Earth 2.1.2
Chapter 12
A/N: As promised. Even before I get any reviews of Chapter 11. ;-)
It was darker than it usually got on G-889. Both moons were barely slivers, making it much harder to see where she was going. She tripped and fell hard, and for a moment she just lay there, too tired and cold to get up. But then she heard something coming, and she scrambled to her feet again.
She forced herself to run, heading north along the riverbed, hoping the bank would give her some cover from her pursuers. It was hard to keep up speed, though, with the numbness of her feet, the lack of food, and the bitter cold. It had been two days since she'd eaten the last bit of the food she'd stolen from her captors, and since then she'd been relying on the few native plants she knew were edible. Which didn't amount to much.
Thank god I know as much as I do about those, she thought, grateful for the time she'd spent helping to identify them. She shied away from the thought, though, knowing it would only remind her of the people she might never see again.
Stop it, she told herself, limping along the thin strip of dry land below the riverbank. You're going to make it. You'll find the Eden Project, and then you'll see all of them again. You have to—everything depends on it.
There was another sound from behind her, up on the higher ground. She dove toward the bank, scrambling to find any kind of cover, and hoping they wouldn't be able to see her in the darkness. She tried desperately to make her mind as much of a black hole as she could, but she knew it wouldn't work.
They're going to find me and take me back, she thought, despairingly.
A tall, six-limbed silhouette appeared above her, casting the faintest shadow on the river in front of her. She closed her eyes, willing it to go away. Please. Just let me go.
"What do you think?" Julia asked Valerie. It had taken until the morning after their rescue for her to find a way to get Valerie into the med tent to look at Melanie's tablet without anyone knowing what they were doing, and the strain had been almost unbearable. But now, she dreaded the answer.
Valerie glanced up from the tablet she'd been studying. Her expression was grim.
"That's what I was afraid of," Julia said.
"No," Devon said desperately, even though she'd known who it was the moment Julia had told her she knew. "It's not possible! He wouldn't—"
"He's the only one who could have done it, Devon," Valerie said. "It was a burst transmission. Nobody else here has the equipment to do it."
"Is it possible he doesn't know he's doing it?" Julia said. "Morgan was telling me about some of the issues with the cyborg program."
Devon wasn't listening. She lowered herself onto Julia's bunk, staring at nothing. "It can't be Yale…he's been with us for most of Uly's life. There's no one I trust more!"
"Devon, listen, it may not be his fault," Julia said insistently. "It could be something in his programming. It could even explain why he was having all those blackouts."
"If it is in his programming, we could be in all sorts of trouble," Valerie said grimly. "What do you think he'll do when he finds out we know?"
Julia shook her head. "We can't risk just confronting him directly," she said, still looking worriedly at Devon.
Devon shook her head. "No," she said, trying to bring herself under control. "You're right, it's too dangerous. Julia, is there a sedative that will work on him?"
Julia looked concerned. "I don't know. The sedative I used on him the other night worked fine on the human part of him, but I have no idea how his implants work. It's possible he could still function with only the cybernetics. But maybe if I added a paralytic…"
Devon looked up at Valerie. "You're absolutely certain?"
Valerie nodded. "I think Melanie must have figured it out. In all the chaos, I'd forgotten, but she said it wasn't Hardy, right before…" She stopped, regretting having said it when she saw the sick look on Devon's face. Bad enough telling her about Yale, Valerie thought, but you just had to bring up Melanie, too. Nice going, Carter. "Anyway, I know every bit of equipment in this camp, and there's nothing else that could have done this. Hell, I doubt if there was much available on the ship that could have managed this. There was an enormous amount of data in the burst, and it went through in encrypted form almost too fast for Melanie's receiver to pick up."
"Okay," Devon said quietly. She stood up stiffly, wincing. "Okay, here's what we do…"
It took barely two days of travel to make it back to where she'd started from nearly a week earlier. The Terriers—what a ridiculous name, she thought yet again, wondering how on earth it had stuck the way it did—had carried her on their backs, her hands bound behind her. It was certainly more comfortable than the outward trip had been, but that was hardly enough to improve her mood, and the wear and tear of her journey to that point had her at the point of collapse.
They rode into the Terrier camp in the early evening, just as the moons were rising. The Terrier whose back she'd been riding on came to a stop, and another grabbed her and swung her off its back.
She paused, trying to get the feeling back into her freezing feet, but the Terrier pushed her forward. She turned, shooting it an angry look. It shoved her even harder, and she went sprawling onto her knees. She stayed there a moment, trying to catch her breath, and saw the pristine white boots of a Council agent come into view. She looked up, trying not to let her dismay show.
"Well, well, well," he said, sounding as smug and arrogant as Brendan Riley, and inspiring the same urge to punch him in the face. "Kate Tennyson! Such a pleasant surprise!"
"Go to hell, Nathan," she said, struggling to her feet.
"There are times I think I'm already there," he said. "But I'm sure you feel the same way. How disappointing it must be for you to have made it so far and still not escape."
She didn't respond, looking steadily at him.
"Well, if it's any consolation, you made the Terriers very unhappy. Oh, by the way, you'll have some company on the way back to the base," he said. He nodded at the Terrier behind her, and it grabbed her arm, the claw digging painfully into her, and dragged her off to the tent with the rudimentary wooden cage she'd spent so much time in already.
But this time there was someone else in it. The Terrier opened the doorway to the cage and shoved her through hard enough she landed on her side.
"Well, hello there," said a small, dark-haired young woman huddled in the corner of the cage. She had a long trail of blood down one side of her face, and she looked exhausted, but she still managed a sunny smile. "Welcome to the Terrier Hilton. I'm the closest thing to a concierge you'll find here, but don't expect great things from me. My resources are a bit limited." She held out her hand, wavering slightly. "I'm Melanie."
Devon came into Dome One, feeling the weight of the handgun Valerie had insisted she carry at her back, and felt like a traitor.
"Oh, Devon," Toshiko said, "I was just going to come look for you. I had an idea. About how to raise morale. Did you know Julia's birthday is—?"
"Um, can it wait, Tosh?" Devon said, and she knew her voice sounded unnatural. "I need to talk to Yale."
"Oh," Toshiko said, looking slightly hurt. "Okay."
