Earth 2.1.2

Chapter 6

A/N: Yes, I know, Devon seemed a little out of control in the last chapter, but we did see her do similar things in the show, and people do all sorts of crazy stuff when they're freaked out over their kids. Plus, I needed it to set up some stuff later on. I never do things like that just for the sake of doing them.

"Danziger, you have to go slower," Julia said insistently from the back seat of the rail. "The scanner doesn't have that much range. If you keep going like this, we could miss them."

Danziger looked like he wanted to strangle her, but he slowed down. Julia kept her eyes on the scanner, looking for the faintest hint of a human life sign. They'd been driving for nearly four hours, making it as far as the river, and then turning back to the north along the riverbank. At one point they'd had to stop for a short time to recharge the rail because they'd started too soon before sunrise. Julia had been afraid Devon or Danziger or both would just go off on foot, but they both just paced back and forth in what would have been comically identical motions if the situation hadn't been so awful.

Julia swallowed hard, trying to keep her focus. Look, she thought suddenly, if there's anything out there that can help us, now is the time. Terrier, God, I don't care what. Just help us find those kids. Whatever it takes, I'll give it. Anything you want. Anything. She resisted the urge to close her eyes, and moments later, she was glad she had.

"Hold up!" she said, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. "I might have something!" She studied the scanner, trying to make sense out of the readings. It wasn't designed to provide direction, but she got a slightly clearer signal when she turned it a little to the west, away from the river. "That way, I think," she said, pointing, and she heard Devon take a ragged breath. "Go slow."

Danziger started up again, moving in the direction she'd indicated, and Julia almost cheered as the signal became stronger. "It's them," she said, glancing up to smile at Devon. "Both of them. They can't be far."

"ULY!" Devon yelled at the top of her lungs. "ULY!"

"Mom?" a faint voice called.

Danziger slammed on the brakes and was out of the rail before the echo faded. Julia scrambled out, grabbing the med kit, but by the time she'd fought through low hanging tree branches to catch up with them, Devon already had her arms around both kids.

"Tru?" Danziger said, hovering over them, sounding worried.

"Julia!" Uly called, catching sight of her and trying to push his mother away. "Hurry! She's really sick!"

Julia shoved her diaglove on and knelt next to the two kids. Uly had Tru in his arms, and she was barely responsive.

"She was coughing really bad," Uly said in a rush. "I had to help her breathe—you know how Yale does, the biofeedback stuff, and that helped for a while, but she's really having a hard time, and she's hot. She kept shivering all night, and—"

"It's okay, Uly," Julia said, studying the scans. "You did great." She pulled out a hypo, and Tru stirred when Julia injected her.

"Dad?" she said weakly, turning her head to look at him, and then she coughed. Devon felt her heart sink as she realized it was the kind of cough Uly'd had the time he'd almost died from pneumonia. She shot Julia a nervous look.

"Here, Tru," Julia said, putting an oxygen mask over her face. "This'll help. You just rest now, okay?"

"I'm here, Tru-girl," Danziger said, lifting her carefully out of Uly's grasp and enfolding her in his arms. "I've got you."

"Thanks…for the pink," Tru murmured. "My…pink…"

Danziger looked confused for a long moment, then beamed. "I'm glad you liked it."

"Are you hurt?" Devon asked Uly, looking hard at him. He looked awful, with a gash on his forehead and a long trail of dried blood along the side of his face, but he ignored her, his attention entirely on Tru.

"Is she going to be okay?"

Julia smiled reassuringly at him. "She's going to be fine, Uly. She just has some congestion in her lungs. The oxygen will help." She glanced over at Devon. "I think we'd better plan on staying here for a bit, though," she said. "I want to be sure she's stable before we put her through the strain of riding in the rail."

Devon nodded.

"Are you sure?" Uly said. "She sounded awful last night, and then there was the hexadent—"

"The what?" Devon said sharply.

"She killed it," Uly said, his eyes wide. "With just a little knife."

Danziger closed his eyes, then opened them, leaned over and kissed his daughter on the forehead.

"It was just a little one," Tru said faintly.

"It was huge!" Uly said, pointing at the carcass a few meters away, and Devon's heart went from the bottom of her stomach straight into her throat as she stared at its massive body. "I went for water, and I didn't know it was there—I never should have left her, I really screwed up, Mom, and I'm really sorry, it was all my fault—the raft, the river, everything. It's my fault she's so sick! Don't be mad at her, please?"

"I'm not mad," Devon said, pulling Uly into a hug. "I'm just so glad you're both alive." She reached over and took Tru's hand, squeezing it gently. "Thank you, Tru. And I'm sorry."

