The Edan Advance crew plodded across the seemingly endless expanse of the continent. Far in the distance, mountains could be seen whenever the caravan topped a rise. They'd been following the course of a river for days, traveling against the flow, and they'd long ago lost count of the number of tributaries they'd crossed. Not only had they had more water lately than they ever dreamed of, edible plant life had been plentiful along the whole course of the river.
It was still early afternoon when they approached yet another small river that would join the main river soon. Julia trotted ahead through the line of hikers and vehicles to find Devon near the head of the group.
"Hello, Julia," Devon greeted her listlessly. Her gaze returned to the ground in front of her feet.
"Devon, can I make a suggestion?" Julia asked. At Devon's nod she continued, "Why don't we stop for the day after this crossing?"
Devon looked up at her in surprise. "It's so early, Julia," she protested. "We could easily make five or six more kilometers."
"Look around at everybody, Devon," Julia said. "We're all worn out. Can you even remember how many days it's been since we last took any kind of a break?" Devon had to admit she couldn't. "You know Danziger's going to want to stop to recharge after the crossing, why don't we surprise everyone?" Devon smiled and gave in.
Every river crossing was a chore. Most meant they had to follow the tributary upstream until they found a shallow enough place for the vehicles. They tried to stay far enough from the main river so their side treks weren't so long, but occasionally the tributary was nearly as large as the main river. Once their detour had meant crossing several secondary tributaries until they finally found a fordable place.
Today, however, that wasn't necessary. They easily found their way across and, before Danziger had a chance to call for a recharge, Devon announced they were stopping for the day. At first her announcement was met with surprised looks, which quickly grew into smiles. Everyone seemed to brighten as the transrover was quickly unpacked and everyone began setting up camp.
The med tent was always the first one up and more of a community effort than any of the rest. Then people broke into small groups to set up their individual tents.
"Morgan, honey?" Bess began as she and her husband worked together on their tent. He answered with a grunt, straining to fit the collapsible tent pole into place. "Do you still want to go back to the stations when the colony ship gets here?"
Morgan paused, glaring at his wife over the top of his sunglasses. "Bess, we've already discussed this. Yes, we're going back."
"Well, Morgan, I've been thinking..." she continued.
"Oh, here we go," Morgan muttered.
Bess gave her husband an exasperated look and continued as if he hadn't interrupted her. "Honey, you said it yourself, you're guaranteed a job when we get back, but you're not guaranteed which job. I mean, we could get all the way back and you'd have to take a level reduction if there are no positions open at your level." The tent was finally up and they began carrying in their cases. "Morgan, you've worked too hard to get where you are! It wouldn't be fair!"
"Even if that happened, Bess, it would only be until a position opened on my level."
"Morgan, they tried to kill you," Bess said bluntly. "You'd be lucky if they gave you a gopher position." Morgan tried to interject but she carried on. "Besides, they've probably written us off as dead!"
"The council knows we're not dead, Bess," he insisted.
"But what if...?" she interrupted. "Devon paid us a lot of money and you know unclaimed estates revert to the Council. It could all be gone and we'd have nothing!"
"Bess, we've got nothing here," he pointed out.
"But we don't need anything here," she insisted. "Morgan, you are the only government liaison assigned to Edan Advance. Any other government employees would syndrome families and they will be far more concerned with their children than any office they could establish here. Honey, you could be Governor," she said reverently.
Morgan stopped, gazing at his wife in thought. "Y'know Bess, you could be right," he admitted.
His comment did not bring the beaming smile he'd expected to her face.
"There's another thing," she admitted somberly. "We do want to have children some day."
"Yes, Bess, but now isn't a good time..." He trailed off as she shook her head.
"No, I know. I don't want to start a family while we're still traveling. What I meant was, what if our baby is born with the syndrome?"
"No," Morgan shook his head. "No, you're from Earth. That couldn't be possible," he protested.
"Do you want to take that chance?" she demanded. "How likely is it that someone else will fund a ship here for any more syndrome children who may have been born in the last 22 years? Or the next 22 years? We're already here, just in case."
Morgan wrapped his arms around his wife and she buried her face against his chest. "Oh, Bess, you could never have a syndrome baby. Not you," he reassured her.
"That what everyone thinks," she whispered. "I'm sure that's what Devon thought. Morgan, for the sake of our babies, let's stay."
Outside the Martin's tent, Alonzo was helping Walman and Baines set up their tent. He was graciously accepting the little bit of ribbing they were dishing out on him about Julia.
"I still think if it'd been his nose instead of his leg, she wouldn't give him the time of day," Baines teased. He still considered Julia a bit of a cold fish and Alonzo's attachment to her baffling.
Alonzo's tolerant but absent-minded smile remained until Walman asked, "What are you gonna do when the Colony ship gets here?"
The smile fell from his lips and a frown replaced it. "I don't know, man. Y'know, I really miss flying, but I know Julia is gonna stay. I guess I've been trying not to think about it."
The other men fell silent, realizing they'd strayed away from the frivolous teasing to a topic more serious to their resident flyboy. They had their own decisions to make as well, but theirs didn't involve any other people. At least, not yet.
Devon, striding purposefully through camp, passed near the three men on her way to her own tent.
"Hey Devon," Walman called to her.
"Yes?" she stopped.
"How many planes did you supply for the colony?" he asked.
"Well," she replied, "there were two sent on the Advance ship. I guess we can hope the second one is still locked safely away in one of the other cargo pods somewhere. Two more will arrive with the Colony Ship."
"Lonz, you ever thought of having your own flight school?" Walman asked him.
"That's a brilliant idea, Walman," Devon exclaimed.
"I don't know..." Alonzo hedged.
"Alonzo, please think about it," Devon urged. "I would really appreciate it if you would decide to stay and help us. There's so much more we could accomplish with a good pilot."
