After Splashdown
By Aunty Pasta
Lucas had finally fallen asleep.
They'd been on the island for days, and neither he nor Dagwood had gotten a bit of sleep. Dagwood was genetically created to go days without sleep, but Lucas was not. Finally he was so exhausted that he could no longer keep his eyes open and his body had taken control of itself. Dagwood held his friend's head in his lap until *they* came.
*They* were the planet's resistance. A small group of aliens who wore large helmets with face plates over their faces came from a strange looking launch to check their vital signs. Dagwood allowed them to touch him, but when one started to check Lucas, he pushed the hand away.
The alien kneeled by his side. "I won't hurt him," she said in perfectly understood English. "I only want to check his vitals."
Dagwood watched her like a hawk as she touched his neck with one finger. With her other hand she took Lucas's wrist in her hand and touched the vein which would tell her whether he had a pulse. When she finished, she looked up at Dagwood.
"I have no idea what you are, but your vitals aren't too far off," she said. "His are normal." She touched Lucas's cheek with her hand.
As Dagwood watched, she pulled her helmet off to reveal a face-- a human face. "My name is Sierra Rusch." She stuck out her hand for Dagwood to shake.
"You are human," Dagwood said. "Like Lucas. Not like the bad aliens."
"It's a very long story," Sierra said. "Would you wake him up? I think he needs to hear it, too. I don't want to startle him."
Dagwood nodded and shook Lucas's shoulder. "Lucas, wake up," he said.
"I want to sleep, Dag," Lucas murmured. "Maybe when I wake up it will have all been a bad dream."
"Lucas," Sierra said gently. "I need your help."
Lucas's eyes flashed open and he sat up. "You're not from seaQuest." It wasn't a question.
She shook her head no. "It's a long story, but I need to know what happened to Scott. He went to attack the space ship, and I haven't heard from him since."
"You know Commander Keller?"
Sierra nodded.
"How?" Lucas asked.
"It's a long story," Sierra repeated.
"I've got time," Lucas said.
"I don't," Sierra replied.
"He's dead," Lucas said.
Sierra gasped and stood to confer with the other members of her party. She walked away from them to look out over the newly flooded sea.
"They might not be," she said. "I survived."
"How did you get here and what do you mean?" Lucas demanded.
Sierra turned back to Lucas. She looked like she couldn't be much older than he was.
"I guess I'll have to tell you what has been going on here before we find the others," she said then began her story.
* * * * *
September 27, 1997
Sierra Rusch had finished her first month of college, and she felt like she was going to make it. A drive alone through the mountains was her private little celebration. She parked her car at a lookout point and leaned back to watch the stars over her head. She loved the stars, and never stopped dreaming of the day when she would make it through these important college years and hopefully into the space program. She wanted to see that sky from the other side.
She lay watching, when one of the stars began to move. It streaked across the sky and back again. Sierra sat up and reached for her binoculars. The light was moving way too fast to be an airplane, and too fast to catch with the binocs. Her face twisted into a frown as the light just disappeared.
A few moments passed before she was suddenly surrounded by the light.
She awoke to find herself face down in the dirt of a scorching desert. She wore the same clothes that she had been wearing when the light had surrounded her.
She lay still to conserve energy, when she realized that she had a new understanding. The aliens who had abducted her had not intended to harm her. They had planned to study her.
When they were attacked by the other aliens, they left her here to save her life. They had hurriedly placed information vital to her own survival in her mind as well, although she could now do things that she had never dreamed were possible for her to ever do like brain surgery and playing the piano. She knew a lot more now than she had ever dreamed of knowing.
As she lay on the hot sand watching the two moons rise over the horizon, she realized that she was paralyzed. She couldn't move or feel anything. With the realization that she couldn't move, came the knowledge as to why. Her neck was broken.
She felt too numb to cry. The aliens had left her with the knowledge to survive, but somewhere along the way, she had become injured.
She looked out over the expanse of the sands and saw water. Hours passed and she learned something about the water. It was rising.
As it grew closer to where she lay, she prayed long and hard that she would die quickly and not suffer to badly in the process.
She couldn't feel it cover her body, but when it began to lap at her cheek, she suddenly felt at peace. She fell asleep.
When she woke, she was staring at the ceiling of a man-made cave, and she could feel her body again. Her first thought was that the whole thing had just been a dream, but somewhere inside she suspected that it had really happened.
