The Meadow - Green and Bright

Late autumn was setting in. The air was cool and crisp. The nights had become cold again, and they were traveling into the mountains - colder still. Devon rode out front in the DuneRail with Danziger. He leaned back to get a better view of the sharp peaks that sprouted on either side of them. "Now," he said, "Those are what I call mountains."

"I'm just glad that we have a way to get through them," Devon responded. The pass that they drove through was wide, and the incline, relatively kind. Although it was obvious that they were gaining elevation, you could hardly tell that you were crossing through a mountain range. She turned around to see the rest of the group, falling further behind. "You better slow down a bit, Danziger," she said, "We're loosing them."

Danziger was about to say something, but instead he drew the vehicle to a halt and climbed out. They were in an alpine meadow, green and bright with wildflowers. Devon joined him and looked out across the landscape. The meadow was filled with every imaginable color, even this late in the season. Flowers bloomed in deep blues and vivid purples, startling yellows and vibrant reds. Everywhere she looked, there was something fresh and beautiful. She could hear the gentle sound of a creek nearby, and the wind blew softly.

She watched as the rest of the group slowly approached them, the mighty TransRover out in front, with the ATV following at its flank. Around the vehicles, the group was walking slowly and determinedly up the mountain. She had to smile at the sight. Who would have imagined it? These people, most of whom had never set foot on a planet before G889, were climbing a mountain. If she had told them to climb this pass all those many months ago, she doubted if any would have followed her. Now, they came without comment and without complaint. It was just part of their day. Even Morgan, who always supplied a constant drone of protests and lamentations, had been relatively quiet.

"We'll camp here tonight," Devon said to Danziger.

He looked at her, puzzled. "Ah, it's kinda early Adair. We still have half a day ahead of us. We can probably make it over that next rise without any problems."

"They deserve a rest," she answered. "Remember, you've been driving all day. A lot of these people have been walking." She waved to Bess, who was driving the TransRover, and then shouted to everyone, "Okay, we're breaking for the day. Set up our home for the night."

Danziger just shook his head. He couldn't believe that Adair would stop when the day was only half over. She certainly had changed from the beginning of their journey. He had to admit that it would be nice to have an afternoon off. As he glanced at the weary walkers, he realized that they were in need of it.

Without another word, everyone set to a task. Bess climbed down from the TransRover and circled around in time to see Morgan slowly disembark from the other side. He landed very carefully and then started to walk stiffly away when he saw Bess. "Is your knee still bothering you, honey?" she asked.

Morgan sighed, "It's from sitting all day. My knee hurts, by back hurts. I'm a wreck. If we would just take breaks more often it wouldn't be so bad. But no, we have to keep going all day long. The way it is now, it'll take at least an hour before I starts feeling okay again."

Bess shook her head. "Morgan, you really should tell Julia about this. I know that she's running low on that stuff for the SedaDerm, but I'm sure she can do something to help."

"Nooooo," Morgan cried, "No, you can't let her know. You can't let any of them know. If they think I can't pull my own weight..." he dropped his voice to a secretive whisper, "...they'll leave me behind just like they did to Julia."

"Morgan," Bess said sternly, "Really, this isn't funny. Nobody's going to leave you behind." She had heard this before from him.

"I was the first one to say that we should leave Julia. Do you think anyone wouldn't want to do the same to me? I know what they think about me."

"Well," Bess started, "I can tell you that they used to think that you were nothing but a whining pain in the ass that never did anything to help anyone other than himself." Morgan looked as if he had been stung, but Bess continued, " But I think you've kinda grown on them. You've changed. They've changed. We've all changed. They're not going to leave you behind if you can't help out around the camp. I mean, they're used to you not working as hard as the rest of them anyway."

"You think that I don't pull my share?" Morgan sounded like a little child. "You don't think I'm a whining pain in the ass, do you?"

"No honey," Bess said, kissing him and then drawing away quickly, "At least most of the time." She smiled when she saw his hurt look. "Oh Morgan, you know I don't think that. I know better than anyone how hard you have been working to fit in with everyone. I know that you try to help out. If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have any working computers, and I know that you walk much further than you should everyday. I know everything, Morgan."

