Stormy Weather
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Earth 2. I'm just getting some kicks.
"Where does a 300 pound ZED sleep?" Morgan Martin asked himself for the hundredth time in the past 24 hours. "Wherever it wants to."
He walked down the hallway toward the ops center of the settlement building, wondering for the hundredth time when somebody was going to have the guts to speak up about that 300 pound gorilla taking up space in the outbuilding outside.
Since Danziger nearly fried Bess's brain the day before deactivating the thing, with of course the help of yours truly—did anybody bother to say thank you? No, of course not—everyone's attention had been focused more closely on the med lab.
Walman was officially up and walking this morning, but not moving very fast at all. Julia had sent him back to his room for more rest. He'd be out of action for at least another three to four days before she decided he was completely healed of the broken ribs and pelvis that had been shattered when the aforementioned ZED threw him against a boulder.
Alonzo was asleep now—lightly comatose, according to Julia—but more asleep than anything else. She'd been particularly amazed by his speedy recovery from the whole ordeal. Having a good sized part of your skull smashed in should slow a person down quite a bit, Morgan agreed. Alonzo, on the other hand, seemed to be bouncing back quickly—too quickly.
In retrospect, Julia had also expressed surprise that Walman's injuries hadn't been more extensive internally given the number of broken bones he'd sustained. She'd noted to the group that something appeared to be speeding healing in both men and it appeared to be linked to activity in the biostat implants.
This news did not please Morgan a bit. First, he didn't know he even had an implant, then the planet started using it as her own private gear channel into his brain—along with Bess and Danziger—and now it appeared that it was extensive enough to broadcast his whereabouts, his emotional state, and his basic motor activities to Riley. Not to mention that the thing was now taking an interest in his continued state of good health as well.
Morgan truly wished he could take a couple of steps backward in awareness on this one. He found himself rubbing the back of his head a lot, as if to appease the bio-cybernetic network within. He had begun to live in a state of paranoia that either Riley or the planet or both were eavesdropping on his thoughts. Plus, all the planet-fueled Dreaming going on between members of the group—especially Danziger and his wife—was giving everybody the creeps.
Even Julia had seemed conflicted when she'd asked Bess to take her back onto the Dreamplane again last night for another visit with Alonzo. It was like she did and didn't want to go all at the same time. Meanwhile, Alonzo was Dreaming but not conscious—what a planet they'd chosen to be shipwrecked on! It was enough to make Morgan's head spin.
Now they had to deal with the gorilla in their midst. Morgan sighed and reached for the door of the ops room, only to have it pull away from his hand as a grumpy looking Danziger opened it.
"Sleep well?" Morgan asked, taking in the state of his red rimmed eyes and mussed hair.
Danziger just gave him a typically annoyed look—that seemed to be the only look Danziger ever felt comfortable directing at him. "I was just coming to find you, Martin," he replied. "We've got to talk about this ZED."
Morgan entered the room to see Yale, Danner, Magus, Cameron, and Baines already seated around the conference table they'd unearthed for use. He pulled up a free seat and watched with interest as Danziger rubbed one hand across his eyes then looked out across the group.
"Okay, guys, we've caught ourselves a ZED. Now what do we do with him?" Danziger began in his typical jump right into the middle of it fashion.
Roll opening credits.
"Bring me up to speed if you don't mind," Baines began. "I've been in the med lab with doc for most of this."
"Well, Mazatyl's on guard now and I spent most of the night on duty," Danziger began. "The ZED's out cold. Martin, whatever number you and Yale worked on him worked all right. Julia came over for a few minutes late yesterday evening and said he was in a state of deep hibernation. Apparently, he can be powered down, so to speak, and left on standby for probably two weeks before he'll have to come up for water and food."
"So what's the big rush?" Morgan interrupted. "Let big boy there have a nice long nap. We'll deal with him later."
"The problem with that," Danziger paused to run his hand through his messy blonde curls, "is that the planet wants to talk to him. And she won't take no for an answer."
Morgan nodded in understanding. If the planet was giving him hell at the moment, it was no wonder Danziger looked a bit strung out.
"So, we tie him up and give him a wakeup call," Morgan replied. "Just be sure to tie him up tight and have somebody on hand with the pistol at the back of his neck just in case."
"I don't see why we need to even go this far," Cameron spoke up. Everyone turned to listen—Cameron didn't express his opinion often, usually preferring to just go along with the group's decision. "It's a ZED. It's a killing machine. It nearly killed Walman and Alonzo. Let's just deactivate it permanently—if you know what I mean."
Baines, Danner, and Magus nodded in agreement. Danziger however held out his hands in protest. "No, guys," he began, "that is not an option. Killing him is a last resort scenario."
Baines shot Danziger a look across the table that took Morgan by complete surprise. "Since when did you turn bleeding heart on us, Danz? You didn't have any problem giving us all the standing order to take Yale out if he'd become a danger to the group," Baines declared.
"Baines, Yale is sitting right here," Danner declared furiously as Danziger returned Baines' look with an icy glare of his own.
