Uly's voice
// Some days just go on forever, and today is one of those days. Sometimes I think we'll never get to New Pacifica, but mom told the group last night that we should get there in a day or two. You should've seen how happy everyone was when she said this. Even *Morgan* stopped complaining enough to smile, but Mr.Danziger said that we should celebrate when we get there and not before, 'cause we're already behind schedule from staying so long at the winter camp. It's hard to believe we've travelled so far, I guess the only question I have is, what will we find when we get there? //



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The Eden Advance crew had been working harder then they ever had before, travelling late into the night and starting again before the sun was completely visable over the horizon. They had been walking a long time and only wanted to relax, which Devon told them they could do when they found the communications dich sent down before the crash. "True," Ulysses Adair began asking, looking at her riding beside him in the ATV. "What are you going to do when we reach New Pacifica?" True Danziger looked off into the distance and thought for a moment before answering, "I don't know. At first, all I wanted to do was get back to the stations, but now all I want ot do is stay here, but if dad wants to go, I have to too."
The prospect of leaving G889, the group, and especially Uly and Devon seemed very daunting to her. It was not something she would look forward to.
"So, you'd stay if you could?" Uly asked, and when True nodded, he continued, "and since I want you to stay too, we're gonna have ta find a way to make sure you stay..."
"What did you have in mind?" True interrupted. "Well..." Uly began grinning madly. "We both know your dad and my mom are crazy about each other, but are too stupid to admit it, right?" True nodded again. "So we're going to do a little match-making." True smiled with equal madness. "And make them realize they can't live without the other. How did you come up with this one?" Uly just shrugged. "I've been thinkin' about it for a while. But now we need a plan of action, and I have an idea. Listen..." True leaned her head closer and listened to him explain plan A. Yale looked at the two children, with their heads together, whispering, and wondered what they were up to now...



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"Devon?"
Devon Adair stopped walking and turned to see who was addressing her. It was Julia, looking around and fidgeting nervously. "What can I do for you Julia?" she asked, a little concerned about seeing Julia so worked up.
Julia began walking away from the group, to avoid being heard and motioned Devon to follow. Soon the two women were walking parrell to the caravan, but at a distance.
"Okay.." Julia exhaled loudly and began. "You said we'd reach New Pacifica very soon and I was wondering what was going to happen when we got there. What if the Council, and Reilly are there? What if something happens to the Syndrome families and we can't contact them? What about Uly? Is Vasquez just going to accept a miracle cure that came out of nowhere? And what if we can't get the colony set up in time?" She took a deep breath to calm the emotions that were running wild within her. "Look, I know everything will be okay, but what is everyone going to do when we do get there?"
Devon was speechless for a moment. Julia was usually unshakeable, and if she did have fears like these, she kept them to herself. But them Devon realized the rest of the group must feel the way Julia did. "Well...I can only hope that everyone will stay here with us, after all everyone on the Stations thinks we're dead, and after all we've been through, I'd like everyone to stay..."
Julia watched as Devon looked through the group until she found who she was looking for and when Julia followed her gaze and saw Danziger at the other end, she smiled to herself.
"And when the families do get out in a year or so, we'll have a colony ready and waiting. You of course will take go on as head Medical Officer, and if Vasquez won't join you that's too bad. But we still have to get through the construction phase..." she smiled at Julia, hoping her words helped her. "Still, when you look at what we've accomplished here already, it won't seem that bad. Especially compaired to what we've already faced."
Julia did feel strangely comforted by what Devon said. It wasn't that she had been losing faith, no, but she just needed someone to tell her things would be okay. And Devon understood, and delivered. The two women smiled at one another and walked back to the group. Bess and Morgan were walking near the back of the line, talking quietly to one another, something Devon couldn't believe. *Morgan Martin* not whining and talking quietly to his wife. But as she watched the couple walk hand-in-hand, she couldn't help but feel somehow empty inside. She found herself unconciously looking for Danziger again, but caught herself. `C'mon Adair. Get yourself together.' she thought. Uly saw the expression on his mom's face before she had turned away, and he didn't like it when she looked sad like that. He turned to True, who had been reading some medical text of Julia's, and he slowed the ATV.
"Hey!?" True looked up from her book. "What's up?" "We have to get moving if we want to convince your dad to stay. Like my mom said, we only have about a day before reach New Pacifica and we made that our deadline. Remember?" Uly's expression mirrored what True was feeling inside. Worry.
"I know. I have an idea for tonight..." "What are you children up to?" Yale asked, walking up to them. True broke off what she had been saying before Yale could hear anything. "You are falling behind."
Both children looked up to see the Martin's and the rest of the group ahead. They had been so wrapped up their conversation, they hadn't noticed how far behind they were.
"Sorry Yale." they said to the tutor in unison. "Come on then. Hurry up." Yale began walking back to the group, muttering to himself, leaving Uly and True to make their plans, but staying close to the group this time.

