Flash Forward

"Victor! Don't--"

But he did.

Thresher hit the dirt as the device detonated over the alien city. The cyborg was afraid, teribly afraid--

The vision ended.

Thresher recovered first, and triggered the alert. "Where the hell is Arsenal?" he thought.
"One kilowatt. Excellent work, Jennifer."

"Thanks, Doctor." Jolt was in a clinic on a rocky, rugged, and beautful island on the world Bestos. She lay on a hospital bed, her body covered in bioelectric sensors.

She had been there for some time. "You've been a great help. Have you heard from my agent?"

"I have good news and bad news. Command's gone to Victor. Entertainment Division says they need some fresh faces after what happened."

Jolt's face darkened.

The doctor continued. "But you have a spot on the team. You just need to adapt to the new situation. You need to learn to see yourself as others see you--"

She snapped awake. She was sitting in the command chair of the Nightstalker. All was well.

"What just happened?"

Thresher answered. "Some kind of hallucinogen gas. I've called red alert."

"Good. Well done."

She stroked the arms of her command chair, and glanced over to the Eye's station. The Eye lay on the ground, twitching.

Vertigo. Pain.

The Eye struggled to her feet. A cold steel grip grabbed the back of her neck, and slammed her head-first into a bulkhead. The mirrored implants covering her empty eye sockets shattered.

"Why am I blind? What happened to my amulet?" She panicked.

She felt the presence inside her mind. "You have no idea what that thing can do, do you? It can see far more than the present or the future."

The Eye tried to stand up again. "Why are you doing this?"

"I can't risk you exposing me. The stakes are too high."

She fell, and listened to the footsteps approach her, closing in for the kill.

Her mind wandered. Things didn't feel right -- this wasn't a premonition. What was it--

The bridge of the Nightstalker faded into view. She looked at her own face and sighed a relieved sigh when she saw that the implants covering her empty eye-sockets were still intact.

She curled up into a ball on the floor. Her amulet let her watch as Jolt stood up and approached her, and see the look of concern on her Captain's face.

"What happened?"

"Some kind of hallucination. We're--"

The door to the bridge opened, and Arsenal and Jinx entered. Arsenal spoke.

"Captain. Permission to bring a non-combatant on the bridge?"

Jolt looked at him skeptically.

"Why?"

"I didn't want to leave her alone." He paused for a beat. "It's not safe."

The Eye got up slowly and nodded to Jolt to show her that she wasn't hurt. Jolt started back to her command chair, looking at Arsenal and Jinx intently.

"All right. Anyone object?"

Thresher nodded his approval. The Eye scowled and said, "All right."

Jolt looked at the view-screen. The prospector module was still there. "All right. What do we do about this chunk of space junk?"

Thresher chimed in. "It's too big to put in the hold. We could tow it back to a station house--"

Jolt waved her hand dismissively. "Nah."

The Eye turned to face Jolt. "But it attacked us!"

Jolt rubbed the side of her head. "So let's shoot it and make it explode."

Threshed objected. "The Eye's got a point."

Jolt seemed annoyed. "I don't care. Explosion time."

The Eye armed a missile. "All right. On your command."

Jolt grinned. "Fire!"

A missile struck the prospector module, and it disappeared in a flash of light.

The Eye stated the obvious. "Target destroyed."

Jolt seemed satisfied. "Good."

She turned to Jinx and narrowed her eyes. "If you've got a moment -- I heard you found some anomalies in the cloned tissue we've acquired. I'd appreciate it if you ran a cross check with another sample."

Jinx blinked. "Um... sure."

Jolt smiled. "Good. Get you biopsy kit and a set of grounding cables. The next sample comes from me."

Free Falling

"You killed her."

Arsenal spoke slowly and without great emotion. His eyes narrowed, and he took a step back into a defensive stance.

Jinx look hurt. She reached out.

"I had to, Peter. It was self-defense."

"You won't get away with this. My team-mates will wake up soon. We'll take you down--"

He stopped short, and his hands shook.

"Please don't." Her voice was a whisper. "I've got a reason--"

"I don't care." Arsenal became angry. "You murdered someone in cold blood. That's pretty straightforward--"

Her eyes burned. "No, it isn't. Nothing is straightforward about this." Her pain turned to anger. "Why do you think you are here now? In this place, doing these things? Why?"

"It's a job."

"It's what someone told you to do because they're afraid. Afraid of you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Things are happening, Peter. The Corporation is getting ready for a war, and nobody knows if they're going to win. They're ready to try anything to beat the Reyll." Jinx became calmer as she spoke. Peter's hand stopped shaking, but the anger in his eyes was clear to see. "Right now, they're trying an experiment -- they've found a way to boost the powers of marginal super-beings to god-like levels by tapping in to our mythology. They're trying to turn our culture and history into a weapon--"

"So it's OK to murder someone who never did you any harm." His voice was low and steady; the mockery was delivered deadpan. "Because of some stupid conspiracy."

"She was a copy of me, turned into a leash for you. It's nice to have moral certainties, but you have to know what's going on before you apply them. And you don't, Peter."

Arsenal sank his head, and Jinx continued talking.

"You're not like your team-mates. There are a lot of people like us -- the really powerful super-beings. The walking weapons of mass destruction. Sooner or later, they're going to use that potential -- and if you don't help me, they're going to twist you around into some kind of sick parody of an old poem because they think that will remind the Reyll of bad memories."

She touched his arm, and Peter looked up. His eyes were filled with skepticism. She kept talking.

"They're pushing OptCond real hard. They have this model of the mind, and it's simple-minded and wrong, but it kind of works. For them, a bad memory isn't something you learn from -- it's like a flaw in a diamond. A weak spot to be exploited."

"Who?" He sounded scared.

"The Grays. Corporate military intelligence. They aren't smart enough to know why that won't work, and they're not dumb enough to be afraid. But they have to do something to convince their bosses that we're going to win."

He sank his head again. "Why did you have to kill her?"

She touched his shoulder. "She wasn't real."

"I know. I knew." Peter looked ashamed.

"She was there to manipulate you. It's all about control. She was a terminal they could use to feed you instructions." Jinx tried to comfort him. "If you don't help me now, it's just going to get worse. One way or another, they're going to make us fight for them -- but if you don't help me now, you'll be fighting them as a brainwashed slave instead of a free man. Do you understand?"

He looked at her intently for a few seconds.

"I understand. And I believe you."

An announcement came over the intercom.

"ALL HANDS ON DECK. BATTLE STATIONS."