Once upon a dream (1/4)
By Nora
From "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde"
Once upon a dream
I was lost in love's embrace
There I found a perfect place
Once upon a dream
Once there was a time
Like no other time before
Hope was still an open door
Once upon a dream
And I was unafraid
The dream was so exciting
And now I see it fade
And I am here alone
Once upon a dream
You were Heaven sent to me
But it wasn't meant to be
Now you're just a dream
Could we begin again?
Once upon a dream?
Dr. Richard Vasquez woke with a start, glancing around, not able to tell up from down. Then the realization hit him : G889, New Pacifica... they had made it! He leapt from his sleep-chamber bed, groaning and grasping for its stable surface as the disorientation hit him again. "Slow down Vasquez," he cautioned himself under his breath. He carefully released his death grip on the cot and took a few apprehensive steps. He looked up around him and saw the familiar rows of cold-sleep chambers, filled with sick Syndrome children and their families.
Shuffling his way over to the nearest surveillance terminal he quickly glanced at the records. Holding his breath he looked at a readout of the chambers. Miraculously, not a single red light showed. He smiled, they had all lived this far, there was hope yet! With new found energy in his heart, he set about waking up the rest of the Eden colonists.
Devon Adair stretched cat-like as she drifted out of peaceful sleep. A quick sniff of the bright morning air told her that the Bess Martin had already started breakfast, and as she pried open her eyes, she could see the radiant sun shining into her tent. She yawned, stretching again, and looked across the cot at John Danziger. Smiling, she slowly twisted her engagement ring around her finger; only a piece of silverish coloured metal that he had melted and then re-shaped to fit her hand, but she loved it.
He seemed to sense her watching and opened one eye with a light moan. Devon couldn't help but laugh as he rolled over and shoved a pillow over his head. At the same time, Uly Adair and True Danziger came crashing into the tent and pounced on John. This time a loud groan escaped his lips as the not-so-little kids landed on him. Not missing a beat he rolled over again to tickle them as they squealed with delight. Devon giggled, and moved to a small curtained area to change for the day.
In the stillness of the morning, Alonzo rolled over in his sleep, waking as he met the sleeping form of his wife. She mumbled incoherently for a moment, then cuddled a little closer to him, seeking his warmth in the crisp air of their tent. He smiled and kissed her forehead softly, pulling wisps of her soft blond hair away from her face. "Rise 'n shine, Jul," he whispered in her ear. She craned her head slightly and returned his morning kiss.
"Morning," She grimaced slightly.
"What?" he asked in concern, propping himself up on one elbow, "You okay?"
She nodded, using him as an anchor to push herself up into a sitting position, "I'm fine, no problem." Julia smiled sweetly to emphasize her point.
"As long as you're sure..." he added, his deep brown eyes filled with worry. Julia laughed, pushing Alonzo back on the bed and sitting on his legs, her smile turning seductive.
"Do you want me to prove it?" She asked with a tantalizing smile, leaning forward to kiss him passionately.
"Mama? Daddy?" A small voice interrupted them. Julia quickly rolled off Alonzo and sat up on the edge of the small bed. Alonzo jumped out of the cot and ran over to swing his little girl through the air. She giggled and squealed in turn before he plopped himself back down on the bed with her piggy-backed on his shoulders. He looked around in mock confusion.
"Uh-oh," he over dramatized, "Where's Ashley-Jane? Is she... under the bed?" He swung himself under the bed as if to look for the toddler, holding securely to her legs all the time. He ran around the small tent, looking in every nook and cranny, as his daughter swung around him in hysterical giggles.
Julia looked on in pure joy, watching the little girl and her father playing. Ashley was two now, she could barely believe it. Sometimes she felt so much older than her twenty-seven years. It seemed like yesterday that they had arrived on this planet; she the withdrawn, apathetic Council operative, he a wild, promiscuous cold-sleep jumper, determined never to slow down. Somehow they had found love here. This planet never ceased to amaze her.
Julia waved at her daughter, putting a finger to her lips conspiratorially when Ashley looked her way, suggesting she stay quiet so her father wouldn't 'find' her. Her daughter imitated the gesture, then burst into a new round of noisy giggles as Alonzo decided to check under the bed again.
The doctor couldn't believe how much Ashley looked like a complete meld of her and Alonzo. She had her bright blue eyes and fair skin with Alonzo's soft, dark brown hair and adorable dimples. Together they created a head-turning, dramatic effect, and Bess probably hadn't been kidding when she said the child would be breaking hearts in no time.
