SAND OF DEATH
Chapter 12
Again it took several moments of awkward scrambling before everyone had turned once more and Julia was in the lead.
The tunnel grew even narrower and Julia imagined she could feel the weight of thousands of tons of rock pressing down on her. Time passed, and behind them the Terrian urged them forward. Then, the tunnel took another turn to the right and--
Julia stopped dead in her tracks and sucked air through her teeth in shock. In the distance light showed. A warm, orange glow. "There's light," she told the others, knowing that it might be hard for them to see past the ones in front of them.
A relieved whimper came from behind her. Morgan, she knew without asking.
Encouraged by this new development, they walked a little faster. The glow grew brighter and brighter until it lit the walls of the tunnel around them, and the faces of the four people, smeared with dust and dirt, and full of hope that perhaps all was not lost yet.
The tunnel ended in a huge cavern. The light was so bright, after the hours spent in the darkness, that Julia had to squint to see. Thick veins of Morganite glowed and pulsed on the walls, the floor, the ceiling.
"That's why he didn't let us go back," Yale murmured.
Julia nodded in agreement. "We were so close."
Yale called up the recording of the plaque and walked past Julia toward the nearest vein of Morganite. The hologram hovered over his left hand while he reached out with his right for the red-hot, pulsing vein.
"Watch out! That stuff is--" Morgan yelled. Yale placed his fingers on the vein. "--hot."
Yale didn't flinch; smoke didn't rise from his fingers. The hologram shimmered, wavered, grew dim and brightened again while they looked. Then the hieroglyphs melted and rearranged themselves into a roman script that Julia found she could read and understand.
"In a time before time, a star appeared in the heavens and sought the Mother. It grew brighter and brighter until the stone beast buried itself in Her skin. The rivers wept deadly tears and the Slayer of Planets rejoiced. It was a time of great turmoil, sorrow and grief. Until the Mother's guardians averted the rivers that fed it and the beast slept. If a Dreamer's spirit comes near and allows the Slayer to wake, the Mother will perish slowly, and all Her children shall die with Her."
The words were stilted and strangely formal; apparently the Morganite served as a conduit between Yale's language functions and the strange hieroglyphs, attempting to translate them into English. An analytical part of Julia filed away the information while her eyes flew over the words, almost as fast as they formed within the holographic image. She searched for a clue, for the solution, for a way to cure Alonzo's comatose state. And she found none. When the inscription was finished translating and Yale shut down the holo, Julia's shoulders slumped in utter defeat.
"Nothing," she murmured.
"It explains what happened here," Yale said. "Something hit the planet. Probably a meteorite, sentient, like this planet, and made up from those metals that--"
Julia wasn't listening. "Not a clue on how to bring Alonzo back."
"That... thing wanted Alonzo, didn't it? That's what Uly said. Because he can dream with the Terrians? So maybe we didn't read it right," Morgan ventured hesitantly. "What did it say about a Dreamer's spirit? Maybe, if Yale plays it again we--"
Julia spun on her heels, eyes flashing, and she snapped: "Don't you get it, Morgan? It doesn't matter. Alonzo. Is. Gone. And there's nothing I can do about it!" Her voice cracked on the last words and she began sobbing, every drop of anguish and strain she had been bottling up finding release at once. Over her head, Yale and Danziger exchanged a look, while Morgan stared wide-eyed at the crying doctor.
Yale was the first to react. He stepped forward and drew her into his arms. She hid her face against his chest, still shaking with sobs. Danziger pounded the wall in frustration. "Dammit!" he growled.
"Hey!" Morgan turned to the Terrian that had taken position close to the entrance of the chamber. "You! Do something." With a display of courage that nobody dared imagine he possessed, he closed in on the creature and glared up at the impassive face. "It's your planet and your Dreamplane. Fix it."
The Terrian tilted his head, studying the human with passive eyes. Then he trilled and shoved past Morgan. Before anyone realized what he was doing, the alien pointed his staff at Julia. A lightning bolt crackled through the cavern, leaving a strong scent of ozone in its wake. It hit the young doctor. Without a sound, she slumped in Yale's arms.
Danziger and Morgan gaped, shocked by the unprovoked attack. "What the hell--" Danziger yelled and flicked a switch on the Mag-pro. With a soft hum it powered up.
"Wait." Yale's voice stopped him before he could fire. "She's asleep."
Glaring at the Terrian, who had returned to his position near the entrance, Danziger squatted beside Yale and Julia's limp body. "Look at her eyes," Yale pointed. The doctor's eyes were moving rapidly behind her closed eyelids.
