Disclaimer: Earth 2 and all related characters belong to the Amblin Entertainment. No copyright infringement intended, and there's definitely no money being made. It would be extremely rude (and unprofitable) to sue me.
Author's Notes & Lame Excuses:
This story was written several years ago, but only partially completed. I recently found it hiding in a dark corner of my hard drive, and decided to finish it. I'll post the remaining chapters once I'm sure there are no glaring errors. There are obvious changes in the pacing and writing style, but I didn't really feel like overhauling the entire story, so that's the way it is. Originally started as an attempt to tell a story from only two opposing viewpoints (which is why Chapter 1 deals only with Morgan & Alonzo's POV), that was abandoned as the story progressed.
The storyline is set after the series end. Devon is not in the story because I have basically only one idea as to how to "unthaw" her, and that's being used in another story that is also still sitting on my hard drive. :-)
I have no medical knowledge whatsoever, so if Julia's medical opinions sound like uneducated gibberish, that's why.
Whew! I have lots of notes/lame excuses! I will now shut up and let the story commence.
The Children of Earth and Air
by Lady Kate
Chapter 1
"Alonzo! Alonzo!" Morgan's strident voice was calling with more excitement than usual, and his running stride seemed to be exceptionally buoyant. "Come quickly! I've got to show you something! Quick!"
In the middle of helping Julia set up camp, Alonzo paused to stare dubiously at Morgan, not entirely sure what to make of this new enthusiasm, or why Morgan was so determined to share it with him.
"Hurry up!" Morgan urged.
Julia chuckled lightly, shaking her head. "You might as well go see what Morgan is so excited about. I'll finish setting up the tent."
"No, I'll do it when I get back. Shouldn't take too long... I hope." He eyed Morgan, who was jumping up and down with impatience. "You might want to help Bess with her tent," he suggested as an afterthought. "It looks like setting up camp is the last thing on Morgan's mind."
"Alonzo!" Morgan shrilled again, an especially whiny edge beginning to intrude on his voice.
"All right, all right, Morgan, I'm coming. What's got you so— urk!" Alonzo's question jolted to an abrupt halt as Morgan seized his arm and nearly hauled him off his feet as he started running full-tilt through the rocky landscape. Morgan raced at what had to be his top speed to the peak of a nearby hill. Alonzo followed more or less willingly. At the very least, Morgan's frantic rush had piqued his curiosity. Morgan was lethargic to a fault; anything that had him running had to be interesting.
"This," Morgan gasped triumphantly, stumbling to a halt and waving his arm expansively at the horizon, "this... is what I wanted to show you!"
The two of them were standing near the edge of the bluff, and beyond it the land dropped sharply off on an almost impossibly steep incline. It made for a most impressive view. From their vantage point, the land seemed to stretch out in every direction. A clustering of mountainous rocky peaks above, and far below, a bewildering maze of trails winding around stony spires of rock and earth. There were hints that there might once have been rivers and abundant plant life below, but now it was mostly dust and stone and cold wind.
It was a starkly beautiful landscape, but it made overland travel extremely difficult. Without air reconnaissance, it was hard to say which circuitous route would be the most passable and most convenient. And it was for that reason that Yale had suggested the group come to a halt and set up camp, simply because he needed to chart and study the available data. If they took a wrong turn, followed the wrong trail, it might take days to backtrack and try another. As it was, Yale had estimated it would take several weeks to travel through the canyons below.
"The minute I saw this," Morgan gushed, still huffing a bit from all his running, "I realized that you were probably the only one who would understand!"
Alonzo sighed. Apparently, Morgan was destined to go through life forever misunderstood. He stared out at the vista, searching for the gold or rich ores or mineral deposits that must have caught Morgan's eye, but couldn't see anything. Momentarily, he wondered if Morgan were visualizing a resort or something. He glanced at Morgan, who grinned happily. "What am I looking for?"
Morgan's face fell, and he finally realized where Alonzo was looking. "Not out there—! Up there!" he pointed, flinging his arm upward. "I think I've discovered some new Terrians."
Alonzo peered up into the bright sky. "I think you've discovered birds."
Morgan made a rude noise, then shoved a set of jumpers into Alonzo's hands.
The jumpers were set to maximum magnification, which brought the forms much closer, but the midday sun was making it difficult to discern any details. Alonzo could see... winged creatures. He keyed the measurement index, was a little surprised at the data. Large winged creatures. Perhaps almost Terrian in appearance... But they circled high above, and the jumpers kept flickering and readjusting as they tried to compensate against the intense light.
