Only In Their Dreams, Part 3
By Carrie Reed
Julia awoke in the med-tent. How had she gotten here? What had happened? She tried to remember, but her memories were distant, like a dream she couldn't remember. She knew something important had happened, but what? She tried to get up, but her head spun. As she lay back down, she noticed a hard lump poking her in the back. She grabbed it, and noticed it was a pouch full of dirt. At that moment, Danziger entered the tent.
"Julia?! You're back. When did you get back? Where's Uly?" "Uly!" Julia suddenly remembered what had happened. "Where's Uly?!" "That's what I just asked you," Danziger said, starting to get worried. "Never mind," Julia had regained her senses. "He's with them, he'll be OK. I've got to get started on this vaccine."
"Them? The diggers? Did you get the right chemicals?" "Yeah. Tell the others I'm working on the right combination to inject into Devon. No one is to disturb me. Do you understand?" Julia's voice was stern, but hopeful.
"Sure." Anything to help Devon, he thought. For the first time in a week, he actually believed that there was a chance to save Devon.
"I'm starting to believe that anything's possible on this planet." For the first time in what seemed like ages, Julia smiled.
While Julia slaved away, trying to find the right combination, the group waited impatiently outside. "What if this doesn't work?" asked Walman, the group's resident pessimist.
"What if it does?" No one had seen Danziger walk up to the group, until now. His bloodshot eyes had fire in them, and his naturally curly hair looked even more disheveled than usual. For the first time, the group actually realized how hard this whole thing had been on him. Of course they had known he was falling for Devon, but in all the chaos of the past week they been too caught up in their own fears to realize that he wasn't taking this well.
"Of course it will, Danz. I didn't mean it that way--" But before Walman could finish, Julia came racing out of the tent with a vial in her hand.
"I've got it! I've got it!" The realization of what she had said, hit her now and her eyes filled with tears, "I've really got it..."
The crew raced to the pod. Before anyone could enter, Julia stopped them. "There's no guarantee that this is going to work. You all need to know that. There's a hundred things that could go wrong. When working with the human brain, there are so many variables, I can't possibly control them all. Devon's case may be too far along to be able to reverse the effects. Either she makes it, or she doesn't. There's no halfway anymore."
"When will we know if it worked?" "In two hours, when the sedaderm wears off. If she wakes up, it worked, if she doesn't...it didn't. I can't promise any more than that. Are you all still willing to take that risk?"
"What's the alternative?" Morgan asked. "Leaving Devon in cold-sleep for the rest of our lives while we try to find another way that doesn't exist?" The group nodded in agreement.
"Alright then," Julia continued, "Alonzo, Danziger, I'm going to need your help. Yale, I could use your help, and I'm going to need an assistant--True. The rest of you are going to have to wait outside, I'm sorry."
"What about Uly? Where is he? Shouldn't he be here?" Bess asked. As if on cue, a terrian shot from the ground, and started trilling to Alonzo.
"He is, sort-of." Alonzo translated. "He's going to meet Devon on the dream plane." With that settled, the five of them, along with the terrian disappeared inside the pod.
Julia immediately started punching the thaw codes into the computer. The doors of the cold-sleep chamber opened and Alonzo and Danziger carried out a sleeping Devon Adair. They laid her on a make-shift cot and Julia started scanning her with the diaglove. "True, get the sedaderm ready." True handed her the sedaderm. Julia looked up into the faces of the onlookers, "Here goes nothing..." She sedated Devon. Seconds passed, and then minutes. Still nothing but the sound of Devon's irregular breathing, and her steadily failing heart beat. The terrian started trilling softly in the background. Suddenly Devon's heart beat started racing. Danziger rushed forward and took one of Devon's cold hands in his.
"It's all right John," Alonzo laid a hand on his shoulder. "That means she's in." Julia was already prepping for the injection.
Devon awoke with a start. Where was she? Her vision was detached, disjointed somehow. This seems so odd, she thought, and yet so familiar. She looked around, but all she could see was an open field, stretching around her for miles. She was alone. "Hello?" she called out. Her voice echoed strangely. "Is anyone there?" She turned around, just in time to see her son appear with two terrians. "Uly!" In that one word, there was more emotion than Devon had ever felt in her life. Uly raced forward and threw himself into his mother's open arms.
"Mom...." Tears were streaming down the nine-year-old's face. "I thought I'd never see you again."
"Where am I? How did I get here?" She asked. "You're on the dream plane, mom. Dr. Heller's working right now trying to fix you. You're going to be all right, aren't you?" With those words, he looked up at the terrians, their heads cocked. They began trilling and disappeared into the ground. Devon hadn't noticed. She just sat there, rocking her precious little boy in her arms.
