Independent Means, Part 1
by Simon Kattenhorn
Chapter One
Julia Heller's eyes fluttered open. For some reason, not immediately apparent to her, she had difficulty bringing into focus whatever it was her eyes were attempting to see. Her initial thought was that it was lack of sleep. "Probably dozed off for a few minutes or so," she thought. After all, she had spent the previous four days trying to fight off all signs of fatigue that stemmed from the inadequate amount of sleep she had been permitting herself lately. This was not unusual for her, after all, whenever she was faced with a particularly challenging or urgent medical task. Then it occurred to Julia that she didn't seem to be lying on her cot after all. She became aware of the sensation of something sharp digging into her hip. Her eyes had begun to focus slightly, and the realization set in that she was looking at a blue canvas of sky, flecked with gently moving clouds.
"Where am I?"
The thought was vocalized groggily as she tried to make sense of what the circumstances may have been that had led her to be lying here on her back, talking to clouds that remained indifferent to her existence.
She tried to sit up; an action that was immediately countermanded by a feeling of wooziness. Julia lifted one hand to support her suddenly heavier head and groaned softly. Her fingers felt the roughness of caked blood on her temple and her senses immediately snapped into a state of acute awareness. Something was wrong.
Standing slowly, Julia took in her immediate environment. Her head hurt. However, she could feel that the wound was minor, and subconsciously filed away a personal note of the possibility that she may be suffering from a mild concussion.
"No time to worry about that now," she thought silently.
Julia scanned around her, looking for signs of nearby Eden Advance crew. This didn't feel right at all. She didn't recognize any of the landscape. How on Earth had she gotten to this spot and ended up unconscious on the ground? Where *was* everyone?
She was standing at the base of a steep incline that curved off to either side of her, suggesting she was at the foot of an isolated hill on an otherwise featureless plain. Looking off into the distance, she identified a number of similar flat-topped mesas dotting the landscape. The steep sides of each mesa were evidence of a resistant sandstone layer that had preserved them from the ravages of erosion which otherwise would have eradicated the mesas entirely. Julia glanced up the adjacent slope, hoping to see some evidence of how she had come to be here. Logic suggested she had probably fallen down the steep incline and been knocked unconscious, even though she had no memory of it. In fact, she was alarmed by the realization that she had no memory of anything beyond a brief conversation with Devon, after which time she had returned to her tent and resumed her tests on the roots.
The roots! How could she have forgotten? Julia felt a sense of panic invade her. People were sick because of the roots. She had been looking for a possible antidote or remedy. The memories came flooding back, and she became more and more alarmed. How long had she been unconscious? How long ago did she have that conversation with an increasingly nervous Devon? It was imperative that she find the camp. The Eden Advance crew needed her. And yet, still she could find no explanation in the patchiness of her memory for her being here, in the middle of somewhere apparently foreign, seemingly alone. Julia shuddered visibly. But no one was there to witness.
This was a feeling with which she was painfully familiar.
***
"Julia?"
Bess tapped on the outside of Julia's tent a second time, and spoke again, slightly louder.
"Julia? It's me, Bess. Are you awake?"
There was still no reply. Bess shivered slightly and cast a glance at the pinkish dawn sky streaked with grey clouds before lifting back the flap on the tent and stepping inside. She felt guilty about possibly having to waken Julia. It was obvious Julia had not gotten much sleep lately. But people were sick. They could do nothing *but* sleep, it seemed. Even Morgan had been reduced to a few slurred words a day. This was a state of affairs that might have seemed an incredible stroke of luck in the opinion of other members of the crew under different circumstances. Such as ones in which they too weren't plagued by slurred speech and only brief episodes of consciousness. But not Bess. She missed Morgan's voice and companionship. She would give anything to hear him talk again as soon as possible, even if it were to only hear him complain about some trivial detail that no one else could care about anyway. Others considered Morgan too whiny, but they were wrong.
"They just don't understand him the way I do," Bess thought to herself as she adjusted her vision to the darkness inside Julia's tent.
