Earth Who by Douglas Neman

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Chapter 4

The sun had gone down, and the Doctor sat with the others around the fire, sipping his mug of water. Devon had her arms around Uly, her chin resting on the top of his head, as she kept trying to get him to stop playing with the fire. True sat next to her dad. Zero stood on full alert. Walman, Baines, Mazatl, and Magus each held a mag pro, and were sitting on crates just behind the others, on all sides, so they could listen in, but still be ready to defend the camp.

"I'm a traveler," the Doctor said. "I arrived on this planet earlier this afternoon, simply because I wanted a bit of fresh air and solitude, although...although I didn't find it."

"We didn't see any ship come down near here," Alonzo said.

"Oh, you wouldn't have. It's very discreet." He took a sip of water. "I made friends with one of the local animals, and was resting with my feet in this very stream a few kilometers north, when someone shot at me, although I have no idea who. I retrieved the bullet from the ground, and was alarmed. It was very durable, and it was still moving. It didn't seem right to me, didn't seem like weaponry any sane person would use. I saw your caravan from a distance, and thought you could enlighten me as to what was going on. I had no idea it would explode -- believe me, I would have left it alone. I just wanted to find out its history."

Danziger asked, "And...you just travel around in cold sleep, visiting different planets like a tourist, without a job or having to pay for it?"

"Well, if you want to put it that way, yes. Although you make me sound like some sort of freeloader." He smiled. "No, John Danziger, believe me, in my own way, I pay. I pay very dearly."

"You're not from Earth?" Julia asked. "No, but I've been there often enough. My home is Gallifrey, and it's a long way from here. You wouldn't have heard of it -- humans have had very little contact with my race, except for me."

"Could you show us this ship of yours?" Devon asked. "Not until morning, but yes, if you wish," he replied. "But I doubt you'll be impressed."

"And you're saying you've never met the Terrians before now?" Morgan asked suspiciously. "Even though they say we can trust you?"

"That's right. Although," the Doctor thought, "just before I was shot at, when I was meditating, someone contacted me mentally. You say you dream with them?" he asked Morgan.

"Not me -- him." He jerked a thumb at Alonzo. Julia jumped in. She was beginning to realize that the Doctor really had a first-class brain, and was getting more excited by the minute, anticipating his discussions. "The Terrians are so alien to us, they don't even communicate on the same level that we do. They communicate by using feelings, and dream images. Alonzo is the only person who's ever made any real contact with them."

"Really? Tell me," he asked Alonzo, "what feelings did you get from the Terrians when they were here this evening?"

"Well," Alonzo shrugged, "I felt...trust. Just lots and lots of trust. I even felt it when you first arrived. It was almost as if the Terrians were extremely relieved that you were here, like they had more respect for you than any other alien in the universe. They hold you in the highest regard."

Eden Project was silent for a moment. The Doctor thoughtfully sipped his water, considering his options, and didn't like either one. He could have been suffering from a prolonged, serious case of postregenerative amnesia, in which case he needed to find out as much as possible about whatever the Terrians were talking about.

Or, he was hearing about an event in his own personal future, wherein he would one day travel back in time on this same planet and help the Terrians with some problem, in which case he needed to leave quickly, lest he find out too much about his own time stream. He didn't know yet which course of action he should take.

"What exactly did you mean when you said you'd encountered this phenomenon before?" Danziger asked after a few moments. "About living planets, I mean?"

"Oh, just that. I have encountered it before, on the planet of the Cheetah People. Only, on that planet, the inhabitants were so animalistic and violent that whenever they fought -- which was often -- the structure of the planet was torn apart. They ended up destroying it."

"Well, there's a metaphor for you," Devon said. The Doctor smiled at her briefly. For the first time, the two of them had a rapport.

"But even then, it didn't surprise me," the Doctor went on. "I'd always expected it to happen some day, on some planet, somewhere. I was pleased to find I was right -- even if it did mean I had to find a way off the planet before it blew up."

