The Unforgiven

Alonzo stomped his foot on the brakes and in a cloud of swirling red dust the ATV came to a halt. He pulled the bandana that covered his mouth and nose, away from his face and used it to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He grimaced at the caking of dust it left on the cloth. Leaning over, he grabbed a water flask from behind his seat and took a long sip. The bottle was almost empty and the warm water tasted slightly stale; he had been away from camp for a long time.

Overhead, the sun beat down mercilessly on the lone man, as it had done for days. Behind Alonzo, the rolling plain of red dirt stretched out to the far horizon, only a few high buttes and thin spires jutting up into the sky broke the monotony. It was a strange landscape, with an otherworldliness that reminded him once again he was on an alien planet, light-years from home.

Alonzo's eyes moved over the metal frame of the ATV and he frowned at the sight. A thick layer of dust coated the vehicle. Danziger would never believe that he had taken it easy on the car; the sheer amount of dust would reveal him a liar.

Alonzo shrugged. He had been in a hurry. And when the group learned about the things that had happened during the scout, Danziger would surely forget about having his hide for the mistreatment of the vehicle.

Putting the bottle back behind his seat, Alonzo pressed down on the accelerator and resumed his course at a more moderate pace. He knew he would find the camp behind the next mesa. And in the camp, there would be Julia. He smiled at the thought. He had missed her.

As he cleared the mesa, Alonzo's smile faded away. He had specifically refrained from calling in to tell the others he was almost there, because secretly he enjoyed it when everyone shouted "Alonzo's back!" and ran to greet him -- especially the kids. But there was no greeting today, just a few people in an otherwise empty campsite conserving their energy in the heat.

Morgan was the first one he saw, playing his VR drums off to one side of camp (probably with his jazz band backing him up, Alonzo thought). Then he saw Walman and Cameron, who gave him a slight wave from beside the campfire. Devon was under the canopy, crouched over what were probably her maps, and didn't even notice him approach. No one else was in sight, not even Zero.

"Home, sweet home," he thought. As he passed Morgan, he suddenly felt mischievous. He turned the vehicle in a complete circuit around the drummer, smiling with childish delight. Morgan sighed in exasperation as he saw the ATV plow straight through his string section. He glared after Alonzo, who drove on with a cheery wave.

"No one appreciates fine art," the lawyer coughed, waving the dust away.

By the time Alonzo pulled up at camp, Devon was speaking with someone on her gear, so she still didn't hear him or see him. Alonzo picked up the satchel from behind the seat, the satchel which contained what could be the most important find yet on this planet! He was bursting to tell everyone what was inside, but he wanted to do this with the proper fanfare -- and in the proper order. He wanted to share his find with the person he cared
about most before sharing it with anyone else.

"Hey, you lazy bums," he said, approaching Walman and Cameron. "How much fun did I miss out on?"

"We finally got Danziger drunk last night," Cameron said. "And boy, you missed it! That man can lap-dance in a hula skirt like nothing you've ever seen."

"I'll bet," Alonzo said. "Where is everyone?"

"Swimming," Walman replied, jerking his head in the opposite direction from which Alonzo had approached. "There's a little pond just over that hill. It's not much, but it's better than going insane in this heat."

"Is my girlfriend over there?"

"She's in the med tent," Cameron said. "That woman still doesn't know how to have fun. You obviously haven't taught her properly, Alonzo."

"Time for another lesson, then," he replied, and set off for the med tent. Halfway there, his gear beeped.

"Alonzo, it's Julia. Come in, please."

He was about to call out when he got an idea. He checked to make sure that none of the tents or vehicles were visible behind him, waited until he heard her call again, then activated his gear. "Yeah?"

"Hey," she said. "When will you be back?" He could see from her transmission that she was in the med tent, facing away from the door.

"I don't know," he said, slowly walking towards the tent. "I ran into a few problems, it could take me a few more days."

"Days?!" she asked, her eyes wide. "Alonzo, you don't have enough food for a few more days!"

"Yeah, well, you know," he replied shiftily. "I found some really big trees full of oranges and bananas, and a nice little Grendler a couple klicks back sold me some food concentrates he got from one of our pods." He reached the med tent and opened the flap slowly. "So I figured, with all that extra food, I'd just scout around a few more days, see what I could find." In her transmission, he saw himself crouched down behind her shocked expression.

"Alonzo, have you had too much sun on the brain?" she asked incredulously.

He switched off the gear and stood up. "Cameron was right, you still don't know how to have fun, yet."

She turned with a start and saw his grinning face. It took her a few seconds to work out what he'd done. Then she stalked across the tent and began hitting him on his chest and shoulders.

"Don't you ever ever ever" *slap* *slap* *slap* "do that to me again."

Alonzo couldn't stop laughing. When her arms had finished flailing around, he enveloped her in a big hug.

"Well?" she asked finally. "Did you find anything on your trip?"

"I sure did!" he replied.

But didn't.

Alonzo suddenly stopped, looking bewildered.

He had said the words, "I sure did."

But what had come out of his mouth was, "Not much of anything, I'm afraid."

"Alonzo, what is it?" Julia asked, seeing his confusion.

"Julia, something's really weird," he tried to say, but what came out of his mouth this time was, "Nothing. I just wish I had something better to report, that's all."

Julia looked crestfallen. "So I guess there's no vegetation in that direction, either."

Alonzo was screaming inside. He wanted to tell her about the strange bed of crystals he'd found on the mountainside. He wanted to pull the one he'd collected out of his satchel and show it to her. He wanted to tell her about the fantastic feat of derring-do he'd gone through to get it (even though he knew she wouldn't approve). He wanted to tell her what he'd discovered about the crystals that made them so important.

