Andy's Fan-Fiction Archive

BEYOND A SHADOW
By
Sharon Bailey

Timeline: Trying to cure Devon
Author's E-Mail: SLBG889@aol.com

AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Earth 2 Discussion List Fan Fiction Fans: This is the third time I've tried to send this story off to the list... it's written as a single piece but since the other two ones disappeared without a trace, I'm rendering it into smaller bits as is the custom for this attempt. Just assemble the pieces in the right order at the "*---...---*" lines it was cut at for mailing, and you'll have the whole thing back together properly (the story should total 1463 lines, 79557 chars.) I've had files as big as 300K come through the Internet mail as a unit before with no trouble, but not apparently here, *sigh*. And if you get part but not all of the story, never fear, we'll make something work.
Enjoy...
Author's Note: "Earth 2" and all its characters are the property of Universal and Amblin Entertainment. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and is in no way meant to infringe upon the "Earth 2" copyright(s).
Dedication: For my Sheppard, who chases away the shadows, with love.

"Beyond a Shadow", Part 1
by Sharon Bailey

Time no longer has meaning for me. The flow of day into night, night into day, happens somewhere beyond the shadows that define my world, the shadows of my subconscious mind. I have no idea how long I have been in this cryochamber on an empty Earth ship in the middle of a high mountain desert on a planet 22 light years from the place of my birth. This chamber has become both my coffin and my salvation. I exist only within the misty confines of this chamber, and within the memories and hearts of the people I love. And, perhaps, in the memories of my enemies, as well.

Ulysses Adair stood on the edge of the arroyo, watching the spring runoff waters hurtling through the chasm below, lost in the roar and tumble of the muddy water. His thoughts were not on the power and beauty of the fast running water below, though. They were on his mother.
True Danziger glanced sideways at Uly from where she sat on a large rock. She noticed that he hadn't eaten any of his spirolena bar, the only lunch he was going to get today, and sighed.
"Uly, you'd better eat something. Dad says we still have a lot of ground to cover before we camp for the night, and you're gonna be really hungry by then."
Uly didn't give any indication he'd heard her. He just stared down into the arroyo at the rolling waters and swayed slightly in the breeze, lost in his thoughts. Lost in his grief, she thought.
True sighed softly again and carefully folded the paper around the uneaten part of her own nutrition bar. She tucked it into the pocket of her pants and stood up slowly. With a little quirk of her brow, she started to walk away and leave Uly alone with his thoughts, but something made her hesitate. Maybe it was the sight of her father, John, so big and strong and vital as he strode across the sandy ground and swung up onto the Transrover to check the cargo ties. John Danziger was the only parent True had; her mom had been critically injured a few months before True's birth and now lay in cold sleep in a bio-maintenance facility back on the stations. Almost like Uly's mom, Devon.
The young girl turned back to the thin, curly-haired boy and approached quietly. When they stood shoulder to shoulder, she hesitated a moment, then slipped her arm around his thin shoulders and patted him softly, just like her dad always patted her when he knew she needed a hug but was so close to tears that a real hug would've released a flood. Uly stiffened slightly, then relaxed and leaned into the warmth of her shoulder, silently sharing his grief and taking the companionship she offered.
Together, they stood at the edge of the arroyo that had been carved into the sandstone rock by the force and will of raging waters over hundreds of years, and let their thoughts drift toward the mothers they both missed terribly deep in their young hearts.

Julia Heller pushed angrily away from the table and raked her hands through her hair, dragging a deep breath into her lungs and reaching for control. Once upon a time she would have had to reach for emotion, instead, but this planet and the people she'd come to know and love since crashing here had changed that, had changed _her_. She'd lost the aloofness, the emotional detachment that had characterized her life before coming to G889.
"Hey, doc, what's wrong?" Alonzo moved to stand behind her and wrapped her in his hard arms, rocking her gently from side to side as he rested his chin against her hair. Julia smiled a tiny smile, closing her eyes and enjoying the warmth of his chest against her back, before she answered his question.
"I've re-run every test. I've looked at all the data a thousands times, and I still can't find a solution. I just don't know what's _wrong_ with Devon! It doesn't add up!"
"Julia," he turned her to face him, and when she wouldn't meet his eyes, he cupped her chin in his big hand and tipped her face up to his, gently making her look into his dark eyes. "You can't beat yourself up like this. You've done everything you know to do, everything any doctor could be expected to do. We all know that. No one blames you."
Julia jerked away from his touch and pushed out of his arms, her blue eyes flashing dangerously as anger arced along her nerve-endings. Alonzo's brow quirked with surprise, but before he could say anything else, she spoke. "Damnit! It's not enough, don't you see? I'm a doctor, a _genetically enhanced Council physician_! Being able to heal, to diagnose and cure, is literally bred into me. And Devon Adair isn't just any patient. She's my friend." She visibly caught herself and took another steadying breath before turning back to the table where her slides and samples and diaglove lay beside the microscope and med-kit. "She was the first person to really trust my expertise."
Alonzo touched her shoulder softly, feeling the tension coiled in her muscles. "No, Julia. She was the second." After a moment, Julia's hand slipped up and grasped his, squeezing it tightly as she lay her cheek against his knuckles and allowed her tears to flow.

"God damnit, Walman, what the hell do ya think you're doing?" John Danziger roared, slinging the wrench down on the ground with a vicious motion of his powerful arm. Walman, standing to the side of the angry mechanic, narrowed his eyes and drew himself up to his full height but didn't back down.
"Exactly what you ordered me to, Danziger: changing the solar panel on the ATV. You suddenly got a problem with that?"
Teeth clenched, eyes blazing and dangerous, Danziger picked up the wrench he'd just thrown down and smacked it into the open palm of left hand, considering Walman carefully. Walman returned the stare evenly, his own eyes glittering.
Finally, John let out his breath in an angry rush and ran his hand through his unruly mop of dirty-blonde curls. "Ok. Ok. Sorry I yelled. It's just..."
Feeling like a fool, and hurting deep inside, John turned away and stared back over the endlessly rolling landscape, back at the mesas and beyond, to the foothills that rose like jagged blue and gray pyramids along the horizon. Somewhere in those foothills, in an ancient Earth ship, in a coldsleep chamber, lay Devon Adair.
Walman slapped Danziger on the back then closed his hand on the mechanic's shoulder and gently shook him, companionably. "Hey, man, I know..." Together they gazed into the distance. "I miss her, too, John."

The Elder's words reach across the gray expanse of my sleeping mind and whisper to me, bringing with them images of Sheppard lying bloodied and limp in still-warm death in my arms.
"He will find *you* again, Devon."
And sometimes, as I drift in and out of uncharted chambers in my own mind, I sense Sheppard is nearby. I turn to look for him, start to speak, and find myself once again lost and alone in the shadows. It is like dying again and again, being sealed away from love and laughter for eternity, only this endless velvet gray solitude stretching before me.

Alonzo jerked upright, his lungs sucking air desperately, his chest and arms slick with sweat. Awareness, reality, came slowly, and with them the realization that this dream was different, unique, and very important. Alonzo pushed his damp hair off his forehead and swung his legs over the edge of the cot even as Julia sat up and reached for him.
"Lonz, what is it? A Terrian dream?" she spoke softly, concern and sympathy evident in her tone and touch.
Alonzo shook his head and reached for the t-shirt lying on the foot of the cot. He used it to wipe away the sweat streaking his chest and stomach, then tossed it aside before he turned his head to look at Julia. "No, not this time. Just a nightmare, I guess." He felt strangely reluctant to share his dream with her. The dream images rolled through his mind as he lay back against the pillows and pulled Julia's warm, sleek body over his own, wrapping his arms and legs around her and holding her in place even as she rested her tousled golden head against the hard pillow of his chest.
"Want to talk about it?"
He rolled his head against the pillow, his stubbled chin brushing her hair. "No, it was just a silly dream. Sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep."
Julia raised her head and studied him in the dim light of the tent. He saw her smile flash white in the darkness seconds before she purred, "Are you really so very tired, flyboy?"
Roughly shoving the last lingering pictures of death and savagery from his mind's eye, Alonzo rolled to his side and loomed over the supple, yielding body of his young lover, his own smile lighting the darkness. "I'm never that tired, doc," he growled in his best sexy voice just before his mouth found hers and he taught her that she hadn't yet learned _everything_ there was to know about kissing, after all.