"Great," Morgan muttered. "Now we learn we're on a planet which might blow up."

Everyone ignored him.
"Why didn't it surprise you?" Julia asked. "Because of the way life works. Consider any planet -- in a way, it's already alive. On your own Earth, for example, life is found everywhere, even where early science once reasoned it could never blossom -- in the Antarctic, deep inside mountains, and on the ocean floor. It didn't matter if there was no sunlight, or no warmth, or only a little oxygen -- life found a foothold and grew. No one could stop it. Life itself is the most tenacious, stubborn creature in the universe, hands down, and nothing can ever stand in its way -- not even death, as amazing as that may seem.

"And as life grows, ecosystems develop. Animals feed on one another, depend on one another; and even the top of the food chain becomes food for the plankton in the sea and the trees rooted in the ground. And life is connected. It's connected in a way which cannot be figured out with the mind, which is the beauty of it. You humans have coined phrases like "body language," "eye contact," and "telepathy," to describe it, but the truth is, it's just life connecting with life.

"When two people connect with a smile, how does that happen? What causes laughter? How do people move in a rhythm when they make love, without sitting down with pen and paper and working it out beforehand? How is it you can sometimes tell exactly when someone's lying and when they're being honest, without using machines? How is it that even you humans can sometimes communicate feelings and brief thoughts over great distances, in times of deep emotion? How, exactly, does adrenalin give one incredible strength? How does a man jump in a pool and rescue a drowning child when he hears a mother scream for help -- only to find later that he can't speak her language?

"It's just life, and no one that I know of has ever invented a computer more sophisticated than the DNA molecule -- the original, adapting, learning computer at the root of all of us.

"A planet's natural ecology, if left undisturbed, will make its own balance, with all the parts working together. So when I discovered that some planets have evolved to the point where the connected life force began to act and think as a single being -- I was not the least bit surprised. In fact, it seemed the next logical step."

Alonzo fed a few sticks into the fire. "I think we know now why the Terrians like you so much," he smiled.

"It's amazing that you say all that," Devon said. "We are here -- some of us unintentionally -- because my son had a disease caused by a lack of being...connected, as you say. A lot of children were dying because of a lack of Earth, of what nature could provide, and no one could cure them, because there wasn't any virus or bacteria or brain damage to fight. So the doctors were just watching them die. Earth is now too dangerous to live on, but the space station environment was killing my son. So I organized the Eden Project, and came here." She ruffled her son's hair lovingly. "And when we got here, the Terrians took my son. I thought they'd kidnapped him, but instead they cured him, and now he's alive." She started to cry, just a little bit.

"I'm not sure it was just the Terrians who cured Ulysses," the Doctor said. "It may have been the entire planet."

"Do you have any knowledge or theories about the Syndrome, Doctor? I mean -- the disease Devon just mentioned?" Julia asked.

The Doctor sighed, and thought about it for a few seconds. "Well, I've heard of similar diseases before, afflicting other races -- such as the Quinlonians, who wither and die if separated from their clanbeings for longer than a day. But this is the first time I've heard of it affecting humans, and I haven't had a chance to study it first-hand.

"But from what you've told me, it sounds like a spiritual disease, more than anything else. It's," he hesitated, trying to find the words, "I would say that it's somewhat similar to children who are abused or neglected somehow -- they grow up with part of their souls damaged, and the real suffering comes later. They are subsequently unable to connect with either themselves or with others -- with sometimes tragic results -- or they can only connect in very unhealthy ways, because their natural ability to live life has been mangled or ripped away.

"Yes, I believe your space stations, from what you describe, have a similar effect -- they prevent some people from being able to connect, because there's so little to connect to. And without connecting, they wither and die."

Julia thought about this. Devon kissed the top of her son's head, grateful again she'd gotten him away from there.

