Andy's Fan-Fiction Archive

PARALLELS
By
Emma Pentland

Timeline: Trying to cure Devon
Author's E-Mail: ravenclawemma@hotmail.com

AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Alright, after a lot of soul searching I decided to post this. I had such a difficult time deciding whether or not to let this go out to public view. I know this subject has already been dealt with many MANY times, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes by doing it again. I want to tell you beforehand that this story was started, in long and arduous handwriting the day after I discovered that Earth 2 was canceled. Long before I had access to the internet, long before I knew there were other people out there who were just as curious as I about what happened after Devon was put in cold sleep. If you are sick and tired of reading about this subject then you have the option of erasing it from your computer. Any feedback is welcome. I am warning you now that this will be a long LONG story and it will take me a LOOOOOOOONNNNGGGGG time to type up because I'm not that good at typing. Short note at the end of this telling you where to send compliments and criticism.-Laura--a very nervous new writer. ps: I hope the spellings not too bad.

Parallels (1/24)
By Emma Pentland

(Voice of Dr. Julia Heller) "It has been 2 days since Devon Adair experienced the entire system failure that forced us to put her in cold sleep. We did it to save her life, yet the blanket of guilt is almost smothering us. Much to Yale's chargin, Danziger insisted that he take charge of Uly until his mother is cured. As the only doctor the weight falls on my shoulders. I took all the tissue samples I could ever need yet I still have no clue as to what caused Devon's illness. I know that I am not fully recovered from the sickness that the Council satellite EVE inflicted on us. Since our leader's collapse, I have barely slept. I am still searching for the answers; answers that I fear I will never find."
Julia turned off her personal log and turned back to the tissue samples that had been the centre of her existence for the past forty-eight hours. She had barely slept or eaten. She knew that all she was doing was just due to pure adrenaline and even that was beginning to wear thin. Intellectually, she knew that she would have to take a brake soon, but her emotions kept her working. 'Ha' she thought to herself, 'logically I should sleep. I was designed to be logical, but Alonzo was just in here telling me how I should put my guilt aside and rest.' Alonzo had gone to bed and only came in now to see if she needed anything. Otherwise, he, like everyone else in the Eden Advance team, was avoiding her to let her work. People were scared. Scared that nothing could save Devon. Scared that Elizabeth was right and everyone was doomed. Scared to die.
Julia shook such thought out of her head and turned back to her work. She could not let everyone die.
In the Danzigers' tent, Ulysses Adair was wide awake staring at some imaginary something on the ceiling. He wanted to be with Yale, but for some reason he had to stay with Danziger and his stupid kid, True. Both were asleep and Uly was lonely. He was not in the least bit tired. When he was like this his mother used to sing him to sleep, but not tonight. His mother was locked inside a cold sleep chamber and unless Julia could find a way to make her better, she would stay there. In reality, his mother was only a hundred metres away, but she could not hold him or talk to him so she could be one hundred light years away and it would be no different.
Uly quietly stood up for a minute and wrapped a blanket around him. He was not going to sleep so he had decided to get up and move. Danziger rolled over and for a moment Uly thought he would wake up and catch him leaving. Uly let out a breath of relief when he heard the mechanic continue to snore lightly. Uly continued his escape from the tent.
It was a night his mother would have loved. There was not a cloud in the sky and all the stars shone like the old fashioned lighthouses that Yale had taught his young pupil about. At one side of the camp was Baines, who was clearly on watch, but clearly asleep. Uly continued off into the darkness.
Alonzo was dreaming again. Over the past few days it had been the same terrian dream. He had not told anyone because there never seemed to be a point to them. Alonzo was standing in some underground caves and a Terrian was standing in front of him. The Terrian pointed to the ground. There Alonzo saw the body of Devon Adair, lying with her arms crossed in a hole in the floor of the cave. She was clearly dead. Her lips were a light shade of blue, showing that her lungs finally gave out when they could not provide enough oxygen for her body.
He was now standing outside on the ridge that overlooked camp and everyone was huddled around the makeshift grave for their leader. Yale was mumbling some prayer about the Lord being a Shepherd. Beside him was Uly. The kid had absolutely no emotion in his eyes, like the spark that made Uly who he was had died with his mother. Uly just stared at his mother's body.
All of a sudden, he turned and ran away from the group. Alonzo followed in an attempt to catch him. The boy reached a small cluster of trees and entered them. Alonzo entered the wood as well, discovering it was a lot thicker then it looked from the perimeter.
Alonzo Solace heard laughing and Devon calling his name. Turning around, he saw Devon running around after her son in some sort of game. She caught Uly and picked him up and swung him around, like Alonzo had seen her do many times before. They were not the only people in the clearing. There were other children with other adults, most of them looked the age that Alonzo looked. Some seemed even younger; so young that they could not possibly be the parents of the children. One little girl, about five, was the closest to Alonzo. She had long brown hair that was tied back in two braids that hung down her back. Her clothing was fairly clean with only one rip on the shoulder of her shirt. Another little girl, this one about True's age, stood on the other side on Alonzo. She had the same colouring as True but he didn't notice much else because the smaller girl seemed far more important. There were many children in his dreams and only one was a constant.
The dream seemed to last longer each time he had it. In the past two days, he had dreamed it four times, with each time including more information. He expected to wake up as he stared at the little girl, but instead someone approached from behind her. It was a young woman that could not be a day over twenty, yet she treated the little girl in the same manner that Devon treated Uly.
"There you are," the young woman said and Alonzo wasn't sure if she was addressing him or the little girl.
"Who are you?" Alonzo asked cautiously while trying to approach the pair. "You know who I am." The young woman replied. She had long, brown hair like the little girl and was tall and slim.
"I don't know why I am here." The little girl turned and walked away from the pair during Alonzo's statement. On the other hand, the young woman seemed to be pondering what he had just said.
"You seem to need our help," she turned to follow the little girl. Alonzo ran to block her path. "Please, can you help us? There was a woman who is here..." he looked around for Devon but could not find her. "Well, she was just here. Can you help her, or us?"
The young woman walked so close to Alonzo that he could feel the clothes they were wearing brushing against each other. "Quid pro quo. Quid pro quo." She briskly turned and disappeared into the woods. At this point, Alonzo was sure that he would wake up, yet he still remained in the dream plane. He stood in the field that was no empty.
"MOM! MOM!" Alonzo distinctly heard Uly crying out. Uly was standing alone in the clearing, looking lost and calling for his mother.
Alonzo ran towards the boy when a Terrian hand reached up and pulled the boy underground, leaving Alonzo alone again. He felt the earth move below him as another scaly hand reached up and pulled him under too.
The next thing he knew, Alonzo was back in the caves where he had started but they were filled with cries of pain and sobbing could be heard underneath that. He saw a Terrian walking towards the noise makers. He entered a large, overcrowded chamber that was filled with the people he recognized from the field. Most were lying wounded or tending to the ill and the dying. In one corner, he saw the little girl again, she was bleeding from a place he could not determine. Suddenly, he was shoved aside by the young woman who rushed to the little girl's side. She looked at the child and offered words of comfort and endearment, but even to Alonzo it was clear that the little girl would not survive. The little girl took one last racked breath and died on the dirty cave floor. The young woman started sobbing as a man about two to three years older than her tried to comfort her.
For the first time since he had been in the cave, the young woman noticed Alonzo was there. She stared up at him and repeated, "Quid pro quo Alonzo....Alonzo...Alonzo" The voice echoed off in the distance.
The young woman's voice melted into Julia's. IT only occurred to Alonzo when he was fully awake, how much the young woman's voice sounded like Julia's. He glanced around to see Julia leaning over him looking concerned and Baines standing off to one corner of his tent.
Julia glanced over at Baines an then he muttered something about being outside if he was needed. The doctor turned back to Alonzo with masked concern in her eyes. She reached over with her dia-glove and checked his pulse.
"So doc, how long does the patient have?" Alonzo joked. Julia made a noise of disgust and pulled away from him. "That's not funny Alonzo. Baines was waiting for you to relieve him but you were late. When he came in to get you, he wasn't sure whether you were having a dream or you had fallen ill. Thank God that.." Her voice broke and she leaned her elbows on the cot to support her head.
Alonzo realized the cruel nature of his off-handed comment. He swung his legs over the side of the cot and sat up. "Hey Querida," He said, stroking her hair. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry."
Julia looked up at him. Alonzo had not seen her so scared since he had gone back to get her after she had been abandoned when her Council ties had been aired. "Alonzo, it's not your fault. I'm so tired and I can't sleep. It's been a miserable 48 hours and I was worried that you were coming down with whatever Devon has.."
"Listen Doc," Alonzo interrupted. "I'm the one who should be apologizing, and I seem to recall doing so. Okay, I'm putting you to bed. All you are doing is making yourself ill." Alonzo got up off the bed and gave Julia a hand standing.
"Did you dream Alonzo? Is that why you were..." She broke off seeing that he was shaking his head in agreement. She wanted to ask what it was about but she knew that he would want to discuss it with the whole group.
Alonzo helped her off to bed and watched her take a sediderm and went on watch.
Morgan hated watch, he had just spelled Alonzo, and of all watches, he hated this one the most. It would be his job to wake everyone in the morning, even though there was really no place to go. 'Devon had to run off and get ill slowing everybody down,' he thought to himself. The sun was starting to come up over the ridge and Morgan poured himself another cup of coffee. He was praying that no one would be in a grumpy mood. He consciously decided to avoid Danziger's tent. 'Let somebody else wake up the bear and his catty kid.' There was only half a cup of coffee left so he decided that he should wake up Bess first.
Yale was awake long before Morgan went around pounding on tent flaps. As usual, he waited for Uly to awaken before his day really began. He sat waiting on an old fallen log. He quietly sipped on some coffee. Yale was quite perturbed that he was not left with the responsibility of looking after Devon's son. Devon was the first, and for the longest time, the only person who believed in him. He still smiled at how she stood up to her parents when they had wanted to take him to be disassembled. She had been so stubborn then, just like she was now. A flash of anger went through him when he was reminded how Devon refused to take care of herself.
Realizing that no one had bothered to inform the Danzigers that morning had broken so he took it upon himself to do so. He knocked on the flap, "John, Uly, True, get up." He waited until he heard a satisfactory amount of sheet rustling to know everyone was conscious.
Yale turned to go fix breakfast for Uly when he heard a panicked Danziger yell, "ULY! Uly where are you?" He went rushing back and burst in to see that Uly was gone. Yale started praying under his breath; he could not lose both members of his family, not like this.
The three left the tent and saw the crowd that had begun to gather. "Has anyone seen Uly this morning?" John asked. A quick poll of faces said that they had not. The group immediately spread out calling the boy's name.
True was the first person to have a decent idea about Uly's whereabouts. "I bet he went down to the ship. Wanna go check?" She said pulling on Yale's sleeve.
The two went to vessel and entered quietly as if they were going into a tomb. Both stopped at the sight of the sleeping Uly, who was curled up on his side facing his mother. Yale walked quietly, but quickly, to the boy's side. He gently touched Uly's shoulder and the boy stirred.
"Mom," he muttered hopefully.
Yale sighed and replied, "No Uly it's me." Uly's eyes opened wide and the disappointments was clear. He reached up and wrapped his arms around Yale's neck in an obvious gesture that he was too tired to walk. Yale obliged him and signaled True to go out and tell everyone that the crisis was over.
Yale carried his young charge back to camp where breakfast was being served. About three words had been spoken the entire morning between the crew members. The group openly gawked at Uly and Yale when they sat down to eat.
"Hey champ," Uly heard John say behind him. "Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going. The last thing I need to tell your mother is that while she was sleeping I misplaced you."
"My mom is not going to get well." The conviction and volume that the boy said his statement sent a ripple of fear through everyone. Danziger knelt idly in front of the boy with absolutely nothing to say. Once he collected himself, he took the boy by the shoulders and said with an equal amount of conviction, "Uly, I promise you, your mom is going to get well."
"You can't promise that. You are just a stupid mechanic." "Ulysses," Yale scolded.
True had been standing back listening to what Uly had said to her father. It wasn't his fault Devon was sick and still she had to with this little runt, but she was not going to let the little idiot insult her father.
"Hey you brat," True said running up to him. She shoved him off the place he was sitting. Uly shoved her arm away and True climbed on top of him.
"True!" Danziger yelled at her. He ran over and pulled her off Uly before she could do any serious harm.
"Why Daddy?" She pleaded. "It's not your fault his mom is sick. I have to live with him and he's probably the only one who's not going to get sick because of his bond with the Terrians and all he does is complain." At this point she broke off sobbing. Danziger tried to comfort his daughter by holding her close and telling her that everything was going to be alright. He hoped she believed him, sometimes even he didn't believe it was true anymore. He wanted to talk to Julia, but thought better of it, knowing that if there were any breakthroughs, she would not wait to tell anyone.
True calmed down and went to get herself something to eat. She had a fleeting thought about getting some for Uly, but he would only pick at it anyways. It would be a waste of good food.
"John, can I talk to you?"
"Yeah what is it 'Lonz?"
Alonzo sat down on the step up to the cab of the transrover while Danziger rolled himself out from underneath the great mechanical beast that had a liking for breaking down. He wiped his hands on a nearby rag and sat on a large crate to stare at Alonzo. Over the past few days, nobody seemed to talk anymore; they just sat around and stared at everyone else. It was like they expected another person to fall instantly ill and almost die like Devon did.
"I had a dream last night and, I'm not sure, but I think the terrians told me a way to save Devon." Alonzo watched his companion and saw the first sign of true hope that he had seen for days.
Danziger's look of relief turned to confusion when he asked, "Why are you telling me? What about Julia, shouldn't she know?"
"It's not a medical cure. The only way I can describe it is that it is like when Uly had the relapse of the illness." Alonzo tried to explain.
"So the damned diggers are making Devon sick because they want us to do something?" John punched his fist into the crate and even though he gave no outward sigh that it hurt, Alonzo flinched. "What do they think we are, lab rats that jump at their every command?"
"I don't think it's like that. From what I gathered, this planet will naturally reject us, like Julia explained after Elizabeth died, but the Terrians only used to intervene..."
"I don't follow you here 'Lonz. If it is their choice, why would they kill Devon and heal her son?" Danziger asked in complete bewilderment.
"I don't know how to say this, but it's like someone else chooses and they are unsure about us." Alonzo explained.
Danziger pondered what his friend had said before asking, "You say someone, like a convict?" The realization of what he just said hit both men and they were silent for a few minutes. "What would we have to do? We can't live like this, look at What it's doing to Uly and True. Hell, look at What's it's doing to Julia." Danziger conceded.
Alonzo did not need to be convinced. "I think we need to keep moving. I think we need to find this person. From what I saw in the dream, she needs our help as much as we need hers."
"She? Who are we looking for?"
"I don't know but she seems so familiar." "Do you have and inkling about where we should go or in which we direction we should head?" Danziger was putting away his tools, obviously all for an off-chance of saving Devon.
The Martins did not accept the idea of leaving so readily, actually MORGAN did not take kindly to the idea. While Bess was busy packing a few unnecessary belongings for the trip the following day, Morgan was cheering her ear off complaining.
"Why on earth do we have to leave? Just because Alonzo Solace has another Terrian dream? Why do we always have to go because Alonzo has a nightmare? Maybe he just digested something wrong, but to pack up and take our only doctor's mind off trying to save Devon and maybe us? Oh Bess, what have we become, abandoning perhaps our only chance to live because of a dream and Danziger's cabin fever?" Morgan flopped down on top of the cot and some articles of clothing Bess was trying to pack.
"Now Morgan Honey," Bess started while shoving him over to pack the stuff on the bed. "Alonzo has been right about these things before. If we found who Alonzo says we need to, then maybe we save ourselves. Do you understand?"
"I would feel better if we knew where this mythical person was, and maybe this person doesn't know how to help? Did they ever consider that? There are just too many variables..."
Bess shoved his VR gear into his hand. She needed to finish packing if they were to leave the next morning. The only way to shut up the man she loved was to give him a chance to escape this world where all anyone thought about was dying.
Bess watched her husband play away on some imaginary drum set and smiled. How much she would miss him if he were to become sick like Devon. Bess leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. He stopped playing for a moment and looked about in confusion. Bess laughed that he didn't take off the VR gear before he did so. She turned back to packing, setting aside her worries for the moment. She started reciting an old prayer that she had been taught in church when she was young.
Praying was now common for the Eden Crew.
When Alonzo woke Julia, she was much more receptive to the idea of leaving. She needed the break and she fully believed in Alonzo's ability to interpret dreams. She had been the one to believe him when Uly first disappeared and she was hoping that they could find someone who could help. "What would happen if someone else was to become ill?" She asked, expressing her only concern, "We would be too far away to put them in cold sleep."
"I know doc, but..."
"If there is someone who can save us, we need to find them now." Julia said finishing his thought.
Alonzo leaned over and kissed her. She raised an eyebrow at him and recognized that he was happy for the first time in a while and she started sharing his enthusiasm. They started packing up the medical supplies to be ready for the early start the next day.
The following morning the Eden crew stood outside the Council vessel as final preparations were being made.
"We just can't leave her Yale," Uly pleaded to his tutor. Danziger was inside checking over the mechanics of the cold sleep chamber before he closed the door and the group left. Julia had already checked the medical aspects earlier that morning. They were almost ready to leave the woman who lead them so far.
"Uly, we talked about this," Yale's deep voice told the boy. "We think there is a way to save your mom out there."
"Why can't I stay and you stay and the rest of them leave to see if they can find this person?" Uly was determined not to be separated from his mother.
"We don't know how far away they are so the group decided not to risk leaving anyone here to stand guard." Yale answered the boy again.
"Well what about Mom? Maybe someone needs to stay to look after her? I know we're leaving some of her stuff behind, what happens if a grendler wants it or something?" Uly was almost becoming frantic.
Inside the pod, Danziger had long finished checking all the equipment. He just had not wanted to leave. He looked back at the blurred face. 'God, even from behind the glass she is so beautiful' was all he could think. John had tried to avoid thinking about anything. It was the only way he could deal with the recent events.
His hand reached out to touch the glass that separated him from Devon. He almost wanted to laugh at himself for his one wish in the universe. He wanted to have Devon Adair argue with him one more time. 'I lost Elle so suddenly, but at least she knew how I felt. I won't let that happen to you.'
He couldn't stay there any longer. It was just too hard for him. He knew how Uly felt when he had snuck in. More than once, John had slipped away from the group to do what he was doing now. HE hoped that this wasn't the last time.
He turned and left the pod. He walked out and heard Uly's concerns. He walked over and picked Uly up the way he would True and said, "Now listen Uly, the people who first lived in here were safe for over fifty years. Your mom is going to be just fine, That I can guarantee you because that pod is going to be shut up tighter than an airlock. Nothing, nobody, will be able to hurt your mom, okay champ?"
Uly felt much better about this promise than he had about the one from the previous day.
Danziger closed the pod and flinched slightly when he heard the metal click, indicating that it was locked. "I promise," he whispered, "I will come back for you."
The group piled into the vehicles or into line. Danziger, Uly and True led the way in the cab of the transrover. the rest of the group followed behind. With a silent gesture from Danziger, The Eden Crew started traveling away from their leader.
Julia looked back just before the pod went out of sight and realized that they were in search of a modern day witch doctor. 'Perhaps magic is what we need' she thought. 'Lord knows we've seen so much of it here.'
End of part one

This is it for now. I know, next episode it will get better, this was just my intro. I warned you that it was a LONNNGGG story, but pleased don't be frightened off by it's length. Please. Due to the fact it is quite long, I will only continue if I get positive response back from this episode. (See there is a way you can stop it, tell me it sucks!!!) I hope this isn't so bad though. ta ta for now, se you in part two, I hope.

Parallels (2/24)
By Emma Pentland

Half a day's travel had yielded nothing for the Eden Crew but desert terrain and a lack of faith of finding anyone before it was too late. Danziger had switched with Walman and he would be on walking detail when the break they were taking would end.
In the shade of the transrover, Uly and True sat eating a snack of Semolina nutrition bars. Danziger had scarfed down two and feltrestless, so he scaled one of the large dunes to discover a panoramic view...of more sand dunes. He shivered at the thought of how far they were from Devon and the only person who might help her. A gust of wind made him realize how cold it was. 'In the middle of a bloody desert and it's freezing,' Danziger thought to himself. The temperature had been rising steadily since Bess had created 'spring' as Julia put it, but the weather was still far from warm.
He hurried back down to the group due to the fact that he had no desire to be alone with himself. He still tried to desperately avoid thinking. He had never been one to dodge and issue, but the constant thought that not only Devon, but his daughter, and all the people he had come to think of as friends, might be the one to fall ill next, would drive him mad. To compensate, he did anything to be of assistance. Danziger had no intention of being a useless worrier like Morgan Martin. Unfortunately, he could not do anything that might help keep them alive. He had to keep the vehicles running until they could find the one person that Alonzo had briefly met in a dream.
"Hey kids, finish up, got to go." John nearly burst out laughing at the look on his daughter's face. It was full of Semolina and her eyes told the definate tale of, 'What you expect me to stop eating now?' On the other hand, Uly ignored Danziger's decree and continued to eat. Once Uly had finished, he got up and walked over to the small fire that someone had started. He through the wrapper into the fire and watched as it burned and the smoke flew up in to the sky.
"Common Uly Dad said we had to go," True told him. "We only have a few more hours of daylight left."
Danziger lifted the two children into the transrover and strapped them in. He hurried to the side of the monster machine when it started moving in an attempt to stay out of the dust it kicked up.
The day had been long for the Eden Crew with both the weight that people carried on their minds, not just their backs. People were weary and scared of what may, or may not, lay ahead. Danziger was relieved that he did not experience the Terrian dreams because it meant that a lot of the group's decisions were based on Alonzo's ability to interpret them. Danziger pondered what exactly would happen if Alonzo was wrong. John could handle the vehicles and mechanics of the group, but not the emotions. He never handled emotions well, unless True was concerned. Never with anyone else. As the elder in Sheppard's group so bluntly pointed out, especially not with the woman he waked farther and farther away from.
John was worried about Uly and wondered how well he could handle the newest development. Danziger had great respect for the child who had endured an entire life of being ill. All those times Uly must have been crushed when the launching was delayed. Then with the crash, the recovery and becoming ill so quickly was al ot for anyone to handle, but Uly had bounced back each time. John figured it was the loss of the one constant thing in Uly's life, his mother, was just the final straw. Uly still had Yale, but the love of a parent could never be replaced. Danziger knew that each time True wanted to talk about Elle. John had promised Devon that he would take care of her son. Not just keep him alive, but take care of him. He was not going to let that kid slip away without a fight. True had tried shock therapy the previous day without any response, Danziger mused, but there had to be something that could be done. The sadistic side of him kicked in for a moment and told him, 'You have to help his mother and you can't do that. John fought back with 'No, not yet."
Danziger quickened his pace and hoped the others would follow suit.
Yale watched Danziger speed up and automatically adjusted his to match it. Other people would soon do the same. It was like that game Devon used to play when she was a child. She used to stare up at the ceiling and would sit patiently to see how many adults she could trick into doint the same. Yale felt a burst of amusement at seeing the rest of the group had quickened. 'At least,' Yale thought, 'Devon would find it amusing if she were here.'
Yale calculated that they had travelled a little over thirty klicks when Alonzo called over the headset to discuss camp for the night. Yale knew how proud Devon would be. She only expected twenty out of them at most, but she forgot the power of a driven person. A group of driven people could do amazing things, if they tried. Devon would probably be giving some sort of pep-talk about how well they were doing. Yale would give just about anything to hear someone groan in mock-disgust at Devon when she started another speech.
Life for the colonists remained redundant for over a week. Wake up, travel, rest was their daily routine. No one else had become sick and tempers, like hopes were beginning to wear thin. In the beginning, everyone had the goal of getting to New Pacifica either to set up a new home, or catch a ride back to the stations. Now all they wanted to do was save their leader. It seemed that the first goal was the only plausible one.
On the ninth day of travel, the terrain started to change. The group arrived at a river, too wide and deep for the vehicles to cross. The river was both a blessing and a burden. The group had been running low on water, but it was an obstacle after the supply had been replenished.
Uly had kept strict track of how far the Edenites had travelled from his mother. As of that day they were 178 kilometres from the Council ship. They had been travelling West until the river forced them to go South. According to the probe information, the river split into two parts, one above and one below ground, making crossing easier.
Uly was splashing about unenthusiastically when John called Yale back to camp.
"Your map says that there's a mountain range up ahead, we need you to plot a course through it." Danziger informed him.
"The information also says that there is some forest, similar to that of the winter camp, so any course I plot must be variable." Yale replied.
Dark fell quickly on the Eden crew. A fire had been started to ward off the approaching cold. People were finishing of their rationed dinner of meat and salt-fruit that had been found at the winter camp. The group had gathered to discuss the problems that might be revealed in the next few days. Also, Alonzo had given them hope, saying that the impending forest might be what they were looking for.
"How on earth do we know this is the right forest?" What happens if there is some sort of beast creature we've yet to encounter?" Morgan asked with his usual bout of anxiety and paranoia.
"Listen, we can't afford not to investigate the area. It might be the right place, it might not be. We need to know for sure." Julia tried to explain calmly.
"Besides, it's the shortest route to the West," Danziger piped up. "No offence, but how do we know that fly-boy here is right?" Morgan saked reiterating his worries from long ago.
"Well Martin, it would be too late to change our minds now and go back," Walman said, "Besides, it was a group decision."
Bess knew that Morgan was about to say something else and tried to silence him. "He's right Morgan honey, we need to keep going."
Her attempt was in vain. "What we *need* is a doctor who can dedicate her time helping us, instead of dedicating it to her boyfriend here."
Alonzo felt the heat in his face. "Shut up Morgan!" he exclaimed. Morgan picked up the proverbial glove and jousted back, "It's true *fly-boy*, your pretty little doctor is too busy with you to help us."
Alonzo pracitally flew across the fire, knocking Morgan to the ground. Obviously, the pilot had the advantage, not only in strength, but in suprise against the politician. People were not willing to help and only Bess was trying to drag Alonzo off her husband.
Only when Alonzo had knocked the wind out of him and looked like he wanted to continue, did Danziger and Walman start pulling the two apart.
"Hey 'Lonz, enough okay," Danziger muttered to his friend, while pulling him away from the bruised and battered Morgan.
Morgan wiped his bloody nose with his sleeve and said, "Oh great, I need a doctor."
"What's wrong Morgan, can't take a few punches?!" Alonzo spouted. "You could have killed me. Thank you John," Morgan said with all the composure he could muster.
Danziger smirked at his own reply, "I didn't do it for you Martin; Julia has too much to do than to deal with your injuries."
Morgan got the point, he was not to go and bother Julia after he had just insulted her skills and dedication in front of the group. Instead, he just stood up and brushed his clothes off. With help from Bess, he wandered down to the river to clean himself up. Only then did Danziger release his grip on his struggling friend.
"As much as all of us wanted to do that 'Lonz, try and control yourself next time." John scolded him
Walman, on the other hand, had a completely different take on the situation. "Thanks Solace," he started. He shoved his hand out to promptly shake the pilot's and help him up. "Maybe you finally knocked some sense into him."
"I doubt that's possible," Magus said laughing. Soon several of the others joined in with her. Usually, such a comment would only have been passing amusement, but in this case it was the much needed comic relief.
Scanning the camp, Alonzo could not see Julia, who obviously had taken leave during all the commotion. He took a look around to see that no one was paying attention to him and took off in search of her. He walked to the med tenet and, to his surprise, Julia was not there. He stepped outside and could not spot her anywhere. Before he was to become worried, he took a walk around the perimeter. 'Maybe she had just went for a short walk,' he thought to himself. He knew that the planet had taken away her genetic predisposition against emotions and sometimes she had trouble dealing with that. She was slowly learning how to deal with things that most people had dealt with most of their lives. Of course, Alonzo was thrilled with Julia's awakening emotions, especially towards himself. The strange thing was that if someone had told him before he crashed on this planet that he would stick around long enough to fall in love with a woman, he would have laughed. Now, he would not have it any other way.
"Alonzo?"
He turned at the sound of the familiar voice and smiled at Julia, who had approached him while he had been pondering the nature of her emotions. "Where'd ya go Querida?" He asked wrapping his arms around her back.
She smiled at his concern. "My genetics demanded that I go and check on Morgan. Of course, I didn't actually go near him, but my visual observations lead me to believe he's going to be fine." The cheerful tone did not hide the fact that she was upset.
"Hey, I'm sure Morgan was only blowing off steam and you just happened to be his target of choice." He tried to soothe her.
Julia took two steps back from her lover, pushed her hair out of her face and crossed her arms. "No, I'm sure some of the others feel that. It's just that they all have more tact than Morgan."
Alonzo moved forward and pulled her back to him," But not everybody Julia, not everybody."
After the scuffle between Morgan and Alonzo, everyone remained quiet and pensive about voicing their opinion. Some actually, deep down inside, did blame Julia. It was an unconcious blame and everyone who felt that way knew it was wrong, but the anger had to be turned somewhere. The pretty young doctor was their best choice.
Of course, Alonzo didn't but that was obvious. Danziger didn't blame anyone, he knew that if something was determined to kill the Eden Crew, nothing could stop it. He was terrified of going through the pain that Devon suffered. At the moment, he could only offer one piece of solace to the group. "We are all scared of dying tomorrow, but we've seen penal colonists that have been here for decades and have shown no sign of illness. We may have years to find the person who can help us."
Yale realized the validity of Danziger's argument but unfortunately, Magus spoke first, "But we've still been told that we're going to be affected. I don't want to die like Devon."
"Devon Adair is not dead!" Danziger exclaimed to the group. He ran his hands through his mop of blond hair. He wished she was here. He had no clue how to handle this.
"What about the kid. We've come this far without even asking if the kid can help." Walman pointed out. His comment was more effective the talk of dreams and mythical people.
Baines jumped on the bandwagon. "What happens if it's the kid that can help us? The Terrians did give him his health." He paused to catch his breath in the excitement, "But what the Hell is he supposed to do."
Danziger spoke up at this point, "Alonzo never said anything about that. He would have said if the Terrians had told him anything different."
"That doesn't mean that Uly can't help. Perhaps the two are supposed to work together." Yale interjected. "We can ask him to check if he dreams tonight." He billed very little hope on the idea.
The curiousity was too much for Alonzo and he had to ask Julia to give him a seditive. He was positive that he would enter the dream plane. Even though the previous instructions were being followed, he still had the same dream.
Within moments Alonzo found himself in the caves that had become familiar with. The same Terrian stood in front of him, pointing to the ground. Alonzo resisted the temptation to look. He knew what was there. Instead, he stared at the Terrian. He needed to know if the boy could be of any assistance at all.
The scenery changed and Alonzo back on the ridge outside the Council ship. The Terrian again pointed to the ground and again Alonzo would not look. "The boy," Alonzo told the Terrian, "Can the boy save his mother?"
The scene changed again. Alonzo was standing on a different, unfamiliar ridge. This time, Alonzo could not help but look around. There were graves everywhere. Each name he recognized. The one closest ot him was Bess' and beside it was Morgan's. He found everyone's graves, Danziger's, Yale's, Baines' and on the far side of the graveyard, he found his own. He stared at the cross, a crude pair of thick sticks tied together with his name carved on it. The string that was used to tie them together was the wire he recognized form the stock in the transrover that was used to tie down the luggage. The graves got shallower the farther down the line. While he was staring at his own grave he heard something to his left. A groaning and grunting like someone was heard at work. He turned to see who it was.
Uly and True were putting a cross on antoher grave. Alonzo had the feeling it would be the last for a long time. Something told him that the children would be the only survivors. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. The children turned and stareted walking back down the hill with the gait of old men and women. None of their child like ways remained in their step.
Alonzo stepped forward to see the name of the final gravesite. He had seen his own and his friends' but he was not prepared for what he saw. The fear was complete. "Oh no," he muttered as he collapsed to his knees.
He awoke with his memories intact and covered in sweat. He was alone in his tent and he got up quickly, a rush of blood going to his head. His dizziness passed quickly and he ran out of his tent. It was now morning. He could spot everyone eating breakfast, but he could not see the one person he was looking for.
"Julia!" He called out, attracting the attention of everyone in camp. "JULIA!" He called again. He stumbled forward in an attempt to get a better view. "JULIA!" He yelled one final time and the group surrounded him.
Julia had been down by the river when she heard her name being called. At first, she thought she was hearing thins but the second cry was distinctly Alonzo. She dashed up the hill and heard him again. She pushed through the crowd of onlookers. Julia spotted Alonzo on his knees in the front and she made her way to him. She kneeled down in front of him.
Julia studied Alonzo and could not see any visible signs of physical truama, but mental trauma was evident. She took his face in her hands and looked in his eyes, "Alonzo, what is it?" She asked with great concern.
Alonzo stared back at Julia and a flood of relief flowed through him with the knowledge that she was alright. Instead of answering he leaned forward and held her. The confusion was evident in her eyes and he saw it echoed in the rest of the eyes looking at him.
"Alonzo please, what's wrong?"
He released her and looked at everyone, "I saw our graves. I asked what you wanted me to, and their anwswer was that we will all die." He whispered it so quietly, that if the group had not been dead silent, even Julia would not have heard him.
"You saw our graves." Julia said clarifying it to the group. She brushed his hair out of his face trying to calm him. "Who buried us?"
Alonzo's gaze drifted off towards the children who were coming back from an outing by the river. He did not have to say a word and everyone understood. Usually, Alonzo would have been embarassed at his reaction, but he was so relieved to see that Julia was alright. "I don't believe they will die. That was their answer." He turned back to Julia, "You were the last to die, I saw your funeral."
It was at that moment that Julia realized why he had called out for her. She looked again at Alonzo's face again and stroked his cheek. "It's okay," she whispered, "the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
Alonzo let out a small laugh and leaned over and kissed Julia on the cheek. He wrapped his arms around her and said quietly, "Thank God Querida, thank God."
The group had started to disperse when Alonzo stood up and reached out a hand to Julia. He galnced over at the children and told her, "Those kids should never have to bury us Julia. We have to find the person who can help us."

Re-reading this section I discovered that it is not half as interesting as what will come. So please, bear with me. Part three is much better I promise. Have to stop typing now, my fingers are getting soooo tired. z..z...z...z........z.........z...............z

Parallels (3/24)
By Emma Pentland

Ask and you shall receive-LCC
Be warned. True screams.

Danziger took a brief glance over at Alonzo and Julia to see that they were still talking. What Alonzo had told the group was probably disconcerting to everyone. To John, it was worse. The idea that his daughter would have to bury him before he was old and grey bothered him no end.
"True," he beckoned to his daughter, "Come help me with the rail." Danziger's daughter trotted over with her usual ground devouring stride. She notcied instantly that something was wrong with her father. At first she debated not asking what was going on, but she was really curious about what had just happened with Alonzo. True had heard him calling for the doctor earlier but had missed the good stuff. "Dad," True started, "what was goin' on earlier. You know, with Alonzo and stuff?"
Danziger sat up for a moment and looked at his daughter. He weighed his answer carefully before saying, "We have to keep moving True-girl. Alonzo had another dream."
True watched her father wipe his hands on his pants. Most people didn't notice, but she knew it was a sign that he was nervous. She had been wanting to ask him something very important ever since Devon had become ill. Now seemed like the best time. "Dad, are we going to die?"
*Finally*, John thought to himelf, *I get to tell her that I'm going to die, but she'll be fine. I doubt that will comfort her at all.* "I promise you True-girl, that you are not going to die."
True instantly picked up on her father's choice of words. She bit her lower lip. "What about you Dad? Aren't you goin' to be okay?"
*Should have remembered how smart your kid is John* he chided himself. He could only say one thing, "I don't know True, That's the honest answer."
"But why are we looking for someone if you're not going to be okay?" True went to say more but she choked back a sob instead. She got up from the piece of ground she was sitting on and crwaled into his lap. Danziger obliged by putting his arm around her and kissing her on the top of her forehead.
John's mind slipped back to the past and the look on his friends' faces when he told them Elle was pregnant. The looks of sorrow turned to amazement when he told everyone that he was going to keep the baby. The ops crew he was working with at the time was even more shocked when they found out that the baby was going to be a girl. He knew nothing about girls, well little girls had been one of the comments.
Looking back on it, even he was surprised that he never considered aborting the pregnancy. He was a drone. That would mean that the child would be forced to carry his inherited debt. None of that ever occured to him. He only thought of what Elle would want. He also had too much respect for his unborn child. She shouldn't even have survived the accident. Normally the fetus would have misscarried the doctors had told him.
Alex and Les had gone shopping with him. They bought all the neccesary items for a little girl. *Those overalls with the ducks on them. Alex insisted on buying them* John remembered. He remebered True's first steps. How sturdy she was right from the beginning.
It was when True arrived that he was nervous. John had been warmed how fragile a newborn could be. True soon proved otherwise. She was healthy, perfect and not the least bit delicate. He knew it the moment he saw her. Elle had given her spirit to her daughter.
True was wide awake the first time John held her. She stared up at him with baby blue eyes, that turned brown so shortly after birth, deciding whether or not this odd man before her would be an appropriate parent.
He was more than appropriate. He became an expert at all the things his friends said he could never do, changing diapers, midnight feedings (and he discovered very quickly how large her appetite could be) and all-round parental care. He was forced to go back to work just a month after she was born. It nearly killed him to leave her in the ops crew daycare. He could barely afford it, luckily, some of the ops crew would take True on their days off. When True was four, he could no longer afford the daycare and started taking her to work. It was the best thing he could have done. He found a partner for life. By the age of seven, she was doing most of the basic work with little supervision.
The mechanic was proud of the kid that now sat on his lap just hugging him. She was so thin now, it had always been hard to keep any fat on her whatsoever.
Intellectually, John Danziger knew that he needed to get back to work on the DuneRail, but for the moment, he had someone more important to attend to.
"What the *Hell* was Solace's little fit about earlier?" Morgan demanded of his wife.
"Well honey," Bess took on the matronly tone she needed when trying to explain things to her husband, "He had seen something very disturbing."
"But why Julia? I mean, we were all dead," he retorted. Bess sometimes could not believe how oblivious Morgan could be towards everyone but himself and his wife. "Morgan, how would you feel if you found a tombstone with my name on it?"
"Don't even speak about that Bess. You are not going to die. We are not going to die," Morgan protested, "Please baby, don't say such things."
"That's not what I asked Morgan; how would you feel?" Morgan thought a moment before answering. "Bess, remember when you created *spring*." He continued after Bess nodded hesitantly in response. "Well, I felt so helpless. All you wanted to do was leave me. Now, I know that it was only because of the pollen, but that scared me so much. Then Julia said that it might kill you. I wouldn't have known how to go on if that had happened."
Bess thought for a few minutes that Morgan just might understand her point. As usual, he proved her wrong. "But I don't understand what that has to do with Alonzo and Julia. I love you but..."
Now Morgan, don't you think it's possible that..." She gestured the rest of her point.
For a moment Morgan was confuse. Slowly it dawned on him, "You've got to be kidding," was his only response.
Bess laughed at her husband. This was just Morgan being the man she loved. She leaned over and playfully kissed him.
"What was that for?" Morgan asked. "You don't like it when I kiss you?" Bess sadi innocently. Morgan picked up on his wife's meaning and went to kiss her back when someone knocked on the tent flap. Morgan laid back on the bed in frustration. He wished for the locking doors of the stations.
The day's travel had exceeded Yale's expectations. Not only were the mountains in sight, but they had entered the outskirts of the forest surrounding them. The mountains would not be as much of an obsatcle as previously believed. They were old mountains, hundreds of thousands of years of whethering had worn them down to large rolling hills.
The crew had set up camp about one kilometre before the river split of and half went underground. Yale figured that they could cross by midday tomorrow.
The light was sinking over the mountains and people were scattering for a brief exploration to the area. The tutor had taken Uly and True down to the river for a lesson.
"Uly, True, are you listening to me?" He knew the answer was no, but he only wanted to catch their attention. The two were busy examining a spot where they could see the bottom.
"I bet I can touch the bottom," Uly said in some sort of challenge that Yale had missed. The boy reached in, struggling to keep his place on the rock while trying to succeed at his goal. He discovered that the water looked shallower than it really was.
"Ulysses," Yale scolded. "Get you hand out of there. The current is very strong and if you fall in I may not be able to pull you out."
Uly ignored Yale's warning, believing it only to be atactic to scare him. If there was one thing the boy had learned about adults, it was that sometimes they would say the stupidest things to stop kids from having fun. Besides, the area he was in was protected for about two square metres. Yale warned him again, but Uly did not hear him as the boy slid off the rock and smacked into the water.
"Uly?" True said when he surfaced. "You okay?" Wiping the water out of his face, Uly nodded a yes. He took True's offered hand and tried to hoist himself out. He quickly discoved that he was tuck. The water was almost up to his armpits but that did not deterhim from bending over to see if he could dislodge himself.
True realized what he was doing, and jumped in to help. Yale tried to stop her, but she was too quick. She could only hear Yale's muffled voice as she openned her eyes to see what Uly's problem was. *Stupid idiot* she thought while trying to move the smaller of the two rocks. She came up for air once, but immediately went back down before her ears cleared and she could hear Yale scold her. Finally, the smaller rock moved and Uly pulled his leg out. Somehting swam out from under the rock at her. She started swiming away from it, accidentally pulling Uly with her.
Yale watched form above as Uly slipped under the water in what he believed to be a childish prank from True. Moments later, Uly resurfaced in a stronger current, desperately trying to stay put. "Uly?" Yale yelled at the boy, "Where's True?"
True herslef answered that question when she resurfaced, realizing that she was moving down river. SMACK! She hit a large boulder and the pain shot through her head. She managed to climb up on the top of the rock. She shook the water out of her eyes and saw Yale helping Uly out of the water. When the tutor looked up at her she yelled that she was alright. *Now how do I get back?* she pondered to herself. She mentally repremanded herself for getting so easily spooked.
The old tutor realized that True would need help getting back to shore. Even though she was a strong child, she could not manage to swim back without assistance. "Wait there True!" Yale yelled out to her, "I'm going to get some help." He turned on his headset to call Danziger to help fish his child out of the river.
"When True was told of these plans she could feel her cheeks turning red. Now everyone in the group would see her as a weak kid. She would probably get a lecture about how silly it was of her to try and help Uly. *Maybe*, she thought, *I could get in without any help*.
Danziger was under the transrover when he heard his daughter scream. He knew instantly that it was NOT a shriek of laughter and hit his head trying to crawl out from underneath the 'rover.
He ran to the river to discover that his daughter was nowhere in sight and Yale and Uly calling her name. "Yale where did she go?!" He yelled frantically. One look from Yale told him what happened. Fear filled him quickly as Yale explained that True had tried to swim back and was pulled under. The scream had come from a moment when she was able to come up for air.
Danziger only paid slight attention to Yale's monologue. "Baines! Get some rope from camp." His thought had been so filled with his daughter that only one thing got through to him: True had been pulled under. He jumped into the river, not even noticing the chill it caused and could barely hold his ground. The current would have been too strong for his daughter. When Baines arrived with the requested rope, John had already made arisky underwater search. He soon knew that his only hope was if True had managed to catch a hold of something downstream. John had one end of the rope thrown to him and he tied it around his waist so that he would not be dragged under when he tried to get out.
Once everyone was pulled out of the way, Danziger was pulled out. Instead of flailing about in his wet clothes, he started out with a group to search the river banks. The search team ran off downstream calling for True. By the time the sun had set, Danziger was frantic and there had been no sign of his daughter. The rest of the party was sure that True had been swept into the underground half of the river and had drowned.
Danziger started praying under his breath. He usually left such things to Yale or Bess, but if anyone was going to beg to a higher power for the return of his daughter, it would be him. He called out for his daughter again, hoping for the usual response of "What Dad?" but the roar of the rapids was the only thing that could be heard.
"I've found something!" Mazatti called out. He ran towards the voice, but it only turned out to be the canteen that Ture had been carrying. John took off again, the rocks impeding his search. When he was a little over a kilometre from camp, the point where the river split off underground, He spooted True's grey jacket.
"TRUE!" He yelled hopefully, but when no answer came he leaped over a few rocks and a fallen log. It was only her jacket, and it was fairly obvious that it had been torn from her body. The shoulders were ripped and on the front, even though it was soaking wet, John could have sworn he saw blood. If he still hadn't been determined to find her, Danziger would have broken down right there. Instead, he stuffed the jacket into his sleeve and continued calling for his child, his world, to come back to him.
People began to give up the search for True, vowing to go out again in the morning. Only Danziger and Alonzo were still out in the woods combing the river's edge.
The entire evening had come as a shock to the Eden Crew. They had been so worried about mysterious diseases that they had forgotten that mountains and rivers could be equally as dangerous.
Danziger was cursing himself for forgetting that. Alonzo was following behind him. They had travelled another kilometre, but not another sign of True had been discovered. It had been over four hours since True's initial dissappearance. John still hoped that she had managed to swim to a bank and stayed put. One thing he had taught his daughter was stay put if you are lost, eventually someone will find you. He hoped to whatever higher power happened to be paying attention that True had listened when he said that.
Everyone else had given up an hour before, at least Alonzo had convinced them to go out looking again in the morning. Alonzo had expplained that Danziger needed somebody with him so that John wouldn't go off the deep-end, literally.
"John," Alonzo called out, "John slow down." Even though he heard his friend, Danziger could not slow down. He was moving like a man possessd. He now knew firsthand what Devon must have felt when Uly had been taken by the Terrians. His stomach churned in terror, and, if there had been time, he would have thrown up. There was no time and he knew it. Alonzo eventually caught up with him and the pair stopped to scan another area of the rapids. The searching had taken so long becasue not only were there the banks to search, but the bottom of the river as well. The dark had virtually slowed this process to a halt.
"Danziger, you need to get some rest," Alonzo said, echoing something Julia would say in the situation. "Danziger, it's too dark, you wouldn't be able to see her anyways." He did not add at the bottom of the river, but it was clearly implied.
John had a flash of anger at his friend. "She's not at the bottom 'Lonz. She's too smart."
Looking at the mechanic, Alonzo could see that he was completely drained. The only thing that was keeping him from falling down in exhaustion was an absolute determination to find his daughter. "This has nothing to do with how smart she is," Alonzo countered, "We will go out and look again in the morning and we will look everyday until we find her. We won't do her any good killing ourselves on these rocks in this darkness."
After a few minutes, Danziger aquiecsed to his young friend's demands. *I couldn't see her anyways if she were. No John, don't think that.*
The pair arrived back at camp to a group of ominous, scared people. No one offered Danziger any condolences. Nobody knew how they could do it without cheapening the experience with the usual platitudes. After Alonzo had collected his late dinner and seated himself beside Julia, Danziger tried to convince everyone that he should be on watch. Most seemed to agree, realizing that he needed to do something, but Morgan was the resident dissident.
"Why? It's not like True is going to walking back into camp," He told everyone.
"I WILL NOT believe," Danziger yelled at the politician, "That my daughter is dead until someone comes walking into camp carying her body!"
It was the first time anyone had actually said aloud that True might be nothing more than a body. It was like acknowledging the possibility made it a reality. People were too tired to argue so Walman silenced Morgan with a 'say anything else and I'll beat the crap out of you' look.
After changing into some dry clothes, Danziger grabbed his mag-pro and went on watch. Everyone slowly shuffled off to bed and Danziger was alone with himself. He was not the least bit tired; he needed to keep alert incase of a perimeter alert. Even he was beginning to have his doubts about whether or not he would see his child again. Yet, there was an off-chance that she was alright and he would keep looking until he knew for certain.
The shock was beginning to wear off as he realized that the only thing he might have left of his daughter was a torn blood-stained jacket and a small hologram that he always took with him that no one knew about. This was all he had left of True. At least, all he could hold. He would have prefered the genuine article.
Danziger pulled True's jacket out of his own. He had kept it with him when he had changed. His body heat had dried it. John looked at it for so long that he could almost invision Ture wearing it. He held it close to him trying to hold back the tears. True may have only been a scrap of a kid, but she was the best scrap of a kid that ever existed.
"Dad? Dad?" John could have sworn he heard behind him. He turned to see the sapce as empty as the jacket. He sat back against a large crate and silently began to cry. He was thankful that everyone else was asleep.
End of part three.

