Once upon a Dream by Nora

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Julia approached a small, young girl with a smile, "Hi there. I'm Julia Solace, what's your name?" she slowly ran her diaglove over the tiny girl, eight she guessed, checking oxygen levels,

"Susan," the girl rasped, looking curiously at her through the confines of her immuno-suit. Julia recognized the look and looked back at her expectantly,

"What is it Susan?" The girl averted her eyes, "Nothing..." Julia smiled again encouragingly and the girl smiled back as she spoke up softly, "were you...scared when you first came here?" the doctors smile hardened slightly for a second then she nodded honestly,

"Yeah. But you know what?" she whispered to the girl, as if telling her a very important secret. Susan leaned in to hear, "I think everyone was." The girl's eyes widened,

"Even...him?" she asked, pointing to Alonzo. Julia almost laughed,

"Even him."
Convinced the girl was in good, stable condition she moved on towards the next child, to be met by Dr. Vasquez, looking blustered and upset.

"Dr. Heller, you didn't tell me that the Terrians incorporated their DNA into Uly's system! How could you have let him be violated in such a way?!" He glared at her menacingly. Julia felt the sudden urge to scream at him that she didn't appreciate his lack of trust in her these past few days, but instead she balled her hands into fists and carefully controlled her voice.

"I assumed you saw my notes on Uly's change, so I didn't bother mentioning it. As for why I let him be 'violated'," she noticed her voice raising a tone in volume, "I didn't. The Terrians took him and changed him without our knowing it, I only found out when I examined him after. But the DNA doesn't..." Vasquez chose that moment to completely lose his temper,

"You mean these... these things," he screamed, "didn't ask if they could cure Uly? They just took him and did it?" Julia saw from the corner of her eye Danziger and Alonzo approaching on her right, clearly wondering what was happening and looking protective,

"They did it to save him. They knew he would die if they didn't. And they're not 'things', Doctor, they're sentient beings who..." Vasquez laughed harshly,

"Sentient beings would not tear a child away from its home and change its DNA structure without permission!" Julia gave up. She yelled at him,

"This was not Uly's home, it was and still is their home. They understand it more than we do and they cured him out of the goodness of their hearts. Why can't you understand that?!" She could see a crowd starting to form around them in two groups, clearly divided into old and new colonists. Vasquez took a step towards her and hissed into her ear,

"I will finish up here. I would appreciate it if you would return to your tent and finish the documents I asked you to prepare." Julia's jaw dropped. He was in essence sending her to her room. Did he think she was a child? Before she could give him a lash of her own temper Devon stepped in between them and faced Vasquez,

"Julia's right, the Terrians did not hurt Uly and they will not hurt any of the other children. The only thing that could hurt them now is you scaring them into thinking that this planet can harm them." the elder doctor glared at both the women as Devon continued,

"Julia has been one of this group's biggest assets since we landed, she knows more about the Terrians and this planet than most of us put together. So I will not," she stated firmly, "watch you reduce her to a low-level intern. That may have been what she was when we left, but right now I think you should be listening to her."

Vasquez glared at Devon then turned his gaze over to Julia. "I trust you can handle this, I'll be in the med-tent." he stalked off, a stormy cloud receding back into its own territory. Julia's shoulders drooped and she spoke softly, as the crowd around them dispersed,

"The med-tent is still my tent..." Devon put her hands on the younger woman's shoulders,

"We'll move the medical equipment into one of the bigger tents as soon as we can, don't worry. Everything's going to work out... it has to." Julia nodded. Devon noticed an odd look on her face and suddenly Julia's hand flew to her mouth and she took off towards the woods. Devon started to run after her, but Alonzo grabbed her arm.

"I'll go, watch Ashley for me, okay?" Devon nodded as he sprinted after his wife, then sighed and looked around for the young girl.

