Choices by Tara OShea

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After all Eden Project had been through, the funeral almost destroyed them.

Two years after crashing on G889, two years of hardships, travelling, and finally establishing the small town that would be forever known as the first colony on G889 (conveniently, for the sake of the history books anyway, ignoring the penal colonists), while two hundred and forty five families celebrated second chances, three mourned their dead.

Sasha Christenson, aged seven.
Michael Matthew Warner, aged four. Nomura Yoshi, aged eight.
Seventeen people stood in a half-circle around three small graves on the cliffs above the Sea of Anteus, as Yale spoke solemn, comforting words about this life and the next. Perhaps those words meant something. To someone else.

They didn't mean anything to Nomura Miko. She watched her mother, Hanako, cry silently. She couldn't cry. All she could think about was how far she'd come.

For nothing.
Her brother hadn't come out of cold-sleep. She'd known the dangers, all of them had. But they hadn't seemed real, not until they'd stood in the coldsleep crypt of the hospital ship and watched Dr. Vasquez and his team try desperately to save him, and nothing had worked.

Miko blinked and looked up, meeting John Christenson Jr.'s red-rimmed eyes. Sasha had been his world, the seventeen year old would have done anything for her. Had done. Miko chewed on her bottom lip. A year apart, she and Jack has been friends ever since they'd first met. He was her only friend, really. Ever since Yoshi'd been diagnosed with the Syndrome all her free time had been spent in the children's ward on the Stations. There weren't many kids their own age to talk to who would understand. Know what it was like.

When Devon Adair had proposed the Eden Project the year Yoshi'd been born, it seemed like a dream. Hanako had made the decision in a split second, she'd have done anything, gone anywhere to see her son well.

And now they were light years away, a lifetime away. Miko blinked as she realized yale had finished speaking, and the group was beginning to break up. She let the hand that rested on her sobbing mother's shoulder slip to her side, fingers curling and nails digging half moons into her palm as she heard the first shovelful of dirt hit the casket. She blocked out the sound, which wasn't hard, as the roaring of the sea filled her brain and soul and all the empty spaced left inside her.

Devon Adair was crying. That shouldn't have surprised Miko, but it did. Her son had been healed, while Hanako's had not, and that should have burned somewhere, just a little.

It didn't. And try as she might, Miko couldn't summon up the rage she wanted, as she watched Adair kiss her son's forehead, and wipe away her tears.

Alonzo entered the room he and Julia had shared for the past three months, and froze. There was a stranger standing before the mirror.

"What?" Julia asked, fastening the last button on the shining white labcoat, and took her caduceus pin from the dresser and affixed it to the lapel. Her long blond hair was swept back in a neat bun, and she had even put on some lipstick. It was like deja vu.

"You're awfully dressed up." He dropped a kiss on the back of her neck, and she twined her fingers in his hair, leaning back against him.

"Dr. Vasquez seems to think I've gone native. I'm hoping that people will take me a little more seriously if I look the part this time around. I borrowed this from Susan Michaels, mine well... probably burned up on reentry."

"Hold it, who doesn't take you seriously?" He pulled back, his dark brows drawing together in a frown.

"Dr. Vasquez just needs time. For him, it was only three days ago I was the most junior member of his team. Now I'm the one with all the hands-on experience, and he's resenting it a little, that's all."

"Devon'll back you up, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about." Alonzo kissed her ear.

"I don't need to have my hand held right now, don't worry about it, I'm sure it'll blow over."

"You know she trusts you."
"I know. Like I said, I'm sure everything will work out." Julia smiled brightly, but Alonzo knew it was just for show. But if she was determined to gloss over her fears, he was just going to have to wait until she was ready to open up to him.

Alonzo could be a very patient man. The operative word in that sentence being 'could'. He undid the button she had just done, smiling wickedly. "There is something about seeing you in this that makes me want to see you out of it. Tell me Dr. Heller, do all your patients have this reaction?"

"Alonzo!" Julia's eyebrows rose, as did a flush as he traced the line of her collarbone with his lips. "I just got dressed."

"I knew I should have gotten here earlier." There was a knock at the door, and Sheila Willis poked her head in. "Hey, Ace, you bus--Oh." The colony ship pilot was too jaded to blush, as the two flew apart, but Julia felt her cheeks bloom deep crimson, while Alonzo just grinned sheepishly. "Something tells me that would be an affirmative."

"Damn straight. You always did have lousy timing." "I need to get to the hospital," Julia refastened her labcoat, expression stony, and slipped out past Sheila, who still leaned in the doorway.

"Oh dear, I seemed to have embarrassed the good doctor," Sheila observed as Julia's footsteps retreated down the stairs, and Alonzo closed the door.

