Uly looked at his mother some time later. "Mom?"
"Yes, Uly?" she smiled, still stroking his hair softly as he struggled to fall sleep through the cortisol reaction of stress that he had suffered after being near a stranger who sounded like Gaal.
"Why do we even have to use the geolocks to cure the planet? Can't we just grow and give away a few fields of eyestalks to cure every thing that's gotten infected?" asked the boy.
Julia Heller was dozing near by, and still on ear alert after her teenaged patient. She smiled when she heard a belch coming from Bess's tent. "They don't have any seeds or reproductive parts, Uly. They were made, like this...uh, oh, let me think, ...Yeah. Like my mug here. One at a time. Constructed by Terrian engineers. At least, that's what the Balancer told me, when I asked her about them. And our diaglove confirmed it when I checked a little closer a few months ago."
"Can't they be made with some?" piped up True, making shadow puppets using her fingers against the brilliant star field hanging around G889's low hanging moon above their heads.
"Only evolution can beget life. People can only change life's form to some extent. They can't newly create it, Uly. That's been a mystery of the ages for as long as we've existed." Yale shared to the two children.
"That sucks sh-..." True frowned.
"True..." came John Danziger's parent bark.
"...rocks. Can't the Balancer do that? I thought she's a Terrian Goddess or something." the girl mumbled sleepily.
All of the adult's eyes snapped open in stunned realization and as one, they connected eyes with their doctor.
Julia Heller quickly slurped down the rest of her pink bark tea. "Okay, okay.. I'll... come up with a way we can signal the Balancer. We have to figure out what she still likes about us. That's if.. she can make it past the idea of us having behaved like cannibalistic predators a few seasons ago."
"I confessed to the Grendlers! And I've just confessed to the Terrians!" John Danziger hissed at her. "How many times do I have to admit last winter's crime?"
Uly sat up from his mother's arms. "Until She forgives you." he replied, his eyes glowing a soft, dim red.
"The planet can hold a grudge?!..." John sighed brokenly, falling into his old grief again about his horrible past deed. He barely supressed a sob as True
rushed over to comfort him. Doing something morally wrong was probably the only thing that would ever pole axe their mechanic and it greatly discomforted the entire Eden Project to see their usually self assured and powerful Danziger suffer from his inner conscience.
Devon and Julia Heller looked at each other with uncertainty. They both loved John, but things had changed between them and their respective relationships, romantically. Neither moved to offer their old paramour any physical emotional support. His daughter would have to do.
"You want to know what she endlessly adores about us, guys?" Morgan stomped over from where he was huddled by the fire a short distance away from their sleeping bags. "The Balancer likes one person. One boy. That one!" he said, pointing at Ulysses. "And she may like our new older boy Seth, once she learns about him, because he used to be rolling dirt royalty, or so he claims. So why not have the two favorite kids on the block plan out how to re-establish a connection with the Balancer, huh? They can probably chirp, or purr, or whatever the h*ll they do together with the Terrians, and get it done! Right?" he gestured at the group. When nobody replied back right away, he kicked Uly's unbreakable staff a few feet further into the pink dust mound surrounding the blue campfire in disgust. "Chop, chop. There's the phone. So start dialing! You definitely got her number, Uly. Why didn't you tell us before tonight? Geez..." and he stomped away again to go warm up near the flames. "Scientists, mechanics, doctors, soldiers.. What I wouldn't do to have another business man type around. We know how to get the proverbial ball rolling, even through all the crap piling up!"
"Morgan!" came Bess's voice from the kitchen tent. "Everybody's tired and nobody can think that straight. Be satisfied with your good idea and shut up about it already. Zero'll let you in if you wear an apron. The stew pot's ready..." came her firm voice.
"How's Seth?" Julia piped up, calling out.
"Sleeping! So Uly's on his own for that thing you wanna try." Mrs. Martin answered.
"Okay..." Julia said, amused, reaching her diaglove out to read the teenager's vital signs through the tent wall. "Thank you.."
"I didn't want to spoil the Balancer's fun, mom. She's so new, I wanted her to grow up at her own pace." Uly admitted, whispering.
"That's sweet, and that worked for a while, but now there's a big, fat colossal growing pain we need to get her through." Devon said,
feeling proud of her son, in spite of her restless helplessness.
"Trust is absolutely essential to keep going between species or people, Uly. Or there's no hope for development or cooperation otherwise. The Phage can't be conquered by us alone. It's too big now." said Yale, the tutor cyborg. "Even the Mother realizes this."
Uly focused inward at his Terrian connection. "I guess she does. Her thinking's hard to pick up some times."
"Let's get to work." Adair said to her son. "Go get your staff and we'll see what we can do."
( Author note: More later. Very tired. The pandemic work is still a major obstacle for me, especially working this fourth wave with respect to getting any writing done. This is why the outcome of this Earth 2 sequel has been delayed for so long between each chapter. My apologies. )
