Dawn came slowly into the pink sky over the gray hills surrounding Eden Project. The whole tired group felt like they had sand in their eyes and rocks in their stomachs from the tension that had clamped down on them the moment E.V.E.'s planet side module had perished. Perhaps, deep down inside, they all knew that it was because she had been their very last tie to Earth or the Space Stations; the last chance to back out of their crazy sojourn that ended twenty one light years distant from the core of the rest of humanity.

G889 had looked so promising from orbit in all of the sat scans and surveys in the beginning. It had been so like another twin of ancient Earth. The current on-the-surface reality of Earth 2 was proving to be the direct opposite of all of those past remembered visual and physical records.

Alonzo Solace looked up from a clump of dead organic matter that was what they all called pink sage. It used to be a prized flavoring in their nutri-coffee every morning. The pilot wisely did not touch it with his bare fingers, but used a boot heel instead to test its remaining moisture level. The plant shell powdered away to nothingness in the rising, sharp, day wind. "This whole meadow looks like it's been napalmed." he reported neutrally.

"That's a disgusting analogy." Bess Martin spat from her perch over the transrover roof garden trays. "We didn't fry this place. This is the first time we've ever been here."

"True, but we are members of the same species that purposely declared a war on... well, I can't call her Mother Nature.. more like..." said Cameron from his seat on the landrover Solace had been using as pointman vehicle for their convoy. He struggled to form his idea clearly.

"Mother Nuture..." suggested Yale the cybernetic tutor. "G889's sole protector through the Terrians."

"Yeah. Her." said the Australian. "But how did Bennet's sh*theads know about the ground lizards' Sentient God enough to realize that attacking all the plants and animals with the Eden Phage they engineered would weaken Her? Did they even meet the Terrians face to face at all? Can't do much to kill a people off if you don't know they're there or know who their leader is."

"That's probably the one saving grace in this whole sad, sorry mess." John Danziger said through his visi-gear headset to everyone else plugged in to their traveling mode channel.

"They didn't have a clue where the head was. They just got lucky attacking the body." Julia Heller surmised, surprised at Cameron's angle of thought about the planet's ongoing mass extinction. "I've always thought Terrians acts were like some... planetary antibody's. They do seem to want to fix anything that's abnormal. Just look at Uly and Devon."

True Danziger piped up. "Then why aren't they helping Kitty and his race?" she said tearfully. "Kobas are people, too. Aren't they?"

John shifted in his seat uncomfortably at the sound of pain in his daughter's voice. "We only think this planet has a master race or races. Perhaps there aren't any."

Bess Martin murmured. "Like the Sargasso Sea..."

"Huh?" said her husband Martin from the depths of the food and garden transrover.

Yale nodded in agreement. "Scientists centuries ago marveled at the Sargasso. Whole masses of seaweed, some the size of entire countries, had their own microcosm species, miles of mini worlds adrift on the currents. Their combined plant and animal effects were enough to control the weather thousands of miles away over dry land. The blessed monsoons. They came regularly. Or they did not. Fishermen knew it was bad luck to disturb the seaweed. Too many boats tearing up the floating mats was seriously believed to bring on extended droughts back at their home ports."

Devon Adair sighed. "The Gaia Theory. Everything is connected. Each species is just a single part of one whole organism."

"Devon, that can't be true here." said Julia. "There aren't great enough flora and fauna densities over any surface area to have an effect on climate. Life here's sparsely populated. G889's either mostly arid or high elevation like we've seen. Acid lakes and neutral pH water rainfalls. Insect life with unique dimensional travelling physics." she began to list off.

"Still hate those d mned spiders.." John shivered. "Me, too." echoed Alonzo.

Everybody on the channel laughed.

"I think I need one of those now." said Uly, lying limp and strangely sullen in the kid's rover next to True. "To be my seeing eye dog. I've gone blind, mom."

The group galvanized in shock around the boy. Seconds later, Julia, Devon and Bess crowded around Uly with the med bags and the hand and arm sensor.

Devon Adair was beside herself. "What's wrong, Uly? Does your head hurt? A-are you thirsty?" she asked controlling her mother's fear.

"I don't know. No, and I just drank a ton of water half an hour ago." the boy replied, staring off into the maroon sky, unseeing. He began to curl up into a little ball on the rover seat as if he was freezing cold.

"Let me see, Uly." Julia said when Uly fended off the doctor's attentions with her finger sensors over his face with both flailing arms. "I have to scan your eyes and optic nerves to figure out what's going on. Hold still."

"I can't! My muscles feel like they're on overdrive, I'm so scared." the boy whimpered.

"Uly, why didn't you tell us you weren't feeling well when it first started happening?" Devon said calmly into the hair on the top of her son's head as she held him quiet for the doctor. "Julia, is this a seizure?" Adair voiced, frightened.

"I don't know yet. Give me a minute to check the neural activity in his brain. His vital signs are stressed, but still normal." Heller replied, working fast to scan Uly further. "I'll work better in a tent."

"I'll get him into a bed." said Devon, sweeping up Uly into her arms. True took Uly's legs and helped Devon carry the boy.

"We're camping here tonight. Until he's figured out medically." John Danziger said to all. He called in Zero from patrol to return to base to guard camp.