Ham parked down the block and they walked as casually as possible up to the business.

The business belonged to Chris Faber, Ham's long time associate.  The key to get inside was hidden inside a gas cap of a nearby stripped out car.

Above the garage was a second floor that served as a safe haven for resistance members on the move through the city that needed a place to hide out for a while like they did right then.

He let them in, and then hustled off to meet with a contact nearby.

They climbed the stairs up to the upper level, which contained a few military cots and some weapons in storage.

"I think we should get you out of that uniform," Julie commented.

"I was just starting to like it."

She gave her a little pat on the back and her hand came away bloody.

"Why didn't you tell me you were wounded?"

"I didn't know until just now.  It must've been from the glass, it's nothing."

"Take your shirt off, I'm sure Chris has a first aid kit around her somewhere."

"Aren't you going to at least buy me dinner first?"

"Sometimes I wish they never taught you English."  Julie was in full doctor mode now.  She found the laceration complete with a shard of glass in it, and after cleaning it out bandaged it up.

"I'd like to do a stitch or two."

"I'm sure it will be fine.  I think it had already stopped bleeding.  So, how was work today?"

Julie groaned and finished the bandaging.  "I guess I should've listened to you.  I do have something for you, by the way."  She slipped a paper out of her pocket and handed it to her.

Diana scanned it and looked back at her.  "What does it mean?"

"Oh, I forgot.  It means your hunch about Elizabeth was right.  They used your genetic material to make ELizabeth."

She nodded and looked straight ahead.  "Now what?"

"Well, I think Elizabeth may already know, she said something to me about you two being of the same blood, I think the real challenge here will be Robin.  She won't take it well."

"Maybe we should keep this quiet for a bit."  She got up and paced over to one of the dirty windows that was covered with a raggedy curtain. She brushed it aside and looked down at the street.

Julie found a dark flannel shirt for her to change into and managed to remove most of the vestiges of police paraphernalia she was wearing.

Diana lied down on one of the cots to catch a quick nap when a ringing phone woke her abruptly.

When Julie listened carefully she could hear it was only ringing in the room they were in and decided to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Julie, Ham said you'd be there," Elias said.

"Has Elvis left the building?" It was code for if they were on a secure line.

"Yea, it's cool.  Have you heard?  Science Frontiers burned to the goddamn ground!  Can you believe it?  Then I guess some Science Frontiers car ran over a lizard so they've been fighting it out all over the city.  All hell is breaking loose."

Julie didn't know if the news was good or bad, but she laughed anyway and relayed the information to Diana.

"Then I suggest if there are any targets you want to hit, do it now," she stated.

"Good idea."

The resistance did just that, and managed a successful raid on  the Visitor Legation and a police weapons facility.  It was a busy day for everyone.

Eventually, an uneasy peace fell on the city, Bates had managed to arrange a truce between the city and the Visitors, but with a new understanding that he was now on a very short leash.

Behind the locked doors of the Club Creole the Resistance had their first celebration in a long time, drinking some champagne they had liberated for themselves from the Visitors.

Someone turned on the television in time to see Nathan Bates' address to the city.  When he appeared he had a sizeable bandage across his nose and everyone roared with laughter at the sight.

He gave his typical fatherly reprimand of the resistance and how close to tragedy they had pushed the city.  There was lots of booing at that but everyone had a generally good time.

Elizabeth was telling Robin excitedly about how Kyle had been teaching her to ride a motorcycle, and she occasionally gave him disapproving looks.  Donovan was sitting at a table with Ham, arguing about something, and Julie was mysteriously absent.

Diana found her outside in the alley, leaning against the brick wall, looking at the moon reflecting off the Mothership.

"We had a good day today," Julie commented, "But has it really changed anything?  That thing's still there."

Diana turned to look at it hovering over the city.

"At first I fought but is it seemed like the only way, now I'm just tired.  Nobody seems to care, they just go about there business as if that hulking monstrosity wasn't sitting over us. It's almost like it was at the beginning."

"Complacency seems to have set in, I don't think Los Angeles is the only place."

"No, other cities have the same sort of deal Bates made here, it's not an original concept."

"I'm sure the Visitors prefer it, cooperation is always more advantageous than a hostile enemy."

"You were right about us, we're just a bunch of lemmings marching to our own death."

