«Are you telling me, that Morgan makes believe he's in V.R., and that's what's keeping him alive?» Danziger said with disbelief, leaning heavily on the shuffle he was holding. «Yes.» Yale stated calmly. «I believe he's also responsible for the mud-slide that killed the third penal-colonist. He willed it to happen. Or fantasized it, if you like.» Danziger shook his head. «And the other two? Did he shoot them by sheer thought or fantasy?» He snorted, rolling his eyes to let Yale know how insane the whole idea was, getting back to work. «Yes, I think he did.» Yale said calmly. Danziger swirled round, staring intently at the man. «You really believe it, don't you?!» «John, Morgan isn't just anybody. He's Council made. Who knows what they made him? Or failed to make him! They probably tried to scare him into submission. As a child, that could have led to him taking refuge in a world of his own.» Danziger gave a nod, remembering the nursery-droids that had looked after True, while he himself recovered from the accident that had taken Ellie and several of his crew; They were scary, even for an adult. True had had nightmares about the black, hissing 'shadows' for years after he took over caring for her, - seeing the glowing red eyes in the dark -, and she had only been eighteen months at the time. Morgan was raised by them. It had sort of slipped out of him once, when Danziger had been fixing Zero. Not that the droids weren't careful or something, but they were «re-cycled battle-droids». No longer useful in warfare, they had been re-programmed to diversive medical cares. They were originally designed to locate and scare the enemy, but lack of Council (will to) funding caused the medical-facilities to not find the credits needed to even give them a coat of paint. He himself had gotten a real fright, waking up, dizzy from the anesthetic, seeing this black shadow come at him, with glowing eyes, waving it's claws... The interrogations... He shuddered. «No wonder the man is afraid of the dark.» He mumbled. Yale looked at him, questioningly. «Nothin'...» Danziger shrugged him off, «I was just thinking out loud.» He showeled some more sand. «We have to find a way to ease Morgan back from the V.R. state he is in.» Yale said. «You think he's dangerous to us? Can he do something like that ,to us?» Danziger nodded towards the newly dug graves he was working on near the foot of the mud-slide. Yale sighed. «I don't know, John. But I will hope not. What he did, he did after being attacked. I'm shure of that.» «Yeah, I shure hope so.» Danziger breathed, dumping the last body in it's grave. «I shure hope so.»
Morgan opened his eyes as Julia bent over him, holding her medi-glove over his chest wound. «Why did you carry the stuff back inside?» He whispered, moaning as she carefully removed the drain from his wound. «What stuff?» She whispered back, so not to wake Bess. «That.» He tried to lift his hand to point towards the boxes of medical equipment, but found no strength. «Lie still now, while I stitch you up here.» She ordered, giving Morgan a local anesthetic. «The list...» He breathed. «Shush, now.» Julia placed a bandaide over the wound, tucking him in. «There's a in... a list.» He tried. Julia looked in the direction of his fixed stare, and saw a piece of paper sticking out between the wall and the doorframe. «This one?» She went over, pulling it free. «It's the inventorylist...» She mumbled to herself, scanning it. Morgan sighed relief, and fainted.