"We discovered the truth about this planet. You can't live here. The planet will reject you."
Elizabeth's voice echoes through my mind, and I can't shut it out. Her doomsday prophecy haunts me even in this no-time world I inhabit now. I wonder what thoughts or images haunted her those fifty years she lay in this chamber, suspended between life and death. Did she dream of home, of happiness and rebirth? Or were her dreams really nightmares? Did she see her own death, the deaths of millions, on G889?
"I can see them. I...can see the other. I can see their settlements. I can see their children. Ohhh! They're all dying!"
Yale? Yale, are you here? Is that you? Yale, I want to go home. I want to go home, Yale... Help me, Yale! Yale?...

Uly knew they would come, eventually. He had called to them, dreamed to them, as he stood on the edge of the arroyo and focused his eyes on the rolling water slicing its way through the rock as it rushed to New Pacifica and the Sea of Antias.
The Terrians rose around him on the dream plane, their bullet-shaped heads tilted curiously, deferentially, as they watched him and waited for him to speak. He turned and looked into their faces until he found the face he was looking for, the face of the Terrian whose job it was, the boy knew, to guide and protect him.
"My mother needs your help."
The Terrian didn't move, didn't respond, beyond tipping his head the other way and calmly regarding the child.
"She's going to die if you don't help her. You healed me. I don't know why, but you did it. Now I'm asking you to help her. This planet, your kind, can make her better."
The Terrian blinked, but he didn't make a sound. The only motion from his powerful, looming body was the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed slowly, deeply. The dreamplane spun around them as Uly reached out and grasped the Terrian's rippling forearm in both his small hands, clinging to his protector fiercely as every human instinct he possessed to protect and help his mother tightened within his narrow chest.
"You want me for something! You took me into the earth and you healed me because I'm useful to you somehow. I've done everything you've asked of me, and I will always help you, but only if you help my mother now," he cried, his voice taut with frustration, fear and love for the woman who'd risked everything, sacrificed all, in order to bring him to this planet where he could live a healthy, normal life cured of the Syndrome.
The Terrian turned his head and Uly followed his gaze. On the edge of the dreamplane stood the cryochamber where Devon rested in coldsleep with Uly's Terrian protection staff still propped against the glass door of the chamber, signalling that the woman inside was under Terrian protection. Uly started to run toward the chamber, but the Terrian warrior reached out a massive hand and grasped the boy by the shoulder, holding him in place easily, despite the child's frantic struggles.
"Let me go! I want to see my mom! Let me go," he shouted, his face red with fury and streaked with tears as he twisted and fought to get free.
With a gentle shake, the Terrian forced Uly to stand firmly in place and cease his shouts. Then, with a nod of his head, the Terrian directed Uly's attention to the man now standing beside the cryochamber. The man was tall and broad of shoulder, dressed all in black. An eyepatch covered one eye, and sorrow shone plainly in his other eye as he raised his elegantly fingered hand and laid it tenderly against the glass shielding Devon Adair. Suddenly, Ulysses knew this man's identity: Sheppard.
Sheppard turned to face the Terrian and young boy, and a small smile curved his lips. "Ulysses. You are the bridge. There is an answer. We will find it together, in our human hearts."

Uly sat up and shoved the blanket away, rising from his cot in the quiet darkness of the tent he now shared with Yale, his tutor, the only father-figure he and his mother had ever really known. Yale turned over onto his back and opened his eyes, watching the boy's silhouette move toward the flap of the tent. A sad smile curved the old cyborg's lips beneath his moustache and beard. So like his mother, always restless and prowling the darkness, although for different reasons.
"Uly?"
Ulysses paused at the flap of the tent and glanced back over his shoulder. "I'm all right, Yale. I just need some fresh air. I'll stay within the the camp, I promise."
"All right, " Yale replied, after a long pause. "See that you do. It can be dangerous to venture off on your own in the darkness. Predators prowl the shadows, you know."

"Beyond a Shadow", Part 2
by Sharon Bailey

I sense his presence nearby, and I turn in the swirling mist that defines this subconsciousness I inhabit.
"He will find you again, Devon."
And then there he is, standing before me as in so many dreams before, tall and strong, a gentle smile on his lips. I reach for him but cannot touch him; he is just beyond my fingertips. "Sheppard?"
"I'm here, Devon. I told you I would always find you, no matter where you are, no matter how far we must dream in order to be together."
"Oh, Sheppard, what's happening? Where am I?"
"It's ok, Devon. You're safe. You aren't... really where I am at now. We've dreamt ourselves together again, like before."
"Sheppard, I'm afraid. They put me in the cryochamber. Elizabeth--"
"Shh, love. I know about all that. but there's nothing you can do, Devon. Just rest."
"But --"
"Rest, Devon. I'm here; you're not alone anymore. I'll stay with you until you no longer need me, Devon. I'll always be close by when you need me... Rest..."

"Yale? Got a minute?" Alonzo walked alongside the cyborg as the older man gathered firewood. Automatically, Alonzo began to pick up dry pieces of wood as they moved along in the shadows at the base of the small dry wash several yards from their camp. The rest of the group was packing up, preparing to move out again, but they never knew for certain if there would be dry kindling for their fires at their next camp site, so Yale had fallen into the habit of stowing extra firewood aboard the Transrover, just in case.
"Of course, Alonzo. What is on your mind?"
"When you were linked to Reilly... Julia said you saw something." Alonzo hesitated, and Yale stopped walking long enough to regard the pilot steadily from behind his sunglasses.
"Yes."
When the cyborg offered no more than that simple affirmation, Alonzo drew a breath and continued, "She said you saw something bad, something that upset you a lot."
"Yes."
"What did you see?" Alonzo asked the question a bit defiantly, annoyed that the tutor wasn't being more open and forthcoming when he had to know what Alonzo was referring to.
"Why do you want to know, Alonzo? I'm sure you must have what is, in your mind, a very good reason for asking me this question." The tutor's melodious voice was even and quiet, reminding Alonzo of the manner in which the tutor spoke to the children during their lessons.
"I had a dream last night. A nightmare, really." Seeing that the other man was about to speak, and guessing what he'd say, Alonzo held up his hand and shook his head, continuing, "It wasn't a Terrian dream, Yale. It was different, vivid, real. It was so real." His voice trailed away and he stared out over the rusty orange and gray-green landscape stretching into the distance, an expanse as open and uninhabited as space, and just as forbidding.
"I saw people in my dream, Yale. They lived in settlements alongside a mighty river. There were men, women, and children in this settlement, Yale. It was a beautiful place, green and blue, with lots of trees and flowers and clean water. They looked happy, at first. Then something happened. Suddenly they were at war. Suddenly they were tearing up the land, destroying everything, then they were destroying each other."
He turned to face the older-looking man, his dark eyes filled with horror and sadness. "Yale, they killed each other, even the children, and set fire to everything left standing. They were savages. They were murderers. And the Terrians stood nearby and did nothing to stop it, nothing to help even the children. The few survivors banded together and moved on, except for six or so who holed up in a cave alongside the river. The larger band came to a mountain camp and decided to stay there for the winter. They got sick, though. They had lesions on their faces, and their eyes burned yellow in their faces before they died. No one survived it, Yale."
For several minutes, the two men faced each other in silence, an image of death and horror floating before them. Finally, Yale spoke. "No one survived... except for Bennett and Elizabeth."
Silently, Alonzo nodded.