He looked dubious, so Bess leaned against him and kissed him again. "You are going to see Julia, aren't you?"

"It's going away already." He tested his leg. "Yeah, it's gone now. I don't need to talk to Julia."

"Morgan..." Bess began.

"Swear you won't say anything to her. It's just a little thing. It's nothing at all really."

"All right," Bess said skeptically, as she watched Morgan walk way, ineffectively trying to hide his limp.

Tents were erected and a campsite was in place within a few minutes. Bess prepared their mid-day meal almost immediately. She made a rich vegetable soup and soon everyone was relaxing with their lunch. True and Uly finished early and were soon chasing each other across the wide, flower-filled meadow, while the others relaxed quietly. It was warm and pleasant, and there was no reason to move just yet.

Cameron leaned back and looked up into the mountains surrounding them. "Look," he said to Magus, who was closest to him. "Do you see that?" He pointed up into the mountains.

She squinted as she looked where he indicated. "See what?"

"Looks like a dry creek bed or maybe some sort of animal path leading up to that notch on the mountainside."

"So what of it?" she said with a shrug.

"I bet we could drive the DuneRail up there and get a real good look around."

She smiled, "Hey, I bet we could." She stood and stretched. "We should give it a good look-see."

"What? Now?" Cameron had just gotten himself comfortable and the sudden suggestion that they should be moving again startled him.

"Why the hell not?" Magus stated and strode over to the DuneRail. "We'll be borrowing this for a while," she shouted over to Devon.

"Excuse me?" Devon said as Cameron trotted over and climbed into the passenger seat. "Where are you two going?"

"We're going to check out that notch." Magus pointed vaguely in the direction that Cameron had indicated. "Cameron says he says we'll be able to find a quicker route through this mountain range if we can get a good view from above."

"Wait, I didn't quite..." Cameron started, but Magus cut him off.

"We should get started as soon as possible. We want to be back before dark. The DuneRail can do it and still recharge overnight. No problem"

Devon stood, with her hands on her hips, then turned to Danziger who shrugged. She didn't like Magus' approach, but the plan was sound. On another day, in another time, she would have stopped them, but at that moment, she couldn't think of a good reason to keep them back. "All right," she said, "Just make sure you make a good survey when you get up there."

"We're going too," Denner said suddenly, dragging Mazatl with her toward the DuneRail. She pushed the man into the nearest rear seat and the crawled over him to get into the last empty place.

"Now, hang on there. We don't need all of you going on this little jaunt," Devon objected.

Denner stopped and turned. "Oh please, we've been walking all day. We just want to take a little drive. The work's done for the day. What harm will it do?" Mazatl said nothing. He just cocked his head at Devon and gave her a hangdog expression.

Devon sighed, "Okay, fine. Keep your GEAR handy. We don't want to lose touch with you." Devon watched as they turned the vehicle toward the dry creek that formed a pathway up the mountainside. Magus looked for Walman, who was standing now and looking a little perturbed about being left behind, but she just smiled and drove on.

"Looks like you have a mini-mutiny going on here," Danziger said in a low voice.

Devon watched as the four of them waved and the DuneRail headed away. "As long as it stays on the 'mini' side, I have no problems."

* * * *

Alonzo slipped into Julia's tent as she was setting up her equipment. "Hey there," he said, "How 'bout a walk in the meadow? We can take our shoes off and wade in the creek. I'd like to talk."

Julia sighed, "I still have some work to do here. And I am rather worn out from walking for the day."

"Well, we can still go down to the creek and dangle our feet in. It would be soothing to the souls."

Julia smiled tiredly. "I'm not really up to it right now. I just want to stay put for now."

"Okay, fine," Alonzo said dejectedly and left her tent. She looked up as he left and opened her mouth to speak, but he was gone before she could form the words to say.

Alonzo walked over toward Walman who was standing with his arm akimbo, watching the DuneRail follow the bare track up the mountainside. "Women..." Alonzo said.

Walman grunted in agreement.

* * * *

The DuneRail lurched and bounced its way up the mountainside. Magus fought the controls to keep it on the crude pathway.

"Wow, look at the view!" Denner said, leaning across Mazatl.

