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"Mommy," said five-year-old Brittney McGee, "I changed Adam into a puppy with this funny box. Can I keep him like this?"

Almost immediately, Linda McGee's jaw struck the ground.

This story is dedicated to fellow fictionmania author Shalimar. She has been a source of friendship and advice for me through some difficult days. I appreciate it very much. As always, I must thank my editor, Steve Zink. His editing and advice are invaluable.

My MAU- Could I have this Dance? is connected to this story. Readers don't need to know the details of one to follow the other.

Glossary

PCSd - also known as Permanent Change of Station. When a soldier is transferred from one military posting to another.

E6 - Staff Sergeant. Army enlisted ranks go from E1 (Private) to E10 (Master Sergeant of the Army). There are similar ranks beginning with W1 for Warrant Officers and O1 for officers (starting at 2nd Lieutenant).

Hardship Tour - Generally used term for any tour where a soldier, Enlisted or Officer is not allowed to bring along his family at govt. expense. In the case of South Korea, the country is still considered an official war zone and only approximately 3,000 of the 37,000 US personnel in the country are there on a command-sponsored tour. Command Sponsored tours allow a soldier to bring his family at government expense. These hardship tours generally last one year in length, but extensions are not unknown.

Despite official disapproval, some families still make the trip to South Korea. They live off base and must make the move at their own expense.

Midtour - A period about halfway through a soldier's Korean hardship tour where he or she may take leave and return to the United States to visit his spouse and family. The soldier must pay for any plane tickets or expenses in traveling back and forth. Some soldiers are not able to afford this and must forego midtour.

Holt International Children's Services - Founded in the mid 1950's by Bertha "Grandma" Holt and her husband, it was the pioneer agency for international adoptions. Originally placing the unwanted or orphaned children in the aftermath of the Korean War, the Agency today does international adoptions around the world. Korean adoptees age twenty or older are often referred to as Holt adoptees.

One last note - Through news clippings, and some Internet resources I depicted a real life event. I believe I stayed faithful to what happened on August 6, 1997. The story of Rika Matsuda is true, any other characters involved in this event that I write of are fictional.

Enjoy!

*****

July 28, 1967

The setting, a small house in the suburbs of Seoul, South Korea.

David and Margaret Mays were very nervous. Their thirteen year wait to have a child of their own was almost over. After a two-day trek from California and at considerable personal expense, the childless couple would soon be rewarded with their very own baby girl.

The Mays were just waiting for the Holt International employee to come out with their child. It had only been a few minutes since the woman had left the Mays, but to the couple it felt like an eternity.

A last few doubts were entering the Mays' minds. They knew little about the girl they were adopting. The child had been given up for adoption by her single mom. Supposedly the mother was from Inchon and not able to support the newborn. Now the Mays were wondering if they were doing the right thing by adopting the girl. How could they love a child they had only seen in a small, crumpled black and white photograph?

The doubts instantly disappeared when the Holt employee returned to the small sitting area. She was carrying a five-month-old baby girl. She handed the girl to the Mays. Stepping back, the woman gave the new parents a little bit of time.

Instinctively like a birth mom, Margaret Mays cradled the young girl in her arms. This was her very own child. Standing next to her, David Mays had his arm around his wife as he softly cooed to his daughter. Both parents had tears in their eyes.

"What do you want to name your daughter?" asked the Holt employee.

The couple had picked the name Judith Karen Mays.

*****

At almost the same time, another piece of cargo of a long since destroyed Fwirthian cargo freighter was entering Earth's atmosphere.

Normally the Earth's atmosphere would cause an object this small, 9x14 inches, to burn up. But not this metal box. It successfully entered earth's atmosphere as had thousands of other such boxes in the last five hundred years.

With the Earth's surface about seventy-five percent covered in water, most of these boxes would fall into the sea. This one appeared to be destined for just such a fate in the Pacific Ocean. But it would be a close call.

A tropical disturbance was crossing the Northern Pacific at the same time that the box was coming to earth. While not a full-fledged typhoon, the storm was just strong enough to deviate the box's course in its fall to earth.

Instead of falling into the Pacific Ocean, the box landed on a small, sparsely inhabited island. Sinking deep into the brush on impact, the box was still miraculously intact. It had fallen onto the slope of a hillside, approximately seven hundred feet above sea level.

On the other side of the hillside was the island's only commercial airport.

*****

Twenty-nine Years Later

"I love you," said Robert Pike as he finished kissing his wife Sharon. "It's time for me to go. They're calling my seat row."

Robert Pike kissed Sharon one last time, then walked away toward the airport gate. Taking out his boarding pass he handed it to the gate agent. The gate agent then returned the stub back to Robert. Before entering the jet way, Robert turned back to wave good-bye to Sharon, but she was already gone.

Once onboard the plane, Robert headed to his seat, 11A. It was a window seat on the left side. Before sitting down, Bob tried putting his carry-on bag in the overhead compartment. It was full. So he checked other nearby compartments; they were also full. All overhead space had already been taken. With no other choice he would have to stow the bag beneath his feet under the seat in front of him.

This wouldn't be an easy task for Robert. At 6'3, his knees were already brushing up against the back of the seat in front of him. Grumbling to himself, Bob put the bag underneath that seat. This took away the little bit of remaining leg room he had.

'Shit, I could use a smoke now,' Robert thought to himself as the front door of the aircraft was being closed. With little leg room and not being able to smoke, it was going to be a long twenty-eight hours to South Korea.

*****

The moment Sharon Pike climbed in the car, she began to cry. She had controlled her emotions in the airport but once she was alone, the tears began to flow.

"I hate the Army. I hate it," Sharon kept saying as she sat in her car crying. The car was parked in the short-term parking lot for Fayetteville, North Carolina's airport. Her husband Robert, an Army E6, had just boarded the first of a series of flights taking him to his next Army posting. It was to be in South Korea.

Why Sharon was so upset was simple. She and her three children were unable to go to South Korea with Robert. While the Pikes had been married almost eleven years and this was his third Korean tour in that same amount of years, Sharon had finally lost all patience with the Army.

The reasons were twofold. For the last eighteen months, Robert had barely even been home. Twice the Army E6 had been deployed in that period of time. Both of these deployments had lasted for six months.

Then there was the Pike's son, Ethan. Ethan was autistic and needed special care. The boy was also very fond of his father. The combination of his father always being away and the autism were hampering the boy's development and causing him to be combative even with his Mother. This was all proving to be too much for Sharon Pike.

The orders for Korea had only arrived a month earlier, barely two weeks after the Army E6 had returned from his latest deployment. After much prodding from Sharon, Robert approached his superiors asking the orders be deleted. They were not.

As an experienced Army wife, Sharon knew how the Army worked. She knew that getting out of orders wasn't easy. A soldier could even be risking his career just for asking. That, with the fact that most married soldiers hated Korean tours and would do anything to get out of them, had probably made the request for deletion futile.

Still, Sharon wondered if Robert had even bothered to ask. She often wondered if her husband preferred to be away from home. Why not? He didn't have to stay at home and raise three children and manage the household. The Pikes had an ugly argument the night before over Robert and his career and the orders. Sharon had almost given an ultimatum to her husband. The Army or her. What kept her from issuing this was the fact that she truly loved her husband.

But now, alone and with no one to hug her, all the doubts came flooding back. Maybe Robert liked going to South Korea on his own. No wife and kids to worry about, free as a bird to do whatever he pleased.

Sharon sat in her car for nearly twenty minutes. She wept for herself and her children and fumed at the Army for not caring about them. Angry at Robert for leaving her alone again and feeling sorry for her three children. Another Christmas without their father and another year of birthdays and school events without him there for them. Finally, Sharon regained her composure, and after taking a moment to wipe away the tears, started up the car and began the drive home.

*****

Ten and a half months later, or 1:31 a.m. on August 6, 1997.

Myung Kim Powers was seated in seat 22A on Korean Air's Flight 801, bound for Guam. The plane was supposed to be landing in a matter of minutes.

As she gazed out the window, Myung caught sight of the first lights she had seen in over four hours. This was her first plane trip ever, and while it had been exciting, Myung would be glad to be back on the ground.

In three days Myung's close friend and former classmate, Soon Yi Han, would be getting married to Michael Torres. The wedding was why Myung was making this plane trip.

It wouldn't be the last. In almost nine weeks time she would be traveling to the United States of America. There Myung would begin a new life in a new country, as the wife of Army Major Steven George Powers.

It had all begun in January, 1996. It was supposed to be a prank; Myung smiled, thinking of the first time she met Steve.

Steve was on the first night of a three-day leave from his posting at Camp Casey. He had made the two-hour trip down to Seoul and was just wandering around town on that cold evening. He decided to seek somewhere warm and entered one of Seoul's many clubs.

There inside was Myung Ri Kim. She was enjoying an evening out with some female friends. The youngest of three children and the only girl, Myung grew up just outside Seoul. Her parents were both school teachers, as was she. She was a music teacher at a small private school.

Immediately upon entering the club, Steve stood out. He was the only white face there. From his bearing and appearance it wasn't hard to detect he was a member of the US military.

The US military presence in South Korea had kept the country free, but was largely resented by most of South Korea's young people. They felt the Korean people were little more than a pawn in the struggle between world super powers. Didn't the Korean people deserve to decide their own fate?

Steve took a seat at a table. There he sat, totally alone. No one wanted to approach him. The club's patrons felt the American would soon discover he was unwelcome and would leave.

Myung watched this all with amusement. She didn't resent the American military in her country. Rather, she knew how that military had saved the people of the South from oppression and starvation. Her parents were originally from the north and had fled south when still very young. They even had family still in the north.

Myung didn't want to approach the Army major. Instead, she tried coaxing her other friends to do it. None was willing despite the school teacher's teasing. Finally, Myung did it herself.

Over a Coke and Sprite the two very unalike people chatted. Then Steve asked Myung to join him for a dance. For both it was love at first sight.

It wasn't for another year that Myung and Steve married. First Steve had to win over the Kims. This he did. Secondly, Steve volunteered to do another year in South Korea. Few Army soldiers did this, and the offer was quickly accepted. On January 12, 1997 Myung Ri Kim and Steven George Powers married. With his Korean tour ending, the Powers would be PCSing to Fort Lewis in November of that year. In the meantime, Myung got a small apartment in the village just outside Camp Casey. There she taught piano and painted while she kept an apartment for Steve and herself.

Before joining her husband in the United States, Myung would have to get her immigrant spouse visa. Only three days prior to leaving for Guam, the notice had arrived from the US embassy in Seoul. Her interview was for September 19. The night after the interview letter came was a very happy one in the Powers' apartment.

The impending move to the United States filled Myung with a combination of nervousness and excitement. It would change her life as much as her marriage had.

The lights of Guam were getting closer, and soon the plane was over land. A flight attendant was giving last minute instructions to the 747's passengers. Touchdown was only moments away.

Myung decided to check her purse one last time. Her South Korean passport was there, but she wanted to double check. The passport had been issued over nine years earlier, but this was her first ever chance to use it.

Taking a look inside the passport, Myung gazed at the visa stamp she had. Officially, Guam was US territory and she had been required to go to the US embassy to get a visa. After looking at the visa, Myung flipped back to where her photo was. It was actually a fairly close resemblance to her, unlike many passport photos.

The only troubling part of the passport was the expiration date. It expired January 1, 1998, or in a little less than four months. She had applied for a new passport but it hadn't arrived in time for today's trip. It would probably arrive while she was gone, Myung thought while she tried to not worry too much.

'Remember that the embassy official had issued the visa in spite of the passport's expiration date,' Myung thought to herself as she put her passport back safely in her purse.

Before stowing her purse for landing, Myung looked at another item in her purse. It was a Catholic rosary. Steve had given it to her. Her husband had been born and raised Roman Catholic, but Myung was born a Buddhist. Myung had never been particularly religious.

The rosary was only one of the many thoughtful gifts Myung had received from her husband, Steve. Many Koreans had a certain image or caricature of what a US Soldier was like. Her husband was not like this at all; instead, he was a very kind, loving man. Another symbol of the love Steve had for Myung was the bracelet she had around her left wrist. It had been a surprise gift only a month earlier. The Mom to be looked at the symbols of her husband's love for her and smiled.

