Earth 2.1.2
Chapter 3
A/N: Thanks for the kind reviews, LMXB and Nagging Cube and anonymous (I got reviewed by anonymous! I'm HUGE!). I'm working like crazy on this sucker (emphasis on crazy), hence the posting frenzy. That is changing soon—I have to work on making sure all the setup is in place in 4, 5 and 6 for chapters 7, 8 and 9. Aaaannnnnd, nobody really wants to know how the sausage gets made. Suffice it to say, the light-speed updating is going to downshift to sublight. But don't panic—I am almost finished, so this story will be completed. I promise.
It was still almost completely dark when he snuck out of the camp. He knew it was a risk waiting even that long, but it was the soonest he was sure he wouldn't be noticed. He ran up to the top of the hill to the east of the camp and looked back for an instant.
He couldn't stay. He knew that, without a doubt. They were wrong, so wrong he couldn't believe they didn't see it, didn't understand how the course they were taking was going to end in disaster. He'd tried everything he could to convince them, and finally had reached the conclusion that he had to take action.
So here he was. But now that he looked back at the camp, he found himself hesitating. This was his home. It was everything to him, and to leave it…
He forced the thought aside ruthlessly, made himself turn, and ran to the east, hoping he hadn't waited too long.
"Good morning," Devon said, sitting down next to Julia in the nearly deserted mess tent very early the morning after the confrontation with Hardy.
Julia looked up, startled out of her reverie. "Good morning," she said, and there must have been something in Devon's manner that made her wary, because she immediately said, "I know what you're thinking," she said.
"Really," Devon said dryly.
"I'm okay," Julia insisted. "What Hardy said was—"
"Ha," Devon interrupted. "I wasn't thinking about Hardy at all."
Julia looked nervous. "I wasn't trying to prove myself, with the worm bullet, if that's what you're thinking," Julia said, but Devon's steady, skeptical look forced her to backtrack. "Okay, that might have been part of it, but that really wasn't what I was thinking of most."
"Well, that's progress," Devon said, smiling. "At least you were thinking, though I can't say I'm thrilled with the results of that thought process."
"Devon, please," Julia said quietly.
"Sorry," Devon said, realizing that Julia was trying to say something important. "What were you thinking?" And, amazingly, she managed to keep even a hint of sarcasm from coming through her voice, just genuine curiosity.
Julia looked down at her bowl of synthofu for a moment, like she was trying to work up the courage to say what she wanted to say. "I haven't had very many friends in my life," she said, then, wryly, "Actually, I'm not sure I ever really had any. The closest I ever came was with Dr. Harrison and Jamie, but we were all so focused on the work, we never really got that close. But here…" she said, then trailed off, trying to find the words.
"It's pretty hard to avoid getting close, isn't it?" Devon said.
Julia smiled, and Devon was reminded again what a difference it made in her face. "There is that," she said. "Lord knows Melanie is impossible to resist. But it's more than just that. Honestly, I never wanted friends, at least not after the first few times I tried." She looked embarrassed. "That sounds so pathetic. It wasn't like I was unhappy. I'm pretty comfortable being on my own, and I thought that was enough. Until I got here, and there was Melanie, and you, and Danziger, and—"
She stopped, and Devon knew exactly whose name she'd been about to say. But why does she look so worried? Devon thought uneasily.
"Well," Julia said, "I found out there are people who don't care who I was before, who my mother is, any of that."
Too bad Hardy isn't one of them, Devon thought, but she wasn't about to bring it up if Julia didn't.
"You all just treated me like a person—a person you liked," Julia continued, studying her synthofu intently, "and when I realized the bullet was in the middle of the camp, all I could think was that if it blew up, and any of you died…" She stopped, taking a deep breath, and she looked up at Devon seriously. "I don't think I could stand losing any of you."
Devon blinked hard, looking away for a moment. "Honestly, Julia, I think that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me." Then she looked back and gave Julia a mock-severe glare. "But if you think that's going to get you off the hook for the crazy—"
"Why on earth would I think that?" Julia said sarcastically.
Devon smiled. "Seriously, though, I am grateful for what you did. But this goes both ways. How do you think it would be for any of us to lose you?" Julia considered that for a moment, and Devon could see a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes. She sighed inwardly. It's too bad that with all the stuff we lost in the crash, we couldn't lose the emotional baggage, too.
That day, since Julia insisted that they stay in camp until she was sure Morgan's spine was healing properly, Danziger took Rick and Bill out, and they found the Council agents. Yale had been right—there had been five whose bodies were still right outside the camp, and they had to have been hit during that initial attack.
It took a while to track down the remaining four. Two were in a gully a couple of kilometers to the southwest of the camp, both with arrows sticking out of their chests. They found the rails next—three of them, though one was in rough shape—with one of the agents dead nearby, an arrow sticking out of his eye.
They found the sniper on their way back to camp. His body was only a half a kilometer away from the camp, and it was in much worse condition than any of the others.
"I think our Terrier friend was a little pissed off at this one," Danziger said, studying the clearly trampled agent's battered corpse. "I wonder why?"
"My bet is he doesn't like those worm bullets," Bill said darkly, clearly remembering Helen being hit.
"Yeah," Rick said. "And I don't blame him."
Danziger shrugged and began the distasteful process of scavenging the agent's salvageable gear. They'd already buried the other eight, and with this, they had nine pairs of reasonably good boots, seven decent medium weight jackets (two had been too saturated with blood for any of them to feel comfortable keeping them), and a variety of equipment. Including six more mag-pros and two handguns, with additional ammunition for them.
But it was the rails that Danziger was most pleased about. The one was in bad enough condition he'd decided to use it for parts to keep the others maintained. He planned to pull its solar panel to use in repairing the ATV. The worst of the damage to that vehicle had come when it hit the bluff, and the panel shattered. The rest of it was in decent condition, surprisingly enough. But between the rails, the ATV and the Transrover, they could, in a pinch, get everyone on a wheeled vehicle. It wouldn't be fast, but there could be situations where that might be vital.
Rick grinned when he explained his plan for repairing the ATV. "Alonzo'll be happy. He loves that thing."
"Yeah, he's been moping around ever since it got blown up," Bill said.
