Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 17:26:47 -0400 Reply-To: JillMari@AOL.COM Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Jill Spetoskey Subject: Shades of Red and Black (part 4) comments are always welcomed and encouraged at jillmari@aol.com or jilkey@grfn.org Shades of Red and Black(A Highlander/V story) part 4 c. 1995 by Jill Spetoskey *** Sara stuck her head out the door. "Is Donovan around?" "I can take you to him if you need to talk." The guard replied. "I just wanted to tell him that I decided to stay here." "Well then" the guard stuck out his hand, " let me be the first to welcome you to the Resistance. Our numbers may be small, but our hearts are pure. Pure what I don't know. I'm Ben Gillham by the way." "Sara Ivnik," she took his hand. "For some reason, I just never seem to be able to avoid a fight." He led her back through the tunnels to a room where Donovan was meeting with the two others from the night before. She wavered a little as she saw Ham, mumbling something about vertigo to Ben. "Donovan, I guess you made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Count me in for your war." She saw the other two exchange glances. Probably deciding who has to keep an eye on me until they decide if they trust me or shoot me. "Okay. I'll let Gillham show you around and introduce you to people then. By the way, this is Julie Parrish, and Ham Tyler." She shook Julie's hand warmly, and then looked into Tyler's eyes for some sort of sense of recognition, but saw nothing in his eyes that indicated he knew who she was. The threesome turned away from her, wrapped up in their own plans. Gillham as promised, led her on a tour of the base. She tried her best to file names with people, and managed to remember most of them like Chris, who had the look of a fighter, the surly teenager Robin, Elias, Maggie, and Father Andrew. She made a mental note to talk to the priest about Holy Ground in the area. She also began to get a feel for the Resistance's goals, not just a military fight but also a scientific study to figure out just how the Visitors might be vulnerable in other ways. "Ben, I think I have some equipment back at my house that might help people out. How can I arrange to go back and get it?" In a few minutes, she found herself in conference with Mike and Ham arranging to head back to her Beverly Hills home. She reboarded the same blue van she had come in on, imagining that she could still smell a little of Hector's blood in the upolhestry, and settled in the passernger's seat. Mike sat in the driver's seat, with Chris behind her, ready to stop her if she made a betraying move. Good to see that they take their time in deciding to trust my irregular arrival, the analytic part of her mind whispered. Shortly, they were on their way. "So what is it that you need to give us so desprately that we had to rush through the city for it, Sara?" "How about a Silicon Graphics workstation for your computing needs? The thing has enough power to run just about any sort of simulation or model your scientist type's heart's desire." Mike let out a soft whistle, and Sara remembered now that he had some sort of involvement in television. "And you have this twenty to fifty thousand dollar piece of equipment just sitting around in your house?" "Yes, I do. First off, I work from home for a couple days a week on my projects. I'm in special effects." she added for Chris's benefit. "And a lot of stuff these days is becomming more and more computer-based, rather than building six inch models of Godzilla and shooting it frame by frame. We need to use the fastest and best computers in the business to do the fancy stuff. Second, if you're worried about Meridian trying to come after me for stealing their equipment, I own it in full. My grandmother left me some money, and I figured I might as well spend it on something I'd actually use a lot." "Not only is she good in a fight, but she's also a computer wizard. Kind of convenient." Chris whispered almost too softly for her to hear. "Well, before I inherited what I did from my grandmother, I didn't have much. Grew up on the fringes of things and had to learn how to take care of myself in some rough areas. She'd never help me when she was alive, even though she had everything she wanted." Sara carefully laced her words with a tone of bitterness. "And how did you wind up how you are?" "Grew up in a bad neighborhood, and joined the army to get out. I met up with Ham later on, finished my tour of duty, we decided we'd rather be our own bosses, and have been working our way around he world ever since." Chris replied. "Seems like Ham must be really good at what he does. I mean he has to be if he's lasted as long doing what he does, not that I know much about mercinary life or anything." At least not in this century. "Now Ham's a strange one. I remember him getting hit in Vietnam and tearing his arm up pretty bad," Donovan added in. "Still has the scars and everything, but I haven't even seen him get anything beyond a bad paper cut since then. I don't like him a lot of the time," With this he shot a look back to Chris."But he's damn good, and I'm glad he's on our side." "In a crisis, I say take any life preserver thrown at you," She