Tru blinked sleepily at her, then frowned, looking confused. "For what?"

Devon smiled at her. "I'll explain it later," she said.

Julia worked on Tru for another hour, dosing her with at least three additional medications as she monitored their effect with the diaglove, and then she turned and looked after Uly. By the time she'd finished, it was already mid-afternoon. Julia recommended that they stay put till morning. That would give the rail a chance to get fully-charged, give Tru time to get a little more rest, and they'd have a full day to make it back to the others.

The feeling of relief Devon felt when Julia said Uly would be fine reminded Devon that they needed to give the others the good news. Devon tapped her gear to open a channel. "Hey, Melanie! We found them!"

Static.

"Mel?" Devon said, frowning. She tried adjusting the frequency, but still got only static. At one point, she thought she might have caught something that could have been a voice, but it was gone the next second.

"What is it?" Julia said, turning from Tru to look at her.

"I can't get through on the gear," Devon said. "Try yours."

But neither Julia's nor Danziger's worked any better than hers. "There must be something interfering with the signal," Danziger said.

"Something?" Julia said uneasily. "Or someone?"

Danziger shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine," he said quietly, stroking Tru's hair gently. "Does it matter?"

Julia glanced down at Tru, then sighed. "No. I wouldn't feel comfortable moving Tru until I'm sure she's stable anyway."

Devon nodded. "I'll go to go down to the river and see if maybe the signal's better there," she said. "Uly? Do you want to come with me?"

Uly hesitated, looking worriedly at Tru.

"She'll be fine, Uly," Julia said reassuringly. "And I'd feel better if you were there to watch your mom's back."

"Take the handgun," Danziger said to Uly, who looked surprised and pleased.

Devon looked uneasy, but she grabbed one of the mag-pros. Danziger snorted under his breath, and Devon looked sharply at him. She turned and pushed her way past the low-hanging branches with Uly at her heels.

Julia looked down at her diaglove, trying to decide whether to say anything.

"You don't have to say it," Danziger said, and Julia looked up at him, surprised. "I know I'm being an asshole. But you know she screwed up."

Julia looked steadily at him. "About what? The gun, or her blaming you for what happened?"

Danziger returned her look with a hint of defiance. "Both."

Julia sighed. "So you're going to rub her nose in it?" She shifted to sit with her legs crossed beside the remnants of Tru and Uly's fire. "Trust me, she's doing enough of that to herself. The last thing she needs is—"

"And why would I give a rat's ass what she needs right now?" Danziger said, his voice rising.

"Dad?" Tru said, opening her eyes.

"Sorry, Tru-girl," Danziger said, squeezing her. "Go back to sleep."

Julia got up and stepped out of the hollow to watch for Devon and Uly.

"Devon? Julia?" Melanie said, frowning as she tried to figure out what she was hearing. "Is that you?" There was a weird distortion in the background static, but that was about all she could make out. "Listen, if you can hear me, turn your gear off then on twice, okay?"

She flipped her eyepiece into place so she could look at the gear locator. The dots for Devon, Danziger and Julia were all flickering oddly, and Devon's was some distance from the others. But then Devon's dot disappeared entirely, then came back, then did it again. Melanie sighed in relief. "Okay, I got that. Are you okay?"

"Mel?" Devon's voice came through for an instant. "…hear me?"

"Yeah!" Melanie said. "Devon, did you find the kids? Are they okay?"

"…fine. Tru's got…" The rest was lost in another hail of static.

"Say again," Melanie said.

"…both okay!" Devon shouted, and Melanie winced. "…back some…morrow"

Melanie's heart leaped, but she wanted to be certain before she let anybody else get their hopes up. "Confirm that," she said. "The kids are okay? Uly and Tru are both all right?"

"…s, yes, they're okay!"

"Oh, thank God!" Melanie said. "Everybody!" she yelled, putting her hand over the gear mic, "they found the kids! They're okay!"

Valerie came running up. "Where are they?"

Melanie shook her head. "I'm not sure, the signal's completely crap. There's something interfering. I think she's hearing me better than I'm hearing her."

"…where you are," Devon was saying. "…here till Tru's…then we…tomorrow."

"Got it," Melanie said. "We'll be right here, okay? And we'll have a big party waiting!"

"I'm gonna go tell Bess," Valerie said, grinning at Melanie.

"Well, at least they know you're okay," Devon said, smiling at Uly. "At least I think they do."

Uly barely acknowledged her. He was holding the handgun ready, scanning the area around them with a single-minded intensity.