End of pt.1

They set up camp for the night a bit earlier than usual, because Devon thought they could use a good nights sleep. There had been little grumbling at the announcement, but everyone clearly needed the rest. Soon they were settled around the campfire reminiscing. Julia and Alonzo seemed to be in their own little world. Talking to one another, holding each other, despite Julia's uncomfort of public displays of affection. Still, no one said anything, if they were happy, the better for them.
"So what's the first thing you're going to do when we get to New Pacifica, 'Lonzo?" Julia asked him quietly. He smiled, a devilish gleam in his eyes. "The first thing I'm going to do is kiss you." he pretended to think for a moment, then added, "Or I could just do it right now."
Julia laughed and leaned forward to accept the kiss. It was brief, and left Julia wanting more, but Alonzo spoke bafore she could collect another one.
"What about you? What are you going to do?" Julia had known for a long time what she was going to do. "I'm going to jump in the water and go for a swim, clothes and all." Now it was Alonzo's turn to smile. "Mind if I join you?" Julia bent down to recieve another kiss. "Not at all."



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Everyone was at the fire except Devon, Uly and Danziger. The latter put True on edge. She had to find her dad and take him to `watch the sunset' on a near-by hill in a few minutes, but if she couldn't find him, she couldn't take him. First she looked around the vehicles, thinking he might be repairing something, but he was no where in sight. True went back to the fire and asked anyone if they'd seen him. Nada. Finally she went to their tent.
She saw him at the tent alright, but not inside. He was out, watching the sunset from the tent. True had never seen that expression on her father's fae before. It was a mix of longing and saddness. She knew instintively that he wasn't thinking about home, no, he was wishing he could stay here, with the Eden Advance crew, with Devon, and True knew it. "Hey dad." she cried softly, not wanting to spoil the peaceful night. Danziger turned around quickly, masking his face. "What is it True-girl?" he asked, walking toward her. "Um, I was just wondering if you wanted to watch the sunset with me." Danziger looked at the quickly departing sun, then back at True, a skeptical look on his face.
"Just c'mon." True reached out and grabbed his arm, dragging him towards a hill.
After a minute, True stopped and looked at her father. "What are we going to do when the colonists get here?" Danziger looked down at her and frowned. "We're going back to the Stations like you wanted."
True just sighed and started walking again. Soon they came to the hillside, the sun already long gone. Danziger looked around until he saw two silhouettes sitting in the last shreads of light. He knew immediately it was Devon, and Uly of course. He wondered what they were doing up here.
"Oh! Hi Devon! Hi Uly!" True said, trying to sound non-chalant, but not succeeding.
"Yeah, hi True." Uly nodded at Danziger then said, trying but failing to sound surprised, "What are you two doing up here?" True responded before Danziger could even open his mouth. "We just came to watch the sun go down."
Devon had started to notice this was sounding more and more like a rehursed speech, instead of a normal conversation. She smiled and looked at the Danziger's.
True was looking a bit nervous, but John, as always, looked calm, cool, and incredibly sexy. Devon couldn't help but take a deep breath, looking at him, to try and calm the butterflies in her stomach. `Devon, you're acting like a hormone crazed teenager.' she thought angrily to herself. True dragged her father and sat down beside Uly, taking John down with her. "True!" Uly yelled, still acting; badly. "What?"
Devon felt like she wanted to laugh, and could barely keep a smile in at the kid's bad acting.
"Look! There's something over there!" Everyone looked, but only Uly and True actually saw something. The two jumped up and ran towards the camp. "Where are you going?" Devon called out after them. "We'll be back!" they both called out together. Devon and John looked at each other, and burst out laughing. Soon Devon was laughing so hard, tears were streaming down her cheeks and John's sides were beginning to ache.
Soon the laughter abated. "Remind me never to put those kids in acting school!" John said between chuckles.
"Amen." Devon agreed.
It felt good to laugh. There had been so little laughter on the expedition, and it was urgently needed. Devon watched John for a few more monutes, enjoying the sight of him smiling. She wipe some tears away, but also missed a few.
John, without really realizing what he was doing, reached over and brushed the few remaining tears away with his thumb. Devon stilled immediately, her skin beneath his hand on fire, She looked into his blue eyes and saw something that she didn't quite know how to identify, or didn't want to identify. Danziger knew he should move, but after looking into Devon's brown eyes, he knew he couldn't, even if he wanted to. They moved closer to one anothr, each trembling slightly. Then, when their lips finally touched, it was a gentle brush, until Devon, urgently deepened it.
