Two True, Part 1
by Katherine Tate
Devon's mind:
//We were discovering what it meant to work as a team in order to survive. Every person has a purpose and no one is expendable. Having to depend on others does not come naturally to me. Unfortunately, at times it seems that some people are more valuable than others.//
Devon strode towards the stopped vehicle with a determined look and very black thoughts. She had never experienced weather so hot before and was finding it hard to focus. Danziger was flat on his back partway underneath, tools in hand, but he didn't appear to be working on anything.
"Danziger!" Devon barked, "What the Hell is wrong with this thing?!"
Danziger slowly dropped his tools and gazed up her, not moving from his position. It was safer under here, he thought.
"All charm and goodwill, as usual, Adair." he shot at her sarcastically. Devon did not back down, not that he expected her to, but instead glared at him, her hands planted firmly on her hips. She did not quite tap her toe.
Danziger sighed and wiping his hands on his pants pulled himself up from under the transrover.
"I don't know." he shrugged, a little sheepish look on his face. Instead of diffusing her it only made her more annoyed. Her hand swung out and she banged the side of the vehicle in frustration. Danziger moved back a step; a little surprised at her violence, a little worried she might decide to bang on him next.
"Hey! Take it easy! Maybe if people treated these things with a little more respect they'd work better for us."
"Just fix it." She accented each word with her index finger into his chest. She turned to walk away wiping the sweat off her forehead with her arm.
"Gimme a break Adair!" he called after her. "You know, I only have two hands here!"
She turned on her heel and sweeping her arms around the camp said,
"Many hands make light work Danziger. Don't pretend you HAVE to do EVERYTHING by YOURSELF!" A worried frown creased Danziger's brow as he watched her back.
"I don't see you volunteering." he muttered. He was feeling more put out than usual about Devon's authority. It was easy for her to tell him to "fix" it - it wasn't so easy for him to put her orders into practice. And he didn't appreciate being bossed around by someone who didn't even understand the problems. Who did?
He looked around for True. She was good with her hands; and she could fit into places that were beyond his reach. She wasn't in view.
He eventually found True in the shade, listlessly and quite uselessly fanning herself with one hand. She appeared lost in thought.
"C'mon, True. I need some help." Danziger said, impatiently. Her head lolled to one side.
"Aw Dad! It's too hot to even think. I don't want to . . . " she didn't get much further because Danziger's short fuse had just run out.
"I don't really care whether you want to or not. I *need* some help and you're it. Now let's go!"
True's head snapped to attention at the sharpness of his tone, but she remained seated.
"But . . ."
"True I said NOW!" Danziger yelled. What are you *doing*? a tiny voice inside him asked.
True opened her mouth in another protest but clamped it shut when Danziger leaned in and pulled her roughly to her feet. Her eyes resentfully bore into him.
"When I say now, I mean now - is that understood?" Danziger spoke softly now but he had his nose right into her face. True was unused to this kind of wrath. This wasn't like Dad at all.
"Yes." she responded sullenly. Danziger let her go and took a step back. He could not believe he'd lost his temper with her so quickly. God! but it was HOT!
"Good." he said, "Now let's go." Danziger ignored the stares of amazement from the other colonists as he herded his daughter down towards the vehicles.
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True walked purposely away from the camp, with a VR headset clutched in her right hand and a lot on her mind. She chose a spot far enough away from the others so that she couldn't hear the constant activity of other people. It was odd that she, of all people, was seeking solitude when one of the things she missed most about the stations was the hustle and bustle. Today, she just wanted to be alone.
Staring at the VR set she thought about her father somberly. Their disagreement bothered her a lot. Normally, True enjoyed working with him; normally she thrived on the companionship they shared while engrossed at whatever task at hand. Today she had not wanted to be a "helper" but her Dad's authority had superseded her desires.
