John Danziger, narrating.. "Seven days ago, we were fighting for our lives against an enemy we didn't even know we had.  Now we know some homicidal creation of a dead Council puppet is up there, above our heads, crawling in our very vital functions deep in our minds. God knows why.  Eve's existence tells me yet again that we weren't ever expected to make it to G889 with our skins intact. It's looking more and more likely that we weren't the first Eden Advance Project.  I still don't know what to make of what Franklin and Elizabeth shared with us before they died. Or didn't share. Poor Devon. Uly's handling her sudden date with a cryobed even better than we are. He says the Terrians will save her like they did him when the time is right. But I have my doubts. There's just something about what Yale was screaming while he layer raped a command code into Eve to cure her preprogrammed virus so she could cure us all that I can't quite put a finger on. It's been like a Z.E.D. worm bullet, eating into my sleep. Yale's not talking about it, even when asked. And another thing that's been bothering me, what I want to know the most is why Adair was never given a biostat implant like the rest of us. What exactly does her status as having been born into a station elite family really mean? Something tells me I'm better off not knowing."

John's head lifted at the scent of spicy dust as he pulled his ship's mechanic jacket a little tighter around himself to ward off the chill.  Their eight days spent dying had taken a heavy toll on everyone's body weight and his own ability to self regulate a core temperature, but food from the hydrolizers in Bennett's sleep ship was working fast to alleviate that. He took another rich bite of synth lobster that was blissfully not spirulina derived, as he sat in the Transrover's control seat.  He watched as his equally wind dusty and very thin daughter made her way carefully over the rocks and up into the cab with him. He helped her the last step up, stroking her cheek with a grateful set of fingers as her difficulty breathing with the exertion slowly left her. He put on a genuine smile. "Did you actually go to your check up with Julia or am I going to have to curb your VR gear time again for not going?"

True Danziger brushed away a few wisps of sandy hair that had escaped her navy blue head bandana wrap. "Of course I went. I hate pain and suffering just as much as you do." Then she eyed up his large handful of simulated sea crawler and made a successful grab for it. "Give me that. I'm your only first born." she mumbled as she quickly began stuffing her face.

"Hey! Plenty more where that came from, True. Go slow or you'll give Julia something else to unplug with her diaglove." he told her, chuckling with admiration at this sign of robust health. 

"My guts were fine, Dad. I just didn't have anything in my system to poop out last night. So quit asking." she snapped, still eating quickly, licking nutri-sauce off her fingers one by one with relish.

John gave her more of his carefully covetted crawler meat from a web bag. "That's my girl. Growing some modesty now? That's never stopped you before."

"That's because I've never had Terrians crawling inside my head before. Morgan called it getting your brain fuc-" True said.

"That's enough of the Earth crude out of you, spin off. I don't want to hear that kind of dirt talk puking out of your mouth again. Is that clear?" he warned, hugging her anyway.

"Sorry, Dad. I promise. Julia says I'm grumpy because I'm still a little muscle sore from atra- uh, atri--?"

"Atrophy." John supplied. 

"Can I still puke out Yale's spirulina pancakes whenever I feel like it?" she asked. 

John made a face and groaned. "Oh, is that what he's making this morning? I thought I smelled that particular kind of green sewage just now."

True burped unashamed and very loudly inside the safety of her father's bear hug as she finished her stolen meal with relish. "It smells more like Grendler pus to me."

John stopped kissing the top of her head while they snuggled and made another face. "Oh, girl, you just spoiled the rest of my appetite."

"It'll come back. Just stand upwind a little." she said sagely, neatly slipping out of his fatherly grasp. "Gotta go. Bess said she needed help getting Zero back online."

"You remember his impel code?" Danziger tested.

True just rolled her eyes as she slowly eased down onto her near starvation stick legs to the ground using the Transrover's hand rail. "VA-1587. Same as the back of your jacket. Really, Dad. When you design a pass code you should make it a little harder next time. Uly had Zero sentry pacing back and forth in front of Devon's wall bed all night."

"That won't waste any power. He's solar store capable." John protested.

"Won't help his feet any if they get ground down from overuse on the durasteel plating inside the ship, now will it?" she challenged.

