ALONE TOGETHER
BOOK FIVE OF DIMENSION OUT OF RANGE

15 JUNE 1997
THE DIGGERS COMPLEX
ATLANTA, GEORGIA

GYMNASIUM/EXERCISE ROOM
07.04AM

 Brian Burgess walked into the room to see Jason Low jogging on a treadmill. He
smiled. "Not out running with your SO?"
 Jason looked up, then back to the machine's display. "I won't even grace that
with a response."
 "Touchy, touchy." Brian sat under Cheetah's hydraulic press. He looked at the
options, which started at half a ton, and opted to just leave the machine off.
He pushed on the handlebar, which rose up and down with mild pressure.
 Jason hadn't meant to sound hostile to Brian; he was only trying to make a
joke. Brian knew damn well that Jason couldn't possibly hope of keeping up with
the girls unless he drove the truck--and naturally, that'd defeat the purpose.
So instead of an hour-long, 200-mph run, he was resigned to a half-hour jog at
a snail's pace on the treadmill. At least he was showing signs of improvement,
and that made him content.
 "How you doin'?" he asked Brian.
 His friend's voice came in spurts as he fought against the unburdened yet
still quite heavy press handlebar. "Not.. bad, all things.. considered."
 "How's Gina?" Jay's mind let slip out. Immediately, he wanted to take it back
as he heard the press CLANG to a stop behind him.
 Brian sighed. "Fine," he said. "We're both fine."
 "Have you talked to Ryan or Seance yet?"
 "Gina did," Bri said after a moment. "Seance accepted it well, promising to
keep working on his studies. I think he'll be okay. It's Mr. Tabbot that's
going to be a problem."
 "Oh?"
 "Apparently he was mighty pissed. Once he blew up at Gina, she told him in no
uncertain terms that not only were they not going to see each other again, but
as far as she was concerned, all bets as far as any 'missions' either of them
go on are off."
 "Yikes. Sucks to be him."
 "Ah, you might say, rabbit, you might." Brian sat up as Jay let the treadmill
dump him off the back end. "Sucks to be me, too, in a way--I kinda feel like I
just ruined a friendship, all because of something I can't describe that made
me ask Gina out."
 Jason shrugged. "Go with the flow. Life is finite now for us. We've gotta take
what gets lobbed our direction."
 "I hear ya, I hear ya." Brian got back on his back again and continued pumping
the handlebar.
 Jason moved over to the multipurpose machine and sat down, pushing against the
foot pedals. He didn't know the real name for the device; it had been so long
since he'd done any serious working out that he'd forgotten everything. He
hadn't had to do any kind of exercise since his RDF days; Omega-2 had seen to
that.
 Jason got to thinking about the Cardassian device he and Brianna and Asrial
had helped destroy earlier in the week. Hutchence had been, for all intents and
purposes, immortal; the only thing which would've harmed him was a second,
prolonged exposure to the sphere. Had he not done exactly that, would he have
wanted the weapon destroyed? And if not, would he have permitted Jason and the
rest to subject themselves to a brief exposure?
 And would Jason and friends have WANTED to do so?
 "What?" he said to Brian, who was on the treadmill now, talking at him.
 "I said," Brian repeated, "that I think Gina has intentions to split us up."
 Jason paused, then looked at his friend. "What do you mean?"
 "I think she has her heart set on the two of us being partners and you and
Bri' being paired off similarly."
 "Oh." Jason pushed once more at the pedals. "How do YOU feel about that?"
 "Well, to be honest, I'm quite attached to the young lady now. If she wants to
do something, hell yes, I'll do it."
 "I see. Well, she's not going to find a better navigator-slash-tech-guy."
 Brian grinned. "You don't mind me jumping ship, then?"
 "Hey, if it's what you want to do, then do it," Jason said. "It'd probably be
better for us to be two to a team, anyway. Always work in pairs."
 "Exactly. Hey, maybe we can get Brit and Stripe to be a third pair."
 Jason stared at him. "Um, not so much."
 "Why not?"
 "I think for the first while, Cheetah will be quite interested in nothing but
being in El Dorado with her new mate. Then for the next while, her new family.
And then.. you get my point."
 "Well, I personally think she's had too much fun adventuring with her sisters,
no matter what she acted like in the past. She won't be able to stay away for
long."
 "I'll hold you to that." He completed his set and stood up, wiping his face
and forehead dry. "I wonder," he trailed off.
 "What?"
 "If the girls talk about us like we talk about them."

THAT VERY SAME MOMENT

 Gina entered the kitchen to see Brianna sitting at the table having breakfast.
As she crossed the room, she watched Bri' look up, grin, and rest her chin on
her interlocked hands. "Okay, out with it," she said to Gina.
 "Out with what?" Gina asked as she got her Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs down
off the shelf.
 "You've been out with Brian every night this week since we got back. I wanna
know EVERYTHING. Like, for example, what brought this on, anyway?"
 Gina shrugged. "Idunno. We were together on the ship, and you and Jay had gone
off to, um, 'run', and--"
 "It's been going on for THAT LONG?!" Brianna erupted, laughing. "Wow!"
 Gina continued. "And anyway, we decided that since we were together, why not?"
 "Okay, now I've got the History Of The World," Brianna smiled, "but what I
want is a box score."
 Gina smiled and opened her mouth again, but at that precise moment, Brian
walked in. The girls clammed up.
 "Hi," Brian said as he walked over to the cupboard.
 "Hi," Gina answered, and heard Brianna across the room supressing a laugh.
 Jason came in and Brian answered, without turning around, "The answer is yes,
Jay."
 Jay was in the fridge already, rooting for some liquids. "I'm not surprised."
 Brianna sat up. "What was that?"
 "Oh, nothing," Jason replied innocently. He put the chocolate milk down on the
table and crossed to the cereal cupboard. "Just a little test."
 "Of what?" Gina asked Brian.
 "Oh, nothing," he echoed Jason. The two men grinned at one another.
 "What do you want to do today?" Brianna asked Jason.
 He was about to answer when the phone rang. Gina put it on video/speaker. It
was Cheetah.
 "Hi!" she said. "How're my favorite sisters and their sidekicks?"
 Brian looked at Jason and mouthed the word "Sidekicks?". Gina was already
conversing with her sister.
 "So.. are you going to be coming back here any time soon? ..or at all?" Bri'
asked, knowingly.
 Britanny smiled. "Well, I.." She appeared to be fighting to get the words out.
"I've decided I'm going to live here for now, with Stripe."
 Gina showed signs of surprise. "Wow.. my baby sister's all grown up and left
the roost," she said quietly.
 "It's not like I'm never going to be around, you know," Brit answered. "I'm
still here; I'm just obligated to stick around here with my mate." She grinned.
"But don't worry, I intend to visit every now and then. Gotta keep my sisters
in line."
 Brianna laughed. "You like the human life too much, Cheets. You'll be back
eventually."
 Cheetah paused before answering. "I dunno, Bri'. I'm getting used to this way
of life. I really like it here."

