SquidgeWorld Archive

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.

* * *

It didn't take long to travel the last kilometer or so around the mesa. For once, the ground was surprisingly cooperative and contained only a minimum of hidden ruts that he would have to carefully maneuver the ATV around. The sun didn't help much - it seemed to reflect into his eyes no matter what direction he looked. As a result, Alonzo had no chance to check out the camp from a distance until he was practically on top of it, expecting Julia to greet him at any second.

That didn't happen. As the ATV ground to a halt, Alonzo again wiped the sweaty dust from his forehead and was greeted with a sight of nothing. Absolute emptiness, an eerily quiet desert clearing. Alonzo frowned, deciding that he must have miscalculated, gotten turned around somehow. It was easily possible out here where all the mesas tended to blur together after a while even though each formation was uniquely shaped.

He pulled out his gear and re-calculated his position, being careful to correlate the old data against the new. And to his surprise and growing anxiety, there was no mistake. Alonzo was exactly where he should have been, right down to the spot where the ATV had been parked before he left. Only the camp was missing.

A small cloud of dust plumed upwards from around Alonzo's feet as he jumped to the ground. "Julia?" he called and his voice echoed, reminding him just how empty this place was. Fighting the sense of unease Alonzo called again. "JULIA!"

No response. Were they playing a practical joke on him? Alonzo wondered. He knew that Morgan had vowed payback after the last stunt Alonzo had pulled which involved Morgan's longjohns and a mock Koba. Eden Advance had needed antics like that after the sadness of losing Eben and leaving Devon behind.

The smile soon faded from Alonzo's face as he returned to the present, remembering lost friends, and realizing again that now he was the one who appeared to be lost. He scanned the empty region again, fighting the impulse to pull out his jumpers because if the group was hiding, they'd probably be behind a mesa rather than just further away. But would they really have moved the entire camp just to spite him? Could Morgan have orchestrated such a feat? Alonzo sincerely doubted it - there was a lot of work involved in taking down those tents, not to mention erecting them again.

And then he saw it. One lone shape that appeared to be a box, although much like everything else, it, too, was covered in dust and Alonzo had no way of telling if it belonged to the Eden Project. He broke into a sprint to reach it, barely aware of the heat that had driven him to distraction only a short while earlier.

It *was* a box, he realized as he got closer, and lying behind it was a long stick with a faded, tattered piece of material attached to one end. A flag? It certainly seemed likely, Alonzo could see evidence of it once having been lashed to the box. Obviously, it was meant to attract someone's attention, his own being the most likely reason. Who else could the group have been expecting?

And why had they left without him? Alonzo now had no doubt that they'd moved on. But for what reason? And why hadn't they contacted him on his gear? Yes, he'd been gone for a while, but surely the group could have waited a few more days until he was in range? Fighting to suppress the growing feeling of insult over abandonment, Alonzo approached the box.

It looked weather beaten, covered in layer upon layer of dust, and certainly more abused than anything Alonzo remembered from their supplies. Yet when he brushed aside the top layer of dirt, and scraped a little more away, he recognized the familiar building material of the twenty-third century and knew it could only have come from one place.

The box didn't open. It had no lid as far as Alonzo could tell and he spent a good five minutes pondering the object before he decided to lift it up. The bottom fell out, and along with it, a set of gear.

He quickly retrieved it and fumbled with the switches, noting that his hands were shaking for some inexplicable reason. It seemed forever before he had it on his head and activated, unsure if he ever wanted to learn what awful truth might await him.

"Alonzo." Julia's face appeared before him and he automatically replied, "Julia," but it was a recording, nothing more, and incapable of interacting.

"I have no way of knowing if you'll ever see this - God, I hope you do, so that's what I'm going to believe. Okay?" Her voice grew higher in pitch as she managed to say, "I miss you." There was a blip in the picture, as if she'd paused and then resumed her recording. She looked so fragile to Alonzo's concerned gaze, with pale, deep circles beneath her eyes, signs that Julia was under great emotional duress.

"We can't wait any longer. I'm so sorry and I hate to leave but the colony ship is going to be here soon and we promised Devon that we'd be there to greet them. You know that, you now it was our mission. I just wish..."

"You left without me?" Alonzo burst out, irrationally because there was no way a recording would be answering him.

"We searched for you for so long, Alonzo. Your gear must have been out of range, we couldn't get any kind of signal. Danziger and Baines tracked you as far as they could, they scouted further than you were going and they found nothing. But Alonzo, I *refuse* to believe that you are dead and I know that you're going to find this and rejoin us someday soon."

"I am," he vowed, "and when I find out why you couldn't wait just a few more days..." His anger and frustration were growing, he couldn't believe that they'd gone! And what did they mean about not being able to find him - he'd stayed on his pre-determined path pretty much exactly the entire time! "Just how blind are Danziger and Baines?" he muttered to himself.