"Grease monkey!" he barked at her. "I'm teaching you too well."

"Fossil jerky! But I still love you, anyway." she declared as she disappeared over a red grass rise to the Martins' tent.

John chuckled half heartedly at her painfully accurate observation. He felt his still very prominent cheekbones under his slowly pinking undereyes that he could see in the reflector mirror angled in front of him on the ahead window. "I'm nobody's carrion. At least, not today." he grumbled.  Then he set back to work calibrating the Transrover's driver control coils.

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True Danziger was not happy that Ulysses Adair had beaten her to Zero's storage box inside the Martin tent. His head module was already laid out neatly with his co-axle cables flickering and pulsing light. At a push of a button, they self extended and reconnected themselves to his body through the neck aperature and then to a sensory coordinate recorder resting on the table top.   Zero began giving out his usual cheery brand of perimeter report.  "Atmospheric readings normal.  Wind ten knots from the NNW. Temperature is 14 C.  No indication of alien bipeds within fifteen clicks of camp, Sir.." the module addressed Uly.

Beside him, lounging on a cot, was Morgan, preparing his VR gear to link in a new musical band number to tune out the morning. "Oh, yeah? So what do you call us with our newly discovered neural brainstem webs, you pathetic excuse of a walking tin can." he grumbled, tossing a dirty sock at Zero. "We're all turning into something alien."

"Morgan!" hissed Bess, who immediately tempered the firm reprimand for her husband on her face to a bright smile for True and Uly's benefit. "I'm sure our visitors wouldn't like to hear their current playmate called a thing." she said, neatly rearranging a few of the giant orange and purple irises that she had found growing behind their tent into a spare boot filled with acid from the lake.  "You're just surly because you still have a headache left over from Eve's power surge last week."

"Well Zero IS a thing. One we control. Bess, I really wish you hadn't brought those ugly orchids inside our tent. My skin still crawls just thinking about them. I mean, what if they decide to shoot off a little homing beacon pollen at us again into our faces?" he snivelled, shifting uncomfortable feet on the bed where he sat, eyeing them up with undisguised horror. "I for one really don't want to vomit germination sludge into another bottomless pit any time soon. Once was quite enough."

"Oh, please. Don't dwell in the past. It's over. All the Pod Porters are perfectly safe now according to Julia." said Bess. 

"Yeah, Mr. Martin. There's no need to worry anymore." said Uly. "Spring's already here."

Despite her jealousy of Uly holding Zero's control module remote, True agreed with the boy. "Why would the planet want to reboot what's already happening? That's just stupid." she said, plunking down into a chair to get her breath back from walking too fast in her frail condition.

Bess deflected the storm about to arise in the elder Martin neatly.

"Wow, aren't our house guests perceptive?  Oh, look, Honey! These pollen sacs have all dried up and fallen off. I'll just sweep them up and throw them away into the incinerator." she said with fake happiness. She did so and returned to smelling the flowers' heady bouquet appreciatively.

"Get rid of them." Morgan said about both children and the flowers.

Bess grew sugary and also obstinate. "No, Morgan. They're good company for me since certain other people aren't being so today. And my flower vase isn't going anywhere. Because I-- Because I still love their perfume. It is kind of.... sultry." she winked at the kids, who giggled from where they were watching Zero's monoeye flash while he continued to verbalize his current survey findings. 

"Is she flirting?" Uly whispered to True, who covered her mouth as she blushed and nodded. "I think so."

Mrs. Martin's harmless innuendo was completely lost on Morgan, who remained dour and sour. "I've got a headache, dear. Remember?"

"That's usually my line." she joked, conspiring with the kids to throw a few loose garments Morgan's way.

Martin just flipped over onto his other side and presented his back to the rest of the tent, tuning them out. "Gear log. Playback mode. Private!" he growled back over his shoulder as he slid the retina reader over an eye to activate the gear's feed.

The three at the kitchen table drew together their human heads over Zero's robotic one.  Bess was the first to start up their usual a.m. meet and greet. "Thanks for visiting me like this, you two. Every day. As you can see, I need a break from the resident paranoid every now and then." she grinned. "So how's your mom doing today, Uly?" Bess asked.