Danziger grunted, but he knew better. Whatever was bugging Alonzo had less to do with the ATV than it did with Julia. But he didn't have a clue what it was really about. Better not to know, he told himself. Leave the VR opera stuff to Devon and Mel.
Julia stopped in to check on Morgan that afternoon, and was pleased with his progress. He had regained full sensation in both his legs, though they still felt weak to him.
"When can I try walking?" he asked.
"Give it a couple of days at least," Julia said. "There's no sense in pushing yourself too fast. The spinal column is intact and shows only slight bruising now. But I'd rather be certain there isn't a weak spot in the vertebra there. We'll give the boneheal till tomorrow night to be sure any potential fracture points are solid, and see how the swelling is then."
Morgan sighed. "I hate being stuck in bed. It's humiliating having to have Bess do everything for me."
"I know," Bess said, patting his leg. "But you'll be up and around soon enough."
"As long as I'm here, Morgan, I wanted to talk to you about Yale," Julia said, glad of the chance to distract him from moping.
"I wondered when you'd ask," Morgan said with a hint of arrogance to his tone. "That thing is a walking time bomb."
"Morgan, don't exaggerate," Bess said.
"I am not exaggerating!" Morgan said indignantly. "The first sign of trouble with the Yale program was elevated ACTH levels. The hardware and programming was supposed to inhibit the normal organic memory processes—don't ask me how, I don't know. But sometimes those processes start to reassert themselves. The ACTH is the first warning of that. After that, those old memories can come back. With a vengeance. The cyborg's organic and mechanical systems start fighting each other, and it can cause…instability." Morgan made air quotes with his fingers as he said the last word.
"What kind of instability?" Julia said uneasily.
"The first one killed himself by ripping a power conduit out of a wall and sticking it against his head," Morgan said darkly.
Julia blanched.
"It gets worse," Morgan said. "Five of the twenty-two first generation Yales committed suicide. Another three went completely out of control. There were nine fatalities and three more serious injuries, not counting the Yales. One of them tried to crash a shuttle into Station One. Believe me, keeping that one quiet was a nightmare. But they were all bad—all three of the homicidal Yales had to be killed by the CSF, and all in front of witnesses. There was this old guy I thought the C—"
"What about the other fourteen?" Julia interrupted, though she dreaded the answer.
"I thought they'd all been recalled," Morgan said angrily. "They were in the process when I got promoted, so I never heard what happened to them after that. And I really didn't want to know."
"When did all this happen?" Julia asked.
"About five years ago," Morgan said. "They did a bunch of work on the second generation, using severely brain damaged people for that round, and it worked a lot better. That's why the cyborg program doesn't have the bad rep it ought to, because of the Cambridge model. That and all the work my team did cleaning up the mess of the first round."
Bess looked worriedly at Julia. "What should we do?"
Julia shook her head helplessly. "I have no idea. The ACTH levels were back down when I scanned him in the med tent, and they were the same in my scan this morning. Is it possible the explosion just caused a temporary glitch?"
Morgan frowned. "I wouldn't bet my life on it," he said darkly.
"Morgan, you don't know for certain that Yale's a threat," Julia said. "As far as we know, the majority of the Yales didn't become unstable."
"Besides, they wouldn't have left our Yale with Devon if they thought he was dangerous," Bess said.
Morgan looked at her patronizingly. "Bess, this is the Council we're talking about. The same Council that has tried—how many times is it now? Four?—to kill Devon Adair."
"So what's the next warning sign?" Julia said, trying not to think about how right he probably was.
"He'll have more blackouts, then he'll start to have flashbacks, either in dreams or awake. He'll be able to remember those," Morgan said.
"And then?" Julia persisted.
"Then kablooey, one way or the other," Morgan said.
"How long do you think we have, if he really is following that pattern?"
Morgan shook his head. "It varied a lot. It depends on what kind of person he was before they cyborged him. The ones that were worst were the ones who'd been homicidal before. But one of the ones who committed suicide had been in prison for manslaughter because he'd been flying a shuttle while drunk."
"Morgan, how long?" Julia insisted.
"The earliest one took about two months after the first recorded blackout. The longest took almost a year—that was the drunk guy."
Julia looked relieved.
"Hey, don't go assuming we have two months," Morgan said. "We don't know how long Yale might have been having blackouts."
"We'll just have to keep a close eye on him," Julia said. "I'll talk to Devon. She's around him the most, and she'll be able to tell us if he might have been showing signs earlier, and if he starts to get worse."
"That's it?" Morgan said, incredulous. "That's all you're going to do?"
"What else would you suggest?" Julia said tightly, knowing full well Morgan was thinking the unthinkable.
Morgan glanced uneasily at Bess, then said, "Well, I…uh…I don't know."
"Then let me know when you think of something," Julia said, and left the tent.
"Well, that's nice to see," Valerie said, coming up next to Melanie three days after they'd finally gotten back on the road.
Melanie looked up and followed Valerie's gaze to see Julia sitting by the fire, listening to Toshiko tell a story to Todd, a story which apparently required animated gestures, and Julia seemed amused, though she was clearly trying to hide it.
"Yeah," Melanie said, but she seemed troubled.
"What's wrong?" Valerie said, frowning. "Don't tell me Morgan's still insisting his toes are numb."
Melanie rolled her eyes. "No, I think Bess finally managed to convince him he's fine." She sighed, looking frustrated. "I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"The spy?" Valerie said.
Melanie nodded. "Yes, that, and the Council and whatever else they have planned for us. But it's more than that," she said. "You didn't see how she was after Hardy yelled at her the other day. I thought maybe she was starting to let herself open up, but then she went right back to deflectors on full. Hell, she's only over there by the fire because I threatened to sic Devon on her."
Valerie groaned. "Don't you think you ought to just let her handle things her way? Not everybody likes being social."
"It's not just for her," Melanie said insistently. "She has to repair the damage she did to her standing in the group."
Valerie sighed. "I guess you're right," she said. "But you're putting her out there where Hardy and whoever else might still be suspicious of her can have a shot at her."
"Why do you think I'm sitting over here?" Melanie said. "I plan to intercept anybody that looks like bad news. I want her to come out of her shell, but I don't want her to get stung so much she pulls completely back into it."
"Quite the mixed metaphor there, Mel," Alonzo said, coming up behind her.
