Context by Deborah Walsh

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

- Text Size +

Context (4/20)
by Deb Walsh

"Julia, I'm fine," Alonzo protested as Julia pressed him back onto the medical cot. She ran the diaglove over him, studying the readouts intently.

"Actually, you're exhausted," Julia pronounced in her official voice.

"Not so exhausted I can't make better use of this bed than just lyin' in it," Alonzo suggested with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"Cool it, flyboy," she replied shortly.

"What's 'Lonz up to now, Doc?" Danziger asked from the tent entrance.

"Nothin'. _Now_," Alonzo answered meaningfully.

"Good. Then you can tell me about your dream," the mechanic ordered him, kicking a stool over and dropping onto it.

"John, I -"

"Save it. You've had two Terrian dreams in a twentyfour hour period -"

"More like twelve -" Julia corrected.

"Okay, twelve. That's not usual. And both times, Devon figured in those dreams, am I right?"

Alonzo nodded morosely.

"So. What's the story?"

"That's what I'm not sure of, Danz. Yeah, both times Devon was in the dreams, but I just can't connect with the Terrians on this. It's like ..."

"Like what?"

"Like ... like we just don't have a common ground on whatever it is they're asking. They don't understand what's going on with her, with us - they don't understand why it's important to us. But obviously what we're feeling is ... I dunno ... sort of leaking onto the dreamplane so they're aware of it, even if they don't understand it."

"What? Devon being sick?"

Alonzo stared at his hands for a long moment, toying with his knuckles. "Yeah, I think that's part of it.

I think they don't understand why she's important to us. Maybe why any of us are important."

Danziger looked at him blankly, but Julia started to speak. "It makes a weird sort of sense - the Terrians are tribal, but we've seen little evidence that they act independently. The group makes decisions and they act on those decisions, but there's been no real ... individual action."

"Two _individuals_ killed Mary's parents," Danziger reminded her.

"And the tribe exiled them. We've always assumed it was because they killed those people. What if it was for acting outside the will of the tribe?"

"Are you suggesting they don't understand the concept of a leader?"

"I'm going further than that - I'm suggesting they don't understand the concept of the individual. Think about it, John - they communicate in a manner that's communal - the dreamplane. They act as a unit. We've never met any single Terrian who's in charge. And what was it you said the Elder told you, Alonzo?"

"That at one time the Terrians were more 'individuated' than they are now. And when Morgan set off that Geolock, they were disturbed by the fact that humans think with many minds, that no one human could speak for all humans. The Terrians each speak for the others in their individual tribes. D'you think that's it - they're confused by our ... focus ... on Devon as an individual?"

"But they singled Uly out when we got to this planet.

They must understand the concept of the individual - why else would they have cured him?" Danziger challenged.

"Because he was the one component in our group they could reach," Julia pointed out reasonably. She glanced at the two men and smiled faintly. "They reached out to Alonzo because he was the one most capable of dreaming with them. Maybe all those years without dreams strengthened his ability to function on the dreamplane. Uly was the only one of us who was sick when we arrived - all the rest of us were in pretty normal physical shape, considering a 22-year cold sleep. He was the only one capable of undergoing the change they made in him."

"Okay, so maybe they _don't_ know what an individual is," Danziger capitulated. "We've seen that the tribes don't all think alike, so they're not just mindless drones, but they don't have a single leader. So?

What's the problem?"

"The problem is ... I don't know what the problem is," Alonzo admitted with a sigh. "I don't know if it's because we're disturbing them with our emotions, or if they want to help and don't know how -"

"Can they?" Danziger interrupted.

"Can they what?"

"Can they cure Devon?"

"I don't know. As far as they're concerned, she's in hibernation. They don't understand what we've done with her, or why. Or why it's important to us that she be cured at all. That's what's so frightening about this last dream - they couldn't comprehend why."

"When you think about it, rationally, I mean," Julia explained, "it's amazing that we haven't had similar incidents in the past." At the blank looks she received from Danziger and Alonzo, she elaborated, "Two very different cultures, with entirely alien cultural contexts. Much of their ... symbology ... means nothing to us. We don't have the context. The same is true of them. That's why they elected to have one person be their spokesperson among us. Through one central ... lens, if you will, we can see into their culture. And you serve the same purpose back to them, 'Lonz."

"What about Uly?" Alonzo asked.

"He doesn't have enough of the cultural language to serve the same function. Uly probably has a greater understanding of the Terrian culture than you do, but he doesn't have the corresponding understanding of human culture to put it in context."

