Context (19/20)
by Deb Walsh
"Well, that wasn't so bad," Morgan Martin breathed into the darkness. Overhead, the rain still pelted down, and in the dim light cast by the perimeter lights, he could see the droplets splash in little starbursts on the waterproof material. He snuggled down, warm and safe in his cocoon of blankets, Bess curled next to him, and counted himself a lucky man.
"What wasn't so bad?" Bess asked sleepily. He was caught in his own thoughts and didn't register her voice at first. He felt her shift position, rolling over and rising up on one elbow. Dragging her unruly hair out of her face, she prompted again, "Morgan?"
"I had a dream, Bess. I don't know why, but the Terrians didn't show me something terrible. They showed me ... well, they showed me our future. A future we could live with, Bess. A future where we have a chance."
"Better than what I dreamt."
"Much better," he agreed, turning toward her and taking her hands in his. "Bess, we really do have a chance to make it on this planet. The secret, Bess, the secret is ... well, what we've been doing to survive. Working together. Cooperating. Finding alternative methods to do things so we don't hurt the Terrians."
"In other words, behaving like adults instead of spoiled children, Morgan." Bess was completely awake now, and sat up in bed. "We couldn't survive without working together, Morgan, but it took us all a while to get to the point where we could work together.
Remember the Geolock? God, Morgan, we almost destroyed ourselves and Yale because of that and what was it, really? Greed? Revenge for Devon ordering us around?
We weren't working with everyone else when we did that we were looking out for number one. How can we expect 250 Syndrome families to learn to cooperate the minute they land if it took us months to learn it and it took almost dying to convince us?"
Bess's painful reminder of his own venality cooled Morgan's excitement, but embers still burned deep within. "Well, we'll have to plan carefully. We'll have to have the colony set up and running by the time they get here, won't we? Work out the details of things that might be problems. Like power, land grants, mining rights, that sort of thing. We'll have to involve the Terrians from the start."
"That sounds great, Morgan. There's just one thing
we're nowhere near New Pacifica. You really think we can do all that in the next 18 months? Because that's all the time we have to define an Utopian soe talking about a virtual pol ice state cooperate
or ... what? Die? Face exile?"
"No-o. We're not talking about a police state, Bess
we're talking about a democracy. Or the closest thing that's possible with humans. Concensus. Oh, I admit
it will be difficult. Maybe even impossible. But we've got to try, Bess. It's our best chance."
***
In the tent Alonzo shared with Julia, Alonzo sighed and rolled over. Julia, disturbed by the movement, awoke, and touched him gently on the shoulder. "Alonzo?"
"The dreams are over, Julia. Now I can sleep."
She rested her cheek against his shoulder and smiled.
"Good night, sweet prince ..."
"Mmmm ..."
***
"Shank, I can't believe it's still raining!" Magus declared, peering out through the mess tent flap into the deluge beyond. "I just hope we don't end up floating away!"
It was morning, although outside it appeared more like twilight under the dark sky. Many of the Eden Advance group had assembled in the mess tent for breakfast, lingering in the shelter of the tent to avoid going back out into the heavy rains. The Martins hadn't appeared yet, since it wasn't Bess's morning to prepare breakfast, and Mary and the children were sleeping in.
Julia and Alonzo were also absent, and once everyone had realized that Alonzo had been sharing all the dreams, no one begrudged either one of them some extra sleep. Baines had pulled patrol duty. The remainder of the group were scattered around the mess tent, drinking coffee, eating their breakfasts, working on small, portable tasks.
"Or the lake doesn't overflow its banks," Danziger put in, looking up irritably from Morgan's tracking device.
"Maybe we've just stumbled onto G889's rainy season," Mazatl suggested reasonably.
"Yeah, but how long does that usually last?" Walman demanded.
"On Earth, a rainy season could last for months in tropical zones," Yale provided, glancing up from notes for today's lesson plan. "But this is not a tropical climate we may simply be experiencing a particularly widespread storm."
"Any chance the camp's in danger? I remember watching an old vidcast about mudslides taking out some city," Denner asked warily.
"Man, we're a cheery group," Danziger grumbled into his coffee. "Any other imaginary disasters we can come up with? Or don't we have enough already?"
