Earth 2.1.2

Chapter 13

A/N: So here it is, the final chapter of this season. I hope this lives up to your expectations. Thanks again for the long haul. And plz review, otherwise I'll be sitting here hitting refresh for the next fourteen hours for *nothing.*

Devon paced back and forth by the Transrover, her hands jammed in her jacket pockets. "God, I hate this," she said.

"Me, too," Alonzo said, still rubbing absently at the hand he'd banged into the Transrover door. He was tempted to check his gear chronometer again, but he knew it had only been a few minutes since he'd last looked. It feels like longer, though, he thought.

There was the bang of a metal door opening, and it echoed down the box canyon. Devon looked up alertly, and Valerie came around the curve of the dome. Devon started toward her, and broke into a run when Valerie smiled tiredly.

"He's okay?" Devon said, running up to her and grabbing her by both arms.

"He's still alive, and I got my code uploaded," Valerie said, holding her hands up. "He is not out of the woods yet, Devon. Julia is still has a lot of concerns, and we still don't know whether I caught all the nasty stuff in his code."

Alonzo had already started past them, and Devon followed him, with Valerie coming behind her. They ran into Dome Two, and found Julia scanning Yale. Her face was drawn, and Alonzo looked at her closely, concerned. Her hand in the sling looked frighteningly puffy.

"How is he?" Devon said.

Julia looked up and smiled faintly. "He's better than I expected, actually. He went into convulsions, and then his heart stopped. But I was able to get him back. I just don't know how much damage the implants might have done."

"The implants…?" Devon said.

"There was a failsafe in his programming, like Morgan warned us about, and I couldn't come up with a workaround fast enough, so I went ahead and uploaded my fixes anyway," Valerie said. "When I did, it recognized my code as foreign and triggered a massive electrical surge. That's what sent him into convulsions."

Julia nodded. "Devon, you need to be prepared. It's possible there might be brain damage from this. The cybernetic implants are integrated into the brain extensively, and when the surge happened, it could have done permanent damage."

"When will we know?" Devon said, her heart sinking.

Julia shook her head. "He's been through a lot, Devon. He could be unconscious for days, or wake up in hours. I just don't know enough about the cybernetic systems to be sure."

Devon leaned over Yale, putting her hand to his head. Please, she thought fervently, you have to come through this. I can't do this without you.

"How's the arm?" Alonzo said to Julia.

Julia shrugged. "Still broken," she said tersely.

Alonzo started to say something, then caught Devon's look and stopped. "So what do we do now?" he said instead.

Julia sighed. "I need to keep an eye on him. There's still a lot of electrical activity going on, and I'm worried he might convulse again."

Valerie nodded. "The code is still compiling, and it could take hours. Do you want me to take over? You could use some rest."

Julia shook her head. "This is complicated," she said. "Even a slight change could cause a lot of problems." She glanced up. "Thanks, though. Did you tell them what else you found?"

Valerie turned to Devon. "We may have a problem—Yale sent out another burst transmission when he realized what we were doing." She held up an encryption chip. "This was in one of those compartments Danziger found on the scan."

Devon went white. "You think they'll come after us again," she said.

Valerie looked uncertain. "It's a possibility," she said. "One we'd better be ready for."

Devon nodded. "You'll keep me informed?" she said to Julia, who nodded without looking away from her scan.

Devon sighed, and turned and started for the door, and as she did, Valerie touched Alonzo's arm. "Don't worry," she said under her breath. "I'll make sure Julia takes care of the arm."

Kate tensed, ready to launch herself at the Terrier, but for some reason she hesitated. And the Terrier didn't fire. "Melanie," she said under her breath. "Run."

"No," Melanie said.

The Terrier stared at Kate, then glanced over her shoulder at Melanie.

"Damn it, Melanie, run!" Kate growled.

"Even if I could, Kate, I wouldn't," Melanie said tiredly.

Then something amazing happened. The Terrier very slowly lowered its weapon, held its hands out with the palms up and the claw tucked in.

"Ohhhh," Melanie breathed behind Kate. "Finally, something went right!"

Kate frowned. "What's going on?"

"These are the good guys," Melanie said, struggling to her feet and coming up next to Kate. She held her hands out, mirroring the Terrier gesture. "Relax, Kate. It's okay."

"There are good guys?" Kate said, hesitating, but Melanie stepped in front of her, smiling warmly at the Terrier.

"Is that you, Jupiter?" she said, wondering if this could possibly be Alonzo's friend.

The Terrier tilted its antennae-horns forward, then reached into its pack and brought out the little case Julia had given the Terriers all those weeks ago.

"Oh, am I glad to see you!" she said fervently, taking it from him. "Listen, if you can help us get home, I'll make sure we fill this again, and then some."

The Terrier gestured to the north with one hand.

"Yes," Melanie said, nodding. "We need to go north."

But the Terrier gestured north again, this time with both hands, and there was no mistaking the urgency in the gesture.

Melanie sighed. "I guess we have to get going," she said.

The Terrier's antennae-horns perked up, and it half-turned back to the south, looking alertly back down the river. Then it turned and grabbed Melanie. She yelped, and Kate tensed to attack, but the Terrier nearly threw Melanie onto its back before she had a chance to do anything. Melanie grabbed wildly at its neck to keep from toppling off the other side, then steadied herself, straddling its back.

Kate reared back as the Terrier reached for her, but it was faster, and the next thing she knew, she was sitting on its back behind Melanie. It was wearing a pack across its shoulders, behind where the forelegs were, but there was nothing on its back, and it was broad enough across the back to make it precarious to keep her balance.

The Terrier turned to look at them, remarkably flexible, reached back to steady them, then turned and started galloping up the stream. Kate wobbled, then grabbed onto Melanie with both hands to hold herself in place.

"Well," Melanie said, holding tightly to the Terrier's neck with both hands, careful to avoid its mouth, "this is way better than running." The fur on its neck was remarkably soft, and the warmth of its body felt wonderful, in spite of the biting cold of the wind on her face.

