Alonzo Solace was cutting across the desert terrain at a moderate rate when he heard a far-off eruption of some kind. He slowed the ATV and came to a stop. In the distance, he saw a cloud of dust rising. His breath caught in his throat.

That came from the direction of the camp... Without aid of the Jumper monocular, he wasn't able to pinpoint the precise location. Still, every nerve was on edge. He keyed his Gear and tried to reach Julia.

"Solace to base camp... Julia, do you read?'

Silence.

He waited a few more tense moments, not for a moment believing she could actually be taking a nap.

"Doc, come in..."

Silence. He kept staring towards base camp, willing someone to answer his call.

"Julia, please..." he whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

He slipped off the device and scrutinized it, making sure it was in working order. Satisfied there was nothing wrong with it after turning it over in his hands several times, he placed it back on his head.

A sudden, distant flash of light drew is attention, then the roar of another explosion finally reached his ears. A cold, dreadful feeling crept up his spine, coupled with the certainty that something was very amiss. Some part of his brain went numb, preventing him from thinking about anything other than reaching base camp and Julia.

He keyed the Gear once more. When he again received no reply, he wrenched the communications device from his head and flung it down in the sand in anger. He was close to hyperventilating, and his shoulders heaved as he tried to steady his breathing.

After a few moments when he'd calmed enough, he bent down and retrieved the Gear.

He slipped it back on and once again tried to get in touch with the Eden Advance crew.

"Solace to base camp... does anyone read?!" Desperation turned his voice into a high-pitched cry.

Frantic now, Alonzo engaged the ATV and pressed it to maximum speed. He hadto get back to the camp... All instincts about danger or safety shut down, and all energy was diverted to keeping the vehicle going at top speed. He'd deal with John Danziger's anger over his recklessness later.

On the horizon, Alonzo thought he caught a flicker of movement. It was a mere smudge against the background of dirt and sky, but it looked to him like it was in motion.

He kept going, knowing that whatever it was he had sighted would eventually meet up with him at some point. The smudge on the horizon kept getting closer, and a small part of Alonzo's consciousness idly wondered if it was a lone Grendler, out on its daily gatherer-trader wanderings. But it was too small to be a Grendler, he realised.

True?

Alonzo squinted. Heat waves shimmered, distorting his view as sand and sky melded together.

Yes, it was definitely True Danziger, and she was running.

A new series of explosions lit up the afternoon sky.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... Alonzo counted as the sounds ripped through the air, ominously rumbling like distant thunder.

He could clearly see True, now. He pulled the ATV to a stop and continued on foot to meet her.

"Mr. Solace!" she choked out breathlessly.

He saw her pale, tear-stained face.

"True! What happened?!" he cried as she crashed into him, throwing her arms around his middle. She held on to him as if her very life depended on it.

Her sobs distressed him greatly. Alonzo carefully pushed her back and knelt so he was eye-to-eye with the girl. There was sheer terror reflected there.

"True," he said steadily, trying not to further traumatize her, "tell me what happened!"

True sniffled, swallowed and took several moments to catch her breath. Tears continued to stream from her puffy, swollen eyes.

Alonzo was at a loss as to how to comfort her; he couldn't ever remember having to soothe a child. He was already terribly worried himself.

"There- there were Z.E.D.s... They came and they shot Walman and Cameron!"

"What!" Alonzo shouted.

True nodded. "And then Yale made me and Uly go stay with Julia..."

Alonzo gripped True's shoulders more tightly than he intended upon hearing Julia's name. "Is Julia alright?" he asked.

"She told me to find you," True answered. "She killed one of the Z.E.D.s, but she was trapped underneath his body..."

"All those explosions," Alonzo started to say, and True dissolved into tears again.

"I think everyone is dead," she whispered sorrowfully. Then, an almost guilty-sounding whisper: "I saw their bodies..."

The pilot bit down hard, trying to stave off the scream of overwhelming grief, fury and disbelief that was building inside. His neck muscles went taut with the strain, and he shut his eyes tightly.

"No," he spat, shaking his head vehemently. "No!"

True looked at him fearfully; watched him clench and unclench his fists. She was completely incapable of dealing with his rage. "Julia told me to tell you that it was Reilly; that it was the Council. They took Uly."

Alonzo shot a sharp glance at her. "The Council! They took Uly?!" he repeated, barely over the shock of the revelation that the Council had been responsible for the attack.

"And Julia also said that the Z.E.D. shot two Terrians with worm bullets. She was afraid of what would happen if they exploded underground."

"I'm going back right now," Alonzo stated, almost as if he hadn't heard True's last statement.

"But... what if they're watching? What if they're waiting?" True was shaking.

"I said I'm going back!" Alonzo snarled, and made to return to the ATV.

The girl flinched as if she'd been struck, her mouth caught frozen open in silent protest. She called after him: "I don't want you to go back there. Please, don't leave me. I don't want to go back!"

When he didn't stop or respond to her plea, she jogged after him and caught him, arms encircling his waist, hoping to slow him down. "Don't gooooooo..." she wailed, as her feet dragged an uneven trail in the dust.