Still peering upwards, Alonzo took a few steps, trying to get a better angle, only to have Morgan seize his arm and yank him back.
"Watch it, Solace, or you're gonna walk right off the cliff."
Looking around, Alonzo realized how uncomfortably close he was to the edge. "Thanks, Morgan." Retreating a few steps, he handed the jumpers back to Morgan, trying to listen to that corner of his thoughts where the Terrians spoke. Nothing. The now-familiar itchiness at the back of his mind was absent; there were no half-heard whispers on the wind. He cast his mind outward, and felt nothing in response.
"So... what do you think?"
"I dunno," Alonzo muttered uncertainly, squinting as he looked up at them. "It's hard to see them clearly." The winged creatures drifted almost lazily in the air, very high above them. "But even on the dream plane, I've never seen flying Terrians."
"Well," Morgan huffed, obviously riled by Alonzo's skepticism, and his mood souring accordingly, "that's hardly surprising. If I were a Terrian, I certainly wouldn't go spilling my life's story and entire history to the first hothead pilot that came along. So I think you should stop pretending that you know everything about them."
Alonzo grinned, which only seemed to infuriate Morgan further. "Do you know, that's the first time I've actually heard you siding with the Terrians. Are you sure you're feeling okay?"
"Listen, flyboy—"
"Morgan! Alonzo!" Bess' piercing cry cut through the air. She stood at the bottom of the incline, waving her arms furiously. "Watch out—!"
Both men whirled. A dark shape plummeted from the sky, speeding directly toward them at an alarming rate. Morgan dropped to the ground, Alonzo ducked, but not quite quickly enough. Something caught his arm just below the shoulder, wrenching him off his feet and off the embankment in one fluid motion. There were shouts beneath him, but the wind was roaring in his ears and his face so that he could hardly catch his breath, and the rocky landscape was whipping by at a dizzying rate.
For a few brief moments, he was too disoriented to make sense of what was happening.
One of Morgan's flying Terrians, he realized, craning his head upward to see. A powerful, clawed leg was latched painfully tight about his upper arm, but that vise-like grip was the only thing keeping him from falling to his death. Seizing his wrist with his free hand, he tried to stay as still as possible, and tried very hard not to think about what might happen if his jacket ripped. They were flying wildly through the canyons he'd been looking down at only moments before, skimming so close to rock walls that he was sure he could have kicked out with a dangling foot and touched them.
His arm felt like it was about to be pulled from its socket by the time the creature released him, dropping him on a particularly high outcropping of rock. Alonzo fell heavily, rolling as he hit the ground, but at least he was in one piece.
The creature circled above him, but did not come any closer. Alonzo glanced quickly about, trying to get his bearings. The small rocky plateau he'd been dumped on was perched atop a high column of rock. The surrounding canyon walls were far too far to even dream of jumping across, and they seemed almost as sheer. No easy way down – at least, not without ropes and harnesses. And hell if he knew just which way the camp was; from where he now stood, the entire surrounding landscape was nothing but craggy hills, and he'd been too startled to be paying any attention to exactly which direction the creature had been taking him.
What had it been? One minute? Two? He wasn't quite sure, but fervently hoped that the camp wasn't too far away...
He turned around, trying to look in every direction at once, and caught sight of dark wings, dark shapes drawing nearer. A large number of them. And a high keening wail. That one creature looked odd... like it was carrying—
Morgan howled, and for once Alonzo couldn't blame him. The creature had caught him by the ankle, and had flown him all the way over here while hanging upside down.
The creature swooped in low, pulling up in a sharp upward turn as it let Morgan loose. Alonzo jumped forward, trying to break the other man's fall. Morgan plowed into him with all the force of a runaway cargo pod, sending both of them crashing to the ground in an awkward tangle of arms and legs.
With a painful groan, Alonzo shoved Morgan off him. It took another concerted burst of effort to actually sit up. "You okay?" Alonzo finally managed.
"Y-y-yeah," Morgan stuttered, glassy-eyed with terror. "W-what... W-w-where are we?"
'No place good,' he thought, but didn't say that. "Just keep calm, Morgan. I think we're going to have to wait for the others to help us down from here."
"B-but those things... what do they want now?" Morgan wailed, pointing with his chin.
Alonzo turned, watched as some of the creatures began to alight on the other side of the plateau. Up close like this, he could see why Morgan thought they were Terrians. There were... similarities. Same impassive countenance and mottled colouring. Intimidatingly tall. And yet, they were lithe and slender and graceful in form where the Terrians were stoic and strong and muscled. Large dark eyes rather than the wizened Terrian gaze. Long bat-like wings. No arms that he could see. And though he mentally reached out for the dreamplane, these beings did not speak to him at all...