«There's a whole medical lab, on wheels!» Julia beamed, as she handed the list to Danziger. «Fresh supplies of medications, antidotes, instruments... And best of all, we don't have to load and un-load it. I can work while we're on our way.» «And food. Lot's of it! And a real kitchen unit!» Walman said, hanging over Danziger's shoulder. «New vehicles, spareparts, tools...» The list got snatched from his hands, and went around the whole group, as each was eager to see for themselves. «We don't have to ration the cookies!» Baines cheered, reaching for the can of energy-biscuits, but Danziger stopped him. «Oh, yes we do!» He said, holding his crewman's hand by the wrist. «Why d'you think Julia ordered only half a biscuit at the time?» «We could die from the shock.» Julia smiled, and explained: «We've been living on next to nothing for so long that the biscuits are dangerous in to large amounts. We have to ease back to a normal diet.» Baines nodded understanding, and sat down. «And we can safely have another half now.» She passed the can around. «I'll take this to Bess.» Danziger balanced a brimful cup of tea with him, tucking the biscuit in his brestpocket. Yale sat on a chair, reading, as Danziger came in. «There's tea and energy-biscuits. I'll sit in for a while.» He mumbled. «Thank you, John.» Yale checked on Morgan one final time before going outside to the others. «Bess?» Danziger shook her gently, waking her. «Here's some hot tea, and a biscuit.» She sat up, stiffly, and he handed her the food. «Morgan, Is he...» She began, «Is he still in V.R.?» «He's been in and out of it, but generally doing better than anyone had expected.» Danziger said honestly, knowing she wanted it that way. «Thanks.» She smiled bleakly, sipping her tea. «Bess,» Danziger sat down on the chair, biting his lower lip. «What exactly do you know about Morgan? From his childhood, I mean?» She looked up at him, surprised. «Not much. He was alone mostly, I guess. Bullied in school, top of his class, youngest to take a degree... Just little things like that. He changes the subject if you try to ask him more specific things. As if he doesn't know the answers, or tries to forget he ever was a child.» She looked at her feverish husband, brushing his hair away from his forehead. «He's got no parents. I think that is the worst for him, not knowing who or where he came from.» «Or knowing who or where...» Danziger mumbled. Bess looked at him. «You think he knows?» Danziger nodded. «He knows computers and electronics better than anyone. Even Yale. He must have found something?» «I remember the Wats...» Morgan mumbled half asleep, stirring in his fever induced memories. «I know who I am. I'm one of them! » He suddenly lashed out, pounding his left fist to the wall, then fainted. Julia was in there in seconds. «What happened? What did you do?» She pulled on her medi-glove, scanning the slumped figure. Then she sat back with a relieved sigh: «He's OK.» Bess was staring wide-eyed at them, sitting with her back pressed up against the wall, just inside the door. She had spilled her tea, as Julia had thrown her out of her way. «Whoa! Take it easy, doc.» Danziger held his hands up. «Bess and I was just talking, then he started ranting in his sleep. Banged his fist.» Julia scanned Morgan's hand. «Nothing broken.» She murmured, pulling her glove of. «Sorry, Bess. You OK?» Bess just nodded, crawling up behind Morgan's back again, snuggling in as close to him as possible. Danziger found a dry blanket, and tucked them in. «You be OK?» He whispered, and Bess smiled through her tears, nodding.
Morgan woke when someone stirred beside him, giving him a jolt in the side. «Where am I?» He thought sluggishly, trying to see through the viscose liquid that surrounded him. There was someone there with him. He tried to focus. A baby? It floated freely in the sack, only secured by it's navel-cord spiraling upwards into a huge, mauve-red fleshy, veined thing above them. He looked down his own body. He was a baby too?! He saw how his heartbeats moved his blood through his thin, see-through veines, up through his own umbilical. «What is this?» He thought sleepy. «I'm a featus!» He turned his head looking at the baby next to him. It was moving slowly in its sleep. «My twin.» Morgan smiled. «I have a brother.» Then some movements outside his liquid-filled surroundings caught his attention. Big, pink blurs with dark spots on them came up close to the surface of his world, probably studying him. They moved hurriedly back and forth. He wrinkled his brows, trying to focus. It was difficult. His eyes weren't fully developed yet. He were sort of nearsighted. Then he felt a sting, and something numbing started to travel down his umbilical, making him drowsy. «I'll sleep now.» He thought, closing his eyes.
