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Post by Amy81 on Jan 27, 2009 15:21:10 GMT -6
Dolet straightened his jacket before he entered the room, then shook his head for worrying about it. He knocked once, grabbed the doorknob, and walked in. So, the female pilot was Lt. Janey, he thought.
"Oh" she said as she saw him. "I thought it might be Bulk-up. Well, at last I've found you, or you've found me, Lt. Dolet. I'm your rescue, Lt. Janey of Bronze Squadron." She laughed without humor at the thought of how the 'rescue' had gone.
"Yeah, I know you. I've seen you at the O-club" Dolet said as he closed the door, "Uh, why are you in restraints?" Her hands and feet were firmly strapped to the bed.
"Because" she said before exploding, "I'D BE WRINGING SOME FRACKING NECKS AROUND HERE CAUSE NO ONE IS TELLING ME WHAT'S GOING ON!"
"Oh", Dolet replied as he walked up to the bed, a bit more timidly now.
"So" Janey said, the voice of calm once more, "Where is Bulk-up, and why are they letting you wander around loose anyway?"
"You don't know?" he swallowed. "You haven't heard?"
"Haven't heard what?" she asked in reply.
He swallowed again. "Bulk-up. He.... didn't make it."
"What do you mean, 'didn't make it?'" she asked, her voice becoming harder.
"His ship..." Dolet said slowly, "he was shot down. He's gone."
She looked at him blankly for a moment. Then her eyes watered and her face turned slowly red. "Get me out of these restraints. RIGHT NOW!"
Dolet got nervous and fidgity. "Um, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to. I mean...."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NOT SURE IF YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO'?" she exploded at him. Then softer, "Who's frackin' side are you on here anyway?" She eyed him suspiciously. "Exactly WHY are you wandering around loose?"
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Post by Amy81 on Jan 28, 2009 13:37:23 GMT -6
"I think" Dolet replied, "we are all on the same side here. Bulk-up... was just a tragic mistake."
Janey looked at him, the words echoing in her mind. We are all on the same side here. She had thought the very same thing while in her viper, and had said as much to Bulk-up just before her ship and been struck. Thinking of Bulk-up made fresh tears flood her eyes. She kept herself as steady as she could and said, "I'm listening...."
"Okay" Dolet said, encouraged that she would hear him out. "You and Bulk-up, you left the Callisto, followed my flight path, and found the planet. This planet, only different, right?"
She nodded.
"Then, you passed through something" he went on, tracing the steps they all must have taken. "And the planet changed. Before, it was desolate. After, not only was it full of life, it's location was different. You found yourselves in a different sector of space. Right?"
"Yeah" she replied. "It made no sense."
Dolet sighed. "Janey. You, me, Bulk-up... we all traveled backward through time."
Her face began to break into an expression of ridicule, but it never quite happened. "You have proof of this?" she asked finally.
"This base" Dolet explained, "is exploring time displacement technology. What we passed through in our time was a... a rift, a portal, a doorway to this time."
"And exactly when is 'this time'? Janey asked.
"We are a couple of weeks before the sneak attack on the colonies. Janey, if I play my cards right, we can prevent the attack on the 12 Worlds! And, if I'm right, I think I've figured out a way to save Bulk-up."
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Post by Amy81 on Jan 29, 2009 14:03:16 GMT -6
"Don't frack with me" Janey warned. "Don't."
Dolet put up his hands in defense. "I'm not. I'm not." He began to undo the straps that held her down. "You able to walk?" he asked as he looked at her bandaged knee.
"Don't worry about it" she replied, then reminded him. "Bulk-up...?"
"Okay" he said. "Listen. Now, they are going to open the portal here within the week. I asked if I can be on it. If they use the settings from my viper, they should be able to set the probe to send me back before you and Bulk-up came through. If they can, I'll be there in time to stop you two from ever going through in the first place."
"And we'd never have been shot down" Janey finished the thought for him. "Is it possible? I mean, can they do it?"
"I don't know" Dolet admitted. "I'm not even sure I'll be allowed on the probe."
Janey rubbed her wrists as Dolet got them both free. "One problem, genius." Dolet looked up from the strap that bound her left foot. Janey stared right back as she asked, "What happens to me?"
