Final Fights by pal fow

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Final Fights (7/12)
by palfow

On his way to the tent John met Alonzo who was taking away an empty bottle. "Hey, ace, how's she doing?"

"Very hungry. And she is anxious to get her memory back."

"So you trust her?"

"Yeah, I got this feeling that I can trust her, don't ask me why ."

"And what about the things Reilly said?"

"Reilly is programmed to be an a..hole. I think she has something important to say and he want her silent."

"Gee, Alonzo if he wanted her silent she would be silent..."

"No, not if her death could be harmful for him, too .... And besides that, how would he be able to kill her?"

"Right. ... But still she has to remember who she is. And that fast."

"She knows that, too. But she doesn't know why..." "This is weird."

"Got that right. Gotta go now. Why don't you talk to her?"

"I came here in order to do exactly that." Danziger walked on and entered the tent, just to find Julia scanning the woman's head.

"Hey, doc. Shell I came back later?"

"No, just stay, I'm finished anyway. ...You got no trauma and I can't figure out anything else. No illness, nothing. I don't know what is causing this loss of memory .." Julia was helpless and she hated that feeling.

"Hey, young lady. My name's John Danziger, just feel free to say John. How are you?"

"Somewhat better, but you heard the doc..."

"That will get better soon. Now, why don't you get out of the tent a little, perhaps some fresh air does you good..."

"Well, ... okay... I hate it to be nameless... Perhaps I should really adopt Alonzo's Una."

Julia laughed. "He was just kidding. But if you want to...but you can also make up one of your own. Perhaps you choose the right one without knowing it ..." Danziger smiled at her.

"What do you think of..." she considered her idea for a moment "...Devon. That name sounds somewhat familiar to me." she asked, not knowing what pain that brought to both John and Julia. Julia sighed.

"You'd better pick out another. It's a long story why this name would startle the others, okay?"

The woman felt that something had happened with someone named Devon and she was sorry that she had opened old wounds. "Okay, anything against Caroline?"

"No, that's okay with me... Let's go.." Julia gave John a sign. She would talk to him later. Whatever Alonzo said, he could be in the need to talk to someone and since she and Devon had grown really good friends she perhaps could tell John something that would help him...

Caroline was amazed when she stepped out of the tent. She could not remember having seen something like this planet before. She was amazed also she didn't know whether she was used to places like this or not.

"It's wonderful here . I can't believe my eyes. But what is this thing?" she pointed to the Trans.

"It's a vehicle. It's called Trans-Rover. It can drive." Zero said out of nowhere. He had finally realized there was one more person and had gotten curious in a way only he could get.

"Huh, what is that????" now Caroline was completely stunned.

"I am Zero."

"Oh, I see. I am uh, Caroline." It sounded more like a question than everything else.

"Person originally X is now Caroline" Zero had gotten what he wanted. Some ID for the person that was suddenly there among the others. Julia let out a small laugh.

Later that day, the colonists had decided to stay there for two days and see if Caroline's condition changed or if Reilly showed up once more, Julia went with Danziger to the nearby river. On their way they went past Morgan who had his VR on and was waiting for Reilly to tell them more. When they reached the river Julia sat down on stone and glared into the fast running water. It had a blue, almost turquoise color. Some fish swam next to a small leaf where an insect lay. It was an harmonic atmosphere but not to the two human beings.

John walked up and down the bank, his hands deep in his pockets. He hadn't said a word up to now. He was still fighting with what Caroline had said.

"It is so wonderful here. I would never want to go back to the stations." Julia said.

"Yes, me too. But it would be much more fascinating if Devon was with us."

"She would stand here only for a second and then remember her duties and be the boss, just to make everybody work.."

"That's her. Yeah. She wouldn't be able to rest long. Always on the search, always up to something, always another, more difficult aim to reach. That's how she likes life."

"Even on the beach she didn't relax, she was so sure we had reached New Pacifica."

"Yeah, but there she also just stood and watched the tide, moments before we went back." he remembered it to clearly. As if it had been yesterday. It cut like a knife. "Uly seems to be doing pretty good."

"He has the optimism from his mother."

"Definitely.... ...John, what happened between you and Devon?"

"I don't want to talk about that, okay?"

"Sure, but you know you can always come when you want to..."

"Thanks, Jul." There were a few seconds neither of them said something.

"John, why do you say Jul?"

"My Grandmother's name was Julia. Grandpa always called her so. I don't know why. Why... don't you like it?"

"Oh no... I love it. There's a story to it." she smiled.

"Ah, some old lover... c'mon doc, tell me ..." he grinned.

