OK. J&J keep going for another chapter and therefore one or two more to come. Someone finds out about it, not sure yet how that will be approached, and whether or not anyone else is told about it. That's it for Rich and Allison, and as for Bev wanting the story to be long. . . Well, I have a looooonnnnnnng story treatment written out for it. 9 Weeks will go on a while. It'll be kind of like MASH, stretching a three year conflict out for a decade!
As before you're getting this straight from WordPerfect to the blog, so excuse the misspellings and grammar. I'll fix them later.
CHAPTER 5
Coaxing the little ATV up the steep incline of the hillside was almost as slow as walking. Alonzo sat on the back and tried not to fall off. The little ATV was one of those cobbled together from spare parts from the Bennett ship, and its suspension system left quite a bit to be desired. He was waiting until they got closer to the top of the hill before jumping off and running the rest of the way. He had to see for himself how his ship had come down, see for himself it was indeed a burned out, useless hulk. Until he did he knew that little ray of hope in his heart would continue to dream of flying again. No matter what John or Julia said about the condition of the ship he wanted there to be hope. Hope of some kind. Any damn kind.
When he couldn't stand it anymore, Alonzo leaped from the ATV and scrambled up the hillside toward the trees at the top.
"Alonzo!" Baines yelled. Unable to follow, he had to choice but to keep going at an angle toward the gap in the trees just ahead. Freed of half the weight it was carrying, the little vehicle lurched ahead and the whine of the motor rose with its speed.
"Should have jumped off earlier," he said to himself, knowing Alonzo was too far away to hear.
The ATV flew over the remaining distance and he turned hard to face the lake. He roared past the stand of trees and skidded to a halt at the lake's edge. Not knowing he was almost exactly where the dunerail had stopped the day before.
Baines stared above the rippling surface of the water and saw only the ship. From somewhere to his right he could hear Alonzo screaming at the top of his lungs, the sound carrying clearly on the wind. Baines' full attention was on the ship lying in the water, two of it's engines submerged, the other two partially above the water. It was canted at almost a forty five degree angle, the lone sensor arm bent by the heat of atmospheric entry and pointing straight upward at the sky. The supports and struts for the sensory equipment that used to be there were bent, twisted and curled back on themselves and looking very much like gnarled tree branches - even from a vantage point this close.
To think someone lived through the fall, he told himself. After a few more moments of silent staring, Baines turned the ATV toward the trees and went to look for Solace.
Alonzo was sitting on the top edge of the narrow beach ringing the lake, his feet just inches above the wet sand where the shallow waves lapped continuously. If he heard the ATV approach he gave no sign of it.
Getting off the ATV, Baines moved to stand beside his friend.
Alonzo waved his hand sharply at the ship. "It was the sensor arm. I thought it was still in position. From the gear feed it wasn't clear it was off by forty-five degrees. I was hoping the engines were dry. With engines there's power. . ."
"Yeah. If it's water tight the two partially under might be okay."
"What good will it do?" Alonzo demanded angrily. "No power, no landing craft."
Baines leaned down to pat the other man on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's find Danz and Julia."
"Yeah." Solace got to his feet but stood staring across the distance at the ship for a long time. When he turned toward the ATV his face was set in anger. Baines knew exactly what he was feeling.
It's no good, though. Waste of time to be angry, he thought. Danziger said it would never fly again and he was right.
The remaining distance to the site of the ship seemed to take forever to cross, but at last the dunerail came into view just ahead on a grassy space next to the beach. Not far away, Danziger was sitting on the ground much as Alonzo had done, but he was watching the progress of Zero and not actually staring at the ship. He was chewing on a ration bar and a canteen lay on the ground beside him.
The two men left the ATV and walked toward him. He looked in their direction and pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "Storage shelter is through the trees," John said. "Julia's there with the survivors. Navarro's message is there, too."
"How's Zero doing?" said Baines. "Making any progress?"
Danziger sighed. "Slow, but, yeah. He's placing ropes so we can climb after him."
"What are you waiting for?" Alonzo asked. "There might be a flight vehicle in there!"
"Also might be nothing but melted building materials inside. I'm not going up until I know the pod is accessible. No one is going until then."
Without another word, Solace spun on his heel and stalked away into the trees.
John grunted. "He's not taking it too good is he?"
"He still had his hopes up. Hell, so did I."
"What about Navarro?"