Julia, or rather Julia's image, seemed to be in deep thought, although were those tears Alonzo could see in her eyes? She shivered. "Winter's going to be here soon, it's coming faster than we think. We have to keep moving, we can't afford to get stuck somewhere again. Yale's insisting that we stick to the lower ground and travel as far south as we can. I've included detailed maps with this recording so I hope it won't take you too long to find us."

A sigh, and then what was most definitely a sob. "I miss you, 'Lonz. I love you. Come back to me soon." And there it ended.

Stunned, Alonzo let the static play on as he tried to comprehend what he'd just heard. Tracking them? Winter? But it was the middle of summer and he'd never been hotter in his life.

He replayed the last few seconds. "I love you."

"I love you too, Julia," he whispered, freezing the image to study the face of the woman he adored. More withdrawn than he recalled. Older. Older? And then Alonzo looked at the date of the recording and gasped.

"No," he whispered, his heart pounding as he fought to deny the reality of what he was seeing. Julia's gear recording was dated eight weeks in the future. Alonzo pressed a few more buttons, trying to get a focus on the background. There - someone wearing a coat. Grey skies. And the box he'd found, only a hundred times shinier.

If Julia had left this eight weeks from what Alonzo thought was "now", then where did that leave Alonzo?

And then he recalled the orbiting satellite he'd seen only the previous night, something he'd assumed was Reilly's ship only it was larger than expected, more along the lines of the colony ship.

And if the colony ship had arrived at G889, that meant that Alonzo Solace had somehow managed to lose an entire year of his life and his friends - his family - were already at New Pacifica and he was all alone.

It was ironic, for the first time in his life he had met a woman that he considered settling down with and living life today rather than continuing with his career as a pilot. So what did G889 do? It moved time for him so he still somehow ended up out-of-step with the rest of the world.

So just what was his next step? The obvious one was to head in the direction of New Pacifica and hope that the colonists picked up his signal on the gear. Which left the problem of the time distortion. If Danziger and Baines had headed along the route he'd taken and not seen him, then that suggested that he, and not an area, was out of time as they should have encountered the same phenomenon and been moved. Assuming, of course, a time distortion phenomenon was stable and didn't just appear and disappear. Which it might well do as the only thing he assumed about time was that it was constant except on the ellipse of a black hole, where it slowed down.

So maybe this wasn't a natural phenomenon. Given the strange and unusual life forms on G889, maybe this was a Terrian ability. And if it was, why had they moved him? Or left him here and moved the others. If it was Terrian, then the thing for him to do was contact them (hopefully) on the Dreamplane.

He made camp, and settled down for the night, hoping that the Terrians would make contact. After what seemed an eternity of tossing and turning, he fell asleep.

* * *

To his intense disappointment morning came with no dreaming. So he was wrong and he had been affected by some freakish G889 occurrence. Out of his limited options, one remained. Head toward New Pacifica on his own.

He broke camp and headed the ATV in that direction. In a total change to the weather in his scouting the sky was clouded with wispy white clouds inappropriate for the conditions. Almost as he watched they speeded up like twentieth century time delay photography. The clouds darkened to a storm-like intensity heading toward him. Before his brain had the time to consider the issue of cover the sky was clear again. Even for G889 standards this was weird.

"Alonzo."

The voice. It couldn't be. He must be dreaming. He spun round to see a face he never thought he'd see again.

"Devon? But you're in cold sleep." Way to go Alonzo, just state the obvious.

Devon tilted her head to one side in a very Terrian way and trilled at him.

"Err. Not speaking Terrian, Devon."

"Sorry. It's been a long time since I've spoken to another human. I'm in cold sleep in this time period. In my time period the Terrians have 'cured' me."

There was almost a bitterness in the way she said cured. In fact, looking into her eyes, Alonzo felt the same alieness that he got whenever he was contacted by the Terrians.

"Your time period?"

"Please don't ask any questions. We're going to create enough of a paradox by you and I meeting. I'm not going to risk the future I know by giving you any more information than you need."

Alonzo just stood and stared at her. He'd only signed on to the mission to pilot the ship to G889. Planeting had been bad. A broken leg was bad. Creatures that communicated to your dreams. Psychopathic prisoners. Morgan Martin's amazing ability to make a bad situation infinitely worse. These were all handleable. Time-related issues were not. Pilots dealt with space and distance. They should not be expected to deal with time. For the first time in his life Alonzo understood why some people indulged in hysterics.

"No. Not yet!"

In all the time he'd known her, Alonzo had never known Devon to sound that scared.

The clouds had started their frenetic movement again.

"What..." He managed to say the one word before Devon sank into the earth.

He stood breathing hard for a few seconds, wondering what to do now. He ran his hand through his hair and looked around. "Am I going out of my mind?" he thought. The sky was beginning to settle down again, and Alonzo could only shake his head.

He climbed back into the ATV and sat there, trying to piece together everything he knew, feeling more alone and out of his depth than he ever had. Assuming the weather wasn't just happening really fast -- which it might, he knew, but he doubted it -- then that was just one more piece of evidence that time on G889 was not behaving properly.