Suddenly Myung felt a little sick to her stomach. To the displeasure of the person next to her, Myung reached for the nearby airsickness bag. Unlike earlier in the flight, she did not vomit. Myung decided to keep the bag close to her in case she needed it.

A smile crept across Myung's face. It wasn't airsickness causing her nausea. It was morning sickness; she would be six weeks pregnant the very next day. A week earlier, the twenty-six-year-old music teacher and newlywed had visited a nearby village doctor. A pregnancy test confirmed what Myung had been suspecting for three or four days. She had an estimated due date of April 3, 1998.

Myung was very happy for her pregnancy. She loved her husband very much and wanted to start on a family together. She hadn't told Steve yet about the baby. Instead, she had only confided the information to her family and a neighbor named Linda McGee, who was also her close friend. With Steve spending most days and nights in the field or rather guarding the DMZ separating North and South Korea, he wasn't home all that often.

She had almost told Steve the same day that the letter from the embassy arrived, but she decided to wait. Myung planned to tell her husband on arriving home from Guam. She knew he would be absolutely thrilled.

Making sure her seat belt was securely fastened, Myung waited for the plane to land. Then the plane shook violently like it had struck something. People began to scream.

*****

Air Traffic Controller Joseph Crump was doing the night shift at Guam's Agana tower. It was the main civilian air traffic control tower for the island.

The former Navy ATC had been working at Agana for six years since taking his early retirement. Joseph, his wife Rachel and his two boys, Joseph Jr. and Daniel, lived about thirty minutes from Guam's international airport.

Working the night shift at Agana could be highly tedious, but Joseph took his work seriously. There may have been few aircraft making night landings at Won Pat, but he gave them his undivided attention. That night he was working mostly with cargo planes, but there was still one commercial jet preparing to land. It was KAL Flight 801.

"Korean Air 801, Localizer Six Left," said the voice of the 747's pilot. This verified the plane was approximately five miles out and on course for the airport's longest runway, Six Left.

Joseph Crump had to confirm the plane was a 747, not the standard Airbus that made the Seoul to Guam run for KAL.

"Korean Air 801 heavy, Agana Tower, Six Left...cleared to land, verify heavy Boeing 747 tonight."

"Korean Air, roger...Six Left," said the voice of the 747's pilot.

Joseph Crump sat waiting. The plane should be landing any moment now. After a minute the ATC controller was surprised by the silence from the KAL flight. He waited another minute, and then transmitted. "Korean 801 heavy, tower, how do you hear?"

There was no reply.

*****

At 1:42 a.m. Korean Air flight 801 descended into the ground, or rather Nimitz Hill, three miles short of runway 6L at Guam's Won Pat International airport.

The 747, carrying 254 passengers and crew, first struck the tops of some trees before striking an oil pipeline that ran along Nimitz Hill. Immediately the plane's fuselage began to break apart into five separate pieces, and bodies were thrown from the doomed craft.

It would later be determined that several factors contributed to the plane crash. Pilot fatigue was one, but some also claimed the strict hierarchy system in the cockpits of Korean Air's planes was a factor. A copilot or engineer was not supposed to contradict the captain, no matter what.

But the biggest factor was the fact that a critical low flying warning navigation system or glide slope that was not in function at the airport. It had been taken offline for maintenance in July. The 747's pilot, who was using autopilot until seconds before the crash, was relying on incorrect information for the descent into Guam's airport.

For these reasons 228 men, women and children would lose their lives that day or in the days ahead.

*****

Joseph Crump was not yet concerned, but was still not getting any word from KAL 801. Therefore he decided to verify with the ramp tower if the plane had landed.

"Korean Air come up to you?"

"Ah...no," the ramp controller replied.

Now the ATC was beginning to worry. The island of Guam had a major military installation, Anderson Air Force Base. CERAP, or Center Radar Approach control was based there. Maybe the plane had mistakenly landed there. Joseph decided to check with them.

*****

Myung Powers had survived the impact of KAL 801, and was slowly beginning to wake up. She was in intense pain.

Once awake, the screams of her fellow surviving passengers filled her ears.

*****

Ten-year-old Rika Matsuda and her mother, Jung See Cho, were also in the fuselage of the crashed airliner. They were only five rows behind Myung Powers.

The women were on the way to Guam for a short vacation. Instead, Jung See Cho was trapped in the wreckage.

Amazingly, Rika was able to free herself, her small size allowing her to slip from her seat belt. Mostly uninjured, and not knowing what to do, the girl stayed by her stricken mother.

Jung knew she was trapped, and that both she and her daughter were in mortal danger. She began to plead with Rika to leave her behind and get out of the wreckage as fast as possible.

"Escape, quick, escape," Jung Cho kept telling Rika in Japanese, but the girl wouldn't budge.

"I will be fine. You must go first. Please," the mother pleaded. Finally, after much hesitation, Rika tried to escape from the fuselage as fast as she could.

*****

The screams continued to fill Myung Powers' ears. At once she realized what had happened. The plane had crashed. She also found herself pinned in her seat by the collapse of the above luggage compartment.

She was in immense pain, but Myung struggled to free herself. The male passenger next to her had taken the full brunt of the collapsing luggage compartment. He had died instantly of a broken neck. As much as Myung struggled, she could only manage to move her arms some but not free herself from the seat.

Myung began to cry. She knew she was in danger and she was trapped. She could hear the screams of fellow passengers, but could see very little. Then for a split second she saw what appeared to be a child run from the wrecked airliner.

*****

Back at Agana Tower, Joseph Crump got in touch with CERAP at Anderson AFB. "Did Korean Air come back to you?" asked Joseph Crump. At the same time he was still trying to communicate with KAL 801 but was getting no reply.

"No."

"The Korean Air pilot checked in with me. I cleared him to land. I don't know where he's at. Never did have him in sight."

"You never saw him?" asked CERAP.

"Negative." Now the CERAP Controller, in addition to the Agana ATC, was getting deeply worried.

"He didn't land?" asked CERAP.

"Negative."

"Oh, my God," was all CERAP could say.

*****

Having successfully circumnavigated the wreckage of KAL 801, Rika Matsuda climbed out of the 747. Following her mother's orders, she tried to get as far away from the plane as she could.

The night air was punctuated by the sound of explosions and the smell of smoke. As the young girl made her way to safety her legs were cut by razor sharp sawgrass. Barely twenty yards out, she encountered a badly injured flight attendant. Not knowing what to do, Rika just lay beside the injured woman and waited for help.

*****

Back at Agana and Anderson, desperate air traffic controllers continued to try communicating with the KAL 747. They were only met by silence.

Ryan Air, a cargo plane enroute to Guam, was readying for its final approach to Won Pot airport. Joseph Crump decided to ask them if they knew anything about KAL 801.

"Okay. Well, about fifteen minutes ago, we saw...the clouds light up...bright red. Uh, it was kinda weird. We thought it was just our eyes or something...Ah, we got a big fire on the hillside up here," said the Ryan Air copilot.

Joseph Crump's heart sunk. He had final confirmation of what he prayed hadn't happened. He was almost positive that KAL 801 had crashed now. He communicated with the ramp one more time.

"Ryan just advised center that there is...a fire on the other side of Nimitz Hill."

"A fire on the other side of Nimitz Hill?" the shaken ramp controller replied. He had been listening in on all of the chat from Agana.

"Affirmative...a possible plane crash," said Joseph Crump.

*****

"Please, somebody help me," Myung kept repeating in Korean, despite the tremendous pain she was in. Finally, after much struggling, she managed to free her left arm. But that was it, the aircraft wreckage was too heavy for her to free herself.

Further back in the fuselage, Jung Cho had passed out from the injuries she had suffered. She was still breathing, but she had suffered internal bleeding in addition to several broken bones.

With her left arm now free, Myung was able to reach for her purse. Stretching out she managed to get a hold of the strap and pulled it into her lap. Surprisingly, the bag which had been under the seat in front of her had survived the impact and was within range.

By now the sound of explosions could be heard. With each explosion the screams of the passengers became louder.

With her hand in the purse, Myung began to feel around. Could there be anything in there to help her? She quickly concluded there was little there of use.

Soon Myung began to cough. The plane's fragmented fuselage was beginning to fill with smoke. With the smoke the panic of the surviving passengers increased. They knew that their lives were in increasing danger.

Then with her hand still in the purse, Myung felt something. It was the rosary given to her by Steve. While she carried it in her purse anywhere she went, Mrs. Powers had never actually used it. For whatever reason, she decided to take the beads out of her purse. Then the bag fell back to the floor.

By now the smoke in the wrecked airliner cabin was getting worse and with it Myung's coughing increased. She then remembered how Steve showed her how he prayed the rosary. Could or would God save her now? Not knowing, Myung began to recite the prayers Steve had taught her.

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen." Myung started repeating, but with each additional word it became more difficult for the newlywed to say. The smoke was causing her to cough uncontrollably, and she was finding it more and more difficult to breathe.

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit-" Then, finally overcome by the smoke, Myung passed out.

A minute later, fire engulfed the fuselage where Myung Powers and Jung Cho were still seated.

*****

Four minutes after Ryan Air had touched down, all air traffic to Won Pat airport was suspended. It was 2:03 a.m.

At the same time Joseph Crump was notifying the authorities of the downed airliner. Immediately, Airport Fire Rescue was mobilized and began preparations to move out to the other side of Nimitz Hill.

There was only one problem; while the crash site was roughly three miles from the airport, it was in a part of Guam that had only one unpaved access road. This would hamper any attempt at saving the doomed plane's passengers.

It would take some rescue workers almost three hours to reach the crash site.

*****

Fifty-five-year-old Carl Gutierrez was sound asleep in Guam's governor's mansion when his phone rang. Seeing the time on his bedside clock reading 2:11, he wondered who might be calling at this hour of the night.

"Oh my God," were the Governor's first words upon hearing the news of KAL 801's crash.

Twenty minutes later and driving in a light rain, a driver, the Governor and one policeman who worked the governor's mansion made their way to Nimitz Hill. As a boy the Governor had played on the slopes of the very hill upon which the 747 had crashed.

Going as far as the car would allow, the driver stopped. Getting out of the car, the Governor, driver and policeman made their way through the razor sharp, almost head high sawgrass. In the distance they could hear the sound of screams and explosions, and all three men's noses were soon full of the smell of smoke.

With only a small flashlight, Governor Gutierrez made his way using the trails that had been cut by Japanese soldiers over fifty years earlier, during World War Two.

The sight the Governor and his party found was the most sickening they had ever encountered in their lives. The smoke was more and more smelling of burnt flesh as they came upon pieces of both the plane, and body parts from dead passengers. They were all asking the same question, did anyone survive?

The rain was beginning to pelt down harder and the explosions continued. But Carl Gutierrez was hearing something else. The moans from a human being. Listening as carefully as he could, the Governor tried to trace the moans.

Less than two minutes later, Governor Gutierrez found Rika Matsuda and three badly injured passengers.

*****

By daybreak rescue workers were combing Nimitz Hill trying to find further survivors, but instead found broken, charred bodies. Thirty-two men, women and children, one of them being Rika Matsuda, were airlifted off Nimitz Hill to nearby hospitals. At the same time bulldozers were being used to build a path to the crash site and Seabees were at work constructing a helicopter landing site for air transport for not survivors, but for the bodies that would be taken to nearby morgues. All in all, three of the thirty-two people airlifted would be dead on arrival, another three died within a month. There were just twenty-six survivors.

Within five hundred feet of the crash site and still partially buried in the mud lay a black, alien box.

*****

Major Steve Powers was busy at his desk at Camp Casey located in the Soyo Mountains of South Korea and forty miles north of the nation's capitol, Seoul. Like all mornings, the major awoke at 5 a.m. and began his day with a brisk jog. Once back to either his quarters at Casey or the nearby apartment he shared with his wife, Myung, in the nearby town of Tongduchon, his normal daily activities would commence.

Except this morning was different. First, South Korea was still suffering the after affects of a passing typhoon. So the Major had not taken his jog. Instead, Steve had settled for a morning in one of the base's five gyms. This kept the major a very fit 6'1 and 180 lbs.

Secondly, Steve had to spend the night on base. His commanding officer, Lt. Colonel Sean Tucker, was on leave and wasn't expected back for two more days.