"God, Julie, have another drink, we're supposed to be having fun tonight.  Robin said you act like you have a lump of coal up your --"

"Robin can just shove it!  I've had about enough of her, she still acts like a damn teenager.  Her own daughter is more mature... or rather your... never mind."

"You're drunk."

"So are you. Hey," she leaned up from the wall and stepped towards her.  'You fight rather well, do you think you can teach me a few things?"

"Sure, I guess."

"How do you know all that?"

"I was trained since childhood."

"Why?"

"That's... just how things were."  Her mind began to automatically repeat those old mantras.  Don't sit with your back to the door, always be aware of what's going on around you, don't get into too large of a crowd.  Always be
ready.

Always be ready.  She took a long swallow from her champagne bottle.

"It must've been hard."

"Huh?"

"Your childhood."

"It was all right."

"Any siblings?"

"No, not until I was much older anyway.  My mother had sort of a surprise pregnancy, it was a surprise to me at least, so I have a sister much younger than me.  And you?"

"No siblings."

"Are you trying to get more information out of me?"

"No, I'm just curious, that's all.  Don't you find it remarkable that over such a great distance out people obviously had similar evolutionary paths?"

"Maybe humanity isn't all that unique after all.  Who knows."

The door opened behind her and she jumped a little at the sound.

Robin and Kyle emerged, both looking stone faced.

"Julie?"

"Yea?"

"We've got some bad news."  Kyle swallowed and looked over at Robin.

"They... they burnt your house down, Julie.  There's nothing left.  It was retaliation from Bates."

She stood still for a moment, her expression unreadable.  She tossed her champagne glass down, and it shattered on the ground.  "That son of a bitch.  I want to see it."

"Julie don't!  It's too dangerous."

"No, I'm going."  She pushed past Robin but Diana was faster and jumped in to block her path.

"They're just trying to draw you out, you know it.  You can't go over there right now."

"Get out of my way."  She tried to grab her and move her aside but she wasn't budging.  She drew back and made a clumsy punch and would've fallen if Diana hadn't caught her in time.

Julie began to cry in heavy tear laden sobs and wrapped her arms around Diana's neck, burying her head in her shoulder.

"I want to go inside," she whispered.

"Okay, let's get you to bed.  I think you should lie down."

They went inside and she took her into one of the smaller rooms that had a bed in it.  Julie sat down on it heavily and lied back.

"I'm sorry I swung at you, that's not like me."

"I know."

"I'm tired.  I'm just so tired of all of this.  Sometimes it feels like it will never end.  Dee, lay down with me, I can't keep craning my neck to look up at you."

She nodded, never saying a word about Julie's new nickname for her, one she would continue to use from that day forward.

She crawled into the bed and Julie rolled over to look at her.

"You know Donovan wants to move you up north as soon as possible, the Red Dust still works up there."

"That's a probably a good idea."

"I think I should go with you.  There's no reason for me to stay here anymore."

"What about Donovan?  I thought, Robin said --"

She shook her dead.  "No, that ended along time ago."

"Oh." She looked to the right for a moment. "Oh."

"What?"

"Nothing.  What about Elizabeth, she relies on you for stability, Robin sure doesn't give her much."

"I don't know, I thought we weren't supposed to be talking about serious things anyway, have another drink."

"I cant, you knocked over my bottle when you tried to hit me."

"See, I told you you needed to teach me how to fight better."

"You're also drunk."

"Well..."she took a breath and sighed.  "What were we talking about before, childhoods right?  Mine was pretty uneventful.  My parents used to own this boat, and on the Fourth of July we used to take it out and watch the
fireworks over the water."  She lied her head back on the pillow.  "I miss Fourth of July.  When the Visitors came we weren't allowed to celebrate it anymore.  I don't even know if they're alive."

She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Diana snuck back out of the room and ran into Robin.

"Is she okay?"

"I think so, I think she's just tired."  She spotted Kyle chatting with Elizabeth and tensed her jaw.  "You approve of that?"

"What?  Oh... well..."

Kyle noticed them looking at him and walked over.

"What ARE you thinking?"

"What?"

"You know what.  I know she may not look like one but she's a child."

"I don't like what you're implying."

"I don't have to imply anything, it's general knowledge."

