Stepping Stones
by Joan Powers
Chapter 5 Deceptions Part 1
Author's notes:
(1) At the conclusion of Stepping Stones: The Investigation, Bess and Yale uncovered information suggesting a link between Bennett's crew and the newly discovered settlement. In the meantime, Dr. Heller located a refrigeration unit containing human corpses which she intends to autopsy. This story continues their search to learn about the members of this community and their connection to the Council scientists.
(2) Special thanks to Vicki, Lynn and Paula for their continued support.
(voice of Morgan Martin)
We labored late into the night, anxious to accomplish our tasks as rapidly as possible so we could leave that cursed place. Those wretched dreams were gradually wearing us down, slowly draining us of our energy and eroding our self confidence and sense of security. Yet we strove to uncover the mysteries of that settlement.
Despite the damage incurred to the hard drive by erratic power surges, Yale and I had managed to get their computer system up and running. Decoding the security password had been the next hurdle which had taken us the rest of the day and part of the evening to accomplish. Finally we had been able to begin reviewing the files, doggedly searching for information about the members of this community and their fate.
Presently, it was about three o'clock in morning and I was alone at the facility with only my sleeping wife by my side to keep me company. My eyes were blood shot and burning and the rest of my body ached as well.
What was I doing there that late at night? I myself wondered, for admittedly I was an unlikely candidate for such zealous dedication to duty.
Rather than working simply to postpone my own nightmares, another factor motivated my search. I was becoming increasingly worried about Bess who stubbornly clung to her belief that those biostat-implants were going to kill us. She was becoming obsessed with the idea. It wasn't like my wife to behave so irrationally. I had to find out the truth - to give her peace.
Some of the information I had uncovered, along with the journal excerpts Bess had shared with me, seemed to confirm her fears. However, I wasn't fully convinced. Life on this planet with its seemingly innocuous Kobas and spring flowers had certainly reinforced my belief that appearances could be deceiving.
XXXXXXX
In his tent, Danziger lay on his side on his bed roll with an arm wrapped about his sobbing daughter. Her tear stained face was pressed up against his chest and her small hands were tightly clutching the fabric of his shirt. When she began to calm down and drift back to sleep, her breathing became slower and her grip on her father loosened. Yet his heart was still racing for it had scared him to see his little girl so frightened by these horrific nightmares.
As he continued to stroke her dark hair he thought about how much he hated this place. It angered him that this 'force' was terrorizing their group in such an insidious fashion. He almost would have preferred that they had a tangible enemy to fight. For what weapons could they equip themselves with to combat this type of battle? How long could they stand it? Even the Grendlers and the Terrians seemed to know to stay away from this place.
How would Devon have dealt with this situation?
He had only consented to stay at this place because of the faint possibility that they could gain information which would enable Julia to diagnose her illness. He didn't care about any of the rest of it. If they left with nothing but a cure, he would consider their mission successful. He and Alonzo would continue to work on opening that stubborn door lock on the refrigeration unit at first light and then Julia could perform her tests and provide some answers.
Of course, it wasn't quite that simple.
Dr. Heller had explained to them that there were several mitigating factors to consider such as if the bodies had been adequately preserved. The power surges which had wreaked havoc with the computer system could have done the same to the refrigeration unit. Even if the bodies were intact, the organism which caused the disease most likely was not present in them anymore or could have been altered after all this time. And...this might not even be the same infection as the one which afflicted Devon. It was foolish to hope, but he just couldn't give up on her.
He glanced over to Devon's child and Paul, who both appeared to be sleeping soundly. Uly was curled up tightly in a snug ball as if trying to escape the nightmares while Paul's lanky form was sprawled out on top of his blanket. He smiled warmly towards them. Uly was a good kid. With Devon's absence, he was reminded even more of her as he grew closer to her son.
Paul seemed like a good kid too. John was surprised that the young boy had rushed into his arms last night without hesitation when his nightmare had become unbearable. It wasn't like him to accept a stranger so readily but something about Paul had dissolved those barriers. Something about him...no, it was probably just because he was so tired and the kid was so damned vulnerable.
He tried to shift his thoughts to other matters to help him sleep, but he was having difficulty. His last glimpse of Devon in that cold sleep crypt tended to flood his mind these nights as he struggled to rest. He attempted to retrieve happier memories. Those of his little girl wearing yellow overalls with ducks on them, watching her taking her first steps towards Alex with a huge expression of wonderment on her face...sharing her amazement about the dirt and rocks on this mysterious planet...standing in the moonlight beside the ocean with Devon, listening to the waves ebb and recede...her warm smile and dazzling brown eyes as she told him that he meant a great deal to her...