"No. My brother Tom used to call me so..." she said, noticing that John was slowly calming down and getting normal again. Normal to the point someone could get, stranded on a planet like this and just having had to leave the person you cared much about, the person you had secretly loved for a long time.

"You have a brother?" he was curious.

"Two... one. Tom died when I was 22."

"I'm sorry... what happened to him?"

"They say it was an accident, I never believed them..."

"They???" he had an idea who "they" were but still prayed he was wrong.

"The Council. He wanted to get out. It got him killed, but that was never proven."

"That's horrible, Julia." So much about family traditions...

"It didn't take me long to realize what that meant for my life... My mother was in the Council from her first day. Just as me and my brothers. We had to play along. Tom was never someone to be told what to do. He didn't like authority. You remind me of him in some special way."

"The thing with authority sounds familiar... What about your other bros?"

"Steve... I hope he's alive, but I don't know. You know, I never told anyone... but I didn't come here willingly... the Council decided I should go... when I refused they threatened to kill him. And I believed they would do that. So I went here." John was shocked.

"Reilly can be glad to be just a program, otherwise he wouldn't have a happy life if I got near him.... Why didn't you tell us all this?"

"Would it have made a difference back then?"

"No, but it would have helped us to understand why you did all that."

"I know...You see, at first I hated it to be sent here, but now I love this strange planet. I've made a lot of friends I care about and much more than that... I only want to understand why you acted so strange lately..."

"That's why you told me this, hmm?" he put on a sarcastic smile.

"No. Like I said, I never told anyone before and right now I felt like I had to tell someone." she tried to smile.

"So I was just the guy to be there when it blurted out?" he knew what Julia meant. It happened to him once with Wentworth...suddenly nothing can hold you back from telling someone your biggest secret...

"Somewhat. Yeah. And are you gonna tell me now?" she hoped so but also expected him to keep it to himself. And maybe that was even better.

He glanced at her. "You can be very stubborn, too..."

"You're again the one being stubborn. Perhaps it helps to talk about it."

"I'm really sorry, but I think Devon wouldn't want everybody to know that."

"Okay..." she gave finally in.

They were silent for a long time. The sun was setting and the color of the river had darkened. The leaf was long gone and with it the strange looking fish.

The others had opened the campfire and were now sitting in front of it. Long looks often lay down on Caroline who sat next to Alonzo. Everyone was around except John , Julia and Yale, who was taking the kids to bed.

John turned to Julia.
"What did Devon tell you when you were alone with her?" he refried to the few seconds Julia was alone with Devon while she prepared her for cold-sleep.

"Not much. She was hardly there, her voice very low and she had a hard time bringing out two sentences."

"Something about me?"

"No. Just about Uly...that you should look after him, raise him. She told me she trusted you and that she believed in you."

"Not more?" he inquired further.

"No, she... hey what's up there?"

There was a loud yelling from the camp and the two rushed back. In his tent Uly was sitting in his bed, crying and yelling like hell.

"What the heck is up here?" Danziger stormed into the kid's tent where True already was trying to calm him down.

"Daddy, he just won't stop. He woke up and immediately started..." True was in a panic. All the others stood around the tent, worried and curious.

"Uly, can you hear me? Uly, stop yelling. It's me, Julia. Uly, calm down." Slowly he relaxed a bit. He stopped with the yelling but still sobbed.

"You all right now?" Danziger looked into the white face of the boy.

"Yeah...... it's.... okay..... now..." he breathed hard.

"Did you dream something bad, boy?" Yale was worried.

"Yes and she died again. She always dies and nobody can help her..." he began to cry again.

"I´ll give you something to sleep. Don't worry, it's just a dream, your mom's safe." Julia took out a sedative of her bag.

"Champ, it's okay. She won't die. Nobody can do that to your mom, I promise."

"Thanks, John." His eyes closed and he slept.

"True, did he tell you that he was having these dreams?"
Julia looked at the girl, who stood there, somewhat shocked, too.

"No, never..."

"It's okay, True, don't worry. He'll get all right again. I promise." True nodded and climbed back into her bed. But she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep.

Uly entered the dreamplain. He looked around. No Terrian there, he would have to wait. When one showed up he began to dream with him. But the Terrian never had heard of one of his own wearing clothes. He couldn't help him with this.

Uly dreamed himself once more to his frozen mother, but again the Terrian seemed not capable of helping her. He only stood and watched her, trying to touch her. But his fingers didn't get through the glass. He left.
Uly fell back to normal sleep.