"Okay, tiger, let's head back," Devon said, trying to ignore the sick feeling of inadequacy sitting in the pit of her stomach. She lifted the mag-pro and started up the hill.

Julia was waiting for them outside the shelter of branches. "Did you get through?" she said.

Devon nodded. "They know we'll be coming back in the morning. I told them to wait where they are. Mel said something about a party."

Julia looked relieved. "I'll bet," she said. "I wish we could head back now."

"How is Tru doing?" Uly said.

"Better," Julia said. "Between the terricillin and some of the standard pneumonia treatments I have, her O2 sats are improving already. She'll feel pretty awful for a few days, but she'll be fine."

Uly didn't look convinced, and he scampered past Julia to go see for himself. Devon started after him, but Julia put her hand on her arm to stop her. "Devon, Danziger didn't mean—" she began to say very quietly, but Devon shook her head sharply.

"He meant it," she said tersely. "And he has every right to be angry with me. But I don't want to hash it out in front of the kids, especially with Tru still so sick, okay?"

Julia pursed her lips, but nodded.

Bess burst into the mess tent where Melanie was monitoring the comm system. "Is it true?" she said without preamble.

Melanie smiled. "Absolutely," she said. "Even if I hadn't been able to get confirmation from Devon directly, I'd have known from the sound of her voice."

Morgan came into the tent just in time to grab Bess as her legs nearly went out from under her. He helped her over to one of the benches as she burst into tears. Morgan looked worriedly over at Melanie. "What's wrong? Did Devon call in again or something?"

"No," Melanie said, looking helplessly at him. "The kids are fine, I swear!"

"'m okay," Bess said, or at least that's what Melanie thought she said, though through the noisy sobs, it was hard to tell. "I'm just…so…happy!"

"See, Bess, I told you they'd be okay," Morgan said, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder.

"Hey, M—" Rob's voice came over the gear, almost swallowed in static. "…you hear me?"

"Barely," Melanie said.

"…on…higher…" There was a long gap with nothing at all, then his voice came through more clearly. "Is that better?"

"Much," Melanie said.

"It's something in the hills that's interfering with the signal," Rob said. "As long as you're high enough, the signal can get through. It took us almost an hour to get up here."

"What's the deal?" Melanie asked. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Rob said. "Is Devon back yet?"

"Not yet," Melanie said, "but we did hear from her. The kids are okay."

"Thank god," Rob breathed. "Did you hear that, Sergei?" he said. "Uly and Tru are okay."

"What was so important you had to call in? You're not in trouble, are you?"

"No," Rob said. "We've got some good news, too. We found another supply pod!"

Melanie sighed in relief. Well, she thought, it's about time our luck turned around.

Devon fully intended to talk to Danziger once the kids were both asleep, but he didn't seem inclined to leave Tru's side. He sat with her in his arms for over four hours, till he couldn't stay in that position any longer. Then he'd told them to get some sleep, that he'd take the first watch, and his tone had been so cold, Devon couldn't seem to make herself get up and go out to apologize to him. He'd stood just out of view beyond the branches and hadn't made a sound the entire time he'd been on watch, and every moment of silence had felt like a reproach to her.

Devon added another branch to the fire and poked at it with her stick, sending up a small shower of sparks that floated off into the cold night air. She glanced over at Danziger, who somehow had managed to fall asleep curled up around Tru within seconds after getting Devon up for her turn at watch. He was snoring, almost loudly enough to drown out the ominous sound of Tru's wheezing.

Devon envied him. She hadn't slept at all, though she'd tried not to let it show. Part of it was her worry for Tru. But most of it was her guilt over how badly she'd handled things with Danziger, and how she'd nearly gotten Julia killed. She knew if she was honest with herself, the main reason she hadn't apologized to him yet was because she knew she deserved the punishment he was giving her.

"God, what am I doing?" she muttered to herself.

"I'd say you were poking a fire, but I don't think that's what you meant," Julia said, opening her eyes and propping herself on an elbow.

"Oh, hell, I'm sorry," Devon said quietly. "I didn't mean to wake you."

Julia smiled wryly. "It's okay, I was about as asleep as you've been for the last three hours."

Devon winced.

"So," Julia said after a long silence, "do you want to talk about it?"

"Have you ever wanted to when I asked you that question?" Devon said.

"No," Julia said, then smiled faintly, "but that never stopped you."

Devon closed her eyes and smiled, shaking her head. "Touché."

"Devon, nobody would hold what happened yesterday against you," Julia said after a moment. "You care deeply about Uly, and you were terrified. We all were."

"That's not it," Devon said, shaking her head. "At least not all of it."