She moved around and sat up to find a man standing not far away. When he saw her, he came over to greet her.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Rested," Sierra answered. "I had the weirdest dream."
Another man came to join them. "I'm Scott Keller," he said. "This is my friend Tobias LaConte."
"I'm Sierra Rusch," she said looking around. "Where on Earth am I?"
The two men looked at each other. "That's the problem," Scott said. "You're not on Earth."
She looked at him incredulously. "You're kidding?"
Scott shook his head no. "I'm beginning to wish I were."
"How did you get here?" Tobias asked.
Sierra closed her eyes for a moment to think. When she opened them she told them everything.
"Nineteen ninety seven, huh," Scott said. "That was at least twenty five years ago."
"What?!"
Tobias nodded. "You seem to have been in a stasis caused by the cold water. A coma state close to cryonics."
"Can I have a mirror?" she asked suddenly.
"There aren't any mirrors," Scott said. "But you look beautiful and young. I'd guess your age to be around twenty if I didn't know better."
"I was twenty-five when I disappeared," she told them. "And I wasn't what you'd call beautiful. I had problem skin when I was younger and last time I looked I still had the scars."
Scott looked around until he found a reflective plate. "Here, see for yourself."
She stared into the plate in shock. Gone were the scars that had decorated her face for so long. Even the scar she had gotten as a child from a cat was gone. Her skin was smooth and perfect. Otherwise, it was the same face she had always regarded as *not that pretty*.
"You think I'm beautiful?" Sierra asked. It was the last remnants of low self esteem talking.
Scott nodded. "Yes," he said.
"I agree," Tobias said.
"There's got to be something in the water," Sierra said.
"Maybe," Tobias said. "But we've got other things to think about."
* * * * *
"I never got to really see the other side of the sky. Just a sky full of strange stars." She looked up at him. "You probably know the rest," Sierra told Lucas as she sat on the warm sand. "About the civil war, Tobias's capture, Scott's attack on the space ship."
"Yes," Lucas said. "I know. Do you really think they may be alive?"
She tapped herself on the chest. "I do."
Lucas nodded and pulled himself off of the sand. "Can you get me fuel for my stinger?"
Sierra nodded. "Will you help us?"
"Of course I will," he said. "Helping you will help me."
"We'll get you that fuel," Sierra told him. "Let's get moving."
Nathan Bridger could have been waking up on any normal morning, but it wasn't exactly a *normal* morning. His eyes opened and he could hear voices in the distance. Was this hell? he wondered. Or was he still alive? Both questions were answered when Scott Keller approached.
"You awake yet, Nathan?" he asked.
Nathan nodded. "I think so," he said. "How am I alive?"
"Long story," Scott told him as a young woman came to help Nathan up. "This is Sierra."
Nathan nodded to the woman. "You aren't a member of my crew."
"No sir," Sierra said. "It's a long story, but I think you may want to see your boat first."
"Lucas said it was blown apart."
"Let's just say that we are fixing it," Sierra told him. "Lucas is waiting for you on the bridge sir. I'll take you there as soon as your Dr. Smith pronounces you fit for duty."
"How long has it been?" Nathan asked again.
"Three weeks," Scott told him.
"How long will it take for us to get home?" Nathan said.
Scott and Sierra both looked uncomfortable. "After Tobias gets the ship fixed.... about ten years," Sierra revealed.
"Ten years," Nathan mumbled. "There will be lots of changes."
"That's why some of us have decided to stay," Scott said. "I'm not going back."
Nathan looked at him. "Who else?"
"Me," came a voice from the door.
He turned to look her in the eye. "Wendy, are you sure?" Nathan asked.
Wendy nodded. "Ortiz is staying, too. Anyone who hasn't woken from the coma by the time you go back in stasis for the trip home, well, we aren't letting them have that choice."
"You can stay if you'd like Nathan," Scott said. "But I get the feeling you want to be there for the crew when they wake up at home ten years in the future."
Nathan nodded. "You're right. What about you? What's your story?" he asked Sierra.
Sierra told him the short version. "I've been gone for twenty-five years," she said. "Another ten will just mean that home isn't there anymore. I will go back someday, just not right now."
"I hope you get what you wanted," Nathan said to her with a handshake before turning to Wendy. "We're going to miss you."
