“What truth Lia? What could someone as young as you have done that would give Ravensclaw any power whatsoever over you?”

Lia looked at the floor and started speaking.

“I was eight when my parents fled Hong Kong two years before the handover to the People’s Democratic Republic of China from the British. Unlike other families that left the island though, my parents were poor and had to pay a smuggler everything they had to get us into the United States. When we arrived in San Francisco however, the price had gone up and we were all forced to work in a sweatshop to pay off the smugglers. It is a story that has been told many times before and will be told many times again unfortunately. Anyway, we survived the indenture and managed to buy our way out by the time I was 12. We were given fake green cards and applied for citizenship as soon as we could. We even helped the people from the immigration service to close down that particular sweatshop and save the poor people who were still working there. I was able to go to high school and get my education,” she smiled shyly.

“My parents started a small martial arts supply house, using their skills from home and the skills they had learned in the sweatshop. I studied the martial arts under my father and then under more advanced teachers until I felt safe and confident in this foreign land. After I’d finished college, I came home to my parents’ business to help them out the best that I could. When I arrived, I discovered them beaten to death and everything they’d worked for either stolen or destroyed,” Lia’s voice lost all of its tonality and her eyes glazed. “I must have gone temporarily insane as I tracked down the street trash that had stolen my parents’ lives… I… I… killed them all…” she managed to choke out. Lia had tears in her eyes when she looked up at Trish again.

“I came to my senses and saw I was surrounded by all the bodies of the men I had slaughtered,” the words came out in a rush now. “The stench was unimaginable and I can still see the scene when I close my eyes…” Lia trailed off and then gave herself a little shake and continued. “Anyway, I took the cash they had stolen and ran… I didn’t know what else to do. I ended up in New York and met Sam Munio in a slimy club that people on the lam always seem to end up in. He got me a job training Ravensclaw’s guards and assault troops… always holding my crime over me like a club. When Ravensclaw chose me to become enhanced, I decided to find a way to use it to get out from under his power and make up for my terrible crimes. I couldn’t do it though because he always had Munio, or that slimeball West, watching me.” Lia’s tears were running freely down her cheeks now but there was a triumphant gleam in her eyes.

“Now I’m finally free of them, but I’ll never be free of the people I’ve killed. I have to find a way for their souls to finally be at rest. I understand that I can never be forgiven for my crimes, but maybe I can, in a small way, repay the Universe for their lost lives before I die.”

Trish dropped the energy field and gathered the young girl into her arms. Lia clung to her and started quietly sobbing.

“Lia… shhhh… Lia. A wise man said this to me when I was in much the same situation as you… he said ‘the fact that you regret your actions makes you more human, not less’. These words are true for anyone that has had to do something that seems evil. Those thieves you killed… would they have paid for what they had done if you had turned them over to the police, or would they be back out on the street by now, terrorizing and perhaps killing others? I don’t condone what you did necessarily, but I can’t condemn your actions either. I’ve killed in the pursuit of justice and though the victims were evil killers, I grieve for them nonetheless,” Trish explained to assuage some of the girl’s guilt. Lia looked up into Trish’s eyes in disbelief.

“You’ve killed?” she blurted out.

“I’m not proud of it, but yes, and so has My Beloved. This is a war for the very soul of the planet and it’s time you were allowed to fight on the side of the angels. Circumstances placed you on the wrong side of the battlefield, but I believe you can redeem yourself… maybe even forgive yourself someday. I have discussed this at some length with my family and we’ve decided to offer you a second chance.” Trish held up a wristband before continuing.

“This device will neutralize your enhancements. When you wear it, you will be like any other person on the planet. If you choose to wear it, it cannot be unlocked except by a verbal order to our computers by any three of our family members. You are welcome to join our strange little crew here at Saber Base and help the world, or you can have a new identity and vanish into the teeming masses on Earth, free to work out your own karma,” Trish laid the options on the table for their young captive. Lia took the wristband and locked it onto her own arm without a bit of hesitation.

“I-I’ll stay here if you’ll have me,” she was shocked by the strange turn her fortune had taken. “I can’t face the world right now… not yet…” she whispered.

“Then welcome to the team Lia, I don’t think you’ll regret your decision,” Trish smiled encouragingly. “Now, let’s get you something to eat and then you can get cleaned up and get some rest.”

Lia was a little shy around the others in the AERI for the first few days, especially Betina, but she began to warm a little when she realised that they really didn’t hold her responsible for what she had done. She spoke up for the first time when the Professor and Greg were trying to figure out how to get the space frame from Aerodyne Industries to the AERI without being seen.

“Excuse me Professor, Doctor… um… I don’t mean to interrupt…” she began shyly. Julian looked up from his notes.

“Oh, Ms. Tang, I apologise but I didn’t see you there. Please do sit down,” he gestured to a chair. “What can we do for you?”