But what he said was, "We'll have better luck further on. You'll see."

He kissed her quickly and fled, mumbling something about "Nature calls, gotta run." Devon saw him and called out to him, but he ignored her. He ran out of camp and hid behind a boulder, leaning against it, shielding himself from Walman, Cameron, Julia, Morgan, everyone.

He reached inside the satchel and brought out the crystal.

It was glowing with that same luminescence as the night he'd first discovered it. It wasn't the same rock as the sunstones they'd encountered near the bio-dome. Alonzo didn't know how he knew that, he just did. And although the crystal was bright, it wasn't hot. It glowed with a white fire, sitting snugly in the palm of his hand.

"What's going on?" Alonzo whispered.

Did the crystal flare more brightly when he asked that, or had it been his imagination?

Trembling, he opened his mouth to say aloud, "I found this crystal." But his jaw froze. No sound emerged.

He made to throw the crystal far away from him, but found he couldn't.

"Get...out...of...my...mind!" he snarled through clenched teeth, and sank to the ground. He fumbled with his gear set. "Julia...Julia, please help!" he croaked.

"Alonzo, what's wrong?" she asked, but his only answer was a grimace of pain as he fought whatever force was in his mind. He had to tell Julia. He *had* to.

He heard her running footsteps approaching. "Julia!" he tried to call out. "Julia, it's this crystal I found, something's wrong!" But no sound came. And before he knew what he was doing, he had plunged the crystal back into his satchel.

Then Julia was at his side, diaglove already humming. "Alonzo, what is it?" she asked urgently.

He grimaced some more. "I don't know, but my stomach is killing me!" he said.

She quickly determined that he wasn't going to die and wasn't full of poison, so she gradually helped him back to camp, supporting his suddenly weak form.

The whole way back, Alonzo could only think of the strange crystal in his satchel, and wonder what it wanted with him.

* * *

Half of the camp swarmed up to help as Julia stumbled into camp, Alonzo in tow. Julia relinquished her hold on him to Baines and Danziger and led the way to the med tent. Julia entered first, followed closely by Baines and Danziger. Yale stopped the rest of the group from following in.

"Put him down here," Julia directed, adjusting the settings on her diaglove for a more detailed scan. Alonzo was barely conscious. His eyes were almost closed and his mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. She held one hand to his neck and untangled the satchel from his arm with her other. She grasped the bag and held it out. "Here, one of you take this," she said, eyes focused on her diaglove.

"No!" Alonzo screamed, leaping up in bed. "Give it back!"

Julia threw herself at Alonzo, keeping him away from Baines, who looked from the enraged pilot to the bag he held in shock and surprise. "John, help," Julia said. Danziger was already moving forward to help restrain Alonzo, and he forced him to lie back on the cot. "Baines, get that out of here!" Julia said, reaching for a sedaderm. Baines darted out of the med tent. She reached for the still thrashing Alonzo and held his head steady as she injected the sedaderm into his neck.

Danziger held onto him until the sedaderm fully took affect. Then John released Alonzo and took a step back. "What the hell was that?" he asked.

"I have no idea," Julia said, eyes wide. She punched a few buttons on her diaglove and shook her head at the readings. "He's all over the place. Heart rate's up, even with the sedaderm. So's respiration. Brain activity I can't even begin to guess what's going on there." Julia pulled her hand away and just looked at Alonzo for a while. What the hell was happening to him? She shook herself and looked at John. "Can you watch him? I want to see what was in that satchel."

"Yeah, sure, Julia," John said. She didn't move right away. "Go," he repeated. "He'll be okay."

She smiled slightly at him and then walked out of the med tent, stopping dead in her tracks as soon as she cleared the flap. Walman and Yale were holding Baines back, and Devon was trying to pry the bag out of his grasp.

"No, I have to give it back to him!" Baines was yelling. "He needs it!"

"Baines, just calm down," Devon said. "Give the bag to me, it'll be okay."

"No!" Julia broke in. "Devon, don't touch that bag." She walked forward and started scanning the bag in Baines' hands. The man struggled, but Yale and Walman held firm. "There's something in it that is making anyone who comes in contact with it act very... strangely."

"Is Alonzo all right?" Devon asked.

"I don't know," Julia said. She bit her lip at the readings from the diaglove. "Okay, we've got to get this thing away from Baines." Julia scanned the crowd. "Bess, John's watching Alonzo. Tell him under no circumstances is he to let this bag come near him, okay?" Bess nodded and ducked into the med tent to relay the message. "Baines? Let go of the bag," Julia said.

"Alonzo needs it," he said. "I have to give it to him."

"Why does he need it?" she asked, motioning to Walman to try to pry the bag out of his hands.

"It's part of him," Baines said, holding firm to the bag and ignoring Walman's efforts to pry it loose. "He needs it."

"What's part of him, Baines?" Julia said.

"He bonded with it. He needs it; it won't let him go. It needs him."

Julia shared a look with Devon. The older woman looked as frightened as she did by the conversation. She swallowed. "Baines, what will happen if Alonzo doesn't get it?"

Baines - or whatever was speaking through him at the moment - just stared at her for a long moment. "It won't let him go," he repeated. "He'll die if you don't let him have it."

Devon tilted her head to one side, considering the words. "Give it to him," she stated.

"Are you sure, Devon?" Yale's tone was questioning.

"No. But Julia herself said that his readings were haywire. And he started to become extremely agitated when we removed the satchel."