Danziger reached for her with big, hard hands, tempering his strength so as not to bruise her smooth, soft skin. She purred a soft laugh and turned into his embrace, her eyes flashing with midnight blue desire up into his, and her auburn hair brushing across her shoulders to drift over his fingertips. He smiled down at her, savoring the brush of her skin, her breasts and hands and thighs, against his coarser, more powerful body. His muscles clenched and his heartbeat sped up in response to her nearness, her scent and touch. He slipped one hand beneath her hair to cup the back of her head and tilt it up for his kiss. His lips found and covered hers, warm, hard, teasing. He brushed her lips quickly, pulling back when she would have deepened the contact, and growled a soft laugh against her warm cheek when her fingernails curled ever so gently into the supple muscles of his chest in response to his teasing.
She smiled in return, knowing exactly how strong his control was and exactly what to do to steal away that veneer of control. Glancing up into his watchful dark blue eyes, she saw the laughter, contentment and darker passions mingled in his expression. Gently, softly as misting rain, she stretched on tiptoe against his powerful frame and brushed her softer lips ever so lightly against his bottom lip...then the sculpted curve of his upper lip... then the stubborn curve of his chin. His breath, not quite as steady now, stirred the soft hair falling over her forehead, and tiny shivers arced down her spine in response. Still moving slowly, quietly, very softly, she rubbed her barely parted lips against the strong column of his throat, breathing in the clean, warm scent that was uniquely his. She found the pulse pounding in the slightly damp hollow of his throat and pressed a tiny kiss there before parting her lips and pressing her teeth against the sensitive flesh, just hard enough to elicit a shudder from his big body.
"God, Adair!" He gasped her name, his fingers tightening in her hair and she smiled against the hair-roughened muscles of his wide chest as she slowly sank back to stand flat-footed in front of him, her weight still leaning into his strength, and her eyes laughing with brilliant fire and dark, smokey promises up at him from beneath her tousled hair. John made a low sound in his throat and swiftly bent to give her the hard kiss she sought, drive away her control, too, and unleash the fire inside her supple, taut body with the driving force of his own.
Her hands slid up over his chest and shoulders, skimmed along the tight curve of his neck before tangling fiercely in the curly mane of his gold hair. Unafraid, unreserved, she met his kiss and returned everything he offered, feeling for feeling, touch for touch, exploration for exploration. Sensing his control slipping even further, and unconcerned about it for perhaps the first time in his life, John bore her back toward the cot and lowered her easily to the blankets, his hard body covering hers, his hand --
"Ah, shit!" John opened his eyes to the pre-dawn darkness, and sat up in his bedroll, his body slick with sweat, his hair damp, his body aching and tight with desire. Shuddering in the aftermath of the dream, his lungs burning for more air than they were currently capable of dragging into his tight chest, he sat and held his head in his hands, his fingers clenching and unclenching in his hair as he fought away the lingering effects of the dream. Finally, after several long, painful minutes, he unclenched his fingers and scraped his wetly curling hair back from his face, then dragged his trembling hands roughly over the whisker-stubbled planes of his jaws and chin.
He was quickly beginning to feel chilled as the sweat dried on his naked chest and shoulders in the cool desert night air, so he reached for the shirt he'd tossed aside when turning in for the evening and slipped it over his head. Then, with a low sound in the back of his throat, he rose from the bedroll and shoved his feet into his boots, hitched up and fastened his pants, then strode angrily across the camp and into the shadows beyond the soft glow of the perimeter lights.
Frustrated and aching in in heart and body, he began to run through the moonlit landscape, pounding furiously across the uneven, shrub-studded ground, trying to outrun the past and future and find peace again. Finally, when he couldn't breathe and pain lanced his sides, he slowed then stopped, bent over at the waist and sucked in great gulps of crisp, thin air. When he'd caught his breath, he looked up at the twin moons orbiting the planet, this planet that Devon Adair had led them all to only to fall victim herself to the planet's mysteries.
Suddenly, it was all just too much, and John threw back his head and roared his pain and anger to the sky above, letting the wind carry his words back to the place where the pain had begun.
"Damn you, Devon Adair! You can't die! Ya hear me, Adair? You can't die!"
His shouts echoed away into the darkness and faded, leaving him shrouded in silence, alone except for the soft play of the wind. He knelt in the dirt, his hands clasped tightly between his knees, his head bowed, and whispered to himself and to Devon, "I can't lose you, Devon. I can't lose you, too."

Sheppard is gone, but Elizabeth speaks to me, her voice following me as I try to escape, to find a place of peace and sunlight. No such place exists for me now, and my only company is Elizabeth's voice echoing through my memory.
"Devon...You still have no chance here...millions of lives on the way... Look into your heart. You know what I'm asking."
And, as always, I cry out, "Elizabeth, what did you see here? What do you mean? Tell me, Elizabeth!" But she is gone, and with her the answer that would save millions of lives, including my own.

Uly was dreaming. Yale could tell from the way the child's eyes flickered and rolled beneath the fragile blue skin of his eyelids. The old cyborg sat silently, motionless and watchful, beside the child, the boy's small hand wrapped securely in his larger, more powerful one. The boy had had trouble sleeping since Devon...had fallen ill and had to be left behind. Yale knew that the child roamed the camp at night, as though seeking the mother who now lay in coldsleep miles away. Devon also had the habit of roaming during the night hours, but she'd never shared with Yale the reason for her restlessness. He knew she was afraid of the dark, although she'd never have admitted it aloud. He knew the dark held many fears for Devon. Predators roamed in the shadows...
Devon. A tender smile curled the corner of the tutor's lips as he remembered his first sight of Devon Adair, when she was just a small girl. She'd looked up at him with intelligence and defiance shining in her brilliantly blue eyes, offered him her small hand and said, "Welcome, sir. What will be our first lesson?" Her father and mother had exchanged bored looks behind her back, turned and left the cyborg tutor and the young girl alone. Yale's smile faded and he felt tears burn behind his eyes. Devon was like his own child, Uly the grandchild he would never have, and he felt helpless to protect either of them. When they'd needed him most -- first Uly while ill with the Syndrome, and now Devon in whatever murderous illness had befallen her -- he could not help.
All he could do, it seemed, is sit next to a frightened, grieving boy and hold his hand while he slept. And pray. Oh, yes, he could still pray.