 They talked for a while longer, and then the call was finished. As the
connection quit and left the room in silence, the four of them looked at each
other.
 "Wow," Brian contributed.
 "You said it," Gina nodded. She was distracted from whatever else she was
about to say by the fact that the milk jug had suddenly become empty. She only
had about a quarter-inch of milk in her glass, too. "Um.. whose turn is it to
go to the store?"
 Jay sighed. "Ours," he said. He slid back from the table and stood up. "Brian,
hand me the list, wouldja?"
 Bri' walked past Jay as the latter received the shopping list. "See ya there,"
she said. "I gotta change."
 He nodded and headed towards the bay.

 Jay arrived at the truck at the same time as Bri'. They looked at each other
and, without missing a beat, swung their right hands three times. Jay looked
and saw that Brianna had chosen scissors, which beat out his paper.
 "Damn," he mumbled as he went around to the passenger side.
 "Don't sulk," Brianna said a few minutes later as they drove up to 285 to get
to the supermarket. "You know they'd rather we take the truck to get groceries
any day of the week."
 "Yeah, yeah." He shifted in the seat. "It's not that."
 "Uh-oh," Brianna said playfully. "What is it, then?"
 "I was expecting to hear Cheets say exactly what she said, but still, it was a
bit of a surprise. And then there were four, as the clich‚ goes."
 "Uh-huh," Brianna nodded. "I was pretty sure she was gonna take that route,
too." She pulled into the mall parking lot. "You gonna be okay with it?"
 "Yeah," he said. "I just take some time to get over my friends moving away."
 Brianna smiled.

 An hour and a half later, Jason was near one of the checkouts, pushing a
jammed-full shopping cart, and waiting for Bri' to arrive with her similarly-
loaded buggy. His eyes happened to rest on the rack of tabloids, and he saw a
headline that interested him, so he snatched the paper up.
 After a few moments, he realized someone was reading over his shoulder.
"What's Elvis doin' these days?" Brianna said, sounding amused.
 Jason closed the "newspaper" and dropped it on top of the pile of stuff on his
cart. "I was reading a story about some guy in Scotland who saw his sonar
reading go nuts in a certain part of Loch Ness," he said. "It dropped some 865
meters in depth in just over 20 meters of distance. That's one hell of a drop."
 "Uh-huh," Brianna said. "So what?"
 "He's thinking there's a cave there, but he can't quite yet amass a search
team that can dive that deep. He figures there's an underwater cave down there
with The Monster in it."
 "Um, yeah. Okay. Anyway, pay the lady so we can get home."
 Jason paid the grocery bill and continued out toward the truck with Brianna
behind him. He looked up over his shoulder at her. "You don't believe me," he
said, partly a question and partly a statement.
 "Of course I believe you," she said. "I just dunno what you're getting at."
 "What I'm getting at is that our suits are designed for pressures well beyond
what you'd find at 865 meters. We could go down there like it was a walk to the
7-11, check out what's going on, head back up to the surface, and still have an
hour to kill before lunch."
 "You want to go to Scotland and search for the Loch Ness Monster," Brianna
deadpanned.
 "I do indeed," Jay said energetically. "Listen, it'll be a refreshing change.
Besides, Gina's been on my case for two reasons--to get me to stop centering on
the technical cases, and to get me to start doing SOMETHING productive."
 Brianna thought about it for a moment before answering. "Maybe you're right,"
she said, a smile slowly creeping onto her face as she closed the tailgate and
walked to the cab. "It WOULD be a welcome diversion."
 "I'm excited to be a part of it," Jay told her.

 "You want to WHAT?" Brian asked moments later while helping unload the food.
 "See?" Bri' said to Jay.
 "I want to go to Scotland and check out Loch Ness," Jason said bluntly,
grabbing the tabloid he'd bought and flipping it open to the proper page. "See,
this guy's sonar dropped off bigtime in one part of the lake. He thinks there's
a cave there, and I tend to agree. Besides, we're not doing anything right now,
so why not?"
 "Because it's a goddamn TABLOID story, Jay!" Brian protested as the two men
headed for the kitchen. "Two headed wolf babies fathered by Elvis and mothered
by a space alien prostitute--that's the kind of thing you find in 'em!"
 Brianna chuckled, shook her head, and tossed the tabloid on the computer
table, then picked up another two bags of groceries.

 SEVERAL HOURS LATER

 Brian wandered into the living room, where he found the former studiously
watching the satellite feed of a Blue Jays game. Brian sat down. "What's up?"
 "Ungh. Ball game. Must see." Jason nodded, then smiled. "Not a lot."
 "Gina's home from Penny's now if you wanted to throw that Loch Ness idea at
her."
 Jason thought for a second. "Na.. I want to go over the article a couple more
times before I really commit to this. I want to be sure it's doable."
 "You really want to go through with this, don't you?" Brian asked.
 Jason stood up and stretched. Through a yawn, he declared, "Yes, Bri. I intend
to go around and systematically solve all the fabled mysteries of the world."
He meandered off. "I'm goin' to the Bay."
 When he got there, he turned on the computer screen and logged in. He surfed
to a site that simulcast a radio station that was broadcasting the Jays game,
and once he had that going, his eyes fell to the tabloid on the desk beside the
computer. He picked that up and started reading the story again.
 Apart from the previously mentioned story on the sonar anomaly, there was a
sidebar on the monster itself. A history of the sightings took up the majority
of it, but near the end, a comment about the fact that the monster hadn't been
seen for quite some time piqued his interest.
 <We-need-more-information,> his voice monotoned in his head.
 Then he noticed the device he was sitting in front of.
 He hooked up with a search engine and typed in "Loch Ness Monster". That got
him 20,000 hits.
 He opened a capture log and started reading.