"No. He's my patient Devon and I won't let that anywhere near him."

"Return it," Baines spoke again. "Now! Time is running out."

"Julia. I know you're afraid for Alonzo, but after everything we've seen, do you really want to take the chance that it's lying?"

"Please. We need him," Baines said.

"We? What do you mean we?" Devon pounced on the phrase.

"We who are. Who were. And are yet to come."

Danziger looked skyward for inspiration. Just once he'd like a simple, straightforward answer that he could understand. The Terrians were bad enough with their trilling. But mysterious objects in satchels that took over people were even worse in his opinion. Not that anyone ever asked for his opinion. They just seemed to carry on, never questioning the sheer lunacy of their alien companions.

"No time. Retu...."

It was as if Baines had run out of power. He slumped forward and would have fallen had Yale and Walman not kept a firm grip.

A deep, rumbling vibration came from the satchel. It became louder and louder. The bag itself began to glow, a deep red glow that became stronger. The light emission came through the fabric of the bag.

"Let go of him now!" Danziger was shouting at Yale and Walman.

A blast of intense red light and deep, vibrating sound. Then nothing. Those standing near Baines were knocked to the floor by a blast that seemed to have no physical presence. Danziger picked himself up and shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears.

"Baines." He spun round scanning the area for him. "Baines. Where the hell are you?"

"We are he." This time it was Walman who spoke. "Return it to Alonzo. It is bonded to him. We are bonded to it. Freedom in him we find."

"Do you have Baines?" Devon asked Walman.

"We are he. Return it before you are we."

"Can you return Baines to us?"

"Freedom in Alonzo. Return it."

Julia looked suspiciously at Walman. "If I return it to Alonzo what will happen to him?"

"Freedom."

"You keep saying freedom. Freedom always has a price in my experience. What do you want from Alonzo?"

"Return. Or all become we."

"That's getting really annoying." Without the others noticing, Danziger had retrieved the magpro and aimed it at the satchel. "Now can we have some straight answers?"

This time, there was a high-pitched vibrating sound from the bag, accompanied by a green light, which exploded.

Devon found herself looking up at the sky, the world spinning around her with the start of a killer headache. She sat up gingerly not wanting the circular motion of the world to become more vigorous. When she looked to where Danziger had stood it was all she could do not to scream.

Before her was a pair of boots; empty save for the tendrils of green smoke insidiously wafting their way up into the surrounding air. Accompanying the smoke was a stench of decay, death. Devon placed one hand over her mouth, trying desperately to keep her stomach contents in place.

A glance around demonstrated similarly stunned faces and the absence of Walman. That made three members of their group gone in a matter of minutes, and for all Devon knew, Alonzo would join them in either oblivion or death very soon.

She knew what they had to do. "Return the bag to Alonzo." When it appeared that no one would obey her instruction, she added, "Now!"

Still there was no movement - even Julia seemed to have forgotten all about Alonzo as she stared at the smoking boots, a blank expression on her face. "Julia?" Devon tried. "Yale?"

Neither responded, and that was when Devon became aware that the damned satchel containing the mysterious object was still rumbling softly. The tone was insidious, permeating through everything, almost calling Devon towards it. She ruthlessly pushed the notion from her head, trying to focus and think about the matter at hand, not about the fact that for all she knew, Danziger had been blown away.

Warily, she picked up the bag, and as she did so, every onlooker swiveled their heads to follow her movement. It was eerie. Their gazes remained locked on the satchel, or presumably, upon the now-dark object hidden inside it, as she walked slowly into the med-tent. Bess was still in there, sitting quietly by Alonzo's side and holding his hand.

She was murmuring softly, saying, "You're going to get through this, Alonzo. Julia will find a way to help you, I know she will. She loves you too much to let you leave us - Alonzo, we all care for you very much." A pause, almost a sob. "Hold on, Alonzo."

"Bess," Devon whispered, not wanting to startle either of them although given Alonzo's apparently comatose state, it would take a noise on the scale of a nuclear explosion to rouse the pilot.

The young woman turned her head to face Devon.

"Bess, we have a problem."

"What kind of problem, Devon?"

Glancing back, Devon saw that the parade of zombie-like people had lined up behind her, just outside the tent. "I don't know, but I think that you and I are the only ones capable of rational thought at this moment. Whatever Alonzo brought back with him, it - " Devon didn't even know how to explain it.

"How is Baines?" Bess asked, softly, slowly.

"Ah-" Devon decided that truth was the best option here. "He's gone. Not dead," she quickly amended, "well, we don't know that, but he vanished."

"Oh."

Devon had expected more of a reaction than that, and as she quickly explained the events of the previous few minutes (was it only minutes? Or had she been unconscious for a lot longer?) she realized that something was very wrong. Devon remembered an explosion, a *loud* explosion, yet Bess seemed completely unaware that something had happened outside. Maybe it hadn't happened after all.

Bess had returned her attention to Alonzo, gently caressing his cheek. "You will be healed. We will all be healed, through our freedom."

"Yes," Devon echoed softly, and she opened the bag. Placed her hand inside to touch the object, knowing that to fight it any longer would just be useless, because this was the only way. This was what they all wanted.

She sat on the bed beside Alonzo, taking his hand in hers, feeling the connection surge between them. With Devon as a conduit, Alonzo was now once again one with the object, and finally, he opened his eyes.

* * *

They were the eyes of a dead man, or of someone far gone into a realm untouchable by those with mortal minds. Alonzo took the satchel from Devon and he reached inside. A look of absolute bliss crossed his face, but only for a moment. He reverently lifted out the object and held it close to his heart, his hands carefully covering it.

