Andy's Fan-Fiction Archive

MALIGNANCY
By
Kristina Dijan

Timeline: Time Unknown
Author's E-Mail: kadijan@watarts.uwaterloo.ca

AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Ok, here goes-sorry about Alonzo's dream beginning, but like I said I started this opus before NBG and almost junked it but decided to take my own advice and tinker with it--
Sorry about the length (it's a whopper,) but I figured fresh new meat of any length would be ok-it just takes a little longer to digest that's all!! Break out the tums!!
Let me know what you think, and thanks to Lia, Alex, and all the others for inspiration!

MALIGNANCY, Part 1
By Kristina Dijan

The first night in a new location was full of strange dreams for the Eden colonists, and as the sun rose, those dreams became secrets.
Alonzo dreamt he sat in the middle of nowhere, and G889 was a vast wasteland where nothing could ever live and grow. Suddenly, he felt a strange twinge in his body, and an itching on his face. He scanned his body and what he saw prompted him to sit up with a start. He was aging rapidly--all the years he had escaped through cold sleep were catching up with him. A beard and a long mane sprouted out and turned gray, then white. Then, after he could grow no older, his body underwent the most terrifying change of all--it started to decay, turn black and his extremities withered away like ashes blown apart by the wind. His anger boiled within him and exploded int a scream: "Why won't you help me?!" and then: "I was never supposed to be here! WHY? Why am I stuck here?" Julia came to help him, saying he would be alright, but she only made things worse--her efforts would kill him. He rose and walked through camp, a horrifying black mass crying out, "We are all gonna die here!" One by one he killed everyone around him, because no matter how much he asked why, they had no answers. And most of all he wanted to hurt Devon, who had brought them all here to die. She was to blame. He wanted to hurt her, and he knew that simply killing her wouldn't hurt her enough.
Alonzo awoke with a start. He moved his legs and felt his chin to make sure it was only a dream. Physically, he was fine. But inside him a fierce anger was awakened--he realized more clearly than ever before that he had been cheated out of the good life he had worked for all these years. He glanced around at the colonists who were waking up and going about the usual morning motions, and he realized how much he hated them all for trapping him here, and how much he wanted to destroy.
Morgan was still in the middle of his dream, where all his suspicions came true. They all turned against him, and Alonzo led them, constantly asking "WHY?" Morgan had no idea what the question meant, although he could remember many stupid things he had done that might make him the object of such blame. Morgan gasped as he woke up, and turned to find Bess was gone. He stuck his head out of the tent, positive that they had left him behind, but they were all there. And he was filled with fear because now he knew they were all plotting against him.
Devon knew she couldn't mention her dream to anyone. It was too terrifying for words. In it, she felt absolute despair after arriving at G889 only to find it was a horrible black, diseased wasteland. They all hated her for stranding them there. Alonzo screamed: "I was never supposed to be here! Haven't you all decided it's time to blame someone?!" They all agreed with him, that Devon was to blame. What followed was a violent revolt where Alonzo killed Uly and left Devon in the middle of nowhere holding her son's body. Now, thankfully awake, she wondered why she would dream such a thing now, when everything seemed to be going so agreeably, and trying to shake it from her mind, she decided it was best left unsaid--if not forgotten.
Julia spent a few minutes staring at her medical supplies after she awoke from her dream, in which they had all come to her with scrapes and stomachaches and other trivial little injuries and complaints. Her efforts to help were the nightmare--everything she did made it worse. Every injection made them cry in pain. The dressings she put on the scrapes opened them up into gaping wounds that bubbled, sizzled and burned, and she ran helplessly from body to body until she was covered with blood and had done nothing but kill everyone slowly and painfully. Alonzo was the last to die, possibly because he seemed driven by unanswerable questions: "Why won't you help me?" Now, awake, Julia was too nauseated to sit down to a breakfast, and too visibly bothered to face anyone. She put on her jacket and walked away from camp.
Soon she realized the others would worry, and she put on her gear with the intention of contact. When she turned it on, all was static and snow. She turned her head in an attempt to determine what was interfering, and noticed that the navigational information and other values on the display were pure gibberish, at least until she turned her head to the left--left was west. When she turned west, the numbers' erratic variations steadied and indicated something--what? A magnetic field perhaps? A satellite? Baffled, she took off her gear and headed west.