Okay. When I reread this part, I particularly liked it. I'm hoping for some specific feedback on this.
Oh, can I share a piece of good news? I hope so cause I'm going to anyways. I wrote a play for my university and it's being performed Feb third. I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!!!! :) :)
You know my address, so that's it for now.

Parallels (4/24)
By Emma Pentland

(Warning. This is pretty much all about True. Also, you will get to meet the manifestations of my imagination.-LCC)

About two kilometres from where Danziger stopped searching, True lay almost unconscious on the side of the river. She had fallen over a small waterfall, about eight feet in height, into a large calm pool. She had enough good sense to try and swim to the side. Somehow she had managed to crawl onto the rocks. She tried to catch her breath and stand up. Dizziness almost over came her and she laid back down. She reached one hand up to her head and found a gash along her hairline from one of the sharp rocks. She leaned over to scoop up some water and cleaned her face. The water stung as it hit the wound. Finally, when she thought the nausea had passed, she tried to stand again.
For the first time in her life True Danziger passed out. Before she completely lost consciousness she heard a small child-like voice ask, "Is she dead?"
"I don't know," another older, yet still childish, voice said. True did not hear anymore as she slipped away into the darkness that seemed to consume her.
"Anna, she's awake, or at least kinda conscious," True heard a voice say. It sounded far away, like it was down a long tunnel or an echo in a mountain valley. She opened her eyes and blinked to get them into focus. Looking around, she saw two people. Two girls, one about her age and one much older, but not as old as anyone in the Eden Crew. The younger girl was the one who had spoken. The voice True recognized as the one down by the river, the older voice.
Attempting to sit up, True was stopped by the girl her own age. "No, no, don't get up so fast. It'll make you feel sick." True allowed herself to be pushed gently back onto the cot.
The tent True was in was similar to the tents the Eden Crew had. She licked her dry lips and finally got up the energy to speak. "Where am I? Who are you?" she asked the girl. The other person in the room seemed much more concerned with other things so True did not bother with her. Strangely, she was not the least bit nervous. She felt like someone had taken her out of the Eden Crew only to plop her back down in a parallel one and that she belonged equally in either. *Except Dad isn't here,* she thought to herself.
"Well, go on Kick, don't keep the poor girl in suspense," The elder girl scolded the younger.
The younger one, tentatively called Kick in True's mind, finally said, "Well, you're in our camp and downstream from wherever you started." She paused as if she had nothing to say and that having nothing to say was quite unusual. "Oh, by the way, I'm Kick. Or, at least, that's my nickname. My real name is actually Kathleen. Now that I've answered your questions, it's your turn to answer mine. Who are YOU? And where are YOU from?"
True cautiously sat up, prepared to instantly lay back down if she felt dizzy. "I'm True Danziger. I'm with the Eden Crew with my dad."
The elder girl became interested in the conversation. "What's the Eden Crew?" she asked while giving True a glass of water.
True examined the cup to see that it was crudely made out of melted down metal. She took a sip and started a narrative about Devon Adair's dream to save her sick son. She talked about the crash and How long she had been living on the planet. True stopped before she said anything about Devon's illness or the embarrassing way she got where she was. Even though she thought these people were okay she wasn't going to give away her weak points just yet. That was something her father taught her. The elder girl had become quite fascinated and she pushed a strand of long brown hair out of her face. This gave True her first chance to see the girl's eyes. They were light blue. They were eyes True could have sworn she'd seen before.
Stopping her story True was much more interested in finding out about the woman. "What's your name?" she queried.
"My name is Anastasia," She answered, brushing off any other questions True might have. "How many people are in your group?"
It took True a moment to do the math. "Fourteen." She answered, "Why do you want to know so much?"
Anastasia looked confused for a moment. "You only have to tell us what you want."
"Can I go back to my dad now?" True asked hopefully. "Do you remember where you camped?" Kick mentioned. True thought about it for a moment and told them that it was beside the river but she wasn't sure how far away. Most of her nausea had passed. True stood and took a few shaky baby steps. "Can I go home now?" She repeated.
"We will have to send some people to find your camp. We might need the names of some of the crew to make sure that we don't send you back to some place you don't belong. There are several groups living in this area." Anastasia said soothingly. She leaned over to check True's bandage and absent-mindedly whispered, "Nicholas did a good job on you young lady. You're not bleeding anymore."
"Who's Nicholas?" True wondered. She looked down at Anastasia. Her clothes were new. Not like the ones Sheppard and ragamuffin wore. They almost looked like they came out of a cargo pod.
"You really should sit back down before you pass out." Kick informed her.
True was feeling frustrated that they were not answering her questions, just dispersing medical advice. "You two sound too much like Julia." She remarked.
Anastasia's head snapped up at the comment. "Who's Julia?" she questioned. Anastasia coughed afterwards and poured herself a glass of water and drank it quickly.
"Julia Heller, our doctor. She always fusses over.." True stopped in mid sentence to see a significant look pass between the pair. Suddenly the elder on got up and left. Only the two girls remained in the tenet.
"I'm sure Anna will be back in a minute," Kick muttered. True pondered the circumstances she was in and tried to make some sort of conversation. "So I'm supposed to call her Anna?"
Kick looked up, surprised at what the new girl had said. She wasn't sure whether or not True was smart enough to know when not to meddle in things, or was just stupid. "You can call her what you like. She responds to Anna or Anastasia, sometimes even Claudia, but not often." Kick, who was not really paying attention to her answer, said.
All the instantaneous trust that True had felt towards her saviours had dissipated with the recent events. It was obvious that she was not supposed to what was going on. True decided that her usual tell-me-or-else tactics were not going to work on this girl. Kick was about the same size and probably just as strong. In light of these facts, True decided to stick with the uncomfortable conversation they were having. "Why would someone call her Claudia?"
For some odd reason both girls, who had spent most of their lives being direct, were stuck in the worst discussion that was borne only because they couldn't say what was on their minds. "It's her middle name but only one person here calls her that," Kick responded. She looked at the door and wished she was somewhere, anywhere else.
True shivered and realized how cold she was. She sat back on the makeshift cot and pulled a blanket around her shoulders.
"You're chilly," Kick said noticing a chance to leave. "Your clothes are probably still wet. We dried you off but I'll go get you some dry clothes to wear." She tore out of the tent before True could say anything in reply.
True was alone with herself for a few minutes before Kick came back into the tent carrying a bundle of clothes. What first surprised True was that the clothes were not gray, the staple colour most of her wardrobe had been since she was about four.
"Are you going to put them on or just stare at them?" Kick giggled. "Where did they come from?"
"Dunno," Kick answered honestly. "We just collect them over the years. We know how to make some material from some of the plants around here and we trade with other groups."
"Whose are they?"
Kick laughed again, this time a bit more uneasily and said, "Boy you ask a lot of questions. There mine. I'm the only one who can fit into them right now so I have plenty."
True nodded and peeled of the wet clothes. She put on light brown pants and a green shirt. She looked around for her shoes and saw them neatly placed them under the cot. She pulled them on over a pair of thread bare socks she had been given.
At that point, True heard someone enter the tent and shook herself out of her reverie. She expected to see Anna, but instead it was a man about Julia's or Alonzo's age. He was moderately handsome with a shock of red hair True noticed. He pulled up a chair and sat on it backwards. "Hey I did a good job on you," He commented in a jovial voice.
"Are you Nicholas?" She asked after a moment's thought. He laughed like someone who always got the punch line of a joke, even when no one else did. "Aren't you the smart kid. Yup I'm Nicholas, please, call me Nick. I'm the one you should thank for fixing up your head."
True brushed of a thank you but internally rankled at being called a kid. She felt uneasy around him, especially after her experience with Anna.
"I want you to know that we are going to send out some people to find your group. Well, as soon as you tell us who is in it." Nicholas informed her.
"I don't know why you need to know." Nicholas looked directly at True so that the meaning would be clear. "We aren't going to send you anywhere unless we know it's your group. Besides, if you tell us, we may not go looking."
That threat caused True to spit out all the names of the people in her group, and even brief descriptions. She wanted to go home and they knew it. After she divulged the required information, the two girls were left alone again.
"Don't worry True," Kick tried to comfort her. "I'm sure you can go home as soon as we check that your group isn't..." Kick stopped herself realizing that she had said too much.
"What do you mean? As long as my group isn't what?" True begged. After a few seconds, Kick knew that she would have to answer True's question. Kick was almost relieved to know that at least True was smart enough to know that she wasn't being honest. At the same time, Kick knew that all of True's questions should be answered. Except that she did not know all the answers. Kick thought about it carefully before answering. She did not want to offend the first person that she had met that was her age.
Anastasia, Kick, Nicholas and everyone in her were deathly afraid of one thing that could destroy them.
They feared the Council and its operatives.
It was morning for the Eden Crew. Most people had been up at the crack of dawn, Danziger had been sure about that. Most of the crew was in camp, with only a few willing to go out and search, regardless of John's pleas. Even though John had asserted himself as the leader since Devon had been put into cold sleep, many were starting to wonder how efficient he would be since the loss of his daughter. Everyone had accepted that True had drowned. Since she had not come wondering back in last night. Everyone had given her enough credit to know which direction the camp was in, people honestly believed that she had died.
Yet, ever faithfully, Danziger was searching for True. For the first time in his life, Danziger had taken a headset and kept it on, in case there was any news of his child.
Meanwhile, camp routine went on as if all was normal. It was the only way they could cope. More duties were handed out to those who were capable. That was the only way the missing crew were remembered. How Eben or True used to do something was remembered only by the person forced to do that portion of the work. The number of times people bit back saying, "Doesn't Devon do that?" was appalling. The extra duties were taken on without complaint.
The day could have almost been considered perversely relaxing. Everyone became passive after breakfast. They were calmly waiting for the decision to abandon the search for True.
Yale had attempted to get Uly interested in his daily lessons. It was clear that the child blamed himself for the True's death. He had not spoken a word since the previous evening. He was so withdrawn that he was almost to the point of being catatonic. Yale had even called Julia over earlier in the morning to give him a physical. Unfortunately, on Uly's mind was injured. Yale was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of Uly whispering something to himself.
"Pardon me Uly?" Yale asked with concern. Uly's eyes were still focused on an imaginary object beyond the tutor's line of site. At least when he had been suffering from the Syndrome, his eyes used to tell people that he was still alive. Now the spark that his mother had fanned so hard to keep burning was gone. "I asked if all this was my fault." Uly said pitifully. "If I had done what you'd told me, True would still be alive. If I hadn't been sick, or even born, Mom wouldn't have come here and we wouldn't have crashed..." Uly broke to take a breath and suppress a sob.
The old teacher picked up Uly and sat down while placing the boy on his lap. He took a hold of his face so that the boy would be forced to look at him. "You listen to me Ulysses Adair. Your mother would be appalled at what you said. She would never have wished that you had never been born, sick or not. Your mother considers you a gift from God and she loves you more than anything in the universe. True was an accident. No one ever could have predicted what happened and prevented the tragedy."
The boy looked up at Yale and tried desperately to believe what the tutor said. Uly snuggled closer and listened to the old cyborg's regulated heartbeat in his chest. To most children, it would have sounded odd, but to Uly the sound was almost as comforting as his mother's heartbeat.
True was about to go into a full panic. Apparently, Kick's group had been hunted by several strike teams sent by the Council. True's belief that the strange group her father and Devon were always whispering about was just a satellite, was wrong. There were actual people, Kick had explained, but each time they had managed to escape. People were going to the Eden Advance's camp to check if they were another group sent by the Council. That was why Nicholas and Anna needed to know the names of the people, to cross-reference them with known Council families.
There was no time and True had so many questions. She asked only what was the most important, "Whose name did you know?"
"I think you should talk to Anna. She'll know." Was the response. After a moment's thought, True ducked outside through the tent flap and was taken aback by what she saw. There were at least double the people here then in the Eden Crew. They're were plenty of children and most of the adults were under thirty. People were piling things into vehicles. ^These people have vehicles,* the mere thought made True shiver. She wanted to know where they got them, but there was no time to ask. She knew that these were not convict children. These people seemed to important. When there was time she would ask about it all.
People in the group turned to stare at True, but quickly went back to their work. True had the feeling that they had all had a good look at her the previous night and that thought made her shiver. All traces of nausea had disappeared into True's determination to stop what might happen.
On the far side of the campsite, Anastasia spotted True and approached her. Before she could get a word out, True blurted out, "Please we aren't Council."
Anastasia gave Kick a look that could kill and the girl shrunk away from them. "Listen True, "Anna affirmed," We are going to check, that's all. If you are right then we will send you home, but we can't do that until we know for sure. You may not know that you are part of the Council. Most children can't learn until they are about 18, unless they are members of a prominent family."
A small group had begun to gather and True swallowed hard before speaking again. "But it was just Julia and she quit. She didn't want to do what they told her."
"People just don't quit True," Anastasia said mournfully. "Yes they do. You'll see," True pleaded to the expanding crowd. Anna shook her head and told the hysterical girl, "Julia Heller is not the only member of a Council family that we identified.
True was so surprised by this news that she actually took a step away and looked for a moment like she was going to bolt. "That's wrong. Julia is the only one I know of," True protested.
Anna reached over and put her hand on True's cheek. "You see True, if *you* don't know who the Council members are, then how can we?"
Before anyone could speak again, a tall young man with dark Blond hair and brown eyes stepped forward and put a hand on Anna's shoulder. "We're all packed. Molly wants us to go ASAP."
When Anastasia looked up at the young man. her expression softened and she smiled. "Okay, now you take care of yourself Luke, promise." She coughed lightly from the dust that one of the moving vehicles spewed up.
"You too," He said and he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss before heading off to a green atv. When he had settled in the seat he gave her a mock-salute and drove off.
On the back of the vehicle, True clearly saw a mag-pro. "they're taking weapons? they could hurt somebody." She almost yelled.
"No one's going to get hurt True. Please, believe me." Anna tried to comfort the child that was almost in tears.
True looked up at the young woman with a renewed sense of purpose, "What will you do when you find out that you're wrong?"
Anastasia smirked, an expression that seemed familiar to True. "Well I hope you're right young lady. If we are wrong, we'll happily send you home and apologize profusely."
True knew that she had the time to ask all her questions now. "How did you know about Julia? You couldn't have memorized all the names of Council families." Anastasia knelt down in front of her and grabbed True's hand in an almost plea not to be forced to answer the question. "How did you know about Julia?" True reiterated.
Anna looked straight into True's eyes and replied, "My full name is Anastasia Claudia Heller. Julia is my older sister."
Dizziness that True had thought she conquered, threatened and True felt the need to sit down. Show knew where she had seen Anna's eyes and expression's before.
On Julia's face.
end or chapter IV

Okay, I know I know, Julia's sibling just seem to be crawling out of the wood work. When I originally started writing this story, long before I knew about this list, Anastasia was always Julia's sibling. I debated changing that when I saw how often the plot device was used, but I came to the conclusion that it would compromise the integrity of the story.

Parallels (5/24)
By Emma Pentland

Okay here we go again. Just wrote a Biology exam and this is my reward for coming out alive. (Man, I wish I could have been a chromo-tilt, then I would know everything instinctively.)LCC

The camp was still quiet. No one had heard anything from the search party. The group had stopped waiting for an answer. To keep busy, some of the crew had started planning a memorial service for True.
Bess Martin was in charge of the communications. She was sitting with her headset on and constantly getting location checks on the search crew. the crew was about two and a half kilometres away from the camp. They had been gone a little over three hours, crawling over rocks and ruts with no clue what it might lead to. Many of the search crew believed True was dead and prayed that they wouldn't be the ones to find her little body. If it was ever going to be found.
The lack of knowledge of the area was a stark contrast to the people seeking them out. They traveled in small vehicles that were loaded with weapons. Nine people had gone on the hunt. The group knew that they would only be a little under half an hour getting to the site of the Eden Advance team. They had sent out scouts the night before when True had washed up on the beach. The obvious station-issue clothing had alerted them to a possible Council attack. They had waited until morning before launching a full scale investigation. They knew the Eden Crew were staying at the bottom of a steep incline, not too steep for vehicles, but enough camouflage to hide them. The vehicles were their only concern. The group could easily blend into the scenery; they had lived on the planet too long not to have the natural instincts that many of the small animals in the forest had. The group fancied themselves as civilized as they possibly could be, and they were, except that it was sometimes hard not to have their survival instincts take hold. The vehicles though, they would be harder to hide and they could not afford to lose any. It had taken the group six years to acquire what they had. Luckily when they took the vehicles from Council groups, there were always extra parts and after several years of tinkering, some of their group had expertly learned how to keep them running when necessary.
Down at the campsite, Baines had turned Zero on to help him with some minor repairs on the Rail. Just as Baines was about to ask for a number seven wrench, Zero turned his head towards the ridge.
"Humanoid forms approaching from the South in Mechanical vehicles," He said in his usual overly-happy tone.
Baines, Bess, Morgan and most of the group had heard Zero's pronouncement. "repeat Zero," Yale demanded.
"Sensing Humanoid forms and vehicles approaching from a Southerly direction," Zero repeated.
Bess was immediately alarmed and for lack of a better thing to do , called to Danziger. "John? John? Are you there? Come in Danziger?"
"Copy camp. What is it Bess?" Danziger's voice came crackling across the headset.
Bess swallowed hard and said, "Zero just picked up some intruders coming from the South. We need you, Alonzo and Magus back at camp, stat."
"Coming camp," Danziger affirmed. With no sight of his daughter, Danziger could not afford to lose the rest of the group. He took one last look around, swearing for a moment he heard his child's voice, but shook his head and knew better and headed back towards camp. He signaled for Alonzo and Magus to do the same.
"How the *hell* did they get vehicles?" Walman asked of no one in particular. He sat with a Mag-pro on his lap while several others armed themselves.
"I bet they stole it from one of our cargo pods," Morgan guessed. Walking over to Zero, Yale inquired, "Can you tell if they're armed?" Yale had a flash of irritation when Zero replied negatively. "Estimated time of arrival." Yale demanded.
"3.6 minutes."
All the Eden colonists could do was wait for those three point six minutes. They decided to wait in the tents to get a tactical advantage of surprise. there was really no place else to go.
Uly had been forced into a tent with Yale, Walman and the Martins. Everyone was armed except himself. Uly became transfixed on the weapon Yale carried. He had never known his tutor to ever be a threat to anyone. He wished his mother was there. He had decide that the rest of the colonists had no idea what to do in a crisis.
"Are you sure they're here?" Molly asked her right hand man on the journey.
Nicholas scanned the camp from his vantage point. "it looks to me that they knew we were coming."
Another person pointed down to the campfire, "They're still here. See. the fire is still going and they were cooking something."
Looking at his friend, Nicholas joked, "Only you would notice the food Randy."
"Hey man, it's a subject near and dear to my heart." Randy tossed back. He turned towards Molly, "Well I'm told you're the boss so what are we doing?"
"Hello sounds like a good start." She cautiously started heading down the hill towards the camp. She glanced over at Luke and Nicholas and signaled them to sneak down and cover her approach to the camp. She waited a minute before she exposed herself. "Hello?" She called out to the seemingly empty camp. She stepped a little further down the ridge and yelled out again. "Hello! We know you're here." She felt like a fool and was getting annoyed at the lack of response. Molly slowly made her way towards the bottom of the ridge, ready to retreat in a moment's notice. She heard a tent flap rustling and looked to see a man holding a mag-pro. Willing herself not to panic, she stood firm and clenched her fists.
"Who are you?" the man demanded. Molly knew she needed to show some trust towards these people before she announced that they had come to go though all their stuff to check for Council contacts. "I'm Molly Deluca, please..." She was cut off by the sound of a firing rifle. Looking to her right, she saw another man, this one with a long brown pony tail. She dashed up the ridge and dived for shelter behind a boulder. Molly was certainly sick of pleasantries, especially after someone had just taken a shot at her. She glanced to her left and saw Nicholas and Luke still in hiding. She nodded her head and heard the old fashioned rifles cock back in response. "You have been identified as Council patriots. No one will hurt you. We just want a confirmation or denial of these facts." She finally felt like she was back in control of the situation.
Slowly, some of the people came out of their tents. Soon the only one left in hiding was Uly and Yale. Someone shoved Morgan informing him what an idiot he had been.
"Who shot at me? Molly ordered. Nobody was willing to answer her question so she said itt again. Again with no avail. Eventually, the man with the pony tail stepped out. "Who are you?" She asked as calmly as she could.
Morgan looked up on the ridge to see six armed people coming closer to the colonists. He wished he could step back with the rest of them. "I'm Morgan Martin." Unsure of what else to say he put his hand on his hip and asked, "And who are you?"
Molly nodded her head and told him again what her name was. Turning to look at one of the people behind her, she commanded, "Could somebody go check to make sure that no one else is hiding in those tents?" A young woman nodded and slung her rifle over her shoulder and sauntered into the first tent. "Thanks Agnes," Molly called after her as the woman turned around and mock-saluted her and then entered a tent. "We are waiting to hear.." she was cut off by a sharp scream.
Uly Adair thrust himself out of the tent with Yale on his heels. The sentry ran out after them. The tutor picked Uly up protectively as Agnes continued towards the pair. "Leave us alone!" Yale snarled. Even with the anger behind the threat, Agnes was not deterred. Yale turned away, back towards the person he took to be the leader. He was almost stunned by how young she was. She was only about the age Devon was when she gave birth to Uly. Now that he had a good look, they were all quite young. The sentry, Agnes looked barely over twenty.
"Give the boy to Agnes. We will not hurt Uly. He will be safe until all this is over," Molly explained.
"We ARE NOT handing the kid over to anyone," Danziger yelled from behind the group, pointing his hand gun right at Agnes' head. "You really think WE are going to give him over to YOU?"
Before Molly could answer, Julia interrupted. "How did you know his name?"
"We knew who most of you were before you arrived. For instance, we know who you are Julia Heller," Molly replied and started walking towards Julia. "What we want to know is not your names, but if you are members of the Council."
Alonzo, who had arrived back with Danziger and Magus, spoke in order to divert his attention from Julia, "What makes you think we're Council?"
Molly blew a strand of red hair out of her facing frustration and started to explain the Council rules. "Most patriots are kept within the family. The Hellers are quite a prominent Council family. Julia's mother was second on the board of regents for many years. We identified the family as Council, not the person."
"So because of the good doctor's genealogy, we all have to suffer?" Morgan whined.
"Mr. Martin," Molly started. Several members of her party stepped forward, knowing that this would be entertaining. "You have an Aunt by the name of Lorretta Martin, your father's younger sister, correct?"
Morgan thought for a minute, "I haven't seen my Aunt since I was about eight years old."
"But that doesn't mean her loyalty to the Council has diminished, nor your families," Molly pointed out.
Morgan stuttered about for a few minutes in response, more worried about his image then anything else. Bess quickly calmed him down. She glanced up at Molly who was smiling. Molly knew the Council would never entrust someone like that with its secrets. It would be too much of a risk.
"How did you know that she was Morgan's relative? Martin is a very common name?" Bess queried. She seemed less rattled then everyone else.
"As Mr. Martin pointed out, genealogy is very important to the Council. Since we had already identified Julia Heller, the likelihood would be that There would be more then one Council family here." She looked back at her crew and she no longer had any qualms about tearing the camp apart. She nodded to Nicholas who stepped out of hiding and forced the returned search crew back into the main group. "Go ahead and do what you like," She instructed her group.
The rest of the Eden Crew's captors started searching the camp. For what they were uncertain, but they would know if they found it. Luke came out of hiding to help one of the people with a large storage crate.
"What the hell are you doing?" Danziger yelled. "We are looking for evidence of Council involvement." Molly's gaze drifted over to Uly, who gripped onto Yale's neck even tighter. "Would you please let Ulysses go with Agnes."
Yale looked at his young pupil and replied, "No. You will not take the boy."
"Now is not the time to become worried about his welfare." Molly barked. "Not after the Council sent him all this way where he could easily be killed."
Julia knew that it was she who had to refute the charges. She had been the member of the Council. Even though Julia had cut all ties with them, by literally, throwing her communications equipment off a cliff. "Please, these people are not members of the Council."
Molly placidly listened to the heartfelt rhetoric that she had heard before. Yet this time it somehow sounded different. If Morgan had not taken the shot at her, she might have believed Julia. Molly was pleased with the fact that Anastasia had not come on the trip. No matter what her friend might say, Anastasia still had complete faith in her sister. "Give the boy to Agnes," She ordered, ignoring the doctor.
Agnes stepped forward again, but Danziger moved to block her path. Seeing the oncoming attack, Agnes struck out but missed the mechanic.
"Don't move!" Danziger heard from behind him. Nicholas was pointing a rifle straight at the back of John's head.
"Nicholas! Be careful! Don't hit the kid," Molly ordered the gunman. the standoff continued as Danziger pulled Uly into his own clasp. He had just lost his daughter and he had no intention of relinquishing Uly.
"Please stop this.." Julia began to plead. "Shut Up Citizen Heller!" Molly snapped. As if God himself had just ordered her, Julia fell quiet. With that reaction Molly shook her head mournfully and knew that this group was part of the Council.
The two women stared at each other, uncertain what to do next.
The end of Chapter V

All comments, both posistive and constructive are more then welcome!!!!

Parallels (6/24)
By Emma Pentland

True was almost frantic. She had tried explaining what had happened with Julia but she didn't know the whole story. How she wished that the adults told her everything. All she really knew was the outcome, that Julia did not work for the Council anymore. Anna just sat and listened intently to True's story. True had caught Julia talking to someone on VR and Morgan had vanished and it was Julia's fault. One day after that, the Eden Crew had left Julia behind. True explained that only one person went back to get her. He was the only one willing to take her back the group was so mad. It was lucky that Alonzo had, True explained, otherwise her Dad might have died. After that Julia had quit, True pleaded. She wanted to explain about Elizabeth and the sickness, but then she would have had to explain about Devon, so she kept quiet.
Throughout everything True had tried to explain, the expression on Anastasia's face never altered. The only time she even spoke was to clarify that the Eden Crew had left Julia behind with absolutely no intention of ever going back for her. True tried to gage Anastasia's reaction but it seemed so difficult. Anna was so stone faced. She was not at all like her dad. True could always tell with him, but Anna was a different story.
All of this ran through the little girl's head while she was trying to convince Anastasia that her group was not a threat. True was appalled at the lack of action from the listener. "Please DO something," She pleaded to Anna.
What do you think I can do?" was all Anastasia said in return. "But they're not Council."
A sharp loud voice came from behind them, "What? The Council is here." A tall man demanded.
"Nothing there is no Council here Casey." Anastasia said in a quick response. She glanced towards True to prevent the little girl from saying anything more.
The man did not seem to believe them. "Then what's the kid saying about the Council?"
"I was just explaining it to her. I guess her group hasn't had the luxury of meeting them yet." The answer seemed to appease the man and he stalked off. True gave Anna a quizzical look but the response was just a raised hand, telling her not to ask.
True looked to Anastasia's side and saw gear. Usually she would have asked where the gear came from, but there just wasn't the time. "Call them on gear. Tell them we did nothing wrong." When there was no response, True lunged for the gear, only to be caught by Kick and held back.
Staring wistfully at the girl, who was, in reality, not even a decade younger than herself, Anastasia leaned forward and wiped off some tears that had slipped of True's face. She knew how True felt, but that feeling was long buried. Instead of sympathizing, she chose to soothe the girl. "It's going to be all right True. When all this is cleared up you'll be able to go home. I promise." She signaled Kick and True was released.
"How can you say that?" True choked out between sobs. "How do you know they are going to be safe?" With that final statement, True maneuvered past Kick and went in a dead run towards one of the remaining vehicles. Anna got up and chased after her, but before True could get to an ATV, she collapsed to the ground. It was a combination of the nausea and the panic she felt as she wretched on the ground. Without even noticing, Anna knelt on the ground beside her, pulling her hair out of her face. A small crowd gathered around the excitement. Anastasia left True there on the ground when Kathleen arrived with a cup of water. True felt humiliated to be the centre of this spectacle. She rinsed her mouth out with the water and looked for the young woman but she was no longer visible.
"Take these, they'll calm your stomach," Kick said handing True tow small yellow pills. True took them dutifully.
"And clean yourself up," Anna had arrived back with a wet washcloth that True took to wipe her face. Anastasia wrapped a blanket around the girl's shoulders and looked up at the crowd. "Get going," She ordered. "Sideshow's over."
True smiled weakly in relief up at Anna and her nausea passed. "When Julia comes she's going to have to take a look at that bump on your head, young lady." Anna told her. True smiled again as the two just sat there convincing themselves that everything would be alright.
The Eden Advance team felt like hostages in an old stick up movie, or at least that was how Morgan described it. The group had been shuffled up onto the ridge where Nicholas and Luke patrolled them vigilantly. The day had progressed into the afternoon and the heat that they had prayed for had come. It was not yet the oppressive dry heat of summer. A day like this would usually have been enjoyed, if the colonists had been allowed to move..
Uly, who had managed to stay with the group, had been dying to go to the bathroom. He looked to his right and started crawling away. Remarkably, no one stopped him. When he was coming back, he could have sworn that someone was watching him. He stopped dead and listened, but there was nothing to hear.
"Hey, Kid."
Uly almost yelped in fear as he turned around to see someone behind him. "Well I uh, kinda needed..." He sputtered, fearing that this was one of those psychopaths in True's ghost stories.
The man let out a short laugh at the boy's reaction. "You're not in trouble here kid. There's no need to be so jumpy."
"I'm not in trouble?"
"No you're not."
"Well they shouldn't be either," Uly said pointing in the general direction of the Eden Crew.
"If that's true then there isn't anything to worry about," The man assured. The man leaned down to Uly's height and introduced himself, "I'm Lucas Kelly Spencer, but you can call me Luke."
Uly quickly replied, "I'm Ulysses Adair, but you can call me Uly." Luke laughed again. He was too light-hearted for Uly's taste. "You have a good name for this place, you have lots of places to explore."
Having been forced to study the history of his name, Uly was amused by the man's knowledge. He decided that this person wasn't so bad. Luke reminded Uly of how Danziger and Alonzo treated him, like he was somewhat important and not stupid just because he was a kid. Luke shuffled the boy back to the group and Uly seated himself back down beside Yale.
Yale looked at his young charge with concern. "Where did you head off to?" After waiting for a few minutes for Uly to give him an answered, he figured it out. Yale turned back to look at the action. The camp was being torn apart, but not as if Grendlers were rummaging, it was much more systematic.
About ten feet from where Uly and Yale were sitting, Alonzo had finally bee able to make Julia talk to him. She obviously blamed herself for what was going on. It was irrational, but still it was obvious that his lover was letting guilt eat her up inside. The situation was not helped by the fact that several members of the Eden Crew were having the same illogical thoughts and spent most of their time staring at the doctor. The wound from her Council ties had been reopened and was festering.
"I don't know what to do," she spoke with the same lack of emotion that had become common in Uly's voice. "I feel like I should stop it but I can't."
You don't need to do anything. It's not your fault," He consoled. She turned around to look at him and snapped back, "Yes it is, look around you, the faces should tell you it's my fault."
Alonzo sat back and looked towards their captors. A small group had huddled around the leader, whose name he could not remember. She dismissed them and looked up at the Eden Crew.
"Luke! Luke can I talk to you for a few minutes?" She called up the ridge.
Watching as one of their guards headed towards the woman, Alonzo's curiosity was peaked.
Molly paced for a brief second as Luke came down the hill. He didn't ask her what was going on, just waited patiently for an explanation. She looked up at him and whispered quietly. "I think the girl's story was true. They have way too much cargo listed as Eden Crew for it not to be them." She stopped for a moment, confused. "I don't understand. When that last Council group told us to find them, that we could trade their freedom for ours, why didn't they tell us the Anastasia's sister was here?"
Luke pondered that for a moment before replying, "They probably figured we'd panic thinking they were Council, like we just did. Plus they probably knew that Anastasia would never let us do something like that if Julia was amongst the crew."
"I'd hope we were human enough not to consider doing that anyway. We're not like Mary." Molly chastised.
"That's not the point and you know it. We know we could never turn innocent victims over to the Council, but the Council doesn't know that." Luke shot back. "I'm going to do one last thing before I'm completely sure that they ARE the Eden Colonists."
Molly smiled back at her long-time friend. "Don't scare them too much."
"And deal with Anna later, no way."
Julia was watching the interaction along with the rest of the group when the guard came back towards them. It took a couple of second but Julia realized that he was specifically coming towards her. He kneeled down in front of her with a serious look on his face.
"You don't know me, but I know all about you. Judging from your reaction earlier, you either are or were Council, right?" He asked her sharply.
Instead of answering, Julia asked her own questions. "Who are you and what do you want?"
He gave a frustrated half-smirk and stated, "I'm Lucas Kelly Spencer, aka Luke, is that specific enough for you?" He stopped to take a breath and continued. "Assuming you were Council, I can also assume that you are no longer a patriot correct? That you, in essence, quit?"
Julia was not yet sure about the new person and hesitated. She glanced back at Alonzo, who gave her a look of concern. The fact that he cared gave her the strength to confirm Luke's accusations. "If you chose to think that way then you would be right."
The original smirk bloomed into a full-blown smile. "Ha," He laughed, slapping his hands on his knees, "You're as smart as I was told but I'll forgive the fact you were made that way."
Luke was about to get up and go back to Molly, Julia stopped him. She knew her chromo-tilting was not a secret, but this man should not have known anything about it. "How did you know that?" She demanded.
Luke turned around and looked at her with and almost wistful look on his face. "You're lucky," he told her. "Sometimes she can hold a grudge to the point that it's almost unhealthy but I think she could forgive you anything." He said no more and waled away.
"Who are you talking about?" Julia called after him, but to no avail. What in heaven's name was he talking about?" Morgan said loudly. Still staring down the hill after the enigmatic man, Julia simply stated, "I don't know but I intend to find out."
Before anyone could do anything else, Molly approached the Crew. "I know that you aren't going to believe me, but we are truly sorry about all of this."
"You're right, we don't," Baines muttered to himself. Molly looked ashamed at the reaction and looked down at the ground for the next part of her dissertation. "We are just afraid because of what has happened in the past."
"What happened in the past?" Yale queried. As she pondered an answer, she let out a slow whistle that was meant as a where-do-I-begin. "I guess I should start by saying that many of the people in my group were born to Council Patriots."
"How did you wind up here?" Magus asked. Molly glanced around at the group of expectant faces and spied Uly sitting attentively. "We were unwanted. We took up too much of our parent's time. We were useless because, much like the boy there, we were never supposed to live beyond our ninth birthday. We had the Syndrome." Molly watched as a collective gasp passed throughout the group.
Julia was the first person to collect her thoughts. "How did you know that? It wouldn't be on Council manifests."
Knowing that they would have to return True to the group, Molly decide to wait and let the little girl tell them herself. "I will explain that later." She told them.
Unappreciative of the vagueness of her comment, everyone sat quiet. If these people were suffered of the Syndrome, then they had long healed. This would mean hope for the two hundred and fifty families that would be arriving in a little over a year.since the planet did not reject them and the children would survive.
The day had been almost surreal. At first the colonists were held captive at gunpoint and all their stuff was rummaged through. Now the second group was packing to leave as if nothing had happened.
This was the first time the Eden Advance Team had met a group similar to their own. For everyone it meant different things, to Alonzo, it meant hope. Hope of finding the person who could save them.
The End of Chapter VI

For all you people who have taken creative writing, you should recognize this as a MAJOR foreshadowing section. This is probably the last piece you will receive before the new year, unless I can squeeze time for typing in between exams.

Parallels (7/24)
By Emma Pentland

This section is dedicated to A.J. You threw down the gauntlet and I have picked it up. (Don't worry I love everyone else too, but I can't resist any sort of challenge.)