The man looked over the edge, "That's a long way down," he said simply.

"Look at how little the TransRover is." Denner narrowed her eyes and held out her hand, as if to pick up the toy sized vehicle. "We're really climbing."

Mazatl nodded, and leaned back into his seat, as Denner pressed against him. He smiled secretly to himself.

"Don't you think you're going a little fast?" Cameron gripped the sides of the DuneRail fiercely as it rocked back and forth.

"We want to make it to the notch and back before dark," Magus answered. "We're going to need to make good time."

"Yeah, but we don't want to pitch ourselves down the mountainside now do we?" Cameron looked to the back seat for reinforcement, but Denner was entranced by looking over the edge, and Mazatl looked strangely suspicious. "Guys? Don't you think she'd better slow down a bit?"

"Huh?" Denner pulled herself back into her seat. "Slow down? Why?"

"To keep ourselves from getting smashed into tiny little bits," Cameron said frantically, and Magus just clucked her tongue.

"I want to go faster," Denner said, "How much longer before we reach the notch?"

"An hour, maybe two," Magus answered.

"Two hours to reach the notch, that means another three to get back..." Cameron calculated, "You're cutting it awfully short. It'll be dusk pretty soon after that."

"I'm not planning on taking three hours to get back." Magus grinned at him. "Downhill all the way."

"Oh great," Cameron moaned. Mazatl pointed something out to Denner and she leaned over him again.

****

True and Uly were rolling down the incline of the meadow. They were laughing and screaming and enjoying the warm fall day. "Race ya to that bush!" True challenged, and the two of them sped off.

They were neck and neck until Uly found a sudden burst of speed and sprinted ahead to the small shrub. "Ha!" he shouted at her, "I'm faster than you are!"

True scowled and leapt on him, tackling him to the ground. It was all in play, so she was rather surprised when Uly screamed. She quickly released him and stood above him while the boy clutched his bloody knee and yelled.

Devon, Yale, Julia and her father all came running, all of them shouting. Devon scooped Uly up into her arms as Julia pulled on her DiaGlove and started scanning him. Yale crowded in close to comfort the boy and her father gave True 'that look.'

They whisked the boy away, Devon speaking excitedly to Julia the whole time, "Is he all right? He's going to be all right isn't he?" True could not do anything but watch.

* * * *

"Did anyone bring anything to eat?" Denner said suddenly. "I'm suddenly hungry, suddenly ravenously hungry."

Mazatl reached into his pocket and drew out two apples.

"All right!" Denner grabbed one. "The rest of you will have to share the other one."

"Hey!" Cameron turned around in the front seat, "Not fair."

Mazatl protected the remaining apple. "Ah, I was the one who brought them."

Cameron frowned and turned to Magus. "Don't you think they should share?"

"Children, children..." Magus said with a sigh, "You don't want the driver to get too hungry. I might become disorientated and then you'll all be sorry. I may start to swerve and maybe pass out. My, that's a long drop, isn't it?" She held out her hand for the expected apple, while Cameron pulled out a jack-knife and brandished it at the occupants in the back seat.

Denner glanced at Mazatl and shook her head. "They don't fight fair." She grabbed the knife from Cameron and cut the apples in half so that the each had something to eat and they noisily bit into the slices as the DuneRail continued up the mountain. Apples were still a novelty to them, and it was a special treat to eat them on their adventure.

Denner leaned back and looked into the bright sky as the vehicle lurched back and forth. "This is nice," she said finally. "Don't you think it's kinda nice to get away from the others for a while?"

Magus had to chuckle. "Yeah, I know. Sometimes I feel like I never get to have much of a say around the rest of them. I mean, the children have more input into the decisions than we do. Sometimes I wonder if they even know our full names."

"Yeah," Cameron agreed, "It's almost as if we're the silent partners in this community."

"Half the time, it's as if we're not even around." Denner commiserated. "Still, it's better than it used to be. At least we're getting noticed these days."

"Poor Denner is feeling left out," Magus laughed.

Cameron shook his head. "Oh, with you it's different, Magus. At least they always have time to listen to what you have to say. The rest of us..." he flung up his hands. "Don't you agree Mazatl?"