He had never heard of time just getting up and running about, as if it was bored with only going forward and had simply decided to strike out in new directions just to see what other options there were. But for some reason, the fact that it was happening on G889 didn't really surprise him, now that he thought about it. Could the Dreamplane be used to communicate across time? he thought. He supposed it could. It could be used to communicate across space, and he knew that space and time were related. And Devon's apparition, if he could believe in it, was proof enough.

When was he now? Did the quickening of the sky mean that another day had passed? Another year? Another lifetime? He had no way of knowing.

A Devon Adair from the future had been trying to tell him something, something he needed to know. But she had been leery of telling him too much, and someone else - or something - had prevented her from proceeding.

Alonzo looked up, west, at the horizon. How far to New Pacifica? Another 700 kilometers or so? And how long was this going to go on?

No, he thought. He needed answers, and he needed them *now*. He closed his eyes and concentrated, but the Dreamplane was like walking through a gusty wind blowing leaves, and every leaf was an image. Nothing made sense.

"Talk to me," he said, then gritted his teeth. "Come on, come on. Talk to me." He slammed his fist on the seat beside him. "Dammit, *talk to me*!"

"Alonzo."

He looked up, startled, and decided he wasn't going to be able to take much more. "Mary," he whispered.

She hesitantly walked towards him, her face streaked with dirt, her clothes torn. He scrambled out of the ATV and stood before her, his jaw working up and down in amazement.

"Mary, what...what..." was all he could say. She just tilted her head back and forth. He noticed that her eyes weren't as wide as they used to be, though. She was no longer naive.

"Tried to warn you," she said.

"Warn me?"

She nodded. "Told the others, the ones you awakened. We told them of the danger. And they told you. But you did not listen."

"The others we awakened...you mean Elizabeth and Bennett?" he asked. "Is that who you mean?"

She nodded.

"Mary, what's going on? How did you find me?"

She stepped forward, wrapped her arms around him, and they sank into the earth. Before Alonzo could even be surprised they reappeared next to a stream.

"Whoa, stop!" he exclaimed. He staggered backwards, tripped over a rock and fell. He just sat there on the ground. "How did you do that? What's going on?"

"We tried to warn you," Mary said again, and crouched next to him in the position of a Terrian.

"You mean Elizabeth's warning?" Alonzo asked. "About the planet rejecting us?"

She nodded again.

Alonzo decided to try for some more immediate answers. He leaned forward and took her hands. "Mary, time has been doing really funny things lately. What has happened to G889?"

"You did," she said. "By coming here, you interrupted the plan."

"What plan?"

"This...planet," she said awkwardly. "It has a...a...destiny?" She looked at him inquisitively, hoping she'd gotten the right word.

"And we interfered with it?" Alonzo asked. She nodded again. "How?"

She took one of her hands back from him, picked up a rock and threw it into the stream. It disappeared with a soft *plop*.

"See the patterns the stone makes?" Mary asked. "They were not there until I threw the rock into the water." She turned to face him. "Your people created new patterns in the stream."

"New patterns," Alonzo repeated softly. "And these things I've been seeing, the clouds move, getting displaced in time. I've been experiencing these patterns, these ripples in time? The aftereffects of our coming to G889?"

She nodded again.

"But Mary, how is this possible? And how come you're a Terrian again?"

"The Terrians...forgave me," she said, and gave a slight smile. "They said they needed me."

Alonzo sighed. "You mean they needed some way of talking to me," he said with disgust. "Mary, they're just using you as a translator right now. They must be desperate. What's happened to the Dreamplane?"

She picked up a handful of stones and threw them into the stream at once. "That is the way of the dreaming right now," she pointed quickly at all the myriad ripples, which spread in every direction.

"Yeah, I've noticed," Alonzo replied. "Listen, Mary, I don't know what's wrong or how to fix it. What do you want of me?"

"We need to go back to the one who is asleep."

"Devon?"

She nodded. "The Terrians are at war with ourselves, and until we gain understanding, we cannot know peace."

"Wait a minute," Alonzo said. "What do you mean, at war with themselves?"

Mary hesitated and looked at the ground, once more the frightened little girl. She spoke softly. "Do you remember when the Terrians cast me out for helping you?"

He nodded.

"You and Yale and Devon tried to...stop us from doing what had to be done."

"We were trying to change your minds, to get you to see things from another point of view-"

"Dididididididid!" she burst out, standing up and looking at him accusingly. Then she turned and angrily paced around for a few seconds before finally coming back to face him.

"You succeeded," she said. In her face and voice, Alonzo could sense the sophisticated woman trying to break through. What is she going through right now? he thought.

She continued. "Some Terrians began to question the way of things, the way that we have done things for as long as the world is old."

"You mean," Alonzo hesitated, then he stood up also. "You mean the Terrians have begun to think with many minds?"

Her face was full of sadness and horror, and she just nodded once.

"Well, Mary," Alonzo smiled. "That's great!"