True had finally fallen asleep after her incident earlier in the day. She awoke to the sound of the tent flap opening. Normally, she would not have been awakened by such a usual sound, but, although she had been resting, she had not been sound asleep. She debated opening her eyes. It was clear that whoever was there, was not there to bug her. They had not tried to awaken her or speak to her. True's inquisitive nature got the best of her and she looked around without moving from her curled up position. she expected to see Anna or Kick. Instead, she saw a little girl, younger than herself and even younger than Uly.
The girl just stood there staring at True for an unbeknownst reason to the elder girl. Examining her closely, True noticed that the girl was wearing a shirt that was obviously meant for an adult, with the sleeves rolled-up. The neck was so large that True could tell that the little girl was wearing another shirt underneath. One that seem to fit her better. She wore leggings and shoes that were perhaps one size too big, but no one would notice unless they were looking as closely as True. The girl looked perfectly neat. Someone had obviously taken the time to tie her dark hair back in two neat pigtails that hung down her back. She looked like she had just walked off a transport from the stations. What surprised True the most though was not her appearance, but the fact that the girl was scrutinizing True more thoroughly than she had ever been in her life.
The little girl said nothing and True was becoming self conscious. "Do you want something?" True demanded sharply. She instantly felt sorry as the girl edged away from the harsh voice. "I'm sorry," she apologized, "Who are you?"
The girl looked shocked, as if actually speaking to True was something she had never considered. The little girl cleared her throat like someone who was not accustomed to speaking. "Xenia," she whispered.
True recognized the voice. "You are the one who found me, didn't you?" Xenia looked relieved at the fact she could respond with a quick nod of her head.
"You don't talk much, do you?" True asked, "Don't worry. You don't need to answer that.
Smiling the little girl turned to leave and was almost knocked over by Anna, who walked in at that exact moment. Xenia smiled at the sight of her and raised her hands, asking to be picked up. Anastasia lifted the small girl into her arms and questioned, "Now where have you been all morning?"
"Down by the river," Xenia replied without hesitation. "No more people are going to wash up you know." Anastasia teased her. Responding with a giggle, Xenia turned to look at True. "I met True," she said.
A flash of puzzlement crossed Anna's face. "She talked to you?'" She addressed True.
Realizing that they were talking about her, Xenia responded, "Thought I should 'cause Kick and I found her." She squirmed to be let down and when Anna obliged, she tore out of the tent. Watching the little girl leave, Anna said, "You're lucky."
It was now True's turn to be confused. "What are you talking about?" She demanded. She had been out of the loop for several hours, so she expected some news on her group..
"In about an hour, your group should be joining ours. You were right." Anastasia replied. "There, now do you know why you're lucky?"
True sat wide-eyed with relief. Her happiness continued, but she realized her responsibility. Slowly True Danziger started to tell Anna what had happened to Devon.
It was another decision that the Eden Crew was not used to making without Devon. They had been asked to return to camp with the "natives" as Morgan had called them. The vote was split down the middle.
"Absolutely not." Morgan protested in his best Morgan-esque whine. "These people just went through everything we own to get an excuse to kill us, and now they're calling their camp saying 'guess who's coming to dinner.' How do we know that we aren't dinner? These people are strange. They come bursting into our camp and expect us to be a threat to them? Are they nuts?"
"No Mr. Martin; I do not believe so." Yale interjected. "We foolishly accepted Gaal into our group and quickly learned of the dangerous people on this planet. They have been here longer. Perhaps this is what we might have done in the same situation."
"Oh come on Yale," Walman reacted, "These people are nothing like us." "He may be right. These people were forced to come to this planet. Half of us weren't even supposed to see the surface of this planet." Alonzo said in the tutor's defense. "We have night watches to keep everything out. We are just as paranoid as they are and we both have good reasons."
"So what now? We go back with them and sing songs and bond around their campfire?" Morgan protested again.
"Mr. Danziger." The group heard. Danziger turned around to see the one that had approached Julia earlier, Luke, if he remembered correctly. "I would like to explain something, " Luke began, "the two little girls that I'm guardian for.."
Bess had to speak, "Guardian? What do you mean by that?" Luke swallowed and continued. "There are many children in our group. Many of them too small to take care of themselves. Some of them were sent by the Council, others are convict children that were lost or abandoned. We have a good rapport with the local Terrian group so they bring the children to us. The older ones take in the younger ones. Since we aren't their parents, we call ourselves Guardians."
"How many are in your group?" Julia asked. "About twenty-five at last count. We never really keep track, people may come and go as they choose." Luke responded. "When I arrived in this group, I started helping with someone and her little girl, although one of them is ten now." Luke turned towards John and got back on track. "You have a daughter about that age."
Danziger became fascinated instantly with the mere mention of his daughter. "How did you know that?" He blurted out.
"As I was trying to say earlier, my two girls were down by the river last night and found your daughter." Luke gave a lop-sided grin at his own words.
Danziger did not waste any time being bewildered at the concept, he needed to know about his daughter. "Is she alright? How badly was she hurt?
Luke was relieved that Danziger was not angry at the fact that no one had told him that earlier. Luke knew how he would feel if either of his girls went missing. "Other than a nasty knock on the head, she's just fine."
Danziger felt an enormous weight get off his chest. He leaned back and slapped his knee while he stood. "Well, that decided it, we're going."
Morgan went to protest and fell silent after a nudge from Bess. With the help of the other crew, everything was packed and in little over an hour they had arrived at the outskirts of the natives territory. "Go on ahead, the lot of you," Molly told her crew as many of them sauntered off into the forest. She turned back to the Eden Crew, obviously in deep thought. "The other vehicles are fine, but I'm not too sure about the.." she flicked her hand towards the transrover, unsure of what to call it. She had never seen one before
Following the finger to his vehicle, Danziger asked, "You don't expect us to leave the transrover, do you?"
"Not sure. The land bridge across the river, I don't think is wide enough to accommodate it." Molly stated.
"The river is not really that deep, and the bottom is covered in stones instead of mud, I think the transrover would be able to cross that way," Yale pointed out.
"You don't think the under carriage would cause a problem?" Molly indicated.
"Yale is right, there shouldn't be a problem." Danziger said in response.
Knowing that the Eden Crew was not going to leave without the large mechanical beast, Molly let them try to take it across the river. She was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it wasn't as much of a problem as she had anticipated. Once they had all crossed over, she told them, "We are nearly at camp. We shouldn't be.."
Suddenly a little boy dropped out from the trees above them. He looked to be about Uly's age. He smiled at the Eden Crew, obviously enjoying the fact that he had scared them. His dark skin made his smile seem that much wider and whiter. When no one said anything to him, he decided to speak. "Are you the people from the other camp?"
"Yes Michael they are. Could you please go fetch Kick and True." Molly ordered him. He flashed another brilliant smile at everyone as if to say, okay, I'll get them, but don't mind it if I take the long route.
As the ragtag group of colonists headed towards the camp, Julia suddenly stopped in her tracks and spun around as if looking for something. Alonzo noticed his lover's unique action instantly and was concerned. "Julia," he called back to her, "What's wrong?"
His choice of words caused the group to stop an look at the doctor. "I don't know. I just have this feeling I'm being watched." Her tone sounded distant, as she was concentrating on something in the distance. "Don't laugh 'Lonz but I think I know them."
"Know them?" Morgan squeaked as he moved closer to Bess while nonchalantly putting an arm around her waist as if in protection. "Are they dangerous."
A loud thunderous burst of laughter broke the tension. "I never thought I would lose this bet. I mean, she's said some pretty weird things before that have been true but I really thought I'd win this one." Luke said while seating himself on a large boulder while he finished his laughing fit.
Behind him, a young woman approached the group. Her face was obscured by her long hair as she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his neck lovingly. She kissed him on the cheek and laughed herself. "Maybe you should just give into the fact that I'm always right."
Julia gasped at the sound of the voice and felt the need to lean against one of the tall trees for support.
The sound of surprise caused the young woman to look towards the doctor. She shook her head for a moment and said, "I'm so sorry Jewel, I didn't mean to scare you like that."
The more Julia heard that voice, the more positive she became. In her heart, she knew who it was, but her mind wouldn't quit repeating one thing. "You're dead," she sputtered out, "I went to your funeral."
"Who is she Julia?" Danziger demanded. He looked towards the doctor, who was still using the tree as a leaning post.
"You saw my funeral in VR. You were told my body had been disposed of. It was Council policy in those days to do that." The young woman reminded Julia. She took a few tentative steps away from Luke to approach Julia. "Listen Jewel, I'm sorry to scare you like that. As you can see, I *am* alive. The Council wanted you to believe that. You were more of an asset that way."
"I don't understand," Julia stated plainly. The young woman was not at all frustrated with all the questions. She knew that Julia would need to have her questions answered before she could move on. "They wanted us to disappear. We were council children that could never live. We wasted the patriots time. We were sent here to die, but we sure proved them wrong." The young woman paused to let it sink in. "Now we're all cured. Now we are chased all over this planet because we have the answers."
Alonzo stepped forward to take a better look at the young woman. She glanced at him with no glimmer of recognition. She didn't know him. Not like he knew her. He had seen her every night in his dreams, but she clearly did not know him. What does this mean? he thought to himself. Perhaps he was wrong all along. He did not say anything to her as she passed him and was soon face to face with Julia.
A nervous laugh was uttered from the woman's throat. "Come on Jewel. If you don't say something soon, I'm going to think you didn't want to see me. I honestly didn't mean to scare you." She whispered quietly, trying to hold back a few tears.
"No," Julia said, also trying to rid herself of the frog that had seemed to take up residence in her throat. "You are not the least bit sorry. You loved an audience, Like a Grand Duchess holding court." She stepped forward and embraced the young woman. Both women were silently crying.
"Julia who is she?" Danziger demanded again. Behind the women, Alonzo also felt the need to use a tree for support. What if he had been wrong?
End of Chapter VII

PLease send all comments, critisisms, money offers, book contracts etc too carre1@server.uwindsor.ca

Parallels (8/24)
By Emma Pentland

Tad Bit of profanity and True screams. You were warned. LCC

The two women stepped apart from each other and simultaneously wiped tears away from their faces. The younger woman reached out and brushed a loose piece of hair from Julia's face. Julia let out a laugh as if that occurrence was quite common and pulled the young woman to her side as if they were about to pose for a portrait. "Umm, I'm not too sure how to explain this, but she is the reason I decided to work with the Syndrome children. " She explained.
After a brief pause to catch her breath, Danziger became impatient and urged her to continue.
Clearing her throat again, Julia continued. "I was very young when she was born and I remember that at first she was perfectly healthy. She quickly deteriorated and she was diagnosed with the Syndrome. This is Anastasia Claudia Heller, my younger sister."
A low rumble went through the group when stopped speaking. Some of the group just stood staring while others turned to the person beside them to expressed their disbelief.
Alonzo still just stood, staring at the young woman, unsure how to react. He figured a big scene might cause rejection from the second group. He decided to wait until he could tell the Eden group privately.
"Your sister?" Bess whispered, barely audible. "I thought Sarah was your sister."
Anastasia took over the next part of the explanation. "Actually I'm, genetically, her half sister. Hence the fact I'm not blond. My father is also Jewel's father, did not renew his marital contract with her mother." She paused for a moment, she had not had to explain the story for a long time, so some of the details were unclear in her mind. "My mother was also a Council bigwig, so our father retained his power. I was, shall we say, quite a surprise for my parents. They wanted a chromo-tilt baby. When it was discovered I had the syndrome, they dumped me in a hospital." She looked around to still see confusion on the faces on the Eden Crew. "Jewel was the only member of my family that ever came to see me. I don't know how she got there, but she was there almost everyday as long as I can remember.. My parents hadn't even bothered to name me. I was only two days old when I was diagnosed. They left that up to an intern."
"Great parents," Morgan muttered almost silently. "Yeah. They were fabulous." Anastasia laughed at the surprised look on Morgan's face when he realized that she had heard him. "You have to be careful. I hear everything." She directed the statement more towards Uly. She became interested with him when the boy had shown no reaction to any of the recent events. She crouched down in front of Uly to address the boy at his level. "Did you like Michael? He's going to be really interested in you. He's kind of like Kick. He has friends older and younger than him, but you are the same age."
Alonzo stood back watching Anastasia and the boy. He had a brief flash that it was Devon addressing Uly. He looked around at the Eden Crew and knew that they were thinking the same thing.
Uly had given his undivided attention to the stranger. Anastasia was completely unaware that Uly was being particularly responsive after the recent events. She thought he was ignoring her, only passively listening. She took one of his hands and rubbed it between hers. "True has told me lots about you. You're quite the sad one, aren't you champ?"
Uly instinctively jumped back from Anastasia. He was instantly ashamed at his reaction, but could say nothing and just stared at Anna with wide eyes.
On the other hand, Danziger instantly reacted to the mention of his daughter. "Where is True?" He demanded.
"She's off playing with Kick. They'll meet us back at camp." She never took her gaze from Uly's and spoke to him again. "I didn't realize I was so scary. You look absolutely petrified."
Uly shook his head negatively. "You don't scare me," Uly said, still in awe. "It's just that...well why did you call me that?" He asked.
"Call you what."
Taking a few tentative steps forward, Uly replied, "Champ. My mother called me that. Why did you call me that."
"I don't know," Anastasia replied honestly, "It just seemed appropriate for you. I won't say it again since it bothers you that much."
"Umm," Uly stuttered, "It doesn't bother me." Anna thought back of the boy's comment about his mother and she realized what was wrong with it. "Uly," Anastasia coaxed him move closer to her. "Is your mother dead?" She asked flatly.
Taken aback by the question, Uly held his ground and shook his head. Anna's voice almost took on a scolding quality as she said, "Well then, don't refer to her in the past tense. I don't think she would like that much, do you?"
Nodding his head, Uly understood. Anastasia smiled warmly at Devon's son, an to the surprise of the Eden Crew, Uly gave an almost imperceptible, but genuine, smile in return.
"I think you and Michael are going to get along famously," Anna said curtly as she stood up and looked at the sea of unfamiliar, scrutinizing faces. She felt the need to stand up to whatever expectations they had forced upon her. "Okay, let me figure out who you all are." She paused and looked at Danziger. "You have to be True's father. You reacted so strongly when she was mentioned."
"John Danziger," the mechanic mumbled as an introduction. Anna went through the group and picked out Yale, Morgan, Bess, Walman and Baines, until she finally came to Alonzo. She gave him the once over and asked, "Okay, I have absolutely no clue who you are."
It finally sunk in, she didn't know him. "Alonzo Solace," He said, keeping his calm demeanor.
A choked back laugh came from Anastasia's throat and she turned to Julia and raised one eyebrow. Alonzo moved to catch a quick glimpse of the look that reminded him of Julia's mock-surprise gesture.
Julia laughed in response, "Don't you start, she warned. Anna crossed her hands across her heart and looked at her sister in over-exaggerated shock. "How dare you accuse me of trying to make up for all those years of lost teasing. She turned away quickly, her moment of silliness was soon forgotten. She got straight down to business. "Come on, I think we should be getting back to camp. I think Mr. Danziger is a bit anxious to see his daughter.
The group slowly made its way through the trees towards the camp. They had to stop twice to dislodge the Transrover from low lying branches. After about twenty minutes, they came upon the camp. The Eden Crew stared in awe at the tents and the vehicles that were similar to their own. The people in the native group who had been busy, stopped what they had been doing, to get a good look at the Eden Advance. The Edenites noticed that these people were, on average, at least five years younger than most of them. There was a vast variation in the ages, but the oldest were no more than thirty, the Eden Advance was sure of that.
Unsure of what to do next, the two groups just continued to examine each other.
Something that Alonzo saw out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He glanced to his left and saw the little girl, the one that had always been present in his dreams. The one who always died. She stood there looking specifically at him and Alonzo realized that she recognized him. She seemed terrified of him. Her gaze wandered and soon fell upon Uly. The look of hatred from the little girl shocked Alonzo. Apparently, whatever the little girl had seen was far different from his own visions. She was so angry and terrified, Alonzo could almost see that she was shaking.
Alonzo had not been the only one who noticed the little girl. Anastasia had also seen her and beckoned to the girl, "Come here Xen." The little girl dashed over, much faster than Alonzo had expected her to be. She wrapped her arms around Anastasia's waist. Anna knew that something was wrong with her charge. She wrapped a protective arm around Xenia. "Hey Xenia, what's wrong with you?"
The girl looked up at her, and the full force of her fear was clear to Anastasia. She picked Xenia up and smoothed the girl's hair back. "Xenia, what scared you?" Her tone was quiet and soft and Xenia seemed to calm down a little.
Xenia looked back at Uly and Alonzo in such a way that Anna could follow her gaze.
"The new people bothering you? Listen honey I told you earlier that they were." A loud noise interrupted Anastasia before she could say anything else.
It took everyone a second to realize that the sound was a shot. Anastasia put Xenia down and then dropped to the ground pulling Xenia underneath her to protect her.
The Eden Crew grabbed the person beside them and did the same thing. It was like the old Earth saying about scared rabbits.
"WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Someone screamed in the background. Making his way around the Eden Crew, Luke started to crawl towards Anastasia and Xenia. A second shot ended his approach.
A man stepped out from a patch of greenery about ten metres from the group. He looked like a crazed lunatic and he was holding a magpro. He obviously had reloaded before he exposed himself. Slowly, he walked over to where Anna and Xenia were huddled together on the ground.
Anastasia took a brief glance up at the attacker. Her eyes grew wide. "Casey? Casey what are doing?" She whispered out of shock.
"Tell the kid to get out of here. We all know that she won't listen to anybody but you or Luke." Casey ordered her in an inappropriately calm, unattached voice.
In response, Xenia only clutched Anna more tightly. Casey looked over to Molly and flicked his hand, to signal her to come. "Get the kid away from here. I don't think she'll want to stay."
"Casey this is madness.." Anastasia tried to reason with him. "SHUT UP OR I'LL SHOOT THE KID TOO!" Anna looked over at Molly to approve the plan of action that involved removing Xenia from the centre of the action. Xenia squirmed and started to cry when Molly pried her away, but Anna stayed silent. She was afraid of infuriating Casey any further.
"You know what the Council did to Karen. Now you bring them her to do what ? Finish the job?" Casey said, revealing his motive.
Anna tried to plead with him. "Please, you have to understand, they're not.."
"You and your damned desire to bring Julia here is going to get us killed." Casey interrupted her. He lifted the magpro almost to her eye level. "I won't let that happen." He threatened.
Anastasia looked around and could not see any of her makeshift family. Instead of being scared, she was relieved that they were out of the line of fire. "Casey you have to listen to me..."
"SHUT UP!" He yelled. In one smooth motion, he leaned over and smacked her across the face with the barrel of the magpro. "Didn't you learn anything from what they did to Karen?" He pleaded with her. "They killed her and now you bring these people here. Why? They killed my wife, they almost killed my child." He looked around and realized that Luke could no longer be seen. In a fluent movement, he leaned over and pulled Anna up to his as a hostage. "Where's Luke?" he hissed in her ear.
"I don't know," She said. She coughed when Casey's arm eased its way up around her neck.
The crazed man shook her, causing her to cough even more. "Do you think I'm stupid?" He started yelling so that everyone could hear him. "He's not going to give you up! ARE YOU LUKE? ARE YOU?"
Anna swallowed hard and tried desperately to catch her breath. "You can stop the Casey," She wheezed. "I know that you don't want to hurt anyone."
"How do you know you little bitch!" He spat out. "Now what direction is he going to shoot from?"
"He's not going to shoot you."
"BULLSHIT!" He screamed, now fully enraged. "He would trade me for you in a heartbeat. The two of you are so selfish! Bringing the Council here only because *your sister* is among them. NOW WHERE IS LUKE GOING TO SHOOT FROM? "
Through a veil of hair Anna replied almost calmly, "He'll probably shoot from the North."
Casey made a ninety degree turn to face his would-be attacker. "Now YOU can't shoot me in the back like a coward you son of a bitch!" He screamed towards a non-existent threat.
The entire scene nearly went anarcaeic when True and Kathleen arrived. They had come rushing back at the sound of the magpro. True saw the Eden Crew and the man that she had seen earlier threatening them and screamed for all she was worth.
The scream surprised Casey and caused him to let off a shot in that direction.
Kick pulled True down to the ground before any harm came to them. "TRUE, STAY DOWN!" Danziger yelled at his daughter. Casey turned back towards the man who yelled, but did not shoot. He took a quick glance down at his hostage when the sound of her uncontrollable coughing distracted him. He eased up the pressure on her throat.
Everyone was dead silent for several minutes. Suddenly, the sound of a baby crying got the captor's attention.
Anastasia thought she could use this to her advantage. "Listen Casey. Your daughter is crying." She gasped.
The moment of distraction soon ended when another shot rang out.
End of Chapter VIII

Please send all Congrats, Compliments, Complaints, Contracts, Continuity problems, and Cute guys with the initials CB or ASjr or even WN (I'm leaving JG to Mary, I'd be afraid of Mary if I tried to take him) to carre1@server.uwindsor.ca

Parallels (9/24)
By Emma Pentland

This section is dedicated to Rosa, who was kind enough to point out a large continuity error, which I am about to correct. This is also dedicated to Shelley, who is kind enough to let me borrow Sarah. I promise to return her. -LCC

The moment of confusion was all Luke had needed to get off the shot safely. The bullet hit Casey's right arm, causing him to drop the magpro. The pain shot up into his brain and he dropped to the ground, pulling Anastasia with him. She managed to kick the magpro away before she hit the ground.
The shot had also surprised Alonzo, who had been holding Julia down and preventing her from stepping into the line of fire to help her sister. The doctor used his confusion to start moving towards Anna. Julia watched Casey pull the bullet from his arm and briefly release Anastasia. Julia was surprised that it seemed more like a dart than a bullet. She reached her sister, who was almost an odd shade of blue from her coughing, and started pulling her away from the crazed man.
Casey seemed almost drunk. He tried to speak and slurred his words into and indecipherable mess. When he saw Anastasia being pulled away, he managed to muster enough co-ordination to pull out a small knife he had tucked in his belt. Casey took one swipe at Anastasia. She raised her left arm to protect herself, and wound up with a large gash.
It was about another thirty seconds before Casey fell to the ground unconscious, but ne made no more threatening moves. He floundered around on the ground, trying to orientate himself.
For the first few seconds after Casey had fallen, the only sounds that could be heard were Anna's coughing and a baby crying. True broke the silence and called towards her father. She dashed down the hill into her expectant father's arms.
After the initial embrace, True pulled away from her father, only to see that he was crying. She brushed away a blond curl that had fallen loose, from his face and wiped his tears. "I'm so sorry Dad," was the only comfort she could give.
Danziger pulled his daughter back into the hug and whispered in reply, "It's all right True-Girl. It's okay baby." He gave her the once over and decided that he would have Julia look at True's head wound when the doctor was finished with Anastasia.
Luke rushed over to where Anastasia and Julia were. He held Anastasia upright while Julia examined her. "Kick!" Luke called while sitting down to take over Julia's spot as Anna's leaning post, "Kathleen, we need the inhaler!"
Anastasia tried to wave them off as if she had only sneezed and waited for Kick to arrive with her medicine. The girl soon arrived with, what Julia observed to be, a small container that Anna put to her lips and sprayed some sort of powder into her lungs. The coughing quelled some, but was still clearly present.
Julia delegated herself to looking after the wound on Anna's arm. She glanced at Kathleen to see the girl still standing around nervously.
"That'll beat all your scars put together Kick," Luke told the girl. Kathleen replied with a nervous laugh and the comment was obviously meant to ease her mind.
Anna took a deep breath and piped up. "Luke," She coughed before she continued, "Is it some sort of male ritual that they teach little boys exactly how to hit a girl across the face. I'm going to have one hell of a bruise."
"Yeah, it's something we all get for our sixth birthday. Now listen, I'm going to let Julia take care of you because you are a horrible patient." Luke said while he got up and stepped away from the scene.
"Oh thanks," Anastasia muttered in reply. Stepping forward, Luke leaned over and kissed Anna on the forehead and told her, "Anytime." He waled over to where two men were removing Casey. A patch of blood was clear on the arm of the attacker.
Julia looked over and Anastasia knew what she wanted to do. "Don't worry," Anastasia told her sister, "He'll be fine."
"How do you know that?" Julia asked, her attention coming back to Anna.
Anna let out a mixture of a sigh and a laugh and replied, "You don't actually think we killed him, do you? We don't use bullets and magpros are only for desperate situations. We developed a kind of a dart gun. It's made from what the kobas secrete. Have you had any experience with that yet?"
Julia's mind slipped back to O'Neill and Morgan. She nodded her head and went back to fixing Anastasia's arm.

The light had dimmed by the time the Eden Crew had finished setting up camp for the night. It had been a little over three hours since the original altercation and the two Heller sisters had not moved. After the injuries had been taken care of they had almost had a fight over Anastasia's health. The cough that had almost choked Anna earlier had not completely gone away and Julia wanted to give her a full physical. Anastasia had refused the help. Despite Julia's pleading, Anna would not Julia examine her.
After that, the two had started talking and became completely oblivious to the other members of their respective groups.
Morgan had started complaining about Julia's lack of work just as dinner was started to be served. "Come on Bess. It's not like Julia hasn't been reunited with her siblings before. First that Sarah woman and now this girl. I want to know how many other Hellers are going to pop right out of the ground like Terrians before we get to New Pacifica."
"Oh Morgan, if I had a chance to see my family again I would do the same thing," His wife retorted.
"You wouldn't neglect your duties to the group." "What duties? No one is hurt. It's not like you haven't missed putting up camp before because of VR." Bess reminded him as she happily accepted the food the group of natives gave her. "Besides, from what I hear, they have a little over a decade to catch up on. They'll be lucky if they get to bed tonight."
"Who did you hear that from?" Morgan asked as a large pile of something he didn't recognize was put on his plate.
"Baines. I honestly don't know how he learns these things." Bess mused as they moved to take a seat near the campfire where a large group combined of both the Eden Advance and the Natives were eating and having cordial conversation.
"Would you like to join us Ladies?" Luke yelled over to Julia and Anna. They came over and the younger sister took a seat beside Luke and the Elder sister took a seat beside the pilot.
Taking a survey of the group, Anna asked, "Where's Xenia? I know she was given a tranquilizer after this afternoon, but it should have worn off by now."
"She's here with me."
The group looked collectively at a young woman in her mid-twenties. The woman spoke slowly, as if she had difficulty forming her sentences. She had gray eyes and dark brown hair. She was clearly nervous, shifting her weight back and forth on her feet. She smiled with a nervous grin of a child. "I was playing with her after she woke up."
"Well that was very kind of you to look after her," Anna said, returning the woman's smile. Her words sounded more like she was talking to a child instead of an adult. "Could you do me a favour Rosemary?" Anastasia paused and waited for the woman to nod her head. When she did, Anna continued. "Could you take in a plate of food to Nikki?" The woman nodded again and wondered away. Anastasia patted her lap and Xenia crawled into it.
Someone brought over a plate of food for Xenia and Anastasia and the two devoured it quickly.
"What happened to the man earlier, Casey?" Magus asked. "Yeah. Why didn't you bury the dead?" Walman demanded. "Casey isn't dead." Anna told them. "We use the poison kobas use and we knock people out. That's what we use it for when.."
"When you attack innocent groups and scare the hell out of them?" Morgan blurted out, offering his own opinion of the situation.
Molly stepped forward to defend their actions. "We had every right to be nervous. You had equipment that we thought only the Council had."
"Council Groups?" Magus gasped. "We thought it was only..." "EVE? Sorry. I've lived her now for fifteen years and I've seen more than my share of flesh-and-blood Council members." Randy informed the Eden Advance. "They pretty much stalk us. No matter where we go, they always eventually find us."
"You mean that we're in danger when we're with you?" Baines demanded. "Who your with has nothing to do with it. No matter where you are on this planet, they will eventually find you." Was Molly's retort. "Besides, you people probably have bio-stat chips. That means that it's easier to trace you."
"We really don't need to get into this right now. Besides, obviously they haven't met the Council yet. Let's not rush things here." No one really seemed to here Anna's plea. She quietly got up and walked off with Xenia. Only Julia and Luke noticed her departure.
As the group continued arguing until a small but persistent noise pierced through the yelling. "Is that Karen-Emily?" True asked her new friend.
"Yeah," Kick replied, "I guess all the screaming woke her up." The baby had distracted the group and calmed everyone down, Agnes excused herself to go look after the wailing child.
"What's going to happen to her?" True wondered aloud "Dunno. It depends on what happens to Casey I guess." Kick muttered back.
Hearing the two girls peaked Bess' curiosity. "Is that Casey's daughter?"
Kick nodded her head to answer. "What happened to the mother?" Bess asked. Luke gave Kick a quick glance and the girl realized that she was not going to explain what had happened. Instead, she finally took notice that Anastasia was gone. "Come on," She said to True and she stood up. "You'll like it."
"Like what?" True questioned.
Kick smile mischievously in her reply, "You will like it, I promise." After a moment the two girls took off.
Watching the two girls go out of earshot, Luke turned back to explain the story. "The Council got her. It was literally just hours after she had given birth to her. They attacked us, Karen got stuck in the crossfire. They had already decided on a name but Casey insisted that the baby be called Karen. He wanted the child to be just like her mother. We thought that was too much pressure so we insisted on a second name. I think it was Anna who called her Emily. To our surprise, Casey just hyphenated the two names. It kind of stuck." He looked to his left and saw Agnes returning with the now quieted baby. "That's her story in a nutshell."
Bess watched the little baby squirm in Agnes' arms and just could not resist. "Could I hold her?" She tentatively asked.
Agnes hesitated for a moment and then sadly smiled. "All right, but I want you to remember that Karen was my oldest friend. If you aren't careful, she'll probably come back and haunt you." She let out a nervous laugh after her last sentence.
"I'll be careful. I promise," Bess reassured her. Gently, Agnes placed the baby into her' arms. A smile crept across Bess' face as the baby cooed at the new person.
"What was with that woman earlier?" Walman interjected. "You mean Rosemary?" Molly checked. She continued when Walman nodded his head. "I don't know. She is something like twenty-four but she has the intelligence of a kid. She just showed up with Anna's group."
"Who was in Anastasia's group?" Julia wondered aloud. "That's the strange thing." Nicholas answered. "Normally people come in groups of about twenty. When we met Anastasia, only Rosemary and Nikki were with her."
"Who's Nikki?" Magus asked.
"She's an odd one too. I've never heard he say a word to anyone. I figured that's why Anastasia took such a liking to Xenia, because she was used to dealing with people who didn't talk." Randy informed everyone.
"It's odd, Nikki is like this body who only once in a while will give an indication that there is a soul inside. She spends most of her time in her tent. You won't see her much." Molly said.
"Did she ever explain what happened?" Julia demanded. "Not that I know." Nicholas replied. The discussion petered out and Julia decided to go off in search of her sister. She headed towards the tent she had seen Anastasia slip into earlier. Quietly, Julia positioned herself outside the tent and listened.
"I am thinking about tow things. 'What are they? Sit down and tell me?' 'This is the first one,' said Mary, seating herself on a big stool. 'Once in India, I saw a boy who was a Rajah. He had rubies and emeralds and diamonds all over him. He spoke to his people just as you spoke to Martha..." Julia smiled, remembering the story she used to read to her sister. She remained outside of the tent as Anastasia finished the chapter.
When Anna had said good-night to the girls she stepped out of the tent, momentarily surprised at the sight of Julia. "What's wrong, you need a bedtime story too?" Anastasia joked.
Julia gave her sister her best I-won't-dignify-that-with-a-response look and the two wondered back to the campfire. On the way, Julia suddenly stooped to look at her sister. "It's going to take me a while to get over the way you look now."
"Like you are the same person I left behind so many years ago," Anna countered. In her heart, Julia knew her sister was right. She wasn't the same. Not at all.
After a moment, Julia decided to ask her sister about why there had been so few people in her initial group, but her train of thought was interrupted by a loud comment coming from near the campfire. "No, that is just too short of a time."
Anastasia quickened her pace to find herself in the middle of a heated discussion. Apparently, from what Julia saw, her sister knew exactly what was going on.
"10 days is perfect," A man said from the back of the group. "Besides, he has the baby."
"Well then, he should have though of that before he started randomly firing a mag-pro." Molly shot back.
"What's going on?" Julia demanded. Looking towards her sister for a moment, Anastasia replied, "They're talking about how long Casey has to leave the group." Turning back to her group, she said, "All right, who suggested 10?"
"I did," said the man in the back. "Okay Alex, I got 15 and I did nothing wrong. I'm with Molly on this one. 10 Is just too short." Anna told him. "Besides, I got the brunt of the attack, I think it should be my decision."
Looking up at the brunette that was taking charge of the group, Luke spoke up. 'Speaking of 15, you still have yours to work through. Your fit was just before the limit."
It was clear that Anastasia was angry as she swung around towards Luke. "By exactly how much Lucas Kelly Spencer?" She spit out the last three words and some of the people in the group actually flinched.
Except Luke. He had expected an argument and had prepared for it. "You were two hours off."
"Two bloody hours! I don't even get leeway by that much? Besides, the fit was bloody well induced. You two would have difficulty breathing if someone's arm was around your throat!" She tried to scream at him, but she just couldn't find the power in her lungs.
Luke would not rise to the bait and get into an argument where he would lose his cool. He knew he couldn't win then. "I'm only looking out for your health here." He calmly responded.
"Well sometimes I just wish you would.." Her dissertation was stopped when she started coughing again. She backed away from everyone as if to ward off all those who might help her. When she was finished, she made a noise of disgust and stalked off.
The group's argument had sobered with the recent outburst. They all calmly agreed to the 15 days and remained silent for a few minutes. Several of it's members wandered off to bed. Luke excused himself and went after Anastasia.
"What was going on?" Julia finally asked. "Punishment in this group is usually being sent away for a finite period of time." Agnes explained.
"That is much like the ancient Inuit custom." Yale started to explain to his student and took Uly, who had long fallen asleep against the tutor, off to bed.
"I didn't mean that, what was that about Anastasia.?" Julia continued. "Excuse me, but Gossip is Baines' department." Danziger muttered as he wondered away. He walked towards the tent, he had watched True go into and when he peeked in to see that she was asleep, he went towards his own tent for some much needed rest.
Half way he heard a strange noise near the perimeter. He cautiously stepped forward to investigate, and nearly tripped over a sleeping Walman.
"Hey," Walman spurted out as he woke up. Looking at his friend strangely Danziger asked, "Do you do that a lot?" "Do what?" Walman was clearly confused. "Fall asleep on guard duty?" Danziger reiterated. Taking a moment before answering, Walman answered, "I don't think so." John shook his head and continued to his tent. Danziger crawled into his cot in an attempt to get some sleep but his mind turned towards the woman he was forced to leave behind. Most of his thoughts centred on the fact that he wanted someone other than True to keep him company on the long nights. He had dreamed about it. He closed his eyes tightly, but that just made him see Devon more clearly. He was willing to give anything to see her again. Alive, and healthy and ready to argue with him about anything.
Eventually, his thoughts gave him some respite and he fell asleep only to dream.
End of Chapter IX

I have to offer an apologize to all of Walman's Wild Ones. I couldn't resist myself. I thought you people needed some comic relief. Emma Pentland

Parallels (10/24)
By Emma Pentland

Julia sat calmly and accepted everything she was told. Anastasia had been stuck away from camp when a snowstorm hit last winter. She had tried to find shelter, but what little she did find, was hopelessly inadequate. By the time she was found, Anna had already developed a severe case of pneumonia. Her temperature had sky-rocketed for a week and there was little anyone could do for her. When the fever broke, it took the rest of the winter for Anastasia to be well enough to be able to gain back some of her independence.
"I don't understand about the fifteen days though," Julia commented when the natives finished telling their story.
"Anna's coughing has just never subsided. She is usually as in charge as anyone gets. Luke was so concerned that she'd just throw herself back into her work, that we decided that basically we wouldn't listen to her, let her be in charge, absolutely nothing, until she went though 15 days without a coughing fit." Molly explained. She almost laughed at Julia's expression of disbelief. "Don't be so shocked. Anastasia is a good leader. As you can tell, sometimes we have difficulty not listening to her, we just became so used to it."
The remaining Eden Crew nodded subconsciously, they understood how that felt.
A yawn caught in Julia's throat as she realized just how tired she was. She excused herself to go to bed. On her way back to her tent, she turned to here a familiar voice call her. She turned back around to face her lover.
"Julia," Alonzo said again when he caught up to her. "I need to.." "Why did you stop me?"
Alonzo shook his head, confused. "What?" "Earlier. Why wouldn't you let my help Anastasia with Casey? You literally held me down." Julia accused him.
Taking a moment to formulate an answer, Alonzo did the best he could. "I knew you would trade yourself for her. Like what you did when the ZED was shooting at us. I couldn't let you." He took a breath and went on. "I was afraid that you would get yourself killed. I honestly don't know what I would do if that happened."
Taken aback for a moment by the emotion in his voice, Julia leaned into his chest and wrapped her arms around him. She let out a short laugh and said, "I'm sorry I interrupted you earlier."
"Hey, I think I wanted to tell you that. I'm loving your reaction so far." Alonzo smiled down at her. Usually, he would have waited until later to deal with anything else, but he knew the urgency of the situation. "I have something important to talk to you about. Come on, let's go get Danziger." He grabbed her hand and led her towards the mechanic's tent.

In his dreams, he didn't feel guilty. He was lying on a beach at what he assumed was New Pacifica. Danziger looked to his left and saw the most beautiful woman in the world lying beside him. They had just been swimming. He could smell the salt in the air and heard her quiet breathing beside him. He leaned over to brush a wet lock off her face.
Devon started to choke. Her face went an odd bluish-shade and the breathing stopped. He tried to breath the life back into her, but it was no use.
He awoke quickly and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He nearly yelped when he heard the knock at the tent flap. He took a few quick gasps for air. For the moment, he was breathing for her. He took some solace in that.
He looked completely calm when Alonzo and Julia entered. "What is it?" He growled, sounding like someone who had just been awakened.
"Sorry to wake you man, but this is important," Alonzo excused himself. "What is it?" John repeated.
Alonzo took a brief glance at Julia and continued. "She's here." He looked first at Julia and then to Danziger and knew they understood.

"These people are so much like us." "Bess what are you mumbling about?" Morgan muttered half way in between semi-consciousness and sleep.
"These people. The natives. Look at them. I mean, even there leader is sick, I mean was sick. They weren't supposed to live like this." Bess explained.
"Bess," Morgan said, now fully awake. "These people weren't suppose to live at all. We are completely different."
"Well neither were we. We were supposed to be blown to little bits in space if you remember." Bess pointed out.
Morgan moaned at the memory of the crash. "I remember it well. What is this all about?"
Before the discussion could continue there was a knock on the tent. Before they could even answer, Danziger, Yale, Alonzo and a bewildered looking Julia entered.
"Hey!" Morgan chastised them, "What is the meaning of this?" "This is important Martin," Danziger responded.

She couldn't sleep. She knew that Anastasia had tried to calm her down, but she didn't understand. She didn't see that dream. She didn't see what would happen. She had tried to explain it to Anastasia earlier but couldn't. She stood up quietly, trying not to wake up anyone else in the tent. She was wearing Anastasia's old shirt and it went down to her knees. She tip-toed out of the tent, but she wasn't sure who she was in search of yet. Hearing voices and seeing a light on in one of the Eden Crew's tents, she wandered over, passing a man who was sitting outside, but fast asleep. She crept up behind the tent and listened.

"I don't understand," Bess said keeping her voice down. "If she is all so important, why didn't Anastasia recognize us?"
"Perhaps flyboy here was only picking up what he wanted to hear." Morgan spat back.
"Mr. Martin, there isn't the time for this," Yale's replied. "When are we going to tell them."
"I don't think tonight would be a good idea." Julia spoke up. "Why not?" Danziger demanded. "She could help Devon immediately." Julia sighed and explained herself. "If Anastasia doesn't know anything about this, then wouldn't you find it odd if someone told you that you had to save someone you had never met?" She looked around at the expectant faces. "I know my sister. She's very sensible, all this would seem far-fetched to her."
"She's lived on this planet long enough to know how strange it is." Morgan pointed out.
"But nothing we've seen so far has had much to do with humans. Only when it involves our own group. I know how I would feel if she showed up unexpectedly saying that i had to magically cure someone." Julia defended herself. "I think we should at least wait for a while and gain her group's trust."
"I don't want to wait too long Doc." Alonzo added. "Me neither." Danziger confirmed. "What if somebody get's sick?" "I didn't say we should wait a long time, at least until the morning." Julia argued.
"Fine. that I can agree with," Danziger acquiesced. The group was distracted by a small noise outside.
"What was that?" Morgan whined as he leaned into his wife. "I'll check," Alonzo volunteered. He left the tent for a moment and came back empty handed. "It was probably just an animal," He assured everyone. "I don't think we are unrecognized. One of the children today, the one that Anastasia looks after. I could have sworn she knew us."
"True's friend? The one with the odd name, Kick?" Bess questioned. "No the younger one." Alonzo replied. "Xenia?" Julia asked in awe.
"I think so?"
"She's just a baby," Bess said. "How could she know anything about us."
"According to Anna, she's five." Julia mentioned. Morgan scoffed at the idea. "Five? That's not even old enough to tie your shoes."
"Five year olds know a lot more than you think Martin," Danziger justified, remembering his own child at her age. True always looked like she knew a lot more than she ever let on.
"If we are going to deal with this tomorrow, can we get some sleep?" Morgan asked.
Yale took a hold of the discussion, to end it before they were discovered. "Mr. Martin is right. We should all retire for the evening."
With those closing words, the members of the Eden Crew went to their respective tents.

She was practically shaking. She had nearly been discovered. They wanted to take Anastasia away from her. The dreams were right. She wanted to cry but she knew that she would be heard. Instead, she ran back to her tent and slipped inside, hoping no one noticed her absence. As she wrapped her blanket around her, she knew it would be a while before she went to sleep. She prayed that she could get to Anastasia first. To tell her not to do what they asked.