Ashley was quick minded too, already speaking in fairly understandable sentences. At least Julia thought that she was fairly fast for her age. She didn't have many records on child development and had only studied it briefly in medical school. That meant she had to go off of the combined experiences of Devon, John, and Yale as well as her own gut feelings, which she found fairly disconcerting at times. Julia looked again at the dynamic duo charging around their tent and wondered for a moment how she ever lived without them.
Suddenly a powerful wave of nausea overtook her, and she quickly ran to the flap of their tent, heaving the contents of her stomach into the dewy grass. She felt Alonzo at her side, gently drawing her hair from her face and rubbing her back comfortingly. Kneeling in the grass, she finally sat back and took a few cautious breaths. Julia looked into the concerned eyes of her husband, "It's alright," she pulled a slight smile, "I just ate too many of those ebenberries last night, that's all."
Alonzo attempted a smile of understanding, but failed desperately as Ashley poked her head out from behind his bare chest. "Mama sick?" she asked quietly. Julia pulled her into a hug,
"Mama's fine, don't worry sweetie, Mama's just fine,"
Breakfast that morning was the same as most other mornings, Devon noticed, the colonists seemed to have settled into a comfortable routine here in New Pacifica. Every morning a specified group rose early and made morning meal. After breakfast the rest of the morning would be spent doing the hard physical activity at the site of the future hospital, before the summer day turned too beastly hot. The afternoons usually had the group doing their various personal jobs and chores, trying to learn as much as they could about their new home and it's surroundings. The evenings were always everyone's favourite time; cuddling around a bright fire with the children tucked into bed, and talking. It was amazing what those nights of simple talks had taught them about each other and life. No one would ever be the same again, she realized for the thousandth time, nobody could ever go back to the way they used to be. She watched as Julia and Alonzo emerged from their tent with Ashley, *not like any of us would want to*.
She looked slightly past the young family and let her eyes take in the sights of the hospital, almost completely constructed now. They hoped to be sleeping in real rooms in a few weeks, idyllically nestled between the dense green forest, scattered with rolling fields, and the pale white sand that bordered the deep blue-green of the Sea of Antius. The beautiful expanse made even the three story hospital, the only building yet erected, seem scant in comparison.
Devon had insisted upon arrival that the hospital be built before the advance team set up individual dwellings. Under her original plan, made in the luxury of the stations, the crew would have had a little over two years after arriving to set up the hospital, the surrounding colony and prepare for the arrival of the ship containing the children. But then they had crashed. They had gotten lost. They had re-routed to find water. They had stopped to help pod two. They had gotten stuck for the first winter at the Biodome. After leaving the dome, Devon herself had gotten sick, and they had waited for Julia to cure her. Then they had waited for Julia as she and Alonzo had their baby. In total it had taken them almost three and a half years to slowly make their way across the continent, sometimes stopping for weeks and months at a time.
They had finally found New Pacifica six months ago, and were just now putting the finishing touches on the hospital. The colony ship was supposed to have entered the space around G889 seventeen months ago, and although Devon was glad she had the extra time to set up their new home, she was starting to get deathly afraid that the ship had encountered problems and suffered an ill fate. But as Yale always reminded her, it was completely out of her hands now, and all she could do was hope and pray for their safe arrival.
"Devon!" a voice yelled out from behind her. She whirled and looked at Morgan Martin, the source of the sound, "Are you going to get some food or not? You're holding up the line!"
Devon smiled inwardly as she accepted the bowl of porridge Morgan offered her. *On the other hand* she thought, *some things never change*.
As the last remnants of breakfast were swept away by the day's clean-up crew, Yale took a quick look around him. True and Uly were whispering to each other quietly in a corner, clearly up to no good and Alonzo was trying to keep Ashley from running to the nearby forest to pick flowers, currently her famous pastime. He took that as his cue to start the day's classes.
A few minutes later he had True and Uly in the communications tent doing fairly advanced soil evaluations, and he was sitting on the other side of the tent with Ashley, attempting to teach her shapes. It wasn't going very well, the girl was simply too stubborn for her own good. But then, he chuckled inwardly, with her parents, what could one expect? He smiled down at her patiently,
"Now, Ashley, what shape does this look like?" The little girl looked up at him with a pout in her clear blue eyes.
"Want fow-ers!" she stated, then glared at the shape radiating from his cyber-arm, "Fow-ers..." she said again quietly.
"Is it a square?" Yale asked. The girl shook her head with a sigh, not paying much attention,
"Cir-co."
Yale smiled, "very good, shall we do another?" Ashley looked at him again with sad puppy-dog eyes, then sighed dejectedly and nodded. "Alright..." Yale was cut off with True's gasp and shout of surprise.