"Sounds like Mary - she didn't have the human component," Alonzo suggested.

"She did, only her understanding was like Uly's - that of a child," Julia countered.

"So, what do we do?" Alonzo asked plaintively.

"I'm goin' back on watch. He in any shape to take the next watch, Doc?" Danziger inquired.

Alonzo started to say, "Yes," but Julia overruled him.

"I'll take the next watch, Danziger. I want Alonzo to get some rest. Terrian dreaming isn't like normal REM sleep. It takes a lot out of him."

"I can be the judge of that, Julia -" Alonzo protested.

"She's the doctor," Danziger pointed out as he rose from the stool.

"And the doctor says get some sleep," Julia commanded.

"When do you want me to relieve you, John?"

"Make it an hour. I'll see you in the morning, flyboy," Danziger replied, and exited the med-tent.

"An hour," Alonzo repeated, reaching for Julia.

"An hour in which you could be sleeping. In your own bed, alone."

"_Our_ bed," Alonzo amended.

"I'm on duty. You're under doctor's orders."

"I'd rather be under the doctor ..." he grinned salaciously at her.

"Out!"

***

After Julia relieved him an hour later, Danziger looked in on True, Uly and Yale, and found them all sleeping peacefully. He smiled faintly to himself, then stumbled over to Yale's tent and fell face-down on the cot. He paused only long enough to yank off his shoes, and throw back the covers to crawl under them, and curled in on himself on the bed. Within moments, he was asleep.

***

She'd watched, enviously, as the Terrian had joined with Alonzo and the boy Uly on the dreamplane. The other humans had stood by, but they had not entered the dreamplane. She hungered for the communion of the dreamplane, and found the communication method of the humans clumsy and time-consuming. Perhaps that was one reason she travelled alone; she didn't have to resort to the unfamiliar and uncomfortable rigors of speech.

Alonzo and Uly had been ... upset, that was the word ... on exiting the dreamplane. They had not been able to comprehend the Terrian's thoughts. That was strange in itself. Terrian communication was so much clearer than words. Now the camp had settled down again, and the doctor, Julia, patrolled the perimeter with Alonzo at her side.

Squatting on the ground, her hands pressed flat against the earth, Mary felt the blurring of physical reality that was the edge of the dreamplane, tantalizingly close. Someone else was about to enter the dreamplane.

Not Alonzo. The Terrians were reaching out to the others in an attempt to get across their message. She smiled to herself and relaxed her body, letting her eyes drift shut. Just a little closer, and she might yet join them ...

***

It didn't feel like a normal dream. The light was weird - leached of color, like in the pre-dawn. He stood outside, although he couldn't remember coming out of the tent. The camp was nowhere to be seen; he was alone. Trees rustled around him, and as he turned slowly around, he realized where he was. He stopped, not wanting to see what he knew awaited him. Finally, it seemed he had no choice; he turned around and looked at the ship.

The ship was exactly as they had left it, the hatch sealed. Nothing had changed. He cursed under his breath, and started to turn away again, trying to will himself awake. Then he heard her.

"John? John, are you there?"

The voice sounded far-off, as though muffled. Which it would be if she were really calling from inside the ship. He took a step toward the ship, then halted, shaking his head. "This is just a dream."

"John? Danziger! Answer me!"

"Always givin' orders, Adair," he complained, but a smile started to tug at the corners of his mouth. With a shrug, he faced the ship squarely, and walked toward the hatch. He looked down at it a moment, then made his decision, quickly keying in the entry sequence.

The hatch opened under his hand, and he climbed down into the ship.

It was eerily quiet, the only sound the faint hum of electronics at work keeping the one remaining cryocrypt functional. He stepped gingerly, half-expecting it all to crumble away. Finally, he came into the compartment containing the sleep capsules. Blue light spilled across the metallic floor, making everything look cold and unearthly. Well, what did he expect, standing in a dream ship on a planet 22 light years from home?

"You have to make them understand, John," he heard her say, and he wheeled around to look into her face behind the cryo-tube's glass-like wall. Her lips didn't move, not a muscle twitched. She still stood immobile, frozen in time in the tube. "It's our only hope, John.

The Terrians, the earth itself, must understand."

"Devon?" he whispered. "Where are you? I can see you, but it's not you, is it?"

"I'm here, John. Here on the dreamplane. You can do it, John. You can help them understand."

"Understand what, Adair? What am I supposed to make the diggers understand?"

"Us, John. Make them understand us."

Us. Us humans? Us Eden Project? Or us Adair and Danziger? Devon and John? "What about us?"

