Promise of Tomorrow, Part 1
by Vicki Firth
Copyright 1995
Morning sun rose to crest the tall pines surrounding the camp. Its beams drove away the slight chill that had been brought by the late summer night and brightened the glade where the Eden Advance group prepared for another day's journey on the road to New Pacifica.
As always, morning saw the camp in a frenzy of activity. People were moving about, packing up tents and supplies, loading the vehicles in preparation to move on; soon enough the lingering light of evening would force them to halt until they were greeted by the dawn of a new day.
Everyone had a job to do, whether pleased to do it or not they were all reconciled to their duties. Everyone was busy.
Except Devon Adair, of all people.
Devon sat on a crate, the supplies she was supposed to be loading onto the Transrover strewn about at her feet. She watched the group go about their tasks, but her eyes did not really focus on anything.
Her mind was focused on one thing. And he was driving her to distraction.
It had been a few weeks now since the night she and John had been alone on the mountaintop. A few weeks since they had finally succumbed to the passion and the need they had for each other.
It had been wonderful. It had been right. It hadn't happened again.
Therein, lay the problem.
Devon had been the one to declare that they should keep their newly revealed feelings for each other a secret from the group. John had agreed with her reasons. She felt that if the group saw them as being together, they might feel as though they had lost a second voice in their leadership. That Devon and John, once together, would make all the decisions and the group would not be able to sway such a unified force.
John had agreed with her and had gone along with the game of keeping their romance a secret. But now, he was playing the game too well.
When they had first returned to the group after that night on the mountain, there had been long looks they shared which put a secret smile on Devon's face and a warm glow in her heart. There had been stolen kisses and clandestine touches out of sight of the others. But privacy was not something that came easily. It rarely came at all.
This last week it hadn't mattered. Whether they were surrounded by everyone or no one, John hadn't wanted to be near her. Whenever she had approached him he had found any sort of excuse to leave her company.
For one of the first times in her life, Devon Adair had a problem she didn't know how to resolve.
She couldn't believe that he was regretting that night or regretting the feelings he had allowed to be freed with her. Yet she didn't understand why that emotion had suddenly turned cold.
Her mind was spinning with unfamiliar responses. Part of her wanted to march up to him and give him a good smack on the lips with her own, the rest of the group be damned. Part of her wanted to just smack him, period.
Above all, she just wanted to know that everything was okay, that this love she felt growing inside of her day by day was not destined to be unrequited.
The rising sun danced across her face and its glare hit her eyes, bringing her out of her reflections and back to the bustle of the camp.
Realizing all of a sudden that she had been sitting around lost in thought while the others were hard at work she stood to begin heaving her belongings onto the vehicle, hoping no one had noticied her little fit of melancholy.
Julia had noticed, however. She'd noticed a change in Devon's mood the past few days. Devon had been full of exuberance and energy the last month, more so than she normally was. She had been driven by more than ambition, she had seemed buoyed by exhilaration with something. But these last days that spark had vanished from her eyes.
The doctor had been watching Devon this morning, as she sat listlessly by the Transrover while the others had packed up camp. As her friend, Julia had wanted to ask Devon what was bothering her, but had sensed that she would be met with a reluctance and probably a refusal from Devon to reveal whatever personal anxieties she hid. As her physician, however, Julia felt it was time to get to the root of what ailed their leader.
She strolled over to Devon who was throwing supplies onto the Transrover without much notice as to where they were landing. She had just narrowly missed knocking Walman off the top of the vehicle as she flung a case directly at him, without seeming to notice he was there.
Julia reached out to touch Devon's arm but had to jump out of the way of a bundled tent that sailed by.
"Devon." Julia smiled at the other woman who paused in the act of hefting a small crate. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Sure. What's up?" Devon put down the crate and looked questioningly at the doctor.
"Well..." Julia didn't quite know where to begin and didn't quite know how to find an opening that would not be greeted by an immediate rebuttal.
It never hurt to try directness. "What's wrong with you?"
Devon's brow arched slightly. "Nothing. Why?"
"You haven't been yourself lately. You've been ... well, you've been moping around, Devon. Did something happen between you and John?"
"No. What makes you say that?" Devon schooled her features, but inside her heart started to pound a little bit faster.
"You and John haven't been arguing lately," Julia gave a small laugh. "With any other two people that would be considered a good thing. But with you and John it's not normal. You're constantly bickering at each other. But lately that's stopped. Lately, in fact, you don't seem to be speaking to each other at all."