Uly realized he was on the dreamplane, although he'd never dreamt his way here in this manner before. His Terrian dreams came when he was awake; Alonzo Solace was the one they appeared to in nocturnal, subconscious dreams. But Uly wasn't really trying to analyze how or why the Terrian, his Terrian, had suddenly risen up in a night dream. He merely took the hand the giant creature offered and allowed himself to be led across the white sands of the dream plane toward the cryochamber where his mother slept.
The Terrian halted in front of the cryochamber, which shone dully in the white sunlight that flooded the dreamplane, and looked down at the boy. The warrior trilled a directive, and Uly, intuitively knowing what he was being told, raised his left hand and pressed it flat against the glass in front of his mother's heart.
Pain! Uly nearly flinched away from the contact as a sizzling sensation shot through his hand and up his arm, slamming into the region of his heart before slowly ebbing away. His vision blurred, turned dark, then tilted, making him feel slightly sick to his stomach before the dreamplane righted itself and he was able to focus his eyes. When he felt steadier, he blinked his eyes several times, then looked around. Shock reverberated through his small frame and his heart jumped into a pounding rhythm as he realized where he was.
He was standing in his mother's office on the space stations. He could see the mighty desk where his mom conducted her business through VR conferences and electronic messages. The huge solid oak desk was a vanity, a family heirloom passed from one generation of Adairs to the next. It was one of only a handful of genuine wood antiques to be found on any space station in the solar system. Great-grandfather Adair had paid handsomely to rescue the piece from his offices earthside when the Adair family businesses moved to the stations. The desk had come to belong to his mother upon the death of her father. She used to like to tell Uly that someday, when he was all better, the desk would be his, along with the stations, corporations and conglomerates she'd built for him and his children.
Uly had never had the heart to tell her he'd have traded that desk, and the companies and all the credits in the bank, for the chance to run madly through the long hallway outside the Adair quarters just once like he saw other kids doing. It would just have made her feel sad, and he didn't want her to feel sadder than she already did. She worked so hard to find ways to make him happy and heal him of the Syndrome.
Shaking himself, Uly reminded himself that he *was* healed, that this was a dream-image, not reality. The Terrian wanted him to learn something; that's why he was here. Feeling more secure, more grounded, Uly ventured further into the dreamscape office and paused in the center of the beautiful room and waited. Soon the door opened and his mother walked in. She was dressed in the best cut of clothing, her appearance shouting power and money, but what Uly noticed as he watched her was the frown on her face and the expression that said someone was in deep trouble. Curious, he stepped closer, realizing she didn't know he was here, and wanting to learn more from this dream-image.
Devon snatched the VR gear from the top of her desk and jerked it into place, quickly signalling to whomever she wanted to conference with. Uly frowned, wondering how he could find out who she was speaking to, when suddenly he was also part of the VR conference. Disoriented, it took the boy a moment to focus on the face of the person his mother was talking to.
"Listen, Blalock, I have just about had enough of your delays! We had an agreement yesterday, but my team commander tells me today that --"
"I would suggest, Devon, that you take a moment to calm down and think through what it is you're about to say. We wouldn't want... impetuous accusations to sully our relationship and perhaps derail your plans, now, would we?" The older man's voice was slick and cool, and Uly instantly disliked him. The man was regarding Devon as he would a simple child, a half-smirk of condescension on his thick lips.
"Blalock, don't think you're going to get away with derailing anything. I have signed agreements with space stations authorities and the Council. *You* signed some of those agreements!" Devon stared into the man's small eyes steadily, her face now a mask of aloofness and control. "O'Neill tells me our exit clearances have been stalled in processing again. I want to know why, and I want to know now."
"I'm sure I have no idea what the delay is, Devon, but it *is* only a delay. What can one or two days possibly matter?" The man shrugged and turned away, presenting her with his profile, hiding his eyes from her probing stare. As a result, he missed seeing the explosion of rage in Devon's eyes before she took a small steadying breath and replied, "Every hour counts when a child has the Syndrome."
"Devon," Blalock turned back to face her, his face now arranged into a genial smile, a fatherly concern shining in his eyes and softening his voice. "Have you considered the implications of what you're doing? You're leaving the stations, your home, the beautiful haven your own family built, and gambling everything on a planet 22 light years away. You're taking 250 families with you! And you haven't any idea whether or not that planet will play any part in saving the lives of those children, of your child, Devon! You have absolutely no proof that a natural environment will heal the Syndrome. You could be giving up everything you have for only a delay of the inevitable."
"I'd give up my life it meant that my son could live one more day." Devon ground the answer out between clenched teeth, then ripped the VR gear from her head and threw it viciously across the room. Uly flinched from her anger, her pain, and felt tears swim in his eyes, blurring his vision.
He'd never doubted that his mom loved him. He'd even understood, to an extent, how much she'd given up in order to arrange the mission to G889. He just hadn't known that she'd been so alone in her fight. He'd never noticed how very young she was, and how alone. He wanted to hug her, thank her, but this was a dreamimage, and he couldn't. He could only say the words in his heart.
Devon raked her fingers through her hair and walked to the desk. She stared at it for long minutes, as though silently debating with herself what to do next. Finally, she sat down in the big leather chair and reached beneath the top of the old desk and pressed a hidden trigger, causing a small door to pop open on the front of the desk near the bottom. The door was cleverly concealed by the grain of the wood, and covered a small opening the size of a small book. Devon rounded the desk, knelt and reached into the tiny cavity, removing some sort of signalling device. She pressed the door shut again, then stood and walked across the plush carpeting of her office to where the VR gear lay. She picked it up, placed it on her head and snapped the signalling device into place. When she was ready, she signalled and said, "Devon Adair. I need to talk to you."

"Beyond a Shadow", Part 3
by Sharon Bailey

"I don't think he's in any danger. His heart rate is accelerated and his respiration is increased, but within normal range. His synaptic activity is quite elevated, but otherwise..." Julia ran the diaglove over Uly's body, carefully watching the readouts flashing by as she measured various brainwave and nervous system activities. Yale had called her a few minutes before when Uly had suddenly jerked and begun to tremble violently against the sheet on his bed. John Danziger had heard the tutor's calls and come running, as well.
"He's in deep REM sleep. Could he be having a Terrian dream? The readout I'm getting is quite similar to the readouts I got when both Devon and Alonzo were on the dreamplane." Julia pressed several keys on the diaglove, then sat back on her heels, watching the child carefully.
"He's never said anything about having Terrian dreams before." John murmured, his eyes trained on Uly's face, a muscle leaping in his clenched jaw.
Yale stroked the child's hair back from his soft cheek. "However, he usually has no conscious memory of any Terrian contact."
Julia nodded. "We'll keep an eye on him, but he's fine, Yale. He's just dreaming." Still, she edged a bit closer and laid her ungloved hand on the child's arm, needing to feel his warmth beneath her fingers.

"Devon... So wonderful to speak with you again." The woman was tall, blonde and thin. Her face was carefully made up to disguise the faint traces of age, but Uly could see that she was much older than his mother... scarier and harder, too.
"It isn't a social visit." Devon's voice was hard and cold.
"No...I don't suppose it would be, would it?" The older woman's lips curved, but without humor. "What do you need?"
Devon's lips curled faintly into a cool smile, her brow arching sardonically. "Need? What makes you think I ... need... anything from you?"
"You said yourself, this isn't a social call. You must want something. You would have never contacted me, otherwise."
"No?" Again, the brow arched delicately and her tone of voice mocked gently. Uly shivered, staring with fascination at this new side to his mother he'd never suspected existed before. "You're right. I want something."
The older woman smiled faintly, her brow arching in almost a mirror image of Devon's. Uly had the nagging feeling he should know who the woman was, but he couldn't remember... She just looked sort of familiar. "What?"
"Clearance. A green-light to leave the stations and begin the journey to G889. And please don't tell me that you don't know what I'm talking about. You know every detail, I'm sure, and have known from the beginning."
The other woman laughed shortly and shrugged delicately. "Of course. It's my duty," she lightly emphasized the word, "to know these sort of things. But, of course, I also have a ... personal interest, as well, haven't I?"
"Ah, yes...duty." Devon coolly purred the word, ignoring the rest of the older woman's words. "I'm a little amazed that the Council feels such a duty to know everything, yet feels no duty to save the lives of children who are dying!"
The woman held up her hand, palm out, forestalling Uly's mother's words. "Devon, don't start. I know how you feel--"
"You know nothing about what I feel! You cannot possibly know what I feel. You abandoned all emotion, all concern and humanity to the whims of the Council! Don't you dare tell me you know how I feel."
The blonde woman regarded Devon silently, watching with carefully veiled eyes as the younger woman took a breath and pulled her emotions under control. When she saw that Devon once again had her mask of composure carefully in place, she spoke quietly. "In exchange for clearance, what do you offer us?"
Devon hesitated, but only for a fraction of an instant, and only for effect. "Myself."

It was Julia's hand resting on his arm that prevented Uly from falling out of the cot when he suddenly jack-knifed at the waist and came out of his dream. Julia caught the boy as he thrashed about, but it was John who caught the boy's words.
"No, mom! Don't let them do it to you! Don't let 'em put it in you! He screamed, his eyes wild and his voice sharp with anguish, Uly reached desperately for the dream-image of his mother.
"Uly, Uly! It's ok. It's just a dream. Uly, it's just a dream! Easy! Easy, fella, easy, Uly..." Julia wrapped the child in her arms and held him tightly, her chin resting against his curly golden hair as she rocked him. The child clung to her, his face pressed against her shoulder, his breath hiccupping in tiny gasps as he fought to orient himself. Finally, he began to cry, great quiet tears. Julia's eyes found John's over the top of Uly's head, and for a moment, she read wild rage and helpless frustration in the mechanic's eyes.

John Danziger... I feel John's presence, his strength, just as I sense when Sheppard is near. I feel John, but I cannot see him, I cannot hear him, except in memory. "We're gonna get through this, Devon. We're gonna get through it together," he promised me. Then he and Walman carried me to the ship and placed me within the cryochamber. I saw John's eyes as he closed the cryochamber door. I know what it cost him. And I know Uly is safe with him. Because of this, I can drift in here in the shadows of cold-sleep and not be too afraid.