With Colonel Tucker on leave, Major Powers was acting commander rather than XO of the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Infantry.

Camp Casey is also the home to the 2nd Division, or the most forward US troops on the Korean Peninsula. Within mortar and artillery range of North Korea, the men assigned to Casey were responsible for patrolling the DMZ that separated North and South Korea.

But instead of being on patrol, Major Powers was doing paperwork at his desk that August morning. With Colonel Tucker on leave, the paperwork seemed to be double its usual amount, but that had to be expected.

As Steve did the paperwork, he would sometimes stop to look at the photo on his desk. It was of Myung taken on their wedding day. To the Army major there wasn't a more beautiful or more loving person on the entire planet. He counted himself to be blessed to have married this woman.

'Too bad I couldn't have gone to Guam, too,' Steve thought. He had wanted to go, but with his superior on leave it was not possible.

A knocking sound was heard from Major Powers' door.

"Enter," Major Powers said. He knew what the interruption was for. It was time for the daily intelligence briefing.

In came Captain Leo Bonner. African-American and very trim like the major, he was the battalion's intelligence officer. The two men exchanged salutes, and then Captain Bonner sat down and began the daily briefing.

"So what is going on in the world today?" the major asked his intelligence officer.

"SSDD," was the frank reply of Captain Bonner. SSDD- Same shit, different day. Leo's briefing barely lasted ten minutes. Before leaving, he had one more thing to report.

"There was a Korean Air crash last night." That statement caught Steve Powers' immediate attention. He knew of KAL's checkered history. "Early reports aren't good. Two hundred plus dead. It was a mostly full 747."

"Where did this happen?" Steve asked, feeling a bit of relief. The flight Myung was on was serviced by an Airbus, not a 747.

Reading from the hasty report he got that morning, Captain Bonner replied, "Guam. Korean Air Flight 801."

Not bothering to dismiss the Captain, Steve Powers picked up the phone on his desk and made an urgent call to Camp Casey's communications dept.

*****

As Steve Powers was placing his urgent phone call, Captain Jack McGee and his wife Linda were just completing one last kiss in Tongduchon.

"See you soon," Jack McGee said, then walked to the apartment door and let himself out.

Linda McGee sighed as she watched her husband leave for Camp Casey. The reason for her sigh? She could never be certain when she'd see him next.

But as Linda returned to the small apartment's kitchen, she knew being in South Korea beat being back in the States and missing Jack for an entire twelve months.

For ninety percent of the servicemen in South Korea, their one-year tours were known as hardship tours. Or in other words, the soldiers came to the country without their wife and children. The tour was unaccompanied, or what was called a hardship tour. The US military only financially or as it was termed command sponsored some three thousand of the thirty-seven thousand soldiers to bring their families to South Korea.

This didn't stop people like the McGees from coming to South Korea. It just meant the moving expenses for Captain McGee's wife Linda and his children, Brittney and Adam, came out of his own pocket. It was estimated there were some 750 non-command sponsored families living in the 2nd Division area.

Linda was happy she and the children made the trip. While it allowed her to see Jack not every night, at least it was a lot better than six months. There were also the children who needed their father around.

There was another benefit for Linda. Living in South Korea was almost like a homecoming for the twenty-eight-year-old woman. She had lived in South Korea for almost seven years, or from age three to ten. In that time, Linda Thomas learned to love both the Korean people and their culture. She had also learned to speak Korean fluently. Granted Linda's Korean had become very rusty after eighteen years of little use, but with daily doses of Korean television programming and conversing with the neighbors, Linda McGee's Korean was almost back to how it was when she was ten.

Seeing her two children watching and enjoying a Korean cartoon made Linda smile. She hoped Adam and Brittney would enjoy Korean culture as much as had she at the same age.

There were some drawbacks to living in Korea. The apartment the McGees lived in had only one bedroom. If Jack was home, the children slept out in the living room. So the apartment was cramped even at the best of times. Also, with only one entrance and bars on the windows, the apartment was a fire hazard.

Also, Jack spent much of his time in the field. He often wasn't home for days. In the seven weeks the McGees had lived in Tongduchon the Captain had never been home more than four nights in a row. At one time Jack didn't come home for nine days.

Linda was thinking of all this as she helped herself to an early morning snack. She could have afforded to lose thirty pounds, but had never been able to take a diet seriously. Walking over to the small living room, she took a seat on the couch and joined the children.

Life in South Korea wasn't bad at all. Now, if Linda could only get the children to play so she could watch her favorite Korean soap operas.

*****

The news of Korean Air's crash on Guam didn't just reach Camp Casey, it was the featured news on all of Seoul's major television stations. All regularly scheduled programming was halted for the ongoing tragedy.

Just like in America, when there was a disaster but little news to report, the reporters would instead start theorizing what may have happened. Talking heads were becoming a worldwide epidemic.

With little news, and much speculation, the Korean people began to become angry. For most countries, a national airline was a symbol of what a country stood for.

But the image Korean Air gave was one of incompetence. This was the airline's fourth major air tragedy in fifteen years. The worst was the notorious KAL 007 flight that was shot down by the Soviet Union, killing 273 people. There was also a crash in Libya, when instead of aborting a landing in bad weather, the plane's pilots continued with the landing. Korean citizens paid with their lives for this poor decision-making.

With little news but knowing that KAL had seemingly screwed up again, the Korean people got angry. The airline would have to be reformed and held accountable. It didn't take long for protesters to start picketing the airline's offices in Seoul.

Other people were flocking to Korean Air's offices. They were the families of the passengers onboard Korean Air 801. They were demanding news about what had happened to their loved ones. The airline was almost as much in the dark as the news reporters, and had little to tell the families. With each passing hour, the families got angrier.

When news began arriving from Guam, it wasn't good. It appeared most of the passengers had died in the crash. The screams and wailing, not to mention the anger of the families of those on board, were news. These images that were transmitted on national television created a national state of mourning.

It was only in the early evening hours of August 6th that KAL organized the first family flight to Seoul. It was only to be the first of several in the next three days, as the families flocked to Guam to discover what happened to their loved ones. The first flight left at 2143 from Seoul's Kimpo airport. The Airbus, with over two hundred passengers on board, was totally full.

Steve Powers was not one of the passengers.

*****

Rika Matsuda spent the rest of August 6th recovering in Guam Memorial Hospital. Other than lacerations to her arms, legs and face, the girl was in good condition and spirits.

Later that same evening, Rika was reunited with her father, Tasuyo Matsuda. The father plus one of the girl's uncles had flown from Tokyo on hearing the news of KAL Flight 801's crash. Once at the hospital, the girl told her father her brave story of escape.

On August 8th Rika Matsuda was discharged from Guam Memorial, but didn't return yet to Japan. Instead, the girl and her family spent a week as guests at the Governor's mansion. A few days later the girl gave a short press conference telling her horrifying but brave story.

By the time Rika made her return to Japan on August 17th the young girl had become a celebrity in her native Japan. It was little consolation to a girl that had lost her mother while she lived.

*****

It wasn't until noontime on the 8th that Steve Powers was able to reach Guam. Once there he went straight to the Pacific Star Hotel. There the families of the crash victims gathered to learn information about their loved ones and get counseling if needed.

The time the major spent at the Pacific Star was both unhappy and frustrating. By the time Steve reached Guam it was certain, Myung was dead.

Then there was the waiting. The body recovery was still ongoing at Nimitz Hill, and would be so for quite some time. Even when bodies were located, most could only be identified only through dental records. So Steve had to sit with the other mostly Korean family members until the tedious process was completed.

Frustrated, sad, and angry, Steve decided to see if he could help in locating the remains of his wife. First he went to Anderson Air Force Base, where a makeshift morgue had been set up. Then he joined the recovery team at the crash site. Neither attempt brought the army major any closer to finding Myung's remains.

Only after twelve days, and having Myung's dental records mailed to Guam, was Steve Powers' wife finally identified. Two days later, Steve boarded a flight bound for Seoul with Myung's body in the plane's cargo hold.

Less than a week later, Myung Powers body was cremated. Taking the ashes, Steve Powers scattered them in the Soyo Mountains near Camp Casey. After all, the National Park was his wife's favorite place to paint; Myung had always felt at home there.

*****

While Steve Powers was scattering ashes, Army Staff Sergeant Robert Pike was busy at work at Camp Casey. He was doing repair work on a Bradley armored fighting vehicle.

For Robert Pike it was his third tour in Korea in the fourteen years he'd been in the Army. Having enlisted right out of high school, it had been the only career the Pennsylvania native had ever known.

After completing basic training at Fort Jackson, Robert spent the next fourteen years going from post to post. He had done two stints at Ft. Bragg, one each at Ft. Hood, Ft. Ord and Ft. Drum in addition to three tours in Korea.

During most of that time he was married to his wife, Sharon. They had met at Ft. Bragg in 1985 and married almost a year later. In twelve years of marriage they had three children, Robert Jr, Melissa and Ethan.

It had been eleven months since Robert had begun his hardship tour and he was still waiting to learn what his next set of orders were. Not knowing was becoming an annoyance to the E6. Particularly since his wife was asking him almost every day if he had found out.

"Robert," called E8 Chris Sax as Robert Pike was working underneath the Bradley. "You're wanted at Personnel on the double."

Dropping the work he was doing and then thanking the E8, Robert made his way from the depot to the chief administrative building at Camp Casey. Once inside the E6 made his way straight to personnel.

The office wasn't busy at the time, so Robert went right to the counter. A female E6 was busy with typical Army paperwork.

"You have something for me, I am Robert Pike."

"Let me check," said Erin Morgan. After about two minutes she came back and handed Robert an envelope.

After thanking the E6, Robert Pike left the office while he began opening the envelope. He was almost to the front door by the time he opened the envelope and read its comments.

"Oh, shit."

*****

"They can't do this to us," Sharon Pike said to her husband, Robert. They were talking to one another via web cam.

Robert Pike had just received his new orders. He was to do a second consecutive unaccompanied tour in South Korea, also known as the ROK.

For morale reasons, Korean tours were one-year assignments. Sometimes soldiers were asked if they wanted to volunteer for an extension, but involuntary extensions were rare. The Pikes were about to become one of the exceptions to the rule.

This, with the fact that Robert Pike had been deployed twice in the two years before going to Korea, and not being to go on mid-tour because of lack of money for a plane ticket, only worsened matters.

Sharon Pike had just spent the last twenty minutes venting her anger over the Army at her husband via web cam. The couple stayed in touch via cell phone and web cam and spoke to one another three to four times a week.

"They can and they have," Robert said for what he thought had to be the tenth time.

"You've got to get out of it," Sharon told her husband. "Go back and tell them, you won't do it. But I want you home. Your children need their father!"

"I'll try, but I can't make any promises." Robert had already asked. Personnel was already checking on the matter, and wasn't expected to have an answer for at least a week.

Some soldiers did manage to get out of Korea tours by both scrupulous and unscrupulous means. Some married soldiers traded orders with single soldiers. Others used devious means. Wives would feign marital or medical problems. One soldier even shot himself in the leg to get out of a tour. It didn't work; after recovering from the wound the Army sent him anyway. The soldier just managed to screw up what had been for him a good career.

That was the danger Robert faced. If he complained or protested too loudly over the orders he received, it could affect his career. He was up for a promotion for E7 within the next six months. The chance for promotion could be doomed if he fought too hard to change his orders.

Forced between hard career choices and an unhappy wife and family, Robert was between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

*****

The news the Pikes got back ten days later wasn't good. The orders would not change. Robert Pike would have to do back to back Korea tours.

Later that evening, the E6 had to spend an hour while his wife became more and more shrill at the news of the orders not being changed. All Robert could do was listen to his wife vent, he knew there was nothing else to be done.

But this didn't prevent Sharon from making certain threats. Including her getting him out of another Korean tour. She didn't care how, or whether her husband's career with the Army would be destroyed or not. She made it perfectly clear to her husband that their marriage was at stake, and she would do anything to preserve it.

Even if it meant Sharon Pike had to travel to the ROK personally to bring her husband back home.

*****

In the aftermath of Korean Air's Flight 801 disaster, the airline began to take serious steps to improve not just the company but it's image.

Most of the improvements for the company involved changes in management and new training for the airline's flight crews. Copilots were to be no longer afraid of contradicting their captain at the expense of people's lives.

