The Balancer stopped her revels with the Exo child when the non-light of the second eclipse began to deepen its maroon cast. "Synergy?" she said to Uly, who had been in mid-laugh. It was her first spoken out loud Space Common word. The Balancer's voice was musical, like birdsong and bells. Devon Adair looked up when her son's happy sounds suddenly cut off into an awed contemplative silence when the moonlight shadow intensified.
Uly joined his mother without ever taking his eyes off of the sky at the sight of low hanging bloody moon filling all but the most distant horizons surrounding them. A suddenly rising, dusty cold wind began to blow as soon as Balancer stopped speaking.
The boy was transfixed, and he turned to face it. ::Yes. That's what we must do now. Can we use this yet, for all of us?:: he trilled to the albino Terrian who was arms outstretched to the heavens, as if basking, under its stormy shadow.
John Danziger squatted down by the young boy warily. "Just what exactly does she have in mind to help us find the edge, Uly?" he asked him.
Uly regarded the mechanic wryly. "Did you forget how already, Mr. Danziger?" His eyes began to glow red.
John let go of the boy's arms quickly. "How what?" he finally put out.
"We earthwalked together. That first night in the cave, when you found me after I was made better. Didn't you have fun?" asked Uly.
Danziger stood up, but to his credit, he didn't back away from Uly. "I don't remember any of that. I only remember wondering whether or not you were still breathing."
"Didn't need to breathe. Mother was connected to our blood, because we weren't Terrian." shrugged the boy.
The Balancer dropped to all fours, palms and feet, and became all serious, her albaster staff laid out before her fingertips. "I can carry the red life water inside of you, with me." she whispered. "No being here will Turn or go to the final black." she promised.
The Eden Advance group rose to their feet from their meal at a nod from Danziger to come over and join in with the conversation.
Devon knelt by Uly, who was accepting hair caresses from the Balancer as she satisfied her curiosity about his head fur as it moved in the cool, bitter wind. "Balancer, will this ...travel.. be through this?" she asked, holding up a handful of peach sand from between her feet and pouring it out between her fingers.
The pure white Terrian, trilled and softly placed her hand onto the ground. "Into the Moonless. Yes. Through the places where your Exo machina will stop the Turning."
Morgan Martin started shaking his head and waving his hands. "Oh, no.. no way am I going to submit to being buried alive and dragged for G*d knows how far, under that creepy *ss dirt. Over my dead body." he emphasized pointedly. "Don't you have to be awake for that?!"
"Morgan..." Bess hissed, embarrassed by her husband's anxiety over earthwalking. She led him away to help him work out his fear.
Yale was thoughtful. "I've been thinking about the geolocks.
"
"What about?" John asked him.
"When Mr. Martin used one last, the suspended stasis effect was circular and expanded out and wider, from the unit itself. Correct?" the tutor offered with a sweep of his robotic fingers. "It was concentric?"
"Yes. That's right." nodded Devon. "But I don't quite follow you, Yale."
The big Jaimacan cyborg angled his head and tried another tact. "Why are we seeking the edge of the extinction zone? Shouldn't we be seeking the point of origin where the infection first began, in the middle of the death zone to deploy the geolocks?"
"We can't." Julia explained. "Bennet's ship and its crew's bodies are Patients Zero."
"And those are buried under a mountain of burning hot sun stones the Mother and the Terrians placed there, remember?"
Danziger said.
"Then how-" the cyborg began.
Morgan broke away from the comforting embrace Bess was using to soothe him away from his stress, in a burst of nervous energy."We don't need to be at Ground Zero to launch a stasis probe. You can enter a set of coordinates as a radius distance, Bennet's ship to the still alive boundary line and aim a pointer towards first numerical entry to tell the geolock interface from exactly there, to start ..converting its holding field. We need to be out of the extinction circle so we don't get caught by the geolock effect."
"Wait a minute." said Cameron. "I'm no whiz at GPS, but don't you need a satellite to project and set up something like that remotely?"
Mr.. Martin refused to look at the Cargo. "...yes." he finally said.
"No way, Morgan. We are NOT going to re-establish ties with E.V.E. to carry the launch signal. That computer was manic for lack of a better word. She STILL is! We all almost died because of her!" snapped Danziger.
Julia Heller looked pale. "I'm willing to risk being the gear link back to the Council holograms. E.V.E. still needs those to talk to us."
Both Adair and Danziger protested. Loudly. "No,...no, Julia." "Absolutely not."
Heller insisted, getting louder than they. "I have the most experience of anyone here to handle their more hostile personas. They can no longer force me to act against my own wishes."
Before the crash landed colonists could erupt into a full blown argument storm for or against, the Balancer jumped up onto her tip toes on a rock. "I can go to the Exo pod outside the Mother, Beloveds." she trilled in Space Common out loud. "My life water does not need your air sacs gas to stay in the now. You can dream to me the Exo Machina talk to start its ice fire. I can go. To the Big Black. It is but a short starwalk. Not as far as the moonwalks."
That declaration silenced Eden Advance. They had all thought the Terrians were fully terrestrial like they were.
John began to smile. "Our Balancer." he finally grinned, holding out a hand in introduction. "Meet.. G889's resident alien astronaut, people." he said at last.
It was decided.
"So,..." said Devon, an hour later. "It's the moon pools for conveying all of our vehicles. They're not alive. And... being earth carried by Balancer, one by one, for all of us." she said, finishing her drawing in the dirt of their multi-tiered journey back to healthy land.