 An hour or so later, he felt his head suddenly get quite heavier. He looked
into the black part of the screen and saw in the reflection that a hybrid girl
had just begun leaning on his skull. "Hi," he said.
 "Hi," she said back, looking at the screen. When she figured out what he was
reading, she facetiously rolled her eyes. "Oh, boy."
 "Oh, come on now. I thought you were with me, here."
 "I came down here to let you know that Gina's gotten wind of your plan and
wants to talk to you about it."
 "Aw, geez. I'm not ready," he complained.
 Brianna lightly smacked his head. "It's not like you're making a presentation
to the Chairman of the Board. You're going to discuss things with my sister."
 "Yeah, yeah, I know. I just feel that your sister is the leader of our little
group and has an absolute veto over these sorts of things." He stood up.
 "Nah. She might be the highest-profile Diggers, but she isn't interested in
managing an adventuring team. She does what she wants, and I'm certain that if
we decided to go off and do our own thing, she wouldn't try to stop us."
 Jason nodded, thinking about that.

 Brian found Jay later on, in the latter's room, packing.
 "She said yes, I take it?" Brian said.
 "She did," Jason confirmed as he looked up. "Although, thanks to the rest of
you, she figures it might be a goose chase."
 "I think the problem is with the source of your information. What were you
doing reading a tabloid in the store anyway, by the way?"
 "Waiting for Bri' to finish buying out all the tuna she could carry," Jay
retorted. "I found out about it in a checkout rag. So what? I could've just up
and decided to go to Scotland on my own. If you suddenly chose to go and
unravel the mystery of how a group like Oasis got to be popular, it wouldn't
matter how you got the inspiration to do it. Right?"
 "Yeah, but--"
 "This is the same." Jason picked up the just-closed suitcase and looked at
Brian's empty hands. "Are you coming with us?"
 "Yeah, we are," he said. He nodded toward the suitcase. "What-all are you
taking with you?"
 "A few changes of clothes, overnight stuff, etc etc etc."
 "Ohhhh," Brian said. "I forgot, your ancestry is in Scotland."
 Jason put the bag down again and laughed briefly. "'Ancestry'. That's quite an
interesting term. I'm willing to bet that I have lived twice as long as my
family name has existed. Still.. yes, I've always wanted to visit Scotland and
see what there is to see." He picked up the bag again and shook his head,
smiling. Bri followed him toward the Bay. "It's funny, yaknow," Jay continued.
"Over the past three and a half millennia, I've visited every corner of the
universe at least twice, but I've never explored my home planet the way I
wanted to. I've taken side trips to other galaxies and other dimensions, just
out of sheer boredom, but I've never gone the one place I've always wanted to
go."
 "You practically disowned Earth as your home planet for a while," Bri reminded
him.
 "That's true, but still." He flung the bag into the back of the Tonka Truck.

 The next day found two vehicles--Brianna and Jason's Tonka Truck, and Gina and
Brian's Ginamobile--in the skies over the Atlantic.
 "So are we just going to drive right up and start searching?" Gina asked over
the radio. "I hear there's a huge following over here, and a fan club and all."
 "There is," Jay acknowledged, reading off a printout of the web site info he'd
acquired. "Keep in mind that it's still only midnight there right now. We'll be
in the water five hours before daylight comes."
 "Um.. how are we going to get into the water? The Mk.1 got trashed, remember?"
 "Right, I know. We've all got power armor. I figure the hardest part is going
to be hiding the vehicles once we get there."
 "Wouldn't do too nicely to have Customs find us in the country outside of
proper channels," Gina agreed.
 "Exactly." Jay brought up a map on the HUD. "By my count, we'll be there in
three hours. I'm going to get some rest."
 "You do that," came the reply.
 "Want me to wake you if something happens?" Bri' asked as Jason ratcheted his
seat back.
 He tilted his newly-acquired brown fedora low on his face and smiled. "At the
risk of bringing on the bad luck, what could happen out here?"

 Nothing did, and a few hours later, they touched down on a fairly desolate
Scottish highway, remembering to travel on the correct side of the road. A
short drive brought them to the lake.
 The truck's headlights illuminated a large pleiosaur statue as they all
disembarked. Jason hauled his armor out of the back. "Well, so far, so good.
Nobody's around. Bri', can you figure out some place to stash the cars?"
 "I see a good clump of undergrowth over there," she said, peering in a random
direction. "I'll be back." She took the keys from Jason and drove off in the
truck.
 While Jay was suiting up in his armor, Brian was asking him, "So, what's the
plan?"
 "Well, it's now three-seventeen here," Jason said. "I have six hours of time
left on my suit's video recorder, and we've all got plenty of air. We first
have to figure out where that sonar reading the guy in the paper made was, and
then go down from there. We should be able to figure it all out in the coupl'a
remaining hours before daybreak, then get back in the air, go to an entry point
and 'enter' the country legally so we can go be tourists for a few days."
 "Ok, but I meant, did you want to take weapons, and if so, what?"
 "Oh. Yeah. I've got my GyroJet and so does Bri'. Plus, we've both got our
micro-missiles loaded and ready too." Momentarily, Brianna came back and moved
the car. Jason continued. "Naturally, I'm hoping we don't have to use any of
it."
 "Of course," Gina nodded. She pulled her helmet on.
 "See anything?" Jason asked.
 "Looks like the deep part is on the far shore," she said, looking through the
visor. "I get a reading of 866.5875 meters depth almost directly ahead of us."
 "Sounds good to me, Jim," Jason said as Brianna arrived with her armor already
on. "Let's go."
 The foursome walked into Loch Ness.