Yeah, definitely better than running, Kate thought worriedly, holding onto Melanie awkwardly. But what is it running from? And how fast can it run carrying both of us?

When Devon told Danziger about the possibility of another attack, he had sprung into action. All the work Rick and the others had put into the defenses had been impressive, but Danziger took it to a new level with Todd's surprising help. He added some interesting touches, like digging an extended trench along the line of the river to slow down an assault. With the drilling equipment from the Transrover, it went faster than Devon had thought possible.

The general anxiety from the possibility of another attack by the Terriers or the Council had them all on edge. Everyone seemed to be jumping at the slightest sound, and Devon was a little worried about the people carrying weapons.

She and Danziger decided that they also needed to have advance warning of an attack, so they decided to post sentries about a kilometer past the river, one a few kilometers south, the other to the north, to keep an eye out for either the Terriers or the Council or both. Alonzo volunteered immediately, and Devon knew it was mainly to keep himself from hovering over Julia. He's learning, she thought.

"I'll go with him," Rick said, coming up behind them.

"No way," Devon said. "You're still on the mend."

"So are you," Rick said. "But that doesn't seem to be slowing you down any. Don't worry. We'll be sitting around doing nothing for a long time. It'll be a lot less work than hanging around here with you."

Devon frowned, worried.

"Please, Devon," Rick said. "I couldn't help Melanie. Let me do this."

Devon finally nodded. "But be careful, both of you. We've been through enough already."

Alonzo smiled. "Exactly," he said. "Our luck has to change sometime. I think this is it."

Julia watched over Yale and Rob in the Dome Two. She'd had them move Rob in, since he'd improved enough for it to be safer to move him than it was to move Yale. There'd been little change in Yale's readings, which meant she still didn't feel safe taking her eyes off the scan.

Not even to protest when people kept coming in and out of the dome. The cold wasn't so bad—it was actually a little stuffy inside the dome—but Bill had set up the pelt of the bigfoot just outside, so it could continue doing whatever it was supposed to be doing in the tanning process. So every time someone came in, she caught a whiff of the musky smell that still lingered in the fur and had a horrible flashback to those moments when she was trapped beneath it. I think I'll suggest they give the coat to Devon, she thought.

Two hours later, Yale still hadn't shown any sign that he would wake up, which worried Julia, despite her reassurances to Devon. Between the multiple doses of sedative and intocostrin, the massive seizure, and the amount of time he'd been in V-fib, his body had been through a lot. The longer he stayed unconscious, the more concerned she was about the possibility of brain damage.

But even more worrisome was how he would be if he woke up. They still had him tied down tightly, and Julia was prepared to sedate him again, but she really hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Hey, Julia," Rob said quietly. "What's with Yale?"

Julia turned, surprised to see him awake. He'd slept through nearly everything in the past four days, only waking up a couple of times, and then only briefly. "It's a long story," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"How do I look?" he said weakly, smiling faintly. "Still nothing from Melanie?"

Julia shook her head, staring intently at Yale's scan, trying to use that to keep her worry at bay.

"Don't worry," Rob said. "Knowing her, she'll show up any minute with a crazy story about alien abduction. And I guarantee, there'll be something about being probed." He grinned, then blinked tiredly.

Julia laughed a little at that. "Thanks, Rob."

"No problem," he said, then frowned. "What happened to your arm?" he added, but he was already fading.

"Don't worry about it," Julia said, patting his hand. "Just rest. You'll hear all about it when you wake up again."

"Hey," Valerie said coming in, bringing another dose of bigfoot smell with her. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," Julia said quietly, trying not to disturb Rob. "Rob was awake for a little bit. But Yale's still unresponsive."

"That's not what I meant," Valerie said. "You still haven't done much about your arm."

Julia shrugged. "There's not much to do. The boneheal should take care of it soon."

Valerie looked skeptical. "There is one thing to do." She brandished a hypospray. "There's no reason for you to sit around in here without painblock."

Julia smiled. "All right," she said. The arm had been hurting badly, and she knew Valerie was right. Pain can impede healing, she reminded herself. And so can lack of sleep.

"And you should get some sleep," Valerie said, seeming to read her mind as she injected the painblock. "Show me how, and I'll keep an eye on Yale and Rob for now."

Julia studied the scan again for a moment, and was pleased to see the electrical activity had subsided slightly. "Okay," she said finally. She showed Valerie what to do, then dragged a cot over and lay down on it. "Wake me if anything changes," she said.

Valerie nodded, and Julia settled in, letting her eyes close as they'd wanted to for the last two hours. But before she fell asleep, she sent out a silent call. Hurry up, Melanie, she thought, putting as much urgency into the thought as she could, hoping one of their Terrier friends might be able to relay it the way they had relayed her feelings to Alonzo. If Rob's right, and you are on your way back, please hurry. We need you. I need you.

"Dang, this guy's in a hurry," Melanie said after they'd been running at what seemed to be a breakneck pace for several hours. "I wonder how long he can keep this up?"

I hope long enough to stay ahead of whatever he's running from, Kate thought. "He seems pretty strong," she said out loud. "And you're not exactly a heavy load."

"Ha, very ha," Melanie said. "I'm less worried about our weight than I am about what he's running from."

Never underestimate people, Kate reminded herself. Lesson number one in CSF training. They're always smarter than you think.

"How far do you think we are from Eden Advance?" Kate asked, hoping to distract Melanie from that line of thought.

"I haven't the foggiest idea," Melanie said. "It could be ten minutes or ten days. I was out cold when they took me to wherever that camp was."

"What happened?"

Melanie shrugged. "The Terriers attacked our winter camp. They hit one of our people with an arrow, then pulled back. I was working on her when they hit us again, and one of them broke into the med tent." She went silent for a while. "My…friend, Rob, tried to stop it. I don't know what happened to him."

