See Part One for Disclaimers

Daybreak.

The man on the bed in the ascetic bedroom grimaced as his dreams took the turns they always took.  Explosions.  Blurry faces.  Hands on his arms lifting him out of a depression in the ground.  The terror and determination within as he realized these were not friends but enemies.  His eyes snapped open as they always did, the dream fading even as his gaze became clear and blue, alert.  He blinked, staring at the ceiling.  The ceiling was white.  The walls were white, the only touches of color two small, expensive oil paintings by Old Masters.  He took a shuddering breath and relaxed.  He ran a hand over his face, removing the drying sweat.  He frowned.  Damn.  He was going to have to talk to Jackson about this, much as he hated doing so.  His sleep, never as much as most people claimed to need, was being seriously impaired by these dreams he couldn't remember.

He got up, padded bare foot to the bathroom and ran through his morning routine, including a hot shower to remove the residue of the night.  He stared into the reflections of his own direct blue gaze as he brushed his teeth, flossed and then shaved his sparse beard.  He frowned.

He seriously looked at his face.  Where had those lines come from, overnight as it were?  He combed his hair, instinctive action parting and combing it away from his face.  He stopped and stared at the result.  That was wrong.  Swiftly he disposed of the part and combed it into a neat face framing fringe.  It seemed a bit longer than he usually wore it.  He'd have to make time for a haircut in the next few days.

He moved back into the bedroom, straightening the bed, and pulling his suit out of the closet.  He frowned at the double closet.  The suit was in plastic as though he'd just picked it up from the cleaners, yet he remembered he worn the cream Nehru cut suit just a day or so before.  Odd.

He dressed quickly, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to read the newspaper.  He passed quickly over the front page and on to the inside.  Something stirred at the back of his mind, but he ignored it.  He walked out the door, locking it behind him and climbed into his car.

He passed Keith Ford in the hallway with a curt nod.  He seemed oblivious to the reaction he received.  Paul returned the nod, then turned to watch the spare man continue toward his office.  He ditched the actress he had been chatting up and hit his office at a run.  He rang through to Straker's secretary.

"Miss Ealand."

"Mr. Ford."

"He's back."

"Yes, sir.  He's just coming in."

"No.  *He's back*," Keith emphasized just as the woman at the other end met the blue gaze of her boss and realized exactly what Keith Ford was trying to tell her.

"I'll let him know you'd like to see him, sir," she agreed without missing a beat.  For the first time in five years, she flipped the switch that would activate the mechanisms that turned Ed Straker's office into a private elevator.

"Tell Foster and Freeman I want them in my office in ten minutes."

"Yes, sir."

Oh, hell.  It was good to have him back, but there was going to be hell to pay.

Straker entered SHADO headquarters, striding through the hallways and across the control center to his office.  He was peripherally aware of the flurry of reactions around him.  He walked into his office, around the desk and stopped in the act of sitting down.  He frowned.

Paul Foster, too tired to go home at the end of his shift, had collapsed on the leather couch he'd had moved into the command office.  His face, even in repose, was older, more care worn than it had been.  He frowned in his sleep.

Straker quietly walked over to the couch and stood looking down at the younger man.  The face was more angular than he remembered it being.  There were gray hairs here and there in the dark thatch of his hair.  What was going on?

"Ed?"

The voice at the doorway was Alec's, yet there was a hesitation.  He looked around at his friend and second in command.  His world rocked.  Alec looked far older than his years, worn, hurt and desperate, yet the intensity of the joy in his eyes was unmistakable.  Something approximating his familiar easy smile curved the thin lips.

Missing time flooded into Straker's memory.  He took a couple of steps and sat on the edge of his desk.  "Fuck." He said succinctly.

Paul jerked awake and nearly fell off the couch.  Alec looked shocked and laughed.  Ed Straker never used that word in any context.

Straker looked at Alec and then at Paul and back again.  He took a long breath and released it.  "Looks like I owe you two a great deal," he said softly.

Paul's face lit with a smile.  "Don't you ever do that again!" came his heartfelt demand.

"What he said," Alec seconded.

Silence.  Awkward silence.  Five years.  He had everything except the six months he was missing.  He frowned.  "Why --"

He started.

"We couldn't get through."

Flat statement.  He rummaged through his memories.  Up to one point he was himself.  Then he was just the head of the studio.  Everything had disappeared.  Everything.  He shook his head.  "Jackson."

