Dark Purposes
Disclaimer: I don't own Earth 2, but I am suffering from the delusion that it's almost time for network sweeps. BTW, if you're thinking of starting here, I wouldn't recommend it. Even though its a pretty serious time investment at this point, I'd start with "Blast from the Past"--my Season 2, Episode 1 and work through from there. Otherwise, this won't make nearly as much sense as it should.
Chapter One
True VO: It's day 168 according to Yale. He keeps up with all that for us. Today my dad has promised us a normal day. I hope so because we haven't had many of those lately. Alonzo, Julia, Magus, and Walman are going to take me and Uly out for a picnic and to go forage in the prairie for food. Julia says the storm made everything grow really fast—even the earth trees that were planted around here when the first settlers came.
I would have said that it was magic if I still believed in magic. Gaal said this planet was a place where magic happens. He showed me a flower that he could make bloom just by holding it in his hand. I believed him then, but later Yale showed me the same flower and told me it was a night blooming flower, kind of like a flower on earth called a moonflower. If you put it in a dark place like in your hand, it will bloom. It wasn't magic at all.
This planet isn't magic, it's just weird. Weird and dangerous. I'm worried about my dad. He's been through a lot on this planet—like when he got so sick. The little boy told me that if the Elder hadn't found him, he would have died.
Everyone thought he was dead a few days ago when the storm came through. They think Uly and I don't hear them talking, but we do and I knew what they were saying. I never used to be scared for him on the stations, but here I'm afraid that something bad will happen to him. Because it already has.
But the thing about my dad that scares me most right now is how much he needs me. Like when the Grendler came to camp after they came back from scouting for Cargo Pod 9. I went out to talk to it. My dad thought I'd been kidnapped and he begged the Grendler to take him instead of me. He said I was the only thing he had to live for. I don't know what he'd do if something bad happened to me.
I saw how he looked when we left Devon in cold sleep—like she'd died. I don't want to see that look on his face again. I don't want to be the one that makes him feel that way. If I'm all he's got to live for, what would he do if I died? That really scares me. It scares me so bad I don't want to tell him that for the last couple of days I haven't been feeling too good.
After the storm, the once dusty brown plain opened before them in a sea of green bordered by scattered stands of trees. The brightly colored heads of flowers dotted the green scape and in the distance were herds of grazing animals, their shaggy brown backs standing out in contrast against the colors of the lush vegetation.
"This has to be one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen," Julia said as they walked toward a stand of trees.
Alonzo gave her a long look, saying, "I have to agree." She turned to his glance, realizing that he was looking at her. He was gratified to see a little blush come to her face as she realized his intent. She gave him a little shove on the arm and looked around for the children.
Uly and True ran ahead of them in the tall grass. "Don't get too far ahead!" Alonzo shouted. "Stay in sight of us or Walman and Magus."
"Are you sure you want to do that to Walman and Magus?" Julia asked with a smile. "They've gone on pretty far ahead. They might want a little privacy."
"We might want a little privacy ourselves," Alonzo teased.
"We're all supposed to be foraging. This is work, not play," Julia replied with a laugh. "I really ought to be back in the lab working on that particle. I've got it identified, but I have no idea what it is, what it does, or how to stop it." Julia sighed as she and Alonzo waded through the tall grass, pushing aside the occasional flower stalk.
Alonzo reached out to take her elbow, turning her gently to look at him. "You cannot work 24 hours a day," he said, running his hand down her arm. "You take a few hours of R&R to regroup. I'll look clearer to you after you've gotten a fresh perspective." Then he gave her one of those disarming grins he managed so well and continued to tempt her saying, "Plus I grabbed some food from Cameron before we left. We could have a picnic."
"I'd feel a little guilty having a picnic while everybody else is working," Julia answered sternly, then gave him a conspiratorial smile. "But only a little."
About that time, Alonzo's gear chirped and he pulled it into place. "What's up?" he asked.
Danziger's voice came over the channel from camp. "While you guys are out, we're going to do a little work with this ZED."
"Are you sure you want to tackle this with four of us out of camp?" Alonzo asked with concern.
"That's the point. I wanted most of us and the kids far away from here just in case things get out of hand," Danziger answered from the med lab. He stood in the doorway watching as Morgan, Bess, and Yale donned VR gear in preparation for working on the ZED's programming.
"Who's got your back then?" Alonzo's voice returned over the gear.
"I'm going to get Baines and Mazatyl to stand guard," Danziger replied.
"Are you sure about that? Baines thinks things are already out of hand," Alonzo answered.
"I know," Danziger responded as he considered the strength and unpredictability of the huge ZED on the med lab examination table. "I'm counting on it."
Roll opening credits.
"You're counting on Baines's paranoia?" Alonzo sounded incredulous.
"Out of everyone in this group, Baines is the most likely to spot something going wrong. Mazatyl is nicely impartial and should keep Baines from shooting me without good reason," Danziger replied with an even good humor. "And I am going to make sure Baines has a sedi-derm and not something lethal."
Alonzo laughed. "You guys be careful, all right?"
"Don't worry about us," Danziger continued. "Just keep an eye on True and Uly for me, okay? You can get me, Baines, or Mazatyl on gear or Dream to me if you have to. Bess will be tied up with Morgan and Yale's link."
Ending the contact with Alonzo, Danziger headed over to the bed where the red-haired ZED lay in deep hibernation. Yale had already removed as many of the ZED's more dangerous cybernetic accessories as he could.
"I think we are as ready to begin as we can be," Yale ventured cautiously.
Danziger nodded and called Baines and Mazatyl on gear to join them. After a few minutes, the two men entered the room, Baines clearly hanging back close to the door. "How's work progressing on the rail?" Danziger asked.
