The Coveting of Eden by Raven

[Reviews - 0]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer

- Text Size +

Chapter IV: The Price of Dreams

Uly awoke with a start, and everyone joined the tutor who was huddled protectively at his side. “Uly, are you alright?” Yale asked, helping the young boy sit up.

“Uly, did you see them? Did you contact Alonzo and Julia?” an anxious Danziger inquired. They spoke excitedly but in hushed whispers, not wanting to rouse the suspicions of the guards.

Morgan looked nervously over his shoulder. If the Government knew that Uly was accessing the Dream Plane, there would be consequences. Morgan cringed involuntarily, remembering what they had done to Alonzo. Relief soon washed over him when he noticed that the detention cell guards were at the far end of the foyer, and secure in the fact that they would not overhear their discussion, he turned his attention back to Uly.

Slowly, Uly rose, holding his head with one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other. Looking up, his eyes reached out toward the Advance group with a wisdom beyond his years. As the first of their kind to have bonded with the Terrians, Uly represented the link between the two species, and though he was still the rambunctious youngster, ever since Moon Cross when he was taken into the earth, Uly had exhibited a calm maturity, when dealing with the Terrians, that defied his young age. “The Dream Plane is . . . wounded. Everything is fuzzy. It’s hard to see things clearly, but I did feel Alonzo. He’s angry and very scared. I heard him yelling at the Terrians. Telling them to heal Julia.” Uly paused, looking down at his shoes. He squeezed Yale’s hand tightly and continued. “I felt Julia too.” Uly’s voice changed when he spoke of the young doctor. It shook with fear and confusion.

Danziger looked at him eagerly, his head having been filled with horrible images of Julia getting shot and then falling to the ground. Protective worry over Julia had plagued him ever since the Government had forced Alonzo to go underground with the Terrians. “Is she alright?” he asked anxiously, knowing he was unprepared to hear otherwise.

Uly looked solemn, as he raised his wide eyes to focus on Danziger. Fear was apparent on the youngster’s face, and Danziger shifted uneasily where he knelt, attempting to prepare himself for the worst. “I could barely feel her . . . but what little I could was full of pain and fear and in the end, love.”

“What do you mean, ‘in the end?’” Danziger asked, worriedly.

Uly looked at him grimly, eyes wet with sorrow and fear. “I . . . I could feel her and suddenly she was . . . gone.” At that last word, which everyone feared hearing, Yale took Uly gently into his arms, and the boy who shouldered the weight of being ‘the link’ to the Terrians crumpled and sobbed into his tutor’s shoulder like a small child.

A deadly silence fell over the large cell. The group had come to trust Uly and Alonzo’s interactions with the Terrians. Bess let out a whimper, but it was quickly muffled as Morgan pulled her into a loving hug. Eyes without words gazed down and at each other, none wanting to grasp the reality that Uly’s words held.

“What does that mean?” True cried, unwilling to accept what it implied. Her eyes were wide, and they blazed with emotion. Danziger quickly swept his daughter into a protective embrace, receiving equal comfort from holding her in his arms.

“Why didn’t you wait for us, Julia?” Danziger thought grimly to himself.

Danziger looked over True’s head with moist eyes. Staring at the tutor, both wordlessly confirmed in each other’s eyes what they both feared.

* * *

“You tried to kill Julia!” Devon’s voice echoed loudly with anger as her hand came pounding down unceremoniously upon the Government conference table, and she had lost the usual professionalism for which she was known.

Devon stood in the Government’s large main conference room, and all of the thirteen officials were present, gathered together in a united front of power, but only one spoke for them all. “Calm down, Devon,” Official Chorlain said, motioning for her to sit.

“I will not calm down,” she retorted, her powerful stare unwavering. She was too upset to be intimidated by their robed stoicism, which seethed power. “You have no right to hold my people! And as for Julia. . . .” Feeling her throat constrict with sadness and pain, she paused to gather her composure, unwilling to let her guard down in front of the Government Officials. She swallowed hard and continued. “As for Julia, we don’t even know if she is still alive . . . after you shot her!”

“Dr. Heller,” Chorlain explained, “violated the laws of this colony.” He saw Devon’s mouth open, and he quickly continued before she could interject. “She was warned more than once, but she continued to blatantly disregard our authority. That kind of insolence cannot go unpunished.”

Chorlain’s calm demeanor and condescending tone infuriated Devon further. “And that warrants cold-blooded murder?” She spoke indignantly, challenging their authority.

Chorlain stared back at her, unblinking, unapologetic. “Traitors,” he said bitterly, “will be dealt with accordingly. Heller stole something from us, something that she had no right to.”

“You mean the boy?” Devon asked horrified. “He’s a human being, not a thing! Who was he? What does he have to do with all this?”

“That boy is Government property!” Official Vulgate cried as he stood angrily.

Chorlain cast a stern look at Vulgate and motioned for him to sit. Devon noticed that he seemed displeased with the younger official’s outburst of emotion. Vulgate, whose anger now ruled his features, cowered under Chorlain’s reproach as he took his seat and stared at the troublesome leader of Eden Advance.
“Devon,” Chorlain said with extreme calmness, evoking an air of peace, perhaps in an attempt to nullify the temporary loss of control on the Government’s part, “we do understand your curiosity, but you must understand, that information is confidential.” Devon opened her mouth to protest, but she was again prevented by Chorlain’s quick tongue. “As for your Advance team, they, especially Mr. Danziger,” Vulgate seemed exasperated at the mention of the man’s name, “willfully attempted to aid the offender’s escape. In fact, if it were not for Mr. Danziger, the boy would be in our custody instead of in the hands of those creatures.”