“I was just wondering,” she started again, “you’ve built many wonderful abilities into the enhanced people. Couldn’t some of those same enhancements work on non-biological things too? I mean… I can negate gravity and control my size and Shadowknight can generate a stealth field and create countermeasures. Couldn’t you make a generator to shrink the space frame, another one to negate its weight and mass, and then create a stealth field to hide it somehow?” she posed the idea without guile.

Greg closed his eyes and smacked his forehead and the Professor just blinked owlishly at her.

Trish said.

he smiled inwardly.
Greg rose from his chair and approached Lia with open arms. Lia looked at him and giggled. Greg’s hug almost made her disappear.

“Thank you Lia, your insight has, I hope, solved what seemed to be an insurmountable problem in our rescue efforts. I’m sorry if we’ve all been treating you like fine crystal around here. Welcome to the team, and the family,” he smiled at her genuinely.

“Indeed Young Lady, please feel free to speak up anytime you want,” Julian smiled expansively. “I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t see the solution myself. I have a tendency to think in the micro rather than the macro. Rather small minded of me, I’m afraid,” said the Professor blandly, polishing his glasses.

Greg snickered. Lia looked at the Professor in amazement and then broke down laughing as the Professor followed suit. The three of them settled down after a few minutes and got back to work.

“As Lia suggested Greg, we can attach three field generators that can be operated remotely at these points on the spaceframe,” he indicated them on the blueprint. “The first will compress the ship’s size to something a little more… hmmm portable…” he chortled at the thought and continued, “… the second will negate its weight and mass accordingly and the third will cloak it as effectively as your stealth field does you. We can reverse the effects once you bring it home. The servos and nanomechs can manufacture the parts needed to convert it from a framework to a rescue ship in the hangar that they’ve been building. We should have you off the ground in about a month or so of receiving the frame,” he assured them both. Lia looked like she was going to say something, and then hesitated.

“Yes Lia?” inquired Julian.

“Well Professor,” she began, “even though this shuttle isn’t currently under active construction,” she tapped on the photograph with a pencil, “won’t someone notice that the hangar is empty? Shouldn’t you at least make some sort of visual bluff to fool the security guards?” The Professor looked buffaloed again, but Greg nodded.

“Lia’s right again Julian,” he said. “We need a holonet with a projection of the ship to at least temporarily cover our tracks until we’re safe at home.” Greg spoke up toward the ceiling, “Hestia, have one of the AIs tap into the hangar’s security cameras and record the spaceframe from all angles.”

“On it Dad,” responded the AI. Greg looked back at the Professor and continued,

“That and a force projection should fool them long enough, and then the technology can self-destruct by remote control.” He turned to Lia and smiled warmly, “Lia, you are an excellent planner. You see holes that we eggheads wouldn’t even catch. Thank you yet again,” he smiled at her once again.

They decided amongst themselves that the American Thanksgiving Day holiday on the 25th of November would be the best day to pull off one of the biggest heists in recent history. After reviewing the security footage of the hangar at Aerodyne’s facility in northern Texas, they planned for an infiltration around 2:00 in the morning. It would be up to Shadowknight to spoof the security cameras with a loop of pre-recorded footage and then attach the generators to the frame in the locations that Solomon and the Professor had decided were optimum. In the meantime, Greg worked with Lia to hone his martial arts skills and spent time in meditation with her as they both worked on healing their troubled spirits. Lia was delighted to discover that Greg and Trish were the same being and felt that the balance of yin and yang was what made them so completely human. Trish would alternate with Greg for training because Lia felt that they both should be able to defend themselves in any form with or without the enhancements. To that end, they took to wearing a neutralizer wristband during their training sessions.

By the 22nd of November, they were both in better shape than they could ever remember and felt ready to tackle anything. Trish collected the gear they would need and went to Pearson International Airport in Toronto to fly to the Lake Meredith facilities of Aerodyne Industries. She had to change flights twice to get to Amarillo, which was 30 miles from Lake Meredith. Her camping gear drew little notice on a holiday and her sunny disposition was right at home in the northwest Texas town. They spent their first night scoping out the physical layout of the complex and noting when the patrols would pass their chosen point of entry into the hangar. They used all of the next day meditating and preparing for what lay ahead of them. It had buoyed their spirits greatly to discover that Aerodyne Industries was a subsidiary of Ravensclaw, Inc.

giggled Trish wickedly.

added Greg.

It was just before midnight when they finished preparing for their infiltration. They decided to go in as Trish because she was smaller and the more agile of the two.

drawled Greg in his best Texas accent.

whooped Trish.