"Oh, you know what I mean," Melanie said impatiently. "And you know who I'm talking about, too," she added, nodding pointedly towards Julia.
"Yeah," Alonzo said, and as he looked at Julia, he suddenly had that pensive look he'd been carrying around since the Council attack.
"Okay, 'Zo, what the hell is going on with you?" Melanie said.
"Nothing," he said, frowning.
Melanie gave him her most withering look.
"Come on, Solace, you've been acting really weird," Valerie said. "You haven't said a word to Julia for three days, and it seems like she's avoiding you, too."
"What did you do this time?" Melanie said.
"Me!?" Alonzo protested. "I didn't do a damned thing! It was—" He stopped, and Melanie looked at him closely.
"Come on, 'Zo, I know you. You've made living in the moment an art form. You get mad, and it blows over in ten minutes. What did she do that's got you so ticked off?"
"None of your damned business," Alonzo said sharply, and Valerie raised her eyebrows.
"You made it my business when you asked me to help you get together with her," Melanie said quietly. "I did that, against my better judgment, and I thought it was working out well for both of you."
"It was," Alonzo said, sounding slightly conciliatory. "But I don't know if it's a good idea."
Melanie groaned. "Come on, 'Zo! What do you have waiting for you back at the stations? I decided to stay on G-889 weeks ago, and it really wasn't that tough a decision."
"You're not going to go back with the ship?" Valerie said, and she looked pleased.
Melanie shrugged. "It's not like I have anything to go back to. Just the job, and this is way more fun and interesting than that ever was. Besides, I have Rob now, and there's no way I'm giving up that sexy geek."
Alonzo was staring at her like she'd grown a second head.
"What?" she said. "He is sexy, you just don't—"
"New Pacifica," he said. "I hadn't even thought of…"
Melanie blinked in surprise. "Wait, you weren't talking about taking off once we get to New Pacifica?" She frowned. "But…then…what were you—?" she started to say, but was interrupted by Rob coming up and trying to drag her off to mediate some dispute with Rick and Bill.
Alonzo took the opportunity to make his escape, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. I'm such an idiot, he thought, groaning inwardly as he headed for his bunk. But he knew it was because that was how he'd lived his life. Melanie was right—he always focused on what was right in front of him, never thinking ahead or behind, at least till now. He'd figured he was stuck on this planet for at least a year, so it didn't matter what was going to happen when that year was up. He'd just deal with it when the time came.
Damn, he thought suddenly, remembering the conversation he'd had all those weeks ago with Melanie. She'd told him he needed to figure out what he wanted before he went after Julia. She was absolutely right, he thought, shaking his head.
Somehow he knew that he couldn't have done anything differently. There was no way he was going to ride along with the Eden Project and just ignore the attraction he'd felt for Julia. It was impossible to ignore.
But what now? Clearly, she was having second thoughts about him, or she'd never have brought up that quote. She was digging, trying to find out more about him, and it bothered him more than he wanted to admit to himself.
Because you're ashamed of it, the honest part of him said.
"Hey, Melanie," Julia said, ducking through the tent flap later that evening.
"Julia," Melanie said, barely looking up from her tablet.
Julia frowned slightly. There was something off in Melanie's manner, but she couldn't figure out what it might be. She sat down at her lab table and started to work testing the synthetic version of the plant extract Melanie and Helen had come up with that had saved her life. She'd used her work on the formula the day before as a way to keep Devon from grilling her any further, and she'd finally finished it. But now what will I use as an excuse? she thought.
"Is it just me, or is there something up with Tosh and Todd?" Melanie said a few minutes later.
"What?" Julia said. "What do you mean?"
Melanie shrugged. "It's just it seems like she's spending a lot of time talking to him. What do you think?"
Julia blinked, surprised by the sudden introduction of the topic. "I have no idea," she said.
Melanie rolled her eyes. "Of course you don't," she said, grinning. "I forget sometimes that you don't do the gossip gathering most people do."
"Why would I, when you do it so very well?" Julia said dryly.
"Good point," Melanie said. "For example, I couldn't help but notice that Alonzo seems to be a little strange, and—"
"Melanie," Julia said warningly, "don't start."
"Hey, it's what I do!" Melanie protested. "And since he wouldn't tell me anything—"
"You asked him?" Julia said, frowning. She opened her mouth to say something more, hesitated, then plunged ahead. "What did he say?"
Melanie blinked in surprise. "Not much," she said tentatively. "I asked him what he did to screw things up, and he said it wasn't his fault." She looked intently at Julia. "Is he right?"
Julia looked troubled. "I don't know," she said. "I said something the other day that made him angry."
Melanie frowned. "What did you say?"
"That's just it," Julia said, a strange tension in her face. "I don't know what it was."
"That's really weird," Melanie said, perplexed. There was something Julia wasn't telling her. "It's not like him to stay mad for very long." She shook her head, then shrugged and grinned at Julia. "Then again, it's not like him to fall in love, either. We're in uncharted Alonzo Solace territory here, Jules."
Julia looked up sharply. "Wait, what did you say?"
"Oh, come on," Melanie said. "He may not have said it, but I've never seen him like this with anyone before. If it isn't love, there's some serious psychological funkiness going on there."
Julia looked almost sick, and Melanie frowned. What the hell is going on with these two?
Julia finally sighed again and shook her head. "I'm feeling pretty psychologically funky myself."
"Really?" Melanie said, looking astonished. "You mean it?"
Julia looked at her, and then must have realized what Melanie meant. She froze, wide-eyed, clearly trying to decide how to answer.
"Never mind," Melanie said, taking pity on her. "I'm not the one you need to say it to."
That didn't seem to help. Julia leaned over, putting her head in her hands.
"Don't worry about it," Melanie said gently. "It'll work out, at least as long as you still want it to." She paused. "You do, don't you?"
Julia didn't look up. "I don't know," she whispered.
Alonzo didn't get much sleep that night, so when the dawn finally started to break, he gave up trying and packed up his gear. He finished loading everything onto the trailer long before anyone else was awake, so he hopped into the newly-repaired ATV and headed southwest along the path Danziger had planned for him to scout with Artie.