Julia waited for her to continue, then sighed. "So…?" she prompted, and when Devon still didn't respond, "Look, you're going to have to start. I'm terrible at conversation, or so I'm told."

"I'm a complete fraud," Devon whispered, suddenly unable to keep the thought to herself. "I don't have a clue what I'm doing."

"What do you mean?" Julia said, sitting up and scooting closer.

"I mean this," Devon said, gesturing to take in Uly and Tru and Danziger. "I mean all of it. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. We were supposed to land safely at New Pacifica, and O'Neill was going to be the guy in charge. I just raised money and gave speeches. I don't know the first thing about running a colony, let alone the kind of situation we're in."

"And you've done such a terrible job of it so far," Julia said, her face deadpan.

"Come on, Julia, we've been running from one crisis to another," Devon said impatiently. "It's a miracle we've made it this far."

"I suppose so," Julia said slowly. "But what did you think would happen?"

Devon frowned at her.

"We all got thrown into a completely unexpected situation," Julia said insistently. "Do you really think O'Neill would have been able to keep all that from happening?"

"Maybe not all of it," Devon said reluctantly. "But he sure would have handled it better than I have. Hell, half the people in the group would have."

Julia studied her for a moment. "Really? Name one."

"Danziger," Devon said immediately. "And you. You both kept me from being a complete idiot yesterday."

Julia shook her head sharply. "I'd be awful, and you know it," she said. "I'm terrible at delegating—I always try to do everything myself, and I end up making everyone think I don't trust them. And don't get me started on my decision-making." She shook her head again. "And as much as I respect Danziger, I don't think he'd be any better than you. It's one thing to follow orders. It's a completely different thing to give them."

Devon stared into the fire, clearly unconvinced.

"Devon, you're not giving yourself nearly enough credit for what you've done," Julia said. "There's not a person in Eden Advance who'd tell you anything different."

"What makes you so sure?" Devon said bitterly.

"Because if there was somebody better than you around, we'd have put them in charge already," Julia said bluntly. "This is a group of very smart, capable people, as you and Melanie have both pointed out to me. Don't you think if they thought they could do better, they would have by now?"

"Maybe they can't do better than me," Devon said, "but I'm not sure that's good news."

Julia smiled. "You have a point," she said. "But…look, you respect Danziger, don't you?"

Devon winced again. "Of course I do, though you wouldn't know it from the way I treat him."

"Let's leave that aside for now," Julia said carefully. "What about Melanie? And Valerie?"

"Yes, of course I do," Devon said, as if it were obvious.

"Me?" As confidently as she'd approached the conversation so far, Devon could hear the undercurrent of uncertainty in her voice.

"Absolutely," Devon said emphatically, and Julia's expression softened slightly.

"All those people you think are worthy of respect have put their trust in you," Julia said. "So unless you think we're all stupid, maybe you ought to revise your opinion of yourself."

Devon pursed her lips, frowning at Julia. "Why the hell d'you have to be so logical about this? I was all prepared to wallow in self-pity, but you're making that awfully difficult."

Julia shrugged. "It's a lot easier to be logical when you're looking at it from the outside."

Devon sighed, looking back at the fire. "Okay, point taken. I'll try not to be so pathetic."

Julia laughed faintly. "Don't worry about it. I spend most of my time being pathetic. If it weren't for Melanie and you, I'd have curled up in a ball and died a long time ago."

"Me?" Devon said, surprised. "What'd I do? I mean, other than yell at you."

"You don't yell as much as you think you do," Julia said. "Most of the time you're really nice to me. And even the yelling is sort of…nice." She smiled at Devon's baffled look. "In the past three days, who have you yelled at the most?"

"Danziger," Devon said reluctantly. "And Uly."

"And what do those two people have in common?" Julia said, her eyes twinkling.

Devon blushed, glancing over at Danziger again, praying that he was still asleep.

"Yale?" Valerie said tentatively outside his tent. "Did you hear the news?"

Yale pulled back the tent flap. "You have heard from Devon?" he asked eagerly.

She smiled. "They're all okay," she said. "They'll be back sometime tomorrow."

Yale looked as relieved as everyone else had when they'd heard the news, but there was still an undercurrent of tension in his face. "That is excellent news," he said.

"That's why you were the second person I told," Valerie said. "Right after Bess."

Yale smiled. "I am grateful to you for that," he said. He paused, looking uncertain, then looked seriously at Valerie. "I had intended to speak to you," he said.

"Me?" Valerie said, blinking. "What for?"

"I wanted to ask you about my programming," he said. "Would it be possible for you to alter it?"

