From: Michael Stockton <Jagle@concentric.net>
To: "J.D. Quest" <JQML@onelist.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 01:38:04 -0500
Subject: [JQML] FIC: FTWL Part I
Message-ID: <36F49369.88A2F437@concentric.net>
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From: Michael Stockton <Jagle@concentric.net>

       Disclaimer: Quests, Bannons, Singhs, Zins, and possibly others
are the property of H/B and/or TT. The following story is begun and
intended in full as an offering for the enjoyment of the fans of Jonny
Quest. No moneys are being sought.

       Bios of H/B characters: S1 Quest Team, except for Benton who is
S2. The kids' ages are as follows: Hadji, 18. Jessie, 17 in June. Jonny,
16 in september.
       Bios of my characters: 1. Dr. Jordan Carpentier, 28, 6' tall and
and built like a god. Short black hair and blue eyes. Canadian marine
biologist. 2. Danielle Carpentier, 16 in November, 5'4" tall with long
black hair and blue eyes. Sister to Jordan. 3. Amy Walter, 34, 5'11'
with honey blonde hair and green eyes. USAFR Major and Quest Team backup
pilot. 4. Robin Walter, 35, 6' with brown hair and brown eyes.
Mechanical engineer and one of seven Quest Aviation Team members. 5.
Paul Donaldson, 23, 6'1" with brown hair and gray eyes. One of seven
Quest Aviation Team members. 6. Joe Marple, 61, 5'7" with gray hair and
blue eyes. Senior member of Quest Aviation Team. Sold Big Cat to Benton
on the condition that he maintains it for him. 7. Karen Eskind, 26, 5'8"
with medium length black hair and blue eyes. Engaged to Jordan.

       Notes: This is a part that I'll most likely modify heavily. It is
also a continuation of my first two fics. Those who have followed those
stories will recognize what's going on in this part. The rest of you
need to read my first two fics, or a lot of this will go over your
heads.





                     Of Home and History

                                                      Part I of For
Those We Love





Quest Jet Super Lightning
Quest Jet Dragonfly
FL 240 Over The Gulf Of Mexico
Inbound To Palm Key, Florida
Memorial Day, 1998
2031 U.S. Eastern Standard Time



       The airplanes converged on Palm Key from different directions. In
Dragonfly's case, Robbie and Paul were alone returning from Rendova,
Solomon Islands, via Los Angeles, California. In Watts' case, Benton,
Race, and Jonny were returning from Calcutta, India, via— well,
Calcutta, India. The Lockheed Super Lightning— affectionately called
"Watts"— was refuelable in flight.
       "Miami TRACON, Watts 704 inbound Palm Key, Information Sierra,"
Race called. His aircraft was descending, whereas Dragonfly was still
talking to Miami ARTCC.
       "Watts, Miami. Continue your descent and heading. Information
Tango is now in effect."
       "Will update from ATIS. Watts 704." Well... Race then switched
microphones in order to call and make sure that Benton and Jonny were
indeed awake back in Watts' cabin. "Benton?" he keyed up and asked.
       But there was a knock on the flight deck door, and Dr. Quest came
in and sat down in the copilot's seat. "How are we?" Benton asked.
       "The jet is fine, and Joe is ready to catch us on the Key.
Dragonfly is inbound also."
       "Good. I'm anxious to hear their latest news."
       "Well, it's a great evening for it." The Southern Florida skies
were about twenty-five percent occluded with fair weather cumuli, and
the setting sun was going down with rays and rays of light, coloring the
sea below beautifully. And on top of that, Jessie was back at home on
Palm Key recovering from her ordeal at the hands of Dr. Zin's
genetically engineered guards. Race then remembered just how terribly
close he had come to not reaching his girl in time, and he found himself
struggling to regain his flight situational awareness a moment after
that.
       "Are you all right?" Benton asked.
       "Yeah. I was just thinking about Jessie, is all."
       "Yes," Benton agreed.
       "Hey, Race," Jonny came in and said as he sat down in Watts'
right systems console's seat behind his father.
       "Jonny. Did you sleep well?"
       "Sure, Race." Jonny had in fact slept soundly. Race had been
running Watts' Pratt & Whitney, F-22 Raptor class engines in
Supercruise, and the great airplane— it was actually smaller than the
Gulfstream VI that Jessie had gone down in with Gustavo in Case: Ice
Will Burn— had not had to be refueled in the last eight hours.
       "Robbie and Paul are inbound about fifty miles to our left,"
Benton said.
       Jonny looked at his console's center multi' functional display
and and selected TCAS. He then interrogated Watts' surroundings
manually, and Dragonfly's TCAS dutifully responded. "Make that
thirty-five miles, Dad."
       Benton called the data up on his own MFD. "Indeed. Robbie seems
to be expediting things."
       "We should arrive in interval at the Key," Race agreed.