He was glad they'd found some gloves in the last supply pod. The air had an icy bite to it, and even the slow pace of the ATV made the wind bitter cold. As he drove along, he noticed a fine edge of ice was coating almost everything, even the waving grass. Great, he thought grimly, Julia was right. Winter is definitely coming.
And that thought wrenched him back to the reason he couldn't sleep. He knew as soon as Devon was up and around he'd be getting an earful from her for going out alone, but he needed more time to think before he had to face anyone. He had realized sometime in the night that for the second time in his very long life, he was at a crossroads. Whatever he did now would affect him for the rest of his life.
I just hope whatever decision I make this time doesn't turn out as badly as last time, he thought.
I should just tell Julia everything, he thought. Tell her, and let her decide if she still wants to be with me. He knew he was being grossly unfair to her over her interest in his past. It wasn't her fault he had skeletons in his closet, and it was only his guilty conscience that was making him angry at her.
Not only that, the rebellious side of him argued. The only reason she could have for digging into his past was if she suspected him of being the spy. And that hurt more than he wanted to admit. He thought that they'd reached a level of trust, but maybe he was wrong.
But she could be doing the same thing with everyone in the camp. It's what he would do in her position—eliminate all the suspects you could, do everything possible to find out who the real spy is so they could all go back to trusting each other. That doesn't mean I have to like it, he thought angrily.
All the more reason to tell her everything. If you want her to trust you, you have to trust her with the truth. But there was no guarantee that would convince her he was innocent. Even though there wasn't a shred of evidence that could implicate him as the spy, the absence of evidence wasn't proof of innocence. And his past was an ugly kind of circumstantial evidence anyway, at least on the surface.
Damn it, he thought angrily. I thought I was over it, but now it's just like it was when they pulled me out. He'd had the nightmares again, all night long: images of the dropship exploding around him, only in the dreams he could actually hear the screams of the women and children he couldn't save, and then Biko was there, looming over him in his skinsuit, his mirrored visor hiding his face, accusing him as the shattered pieces of the dropship fell around them.
He wrenched his mind away from those memories, swallowing back a wave of nausea. How can I possibly explain any of that to Julia, especially if she's heard the recordings? They make me look like a Council true believer!
Besides, even if I do tell her, and I do somehow convince her that I'm not the spy, what if she decides does still want me? He considered that for a long moment. Maybe it won't matter. There are a million things that could happen before we get to New Pacifica. They'd already had their share of close calls, and were likely to have more. And even if they survived, it was entirely possible that the relationship with Julia might have run its course.
But even as he thought it, he knew it wouldn't, at least not for him. If they both made it that far safely, he was still going to have to make the choice.
And I have to make it now, he thought. It would be the height of cruelty for him to abandon her in New Pacifica if he let things go where he really wanted them to now. There was no way she'd consider returning to the stations, even if it were safe, which it wouldn't be. The Council had a very long memory, something he knew from experience.
But he couldn't possibly commit to her unless he could convince her he wasn't the spy. It all circled back to that. An expression of undying love would just look like a desperate attempt to win her over.
An hour later, he sighed explosively. He'd run through all of it at least a dozen times as he drove, barely aware of his surroundings, and was still no closer to an answer.
You're looking at this all wrong, he told himself. If you take the whole spy thing out of the equation, what do you want to do? After all, what does it matter what she thinks of you if you're going to leave the first chance you get?
But he knew it mattered a lot. And maybe that's the answer, he thought, but before he could consider that, he felt a sudden wave of fear. It wasn't strong, but it was definitely coming from someplace outside of him.
Alonzo slowed the ATV, looking around and cursing his luck. Of course I'd run into a Terrier, he thought, wondering if this was their friend. If it wasn't, he could be in big trouble. Hell, it's trouble either way, he thought, feeling another wave of fear and trying not to think about what could scare their six-legged benefactor. Devon's going to be furious with me. He brought the ATV to a halt and scanned the horizon with the monoculars.
There was nothing to the east or south, but he couldn't see past the low hill running west of him. He hesitated, then drove the ATV slowly towards where the hill tapered down to meet the broad plain to his south.
As he approached the end of the hill, he felt the fear growing, pulsing at him with increasing intensity. It was getting harder to think through it. Whatever is going on, there is one terrified Terrier out there.
He pulled the ATV to a stop again before he got to the end of the hill and grabbed the mag-pro from where he'd stowed it. As he turned back, flipping the power on, he was hit by a tidal wave of overwhelming fear and pain. He leaned forward, cradling his head in his hands, gasping for air and trying to find some way to hold off the torrent of emotion.
He dimly heard galloping, and tried to raise his head. Suddenly, the pressure let up. He looked up, and found a Terrier standing in front of him, and as he looked at it, he knew this was the Terrier that had helped them. Its torso was tilted awkwardly to one side, and Alonzo realized there was an arrowhead sticking out of its torso just below its left shoulder.
It looked hard at him for a moment, then gestured wildly to the north with its good arm, and immediately galloped off in that direction.
Alonzo didn't hesitate. Whatever it was running from—and given the arrow, it must be other Terriers—he didn't want to run into them. He spun the ATV in a tight circle, keeping the mag-pro in his lap and powered on, and floored it, following the injured Terrier.
He slapped at his gear to open a channel. "Eden Project, this is Alonzo!" he shouted. "Anybody awake back there?"
"Yeah," came Melanie's voice, but she sounded sleepy. "Where are you, 'Zo?"
"About twelve k southwest of you," he said. "I'm headed back, but we have a problem. I have an injured Terrier with me, and I'm pretty sure that the Terriers that shot it are right behind us. Get everybody up and ready for a fight."
"Alonzo, it's Devon," she said, cutting off Melanie's surprised reply. "Are you okay?"
"So far," he said. "I haven't actually seen the other—" He broke off, hit by a muted wave of fear and worry from the Terrier. Clearly it was trying not to hit Alonzo with it, but it couldn't seem to avoid it when it turned to glance back over its shoulder.
Alonzo did the same, and felt his own fears double as he saw at least six Terriers coming around the end of the hill.
"Alonzo?" Devon said. "What happened?"
"Sorry," he said. "I just saw what's after us. A half-dozen Terriers. And they're gaining on us." The injured Terrier had turned back to look ahead, but it was clearly flagging, and Alonzo didn't know how much longer it could keep going at this pace. "Listen, I think we're gonna need backup."
