The Road Not Chosen by Joan Powers

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The Road Not Chosen (4/11)
by Joan Powers

Finally, the pilot began to stir on his cot as Julia cautiously examined him. She only had a few minutes left before she had to re-join Devon to start the tests, but she wanted to see how Alonzo was -- and find out if he'd had more dreams. "Well....?" she anxiously asked as his eyelids fluttered open.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Alonzo sat up and rubbed his temples.

"No Dream Plane? Or no bubbles?" She searched his expression for clues.

Irritably, he said, "No, nothing. You're gonna have to give me a sediderm. I have to get back there." Despite the fact that he'd just woken up, he was determined to get what he wanted.

"Did you even sleep well? You don't look rested." His eyes were bloodshot and his face seemed pale beneath his bronze suntan. Yet there was more to it, something else about him seemed different to her. It bothered her. But she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

A bit sharply, he snapped, "I'm fine. I have to get back there."

"Okay. But not right now." Alonzo scowled. "Today I'm doing some tests on Devon which will take up most of my time." Before he could protest, she added, "Maybe you're trying too hard. Why don't you do something totally different today -- take a break then try again tonight. If you still feel that you need the sediderm, I'll give it to you then." Very sternly, she reminded him, "I want to be there when it happens. Understand?"

The pilot nodded half-heartedly.

In the Med-Tent, Devon sat nervously perched on the edge of a cot; she was clad only in a long white cotton bath robe. She wrinkled her nose, for the unpleasant taste of the solution she'd drunk twenty minutes ago still lingered in her mouth. Not an appetizing flavor, but...doctor's orders, she'd forced herself to swallow the entire dose then wait for the drugs to take affect. Currently she wasn't feeling any different than usual.

Danziger stormed into the tent. His face turned noticeably paler as he took in her apparel, and he began to rant, "What do you think you're doing? This is crazy! I can't believe Julia's going along with this. It's too soon!"

Trying to sit still, she curtly explained, "We have to do this now. If we wait much longer, any traces of the poison delivery device in my body may be completely degraded."

"You don't know if you're gonna find anything Devon. Even if you do, it's not gonna change what happened to you. The only thing these tests can definitely do is make you sick again. It's not worth the risk. This doesn't make any sense. You must see that."

Her voice became louder to match his, as she defensively shot back, "You're exaggerating. I may feel worse, but only for a day or two -- at most. This is the only way I'm going to get any answers. I have to do this."

"No you don't." John firmly objected, glaring at her.

With her typical stubbornness, Devon opened her mouth to continue the argument but sudden uncomfortable cramping in her gut prompted her to change tactics. Trying not to draw undue attention to herself, she carefully wrapped an arm around her midriff to steady herself; as she motioned with her other hand to the empty camp stool beside her. Reluctantly, the mechanic moved toward it to sit down.

Devon took a breath to calm herself, and in a gentler tone replied, "Okay, I know this doesn't make complete sense. These tests could make me sicker. And if something were to happen to Morgan and Walman in the next few days, I wouldn't be in a position to be able to help them. But I've convinced Bess to talk them back in. Soon. And...I have to know, John." She reached for his hand and interlocked her fingers between his. "It's a gamble but it may give me an answer. For my own piece of mind, to be able to sleep better at night, I have to know. I know that it doesn't make sense to you, but can you please support me in my decision?" Gesturing to the nearby empty cup, she indicated, "We've already started." She grinned weakly towards him but he didn't smile back.

Danziger had calmed down some, but he was still annoyed with her. "When were you gonna tell me what you were doing? Or was that not part of your plan? The only reason I'm here at all is because I ran into Julia a few minutes ago. She assumed that I knew all about it."

She blushed, "Oh." Once again, she'd inadvertently hurt the man she'd grown to care so much for. Awkwardly, she tried to apologize, "Um...I guess I should've talked with you about it last night." Defensively, she explained, "I'm not used to checking with someone else about decisions regarding my personal life. I tend to make them then tell others the results after the fact. I'm...sorry." He didn't respond so she added, "I was also afraid that you'd react like this, that you'd try to talk me out of it."

