in both his hands and kissed her. The idea that she was such a big target on Dread's radar...
… the idea that he could lose her...
One hand sneaked to her lower back and pressed her closer to him. Much closer. Years ago, they couldn't have been standing the way they were at that moment. Neither was ready for such a step. Now, after everything, after everything they'd been through, with both of them now acknowledging their feelings for each other...
He leaned down and kissed her again. Then the kiss grew from gentle to something more urgent. They were treading on dangerous ground, and physically, his desires were wanting to let themselves be known.
The closer they stood, the tighter they held each other -
And then he stopped. He withdrew slightly and they could look in each others eyes. They'd come so far together, but they weren't ready to go further than that.
Not yet.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Dread didn't walk as much as he sauntered to a private lab. His plan to destroy the Resistance leadership had been thwarted, one of his overunits had been captured, but the intel he gathered had been invaluable.
He'd proven how malleable the human psyche truly was by having a voice over a radio 'dictate' what he wanted. It worked once, it would work again.
But most of all, the Power Team's pilot was dead. Knowing what he did of the changing relationship between Power and the pilot, this should devastate Power. That played well into Dread's long term plan of destroying the Resistance. A Jonathan Power focused on revenge rather than stopping Dread would mean he'd make mistakes, and Dread would take advantage of those mistakes.
He still had no idea how Intel was leaking to the Resistance, but at least this mission had been utterly classified. None of the Resistance leaders had been aware that they had been led into a trap. He hadn't discovered where the leak was coming from yet, but he would. In time.
Once he entered his lab, he secured the door. He didn't want to be interrupted.
He sat down at his computer and opened the personnel file for Overunit Jennifer Chase. There was a picture of her in her Dread Youth uniform as a Youth Leader along with her background, her school reports, her service record - recordings of very moment of her life growing up in Volcania.
Chase's record was more than impressive. Her skills ranked in the top one percentile. She would have been an outstanding commander or, if she had chosen, an unbeatable biodread. Yet something had gone wrong. Something in her training had not been complete. Why did she defy the will of the Machine and join the Resistance?
And what was it about her that had Jon's attention? It was too late to find out now, but Jon's obvious affections for the female and his predictable reaction to her loss could be used in Dread's favor, and his next plan would mean Jon would have to be stopped by any means necessary.