"What is it you need, Devon?" Yale said, looking up from the holo he'd been studying.
"We're trying to get an estimate of how long winter will be here, and Julia thought you might be able to help," she said. "She's been doing some calculations on the length of the days, but she needs some of the survey data."
"Oh, of course. I have all the measurements of the size, axial tilt and orbital path of G-889," Yale said. He stood up from where he'd been sitting next to Uly. "Is Julia in the med tent?"
"No," Devon said, backing towards the door so he wouldn't see the gun. "She's over in Dome Two. Rick was helping her." She reached into her pocket and gripped the hypospray Julia had given her.
Yale paused as he got next to her, looking sidelong at her. "Dome Two? Is something wrong, Devon?"
"Wrong? No, of course not," Devon said. Get him outside, away from Uly, she thought. "I'm just a little worried. You know how limited our food supplies are, so if we have to face a long winter…" She trailed off, trying to look concerned, and Yale nodded. He stepped into the entryway ahead of her, and Devon breathed a tiny sigh of relief.
She followed him outside. Valerie was waiting there, and Devon could see Danziger over by the edge of the cliff that jutted out alongside Dome Two. He had a mag-pro held almost out of sight behind him in the shadows. We're not going to need it, Devon told herself.
"Hello, Valerie," Yale said, and there was an odd halting sound to his words.
Devon gripped the hypospray in her hand and pulled it out of her pocket.
"Hello, Yale," Valerie said, and she had one hand held behind her back.
It's too obvious, Devon thought, edging up behind him. He knows.
Yale turned slightly to glance back at Devon, and there was an oddly blank look on his face. Devon shifted slightly to keep the hypospray out of sight. "What is going on, Devon?" he said.
"It's okay, Yale," Devon said. "Just come with us to Dome Two, and I'll explain everything."
Yale's head tilted slightly to the side, and his eyes narrowed. Then everything happened all at once. Yale turned and lunged to rip the handgun out of Valerie's hand with his normal hand, then sent her flying backwards with a massive blow to her chest from his cybernetic arm. Then he turned back before Devon could even react and swatted the hypospray out of her hand. It flew backwards and clattered off the side of Dome One. Yale backed around the curve of the dome so Danziger couldn't get a shot at him.
"No one come any closer," Yale said in halting words, holding the handgun pointed at Devon. "I w-will shoot her."
"I'm Kate," she said, taking the young woman's hand gently, trying to wrap her mind around being with one of the people she'd been looking for. "You're Melanie? Melanie Wilson?"
"Oh, so you've heard of me?" Melanie said. "Cool. My mother always wanted me to be famous."
"You were on the crew of the Eden Advance ship," Kate said, hope blooming in her. "How did you get here? Are they close?"
"Oh, come on, do you really think I'm that stupid?" Melanie said coldly. "That guy Nathan's been trying to get me to tell him everything about Eden Advance for two days."
Kate recoiled. "I—no, of course not," she said, remembering what she looked like. "Sorry—I forgot I'm still wearing the uniform. It's just…I've been looking for you for weeks."
"You and him, too," Melanie said warily.
"I assume you know Julia Heller?" Kate said, brushing back a strand of blonde hair that had worked its way out of her braid.
Melanie narrowed her eyes. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I owe her a beer, or whatever we can find here that comes closest to it," Kate said. "I work for her mother, and if it wasn't for Dr. Heller, I'd probably be dead."
"Yale, please, listen to me," Devon said. "No one wants to hurt you!"
Julia came out of the med tent with two hyposprays in hand. She hesitated, watching the standoff between Devon and Yale, then saw Alonzo a few meters away, looking like he was about to go charging into the fray.
"Alonzo!" she whispered, getting close enough for him to hear her, but trying to keep out of Yale's line of sight.
Alonzo turned to her and frowned. He jogged over to her. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to get Devon and Yale both out of this alive," she said. "You need to talk to him. No, not him. Talk to Biko. I need you to distract him till I can get behind him with this. Tell Danziger to hold his fire."
"Are you crazy?" Alonzo said. "Give it to me—I'll dose him."
Julia shook her head. "Trust me—I have a plan, and it doesn't involve anybody getting shot. Unlike yours."
Alonzo looked annoyed at that, but relented. "Okay, but if you do get yourself shot, I'm going to hunt you down in the afterlife to knock some sense into you. Got it?"
Julia smiled, then turned and limped as quickly as she could toward the back of Dome One.
Alonzo ran over to where Danziger was kneeling with the mag-pro ready to fire. "Danziger," Alonzo whispered. "Tell everyone to hold their fire. We have a plan to take him down."
"No way, 'Lonz," Danziger growled, and nearly jumped to his feet when he saw Devon step away from the doorway to Dome One and stand directly in front of Yale.
"Yale," Devon said, holding up one hand, "please put down the gun."
"God damn it, Devon!" Danziger shouted. "Get down!"
"Danziger, we can stop him!" Alonzo said. "Julia's already on her way—you gotta let me talk to him, or she'll get herself killed along with Devon!"
Danziger hesitated, kicking himself for not taking down Yale sooner. Now Devon was in his line of fire, and he couldn't risk it. He tapped his gear. "Does anybody have a clear shot?"
"Not without risking Devon," Helen said, sounding frustrated.
Danziger swore under his breath. He glanced sidelong at Alonzo. "You and the doc'd better be right about this."
Alonzo grinned. "C'mon, Danziger, it's me!" He started out to talk to Yale.
Yale had turned to face Devon, bringing the handgun around to point at her. "Dev—" he began, then winced. The barrel of the gun was shaking, and he seemed to be fighting to point it away from Devon.
"It's okay, Yale," Devon said. "You can fight this. You're more than just your programming—so much more! Put down the gun."
"I told you he was a walking time bomb!" Morgan whispered to Bess from their hiding place behind Dome One.
"Morgan, I need your help," Julia said, scrambling up next to him. She had the med kit slung over one shoulder, and she was holding a hypospray in each hand.
"Me?!" Morgan said. "Why me?"
"Because we're the only ones with a chance to get behind Yale right now, and I need you to get behind him to use this," Julia whispered, handing him one of the hyposprays.
"What about you?" Morgan said.