Other steps were taken to clean up the airline's image. A company VP attended every funeral for the victims of the 801 disaster. But not before making personal apologies to the families. The executives deeply humbled themselves by undertaking these essential steps. The company's future depended on it.

One last step was to be a financial settlement with all the families. In the United States, lawyers would begin filing lawsuits while the bodies were still being recovered. But in Asia these matters were handled differently. A cash settlement along with a letter of apology would be sent to all of families who lost a loved one on flight 801.

Steven Powers didn't know it yet, but he would soon see money like he had never experienced in his life. But would the still grieving widower want to spend what many would call blood money?

*****

"I've got to go. Love you," Captain Jack McGee said, kissing his wife good-bye. After saying last good-byes to his children, Adam and Brittney, the O3 left the apartment. It was Monday, September 8th.

Jack, who was a West Point class of 87 graduate, was a company commander in the US 2nd Division. His unit was about to go into the field, and he wasn't sure when he would see his family again. It could be a matter of days or two weeks.

The O3 headed down the apartment walkway when he saw a familiar person coming in the opposite direction.

"Good afternoon, plebe," said Major Steve Powers, West Point class of 84. The two had first met during Jack McGee's initiation at the Point. While the two were friends, the Major still sometimes kidded his friend.

"Good afternoon, Sir," Captain McGee replied. The major was out of uniform, so a salute was unnecessary. "How are you?"

"Hanging in there." Steve could barely conceal the inner turmoil he was suffering. It was barely a month since Myung had died, but it felt like an eternity. Would he ever get over her death?

"I'm still so sorry about Myung. She was a great gal."

"Thanks, Captain. Is your wife home now? I'm going to be taking some things out of our apartment."

"Yes, Linda is preparing dinner," Jack McGee answered, and then the two men parted. Steve went straight to apartment C and knocked on the door.

"Hi, Linda. I'm going to be in my apartment for a while. Did you get the boxes?"

"Yes," Linda replied. She felt very sorry for her friend. The housewife knew how much Steve had loved her friend, his wife. Myung also confided many times to Linda about how much she loved her husband and how thoughtful he was to her. "I started doing a little packing for you, but there are still another ten or twelve empty boxes in the corner of the bedroom."

"Thanks, Linda. I appreciate it."

"No problem. Give me a few minutes, and I'll come over. I've got something on the stove."

Leaving his wife's friend, Steve walked over to Apartment F and let himself in.

Every time Steve went in the apartment now it was a gut wrenching experience for the Major. The apartment perpetually reminded him of Myung.

As Linda had said, she had started packing things. Steve was actually surprised to see how much was packed. What the Major didn't know was, what was he going to do with everything in the apartment. In nine weeks he was supposed to be PCSing back stateside.

In addition, most of the possessions in the apartment belonged to Myung, not to him. Her paint kit and brushes, her many paintings that lined the apartment walls, the bicycle the newlywed took to ride around town, the piano that the late Mrs. Powers played like a virtuoso and her collection of music books. All these possessions had meant so much to Myung and to the Major while the two were married. Now Steve didn't have much use for the possessions, nor did he have the strength to throw them out or give them away.

So it was with a very heavy heart that Steve started packing more of Myung's possessions. The major also knew it was essential that the packing be finished soon. The apartment's lease was up in three weeks time.

That day Steve was only there to do some packing. A few days before the lease ended, Myung's brothers were going to come to Tongduchon to help move out the couple's belongings. The widower decided he would give most of his late wife's possessions to her family. It was only right; without their approval Myung wouldn't have married Steve.

Steve was just beginning on a second box when he heard Linda McGee ask if she could come in. The major had left the door unlocked and told the housewife to enter.

"You're doing pretty good so far," Linda remarked. She could see how despondent her friend was.

"Kind of," Steve said, continuing the packing.

"I packed all of Myung's clothes," Linda said, referring to a group of boxes stacked in a corner and clearly marked clothes. "Have you decided who you would give them away to?"

"Not yet."

Linda wondered if she should mention something else to her friend or not. The news most certainly wouldn't help her friend's mental state.

There was one box Linda had packed a few weeks earlier. Inside were letters that Myung had written, some personal papers, a new passport that had only arrived days after her death. There was also a small journal the late Mrs. Powers had begun writing a few days before her death.

Linda didn't have to pry into the journal to know what it was about. It was a pregnancy diary. The housewife knew Myung had just learned she was pregnant. Her friend had told her the day she left for Guam. Linda also knew that Steve knew nothing about his late wife's pregnancy. So the housewife decided to bite her tongue and not mention it. It would only make her friend more upset than he was already.

"If you need me, you know where to come."

"Thanks, Linda," Steve said, then heard his friend let herself out of the apartment.

Steve spent almost two hours packing. For the major it was a draining but necessary experience. Locking the apartment back up, he started the walk back to where he had a car parked. But he stopped when he noticed a postman making a late delivery of mail. Deciding to wait a few minutes, he watched the carrier finish his job. After emptying the mailbox for Apartment F, the Major left for Camp Casey.

*****

On September 11th, Steve Powers was just arriving back at his quarters at Camp Casey. It had been a busy if tedious day handling administrative matters for his battalion.

Taking a seat at his desk, Steve stared at the photo of Myung on his desk. He would never understand why his wife had to die. Picking up the photo, he gave it a kiss.

"I love you," Steve told the photo.

Not knowing what to do, Steve began opening some recent mail he had received. Eventually he got to the mail he picked up at the apartment house two days earlier. This mail was mostly addressed to Myung.

Then he came to one letter. It was in Korean, but the Major had some elementary language skills thanks to his late wife. What caught his attention were two words, doctor and pregnant.

Fifteen minutes later, Steve was on the way into Tongduchon. It took him a half hour of searching, but he finally found the address and home of Dr. Hyunkyung Han. It was the address on the letter the Major's dead wife received.

Like some Korean doctors, Dr. Han's home doubled as his office. Going around to the office entrance, Steve tried knocking on the door. Getting no answer, the major went to the front door of the residence. Here he had better luck.

"Yes?" said a Korean man in what appeared to be his early fifties.

"Dr. Han?"

"Yes, but my office is closed. Come back in the morning," the doctor replied, then tried to close his front door only to be stopped by the visitor. He knew his visitor was a US soldier, which was unusual. He never treated one as part of his medical practice.

"Dr. Han, I want to ask you a couple of questions. My name is Steve Powers, you saw my wife Myung some time back."

"I don't remember the name." The doctor had a poor memory for names and had many patients.

"This is a letter from your office," Steve said, passing the letter to the doctor. The doctor took a set of eyeglasses out of his jacket pocket and began to read it.

"Yes, it is. Why are you here?"

"My wife was your patient. She died in the KAL crash on Guam. Was she pregnant?"

"I am sorry to say, yes. Her due date was or would have been April third, next year," the doctor said, feeling sorry for the man in front of him. "I am so sorry for your loss."

A shocked and heartbroken Steve Powers was back at Camp Casey thirty minutes later.

*****

A tearful Sharon Pike was saying good-bye to her children at North Carolina's Raleigh Durham airport at noontime on September 12th. The army wife was preparing to leave for South Korea. With connections in Atlanta and Los Angeles, plus crossing the international dateline, Sharon would not arrive in the ROK until midday local time on September 14th.

It wasn't easy for Sharon to make the trip. First she had to borrow the plane fare from her parents. A round trip ticket cost over eleven hundred dollars. Also, the Army wife had to get someone to care for her children. Her husband Robert's brother, Mike, and his wife, Maggie, were willing. They had driven down from Charlottesville Virginia to North Carolina to pick up the mother and her three children. After leaving Fayetteville, Michael Pike took his sister-in-law to Raleigh-Durham airport for the first of her flights to Seoul.

"I love you, Ethan," Sharon told her youngest child. The boy suffered from autism and needed lots of care and love. That was why his mother was going to Seoul. To bring his Daddy home. "Be good for your Aunt and Uncle while I'm gone." The mother gave her children one last kiss and watched as the car they rode in drove away.

Once done with the farewells, Sharon went inside the airport to the Delta Airlines counter. There she checked in for her flights. With only a small carry-on, the army wife checked in her suitcase all the way through to Seoul, South Korea. After getting her boarding pass, Sharon headed straight for the gate area. She had about one hour before her flight would leave.

Before leaving for Seoul, Sharon informed Robert that she was coming over and that he should ask for some leave. Sharon also took the step of making contact with a friend who was living near Camp Casey, at least that would save on expenses for the cash strapped Pike family.

While Sharon had a plane ticket, money, and a friend in South Korea, she still didn't have any clue as to what she would do once she got there. All the Army wife knew was she had two weeks to get her husband home. Right now she didn't care how.

*****

As much as Steve Powers tried, he found it almost impossible to concentrate on his work. The news he had received two days earlier had shaken him that badly.

Until Steve and Myung met, he had never been in love before. Sure, he screwed around some as a teenager. He was definitely no virgin.

But from the time he went to West Point until the day he met Myung there had never been a woman in his life. He dated some, but nothing that was ever serious. That was, until Myung.

Hearing that he had lost not just Myung but his unborn child in addition, was a second and maybe more devastating blow to the already beleaguered career Army man.

Ever since the crash Steve had the same recurring dream. He was on the airplane that night with Myung and the plane crashed with him living and Myung dying. The dreams were intense, with his wife screaming for him to save her but he couldn't. Sometimes the Major blamed himself for what happened. He should have never let Myung fly KAL; he should have gone with her. Actually he could have made the trip. He was saving leave for when they returned to the US. So the two of them could have a honeymoon.

Now Steve had nothing but his career and memories full of pain. He was just struggling to survive, day to day. There were mornings he felt like staying in bed all day. He was that despondent.

Steve still had a job to do, and he couldn't just shirk this responsibility. His battalion under his supervision was to go into the field for four nights starting that day. They would be participating in a field exercise near the DMZ. Somehow he would have to do the job, no matter how much he hurt. No matter how much he wanted to cry.

*****

Sharon Pike arrived at Seoul's Kimpo airport just before 1600 on September 14th. It had been a long and tiring journey.

For Sharon it was her first ever trip abroad. For most people it would be a source of excitement. Mrs. Pike was not excited; she had come on a mission. A mission to get her husband home stateside.

It wasn't till 1650 that Sharon Pike finally passed customs. Hiring a taxi just outside the arrival area, she went straight away to a nearby hotel. There she would take a long bath and get something to eat. She had a busy two weeks in front of her.

*****

After lunch on September 15th, Linda McGee settled in for her weekday afternoon routine. It consisted of watching Korean soap operas.

Korean soap operas weren't much different from American counterparts, but Linda still liked them. She found them entertaining, and it also helped the housewife brush up on her rusty Korean language skills. Plus, the housewife found a few of the stars absolutely gorgeous.

With a box of chocolates handy and some Kleenex nearby, Linda began watching the programming. Her children were outside playing with some neighbor's children.

Not long after 1500, Adam and Brittney McGee came back into their parent's apartment. They were carrying a black box that one of their friends had found that day. Being too engrossed in her soap operas, Linda barely noticed the return of her children, let alone the box they were carrying and taking into their parent's bedroom.

Ten minutes later, her daughter Brittney interrupted Linda's soap opera. The girl was carrying what appeared to be a golden retriever puppy, much like the family's next-door neighbors at Fort Lewis had before the family PCSd to Korea. The only problem was, the McGees didn't have a pet dog.

"Mommy," said five-year-old Brittney McGee, "I changed Adam into a puppy with this funny box. Can I keep him like this?"

Almost immediately, Linda McGee's jaw struck the ground.

*****

Linda McGee was in the family bedroom fighting the urge to panic. She was rapidly concluding her daughter wasn't lying about turning her brother into a puppy.

In the middle of the bedroom stood a phone booth sized machine unlike anything the woman had seen before. Three sides of the machine were bare, but one side had a panel and there was a doorway leading into the machine.

Brittney had explained to her mother what had just happened. She, along with her brother Adam, had brought a small box in from outside after a neighbor boy had discovered it nearby. His parents wouldn't let it in their apartment and were planning to throw it away. Instead, the McGee children brought it to the where they lived.

Once inside the bedroom the two children played with the box in an effort to open it. Then, as Brittney described, the box unpacked itself from its small size of about twelve inches by twelve to its current size.