"I think he brought her to the Dreamplane," Morgan muttered.
* * *
Julia blinked against the blinding white light that burned her retinas as soon as she inched her eyes open a fraction. Where was she?
She sat up, shading her eyes until she was accustomed to the brightness surrounding her. It seemed to come from all directions at once, and she couldn't detect any source for the light. Her surroundings were endless and monotonous; white sands, gently rolling hills, as far as the eye could see. With a start, she realized where she was. The Dreamplane. This was exactly the way Alonzo described it after the Terrians first pulled him onto it.
Why was she here?
Julia pushed herself to her feet, pivoting on the balls of her feet as she tried to make up her mind. Where to go? What to do? Any direction could be the right one, and she had three hundred and sixty degrees of options to choose from. If she picked the wrong--
Before she could finish the thought, the sand at her feet shifted. An incision appeared, the sand sinking into a thin stripe. Then an arrow formed, pointing to her right.
With a shrug, Julia set off in the direction the arrow was pointing. Someone was trying to tell her something. She'd better listen. She didn't know what else to do anyway.
She walked, the sand dragging at her feet, slowing her down, trying to pull her back. It was hard going and she soon grew tired. She hadn't slept much, these past few weeks, ever since they entered the wasteland the Terrians called sand of death. And today, she had spent hours traipsing around dark tunnels in search for an answer.
She was about to lose hope when the landscape began to change around her. The sand lost its glaring whiteness and grew a dull gray that seemed to leech all color from the world. It looked familiar. Suddenly, she recognized it. It was a paler version of the black soot that covered the wasteland. This part of the Dreamplane was the metaphysical mirror image of the real world -- or what she considered the real world.
Encouraged, Julia picked up her pace and started paying more attention to her surroundings. She began recognizing landmarks. Over there was the mountain range where they had crossed through the tunnel, out of the desert. And that meant that she would come up on the small lake pretty soon.
She rounded another foothill. The lake should be right--
A sand dune stood where the lake was supposed to be. Small and perfectly symmetrical, like a giant's hand had grabbed a fistful of sand and let it fall slowly through clenched fingers.
Not sure what it meant, yet convinced it was important, Julia warily approached the sand hill. She walked around it, studying it, looking for a clue of what it was that she was supposed to do there. On the opposite side, she found it.
"Oh God." Her throat was suddenly as dry as the desert. A hand stuck up from the sand, a few inches of a black leather sleeve visible before the arm disappeared beneath the fine dust. "Alonzo."
For a long moment she could only gape at the fingers in horror, until instinct kicked in and she raced forward. "Alonzo!" she cried again, furiously digging at the sand with her bare hands, raising clouds of dust that made her cough. She had to get him out of here.
The practical half of her mind told her that she was being silly. Alonzo had been unconscious for days. If he had spent all that time buried beneath the dust hill on the Dreamplane, all she was going to find was his mummified corpse. Still, she couldn't let go. She had to see, to know with absolute certainty.
Finally, she uncovered his head. He looked so white, his hair and eyebrows streaked with pale dust. His eyes were closed. She cradled his torso in the crook of her arm. "Alonzo?" she whispered, new tears forming behind her eyelids and slowly dripping down her cheeks. A few of the drops fell from her face and landed on his eyes.
He blinked.
Startled out of her skin, Julia nearly dropped him.
He coughed and opened his eyes to focus on her face. "Julia?"
Julia began to laugh and cry at once. Tears of happiness were now flowing down her cheeks, leaving streaks in the dust. She didn't care.
She helped Alonzo sit up.
"What happened?" he asked. "The last thing I remember is being clogged by Danziger."
"I don't know," Julia replied in all honesty. She continued to tell him that after they cleared the tunnel, she had been unable to revive him. "Yale made a recording of some inscription and we went in search of Morganite to translate it. When it didn't provide the answers we needed, Morgan yelled at the Terrian and he fired his staff at me. I ended up here," she finished her tale.
"Morgan yelled at a Terrian?" Alonzo repeated incredulously. "I wish I had seen that." He laughed and gathered Julia up in his arms. "I'm sorry I had you worried."
She shrugged. "It's all right. You're fine now." Her brow furrowed and she looked around. "At least, I think so. We're still stuck on the Dreamplane."
Alonzo followed her gaze. "Yeah." A twinkle appeared in his eyes. "You know, we could postpone our return. Celebrate life a little."
Julia chortled and punched him in the shoulder. "I think not! The others will be worried."
Alonzo gave a mock sigh. "I suppose you're right. Do you know how to get back?"
Julia shook her head. "Not really. You're the expert here. What do I do?"