"Can you make it back here?" Devon said.
"No, not before they catch up with us," Alonzo said. And he knew there was no way in hell he would abandon the injured Terrier, not after all it had done for them.
Devon sighed. "Okay, we'll send help. You said there are six of them?"
"Yeah," he said. "Thanks. I'm gonna try to find someplace where we can hold them off. I'll let you know when I do." He hesitated, then swore under his breath. "And send Julia with the cavalry—I think our little buddy's gonna need her help."
"I don't know, Alonzo," Devon said uneasily.
"Devon, I don't think we're going to get this Terrier back to her alive, not at the rate things are going. He needs our help. And we owe him." And the way my luck is going, I probably will, too, he thought, but he didn't say it.
"Oh!" Devon said. "Are you sure it's him?"
"Absolutely," Alonzo said.
"Then we'll be there with Julia as fast as we can. Heck, she's better with a mag-pro than I am anyway."
"Hurry," Alonzo said. "I don't think we have a lot of time." The Terrier ahead of him was slowing even more, and its gait seemed unsteady. Help is coming, he thought at it as he closed the channel with Devon. Just keep going till we can find some cover, okay?
It glanced back at him, its enormous eyes looking even bigger than normal, but it waggled its antennae-horns at him. I hope that means yes, he thought, and immediately got a wave of approval from it.
They continued running for another kilometer, and Alonzo had to force himself to stop looking back at the other Terriers and keep his eyes open for any kind of cover.
Suddenly the injured Terrier turned, and Alonzo saw a little draw off to the west of them. The Terrier put on a sudden burst of speed, and Alonzo had to floor the ATV to keep up. The terrain got rough fast as they headed up the narrow draw, and Alonzo finally had to stop the ATV. He scrambled out, holding the mag-pro ready, and sprinted after the Terrier, hoping they could find someplace defensible fast.
"I'm going with you," Melanie said, grabbing a second med kit.
Julia hesitated, looking at her uneasily, then nodded. If the Terrier's already hurt, it's going to be hard enough to treat. If Alonzo's hurt, too— She broke off the thought ruthlessly, refusing to let herself think about him. She grabbed the small case with the vials of liquid she'd synthesized from Melanie and Helen's extract.
Melanie noticed. "You think you'll need that?" she said.
Julia shrugged. "I have no idea what I'm getting into treating a Terrier," she said. "But at the very least, this is a native extract—well, a close enough synthetic, anyway. I don't dare use most of the medications I have, but this one might help."
Melanie nodded. "Good idea. At least it won't hurt to try it."
It could, Julia thought uneasily. But it's a little less likely to than anything else I've got.
"Julia, we're ready," Devon said over the gear.
"We're on our way," Julia said, shoving the case into the med kit and heading for the tent flap.
"We?" Devon said as they came up.
"I need her," Julia said, climbing into the rail behind Danziger.
Devon looked for a moment like she wanted to protest, but relented. "Okay, let's go," she said, getting into the rail next to Danziger after Melanie got in.
Danziger started the rail, and Rick pulled the other rail in behind them, with Bill, Rob and Todd in the rail with him.
"Yale, can I go find Tru and see if she wants to play in VR for a while?" Uly asked Yale.
Yale hesitated, then smiled. "Very well. But only for an hour, and stay in the Transrover. By eleven hundred, I want you back in this tent ready to go over your last math test."
Uly grinned. He knew he'd aced it, which just gave him more ammunition against Tru the next time she teased him. "You got it."
Yale watched him leave, frowning. He blinked rapidly, and he felt suddenly dizzy. He sat down on his bunk and started to reach for his gear to call Julia, then remembered they'd left.
And then he was somewhere else. It was a small ship, and he was seated, with several men sitting across from him. Someone was speaking in his ear. "C'mon, if you're gonna quote Dante, do it right," the voice said, and it was a familiar voice.
Yale blinked again, and he was back in his tent, breathing hard, his heart pounding. And he was angry, so angry he wanted to hit something.
What is happening to me? he thought, deeply afraid.
Alonzo scrambled up the gully after the Terrier, and finally caught up to it when it nearly collapsed as it got to the other side of a few small rocks that didn't look like they'd give much cover to Tru, let alone a full-sized Terrier.
But as he knelt next to the Terrier, he knew this was the best they'd be able to do. There was a lot of blood matting the fur on its chest, and as Alonzo looked closely at it, he realized he'd never really thought about what color a Terrier's blood would be, or even whether it would have blood.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised it's red, he thought, given the oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. But it gave him a strange sense of kinship with the otherwise very strange creature.
"Hang in there, little buddy," he said, patting its shoulder. He turned and braced his mag-pro on the rocks, waiting for the other Terriers to catch up. He tapped his gear. "Hey, Devon, what's your ETA?"
"We're on our way now," she said immediately. "How close are you?"
Alonzo relayed his coordinates.
"You're gonna have to hold on for a while," Danziger said. "Sorry, but we're at least forty minutes away."
"Don't worry about it," Alonzo said. "Hey, Heller, you there?"
"Yes," she said tersely, and Melanie frowned. When did he start calling her Heller again? "How is the Terrier?"
"Not so good," he said, glancing down at the creature. Its eyes were closed, but its chest was still rising and falling. "I think it's still breathing, but it hasn't given me any sense it's conscious since we stopped running. What should I do about the arrow?"
"Nothing," Julia said. "Until I can get there and evaluate its condition, we're better off leaving it in place. Removing it could cause more damage."
"Okay," Alonzo said.
"If it wakes up, try to keep it that way. Keep it still, and keep it warm, if you can," Julia said.
"Not much I can do on that front," Alonzo said, but he shrugged off his jacket and placed it over as much of the Terrier as he could. He shivered in the early morning cold.
"What about the other Terriers?" Devon said.
"They should be showing up any time now," Alonzo said, "unless we lost them. But given my luck lately, I wouldn't count on that."
"Be careful, Alonzo," Devon said. "If it looks like you can't—"
"Don't even go there, Devon," Alonzo said. "We'll be fine, you'll get here soon, and it'll all be okay." He closed the channel before Devon could finish her thought, and turned his attention back to where he expected to see the Terriers approaching.