"Then what happened?" Linda asked her daughter. As the little girl took her mother over to the machine to explain, the dog that used to be Adam McGee was making poopy in another part of the bedroom.

"Bad puppy!" Brittney yelled at the dog that was her brother. Linda was becoming totally unnerved by now. How was she going to get her son back?

Back at her mother's side, Brittney showed her the machine.

"Me and Adam were trying to play with it, when I touched this panel," Brittney said, and began to reach out to touch the panel till her mother stopped her.

"What else did you do?"

"I don't know," Brittney said. "I thought about having a puppy like Lindsey in Washington, and then Adam became a puppy after he went inside the door and it closed."

Linda was still totally unclear as to what to do, but she had to try something. Sending Brittney back out of the room, the mother gathered the boy turned puppy and took him back to the machine.

As Linda approached the machine the dog began whimpering, like it was afraid, but Linda continued on to the machine's panel holding the dog in her arms.

Once there, Linda looked at the control panel again. Remembering what Brittney said and with great hesitation, she touched her hand to a mitten shaped crystaline panel.

The image of Linda soon appeared, with Adam in her arms. That was what Linda was thinking of.

"What do I do now?" Linda said as she removed her hand from the crystal, but the image hadn't disappeared. Then she got an inspiration and figured that since only Adam would be inside the machine, only his image should be showing on the display. She placed her hand on the panel again, this time thinking of just her son. His image only appeared, and she figured all was ready.

"I hope this works." Then Linda placed the puppy inside the machine and touched the crystal on the wall. She pulled her arm back just as the door started to close once again.

A moment later a relieved Linda saw an unharmed Adam emerge from the machine after the door opened up. Appearing no worse for the experience, the boy exclaimed, "Mom, that was fun. Can I turn Brittney into a bunny rabbit now?"

After giving Adam a hug and a kiss, Linda ushered the boy out of the bedroom. Now, what was she to do with the box? It was too big to get out of the apartment.

Within the hour Linda came up with a temporary solution. Turning the machine around, she faced the door to the bedroom apartment wall. This would prevent the children from using it again. The housewife also decided that she would have to wait till her husband Jack got back. Maybe he could figure out what could be done with the machine.

As to the dog poop still sitting on the floor, the less said the better.

*****

"Lieutenant, has the XO lost his mind?" asked E8 Mark Bellnap. He was speaking to Lt. Kyle Leach.

The second battalion of the 9th Infantry was on a field exercise near the DMZ. It was the second day of what was to be a four-day exercise.

"It's not ours to reason why, Sergeant," replied the Lieutenant, not really believing what he had just said. The O2 and E8 were not the only ones having serious doubts about the XO. Grumbling could be heard through the entire battalion.

And it was unusual because most of the men highly respected the XO. So Lt. Leach was finding himself in a highly difficult but unusual situation. What should he do?

The Lieutenant quickly concluded little could be done till the unit got back to Casey. Till then, the men would just have to do the best they could. In spite of an XO that appeared mentally unhinged.

*****

After a two-hour bus trip up from Seoul, Sharon Pike was waiting patiently at Camp Casey's main gate for her husband to finally get off duty.

While Camp Casey didn't have quarters for married soldiers, there were hospitality suites also known as Casey Lodge cottages located just off the base. These were so a visiting spouse and family could have a place to stay while meeting their soldier.

Demand for these rooms was usually high, but Robert Pike had lucked out and got one for ten days starting that night.

"Hi, Sharon," called E6 Robert Pike as he approached Camp Casey's main gate. After showing his I.D. the Sergeant was allowed to leave the base. The first thing he did was kiss his wife. "How was your trip?"

"Long and exhausting," Sharon replied, as her husband took her suitcase and they began the half-mile walk to their cottage. Saving the main purpose of her trip till they had some privacy, the couple made small talk.

Once at the cottage, Robert took the suitcase to the bedroom as his wife used the bathroom. Going to the kitchen, the E6 took a beer out of the well-stocked refrigerator and opened it for himself. He was going to need it.

"I want you to get out of these orders. Tomorrow you have to go back and tell them you can't do a second straight Korean tour," Sharon said with authority.

"Darling, I tried," Robert tried to explain. "The E6 who was supposed to be my relief had some kind of marital problems."

"You will have even bigger marital problems if you don't get off your butt and demand they be deleted."

Robert was trying hard not to get annoyed with Sharon. He had tried and the answer was no. Plus, you never demand anything from the Army. "They won't delete them."

"They will. I don't care how you get them to do it. Just make some excuse. Our marriage is at stake. Don't you care about that?"

"Yes, I do," Robert said, having already finished his first beer and already wanting for another. There was no arguing with his wife when she was like this. "Okay, I'll go back in tomorrow and try again."

'A lot of good that will do,' Robert thought, being almost certain what the answer back from the Army would be. The E6 then helped himself to his second beer of what would prove to be a difficult evening.

*****

The next day, while Robert Pike was making one last ditch attempt to avoid a second straight hardship tour, his wife Sharon was visiting a friend. Her name was Linda McGee.

Linda and Sharon had known one another for five years. Having met while both their husbands were stationed at Ft. Drum back in 1990-92, the women had become good friends. With little to do, as her husband was busy at Casey, Mrs. Pike looked up her friend.

As the McGee children were outside playing with some friends, the two women sat down in the kitchen area and had a cup of coffee. Sharon began telling her tale of woe, beginning with her children and marriage first.

"Poor thing," Linda said, referring to Ethan Pike. "How are the special classes going for him?"

"Okay," Sharon said. "It would help if his father was home more often. Ethan really worships Robert."

"The life of an Army brat." While Linda felt sorry for the child, she also knew that it was part of having a father in the military. "But Robert is going home in a few months, isn't he?"

"No. They extended him for a second straight Korean tour," Sharon stated as she began to cry. "It's so unfair."

"I'm sorry," Linda replied as she tried consoling her friend. She knew back-to-back Korean tours were possible, but seldom done. Mostly for morale reasons. An unhappy soldier was an unproductive soldier. "You aren't being command sponsored?" Some soldiers who did a second year got command sponsorship for the second year only.

"No."

"So I guess you came here to spend some time with Robert then?"

"I came to get him out of here," Sharon replied. "Our marriage won't survive a second Korean tour."

"Has Robert tried to get the orders deleted?"

"He says he has, but no luck. I asked him to try again."

"I am really sorry, Sharon," Linda said, and then gave her friend a hug. She really needed it. It was the least the housewife could do, and possibly the only thing she could do.

The two women talked for another hour. Before leaving Linda and Sharon exchanged telephone numbers. They would stay in touch as long as Mrs. Pike was in the ROK.

*****

Robert Pike did as his wife requested on Tuesday. He went to personnel again and to his commanding officer. The answer he got was not what Sharon would want to hear.

Robert did get one bit of good news. His CO had approved two weeks of leave, effective the 18th. As to getting out of a second straight hardship tour, the CO said he was sorry, but his hands were tied.

Robert didn't break the news to Linda that evening, instead he decided to wait one more day.

*****

The next morning as she cooked breakfast, Linda McGee began to think of her friend's desperate plight. Was there anything that she could do to help her?

Ordinarily, no. The Army had its rules and discipline. A soldier was supposed to do what he was ordered to do. That was what he agreed to when enlisting.

Linda McGee wasn't a soldier. She was a housewife and a mother. As was her friend Sharon. She could empathize with her friend's situation.

It was while Linda was watching one of her daytime soap operas that an idea began to come into her head. A plan for her friend and her husband. It would enable Robert Pike not to do a second Korean consecutive tour. It also involved the alien machine her children found.

First Linda checked the machine, it appeared to be still operating.  After some hesitancy the housewife gave her plan a trial run. It worked to perfection.

The second part of the plan required things not in Linda's possession. After a quick check, she was able to obtain these. Now, there was one last step. To try persuading Sharon Pike of her scheme.

The sheer audacity of the scheme, the violation of Army regulations, and the unknowns about the machine made the plan Linda had in mind risky. But Sharon Pike was in a desperate situation. Desperate actions for desperate situations.

Using the number given to her a day earlier, Linda called Sharon up. Mrs. Pike was spending the day sightseeing while her husband Robert was busy at Camp Casey. An hour after getting the call, the two women met again in the McGee apartment. Linda immediately began laying out her plan.

It also required giving Sharon Pike a demonstration of the machine. The Army wife gasped in shock as her friend showed Sharon how the machine worked.

"And you can do the same to my husband?" Sharon asked the transformed Linda.

"Why not? It even worked on my children." Linda had already explained Adam and Brittney's usage of the machine. After the demonstration was over, Mrs. McGee returned herself to normal and then the two women returned to the kitchen.

"It's so unbelievable," Sharon said. "If you hadn't demonstrated it to me, I wouldn't have believed it."

"So, what do you think of my plan?" Linda asked.

Sharon could already see some practical difficulties.

"How do we get the machine back to the United States?"

"That's pretty easy, we can have it shipped via Osan." Osan was the major US Air Force base in the country. Military personnel could ship or travel via military flights but on a priority basis. "If not, we can ship the machine air freight. It's so light it would definitely be cheaper than a plane ticket."

"But we'd have to get Robert to agree," Sharon said. "That isn't going to be easy."

"Give him the ultimatum like you threatened already. Either your plan or the Army."

"That may work," Sharon thought aloud.

"It will, if you don't cave in," Linda replied. "Friday is the big day, and you can still back out anytime up to October 6th."

That may just prove the means for Sharon to persuade her husband. So she agreed to her friend's plan. In Mrs. Pike's view it may be her only option left.

*****

The 2nd Battalion returned back to Camp Casey in the late afternoon of September 17th. Once back and settled in, there was an informal gathering of officers and senior enlisted men. The subject of the conversation was the unit's XO.

All the men liked and respected Steve Powers, but the men were also disturbed by some of the Major's actions while the unit was on patrol. If it had been wartime some of these actions the O4 was doing may cost some men their lives.

After much discussion a decision was reached. Three men were chosen to go forth and speak to the unit's commander. The three men would see that Lt. Colonel Tucker was fully apprised of the status of the XO. The men just hoped that the Major would straighten up. They respected and liked Steve Powers, but some men in the battalion thought what they were about to do was necessary for the Major as much as them.

*****

Robert Pike broke the news to Sharon that evening. His wife's reaction was not a good one. She was now demanding that he choose between the Army and her and the children. Mentioning that he had leave starting the next morning did not change matters.

The E6 didn't want to face such a choice but knew he may have to soon. Not knowing what to do about his current situation, Robert got mildly drunk that night. It helped deaden his senses, which helped when listening to his increasingly shrill wife.

So when Sharon Pike mentioned she had devised her own plan and that she would talk to him about it more the next day, the E6 just said whatever. His reaction would have been very different if Robert Pike knew what Sharon was planning for him.

*****

Lt. Colonel Sean Tucker had an open door policy when it came to running the 2nd Battalion. If one of his men had a problem, whether with his job or his family, the LTC was there for them. Sean knew how hard Korean tours were for most men. Sean at present was doing his fourth tour in the ROK.

So when three of his men, including two officers asked to see the Lt. Colonel that day, Sean was mildly surprised. True to his word, the LTC made room in his schedule for the men. The first would be reporting at 1100.

*****

With each passing minute, Sharon Pike's annoyance increased. She had been waiting for her husband Robert at the Casey Lodge cottage nearly two hours. The E6 said he hoped to be off duty by 1000. Lunchtime had come, and still no sign of the Sergeant.

Finally the door opened and Robert Pike came in.

"Where have you been, I thought you'd be back two hours ago?" Sharon said without hiding her annoyance.

"I was busy and couldn't get away," Robert tried to explain.

"Well, Linda has been waiting for us all morning. Let's get moving," said Sharon, grabbing her purse and nearly dragging her husband out of the cottage.

One benefit for soldiers at Camp Casey was the bus service. There was regularly scheduled service to Tongduchon and even Seoul plus other selected parts of South Korea. It was free of charge for all soldiers and their families.

During the short bus trip Robert Pike tried to ask of what Sharon had planned for the day. His wife told him he would just have to wait.

After being dropped off in Tongduchon, the Pikes made the half-mile walk to the McGee's apartment. Linda McGee was expecting them, she had just finished serving her children lunch.