The creatures began to advance toward them. "Alonzo?" Morgan wailed desperately. "What do they want?"
"I don't know," he said uneasily, still casting his mind out, trying to dream to them, but there was nothing. And when he opened his eyes, they had moved in between him and Morgan, had already encircled them. Damn. Not good. "I don't think they're Terrians. At least, if they are, I can't reach them." The creatures seemed drawn by his voice, leaning close as he spoke, and so he fell silent. A leathery wing reached out, brushed against his jacket. He flinched, but didn't run. There was nowhere to run to, anyway.
"I think," Morgan whimpered, and the creatures all turned their attention to his tremulous voice, "I think they maybe just want to see... what we are?"
He might be right, Alonzo supposed. The bird-like creatures were circling, batting experimentally at them, but otherwise not really threatening them. "Just keep calm," he murmured briefly. "Quiet."
"I'm quiet," Morgan squeaked before he stopped talking altogether, and even seemed to be holding his breath.
In only a few moments, the creatures seemed to be losing interest in the two humans. They began to withdraw, one after the other taking wing and leaping into the sky, leaving less and less of them clustered about them.
Possibly the penal colonists had never ventured into this area; perhaps these creatures had never seen humans before. Perhaps it was just curiosity...
One of the few remaining creatures stretched out an inquisitive wingtip the colour of tattered old leather; it rustled over the shoulder of Alonzo's jacket, then brushed up across the side of his neck. Alonzo stiffened with shock as the touch sent a jolt through his nervous system.
"Alonzo?" he heard Morgan asking nervously, but he couldn't turn his head to see him. The creature leaned forward and chittered loudly into his face, and suddenly there were more creatures in front of him, wings outstretched, touching his neck, his forehead, his face.
It burned. Trying to ward them away, he flung out his hands, and those were seized too. He fell backwards, crashing to the ground, the creatures leaning over him and following him down, all of them now chittering and screeching and touching him, and their touch burned, he didn't even know what it was he was feeling, but it was alien, it was terrifying.
"Alonzo!"
He couldn't see anything now but the blur of shifting wings, couldn't feel anything but their skin crawling over his; he screamed then, again and again, trying to twist away from them, to escape, but they were everywhere, and they dragged him down, away from consciousness.
Morgan was convinced that Alonzo was dead. How had it happened? It was almost a blur in his mind. Those things had been leaving, and then suddenly they had pounced upon the other man, swarming over him like starving rats, and Alonzo had shouted and fallen over, struggling and kicking, and that was all Morgan had been able to see of the other man – just his legs sticking out from the pile of wings and aliens. He'd been sure they were sucking the blood out of him – they looked just like bats. Morgan had seen bats in the VR zoos on the stations, and while the tour guides had said most bats were too small to harm humans, these creatures were big, they towered over them.
Morgan had flung a stone or two, but it bounced off their tough hides and they paid no attention. And then he didn't know what to do, so he simply backed as far away as he could and tried not to see what they were doing. Alonzo abruptly fell silent. The creatures huddled over him for a while longer, squeaking and chirping to themselves and rustling their wings, and then they had all got to their feet and turned to look at Morgan.
One of them came for him. He'd wanted to run, but he was trapped up here, and so he'd simply whimpered, "No, don't come near me," even though they couldn't possibly understand. The creature had stretched out a wingtip, brushed it firmly against his face. The touch itched a little, but that was all; and he just waited there trembling, not wanting to antagonize the creature, but not knowing what to do. "Uh... is this a test...?" The tall being peered unblinkingly at him, then abruptly withdrew the wing, and it and all the others flew away.
Just like that.
It was a while before he finally mustered enough courage to check on Alonzo. The other man lay sprawled a few feet away with his eyes closed; he was silent and unmoving, but at least he wasn't the bloody, gory mess that Morgan had so frightfully imagined. He actually looked... sort of... okay. Tentatively, he touched Alonzo's cheek, happily surprised to find it still warm, and felt the warm whisper of a breath on his hand.
"Oh, thank god! Alonzo – wake up!" Morgan slapped his face lightly, and when he got no response, started shaking him. "You're okay; wake up!"
Obviously, Alonzo wasn't ready to wake up. And it was getting dark.