The Terrier carrying them turned and looked back at her, then reached around with one of its hands and touched her head gently, the claw carefully held away.

"Thanks," Melanie said, giving it a watery smile. "See, good guys. I told you."

"Wait," Kate said. "You were treating the injury? Where was Dr. Heller?"

"We had people out hunting because our food stores were pretty low. One of them got hurt, and Julia went out to help. And a good thing, too. I hate to—" Melanie stopped cold. "You don't think they were after Julia, do you?"

Kate smiled inwardly. You are a sharp one, Melanie Wilson. Even with a head injury. "It's possible."

"I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner! Oh, she's probably going crazy with guilt," Melanie moaned. "Just when she was starting to get over the whole lying to us thing, and now this! I swear to God, if I can figure out how to destroy the Council with radio waves, they are dead, dead, dead!"

"Not if I take them out first," Kate said. "Don't worry—one way or another, the Council is done. They just don't know it yet."

Just then, the Terrier slowed to a trot, and then to a walk. It came to a stop as they approached a small river, and Melanie noticed its antennae-horns were tipping forward violently.

"What's going on?" Kate said.

"I don't know," Melanie said, sounding worried. "I knew I should have given myself methohex."

"So that really is how it works?" Kate said. "It allows communication with the Terriers?"

"Oh, yeah," Melanie said. "Just ask Julia—she's the one—"

Melanie stopped as a rumbling sound became audible, and grew in intensity fast.

"Oh, wonderful," Kate said as an enormous number of Terriers came into view at the top of a hill on the other side of the river. "Here we go again."

"Anything from Alonzo and Rick?" Devon said, coming out to the far end of the right flank of the camp where Danziger was standing watch.

"Nothing yet," he said. "Maybe they've decided to leave us alone."

"Maybe," Devon said uneasily. "How about Artie?"

Danziger shook his head. "Nothing but Morgan complaining about the cold."

Devon chuckled. "What a shock."

"Hey, thanks for sending Artie out there," Danziger said. "Best thing for him right now."

Devon nodded sadly. "Well, let's—"

"Danziger!" Alonzo's voice came over the gear. "We've got company!"

"Well, crap," Danziger muttered. "How close and how many?"

"Too close and too many," Alonzo said.

"I can't tell how many there are," Rick said. "At least a couple dozen, probably more. And get this—there's a Council rail in with 'em. They're maybe a couple klicks away from us now, which puts them about three from you. And they're moving fast.."

"And you're sure they're not our friends?" Devon said.

"I'm getting nothing from most of them but a few of them are just giving me lots of mad," Alonzo said. "Even if they weren't hanging with the wrong crowd, I'd say these aren't our furry buddies."

Devon exchanged a look with Danziger. "Well, now we know," Devon said.

"You two get back here pronto," Danziger said, then hit the gear. "Artie, Morgan, get back here."

"They're coming again?" Artie said.

"Yeah," Danziger said grimly. "They're coming."

"You heard the man," Alonzo said, clambering into the driver's seat of the rail. "I'm not planning a Song of Roland thing here, so let's get moving."

"Song of Roland?" Rick said, jumping in next to him.

"Kinda like King Arthur for the French. Heroic rearguard, ends with everybody dead," Alonzo said, throwing the rail into reverse and peeling out.

"Yeah, let's not do that," Rick said, looking back over his shoulder as they turned north and wincing as the motion pulled at his still-healing side. He could still see the cloud of dust the Terriers were raising billowing up over the hill as they sped down it. "How fast do you think those things can run?"

"Well, unless they're willing to outrun their Council friend, I'm betting we can keep ahead of them in this," Alonzo said, flooring the rail.

They bounced along wildly, and Rick wished he'd insisted he drive. "So we're, what, ten minutes out?" he said, wincing again.

"Less if we're lucky," Alonzo said. "And I plan to be lucky today."

"Valerie," Devon said over the gear. "I want you to cut Yale free."

"What?" Valerie said. "Devon, I don't know—"

"He's fine, Valerie, I know it," Devon insisted. "And if things go badly, I don't want him defenseless."

"We're in here with him," Julia cut in, though she sounded a little groggy. "I promise, Devon, if it gets to that point, we'll let him loose."

Devon sighed. "Okay," she said. "Listen, Valerie, I want you to have a mag-pro. You set up in the entrance to the dome. If anything gets that far, you're just about our last line of defense for everybody in Dome One."

"Where will you be?" Julia said sharply.

"Keeping you safe, I hope," Devon said.

"With what?" Valerie said incredulously. "Harsh language?"

"I have a gun," Devon said with dignity.

"You do realize that for a gun to be effective, you may actually have to pull the trigger, right?" Valerie said. "While pointing at something trying to kill you?"

"Not another word, Valerie," Devon said. "I know how to use it. And I will not lose another person, not if I can do anything to stop it."

Valerie glanced over at Julia, who shrugged. "Sorry, Devon," Valerie said. "I was just kidding."

"I'm not," Devon said.

"Just be careful, okay?" Julia said.

"I will," Devon said, biting back the sarcastic reply she wanted to make. She was just grateful that Julia was concerned about her. She checked her handgun for the sixth time, making sure the safety was on, tucked it into her waistband, and walked up to the boulder where Danziger was coordinating their defenses.

"Okay, each team will have one mag-pro and one handgun. Helen, I want you and Bill on the far end of the right side. Hardy and I will take the left end. Make sure your field of fire doesn't go farther to the left than the front of this boulder. If anybody gets past that point, let the next teams take them." Danziger said. Helen nodded, and she and Bill trotted off across the clearing.

Danziger turned to Artie. "How's the knee?" he asked.

"I can manage," he said, even though he was still limping heavily.