"I'm gonna try to dose him myself first, but if that doesn't work, I want a backup plan. I'll give him something else to look at," Julia said, holding up another hypospray. "If that happens, you get behind him, put this to his neck and push the button. It'll only take a second or two to take effect."
"Julia, no! It's too dangerous," Bess said.
"Don't worry, Bess," Julia said. "I'll make sure Morgan's safe."
"But who's going to keep you safe?" Bess said.
"Trust me," Julia whispered. "Morgan, give me a few seconds, then follow me around. You'll know what to do." She turned and ran around the back side of Dome One and disappeared.
"Biko!" Alonzo called, and Devon turned to look at him, her eyes wide. "Hey, man, it's me, Solace. You remember me, right?"
Yale looked at him, frowning.
"Come on, I ended up spending twenty-four years in coldsleep for you, pal, you should at least pretend you remember me," Alonzo said, grinning as he walked closer.
"Solace?" Yale said, and it was Biko's voice again.
"Yep, in the flesh," Alonzo said breezily. "What's with the gun?"
"I—" Yale said, and winced again. "Solace, you gotta help me. Shoot me. Please."
"No way, Biko," Alonzo said. "I didn't travel twenty-two light years and eighty years to let you die like this. Come on, you're stronger than this."
"But I'm not," he said plaintively, though the gun was wavering now. "I can…almost control me, but I can't…I can't make the machines do what I want."
Devon watched him carefully, debating whether or not she should say anything, but then she saw Julia appear in the tiny space behind Dome One. She was holding a hypospray in her right hand. She crept towards Yale, and Devon forced herself to look back at Yale, who was now looking at Alonzo.
For an instant, his eyes widened, and he looked like he was trying to say something more, but then his expression shut down again, and he turned and fired the handgun at Julia.
"No!" Devon and Alonzo both shouted at the same instant, but something of Yale or Biko was still in there, because he missed by almost a meter, the bullet sending up a cloud of dirt from the cliff wall behind Julia.
Yale moaned, and the barrel of the gun shook even harder.
Julia froze, wide-eyed, and held her hands out to her sides. "Nobody shoot!" she shouted. "Stand down, Yale," she said in a surprisingly commanding voice, and started edging towards Devon around the side of Dome One. "Council orders. I.D. Delta oh-four-nine-one-seven. Stand down and lower your weapon! Now!"
"Julia, what are you doing?" Valerie said, struggling to get up from where she'd landed.
Yale paused for an instant, his expression blank, and the gun dipped slightly. Julia took a step towards him. But before she could get close enough to sedate him, Yale looked up again, and he looked coldly at Julia and began to raise the gun again.
"No, Biko, don't!" Alonzo shouted. "Look at me, damn it! It's the Council making you do this! The same Council who killed all those people on Aeneas, the same Council that stuck us both in coldsleep for all those years, the same Council that made you a cyborg. Don't let them make you a killer!"
"Julia," Yale forced out through gritted teeth, "please, g-get back. I—I don't know…" The barrel of the handgun was lifting, edging closer to pointing at Julia.
"Yale!" Devon shouted. "Look at me! Please!"
He turned his head slightly, but seemed to be fighting to do that much. Julia took a step back and towards Devon, hoping to keep Yale looking their way so Morgan could have a shot at him.
"Yale, think about Uly. Don't do this to him," Devon pleaded. "Please, put down the gun."
"I…" He wrenched his head around to look at her. "I…am…sorry," he said, and he was bending his arm, turning the gun towards himself.
"No!" Devon pleaded.
"Biko, don't! We can—!"
Suddenly, Yale's head jerked up, and he began to turn. Alonzo dove forward, grabbing the arm holding the gun and trying to force it down, but Yale was already collapsing in front of Morgan.
"Wait," Melanie said. "You work for Julia's mother? Present tense work for?"
"I sure hope so," Kate said quietly. "She was alive and well the last time I saw her."
"When!?" Melanie said, falling forward onto her knees to look closely at Kate's face. "How long ago?"
Kate counted backwards in her head. "A little over five weeks," she said. "We'd just made it out of the Council camp, and she sent us—me and my partner—up here to try to find you."
Melanie looked stunned. "She's alive. Julia was so sure they'd—"
"Then Julia's still alive, too?" Kate said eagerly.
Melanie looked nervous. "Look, if you're really one of the good guys, I'm really sorry, but…I don't know if I should trust you. You are wearing a Council uniform, after all."
Kate nodded. "Fair enough. What do I need to do to convince you?"
Melanie looked perplexed. "Well, for starters, you could explain the uniform."
Kate smiled. "Sorry. I'm Kate Tennyson, former Council agent. I didn't have time to bring a change of clothes. The reason the uniform is such a mess is that I've been on the run from the Council. These guys," she gestured at the camp outside the tent, "caught me about a week and a half ago. I managed to get out after about three days, but they caught up with me again a couple of days ago."
"Former," Melanie said skeptically. "So tell me, Kate Tennyson, why does the Council want to kill us so badly?"
"To keep you from exposing them as the lying, baby-killing bastards they are," Kate said venomously. "It's all about the Syndrome, and their responsibility for it. For allowing hundreds of children to get sick and die. Including my nephew."
"I take it you disapprove?" Melanie said dryly.
"Believe it or not, there's a whole group of people working for the Council who disapprove. Starting with Councilwoman Heller," Kate said.
"How many?" Melanie said.
"Here? Nineteen, including three former Council agents like me. At least, that's how many got out. There are also four others who volunteered to risk staying in the camp," Kate said. "That's out of a total of a hundred and fifty. The Council loyalists have eighteen agents and another hundred and three people. Do you want details on armaments?"
Melanie looked hard at her for a long moment. "Okay," she said finally. "So what do you say you and me blow this pop stand and go find Julia?"
Kate blinked at her. "Just like that?" she said. "You don't know anything about me."
Melanie waved her hand in the air. "Knowing people is overrated. I barely knew Julia when we landed, but I'd have done anything for her in about ten minutes, and it's only gotten better since then."
"That must be a Heller family trait," Kate said. "I felt the same way about her mother."
"Besides," Melanie continued, "you could be Satan incarnate and if you could help me get out of this cage, I'd give you a good character reference."