XXXXXX
Uly stirred beneath his blanket. He had the dream again. It wasn't as intense as it had been for the last few nights, but it still disturbed him. He clutched the blanket closer to himself as if it would offer him some protection. In the haze of semi-consciousness, he remembered that there were Terrians in his dream yet the sounds and emotions which had overwhelmed him were not characteristic of that species.
Unlike his previous dreams, a strident voice rose above the cacophony of the others and he could almost interpret what it was saying. As the tone had formerly suggested to him, the voice was accusing him of doing something wrong.
What did he do?
He heard a faint noise. One turn of his head confirmed that True and her Dad were fast asleep but Paul was crying softly, hiding his face in his blanket. Uly leaned over by him and whispered, "Did you have the dream again?"
The younger boy didn't display his typical confidence. He raised his head and nodded, as tears threatened to continue to stream from his brown eyes.
Remembering their conversation from earlier in the day Uly asked,"Your Mom?"
"Yeah" Paul indicated, while biting his lip to try to stop it from shaking.
"When my Mom collapsed, I had nightmares about losing her every night" Uly shared somewhat hesitantly. He hated to think of her as being sick. Or frozen in cold sleep. He strove only to remember her as the person she had been for the majority of his life and the person she would be once they were able to cure her. Strong and loving. Confident and filled with life. He struggled to be brave as John had suggested for he knew that would be his mother's wish.
Yet, it was difficult for such a young boy to sustain hope in the face of all the obstacles they had encountered. He missed her desperately. Life wasn't the same without her. Sometimes he felt enraged about the situation. It wasn't fair. It frustrated him that his newly found Terrian brothers seemed to be turning a deaf ear to his pleas for help.
Curious about Paul's situation, Uly had to ask again, "Is your Mom alive?"
Paul vigorously nodded and spoke softly, "Yeah, my parents are alive. You have to believe me. They're just not here. Not right now - that is. I miss them so much."
At that moment the curly haired boy seemed as miserable as Uly had felt when his Mom had first fallen ill. The young boy's face was pale and he trembled with fear. He shot a furtive glance towards Danziger and seemed to contemplate going to him until he noticed True tucked beneath his arm.
Uly wasn't sure he believed his friend. Yale had explained to Uly and True that it was highly unlikely that this boy had any living relations. Yet he decided to see what else Paul had to say and try to calm him down. "When can you see them again?"
Paul replied, "Soon. I have to go home soon. They don't even know I'm here. They're probably worried sick. But I have to do something first. Something real important."
Uly's ears perked up. "What? Why are you here? Tell me more" he urged.
Paul's mouth dropped open, he seemed horrified that he let this information slip and he hastily blurted, "I can't tell you anything else. I probably shouldn't have told you this much. Please don't tell anyone" he begged the older boy.
Uly gave him a puzzled look.
"Our secret?"
"What's this all about?" Uly asked.
"Please, I can't tell you. You gotta believe me. Just our secret" grabbing the older boy's arm.
Paul was so frantic that Uly agreed.
XXXXXX
The atmosphere in the Medical facility was tense as Julia impatiently peered over Alonzo and Danziger's shoulders while they continued to analyze the electronic locking mechanism on the refrigeration unit door.
"There's gotta be a better way to do this. Why can't we just dismantle the door? By-pass this stupid lock and take the door right off its hinges"
Danziger insisted while slamming a wrench on to the ground. He was disgusted with fiddling around with that homemade piece of junk. God only knew why they rigged this system the way they did. It looked like they had used every spare part they could find. His best guess was that they had to set it up that way because the door wouldn't seal well without that half-assed locking mechanism.
Julia objected, "How many times do I have to tell you this, the bodies have to be maintained at a low temperature. If you take off the door, that defeats the purpose."
Admittedly, she would be performing the autopsies at room temperature, but she didn't want to take any chances with those four corpses. She could only examine one body at a time and she certainly didn't want to destroy any evidence in the meantime.
Anticipating John's next comment she quickly added, "Sure you could rig some type of a makeshift door. But you wouldn't have it ready in time to prevent an increase in the chamber's temperature. It won't work. You've going to have to figure out the code to open the lock. Please, help me to my job the best I can. "
Julia's mind had been busily humming all night as she had lain in a semi-awake stupor. She planned to set up her equipment in that room to avoid transporting the bodies great distances and reduce the risk of potentially exposing the entire group to some unknown biohazard. She would wear full contamination garb as she performed the autopsies. Her mental list contained the physical characteristics she planned to examine, the samples she would prepare and the tests she intended to perform on them.