In her mind, Anastasia was ten again. She was running around with the other children. She looked up and saw *her* standing there. Anna knew what was going to happen. She looked back towards all the other children. She saw Rosemary standing apart from everyone. *Just like when it happened* she willed herself to wake up. She became upset now before everything started happening. She needed to wake up. She hadn't dreamed it in so long. Why would she see it now.
*Mosi! Look out, you'll be first.* She looked back towards the ridge. She was still standing there, watching. Anastasia knew she would do nothing. She didn't do anything then. In a dream it was too late.
They were coming. Anastasia heard them. She looked back at the ridge, just in time to see *her* disappear. The sound crept closer and closer. She wanted to wake up. She heard the noise coming.
"Anastasia?" She heard a voice pulling her out of her nightmare. She opened her eyes to see Luke looking down at her. "Anastasia, you were having another nightmare."
"Oh, thanks, I didn't know that." She quipped back sarcastically. She sat up and wrapped the blanket around her.
Luke knew how angry she had been earlier, but was still hurt by her comment. "I didn't think you wanted to sleep through it."
"Thanks," She muttered, feeling a bit foolish. "Why did you have to humiliate me earlier?" She finally asked.
"No one holds your illness against you." Luke assured her. "Well I felt humiliated," Anastasia told him. "I don't feel the least bit guilty about doing it." He responded. "Why." "You know why. I have no intention of burying you. I couldn't deal with that." He said, deadly serious.
She looked at him and knew that they were getting into a sore subject with him. "I'm not that sick anymore."
"I know but every time you go into those violent fits of yours, I can't help but remember how close I was to losing you this winter. I'm lucky you didn't suffer from brain damage, your fever was so high. I don't want to risk that again." Luke reached up and stroked her long brown hair for a minute in silence.
Finally she spoke up again. "So my humiliation is only for your selfish gain."
"Damn straight." She laid back down, resting her head on his chest and he continued stroking her hair. "I think I would probably have come back and haunted you." She joshed him.
"Please don't joke about it." He requested. "Do you have any idea how much I love you?"
"As much as I love you?" "Damn straight and don't forget it." "I won't."

The sun rose early, bringing with it plenty of heat. There was no chill left in the air. Some of the Eden Crew had been up fairly early, searching through old crates for their summer wear. As Morgan had aptly noticed none of the Natives were awake doing any work.
Baines let out a low whistle. "Oh, do I like Julia's sister." Walman came over to see. Anastasia had already clearly found her summer wear. She was wearing a pair of short shorts and a top that left her mid rift bare. Her long hair was also flying loose. Walman whistled in appreciation as well.
"You people are pigs," Bess said, realizing what they were staring at. "What's wrong with appreciating a thing of beauty?" Walman said in a mock-defensive tone.
Julia had heard a part of the conversation and decided to end it while she still could. "For your information, she's 19."
Baines looked back and whispered loud enough for all to hear, "Well that still makes her legally an adult."
"Besides, she had to grow up faster." Walman agreed. Julia and Bess let out simultaneous noises of disgust and Bess pointed out, "And we were told sexism was dead." The two women laughed at the surprised look on the two men's faces.
"I'm going to go down and check out Anastasia." Julia told Bess as she put on her dia-glove.
"Personally Julia, I'd love to check her out myself." Walman quipped. Julia let out a disgusted laugh and wandered across the campsite towards her sister.
Anastasia was braiding a small section of her hair when Julia reached her. "You've become quite popular with a pair of guys in our group."
"And I'm sure you explained I was too young for them, right?" Anna joked.
"Absolutely. Speaking of too young, how old is Luke?" Julia queried. "21 so calm down." She assured her sister. "Now what do you want with me. She handed Julia a small hair tie as she pulled what she hadn't braided into a ponytail.
"I heard that you haven't been too well recently." Julia noted her sister's reaction. Anastasia sighed at the remark and held out her hand for the tie.
When she had finished with her hair, she responded. "You've seen me look a hell of a lot worse Jewel."
"I know, but I would prefer it if you let me give you a bit of a check-up."
"Jewel, I really don't think I need one." Anastasia said, trying to brush her off.
"Well if you don't get well, we've got Uly's old immuno-suit somewhere. I know you won't fit into it but I could arrange something with the air.."
Anastasia literally jumped away from her sister in fear. "Don't even joke about that Jewel. You weren't in one of those everyday for the first seven years of your life. Those things terrorize you when you realize that they are your second skin..."
"It's okay Anna. Calm down." Julia said trying to soothe her. "I was just pointing out the alternative."
"That is not an alternative under any.." Anastasia was cut off by someone yelling. "Who the heck is that?"
"Danziger, Julia!!" The voice yelled again. Julia recognized it as Magus. She quickly dashed towards the sound of her friend's voice, with Anna trailing behind.
Working her way through the crowd, she saw Yale cradling the head of someone Julia didn't immediately recognize. As she stepped closer, she heard him explain, "She was just here. I don't know how she found us. I believe she is seriously malnourished." Julia leaned over to see a jacket from the Eden Crew. At first she thought it was Alonzo's, but she was wrong.
Alonzo had opted to keep his leather jacket and he had given his crew one away.
He had given it to Mary. She switched over into doctor mode and scanned Mary. "Is she going to be all right?" Julia heard True ask her. She replied with a small smile. "Yes, she's just malnourished, like Yale said. Could you run to the med tent and get a vitamin tab for her?" True ran off instantly at the request.
Mary was babbling incoherently. She was clearly delirious. Julia attributed it to hunger. "Mary. Mary, can you hear me?" She waited for a discernable response and got none. By that time, a large crowd of both the Natives and the Eden Advance.
It had taken a while for Anastasia to work her way through the crowd. When she saw Julia, she had naively assumed that one of the Eden Crew had injured herself. She stepped closer to see who it was.
Julia looked up and saw her sister standing behind her. Julia was confused about the look of horror on Anastasia's face. She was brought her mind back on task when True returned with the vitamin tab. She reached out to get it when Anna grabbed her arm.
"How can you do this?" Anastasia demanded. "Do what?" Julia said trying to wrench her arm away. "Help her?"
"I'm a doctor, I'm supposed to help her," Julia finally got her arm free and applied the tab to Mary's skin.
"She's not worth helping. She's a bloody monster." Anastasia spat out.
Julia's head snapped up to see Anastasia working away from the crowd. Julia ran a hand through her hair and looked towards her sister in confusion as she gave orders about moving the now unconscious woman to the med tent.
End of Chapter 10

Wow two chapters in one day. Ain't ya proud? Please send all pictures of ASjr to <carre1@server.uwindsor.ca> Oh you can also send all comments about this story too. Emma Pentland

Parallels (11/24)
By Emma Pentland

"How is she?"
Julia looked up at Alonzo from the blood sample she had taken from Mary's arm. For a moment she felt a flash of jealousy at his concern, but calmly replied, "She's just suffering from malnutrition. She should be fine in a few days. all she needs is a few good meals. I've given her several vitamin tabs. It should control the minor case of scurvy I detected."
Alonzo sighed and looked at the sleeping Mary. "I can't believe the Terrians would let this happen to her."
"We've seen how unforgiving they can be. If it weren't for Mary, Yale wouldn't be here." Julia pointed out. She walked over to her unconscious patient and took another sample from her arm. "She's been responding well. I think I can honestly say that without you Alonzo, she probably wouldn't have made it through he winter."
"Me?"
Looking down at his coat on the slight feminine form, she told him, "The coat. It's thermal lining managed to keep her core body temperature high enough. It's clear that she suffered some illness due to exposure. I guess she came to depend too much on the Terrians." She paused a minute, remembering her sister's reaction from earlier. "Have you seen Anna at all today?"
Taking several steps away from the sleeping mary, Alonzo answered, "We haven't spoken to her yet if that's what you mean."
"No I just meant see her. I want to know how she knows Mary." Julia explained.
Alonzo was confused for a moment. "Anastasia knows Mary? How would you know that?"
"Her reaction earlier." Trying to remember exactly what was said, she paused and thought for a moment. "It was the same type of response I would give if I met Reilly in person."
"I'm confused."
"So am I."

"Did you see her this morning?" True asked while she helped Kick climb up onto the large rock she was sitting on.
"Who?" Kick responded when she found herself tentatively perched on a ledge of the rock.
"Mary," True explained. "She lived with the Terrians since she was little."
The story seemed so familiar to Kick. "I've heard Anna talk about a Mary before, excepts, Anna always says that Mary was the most evil person she ever met."
True was shocked. Her father would never say anything like that. "Anastasia told you that?"
Giving her friend a mischievous smirk, Kick replied, "Oh no. She wouldn't say anything like that to me. I've heard Anna and Luke talking about it. Luke will sometimes even compare evil things to Mary."
"What did she do?" True was fascinated. "Dunno," Kick answered honestly. "If I listened that much, I'd probably be caught."
Thinking for a minute, True thought that the two Marys had to be different people. "It can't be the same person. Our Mary saved Yale's life."
"How many Marys could there be on this planet that live with Terrians?" Kick pointed out.

"I can't believe they would help her," Anastasia told Luke. At least, he thought she was talking to him. She was staring blankly through him. Sometimes he didn't want to intrude in the conversation. Anastasia had entered their tent soon after Mary had arrived. She had seated herself in a shadowed far corner with her knees pulled up to her chest. "I'm going to have to tell Nikki and Rosemary before they find out some other way."
"I 've never understood your problem with Mary and I've never asked," Luke began.
"You don't need to know." Anastasia snapped, cutting him off. "You wouldn't understand; you weren't there. Mary is a killer. That's all she could ever be."
"Anastasia, you haven't given me the chance to understand," Luke knew she was almost panicked by the recent events and forgave her outburst. "Maybe you need to explain it now, before the Eden Crew decides Mary can stay with them."
Snapping her head up at the suggestion, Anna put down the idea, "If they choose to do that then they can leave."
"What about Julia? She doesn't understand anything that is going on. Unless you tell her why Mary shouldn't stay, she has no reason to turn her out." Luke explained.
"That's a reasonable idea," Anastasia agreed. She stood up, still not focusing on the man in front of her. "I need to find Nikki and Rosemary. I'll be back later." She excused herself and started to head out of the tent.
Lightly grabbing her arm, Luke asked, "Are you going to be able to handle this?"
"I'll be fine." Anna looked up at him and gave a smile that clearly said that even she didn't believe her answer.
As she left the tent, she pulled a necklace she constantly wore out from underneath her shirt. She rolled the pendant around in her hand, remembering how she got it. The reminder gave her the extra strength to do what she knew needed to be done. Taking a deep breath, she headed towards Nikki and Rosemary's tent.
Without knocking, she walked in. Rosemary was chatting away quietly to Nikki, but it was clear that Nikki was not paying any attention. She was calmly eating some food that Someone had brought her. Nikki's head barely turned to see Anastasia come in. Taking a seat beside Nikki, Anastasia knew that the only way to tell them was to come straight out and say it. "I have something I need to talk to you two about." She started.
"We know, Mary's here." Rosemary blurted out to Anastasia's surprise. Anna looked towards Nikki, who was now clearly paying as much attention as she could to the conversation.
Wrapping her arms around Nikki's neck, like she had done since she was a child, Anna soothed her, "Don't worry too much Nik, I promise that she won't be here long." She didn't know how she would keep that promise, but she realized that she had to.

Julia had exited the Med-tent just in time to see her sister duck into a far tent in the corner of the camp. Julia, took a quick glance in at her patient, and when she realized Mary was sleeping comfortably, Julia headed off to talk to Anna. She took a quick look around and paused for a moment to watch Yale give Uly and True a history lesson.
"The first World War caused a great hardship on Russia.." Julia smiled and knew that neither of his pupils were too interested. For a moment things seemed normal to her. She had a desire to look up around and see Devon keeping herself busy off to one side. She shook herself out of her reverie and continued towards the tent.
"I'll have to talk to the Eden Crew, but I don't think we have to worry about Mary staying." Julia heard her sister's voice say. She knocked on the flap of the tent and didn't wait for a reply. When Julia entered, it took her eyes a moment o adjust to the light in the tent. The material was thicker than the tents in the Eden Advance supplies and shielded the inhabitants from the light. Once her eyes managed the light, she saw Rosemary and Anastasia sitting together.
"Julia?" Anastasia asked, "What is it?" "I was looking for you. I think we need to talk." Julia replied. "Have you met Nikki?" Anastasia pointed to the other end of the tent. Julia looked at the young woman and was shocked by the resemblance Nikki had to her sister. She had the long brown hair, the same body frame and even her facial features were similar. When Nikki lifted up her head to look at Julia, the doctor noticed the difference between the two. Nikki's eyes were almost as dark as Alonzo's.
"Hello," Julia said to the young woman. "She won't answer you," Rosemary told the doctor. "She doesn't talk anymore."
"What's wrong with her?" Julia asked. Nikki's gaze went back to the floor.
"I just thought you might want to see just one of the things that Mary did." Anna explained as she stood up. She wandered over to the tent flap and pushed it open. Anastasia extended her arm in invitation for her and Julia to talk outside. Anna muttered a good-bye and Nikki only lifted her head slightly to acknowledge the fact that she did hear her.
"What was that all about?" Julia questioned, slightly annoyed at Anastasia's vagueness.
"I thought you need to see Nikki before you decided anything about Mary." Anastasia replied.
"I don't understand what you are talking about." Julia stated. "How did Mary do that?"
"It was a long time ago. Mary did something that led to the deaths of twenty three people." Anna answered.
"Could you please explain that. To charge someone with something like that.."
"No I will not explain myself." Anna snapped. "It's not my story to tell, not completely. It was a long time ago, I've tried to deal with it. For Nikki and Rosemary's sake I don't think it would good for Mary to hang around for long."
Knowing that no matter what she tried, Julia knew the discussion was over. "What's wrong with Rosemary?" Julia asked, changing the topic.
"There's nothing wrong with her." Anna replied calmly. "You know what I mean." Julia scolded. "It appears that she's suffering from some sort of brain damage. She wasn't a syndrome child because she would have been too old to have been sent with your group."
"When Rosemary was born, there was a power outage on the stations. Her mother went into premature labour for some unknown reason and when she was born, the umbilical chord was wrapped around her neck. She suffered brain damage due to lack of oxygen." Anastasia elaborated.
"How did you know all that?"
"Her mother told Rosemary. Danielle Andrews, do you remember her?" Anastasia paused and her sister nodded in reply. "Rosemary is her daughter. What happened was common knowledge. When Mrs. Andrews found out that they were ditching another batch of Syndrome kids, she sent her daughter around for the ride."
Julia remembered the stories floating around. Danielle Andrews was an acquaintance of Julia mother and a high ranking member of the Council. Anna was right, Julia remembered the story of the Andrew's first child.
The two women just stood for a moment, feeling uncomfortable with each other. Anastasia, the doctor realized, was not going to say anything more. Anna's gaze fell upon the Tutor and his pupils. She smiled, her gaze seeming distant.
"When the Tsar abdicated.. Uly? True? Are you paying any attention?" Yale demanded of his students.
Anastasia's happy-go-lucky facade fell back into place as she observed the scene. "Of course they aren't?" Anastasia yelled, much to Yale's surprise. Realizing her chance to escape the awkwardness, Anna headed over towards the makeshift class. Looking up at Yale's confused gaze, she let out a short laugh. "Can I tell you two a story?" She asked Uly and True.
Uly stared down at his feet while True said, "Sure. I guess." Anna looked up at Yale. "I promise that it's educational." She turned back towards the two children. "I heard what you were talking about and I have an interesting little story about that." She frowned as Uly was clearly not listening. "Come on champ, if you don't listen there's no point in me talking, is there?" Uly gave her an almost dismissive look, but Anastasia was not deterred. "I'm going to tell you a little story about my name."
"What does this have to do with history?" True asked. "Hold on for a bit and you'll see." Anna assured the girl. "Now I heard that you were discussing the Russian Revolution, who was the last Tsar at that time?"
"Nicholas," Uly muttered.
Glancing up at Yale Anastasia smiled, "Well at least they were paying some attention. Now Nicholas had a wife, Alexandra and five children, his son Alexei, and four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and the youngest one was Anastasia." She smiled again when she noticed Uly turn his head a bit in an attempt to listen, without anyone noticing he was hearing her. "Do you know what happened to the family after the Tsar abdicated the throne?"
"Somebody shot them," Uly replied, dropping his pretenses. "That's right," Anastasia affirmed. "But there is a little twist to that story. There were rumours that the youngest daughter escaped."
"How did she do that?" True asked, clearly fascinated. "No one knows that for sure. It was only just a rumour. Plenty of women claimed to be her, but no one could really tell. The strange thing was, is as soon as all the rumours about her escape were put down, they found the bodies of the Tsar and his family." Anastasia paused for dramatic effect, stringing along the two children. "And the youngest Grand Duchess, Anastasia wasn't there. So you see, sometimes people survive insurmountable odds and live through the most horrific things. The intern that gave me my name said I was like Anastasia. If any child was going to outlive the Syndrome, it would be me. That's how I got my name." She sat back on her heels and just watched their reactions.
"Cool," Uly said quietly.
"Now Uly, True, you have to remember that none of this was ever proven," Yale reminded them.
"Boy do you know how to ruin a good story," Anastasia scolded. "Yale is right, but it is one of the great myths in history, and it makes a great story." She looked back at the two children, "See, history isn't that boring."
True groaned, "I knew there had to be a lesson in there somewhere." "Moi?" Anna put her hands to her chest in mock-surprise. "Oh well, looks like your right True." Anna giggled. She slapped her hands on her knees, got up and walked away. She tried to avoid eye contact with Julia. She didn't want to finish their earlier conversation.
Yale dismissed the class, knowing that the children had learned enough for the day. The tutor spied Julia, who was still watching her sister, and approached the doctor. "I have a feeling that the girl in the story and your sister are not that different." He told her.
"I was thinking the same thing Yale," Julia headed off towards the med-tent to check on her patient.
'I just wish I knew how similar they are' Julia thought to herself. When Julia entered the med-tent she took a long look at Mary, who looked perfectly harmless lying on the cot. "What could you have done that was so horrible?" She said aloud to no one in particular.
End of Chapter XI

Okay, I'm going as fast as I can...But other than a few people is anybody actually reading this?? Oh well, send all comments, criticisms, catcalls and Clancy Brown to <carre1@server.uwindsor.ca> (The last one would be the most appreciated..hehehehe.) Emma Pentland

Parallels (12/24)
By Emma Pentland

It was getting late in the day before Mary woke up. She looked around the tent, it seemed familiar to her. She remembered seeing the man who taught her about God. Yale, the man she had saved. She remembered that Alonzo was in the group with Yale. It had been such a long winter since she had seen them.
A woman leaned over her bed, "Hello Mary, I just want to check your vital signs." The voice seemed far away, but the woman's face was so close. She remembered this woman. This was the doctor. The doctor didn't like her. Mary did not understand why, she just knew that the doctor didn't like her. She tried to squirm away from the cold touch of the dia-glove, but she was too tired. Mary was hungry. Though not as hungry as she had been. She even felt a little better. Mary had managed to track the Eden Crew to their present location, but hunger had caused her to collapse. The Terrians refused to help her through the winter. Mary had started to become angry at the Terrians and anger was a new feeling to her. She wanted to be with the Eden Crew. Mary knew that they would help her, they would forgive her.
As her eyes came into focus, Mary saw the doctor leave. She wondered where the doctor was going. Maybe to get Yale or Alonzo or even that woman who was a part of Yale's family. She remembered Uly too. The boy the Terrians trusted enough to give him part of the planet.

Julia knew that the Eden Crew would want to know the minute that Mary had awakened and left the med-tent in search of someone to tell. She debated telling Alonzo first, but something prevented her. She knew that he would find out from word of mouth.
"Yale!" She called, spotting the tutor talking to Cameron. The tutor hurried over, knowing what Julia was calling about. Within minutes, most of the Eden Advance had crowded into the med-tent.
"Give her some room!" Julia shouted over the gossiping crowd. "Mary, do you know where you are?" Yale asked the confused woman when everyone became silent.
"Y-yes. They did not want me anymore." Mary explained. "The Terrians could n-not forgive me."
"I told you how unforgiving they were," Yale said quietly. Mary saw Alonzo enter at the back of the tent and she reached out for him. "Water," she mumbled.
Alonzo dutifully unscrewed the cap to his canteen and gave it to Mary. Yale held her head up as she gulped it down. When she pushed it away from her mouth she smiled up at the old tutor. "You said you would help me. Before, when I helped you, you said you would help me." She said it so simply, but the meaning was clear. She wanted to stay with the Eden Crew.
"Of course we'll help you Mary." Yale assured her. A few of the people nodded their heads in agreement. She visibly relaxed and tried to sit up.
"I don't feel so hungry anymore," she cocked her head and looked at the doctor. "Why?"
"We gave you some vitamin tabs," Julia realized she would have to simplify her language. "Their like food, but we gave them to you when you were asleep."
Mary nodded her head in partial comprehension. She put her feet on the floor to keep her balance. She gave a slight smile to Uly. "Hello Uly," She said slowly. Uly gave a slight wave in reply. "Where is she?" Mary asked him. "The bossy woman that wouldn't let you come for the Moon Cross."
Seeing the boy's hurt look at the mention of his mother, Julia interrupted. "She got sick Mary."
"Then why, she not with you doctor?" Mary's disjointed sentences were familiar to an observer in the background who had just slipped into the tent unnoticed.
"We couldn't make her well. We had to leave her in a safe place." Bess explained using child-like vocabulary.
"Why did you leave my garden?" Mary questioned. "I could not find you but I followed your path."
A small sigh escaped Yale's lips before he answered. "We have to go meet more people Mary. We could not stay in your Garden forever."
The observer finally decided to speak up. "Mistress Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With Silver bells and cockle shells and marigolds all in a row."
Julia's head snapped around at the sound of her sister's voice. The Eden crew moved aside to let Anastasia through.
Mary leaned her head over to the other side and watched Anastasia approach her. "I know you." She said simply. "You taught me that a long time ago. When we were small." She paused for a moment in deep concentration. "I do not know who you are. I do not know which one you are."
"It was a long time ago Mary." Anastasia reminded her. "But I remember you very well."
"Nikki!" Mary exclaimed in a sudden burst of memory. Anastasia shook her head in response. Looking almost deflated from her mistake Mary thought again for a moment. "Pauline!"
"Pauline's dead you stupid little bitch." Her words were cutting but her tone was calm, as if she were talking about the weather.
Julia stood up and put and arm on Anna's shoulder as if to restrain her before she did anything. "Don't worry Jewel. She has no real grasp of the English language. She wouldn't know what that meant. She'd only know she was insulted if my tone had been cruel." Anna whispered into her ear.
The Eden Crew was shocked and Alonzo stepped away from the bed to approach Anna. "Perhaps you should leave," he said protectively.
"Don't worry Alonzo. I'm not going to hurt her." She told him, while still looking at Mary.
"Why you hurt me?" Mary asked. Her expression reminded Julia of the phrase sad puppy-dog eyes.
"Don't worry Mary, I won't hurt you," Anastasia said with a cheshire cat grin on her face.
"Is Nikki here?" Mary asked innocently. "An answer to that isn't easy but I guess you could say that she is here." Anna replied. "You won't see her though."
Calmly, Mary accepted that fact and then another thought came into her head. Her face gave away her uncertainty as she stuttered, "Anast-stasia?"
"Congratulations. I just came in to see if you are okay. I'll go now." Anastasia declared almost feeling physically ill staying in Mary's presence for too long a period of time. She left the tent and took a deep breath of fresh air. She smelled something cooking on the other end of camp and it momentarily took her mind off the situation. Anna was so distracted that she did not hear familiar footsteps behind her.
"What happened in there?"
She turned and gave a smile to Luke. She stepped forward and let him wrap his arms around her. "It took her three guesses to figure out who I am. She ruined my life and she barely remembers me."
"What, I'm not a good part of your life?" Luke said in mock-hurt trying to cheer her up.
He got the desired result as she looked up and smiled. "You my love are the best part, but don't tell that to Kick and Xen."
"I bet you say the exact same thing to them." "Damn straight."

"I don't understand what's going on with her." Julia cradled her head in her hands while Danziger, Alonzo, Yale, Morgan, Bess and Walman stood around.
"And you are sure that Anastasia's the girl from your dream?" Walman asked suspiciously.
"Positive." Alonzo sighed. He looked over to Mary, who had fallen asleep after the commotion earlier. "I don't know what her problem is with Mary. I mean, Mary was almost happy to see her."
"Eventually we are going to have to talk to Anastasia," Danziger reminded everyone. "We can't hold off until someone else gets sick."
"At least wait until I've given her that physical and taken care of that cough. She's not well right now." Julia argued.
"Devon's not well either, and from what I've seen, she's a lot sicker than Anna is," John practically bellowed.
"Yelling at each is not going to solve our problem," Yale interjected. "Yale's right you two," Bess told Danziger and Julia who were staring at each other.
"I'm with Danziger on this point," Walman blurted out. "I think we should talk to her now. We need to Devon out of that popsicle chamber as soon as possible."
"Well if we completely ambush her with all this information, she might not believe us and might not help. I know I wouldn't. I'd think you were all nuts." Morgan remarked.
In a low deep growl Danziger countered, "Well that's just the way you are Martin."
"Morgan was only trying to point out how weird the situation was," Bess said, defending her husband. "Don't you think so Alonzo?"
Refusing to be dragged into the middle of the argument, Alonzo simply answered, "I have no clue what to do."
"Do you think we should tell the kid?" Walman suggested. An unqualified no came from everyone in the group. No one was sure what to do in the situation.

His Mom could be saved. Uly heard them talking about the person who could save her. *Why didn't they tell me* he wondered to himself. He was going to go in the med-tent to see Mary, when he heard the adults talking. It was Anastasia. The young woman who called him champ, like his mother. The girl who told him the story earlier. He thought his mother was like the girl in the story. She would survive this horrible thing that happened to her and come back to Uly. He was so mad that no one had told him that Anastasia was the one they had been looking for. At the same time he was truly happy for the first time in weeks.
He was angry that no one wanted to talk to Anastasia instantly. He decided that instead of waiting for one of the adults to talk to her, he was going to find her himself.
Uly turned away from the med-tent and scanned the camp. Moving away from the tent, hoping no one would have noticed his eavesdropping, he walked towards a large group of Natives. He figured she would be somewhere in there.
About halfway across the camp, he was stopped by someone. He heard the distinctive noise of a throat being cleared. The type of thing adults used to do when he was in trouble and they wanted to talk to him.
He looked to see the little girl that Anastasia took care of. She was standing right in his path and if he hadn't of been so focused on his destination, he would have seen her. Her expression clearly said that she was not pleased with Uly. "What is it?" He demanded.
She didn't answer right away, as if taking a moment to formulate her answer. Her expression changed for a moment, as though she was calm again. "Were are you going?" She asked, sounding completely innocent.
Uly eyed her suspiciously. "Where is Anastasia? Xenia right?" She nodded. "Why do you want Anna?" "It's about my mother."
"I won't let you." She practically dared him to try and get past her. "You won't me what?" Uly was completely lost in the conversation. On the other hand, Xenia understood everything that was going on. No one would have thought she knew so much because she was so young. "I won't let you ask her about your Mom."
"Why? You don't know what I want to ask her." Uly pointed out. "Your Mom is sick. You want Anna to make her well." Uly was shocked that Xenia knew what he wanted. He didn't think anyone outside the Eden Crew knew. "How did you know that?"
"The Terrians told me." Xenia folded her arms, making her look much older than her five years.
"Well I'm going to ask her, whether you want me to or not." Uly snapped and he started walking around her.
Xenia did nothing physically to stop him. It was her voice that made him halt in his tracks. "You're just like that boy out of the book. The one Anastasia is reading to us. You're a little Rajah and everybody does what you tell them to."
Uly stared at the child in disbelief. "Why shouldn't she make her well? She's my Mom?"
"It's not a fair trade, your Mom for my guardian." Tired of going around in confusing circles, Uly started to stalk off towards the campfire.
This time Xenia did grab a hold of him pulling him down to the ground. Uly was too startled to make any noise. Her strength was surprising to him. He figured that this would be an even fight.

Having spent most of the day away from the camp after Mary had been found, Kick and True could both smell dinner from the lake. They were starving and came back without being called. When they made it to the outskirts of camp, True saw something odd in the shadows.
"What's that?" She asked her new found friend. Staring at two figures scuffling in the darkness, Kick answered. "Two of the kids are fighting. I wonder who.." She paused as she thought for a moment. "Oh my God, that looks like Xenia. Come on." Said, pulling True along by her sleeve.
The two girls ran over to the fight and started pulling them apart. "Uly!" True exclaimed when she recognized the identity of the other person. She reached in and grabbed him away from the attacking Xenia.
Kick had a harder fight on her hands. She had never seen Xenia this angry. In fact, Xenia had never attacked anyone in her life and even when Kick had held her back, she still tried to scratch at Uly. She stomped on Kick's foot and got away for an instant, just enough time to lunge forward and dig her fingernails into Uly's forearm.
"Anna!" Kick screamed, when she realized that she could not control the enraged little girl.
Coming instantly at the sound of her name, Anastasia rushed over to the fight, followed by a group of curious onlookers. She stepped in and wrenched Xenia away from the bruised and battered Uly. Anna held Xenia's arms to prevent her from doing anymore damage to the boy.
"What is going on here!?" Anastasia yelled when True had dragged Uly far enough away. The commotion had gathered just about everyone in camp. Luke made his way through the crowd and knelt down beside Anna and Xenia, who had now broken down into uncontrollable sobbing.
"He was going to ask you," Xenia tried to say in between sobs. "Are you all right champ?" Danziger asked. The people from the med-tent had been distracted by the noise. Now everyone was standing around silently, waiting for the little girl's answer.
"What did he try to ask me?" Anastasia whispered quietly. She stroked Xenia's hair, and softly rocked her back and forth like a baby.
"Xen, what's the problem?" Luke reiterated when there was no answer. "He was going to ask about his Mom." Xenia cried. The answer was loud enough for everyone to hear. The few in the Eden Advance who had not been told about Anastasia realized what this was about. The Natives, just stood around bewildered.
"What would I know about his mother sweetheart?" Anna asked. Looking up at Julia and realizing that her sister knew what this was all about.
"I-I don't know," Xenia stuttered. "But you know something. You can't do it. You can't."
Looking around at the Eden Crew, Anastasia was tempted to ask one of them what was going on. "Why can't I?"
"The Terrians told me," Xenia took a breath, only to sob again. "The Terrians told me that you would die."
"What are you talking about?" Anastasia was still confused, but the look on Julia's face was starting to do some explaining on its own.
"Uly gets his Mom back and you die. I don't think that's fair. I don't want you to die."
"I'm not going to die honey." Anastasia assured her. "You will if you help them."
End of Chapter XII

Umm, I don't have anything clever to say for this little part. If you want to send any comments or anything like that, please send it to <carre1@server.uwindsor.ca>
Wow two chapters in one day....you should be proud. :) Well, of course, the thing about sending me CB ASjr etc, is still applicable, if I post a story or not.
Emma Pentland

Parallels (13/24)
By Emma Pentland

Julia gasped at the little girl's words. She wanted to turn away, to have some excuse not to deal with this, but Anastasia's eyes would not let her leave. Julia leaned over to check Uly over. Nothing but a few cuts and bruises," She assured the boy.
Just a few feet from where her sister was examining Uly, Anastasia holding was a sobbing child. She took a quick glance up at Luke, who was just as confused as she was. Anna flicked her hand, signaling that she wanted to tell him something privately. "We need to talk to Xen before we deal with the Eden Crew," She whispered in his ear. "Come on we'll take her to bed." Anastasia turned back to the crying girl and softly said, "I'm going to pass you off to Luke. Is that okay?"
Xenia shook her head, she had no intention of letting go of Anna. Despite her response, Xenia found herself being placed in Luke's arms while Anastasia stood up. Once Anna was firmly on her feet, Xenia reached out and soon found herself back in Anastasia's embrace.
Before they made a swift departure, Anastasia told everyone, "I'm putting Xenia to bed. I'll be back in a little while." Her tone left no room for discussion.
When they safely arrived back at Luke and Anna's tent, they ducked inside and Luke turned on a Luma-light. "You can stay with us tonight. Luke can you get her blankets?" Anastasia's question sounded more like an order. She put Xenia down after Luke left the tent and unrolled an extra mattress they stored in the corner. Once she had seated herself and pulled Xenia down into her lap, she finally started asking questions. "Now I want you to spill everything. What is this about Uly's Mom? I know that she's sick, but what do you know about her?"
Xenia wiped a few remaining tears from her face and replied. "I only know what the Terrians told me."
"Did you dream that you were with the Terrians? Is that what you mean?" She questioned softly. It was clear that Xenia was terrified.
Xenia nodded her head. "They showed me you, lying in the ground...like at a funeral. I saw Uly too and he was with a lady that he called 'Mom' and I was standing on top of a hill somewhere. I saw everybody else too.. The Terrians told me that is what would happen."
"Listen sweetie, I'm not going to do anything that is going to get me killed. I promise." Anastasia assured the little girl. "Maybe the Eden Crew didn't know that I was the one who could help. Perhaps they might never have asked."
"They knew, I heard them."
At that moment, Luke arrived back with the blankets. The distraction was welcomed by both people. Once the bed had been made up, Luke pulled a surprise out of his pocket. "I brought along the story. I figured you might want to hear it."
"I don't want to hear about Marys or Gardens or sick little rajahs tonight." Xenia said as she crawled into bed, curling up on her side.
Anna leaned out and gently stroked her hair as Xenia began to drift off to sleep. She let out a low laugh and replied, "You know what Honey, neither do I."

Yale placed Uly down on another cot that Danziger had quickly put up in the med-tent. Julia was just cleaning up his cuts and bruises. "Nothing's broken," She said to everyone.
"Why didn't you people tell me?" Uly pleaded to everyone, he was almost crying. "She could save my Mom."
"Listen Champ.." John started. "Don't call me that any more. Only Mom can call me that." Uly snapped.
"Ulysses," Yale interjected, "We didn't tell you because we were unsure about the situation."
"It's *my* Mom. Somebody should have told me." Uly pointed out. His would be tears had dried and anger had taken their place. He balled his hands up into fists and pounded them against the bed for emphasis.
"What is wrong?" Mary asked, tilting her head to one side, confused with all the commotion around her. "Why is his Mother sick?"
"We don't know why Mary," Alonzo answered quickly, hoping to silence her.
"What kind of sickness does she have?" Mary would not be quieted that easily.
Working on a hunch, Yale explained the situation to her. "Her system shut down completely. We had to leave her in cold sleep until we can find out what caused her illness."
"System shut down?" Mary repeated the unknown words. "Her body stopped working when she was perfectly healthy," Julia simplified for her.
"The Terrians stopped doing that." Mary said, mildly surprised. John turned his attention to the woman, "Stopped doing what." "When humans came, the Terrians asked the Mother not to take them. Humans scared the Terrians. When Terrians saw humans could learn, they asked Mother to take them." Mary explained.
"So the Mother rejected Devon?" Julia tried to clarify. "Do you know any other sickness that makes," Mary paused trying to remember the words Yale had used, "System shut down?"
A bunch of significant glances were passed between the present members of the Eden Crew. They needed to have a long talk.
"Uly you need to get some sleep," Julia said, finishing up on his wounds. "Yale can take you back to your tent."
"I want to stay with Mary." A little taken aback by the request, Julia replied. "Sure you can, but you need your sleep, I'm going to give you a Sedi-derm, all right?"
Uly nodded his head and laid down on the cot, preparing himself for the Sedi-derm. He felt the cold metal against his skin, and quickly succumbed to the drugs it held.
Once the boy was asleep, the conversation resumed. Julia looked at Mary and tried to explain the situation simply enough for the other woman to understand. "Mary," Julia said to get her attention, "Are you saying that the Terrians made the planet reject us?"
Mary nodded her head in response. "You need to talk to Terrians. You have done nothing to them. They will not harm if they know that."
"We tried to talk to the Terrians. They won't listen." Alonzo countered.
"Find someone they will listen to." Mary suggested. "We think we may have found someone." Yale assured her. "You ask Anastasia. The Terrians have to listen to her. They know.." Mary was abruptly cut off by Anastasia's angry voice. "Shut up! You have no right to say anything!" She ordered. Standing near the flap for a quick escape, she glared at the sick woman.
The words were enough to make Mary jump, but the following stare made her even more nervous. "Why you mad at me?" she begged.
"Because you don't know why I'm mad at you," The answer confused Mary but she was to afraid to ask any more questions. Instead, Mary pulled the blanket from the cot around her and laid down.
Alonzo immediately jumped up in defense of Mary. "You have no right to speak to her that way!" He told Anastasia.
"I have every right Mr. Solace." She never flinched, as though stating a common fact.
"You shouldn't speak to her that way," Yale scolded. "Don't try giving me lessons on manners. I'll speak to her any way I like." She took a deep breath and calmed down. "Besides, I don't want to speak to her. I want to speak to you and you," Anna pointed at Alonzo and Danziger, "And Julia. If that's all right." Even though the words were meant to be a request, there seemed to be little other option than to talk to her.
Exiting the tent, the four people took a walk down to the river. When they arrived, Anastasia took a seat on one of the rocks, signaling the other people to do the same. Julia and Alonzo sat together beside Danziger, the three facing the other woman.
"I feel like you three are about to gang up on me or something," Anna joked, trying to ease the tension. She looked to see that no one else was in the mood for humour either. "Could someone please explain all this to me. I want to hear something other than the jumbled explanation of a terrified five year old."
"I know that True told you about Devon being ill." Danziger decided that he would be the one to start. "Alonzo apparently dreamt that you could help her."
"Did the Terrians tell you how I was supposed to help this woman, whom, may I point, I have never met." The intonation in Anastasia's voice was clear.
"The sarcasm isn't necessary Anastasia." Julia sighed, completely frustrated.
"Actually, it's perfectly necessary. My group accepts you on blind faith, and, instead, the lot of you have ulterior motives. One of which ends up with me in a hole in the ground."
"You don't sound like you wanted to talk to us. You sound like you have something to say." Alonzo assumed.
"You're right. I do have something to say. If all this is true, then I can't do what you might ask me to do whatever that is." Anastasia saw the look of pain in their faces, specifically in Danziger's. A small realization entered her mind and she directed her next comment to Danziger. "I'm honestly very sorry about Devon, but I won't do anything that will end with me in a hole in the ground. I have too much here. I can't leave it." She tried to plead with him, but he was just not understanding.
"You closed off all possibilities before you even know everything that is going on." With that, John got up to storm off.
Alonzo nodded to Julia and she realized that he need to go after him. "I'll be back in camp in a little bit." Julia told him.
With that Alonzo got up to find Danziger, who had disappeared down the path back to the camp. He caught up with him on the outskirts of the camp. "John!" Alonzo called to get his friend's attention.
"What is it?" Danziger almost growled, but instantly felt guilty about his tone.
"Hey man, that was the first time we talked to her about this.." "It was a bit of a one-sided talk, wasn't it?" John's rectorial question hung in the air for a few minutes. They both knew the answer.
"She'll change her mind. Anastasia only has to look into this. Perhaps the little girl was wrong." Alonzo tries to console.
Consolation was the last thing on Danziger's mind. "What good are these Pollyanna platitudes, they aren't going to get us anywhere."
Alonzo was more taken aback by the comment. "You sound like you have given up. We can't do that. We've come so far for this."
"We've come far enough for nothing. What Anastasia doesn't realize is that it's all of us will be affected." Danziger leaned against one of the trees and looked towards the camp. True and Kick were sitting by the campfire. They looked like they were sharing secrets, huddled so close to each other. He smiled sadly, knowing he might have to leave True sooner than he hoped. He had to abandon Devon, and now he would be forced to leave his daughter.
Planning on only taking a quick glance at Danziger, Alonzo was amazed to find himself staring at the mechanic. The moonlight revealed something that Alonzo had not seen since the mechanic had pleaded to the Grendler for his daughter's life.
John Danziger was silently crying. The tears shined as they ran down his face.