The slight, curly haired boy began spinning Zero's head around in place, making his voice recitation distort amusingly as it spun. "She's fine. But my friends are still puzzled that they can't reach her on the dream plain any more."

The young Danziger wrinkled her forehead.

"Why? Can't they understand suspended animation? It's only sleep that's a little bit cold." True wondered.

"I don't think they can. Because everyone they see usually gets connected." Uly replied innocently.

"Really?" Bess asked, surprised at his admission of a new mystery. She was about to ask how when she was interrupted.

"Mary isn't. Not any more." True interjected, taking out the whistle she still had on a thong that she had received from dead Gaal a few months back to play with.

Uly sighed sadly. "She's the only one. Besides mom." he said, picking up Zero's head module. "Come on, it's time to get to work. If we don't hurry, we're going to be late for Yale's school session.  Zero, follow!" he said.  Zero paced up to the table, stuck on his own head after taking it from Uly's offering hands, pulled out and retracted his report delivery cables and complied with the order. 

Soon, both the android and boy had gone.

True started getting to her feet painfully from her chair so Bess helped her up with a gentle hand. "Easy, True. Take your time."

The petite girl took her hand gratefully. "Bess, I still miss Mary somedays. I was beginning to learn a lot about the Terrians through her. Just by watching." True said, twirling her whistle thoughtfully. "I wish I knew where she was now."

"Mary's a survivor, True. She knows more about this planet than anybody else from either Earth or the stations." Mrs. Martin soothed. "I'm sure she's doing fine."

True dwelled on it miserably.  "But she's all alone out there somewhere." 

"She ran away from us, True. By choice. Which was hers to make. She's an adult."

True's eyes began to fill with a kind of worry for another that signalled budding maturity.  Slowly she blew on her whistle, sending out its mournful piercing, melancholic note as sudden tears fell.

"Hey, that plays beautifully. Did you carve that?" Bess asked True about the delicate Terrian bone whistle.

"No, it was a gift from a friend. It's a signaler, so lost people can find each other."

Bess smiled and softened bitter reality, offering True some hope as a balm. "Maybe you can talk to a Koba. Send her a message." Bess speculated. "I think they just might be intelligent enough to mimic the messenger pigeons that used to fly around on Earth."

True brightened. "Yeah, that might work. I'll get on it right away. Yale can help me!  Thanks, Bess." the girl said eagerly as she flipped up a tent flap to duck out.

"Anytime. Just don't let your father find out!" she yelled after her. "He might program Zero to do a little rodent hunting!"  Pleased with her day's morale boosting, Bess turned to breakfast with a warm heart.

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Baines, Walman and Magus were keeping the camp's fires going for warmth.

"I don't understand why we can't all sleep inside the ship at night." said Walman. "It's plenty big enough. Some of the chairs in there are pretty posh." he said, pulling a shirt away from his sweaty skin after setting down his axe in front of a pile of neatly split, pale pink wood.

Magus wrinkled her freckled nose from where she stood sentry with a MagPro on a nearby rise. "Where a bunch of people died or were fried by Eve? Are you nuts? I for one don't want to be anywhere near a working computer terminal. Roughing it's all fine and dandy with me."  she replied, pulling a head scarf away from the gear she wore on her head as she monitored Alonzo and Cameron's running commentary scouting trip for more water.

Baines just laughed. "I never thought I'd say this, but I don't miss being inside of a space ship. At all. There's something about all this fresh air, wide open spaces. I know. Weird. But somedays, it feels like it's calling me, a born stationer, who previously never knew anything different, to be outside!" he said joyfully.

"Yeah?" said Walman. "Well I know a particular pilot with a previously broken leg who still hugs ships at night. Have you seen him lately? He sleeps with his head on the nose cone that's slammed into the hillside with just a sleeping bag. No tent."

"And no Julia." winked Magus.

"Huh." grunted Walman. "Maybe his Terrian buddies are finally scaring away all his Boogeymen." he laughed.

"Either that or she is." Baines added. "Heller sure is one hot--"

"How's it going, guys?"  John Danziger said, bursting out of the Transrover that was in the same clearing as the trio. They had completely forgotten that he was there, working on the drive panel behind a very transparent sheet of alumoclear glass.  "Gossip under control this morning?"