Valerie looked nervous. "I don't know, Yale," she said uneasily. "It's not like you're just a computer. The integration between your cybernetic devices and your brain isn't something I'd want to play around with."

Yale nodded. "I understand that," he said. "I would not expect you to attempt it without considerable preparation."

"Why would you want me to try it at all?" Valerie said.

Yale glanced uneasily over her shoulder, and she turned to see Rick talking to Helen a few meters away.

"Would you rather talk about this inside?" Valerie said, and Yale nodded gratefully. She followed him into the tent. "What's this about, Yale?"

Yale sighed. "You are aware of my recent…difficulties?" he asked.

Valerie shrugged. "Sort of. Julia mentioned that you'd had some blackouts, and she thought it might have something to do with your organic memory."

Yale looked uncomfortable. "That is true, to a certain extent. The problems I have been having are becoming more frequent, however, and now I have begun having memories. No," he said, shaking his head, "they are more than that. It is as if I am experiencing the events again."

Valerie raised her eyebrows. "That must be…weird," she said. "But I still don't understand what I can do to help."

"Some of the memories I have had were very vivid, but once they stopped, there were portions of them that I could not recall," he said, frowning. "That is most unusual for me—anything that I experience, I can replay from my internal database. But when I replay these moments, there are gaps in the record."

Valerie frowned. "And you think your programming has something to do with that?"

Yale nodded. "I believe there may be protocols in my programming that may be overriding my normal memory processing," he said.

Valerie looked searchingly at him. "What would be the point of that?" she said warily.

Yale smiled humorlessly. "I think you know the answer to that," he said.

Valerie nodded slowly. "Okay," she said finally, clearly thinking hard. "Can you download a copy of your firmware into my tablet?"

He nodded. "Assuming you have enough memory available," he added.

She smiled. "I'm a programmer, Yale. I have enough," she said, standing up. She started for the tent flap, then turned back to look at him. "I'm not promising anything," she said bluntly. "I can look at the code, but it'll take a while just to find whatever might be the problem. And even then, I can't be sure that I can find a way to change it without affecting the rest of the programming. And I'm not about to do something that could turn you into a giant paperweight."

"I understand. It would be helpful simply to know what is in here," he said, tapping the side of his head.

Valerie snorted. "Isn't that true for everybody?"

The ride back was better than the ride out had been, but not by much. Julia drove, and Danziger sat in the back with Tru in his arms. Devon sat in the front, with Uly in hers. And the two of them didn't exchange a single word the entire drive back.

That wasn't for lack of effort on Uly's part.

"So, um, how did you find us?" Uly asked after the first silent half hour.

"It really wasn't that hard," Devon said. "We just found a way through the hills, then headed for the river and followed it back up."

"But it took you overnight," Uly said. "You weren't looking that whole time, were you?"

"No," Devon said, trying not to think about the hexadent attack. "We stopped for a while when the rail ran out of charge."

Uly swiveled his head to look at her closely. "What happened?"

"Not now, Uly," Devon said tersely.

Uly glanced over at Julia, and she tried to look apologetic without letting Devon notice. It didn't work. Devon caught the look and looked like she'd eaten something awful.

Uly subsided for a while after that, and the hours of silence left Julia with a lot of time to think, something that had been in short supply over the last several days. On the one hand, she'd been glad of that. At least then she hadn't had to deal with the ongoing ache of every thought about Alonzo. But it also meant she hadn't been able to consider what Yale had given her to work with.

He'd put together a comprehensive list of the timing of his various blackouts and flashbacks, all the details he'd been able to come up with about the circumstances surrounding them, and the events he'd witnessed in the flashbacks themselves. None of it had given Julia any clue as to what to do.

He'd had three blackouts that he knew of, but there hadn't seemed to be any commonality to the circumstances that Julia could find, not even when she'd added in the information about the most recent one he'd told her about while they'd been waiting to cross the river.

The one thing that did seem to spark something in her was the content of the flashbacks and what others had heard Yale say during blackouts. There was the Dante quote, the time in the mess tent when he'd said, "Don't you think I know that?" and in the most recent one Toshiko had told Devon thought she'd heard him say something about "Aeneas."

"So Tru's really gonna be okay?" Uly asked suddenly.

"Absolutely," Julia said. "She just needs to rest. She'll bounce back fast."

"She sounded awful, like I used to, when she coughed," Uly said, and he still looked worried. He turned to look back at Danziger. "I'm really sorry," he said for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Jeez, kid, don't worry about it," Danziger said impatiently.

"If I'd just caught that rope when you threw it," Uly said.