Mazatl nodded and licked the apple juice from his fingers.

Magus smirked. "Oh come on. It's not that bad anymore. Things have changed. We're not the nobodies that we used to be."

"You're right," Denner agreed. "Still, I wish they would take more notice of us sometimes." She frowned at Mazatl and picked a stray piece of apple off his coat.

* * * *

True stood silently outside of the MedTent while Julia treated Uly's skinned knee. Devon held her son's hand and Danziger stood beside the woman, his hand on her shoulder. "It's just a skinned knee," True muttered, "He is such a baby."

She stomped away from the MedTent and then spotted Morgan sitting at one of the collapsible tables, tinkering with something. She sat down beside him and watched silently for a moment. When he made no response to her presence she said "What'cha doing?"

He jumped, startled, and then made an effort to hide the VR Gear that he was working on. "Nothing, nothing," he said quickly.

"What's wrong with your VR?" she asked innocently.

"Ah," he paused, trying to think up some sort of lie, but since she had already seen it, he supposed there was no sense in denying it. He had received so much grief from the others about his use of VR he didn't want anyone seeing him with it anymore. He pulled the VR out of his coat, "Well, it gets filled with dust all the time. I was trying to clean it out." He had the cover off the equipment and was using a tiny piece of cloth on a little stick to work the grains out of the electronics. "This equipment was never meant to be used outdoors for so long. It's always filling up with dust and sand."

"You could probably do it better if you had a cotton swab," True commented.

"Well, I don't have any cotton swabs so I have to use what I can find," Morgan muttered. "If I had one, I'd use it."

True reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a swab and handed it to the liaison, who looked at is as if she had handed him a stick of gold.

"Where did you get this?" he demanded.

"Oh, Dad has a bunch of them stored way. We use them to clean out the electronics on the vehicles."

Morgan snatched the swab out of True's hand. "Figures that he'd have them all to himself," he muttered as he put the tool to use. True realized that it wasn't worth responding to the last comment. She silently watched Morgan work, leaning up against his arm to get a better view.

His first impulse was to snatch his arm away to keep the girl from leaning on him, but he saw the look of interest on her face, and he let her stay. "You see," he said, trying to sound instructional, "when all this dirt gets in here, your programs starts to degrade. It won't be quite as clear as before and you might have trouble accessing some of your programs." He was truly surprised that she remained to watch him work on the VR. He showed her each of the little tools he used, some of which he had pilfered, some he had fashioned out of bits of wire, and the few that he had brought with him. "And there," he snapped the cover back onto the system. "It is clean and ready to go again."

"Could you clean out mine if I brought it over?" True asked brightly.

"Okay, yeah. I guess," Morgan answered.

"I'll get you some more cotton swabs." she smiled as she left the table.

* * * *

Baines, Walman and Alonzo took the TransRover to the creek and filled the water tanks. The water was cold and clear. It didn't take long to fill up and soon they were ready to be on their way again.

"Hey Fly-Boy," Julia said, as she appeared from around the front of the vehicle. "I was wondering where you had gotten off to."

"How's Uly?" Alonzo said as he secured the caps to the tanks.

"He's fine. Just a scraped knee. His mother worries. I don't think she'll ever get over the fact that he's not a sick little boy anymore."

"Glad he's okay."

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened earlier. I was just tired." She looked to Baines and Walman who were hanging around near the cab of the TransRover, "Why don't you two take the 'Rover back to camp? I'm sure Bess would like some water so that she can get dinner started."

The two obediently climbed into the cab. "Women..." Walman muttered.

"Lucky guy," Baines said quietly and he started up the vehicle and headed back toward the others.

Julia watched the TransRover depart and then turned to Alonzo. "Does your offer still stand? Do you still want to dip your feet in the creek with me?"

"Well, I don't know," Alonzo said playfully, "It seems as if it would be an awful lot of trouble." He sat down on a stone and looked up at the doctor.

"I'll give you a hand," she said, as she helped him out of his boots.

* * * *

Denner leaned her head against Mazatl. The DuneRail lurched wickedly along the trail. Cameron watched Magus with some alarm as she careened the vehicle toward their target. "Please just get us there in one piece," he said to her.