"Who we are. Why we're here. How we fit in."

"That's a laugh, Adair. _I_ don't even understand half of it. You want me to explain existentialism to Terrians?"

There was a brief moment of silence, and Danziger could swear he could see her fuming behind the cryo-chamber wall, despite the fact she hadn't moved. "Help them understand what we mean to one another, John. All of us."

He walked up to the crypt then, and placed his hand on the glass, not feeling the cold he knew must be there.

"How can I help them understand what you mean to me, Adair? When I'm not even sure?"

"You can do it, John," she told him gently. "Look into your heart."

"Damn you, Adair. I'm not cut out for this sort of shit. This is more your line."

"Have faith in yourself, John. _I_ do."

A whooshing sound erupted behind him, and Danziger whirled to face the lone Terrian who rose improbably from the ship's deck ... a deck that had inexplicably become dirt and stone. Danziger swallowed his revulsion and stepped up to the Terrian. "She says I have to make you understand. So - what is it you want to know?"

The Terrian regarded Danziger silently for a moment, then cocked its head and trilled softly. Danziger frowned then answered, "Sorry, I don't understand the local lingo. I think we need a translator. Devon -" he started, turning around to face the cryo-tube again.

He gasped at the sight of Devon's aging body withering before his eyes, the hair white and brittle, the face wrinkled and sunken. "_No!_" he cried desperately, and raced to the tube, frantically punching in the release code. He cursed himself as he realized he was using the old code, the one before Morgan's changes. He howled as he watched helplessly as Devon's body collapsed, a bundle of bones with parchment-like skin stretched tautly over it. Within moments, she'd been reduced to dust that swirled at the bottom of the tube.

He dropped to his knees, his face pressed against the glass, his tears unnoticed as he repeated again and again, "No."

***

Mary's eyes opened abruptly, staring unseeing across the valley to the blaze of light around the tent where Danziger thrashed in his cot. She had reached the dreamplane! She had stood, awash in the eerie light of it, and watched John Danziger approach the ship where Devon Adair remained. She had heard Devon call, had followed Danziger into the ship. She'd seen his anguish, and like Yale's plea, it had touched something deep inside of her. He had not seen her, nor felt her presence - her link to the dreamplane had been tenuous, not fully formed, but it convinced her that redemption _was_ possible. Reunion with the Terrians was _not_ out of her reach.

She settled back on her haunches, and looked curiously out across the valley. She'd watched Danziger's pain, yet she didn't truly understand it. Loss she could understand, Eden Advance had helped her understand the loss of her parents, but the depth of Danziger's loss was ... unfathomable. The emotions were so complex, so conflicting, she couldn't make sense of them.

Comfortably balanced low to the ground, Mary pondered what she had seen. There was something important here, she knew. Like the Terrians, like the humans, she needed to understand, too.

***

Julia was the first to hear Danziger's cries, but she'd barely reached the flap of the tent he shared with True when she heard the others stirring. She glanced quickly into the tent, and nearly collided with Yale's solid mass. "He must be in my tent - I fell asleep on his cot," the tutor explained quickly.

They turned to divert to the other tent when they were joined by Alonzo. "In there," he pointed, and as a body, the trio burst into the other tent.

Danziger was fighting his way out of the dream, thrashing in a tangle of bedclothes and dripping sweat.

"Alonzo, get my diaglove -"

"No, I'll get it," Yale volunteered, and quickly exited.

"A nightmare?" Julia asked as she dropped to Danziger's side, trying to take hold of him. He twisted out of her grasp, still sobbing, "No."

"He'd've come out of it by now," Alonzo suggested, shaking his head.

"A Terrian dream?" Julia demanded incredulously.

Alonzo nodded solemnly. "How do you know?"

"I just know," he replied, gently removing Julia's hands from Danziger's heaving shoulders. "I think they're trying to get their answer."

"By forcing Danziger to dream with them? Wait," she interrupted herself. Danziger relaxed slightly, then surged up out of the bed with a gasp. "John, John, are you all right?"

Danziger looked around wildly, his breath coming in harsh, hungry gulps. His pupils were dilated, and Julia wasn't certain he could actually see her.

"Steady, John. We're here, it's over," Alonzo soothed.

"Julia," Yale announced, and handed her the diaglove.

Then he exited to check on the children. She fitted it on and started taking readings. "His adrenaline's at a dangerously high level," she breathed. "We've got to calm him down - he could go into cardiac arrest if these levels keep up."

"Dad!" True yelled as she raced through the entrance.

