Andy's Fan-Fiction Archive

REUNION
By
Shelley A. Rossell

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

AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Hello all! This is my newest one. Enjoy!
Shel :)
EARTH 2 FOUNDATIONS

This is my first full story. Usually I write short scenes. This story assumes that the group is once again on the road to New Pacifica.

Reunion
by Shelley A. Rossell
Julia awoke in a cold sweat. She couldn't remember the dream that had woken her, just the fear that it invoked in her. She reached out for Alonzo, then remembered that he was on watch. She quickly put on her shoes and made her way out of the tent to get some coffee. She wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep anyway. After pouring a cup for herself, she poured one for Alonzo and walked over to the watch tent.
"Julia . . . " Alonzo stood up and then accepted the coffee she handed him. "Thanks . . .You okay?" Julia hesitated, then shook her head. She sat down and Alonzo followed suit. "What's wrong?" He reached up to caress her face and for once, she didn't pull back.
"This is silly. I just had a nightmare." Julia tried to rationalize away the fear that had woken her. Alonzo raised his eyebrow in question. "I don't even remember it. I just woke up in a cold sweat. All I remember is that I was deathly afraid of something OR someone. I don't know." Julia was trembling now and Alonzo pulled her close.
"Hey. It's okay." After a few moments, Julia pulled away, noticeably calmer. "Maybe someone is using the dream planes to call for help again," Alonzo suggested.
"I don't think so, Lonz. It felt much more personal than the dreams with Dell." Julia paused. "What if it's Reilly? What if he can track us now? What if that's it, Alonzo? He wants to kill me." She began once again to tremble and to hide it she stood up and began to pace. Alonzo stopped her and took her hands in his.
"Julia, I'm not going to let anything happen to you." Alonzo convinced her to sit back down. "If it is Reilly, the group will find a way to deal with him. But right now, I think you're overestimating your dream. It was only one nightmare and you're okay." Julia nodded.
"Yeah. You're probably right. I mean, I only had one dream. Dreams don't have to be significant. I've probably had the Watcher on my mind and it was my subconscious' way of dealing with my fears." The rationalization seemed to calm Julia for now. Alonzo pulled her to him and soon she was able to fall asleep.
When dawn came, Alonzo nudged Julia to wake her. She had spent the rest of the night at the watch tent, using his lap as a pillow. "Hey. It's time to get up. We'll be moving soon." Julia lifted her head and stretched to wake herself up. Alonzo reached out to remove some sleep from her eye and then gave her a quick kiss. "Did you have any more nightmares?" Julia shook her head.
"I'm going to go start to pack up the tent." When the group had started traveling again, they stopped denying the fact that they usually shared a tent. Now they just set up one tent and shared it all the time. Julia returned to their tent and packed up their things. The whole camp would be awake soon, and they would resume their journey.