Anastasia got up quietly and moved closer to the calm river. Removing her shoes and dangling her feet in the cool water. "Come on Jewel. You don't need to sit there and mope." Anastasia gestured for Julia to come and sit with her.
Taking up on the offer, Julia sat down beside her sister. Julia watched as Anastasia turned her head up towards the moon as if she were sunbathing. The moonlight did not reveal what Julia really wanted to know. "I want you to understand something. This isn't meant to give you a guilt trip or anything.."
"Yes it is." "Excuse me?" Anastasia turned away from the moonlight and looked at Julie. "It's meant to give me a guilt trip." She sighed, "Don't play games with me Julia, I'm truly sorry about Devon, but I can't die. I have people who need me, people who love me. Jewel, I can't leave all that. Please understand me," Anna pleaded. Before Julia could answer, she interrupted. "At least you people can assure yourself that everyone else is safe." She pulled the necklace out from underneath her shirt and played with it in her fingers.
"What do you mean that we're all safe. Alonzo saw that everyone in the Eden Crew would die." Julia blurted out, not meaning to.
"Xenia saw all of you standing around my grave site. The lot of you will be fine, take Solace in that." Anna assured her sister. A thought passed through her head, "That's what you were going to say earlier, when you mentioned the guilt trip." Julia looked almost embarrassed. "Don't worry, I'm not mad or anything, you have every right to be worried."
"I'm glad I have your seal of approval." "You always had it." Taking a deep breath of the warm night air, Anastasia changed the subject. "Why was it only you? To come visit I mean?"
"Honestly, I was the only one who was interested." Julia thought back to that time. Visiting her sister in the hospital was one of the happiest and saddest times of her young life. No matter how much joy Anastasia brought, it was always tempered by the fact that she would be dead within a short eight years.
"How did you get there? Even though you seemed so much older at the time, I realize you were just a kid." Anna continued.
"Why didn't you ask about this before, when you were in the hospital." "I didn't have time then." Realizing how true that answer was, Julia replied. "I made a trade for you. My mother said the only way I could see you is if I gave up something important." The look of astonishment almost made Julia laugh. "It was her way of discouraging me from going. If I gave up something I loved, then I would grow to resent you and eventually not go see you again. It was her way."
"What did you trade?" "A doll that Sarah gave me for one of my birthdays. It was the only doll I owned." Julia smiled remembering receiving the gift. She was so young and it was probably one of her first memories.
"So you traded a doll for a baby sister?" "It wasn't a fair trade. I still miss the doll." Laughing at her sister's jibe, Anastasia leaned into the water and splashed some up at Julia. "That's mean!" She reprimanded.
"Don't scoff at that doll." Julia said, splashing Anna back. "Where do you think you got the name Claudia from anyway?"
A bewildered look came across Anastasia's face as she asked, "You named me after a doll?"
"Well, when I first met you, you weren't much more than a doll. Except you squirmed." Julia let out a full burst of laughter. Anastasia splashed her again and for the first time, Julia got a good look at her necklace as it dangled away from Anna's body and the moonlight hit it. *No! It can't be,* she thought to herself.
Getting up and wiping herself off, Julia excused herself. "I told Alonzo I'd only be a few minutes so I should get back. You coming with me?"
"Can't bear to be away for more than a few minutes?" Before Julia could respond, Anna spoke again. "Nope. I think I'll head back in a bit."
"If you keep teasing me like this, I'm going to start throwing comments about you and Mr. Spencer." Julia warned.
A half smile crept up the right side of Anastasia's face, "Nothing we probably haven't heard. You should have seen us before I got sick last winter. We were so sweet we could have rotted your teeth."
"Speaking about your illness, I expect to see you in the med-tent tomorrow. I'm going to give you a full physical." Anastasia was about to argue when Julia cut her off. "No arguments. I know where you live," she joshed.
Just before Julia was out of earshot, she remembered how she used to bid her sister goodnight. "Goodnight Grand Duchess," she called out.
"Goodnight Jewel," came the expected response. On the way back to camp she met up with Alonzo and John. Julia could swear that the mechanic had been crying.
"Hey," Alonzo said when he noticed her arrival. "Did you get anywhere with.."
"No." Julia replied. "Nothing that could save Devon." "It's to much of a price to pay. Especially when we didn't do anything wrong." Realizing what he said, Danziger tried to get out of the conversation. "I've got to put True to bed." With that Danziger started to head off.
"Wait a minute John. There's something I found out tonight that I think you people should know." Julia said, stopping the mechanic in his tracks. He turned, giving Julia his complete attention. The doctor took an almost lecturing stance when she spoke. "Anastasia has this necklace that she wears. It's normally hidden under her shirt."
"Yeah so," Danziger interrupted. "It's not abnormal to wear a necklace, I know that, but it's the crystal that makes up the pendant." She took a breath and continued, "I could almost swear that it's Morganitte."
"That's impossible," Alonzo stated. "I know. It should be impossible." Julia concurred. "But I'm almost willing to stake my reputation on the fact that it's Morganitte."
"But it doesn't burn her. Remember the burns we got at the winter camp, even through our gloves her skin should be fried by now." Danziger reminded her.
Julia agreed totally, until an idea struck her. "It's almost like she owns a piece of this planet."
End of Chapter XIII

There are no clever comments at the end of this, but a bit of a challenge and a request. The first person who figures out what book Anastasia is reading to the girls gets the next section dedicated to them. I'll give you a clue, it's a classic children's book and a favourite from my childhood. (Not that you'd know anything about my childhood, but I just had to mention it.) As for the goodnights said by the two Heller women, if I get 1 just *1* "Goodnight John-boy" in response to that...I will hunt you down. (The Waltons, my mother's favourite show. I saw it on reruns so many times, I could probably recite it to you.)
Emma Pentland

Parallels (14/24)
By Emma Pentland

This Section is dedicated to two people. Yup that's right two people got the answer to me and according to the times on their messages, they were sent within one minute of each other. *Wow* eh? Also, they figured out that the book challenge at the end of chapter 13. The book is.......... ( you can't blame me for trying to keep up the suspense I could go on for pages and pages before I tell you the name of the book. Even if you don't care what the answer is, this long build-up has to be peaking some interest right?) "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodges Burnett. (Shame on you A.j. you knew what my favourite musical was, so you should have figured this out...guess you aren't reading. Well :P to you.)
So this section is respectively dedicated to Maxine McBrinn and Becky Saari. (Who also brightened my day with the paralleloholic comment.)To all the other people who guessed, thanx for trying but Becky and Maxine were first. -LCC

It had been a restless sleep for Anastasia and when first light broke, she found it impossible to drift off again. She couldn't help thinking of that little boy. Uly had seemed so sad since the Eden Crew's arrival. As much as Anastasia had tried to reach the boy, she knew what part of him was missing.
She could give it back to him. At least that was what everyone was telling her. Anna had no idea how to do it.
The light that had pierced the tent illuminated the other two people who were sharing it with her. Xenia was still curled up on her mattress, sleeping soundly. Anastasia was still upset that Xenia had not shared any of the Terrian dreams with her until last night.
Luke lay beside her. Anna had no idea when he had come to bed. With all the commotion, Anastasia was worn out and had gone to sleep the instant her head hit the pillow.
Slipping quietly out from underneath the covers, Anna searched for some clothes to wear. Finding something that was some what clean, she took off Luke's old shirt, that she had used to sleep in, and quickly got dressed.
Careful not to wake anyone as she left the tent, Anastasia went directly to an old crate. Inside were all the things that Rosemary, Nikki and herself had taken from their first camp. It wasn't much, so the objects she was looking for was easy to find. Two crudely made books of paper that were held together by two holes in each page and an old hair ribbon. She smiled when she remembered Pauline suggesting that they make paper. Apparently there had been something on the information chips about it. Anastasia hadn't brought the small hand-held child's computer with her, so the information was lost. The books were all that was left of Pauline. Somehow Pauline had made them. She had explained to Anastasia that when something important happened, they had to write it down. They had used some dye from berries to make the ink. Anastasia had made a new batch of ink six months ago and kept it in a air-tight container so that it hadn't dried. One of the other children in her group had been given an old fashioned fountain-pen by his parents, so the writing instrument was easy to find.
Everything was in the two books. Anastasia had been diligent about recording every momentous event. She hadn't made an entry since she had made the ink. Glancing over at the tents of the Eden Crew, she knew that this had to be mentioned. Seating herself on of the make-shift benches near the campfire pit, Anastasia started writing.

The white light flooded his mind's as Alonzo Solace found himself in the dream plane. He was standing on an unfamiliar ridge on the outskirts of a forest. Something told him that it was this forest, but he knew the end of this forest was at least half a week's travel.
He heard noises coming from the plateau below him. He looked down to see a ragtag group of children. He half expected to recognize them from the Native group, but none of them seemed familiar. They were all around the same age, about ten or eleven he surmised. Running around and laughing like healthy children, Alonzo was surprised by the lack of any adults. Their was one older girl sitting off away from the main group, but she was barely a teenager, clearly no old enough to lead any group.
A hand gripped into his shoulder and alonzo turned to see a Terrian. Pointing with his lighting stick, the Terrian brought Alonzo's attention to another scene. Two girls were talking. One was dressed in ragged clothes like the children below. the other one was wearing old animal skins, like the ones Mary wore when he first encountered her.
Alonzo realized that the second girl was Mary. "What's the meaning of this? What do you want to show me?" He asked the Terrian. In response the Terrian only drew his attention back to the two girls. The first girl grabbed Mary's hand and led her down to the group of children.
"Please," Alonzo said, "What is this for?" He wanted to say more when a loud bang interrupted him. He knew that sound.
It was from a magpro. He whipped around to see an entirely different scene from before. All the children who were so alive before lay dying or dead on the small valley. Some were trying to run into a small series of caves, but they were quickly shot down. "You've shown me enough death. Why must I see.." His question was stopped in his throat by another sound. It was not as loud as the shot, but it was easier to hear.
One of the children was crying. Alonzo couldn't see who it was, as he left the Terrian on the ridge and went down to look for the sole survivor. Instead, he found three, the older girl, the one who led Mary down to join the group and another girl. The last two girls looked remarkably alike, so much so that Alonzo wasn't sure he could tell them apart from even a short distance. He glanced up back at the ridge to see the terrian had been replace with the young Mary. She simply stood there watching the scene with little interest and quickly vanished into the earth.
Alonzo could not see the attackers. As he tried to look around, the scene started to fade from his eyes. Soon the only people left were the three survivors. All the corpses, the caves, the ridge, the plateau, all was gone. Alonzo stood in a bright blazing light. A Terrian came out of the blinding light and placed something in one of the girl's hands. He tried to see what the Terrian had given her, but it reflected the light and blinded him for a moment.
The older girl turned to Alonzo first. "He has to know," she tried to plead with one of the younger ones. The other young girl seemed disinterested in the events around her.
For the first time, the girl seemed to notice Alonzo's presence. She turned to look at him...
Alonzo woke up in bed with a light film of sweat covering his body. He blinked in surprise as the same eyes from his dream were staring down lovingly at him. He reached up and stroked his lover's face and realized that they weren't her eyes that were looking at him in his dream. They were her sister's.
"You were having another dream Alonzo," Julia soothed, "Do you want to talk about it?"
Unsure of how to describe what he saw, he simply replied. "When I've figured it out, I'll tell you."
Julia had to accept that explanation as she crawled out of bed and got dressed to greet the day. "We're going to have to talk to the rest of the group today and explain what happened last night."
"Yeah, sure," Alonzo replied half-heartedly. His mind was still racing over the dream.
Realizing his distraction Julia walked back to Alonzo and wrapped her arms around him from behind. "Are you absolutely sure you don't want to talk about it?"
Alonzo nodded and gave Julia a quick kiss in reassurance. The sign of affection made her smile as she went back to finish getting dressed. They hurried because they heard the rest of the Eden Advance team going about their usual morning routine.

John Danziger had tried to do some work on a malfunctioning solar panel on the dune-rail, but his mind kept wandering back to the previous night. His mind eased some when he found out that he wasn't going to suffer the same fate as Devon, but the weight was still too heavy on him. A part of him wanted to go and ring Anastasia's throat for not saving Devon, but he realized that she had a life here too. An idea had tweaked his mind and he was beginning to wonder if he could trade himself for the two women, but he knew that he had obligations as well.
His favourite obligations was busy talking with her new found friend on the opposite end of the camp. Every once in a while he found himself glancing over to them. Sometimes his gaze fell on Anastasia, who had been busy writing in something all morning. His mild attention to the task was distracted once again when he heard Anastasia call to Kick and True for a moment. He watched as she asked them to do something, which was clearly not appealing to either of them.
Danziger checked to see that all the Eden Crew was up and about. He saw everyone going about their daily chores and wondered how happy Devon would be that they were all finally working together.
"I asked you two girls to go get something from my tent didn't I?" Anastasia's voice permeated across the camp. It wasn't loud, but everyone was working quietly so it carried well.
"Yes," Kick answered, clearly annoyed. "Well I don't hear your feet moving!" Anastasia scolded. John literally dropped the tool her was working with. It landed on his foot but he barely gave any notice to the toe it had landed on. What Anastasia had said was by no means abnormal, but it was what Devon had said to him moments before he was shot by the ZED. Looking around the camp, he saw that other people were thinking the same thing. A badly patched up wound had been instantly re-opened.
*It's odd how something so normal could bring back such memories.* He thought to himself. John still owed Devon for getting the bullet out of his gut before it exploded. He was unsure if he would ever get to repay her.
Danziger looked over to the person who was his assistant. Walman seemed equally distracted, but by something totally different. "Man, quit staring at her." John muttered.
Walman, who never took his eyes off Anastasia, replied, "I must have a thing for Hellers."
"Well this one's taken too, so keep your mind on my work." Danziger shook his head in disbelief.
"You have to admit, I wouldn't feel so guilty. I mean, I *know* 'Lonz, but her guy, Luke, never met him before. I wouldn't feel so bad." Walman explained.
Danziger couldn't believe what his friend was saying. "Didn't your mother teach you any morals?"
"Yeah, but I spent more time with my friends in school, their morals won out." Walman joked. Taking a breather from the subject, Walman stared off into the forest. A small glint caught his eye far down the path. "Hey man, what's that?" He said to no one in particular.
Danziger's head shot up at the sound of warning. "Zero!" He ordered, "Identify!"
"Sensor state that it is a mechanical vehicle approaching at high speeds. Estimate say that it should be here in one point two minutes." The robot replied. With that, Walman picked up his magpro and took cover behind the crate he had been sitting on.
The commotion caught Anastasia's attention. She looked down the wide space between the trees to see the same thing. She reacted far differently. She calmly closed up the book and prepared to meet the visitor. Anna was not going to worry unless it was necessary. Smiling as she recognized the driver of the one man ATV, the grin quickly faded when the look on his face told her it was serious. "Kersen!" She waved to him.
The medium height Asian man waved back. He quickly rushed ver to her and grabbed her arm. He started whispering quietly in her ear. Anastasia's expression became quite disturbed.
The action was confusing the Eden Crew. They had grouped together near the dune-rail. True and Kick were huddled together, the latter little girl obviously having some idea about what was going on. Danziger watched as Luke approached Anna and the man, only to be included in the conversation.
It was a very short discussion as the man hurried back to his vehicle and drove off. Once Luke and Anna had a quick discussion they addressed the curious group of onlookers that was combined of the Eden Advance and the Natives. "For those of you who don't know, that was Kersen from another one of the groups that live down stream." Luke started.
"Apparently a group of Council operatives was spotted yesterday coming from the South East." Anastasia finished. Looking around, she shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry guys, we have to pack up and move out. I would rather do this now before they come knocking on our doorstep. I know that there are several other groups that they will probably encounter first, but I want to move back to be safe." No one disagreed with her. "We should move out before darkness falls. At least get a head start. So everybody pack up their stuff."
The group of Natives dispersed unwillingly, but the Eden Advanced was still confused. "Exactly how many of these Council operatives are roaming around?" Morgan demanded.
"They're like parasites, they keep turning up every once in a while." Anastasia answered. "I honestly don't know how many are around." She turned to address everyone. "If you would prefer not to come with us, that's fine."
"We'll come," Danziger assured, looking around at everyone to insure no complaints. The Eden Crew went to prepare for their departure.
A little over an hour later, everyone was ready to go. The last tent to be disassembled was the med-tent as Mary was being led out to the Dune Rail.
At the same time, Anastasia was just finishing seating arrangements for the procession. She was having difficulty figuring out wear to put Nikki and Rosemary. "I guess Xen could sit on my lap for the trip. Kick is going with True in that transrover of theirs. So this is okay if you drive," she checked with Luke.
Mary was unsure of the commotion and looked around for a familiar face. She knew all of the Eden Crew, but she saw someone she knew over with the other group. Walking towards them she remembered who they were. "I know you." She said softly, "Nikki?" She asked softly.
The mention of her name got her brief attention and she looked up at the strange person. Nikki was confused for a moment.
"Go away Mary!" Rosemary tried to protect Nikki and shoved Mary away from them.
The name was all it took. Nikki started screaming. the noise instantly shocked everyone. She backed away from Rosemary and Mary. Her feet were not that steady under her and she tripped, hitting the ground hard. She was still screaming as her long-time friend came rushing over to her.
Anastasia knew instantly what had happened at the moment Nikki screamed. She dropped what she was doing and ran over. She watched Nikki fall and watched for a second as she kicked and hit at the ground below her. "Get Mary away!" She ordered as she dropped to the ground, gathering up her friend in her arm like a hurt child. Anastasia held Nikki's arms firmly to prevent her from hurting herself.
No one had bothered to remove Mary. "Alonzo!" Anastasia yelled. "Get Mary out of her!"
Alonzo instantly stepped forward and led Mary to the back of the 'Rover and told her to get in.
"What's wrong Alonzo?" Mary asked, still not comprehending what had just happened.
Shaking his head, Alonzo realized that he did not know either. He hurried back to the scene to find out.
The screaming had stopped. Anastasia had calmed Nikki enough that some of the people realized the show was over and went back to their duties.
"Crazy Nikki. One of these days she's going to hurt someone." Alonzo heard someone mutter.
Turning to see Randy, Alonzo asked, "She's done this before?" "Yeah. Used to do it all the time when she first came. Hasn't had a fit for a while though." Randy replied. With that Alonzo looked back to see Anastasia helping Nikki to the 'rail that Anna and Luke had procured. Alonzo was surprised by the similarity between the two women. When the once screaming woman had been settled, her gaze fell on nothing, like she was dead inside.
Anastasia, on the other hand was bustling with activity. Once Nikki had been taken care of, Anna went in search of Danziger. She spotted him near one of the vehicles, and almost ran towards him. "I need to talk to you about Mary," She said briskly. "I know we can't deal with this now but she can't stay."
"Excuse me," Danziger snapped, unable to take orders. "Don't start with me Danziger, you people can what to do with her after we get settled this evening." Anastasia tried to end it then, but Danziger would not let her go.
"You're asking us to abandon her?" "I never asked. I'm a lot more abrupt than that. You saw what Mary did." Anastasia challenged him silently.
Using the same tactic he used before with Devon, he caught her off guard. "Fine. We'll talk about it tonight." He had to hold off the challenge until then, they had to get moving.
Anastasia 's head cocked to one side in confusion. She accepted it and went back to her vehicle. She sat down, still mildly surprised.
"How did you ward her off? Anna looked like she was ready for a fight," Yale said behind Danziger. The tutor was surprised when John let out a stifled laugh in surprise.
"I used something I used to do with Devon." "What was that." "I agreed with her." Yale finally got the joke as the groups set off into the forest.
End of Chapter XIV

I have reading week coming up, so you people probably won't get another section for a while..sorry...then again, I might have an interesting way around it, but I'll have to see.
Okay, I know this section is mediocre. It's one of those middle sections where you have to get the characters from point a to b. Sometimes it can be laborious, but what can you do when you live in a shoe? (Move to a boot.)
Who was that?
(Maybe high heels are your style.)
WHO WAD THAT?
(You know me..Lizard Breath.)
Yikes!
Anyway, while I try to rid myself of Lizard Breath, I will not even pretend to be subtle and say this.. IF IT STINKS TELL ME SO, IF IT DOESN'T PLEASE SEND ASjr TO 2585 RIVERSIDE DRIVE WEST..... (Oh. Fine then Don't share ! :P ) Emma Pentland

Parallels (15/24)
By Emma Pentland

The day's travel went slowly. It was difficult to manoeuver the Transrover through the increasingly dense forest. The Eden Advance and the Native groups were stopping a lot to get the monster vehicle dislodged from low-laying tree branches.
Barely anyone had spoken since the morning, with the exception of True and Kick, who had been nattering away all afternoon in the cab of the Transrover. Besides a few chats over the gear about their position, everything had been quiet. True had learned that the Natives had acquired gear from several Council groups over the years, but it was tuned to a different frequency, so the Eden Crew could talk privately.
Realizing the privacy, Danziger picked up his gear and switched it on. He was driving alone in the ATV. " 'Lonz? Hey 'Lonz, you there?"
"Yeah, what is it Danziger?" Came the expected reply. "We have a problem with Mary."
"John?" Julia said, breaking into the conversation. "I couldn't help over-hearing, what's wrong?"
"Apparently your sister has a problem with Mary staying with us." John answered.
"I don't think it's only Anastasia who has the problem. That woman, Nikki, the one who lost it, I think she's the problem," Alonzo pointed out.
Julia gave Alonzo a quick glance to silence him. "What does she want us to do with her?"
"She wants Mary to leave."
"We can't just turn her out John," Alonzo pleaded. "I know that, but we have to find something to placate her." John argued. "I just thought I should tell you. I can't think of anything."
"All right." Julia said, and the pair signed off. As the day turned into night, the two groups camped in a small valley. The campsite was crowded and they unpacked little, knowing they would have to move further in the morning.
Preparing himself for a battle of wits, Danziger was surprised when Anastasia mentioned nothing about Mary leaving. Instead, the two groups kept remarkably segregated for the night. Apparently Anastasia had convinced her group that it would be in their best interest for everyone to stay apart for the evening, Danziger surmised.
On the other hand, Julia wanted no part of a voluntary separation. Once dinner was finished, she instantly approached her sister. "Anastasia," Julia said to get Anna's attention. "I want to see you in the med-tent please." Julia tried to use her doctor tone, in order to get compliance with her request.
"Sure Jewel," Anna replied. Getting up from her seat around the campfire, she led the way to the med-tent. She held the tent flap open as Julia ducked under and turned on a Luma-light. "I was wondering when you were going to do that check-up."
"Well, today we were too busy for it." Julia tried to keep her distance.
Anastasia, would not let her. "Jewel, Julia, what's wrong with you?" "Why do you want Mary to leave?" "She has to go."
"Why?"
Anna took a deep breath. "You saw how Nikki reacted this afternoon. It's not like Mary is sick anymore. She got her good meal. She has her health. It's time to send her on her way."
"Mary can't make it on her own. She's dependant on the Terrians." Julia tried to explain.
"The condition we would leave her in is a hell of a lot better than.." Anastasia stopped herself.
"Then what?"
"I don't want to talk about it anymore." Giving the pair a little time to rest from the argument, Julia ran her dia-glove over the now lying down Anastasia. "It's just residual damage to your lungs from the pneumonia. Eventually you would have recovered, but I'm going to give you a tissue-regeneration stimulant to speed up the process." Julia switched over into doctor mode and searched through her things for the right medication. Once she found the right bottle, she injected the medication through Anna's bare forearm.
"Are we finished," Anastasia was feeling uncomfortable and wanted to leave as soon as possible.
"We won't turn Mary out."
Anna huffed as she got up off the cot, leaving the tent without saying a word. She let her eyes adjust to the increasing darkness, she looked for Danziger. She spotted him with the rest of the Eden Crew. She rushed over there, slowing when some of the Crew members started staring at her.
The looks behind his shoulder, gave Danziger the idea someone was standing behind him. He looked to see Anastasia standing there.
"You got *Julia* to tell me that Mary was staying." "We won't abandon her."
"That's funny Mr. Danziger, I figured leaving people was all right with you."
"What do you mean by that?" Danziger growled. Julia came up behind her sister. She watched as Danziger slowly stood up. He was clearly irritated.
"Well you left Jewel. Maybe if we left Mary with a tent and a few days' supply of rations, perhaps you'd feel better about it." Anastasia was trying to provoke Danziger. Julia didn't know why, but Anna's voice had turned cold and uncaring. She seemed to not care about the man's feelings. Julia was mortified at her sister's actions
"How did you know about that?" Danziger demanded. "You're daughter has some interesting stories to tell." The stand-off was evident to everyone and the Natives came over to watch. The all-out war between the two leaders had started.
"Perhaps we should just calm down for a moment here," Bess suggested trying to moisten the increasingly thickening tension.
"Of course perhaps we could put her in deep-freeze and then trek half-way across the planet. That sound's like a plan to me."
Danziger was shaking he was so angry. "We had no choice but to leave Devon."
"We all have choices Mr. Danziger." Alonzo stood up, seriously worried that John just might hit her. He had only seen John this enraged only once before, when the Terrian had taken over his body.
Anastasia was not the least bit afraid for her safety. She stepped so close to him that Danziger could feel her breath rustle is shirt.
"Anastasia," Luke warned in the background. Anna held her hand out, telling Luke not to approach them. She put her hands on Danziger's shoulder and stood on her toes to whisper in his ear. "I wonder how she felt knowing you were leaving her there? Do you think she knew? Do you think she knew that you abandoned her?"
The questions that Danziger had been afraid to ask were finally put into words. He gripped his fists to the point where his fingernails were digging painfully into his palms. He could not lose control now. he had to remember that this was the only person who could help Devon. "Get your hands off me." He snarled and looked down at her.
"Anastasia," Luke said again.
She just stared at Danziger for a moment and then silently pulled away from him. Once she had stepped a safe distance away from him, she spoke again. "Just a few crumbs for your mind to chew on." With that, she abruptly turned and stalked off.
Danziger ran his hands roughly through his hair, trying to work out his frustration. He looked at his hands and realized that he had pulled a few tufts out.
"Hey man are you alright?" Alonzo placed a hand on Danziger's shoulder.
Not able to distinguish the person through his anger John glared at Alonzo and the pilot moved his hand. Realizing what he had just done, Danziger apologized. "Sorry man, I'll be fine." His shoulders were still shaking from anger. He sat down by the fire and stared into it, not wanting to speak to anyone.
The Eden Crew understood and the incident was not discussed.

Kick and True had watched the entire scene from the shadows. True was shocked. "What did Anastasia do?" She demanded.
"I dunno. Sometimes Anna can get that way. Whenever something happens to one of us." The other girl replied
"Who's *us*?" "Me, Xen, Luke, Nikki, Rosemary. Sometimes Luke says that she has too many people to look after. You're not mad at me are you?"
"No." True said, feeling sorry for her earlier tone. "It's not your fault. What do you think Anastasia said to my Dad?"
"Anna knows things about people. She can tell what will make them the saddest or angriest. I think she said the one thing that would make your dad." Kick explained. The girl hated it when Anna acted like this. It used to scare her when she was little, even though Anna had never done it to her. Kick had seen it done to other people before.
"She's mad 'cause Mary won't leave." The two girls turned to see Xenia standing behind them. Kick was always surprised when the little girl would sneak up on them. Most of the children had a limited run of the area around camp, but Xenia could disappear for hours then turn up in time for dinner.
"Why would she want Mary to leave?" True asked. "Nikki is afraid of Mary." "You are going to start telling me everything you know." Kick told Xenia.
Xenia explained about her Terrian dreams and when she finished, Kick and True just stood in shock.
Looking back towards her father, True felt the need to go to him. She looked back at Kick and the other girl nodded, telling her to go. True walked over to the campfire and stood beside her dad. She started stroking back his hair as she looked into the campfire with him. "It's going to be okay Dad," she told him. "It's going to be alright. It has to be.

Luke had left shortly after Anastasia back to their tent. He was now almost as angry as Danziger had been. He stormed into the tent expecting to argue with her, but to his surprise, there were no lights on in the tent, yet he had seen her enter it. "Anastasia?" He called out into the darkness as he started to make his way over to the light.
"Don't turn the light on." Ignoring her request, Luke turned on the lamp. Anastasia was huddled on their mattress curled up tightly on her side. He was too angry to deal with her obviously disturbed mood. "What the hell was that for?!" He barked at her.
Luke's tone of voice made her flinch in response. "Please don't make me talk about it. I was so angry."
Not letting Anastasia get away with it, he continued. "That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen you do to anyone," he tore into her. "What did you say to that man?"
"I just asked him a few questions," she equivocated. "I don't want to hear that. I want to know what is wrong with you." "I said I don't want to talk about it." "Well *I* do want to talk about it." "Maybe you should find somewhere else to sleep tonight." The suggestion took a moment to sink in. "You are not going to get rid of me that way. I *love* you, even you're like this and I want to know what is wrong with you." He pleaded with her.
"You promised you would never ask me." Luke blew a length of his hair out of his face in frustration. "It's not healthy for you to be like this. I know I said I wouldn't ask." Searching for the words, his motive became perfectly clear. "Now I'm asking. I'm worried about you."
"I can't believe that they are letting her stay. She's a monster," The echoes of the previous night were clear.
"Why do you say that?" Luke asked, "You never seem to back up your claims.
Anastasia sat up, trying to keep her composure. She felt like crying but her pride covered up her sadness with anger. "I thought you would believe me no matter what."
"Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" "It's not my secret to tell." Luke was confused. "Well if it's not yours than whose is it?" Trying to come up with a plausible explanation, Anna just sat still for a moment. "It's kind of a co-owned secret and we all own a part, so we shouldn't really tell unless the other ones want to tell." She wanted so desperately for all this to go away. She had seen the next day's path that Yale had planned out. *It takes me too close to home.* She thought to herself. Finally the bubble pressure that had been building up that day burst and she started crying uncontrollably. Luke came over quietly and held her as sobbed. He tried to hush her, but the two just sat their holding each other.

"I think we should seriously consider leaving." Morgan suggested to the group.
"We can't leave," Julia pointed out. "Anastasia may be the only one to help.
"You can't want to stay Julia." Magus said in disbelief. "If this is our only chance to save Devon, maybe even ourselves, we should stay," Alonzo said in the doctor's defense.
"I thought you said we were safe from the sickness." Bess reminded him.
"We were safe since we arrived, maybe we're unsafe when we leave." Julia surmised.
"I'm willing to swallow my pride if there is a chance to save Devon." John's statement did not surprise anyone in the group. "It may be the only chance we have. i'm not willing to give that up."
"What did she say to you John?" Yale asked, finally believing it to be the appropriate time to ask.
"Something I didn't want to think about." No one asked anything more. "I'm going to bed," John said, finally braking the silence that had fallen upon the group. He got up and picked up True and headed off to his tent.
Kick's voice stopped him before he got too far. "I'm sorry." the comment got the attention of the Eden Crew. The girl faced the group and swallowed. She felt nervous, but not foolish. "I'm sorry about Anastasia. Sometimes she gets like that. I don't know why, but I thought I should say I'm sorry." She didn't want to hear all the adults tell her it was all right, so instead she turned and headed away from the group. She signaled to Xenia, telling the little girl to come with her.
Halfway to their tent, Kick stopped. "I want to go talk to Anna, wanna come?" The little girl shook her head. Xenia knew that Kick wanted to talk to Anastasia by herself. Xenia separated from Kick and went into their tent, while Kick headed off to Anna and Luke's tent. When she arrived, Kick heard some crying from the inside. She knew it was Anna. Gently, Kick knocked on the tent flap.
"Come in," Luke responded. Kick entered and looked right at Anastasia. She looked miserable, Anna's eyes were red from crying and she was wiping the tears from her face. "Are you alright?" Kick gingerly asked.
"I'm sorry Kick. Is there something you want?" Anastasia answered. "What's wrong with you? Why did you do that to Mr. Danziger?" Kick blurted out. "I felt really bad for both of you."
"Oh Kathleen, I'm sorry I made you feel poorly." Anastasia waved her hand to signal Kick to come sit beside her. Kick rushed over and leaned against Anastasia when she sat down. Anna wrapped one arm around the girl's shoulders and stroked her chestnut blond hair. "I remember when you were so little and we used to cuddle all the time." Anna let out a small laugh. "I'm only 19 and here I am feeling old because you've all grown up on me. I've known you since you were two and that seems so long ago."
Kick let out a small smile at the comment. She looked up at her guardian and became serious. "I apologized for you."
"You did what?" "I'm sorry, was that bad?" "Not at all Kick," Anastasia said a small tear slipping onto her cheek. "You don't have to apologize for me. What I do isn't your fault. It never, *never* is. No matter what I do. Do you understand me?"
"Yes," Kick replied, truly understanding. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I made you feel badly. I don't ever want to do that, I love you too much." Anastasia glanced up at Luke. "We both do," she smiled. She broke away from the hug after a few minutes and stood up. "Come on, it's time for bed."
As they exited the tent, they heard someone calling from behind them. "I fixed it. Ha! I told you I would?"
"Seriously Nicholas?" Luke asked. "Fixed what?" Anastasia queried. "It's a surprise," Luke replied, "Prove it. Play something happy!" He yelled at Nicholas.
The commotion got the Eden Crew's attention. They turned to look at the action. The light of the campfire and luma-lights made it clear enough to see.
Anna's hands clapped together in joy when an old song suddenly filled the air. She grabbed Kick's hand and swung her around like the two were ballroom dancing. "You fixed the old music player!" She exclaimed. That was the one luxury she had allowed herself to take so many years ago. It had been broken for a few weeks after a couple of the children had been playing with it.
Bess watched curiously at the three people who were enjoying the music. She glanced over at her husband seeing him subconsciously keeping the beat on his knee. She smiled for a moment, the joy of the three natives was momentarily infectious. She saw a couple others doing the same thing. She listened to the lyrics and realized that it was the tune that was happy, but the lyrics were not as upbeat. Apparently though, the tune seemed to hold some special meaning for the natives laughed the second they heard it.
Luke approached Anastasia. "I'm going too make you laugh again," He stated firmly.
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, "How are you going to do that?"
"Dance with me?" "With all these people around? We're going to look rediculous," Anastasia pointed out.
Luke leaned forward, "So they won't have so much fun, Come on Cecilia, you're breaking my heart," He recited with the lyrics. He grabbed her hand and wrapped his other hand around her waste and she instantly fell into step.
Anastasia laughed at the old nickname and said, "You are going to completely embarrass me," she teased.
"Well, if embarrassment makes you laugh, prepare to be humiliated a lot." Luke assured her.
"This was a very nice surprise." Kick was quite happy watching the scene, accepting that for the moment, things were back to normal.
Bess watched and smiled. For a moment, people seemed all right and not worried for a moment. She tapped her husband. "Come Morgan, we're going to dance, what good is music if we can't dance?"
Quizzically following her lead, Morgan pulled his wife close as the song repeated itself. For a moment he was content.
For a moment the worries were forgotten as Luke and Anastasia just danced. It was a much needed break for everyone.
End of Chapter XV

Okay, so sue me, I looked over all the ends to my chapters and discovered how suspense filled or depressing they were. Since you won't have another installment for a while, I wanted to leave you on a happy note. I won't be on my computer until after reading week. PS: The song used is "Cecilia" bye Simon And Garfunkel...so sue me, I like some music written before I was born.
PPS: If you don't know the song, search high and low to find it, I've never met a person who doesn't like it.
Emma Pentland

Parallels (16/24)
By Emma Pentland

Looking around in her dream, Anastasia found herself wishing it was the dreamplane. Sorrowfully disappointed, she realized where she was.
"I don't want to be here!" Anastasia yelled out into the wind. As she looked around, she spotted Nikki and Rosemary, a young Nikki and Rosemary. Anastasia glanced down at herself. She knew the clothes she was wearing and she hadn't had them since she was twelve.
"You!" Anastasia turned at the gruff, evil voice. She turned to try and escape on the rocks beside the river. Unable to see the face of her attacker, she instinctively knew who it was. "Gotcha!" The voice said as Anastasia felt a slight pull on her ankle. Managing to pull herself away for a moment, Anastasia realized there was only one place she could go.
Diving head-long into the river, Anna instinctively breathed in, her lungs now full of water. She tried to come up for a breath, but a hand reached down to hold her there.
Anastasia bolted up from bed, looking for the reassuring face of her lover. Luke had obviously awakened at the crack of dawn, leaving Anna to sleep. She scrambled to get dressed and rushed out of the tent. Carefully scrutinizing the activity in the camp, Anastasia realized how late it was. Everyone was up and packing their respective tents and were fairly far along in the process. Running her hands through her hair, which was still knotted from sleep, she went off in search of her hairbrush. *Anything to keep my hands busy so that no one will see them shaking* she thought to herself. Remembering that Kick would have used her brush, Anastasia retrieved it and slowly started combing out the tangles.
Luke had been observing Anna's nervous manner and figured what was wrong. He walked up right in front of her, but Anastasia did not see him, her eyes were turned to the ground. "Good morning," he said quietly, but it was still enough to spook her into dropping the brush. He crouched down in front of her, picking up the dropped item in the process. "Hey, you're awful jumpy this morning." He smoothed out her hair with his hand and Anastasia gave him a small smile.
"Bad dreams. Nothing abnormal." Anastasia assured him. "You've had too many lately." Luke pointed out. "I want to know what's troubling you."
"Do we have to go on that route Yale planned?" Anastasia asked. Luke did not realize that Anastasia had not changed the subject, that the route was her problem.
"Yeah. They said the 'Rover can't pass any other route." Getting up from her small sanctuary, Anastasia took Luke's hand as they went over to get something to eat. Morgan Martin was serving some sort of oatmeal-looking mush that his wife had made. He dutifully served everyone, until it was Anastasia's turn. When he saw her he put down the ladle and stepped away from pot. "Server yourself," he muttered.
Instead of being embarrassed, Anastasia did just that, she picked up the serving spoon and poured some of the slop into her clay bowl. Once she had moved on, Morgan continued serving.
Anna stepped away from the breakfast line and without looking, almost stepped into John Danziger. The mechanic just glared at her, as if he was expecting some sort of apology. Anastasia knew he was not going to get it. "Don't think I'm going to apologize to you Mr. Danziger," she stated clearly, her anger at him for permitting Mary to stay made her strong. "I have no intention for swallowing my pride for someone like you."
"Someone like me?" Danziger asked, unconsciously setting himself up. "Someone who, shall we say, associates with undesirable persons." Anastasia said in the tone of an annoyed bureaucrat.
"Like you?" Danziger snapped back. Anastasia did not become angry. She knew that it would just make her look bad. "I forgive you for that Mr. Danziger." Without letting him reply she wondered off in search of a place to sit down. She sat and ate in silence.
After the breakfast, the two groups were ready to move. Everyone in the Native group moved with caution, subconsciously realizing the wariness of their leader.
"Maybe we shouldn't be going so far. Casey is going to have to find us." Randy had suggested.
"No," Anastasia said, having already considered the idea. "The rules have always been that if we had to move because of the Council, the banished person had to find us." She smiled sadly to thank him for his effort.
The day went surprising fast as they traveled. Anastasia knew the instant she was within the area she used to roam as a child. Strangely, a feeling of almost euphoria entered her mind as she stared across the valley. Looking at the far western end of the kilometre wide valley, Anastasia saw the river curve around, she knew what lay just beyond the trees beside the river. She had no desire to go there. One horrific event took away all her happy memories. *But where I am is close enough,* she thought to herself. Anastasia was not the only one who realized their position. "Anna," Rosemary said, in a voice that sounded more like it was from a scared child then from the adult body that stood before her. "We don't want to be here."
"It's okay Rosemary. We'll only be here for a little while. I promise," Anastasia assured her.
While the camp was being set up, Anastasia kept a close eye on Rosemary and Nikki, afraid one of them might want to finish the journey home.
"Anastasia!"
"What is it Jewel?"
"What was Rosemary saying about this place earlier?" Julia was trying to prod some information out of her sister.
Anastasia stood for a minute, bewildered. "I don't know what you mean.
"Rosemary kept talking to Nikki about how close they were to home." Making the obvious conclusion, Julia continued. "Is this where your first group lived."
"Rosemary talks to much." Anastasia coldly turned away from her sister.
Disturbed by her sister's reaction, Julia went back to helping Alonzo set up the med-tent. For a moment she could have sworn that someone was looking at her. Glancing around, Julia saw Anastasia staring in loathsome contempt, not at her, but at Mary, who was trying to help Uly unload a crate. A chill went up Julia's spine and she noticed her breathing deepening. She knew it would be another night of voluntary separation.
"What's wrong with you Doc?" Julia almost jumped. She had not heard Alonzo approach her.
"I'm not sure. I'm beginning to believe that it would be better if we did split up." Julia answered, sounding defeated.
"Don't think that way Doc," Alonzo said wrapping his arms around her from behind. She slumped back against him.

Julia's assumption was right. The Natives did not even start the pretense of making dinner for the Eden Advance team. As the Eden Crew sat down to dinner, they knew something had to change.
"Perhaps we really should consider leaving." The words coming from Julia's mouth after an entire meal in silence was enough to stir the discussion.
"I'm with Julia," Walman said. "We don't need her abuse." "What if Danziger was right?" Bess pointed out, "What if this is the only way to save Devon.
"I won't give up the only chance to save her," Danziger's words was not an order, but pleading with everyone to save Devon.
"Are you saying that Devon would want us to put up with this? She would want us to go to New Pacifica and meet with those two-hundred and forty-eight families." Morgan blurted out.
"But Morgan Honey, don't you want Devon to be there?" Bess said softly, as not to offend her husband. "When my Dad mined on Earth, sometimes he would have to work with people he didn't like, but when the job was finished, everything had worked out the best for everyone."
Some of the group nodded in agreement with Bess' argument. It was silently decided that they were staying.
"I hate to say this Julia, but your sister seems to be a little, well not all there, if you know what I mean." Baines really didn't care about how badly he made Anastasia sound.
"I honestly don't know what's wrong with her. I haven't seen her in twelve years. She's changed so much."
"Julia, You don't have to defend the reasons why you don't understand your sister." Alonzo assured her. No one else bothered to ask.
"I bet she has changed. Probably for the better," Walman muttered to himself.
"Walman," Magus scolded. "You said that out loud." Walman's comment provided the much needed comic relief as the tips of his ears were clearly red in the glow of the fire. A slow ripple of laughter infected the group. "I'm glad you find me so amusing." Walman sighed.
"Hey, man, talk about robbing the cradle." Cameron shot back. "It should be against the laws of nature."
"I'm sure there's an exception to that rule when they look like her." Walman defended himself. "Could you people leave me alone?"

"I wonder what they're laughing at?" Anastasia asked, speaking low, as not to be heard.
"How am I supposed to know, I'm not telepathic," Luke replied. "Well neither am I," Anastasia shot back, knowing what he was going to say next.
"Sometimes I swear you are."
She looked up at him. They had taken a seat about 15 metres from the Eden Crew. it was dark enough that no one would even see they were there unless he or she was looking. Anastasia had chosen the spot to sit. Luke did not ask any questions about how she knew the best spot to stay hidden and still watch the group.
"Why do you always say that?" Anastasia pleaded with him. "Whatever you said to Danziger yesterday made him so angry that if you were a man, you probably wouldn't be walking." Luke pointed out.
"And I thought in this century sexism was dead." "It is, it's just unfair to beat up someone a hell of a lot smaller than you are," Luke answered. "Feeling guilty about spying yet?"
"Nope. I can honestly say that I don't care if I'm caught." "Why."
"They hate me anyway, they might as well have a reason." "What's this thing with Devon?" Anastasia sighed. "I don't understand it myself. I feel like I'm supposed to be the sorcerer in an old fairy tale, except I don't know the magic position." She leaned back against Luke and he wrapped an arm around her. "They expect me to save her and I don't know how."
"Okay that makes perfect sense," Luke said sarcastically. Little did he know that he was just another in a long list of confused people. He decided to change the subject. "Where's Xenia?"
"Asleep." After the effort to change the subject, Anna switched it right back. "I think that the guard, Walman, does he have a first name? I've never heard it." Anastasia asked, becoming distracted from her original point.
"I don't know I honestly haven't heard one either." Luke replied. "Now what about Walman?"
"I think they were laughing at him." "Why?"
"He was the only one who wasn't laughing." A small smile that was imperceptible in the dark, crept onto Anastasia's face as she continued. "I think he's got a small crush on me."
"Oh really," Luke said playing along. "You now know this means he must die."
Anna laughed quietly and sat back to continue watching the Eden Crew.