"I know," she replied then gave him a hug. "I'll miss you too."
Tobias entered at just that moment. "The pods are here," he said. "They're attaching them to the seaQuest right now."
"Will seaQuest get any damage?" Nathan asked.
"No," Tobias told him. "There will be an energy field around it to keep that from happening."
As Nathan nodded, Tobias went on. "I need for you to promise me something."
"Anything."
"This conflict must be kept secret," Tobias said.
"I will promise that if you can promise we get home safely," Nathan said.
Tobias smiled. "That is a promise that I will try my hardest to keep."
They shook hands.
"Now, let's get a look at my ship," Nathan said.
Several weeks later, Lucas was doing a last minute system check as Nathan and Sierra came onto the bridge. "You know, Sierra, I was just wondering... what year were you born?"
"My birthday was March 18, 1972," Sierra answered.
Nathan looked at her. "I'm a day older than you."
Sierra looked at him for a moment. "I am the same age as you are?"
"Yes."
Sierra looked nervous and incredibly disturbed as she twisted a long piece of her hair. She left the bridge alone.
"Maybe I shouldn't have asked," Lucas said as he watched her leave.
"Maybe," Bridger answered looking after her and trying to get his mind on the ship. The revelation that she and he were the same age had disturbed him a bit as well. "We up yet?"
"Yeah," Lucas replied. "I was getting ready to shut her back down."
Nathan nodded. "How many are going back?"
"Everyone who came out of the stasis has decided to stay except you and me," Lucas said. "Only twenty have come out not including us." He paused. "Don't you think that someone should talk to her?"
Nathan nodded as he thought about the few days they had spent together. He felt like he knew her from somewhere, but he couldn't place his finger on where. It had been bothering him since they met.
"I think it should be me," he said and left the bridge.
He found her in the ward room, waiting for who knew what.
"I just need to be along for awhile," she said.
"Time has stood still for you, hasn't it?"
Sierra nodded. "I just feel a little weird."
"That's how the cryogenic patients feel when they wake up," Nathan said, trying to be helpful. "But they're always glad to be alive."
"I should be dead," Sierra insisted.
"So should they," he replied. "Cryogenic miracles aren't natural, but you weren't frozen. You were kidnapped by aliens."
She looked up into his eyes. "They saved my life by leaving me here."
"Then you weren't meant to die quite yet."
She was silent for a few second before she spoke again. "You know what I miss most about home? Big Macs and hot-from-the-fryer French fries. I could eat a dozen of them."
"If you were on Earth right now, you'd still be missing them," Nathan said with a light smile. "Beef has been illegal since the turn of the century. All you can get at McDonald's now is two all veggie patties on a sesame seed bun."
Sierra smiled. "OK, so that scratches that idea."
Nathan laughed and took her hand in his. "I'm sorry things have been so strange for you," he said.
"It'll be fine," she replied as the tap came on the door.
It opened to reveal Lucas standing there. "It's time, Captain."
"I'm coming," he replied.
Lucas nodded and left.
They were quiet for a bit until Sierra reached up and kissed Nathan on the lips. It was a shy kiss, but he could feel the passion behind it. He let it deepen, but Sierra pulled away and told him to go.
She touched his chest where his heart beat strongly. "I'll be here when you wake up," she said as he placed his hand over hers.
They were still like that for a moment until he moved away. She clung to his hand until he was out of her reach and her hand fell to her side. Tears streamed down her face as he turned to face her one last time.
"I wish you could come," he said gently.
"Me, too."
"Good-by," Nathan said then turned and left the room. It was the hardest word he had ever said and he couldn't figure out for the life of him why.
He stopped at the bridge on the way out to make good on his promise to Tobias. As he erased his memory banks, he thought about Robert and what might have happened if he hadn't died when he did. Would he be a grandfather by now? He guessed that he would never know.
With his task done, he headed to the shuttle bay.
Wendy injected Lucas and Nathan with a sedative. "If you are asleep," she said. "You're drowning reflexes won't make you fight against the water."
Nathan lay on the same bed he had woken up on only hours earlier waiting for sleep to take him. He didn't have to wait long.
He and Lucas were placed in long plastic tubes into which the water was pumped. Sierra watched as the ice cold Hyperian water covered Nathan and he fell into the cold coma state. Lucas underwent the same exact process except they used a special instrument to erase his memory.