Alonzo reached the edge of the woods and looked around in confusion. After a few seconds he heard a sick round of gagging and spotted a blond ponytail near a clump of tall, leafy trees. Jogging over to Julia he sat down quietly beside her, rubbing her back as she coughed and spat. Finally she closed her eyes and breathed carefully, a familiar signal by now that she was done.

"Jul, this is insane," he began, as she composed herself, "why are you so sick? What's wrong?" Julia looked at him, weary and worn, but with a delicate smile on her face, the corners of her mouth drawn up slightly.

"Oh, nothing big," she shrugged as her smile grew a little broader, "we're just having another baby in seven or so months, that's all,"

Alonzo felt like he had been knocked over from his crouched position and his heart skipped a beat. Suddenly a massive grin split his face, and he and Julia toppled over from the force of his hug, sprawling together onto the ground,

"Another baby!" he exclaimed kissing her gently, then putting a hand lightly on her middle. "I can't believe it!" Julia sat up and smiled weakly,

"Believe me, my stomach hasn't quite caught up with the fact either." He looked in sympathy at his wife, not sure of what to say or do, but she laughed,

"So, Dad, are you hoping for a son or another little girl?" His grin compared to the hot star that they now called the sun as he looked down at her and kissed her forehead tenderly,

"As long as he or she is healthy and looks just like you, I'd gladly take either," Julia's smile lit up even more, although Alonzo wouldn't have thought it possible,

"Now..." Julia continued, "we have to tell the group at some point..." Instantly he was on his feet and he gently pulled Julia up after him. She laughed again, as his eyes seemed to be dancing in happiness.

"I saw Danziger in the clearing..." she laughed as he grabbed her hand and they ran from the forest,

"Danziger! Hey Danziger!"

"What?!" Devon's voice rang out through the crowded mess tent, "Congratulations!" Julia felt slightly claustrophobic as she was suddenly surrounded by people all hugging and kissing her and Alonzo. Not even that could wipe the euphoric look from her face, and she noticed that Alonzo had an identical one a few feet away from her. Even Vasquez seemed happy, in his own way, offering her a gruff 'congratulations doctor'.

Bess sat across the room, watching the revelry around her. She had, of course, offered her congratulations to the couple, but couldn't manage more than a few minutes around the newly expectant mother.

She and Morgan had been trying for the past year to conceive a child, and had time after time been unsuccessful. Bess was beginning to think that maybe one or both of them couldn't have children, but that thought was too painful to dwell on for very long.

On the stations, as well as earth, sterile persons were not allowed to go to extreme measures to conceive, for fear of passing the sterility onto a new generation. Even though she knew that it wasn't the case here, and that Julia could probably, given some time, nudge the makings of a baby in the right direction, it still gave her nightmares. As she often heard Danziger say, old habits die hard, and this fear didn't seem to be dying at all. Bess hated to sound selfish and egocentric but as she heard her friend's happy news, the first thing that went through her head was 'it's not fair'. While she and Morgan tried unsuccesfully to have one child, Julia and Alonzo were expecting their second, even though Julia was a chromotilt.

Chromotilts were usually from higher society and were born to serve a particular group or area, almost always the infamous Council. Such groups did not care if their 'tilted workers could not conceive or if their female employees usually miscarried in the first trimester. If a 'tilt's pedigree was worth continuing, their DNA could be combined in a test tube with any other person's to create a fetus which could be planted into a surrogate mother without the biological parents ever suspecting a thing. It was not the concern of such groups as the Council that 'tilts conceived for them might want to biologically have their own children. The fact that Julia had been able to carry Ashley to term surprised even her and had beaten many odds, especially after her traumatic miscarriage just months earlier. Now becoming pregnant again... it was almost unbelievable.

As far as Bess knew, Julia and Alonzo had always wanted more children, but for some reason hadn't yet tried. Perhaps because they wanted Ashley to be older, maybe because they were fearful of Julia's health, but for whatever reason, this pregnancy was a dream come true.

She glanced back up at the happy couple. She had been planning to talk to Julia within the next few days about her and Morgan's problem, but now that she was pregnant... again... Bess didn't think she would have the heart to face her. Feeling tears welling up in her eyes, she escaped the happiness of the tent before she could spoil the festivities.