"Oh, John. You're beginning to sound like the frozen aristocrat we all know and don't love."  Walman joked.

"Good. After all, she did leave me in charge." He rounded out and planted a full punch to the blond man's left cheek with a pair of unchecked knuckles, knocking him flat. " Walman, you're gonna treat the women on our team respectfully, like full and equal citizens at all times like our mutual contract says, or you'll have me to answer to. Comprende, Cargo?"  he barked, deliberately using Walman's space station lackey title which was very far below his own ship's mechanic status, in rank.

"Uh, sorry, sir. Yes sir." said Baines and Magus. The sentiment was echoed by Walman only reluctantly. 

Danziger made sure the deckman looked away and down before he let up his close physical proximity's pressuring using his far greater height.

"Right. Now go warm up the ATV and get out a pair of jumpers to double check Zero's morning report findings. On the double. We're running behind." said John, offering Walman a hand up again. 

The two men rushed off to their assigned chores, avoiding another fight wisely.

Magus sagged a little in her armor where she stood. "Sorry, Danziger. We may be out of winter camp, but it's been murder staying in one place after being on the move for so long."

"We haven't voted to abandon anybody just yet, that's why we're parked." Danziger said, walking up the hill to flank her companionably.  "Julia's still hunting for what caused Devon's sudden decline. It may be something that'll get us later on."

"Isn't that a little unnecessary?" Magus asked him. 

"What do you mean?" John shot back.

"She can maintain indefinitely in cryo. You and I both know that." the stocky woman stationer insisted.  "We can leave her behind. Quite easily."

"Wait a minute, there's no way for sure to tell how soon Cryo Syndrome actually sets in using this God forsaken planet's stats. We know it's there at wakeup fifty years. It might set in as soon as one for all we know. " Danziger debated, planting his hands firmly on his hips in irritation.

"That's guessing, John. And you know it. The only one who might be able to answer that question is either Yale, who had access to part of the ship's systems, or Eve herself using our biostats." Magus shot back.

Danziger threw up his hands. "Nobody's looking forward to another pow wow with Eve. Not even Yale. That'd be a big mistake."

"Is it?" Magus challenged. "Or is staying here an even bigger one?" she said, setting her MagPro more comfortably on her armored shoulders.

John met her eyes levelly and seriously considered what she was saying.

"I don't think that it is. Why DON'T we wait it out here?  Why not let the syndrome ships land at New Pacifica without us? They'll find out we've been held up the second they land. Magus, the first thing they'll do is mount a full scale search for US.  We're no longer equipped to be their landing team. We're sick, only a week reversed from starving ourselves to death due to overloading biostat implants. Our stuff's scattered across the face of the planet God knows where, and we've known that since Day One. You tell me what's best for the group. Because I think not moving's the best course for everybody." he snarled.

Magus stared at him intently for a long moment. Then she began to grin in a gruff, soldierly way. "You know. That took guts to override Devon's wishes.  Even if it is just talk." she said with admiration for his new leadership style. "I'll see you at lunch." she said, heading off to a higher bluff, one that wasn't covered in leftover, bruised and dying, spring orchids.

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Alonzo and Cameron pulled up the SandRail on top of a small ridge. One that was still in sight of Bennett's crashed ship but facing a new valley that might contain a rain stream to replenish supplies.  They got out and reported in to Yale who was Eden Camp's Communicator for the hour. "Gear send. Yale this is SandRail. Coordinates, 30 west, 120 south at five clicks. We think there's water below us but descending down to it will take us line of sight below--"

"Solace!" shouted Cameron who had been studying the horizon with his jumpers on top magnification. "I've spotted something!"

"Yale. Stand by."

##Standing by.## came the cyborg tutor's reply.

"What is it?" said Alonzo, quickly making for the Rail so he could pull up next to Cameron to pick him up.

"A pile of clothes. Might be trailings from one of our missing pods with a broken transponder."

Alonzo took out his own pair of locators for a quick scan. He spotted the tan color of definitely woven cloth.

"Could be number 3, 8, or--" Solace hypothesized.

