Deviation Chapter Two
Disclaimer: See first chapter, also John Wyndhams 'The Chrysalids' for reasons I am not yet willing to disclose.
Thanks for all the great reviews, they really took my mind off all the really stressful and worrying things happening. And the weather, definitely took my mind off that.
A few hours before the others were captured...
Beka been reading the different department reports for hours when she came across the file. It was a population chart showing the number of pregnancies over the last decade. She pondered over it for a while before bringing it to Rommie's attention. The reason she had was because she had already read through another population chart showing the amount of births over the past decade.
"There's almost a forty percent difference in the amount of pregnancies compared to the amount of actual births, Rommie."
"So that means forty percent of pregnant women either miscarried or had abortions"
Rommie read through the information, then checked some other files.
"The normal rate of abortion/miscarriage for a planet with the population and economy of Labrador is between fifteen and twenty percent. And we know that it's not because of the nuclear disaster because a sufficient amount of time has past that it should not have a serious affect anymore."
Rommie seemed to be considering something for a moment before turning to Beka.
"Maybe you and Tyr should visit the planet and do some active research. The Church compiles all the records of births and deaths. You should go to their information centre and see what you can find out."
Beka sighed. Just what she needed, a sightseeing trip with Tyr. He seemed to think the planets strong belief in religion and children was admirable and comparable to Nietzschean standards.
It was going to be a long day.
Back to Dylan...
"I want to see them"
Dylan waited for his captors reply to his request. It wasn't what he expected.
"Of course, of course. We will take you to them now."
And the man keyed in something on the lock and opened the door. Dylan stepped out. They didn't seem to be carrying weapons but he wasn't sure.
The woman spoke for the first time. "No, we carry no weapons, and we mean you no harm."
Dylan didn't even try to keep the look of surprise from his face.
"You can read my mind?"
The woman looked momentarily confused. "No, no I cannot."
The man introduced himself as Cade, the woman as Rachel and the young girl as Beth as they walked down the tunnels.
They began to see more people. If Dylan had been paying more attention to the people and less to the surroundings he may have noticed some odd things. But he was too absorbed in thought and the various caves that opened up at irregular intervals. He saw what looked like laboratories, engineering workshops, kitchens and other facilities.
Each was full of people working and talking. The atmosphere was tense, people watched him uneasily as he walked by. There were a lot of children around too. He even saw a few places that resembled schoolrooms. There were a number of rooms with sealed doors, who knows what was in there.
There was both artificial light on the walls and natural light from round holes in the roofs of the caves. He saw a number of streams, even one mini-waterfall of water through a cave wall.
Finally Cade stopped in front of a sealed grey door. Opening it with some kind of key, he ushered them all inside. It looked like a hospital room he realised. There about ten beds and seven of them were occupied. He recognised Harper first and went to his bedside. He was connected to a lot of tubes and monitors but Dylan recognised only the monitor showing his heartbeat, and the fact that he was on some kind of respirator.
A man, who Dylan assumed was a doctor, came over to him.
"What's his condition?"
The Doctor looked at him, shuffled his papers around slightly and then glanced towards Cade and Rachel who were standing at the end of the bed before answering Dylan's question.
"He is stable for the moment, but he has shown no sign of waking from the coma. He has been in this condition for over twelve hours now. I'm afraid that the longer he remains like this, the less likely it is that he will wake up and even if he did, he would probably never make a full recovery."
The Doctor nervously glanced from Dylan to Cade, and back to Dylan.
"We have a method that we could use to try and wake him but.... it is untested and we have no way of knowing if it would work. I think someone else would be more qualified than me to explain it to you."
Dylan looked at Harper's sleeping form, then turned to Cade.
"Where is Trance?"
The doctor and Cade exchanged a look and once again Dylan had the feeling that more had passed between them that he could see.
"This way" The doctor led him to another bed. A sheet covered the body, even the head.