Later that afternoon, as Alonzo and John started what they hoped would be their last tug-of-war with the cargo pod crates, Alonzo noticed Richard Vasquez making his way through the brush that covered the area from the clearing to the camp. He was watching the ground carefully and almost delicately choosing where to put each foot, so as not to get mud or even dust onto his shoes. Alonzo had lugged another two crates before the doctor finally made it to the meadow. Now as the doctor approached, he used one hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead and took a few steps expectantly in his direction. Vasquez didn't pick up the body language and came right over to the two men, perching on the edge of a crate and catching his breath for several minutes, Alonzo waiting slightly impatiently. He suddenly seemed to realize he was being watched and looked at the taller man with a quick, formal type of a smile.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Solace,"
"Alonzo." He was quickly corrected. Vasquez smiled again, slightly nervous this time, piquing the pilot's interest.

"Alonzo...I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes," he motioned to the empty end of the field beyond them, away from Danziger who was watching unobtrusively from a distance, "shall we?"

Alonzo shot a look at John, a silent request to leave for a few minutes. Danziger gave a sharp nod, returning to his work. Vasquez leading the way, he and Alonzo moved off to the other side of the clearing, stopping at a series of large rocks that they sat down on. Alonzo, feeling a bit antsy, started to lose his patience,

"What's this about doctor?" Vasquez looked at him in mild surprise, as if he should've known,

"Actually, it's about your daughter." Alonzo immediately went on the defensive, getting a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach,

"Ashley? What about her?!" he snapped. The doctor quickly interjected,

"Oh, no, you misunderstand me. Everything's fine, I just wanted to ask you some questions about her." Now Alonzo was completely lost, his face reflecting his confusion as the doctor continued, "Does she have the ability to get to this... dream plane, as you call it?"

Alonzo nodded, still unsure about the doctor's motives "Yes, she's been dreaming with the Terrians and myself on the dreamplane for the past year or so. She understands and speaks their language too," answering the next question he knew was on Vasquez' mind. Richard leaned in slightly, pulling out a scrap of paper and taking notes,

"Yes, I saw her...um...communicating with the creatures-" "Terrians." Alonzo corrected,
"-the other night at the campfire. She seemed quite... fluent. Now, do you suppose she has these abilities because she was born on the planet, from a specific traumatic event, like Uly's, or maybe due to the influence of your genes?" Alonzo looked at the doctor blankly,

"I... I don't know... she's never been taken into the ground... Julia and I have discussed the causes but..." Vasquez started scribbling wildly on the paper, his eyes growing greedy with scientific hunger,

"Well if it were genes, then... yes... that could work..." he mumbled to himself as he wrote, "I suppose a few tests...field analyses...assess and categorize the abilities..." An image whipped through Alonzo's mind of his daughter being poked and prodded, treated like a lab-rat by dozens of apathetic doctors. Alonzo glared at the man as he stood up and grabbed his shoulder to halt his speeding pen.

"You listen to me. Ashley is not the subject of some experiment of yours, she is my daughter." He edged a little closer to the man and dropped his voice to a menacingly low level, "And you will not lay a hand on her as long as you live unless you have the express permission of myself or Julia, understand?" Vasquez quickly nodded and Alonzo stormed off, leaving the doctor to wonder about the events that had just taken place.

The next morning Devon wasn't sure anymore if her sentiment about everything being alright was true or not. She had finally, after three and a half days, managed to gather the entire group together in the clearing next to camp and, standing on a log, she was trying to get through a simple meeting agenda. So far she hadn't gotten a word in edgewise. People were too busy talking amongst themselves to notice her hopelessly vying for their attention.

She looked at Yale in desperation, trying to figure out what to do to catch and keep the attention of over nine hundred people with no voice amplifiers. He just shrugged helplessly. Abruptly Uly was on the log next to her, looking mature beyond his twelve years. He spoke in a quiet but firm voice that seemed to ring out through the field.

