Chapter 7

"Doctor Hara, I'm starting to get really worried about her. She's not eating enough, she's spending all her free time flying, and she's the only Changeling here who hasn't at least called someone on the outside.” The wolf frowned. “I think she's worried about her family accepting her. I gather they are, hmm - somewhat overly traditional in their attitudes, shall we say? But she won't even try to tell them for fear of what they'll do. And then she worries about how they'll react if they find out without her telling them. I'd like to force the issue, at least find out what they'll do so that she can start dealing with it instead of worrying about it. Am I completely off base here, or is it worth a try?"

The doctor shrugged. "Who knows? Even the psychologists are never quite sure what will work and what won't. But I agree she's starting to affect her health, so I guess it's time to break the impasse. You and Boyer arrange it somehow. If they react badly, though..."

Lowe nodded. "If they do, and she does, at least she'll have something concrete to deal with. I have some ideas to try out if that time comes."

* * *

"Is this really such a good idea? I mean, we have three Secret Service agents along to protect us - couldn't we have just ordered a pizza on base?"

Boyer just smiled back at the bat. "We've been doing that all week. It can't be healthy to live on that stuff." Susan Franks and Lisa Gabrelli, the other two agents, continued watching the road outside of the van, but smiled at the remark. "Yes, we think it's a good idea. You need to get back to the real world now and then, and the real world needs to see that you folks are still here and won't go away. A good meal in a good restaurant will do you good. They'll keep an eye on things, and we'll eat."

"And this is a great restaurant. Best Chinese place in Norfolk," Lowe added. "Well, it was a few years back. Haven't been here in a while, but Hara assures me it still is. It does feel a little odd to be going out in public, though, doesn't it?"

"More than a little," chittered the bat, too high for the humans to hear. "I don't know why I let you talk me into this."

The wolf winced at the high-pitched comment, but answered. "Because we were both going stir crazy on base, that's why. I just hope we don't have to sit in a booth. I keep sitting on my tail when the chairs aren't open in back."

They were shown to a table when they arrived, and the restaurant even had a stool which the bat could use easily. Carolyn smiled inwardly, though she was careful not to show it, as she reflected that planning ahead paid off in minimizing such minor problems. The restaurant was owned by a retired Marine and his Taiwanese wife, and they had provided quiet meals for government guests on a regular basis over the years. The food was delicious, as always, and no reporters noticed they were there, which had been her worst concern about this venture. Some of the other diners had stared at first, but the guards had discouraged anyone from being too nosy.

Both of her charges were more relaxed when they left, and Janet kept chatting with Sterling as the van started up, so that she didn't notice that they were traveling a different route until they were almost at her parent's home. When she did, she chittered, "Hey, wait a minute! Where are we going?"

"We thought you might like to drop in on your family on the way back, ma'am, since it wasn't very far out of the way..." Lowe flattened her ears back against her scalp as the bat shrieked "WHAT?"

Lowe plowed on. "Oh, c'mon. Just for a few minutes. You've been working too hard - you haven't had a bit of time for yourself in the last two weeks. Everyone else has at least talked to their families. We can afford a few minutes."

Sterling stammered as the van turned into the driveway, "But, but, they don't know yet. I haven't told them..."

Lowe wuffed in amused exasperation. "Then it's overdue, don't you think?" She opened the door as the van stopped. "Let's go."

The bat launched herself into the air from the van's door and flittered around aimlessly for a minute before coming to a decision and setting herself down by the front door where Boyer and Lowe were waiting for her. The wolf pressed the doorbell before she could change her mind and then stepped back. A few seconds later a burly sandy-haired teenager opened the door. "C'mon in, Ben...." He stopped in confusion, staring at the people on the porch. "You're not Ben." he announced. "Mom, Dad! There's two of those critters out here!" Then the naval uniforms registered and he looked more closely at the name tags. "Sterling... Karen? Oh, no... Is that you, sis?"

Karen smiled at him sadly. "I'm afraid so, Chris. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't call me a critter. Where'd you pick up a word like that, anyway?"

The boy looked uncomfortable. "That's what Dad's been calling them. I... I don't think he's going to like this."

"Well, that's no surprise. He hasn't liked much of anything I've done since I applied to Annapolis. How's your senior year going? Going to make captain of the swim team this year?"