Magus laughed, "That's the plan."

"What do you think we'll see when we get to Cameron's Notch?" Denner said dreamily.

Cameron turned and looked at her. It sounded like she had named the notch after him and he liked the sound of it. "I bet we see the ocean," he said. "I bet it's out there, all stretched out and ready for us. We just have to go down one easy hill and we're there."

Magus snorted, "I bet we see another mountain, and another, and another after that. We'll get ourselves so damned depressed that we spend the rest of the journey trying to ferment berry juice so that we can get ourselves stinking drunk. Ha! Hey, that sounds kinda good." She pondered the thought, "I say, more mountains and berry wine!"

Denner smiled, "I think we'll find something new. It'll be totally different than anything we've seen before. I'm thinking it will be like a wonderful new world on the other side of the mountain."

Magus snorted again and said, "Okay Mazatl, you got a firmer grasp on reality than these other idiots. What do you think we'll see?"

Mazatl paused, "I don't know. I guess I hadn't thought about it. Should I have thought of something?"

The others laughed, "No, I expect not," Denner said, "We'll just have to wait until we get there."

* * * *

"Now, you should see a difference," Morgan said as he snapped on the back of True's VR. "I bet your colors were all off."

"I really didn't notice. I haven't used it much lately." The girl held the VR carefully. "I've played all my programs about a million times. They get pretty old after a while."

"Well, ah, I would know how to design a new one," Morgan said helpfully.

"You would!" True was suddenly excited. "Could you make one with horses in it?"

"Yeah, I suppose. Ah, what do you want to do with these horses?"

"I want to have a herd of wild horses and I get to tame them." She watched as Morgan pulled out his keyboard. "They'll be all sorts of them. One will be all black and I'll call him Midnight. And there'll be a white one and her name will be Snowy. And, a brown one with white feet and a white star on his forehead and his name will be Star. Did you get that part? He has to have a white star."

"Hold on, hold on. This takes a while." Morgan started keying in information. "We have to start with a setting. Where exactly do you want to tame all these horses?"

True thought for a moment, this was an important decision. "Here in this meadow. Can you make it like this meadow."

Morgan nodded and continued typing. "Yeah, I can do that. I'll just have to do an imaging of the meadow before we get too far along. I gotta get the outline started and we'll fill it in later." He looked up from the keyboard. "I would have thought you'd want something to do with cats."

"Can I have a cat too? I want a cat."

"All right, a cat. What kind of cat?"

"A gray cat with a white face and white on his chest. And he should have extra toes."

"Does he help you train the horses?" he asked sarcastically.

"Can you do that?"

Morgan looked up at her, not knowing whether or not to be exasperated. "You want a cat that trains horses?"

"Well, he doesn't have to train them. But can you make it so he can ride horses?"

"Sure, the cat rides horses."

"And they'll be lots of baby horses too."

****

 "There it is," Magus stated, as she stopped the DuneRail. The four riders climbed out, carefully onto the steep terrain. Before them was the notch in the mountain, Cameron's Notch. It had seemed like such a small thing from below, but from this perspective, the notch was huge.

The four of them walked the last few meters into the notch, to see what lay beyond it. They stood and stared.

"Wow," Denner said reverently, looking out on a blanket of white. As far as the eye could see, the land on the other side of the mountain was shrouded in clouds. Thick puffy clouds that seemed so tangible, you would think you could walk out onto them. The sun, low in the sky, lit up the clouds so that they seemed to glow. "It's beautiful," she said.

The others were silent as they gazed out at the nebulous world that greeted them.

* * * *

Walman, Baines and Yale headed over to where Bess was preparing their dinner. She smiled at their approach. "Don't tell me that you're hungry already."

"Bored," Walman said shortly, and plopped down on the ground beside her. "Nothing to do. Might as well eat."

"Be patient." Bess shook her head "I won't have it done for a couple hours yet".

Baines grabbed one of the potatoes that were piled on her table, sending the others toppling to the ground. "Oops."

"You!" She bent down to pick up one of the fallen vegetables and flung it at Baines. "Trouble maker."

