Choices by Tara OShea

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Danziger should have known she would be here. He scrambled down the grassy slope to where Devon sat, toes in the cool sand.

"You didn't take your gear. That's one of my old tricks." He sat next to her, but she didn't turn to face him, but continued to watch the waves crash on the shore.

"I needed to think."
"About what?"
"Everything was supposed to be perfect once we reached New Pacifica. No more rationing, harsh winters, no more death. A chicken for every pot, and a boy for every girl. Who'd have thought Bess and Morgan would be the happiest couple on the planet?"

"Alonzo and Julia'll work it out." Danziger sighed, stretching his legs out next to hers, working his heels into the sand.

"I hope so. They're been through so much together." "Exactly."
"God, it's so beautiful here." She looked up at the stars above the crashing waves, clouds edged in silver by the moons being pushed along and pulled apart by the same wind that lifted her ark hair, whipping it against her cheek. She could feel the salt tang working its way into her clothes, her skin, the cool breeze sneaking inside her, making her feel more alive suddenly, like everything was moving faster. "I'm going to build my house here so I can hear the sea every day." As she said it, she knew it was true. Now that the colonists were here, an the hospital finished, she could finally start thinking about her home. She mentally laid out the rooms, itching to sit down an draw up the initial plans suddenly.

"That'll be nice," John nodded, lifting his face towards the sky. "For you and Uly, I mean."

"What about you, John? Have you and True decided where you want to settle down yet?"

"The Hotel's good enough for us for now." "You can't spend the rest of your life in one room!" Devon exclaimed, and Danziger could only laugh.

"Hell, it's more than I had on the Stations half the time." "But we're not on the Stations any more, you can have anything you want here."

"Somehow, I don't think so." Danziger looked out at the sea, the expression on his face unreadable. Wistful, maybe. Not sad. Resigned somehow. Devon touched her arm.

"No, you can. You can have anything here." They weren't talking about houses any longer. And they both knew it.

The seconds stretched out between them like silver threads of silence, fragile but binding nonetheless.

Devon was the first to turn away, a flush creeping up her neck, and her eyes shone as if she had a fever. "I guess I'd better head back before Morgan decides to name the rest of the continent." She stood, a brushed sand from the backs of her legs, snagging her shoes with one hand.

"Devon, wait." Danziger finally shook whatever it was that had frozen him an reached out, his fingers closing around her wrist. She stopped, but he didn't let go, instead caressing the inside of her wrist with his thumb as he waited for her to meet his eyes.

His gear beeped impatiently, and Danziger swore. "The one time I bring it..." he said to the stars wearily, and reluctantly released her wrist.

"John? Is Devon with you?" Yale's expression was grim, and Danziger nodded, untangling the gear from his hair and placing it on Devon's.

"What is it Yale?" She adjusted the eyepiece, and cupped her hand around the mic against the wind off the sea.

"The children are gone. And Uly is with them."

Miko rolled over, trying to get comfortable. She didn't know what had awakened her, and at this point, she didn't much care. She just wanted to sink back into the cherished oblivion that sleep provided. She wanted to hide for eight hours, just get away from life. But shadows of thoughts chased her waking mind, and sleep was gone.

She lay there with her eyes closed, but like on old grainy film, sections of the past few days replayed themselves. Jack on the beach, first accusing, and then broken, old and tired in a way now seventeen year old should ever be. Her mother, still reaching out for her brother. Reaching, hands closing on nothing, and never seeing her daughter, not the person she had become. Not even the person she had always been, second to the little brother she couldn't hate because her heart was too full of love. And now sorrow.

She switched on the light, saw her mother's empty bed, and figured she must be having another late night at the Hospital. She sat down at the desk, picking up the watercolour she'd been working on when she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. The sky was right, but she wasn't sure about the sea. The light wasn't hitting the water right. She set the picture back down, and pushed the chair away from the desk.

"This is stupid," she said to the empty room. Running her fingers through her hair in frustration, she clicked off the light, slipped on her shoes, and closed the door behind her.

Alonzo looked uncomfortable. Yale just looked worried. Dr. Vasquez, on the other hand, was beside himself. As Devon entered her office, all eyes turned to her, conversations halted and forgotten.