He dropped his hands to his side and took a step back.  "I don't have to take this.  You know the only reason you're even here is because Julie has some sort of weird obsession with you, if it was up to me --"

"Well it's not, and the only reason I'm not cleaning the floor with you right now is because of the respect I have for my hosts.  But I'll be watching, trust me."

"Don't you have something better to do, Bates?" a gravely voice said.

Kyle popped his head up to look at Ham.  "No man, I was just leaving."

"Good. I'd hate to see your little hairdo get messed up."

He withdrew quickly and left the club.  Ham walked back over to the table and picked up the poker hand he had left.

"What was that about?" Donovan asked.

"Whenever there's drinking there's usually fighting with this bunch, you know."

"It's like an extended Irish family," he smirked.
 
 

Julie awoke with the worst hangover of her life.  She rolled over and banged her elbow into something soft.

"Mmff!"

"Sorry.  What are you doing in my bed?"

"What are you doing in mine?" Diana asked a little crossly.

"I need some water.  Did I do anything stupid last night?"

"No, although I almost called Kyle a pedophile.  I'm lucky he didn't kick my ass."  She sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'll go get your water Juliet."

Julie was still intent on seeing what was left of her house, maybe look through the rubble.  She had learned not to get attached to things and tended to carry important items with her, a wallet crammed with photographs and the odd memento stashed in her purse.

Late that night a heavy fog drifted in over Los Angeles, and she seized the opportunity.  At 4 a.m. she slipped on a coat and headed out.

Everything was pitch dark and covered in a smothering blanket of fog.  She knew it would last well into the morning hours, giving her plenty of time to get there and back.  She was never aware of the dark figure that trailed behind her on her path.

The first grey light of dawn illuminated the fog as she reached the remains of her house.  The smell of smoke was still strong and assailed her senses as she stepped into the gutted structure.

It was utterly decimated.  A rage filled her as she walked the ruins.  Strangely, the kitchen cupboards were still intact, along with some of the dishes they held.

There was a soft crunching sound, like someone stepping into the rubble filled house.

She pulled her gun and whirled around.

"Don't shoot."

"God, Dee!  You scared the hell out of me."

"I figured you'd come here, so I followed you.  This really isn't safe."

"I know, but I needed to see it.  Want some plates?"

"No thanks."

"Why'd you follow me?"

"It's a requirement for my new job: Dr. Parrish's bodyguard."

Julie spotted something and picked it up. It was a scorched vase that had once sat on her kitchen table.

"That's not much of a loss," Diana commented.

"So you follow me and then insult my decorating?" She held it up and looked at it.  "It is kind of ugly, isn't it?"  She laughed and tossed it back in the rubble.  "Hey, what's that by your feet?"

She looked down. "Where?"

"To your right, over there, the black thing."

"Everything's black in here."  She spotted what she was talking about and stooped to pick it up, dusting the ash of of it.

"It's a Visitor data pad."  She clicked it on and a series of alien words came on, then a graphic of something moving in an ellipse pattern.  The graphic faded away and a graphic of a falcon head appeared briefly, then it started over again.

Julie came over to look at it.  "What is it?"

"I don't know, I think we should take it with us, but it could be bugged or something."

"You're the one with the precognition.  Can't you get some sort of read on it?"

"I'm getting lots of 'reads' on it.  Whatever it is it has some significance.  We better take it."

"Willie will be able to interpret it. Let's get out of here."
 
 

Willie scratched his head as he read through the data.

"It is the orbit of a probe that is circulating around Earth and Jupiter, it has an orbit similar to an omelette, but it is not," Willie stated.

"Comet," Julie said quickly.  Correcting Willie's mistakes had become second nature with them all.  "I think that's your probe, Dee.  Is there any way to tell who sent this message?  Who put the data in there?"

"Yes, the user name of the person who accessed this information from the computer is imprinted on the display.  It was Diana."  He looked up at her and swallowed, "The alien one, D'Na," he clarified, using Commander Diana's
Visitor name.

"And she must've put it there for us to find," Diana stated. "This is strange."

"Maybe it's a setup."

"Setup for what?  What's she luring us into?  We could make a delayed radio transmission to that probe from anywhere on the planet, there'd be no way for her to catch us.  You know, I have a strange feeling..."

Julie waited for her to continue until finally she prompted her.  "Yes, what?"

"I think she wants to lose."

"Are you nuts?"