She cut in the thrusters and lifted off without a sound. They were above the installation in minutes and hovered there, waiting for the first clear opportunity to land. By 00:30 hours, they had concealed themselves in a shadowed area by Hangar 18 and waited, observing the bored security personnel on the graveyard shift. They went into a Zen meditative state and froze in their hiding place all the while aware of what was going on around them and effectively becoming invisible. At 01:15 hours, they stirred and made their way to the personnel entry door of the hangar. Trish hacked the security cameras as soon as she saw the guard make his last visual inspection for the next hour and a half. As far as anyone monitoring the interior could see, there was no activity inside the building. She deactivated the alarms, opened the door and slipped inside, letting the door close silently behind her.

Greg whistled internally. There she was, gleaming in the half-light… the shell of what would soon be the most advanced aerospace craft in the history of powered flight, that is, if the Sabers had anything to do with it. They quickly went to work, first positioning the holonet projectors where the AIs had calculated were the most effective to create the simulacrum of the ship. With that done, they attached the three generators to the space frame in their exactly calculated positions.

announced Trish.

he counted down.

Trish activated the antigravity field and adjusted it until the ship lifted just slightly from its work cradle. They made sure it was as near to zero-weight as possible and moved on to step four. The mass generator came on-line and began compressing the physical size of the ship until it was no larger than a shoebox. The process was slow, as they didn’t want to damage the ship. Once the size was reasonable, they moved the now miniaturized ship away from the workspace and activated the holonet. An exact replica of the massive ship again dominated the room. Trish stowed the real ship and activated the stealth field generator. She made sure her own stealth field was active and slid out of the hangar. Reactivating the alarms, she reset the cameras inside the building. When she was sure that everything had been returned to the way she had found it, she went back to their concealed hiding spot to wait until the last of the guards had passed by once again.

Dawn found Trish back at her campsite packing up her tent and carefully packing the duffle bag with its special cargo. They had decided to play it casual and return by commercial carriers the way they had arrived. The flight out of Amarillo left on time and soon they were changing planes in Chicago’s O’Hare International. The security seemed normal on the U.S. side so they felt sure that no one had discovered the deception as yet and even if it had already been found out, no one would even conceive of a space shuttle in a duffel bag. They arrived in Toronto at 4:00pm EST and found themselves under serious time constraints. They had to have the shuttle in its AERI hangar within the next four hours or the power supplies on the generators would run out. It was going to be close, but Greg and Trish were sure they could make the trip in time.

he reiterated his concerns.

she quipped.

They got to the landing and parked the rover with a little over half hour to spare. The late autumn night was dark with the promise of snow and the overcast sky made it easier to fly back to the hangar that had been constructed on the island. They landed lightly and watched as the massive overhead doors silently closed. Trish carefully positioned the frame in the centre of the cradle and deactivated the stealth field. The mass generator was on a pre-program to slowly increase the size of the ship. It took ten minutes for it to regain full size, but there was very little damage from the unorthodox transportation. Once the servomechs had positioned the spaceframe exactly, its full weight was reapplied and it settled into the workspace as if it had been built there. They exited the hangar and let the automated machinery get to work on it.

They were met in the main house by Julian, Betina, Lia and Hestia who all let out a rousing cheer for the successful completion of the most, theoretically, difficult mission that Greg and Trish had undertaken to this point.

“I think that Lia deserves, if not all of our gratitude, then at least most of it for making the breakthrough suggestion that made this ‘little jaunt’ possible at all. Take a bow Lia!” commanded Greg affectionately as he gestured her to centre stage.

“I… I thank you all for letting me redeem myself and hope that I can be useful in some way in the future,” Lia blushed. They applauded her achievement and then Julian stepped forward to address them all.

“My children… and yes that means Betina and Lia as well, you have all made me so proud. You have proven yourselves to be what I wanted to give the world when I created the enhancement program… oh so many years ago. Don’t you look embarrassed Lia. In my eyes, nothing you have done in the past can possibly taint the potential you are showing here at AERI. Stick with us Kiddo, we’ll make the world a better place yet. Now, I hate to break up a party…” he paused for the inevitable chorus of boos and hisses,

“…but starting tomorrow, Greg, Trish and Lia must begin simulator training for the rescue mission to Lunar one and Betina must practicing with her new exo-legs. In addition, Hestia, Betina and I must begin our collective training in the mission ops simulators to forestall any possible emergencies that can be dealt with from the ground. The AI contingent will be doing design and construction supervision on the rescue craft… which, by the way, still needs a name… and no Greg, we will not be naming it Thunderbird two,” Julian grinned and winked at Greg.

“AWW!” Greg whined mockingly.

“You may all submit suggestions up until two days before the launch which is in T minus 29 days, some odd hours and several seconds. Now everyone… eat up, drink up and be in bed by… 01:30 hours. Greg and Trish may be field commanders, but on this mission… I’m in charge!” he said simulating ferocity. They all dug in and had a great time before Hestia dimmed the lights and announced ten minutes to lights out. They hugged each other then went off to their assigned quarters for a good night’s sleep.

To Be Continued