Territory by Deb2

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAMP

DAY 27

Uly waited until they were out of sight of camp. "Liar," he accused. He glowered at the slightly taller girl. The certainty in his expression made her acutely uncomfortable.

"I am not!" she denied. This wood-gathering excursion wasn't turning out right. Their first chance to talk in days, and Uly wasn't at all excited about hearing her adventures.

"Liar. You lied about his hurting you," the boy insisted. "*No* *I* *didn't*," True said, punctuating her statement by shoving Uly after each word.

He didn't fall like he was supposed to. He balled his hands into fists while steadying himself. "You did, too, and *you* know it!"

"Were you there?" demanded the girl, clenching her own fists. She could beat the stuffing out of that skinny brat, given the chance.

Uly took a step forward; the children were so close, it was difficult to focus, much less throw a punch. "I didn't have to be there to know you're lying."

"Oh, yeah," retorted True. "I forgot. You're part Terrian. You're not a real human anymore."

"At least I'm not a liar," declared Uly. He was surprised by True's words.

True flung herself forward, propelling both of them to the ground. Uly pinched her thigh, hard, causing her to pull away enough for him to free himself and launch his own attack.

Alonzo stumbled upon the 'confrontation'. He didn't interfere. This had to be Uly's first fist fight. The kid fought with vigor and determination and enthusiasm, but absolutely no skill. True had more of an idea what she was doing. Alonzo grinned. She was losing.

Until blood was spilled, the pilot let the kids alone, staying out of sight. Uly somehow managed to bloody True's nose; the shock of it froze the boy long enough for an enraged little girl to land a good one in return. Uly abruptly plopped on his rear, blood pouring from his own nose.

"That's it, break it up!" Alonzo called, placing himself between the two erstwhile combatants.

His presence reenergized them. They jumped to their feet, one on either side of him, spitting and threatening each other like cats. Neither dared cry or admit pain. Alonzo circled with them. He held his hands in front of the kids to 'separate' them, aware this show was for his benefit. Alonzo was amused. If he hadn't shown up, the kids'd probably be running home.

The demand 'break it up' had alerted Baines and Mazatl. The men trotted up. Both, of course, immediately gravitated to the bloody and dirty kids.

"What did we miss?" asked Mazatl of Alonzo, who shrugged. Baines didn't see it exactly that way. "We gotta get these kids cleaned up. Devon'll be so mad, she'll need sedating."

"Man, they're just kids and neither one is really hurt," said Alonzo. "Can't say you're a kid if you haven't gotten at least one bloody nose, can you, Champ?" he asked Uly.

Devon's darling, curly-headed angel was using his shirttail to soak up the blood. Part of him agreed wholeheartedly with Mr. Solace, altho' he hadn't thought of it that way before. Uly nodded his head vigorously. Another part of him wished he hadn't moved; his face hurt.

True, mopping her own face with her bandanna, said contemptuously, if somewhat nasally, "You haven't ever had a bloody nose before? What a baby!" She started toward camp, only to have Baines stop her with a firm grip on her shoulder.

"Come on, Solace, use your head! How's Devon going to react? This is *Uly* bleeding all over his shirt."

"Yeah," honked True. "His mommy will panic." She gave Uly an exaggerated look of pity. "Poor baby. Uly Adair is such a baby."

"True Danziger is a liar," said the boy evenly, answering the unspoken question, 'what started the fight?' All three men and the two children thought it a valid reason to resort to physical violence, if you were a kid. Devon wouldn't.

Alonzo, in spite of a good idea what Uly thought True lied about, and his own agreement with the boy, felt it his duty as a grownup to remind the kids it is not a good idea to accuse someone of lying. "You called True a liar?"

Uly regarded him with somber eyes, one of which was getting puffy. It would be impossible to hide the fight from Devon if her child showed up with a shiner. "Yes."

"That's a pretty serious charge."
Uly didn't reply. He looked at True. The bandanna formerly holding her hair out of her face was now sopping up blood and her hair was adorned with leaves and twigs. Her shirt was streaked red. Even her shorts had a few spots on them. A big purplish bruise marred her left thigh. That's where he'd pinched her. She looked awful. The Syndrome kid felt a glimmer of pride as he surveyed the damage he'd inflicted on his best friend. In his gut, Uly realized he'd experienced a rite of passage, tho' he was unfamiliar with the concept.

Automatically, he grinned, blood still dripping. He pointed at True. "You oughta see yourself!"

Danziger's kid glared at the rich brat. Did Uly think he looked any better? "This is how you're supposed to look after a fight. Don't you know anything?"

