Captains Nathan West, Shane Vansen and Cooper Hawkes looked down. Wang's funeral was finished. Lt. Vanessa Damphousse had been with them, but had been ordered back to sick bay as soon as possible. Shane looked at her Wingmen. West's face was tense with an I-don't-care expression, but his body-language and eyes said something else. He had lost a good friend. Coop was silent, she had heard him crying at night, but Hawkes was just an 8-year-old kid in his mind. Personally, Shane felt agriefed but she thought that she could handle Paul's death better than Nathan's, or Phousse's or Coop's. She hadn't been that close to Wang. But still she liked him, he had been her friend.

Colonel McQueen walked in, followed by two marines. He gestured toward the arriving men. "58th, these is your new wingmen"

The 58th stood up, looking at the Marines that just had shown up. Captain Nathan West looked at McQueen.

"Sir, it's been two hours after Wang's funeral and we get his replacements?"

"Well, the 5-8 are the best. The PTB (powers that be) want us flying as soon a possible" McQueen pointed at the woman.

"This is Lieutenant Beate Bertheussen, she is transferred from the USS Alcatraz."

The woman smiled. She wasn't tall, not even taller than Shane. She had shoulder-long blonde hair and blue/gray eyes. She was slim and looked good in a flight-suit. "It's an honor to be with the WildCards. You are legends."

West turned away. Vansen tried to smile, but it looked more like a grin of pain than a smile. McQueen cleared his throat.

"And this is Captain Marco Polo, he is from the USS MacArthur."

Shane grinned. "Marco Polo? Nice name."

Captain Marco Polo wasn't tall either, but he was taller than Vansen. He had black, short hair and dark eyes. His skin was light brow. He was very handsome.

"I know, my other squad hated it too," he laughed.

"I'll let you be. Bertheussen and Polo, you get a bunk. Ask Vansen if there's a problem with callsigns" McQueen said to them as he closed the hatch.

Bertheussen smiled, but the 58th could see that she wasn't comfortable with the situation. She walked toward an empty bunk and threw her gear on it.

Why had she been assign to the 58th? Why not the Polar Bears or the 33rd? Heck, even the 45th was a better place for her than this. She was a good pilot, but her specialty was Infantry. Her parents where from Norway, but had moved to the little town Amity in Long Island when she had been one year old.

She took out a hairbrush and brushed her hair. She felt it itch in the back and used the brush to stop it. The downside of having hair when you're flying a SA-43 is that it itched like hell after 30 mikes.

Marco Polo was busy taking his uniform out of his dufflebag. He looked at Vansen.

How hot could a woman get?

Marco was a real joker. He never shared his emotions with anyone. He was from San Diego and could remember the Vansen family. He had played on the San Diego Fireballs, a football-team for kids, and he had a crush on Shane since Elementary School. He doubted that Shane remembered him, after all he was just Marco-roni. Marco had lost his mother at an age of twelve. Polo was the type of guy that joked about the things that worried him and this war worried him a lot. He remembered the Vansen's funeral. Lots of flowers, many military folks and so on. He shook his head at the memory.

Cooper Hawkes looked at Bertheussen. He had never seen a woman with that look. She looked like an angle. He sat down with his GI-comic book. After reading that he looked at West.

"Do you have any comics?" he asked.

Nathan smiled. "No I haven't, Coop"

"Shane?" Hawkes tried.

"Sorry, Hawkes. I don't read that anymore."

Beate took out a magazine.

"I have a Calvin and Hobbes-book. You can borrow it if you want to."

Cooper looked shyly at her. Bertheussen smiled. Hawkes moved slowly, like a cat, towards her bunk.

"I don't bite," she said.

"I thought you did!" yelled Polo. "Wasn't you the one that said: I can bite?"

"Shut up, asshole!" she replied. Then she took the comic out of her bag.

"Here you are, Hawkes" she said.

Cooper took the book and opened it. He looked at the cartoons of a kid and a stuffed tiger. They heard a knock on their hatch and West walked up and opened it. A young woman smiled at him.

"Is this the 58th?" she asked.

"Yeah" Cooper said while he grinned because of something funny in the book.

Vansen watched her. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"My name is Lt. Anne Schjerven, and I was ordered to report to the 58th Squadron. Ross said that a Colonel McQueen would be waiting for me," the woman said as she took her hand trough her dirty-blond hair. Her gray eyes watched them, absorbed the reaction …the people in the room. She smiled.

"We have all our replacements" Vansen replied.

"I'm not just Lt. Kelly A. Winslow's replacement, I'm also here on orders from Secretary General Diane Hayden. I have a note from her to a Captain Nathan West" she gave the man she guessed was West the note.