Morgan sat back on his heels in frustration, looking vainly around for something that would help. Out here. Way in the middle of nowhere. On top of a big rock. "Okay," he murmured to himself, stretching out both of his hands as if he were gesturing for someone else to stay calm. Deep breath. "What to do. I need... Sun going down. It's getting dark. Build a fire. Yes. That would be good." He always felt less panicky when he had something to do. Sticks. There were at least some dry, dead sticks up here. Once upon a time, there must have been lots of growing things here, but the undergrowth was very brittle now. Should burn nicely. And the others would be looking for them – maybe they'd see the fire. If he could get one going. And if he didn't fall off the edge of this stupid rock in the dark.
Okay. Enough sticks. "Something to light it. I wonder—" He began to hunt through his pockets. Morgan had made it a habit to always carry small survival items, just in case. Enough people had had enough weird things happen to them on this planet that he was convinced you could never be too careful. Of course, most of the stuff he'd had in his pockets was now scattered halfway across G889, since those things had carried him here upside down.
Damn. No igniter in his pockets. He started to dig through Alonzo's. Yes! The old Martin luck wasn't extinct yet – it had just been a little unreliable lately, that's all... His hands were shaking as he tried to light the fire.
"You'll be okay, Alonzo, and in the morning we'll get down from here. Somehow. I'm sure Bess and the others are coming."
The thought of his wife was the lifeline that kept him from thinking of all the other terrible things that could maybe happen – like if those creatures came back to eat them, or if they didn't come back and instead he and Alonzo both starved to death up here, or if— Okay. Enough of that.
"Bess and the others will be here tomorrow," he murmured insistently to his unconscious companion, "don't you worry about it. Don't you worry at all."
Alonzo woke with a grinding headache and unusually stiff muscles. Opening his eyes, he restrained a groan as he sat up, and looked around. It was dawn, and he and Morgan were lying out in the open. There was a small fire just guttering out, and no sign of anyone or anything else.
For a brief moment, he blinked uncomprehendingly at his surroundings, and then a memory flared through his mind. Those winged things Morgan had dragged him up to look at. And then getting carried off. It seemed like a dream, now.
Alonzo managed to climb stiffly to his feet without waking Morgan, and began to look over their surroundings. Let's see... Eden Advance had been heading west. Which meant they should be somewhere over there. Alonzo turned to look in that direction, but the landscape was still heavily shrouded in shadow. They might be there; they might not.
He leaned cautiously toward the edge, looking down at the dizzying drop. Okay, not going to get down that way. Not without ropes. And the other rocks over there were too far to—
Alonzo stopped. He'd done this yesterday, hadn't he? Yes. The memory was blurry, but it came back. Just before those creatures had thrown Morgan at him. It was a small memory, not very significant, but it disturbed him slightly. He didn't usually forget things.
He turned to glance back at Morgan, wincing as his stiff muscles protested the movement. Maybe he'd underestimated Morgan's weight, velocity, angle of approach, whatever – but getting in his way obviously hadn't been a very good idea. And judging from the ache at the back of his head, he'd probably knocked himself senseless in the process. Which explained the hazy memories of yesterday.
Morgan himself was still sprawled in an exhausted heap next to the tiny fire, looking as though he'd fretted and fussed himself to sleep. Alonzo let him be. Morgan-in-a-panic was never an easy thing to deal with, and without Bess here to calm him down, he'd be worse than usual.
'Besides,' Alonzo thought, trying to convince himself that his motives were completely altruistic, 'he looks like he could use the rest.'
He awoke at the sound of... gunfire? That didn't make any sense... did it? He sat up, bleary-eyed and puzzled, stiff and sore and cold from a night of lying out on the open ground.
He was on the plateau. Where those awful bird-Terrians had left the two of them. The sun was climbing midway up the sky – early morning. And Alonzo... Alonzo stood near the edge, whooping and hollering and gesturing over the side.
Alonzo was okay.
He wanted to jump up, to run over and ask what was going on, but Morgan had never been able to bounce out of bed. Usually Bess had to spend a good ten minutes gently shaking him before he could make the effort. But Bess wasn't here, and the ground was cold and hard, and he felt like he'd been frozen to the ground during the night. It was a few minutes of effort before he was actually able to stand up on his own and shuffle over to the other man. "Hey," he croaked, "you're okay!"
Alonzo threw him a bright smile, completely wide awake and already firing on all thrusters by the look of it. Damn, but Morgan hated people like that. "Yeah, I'm fine," Alonzo replied cheerily. "I was beginning to worry about you, actually. You always sleep so soundly?"
"Wh- what are you... talking about?" Morgan asked, still fighting off a yawn. "You're the one— Hey. What's going on?"
"The group's down below," Alonzo replied, and for the first time Morgan noticed that he had a length of rope in his hands, was busy attaching things to it. "I've been yelling at them for a good half hour now, and you didn't even blink."
"I heard... an explosion. Or something."