"Can't I be drugged, Julia? I don't want to be conscious." Morgan minced.
Dr. Heller rolled her eyes. "You have to have an alert mind in order to bond with the Balancer during an earthwalk, Mr. Martin. She explained that very clearly. Her pair-walking mode is partially telekinetic. She needs to "see" you, to carry you."
'See what?" asked the timid business man.
"Your soul." Yale said mysteriously, just to goad the man into a better humor.
"For lack of a better word." Heller agreed. "It won't be that big of a deal. There'll be no feeling of suffocation because you won't be breathing during the whole trip."
"I won't be what?!" Martin said in shock, his panic setting off all over again.
Julia was patient. "The Balancer will be your life support system. Think of her as your scuba gear. She'll keep the dirt and sand away from your body as you sift ahead of her."
"Really?!" piped up True. "I want to be in front!" Danziger's daughter said happily.
"You will, Half Pint. That's how it works." John said, kissing her head affectionately. "The Balancer's a demigod, remember? She can't screw up like us mere mortals."
Julia thought up a possible complication. She turned to Balancer. "Umm. We have frozen embryos with us, Balancer. Our future meat foodstuf- uh, our domestic animals, in cryo-state tubes. Can you bring them along, as well? They are also, living Exo."
The Balance looked very surprised for an albino Terrian. She whirled around as if she were seeking something mentally, and not finding it. "Show me..." she said eagerly, excited.
Heller got up from her stump and said, "I'll be right back with one. Wait just a moment." she smiled. "You're going to love this."
True Danziger took advantage of the delay to make her first cautious approach near Balancer. It was her dad, rubbing off.
Finally, the tom boy like girl spoke. "Balancer." she said. "C-Can you find Kitty's family for him? H-He's been looking all over for them. You saw how he made himself sick while trying, before the Mother cured him."
The pearl shaded Terrian went soft, knowing True to be a very young Exo being. She was careful not to frighten her. "I saw the bond ache in your small life Xeno. I... shall try." she said in trill-less English. "But first, your shell is ..damaged."
"I was shot." she said, trying not to flinch when the Balancer laid a hand on her stitched wounds.
"There." said the Terrian. "It is gone." she whispered, opening up her hand to let a few tenuous strands of teleported sutures drift away into the wind.
True gasped in relief. "I'm not itching. How did you do that?"
"You, are Exo life. I am Xeno. I saw how it was, and made it how it is meant to be while in the now." the Balancer shrugged.
Behind them Yale started laughing in delight at True's confounded expression at the provided vague answer. "True Girl. Balancer knows what is healthy and what is not yet so. Her new essence and powers simply returns things to their full life state."
Morgan was made to face his current paper tiger. Bess made him go over to Uly with his endless worries about earthwalking. The pale urban businessman was carrying two mugs of nutri-powder tea as a peace offering. He handed the boy one of them and squatted down nervously next to him, trying not to look at the overly curious white Terrian, who was in a like pose, studying him. "U-Uly.. I...hope you don't take any offense by what I'm about to say...I.. well, I'll just out with it. Uly, I don't ...like you. I mean, we're not exactly mortal enemies at each other's throats but.." he heaved a great sigh and downed his tea in one gulp to fortify himself. "Let's face it, Kiddo. It's nothing personal but a year ago you.. turned really weird.. um.. because of..." he gingerly pointed at Balancer, trying to hide his finger behind his mug, while doing it. "...you know. Her kind. And I don't think I can handle that very well."
Cameron was not enjoying Morgan's whigging out. "There hasn't been a single moment where you could handle anything, on this whole journey since you stole away on our ship, Mr. Industrial Suit." the Cargo spat.
"Cameron! I didn't steal away. I got on the wrong ship." Mr. Martin insisted.
"Were both you and your wife really that dumb that day?" Cameron asked, not smiling friendly. "Cause I know of the two of you, she's not."
Bess got to her feet and got between Morgan and the Cargo. "No need to step on any toes, gentlemen. This gal with the smarts knows both of you are only knuckle dragging because you're both emoters. This is about two men. Not feeling great about what we have to do next! So shut up, Cargo and let my man have a civil conversation with Uly."
"Hear hear." grumbled the voice of authority in John Danziger as he lowered his eyes in a warning glare. "There's enough stress going around as it is. Cork it, Cameron. Martin's blameless about the sabotage which got us here. That's a proven fact so quit spouting off. If you want to find something to keep you busy, why don't you start pack up. We'll most likely be "leaving" in a few minutes."
His statement chilled the group into silence because trusting Balancer deep underground was the biggest unknown that they would have to face yet, to date.
"Fear is exhausting." said Yale. "But it doesn't have to rule us. We're not animals."
"Yes, we are." snickered Alonzo. "We're 98% chimpanzee, Yale. Get it straight."
His quip finally broke the tension enough that everybody went back to some semblance of normal activity about their camp.
Uly was still waiting patiently for Martin to finish his venting, with his fingers laced around his pulled up knees. "Go ahead, Mr. Martin. I'm listening."
"So am I." trilled Balancer at them.
Morgan visibly flinched. The white Terrian used Earther English like a pro.
Bess patted his shoulder. "She's been paying attention to me. And just...picked it up." she shrugged.
"I liked her better when she couldn't talk." Morgan hissed between his teeth at Bess self consciously. Then the Adair boy's faintly yellow glowing eyes could no longer be denied. "I have to ask little man. Can we trust her like we trust gravity to trip us up?"
Adair didn't even hesitate. "She won't let us fall, Mr. Martin. She's one of us now."