"Excuse the mess," Linda said, showing her friends to the living room. "We just finished eating lunch."

"No problem. Take your time," said Sharon Pike. In her humble opinion, the apartment was in need of more than having a few dirty dishes washed. She wondered when the last time was the place had been dusted and vacuumed.

It took another fifteen minutes before Linda was ready for the Pikes. Knowing what was planned for the afternoon, she first had to get her children out of the way. That wasn't a problem; leaving the Pikes alone the housewife took Adam and Brittney to a neighbor's apartment. There the McGee children were only too happy to spend a few hours playing with a Korean brother and sister of almost the same ages they were while under supervision of their friend's mother.

Once back to the apartment Linda McGee and the Pikes got down to business.

"So, what is this plan you said you made for me?" Robert asked.

"Come with us and you'll see," Linda said. They all went to the bedroom. Once inside, Robert immediately saw the strange, alien box.

"What is this?" Robert asked, looking at the machine. "Some kind of phone booth?"

"Not exactly," Sharon spoke up. "Linda will show you."

Linda McGee went over to the machine, and after touching the mitten shaped panel, the device activated. Once it was lit up, the housewife  looked at the control panel. Hesitating for a moment, she brought up the image she wanted. Once done, she grasped the outside ruby crystal which opened the door, then the housewife left the machine.

A reluctant Robert Pike was ushered into the machine, instructed to grasp the ruby crystal on the wall once inside. A moment later the door disappeared and then reappeared.

Out of the machine walked a very agitated Robert Pike, or rather, Myung Powers. The transformed E6, who was dressed in a yellow flowered dress, immediately started talking in Korean to the complete surprise of her wife, Sharon.

"So, Robert, what do you think?" asked Sharon, only to be replied to in Korean. The frustrated Army soldier continued to rant away in Korean to his wife, despite repeated attempts by Sharon to talk to her.

"What did you do to him?" Sharon asked, watching her husband's attempts to communicate.

"She has Korean language skills. I just forgot to give her English ones also. Sorry, my fault," Linda said, barely suppressing a smile. Actually, it was no accident. She had deliberately left them out and now was enjoying the sight of the befuddled former English speaking soldier trying to communicate in a language she no longer understood.

By now Robert found her way to the mirror. Staring at her reflection for a minute, the E6 even began touching her new body in some very personal places. Like the sergeant couldn't believe she had the this new female equipment.

This was what Robert was saying in Korean, but only Linda in the room understood it. This proved too much for Sharon Pike.

"Can you fix him...her now?" Sharon said. She wasn't amused by the spectacle at all.

It took a minute for Linda to use the machine. But after a second try, Myung Powers once again emerged from the machine.

"What..." Robert began to say, realizing she was talking in English again. Just of a heavily Korean accented variety. The Army E6 was angry, but grateful to be able to communicate in and think in English again. The previous two minutes had tested the ex-man's sanity. "...have you done to me?"

"Let's go out to the kitchen and I'll explain," Sharon said, trying to take Robert's arm. Instead, the E6 folded her new arms across her no longer flat chest.

"Change me back first!" Robert said. "You can change be back, can't you?"

"No, you have to sit and listen to my plan first," Sharon said adamantly. "Then we will switch you back."

Once back into the kitchen, the three women took seats at the kitchen table. Linda began by filling Robert in on the story of Myung and what had happened to her. The E6 just sat there without saying a word.

Now Sharon spoke up, and outlined the plan she and Linda had hatched. First the E6's wife stated her unhappiness with his Korean tour being extended. She wasn't going to allow it, no matter what the Army said.

The soldier had a choice, her or the Army.

"So I have no choice?" Robert said, speaking up for the first time in quite some time. She hated the sound of her new voice.

"No, you can choose me or the Army. What will it be?"

"You. But what am I going to do? Go AWOL?"

That was exactly what Sharon had planned, and now she began explaining the rest. The plan was for Robert to go to the US embassy in Seoul the very next day as Myung. Mrs. Powers' immigrant spouse interview was scheduled for 1100.

Once they got the Visa, the Pikes would wait till October 6th. Then, using the machine again, Robert Pike would travel to the United States using the plane ticket and identity of Myung Powers. Once home, the soldier would switch back to her male self. The biggest reason for Robert returning to US as Myung was the expense involved. The Pikes couldn't afford the cost of another airline ticket.

Sharon also outlined the plan for Robert to take over her Father's auto repair business in Springfield, Missouri. Christopher Donaldson was sixty-six years of age, and in failing health.

So once back to the states, the Pikes would move to Missouri. With a job and decent income, the family would settle down. No more moving around from Army post to Army post every two years. The family would always be together, which would be of particular benefit to the Pike's children.

Robert listened to the far-fetched scheme in amazement. He was supposed to go to Seoul the next day impersonating a dead broad, fool some embassy officials and then come back to Casey. Then two weeks later become the broad again and fly to the United States. The E6 could barely avoid laughing. "How am I supposed to impersonate this woman?" Robert asked, starting to voice the obvious objections.

Linda McGee pushed a sheet of paper across the table to her. "Here's some info on Myung," Linda explained. "Study it and remember it. It's not that hard, it's just some names and places. Info on the husband and Myung."

"And I'm supposed to fool an embassy official based on just this?" Robert asked, voicing yet an another objection.

"My father used to do these interviews," Linda said. "They don't ask many, if any questions. For a soldier's wife with a clean security and police check, the interview is a formality."

Robert still wasn't convinced. "Okay, even if that's true. Don't you expect them to know I am a guy?"

"Would you?" Sharon said. "Look at yourself. Or rather go in the bathroom and check. You are a woman, one hundred percent."

Robert didn't need to bother to check. She knew what the answer would be. She just hated when her wife had all the answers. The three women sat there in silence for five minutes.

"Any other objections?" Sharon asked.

"How do I switch back once we get home?"

"Linda will have the box shipped back either by military cargo or air freight," Sharon explained.

"Won't that cost a lot of money?" Robert asked, referring to the airfreight plan.

"You could save money by shipping it surface. Just it will take six to twelve months to get to Missouri," Linda quipped. "Think of it as a chance to find out how the other half lives."

Robert just scowled at Linda. 'What an insufferable jerk she is.'

"So, what is your choice?" Sharon asked again.

"Do I really have one?"

"Good," Sharon said with confidence. She didn't see how the plan would fall through. The Army had better things to do than to pursue every soldier who went AWOL. Robert Pike wouldn't be the first or the last soldier who did it rather than do a tour in South Korea.

"Make sure you memorize the information on that piece of paper," Linda said. Sharon had already inserted it in her purse. "You will need to know it tomorrow."

"She will," Sharon added. "I'll be giving her a quiz later."

"Can I get changed back now?" Robert asked. The E6 thought she still had a day to convince Sharon to dump her insane plan. But first she wanted her old body back. "I am tired of sounding like some drinky girl."

Drinky girls were a term for bar maids/prostitutes in the ROK that worked at bars frequented by US soldiers. Today very few of the women were Korean anymore, most were from other countries like The Philippines and Russia. Respectable Korean girls didn't go to clubs frequented by US G.I.s.

"Myung was a college graduate," Linda said, defending her late friend. She really didn't like Robert Pike and disliked the drinky girl comment immensely.

"Whatever."

Fifteen minutes later, and after using the alien machine again, the Pikes left the McGee apartment for the ride back to Camp Casey. Before leaving the couple, Linda agreed to meet back at the apartment the next morning between 0600 and 0630.

*****

At a cemetery in Inchon, South Korea, a casket was being put to rest in the ground as a couple watched. The young woman was crying as her husband had his arm around her waist.

It had taken two years, but Judi Mays Scott had finally found her birth Mom. Meeting her birth Mom had been a dream for the Holt adoptee since she had been age six or seven. Judith wanted to know who the woman was who had brought her into the world. She did get her dream fulfilled, if it only proved to be bittersweet.

By the time Judi and her birth Mom were reunited, her birth mother had terminal lung cancer. It was the after effects of thirty years of smoking. Only being reunited the previous November, and already stricken with her terminal illness, the two women had put the time they did have to good use. Having lost her adoptive mother two years earlier, today was like losing a mother again to the young Mrs. Scott.

Once the casket was in the ground, and after saying a few prayers, Judi and Patrick Scott started a slow walk back to their car.

*****

"Thank you, Lieutenant, for bringing this matter to my attention. Dismissed," Lt. Colonel Tucker said, speaking to Lt. Kyle Leach. After an exchange of salutes, the Lieutenant did an about face and left the Colonel's office.

Lt. Colonel Sean Tucker mulled over the information he had just learned. If it was just one report it could be dismissed, but two officers and one highly trusted enlisted man were all saying the same thing. One of his men was deeply troubled.

Sean knew the officer. He also knew the reasons for why the officer was troubled now. The LTC even sympathized with the man, but there was a unit that needed to be run. If one man wasn't pulling his weight, it could have serious consequences for hundreds of men.

The burden was even greater for Lt. Colonel Tucker. The man in question was uniquely vital to the 2nd Battalion. He was also Sean's close friend.

Sean couldn't let the friendship cloud his judgment. He had a battalion to run. Still not knowing what the solution was, the LTC called for his secretary. The officer in question was already off-duty for the day, so the matter would be handled first thing the following morning.

Sean Tucker was issuing an order for Major Steve Powers to report to his office first thing in the morning of September 19th. In the meantime, the LTC would sleep on the matter. Sean honestly hoped that would provide him with a solution.

*****

The Pikes spent a quiet evening in their Casey Lodge cottage just outside Casey. There they mapped out their plan for the next day.

While Sharon prepared dinner, Robert Pike studied the notes Linda had given the E6 to learn. He knew he'd better learn them, not just for the interview, but also to keep Sharon happy. His wife was turning into a real shrew, the career Army man thought.

After dinner was served and eaten, Sharon gave her husband the first of four quizzes on Myung Powers. Only by bedtime was Mrs. Pike satisfied with her husband's ability to remember the vitals on his identity for the next day.

*****

Steve Powers sat in his Camp Casey quarters listening to a CD being played on his computer. It was a recording of Myung playing the piano.

'Why? Why? Why?' Steve asked himself. Why his wife and child? Why did they have to die?

Still reeling from the news he got the other day, Steve was sinking into depression. The major also knew he needed help. But what help could possibly bring back Myung?

Steve spent the evening listening to the CD over and over, only stopping to eat and only then, it was just a snack. The major had almost no appetite.

One thing Steve did that evening was compose a letter to Myung's parents. He still conversed with them and knew how badly the Kims had suffered after their daughter's death. For the Major it was part obligation and part therapy. It made him feel better.

By 2130 Steve had turned off the lights in his quarters. With the recurring nightmare of that terrible night on Guam playing in his mind, sleep was no escape for the Army major.

*****

September 19th was going to be a long and busy day, so the Pikes began it early. Rising at their Casey Lodge cottage at 0500, the couple had a light breakfast, then got cleaned up and ready for the day. Knowing what faced him that day, Robert decided not to waste his time with a shave and bath. This did not please Sharon Pike.

It was almost 0615 when the Pikes arrived at the McGee apartment. After a minute wait outside, a half awake Linda McGee opened the front door and let the couple in. Asking her friends to be quiet because of her sleeping children, the housewife brought Robert and Sharon straight to the bedroom.

"Are we all set?" Linda asked, after closing the bedroom door.

"You have Myung's passport?" Sharon asked. Linda went to her dresser and opened a drawer. She took the passport out, along with the embassy letter, and gave them to her friend. Sharon promptly put them in her purse.

Robert was staring at the machine. He still didn't like the plan his wife and Linda had hatched to get him out of the Army. What if something went wrong? Could he really make people think he was Myung Powers? All the doubts were coming back.

"How are we going to get this box back to the states?" Robert asked. He still remembered Linda's original plan. She recounted it again. The machine could be shipped back via Osan AFB or it could be shipped air freight.

"What's the big deal, too big a man to be a woman for a few weeks?" Sharon chided her husband. Mrs. Pike actually preferred that her husband spend as little time as a female as possible.

"You two may like it better this way and decide to become a couple of lesbians," Linda said jokingly. The scowl she got back from both Pikes told her they didn't find the comment funny. "I was just joking."