Devon let out a gasp of relief, kneeling next to Yale as Alonzo wrenched the gun from his hand and handed it to Danziger. Julia landed on her knees next to Yale and started running her diaglove over him.
"Thank you, Morgan," Devon said breathlessly, looking up at him.
Morgan nodded wordlessly, looking terrified. Bess ran up and grabbed him, and then there was a stampede of everyone else in the camp coming up around them. Valerie staggered up next to Julia.
"Are you okay?" Julia asked her.
Valerie nodded. "A little more than my pride is bruised, but I'll live. Is he really down?"
Julia set down the hypospray and reached up to lift Yale's eyelid as the diaglove ran its scan. As she did, Yale's cybernetic hand shot up and grabbed her arm. She reared back, surprised, and then gasped as his hand squeezed her forearm with frightening force.
"What the—?" Danziger said, and then grabbed Devon, dragging her away from Yale, though she struggled against him.
"Julia!" Alonzo said, lunging toward her. Even as he did, there was a sickeningly audible snap, and Julia's face went gray. He grabbed Julia by the shoulders as she started to tip sideways. Valerie grabbed Yale's hand, trying to find some way to get it to release its grip.
"Get back!" Morgan said. "Everybody!" He knelt next to Yale's head and lifted it. He reached down and slid back a tiny port on one of Yale's implants at the back of his neck.
"Hurry!" Alonzo said, holding Julia. She had her eyes screwed shut and was breathing hard through gritted teeth.
Morgan reached into the implant with one finger and pressed a button, and Yale's arm jolted. Julia cried out, and then sagged forward as Yale released her, his arm falling limply to the ground as Valerie pulled back. Alonzo caught Julia, holding her up.
"Julia?" Devon said, breaking free from Danziger's grasp and scrambling back to Yale's side. "Are you all right?"
Julia nodded, but she was cradling her right forearm, and her face was creased with pain. As Julia carefully rolled back her sleeve, Devon could see the marks from Yale's mechanical hand imprinted on her arm, and it was already swelling. "Alonzo," Julia said, her voice tight, "can you help me get the med-kit off?"
He carefully slid the strap off her shoulder and eased it past her injured arm, laid it on the ground in front of her and unzipped it. Julia reached in, grabbed a painblock vial, paused for an instant and then looked up. "Somebody go to the med tent. In the dispensary, there's a vial labeled intocostrin. Bring it. Hurry."
Sergei ran for the med tent. Julia set the hypospray in her lap, wiggled the vial of sedative out of it awkwardly with her diagloved hand, then shook her head. "Alonzo…?" she said. He grabbed it, plugged the painblock into the hypospray and dosed her. She let out a faint sigh as the painblock started to take effect. She looked up at Morgan. "What did you do?"
"There's a manual reset button," he said. "It'll take maybe ten minutes for it to cycle."
Julia nodded. "Thank you," she said.
"What about your arm?" Valerie said, worried.
"It's broken," Julia said dismissively.
"How bad?" Alonzo said.
"It's not anything to worry about right now," Julia said, though it was clear she was in a lot of pain, even with the painblock starting to take effect.
Sergei ran up. "Is this the right one?" he said, holding out a vial.
Valerie took it from him and held it for Julia to read. She nodded. Valerie grabbed the hypospray from Alonzo and plugged the vial into it. "Inject Yale with it," Julia said. She caught Devon's questioning look as Valerie dosed the cyborg. "It's a paralytic," she said. "It should keep him from doing this to anybody else for a while. Hopefully, we can figure out how to fix him before it wears off."
"Let's get him to the med tent," Danziger said. "Sergei, go grab a bunch of biocord. I want him tied down tight before that whatever it was Julia gave him wears off." Danziger and several of the group picked up Yale and started to carry him away. Devon trailed in their wake, looking lost.
God, I wish Melanie were here, Julia thought for the thousandth time, and it must have shown on her face, because Valerie knelt next to her and said, "Can I help?" Julia gave her a watery smile, and between the two of them, they got her arm into a temporary sling. Toshiko ran up with some of the ice packs from the cooler, and Julia tucked them carefully into the sling. Valerie and Alonzo helped her to her feet.
"Morgan, what do you know about the cyborg programming?" Julia said.
"More than I wanted to," Morgan said darkly. "I already told Valerie they had failsafe programming—if they had certain thoughts or triggered specific memories, the failsafe could kick in and make them do something. Most of them had it set so they'd send out an alarm and then lock down. But they could be programmed to do almost anything."
"Like shoot everybody," Valerie said.
"Yeah," Morgan said. "Lucky for us, they had trouble with it sometimes. For some of them, the programming wasn't strong enough."
"Thank god," Julia said, starting towards the med tent.
"No kidding," Alonzo said, putting his hand on her back. "It's a good thing Biko's still in there somewhere. It could have been worse."
"I just worry what other surprises there might be in there," Valerie said grimly. "I've been through most of the stuff I flagged, and found some things I thought might help with his blackouts. But I hadn't finished looking for stuff like this. It shouldn't take too long to find, but…"
"Do you think you can get rid of them?" Julia said.
Valerie shook her head uncertainly. "I won't know until I get in and see how it's structured. But it's going to be risky. Integration of biological and computer components is still pretty new. If I do the wrong thing with the programming, it could cause biological reactions. And Morgan tells me the people who programmed him planned a response if the programming is adjusted."
"So, what, he could blow up if you try to fix him?" Bess said, following them towards the med tent.
"I doubt it'll be something that bad," Valerie said, but she didn't sound very confident.
"We can't take the risk!" Morgan said.
"We have to," Alonzo said. "He's a good man, Morgan, not a criminal. He deserves better than this. Besides, losing him would kill Devon."
"Are you crazy?" Morgan said. "We could lose a lot more than Yale!"
"They're right, Morgan," Bess said quietly, and he turned, surprised at her response. "It was bad enough losing Melanie. We have to try."
Julia's breath caught, and Alonzo looked sharply at her, but she didn't stop walking toward the med tent. "Morgan is right about one thing," she said. "We need to minimize the risk to everyone else."
"So what's the plan?" Melanie said.
Kate leaned back tiredly against the wooden bars of their cage. "You're asking me? I wasn't exactly successful on my first breakout."