"I imagine anything could happen, but this area appears to be relatively stable. There's enough ground vegetation and trees to anchor the soil, except perhaps in the most extraordinary circumstances. Two days of rain probably isn't enough to qualify."
"What if it keeps going on?" Magus pressed. "What if it rains for weeks?"
"Then we may have a problem," Yale agreed. "But we don't know that we do right now."
"Yeah, let's not go borrowing trouble, people," Danziger growled. "Man, I hate being cooped up. I'm gonna go take a look at the TransRover, then check on the kids." He shrugged on his still-wet rain poncho and left the tent.
After he had gone, Magus asked quietly, "Still no word, huh?"
Yale shook his head. "Perhaps we will know more when Alonzo awakes."
"Know more about what?" came Julia's voice from the entrance.
"Hurry up! I'm drowning out here!" called Alonzo from behind her. As one, Julia and Alonzo burst into the mess tent, water splashing everywhere from their rainslicked ponchos.
"Hey! I just got dry!" Walman protested, jumping out of the way of the spray of water.
"Sorry," Julia murmured. "It's miserable out there.
Is that coffee I smell?" she asked hopefully.
"Or what passes for it here," Cameron replied, stepping away from the coffee pot to let the two waterspouts closer.
Eagerly, Alonzo poured two cups of coffee while Julia peeled off her poncho, taking care not to splash any more water around the teyou ..."
Magus gestured around the room, receiving negative answers. "What about Baines?"
"We'd've heard if he'd been dreamin' with the diggers
he'd be howling to Earth and back about it," Walman chuckled.
"That's true," Alonzo replied, grinning. "So, who's left?"
They glanced around among them, comprehension dawning slowly. "Morgan?" Walman suggested, incredulous.
"Well, it sure as hell wasn't Danziger. Yeah, our petty bureaucrat had a go on the dreamplane. And he didn't do too badly, either. I think Morgan's learning."
Walman snorted. "Learning what? How to duck out of his fair share of work?"
"Learning how important all of us are to the success of the colony. About how each of us brings something to this group to make it better, stronger."
"We were talking about Morgan, 'Lonz," Walman reminded, grinning.
"I am, too. I know Morgan's caused his share of trouble since we crashed "
"Before we crashed, too. Remember he and Bess hijacked an escape pod "
"But that's in the past. I honestly believe Morgan is trying to make up for it, to make a contribution to the welfare of the group."
"Not so's I've noticed. You know something we don't, Flyboy?" Walman challenged, folding his arms across his chest.
"I "
"Yes," Yale interjected suddenly. "Morgan has been working with the sunstones to help me crack the security blocks in my data bank, so I can access Council data. He links directly into the sunstones and my data systems through VR it's not the most comfortable experience, I can assure you."
"Figures, doesn't it? Morgan finds a way to play in VR, no matter what," Walman sneered.
"I wouldn't call what Morgan and Yale are doing playing, Walman," Julia inserted forcefully. "We know the Council withheld a great deal of data about this planet from us. Data we could use. Data that could mean the difference between life and death for us. And both of them have been working hard to get at that data."
***
The others were still mulling over Yale's and Julia's revelations when Morgan and Bess entered the tent with a hearty, "Good morning!" from Morgan. He didn't notice the odd looks directed his way as he made straight for the coffee pot. Bess registered something strange, frowned slightly, but dismissed it as simple caffeine-deprivation. Julia raised an eyebrow toward Alonzo, who simply grinned.
***
Danziger had doublechecked the tarp covering the vehicles, tightened the lines, twitched the waterproof fabric into place in several locations, and deemed it satisfactory. Not optimal, but satisfactory. He never got quite the right environment for the well-being of the vehicles, but he made do. Thinking back to life on the stations, to the too-small unit he'd shared with True, the lifetimes' debt he'd inherited from his grandparents, and the payments necessary to keep Ellie in neuro-stasis ... this would do, he guessed.
Rain was still pummeling the ground in fierce bursts, like tiny percussion shells. It was just rain, not the acid rain of Earth, but the clean, life-giving thing that Terran rain had once been. But, damn, it was cold!