The vegetable hit him smack in the middle of his chest. Baines, startled, hefted his right at Bess. She caught it in time and flung it back at him. This time Baines was ready. He caught the vegetable and threw it at Walman.

"Hey!" Walman shouted as the misthrown potato threw past him. He frowned at Baines. "You throw like a girl." And then another flying tuber hit him from behind. He turned around to see Yale laughing. "I can't believe you did that. That hurt!"

"Hot Potato!" shouted Bess, who picked up another one of the poor potatoes off the ground and flung it at Yale.

* * * *

"Do you think we should check in with the others?" Cameron finally asked.

Magus looked around, "You got your GEAR handy Mazatl, why don't you call."

Mazatl shrugged and turned on his equipment.

"It's so incredible. It's like we're on the edge of the world," Denner said softly, still gazing out to the west.

"There could be anything under those clouds," Magus said, "mountains, terrible rivers, deserts, endless forests..."

"The ocean!" Cameron added.

Denner turned to Mazatl and noticed the puzzled look on his face. "What is it?"

"I don't know. I think..." and he paused to listen again. "I'm not sure."

"Come on, out with it, what do you have there," Magus said impatiently.

Mazatl listened again. "It might be the CommDish."

"Are you sure?" Cameron said quickly.

Mazatl sat down at the edge of the notch and put his hands against his GEAR as if that would improve the reception. "I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure it's the CommDish."

The Cameron pulled on his GEAR and the women ran to the DuneRail to retrieve theirs. They rejoined the men at the edge, listening to the sound. The constant inquisitive pattern continued. The CommDish, which had been dropped to the planet's surface all those months ago, almost two years ago. The CommDish would mark the site of New Pacifica, their destination. They sat on the edge of the world and listened. The signal was like a song to them, like a heartbeat.

* * * *

"You feeling better honey?" Devon asked Uly as he pulled on the bandage.

"I'm fine, Mom," the boy answered. "Can I go back out and play with True?"

"No, you should probably stay put. Julia says the wound will heal quicker if don't move your leg for a while."

"But I want to go out and play!" Uly insisted.

Devon sighed, "No, you should just sit still for a little while. You'll feel better tomorrow if you do." When she saw the boy's disappointment, she amended her statement, "I don't see why you can't go outside though." She lifted him and carried the boy over to the table. He was getting so big now. She used to be able to carry him with ease, but now, she was winded by the time she reached the table where True and Morgan were sitting. She settled him in and then spoke sharply to Morgan, "Make sure he stays put." And she headed off to speak to Danziger.

Morgan and True looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"Whatcha doing?" Uly asked.

"Writing a VR program," True said with a sophisticated tone. She turned to Morgan. "Can you make it so there's always a rainbow in the sky?"

"But you wanted sunshine all the time. You need rain for rainbows."

"Not in VR."

"All right, sure, rainbows."

"This is boring," Uly grumbled.

"He's just a child, he doesn't understand," True said to Morgan. "Don't forget that my house is supposed to be pink with white shutters." Morgan just nodded and continued to input data.

Uly watched, trying to feign disinterest as the two collaborated of the program. "Hey," he said after several minutes. Morgan and True both fixed him with the same withering glance. "Do you think maybe you could add some Cowboys and Indians to the program?" Uly asked.

"Cowboys..." Morgan sighed.

"Indians..." True added, shaking her head tiredly. She sat with her head in her hands, and then looked up at Morgan, "Okay, what if we did add Cowboys and Indians..."

Morgan looked from True to Uly, as Uly crowded up against his other side. "Oh no, I'm surrounded."

* * * *

Alonzo looked long and hard at Julia. "I was thinking..." He glanced away from her as he started to speak. "Yeah, I was thinking..."

Julia smiled and looked at him in anticipation, "About what?"

"I was just thinking about how nice the Martin wedding was. You know, how they got married for life and all." His eyes were on his feet, which he splashed slowly in the water. "I thought that was nice."

"Yes, it was. It was very special." Julia spoke slowly, wondering at the significance of Alonzo's statement.

"That's what I thought." They were quiet again for a while, and then Alonzo spoke again. "And I was thinking..." he drifted off, seeming to be fascinated with his feet moving in the water.