Danziger looked as skeptical as Devon felt, but he nodded. "Okay. I want you and Sergei just inside of Helen and Bill, maybe five meters. Nick, you and Andy are about the same on this side, inside of me and Hardy. Both of you scope out your field of fire. I don't want any friendly fire casualties, okay? That leaves Valerie in Dome Two with the last mag-pro, and I want Tosh and Todd with handguns in Dome One. If we have to, we fall back to Dome Two and make our stand there to keep them from getting to Dome One."

Danziger turned back to look at the river and then noticed Devon was there. "I want you back with Valerie with the other handgun," he said.

She shook her head. "Hardy, that'll be your job," she said. Hardy looked nervously over at Danziger.

"Devon—" Danziger began.

"Hardy, just head back there, okay?" Devon said, counting on his over-developed sense of self-preservation to keep him from forcing her hand.

He hesitated, glancing uneasily at Danziger, then nodded. "I won't let anything past me," he said, and turned and trotted off towards the Transrover.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Danziger said. "I want you back with the rest of them. We've got this."

"I'm not going anywhere," Devon said.

"You can't do anything up here except provide another target," Danziger said gruffly.

Devon pulled the handgun out of her waistband and cocked it.

Danziger raised his eyebrows. "Seriously?" he said.

"Think of it this way," Devon said. "Do you really want me to be the last line of defense for Tru?"

He didn't look convinced. "What if I still say no?"

"I'll go hang out with Helen and send Bill over to back you up. I actually pay their salaries directly," Devon said.

Danziger sighed. "You're really trying to kill me, aren't you?"

"Come on, John," Devon said grimly. "I have a reputation as a badass to finally live up to."

"Valerie?" Yale said.

Julia jolted awake. She swung her legs off the cot and stood, wincing at the sharp pain in her arm.

"What is going on?" Yale continued. "Where is Devon?"

"It's okay, Yale," Valerie said, surreptitiously pulling the handgun from her waistband as she handed Julia the diaglove.

"What did I do?" Yale said, and he looked so frightened, Julia had to resist the urge to pat him on the arm. "I don't remember—"

"You didn't do anything," Julia said reassuringly. "Your programming was making you send reports to the Council, but we figured out how to override it."

"Reports?" Yale said, and looked even more frightened. "Then…that's how they found us. And what happened to Phoebe and Paul…" He trailed off, blinking back tears. "What have I done?"

"Yale, it isn't your fault," Valerie said emphatically. "It's the Council that made you do it, and it's the Council that got the Terriers to attack us. Not you. And you don't need to worry about what happened with the gun, either."

Yale's eyes went wide. "I used a gun?"

"No one was hurt, Yale," Julia said insistently. "And there was a specific command overriding your weapons aversion."

"What if I try something else?" Yale said. "That's why you have me bound, isn't it?"

"Yes," Valerie said, "but only till I can confirm I caught everything. Yale, I'm not worried. You were able to keep from shooting Devon in spite of a command that overrode all other programming. If you can do that, you can handle anything."

"It's just a precaution," Julia added. "We'll be able to let you go soon, I—"

"NO!" Yale shouted, then tried to regain control. "No, Julia, you must not! It is not safe! I could not live with myself if someone else were harmed because of me. Please!"

Julia gave in to her impulse and put her hand on his shoulder, but it only seemed to add to his agitation, so she took it away. "Okay, Yale, we won't, not until we're absolutely certain. Just try to relax. You've been through a lot the last twenty-four hours, and I want to be sure your body doesn't have any further stresses."

"There is no way to be certain," Yale insisted.

"Yes, there is," Valerie said, and she waved her tablet at him. "I've downloaded all of your coding here. I'm pretty confident the patch I put in is going to override anything bad you might do. But give me enough time, and I'll be able to make sure there aren't any nasty surprises hidden in the code." She grinned. "Trust me, Yale, I know what I'm doing."

Yale took a deep breath, then nodded. He glanced back up at Julia. "Has there been any further news of Melanie?"

Julia shook her head reluctantly. "But she'll find her way back," she said, as much for herself as for Yale. "And Alonzo says Jupiter is out looking for her."

Yale looked pained. "Please forgive me, Julia. I never meant for any of this to happen. If I could take it back—"

Julia smiled at him. "Don't forget who you're talking to, Yale. I understand exactly how you feel. And we'll get past this." One way or another, she added silently.

Alonzo slowed the rail as they crested a hill, bouncing along the steep incline. The hill formed a backwards J, with the long end arcing back towards the mountains with a series of jagged rocks jutting out from the top of it like a backbone.

Alonzo pulled the rail in just on the other side of the hill in the curve of the J, a few hundred meters away from the small river that also followed the line of the J. The camp was about a half a kilometer farther to the north, just on the other side of the river. Thick forest covered the outside curve of the J from the foothills almost out to where they were.

"What are you thinking?" Rick said.

"I'm thinking if we take a few shots at the Terriers from here, we might make them think twice about just barreling on through," Alonzo said. "And we might be able to pick off a few. Once they start to get close, we'll bug out. It might just make them mad enough they won't stop to think through their options."

Rick looked around them. They'd be well-hidden if they stayed close to the rocks, and there was a nice, gentle slope behind, so they'd be able to make good time. Even crossing the river twice shouldn't be too dangerous, he thought, looking at the low bank just down the hill from them. "Good idea," he said. "Hey, Danziger!" he called, tapping his gear. "Alonzo and I are going to take a few shots at them from up here. Can you see us?" He waved.

"Yeah," Danziger said after a moment, though he sounded annoyed. "If you think you can make it back here safe, I'm okay with that. But don't take any chances."

"You got it, boss," Rick said.

"Don't call me that," Danziger said acidly. "I'm just a peon around here."

Alonzo had set up a position overlooking the slope they'd just come up. He glanced at Rick. "Why don't you stay in the rail?" he said. "That'll make for a quicker getaway when the time comes."

"I'm fine, Alonzo. I'll get back in once they get closer," Rick said, pulling out the monoculars and climbing out of the rail to join Alonzo. "I don't want them splitting up and cutting us off."

