CAMERON'S CEILIDH, Part 1
Uly Adair couldn't find his sweater. He had to have his sweater or else his mother wouldn't let him go outside to the campfire, and the campfire was one of the best parts of his day. After dinner was over and darkness had fallen, the members of the Eden group would gather around the bright flames.
Usually someone would tell a story. Uly hoped there would be a story tonight. Yale would tell a story quite often. His stories were good, but Uly suspected each one had a lesson for school hidden within. The best stories were told by Mr. Danziger. He told scary ghost stories that were really cool.
There hadn't been any stories told for a long time. No stories for the past couple of weeks, which was a very long time to an eight year old boy. He didn't understand why the grown-ups were acting so weird. He knew everyone had been mad at Julia 'cause she gave him that seda-derm but she was back with them all now. He didn't know why some people, like Mr. and Mrs. Martin, were pretending that Julia wasn't there.
His mom seemed to be friends with Julia again. Mr. Danziger, too. Alonzo had never been mad at her, really, and he had been the one to go back and get her when they had left her behind. Uly thought that Alonzo and Julia would be getting a marriage contract soon. He hoped they'd have kids. This planet needed more kids, even with the colony ship coming.
Where was that sweater? He had to find it. Maybe someone was telling a story already and he was missing it. Uly dumped the contents of another bag onto the dirt floor of the tent. That's when his mother walked in.
"What...? Uly! What are you doing?" Devon Adair looked at the mess of clothes and supplies strewn across the ground. Her son looked up at her with his big brown eyes and Devon couldn't quite get angry at him.
"I need my sweater or else you won't let me go outside." Uly explained.
Devon walked over to an open bag at the foot of Uly's cot and plucked out his sweater. "Here's your sweater. But you're not going outside until we clean up this mess. I told you that you have to look after your own things now, remember?"
"But mom! What if someone's telling a story right now and I'm missing it?"
Devon sighed and kneeled down to help Uly on with his sweater and then rested her arms on his shoulders. "I don't think there's going to be any stories tonight," she said softly.
"I don't understand," Uly said crossly. "Julia's back now and everyone who got hurt by the Z.E.D. is getting better. Why is everyone still acting so quiet and sad?"
Devon looked at her son and wished that they all had the ability to forgive, trust once more and greet each new day with the expectancy and optimism of a child. She did not know how to explain to Uly the feelings of betrayal, guilt, fear and desolation that had surrounded them these last days.
"Sometimes, when bad things happen, it takes people a while to forget about them and to learn that even if someone makes a mistake and regrets it, they are still the same person we know and like on the inside. Some of our group were hurt by the Z.E.D. Even though we know how to stop the Z.E.D.s from hurting us now, some people might be frightened that there are other bad things out there."
"Maybe what everyone needs to stop being sad is a good story." Uly looked expectantly at his mother.
Devon smiled and gently swatted Uly on the back. "Go outside, Ulysses." He returned her smile with a wide grin and dashed out of the tent. As Devon bent to finish picking up the clothes she mused, "Maybe a good story is what we need."
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Most of the Eden group was gathered around the campfire that night, though there could have been no one there at all for the silence that surrounded them.
People were huddled in their own little groups, like individual islands on an ocean. Danziger and True sat together, not far from Uly, Devon and Yale. Baines, Walman and Magus appeared to be a team and the Martins had staked out their own corner. Julia had sat down beside Morgan, who had noticeably shifted away from the doctor. Alonzo had put an arm around Julia and whispered something in her ear that had made her smile, slightly, but hadn't got her to raise her eyes from the ground.
Julia knew she'd have to do penance for her actions of late. Even though she had protected the group from Reilly to the best of her ability, she knew that her absolution would be a gradual thing. That Alonzo had put her deeds of the past behind him was a sure thing and Julia still marvelled at his forgiveness. He made her feel wanted, needed and loved. As she had put her life with the Council behind her, Julia was more than ready to move forward in her life with these people and her relationship with Alonzo. Her relationships with the others would take more time.
She was grateful that Devon, John and Yale were willing to put their trust in her again. They had welcomed her back to the group and were quick to defend her from comments by the others. Not that anyone had made comments to her face. It was the looks she got from them that brought about her feelings of guilt and her need to see redemption in their eyes.
Baines and Walman, ever vigilant, seemed to follow her every move. They were either waiting for her to mess up or watching to see if they could trust her again. She hoped she passed their test.