"Alonzo, what are you trying to say?" Julia asked.

He turned to her finally and spoke quickly, "I was thinking that we could do the same. I mean, we SHOULD do the same." He was flustered when he saw Julia's eyes open wide. "We could get married too, you know, for life and everything?"

Her heart leapt. "Married?" she whispered. "For life?"

"And everything." Alonzo added seriously.

She felt numb. She felt elated. She felt hot and cold at the same time. She turned to him slowly and looked into his dark eyes. "Alonzo... I..."

"Yes, what?" He grasped her by her arms, "What do you say Julia? I know you've been thinking about it. I know I have. So what do you say? I love you more than I can say. I love you more than anything. I am only happy when we're together. We should be together forever. You and me, forever."

"Alonzo, I..." she saw only his eyes, his dark deep eyes.

Alonzo climbed out of the creek, not letting go of Julia, and then sunk down to one knee, "Julia Heller, will you marry me?"

Julia smiled, wrinkling her perfect little nose, "You crazy fly-boy, of course I will."

And the two embraced at the side of the creek.

* * * *

Devon and Danziger sat beside each other at the side of the TransRover, saying nothing. They let the late autumn sun warm them. Danziger had to admit that he was glad they had stopped early today. He moved his hand slightly closer to Devon, and glanced over to her. She sat with her head back, her eyes closed, looking comfortable and happy. It was a rare thing to see her so relaxed, especially so soon after Uly had been hurt. The boy was fine, and she was fine too.

* * * *

Baines hefted the potato at Walman, who dove to the ground to get away. Bess scooped up the vegetable and thwacked Yale in the chest with it. "Score!" she shouted as she ran past.

* * * *

"And there'll be this giant slide!" Uly said

"Yeah, and it will end up in this great big pool." Interjected True.

"Oh yes, a water slide!" Uly was almost climbing onto Morgan in his excitement.

"Calm down! Calm down! You know this is going to take forever to program. Geez, look at the outline. How do you kids figure I'm going to get all of this done." Morgan groused.

"You can do it." True said, "We believe in you." and Uly nodded in agreement.

* * * *

Zero strode out into the middle of the camp. His duties for the day were over and now he was pretty much ignored. He turned his attention to the doctor and the pilot, near the stream, and wondered if they were in trouble because they seemed to be applying some sort of medical attention to each other. He had seen that sort of thing before though and had been told to ignore it.

He then noticed that the two juveniles were bothering the liaison, something he had been told (by the liaison) to stop at all costs. He considered approaching the juveniles and drawing them away from the liaison, but for some reason the liaison did not seem to mind their presence. Zero decided to leave things alone.

Their leader and the mechanic were just sitting, doing nothing at all, which seemed peculiar to him. The cyborg and three of the others had gone insane and were throwing their sustenance around. He decided that was a bad idea. He knew that four of the group had left. He hoped they would return soon. The missing four were the most balanced of the group, in his opinion at least.

Humans were odd creatures. He knew that. He accepted that. It was part of his makeup to accept that sort of thing. When a potato crashed into is cranium, he knew that he should not feel mortified. He was a Mechanical Worker and shouldn't feel emotions, and of course these humans meant him no harm. They were running up to him now, pounding him good naturedly on his back (at least he thought it was good natured, he was never sure of that sort of thing). All in all, it wasn't too bad. At least they noticed him.

* * * *

Danziger glanced over to the mountains and tried again to spot the DuneRail and its occupants. He pulled out the jumpers and scanned their path without any luck. It wasn't until he examined the very top of the trail that he saw the reflection of the vehicle. "Hey," he said, "They made it. They're all the way up there."

"I wonder what they see." Devon said.

* * * *

The four travelers stood together in a tight group. To the east lay the green meadow and everything that they had traveled through. To the west, where everything was white and bright, and unseen, lay New Pacifica. They stood on the line that divided G899. They were so close to their destination that they could hear it.

Cameron looked from Denner, to Magus, to Mazatl. They all had the same rapt look on their faces. They were the first ones to hear it. From now on, reaching their goal wasn't just a dream. From now on it was real.

THE END