He could still see the roll bar of the ATV far down the gully, only slightly obscured by the brush. He figured the Terriers were likely to come across that, then start searching for them.
But he hadn't counted on the fact that they could sense emotions. He had no idea the Terrier had snuck up on them from the south until his Terrier friend grabbed him and yanked him hard enough he landed on the far side of the Terrier. He rolled to his knees and saw the arrow hit right where he'd been kneeling. He raised the mag-pro and fired wildly, somehow managing to hit the Terrier who had tried to kill him, and it reared back, grabbing at its left arm, then spun and galloped back up the hill and out of sight.
"Thanks, pal," Alonzo breathed. "You okay?"
That received a weak negative, and the Terrier leaned its head against the rock.
"Hang in there," Alonzo said. "Can you tell if there are others nearby?"
That got an affirmative, and he felt the other Terriers approaching. "Okay, then, the best defense…" Alonzo said, and started firing into the trees in the general direction he had sensed them.
Forty minutes might as well be a lifetime, Alonzo thought, wondering how long he could possibly hope to hold them off, then he decided that however long it was, he'd find a way to make it long enough.
He felt a strong wave of gratitude and surprise from the Terrier.
"Don't worry about it," Alonzo said in between shots. "You already did the same for us. I'm just trying to even the score." An arrow whistled over his head, and he turned and fired at the area it had come from, and his Terrier friend sent him an echo of pain and fear. "Cool," he said. "Two hit, four to go."
He got a sense from the Terrier that the others were pulling back for the moment, and he decided to save his ammunition. "Hey, listen, I can't keep calling you 'pal' and 'buddy'," he said to the Terrier. "Do you have a name?"
Alonzo felt a strange sensation, a combination of the smell of ozone and a blue-gray color with a strong dose of pride and confidence. "Wow, that's your name?" he said, impressed. "Mine means 'ready for battle,' and right now I really wish I felt like I was." He kept his eyes on the trees, watching for movement. "I hope you don't mind, but I kinda need to give you a name I can actually say out loud, so my friends and I can talk about you." He paused for a moment, thinking, then said, "How about Jupiter? He's a god of storms and the sky." He remembered an image from one of his mythology textbooks showing Jupiter/Zeus coming out of a storm cloud, flinging lightning bolts. "And I think you'd like his ego—it's about as big as the planet they named after him."
He got a faint sense of amusement from the Terrier, then a brief warning sensation, then nothing. Alonzo started to glance down at Jupiter, but he saw movement in the trees and started firing again. "Hang on, Jupiter. Just hang on a little longer." But there was no response.
"How close are we?" Devon asked.
"Another three k," Danziger said tersely. "Ten minutes, maybe a little less if we're lucky."
Devon's lips tightened, but she didn't say anything more.
Melanie glanced at Julia. She hadn't said a word in the last twenty minutes. She had pulled her pad out and was studying it intently. There was a discernible tension in her face.
"What are you looking at?" Melanie asked quietly.
Julia glanced up at her. "I'm looking at the scans I took of the hexadents and the other creatures we've seen. I'd done a little work trying to figure out the native physiology. I have a feeling I'm going to have to put some of that work into practice today."
"Should I take a look, too?" Melanie said tentatively.
Julia shook her head. "Actually, Mel, I'm really hoping your services aren't needed at all."
Melanie instantly realized what she was saying. "He'll be fine," Melanie said with as much reassurance as she could manage in her voice.
Julia nodded, but Melanie got the distinct impression that she wasn't just worried about Alonzo's well-being. "Thanks. But if it does come to that, I am going to have to let you take care of A—" She stopped short, frowning. "—of Solace," she continued after a momentary pause, her voice sounding as expressionless as her face was. "And Devon, I need you to be ready for anything. I know when Valerie connected with a dying Terrier, it was…bad. You need to be careful. I'm hoping you've had enough contact now to be able to manage it better than she did, but I just don't know for sure."
"Okay," Devon said uneasily.
"I'm going to ask you to take on the job of reassuring it if Solace can't," Julia continued. "Anything we can do for it could help, but I can't risk trying to do anything to help it that way if I'm going to treat its injuries. But remember, your health is more important, so if it gets bad and you can pull out on your own, don't hesitate."
"I understand," Devon said.
Julia went back to studying the scans, and Melanie sent out a silent plea to the universe that her limited knowledge would be enough to save the Terrier. And that the Terrier would be their only concern. And that whatever was going on between Alonzo and Julia, they'd have the chance to work it out. That's not asking so much, is it?
Over the next half an hour, Alonzo took several shots at what he thought might be Terriers approaching, but without Jupiter to give him any indication of where the Terriers were or if he'd hit them, he had little success.
Jupiter hadn't moved for the last fifteen minutes, and Alonzo was really beginning to worry. He'd tried several times to wake the Terrier, but he'd gotten no response, not even a hint of empathic connection.
Alonzo froze as he heard a rustling in the brush just downhill from their pile of rocks. He couldn't see anything, but he went ahead and took the shot anyway. An instant later, an arrow whizzed past his head, and he ducked frantically behind the rocks again.
"Man, this sucks," he muttered. "C'mon, Danziger, where the hell are you guys?"
He heard the rustling again, and took a chance on poking his head above the rock to see if he could spot anything. A branch shook in a small stand of stubby trees, but whatever was down there, it wasn't giving him much to shoot at. And Alonzo was getting nervous about how long his ammunition would hold out. He was surprised the Terriers hadn't just rushed him, but he wasn't about to complain about it. Maybe the fact that I actually hit a couple of them already has them spooked, he thought. But he didn't think that would last much longer.
"Jupiter, you gotta wake up," he said. "I really need your help."
There was no response.
Alonzo swore silently and checked his ammo count for the tenth time. As he did, he caught something moving out of the corner of his eye. He whirled in time to see the Terrier come out of the brush just uphill. He got the shot off, hitting it dead center, and it collapsed and tumbled bonelessly down the hill, but he didn't get a chance to celebrate.
The arrow had hit just above his knee, in the same leg he'd broken in the crash. For a moment, he stared at it sticking out of the side of his leg, long enough to think, Shouldn't that hurt? And then it did.