She shook her head and began to cry. "No. The Terrians do not know how to think with many minds. We were never meant to. And now we are fighting ourselves, and the Dreamplane is...is..." she cried some more, frustrated that she did not have the vocabulary. She angrily picked up some more rocks and hurled them into the stream. "Is this!" she finished.

"So Terrian tribes have actually gone to war with each other?" he asked. "Killing each other?"

She shook her head. "Terrians will not harm each other."

"Then how do you mean they are at war?"

"They are at war." It was all she knew how to say.

Alonzo thought for a moment, trying to interpret what Mary was really saying. "War" and "fighting" were the only words she knew. What else could she mean?

"Are the Terrians arguing with each other?" he asked.

"What is 'arguing?'"

"When people fight without hitting each other or killing each other," he said. "When people who think with many minds cannot agree on something, sometimes they argue. Sometimes they can get angry at each other, or become frightened of each other." He saw the realization dawn on her face. "Is that what the Terrians are doing?"

She nodded. "The Dreamplane is a place where Terrians argue. We don't want to argue, and we don't know how to stop it." She suddenly started to cry. "Alonzo, I'm scared."

He held her while she sobbed, thinking over all that she had told him. He was no physician, and certainly not one for living planets, but he had an idea that he wanted to explore.

"Mary," he said gently when she had calmed down a little. "What do the Terrians argue about?"

"I don't know," she said. "At first, it was about forgiveness. It was about the things that you and Devon tried to tell us about. But now it's about nothing."

"The Terrians argue about nothing at all?"

She shook her head.

"Do they use words when they argue?" he asked. "Can you describe to me any of the feelings or ideas they use?"

She shook her head again. "It is nothing. It is like having a pain that we cannot be rid of. It is like..." She threw some more rocks into the stream. "It is like that!"

"Okay, okay," he said, trying to calm her again.

This worried him intently. For that one brief moment in the caves that night, while bargaining for Yale's life, he had actually attempted to break through the barriers between himself and another species. He had been so proud of himself. He thought he had been doing them a world of good.

But now, from what Mary had told him, the best guess he could come up with was that the entirety of G889 -- and its custodians, the Terrians -- now had a split personality.

All thanks to the Edenites. In particular, thanks to *him*.

"What do the Terrians want with Devon?" he asked.

"She is like the link," she said. "She is connected to him."

"She's his mother," he said. For some reason, he felt it was important that she understood exactly what Devon was to Uly. It frightened him a bit that the Terrians thought of Uly as belonging to them.

"She is the one who came speaking of many minds, like you. She is available to the dreaming. She has the answers we seek."

"What answers?" he asked.

"She can teach the Terrians how to speak with one mind again," she said. "She can take this madness away from us."

Suddenly, Devon's words came storming back into Alonzo's mind: "The Terrians 'cured' me."

She had sounded bitter.

And she had been trying to tell him something. Something he either *had* to do, or something he *mustn't* do. But which?

He swallowed hard and looked at Mary. "Are you sure this is what you want to do?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Going back to Devon is the only way?"

She nodded again.

"Are you going to make her part Terrian also?"

Another nod. "Only she can bring us peace. Only she can calm the dreaming. Only she can stop the winds of time from becoming unraveled. Only she can give us a destiny again."

Without any warning she once more wrapped him in her arms and took him into the ground. They re-emerged by the ATV. She climbed into the back without hesitation.

"We must hurry," she said. "Drive us back to your sleeping woman."

"Her name's 'Devon,'" he said and climbed in also. Then he turned to her. "Mary, if this works and everything get straightened out, with time and the Dreamplane and all...will everything be back to normal?"

She nodded.

"Will I be back with the others then? In the time I was supposed to rejoin them? Or have I lost several years out of my life and put the woman I love through heartache?"

"We must go now," was her only answer.

"Mary, I must know!"

She shook her head, looking at him with confusion. "I...I do not know," she said. "It does not matter. We must hurry. Please."

He sighed and turned around again. A world of pain and indecision swept through him and he grimaced, looking at the sky.

All he had to go on were Devon's words. She hadn't been happy about her state of affairs, but she had also specifically said that she didn't want to jeopardize her own time line, which, to Alonzo, must have meant that it wasn't all that bad. But if that was so, what had stopped her? Was it the ripples in the Dreamplane preventing her from getting through? Was it the Terrians? Or was it something sinister? Why had she sounded afraid?

"Oh, Devon," he breathed to himself. "What were you trying to tell me? What stopped you? And is what we're about to do the right thing or the wrong thing?"

Hearing him muttering to himself, Mary leaned forward. "Like Yale, do you talk to God?" she asked.

"Not often," he answered, and set the ATV rolling back to the east. "But I'm about to start."

* * *

Alonzo pushed the ATV to its limits and beyond. He had a lot of ground to cover and he had wasted enough daylight. Concentrating hard on navigating through the familiar terrain was the only thing that kept him going. If he thought too much about the events of the past day?....year?...whatever...he thought he might completely crack. But more importantly, it kept his mind off of Julia. Sweet, intelligent, beautiful, sexy Julia...