"I'm still not sure I want to do this. Can't we do something else?" Robert asked. "I'd rather stay in the Army."

"Make a choice. Me or the Army?" Sharon said, repeating her ultimatum to Robert. If he wanted to stay in South Korea, their marriage was over.

Robert knew Sharon was not bluffing. He did love her and the children. Weren't they more important to him than the Army?

"All right," Robert said, finally give in. The E6 then took the phone booth sized machine and turned it around till the door and control panel were facing away from the wall.

Linda McGee stepped up to the control panel. Touching her hand to the mitten shaped panel, the housewife brought up the image of Myung Powers. She then grasped the crystal which opened the door, stepped aside, and ushered Robert Pike in.

A moment later, Myung Powers emerged from the machine, dressed very smartly in a formal blue dress suit with black bag and shoes. She was also wearing jewelry to match the real Mrs. Powers, down to a set of matching earrings, a gold wedding band on her ring finger, a ladies watch and lastly, a bracelet on her left wrist. Sharon immediately approved of her husband's appearance.

"Couldn't I have just gone wearing a t-shirt and jeans?" Robert asked, hating the sound of her voice. She still sounded like a Korean drinky girl, thought the Army E6. Linda handed her some things, including a wallet, photos, and a lipstick for her purse. The transformed man looked at them with disgust, but put them in her handbag.

"Stop bitching and let's get going," Sharon demanded. "We can't miss that bus to Seoul." A very reluctant Robert then followed her wife out of the apartment. Once done showing her friends out, Linda McGee decided to start the morning coffee and prepare herself breakfast. The children would be awake very soon.

*****

As was customary, Major Steve Powers got to his desk at 0700. He was surprised to find a note ordering him to appear in LTC Tucker's office as soon as he got in that morning.

"At ease," said Lt. Colonel Sean Tucker to his XO. He then motioned for the Army major to take the seat across from his desk.

"Let me just begin by saying this is completely off the record. I am talking to you as a friend, not as your commanding officer. Steve, I have been getting some troubling reports about you. I do want to help you out, but I need to know what the problem is."

Steve told his commanding officer the events of the last two days.

"Steve, I am so sorry for you," replied LTC Tucker, talking more like a friend than a commanding officer. Sean knew what his friend needed. Some kind of therapy or counseling. The doctor who did that couldn't see Steve before next week. In the meantime, something had to be done. "I really liked Myung. I cannot imagine how you must be feeling now."

"Thank you, sir," Steve replied.

"Steve, you are a fine officer. You are going places with the Army," Sean Tucker continued, "but right now you are not able to do your duties up to the performance this battalion needs."

"I apologize sir," Steve replied. "I won't let you down again."

"I know you won't," Lt. Colonel Tucker said, trying to sound positive. He reached into his desk and pulled out a paper, then handed it to his XO. "That's a pass for three days. You need a rest, time away from here, time to gather yourself. Go down to Seoul and spend some time. I don't want to see you back in this office before that pass expires."

Steve was hesitating. To him the inactivity of three days doing nothing but wallowing over his lost Myung just didn't appeal to him.

"That's an order, major," Sean Tucker said, reverting to commanding officer role. "There is a chopper heading to Yongsan at 1000. I suggest you get on it."

"Yes, sir," Major Powers said, getting up and saluting Lt. Colonel Tucker.

After being dismissed, Steve returned to his office. Looking at his desk, there wasn't much paperwork to be done. He should have over an hour to spare before catching the helicopter to Yongsan.

*****

A happy but filthy Captain Jack McGee led his platoon back to Camp Casey. His unit had just spent the last five days on patrol at the DMZ.

Once back at Casey, Captain McGee reported in. His unit was not to stand duty for at least three more nights. That would give Jack time to visit his wife and family in Tongduchon.

But first Jack wanted to return to his quarters. Five days in the field had left him grubby and in need of good shave and a rest. He decided he would wait to call Linda with the news a little later in the day. His platoon wasn't officially off duty till noontime, anyway.

*****

Sharon and Robert Pike were on the Seoul bound bus. With an estimated arrival time in Seoul of 0954, the couple would have plenty of time to make the embassy interview at 1100.

Most of the trip was done in silence. Robert was still pissed at his wife and what she was forcing the soldier to do. Forcing him to become this woman and to pull this masquerade so Robert Pike could go AWOL from the Army.

Sometimes Robert thought Sharon had really lost her marbles. Giving him this body, clothes, even the perfume that Sharon had applied to 'her' before getting on the bus. He hated all of it because he wasn't a woman. How was all of this going to fool the people at the embassy? Wouldn't they just see right through him?

'That perfume. I can't stand the stench. How do women ever put up with it?' Robert thought, as she watched the Korean countryside pass by. 'Oh God, women wear it to smell good to men. Shit, what does Sharon have planned for me?' The transformed Army E6 concluded Sharon couldn't be planning anything other than the embassy charade. She was just trying to make her husband look the role.

'Why not just tell her you aren't going to do this? Maybe Sharon was bluffing?' Robert thought again. Forced to choose between a divorce and him staying in Korea another thirteen months, would she really divorce him?

The funny thing was, Robert was doing some of this thinking not in English, but Korean. For someone who had never learned a foreign language, it was both exciting and weird to have the ability suddenly. The Sergeant could listen to the other Koreans on the bus and totally understand them. If the E6 wanted to talk to them, she could even do that.

'Maybe it wasn't so bad after all,' Robert thought to herself. The experience would make for an interesting day. It was only to last a day, right?

*****

"I love you, too," Linda said, hanging up the phone. Her husband, Jack, had just called. He would be coming home in the early afternoon and have the rest of the day off. There was also the high probability the Captain would be home each of the next three nights. All of this brought a smile to her face.

The timing couldn't have been better. Adam and Brittney had gone to a nearby park for the day. They wouldn't be home till early evening.

"The possibilities," Linda said out loud, thinking of what she and her husband would be doing. Even after seven years of marriage, there were few things more enjoyable than time in bed with her spouse. The children's absence would give the McGees plenty of privacy.

But now it was time to have some chocolates and watch a soap opera as the housewife settled back down in front of her television.

*****

It was almost 1030 when Sharon and Robert emerged from the subway station. It was only three blocks from the station to the US embassy.

The first thing the Pikes had to do was find a place for Sharon to wait. A small coffee shop only a little over a block from the embassy proved perfect.

"Just go in there and act normally," Sharon said, giving Robert a last minute pep talk and quiz on Myung. "Good, you remember, just don't freeze up when you get inside."

"I'll try," Robert said, biting her lip. "I just worry this won't work."

"It will work, unless you screw up," Sharon insisted, then looked at her watch. "You'd better go now, you don't want to be late."

After saying good-bye to Sharon, Robert left the coffee shop in the direction of the embassy. She was almost halfway there when two people approached her.

"Excuse me," said the woman in broken Korean. It was obvious to Robert that the woman, while Korean looking, wasn't native to South Korea. More like California, from the sound of her voice. "Do you know where the American Express office is?"

Robert looked at the couple for a minute, thinking. In her normal identity, he had been to Seoul over a half dozen times, one of which had taken him very close to an American Express office.

"Okay, go down this street two blocks," Robert said, pointing for the woman and her Caucasian boyfriend or husband. "You see the bank there. Turn left, then it's either the first or second street on the right. It's not on the corner, but almost."

"Thank you. Thank you very much," said Judi Scott, she then left with her husband, Patrick, following the directions Robert had given them.

Robert continued her walk to the US embassy. It was only a block and a half walk, but it was far from easy for the transformed E6. Seoul was a very busy metropolis, one of busiest in the entire world. The sidewalks teemed with people.

Robert was blending in with the Korean people who were going about their daily lives. She could and was passing as if she was any ordinary Korean female going about her day in the busy city.

When Robert got to the embassy, she discovered getting inside wasn't as simple as passing as a South Korean. First there was a line to get through the main gate. Once at the gate, the E6 had to show the dead woman's passport and embassy appointment letter. A search was also made of her purse.

'Maybe it was good Linda gave me these things earlier,' Robert thought, once inside the embassy compound.

To get inside the embassy building required yet another checking of papers. Plus, this time Robert would have to pass through a series of metal detectors. Putting her purse on the conveyor belt, the Army E6 successfully passed the screenings. With each successive step, Robert's confidence grew. She then climbed a flight of stairs to the embassy's second floor.

The visa waiting area was overflowing with people when Robert arrived at 1109. Again presenting her passport and letter to a guard at the door, the Army soldier was allowed in the room. Except this time the letter was taken, and she was told to take a seat and wait till she was called.

Finding an empty seat didn't prove to be an easy matter, but Robert lucked out. A person's name was called and a chair emptied. The E6 took it immediately, and now found herself seated between two other Korean women, one with a small child in a stroller.

*****

Major Powers was just climbing down from the helicopter he had ridden in at Yongsan Garrison. He immediately made his way to a nearby processing building.

Steve still hadn't a clue as to what he would do in Seoul the next few days, but orders were orders. Maybe he would visit Myung's parents. He had a good relationship with the Kims prior to and even after the crash. It would be a sign of respect to pay them a visit, they had allowed him to marry their daughter despite some initial objections.

In the meantime, Steve decided he would find one of Yongsan's many restaurants. It was time to get something to eat.

*****

"Myung Powers."

Hearing the name of the woman she was impersonating, Robert looked up, feeling relieved it was time. The mother with child had been unsuccessfully trying to get her daughter to stop crying. The crying was driving the E6 insane.

A woman in her mid forties repeated her name again. Robert got up from her seat and walked over to the woman.

"That's me," Robert said, introducing herself to the woman who did the same, saying her name was Leah Brodsky.

A minute later, the two women were seated in a small, cramped office. Once inside with the door shut, Leah asked for the woman's passport.

Now Robert was getting highly nervous, even scared. She couldn't shake the feeling that somehow her masquerade would be uncovered.

"Your husband is in the Army, I see," Leah said, reading through some of the INS file on Myung Powers.

"Yes, Steve is stationed at Camp Casey. The 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry."

"And you have been married since last January."

"Yes," Robert replied, then reached in her purse to remove the photos that Linda had given her. She handed them across the desk to Leah. The Foreign Service officer took a couple of minutes to look at them.

"Very nice, your husband is very handsome," Leah said with a smile, handing the photos back. She couldn't help but see that Myung appeared highly nervous. But the FSO had been doing interviews like this for over ten years; she had grown accustomed to the visa applicants being nervous.

Continuing to check the paperwork, Leah saw everything was in order. There were background checks on Myung Powers, aka Myung Ri Kim. The reports were totally unremarkable, the bride had never been in trouble with the law in her life.

"What type of work do you do?" Leah asked.

"I'm a school teacher. I teach music and piano," Robert said, barely avoiding the temptation to tremble. Was she about to be unmasked?

"I took piano lessons when I was young, but I wasn't very good," Leah said with a smile. Mrs. Brodsky thought Myung Powers would be an ideal immigrant. She was educated, seemingly talented, an ideal addition to the United States of America.

The FSO thought of her own family background. Her grandparents had emigrated from Russia in the last days of the Czars. Being Jewish, they were fleeing the oppression the mostly Orthodox Catholic country inflicted on their citizens of Jewish heritage.

With little more than their clothes on their backs, her grandparents settled in New York City. There Leah's mother was born, went to school and eventually met and married Leah's father, Joshua Myerson. The FSO's parents were both students at NYU when they met.

"Is everything all right?" Robert asked, seeing Leah scrupulously checking her paperwork.

Leah finished her reading and closed the file. "Everything is fine, may I have your passport?" The woman then handed her passport across to her. "I want to welcome you to the United States of America."

"Thank you," Robert said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Your visa will be ready at 3 p.m.," Leah began to explain. "You can pick up your visa and passport in room 308. Remember, the visa expires in one hundred and twenty days, so you must enter the United States
before then."

"I understand," Robert said. "My husband is PCSing to Fort Lewis soon."

The interview was over, and after a few pleasantries, Robert was shown out of the room. It was time for the E6 to go back and tell her wife the great news.

But first the faux Myung had some urgent business to take care of. Leaving the visa waiting area, she headed straight to another room, the ladies room. Once inside the totally empty room, the E6 hurried to one of the stalls and closed the door. After much fiddling with her female clothes, Robert sat down.