"I'm afraid I still don't understand. Uly, you say the woman injected your mom with something at the base of her skull?" Julia frowned at the boy, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together so they made sense, but the story the boy had spilled to them this morning was disjointed and confusing. "But she met the woman in VR. It's impossible that the woman could've injected her with anything." Julia's gaze sought John's and Alonzo over the boy's head.
"On the dreamscape, they were in VR. In reality, they could have met in person, later. You know the Terrian dreamscape is often a place of metaphors and symbols." Alonzo shrugged casually.
"No, I don't know that, Alonzo," Julia chided gently, smiling slightly as she shook her head, making her ponytail sway. "The dreamscape is your territory, not mine."
"Julia," John Danziger cut in, his voice a bit abrupt but soft. "What could the Council have injected into Devon that would make her sick like this now?"
"I don't know, John. I ran every possible scan, searched for every known virus and bacteria, looked for every conceivable type of implant. I found nothing. She's suffering from complete systemic failure, but I am unable to isolate the cause." Julia concluded quietly, her hands open and upraised as she shrugged slightly, consternation clearly evident in the gesture.
"She didn't have a biochip?" John's question snapped out, startling Julia.
"No...I don't know... Oh, my God, I just assumed she did have one, so I didn't look--" Horror bloomed in Julia's wide blue eyes as the implications of that assumption sank in. "But we all felt better after the linkup with Reilly, after Yale helped --"
"All of us got better except Devon." Alonzo pointed out.
"Devon got worse. She was in bad shape from the afternoon she attacked Bennett until --"
"Oh, my God," Yale breathed quietly, his dark eyes widening with horror. "Devon was sick and weak, like all of us, before she lost her temper, but after the incident she was much worse."
"What're you suggesting?" John demanded. "That losing her temper made her sick? That's ridiculous! She's lost her temper dozens of times since planetfall onto this godforsaken rock. Why would she suddenly get sick because she lost her cool with Bennett?"
"Because Bennett is Eve's creator. Her father," Yale replied softly, steadily. "And Eve would go to any lengths to protect him."
"Oh, come on! Eve is a computer. She cannot think like a human, respond emotionally like a human! That's ridiculous. She's a machine, for godsake." John growled, his face set in impatient lines.
"So, too, am I, John. I have computer chip implants. I also have emotion."
"You're a cyborg, Yale, not a satellite. You were human to begin with. Eve is just a computer. A helluva smart computer, but still just a machine."
"The Council has done extensive research in the field of artificial intelligence, John. It's been a priority for decades, maybe longer. Yale and I are just two examples of the Council's abilities to create... alternative intelligence in humans. Why is it so far-fetched to think that they've mastered AI? Why couldn't Bennett have created a thinking, emotionally aware computer? Eve makes intuitive leaps in logical thinking. She created Reilly, obviously knowing that I would be more intimidated by a male than a female." Something flashed in Julia's eyes as she said this, but passed quickly, hidden before it could be probed. "She projected Bennett into Morgan's VR game, knowing Morgan would also listen to and obey a man much sooner than he would to a woman. And Reilly called Elizabeth 'mom'. Remember? He expressed fear prior to the uplink. He _showed fear_, one of the most basic human emotions."
There was along silence as everyone considered this possibility. Finally, Uly spoke. "If mom doesn't have a chip, Julia, how could Eve make her so sick?"
"I don't know, Uly. But I will find out what is wrong with your mom. I swear it."

Alonzo was dreaming again, but not on the Terrian dreamplane. This dream was hazy gray, shadowed, and silent. Nothing moved here, nothing shone brightly. It was as though he were lost in a snow storm. Still, it somehow felt familiar, as though he had been here before...but he couldn't recall when...or how...
He walked, turning in circles, trying to orient himself and get his bearings, but there was nothing to focus on, nothing to see, only gray shadows. Finally he stopped walking and stood still in the grayness. "Who brought me here? Where are you? Show yourself!"
A man stepped forward. He was tall, and had graying dark hair. He wore an eyepatch. Alonzo started to step away, but the man smiled gently and spoke, and Alonzo sensed he was friend, not foe.
"My name is Sheppard. I brought you here."
"What do you want? Why do you need me?"
"Because you dream, and Devon trusts your dreams. They all trust your dreams. They'll listen to you."
Alonzo frowned. "What're you talking about? Why am I here?"
"You're the only one who can help her. Tell them to look into her heart. Tell them to look into their own hearts, as well."
In a blink of an eye, he was gone and Alonzo jerked awake. "Heart? Look for what?" He muttered the questions to himself, dragging cool hands over his face and blinking himself fully awake. God, what did it truly mean?

"Look into your heart." Elizabeth had said those words to me just before she died, but I didn't understand them then.
"Look into your heart, Devon. Don't you know who I am?" Sheppard had spoken those words to me in the Terrian cave when we found one another.
Looking into the human heart...it is an exploration of the unknown, the unexpected, and the unimagined; the seat of emotions, both beautiful and ugly; the starting point for any journey. I had looked into my heart and found the courage to leave behind the only life I had ever known in order to give my son and 250 other children a chance at a normal life. I had looked into my heart and found the strength to trust John Danziger to care for my son when I realized I wouldn't live long enough to raise him. But I fear that I have never looked into my heart and found a way to forgive the Terrians for healing my son but taking him from me by inches in the process.

"Beyond a Shadow", Part 4
by Sharon Bailey

Julia entered the ship first, her lumalight reflecting off the metal of the stairs as she climbed slowly down into the core of the ship where the cryochambers were located. Alonzo and John, followed by Yale and the others, slowly descended after her. She approached the cryochamber where Devon Adair rested in coldsleep, standing upright, looking for all the world like Sleeping Beauty behind the misty glass of the chamber. Julia rubbed her tired eyes and suppressed a yawn as she studied the readings on the control panel above the chamber. They had travelled hard, barely stopping long enough to recharge the vehicles, eat and grab a couple hours of sleep before pushing back up the trail to the point where Devon Adair, their leader, lay inside this ship.
"We're in no shape to do anything tonight. The readings on the chamber are stable, and she's in no danger. We should rest and think carefully before we do anything that might harm her." Julia spoke to the assembled crew, and slowly, one by one, they nodded. With sad glances, they paid their silent respects to Devon and then climbed back out into the fading daylight.
Julia remained behind, with John and Alonzo. The two men faced the cryochamber, one wearing an expression of sorrow, one wearing an expression of hope.
"We can't act hastily. Powering her up again could be... dangerous." Julia refused to use the word 'fatal'. "We have to be certain we know what we're dealing with, first."
"And what do you think that is?" John asked, finally, his tone weary and heavy. "And how do we find out for certain?"
"Elizabeth said to 'look within your heart.' The man--"
"Sheppard," Alonzo supplied.
"--Sheppard," Julia nodded, ignoring the expression on John's face, "told Alonzo to tell us to look within our hearts, and within Devon's."
"Yeah, so?" This from John, whose expression was like a storm brewing.
"So, I think that what is in Devon's heart is a great deal of love for her son, more courage and conviction than I've ever found in anyone else, and fierce loyalty to the people she cares about. Devon's heart is more than a muscle that pumps blood through her body," Julia smiled faintly, "it's the metaphorical place of her emotions. And, as much as she loves Uly and cares for the rest of us, she mistrusts and, perhaps, hates the Council. I think, considering what Elizabeth knew about the Council, we should start by looking there."

The ship was dark again. John had powered down the interior lights again after everyone else had left. The only illumination came from within the chamber where Adair stood in coldsleep, beyond his reach.
A mirthless smile twisted his lips as he rested his chin on his drawn-up knees. Beyond his reach. Yeah, she'd always been beyond his reach. She was Devon Adair, billionaire businesswoman and space station designer; he was John Danziger, drone. She was all sweet smells and silk, polished manners and brains; he was sweat and work khakis, temper and hard-headed stubbornness. She was powerful; he was powerless. When had she ever been within his reach?
"I can't believe how much I've come to rely on that man, and maybe more."
Her smokey voice murmured in his memory, and he could hear hear her again as clearly as he'd heard her that night in the spider cave, when he was trapped in the rock tube and Devon and Alonzo hadn't known where to find him.
He'd fought the excitement that had twisted in his chest when he'd heard her words drifting down to him through the rock tube. He'd told himself she was simply referring to how much she depended on him to help her keep the group together and on track. But he'd hoped, for a split second, that she meant more.
And in her tent, after she'd collapsed outside the lean-to where Bennett lay dying, she'd clutched his hand in hers, hanging onto him with the strength of trust and need, and made him promise to look after her son. He hadn't wanted to make the promise because he hadn't wanted to admit she was that sick. She'd insisted, her eyes soft and pleading, needing him to say the words, needing him to give her that much of himself. And when he'd found her lying on the ground behind her tent, slipping away from them all because of whatever the hell this thing was she was sick with, he'd felt the same wrenching pain in his guts he'd felt when that doctor on the stations had told him about Elle.
He closed his eyes and pictured Devon as he'd first seen her, _really_ seen her, standing on the edge of the bluff where they'd crashed, her fisted hands planted firmly on her slim hips as she looked out over the planet and saw the future instead of miles of dust, heat and hardship.
She'd looked young, strong, invincible and in control that day, and he'd ground his teeth and swore with words that sent even True scampering because he'd known that Ms. Devon Adair could never, ever be his.
And now she'd come to this, Sleeping Beauty in a cryochamber, sickened by God only knew what, and perhaps forever locked away from him... and Uly... and everyone who needed and loved her, missed her rare smiles and bossiness and penetrating stares and stubbornness... and her fire.
He rose from where he sat on the floor of the old ship and walked to stand in front of the cold sleep chamber. Slowly, his eyes glittering wetly in the dim light, he raised his hand and laid it against the glass, near her heart.