Caroline who had remained at the campfire was troubled. Something bad had happened here. But what was it? The whole day she had tried to figure out who she was and why she came here alone. There must have been a really important thing to travel 22 light-years alone to a planet like this. From Yale's recordings she had an idea what life on the stations was like. Full of hard work,
without much joy, no real flower, it was a kind of programmed life. Every step was planned, nothing was done out of nothing. So why did she come here???

Perhaps she knew something about this group and had wanted to protect or otherwise to destroy them. Yale had told her about the Council, about his activities here on the planet. He had also pointed out that there was the possibility that she was a spy. But she didn't believe in that. She liked the people here, especially Alonzo, but she knew he belonged to Julia. She wanted to join these people, to learn more about them. But there was one point that she impossibly could forget. John's face and Julia's reaction to the name of Devon.

She didn't know why she had said this name, it just suddenly came up. She felt that it was somehow important, as if a key which can open a door. She felt like in a dark room, where there was somewhere a light switch but she didn't know where and that perhaps this Devon could turn on the light.

The others came back to the fire. But the once relaxed mood was now full of pain and hopelessness. She didn't really want to bring up the subject but she had to find out who she was.

"I hope you don't take it bad on me, but I just have this feeling that I know something about Devon. Could you please tell me, what happened to her?... but if I am too indiscreet..."

Yale sighed. "No, it's okay. Sooner or later you need to know what happened anyway, and this moment seems good enough to find out." He began with what a person Devon was. How she had never given up to save her son, how cool and calculating she had fallen her decisions. He explained her believes, described her way of handling even the most difficult conflicts. He told her about the problems they already had had on this planet.

When he came to the end and reported how they got ill, everyone was extremely silent. They remembered it just too well. "We all got healed. But not Devon. We think that she was not ill because of the biostate chips, like Elizabeth had called them. The disease must have been caused by something else." Yale ended his story and looked at Caroline who sat there very silent. She seemed to be in deep thought. When for several seconds there came no reaction from her, Yale cleared his throat. But before he was able to say one word, she stood up, her eyes clearing at whatever in a distance.

"The biostate chips were supposed to" she said with a strange sounding voice "were supposed to monitor every step of this group. Once installed they can only be removed by giving a special code into the computer which controls the activities. To find out that code one has to outwit this computer." She looked up, more troubled then ever before. The others were also shocked.

"You can remember everything now?" Julia stood up and approached her. She checked Caroline's data (was her name really Caroline?). They were almost normal.

"No, only this. Somebody told me, but I can't remember who it was. It just came up when Yale talked about the chips. I don't know why I know this and if it could somehow help Devon."

"Caroline, can you remember something else, for example if it would kill us when the chips were removed?" Yale spoke calmly but with a demanding voice.

"No...no" she shook her head "I don't know if I am the good one or if I am evil, but I know that I don't want to harm anyone of you now. I can't say if I killed you or not if I knew who I was . I'm truly sorry."

"It's okay . Perhaps you should go and get some sleep." Julia brought her to a small tent they had put up for her.

At the fire Danziger and Yale tried to find an answer to the question what they should do now.
"We'd better watch her tonight and we should go back to Devon." Yale spoke everyone's thoughts.

"Yes, perhaps it can't help Devon, but I am quite sure it can help us." Alonzo followed Julia. There was nothing more to discuss.

The next morning everybody was up early. The sun was just starting to rise when half of the camp was already packed away. They were in a great hurry and they knew, that it could be for nothing. Uly was mostly silent this morning. He couldn't wait to get to his mother, to see if everything was all right. He helped where he could to make things go faster. Danziger couldn't stop him from running around like crazy.

But not everybody was as anxious to get there. Caroline still wondered why she knew about the chips and she asked herself whether she remembered how to fool Reilly. It wouldn't be easy, but once they had achieved it, they would not longer depend on him. Danziger was somewhat frightened to see Devon again and still being unable to help her. He wanted her so desperately, more than anything else he had ever wanted and still he wasn't sure what he'd do if they could heal her, how he would talk to her, how he would or better should act towards her...it kept him thinking. Julia felt almost the same. She had been helpless before and this time would perhaps be not very different. No, it would be different . If she could not help her this time, it would be even worse. Coming back with nothing against Devon's illness would be worse. It would be just as telling yourself what a what a miserable doctor you are. Julia knew that nobody thought of her like that, but she felt like one.

Alonzo was ready first. He sat on the single ATV, not bearing the thought to wait a minute longer.
Finally everything was on the Trans and they began their walk. It was not a walk forward, and yet it was. They didn't get their aim New Pacifica any nearer, but they approached freedom from the Council. They would have to walk quite a long time to get back to Devon. They had walked ten days when they found Caroline and they had to walk this ten days back. Danziger and Yale had calculated that they could do it in nine days, if everybody walked faster and if the walkers and the drivers were changed more often. They now changed every hour and within the first day they were already nearer than they had supposed they might come. They walked until the sun had nearly completely set and built up their camp. Not every single tent, like usually. They had agreed to sleep with four people per tent, so that they would be faster with coming on their way the next morning.