He got to his feet, surprisingly stable for a man who'd been so close to death. Devon and Bess fell into formation behind him, marching a pace behind. Once outside the med-tent the rest of Eden Advance quickly took similarly subservient positions. Morgan obliviously ploughed right over the pair of still-smoking boots.

No words were necessary as Alonzo turned northwards, a yearning in his eyes. It was time.

* * *

TS: 2103:10:16:15:07:34.1048 (Adj local G8Sys var -1.407)
Behavioral analysis code 4
Match prev behavior / correspond behavioral database
Working
Working
Workin-
Level of difference: 130 (+/-2.7)
Prognosis: Emergency
AI Decision-Maker Plus v4.7 (patent pending)
Major courses of action: 1045
Check laws / envioranalysis / behavior difference / other
Working
Working
Working
Work-
Decision: Follow.

Zero turned north and followed the humans out of camp. It was he who had told the others at the pond that Alonzo was in trouble when the young man had called Julia for help on gear, and they had all come running back to camp. That was when everything had started to get really strange.

He caught up with Devon. "Where is everyone going?" he asked.

"To be healed." Her eyes never left the horizon.

"From what?" Zero asked. "Are you sick?" He noticed that Julia wasn't treating anyone.

Devon didn't answer.

TS: Continue log E2F40607
Input: Sickness (prob fatal 87.481%)
Input: Humans not slowing / no food / no supplies / no armaments
Behavioral analysis code 7
Conclusion: Suspect humans have been compromised
***** ALERT! *****
Notify local authorities immediately and revert to standby.
Input: No local authorities.
AI Decision-Maker Plus v4.7 (patent pending)
Major courses of action: 14
Check laws / envioranalysis / behavior difference / other
Working
Working
W-
Decision: Seek help of nearest physician.

Zero caught up with Julia. "Attention Dr. Heller. I have reason to believe that you and all of the others are in great danger."

"Yes," she nodded, still looking forward. "Great danger."

"You mean you already know?" Zero asked. Perhaps Julia was leading the humans to the cure of some sickness and he just hadn't been told, he reasoned. It would make some kind of sense, and she was still wearing her diaglove.

But that behavioral difference of 130 still nagged at him. Decision-Maker Plus v4.7 (patent pending) told him to pursue the matter further. "What danger are you in?" Zero asked.

"We must be free," Julia answered. Before she had even finished her sentence, Cameron said it too. "We must be free." The people behind and ahead of him took up the saying, and it rippled up and down the line.

"We must be free." "We must be free." "...must be free." "We must be free."
"We must be free." "We must be free." "We must be free." "We must..."
"...must be..." "We must be free." "We must be..." "...be free..." "We must
be free." "We must..." "...must be..." "...must..." "...free..."

The ripple died away.

"Do you know who I am?" Zero asked her. Julia said nothing. He stood directly in front of her and stopped her, holding her arms gently. "Do you know who I am?" he repeated.

Julia just blinked at him. The others filed past. "No," she finally said. "We must be free."

Zero let go. Julia walked on.

TS: Continue log E2F40607
Input: Humans compromised / physician compromised / no other physicians
available
Behavioral analysis code 9
AI Decision-Maker Plus v4.7 (patent pending)
Major courses of action: 7
Check laws / envioranalysis / behavior difference / other
Working
Working
W-
Decision: Seek help.
Input: No help available.
Decision: Seek help.
Input: No help available.
Decision: Seek help.

Zero stopped and sadly watched the members of Eden Advance walk on into the desert. The dust they kicked up in the bright afternoon sunshine hung lazily in the air and drifted to his feet. The loop continued playing.

Input: No help available.
Decision: Seek help.
Input: No help available.
Decision: Seek help.
Input: No help available.
Decision: Seek help.
Halt process.

Zero turned his speakers up as loud as he could. He knew he was about to take one enormous risk, but he couldn't think of anything else to do.

"ATTENTION ALL BEINGS WITHIN THE SOUND OF MY VOICE," he called out. His words echoed off the nearby canyons and were swallowed by the clear blue sky. "WE ARE ILL AND NEED IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE. PLEASE RESPOND."

Zero listened to the full range of his sensors, but the cry of a bird was his only answer. The members of Eden Advance, now a hundred meters ahead, hadn't even turned around.

He repeated his summons twice more. He still heard no movement. Even a Grendler might have been helpful just then, but there were none to be found. They were smart enough to live in cool caves, not to be out traipsing around a desert.

Zero made an even riskier decision. Believing Eden Project to be in imminent danger, he prepared to send a signal into the sky and hope the Council would respond. He knew them to be dangerous, but right now, their enemies were the only ones who could help.

Just before he cleared the channel to a broadband distress frequency, a Terrian burst out of the earth in front of him.

They stared at each other. The Terrian hardly moved. Zero analyzed it for weapons, found none save for the staff (which he knew was a formidable threat if the Terrian was riled).

"Are you here in response to my summons?" Zero asked.

The Terrian trilled for a second, then let loose a piercing screech, the kind that usually made humans block up their ears and twist their faces in pain. It meant nothing to Zero.

"I wish I could communicate with you," the robot said.

The Terrian screeched harder. Two more burst from the ground and they joined in.

And Zero, to his utter astonishment, began seeing something that was not there.

