It was the middle of the peach black night on G889.
Uly's attempts at raising the Balancer using Terrian Communion between their staffs, had failed.
Devon Adair and all of the adults had shared a consensus that her son still lacked the maturity to initiate a first contact sending, in his role as a Terrian messenger.
"Maybe I'm a lens prince. And the Terrians are sunlight, focusing their mental energy, to spy on us ... through my eyeballs. Rwarrrr! " he mock attacked True, who shrieked in pretend horror, laughing, as he clawed one of her shoulders with one hand, while making his eyes bigger with his other free fingers. "They sure burn a lot." the boy remarked.
Julia Heller ruffled Ulysses hair. "No damage is being done when that happens, as far as I can tell."
Uly's mother was rueful. "The Terrians would never hurt you, Uly. Haven't they proven that by now? They did cure you of your Space Station Syndrome."
"That is only because they saw I was sick due to a lack of dirt. They really love dirt, too. They play in it. So they gave me some inside of my heart." the boy guessed.
"Hmm." grunted Yale affectionately at Uly. "That is very poetic, young man. But actually," he said, winking at Julia as he gave account, "... we think they speed linked your circadian cycle to match G889's primary star and added missing soil minerals to your blood which restored your body's natural hormonal and growth processes to where they were always supposed to be. Just being on the planet, is now mending whatever it was, that being on the Stations could never do for you."
"We were always meant to be Earth bound, Uly." smiled Bess Martin. "I feel that every time I work in a garden."
"My back aches like H*ll whenever I do." moaned Morgan Martin from where he was laying on his sleeping bag, his back to the others.
The children's mouths dropped open at the profanity in high amusement.
John Danziger disciplined Morgan by snapping his dinner towel at his butt until it cracked on skin.
"OwWw!"
"No trucker mouth around my kid." grinned the mechanic.
"Freedom of speech. First Amendment." grumbled Morgan in angry tenor.
"We're no longer in American space, Mr. Business Man. And I'm in charge." Danziger said, only with half sting.
Morgan turned and eyed up their curly haired leader seriously. "We're always in a place that's stronger than we are, against a whole slew of aliens who're far stronger than us. So why can't we use some strong language to match? It feels good."
"Still a strong NO. It's bad behavior. I- It's..." Danziger stuttered, too tired to think.
Bess stepped in to help. "That kind of talk and culture is what we ran away from when we left Earth, Morgan. They're hateful. And here we have no reason to hate each other."
"Here, here. Thank you, Bess." Danziger nodded in affirmation.
"No problem. My husband's a little slow at shedding nasty habits."
"That's personal!" Morgan protested, curling up into his jacket a little deeper.
"It sure is." his wife fired back. "Totally my business. Because of this." she said, waggling her wedding ring at him.
"We agreed to keep each other in line, remember?"
"Ball and chain!" Martin said, lifting up his own ringed finger in jest, without looking up from his feigned nap. "And note that I didn't switch it out to wear on my middle finger, when I could have." he grumbled, blocking out the light of the blue flame campfire, by pulling his hood over his eyes.
"Good boy.." Bess burbled, smooching the air.
The whole group laughed out loud, including Morgan.
Soon, with savory stew in their stomachs, and with mirth firmly back in their memories, they all settled down to sleep. An hour later, contentment still reigned in a field of snores, which Zero faithfully monitored.
The third moon was just beginning to eclipse, when from the mist, there came a bone deep mental calling for one of them.
Alonzo Solace reached for a Mag Pro he no longer had, grasping on nothing.
The muscular latin man was dreaming. And an old feeling he always dreaded, suddenly returned. He felt trapped, despite his two very unbroken legs.
##FLYER. HEED ME.##
Alonzo's focus on himself was blurred and tilted in the vision. He couldn't see from the brightness of a sun that wasn't G889's.
::Why am I seeing you again?!:: he shouted out loud, because he couldn't think it at the entity he found with him in his head.
::I've never understood why. I'm not Uly.::
##I AM THE MOTHER. MY YOUNG NEED TO BE HEALED. YOU ARE THE PILOT.##
::Not so loud. You're... squashing me!:: he told Her, falling to his dream knees, as the pressure began to build to new heights of pain.
##FIND MY NEWBORN WHITE. IN THE POOL.##
:: ..aahh..HHH..H..! ::
The entire group was awakened by Alonso Solace's blood curdling screams.
Solace shot awake, snapping free of the forced Communion. "I know where she is! I know where she is! I got it! So stop it! Please!"
Julia rushed forward with the diaglove, as Solace slapped at his eyes to make their red glowing fire snuff out. His breathing came in desperate gasps as he fought the effects of a surge of adrenaline caused by his night terrors.
"Whoa.." said True, touching Alonzo's face. "Are you a Prince, too?"
"Slow your breathing down.." Julia ordered. "You're fine." she said, giving him a hypo of adenosine to settle his wild pulse.
"No. It was just Her. She spoke to me.." he grunted, at True Danziger, trying to calm himself, as every muscle jittered violently.
"You heard Her?" Devon gaped in surprise. "How long has that been happening?"
"Since I broke my leg." Solace puffed, annoyed, kicking out of his sleeping bag.
"Awesome! She likes you!" Uly celebrated.
"She thinks I'm a slave." Alonso told the boy angrily. "It hurt, Uly. Very badly. All She did was give me orders."
"You're a grown up." the boy shrugged. "What did you expect Her to do? She's a Mother of children."
"The Terrians are children?" Yale asked him.
"Yes." said Seth, from the border of the group. Respectfully, he remained at the fringes of the fire light. "And I was friends with them only up until I became a teenager."
"You grew up and things changed." Adair nodded. Then she addressed Solace. "Are you feeling better yet?"
Alonso stood in an embrace with Julia, forehead to forehead. "Yeah."
Devon nodded. "What was the message?"
"I was told where to find Balancer. It's not far. Maybe... seven clicks towards the mountains." Solace shared. "She's at a Moon Pool."
"I guess we can't wait until dawn." John Danziger said. "That was some serious cattle prodding. Let's go."