When hot, stinging tears began to cloud his vision, Alonzo brought the ATV to a sudden, jerking halt.

Mary slammed into his back. "Why do you stop?" she demanded, settling back to the spot she had just occupied moments before. "We need to get to your sleeping...Devon."

"We will!" Alonzo snapped, climbing out of the vehicle. He paced back and forth, hoping the activity would calm his frayed nerves. "I'm tired and the ATV needs a chance to cool down or the thing will fall apart before we can even reach Devon."

Taken aback by the harsh tone in Alonzo's voice, Mary instinctively knew it was time to give him a little space. Climbing down off the rail, she walked a short distance away and crouched down, tilting her head to the side to watch him as he continued to walk back and forth. Although she had a hard time fathoming the purpose of that, she knew it was something the Dreamer had to do.

When he felt relatively calm again, Alonzo went about setting up camp for the night. There wasn't much in the way of shelter in the vast expanse of dusty terrain, but he made do with what he had. He built a small fire to ward off the chill of the oncoming night and got out what meager supplies he had.

Alonzo needed to get to Devon soon or he would wind up starving to death. He thanked his lucky stars that Julia- *sob* - had taken the time to point out what vegetation was good for food and what wasn't. So, when he got to the area where the ship was, he would be able to forage for food.

As he sat munching on his food, Alonzo's thoughts inevitably drifted to Julia. What was she doing wherever, *when*ever she was? Was she thinking about him? Or had she given up on him as lost and moved on? Alonzo winced at that thought. That was enough thinking for one night. His head was starting to really hurt.

Setting the tasteless food aside, Alonzo climbed into his sleeping roll and attempted to get comfortable. Hard to do when he was lying on the hard ground trying to avoid any more thoughts of his lover. But eventually sheer exhaustion overtook him and he drifted off into a restless slumber, dreams disturbed by haunting images of Julia and Devon.

* * *

Bright and early the next morning found Alonzo being awakened by a restless Mary. She was eager to get on the move once more. The more time they wasted, the more the Terrians would argue over nothing and the situation would continue to unravel until...Mary shivered. They needed to put things right.

"Alonzo...we must go..."

Muttering something unintelligible, Alonzo forced himself to get up. He felt drained, unrested, but the longing to hold Julia in his arms once more spurred him into action. As quickly as possible, he finished up the meal he had set aside the night before and then packed up his things, placing them back in their spot on the ATV.

"All right, let's go," he said, climbing into the vehicle. He waited patiently for Mary to get on behind him, then took off.

The day went by in one long, dusty blur as Alonzo pushed the ATV to its limits again. He no longer cared about being reamed out by Danziger over his carelessness with the vehicle. If they couldn't fix this time anomaly thing, he wouldn't have anything to worry about.

As night was drawing near once more, Alonzo sighted the ship holding Devon's frozen form on the horizon. That gave him a much-needed boost to his morale.

After flooring the ATV, it didn't take them long at all to reach Devon's resting-place. As soon as he had stopped the vehicle, Alonzo jumped from its metal frame and ran to the ladder that led down into the ship. Unclipping his luma-light from his belt, Alonzo switched it on and proceeded to make his way inside, Mary following him at a much slower pace.

Stepping off the last rung, Alonzo slowly shone the light around inside the ship until he found the cold sleep chamber holding the inert form of Devon Adair. Walking over to it, Alonzo placed a hand and his forehead against the cool glass.

"I'm here, Devon," he whispered. "Now what?"

* * *

It took a few seconds for Alonzo to realize he was on the Dreamplane. "Great, now I can get on," he muttered to himself. "Well?" he asked in a louder voice. "What now? Huh? What do I do?" He stood there on the Dreamplane, fuming. He stamped his 'foot' and started pacing, muttering under his breath about aliens who asked for help and then were endlessly cryptic. Then he caught himself. "What the hell?" He hadn't been that angry before coming onto the Dreamplane. Mary said that the Terrians were arguing on the Dreamplane, could it be affecting him, too? It seemed impossible, but there was no other explanation. He forced himself to remain calm. Maybe the different emotion would draw the Terrians out from where ever they were hiding. Or arguing.

"Hello? Please, I want to help you. Tell me how," he said. Mary appeared through the desert earth and trilled at him. "Mary, do you know what I have to do?" he asked, trying not to be impatient.

"They have told me what needs to be done," Mary said, her eyes darting around in fright.

Alonzo went over to her and shook her shoulders. "Mary, please, tell me. This isn't right, the Dreamplane should not feel like this."

She darted away from him and bent to touch the 'earth'. She trilled softly to herself and closed her eyes.

"Damn!" Alonzo swore and then took a couple of deep breaths. He had to get control of himself. "Mary, I'm sorry I grabbed you. I didn't mean to scare you. Please tell me what to do."