"Winslow's replacement? Kelly has been dead for a year and NOW they send a Marine?" Shane looked mad at Schjerven.

"A Marine? You think that I am a Marine? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I ain't a Marine," Schjerven moved in, her slim body pressing past West in the hatch.

"What the heck are you then?" Hawkes send her a dead-stare.

"I'm in the Norwegian Army," she said.

"What? I didn't know that the Norwegians could speak English that well," Bertheussen laughed. "My parents sound horrible when they talk English."

"I am pretty good," Anne replied.

"Well, ain't we just Miss Modesty," Marco marked sourly.

"Captain…" she smiled. "It's a honor to meet the 58th, and I know that having a non-marine here is gonna be hard for you but I'm here to stay as long as the Queen of Norway, the Irony-gods and S.G. Hayden will let me."

Hawkes knew it when he saw her. "You are not from this time. You have been in cryonic sleep."

Schjerven ran her finger trough her hockey-style hair. "Yes, you're right, Hawkes. It seems like you InVitro-training is paying off. To bad it remind me too much about a English Boarding School."

"What time are you from?" West finally said something.

"I was born the 30th of December, 1986"

"Okay…and you where 'put in the fridge' in?" Polo spotted out.

"The 17 of May, 2007. Right after an accident in Fort Nes. They didn't know how to save me so they froze me down," she laughed. "It's a funny story, but not now."

Marco shook his head. Bertheussen watched him.

"Marco, if you are so fucking much against this, why don't you just take a walk?" she said.

West shook his head as he opened the letter from Hayden. He froze as he read the three words.

You where right. He closed his eyes in pain and looked at Hawkes.

"What?" Coop replied, not knowing what his friend had received.

"Aerotech knew…they knew that the Chigs were out there…Hayden knew too, that bitch!" he slammed his fist against the hatch.

Anne grimaced. "Good thinking, West. I bet you are the only guy on the 'Toga that can play maracas with your fist" she walked over to him and looked at his hand. "Let me see."

Nathan held out his hand. He should have known better than trying to hit his fist trough the wall, but he had to hit something. "Outch."

"Good work, West…You're gonna have blue marks, but it's not life threatening," she turned his palm over. "You're gonna marry a beautiful brunette and live happy ever after," she joked.

"Ha, ha. Very funny" he said. "For being older than anyone of us you have humor."

"Yeah, just as much humor like a mummy," Lt. Marco Polo marked.

Colonel McQueen entered. He looked at Schjerven.

"I see that you are here, Lieutenant. I'm sorry that I couldn't meet you right away. Mission briefing is in 10 mikes…Move out."

Mission Briefing

Lt. Beate Bertheussen was pretending that she was paying attention. She was busy trying to dig a hole in her desk with her pencil. Every five minutes she nodded, like she agreed with the Colonel.

Captain Marco Polo had his own troubles to think about, like Schjerven. Schjerven was his biggest problem. He felt intimated by the young woman. Even though she was older than any one of them; she had the body of a 20-year-old girl. She had more war training and experience than he did and that terrified him to the max.

Lieutenant Anne Schjerven knew what effect she had on Marco, and enjoyed every minute of it. She sat back, listening to her new CO. An InVitro with the name Tyrus Cassius McQueen. Her mind focused from her CO's middle name. The boxer Cassius Clay had changed his name to Muhammad Ali…She couldn't remember when. The freezing as Polo so delicate put it had taken away some of her memory, like faces and non-historical stuff.

West and Hawkes looked worried at their CO. They wondered how the Colonel was handling this. At least the 58th was whole again. Except for Lt. Wang. Nathan shook his head sadly in the memory. He would never forget the Lieutenant…his friend's last cry.

McQueen stepped forward again, heading towards Bertheussen. The short woman heard his heels and looked right into her CO's cold, blue eyes. "Bertheussen…can you repeat my last word?"

Bertheussen looked down, embarrassed.

"No sir."

McQueen looked coldly at the woman.

A rookie, that was what she was, a damn rookie.

"Lieutenant, if you want to survive this war I suggest that you pay attention. We are NOT at school, young Lady. And if I ever catch you doing that again I will have your sorry little butt kicked off the Saratoga." he yelled.

"Yes SIR!" she said, trying to fight back her tears that suddenly just had appeared in her eyes.

"The Mission will go under the name Impossible. It is just a name, so don't wear it out! Bertheussen, I want you to stay! The rest of the 58th is dismissed!" McQueen saw his Squadron go out of the room as fast as possible, without running.