He could just see the Terriers crossing the crest of another hill they'd come over about five minutes earlier. "There they are," he said to Alonzo. "Remember, the effective range on the mag-pro is about twelve hundred meters, but I'd probably let them get closer than that. I think they're gonna be tough to take down. I'd say aim for one of them in the middle of the pack, so if you overshoot or undershoot you'll still hit something."

"Got it," Alonzo said, looking through the sight on the mag-pro. The range finder showed them about 2000 meters away. He pushed aside the twinge of guilt he felt at targeting a Terrier. These guys killed Paul and Phoebe, he told himself. They deserve whatever they get.

Rick kept his eyes on the Terriers, his heart rate increasing the closer they got. "How are things back there, Danziger?" he said.

"We're ready," Danziger said. "We'll be able to see you coming, so just come on in. When you get here, cross the river as close to the north end as possible. That's where we left a way across the trench Todd had us dig. Pull on through and head back to Dome Two."

"Roger that," Rick said. "We're looking at another—" He cut off abruptly as a frighteningly familiar musky scent set off every warning bell in his head. "Oh, crap," he breathed, looking around wildly.

"What the hell?" Alonzo said.

"Bigfoot," Rick whispered. "Be quiet!" He caught sight of it right then, just below them in the trees. But as he saw it, the wind shifted, and the bigfoot looked up, nosing the air, and then looked right at him. "Shit!" He grabbed Alonzo's shoulder and yanked him hard back toward the rail. "Run!"

He sprinted for the rail, hoping the creature was far enough back for them to make it. Alonzo was right behind him, so he launched himself across the driver's seat and landed in a heap in the passenger seat, his injured side spiking pain. He heard the bigfoot roar as Alonzo floored the rail, and the bigfoot landed sprawling on the spot they'd just been.

"Drive!" he shouted at Alonzo.

"What does it look like I'm doing?!" Alonzo shouted back, forcing himself to keep his eyes on where they were going. The rail bounced wildly, and the speedometer crept towards thirty. "How fast can that thing run?"

"I think we're gonna find out!" Rick said, grabbing the mag-pro from where Alonzo had thrown it in the back seat of the rail. He looked back, and the bigfoot was galloping after them. He breathed a sigh of relief when it actually seemed to be losing ground. "We're good," he said. "Keep it going like this, and we'll lose it."

"Wait a minute," Alonzo said, and the rail started to slow.

"What the hell!? Alonzo, floor it!" Rick said, his voice rising.

"Is it still chasing us?"

"YES!" Rick shouted as it started to gain on them.

Alonzo sped up slightly. "Is it keeping up?"

"Yes! What are you doing?" Rick yelped.

Alonzo tapped his gear. "Danziger!" he said.

"You guys okay?" Danziger said. "Holy—is that a bigfoot?"

"Yeah," Alonzo said. "I have an idea. Listen, you let me know when you see the Terriers come over that hill, okay?"

"Are you crazy?" Danziger said after a beat. "Are you seriously going to try to bring that thing down on them?"

"Why not?" Alonzo said. "I figure this planet owes us one. I'm gonna loop around here in a few minutes and bring it back. I'll try to time it for when they hit the river, okay?"

"You are certifiable," Danziger said. "But if this insane plan works…" He trailed off. "Oh, hell, I'll think of something."

"Yale, how do you feel?" Julia asked Yale. "Any muscle pain? Bruising?"

"It is nothing," Yale said, though clearly he was uncomfortable.

Julia sighed, and turned to grab a pain reliever, but as she did, her bandaged arm brushed against one of the boxes of supplies, and she let out a yelp at the stabbing pain.

"You okay?" Valerie said, glancing over at her. "Do you need another dose of the painblock?"

It's too soon, Julia thought, frowning. It shouldn't hurt like this already. She ran the diaglove over her arm and swallowed hard as she read the results.

"What?" Valerie said. "What's wrong?"

"Valerie," Hardy called from the door, "here!" He tossed a handgun to her. "You don't let anything through, got it? We're the last line of defense for the kids and everybody else. I'll be up on top of the dome. C'mere and I'll show you the setup."

Valerie caught the handgun and nodded. She went to the door.

"Your field of fire runs from that boulder," Hardy said, pointing to the left side of the clearing, "to that tree." He pointed to the right side. "Don't go beyond those—we'll have people along the sides there. And Alonzo and Rick will be coming in on the left side, so don't go shooting them."

"Yeah, okay," Valerie said, and Hardy ran to take up his position atop the dome. Valerie turned back to Julia, who had taken off her diaglove and was punching commands into it with her good hand. "Talk to me Julia."

"I shouldn't have used the painblock," she muttered, sliding her arm out of the sling. She hissed in pain. "So stupid! It hid the symptoms. And I should have scanned it! I know better—"

"Julia, use your outside voice," Valerie said, glancing back out to see what was going on. She still couldn't see any Terriers, but she knew the way their luck ran, there was no way they'd hold off till after she could deal with Julia's crisis.

"Compartment syndrome," Julia said, glancing up at her. She was breathing hard, and her face was pale.

"Which is?"

"It sometimes happens with crushing injuries. The swelling of the tissue combined with hemorrhaging within the fascia can cause interruption of blood flow to the—"

"Outside voice in English, Julia," Valerie said. "Bottom line."

"I could lose the arm," Julia said.

"Lose the arm?" Valerie said incredulously. She looked at the arm and wished she hadn't. It was so swollen the skin looked almost shiny, and her hand was a disturbing grayish purple. "What do we do?"

"Okay, I…I'm going to need help with this," Julia said, and it was obvious that the painblock wasn't blocking much anymore. "I don't…think I can do this on myself."

"Do what?" Valerie said.

"Fasciotomy," Julia said faintly.

"What the hell is that?" Valerie said.

"Need to cut into my forearm, open the fascia to relieve the pressure."

