Blast from the Past
Disclaimer: I don't own Earth 2. Do you?
AN: I'm still plenty po'd that the series went off the air after only one season. So, I've decided to just continue it myself. If you are actually reading this, let me know. I figure I might be the only survivor in Earth 2 fandom. . .
Chapter 1
The nightmare was always the same.
Each night he fell asleep on planet G889, but his consciousness would return to the stations. He and Ellie were on spacewalk, repairing a minor hull breach.
"Johnny, are you sure they know we're out here?" Ellie had asked.
"Yes," he replied again, "they know we're out here. I filed the work order yesterday and put it on the station schedule with Roby."
"Then we ought to have a drone with us," she answered worriedly. "You know how mixed up they get around here. I just wonder if we ought to check in."
"I'll be happy to call in once we've got this fixed. You know how much I hate spacewalks. I'm not gonna get forced back in on a technicality just to have to come right back out here tomorrow. These shankin' suits get smaller and smaller every day," he said grimly as he carefully pulled a piece of space debris from the side of the station.
Several minutes later, the two were wrapping up the final touches on their repair when a call came in on their suit gear. "Identify yourselves."
"Eleanor Moore and John Danziger, station repair team 783. Conducting hull repair on section F89B," Ellie replied.
"You are out of the station without authorization. Return immediately."
"Our work order was filed yesterday for this repair," Ellie replied.
"I have no work order. Return immediately," the voice came back through their head sets. It was male and sounded pissed.
"Give us five minutes and we'll have this repair completed," John interjected.
"Your presence is unauthorized. Return immediately," the voice insisted.
"Come on, John. We'll come back later when they've got this sorted out," Ellie suggested over private channel.
John continued to fuse the last bit of plating into place. "By the time they get done deciding that we were in the clear, they will have sent some other team to finish the job and they'll get the pay when they sign off on it. Do you really want to throw away spacewalk hazard pay for this guy?"
The voice repeated over the main channel, "Return immediately. You do not have proper authorization or drone support. If you do not return, we will begin termination of your umbilical support functions."
"Listen, buddy," Danziger replied angrily, "if you don't let us finish this repair, the hull is still compromised. Just give me two more minutes and we'll be done."
There was no reply on gear, so John continued to fuse the final piece into place. After a minute or so, he sealed the last bit and turned to Ellie.
"Johnny," Ellie's voice sounded a little funny. "I don't feel good." About that time, her oxygen monitor began to sound in the background.
He looked into her suit faceplate to see her eyes roll back in her head and flutter shut. "Ellie!" he cried. "They've shut off her air," he realized.
Grabbing her by the collar hand hold, he began to pull them toward the airlock, all the time trying to raise the station. "Hey! You son of a bitch, you've cut off her air! Turn it back on! We're coming in!"
The airlock seemed so far away as he desperately pulled them toward it. At last, he had them in the airlock and cycling through. How many minutes had it been? he wondered. The light finally went green and he began to wrestle with her helmet.
"Help me!" he called into his gear, but there was no answer. He managed to remove her helmet to see her lips a frightening shade of blue. He wrestled his own helmet off, then began to struggle with the icy cold suit, desperately trying to get to her.
The requisite emergency oxygen tank was not on the wall where it should be, so he began rescue breathing for her. He felt for a pulse and was relieved to feel a slight beat beneath his fingertips. But she still wasn't breathing on her own.
He had bent down to force more air into her lungs, when he was suddenly dragged off her by strong hands. "Hey!" he yelled in surprise. "She's not breathing. Give her some air."
Instead the two men in station security uniforms kept their focus on him. "Just what were you doing outside the station on an unauthorized spacewalk?"
"Guys, please, get her some help! Her air was cut off. She's not breathing on her own," Danziger continued desperately.
"I repeat, what were you doing on an unauthorized---"
Danziger pulled away from the guards to get back to Ellie. He felt for her breath on his cheek, but she still wasn't breathing. He managed to get one more breath into her before the men jerked him back, slamming him into the wall.
She was going to die, he realized. She was going to die because these station bureaucrats were more concerned about procedure than life. Ellie was just a drone to them. And so was he.