A large sigh could be heard a moment later.

*****

Sharon was drinking her fourth cup of java at the coffee shop three blocks away from the embassy when she heard a familiar voice. "I did it," Robert said, taking the seat across from her wife. "I can't believe it, but I fooled them!"

"I told you they would never know," Sharon said with a voice of confidence.

"Yes, but I was a nervous wreck. I almost peed in this dress I am wearing," Robert said, recounting her post interview experience and seeing her wife have a rare giggle at hearing what happened.

"Well, dear husband, if we are to pull this off and get you home, you'd better learn to retain your water better," Sharon said, making a rare joke. "It's a long flight home, and you will be just like you now are for the entire trip."

Robert just scowled back at Sharon. If the E6's wife wasn't being a shrew, now she was being condescending to her very own husband. 'Why do I stay married to her?' the E6 asked herself.

"So, can we go back to the cottage now?"

"No, I have to come back after 1500 to pick up my visa and paperwork," Robert explained, also telling her how the interview had gone.

A waitress approached the table where the Pikes were seated. Sharon had enough coffee and snacks already and was about to ask for the check when Robert spoke up instead. Mrs. Pike then sat as she heard her husband talk in Korean to the waitress. It was an odd experience, to say the least, but then the whole day was odd.

Sharon concluded her husband was ordering something to eat and drink. A moment later, the waitress was gone.

"Did you just order something?" Sharon asked.

"Yes, why?" Robert said, reverting back to English. "I'm starved."

"Just don't waste any time. I don't want to spend any more time here than I have to," Sharon said with more than a hint of annoyance.

*****

Linda McGee was watching one of her soap operas when she heard the apartment's front door open. A moment later she heard the familiar voice of her husband. "Honey, I'm home," Jack McGee said. Linda got up from the couch and joined her husband in a long embrace and kiss.

For the next hour, the McGees got caught up on each other's lives over lunch. Jack mainly talked about his time in the field, Linda mainly recounted what the children had been doing and where they were at the moment. She carefully danced around the issue of the Pikes and their use of the strange box.

The McGees soon headed to the bedroom. They both knew what they wanted to do next. Linda was getting ready to undress herself, when she noticed Jack staring at the strange box against the bedroom wall.

"Honey, what the hell is this?" Captain Jack McGee said, seeing something he had never seen before in his life.

"Just something Brittney and Adam found," Linda replied. She had other things on her mind.

*****

E7 Angela Cavallero was busy sorting mail out at Camp Casey.

It was a tiring day for Ms. Cavallero, and she knew why. A month earlier she had returned from mid-tour to Camp Casey. She had spent her mid-tour, or thirty days, with her husband in Florida. Now she was pregnant; an HPT taken at the camp clinic had confirmed it two days earlier.

With only thirteen weeks to go on her hardship tour, Angela would just have to ride her pregnancy out. Being just six weeks now, she would be a little over nineteen when she was going to be PCSd back stateside. Her next orders were for a job at the Pentagon in Northern Virginia.

Most of the mail Angela was sorting out was for high ranking 2nd Division officers. Never paying much attention to who the mail was coming from, she just made sure it got in the right officer's mailbox. One such letter she sorted that afternoon was an envelope addressed to Major Steve Powers, US Army.

It was from Korean Air. The envelope included a letter of apology to the Army Major and husband whose wife had died on KAL flight 801. An Airline Vice President had personally signed the letter.

Also inside the envelope was a check. A financial settlement from KAL in the amount of 374,193.23 US Dollars.

*****

"Thanks, Pete, you're a bud," Steve Powers said, climbing out of the car belonging to and being driven by Air Force Captain Pete Davis. The Captain had dropped the major off at a Seoul street corner.

It was 1400, and Steve just began to wander the streets of Seoul. He had nothing better to do. All while doing this he couldn't stop thinking of Myung and the time they had spent together, much of it in the very city in which he was walking right now.

Now he was totally alone. Not physically alone; the throngs of Korean people going about their lives that day surrounded him. But emotionally and spiritually alone. His beloved wife had been taken away from him. Why?

The Army major was beginning to learn why the plane crashed. The inoperative guidance system at the airport, the fatigued pilots, the idiotic military mentality that permeated KAL's cockpit command structure. To a crash investigator, the reasons made sense.

They just didn't make sense to Steve. They were perfectly logical, but why did his wife Myung have to die that night? She was such a wonderful and loving human being. It wasn't fair.

All this was going through Steve's mind as he wandered the streets of Seoul. He knew where the Kims lived, but he also knew they would not be home at that time. No sense in going there now.

Steve thought of stopping at the club where he met Myung for the first time. He was only a few blocks away. The Major dismissed the idea, it would be too sad to go there.

It was now 1446, and Steve Powers was just a little over two miles from the US embassy.

*****

Robert had just dropped Sharon at the same coffee shop and was making her way back to the US embassy to retrieve the passport and visa.

After finishing her lunch, Robert and Sharon had spent two hours mostly window shopping in some of Seoul's most fashionable women's shops in the nearby Itewan district. They were far too expensive for the Pikes, but that didn't stop Mrs. Pike from stopping to check out the clothing, shoes and purses.

The whole experience was tedious at best, and had tested Robert's sanity at worse. Shopping, the favorite pastime of women worldwide, was not something a man enjoyed. Even if he had been changed into a woman.

Robert actually felt grateful that Sharon hadn't asked her to model or try on any clothing. That would have been worse.

Again the Army E6 had to pass through the security checkpoints to get into the embassy. Once inside, she went straight to room 308. There she joined a line of fifteen men and women who were waiting for their immigration visas.

A half hour later, Robert emerged from the US embassy with Myung's passport stamped and a large envelope containing paperwork she would have to bring on the trip back to the United States.

'I still can't believe I fooled them. It was too easy,' Robert thought to herself as she approached the coffee shop.

*****

As the new Myung was entering the coffee shop, Steve Powers was walking past the US embassy. He didn't know it was in this part of Seoul, it was the Major's first ever chance to see it.

The Army major continued walking past the embassy. Straight toward the coffee shop. He was barely two blocks away from the Pikes.

*****

Robert was surprised not to see Sharon when she entered the coffee shop. Mrs. Pike wasn't at the table she had been left at by her husband. Instead, a busboy was clearing the table.

The Army E6 began to worry where her wife may have gone to till the solution presented itself. She saw Sharon emerge from the back of the coffee shop. She had been using the ladies room.

"Mission accomplished," Robert said, holding up the passport and large manila envelope.

"Just be careful with those," Sharon said. "better yet, let me have them. You may lose them."

Robert handed them over to her wife. Sometimes she hated the way Sharon treated her, or him. It was like neither she nor he couldn't do things for her or himself.

Sharon stopped to look at her watch. The Pikes had barely twenty minutes to catch the next bus to Tongduchon. Even if they left right then it would be a close run thing if they would get to the bus station in time. Instead, Mrs. Pike had another idea. "The next bus to Tongduchon leaves in fifteen minutes; I don't think we can make it," she explained to an impatient Robert. The soldier just wanted to get back to his male life as fast as he could. "Another bus leaves for Tongduchon in about ninety minutes. Let's go back to that nearby shop. I saw this great pair of shoes."

Sharon and a very reluctant Robert left the coffee shop and turned left. Heading straight in the direction of Major Steve Powers.

"Fucking shoes!" Robert cursed in Korean. One benefit of using Korean was Sharon not knowing what her husband was saying. "Let's just get back to Linda and that machine!"

*****

Back in Tongduchon, Linda and Jack McGee were underneath the bed sheets in the apartment's small bedroom. From the loud moans emanating from the bed, it was obvious the couple was deep in the throes of passion. It was proving to be a very enjoyable and intense homecoming for the McGees.

At the same time the Pikes left the coffee shop and while the McGees  were enjoying their lovemaking, a message appeared on the control panel of the alien machine stowed in the apartment. It was in Fwirthian, and translated to the following:

We are sorry, but your four-day evaluation license has expired. To continue using the Mark 5 Morphic Adaptation Unit, please remit 52,495 Fwirthi Rakburs to the Gemalfi Corporation within eight Febulons. Thank you for trying the Mark 5 Morphic Adaptation Unit.

*****

'Maybe it's time to catch a cab or bus to the Kims,' Steve Powers thought while still wandering Seoul's streets.

Then he saw a sight that shook him to his very core.

*****

Robert was walking down the Seoul sidewalk when she saw a man almost running toward her.

"Myung! Myung!" screamed Steve Powers as he ran up to the woman he thought was almost certainly his dead wife. She had the jewelry, ring and clothes his wife even had.

Robert was about to say something when the man lifted her off the ground and began trying to kiss her.

A shocked Sharon watched the entire episode. 'Could this man be the dead woman's husband?' By now, some of the people nearby were staring at the three of them.

Robert was doing her best to get out of the officer's arms, but she was clearly outmatched. Finally the man's lips met hers and he started to kiss her. Instead, the E6 tried squeezing her lips together as hard as she could. Robert wanted to throw up; a man was kissing her.

Steve finally put down the woman he thought was his wife after about fifteen seconds. He still couldn't believe his eyes. His wife was alive. Yet there was something wrong, also; Myung had acted oddly, like she didn't know him.

"God, I can't believe you are alive. What happened? Where did you go?"

Robert just started to slowly back away from the man. Sharon was standing nearby. The E6 wanted to get away.

"Myung, what's wrong? It's me, Steve!"

Robert just continued backing up. Unknown to her, she was getting very close to the curbside.

"Robert, we'd better get out of here fast!" Sharon said, finally speaking up, but her transformed husband was still backing up.

"Myung, what's wrong? What's wrong, it's me, Steve."

Finally, Robert decided to get away. She began to turn quickly to her left. Unfortunately, that was where the road was.

It only took a couple of seconds, but a blue Hyundai was trying to park. At the same time, Robert without looking stepped into the road. While not getting struck directly by the car, she got side swiped.

Robert was thrown about five feet by the impact with the car. While landing hard on the sidewalk, most of brunt of the fall was taken by her right shoulder or collarbone, not her head. She had only suffered a broken collarbone and concussion.

If Steve was shocked by the discovery of his dead wife, it only deepened now that he saw her laying on the ground badly injured. He fell to his knees and felt for a pulse. It was unnecessary; Myung was unconscious, but whimpering from the pain of her injuries.

Steve Powers held Myung's hand and began to cry. While Steve was crying, a witness to the accident took his cell phone and called 119 for an ambulance.

*****

Sharon Pike was sick to her stomach. Her husband was laying on the ground injured. If not for Steve Powers there, she would have gone to her side. Instead, she was backing away from the scene.

She now knew that the plan she had for her husband and herself had gone badly wrong. Not knowing what to do, Sharon panicked. She hurried away from the scene until she found a parked taxi.

"Take me to the Dongbu Bus Terminal," Sharon said to the driver. The taxi driver started the meter and drove off.

*****

The Korean police and emergency services were very efficient and prompt. It was barely five minutes before an ambulance arrived on scene, and only a few more before the police arrived.

While the paramedics saw to Myung's care, the police tried talking to Steve. He identified himself to the patrolman as Steven Powers, a Major in The US Army stationed at Camp Casey, and that the woman on the ground was his wife, Myung.

Five minutes after getting there the paramedics deemed it safe to transport the injured woman. Putting Myung on a stretcher, the paramedics put Mrs. Powers in the ambulance and got ready to transport her to Seoul University National Hospital, or SUNH. SUNH was only ten minutes away. Before the ambulance doors were closed, Steve Powers climbed in the back of the ambulance. Hunching down as best as he could, he held Myung's hand as the ambulance soon raced away.

*****

Patrolman Sookyue Cha watched as the ambulance pulled away. He was taking the statement of the driver of the Hyundai. The man was adamant that the woman, not he, was responsible for the accident.

In nineteen years on the Seoul police force, Sookyue had seen many car-pedestrian accidents. In the patrolman's opinion, Mrs. Powers was lucky to be alive, no matter who was responsible.

Until a detective and an accident investigation team arrived, Sookyue and three other patrolmen did their best to cordon off the accident area. With it almost being the time of day for office employees to go home, this would not be an easy task, but it was essential to preserve the accident scene.

To be continued in Part Two