He'd only been checking over the vehicles for about half an hour, but already he was deeply chilled. A cup of hot coffee would do the trick. As he glanced over at the children's tent, he realized they hadn't ventured out into the weather. Good, True was a bear when she had the sniffles, and he didn't relish dealing with a cold where Uly was concerned. And he had no idea what Mary's immunities were. Somehow he'd gone from having one kid to three well, two and a half, maybe. Mary was stuck somewhere in between. Anyway, while he was getting coffee, he could put a tray together for the kids a little breakfast in bed on a dreary day like this might help their spirits, and maybe save him from rotten tempersgether a tray of three bowls of porridge and three hot drinks. Draping the front of his poncho over the tray, he dashed back out into the rain.
"Hey, anybody in there?" he called out as he came up to the tent. True called out, racing to the tent flap and pulling it back for him. He ducked under and came into the tent interior. Chaos met him; the kids had obviously been busy this morning, despite the apparent quiet from outside. Pillows were scattered everywhere, bedclothes were churned up, and True beamed at him with a beatific smile a sure bet she'd been up to mischief. Mary and Uly were sitting on the floor, Terrian-style. Danziger sighed heavily. Some family!
"Breakfast is served," he said, earning enthusiastic greetings from all three of them, including Mary. He put the tray down, let them pick up their bowls, then added, "And after you're finished eating, I want this place cleaned up. Looks like a Grendler cave in here."
While he was standing there trying to look stern, he felt a vibration beneath his feet. "What the " The tremor grew stronger, causing waves to form in the drink cups, and within seconds, liquid was sloshing over the edges. "Damn! Stay here!" he commanded, turning toward the tent entrance. He pivoted back to them and added, "Stay together, stay down, and throw some of those blankets over you. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Dad!" True called anxiously. "Be careful!"
"You, too, True-girl!" he yelled back over his shoulder.
He sprinted across camp, barely keeping to his feet as the earth heaved. He nearly collided with Alonzo as he pushed through the entrance to the communications tent.
"What the hell is going on?"
Morgan was frantically trying to get a reading on the seismic activity. "I don't know but it looks like the center of it's about 10 klicks oh, my God "
Danziger whipped out the device Morgan had keyed to the ship and stared, disbelieving, at the display. "The ship. The ship's in danger." Danziger pivoted quickly, darting toward the vehicles.
"John! John, wait up!" Alonzo hollered after him. To Morgan, he ordered, "Get Julia. Have her get her medical kit."
"Right," Morgan agreed, pulling his gear off and following Alonzo out of the communications tent.
***
Danziger was tugging the cover off the ATV when Alonzo reached him, and the pilot insisted, "The Rail, John
I'm going with you, and so is Julia."
Danziger paused, the tarp bunched up in his fists, and stared at Alonzo sightlessly for a moment. Reason returned, and he nodded once. "All right." He tossed the cover back onto the ATV and stalked over to the Rail, uncovering it quickly and jumping into the driver's seat. Alonzo straightened the cover on the ATV and joined Danziger in the Rail.
They were pulling out of the vehicle area when Danziger had to put on the brakes. Mary stood in the path of the Rail, rain streaming down her face. "I go, too," she announced solemnly.
"Look, we can't take the whole camp " Danziger snapped.
"It's all right, John. She could help. The Terrians "
"All right, all right get in. Where the hell is Julia?"
"Right here!" Heller called, ducking her head in the rain as she stumbled across the waterlogged ground.
She tossed her kit to Alonzo and scrambled into the back of the Rail with Mary. "All set."
"Hold on tight this isn't going to be a pleasure ride," Danziger admonished.
"Just don't go too fast, John we can't do Devon any good if we roll the Rail."
"I'll keep it to the speed limit, Doc. You just hold on back there!"
With a roar, the Rail spewed mud in its wake as it lumbered out of camp.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Sections 1 through 19 of "Context" are available by ftp from ftp://members.aol.com/debfic. Each section is saved as a file (i.e., cont1.txt, etc.). If you find you're missing any sections, please feel free to retrieve them from the ftp site, rather than ask me to send them to you - that got to be pretty expensive for me when I was posting sections regularly.