"At least you got out," Melanie said. "I haven't managed that much."
"How long have you been here?" Kate said.
"I'm not really sure. I've been conscious for two days, but I think I must have been here longer than that."
Kate frowned at her. "How bad is it?" she said, gesturing at Melanie's head.
"It's a lot better now than it was two days ago," Melanie said dryly. "The first day I could barely move. Now I think I could probably run, at least for a while."
"Well, you'll have to manage more than that if we're going to make it. I think for the moment, we need to focus on getting you healthy. Me, too," she added, finally giving in to her body's insistent demand for extended rest.
"Are you injured?" Melanie said, leaning forward to look at her.
"I don't think so," Kate said.
"You don't think so?" Melanie said. "And you're not sure because…?"
"I haven't really been able to feel my feet for a while," Kate admitted.
Melanie groaned. "Oh, wonderful, another one of those."
"One of what?"
"The stoic to a fault, unwilling to admit weakness, self-sacrificing morons. You and Julia have a lot in common," Melanie said acidly. "Take off your boots."
Kate sighed and leaned forward to unfasten her boots. It hurt pulling them off, which she thought was a good sign, and then really hurt as circulation started to return.
"Well, aren't you a mess," Melanie muttered, peeling off Kate's wet socks. "Doing a little wading, were you?" She studied Kate's feet for a while, then put two fingers into her mouth and let out a piercing whistle.
"What the —?" Kate said, then groaned as Nathan came into the tent.
"What now?" he said in a long-suffering tone.
"We need warm water, dry socks, and some hot food," Melanie said.
Nathan crossed his arms across his chest. "And why would I want to do that for you?"
"Because if you wanted us dead, we'd be dead already," Melanie said reasonably. "So I can only assume we're being kept alive for a reason. Well, Kate here isn't going to stay alive much longer if you don't help me out."
Nathan looked at them both for a long moment, then looked disgusted. "Fine. I'll see what I can do."
"Oh, and some sort of heat source," Melanie said. "Either that or some heavy blankets. No, both."
Nathan glared at her, then turned and ducked out of the tent.
Kate looked at Melanie, surprised. "That was impressive."
"Hey, that's what a concierge does," Melanie said. She leaned back, looking at Kate. "How tall are you?"
Kate looked surprised. "A hundred and eighty centimeters," she said.
"Yeah, that's about what I thought," Melanie said, sounding disgusted. "You look about as scary tall as Valerie. That's just messed up. There shouldn't be two of you that tall, let alone tall and gorgeous. I hate to think what it'd be like if you got together with her. You two make me look like a homely hobbit."
Kate laughed, uncertain how to take that.
An hour later, Kate was feeling infinitely better. Amazingly, she'd only had tiny patches of frostbite on her feet, and Melanie was confident she'd heal quickly. The food had been the best part, though. "I never thought e-rations could taste so good," Kate said.
"So, what's the plan?" Melanie said.
Kate sighed. "You're kind of annoying, you know," she said.
"You must like me," Melanie said. "Most people think I'm really annoying." She grinned. "So I have six protein bars I've been saving from my meals. I figure we can carry the blankets and the heater with us—that'll be pretty important if it snows. And maybe when we sneak out we can find some more of those e-rations to take with us."
Kate shook her head. "I tried sneaky once, and that didn't work. This time I think we go for fast. And I don't think either of us has the time to really get healthy enough to go on foot. My bet is they'll be taking us back to the camp soon. I was thinking more about the dunerail."
Melanie blinked. "There's a dunerail?"
"How else did Nathan get here?" Kate said.
Melanie looked embarrassed. "Well, now. This is exactly why I'm the one asking you for a plan."
It took almost half an hour to get everything set up to Julia and Valerie's satisfaction. They had Yale moved to Dome Two, along with all the medical and technical equipment they both thought they'd need.
"You're sure you'll be okay?" Alonzo said, walking beside Julia towards Dome Two. Helen and Valerie trailed behind them.
"Alonzo, we'll be fine," Julia insisted. "Yale's completely immobilized, even if the sedation and the intocostrin wear off. And I have plenty more of both of those I can use."
"What about your arm?" he persisted.
"My arm is fine," Julia said. "The painblock is working just fine. Besides, I'm not likely to be needing both hands for this. Valerie will be doing all the heavy lifting."
"But—"
"Alonzo, will you please go away?" Julia said, stopping and turning to face him. "I need to be able to concentrate on what we're doing in there, and I can't do that with you fussing over me and worrying over him. We'll make sure he's all right, I promise."
Alonzo tightened his lips, shaking his head at her. "You and I are going to have a serious talk when this is all over," he said.
She smiled tightly at him. "I promise to listen this time," she said.
He reached out and squeezed her shoulder, then turned on his heel and stalked back towards Dome One.
Julia sighed, watching him go, and then turned and headed for Dome Two, trying to ignore the increasing discomfort in her arm. The painblock was working, but the pressure from the swelling was starting to bother her, even with the ice packs.
"Are you sure this is really necessary?" Helen said, following Valerie in.
"Yes," Julia said tersely, coming into the dome. She went straight over to Yale and began running the diaglove over him. The restraints seemed to be holding, and she didn't want to risk dosing him with the intocostrin again if she could help it. The sedation was still keeping him under. So far.
Helen frowned at Julia, and Valerie took her arm and led her to the door. "There are two areas in Yale's body that are shielded against scans," she said softly. "Danziger says…" Valerie trailed off, and Helen's eyes widened.
"You mean he really could blow up? I thought Morgan was just exaggerating!"
"It's one possibility," Valerie said. "Danziger is sure you'll be safe in Dome One. Tell everyone we'll call as soon as it's over. And whatever you do, don't say anything to Alonzo. It was hard enough to get him to stay away without him knowing about that."
"I don't like leaving you two here with him alone," Helen said, looking worriedly at Yale.
"They won't be," Devon said, coming in the door.
Julia turned. "Devon—"
"Don't tell me I can't be here," Devon said. "I have the right—"
"Like I had the right to go after Melanie?" Julia said, looking steadily at Devon.
Devon recoiled, looking like she'd been kicked in the stomach.
"Get out, Devon," Julia said, though she didn't sound angry. "You still have to get Melanie back. Then we'll be even, okay?"