"YALE! DAD!" Yale ran across the room to her side and looked on the computer monitor where her shaking finger was pointing. On a tiny screen, normally blank, a small blipping figure flashed repetitively.
"Oh my..." he gasped as Devon and Danziger ran into the room, followed shortly by everyone else.
"What?!" Devon demanded, after seeing all three children were safe, "What is it?" Yale looked at her, a shocked and amazed expression on his face. "The colony ship," he smiled broadly, "it's here!"
The members of Eden Advance stood in the clearing near camp, watching as the large cargo pods fell softly through the sky like oversized raindrops towards a field a kilometre away from camp. True was counting them out loud as they broke through the light haze of clouds, but lost her place after thirty. Devon's chest constricted as she caught a glimpse of two smaller pods fall gently through the clouds. Passenger shuttle pods.
Danziger, standing next to her, saw her gasp and pulled her close. She looked up at him and smiled. It had finally come to that moment. Two hundred families were about to start their new lives in New Pacifica.
A few minutes later the pods came to two soft clunks on the ground, across the field from the campsite. Devon was off like a shot, running over to meet the first of the new colonists, with Julia, John, Alonzo and the others hot on her heels. Everyone was laughing and crying, or somehow combining both. A hiss rang out through the field and the first new human the group had seen in years came into sight. "Doctor Vasquez!" Devon cried, running up to him breathlessly. She threw herself into his arms and he laughed,
"Devon! It's good to see you again!" He smiled kindly at her, looking around. "Sorry we're so late, we had mid-travel troubles and had to re-route halfway here..." Suddenly his eyes left her and grew very large, "Uly...?" he gasped. The boy smiled as the doctor ran headlong into him,
"Thank the good Lord, you're healed!" Vasquez finally held the boy out at arms length and looked at him closely. "You're completely healthy! It's a miracle!" The boy shook his head,
"No, it's the Terrians," he corrected. Vasquez looked questioningly at Devon, and she just smiled,
"I'll explain later."
The doctor saw another thing then, that took his interest away from the strange word.
"Doctor Heller!" he cried out towards the beaming woman. Woman, he noticed, not a young, scared doctor anymore. He ran up to her and pulled her into a hug.
"I'm so sorry to have left you by yourself in such hard surroundings, I hope you can forgive me,"
Julia smiled coyly, "it's no trouble, believe me". Vasquez continued to fly around the group alternately greeting people and staring in wonder at his surroundings. During this whole event, more people started emerging from the vessel, squinting in the brightness of the sun. Two of the passengers were sickly looking Syndrome children, decked out in heavy immuno-suits. Devon started crying as she saw them look around in utter amazement, suddenly realizing what they themselves must have looked like when they arrived on this planet. Naive and hopeful, scared and expectant. Dumbstruck by the power of this wondrous planet. If only they knew that this was just the beginning...
Later that day, Richard Vasquez sat with Devon, Danziger and Julia in the Solace's tent, still doubling for the med-tent, as they tried to relay the past years events to the bewildered doctor. They explained to him the crash, and the motivation chip found in Alex Wentworth's brain. But they couldn't get any further than that.
"Julia, you were a spy for the Council?" Vasquez asked increduously, not quite sure if he had heard the words correctly. Julia nodded, eyes on the ground, not wanting to see the look of dismay and disgust on her advisor's face. When she finally did look up, she saw a mixture of shock and understanding in his hazel eyes. He finally understood and could put a reason to her mysterious appearance on the medical crew roster, much against his wishes, as well as her apparent avoidance of all other medical personnel.
"But... you're not now, I assume?" Julia nodded again, anxious to move away from the topic of her betrayal and move instead towards her redemption.
"No, I never disclosed our position to The Watcher, Reilly, but to keep him appeased I tried to inject myself with Terrian DNA..."
Realizing she had gotten ahead of herself, she spent the better part of the next hour trying to backtrack and, amidst all the questions Vasquez was firing at her, explain the Terrians first appearance to them and Uly's subsequent recovery. Julia could almost see Vasquez' mind whirling as he asked:
"So you're saying that these...Terrians...just sprang from the earth and cured Uly, and now he's their... link?" The three nodded. "And these creatures are willing to cure the other children too?" Devon interceded,
"We hope so, Uly and Alonzo are asking them now." Vasquez' head whipped around,
"They're talking to them? Where?" he jumped up, poised to sprint from the tent. Julia put a hand on his shoulder,
"Terrians communicate with us through the dream-plane. It's a special REM dream state that only those two and the Terrians seem to be able to access. Uly gained this ability after the Terrians changed him, and I'm not quite sure when or how Alonzo gained his ability." Vasquez frowned but nodded, sitting down again.
