Andy's Fan-Fiction Archive

HOME SWEET HOME
By
Lynne Leeper

Timeline: On way to New Pacifica
Author's E-Mail: soaron@netcom.com

AUTHOR'S NOTES:
1. This story assumes that Devon and Danziger have already become a couple sometime after Devon is rescued from the deep freeze.
2. I was compelled to write this story because of the wonderful work that's been done lately by Vicki Firth, Paula Sanders and Joan Powers. All of you FF writers out there are too inspiring. (When am I supposed to get my homework done?)
3. Please insert all of the usual disclaimers here.

Home Sweet Home, Part 1
by Lynne Leeper
The sun was shining brightly as the Eden Advance Group continued to travel across the open expanses of dried vernal pools that sported perennial flowers and shrubs. It was fortunate that the dried pools formed a reasonably continuos pathway since the Transrover had suffered enough wear and tear from the long journey to make it quite temperamental these days. John Danziger had been spending most of his time during the last few weeks walking beside the 'rover, keeping a watchful eye and ear open to any signs of the vehicle being in distress. Danziger felt as if he was walking on egg shells, fearing that the transport vehicle would suddenly cough and die at any moment. They were so close to New Pacifica - they had to be. According to Yale's data, they should be reaching their home-to-be any day now.
"Come on, baby. Just a little further," Danziger whispered, keeping up his well-used mantra. If the Transrover made it to New Pacifica, it would be due to his will power alone.
Devon Adair, who was walking at his side, glanced over at him. She was just as worried as he was, but not about the vehicle. She sighed, then jerked her head up as she heard the Dunerail returning to the group. Walman brought the rail around and stopped in front of the couple. He hefted himself up and out of the driver's seat, stretching his back with relief. Magus, who had been riding shotgun with him, grinned at his discomfort, then stepped lightly out of the passenger seat and walked up to Devon and Danziger.
"It's getting a bit more desert-like up ahead," Magus reported. "We'll be back in chaparral after lunch." Devon glanced at John, who groaned. She looked up at Yale who was driving the Transrover and signaled him to stop. Yale brought the 'rover to a smooth halt under Danz' watchful eye.
"I guess this is a good time to stop for lunch then," she said to everyone. Magus and Walman nodded, then walked back to the back of the 'rover to help set up for lunch. True and Uly scrambled down from the cab of the 'rover and ran off for the trees, Yale shouting after them to be careful. Devon turned her attention to her soul mate.
"We'll get there," she said, putting her hand on his arm. "We've come too far for the Transrover to quit on us now." Danziger saw the glitter in her eyes and knew she was teasing him for being so serious.
"I know, I know," he said with a sigh. "I promise to lighten up." He put his hand on the back of her neck and they started walking to the back of the 'rover for lunch.
"Hey, it's our turn with the rail," she told him. Danz glanced over at the Transrover, holding his breath. Devon gave him a swat on the rump, causing him to return his attention to where it belonged.
"You're supposed to 'lighten up', remember?" Devon admonished. "Everyone in this group knows how you feel about that machine. No one would *dare* do anything to abuse it while you weren't looking."
"Come on, I'm not *that* bad," he returned, but then added "am I?" Devon laughed and gave him a one-armed hug.
"Yes, you are. That's why it's our turn in the rail," she told him.
"Oh," was all he could say.

Danziger had to admit, he loved having the time alone with Devon during the advance scouting trips. It was on one such occasion they had finally demolished the last of the barriers between them and had let their emotions do the talking. He felt himself relaxing as he steered the rail around the clumps of shrubbery that dotted the sandy landscape as he recalled that first night they shared together.
Seeing the smile on his face, Devon placed her hand on his thigh. For herself, she was tingling with the anticipation of finding New Pacifica and finally starting to get the colony established. She was lucky and knew it. Her Syndrome child was now a healthy, happy nine-year old and to top it off, not only would she be starting a home with Uly, but with a man who loved her and a step daughter who was as much of a challenge as her father.
Devon and Danz followed the path projected by Yale, stopping from time to time check the horizon and let the rail cool a bit. The terrain was subtly changing, the vegetation becoming a mixture of pine stands intermixed with sand-bound succulents. A deep resonance had been building in Devon's ears and finally had become loud enough for her to be convinced it was real.
"Do you hear that?" she asked Danz. He stopped the rail and listened.
"Hear what?" he asked, looking at her.
"That low rumble," she answered, climbing out of the rail. She closed her eyes and slowly turned around, trying to focus on the source of the sound. Danz got out to stand next to her. Devon continued her aural scan, then stopped facing the direction they had been traveling. She opened her eyes, staring forward, then suddenly sucked in a deep breath.
"My god! I remember that sound!" she exclaimed, grabbing Danz by the sleeves. He looked at her, confused.
"Think, John!" she said excitedly. "You've heard this before!" Danziger stared at her, thinking as hard as he could back into his memories. After a moment, he recalled a moonlit night, standing with Devon looking over a horizon.
<It won't be so bad getting there,> he recalled saying. Devon could see the return of that memory displayed on his face. There was nothing more to be said. Devon and Danziger scrambled back into the rail and Danz set the vehicle flying forward over the dunes until he brought it to rest at the crest of the last one. They sat there in awe of what they were seeing, absorbing the sights and sounds of achieving their goal.
The rest of the Eden Advance Group arrived about an hour later to see the two people on whom they had depended to get them there frolicking in the surf like two teenagers. Yale grinned as John caught a soaking wet Devon, pulled her into his arms and gave her an uninhibited, passionate kiss. The pair looked up as a resounding cheer rose from above them, then waved to the line of their friends standing at the edge of the dunes.

He had been sitting back in the trees along the northern edge of the beach, his face expressionless, observing the man and the woman engaged in lover's games in the surf when the sound of many voices raised in a cheer of excitement assaulted his ears. He hastily backed further under cover, then carefully made his way through the shrubs that ran along the tree line until fragments of the beach head started to merge through the trees. A low growl formed in his throat as he carefully observed each of the intruders that had gathered there and were hugging each other and laughing for reasons unknown to him.
His face suddenly shifted into a mask of rage. Invaders! How dare these revoltingly human parasites invade his territory! He had driven off all comers. Not even the dirtmen bothered him any more. He curbed his desire to strike out, his survival instincts knowing he was severely outnumbered and his mask of rage relaxed into the one of no expression. Cunning set in as he started to assess this swarm of insects. He accurately spotted the Magpros slung over three of the men's shoulders. That meant there would undoubtedly be some side arms as well. There were only three vehicles, none of them designed for assault. Most of these humans must have walked here.
His features suddenly shifted again as he spotted the slender figure of a woman. His eyes turned bright and willful as he studied the features and shape of the woman with dark curls who had turned to a man with long dark hair and kissed him. It had been a long time since he had had a female pet, he told his other selves. He scanned the group again and was able to spot four females, including the dark-haired one with the tall blond man down on the beach. One of the small ones might be female as well - it was hard to tell. Four future pets, maybe five! This time he'd be more careful with them. The last one he had didn't last very long. These creatures were so fragile.
The man suddenly lurched forward and groaned as a sharp pain pierced the back of his head. He reached back to grasp the small box that was the source of his pain. He rocked back and forth, his teeth clenched, as he rode out his discomfort. His face formed the expressionless mask and a warning about premature indiscretions rang in his thoughts. <O.K., O.K.> he thought to his other selves, I'll do what I'm told. The Strategist in him came to the front and continued his observations. Yes, this new group needed to be studied, then he would take action. The Fighter in him grinned, knowing he would have his fun very soon.

True Danziger stood at the beach head ignoring the cheering adults around her. All she could see was her father and Devon Adair in each other's arms. A scowl formed on her face as she was again confronted with her jealousy. She should be the one her father was hugging! For the last two months she had had to endure his increased attention to Devon, missing his frequent teasing, cuddling up with him at the night time fires for stories, and knowing he was there for her when nightmares woke her in the middle of the night. Yes, there had been times when he had been away from the group for days, even weeks, but she always knew he would always come back to her. Now, she seemed to always come second. She now even slept in Magus' tent, or alone in what was once The Danziger's tent. He spent his nights with her now.
Uly came up to her with a big smile on his face and grabbed her hand. "Come on!" he shouted, pulling her along with him. True had been so lost in her commiseration that she hadn't noticed that the rest of the group had started down the beach to join her father and Devon. As Uly pulled her down the beach, she grimaced at him wondering how blind the kid could be at what was going on with her dad and his mom. Then again, maybe he didn't really care. At least he had Yale for company when his mom was busy. True was too deep in self pity to realize that Yale was there for her too.
Devon was still in his arms as True approached them. Her dad didn't even notice her. Instead, he picked Devon up and walked out of the surf into the crowd of their friends who called out congratulations and a variety of adult innuendoes that went over her head. After he had passed through them, her dad turned back to the crowd and continued walking backwards, grinning at his friends.
"Later folks. The boss needs some help changing her clothes," he called out. He laughed as Devon blushed, buried in her face in his chest, then looked up at him with one of her "I'll-get-you-for-this" looks. The crowd of adults laughed and cheered some more, and the last thing True heard was her dad telling Devon that he loved her loud enough for everyone to hear.
It was the last straw. She hadn't felt this alienated from her father since they first crashed on the planet and he had started paying a lot of attention to Uly. She needed be alone, and her eyes locking on the trees above the shore, stalked off in a huff.
Bess had been watching True while her father was occupied with Devon. She had been aware of True's feelings since Danz and Devon had been open with the group about their relationship. She had mentioned to Danziger that True was unsure of what was happening between her and her dad and that she needed to know that she was still a part of his life. Danziger had just blinked at Bess and told her that True knew he loved her and always would. Bess knew that it wasn't enough. True was getting older and was facing some major changes soon in her life. Danziger didn't understand that his daughter was changing and needed to redefine where he fit into her life. It didn't help that he was totally preoccupied these days with his own changes in life.
Bess sighed, then went after True. Somehow, Bess knew that she would have to try to fill the void that should have been filled by True's mother. She would have to have a long talk with Devon about this. Maybe Devon could help fill in that role.

The Strategist watched as the girl-child walked straight at him. He felt the Fighter reposition his body, ready to spring on the child if she entered the trees. <Not yet!> the Strategist commanded. The Fighter howled inside him, having no intention of waiting. As the two personalities battled inside, the Fiend had control of his eyes. He watched, cackling to himself, as the woman with dark curls he had seen before came up behind the child just a few feet from the shrubs he was lurking behind. Oh yes, such nice toys.
"True!" he heard the woman call out. The girl-child didn't respond.
"Come on, True," the woman said as she caught the child by the arm. "Look, I know it doesn't seem fair that your dad isn't there for you right now, but he and Devon are seeing the hopes they have for the future coming true. I know it isn't easy, but your dad needs you to be happy for him. He deserves to be happy right now."
The words were meaningless to him. All he cared was that the woman was so close to him, if he could only reach out.... Pain! Why was he always interrupted when he was just beginning to enjoy himself? The Fiend retreated hastily as the Strategist regained control and resumed his observation. Time was on his side. He watched as the woman and child retreated a bit, then sat down in the sand to talk.