Three days had passed, and each night Julia woke from the same dream. Nothing concrete came to her when she woke, only a persistent sense that she was in danger . . . and near paralyzing fear. Each time, Alonzo would hold her close and rock her back to sleep. Each morning, she would look more haggard. Her eyes were bleary and her skin pale. No one else was having any dreams, and hers seemed to be getting worse. The dreams were more frequent, coming to her sometimes three times a night. She was starting to think she was going insane.
After the evening meal, Julia had treated a few bumps and bruises that Uly and True had collected while playing on the rocks. It was getting late, but she hesitated to go to sleep, for fear of experiencing another nightmare. Many of the group were gathered around the campfire to listen while Danziger told a bedtime story to the children. Exhausted, Julia sat beside Alonzo and rested her head on his shoulder to listen to John's story.
Slowly John's voice melted into that of a woman and Julia realized that she had slipped away to her dream. The voice was strangely familiar but she couldn't make out what the woman was saying. It was nearly black and looking around Julia couldn't see who was there. Suddenly she felt a hand grasping hers. Gasping, she turned to find Alonzo. "Julia, it's me . . . Can you tell what she is saying?" Julia shook her head. Suddenly a door appeared before them and Julia led Alonzo through it. The voice became crystal clear.
"Julia. He will find you."
Both of them awoke with a start. Julia looked at Alonzo. She needed to know if he had really been in her dream. The look on his face confirmed that he had. "Julia, who was that?" Julia didn't answer, still trying to comprehend what had just happened.
Danziger and Devon had come over, wondering what was going on. "I think we'd probably like to know the answer to that, too." Danziger had sent True off to bed. Yale had gone to put Uly to bed, too. The rest of the group was now waiting for a response from Julia. "Well, Julia?" Danziger prompted her again.
Her senses finally clearing, Julia replied, "It was Sarah, my sister."
"I think you two have some explaining to do." Danziger gave Alonzo and Julia a few minutes to collect their thoughts, and Bess got everyone some coffee. When everyone was settled down, Danziger asked what they all wanted to know. "Well . . . what the hell happened?" Well, Danziger did always get right to the point.
Sensing that Julia was not yet ready to talk, Alonzo began to explain. "Julia has been having nightmares. The past few nights. No one else appeared to be having any dreams, so we didn't worry about it. But they kept getting worse. Before, when Danziger was telling the story, we fell asleep and somehow I ended up in her dream." Julia picked up the explanation from here.
"I was there and I heard a familiar voice speaking to me. I couldn't quite make it out. Then Alonzo appeared in the dream. Suddenly a door showed up in front of us and we walked through. The voice suddenly became clear. It was my sister Sarah. She told me that he would find me . . . that was it. That was when we woke up."
"That who would find you, Julia?" Devon was now the one asking questions. Then she answered it herself. "Not Reilly . . . " Now Devon didn't really want to know. Last time they heard from Reilly he wanted not only to kill Julia, but also to take Uly.
This prompted Alonzo to ask, "Julia, does your sister work for the Council?" She nodded, then elaborated.
"Well, last I spoke to her she did. Sarah is much older than I am, fourteen years older. We haven't spoken much since I was a child. The last time we spoke was over ten years ago. She said she'd be going away for a while, and told me to be good. That was the last I'd heard from her. I guessed she was going on a cold sleep mission and didn't worry about it." Julia paused and then looked at Alonzo with a questioning eye. "Do you think she's working for the Watcher? Do you think she's here??"
"I don't know Julia. I know I haven't been in a single dream where the Terrians weren't somehow involved. If that is the case, maybe she is here, using them to communicate with you. Can you think of another reason she'd be here, other than working for Reilly?"
Julia shrugged. "I guess not."
"Now all we've got are a lot of unanswered questions, Julia." Danziger was clearly irritated that they seemed to be getting nowhere.
"I'm sorry. If I had all the answers, I would probably be sleeping at night." Julia got up and stormed away, furious that Danziger expected her to just solve this whole thing. If she could do that, they never would have known about her nightmares. Alonzo followed her to the tent, angry as well. He didn't have the energy to argue with Danziger. When Julia couldn't sleep, he couldn't sleep and Julia hadn't REALLY slept in days.
Devon was none too happy with John, either. She chewed him out on this. It wasn't fair for him to blame Julia. Devon knew that since Julia was on the receiving end of these dreams, she couldn't control what information she got. She wasn't used to them like Alonzo was. Danziger was never willing to listen when it came to the dream planes, though. He thought it was a crock, even after all that the group had experienced. He himself hadn't experienced the dreams with Dell in them. And the dreams his daughter had made him uncomfortable.
There was nothing Devon could do to change his view of the dreaming. Yawning, Devon retired to her own tent. They would just have to wait and see what happened with Julia and her dreams.

Lonz comforted Julia, finally getting her to go to sleep. He thought of using a seda-derm, knowing how much they both needed sleep, but if he did that, she wouldn't be readily able to wake from a dream if she had one. He would just have to hope that she wouldn't dream again tonight. Hoping wasn't enough, though. Just before dawn, they dreamed again. This time was different, though.
Julia felt like she was going into VR. Everything looked real, but she knew that she was asleep and couldn't possibly be in her childhood home. Within moments, she felt Alonzo beside her and led him to her room in the family's quarters. As they walked through the hall, Alonzo took note of how sterile this place looked. Sure, there were pictures and "personal" touches, but it just didn't feel like a home. It felt more like a...
Alonzo's thought was interrupted when they arrived in Julia's room. A young woman of probably nineteen sat before them. She was reading a story to the toddler in the bed, presumably Julia. She looked up and spoke. "I always took care of you, didn't I Julia?" Julia nodded and the woman continued. "I'm here to take care of you again. If you don't listen to me, he will find you and kill you, and there will be nothing I can do. We need to meet."
To this Alonzo responded, "Not in our camp. Give us your coordinates." If she was working for Reilly, they couldn't give up the group's location. Conceding, she gave her own location and almost instantly the dream vanished and they awoke.