Then she said, "Well, I apologize, Doctor, if we treated you rather harshly earlier, but we have learned the hard way that not too many people on this planet can be trusted."

"Tell me about that."
So she did. She found herself talking about the Syndrome, and Blaylock, and the colony ship, and the crash, and Broderick O'Neill, and Gaal, and Wentworth and Firestein, and Mary. The others joined in, and as the evening went on, everyone talked. The therapeutic effect of telling their story was amazing. The tale of their ordeals, of all they'd been through, washed out of them like a cleansing river. They'd never realized how eager they'd been for someone -- anyone -- to listen to what they'd been through. They'd never really sat down and talked about it all before.

It got a little awkward when Devon told him about Julia's role with the Council, but she had to mention it, as politely as she could, to explain how they had found out what the ZED was, and how they had defeated it.

"So the bullet I picked up was fired by another of these ZED's?" the Doctor asked.

"It's a good bet," Danziger replied. "But how come Yale and Alonzo got shot so accurately from such a distance, but the Doctor didn't?" Eben asked.

"Maybe because the worm bullets are programmed to seek out humans, and I'm not human," the Doctor said. "My guess would be that the bullet homed in on me, but at the last minute, probably thought I was an animal of some sort. My body temperature is vastly different, and I have a doublerespiratory /cardiovascular system."

"Huh?" Uly asked.
"That means I have two hearts," the Doctor smiled, "and most blood vessels and air passages in my body are doubled. So if one system fails, the other will keep me going, providing me with an emergency oxygen supply, which my body latently stores within my cell structure. It's saved my life on several occasions."

"Looks like it saved your life this afternoon," Bess pointed out.

"Well, what I want to know is, if there's another ZED unit in the area, why haven't any bullets come our way?" Morgan asked.

"And furthermore," Baines added, "why are we stickin' around?"

"Well, I think it's obvious the ZED doesn't know we're here, yet, or it would have fired on us by now," Julia said. "It's camp is probably to the north, where the Doctor said he landed his ship, and furthermore, it's probably on the edge of the mountains we just left. ZEDs seem to like high ground to shoot from. We're probably just beyond his range."

"But he knew I was there," the Doctor pointed out. "He could have followed me, and learned about you."

Everyone was silent; that was an uncomfortably good point.

"Can we please not talk about ZEDs right now?" True asked quietly.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry," Danziger said. "We didn't mean to scare you."

"No, and we're not going to talk about ZEDs right now," Devon reassured her. "I don't know about you, True, but it's time for you," she spoke in her son's ear, "to get some sleep."

"And you, sport," John said. "Go on, honey, off you go."

Morgan said, "Why put ‘em to bed if we're gonna leave tonight- ooh!" Bess kicked him, and whispered in his ear.

"Ooh, right. Bedtime for both of ‘em. Maybe me too, while we're at it."

As Devon ushered Uly off to her tent, Cameron stepped out of the med tent, slowly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, I can't believe I forgot!" Julia leaped up and ran to him, helping him find a seat by the fire. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I just slept a week. What happened, anyway? I thought we were all gonna die."

"No, we didn't die, but it was a close thing," she said. "John threw the bullet away in time. You were stung by a koba, and you've been in a coma for a couple of hours. Sit tight. I'll be back."

She left to give both the children a sedative, so they would sleep soundly through the night, untroubled by the terror of lurking death, waiting to pounce. If they did leave tonight, they would both sleep safely in the TransRover's cab.

Seeing everyone gathered around the fire, Cameron asked, "What's been going on?" He eyed the Doctor suspiciously.

"We've been finding out things," Bess said. "We'll fill you in later, but for right now, just believe us when we say that the Doctor is a friend and we seem to have another ZED on our hands."

Cameron just looked at her. "I wish I'd stayed in the coma."

"And I must apologize to you, Cameron," the Doctor said. "It's partially my fault you were poisoned. I believe the animal that poisoned you was one I made friends with when I arrived on this planet. I didn't know it was poisonous. I believe it was simply trying to protect me."