TS: Continue log E2F40607
Search logs: Terrians / dream plane / communication
AI Decision-Maker Plus v4.7 (patent pending)
Check laws / envioranalysis / log search results / other
Working
Working
Working
2 references found
Reference 1:
Yale: "We know this planet has a highly responsive metaphysical plane. The strength of the signal might be intersecting it."
Heller, Julia (physician): "It's not inconceivable."
Reference 2:
Heller, Julia (physician): "And the dream plane in this area must have learned the message and penetrated our dreams."
Conclusion: Dream plane compatible with machinery, possibly only under certain (unknown) conditions.
Conclusion noted. Log E2F40607 (supplemental).

Zero saw the bodies.

Eden Advance lay dead around him on the floor of a cavern, looks of pain and horror and confusion still on their faces. A great cyclone of wind erupted from the cavern and began to encompass the entire world. Terrians, Grendlers, trees, oceans, future colonists, mountains, all were consumed in its path, and the sky grew dark. For the first time, Zero understood the meaning of "fear."

Stop it, he heard them say. Stop it from happening. If you don't, we will be forced to do whatever is necessary, however unpleasant.

Then Zero was back in the desert and the Terrians were gone. He hadn't even noticed them leave.

Eden Advance was about 200 meters away, the camp was about half that distance. Zero made a few calculations, weighed the possibilities of the dangers, which he saw on all sides, and decided he needed speed. He turned and walked back to camp as quickly as he could.

He locked off the TransRover and the ATV to voice commands, then loaded Julia's medical supplies, food rations, five gear sets, six lumalights and two containers of water into the dunerail and climbed in. He caught up to Eden Advance a few minutes later.

He stopped just in front of their procession and was ignored by everyone. He opened one of the jugs of water but left it sitting on the rail, then walked straight up to Julia and slapped her in the face.

She went down with a cry. The others continued walking without giving her any thought.

Zero grabbed her and hauled her to the rail. Julia kicked and fought uselessly. The robot thrust her onto the ground beside the rear wheel, tilted the open jug and poured water into her face. Julia spluttered and coughed. Before she could do anything else, she felt a gear set being strapped to her head. Zero opened a channel to the gear set, turned its volume up as loud as he dared without risking permanent damage, and blasted a recording of the Terrian's screech into her ears.

Julia sat up in shock and pain, clutching at the gear set, screaming with the sound as it pounded into her skull. Zero was unmerciful. He kept his hands gently, firmly on the gear set. After five seconds he cut the sound off.

"What...?" Julia panted, moaning and lying in the dirt. Zero, kneeling beside her, did not remove his hands. "What's going...on?" She looked at him with pain and confusion.

"Do you know who I am?" Zero asked.

"What?" Julia gasped. "It's like...a nightmare."

"Do you know who I am?" Zero repeated.

"You're...you're Zero," Julia answered. "What's going on? Why are you holding me?"

Zero helped her up and took off the gear set. "I apologize for hurting you," he said. "But you appeared to be acting very strangely, and I have every reason to suspect that you were not behaving rationally."

Julia looked around in confusion, then squinted her eyes shut and clutched her head. "Oh...ARGH!" she yelled.

"What is happening to you?" Zero asked.

"Something...in my head!" she ground out through gritted teeth. She fell to her knees, her face in her hands.

Zero remembered the Terrians' ability to communicate with him even though he was a machine, and the incident with Dell Curry months before, in which they had discovered that the dream plane could interact with signals. On a hunch, he began broadcasting a short-range signal on all frequencies, then replaced the gear set onto Julia's head and instructed it to do the same.

Julia's groans began to subside almost at once and she looked up blearily. "Oh, that's better," she said. "What's happening?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," Zero said. He explained all that he had done in the past few minutes. Julia recovered her wits quickly and listened while taking gulps of water and splashing some more onto her face.

"You did good, Zero," she said when he was finished. "We'll think about what all this means later. Right now we need to stop the others."

"That might be imprudent," Zero said as she climbed into the rail's driver seat. He sat beside her. "Whatever is causing the trouble has the power to protect itself, as we have seen. It might not have bothered me rescuing you because you were just one person. But if we try to stop everyone at once, it might take defensive action like it did before."

"Then we'll have to stop it at the source," Julia said with a look of determination and the rail took off.

* * *

The others had disappeared over a ridge while Zero had been tending Julia. They topped it and saw the line of people filing into a tall, narrow opening in a cliff face about a hundred meters ahead. "Oh, no!" Julia said quietly, trying not to panic. "We may be too late!"

Moments later, she brought the rail to a skidding halt just outside the cave. She leaped out with her equipment and a lumalight and raced into the opening. Zero was close behind with several more lights.

The tunnel was narrow enough to prevent them from walking beside each other, but it didn't impede their progress very much. "The urges are getting stronger," Julia said, panting hard. "We must be getting closer to whatever it is."

"I set the interference to a weak signal so no one else would pick it up, especially the Council," said Zero. "But now that we are in a cave, it might be safer and wiser to increase the power."

"Right. We don't have much choice now." Julia keyed her gear to boost the interference to full power and the strain on her brain lessened again.

They caught sight of Denner up ahead, the last one in line. Julia noticed that the others were hiking through the tunnel without the benefit of any light. That meant they either knew where they were going, or whatever was controlling them didn't care if they got hurt.

Julia came up behind Denner and nailed her in the neck with a sedaderm, then caught her as she fell and laid her on the ground. Morgan was just ahead of Denner, but since she had made no sound, he kept on walking. Julia got him next, and simply proceeded to work her way up the line, as silently as she could.