"Cut into—?" Valerie said, blanching. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Valerie, we need to move fast," Julia said.

"Here they come!" Danziger yelled. "Everybody, heads up! Make your shots count!"

"Crap!" Valerie said, looking out the door. She raised the handgun as the Terriers galloped towards them, and the first few crossed the river and started trying to cross Todd's trench. One of them got enough of a running start to leap clear across it, though it was taken down almost immediately. But others began to follow. "It's going to have to wait, Julia."

"It can't!" Julia said, gritting her teeth.

"They're gonna be okay," Uly said to Toshiko as she piled another crate onto the barricade they were building just outside the entrance to Dome One. He was clearly trying to put on a brave front, and failing.

"Of course they are," Tru said gruffly. "You've seen my dad shoot, and Helen's up there, too. They'll take out half of the Terriers between 'em, no problem."

Bess smiled reassuringly. "She's right, Uly," she said, and then looked over Uly's shoulder to make eye contact with Morgan as well. He rolled his eyes, but had the good sense not to contradict her. "Remember, our people have a lot of experience with mag-pros, but the Terriers don't. We have an advantage there."

"And the defender always has an advantage," Toshiko said, her voice shaking slightly. "Any attacker going against an entrenched position is likely to take a lot of casualties."

Morgan looked over at her, incredulous. "Since when did you become a military expert?"

"Since I told her," Todd said pointedly, smiling at Toshiko.

"She's right," Bess said quickly. "There's really nothing to worry about. This'll all be over before you know it."

"I'm not worried," Uly said, glancing over at Tru, who had gotten down onto her stomach to look out underneath the Transrover.

"Are there any more handguns?" Tru said.

"No!" Toshiko and Bess said at the same time.

Tru rolled her eyes. "Uly and I both know how to handle them. And I'm a way better shot than Nick, and he's out there with one!"

"Tru, please," Toshiko said. "Your father asked me to make sure you were safe, and I don't want to let him down, okay?"

Tru sighed. "Fine. But next time, I'm going to make sure he lets me use a gun. He owes me."

I really hope I get to see him have that argument, Toshiko thought bleakly.

"Alonzo, they're almost here!" Danziger yelled over the gear. "You'd better not be dead!"

"Not dead," Alonzo said. "We're on our way back around. And it's still with us. I think we might just pull this off!"

You'd better, Danziger thought, watching the Terriers galloping towards them on the far side of the river. There are way too many of them for us to hold off for long.

He glanced over at Devon, and she smiled at him nervously.

"You just point at a Terrier and squeeze the trigger," he said. "Don't jerk it—you'll miss whatever you aim at that way. Remember, just a gentle squeeze." He looked back at the approaching Terriers. "See that little tree there by the river?" he said, pointing.

Devon nodded.

"I want you to aim right there. Chances are there'll be plenty of opportunities to hit something there, and it'll save you trying to aim so much."

"Okay," Devon said. "Thanks."

"Look," he said, "if this gets too hairy, we're gonna pull back to Dome Two, okay? So if I say run, you stay close to the bluff here so Nick and Andy don't hit you, and boogie on back there."

"And you'll be where exactly?" Devon said suspiciously.

"I'll be right behind you, unless you're too slow," he said, grinning sidelong at her, then aiming his mag-pro at the first Terrier crossing the river.

"You keep an eye on it, Rick," Alonzo said, finishing his long turn. He'd had to be careful making it so the bigfoot didn't cut the corner on him. "Is it still with us?"

"It is," Rick said, watching the thing galloping after them. It roared furiously, and it actually seemed to be speeding up. "How close are we?"

Alonzo could see the Terriers now, crossing over the grasslands in front of the river. "Another half a klick, I think."

Rick glanced forward. "How are you going to play this?"

"I'm gonna bring this thing in on their backsides," Alonzo said. "And then hopefully we can just run right back up that hill again and we can watch this thing have a little Terrier buffet."

"Yale, I think I need your help," Julia said.

Valerie glanced over at him, then at Julia. "Are you sure?" she said.

"Do we have any other options right now?" Julia said. She looked at Yale. "I'm going to cut you loose, okay? I'll explain what I need you to do."

"Julia—" Yale said, his eyes wide.

"There isn't time to argue!" Julia said, and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then dosed herself with the analgesic she'd been preparing for Yale. It barely touched the pain she was feeling, but she didn't dare use a full painblock again.

"Do it, Julia," Valerie said. "They have—" She fired the gun. "—mag-pros, too. They're coming too fast. I have to—" She fired again, and then again, and then yelped and ducked down as a bullet spanged off the side of the door. "You might want to get away from the door!"

Julia wriggled her left arm back into the diaglove, ignoring the chaos exploding outside. "Laser cut," she said, leaned over and cut through the biocord holding Yale down.

He sat up gingerly, rubbing his shoulder and wincing. He looked over at Julia, and she could see the worry in his eyes. "What do I need to do?"

"Okay, here's how this is going to work. Marker," Julia said, and pointed the diaglove middle finger at her injured arm. "You're going to use the laser along this line," she said to Yale, raising her voice to be heard above the gunfire. She held her arm palm up, panting in pain, and traced a line along her forearm, studying the scan as she went, from the thumb side of the arm near the elbow, across the arm to the little finger side, then down the arm to the wrist, leaving a fine black mark along the path.

"Good heavens," Yale breathed.

"I know," Julia ground out. "It'll be pretty awful, but we have to do it. I've set the glove to the correct depth, and it'll indicate green when you're at the right angle. Follow the line, and you'll be fine."

She held out her arm and he helped her remove the diaglove, then put it on his own arm. "I'll try to stay conscious, but I can't guarantee anything. So when you get the incision done, you may need to massage the wound to get the coagulated blood to come out. It'll probably be black and thick. Just keep pushing," she demonstrated with her good hand, "until the blood runs red again. Once it does that, just let it flow."