Devon forced a laugh, which sounded a bit harsh even to her own ears. "Maybe we just don't have much to talk about. We're different people, Julia," she said cooly. Then she gave her an artificial smile. "Don't worry about me. I'm alright. I've just had a lot on my mind lately."
Julia looked at her for a moment, then realized that she would be told no more. She sighed softly. "Okay, Devon."
She turned away and then stopped to face her once more. "You know I'm here if you ever need someone to listen."
Devon's look softened and it revealed a little of the real woman currently hiding behind a rigid mask of composure. "I know." Her smile faltered momentarily. "Thanks." Devon turned back to her work until Julia had wandered away.
Once the doctor had left, Devon leaned against the Transrover. 'That's it,' she thought. 'It's one thing for me to notice the distance between us, but it's another thing altogether when others start to notice.'
Her gaze searched the camp for Danziger and found him loading up the Dune Rail. She made her way over to him.
John was putting a supply of rations into the vehicle, which had been separated from the rest of the food supplies.
Halting in front of him, Devon placed a hand on her hip. "What are you doing?"
He looked at her without much expression. "Yesterday when I went for that scout around before dark I saw what looked like a reflection of sun off of metal in an area to the south. Since it's out of the way for us, I'm going to go on my own to investigate it today. It might be something from one of our cargo pods."
"Well, you're not going alone," Devon said testily. God, he really wanted to get as far away from her as he could.
"I thought I'd take Alonzo with me," he said, gesturing to Alonzo who was putting some other supplies into the Dune Rail.
"No!" Devon said the word more sharply than she'd intended and drew some strange glances from those nearby. She continued in a calmer fashion. "I mean, I haven't been on a scout lately. I could use a change of pace. I'd like to go."
Danziger shrugged. "Suit yourself. But by the time I make it out to the area I saw through the jumpers, there won't be time to catch up to the rest of the group before dark. I'll be gone overnight."
"That's not a problem for me. I'm going." She gave him a look of defiance and when he did not argue with her she marched off to collect her pack of supplies.
Devon took the time to advise Yale of their intentions and to check the maps to see approximately where the group would be when she and John would meet up with them tomorrow. She spoke to Uly, telling him to be good while she was gone, and was back at the Dune Rail within fifteen minutes.
Danziger was already sitting in the driver's seat. "You ready now, Adair? The day's not getting any longer."
She glared at him and flounced into her seat. "Do you have all of the supplies we'll need, including gear?" When he nodded in reply she said, "Okay, let's go."
They drove out of camp and into the seemingly infinite and empty forest beyond.
***
They had been travelling for about half an hour and the only sound Devon had heard was the wind whistling through the trees and whipping past her face as the Dune Rail travelled through an area of rolling hills, meadowlands and thickets of pines. Her companion had not appeared interested in any sort of conversation so she had kept her silence. Every second that the silence when on, however, her blood ran hotter.
How could he do this? He had been loving, he had been giving, he had been withdrawn, he was silent. She was angry, she was confused, she was upset. Most of all, she was frightened that she had given her heart to him and he had taken it, only to throw it away like yesterday's trash.
She couldn't stand it any longer.
"Stop the Rail."
John glanced over at her. "What?"
"Stop the Rail, John. Now."
The vehicle ground to a halt. John turned to look at her, one arm dangling casually over the steering wheel.
Devon took a deep breath. "Look John, we're both adults. Whether we like it or not, we're not going to be able to avoid each other. So if there's a problem here, let's be honest about it. If you're regretting what happened between us, I want to know. Just tell me. Do you still have feelings for me, or not?"
He looked at her, with her chin held high, her pride shining in her eyes. To anyone else, she might look convincingly calm, unruffled. But John knew her too well. He saw the vulnerability that was masterfully hidden. He saw the defenses that were slowly being built to combat a possible infliction of pain that might come from him.
One moment he was looking at her, the next he had crushed her to his chest. He drove a hand into the strands of auburn hair at the nape of her neck and tilted her head back.
"What do you think?" he growled, before his lips descended to ravish hers.
A low sound halfway between a gasp and a moan came from Devon before she took hold of masses of his sunlit curls with both hands to drag him deeper into the kiss.
Her apprehensions flew away with the wind as she sought to get her fill of all that she had been missing from him in the last days.
John's mouth left hers to trail along the slender column of her neck. Then his hands began to undo the buttons of her shirt, his lips following their descent.
He paused only when Devon yanked his shirt over his head so her hands could explore the planes of his broad back.
Their frenzied movements betrayed their mutual need for each other and soon could no longer be contained within the confines of the vehicle. Not breaking the rhythm of their kisses, John clasped Devon tightly to him and stumbled from the Dune Rail.