 About a hundred meters from shore, the water was finally over Brianna's
armored head--meaning that the water was at least seven feet one inch deep. It
seemed like quite a gradual slope.
 "This must be one really short sea serpent if they've seen it appear all over
this lake," Brianna said. She looked up and could still see the moon glistening
through the surface of the water above. "Unless we're screwed up and walking
along the edge of the shallow end."
 "It drops off a fair bit any time now," Gina said, taking up the task of
reading off the depth. "Sixty-five meters about ten meters in front of us."
 "I see it," Jason said, switching on his lights. He turned his head and
illuminated a ridge.
 "Any contacts?" he asked.
 "None here," Gina said.
 "Me neither," Bri agreed. "It's empty so far except for that, um, wild goose."
 "Okay, I heard that." Jay stepped up to the edge and looked down. Had he been
on dry land, looking down a sixty-three meter tall cliff, he'd've been scared
out of his mind from the height. However, in the water, wearing his powered
armor, it was nothing.
 "See ya down there," he said, and stepped forward.
 Two minutes later, they were all regrouped on the bottom, at 65.15 meters
depth. A normal diver would've packed up and gone home at the cliff edge. The
powered armor could withstand the pressures found in the Marianas Trench,
though, so they pressed on.
 "Is it much farther?" Brian asked in a facetiously whiny tone.
 "Not far now," Jason shot back. He looked above them to see only darkness. "I
guess we can use our boosters now without risking being seen."
 Brianna made a sighing noise. "I thought you'd never ask." She picked her feet
up off the bottom and rocketed ahead.
 The other three caught up momentarily and Gina pointed out the real dropoff
just ahead. "We'll be on it in five seconds."
 "Gotcha." Jason kept an eye out for it. Three, two, one--
 And there it was, a circular depression that went down almost a kilometer. The
creatures they saw in the area were significantly different than the ones they
had been brushing aside all along, however; almost like new species of marine
life, deep-sea creatures, and such.
 "Careful," Bri' warned, which surprised Gina. <Maybe more of Jay's rubbing off
on her than we first thought. When has SHE ever been careful?>
 They walked to the edge again and found that the suits were at their naturally
buoyant level; they would descend no further without power assist. So, gently
in order not to disturb the native life any more than necessary, they boosted
themselves deeper into the darkness.
 Jason had a brief, fleeting vision of powering himself right into the waiting
jaws of the Monster and spending the rest of his days wandering its belly;
then, the lunacy passed.
 Gina looked at the creatures swimming in the underwater pool. "Is it just me,
or do these things look almost.. scared?"
 "Well, we're probably the first non-fish that've ventured this deep," Bri'
pointed out. She turned just in time to see Gina reach out and touch one.
 The water around Gina churned as she thrashed about. "GETTITOFFMEGETTITOFFME!"
she hollered.
 Brian boosted over, calling her name and then prying the creature off her arm,
tossing it (the creature) aside. "Gina. PLEASE remember that Cheetah isn't
around to protect you any more!" he said.
 "I know," she said with disgust, checking out her armor's arm. It looked to be
discolored, but otherwise undamaged. She flexed her wrist a few times. "I was
just trying to brush it aside."
 "Well, be CAREFUL."
 "You okay?" Jason asked.
 "Yeah, yeah," Gina nodded.
 "Ok, let's move on." And so they did.

 Bri reached over and touched Gina's shoulder. She looked at him and recognized
his hand signal for a private link.
 "What?" she said when she'd set it up.
 "Where are we going?" he asked.
 She made a disgusted face. "I told you already, I'm okay. I didn't hit my head
or anything."
 "No, I mean we," he said, gesturing first to her and then to himself.
 "Oh. Where are WE going. I see." She thought for a moment. "What do you mean?"
 "Well, are we going to go any further than we have now, or do we just hold
here and see where things go?"
 "How much further would you want to take it?"
 "I don't know," he said. "I'm asking. I'm happy now, and I'm sure I'd be happy
later too, no matter what we do."
 "Okay. What about what them?" She nodded toward the other two, slightly ahead
of them.
 "They can go further too, I don't care about them."
 "No, silly," Gina smiled. "I mean what about their reactions? They were pretty
shocked when we first made it public."
 "Well, Brianna's pretty much patterned her reactions after Jason's, and Jay's
a big boy. He can handle being shocked. I say let 'em do whatever they want to
and we'll do what we want to."
 Gina grabbed Brian's hand and smiled. "Agreed."

 They weren't the only ones Having A Talk; Bri' and Jay had set up a private
link as well.
 "So how about that with your sister?" Jay said.
 "That what?" Brianna answered.
 "Um, the fact that she's committed to staying in El Dorado now."
 "OH. Yeah, that sure was a surprise."
 "So now, not counting Genn, it's just us four."
 "Four?"
 Jason looked back at Bri'. "Yeah. Four. You, me, Brian, Gina? Remember them?"
 She blushed inside her helmet. "Sorry. I've been thinking about just us."
 "Uh-oh," Jason said. "What about us?"
 "Oh, nothing," she quickly returned. "Nothing wrong. Just thinking."
 "About what?"
 "Well, now that Brian's sticking around with Gina, we're wasting space with
the back of the truck the way it is. We should bring the big computing power up
front to the passenger seat and get rid of the rear seat altogether."
 "Maybe that's an idea," Jason said. "I was thinking about switching it over to
a different kind of navigation anyway, getting rid of the steering wheel and
having it all done by keypad. That might be the way to--"
 "Jay! FREEZE!" Bri' suddenly shouted. Instantly, his mind dredged up memories
that were centuries old, from when he'd been a firefighter and was taking a
course. They were working with gasoline pressurized to 35psi and forced through
a flange with no gasket, so that it leaked severely. The flange was set on fire
and they were told to put it out. The instructor had guided Jason in so that
the hoseline he was holding was spraying a cone of water entirely around the
flange in question--not strong enough to put the fire out, but enough to force
the burning fuel to go in the opposite direction. Finally, the instructor told
Jason to 'freeze', in other words, to hold that position while the instructor
walked to a valve nearby and shut off the flow of fuel. Jason remembered the
words in his head: <Yer goddamn RIGHT I'm gonna freeze, Randy, when I can see a
thirteen-foot long tongue of flame out the backside of my stream.>
 He was remembering that very thought when Brianna reached out and pounded on
his back, knocking three starfish-like beings off of him.
 He tried to look at his back, but he couldn't see much. He switched to the
public link, and a video feed provided to him briefly by Brianna's cameras
proved that there was only some mild discoloration of the metal. "Yikes," he
said. "Why are these things attacking us?"
 "Are they attacking, or looking for protection from an attacker?" Brian said,
brushing away a flock of jellyfish.
 "And where's the monster?" Gina brought up. They were almost on the pool
floor, and there was no beast yet to be seen.
 "Let's go further down," Jason smiled, "..and get to the bottom of this."
 The other three groaned.