Yale and Magus took the dunerail to scout the length of the beach which seemed to run for miles. The river that they had been following emptied out into the sea only a few minutes away. It was here that they decided to set up camp, only this time, camp was meant to be for a long time. Everyone took their time setting up, carefully choosing the sites for the tents, supplies storage, communal cooking area and the main fire pit.
Walman pulled out the perimeter security sensors for the first time since they had left the winter camp. The sensors were fussy and difficult to get calibrated correctly, but since the camp was more spread out and they were going to be there for a while and he knew that no one would like the idea of increasing the night watch duty, he took a deep breath and began setting up the alarm system. He had a few tents shifted to clear the line of sight from one sensor to another. Devon smiled her approval at him as she walked the camp, getting a feel for the layout of their new home. Devon had made it to the Martin's tent when Bess popped out to greet her.
"Got a minute, Devon?" she asked, looking around for Danziger. These days, the two were rarely out of line of sight of each other, but Danz was no where to be seen. Devon, sensing that Bess had something she felt was important to say, took a deep breath and put on a smile.
"Sure. What's up?" Devon was used to Bess' occasional interference with someone else's business. Lately, she had been leaving her alone, but it seemed that grace period was over. Bess glanced around once more, then pulled Devon into the tent and sat her down on a crate. Devon sighed to herself and waited.
"Devon, I know it's really none of my business, but as your friend, I think it's important that I say what I have to say." Bess glanced at Devon, then sat on a crate next to her.
"I know that you and John have been a bit... preoccupied these days," Bess began, noticing Devon's quick smile, "but have the two of you taken the time to think about the kids lately?" Devon frowned at her, a piercing stare filling her eyes.
"What are you talking about, Bess? The kids are fine," Devon answered.
"Are you so sure?" Bess insisted. When Devon didn't answer, Bess pushed on. "Maybe Uly's fine - he's been spending a lot of time with Yale, but I'm worried about True."
"True?" Devon asked, suddenly not so sure of herself. "What about True?" Bess took a deep breath of her own, then put the cards on the table.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but True's rather jealous of you." Devon gave her a strange look.
"What?"
Bess pushed on. "Look, all her life, the only person who has always been there for her has suddenly shifted his attentions to someone else. You." Bess was rewarded by the unsure, but thoughtful look on Devon's face.
"True's eleven years old. She's starting to become a woman. Right now, she's confused as it is with how she feels about men, let alone deciding on what role her father should be taking in her life. All she can see right now is that her dad has changed into something else. In her eyes, he's not acting like a dad anymore, he's acting like a man. To True, John has fallen off of his pedestal and is behaving beneath her expectations. The idea of the two of you kissing and touching each other is revolting to her."
Devon had become a bit pale with this news. She admitted to herself that she hadn't given much thought to how the kids would react to this. Uly seemed O.K., but he was her son and part Terrian at that. Uly accepted difficult situations better than most of the adults these days. But True? Devon found herself speechless.
"And another thing. Have you or John talked to True about what it means to become a woman? It can't be far from happening," Bess said. She knew that True hadn't started her cycle yet. It was the sort of thing women shared with each other and Bess knew that True would be smug about it knowing that she would have gained status by it after getting over the initial shock. Devon slowly shook her head.
"I never asked John about that," she said, her composure gone. But deep down inside, she knew he hadn't. John still saw True as his little girl. God forbid if he admitted that his child was growing up.
Bess knew that she had said enough. She patted Devon on the knee, then quietly left the tent. It was several moments later before she saw Devon leave, a resigned look on her face.

Home Sweet Home, Part 2
by Lynne Leeper
The crowd at the fire was loud and festive. The rush of having made it to New Pacifica was still flowing from one person to the next, an endless stream of energy that showed no end. For everyone but True Danziger, that is. Devon was as caught up as everyone else with the excitement. She kept exchanging knowing glances and touches with John, his presence giving her the feeling of being omnipotent. Until her gaze fell upon True who was sitting with Magus and the rest of the Ops crew, who were exchanging stories about the old days, days the likes of which most of them would never see again. John felt the sudden change in her demeanor.
"What is it?" he asked, concern in his eyes. She sighed and buried her head in his shoulder.
"We need to talk later," she told him. He stared at her a moment, then nodded.
When the festivities had finally died down and the kids were put to bed, Devon suddenly felt exhausted. She and John retired to their tent where she threw herself down on the cot and closed her eyes.
"Hey, am I going to have to undress you too?" he teased. Devon opened her eyes and smiled at him as he began pulling off his boots.
"You're so good at it," she returned. He rewarded her with a devious gleam.
"Seriously, John," she said pulling herself up and running a hand through her hair. "We may have a problem." He sighed, pulled off his shirt, then sat down beside her.
"We haven't even been here for a day yet, and we already have a problem?" he asked, stroking the back of her neck. She shuddered in response.
"John, stop that," she insisted. "We need to talk - about True." His hand fell to the cot.
"What about True?" he asked, confused.
"John, how old is True?" she asked
"Eleven years old. Her birthday is next month. You know that," he told her, getting even more confused. Devon looked him squarely in the eye.
"John, I was eleven when I had my first period." Danziger looked like he had been hit by lightening.
"Has she...?" he asked, stunned.
"No, not yet." He closed his eyes and slumped. He was quiet for a moment, then looked at her with the most vulnerable expression she had ever seen on him.
"Thank God," he said softly.
"John, it won't be long. Have you ever talked to her about this?" His response was to get up and start pacing. She knew she had been right when she guessed that he hadn't. It amazed her that this big, strong, confident man was so helpless when it came to his daughter.
"I wouldn't even know where to begin," he finally said. "This isn't the sort of thing a father is supposed to have to worry about for his daughter. Her mother should take care of it." Devon could see the memory of Elle stabbing at his heart. She stood up and slipped into his arms and gave him a hug.
"Hey, come on now. This is nothing new. Every girl has to face it eventually, and no one I know of has died from it," she teased. She felt him relax and he hugged her back.
"Yeah, I suppose," he sighed. "It's just that it's really awkward for a man to explain a woman's anatomy to his daughter."
"I'd think that was the least of your worries. I suspect True knows more than you think about that," she told him. He jerked back to look her in the eye.
"What?" he asked.
"Oh, come on John! True's a smart girl. And she had friends on the Stations, didn't she?" Devon asked.
"Well, of course she did - when I could afford to put her in school," he answered.
"And how old were you when you found out about sex?" she pressed. He moaned, wondering if Devon was right. His own daughter?
"Don't you think it's time to find out what she knows and to make sure she's prepared for what's coming?" He nodded reluctantly.
"Besides, if you're worried about the finer details, you can leave that to Julia and me. But from you, she should hear what it means to be in love and what the privileges and the responsibilities are that go with it." John looked at her, relief in his face.
"I'd also like her to know that she's welcome to come an talk to me about it - to get a woman's point of view about this." John gave her a long searching look, then kissed her gently.
"Thanks. I need you to help me with this," he told her.
"I want us all to be a family," she responded, reaching up to stroke his cheek. "It's time that we brought the kids into this." He held her close and let himself get lost in her gaze. In the space of a few minutes, he reviewed the time they had spent on G889, starting with his first real look at her after they had stepped out of the pod onto the surface. He had very sharp pictures of her safely stored in his thoughts, many of them just moments when she was unaware he had been studying her and his own barriers had slipped. Moments when she laughed, moments when she was furious with him, moments when she was in pain, moments when he had thought he had lost her. He had no idea how long they stood there like that, but he knew there was no reason to wait any longer. He gathered his courage together before he changed his mind.
"Marry me, Adair, " he breathed into her ear. He felt her tense, then shudder in his arms. In that brief moment, his heart stopped, he couldn't breathe. Memories of being rejected in the past came rushing into his thoughts and he felt like he was going to explode waiting for her answer, his fears expecting the worst.
"Of course I will," she sighed, reaching for the sensitive part of his lower back. "But you still have to undress me tonight," she laughed. A wash of relief flooded through him as Danziger felt it all coming together, the dreams they had shared of their future. He was sure there were no obstacles left that they couldn't over come together. He felt deeply content as he began to respond to Devon's demands.

The Strategist had left the Fighter on watch while the invaders, which he now knew to be something called "Eden", had caroused carelessly into the night. The Fighter had awakened him when the last of group had finally dispersed to various tents, and only one man was left by the fire, armed with a Magpro. It was easy to see that the sentry was as exhausted as his companions and wasn't very attentive to his duties. The Strategist decided that it was now appropriate to get a closer look at the enemy camp.
The Fiend was given the assignment of scouting the camp, with specific restrictions on what he could and could not do. The Fiend had an uncanny knack for moving unseen amongst his prey and was pleased that his skills were recognized by the others. He made his way down to the perimeter and studied the sensors. Simple things, really. Hardly what he expected from a group with other more sophisticated equipment. He pulled out a few tools from his vest and with a few quick adjustments, walked smugly into the Eden camp.
He began by walking around the perimeter noting which tents were occupied by people. It wasn't hard to tell. These Eden invaders were a noisy lot. Even though there were no lights in any of the tents, he heard conversation or other vocalizations coming from several of them. One tent sported someone who snored like a Transrover. The Fiend knew he wasn't to disturb any of these people - yet, so he made his way to the supplies tent and began to take inventory, his photographic memory keeping a tally. He made his way to the communications tent, making a game of dancing around the sleepy guard who carried his weapon like an inconvenience instead of as an extension of himself. Amateur. He sniggered to himself as he checked the gear, all of which had seen better days. Last, he checked the vehicles. It was clear that someone in the group had a clue as to what they were doing. These vehicles were only running because of some clever improvisations. He made note of all he could see.
He left the camp as unnoticed as he entered it and made his report to the Strategist. Yes, it was going to be easy to get rid of these Eden people. The Fiend was sure he was going to be able to have some fun this time. These invaders were no threat to him at all.

No one was in a hurry to get up the next morning. No one had to pack up their stuff, throw it on the Transrover, and walk for miles and miles that day. The excitement of the previous day had left everyone exhausted and it was generally agreed that this day was a day of rest, to give everyone time to explore their new home at a leisurely rate or sleep all day, if that's what they felt like doing.
Yale was up early. Of all the adults, he really didn't have a choice. Uly had spent the night trilling in his sleep and then had risen at the crack of dawn. Yale knew that this probably meant that the Terrians weren't far away, and that Uly was probably going to be going on walkabout again, and soon. Feeling the responsibility heavy on his shoulders, he kept Uly in sight as the boy wandered around camp, seemingly in a daze. Uly couldn't get past the perimeter sensors without setting them off, so Yale decided to give the boy some space.
It wasn't long before True appeared from her own tent. Apparently Magus had had company last night. Yale sighed, knowing that the young girl in front of him was going through her own turmoil. He was torn about what he should do, or not do about it. He offered her as much companionship as he did Uly, but it was clear to Yale that she needed her father's company, not his. True had been spending more and more time with Bess Martin. That was something else. It was obvious that she needed a female confidant as well.
Yale was happy for Devon and Danziger, but maybe it was time for them to put their feet back on the ground and resume their duties to their kids. Not that they were deliberately ignoring them, but they were so blind for each other that they were missing the obvious clues from their own offspring.

Devon woke up slowly, the shadows of leaves from the nearby sycamore-like trees dancing on the canvas of the tent. She was feeling too content to move, so just soaked in what her senses were receiving. She was aware of John's steady breathing next to her and the pressure of his arm draped over her stomach, the memory of his proposal still fresh in her mind. She dwelled on that for a while, then became aware of sounds coming from outside. Yale was calling out to Uly.
Uly. When was the last time her's was the face he first saw in the morning? She knew that it was only because they were living in tents, single room dwellings, that this had happened. She knew it was going to be a priority to set up family dwellings, and soon. Since they didn't have any of their cargo pods, it wasn't going to be easy, but it was time for her to put her skills as a designer to work. She wanted a house that had lots of rooms in it, one for each child, including however many she and John decided to have. The thought of children brought her to True.
True was going to be tough for her. If Bess was right, then she was working in the negative already. She had to get True to see that John was still her dad and that he still loved her. She resolved to get John to set aside time every day to spend with his daughter. Once that relationship had been patched, then she would work on True accepting her. The thought of suddenly having an eleven year old daughter to guide through the difficult years of puberty was a bit frightening. She wanted to get it right, for her and for John.
"You're thinking too hard again." John hadn't moved or even opened an eye. It always amazed her when he did that to her. She shifted onto her side to face him and he pulled her to him.
"Just thinking about the kids. Our kids, the ones we already have." He opened his eyes.
"I promise I'll talk to True today, if she'll let me. Now that I've thought about it, she's probably pretty pissed at me," he admitted. "If I don't get things straight with her, she'll probably go ballistic when I tell her we're getting married."
"Yeah. I think I'm going to have the harder job of getting her to accept *me*. Somehow, I have to convince her that I'm not stealing you away from her," Devon lamented. John smiled at her.
"I have confidence in you. I have yet to see that Adair determination fail yet," he teased. Devon grunted then pulled away from him and rolled herself out of the cot. After she got her balance, she turned to Danz and grabbed his hand.
"Come on," she said pulling on him, "it's time for us to plan our strategy for True." Danz groaned.
"What if I don't want to get up yet?" he moaned.
"Then you'll miss our first walk on the beach together as the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Danziger," she told him.
"I hate it when you do that to me," he moaned pulling himself up and standing in front of her, his hair in his eyes.
"No you don't," she said pushing his hair back so she could see him. He gave her a quick kiss.
"No, I don't, " he admitted. "Shall we go see what our kids are up to? Then we can take that walk on the beach." Devon replied by handing him his day-old clothes to wear down to the river where the solar showers had been set up.
"Since we have the option, let's look presentable first," she said, pulling on her own clothes. He followed her example.
"It's going to be weird getting used to civilization again," he yawned.