Devon looked like she wanted to protest, but Julia's steady gaze stopped her. After a long moment, Devon sighed, her shoulders sagging. "Please, Julia, promise me…"
"I promise," Julia said, knowing it didn't really matter what she was agreeing to do. Either they'd be able to pull this off, or they wouldn't.
"You ready to do this?" Kate said.
"I was born ready," Melanie said with bravado. It was an insane and reckless plan, the sort of plan Julia would have come up with. Which is why I'm going along with it, Melanie thought. Somehow she always comes out smelling like a rose. Here's hoping Kate has the same gift.
"Okay, here we go," Kate said, but before she could do anything, there was a thundering sound that Melanie knew all too well.
"Oh, boy," Melanie said, recognizing the sound of Terriers galloping through the camp. "I hope these are the good guys."
"Oh, this is perfect!" Kate murmured. She turned back to the little heater and set off the overload she'd rigged. "Come on!" She grabbed Melanie and they huddled as far from the heater as they could.
The heater whined as the Terriers thundered by, an arrow flying through the side of their tent and thudding into the ground. All at once, the heater blew, sending shards of metal flying, but the pile of blankets they'd set up to the inside of the cage from it contained most of it, as Kate had promised. And there was a good-sized hole in the cage.
"Move!" Kate said, grabbing Melanie's hand and dragging her toward the opening. She scooped up the smoldering blankets as she dove through the hole, Melanie right behind her. They scrambled under the side of the tent, then ran through the camp, dodging through the scattered tents, looking for the dunerail Kate was sure was there.
And then she found it. Kate pulled up short, and Melanie ran into her back.
"Going somewhere?" Nathan said, pointing a mag-pro at them from the driver's seat of the rail.
I really, really hate this guy, Kate thought, backing away.
Then a second wave of Terriers came from the same direction, and ran right between Nathan and Kate and Melanie. Kate turned, and shoved Melanie hard away from them. The whine of the mag-pro firing came right after, and then the sound of the dunerail spinning its wheels.
Kate skidded to a stop next to Melanie behind one of the tents, looking back across at where the dunerail had been. She could see it rolling away, followed by a cluster of Terriers.
"That bastard stole my ride," Kate growled.
"You mean we have to walk?" Melanie said plaintively.
A Terrier came around the tent across from them and raised its weapon to point at them. "Shit!" Kate said. She grabbed Melanie and dragged her around the back of the tent. "Go for the river!" she said, pointing.
Melanie took off running and Kate followed, praying that the Terrier wasn't following them. "Go, go, go!" Kate whispered, running behind Melanie towards the same riverbed she'd tried to escape along before. Maybe with the Terriers fighting among themselves, we might have a chance, she thought. Maybe.
Devon walked into Dome One with Danziger at her heels. She headed for where Hardy was sitting on a bunk, his hands still zip-tied.
He looked up as she approached, and his eyes widened as she pulled out a laser knife.
Devon almost laughed. "Relax, Hardy. If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't do it with a laser knife," she said dryly.
Hardy looked confused. "What's going on? I heard the shouting—"
"Give me your hands," Devon said. He stood up, still looking nervous, and held out his hands, and she used the knife to cut him free. "I owe you an apology," she said as he rubbed his wrists.
"You—what?" he said.
"We know you're not the spy," Danziger said.
"But—" he began, then shook his head. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. But…how do you know?"
"It was Yale," Devon said, and Hardy's face went through a series of expressions in about a second before finally settling on anger.
"Hold up, Hardy," Danziger said before he could say anything. "It's not Yale's fault."
"Not his fault?" Hardy said incredulously. "I spent the last week with my hands tied, thinking one of you was going to blow my head off at any minute! We got attacked, and I couldn't do a damned thing about it! Phoebe and Paul are dead!"
Danziger stepped past Devon and grabbed Hardy by his shirt, pulling him up. "Don't you—"
"John, don't," Devon said. "Let him go."
Danziger stared at Hardy for a long moment, still holding him by his shirt, then shook him once and let go.
Hardy straightened his shirt, glaring at Danziger.
Devon looked at Hardy, her expression stony. "You have every right to be angry," she said, "but not with Yale. Yale was only a tool for the Council, and he did everything he could—" She stopped, unable to continue. She took a breath. "I'm sorry for what we did to you," she said, and walked away.
Danziger waited till she'd sat down at a table on the other side of the dome, then stepped close to Hardy, who tensed. "You might want to remember that part of what got you into this mess was you being judgmental about Julia. You were wrong about her. You admitted that," Danziger said, emphasizing his point by poking Hardy in the chest. "Don't make the same mistake with Yale."
"But she just said he's the spy!" Hardy protested.
"Yeah, and he almost shot himself over it. Now he's over in Dome Two with Julia and Valerie trying to fix his programming. And Devon's terrified he's going to die," Danziger said, keeping his voice deadly quiet. "So let me make this clear: you were scared somebody was going to blow your head off before? She," he pointed at Devon, "has been through six kinds of hell the last few days, and the last thing she needs is you hassling her about Yale. So you say another word about it, and I'll pull the trigger myself."
Hardy still looked angry, but there was an undercurrent of fear in his eyes.
Danziger turned and walked away, crossing the dome to where Devon sat disconsolately at one of the tables, her head propped on one hand, tracing a nonexistent pattern on the table with one finger.
"Hey, Adair," Danziger said, coming up to sit next to her. "Anybody ever tell ya you worry too much?"
She glanced up at him without even a hint of a smile.
"Look," he said, "Julia and Valerie both think they can fix this, and they've both pulled off some crazy stuff since we landed. I think the smart money is on them making this work."
"But what if they can't?" Devon said, hating herself for saying it, but she couldn't seem to help herself. "What if it's really a bomb in there? What if we lose all three —?"
"Wow, you really turned into Debbie Downer all of a sudden," Danziger said, taking her hand and squeezing it. "Think about it this way. It doesn't really make all that much sense for anybody to stick a bomb in him, and there are all sorts of reasons not to do it. I really don't think that's anything to worry about."
"But there's still the programming," Devon insisted. "You saw him, John. He was ready to kill himself to keep from doing what the programming was telling him to do. Alonzo's absolutely right: he's not a killer, no matter what Morgan says. He's not. But…what if they can't get rid of the program?"