She sedated almost everyone this way, and came to Devon. Alonzo was just ahead of her, and it looked as if they were the last two. As she brought the sedaderm to Devon's neck, there was a sharp scraping sound from behind her as Zero tried to work his way through a narrow point in the tunnel. The screech of plastisteel on rock echoed eerily.

Devon spun around and came face to face with Julia holding a sedaderm. She screamed a maniacal, other-worldly howl. Alonzo turned and also screamed.

Julia tried to hit Devon with the sedaderm anyway, but the other woman suddenly possessed a phenomenal strength. She grabbed Julia's wrists and shoved her to the ground. The screaming stopped.

Zero awkwardly helped Julia up. Devon and Alonzo, watching them warily, backed up slowly. "Devon-" Julia said.

"Stop!" Devon interrupted in a voice that wasn't hers. "Do not come near. Do not stop us. We will be free." She and Alonzo continued backing up. Alonzo held a glowing crystal in his hands, and Julia wondered if that were the source of their problems. If so, she guessed that the mysterious force inside it couldn't harm her without going through Devon. Whether that mattered to the crystal or not was debatable.

Julia's heart pounded in her chest. She looked at the face of the woman who was her friend. Further up the tunnel was the man who had once come back for Julia in her darkest hour, risking his own neck to prove to her that her upbringing, her past, and her genetic modifications didn't matter a damn to him. That only she mattered.

Could she risk death for them?

"I can't allow you to take them," she said, slowly stepping forward. The words had come out even before she had answered her own question. Zero's description of his Terrian vision rattled around inside her head. How much time did she have? Just what were they dealing with?

"You have no choice," Devon said. They still walked backward, and Julia could see them emerging into a large cavern. A strong light pulsed on and off further behind them, although Julia couldn't make out its source. "You have no power."

"I have every power," Julia said, deciding that she'd just about had enough of this. She advanced with all the desperation and bravado she'd used when confronting the ZED all those months ago. "You keep saying 'we,' so I know there's more than one of you. And you need us to free you. You need us to be your eyes and your ears. So we're important to you! I know that much. You need all of us, together. If you didn't, you would have taken over Alonzo when you had the chance. But you let him come back to camp so you could collect all of us. Isn't that true?"

"We have waited for so long," Alonzo said. "We will be free."

"We will be free," said Devon.

"Tell me who you are!" Julia suddenly shouted, her voice echoing loud and long in the cavern, matching the rage on her face. "You come into our lives, into our camp, take us over, *kill* us. You don't do that without at least telling me who you are!"

Alonzo and Devon were silent. Devon's mouth finally moved a little. "We...we..."

"TELL ME!" Julia shrieked.

"This...language you use," Alonzo said. "It takes us time...to learn. We are trying...to tell you."

"We did not kill," Devon said. "You are wrong."

"The others...were removed," Alonzo said.

Hope soared in Julia's heart. Walman, Danziger and Baines were alive! "What do you mean, 'removed?'" she asked. "Where are they?"

"They were removed," Alonzo repeated.

"We are outcasts," Devon said. "We were never allowed to go into the earth."

"Outcast...Terrians?" Julia asked, astonished.

"Yes," Alonzo said. "The crystals took us in."

"They kept us from disappearing," Devon said.

"They gave us hope that we would one day be able to go into the earth," Alonzo said.

"You were trying to hold off the inevitable," Julia breathed. "You're trying to cheat death!"

"No!" Devon said. "We have already stopped! We wanted to rejoin the mother!"

"The crystals hold us," Alonzo said. "They keep us from disappearing. They help us wait until the day may come when we can go under. That is all we want."

"How many are you?" Julia asked. "How long have you been here?" She could still feel the pressure inside her head as the outcasts tried to take over her mind. How long before they read the thoughts of Devon and Alonzo and figured out what was going on? she wondered.

"We are many," Devon answered. "We do not know how long we have been here. The way you view time is...very strange. It is a long time."

"When our bodies gave out, we came here, to the crystals," Alonzo said. "We didn't want to disappear."

Julia took off her diaglove and calmly laid it on the cavern floor. She set the sedaderm next to it, then absently tapped the ground twice with her finger, as if thinking. Then she stood up. "Let me see," she said.

Devon and Alonzo hesitated, then stood to one side. Julia slowly advanced past them, towards the strobing light. As she had hoped, both of them turned to follow her movements, leaving Zero standing behind them with access to the sedaderm. She could only hope the robot knew what to do.

She walked around a slight bend in the wall of the cavern and had to shield her eyes for a few seconds. When she could finally make out what was before her, she found herself looking at one of the most amazing things she had ever seen.

Below was a large pit filled with rocks and crags. Embedded throughout the rocks, and over every part of the pit's inside wall, were crystals of all colors, in all shades. Reds, blues, greens, yellows, lilacs, and so many more. They glowed with an inner fire, and they all pulsed in a perfect, steady rhythm. Above the pit were great stalactites, also covered with the glowing gems, beating in time.

The crystals produced no sound. They carried on their invisible music in silence.

Partially embedded into the mass of crystals in the pit, as if woven there by millions of years of precise geologic movement, were Baines, Walman and Danziger - the last without his boots. The three men hung or lay among the crystals, their eyes closed, perfectly still. Their faces were exposed, but their torsos and some of their limbs were intertwined with the crystals. The magpro which Danziger had been holding lay beside him.

"What have you done to them?" Julia asked.

"We stopped them from hurting us," Devon said. "We will be free."

"But are they all right?" Julia persisted.

Devon thought for a moment, as if the welfare of the three men had never concerned her. "Yes," she finally said. "They are well."