Alec and Paul both started to deny his need to talk to their spooky head of medical and security.  The words died in their throats.  Jackson's interview would be critical for reinstating Straker as Commander of SHADO.

It suddenly occurred to both of them that the Astrophysical Commission might not want to reinstate the Commander.  Paul nearly moaned at the thought.  Luckily, Straker was already on his way to Jackson's office, so he was unaware of the sudden turmoil in his former subordinates' minds.

Doug Jackson, tall, thin, dark haired and inclined to regard other human beings as though he regarded them as laboratory animals instead of thinking, feeling equals, looked up from the report on his desk and greeted Straker as though he had seen him only yesterday.  He noted the way Straker's eyes narrowed for just an instant as he entered the room, just as he noted everything else about the Commander.

Straker sat down in the chair opposite the Doctor and they talked.

For the next week, Edward Straker was subjected to all the tests and interrogations any SHADO operative was subjected to upon returning from an unanticipated absence.  While the time he had spent only as head of Harlington-Straker was freely accessible, there was still a six month gap that was seamlessly tucked into his memories and inaccessible.  Even Jackson's favorite experimental drug did nothing more than agitate the Commander.

Alec and Paul both poured over the reports.  The Commander was physically exhausted by this time, but in excellent condition otherwise.  He was, as far as Jackson and his staff could tell, in excellent mental condition as well.  There was no sign that the aliens had implanted anything, programmed him for anything, that they had done anything to him that SHADO needed to fear, nothing at all.

Both men watched him as he went over the reports.  He finished reading, closed the cover and leaned back in the chair he was sitting in.  He looked at the two men before him.  "I'm still missing six months.  And what do I do about Ms.  Madigan?"

Thok.  Thok.  The door to the office opened.  "You wanted to see me, sir?" a very familiar female voice asked.  She was looking at Alec, but her warm eyes flickered over Straker, a smile accompanying the look.

"Lt.  Madigan, I believe you know the Commander."

She turned her full attention to Straker and nodded.  "Yes, sir.  I do.  It's been an honor and a privilege to keep an eye on you, sir." The laughter in her eyes told him that it had not been just an honor and a privilege.

"Thank you." Something between amusement and annoyance flickered across his face.  He could feel the stirrings within him at the sight of her.  He traced memories of their time together.  A part of him was entranced by her, loved her, wanted her deeply.  The other part, the part that had been submerged, recognized his wants as the danger to SHADO that they could be.  This was not going to be easy.  "You may still have a job in that area, Lt."

Oh, frosty.  "Sir?"

He shoved the report across the desk to her.  Without looking at Paul who was frowning or Alec who looked like he needed some sleep, she picked it up and quickly scanned the contents.  She looked up, meeting Straker's cold gaze.  "You want to unlock those six months." It was a statement of understanding.  "New Mexico."

Paul and Alec protested.  A look from Straker silenced both of them.  "Yes.  You'll come to run security.  We don't want to draw a lot of attention." His voice dripped acid on that.

"No, sir.  A short vacation, checking out location sites -- I believe there is a script for a Western under consideration.  Location sites are always best checked out first hand." She paused, then met his gaze directly.  "May I suggest that we take Col.  Freeman with us?  I believe the production is under his control."

If he was surprised by her suggestion, he didn't betray it by so much as a flicker of an eyelid.  He nodded.  "Paul, you have command until I return."

That got a theatrical groan.  "Just make sure you *do* return.  And not in another 5 years.  I'll be ready to retire if you wait that long." He grinned.  Well, well.  His sense of humor seemed to be coming back.

 

New Mexico.  Well, El Paso, Texas, actually.  They flew in on a commercial airline.  El Paso was sprawling, dry, hot, dusty and full of accents that landed on ears used to clipped or drawled British ones.  They collected their bags and their rental car and drove north on I-10 towards Las Cruces.  Alec stretched out in the back seat while Maddy drove and Straker took the passenger seat.

They drove across the Texas-New Mexico border in silence, much the way they had traveled since they boarded the airplane at Heathrow.  It had been a long flight.  The Concorde had brought them into New York where they had anticipated a two hour layover.  It hadn't materialized.  The connecting flight to Dallas-Ft.  Worth had been early, of all things.

Maddy had looked at the two men with raised eyebrows.  "Early?????  Flights are *never* early!," she'd whispered.  "It's a trap," she added darkly and spoiled it with a giggle.  "I'm sorry.  But I have never in my life had a flight be early before.  Honest!"