"The sleeping woman must become one with the dreaming. She will heal the rift between the Terrians so they may think again with one mind," Mary said.

"What? I thought she was already on the Dreamplane, Mary. What do you mean?"

"The Terrians need her to become one with the dreaming," Mary repeated.

Alonzo glared at her. "And that means what, exactly?"

"I won't do it! Alonzo, please..." Devon's voice came across the wind, and Alonzo whirled around, looking for the source.

"Devon? Devon, where are you?" He looked at Mary. "Is Devon here? Why doesn't she want to help?" Mary bowed her head. "What aren't you telling me, Mary?"

"The Terrians asked her to help, and she agreed. They made her part of the dreaming, but it is not enough. She needs to become one with the dreaming," she said.

Alonzo closed his eyes and counted to ten. "Will this will cure her?" Alonzo asked. "And why doesn't she want to do this?"

"She agreed to help, she cannot go back on her promise," Mary said.

"Mary, just tell me what's going to happen!" Alonzo yelled. He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath. He needed to get off here before he throttled Mary.

"She must be released from her chamber."

"Mary, that will kill her!"

"No, it will not!" Mary yelled. Alonzo looked at her in shock, not expecting that from the unassuming girl. "The Terrians will take her, make her one with the dreaming. She will be alive."

Alonzo stared at her, not sure he understood what he was hearing. "The Terrians are going to make her one with the dreaming? What... I mean, what does that mean for us - her friends, her family?"

Mary tilted her head at him. "She will not exist, except for here. It is necessary."

"WHAT??? Mary, this is insane!" Alonzo started pacing. "You can't ask her to do this! It's not fair to her, not fair to anyone!"

"It is the only way for her to help the Terrians become one again! She gave her promise!" Mary looked at him, clearly agitated.

"Please..." Alonzo heard Devon's whispered plea across the Dreamplane.

"Mary, there has to be another way! This isn't right!"

Mary looked at him sadly. "There is no other way. We cannot go on like this. The Terrians must think with one mind. She must help us."

Alonzo stared at her and looked around the Dreamplane, feeling the violent and conflicting emotions that had no place here. He looked back at Mary. "Take me instead."

The moment the words left Alonzo's mouth, a huge pang of regret flooded him. To become one with the Terrians and the Dreamplane would mean that he'd never see Julia again, never touch her, never hear her voice.

Yet he'd seen what had become of Devon in the future, a future that was perhaps even more chaotic than the present time. If Devon wasn't happy, she would never be able to maintain peace upon the Dreamplane no matter what her intentions or promises. And, Alonzo realized, all of this had to be happening to *him* for a reason. He was the one who'd been most affected by the time changes. He was the one that Devon had appeared to, asking for help. He refused to condemn her to a living death.

"Take me," he said again.

Mary shook her head. "No. You are too angry. You have always been angry, ever since you came here."

"No," Alonzo protested, "the Terrians taught me not to be angry any more. And you, Mary, you taught me how to care."

"You are angry with the Terrians, for casting me out. For not helping when you needed them most!"

It was true, Alonzo realized, feeling the anger grow in him again. "Then what makes Devon the right person?" he challenged. "Why is she so much better than me?"

Mary sadly tilted her head, and Alonzo knew the answer. Devon was linked to Uly, Devon would *forever* be grateful to the Terrians for healing her son. And Devon was the great peacemaker who had come to the planet with boundless optimism and a belief that it was their destiny to be there. Humanity's destiny, intertwined with G889. Of course Devon would know what had to be done.

She would have to teach him how.

"Send me back," he said to Mary. "I know what I have to do." Mary trilled once more, and a white light carried on a wave of panic and hatred surrounded him, and he shouted, and....

Alonzo opened his eyes and saw the feeble lights of the ship above him. He was sprawled in the middle of the floor and his luma-light lay at a haphazard angle by his hand, its beam eerily reflecting from the glass of Devon's cryo-chamber. He shook his head, trying to clear the confusing images and emotions of the Dreamplane, knowing that to do this, he had to leave the anger behind. It was time now for acceptance, met with a willing mind.

Walking towards Devon's chamber, Alonzo began to softly speak. "Devon? I don't know if you can hear me, in fact, you probably can't, but I need to talk to you and this is the only way I know how." He'd reached the glass, and pressed his forehead against it, trying to see into Devon's eyes through the layers of frosted air. "I won't let them take you," he vowed. "Maybe I'm out of time and G889's going to keep getting messed up, or maybe everything will be fine." The thought caused him to pause. Could it be possible that by choosing Devon, the Terrians had condemned themselves? Despite her dreams of a peaceful co-existence, Devon had too much to live for in the physical world.

"You're going to be fine, Devon," he promised her. "As far as I know, the colony ship just arrived," (that is, if he was still in that time frame) "and it won't be too long until Julia can use the new equipment to figure out what's wrong with you." He paused, glancing around for signs that would prove him wrong, but there was not even a flicker of the future-Devon.

"I just need your help now," he finished, somewhat uselessly. "Tell me what to do."