Furious, he fought them again, punching one solidly in the gut and shoving the other against the far wall. He fell next to Ellie again, his cheek turned to her face. Nothing. This time he managed to get two more breaths in her before the men were back on him, this time using stun weapons to drop him to the floor. He lay there, twitching uncontrollably from the charge, struggling to remain conscious.
"Please, help her," he tried to say. The guy he'd punched kicked him in the stomach, but the other man knelt next to Ellie.
"She's breathing," the soldier stated.
Within a few moments, a medical team had come to take Ellie to the infirmary. When John attempted to follow, the two soldiers held him back. "You're coming in for questioning, worker," came the response.
Of course, he fought them and was stunned again for his troubles. This time he was unconscious when they dragged him away.
The dream always shifted eleven years later to the day he left her. True was on board the Roanoke, ready for departure, blissfully unaware of the turmoil in her father's mind.
John never went to the neuro unit. He just couldn't stand to see her like that, so still and helpless. That wasn't his Ellie. But maybe, maybe after 44 years of cold sleep, there was a chance that STIM research would be returning better results than the empty shells he'd met previously—their successes. Maybe after their return, STIM would be good enough to really bring her back to them.
So, he'd arranged for Ellie to go into cold sleep as well. It was very risky in her condition and very expensive. But he knew the terms of his contract with Adair. He knew payment would be granted on departure and had already arranged for his debt to be paid off and Ellie's cold sleep contract to be paid in full for fifty years. When they came back, there should be enough left, gaining interest in his account, to pay for STIM and a new start for all of them. True wouldn't get her cat, but maybe she'd settle for her mom.
The dream always brought him to that place where he'd watched them place Ellie in the cold sleep capsule. Then things always began to get mixed up. Ellie and her doctor would be replaced in his vision with Devon and Julia.
"There's no guarantee that she'll wake up from this," Ellie's doctor/Julia would both say. "This is a very risky thing to do under the circumstances."
He would nod in the dream, knowing the risk was worth it for both of them. Then the sleep capsule would close on Ellie but flickered back to Devon in the Council ship. He reached out to touch the outside of Ellie's/Devon's capsule and the nightmare would begin in earnest.
Ellie's eyes would flash open. "John!" He jumped back in surprise. "John! Don't leave me in here! Don't leave me behind! Let me out! Please, John!"
He would awaken with a start, trying hard to still his breathing so as not to disturb True, the sound of Ellie's pleading cries echoing in his ears.
Morgan VO: It has been ten days since we placed Devon in cold sleep on Franklin Bennett's ship. Each morning, I see Julia wandering around between the ship and the med tent. She doesn't look as though she's slept at all in the entire ten day period. Meanwhile, even though Danziger makes noises about heading on to New Pacifica, it seems that each day there is a reason to delay.
Yesterday, Alonzo needed to talk to the Terrians in the area one more time to see if there was any chance of help from their quarter. The day before Walman and Baines wanted to go over the dunerail's drive system one more time. The day before that, Yale needed to spend a few more hours downloading all the information available on the Council ship's computer system.
No one wants to leave, but we all know we have to. I wonder what will happen today to put us off schedule again.
Danziger sat down with True for a bite of breakfast, rubbing his eyes wearily as he took a drink of water. True gave him a worried look.
"What is it, Truegirl?" he asked, knowing he sounded tired.
"Did you sleep okay last night?" she asked, giving him a sidelong glance of concern.
"Sure I did," he lied. "Why do you ask?"
"You didn't sound like you slept good," she answered seriously. "You mumbled a lot."
"Really?" he tried to sound surprised. "What did I say?"
"All I could make out was something about not leaving, something like 'I won't leave you.' Who won't you leave, Dad? Devon?" she asked.
John looked down at his daughter, once again feeling as though he'd failed her. He was supposed to protect her from harm, but had managed to drag her 22 light years from home to a dangerous planet full of convicts, strange creatures, death, and now his own personal demons. He put his arm around her to give her a hug and a kiss on the top of her head.
"I don't remember any dreams," he lied again, determined to at least protect her from worrying about his state of mind. "I might have been dreaming about taking you with me to come here. You know I'd never leave you."
"We're going to leave Devon," she said sadly. It tore at him to see True in such misery. And at that moment he didn't want to see Uly at all. The lost look on the little boy's face was a constant source of pain to everyone around him.