Julia and Alonzo decided to strike out on their own that first morning in New Pacifica. They confiscated the dune rail before anyone else had awakened enough to notice and headed north along the beach, then up the steep terrain to the tree line. They followed the trees for awhile until an opening appeared that would let them head inland and followed the path as far as they could.
The path had slowly wound them up to some steep terrain and when the dune rail could go no further and they decided to head up on foot to eat lunch and take in the view. As they got to the top they were treated by a spectacular view out over the ocean. From this vantage point it was clear that they were sitting on an ancient ridge line that had been eroded to an insignificant leftover of the original mountain range. To the north, the old range dipped and flattened out for a ways into a large plain area, several miles across. This was obviously an old river delta, probably on old route of the big river next to which they had set up camp. There were still several creeks running through the plain towards the ridge line that kept the surrounding soil green and lush. Past that, the terrain sloped upward slightly and became sparser, but never completely lacking, in vegetation.
Julia stared out, slowly filling in the empty plain with her vision of the township of New Pacifica. She would have to get Devon out here to look this over. The place had definite possibilities. While she day-dreamed, Alonzo called into camp to let them know everything was O.K., then fished the video camera out of the storage compartment behind the driver's seat of the rail. Starting the recorder, he slowly turned a full circle starting at the ocean, taking in the view to show everyone back at camp. When he reached where Julia was standing, he zoomed in on her face, catching her at a moment when she was unaware of his focus. After a moment, she turned to him and smiled sheepishly, then waved at him to keep going. After recording several personal comments to go with his subject, he then continued his panning. When he was satisfied that he had done his duty, he put the camera away and pulled out their lunch. Julia joined him and they chose a spot at the edge of the hilltop to eat a leisurely lunch and watch the waves breaking along the distant shoreline.

True had found Uly to be boring company that morning. He was in one of his Terrian moods again. This usually meant that the kid was going to be obtuse to her questions about what he was doing, so she decided ignore him. That left her with nothing to do. Her saw her dad going down to the river with Devon, obviously to do his morning turn in "the bathroom", as that spot by the river had been christened. She wandered about, wondering if Bess was up yet since she had seen Julia and Alonzo sneak out of camp earlier.
A while later, she was sitting on a log, just staring into space when a voice by her ear shocked her into almost falling into the sand.
"Hey, Sport. Had breakfast yet?" She turned to see her dad, clean and shaven, squatting down next to her. She looked at him, then all around him. She could hardly believe he was alone.
"Um, no. Not yet," she told him. He eyed her dubiously.
"Come on. You're usually the first one in line. What's up?" he asked, sincerely. True squinted at him as he stepped over the log to sit next to her. She wondered what he wanted.
"Nothing," she answered simply. Danziger could hear the loneliness in her voice and felt a wave of guilt wash through him.
"What about Uly? You guys get the day off too. You can do anything you want today," he told her cheerfully, then considered what he had just said and added, "well almost anything." She didn't respond, staring down at the ground instead. Danz sighed.
"True, I'm sorry. I know I haven't been around much for you lately, I'd like to make it up to you," he said softly. True looked up at him, not sure of what he was saying.
"I'm still your dad and I love you very much," he offered, wrapping his arm around her.
"What about Devon?" True asked, her tone impatient.
"Devon's become a very important part of my life, but that doesn't mean that I don't still love you. You are a part of me, and always will be. I wouldn't trade that for anything. We're partners, remember?" he told her with as much conviction as he could.
"Then why haven't you been there for me for the past two months?" she demanded angrily. He deserved that and he knew it. He stroked her back while he tried to phrase what he wanted to say.
"When I lost your mom, I lost a part of me that I never thought could be filled again. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that I was going to be a father, that I would have someone who was a part of me and of her to take care of. But as important as you were then and still are to me now, I never really felt whole again, until we crashed on this planet. Surviving that crash has slowly opened a door in me that had been sealed for a long time.
"At first I was angry, angry because I knew it wasn't going to be easy to get to the meeting point with the colony ship. I wasn't sure we would make it back then, but I was too stubborn to admit defeat. The only one of the group who put any faith in us surviving at all was Devon." he said.
"But you guys argued all the time. I remember some of the things you said about her," True cut in. Danz felt guilty again, but reminded himself that hindsight gets you no where.
"Yeah, we did. We were all beginners at surviving on this planet. I thought that Devon was too optimistic, to unrealistic about our ability to do the job. She thought I was a self-defeating pessimist, that I would self-destruct before I admitted that it was possible for us to make it. We were both right.
"But over time, as we gained experience, Devon and I began to see the merit in each other's thinking. We became a balance for each other. As we changed, we became closer and before I was willing to admit it, I fell in love with her." Danz stopped to look at True. He could see that she was fighting with this inside. He decided to continue.
"It has only been the past few months that Devon and I realized we couldn't ignore what we were feeling for each other. Both of us had been without a companion for a long time. There was a lot of loneliness and hurt in each of us to mend, and the last two months was the time we needed to heal each other," he finished. They sat quietly for a while.
"What about mom?" True asked quietly. Danziger felt the sharp pain he always felt when he thought of Elle.
"Elle was special. I'll always love her, but I had to accept long ago that I would never get her back." He paused for a moment. "I don't think she would be very happy with me if I just let myself fade away," he answered carefully.
"No, probably not," True replied, startling her father. True looked up at him. "It's just that I thought that we were forever, that you'd always be there for me. You're my *dad*."
"And I haven't been lately," he finished for her. "I know," he said wrapping his arms around her and giving her a warm hug. After a moment, True returned his hug. Danziger felt a wave of relief that his daughter was going to accept him back. He knew then that this was going to the first of many intimate talks they were going to have to have over the next few days, and he was going to make sure that they had the time for them.
"Tell you what. Tomorrow we'll take the rail and go exploring, just the two of us," he offered. "What do you say, partner?" True's eyes lit up with a big smile.
"You got a deal!" she said, hugging him again. Danziger laughed, then pulled her up to her feet.
"Now, what do you say we get some breakfast?" he asked.
"I'm starved!" she replied, then grabbed his hand and pulled him to the cook tent.

Home Sweet Home, Part 3
by Lynne Leeper
The Strategist sat comfortably amongst the rocks that shielded him from the view of the invaders. He slowly chewed on the strips of cured plant material that was the total of his lunch. It was obvious that it wasn't going to be any challenge at all to get rid of these parasites. He might as well of had the Fiend have his fun last night - it would have been done with quickly and the problem solved. The Fighter complained that he wanted his share, so the Strategist decided he would make a game of this for his companions. The Fighter could have all of the men, and the Fiend could have his female toys. That decided, it was now a matter of choosing who to capture first.
It was clear to the Strategist, as unlikely as it seemed, that the leader of the group was the dark haired female mated with the tall blond man. At least the man appeared he would provide some sport for the Fighter, and the Fiend could hardly complain that the female wouldn't be a feisty enough toy. But if he removed the leaders first, then it would make capturing the rest too easy. No, this had to be of some small challenge to the Strategist. Best to pick on the weakest first. That meant the children. He had observed often enough in the past how much humans prized their offspring and to what lengths they would go to defend them. Yes, this would supply enough sport for all.
He got up and stood in full view of the camp, but no one noticed. Yes, this was going to be too easy.

Walman found that he was getting bored. Hard to imagine, after being on the road for months how anyone could get bored of just lying around camp. He had eaten a light breakfast, then went to nap down on the beach. He wasn't feeling inclined to do any more hiking, and Magus had gone with Baines in the ATV to back track along the river to see what was there. He decided after a while to go find Yale to have another look at the aerial maps stored in his data chips to see if there were any particular features that would be worth looking at tomorrow. He's make sure he got one of the vehicles to do a little scouting of his own.
On his way to find Yale, he noticed that the one of his perimeter sensors was blinking in an odd
pattern. Suddenly curious, he went to check it out. Walman was a stickler for details when it came to his job. That's why Devon had hired him. He had an old-fashioned habit of putting some sort of innocuous personal touch to any security set up he was responsible for. In this case, he had taken one of the fallen leaves from the overshadowing trees and had torn a small piece off and wedged it into the seam of the access panel for the keypad and keylocks. The piece was there, on the ground. He checked the panel door and found it to be secure. He opened it and ran a quick diagnostic check and found everything to be O.K. The diagnostic had caused the familiar pattern of the external indicator lights to return, so Walman shrugged to himself, assuming that the sensors had simply needed to be calibrated. Placing the leaf bit back in the crease, he closed the panel door and continued his search for Yale.

Yale was perched on a crate, trying to finish his breakfast while keeping an eye on Uly. He was apprehensive about the boy's activities this morning and was sure an appearance by the Terrians was imminent. Uly had settled into a crouch almost an hour ago and hadn't moved. He trilled and moved his head from side to side once in a while so Yale knew that he hadn't simply fallen asleep. Setting his plate aside, he was debating if he should go rouse Devon when she appeared from around the tent he was sitting behind. She glanced at him, then looked over at Uly.
"How long has he been like that?" she asked him quietly, as she stepped up to him. Yale looked into her eyes, seeing the old concern there.
"About an hour now. He seems to be trying to communicate with them," he answered, knowing Devon knew of whom he was talking.
"It's been a bit peculiar," Devon said. "I was sure that the Terrians would have made themselves known to us by now. They don't seem to stay far away from Uly these days."
"Uly dreamed about them all last night. When he got up, he didn't even want to eat breakfast. He simply wandered the camp, then settled down here," Yale told her. Devon watched her son for a while. She'd seen him in this sort of behavior before and knew better than to disturb him. This time, however, it seemed that something was different. Well, it was her turn to keep watch on her child.
"I'll stay and watch him, Yale" she said. "You've done more than your share lately." Yale smiled his approval. It seemed he wasn't going to have to point out the obvious to her after all. Yale picked up his plate and strode off to the kitchen tent.