"Three years ago, the Terrians cured me," he said, smiling at the children sitting around them, "and they're going to cure you too." The youngsters all beamed as the stretch of soft green grass slowly went from a load ruckus, to a dull roar and finally came to silence. Devon sent a silent thank-you to her son, and looked out towards the crowd.

"Please listen to me. It's taken me a long time to get us all together, and I'd like to start this meeting by extending a warm welcome to all of our newcomers." The advance team let out a spattering of applause. Devon held up her hands for quiet and continued, "This planet is different than anything any of us had ever seen on the stations, and at times much more dangerous. The small group of us has been through a lot in the past few years and although we don't understand everything, we know a lot more now than we did when we landed." She motioned for Julia to join her on the impromptu podium,

"This is Julia Solace, the advance team's doctor. I'd like to give you all this opportunity to ask her, myself, or anyone else any questions you may have thought up in the past few days." She was surprised to see only one hand go up, belonging to a younger woman in the middle of the crowd, holding her young son in her arms. She motioned for her to speak.

"My name's Alexis Ghant...when, exactly, will the kids be healed?" Devon's heart went out to her, she reminded her so much of Uly and herself a few years ago. She found Alonzo standing between Julia and herself, taking it upon himself to answer the question.

"I'm Alonzo Solace, and I don't know exactly when the Terrians will take them. But as most of you know, I dream with them, and they've told me it will be soon." This brought muttering in the crowd.

"Please," Devon spoke up over the discussion, "if you have questions, ask us about anything, we're here to help you." A few more hands bobbed through the air. A young man spoke up,

"Did your son change at all after they cured him?" Devon smiled, "Yes, he could run and jump and play without needing medicine, and he acts like any other young boy now."

Julia glanced at Devon, knowing she must add to the answer from the medical standpoint but not sure if she wanted to. These people were already so antsy about the planet... but it was her duty. Taking a breath she continued,

"As you all know, there are changes to the children's DNA structure, but in a way that gives them the missing enzymes and chemicals that they didn't have on the stations. This planet is alive, somehow, and through this change the children become more connected to it than the rest of us. By the Terrians giving them this extra DNA, they have access to the dream-plane and can speak the Terrian language. Those are the only noticeable differences between them and any other child." The crowd started mumbling again, much more loudly than before. One man walked towards the makeshift podium, his eyes flashing angrily,

"Wait a minute, you want us to believe all of this coming from a Council spy?" This sent the new colonists into an uproar of gasps and cries of outrage. Devon had hoped to conceal this information for as long as possible, at least until the colonists knew and trusted Julia enough to be able to look past her backround as an intelligence agent. Apparently this man had done his own research and gone digging through the Advance Team's logs. Now Julia started to turn red and unconciously took a step back away from the people yelling at her. Danziger interrupted them in an unignorable yell,

"Hey!" he turned to them all and motioned towards the young doctor, "yes, Julia came to this planet as a patriot and spy for the Council." More comments resounded through the camp. Danziger raised his voice another powerful notch to a level that made even Devon jump, "But she is not now!"

An eerie silence suddenly surrounded him and he moved closer to the crowd, "This planet is our second chance. That's a second chance that we gave to Julia and I expect you to do the same."

Julia, who had listened almost in silent awe to Danziger's defense of her, found her voice again and softly spoke up,

"No matter what I did before, what I'm telling you now is that your children can be healed, and be normal, active and healthy on this planet..." The same man who had made the comment before walked forward again and interrupted her,

"I didn't bring my family here just to have you tell me you'd make my daughter a 'mutant' of some kind. If these creatures have the ability to cure the kids, then they can probably do it without changing anything else about them. We have magpro's, I say we march on over to their little caves and demand that they heal our children without harming them!" His speech was met by a surprising number of cheers in agreement. Devon's jaw dropped, wondering where along the lines she had lost control of the meeting.

