John Danziger's back hit the side of the ship with a soft thump as he took cover to one side of the entry hatch leading into the sleeper ship. The grapey butter aroma in the air unique to the ship's canyon that usually calmed him, did nothing but interfere with his senses now. "Shhh. Don't make a sound."

Cameron nodded as he took the door's other side in a mirror of John's move.

The tutor was keeping wisely out of sight behind a rock nearby while the two men finished flanking the access portal. Its user panel was showing that an external airlock was in active use. "It's been cycled manually. Be careful." mouthed Yale. "Is he still in there?"

Danziger consulted a hand reader. "Oh, yeah." he said, sweating a lot as he hugged his wall. "I know it's just him, but I don't like what I'm seeing. According to all the readings, this external door lock hasn't been disturbed."

"And not a single sign of forced physical entry." Yale noted, studying every inch of the ship with his augmented vision.

Cameron was thoughtful as he peered around the huge muzzle of his Magpro. "No other footprints past his, guys." he said, pointing to the ground.

John nodded, eyeing up the tiny shoe marks there. "So, no penal colonists, or raiding Grendlers? That's cool with me." he said, keeping his pistol muzzle aimed at the ready, pointed safely up towards the sea green sky.

Cameron agreed. "And I don't know a single Terrian yet who can earth swim through solid man-made metal."

John began to relax, just a hair. "Get ready." he whispered. Reaching out, he did the next obvious thing. He rapped loudly on the hull with a carefully extended arm and fist, keeping the rest of his body behind very thick durasteel. "Uly? If you can hear me, open the d*mned door."

Suddenly the airlock light turned from red to green. The three men braced themselves by beam struts and rock as the hatch slid up in front of them revealing just a dusty, dark interior. 

Seconds later, a full sized female figure in a white tunic and slacks stumbled out. It was Devon Adair. 

Uly was under one of her arms, trying inadequately to help her walk upright. "It's okay, mom. They're here. Thanks for letting me in."

"Uly, did you wake her up?" John startled, rushing forwards.

Yale was just as suprised. "That was incredibly dangerous!"

"No. She was already up. I just went and got her like she asked me to." the boy said.

Danziger holstered his weapon and barely caught the petite brunette as she fell into his arms, still groggy. "Like who asked you to?" asked John suspiciously. "Cameron, keep covering that door. We have no idea what Eve's capable of." He placed Devon gently onto the ground to check out her actual condition. She was awake, but looking dazed, with very pale lips.

"My Mother." said Uly.

Yale crouched down by the boy who wasn't the slightest bit worried. "Do you mean Devon? How is that possible? She was unconscious, in stasis."

"Not her. The planet." Uly grinned. "The Mother." he corrected. "She called me in a dream, saying she had fixed what was wrong with mom."

Cameron was nonplussed. "That could have been Eve. Remember how she projected Bennet into Morgan's VR gear, lured us here, and then tricked Morgan into killing half the ship's cryo capsuled crew?"

"But I'm not wearing any gear." the boy insisted. "Mom's okay, Mr. Danziger. Really. She was linked up by the Terrians because she needed it. They told me that's why I can't hear her anymore in my mind. She's been connected."

"Connected to what?" Yale asked. "By whom?"

Right then, Adair came into mental focus, moaning in pain. "OhHHhh.. Danziger? Did Julia find a c-- *gasp* Why do I hurt so bad?! I.. my chest,.. my skin!" And then she let out a blood curdling scream, rolling up into an agonized ball of convulsing limbs.

Simultaneously, a scream sounding exactly the same ripped out of the medical tent from Mary as she suddenly came to under Julia's successful ministrations.

"Mom? What's wrong?" Uly asked, hugging one of her shivering hands. "It's not supposed to be hard. I'm sorry. It shouldn't feel bad! She promised that it wouldn't!" he quailed, tears filling his eyes. He tried to Terrian trill a distress clarion to summon help from his subterranean friends, but what came out was all frightened little boy.

Danziger wasted no time. He hefted Adair swiftly up into his arms and raced for Julia. "Yale! You know your way around Eve! Go in there with Cameron and figure out what happened." he ordered, tossing the man his hand reader. "Keep an eye on each other! Shoot any computer monitor that so much as flickers!"