Since everyone was on their own that day, there was no particular pattern to the activities of the day. No organized meals, no meetings, no particular work that had to be done. It was well past mid day before Devon caught sight of John. She had been sitting on that same crate for hours now, occasionally dozing, but always becoming alert whenever Uly stirred. John came up to her, a plate of food in his hand. He set it down next to her, then hefted himself up onto the crate on the other side of her.
"I saw Yale. He told me about Uly," he said. Devon sighed, then eased herself against him, her backside feeling a bit numb from perching on the crate. John held her for a while, neither of them really knowing what to say.
"I want to go get him, but I know I shouldn't disturb him" she finally said. He gave her a squeeze.
"I know," he said, kissing her temple. "Uly's a strong kid. Besides, the Terrians have gone to a lot of trouble to get him here in one piece. I doubt they'll let anything happen to him now." She took consolation in that.
"How'd your morning go with True?" she asked. She could see his face light up.
"That's one hell of a kid I've got. She let me know how mad she was at me, but then listened to what I had to say. I think that she's ready to accept that what's happened between you and me isn't going away." he said.
"Did you tell her we're engaged?" Devon asked.
"No, not yet. We spent the morning sort of reminiscing, just sort of getting used to being around each other again. She actually dumped me after we had lunch. Apparently she's been spending a lot of time with Bess. I can't help wondering what that's all about," he said wistfully. Devon smiled at him.
"I'm sure Bess has been glad of her company. She and Morgan haven't decided to become parents yet, and I think Bess is sort of practicing on True," she told him. He grunted at that.
"I sure hope that Bess isn't giving her any weird ideas, " he fretted. He caught the smell of the food he brought over for her.
"Hey, better eat your lunch before it petrifies," he told her. She glanced at it, then picked it up. It actually didn't look too bad. He watched her start eating, then set his gaze on Uly. He hoped that he wasn't looking at the beginning of yet another episode of Terrian mystery involving Devon's son. He caught himself. It was time for him to start thinking of Uly as his son as well.
Now that she had started eating, Devon found she was ravenous. It didn't take her long to finish her plate. John glanced over, approving of her appetite.
"Well, at least there's one Adair I won't have to worry about, " he said, taking her empty plate. She smiled at that.
"I do have to keep my strength up to keep up with you these days," she laughed. He smiled and pulled her close. Then his gaze returned to Uly.
"Kids. The world doesn't go around without 'em, but damn, they can sure try to give you a heart attack along the way," he mussed. Devon laughed at that.
"Speaking of kids, you want to stop taking those suppressors?" she asked him. He smiled and nuzzled her ear.
"I stopped the moment we set foot on the beach," he answered. She turned to him with a sparkle in her eye then rewarded him with a long, tender kiss.
"Mom?"
Devon and John pulled apart to see Uly standing right in front of them. He looked tired and a bit pale. Devon slid off of the crate and knelt down to get a good look at him. John was down the second after she was.
"Uly? You O.K.?" she asked. She was feeling relieved that he was out of his trance.
"I'm O.K." he told her. " I'm just a little tired, is all."
"Why don't we get you something to eat. Yale says you haven't eaten today," she prompted him.
"O.K." he said groggily. Devon stood and took his hand to lead him. He pulled back a minute.
"Mom, can I go out into the hills tomorrow?" he asked. "I can't talk to them here. They need to talk to me." Devon glanced at John.
"Sure pal, we can go out to the hills tomorrow," he replied. Then he remembered his promise to True. <She's gonna kill me> he thought. Well, he'd try to talk to her this evening. Maybe he could get her to understand. Again.

The day had been uneventful and the Eden Group was in good humor as they gathered for the evening meal. Alonzo and Julia told the group about their trip up north and invited everyone to come to the communications station after dinner to see the videos they had shot. Magus and Baines added to their tales by telling about their trip up river. Both exploration teams could only tell of the beauty and potential they saw for their new home.
Yale listened for a minute. This was all going too easily. He thought about how Uly had behaved that morning, then what was wrong suddenly hit him. He addressed the group.
"Has anyone seen any signs of Terrians or Grendlers?" he asked. There was a moment where everyone exchanged glances, but no one spoke up.
"I find it odd that in this place that has such an abundance of resources that I have yet to see any signs that anyone lives here. I don't even recall seeing signs of any type of animal life at all," he remarked. Julia cocked her head for a moment, recalling her memory of the north site.
"You know, I do recall seeing some birds in the distance, but where ever we stopped to look around, there were no signs of animals at all. I found shrubs loaded with fruits and a large variety of the native tubers all untouched, and yet I have found nothing in the soil and water samples I've taken that suggests there's anything different here to prevent wildlife or Grendlers or Terrians from moving in," she said.
"And Uly hasn't been able to reach the Terrians from here," Devon added.
"Nor has there been any signs of human occupation here," added Walman. His mind did touch on the sensor he found out of pattern that afternoon, but said nothing.
"You mean penal colonists?" asked Magus. Walman nodded.
"No sign at all. This place is ideal for humans. I would have thought that someone would have found it by now," he ventured.
"Well, we'll all have to keep our eyes open for the next few days, see if we can find any clues as to why no one's here," Danziger said.
"In the meantime, I'd like to see Julia and Alonzo's videos," Devon decided. There was a general agreement with that, so most of the group went to collect their Gear. About 15 minutes later, those that were interest had gathered around the main communications system. Alonzo pulled out the video disk and put it in the system's reader, then activated the Gear channel.
"Everyone ready?" he asked, quickly glancing around to make sure. With a chorus of "yesses", he activated the player.
Everyone was immediately struck by the beauty of the panoramic view. A few people swayed with a touch of vertigo as the view swept around, Danziger feeling True lean back into him for support. He placed a hand on her shoulder to steady her and had to swallow himself. When the view became a close up of Julia and Alonzo's comments were heard, there was a round of laughter that made Julia blush. Then the scene turned to the old river delta. The room was suddenly hushed as the view stopped there.
"It's perfect," Devon breathed feeling a sudden longing to walk down the hill. She felt Danziger place his free arm around her waist.
"Steady there," he whispered to her, but understood what she was feeling. This was the culmination of 10 years of planning, hardship and worry, all because she wanted to save her child's life.
The video continued to pan on, showing the extent of the forests and grasslands that lay behind it. This was Eden to them. Before them stood the resources from which they would carve their future, but only to be used with careful consideration and respect.
"Hey, what's that?" Magus' voice disturbed the silence.
"What?" Alonzo asked, pausing the viewer.
"Go back a little. There!" she said and he stopped the view. Everyone looked carefully to see what Magus was talking about. It took a few moments, but several others started to pick out what she had seen. Danziger stared hard at the object, hoping it was what he thought it was.
"That's one of our cargo pods!" he exclaimed. Alonzo was now seated in front of the viewer's controls, working to center and enlarge the image. After a few adjustments, he succeeded in magnifying the spot. The image was fuzzy, but there was no doubt. It was a cargo pod and it looked like it was still intact. Danziger frowned.
"Geez, look where it came down! Smack in the middle of the forest! This isn't going to be easy," he complained. Yale stepped up and hooked his cyber arm to the viewer. He overlaid the aerial images he had of the area and then rotated the image so everyone could see where the pod was in relationship to the hill top. Alonzo's practiced eye immediately began looking for the easiest way in.
"It looks like we can approach it from the north side, but it looks like we're going to have to do several miles of hiking to get to it," he announced.
"Can anyone tell which number it is?" Danziger asked. He hoped it contained vehicles that could shift the pod's contents from there to the delta. Alonzo played with the viewer some more and was able to get a slightly better angle on it.
"I *think* that's a "1" on the side," Magus said. Danziger hoped she was right. The first three pods were supposed to have the primary base camp, rescue, power supply, and food stuffs in them. The vehicles alone would be worth their weight in gold. Yale brought up the manifest for pod #1 and confirmed Danziger's memory.
"Well," Devon said, removing her Gear. "It looks like we move camp tomorrow and this time, it's going to be hard going." Her announcement resulted in a group groan as everyone switched off and removed their own Gear.
"Everyone better get a good night's sleep tonight," Yale said, looking pointedly at Uly. With that last thought, the group dispersed, some going to start packing already, some to take a last stroll around camp before the sunset.
Devon and John decided to head down to the beach to watch the sunset, but instead of it being an intimate moment alone for them, they decided to include the kids this time. The four of them strolled down to the center of the beach and dropped to the sand, Devon and John sitting next to each other, each with a kid in front of them. True leaned back into Danz and settled into his arms while Uly sat staring thoughtfully at the darkening sky. Devon stroked his hair, which seemed to be a signal for him to yawn. He turned to settle into her shoulder and promptly fell asleep.
Bess and Morgan were strolling just out of reach of the waves when Bess caught the outline of the foursome on the sand. It was obvious that Devon had taken her talk seriously, for which Bess was grateful. Satisfied that her work was done for the moment, she continued to stare at them, putting her and Morgan in Devon and John's place. Now that they had made it to New Pacifica, she was going to have to begin working on Morgan. She wanted kids and knew it wouldn't take much to get him to agree. The next few weeks were going to be a lot of work but there was no time like the present to start working on her new project.

The Fighter had been left on watch while the Strategist and Fiend slept. His bioengineered instincts kept him shifting and starting as he reacted to the movements of the enemy. He didn't understand why the Strategist hadn't let him do his job. There were only 16 of them, two of them children. He could take them all out in a matter of minutes. But the Strategist had control of the box, so the Fighter bided his time with impatience. He didn't understand the games the other two liked to play, but had no choice but to do as ordered.
Something had happened today. There were indications that they were going to pull up camp. He would report this activity to the Strategist when he awoke, knowing it would change the plans he was making. He continued to observe and waited.

The Strategist was awake by the time the Eden invaders had roused and began packing. This was unexpected, having them leave. He waited until they got the vehicles going, retreating in the direction from which they had come. If he was to make his move, it would have to be today sometime. He wasn't going to let his sport get away.

Danziger was back to fretting about his Transrover as the old familiar caravan began the hopefully last leg of its journey. Devon had decided that he should ride with True in the cab of the Transrover to hopefully continue their needed conversation. He agreed with a bit of hesitation, but knew she was right. Devon had installed Uly on the back of the vehicle and walked along side, her thoughts jumping back and forth from John to the beautiful delta that Julia and Alonzo had found. It all said "home sweet home" to her.
It was going to take them half the day just to back track to a point where they could head north toward the cargo pod. John sat quietly with his daughter, his attention being focused on the vehicle. After a while, True decided to break the silence.
"The Transrovers not going to fall apart beneath your feet, dad," she stated flatly. He blinked at her in surprise, then grimaced.
"Not you too!" he grinned at her. True gave him the Danziger Look.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"It's just that Devon said the same thing to me the day we got to the beach," he explained. True sighed.
"Is that all you think about these days?" she complained. Danziger looked at her thoughtfully.
"It's hard not to," he replied.
"Then why aren't you with her right now?" True asked, a bit annoyed. Danz looked at his daughter trying not to notice the barrier she was putting up again.
"I know we were going to go exploring this morning, but getting to that cargo pod is very important. It'll have stuff in it we really need," he explained.
"Dad, that pod's been there for a year now. Is one day going to make any difference?" True exploded. He thought about that for a moment and realized she was right. Everyone was so driven to see their trip finished that no one had brought up the obvious.
"You have a point there," he admitted. "It's just become a habit for us to be this way. Besides, we're together now." Somehow, he knew that this isn't what True had had in mind.
"Is there something you wanted to talk to me about? Something seems to be bugging you," he asked her. He knew that was the understatement of the year. Since True was already feeling a bit miffed, she wasn't feeling like being polite.
"So what happens when we finally get to where we're going?" she asked, giving him a piercing stare.
"How do you mean?" he returned.
"I mean, are you and Devon gonna get married or what?" she demanded. "It seems like you're always together, especially at night." That statement shocked him a little. He took his time answering her.
"Does the idea of Devon and me being together really bother you that much?" he asked. True frowned a bit, then sagged into the seat.
"I guess not," she said, but he knew it did. How was he going to explain this to her?
"True-girl, love has many facets. Part of that is the physical need to be alone together. It's instinctive and natural." He looked over at her to see if this was making any sense. He wasn't sure, but decided to press on anyway. "I have you because I was in love with your mother," he said. A strange look came over her face.
"Ummm, I know we never have talked about this, but do you know about how babies come to be?" he asked carefully. True looked up at him with wide eyes, then shifted her eyes to the view around them. She remembered some of the illicit VR chips that some of her friends at school had got their hands on. She shuddered as she thought of her dad doing those things. Danz could see she was uncomfortable with this. So she did have some idea of what he was saying.
"True, sex can be a good thing if it's with someone you love. But it can also be used to harm others." There, he'd said it. True chewed her lip for a moment.
"So how do you know when it's right?" she asked. Good, she was willing to talk about it.
"Your heart will tell you when it's the right person, but there's more to it than that. Giving yourself so completely to someone means leaving yourself vulnerable to being hurt. It's important that you trust your partner too." he continued.
"And you trust Devon," she finally spoke up.
"And she trusts me. We've made a commitment to each other and we both know it works because of that trust," he told her.
"So you guys are planning on having more kids?" True asked.
"We'd like to," he answered carefully. "That's another part of committing to each other. You and Uly are getting more and more independent every day. It won't be long now before you'll want to start looking around yourself." He cringed at the thought. She snorted.
"It's not like there's thousands of boys running around, dad," she informed him. He smiled at that.
"But there will be more once the colony ship lands," he countered. "But you don't have to be in any hurry about this. Be sure it's something you want before you jump in feet first." She thought about that for a while.
"Are you on supressors, dad?" she asked. Danz felt himself blushing a bit. This was getting a bit personal, but he owed her an answer.
"I was, but I've stopped taking them," he answered honestly. She nodded.
"If you and Devon want to have a baby, then why were you taking them in the first place?"
"Timing, sweetheart. Having a baby is a huge responsibility. We wanted to wait until we had settled at New Pacifica. It's important to be reasonably sure you can feed and protect a child," he told her, remembering the first weeks he had her. She thought about that.
"How did you take care me then?" she asked, curious.
"I was lucky to have good friends back then. They helped me a lot. Do you remember?" he asked.
"Yeah, some," she answered. A big smile formed on his face.
"Yeah, you were the darlin' of the old Ops gang. I think you ended up with more aunts and uncles that I could count. A lot of people learned how to change diapers on you!" he laughed.
"Daaaad!" True moaned, then a huge smile lit her face and she dived at his torso, aiming for his tickle spots.
Devon grinned at the sound of laughter coming from the cab of the Transrover. She wanted to be a part of it but knew this time between John and True was meant only for them. Still, her grin lasted the rest of the morning.