"That would be the sound of our return trip ticket. They fired a grappling pin into the rock face. Perfect shot. Couldn't have got it much closer without overshooting," Alonzo commented approvingly. "Once I get everything set up, we can be on our way."
Morgan had fully intended to ask Alonzo about yesterday, about what had happened, why those things had turned on him like that, and was he sure he was okay, but he felt something freeze within him at the pilot's words. That frighteningly slender rope, and those small metal attachments, and... and were those things harnesses? He reeled dizzily backwards, sat down heavily. "Oh my god..."
"Morgan? What's wrong?"
"Are you saying... you're saying... we're going to climb down?" His voice was squeaking again, but he couldn't help it. "On ropes? I thought— I thought they were going to come get us. How come— You can't seriously expect— Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick..."
"Morgan. Morgan, calm down!" Alonzo had taken him by the shoulders, was shaking him a little bit. The motion made him feel even more nauseous, but Morgan stopped his panicked dialogue. "They can't get up here," Alonzo explained patiently. "It's too high, they don't have the equipment, and even if they could get up here, we'd all still have to find a way down. We haven't got any air vehicles. This is the only way down. You do want to get down, don't you?" Morgan nodded forlornly. "Good." Alonzo pulled the equipment over to Morgan, lifted it in front of his face. "Your harness is attached here, to this device, which controls your descent. You pull this lever down to go faster – the minute you let go of it, it will stop." Alonzo proceeded to show him how the rope fed through, explained how the top rope was secured and couldn't possibly come loose, and Morgan felt his head swimming until Alonzo's words were just a blur. "Morgan, are you listening to me?"
"Yes." The word popped out instinctively, the way it always did when someone challenged him unexpectedly. Yes, I'm listening. No, it wasn't me. Yes, I'm ready. No, I didn't do that. "I mean... I think so."
"Okay. Put this on." Alonzo tossed him a confusing bundle of straps. Morgan watched Alonzo fasten his harness, tried to mimic the movements, feeling for all the world like he was strapping himself into his own coffin.
Apparently it showed on his face. "Don't worry about it so much," Alonzo said sympathetically. "It's perfectly safe. You'll be fine."
"How do you know!" Morgan burst out. "You're a pilot, not... not a... rope-maker, for god's sake!"
Alonzo smiled faintly, double-checking Morgan's harness, and making readjustments. "Some of my buddies and I had planned to go on one of those old-style rock-climbing adventure tours on Earth." He shrugged. "Seemed like it might be an interesting thing to do," which was the lamest excuse for going on a daredevil expedition that Morgan had ever heard. "Turned out there was so much bureaucratic red tape involved – everything from permits and passes and inoculations and release waivers – that we finally just said 'the hell with it' and spent our time and money at Garsonia starbase instead."
"So you've never actually done this before," Morgan said, picking out the one pertinent point from the other man's monologue.
Alonzo hesitated slightly, then conceded, "No. Not really."
"Then... then where'd you learn all that... that stuff you were going on about?"
"Learned it in my sleep."
"What!"
"Slipped it in between the company-loyalty monologues and the equipment bulletins. Sleep runs are long and expensive; it's standard practice for the shipping companies to educate their employees while we're sleeping on the job." Alonzo grinned rakishly, as if he knew exactly what the other man was thinking, "Never underestimate the power of the subconscious, Morgan."
Morgan, looking especially queasy, had insisted that Alonzo go first. Alonzo wasn't really sure that was a great idea – he was a little worried that Morgan would lose his nerve and sit up here forever unless there was someone forcing him down, but, on the other hand, he doubted Morgan would want to stay once he was all alone.
Besides, he half-suspected that the only reason Morgan really wanted him to go first was to see whether or not the ropes would hold.
Alonzo flashed Morgan a cocky grin, then leaned back over the edge of the drop. There was a heart-stopping moment where he simply fell, and then the rope and harness caught him, and he swung down nice and snug against the cliff side.
Kicking outward, Alonzo began rappelling down the rock face. He'd done it before in VR simulations, but it wasn't one of his strong points. No need to tell Morgan that – the man was apprehensive enough as it was. Still, it wasn't so bad... The trick was not to look down. Which, of course, he did.
It was a long way down, and the rope trailing beneath him seemed almost frail as it drifted in the wind. The rope in his hand was taut and strong, the harness secure, but the creaking sound it made reminded him distinctly of the groans his dying ship had made when it was pulled down into the atmosphere. For a moment, he hesitated, feeling that ache in his leg, the leg that had been broken before, the ache he always got when he thought of falling and of breaking bones, and suddenly he froze.
