The Road Not Chosen by Joan Powers

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The Road Not Chosen (11/11)
by Joan Powers

(Bess Martin)

No matter how long I live on this planet, I'll never understand these Terrians. Uly, nearly invalid, was cured miraculously over night; yet his mother needed several months to recover from her near death experience. The Terrians returned Morgan and Walman to us. They even returned the Dunerail. But the men were only partially healed. For the first week, both men were complete invalids. Their memory was still poor, Morgan only seemed to recall who I was after several days. But, at least I had him back, and he was recovering, though it was a painfully slow process.

Each day I sat by his side, taking care of his needs. During his waking hours, I'd constantly talk to him about details of our lives together, to help jog his memory.

At least he knows who I am now. But I wonder if he'll ever return to being the man he was?

Danziger and Devon entered Julia's tent to meet with the doctor and Yale.

"What's with all the clock and dagger stuff, doc?" Danziger teased.

The doctor explained, "Since Morgan and Walman are in the Med-Tent, I thought it best if we met here."

"What do we have to discuss Julia?" Danziger asked. "You've already explained that we can't travel until Walman and Morgan get significantly stronger."

"And that might take a few weeks," Devon stated. As she noticed the doctor's grin, she exclaimed, "Oh my God, you've finally got results! What have you learned from those tests you performed on me?" As soon as she'd started feeling better, Devon had been pestering the doctor about the issue.

Julia called up some data on a computer screen. "Let me refresh everyone's memory. Over a week ago, Devon ingested some drugs which would interact with any inorganic substances in her body. After analyzing my scanner data, let me show you what I've discovered." The data screen showed an outline of the human body. The doctor pushed some keys, and some areas on the figure lit up.

Yale grinned and pointed with his finger, "Look -- that's the stomach lining! It's remnants of the poison delivery capsule"

Julia nodded with satisfaction, "That's right."

"So your theory that the Council poisoned Devon before we left the Stations is correct," Danziger summarized as he reached for Devon's hand to give it a reassuring squeeze.

"What about those other blips?" Devon's attention was focused on the screen. A few spots near the base of the neck glowed. "There aren't as many of them."

"I was curious about them too, so I ran several different analysis programs. Best I can tell is that's pieces of a bio-stat implant," Julia explained.

"What? But I don't have one? Do I?" Devon was confused.

"You said pieces," Yale emphasized.

"That's right," the doctor answered. "Here's my theory. Before leaving the Stations, you had a bio-stat implant, just like the rest of us. When Eve began jacking up the frequency, making us sick, it affected your implant as well as ours. However, in your case, the signal to the bio-stat implant triggered the slow release of the poison. That's why you got sick around the same time as the rest of us, and why your symptoms advanced so quickly. Within a day or so, you'd accumulated high enough levels of the poison to affect all of your systems."

"What happened to her implant?" Danziger asked.

"This may seem far fetched, but I think the poison dissolved it. I did a trial experiment using part of Eben's implant. It took a few hours, but it was effective," the doctor explained.

"Too bad we can't use this substance to dissolve the implants in everyone else," Yale commented.

Julia laughed, "Don't even consider it, that poison is far too lethal. But it gives me some ideas to play with. And I think we're gonna have a lot time on hands here, waiting for those men to recuperate."

"Hold still Morgan, I'm almost done." Bess was carefully shaving Morgan's chin with his razor. "Okay, let's rinse." She stood to survey her handiwork, "Much better."

With a simple grin, Morgan smiled towards his wife.

Disarmed by his expression, Bess hurriedly continued her ramblings. "Do you feel better? I always feel better if I'm clean. It must drive you crazy being stuck in this tent all day and night. I'll have to talk with Julia about taking you for a walk once you get stronger. You are feeling better honey? Aren't you?"

"Yes, Bess. I am."

His words sounded pleasant enough, but they lacked depth. She could've have easily been speaking with a young child. What did he mean? Was he telling her the truth or only what she so desperately wanted to hear? It had already been over a week since the Terrians brought him back. Would he ever be the person he was?

"Morgan, do you remember much about me?" She'd been afraid to ask that question, knowing the response could only be upsetting. But she wasn't one to avoid unpleasant tasks. "It's okay, you can tell me the truth."

Morgan frowned, concentrating. "The details are fuzzy. But when I look at you, I know that you're important to me --- that you mean a lot to me." Her eyes started to fill with tears.

"When..." He paused, searching for the right name. "--Walman and I were lying in that valley, waiting to die, I kept seeing the image of a beautiful woman with long wavy hair. I thought she was an angel. She smiled at me and encouraged me to hang on. It was you Bess, I didn't remember your name at the time but it was you."

Bess swallowed hard. There was hope after all. "Do you remember where we first met?"

"No, I don't. I'd like to hear about it," he eagerly replied.

"You were a representative from the Stations, visiting Earth-side holdings at a mining firm..."