Home Sweet Home, Part 4
by Lynne Leeper
The Fighter followed the caravan with ease. He toyed with the idea of picking off stragglers but the Strategist wouldn't let him. It had become clear that the group was heading toward his primary holdings, towards the monument he had fought so deviously to protect. So why wasn't he being allowed to protect?
The Strategist watched carefully, noting that the children were never left unattended. All the more the challenge for him. He decided it would be fun to let the group get to the pod - he knew what it was. All his efforts to break into it had failed. He didn't have the tools or the strength to do it himself. He regretted that he had killed the Grendlers he had captured. Turned out that they could have done the job for him. Well, it had happened before he had gained full control over his counterparts. By the time he had that control, all of the other Grendlers had fled. These new invaders would do the job for him just as well. So it had taken a bit longer. At least he'd have his prize now.

By nightfall, the Eden group had made it to the next series of washes that would lead them to Julia and Alonzo's delta. The cargo pod was only a couple miles away, but through dense forest. Instead of stories around the campfire that evening, everyone talked about reaching the pod so they could claim their goods and get to the site of the town they were going to build. There was never any question they could do it. It was a matter of how much effort it was going to take. The subject of dividing up the group never came up. It was a given these days that no one should be put at any more risk than necessary.
Since the Transrover could get no closer, it was decided that a team of 6 would make the initial trip to the pod. That way, any supplies they needed from camp could be brought out by others after the actual disposition of the pod was determined.
With a long day in front of them tomorrow, the group retired early. Walman decided to take the first watch and would be relieved by Morgan 2 hours later. Walman had a growing itch at the back of his mind and spent his time on watch trying to figure out what was causing it. He had set up the sensors again since it was likely that they were going to stay at the current camp for more than a day. He was particular scrupulous with the one sensor he had found out of sequence, making sure his personal marker was secure.
Walman also did something that he hadn't done for a while. He had asked Danziger to reactivate Zero. The robot had been shut down as the result of some faulty stabilizers that tended to allow him to trip over his own feet. Since Zero weighed nearly a ton, it was definitely hazardous to let the robot be near you when you're looking the other direction. The robot was put in storage, more for the safety of the kids, until Danz could find a way to fix him. This night, only the robot's head was activated, his sensors patched in line with those of the perimeter. Walman couldn't really explain why he had wanted the mechanical man reactivated, but Danziger accepted his request on faith.

It was the Fiend's turn at watch that night. He giggled to himself as he watched Walman turn the watch over to Morgan. He recognized Morgan as the mate of the woman with dark curls he had decided he wanted first. This was too good of an opportunity to miss.
The Fiend made his way down to the perimeter and chose a sensor to work his magic on. He noted the Zero unit that had been added and smirked. That wasn't going to help these amateurs much. He opened the panel and tweaked the locks with a small tool, then realigned the infrared beam to target the Zero unit instead. Having done this, he slid his way into camp and went to check out Morgan. The idiot was fondling a mug of something, his weapon propped up next to him. He didn't even glance around the camp once in while. The Fiend silently walked right past him, confident that Morgan would never notice.
Morgan felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He set down his coffee, and slowly picked up the Magpro. He stared hard out into the darkness, and scanned around the camp. He missed the dark figure who was slipping into his own tent. After several minutes of extending his senses, Morgan decided that he was imagining things. He glanced at his watch. Still an hour left before Danziger would relieve him. He sighed, then went back to his coffee.
The Fiend stood just inside of the tent for a moment, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dark. The tent walls were of a light color, so there was a small amount of light getting through from the rising moons. He padded his way over to the sleeping figure he saw there. Yes, this was the one he wanted.
He placed his hand close to her head, feeling the heat from her. He moved his face to hers, and took a deep breath of her. She shifted slightly but the Fiend held his ground. He moved his hand along her, just a fraction of an inch from her. He imagined feeling her soft flesh, and how he would enjoy the taste of it. But no, he wouldn't do that just yet. Instead, he reached to touch her long hair and dared to pluck one strand out. Bess jerked, but her eyes didn't open. Fiend laughed silently in delight.
He dared then to slowly peel the blanket off of her, exposing her bare arms. He was beginning to lose control. He reached out with his face to taste her when a burning sensation began at the back of his head. The Strategist had awakened!
Not wanting to go away empty, the Fiend grabbed the hair clip Bess had nearby and bolted out of the tent, the rustle of the flap waking Bess.
"Morgan?" she called out sleepily, but he wasn't there. She stared for a minute, suddenly noticing a foul odor about her. Sniffing, she sat up puzzled and looked around. Everything was as it should have been. The odor faded quickly, so Bess settled back into her blankets and went back to sleep.
Morgan thought he caught a flash of motion out of the corner of his eye. By the time he had swiveled his head to look full on, there was nothing to see. <My imagination is really on overtime tonight> he thought to himself, then glanced at his watch again. Still another 45 minutes until Danziger would relieve him.

Everyone rose early the next day in anticipation of reaching the cargo pod. Breakfast was practically ignored as the six were chosen to go. Devon, Danziger, Alonzo, Magus, Walman and Baines packed their gear and headed off for the three mile hike. The terrain never got very steep and the pines were old enough to have discouraged much undergrowth. Danziger marked the path they took as they went, looking for openings wide enough for vehicles. There were spots where it could be dicey, but they might not have a choice.
It took less than an hour to reach it. To Devon, it looked like a gift from the Gods - whole, looming, with several fractured trees protruding out from under it. They circled the huge rust-covered monument, admiring the large "1" painted on it's side, still visible through the rust. Danziger checked the seals, still in place.
"What do you think?" Devon asked him.
"Well, it looks like we finally got lucky," he reported. Walman walked up.
"Notice the marks by the locks?" he asked, pointing at the seal Danziger had been looking at.
"Yeah," Danz nodded.
"What do you mean?" Devon asked. Walman looked at her.
"Someone tried to break in," he told her.
"Someone who had some tools, but not the right ones," Danziger added. He looked at the lock carefully. "It's a sure bet it wasn't Grendlers." Walman felt that itch in the back of his head getting worse.
"Come on, let's get this thing open and see what we've got," Walman said. Danziger nodded and started entering codes on the keypad.

Morgan had just finished KP duty. Since the Eden group was more or less likely to be camped right where they were for a day or two while the contents of the cargo pod were retrieved, he actually had nothing he had to do. He decided to go looking for Bess, who had seemed a bit distracted that morning. He eventually found her in their tent, in the middle of a pile of her stuff which she had tossed thoughtlessly around her. Bess was usually very efficient and tidy with the few possessions they actually had left, so Morgan knew something was up.
"What are you doing?" he asked her, surveying the mess. Bess looked up at him with a frustrated look on her face.
"Have you seen my hair clip?" she asked. She almost sounded as if she were accusing him of taking it.
"Whoa. No I haven't. Wasn't it with your other things, where you usually put it?" he asked carefully.
"No, Morgan, it wasn't," she said angrily. She let out a big huff, then sat glaring at the stuff around her. "I *know* I left right next to me last night. I had it right on top of the clothes I was going to wear today!" Morgan didn't know what to say so he just shrugged.
"Maybe it just fell off the pile and tumbled somewhere," he suggested lamely. Bess glared at him.
"I've looked all over. It just isn't here!" she told him. Morgan stepped gingerly over a wad of her clothes and sat down on the cot.
"Well, you've got another one, don't you? It's bound to turn up eventually," he offered. Bess sighed, then looked at the mess she had made.
"I hope so. That clip was my mother's. It was the last thing of hers I had," she said sadly. Morgan hated to see her that way, so he knelt down next to her and put his arms around her.
"I know, sweetie. I'm sure it'll turn up," he assured her. Bess sat there for a while, then slipped out of his arms and began to pick up her things.

Yale was reviewing Julia and Alonzo's video, starting to work out the geology of the old river delta. It would be important to determine what the annual weather cycle was like there and what effect it had on the area. It wouldn't do to built a town just to have it washed out into the ocean during a winter flood. He was interrupted when Uly came up and tugged on his sleeve.
"Yale?" the boy asked, looking a bit tentative. As always, Yale put aside what he was doing to attend to his charge.
"Yes, Uly?"
"Mom and Mr. Danziger promised I could go out to the hills today. I need to talk to the Terrians," he explained. Yale thought about that for a moment.
"You can't reach them here either?" he asked.
"No. I don't think they want to come past that ridge," Uly answered, pointing back to a barren line of hills a few kilometers away. Yale looked at the ridge. It looked like an easy trip for the ATV, and it was in line of sight with the camp.
"Let me ask your mother, O.K.?" Uly nodded while Yale settled his Gear onto his head, then activated Devon's frequency. She appeared immediately.
"Yes, Yale?" Yale could see the pod behind her, the first of the compartments open and the men loading up a new vehicle.
"Uly wants to go up to the ridge line behind us. It's in line with camp, so I see no problem getting there. He says he needs to talk to the Terrians," Yale explained. Devon remembered John making that promise.
"We'll be here a while, so I don't see why not," she answered. "Just be careful. There are indications that someone tried to break into the pod, but quite some time ago. We haven't seen any recent signs of anyone else being here, though." Yale nodded.
"We should be back in a few hours. I'll pack us some lunch just in case," Yale told her. Devon nodded.
"O.K., See you later." She switched off her Gear. John had come up to her while she was talking.
"Everything O.K.?" he asked. Devon smiled.
"Yeah. Uly still wants to go try and talk to the Terrians. Yale said he'd take him," she told him. John could see the concern in her eyes.
"He'll be fine, Devon," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. She leaned into him a bit.
"I know. It's just one of these days, I'm afraid Uly will go with them and not come back," she said. John didn't know how to answer that, so he gave her a hug instead.
"John!" Danziger looked up to see Walman throwing a rope down from the upper frame work of the pod. "How about anchoring that for me?" he shouted down.
"Caught in the act again!" Danz said smiling. Devon grinned, then gave him a quick kiss and let him go. Danz went to anchor the line, so Devon returned to the lower level to help with the smaller crates.

Yale drove the ATV carefully up through the hills, Uly perched behind the roll bar. The vegetation here had become sparse and low to the ground leaving loose gravel exposed at the surface. It didn't take long to get where they were going. Yale stopped the vehicle and Uly climbed down, walking a few feet away and dropped into the familiar crouch. Yale leaned back against the ATV, prepared to sit a vigil if that's what it took.
Uly had been down on his hands and knees for only a few minutes when Yale heard the crunch of gravel behind him. He turned in surprise and was greeted by a fist to the jaw. He never remembered hitting the ground.