Alonzo stopped and sighed in resignation. "I have to go back, True. I need to know for sure..." He swallowed the lump in his throat and pried the girl's arms off himself.

I have to know for sure if Julia... He looked down at the shell-shocked expression on True's face, and was moved by the utter sense of loss he perceived. He knew he couldn't abandon her.

"We'll go together," he finally said.

"Okay," True whispered, and rubbed her face with her heels of her hands.

Alonzo sat in the driver's seat, and True clambered up behind him. She braced herself there, holding onto the struts of the ATV for support. They had just started rolling when the ground ahead of them was disturbed, and four, five, six Terrians shot to the surface.

"What the-" Alonzo exclaimed, and hit the brakes. The vehicle shuddered in protest and stopped a mere foot from the row of indigenous life-forms.

Before Alonzo could say another word, he was transported to the Dreamplane.

Dozens of the local Terrian tribe moved about and encircled him, dance-like, trilling and twittering. An unspecified multitude of emotions swelled around Alonzo and pressed upon him until he felt he could bear no more.

"Stop this!" Alonzo cried out, holding his head. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me."

But the confused communication between the two species did not cease, and Alonzo could make no sense of the muddled messages.

"I don't know what you want from me," Alonzo spoke aloud. "You have to let me go back. My people were attacked -"

The empathic Terrian messages intensified, and Alonzo groaned due to its force. Then he remembered what True had said about the Z.E.D. shooting two Terrians.

"Two of your members were attacked, too," he said, and felt the tension of the imperfect method of communication ease slightly. He was gaining confidence now, that he was comprehending their distress, and they, his. "They were shot with a terribly destructive weapon. They need medical assist-" his words came to a halt. What kind of medical assistance could be offered to a species they knew nothing about? And Julia...

The Mother has healed our wounded.

"Oh," Alonzo replied, relieved that he was at last comprehending even this small portion of the Terrrians' agitated communication.

The tone of the Terrians' messages then turned to what Alonzo could only interpret as accusatory.

"No, wait," he begged for a chance to explain. "Your tribe was attacked by the same people who attacked my group... My people had nothing to do with this-"

The link is in peril.

"You mean Uly," Alonzo said, feeling a blazing anger at the thought of what had happened to the boy, and what might be happening to him at that very moment. "When they attacked my group, they took Uly..."

The link must not be harmed.

"I know! That's why I have to go back; before it's too late to find the ones responsible." But even as he spoke these words, Alonzo felt defeat settling darkly in his heart. How could he possibly hope to mount a rescue mission against a force much more powerful than he was?

The link must not be lost.

"Do you know where he is? Can you find him?" Alonzo asked, desperate for something concrete.

A wave of sadness and confusion rolled like a tidal wave from the Terrians and washed over him.

The Mother does not carry him.

"What does that mean?" the pilot cried. "What do you mean 'Mother does not carry him'?!"

But the indigenous creatures gave no further reply or explanation.

Alonzo opened his eyes and realised he was no longer on the Dreamplane. True Danziger let out a sob of relief.

"You're alive! I thought you'd..." she stopped herself as she came to the realisation he'd been merely dreaming with the Terrians.

"Yeah, I'm alive," Alonzo mumbled, and gave his woozy head a shake.

"You were talking with them, huh?" she ventured to ask.

"Yes," Alonzo answered, lost in his thoughts and impressions of this latest encounter.

"Are we still going back?"

"We have to. We've got to find Uly, so that's where we'll pick up the trail."

Wordlessly, Alozno started up the vehicle again. He hadn't known what to expect when he got here, but when he finally pulled to a stop at what was once Eden Advance's camp, he felt as if his world was collapsing.

On shaky legs, he stumbled out of the ATV and went a few paces. Slack-jawed and silent, he gazed at several large, perfectly round craters of dead, scorched and blackened earth. The ground seemed to rush up and connect solidly with his bent knees, jarring his bones and forcing the air from his lungs.

There's nothing left. There's nothing left!

Hands that had become rough and calloused over the months of manual labor on the planet wiped at vain tears that flowed freely from his eyes.

"Julia..." Alonzo whispered, hugging his arms to himself tightly. He remembered how Julia clung to him the night he'd returned after the awfully misguided group decision to abandon her. He's sensed her residual terror and her relief; intuited that she hoped he would never let her go, and part of him wanted to oblige her. He thought of her healing touch, the bright smiles that were reserved for him, and her incredibly blue eyes.

You can't be gone. Not after everything we've been through. I didn't think that I'd ever find someone who would make me want to give up the stars... Julia...

Alonzo did not hear the soft, approaching steps of True. He did not react when she placed a tentative hand on his slumped shoulder.

"Mr. Solace?" True said quietly, unsure of herself and if it was even the right time. "Juila wanted you to know something before I came to find you..."

When Alonzo did not reply, True continued anyway. "She told me to tell you she was sorry, and that she loves you."

Alonzo gasped as an almost physical pain exploded from the core of his being. This was too much. The agony of defeat and loss was too much. As he knelt in the scorched, arid soil, he prayed that the ground would simply swallow him whole.

And it did.