"Julia, I think there's a lot we're going to have to discuss," She smiled wearily. She had a feeling there wouldn't be much spare time for the next while. At that moment Uly and Alonzo entered the tent, chatting happily. As if startled by the silence that met them they looked up in unitary confusion. Alonzo was the first to speak,
"They said they'd do it, but the children have to be committed to helping themselves...no handouts." Devon nodded with a smile, hugging Uly before turning back to the group.
"Well, I know you two have a lot of work to cover," she said, speaking of Julia and Vasquez, and motioning for Danziger, Alonzo and her son to leave the two doctors alone. As they left Julia let out a hefty sigh and put her hands over her forehead.
"You alright, Heller?" a gentle voice came from beside her. She smiled at Vasquez, but before she could respond a new voice broke through,
"No she's not, doc." Julia turned to see Alonzo behind her. He hadn't left with the others. "She's been getting more sick everyday and keeps making up excuses as to why." Julia quickly interjected with a friendly smile, something she seemed to be doing more frequently these days,
"I'm fine. Stop being overprotective," she chastised Alonzo with a teasing smile. Julia planted a kiss on his cheek and pushed him lightly towards the open tent flap. He frowned slightly at her in concern, then quickly returned the peck and exited the tent, leaving Vasquez with one eyebrow raised and a lot of questions on his mind. Julia caught the look.
"I guess there's a lot of other stuff I'll have to fill you in on too..." Vasquez nodded,
"Well, we can get into the personal relationships later, right now I'd like to see your air and water analyses, as well as the reports you've made on the Terrians." Julia started to move around the tent, "Oh, I also need the information on all the local viruses you've encount...."
"JULIA!" he was cut off with Baines' anxious cry. Before Vasquez could blink Julia grabbed her diaglove and medkit and sprinted from the tent. He took off after her as fast as his legs could carry him.
As Julia looked across the camp she could see Baines and Walman hauling Cameron across the field. He was in obvious pain and his arm looked like a bloody pretzel, it had been so badly broken. She came to a sliding stop in front of them, motioning for the two men to place the injured man on the ground. Quickly running the diaglove over him, she confirmed the multiple fractures and went to pull a sedaderm out of her medkit. She turned to see Vasquez looking at her in shock.
"What do you think you're doing? You can't do this here!" he bellowed at her. She looked at him incredulously for a split second them grabbed the sedaderm and injected its contents into Cameron's neck. Danziger kneeled beside her, completely ignoring the ravings of the other doctor,
"What do you need?" Julia glanced at him, "Extra tent-posts or wood strips; something that I could use to make a splint for him," with a slight nod, Danziger pulled the rest of the group away from the doctor and started yelling orders. Gratefully she started a closer analysis of Cameron's arm.
"Julia? What are you doing? A *splint*?!" Vasquez' voice startled her. She looked at him to see a very confused, shocked and angry man.
"I'm trying to prevent him from dying of blood loss so we can repair the damage to his arm later. Are you going to help me or not?" Vasquez just glared at her.
"You should *not* be attempting to correct the problem here, this man needs to be in a hygienic environment and..." Julia gaped, not believing her ears,
"And where do you *expect* me to find a more hygienic environment?" She snapped viciously, "We could try to move him to the medtent but then we'd risk further damage to the wound. Our best viable option is to keep him here. So are you going to help me or not?" Not waiting for an answer she returned to her diaglove. After a few silent seconds a large figure moved beside her.
Julia glanced up as Vasquez started to apply pressure to the wounds, wondering how this once-mentor could suddenly seem so juvenile to her. Shaking her head, she steadfastly returned to her diagnosis.
Story Notes:
This story is based on Dawn Pell's "Deceptions: Chronicles of Eden Project" and if you haven't read it recently you might want to take a glance at it before starting this fanfic. The title comes from a song from "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde", *not* Disney's Sleeping Beauty. It's mainly a relationship story, touching on all the main characters at least a little. I hope to (someday) write a sequel.
Unfortunately I don't own Earth 2, Amblin and some other rich corporations do. I also don't own the song Julia sings. It's called "River in Judea", a beautiful, soft, lullabyish gospel song that some of you might know from church.
Thanks goes out to Dawn, for letting me use her story and helping me so much with mine. Big thanks to Andy as well, for posting this for me.
Thanks, Nora
Unfortunately I don't own Earth 2, Amblin and some other rich corporations do. I also don't own the song Julia sings. It's called "River in Judea", a beautiful, soft, lullabyish gospel song that some of you might know from church.
Thanks goes out to Dawn, for letting me use her story and helping me so much with mine. Big thanks to Andy as well, for posting this for me.
Thanks, Nora