 They ultimately reached the floor of the giant pool and found, as expected, a
cave leading off in one direction.
 "Excellent," Jason imitated Montgomery Burns. "Come, we go."
 The cave had a gentle upward slope to it, and the foursome had more Close
Encounters of the Fish Kind while they walked. None were serious, though, and
they eventually, after about a kilometer's bounding, spaceman-like walk, found
themselves in a huge underground cavern.
 The water had somehow stopped at the point where the tubelike cave emptied out
into the cavern. Jason took a glance at his visor's readout, then tentatively
flipped up his visor. "It's damp, but it's okay," he declared, and the other
three also took off their helmets.
 Light was spilling in from some unseen source, giving the entire area an
orange glow. They all looked around cautiously at the rocky terrain, the
stalactites and stalagmites jutting out all over the place.
 "Jesus," Brian muttered. "You could fit two El Dorados inside this place."
 Jason was about to say something, but he cut himself off and briefly flipped
his visor back down to look through the rangefinder. "El Dorado isn't here," he
whispered, herding the others behind a rocky outcropping, "but something else
quite large IS."
 Brianna looked at her SO, who appeared hardly able to contain his excitement.
"The monster?" she asked in a whisper.
 "The monsterS," Jay grinned. "Look through your rangefinder."
 She popped her head up over the rock and moved her visor into place. Sure
enough, a medium distance away, there were TWO Loch Ness Monsters.
 She tentatively stepped back out into sight. She said, "They're not interested
in us. They're too busy tending to each other. C'mon."
 One by one, the other three came out from their cover and watched as one of
the creatures seemed to be trying to comfort the other, which appeared to be in
severely poor shape.
 "What's going on? Is the one on the left sick?" Gina said.
 "I think so," Jason said. "Oh.. I forgot." He reached up and flicked on his
video camera. The recordable disk drive made a barely audible whirr as it
powered up.
 "HRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!" the ill monster roared. The other one
wailed out in agony too.
 "Turn it off!" Brian hissed.
 "No--hang on," Brianna urged. "I don't think that's the problem. Look!"
 The second monster--the well one--was stomping their way. Everyone did an 'oh
shit' and prepared to dive for cover again, but before they could react, the
monster was by them, sparing only the quickest of glances. It waded into the
water in the cave and swam out of sight.
 Everyone looked at each other.
 "Now THAT was weird," Brian understated.
 "We don't seem to be perceived as a threat," Gina surmised. <I guess six-foot-
tall humans aren't that menacing to hundred-and-sixty-foot long quadraped/
serpents.> "Um.. where are you going?"
 "To get a closer look," Jason said. He and Bri' were slowly advancing toward
the remaining creature. "I think I've got this figured out."
 "Oh, you do, do you?" Brian crossed his arms.
 "I think all those fish type creatures we encountered are the natural food for
these things, and they were trying to gain protection from the monsters through
us," Jason explained. He and Bri' were still stepping toward the other; Brian
and Gina followed them after a pause. Jason gestured to a messy pool of fluid
under the rear end of the monster, and its distended belly. "I may be taking a
stab in the dark, but I don't think this one's sick, and I don't think that's
the aftermath of a number 1 there."
 Seconds later, his hunch was proven right: The creature hollered again, and
all at once, something came out of it. It looked like a baby Nessie.
 "I'll be damned," Brianna whispered. "She's a momma."
 "She might not be if something isn't done," Gina pointed out. The baby was
wrapped in a sac of gooey membranous material and wasn't breathing through it
all that well.
 Brian rooted around inside his armor to reach his belt. "Maybe I can solve
that." The Leatherman Tool that Jason had insisted he buy was out in a flash,
the knife extended; carefully, trying not to be distracted by the thrashing of
the newborn, Brian slit the sac apart all along its 'front'. The baby climbed/
slithered/fell out and started screeching promptly.
 "Congratulations, Dr. Burgess," Jay quipped, staring at the scene before him.
 "I don't imagine Leatherman will publish a story based upon this use of their
tool," Brian said, wiping the blade off and closing it back up.
 "No, I don't think so--" Bri' began, but thunderous footfalls behind her made
them all turn to see the other creature standing there, apparently aware of all
of what had transpired. It lumbered up to the baby and bent over until they
were almost mouth-to-mouth, at which point the baby opened up and received the
mouthful of sea life that the father had gone to collect. Then, the father
turned and 'nuzzled' (for lack of a better description) the four friends.
 "I.. THINK it's thanking us for helping out," Jason said.
 "Un fucking real," Brian declared, still in disbelief.
 "I second that," Brianna nodded.
 They were all quiet for a moment.
 "This brings up a dilemma," Gina pointed out.
 "Oh?"
 "Well.. do we tell the world what's happened down here, or do we just turn
away and let it be?"
 That gave everyone pause. They looked back at the new family.
 "I think you're right," Jay said. "There's no reason for us to bring attention
to these creatures. We know they exist, and I'm sure they want to be left alone
for a while to take care of their new family."
 The father's head reared up again.
 Brianna smiled. "I think they might understand," she said.
 "I hope they do," Gina nodded. "So we'll just keep this our secret, huh?"
 "Agreed," the other three chimed in. Jason turned for one last look at the new
family of serpents, and then shut off the recorder. Naturally, the baby just
then cocked its head in a 'cute' moment that should've been caught on tape but
was never meant to be. In any case, they then turned and went back to the cave.
 As they reached the water's edge, the father gave a Chewbacca-like yell. The
foursome turned and waved farewell, then strode back into the water.

 They went back to the vehicles, surprised to find the lake unpopulated with
tourists, and under cover of late morning, took to the skies to find a decent
port of entry at which to legally arrive in Scotland.
 They eventually did, and spent the remainder of the day driving around the
countryside, taking in the sights. The next day, after a late start (after a
long, well-deserved sleep), they contented themselves with driving to a random
point and getting out to explore the wilderness.
 It didn't take long for something predictable to happen.

 "Oh, my.." Brianna said, her eyes unfocusing.
 "What?" Brian asked. "What is it?"
 "I recognize this place."
 Jason was about to retort, but Gina cut him off. "Bri'.. you don't think it
could be..?"
 She nodded, then floored the lot of them with a remark.
 "This is where Cheetah was born."

 They stared at the area for a while. It was just a typical forested area, not
the majestic land some thought it would be. 
 "I can't believe it," Gina said, acting as if she was on hallowed ground. "It
looks a lot different than I'd pictured it."
 "Same here," Brianna said distantly. The two of them were walking through the
clearing, staring at their surroundings.
 Jason was looking about as well. He tried to imagine a cluster of huts or dens
scattered about the medium-size clearing. In one, he envisioned a newborn were-
cat and her parents. Brendan the Betrayer burst in and slaughtered the parents,
rampaging through Jay's mind's eye, and then he saw the were-wolf pause and
turn, then flee. An Indiana Jones-like human figure entered, reacted with
horror at the carnage, then noticed the baby.
 "What?" he said as he realized Brianna was talking to him.
 "I said, we're gonna look around, see if there's any remains of Brit's village
here," she said, indicating Gina. "You guys going to come?"
 "Yeah," Jason said. "Brian?"
 "Sure," he joined in.

 Gina's archaeology helped them out; they found some damaged huts nearby, and
dug gently and found various artifacts, more than 20 years buried in the forest
floor. They were all stunned at the sheer luck of their discovery.
 They spent that entire day there, and Gina and Brianna worked tirelessly, long
after the men had needed to take a break. They uncovered the remains of the
entire village, and seemed to feel quite a link to it.
 Jason thought he understood; it was as if he were to walk down the street and
trip over an old piece of kipple from his Robotech days.
 Camp was set up in the clearing, and in the morning, they lingered for a few
hours, then headed down the road.