"I've got it! I understand what happened." Julia whirled away from the samples she'd been studying again under the microscope and faced Alonzo and Yale, who were seated nearby.
"When Devon lost control and went for Bennett, the sudden increase in adrenaline, combined with her already weakened condition, stimulated the infection the Council introduced into her autonomic nervous system. The adrenaline rush, in effect, awakened the virus; however, if she hadn't already had a suppressed immune system, the virus couldn't have attacked her system as it did. Once awakened, the virus was stimulated to reproduce itself by the electrical shock we received when Reilly overloaded during the uplink on the ship. That burst of electricity caused the virus to regenerate, to reproduce itself exponentially, completely over-running her system." Julia spoke with forced calm, searching carefully for words that a layman could understand. "Devon was never suffering from the same illness we suffered from, although certain symptoms were close enough to ours that I was initially deceived."
"Ok, but why was she sick before the blow-up at Bennett? She was losing weight, nauseous, dizzy--" Alonzo ticked the symptoms off on his long fingers.
"Stress. Lack of rest, lack of proper nutrition. All of these can contribute to a weakened condition." Julia paused a moment, then continued, her voice professional and brisk. "This virus is engineered. It was built to remain dormant until specifically stimulated to regenerate and manifest under the perfect circumstances. Once the virus is stimulated, it over-runs the system."
"What the hell kind of virus is it, Julia?" Alonzo asked, his voice tight and sickened.
"The Syndrome virus."
"What? The Syndrome? But that only affects children!" Yale exploded in protest, leaping to his feet with an agility that belied his age and size. "Julia, that is impossible!"
"No, it isn't impossible. The data confirms it, Yale." Julia placed a gentle hand on the cyborg's right arm. "I know how you feel, Yale. I was so certain that it couldn't be the Syndrome that I nearly missed what all the evidence pointed to. Devon's lungs are filled with fluids, her heart is weakened and the sac around the heart is filled with fluids. She has renal failure. Her immune system is failing. Her involuntary nervous system was shutting down, before she went into cold-sleep. Yale, those are all the major symptoms of late-stage Syndrome, prior to the onset of death. Devon is in the final stages of the Syndrome." When Yale would have argued, Julia firmly, quietly, insisted, "Yale, I've seen it before, in the hospital on the stations. There can no longer be any doubt. Devon has the Syndrome."
Alonzo stood up slowly and rubbed the back of his neck. Finally he faced the doctor and asked, "Julia, you're saying that the Council injected Devon with a virus that causes the Syndrome? And, although Uly came to this planet with the Syndrome but is now healed, his mother is now dying of the Syndrome on the very planet that saved the boy?"
"Yes. That is what I'm saying."
"Julia, the implications! If this is so, then the Syndrome isn't just a freak twist of nature. It is a bioengineered contagion that the Council is using for its own means!"
Pain flashed in Julia's eyes, but again she nodded. "Yes, Yale. That is correct."

"You aren't saying... you're not suggesting..." Morgan Martin stammered, his dark eyes horror-filled and frightened as he glanced around the circle formed by the Eden Advance crew before coming to rest on Julia again, "You're saying that these kids, _Uly_, was deliberately infected with the Syndrome by the Council? That's murder! For what reason?"
"I don't know. But that is what I'm saying. I believe that these children are sickened by a bioengineered virus developed and introduced into the population by the Council for reasons known only to the highest-ranking Council members, I'm sure."
"Uly is Devon's heir. Sole heir to the Adair fortune. If Devon died without an heir, all that money, all that power would end up in the hands of the Council. Makes sense to me, even if it is disgusting and sick." Walman snapped. "Kill the kid with a virus, tragically, leave Devon the grieving mother unable to face the possibility of losing another child to the Syndrome, and the Council eventually gets its hands on the Adair money without looking like a pack of murdering thieves."
A few of the group nodded thoughtfully. A few looked sick. Yale looked furious and almost out of control. "Those bastards tried to murder Uly... and have succeeded in killing hundreds of innocent children on the stations, perhaps thousands in the time it took us to arrive on this planet! And 250 more children and their families are on their way here, unsuspecting that they have been mere pawns in the Council's machinations!"
"Easy, Yale. One thing at a time." John laid a powerful hand on the cyborg's shoulder. "We've got to figure out what to do for Devon and this group, first. And that's not all: what the hell did Bennett and Elizabeth mean when they said the planet would reject us? What's that got to do with this? Huh? And Eve? What about her? She's out there, somewhere, watching."
"Questions... always so many questions!" The cyborg turned and strode away from the campfire, needing time alone with his thoughts.

Julia studied the hypodermic in her hand, used to the feel of the smooth metal in her palm, the gentle curve of the release button under her thumb, and silently hoped that what she was about to do was the correct thing.
"Ok, Uly, I'm going to take a sample of your DNA now. It won't hurt much. You know the drill, we've done this before." She waited for the boy to nod before she placed the mechanism against the soft skin at the base of his skull and extracted the sample she needed. He flinched and twitched, but he made no sound. She had to admire him for the casual way he endured even the most unpleasant medical procedures.
"Ok, that's it. Let me dress the wound, and then you can go rest. I want you to rest, too, I mean it," she wagged a stern finger at him, and he smiled slightly and nodded, easing himself off the table where he'd sat for the procedure.
When Yale had escorted the boy from the med-tent, John spoke. "You really think that introducing Uly's DNA into Devon's system will reverse the Syndrome?"
"I hope so. I think so. Remember, Uly's DNA is now part Terrian. It was the Terrian DNA that reversed his Syndrome. I think it may do the same for Devon."
"And if it doesn't?"
Julia regarded him for several tense, long seconds before she answered. "It has to. It's the only chance she has."