"He wouldn't talk about her. I brought it up, he shot it down."
Danziger barked a laugh without humor. "Time is catching up with the sleep jumper." He got to his feet. "Well, now that you two are here, I'm going to drive up the shore and see if any of the engines are above water."
"I'll go with you," Baines said. "I was thinking about that myself."
Danziger nodded and moved his gear into place. "Okay. We'll take the rail. Julia? Baines and I are going to drive around the lake and see what condition the engines are in. Shouldn't take too long."
"Alright. But keep your gear on and check in," Julia's image told him.
"We will."
"Where's Alonzo?"
"Coming your way."
In the cool shade of the trees, Alonzo stopped walking. He didn't hear Baines following him, but he turned to look to be sure. He saw him getting into the dunerail with Danziger. Alonzo let out a heavy sigh and felt tears fill his eyes.
Damn it! he thought. This isn't about Navarro! Pull yourself together. This isn't about Navarro at all. The ship, for god's sake. It's the ship...
His emotions weren't listening to his rationalizations. He put a hand out to a nearby tree and sank to the ground beside it. Leaning against it, he let himself feel relief flood over him and with it a quick flow of tears. He was regaining control and the episode didn't last long. Some part of his brain was telling him it was losing Adair and Sinh, it was moving on without them. The guilt and eventual acceptance of being alive without them, and now this latest disappointment - he told himself all of that was why he was letting Britt Navarro's fate get to him. Of all things to affect him at this time of his life! He wiped at his face and pushed away from the tree, balancing on his knees before rising to his feet. He was in control again.
Alonzo thought he'd put all of that behind him when he'd learned to accept his fate on G889. He'd assumed Britt had died when the Wentworth virus swept through the crew in the last of the escape pods. He'd accepted it and buried it when the Terrians showed him how to live. He'd started over.
"Apparently not," he muttered to himself, taking deep breaths and looking around carefully. The shed was a short distance away and the dunerail was gone from the beach area. Well. . . He stayed in the cool shade for a few minutes longer, getting himself together, before continuing to the shed.
Julia was beside the chambers holding the four survivors from the landing shuttle. With her gear in place, she was busily recording everything she could about the four and the operation of the stasis tubes. She greeted him with a smile and raised a hand, index finger extended to let him know she was almost finished.
Alonzo stopped at the foot of the nearest tube and waited, looking around the interior of the storage unit. He wondered what was in the crates and boxes piled against the wall opposite the stasis tubes. A zero unit was connected to a com screen at the far end of the shed. He went over and sat down on the small box that had been placed there. He stared at the floor and listened while Julia spoke softly into her gear, making a record of her observations. It made him wince to hear the extent of their burns and injuries.
After a while, he decided to listen to the message from Britt Navarro, and he turned to the comscreen, found the power and waited while the screen lit up. The message started automatically, and he was momentarily shocked by the physical condition of Navarro. She'd been hurt, perhaps burned herself, yet did her best to keep attention on the others in her group. Not once did she mention her own injuries. He listened, barely aware that Julia had stopped talking when the message began.
When the image of Navarro faded, he turned off the com unit and turned away. He leaned forward on the box, elbows on knees and hands clasped in front of him.
"Alonzo?" Julia asked. She turned back her gear mike and stepped around the end of the stasis chambers, taking a couple of steps toward him. He was clenching and unclenching his fists and shaking his head slowly. "Alonzo? What's the matter?"
He said nothing.
Frowning, Julia's curiosity turned to concern. She'd seen this behavior from him before - immediately after the landing of their pod.
"Alonzo?"
"They didn't come back, did they?" he said more to himself than to her. He waved a hand at the stasis tubes. "These people are still here." He jumped to his feet, clearly upset. "Can't this planet ever give us a break? They might have died after all, Julia! They probably are dead! Look at Navarro, how she tried to cover up her injuries. I thought she got off the ship and died with the others in the third pod. Then I hear she's alive, but now everything points to her being dead for a year anyway!"
"Alonzo, there is every chance?"
He turned to glare at her. "None of them knew how to fly the lander!" he said. "O'Neill and Yale were trained to fly it - no one else! Baines and I trained them ourselves. They were going to teach the other colonists after we were gone. These people took it and saved themselves through sheer luck and guesswork! They were lucky to make it to land at all."