agreed. "Now turn left here, and its the brick ranch with the black iron fencing on the right." She automatically reached into her pockets for her keys. "Damn, I left them back where I left my car." "Do we need to go back to the docks? The place is probably swarming with Visitors by now, trying to figure out what happened." Mike asked. "No, I can get in using the codes from the security system. I just don't like leaving stuff around like that, even if it can't be traced to me. Stop at the gate, and I'll let you in." She hopped out of the van, aware of Chris following her movements carefully. After she punched the code onto a small keypad on a nearby section of fence, the gate swung open. She waved the van through the gate, following it up the short circular driveway, and meeting it at her front door. Next to her door was another keypad, where she entered a second code, and was rewarded with the click of the door unlocking. Pushing her way into her house, she was greeted by the howls of Ghost and Pixel, demanding to know why they hadn't had their morning feeding. She gave the two a few scratches under their chins, forgetting Mike and Chris for the moment as she slipped into domestic happiness. Then she was returned to reality as she caught a look at her bloodstained jeans, and was reminded of her need for a good shower and change of clothes. "Not only did I have to come back here for the computer, but I couldn't leave my kids here all alone to starve, now. The orange one is Pixel, and the black one is Ghost. Let me feed them to keep them occupied for a bit, and then we can disassemble the computer in peace. She walked down the short hallway to the kitchen, and fished two cans of salmon surpirse out of a cupboard. "You know the worse that stuff smells, the more they seem to like it." Chris muttered as she whirled the cans opened. The orange and black streaks charged to their food dishes as she emptied the cans onto their plates. She grinned. "Entirely true. You ought to smell the liver delight." "No thanks." "Mike? The door over there goes to the basement. Right at the bottom are a couple of computer boxes. Could you grab those and bring those up for me? It'll make moving stuff a lot easier. Chris and I will be in the next roomgetting started." She waved to the dining room she used as an office. Soon, they were engrossed in detaching a maze of cables, and after she was certain that Mike, at least, knew what he was doing, she was able to slip into her bathroom for a quick shower. She stood under the shower, trying to wash off the blood of two men, one she had killed, the other who she had probably saved. And you'll always feel the need to atone for what you're forced to do, part of her asked herself. But is the atonements that keep me human, at least, and not turning into a monster like the Kurgan, she reminded herself. Unless you're willing to stop living either by hiding on holy ground or by just letting the next punk who comes along take your head, its the price you are charged. She paused her thoughts as she tried to work enough conditioner through her tangled hair to get the knots out, a part of her offering thanks, as always for the miracles of modern beauty care. Just do the best you can to help those who are in your power to help, and hope its enough. After her shower, she grabbed what she called her emergency bag out of a hidden compartment in the closet, and dumped a few changes of clothes on top of a collection of goodies including bank passbooks, cash, another extra driver's license, and a Swiss passport. She closed the compartment, and grabbed two cat carriers from her other closet, figuring it was worth a try to take her kids with her. "All set now." She bounded back into her office in time to see Mike and Chris just finishing packing the workstation. They caught sight of the cat carriers, looked at each other, and sighed. Taking their response as an affirmative, she had the two cats caged before Mike and Chris had even made it through the door with their package. Pausing, she reached into one of her desk drawers, drew out a box of apparently blank floppies, and tossed them into her emergency bag before she gathered up the bag and carriers. Ghost let out a Main Coon like-chirp, giving Mike a start as the men loaded boxes into the van. She followed, arriving just in time to make sure the two were placing the boxes so that they wouldn't get too bumped around and broken during the trip back to camp. Remembering the kidney-jarring trip in, she half-formed a prayer to Athena, Kibo or whoever the gods of computers were that her nice, fragile equipment would arrive safely. As she placed the cat carriers next to a now-seated Chris, and between the front and first bench seats, Pixel let out a few piercing howls. "Probably thinks he's going to the vet this trip" She felt through her pockets, and produced a can of Kitty-Nums she couldn't remember grabbing in the first place. "Hopefully, they'll quiet down a little once we get going. I'm still not sure why we're letting you bring them along." Mike muttered as he took his place behind the wheel. "But, my kids actually make good guard cats, honest!" End part 4 =========================================================================