The choppers landed at the White Sulphur Springs Airport, still in darkness. The Military staff handed out camouflage jackets to the group against the November cold of West Virginia. Then they directed the survivors by name to one of over a dozen waiting transports. Again the form of 4 POWs to 1 Keeper was followed plus there were now two additional people waiting inside the transports. One more military type and there was a member of the Greenbrier staff inside who greeted them by name as they entered the vehicle, welcoming them to the hospitality of the House. Someone had done there homework. It was impressive. The government may have commandeered part of the Greenbrier but someone was also lying on the big bucks.

The vehicles moved out and the new military officer stood. She spoke firmly but with a touch of humor.

"Welcome Home Tellus and Vesta! Hello, I'm Dr. Margie Feller. I have been assigned as your counselor. Let me first outline 'The Plan.' You will be here at the Greenbrier for four to five days to start. During these five days you will be scheduled for meetings with yours truly. We'll get to know each other really well. There will also be group sessions. You and you families will also have private sessions with me and group sessions with a family counselor who has in most cases already had a preliminary meeting with members of your family. You will also continue your debriefings, and there will be meetings to bring you up to date with the events of the war and life here on Earth. We are at war and things have changed since you've been gone. This will, I'm sorry, take up about five to six hours of your day. But the rest of the time you are welcome to enjoy the Resort. This gentleman is Mr. Whitmore from the Greenbrier, he will get you set up with any activities and services. After four maybe five days and depending on our findings you will be free to go home. After that you will continue our sessions on videophone and you will be welcome to come back to the Greenbrier if there are too many rough spots, get you buffed and polished so's to speak.

OK, This came all be pretty overwhelming. We want to keep this small and quite so we notified one member of all of your families that you are here. We asked that only one person meet you in the lobby. We thought that you and your families are going to be staying in the 'West Virginia Wing,' which is the Clinic. Those of you with larger families will be in private cabins. We have a map of where everyone is quartered in your room so you can find everyone. It's now about 0400. The main dining room will open for breakfast at 0600. There will be a group meeting at 1000. "

The transport pulled up in front of a small two story white house. Mr. Whitmore escorted Kylen off of the bus. "Let me be the first, Miss Celina to welcome you back home." He opened a compartment and handed Kylen a small suitcase.

"Compliments of the Greenbrier. Just a few things that we thought you would need. God bless you." He then handed her a key card for the cottage. At that moment the door opened and Kylen could make out the figure of her father in the doorway.

"Daddy,"she whispered, dropped the bag and ran into her father's arms.

Father and daughter held each other rocking silently back and forth in the moonlight.
For both, time stopped briefly as they drank in the smell and the warmth of each other. For a few seconds they could hear the music of the spheres echoing in their ears and throughout their bodies. It moved back and forth between them confirming their connections. Father and daughter. Prayers were answered and everything seemed possible.

Frank Celina was fifty-five, graying. Thicker around the middle than he wanted to be but not fat. He was still strong and sure enough to sweep his daughter up and carry her up the stairs. " They are all still asleep," he said. " I wanted you all to myself for a while."

"I love you, Daddy." Kylen hadn't called her father 'Daddy' since she went to college. Frank caught the term and it both broke his heart and made him feel incredibly proud.
He felt like a giant striding the earth. Real life would be back in a few hours but for now he had his child all to himself. Like she was a newborn again and just his.

To: Dsteinbeck@MyElCl.net
From: Frank Celina @ univmass.web

Subject: Visitations

Dr. Steinbeck, Major Howard USMC, gave me your address. (Please feel free to contact him for any confirmation you desire.)
My daughter, Kylen, is a Tellus survivor. During her transport home she became acquainted with Lt. Col. McQueen. He obviously made an impression. Kylen greatly admires the Colonel and has confided that she feels a connection with him on several different levels; not the least of which is that The Colonel was also a POW. Her fiancee, Nathan West, is a member of the Colonel's squadron.

We are just home from the Greenbrier. The whole intervention was pretty well done I my mind. There have been a few rough spots and surprises but all in all things are going a bit better than expected ... but I feel that I can be doing more for my daughter. I see a darkness behind my child's eyes - a place that neither I nor her siblings can quite reach. I realize that we may never be able to follow her into those places but when she speaks of Nathan and of Col. McQueen I can see the darkness lift slightly and I can sense a calmness in her spirit.

It is a painful moment in a father's life when he comes to realize that someone else can give his child a sense of wholeness and security that he cannot - though Kylen would never say such a thing. I know that I have supremacy of place but I don't think that I have all the things that she needs at this moment. There are times when you have to step aside.

Kylen, like all of our children, I'm proud to say, has always had an extremely strong sense of self. But today when I was trying to encourage her - telling her that she knew who she was - that she knew herself - She quoted Goethe "Know thyself? If I knew myself, I'd run away." This was like ice in my soul.

My daughter's all around health and well being is of utmost importance. And I can sometimes see her straining for a sense of "normalcy" within the family. I believe that the one place in life where you shouldn't feel strain is in your own family. As painful as it is for us to allow her to leave I was wondering if you think It would be acceptable for her to start to visit Colonel McQueen. Is he ready for or desirous of visitors?

I'd like to invite him here to the farm. I'm afraid, however, given what Kylen has told me that this may not provide the most salubrious atmosphere for him. Even if he is a Marine. Three teenagers plus the rest of the 'circus' trouping through without notice. We are a lively bunch and can, I'm afraid, be overwhelming.