"I think we might be going soon," True said, dejected. She had come to enjoy the company of a girl her own age.
"I wish they'd all get along again," Kick replied, agreeing with her friend.
"Maybe you could come with us?" True suggested. For a moment the idea tickled Kathleen's fancy, but reality soon came crashing in. "I wish I could, but then I'd miss my family. Even though we aren't related, we're a family all the same."
True understood. She could never leave her father, no matter how angry she got at him. "I wish that Devon was here, she might know what to do."
"But if Devon was here then I wouldn't have Anastasia." Kick moved away from her friend for a moment, realizing what she had just said. "You think Anna should help her. What if Anna does die?"
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." "That's mean!" Kick exclaimed. "I'm sorry!"
Before the heated discussion could turn into a full-fledged argument, Rosemary interrupted them. "Could you two take Nikki her dinner?"
"Why won't you do it?" Kick demanded. Rosemary flinched at the spite in Kick's tone. "Nikki's mad at me for letting Anna bring her here," she tried to explain simply.
"I don't understand." Kick stated. "I'm sorry," Rosemary was having difficulty getting her point across. She didn't know how to express herself and not give away the secret. Rosemary knew how angry Anna would be if she did that.
Impatient for Rosemary to explain herself, Kick dismissed her. "Fine I'll do it." She jumped up and headed off.
True knew that she had to follow her, that she had to make things right. "I'm sorry Kick. I want Anna to be her for you, but I want Devon to be here for me too."
"I know," Kick said, her momentary anger subsiding. Together the two girls collected food and water for Nikki and wandered over to her tent. "Can you open the flap?" Kick asked, holding a plate with both hands.
True steadied her hand carrying a glass of water and pulled back the flap. It was pitch black inside the tent as usual.
"Nikki we brought you your dinner." Kick shuffled over to where the table should have been set up, careful not to trip over anything. She placed the dinner down when she bumped into a corner of the table, and searched with her hands for the lumalight. Once Kick located it, light filled the small space.
The two girls were shocked at what they found.

The Eden Crew had finally stopped ribbing poor Walman when they were destracted by two panicked little girls.
"Anna!" Kick said, running out of a tent in the middle of camp. "Anastasia! Luke!"
Danziger turned to see Kick and his daughter rushing towards them. He was shocked that at the sound of her name, Anastasia and Luke emerged from the darkness about 15 metres from the Eden Crew. A feeling of violation hit Danziger when he realized what she had been doing.
Danziger had not been the only one to know what Anastasia had been doing. "You were spying on us!' Morgan exclaimed. He barely got any response from the accused person, she barely turned her head, her attention focused on two girls.
True and Kick stopped dead in their tracks just before they ran into Anastasia. "Anna she's gone!"
"Who's gone?"
"You were spying on us!" Morgan said again. "How could you..." "Anna, we went to take her dinner and when we turned on the.." Kick was interrupted again.
"How could you do that!?" Morgan's voice drowned out Kathleen's. "You were spying like some..."
"Fine we were spying!" Anastasia yelled, cutting him off. "What do you want, an award!"
Morgan shut up and sat down.
"Go on Kick," Anastasia demanded when she knew there would be no more comments from the Eden Crew.
"We took in Nikki's dinner and she wasn't there!" True explained, taking over for her friend. "And her bag of clothes was missing too!"
Looking around, Anna spotted Rosemary, who had approached at the sound of all the commotion. The two women knew what had happened to Nikki. There was only one place she would go.
Home.
A feeling of dread overtook everything as Anastasia and Rosemary started running across the valley towards the small embankment where they used to live. Anna completely forgot about her lungs for a moment and how they weren't totally healed. Adrenaline kept her going. It was a few minutes before they reached the other side. Instincts took over in Anastasia, she had taken this route thousands of times before, that in the dark she could still manage to get through the trees without running into anything. Rosemary was not so clever, and fell behind after entering the wooded area.
Just before she could see the embankment, Anastasia heard a loud noise that stopped her. She could not move as her mind tried to accept what it was.
The sound or Rosemary coming up behind her, made Anastasia move forward again. Once she came within sight of her old home, Anna slowed to a quiet trot. She unhooked the flashlight that she always had attached to her belt after dark and shone it down the top of the hill and old cave..
The light was diffused by the distance down, but it showed the one thing Anastasia did not want to see.
Rosemary screamed.
The adrenaline rush was leaving Anna's body as she fell to the ground in a coughing fit. She curled up, cross-legged on the ground, the sight still repeating itself in her memory.
"Anastasia!" She heard Luke yell. She could not even force out a reply.
Luckily, Rosemary's screaming gave away their position. Anna barely noticed that the first person who reached them was Julia and not Luke. Julia took barely a moment to look down, she knew what had happened.
Julia saw Nikki's body sprawled out on the ground with a small pistol in her hand. the pool of blood surrounding her told Julia there was no use, Nikki had died instantly. Sadly, she turned away and focused her attention on her sister. Rosemary had stopped screaming and had huddled herself beside a tree. The idea of an emergency had united both groups for a moment as Julia watched members from both the Eden Advance and the Natives straggled onto the scene.
Immediate action was taken by Luke. "Randy, Alex, bury her here, tonight," He ordered. He leaned over Anna and stroked her back lovingly as she tried to pull herself out of the coughing fit.
Anastasia suddenly pulled away from Luke and Julia, in shock. The realization of Nikki's death and a slippery salty taste in her mouth made her almost panic.
Julia shone her flashlight on Anastasia. Anna had pulled her hands to her mouth quickly and when she pulled them away the light clearly picked up small droplets of blood.
"Ohmigod!" Luke exclaimed. He looked around and spotted Danziger. "Please go back for a vehicle. She needs to go back to camp. "
If it had been under any other circumstances, John would have said no, but he recognized and understood the fear in Luke's eyes. Danziger had probably worn that expression most of the time after Devon's illness had been revealed. He knew the fear of maybe losing someone that he loved and clearly saw it in Luke's eyes.
After John had rushed back to camp, he was bombarded by questions. "What's going on?" Was the predominant query.
"That woman, Nikki, she killed herself. Anastasia's sick again, I'm getting a vehicle." He didn't let anyone argue with him.
Within a few minutes after leaving camp Danziger returned with Anastasia, Luke and Julia in the DuneRail. Anna had passed out in the ride back. Luke lifted her and rushed her into the med-tent.
"Uly!" Julia called out. In a minute the boy was standing in front of her. "Uly, do you know where your immuno suit is?"
"Yeah, but I don't need it."
"No Anastasia needs it."
"It won't fit her."
Julia let out and annoyed breath and explained. "I need to take your respiration tubing off itt for her. Now go get it now!" She felt badly for being sharp with him, but it was an emergency. Julia went into the med-tent. "I'm putting her on a respirator for tonight. It's probably just a burst blood vessel, but I need to be sure," She assured Luke. Trying to take a reading, the scanner was blocked by something. It took Julia a moment to realize it was the necklace. She reached over to take it off.
Luke's hand shot out to stop her. "Trust me, it doesn't come off." "Well it has to." As Julia grabbed a hold of the pendant, a flash of pain went through her hand. She pulled her hand back to see it was burned. "It is Morganitte," she muttered to herself. To the doctor's surprise, Anna's skin was not the least bit burned by the mineral. When Julia tried to take another scan, there was no interference. *It must have learned what I wanted," she thought to herself. The second scan revealed something even more surprising. Julia double-checked her readings and confirmed it.
Anastasia was on the dreamplane.
End of chapter XVI

Normally at the end of each chapter, I ask for one of the wonderfully sexy guys as a reward it you enjoyed it. Today I plead for something else..TIDE LAUNDRY DETERGENT. One of my roomies took my soap and used it all during the break. Now I have a tonne of dirty clothes and nothing to wash it with. (I'm sure you all wanted to know this.) Of course if you did send any E2 guys, the last thing I would be worried about is clothes. (And that's all I have to say about that.) Emma Pentland

Parallels (17/24)
By Emma Pentland

Anastasia was back in the past. Standing at the bottom of the embankment where Nikki had lain the night before. Nikki was clearly alive though, as was Rosemary. Two slight flickers of light among the vast darkness of death that surrounded them. A faint smell of rotting bodies assaulted Anastasia. It was a smell she had never quite been able to forget.
Looking around, Anastasia saw each and everyone one of her friends lying dead on the ground. Glancing down at herself, she had aged, Nikki and Rosemary were still young. Rosemary stood up from where she had huddled herself against a rock and walked into the forest. Nikki did not stand. Instead, Anastasia watched her old friend crawl over to one of the bodies and lay down beside it. Anastasia knew it was Pauline. The message was clear. Nikki had belonged here. Rosemary and Anastasia did not.
A hand reached up from the earth and pulled Anastasia into the ground. She suddenly found herself in another valley, a Terrian standing beside her. He chirped and twittered for a moment. Pointing with his staff, he indicated a group of people at the far end of the clearing. It was the Eden Advance and Native groups. there was no Transrover though, they had been forced to leave it in their escape. Anastasia realized that it was the other route, the one she had wanted to travel.
A shot rang out from the trees. It was an exact parallel of what happened to Anastasia's first group. Within moments most everyone was dying or dead. She wanted to rush forward, to help, but remebered where she was. It wasn't really happening. The Terrian twitted again. He was explaining why the chain of events had to remain the same. If they had taken the other route, they would have died. She still felt like it was an excuse for Nikki's death. After her first group died, the Terrians had simply apologized for their mistake and given Anastasia her necklace. It gave her some power over the land, it was her reward for being the last one standing.
"What about the child's mother? He's another link, why did you take her?"
A white light blinded her again as she stood back in the first embankment. This time, Anastasia was forced to witness parts of the massacre.
"You took her because of this? I don't understand?" The Terrian explained no further as the scene changed, while Anastasia stayed in the same spot. The Terrian swan back into the earth, letting Anna watch in silence.
Nikki was being buried. Randy and Alex were digging into the ground, making a hole deep enough to cover her. Staring at her friend's body, she noticed a small detail she had been too panicked to see the previous night. There had been no time to wash any of the clothes, so Anastasia had lent Nikki something to wear. With Nikki's long hair hiding her face, and with the darkness covering over everything, anyone could easily mistake Nikki for Anna.
What if Xenia had done that? When the thought entered her head, the dream ended, letting Anna slip into a deep, much-needed sleep.

Julia and Luke had stayed up half the night with Anastasia. The doctor's original assumption had been right, it was only an aggravated blood vessel that had burst. Julia had been kept up most of the night with the odd sound of the respirator. This was the Anastasia she remembered, and even though Julia loved her then, the doctor preferred the hale and healthy sister she had now. Luke had fallen asleep in a chair, while Julia had laid her head down on the med-table.
That was the scene Alonzo stumbled upon early the next morning. "Hey doc," he whispered quietly, as not scare her.
"Huh?" Julia said, confused and still half-asleep. She brushed a piece of hair that had fallen out of her pony-tail.
"Time for breakfast." Alonzo brushed some sleep out of her eyes. His hand remained there for a few moments and Julia smiled at the sign of affection. "Should we wake him up."
"Yeah. It's unhealthy to be this stressed on an empty stomach. We'll bring something into him." Julia replied. "How's Rosemary? Is she up yet?"
"The sedative you gave her last night wore off about half an hour ago." Alonzo answered. "Besides the expected shock, she seems okay."
"Julia?" The pair turned to see Kick and Xenia standing behind them. Through the commotion of the previous night, everyone seemed to forget about the two children Anna looked after. "Yes?" Julia said softly, she knew they were scared about their guardian.
"What's wrong with Anastasia?" It was the first time Julia had heard Xenia speak since the little girl had attacked Uly.
Julia crouched down to address them on their level. "She hurt herself last night. She wasn't completely well and last night she aggravated her illness."
"Is she going to be okay?" Kick interjected. "As long as she takes care of herself, Anna will be fine. I promise." Julia stated. "You two can help."
"We can?" Xenia asked anxiously. "You can help her with things she'd normally do on her own. Kind of like being her nurses." Julia explained.
The idea clearly appealed to the little girls. "Can we go see her?" Kick wrung her hands in the brief pause between the question and the answer.
"Of course you can, but you have to be really quiet, she's sleeping." Julia answered. She let out a small laugh as the two girls ran off instantly. Standing up, Julia brushed the dirt off her knees as she continued with Alonzo in search of breakfast.
The voluntary separation between the groups had ended, as people from both sides discussed the events of the previous evening.
"Does anyone know why Nikki did it?" Molly asked. "Well she's always been crazy, maybe she just went to far last night." Nicholas suggested.
"But why here?" Randy reiterated. "This is a valley like every other valley. Nikki walked a little under a kilometre to do it too, she knew about the spot."
An idea hit Julia; a realization of what Anna and Rosemary were talking about the night before. "When Anastasia joined this group, she was only with Nikki and Rosemary, right?" She waited a moment for confirmation before she continued. "Anastasia didn't want to travel this route. Rosemary seemed to know where she was after we stopped yesterday. Perhaps this is where her first group lived."
A few found the theory plausible. "Maybe the centre of their camp was where Nikki killed herself last night," Molly surmised.
"What would have happened to the others? You people did tell us that their were at least thirty in each group." Bess asked.
Catching his wife's train of thought, Morgan continued, "What would have happened to their ship? It's not like they could just be dropped from space.
"All ships were set to self destruct within two days of landing. Plenty of groups lost people that way," Molly answered.
"Why don't we ask Mary? She seemed to know Anastasia before she joined with you people." Alonzo pointed out. "Uly, could you go get Mary?"
The little boy jumped up from his seat in search of the Terrian-raised woman. She was lying down in the tent she had been given to share with Denner and Magus. gently, Uly shook her shoulder. "Mary?" He whispered, "Get up." Mary slowly aroused and let Uly lead her to the campfire.
"Mary?" The group had decided that Alonzo should address her, much to Julia's chagrin. Mary was more comfortable with the pilot. "Mary, you said you knew Anastasia a long time ago."
"Yes I knew her," Mary stuttered suddenly feeling something strange, she did not realize that she was being self-conscious. She did not know that it was the large group that made her nervous.
"Do you know where they lived?" "They lived here. They're were many of them. The terrians like them. They did no harm." With jerky movements, Mary looked around the group.
"That settles it, we should go back there today." Julia said firmly, hopung to find out what was wrong with her sister.
"Is it really that important?" Morgan whined. "Yes Martin, it is," Danziger's reason though was far different from the doctor's. His thoughts were filled with the idea of curing Devon. "Something that happened made her special, made her he one who could save Devon. If we find out what that is then maybe we can save Devon."
"Danziger," Julia scolded, "There's more to it then that." "Nikki is dead Julia, we need to deal with those still alive. While they are still alive." Danziger shot back.
"You don't think I know that..." "Come on guys, we don't need to argue, we should really go over this morning, while we have nothing to do." Bess said. "I volunteer to help. I don't know with what yet, but all my morning chores are done."
"Bess are you sure? It could be gruesome." Morgan said protectively. "Morgan, I grew up on Earth. Suicide was not uncommon there." Bess informed him. "Besides, the body was buried last night and perhaps Danziger is right, that it's important to go."
"It's not important. It's snooping." The group turned simultaneously to see Rosemary.
"Do you want to tell us what happened Rosemary?" Molly snapped. The woman was taken aback by the harsh tone. "It's not my secret to tell." That was the answer Rosemary was always told to give.
"I've heard that before." Luke had approached the scene, having been awakened by Kick and Xenia. "Let me guess Rosemary, it's a co-owned secret."
"Y-yes," Rosemary started playing with a piece of her hair out of nervousness.
"Well you have as much right to tell as Anna. With Nikki dead, you can tell because you own half." Luke tried to be kind with her hoping she would finally say something.
"No. No I don't. Anna said it was mostly hers and Nikki's. She said." Rosemary pleaded. "I can't tell. she would never forgive me. I can't I can't!!" Rosemary was almost panicked and screaming by this time.
"It's okay then Rosemary. You don't have to tell." Luke assured her. "She won't forgive you either. She won't forgive any of you. Not if you go. Not if you find out." Rosemary fell to the ground. and pulled her knees up to her chest.
"Find out what?" Julia kneeled down beside the scared woman, putting an arm around her shoulders.
"I can't tell. I can't" With that, Rosemary said nothing more. She rocked back and forth sobbing. Julia looked up at Alonzo, in need of a friendly face.
"I'm going with you." Luke said solemnly. The statement made Rosemary cry harder. The woman truly believed that her world was coming to an end.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat, Julia, Bess, Luke, Danziger and Randy packed a few supplies, including Zero's head, and drove over to the embankment.
"The one fun thing I noticed yesterday, was the cave that had fallen in." Randy explained, like he was giving a guided tour. "The ground isn't unstable above, but look at the amounts of rock."
"Sensors indicate only two point five metres of cave in." Zero cheerfully spurted out.
"It's like an old mine charge, back on Earth. Whenever the workers were on strike they used to seal it off like this. We didn't have the equipment to know how far the cave in went, so the scabs would leave it alone." Bess guessed. "When the people came back to work, it didn't take long to clear the entrance."
"Wouldn't that be dangerous, eventually making the mine unstable?" Julia asked.
"When we were starving, anyone would risk their lives for the credits to buy food." Bess was not upset by this memory. It was too common when she was little. "So strikes were rare."
"So if this was done by humans, shall we dig it out?" Danziger suggested.
"Why not, a mine charge didn't cause overly-large rocks. It will probably take us until the end of the day." Bess concluded.
With that decision, Julia drove back to camp to get some more mining equipment. She arrived back, she had not only with extra shovels, but with Baines and Alonzo to help. Bess was right; in about two hours, there was a hole large enough to crawl into.
"I'll go in," Baines volunteered. "But if there is anything alive in there, someone come in after me." Bess handed him a flashlight. He tried to take a quick glance inside before he crawled in, but he could not make out anything. As he stepped inside, he didn't feel the least claustrophobic. The cool, stale, air in the cave gave the illusion of it being a large space. Reaching up, Baines soon discovered the top of the cave was barely a few inches above his head. He took a few tentative steps forward and stopped when he heard something crunch underneath his feet. Remembering to turn on the flashlight, he looked down to see what he has stepped on.
Julia nearly let out a yelp of surprise when she heard Baines scream. He came tumbling out of the hole, not paying a attention to any cuts and bruises he got rushing over the rocks.
"What is it?" Bess exclaimed. "Was there something alive?" "No," Baines gasped. "No, dead things. I think I stepped on some litle kid's bones. ." He paused for a few seconds to catch his breath.
"How many were there?" Randy asked. "Like I really wanted to stay in there long enough to do a head count. All I know is that there is way more than one." Baines replied.
"We stumbled on a mass grave," Danziger whispered, out of respect for the dead.
"I think we found the rest of Anastasia's missing group." Luke surmised. For a few moments, the silence overtook them.
"How did they die?" Randy blurted out. "You're asking me? How am I supposed to know, and I'm not going back in to find out." Baines shot back.
"I'll go in," Julia sighed, realizing that, as a doctor, she would probably be the only one who could stomach it. She crawled in the hole and turned on her flashlight. The doctor's first impression was far different from Baines'. Julia's throat constricted, in horror and sadness at the sight. Baines had been right. There was more than one body. There was about twenty; all of them were children. They had decomposed to the point that only bones remained. She shone her flashlight on one of the skulls, to see the cause of death was obvious, a gunshot wound to the head. After looking at a few more, some with Magpro wounds, others were fractured, one almost crushed, Julia had some idea of the magnitude the massacre had been. While doing a quick body count, her flashlight hit something at the far end of the cave. Julia knew it was a reflection off metal. She carefully stepped over the bodies and arrived at what seemed to be a small metal box sitting on a rock ledge. Someone had purposefully put it there, like the way the bodies had been lined up on the floor. Julia took the box and figured she could come back in later for a head count.
"What's this?" Bess said to no one in particular. She opened it up and peered inside.
"That looks like a personal recorder." Danziger leaned over and picked the small electronic device out of the box.
"ID tags." Julia whispered. "Now these bodies have names." She picked up a random one out of the box. "Michel Dionne." She said, as she held up the picture to the light to see it more clearly. The face of a sick little boy looked back at her. Tears blurred her sight for a moment.
"Oh my god, there's still a chip in here." Danziger pulled out a small chip from the insides of the recorder.
"Is it still functional?" Alonzo asked. "It doesn't look damaged," Danziger said while double checking the chip. "We should take it back to camp."
"We'll get Yale to set up the main monitor for the gear. Like what we did when we got the messages from Del." Alonzo suggested.
"Del?" Randy asked. "Long story," Baines muttered. He rubbed his temples at the memory. "Come on, we should go back." Alonzo told everyone. "What about the grave?" Bess asked. "We can't leave it open like this."
"We don't have to put all those rocks back, do we?" "No just cover it Baines. We'll be back again." Julia replied. "Well maybe you Doc, but I won't," Baines assured everyone. "I won't ever going back in there. It's *kids* in there."
Danziger solved the dilemma by pulling an old tarp from the back of the DuneRail and covered the hole. "We'll come back and fill it in." He told everyone.
Everyone got a laugh when they all tried to pile in the DuneRail, with six people and four seats. "It's alright, if the Doc doesn't mind we'll walk back." Alonzo looked at Julia and smiled. She nodded her head in agreement.
Baines snickered for a moment. "What's wrong? You find this funny, or are you just jealous of the fact they're happy," Luke scolded. The look of Baines' embarrassment caused Alonzo to laugh. "Hey 'Lonz, don't worry, they really are just jealous. Anna and I went through this at the beginning." With that the DuneRail drove off towards the camp and Alonzo grabbed Julia's hand and followed them.
From an small patch of trees about fifty metres from the embankment, a man stood in silence, and unnoticed.

The instant Luke arrived back at the camp, he rushed into the med-tent. Kick was still sitting with Anastasia. "Where's Xenia?"
"She left a while ago. I think it scared her seeing Anna this way again," Kick replied coldly. "Anna hasn't been awake all day. Is that bad?"
"No," Luke assured her, "Julia gave her a sedative. She was supposed to sleep." Luke placed the metal box retrieved from the grave site on one of the table and walked over and kissed Anastasia's forehead. The subtle movement caused her to finally awaken.
A look of panic instantly entered Anna's face as she realized she was on a respirator. She weakly started to pull the tubing off her face, clearly distressed.
"What's wrong with her?" Kick was almost crying, frightened by Anna's reaction.
Luke grabbed Anastasia's hands and held them to her side. "It's okay. You were having difficulty breathing, Julia put you on Uly's respirator."
Anna calmed down and tried to take a deep breath. "Sorry," She stopped for a moment to cough, "Instant childhood memories for a moment. I hated the respirator when I was little, now I remember why." She smiled to reassure him.
Kick finally felt secure enough to talk to Anastasia. "Are you feeling better?"
Anastasia reached out her hand and the girl took it. "I'm feeling tonnes better." She turned her head to get a better look at the girl when something caught her eye. "How did that get here?" The tone of shock and panic returned to Anastasia's voice. She had seen the metal box. "Luke?" She demanded. "How did that get here?" Anger filled her voice as she tried to sit up. Luke tried to prevent her from doing so, but she slapped him away.
"We dug it up this morning," Luke replied honestly. Anna pulled the tubing from her face and glared at Luke. Without saying a word, she slowly stood up and walked out of the tent. She blinked in the bright light of the sun. The first person Anastasia spotted was her sister.
"Hey," Julia scolded in her best big sister voice. "You should still be in.."
"Shut up!" The power Anastasia had behind her voice surprised Julia. "It was none of your business. You dug up a grave. Something that should have been left.." Anastasia stopped for a moment and looked around the camp. A chill went up her spine, she felt like she was being watched. The feeling went away as she spied Rosemary. The effort from standing was becoming to much for Anna as she fell to the ground.
Just moments before she passed out, Anastasia heard Rosemary whispering to her.
"I tried to tell them. They wouldn't listen. I tried."
End of Chapter XVII

Awards, Accolaides, Annoyances (Hopefully petty), or ASjr. (And if you really really love me TIDE SOAP!) to: <carre1@server.uwindsor.ca>
Emma Pentland

Parallels (18/24)
By Emma Pentland

The man had followed the group back to camp. He had watched the entire scene. Thinking back, he recognized the girl, the one who passed out. He rubbed the back of his head, remembering what she had done to him. She had returned to the place of his greatest triumph and she had brought him new victims.
It would soon be his time for revenge.

"I think we should watch the chip before Anastasia wakes up." Morgan suggested.
"Wait a minute Martin, how many people are we going to let see this thing?" Walman pointed out. "I mean, I'd be upset if a few people knew something I didn't want them to. I'd be even angrier if everyone sat and watched it like an old movie."
"I'll tell you one thing, I'd be happy just to hear about it from someone who saw it," Baines replied. Several others agreed.
"I want to see it," Luke said. "Me too," Julia said. Within a few minutes, it was decided that only Yale, Danziger, Alonzo, Molly, Luke and Julia would watch whatever was on the chip. It took Yale only half an hour to set up the equipment.
"Are we ready?" Julia asked nervously. As much as she wanted to know what was wrong with her sister, she was almost afraid of what she would find.
"Yeah Doc," Danziger confirmed. He reached into the metal box that Julia had retrieved for the recorder. "Okay, everyone who isn't sure about watching this leave now." He warned everyone.
A few unsure looks passed among the small gathering, but each knew that somehow this was important. Danziger shrugged his shoulders and hooked up the recorder to the monitor. He looked around one last time. Julia nodded her head and Danziger turned it on.
The first image was of a group of four boys running around the valley that the Eden Crew was now in. "Hey people, smile!" The camera holder yelled to the boys. Three did as they were told and they waved and played to the camera.
"Mosi! Come on, please!" The instructions were given out again as a small Japanese boy refused to cooperate.
"Why do you want to film us?" The boy yelled back. "I just figured out how to use this thing. I'm playing with it," The voice Julia finally identified as a little girl's.
The little boy smiled finally and joined in the antics with the other three children. "Paul!" Mosi scolded, "You should film you and the other two triplets!"
"We are *not* triplets."
Another little boy spoke up. "Well the three of you sure *act* like it!"
The scene instantly changed in a bad film cut. The camera holder was back at the embankment. She could be heard giving soft instructions about how to use the recorder. Finally the other person became frustrated and told the girl to just go with everybody else.
"Come on Pauline!" A little girl with long brown hair called up the embankment. The girl beckoned over to another girl with similar hair. Julia gasped as she realized the second girl was Anastasia.
"What is it Julia?" Alonzo instantly responded to the Doctor's reaction.
"That's Anna and the other one," Julia pointed to the screen and the first little girl, "I think is Nikki. The camera person is the one Mary thought Anna was, Pauline."
The camera holder finally entered the shot. Julia now understood what Mosi had meant. Pauline, Anastasia and Nikki did look somewhat alike. They even performed similar antics for the camera.
"Forward it a bit," Alonzo suggested. Yale programmed the computer to show regular intervals. In half an hour, the small group had watched the children grow healthier and decidedly larger. From the information, the first recording had been made a little over a month after the arrival of the children. Julia cherished the tape more than the rest. It was the doctor's chance to see some of the years of Anna's life that she had missed.
"It's all pretty much the same." Luke said. "Hold on," Yale said, obviously intending to say something more. After a moment of fiddling with the switches on the recorder, he continued. "This should be near the end of the recordings."
"Paul...eene," A voice tried to pronounce. "That's right. I'm Pauline and you are?" The little girl was leading the question.
The audience finally had their first view of the person Pauline was talking to.
"Mary," Danziger and the young Mary on film said at the same time. "Mary is it?" Pauline repeated on the tape. There was a cut to in the recording. Suddenly the small viewing audience was looking at a full shot of the makeshift camp. The camera had been placed on one of the ledges on the rock, its lens pointing down, giving full view of the camp. The group of children were all huddled together, whispering. A man with long blond hair patrolled them like they were a group of prisoners.
"It's a Council jacket," Molly whispered. She turned to the rest in the small audience. "The Council killed the first group."
"Well what does that have to do with Mar.." Danziger's attention flew back to the screen when a shot echoed from the small tinny speakers. The little Japanese boy from the beginning was wounded. The other children started fleeing like scared rabbits into the woods, but they were all quickly gunned down. Julia tried to pick out Anastasia, and spotted her in the far corner of the screen. On one side of her sister, Pauline was quickly killed.
"Stop, rewind," Julia ordered. "What is it?" Alonzo asked, squinting at the screen to try and see what Julia did.
Yale backed up the recording a bit. He slowed it down and searched for what Julia saw.
In slow motion, the small group watched the children be gunned down. From Danziger's estimate there must have been at least three other men that were wandering in and out of the shot.
"Watch this. In the corner," Julia instructed. She pointed to her sister. "There's Anna, the one with the red backpack. She doesn't get shot, she just falls down, and she pulls Nikki with her."
"With that many children, the law of averages would leave at least a couple alive after the first round," Yale analyzed.
A voice behind the camera spoke. "You start packing up their stuff." A man's voice ordered the blond man. "We need a couple to take back to Riley." The sound of several pairs of footsteps could be heard wondering back into the forest. The blond man started going from body to body, checking to see that everyone was dead. When the man stopped in front of Rosemary's body, the then-teenager stirred. There was a minor wound on her shoulder. The blond man pulled a pistol from his belt and pointed it at the girl.
"Hey!" The young Anastasia was sitting up, trying to draw the man's attention away from Rosemary. It worked as Anastasia jumped up and took off towards the river. The blond man chased her to the river's edge. Julia gasped as Anastasia tripped on one of the rocks. The younger version of the doctor's sister tried to crawl to the water, but the blond man grabbed one of her feet. Anna was kicking and flailing, but instead of shooting her, the man pushed her into the water. Reaching his hand down, he held her there, all that could be seen from the camera's point of view were arms and legs desperately trying to pull the body up for air. Suddenly, the commotion stopped, and the man, assuming Anna had drowned turned back to the corpses.
To his surprise, Nikki started moving as Rosemary managed to crawled out of the shot, *probably into the cave* Julia sumised. It was the only part of the camp not caught by the camera for the recorder lay a top the entrance. The man ran to Nikki and knelt in front of the girl. "Aren't you the pretty one," the man hissed, barely loud enough for the camera to pick up.
"Oh God," Julia whispered realizing what the man was doing. He pulled a knife out from his boot and flashed it in front of Nikki's face. The little girl screamed loudly, casing the man to fall back in surprise.
"Look," Luke said. The young Anastasia pulled herself quietly out of the water. She saw the blond man and Nikki and hurriedly dumped out the contents of her backpack. Anna selected a large rock and put it into her backpack. Anastasia seemed to concentrate only on the blond man, like an animal that was hunting. The man was recovering from the shock of the scream and grabbed Nikki, pulling the knife up above her chest, giving the girl a moment to realize that she was going to die.
That was when Anastasia reached them, in one fluid movement, Julia's sister swung down her backpack, hitting the blond man squarely on the head. The almost inhuman force behind the strike caused the man to fall forward, landing on Nikki's small body. Nikki started screaming again and wriggled out from under the body. Anastasia hit the man twice more and he stopped fighting. Anna's back was to the recorder, but when she turned around, the little girl was covered in blood. Nikki was still screaming, equally covered. Rosemary came back into the shot and froze in terror at the sight of the only two people left alive.
The young Anastasia did not even seem to mourn the loss of the rest of the group. She may have been the one left standing, but Anna seemed dead inside. "Help me move them Rosemary," Anastasia ordered.
"M-move them," the older girl repeated. "We'll put them in the cave," Anastasia had to yell over Nikki's screaming. "SHUT UP!" Anna yelled at her, "Do you want them to come back!" She pulled Nikki to her feet, looking like she was going to slug her. In shock, Nikki stopped screaming. Anastasia then looked up towards the recorder. "Rosemary, turn that off." Anna demanded. "Pauline sure put it in the right place," Anastasia mused as she grabbed a body and started luggin it out of the shot.
The last thing the small audience saw was a close up, of Rosemary as she leaned over the camera to turn it off.
Sitting quietly, no one knew what to say as static came on the screen. Molly was softly crying, trying not to let anyone see her. Julia was close to tears.
"She made me move them you know." They turned to see Rosemary standing behind them. The woman was shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot. "Sh-she made me. We put them all in the cave and Anna blowed it up. She said it were some of the things in our ship that blowed it up." Her stilted and sometimes incorrect language tired its best to explain.
"What happened to the man?" Luke asked. "Us put him in there too."
"Julia exchanged a worried look with Luke. "Thank you Rosemary, would you go check on Anna?" the doctor asked, wanting the woman to leave the tent. Rosemary did as she was asked and Julia turned back tot he expectant faces. "I know I wasn't in there long, but there was no man in that cave. All the corpses were children." Julia blurted out.
"How would he have survived?" "I don't know, I think he might have dug himself out, like we dug up the grave this afternoon." Julia suggested. "Maybe he found his group again."
"Who's going to tell Anna?" Luke pointed out. After a moment's thought, he decided, "I think it should be me and Julia. If that's okay?"
"Yeah," Julia replied. "He couldn't have lived long, his injuries looked to severe, but head injuries tend to bleed profusely. There could easily have been a mistake."
Yale unplugged the recorder from the monitor. "We learned nothing useful."
The full impact of the thought hit Julia and Luke, but they said nothing.
"Hey, maybe Mary can explain everything. the one thing we haven't done is demand answers from her yet." Danziger suggested.
"She didn't seem to willing before," Alonzo stated, his protective side kicking in.
"I'm with Danziger. Maybe before we didn't ask the right questions." Julia was not at all interested in dealing with Alonzo's clear affection for Mary.
"I, I really don't want to know anymore." Molly brusquely said and quickly departed from the tent.
The others stayed. "I'll get Mary," Alonzo said, not noticing the flash of annoyance on Julia's face. He left and a few minutes later arrived back, leading Mary. The woman was clearly nervous as she met the expectant eyes of the small group.
"Mary," Yale started softly, trying to make the woman feel comfortable. "We want to know about the time you spent with Anastasia when she was little."
"Don't remember much." Mary looked around at everyone and swallowed. "I-I remember Pauline. She kind."
"Do you know what happened to Pauline?" Julia demanded, she did not care for the woman's feelings.
Taken aback for a minute, Mary replied, "She is dead. Don't know why. She dead and..."
"Do you know anything about the men that killed her?" Julia cut her off.
"Men killed her?" Mary repeated, obviously surprised. "I did not know. Was it the men we sent?"
"Who did you send Mary?" Yale asked, trying to prevent any more of Julia's interrogation.
"When we see child, we saw adult. The tribe here did not see grown up with children. We told the grown ups where to find children in the dreamplane."
Julia let out a short breath of shock. She understood Anastasia's anger at Mary. Mary had sent to Anna's first group the people that killed them. Julia ran her hands through her hair.
"Terrians thought adults were looking for children." Mary suddenly had a realization of her own. "Terrians never told me." The fact seemed to upset her as she suddenly stood up and walked around. "Terrians never told me they die. Why?" She pleaded with the small group, as if they had the answer.
"I don't know," Alonzo told the woman, trying to calm her. "Do you know anything the Terrians did to help Anastasia?" Julia cut in.
"She doesn't know anything." With the help of Rosemary, Anastasia made her way into the tent. Luke got up to help her to a seat. "Back off," she hissed at him. "Why would she know? She didn't even know what she did. Mary stuck around until she could see them coming in the distance, then she sunk back into the ground like a common rodent." Anastasia finally did sit down, taking shallow breaths, obviously still suffering.
"I-I did not know," Mary tried to explain herself. "Of course you didn't. These people didn't know either, but they managed to find out didn't they." Anna snapped back. "You shut up." An sad look passed across her face. "At first I didn't believe Rosemary. I didn't think you would do this." She looked up at Rosemary. "I'm so sorry Rosemary."
Rosemary nervously smiled in response. "What am I supposed to do now?" Anastasia asked no one in particular. Out of habit she started playing with her necklace. Mary gasped, realizing what it was. Anastasia looked up at her. "That seems to be the general reaction around here since everyone started arriving."
"They gave you part of the planet. They made reparations, why you so angry?" Mary gasped.
"Do you seriously think that this little piece of rock is going to make my life better. It doesn't do much." Anastasia stared off, no longer acknowledging the other people in the tent.
"What does it do?" Danziger prodded. "Nothing that will get your precious Devon Adair back. You wasted too much time Danziger and it's all your fault." Anna sneered. "I don't want to be here anymore. Rosemary, help me out." The woman sprung into action, helping Anastasia out of the tent.
Julia just looked at Alonzo, the sadness clearly in her eyes. Mary left the tent hurriedly for her tent. Danziger just sat back, trying not to cry; Anastasia had been right, he had wasted too much time and he was the only one to blame. The mechanic quickly took leave for his own tent.
"I can't do this. Anna has to know," Julia got up to search for her sister with Luke and Alonzo on her heels. Rosemary and Anna had not gone far, Anastasia in constant need of rest. the tissue regenerator had a lot of work to do and it would be at least three days before she was healed. Anastasia and Rosemary had taken a rest on the outskirts of camp. Anna was sitting on a crate, her face buried in her hands out of exhaustion or distress, Julia was unsure of which. "Anastasia?" Julia whispered quietly. "We need to talk."
"Go away Jewel," Anastasia had no force behind her voice, the hatred she had felt earlier had melted in despair. Looking up at her sister the tears were obvious. "You saw what I did Jewel. That was the one thing I never wanted anyone to know."
"You had to do it," Luke assured her. "That really doesn't help you know," Anastasia said brusquely. "Do you have any idea how many times I told myself that, but when I look back I know I would do the same thing. I was only twelve, but even today I would do it again. It still would never have brought anyone back to me, but I would have done it anyway," she confessed.
"Anastasia, we don't need to talk about that if we don't want to." Julia soothed her. "We need to talk about the man."
"Then we *are* going to talk about it aren't we." "We need to know what happened to him." Julia looked at her sister in surprise. "What do you think, he died Julia. I thought you said we didn't need to talk about this."
"He wasn't there."
"What do you mean *he wasn't there*? Everyone was buried, I made sure of it." Anastasia blurted out.
"I was in the cave Anna. There was no body of a man there." Anastasia put her hand to her chest and slumped over. "Oh god," she breathed, "No he's not...he can't be, I.."
"Anastasia!" A breathless Alex rushed up to the small crowd. "They were all there."
"What was?"
"We have 18 pistols that we collected over the years. I went to put the one Nikki used back in it's place, but all 18 were there." Alex gasped.
Anastasia threw a panicked look at Alonzo. "Please tell me one of your weapons were missing."
Alonzo shook his head. "Walman checked on them this morning, he didn't say any were missing."
An unsubstantiated anger was behind Anna's voice when she spoke again. "Well we all know how well he keeps guard at night, maybe he neglected to check today."
"He checked. I was with him when he looked." Alonzo replied. On her own will power, Anastasia stood up and walked over to a tree that she used for support. She tried to talk again, but sobs stopped her. She was no longer angry at any of them. She slid down the side of the tree, drawing her knees up to her chest. Anna cried in mourning and partially terror. The entire situation had finally crashed in on her.
Luke sat beside Anastasia and wrapped his arms around her. He looked up at Julia and Alonzo ran off to tell the rest of the group. "I was so sure I had killed him." Anastasia sighed in despair. "I faked death twice that day, I guess he picked up on my trick."

The man could barely overhear what the others were saying. He had hidden himself in the trees away from the gathering. The only thing he did manage to understand was that they now knew he was alive. He smiled, this would only make his job more difficult, and he would have a greater satisfaction when he was finished.
End of Chapter XVIII

Okay I know this is getting long and I thank all who have stuck with it. Anyways, I think you know by now where to send all the comments, critisms and cute guys *wink* by now.
Emma Pentland

Parallels (19/24)
By Emma Pentland

I Posted this a few days ago, but I never got it back and figured it was lost in cyberspace. (Perhaps Yale can find it.) LCC

*I guess he picked up on my trick.* The thought kept running through Anastasia's head. She didn't even know his name. the Council just came, saw and killed.
He had killed Nikki. Anna knew it. The extra gun didn't belong to either group. It had to be his. She did not believe that it was anyone else from the Council Group. Something ate away inside of her repeating that it was *him.*
Another thought hit her. "Luke, are Kick and Xenia in..." Anastasia could not even finish before Luke assured her they were in bed. Anna wanted out of the dark area of the woods, a chill ran up her spine. She did not want to hide anymore.
"You should go back and rest," Julia suggested. "Why did you have to do it Jewel?" Anastasia was not going to let her sister off that easily. Struggling away from Luke's grasp, she moved back towards Rosemary. "I don't want an answer. It will probably be exactly what I don't want to hear, but I will go back to the med-tent." Anna refused help from everyone but Rosemary, who dutifully helped her back to the tent.
"She's become so angry, I thought that.." Luke could not finish, his voice broke with the thought of what Anna had done so long ago.
Alonzo tried to get Julia's mind off her sister, "Come on, we need to talk to everyone. I'll get Danziger."
"Yeah sure," The doctor replied absentmindedly. "Just a minute." With that, Alonzo sauntered off.
"I don't care," Luke suddenly blurted out. "Excuse me?" Julia was drawn out of her reverie. "I don't care that she killed him, or thought she killed him. If she hadn't done that, Anastasia would have been killed. I'd rather have her here," Luke elaborated. "Except now she's mad at me, but I'd rather have her alive and mad at me then dead without knowing her at all."
Julia realized that Luke was expressing Danziger's sentiments. No one in the Eden Crew could deny that next to Uly, John felt Devon's loss the most. "I think you're right." It took every ounce to rebel against Julia's genetic make-up to say so, but when she was quiet again, she looked towards Luke and the two shared a quiet smile.
"You are an interesting one Dr. Heller." Luke mused. "Same to you Mr. Spencer," She shot back in good faith. Julia watched him leave, heading towards the tent he usually shared with her sister. A few days ago Julia was unsure about her sister's lover, even though Anastasia had accepted Alonzo instantly. Julia realized how wrong she had been, also understanding that it was just the doctor's protective side towards her sister, who, up until a few days ago, she had remembered as an invalid that she had to take care of. Thinking for a moment, Julia resolved that she would not slip back into that mode. Anastasia's physical illness was only temporary.
What Julia worried about more was her sister's mental state.