"No, no," Yale interrupted in that melodious, soothing voice of his. Morgan wondered if he could ever master the kind of crowd control that voice commanded. "I was in the midst of a mindwash breakdown and John was correct to take precautions. In fact, if you recall, I left the group for that very reason. I did not want any of you to have to kill me to protect yourselves."
The mood at the table grew solemn rather than angry. "Sorry anyway, Yale," Baines apologized. "But you guys know what I mean. This ZED means nothing to us." He gave Danziger another cool look. "So why are you protecting him?"
When Danziger began to reply, Baines interrupted, "And don't give me any nonsense about how the planet wants to talk to him, Danz. This whole talking planet thing has me freaked completely out. It was bad enough when Solace went all Terrian on us, but now you've gone off the deep end. And none of us know where it's going to end!"
In the silence that followed this bomb drop, it was to everyone's surprise, his own included, that Morgan Martin spoke up in Danziger's defense. "Baines, I know this seems crazy to you," Morgan began quietly, "but I've been there myself. Not willingly, but there. We've all seen a lot of loopy stuff on this planet. Alonzo's dreams were just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much going on here that is beneath the surface. Give Danziger a little time to find his feet with it all. He'll seem much less insane once he's got a better handle on things."
"I am not insane," Danziger leapt to his own defense angrily. Then he took a deep breath and continued, "On the purely practical side, think of what we can learn from this ZED if we wake him up and question him. Are there any more ZEDs in the area? What does Riley know about us? Can his programming be broken, and if so, do we have a potential ally in our midst against Riley? Maybe to defend us against any other ZEDs that are sent to hunt us down."
The looks around the table grew a little more contemplative as they considered Danziger's words.
"Okay, then," Baines responded, "say we wake this guy up and he's no help at all, we can't break his programming, and he just wants to kill us. What then?"
Danziger looked at him with a cool blue stare, "Then I myself will put the pistol to his head and end both his misery and our own."
"That's all I wanted to know," Baines replied evenly.
Back in the med lab, Julia and Bess waited impatiently for Alonzo to wake up.
"How long has he been in sleep state rather than coma?" Bess asked.
"I'd say he moved out of a light coma about an hour ago," Julia answered, sounding just a bit worried. "He should be able to wake up at any time, but I've called to him repeatedly with no luck."
"Do you want me to see if I can Dream to him?" Bess suggested helpfully.
Julia thought for a minute. Bess had taken her for a Dream visit with him last night late. It had been wonderful to see him and talk to him, but she was afraid even Dreaming would tire him out. She'd wanted him to conserve his strength and fully return to her. But it had been several hours since then. Surely just a short check on him wouldn't hurt.
"Okay, see what you can do," Julia replied. She held his hand, stroking his fingers with hers, watching for any signs of movement of his eyes to show he might be Dreaming as Bess closed her eyes and tilted her head slightly in the pose she'd come to take when she Dreamed with the planet.
The Dreamplane coalesced around Bess in its typical fashion and she called to Alonzo. No answer. It wasn't like before when she felt nothing at all from him when he was so badly injured, but he still wasn't reachable on the planet's Dreamplane. She wondered if perhaps Uly could reach him like the Terrians did. That was still the part of the Dreamplane where Alonzo was strongest.
Then she had an idea. Moving a piece of her consciousness back to the med lab, she took Julia's arm and pulled her in as well. She could sense as well as hear Julia's little gasp of surprise as she found herself on the Dreamplane next to Bess.
"You could have warned me," Julia began a little anxiously. "Is he here?"
"I tried calling him, but no luck," Bess said. "I thought maybe you should give it a shot." Bess gave Julia a sly little glance.
Julia gave her a questioning look back, then called out. "Alonzo!" Immediately the air began to waver around them as Alonzo appeared on the Dreamscape next to them.
"Thought so," Bess said to herself. "Selective hearing."
"Hey!" Alonzo sounded much stronger this morning. "What's going on?" he asked with interest as he gave Julia a big hug.
"You've been properly asleep, not comatose, for the past hour," Julia answered, attempting to sound like a doctor and not like a worried girlfriend. "We were just wondering if you were ready to join the land of the living again."
Alonzo thought for a moment and looked off into the distance. "I've been Dreaming with Uly and a group of Terrians," he began distantly. "They've been trying to tell us something, but I can't quite understand what they're talking about. It has something to do with the earth and rain, but that's about as far as we get before their images quit making sense."
"I wondered if Uly could get through to you when I couldn't," Bess stated.
"It's still much easier for me to Dream with the Terrians. Lots of practice I guess," Alonzo gave her a merry smile.
"Well, I won't worry about you then—or Uly," Julia said with a smile of her own. She then reached up one hand to touch his cheek in a very tender gesture. It was so easy to be demonstrative on the Dreamplane, she realized. Things just sort of flowed more freely there. "You come back to us when you're ready for a break."
"I won't be much longer," Alonzo answered, taking her hand and planting a kiss on her palm."I'm ready to see you again with my waking eyes as well."
The pair slowly pulled apart, Alonzo drifting away from them into the white glare of the Dreamscape, then Bess drawing the two women back into their awareness in the med lab. Julia still held Alonzo's hand in hers, but the memory of his kiss stayed with her. She'd never felt as though she were a fanciful person, but she began to see how Dreams could easily eclipse reality if one wasn't careful on this planet.