       And so it happened, as a certain red-haired girl watched from the
ground at Palm Key. Watts appeared on the downwind leg first, and as it
turned onto final approach, Dragonfly appeared and entered the Key's
landing pattern.
       "Jess, would you like to marshall Watts?" Old Joe Marple asked.
"I'll catch Dragonfly."
       Jessie smiled and nodded, brandishing a pair of hard shell
hearing protectors. In ten minutes, she had used and removed them. "Hi,
Dad!" she shouted over the sound of both Watts' and Dragonfly's APUs.
And Race felt the crush of a girl who on the surface seemed to be much
better.
       "Hey, Kiddo. Where's Mom?"
       "Inside with Amy. ...Dr. Quest!" And Benton got his crushing.
       "You seem to be feeling better, Jessie."
       "Palm Key makes a big difference. ...Hey, Jonny." The hug he
received was noticeably less affectionate.
       "Hey, Jess," Jonny simply smiled. The two had in fact shared
their first kisses over a month ago on Rendova. But that had happened
before Jessie's near miss with becoming a surrogate mother to a werewolf
in the caves beneath Zin's home in Kentucky. She had been badly abused
physically at that, and she had emerged from it in a comatose state of
mental trauma. But she was obviously back from those dire straights,
though her state of mind and soul was still inconsistent and suspect. As
a result, Jonny had been warned to go strictly with whatever affection
she offered, and her current reaction to him verified that this was in
fact council that was well given.
       "Robbie!" Yet another crushing hug.
       Gee! Jonny thought.
       "Why, Miss Bannon! It's good to see you looking well, Jess."
       "My mom said that you were shot while saving her life."
       "Why, I—" And Rob stammered in false modesty. He inwardly liked
the aftermath of being the hero, though he had not enjoyed being wounded
in the least.
       "Why don't we all go inside?" Benton suggested. "I'm certain that
the telling of our various stories will consume the better part of
tomorrow, but we all need at least a basis of understanding on which to
sleep on."
       "Yes, Dr. Quest," Jessie laughed. Then she noticed that two
persons were missing. "Where are Hadji and Dani?"
       "Inside," Race smiled as he firmly guided his daughter.

