Stepping Stones
by Joan Powers
Chapter 3 The Investigation Part 1
Author's notes: Thanks for the feedback! Nice to know that people are still interested in this great show which truly wasn't given a chance to thrive. Although these stories were written years ago, it's taking me some time to reformat for Sorry for any delays. I fully intend to finish posting all of my Earth 2 work as soon as I can. Lately I've been preoccupied, writing CBS to tell them how much I despise the idea of Lady Heather with Grissom in the latest CSI sweeps episode, which I WON'T be watching.
Thanks to Vicki, Paula and Lynne for their support and advice.
(voice of True)
Once again, our dreams continued to torment us and the majority of the Eden Advance crew slept poorly. I was scared about my dreams being different from the ones that many of the others had. Today we would investigate a tentative explanation for their dreams of people dying. But I didn't think it would account for mine.
My dreams had an alien feeling to them, I knew that they couldn't be about anything human. I'm not sure if anyone else had this type of dream, since only part of the group had talked about their nightmares at our meeting. I guess I should have spoken up last night, but I didn't feel comfortable talking about the details of the dreams with anyone, not even with my Dad. Talking about them - even thinking about them, just made them seem worse so I tried to ignore them.
Now they're getting worse. In my latest nightmare, the thick goo continued to ooze over my skin and cover my body, forming a layer of slime. Then the fluid began to drip into my nose and throat. I started to gag - I couldn't breath. I panicked, gasping for air but the goo kept getting thicker and thicker. I tried to scrape it away with my hands, but they had become slick and useless. I woke up screaming at the top of my lungs, just as Uly had for the past few nights. I was bawling my eyes out and clinging to my Dad like some little kid. I wish they would stop.
Everyone was so intrigued by the news of our discovery of a possible human settlement that the entire camp went to investigate, leaving only Zero and Morgan to guard our camp site. Dad wasn't going to allow Uly and I to return, since he wanted to punish us for our foolish behavior yesterday, but eventually he gave in. Besides, he needed us for directions.
After several of the men patrolled the area to ensure that no others were about, we broke up into small groups to explore the site. Uly and I led Julia, Magus and Alonzo to the unit that had the skeletons. I was tempted to tease Uly and dare him to go back inside, but I lost my nerve. Neither of us wanted to go back in there. The group was hopeful that we could determine who had lived there and what had happened to them.
XXXXXXXX
"The kids were right - look at this" Magus exclaimed while cautiously peering at a skeleton which had a large shirt loosely hanging off of it. It was lying prone on a cot, partially covered with a blanket. "Do you think it's human?"
The doctor moved closer, using her scanner to probe the remains. "Yes. These are most definitely human" she confirmed in a subdued voice.
As Dr. Heller knelt by the bed engrossed in examining the bones, Magus and Alonzo prowled about the room. Another skeleton was propped up on a chair adjacent to the cot.
Other than a small cubicle for simple bathroom facilities, the windowless unit consisted of one main living area. Despite its small size and utilitarian tin-box appearance, it had several amenities, including some basic furniture, indoor plumbing, cooking facilities and electrical lights, which flickered erratically upon activation. The atmosphere was stale and unpleasant, and a layer of dust coated everything. Yet, the dark gray walls and flooring of the unit had been constructed of durable material, so most of their contents remained unspoiled.
Possessions of the former occupants were strewn about the room. Several pairs of worn boots were scattered about the foot of the bed and two bulky jackets hung from pegs on a wall. Some dishes were neatly stacked in cupboards and a few dirty ones were in the sink. Several ancient looking bundles of spices hung from the ceiling.
Magus opened the door of what appeared to be a refrigeration unit only to slam it shut due to the noxious odors it emitted. Next she found a wooden chest which contained several rather musty but usable articles of clothing. She began to search the garments for any insignia which might indicate their owner's identity.
Some electronic devices were on a table near the bed. Alonzo blew off the thick coating of dust and picked them up to examine them, "Haven't seen any of these for a while"
Magus came over to investigate, "How old are they?"
"I'm not sure, this is definitely older technology - look at this gear. It doesn't even have a POV feature or selective frequency broadcasting. And this scanner design hasn't been used for probably over 70 years."
"Not as old as you though, huh" Magus teased.
"That means that some other group of colonists from the Stations came here, before us" Julia concluded. She felt a chill go through her body as she acknowledged what the evidence suggested. It didn't surprise her that there was absolutely no public record of such a mission but the Council, whom she had once trusted implicitly, hadn't seen the need to inform her about it. Or were they even aware of the existence of this settlement?