The Martins didn't bother to hide their looks of pure dislike from her. In a way, Julia couldn't blame them. She had kidnapped Morgan, knocked him unconscious and tied him to a tree. Then she had almost completely forgotten about doing it. She closed her eyes shut tightly as the feelings of utter guilt and remorse threatened to engulf her again. If she could only take back that one day...and all of the others when she had been a patriot to the Council. But that would mean taking back all of her life. No, she couldn't dwell on it. She had to put it behind her and hope the others could as well. This new place, this new planet, offered her a chance at a new life and the opportunity to work for the benefit of these people to atone for her mistakes of the past.
She raised her head and met Danziger's eyes. From across the campfire, he gave her a sympathetic smile.
Danziger had been able to forgive Julia, as he knew from experience how the actions of the parents became a mantle around the shoulders of the child. He knew about birthright, the places it could lead one to, and the places it would bar one from.
Julia had been born to the Council. She had been raised by it, and committed to it in infancy as a result of her parents' allegiance to it. Back on the stations she could no more have renounced her Council ties than he could have renounced his stature as a drone.
John was born to inherited debt. In their desperation to leave the dying Earth behind his forebearers had gambled on the futures of their prodigy. Like his parents before him, John had been enslaved since birth to the obligation of paying his grandparents' passage to the stations. Until coming here, to this planet. He was a free man now, his account was paid in full. Whether he chose to return to the stations or not, he now had the chance to prove that he was not someone to simply be pigeonholed into the category of working class with no hope for the future. He was given the chance to prove himself, and so too should Julia, because of this new world. As much as it irked John to admit it, they were given this chance because of Devon Adair. Ironically, it was her kind who had kept him in the quadrant and kept the Council fighting for power. Despite that, John would always have a reason to be grateful to her.
He looked over at her, sitting a few feet away from him with her hands folded in her lap, her glance darting to each member of her Eden flock assembled around the fire. Her face held a look of worry, amplified by a small frown.
John leaned over to her. "Another quiet night Adair," he said softly.
She looked at him, her eyes wide. She shook her head. "Something's got to give, John. We can't go on like this."
"Give it time. Julia will earn their trust again. They'll all calm down."
Devon bit her lower lip slightly and looked up toward the sky. "Winter's going to come soon and we're probably going to need to set up a permanent camp until the worst of it is over. How will we make it through to springtime when we can't even manage to gather around a fire in a civilized and sociable manner anymore? How will the group survive being cooped up together for so long with some people at others' throats?"
A low laugh sounded from John. "Hey, Adair, you're at my throat everyday and I'm still here. It's something you learn to live with."
He waited for the sharp retort he expected from Devon but instead a howl of outrage came from the other side of the campfire.
"Eeeooww!" Morgan screamed as he danced around, clutching his arm to his chest. "The fire attacked me!"
Bess was trying to grab her husband's arm. "Morgan, what is it honey? What happened? Let me see."
Morgan stopped and flung his arm out at her. "I'm burning Bess!" He wailed. "My arm is burning from the fire!"
Before Bess could grab hold of his arm Julia was beside him looking at the wound. As she went to probe around the burn mark left by a flying ember, Morgan pulled back from her.
"No! Don't touch me! Keep her away from me." He moved behind Bess.
Julia looked as though he had slapped her, but she kept her cool. "Morgan, let me look at it, I can help," she pleaded.
"I'd rather lose my arm," he said nastily.
Bess turned and placed a hand on his chest. "Let her look at it, honey. She's the only doctor here."
"Just our luck," Baines muttered from the circle of people surrounding the Martins and Julia.
Alonzo heard that remark and decided that was enough. His face took on an enraged expression and he advanced on Morgan. "That's it," he growled out. "Julia only wants to help. She doesn't want to hurt you, she wants to heal you. But you, you can't see past your own little world to see how sorry she is for what she's done." He stopped a foot away from Bess and Morgan, fists clenched at his sides.
"You can't see past your libido to see her for what she truly is," Morgan spat back, still standing behind his wife.
Danziger got to his feet at that point, ready to bellow for them all to calm down. But the sound they all heard instead was an unearthly wail unlike anything they had heard before. The loud screech shot through the night and for a moment stopped everyone in their tracks.
Then the verbal assaults turned into a chaos of motion. Some people turned toward the sound, others backed away toward their tents.
Walman pulled his sidearm from the waistband of his pants and turned in the direction from which the noise had come. Baines came up beside him, bearing his ever present magpro.
Danziger turned to True and Uly and grabbed them both by their shirts, thrusting them into Yale's protective arms. He then whirled around, looking for a weapon he didn't have, and upon realizing its nonexistence crept up to Walman and Baines unarmed.