"Beyond a Shadow", Part 5
by Sharon Bailey

"Quickly, she's coming out of it! Alonzo, get the hypo ready and give it to me as soon as I ask for it. John, be ready to place her on the examining table. Yale, stand by with the synaptic enhancers and oxygen!" Julia was in full doctor mode, her skewed genetics making her an efficient healing machine as she blocked out everything else but the crisis and patient. The men stood ready to obey her commands, and when the cryochamber door opened and Devon's limp body would have tumbled to the floor, John easily caught her and lifted her swiftly into his arms and lay her on the table. Julia leaped forward, her diaglove racing over the patient as Devon moaned and weakly took a shallow, gurgling breath.
"Yale, oxygen, now!" Julia snapped. The tutor efficiently placed the oxygen over Devon's mouth and nose and administered the life-giving gas to Devon as easily as he had once administered it to Devon's son.
"Hypo," Julia held out her hand, and the hypodermic smacked into place. She rolled Devon's head and shoulders efficiently, placed the hypo against the base of Devon's skull and injected Ulysses' genetic sample directly into Devon's brainstem.
Then she administered the synaptic enhancer and began the diaglove scans again. Suddenly, the readings on the glove went wild as Devon's heartrate and respiration tripled and she began to convulse against the metal table on which she lay. "Jesus Christ!" Julia snapped, whirling to grab another hypo from the med-kit sitting on another table behind her. "She's going into shock! We have to get her heartrate under control and slow her breathing."
She quickly injected the medication designed to slow Devon's heartrate and breathing, but it had little effect. Frantically, her hand moving like lightning, Julia began to search for a clue that would explain what was going wrong. John was talking to Devon, smoothing her silky hair back from her face with his right hand, his left hand supporting her head. Yale and Alonzo held Devon's arms firmly to the table, trying to still the convulsions shaking and wracking her body.
"Hang in there, Devon girl. Hang in there! It's gonna be ok, baby, just hang tight." John crooned softly, his eyes holding Devon's, which were wide open and staring up into his with fear. "Just breathe slowly, baby. Breathe for me, Devon. Hang on, it's gonna be ok, you're going to be ok."
"Damnit, Julia, do something," Yale hissed.
"We have to put her back in the cryochamber! It's the only way," Alonzo barked.
"No!" Devon suddenly, weakly moaned the word, her eyes staring up at John as the convulsions subsided and she sagged weakly against the tabletop.
"It's the only way!" Alonzo repeated. "Her heartrate is out of control. I don't know how long she can stand this, John. We have to get it under control or she'll suffer irrepairable damage! She could die." Julia spoke to John quietly.
Devon looked at John, her eyes lucid and pleading. "No," she mouthed weakly, the word having no sound, but he understood. She couldn't stand to be placed back into coldsleep. She was asking for his help.
"What, Devon? What do you want? Tell me, baby. Anything, just say the word and it's yours." John leaned down to whisper into her ear, his rough cheek pressed to her temple, his lips moving against her ear.
Devon rolled her sweat-soaked head and looked at him, her body shuddering as it tried to cope with the trauma it was enduring.
She fought for a gurgling, shallow breath. "Sun. Uly..." She managed to gasp the two words.
"She wants Uly. She wants her son," John's eyes found Alonzo and he barked the order, but the pilot hesitated. "Go, God damnit! Get her kid, now! Move!"
"Nooo..." Devon breathed, wheezing terribly, her voice a thready whisper of sound. "Me...in sun with...Uly."
"Oh, God, no," Julia whispered desperately, the diaglove moving over Devon as she re-checked the readings and was forced to accept their accuracy. Julia's eyes, anguished, met John's and she shook her head. John's eyes closed briefly, then opened again with a fierce expression of determination.
"I'll take you outside, Devon. I'll take you into the sunshine with your boy. Hang on, girl." He swept her slight body up into his powerful arms, his biceps bulging as he carried her easily to the hatch and began to climb out of the dark interior of the ship. Her head rested weakly against his shoulder but a faint smile curved her lips as the sun bathed her face. John walked a few feet away from the ship and sat down on the sandy ground, cradling Devon in his lap and against his wide chest. She tipped her face up to the sun, drinking in its warmth, and her eyes fluttered weakly. He could feel the uncontrolled pounding of her heart, hear the wheeze and gurgle of her shallow breathing, and he felt as though his own guts were being ripped out of his body.
Uly came running from the nearby camp, his eyes wide and wet with tears. He flung himself down onto the ground next to Devon and John and wrapped his small arms around his mother. She smiled again, that heartbreakingly small smile, and rubbed her cheek against his hair. "It's o...k..., Uly. It's...ok."
Uly clutched her tighter and shook his head, crying too hard to answer. Devon wanted to hold him, pull him to her breasts and rock him until he stopped crying, but she was simply too weak. She had to content herself with lying in the sun, in John Danziger's arms, with Uly pressed against her, his small arms tight around her neck.
"Julia?" Yale quietly demanded, his voice breaking.
Julia shook her head again and turned into the comforting strength of Alonzo's embrace.
"Sunshine...no shadows." Devon whispered against Uly's hair. John rocked mother and son in his powerful embrace, pulling them both closer and holding them in his big arms as tears streaked the rugged planes of his face in the full light of day.
"No shadows, Adair. Not anymore." He murmured, his lips moving against her forehead. Her heart was beating so hard that it shook her body, and she was barely breathing at all, almost incapable of dragging any air into lungs rapidly filling with fluids.
"Council...they can't...have this planet, John!" She suddenly looked up into his eyes, fighting to stay conscious, to make him understand. "They...can't! Promise...promise me, John?"
His heart breaking, his eyes burning, he nodded and pulled her closer still to the solid, steady thud of his heart. "I promise, Devon."
"Uly?" She asked, her eyes terribly sad, longing.
"Yes, always, Devon. Always!" John nodded, his voice husky.
She smiled with her eyes then relaxed against him...and sighed softly.
It took a moment before Uly realized what had happened. When he did, he jerked away and let loose a scream that echoed down the valley and chilled the hearts of every living creature who heard it. It was a primal sound, a sound of such rage and grief that it devastated the souls of the listeners. He backed away from John and Devon on his hands and knees, then suddenly crouched and pressed his hands flat to the earth and rolled his eyes back into his head. A piercing trill burst from his lips, and almost instantly two Terrians rose from the ground in front of the boy. He trilled again, gesturing at Devon, and the Terrians tipped their heads curiously, regarding the limp form of the boy's mother, then stepped forward. Before John Danziger could react, the Terrians reached for her body and dragged her into the earth with them.
Pandemonium broke out! John lunged after the Terrians and Devon, roaring curses and orders, digging with his bare hands. Walman and Baines, followed by Magus, rushed to grab weapons and shovels; the rest of the group flew into action, as well, voices raised, movements swift. Suddenly Uly stopped them with another sharp trill. The boy turned from where he stood over the soft, loamy earth into which the Terrians had taken his mother's body and stared first at John, then the others in turn.
"No. No one is going after them. She's where she must be now."

Dawn was beginning to play like pink and gold fire along the seam of the horizon. John sat alone on the bluff above Eden Advance's campsite, staring into the eastern sky with red, dry eyes. The pain and terror of the previous morning, of losing Devon first to the Syndrome and then to the Terrians, weighed on his broad shoulders and heart. True had come out last night, wanting to offer some comfort, but there was nothing she could say or do to ease his pain. Nothing could make it better. It was like losing Elle all over again, only worse: no damn Diggers had stolen Elle's body from his arms.
He shifted the magpro from the crook of one arm to the crook of the other and eased his weight from one hip to the other as he stretched tight muscles. The dawn was breaking slowly, quietly. It promised a crisp, beautiful day. But it wouldn't be a beautiful day for this crew, not without Devon.
"God, Devon, you could make me so angry I couldn't see straight one second, then you'd smile or turn your head a certain way and all I could think about was --" he caught himself, suddenly wondering if he was cracking up, talking aloud to a dead woman in the early seconds of dawn.
"All you could think about was -- what, John?"
He stiffened, and closed his eyes tightly, suddenly sure he was cracking up. God, who'd look after the kids if he suddenly started hearing voices and seeing things and took a dive over the cliff or --
"John? All you could think about was what?"
Resigned, knowing there was no hope for it, he opened his eyes and turned his head toward the sound of her voice. And there she stood, flanked by the two Terrians, still wearing the white robe although it now was filthy and streaked with mud. She had mud on her face, arms and legs, and twigs tangled in her hair, but she was standing there smiling at him, and she looked real.
"Devon?" He managed to say her name, despite the sudden dryness of his throat. "Devon, is it?--"
"It's really me, John. I'm really here. I don't remember how, but I'm here."
John laid the magpro aside and came slowly to his feet. The Terrians stepped back, then disappeared into the ground behind Devon. She didn't turn to look at where they had been, and John was too focused on Devon to care much about the creatures. He slowly approached her, reached out a hand to touch her, halfexpecting to grasp air instead, and touch...Devon.
Warm flesh, cool hair, steady and strong heartbeat, clear breathing, mortal Devon.
The whoop of pure joy that John shouted to the twin moons and rising sun woke everyone in Eden camp and brought the other guards running. Walman and Magus skidded to a stop, flanked by the rest of the stunned and disbelieving crew, when they caught sight of big John Danziger twirling a very alive, very healthy Devon Adair in his arms atop the bluff bathed in the virgin dawnlight.