Sooner than expected, she came upon a strangely shaped, black patch of ground. It was oddly circular, and its size was at least 30 feet across. She approached cautiously, since the black material was thick and porous, almost like tar. This obviously wasn't the work of a geo-lock, she thought. Trees were withered stumps, barely identifiable shapes. The area was not burned or covered with anything but rather--decayed. She kneeled at the edge of the patch and held her hand over the black to feel for heat--nothing, and it had no discernible odor. She pressed her hand down,and when she pulled it back, coll, sticky strands stretched back with it. Was this a swamp or some sort of mud spring? Suddeny, Julia remebered her dream, and a strange instinct filled her with guilt--she wondered whether she were responsible, as if she had hurt the area in some way. As that wave of fear passed, she realized its absurdity, wiped her hand on her pants and put her gear on again, cursing herself for getting balck all over the controls. Again, only static and snow, but now the values were definitely indicating some bizarre activity in the area. She spied a flat rock and used it to scoop up as much of the black substance as possible, and headed back to camp.
Soon after she returned, Devon popped her head into the tent. "Where have you been?"
"I went for a walk."
"OK." Devon said calmly, "Just dont make a habit of taking off like that. At least let someone know where you've gone."
Julia spat out an answer before thinking: "That's ironic, coming from the woman who left me in the middle of nowhere not too long ago."
They both fell silent, staring at each other, equally stunned at the remark. "I can't beleive I just said that. I certainly didn't mean it--not the way it sounded anyway. I, I don't know where that came from, I suppose I'm testy--I had an awful nightmare that's been bothering me."
Devon's surpirse made her forget the verbal attack. "So did I. Violent and frightening." That was all she intended to say about it. "That's odd, the others havent' said anything."
"It wouldn't be the only strange thing around here." Julia held up her improvised pallette. She described what she had found and said she would update Devon once she had done tests on the specimen--and thankfully Devon accepted Julia's repeated apologies by saying all was forgiven.
By noontime, Julia and Devon called everyone together to discuss her findings. Julia noticed Alonzo sitting by himself away from the group, visibly fuming with anger, and went to him despite a dull fear that she would only do harm.
"You look mad."
"Why shouldn't I be?!" he erupted, "Aren't you?" She opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say. His voice rose and attracted everyone's attention. "Why are we here?! Haven't you decided it's time to blame someone?"
Devons' stomach seized as she recalled those words from her dream. But Alonzo was speaking to everyone, and no-one in particular. "Don't you get it?" He sttod up, grabbed a tent rod and smahsed it against a table with each word: "We are all gonna DIE here!" He hurled the rod down and yelled "Why won't you help me?!" Julia's heart nearly stopped as he uttered the words from her dream, and she watched him stalk away, butting shoulders with Danziger.
No reaction from anyone exept shifting stares. Devon turned to Julia, the only other person who knew about her dream. "He said that. In my dream."
"In mine too," Julia said.
Yale added, "And mine." He sternly looked at Devon as if to scold her for not mentioning her secret sooner. "My dream was filled with death and my worst fears were realized. Alonzo kept saying he was never supposed to be here. He was murderous. It doesn't make any sense."
"I had one like that too," Danziger added, and one by one the others admitted having bad dream. But few dared to desribe them in detail. Common to all the dreams was Alonzo, and some variation of his unanswerable question.
"The last time we had similar dreams was during Dell Curry's beacon.," Yale suggested,"Do you think something like that is causing these?"
"That may be," Julia nodded, "when I tried to call camp this morning, something was interfering with my gear." She summarized her discovery and got into the newest details.
"The cellular composition of the black substance is completely different from the ground anywhere else around here--for lack of a better word, it's...dead. Decayed. But more than that, there's no sign of an alien organism that might have caused the damage. There's no disease or external trauma. It seems to be the result of a random cellular growth and change that's defied the rules of natural processes. It's best described as being analogous to cancer--a tumor in the earth, if you will. But I still don't see how it would interfere with my gear. Or our dreams."
Devon simply said, "Well, then, we're going back out there to get a better look at this...tumor."