       But they didn't have far to go, though it took a while for Rob
and Amy to greet one another after their month long separation. They
were in fact Mr. and Mrs. Robin Gary Walter, though she was also called
Major Amy Walter, USAFR. As an ex F-15 Eagle and B-1B Lancer pilot, Amy
was Dr. Quest's backup pilot, Jessie's flight instructor, the instigator
of the demise of Anaya Zin, and five months pregnant with twins— a boy
and a girl, a sonogram had revealed.
       Then there was the matter of the Bannon family. Estella was
there, and the three of them shared hugs and looked upon one another
with more hope in their eyes than any of them had felt in years.
       Benton simply held Jonny and enjoyed the sight of the others. His
reunions were otherwise forthcoming, and he would soon fly to New Mexico
with Jonny in order to attend to them.
       "So," Amy finally began. "Should we begin with the matter of the
missing?"
       "Yes," Benton said. And as he sat down, so did everyone else.
"Robbie, let's begin with you."
       "Jordi is recovering nicely at Carpentier Laboratory. He is
recovering so nicely that he in fact asked me to convey that he is
keeping Dani on Rendova pending the resolution of your concerns in New
Mexico."
       "Yes. Hadji came to the same conclusion and remained in
Bangalore," Benton reported.
       "What about that, Benton?" Race asked.
       "My wife and daughter by blood are in New Mexico, Race. Both
Hadji and Jordi are aware of the fact that I must resolve matters with
Rachel and Rhea before I can ask them to accept adopted family."
       "And the sooner the better," Jonny added with the undisguised
passion of a boy who had grown up under the belief that his mother had
been murdered. That he also had a sister only increased his resolve.
       "Yes, Son."
       Jessie then spoke up. "That news just about put me back into a
coma when I heard it," she smiled. "How sure are you that they're really
who we hope that they are, Dr. Quest?"
       "I'm less sure of them than Doug is, Jessie. But the little girl
is the right age, and the lady acts so much like Rachel that I haven't
yet noticed any differences. Neither has Doug. We also incurred with Zin
in Questworld, invading his mind as he lay in a state of REM sleep.
Hadji himself guided the old man's dreams in directions that gave every
indication that he in fact managed to stage my wife's death. But the
most binding key was her one memory of Jordan as he relates to Jonny."
       "And what relationship is that?" Amy asked.
       "It's in the open, and so I can finally tell you all. Rachel and
I knew Alain and Michelle Carpentier when Jordan was still just a boy of
about ten. We were good friends in those days, and we managed to spend
several free days together. Alain and I would discuss matters of
science. Rachel and Michelle were both classically educated, and so they
often disappeared with Jordan. As it turned out, the ladies most often
discussed motherhood. Rachel was so taken with Jordan that—"
       "Jonny was the result!" Jessie actually cut in and exclaimed.
       "Watch it," Race firmly reminded Jessie.
       "I'm sorry, Dr. Quest."
       "There's no need to be. Jordan really was our inspiration for
Jonny. Yet my wife and I never discussed this with anyone other than
Alain, Michelle, and your father, Jessie. Yet the woman that we rescued
from Zin remembered the matter to the degree that she insisted that
Jordan was from Montreal, which is of course correct."
       "Can there be any other means of confirmation in this matter,
Benton?" Estella asked.
       "Yes. Yet it could be quite dangerous for Rachel."
       "Professor Goyle was adamant about that," Amy reported. "She said
that there is no predicting to what degree and effect any return of
memory will do in cases of amnesia. She stopped just short of telling me
to remind you that your wife's mind might be as fragile as egg shells."
       "She knows that I well understand it," Benton smiled. "We will
proceed quite carefully where Rachel is concerned." And everyone agreed
on that.
       "What about India?" Amy then asked.
       "Terrible," Benton grimaced and said. "The lowlands are almost
fifty percent depopulated, and I do mean by human death. There were
almost uncountable infant creatures roaming and killing in the fields
when we arrived, yet many people managed to flee into the mountains. But
this became a problem for feeding an already starving populace. Many yet
still died from the lack of food in the highlands. Bangalore was the
least beset by all this, yet even they turned away thousands of hungry
refugees."
       "There's another reason that Hadji didn't come back with you,"
Jessie guessed.
       "Yes, Jessie."
       "How long did it take you to receive military support?" Amy
asked.
       "It was already there to a degree, though it was ineffective. Our
first actions were to locate, fix, and track the major animals in much
the same way as it was done at Seattle and in the Bismarck Sea. The
major animals were the breeders, and they had to be dealt with as a
matter of priority. We arranged for the movement and dispersal of the
new weapons while we also went about locating the majors, and the
military expedited the movement of their delivery systems."
       "We heard that the helicopters performed miracles over their,"
Amy said.
       "Yes, quite amazing. They have their hovering capability, which
in combination with their naval Mavericks made them very effective
against creatures of all sizes. We even had to call back to the states
and have the Dugway venom loaded into special TOW missiles for use
against the smallest animals. The Mavericks were almost wasted on them."