*Kick and Xen* the man thought over in his mind. He now understood who were the most important people in the girl's life. *Anastasia. Her name is Anastasia.* The blond woman and the blond man also seemed to be of importance to her. Then there was the other girl from his past, Rosemary he thought he had heard someone say. They would all die first, he would make her watch, then slowly kill her. She had left him dying in a cave full of stinking and rotting corpses. The rest of the group he had been with had abandoned him. After he escaped the cave he had searched for them, but had no success. The only thing remaining of his group were a few vehicles and their weapons. He had only taken one vehicle and the weapons.
He had become ill recently. Ever since he had returned to this place. He had been so far away for so long that he was lucky he could find his way back. He felt it was God finally giving him something. He was not going to die without taking these people with him. He knew they had weapons, but he guessed that he had enough ammunition to kill them. He had the advantage of surprise. Quietly, he started sneaking towards the blond woman. She would be the first.
A noise caught his attention and he knelt down into the shadows. He froze in place, barely hidden from general view. A guard had come out on duty and he waved hello to the woman. Several members of the group all shuffled into one tent. For a moment it was only him, her and the guard. He was about to stand again when another man joined the first on duty. *Extra protection,* he thought.
Extra protection could not help them. He would wait to strike, but he knew that would have to be soon. He did not know how much longer he had. Once he discovered who Kick and Xen were, he would attack, quickly, unexpectedly and fatally.

"So what you're trying to tell us Danziger is that there might be some psychopathic lunatic on the loose," Morgan spelled out for everyone, moving protectively closer to Bess. "He's already killed one person."
"Maybe we should put Zero on duty," Yale suggested. "Can't, I took his sensor gear apart for cleaning yesterday," Danziger answered.
"What's going on?" Julia asked, having entered from curiosity. "I explained what they needed to know," Danziger replied cryptically, but Julia understood.
"Listen," Julia interjected. "We'll be leaving as soon as Anna can travel. There's only one man. We can probably handle it."
"There was only one Gaal too," Baines reminded her and Julia remained silent.
"There's little we can do tonight. We'll have two people on duty at all hours, It's all we can do." The mechanic dismissed everyone and dutifully they left the tent, with the exception of Julia.
"John, what if he recognizes Anna? I think we should keep Rosemary and Anna out of sight as much as possible," Julia suggested.
"That's up to Anastasia's group." Danziger said emotionlessly. Danziger nearly jumped when he heard the emotion behind Julia's plea. "John, I'm sorry she can't bring Devon back right now but that doesn't mean we should leave her vulnerable, especially now when she's ill."
"Julia," John pleaded back, "I can't help but be angry. She's Devon's only hope that we know of and Anna won't do anything."
"That *we know of* remember that. Maybe there's something else. Alonzo said the Terrians won't hurt us now. We're safe..."
"No!" John barked, nearly causing the doctor to fall back. "don't tell me you're giving up on Devon."
"I'm not," Julia assured him. "Devon was *my* friend too. If she hadn't accepted me after what I had done to help the Council, no one would have taken me back. You would be against me; Walman, Yale, everyone, would have rejected me."
"You would still have had Alonzo." "So that over time he would grow to hate me, two people can not exist independent of others. I don't think he could have handled that and I wouldn't have asked him to." The words surprised Julia and she said no more. Quietly she got up to leave the tent, only turning back for a moment. "I will never give up John. I can't. I owe her too much. I love her too, not the way you do, but she gave me a chance and I love her for it." With that, Julia went back to her own tent.
She was surprised to find Alonzo lying on the cot but still awake. He had not been at the meeting, he already knew what had been going on. "Hey Doc," he said, acknowledging her entrance into the tent.
Julia sat on the edge of the cot, leaned over and kissed him hello. "Hey flyboy, miss me?" She asked playfully, trying to take her mind off everything.
"Always," Alonzo replied with complete sincerity. "Something else is wrong." He observed.
"I'm so tired Alonzo," She answered with a yawn. "Well, because you're special, I'll let you use me as a pillow," With no resistance he pulled her down so she could rest her head on his chest. Julia absentmindedly rubbed the arm holding her.
"I bet you say that to all the girls." "Not anymore and that's a solemn promise." "When's your shift tonight."
"The one after the next shift. Just enough time for you to fall into a deep sleep until morning."
Julia did just that, fall into a sound, deep sleep. She was too tired to dream. She never awoke when Alonzo went on his guard shift. She never stirred when Alonzo kissed her forehead as he headed out to relieve Morgan.

Still sleeping soundly until the next morning, Julia awoke late to the noise of everyday activities. She changed out of the clothes she had fallen asleep in and slipped on an outfit Anastasia had lent her. Looking around the campsite, she spotted Kick waving to her. "Good morning Kick," the doctor answered the wave.
Kick had learned bits and pieces of what had happened the night before and ran over to ask Julia about it. "Julia!" The girl waved a second time, stopping Julia's approach towards that morning's breakfast. Racing over to Julia, she stopped just instantly before a head on collision occurred. "Julia, I want to ask you something."
Julia leaned down to Kick's height. "Sure, what do you want to know?" "Is it all true? Did Anastasia do something to someone a long time ago and that person killed Nikki?" Kick decided that mincing words was not to her advantage.
"I'm not sure," Julia replied, thinking over how to deal with the inquisitive girl. "It sure seems that way though. I think maybe you should ask Anna."
"Is she well this morning?" Kick worried. "I know that when she was sick last winter, there were days that she never even woke up." The reminder of almost losing her guardian made the girl shudder. Kick had to help nurse Anastasia back to health, something the girl did willingly, but never wanted to do again. It hurt her so much to see Anastasia so sick.
"She should be well enough." Julia started heading towards the med-tent to check on the patient. After a moment, the doctor turned back to the young girl. "Are you coming with me?" Julia smiled, "I'm sure Anna would love to see you." With that invitation, the girl grabbed Julia's arm and almost dragged her to the med-tent. The enthusiasm made Julia smile.
Anastasia was awake when Julia entered. Anna's expression was at first grim, still clearly holding a grudge, but the sight of Kick brought a radiant smile to her face. Noticing Anna's colour had much improved, Julia made no protests when the patient sat up, propped against her pillow. Kick rushed over and gave her a hug that reminded Julia of the way True would greet her father after he had come back from a scout.
"I missed you tonnes," Anastasia laughed, brushing Kick's hair with her hands.
"I wanted to see you, but I didn't know if you were well enough," Kick replied. The moment of euphoria passed and Kick pulled away and became quiet. "I need to know if what everyone was saying was true."
Anastasia had no qualms answering the girl's question. She knew that Kick had to understand the whole story and not have to put together the puzzle by finding random pieces. "I'm sure you heard that I did a very horrible thing, a long time ago, that I killed a person. That much I thought was true until we came here and Nikki was killed. When I thought I had killed him, the only thing that let me live with that was knowing I was protecting Nikki and Rosemary. I would do the same thing for you, or Xenia or anybody I love in a minute."
"If it was so right, then why do you feel so bad?" "The difference between me and the person who tried to hurt us was that I regret having to do what I did, even though I had to. He would have killed all of us without a thought of guilt or remorse." The girl seemed satisfied with the answer and leaned back into the embrace.
"When are you going to be better?" Kick queried, changing the subject. Feeling confident that she could answer the question, Julia interjected. "It will be about a week before she's one hundred percent healthy again." The doctor was relieved when Kick accepted the answer.
"Have you eaten yet, either of you?" Anastasia asked. When the other two people shook their heads, Anna shooed them away. "Go on and eat, I don't want to be blamed if there's nothing left for you." Julia and Kick smiled. Kick ducked out of the tent quickly. Julia lingered for a few moments longer, checking some equipment. "Julia," Anna called just as her sister was heading for the door.
Julia stopped and turned back.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
Anastasia let out a small ironic laugh at Julia's confusion. "Thank you for letting Kick in to see me. Thank you for letting me explain things to her."
Julia was about to reply when something distracted her.

During the night the man had taken a turn for the worse. He scolded himself for being too vindictive. It probably had cost him his one chance at killing the bitch who had tried to kill him so many years before.
He sat against a tree, shaking, feeling almost unable to get up. He loosely held a pistol in his hands. He knew he had another one tucked in the waist of his makeshift pants. He wiped some sweat from his brow trying to control the urge to cough.
He hoped they would kill him. He hoped they would end this. The way he had planned everything, the consequences would doubly work out in his favour now. He knew he would take Anastasia, and hopefully a few others, with him. He needed this, it would be the only way he could die in peace.
Even in his advanced state of illness, he could still manage to hide himself far enough away from the crowd, but close enough to still see everything that was happening. He knew he would have to strike soon. It would be today.
The final decision was made for him, by the blond woman. She had called out to a young girl, perhaps a bit younger than Anastasia had been when she attacked him.
The blond woman had called her Kick. He had found his first target. He waited while the girl and the woman went into a tent in the far corner of camp. The little girl came out about ten minutes later.
His luck increased when the girl started walking towards him, right to him. For a moment, he thought she had spotted him, but she entered a tent just five metres from where he hid in some underbrush, using the natural foliage to hide him.
When she left the tent, he made his move. Without making too much noise to worry her, he rustled the bushes just enough so she would be curious and look around.
Look around Kick did, as she walked around the circumference of the bushes. She could only let out a short scream as she was pulled to the ground.

"Kick!" Luke called out at the sound of the girl's scream. It almost sounded more like surprise than fear, so he took a deep breath and waited for an answer. He looked frantically around the camp, searching for her. He spotted Xenia sitting near True, but Kick was no where in sight. "Kathleen!" He cried out, again with no response. He started off in the direction of the scream but stopped dead in his tracks.
A man with a few wisps of straggly blond hair stepped out from behind the trees. His face looked older than his body revealed. Holding up a gun that was pointed right at Luke, he stood in a face off with Magus and Walman, who were holding mag-pros, except the man had an advantage.
He was dragging an injured Kick at his side. The man alternated pointing his weapon at the group and pointing it at the little girl's head. Kick was crying.
No one made a move. Glancing to his right Luke saw True keeping a firm grip on Xenia, not allowing her to go anywhere. He then turned his focus back to Kick. The man had his hand wrapped around her chest. Luke was thankful that Kick knew better than to try anything.
"Where is she?" The blond man demanded. "Who are you?" Danziger responded. Keeping a firm eye on the man, he edged closer to his daughter and Xenia.
"Jason Teale," The blond man answered. "I think you know who I'm looking for. Where is she?"
Julia then realized who this man was. Their theory had been correct, it was the same man from years ago that had killed Nikki. She waited a moment for someone else to answer. Finally, she spoke up. "Anastasia isn't here."
"She seemed too sick to go anywhere last night." Julia was momentarily distracted by Bess gasping, everyone understood that he had been spying on them. The whole situation vaguely reminded Julia of the incident with Casey.
Teale looked around the campsite. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" He yelled.
Yale tried to move closer to Uly, the glint off his sunglasses catching the man's eye. "Stay still," Teale barked and the tutor stopped moving.
Julia spotted movement from behind Teale's left shoulder. For a moment she could not discern what it was. She was distracted by a sob coming from Kick. Julia lost whatever was hiding in the woods. For the first time, the doctor noticed that Kick was bleeding slightly on her left arm and that the girl was favouring her left foot. Julia deducted that Kick must have hurt herself in the initial struggle.
Julia then caught the movement again from behind a nearby tree. Jason Teale was staring strangely at the cyborg, but not at the person himself. He was staring into his sunglasses. The mirrored reflection revealed someone moving behind him. He thought he had everyone in camp.
Everyone except Anastasia. Teale moved backwards dragging Kick with him, in a vain attempt to see what was happening.
It was at that moment Anastasia stepped out from behind the cluster of trees. Julia recognized the look on her sister's face. it was the same expression she had seen in the video. It explained how Anastasia had managed to make it all the way from the med-tent to where she stood now, she was running on pure adrenaline, like an animal hunting. Without a sound, Anastasia took a few steps forward and lifted a pistol that she carried up to eye level.
Anastasia knew she couldn't miss. She was usually confident in her shot, but she knew that if she didn't shoot soon, she would probably pass out. Fixating on her target with all the vengeance she could muster, she took aim and fired.
It was a direct hit. The reflex caused him to drop the weapon, and it fell to the ground. Kick screamed at both noises. Collecting her senses, Kick looked herself over to see how badly she had been hurt.
Anastasia did not even look towards anyone else in the group as she approached the body of Jason Teale. Without even thinking, she emptied the round of bullets into his chest. Consciously, she knew the first shot had killed him, but something made her shoot. It was her only way to kill her demons. She walked to a nearby tree and slid down the trunk, pulling her knees up to her chest. The adrenaline was wearing off and her breathing became somewhat laboured. Anastasia just stared at the body that seemed to be staring blankly into the sky.
"Well, that was a perfectly good waste of Koba bullets," Morgan muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.
Luke took one look at Anna and replied, "They weren't Koba bullets." "I thought you only had.." Morgan sputtered. "We have a few extra rounds lying around." An ironic thought struck Luke. "Good thing we put the armory near the med-tent."
The first person who made a move towards Anna was Kick. Julia was trying to look over the girl's wounds, when out of the blue, Kick crawled away towards her guardian. Kick was welcomed with an open embrace from Anastasia, as the two just sat together, holding each other for support.
Julia then made her way to the body of Jason Teale. She ran her dia-glove over the body, and unconsciously gasped.
"He's still alive?" Luke responded to the noise of surprise. "No it's not that." Julia ran her glove over the body one more time, just to be sure. Alonzo and Danziger moved forward to see what was happening as Julia turned to the group.
"Julia?" Alonzo asked.
"I don't know how this is possible," Julia began, "But he was suffering from the same illness as Devon."
End of Chapter XIX

Okay there we go, another section down. Man what am I writing here? This is way longer than I thought and I would like to thank everyone who remained with it.
Now I'm going to test your trivia knowledge... Can anyone figure out where I got my names from? Most the main ones are from (big hint here.) Two historically famous familiesand one psychopath (Come on Canucks, you should know this on.) Another hint, the psychopath is the psychopath.
Please send all ego strokes to <carre1@server.uwindsor.ca>
Emma Pentland

Parallels (20/24)
By Emma Pentland

One word that the censors wouldn't approve of, but "Gosh Darnit to Heck" didn't suit the situation. LCC

Luke had taken Anastasia back to the med-tent, Kick insisted on staying with her. The two had barely said anything since the shooting. Julia was getting frustrated that Kick was not letting the doctor fix her wounds. Kick limped all the way to the med-tent, never once taking her eyes off Anastasia. The reality of the events were just beginning to sink into everyone. Julia was unconcerned with the medical setbacks with Anastasia, she was more concerned about the mental repercussions.
Once Anastasia had been properly sedated, Julia turned her attention to the little girl. Kick had minor wounds and insisted on staying with Anna after she had been looked after. As much as Julia wanted to stay with her sister, she knew she had other work to do.
When the doctor went back outside, she was pleased that Danziger and Walman had started putting up one of the spare tents to house the body. After the preliminary examination and its findings, Julia knew how much work was ahead of her. She had recognized the readings instantly, she had spent too long studying them not to know the signs. Jason Teale's body had shut down the same way Devon's had, overtime, slowly and painfully.
"We've got the tent up, what else do you need Doc?" Walman asked. "I need the computer from the med tent, all of my equipment and an extra cot, propped up on something for an examination table, I have no intention of performing an autopsy on my knees." Julia mentally checked off everything, to assure herself that she had forgotten nothing. She ran a hand through her hair, her thumb ring glinting from the sun. It was barely mid-morning and so much had happened.
Walman smiled and dutifully ran his errands. Within half an hour, Julia was ready to make the first incision. She decided to stick to the textbook in this autopsy. It was not as if she had to hurry and put this body back into cold sleep. "Laser cut, third finger command," she said aloud to her mechanical attachment and thus her job had begun.

True had almost been forced into looking after Xenia for the afternoon but True did not mind. The younger girl had done little, only gone in and out of the med-tent a few times to see the still-sleeping Anastasia. Kick was still sitting in there as well and no matter how much True pleaded, Kick would not leave.
Eventually, True knew that she would have to work on some minor wiring problems in the Transrover, she had neglected it since they arrived in the valley.
"I need to do some repairs. wanna help?" True asked the little girl. In response, Xenia only shrugged her shoulders. True pursed her lips in a frown, Xenia was even less talkative than normal. Over the past few days, Xenia had been chattering a lot more and True discovered that she missed it. True was having enough difficulty dealing with what had happened, all she could do was keep busy. She knew, deep down, that Xenia would be a while before she would feel like talking again.
Wandering over to a crate, True looked through it for the tools she knew she would need. As she found each one, she would pull it out and hand it to Xenia. True frowned harder, a subconscious imitation of her father, when one item was missing.
"Come on Xenia," True said while relieving the little girl of some of the heavy load. "We'll take this over first and then we have to find my dad." Xenia just nodded in response.
Sighing, True led Xenia over to the Transrover where the two girls laid everything out so that it was convenient to find when True started working. When they were finished, True started walking towards her father's tent and after a few metres, she discovered Xenia wasn't following her.
Turning back, True waved her hand for Xenia to come with her. "Come on Xenia," she soothed when the girl did not respond. "Aren't you coming?" True smiled, trying to coax the girl to come along.
Xenia stepped forward tentatively and True waited until Xenia had reached her before continuing on. To True's surprise, the little girl wriggled her hand into True's hand. Instead of protesting, True smiled, and the two children continued on.
"Dad?" True called out before she entered the tent. "What is it True-girl?" Came the response. True cocked her head to one side for a moment, confused. Her father sounded tired and it was only early afternoon. Pushing the tent flap, True led Xenia inside. Her father was resting on his side. "Hey Dad, you okay?"
"Oh fine," Danziger told his daughter, sitting up. "Just catching up on a few lost hours of sleep, that's all," he assured her.
True accepted the answer and moved on, "Dad the number 9 wrench is missing from the crate, do you know where it might have gone?"
"Check with Baines, he was using it earlier for some repairs on the 'Rail." The mechanic replied.
"Okay Dad," The two girls left the tent in search of the missing tool.

Julia had an idea. The one thing Reilly had wanted from Uly was his Pineal gland, that it seemed to be the source of change, he had told her. With careful incisions she located the area of the Pineal gland, at the base of the brain. A moment of eeriness passed through the doctor as she thought about the recent theories on it's function. *It's supposed to be the soul.*
"Julia?"
The doctor almost made an error in the cutting, being distracted by the noise. She turned in anger towards the speaker and came almost face to face with Morgan Martin.
"What do you want Morgan? You seem to have this ability to interrupt me in the middle of autopsies." Julia snapped at him. "What happened, another Grendler drool on you?" She would normally have regretted her tone, but the pressure she was under immediately after Devon was put into cold sleep, seemed to be returning.
"I, uh," the bureaucrat stuttered. "I was wondering if you had found anything."
"Morgan, don't you think I would have told everyone if I had found something?"
"I'm sorry Julia, but I kind of want to know if this is going to happen to all of us."
Julia took a deep before she went to speak again. Morgan interrupted her. "This isn't about me." Morgan pleaded, realizing how badly he had phrased things. "I'm not worried about me. It's not like I want to die or anything." Seeing the confused look of Julia's face, he got right to the point. "It's Bess I'm worried about. I brought her here, 22 years from the nearest station. I know she can look after herself, but this isn't like scrounging for food or trading with Grendlers. This is something she can't look after, and I want to know if she's going to go through that."
"If I told you she was, what are you going to do?" Morgan swallowed. "I don't know yet, but at least we'd know and we would be able to deal with it. I'd probably start asking about how to make Bess more comfortable, so that she wouldn't have to suffer like Devon."
The heartfelt plea touched Julia and she felt a bit more respect for the bureaucrat. "If you like, you can stay while I finish this, that way you would know as soon as I do if we find anything." Morgan looked confused for a minute, so the doctor elaborated. "Only if you won't get squeamish or anything," Julia stressed.
"I think I can handle this," Morgan replied, surprised at his own resolve. "Remember, I was dead once too." He let out a nervous laugh and sat down in the chair at the table.
"Morgan," Julia said before she went back to work. "I promise you that no matter what, I'll make sure Bess is as comfortable as possible." The bureaucrat gave a slight, but sincere, smile at the comment.
Julia went back to finding the Pineal gland. Reaching inside the man's skull, she felt something and bent closer to examine what she had found. With a few adept cuts, she pulled out the Pineal gland.
"What the heck is that?" Morgan asked, amazed. Staring at the unknown body part that filled the palm of the doctor's hand.
"It's supposedly the Pineal gland." Julia muttered, shooing Morgan out of the chair so that she could sit down at the table. Placing the gland on the sterilized surface that Julia had made in front of the microscope, she gently cleaned off the excess gore hanging off it.
"What's so special about it?" Morgan asked. Examining the gland, Julia realized that she should answer. "Well, first of all, it's several times it's usual size. It's where the change starts," She muttered absentmindedly.
"What change? The illness?"
Understanding that she had just said something she had wanted to keep quiet, Julia felt compelled to explain. "No, the change that Uly went through to get well."
"Who told you that?"
Julia's gaze unfocused for a moment and Morgan was unsure what she was looking at. "Reilly," the doctor replied wistfully.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Julia was the first to speak again. "It's a long story, but what is important now is how this became so enlarged." She pinched the gland slightly, noting how hard it had become.
Making a small incision, both Julia and Morgan gasped as the contents of the Pineal gland spilled onto the counter. Julia ran her dia-glove over the contents, just to be sure.
It was just plain, old dirt.

"What?" Baines gasped at the news. It was now turning into evening and the Eden Crew and the Native were taking in the doctor's results.
"That's exactly what I said Baines," Julia repeated herself. "All I found was dirt. The pressure from the swollen Pineal gland caused the chain reaction of events that caused Devon and Jason Teale to become ill. The pressure was too much on the brain, causing the shut down of their neural pathways and internal systems."
"Well how do we get it out?" Walman asked. "I don't know," Julia sighed. "If I did operate on a completely heathy person, their's only a fifty percent chance they would live. Devon is so ill that her chances would be almost zero."
"Does knowing this help any of us?" Yale demanded. "I don't know. I don't know how the dirt gets in there and there is always a chance that it could come back at anytime." Julia replied honestly. "With the numerous amounts of operations needed to keep this at bay, no one would live long."
"Terrians do this." It was Mary, who, up until this point, had been sitting listening to everything. "You can not stop Terrians. Not if they want you to die."
"But what do we do Mary?" Alonzo queried. "Make it better."
"Make what better? We did nothing wrong," Walman blurted. "You must have."
"Mary," Yale tried to explain the situation in terms Mary would understand. "This is like when the Terrians wanted to punish me and I had done nothing wrong."
"But you accepted guilt." Mary pointed out. "Yes I did," Yale admitted. "But they wanted to punish everyone and they shouldn't do that."
"Who is being punished?" Anastasia had come upon the group and only heard the last part of the conversation. Anna had awakened only a while before, feeling much better and had decided to come out and join everyone. Kick stood at her side.
"Seems like we are," Walman muttered. "Excuse me?" Anastasia was confused. "We found out what was making Devon ill." Julia told her sister. Anastasia looked around at the faces of the Eden Crew, she saw how sore a subject it was, that she would not help Devon. "What was it?" She asked, shifting her weight on her feet. Kick looked around to see what was making Anna nervous.
"Somehow there seems to be dirt inside a gland. It's causing all the neurological problems that Devon was suffering from." Julia explained.
In the far corner of the group sat True, looking at her friend and then around for her father. She had not seen him all afternoon. Quietly she slipped away towards his tent. In a scene reminiscent from that morning, True knocked on the tent flap. "Dad?" She called softly.
There was no answer so True went inside. Waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, she made her was over to where she knew her father would keep the light. "Dad?" She asked again.
Turning on the light, she spotted her father asleep on the cot. True sat on the edge and shook her father's shoulders. "Dad, get up. You're missing the meeting."
"What is it True-girl?" Danziger said, semi-conscious. "Julia found out what was wrong with Devon but she doesn't know how to fix it yet."
"I know already, Julia came in and told me earlier. I figured I didn't need to go," The mechanic explained to his daughter.
"But Dad," True was bewildered by her father's actions. "If you're so tired, maybe I should get Julia."
"There's no need for that True," Danziger assured her. "I'm just tired.
"Okay, I'm going to go and let you go back to sleep." True jumped up from the side of the bed and quickly left, only pausing for a moment to look back at him.

"I honestly don't know if we can do anything," Julia was frustrated at having to repeat herself. Some of the Native group had started asking questions, afraid that the same thing might happen to them.
The doctor was relieved when no one had asked anymore questions. Slowly the group began to dissipate. She had wished Danziger was there for her, but he was tired. Julia understood, from the amount of stress and pressure and work the mechanic had gone through, he deserved to get some sleep.
"Hey Doc," Alonzo said while he approached her. "I think you deserve a nice dinner after all that great work."
Julia smiled. "I don't think it was that great, no way to solve the problem yet."
"Well I think you're great," Alonzo leaned into her, kissing her on the cheek. He held out his arm to her. "Come on, I had Bess save you some dinner."
Julia took his arm and they started towards her dinner but they were stopped by a concerned little girl.
"Julia?" True asked, "Now that you know what's wrong, would you be able to spot early symptoms in someone."
"Sure, I guess." Julia said, looking at Alonzo, unsure of what was going on. "I wasn't looking for what I found when I scanned Devon, but now that I know..."
"That's good," True said, grabbing Julia's arm and pulling her away from the pilot. "I think my dad's sick and I want to know if it's the same thing Devon has."
"I saw your father earlier True, he just said he was tired." Julia said, trying to assure the girl. "He's had a lot to do lately and it's not surprising that he's worn out."
"Could you come anyway?" True decided to result in guilt tactics, "It would make me feel better."
Letting out a deep breath, Julia acquiesced. "All right, I'll come." The doctor let the girl drag her into the mechanic's tent.

Anastasia had watched Julia and True head off to Danziger's tent. "Come on," she said, grabbing Kick's hand and leading her in the same direction. "I want to know what's happening."
Kick followed without any questions but stopped halfway there. "Anastasia?" She whispered.
Forgetting her destination for a moment, Anna concentrated on the girl in front of her. "What is it Kick?" She kneeled down to the girls height, and to her dismay, found that the girl actually looked down at her now while Anastasia was on her knees. For a moment, Anastasia pondered exactly how much Kick had changed since she first met her so many years ago.
"This morning with that man, he was going to kill me, or you or anybody he could and then there was Casey a while ago, how many people are going to try and hurt us like that? I mean, Casey was one of us and..." The girl began to cry.
Anastasia was relieved that at least Kick was dealing with what had happened. Anna pulled Kick's head to her shoulder and stroked her hair while she sobbed into her shoulder.
The scene was interrupted by an exuberant Xenia who had been turned over to Rosemary's care. The other little girl ran over and wrapped her small arms around as much as she could of Kick and Anna. "What's wrong Kick?" She twittered when she saw Kick crying.
"What happened today scared her, that's all Xen." Anastasia explained. Kick pulled her head away so that she could see what was happening.
"It scared me to. It shouldn't happen again." Xenia informed everyone. Both Kick and Anastasia laughed at the comment. "That's right it shouldn't," Anastasia agreed. "Now Xenia, Kick hasn't had her dinner yet, could you take her over to get some?"
Xenia nodded her head enthusiastically, grabbed Kick's hand and led her towards food. Anastasia continued towards the Danzigers' tent. She stopped when she clearly heard the conversation inside.
"Shit," She heard Danziger curse. "Julia are you sure?" "Daddy no," True was clearly upset. "I've run the scan four times, it's the same reading each time. Anastasia was confused as Julia paused. "True, I'm sorry you were right."
"Daddy," True sobbed again. Anastasia could hear Danziger whispering soothing words to his daughter. Anna decided that it was not a good time to enter the tent.
"I'm sorry True," Julia sounded like whatever was wrong was her own fault. "You're father has the same thing Devon does."
Anastasia suddenly found herself weak in the knees as she understood what was happening. Looking around the campsite and seeing no one watching her, Anastasia knew that she couldn't let it happen. Unsure of what to do, Anna turned towards the forest. Unafraid, she walked into the darkness, looking for a solitary spot.
Anastasia walked as far as she felt she should, and realized that she was about five hundred metres from camp, halfway between her old home and her new one. She smirked at the irony. Sitting down against a tree, she took off her necklace, enclosing the pendant in her fist, drifting off instantly to sleep.
End of Chapter XX

Okay for all you people who care, this is the answer to the trivia question I posed last time. The names I ripped off from famous people and/or families, are as follows...
1) (For All you USers, aka Americans) I stole names from the Kennedys. Kathleen (aka Kick) and Rosemary are your former President's sisters. Agnes is Kathleen Kennedy's middle name. 2) The Romanovs: Nicholas, Anastasia and Xenia (Xenia was the Tsar's sister) 3) Jason Teale (All you Canadians should know this. PAUL Jason Teale is the name Paul Bernardo had it legally changed to. I needed a sick psychopathic guy, and he was the first who came to mind.) 4) Luke Spencer. (A Soap Opera character, I don't remember which soap because I refuse to watch them but I thought the name was phonetically beautiful, so I stole it.)
That's some trivia for you. You always have to pay attention to my names, they always mean something. The others are just too obscure or would take too long to explain here. LCC
Emma Pentland

Parallels (21/24)
By Emma Pentland

"It's all right True-girl." Danziger had tried to calm his near hysterical child.
"It's not all right Daddy!" True yelled, stamping her foot on the ground. She pulled away from her father and ran out of the tent.
"Oh god," Danziger moaned, almost in tears himself. "What's going to happen to True?"
"Right now John, I hate to sound heartless but True isn't important, you are." Julia sighed and ran her hands through her hair in frustration. "I explained the options earlier."
"The operations?" Danziger interrupted, making sure he understood. "Yes," Julia's tone slipped into the chilly doctor voice she was famous for back on the stations. "You've only been feeling symptoms today, so you have a few days to decide what you want to do, before you become to weak to make operating a viable option."
"And you figure this will just come back?" Julia shrugged her shoulders. "Considering the fact that we don't know how exactly the dirt gets into the gland, we can't figure out a way to stop it."
"Then there's really no point." "You get to spend more time with True," Julia pointed out. It was quite unlike the mechanic to give in so easily. When he had become ill from the virus from Alex and Les, he had accepted what might happen, but still he never gave up hope.
"You've got to understand Julia," Danziger wanted so desperately for someone to understand his reasoning. "The longer I'm alive, the more True will have to deal with having a sick parent. If there's no cure.."
"No known cure," Julia pointed out. "Fine no *known* cure, and don't think I'm knocking your abilities Julia, but I doubt one can be found, then perhaps I should just accept my eventual fate. True doesn't need the burden. Go on and tell all the others. We can't keep this a secret." Lying back down on the cot, John gave the opinion that the discussion was over.
"That's a horrible thing to say John Danziger," Julia's veneer cracked. "Go ahead. Go outside and ask your daughter if she thinks it would be better if you just died!" Julia's voice softened to almost nonexistence as she was trying to hold back the tears. "Imagine what it would do to everyone else John! To see you just curl up and die. Everyone will do the same thing. We'll never know what happened to us. We'll all just give up and die."
"That all can't be blamed on me Julia." A flash of anger passed through his weakened voice. "It's not my fault for getting sick. Your pep talk isn't going to make me change my mind."
"I know it's not your fault, but what is your fault is your attitude John Danziger," Julia scolded. Taken aback by a small burst of laughter from her opposition Julia demanded, "What? What the hell can you find that's funny."
"Here Devon was thinking I'd be the inspirational leader. You sound more like her now than I ever did." John replied.
"I don't think that when Devon left you in charge she expected you to just accept things. You were always the agitator when she was alive." Realizing another tactic to convince the mechanic, Julia changed her approach. She took a deep breath before continuing. "And what about Devon. When she comes out of cold sleep how are we going to explain that you simply decided to die? Imagine how she'll think of you then John."
"Don't bring up Devon to me," Danziger snarled and sitting back up. "I have no choice in the matter. You've said yourself that I might come out of the operation as a barely functional vegetable. How would Devon see that? How could I force that on True? I love them too much to do that." He stopped for a moment, Realizing that in his moment of anger he had admitted, not to Julia, but to himself, that he actually *loved* Devon. He fell back to his pillow, close to tears again. When he finally regained his composure, he continued. "You're a doctor Julia. You know that the patient has the final decision. I've made it so please don't get involved anymore."
Julia was not willing to give up so easily. "John, I may a doctor but I can't help being involved in this, and I don't want to hear one crack about my chromosomes being skewed against getting involved. This is not a hospital John. I didn't just meet you yesterday and you aren't going to be checked out of here tomorrow as if all you were was a medical chart. You are a part of my family now, and I'm not going to let you go so easily."
"Well if you come up with a cure tomorrow, I'll happily stick around for a long time to come, but I will not do something that will burden my daughter." John firmly stated.
Feeling as if she was going around in circles Julia tried one last approach. No matter how much her chromosomes told her to stay, Julia needed some form of escape. "Ask Uly how he feels about his mother!" Finally getting her voice back and yelling at full volume. "Ask him!"
"Get out!" Danziger yelled back. Julia happily followed his instructions and left the tent quickly. Only a few steps from the flap, she ran right into Alonzo, who had come to investigate what the yelling was about. "Hey Querida, what's wrong?" He asked, wrapping a protective arm around the doctor.
Looking up at Alonzo, Julia had to ask. "I thought you said we were safe here," she started crying into his jacket.
"What do you mean?" Alonzo was confused. He looked at the tent she had just come from, then a horrible thought occurred to him, "You're not saying that..."
"John's sick," Julia finished. "I thought we were safe here." Alonzo felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. "So did I." "I don't know what we're going to do 'Lonzo. There may be no hope for us." Julia sobbed.
Baines was standing just in earshot to hear the entire conversation. He rushed over to the campfire where Magus, Cameron and Walman were sitting. Baines barely had the attention of everyone in the campfire before he blurted out, "Danziger's sick."
Magus gasped, spilling a little of the drink she was holding onto the ground. It was another moment before Walman spoke up. "It's the damned diggers, isn't it?" Hitting the crate he was sitting on, he stood up. "I say we just pull out a geo-lock and keep them away from us! If they want to fight, we'll fight."
"Maybe that's not a good idea," Bess said, walking up with Morgan and insinuating herself into the conversation. "Remember what happened after the first geo-lock was released?" She reminded everyone.
"Well if they're going to kill us, they might as well have a reason." Magus spat back.
"Hey!" Morgan said, "Bess was only trying to help." "What are we going to do now?" Baines asked. No one could give him an answer.

True did not know what she was looking for. She just knew that she had to find something. Going deep into the forest in an attempt to escape her problems. This was nothing like the time Les and Alex made her Dad sick, True knew that Julia had been unable to find a cure in time for Devon and that is what scared her the most. She had heard the others whispering about how Alonzo had said True and Uly would never become sick. She stopped in her tracks at the thought she would have to watch all of the Eden Project die.
"W-who's there?" A voice spoke behind True. Turning around, she spied Rosemary sitting against a large tree trunk. Enough in the shadows that True probably would not have seen her if Rosemary if the woman had not said something. Standing up out of the shadows, Rosemary asked, "You look sad, why?"
A flash of anger intruded True's voice. "My dad is sick, all because Anastasia won't help."
"Anastasia didn't make your dad sick." Rosemary pointed out. She may have easily been confused about almost anything, but she was clear on this. "You weren't mad when she wouldn't help the other woman..." The name escaped her.
"Devon," True informed her. "But Devon was different, she was already sick, but..."
"But she wasn't your dad." The simple child-like Rosemary was right. Feeling a slight pang of guilt at the insinuation and started to cry again. She brushed the tears from her cheeks roughly, angry that she could not control them.
"I didn't mean to make you cry." Rosemary looked like she was going to cry as well, upset that she had made True sad.
"You didn't make me cry." True assured her, having forgotten for a moment that Rosemary was not a normal adult. She may have looked like one, but Kick had explained how different Rosemary was.
Still, Rosemary cried with True. The two stood in the forest, weeping.

Observing the sudden flurry of activity among the Eden Advance team, Luke decided to investigate. "Kick!" The girl came instantly at the sound of her name, Xenia following at her heels. "Do you know what's happening?"
Kick smiled, "Why do you always think I know what's happening?" Luke returned the smile. "Because somehow you always do know." "Well I don't this time. Everyone gets awful quiet when someone from our group comes near them." Kick told him.
Confused for a moment, Luke changed the subject. "Have you seen Anastasia? I went to check the med-tent and she wasn't there."
"She went to go see what was happening in Danziger's tent," Kick replied. "She sent me off to get dinner."
"All right, I guess I'll let you go back to your food," Luke joked, "but you tell me if you hear anything."
"Sure thing." In a flash both girls disappeared again into the crowd near the food. Luke turned around and started heading towards the Danzigers's tent. "Danziger?" He called out when he reached the flap.
"Who is it?" came a muffled response. Luke entered, looking around the tent. No one had bothered to switch of the light, even though it was clear that Danziger was trying to sleep. The mechanic was curled up on his side, facing away from Luke. It took a moment, but suddenly Luke realized that the mechanic was using True's jacket as a pillow. "Hey Danziger, you all right?"
Rolling over, Danziger replied. "Haven't you heard yet?" "Heard what?"
"I'm going to die, so no, I'm not all right." Luke just stood for a few moments, unsure of what to say. "If there's anything we can do..." he extended the traditional sympathy line.
"Actually there is." An idea came to John. "I want Bess to look after True, but if she becomes ill, I want you and Anna to look after my daughter. She seems to adore Kick and she'll need a friend."
"Sure we can do that."
"And I want you people to take in Uly too, he's already lost his mother." Danziger continued. He wanted to put all his affairs in order. He wanted to be sure Uly and True would be looked after.
Luke readily agreed, easing Danziger's mind. Quickly taking leave to let John go back to sleep, Luke went back out in search of Anastasia, to tell her the bad news. After checking the med-tent again, Luke went to where a large group of natives were sitting. "Have any of you seen Anastasia?"
A few people muttered in the negative while others just shook their heads.
"I saw her a while back, near the Danziger tent," Randy suggested. "Just before the Eden Crew went all quiet on us."
"Yeah well their leader is sick." Luke told them. "We know that. We've heard all about Devon." Molly sighed. "No," Luke corrected her. "It's not Devon this time, it's Danziger." A few looks passed among them, but no one said anything. Bringing the subject back to the missing woman, Luke said, "Has anybody seen Rosemary, she tends to know where Anna has wandered off to."
"No, but Rosemary always wanders off herself." Someone mentioned in the back of he group.
"Luke!' Kick and Xenia ran right into the middle of crowd. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Kick continued. "Xenia was worried after you talked to us, so we looked for Anna and we can't find her. I mean she's sick, she shouldn't just leave like that should she?" A look of fright passed across her face. "Maybe she heard Danziger is sick. We heard some of the Eden Crew talking about it. they'd probably blame her you know."
"She's not going to do what Nikki did, is she?" Xenia blurted out. "Nikki was murdered Xenia, remember?" Luke reminded her. Realizing that he had to assure the little girl. "And no, she would never do that."
Molly piped up, "She's been kind of depressed, I mean she's had a reason to be but..."
"You aren't helping here!" Luke snapped at her. "You people don't seem to have much faith. Anastasia is famous for going away for a few hours and coming back. If she's not back in an hour, I'll go look for her." Luke had to believe Anna would never do something so stupid.