"Don't go there," Danziger said. "I spent most of that first night thinking if I'd just been a little faster grabbing the rope, if I'd just run a little faster, I could have gotten it close enough you could have caught it. But I didn't. So don't you go blaming yourself for that."

"Uly, Tru needs to rest, and she can't do that if Danziger's talking to you, okay?" Devon said.

This time Julia kept her eyes straight ahead when Uly looked over at her. But she realized too late that she'd sighed in a way that could have been construed as critical, because that was clearly how Devon took it.

"You said she needed rest!" Devon said, and she looked surprised as how harsh her voice sounded.

"I did," Julia said gently. "She does."

More silence. Julia drove slowly, wishing she had the courage to drive as fast as Danziger had that first day, but she was realizing how reckless he had been now that she was driving the same terrain. And she was taking twice as long.

This time she was able to stifle the sigh before it got out. Aeneas, she thought to distract herself. What is it about the name Aeneas? There was something important about it, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She knew Aeneas was the subject of Vergil's epic poem, The Aeneid, and that Vergil had been Dante's guide through Hell, but there was something else about it she knew she ought to be able to remember.

A lot of good my genetically-enhanced memory is now, she thought, frustrated. Thanks a lot, Mother. She winced mentally, kicking herself for letting herself think about her mother, and then it hit her.

Aeneas, she thought, and had a sudden memory of her mother arguing with someone at the door.

"Not in here!" she'd whispered angrily, blocking the way into their quarters. "You idiot!"

"But Miriam, he was there, on Aeneas! He tried to save your grandmother during the assault! We owe it to him to try to get him out of—"

"Keep your voice down, you fool!" Miriam whispered. "You know we can't risk it. Not now!"

"Your father risked it for the pilot—" the man began angrily.

"I can do nothing for him!" Miriam cut in harshly and slapped the close button so hard Julia was afraid she'd hurt herself.

Julia blinked, trying to place the memory. I was still living at home, so it had to be… But even now, she could feel the resentment and anger she'd been feeling at the time. No, it was right after she tried to set me up with Ethan Johnson. My second year in college. Eight years ago.

Wait, she thought, her mind leaping wildly from one train of thought to another, he'd said on Aeneas. It's a place. And almost as soon as she thought it, she knew exactly what it was.

It's one of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. The gasparanium mines. My family's gasparanium mines. Aeneas was one of the largest mining outposts, back in the early days. Her mother used to have a 2-D picture of the mining outpost there, which had always seemed strange to Julia, since her mother rarely took interest in the family's mining operations, and it wasn't exactly a scenic shot.

But what had happened there? she thought. Something violent, obviously—some sort of assault. And Yale had been somewhere that a dropship landed, dropped him off with a group of CSF soldiers carrying weapons, and then at some point exploded with children on board. And Yale hadn't been on it—he'd seen it blow up.

But if that argument eight years ago had anything to do with that incident, it had to have taken place a long time ago, which didn't make any sense. It had sounded like the man was talking about Julia's great-grandmother, and she and her younger son, Julia's great-uncle, had died while visiting one of the family installations, though she didn't know any details. She'd assumed it was some sort of accident. But what if it wasn't?

She calculated in her mind how long ago it had to have been. Her great-grandfather had died when he was ninety-seven, and that had been when she was twelve. She'd gotten the impression her great-grandmother had died relatively young, and her great-uncle had definitely been a child. If she'd been roughly the same age as her husband, and she'd died in her late twenties… Maybe 80 years ago, or in that range.

And then seventy-two years after that my mother had an argument about someone who had been on Aeneas. Someone she couldn't help. But what does that have to do with Yale?

Absolutely nothing. There was no way there could be a connection between whatever happened eighty years ago and what was happening to Yale right now.

But why else would Yale be talking about Aeneas? As far as she knew, there had been no other rebellions on that station, though she supposed it was possible there had been, and the Council had just covered it up.

Covering it up, she thought. Eight years ago would have been very close to the time that Yale became a cyborg. What if whoever he'd been before had found out about the original Aeneas incident somehow, and the Council had turned him into a cyborg to prevent him from talking about it? Maybe the scene he'd had the flashback of had been a recording.

It was plausible, but somehow it didn't fit. There was something about that conversation she'd overheard that was bothering her. Whoever had been speaking to her mother had said "We owe it to him to try to get him out of—" Present tense. Present tense, she thought again. Was there any way Yale could have been—?

Julia slammed on the brakes, and suddenly realized she'd been driving for god knew how long without paying any attention to where she was going. They were coming to the end of the long draw they'd driven up that first day, and there was a long slope down from it towards the plain where the camp was. The slope was strewn with rocks large enough to damage the rail. I need to pay more attention, she thought, frustrated.