"Well, so were we all," Julia pointed out. "Two of the pods were overloaded, carrying far more than they were designed to safely bear. We were lucky the excess weight didn't cause them to break apart on impact."
"You don't understand!"
"What don't I understand? That you're angry the warrant officer and some others saved their own lives by taking the landing craft you were hoping would still be here?"
Alonzo stared at her for a second and then turned away, pretending to look at the stasis tubes. He felt embarrassed that she had come to know him so well, that she had hit upon the truth so easily.
He knew it was selfish of him, even heartless to be so angry at desperate people who only wanted to live.
But he had just wanted to fly again. Of course, Julia knew that.
"Alonzo, we've just come through a difficult time as a-"
Alonzo whirled around. "What do you know about it, Julia?" he said, his anger talking loudly and clearly. "With your preprogrammed life laid out ahead of you? What do you know about having to abandon your skills and training? What do you know about feeling like a failure everyday of your life?"
Julia pulled the gear from her head and stared at Alonzo, and all of a sudden he came to his senses and bit back his anger. She could see that, but she wasn't about to let it go.
"What do I know about feeling a failure? What do I know about something that far below a, a . . . chromotilt like me? Is that what you're asking? Okay, I'll tell you what I know about it! In case it has slipped your mind, Mr. Solace, the leader of our expedition, the person paying us to be here, the mother a young boy who probably cries himself to sleep at night from missing her - that person isn't here with us sharing in this fantastic experience because she is dying and I have no idea how to save her! She is in a cold sleep tube getting farther and farther away from us because try as I might I can't seem to find a cure for her. Day after day, no matter what I do, there is no way I can help her! Is that failure enough for you? If it isn't, how about this? You can fly away eventually when the colony ship arrives. The lander being gone is nothing, you still have a way out. I don't! I cut my ties to the Council, in case you've forgotten. I abandoned the directives they gave me, and now I'm an outcast. I can never go back to the stations even if I wanted to! Any message Eve may have sent back to the Council will get there long before the colony ship returns. Do you think they'll welcome me back with open arms? The Council has a long memory. Even if everyone I knew is dead by then, I'd still be arrested for treason. Within hours of my setting foot on the stations again, I would disappear and no one would ever know where I was taken."
Looking pointedly at him, she spread her hands exaggeratedly. "Well? Is that failure enough for you?"
The two of them stared at one another for a long, silent time. Alonzo was the first to drop his gaze, and he only closed his eyes for a moment as he rubbed a hand over them. In that moment Julia rushed out of the small shed and disappeared into the trees.
Well, he certainly blew that one high and wide.
Alonzo sat down on the box again and held his head in his hands. He hadn't meant to get so cruel, but damn it, she just didn't understand. The lander would have been their salvation. With it they could have flown to New Pacifica and located the com dish in days instead of months. Their trip would be over and they could start getting ready for the second ship.
Oh. . . The second ship. The one that would take him home. . .the same one that would leave Julia behind.
There was no one on the lake shore. The lone ATV was parked half on the grass and half on the beach, and a trail of bent grasses showed where the dunerail had gone with Baines and Danziger aboard.
Of course, she was right about how the Council would react, but it was the first time Julia had ever put the thought into words either orally or mentally. They'd already tried to kill her once. It meant nothing to them that she was aboard the sabotaged Advance ship. She was meant only to come in handy if the Eden Project colonists miraculously survived all the traps set to stop them.
Fortunately for all involved, Alonzo was right about one thing. Due to her genetic manipulation she was a doctor first - and the Council hadn't realized that.
After a few minutes watching the waves gently come ashore and letting the sound soothe her, Julia turned and slowly walked back to the shed. Before she reached the open doorway she could hear Britt Navarro's voice speaking her report.
Stopping just outside the entrance, she heard the last words of the report and saw Alonzo reach forward and restart it. The young, pretty, blond woman began her tale anew. When her image faded out at the end, Alonzo lightly touched the screen with the fingertips of one hand, tapping the surface once or twice.
"Did good, kid," he said in a quiet voice. He flicked off the monitor and bowed his head, looking at his hands as he clasped and unclasped them above his lap.
Julia slowly withdrew from the door and walked away. At the ATV, she climbed into the seat and leaned back, closing her eyes and thinking back to the days and weeks before the launch of the Eden Project ships. She tried to remember all she could about the warrant officer, Britt Navarro.