«Is there no way we can empty the pod, without stirring up to much dust or making to much noise?» Julia sighed, thinking how good use she could have had from the equipment stored just nearby where Morgan lay. «Can't we cut a hole through a wall or something?» Danziger shook his head. «These pods were made to last.» He pointed to the splintered trees sticking out from underneath the pod. «Nothing that we have is strong enough to cut through with that kind of precision we'd need.» He scratched his neck. «Not necessarily so!» Baines beamed. «We've got a welding torch, gas, and a precision cutter. It say's so, right... here!» He pointed to the inventorylist. «The code to where it's stored is right here.» He tapped the paper. «I say we go and get it. It don't take much place, we could lirk it out, and cut ourselves a new door at the other end. Morgan won't hear a thing, or se a speck of dust.» Julia looked to Danziger. «Can you do it? He needs rest. Peace and quiet. But I could shure use that equipment...» Danziger gave her a proud look. «'Cause we can! Baines is the best man I know when it comes to handling a welder! He can demolish your bed under-neath you while you sleep, without you even noticing.» Baines grinned as his boss reminded him. «Yeah, well, you had had a few that night, so I guess you wouldn't have woken even if the station had fell down over your head.» Danziger grinned back: «Well, I was more thinking about the fact that you were more drunk than me at the time you did it...» The two friends tip-toed into the pod, trying to localize the welder. «Here it is.» Baines whispered over his gear, signaling for Danziger to come give him a hand. Soon the heavy equipment stood on the ground outside the door, and Baines checked it thoroughly. «Seems factory new to me.» He sighed. «Yeah, be careful.» Danziger handed him the heatresistent clothes and his mask and gloves. «I've chalked out your cut for you. Just follow the dotted line.» He gave Baines a encouraging slap on the back, striding away.
When next Morgan woke, he was alone. He knew he had slept for a long, long time, and that the blurs outside had made him do so. He had been half awake several times, but they had always detected it, and put him to sleep again. He didn't like that. How could he learn to understand anything, if they kept putting him to sleep? He carefully scanned his surroundings through slitted eyes. Why was he hanging upside down in this tiny little sack? He could hardly move in here. There was a scar in the mauve-red fleshy thing above his feet. A big scar. Half of the tissue seemed to be gone... Where was his brother? His twin? He remembered now, as he woke more and more. He stirred uncomfortably, kicking. Suddenly, the sack broke, and he fell in a rush of wather, head first into free air. Gentle hands caught him, wrapped him up, then cut his navel-cord. «Ouch! That hurt! Be careful you idiot!» He yelled, but the sounds he made were the cries of a newborn baby. Several pink blurs bent over him, studying him, as he gave in to anger and frustration, howling at the top of his lungs. «Definitely the other one. Make him stop howling.» A gruff voice said, and he were left alone. For two seconds. A big, matted black shadow hissed into his visionfield, looking down on him with glowing, red eyes, holding up a sedi-derm. «No! I don't want to sleep! Go away! Let me be! Don't!» He howled even louder, kicking and screaming, trying to fight the needle away, but to no use. He felt the sting against his neck, and fell swirling backwards into darkness, followed by the red eyes. «No, not the eyessss....»
Danziger carefully released Morgan after Julia had injected him with a sedative. «What was that all about?» He moaned, getting up. «He knew beforehand you were gonna stick him?» Julia shook her head. «He's still hallucinating. Combined with the sounds he hears around him, he reacts to his dreams.» She looked towards the end of the pod, where Baines was still working on cutting through the wall. Danziger followed her look. «He'll be ready in a few minutes. Then we'll rig some tarp around the hole to avoid to much draft in here, whirling up dust.» Julia nodded. «Can you get the medical equipment out first, you think?» Danziger smiled. «Not so impatient, doctor. First things first. We've got to move the vehicles to get anything out. And they're heavy, even in parts.» He patted her shoulder. «But your stuff got top priority, right after the vehicles.» «Thank you, John.» She smiled. «By the way, double the biscuit rations today. You'll need it.» He nodded, picking up a biscuit-can on his way out.