This waiting was torturous to her, she was terribly anxious. She drummed her fingers on a table top then sighed; it was going to take the guys longer to access her subjects than she had anticipated.
She decided to head over to the main computer to examine the medical files. With a bit of hindsight, she reminded herself that any medical data could greatly enhance her search for the cause of death of all these people. She chided herself for being so impatient to examine the bodies but she couldn't resist the lure of hard solid evidence which had eluded her up to that point. She was optimistic that Yale and Morgan had been able to locate the digitized medical logs. Mentally crossing her fingers, she entered the adjacent room.
A bleary eyed Bess glanced up from the computer screen and greeted Dr. Heller. Her curly locks, usually neatly groomed and shiny, were dull and matted down on one side of her head from laying on the floor half of the night. Her husband was nearby, stretched out on the ground and covered with a blanket. He was fast asleep.
"Did Morgan tell you what he found out?" She continued without giving Julia a chance to respond, "Franklin Bennett, Elizabeth Anson and the other members of their crew were here - at this settlement but they weren't original members of this colony. Morgan found their biostats. Most were prominent scientists who disagreed with the Council's views and wanted to escape the Stations. They called this colony 'Independence'."
Marietta Anderson, the woman who had recorded the journal that Bess had been examining, had been an agricultural bioengineer who had wanted to do research on restoring the farmlands of Earth and developing hardier strains of grains to adapt to the environmental conditions there rather than focusing her energies on hydroponics research as the Council had demanded of her. Likewise her husband Peter, a chemist, was coerced into using his talents to develop biological weapons. Georgie and Emily were their children.
"Hmm, that's interesting." Julia mentioned off-handedly. Her attention span wasn't the greatest these days; she was preoccupied with her own thoughts.
Bess glared at the woman until Julia looked up to met her gaze, "So...?" wondering what was on the woman's mind. Sensing some hostility from Bess, Julia defensively snapped, "So what are you trying to imply?"
Bess gave her a look of disbelief, "Come on Julia. I may be an Earth girl but I'm not stupid. To me it looks like the Council allowed these people to leave the Stations then followed them to spy on them and use them as guinea pigs. If this group could survive on G889, so could they."
Julia took a moment to process Bess's statement. Essentially that was part of the mission that the Council had sent her on, so she couldn't dispute the other woman's logic.
Bess continued, "Think about it, Elizabeth told you she designed those biostat-implants so the Council could monitor life signs. Who do you think she was originally designing them for? That way the Council could keep track of the colony members from a distance using Eve. That journal passage I found suggests that these colony members were experiencing the same symptoms that we did when Eve was jacking up the power in those things in our heads. Elizabeth recognized our symptoms and diagnosed our problem immediately. How could she have known about it unless it had happened before?"
Julia angrily replied, "You're jumping to conclusions Bess - we don't have all the information. Do we even have any notion of the time frame of any of these events?"
Bess retorted, "Morgan clearly found that a group of six people joined Independence colony over 2 years after it was established."
Julia gave an exasperated sigh, "That doesn't mean that Elizabeth or the Council deliberately killed these people! That wouldn't make any sense." As she caught a glimpse of the desperation in Bess's eyes, the doctor quickly recognized that other woman wasn't quite herself so she refrained from additional comments. She wondered what she could do to calm her down. Perhaps she needed a sedative? Or would that be the worst possible option - trapping poor Bess in the altered Dream Plane?
Bess clutched Julia's arm, "Those images that Yale saw while he was linked to Eve were of this colony. He located the exact sites where some of the vids were taken. Things have changed some over time but Yale was pretty certain."
Dr. Heller stepped back. Something about this scenario didn't make sense to her. Whatever had happened, it was clear that they were not going to be able to stay here for a prolonged period of time. The strain of the hostile Dream Plane was gradually beginning to take its toll on everyone.
Bess added, "Did you know more than half of their community had children? They wanted a better life for them; at least that's what Marietta said. Yale says that they must have been desperate to leave the Stations, almost like modern day Pilgrims. The only data they had would have been from an EX-70 probe sent out in '65 which suggested that this planet's gravity was similar to Earth's and that the atmosphere contained the components necessary to sustain human life. That's it."
"Honey" a groggy voice called over, "I found some information I think you'll be interested in." Morgan stretched and rose from the floor. He tucked a few stray hairs into his pony tail as he ambled over to his wife's side. After pressing some keys on the computer console to call up a file, he motioned for Julia to join them, "Here's one of the logs that Bess and I found last night,
/On screen: Karl Buckston Highlights of team leader's meeting Day 1820.