"No," she cried out, "you don't understand," The man turned to her and bellowed out, "yes we do! We understand that we will not let our children be taken and genetically altered by these things." He pointed at Ashley, sitting in the grass in faded blue overalls a few feet from Julia, "Look at that girl, she's a freak! You all heard her twittering away last night like... like an animal! I don't know about any of you," he glared reproachfully at Alonzo and Julia, "but I will not let my daughter be violated in such a way!" With that he gathered a young Syndrome girl into his arms and stalked off back towards the camp, followed by dozens of other families.

Alonzo felt like a bomb had just been dropped on his soul as he watched the hostile looks people were sending Ashley's way. His daughter looked over at him then with smiling big blue eyes, blissfully unaware of what had just occured, her long brown hair swinging freely around her face. She was the epitomy of happiness and love. He tried to make his face smile back, and then looked to see Julia's identical pair of blue eyes looking at him in utter despair and fright. He felt the same way. How could anyone call their baby girl a 'freak'? She was the most beautiful child, both physically and spiritually, that Alonzo had ever known.

As the man behind the comment strutted by him he stopped next to Alonzo and asked him loudly, so all could hear,

"What kind of a father are you?" Alonzo heard a wave of deafening silence crash around him as his black eyes blazed at the man.

"One who cares enough about my child to put my fears aside and let the planet take care of her." He found Julia beside him, holding Ashley in her arms. The man hissed a curse at the little girl and stomped off with about half of the new colonists behind him. Devon looked over at them in despair,

"What do we do now? What?" Julia just shook her head, clearly not able to understand why people would come so far, and then suddenly decide they didn't want their child to get well. It didn't make sense...

Alonzo looked at them both, and then down at his daughter, smoothing her silky hair,

"They're afraid," he told them quietly, "as long as they're afraid, there is nothing we can do to help them."

Danziger walked into his tent after dinner beyond exhausted. His arms still hurt from lifting the contents of the cargo pods, even though they had finished hauling them back to camp two days ago, and he was in a horrible mood. Dinner hadn't helped his condition either; Vasquez and Julia were still on edge, the kids had started to fight, and Devon had been off playing ambassador to the new colonists, still needing to be comforted after every noise.

He glanced around his tent, surprised when he didn't see Devon inside. They had always met after dinner and gone for a walk in the woods before finishing their chores and settling in for the night. It had been a ritual for the past year and they had only broken the tradition during times of crisis. He, personally, would not consider now a crisis.

Glancing back around the camp he spied Devon talking with a dark haired man who looked to John to be on the edge of a mental breakdown, nervously wringing his hands and shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Danziger groaned inwardly. It seemed all his fiancee had been doing since the colony ship arrived was worry with, about and for everyone else except herself and her family. He slowly walked over, passing the new, larger med tent, and heard two raised voices coming from inside. He immediately recognized one as Julia's; she was moving the last of her medical equipment into this new tent, but it took him a few minutes to identify the second. Vasquez.

John stopped, not sure what to do. He knew Alonzo wasn't inside the tent; if he was, there was no way Vasquez would be yelling at Julia in such a fashion and still standing. He knew the argument wasn't any of his business, but he wouldn't trust Richard Vasquez any further than he could throw him, and he certainly wasn't going to leave Julia alone with him. He sat down on an overturned crate that was a discreet distance from the tent and patiently waited and listened.

"...power... with experience... new planet..." Danziger could only catch a few of Julia's shouted words. He heard something yelled back, followed by a crash and a sound that was a cross between a yelp and a cry of terror. In an instant John was on his feet and he tore across the short distance to the med tent.

As he burst through the tent flap he saw Vasquez on one side of the room, Julia on the other, and a piece of unidentifiable equipment in chunks across the ground between them. Instinctively he identified the pregnant Julia as the party at most risk and placed himself directly in front of her, facing the other doctor. Before Danziger could question either of them as to what happened Walman, Devon, and Alonzo flew into the tent.