"Aw, hell," Alonzo swore through gritted teeth as he fell back against the rocks, dropping the mag-pro and clutching at his leg.
Another Terrier came up around the rocks and studied him. Alonzo gasped for air and leaned forward to reach for the mag-pro. But apparently another Terrier had come up behind him. Alonzo felt the blow to the back of his head as he heard someone scream, "No!" somewhere down the hill. He fell forward over Jupiter, trying to remain conscious, and he heard a flurry of mag-pro shots.
"I got him, Jules," Alonzo heard Melanie say, and he saw someone's boots come to a stop just in front of him, and then felt hands lifting him away from Jupiter. He tried to say something, but he couldn't make the words come out.
He saw Julia kneel next to Jupiter, and then she glanced for an instant at him, and he felt something echo through Jupiter, but then it shut down. And the expression on Julia's face shut down just as hard.
Oh, god, he thought, recognizing at least part of what he'd felt. She…she really does believe I'm the spy… He had a moment to feel angry, but then he felt nothing as darkness engulfed him.
Devon came up as Danziger fired off orders to the others to make sure the Terriers were really running. She watched as Julia knelt beside the injured Terrier next to Alonzo, who looked like he was barely clinging to consciousness.
For an instant, Julia started to reach out to touch Alonzo's leg, but she clenched her hand into a fist and turned to look at the Terrier. As she did, Devon felt a sudden wave of fear, suspicion and guilt wash over her. There was something else behind all that, something strong, but as soon as Devon started to try to figure out what it was, it all shut down with an almost painful jolt, like an airlock slamming shut.
"Easy, Adair," Danziger said, grabbing her shoulder as she swayed. "You okay?"
Julia looked up at her. "Devon?"
Devon stared at her for a moment. That was her, she thought suddenly. I felt Julia. But what…? "I—I'm fine," Devon said, trying not to let her thoughts show. She nodded at the Terrier. "I'm just not used to…that…yet. I don't think he knew he was doing it."
Julia frowned. "But I didn't feel—" she began, then stopped abruptly, looking searchingly at Devon. "Never mind," she said after a long moment, and a look of resignation crossed her face. She turned to scan the Terrier.
Devon glanced over at Melanie, who was looking relieved at her scan of Alonzo. "It's okay, Jules," she said. "He bonked his head, which is why he passed out. He should come around any time now. The leg's really not that bad. I can even handle it by myself."
Devon sighed in relief.
"Rick, d'you see anything?" Danziger said quietly into his gear.
"All clear from up here," Rick's voice came over the gear. "Looks like we scared 'em off, at least for now."
"Don't anybody start counting chickens," Danziger growled.
"Don't worry, Danziger," Todd said. "I'm not even counting eggs yet."
Devon watched as Julia studied the scans of the Terrier. "How does it look?" she asked the doctor, in spite of her best efforts not to hover.
Julia glanced up again, and shook her head. "I can't be certain, but I don't think the wound itself is life-threatening. He—it—lost some blood, and I don't know how much these creatures can afford to lose. But the arrow doesn't look like it hit any major organs. Or at least not anything I think is major." She bit her lip for a moment, then turned and started rummaging in her medkit. She pulled out a small case, then looked up at Devon. "I'm going to need your help," she said.
"Me?" Devon said, and winced at how high-pitched her voice came out.
"All I need is for you to make sure that he—it—"
"Oh, hell, just call him a he," Melanie said. "Anything that big is a guy until proven otherwise."
Julia smiled faintly. "Okay, I need you to make sure he doesn't move once I start cutting," Julia said grimly. "I don't think he's likely to wake up, but…"
Devon took a deep breath. "I'll do my best."
"Can you feel him?" Julia asked as Devon knelt near the Terrier's head.
Devon shrugged. "I know I felt something a minute ago, but I don't know if it was him, or—" Devon stopped, not wanting Julia to know who she thought she'd felt.
"Or an echo from somebody else," Julia finished for her, and Devon winced inwardly. So much for keeping that from her, she thought, chagrined, but Julia had already turned back to look at her diaglove.
"Well, just in case," Julia continued as she studied the readout, "try to think reassuring thoughts."
Devon snorted. "Yeah, sure," she said. "Shiny, happy thoughts are my specialty."
Devon was fairly certain her thoughts couldn't have been very shiny by the time Julia had finished removing the arrow. She had gotten several jolts of fear and pain from the Terrier during the process, and she'd tried to reassure it, but by the end, she was just praying for Julia to finish fast.
"Okay," Julia said, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes with the back of her bloody hand. "I think I've done all I can, at least for now."
"Danziger, we've got company!" Todd said over the gear, sounding worried.
"How much company?" Danziger said, powering up his mag-pro.
"Too much—I think there have to be at least a dozen of 'em coming up the hill toward us from the west," Todd said.
Danziger swore under his breath. He glanced over at Julia. "Can we move him?"
Julia hesitated, looking down at the unconscious Terrier. She looked back up at Danziger and shrugged helplessly. "Do we have a choice?"
"Wait," Devon said, suddenly sensing something.
Julia looked sharply at her, then turned to look up towards where Todd was stationed at the top of the ridge. "Danziger, tell them to hold their fire," she said.
"Huh?" Danziger said.
"She's right," Devon said. "I don't think these are the bad guys."
"Todd, did you hear that?" Danziger said.
"Yeah," Todd said uneasily. "What do we do, though? Just let them come through?"
Danziger looked over at Devon, who shrugged. "Like Julia said, do we have a choice?"
Danziger didn't look happy about it, but he lowered his mag-pro. "Everybody, lower your weapons. And think friendly thoughts, just in case."
"Six is my favorite number," Melanie muttered from where she was finishing up closing Alonzo's wound. "I think antennae-horns are the best thing since inertial dampers. I wish I had a claw for a thumb."
Moments later, the first of the new group of Terriers came into sight at the top of the ridge.
Julia leaned protectively over the Terrier as they approached, but they all had their hands clear of their weapons, and the one at the forefront held his hands out to the side in the familiar greeting.
Devon held her hands out in a mirror image. "This…uh…person has been shot," she said, gesturing down at the Terrier. "We've been trying to help, but if you have a doctor…"
The leader looked back over his shoulder, and another Terrier trotted up and knelt carefully next to the fallen Terrier.