A dark, sticky sensation that she could not name, ran through Devon’s body. She shivered, feeling its filthy tendrils grasping at her. “The Government ‘wanted’ to kill Julia,” she thought to herself, voicing in her mind what she didn’t want to accept but what she knew in her heart was true.

Devon, forever an idealist, truly believed that the Advance team could convince the Government that their symbiotic relationship with the Terrians would be crucial and necessary to human survival on this planet. In her heart, she believed that they could work peacefully with the Government to create a better home for all of mankind, a second chance. It was the reason she had come to G889, twenty-two light years away from all she knew, and she didn’t want to give up on her dream so easily. Her dream of a new and better world would save them all; it had to, but at what personal cost? Devon took a deep breath, unwilling to count Julia as a “price” that had to be paid. She shook her head slowly, attempting to hold back the tears of sadness and anger that welled within her at the thought of her friend’s fate. “The Government would not get away with what they did to Julia,” she determined to herself.

Devon’s blood boiled as her outrage threatened to consume her, but she reminded herself that she was the leader of the Eden Advance Team, and she would not let them down. Though still angry and indignant, she placed her abundant emotions in check, deciding rationally that she needed the Government’s support to free her people and help Julia, if she was still alive. “What about the members of my team?” she asked stoically, her face and demeanor matching the emotionless masks the officials wore.

Chorlain looked at her suspiciously but welcomed her change in temperament. “Right now, they are being locked up for their own protection. The colonists are outraged by Dr. Heller’s disrespect for Government laws. Many of them think that your group is in an alliance with the aliens, and they fear the unnatural, alien changes that you will force them to accept.”

“’Unnatural,’ is he kidding?” she thought to herself. “The only thing that’s ‘unnatural’ is the way they’ve set up this town, with its thick, artificial foundation, abundant zone alarms and powerful perimeter force field. They seem to reject anything truly natural. And the frightened colonists are so willing to accept anything the mighty Government proposes, comfort and security in exchange for their free will. Everyone seems to forget that it is a ‘Station’ Government that knows little about what is ‘natural.’”

“Devon, I will not have rioting in my town,” Chorlain said firmly. “If I release your team, you need to stay to your side of town until things quiet down, if they quiet down,” he said with an air of doom that made her shiver with dread of what was to come.

* * *

“Damn it!” Alonzo yelled in frustration. He clung tightly to Julia’s unconscious form, cradling her like a baby. “Do something . . . I can’t lose her!” he demanded, but the confused Terrians just stared at him, their refusal to aid apparent in their firm stances. Desperately, Alonzo’s eyes searched around them for a lifesaver, something that would pull him out of the merciless abyss that was quickly consuming him.

Then, suddenly, he lifted Julia and carried her into the connecting chamber. The Terrians followed silently. He stood Julia’s limp body erect and held her in a protective embrace. Then glancing knowingly at the Terrians, he backed into the wall behind him, holding Julia’s body as close to his as he could. The Terrians were startled by his action and moved to intervene, but it was too late.

Alonzo leaned purposefully into the Terrian bed, and as the warm glow overwhelmed them both, he held Julia’s head to his own. His tiredness fled, and his emotions felt weightless as they drifted into dream, the Terrian dream. The world became dream and intuition became speech as his mind swirled into the enlightened realm he thought of as the Mind of the World. He did not need to speak, and he did not need to think. All else faded but for existence and emotion. His passion burned through the minds of the Terrians, opening their eyes to his world, his pain, his love.

“You feel it,” he communicated to them wordlessly. “She and I are one. There is no separation that can stand between us, not even death. If she dies and is lost to this world then so shall I be. She is part of me. I will not lose her.”

The cave trembled lightly as if in response to Alonzo’s declaration, and the Terrians trilled in unison at the human who dared to enter the Mind of the World uninvited. Alonzo, emerged from the comforting abode of the magical niche and lifted Julia’s vertical form into his arms. His stance was sure and steadfast. A single Terrian stepped within arm’s length of him and trilled. “Emissary, you overstep your bounds. You tread where you have no power. You had no right. The land aches with your emotion, your pain.” The Terrian paused and looked at Julia. Then, he trilled again. “The Mother can heal her, breathe life into her broken body, but there is a price.”

Alonzo bowed his head and closed his eyes. “Do it. There is no price I would be unwilling to pay.”

“It is not your debt, emissary, and it may be a price this one is unwilling to pay,” the Terrian trilled, pointing to Julia’s motionless form within Alonzo’s arms.

Alonzo quickly opened his eyes in surprise, and shivered at the gravity the Terrian’s words had injected into his body. He looked down at Julia’s helpless face, her blue eyes, bright and deep, now closed to him. Bending slightly, he kissed her forehead gently, silently wishing he had the power to undo everything that had happened since the Government’s arrival. They had suffered so much. When would it end? The Government was wrong, and they had to stop their malicious agenda, but Alonzo feared that he would not have the fight left in him. He was so tired.

Gazing at Julia, he realized what he was fighting for. He was fighting for their futures, together. A look of determination swept over him, and he raised his head. Clenching his jaw firmly, he said, “Do it!”

You must login (register) to review.