XXXXXXX
"So what do you make of this?" Danziger asked Walman, as he raised a hand to rap on the exterior wall of a building, "Pretty solid stuff, huh?"
"Looks like a dura-steel compound similar to Station construction material" he conjectured while Danziger nodded in agreement, "God only knows how old it is. This stuff lasts forever." As Baines and Cameron rounded the corner, Walman called over, "Hey, what have you guys seen?"
"There are about 15 small units and 2 much larger main buildings. We poked our heads into a few housing units. A lot of them had skeletons in them which looked pretty human to me, though I didn't especially take a closer look. All of those units were chock full of personal belongings. The stuff looks old and dusty but I'll bet that a lot of it could be salvaged" Baines explained with an excited gleam in his eyes.
Walman cocked an eyebrow, "Is it only me or does this seem strange to you guys too? Grendlers tear through our cargo bays, not an easy feat mind you, to get at our supplies. Here stuff is a little dusty but ready for the taking, has been apparently for several years, and none take the bait." The others pondered his observations but were unable to draw any reasonable conclusions.
Looking to Danziger, Baines asked, "Have you found any vehicles?"
"Not yet, but I'll bet they have some. All indications suggest that these settlers came with much more cargo than the penal colonists. They certainly didn't manufacture this much dura-steel here. We did find their main power generator and waste containment force field. They're nuclear powered, just like that old space ship."
"Pretty routine until 80 years ago when the Stations ran into trouble with the containment fields" Walman commented. His brow became furrowed, "We'd better check that this field is still intact." The others rapidly agreed.
"I'll talk with Yale about the specifics" Danziger said. He was perplexed by the situation, "Looks like these people may have come from the Stations. Any ideas of what killed them? Any signs of struggle that you can discern?"
Baines replied, "I don't know. It's hard to say. Most of the..um..remains are inside of the buildings. Whether they were prisoners or they just happened to die there, who knows."
XXXXXXX
True and Uly were meandering about the center of the village by one of the larger buildings. After their surprise encounter with the skeletons yesterday and their nightmares of the previous evenings, both children were cranky and somewhat subdued.
Regardless of Danziger's warnings to stay close to an adult, they decided to walk around the outside of the buildings rather than accompany Bess, Denner and Yale into one of the units. They rationalized that since most of the 'bodies' thus far had been discovered inside of their respect units, they would be less likely to encounter one outside.
As they wandered, Uly caught a motion out of the corner of his eye. He whirled about to catch a glimpse of someone or something disappearing behind one of the smaller units. His curiosity automatically got the better of him and he pushed True forward saying, "Let's go. I see something."
As they dashed around the corner, they encountered a small rather filthy looking boy who was wearing a large backpack. He froze as if frightened by their presence. Though he was as tall as Uly, his dirt covered jacket and pants hung on him as if he never got enough to eat. The kids were excited to see another child and rushed forward to greet the stranger,
"Hi. My name's True and this is Uly. What's your name?"
The boy's brown eyes widened. He seemed a bit surprised and was trembling ever so slightly. After a moment, he resolutely swallowed his reservations and softly replied, "Paul." He cleared his throat and repeated more firmly, "My name is Paul."
"Do you live here? Where are your Mom and Dad?" Uly wondered.
The boy laughed and quickly responded, "No, I don't live here. I'm here by myself, just...checking out these old buildings."
"Isn't your family nearby?" True probed.
He shook his head and explained with false confidence, "I'll see them in a few days. They know I can handle being on my own."
True couldn't imagine her father letting her wander off very far by herself for that long a time period. He was still angry about yesterday when they had only been gone for a few hours. And Paul looked younger than her, maybe even Uly's age. He had to be lying, his parents or even another group of people must be nearby. She was anxious to tell her Dad about this as soon as possible. She tugged Paul's arm,
"Come on, let's introduce you to our group. You can come back to our camp and stay with us." True insisted, "Let's go meet my Dad."
The boy seemed reluctant and for a moment seemed to consider fleeing, but True's hold was too tight. "Okay" he consented.
XXXXXXX
Paul squirmed as he sat on a camp stool inside of the Martin's tent. Bess fussed over him, attempting to clean the stubborn spots of dirt that still clung to his face even after he had bathed in the lake. From the entrance of his tent, Morgan silently fumed as he witnessed his wife's ministrations.
"Ow" Paul complained as he fidgeted.
"Hold still and it won't hurt as much" Bess instructed as she then tried to drag a comb through the boy's damp unruly brownish gold curls. She stepped back to assess her work. His appearance had improved - but those damp shapeless clothes certainly weren't complementary.