Danziger pulled back, teasing her a bit, then leaned forward and kissed her again. His lips were warm and hard and the most wonderful lips Devon had ever kissed. She drew back and noticed that neither one of the were breathing steadily anymore. John began to kiss her cheeks, eyes and slowly made his way down the column of her throat. Devon ran her hands across the hard plain of his chest, around his shoulders and up his neck, finally she wrapped her fingers in the curly strands of his golden hair.
Danziger pushed her on the ground and pulled away to look at her. Devon's eyes were closed, her head was tilted back, and there was a small red mark on her throat where his lips had just been. Devon noticed he had pulled away and opened her eyes. She whispered his name, her voice, huskier than usual. She saw the way he was looking at her, and then grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled his tall body over hers. At that moment Devon swore to herself that there could never be a more wonderful feeling then that of John's body against hers. She wrapped a leg around his waist and put a hand under the soft fabric of his shirt. Devon pulled his jacket off and opened the buttons on his shirt. His hard muscular chest felt good beneath her hands and she could feel his heart beat from under his skin. Danziger suddenly got the feeling they were being watched. He looked up and saw a lone Terrian staring at them. He jumped to his feet, pulling Devon up behind him to shield her from their gaze. The Terrian simply trilled at them once and suddenly sank back beaneath the ground.
The next few minutes occured in silence and then a gust of wind reminded Danziger that his shirt was open. He turned and looked at Devon. She was trying very hard not to look at him while she haphazardly ran her fingers through her hair, so Danziger started buttoning up his shirt. When Devon finally looked at him, she noticed that he had missed a button. "John," he looked up at her as she walked over to him. "You missed one..." she reached out and did the button up. When she finished, her hand lingered for a minute and Danziger reached up and grabbed it. "Devon..." he started, but she interrupted. "No, don't say anything. Yes, this happened, no, I won't...can't forget it, but it can never happen again." `I can never let myself lose control like that again.' she added to herself, then pulled her hand away and ran off into the darkness towards the camp. "Damn." Danziger swore to himself. `Real bright John, fine, go scare off the best thing that ever happened to you.' he picked up his jacket, swong it over his shoulder and follow Devon, slowly. No one had even noticed they were gone, except (of course) Uly, True, and then Yale, who had seen the Adair's leave and the Danziger's shortly after that.
He noticed that after Uly and True had come back, Devon and John had been gone a while, and when they had returned, John's shirt had been untucked, and he didn't have his jacket on, and Devon had had grass pieces in her hair and a large red mark on her neck. It wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to figure out what happened, and since he knew how stubborn the two could be, he stayed silent.



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Later, after everyone else had gone to bed, True poked her head out from her tent and flashed a light in the direction of the Adair's tent. Uly came tip-toeing out a few minutes later and the two walked silently away from the camp.
"Where's Zero?" Uly asked, worried that the 'droid might find them. "He's over at the other end of the camp." impatiently True waved her hand in the other direction. "So, did you see what happened?" Uly began to smile, then slowly the smile faded. "They definetly stayed out longer than we expected, but when they came back, both of them went to bed without speaking to anyone. And when my mom kissed me good-night, I saw a wierd red thing on her neck."
"Yeah, my dad was kinda uptight."
"But..." Uly continued. "After she lay down, I heard her crying." "Why on earth was she crying?" True asked, very confused. "When I asked..."
"You asked her!?"
"YEAH! When I asked her...."
"Keep your voice down!" True whispered harshly. "Anyway," Uly said speaking more softly. "she said she was feeling lonely." he looked really uncomfortable talking about his mom like this. "Okay, well, plan B tomorrow." True beagn to silently walk back to camp. "True!" Uly called after her.
"What?" she replied, getting anxious. "I hope this works."
All True could do was nod in agreement. That night Alonzo had a talk with the Terrian who had interrupted Devon and Danz, and the Terrian was asking about the unusual behaviour he had witnessed. Alonzo couldn't help but smile. With all the grief the two had given him with Julia, it was payback time. But he decided to keep the knowlege to himself, after all, it was none of his business, even though it did look interesting, balckmail worked better than gossip anyway. So he would contented himself with keeping close tabs on them in the future.