Who was she kidding anyway? There was no one to play with here except Uly and he was too cautious to be much fun. It was way too hot to run around all by herself. It was during a particularly boring job with Dad that she'd come up with the plan to use VR to escape. She gave Dad the silent treatment and he soon gave up trying to coax her into conversation. The silence between them allowed for her plan to spring from idea to practice. Sensing her resentment Danziger had finally told her to go collect wood; a nothing job really, in this heat they only needed a fire in the evenings and there already was plenty of wood for that.
Now that she was alone True was a little reluctant to put her idea into form. She felt somehow that her Dad would not like this kind of escape and she didn't want him to be angry again. Also, she'd "borrowed" the set from Morgan, who'd be sure to raise a big fuss. Her Dad wouldn't be happy about that either. But part of her, deep down, wanted him to be upset. After all, he had upset her this morning. Anger at him won over her wanting to make things right between them. She put the set on.
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Devon paused a moment in her thoughts to survey the camp. There was activity everywhere she looked, but people were moving slower than normal. Even Danziger, usually a bundle of energy and purpose seemed to be working as though in a trance. Devon had witnessed his argument with True earlier. She couldn't blame the girl for preferring to play over fixing the Transrover, but she could also see that Danziger needed some help. It was too bad True was still too young to appreciate that Danziger was asking for her help because he couldn't do it alone, not because of some parental chain. It didn't escape Devon's observation that True was no longer with Danziger. And he accused her of "spoiling" Uly!
Devon put it down to the heat that everyone was so lethargic and edgy. She wished it would rain and glanced at the sky, as though clouds might appear, simply because she wished them to. No such luck. She made a mental note to speak with Julia about heat exhaustion.
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Danziger's mind was not on his work. He kept daydreaming of a job he'd done a few years back . . . t was so much cooler in that place. So much . . . safer. Every once in awhile he scanned the perimeter of the camp for True but she'd disappeared and obviously was not going to return until she absolutely had to. He regretted losing his temper with her earlier. He regretted having to ask her for help. It was his own fault for teaching her so much. After all, if she didn't know how to help then he could hardly keep asking her and then she'd have all the time in the world to go off and . . . . and do whatever kids did. It made him wonder exactly what she was doing. Well, if she needed time alone, she could have it. Later, he would talk to her - but calmly, John, calmly, he told himself. He rarely lost his temper with her as he had this morning. Must be the heat. And that was why his mind was not on his work.
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True had entered a world that looked exactly like the one she was escaping from except that opposite her on the log sat another girl. The other girl looked exactly like True.
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Long before the sun set Danziger began to worry about True. Now that it was well and truly dark he could feel a steady panic rising. No one could seem to recall which direction she'd gone and she wasn't responding to repeated calls on gear. Preliminary scouts near the camp had been unsuccessful. Assembling another, more thorough, search Devon was passing out torches and calmly telling people to stick together.
"I'm going this way." Danziger started as soon as his torch was collected and before anyone joined him. Julia hesitated briefly then grabbed her bag and trotted after him. She had to rush to keep up to his pace.
"Why this way?" she asked. When he didn't respond immediately she opened her mouth to repeat the question but he cut her short with,
"Because it's opposite to where I was working." Julia raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. She looked back over her shoulder; sure enough the TransRover was at the other end of the camp. She must have been the only one who'd missed the fireworks between the Danzigers earlier. When True didn't return for the evening meal Alonzo had told Julia he figured True was lying low. Devon was afraid she'd run away. It must have been quite a storm, Julia surmised. Knowing Danziger and True and how alike they were . . .
Julia was falling behind Danziger's frantic pace. After climbing the ridge she was short of breath and paused. In the distance she could hear the others, echoing each other "True! True!"
"Why aren't you calling?" she asked. Although he glanced briefly back at her he didn't stop.
"Because I don't think she'll answer me." Then he was out of her circle of light. Julia moved forward, more slowly than before. She could hear Danziger ahead of her, she didn't need to see him. What it must have cost him to say that to her she could only imagine.