"11." celebrated Cameron. "The one with the bar in it." he said eagerly.

"Let's go!" Alonzo said, jerking the acceleration stick shift down all the way into top speed towards the human debris they had found.

Soon, they got closer.

"It's a figure!" Cameron shouted.

Alonzo immediately slammed on the brakes and both men drew out MagPros and aimed them squarely at the distant pile of cloth that was eighty meters away. Solace radioed Zero. "Zero, emergency proximity scan! Analyze for lifesigns apart from Eden Project. Execute!"

##No indication of other bipeds.##

"Scan again! We're seeing a figure on the ground two clicks in front of SandRail."

##Still no indication.## reported the android over gear.

"Damn. Want to risk an approach?" Cameron said, his voice full of adrenalin stress.

"Sure. Why not? I'm feeling a little daring. I had a full breakfast today." Solace replied, equally hyped up.

Slowly they advanced.

Danziger popped into gear. ##What do you got?##

"We don't know. Might be a body. Too small to be Grendler." Cameron replied as they stalked closer.

##Be careful. Want me there?##

"Bring Julia. If it's somebody, she'll want to do an autopsy to find out--" Alonzo stated.

"Oh, my God." interrupted Cameron, tossing down his gun. "It's Mary."

"What?!" Alonzo said, still gripping his MagPro.

"Her smell. It's the same one from the cave with the Moon Pool." Cameron said, crouching down swiftly. "Remember it?"

"Yeah." Solace replied. "It's unmistakable."

Soon Alonzo was standing over her. He recognized Mary's dew covered blond hair, stained with the usual mud, and new acid burns.

Gagging, Solace knelt down and grabbed Mary's shoulders, rolling her over onto her back. Her limbs flopped limply. Mary wasn't breathing and her eyes were fixed into a thousand yards stare.  

"Sh*t!" Alonzo said, bending down to wipe away acid and mud from Mary's mouth with a hasty sleeve so he could give her a couple of deep breaths of his own after pinching her nose shut. "Does she have a pulse?" he asked in between his rapid efforts.

Cameron checked. "Y-yeah, I think so."

"You sure? Cause if she doesn't, we have to do very different things for her!" Alonzo gasped, sucking in more air above Mary's face to give it right back to her.

"Oh man. I don't think it's there." burbled Cameron, stunned into shock as he reluctantly kept hold of the slight girl's filthy neck.

"Rush them!" Alonzo said, bending over to be Mary's lungs once again.

The burly man snatched Alonzo's gear from his head and hit the red emergency button to set it on speaker. "Yale! It's Mary! She's in a bad way. We're resuscitating!"

##Keep working. Hang on. They're just a few minutes away in the TransRover.## came the thick Jamaican reply. ##Julia's brought her bag.##

Alonzo snapped out orders. "Cameron, did you have med resus training?" he said, peeling back her eyelids and watching the sunlight shrink the pupils of

her cloudy eyes. 

"No.. not that. Never worked without a life support bot. I'm just a Cargo, like Walman." he stammered. "I.."

Alonzo looked up after delivering another breath. "She's still got a chance here. Cut off her shirt."

"Wha--"

"Just do it! Then start pressing up and down on the middle of her chest with both your palms, one over the other.  Not too hard. Just enough to flatten her ribs a little." Solace said.

Cameron hesitated once her skin was bare, revealing massive acid burns. 

"Go, man! Wrap your hands in cloth to protect them and start in! She'll die on us if you don't!" Alonzo begged.  

Closing his eyes tightly against his intense fear of all the acid, Cameron did so and began pumping.

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Deep in her cryo stasis bed, unobserved by any of the Eden Team, Devon Adair began to gasp, as if being ventilated by an outside rescuer using mouth to mouth.

Eve's image came online on the wall above her head. Her broadcast was completely devoid of any trace of the Reilly module.

 "They are connected. They are ...alive."  came the computer's voice.   

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At Zero's side, in camp, Uly immediately began to trill loudly enough to startle True, who was next to him with their school books. 

"What's wrong?" she asked of the Adair boy.

"Contamination." he said, half in a Terrian dream. 

Then his hungry staff began to rise up slowly from the earth and it fell, red ribbons and all, into his hand.