"She's a little shy."
"She didn't seem particularly shy a moment ago." "Okay, try reserved then."
"I never would have pictured you going for the 'reserved' types, unless you finally decided you liked the challenge?" Before being tapped for the Eden Project, Willis had only know Alonzo Solace by reputation, and once she had gotten to know him, she had learned that the reputation only scratched the surface.

She remembered a cocky, brilliant pilot whose charm had been so completely natural that women couldn't seem to help falling into his arms, and that only seemed to increase the twinkle in his eye, his self-confidence radiating a full foot in front of him at any given time.

Standing before him now, she was aware of the subtle changes. The smiles were genuine, and there was no trace of the ego she remembered so well. Oh, it wasn't like he'd been insufferable, but he had always been aware of just how good he was, no doubt about that.

"Julia's a very special woman."
"Oh, I'm sure she is. And so was Bettina on Mars colony. And remember Cathy at the lunar drydock after that mining freighter you mangled out in the belt?"

"Hey, I never told you about Cathy!" "So Cassidy has a big mouth." Sheila shrugged, and sat on the end of the bed, bouncing slightly.

"He was just jealous because he missed out on this gig," Alonzo laughed, remembering the kind of trouble he and Cassidy had gotten into back at sim training when they came out with the first Charon class ships. Five entire weeks of school, drinking, stories, women... "and I didn't mangle that freighter, it was bad code in the nav computer, the damn thing wasn't up to stations specs by any stretch of the imagination--"

"Yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses." Sheila waved him away, and sat down on the end of the bed, looking up at him curiously. "So, what's the story?"

"What story?"
"Come on, I heard Adair's version, what about yours? Is this for real, this whole dreamplane nonsense?"

"Oh, it's for real alright."
"I thought you didn't dream."
"I didn't. Not until I came here." Alonzo leaned against the wall, resting one elbow on the dresser. "It's for real, Sheila."

Julia took a deep breath, and then pushed open the door to the children's ward.

Sunlight streamed in through the windows that lined one wall, and she could see Uly at the end of the long row of beds, hear his voice raised in excitement, his arms thrown wide as he described something for a cluster of children, whose expressions of childish delight were punctuated by the occasional cough.

Soon, that would all change.
Soon.
"Dr. Heller, how good of you to join us," Dr. Vasquez looked up from his diaglove, and patted the arm of the child whose vitals he was taking. The little boy looked up at Julia with owlishly, dark eyes wide in a pinched pale face, and her heart, as it always had, went out to him. She fumbled for a name in the murky recesses of her memory, and came up empty.

"You remember Max, don't you?" Dr. Vasquez prompted, with a smile for the boy, and Julia forced her own features into a similar expression. For God's sake it had been over two years to his handful of days, could he hold time against her as well now?

"Of course I do. How are you, Max?" "Uly says when the Terrians heal me, I can run as fast as he can. Will I be able to run right away?"

Julia was caught speechless, and looked to Vasquez for what to say. These children had already endured so much, and she wanted to tell each and every one of them they would be laughing, and playing, running and jumping within a week, but it wasn't her place.

Not anymore.
"If there's a cure here, Max, I promise you'll be the fastest of them all." Dr. Vasquez tousled the boy's sandy brown hair, and pulled the sheet closer around him. The child smiled weakly and then drifted into a fitful sleep.

"What are we going to do, Jack?" Miko squeezed Christenson's hand as they sat on the cement stoop before the main entrance of their dorm block, lifting their pale faces to the sun. Miko's spiky bangs fell in her eyes, and she impatiently pushed the blue black strands off her forehead for the millionth time that hour.

She stared at Jack's blond hair curling at the base of his neck, and saw his shoulders tense beneath his sweater. He blinked rapidly, and then took a deep breath.

"I came here for Sasha. Now that she's gone..." Jack shrugged. "I just dunno, you know? My dad wants to go back."

"We can't go back, you heard what Adair said. They tried to blow us up. As far as the Stations are concerned, we're all dead. there's nothing to go back for."

"Tell that to John Christenson Sr." "What's he going to do?"
"Probably demand a place on that colony ship. What about you?" He turned and looked at her, hazel eyes questioning, and she stared down at the grass poking between her toes, and the tiny insects crawling along the blades. As amazing as it all was, she still had doubts.

"Everything I've done for the past eight years has revolved around coming to this place. I don't know if I can just turn around and go back. But without Yoshi..."

"I know," he hugged her, and she blinked, feeling the rough wool of his sweater beneath her cheek. Her eyes began to sting.

"I, um, I should really go find my mom. She's a real mess, you know?"