"As well as can be expected considering that we've got no equipment to straighten the frame and no replacement solar conversion panels," Baines answered in disgust. "Danz, you might as well face it, the rail is history."
"You may be right," Danziger sighed. The loss of the vehicle was a tremendous blow. Without the rail they would have no way to carry more than two passengers on a scout, plus they lost a significant amount of cargo capacity. The rover was already heavily loaded when the entire camp moved and they'd already salvaged a good bit of equipment from the settlement that they wanted to take with them.
"Anyway," Danziger shook himself out of his dark thoughts about the dunerail's demise and continued, "I didn't bring you guys in here to talk about the rail." He walked over to the med lab's storage unit and pulled out the pistol and a sedi-derm. "We're going to be working on the ZED and I want you two to stand guard."
He passed the pistol to Mazatyl and the sedi-derm to Baines—he hadn't been kidding with Alonzo when he said he didn't want Baines lethally armed. The man was on a hair trigger lately—caution was a good thing, panic was not.
"What do you want us to do?" Mazatyl asked, turning the pistol over in his hands.
"The four of us," Danziger gestured to Morgan, Bess, and Yale, "will be in VR and on the Dreamplane trying to rewrite the operations procedure for the ZED. If something should go wrong, you two are in charge of seeing that the camp is safe."
"Safe from who?" Baines asked suspiciously.
"Safe from the ZED," Danziger replied. "Who else?"
"What if something freaky happens to you while you're zoned out?" Baines asked directly. "What if you go all inhuman on us?"
"Baines, if I become a threat to the camp, you have a direct order to take me out—just don't kill me if you can possibly help it," Danziger responded, just as directly. "Mazatyl, don't let him kill me without just cause, okay?"
Mazatyl nodded, suppressing a grin. Baines's expression wavered between relief that his fears had been addressed so completely and chagrin that Danziger might be making fun of him.
Danziger turned to face Baines directly, intent on making his true meaning clear. "Baines, out of everyone in this camp, you are the most suspicious of all this. Consequently, you will be the first to notice that something is wrong. I am counting on this. I've gotten too close to see all this as clearly as I should, so I am depending on you to watch carefully for me. I mean that."
Baines stood there under Danziger's sincere gaze, then nodded in acceptance. "I'll keep a close eye on you, Danziger. On all of you."
Danziger nodded, then added, "You two, keep your gear on in case Alonzo calls in for you. Cameron and Danner are heading out to join them on forage. I didn't want anyone else in reach of this thing—just in case."
As Baines and Mazatyl adjusted their gear, Danziger turned back to the group surrounding the ZED.
Okay, guys, let's get in there and see what we've got."
Out on the grassy verge, True and Uly darted back and forth between tall flowers. "Look at this one!" Uly cried pointing to a giant pink flower that stood at least as tall as he did.
"It's so pretty," True breathed in appreciation. As they looked deeper within the flower, the children could see a feeding insect, its wings nearly translucent and its body a bright yellow. "Everything is so colorful here," she added. "I've been so used to seeing brown and gray that it seems strange to see plants and insects with some color to them."
"Yale says we're on the edge of a change in the ecosystem," Uly added seriously.
"What does that mean?" True asked skeptically.
Uly paused, aware that he'd been caught out. Instead of admit that he didn't know either, he just shrugged and ran on to the next flower.
"I'll tell you what that means," Julia interjected as she and Alonzo drew near the children. "It means that the landscape is changing and we're likely to see new types of plants and animals that are more adapted to the new terrain. On earth there were a large number of ecosystems—everything from mountain to prairies to rain forest to jungle. I hope we're moving into an area that is a little less mountainous and maybe a bit warmer."
"I'll be glad to warm up," True said. "I stay cold."
"Even on a day like today?" Alonzo asked. "It's plenty warm out."
"Not to me," True answered. Julia noticed that she did indeed have on her heavy jacket while the rest of them were in their shirt sleeves.
"Well, we should warm up soon," Julia concluded. "Spring is finally, fully here."
The four walked through the prairie landscape, checking for edibles as they went. Soon they'd reached a stand of trees that grew in lines just a bit too straight for random growth. "This must be an orchard planted by the settlers," Alonzo stated. "But does fruit usually appear this early in the year?"
"I don't think so," Julia answered. "In the stations' hydroponics there were plenty of dwarf fruit trees that were engineered to bear year round. But that wouldn't work on a planet with an actual winter. The trees would have to go dormant during the cold to survive. I believe it took months for the fruit to grow on earth."
"Then these trees have either been genetically altered to bear early or that storm did something to them as well," Alonzo said as he reached up to pick a perfectly ripe peach from a nearby limb.
Julia ran the scanner over it, her eyes widening with surprise. "This appears to be a completely earth normal peach," she began, "but with the slightest shift in composition toward G889 plant life. It's like the tree is becoming more like a native plant."
Uly took a good look at the peach. "All I want to know is can we eat it," he half-asked, half-stated.
True also peered at the unfamiliar fruit. "Are raw peaches good?" she asked. "I've only had the stored kind."
Julia looked at Alonzo, then picked another. "Why don't you take a bite and find out?" she said, handing the fruit to True as Alonzo passed his to Uly. She then took another for herself and bit carefully into the fuzzy skin.
To her initial embarrassment quickly followed by delight, the peach was very juicy and very sweet, the juice running down her chin in a sticky trail. The squeals of the children confirmed that theirs were just as succulent.
"I don't think I've ever tasted anything so good in my life," Julia sighed, licking her lips.
Seeing that the children were occupied, Alonzo stepped next to her and gave her a thorough kiss. "Neither have I," he murmured suggestively.
Behind their peaches, Uly and True just rolled their eyes at each other.