There were sounds carried on the wind, maybe the others calling encouragement, but whatever it was, their words were lost by the time they reached this height. "Just give me a minute, dammit," he muttered, trying to shut out everything and focus. His legs felt like lead; he couldn't convince them to move.
Squeezing his eyes shut and taking a deep breath to steady himself, he looked upwards instead. Upwards at the sky, the clouds, imagining that maybe he could see the stars half-hiding behind the noonday sky.
Upwards was flying, freedom. He'd never feared the sky. He could do anything here, could touch the stars if he put his mind to it.
He began rappelling downwards again. Kick out and drop. Kick out and drop. Again and again, until it became almost instinctive, until he no longer needed to think about it. The wind was whooshing by in an exhilarating rush. It felt... almost like flying...
Quite suddenly, he wanted to stretch out his arms to catch the wind.
He wanted to fly.
Only the buzzing sound in his ears was growing steadily louder, was turning into screams and shouts, and he abruptly shook off the odd feeling, realized the ground must be coming up awfully fast, quickly letting loose his grip on the braking mechanism to slow his descent.
Kick out and—
"Oof!" He met the ground with such jarring force that it knocked all the air from his lungs. His vision grew abruptly fuzzy; he wondered if he were actually going to pass out.
"Alonzo!" He blinked, and slowly the darkness receded. He was lying flat on his back with Julia leaning over him, shouting his name with such an expression on her face... "Alonzo, can you hear me! Are you all right?"
"...bit woozy," he decided when he was finally able to breathe again, trying to sit up.
The doctor shoved him back down, running her diaglove over him, and all the fear in her face turned to wrath. "You're lucky you aren't dead after that stunt you pulled!" she snapped. "What were you trying to do? Are you trying to kill yourself? Do you want to break every bone in your body? What were you thinking!"
"Was thinking... that there was... about ten meters... more rope," he huffed, slowly getting his breath back.
"You're reckless," Julia pronounced, as if it were her official diagnosis. Her face was stiff, and she wasn't quite meeting his eyes, a sure sign she was angry with him. More than usual, this time. "With you, everything has to be a thrill, doesn't it? You don't get that adrenaline rush, you figure you're missing something."
"Aw, come on—"
"I don't want to hear it, Alonzo! We're few enough as it is without you taking insane risks for no reason. You're flesh and blood – you break as easily as the rest of us. I thought you'd have figured that out by now. You had no business being so careless, coming down at a breakneck speed like that, like you were in freefall."
"Just wanted to get back to my Julia, as quick as can be," he replied, sitting up again, and this time she let him. The motion made his head spin a bit, but he wasn't going to admit it. The doctor was not in a sympathetic mood. He threw her his most charming smile, but still she glowered at him. "Anyone ever tell you that you're beautiful when you're angry?"
"You. Are. Incorrigible." Her eyes still flashed dangerously, but she permitted him to pull her into a brief embrace before she drew away. "And you're an idiot," she continued, undaunted. "Next time be more careful."
"What's the verdict, doctor?" Danziger asked. "Is our kamikaze pilot going to live?"
"Yes, he'll live. In spite of himself. No broken bones, just got the wind knocked out of him." Julia got to her feet, shooting one last scalding glance at Alonzo before she stalked off, still muttering angrily under her breath.
"Good to see you're still in one piece, Lonz," Danziger said, extending a hand and pulling Alonzo to his feet. "That was a pretty spectacular descent. This is – what? – the second time you've crash-landed on G889?"
"Fun-ny, Danziger."
"I thought so," he smirked briefly, than asked more seriously, "You sure you're okay? How's Morgan?"
"Oh... you know Morgan." Alonzo squinted, looking up at the figure on the side of the rock face. Far above, Morgan was giving little tiny hops of movement without making any perceptible progress downwards. "He was all right when I left. Maybe a little more freaked out than usual. But..." He watched Morgan make another small hop. "Is his rope stuck or something?"
"Bess says he's not good with heights," Danziger replied, glancing upward again. A short distance away, Bess stood with Julia and the others, shouting helpful words of encouragement up to her husband, who probably couldn't hear them anyway. "Can't say that surprises me," he added. "Morgan's scared of his own shadow."
"We could be here a while," Alonzo realized, mentally calculating the number of teeny tiny leaps it would take to traverse the long distance down.
"A long while," Danziger agreed. "So just what happened to you two?"
Morgan had been watching Alonzo out of the corner of his eye ever since they'd got back to camp. He'd half-expected that Alonzo would approach him, offer some explanation, but the other man had made no attempt to do so. So, when he saw Alonzo wandering out of the campsite just after finishing his meal, Morgan waited a few minutes, then followed.