The baby Morgan was sitting on the kitchen-floor playing with his Legos and toys. He was so little still, he could barely stand if he supported himself on something. The funny kitchen-droid was scuttling back and forth, making electronic noises as it was setting the table with that pretty pale-blue cloth with the white embroidery on it, setting out two bone-white coffee-cups and saucers and a cookie-tray. He wondered who it was for. There seldom came any humans down here, to the nursery, other than the doctor-lady, and she was away somewhere. Morgan was exited. He liked visitors. Even if they came down just to look at him through the glass. «They come to see if I'm smart.» He thought. «I am smart. I don't show them. That's smart.» He reached out his hand aiming at a scrabby-looking, pink bunny-rabbit. It's hairs was almost rubbed of, a rusty piece of wire poked out through one of it's long ears, and it had lost both eyes, but it was his dearest possession. He hugged it close, making baby-noises. Suddenly, there was a big human standing in-front of him, looking down at him. «What is this doing here!» The man swore, scooping all of Morgan's toys into the cupboard behind him, then placing him on top of the heap, closing the door. It was dark in there! Morgan felt panic take charge immediately, and he choked with fear, holding his breath. Not darkness! Not alone! They would come! The eyes! He stared transfixed at the angle of light around the door, hearing voices from the kitchen. Laughing. He didn't dare to move. Just stared at the light. Suddenly, his body got warm and relaxed, and a mild mans voice at the back of his mind said: «It's OK, little one. You needn't be afraid anymore. You're safe now.» He welcomed the familiar feeling, and faded of to 'sleep'.
«That's it. We're through.» Danziger's curly mop of hair poked in through the door, grinning at Julia and Bess. «How's he holding on?» «The work and commotion is making him restless, but he's OK, given the circumstances.» Julia yawned, looking at her patient. «Good. We'll be lowering the piece of wall now, so maybe you should cower him up. There's going to be some dust. Can't be helped.» Danziger explained. Julia nodded, and went over to help Bess stretch a tarp over the makeshift lean-to they had set up over Morgan's bed. «You will have to stay out here with me. He needs the oxygen to himself in there.» Julia said as they secured the tarp to the wall. Bess tried to protest, but gave it up, lacking the strength. «Go have yourself some breakfast and something to drink. You haven't eaten since last night.» Julia ordered. «And it wouldn't hurt you to see some sunlight either. He'll be just fine. Go now!» She almost had to push Bess out of the door. «I'll take care of her.» Alonzo smiled reassuring, and led her to the fireplace. «Here we go, stand back!» Danziger and Walman heaved to on the pulleys, and the wall creaked metallicly as it came loose, bending in the three points where it was not cut loose from the base, making a ramp down to the ground. It was heavier than they had expected, and the rope slipped through their hands, landing the wall with a clang, that made the whole pod shudder, and some of the goods fell out of the shelves. «Dang!» Danziger half swore. «It was almost perfect.» Baines grinned, holding a hand out: «But just almost.» Walman and Danziger handed him half a energy-biscuit each. «Don't choke on it!» Danziger murred. «You OK in there?» He called to Julia. She just waved back. «OK, lets get started!» They had struggled for several long hours, moving the heavy trolley from the door end of the pod, to the new door, having to tow it over fallen logs and loose sand. Now they pulled it up the ramp, and started loading it with vehicle parts. Morgan was sitting on the third lowest step of the stairs, playing with his bunny-rabbit. The doctor-lady went upstairs, and he straightened up, looking after her. He could hear her working with something up there. He got up, and laboriously climbed the stairs, one step at a time, barely reaching up. Twelve steps later, he stood on the landing, supporting himself on the post, looking proudly up at her. He had made it! He had climbed the stairs all by himself for the first time. He was beaming with pride as he took one wobbly step forward and stood before her, with his back to the stairway. She sent him a glare, holding so much hate and disgust, and pushed him back first, with ten hard fingers to his chest, down the stairs. He flew over the three first steps, landing on his shoulders, and he instinctively curled himself into fetus-position, rolling over his right shoulder, tumbling down the stairs and ending on the third lowest step again, banging his head hard on the wall. «Why'd she do that fore?» He thought, shocked. «I didn't do nothin'?»