When Danziger and Baines returned from their ride along the lake shore, she was still there. Alonzo hadn't come out of the storage shed.
Baines told Danziger he wanted to listen to the message himself, and he ambled off through the trees.
Alonzo was not in the shed. Baines went inside and saw the stasis pods, and recognized the people within them. After listening to the Navarro message, he, too, was suddenly hit with the realization that no one had come back for them. Unlike Solace, he didn't feel anger in reaction. He felt sadness. After all these people went through, the risks they took to save themselves and the others in their group, the four of them might well be the only survivors.
He went outside and found the other man near the solar collector. A gap in the trees on the north side of the small structure offered a view of part of the lake. Alonzo was standing beside one of the wires holding the collector steady.
Stopping next to him, Baines said, "Danziger and I drove up the shore a ways. Two of the engines are on the waterline. Doesn't look like we'll be able to get to them. The lander bay is underwater. Mechanisms are probably stuck fast."
Alonzo stared straight ahead. "Never get a break, do we?"
"Do we need one? We've been making our own and doing okay."
A derisive sound came from Alonzo. "So even if the lander was inside, it would still be lost to us, eh?"
"Looks that way. Hey, the main group will be here soon, Danziger is going to go down the hill and meet them. Show them where to make camp. Julia's going with him."
Alonzo finally turned and looked in the direction of the ship. "I'm staying. I'll wait for Zero to reach the pod, then I'm climbing after him. No matter what Julia or Danziger say."
Baines nodded, putting his hands in his pockets. "Yeah. Me, too." He started walking away. "I left my gear on the ATV. I'll go tell them we're staying." He stopped and spoke over his shoulder. "I might have spoke too soon about Navarro."
Alonzo drew in a deep breath, audible to Baines despite the distance between them. "The kid did good, though, didn't she, Jake?"
He smiled. "Yep. Sure did."
"Think she made it? They made it?"
"I hope so."
Alonzo nodded. "Me, too."
Danziger got behind the wheel of the dunerail and waved as Baines went into the trees toward the storage shed. Julia waved, too, then gave John an overly bright look.
"Let's go," she said. "I'm all set."
"No, you're not. Something's bothering you. What is it?"
She raised her eyebrows and gave him a patient look. "Nothing important. Let's go meet the others."
He started the engine and angled through the trees away from the ship. They had almost reached their campsite of the previous night before Julia finally spoke.
"I've been thinking about Navarro. Whether they made it to the comdish. I don't remember her much. Just she was young and seemed to know her job. I spoke to her briefly when the pharmaceutical supplies were being loaded. Did you know her well?"
So that was it. In some way Alonzo hadn't been discreet about the subject of the warrant officer, and now Julia's concern was jostled awake.
"As much as I knew all the ops crew," he answered. "She was young but she was a sleep run veteran. She made about a dozen eighteen month to three year jumps. She was the W/O on the two jumps I made. Comet hauls, getting water for the stations. Knew her job. When I started putting together the crew I hoped she would be available for this project. Would have begged, borrowed or stolen to get her if she wasn't."
"I suppose all of you got to know her well during preparation. Alonzo, too."
"I can't speak for Alonzo. Ask him about it."
"Well, I mean generally speaking. As fellow Eden Project crew members went."
Danziger made a noncommittal noise and swung the dunerail sharply away from the lake and stopped. They'd reached their campsite. Looking over the side of the hill to the open land far below, they could see in the distance the transrover and the other ATVs leading the way toward the spot where they left their marker.
As John reached for his jumpers, he looked at Julia. "Alonzo can answer that a lot better than I can."
She took the jumpers he handed her and raised them to her eyes. "We had an argument. He was angry, and one thing led to another. He said something. . . Well, something he shouldn't have said."
"Ah," Danziger said in a knowing way. "It'll pass. It's not like you never argued before, right? By tonight he'll be sorrier than hell. You'll work through it."
Julia was silent. She wasn't so sure. She had no idea so much anger and frustration lurked under so thin a surface in Alonzo. Not since their first days on the planet as he wallowed in guilt and anger and pain, had she heard such callousness from him. ". . .you're preprogrammed life laid out ahead of you? What do you know. . (about) failure?" The words still stung. How could he think such a thing when she had given up so much the day after she was abandoned and he returned for her and took her back to the group? Before she could brace herself she felt tears brimming in her eyes and gliding over her cheeks like rain. She put the jumpers in her lap and lowered her head to cry.