"Yeah? Funny, I thought I was part of your personal life. How would you feel if I -- What's wrong?"

Devon suddenly grimaced in pain while bending over to clutch at her abdomen with both arms. She weakly gasped, "I'm all right. It's the drugs Julia gave me for the tests. She said they might have this kind of effect." Her face grew paler as she began to grit her teeth and shut her eyes while another cramp ran through her. "I just didn't think it would happen so soon."

John pulled his stool forward so he could be closer to her. Securely holding her hand, he swallowed his annoyance and murmured, "It's okay. I'll stay with you until Julia gets here."

True Danziger tore out of Yale's tent as soon as he mentioned the word 'break.' School was okay, but she got bored after sitting so long. Sprinting across camp, she nearly collided with Bess, who was carrying a bundle of clothes.

"Hi Bess, what are you doing?" The young girl greeted her with enthusiasm.

"Just gonna take advantage of this stop to wash some clothes. Wanna keep me company?"

"Sure." She fell in step beside the older woman and they began to walk through the woods towards a small non-acidic pond adjacent to their camp site. "Have you heard anything from Morgan?"

"Yeah. He's a little tired but he says that they haven't run into any problems. They're traveling much faster than we've been able to for the past few weeks. Morgan says it's great!" She beamed with pride. "Baines reported that they haven't found any break in the river along the southern route yet. He and Magus are gonna keep moving for a few more days, but I think Morgan's shown us the best way to continue on to New Pacifica."

True was excited by the news. "Great! Are we gonna drive out to meet them?"

"No. We'll probably re-group here first. Baines and Magus will be gone for at least five days."

She was surprised, "Why are they going that far? Haven't Walman and Morgan shown everybody that the passage is safe?"

Bess sighed, "Some people are being a little paranoid. So we'll have to give them some time to warm up to the idea."

Of course, Bess conveniently neglected to mention to True (or to any one else) that Morgan and Walman hadn't checked in with her that morning. She'd waited, anxiously huddled in the clearing for over an hour, but they'd never called or answered her hails. She was a practical woman, growing up as a miner's daughter had made her that way, so she wasn't overly concerned. Last night Morgan was exhausted when she spoke with him. They were traveling at a much faster pace than usual for the Eden Advance caravan. It was highly likely that the men had overslept (especially knowing Walman) and simply missed their check in. And now their gear was turned off, as per their agreement. Since they didn't want to be distracted by communications from the other members of Eden Advance, their gear would only be activated at their appointed meeting times: early morning and evening.

Besides, the men had been fine during their first day of traveling. Surely if the Terrians planned on behaving aggressively, they would've already done so. Walman and Morgan had already passed the acidic lake. Morgan claimed the strange red plants were giving him a rash, but their doctor had tested the leaves and indicated that they weren't harmful to humans.

So what was there to worry about?

In addition, Bess didn't want to prejudice the group against using the passage by prematurely jumping the gun and claiming that something had happened to the men when in all likelihood it was only a false alarm. Especially since some of Eden Advance were already biased against her husband. Why add fuel to that fire? She also didn't relish the idea of adding another month or more onto their current travel time table, which their other options automatically included.

She told herself that the men were fine, there was nothing to be concerned about. Nevertheless, she was looking forward to making contact with her husband later that day.

"Let me get this straight. The stuff you gave Devon to drink will interact with certain materials in her body which you'll be able to detect with your scanner?" Danziger remained close by Devon's side.

Dr. Heller replied, "Something like that. Yale and I used his data base to deduce possible materials which may've been used to construct the drug delivery capsule. Then I synthesized agents which would interact with them, or their break down products. These complexes will emit a characteristic signal that I can detect with my scanner. I'm assuming that we're dealing with microscopic quantities here, since my scanner alone hasn't picked up anything. Thus, I'm using these drugs to 'enhance the signal.' It's almost the equivalent of searching for a needle in a haystack." Sensing Danziger's objections, she quickly added, "But we stand to gain valuable data. The actual scanning will take several hours and Devon won't be very comfortable, but I ought to get some very detailed information about the location of any inorganic material in her body."

Devon asked, weakly, "So when will you have some answers? Tonight?"