Alonzo hadn't gone far. He'd walked to the perimeter of the camp, where he had a good view of the surrounding landscape, and he just stood there, staring up at the craggy hills. The evening light was fading; Morgan couldn't see whether there were leathery flickers of movement perched on those hillsides or not, but Alonzo's still scrutiny made him think that there must be.
"Why didn't you tell them?"
Alonzo jerked with surprise at the low voice; obviously, he'd thought he was alone. "Morgan," he half-laughed as he turned toward him, "you just scared the hell out of me." His smile dimmed a little bit. "Are you okay?"
"Why didn't you tell them?" he grated insistently. Morgan had already waited long enough for an explanation. It was partly his fault – he'd let Alonzo avoid the topic this morning. Morgan's own fears about getting down had seemed more immediate and alarming than whatever had happened to Alonzo, and besides, the other man had obviously recovered.
And going down the sheer cliff face had been awful, terrifying, with tiny crumbling handholds and nothing but a small metal pin in the rock face and a creaky rope to keep him from falling. It was almost worse than the wild flight that had stranded him up there in the first place. Almost. When he'd finally reached the bottom, safe and alive despite all his fears, he'd been so full of relief that he hadn't been able to think about anyone or anything but Bess.
But eventually, he began to hear the conversations around him. The others went to Alonzo, asked him what had happened. And Alonzo had relayed the events, leaving out any mention of what had happened to him. Morgan could not imagine why. But if he'd learned one thing from his time on the stations, and especially on this planet, it was that most secrets eventually blew up in people's faces. And the last thing he wanted was to be keeping a secret he didn't even understand.
"Tell them what?" Alonzo asked evenly.
Morgan shifted uneasily. "Just tell me why," he pressed.
"Why what?" he returned. "Morgan? Are you sure you're okay?" A definite note of concern was creeping into the other man's voice. He took a step forward, and Morgan jumped back, abruptly afraid that Alonzo was going to do something to him. Alonzo, clearly puzzled, halted. "What's wrong?"
"Don't pretend it didn't happen!" he exclaimed, frustrated. "I was there! They did something to you. Those creatures. Those Terrian things. They carried us up there, and then they surrounded us, and then they all jumped on you. I mean, they were everywhere. And you... you were shouting like they were killing you or something. And then they all flew away, and I couldn't wake you; you wouldn't wake up. And I want to know..." His voice faltered, but he forced himself to finish. "I just want to know why you're lying about it. Why you won't tell the others what really happened."
It was dark now, but Alonzo was facing the camp, and that distant light was enough that Morgan could see his face very clearly. Not a flicker passed over his still features. Nothing.
"Morgan," he said carefully, "that's not how it happened—"
He didn't want to hear it. Alonzo wasn't behaving the way he had expected him to. The whole thing was weird and it was starting to make his skin crawl. He tried to leave, but Alonzo grabbed his arm. Morgan's uneasiness flared quickly into panic, and he flung his fist into Alonzo's face. Which was stupid, because there was no way he was ever going to beat Alonzo in a fight, but at least he managed to break free, and started running back to camp as fast as he could.
Alonzo had caught up with him before he'd gone twenty steps. "Dammit, Morgan, calm down— What the hell is the matter with you!"
"No! Let me go!" he howled, and he might as well have been trying to fight one of those stony, implacable Terrians for all the good his struggling did him. "Get away from me!"
The commotion had drawn the rest of the camp, who pulled the two of them apart. Bess was at his side in an instant, and Morgan seized upon her with wild relief, falling into her arms as if he'd expected to never see her again. "What's going on?" she demanded, half-angry, half-frightened. "Morgan?"
He pointed an accusing finger towards Alonzo. "They did something to him."
"What? Morgan, what are you talking about?"
"Those things!" he exclaimed in frustration. "The flying Terrians – whatever they were!"
Everyone turned and looked at Alonzo, who just shrugged. "I don't know what he's talking about."
"You do!" he shouted, infuriated. "You're lying!" And then realized how his words must sound to everyone else. "I'm telling you," he insisted, "they did something to him. He's lying!" Bess looked at him in confusion, and Danziger's expression was openly skeptical.
"Come on, Morgan," Bess murmured, gathering him into her arms and trying to shepherd him away. "Let's go."
Everyone else was standing about, silent and watchful, and he knew what they were thinking. They were thinking that he was crazy. Morgan was panicking again, Morgan was twitchy and irrational, and Morgan was always, always wrong. All their eyes were on him, not on Alonzo who was wearing such a perfect imitation of wronged innocence.