I know that she worries about him and would love to see him. I think that we could bear to have her leave for two or three days at a time. I think that these short breaks would also be good for the rest of my children as well - allow them to decompress as it were. The older children and I have a better understanding of what the counselors told us to expect, but the teenagers still seem a bit confused. I would like to use Kylen's time away to have some additional sessions with them. I can only imagine the difficulties of survivor families who don't have a foundation as strong as ours.

Thank you for your consideration, Frank Celina

I can be reached at home or at my office at the University of Mass. Department of Agriculture.

To: DSteinbeck@MyElCl.net
From: BTHoward@USMC.web

Subject: Celina

Do it! Do it, even if McQueen doesn't seem enthusiastic. Hell, do it, even if he bitches. I don't know why, but these two reach each other. One would hardly expect it given their life histories and personalities. But there you have it. If anyone can connect with McQueen in a positive manner - I'd bet on this kid. Watching them is like watching clouds swirl around each other. Like trying to put lightening in a bottle.

You will find her a delight, by the way. I know you. Troubled - it is true. All her limbs are intact but The Clinic, I'm sure could provide a healing atmosphere for her as well… Hey..... How many attractive young women do you know who are willing to colonize space, survive a crash and prison, work in the mines and who can quote Goethe?

"Who strives for the utmost, him can we save." McQueen and Kylen are survivors and strivers but I think they are both exhausted at the moment. You can give them each a hand, Dale. Besides, I know how you love to dabble in and help shape other peoples lives... And I say that only with affection and thanks.

Your servant (LOL), Barton Howard

P.S. I had to look up the quote but it is Goethe - My little tribute to Kylen Celina

Dale Steinbeck found the brooding McQueen in the solarium.

"Ty, do you know someone by the name of Kylen Celina?"

McQueen did not move. He felt fear stab into his guts. Everything had gone so badly in his life lately. What now? Oh God. Is she all right? He remained looking out the window. He couldn't bring himself to look at Steinbeck. This would be too much.

Steinbeck misread McQueen's reaction totally, thinking that he was being ignored. Dale was almost at the end of his limit with The Colonel. He had always been able to break though the wall or at least make cracks in the depression of his patients. He had always been able to help steer them through. McQueen was a world onto himself. A Chinese puzzle box. Steinbeck had briefly hoped that Amy would be a help even if only as a source of external irritation and friction. But that road seemed closed as well. The former married couple danced around each other with determined professionalism.

A patient's support system, family and friends, was key in the rehabilitation process. It was part of the whole program. While there had been a flurry of official Marine type communications about T.C. McQueen, there had not been a single personal inquiry and McQueen had made no attempts to contact anyone. Ty's room looked as if no patient was in residence. Totally empty. No personal items on display. There had been nothing until this dignified but heart felt request from Frank Celina. Steinbeck wasn't about to let this possibility die on the vine.

"Answer me Ty." Dale Steinbeck's voice was kind and gentle but the command was unmistakable. McQueen, face like marble, finally turned to look up at the doctor.

Dale went on, impatiently: "She wants to visit. It seems that she is worried about you. Can she come?"

McQueen was relieved. Incredibly relieved. He felt tears at the back of his eyes. He was disgusted with his emotional reaction but chalked it up to his distracted state of mind. He picked up a book he had been reading and plucked a dog-eared little note from between the pages. He considered for a split second then handed it wordlessly to Steinbeck - not even sure why he did so. The writing was shaky - like someone trying to write while riding in a car.

"Still falls the Rain- Dark as the world of man, black as our loss -"

You said to me - "We have to talk." And we haven't and I think we should - I want you to know that I saw part of you inside of Nathan's eyes - a strength and purpose - a way of being That was new and splendid. This means that you have incredible worth and value to him and therefore to me. I will keep the sacrifice of the 58th in my heart. I owe them my life but I'll also keep it there for you as well.

No matter how damaged at this moment --- I know that you must have a core of the most precious metal ever created by the Hand of God.

This is a season we must live through - but not our lives forever. Believe - as I try to.

With Affection,
Kylen Celina, Ridge Farm, South Barre, Mass. (We are in the book)

Dame Edith Sitwell. Black as our loss. thought Steinbeck. "And you haven't called her?" It was obvious. McQueen did not answer.

"She has a family, Doctor." I had wanted to be rid of her but she wouldn't be shaken. She was a tiny pillar a fire. She was there for me - a sliver of light that wouldn't let go. But she has her own family. She no longer needs me. She has a life full of warmth and promise. No. No, it is well past time to end this exercise. It's time to drive on.
McQueen was not aware of any irony in the fact that he had kept her note and had reread it to the point of memorization.

"That is true, she does have a family. They love her greatly. But, Ty, her family thinks that she needs you. Read this." He handed him Frank Celina's e-mail. Steinbeck waited until McQueen had finished reading the message. "And equally important I think you need her. At least as much. Well, since you won't be moved, I will. I'm calling her. Do you have a message for her? I'll send it."

McQueen thought that, yes indeed he had a message for Kylen. Get the fuck out of Dodge, Kid. Leave us all behind you. Send your family e-mails from the mountain or the seashore. Screw Aerotech and The Spooks. Send Howard postcards from the edge. Write your fairy tales if you have to but leave us all in the dust. Afterburners, Kylen. Get away from all of us: AIs, Chigs, West, me - all of us. He sighed heavily for he knew that advice would be useless. Not a chance. I can see her now, the damaged one, making sure her family is all OK. That they are coping. That she isn't upsetting their little apple cart. Serving the canapes and smiling. Making sure that Howard has all the information he can cut out of her soul. Being a very good girl. Hopeless.

"Yes.... Just... Just ask her how Life and Freedom are earned," he said.

Next : Chapter Thirteen

Previous : Chapter Eleven

Home : Space:Above And Beyond Fan Fiction Stories