"You could be walking right into a trap." Danziger had a point, but not one that Alonzo hadn't considered.
"Would you rather I had given her our coordinates? No, this is the only way. We need to find out what is going on."
"Agreed. That's why I'm going alone." Alonzo looked at Julia, his eyes wide.
"Are you nuts? I'm going with you."
Devon interjected. "He's right Julia. And both of you will keep your gear on at all times. We'll monitor from here." Julia didn't bother to fight her. Unless Danziger had an opposing view, Devon was usually the final authority on all matters. Alonzo was going with her. She just had to pray she wasn't leading him to his death. Trying not to think about it, Julia gathered some supplies. They would leave as soon as possible.

They took the ATV, the coordinates indicated that she was too far away for them to walk. The trip would take them all day as it was. Alonzo used the time to find out more about the person they were going to meet. "So, Julia, this sister of yours?"
"What about her? She's my sister. When I was young she took care of me, then she left. To fulfill her family obligation. Just like I did when I was old enough." Alonzo remained silent, hoping that Julia would continue, and she did. "Our mother was on the Council. It's in our blood. The Council was all the family we ever needed. Or so we thought. We were raised not to know any better." Julia sighed deeply. "Now I know better, I hope she does, too."
Alonzo hoped so, too, for Julia's sake.
It was nearly dusk when they arrived at the coordinates she had given them. Alonzo contacted the base camp and Julia jumped from the ATV, looking for any sign of Sarah. She jumped when she heard a voice behind her. "You two must be attached at the hip, Julia. I haven't seen you once without him yet."
Julia spun around to see her sister, looking almost as young as she had in her dream. She had obviously spent much time in cold sleep. "Sarah."
"What, no tearful reunion? No loving embraces? I guess this is the thanks I get for leaving." Julia just stared at her sister. "Fine. Well, I suppose you'll want to know how *I* got here."
Alonzo stepped forward. "I do." Sarah led them to her campfire and offered them some coffee. Both of them refused so Sarah just poured herself a cup and sat down.
"I worked for the Watcher. Until about a week ago, when your homing signal started to show up intermittently."
"Homing signal???" Julia did not know about this. "Since when do I have a homing signal?"
"Since you were born, Julia. You didn't know?" Realizing that was the case, Sarah continued. "It's standard practice for the Council. It's a backup plan of sorts. In case you left, like you did. The Council feels it necessary to keep them under surveillance . . . Anyway, your signal was coming in and out. Your group is coming out of the blackout zone. I'd been hiding the signal, not reporting it, but Reilly started to get suspicious. I knew it was time to find you."
"Did you use the Terrians to contact me in my dreams?" Sarah nodded.
"There's a penal colonist by the name of Sheppard. He and his group formed a community and the Terrians let them use the dream planes. One of the Z.E.D.s found one of Sheppard's outcasts, and the information was in the Z.E.D.'s recon data. I was in charge of communications, and I simply omitted that piece of data from my reports." Julia raised an eyebrow. Sarah continued. "I had been eavesdropping on your VR transmissions. I knew that Reilly had threatened you and that you'd left the Council. No matter what we've been taught, nothing is more important than family, Julia. Nothing."
"So how can you help, Sarah? Why are we here?"
"I'm going to remove your homing chip. Then I will take it with me. Reilly will assume that I have joined your group and he will find me. You and your group will be much harder to track."
"He'll kill you."
"I know. I don't have anyone who needs me, though, Julia. You do."
"I'm not going to let you kill yourself for me. We'll remove your chip too."
"No can do, kiddo. Mine's locked up tight. You could kill me if you try to remove it. I'd rather die the other way."
"How Sarah? Where is your chip? Where's mine, for that matter?"
"They are both located just inside the chest cavity. It's implanted behind the sternum. The difference is, the early chips were suicide default with a short delay detonator, sort of like the Z.E.D.�s worm bullets. But they blast within *15 seconds* of being tampered with. Nobody's that quick, Julia, not even you. Doctors started dying while performing routine medical care on those with the chips. So they stopped using the delayed detonator chips and started implanting non-explosive ones, like yours."
"How is it you know all this? Why didn't I know about any of this?"
"Julia, the Council made you a doctor. They made *me* a *spy*. You should know by now that they do things on a need-to-know basis. You didn't need to know. Look, I've had some medical training and I'm all you've got, so let's hurry up and remove your chip before your signal strength is at full." Julia threw up her hands in frustration.