The door of the med lab opened, revealing Morgan, Danziger, and Yale. "How is Alonzo today?" Yale asked with deep interest.
"He's sleeping, really sleeping," Julia answered with relief and just a hint of embarrassment as if she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't.
"We checked in on him on the Dreamplane and he said he and Uly have been Dreaming with some Terrians who are trying to tell us something," Bess added. "Something about the earth and rain, but that's all they get before it breaks down on them."
"Uly is supposed to be in an educational program with True in the vid room," Yale began censoriously.
Danziger placed one hand on the tutor's arm lightly restraining him from heading out to confront the boy. "Go easy, Yale," Danziger began. "If the Terrians have called him to talk, he probably needs to listen. But if True is in the way, put her to work, okay? Better yet, take them both to Cameron. Let him put True to work and keep an eye on Uly. Morgan needs your help."
Yale nodded wisely and left to find his pupils as Bess gave Morgan a long look. "What are you and Yale up to?" she asked her husband, already suspicious of the answer.
"Danziger wants us to work on reprogramming the ZED," he answered grimly.
"How are you going to link into him?" Bess asked. "I don't think you want to risk using the satellite link through Riley."
"I'm going to do it," Danziger said. "I'll be the link through the planet and bring Yale and Morgan in to work with her. When they're ready, I'll physically link them to the ZED."
"That is too dangerous," Bess replied. "You saw what happened to us last time."
"We don't have much choice," Danziger answered.
"We need to ask Mom," Bess stated. As Morgan watched, the two of them slipped into a Dreaming state—he could tell by the way their eyes sort of half shut, then glazed over. They were talking on the Dreamplane in private.
At first he fought the inclination, then decided to go ahead and eavesdrop. He closed his eyes and sought to re-enter the now familiar state.
Bess and John stood there in conversation, the sunstone—the planet's avatar on the Dreamplane—glimmering in Bess's outstretched hand, John's covering it. Since when had his wife become high priestess of G889? Morgan couldn't help but wonder. Perhaps he also said it aloud—or at least Dreamed it too clearly because the two of them turned toward his presence.
"Come on over, Martin," John called to him resignedly. "This concerns you too."
Hesitantly, Morgan crossed over through the bright white scape of the Dreamplane. "Mom wants to speak with you directly," Bess said, motioning for him to touch the stone as well. When he paused nervously before actually making contact, Bess took his hand and placed it on the warm stone for him.
It was the first time he had actually physically touched the stone that way. Before he'd always had either Bess or John to link him in. He jumped a little as he felt the planet's intimate touch on his mind, rifling his thoughts and memories, but lightly, just a getting-to-know-you kind of touch.
He felt her approval of his recent choices to defend John and the contact he and Bess had established. He felt that he'd earned a piece of her respect and found that he began to respect himself just a bit more.
She could not reach Yale well enough to Dream with him without Morgan's assistance, he realized as the planet began to speak to him. But Morgan was also needed to help with the ZED's programming. With Morgan linking to Yale and helping him rewrite the ZED's subroutines, someone else would have to serve as the main link from the planet to them and to the ZED. The planet wanted Bess because she'd done it before.
"No," Morgan said aloud. "It's too dangerous." He didn't want to actually fight with the planet, but for Bess, he was willing to take on anything. He felt the planet's amused response—he was surprised that the depth of feeling he expressed for his wife was a source of entertainment for her.
She responded that her Terrian children had long ago eschewed the world of emotions in favor of a more detached contemplation of their existence. She had little contact with the Grendlers--their makeup did not lend them to much Dreaming, even though she sometimes sought them out for the change of pace their emotional existences brought her.
Humans, however, Dreamed in the equivalent of emotional technicolor. Now that she was finally able to reach them on her own—Morgan felt a warm wash of gratitude flow into him for his part in creating the link—she was intensely interested in them and enjoying the contact she'd finally been able to experience first hand rather than through her Terrian children as intermediaries.
"Wow," was Morgan's only response. He'd had no idea that trying to break that geolock with the help of the sunstones was going to result in a complete re-evaluation of the human species by a sentient planet.
"So, what do you want me to do?" John broke into their conversation.
"The Dreamer Alonzo and the child Uly have been speaking with my Terrian children concerning a coming event," the planet began. She queried each of them with an image of black clouds, rain, wind, and fury.
Finally, Bess spoke up and gave the image a name for her. "A storm?" she suggested.
"Yes, a storm. The Terrians will go into their homes for the duration and will not come to the surface until it has passed. You should all do the same," the planet instructed.
"Water doesn't bother us the way it bothers your Terrians," John replied. "We've been through rain storms before."
Bess looked at him intently. "John, you've never seen a real planetary storm. Trust me. I think we'd better do what Mom says and find some shelter."
"Hey, what about my opinion?" Morgan asked. "Mom invited me into this little powwow too."
"Okay, Morgan," John replied patiently. "What do you think?"
"I agree with--" he paused a moment. "What are our options again?"