Uly hadn't expected her to stay mad. They had fights--uh-uh, they had disagreements all the time. He blotted at his nose again. It wasn't bleeding nearly as much as a few minutes ago. Maybe getting beat up had hurt her feelings. No. Being called a liar had. But she was. She knew it. Still, maybe he had been wrong to come right out and accuse her like that, without giving her a chance to explain or anything. Uly twisted his mouth around uncomfortably. "I'm sorry I called you a liar, True," he said truthfully.

She looked doubtful.
"Hey," said Baines, "he apologized." He leaned close and said just for her to hear, "You had to beat up on him to get him to, but it worked."

True thought this over, then smiled graciously at Uly. "Yeah, well, okay. I'm sorry I beat you up so bad."

"I thought it was kinda fun," Uly said. "Getting beat up is fun?" responded True in disbelief. Uly shrugged. "Sure. I was supposed to die before I turned nine," he explained.

Alonzo sneaked into camp and fetched Dr. Heller, who hid her diaglove and assorted tools of her trade after he told her what was going on. The nosebleeds had almost stopped by the time she got there.

"I can't possibly erase all signs of the fight. We can't waste the supplies on minor injuries."

"Can you make them look less beat up?" worried Baines. "Maybe like they fell or something."

Julia inspected the kids visually. She pushed back the obligatory flyaway strand of hair and sighed. "Let's get them cleaned up."

Devon reacted much as Baines predicted. At the sight of her son, she exclaimed, "Uly?" as if she wasn't sure. "Uly, what happened? Are you alright? Your eye! Your shirt is soaked in blood!" She scooped her son into her arms and whirled around, nailing Julia in place with a glance. "What happened to my son?"

"True punched me in the nose," Uly said matter-of-factly. "True!" reproached Danziger. He'd suspected as much, and figured Uly had punched True in the nose in self-defense. The mechanic struggled to maintain a disapproving mien.

"He hit me first!"
"What?" Devon mouthed soundlessly. She gripped her boy more tightly. He squirmed. "You're hurting me, Mom. My ribs are kind of sore." Uly hopefully asked Julia, "Do you think I might have cracked ribs?"

"Cracked ribs!?" repeated Devon as Dr. Heller said, "No chance. The children are fine. A week from now, all signs of the incident will be gone."

"Uly threw the first punch?" John asked incredulously. Devon didn't hear Julia. She heard Danziger and agreed with his disbelief. Uly was still trying to wiggle out of her arms, which had developed the constrictor-like tendency to clutch him tighter when he moved. The woman zeroed in on True.

The scruffy little bully was daubing at her nose from time to time. At least, she hadn't gotten of it unscathed. Uly *had* tried to defend himself. Uly hit first? Ridiculous.

Eden Advance gathered like iron filings to a magnet. True looked at Uly. "Well, not really," she admitted. "You struck my son?" Devon asked the little girl. How dare that tomboy take advantage of her son's small size and frailty! She'd certainly have a word with John Danziger about controlling his wild little hellion. The mama strode toward Danziger, causing the recently pummeled Uly some unnecessary discomfort.

"Mom," he said uselessly. The boy had stopped trying to break free and switched to the 'dead weight' tactic, arms dangling at his sides.

John gripped his daughter's shoulders. "True, you're a lot bigger than Uly, a lot stronger. You could have hurt him."

Devon didn't like having someone say aloud what she'd just been thinking. Uly wasn't that much a weakling. He was younger so of course he was smaller.

True looked from her dad to Uly to her dad. "He thought it was fun!" she declared.

"Now, True," began John.
"He thought it was fun?" repeated Devon, giving her son a confused look. Uly nodded.

"That's what he said," Alonzo confirmed. "They're just kids. Kids fight."

Devon raised an eyebrow at the pilot. "You witnessed the fight?"

Alonzo smiled charmingly. He sensed potential trouble here, but he'd smiled his way out of trouble before Devon was a gleam in her daddy's eye.

"You were there?" rumbled Danziger darkly. The smile lost some of its luster. It was wasted on John, anyway. "I saw part of it. Hey, I stopped them before they got hurt!"

"Before they got hurt? Alonzo, both children are covered in blood!" declared Devon. "And that bruise on True's leg--" Devon stopped short as it dawned on her that Uly probably caused it. She eased her son to the ground and looked appealingly to Yale. The old tutor smiled and took Uly by the hand.

"Let's get you into some fresh clothes, Ulysses," he said sternly, and he led the boy away.