The Fighter grinned. He was finally going to have some fun. The Strategist had watched while the pair had left camp. Now that the enemy had made it to the pod, he was going to need leverage to force them to turn over it's contents to him. This pair, including one of the children was a perfect target. They couldn't have made it any easier for him.
The Fighter was put in charge. He easily tracked the slow moving vehicle, having no problem staying out of sight. He became a bit leery when they had crossed the boundary he had established between himself and the dirtmen, but the vehicle came to rest not too far behind enemy lines.
He was swift and efficient. He rendered the large dark man unconscious and draped him over the vehicle without disturbing the boy. The Strategist wanted him alive for interrogation. He swiftly crept up to the boy and pulled him up by the collar of his shirt.
Uly had been in contact with the Terrians. They were still some distance away, but at least now he could talk to them. At first, they seemed a bit wary of him, sensing he was near the Dead Zone. They searched his thoughts and learned of who he was, then accepted his presence. Uly began to ask questions. Why weren't they here or at the coast line? The Terrians began taking him back through time on the dream plane when suddenly all contact was lost.
Uly screamed, the pain of being torn away giving way to terror when he opened his eyes and found himself looking into the filthy face of a man he didn't know. As the man smiled, Uly gagged on the man's foul breath. The man laughed and shook him, causing Uly to start struggling. A snarl formed on the man's face and he struck Uly, making Uly's ears ring. The man dumped the boy into the passenger seat of the ATV, then started the vehicle back down the hill with reckless abandon and into the forest. He deviated his course away from the Eden camp and brought the vehicle to a sliding stop. He hauled both of his prisoners out one at a time and carried them for a distance, the boy first since he was stirring. He sat each against a tree and deftly tied them there. The Strategist then waited for his victims to regain consciousness.

True had been spending the morning with Julia, who like everyone else was just waiting for the salvage team to either ask for help or come back. They went for a walk around camp, Julia looking for herbs that could either be eaten or used as back up medication. True made herself good company, taking an interest in what Julia was finding. Julia was glad for the company and made a point of explaining everything she was looking for. After awhile though, Julia could see that True's attention span had been maxed out, so they stopped to sit on a convenient felled tree. True stared a Julia for a moment, then went back to scuffing the dirt with her toe.
It was obvious that True had had a lot on her mind lately, and it wasn't hard to guess why. Julia decided to see if she could help.
"You thinking about your dad?" she asked. True looked up at her, startled.
"Umm, sort of," she answered, returning to her scuffing. Julia smiled.
"Sort of? Well, how about Devon then," she tried. True looked up at her. It was obvious that True wanted to ask her something, but was afraid to for some reason.
"What?" Julia prompted. It was obvious True was struggling with something.
"Come on, you can trust me," Julia encouraged. Whatever it was, it was important enough that True just couldn't hold back any more.
"Well, it's just that dad and Devon want to have more kids," True explained. A big grin split Julia's face.
"That's wonderful, True!" Julia told her. True looked up at her shyly.
"Dad and I started to talk about that, but he didn't tell me how it actually happens," True said. Then corrected herself. "I mean, I know how it happens, sort of, but I don't understand how you actually have one." She looked hopefully up at Julia. "You're a doctor. Can you explain it to me?" Julia suddenly felt on the spot. True could see her hesitation.
"I don't think dad can really explain it to me. Please?" she implored. Julia knew that it was important for True to know the mechanics of what she would be facing, and very soon it suddenly dawned on her. Even though she suspected that John would prefer Devon to talk to her about this, Julia was reasonably sure that Devon wouldn't mind her at least filling in about the biology of it.
"I'll tell you what. Since we have the time, I'll show you how it works. Then, if you have any questions about it, about how it affects you, I suggest that you ask Devon. I really think she would like to do this for you," Julia suggested. True nodded in agreement.
"Dad said she would."
"Did you bring your Gear?" Julia asked. True answered by pulling it out of her pocket. Julia set up their Gear to read the data files of her diaglove. After True had her Gear in place, Julia activated the files.
"Ready?" she asked. True nodded, then began her journey of discovery.

It was well after lunch when the salvage team made their way back to camp with three heavily loaded vehicles. All six members of the team were exhausted, not only from the heavy work of loading the vehicles, but from the stress of negotiating the vehicles through the forest. All was immediately justified when they cleared the forest and entered the camp to the cheers of the others. They had only unloaded about a third of the pod. There was another large vehicle in it, but it was going to be tough getting it out. Danziger was determined to try.
Devon jumped off of the larger of the three vehicles, a sort of mid-sized transport designed to be used for long hauls. It had a much beefier suspension and was geared for higher speeds than the old Transrover. It would be a good work horse when building the township of New Pacifica.
John joined her, scanning the camp. "Where are the kids?" he asked. Devon looked around. Not seeing them, she grabbed Cameron who was helping to unload the vehicles.
"Haven't Yale and Uly returned yet?" she asked him. Cameron shook his head.
"I don't think so. I haven't seen them," he answered. Devon, suddenly worried, activated her Gear.
"Yale?" she called. There was no response. She tried again several times, but it was if Yale had turned his Gear off. If it had been John, she wouldn't have been immediately worried, but this was not like Yale at all. Danz could see the alarm building in her face.
"No answer?" he asked. Devon shook her head.
"It's like he turned his Gear off. He would never do that, knowing it would worry me," she said looking straight into his eyes. He didn't have to ask what she was thinking.
"Alight." Danz turned to Cameron. "Did they say exactly where they were going?" he asked. Cameron pointed at the barren ridge of hills.
"Yale said they were going straight that way. He said he would be staying in sight of camp." Danziger pulled out his jumpers and scanned the hill tops for some sign of the pair.
"I sure don't see anything," he said. One look at Devon told him exactly what she wanted of him. "We'd better pack a few supplies just in case," he said, then looked at the new vehicles. "We'll take one of those," he said, nodding his head towards the smaller scout vehicles.
"I'd like Julia to come with us," Devon said. He nodded in agreement.
"I'll get the vehicle ready while you find Julia," he said, then headed towards the first of the new scout vehicles to help get it unloaded.

Home Sweet Home, Part 5
by Lynne Leeper
Uly had come around pretty quickly, not having ever really being unconscious. He stared at the dirty figure that lounged against a tree a few meters away. He was dressed in what appeared to be standard Ops gear - the utilitarian vest and pants he was very familiar with. The shirt underneath was in shreds, but the man didn't seem to notice.
The man just glanced up at him once in a while, there being no expression on his face for Uly to read. The man got up and started to move around, apparently out of boredom. When he turned his back to him, Uly was shocked to see VA-1587 on the yellow stripe across the back of the rust-colored utility vest. This man was from the Eden ship? Or had he stolen it? If so, from whom? The condition of the vest told Uly that it wasn't from his camp.
Yale moaned and started to blink. This got the man's attention. Yale suddenly found a glaring pair of eyes inches from his own, the stench of the man's breath acting like smelling salts on his fuzzy brain. He struggled for a moment to get up, then realized he was securely bound. Yale forced himself to relax. The man slowly backed away from him.
After having a moment to understand his situation, Yale was immediately concerned about Uly. He saw the boy bound to a tree a few meters away from him, but apparently unharmed. The ATV was no where in sight. Yale returned his attention to the man, who was studying him carefully in return. He came over and examined Yale's cybernetic arm with great interest giving Yale a chance to get a good look at the man's features. The look in the man's eyes wasn't even human, yet Yale got a feeling of familiarity from the man.
"Who are you," Yale finally whispered. The man jumped back snarling and crouched, then straightened and relaxed his features. He turned on his heel and went over to a pack sitting by a tree. Yale then saw the ship's ID on the man's back. The man rummaged through a toolbox he had extracted from the pack, then returned to Yale.
"Were you on the Eden ship?" Yale asked. The man didn't answer. Yale started searching his memory as he studied the man hoping that something would click there. The man had loosened the rope on his one arm and pulled it up in front of Yale. He started probing the access panel that housed the power controls to his cybernetics. Yale tried to pull away, but his arm was still quite stiff from being held behind him. The man snarled and cuffed him on the temple, the rebuke being quite clear.
Yale glanced over at Uly, deciding just how far he dared push this insane individual. He thought if he could at least get the man to talk, he might at least be able to delay the inevitable. Glancing up to look at the sun, Yale new he and Uly were late getting back to camp. Devon would be worried and undoubtedly would already have John with her out looking for them. He needed time.
He decided to take a chance. At least with his arm out he could activate it. He mentally switched the power on, startling the man. This time the man held his ground but instead of getting angry, looked fascinated. Yale took another chance.
"Access files Eden Ops Crew" he ordered. The holographic projector in his arm lit up to display a roster. Again, the man held his ground, but his face had lost all expression.
"Begin scan, alphabetical order," Yale ordered. The man watched as pictures popped up one by one, each with a name and ID code label. Yale scanned the pictures as they went by but kept one eye on the unidentified man. The man seemed to be just as interested in the information as Yale. He sat unblinking, then suddenly a look of fury filled his eyes. He made a fist as if to smash Yale's arm, then held off. The man retreated to his tree, facing away. Yale tried to pull himself free again, hoping he would be fast enough with the help of his freed arm, but he couldn't reach the knots in the back. The man turned to glare at him and Yale took the hint. Yale again glanced at Uly, who was staying inconspicuously quiet.
Yale decided to go through the files again, this time with the audio on. He gave the specific instructions, then listened as a monotonous voice began identifying the pictures as they went by. The man listened for a while until again he became angry. Yale deactivated the program quickly, but noting the name at which the man had become angry.
"Gregory Thompson," Yale called out. The man stood with a defiant look on his face. "You're Gregory Thompson," Yale repeated. He studied the man's face and tried to fit it to the picture he had glimpsed of the man. If he was Ops crew, then Danziger should know him.
"Do you know John Danziger?" Yale asked. The man didn't get angry this time. Instead, he strode over to Yale and hit him hard, knocking him out.

The Strategist was mulling over what he had seen from the dark man's mechanical arm. A crew roster that had his face in it. He had never been this Thompson person, but it's possible that one of the others had been. He had been fascinated to see how strongly the Fiend had reacted. It had prompted the Fighter to respond. It was a good thing the Strategist had been able to regain control before the cyber arm had been damaged. He wondered what other information he could get from the dark man. He could prove to be quite useful in communicating with the Eden invaders. He glanced at the boy who had remained silent through all of this. The boy was still his bait. Perhaps he could use the dark man as a messenger, record the image of the boy into his arm and send him back with his demands. The Strategist also realized that the adults who owned the child would come looking for him eventually. It would be good to have the messenger ready and left out to be found when they came looking. The dark man was still unconscious when he had the Fiend return to working on the man's arm.

Julia and True had heard the commotion brought on by the return of the salvage team. They had finished reviewing the material provided by Julia's diaglove and True was finding question after question to ask her. It was with relief that Julia returned with True to the camp.
Danziger was unloading the scout vehicle when True came to greet him, but instead of the usual tackle she gave him, she stood back and stared at him with wide eyes. The look on her face was so amazed that it stopped him with a crate in mid air. He had to quickly catch himself before it landed on his foot.
"Hey, True-girl. What bit you?" he asked setting down the crate. He stepped up to her and opened his arms, an invitation she never refused. Danziger was confused by her hesitation but she finally launched herself at him.
"Are you O.K.?" he asked. She pulled back a bit, her eyes still a bit wide.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, then a coy look came over her face and she started giggling. She left him like that, wondering what could possibly be going through her mind. He glanced over at Devon who was standing with Julia and Alonzo in front of their tent. They had been watching him and True. He could see them smiling and wondered if he had been the victim of some bad joke.
Julia then hurried off inside to get her gear and the emergency of the moment came back to him. The vehicle had been unloaded, so he indicated to Devon that they should get their own stuff for the trip. He followed her into their tent. She was adding things to their packs that they hadn't needed for the trip to the pod. She turned to him with a grin on her face.
"Mind telling me what the joke is?" he asked irritably, planting his fists on his hips. Devon moved up to him and molded herself to him, pulling his head down so she could whisper in his ear.
"Julia just explained the difference between boys and girls to True," she said softly. She felt him sag against her and moan. She pulled back enough to see his face and found him blushing.
"Why, John Danziger. I do believe you're embarrassed," she teased. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them to see her still grinning at him.
"My own daughter looking at me that way! Wait until it's your turn with Uly," he warned. The reference to her son wiped the smile off of her face. His own expression became sober.
"Let's go find him," he told her, then gave her a quick hug before they parted to finish their packing.