"Seriously?" Valerie said from the door. "Better you—" She fired. "—than me, Yale. I'd throw up."

"Don't try to close the wound," Julia continued, ignoring her. "The whole point is to keep blood from pooling in the fascia and cutting off circulation to the rest of my arm. I shouldn't lose too much blood, and I can deal with it once it's over. Irrigate it with the disinfectant," she added, holding up a bottle, then setting it down. She picked up a small vial. "Then pour a little terricillin over it. And once it's done, just wrap the arm very loosely with a clean bandage. Understand?"

"Shouldn't you take a painblock?" Yale said.

Julia shook her head. She lay down on her side on the floor and extended her arm in front of her. "Pain is information," she said. "You'll have to be using the diaglove to do the incision, and we don't have another glove in here for me to monitor you, even if I could manage it. Believe me, if you do this right, it'll hurt less than it does right now." She grabbed a towel from the medkit, bunched it up in her good hand and gripped it tightly. "Put your knee on my hand to hold it still."

He hesitated. Valerie fired several times in succession, and she started cursing under her breath.

"Yale, please," Julia said. "It hurts…a lot. I need you to do this."

He nodded, knelt and braced his knee on her hand, then looked steadily at her for a moment. She smiled tightly. "Laser cut," he said breathlessly.

Danziger was firing rhythmically at the waves of Terriers scrambling across Todd's trench towards them. Devon aimed at the tree he'd pointed out and waited for one of them to come into her sights, but when the first one did, she froze.

Come on, you have to pull the trigger for it to work, you idiot, she told herself as the Terrier went down, felled by a shot from the opposite side of their lines. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.

"Relax, Adair," Danziger said, raising his voice to be heard over the hail of gunfire. "Just point and squeeze. You can do it."

I can do it, Devon told herself. I can do it.

Another Terrier galloped up the line of the river, making for the gap they'd left in the trench. It ran right past her aim, and she cursed. I can't do it, she thought. I'm a liability up here. I never should have sent Hardy back.

"There're too many of them!" Devon heard Nick shout from somewhere behind her.

"Stay cool!" Danziger said. "Just keep shooting, and let the folks behind pick up the ones you miss!"

"I'm missing all of them!" Nick yelped. "They're too fast!"

He was right. They were coming faster than she could have imagined, and there didn't seem to be an end to them. The trench was slowing them down, but not nearly enough. Uly, she thought, but she forced herself to look back at the tree. Suck it up, Adair. You want to keep Uly safe, you have to shoot them. So do it.

She braced herself to pull the trigger, but there was a sudden sound from her left, and she turned to see a Terrier coming around the side of the boulder behind them. It was aiming a mag-pro at Danziger's back.

Devon whirled, aimed and fired all in one motion, and the Terrier's head rocked back violently. It staggered, then fell to its side.

Danziger turned to look at it, then immediately turned back to keep firing. "Told ya you could do it," he said, grinning as he fired. "Nice shootin', Tex."

Devon let out the breath she'd been holding with a whoosh, then turned back to aim at the rest of the horde coming down on them. Well, at least I'm not going to go down without a fight, she thought, but even as she looked, the wave of Terriers seemed to falter.

"WOOOOOOO!" Alonzo yelled, racing the rail towards the last line of Terriers. The Council rail was bringing up the rear, and he aimed their rail straight for it.

"Alonzo!" Rick yelled. "I don't think you want to play chicken with this guy!"

The yellow rail sped towards the white one, and Alonzo could see the wide-eyed look the agent driving it was giving him just as he whipped the wheel to the left to swing the rail barely behind the Council vehicle, then whipped the wheel back to the right to bring it back so the bigfoot wouldn't veer off.

He didn't need to worry. The bigfoot slammed directly into the side of the Council rail. Alonzo whipped the wheel to the left again, narrowly avoiding being struck as the creature and the Council rail went flying, rolling over and over, crushing several Terriers as they rolled.

A group of Terriers turned as Alonzo sped behind them, and Rick fired wildly at them with the mag-pro. Alonzo turned the wheel again and sped towards the rocky hill where all this had begun.

"Jeeeeeeesus," Rick said, looking back over his shoulder. The creature had somehow made it back to its feet and was swiping wildly at several Terriers who had turned to shoot at it. The Terriers that had started to fire at them turned back to face the bigfoot, just in time for one of them to get knocked flying by an enormous paw. It crashed into three of the others, and all four went down hard.

Alonzo was laughing wildly. "Did you see that!?" he yelled jubilantly. "I couldn't have planned it better than that!" He slowed the rail as they started up the hill. "How does it look back—ohhh, hell."

Rick whirled back around to see what had prompted that, and his heart sank as another wave of Terriers crested the hill directly in front of them.

Alonzo slammed on the brakes. "We are so screwed," he breathed. He glanced over at Rick. "Sorry, man."

"ALONZO!"

Alonzo's head whipped back, and his eyes went wide as he realized who had called his name so joyfully.

"I don't believe it!" he said. "It's the goddamned cavalry!"

Valerie leaned weakly against the door of the dome, looking out at the carnage the bigfoot and their Terrier friends had wrought. The bigfoot was dragging something unrecognizable away from the mangled wreckage of the Council rail. As it limped away, though, she was fairly certain she saw a flash of white uniform in the mess. Serves them right, she thought.

She glanced back at Yale. He was brushing Julia's hair away from her face. The surgery had been hell. Julia had cursed creatively under her breath through the whole ordeal, and it had finally occurred to Valerie that she was saying almost exactly what Devon had when she'd been shot on the clifftop all those weeks ago, and it sounded even stranger coming from her than it had coming from Devon.

Once Yale had finished the incision, what had seemed to Valerie like a dangerous amount of black blood had oozed out of Julia's arm, though Julia had insisted that was supposed to happen. Her insistence had lost a little of its impact when she vomited immediately afterwards. Valerie felt queasy again just thinking about it, and carefully looked away from the mess of congealed blood and vomit on the floor of the dome. Julia had finally, thankfully, passed out when Yale irrigated the wound with the disinfectant.