MALIGNANCY, Part 2
By Kristina Dijan

Devon had no trouble choosing who was to go with her and Julia, and they were determined to leave immediately.
As Danziger picked up some things to take with him, True clutched at him cryng like she never had before. "Please don't go, daddy, please don't leave me alone." She hesitataed, then: "I'm scared of Alonzo."
Danziger, surprised at her sudden show of immaturity and unusual dependency, told her to let him go, that he would be back soon and everything would be fine. Seeing what little effect that was having, he wrapped his hand around her arm and peeled her away. His dream gave him reason to fear Alonzo, but it was not his own death that scared him more than he cared to tell. "Alright, " He said, picking True up and carrying her to the ATV. "You're coming with me."
Devon listened to the crew's murmurings with growing impatience. They were criticizing her decision with great agittaion, arguing over her selection as if she had just decreed a permanent breakup of the group. Morgan yelled, "She's taking the doctor, for God's sake! and Bess!" He turned to his bewildered wife. "It's true! You've turned against me You've all turned against me!" Embarrassed, and visibly impatient herself, Bess consoled him and led him back to their tent before she returned to the ATV. Devon had been weighing choices regarding Uly ever since she began preparing. Finally, she decided it was safer to leave Uly with Yale, in case there was something dangerous where they were going. Besides, she thought it absurd to assume that just because Alonzo was bothered by a short temper (and his own dream no doubt) that he would act out anything remotely similar to her dream. Devon assured Uly she would return before he knew it and once she and the others got together, they drove away from camp.
Julia kept reviewing her area. What if it was a sign of things to come? What if something horrible was about to happen and she couldn't handle it? Maybe she should have taught the others how to take care of themselves so that she wouldn't be blamed if something happened to them. Her thoughts became unfamiliar and seemed to spill from some spring she did not recognize. I'm going to make a mistake and kill them, she thought, I'm going to kill them kill them kill. Then, just as quickly as they had come, those thoughts disappeared , and she looked around to make sure nobody had noticed--what? even SHE didn't understand what was happeneing to her.
Danziger was silent the whole trip and just as silently examined the black earth once they arrived at the site, hunching over some disgnostic equipment he had brought.
"It's grown since I was here this morning." Julia pointed at an area about ten feet inside the patch. "The edge was there. It's growing."
Danziger broke his silence. "There's definitely some activity in this area, there's no doubt about that. " He looked into the center of the area and pointed at an odd shape. "That doesn't look like a rock, does it? It seems rounded on one edge, and sharp on another." He rose and gingerly steped into the black, earning a quick response from Devon.
"Don't do that! You don't know if it's safe!" Danziger froze, then proceeded to shift pressure to his extended leg. His foot sank slowly for an inch or two, then stopped. He took another step and another, cursing the places where his boot stuck and made a suction sound, and he couldn't hide his surprise where the ground was dry, and snapped and crakced like dried twigs.
Eventually, he reached the object in the middle searched for a handhold, tried not to reveal his disgust at getting the substance all over his hands and clothes, and slowly made his way back to normal land.
Bess wiped as much black off the surface as she could, enugh to expose the metallic surface and some script. "I know what this is. I saw them on Earth. My father got the first few for experimental use in mines and deteriorating areas. I forget the exact name of it, does it say? I think it was 'environment regeneration something."
"Environmenal Regeneration Unit." Danziger said, pointing to the engraving he had just uncovered. "I've seen them before too." He wiped his brow and left a black smudge across his forehead.
"How does it work?" Julia asked. "It's an instrument that does a lot of jobs," Bess explaned. "First, it's supposed to conduct a geological analysis, mainly with the purpose of isolating and identifying the positive and negative aspects of any environment."
Danziger continued. "It's equipped to enhace the productive potential of the land, such as its fertility, by overriding the natural rules of cellular production and "reprogramming" the cellular structure of the earth--basically it's like a purification process, and it tells the environment how to grow."