"What do you mean?" Dolet asked. He stopped pulling on the buckle a moment.
"I mean" Janey said, "There's a you here right now, and no you in our time. There's a Bulk-up in our time, but no Bulk-up here. But me, I'm with Bulk-up if you go back to stop us from coming through, but I'm also here in this time with you. So" she paused, fear creeping into her voice. "What happens to me?"
"Umm, this wouldn't have happened" Dolet replied. "Nothing would happen to you, cause it wouldn't have happened yet?" His voice trailed off unconvincingly. He sighed. "I don't know."
"So if you go back, save Bulk-up, bring back the Callisto.... what? Do I just magically not be here anymore?" She touched his arm. "And what of all the things you've discussed with the people here since Bulk-up and I showed up. Doesn't that all never happen too?"
Dolet sat on the edge of the bed. "My brain hurts" he said.
"I don't know" Janey mused. "I think you've taken too much at face value here. And why are they letting you wander around? It doesn't make sense that they would, you being a man from the future and all.... And what proof do you have that we are where you say we are anyway?"
Dolet looked at her, out of answers, if he had any at all to start with. He was going to say that he'd seen a calender, but now the thought of it seemed almost laughable.
"Unstrap my feet" Janey said. "I've been poked and prodded enough, that much I'm sure of. In fact I think I'm one big probe away from the complete alien abduction experience, and that ain't ever going to happen."
Dolet nodded, his command of the facts in ruins along with his confidence. He'd just gotten her feet free when the door opened suddenly.
"Going somewhere?" the commander asked. Three guards appeared behind him.
"Uh..." Dolet began, then was surprised to hear his voice echoing from a device the commander held in his hand.
Janey just looked at him. "Brilliant" she said.
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Post by Amy81 on Feb 9, 2009 14:30:52 GMT -6
Janey held the bars of her cell tightly with both hands despite her broken arm, as she stared into the next cell at Dolet. "Spies!" she shouted. "They think we're frackin' spies! I can't believe you took that jacket back without checking it for bugs!"
"Like you would have thought of it" Dolet snapped back as he sat on his bunk. "Maybe they've got one on you, hidden in your bandage or something. Ever think of that? How do you even know your arm is broken?"
"Cause it hurts, idiot" Janey replied. "Can you get any more annoying?"
"Can you get any smarter-after-the-fact?" Dolet asked back.
"After-the-fact?" Janey sputtered. "I didn't tell them a frackin' thing. You, however, have been apparently singing since you surrendered to these frackers!"
"I haven't been singing!" Dolet shouted, standing up and beginning to pace. "And I didn't surrender. I stood down."
"Stood down" she repeated, waving her arms. "Like that should have even been an option! It didn't matter how many interceptors they had on my backside, I'd never have stood down."
"And look where it got you."
Janey gave him a look and turned away.
Dolet looked at her back. "You sure they didn't probe you? You're acting like you have something stuck up there."
"Me?" Janey replied as she spun back around. "At least whatever it might be it's not my head!"
"Listen to you!" Dolet said with a shake of his head. "We have a chance here to save the 12 worlds! I was trying to do that."
Janey laughed mockingly at him. "From the looks of it you can't even save your own behind."
Dolet grinned knowingly and tried to lighten the tone. Arguing wasn't going to get them anywhere. "You were probed, weren't you? You seem preoccupied with backsides... behinds..."
"Oh, please" Janey pleaded, the fight seeming to drain out of her, "don't go all adolescent on me."
"Hello?" Dolet replied. "I pretty much still am one if you hadn't noticed."
Janey walked away from the bars and sat on her bunk. She looked up at Dolet and laughed. "Why do they crank them out so young anyway?"
"Or so cranky, period?" Dolet asked in reply. "Uh, speaking of which, it wouldn't be that.... would it?"
Janey just looked at him in silence. She picked at her bandage a moment, then looked back at Dolet as he walked back to his bunk and sat down. "Under different circumstances, I might just like you" she said finally.
"Sorry I screwed up" Dolet replied.
"Nothing we can do about it now" Janey said. "Question is, what are they going to do?"
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