Home Sweet Home by Lynne Leeper

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Home Sweet Home, Part 6
by Lynne Leeper

Devon and Danziger followed the Terrian on a convoluted path through the trees. He eventually stopped, looked them, then pointed with his staff. Seeing that they had his message, the Terrian disappeared into the ground. The two continued on cautiously and within a few meters, saw Uly as they had seen them in the message. Danziger had to restrain Devon from rushing to her son, then pulled out the hand weapon he had brought along. He carefully scanned the trees and was rewarded by finding another figure.

This one was human, but barely. He pulled out his jumpers for a closer look. In spite of the abused condition of the person's clothes, he couldn't miss the ship's ID on the man's back. He pointed him out silently to Devon, then handed her the jumpers.

"One of ours?" she mouthed to him. John shrugged his shoulders. He motioned to her to stay there, then began to make his way around to come up behind the man.

***

The Strategist waited patiently. It was something he was good at. He glanced over at the boy who was slumped in his bonds, his hands resting on the ground. The Strategist pulled a piece of stringy tuber from his belt pouch and began to chew on it slowly. The Fighter had delivered the dark man almost an hour ago. It would take the Eden invaders time to figure out what had happened to the messenger and to get around to reading his message. Then the messenger would die. He decided he would get some rest, so put the Fighter on duty.

The Fighter wanted to rest his body, so positioned himself against a tree where he could still see the boy, but not be easily seen in return. His eyes swept the area periodically, but the forest remained unchanged. He continued to chew on the tuber.

He had been still for some time when his ear caught a soft sound behind him. His instincts pulled him out of his crouch and he launched himself forward. His momentum took him squarely into the chest of the tall blond man he had observed before. The weapon that the blond man was carrying went flying, landing several meters away. The Fighter felt the rush of adrenaline that brought him to the height of his senses and he snarled with the power he felt as he wrapped his hands around the blond man's throat. His fingers slowly contracted as his victim fought to get free, but he was too powerful to be denied his need to kill.

The Fighter suddenly caught a whiff of another of the Edenites. He thrust one foot out back behind him sharply and was rewarded with the feeling of connecting with a resilient object. He turned quickly to see who his second opponent was and was surprised to see the boy's owner sitting in a heap behind him. The movement offset his center of gravity enough for the tall man to suddenly flip him over onto his back, but the man was gasping for air and made no effort to forge his own attack. The Fighter stood up and started to move to finish off the man when the ground in front of him erupted.

A lone dirtman stood between him and the man, the dirtman's staff lit with a yellow static. A bolt
of light hit the ground in front of him, causing the forest debris at his feet to explode up into his face. It was time enough for the tall man to scramble for his weapon, and as his vision returned, the last thing he saw was the dirtman disappearing into the soil and the blond man behind him aiming his weapon at his chest and pulling the trigger. As the Fighter fell, the Strategist and the Fiend were screaming unintelligibly in his head. His final thought was one of bliss as Gregory Thompson knew he was finally free of the insane personalities he had been forced to host when he awoke on the shores of New Pacifica.

***

Danziger was barely able to stand, his throat so swollen he could hardly breathe. He saw his assailant fall to the ground and lie still. He watched him for a moment then carefully went up to him to make sure he wasn't still breathing. When he was sure, he looked over at Devon who was sitting back on her haunches, hands on the ground. He dropped in front of her and propped up her chin with his finger and could see the pain in her face.

"I'm O.K.," she told him. "Go get Uly." Danziger nodded stroking her cheek, then went to untie her son. The boy looked up at him with relief as the ropes fell away, then stiffly held out his arms to be picked up. Danziger hefted him up in his arms, cringing as Uly wrapped his arms around his neck. Uly was sobbing heavily into his shoulder as Danz carefully squatted down to deliver him to his mother. Devon looked up and reached out for him and Uly sank into her grasp. Danziger wrapped his arms around them both and sat in relief as he waited for the tears to stop.

A while later, Devon realized that her Gear was beeping. She let go of Uly with one arm and switched it on, seeing Danz doing the same. Julia's face appeared along with Walman's. Devon could see Julia taking in the scene and realizing that it was over.

"Is everyone O.K.?" she asked. Devon nodded. "We're a bit shaky, but everything's fine now. How's Yale?"

"He's regained consciences. He's in pain from his arm and the blows to his head, but he'll be fine after I get him back to camp," she reported.

"Good," Devon sighed, tired.

"Julia," Danz broke in, "Have Walman come and get us." Walman had heard and moved towards his vehicle. "We have a body here for you as well," he told her grimly. Julia understood.

The threesome had regained some of their composure before their friends found them. Walman drove up in the ATV followed by Magus in the dunerail. The two took in the scene quickly, then jogged up to greet them. Baines was not far behind in the new scout vehicle but had driven more carefully out of concern for his passengers in the back seat. Julia was there supporting Yale, taking care that his head didn't take any more of a beating.

After Walman was assured that Devon, Danziger and Uly were O.K., he and Magus went to look at the body of the stranger laying several meters away. Satisfied that Yale was stable, Julia came up to replace them, her diaglove landing on Uly first. After a moment she turned to Devon and then to John.