Danziger was taken aback for a moment. "Hey, come on. Can't be that bad."
She gripped her upper arms with her hands and shook with the emotion.
He watched her for a second or two, then laid a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. "I wish I knew the right words to say," he told her.
She turned toward him and leaned closer to clutch his jacket and press her face against his chest.
He turned slightly toward her and moved his arm around her shoulders, and for the next few minutes he patted her on the shoulder and let her vent her emotions.
Presently she stopped and wiped at her face. "Maybe. . . you'd better get us to the bottom. . . of the hill," she said, hiccuping a little. "There's some. . .thing about being on this very spot. . .that seems to make me want to cry."
Danziger had to laugh shortly. "Yeah. No more stopping or camping here."
Julia pulled away slightly and reached up to place one hand on the side of his head and pull him closer for a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you."
Why he didn't pull away to let it end there, John wasn't sure. It took a few seconds to get his bearings and he lifted his arm over her head and grabbed the steering wheel, stepping on the accelerator pedal and sending the rail forward in a lurch. He looked at her and just nodded his head.
This has been one twenty four hour period for the books, man, he told himself. Is it ever going to end?
It would be another hour or so before the transrover reached the base of the hill, late afternoon, Bess Martin thought from her seat beside the passenger door. Yale was driving and the children had fallen asleep between the two of them. Anxious to reach the site, no one was walking today. Everyone was crowded onto the back of the vehicle or perched along the sides. She was in the cabin to help control the overly excited children. Making them play a word game with her had put them to sleep after only a few minutes. When Yale seemed preoccupied with what they would find ahead, Bess amused herself with studying the approaching hillside with the jumpers the children were playing with earlier.
The section of sensor arm was disappearing behind the foreground trees, and like everyone else, she would look at it and wonder how she missed recognizing it. Like so many of the others, she and Morgan had embarked and disembarked from the ship numerous times during the two weeks before the scheduled launch. Initially, they had gone aboard and just looked around the ship. Morgan said it was because he wanted to know every inch of it before the flight. She had used the opportunities to meet the crew and other passengers. At one point she remembered watching some of the cargo pods being put into place, but she'd never really noticed the rest of the ship. It was just a ship, and after nearly two years on the stations she'd seen so many.
She'd just lowered the jumpers when a glint of sunlight on a shiny surface caught her eye for just a second. She quickly raised them again and looked at the clearing high on the hill ahead of them. There it was!
"Yale," she said excitedly. "There's the dunerail! Someone's coming to meet us."
"Yes. I saw the reflection."
Bess leaned forward, elbows on the vehicle's dashboard to steady her hands. "It's John and Julia," she said with a smile. "They probably can't pry Alonzo and Jake away from the ship."
Yale's amusement showed in his voice. "I don't imagine they can." He swung his gear eyepiece into place. "I'll contact them and tell them we'll be at the base of the hill in just over an hour."
"No!" Bess said, glued to her jumpers. "Let me do it. I haven't talked to either of them since before they left." She turned to look at Yale. Her eyes wide and mouth open in surprise.
"Alright," he agreed, keeping his eyes on the terrain ahead of them, unaware of her stunned expression.
Not at all sure of what she'd just seen, she slowly put on her gear and fiddled with it unnecessarily until she thought an adequate amount of time had passed. Figuring Danziger would not be wearing his unit nor even have it turned on in his pocket, Bess flicked on hers and spoke Julia's name.
Immediately the doctor answered. From the background image, Bess could see the rail was in motion, and the doctor seemed to be doing her best to appear glad to hear from her. They talked for a few minutes. As Bess turned hers into a powered off state, she leaned back in the seat and thought about what just happened on the hilltop.
Behind Julia's smile and pleased expression was the hint of weeping in her eyes. What the kiss she'd witnessed between Danziger and Heller had to do with that, Bess couldn't even guess, but she was definitely going to look into it!
She settled back more comfortably and turned her head to look out the window and smile to herself. After weeks of half noticing what was going on around her, of missing Devon Adair and Eben Sinh, of wondering if and when life would ever return to normal again, the life she was worried about had sneaked up behind her and kicked her in the ass.
She couldn't stop the giggle from issuing from her throat. "I think we're going to be alright, now, Yale. Don't you think so, too?"
To be continued. . .
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