"According to the diaglove, her arm will heal properly," Yale said, catching Valerie's look. "Compartment syndrome is the result of increased pressure within muscle compartments, and the diaglove is now showing that pressure to have been relieved. The fractured ulna is already well on its way to being repaired by the boneheal vaccine. The soft tissue will take longer, but it should heal soon."

"Good," Valerie said, and then looked at him. "Does that mean you're not having any trouble accessing your database?"

Yale looked nervous, but nodded. "All of my systems seem to be working properly, both the biological and the mechanical," he said. "It appears your coding was effective, and my failsafes weren't."

"Hooray for that," Valerie said. She sighed. "Thanks, Yale."

"Under the circumstances," Yale said gravely, "it was the very least I could do." He rested his hand on Julia's head gently.

Valerie smiled wryly. "Alonzo," she said after tapping her gear. "You okay?"

"I am way better than okay!" he said, and she could hear the grin. "I'm fantastic! I'm spectacular! I'm on top of the world!"

"Good," she said, wondering how long that would last once he got back. "Then get back to Dome Two. I need you."

"We're on our way," he said, "with one hell of a surprise for Julia."

"Yeah, well, she has one for you, too," Valerie muttered.

Alonzo rolled up the riverbank at the head of a delegation of Terriers, smiling broadly. "Look what the bigfoot dragged in!" he shouted.

It took Devon a moment to process what she was seeing. The first person out of the rail after Alonzo came from the back seat, and Devon didn't recognize her. But the second…

"Melanie?" she said in a small voice.

She smiled. "Hi, Devon," she said, and then she was mobbed by everyone at once.

"What'd I tell you?" Danziger said, putting his arm around Devon and squeezing her hard. "Beer is in our future, Dev."

"This is perfect!" Toshiko said, sprinting up from Dome One and flinging her arms around Melanie joyfully. "Do you know what day it is?"

Melanie finally managed to get everyone to back off for a moment, and she looked worried. "Where's Rob?"

"He's fine," Devon said quickly. "He was badly hurt, but Julia says he's going to make a full recovery."

"And Julia?"

"She's a little out of it right now," Valerie said, coming up. "Yale's looking after her."

"Out of it?" Alonzo said, frowning. "What happened?"

Melanie's face had gone white. "But Yale's—"

"The spy," Valerie said, holding up her hand reassuringly. "We know. We had a little adventure with that, but he's back on our side now."

"Who's your friend?" Danziger said, nodding at the tall blonde woman next to her, who was looking a little nervous.

"This is Kate," Melanie said. "But I don't want to tell you the whole story until Julia's here."

"Well, that could take a while," Valerie said, bracing herself for the explosion from both Alonzo and Melanie.

The first thing Julia was aware of was an almost overwhelming feeling of happiness, washing over her in wave after wave, with every imaginable variation and flavor, and she realized after a moment that she was feeling the emotions of everyone in the camp flowing and amplifying through dozens of Terriers. It was the most wonderful thing she'd ever felt.

Or it was until she heard a startlingly familiar voice, and felt monumental irritation mixed with worry to go along with it. "I swear to god, you get yourself into the most ridiculous situations! I can't leave you alone for ten minutes without you getting attacked by a giant fuzzball, falling off a cliff again, nearly freezing to death, getting your arm squished! It's like you're trying to make me crazy or something!"

"You?" Alonzo said. "What about me?"

Julia opened her eyes to find Melanie hovering over her with the diaglove on her arm, staring at the readout. The skylight of the dome above her was a miraculous wash of orange and pink, with rippling clouds lit by the fading sun. The light gave Melanie a coral halo, and Julia was certain she was dreaming until she looked over and saw Alonzo was next to her, and he looked furious. And then she saw the mess on the floor next to her, and remembered what had happened.

"Melanie?" Julia said faintly, and Melanie looked over at her. "Is this real?"

"It sure looks that way," Melanie said acidly. "I don't think anybody could imagine a wound this horrific that you would deliberately inflict on yourself."

"It is not her fault, Melanie," Yale said, sounding distressed. "Please do not hold my actions against her."

"I know that, Yale," Melanie said, her tone suddenly gentle, "and for what it's worth, it looks like you did a great job. God knows how. That must have been tough to do under the circumstances."

Yale shook his head. "The difficult part was knowing I caused it."

"You're here," Julia said, completely bewildered.

"Yes, Jules, I'm here," Melanie said patiently. "What? You thought I'd leave you here without me to keep you healthy?"

"Yes," Julia whispered, blinking hard at the tears that were threatening to spill out.

"Well, now you know better," Melanie said softly. "Do you think you can get up?"

"I don't know," Julia said uncertainly.

"Well, let's not find out the hard way. Hey, Kate! Get on in here!"

"Kate?" Julia said.

"This is Kate Tennyson," Melanie said as a lanky blonde came through the door of the dome, and Alonzo reluctantly had to leave Julia's side to make room for her among the piles of medical equipment. "She has something to tell you."

"Dr. Heller," Kate said, kneeling next to Melanie and nodding at Julia with a delighted expression on her face. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard a great deal about you."

"Whatever Melanie said—" Julia said hesitantly, frowning at the tattered Council uniform Kate wore.

"Actually, Melanie hasn't told me all that much about you," Kate said, smiling wryly. "We haven't had much time to talk. No, I've heard about you from your mother."

"My—" Julia stopped and shook her head. "What?"

"She said to tell you that when you make it to New Pacifica, she'll have habanero sauce and pretzels waiting for you, or the closest thing to that she can manage."

Melanie laughed.

"She's alive…?" Julia breathed.

"Very much so," Kate said. "Because of you."

"Happy birthday, Julia," Melanie said.