"Where are we going, again?" Jennifer looked out the transport windows at the green sprouting up from the ground in the fields they were passing. She didn't know if she'd ever grow accustomed to the sight of such abundant crops growing out in the open.
"I told you, I need your advice on this one." Vi glanced at her passenger out of the corner of her eye as they continued down the road out of town. "Trust me when I tell you that your…particular expertise… is needed here."
"I still don't understand. How could I possibly help, unless they need something repaired? If they do, there are plenty of people around who could do that. You don't have to keep sending me jobs – I have more credits than I could use in a while at this point."
It had been a month – a whole month – since she should have been home, and despite all of the attempts she and her friends had made, she still had two Council members to visit. One of them wouldn't even make an appointment to see her yet. She still hadn't been granted a trial – she couldn't even speak in her own defense. She still wore the hated tracking device around her wrist, though she fantasized about ways to out-smart her watchers. A dampening field and a false signal, maybe, so that she could move around and they would think she was still here at Vi's when she was really out with Kelly, or over at the Barton's working on the tree house and keeping an eye on the kids for Shawn while he worked. Maybe she could actually get one of Mark's smaller transports up in the air just once. She missed flying terribly. Of course, if she could do those things, she could just go home…
But she didn't know how to get home. The new base was still a mystery to her. Besides, she believed that doing any of those things would just convince the Council that they were right in stopping her. That she wasn't trustworthy, and she was capable of betraying Eden to someone on the outside. So she had to be patient - which was never one of her stronger qualities - and work within the system. It was fun to dream, though…Convinced her friend was just trying to keep her busy, Jennifer shook her head. "It's ok, Vi – you don't have to worry about me getting out more."
"No, it's not that. It's…you'll see. We're here." They came to a stop before a small home built into the side of a hill to help dampen signals as well as save energy on heating and cooling. Many of the outer structures that Jennifer had seen in her time here were similar. Farther away from the main dampening fields, energy use had to be disguised. Kelly led Jennifer to the door and knocked quietly.
An older woman warily answered the door, but relaxed when she saw Kelly. "Colonel Tucker! I didn't expect you for another day or two."
"Good evening, Mary, and please – it's Vi." She smiled warmly at the woman, who still seemed a little nervous even though she'd recognized her. "I brought my friend along – the one you asked about. This is Jennifer Chase. Jennifer, this is Mary Schultz."
Mary's eyes focused for the first time on Jennifer. They widened considerably, and then she smiled. "Of course. How wonderful for you to come out to see us!"
Jennifer was still confused. Mary was looking at her as though she had been expecting her, and – even more disconcerting – as if Jennifer held the answer to a problem she'd been trying to solve. Her body language changed drastically as she opened the door and motioned them in. She seemed to relax. "I'll call for the girls. They're out helping Tim in the barn."
Jennifer and Vi sat down in the small front room. "Vi," Jennifer said quietly once Mary had left, "could you please explain to me what we're doing here?"
"Mary and Tim contacted me last week. They're…in need of some advice. Tim had seen me in town with you, so he thought that it'd be easiest to make contact with you through me."
"Contact me?" Jennifer shook her head. "None of this makes sense."
"It will when you meet the girls. You see, the Schultz family is new here in Eden. They adopted two girls before they came here. Mary and Tim met up with them a little over a year ago – they were alone and had no one to take care of them. Mary and Tim had lost their children in the war, and they all kind of latched onto each other. They've been caring for them ever since. The girls consider Mary and Tim their parents. Eventually, Tim heard of Eden as he ran into others trying to survive out there. He wasn't sure it was the right thing for them, but they were tired of running, so he managed to get them into one of the convoys. Tim was a farmer by trade before the Metal Wars, so they settled out here to work this area of land. It seemed to be a safer place for them to raise the girls – better than in town, where everyone knows everyone else."
"Safer?" Jennifer's instincts went up another notch. "Why are they worried about being safe in Eden?"
"Vi?" Mary had returned. "The girls are just about done getting washed up. Can I get you two anything to drink?"
Still confused, and frustrated that Vi hadn't been able to finish her story, Jennifer politely declined. She heard voices coming down the hall, and turned to see the newcomers. As they came into the room, it was suddenly clear why the Schultzes had asked for her help, why Mary had seemed so thankful that she had come.
She was looking at two young girls – the older one might have been a very young teenager, the younger one was maybe ten. They seemed very startled to see her. She could read curiosity and fear in their eyes as they saw her – eyes the same color as hers,, staring out at her from two blonde heads just like her own. They stood stiffly before her, unsure of exactly how to react.
They had been Dread Youth.
…I'm sure you could imagine how surprised I was! It wasn't what I was expecting. But Vi told me later that Mary and Tim are very protective of the girls, and they had begged her not to say anything to me until I met them. They actually sought Vi out because Tim saw us in town one day and immediately recognized me. But that's when it got out about my past, when they blocked me from leaving. All that attention spooked them a bit, so they decided to wait a little while before approaching me.