Devon, Julia, and Danziger rejoined them. "Well!" Bess said. "What are we going to do about the ZED?"

"I wonder if we could find it and nail it with a geolock," Danziger said casually.

Fourteen pairs of eyes stared at him. "What are you talking about?" Morgan asked. "Lets pull up stakes and get the hell outta here! I don't even know what we're waiting for!"

"It's not that simple, Morgan," Julia said. "The ZED might follow us. Just because it's camped in a certain area doesn't mean we cease to be targets if we move on. I'm certain it would hunt us all the way to New Pacifica."

"Yes, but it might not know we're here, yet!" "Yeah," Magus agreed.
"Referring to Mr. Danziger's idea, I'm not sure it would work," the Doctor said. "Any cybernetically advanced human, programmed for war, would be able to outrun a geolock. They can run for miles, even carrying heavy loads, very fast, and hardly break a sweat. So it would miss the ZED, but end up killing a lot of other things instead."

"Like a Terrian," Walman muttered. "I don't want to do that again."

"What do you care?" Morgan asked the Doctor. "This isn't your problem. You're free to fly away any time you feel like it!"

"Yes, but I'd never sleep at night again." "Doctor," Devon asked. "Would it be possible to fly us all out of here?"

He thought about it. "I could do that. But I must warn you, my ship is very hazardous sometimes. I don't always go where I think I'm going."

"I don't think you could go too far off course," Alonzo said. "I'm a pilot, if you need any help!"

The Doctor just smiled.
"It's not that simple. There's a chance we wouldn't even come back to this planet."

"What do you mean?" Danziger asked. "You think we're all going to accidentally fall into cold sleep chambers and not notice it?"

"I don't need hibernation equipment on my ship -- although I'm sure I've got some somewhere, if I bothered to look for it. No, my race long ago solved the problem of 4th-dimensional travel."

"You mean...you can travel between the stars in minutes?" Bess asked.

The Doctor nodded. "That was why you didn't see my ship come down. But my ship is almost entirely random, because she and I have both traveled together for so many centuries without caring where we go. So I sometimes have trouble steering her."

"How old are you, man?" Alonzo asked. "A lot older than you, kid," the Doctor replied. "Well, are we going to use the Doctor's ship to leave here?" Mazatl asked.

"I'd rather not," Devon suddenly said. "This ZED hasn't bothered us yet. No offense to you, Doctor, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable flying away in a random spacecraft just yet. Why don't we pull up stakes and head west for about a week or so? If no one fires at us, I'll feel a little more confident that the ZED never knew we were here. But if the ZED does fire on us, then we can do something differently."

"And once we reach New Pacifica and the colony ship arrives, then we can come back here with a properly armed force to hunt it down," Danziger said.

Devon looked at him in wonder. Danziger had just said, "we," without even thinking about it. Was he planning to stay with Eden Project instead of return to Earth?

"Well, Doctor," Bess asked. "How long were you planning on staying?" The implications were clear -- Eden Project wanted to know if he could help them later if things got dicey.

"I never plan, really. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to walking a week west, and then walking back to my ship. But I'm still young and spry -- I might manage it for a little while. I'll certainly stay the night. There are a few personal matters I also have to consider."

Morgan slapped his thigh, and Danziger said, "All right, lets get crackin'."

And Eden Project started the all-too-familiar routine of breaking camp. But when Devon reached her tent, she screamed.

"Uly! Uly! No! Ulyyyyyy!"
Everyone bolted for Devon's tent. She was on the other side of it, running out into the night. "Uly where are you?"

Lights were turned on and shone round the area. Danziger and Yale tried to calm Devon down. The Doctor and Julia both looked inside the tent.

The far side of the tent, facing away from the campfire, had been sliced open from the outside, and Uly had been taken.

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