Julia looked concerned at her medi-glove. The noise and shaking had made Morgan's bloodpressure rise. She wiped his forehead with a damp cloth, trying to calm his feverish dreams. Zero clambered in starting to remove as much of the fine dust as he could from the tarp covering Morgan. He woke from the sounds, and panicked, seeing Zero's shadow and worklight against the tarp. Julia tried her best to restrain him, but he struggled free, running for the door. «Morgan!» Bess screamed as she saw her wild-eyed husband come stumbling over the fallen trees, crashing to the ground. In seconds she was there, grabbing him. «Morgan?» A bright red spot began to emerge on the bandage around his chest, spreading rapidly. «Julia!» Bess panicked, screaming hysterically for her. Julia held the medi-glove over the wound. «Quick! I need my suture-kit and some more blood. On the double!» Morgan came to, coughing violently. «No,no,no,no...» Julia moaned, trying to make him stop. Pink froth hung at the left corner of his mouth, indicating the wound was knocked up again. «What is it with you!» Julia mumbled. «You don't wanna die, and you don't wanna heal either?» She got to work directly this time, without any anaestethic. «Hold him!» She ordered, and Walman, Baines, Cameron and Danziger grabbed each their limb. Bess held his head in her lap, staring wide-eyed as Julia opened Morgan's wound, un-stitching his lunge again, refitting a drain, then closing him up. Morgan had then long since fainted. «Back to square one.» Walman mumbled, shooting Danziger a look. «Hey, Danz. You OK? You look a little green round your gills there?» Danziger tried to smile. «I'll be fine.» He moaned.
«What the devil were you thinking?» He raged at Julia some minutes later, when Morgan was safely back inside the pod. «Can you imagine what that must have looked like to him? Inside the tarp, Zero's shadow, the vacuum-cleaner... Think, woman!» Julia stood in-front of him, looking down on her shoes, letting him have it out on her without defending herself. She didn't understand what he was referring to, but she knew she deserved it. He was right. She hadn't thought. And that may now cost Morgan his life. She cursed herself, fighting back tears. Finally Danziger's scolding trailed of, and he dumped down on the ground, hiding his face in his hands. Julia sagged down next to him, exhausted. «You want us to rig this right away, Julia?» Baines and the others stood round them, ashenfaced, and desperately in need to do something. She looked up. Her precious medical equipment. Why couldn't she have waited? Was it so important to her that she couldn't have waited till Morgan was strong enough to be moved? He was doing fine. She wouldn't have needed the equipment to help him. But she did now. She closed her eyes, looking like she was about to faint. Then she nodded. «Yes, please.» She said, barely audible.
«How is he?» Danziger whispered as he brought Bess and Julia their supper the third day. «Still the same. No sign of him waking up any time soon, I'm afraid.» Julia answered. «It's like he don't want to wake up.» Danziger looked down on the unconscious man. «Then maybe we should do something to make him?» He mumbled. «Yale's been trying to figure something out that might help.» After the unfortunate incident three days ago, he and Yale had found it wise to include Julia and Bess in all of their thoughts about Morgan, and what he might be capable of, without knowing it himself, probably. Julia had listened to them in silence. «I think he's able to move about and interact with us, even in his current state. He might just don't know he's in V.R.» Yale had said. «It seems he's in some kind of denial.» To Danziger's surprise, Julia had agreed. She didn't argue anything they had concluded, even if it was only theoretical. «He knew where the medical equipment was, he knew about the inventory-list, the contents of the contraband-crates, as if he'd been here for longer than the near seventy-two hours it took us to locate him...» She had thought out loud, continuing: «He kept asking why we had carried all the stuff back inside the pod...» «Yeah, he asked me that to.» Danziger had shot in. Yale nodded. «In V.R. time moves different than in actual reality. Almost like when you dream.» Danziger shook himself from his memories, seeing Julia bend over Morgan to check him again. «Same as last time: Wounds healing faster then expected, but no sign of him waking.» Bess put down her plate, swallowing her last mouthful. «Maybe he's using all his energy on healing himself? That when his body is out of the crisis, he'll wake up?» Julia smiled reassuringly to her. «I hope so too, Bess. But, there's a lot we don't know yet.» «Like the fact that he might stay like this for ever.» Danziger thought: «Or he might kill us all.»