She expected to find Julia asleep on her cot, or perhaps, more likely, hunched over her mediscope. Instead, the tent was empty. Bess frowned, then stepped back out of the tent, wondering to herself where Julia might be this early in the morning.
"Bess?"
Bess jumped, startled by Devon's voice. She wasn't used to others being awake this early. Usually Bess was the only one tip-toeing around at this time of morning, other than whoever was on watch, and even then, it was never guaranteed *that* person would be awake. It was a habit she had gotten into as a young girl on Earth, in an effort to spend at least a few minutes in the company of her father before he went off to work his shift in the mines.
"Devon- you're up early this morning," Bess half whispered. "Is Uly okay?"
"He's asleep," responded Devon, the lines of worry showing clearly around her mouth as she grimaced. "I wanted to ask Julia if there had been any developments with the skin."
"She's not here." Bess tried her best to hide any sense of alarm. "She must have gone for a walk. Maybe to clear her head."
Bess made the motion of searching around, looking for signs, *hoping* for signs, of Julia walking around the vicinity of the camp. Julia was nowhere in sight. Devon did the same, as if the fact that *she* were searching for Julia would make the result a more successful one.
"What skin?" asked Bess quizzically.
"The roots," responded Devon. "She thinks the remedy for the toxins in the flesh of the roots might be in the skins. She was going to search for more answers during the night."
"Well she's not here," Bess shrugged.
Devon frowned. "Let's try and find her. You go that way. I'll look over here," she gesticulated. "Uly's fever is up and I think Julia should take a look."
Bess started walking off in the direction Devon had indicated, looking for signs of Julia. She couldn't help feeling a little bitter at Devon's attitude over Julia. It was as if Julia was her *personal* physician, around for the sole purpose of attending to Uly's needs. Morgan was sick too! But Bess couldn't feel that way for more than a few seconds. After all, Uly was only a little boy. And who knows how complete his recovery from the syndrome had been? Maybe he was more susceptible still to sickness, moreso than everyone else. It had only been five or so months since the Terrians had apparently cured him of that awful illness. Morgan was the world to Bess, but Uly's medical needs came first. There was no doubt in her mind.
Devon worked her way around the various tents scattered around the camp. Outwardly, she appeared calm, but inside her was a bitter torment and battle with guilt. Uly was sick and she wasn't. It just wasn't fair.
How many times had she thought that to herself in the last few days? She had lost count. There was no help to be had from the Terrians. Alonzo had been out for days, so access to the dream plane was closed to them, and there hadn't been any physical encounters with the elusive race of underground dwelling natives of planet G889 for weeks. Devon was sure they would try to help Uly if they were nearby. The bond they had with him was obvious, even if Devon *did* try to avoid the fact from time to time, as if it encroached on her role as a mother and protector.
Julia didn't appear to be anywhere in the confines of the camp.
"Where *is* she?" Devon thought anxiously.
***
True stared at the still features of her father's face and sighed deeply. The only indications that he hadn't forever slipped into the everlasting sleep were the small flaring of his nostrils with each breath, and the way the movement of air into and out of his lungs caused his chest to rise and fall, bobbing True's head up and down in the process. She had fallen asleep the previous evening with her father's hand held tightly in her own, and her head resting on John Danziger's chest. That way she could hear her father's heartbeat- feel the life within his body.
"I'm not ready to lose you yet, dad," True said to her father, her voice unwavering in a sense of strength of which she was sure her dad would be proud.
"We're gonna find out how to make you all well again. I promise."
Danziger turned his head to one side suddenly and mumbled something incoherently. True wondered what dream was going through his mind. Maybe he was dreaming about her mom. She smiled at the thought that perhaps, during all this madness, her dad was lost somewhere in pleasant memories of life before G889.
Not that True hated G889. In fact, the greater the amount of time spent on the planet, the more she was realizing how much she was in love with it. Memories of the stations were slowly fading away, becoming increasingly insignificant. At first, it was the sheer foreigness of this planet that filled her with bewilderment. The feel of dirt through her fingers. The sound of birds, *real* birds, flying through the sky. The whisper of wind through the trees. The beautiful, mesmerizing motion of a real river, with more water than she had ever seen before in one place. But as these things became rooted more in her sense of normalcy, she began to appreciate the planet on a deeper level. She may only have been a young girl, but she knew what this planet meant for mankind. For the Syndrome children.