"Julia?" Devon said, raising her head to look groggily at her, and Julia realized she must have fallen asleep at some point. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes," Julia said, wishing Devon would just go back to sleep so she could think about what had made her nearly stop.

"Look, Mom!" Uly said, pointing, and there in the distance they could make out the line of the river, and a faint red square lit by the fading late afternoon sun that had to be the Transrover.

"We're almost there," Devon said. "What do you think, Julia? Another twenty minutes?"

"If we're lucky," Julia said absently, trying to focus on steering a safe path down the long slope of the foothills. It took nearly all her concentration, especially once the sun dipped behind the mountains. The rail's headlights helped, but between trying to make sure they stayed on course for the camp, worrying about the charge on the rail, and trying not to drive into rocks, Julia didn't get another chance to think about Yale, Alonzo or anything else.

They arrived back in the camp after dark to a joyous reception. Bess could barely speak, tears rolling down her face as she hugged Uly like she thought he'd disappear. Uly looked deeply embarrassed by the attention.

"I don't know why everybody's so glad to see me," he said, frowning as he tried to extricate himself from Toshiko's arms after she'd taken over from Bess. "I nearly got Tru killed."

"It doesn't matter," Toshiko said, holding him at arm's length and looking seriously at him. "None of that matters right now. We're just so glad to see you all right."

Julia had Danziger bring Tru into his tent, figuring she'd be just as well off in her own bed. She was still asleep, in spite of all the noise. Which is about the best thing for her, Julia thought as she followed Danziger inside. She gave him her diaglove and showed him how to scan her vitals.

"I'm not worried," she said reassuringly when he looked nervous. "Her vitals have been improving, and they're likely to get even better now that she can really sleep deeply. Just check her every two hours, and if her O2 sats go below 93, call me."

"Yeah," Danziger said. "Thanks, Doc." He reached out and squeezed her shoulder.

"Listen, I know Devon was…I mean, the things she said were…" Julia began, then faltered.

Danziger looked resigned. "Don't worry about it, kid. I'm used to it. You know what they say: shit rolls downhill."

Julia turned and left, flustered, and headed for the med tent, wishing she'd been able to say something even remotely useful.

"Rick!" Toshiko said, dragging him over to talk to Devon. "Is Rob back? Tell Devon what he found."

"Yes," Rick said, coming up to join them by the fire. "They're back, and it's great news."

"Oh?" Devon said.

"I sent Sergei and Rob west to scout," he said. "They think they found another supply pod."

"Really?" Devon said, her face lighting up. "Is it close?"

"About twenty-five k or so," Rick said. "It's probably not all that far to the west of where you cut through the hills, but there's another spur of the foothills, and it's on the other side of that."

"So how hard is it going to be to get to?" Devon asked.

Rick shook his head. "Not hard to get to," he said. "It's the getting stuff back that's going to be the hard part. The big trailer's already pretty heavily loaded. We'll have to figure out some other way to transport the stuff we get if there isn't another trailer in this pod."

Devon grimaced. "I think we only had two trailers altogether," she said. She shook her head. "We'll have to prioritize. If we end up setting up winter camp close enough, we can always go back for more."

"I have a feeling we will be setting up winter camp sooner rather than later," Rick said. "Have you noticed how cold it's been getting at night?"

"Don't remind me," Devon said, edging closer to the fire to get warm.

"And it's not just that. Rob says it just gets higher west of here. The best route he and Sergei could find actually angles a little north, too. That's not so bad—it takes us a little closer to that northern pass that Melanie was talking about on the sat images."

"But it means it'll be colder sooner," Devon said, sighing. "Let's just hope that supply pod has some of the winter gear in it."

Helen looked up alertly, raising her mag-pro and powering it up as she listened for another sound from the darkness. She tapped her gear quickly. "Heads up, everybody. I've got something moving out here."

"Huh?" Bill said over the gear. "How come the perimeter alarms didn't go off?"

"How would I know?" Helen whispered. "Just shut up and keep your eyes open!"

"Relax, Helen, it's just me," Hardy said, coming into view.

Helen frowned, lowering her mag-pro. "What the hell are you doing out there?"

"I'm just trying to get my leg back in shape," Hardy said, holding up his hands. "Doing laps around the camp."

"Jesus, Hardy, you scared the hell out of me!" Helen said. "Next time let us know you're wandering around!"

Hardy looked embarrassed. "Sorry," he said. "I figured since I was inside the perimeter, it wouldn't be a big deal."