       "Overkill," Amy agreed.
       "Well, that quickly sums up India," Benton said. "What happened
in Panama and the Solomon Islands?"
       Robbie spoke. "We arrived at St. Jude Hospital in Panama City and
discovered Jordan to be in the care of very good doctors. He's in such
great shape that he began to recover rapidly after the first week. They
were afraid that he might suffer some loss of memory, but the guy
emerged from unconsciousness with his sense of humor in high gear. Wanna
know what he said?"
       "Of course," Benton replied.
       "Well, you know that he took a fairly serious blow to the head,
and it knocked him out for days. When he finally began to wake up, he
was squeezing Karen's hand very softly. So she began to coax him at it—
you know, asking him his name and her name, and whether or not he could
speak at all?"
       "Um, hmm," Benton nodded.
       "So Kari bent down low over him so that she could hear him, and
the first word out of his mouth was 'aspirin.' She then leaned back with
a big incredulous look on her face, and sure enough, he was smiling at
her just like you'd expect him to be after delivering a good joke like
that."
       "Well, I can see how he's the inspiration for Jonny!" Jessie
laughed.
       Everyone else enjoyed the story openly, but Benton had other
thoughts. He alone was privileged to know exactly who Jordan Carpentier
was. The young marine biologist and his sister were the last children in
a line of royalty that had been hidden for exactly seven generations...
from exactly the time that Louis the XVI and Marie Antoinette met their
deaths during the French Revolution of the late Eighteenth Century. Yet
legend had it that their son, the crown prince who would have become
Louis the XVII, escaped to either Austria or England.
       Benton finally smiled, though the motivus for it was tragic. This
was due to the fact that neither Jordan nor Danielle were aware of who
they were. It was knowledge that was not normally passed on until its
time— until the child, or children in this case, were deemed to be
ready. Yet Dr. Alain Louis Carpentier— his last name was actually
Capais— had died suddenly and terribly in a submersible accident three
miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Jordan thus did not
receive the story from his father. Nor had he received it from his
mother Michelle, who had also died suddenly, though not before she
shared the story with Benton, a long time family friend and short time
confidanté.
       Louis Jordan Capais and Danielle Marie Capais. Benton thought
about them and cringed. That France no longer wanted a king had no
bearing on the matter. Jordan and Danielle were living, breathing
articles of world history. And here Benton was keeping the knowledge of
it to himself, and risking both his own life and theirs!
       No longer! Danielle was hardly ready to be told the tale. But
Jordan... Was he ready, or wasn't he? Would he even be able to care? Of
course he would! He might not like it, but he would care. Yes, Benton
would go ahead and talk to Jordan. Yet he was half a world away, and the
knowledge had almost always had two guardians.
       Should I at least inform Race? the Doctor wondered. Yes, I should
have long ago. What if I were to die without doing so? The knowledge
would then be lost forever.
       "Dad?" Jonny asked, trying to reach his father.
       Benton did not answer.
       "Benton?" Race asked a bit more firmly.
       "Hmm? Oh— Yes, Race?"
       "What's up? You were about as lost in thought as I've ever seen
you?"
       "Have I missed anything?"
       "Naw. We were just joking around."
       "How tired are you?"
       "Not too. What's up?"
       "A great deal, my friend. I need to talk to you in private if
we're otherwise finished here."
       "Is it serious, Dad?" Jonny asked.
       "Yes, though it is not critical. It's actually good news, in
point of fact."
       "How come you can't tell us all?"
       "It is a very sensitive matter, Son. So much so that you would
not believe it."
       "Oh, that's the best kind!" Jessie laughed.
       Race almost said something about it, but Benton stopped him. "You
know, you might be someone who does need to know this story. Perhaps you
will."
       "Ooh," Race smiled. "'Need to know,'" he laughed.
       "Yes, Race. Why don't we retire to my library? I want to get this
out in the open right away."
       "All right, Benton."
       "Good night, everyone." Benton and Race then left, and everyone
else went to bed.

       "Benton, are you sure that Jessie needs to know this story?" Race
asked about thirty minutes later.
       "That depends on Dani. If she returns to us here, yes. Are you
aware that Jessie has been teaching Dani a bit of the martial arts?"
       "What?! You told us not to do that, Benton!"
       "No, I said that I don't want her taught such things before I
gain a better understanding of how to go about it. I don't want Dani's
essential character altered, and I'm sure that you can now see why."
       "Yeah. You'd need a girl to teach her such stuff."
       "And not just any girl, but one who understands to the core of
her being the need for strict discipline in the matter. Jessie doesn't
divulge secrets."
       "No, she does not. All right, then. If Dani comes back, and if
Jordan agrees, we'll bring Jessie into the loop."
       Benton leaned back in his chair and stared out into forever.

       "Let's get some sleep," he finally said.



End Part I




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