True often wondered what it was that had possessed mankind to have allowed such devastation to be wrought on their own planet. If it had been even one half as beautiful as G889, it would have still defied imagination to destroy it in any way. But destroy it they had. With pollution. With war. With greed. True could feel the sense of hope that this new planet offered her, and the rest of the Eden crew, and anyone else who came here looking for a new life. Oh she hated the trek to New Pacifica at times, and the fear at each step of the way that some insurmountable danger lay just beyond the next horizon. But if she had the chance now to return to life on the stations, she couldn't imagine wanting to make that adjustment. All she wanted was for dad to get better so that they could carry on again- on to New Pacifica.
True released her grip on her father's hand and tried standing up. Her right leg had gone to sleep. She shook it and couldn't suppress a small giggle. It seemed inappropriate suddenly, with her father laying right there, unconscious, but it made her feel better anyway. She looked at her dad again, smiled at him, and walked over to the tent door and outside. Emerging from the tent, she almost ran right into Devon.
"True, is Julia in there?" asked Devon, trying to hide any indication of alarm that might be present in her voice.
"No," replied True. "Just dad. He's sleeping. I think he's breathing better today."
"Sure, True. I'm sure he is."
Devon smiled at True and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"Before you know it, your dad will be back over there working on the transrover, and making you work right along with him."
True gave a broad grin and ambled over to the fire, which had been on the verge of dying before Cameron appeared and threw on a few more pieces of kindling.
"Cameron, did you see Julia come by here?" asked Devon.
Cameron looked around to double check, then shook his head no.
"Thanks."
Devon worked her way back over to Julia's tent, almost simultaneously with Bess.
"Any luck?" asked Devon.
"Nothing," responded Bess.
Devon frowned. She was worried, and she could see a similar sentiment mirrored in Bess' face.
"Okay," Devon continued, "let's get everyone to the campfire. Now."
***
Seven worried faces looked from one to the other beside the morning campfire. Seven remaining members of the Eden Advance crew who weren't incapacitated by the after-effects of eating the fleshy roots four days previously. Seven healthy people where there should have been eight before the disappearance of the group's doctor.
"Julia's gone," Devon said evenly.
It was more a statement of fact than informative. By this stage everyone sitting around the fire was perfectly aware of Julia's disappearance. Except no-one had the energy to overreact anymore. Caring for the sick had left their energies and emotions pretty much spent.
"Who was the last to see her?" asked True.
Devon looked at True. She couldn't help but feel admiration for her. Not many young women her age would be holding up so well under the present level of strain. She was growing into an intelligent and strong woman. In many ways, she reminded Devon a lot of herself when she was that age.
"That's a good question, True," Devon responded. She addressed the entire group, saying "I saw her before I turned in last night. As far as I know, I was the last person awake other than Julia. Did anyone else see her during the night?"
The question was met with silence, blank looks and slight shakes of the head. Devon felt the frustration building as a tightness in her stomach. If there had been less people bedridden, they would have been able to maintain the regular night watch, so that someone may have seen Julia leave the camp, but as it was, exhaustion was only a short path away for most of them. Having someone stay awake all night would have been too much for them.
Besides, they hadn't encountered anything for over two weeks. Not a single Terrian, or Grendler, or Koba. In fact, the number of wildlife in total had fallen to only the occasional rodent sighting every few days. For some reason, most of this part of the continent was notably under populated by all forms of life, fauna and flora combined. It was the reason they had been forced to eat the fleshy root four days earlier, even though they hadn't encountered this particular form of vegetation at any stage of the journey leading up to their present location. They had hardly noticed it *here* even. Despite the half-meter or so length of root beneath the ground, the plant had virtually zero above-ground component; no more than a short twig with no foliage.
They had only made the discovery themselves after Morgan had tripped over one of the stiff twigs sticking out of the ground, causing him to lose his balance and fall in a bellow of curses and profanities, much to the delight of Uly and True. It was only at the current camp location that they had finally found flourishing vegetation again, including numerous edible plants, which certainly made things easier on the members of the group that were busy tending to the sick.