Before Chris could respond, their father arrived at the door. Lowe got the immediate impression that the iron-haired man was more used to hard work than to hard thinking.. "Christopher, get back inside right now." The boy looked even more uncomfortable, but turned to obey. "As for you, Miss," he snarled at Boyer, "I'll thank you to take your trained animals and get off my property before I call the cops and have you arrested for trespassing."

"But, Dad, that's Karen!" Chris protested.

"I said inside, boy!" He glared at all three of them now, rather than ignoring the Changelings, but remained truculent. "Your oldest sister has always been a disgrace to a good Christian family, and if she's come to this bad end, I don't want her influencing you any more. Now get up to your room!" The teenager disappeared from the door just as his worried mother arrived.

"Henry, what's going ...oh, no. My poor baby!" She, at least, recognized Karen immediately, and broke down in tears.

Karen gave her a brittle smile. "It's not that bad, Mom. I can finally fly on my own."

"This is what comes of encouraging her to act like a boy, Florence. Now let me get rid of this critter-lover and her pets."

Karen glared back at her father. "I'm glad to see you, too, Dad. Still making everyone miserable, I see." She turned to glare at Boyer and Lowe. "Really great reunion, huh? What the HELL were you two thinking?? He's so reactionary, I'm surprised we were allowed to have electricity."

"You keep a civil tongue in your head, daughter." He lifted his hand, in a gesture obviously intended to turn into a backhanded slap, but froze as the wolf stepped forward, growling.

Boyer paused with her baton halfway out of her jacket. “Mr. Sterling, I would advise you not to try to strike your daughter in my presence.”

"And still as affectionate as always," the bat snarled. “This is why I volunteer for holiday duty.”

The elder Sterling slowly lowered his hand, the anger he felt a blast furnace in the wolf's empathic perception. "All right. But I don't have to put up with this. Get off of my property, all of you, and don't come back without a court order." The boy reappeared, holding a coat and a toothbrush.

"Can I go with you?"

Boyer's "No." was cut off by Lowe's "Yes." The agent turned to look at the wolf, who nodded.

"One of those 'feelings', Lieutenant?"

The wolf shook her head. "Nah, not one of those.” She tapped the side of her muzzle. “One of these. I think he'd be joining us soon in any event.” She turned her head to stare at the youngster. “Swim team, eh, boy? Have you been in the water since New Year’s…?"

Chris looked at the wolf, confused by the question. “Umm.. no, why?”

Lowe nodded, more to herself than anyone else. “Might need salt water, in any event. You’ve Changed, too, but less obviously. You don’t smell fully human. There’s a touch of seal in it. I’d bet you’re a shapeshifter – ever hear of selkies?”

The boy shook his head. Boyer sighed. "Welcome aboard, kid."

Henry Sterling looked even more angry at this. "You too, boy? Leave, then, if you want to follow your sister into damnation. And don't come back."

Commander Sterling was still glaring at her father, who stared back in equal fury while her mother looked pleadingly at the humans in the group on the lawn. "We'll leave," the bat finally said, coldly turning her back on the house and turning her scowl on the agents and her XO. "I'll see the rest of you back home. In the morning. Or maybe the next morning." She tensed her legs, spread her wings, and launched into the sky.

Lowe blinked as the bat disappeared into the night sky. Literally disappeared. "Carol... I can't feel her anymore. She... just dropped out of my awareness, and I lost her visually, too. I don't understand it. She wasn't that far away."

They ran for the back-up van with its radio trackers, the boy following confused in their wake. “What do you mean, she’s gone?”

The radio tech from the van met them half-way. “The Commander’s beacon just dropped out. Did she do something to it?”

Boyer shook her head. “She couldn’t have, we were right there and she didn’t touch it. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know it's there.” She turned, glaring at the wolf as she started chuckling. “What do you find amusing about any of this, Lieutenant?”

Lowe shook her head, still chuckling. “Just that I think we’ve found her talent. I just hope we can find her again.” They returned to the van, and pulled out of the driveway in silence. Behind them, Henry Sterling slammed his front door on his eldest and youngest children.

* * *

Sterling fled into the night sky, up away from the city lights, reveling in her first unrestricted flight since she'd Changed in spite of her fury. She headed north, away from both her family's home and the base, using her sonar to navigate. The lights of the city passed by below, and then the estuary opened up ahead of her, a dark swath across the cityscape with two bridges draped across it. She aimed for the nearer one and landed in the upper tower, grasping a cable in the structure to rest for a few minutes while she decided what to do next. It’s not like I expected anything different, after all. Dad always had his own ideas, and they never included change – or the possibility that he might actually be wrong about something. But I am definitely going to rake my XO and that crazy doctor over the coals for this. No immediate solutions to her family problems presented themselves to her, though, and she yawned, suddenly tired. Very sleepy, in fact... She dozed off, suddenly, almost against her will.

