Dear Joline, he began, his script neat and precise. Jed always preferred to write things down by hand, sending a solid, personal letter rather than typing them into a computer and sending them out across the emptiness of cyberspace. Of course, living on a completely different world than the letter's recipient made the latter more difficult, but many of the other cadets sent their mementos back through the portal on disks rather than the rather archaic means of a bundle of papers. Jed was, obviously, the exception. Type-written notes just seemed too sterile a way of communicating.

So, here is sat at his barely-functional little desk, alone in the room he shared with Jason, writing a letter to the girlfriend he had seen only twice since coming to this distant, alien world a year ago, and only five times more since he'd been accepted at Rome a year before that. They wrote letters once a week, sometimes more if there was much to say, and would so Jed get at least four at each month's inter-world mail pick-up, and Joline would gets hers in a more conventional manner for mail, often on the same day but always within a day or two of each other.

Lately, Jed didn't have much to talk about in his letters; life was monotonous and predictable at the fort. Even when there were attacks by nearby Earth demons, which were starting to peter out as the creatures got the idea through their somewhat thick heads that the strange building was not an easy nut to crack, the cadets didn't get to see much action. They were occasionally called upon to act as snipers, but they were never brought outside the fort's walls for close contact-- not that many soldiers were, given how dangerous that was. Their days were mostly taken up with chores, simple training exercises within the fort walls, field exercises that didn't bring them very far from the safety of the fort, work with the dragons once a week, and the occasional, well-guarded overnight trip. It was a very routine existence, and while Jed didn't really mind routine, he found it gave him little to talk about, even more so since the true nature of the project was supposed to be a secret from those still on Earth. Joline wasn't even supposed to be aware that her steady boyfriend was no longer on Earth.

Of course, she did know, as did Jed's family members, because there was no way Jed could lie to any of them-- even if he tried, something would slip through, and then he would not only have to deal with their shock at the truth itself, but also their anger at being lied to. Besides, his weekly letters would have been even more boring if he couldn't actually talk about anything he was doing. From the very first day he'd come to Rome, he'd been completely honest with his family and Joline, though it hadn't been until Captain Mullen had called all the psionics together that he had anything that was supposed to be hidden. Either UNIS didn't read their mail, or no one cared quite as much as they said they did about such small breaches of security.

Everyone had reacted differently when told about the dragon Fideles, the existence of psionics and that simple, quite Jed had it, and the certainty of life on other planets. His father refused to believe it even into their third month of work with the captain, instead insisting that it was either some white conspiracy or that his eldest son was hallucinating and should be sent home immediately. It was only when Jed finally got up the nerve to tell him he was leaving in three weeks for the planet that was supposed to be a figment of someone's imagination that Benshalom's displeasure switched tracks, accepting the lesser evils so that he could focus on the evil army stealing away his oldest son. His mother Alicia gushed and cried for "her little Jethro", all grown up and traversing the galaxy, but oh, be ever so careful out there while you're killing giant canine monsters! Jed knew she was secretly proud of him, because she kept her husband from having him recalled and sent home on a weekly basis. His sister Isha, older than he was by just over a year, ignored the whole affair, as if she didn't care, and his little brother Kilaan laughed and ate up anecdotes about the dragonets as if they were just a story that wasn't really happening.

Of them all, Joline's response had been the most serious and accepting. Once the shock of it all had worn off, he had smiled at him, taken his earnest promises that he hadn't gone crazy and he wasn't making up stories with a solemn nod, and had asked to be alone to think for a while. When she spoke to him again, on the phone the next day, asked curious, intelligent questions and listened with actual interest when he described the dragons and what it felt like to have someone's voice in your head.

At the memory, Jed sighed and rested his chin in his hand twirling his pen around in his thick fingers and staring at the two words he'd written so far. There were no phone conversations, or even internet conversations, when you were on a different planet, and he missed being able to fill up spare minutes, or hours, just listening to the sound of her voice as she chatted about whatever came to mind or telling her about his day. Or even just carrying the phone around during a chore and commenting on what each other saw and did. He never really realized how much time he had filled with her until she was suddenly out of reach.

She was soon to become even farther out of his reach, because today they were leaving for the dragon city of Sanctuary for the third bonding ceremony, where the last four of the Seven were finally being presented to the young dragons for possible bonding. Should they all be chosen, they would be living in Sanctuary, and Jed had no idea how that would change their routine and how often they would return to the fort, once all seven lived in the same place. He'd thought about trying to tell her in this letter that it would hardly be fair to her to stay tied to him when they rarely saw each other or even heard each other's voices, because it really wasn't, but he didn't know if he had the guts to do it. They had been together since middle school, and Jed himself had seen him marrying her someday before his life took this bizzare, unexpected turn.

With another sigh, he put his pen back to the paper and began to write.

Dear Joline. This might be my last letter for a while. How long, I don't know. We're leaving for Sanctuary and the third bonding in an hour or two, and if I end up paired with a dragon, I won't be coming back to live at the fort again. We have apartments waiting for us in the dragon city, and I don't know how often we'll be coming back to the fort, or even if we will be until our dragons have grown, and I honestly don't know how long that will take.

No introduction, no pleasantries, no "how are you? I'm doing all right" that most letters opened with. Jed stared at the words on the page somberly, trying to gather up courage for what he felt he should in all fairness, write for her.

I know that this has to have been hard for you, my being so far away like this. It has been for me. It's going to get harder, because of being stuck in Sanctuary and because I'll have to care for and train with a young dragon. I already miss you so much, and I don't know what will happen in the future.

Again he paused, rereading the brief letter again, just to put off putting the words he dreaded down in ink. Then he read it again. Then he took a deep breath, and began the hardest part.

I can't possibly ask you to stay... bound to me, to stay my girl, when you only see me twice a year and can only talk to me in letters. It's not fair to you. You need someone you can see every day, or at least regularly, and who can give you the attention you need. I wish that person could be me, but right now, and for a long time ahead, it can't be me. I'm just writing to say goodbye, and I love you.

It was written. It couldn't be taken back, erased, or ignored.

"Yo, Jed, c'mon, man! We're leavin!"

But it could be folded hurriedly, stuffed into a pocket of his backpack, and put off until later. Doing just that, Jed grabbed his bags and stood, hurrying out the door after Franco, towards the authentic, wooden cart that would take them to Sanctuary.