Morgan was sitting at a table, drawing. The doctor-lady was standing with her back towards him at her metal-desk, cutting something with a large knife. He got up from his chair, thinking to go to his room to pick up his crayons. He had just got a new box of crayons -like the ones the big school-kids had. He had barely crossed the threshold of the room before he heard a unhuman cry behind him, and the doctor lounged herself after him, grabbing for his left shoulder with a paleskinned, claw-like hand. He instinctively twisted himself free from her near grasp, heading panicly for the door out into the main corridor. Throwing himself down the short set of stairs, he crawled in-under it, diving head first into a packing-crate stored there, placing another one on top of him, and lay dead still. Being to huge to enter the smaller hole he had dived into, the doctor was forced to run around the stairs, entering it from the other side. He could hear her rummaging through all the crates stored there, swearing under her breath. She even pushed the crate on top of him to the side, and he thought he was dead. Luckily, her night-sight was lousy, so she couldn't see him in the dark place. He could hear her thundering on down the cat-walk, searching through the other crawl-space under the 'Balcony', then it got quiet. He lay still as long as he dared, knowing she might be sneaking back, trying to catch him that way. She had done that before, when he was a little baby. But he was four now. He had learned. As soon as he thought it safe, he eased himself out of his small hiding place, sneaking along the catwalk, keeping his back close to the wall so he couldn't be seen from the windows, diving in-under the balcony, waiting for a breath-less second. - No, she probably hadn't seen him. Then remained the most difficult section of his escape; He had to cross the open space of the 'park' to get to his secret hiding place. He took a deep breath, and ran. Another dive, and he rolled himself into safety. When he was certain she hadn't seen him, he relaxed. First then did he notice he wasn't wearing his shoes. He curled himself up, slowly realizing the narrow of his escape. She really would have killed him! That shiny, pointed thing he'd seen out of the corner of his right eye, as she grabbed for him... He tried to see the hallway in his mind, tried to remember any shiny object on the wall... Nothing. The only logic answer was that she had come after him with the knife! He started shaking as the adrenaline-rush of his fear faded off, and he felt all warm and numb again, welcoming the feeling, knowing he'd be safe there. Nothing could reach him when he 'slept'.
Morgan woke with a startle. Bess was sleeping next to him, and Julia sat in a chair, obviously sleeping too. He looked around, confused. The pod was empty again. But what were they doing in here? He tried to get up. The pain that shot through his chest made him drop back with a moan. He was hurt? How had that happened? He looked down on his heavily bandaged upper torso. He couldn't remember getting hurt, so how had this happened? He eased himself carefully up, biting his teeth together. The last thing he could vaguely remember, was Danziger and Walman unloading the vehicles from the pod. He removed the I.V. from his arm, carefully making his way towards the door. He needed some fresh air. He was so dizzy. He opened the door, and sat down on the log just outside. It was just about getting light. Folks were still sleeping. He leaned heavy against the wall of the pod, taking a deep breath. It didn't hurt that much now. He looked around in the spreading light. They had taken down 'his' perimeter-system, and set up Baines'es instead. He wondered why. His was six lines high, and didn't require more than half as much energy than Baines'es. There was Cameron, too. Taking the dog-watch as usual. He smiled at the man, as he came closer. Why did he look so shocked? Was something wrong? Morgan looked around him, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then Julia was there, and Danziger, carefully lifting him up on his feet, carrying him inside the pod again, laying him down on his bed. «I think I'll get some sleep.» Morgan sighed: «I'm absolutely exhausted.»