"Obviously it didn't work here," Devon said. "This hardly looks like productive growth."
"Ill have to open it up and see if it's even working." Danziger replied, sliding his fingers over the surface to find an opening.
Julia raised an even more obvious question. "How'd it get here? Do you think it was dumped? Is there any sign that it crashed? Or were the others before us trying to test and regenrate this environment?"
"I don't see why they'd want to." Bess surveyed the living land. "It's already so beautiful.
After a little while, Danziger interrupted their speculation, saying "Well, there some exterior damage, but I can't imagine it beng in condition this good if it crashed from space. As for its guts, whatever happened to it caused a malfunction. Now, this machine works the other way--instead of enhancing the positive, it magnifies the nagtive aspects of this environment a thousandfold. You were right, Julia--It's like a cancer. This area is destroying itself."
"But if the machine is doing this," Julia said, "Then it can't have been here long, judging by the rate of change--what, more than three or four feet in a day? that area can't be more tha 40 feet across!"
Danziger nodded. "Right. But just because it started working this way doesn't mean it got here a couple of weeks ago. If it's damaged it may not have started working right away. Maybe it's been working slowly at first then increased exponentially. Who knows?" He squinted and ran a diagnostic instrument over theERU's central processor. "It seems this so-called malfunction is not the result of crash damage or deterioration." He looked up at the others. "It's been reprogrammed."
"To destroy? To amke the land kill itself? Deliberately?" Bess was amazed.
Danziger shrugged. "All I can say is, it INTENDS to cause harm. And death."
"Does it work on people?" Devon asked. Bess replied, "It's not supposed to." Immediatelt she realized what Devon meant. "You think this is what's been causing our violent dreams?"
Julia spoke with the hint of a question in her tone. "Could it be that this same force has affected us just as negatively as it's affected the physical environment? We already know how strongly everything here is connected. Isn't it totally possible that if this Earth can 'feel', and if this death is anything like a cancer--slow and paingul--the death of the earth is being communicated to us through the dream plane."
"So why is Alonzo the aggressor in our dreams?" Danziger asked. After a moment, Julia answered, "Alonzo is the one most connected to the dream plane, so it would make sense that his dream affected him more deeply, and that's why he behaved so strangely."
"What about Morgan?" Bess asked, "He was acting really strange too." "Morgan wasn't violent, just paranoid." Danziger said, trying to supress a smirk. "That's hardly abnormal."
Julia was in deep thought, and suddenly spoke. "When I reacted so violently to you this morning," she said to Devon, "...something came over me and I truly felt different, like I intended to harm you. I don't think that was just as aftershock of my nightmare." She backed away from the machine. "Maybeit was this thing. Maybe it CAN change us, literally or through the dream plane, I don't know how, but it might be able to affect us so that we'll--as John says, want to harm and cause death.. If that's true, then Alonzo may just be changing faster than the rest of us becuase of his connection to the dream plane."
Devon remembered her dream, and the way Alonzo had hurt her--by killing Uly. The thought turned her cold with dread, but her voice didn't revela it. "So you think he will become capable of violence?" In her mind she added: Is he murderous?
Julia fell to her knees roughly and buried her face in her hands, "I dont KNOW."
Bess moved to help, "are you OK?" "Stop! Don't come near me! I'll hurt you! I'll kill you! I did kill you, all of you" She punched the ground with such force that she bloodied her knuckles and palms. She screamed at herself, at nothing in particular: "No! I'm not supposed to kill!" She repeated those words like a chant, frightening True into her father's arms and Bess into what seemd a safe position behind him.
Fear shot through Devon as she watched Julia fight to resist a violent, murderous urge. Devon quickly put on her gear, despereble wanting to call camp. She had to know that Alonzo could resist his urges as well. She had to know that her own nightmare was not coming true at this exact moment. All she got was static.