Apparently, Mary and Tim found them one afternoon when they were scavenging for supplies in a settlement that had been abandoned. They were tired, hungry, and scared. Katherine, the older girl, apparently tried to shoot Tim from their hiding place in one of the buildings, but she'd injured her hand and her aim was off. Once Tim realized who was shooting at him, he talked her into coming out by promising to share some of their rations. That's when they met Sarah, too. She'd been hiding since they'd only managed to scavenge one weapon to defend themselves with. Eventually, the girls told them that they'd been on a transport that was bringing them to their newest assignment – one of the medlabs – when it was attacked by a Resistance cell. Most of the people onboard died in the initial attack, and the ones that didn't tried to fight. Somehow, the two girls found cover, since they had no weapons at the time and didn't want to be captured. When the fight was over, none of Dread's forces were left standing, but the girls were convinced someone would come to find them. They hid there the entire night. They slowly come to the realization that no one was coming back for them, and it shook their faith in the Machine. Katherine took over and found food and shelter for them. They'd been wandering for months when they found Mary and Tim, from what the girls have told them. But it made it easier for Mary and Tim to win their trust over the next few days, and they eventually asked the girls to travel with them. They've pretty much been a family ever since.
It sounds like they've been working on a lot of the same things you guys worked on with me. They had a chance to do a lot of talking as they wandered and hid. While they didn't have the resources to use that you guys did with me – no books, no music recordings, that kind of stuff – Tim is apparently a great storyteller, and was very well-read before the wars. They were able to talk about the land, and what it used to be like. Mary's got amazing knowledge of medicines and herbs, and she's teaching it to the girls. But mostly, they've talked about being human – about emotions, about laughter, about all those things that were so foreign to me when I first found all of you. I talked to the girls for a little while that first night. They're doing really well. They still have questions, and they still struggle. They also really don't want to go into town because of the way some people reacted to them before they came here. That's part of the reason why Tim was unsure about bringing them here at all – they were worried about the reactions they'd get. So he and Mary were glad to be offered the chance to work on the farm, where the girls could stay and learn for a while without anyone judging them. Then he heard about me, and what the Council did, and they decided they'd lay low for a while longer. But Tim and Mary love the girls like their own, and they wanted them to have someone to talk to that understood what they were going through. So they finally reached out.
It was amazing…all those times I tried to reach the Youth members that we fought against, all the arguing that I did with them, all the times I was frustrated because I couldn't get through – but I wasn't completely sure where to start when I was face to face with these two girls. I finally just asked them to show me around the farm because I hadn't ever been to one before. They're proud of the work they're helping Tim and Mary with. They're both bright, inquisitive girls, and they're already acclimating to "being organic" pretty well for as long as they've been working at it. Sarah has it easier – she's almost 10, and hadn't been exposed for as long as Katherine. Katherine will be ok, too, I think. But she seems to have a lot more questions than Sarah, and the answers had better make sense to her or she'll just refuse to believe them. And according to Vi, being 13 brings up its own set of issues that have nothing to do with the Dread Youth, and she's dealing with them at the same time she's trying to deal with acclimating to being human at all.
We ended up staying for dinner, and then went back to Vi's. I wasn't sure if I was helping much until Sarah asked me if I'd come back. I told her that I would, and we made plans to head back out in a few days. Katherine didn't say much – I think I still have some work to do to gain her trust. I talked to Kelly about the whole situation when she came by after her shift, and once she got over her surprise she laughed and said that Vi definitely won the award for finding the best project to keep me busy. She volunteered to go out to the farm with me to give the girls a health check-up, to avoid making them come into town before they're ready. I think that the more people the girls are exposed to, the better – but for now I'm going to make sure that it's only those people who we trust.
I'm torn between wanting to show these girls some of the amazing things here in Eden that could help them adapt…and keeping them protected on the farm where no one will stare at them and whisper like some do with me. I could really use one of your talks right now – you could always help me work through things. I miss just talking with you. I miss a lot of things, but I really miss talking to you. But now that I've met Katherine and Sarah, I'm starting to think that I was supposed to be here a little longer than we expected. If nothing else, there's even more of a reason for me to fight the Council's ruling now. If they're capable of doing this to me, what could they do to Katherine and Sarah? You know, we always thought I was the only one in this situation. The chances of us running into this family were slim to none out there. We most likely never would have met them if I hadn't come to Eden. And if I'd have been able to go home when I was dismissed…well, I would have been much happier, but I wouldn't have the chance to help the girls. And with Stanton's group, you can be sure that they'd figure things out about their past eventually, even if I had managed to leave before they found out about my past. Kelly calls it "divine intervention." I don't know, but it makes me feel slightly better about being away from you to think that there's a purpose for all of this. …
Jon leaned back onto his bunk, thinking about the contents of Jennifer's letter. He had to wonder about how nervous the girls' parents must have been. Even now, while the team didn't hide Jennifer's past, they didn't broadcast it, either. It was a way of protecting her from some of the hate she was experiencing in Eden right now. But it would have been worth the risk if they'd have been able to find someone to help Jennifer get through that time when she'd first joined them. Someone to answer her questions, to anticipate some of the things she might not understand. She insisted that they had done everything she could have asked for when she'd first came to them, but it would have been a lot smoother if they'd had someone who had already been through it.
Now, Jon knew without a doubt that no one could help the Schultz girls better than Jennifer. No one else that they knew of had been through the kind of experiences they had been. No one else knew the full extent of what it meant to regain their humanity like Jennifer did. Of course, that meant that there was no way on earth that Jennifer would give up trying to change the Council's mind. It wasn't just herself she was fighting for now. It was for these two girls, not to mention any other former members of the Dread Youth that might be out there that they didn't know about. Jon shook his head, smiling slightly. Not that she needed another reason to fight, but…Jennifer was one of the most determined people he knew. This was only going to make her work harder. Hopefully, he'd have her back sooner rather than later.
His eyes scanned the letter again. He could see Kelly's willingness to believe that there was someone or something that had an underlying plan that made all of the craziness actually make sense. "A purpose for all of this," Jennifer had called it. Maybe…just maybe he could see that.