"Well, you all are a sorry lot," she informed them. "Uly's dehydrated. Devon, you appear to have had the wind out of you. You'll be sore for a few days. And you, John, your trachea has been stressed. You'll be on soft food for awhile." The three just looked at her, not justifying her pronouncements with further comment.

Julia went to look at the body. She ran her diaglove over the man, Walman having turned him on his back. "Anybody recognize him?" she asked. Walman, Magus and Baines shook their heads. Danziger, his curiosity finally waking up, hauled himself up to join them. He gave his attacker's face a hard stare, trying to picture his face without the long unkempt beard. He turned to the man's Op vest, and scrubbed a hand where a name tag should have been. He was rewarded with several letters faintly appearing, then it struck him. He stared back at the man's face.

"It's Greg," he said softly. The others looked at him.

"You know him?" Walman asked. Danz nodded slowly.

"Yeah, a little. His dad was a friend of mine back in the service. Greg had joined up too, like all us drones did back then, but he was a sharp kid. He made it into Special Forces.

"He was out on a mission, I never did learn the details, but the kid came back touched," Danz said, pointing as his head. "He was discharged, then returned home to his dad. His mom had died years before. She had become ill, but Dan, Greg's father, didn't have the money to get her the help she needed." Danz stopped for a moment. Devon and Uly had come up to hear his story. She slipped into his arm.

"Dan and I had worked some jobs together, so he asked me to take his kid on, as an apprentice, as a favor." Danz looked at the faces around him. "Greg was doing O.K. He did go for regular visits to the VA shrinks though. I thought that including him with the Eden Project would give him a boost, help him think he was part of something special." That last comment caught Devon's attention, but she stayed silent. Julia had found the implant at the base of Thompson's skull and was removing a chip from it. She held it up for everyone to see.

"This is a recording device" she told them. "It should tell us what happened to him, how he got here." It would have to wait until they got back to camp since Yale's arm and Yale himself were not in very good condition. The group was silent for a moment, then Baines walked back to the Scout. He returned a moment later with a pair of shovels and handed one to Walman, who gave his Magpro to Danziger. Baines looked at the group, then down at Thompson.

"He was one of us. We at least owe him a decent burial." No one was going to argue with that. It didn't take long to dig a decent grave in the deep humus and it was appropriate that it was done in silence. After he was properly buried, Devon stepped up to say a small prayer for him.

"He wasn't responsible for what happened to him. Instead, we should remember him for giving his life in the pursuit of finding a better place to live," she said softly. Danz gave her a look of appreciation.

"He also saved that cargo pod for us. It's the only one we've found intact," he said. "At least we'll arrive at our new home with more than the shirts on our backs." There was nothing more left to say. The group quietly walked down to the three vehicles and headed back to camp.

***

The events of the afternoon had put a damper on that evening. True had glued herself to her dad, and he was glad for her company as Devon had her hands full with Uly. Yale was resting comfortably but would be bed ridden for a few days. Danziger knew he had a tough task in front of him fixing Yale's arm. He hoped the pod had the supplies he needed to do it. The Tudor had been alarmed at the loss of his cybernetic functions, but knew that with or without them, he still had a home.

Julia had reviewed the data from Thompson's chip. His was the story around the campfire that night.

"From what I can tell, Thompson was responding to warnings that the cargo pods weren't releasing from the Advance ship. He apparently did an emergency EVA to try to release pod #1 manually," she began. This caused an outburst of disbelief.

"He went *outside* of the ship while it was falling into the atmosphere?" Morgan asked, his eyes wide. Danziger looked at him, then around the group.

"It was a last-ditch procedure used in the military. We were drilled to believe we were expendable and that the mission was more important than we were. An army needs its weapons and equipment, so the pods came first." He paused for a moment, then stared at the fire. "I guess Greg fell back on training when the alarms went off."

"But how did he get down to G889?" Walman asked. Julia picked up the story.

"As incredible as it seems, he rode down on the pod." The crowd got louder.

"That's impossible!" Magus exclaimed. There's no way he could have survived the heat and acceleration of pod reentry!" Again, Danziger spoke up.

"The theory goes that if the pod doesn't tumble and you can stay on top of it, use it as a shield, it *is* possible to do a reentry this way. I've only heard of it tried once when a training ship went down back on Earth. All they found was a few burnt scraps fused to the pod. I guess it was something they put in our training to give us a false hope when things go really wrong," he finished softly.

"But Thompson actually survived that trip," Morgan said in awe.

"Not really," Julia said. "When Thompson woke up he was on the beach, but he had become something else. It seems that he had several alternate personalities hidden on the control chip of his psyche monitor. This looks like another use of the type of biochip that was used on Firestein to get her to commit sabotage." Julia stopped to glance at Danziger who still felt the pain of what the Council had done to his close friend. His head was bowed, but Devon was there to console him.

"It looks as if there were three distinct personalities hidden there, and they were all released at the same time. Thompson's own personality was overwhelmed by these three. The result was a very insane individual." Most of the Eden group enjoyed the fictitious horror stories they took turns inventing, but to be faced by one that was real and affected them personally left them feeling uneasy and abused. The gang broke up after this, feeling a need to get some sleep for the job of finishing unloading the cargo pod on the morrow and to reflect on the death of one of their own.