"I'm supposed to just believe all of this and allow you to open me up." Sarah nodded.
"Yep...Come on Julia. What choice do you have? Besides, your boyfriend here will be watching. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to off me if I try anything." Julia looked to Alonzo for guidance. He had been silent up until now, taking the whole thing in.
"She's got a point, Julia. If she is telling the truth, it's our only chance. But it's got to be your decision."
"Alonzo, why don't you go report to camp that we're okay?" He looked at Julia with concern in his eyes and she nodded for him to go ahead. When Alonzo had left them alone, Julia turned to her sister.
"You don't trust me," Sarah said plainly. "I can't say as I blame you." She let out a deep sigh. "Look, Julia, you haven't seen the things that I have." She turned away from Julia. "God, I mean, I knew more about the Council - the truth about the Council - by the time I was fifteen, than you know now. I was there when Mother volunteered herself for the chromo-tilt. I never understood why she did that." Julia just stared at Sarah, not quite sure what to say or think. Sarah laughed quietly.
"She didn't want me, Julia, much less _you_. They convinced her that the Council _needed_ another citizen from the Heller line. One that they could easily control...as opposed to me." Although inside Julia knew this already, she hadn�t wanted to believe it. "Do you know what they did to insure loyalty before they started doing chromo-tilts? Do you?" Sarah probed. Julia shook her head, remaining silent.
"They abused us." Seeing the look on her face, Sarah answered the question Julia couldn't ask. "No, Julia, they didn't beat us. What they did was much much worse."
Sarah turned from Julia, ashamed of what she was about to tell her. "Every day, we were told that we were nobodies. That we didn't matter. That we were worthless. Every day, until I was thirteen, I was demoralized . . . by every adult I knew...my teachers...our parents." She turned to face Julia once again, her anger welling up inside her.
"Then, just at the right time, they gave us _salvation_. There was one way to redeem ourselves - and that was to work for the almighty Council. You see, they didn't have anything to hold over my head, not like they do with you."
Julia was horrified. She knew that the Council went to extremes to get what they wanted, but this was inhumane. Up until now, she thought that it was just Reilly who was insane. Now Julia realized it was much bigger than that. Reilly was just a product of his environment - the same one in which Sarah was raised. Having made her decision, Julia went to get Alonzo.
Julia looked straight into Alonzo�s dark eyes, which were clouded with concern. "I won't endanger the group again. I owe them at least that much. I owe you that much." She turned toward her sister, and consented to the procedure.
"Okay, Sarah. Let's do it. Have you ever used a diaglove?" Julia proceeded in showing her sister the capabilities of her diaglove and Alonzo rummaged through the supplies looking for pain block and seda-derm. Julia opted for the pain block. Sarah's medical expertise was very limited and she wasn't taking any chances. She needed to know what was going on.
As Sarah prepared to make the incision, Alonzo stood near Julia's head and stroked her dark blonde hair. She held his hand tightly and coached Sarah on every move. Sarah used the glove to help find the exact location of the chip. Then, she made the incision. "Laser cut." After getting in, she reached around to the underside of the sternum and grasped the chip. "I've got it, Julia. Here, Alonzo, take it. I'm going to close up now." After closing up the incision, Sarah breathed a deep sigh of relief. "That was almost too easy."
Alonzo nodded, praying that it wasn't. After reassuring herself that everything would be okay, Julia got some rest. He remained . . . holding her hand. He still held the chip in his other hand. "Where will you go?"
"I don't know. Perhaps I'll go north. I've always wanted to see snow...Will you take care of her for me? I know I left her a long time ago, but I always made sure someone was there to take care of her. Will you? Please?"
"I would take care of her whether you asked or not." Secure in the knowledge that Julia would be well taken care of, Sarah took the chip from Alonzo. She stepped forward and kissed a sleeping Julia on the forehead.
"Good-bye little sister." Sarah gathered her things, and within moments she was gone.

Devon and Danziger met the ATV with coffee and questions. Alonzo fielded the questions, sending Julia straight to the med-tent. She needed her rest, and Alonzo could tell the story just as well as she could. And Alonzo had a promise to keep . . .
-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.