Julia's diaglove raced over Devon's body. "She's not stabilizing," she said with panic in her voice. "It's been over 20 minutes since the injection, and she's not stabilizing."
"Why isn't it working?" No one had seen Uly enter the pod. "Why isn't she getting better?"
"We knew it was going to be a risk when we came up with the idea," Yale said, trying to comfort the boy. "Some things just aren't meant to be." With that, Uly tore away from Yale and threw himself on top of his mother.
"You said you'd always be here for me," he said through his sobs. "You can't leave me, you just can't..." Alonzo was trying to pry Uly off.
"Let him be, Alonzo," Julia said now, with utter despair in her voice, "There's nothing more any of us can do." She tore off her glove and threw it at the wall as hard as she could. "I hate this planet!!" she screamed. "How can we possibly win against impossible odds!" The terrian was trilling violently now. Julia had forgotten he was still there. Alonzo was trying desperately to calm him down.
In all of the chaos, no one had noticed that Devon's breathing had begun to stabilize. "Julia!" Danziger cried. "She squeezed my hand!"
"Are you sure?!" Julia was surprised. Nevertheless, she grabbed her glove and started checking. "You're probably right, she's stabilizing." Over the next few minutes, the pod was silent as she continued to stabilize. Then, her eyes fluttered open.
"Where am I?" Her voice was weak as she tried to orient herself. She saw Uly, "Are we still on the dream plane?"
"No mom," Uly said, his eyes shining, "you're alive." Those simple words rang through the pod, releasing the pain and anxiety that had been so prevalent in the past week.
True raced outside to share the good news. "Devon's alive! Devon's alive!" A cheer went through the group. The fears of the last week had been forgotten.
One week later:
John Danziger helped Devon from the med-tent, with Julia close behind. Before Devon's eyes could adjust to the sun, a round of "Surprise!" rang through the group. She looked up and smiled.
"What's all this fuss?" she asked, trying hard not to look surprised. "Why look, it's a party." Danziger said, feigning surprise. "Welcome back, Adair." Baines was the first to offer his congratulations on her recovery.
"Well, is the doctor going to allow me to have fun?" Devon said with a wry smile.
"I'm ordering you, as your physician..." Julia said sternly, "To have as much fun as you think you can handle." The doctor's eyes had their old sparkle back. "You still need to take it easy, your not back to your old self again, but I'd say a little fun is just what you need."
Music poured from the Player they had found in the pod. Devon knew these had once been very popular on the stations, she had even had one as a child. They technology was out of date now, but no one was complaining. Everyone was laughing and smiling, dancing, and having a great time.
It was later now, everyone was having such a wonderful time that they didn't even notice Devon by herself at one of the tables. She didn't mind, though, she needed time to sort out everything that had happened. Time that she wasn't about to get.
"Just when you think someone's getting more attention than you, you go and pull something like that. Real clever Adair, you sure know how to get an entire group to focus on you." Devon looked up. She knew that smile. John always smiled that way when he was trying to get under her skin.
"You think you're so smug, don't you John Danziger. What would you have done if I really had died? Do you think you would have been able to lead this group without me?" Two could play this little game.
"Now whose the one being smug? Don't get on your high horse with me, I probably could have run this show better than you."
"Probably." She was laughing now. He'd forgotten how much he missed that laugh.
"Did you mean what you said, in the letter?" The tone in his voice had changed now.
"You mean about you being stubborn and arrogant?" She refused to let him off the hook this easily. "Yes."
"I mean, about doing a good job with Uly, and being 'independent and resourceful'?"
"Do you think I would lie?"
"Some people have been known to say pretty strange things when faced with death."
"You should know that I am not now, nor ever have been, 'some people'." The playful tone was back.
"Don't I ever..."
"Are you going to ask me to dance, John Danziger, or what?" "I..I didn't think...you were up to it." Her last remark had taken him completely by surprise.
"I don't keep you around to think for me." Her eyes flashed as he whirled her out onto the dance floor.
(voice of Devon)
We have learned a lot since coming to this planet. Our most valuable lessons have come in the face of adversity. Someone once said, "Only in death do we really understand what it means to live". I have come about as close to death as one can be, and still live to tell about it. I never realized how much I had taken for granted. The first rays of sun peeping over the snow capped mountains, the sight of the two moons hanging far above this planet, music, laughter...Not even in our dreams can we comprehend what priceless gifts life has to offer.
-The End-
Chapter End Notes:
Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!! Thanks to all who helped it come about. Thanks to MAO for proofing it and giving me ideas when she should have been sleeping ;), and thanks to all of you at #earth2 for answering my *many* questions.
Carrie Reed
Carrie Reed