"I mean think about it.  She has you listed as an active resistance member but never has you arrested, brushes by you at Science Frontiers like you two are old chums or something.  Then when you do get arrested she refuses to
take you into custody, I bet you didn't know that, a guard told me that at Science Frontiers, and now this.  She knew you would go to the house and find this, and probably get it to me.  Maybe she's doing it subconsciously, I don't know."

"Or maybe she's setting us up?"

"No, there's no consistency here, if we were being set up we would be being driven a certain direction, this is haphazard, all over the place, these things don't really relate too much to each other."

"Not right now."

Diana leaned back in her chair and shrugged.  "Can you tell anything from the data on the probe about its orbit?"

Willie looked back at the data pad and sat down in a chair as he examined the information more closely.

She stood and walked across the room over to the coffee pot to pour herself a cup.

"You don't seem very enthused," Julie stated.

"Contact was never an issue, the timing was.  I'd get a hold of them one way or another." She said gesturing with the black coffee cup.  "Are you suspicious of me?"

"No, of course not." The firmness which she made the statement startled her a little.

She nodded and took a sip of her drink.

Julie continued to work on the data with Willie. ELizabeth arrived and rushed to the downstairs area. She was grinning broadly and took a moment to get her breath.

"I had a dream about... you found something, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"The dream," Diana stepped forward, "What was it about?"

"About a place far from here, in the desert.  It was where you lived, you were home.  It was... thrilling in some way I can't explain. It was beautiful.  If you go can I go with you?  I'd like to see it."

She glanced over at Julie.  "Maybe, someday."

"From what I can figure this probe should be getting close to Earth in two months, that's the best time for us to try a transmission, but this really isn't my field, we probably should have someone else look at it."

Donovan came in at that moment, carrying something under his arm.

"Ok, I found the place.  What are you guys looking at?"

"Something the Visitor's left at my house, or what was my house."

"What is it?" He asked, leaning over to look at the data on the table.

"Information on the probe Diana told us about?"

"And it just happened to get left at your house?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out. We know Diana left it, the one we all know and love.  Dee thinks she has some subconscious desire to lose and is acting on it.  I think that sounds pretty nuts but that's her idea."

"And yours?"

"I think she may be trying to set us up."

"How?"

"Well I haven't got that worked out yet."

"Does it look legit?"

"So far yea, but I'm going to have someone double check it, this isn't exactly my field.  What were you saying when you came in?"

"I've got a place up north, close to the Oregon border, a cabin. No electricity but it does have running water.  I thought we could move Diana up there, get her out of the city."  He laid out the papers he had been carrying, a couple maps and a photograph.

"It's off of a forest service road, we'll probably need a four wheel drive to get in there.  Maybe Kyle would be willing to part with his for a bit."

"How soon would you move me?" Diana asked.

"Right away."

"Could I speak to you in private?" Julie suddenly blurted.

Donovan was momentarily taken aback by the unexpected request, but silently followed her into one of the side rooms.

Julie closed the door behind them and folded her arms across her chest.

He was familiar with the look he was getting.

"What?" he asked.

"Do you think we should be doing this now?"

"What? Moving her?"

"We just got possible information on a probe that we can use to call her people with.  I doubt they're going to want to take a collect call from a bunch of people they don't know."

"You acted like you doubted the information in the first place.  Besides, we got a message out there before without her help."

"Have you ever thought that maybe she was sent in response to that call?"

"No, the timeline doesn't fit, she got caught before we made that transmission was sent.  What's wrong with you?  One minute you're completely dismissing the probe telemetry, now you're endorsing it, fitting it in with a theory you know the facts don't fit.  It sounds like..." He stopped and drew a breath.

"Then I'll take her," she interjected, stepping forward.  "Sounds like what?" she asked when her brain had caught up.

"Desperation.  You don't see it do you? You're... some of the others think you're not thinking clearly when it comes to her, that you're... obsessed.  Ham thinks you have some fascination that you have to work out-"

"Oh come on!"

"He said you've been here at night."

"Well, if you haven't noticed I don't have a house to go home to."

"Before that.  He said you came over here a few times in the middle of the night."

"This is absurd.  I would expect this from Kyle or Robin, not you.  I would think a Resistance cell would have better things to do than gossip." She stormed out of the room, slamming the door.
 

To Be Continued...

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