"This is Valerie we're talking about," he said. "Even if she can't figure out the program, she'll find some way to piss it off enough to shut it down."
Devon actually smiled a little at that, but it didn't last long. "He's family, John," she whispered. "I can't lose him. Not after everything we've been through—O'Neill, Paul, Phoebe." She took a ragged breath. "Not after losing Melanie."
"You won't," Danziger said. "And don't you count out Melanie just yet. That kid's a survivor. Julia and Valerie will fix Yale, and we'll get Melanie back, and years from now, we'll all have a beer on the beach at New Pacifica and laugh about this."
"Beer?" Devon said, trying hard to get out of her funk. "I don't even like beer."
"You haven't had the stuff we're cooking up," Danziger said, grinning. "Though properly speaking, it'd be more accurate to call it vodka. But beer or not, it'll put hair on your chest."
"I don't want hair on my chest," Devon said.
"Good point," Danziger said, leering at her. "We may have to modify the brew some."
Devon rolled her eyes, then sighed. "Thank you, John."
"Any time, Devon. Any time."
"So how do we do this?" Julia said, looking at Valerie.
Valerie sighed. "I've been trying to figure that out for the last half an hour," she said. "The first thing I need to do is to try to access his programming, just in case they downloaded something into him when he made contact. The problem is, I have no idea what's going to happen when I do that. I need you to monitor his vitals and keep an eye on this." She held up a hand-held scanner. "I have it set to monitor any signals to those two areas we couldn't scan. If anything spikes, you run. Don't stop to tell me—I'll be able to figure it out. We might just have enough time to get out before he blows." Valerie ignored the voice in her head telling her that wasn't even remotely possible.
Julia took a deep breath and nodded.
"If anything happens to his body, it's going to be up to you to try to keep him going long enough for me to fix the problem," Valerie continued. "Remember, if he has a suicide default, it could be some sort of poison."
"I know," Julia said. "I'm ready for just about anything."
Valerie smiled. "I'll bet you are. Okay, here we go." She turned and picked up a tablet and plugged a lead into it, then bent over Yale and plugged the lead into a tiny port on the side of his forehead.
His eyes shot open, and he started to struggle. Julia grabbed for her hypospray as Valerie stepped back. Yale managed to snap one strand of biocord before Julia was able to inject another dose of intocostrin. She followed it with another sedative once he'd subsided.
Valerie let out a gust of air, looking wide-eyed at Julia. "Well, this is going to be loads of fun." She made sure the lead was still in place, and started studying the tablet.
"Work fast," Julia said quietly, her eyes glued to the hand scanner.
Fifteen minutes later, Valerie nodded sharply.
"What?" Julia said.
"Well, the stuff I found before isn't so bad. There's a subroutine in here dealing with gasparanium," Valerie said, glancing up at Julia without raising her head. "If he accessed any files regarding toxicity or health risks associated with it, he was programmed to begin broadcasting regular reports on his activity on normal station channels." She studied the readout further. "And there was an addition to the code, probably from right before we left the stations, for him to broadcast those updates on a specific frequency, in burst mode, fully encrypted. With coordinates."
Julia looked dismayed. "Then it's my fault," she said. "I asked him what he had in his files on gasparanium." She looked thoughtful. "He was kind of odd when I asked, now that I think about it. God, I'm an idiot."
Valerie shook her head. "He wouldn't have been able to broadcast far enough to get to the Council agents, not without the encryption chip so he could use the gear." She groaned. "He must have gotten hold of the one from the agent somehow," she said. "Melanie and I didn't get rid of it soon enough, damn it." She shook herself. "Well, it doesn't matter now."
"So you think you can fix his programming?" Julia said.
Valerie nodded. "Yeah, I think so," she said. "But there's something else. They did download something into him. An override to his weapons-aversion coding, with a command to kill Devon and then anybody else around if he was exposed as the spy."
Julia looked hopeful.
"Yeah," Valerie grinned. "That little showdown we had out there wasn't caused by instability at all. I'm going to have to do some creative coding to cut it out, but I think I can do it. And then he should be fine."
"Wait," Melanie gasped, staggering along the riverbed behind Kate. "I…can't…"
"You have to," Kate said, breathing just as hard. But she turned and took Melanie's arm, holding her up and forcing her to keep moving.
"Kate, please," Melanie said. "I'm a little too…close to…passing out. Just give…give me a minute."
You need it as much as she does, Kate told herself. You won't do either of you any good if you collapse. "Okay," she said. "Just a minute." She helped Melanie over to the riverbank and found a relatively dry place to rest. They both nearly fell, but managed to end up sitting with their backs against the bank.
"How…far," Melanie said.
"Probably at least four klicks," Kate said. "But it's not far enough."
"I know," Melanie said. "Look, maybe…maybe you should try to make it—"
"Don't even think about it," Kate said. "Look, I owe Julia Heller more than you know. The least I can do is make sure I bring you back to her."
"What do you mean?" Melanie said. "You said before she saved your life. How?"
"By keeping Riley off balance long enough for us to come up with an escape plan," Kate said. "The only reason he was keeping Councilwoman Heller alive was to use her against her daughter. And as long as he thought Dr. Heller was playing along, he had to stick to that plan. If she had screwed up, or if she'd openly defied him, he would've killed her mother in a heartbeat."
"Okay," Melanie said. "I can see how important that was for Julia's mother, but why for you?"
"Because there was no way I was going to let anybody hurt Miriam Heller without going through me first," Kate said fiercely.
"Why?"
Kate smiled in the dim moonlight. "There are four other ships coming here, Melanie. Each with over four hundred people. Every single person that Dr. Heller had to tell they couldn't come with the Eden Project is on one of those ships. Including my sister Jeannie, her husband, Ian, and her very sick little boy, Sean. Councilwoman Heller made that happen. G-889 is going to be our world, but only if we can stop the Council from screwing it up for all of us."
"Four…" Melanie breathed. "How soon?"
"They left right after your colony ship," Kate said. "So we have just over a year to take down the Council camp and keep them from trying to destroy all of those ships when they come into orbit." Kate stood up. "Come on, we have to keep moving."
Melanie groaned.