"Simple," Alonzo said. "You will yourself to wake up. It's like a regular dream, when you know you're dreaming and you can snap out of it. Here, take my hand." He reached for her arm and wrapped his fingers around her hand. "On the count of three, okay?"
"Okay." Julia took a deep breath.
"One. Two. Three."
* * *
She didn't feel different. But as soon as she opened her eyes, Julia knew she was back in the cave. The orange glow of the Morganite surrounded her and three worried faces hovered above her. "Hello there," she muttered.
Yale, Morgan and Danziger all broke in wide smiles when they noticed that she was awake. "Welcome back," Morgan said.
"Where's Alonzo?" she asked as she sat up and looked around. Then she noticed that Morgan was holding her hand between his. He caught her stare and a bit guiltily he let go. Julia's heart sank. Had it all been a dream? Not real?
"Alonzo?" Danziger asked, frowning. He exchanged a glance with Yale.
Before the tutor could say anything, his Gear beeped. "Yale? Are you there?" Devon's voice sounded thin over the airwaves.
"Yes, Devon, we're here," Yale replied as he swung the eyepiece forward. "What's going on?"
A brightly smiling Devon appeared before his eye. "Alonzo woke up. Tell Julia that he's tired and hungry but otherwise okay."
EPILOGUE
[From Julia Heller's coded Gearlog diaries]
"We never managed to put together a satisfactory explanation of what happened near the Sand of Death. Too many pieces of the puzzle are missing to make more than educated guesses as to what it was that struck the planets millennia ago. Perhaps Yale was correct, and a sentient meteor did strike G889. It makes as much sense as any other explanation we can come up with.
I know for a fact that Alonzo has had a special connection to the Dreamplane since the day we arrived. Perhaps that's what allowed this 'Slayer of Planets' to pull him in. As to why I was the one to bring him out? I have no clue. Maybe any one of us could have done it. Perhaps my chromosomes make me special. Or perhaps, and I can only say this out loud because nobody will ever hear this recording, perhaps it's because I love him. Frankly, I don't really care that much. We're alive, we're well, and we're back on our way to New Pacifica. That's all that matters to me."
--END--
Disclaimer: this story is based on the Amblin Entertainment/Universal Television series Earth2. The original creators own all original characters. It is meant for entertainment purposes only and does not have the intention to infringe on any copyrights.
Chapter 12
Again it took several moments of awkward scrambling before everyone had turned once more and Julia was in the lead.
The tunnel grew even narrower and Julia imagined she could feel the weight of thousands of tons of rock pressing down on her. Time passed, and behind them the Terrian urged them forward. Then, the tunnel took another turn to the right and--
Julia stopped dead in her tracks and sucked air through her teeth in shock. In the distance light showed. A warm, orange glow. "There's light," she told the others, knowing that it might be hard for them to see past the ones in front of them.
A relieved whimper came from behind her. Morgan, she knew without asking.
Encouraged by this new development, they walked a little faster. The glow grew brighter and brighter until it lit the walls of the tunnel around them, and the faces of the four people, smeared with dust and dirt, and full of hope that perhaps all was not lost yet.
The tunnel ended in a huge cavern. The light was so bright, after the hours spent in the darkness, that Julia had to squint to see. Thick veins of Morganite glowed and pulsed on the walls, the floor, the ceiling.
"That's why he didn't let us go back," Yale murmured.
Julia nodded in agreement. "We were so close."
Yale called up the recording of the plaque and walked past Julia toward the nearest vein of Morganite. The hologram hovered over his left hand while he reached out with his right for the red-hot, pulsing vein.
"Watch out! That stuff is--" Morgan yelled. Yale placed his fingers on the vein. "--hot."
Yale didn't flinch; smoke didn't rise from his fingers. The hologram shimmered, wavered, grew dim and brightened again while they looked. Then the hieroglyphs melted and rearranged themselves into a roman script that Julia found she could read and understand.
"In a time before time, a star appeared in the heavens and sought the Mother. It grew brighter and brighter until the stone beast buried itself in Her skin. The rivers wept deadly tears and the Slayer of Planets rejoiced. It was a time of great turmoil, sorrow and grief. Until the Mother's guardians averted the rivers that fed it and the beast slept. If a Dreamer's spirit comes near and allows the Slayer to wake, the Mother will perish slowly, and all Her children shall die with Her."
The words were stilted and strangely formal; apparently the Morganite served as a conduit between Yale's language functions and the strange hieroglyphs, attempting to translate them into English. An analytical part of Julia filed away the information while her eyes flew over the words, almost as fast as they formed within the holographic image. She searched for a clue, for the solution, for a way to cure Alonzo's comatose state. And she found none. When the inscription was finished translating and Yale shut down the holo, Julia's shoulders slumped in utter defeat.