They'd spent some time at a hotel in Dallas-Ft.  Worth, getting some sleep.  The flight from there to El Paso was a short one.

Now, they were in the high Sonoran Desert on the western side of the Guadalupe/Franklin/Organ mountain chain that eventually joined up with the Rockies further north.  Alec thought it looked dry and dead, a lot like portions of the Out Back of his own homeland, Australia.  He settled back to rest his eyes.  He was tired, bone tired, and getting more and more that way.

Straker watched the scenery roll past.  Dry reddish tan dirt sprinkled with spots of color.  As they neared Las Cruces, Yuccas with their tall dried spikes became more numerous.  He had a flash of those spikes fresh and pale green, the heavy ivory bells of their flowers dangling from the short, fragile cross branches.  They passed a Century plant.  This one had bloomed in the spring.  A single shaft of dirty green shot skyward, the last two feet of the eight to ten foot shoot throwing out the branches which held six to eight inch across platforms of red and yellow blossoms.  It stood stark against the pale blue skyline, the blossoms long since withered and dried as was the spike that bore them.  The fleshy leaves with their serrated edges lined with sharp spikes were brown, drying.  Soon the entire plant would fall over.  Century plants bloomed once and died.

That was a jarring thought.

He focused his attention on the mountains, dusty, sere, dry rocks thrusting skyward.  The distance made them deceptive.  There were trees there and bushes and wildlife.  Snakes, tarantulas, horned toads, rabbits -- rabbits.  He had a sudden memory of skinning a rabbit, his hands bloody as he cleaned the carcass, a small smoky fire to cook the meat and someone with him.  He was handing her a leg.  He could see the slender fingered hand, the knuckles showing more than they should.  He looked up -- the memory was gone.

The country around Las Cruces was not where he had been.  They drove on.  Socorro.  That was where they needed to go.  Socorro, the little town in New Mexico where a Sheriff's deputy had once chased a spectral light into the desert, certain he was trailing a UFO.  New Mexico, home of Roswell where a crashed weather balloon had once been identified as a fallen space craft.  The desert state had its share of UFOlogists.  And more than it's share of stories.

He settled back to endure the ride.

 

"Alex."

"Yes, Col?"

"I'm bored."

A rich chuckle met this pronouncement.

"It's not funny.  This town is boring."

"Col, almost all small towns are boring."

"Los Alamos wouldn't be boring," she wheedled.

"He didn't wander into Los Alamos."

Disgusted sound.  "No, he didn't.  He wandered into Socorro, the boredom capitol of New Mexico, Arizona and surrounding territories.  *When* do they get here?"

"Soon."

"Soon," the red head mimicked.  "Soon.  That's all you've said for days.  Soon.  I'm going swimming."

"Don't forget your sunscreen."

The screen door slammed behind the red head.  Her copper skinned companion gave a lazy shake of her head.  Poor Colleen, so many rampant hormones and so much energy and not a lab or a lap in sight.  Time enough for that when the debt was paid.

 

The heat seemed to penetrate the car in spite of the best efforts of the air conditioner.  Straker found himself nodding off.  He could feel the sun on his face.  He opened his eyes and stared up into a washed out sky through the branches of a cholla cactus.  He could see the halo of spines around it's limbs, back lit by the white circle of the sun.

"Ed.  Ed.  Please.  Don't die on me.  Please.  I'm sorry, I am so sorry," a whispery, sandpaper dry voice whispered to him.  "I know it's selfish, but don't leave me alone.  Please." Silence.  A muffled, choked sob.  "I can't even cry.  That's a cactus.  But it's not the right kind." It would have been a wail, but the speaker didn't have enough moisture or strength to wail.

"It --" Strangled non-sound.  He tried again.  "It's all right.  I'm still here."

"I'm glad.  Maybe I shouldn't be.  You -- Maybe you'd rather not be here."

He wanted to laugh at that.  "Doesn't matter.  We'll make it.  Look for fat, round cactus." He tried to swallow and failed.  "Their flesh holds the water we need."

"Fat, round.  Fat, round.  Fat -- Short?"

"That'd do."

"Ow!!" Muffled cussing and sniffles.  "There.  Take that, you nasty little water hog."

He couldn't help the laugh that time.  Pain spiked through his side.  Oh, right.  Broken ribs.  No.  Not that painful.  Cracked probably.