"Did she give any indication that she might be leaving camp during the night when you spoke with her?" asked Bess.
"None," replied Devon. "She said she was going to try a new avenue of research into the problem with the toxin, but that was it."
"Maybe she had some kind of breakthrough and went looking for something she needed."
Devon turned her head to acknowledge the source of this statement.
"I was thinking the same thing, Yale. But what? And where?"
Yale shrugged. He was beginning to feel a lot more inadequate than he would have liked. After all, his mind was a treasure-trove of more facts than the rest of the Eden Advance crew combined could hope to store in their heads in a lifetime. And yet, here he was, clutching at straws with the rest of them. He had tried helping Julia with her research but this particular chemical substance wreaking havoc on the group was beyond anything he had ever encountered previously. It was frustratingly complex in its inherent chemical simplicity.
Devon stood up and wiped the dust from her clothing.
"We need to start a search party," said Devon decisively, "and here's how we'll do it..."
Six figures craned their necks to look up at Devon and listen to her plan. Six people, whose responsibility it was to find Julia quickly or run the risk of losing the sick members of the Eden Advance crew forever. Devon described her plan, turning her head slightly every few seconds to rest her gaze on each of the people around her. Yale. Bess. True. Magus. Denner. And Cameron.
"Let's go," said Devon.
Story Notes:
Dear Edenites
Here is a little blurb and disclaimer to accompany my first attempt at Earth 2 fan-fic, entitled "Independent Means".
Independent Means is a short story based on the Amblin/Universal television production, Earth 2. All characters, names, and trademarks are the copyrighted property of Amblin/Universal.
This story, COPYRIGHT 1996, is completely my own, and is unaffiliated with Amblin/Universal.
I would like to acknowledge a few people who have assisted greatly in bringing this short story to completion. So my most sincere thanks to Katherine Tate and Lori Young for their superb editing skills.
Also, many thanks to my bio-research team (!): Mai Munch, Vicky Nickerson, and Joan Powers. And all my thanks to the entire Eden Advance fandom, for keeping the dream (plane) alive. You are ALL great!
Independent Means is set on planet G889, five months after the arrival of the Eden Advance group, and thus approximately two months after the time of "All About Eve". The Eden Advance crew continue to trek towards New Pacifica. No explanations are offerred for how Devon is brought out of cold sleep- I have left that open to the imagination (or the stories of other authors, who have covered this topic extensively).
I hope you enjoy my contribution to the Earth 2 universe- please feel free to send me any feedback (in fact, I *insist*!!).
But be nice! This *is* my first attempt at Earth 2 fan-fic!
Cheers,
Simon Kattenhorn
Here is a little blurb and disclaimer to accompany my first attempt at Earth 2 fan-fic, entitled "Independent Means".
Independent Means is a short story based on the Amblin/Universal television production, Earth 2. All characters, names, and trademarks are the copyrighted property of Amblin/Universal.
This story, COPYRIGHT 1996, is completely my own, and is unaffiliated with Amblin/Universal.
I would like to acknowledge a few people who have assisted greatly in bringing this short story to completion. So my most sincere thanks to Katherine Tate and Lori Young for their superb editing skills.
Also, many thanks to my bio-research team (!): Mai Munch, Vicky Nickerson, and Joan Powers. And all my thanks to the entire Eden Advance fandom, for keeping the dream (plane) alive. You are ALL great!
Independent Means is set on planet G889, five months after the arrival of the Eden Advance group, and thus approximately two months after the time of "All About Eve". The Eden Advance crew continue to trek towards New Pacifica. No explanations are offerred for how Devon is brought out of cold sleep- I have left that open to the imagination (or the stories of other authors, who have covered this topic extensively).
I hope you enjoy my contribution to the Earth 2 universe- please feel free to send me any feedback (in fact, I *insist*!!).
But be nice! This *is* my first attempt at Earth 2 fan-fic!
Cheers,
Simon Kattenhorn