"I removed the arrow," Julia said, showing the bloody projectile to him. "I think I repaired most of the major damage, but I can't be certain."
The Terrier leaned close to the wound, studying it closely, then closed its eyes and leaned close to the fallen Terrier's head.
"Hey," Alonzo croaked, weakly raising his head, "don't—don't let him hurt Jupiter!"
"It's okay," Melanie said. "He's one of the good guys."
"Oh," Alonzo said, and let his head fall back. "Good."
"Jupiter?" Devon said.
Alonzo blinked groggily at her. "I had to call him something. You can't pronounce their real names."
Devon blinked in surprise, then looked at the Terrier leaning over Jupiter. "What's yours?" she asked curiously.
The Terrier glanced up at her, and Devon felt a sudden burst of sunny warmth with a strong scent of fresh rain on bare rock.
"Petrachor," Alonzo said, clearly fighting to stay awake. "Smell of rain…on rock. Cool name." He closed his eyes for a moment, then frowned and opened them again. "How's Jupiter?"
Julia started to answer, but the Terrier healer reached out and patted her shoulder. Devon felt its reassurance and approval, and smiled. "Attagirl, Julia."
The Terrier reached into a pouch slung over its shoulder and pulled out a small rolled-up skin. He opened it, and took out a small bunch of dried up leaves. He pulled out a small stone with a hollow in it and started to grind the leaves into dust with a little wooden spoon.
"Wait," Julia said, leaning over to scan the leaves. "I think I might have something better than that." She pulled out a vial from a case in her med-kit and showed it to the Terrier. "Those are from the same plant this came from," she said. "We found this extract helps to kill infectious agents here. Is that what you use the plant for?"
The Terrier's eyes widened, and Devon was relieved to find the expression matched what she expected—the creature was surprised. He took the vial from Julia, studying it curiously, and she opened it for him. He touched one finger to the opening, then put the finger to what had to be its mouth, part of the way down its neck. Its eyes widened even more, and the pleasure and admiration it broadcast were powerful.
"How do you use the leaves?" Julia asked. "Topically?" She gestured with her hand towards the leaves and then patted her arm. "Or do you ingest them?" She hesitated, then gestured toward the Terrier's oddly-placed mouth.
The Terrier patted his arm the same way Julia had hers.
"Is it safe for you to ingest?" she asked.
The Terrier affirmed that, then gestured at Jupiter's wound and sent a mild negation.
"But in the case of an injury like this, topical is more effective," Julia said, nodding. "That makes sense."
The Terrier gestured at the leaves, then at the vial, and sent a questioning sensation, with an odd feeling of hollowness that Devon couldn't really identify at first.
Julia couldn't either, apparently, because she blinked, frowning. But then she looked like she got it. "How much?" she asked, and got a vague sense of approval. "The amount of fluid in the vial is roughly equivalent to the fluid you'd get from…" She hesitated, thinking hard. "Maybe…" She held out her hands about twenty centimeters apart. "This many leaves?"
This time there was no mistaking the shock and disbelief from the Terrier. It glanced back at the group of Terriers behind it, then back at Julia.
"We have a machine," Julia said, and Devon wondered how on earth she was going to convey what that was, but apparently the Terriers must have some mechanical devices beyond the crossbows they carried, because that got a sensation of curiosity. "It allows us to make this without having to gather the leaves."
There was a flurry of emotions flying back and forth among the Terriers, too fast for Devon to follow, but there was one overarching feeling—excitement.
"I take it this would be useful for you?" Devon asked, and that got a strong affirmation.
"I'm happy to give you all I have with me," Julia said, pulling out the case and handing it to the Terrier. She showed him how to open it, and demonstrated opening the vial again. He opened and closed a vial, then tucked it back into the case and closed it. He sent a questioning sensation, holding the case out to Julia as though to give it back.
"No," Julia said, pushing it towards him. "Really, I can make more."
That brought another sense of wonder, but then the Terrier became all business. Within minutes, he'd bound up Jupiter's wound, applying a tiny amount of Julia's extract in the process, and then four of the Terriers lifted the injured Jupiter and started walking away.
"Wait," Julia said. "Could you let us know he's okay?"
That brought a sense of reassurance, and Julia nodded her thanks. They watched the procession of Terriers walk slowly away, and then Julia turned back to look at Alonzo. He'd faded out again, and Julia forced herself not to relive the moment she'd seen the blow to the back of his head.
"He's okay, Julia," Melanie said. "He's going to be just fine. See?" She showed the scan results, and Julia tried not to study them for too long.
"Thank you, Melanie," she said. "Good work."
Uly kicked savagely at a rock as he headed back to his tent, imagining it as Tru's knee. Why does she have to be so stupid? he thought. They'd been having fun, and then all of a sudden she was pulling out of VR and telling him to get out of the Transrover. And he had no idea what he'd done or said to make her react like that.
It probably doesn't even matter what it was, he thought darkly. There's always going to be something with her.
But now he had to go back to his tent, which meant an extra half hour of class with Yale. He was behind in history, or so Yale insisted, and he knew Yale would use the extra time for that. Uly groaned inwardly.
Yale was coming out of their tent as Uly came up, and for a moment, Uly hoped that if Yale didn't see him, maybe he'd go off to do whatever he was going to do, and Uly could just hang out in the tent for a while. But even as he thought it, Yale turned to look at him.
And froze. Yale literally stopped moving entirely, his face caught in an expression of surprise and shock, his eyes staring unblinkingly at nothing.
"Yale?" Uly said tentatively. "Are you okay?"
Whatever had just happened, though, it was over. Yale was looking at him, blinking hard, and he looked nervous. "Ulysses?" he said. "You are back…early. Is something wrong?"
Uly hesitated, frowning. "No, Tru's just being…Tru," he said.
"I see," Yale said, and he turned back to go into the tent.
"You don't have to stop doing whatever you were going to do," Uly said hopefully, following him in. "I'll be fine here. By myself."
Yale turned to look at him, and Uly shrank back at the almost angry look in his eyes, but again, it was gone in an instant. "That is quite all right," Yale said, but his voice was shaky. "It…it can wait. Why don't we start with your math test?"
Uly sighed, resigned to his fate.