The Road Not Chosen by Joan Powers

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The Road Not Chosen (6/11)
by Joan Powers

Uly lay on his cot with his eyes screwed tightly shut, trying to force himself to fall asleep. Unfortunately, he was just too keyed up with excitement about his 'secret mission.' Like most children, with so many things going wrong at camp, he wanted to be able to help out. He'd been jealous that True had gotten to assist Dr. Heller more than he had, so he was extremely proud that Julia had picked him for an even more important task. He was dying to tell True -- brag about it like she had. He'd be sure to rub it in, later, after he helped Alonzo get better.

He was a little uncomfortable keeping this from his mother, but he couldn't tell her anyway. Her medication had knocked her out for the rest of the day. Perhaps he should've told Mr. Danziger or Yale? He'd considered it, briefly, then he remembered that his mom had told him on his last birthday about how important it was to be able to handle responsibility, especially on this planet.

He turned onto his side and pulled his knees up to his chest. He was becoming discouraged -- would he never fall asleep? Then an idea came to him. He hopped out of bed and crouched down to the dirt floor of the tent. If he wanted to talk with the Terrians, he might as well act like them.

At first, maintaining the position was an effort, his muscles started to protest. So he tried to relax his mind as he called out to his friends. His breathing became more even as his efforts were rewarded. He could feel his body unwinding, he'd finally made it to the Dream Plane.

"Hello?" he called out. His voice sounded strange, echoing in an unfamiliar fashion. It took him a moment or two to adjust to his altered perceptions in that dimension. "Are you there? It's me."

No one answered him. He meandered about the cave as he waited, attempting to kick a few loose stones on the floor of the chamber. Nothing was happening. So he tried trilling.

Minutes later, four Terrians appeared from within the earthen floor of the cavern. Were they his friends, the ones that he'd helped save? He took a cautious step back, Julia had warned him not to talk with the others who may have harmed Alonzo. The appearance of pinkish patches of skin (rejuvenating epidermal tissue) on their bodies affirmed that they were his group -- the one that had followed Eden Advance since Independence Colony.

"Hi," he said somewhat shyly, as he approached them. The towering creatures still intimidated him. He cleared his throat and nervously stammered, "I...I need your help. There're problems at camp. Alonzo's sick -- he's acting really weird. Julia thinks he saw something on the Dream Plane that hurt him."

One of the Terrians emitted a series of high pitched sounds. While Uly wasn't able to understand all of it (their illness had altered their speech and language), he caught the gist of it. They wanted him to Dream with them.

He hesitated, Julia's warning was ringing in his ears. Yet he hadn't been able to explain to her that it was difficult to communicate with these Terrians using words. Even the Dreaming didn't always work, but it was the best method to convey information between the two species. The Terrians looked towards him expectantly.

He made up his mind quickly, bending his head to join them. After all, he was reasonably confident that these Terrians wouldn't harm him. If he stopped there, he wouldn't have any information to help Alonzo.

He opened his mind to show them the image of Alonzo on a cot, tied down by restraints, yelling with hostility. He also showed them the view of the valley (His Mom and Mr. Danziger had taken he and True to see it a few days ago) -- the stream in the foreground and the strange red vines in the background. He hadn't been able to reach them earlier to see if they could tell him more about the area.

The creatures hummed amongst themselves, then one directed him to reveal more about Alonzo. Uly's mind went blank. The pilot's unusual behavior was all he had seen; it had frightened him. He couldn't think of any other details, he didn't know any. Unless...Julia had mentioned something about strange about 'bubbles', which made no sense to him. In fact, she'd mentioned it twice. Feeling somewhat foolish, he opened his mind to create an image of a soap bubble.

His hosts began to trill among themselves, this they recognized.

"Can you tell me more?" he implored.

Their answer was a definitive, "No." One of the Terrians extended his hand to Uly, as if asking him to follow. "Where are you going?"

The creatures murmured.

Uly shivered, he thought they'd answered, "To see them." He grasped the hand offered to him as the group traveled through the wall of the chamber.

Whenever Julia became stressed, rather than dwelling on her problems, she turned her energy towards her work. And so it was that night. Instead of lying in her bed, torturing herself about what might be happening during Uly's visit to the Dream Plane, she sought to learn more about Alonzo's condition. His physical body was weak but stable. Yet he was still acting unpredictably -- aggravated by everyone, and furious with the Terrians.

She leaned back from her monitor to stretch, as she tried to reconstruct the situation. She'd just finished skimming several texts about the chemistry of drug and alcohol addiction since his behavior had reminded her of patients' with those types of problems. But what could have caused his symptoms? He couldn't have ingested any chemicals, the Dream Plane wasn't that type of medium. What could have possibly been transferred to his body to create such effects?