There was a tiny clinking sound behind them. Devon turned to Zero, who was walking along the wall of the cavern with the sedaderm. "Stop or we kill her," she said, pointing to Julia.

Zero stopped.

Julia fought to control her emotions. "How did you take over Alonzo?" she asked, hoping to defuse the situation by distracting them.

"We sensed this one traveling alone," Alonzo said, indicating himself (and thereby telling Julia that they were gaining better control over their bodies). "We lured him here."

"It was not difficult," Devon said, moving so that she could watch both Julia and Zero at the same time. Julia was astonished at how quickly the outcasts were learning human vocabulary and speech inflection. Devon's voice almost sounded natural. "He already had a desire to explore. He wanted to take one of the crystals with him. We had to convince him to climb down one of the stalactites and hang by his knees to get one, but that was easy also, because he wanted to impress you later with what he'd done." She smiled.

Julia's blood ran cold. "He might have been killed," she said.

"But he wasn't," Devon replied.

Julia glanced back down to her three crewmates in the pit. "You plan to take us all over, don't you?" she asked. "You just want bodies. Two legs and a torso that will transport you to a pool so you can go under."

"That was our plan in the beginning," Alonzo said. "We have no knowledge of things, no contact with others, here in our crystal home. But since we have made contact with you, we have learned of the one called Ulysses, who is the link. We have learned that he has the power to set us free."

"Only during Mooncross," Julia said.

"No," Alonzo replied. "You have sedated him, but he will wake up. When he does, we will take him and use the bonding within him to set us free."

Julia recalled the Terrian vision, which Zero had told her about, and suddenly she understood. "That will destroy the bond," she whispered.

Alonzo nodded. "Yes. It is sad but necessary. We need the power of his bond, and the life force of your group, to free us."

"The power of our life force?" Julia was incredulous. "You...plan to kill us?"

"You will stop," Alonzo said. "It is necessary."

"That won't free you!" Julia declared. "If that's the way you do things, it's no wonder you were outcast! You want revenge against the Terrians! You hate them for casting you out, and you want to strike back at them!"

They hesitated, then Devon said, "Yes. We will be free, the Terrians will be hurt, and their bond will be severed."

"They depend on the bond with Ulysses more than you realize," Alonzo said. "They get something from it, as well. An understanding of others which they could never achieve on their own. Without this understanding, they are ultimately doomed."

"You're pathetic," Julia said. "You don't want freedom, you just want revenge."

"Revenge is the purest form of freedom," Devon replied.

Julia just shook her head sadly. "I wish I could find the words to tell you how wrong you are. You know the Terrians will stop you. They're aware of you."

"They're afraid of us," Alonzo said. "And they still find it difficult to strike those who were once their own kind."

"But they will," Zero suddenly spoke up. "Believe me. I've seen it."

"Even if they do, we would do nothing different," Devon said. "We must be free."

"We must be allowed to go into the earth," Alonzo said.

They stood in silence.

"So what happens now?" Julia asked.

"We told you," Devon replied. "We wait until Ulysses recovers. Then we begin." Neither she nor Alonzo moved.

Julia raised her eyebrows helplessly to Zero, who still stood motionless by the cavern wall.

* * *

Zero was analyzing the cavern, wondering if he could strike the wall with his fist and stop the outcasts by causing a rockfall. Perhaps he could toss the sedaderm to Julia while he did, and in the confusion she could sedate the other two. But every scenario he came up with contained little promise. If he caused part of the roof to collapse there was no telling who would be hurt, the presence of the outcasts' three captives in the pit complicated things, and the rest of Eden Advance lay unconscious in a narrow tunnel. And on top of all that, Zero was thinking that there must be another way. Even to him, the glowing crystals were beautiful. He felt it would be a shame if they were destroyed.

* * *

"Why didn't you ask us for help instead us just trying to manipulate us?" Julia asked.

"You can only help us by stopping," Devon said. "You would not volunteer to do this."

"What if you waited until the next Mooncross?" Julia said. "Ulysses allowed two other outcast Terrians to go into the earth. I'm sure he would do the same for you."

"No!" Alonzo said. "No more waiting! We will be free! We must be f-"

Three Terrians rose into the cavern, their staffs crackling with energy.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Julia exclaimed. "The cavalry's here."

"They are not here for us," Devon said. "They are here for you."

Julia's blood ran icy cold in her veins. "What do you mean?"

The three Terrians turned to face her.

"They cannot hurt us," Alonzo said. "All they can do is stop you."

"You mean...*kill us?"* Julia asked.

Alonzo nodded. "It will prevent us from using you. The Terrians have come now. You will stop, and we cannot be free."

Julia's head whirled. "The Terrians wouldn't do that! It's not our fault you tried to use us!"

Alonzo smiled a cold, ironic smile. "You don't know the Terrians nearly as well as you'd like to think."

Julia's eyes darted back and forth between the cold face of the man she loved and the Terrians standing in front of her with the death warrant of every member of Eden Advance crackling on the tip of its staff. She licked her lips and took a step towards the Terrian in the center. "Trust me," she said.

The Terrian trilled sadly at her.

"Trust me!" she said again. "Look, many months ago, I was a part of you, a part of the Terrians. I know I wasn't invited, but by accessing your DNA, I experienced just a tiny piece of what you are, of how you think, of how you feel the world around you! You once warned me against doing what I was doing. Now I know that you didn't do that because you were afraid for Ulysses or afraid for yourself, you did that because you were afraid for *me!"*

Julia glanced at Alonzo and Devon briefly before looking at the Terrian again, and she couldn't keep the lump from her throat. "You cared about me. You've cared about all of us, ever since we arrived. You warned me away from the destructive experiments I was doing, and Alonzo came back for me after I had been abandoned. That's twice that someone has showed me how much they believed in me. Now let me repay that belief, to you and to him! Don't give up on me now! *Trust me!"*

She and the Terrian stared at each other for a long, long moment. The Terrian finally took a step back and lowered its staff.