"Oh no! Today will be just collecting the data, it'll take a while for me to interpret the information and draw any conclusions. It's a complicated procedure."

"Uh-huh..." Danziger mumbled, with displeasure.

"Any other questions?" the doctor asked.

Looking at Julia head on, Danziger asked, "Have you ever done anything like this procedure before?"

She swallowed uncomfortably, "Um...no. But it looks promising. I honestly think this will work."

John turned to Devon, "Are you sure you want to do this? You already look terrible."

Softly, she answered, meeting his blue eyes, "Yes, I'll be all right. Keep an eye on Uly and the rest of camp for me?"

"Okay," he smiled then squeezed her hand. "Let me know if you need me, doc."

Despite the fact that it was only one o'clock in the afternoon, Alonzo lay prone, stretched out on his back in the middle of the meadow, a short distance away from base camp. The lines of tension rimming his mouth and eyes had eased considerably as he slept. To a casual observer, it appeared that the young pilot was simply indulging in a little sun worshipping while taking a short nap. His eyelids were closed yet his pupils were moving rapidly beneath them. A sediderm applicator was nearly concealed beneath his body, where he must have collapsed on it. Dr. Heller had been concentrating so intently on whatever tests she was performing on Devon that it'd been easy for him to snatch what he so desperately felt he needed. His chest rose and fell rhythmically and a sly smile crept across his lips as he once again dreamt with the Terrians.

His peaceful state didn't last long. A thin layer of sweat began to cover his brow and his heart began to beat faster. Yet a tranquil expression remained upon his face.

Minutes later, his breathing became labored, he started to wheeze. As he began to experience even more difficulty breathing, his heart rate accelerated - faster and faster...

"NOOOO!" Alonzo gasped hoarsely, as he momentarily regained consciousness then fell back into oblivion.

As twilight turned to darkness, Walman and Morgan proceeded, almost mechanically, to set up camp. They'd performed the ritual so many evenings during their extended journey across the continent that neither man actually had to think about what he was doing. Within fifteen minutes, they'd prepared a camp fire and erected a crude shelter, since the nights were getting cooler.

It'd been another successful day of traveling; there had been no obstacles, natural or artificial. Only the ever present pine trees and rocky cliffs surrounded them. They hadn't seen many animals, in fact, some of deer-like creatures they'd seen were huddled in a heap -- frail and on the verge of dying.

Yet the men lacked their previous days' enthusiasm. Each was quiet, perhaps after almost three days of each other's company, they'd grown accustomed to one another. Or more likely, they were worn out after traveling all day. By late afternoon, Walman had even refrained from teasing Morgan about his newly revealed fears of meeting up with the Council at New Pacifica; an activity he'd derived great pleasure from earlier that day.

After checking in with Bess via gear, Morgan wearily collapsed by the camp fire. Walman tossed him a spirolina bar, and the two began to eat dinner. Conserving his energy, the government liaison curtly conveyed the results of his conversation with his wife to the other man. There wasn't much news from base camp. Dr. Heller was doing some sort of tests on Devon, and the southern scout had been uneventful thus far.

Bess was miffed that they'd missed their morning check in, but it wasn't intentional, they'd overslept, just as she suspected. Both men were feeling a little under the weather, experiencing some minor flu-like symptoms -- congestion and body aches, but they weren't about to report that to Bess. She was convinced that the men had successfully proven that the area was safe to travel in, so her requests for the men to return were becoming more insistent.

In response to the government liason's report, Walman simply cocked an eyebrow and claimed that they'd return when they were ready. And somehow, he didn't feel ready, he didn't want to return just yet. He didn't take his responsibility towards their group lightly; he wanted to learn as much as possible about this area before bringing in the others.

Oddly enough, even though only minutes ago Morgan had promised his wife that they'd be returning the next day, he didn't object to Walman's firm stance. He merely continued to munch on his bland bar.

Shortly after polishing off their meal, the men made themselves as comfortable as they could beneath their blankets (on top of the omnipresent vines) and promptly fell asleep, just another night on the trail. Yet, unlike the previous evenings, neither man had broached the subject of tomorrow's travel route, performed any maintenance work on the vehicle, or even established a night watch.

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