"I'll think about it," he promised.
"Good," Devon squeezed his arm and turned back towards her own tent. Just as she reached it, Uly burst out through the flap, followed closely by True. "You've gotta come with us, we're testing our program today!"
"What program, honey?" she asked.
Yale explained, "Julia has been meticulously cataloging all the plant specimens we have encountered so far, and based on her records, I assigned True and Uly to create a botanical cataloging program last week. They have just turned in that assignment and we are about to test it."
"Wow!" Devon gushed. "I am impressed! And what a useful program!"
"Dad!" True rushed off to coerce her father into joining them. Soon the five of them were heading out of camp to find a suitable testing ground.
"Is that necessary?" Devon asked Danziger, glancing at the Mag-Pro he carried.
"Yes," he said flatly.
"Don't you think they're sufficient?" she asked, gesturing towards Walman and Alonzo who'd staked out the highest ground in sight and were surveying the distances beyond.
"Do you want to trust the safety of your son to someone half a kilometer away?" he retorted. Devon lapsed into silence.
Yale found a suitable testing site; a watershed with a wide assortment of plant life, from large trees to lichen-like plants that were attracted to the higher moisture content of the area. He and the children turned on their gear and began their lesson. Devon seated herself against a wide tree to watch, while Danziger kept a casual, yet diligent, watch on their surroundings.
Devon found her attention drawn back to her conversation with Alonzo. It made her wonder if Danziger was having any thoughts himself about remaining on G899 with True. Both he and Alonzo had, at various times, brought up the fact that many in their group had never meant to travel to the surface at all. They were the Operations Crew, hired to get the ship to G889 and expecting to reach home a great deal more well-off than before. She wondered how many of them would have anything to go home to. There was a good chance the Council had long since absorbed their credit lines.
She suddenly realized she'd been gazing at him throughout her musings. Thankfully he hadn't noticed. He'd divided his attention between the botany lesson and the countryside. Even had he glanced her way, her sunglasses should have hidden exactly where her eyes had been focussed.
With deliberate casualness, carefully controlling her tone of voice, she called to him, "John." He turned to look at her and she gestured for him to come over. "Come and sit in the shade," she suggested.
Danziger wondered briefly what she was up to but decided to join her anyway. After walking half the day, he really didn't feel like standing guard duty when he could easily sit. He chose a spot ninety degrees around the side of the huge tree from her and settled himself against it.
Still keeping her voice deliberately casual, Devon asked, "Have you given any consideration to staying on after the Colony ship gets here?"
"No, Adair," he answered. "True and I are going back."
"I asked because, well, we could really use you here," she admitted, wondering why she was pushing this. "There's going to be a lot of construction going on and your all-around knowledge would be a great help."
"Devon, this trip has finally gotten me out of debt. I want True to have every opportunity available to her."
Yale, Uly and True had been steadily working their way along the wah. Neither Devon nor Danziger had seen True approach them.
"We have to go back," True spoke behind them. "We're getting a cat when we get home."
Devon had startled when True spoke, but she turned and gave True a smile. " A cat, huh? That'll be great," she enthused.
"Yeah, a real cat, not a stupid synth-cat,"True insisted.
"Can I tell you a secret?" Devon asked True, glancing surreptitiously around as if expecting someone to be eavesdropping. "But you've gotta promise to keep it a secret because, well..." Devon lowered her voice to a whisper, "it's kinda illegal." True's eyes grew larger and she mutely nodded.
Danziger was giving her a look that could easily be read as "what the heck are you up to now, Adair?"
"One of the syndrome families has two cats," she whispered dramatically.
"Really?" True whispered back in excitement and dropped to her knees beside Devon.
Devon nodded, "Yes!" she exclaimed. "One male and one female - a registered breeding pair. You can see what I meant by illegal. They didn't have enough time to apply for the permit to transport them off-station so we smuggled them off. We had two miniature sleep chambers installed at the last minute just for them."
"Wow!" True breathed, honestly impressed. Then, "Do you think they'd let me buy a kitten?"
"I'd be willing to bet they'd let you have first pick," Devon assured her.
Just then True's gear beeped and Devon heard Yale calling True back to her lesson. She galloped off after one last reminder to keep the secret. Devon couldn't help the self-satisfied smirk on her face.
"Is that the truth Adair?" Danziger hissed at her, making sure there was no way True could hear.
"Of course," she retorted, mildly offended. "I should hope by now you'd know I don't lie!"
"I don't appreciate being blackmailed!" he growled.
"Blackmail?" she exclaimed. "Who said anything about blackmail? Danziger, did it ever occur to you that we may all have been declared dead and not a one of us has anything left to go back to?"
"Devon, I have to go back. I have Elle to consider."
Devon felt herself grow cold. Elle, mindless yet alive, kept on support by a credit account Danziger would surely have made certain would last at least 44 years. Devon knew she didn't envy Danziger one bit.
"Yes," she said quietly, "I suppose you do. I'm sorry, I was being thoughtless."
"It's OK Adair," he assured her. "I'm over-reacting a bit myself."
They both lapsed into silence for a minute or two, then he continued. "True's going to be twelve years old by the time that ship gets here."
Devon nodded in agreement.
"Do you suppose that's too young for her to make a decision about her mother?"
Devon spun towards him, truly shocked. "You mean, you'd make True responsible for deciding whether or not you both stay?"
"No," he said. "I intend to let her have a say in what we do. She's lived all her life without her mother. I'm wondering if it's right, if at twelve she'll be old enough to decide if she wants to opt for the STIM program."
"I don't know John," Devon answered. "In many ways, True is very mature for her age."
Together they turned to watch the girl, very much a child at that moment, learning the wonders of this new world and not yet knowing the monumental choices the future had in store for her.
End