Devon sighed and assessed the situation. True was checking the ugly black and blue evidence of Uly's self-defense. Danziger was dividing his attention between Alonzo and herself, listening to the pilot's rationalization for letting the kids fight at all, and glancing her way to gauge her reaction. No doubt he'd take the opposite viewpoint, regardless of which she took. Devon sighed again. She lightly laid a hand on John's forearm, an action which drew his complete attention and signaled to Alonzo her desire to speak.

"Don't you think True would feel better in some clean clothes?"

No, Danziger didn't think clean clothes would make True 'feel' better. That was peculiar female 'reasoning' no amount of logic could shake. So, John shrugged and directed his girl, who so far didn't show any signs of female reasoning, to change and remain in the tent until further notice.

True slowly made her way to the tent, hampered by the limp she'd developed just for the occasion. Bess and Denner exchanged conspiratorial smiles, then Denner caught up with the child, offering to help. A peek at her dad's face and the girl reluctantly refused. She certainly didn't need any help, but it would've been fun to tell Denner about the fight. That was probably what Denner was thinking, anyway. Hey!

"Let's make a deal," suggested True softly. "You tell me everything that goes on here; you know, what my dad and Devon have to say, and I'll tell you everything that happened this morning."

Denner's mouth fell open. "You are one smart kid," she laughed. "We'll see."

True lay back on her cot, grounded. Tent arrest, again. Once they got on the road, it would be TransRover arrest, again.

Uly had received a thorough talking-to from both his mother and Yale. Devon thought him adequately sorry for his behavior. The old tutor rather had his doubts about the 'young man' feeling sorry about the fight; the resulting discipline, perhaps. Uly was free to wander about, itching to talk about the fight, how exciting it was, and all, but the person he usually shared things with was his mom. She wouldn't understand. It would be great to talk to Mr. Danziger, but since his daughter was involved, he probably wouldn't be too excited about it. Yale would either scold him again or go into a boxing lecture. Mr. Solace was there. Besides, they were all busy packing up to leave. Mr. Martin? Uly wondered if he'd ever had a bloody nose.

"Several," replied the man, struggling to unknot a rope lashing the shovel to the TransRover. Why couldn't Bess have said something *before* he'd tied the shovel in place? Another whiteroot failure. He personally saw no reason to bury it since they were breaking camp. "That was Vic Green's way of asking for help with the weekly history tests."

"I like history," bounced Uly. "I'm good at it. You must be, too, or that guy wouldn't have wanted you to help him. Did he want you to help him cheat?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, he did. And you're right, Uly; history is one of my strong points."

"It's kinda fun, isn't it? I mean, you can imagine all kinds of things, like being a knight or a pirate!" Uly clutched an imaginary sword and battled an imaginary foe.

Morgan stopped worrying at the knot and considered the brat waving his arm around. In light of who was raising him, Uly was a pretty good kid. A little bit like himself, maybe, just the littlest bit. They both had vivid imaginations. The childless bureaucrat smiled, receiving a huge grin in return. "I used to pretend I was Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar. Do you know who they were?"

"They were kings, thousands and thousands of years ago," said the boy, continuing his swordfight, adding clashing noises which got on Morgan's nerves.

"Actually," said Morgan, "they were emperors, a couple of thousand years ago."

"Emperors are better than kings, aren't they?" Evidently his foe was vanquished. Uly stopped fencing, nimbly scrambled onto the TransRover bed and began swinging his legs.

"They have a good deal more power." Morgan attacked the knot again. It responded to his efforts this time.

"Do you know as much history as Yale?" "I very seriously doubt it," replied Morgan, flattered by the boy's sincere question. "But I do know a whole lot more than the average person."

"If you didn't, Vic Green wouldn't have hit you in the face," reasoned Uly, eliciting a chuckle from Morgan as he pulled the shovel free.

The man glanced around, then leaned close to the boy. "I hate to admit it--" he looked around again-- "but since we've shared this particular experience, I feel that I can trust you--I *can* trust you to keep this just between us?"

Uly, eyes wide, nodded solemnly. Mr. Martin didn't kid around with him like the other guys. But if he was going to tell him a secret, that sort of made them buddies, didn't it?

"Vic Green," Morgan whispered, "is short for Vicky Green." "Oh," Uly whispered back. "I understand. Some girls are really good fighters."

"Want to help me bury the latest white-root mess?" Uly wrinkled his nose and jumped down. "I don't think so. Bye, Mr. Martin." The boy escaped.

"Bye." Morgan began plodding toward the remains of the 'kitchen'. It was probably a good thing Uly had run off. Morgan already regretted telling him about Vic Green, and if the kid *had* agreed to help, Morgan might have told him Vic was 12 at the time: four years younger than his victim.