She dreamed, and in the dream she was her old self again. She felt strange - big, heavy, and half-deaf. She stood on a featureless plain, surrounded by nothing but smooth granite as far as she could see, but there was a Presence. A Voice that apologized to her. "I am sorry that you had to go through that. Change is always a challenge and a Test, and those who fail that Test resent those who pass and set obstacles for those who have not yet faced their own."

"Who are you? What do you want?" She looked around, but could still see nothing but the vast expanse of polished stone.

The Presence smiled, though how she knew was beyond her ability to tell. "I want what is best for all of you. Karen Sterling, you were Changed for a reason. There will be challenges along the way, but at your core you are a guardian, a protector of those who cannot protect themselves."

Karen nodded. "I like to think so. That is one of the reasons I joined the Navy."

"And would you have chosen this freely, in the knowledge that your new form would allow you to save lives?"

Karen nodded again. "I suppose I would have, yes. If I knew for certain that was the reason."

The Presence smiled, comforting her. "Then you will know that there is a Purpose. A down payment, so to speak. Search your feelings, faithful daughter. You know who I am."

She awoke with a start, a bit chilled from the January air, but not badly so, as the sirens screamed across the bridge underneath her. Fire engines, heading north across the bridge to a huge conflagration that seemed to have sprung up from nowhere. And yet.... She turned to the south and noticed the orange-red twinkle of more fires springing up. "So many? Another pyrokinetic attack? There's no way that enough fire equipment is available to stop this quickly." Suddenly, she knew where she had to be. There was - or there would be - an apartment fire, down near the waterfront on the Portsmouth side of the bridge. She dropped from the superstructure, diving for speed before spreading her wings out and heading that way as fast as she could.

Sterling arrived to find a frantic mother screaming for a missing child and being restrained from entering the burning building. She landed for a moment, just long enough to pick up a brick, and launched again, aiming for a third-story window. It was the work of a few seconds to smash the window out of its frame, and she stepped through into a bedroom. A frightened little girl was standing at the door to the room, turning away from the fire filling the stairwell to stare at the strange apparition that had just arrived on her windowsill. "Come on, honey. I'm here to rescue you."

The child recoiled, in her panic remembering the wrong set of rules. "Go away! Mama says I shouldn't talk to strange people!"

Sterling grinned crookedly. "But I'm not a people, am I?" She spread her wings out. "Hurry up, dear, we need to get out of here before the fire comes in."

The child thought about this for a moment, and looked at the wings. "Are you an angel?"

"Not exactly, dear, but I think I’ve been sent by one. Your mama wants you to come outside, but we’ll have to fly to get there. Would you like to try flying?"

A beam collapsed in the hallway outside the room. The sudden noise startled the girl into seeking comfort, and Karen was the closest thing to an adult available. She ran forward and threw her arms around the bat's neck. "That's better. Let's go!" She wrapped her wings around her passenger and perched on the windowsill for a moment, then jumped, opening her wings and wrapping her legs around the girl. The child clutched her convulsively for a moment and then looked around in wonder as they glided to the ground.

They landed to cheering and a mother who hugged her daughter and the bat indiscriminately. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she chanted, half-sobbing in relief.

Karen felt uncomfortable. "It's all right, ma'am... I saw I could help, so I did." She raised her voice to reach the crowd around them. "That's why we were Changed, folks. To help." A thought struck her. "Has anyone got a phone I can borrow?" A grateful neighbor handed her a cellphone, and she punched the number of the duty officer at Building 42. "This is Sterling, get Katlynn on the line pronto." She fluttered her wings nervously while waiting. Thirty seconds passed like thirty years before the lynx answered. "Katlynn. This is your job. We have another pyrokinetic attack, fires are being set all over the area. We need rain. Lots of rain. The fire departments aren't even close to being enough to handle this one. If you can at least stop the spread of the ones that have been set, we won't lose the city." She hung up, and waited tensely until the sky suddenly began to cloud up and the drops began to fall. And then she realized that she was going to have to fly home through a drenching downpour. “Aw, crap.”