Dry fingers with torn nails poked a piece of cactus flesh between his lips.  He could taste tang of blood along with the cool fluid stored inside the cactus.  Moisture.  It was a struggle, but he sat up.  His lips were cracked and peeling.  He suspected the rest of his too fair skinned face was equally bad.  She handed him another piece of cactus and poked one in her own mouth.  She leaned close to him, her parched lips almost touching his ear.

"It's not real, is it?" There was a hopeless sound in her voice.

He looked around.  He delved deep inside himself.  No.  This wasn't real either.  He shook his head, agreeing with her.

He looked into her watery pale eyes.  He saw the trust he'd earned in the past few -- hours?  Days?  Weeks?  She was resigned.  Whatever happened, she would face it with him.

He jerked awake as the car slowed and came to a stop.  The dream had been so real.  He realized it was different this time.  He could remember it.  He slewed around in the seat to stare at Alec.  He was aware of Maddy's clear gaze on him.  Alec was asleep.  Deeply asleep.

Straker looked around at the woman with him.  "What's wrong with Alec?"

"Wrong?" Steel and ice met her gaze.  "Overwork."

He frowned.  He looked back at his friend and shook his head.  "No.  That's not all."

"He's dieing."

"What?"

"He's dieing."

"Medical --"

"Nothing they can do.  It's an ailment of the soul, not of the body."

Straker's gaze fastened on his companion as though he didn't believe what he'd heard.  An ailment of the soul?  What did she mean by that?  "Then why come with us?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Maybe St.  Straker can heal him." The tone was unutterably sarcastic.  "Or maybe he just needs to know that you won't be leaving any time soon." Not so sarcastic.  "Watching someone you care about not be who and what they're supposed to be can wear anyone down, even faithful Aussies."

"Mrmph–fpafjh -- What?" Alec entered the conversation as he awoke.

"I was commenting on the Aussie ability to sleep through their snoring."

Well, that was a look.

"Thank you.  Where are we?"

"Socorro."

Tension.  He looked around.  "Didn't look like much the last time I was here.  Still doesn't."

"Good.  Where did you pick up the Commander?"

He gave directions to the hospital.  She followed them until they were sitting in the parking lot looking at the small, modern looking hospital building.  She looked to Straker who was looking around.

"This isn't where you wandered in out of the desert, is it?"

"No."

She referred to the file and then to a local area map.  "Ok, may I suggest eating, stretching our legs and then heading back from the hospital to the pick up site?"

Straker was inclined to deny a need to eat, but Alec was looking a bit more worn than he had so he nodded his agreement.  They stopped at the local Denny's, got out, stretched their legs and went in to eat.  It had been a long time since any of them had eaten at a strictly American fare restaurant.

Straker ordered a chef's salad and picked at it while Alec worked his way through a fried chicken dinner and Maddy had green enchiladas.  Alec was aware that his friend was watching him, although his gaze was always elsewhere when Alec looked up from his plate.  He had expected to find that eagle gaze on Maddy.  But it wasn't.  What the hell had she told him?  He caught her gaze for a moment and knew.  Dammit.  Couldn't she keep her blasted mouth shut?  He immediately regretted the thought.  No.  If Ed asked, she would tell him, knowing that it would spur him to complete his search sooner, to head home, even if he didn't find his answers.

"Ed, either eat that salad or put it out of it's misery," Maddy teased suddenly.

He scowled at her, then looked down at the mangled but mostly uneaten salad.  He nodded and started tucking it away.  He looked up to find her watching him again.  "What?"

"I like looking at you.  Makes my job very easy."

"Maddy --" Alec started.  He stopped at a gesture from Straker.

"You know it's over."

"Yes, I do.  And it's all right.  No scenes.  No reviling.  No repercussions.  But that doesn't mean I can't look, even if I can't touch any more.  Anyone ever mention that you are a very graceful human being, as well as being striking looking?"

He felt the heat rise in his face at her praise.  What the hell was she thinking?  And, yet -- he was aware that he moved with economy and grace because he had to do so.  A trained fighter always moves with grace.  A man under constant observation, both inside his real world and in the world of his cover, had to move carefully, both physically and mentally.  He guessed one must of necessity come to overlap the other.

"Thank you." Her pleased smile warmed him.

He'd been found by a rancher.  He'd taken shelter by a water trough.  The water was clean enough and it was what he needed the most.  Dehydration kills faster than starvation, much faster.

He stared at the tank and the trough, running them through his memory, trying to pick up the scent of where he'd been before this.  There was a low rise of hills to the north.  There was something familiar about them.  He started walking.  Maddy grabbed the canteens and the back pack and followed, Alec bringing up the rear.