Since Julia had given strict orders for Devon and Danziger to rest in camp the next day, the pair stayed up to enjoy each other's company at the fireside after putting the kids to bed. After a while, Danziger got up to relieve himself and Devon sat by the fire awaiting his return. She was staring into the fire, trying imagine what Thompson had been through when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Hi, Devon." True moved into the light of the fire. Devon smiled at her.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked. True looked at her, shifting from one foot to the other. Devon felt a pang of regret knowing that True wasn't comfortable with her and Devon desperately wanted to change that.

"Come and have a seat," she said, patting the crate next to where she was sitting. True hesitated for only a moment, then sat carefully next to her. Devon looked down at her and could see that she wasn't comfortable, so decided to break the ice.

"You worried about what happened today?" she asked. True stared at the fire.

"A little. It's creepy to think that that guy was out there all this time. And then you guys come back to camp all beat up," she said, shivering a little. Devon took a chance and wrapped an arm around her. True stiffened at first, then relaxed a little, but not all the way.

"Yeah. I have to admit, it was scary," Devon told her. "I don't know how I would have got through it without your dad." True looked up at her, then back to the flames.

"Dad says he loves you." A smile appeared on Devon's face.

"I love him too, very much," Devon told her. "I really didn't understand how empty I've been all these years until he became a part of my life."

"Dad hasn't come out and said it, but I guess you guys *are* getting married, aren't you?" she asked. Devon was surprised at the fear she heard in True's voice. Devon didn't know about Elle's refusals and so misunderstood True's apprehension.

"Yes, we are." Devon decided not to treat True like a child. She deserved to know what was going on. "Your dad asked me the night we got to the beach and I accepted with all my heart." Devon was surprised to see a wide grin form on True's face.

"Do we have your approval?" she asked. True decided to play this out a little.

"What does Uly say?" she asked, a serious look on her face. Devon grimaced.

"I haven't had a chance to tell him yet. Somehow, though, I think he already knows," Devon answered. True's response surprised her.

"Yeah, he probably does." She looked up at her future step mother. "I want you to know that I think it's O.K. that dad wants to marry you. I want him to be happy. It's just that I need him too."

"I know," Devon said, giving her a hug. "We know that we've been very selfish with each other lately and haven't been giving you kids the time we should. I promise that I'll see to it that it doesn't happen again!" It seemed to be the answer True wanted. She slipped off of the crate and turned to give Devon a last hug.

"Goodnight, 'mom'," True said, winking. She giggled at Devon's blush, then left her to go back to bed. Devon sat there for moment, feeling a bit breathless. She heard soft footsteps behind her and turned to see John grinning at her.

"Looks like you ladies are getting along just fine," he said, taking her hands and pulling her up. Devon didn't answer. Instead she just wrapped an arm around him and guided him to their tent, her mind overwhelmed by the roller coaster ride of emotions she had been through that day. Danziger knew she just needed him with her and was content with that thought as they curled up on their cot and fell asleep.

***

The Eden Advance Group approached the beach of the old river delta as a group and with several more loaded vehicles than they had had before. No one felt in any hurry this time so Devon and Danziger walked out onto the beach and removed their boots to enjoy the feel of sand massaging the soles of their feet. Hand in hand, they started to walk towards the waves.

"John, when you were telling us about Thompson, you said that you thought that by giving him the job, you thought he would feel as if he were a part of something special," Devon said. Danz sighed.

"Yeah." Devon looked at him for a moment and he wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Were you saying that he would think that, or were you saying that deep down inside that you felt that you too were a part of something special?" she asked. She knew how pessimistic he had been back then. She wondered if he had had any thoughts about joining the colony. He looked at her for a moment.

"It seems like it was a lifetime ago," he started. "I remember back then that all I wanted was to make sure that True had a good future. At the time, that meant just getting out from under my inherited debt. I tried never to look past that for myself. But for Greg, I was given a small window to look into what the future could be like living on a healthy planet, where people breathed real air, could go outside in the sun without needing an environment suit, or could have the simple pleasure of walking on a beach," he finished. He squeezed her hand. "I never imagined that I could find a better life for myself, let alone be as happy as I am now." Devon felt her chest tighten when she thought how different things would be for her right now if they hadn't crashed and the two of them hadn't had the time to come together. Sure she would have been happy for Uly, but she realized with that immense responsibility lifted from her, she wouldn't have had anything left.

They slowly strolled along the waves in silence for a while, then Devon pulled at his hand and pointed up to the tree line several hundred meters inland.

"That would be a nice place for a house," she said, daydreaming. He reached around to grab her other hand and turned her to face him. She reached up to give him a kiss.

"I think that any place you choose would be a nice place for a house," he told her. She moved into his embrace and rested her head on his shoulder. He enjoyed the feel of her against him for a while.

"Where would you like to have the wedding?" he whispered into her ear. She looked up into his eyes and let herself get lost in him.

"Wherever you're standing will do just fine," she answered. There was nothing more to be said. They had made it home.

-The End-

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