"Look, Melanie, I know you're tired. So am I. But this is bigger than you or me. I made a promise to Miriam Heller that I would find her daughter and protect her. I intend to keep that promise, and I am going to make certain I keep you alive in the process."
Melanie sighed. "Okay. But we're in this together, all right? Because I think pretty highly of Julia, too, and I know too well that she needs all the people looking after her she can get."
"It's a d—" Kate stopped as she heard a sound from somewhere back along the river. No, damn it! Not again! She grabbed Melanie and shoved her hard into the hollow, though she knew it wouldn't be enough to hide them.
A Terrier trotted up the river into view, and Kate stood up to face it. "I'm not going back," she said. "Do you understand me? I am not going to let you stop me. So you'd better be ready for a fight!"
As stressful and chaotic as the last few days had been, the quiet of the camp was even worse. Devon thought she would go crazy with nothing to do but wait.
"How are you doing, Devon?" Alonzo said, coming up next to the Transrover where she was sitting with her back against one wheel.
Devon shrugged. "I've never been particularly good at waiting," she said, hugging her arms against her to stay warm. She'd decided to wait outside to be closer to Dome Two when they finished. And the cold seemed like a tiny bit of penance for what she was putting Julia and Valerie through.
"Me neither," Alonzo said, looking over at Dome Two. "Look, I was just over with the others, and somebody said something about a bomb, but they all clammed up when they saw me."
Devon took a deep breath.
"What is it?" Alonzo said sharply. "There's really a bomb? Where?"
"We don't know for sure," Devon said. "But it's possible."
"Is that why everybody's back in the other dome?" Alonzo said, gesturing wildly. "It's in Biko, isn't it? And you've got everybody as far from Dome Two as they can get because you think he's gonna blow up!"
"Alonzo, please," Devon said, almost in tears again. "Don't—"
Alonzo's face fell. "I'm sorry, Devon. I didn't mean to—but…god, this whole situation is a nightmare! We could lose all of them!"
"They're trying to keep it from happening, Alonzo," Devon said. "They're trying to save him. For me. And for you."
"I can't just stay out here and let them do this alone," Alonzo said.
"Alonzo, you know better than to go in there," Devon said. "You and Julia are only just starting to work things out. You go in there now, and you'll screw that all up."
"But, Devon—!"
"Alonzo, what do you think she'll think if you barge in there? What message are you sending her?"
Alonzo frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You know she has confidence issues," Devon said, knowing it was a massive understatement. "You go in there, and you'll be practically shouting at her that you don't trust her."
Alonzo put his hands on his head and paced back and forth in front of her, then finally threw a punch into the side of the Transrover.
"Feel better?" Devon said.
"No," he growled. "And now my hand hurts." He sighed. "What good does it do me to demonstrate I trust her if she gets blown up in the process?"
"Alonzo, they're going to be fine," Devon said insistently. "Julia promised."
Alonzo studied her expression for a moment, then put his hand on her shoulder. "Well, then, it's going to be okay." Damn it, Julia, you'd better keep that promise, he added silently.
Two hours after Valerie started, the tension of watching the scanner had brought Julia to the breaking point. Her painblock had worn off long ago, along with the coldpacks, and her arm was pulsing with pain. It also seemed to be getting worse, but she didn't want to take her eyes off the scanner long enough to grab another painblock or scan herself. Besides, there's really nothing I can do about it right now, she thought.
Valerie was tapping wildly at her tablet, and had been almost nonstop the whole time. Yale had woken up again an hour earlier, and had almost managed to get one arm free before Julia was able to subdue him again.
I hate to think what successive doses of intocostrin are doing to his liver, she thought. And I really hope that we all live long enough for long-term liver damage to be something worth worrying about.
"Okay," Valerie said, and Julia jumped, startled. "Sorry," Valerie said, smiling at her. "I think I have a fix. I hope. There's a ton of code in here, and I can't be sure I found everything. We're going to have to be careful with him, even if this does work."
"So what's going to happen?"
"I have no idea," Valerie said. "There's no way to test this code, because I don't know how all of his systems interconnect. I just don't have time to figure all that out. So this is a big risk, for him and for us. Once I set this uploading, I'll keep an eye on the scanner, and you'll need to watch his vitals."
Julia nodded, relieved to finally have something productive to do.
Valerie reached across, grabbed the scanner, and then tapped something on the tablet.
Julia set the diaglove on constant update, and immediately saw a spike in brain activity. "Something's happening," she said. There were strange electrical readings all over Yale's body, and Julia felt a knot of fear in her stomach.
"Yeah, I know," Valerie said, glancing back and forth from the scanner to her tablet. "Almost there. And so far, nothing looks like it's happening with the—"
Yale convulsed violently, snapping several of the biocord strands tying him to the table. One broke so violently the end flew up and struck the side of Valerie's cheek. She jerked back, wincing, and put one hand up, but never took her eyes off the scanner.
Julia watched to make sure Yale wasn't able to free himself, then looked back at the diaglove. The brain activity was similar to that of an epileptic in a tonic-clonic seizure in the clonic phase. His muscles were jerking wildly. Julia reached up and turned Yale's head to the side to prevent him from choking, but she didn't dare risk removing the biocord, even though she knew there was risk of injury from the restraints.
All at once he stopped moving, and the diaglove started the whining alarm for V-fib. Julia set the diaglove to defibrillate. "Clear!" she said.
"Wait!" Valerie said. "You could set off the explosives!"
"If that's even what they are," Julia said. "Besides, even the Council would be smart enough to take into account the possibility of defibrillation."
Valerie looked uncertain.
"Look, just go. There's no sense in us both risking our lives at this point," Julia said, the whine of the diaglove grating at her, demanding that she do something immediately. "Call me when you're a safe distance. Go!"
"No," Valerie said.
"Valerie—"
"I've been through that kind of hell once," she cut in, smiling sadly at Julia. "I am not doing it again."
Julia looked at her for a long moment, then sighed and nodded. She put the diaglove on Yale's chest and set off the charge.
A/N: For those of you mad at me for yanking your chain at the beginning of this chapter with the Kate/Mel bait-and-switch, it could be worse. Originally, I intended to kill Melanie. Yeah, stupid, I know. Like she'd let me...