"Alonzo, what exactly did they tell you?" "That the children had made their choices, and that the Mother had taken them in."

"Not my son." Taggert's face was stony. "But... but, don't they understand--" Devon looked from Alonzo to the frantic father, licking her lips nervously.

"They understand more than we do, Dev." Alonzo's dark eyes burned. He didn't like Taggert. The moment he had awakened Hanako and Helen, Taggert had come bursting into the children's ward, and when his eyes fell on his son's empty bed, he had grasped the pilot by the shirt, demanding to know what the 'diggers' had done with his son. Somehow the word coming from his mouth instead of Danziger's made it... ugly. There was no respect there. Not even fear. Just anger. Anger, and maybe hatred.

And that made Alonzo's blood run cold. The door opened then, and Julia entered. Her dark blond hair was rumpled, and there were circles under her eyes. Her eyes found Alonzo's and then quickly slid away, to rest on Vasquez.

"Helen told me to get here, what's going on?" "There's no need for you to be here, Dr. Heller." "On the contrary, I insist Julia be here," Devon snapped, and turned to the rumpled doctor. "The children are gone."

"Wha--gone?" Her blue eyes went wide, and she blinked, fully awake now. "How?"

"I was at the desk, and suddenly I was asleep." Hanako seemed the most ill at ease out of all of them, afraid for the children yes, but also knowing instinctively that there was more going on here. A great deal more. She could almost see the lines of tension stretched through the room, connecting people, touching some more than once and tugging them in different directions.

"The Terrians spoke to me in my dream," Alonzo continued to frown. "They told me that the time had come, and that the children had chosen. When I woke up, they were already gone."

"Uly is with them." Yale spoke at last, and Devon moved to his side. "When Alonzo called me, I went to check on him, his bed was empty."

"He went with them because the children and the Terrians both trust him. He's the link, he had to be there."

"Be where? What the hell are you talking about? Where's my son?" Taggert snapped, fists clenched and knuckles white with strain.

Devon could sympathise. After all, she had been through the same entire ordeal when Uly had been taken, and the fear. But then she had known nothing. And when she tried to share all that she had learnt since then, but he was deaf to it.

"If this is like when Uly was taken, all we can do is wait." Julia sank into the chair opposite Devon's desk, running a hand through her hair.

"I'm sorry, but that's not acceptable." Dr. Vasquez stiffened. "I'm sorry you feel that way, but these are the facts. Until tomorrow morning, the children, all of them, are unreachable. As in beyond our reach." Julia was tired. Of all of it. Of not being heeded, of not being trusted, of not being given the respect she deserved. Dr. Vasquez froze at her tone, and opened his mouth, and then closed it again, perhaps thinking better of whatever he had been about to say. Julia continued. "You've read my reports, seen all the data. Alonzo and Devon dreamed with them when they healed Uly, they've told you everything they know. I've told you everything I know! This isn't the Stations, we're guests here. And obviously we still have a lot to learn about this planet, how things work here. But one thing I've learned in the past two years is to keep my mind open, to all the possibilities this world can offer us, *is* offering us."

Dr. Vasquez looked at her, perhaps with new eyes. But he remained silent, digesting her words slowly, turning them over in his mind. If he came to any conclusions, his expression didn't hint at what they might be.

"Alonzo's right," Julia continued. "This was the children's choice. They made it, and it's out of our hands."

Taggert turned to the pilot. "If you can communicate with those... with the *Terrians*, then you tell them I want my son back. Not changed. Just back. Because if you don't, I'll find a way myself."

"The dreamplane isn't a place you can just barge onto, Taggert!" Alonzo declared, feeling like he was banging his head against a brick wall.

"When it was her son, she did." Taggert gestured to Devon, and Yale put a hand on her shoulder as she tensed. "We're talking about my son here. I have the right."

"We don't even know that it can be done, Marshall," Devon said gently.

"Dammit, let me try! He's my only child. I lost his mother when he was born, I don't want to lose him too." The wall of anger crumbled, and all that was left was a sad, frightened father. "Please. Please, he's my son."

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