Uly had found it within himself to stay calm when the strange man had been with Yale. He even was able to withhold his cries when Yale had been hit. Yale was unconscious now and the man was doing something to his mechanical arm. Uly reached deeply inside himself, drawing on his Terrian part to clear his mind. He had been slowly working his hands loose so he could touch the ground. It was proving to be a slow and arduous task since the man had been very efficient with the job of tying him up. But the man had thought Uly to only be a child. He never would have considered him to be of any threat at all. Uly knew that he and Yale had to get away as soon as possible. He knew his mother and John would come looking for them, but Uly was afraid they would be too late. He continued to work on his hands and his prayers at the same time.

The rest of the Eden Group had been left to continue working on getting the cargo pod unloaded. Alonzo had wanted to go with Devon, Danz and Julia, but since there was no immediate reason to be worried, Danziger insisted he was needed to drive one of the new vehicles back to the pod. He didn't like it, but he understood. There was enough time to make one more quick run to the pod and bring back the easier to load items there. Tomorrow their efforts would be on figuring out how to get the larger Transport to camp.
The ATV had left occasional tracks in the loose soil so it didn't take long to find which track Yale took to go upwards. About halfway there, the tracks suddenly overlapped themselves and branched off to the north. Danziger decided to follow the split since they still couldn't see anything at the top of the hill.
The way the tracks were cut it was clear that Yale had been driving like a mad man. Devon's face became stoic as it looked like Uly and Yale were in some sort of trouble. There was no clue as to what had happened, but the swinging tracks of the ATV indicated that it was serious.
The tracks led to the next tract of forest where the loam was soft enough to leave a clear trail. They had gone in about a kilometer when they came upon the ATV. It had been ransacked and there was no sign of Uly or Yale. There were no footprints to be found to indicate what direction they might have gone, the loam springy enough to return to its original shape after being stepped on. It was very confusing.
Danziger pulled out and EM tracker, hoping to either pick up Yale's Gear signal or even his mechanical arm, if it was active. He got no readings, but all that determined was that Yale was not close by. He looked up at Devon, who had become quite pale. He suddenly wished that they had brought more people with them.
"Call camp," he said softly. "We're going to need help." Devon snapped into action and activated her Gear. She was surprised that Walman answered her call. He was supposed to have gone back to the pod. She didn't take the time to question him since she needed his help more.
"Walman. We've found the ATV in the forest to the north but there's no sign of Uly or Yale. We need to form search teams to look for them," she told him. Walman nodded, his face grim.
"Magus, Cameron and I will take the dunerail and work our way towards your signal. The three of you had better stay together until we meet up with you," he instructed. Devon could tell by the look on his face he wasn't telling her something.
"You know something we don't?" she asked. He took a deep breath, then exhaled, looking away for a moment.
"Baines found something near the pod when we got back there and he went for a leak," he began. There was a pile of bones half-buried in a depression. Probably uncovered by the weather."
"Human?" Devon asked, holding her breath.
"No. Grendler by the look of them, and they've been there for a while- long enough to have been scrubbed clean. There were remnants of clothing as well," he told her. Devon started breathing again. Walman saw the relief in her face.
"Be careful, Devon," he warned her. "These Grendlers looked like they'd been ripped apart and I have the feeling that whatever did this is still around." She nodded.
"I'm activating the homing signal." Walman nodded back, then she ended her transmission.
"Well, there's no sign of them anywhere," Danz said, walking back to her. Is help on the way?"
"Walman, Magus and Cameron are coming to meet us in the dunerail." She grasped his arm, then looked over at Julia. "Walman says they found some Grendler remains, and that it looks like they'd been torn apart. He thinks that what did it is still around here." Danziger felt a chill go down his spine. Julia wrapped her arms around herself.
"We'll stick together," Devon announced. She got no complaints.

The Fiend had finished his work on the dark man's mechanical arm. It now contained the message the Strategist had composed as well as a picture of the boy. The Fiend had added his own little touch. He had rigged the power supply in the cybernetic arm to discharge itself in one quick burst right after the message had been delivered. The Strategist approved. The job complete, it was now time to move the messenger to where his companions would find him.
The Strategist checked the on the boy briefly. He had apparently fallen asleep and was still secure in his bonds. Satisfied, he instructed the Fighter to pick the cyborg up and deliver him to his vehicle.
Uly was not asleep, rather he was deep in his efforts to communicate with the Terrians. The man hadn't noticed that Uly had managed to get his hands down to the ground. Uly broadcast for help as loud and as far as he could. He felt the Terrians he had been in communication with at the top of the hill there in the distance, and beseeched their help. They would not come to him directly - he was too close to the strange man. He told them that he would die if they didn't help him. They understood his peril, but would not endanger themselves. They told him he must deal with his own kind without their help. They were incapable of the violence required.
Feeling that he had lost, Uly's thoughts drifted to his mother. She had always been there for him. She had done the impossible to save his life, nearly at the cost of her own. Although he was still deep in his Terrian part, the human emotion of sadness crept through. The Terrians in the distance faded away from him.

Now that there was a tactical problem to solve, Danziger resorted to digging up the memories of his military training to find a way to begin. Devon was for choosing a direction and going, but Danz was able to convince her that they didn't dare go off half-cocked. Julia marveled at the sudden role reversal, but then that's the way it had always been between these two. Balance and counter balance. It's what made them more than just the sum of two individuals.
Using the ATV as a focal point, the began to spiral out to see if they could find any clues as to which direction Yale and Uly might have gone. They stayed within a few meters of each other and worked they way out for about a half a kilometer. It was if the pair had suddenly grown wings. It was obvious that this wasn't getting them anywhere, so they returned to the ATV to find an unconscious Yale was sitting in the passenger seat. They ran up to him, Devon frantically looking around for Uly. Julia immediately got out her diaglove and ran it over Yale's swollen head.
"It looks like he's been beaten. He has been hit repeatedly in the same place here," she said, indicating the swelling at his temple. Julia dug through her medical kit and administered anti-shock treatment and anti-inflammatory. Devon was panicking.
"Can you bring him around? I've got to know where Uly is!" Danziger grabbed her before she landed on Yale.
"Easy, easy!" he said crushing her to him. "Let Julia do her job!" Devon strained against his hold for a moment then gave in, but she didn't cry. She couldn't afford the luxury of that right now.
Julia continued to check him over and discovered the tampering that had been done to his mechanical arm. She carefully examined the interface controls and found that the temporary data storage was waiting to be dumped.
"John, look at this." He let go of Devon and stepped up to see what Julia had found. She showed him the blinking light.
"Looks like a message," he told her. Devon moved up to look.
"About Uly?" she asked, hanging on to her composure.
"Only one way to find out," Danz said. He reached over and activated the data dump. The holographic projector sprang to life showing Uly tied to his tree. A message began printing out on the viewer when a lone Terrian shot up out of the ground and reached past Danz to grab Yale's arm. The data dump must have been finished because the projector shut down. A surge of current formed a halo over Yale's arm and shot down the Terrian's arm. The creature howled in pain and as soon as the halo died out, released Yale's arm and sank back down into the soil. The humans stared for a moment, stunned.
"What in hell was that?" Danziger finally said. Julia shook herself free of her shock, then examined Yale's arm. The power lines visible within the hatch were blackened and the smell of burning electronics met her nose.
"His power supply was set up to electrocute him!" Julia exclaimed. This got Devon's attention.
"He was set up to deliver a message and then he was suppose to die?" she asked, the anger rising in her face.
"Sounds like a Special Forces technique to me," Danz said. Devon stared at him.
"Someone from the Special Forces has my son?" she asked, getting pale again. Danz put a supportive arm around her.
"We'll find him, Devon, even if we have to uproot this forest tree by tree!" Danz said in a determined tone. "Julia, were you recording the message from Yale's arm?" Julia immediately checked her diaglove.
"It's here, but you'll need to see it on Gear," she told them. Danziger put his Gear back on. Devon had never removed hers. Julia keyed the glove to replay the message.
Danziger heard Devon's sharp intake of breath as they again saw the picture of Uly tied to a tree. He looked around the scene for as much information as he could to see if there were any clues as to where the boy might be, but whoever had created it had done their job well. He could see nothing.
The printed message then began to scroll by again. It was in broken sentences and was barely in
Universal English. He studied it for a moment, the message being short enough to be seen all at once.
"It looks like a ransom demand," he decided. "From what I can tell, it looks like Uly is to be exchanged for the entire contents of the cargo pod, but there are no instructions on how the exchange is supposed to happen." Danziger switched off his Gear to see Devon slump by Yale, who was still unconscious.
"Julia, how is he? Can you wake him up?" she asked desperately. Julia shook her head, and didn't say a word. Danziger looked away, trying to figure out what to do. His gaze suddenly locked on a figure just in view through the trees.
"Devon. look!" he exclaimed turning her to look, then pointing. A lone Terrian stood watching them. Seeing that he had caught their attention, he started walking away.
"Come on!" he said, pulling her, then turned to Julia. "Stay with Yale!" Julia stayed.

Home Sweet Home, Part 6
by Lynne Leeper
Devon and Danziger followed the Terrian on a convoluted path through the trees. He eventually stopped, looked them, then pointed with his staff. Seeing that they had his message, the Terrian disappeared into the ground. The two continued on cautiously and within a few meters, saw Uly as they had seen them in the message. Danziger had to restrain Devon from rushing to her son, then pulled out the hand weapon he had brought along. He carefully scanned the trees and was rewarded by finding another figure.
This one was human, but barely. He pulled out his jumpers for a closer look. In spite of the abused condition of the person's clothes, he couldn't miss the ship's ID on the man's back. He pointed him out silently to Devon, then handed her the jumpers.
"One of ours?" she mouthed to him. John shrugged his shoulders. He motioned to her to stay there, then began to make his way around to come up behind the man.

The Strategist waited patiently. It was something he was good at. He glanced over at the boy who
was slumped in his bonds, his hands resting on the ground. The Strategist pulled a piece of stringy tuber from his belt pouch and began to chew on it slowly. The Fighter had delivered the dark man almost an hour ago. It would take the Eden invaders time to figure out what had happened to the messenger and to get around to reading his message. Then the messenger would die. He decided he would get some rest, so put the Fighter on duty.
The Fighter wanted to rest his body, so positioned himself against a tree where he could still see the boy, but not be easily seen in return. His eyes swept the area periodically, but the forest remained unchanged. He continued to chew on the tuber.
He had been still for some time when his ear caught a soft sound behind him. His instincts pulled him out of his crouch and he launched himself forward. His momentum took him squarely into the chest of the tall blond man he had observed before. The weapon that the blond man was carrying went flying, landing several meters away. The Fighter felt the rush of adrenaline that brought him to the height of his senses and he snarled with the power he felt as he wrapped his hands around the blond man's throat. His fingers slowly contracted as his victim fought to get free, but he was too powerful to be denied his need to kill.
The Fighter suddenly caught a whiff of another of the Edenites. He thrust one foot out back behind him sharply and was rewarded with the feeling of connecting with a resilient object. He turned quickly to see who his second opponent was and was surprised to see the boy's owner sitting in a heap behind him. The movement offset his center of gravity enough for the tall man to suddenly flip him over onto his back, but the man was gasping for air and made no effort to forge his own attack. The Fighter stood up and started to move to finish off the man when the ground in front of him erupted.
A lone dirtman stood between him and the man, the dirtman's staff lit with a yellow static. A bolt
of light hit the ground in front of him, causing the forest debris at his feet to explode up into his face. It was time enough for the tall man to scramble for his weapon, and as his vision returned, the last thing he saw was the dirtman disappearing into the soil and the blond man behind him aiming his weapon at his chest and pulling the trigger. As the Fighter fell, the Strategist and the Fiend were screaming unintelligibly in his head. His final thought was one of bliss as Gregory Thompson knew he was finally free of the insane personalities he had been forced to host when he awoke on the shores of New Pacifica.

