Chapter One
Part One: I choked on the piece of poisoned apple.
Twenty-two years after Devon Adair was placed in cold sleep…
"I'm sorry," Julia Heller-Solace gave her condolences. "There's no antidote."
A knot had formed deep inside her stomach. It was cold and it ached. She had given dozens of patients bad news before, but never to people she was as close to as the couple sitting before her. She had known them for most of their lives, she had helped protect them, watched them grow and fall in love, helped bring their children into the world.
Julia felt grief and sorrow like she had never encountered before. She desperately fought the urge to cry before returning her attention to the patients.
"How long?" Ulysses Adair asked. He seemed remarkably calm. They both did. It threw the good doctor off.
"Uh…a couple of days, maybe," she gave them the prognosis while simultaneously finding herself confused by their reaction to the news that they were going to die.
"It's too soon," True voiced her concern, but it wasn't typical. It wasn't the lamentation of a dying woman, someone who was afraid. It was a different brand of worry. "They're too young."
Julia watched uncomprehendingly as the man put an arm comfortingly around his wife and pulled her close. True leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Okay," Julia interrupted the pair who seemed all too resigned to their fate. "Forgive me for being insensitive, but what exactly is going on here? I tell you that you've both been poisoned, probably by someone close to you, fatally so, and all you do is sit there?!"
"Julia, it's alright," Uly pacified the distraught woman. He had that gift, that damn, frustrating gift that made you feel like a ridiculous child, despite being twenty years his senior. Most of the time, Julia admired his abilities, his wisdom. But presently, as it was turned upon her person, she loathed it.
How could they be so calm, so serene? They were dying! In two day's time, they would be no more! No longer, would she share meals with them, see True's smile, listen intently to Uly's enlightened stories and philosophies, revel in the joy of their love for one another, for their children, for the planet.
Dr. Julia Heller-Solace began to cry uncontrollably. She felt herself encompassed by warm, tender arms. And despite her anger over their resignation to die, Julia felt herself comforted.
"It's okay Julia," True said softly, after she released the older woman.
"We've known something like this would happen even before Lily was born," Uly tried to explain without revealing too much. "We accepted our fate long ago. But time is short and there is much we have to do."
"We need your help, Julia," True said. "And Alonzo's, too."
"Will you help us?" Uly requested.
The doctor could only nod her head, too overcome with the pain of the impending loss of her beloved friends-more than friends, they were family.
…
Perusing the readings (for what was probably the hundredth time), Julia reassured herself (for what was probably the thousandth time) that the cold sleep units were still functioning properly. She was nervous about this plan. What doctor in their right mind wouldn't be?
But Uly and True believed it was their best option. And Alonzo fully supported the couple in both their immediate plan and the ideals they held for the future. In fact, when the Adairs had accompanied Julia back to her home to explicate in greater detail their request for assistance, Alonzo was waiting for them. Apparently, the Terrians had already contacted him in a Dream, something they had refrained from doing for many years…at least not that Julia was aware.
Even after the situation was explained to her, that Uly and True had already been aware of their ultimate fate, and fully accepted it, that it was the best chance they had for peace on the living world, Julia had still felt apprehensive at best. At worst, she was completely and utterly confused. Maybe because she was a doctor, had been engineered to be one, a scientist to her very core…she just couldn't grasp the ethereal whole-heartedly.
The planet was alive. Okay, that made sense to her in a way. She had basically come up with the theory herself. Ulysses Adair was connected to the living planet somehow, through the Terrians. This was more difficult to comprehend. She still didn't fully-or even marginally-understand how the bond worked. And seeing the future?
This was an all together different concept that she had no hope of wrapping her mind around. However, that didn't stop Julia from believing in it. Well, to be more exact believing in her friends, her husband. If this was truth to them, then it was truth to her.
And if by some chance, this was actual, real, undeniable, although apparently intangible Truth, then, like they had explained to her, it was most definitely worth the risk. Julia may have built her home with Alonzo on the Fringes, focused on her work, become absorbed in her own little version of the perfect life, but she wasn't oblivious to the storm that was coalescing around them. New Pacifica, and all of G889 for that matter, was headed towards civil war.
Previously, all she could do was pray that she would not live to see it, that her children would not suffer it, but now there was something she could do about it…
"Julia?" True prompted. The older woman seemed to have drifted away on her thoughts.
"Oh! Yes?" Julia composed herself.
"Where were you?" True asked, smiling slightly. It was a sad smile, but her smiles had all been sad since the doctor had revealed the dreadful diagnosis.
"I'm sorry?" Julia was still somewhat lost in her own thoughts.
"You seemed a million miles away for a minute there," True supplied.
"Oh, yeah," Julia admitted. "I was just thinking about how bad the situation is getting, that you were poisoned just because of political disagreements. This whole planet is only a few incidents away from chaos. And I feel like there's nothing I can do about it."
"But you are doing something about it," Uly interrupted their conversation with one of his confident smiles. Julia could not deny that the man was a natural leader, a trait he no doubt inherited from his mother. A simple look like the one he just gave her, reassured you of his confidence in your abilities, made you think that you were truly capable of doing anything, and more, made you willing to do anything he asked. "We'd never have been able to revive them without you."
"Or even get our hands on their cold sleep units," True added.