"Nothing," she murmured.
"It explains what happened here," Yale said. "Something hit the planet. Probably a meteorite, sentient, like this planet, and made up from those metals that--"
Julia wasn't listening. "Not a clue on how to bring Alonzo back."
"That... thing wanted Alonzo, didn't it? That's what Uly said. Because he can dream with the Terrians? So maybe we didn't read it right," Morgan ventured hesitantly. "What did it say about a Dreamer's spirit? Maybe, if Yale plays it again we--"
Julia spun on her heels, eyes flashing, and she snapped: "Don't you get it, Morgan? It doesn't matter. Alonzo. Is. Gone. And there's nothing I can do about it!" Her voice cracked on the last words and she began sobbing, every drop of anguish and strain she had been bottling up finding release at once. Over her head, Yale and Danziger exchanged a look, while Morgan stared wide-eyed at the crying doctor.
Yale was the first to react. He stepped forward and drew her into his arms. She hid her face against his chest, still shaking with sobs. Danziger pounded the wall in frustration. "Dammit!" he growled.
"Hey!" Morgan turned to the Terrian that had taken position close to the entrance of the chamber. "You! Do something." With a display of courage that nobody dared imagine he possessed, he closed in on the creature and glared up at the impassive face. "It's your planet and your Dreamplane. Fix it."
The Terrian tilted his head, studying the human with passive eyes. Then he trilled and shoved past Morgan. Before anyone realized what he was doing, the alien pointed his staff at Julia. A lightning bolt crackled through the cavern, leaving a strong scent of ozone in its wake. It hit the young doctor. Without a sound, she slumped in Yale's arms.
Danziger and Morgan gaped, shocked by the unprovoked attack. "What the hell--" Danziger yelled and flicked a switch on the Mag-pro. With a soft hum it powered up.
"Wait." Yale's voice stopped him before he could fire. "She's asleep."
Glaring at the Terrian, who had returned to his position near the entrance, Danziger squatted beside Yale and Julia's limp body. "Look at her eyes," Yale pointed. The doctor's eyes were moving rapidly behind her closed eyelids.
"I think he brought her to the Dreamplane," Morgan muttered.
* * *
Julia blinked against the blinding white light that burned her retinas as soon as she inched her eyes open a fraction. Where was she?
She sat up, shading her eyes until she was accustomed to the brightness surrounding her. It seemed to come from all directions at once, and she couldn't detect any source for the light. Her surroundings were endless and monotonous; white sands, gently rolling hills, as far as the eye could see. With a start, she realized where she was. The Dreamplane. This was exactly the way Alonzo described it after the Terrians first pulled him onto it.
Why was she here?
Julia pushed herself to her feet, pivoting on the balls of her feet as she tried to make up her mind. Where to go? What to do? Any direction could be the right one, and she had three hundred and sixty degrees of options to choose from. If she picked the wrong--
Before she could finish the thought, the sand at her feet shifted. An incision appeared, the sand sinking into a thin stripe. Then an arrow formed, pointing to her right.
With a shrug, Julia set off in the direction the arrow was pointing. Someone was trying to tell her something. She'd better listen. She didn't know what else to do anyway.
She walked, the sand dragging at her feet, slowing her down, trying to pull her back. It was hard going and she soon grew tired. She hadn't slept much, these past few weeks, ever since they entered the wasteland the Terrians called sand of death. And today, she had spent hours traipsing around dark tunnels in search for an answer.
She was about to lose hope when the landscape began to change around her. The sand lost its glaring whiteness and grew a dull gray that seemed to leech all color from the world. It looked familiar. Suddenly, she recognized it. It was a paler version of the black soot that covered the wasteland. This part of the Dreamplane was the metaphysical mirror image of the real world -- or what she considered the real world.
Encouraged, Julia picked up her pace and started paying more attention to her surroundings. She began recognizing landmarks. Over there was the mountain range where they had crossed through the tunnel, out of the desert. And that meant that she would come up on the small lake pretty soon.
She rounded another foothill. The lake should be right--
A sand dune stood where the lake was supposed to be. Small and perfectly symmetrical, like a giant's hand had grabbed a fistful of sand and let it fall slowly through clenched fingers.
Not sure what it meant, yet convinced it was important, Julia warily approached the sand hill. She walked around it, studying it, looking for a clue of what it was that she was supposed to do there. On the opposite side, she found it.