Danziger was barely able to stand, his throat so swollen he could hardly breathe. He saw his
assailant fall to the ground and lie still. He watched him for a moment then carefully went up to him to make sure he wasn't still breathing. When he was sure, he looked over at Devon who was sitting back on her haunches, hands on the ground. He dropped in front of her and propped up her chin with his finger and could see the pain in her face.
"I'm O.K.," she told him. "Go get Uly." Danziger nodded stroking her cheek, then went to untie her son. The boy looked up at him with relief as the ropes fell away, then stiffly held out his arms to be picked up. Danziger hefted him up in his arms, cringing as Uly wrapped his arms around his neck. Uly was sobbing heavily into his shoulder as Danz carefully squatted down to deliver him to his mother. Devon looked up and reached out for him and Uly sank into her grasp. Danziger wrapped his arms around them both and sat in relief as he waited for the tears to stop.
A while later, Devon realized that her Gear was beeping. She let go of Uly with one arm and switched it on, seeing Danz doing the same. Julia's face appeared along with Walman's. Devon could see Julia taking in the scene and realizing that it was over.
"Is everyone O.K.?" she asked. Devon nodded. "We're a bit shaky, but everything's fine now. How's Yale?"
"He's regained consciences. He's in pain from his arm and the blows to his head, but he'll be fine after I get him back to camp," she reported.
"Good," Devon sighed, tired.
"Julia," Danz broke in, "Have Walman come and get us." Walman had heard and moved towards his vehicle. "We have a body here for you as well," he told her grimly. Julia understood.
The threesome had regained some of their composure before their friends found them. Walman drove up in the ATV followed by Magus in the dunerail. The two took in the scene quickly, then jogged up to greet them. Baines was not far behind in the new scout vehicle but had driven more carefully out of concern for his passengers in the back seat. Julia was there supporting Yale, taking care that his head didn't take any more of a beating.
After Walman was assured that Devon, Danziger and Uly were O.K., he and Magus went to look at the body of the stranger laying several meters away. Satisfied that Yale was stable, Julia came up to replace them, her diaglove landing on Uly first. After a moment she turned to Devon and then to John.
"Well, you all are a sorry lot," she informed them. "Uly's dehydrated. Devon, you appear to have had the wind out of you. You'll be sore for a few days. And you, John, your trachea has been stressed. You'll be on soft food for awhile." The three just looked at her, not justifying her pronouncements with further comment.
Julia went to look at the body. She ran her diaglove over the man, Walman having turned him on his back. "Anybody recognize him?" she asked. Walman, Magus and Baines shook their heads. Danziger, his curiosity finally waking up, hauled himself up to join them. He gave his attacker's face a hard stare, trying to picture his face without the long unkempt beard. He turned to the man's Op vest, and scrubbed a hand where a name tag should have been. He was rewarded with several letters faintly appearing, then it struck him. He stared back at the man's face.
"It's Greg," he said softly. The others looked at him.
"You know him?" Walman asked. Danz nodded slowly.
"Yeah, a little. His dad was a friend of mine back in the service. Greg had joined up too, like all us drones did back then, but he was a sharp kid. He made it into Special Forces.
"He was out on a mission, I never did learn the details, but the kid came back touched," Danz said, pointing as his head. "He was discharged, then returned home to his dad. His mom had died years before. She had become ill, but Dan, Greg's father, didn't have the money to get her the help she needed." Danz stopped for a moment. Devon and Uly had come up to hear his story. She slipped into his arm.
"Dan and I had worked some jobs together, so he asked me to take his kid on, as an apprentice, as a favor." Danz looked at the faces around him. "Greg was doing O.K. He did go for regular visits to the VA shrinks though. I thought that including him with the Eden Project would give him a boost, help him think he was part of something special." That last comment caught Devon's attention, but she stayed silent. Julia had found the implant at the base of Thompson's skull and was removing a chip from it. She held it up for everyone to see.
"This is a recording device" she told them. "It should tell us what happened to him, how he got here." It would have to wait until they got back to camp since Yale's arm and Yale himself were not in very good condition. The group was silent for a moment, then Baines walked back to the Scout. He returned a moment later with a pair of shovels and handed one to Walman, who gave his Magpro to Danziger. Baines looked at the group, then down at Thompson.
"He was one of us. We at least owe him a decent burial." No one was going to argue with that. It didn't take long to dig a decent grave in the deep humus and it was appropriate that it was done in silence. After he was properly buried, Devon stepped up to say a small prayer for him.
"He wasn't responsible for what happened to him. Instead, we should remember him for giving his life in the pursuit of finding a better place to live," she said softly. Danz gave her a look of appreciation.
"He also saved that cargo pod for us. It's the only one we've found intact," he said. "At least we'll arrive at our new home with more than the shirts on our backs." There was nothing more left to say. The group quietly walked down to the three vehicles and headed back to camp.

The events of the afternoon had put a damper on that evening. True had glued herself to her dad, and he was glad for her company as Devon had her hands full with Uly. Yale was resting comfortably but would be bed ridden for a few days. Danziger knew he had a tough task in front of him fixing Yale's arm. He hoped the pod had the supplies he needed to do it. The Tudor had been alarmed at the loss of his cybernetic functions, but knew that with or without them, he still had a home.
Julia had reviewed the data from Thompson's chip. His was the story around the campfire that night.
"From what I can tell, Thompson was responding to warnings that the cargo pods weren't releasing from the Advance ship. He apparently did an emergency EVA to try to release pod #1 manually," she began. This caused an outburst of disbelief.
"He went *outside* of the ship while it was falling into the atmosphere?" Morgan asked, his eyes wide. Danziger looked at him, then around the group.
"It was a last-ditch procedure used in the military. We were drilled to believe we were expendable and that the mission was more important than we were. An army needs its weapons and equipment, so the pods came first." He paused for a moment, then stared at the fire. "I guess Greg fell back on training when the alarms went off."
"But how did he get down to G889?" Walman asked. Julia picked up the story.
"As incredible as it seems, he rode down on the pod." The crowd got louder.
"That's impossible!" Magus exclaimed. There's no way he could have survived the heat and acceleration of pod reentry!" Again, Danziger spoke up.
"The theory goes that if the pod doesn't tumble and you can stay on top of it, use it as a shield, it *is* possible to do a reentry this way. I've only heard of it tried once when a training ship went down back on Earth. All they found was a few burnt scraps fused to the pod. I guess it was something they put in our training to give us a false hope when things go really wrong," he finished softly.
"But Thompson actually survived that trip," Morgan said in awe.
"Not really," Julia said. "When Thompson woke up he was on the beach, but he had become something else. It seems that he had several alternate personalities hidden on the control chip of his psyche monitor. This looks like another use of the type of biochip that was used on Firestein to get her to commit sabotage." Julia stopped to glance at Danziger who still felt the pain of what the Council had done to his close friend. His head was bowed, but Devon was there to console him.
"It looks as if there were three distinct personalities hidden there, and they were all released at the same time. Thompson's own personality was overwhelmed by these three. The result was a very insane individual." Most of the Eden group enjoyed the fictitious horror stories they took turns inventing, but to be faced by one that was real and affected them personally left them feeling uneasy and abused. The gang broke up after this, feeling a need to get some sleep for the job of finishing unloading the cargo pod on the morrow and to reflect on the death of one of their own.
Since Julia had given strict orders for Devon and Danziger to rest in camp the next day, the pair stayed up to enjoy each other's company at the fireside after putting the kids to bed. After a while, Danziger got up to relieve himself and Devon sat by the fire awaiting his return. She was staring into the fire, trying imagine what Thompson had been through when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye.
"Hi, Devon." True moved into the light of the fire. Devon smiled at her.
"Couldn't sleep?" she asked. True looked at her, shifting from one foot to the other. Devon felt a pang of regret knowing that True wasn't comfortable with her and Devon desperately wanted to change that.
"Come and have a seat," she said, patting the crate next to where she was sitting. True hesitated for only a moment, then sat carefully next to her. Devon looked down at her and could see that she wasn't comfortable, so decided to break the ice.
"You worried about what happened today?" she asked. True stared at the fire.
"A little. It's creepy to think that that guy was out there all this time. And then you guys come back to camp all beat up," she said, shivering a little. Devon took a chance and wrapped an arm around her. True stiffened at first, then relaxed a little, but not all the way.
"Yeah. I have to admit, it was scary," Devon told her. "I don't know how I would have got through it without your dad." True looked up at her, then back to the flames.
"Dad says he loves you." A smile appeared on Devon's face.
"I love him too, very much," Devon told her. "I really didn't understand how empty I've been all these years until he became a part of my life."
"Dad hasn't come out and say it, but I guess you guys *are* getting married, aren't you?" she asked. Devon was surprised at the fear she heard in True's voice. Devon didn't know about Elle's refusals and so misunderstood True's apprehension.
"Yes, we are." Devon decided not to treat True like a child. She deserved to know what was going on. "You're dad asked me the night we got to the beach and I accepted with all my heart." Devon was surprised to see a wide grin form on True's face.
"Do we have you're approval?" she asked. True decided to play this out a little.
"What does Uly say?" she asked, a serious look on her face. Devon grimaced.
"I haven't had a chance to tell him yet. Somehow, though, I think he already knows," Devon answered. True's response surprised her.
"Yeah, he probably does." She looked up at her future step mother. "I want you to know that I think it's O.K. that dad wants to marry you. I want him to be happy. It's just that I need him too."
"I know," Devon said, giving her a hug. "We know that we've been very selfish with each other lately and haven't been giving you kids the time we should. I promise that I'll see to it that it doesn't happen again!" It seemed to be the answer True wanted. She slipped off of the crate and turned to give Devon a last hug.
"Goodnight, 'mom'," True said, winking. She giggled at Devon's blush, then left her to go back to bed. Devon sat there for moment, feeling a bit breathless. She heard soft footsteps behind her and turned to see John grinning at her.
"Looks like you ladies are getting along just fine," he said, taking her hands and pulling her up. Devon didn't answer. Instead she just wrapped an arm around him and guided him to their tent, her mind overwhelmed by the roller coaster ride of emotions she had been through that day. Danziger knew she just needed him with her and was content with that thought as they curled up on their cot and fell asleep.

The Eden Advance Group approached the beach of the old river delta as a group and with several more loaded vehicles than they had had before. No one felt in any hurry this time so Devon and Danziger walked out onto the beach and removed their boots to enjoy the feel of sand massaging the soles of their feet. Hand in hand, they started to walk towards the waves.
"John, when you were telling us about Thompson, you said that you thought that by giving him the job, you thought he would feel as if he were a part of something special," Devon said. Danz sighed.
"Yeah." Devon looked at him for a moment and he wouldn't meet her eyes.
"Were you saying that he would think that, or were you saying that deep down inside that you felt that you too were a part of something special?" she asked. She knew how pessimistic he had been back then. She wondered if he had had any thoughts about joining the colony. He looked at her for a moment.
"It seems like it was a lifetime ago," he started. "I remember back then that all I wanted was to make sure that True had a good future. At the time, that meant just getting out from under my inherited debt. I tried never to look past that for myself. But for Greg, I was given a small window to look into what the future could be like living on a healthy planet, where people breathed real air, could go outside in the sun without needing an environment suit, or could have the simple pleasure of walking on a beach," he finished. He squeezed her hand. "I never imagined that I could find a better life for myself, let alone be as happy as I am now." Devon felt her chest tighten when she thought how different things would be for her right now if they hadn't crashed and the two of them hadn't had the time to come together. Sure she would have been happy for Uly, but she realized with that immense responsibility lifted from her, she wouldn't have had anything left.
They slowly strolled along the waves in silence for a while, then Devon pulled at his hand and pointed up to the tree line several hundred meters inland.
"That would be a nice place for a house," she said, daydreaming. He reached around to grab her other hand and turned her to face him. She reached up to give him a kiss.
"I think that any place you choose would be a nice place for a house," he told her. She moved into
his embrace and rested her head on his shoulder. He enjoyed the feel of her against him for a while.
"Where would you like to have the wedding?" he whispered into her ear. She looked up into his eyes and let herself get lost in him.
"Wherever you're standing will do just fine," she answered. There was nothing more to be said. They had made it home.
-The End-

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