Chapter Four
Devon stood on the Dreamplane, swirling white, someone's arm still around her, someone's hand still pulling her back.
"You okay, Dev?" came a deep, familiar voice in her ear.
"Where am I?" she asked.
The hands loosened their hold on her. "No pain on the Dreamplane," John, for it was John who stood with her, replied easily. She stumbled a little as he let go of her, but he reached out to support her until she stood steady on her feet again.
"This is the Dreamplane?" she asked, her voice echoing back around her the way the Dreamplane always did. "Where are the Terrians?"
"No Terrians, just us," John replied. She turned to look at him, amazed by the sight of him. On the Dreamplane, he seemed to stand even taller, stronger. His face radiated strength and tenderness. He glowed with a kind of inner confidence. He was beautiful. She couldn't keep looking at him, but she couldn't turn away.
He was the one who broke the stare between them, glancing off at the landscape that surrounded them. "It's beautiful here, isn't it?" he asked, his voice rolling around her like distant thunder. She still looked at him.
"It's amazing," she breathed. "Why aren't there any Terrians?"
"We're Dreaming on another level of the Dreamplane," he began. "The planet's level. It's a really long story." He paused for a moment, then looked down at her and said, "I need to look in on you in the real world to be sure you've settled down, okay?"
She didn't understand any part of what he was talking about but nodded absently. John shifted part of his consciousness back to the ship where he sat behind Devon, one arm around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides, the other hand on her forehead, pressing her against him. "How's she doing, doc?" he asked Julia quietly.
"Fine now," Julia replied. "What did you do?"
"Dreaming," he answered. "It's hard work though, gotta go back."
Back on the Dreamplane again, it took all his concentration to keep them there. Far, far off at a distance, he could feel the planet's touch, feel the support of Terrians, but it was far, far away. Maybe he felt Alonzo and Uly as well, he wasn't sure. He wondered if True and Bess were there, lending their strength too.
The mist swirled heavily white about him and he felt himself losing hold on things. He sat down and leaned up against a rock, closing his eyes and working to keep Devon and himself right there, safely detached from reality. The landscape stabilized around him and he opened his eyes to look for her.
To his surprise, she knelt next to him, her beautiful dark auburn hair like silk, the glow of the Dreamscape turning her skin to porcelain. "Did you do this?" she asked him. "How did you bring us here?"
"I had help," he began. "A lot has happened in the past several weeks."
"How long, John? How long was I out of it?" she asked seriously.
"About a month, give or take a day," he answered, unwilling to let on that he knew exactly how many days it had been.
"How's Uly?" she asked, thoughtfully.
"He's great," John answered. "He's missed you a lot though. We all have." The Dreamplane's tendency to bring out the hidden pulled those words from him and he suspected pulled her next words from her.
"Did you miss me, John?" she leaned in closer.
"Be careful what you start in here," he replied. "This place has a tendency to bring out the truth. To make you say what you mean."
The idea that someone would actually say what they meant to her was at one time laughable. The fabulously wealthy Devon Adair been followed by sycophants and yes men from birth, pursued by the wealthy who wanted to be wealthier, the powerful who wanted more power.
She'd met hundred, thousands of educated men, cultured men, socially accomplished men and none of them had ever said what they meant. None of them had ever let on that there was any other way to do things than her way.
But from the first moment she'd met him, she'd known John Danziger was different.
The debt that crushed him could have been paid out of her monthly personal budget and never be missed. He knew that, but he refused to bow down to her. From the moment they crashed, this man, this mechanic, this drone, had stood up to her.
He'd demanded a vote. She'd nearly laughed in his face. She could have bought and sold him and his entire family a hundred thousand times over. But he stood there towering over her and demanded a vote. So they'd held a vote.
At first they'd clashed constantly as he refused to give in, refused to play by her rules. But over the past months, she'd begun to rely on him utterly, on his good sense, his practicality, his willingness to voice his opinion, his creativity, his strength. She'd begun to count on the fact that he wouldn't back down if he thought he was right, and sometimes wouldn't back down when he knew he was wrong.