There was no reply from the frozen figure. Alonzo shook his head, frustrated. To take her out of cold sleep would be to kill her, either by natural methods or by Dreamplane condemnation. Yet if he didn't find out what she was supposed to do, the Terrians would remain conflicted and the planetary effects could only get worse.

The Dreamplane. Mary had said she was already partially there - if he could find her there.... It was his best chance. Alonzo closed his eyes and reached. Again, the panic and anger hit him like a tidal assault, but this time he was ready for it. He pushed against the emotions, visualizing a pond, with calm waters, and at the center of it stood Devon Adair.

She lifted her head to stare at him, her eyes filled with tears.

"Tell me what to do," he begged again.

Devon reached forward with one hand, and then vanished, and Alonzo found himself back on the floor inside the Venus class ship. He swore to himself, residual anger lingering, then closed his eyes to try again. Yet this second attempt was more of a failure than the first, and with each subsequent assault on the Dreamplane, he felt more anger and less of Devon's presence.

"Okay," he said to himself, breathing heavily the musty air of the ship. "I'll have to guess." He slowly stood, brushing the dust from his shirt and went outside. To become one with the Dreamplane...obviously, the Terrians would have to somehow take him, which would mean going into the earth.

He squatted by a loose patch of dirt, reaching forward and beginning to think calming thoughts. He wouldn't think of Julia, or what he was giving up. He wouldn't! But she was the only thing on his mind.

And then voices shocked him from his reverie.

There were people in the ship.

Alonzo glanced around wildly, noticing a vehicle that hadn't been there before. The sky was full of dark clouds, much as it had been when Devon first appeared to him. Cautiously getting to his feet, Alonzo followed the sound of the voices, in through the hatch and to the inner room where Devon slept. There were three people inside holding equipment Alonzo didn't recognize, and they didn't appear to notice him.

"Is this her?" asked one of the people, a slight man wearing a white coat.

"It has to be," confirmed another. She moved to the controls, tapping a few keys. "They don't make systems like this anymore - I'm amazed it's still operating! How long has it been?" Her question was directed to the third member of the team, a young man who looked vaguely familiar.

"One hundred and fifty years," he answered softly. "Give or take a few. One hundred and fifty years since my great-great-grandmother was put in this chamber."

"And we're going to bring her out," said the first man. "Kinda like living history, isn't it?"

"I just hope it works," the woman said, darkly.

Time shimmered, and then Alonzo watched with horror as Devon fell out of the cold sleep chamber, caught gently by her descendant. There was one horrific gasp from the shuddering woman, then only silence as drugs and unfamiliar technologies were applied to Devon's body.

Held breath.

A curse.

A machine thrown to the ground in disgust.

"We couldn't save her either."

"No!" shouted Alonzo, and the three intruders turned to look at him, surprise clearly etched on their features.

"Who-" and that was all the woman managed to say before the clouds began racing backwards, back through the decades until Alonzo was again in an unknown time, but he suspected it was fairly close to the last time he'd been there because the dust had been disturbed and Devon was still in her capsule. What he'd just seen had been a message, Alonzo realized, still shaking. Whether it was Devon or the Terrians who'd sent it didn't matter, because the outcome was the same. If Devon wasn't released now, the planet wouldn't stabilize and Devon would die anyway, only alone.

Alonzo was here now.

His heart heavy, he walked to the release controls. "I'm sorry," he whispered under his breath, not really knowing who he was apologizing to. Devon? The Terrians? Julia? Or his own future? The defrost procedure began, the door swung open, and Devon fell into his waiting arms.

He laid her gently on the table, hearing her draw one painful breath after another. Yet despite her obvious pain, Devon's eyes were wide and Alonzo met her gaze as he took her hand and held it close. She knew what he was asking, and she knew what he had done. There was barely any time for words, and no times for explanations or recriminations. Devon wet her dry lips, and began to whisper.

"L- Lonzo..."

"I'm listening, Devon." Outside, he heard the ground rumbling, and knew that the Terrians were coming for her. He wouldn't let them.

"I'm sorry...I can't do it...I failed...."

Smiling sadly down at her, Alonzo replied, "You didn't fail, you made a promise that was impossible to keep because you didn't know what it was. And even if you did know, you wouldn't have been able to do it. It isn't you, Devon, it was never supposed to be you. I was the one the Terrians came to when we first got here...."

"My fault," she interrupted.

"No," he said firmly. "No one's fault. But we're going to fix this, Devon, so tell me what to do."

The indecision in her eyes cleared; she looked grateful, in control, and sad all at the same time. "You have to...be the link. Reach Uly."

He nodded, not knowing if it was possible, but knowing that he could try through the Dreamplane because anything was possible. There was an implicit "Tell him I love him" in Devon's gaze, but she bravely went on.

"They'll take you into the earth, but you, " she coughed, "have to be ready."

Alonzo nodded again, but Devon squeezed his hand in what would have been a frantic gesture had she had the energy.