Eden Advance stayed on the move later than usual. They'd had plenty of practice, so setting up camp in the growing darkness was only an inconvienence. They were in a parklike area now, with far fewer trees around them and even fewer in the distance. Uly's River flowed nearby. Only the rocky banks had prevented their pitching the tents closer. According to Morgan, they were to follow the river thru the grassland for several kilometers. The next few days' travel would be easy.

But, the season was midsummer, and out from under the trees, it was hot; the sunset brought little relief. Most of Eden Advance sat at the riverside, less than a quarter mile from camp, scattered in Luma-lit little clumps or not so well lit couples, perched on rounded boulders. Yale had brought a chair and appeared to have dozed off with Uly sorting pebbles and cobbles by size at his feet. The rush of the water and the murmur of voices mingled indistinguishably, punctuated by the slap of hand against insect on bare skin.

True was sulking in the muggy tent; Walman had guard duty and was taking it too darn seriously, in her opinion. Did he think she'd try to run off in the dark? Van Helsing was out there! A stab of conscience veered her mind off on another course. She concentrated on the solitaire game in the floor before her.

Danziger sat alone, trying to relax. He hated keeping Truegirl penned up, but he'd told her she was grounded and wasn't going to go back on his word. He wished he'd come up with something else. A feminine shriek caught his ear. Bess. She and Morgan, off to themselves. Be going to bed soon. John rubbed his chin, absently aware of the raspy sound of hand against stubble. He could go on to bed himself. A stray thought, originating more in the vicinity of the loins than the brain, flashed an image of a soft, sweaty, wonderfully ardent Devon wrapped in his arms. Ardent Adair. Danziger shook his head to dislodge the picture. He swallowed, the imagined feel of belly against belly lingering.

"Hi. Mind if I join you? Yale's asleep." Speak of the devil! "No, no, have a seat, Adair." Devon hesitated. Adair? Apparently John was more upset by the fight than he'd admitted. She remained standing. "I...I really don't know what to say, I never expected the children to come to blows."

"You never expected *Uly* to," Danziger corrected. "No. No, I didn't. I've not raised him to settle disagreements with his fists."

Devon was silhouetted by the smaller moon. It looked like a halo. John snorted. "Devon, kids fight. It's normal." He added sarcastically, "True has been raised never to settle a disagreement without them." And then he smiled at the disdain creeping across Devon's face. He boldly circled his hand around her ankle and tugged. "Sit down, Devon."

She sat, eyeing him suspiciously. "I take it that was a feeble attempt at a joke."

"Yes, it was a joke. Devon," he said in exasperation, "normal, healthy kids hit other kids from time to time, especially boys. Uly is a normal, healthy boy. The little Champ got hit, he hit back. You should be happy about it." Danziger paused to allow Devon the protest he knew she'd make.

"Happy? Is this another joke?"
"No. Think, Devon! Uly's been changed by the Terrians, right? Do you ever wonder if you're losing him to them, maybe he's more Terrian than human? I know you do, it's written all over your face. You'd make a lousy poker player, Adair. Think about it. Remember Gaal and his bone necklace? Terrians don't strike their own kind, woman. Uly and True beat each other bloody!" Danziger leaned closer to Devon, staring into her beautiful eyes and said quietly, "Ulysses Adair is a normal, healthy, human boy."

Devon's lips parted slightly. John could smell the pleasant tang of redpod on her breath. "I hadn't thought of that," she said wonderingly. "John. You're right." Her arms wrapped around him and into his shoulder she muffled, "You're right."

Danziger returned the hug. It would embarrass Devon if he didn't. He held the woman against him, delighted with the way she fit in his arms. Like she'd been custom made. Too soon, her embrace loosened and he followed suit, hugs between friends having limits and all.

Side by side, the two sat listening to Uly's River. When the Martins strolled hand in hand back to camp, Devon glanced up at John and smiled. "I don't know what she sees in him."

"I know what he sees in her," rumbled John. Devon slapped his leg and innocently explained, "bug."

Julia and Alonzo wandered past, wishing them goodnight. Denner, flanked by Baines and Matazl, sang out a cheery, "Good night, sleep tight!" as the trio headed back to the tents. Her blessing woke Yale, who rose and stretched, covering a yawn with his flesh hand. The old man admired Uly's rock collection as best he could in the Luma-lite, asked the boy where his mother was, and followed him to her, stepping much more carefully than the agile nine-year-old.

"It's beautiful here, isn't it, Yale?" asked Devon. "Oh, yes. There is much beauty on G889, don't you agree, John?"

Danziger agreed. "Yeah." He had a feeling Yale meant Devon in that 'much beauty'. The old cyborg didn't miss a thing.

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