It took several hours to retrace his path to the base of those mountains.  They were mountains, not hills.  He stopped and stood unmoving in the light of the setting moon.  It was here, somewhere.  What *it* was, he wasn't quite certain.  He looked around.  Rocks.  Large rocks.  He could feel rocks under his hands.  Rocks and sobbing.  Tears cut paths in the dust on his face.  There should be a pile of rocks.

There.

He moved toward the cairn at a run and then just stopped next to it.  The dreams were real.  This was real.  He sank to his knees and reached out to gently run a hand over the topmost rock.  "Mary." His breath shuddered out of him.  The memories flooded in, agonizing, terrifying memories.  When Rand hadn't managed to get what he wanted, he'd kidnapped Mary and brought her in.  She'd seen aliens.  She'd been subjected to Rand's reality manipulation.  She'd forgiven him.  She'd died for him.  Shuddering sobs wracked him as he remembered.

Warm arms enfolded him, offering comfort.  "It's all right," he heard her voice say.  "You're safe now.  It's all right." He closed his eyes and sheltered in the warmth and the darkness.

Two tall forms ghosted out of the night.  They nodded to Maddy and Alec as they laid out the items they would need for tonight.

Colleen helped Alec to his feet and moved him closer to where Maddy held Straker's limp form.  "It's time." He nodded his understanding as he took his Commander into his arms, releasing Maddy to stand closer to the cairn.

Alex completed her circle of protection.  Quietly, she called on the powers to which she owed allegiance to come to her aid.  A wind kicked up, swirling around the outer edge of the circle, but not touching the sand within.  Soon, a wall of whirling sand hid them from prying eyes, protected them from outside influence.

"Let that which was put together, come asunder," Alex intoned quietly.

Lt.  Madigan's form wavered, shifted, separated.  A misty part flowed across the sand to Alec and entered him, revitalizing the man who had given so much to keep his friend and Commander safe.  That left a pale woman with long blonde hair and pale blue eyes looking down at the two men.  She knelt for a moment, touching the pale man's face with a nearly transparent fingertip.

"I understand," she said softly, her voice carrying over the wind.  "I love you." She looked up into Alec's dark eyes and smiled.  "Take care of him."

Mutely, he nodded.  He watched as the form faded until nothing was left.  Ed stirred in his arms and sat up as the wind died down.  They were alone with the cairn Ed had built over the body of his ex-wife.

"What happened?"

"You came seeking memories," Alex told him as she stepped out of the darkness.  "You found them."

"I know you -- you --"

"I am a friend of Alec's.  We have indeed met before, Mr. Straker."

He turned to Alec.  The man's dark eyes looked more alive than they had in some time.  "Maddy -- won't be coming back, will she?"

"No."

He sighed.  "I was fond of her."

"I know.  She knew."

"I'm glad." He looked at the cairn, then at the mountains beyond.  "We need to make certain it's cleaned out."

"Then let's do so."

The red head perked up.  "You mean there might be trouble?  And you didn't tell me.  Alex --"

"Col -- Shut up."

The red head laughed and followed where Straker and his friend led.

 

"And the installation?" Paul prompted.

"Empty.  Hollowed out cavern area in the rock of the mountain.  But everything else was gone.  Some of the rocks were blackened, some looked like they'd been heat fused.  Ed took care of it."

"Good.  That's one less thing we have to worry about."

"So, what did you do with the two women?"

Alec shrugged, "Nothing.  After all, no one mentioned aliens.  No one saw aliens.  They just helped us explore an old cave."

Paul shook his head in disbelief.  "Well, I'm glad that's over and he's back."

"So am I.  So am I." Alec walked across the office and poured himself a stiff drink.  He raised it in mute testimony to a woman he'd spent a long time hating.  Mary Straker Rutland.  RIP.

"Alec?"

"Yes?"

"What happened to Rutland?"

Alec met his gaze and shrugged.  Mary's husband was missing.  Alec presumed he'd been taken by the aliens.  Or he was an alien.  Either way, there would be no solving the mystery of his disappearance.

finis

Email the author!
dragonhavn@zianet.com

Back to 'Miscellaneous Fiction' Index

Back to Main Library Index         Back to Main Fanfiction Index

I can't fix it if I don't know it's broken, so if you see anything wrong,  please let me know.  Thank you and enjoy your stay!