"Are you serious?" Helen said. "After the stink you raised about Julia and her little jaunts out of camp?"

"I wasn't out of the camp!" Hardy said defensively. "Jeez, lighten up!" He turned and headed back towards the campfire, glowering at her over his shoulder.

"False alarm," Helen said over the gear. "Just Hardy being an idiot."

"Isn't that redundant?" Valerie said.

"Hey, tiger," Devon said, coming into her tent. Uly was sitting on his bunk, still fully clothed. "I thought I told you to get ready for bed."

"I know," he said, but he didn't move.

Devon knelt in front of him. "You know the drill, Uly. Whatever it is, you're better off talking about it. So spit it out."

Uly looked uncomfortable, but he finally sighed. "Are you gonna yell at Tru?" he said.

Devon winced. "Am I that predictable?"

"Well, yeah," he said. "But you shouldn't! I mean, it wasn't her fault. It was mine."

"Don't worry, Uly, I know that. And don't think you're off the hook for that, either, mister."

Uly looked resigned. "Yeah, I know. Yale already gave me a ton of homework." He sighed.

"Where is Yale?" Devon said.

"He went to talk to Julia about something," Uly said. "Listen, I know I need to be punished, but couldn't you get him to assign me more math? Or science? If I have to read one more poem, I'm gonna start talking in rhymes."

"Don't whine to me about it," Devon said. "You brought this on yourself. Now into bed, mister. You didn't sleep all day like Tru, so you have to be tired by now."

Uly's face clouded at that.

"Oh, I'm sorry, tiger," Devon said, kicking herself. "I didn't mean to—"

"What if Tru hates me?" he said quietly, looking at his hands.

Oh, Uly, Devon thought. "Why would she hate you?"

"She thinks I'm annoying already, and then I went off and left her and she almost got eaten," Uly said in a rush. "I never should have left her, Mom, and now she's going to think I'm a moron, and—"

"And then what happened?" Devon said.

Uly looked confused. "Huh?"

"After you left her, and the hexadent came. She was sick, right? And what did you do?"

"I couldn't do anything!" he said, and she could imagine how terrified he must have been.

"That's not what you told me when we got there," Devon said. "You said you helped her breathe, remember?"

"I was really mean to her," he said, looking guiltily at his mother. "She wasn't listening to me, so I told her I could breathe through a straw when I was five."

"And that worked, didn't it?" Devon said, smiling.

Uly looked chagrined. "Yeah," he said. "She was pretty mad, but yeah, it worked."

"That's my smart boy," Devon said, reaching out to squeeze his shoulders. "Now you listen to me. You both needed each other to stay alive out there. She'll remember that. She might not be happy about it—she's pretty independent, you know." Uly snorted. "So that might make her prickly for a while. Don't you worry about that, okay? Just be nice to her, even when she's prickly, and she'll get over it. And trust me, she'll remember that you helped her breathe."

Uly still didn't look convinced.

"You'll want to be careful, though," Devon said. "Don't let her know you feel so bad about it, or she'll use that against you in the worst possible ways. Guilt is just about the best way to get what you want. Trust me—it's what I'd do if I were her. So tell her you're sorry, but don't go all goopy on her."

"Goopy?" Uly looked baffled by that.

"Yeah, you know, weepy-eyed, talking too much, too fast. Like I get when you're really sick," Devon said.

"Oh," Uly said. He frowned at her. "Is that why you get like that, because you feel bad, like it's your fault?"

"Well, duh," Devon said, giving him her best impression of his "you idiot" look.

He looked annoyed. "That's pretty stupid, Mom. It's not your fault I was sick."

"And it's not your fault that hexadent came after Tru," Devon said pointedly. "He'd have come after both of you if you'd been there, and you might—" She stopped herself.

"But I didn't, Mom," Uly said insistently. "And neither did Tru. So it's all good."

"Yeah, it's all good," Devon said, trying to convince herself of that. If only it were, she thought.

"So when are you going to apologize to Mr. Danziger?" Uly said, his voice muffled by his shirt as he pulled it over his head. He got it off and looked nervously at her.

"Apologize?" Devon said stiffly. "For what?"

Uly gave her his patented, "Mom, this is me you're talking to," look. "You yelled at him, didn't you?"

Devon sighed, knowing she wasn't going to get this one past him. "Yeah," she said. "I said some pretty stupid things." Galactically stupid things, she thought.

"Uh-huh. So tell him you're sorry, but don't go all goopy on him," Uly said, grinning again. "Right?"

"Right," Devon said, wishing it was really that easy.