"The patient died from unknown causes. Most probably an unforeseen side-effect of the tranquilliser on her physiology." He removed the sheet. And there was Trance. She looked dead, but Dylan wasn't convinced.
"Are you sure she is dead?"
The Doctor looked completely taken aback at the question. Well, how many times do Doctors get asked that question. Usually dead means dead.
"She, she has no lifesigns, no heartbeat, no visible signs of life at all."
Dylan smiled at the nervous doctor. "That doesn't usually mean that much. She has done this before. I wouldn't be surprised if she woke up soon. You should keep an eye on her."
Dylan faced the two silent observers behind him, make that three. Beth was standing by the door. Watching Dylan with interest.
The smile disappeared from his face. "We need to talk"
"Of course" Cade led the way out of the hospital room and the other three followed him. The doctor watched them walk out the door with the air of someone who'd seen a monster. He went back to studying Trance, his four fingers gripped the clipboard tightly, the other hand resting by his side.
. . .
"Well that was an interesting meeting. How to answer someone's questions without actually having to tell them anything. I wish I'd got a degree in that!"
Beka's obvious sarcasm indicated that all had not gone well on the planet. Tyr followed her reluctantly onto command.
"I take it you didn't get very far?" Rommie looked from Beka to Tyr.
"We didn't get anywhere. Every time we asked a question the guy would go into this whole religious quote thing and wouldn't actually answer our questions. But we did get one thing. A book called Extracts from Nicholson's Repentances. And in it were some really strange quotes. Like....."
And she flicked through the book for a moment. "Only the image of God is man, The Norm is the will of God, Reproduction is the only Holy production, Watch thou for the mutant. Oh and here's a familiar one, In purity our salvation."
Beka slammed the book down on the console.
"We're getting a communication from the planet" Rommie cut in.
Beka looked up. "It's about time Dylan called in."
Rommie paused, a confused look on her face. "It's not from Dylan."
Beka opened the communications channel and Strorms face appeared on the screen.
"Captain Valentine, I must inform you of our situation. It appears that Hunt and his two companions have been taken hostage by an anti-government group. We are trying to locate them now."
"Taken hostage? How? When?"
"About twelve hours ago, we were hoping to have found them before we needed to bother you but the situation appears more difficult than I first thought. I will contact you when I have more information." Strorms grave face disappeared off the screen.
Beka sighed. This was turning out to be one of those days.
. . .
"Let me get this straight"
They were sitting in a small office-type room/cave. Cade had been explaining their position for quite a while now. Apparently everyone on this planet had the talent of explaining things to you without actually telling you anything
"You took us hostage because you were afraid that if your planet joined the Commonwealth, the government would finally be able to destroy your group.
Why do they want to destroy you anyway? What threat are you to them?"
This was a question Cade had avoided answering twice already. He sighed rubbing his forehead. "We are different, we are not what is considered normal on our planet. And to not be normal means death for us. Even though we have no control over our differences."
"Some people here are mentally different, others have physical differences. Some have both. The physical differences are more obvious but the mental one are considered much more dangerous."
Dylan was trying to comprehend was Cade was saying but...
"I don't understand..."
"Beth, would you show Dylan you feet please." Rachel spoke softly to Beth who until then had been playing with some kind of game from Cade's desk.
She slipped her feet out of her shoes and smiled at Dylan.. For the first time he realised they wore no crosses on their clothes. A thought echoed in his head, like a distant memory, not his. 'You wear that cross on your clothes but you have not worn it always in your heart'
He looked at Beth's small feet, he didn't see it immediately. And when he did he recounted and looked surprised. She had six toes on each foot. Some thing clicked in his head, something Strorm had said in his speech, something about vigilance and..... purity.
. . .
So what did you think? Please review so I know whether to keep going or give up. And anyway you still need to know what happens to Harper, Trance and all that. My sister is not here to give me another dodgy Scrubs quote, so I'll provide a quote myself. "It was an experience, not an epiphany" (re: work experience)