"Right." said Cameron, cocking his Magpro into a higher power setting.

John hurried away, encouraging Devon steadily. "Devon, can you hear me? Take a -- no, don't hold your breath. Holler again if you have to. We're about a minute away from some instant pain relief. Keep breathing. That's it. In, and out. " he shouted as he rounded a corner of camp. "Julia!"

"What?" came Heller's voice through the tent wall.

"It's Devon! I got her right here!"

"What?!" came three voices from Julia, Morgan and Bess.

Devon let out another long cry of agony. So did Mary.

"Get a pain med. She says she's hurt but I can't find a single mark on her." John said, bursting through the entry flap with his writhing burden.

"Put her on a bed." Heller said, kicking a stool out of the way as she grabbed for her torn apart medical bag. "Bess, see if you can calm Mary down. Her hypo should start working in--"

Suddenly, both of their patients stopped shrieking and calmed into passivity as the promised chemical numbness took hold of Mary.

"Okay, that was weird." said Bess, as her eyes moved back and forth between the faces of their two patients like a tennis match.

"Blankets." Julia ordered. John opened a pair from a nearby pack and quickly handed them over. The doctor used them on Devon, to warm her out of cryo shock.

"Uh, what just happened here, guys?" Morgan asked. Then he stared at John. "Danziger, seeing as you are our official man in charge, I demand you tell me exactly--"

That was the last jab at the ship's mechanic for the day. John unloaded, noisily.
"I have no friggin' clue, Martin! Now sit down, shut up, and give Julia the space to work on it or I swear I'll knock every one of your nauseatingly bureaucratic teeth down your th-"

"Oh, my. Young ears." warned Bess as Uly suddenly ran into the med tent after them.

"Mom!" cried the boy, running to her side.

"I think I'm okay now."
"I think I'm okay now." said both Devon and Mary as they each blew out a relieved breath.

The two women looked at each other when they realized they were both breathing exactly at the same rate and time.

Then Adair blinked. She looked at the ceiling in a sheer act of will, and said. "You first."  Her speech came solo.

"No, I'm first." said Julia, running her diaglove over the two of them in turn. "You each have the same sets of vital signs, right down to the exact measurements? No, that can't be right." she puzzled, smacking its diagnostic control panel in irritation.

"My ribs hurt." said Adair.

"Why do my heart bones ache?" asked Mary, about the same thing.

"It's because we had to do CPR." replied John.

"What?" asked Devon. "On me?"

"Not on you. On her." he pointed towards Mary. "And for quite some time, too."

"Oww." Adair grimaced, feeling up her own tender feeling breast bone.

Morgan's face adopted a genuine look of horror. "Oh, now, no way! Quit joking around, Devon. You're beginning to creep me out."

But Adair did not smile to reassure him. Her face remained sick looking.

Julia ran her sensor fingers over the area. "You've no fractures, Devon. There's nothing wrong here."

Mary was internalizing, her fingers tracing the same lines on herself as Devon was doing. "I.. I am the one damaged..."

Devon completed her thought. "... I was the one who should have died."

"Not on my watch." growled John at the two of them.

"We almost ended." said Devon and Mary with one voice.

Mr. Martin just about had a cow. "Stop doing that! Why are you saying and doing things at exactly the same time?" Morgan shouted. "What are you? A pair of robots or something?"

John and Julia's eyes met in a mutual discovery.

"Through Mary's biostat?" Heller theorized.

Danziger shrugged. "Uly told me Devon had just been connected to something by Terrians a few minutes ago. Are they really mentally tied to each other here?"

Julia ran her tool's sensor tips over both Mary and Devon's foreheads, reading their brain wave patterns. "Oh, my G*d." she said. "This is impossible. Their neurological synapses are firing off in identical areas of their brain tissue at nearly the same time! I'd say they are. Physically, too." said Heller, marvelling.

"But the fit is.." started Mary.

"...not perfect." finished Adair. "There's been..."

"...contamination." replied Mary, her face matching Adair's in a like, fiercely introspective grimace.

"What kind?" John asked.

"We do not know." said both of the women, and Uly.

"D*mn." murmured Danziger, eyeing up the boy with his mouth flopping open.

Uly's Terrian staff had made a sudden, earth thrusting reappearance, back into his hand.