After most of the Eden Advance crew had gathered about the main campfire area, Devon called the group to order, "While Morgan and Walman are recovering, we have to decide on a plan of action."

Baines readily volunteered, "I'll continue exploring the southern route. I'm sick of waiting around."

Cameron agreed to join him.

Danziger shook his head, "At the rate we're going, we're gonna have to hole up for winter again. Can we afford that type of delay?"

Devon answered with some impatience, "What choice do we have? I don't like it either but we can't leave these men behind. We've all seen that we fare much better as a group than on our own."

"Shouldn't the cold weather affect those plants?" Danziger hated the idea of a lengthy detour.

"He's got a point there. The plants may go dormant in the winter. In addition, it's a known fact that lower temperatures reduce the rates of chemical reactions. It could impede the effects of the plant pollen." Yale was intrigued by the possibilities.

"It's too risky," Julia stated, while Devon emphatically nodded her head. "We don't know the biology of those plants, or the precise chemistry behind the plant pollen reaction. Sure, the reaction might be slowed down. But we'd be traveling at a slower rate too. We don't know how far that region extends. We could get stuck in impassable snow, and inadvertently get exposed to massive amounts of pollen. And the Terrians wouldn't bail us out. It's not worth the risk."

"So you're saying we should stick with one of these enormous detours which could add months on to our trip?" Magus scowled.

"Do you have any other options?" Julia replied impatiently.

"What about destroying the plants?" Danziger insisted, dodging Devon's angry looks. "I know what you think -- I wanna hear what the others think."

"How would you do it?" Yale asked, considering the idea.

"Uproot‘em. Burn‘em. Whatever is necessary," Danziger explained.

"It's not that easy to pull the plants out of the ground. Morgan tried it." Heads turned to greet Bess as she joined them.

"Burning them doesn't seem like a very safe option," Alonzo added.

Danziger continued to defend his ideas, "Look we're stuck here anyway, Julia and Yale could do some experiments, maybe devise some type of agent which would destroy the plants."

"That doesn't sound like a good idea," Alonzo retorted. Answering Danziger's hot gaze, he explained, "Look what happened when we removed a few sunstones and froze up only a kilometer of land. The Terrians were pretty upset."

"And considering that we've been told how important this area is to them, it would almost be a slap in their faces to try to destroy it," Devon added.

Danziger was becoming annoyed, "But you said there are other places like this, what's the harm in altering only one of them? Our other options aren't good." Addressing the entire group, he asked, "Do you know exactly what we're dealing with here?"

Devon stated for the benefit of all, "There's a high probability that we'll have to camp out for another winter, and...that we'll arrive in New Pacifica after the Colony ship."

"Is this a viable option?" The mechanic probed.

With great reluctance, Devon admitted, "I hate the idea of the delay. I'm responsible for all those people. They're expecting me. Do you think I want them to arrive in the middle of nowhere without any assistance? But if we have any hope of a future at all on this planet, we have to continue cultivating our relationship with the Terrians. They've just healed three more of our crew members. Damaging their land is not an acceptable option in my book."

Baines objected, "Hey -- what the Terrians did for you guys is between you and them. Don't hold all of us to that bargain, I had nothin' to do with that."

"Yeah, why should we let a bunch of diggers dictate our actions," Magus chimed in.

Devon raised her voice, "Enough, we've talked this issue to death. Let's take a vote."

(Bess Martin)

It was the only decision we could make. After the Terrians had saved the lives of over five members of our party, we didn't have much of choice. We owed them too much. Baines and Cameron took off to scout along the southern route, while Mazatl and Alonzo explored the northern options. Nothing looked promising. But we weren't in a hurry, we couldn't even think about moving for over a month. And then most likely we'd be holed up in another winter camp within another month or so.

But I guess things could be worse. I was hopeful about Morgan's recovery, that I could supply at least some of the missing pieces of his memory. But what about Walman? Baines and Magus had gotten to know him better during the journey, but no one knew all the details of past -- his family, his friends, and his experiences. Would we ever be able to restore him to ‘wholeness'? It was a thought that made my blood run cold.

I still have trouble dealing with the fact that the Terrians were able to completely restore Uly, Devon and Alonzo, but not Walman and Morgan. In my gut, I felt like they were playing favorites, which made me very angry. But Alonzo kept telling me that the circumstances weren't the same. So-called metaphysical pieces weren't ‘missing' for those earlier healings. And Alonzo's recent personality change had to do with the fact that he couldn't handle being exposed to the tremendous energy produced within that area.

Traditional religion has always taught me that a soul was unique to each individual. That each was special and created by God alone. While other religions have suggested that these souls can be transferred between earthly bodies, no one has ever had the nerve to suggest that this precious item could be broken into millions of little pieces --- like some sort of puzzle. I found that idea extremely disturbing. Were there no limits to what we might face on this new and alien planet?

We were a team once again, in a sense, but we'd discovered that those bonds had limits. I wondered when we would test them again?

-The End-

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