They fell to the soft forest ground a foot from the vehicle and gave in to their desire.
Their passion was fulfilled quickly as they had neither the luxury of time not the patience required for leisurely lovemaking.
They lay holding each other, arms entwined, until the race of their hearts slowed to normal and their breathing steadied once more.
Devon disentangled herself slightly from John's hold to prop herself up on one elbow. She trailed a finger slowly across his chest.
"I'm sorry I doubted you," she said. Her words were soft, her smile was huge. Her eyes danced.
"I'm sorry I gave you a reason for it." He caught her hand by the wrist and brought it to his lips for a kiss. "I just couldn't stand it anymore. Being with you every day but not being able to be with you like I wanted. It was driving me crazy. I thought that maybe if I ignored you I could deal with it. I guess that wasn't the best idea."
"I forgive you. You've just made up for it." Her lips brushed his softly and then returned for more.
Danziger had to break away. "Don't start that again or we'll still be laying here when the caravan comes on by. They'll be coming along behind us this far until our path changes and I don't think you want them to catch us like this." He looked ruefully at their dishevelled appearances and at the trail of clothing strewn between them and the Dune Rail.
Devon laughed. "Do you think they'd suspect something was up with us?"
"They probably already do." He kissed her once more.
***
They didn't have reason to fear the rest of the group coming along and finding them. The rest of the group hadn't left camp yet.
Everyone was waiting on Morgan Martin.
In the past, it would not have come as a surprise to have to wait for Morgan. It was commonly known and not denied by Morgan himself that he had a strong aversion to labour of any sort. It was only at the nagging of his wife that he would complete most of his designated chores and even then they were done half-heartedly and not without more than a little complaining.
However, back at the winter camp, Morgan had found a job that he needed no motivation to attend to. It was a task that the whole camp relied on him to take care of and they had infinite patience with him while he was working on it.
Morgan had found that by tinkering with the group's electronic detector array he could pick up pulse transmissions of zeta-particles emitted by Eden Advance's lost cargo pods. Though his first success at locating a cargo pod had resulted in a tragic event for the group, he had been encouraged by Devon to continue to monitor for transmissions. Twice more he had found cargo pods. The first had been discovered empty, but the second had resulted in the group coming away with some additional clothing supplies and a small cache of food that had been hidden in a compartment and had withstood the ravages of the local Grendler population.
That morning, shortly before they were to pull out from camp, Morgan had detected a faint zeta-particle reading. The movement of the group had been delayed until Morgan could get a more accurate fix on the transmission, which had taken a couple of hours.
It had been decided shortly after the ill-fated mission to cargo pod #9 that in the future if the group located other pods they would travel together to them. This had already resulted in a couple deviations from their intended course, but the possibility, albeit faint, of locating a pod with additional vehicles or an aircraft had been deemed worth the loss of travel time.
Morgan had found cargo pod #3.
Yale had immediately tried to raise Devon and Danziger on gear once Morgan had confirmed his readings but had got no response. He had to assume that the receiver on their set of gear was turned off, and knowing Danziger this was no great surprise.
He had conferred with Julia and they had decided to make a change from their intended course that day and head in the northwestwardly direction leading to the pod.
Julia had voiced her concerns about the possibility of something being wrong with the gear set that Devon and Danziger had with them. They could not change the direction of the group without alerting the other two about where to meet up with them the following day. It had been decided that as a precaution Julia and Alonzo would take the ATV to meet up with Devon and Danziger and lead them back to the group. Though Julia and Alonzo would only be a few hours behind them, they would likely not catch up with them until early evening, so the foursome would rendevouz with the rest of the group at the cargo pod the next day.
That decided, Julia and Alonzo parted ways with the group and all settled in for the accustomed long day of travel.
End, part 1. Concluded in part 2.
Author's Chapter Notes:
(1) This is a continuation of my previous story 'In the Beginning', in which Devon and Danziger finally admitted their feelings for each other and surrendered to them. This story examines how they deal with those revelations and is pretty much pure romance. (2) Special thanks to Joan Powers for allowing me to use the idea from her story 'Natural Talents' of Morgan's electronic aptitudes. For more detail on this, read Joan's story.
(3) A nod to the Earth 2 mailing list for the discussion concerning how basic human needs such as birth control will be dealt with in the future. I thought it interesting, so I included a few notions in this story.
(3) A nod to the Earth 2 mailing list for the discussion concerning how basic human needs such as birth control will be dealt with in the future. I thought it interesting, so I included a few notions in this story.