The days were very similar. On the third day they had walked half of their way. The mood was getting more and more tense. They were mostly silent, kept their feelings to themselves as they knew everybody felt the same things. What would it be to see Devon again ? How would they , especially Uly, cope with it? Would they be able to remove the chips? These were questions everybody asked himself, but no one had answers to.

On the fifth day something changed. Caroline, who had said no word since her sudden outbreak, was getting extremely nervous. When asked why, she had no explanation. Julia kept an eye on her, like Morgan. He still didn't trust her. His mistrust had even grown. He watched her as she ate, he watched her as she slept and he would even watch her relieving herself if not forbidden by Bess. Bess thought not very much of the activities of her husband although she had to admit she didn't trust Caroline to the extent Alonzo did. But Bess knew Morgan would sooner or later come to rest. It was his normal reaction to strangers. And if not , she would help him find his right way.

The days went by and Morgan was still suspicious. They were all totally exhausted but they still marched on like before, knowing they had to reach the ship as soon as possible. In the evening of the seventh day, they were only ten more miles away. It was already dark, the children were sleeping and the vehicles were getting slower. But Danziger didn't want to lose more time and so they went on. It was midnight when they reached the ship.

There was no sign of tiredness or exhaustion. They raced into the ship and found Devon, still in the cryo-chamber. Julia immediately checked her up.

"The functions are normal. Everything's is as it was when we left her."

"And now, Caroline , what comes next?"

She said no word, just stood there and looked at Devon. "I can remember her. Her face, her hair, everything seems familiar. But no more."

"Okay, people, let's go and get some hours of sleep. We'll discuss everything else tomorrow." Walman slapped on John's shoulder and went out.

The others followed him. Alonzo was the last, he hesitated a moment and looked at John who was still there. Then he walked to Julia. "Do you think he'll stay the night in there again?"

"Wouldn't you?"

"You're right. I love you, Julia."

"And I love you, Alonzo"

John stayed back and looked at Devon.
*This is not fair, Adair. You don't' know what you did to me. You have no idea how much I'm suffering. You can't imagine what pain I'm going through. Do you realize what you've said back then? Ha, not loving me. I don't buy this Adair, in no way. I can't believe it, because... oh, yeah, good, John, now you're already talking to yourself...get this woman out of your head!!! If that was only as easy..*

Uly watched them and when they were gone he slowly approached the ship. He wanted to see his mom. To talk to her, also he knew she could not answer him. He missed her and it was becoming more and more hard to do without her, now that he was here again. At first it hadn't been so bad, cauz the Terrians had told him it would get okay, but they hadn't come to him during the last days they had been travelling.

Inside John sat on the floor and thought of Devon. His head was in his arms and so he didn't realize Uly was coming in. Uly sat quietly down next to him.

"John, do you think that Julia can help her out?"

"I don't know, Uly. But one day she will come out again, I know that." John lifted his head and smiled at the young boy he was responsible for. He was so much like his mother...all hat he'd been through in his life, faced with death much too often for his age and he had never lost his optimism. It was really an admirable kid, just like his daughter. He was glad the two had each other. He had noticed the lately conversations between them and felt they were now becoming real friends. Friends for life. And maybe, a very, very vague maybe, sister and brother.

"You love my mom, don't you?"

"Yes, Uly, I love her."

"And she loves you."

"She told me something different."

"She didn't mean it."

"Why are you so sure? You don't even know what she said."

"She told you to go on without her and she denied that she loved you..."

"Hey, where do you know that from?" he was once again amazed at the ability of the young boy to know exactly what is mother would do. He wondered if he should tell Uly that exactly that had happened. "Hey, she's my mom. I know her best after Yale and I can tell what she thinks. I feel that she loves you. I just know it. She needn't tell me."

"You're a clever boy, Uly."

"You didn't believe her, did you?"

"No, not really..."

"Then how come you were so angry?"

"I dunno, kiddo. The whole situation had gotten on my nerves, I'm sorry ."

"That's okay with me. But you should talk to True. She's a bit annoyed that you treated her like that. You know her."

"Yes, you're right, Uly. You should go to bed now. The last days were really hard." he grinned. Not only did the boy know his mother very well, no, now he lectured him about his daughter, too.

"I´d like to stay here."

"Okay, then lay down." Uly laid his head on Johns legs. He fell asleep the same moment.

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