On the monitor is an image of an older man with closely cropped raven hair and graying temples. Faint stubble of beard covers his jaw. His posture suggests he is weary as he rubs his chin.
Tonight we discussed routine reports from the committees. Weller's group is diligently slaving away at repairing our vehicles but we're going to have to accelerate our search for an alternative fuel source or adapt the vehicles to use some other type of energy. Our latest test drilling has indicated a general lack of fossil fuels about the immediate area, and we won't have sufficient grain to continue using methanol.
Meanwhile the planting must continue and Peter Anderson has organized a crew of volunteers to step in and continue the job as we wait for repairs. (The corners of his mouth momentarily turn up and his eyes reflect his pride in the members of his community.) At least Ron Stanton reported that our nuclear powered generator has been behaving and there are no longer any problems with the waste containment field. Since there was no other pressing business, we decided to cut the meeting short, many weren't feeling well.
Unfortunately, our doctor has not made much progress in diagnosing our illness. At first we thought it was general fatigue due to the manual labor we have been performing. So we attempted to proceed with business as usual. Yet, each day more people exhibit the symptoms of the disease and all are progressively feeling worse. Dr. Anson hasn't been able to identify any alien virus thus far. She's continuing with her tests and we pray that she will devise a cure for us shortly. (He stops abruptly, grimacing in pain as he reaches to rub his hands against his temples.) More than half of our community are complaining of headaches, dizziness and overall weakness.
(He looks away for a moment.)
I hate to even mention this but after our meeting tonight, Marietta Anderson pulled me aside. Normally Marietta is pretty level headed, but she told me that she believes that the ex-Council scientists who arrived on that Venus class ship don't seem to be susceptible to this illness. This is such a large community, I don't know if her observations are true or not. She insinuated that they may actually be causing the disease.
As paranoid as it sounds, each of us is fully aware of the depths to which the Council would sink to achieve its goals. We've tested out the environmental conditions of this planet and set up a viable community, perhaps now we are expendable. However, these people have lived with us for over five years. I think we've formed a bond and I consider them to be integral members of our community. I know we couldn't have survived this long without their contributions. I find it difficult to conceive that they would intentionally harm us./
Bess turned to Julia and ominously stated, "That's the last message in this directory."
Morgan quickly jumped in, "That's the key word honey, in this directory. I've found files dated a year or two later in some of the other directories I uncovered."
Bess shifted to face her husband, her eyes searching his, anxious for additional confirmation. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he attempted to comfort her,
"Doesn't that help you honey? They lived. The implants didn't kill them after all."
She seemed unwilling to concede. Not that she wanted to believe to the contrary. She just wasn't fully convinced.
With some reluctance, Morgan added, "Okay, here's some other information I found." He called up a file from another directory while commenting to Julia, "I located the Medical directory."
/On screen: Med. file Dr. Elizabeth Anson Day 1822
I've just finished examining Weller who has been complaining about fatigue and feeling disoriented. Apparently he has been experiencing these symptoms for the past few days and has only come to see me after nearly falling off a Trans Rover during a dizzy spell. Normally knowing Weller, I'd suspect that he's just been working too hard but others are reporting similar symptoms as well. And they seem to be getting worse. Some even mention headaches with sharp pain behind their eyes.
Strangely enough, our research crew is not exhibiting any of these symptoms which lead me to believe this organism or substance requires an incubation period which we have not been here long enough for. Yet, I can't detect any traces of foreign microbes in any of the blood samples that I have analyzed. (She pauses, then continues with fear in her voice)
Or maybe it's something else. /
Julia's eyes widened. Morgan gestured that they should hold off on their comments while Bess appeared to be vindicated.
/On screen: Med file Dr. Elizabeth Anson Day 1826
I didn't think it was possible but after re-examining some of our community members I'm afraid it may be true. I think there's a problem with the biostat-implants I designed then recently injected into the members of this colony. I was so careful in my testing - I just don't understand. After conferring with Franklin, he believes that Eve may be able to assist us, so tonight we plan to slip away to our ship to contact her and attempt to remedy this problem. /
I can't let these people die. I can't live with that./
Morgan skips ahead,
/On screen: Med. file Dr. Elizabeth Anson Day 1829
It's working, I'm so relieved. There is nothing wrong with the actual implants themselves. Eve herself had readjusted the monitoring frequency too high which was causing the illness. Thank God we didn't lose anyone.
Franklin has been spending the last few days fine tuning Eve. He hopes we can go home soon. We've accomplished our mission. We've set up surveillance by implanting the monitoring devices and installing the orbital computer, in addition to gathering tons of information about the planet.
What more could the Council ask of us?/
TBC in Ch 6 Deceptions part 2