 That afternoon, they toured a castle at Jason's insistence. It was called
"Brougham Castle", and he felt as much of a link to it as the girls did to the
forested area. It wasn't altogether valid; he hadn't been born in Brougham, and
his grandfather's origins were somewhere else in the country. Still, he did
feel a connection to the place.
 All the thoughts of Brougham, the town where he grew up, got him sidetracked,
as usual. He thought of his youth, when he'd promised himself he'd someday move
back to Brougham and carry on with life there. That was when he'd lived in
Calgary for a while. The promise had morphed into a desire, and the desire
changed to an unreachable dream, and the unreachable dream turned into a
forgotten notion.
 And now here he was, on Earth again, with his life out in front of him once
more.
 His thoughts returned to a comment Brianna had made earlier, at home, about
how if she and he decided to go off and do their own thing, Gina wouldn't mind.
 He followed the group being led through the tour of the castle, but his mind
was at least ten thousand kilometers away.

THE NEXT DAY
 
 "This is beautiful country," Jason said, smiling as they drove along. "I
really like it. Knowing Cheets was born right near here is neat, too."
 "I wish she was here to see it," Brianna commented.
 "Well, here." Jason gestured to the console; on its screen was the list of
locations the Light-Gate generator had stored. On it was one labelled "Cheets'
Birthplace". "Now she can, whenever she wants."
 "So long as we remember to upload this stuff to Gina's computer when we get
back," Brianna amended. "C'mon, I saw that look in your eyes when you saw that
castle. What's up with that?"
 Jason spent a few moments in silence before he answered. "Brougham is the name
of the town I grew up in," he finally said. "It's always been my dream to move
back there and carry on with my life. And now that we're all financially
stable.."
 Bri' paused after Jay trailed off. "I see," she said at last. Then she carried
on. "You don't expect to settle down and raise a family right yet, do you?"
 "No, not yet," he said, smiling at the thought. "I still want to adventure and
have fun, but I've never been able to get over leaving Brougham. I used to
think it was because Brian was there, and I couldn't stand being away from all
my friends, but now I think it was more the whole character of the place in
general."
 "Where would we stay?"
 "Last I heard, my old house was abandoned and boarded up. It'll take minor
fixing. Not a big deal."
 Another long pause ensued.
 "Can I build a lab in the basement?"
 Jason laughed. "It's a bit on the small side, but sure, why not." He was
elated that the plan was in motion.

 They returned to Atlanta two days later. The back of the truck was jammed full
of stuff they'd picked up. Several videos from the cave under Loch Ness, lots
of photos, sketches, and artifacts from Cheetah's home ground, and tons of
souvenirs from all over the rest of the country.
 Bri' and Jay went off on their own for a while, and when they returned, they
called Brian and Gina and the rest to meet them for a talk.
 Momentarily, Brian, Gina, Genn, Seance, and Brianna and Jason met in the
living room. Jason and Brianna remained standing, and addressed their audience.
 "We're going to move to Brougham," Jason said bluntly. He didn't have the guts
to look at their faces, but he heard more than one jaw drop. He felt he needed
to say more, so he did.
 "I've always wanted to return to Brougham. I lived there for 18 years of the
beginning of my life. I've never found a place with as much character and
warmth as it has. I think I've always felt it to be my home, no matter where I
was living at the time."
 "I'm going with him because, as should be obvious, we're a couple," Brianna
added. "Besides, a couple of teams of two scattered across the continent won't
hurt." She smiled at Gina.
 Gina finally spoke after a second. "You mean you're still going to go on
adventures with us?"
 "Oh, sure!" Bri' said. "We intend to build a lab and rebuild Jay's old house.
We'll be linked up between here and there in no time."
 "Your old house.. is a wreck," Brian said haltingly, still stunned at the
bombshell that had been dropped on them.
 "We'll rebuild," Jay told him. "No time at all. We built this truck, and we
added a couple hundred square feet onto this underground complex. Fixing up a
house is going to be a snap."
 Genn spoke up. "You sound like you two've really got your hearts set on this."
 "We've got the cash, and we've got the opportunity," Jason replied. "It's a
done deal."
 "I.. just don't know what to say," Seance announced.
 "That's okay," Brianna grinned at him. "None of the others do either."

 "So what-all are you going to be taking?" Brian asked Jason the next day as
Jay was packing stuff up in the room he had been sharing with Brianna.
 "The truck, PCzilla, all the stuff in here, the stuff in the armory that's
Bri's, most of the stuff in the Bay," he answered, tossing clothes into a
suitcase.
 "Gonna fit all that in the truck?"
 "Nope. Bri' went to rent a U-Haul trailer. She'll be back later."
 "Uh-huh." Brian nodded. "Listen," he said, "are you REALLY going back there
just to be in Brougham?"
 "Mostly," Jason said, turning around and regarding his friend. "Why?"
 "You're not leaving to get away from the two of us?"
 Jason laughed. "Who gave you that idea?"
 "Well, this was kinda sudden, y'know."
 "No, it wasn't. It was the product of about thirty-three hundred years of
homesickness and memories reawakened by us visiting Brougham Castle." Jason
tossed the one suitcase at the doorway and put another empty one on the bed.
 "So what are you going to do when you guys get there?"
 "Move in, rebuild, then just be there. Take in every last Blue Jays game I
can. Show Bri' around every square inch of Southern Ontario. Go on a few dozen
adventures, some very likely with you and Gina."
 "So what is this, really? A change of pace?"
 "A change of location," Jason told his friend. "I wanna go home, and Bri' is
willing to go there with me. What is so hard for you guys to wrap your brains
around?"
 "The motive, mostly. You just decided you're going to up and go, right?"
 "EXACTLY." The second case sailed through the air and found a spot beside the
first. "Think of it as the Brougham branch office of our little operation here,
and Cheets and Stripe as the El Dorado division."
 "Except Cheets and Stripe're highly unlikely to participate in anything any
more," Brian pointed out.
 "Okay, consider El Dorado a silent partner, then. We're just going to be in a
different location than you two. Okay?" He turned to his friend and stared.
"This is a yes or no question, Bri. Okay?"
 "Okay," Brian finally said.
 "Excellent." Jason returned to his packing. "It won't be so bad, anyway. Just
like when I moved to Calgary from Brougham, only I'll be visiting every few
weeks instead of once every half-dozen years."

