Jaq flipped open her satellite phone and let one leg dangle out of the open door of the cockpit. Her eyes peered around the small site and then she grinned. It was perfect. Just perfect. And with the sudden draining of the beaver lake, she was bound to find some interesting things. Tomorrow was shaping up to be a good day. It was just too bad she hadn't managed to have enough day light to explore on her return flight. Not that she minded camping out, but it was a bit of a pain in the ass to get someone to watch over Rocky. 

“APJ-798, calling for flight restructure.” She bit her lower lip and tried her best not to squirm in her seat. 

“Flight restructure, go ahead APJ-798 and what are you doing calling out like this?” Owen snapped. “You take that generator?” 

“I'll be sure to use it tonight,” she leaned to the side and patted the hand crank generator at her side. She'd have to recharge the phone so that it could be used again – the downside of being a woman in a man's job while the oldest crab at the field was her adopted grandfather. Other pilots could keep their phones off. She was expected to have it on at all times. 

“GPS coordinates.” 

She relayed her position and then hopped out of her plane with the phone to her ear. Opening the side door under the wing, she pulled a small pack out of the mid section and let it thump on the ground. “Beaver Lake is drained, Pops – I'm going to take a look at it tomorrow. I'd have landed in it, but at a low drive, it looked mucky so I landed just south east of the old dam. It looks to be a four mile hike in. I'll be back tomorrow night in time to take the Masters party of three up to Ron's place.” 

“Was gonna have you fly in a kayak crew tomorrow,” Owen grumbled. 

“Have Steve take that on. He doesn't earn his keep anyway,” she grinned. “Gonna sign off. Need to set up camp. Love ya.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

He didn't remind her to take precautions. He didn't tell her to sleep in her plane or to put her food up into a cache or to make sure she had cleared the ground or any of the other, silly things you have to tell those from the lower forty-eight to do in order to keep them alive. He knew she could take care of herself and besides, he had his pacifier, her phone was still on. 

The tent went up with the swift deft hand of practice in a matter of moments and a fire was made. She cooked a can of ravioli and drank from the water tank in her plane. Jaq took off her clothing and replaced everything with sweats that she could wear just about anywhere, then she pulled out a couple of bottles of beer from her cooler in the plane and cracked them open. 

There was the sound of the fire popping and the feel of the beer and an adventure the next day, Jaq could have said, at that moment, there was no other place she ever could have wanted to be. She nestled into the thin sleeping bag, smacked her lips and reminded herself that she had to brush her teeth the next morning. She hadn't done it before bed. Not that anyone would care. 

Yes – perfection was the life she led at that moment. Most people had no idea what they were missing out on. 

That was, of course, all before the sudden flare of light. Jaq blinked, it was silent and the light was as if she were in the middle of a high school football field during a home game. Her skin rushed all over prickles and she blinked, stared at the roof of her tent as she tried to get her head into the reality of whatever had just, very unexpectedly happened. 

“What the hell?” she covered her eyes and scrambled out of the tent, grasping for the five hundred magnum she kept under her pillow, holding it at her side as she crouched and looked around. The entire field was aflame with bright light, unnatural light. Holding her hand at her brow, she sought out the source which was, unaccountably overhead, and then scrambled slightly to one side. If it was a helicopter, it was a silent one, and if it was silent, it was something new and military or research based. 

No one was doing research as far north as she was. It didn't make sense. She went for the trees, her inner voice screaming at her to get moving. Something wasn't right and she really didn't have time to figure out what it was and decide on a perfect response to it. No – there were times when flight and then reconnaissance was the answer. She had left her phone back in the tent, but she had her gun and no matter who was flaring a light into her camp, she was fairly certain she'd set things straight for all parties concerned once she knew who it was she had to set things straight with. 

So, it was with a bit of a hiccup of surprise that, before reaching the edge of the clearing, a beam of even stronger light fell around her and she suddenly felt as if every part of her was in water. 

Or, something. She screamed and twisted, tried to grab onto a bush but whatever it was (not water, she breathed and she wasn't wet, but she felt 'buoyant' of all things) pulled at her and she felt the bush leave her hand. She spun a moment and then straightened out. Her arms and legs felt like they were no longer in water so much as up against molasses and she took in deep breaths in an attempt to keep calm. 

Oh, that was so not going to happen. She couldn't catch her breath. Her body was so tense she might as well have been made of stone and her lungs felt shrunk; no air in the universe was going to make it inside of her, not when every cell of her body wanted to run and run NOW. 

The light wasn't warm, but it was blinding in a way that the previous light had tried to be. She couldn't see the ground, couldn't see what was going on, but she knew she had left the trees because a wind which had rustled the tops of the trees before, brushed her side. That didn't make sense, because it was molasses and who ever heard of wind in molasses, she found herself thinking hysterically.