End of pt.2

The next morning, everyone woke with their usual eagerness to get going. Devon and Danziger avoided each other at all costs and Yale and Alonzo watched them both very closely.
Once, the cyborg noticed Alonzo looking back and forth between the two and approached him.
"I take it you know what's going on." Alonzo nodded. "A Terrian asked me to explain what they had dicovered last night, and I got some pretty interesting pictures in my dream." Yale seemed to think for a moment, then said half to himself, and half to Alonzo, "So that's what happened."
"Yeah, I guess so." Alonzo looked from Devon to Danz again. "But if only they weren't so stubborn, they'd make a cute couple. I mean they're made for each other."
Yale smiled at Alonzo. "But, by the time they'd admit any feelings for each other, they'll be old and grey."
The two men chuckled and went back to their packing. Devon had noticed the exchange, wondering why they kept looking from her to Danziger. Still, even though she was avoiding him, she seemed to know his every move, and more then once, she thought she felt his gaze on her back.
`They couldn't know about last night could they?' she wondered, getting a little paranoid. `No, how could they?' So she just went on with her work.



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This day seemed even longer then the last one to Uly, who was driving around again with True. His mom and Mr. Danziger both looked miserable, but no one seemed to notice for some reason. And he wondered about this. The day was dragging for True also, and she was about to scream in frustration when suddenly, the caravan was brought to a halt. The two children jumped off the vehicle and ran to the front of the line where everyone stood in amazement, lookinh over a small rise and seeing a vast expanse of blue in every direction. They stopped, trying to look everywhere at once, and listening to a chorus of, "Awesome", "Cool", and "Wow".
Finally, Julia shouted "WE MADE IT!!!" and started running down the hill towards the ocean. Alonzo followed close behind, followed by everyone else. She was, of course, the first to hit the water. She jumped in, clothes and all, followed by Alonzo again, who did the same. They splashed around for a while, until Alonzo waded up to Julia and said, "How 'bout that kiss now?"
Julia laughed and jumped on him, knocking him backwards into the water and kissing him passionately.
The rest of the crew was involved in one large water fight, except the Martin's, who followed Julia's and Alonzo's lead. But Devon and Danziger were only standing in the shallowest water, with Devon chanting softly to herself, "We made it. We're here. We made it." Finally, she yelled it out loud and ran to Uly, who met her half way and they hugged until Uly said, "Mom? Can I go back and play now?" Devon smiled to her son. "Of course you can." she stood up and turned around to see Danziger standing behind her. He looked at her solemly. "Devon, I've been meaning to say something to you for a long time..."
Devon walked up to him and put a hand over his lips. "John, we never could've made it without you, *I* never would've made it..." Danziger mover her hand away from his mouth. "Shut up and let me finish." Devon stopped talking and smiled. "God, how I love you." Devon threw herself into Danziger's arms and whispered, "Too much talking." Danziger laughed, kissed her, and quite literally swept her off her feet. He carried her to the shallows and lay her down, ignoring the shouts of approval from the others.
Uly and True looked at each other and grinned. "Looks like I'm staying!" True shouted and the two children hugged. Then she whispered to him, "They never had a chance." Uly laughed and they ran over to their parents. Yale stood on the shore, still dry, watching the children and their parents playing in the water and knew that they would all be happy together. Devon saw him standing there and ran up to hug him. She had tears falling from her eyes as she felt the hug returned. "We made it." she whispered into his coat. "Was there ever a doubt." was Yale's only reply. But then he reluctantly let go.
Devon looked up at him, but he smiled and said, "Someone's waiting for you."
She turned around and saw Danziger standing behind them. "Mind if I steal her away?" he asked Yale. He nodded. And let her go. "She's yours." then to himself, added, `she always has been.'
Devon hugged John again, her still falling tears soaking what few dry spots were left on his shirt.
Danziger picked her up and they sat down on the beach, watching everyone in the water, watching their children. Devon lay back against the hard expanse of his chest. She hadn't felt this good in a long time. Everything in her life at this moment was perfect. Uly was healthy, they had reached New Pacifica, and she had fallen in love.
The last thought surprised her a bit, as she looked up into Danzinger's face, and reached up, putting her arms around his neck and pulled his head down for another kiss.
She had done the impossible.
She had reached the end of a long road. And life was pretty-much perfect.
She smiled against John's lips.

-The End-