"Yeah, my mom and dad are pretty out of it too." "Look, I don't know about you, but I want to see every inch of this place before I make any decisions. You up to a little exploring?"

"After lunch, I'll see if I can get away. I think my mom was pretty freaked out by all this talk of aliens and penal colonists and stuff, she won't let me out of her sight."

"Tell her I'll protect you," Miko laughed, and the threatened tears dried before they could fall.

"Something's bothering you," Yale observed as he watched Devon pace the length of her office. It was stating the obvious, of course; but then, that was the point.

"Willis is determined to leave at the end of the week." "Of course she is. You knew that when you hired her. You've known that since the crash. Why are you fretting now?"

"I am not fretting."
"Don't try and fool me, Devon. I've known you too long. You *are* fretting. Why? You foresaw most of the difficulties inherent in the arrival of the colony ship. Why become agitated now?"

"Yale, I knew that the colonists would have a hard time accepting the Terrians, just as we did when we first landed here. And I knew the Council would be a big pill for them to swallow. I just didn't realize how... prickly things would become."

"They haven't become prickly yet. Or have they?" "Baines wants to go back."
"No."
"He and Gomez both. They would rather risk going back than stay here. He told me this morning."

"And you're afraid more will follow?" "I didn't come all the way here only to lose people..." "Friends, you mean."
"Yes, that's it exactly. I never imagined that I would end up with so many friends here."

"It's true, Teresa hasn't been the same since Eben died, and Baines was never happy here, but he just got the perimeter sensors fined tuned--"

"Baines has been monkeying with those sensors ever since he got here"

"I admit, it's hard to believe he'd just up and leave them now." Yale couldn't help but chuckle, even at the prospect of losing two members of their extended family to an uncertain fate. "You always knew this day would come, Devon. Let them make their choices. You cannot make them for them."

"I wish I could. I wish I could just order the colonists to trust the Terrians, order the doctors to co-operate, order... order the universe, I suppose." She spread her hands wide, and then let them drop in a gesture of frustration, pacing all the while.

"Ah, the Adair charm at work." Yale did laughed them, and leaned against her desk, arms crossed.

"Yale!" Devon stopped her pacing and feigned annoyance. But her eyes were smiling.

"Arrogance has always been one of your most charming features, and you well know it. It's not a mutiny, Devon. No one is foresworn, unless you are worried about being foresworn in their hearts...?"

"If you think you're being subtle, think again. John's staying." That was one certainty of the universe right there as far as Devon was concerned.

"Did I mention Danziger by name?" Yale pretended innocence, and Devon smiled ruefully.

"No, I've already spoken to John. And the Martins have too much here to go back. You know Morgan."

"It's more than that, and you know it." "I know, I'm not selling them short, Morgan's changed. It's almost as if..."

"As if he's human?"
"I never said he wasn't."
"Sometimes it's hard to picture bureaucrats as human beings, but Morgan is an extraordinary man, when you think of all he's gone through in the past two years."

"And he has made himself invaluable, I will admit. His attention to detail is almost frightening." Devon confessed, shaking her head. Morgan was a born politician, or perhaps cityplanner; she hadn't decided which yet. But he seemed to thrive on the day-to-day details that Devon considered pure drudgework. Her area of expertise had always been getting things up and running. Once they were running relatively smoothly, she ached for new challenges, whereas Morgan seemed satisfied--no, *thrilled*--to work every last bug out of something and get it running as efficiently as possible before methodically moving to the next thing on his plate.

"Has anyone else spoken of leaving?" "John Christenson seems determined to go back, and Judith Warner may join him. But they are grieving. It's perfectly understandable that they would make extreme decisions."

"What about the Nomuras?"
"Hanako is helping out in the hospital; and Mike, she seems to be holding up okay. She's helping Jack Jr. through things as best she can." Devon smiled sadly, remembering. "Yoshi was at Uly's eighth birthday party, do you remember?"

"Yes, and Sasha was there as well." "I can't believe they're gone, Yale. I promised them a cure, hope, and they never even got to see the sky here."

"It's not your fault, there's nothing you could have done." "If Blalock hadn't stalled us for so many years, maybe... I don't know, I just wish I had been able to do more, get them here faster, maybe they would have survived--"

Yale laid a hand on her shoulder, and she gratefully allowed him to pull her into a hug. "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." Devon sighed, and pulled back, wiping away the hasty tears, and smiled for Yale's benefit.

"That reminds me, Julia said the colony cargo pods held the rest of the livestock embryos, and I promised True she could help with the horses." He squeezed her hand, and watched her go, deep in thought and memory.

They'd come so far, and yet they still had so far to go. But she was trying so hard, and he would do anything in the universe to spare her pain.

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