MALIGNANCY, Part 3
By Kristina Dijan

Morgan had emerged from his tent soon after Bess had left with the others. He'd be damned if he would be caught off guard by the others, especially Alonzo. He backed around the tent, doing a visual and mental search so that he could account for everyone's whereabouts, and as he did so, he whispered, "Walman, Baines, Uly, Mag--" He stopped sharply as he felt himself come up against something. He froze and swallowed hard before turning to face Yale, who stood silent but demanded an explanation with one look.
"I...I was just, uh, Checking on everyone. You know, strange stuff going on around here today an all."
"Why don't you help me repair the tent rod that was broken?" "You mean the one Alonzo smashed when he flipped out." Morgan lowered his voice and continued, completely unaware that Alonzo had approached behind him and was within earshot. "You know, just because he had a bad dream doesn't excuse him from throwing a tantrum like that. It was SCARY. He might hurt someone." He might hurt ME, thought Morgan.
"Just because I had a bad DREAM!?" Alonzo's voice quavered with rage, and startled both Morgan and Yale with its vehemance. He grabbed Morgan by the jacket and thrust him backwards, knocking him into Yale and pushing them both to the ground like so many dominoes. He screamed: "Just beacause I had a bad dream!? I was never supposed to be here!" He lifted Morgan by the jacket and hammered him dowm over and over while Yale tried to writhe out from under them both. "I was never supposed to be here! Why am I here!?" The others approached, slowly at first, then broke into a run when they saw what was happening. Walman and Baines grabbed Alonzo by his arms and tried to lift him up and away from Morgan, gettng battered themselves by his flailing arms. "We are all gonna DIE here!" They restrained him until he semmed calm enough to earn a more relaxed grip.
"OK? You alright?" Baines, asked, assuming it was another outburst inspired by remembrances of nightmares.
Alonzo was silent. In his mind he heard the echoes of his own dream, sounds and forces that nobody else heard but which battered him with light speed. Haven't you all decided it's time to blame someone? Over and over, no-one could tell him why, so he had to blame. Blame Devon. Blame her for this deathtrap. Blame Blame Blame Hurt. Hurt her. Hurt her. He raised his head and looked past the crowd gathered around him, no longer noticing them there. Only seeing Uly standing, curious, Puzzled. Now Alonzo knew how to hurt Devon.
"I'm fine." He wrenched free of the men with a feigned indignace, and walked past the stunned group. He saw a magpro leaned against a consiter and moved for it with such sheer determination that he had turned the weapon on and pointed it at everyone before they could get over their initial shock. A loud buzz signaled the unit was ready to fire, and that sound was motivation enough to get everyone scattered. "Run!" The blast rocked some canisters and tore a hole clear through the Martins' tent, narrowly missing Morgan and Yale.
They'll grab their guns in no time, Alonzo thought, I have to do it now. He spun around in search of his primary target. Uly had not run. He was frozen in place with disbelief, and, once he saw the hatred in Alonzo's eyes, and the magpro pointing right at him, he was frozen with fear.
"Destroy it!" Bess screamed at Danziger, "Stop it! Look what it's doing to her!"
I'm more concerned at what she'll do to us, thought Danziger, as he sunk the diagnostic tool into the ERU, keeping an eye on Julia. Devon tore the gear off her head, visibly distressed--at her inability to make contact, at the chaos around her, at her impatience with Danziger's manual and slow approach to the problem. The memory of her dream and the ferocity of Julia's struggle filled her with panic, and for a moment she wondered whether it was the possibility of what Alonzo did to Uly in her dream, or a violent, murderous urge suggested by the ERU that controlled her actions. Whatever the source, it awoke in her a murderous rage. It allowed her to pick up a dense log as thick and long as her leg--one that she could never have lifted under any other circumstances--and she started to raise it high above her head. Danziger, True and Bess gaped at her, first unbelieving, then panicked, and they scrambled clumsily away from the ERU and Devon brought the massive length of wood down upon the machine, over and over, until she reduced it to a twisted pulp of metal.
Alonzo pointed the magpro right at Uly, and heard a humming noise as the unit worked up. He felt for the trigger, and heard Morgan right behind him yelling, "Don't shoot!" In less than a moment Alonzo saw a bright light like the blast. Then he only saw darkness.
"Julia!" Bess was the first who dared to speak. "Are you alright?" Julia was turning her hands over, examining the self-inflicted damage. "I don't have any desire to kill you if that's what you mean."
"I can't beleive a machine could do that to us." Danziger and True loosened their grip on each other, and he said to Julia, "So how come you could resist it and not attack us?"
Devon answered for her: "I think we can thank her genetic predisposition for medicine--an innate drive to heal and not kill. And maybe something else." Like a loyalty and a lingering desire to prove herself, thought Devon. "But who knows how long we could have fought it." Devon looked at the mass of wood that was her weapon, then glanced at Danziger, who was looking back at her with an expression that was equal parts amusement and wonder. But Devon's worries weren't over. "Let's get back."
Alonzo lay on the ground. Uly looked up from his would-be attacker to see Morgan standing over Alonzo holding a metal canister that looked like the geo-lock. Uly wondered how someone who looked as scared as Morgan did, had just managed to save his life like that.
Once he realized the threat was over, at least for now, Morgan relaxed, turned to Walman, who was still aiming his magpro at Alonzo, and said, "I TOLD you not to shoot." Morgan tried to cover his state of shock with a totally unconvincing cool. "I can take care of these things, you know."
Soon the others arrived--explanations, disbelief and concerns flooded the camp, and evetually settled into calm and private moments where fears and regrets had to be comforted.
After she had thanked Morgan for his heroism, Devon went to Julia's tent where Alonzo was resting, more injured by the accounts of what he had almost done than by any blow to his head. He looked at Devon with shame, wanting to apologize but not knowing how.
She started for him, by saying, "I understand. It wasn't you." The Martins walked past Julia's tent,noticing the silhouettes inside, and Bess reminded Morgan of Devon's words to him. "You were a hero today, honey. I'm proud of you." He didn't answer, and she knew why--he was worried. "We fixed everything. Nobody is going to kill you."
"Bess. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
-The End-

This text file was ran through PERL script made by Andy. Original text file is available in Andy's Earth 2 Fan Fiction Archive.