She looked at him with the unclouded eyes of the Dreamplane to see him as he really was. She looked at him as he leaned back easily against the rock, totally at home in that big, rangy body of his, long legs crossed at the ankle. She took in the confident set of his jaw, those eyes that shifted from gray to blue, from cool appraisal to merry sparkle, that untamed cascade of blond hair even longer than she remembered.
She reached up to wrap a finger around one of the curls that fell into his eyes. "Did you miss me, John?" she repeated deliberately, leaning even closer.
"Every day," he answered quietly, his eyes growing bluer and a bit wider as she approached him.
She couldn't stop herself. She did what she'd wanted to do from the first minute she'd met him, from the first time he'd stood his ground against her and demanded that she look at him, listen to him, give him her time, her attention, her respect.
"I have to do this," she explained as she ran her hands up into that hair and pulled him to her, kissing him with a desire and intensity long held back.
Danziger fell out of the Dreamplane with an almost perceptible jolt. His eyes snapped open to view the inside of the Council ship. Damn his lack of concentration! However, he still held Devon against him and he took a moment to luxuriate in the feel of her.
"Are you back with me?" Julia asked. At his nod, he didn't quite trust himself to speak, she continued, "She seems fine. The particle levels are almost to zero and her bodily systems are bouncing back slowly, but steadily. I think we've done it, John."
Danziger returned her smile. "How much longer until the DNA wears off?" he made himself ask.
"About an hour, maybe less," the doctor replied. "One good thing about using the DNA is that she probably won't remember any of this. It has a tendency to affect memory storage and recall." Julia looked down guiltily as she remembered her own experimentation.
"Hey, doc," Danziger reached out his hand to grab her arm and give it a little shake. "That's all behind us, right? No hard feelings. You weren't entirely responsible for your actions."
"Not exactly," Julia elaborated. "I acted impulsively, without inhibition, but not against my will. I just hate that I don't remember some things." She blushed a little as she said this, and Danziger wondered just what might have gone on that made Alonzo so determined to bring her back.
Meanwhile Danziger took comfort in knowing that even if Devon didn't remember, and even if she wouldn't have done it under normal circumstances, there might still be a chance he could meet that same woman in the waking world—someday. He sighed softly and smoothed her hair back away from her brow as he just held her against him while she dreamed.
Bess tried again to reach Morgan on the Dreamplane. No luck. She just couldn't get through to him without Mom's help. He'd cut off his gear, that much they'd determined. Zeke's was also disabled. Walman and Baines suggested that they were just too busy to talk and would be back with them when they got freed up.
Bess couldn't help but retort, "What if they're too hurt to call in? What then?"
"We've got their coordinates," Walman admitted. "Baines, you want to go after them?"
"Let's go get the ATV," Baines responded.
"Wait just a minute," Alonzo butted in from the side. "You do that and all three vehicles are AWOL until Danziger gets back. We go on foot and Walman stays here. Baines, grab your med kit just in case. I'm getting the other magpro."
"That leaves the camp without any firepower," Walman reminded him.
"Damn," Alonzo responded. "Why couldn't this place have come equipped with a nice weapons stash as well?" He sighed once then said, "Fine then, we go out on our own."
"That is colossally stupid," Yale stated firmly. "You go out to aid two men under attack with no way to defend yourselves or them. You just became a liability. A brave liability, but a liability nonetheless."
"What do you suggest then, Yale? That we leave them out there to become barracuda chow?" Walman responded.
"I suggest that we do as Morgan said and give them a little longer to sort things out for themselves before leaping into action half cocked, so to speak," Yale replied. "Zeke is well able to take care of himself and both men were armed."
"But this is Morgan we're talking about," Baines said quietly, so as not to insult him in front of Bess. "He's not a soldier."
"He is pretty good at Venusian Bounty Hunter, though," Alonzo suggested. "Maybe Morgan has more reserves than we're giving him credit for."