Anastasia stood on the dreamplane, waiting. She had been there for what seemed like forever. Rolling her pendant of Morganitte in her metaphysical hand, she became angry.
"What good is this if it doesn't work." She made a motion to throw the pendant down to the unreal ground of the cave surrounding her.
A hand reached out and grabbed hers, preventing Anastasia to complete the motion. The brown, scaly hand was easily recognizable as Terrian. Looking into the face of her companion Anastasia simply asked, "Why?"
The Terrian twitted, telling the young woman that he was confused. He did not understand why Anna had contacted the tribe. The piece of the mother had been given so long ago and had never been used to contact them. The Terrians had always contacted her, she never needed to contact them.
"Many years ago you gave me this," Anastasia held the pendant close to the terrian's face, " saying that a part of the planet was the only thing was all you could give for the mistake you made by bringing the men too us, the ones who killed my group, my *family.* One of your kind said I could use it to contact you if the need arose. Now is the time." Surprised by the own formality in her voice, she waited for a moment.
The Terrian used the silence to explain that the tribe was indebted to Anastasia for the mistake they made.
"I understand that. I'm here about the sickness the new group. The ones who joined us. Mary said that you were making them sick." Anastasia waited for a few moments with no answer.
The Terrian twittered again. "Mary is banished the another tribe tells us."
"Mary may be banished, but she would know when you were making the other group ill." Anastasia could feel the anger rising within her.
Speaking Terrian, Anastasia took a moment to translate. "What do you mean they must die? That they're dangerous?" She could not comprehend the point the Terrian was trying to reach. "I understand that the piece of the planet in my hand controls this area. If I refuse to keep it, this place will die, and all the Terrians around this area too." Anastasia was giving up, finally resorting to blackmail.
The Terrian asked her why she would want to do such a thing. "Because that is what you are doing to me and my group. You are taking away my kind and if you do that I will take away yours." Anna hated to resort to such low tactics, but the situation called for it.
The scene around Anastasia changed. She was back in the past, standing amongst the bodies of the children she had known so well. Seeing her young self out of the corner of her eye, Anastasia was close to tears. "Why did you bring me here?"
Walking around the bodies of the children the Terrian gave her an answer. "What do you mean that we had to be protected from this. You can't protect anyone from the past." Anastasia yelled at him. She knew Terrians did not experience time the same way humans did, but it was different, they were not arguing about Terrians. They were dealing with humans, human lives and Anastasia had to make her companion understand that.
There was another scene change and Anastasia was taken back to that morning. This time se got to see the look of fear across Kick's face as the man dragged her out to face the crowd of people. Anastasia had been behind the action, but now she saw the terror Kick felt as Anna shot Jason Teale. A little blood spattered across the top of the young girl's head as she pulled herself away before Teale fell on her and crushed her.
"Stop this!" Anastasia yelled. Instantaneously Anna found herself back in the cave, the Terrian cooing and clicking information at her. He was talking about how the other tribe took Uly and healed him. That he had to be protected and that's why the other Terrians took him.
"Uly was sick. That was no one's fault." Anastasia pleaded. "What does Uly's illness have to do with my group."
"All children must be protected." Anastasia gasped at the voice from so long ago. She turned to face Pauline, who, up until now, Anastasia always remembered as an equal. The Pauline now was still a child, while Anastasia had grown up. "The children who came to this planet learned how to live here in peace. The adults just want to destroy everything. Look at what happened to us. What happened to your little girl. The Terrians just want to protect us."
"But these people are different..." "They carry weapons, and the grown-up children must always be wary of them. The Terrians just try to kill them before they can harm you." Pauline explained simply.
"No discrimination, you just kill all the adults. The ones who did not grow up on the planet?"
"Yes." Anastasia was unsure what to say. She realized that because her group had been killed, all the adult humans in the area were being punished for it. "The earth. You use the planet to kill them."
"We are just protecting the children. The earth that gives you life will give them all death."
Standing quiet for a few moments, Anna realized that the Terrians were going to kill everyone in the Eden Project, with the exception of True and Uly. *Danziger is already ill. Soon the others will follow.* She thought to herself.
The thought of all those people dying caused Anastasia to stop and take a breath. Suddenly, another thought occurred to her, one that she just could not accept. "You're going to kill my sister!"
"Yes."
End of Chapter XXI

I'd like to thank everyone who has stuck with me so far, I know it's long but hang in there. Wait! With the list soon shutting down maybe you people won't find out what happens! I could kill Danziger and Julia and not hear one peep from anyone. Boy, I could picture A.j. going nuts over that! (Sorry this is just the sadistic side that writes the DLK series teasing everyone and lamenting the loss of the list.) You know where to send all comments by now I hope. Emma Pentland

Parallels (22/24)
By Emma Pentland

"You can't do that!" Anastasia exclaimed, unable to think of anything better to say. "You can't kill my sister!"
"The other tribe told us that she wanted to harm the boy. You see, the adults are dangerous." The image of Pauline said quietly.
It took Anastasia a moment to recover. She had never known that Julia had tried to hurt Uly. "If they're so dangerous, then why did they help other Terrian tribes?" Anastasia demanded.
"I cannot answer that. The tribe does not know." Pauline tilted her head to one side, the way Anna had seen Terrians do many times. "Why do want them to live? They could hurt you."
"You just shouldn't kill people without discrimination, maybe they did nothing wrong. It's not for you to decide who should live or die." The frustration crept back into Anastasia's voice.
"You killed one."
Up until the image of Pauline used that argument, Anna had been afraid how to answer. She knew that eventually that point would be brought up. When the actual moment arrived, she realized that their was only one response to give. "Yes, I killed someone, and there may be other people who will die because of me, but I did nothing that other adults wouldn't do."
"I don't understand; are you dangerous now too?." "No. I killed that man because he was going to hurt someone I love dearly. Now the woman, Devon Adair, the one from the group that joined ours, the one you made sick, did the exact same thing for her son." The small child image took a few steps forward, clearly interested in hearing more so Anastasia continued. "The place where she was living made her son sick so she came here. Her old home was so far away and she left everything to save her son. Devon did what she had to do to save her son, like I did what I had to do to save Kathleen. The man, Danziger, the one ill now, he would do anything for his daughter too, the same way I would anything for the children I look after."
"What about the others. There are so many." Pauline pointed out. "Well, this group is so close. One pair, Morgan and Bess, he helped his wife make spring because he loved her so much. Together they did something for your planet. My sister and Alonzo, the one you talk to on the dreamplane, they love each other too. These are good people, you can't kill them." Anna stopped, afraid of sounding preachy.
The young girl seemed to be actually listening to Anna's pleas. "We can not be sure about the others."
"You don't have to be sure. It's wrong to kill the others. they are like us. Julia and Alonzo love each other like I love Luke. Do you understand? They are like us. Most humans are. These people may make mistakes but they won't harm anyone. Can you not see that? Can't you see the parallels between us?" A silence filled the dreamplane, giving Anastasia the chills.
"You want these adults to live then?" A small smile came across Anastasia's face. A memory of a clergyman once visiting the hospital flashed through her head. "In a way we are all children. Everyone is someone's child."
A look of confusion passed across Pauline's face. "Who is the parent to all the adults?"
"Their parents, who were also someone's child." Anna decided it was appropriate to bring in the next argument. "Someone once told me that we were all God's children."
"Then we reject God."
"Fine with me," Anastasia almost giggled at the concept. "Now promise me, there will be no more killing. We will try and deal with the humans that are harmful, but please, unless they do something to the tribe, or the mother, please leave them be."
"We can not bring back those we have taken." Something in the inflection of Pauline's voice caused sudden panic to swell up inside Anna. "What do you mean? You can't save Devon or Danziger?"

"It's been over four hours Luke, she'd never be gone that long without a reason." The accusing voice of Molly rang in his ears. Luke did not know why he was not taking action, *maybe I just don't want to believe anything is wrong* he thought.
Luke stood up, ignoring everyone in the group and heading directly towards Julia's tent, he realized that the doctor deserved to know what was happening. He knocked gently on the tent and heard a muffled reply. Stepping inside, he observed a puffy-eyed Julia still leaning against Alonzo. "Hey," he said quietly. "Julia, I know you have a lot to deal with right now but there's something I need to ask you."
"Go ahead," Julia replied.
"Have you seen Anastasia?" Luke ran his hands through his hair trying to keep his thoughts organized.
"No," Julia answered while shaking her head. She sat up straighter at the implication. "You don't know where she is? When was the last time you saw her?"
"Over four hours ago."
"Four hours!" The doctor exclaimed. "She's still recovering, why didn't you go after her?"
"We didn't know she was missing at first. We figured that she had just wanted some time to herself. She's had a lot to deal with too," Luke was trying to convince himself more than the doctor. He needed to believe that was all that was wrong.
"She'd know this area better than anyone, how would we find her?" Alonzo pointed out.
"Rosemary would know." Luke realized. "Are you sure? I mean that.." Alonzo was cut off curtly by Luke. "We all know Rosemary will never be as *normal* as the rest of us. We know sometimes she has difficulty understanding things, but I know for a fact that there is nothing wrong with her memory." Anastasia had drilled that fact so deeply into his head that it took him a moment to realize he was echoing her. In any other circumstance he would have smiled at that fact.
"Come on then," Julia urged, grabbing Alonzo's hand as the trio rushed out of the tent. Scanning the camp, Luke spotted Rosemary sitting with Kick and Xenia and called the woman over. Within moments, Rosemary was standing in front of them with the two girls following behind.
"Rosemary," Luke said calmly, trying not to worry her. "If Anastasia wanted to go off by herself around here, where would she go?"
The soft tones did not confuse the woman, "Why is she gone?" Rosemary demanded.
Luke simply nodded his head.

"You can't save Devon and Danziger?" Anastasia demanded again. The small figure had never answered her first question. Anna stepped forward, kneeling in front of the child image like she had done so many times before with Xenia and Kick. "Please, you have to tell me."
"Your Devon and your Danziger are safe." Anastasia let out a sigh of relief at the response. "But the other man is not."
"What other man?"
"The one who hurt you."
"Jason Teale?"
"No."
Absentmindedly running her hands through her hair Anna thought about what the girl had said. She was confused for a moment, then suddenly, Anastasia's head snapped up, staring at the child, realizing what the girl had meant. "Casey. You took Casey." She felt the tears welling up in her eyes.
"Yes. He tried to hurt you. Child of the planet or not, we could not let that happen. We took him immediately."
The feeling of guilt weighed heavily on Anna's chest. For a moment, she breathed heavily, unable to speak. "This is never going to stop is it?"
"What?" The child-image asked. "I'm being punished for everything." The hopeless tone in Anastasia's voice had the image actually look worried. "I was an unwanted child and so I was punished with the Syndrome. I was sent away by my parents to this planet. When I survived, again I was punished, being forced to watch everyone around me die. Now Casey, is this ever going to stop?"
"It will stop now. I promise. None of those things were your fault." The conviction in the child's voice surprised Anastasia out of her tears. The voice seemed real, not just the shell of Pauline that it had seemed before. The girl walked forward and put a reassuring hand on Anna's shoulder, a gesture the young girl had done many times when she was alive. Anastasia looked up at what she believed to truly be her old friend. "Is that a promise?" She asked just to be sure.
"Yes." Pauline replied, she held out her hand, extending her little finger. "Pinky swear?"
With that small movement, Anna knew that she was talking to a ghost from her past. A different set of tears filled her eyes as she took the offered finger, but she was suddenly distracted by a Terrian whistling behind her.
Pauline spoke before Anastasia could translate. "They will grant your wish."
Anastasia smiled at the young girl. "Thank you." For a moment, everyone was quiet. Looking at Pauline and then to the Terrian and back again, Anna had an idea. Looking at the pendant, she rolled it around in her hand, as she had done for many years. Slowly, she stood up and walked over to the Terrian. "I no longer need this." She extended her hand out and placed the pendant in the Terrian's soft leathery hand.
The Terrian twittered back at Anastasia, holding the pendant back out again.
"Take it," Pauline urged. "No matter what, that is yours. The Terrians won't take it back. When you rejoin the earth, you give it to another person. The Terrians want it to be a gift, to make amends to the humans for what they did."
"I need to ask another couple favours." Anastasia said. Pauline nodded, telling her it was all right to ask.

Rosemary was very adamant about one fact. "Anna will be back. I might know where she is but she could always hide better then me."
"But do you think you can help us?" Luke demanded. He was not in the mood to try and deal with Rosemary's convictions.
"Well I can't go tonight. Anastasia always said I shouldn't go off when it's dark."
Luke was frustrated with the woman. He knew that because of her disability, Anastasia had always had to drill in what Rosemary should and shouldn't do. Sometimes Luke thought that Anna had taught the woman all to well. Everyone knew not to disagree with Rosemary when their opinion differed from the ways she had been taught. In most cases, there were practical applications to everything, like the no wandering off after dark rule. "This is different Rosemary. This time Anastasia might need our help and you'll be with us," Luke tried to convince her.
"No!" The confusion of what she was being told was too much for Rosemary. "I know that I shouldn't go off after dark. I don't want to get into trouble. I won't go! I'll tell you where to go, but I won't go!"
"That's all right Rosemary," Luke said, before the woman became too flustered to be of any help. "You can tell us where to go and you don't have to go with us."
The woman looked at the Luke, Julia and Alonzo with gratitude. "She would probably be at the swimming place. She liked it there."
"Where is that Rosemary?" Julia asked. "Just go to the old spot, the one where we slept and follow the river. There is a waterfall there. When you go down the path to the bottom, that's where we would swim. Anastasia always liked it there."
It was at that moment, the sky thundered. Everyone had been so worried about everything else, that no one had noticed the night sky cloud over and the wind pick up slightly. The rain started coming down as the two groups scattered to their respective tents. Julia and Alonzo followed Luke into his tent, while Rosemary went to the one she used to share with Nikki.
"We can't do anything tonight now." Alonzo said. He looked at Luke and Julia, who did not want to believe that was true, but someone had to say it.
"She's still recovering Alonzo. This is the worst type of weather for her to be wandering about in." Julia lamented.
"Maybe this will bring her home. We all know that she's smart enough not to make herself sick." Alonzo tried to assure the doctor.
"But she knows this area well enough to find cover for the night," Luke pointed out, taking some of the effectiveness out of Alonzo's statement.
"Well, there is nothing we can do, we might as well try to get some sleep," Julia said, leaving the tent without anyone's response. Alonzo quickly followed her out.
Luke now felt completely alone, the company had kept his mind from spinning over and over about what might have happened. Fortunately, there was another knocking on his tent flap. "Come in," he replied.
A small pair of wet children walked in. They had clearly run from their tent, for they were huffing and puffing, but their speed had not prevented them from becoming drenched. "Umm," Kick started, trying to explain hers and Xenia's presence and decided that the truth was the best option. "We couldn't sleep, we're too worried. Is it all right if we stay with you?"
Luke smiled softly. "Sure you can, pull up a cover before you catch your death. The two of you are soaked." The two children scrambled for a piece of the blanket and laid down.
"Luke," Xenia whispered, sitting back up, "Is Anastasia going to be all right?"
Sometimes the sound of Xenia's voice still surprised Luke. She so rarely spoke to anyone but Anastasia. He remembered Anastasia's explanation that Xenia only spoke when she had something truly important to say. The young girl rarely even spoke to Kick. The older girl always seemed to instinctively know what the younger one wanted.
"Luke?" Xenia repeated again.
Realizing that he had never answered her, Luke wanted to assure the children as much as himself. "Of course she's going to be fine. She'll be home soon."
Although the answer seemed too be accepted, the three laid back down, but none of them got much sleep. The rain was not the soothing beat it usually was, instead it served as a constant reminder of what was missing.

The morning weather was far different from that of the previous night's John Danziger was awakened by the bright light at the crack of dawn that pierced through the fabric of the tent. He spotted True on the cot across from him. She had fallen asleep without changing or even pulling a cover over her. The girl had spent the evening with her father, staying awake long after the older Danziger had fallen asleep. The mechanic smiled at how True had curled up on her side. He was quite happy to just watch her sleep, he knew he wouldn't have much longer to that.
He decided that he was going to get up that morning, be as useful as he could for as long as he could. Tentatively he sat up, trying to avoid the dizziness that went along with it. Strangely, he noticed no more discomfort than what he felt every morning. He rubbed the back of his neck feeling surprisingly well. Danziger pulled one of the sheets off his own cot and walked over to cover True.
The movement of the sheet covering her woke True up instantly. "Daddy?" True said, rubbing her eyes. "You shouldn't be up Daddy. You need to rest. Julia said so."
"I don't want to sleep all the time True-girl." He smiled at his daughter.
True instantly sat up at the smile. "Dad you look better today." He was acting perfectly normally and that surprised Danziger's daughter. "Maybe I should get Julia." The girl did not even wait for an answer, she dashed out of the tent, still in the same clothes from the previous day. "Julia! Julia!" She called out when she was within shouting distance of the doctor's tent.
The noise awakened Julia, who had finally fallen asleep and the doctor raced out of her tent. "What is it True? Is your father worse?"
"No," True said nearly out of breath. The commotion had awakened almost everyone and people were quickly leaving their tents to find out what was wrong. True smiled at the doctor. "He's better today. I know it." The doctor went to protest, but True stopped her. "Just come and see for yourself."
Ducking back into the tent to get her equipment, Julia followed the girl back to the mechanic's tent.
After witnessing the commotion, Luke beckoned everyone into a group, so that they could discuss how they were going to search for Anastasia, who had not returned during the night.
The two groups met at the campfire. There was none of the usual chatter and speculation. The Eden Crew was sobered by the knowledge that neither of their leaders were leading the meeting. They simply had to accept whatever Luke was going to say, the Native group seemed willing enough to listen to him. A few nervously glanced back at the mechanic's tent.
"I'd like to thank everyone for offering to help." Luke said as he started dividing up the group into search teams. He knew that he would go to the place Rosemary had suggested the previous evening.
"I'd like to help."
A collective gasp came from both groups as a seemingly heathy Danziger stood before them.
"Are you sure?" Luke asked.
This time Julia spoke up. "I'm not sure how this is possible, but there is no trace left of the disease. The closest thing I can say is that it's a miracle."
Almost simultaneously, the entire Eden Crew started buzzing with excitement. Only one small voice broke the mood.
"What about Anastasia?" Luke was taken aback at Xenia's brazenness. She continued addressing the group. "I told you people she'd die. Why are you people so happy?" The little girl was almost hysterical as she ran back into her tent with Kick closely on her heels. the uplifting mood had vanished as the divisions continued.
Luke, Julia, Alonzo and Danziger were climbing into the DuneRail when Kick stopped them. "She's gone." Was all the little girl said.
"Xenia?" Luke said in a panic. "No," Kick replied quickly. "Rosemary." She pulled on Luke's arm, pulling his face down to her height. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Please find them," she pleaded while he was still at her level.
Luke smiled softly and whispered back. "If you want me too, I'll be back in a flash with both of them." Kick smiled back and went back to look after Xenia.
They five drove off, following Rosemary's directions. While they drove, Danziger turned on his gear. "Okay everyone, be on the lookout for both Anastasia and Rosemary."
"What?" Came the response from Morgan Martin. "Don't argue, we've just got two people to look for now, just increases our odds of finding something." Danziger said, trying to throw some humour into the situation and at the same time shut Morgan up.
It was not long before they reached the spot Rosemary had told them about. Standing on the top of the cliff, overlooking the waterfall, Danziger was the first to spot the path down. The group started following him down to the bottom of the ravine.
Through the mist, something caught Danziger's eye. It was a form asleep on the other side of the river. The mist obscured positive identification. "I think I see her." He yelled behind him.
Looking for a way to get across, Alonzo spotted a ledge underneath the waterfall. Once again Danziger led the way. They held on tightly to each other, as the ledge was slippery. Halfway over, Julia nearly lost her footing, but Alonzo caught her before she fell. Emerging on the other side, The group got their first good look at the sleeping figure.
Danziger barely needed a moment, before he managed to crawl over the rocks towards the unconscious figure. Brushing her hair off her face, the image of sickness was still apparent. Gathering the body, whose clothing, a white robe, was drenched from the constant mist falling on it, Danziger held the body close whispering softly to it.
"Who is it?" Luke demanded when the rest of the group caught up to Danziger.
Julia could not seem to find the words, all thought had escaped her as she leaned over to examine the woman.
Finally her lost voice returned to her. "Devon."
End of Chapter XXII

Okay, come on, by now you should know where to send the comments. Now to all you people taking off for the con who won't read this until you get back. LOSERS! I won't be at this address after April 25.
Emma Pentland

Parallels (23/24)
By Emma Pentland

This is dedicated to everyone who has read this story thus far. LCC

Xenia sat huddled with Kick and True. Between bouts of crying, Xenia would become silent. The silence scared the other girls more than the sobs. The little girl had become convinced that Anastasia had left to help the Eden Advance, to prevent them from dying. Xenia could not see the benefits of that action, she believed Anastasia was going to die.
"What's wrong?" A voice asked. Kick and True turned at the sound of the voice, Xenia was too enthralled in another of her silences to notice. Rosemary stood there staring with concern at the young child.
"Anna's missing," Kick tried to explain. "I thought so too, but she's not." The statement was enough to catch Xenia's attention, even goad her into speaking. "Where'd she go?" The little girl demanded.
Before Rosemary could answer, a thought struck True. "People thought you were missing too. We need to call them." Snatching up the gear she had placed beside her, she flipped the switch so that she could speak. "Umm, everybody," She said nervously into the mouth piece. "You don't need to look for Rosemary, she's here."
"That's great True," Julia responded. The uninterested voice made True put the gear on properly to see what was going on. She could hear the doctor muttering instructions. "Is somebody hurt? Is my dad okay?" True gasped when she realized they were medical instructions.
"No True, we want everybody back at camp," Julia said. "Did you find Anastasia?" Morgan interrupted. "No, we found Devon."

"What about Anastasia?" Luke asked, quite annoyed that Julia had asked for everyone to return to camp.
"Most likely Rosemary will know something and we know our group would want to see Devon." Julia explained. Now that Devon was here, her sister's disappearance seemed explained. Now she only feared that Xenia's dreams were right, that Anna would have to die. The doctor glanced back at Danziger who was gently, but firmly, holding Devon on the way back to camp. Devon was still sleeping soundly, but all preliminary tests showed that she was on the road to recovery. A couple of times Julia could have sworn she saw John wipe away a few wayward tears, but she said nothing.
The drive was slow, trying not to awaken the sleeping figure. The one dissident in the 'rail was Luke, who was still concerned about Anastasia. He kept nervously glancing around, hoping to catch one glimpse of her, with no luck.
The 'rail hit a bump and a moan came from the sleeping woman. "Devon?" Danziger said softly. For a moment, Devon Adair's eyes fluttered open and took a lucid look around. Her mouth opened, but there was no sound.
"Lie still Devon," Julia ordered. "You're still recovering." Devon did as the doctor ordered, but she slowly regained full consciousness, the brightness of the day causing her to squint. "John, where's Uly?" Her weak, still clearly ill, voice pleaded.
"Don't worry about the champ," Danziger assured her with a smile. "He'll be doing a lot better once we get you back to camp. He's missed you like crazy." His voice lowered to a whisper, that it could barely be heard by Devon herself, "We all have."
After a few quiet minutes, Julia spoke up, "Look, there's camp." Devon could barely see in between the seats of the 'rail, but she gasped as suddenly she caught sight of Yale, standing there proudly holding Uly, awaiting her homecoming.
The Dunerail came to a stop in the centre of camp, amazingly everyone had arrived back before them. A thought tugged at the back of Danziger's mind, *how much damage was done to the vehicles rushing back here?*
Amongst the crowd of people Danziger somehow managed to carry Devon into the med-tent. There, for the first time since her discovery, he reluctantly let go of her, leaving her in Julia's care. John hovered behind Julia as the doctor fought Uly for Devon's attention.
"Mom!" Uly exclaimed. The words were muffled because he had buried his head in his mother's shoulder the moment Danziger put her down.
Weakly, Devon's hand reached up to ruffle her son's hair. The tears were evident in her eyes and she kissed the top of his head. "Hello champ, miss me?"
"Uly, I need to give this to your mother." Julia was standing with an injector in hand, trying to play the role of doctor, but she let the boy have his moments with his mother. When he extracted himself from Devon's grasp, Julia took the advantage and injected Devon. "It's a stimulant. Just to get everything working normally again. From all scans, you're clear of the disease."
"Do you know what it was?" Devon asked. "Actually, we know just about everything, except for what caused the disease in the first place." Julia explained. "You were infected with dirt."
"Dirt?" Devon gasped in disbelief and for the first time in her life, she had no desire to know what had happened. "I don't think I want to discuss this anymore." A small ripple of laughs went through the room. "I'm just happy to be home."
A knock on the tent flap gave way to most of the Eden Crew stumbling in at once. All started talking, almost expecting Devon to understand everything. Devon was just about to speak when Julia stepped in. "Okay everyone, this many people can not be in here at once. Devon needs her rest."
"But..." Morgan began.
"No buts," Julia said with force that squelched any other protests. "Besides, you all have plenty of time to see Devon later." Before they left, each remember of the Eden Advance stepped forward to offer some sort of encouragement to their returned leader.
Yale finally felt that it was his turn. He had been patiently waiting, watching the new turn of events. "Devon," he spoke quietly. She slowly turned her head towards the tutor and reached out her hand. The two said nothing more and just sat enjoying each other's company.
Figuring that everything was all right for the moment, Julia stepped outside her tent to a breath of fresh air. She was met by a lopsided grin she had grown to love.
"Hey Doc, exciting morning," Alonzo said, grabbing her hand. Still unaccustomed to such public displays of affection, Julia pondered pulling her hand away for a moment. Instead, she walked in another direction away from the med-tent. When Julia knew she was far enough away so that she wouldn't be heard, she finally spoke. "Alonzo, don't get me wrong, I'm as happy as anyone that Devon's back, but..."
"You're worried about your sister," Alonzo finished for her. "I still worry. I'm like Devon. She knows time has passed but for her it's only tomorrow. She lost several weeks. I've lost over a decade with Anastasia and I'm still not used to thinking of her as the grown up, well young woman that she is."
Alonzo kissed the top of her head. "It's the same way I would feel after a long mission. I would leave and everyone was my age and when I come back, I'm palling around with their grandchildren."
"Do you miss it?"
"I'd miss you more."

Luke had tried to stay away from the crowd, planning to go back out on his own. He sat alone, even among the large group of people, staring blankly into the cup. He was unsure even of what was in it, he hadn't bothered to take a sip. Luke never even noticed the figure of Rosemary approach the group. She tried to avoid large groups, she knew that people liked to stare at her.
"Luke, I want to say something," Rosemary tried to sound business like and authoritative, the type of voice she had heard Anastasia use so many times, but miserably failed.
"Go ahead, no one is stopping you." Luke's gaze was still in the cup. Rosemary looked around nervously, knowing she had everyone's attention. She went to speak but was cut off by Luke. "Where did you go?" He demanded.
"I went looking." The woman tried to explain. "I know this place, I thought it would be okay." She sounded like a child about to be punished.
"It was not okay." Luke scolded. "What made you think you could leave like that when you knew Anna was missing? You shouldn't leave without telling someone."
"It's not my fault." Rosemary pleaded. She was unable to comprehend why Luke was mad at her. "She told me to come. You know when she calls you like that, you always go, sometimes you don't even know that she's calling you but you go anyway."
"What are you blathering about," Morgan interrupted, quite impatient. Luke, on the other hand, had gained patience with Rosemary. He knew the feeling she was talking about. Every once in a while, he would just have this urge to go to Anastasia, and invariably, when he did find her, she was where he just knew she would be." "Go on, where did you find her?"
"It's the pendant she has. The Terrians let her do all sorts of things with it." Rosemary was still trying to defend herself against what she perceived to be an attack from Morgan.
"Don't worry, he's not going to say anything else," Luke assured the woman, although the comment was more in Morgan's direction.
"When Anna was here no one ever talked to me like that." Rosemary said aloud to no one in particular. She paused for a moment, trying to remember what she was supposed to say. Sometimes her mind made her so mad, everything was so difficult for her. "I don't remember what I was going to say." She was close to tears.
Luke, for the hundredth time, wished Anastasia was there. She always knew how to deal with Rosemary when she became this way. "You were saying where you found Anastasia."
The reminder made Rosemary feel better. "She'll be home soon. She said she just needs a bit of time." Pleased with herself for remembering the message. Rosemary looked across the camp and spotted Kick, True and Xenia which reminded her of something else. "Anna asked me to take Kick and Xenia somewhere. She knew Xenia would be afraid."
"Tell her we all are." Agnes piped up. She was sitting quietly with Karen-Emily, the baby, who was fast asleep. A few mumbled an agreement.
"Where are you taking them?" Luke knew he would give permission, he was just curious.
"To where we used to sleep and then I'll bring them right back, I promise."
Knowing that Rosemary was always careful when ever she took the children anywhere, even though Luke didn't have the heart to tell her that Kick could probably outsmart her, he agreed to let them go. He turned to look at the three playing children. Curiously True waved at someone, when suddenly a noise broke the silence. It wasn't loud, more of a sucking sound, that he recognized, but couldn't quite place it.
Morgan knew it instantly, "Terrians," he muttered while wrapping an arm around himself more for his own support than for Bess's.
"Dad!" True called out, her voice was more confused than scared. The group sitting around got up to take a look as Danziger came out from the med-tent.
Danziger arrived to see his daughter looking at a pile of upturned earth. It was the only indication of what had happened.
"What happened?" Bess asked, trying to disengage herself from Morgan. "I thought you said Mary couldn't go back into the ground." True said matter of factly, sounding annoyed that someone had misled her.
"That's right," Alonzo said, approaching the group, his hand still firmly wrapped around Julia's. "She was banished."
"But we just watched her go into the ground like a Terrian. She came out of her tent all happy and then suddenly, poof, she was gone." Kick elaborated.
"Okay, this has been too weird of a day for me. First Rosemary's gone, then she comes back, Mary was here, but now she's gone and then there's Anastasia, Lord knows where she's off to." Morgan whined to his wife. Bess shushed him.
"There were no Terrians around," Baines reported. "There must 've been. They probably brought Devon back." Bess suggested.
"They did," Danziger confirmed. "According to Devon, they took her right out of the cold-sleep chamber. She doesn't remember much, but that stuck out."
"I'm not surprised." Molly agreed. The crowd dispersed, just accepting another of the weird things that had been happening. Alonzo remained for a moment. He honestly thought Mary was going to stay with them.
"Come on 'Lonz, she wanted this," Julia pleaded. He accepted the excuse and followed her back to the med-tent to check on Devon.
Rosemary gathered Kick and Xenia but True had pleaded to come along as well. They made there way slowly across the long field towards the cave where Rosemary had her home for several years. When they stood on the top of the cave, for Rosemary was afraid to go down and see the open mouth of the cave.
Xenia gasped the instant she saw the area and started shaking. Kick was immediately protective.
"What's wrong?" The older girl asked the younger. "It's here. She's going to be here." Xenia was frightened and Kick understood.
"Do you remember what she was wearing?" A voice came from behind them. Anastasia fell to her knees as Xenia rushed to her. The little girl was crying. Kick worked her way into the hug. Anastasia pulled away first. "In your dream I was wearing my red shirt and light brown shorts, wasn't I?"
Xenia nodded confused.
"Nikki wore that the night she died. That's what you saw. You wouldn't have been able to tell unless you were really looking. I know the Terrians had you watching from a cliff." Anastasia picked the child up and walked over to the edge. "You won't have to worry about any more dreams for a while. I fixed that."
Kick tugged on Anna's sleeve. "Are you okay? I was worried 'cause you had been sick and all."
"No need to worry about me. I'm fine. That's a promise."

"No need to worry about me John. I'm fine, honest." The plea came from a now standing and dressed Devon Adair. Over the afternoon she had rapidly improved and now she was restless. Uly and Yale had left to find something to eat as the day was approaching early evening.
"Just this morning Adair, you were on death's doorstep now you think you can walk to New Pacifica overnight." Danziger scolded.
"Not at all. I just want to join my son for dinner. I missed him." Danziger for a moment felt a well of panic rise up in him. "Are you saying you were aware of time while you were in that chamber?"
"Kind of. I've never experienced cold sleep like that. I was asleep yet at the same time I knew time was passing. It was a very odd experience." Devon's eyes glazed over for a moment remembering. Suddenly she realized she had forgotten to say the most important thing to the mechanic fussing over her. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Looking after my son. Taking care of the group." She folded over the blankets on the cot and went to leave the tent when she found a strong-willed mechanic in her way.
"You either get back to bed or I call Julia in here to sedate you." "Is that a threat?" Devon stood there for a moment, thinking of a way to appease him. "I promise not to over exert myself Dr. Danziger." She smiled at him as she backed away.
A thought came into his head. "Well if you believe you're strong enough for dinner, then you are strong enough for something else."
"What?"
Danziger took a few tentative steps forward and leaned in to kiss her tentatively, and continued when she didn't move away from him.
Devon pulled away from the kiss after a moment, but not the embrace, and ran her hands through her hair. "What was that for?"
"I've discovered wasting time is such a horrible thing." Danziger knew now would have to be his confession. "I almost lost you once and I don't want that to happen again." He waited for a moment, watching the amused look on Devon's face. "The mighty Devon Adair has nothing to say to that?" He teased, joining in her amusement.
Devon cupped her hands around his face and kissed him again.

Dinner was lively, although everyone tried to refrain themselves from talking to Devon. Of course, it was difficult spending too much time with her when Danziger, Uly and Yale hovered over her. The groups were sitting on blankets under the tarp that had been put up for shade, but now they were using it in case it rained again. The skies had clouded over, and Luke was about to become concerned about his charges, for Rosemary had not arrived back yet. Someone had turned on music to prevent people from talking.
Halfway through the meal a slight drizzle started coming down, but the weather was still warm, so they all stayed under the tarp. Danziger had assured Devon the driest spot under the tarp as the rain fell lightly. Everyone was quiet as the rain fell and the music played. Without warning, the rain came down harder, preventing anyone from leaving their dry haven. No lighting or thunder, just rain, the way the Eden Crew's first rainstorm had been.
From one end of valley there was sudden movement as three children trying to avoid getting soaked emerged. They tore down the valley but to no avail, within moments it was clear they were soaked to the bone. Suddenly Luke sat up straight seeing two figures emerge from the trees. He recognized one instantly.
"Is that.." Molly started asking a question that everyone realized the answer to.
End of Chapter XXIII

Just one more, one more chapter!!!!!
I'm not here after 6pm tomorrow so please send comments, after that time to Rosa at <STSWNut@aol.com>
Emma Pentland

Parallels (24/24)
By Emma Pentland

This chapter is again dedicated to everyone who has read this and I would like to make a special mention to St. Rosa (she's a saint in my world). She proofread several chapters, provided input and is sending me a surprise in the mail. (I would make some comment about how happy I am to know the Unabomber is caught..but...) Anyways, this is for everyone and, of course Rosa. LCC

The pair behind the children walked quickly, but were not really making the effort to stay out of the rain. Once they had reached shouting distance a voice, distinctly Anna's yelled to them. "Come on out the weather's great. It's a warm rain!"
Uly needed no more of an invitation as the rain started to ease up a bit, but was by no means ending.
Also walking out to greet the group was Luke, he was still unsure whether he wanted to kiss the woman who now stood in front of him, or yell at her. He chose the former, with cheers of encouragement from his own group. He just held her for a moment. The grip caused luke to whisper quietly, "What's wrong?" There was no answer.
Anastasia pulled away laughing. "You know what I'm thinking?" "How sorry you are for making me worry?" "That too," Anna laughed again, a sound Luke had missed so much while she was sick. "I'm thinking how glad I was that I wasn't wearing a white t-shirt."
With that comment Luke could not help but laugh as well. He put an arm around her shoulder and led her towards the dry area.
"What was so funny?" Molly asked. Julia stared around the group of natives. How oddly they just accepted Anna back as if she hadn't taken off. She wondered if it would be the same when Casey came back. His fifteen days should be just about up she figured.
"I was being thankful for the fact that my shirt is not white." Several people in both groups laughed at the insinuation. "Besides," Anastasia continued, "The only person who would vote for me in a wet t-shirt contest is this lug here." She leaned in and hugged Luke around the waist. She spotted Julia sitting and looking confused and Anna leaned over to greet her. "Hey Jewel," she kissed her sister on the cheek.
"Don't worry Anastasia, I'd vote for you too," Nicholas piped up from the back.
"Thanks Nicholas, I'll be sure to remember you when I'm through with Luke." Anna joked as she sat down, leaning against Luke's chest with both of his arms wrapped around her.
"You'd probably have one more vote too," Luke reminded her. "Right Walman," Anna blurted out. She laughed at what she had said and instantly felt badly as the group looked at the now bright red Walman. "Oh don't worry about it," Anna tried to soothe him. "It's just some good natured teasing, we do it all the time."
Walman gave the group a look of complete embarrassment. "I didn't think anyone noticed."
"Just because I was ill doesn't mean I was blind," Anastasia shot back. The voice was jovial so Walman just decided to laugh at himself as well.
"Is she usually like this?" Morgan muttered to no one. "When asking questions about me, you'll find it advantageous to ask *me.*" Anastasia scolded him. "And yes. When I'm having a good day, and today has been quite wonderful." Anastasia took a moment of quiet and looked out at the group of children playing in the rain. They had organized some semi-formal game of tag. To her surprise, Uly was finally playing with the other children, instead of keeping himself separate, mourning his mother. Anastasia suddenly remembered and looked around for Devon. She spotted her in the centre of the Eden Crew, with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Danziger was sitting on a crate behind her, absentmindedly rubbing her shoulders. Getting up from the comfortable embrace, she walked over to meet the woman she had heard so much about. "Hello Devon," she said crouching down to her eye level.
"You must be Anastasia. I've heard a lot about you and I've only been here only a few hours." Devon held out her hand and Anastasia took it. Both groups were momentarily fascinated by the way the two leaders were scrutinizing each other.
"I've heard a lot about you too." Anastasia smiled, almost seeming to give her approval. She went to move back to her seat when Devon smiled back, holding Anna's attention for a few more minutes.
"You had everyone worried today." Devon said. It was not meant to challenge her, but for a moment the smile disappeared from Anastasia's face.
A cheshire cat grin returned as Anastasia thought of a response. "Hello pot, this is kettle, you're black." With that, both women laughed.
Anna was about to return again when she spotted Agnes feeding Karen-Emily with one of the makeshift bottles. Anna regretted having to explain. "Hey little one." She leaned down and stroked the baby's cheek. "How is she?"
"She doing great." Agnes bragged, sounding very much the child's parent. "And her daddy should be home any day soon, shouldn't he sweetie." Agnes kissed the top of the baby's head.
"I'm glad you adore Karen-Emily." Anastasia said, the melancholy tone evident to everyone listening.
"Of course I do," Agnes said, confused. "Her mother was my best friend, and now with only her father to take care of her, I'm kind of a surrogate parent."
Anna said nothing in response, but quickly wiped the tears away from her eyes.
Seeing the motion, Luke went to her instantly. "What's wrong?" He asked again.
"She doesn't have a daddy either." The information took a moment to hit everyone. Anastasia took a deep breath before turning to explain to everyone. "Casey is gone. He's not going to catch up with us later. Our banishing him essentially killed him." With that she finally broke down crying. It was silent with no violent sobs, just tears. Most of the playing children did not notice what was going on, but within moments Kick and Xenia were at Anna's side.
Luke took her into his arms. It almost amazed Julia how small and frail her sister looked for a moment. It was a few minutes before she was able to speak again. When she had settled down, And sat up to start explaining her outburst, Xenia crawled into her lap, as if the little girl's presence alone could help her guardian. Out of habit, Anastasia lightly stroked her hair. "It's because of me. He attacked me, he could have attacked anyone in this group and he would have been fine, but the fact was he attacked *me.* The Terrians here think somehow that they owe me protection from what had happened before. They didn't ask questions or even ask me, they just killed him, the same way they went after Devon and Danziger." She paused for a moment, to take a breath and choke her tears. "I know that they don't ask questions anyways before they punish but that doesn't make me feel any better."
"How did you find this out?" Someone asked. "I must look like a wreck." Anastasia laughed at herself for a moment, not really caring what the others thought. She knew she would have support from her group no mater what. She wiped her eyes and continued. "When I was talking to the Terrians, they explained everything to me. For years, all they've done is kill adults, afraid they'll hurt the children. To them, we," she waved her hand towards her group, "To them, we are the children. It all had to end and I had to end it." Anna turned her gaze to Devon Adair. "I can't believe that they thought you would hurt your own child. All they've seen is the worst of humanity."
"None of this is your fault." Luke assured her. "I know," Anna whispered to him. "I just needed somebody to tell me that."
Devon just sat watching everything without saying a word. She now knew that not only would she have to protect the Terrians from the humans, but humans from the Terrians, when they arrived at New Pacifica. She understood the Terrians fear, she had experienced it herself in those few horrible moments before she was put into cold sleep. It was the fear of dying.
Everyone remained for a while, watching the children play in the rain and listening to the music.

The early morning gave way to a blaze of colour. Again it was another clear morning. Devon, feeling almost her old self and, contrary to the doctor's and Danziger's suggestions, took charge again.
The group had just finished breakfast when Devon laid her decree. "From what I've been told, we've been here long enough. We should get moving today."
"I don't think so," Anastasia said in response to her demand. For the morning, Anna had laid silent on the ground, taking in sun, some had thought she was asleep because no one could see through her sunglasses.
"I didn't know you were coming with us." A slight edge crept into Devon's voice at her authority being challenged.
"Of course we are," Anastasia replied, nearly laughing at the looks from the group. "This is not a unilateral decision, we all chose to come. It's not like you people were always around whenever we discussed things."
"Well why can't we leave today?" Devon demanded. "Your group has a job to do." "What?" Anastasia took off her sunglasses and looked at the members of the Eden Advance that she had known for almost a month. "If all this is going to end, we need to have a burial." For a moment people were confused. "You dug them up, it's your responsibility to bury them."
"She's talking about her fist group." Julia explained to all those who were still confused.
"Thanks Jewel. You people really didn't think you could leave an open grave," Anna was visibly upset at the fact that they had almost left without the reburial.
The new enlarged Eden Crew delayed leaving for one more day. All but a few went to the cave. Under Julia's and Anna's guidance. Each body was removed and properly buried, after all the time had passed, Anastasia still remembered where each body had been placed in the cave. She claimed it was a detail she could never forget. A few colonists made markers for each and Anastasia had insisted on one thing, that Pauline be buried beside Nikki, she was sure they would have wanted it that way. It took most of the day to commit the bodies to the ground and as twilight was falling, Yale said a prayer. The somber occasion had ended as they went back to their camp.
Only Anastasia and Rosemary remained behind, needing their time with their fallen friends. In the morning, Anna had removed the picture name tags from the box that Julia had retrieved from the cave. The last thing Rosemary and Anastasia did before they went to rejoin the group was hang the chains around each of the name tags and tie them securely to the cross grave markers.
Rosemary left first. Anastasia only glanced back. That part of their life was finally over.

As the Eden Advance team with their new members pulled out of camp the following morning, Luke had asked if Anastasia wanted to go back to the grave site for one final goodbye. She declined.
Alonzo and Julia took the lead in the Eden crew's Dunerail, Baines was driving the Transrover with Uly and his new friend, Michael, in the cab with him. Devon rode alone in the ATV. She stole a glance at Danziger and he winked at her. They were ready to move on.

Voice of Devon Adair:
What seems like two days and a millennium ago, I thought I was dying. I awaken too find a new and different situation, the novelty is something I am beginning to truly cherish on this planet. We have new people, something that it will take me a while to get used to and one special one, I owe her my life.
I'm nervous about what other Terrian tribes have experienced with humans. We buried more then humans yesterday, we buried a tragedy. We owe those who are gone more than we can ever give. We will try to honour them as best we can. To prove that not all humans are the monsters, the Terrians here thought we were simply evil. I want to change that.
My mind keeps going back to a song that I heard yesterday when we all sat in silence. I don't know why, but the last few words have been running through my head, a sentiment I understand.
Today I don't need a replacement, I tell them what the smile on my face meant, My heart going boom boom boom,
I said,
You can keep my things they've come to take me home.
-The End-

Okay I'm done, now FEEDBACK IS REQUIRED. There's one problem, I won't be at this address after tomorrow at 6pm. If you can't get it to me by then, please send it to St. Rosa at <STSWNut@aol.com> she's acting as the temporary me until I sign back on.
Emma Pentland
It's not your planet, you are not GOD here Solace Seeker, 2nd Official Heller's Angel! Assistant Dean to the Flight School at G.U. Special Research Division: Indestructible Gear Walman's No-Doze Coffee G.U.-Because a mind is a terrible thing!
"I was thinking about you"-A.Solace
"Cool!"- Emma Pentland

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