 And so, a few hours later, the truck and the U-Haul were parked outside in the
driveway, jammed full of stuff. Bri and Gina were there to see the two friends
off.
 "I'm not too good at this," Gina said. She smiled halfheartedly. "Dammit, you
HAD to do this right after Cheetah left, didn'cha?"
 Bri' was also having trouble holding back tears. She did manage as weak a
smile as Gina, though. "Don't worry, sis. We'll be around all the time. You'll
never know we left. You'll wish we'd stay in Brougham, we'll be here so often."
 Gina laughed in spite of herself. "Take care of yourself. And take care of
him."
 "I will," Bri' nodded. She looked at Jason, who was standing before Brian.
 "Here I go again," Jason said, extending his hand to Brian, who shook it.
 "Yeah," Brian managed. That was about it.
 "Well, lissen.. make sure you keep her happy, okay? We'll call you when we get
settled, and sort out what our next mission together's gonna be."
 "Don't take your time," Brian said. He finally let go of Jay's hand, and Jay
snapped his hand to the brim of his fedora in a crisp, facetious salute.
 "Farewell for now," he told Brian, who returned the salute lazily.
 Jason turned and opened the passenger door for Brianna, who climbed in. He
shut it, looked at Brian and Gina one more time as if to say something else,
and then instead just walked around to the driver's side and got in.
 As he started the truck up, he glanced in the passenger mirror to see Brian
throw one arm around Gina and squeeze her tight, and wave with the other.
 "What?" Bri' said, noticing him looking in her direction.
 Jay selected forward gear, trying to control his emotion, and pulled away from
the curb. "Nothing much," he said, waving out of his window, then taking the
wheel with that hand so he could take Brianna's hand with the other.

         << Alanis Morissette "Head Over Feet" _Jagged Little Pill_ >>

FOUR DAYS LATER
MID-MORNING

 "Wake up."
 "Mmz? Huh?" Brianna mumbled, coming around.
 Jay smiled. "Welcome to Greater Metropolitan Toronto, or, as I knew it before
it became part of the megacity, Pickering." He stopped at a red light at
Kingston Road and Liverpool Road. "Just up here on the left, at the next
intersection, is something you'll often hear me refer to as The Bus Stop. It's
something special to me, but it's part of my past, and I know enough to keep it
like that."
 "What's its significance to you?" Bri' asked.
 And so he told her, all about meeting Mitch that stormy day in 1986, sparking
a relationship that would last for centuries. Brianna took it quite well, as he
thought she might.
 "That McDonald's was a neat place," Jay said, gesturing to the restaurant in
the mall behind The Bus Stop. He tried not to notice the bank three doors down
from the McDonald's. "My dad was a firefighter here for years. If you went into
that McDonald's in fire gear, all they'd say was 'How many?' and you said, for
example, 36, and you'd get 36 quarter-pounders, 36 big-macs, and 36 fries and
36 Cokes, on the house. This ended up being the way we fed firefighters at a
long call."
 Brianna chuckled.
 After a few moments, he pointed out another building on the left. "That's
known as Knob Hill Farms. It's a food store. An ugly place to shop. I'm sure
it's packed way past maximum occupancy capacity every day. It's usually hard to
move in there, and people are bumping into you and running you over all the
time. But the prices are right, or at least they were ten years ago."
 Bri' made a smart-ass comment about setting the customers straight when she
went to shop there. Jason grinned.
 He went straight through the intersection of Brock and Kingston, trying not to
think of the alternate-timeline demise of Mitch that he'd heard about that'd
happened on that patch of road. He went over to Church Street and turned left.
 "This is where I spent a LOT of my teens." It was quite a bit more built-up
than when he'd left--the field across the road was now a huge subdivision, for
starters--but Pickering High School remained, albeit with two new wings. "I
took grades 9 through 13 here. It was, in most ways, fun."
 "Is this the one with the football team?" Brianna asked.
 "Yeah," he grinned. "The Trojans. We had one of the winningest high school
football team in Southern Ontario for a few years. The last game I went to was
a divisional final against a school by the name of Central Tech. It took 6
overtime quarters--in other words, another game and a half worth of time--to
lose it ten to nine. That's the year that we steamrolled over other teams 63-0
and the like."
 "And you weren't on it?"
 "Nope. I was a bit of a pudge and a geek back then."
 "Aw. Think of all of what you missed."
 "Yeah, I know, I know."
 They turned right at the end of Church, as they got to the Fifth Concession,
and ended up coming out just south of Greenwood.
 "A lot of movies and shows were filmed around here," he told her. "There was
an old show on Canadian TV--meaning it was kinda surreal and weird--called The
Littlest Hobo. It was about this German Shepherd that roamed around the
countryside helping out where help was needed. Ninety percent of it was filmed
within a twenty-kilometer radius of us here. And there was a movie years ago
called Strange Invaders--"
 "Saw it!" Brianna enthused.
 "Filmed in Claremont, a five-minute drive north of our new old home. And the
TV show revival of War of the Worlds?.."
 "Um, saw a bit of it."
 "I understand. There was one scene where a town had been taken over by the
aliens, or something like that, and the heroes went into a diner and ordered
some green hot dogs--I think that's how it went--and that diner is across the
street from home."
 "I don't remember that scene, sorry."
 "I know, I tried to block it out too. Anyway, if you'll look out the left side
of the craft, you'll see Valley View Public School, the K-to-8 school I spent
ages 4 to 12 in. I was too young to have too much fun there, but it's where
life really began for me, so I thought I'd point it out."
 "Yer almost outta gas. I thought I'd point THAT out."
 "Well, guess what--there's a Shell just down the road (hopefully), so we'll
stop there and juice up."
 It was, and they did. They drove back south through Greenwood again, then
across the 5th once more right out to Whitevale. "This is where a lot of the
rest of the TV and movie stuff was shot. And one of the trailheads for a thing
called the Seaton Hiking Trail. I spent many a day walking up and down the
paths through here."
 "You've GOT to take me through there," she said.
 "I promise, as soon as we're settled." Out the other side of Whitevale they
went, and there they were, halfway between Locust Hill and Green River, on the
dividing line between Durham Region, where Pickering was, and York Region, home
to Markham. Jay turned right and headed back into Durham.
 "Green River is one of those communities that's just a bunch of built-up area
along the highway," he said. "I mean, no offense to the Green Riverers, but
there's just a church and a book shop here and a bunch of houses."
 "Right," she nodded. They passed a large green sign near a gravel parking lot.
"And the other end of the hiking trail," she said as she read it.
 "I tell you, we'll go LATER."
 "I heard you, I heard you."
 "Okay."
 A few more moments passed, and they found themselves near Sideline 20. "The
second driveway on the right down THAT road"--point at Country Lane--"is where
Brian grew up. Well, the house at the end of the driveway."
 He chose not to point out the small, short barn nearby. Some things are best
left untouched.
 "And this," he finally said, "This.. is Brougham."
 He pointed out the old Airport offices, saying he'd explain later; the old
church which was now an art gallery for a damned fine artist; the old post
office slash residence-of-the-postmaster; and finally, the four corners, the
intersection of Highway 7 and Brock Road. Through the traffic lights, across
the road from the "new" church, something in the old hardware store caught his
attention.
 "Brougham General Store?" he asked himself aloud as he proceeded through the
now-green light.
 Jason blinked as he saw the Becker's store--or what had originally been the
Becker's store. There was a large red-and-yellow sign on it now reading
'MAC'S'. "Holy shit," he said. "Mac's must've bought out Becker's." <Come to
think of it, I haven't seen any other Becker's stores around-->
 Brianna winced as they came to an abrupt stop and the belts dug into her. She
turned to see what Jason was staring at and saw a low building set back away
from the road. Most of the glass was out of the wooden roll-up door, and the
lettering above the door read "IRE DEPT.", obviously with a missing letter.
 "Jesus," he complained as a horn honked behind them. "The fire hall's been
abandoned too?"
 Brougham Road was the next left turn, and beyond the old body shop turned
antique store, the first building on the left was 3628. They pulled around the
corner and slowed as Jay involuntarily let off the pedal. He gasped at the same
time.
 The carport was gone, as was the tree out front. Not only were the windows not
boarded up as previously promised, but there wasn't any glass, either. A couple
of burn marks here and there provided indication of fires having been built
inside, and momentarily, a couple of drugged-out miscreants bolted from the
building and ran down the street like startled mice.
 "Oh my God," he whispered. It was like an icicle through the heart, to see the
house he'd spent his childhood in being mistreated in such a way. It was an old
friend being violated in the worst way possible.
 They stopped and Jason got out. Brianna came around to join him, and hugged
him gently.
 "I'm sorry, Jay," she said.
 They walked into the building and she tried to imagine what it had looked like
before the rabble had turned it into a trash-heap. The room the front door
opened into looked like it'd been a good family room, with another equal-sized
room right beside it. Stairs to the basement led off in one corner, the door
missing from the hinges. An open doorway directly opposite led to what would've
been a kitchen in better times. Around the back end of the kitchen, running
along one edge of the house, was a long, narrow bathroom, which stunk of drugs,
cigarettes, and human waste. A bedroom in the front corner was the source of
most of the fire damage seen from outside. More than one half-burned, soiled
mattress lay there.
 The upstairs fared no better. The two bedrooms and one small utility room were
all but destroyed. The room Jay had spent his years from age three to eighteen
in was battered and heavily damaged, the floor missing in some spots, the wall
between it and the attic crawlspace entirely gone. He looked in the one closet
and saw more burn marks, half-empty liquor containers, and vile, um, deposits.
 They returned to the ground floor and got out of the building. The detached
garage was demolished. Jason saw a blue-and-white piece of pressboard sticking
out of the pile of splintered lumber.
 He fished it out as Bri' spoke. "I'm sorry, Jay," she repeated. "It was a nice
thought, though."
 "It still is," he said. He held up the wood, which was a two-foot-square sign:

                 NO TRESPASSING - UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY PROHIBITED
             PROPERTY OF NEW TORONTO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT PROJECT

 "This was an Airport house, like everything else within a kilometer. All this
land was expropriated by the Federal government in the 70s or thereabouts. The
airport was never built, and the houses were rented back to people. This sign
was still nailed to part of the garage. That means that this land still belongs
to the Airport. THAT means that we can go and lay claim to it and start over."
 "Start over?" she echoed.
 "Raze the whole goddamn thing," he said with a catch in his voice. He looked
at the house. "I loved this place, but I can't rebuild it from this mess, nor
could I live in it knowing what's happened within its walls since I left. We're
gonna trash it and build a new house--and COMPLEX--here."

 LATE THAT NIGHT
 BROUGHAM MEMORIAL PARK
 (ONE KILOMETER EAST ON HIGHWAY 7)

 KNK! The aluminum bat connected with the ball and put it into low orbit. It
arced high and long and bounced off a see-saw in the playground, six hundred
and change feet away.
 "Im.. pressive," Jason said, taking the bat from Brianna and checking for a
dent. Finding none, he tossed a ball in the air and hammered it as hard as he
could. It didn't even go half as far.
 "Do you realize what day it is?" Brianna said.
 "The twenty-fifth," he nodded.
 "In exactly one month, it'll be the first anniversary of your arriving here."
She blasted another ball out toward the highway.
 Jason was thinking about what she'd said, and lost sight of the ball. He
realized something. "It's getting dark. Hang on." He motioned for Bri' to
follow him to the small outbuilding down the left field line, about thirty feet
off the field and three hundred and ninety feet away from home plate. Jay
walked around back to where there were two wooden doors on the orange-and-brown
corrugated-metal shack. He easily circumvented the lock on the one door and
opened it, raising clouds of lime dust. He trampled through that to the far
wall, and threw all the big breakers. When they returned outside, the entire
field was slowly being lit up.
 "My family spent years here at this field, either playing, managing, watching,
or contributing in some other way," he explained. As they walked around front
again, he gestured to the hinged awning/countertop. "My grandmother used to run
the snack bar here while we were playing games. The left fielder would always
come and get a Coke and dust it off while the pitcher was warming up."
 Brianna laughed. "You're really attached to this whole place, aren't you? I
guess it's understandable, since it's where you grew up, ..in a way."
 Jason nodded. "It's depressing to see what's happened, though. I had dreamed
of being a firefighter here, at one point. Now the fire station's mothballed. I
used to work in the Becker's, and now it's a Mac's. It'd been a Becker's from
the dawn of time.. an old guy named Mr. Kim used to run it, before my ex-boss,
Dianne, bought it from him. And then the house--I'd always wanted to move back
to my house and live there. Now we're demolishing it because the druggies made
it unfit for human use." He sighed.
 "Jay?" she said, hooking the bat into the fence, instead of handing it to him.
 "Yeah?"
 She turned and took hold of him. "You've been talking for far too long for
your health. Stop for a bit. Enjoy the moment and just relax," she said,
holding him tight and kissing him.
 They stood there holding onto each other, illuminated by the stadium lighting,
not another soul around.

TO BE CONTINUED IN 'THE EX-FILES'
BOOK SIX OF DIMENSION OUT OF RANGE