"What's going on?" Devon asked the question that John hadn't had time to voice. Alonzo turned to Julia but kept his glaring eyes locked on Vasquez,

"Did he hurt you?" Julia simply shook her head, but it looked to John as if the rest of her was shaking too. Alonzo went to her side and wrapped his arms around her, with his back protecting her from Vasquez' glare. Devon raised her voice slightly and continued her query of the situation:

"What happened here?" Vasquez was still fuming, his face bright red,

"Oh, just a nice show of insubordination," he sneered sarcastically, stamping his foot to make his point, "The kind doctor here has decided to shirk her duties and go on a break to see her freak-daughter whenever she feels it necessary, without checking with me. She seems to think she is now the commander-in-chief of the medical team, and she is also turning the entire Advance team against me! Just this morning that woman, Linda Magus, came in here with a twisted ankle but wouldn't accept treatment from me. She said she'd just go find Julia."

Devon interrupted before his outburst led to an argument like the one from a few days ago,

"If you ask me, you're the one turning the Advance team against you, not Julia," The young doctor seemed to find her voice again and moved away from Alonzo towards Vasquez,

"I'm sorry if I don't blindly obey your orders," she began softly, her eyes focused on the ground before her, "but I learned very quickly after we came here that sometimes orders are meant to be disobeyed, to save another person." Julia looked up and met her teacher's eyes,

"When I left the stations on the Advance shuttle, I was a doctor barely out of medical school and an operative for the Council. I wasn't a real person, just a piece in a larger game that I wasn't allowed to play.

"Since then I've become a real person - I have friends and a family," Julia's blue eyes pleaded to Vasquez' cold stare, "but you can't understand that..." Richard spoke up over her words,

"Heller..."
"Solace," Julia cut him off harshly. "My name now is Julia Solace. You haven't called me by my real name since you got here. Can't you accept the fact that there's something more important in my life than medicine?"

The room was engulfed in a strange silence that was only accented by the quiet cry of a koba outside and the sound of Ashley's laughter near the tent.

Vasquez took that as his que to beat a hasty exit, stomping as he left. Walman glanced around the room at the couples and deciding it best to monitor the tempermental doctor for awhile, followed Vasquez out of the area.

All four remaining colonists looked around the room at each other, uncertain about what they should be thinking, feeling and saying. Julia's sudden sobs broke the silence. In an instant Alonzo had her in his arms,

"Shhh..." he cooed softly, "He won't hurt you... He's not your father... You're safe here... Shhh..."

Devon and Danziger exchanged a look and silently left the tent, closing the flap behind them.

"Well that was certainly interesting," John commented as they slowly made their way towards the woods, falling into routine. Devon arched an eyebrow as he continued,

"I think Vasquez is really going to have to be put in his place if he's going to fit in here at all. He's got to learn he's not the boss anymore, and if he ever throws a temper tantrum like that again..." The look he was getting from his fiancee cut him off immediately. "What?" he asked innocently. Devon shook her head and put her hands in her pockets,

"I just don't think you can ask a person to change that quickly, John. I mean, Vasquez has been in charge of the medical side of this project for the past eight years, and you're expecting him to surrender that rank to a woman less than half his age and then adjust to that change in a week. I don't think that's fair to ask of him." Now John felt his temper flaring,

"Then you're approving of his behaviour this afternoon? What if that equipment had hit Julia or smashed up some medical supplies...?" Devon's voice rose in volume and intensity,

"I'm not saying I approve of the violence he used, I'm just saying we have to try to relate to him and -"

"Oh, so now I have to relate to *him*?!" John yelled. Silence fell between them. "I'm sorry Dev," he whispered, letting out a sigh and taking one of her hands into his, "I didn't mean to get worked up." Devon smiled and allowed herself to be pulled in to his body,

"I'm sorry too. I'm letting all this stress get to me and I'm taking it out on you. I shouldn't - " She was cut off as his lips met hers and every thought of the argument melted from her brain. They didn't get back to camp until well after dark had fallen.

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