"Dad!" She shrugged off Julia's restraining hands and flung herself at her father. She knocked Danziger back onto the bed, but somehow contact with his daughter seemed to bring him back to his senses. As she clung to him, his hands, which had been clenching spasmodically, relaxed and curled around her. His eyes closed as he pressed his face against her hair. As his body was still wracked by shudders, he whispered soothingly to True, rocking her back and forth.

Julia stepped back, Alonzo's hands on her shoulders, and shook her head. Alonzo tried to steer her out of the tent, but she protested, reminding him of Danziger's condition.

"He's got all the medicine he needs right now, Julia.

Let's give 'im some space, okay?"

She glanced back at father and daughter, still caught in a desperate embrace, and felt a moment's envy.

Neither of her parents had ever held her like that, with such pure and simple love. She doubted anyone would have ever held her like that, had she not come to G889. She looked up at Alonzo and smiled, then turned toward the doorway.

Outside in the camp, everyone was waiting for news.

The faces that surrounded them were pinched with exhaustion and worry. With a jolt, Julia realized they suspected that Danziger had fallen ill like Devon.

Quickly she stepped forward to dispel that fear.

"Danziger had his first Terrian dream," she announced.

"We don't know what it was about, but apparently it upset him greatly. We're going to have to let him get some rest, and we'll learn more later."

"Danziger dreamt with the Terrians?" Morgan repeated in a squeaky voice. "He's never dreamt with them before.

What's going on?" he demanded, glared toward Alonzo, their _de facto_ Terrian interpreter.

Dragging his fingers through his hair, Alonzo shrugged.

"I'm not sure. All I know is that Uly and I have had no luck making sense of their questions. Maybe they're trying to learn more from Danziger."

"D'you think they'll try us all?" Magus asked worriedly.

"If they do, just open yourself to the experience.

They won't harm us. They're trying to understand," Alonzo assured her.

"Open ourselves?" Morgan echoed doubtfully.

"You can't keep secrets on the dreamplane, Morgan. You don't make deals, you tell the truth. Or the truth is shown to you," Alonzo said severely.

"I can attest to that," Yale interjected. "Without the help of the Terrians, I would never have remembered the truth about my past. The stronger our ties to this planet, the greater our chances for survival here. I might be dead now without them."

Morgan shivered at that. His relationship with the Terrians historically wasn't so benevolent.

"So would I," Uly announced, coming out of the tent and placing his hand in Yale's. He looked up at Alonzo.

"Did Mr. Danziger dream about my mom, too?"

Uly's question brought a sudden silence to the group.

"We don't know, Uly," Alonzo answered seriously.

"We'll have to wait and see."

"Why don't you all go back to sleep," Julia suggested, taking off the diaglove. "I doubt we'll be back on the road tomorrow, but if we're staying here, we'll need to start early to begin cataloging what's edible in this valley."

"Who can go back to sleep with the Terrians waiting to dream at us?" Morgan complained.

"Oh, Morgan - what secrets have you to keep hidden?" Bess inquired sweetly. "C'mon." Gently, she guided him back to their tent, while Morgan kept looking back over his shoulder at the others.

"I wouldn't want to make any bets on that," Walman said to no one in particular. That brought a smile to the others' faces, and with the mood lightened slightly, the others drifted back to their tents.

Only Alonzo, Julia, Yale and Uly remained in the center of camp. "You'd better get some rest - you don't know when they'll come back to you," Julia pointed out to Alonzo.

He shook his head. "I'm not going to sleep after that - I might as well stay up with you."

"I'll see to it that Uly gets back to sleep," Yale offered.

"Aw, Yale -" Uly began to protest.

"To sleep, young man. There's a great deal to be done tomorrow."

He nudged the boy toward the tent, ignoring Uly's protests. Finally, as they entered the tent, Uly's voice carried back, "At least tell me a story to help me sleep?"

Julia had to smile at that, and Alonzo gave her a hug.

"Kinda makes you want one of your own, doesn't it?"

She coughed, choking back a laugh. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Alonzo!"

"Hey, just thinkin' about the future. After all, we got a long one ahead of us."

"What makes you think that? Terrian dreaming?" Julia challenged, chuckling.

"Human emotion," Alonzo answered, his dimpled grin giving him a distinctly mischievous look.

She hefted the Mag-Pro and gave him a sidelong look as she started to stroll the perimeter. "Thought you were hitching a ride back when the colony ship arrived."

"Thought maybe I'd stick around a while, give settling down a chance. What d'you say?"

"I say, 'dream on, flyboy'," Julia replied with a smile.

You must login (register) to review.