Thanks to Shellie and Jen for their insightful comments.

Transitions 11(b) - Flight
-- by Linda S. Maclaren

"Hey, Jim...you OK, man?" God, he looks like he's carrying the weight of the world. I just wish he'd let me help....

It's now or never, Ellison. Either you turn your back on everything -- this sentinel thing, Sandburg, the whole enchilada -- or you accept his help. "My sentinel abilities are gone. It's as if someone just turned off a switch...."

Heck, no big surprise there. Your senses have been in meltdown since we jumped out of the airplane. "Well, maybe it's just temporary."

I hope you're right, because as weird as it sounds, now that they're gone, I sure could use them right about now. "I never wanted this damned thing. All it's done is screw me up."

We're out here in the middle of the rain forest, in case you haven't noticed, Jim. Now is not the time for self-pity. "Yeah, well it's also saved your life more than once. And the lives of a lot of other people, too."

So what good are they if they can come and go -- if I start to rely on them, only to have them fail at a critical moment? "Well, what good is it if I can't control it?"

That's always been the issue, hasn't it, Jim? What you can't control, you get rid of. That's why you don't let too many people get close to you. People can't be controlled. Opening yourself up makes you vulnerable, and you hate being vulnerable. "You can control it. It just takes time."

Don't you get it? This is one time I can't fail! "We don't have time! Simon and Daryl need help now."

"Well, dammit, Jim, tell me what's going on." Are you so blind that you can't see what's happening here? I want to help -- maybe at some level I even need to help. Why can't you accept what I'm offering here? For free, I might add -- no contracts, no promises, no long-term commitments from you. "I'm your partner."

Shit, he's gonna think I'm totally loony. How can I tell him about dreams and -- dammit! -- visions, when I don't even know what's real myself? "I've been seeing something. I don't even know if it's real."

Thank you! I know that must have been hard to admit, man. "What have you been seeing?"

"A panther. I saw it when we first landed. And ever since, I can feel it watching me, following me. See, I know it's there, but when I look, there's nothing." OK, you've spilled your guts about the hallucinations. Are you gonna tell him about the dream -- about the dream you had that didn't have him in it, and how crazy that made you? Was I scared the panther was going to attack him, or was I scared just because he wasn't there? "Last night, I saw it in a dream -- more real than any dream I've ever had."

I knew something was up, but he shut me down every time I tried to get him to talk about it. Finally trusting me enough to open up like this is probably more of an Ellison thing than a Sentinel thing, but whatever it is, I'll take it! Now, if he'll only listen.... "Well, the Indians would say that the panther is your animal spirit, and that it's trying to talk to you. And a psychologist would say that it's your unconscious trying to speak to you in symbols. Now, either way, you've just gotta quit fighting it and see where it leads you."

THE END