Julia stumbled by them, mumbling under her breath. This had to stop.
"Julia," Danziger called out, giving True another squeeze, then rising to intercept the doctor.
She turned, and he was uncomfortably reminded of the time she'd been taking Uly's DNA. She looked just about the same degree of crazy to him.
"When did you last get any sleep?" he asked.
"I've been sleeping," she answered defensively.
Alonzo walked up behind her, shaking his head and giving Danziger a solemn look.
"I don't believe you," Danziger answered firmly. "You go back to your tent right now. Knock yourself out if necessary, but get some sleep. There's no way you can cure Devon if you're out of your mind from exhaustion."
"But we're going to leave today," she began pitifully. "I've still got tests to run."
A sudden boom from behind the transrover cut into their discusssion. "Not again," Danziger groaned. "It sounds like the power generator's gone belly up again. That means at least one more day here to fix it," he continued. "So go to bed. Alonzo, see that she does as she's told."
Danziger glowered down at her as imposingly as he could manage. The observant doctor in her took in the red rims of his eyes and the weariness in his own face. "You need to do the same, John," she recommended.
"I'll sleep in New Pacifica," he replied gruffly as he watched Alonzo steer her away to their tent.
Across the compound, he could see Baines and Walman already kneeling next to the ailing power generator.
"What's the trouble, boys?" he asked, knowing already.
"The catalyst cell is shot," Walman replied. "This time, I don't think even you can fix it."
That damned catalyst cell had been giving them fits for the past week. He knelt down to begin to tinker with it. Sure enough, there was no jury rigging it any longer. It was shot. Without the catalyst to drive the reaction, there would be no power for recharging. Solar alone wouldn't hold up to the pace they were driving.
He sighed and tossed the piece of equipment to the ground next to him. Right that moment all he wanted to do was give in to it all. Despair over the equipment that he couldn't keep running, despair over finding a cure to bring Devon back to lead this group again, despair over ever getting his daughter back home where she'd be safe and happy.
But despair wasn't John Danziger's way. Somehow, he had to find a fix for this. Sitting there, he pondered the workings of the catalyst and its job, seeking a way around the problem. The catalyst provided the jumpstart of energy for the fusion reactor to do its job. He just needed another jumpstarter. Something that held plenty of energy but released it safely.
"Sunstones."
Baines looked over at Danziger with a questioning look. "Sunstones?"
"Yeah, sunstones. Morganite. Go get Martin for me, will ya?" Danziger had a distant look on his face as if he were trying to see through a problem.
A few moments later, a nervous Morgan Martin stood before Danziger, who hadn't moved from his seat on the ground next to the generator.
"Martin," he began, "what happened to all the sunstones you and Bess and Julia had when you cracked the geolock?"
Morgan swallowed nervously and replied, "We put them back in the cave with all the rest of them."
"All of them?" Danziger gave him a very searching look.
That man could look positively intimidating when he wanted to, Morgan thought. He decided to come clean. "Well, Bess still had one in her bag when the Terrians captured us. They didn't take it away, so we figured it might be okay to keep it," he ventured timidly. "As a souvenir," he explained, not too convincingly.
"Good job," Danziger replied, giving Morgan a friendly clap on the shoulder. "Go get it."
Baines looked at Danziger as if he'd lost his mind. "What are you planning to do, Danz?" he asked.
"I think I can retrofit a sunstone to function as a catalyst cell," Danziger explained, his mind still clearly turning the idea over.
"If you don't have the power balanced just right, the whole generator will blow and take out the entire camp," Walman interjected nervously.
"Yeah," Danziger answered. "I'm going to need Yale and Morgan for this one."
A few hours later, Danziger knelt next to the generator, slipping the sunstone into place. Maybe this housing would work, he thought. Gingerly, he moved the stone into the housing, and it settled into place with a click. Perfect, he thought.
After a few minor adjustments in positioning, he began to debate the power settings. Too high and it would explode. Too low and it would just melt the housing away. Just right and the housing would stay intact as the sunstone's energy was diverted into jumpstarting the reaction.
He took another deep breath and gave it his best shot. All seemed well as the reaction began.
Suddenly, a loud whine rose from the generator and before he could shut it down, with a loud boom, the world went white around him.