"Hmm..Let's see if we can find you some clean clothes."
The boy rose and stepped back defiantly insisting, "No, there's nothing wrong with my clothes. I'm fine. I don't need you to take care of me. I have parents - I don't need new ones."
Bess's eyes became misty. That poor boy must not be able to accept the loss of his parents. The Eden group had diligently searched the surrounding area that afternoon and found no signs of any people or even evidence of former camp sites. She attempted to comfort him by patting his head, but he ducked to dodge her.
"Can I go now?" he asked, obviously ready to bolt.
"Don't go far. It's almost dinner time." Before the words were completely out of her mouth, the boy ran off. As she smiled after him, her husband approached her,
"What exactly are you doing?"
"He's a little boy without parents. He needs us."
Morgan began to expound, "Don't you think it's a little convenient that he happened to find us before he starved to death?"
Bess scowled at him, "Morgan, why do you always have to be so skeptical?"
He took a breath and attempted to explain himself, "Think about it. Who are his parents? The people who lived in the settlement? Julia said she'll be able to determine the precise age of those bones by nightfall, but she was guessing they were at least 20 to 40 years old. So that option doesn't make any sense. And if he's a penal colonist's child, where are they? Why haven't they taken over this little village and used it for shelter or at least pillaged it of all its supplies? If he is alone, how has he managed to survive so far?"
Disgusted with her husband's paranoia, Bess retorted with sarcasm, "Okay, let's hear your theory. Is he a Council agent sent to spy on us?"
"Can you rule out that possibility?" He reached out and grabbed one of his wife's hands, then looked directly into her eyes, "Look at all the Council has done in the past. They sabotaged our ship and even put surveillance devices in our heads without us knowing about it."
Bess removed her hand from his and turned away from him, pausing to consider his words. But in the end she stuck to her ground insisting, "He's a child."
"Who better not to suspect." Gauging the expression on his wife's face, he realized that he wasn't going to get anywhere with the discussion so he tried to avoid further aggravating her. In a gentler tone, he explained, "I just think we should keep an eye on him."
XXXXXX
Several of the Eden Advance crew were gathered about the evening campfire sitting on logs and crates, casually discussing what they had found at the village.
Yale summarized, "So the evidence pretty much supports our suspicions that this was a group of human colonists from the Stations."
"The clothes and furniture were suited for the human body" Magus volunteered.
"I even found children's toys - a doll with human features and what could be some toy space ships" Bess added.
"And the dura-steel construction of the buildings had to have originated from the Stations. There's no evidence of any mining which would have been necessary to get the raw materials to construct these sheets" Baines commented. "I'll bet they probably dismantled their cargo pods in order to obtain all this building material."
"Most of their technology - scanners, gear , computers and even the nuclear powered generator were prevalent at the Stations about a hundred years ago. Except for a few features, it really hasn't changed all that much" Alonzo mentioned, looking to Yale for confirmation.
The older man rubbed his beard, thinking aloud, "I believe that there were some rather vocal factions that opposed the Council at that time. Perhaps this is one of those groups who decided to rebel and strike out on their own. But even though this was a much smaller colony than the one we intend to establish, they still would have to have had connections to organize their resources and transport." He made a mental note to search his files later for more detailed information about this time period at the Stations.
Dr. Heller approached the group and several people turned expectantly, "The DNA I was able to extract from several different bone samples was human. My tests also indicate that the bones are roughly 75 to 100 years old" she announced.
"Can you tell what those people died of?" one person asked.
Julia rolled her eyes, slightly aggravated, "The only other information I can get from these bones is if they were broken. And due to the storage conditions and the amount of time that has elapsed, it's nearly impossible to tell if they were broken before or after death."
"Do we really need to know what killed them? We can't do anything to help them now. Why don't we just salvage some of their stuff and get out of here. If their spirits or memories or whatever are causing these dreams, the sooner we move away from here, the better we'll start to feel" Baines complained while several others chimed in with him.
Bess asked the doctor, "Can we do anything about the dreams? A Sedaderm would just make it worse, right?"
Julia nodded emphatically, "Nothing worse than being stuck in a nightmare that you can't wake up from."
"Let's get out of here" Walman urged, "I agree with Baines, salvage what we want and leave tomorrow." The others became more vocal, voicing their agreement as well.
"No" Julia objected loudly, drawing startled glances from the Eden crewmembers, "We can't leave now. There's valuable information here. If we can access their computer, we can learn more about this group. Knowledge of their experiences could help us to survive here. If someone or something about this planet killed these people, the information we obtain could save our lives." And maybe help me cure Devon, she fervently hoped.