It was lucky that Julia had been the one listed as their primary medical care provider. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to move their units from the storage facility to her lab. With the way things were, Julia was surprised the Central Pacifican government had fulfilled their request at all. Of course, decade-old frozen Edenites weren't that important to Central bureaucrats. And they wouldn't care if shipping them to the Fringes was hazardous to their health.
Alonzo appeared in the doorway, his graying hair unkempt, his breathing a little bit more ragged from physical exertion than it would've been a few years ago.
"The coast is clear, as far as I can tell," he announced. "We're all set to do this."
Julia nodded her head, swallowing back her anxiety. She had performed dozens of operations, hundreds of procedures, but this time, it was different somehow. It meant more. There was more weight to it, more significant things than a single life or death rode on its outcome.
"Okay, True," Julia signaled that she was ready. "Help me with your father's unit first."
…..
"True-Girl?"
John Danziger's voice was huskier than anyone remembered. It was undoubtedly from the misuse of being in cold sleep for near a decade. Besides this single, minor detail, he was exactly as his daughter remembered him.
"I'm here, Daddy," she said leaning in close, letting him cup her cheek, still small and delicate in his large hand. She gave him a wistful smile.
She was a gorgeous sight, his daughter, the thing that mattered most to him. And he missed her, missed her so much. They say a cold sleep is like any other night's rest, you lie down and wake up, supposedly without feeling like years upon years have passed. Most of the time, you don't even dream. But John Danziger felt the years, the years lost with his daughter…with his grand-daughter.
His memory was just catching up to him. He had a grandchild, a beautiful girl, like her mother, like his True-Girl. And that's why he had done this, agreed to submit to the living-death of cold sleep. For her…
And if he was awake, that meant…
"Oh, god, True," he whispered, a pain beginning to fill his chest, choke his throat. He was to awake when she was dead and gone, to care for the granddaughter he had only meant once, but had instantly fallen in love with.
This couldn't be right. Perhaps, the plan had changed. Maybe Uly had released the predictions were wrong, because here True was, living and breathing, smiling…
But behind her apparent affection and happiness at seeing her long-frozen father, there was sadness, a deep and painful weight upon her soul. He could see it in her eyes that were trained fixedly upon his face.
"What's happened?" he asked, knowing it was terrible, and that he'd probably be better not hearing the twisted tale. Clinging to the hope that he knew had no ground upon which to stand, he prayed that she's inform him that it had been a mistake, that the plans had changed, that they had awakened him because he was no longer needed to bear such a burden in the future, that he could live happily with his family in the present.
His treasure looked away and when she finally met his eyes, they were wet. To stall for more time, she helped him sit up; Danzigers never wanted others to see them cry. Finally regaining her composure, she faced him once more.
"We've been poisoned," True told him, her eyes steeled with an acceptance and resolve of which he knew he'd never be capable. He need not ask the prognosis. There was only one outcome which would've found him among the wakeful once more. And a severe anger flamed inside him. He wanted to hurt whoever was taking his angel away from him, taking parents away from his grand-daughter.
Looking at her, at Uly who was standing beside her, at Julia and Alonzo nearby, he fought the overpowering rage that was twining itself around the agony deep inside him. They were in obvious pain, although the signs were probably subtle enough to go unnoticed by someone unfamiliar with them. But John knew them all, so very well. And even through their suffering, they seemed calm, resolute. They had a mission to fulfill. And they needed his help. He wouldn't let them down.
"How much time?" he asked instead of the question to which he desperately wanted to know the answer. Who? Who did this to the ones he loved? Who would he hunt down and kill, possibly with his bare hands?
"About a day," Uly answered, wrapping his arm around his wife's waist. Throughout it all, she had been so brave, so tough. It was for her, because he couldn't let her down, that Uly had managed to keep going, forming and carrying out plans at all. Giving her the small sign of support seemed to pale in comparison to what she had given him, but he offered it nonetheless, because he knew that for True, telling her father was the most difficult part of it all.
John's heart was breaking. He supposed he should be happy, thankful, that he got this one last chance, this gift of a few measly hours to spend with his family, before they were ripped away from him. Is this what he had sacrificed all those years for, all those years he could have spent with his daughter, watching his family grow. How long had it been?
For the first time, John realized how young they still were. And although he didn't think it possible, it deepened his sorrow and feeling of loss. He reached out to stroke her cheek gently once more.
"You're still so young," he said softly, admiring the youthful beauty still in his daughter's face. She'd never have a chance to grow old… He bit back tears. "How long was I in cold sleep?"
"Approximately seven years," Julia spoke up, finally finding her voice. It was such a difficult scene to watch. How many more like it would she see in the coming days, in the all-too-short hours her friends' had left? How much more heart-wrenching would it get?
He could only nod his head in response. They deserved more, so much more. Barely in their thirties and it was the end of their lives. If he had died at that age, his life would've ended before it really began. He never would've seen this planet, never would've met Devon or Ulysses, the others, and never would've seen his daughter grow, fall in love, start her own family…
There was so much to regret, and he would mourn their lost years as if they were his own. Seven years he had sacrificed, only to see his daughter's life cut short, seven precious years out of so few she had been given.
No! Stop it!
John scolded himself. The melancholy thoughts would take him nowhere but into the depths of despair. They needed him. His granddaughter would need him. He had to be strong for the ones he loved. He would be strong for them.
"So, did you wake Sleeping Beauty yet?" he asked lightly, attempting to change the mood and subject by force.
A/N: Next up…the return of Devon and some more plot exposition…