Morgan Martin nearly wet himself he was so terrified by the sight of the huge beast leaping at him, teeth bared, claws extended. He fired twice into the animal before it crashed into him, pinning him to the ground beneath over four hundred pounds of ferocity.
Fortunately, the barracuda was stunned into oblivion before it even hit him, leaving Morgan to wrestle out from under one extended forepaw and the head. Even stunned, the force of the impact had jarred him, the animal's teeth knocking him nearly unconscious when they hit his head, the front claws grazing down his left shoulder and arm, leaving deep bleeding gashes.
He shook his head to clear his vision as he stood, wiping away what he thought was warm barracuda drool from his face, only to find that it was blood. His knees went a little weak at the sight, but then he saw Zeke wrestling with the two monsters that had him pinned down.
Morgan drew aim on the first one and missed as the animal leaped to the side out of the way. He shot again, but it ran, leaving only one facing Zeke. Morgan tried to get a clear shot at it, but Zeke kept getting in the way. He realized it was because the animal had Zeke's forearm in its mouth.
He watched helplessly as Zeke planted his feet and pushed his arm against the creature's jaws, just like he'd instructed. With his free hand, he repeatedly punched the animal in the side of the head. To Morgan's surprise, the move worked and the barracuda let go, backing away with a gagging motion. He took advantage of the distraction to aim and fire, dropping the animal to the ground with a thud.
"Thanks, Morgan," Zeke panted.
"No problem, big fella," Morgan managed to respond. He had turned to pick up his gear when the third beast sprang back at him from the side. With inhuman speed, Zeke leaped forward to knock Morgan down and out of the animal's reach, knocking the pistol out of his hand and under the rail.
Zeke then began to turn to face the animal, but even as he did, a momentary look of surprise crossed his face and he crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.
"The failsafe! No!" Morgan cried in realization. The program had interpreted Zeke's actions as an attack on him rather than a defense. He scrambled underneath the rail for the lost pistol, looking back to see Zeke on his side, green eyes wide open and defenseless.
The barracuda sensed an easy kill and batted the former ZED in the face with a blow that would have crushed the skull of a normal human being. It then proceeded to take Zeke by the leg and drag him off into the grass at a quick pace.
"No!" Morgan yelled as he dragged himself free of the rail's undercarriage and ran after the animal, firing as he went, his gear forgotten.
At camp, Bess and the others waited for word from the two men. At last, Morgan's voice came over the gear channel. "Hey, camp!" he called to them.
"Morgan, honey, are you all right?" Bess cried into her gear, tears of relief streaming down her face.
"Well," Morgan began as he dragged Zeke's heavy body across the side of the rail and into the passenger seat. "I've been better. Zeke's down. We're coming in."
"What do you mean Zeke's down?" came Alonzo's worried reply.
"Down. Failsafe." Morgan could only grunt out one word answers as he hauled the heavy perimeter alert to the side of the vehicle and strapped it in.
"What's wrong?" Bess asked.
"Just getting the perimeter sensor in the rail," Morgan responded, a little out of breath from his exertions.
"Leave the sensor and get yourself back here," Alonzo commanded.
"Too late, already loaded," Morgan replied, easing himself into the driver's seat. "We came out here to do a job and now it's done, right Zeke?" he gave the ZED's unmoving body a punch on the arm.
He glanced over to the barracuda that he'd stunned earlier. One of them was beginning to move a little. "Can't have you guys following us," he said apologetically, then stunned them each again before driving off.
Morgan wiped sweat out of his eyes again, then realized anew that it was blood, not sweat. His left arm was getting weak. Zero kept having to correct his course to keep him headed back to the compound. Plus he was beginning to get a little lightheaded.
"Guys," he called on the open gear channel, "I might be losing blood." He looked down at the arm of his shirt and the floor of the rail. "Yep, I'm losing blood. If we don't show up soon, somebody come get us."
He looked over at Zeke, whose right eye was completely filled with blood from the three deep gashes across his face. "You look like hell, buddy," Morgan stated, then the world swirled around him and everything went black.