Danziger agreed with the doctor, "She's right. I don't want to stay here either, but we can't pass up this opportunity. Why don't we form several teams to deal with the different tasks and try to get out of here as quickly as possible?" He looked to the others for confirmation. Walman shrugged his shoulders. No objections were raised for they too understood the unspoken implications of Julia's statement.
"Julia, can you lead a team in charge of collecting medical information?"
"What do you suggest we analyze? All we have are some bad dreams and a bunch of skeletons" she complained. Realizing how negative she sounded she added apologetically, "I guess we can continue to study the skeletons and examine their positions and locations in the units. I think I'll analyze some plant samples to determine if any environmental contaminants are present. And I'll see if we can locate their medical facility."
Danziger continued, "Baines - why don't you coordinate a search and salvage team. Let's not be greedy - take only what you think we can really use. Remember, we have to lug all this stuff with us." Baines nodded, accepting the position.
Morgan cleared his throat to volunteer, "Yale and I can work on accessing any information on their computer in that main communication facility that you found."
Alonzo added, "I'll help you out since I've probably had experience with some of those systems."
Bess mentioned, "I can organize collecting personal information about these colonists. Denner and I can go through each unit and catalogue the various items so we can get a better picture of who these people were."
Danziger concluded, "And Walman and Magus can help me investigate the waste facility - problems with that containment field could have made these people sick. We'll see if we can locate any functional vehicles as well."
Magus objected, "The plan sounds reasonable but guys we still haven't figured out what we can do to get a good night's sleep"
"Don't lay down until you're completely drained," Julia suggested. "I haven't had any dreams yet. When you're physically exhausted sometimes you bypass REM sleep. Think of it this way, the sooner we collect our information and salvage whatever we need, the sooner we can move on." Alonzo indicated that this had happened with him as well.
Magus was not encouraged, noting the young doctor's pale complexion and the dark shadows beneath her eyes.
"So are the dreams are a result of whatever happened to those colonists?" Bess wondered.
Alonzo answered, "We have no other working theory to go on. Neither Uly or I have been able to make contact with the Terrians." At least not coherent contact. During his latest attempt to access the Dream Plane, he felt the presence of the Terrians and thought he heard their trilling but he couldn't understand them.
"Maybe the dreams are what actually killed those people. I'll bet that you could lose your mind eventually if you never got any sleep" Magus expounded.
Julia rose, "Interesting theory, but we have no evidence to support it. The dreams could be what killed them, or they could be communicating their anguish over some event or illness, which caused their deaths. Or the dreams could be symbolic representing something entirely different. I think it's going to take us a lifetime on this planet to fully understand the Dream Plane. All I know for certain is that we can't base any scientific conclusions on dreams alone." The doctor spoke briskly, frustrated by all of these questions and her lack of hard facts. She turned to walk to her tent and Alonzo quickly followed her, concerned by her sharpness.
Morgan raised his voice to attract the attention of the others so they too would not depart, "Excuse me. What about the boy?"
"What about him?" Baines replied.
"Are we just going to take him in without any questions? What do we really know about him?"
"Martin, he's just a kid. And a pretty stubborn one at that. I tried to take him to Julia to have her examine him, but he refused" Danziger chuckled, admiring the boy's spirit after what he must have gone through.
Morgan's eyebrows raised, "Doesn't that sound just a bit suspicious to you?"
"Not when the behavior comes from a young boy. Ease off Martin. I agree, we should exercise some caution - let's make sure that he doesn't have unsupervised access to gear or supplies and keep a close eye on the kids to make sure they don't run off together. Otherwise I don't think we have any other choice, he won't survive on his own." And we have too many other issues to worry about. I'm just too tired, he admitted to himself.
"Doesn't anybody have any objections?" Morgan asked, looking around the campfire. No one was really listening. They were so exhausted that a small orphaned boy seemed like the least of their concerns. People began to drift away from the campfire. Morgan demanded, "Shouldn't we at least double our camp guards, just in case?"
Danziger responded, "You're right. We can do our usual shifts and have Zero assist. He's probably more alert than the rest of us."
"Where will the boy sleep?" Bess asked anxiously.
Danziger answered, "He wants to be with the other kids. Our tent is big enough so I don't have any objections." Though he was being to feel like Father Goose and he wasn't looking forward to the prospect of comforting three terrified children when the nightmares hit in the middle of the night.
Bess frowned and turned abruptly to retire to her tent.
TBC