"Why didn't you erase Nathan's memory," Sierra asked.
"Someone needs to remember," Tobias said. "He made the promise, he is the captain."
Sierra nodded and turned back to the rebel Kraytax who were loading Lucas and Nathan into the last of the escape pod modules.
"When they get home," Tobias explained to the gathered people. "They will be transported to the last pleasant thought they had before they went under. They'll be confused, but at least it will be a happy circumstance."
"Good luck, my friends," Scott said as they watched the ship disappear into the clouds.
Two Days Later
Scott and Sierra stood on the last remaining remnant of land on Hyperion looking to the stars.
"They will never be like they were on Earth," Sierra said.
"Homesick?" Scott asked.
"A little," Sierra replied. "I miss the mountains of home."
"That all?"
"I miss Lucas and Nathan, too."
Scott smiled. "One more than the other, I'd guess."
Sierra blushed a bit and smiled back. "I wish we had had more time. I feel like I knew him on Earth somehow....I don't know..." she ran her hands through her long hair. "Maybe it was just a dream or something."
Scott nodded. "Who knows, maybe you did know him," he said.
"I wouldn't mind being able to explore it a bit more," Sierra said.
"There are a couple of the ships left," Scott said. "You want to go home?"
"Can I think about it for a few days?" Sierra asked.
Scott nodded and they turned their attention back to the stars.
"A Brave New World"
Lucas Wolenczek woke up in the corridor outside the conference room at UEO headquarters in New Cape Quest, Florida. He had to get to the secretary general. Trouble was, he didn't know why.
He walked into the room, soaked from head to toe, and located McGath quickly. He stumbled his way past Ambassadors and heads of state, paying no attention to them or the fact that he was getting a lot of attention himself, before collapsing at Mcgath's feet.
Nathan woke up with the sun shining in his face. His eyes opened to a blue sky, and the green tops of trees. A woman with brown hair and dark eyes stood above him. When she ran off, he tried to figure out how he had gotten here.
He could remember everything from Scott's cryptic message to falling asleep again before being placed back into stasis. He could remember Sierra's face as he fell asleep.
Then the woman was back. "Where am I?" he asked.
"Brussels," she answered with a thick accent. "Belgium. At the consulate. Who are you?"
Nathan sat up slowly. "Nathan Bridger."
"Bridger, huh," said a man who came up behind the woman. "I never expected it to be you when Nita came running in. There's someone inside I think you may want to meet."
The man helped him up and started to lead him toward the large house. "I am Craig Allen, the American Ambassador to Brussels. Do you know how you got here?"
Nathan shook his head. "Sorry, I can't remember anything," he lied.
"Well, you and your ship disappeared without a trace about ten years ago," Allen told him. "About five years ago, a woman brought a child to us. He was about three or four days old, and she was so sick she could barely stand." He stood just outside a room where some small children were playing. "We tried to get her to stay here until she was well, but she disappeared from her room a day later. I got the feeling that she was in some kind of trouble and wanted him safe until she could get well. She never returned."
He pointed out a small blonde boy about five years old. "Why do you want me to meet this boy?" Nathan asked.
"Because the one thing we managed to get out of the woman was the boy's name, his father's name and his grandfather's name," Allen told him. "The boy is Michael Nathan, his father's name is Robert George and his grandfather is Nathan Hale."
Nathan looked at him in surprise. "Bridger. They were all Bridger," Allen went on.
Nathan looked back at the boy. He *did* look like Robert when he was a child. Nathan shook his head. "That's impossible," he said. "My son died in the Korean Crisis almost twenty years ago."
"I had a DNA test done using the samples that the UEO has on file for both you and your son. It was a match," Allen said. "I can make the results available if you like."
Nathan leaned on the doorjamb. "I don't believe this," he said.
"I understand your disbelief," Allan said. "But that boy has been waiting all of his life to find his family. Don't make him wait any longer."
Nathan was silent. He nodded slowly, and the woman who had found him went into the room to get the boy. When she returned with him, Nathan knelt down to look the boy in the eye.
"Are you my grandfather?" Michael asked.
Nathan nodded. "Yes, I guess I am."
Michael hugged his grandfather tightly as tears fell from Nathan's eyes.