Devon leaned back against the solid support of John Danziger's chest and snuggled into the light blanket that Julia had spread over her once she'd completed the medical examination that had proved Devon was fit and free of the Syndrome. Devon's DNA was showing slight abnormalities, features that were reflected in Uly's DNA, but that was to be expected... even desired, under the circumstances.
The Eden Advance team was assembled in a circle around a campfire, trying to piece together what had happened and why. Devon attempted to explain what she remembered, but it wasn't much. The others broke in when necessary for clarification and added details, and slowly the story was falling into place.
"Elizabeth and Bennett must have established a colony. Elizabeth said that they'd lived here for eight years before they re-entered coldsleep and tried to return to the stations. In that time, something went horribly wrong and the colonists began to make war on each other. This is what I saw while linked to Reilly, or Eve, whichever you prefer to call that monster." Yale explained. "Perhaps there were those among the original colonists who, like our own Julia," he smiled gently at the young doctor, affection shining in his dark eyes, earning a smile in return, "broke away from the Council. The loyalists felt threatened by these rebels and turned on them. Perhaps Eve tampered with the rebels' biochips, provoking violent retaliation. We may never know what exactly transpired. What we do know is that a civil war ensued and the colonists were slaughtered. Those who didn't die in war perished of disease. Except for a small faction who attempted to escape, led by Bennett and Elizabeth."
Devon took up the thread at this point. "The Terrians couldn't intervene in the war. They didn't understand the violence and hatred involved. Those feelings are foreign to them. They were frightened by the savagery of the human aliens now trespassing on G889. They stood aside and allowed the events to run their course, correctly surmising that the factions would eradicate one another. The Terrians believed that the war would eliminate the warring aliens from the planet, leaving the planet in peace and harmony again. Only Eve continued to send information about the planet back to the Council and the Council continued to send humans to the planet.
"Meanwhile, the Syndrome began to take the lives of children on the stations." She opened the blanket and allowed Uly to slip underneath and curl against her side. She looked down at his curly head with a loving smile before she continued. "I never noticed until you pointed it out, Julia, but the Syndrome does predominantly affect only children from the wealthiest and most powerful classes. It's something to think about while we wait for the colony ship to arrive.
"When it looked as though we would never be allowed to leave the stations, I had to take desperate action. I contacted the Council," no one asked the name of the contact, clearly reading the caution in her eyes. "I offered them a deal: in exchange for allowing me to take Uly and the other children and their families to safety, I would allow the Council to do with me what it willed. I wanted only to get Uly and the others to this planet, where they could be healed."
"I was injected with something by the Council. At first, I believed it was a biochip of some sort. Later, when I realized that what I had was different from your illnesses, I understood that I didn't have a biochip, after all. I was certain of this when the uplink surge had no effect on me but disabled Julia and John. I didn't know what the Council had injected into my system, but it never occurred to me that I was suffering from the Syndrome.
"Imagine that," she smiled wryly, gazing down at Uly who looked up into her face, his grinning face soft with big blue eyes and rosy cheeks. "I, Devon Adair, the mother most likely to take a pulse, didn't recognize my own symptoms for what they were."
Several of the group laughed and John grinned down at Devon, liking the feel of her body nestled comfortably against his, her head on his shoulder.
"I still don't understand all that 'look into your heart' business." Morgan sighed.
"Elizabeth was genetically skewed to be a physician, like Julia. Like Julia, she found love," Devon smiled at Julia and Alonzo, noting the blush coloring Julia's cheeks, "and belonging on this planet. However, when the war broke out, Elizabeth couldn't turn her back on the Council. She couldn't go against her programming. So, instead, she did nothing. She and Bennett refused to help either side, I suppose, and elected to skip out. They tried to atone for their actions by destroying Eve, but that failed. When they awoke still on the planet and learned that one day millions would inhabit this planet, they saw a chance for repeated global warfare such as had destroyed our Earth hundreds of years ago, before mining and manufacturing cartels completed the devastation. They couldn't cope with the thought of humanity spreading like a virus across this planet, depleting the natural resources, ravaging the ecosystem, waging war in answer to sociopolitical conflicts.
"In their minds, the planet, by providing a place for humanity to grow and expand, would reach a saturation point and begin to die, like our earth. In effect, the planet would reject the lifeforms that had destroyed it. Rejection would take the form of dirty air, dirty water, acid rain, all the horrors found on our Earth."
Bess Martin leaned into the warmth of Morgan's side, shivering as memories flooded through her mind. Morgan hugged his wife, bending his dark head over hers tenderly.
"And, of course, there's the damage the Council could wreak on the planet by trying to destroy the Terrians. We know firsthand what happens when the Terrians are harmed, or the land is injured. We know how this planet, with its metaphysical plane, fights back in a way Earth never could. So, Elizabeth and Bennett weren't far wrong," Julia concluded. "They just didn't realize there's an alternative. That we can find a way to live peacefully, in harmony, with the Terrians and the rest of the lifeforms on this planet. We've learned our lessons. We can't just take over this planet. We can't treat the land and the Terrians with disregard. Our lives are intertwined with the health of this planet, and we have to nurture the bond between us and this planet and its lifeforms."
Devon nodded, her eyes grim. "And the only way to do that is to make sure the Council doesn't ever seize control of this planet. Eve is still relaying data about this planet, about this _group_, back to the stations. It will be 22 years before they receive the data, but we have to be on guard. We don't know what or who else we'll encounter on this planet. Eve knows our vulnerabilities. She knows we'll try to destroy her. We cannot let her destroy us, the Terrians, or this planet first."

A new dawn was breaking over the eastern horizon of G889, and Devon Adair stood on the bluff watching sunlight chase away the shadows of night. She'd never take another dawn for granted, she knew. She'd never look at the Terrians in quite the same way again, either. Although she'd always felt very grateful to the Terrians for healing her son, for giving him a second chance at life, she'd never really made peace with the fact they were changing him.
Now she felt a little wiser, and the resentment was gone. A special understanding existed between the Terrians and Devon now. She understood that the Terrians loved Uly, in their way. They could have taken him at any moment since planetfall, but they understood that it was his ties to Devon and the other humans that made him special. They respected that bond, and she knew they'd never try to break it.
They'd given her the most precious of gifts, twice: first, Uly's life, and now her own. They had reached out when they had every reason to mistrust humans and healed her son. And because he had asked them to, they had taken Devon into Mother Earth and healed her, as well.
Devon didn't remember what had happened that morning two days ago. She remembered Danziger holding her while the sun shone on her face; she remembered the warm sweetness of Uly's arms around her. Afterward, there was only a blank space in her memory before she awoke to find herself on this very bluff listening to Danziger talking to himself about how she'd managed to drive him crazy. Whatever had happened to her within the earth was forever lost in the farthest regions of her subconscious.
She shrugged deeper into the warmth of her jacket and stuffed her chilly hands into the jacket's deep pockets as she watched the sky bleed from pink to mauve to gold as the sun edged its way over the horizon. Julia had explained to her the theory about what the Council had done to Devon, how she suspected the Council had injected a dormant virus -- the Syndrome virus-- into Devon's body, and how Julia suspected that Eve had somehow known of this contagion and activated it. Devon had listened with a carefully schooled expression, finally nodding in quiet agreement. She hadn't offered an alternative explanation. There was no need.
Besides, she wasn't certain _what_ it was the Council had injected into her system. She hadn't asked, because they wouldn't have told her. She simply allowed their doctor to inject whatever it was into the tissue at the base of her skull, and then walked out of the secret offices and onto the Eden Advance ship. It was the price the Council demanded of her in exchange for release. It was the price she'd paid to get Uly and the other children off the stations.
A mirthless smile touched her lips as the sun winked over the horizon, a shimmering sliver of orange fire. She admitted to herself that, in part, she hadn't demanded to know more about what the Council did to her because she hadn't believed that even the Council would dare try to take the life of an Adair. She'd had to revise that theory quickly aboard the ship when the bomb was discovered. And when the ship broke up and they'd crashed thousands of klicks from New Pacifica, and when --
She studied the quickly rising sun, then turned her head and watched the camp come alive as Eden Advance crew awoke and began the process of packing their equipment for another day's journey toward New Pacifica...toward home.
She shook her hair back from her eyes and breathed the clean air, tipping her chin up and allowing the early morning breeze to caress her cheeks. Suddenly she felt too alive to stand still another second and a laugh of pure contentment and happiness broke from her lips as she turned to hike down the bluff and begin the day.
"Ah, arrogance," she murmured to herself. "It may be the death of you yet, Devon Adair..."
She chuckled, hopping over a fractured boulder. "...But not today!"
-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.