"Oh God." Her throat was suddenly as dry as the desert. A hand stuck up from the sand, a few inches of a black leather sleeve visible before the arm disappeared beneath the fine dust. "Alonzo."
For a long moment she could only gape at the fingers in horror, until instinct kicked in and she raced forward. "Alonzo!" she cried again, furiously digging at the sand with her bare hands, raising clouds of dust that made her cough. She had to get him out of here.
The practical half of her mind told her that she was being silly. Alonzo had been unconscious for days. If he had spent all that time buried beneath the dust hill on the Dreamplane, all she was going to find was his mummified corpse. Still, she couldn't let go. She had to see, to know with absolute certainty.
Finally, she uncovered his head. He looked so white, his hair and eyebrows streaked with pale dust. His eyes were closed. She cradled his torso in the crook of her arm. "Alonzo?" she whispered, new tears forming behind her eyelids and slowly dripping down her cheeks. A few of the drops fell from her face and landed on his eyes.
He blinked.
Startled out of her skin, Julia nearly dropped him.
He coughed and opened his eyes to focus on her face. "Julia?"
Julia began to laugh and cry at once. Tears of happiness were now flowing down her cheeks, leaving streaks in the dust. She didn't care.
She helped Alonzo sit up.
"What happened?" he asked. "The last thing I remember is being clogged by Danziger."
"I don't know," Julia replied in all honesty. She continued to tell him that after they cleared the tunnel, she had been unable to revive him. "Yale made a recording of some inscription and we went in search of Morganite to translate it. When it didn't provide the answers we needed, Morgan yelled at the Terrian and he fired his staff at me. I ended up here," she finished her tale.
"Morgan yelled at a Terrian?" Alonzo repeated incredulously. "I wish I had seen that." He laughed and gathered Julia up in his arms. "I'm sorry I had you worried."
She shrugged. "It's all right. You're fine now." Her brow furrowed and she looked around. "At least, I think so. We're still stuck on the Dreamplane."
Alonzo followed her gaze. "Yeah." A twinkle appeared in his eyes. "You know, we could postpone our return. Celebrate life a little."
Julia chortled and punched him in the shoulder. "I think not! The others will be worried."
Alonzo gave a mock sigh. "I suppose you're right. Do you know how to get back?"
Julia shook her head. "Not really. You're the expert here. What do I do?"
"Simple," Alonzo said. "You will yourself to wake up. It's like a regular dream, when you know you're dreaming and you can snap out of it. Here, take my hand." He reached for her arm and wrapped his fingers around her hand. "On the count of three, okay?"
"Okay." Julia took a deep breath.
"One. Two. Three."
* * *
She didn't feel different. But as soon as she opened her eyes, Julia knew she was back in the cave. The orange glow of the Morganite surrounded her and three worried faces hovered above her. "Hello there," she muttered.
Yale, Morgan and Danziger all broke in wide smiles when they noticed that she was awake. "Welcome back," Morgan said.
"Where's Alonzo?" she asked as she sat up and looked around. Then she noticed that Morgan was holding her hand between his. He caught her stare and a bit guiltily he let go. Julia's heart sank. Had it all been a dream? Not real?
"Alonzo?" Danziger asked, frowning. He exchanged a glance with Yale.
Before the tutor could say anything, his Gear beeped. "Yale? Are you there?" Devon's voice sounded thin over the airwaves.
"Yes, Devon, we're here," Yale replied as he swung the eyepiece forward. "What's going on?"
A brightly smiling Devon appeared before his eye. "Alonzo woke up. Tell Julia that he's tired and hungry but otherwise okay."
EPILOGUE
[From Julia Heller's coded Gearlog diaries]
"We never managed to put together a satisfactory explanation of what happened near the Sand of Death. Too many pieces of the puzzle are missing to make more than educated guesses as to what it was that struck the planets millennia ago. Perhaps Yale was correct, and a sentient meteor did strike G889. It makes as much sense as any other explanation we can come up with.
I know for a fact that Alonzo has had a special connection to the Dreamplane since the day we arrived. Perhaps that's what allowed this 'Slayer of Planets' to pull him in. As to why I was the one to bring him out? I have no clue. Maybe any one of us could have done it. Perhaps my chromosomes make me special. Or perhaps, and I can only say this out loud because nobody will ever hear this recording, perhaps it's because I love him. Frankly, I don't really care that much. We're alive, we're well, and we're back on our way to New Pacifica. That's all that matters to me."
--END--
Disclaimer: this story is based on the Amblin Entertainment/Universal Television series Earth2. The original creators own all original characters. It is meant for entertainment purposes only and does not have the intention to infringe on any copyrights.