The Dream Plane alone had never caused these types of problems for Alonzo. Thus, the only causative variable she could isolate were the mysterious bubbles. From the pilot's description, it appeared that his episodes had occurred just after physically contacting them. But how could they have manifested the physiological effects she witnessed?

Perhaps some sort of energy had transferred to Alonzo upon touching the bubble? Excess electrical stimulation could have caused some of the physical affects that she'd observed, but it certainly wouldn't account for all of them, such as what had caused his initial euphoria and his current altered emotional state. If only she could have studied his brain when the episode had started, to determine immediate changes in levels of critical neurotransmitters. That might have given her a lead to pursue. Examinations performed after the episodes had showed alterations in the levels of several biochemical factors but there were far too many changes for her to be able to assess direct cause and effect relationships. She needed additional information.

She walked across the tent to scan her sleeping patient with her diaglove. Thankfully, Alonzo had fallen asleep on his own and she hadn't been forced to make the decision regarding the use of a sedative. She scrutinized the read-out displayed by the instrument, but it didn't tell her anything new. Maybe she should just try to go to sleep, since she wasn't making any headway.

She bent to place the diaglove in its carrying case, when a thought came to her. She'd used that instrument on Alonzo during his first episode, when she'd woken him up. That data would be stored in the back-up file of the diaglove. She eagerly rose, carrying it over to her terminal to perform the appropriate data transfer operations.

Within an hour, she was able to identify several neurotransmitters which had elevated levels in Alonzo's blood stream at the beginning of the episode. Now...perhaps she could attempt what her references suggested, synthesizing a compound which would act similarly, but to a lesser extent. That way she could slowly wean him away from the addiction. Her fingers hit the keyboard with renewed vigor.

"Bess, what are you doing up?" Yale called over from his seat near the dying embers of the camp fire . She came over and pulled up a camp stool beside him.

"I'm having trouble sleeping. What are you doing up so late?"

"I was working with Julia, we were trying to generate ideas for treating Alonzo. She has a theory which she is anxious to pursue, but I don't understand what evidence she's basing it on. I also want to check on Devon one more time before I turn in. So far, both of our patients have been sleeping soundly tonight."

"That's a relief." Earlier that day while Bess was assisting Julia, she had the unfortunate experience of being around Alonzo in his current frame of mind. At first her heart was filled with pity when she saw the handsome young pilot tied down to the cot with restraints. However, when she sat down beside him to offer him some food, he roughly used the side of his head to knock it out of her hands and voiced his displeasure, using expletives that made her blush. He didn't recognize her. Or anyone else, for that matter. It gave her the creeps.

It amazed Bess that even though Julia was obviously exhausted, she was still able to perform her duties so smoothly and professionally. Alonzo was her lover. If it were her husband in that situation, Bess wasn't certain if she could be that strong.

"How are your husband and Walman? Are they on their way back to camp?"

"I think so. They're all right. Just a little tired. They haven't run into any problems." She spoke more confidently than she felt. She was playing games, but she felt she had to. Some members of Eden Advance were opposed to Morgan and Walman's actions, and they looked for any excuse to call their mission a failure.

As she tossed on her cot in her tent that evening, reviewing her last conversation with Morgan, her instincts plagued her -- something wasn't quite right. Morgan had been deliberately down playing his flu symptoms, which was totally unlike him. But, she rationalized, it was also unlike him to volunteer for a potentially dangerous scouting mission.

Yet, he'd also seemed vague, as if he wasn't sure what their travel plans were. A cold or the flu could account for that as well.

She was sorely tempted to confide in Yale, to share her concerns about her husband. It would've been a relief to hear the older man confirm that she was over-reacting and that the men would be home soon. But she couldn't do it. She wasn't sure which side of the fence Yale stood on. In addition, she couldn't compromise all that Morgan and Walman had worked towards because of her unsubstantiated fears. She had no definitive reason to compromise their mission. Despite her fears, her husband had to come first.

Yale practically scolded her, "You have told them about Alonzo's illness? Bess, while we believe something may have happened to him over the Dream Plane, we're not entirely certain. Outside forces may be involved. You've got to get them back here. If there are penal colonists or Council agents involved, we'll be able to combat them better as a group. Divided, we're extremely vulnerable."

So he was against her. A little sharply, Bess snapped, "I know that Yale. You don't have to convince me. What's the latest from Baines and Magus?"

"They're on their way. They turned back once we told them about the situation. Bess, why did Morgan and Walman decide to go off on their own?"

"They did what they felt they had to do," she said, defensively.

"After all of our experiences here, do you honestly think that was a wise course of action?" He spoke to her as if he were reprimanding a child.

Bess stood firm, refusing to be intimidated. "Yale, in my 'experience', life is never easy -- opportunities don't always drop into your lap. Sometimes you have to be brave enough to make them."

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