As the three men slowly walked out of the light of the campfire and looked into the darkness beyond for the source of the sounds, Danziger saw Devon come up behind him.
"Get back, Adair," he commanded in a whisper.
"What is it?" She said, ignoring his order.
In the distance, atop a slight ridge overlooking their campsite, they could make out the silhouette of a being that appeared to be unlike any they had before encountered.
It was the height of a human and seemed to be standing on two legs. But its abdomen was grotesquely distended to one side and it had multiple spoke-like arms coming from it.
It called again in its eerie pitch. The three men ducked down and Danziger pulled Devon to the ground beside him.
When it stopped its wail, Walman moved stealthily forward once more, with his weapon pointed at the creature.
Once closer he stopped and lowered the pistol to his side.
Devon rose and called to him. "Walman, what do you see?"
"It's...it's...Cameron!" Walman exclaimed.
"What the hell?" Danziger let go his tight grip on Devon's arm and moved forward to join them.
Devon remained standing where she was for a moment. "Walman," she called, "is he okay?"
"Uh, yeah," Walman replied, sounding perplexed.
Devon turned and called to the group still at the campfire, letting them know that everything was alright. Then she sprinted to catch up to Danziger, who had reached Cameron by then.
In the time she had known him, Cameron had not failed to surprise Devon. He was a man of few words and Devon had initially conceived him to be a quiet and dependable individual who was happy to follow along wherever the group led him. She was forced to revise that opinion, however, not too many weeks after they had crashed on the planet.
She remembered that occasion now. She had instructed him to do something, specifically what, she couldn't quite recall offhand and it didn't really matter what it was anyway. What mattered was his reaction to her request. Ordinarily, when asked to do something, Cameron would simply nod and get at the task, working diligently until it was completed. This time however, Cameron had looked Devon straight in the eye and simply said, "No. I won't do that."
Devon had at first thought that he just didn't want to do the work and had patiently explained to him how everyone in the group had to pitch in and do their fair share. When she had finished her little lecture, Cameron had just as patiently explained to her that what she had asked him to do was a futile chore and he would instead tackle the job in a wholly different manner, which would enable him to accomplish the intended result. Then he had walked away and got to work.
Yes, Devon thought, Cameron was a great deal deeper that she had initially pegged him to be. She had by now reached a pretty good understanding of the individual personalities of the group but there were facets of Cameron that still remained a mystery.
She saw him now, standing on the ridge before herself, Danziger, Baines and Walman. Other members of the Eden group were slowly coming up behind her.
Cameron stood erect and cradled securely in his arms was some sort of object. It was a soft looking sort of bag, with several long, tubular protrusions coming from it.
"What is that?" Danziger asked, pointing at the object.
Cameron replied, "It's my bagpipes."
A low murmur went through the group but it was True who voiced the question they all wanted answered.
"What are bagpipes?" She said, pushing past the others to stand at Cameron's side.
Before Cameron could answer, Yale's voice, taking on the inflections of a tutor, was heard.
"Bagpipes. An ancient musical instrument made up of reed pipes, actuated by a wind bag. Though invented by the Irish, they are associated with the Highlands of Scotland, on Earth. Throughout the ages the bagpipes were used by the Scots in celebration and in mourning, and to herald warriors into battle. They are an instrument most properly played outdoors."
"I never have." Cameron's voice took on a wistful tone as he fingered the pipes reverently. "I never have played them outdoors. I had never been outdoors until we came here. This is the first time I've ever been able to play them as they properly should be."
Baines shook his head. "Of all the things you could have grabbed when we were evacuating the ship, you chose that thing." He waived a hand at the bagpipes.
Cameron turned and gave him a stern look for a moment and then said calmly, "I had to save them, they've been in my family for generations. They could not be lost."
Baines averted his eyes from Cameron's unwavering stare.
"Well," Devon said heartily. "I think you'll find you have a rapt audience here." Her face lit up with a broad smile. "What do you say, Cameron? Will you give us a concert?"
He nodded gravely at her. "Go back to the campfire."
Yale clapped Cameron on the back. "Play on, MacDuff." He chuckled at his little pun, which no one else seemed to understand.
As everyone walked back to the campfire, they were escorted on their way by the first drones of the pipes. The sound was different, but it was pleasing. It seemed to reach past their ears and touch a place inside their souls.
Story Notes:
As I watched the Earth 2 series unfold on television, I always wished that the writers would let the Eden group have a bit more fun once in a while. This story is my way of letting them do so. It's set after 'Redemption'.