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Devon and Alonzo were not having any success. Periodically Devon called the others to check on location and progress. Only John did not respond, but Julia was with him. When she wasn't speaking to the others Devon found herself repeating in her mind "Please let her be OK. Please let her be OK." Devon's mind slipped only once to think of the ramifications if something had happened to True. Just thinking of it might turn it into reality and so to prevent this she kept up her mantra. To whom she was begging was never defined in her mind.
"Look!" Alonzo had stopped. Off to their right were flashes of light. Devon shone her torch in that direction.
"It's Julia. That other one must be Danziger. Damn! We've overlapped each other." Devon turned to head left and her torch hit something.
"Wait!" Alonzo grabbed her hand and swung the torch back right. "What's that?" Devon held her breath and she took a few steps in that direction.
"I think it's True's bag."
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Although Danziger had not been speaking to anyone on gear, he was wearing it and listening to the efforts of the others to find his daughter. His mind was going numb with possibility that she might not be found. Or worse . . . Any second now someone was going to transmit "Got her!" and then this would all fade into a bad dream. Maybe it already was a bad dream, who knew with dreams on this planet.
He certainly wasn't paying attention to Julia, who long ago given up any verbal interaction with him. She was so far behind him that their torches no longer crossed but were working independently of each other. To his left he could see the lights of two of the others, but he didn't stop. Devon's voice cut in suddenly,
"Danziger! I think we've found True's bag. We're to your left now." He pulled the mike up as he swung around and started jogging towards the other lights.
"What about True?" His own voice sounded so cold and detached from the situation, even to him.
"No," Devon sounded hesitant, "Uh,..."
"There!" Alonzo shouted. "Over there!"
Danziger was running now, heedless of his own safety on the uneven ground. Twice he nearly tripped and his arms sprung out to steady him. Devon and Alonzo were right behind and Julia was in the rear. Danziger wondered if the others could hear his heart pounding as loudly as he could.
True was lying as though asleep up against a log. She looked so peaceful that for a split second Danziger was sure she was dead. His hesitation at confirming this allowed Julia to catch up with them. The still air was disturbed by the sound of her ragged breathing. As Danziger showed no signs of approaching his daughter Julia moved forward to check her. Danziger's arm shot out to stop her. In doing so, his torch shone directly onto True. There was a gasp, perhaps from Devon. True was not asleep; her eyes were wide open.
"She's in VR." Devon's statement came out sounding more like a question. Now Danziger moved in towards True, his hand reaching for the VR set.
"No!" Julia cried alarmed. "It's very dangerous to do that. Especially if she's been in there a long time." Danziger's hand pulled back as though burned.
"What do we do then?" he asked, not taking his eyes off of True's. Julia moved in to check True and this time Danziger did not stop her.
"Blood pressure and respiration are normal." Julia's voice became calmer. "There is a tremendous amount of brain wave activity. If we," Julia twisted around to face Danziger, "if we just yank her out of there it could cause serious brain damage." Danziger reached out slowly and touched True's hair. She didn't stir or acknowledge his touch in any way.
"Julia," Devon leaned over, "how can we bring her out of it?"
"Someone has to go into the program and convince her to leave it on her own."
"I'll do it." Danziger grunted without looking at them.
"Can we move her?" Devon asked.
"Yes." Julia stood up. "I think we should all go back to camp. This is not the best place to deal with anything, especially in the middle of the night."
Danziger gingerly picked True up, dropping his torch in the process. He strode back towards the camp, quickly but not at the hell for leather pace of the search. Devon retrieved the torch and followed. Alonzo raised everyone on gear and told them to return to camp. Julia walked slowly behind the group. She was disturbed.
Story Notes:
Well, I thought maybe this might take everyone's mind off unmentionable wet blankets and also provide distraction from other woes. I have never written a sci-fi story before. Also, I don't know very much about Virtual Reality. Those are my two disclaimers! Please send comments to Pat_Tate@mindlink.bc.ca (Also, let me know if it cuts off; I'm not sure how much can fit in one e-mail.)
Kath
(the shy Canadian, not to be confused with our Australian friend!)
Kath
(the shy Canadian, not to be confused with our Australian friend!)