Julia ran into the tunnel, snatching the sedaderm from Zero and scooping up her medical kit on the way. She ran all the way out to the dunerail, stepping over people as quickly as she could, and grabbed a gear set. She re-entered the cave and reached Ulysses, whereupon she placed the gear set on his head and turned it on to help provide interference. She then gently applied a stimulant to bring him around.

His eyes fluttered open. "Where am I?" he asked. There was no fear in his voice.

"Uly, I don't have time to explain," Julia said quickly, monitoring him with her diaglove to make sure the stimulant was working properly. It went against her grain to use conflicting chemicals so near in time to one another, but luckily these were some pretty smart drugs. They partially worked to neutralize each other as well as acting on the brain of the recipient. She picked him up because it would be faster and began walking back to the cavern, still stepping over everyone else. "You're just going to have to trust me. We have some outcast Terrians who are giving us problems."

"You want me to stop them?" he asked.

"No. I want you to help them." She quickly whispered that the outcasts had taken over Alonzo and his mother, so that he wouldn't be inclined to run to Devon upon seeing her. By the time she had finished, they were back.

"What do you hope to achieve?" Devon asked as she stepped into the cavern and set Uly standing on the floor.

Julia chose her words carefully. "I have to confess that I don't fully understand what happened during Mooncross, when Ulysses helped the first outcasts we met," she said. "I've often wondered why the Terrians needed Uly at all. If they wanted to forgive the outcasts and let them go under, I couldn't understand why the Terrians couldn't just do it themselves.

"But over time, I've come to realize that the Terrians need us. We humans have abilities they don't have, and one of those abilities is the capacity to forgive and to move on. Terrians want this ability, but for reasons I can't explain, they are simply unable to manifest it.

"And that's where Uly comes in. The Terrians were trapped inside a paradox: only a Terrian could forgive an outcast, but no Terrian could forgive. So only a being who was both Terrian and human could allow an outcast to go under. Am I right so far?"

Alonzo nodded. "The words you use are clumsy, but that is basically correct."

"Well, if Ulysses can forgive you and help you to go under, why can't he do so now?"

"I told you, stupid human!" Devon said. "Only during Mooncross!"

"I don't believe that," Julia said. "Just as I don't believe the Terrians cast you out."

"What do you mean?" Alonzo asked. "We are outcasts."

"Oh, I'm sure you're outcasts," Julia said. "But I don't think the Terrians are the ones who cast you out. I think that's something you did to yourselves. You see, I don't know what you did to become outcasts, and I don't care. But I do know that guilt and regret are two of the most powerful forces in the universe. I should know. I've been an outcast, too. And although it may be different for Terrians, sometimes humans become outcasts from our own kind simply because their own guilt leads them to *become* outcasts. And maybe, just maybe, it isn't forgiveness from the Terrians that you seek. Maybe you need to forgive yourselves. I can tell you from experience that it's truly the only way to move on. It's not something Ulysses can do for you, and it's not something the Terrians can do for you."

"Even if what you say is true, it can only happen during Mooncross," Alonzo said.

"Why?" Julia asked. "What's so special about Mooncross? Why can't we all agree to end this and let you go under now?" She looked in turn from Devon, to Alonzo, to the Terrians, to Ulysses.

"Because that is the way of things," Devon said sternly. "Mooncross is when outcasts can go under. No other time."

"But all you need is my permission," Ulysses said. "All I have to do is tell the Terrians to let you pass, and they'll do it."

"But we cannot wait for the next Mooncross!" Alonzo said.

"What other choice do you have?" Julia asked. "You've waited this long, what's some more time? Look, let us help you! It's the best alternative. Either we go free and you go under at Mooncross, or we die, the Terrians suffer, and you cool your heels inside the crystals for another thousand years!"

They all stared at each other for several moments. Alonzo finally said, "That...would be acceptable, if the link would be willing."

Ulysses trilled softly to the Terrians, who trilled back. Then he looked up at Julia. "It's done."

"What?" she asked. "Just like that?"

"Uh huh," he nodded. "I told the Terrians to let them go under at the next Mooncross, so they will. We don't even have to be there."

Julia looked at Alonzo. "See? We can all have our freedom, without taking revenge on anyone."

"But the Terrians will go unpunished for condemning us to this life!" Devon fumed. "This agreement is useless!"

"I don't think you have any room to judge them," Julia said softly. "The Terrians aren't perfect, but they've treated us better than you have."

"Are you sure?" Alonzo asked. "They were prepared to kill you."

"As were you," Julia said, but his statement still unnerved her. Then she rushed to Devon and Alonzo's aid as they suddenly slumped to the floor.

"They'll be okay," Uly said. "The outcasts have released us, and the Terrians are happy." He looked at the three Terrians, who trilled at him and sank into the earth.

"What?" came a voice from inside the pit, which could only have belonged to John Danziger. "Hey. *Heeey!* What's going on? Where the hell am I?"

Julia sighed. "We've got three people inside a bunch of rocks and ten more unconscious. Zero, Uly, will you give me a hand?"

"Absolutely," Zero said, and he and Ulysses both started clapping.

Julia glared at them both, but underneath, she was smiling.

The End