Alonzo huddled miserably in his damp clothes as John drove with the windows down in the Transrover for Mary's benefit. ::For fresh oxygen, so the doctor claims.:: he thought in his head as he watched Julia set up Mary's fluid and antibiotic pumps. "Here." said Julia, handing off a pair of light blinking, computerized, and tubed bottles to Solace. "Hold both of these up, higher than me. They still need to be activated."

The pilot did so, grumpily. Both units beeped as they turned on their functions, just as Heller figured out where to hang them magnetically in the cab.

Julia smiled at Alonzo, knowing he was crabby because his lips were swelling up. She took back the intravenous infusers to free up his hands so he could continue to scratch his itching face and hands. "Thanks. You'll be fine by sunset."

Alonzo ignored his paramour. "I thought we were supposed to be hurrying." Solace snapped at Danziger when he took the time to stop on a dime to search for level ground for a gentler ride for their patient.

"There's no need to any more. See?" the curly haired man said, gesturing out the visor screen of their vehicle. "Looks like low tech's still being allowed to work on this lovely ball of rock of ours."

Alonzo looked. "Smoke signals." he grunted, grudgingly admiring the move.

"Yep. In regular non-distress patterns. Seems like all's well in camp after all. That's my True girl. She remembered her lessons on backup primitive communication methods." said John proudly.

"Unlike some." said Cameron, glaring at Solace. " 'No dreaming it in hostile alien territory', mate." he quoted.

"Hey! That was Devon's old rule." Alonzo defended belligerently.

"It's a good rule." Cameron challenged. "Who knows what those Others might have done with your brain. They were mad enough to try and kill Mary." he argued.

"Can it. It's over and done with." said John. "Why don't we just stick with surviving for the rest of the night, eh? Mission's accomplished. It was a total surprise, but we got Mary back. At least that's one regret we don't have to stomach any more. I don't know about you, but the fact that she ran away from all of us so completely was eating at me something fierce. It's a relief being given a chance to rectify her popularity problem today."

"I feel the same way." Solace said. "That's why I went in to find out why she was being targeted again past the original punishment they doled out to her last winter."

Cameron continued applying salve to his acid swollen fingers vigorously as he glanced at the spot mirror to make sure that Zero was still following behind them in the scouting ATV. "So what more did you learn about all this that we don't already know?"

"Well, for starters, Cammy Boy, we have a new Terrian ally." Alonzo sighed. "Her name's Mother-By-Choice. She's devoted to Mary, and apparently, to anyone else who feels the same way about her. Felt to me that she'll probably defend those bonds to the death."

"Wait a minute. Hold on a sec. You discovered a Terrian with a name?" Julia asked as she looked up from the vital signs monitoring screen on the diaglove.

"Yep." Alonzo grinned, snatching the tube of burn salve away from Cameron so he could use it for himself. "Pretty amazing, huh?"

John was skeptical. "Alonzo, there's no way the Terrians'll be forming a domestic embassy to invite us to play anytime soon." he said, keeping his eyes on the terrain as he drove.

Solace coughed, grinning through his white ointmented lips. "Well then how do you explain Mary's rescue from a sudden, almost fatal, acid bath?" He offered Danziger the tube of salve companionably.

John took it from him with alacrity, eager to soothe his stinging fingers and mouth. "I can't, Solace. Nobody can, with any great certainty. These are Terrians we're talking about." he said, smearing medication over his sore spots while he guided the rover's joystick with his knees.

Julia was thoughtful. "Maybe Uly can."

The others just looked at her as she crossed the taboo subject no one ever wanted to address.

Heller grew uncomfortable with being scrutinized. "Well, why not? Isn't he still a supposed link between humans and Terrians?"

"That's the question of the hour, now isn't it?" Danziger said. "Let's get to camp first before we dig ourselves in too deep. Everybody gets the right to chip in on any big issues before we decide anything for the group ahead of time." he warned.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Julia agreed empathetically, remembering her own painful experience as an outcast.

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Yale met the Transrover's arrival into camp at a semi urgent run, followed closely behind by True, Morgan, and Bess.

Julia flagged down Baines and Walman to help carry Mary's stretcher into the medical tent. Bess immediately fussed over the woman. "You found Mary?! Yale, why didn't you tell me!" she snapped.

"I had more pressing matters." said the man, self consciously. "You see, Ul-"

"We'll talk later." Morgan warned in a stressed out fidget while he followed his wife who was following the medical party.

"What's up?" Danziger asked Yale as he popped up his door wing.

"Uly's gone missing." said the cyborg tutor, very glad to find a sympathetic ear.

"Dad, he went nuts and blew up our comm sat with that alien stick of his." said True.

John picked up his daughter gratefully into his arms in greeting. "That's new. But... we think we know why he did it, and yes, I can rebuild it." he retorted before the question could be asked. "Zero, scan for everybody's biostat implants. Report all current positional coordinates and display map." he ordered.

"Visual feed processing. *bleep* There is an anomaly. One additional trace foreign to baseline Eden Project data."

"Zero, label it as Mary. Also human." John told the robot unit as he set his daughter down again after their hug.

"Complying. *bleep* New coordinate lifesigns, Mary, manifesting as abnormal with critical level vital--."

"Zero, noted. Mary's being successfully treated. Now show me the map." Danziger said impatiently.

Zero's hand emitter projected an outline of camp onto the dirt at their feet displaying location dots and they all eyed it eagerly for the boy's whereabouts.

"Uly's ident is in the ship?" Danziger said, pulling out a laser pistol in alarm. He immediately began heading that way.

"I thought we had that locked up?" Cameron asked, following him with a Magpro.

"So did I." John said grimly as he hurried.