In a rage, Morgan whirled on Alonzo, stabbing an accusing finger in his face as Bess tried her hardest to pull him away, "And you—! You can pretend you're normal now, but I know! I know there's something not right about you, so you just stay away from me, and from Bess! You hear me! Stay away!"
"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" Julia asked as she stepped into the tent.
"I don't know what's going on," Alonzo sighed, running a hand over his face. He'd already gone through this with Danziger and the others. Over and over again. "He just flipped out on me."
"You don't remember anything that he mentioned?"
Alonzo groaned. "No. Because it didn't happen. Yes, those winged creatures grabbed us. I don't know why. Maybe we were standing a little too close to their territory, maybe we looked like a nice bite-sized meal. I don't know."
"They weren't Terrian?"
"No." He frowned slightly. "Not exactly. Maybe once, but... I tried to dream to them, but it was empty... I couldn't reach them," he said firmly. "I can't explain it any better than that. They dumped me on that rock. And then they flew up with Morgan, and I stupidly tried to catch him, and the last thing I recall is hitting my head. I didn't come around until early the next morning – today, I guess –, and then you guys came to the rescue with the climbing equipment and we got down. Morgan went crazy sometime after that point."
"Well," she commented, lifting her gloved hand to touch the back of his head, "you both show signs of suffering mild concussion within the last twelve hours, but the effects don't register high enough to warrant Morgan's outburst. Or an extended period of unconsciousness." She touched his throat, lightly, professionally, her eyes on her diaglove the whole time, and whatever it was telling her, she did not choose to relate. "Morgan's personality does tend to be a bit more... anxious... than your own." She deactivated her glove, and met his eyes. "It is possible that he's just experiencing a delayed reaction in response to a traumatic event. Still..."
Julia's eyes were staring intently into his own, and while he usually loved the blue of her gaze, he wasn't so fond of 'the doctor stare'. He always felt as though she were looking through him when she did that, not seeing him as a person any more, but as a collection of muscle and tissue and bone. She had looked at him that way for the longest time when they had first crashed here, when she'd been taking care of his fractured leg – as if he hadn't been any more to her than 'G889 medical case file #1'. He didn't like going back to that, not even momentarily.
He glanced away from her.
"Hey." She knelt in front of him, grabbing his chin and turning his face back toward her. Her gaze had softened. "What is that look supposed to mean?"
He wanted to deny it, to claim ignorance, but the pull of her eyes on his was too strong. He could never lie to her. He wondered if she knew that. "Sometimes, I don't like the doctor." The words sounded foolish, meaningless.
Julia smiled a little bit, seemed to understand. "Sometimes, I don't like the pilot. I'm..." She hesitated, her gaze fluttering nervously now. "I'm always afraid he's going to fly away." He started to speak, but she put her fingers to his lips, silencing him. "Alonzo, please understand that I'm not doubting you when I question. I can't help being the doctor any more than you can help being the pilot. I do believe you. I trust you. And I... I'm glad you're here. Don't ever doubt that just because... because I find these things difficult to say."
He pulled her into his arms then, pressed his face against the softness of her hair. "You know I love you, Julia."
And he could never quite tell whether she took those words as a statement or a question, for she never replied directly, but she kissed him, and there was no further need for words between them.
So Morgan was the crazy one.
All because Danziger didn't like to think there could be anything wrong with his buddy, and as for Julia... well, skewed chromosomes or not, if the doctor was spending every other night in the same bed as her patient, her professional judgment was going to be somewhat impaired. If Devon had been here, then maybe... But Devon wasn't here – she was far away, lying in cold sleep – and all the other members of the group had also rallied behind Alonzo; they gave Morgan little glances when they thought he couldn't see, making that extra effort to keep the two of them apart.
So what else was new? The handsome, cocky pilot had been part of the inner circle almost from day one. As for Morgan... well, he knew exactly where he himself was located on the priority list: somewhere below the Grendlers, and just above the penal colonists. If he hadn't known it before, he certainly did now.
But he was right. Dammit, he was right. There was something wrong with Alonzo, and no one else knew it, and maybe even Alonzo didn't know it, but Morgan knew it was there. Whether Alonzo was lying or not, whether it showed on Julia's registers or not, whether anyone else wanted to believe him or not – Morgan knew.
And sooner or later, it would all come out. Whatever it was. Whenever. He didn't know what to expect, but Morgan would watch and wait. For as long as it took. He'd be ready. He'd protect Bess and the others.
In the end, he'd show them he was right.
He'd do it, even if it killed him, or – god help him – Alonzo.