"No, you have to be...*ready*," she emphasized with her weakening voice. "Like me." Sad, soft words, a grim acceptance of her fate.

"They're the ones killing you," he realized, appalled. "They did this so they could use you!"

Devon's momentary silence was the only answer he needed. "Didn't...realize what they were doing...."

And that was also the truth, the Terrians, unfamiliar with individuality, couldn't have comprehended what the loss of physical individuality truly meant to a human being. Outside, a Terrian gave a mournful wail; they were waiting.

"If I go, will they stop hurting you?"

"Too late," Devon whispered with a ghost of a smile. "But I'll be free...." Free of the fragmented Dreamplane, free of the chaos, and also free of the potential desolation of being frozen alive for a hundred and fifty years. She tugged on his hand, bringing it close to her heart and Alonzo felt a pulse, some kind of energy, leaving her body and entering his. "Remember," she said.

And he did remember, he saw her memories, her dreams, her boundless optimism for the future becoming merged with his own memories, of the time he'd sat enjoying the beauty of the planet with a Terrian by his side, of the time he'd kissed Julia while surrounded by the web of tunnels, of the time he and Devon had realized that G889 was their home.

"Thank you," he said, meeting her eyes one last time. She smiled and then her gaze lost focus, staring beyond Alonzo to something he couldn't see. She was gone.

Alonzo returned her body to the cold sleep chamber, knowing that even in death, Devon Adair wasn't meant to be buried in the earth. She'd been born on the space stations, designed her own, and pushed humanity to the new frontier. She wasn't supposed to be bound to the ground.

And then Alonzo recorded a gear message, telling whoever returned here someday just what had happened, and that Devon's body should be returned to the stars.

Outside, the Terrians were trilling. It was almost a rhythmic chant, growing more frenetic with every passing moment. The choice had been made; he had to go.

But not before one last goodbye message to Julia.

"I love you," he said, softly. "I don't want to leave you, but I guess it already happened. I'm doing this for your future, for everyone's future. I don't know exactly how, but Devon's quest became my quest, it became everyone's quest, and it became this planet's destiny.

"Julia," and his voice caught on her name, "it was you who brought me to this place, it was *you* who taught me to love. And without that love, without compassion as well as inner peace, well, I don't think I'd be able to do what I have to do.

"I don't know if you'll ever find this message, Julia, but even if you don't, I hope you know I'll always be there for you, watching you from the Dreamplane. I love you," and then the final goodbye. "Remember me."

Slowly, Alonzo placed the gear on the table and stepped outside, leaving the luma-light feebly illuminating the now empty chamber. Night had fallen, somehow, and Alonzo knew he would never see another sunrise.

The Terrians surrounded him, Terrians with expressions of anger or fear like he'd never seen before. He tried to smile bravely. "Don't worry, it'll be okay soon." They didn't seem to comprehend, but continued with their ritual. Each Terrian lifted its staff, pointing them directly at Alonzo. All too soon he was surrounded by crackling energy, and he felt his body becoming heavier yet lighter at the same time, so that he could sink down into the earth and not feel any resistance....

At the last moment, Alonzo tilted his head back and stared at the stars. "Goodbye, Julia..." he whispered and then he was gone.

* * *

Julia awoke with a gasp, and sat bolt upright in bed, her heart pounding. She struggled to see something but her eyes refused to make sense of her surroundings. It was pitch black, the middle of the night, and she'd just had the most horrifying dream....

"Alonzo?" she whispered. Then a bit louder. "Alonzo?" She didn't know where she was, she felt dizzy, like she'd been thrown from one nightmare into another, not knowing which was real and which was the dream. Her fingers clutched at her blanket - that, at least, was solid, and the harsh sound of her own breathing filled the air.

"Julia?" came a response.

A door creaked open - her door, Julia realized - and Danziger, illuminated by a soft glow, stuck his head through the opening. "Are you okay in there?"

"Um...I think so...yes I am," she answered, a little more positively as things began to fall into place. She'd had a long day trying to take care of the newly arrived Syndrome-stricken children, made even more difficult by the all-too-familiar lack of response from the Terrians. If only Alonzo had been there....

Danziger was still looking concerned; she must have made quite a noise if he'd heard her through the wooden walls of what they lovingly referred to as the 'barracks'. "I guess I had a bad dream," Julia explained.

Giving a small grunt, Danziger said, "Yeah, me too. Something about things bein' wrong...somehow...." He shrugged. "I don't know, it's gone now."

Julia nodded slowly. Already the nightmare seemed to be fading, leaving her with nothing more than a vague feeling of displacement. "We both had busy days. Nightmares can be a manifestation of stress..." She broke off, knowing that the typical diagnosis wasn't quite correct in this situation.

"You gonna be all right?" he asked. He'd been looking out for her for a while now, ever since they'd lost Alonzo, and Julia appreciated the comfort. She'd tried to help him out too, because raising two children on his own was enough to challenge any man.

"Yeah," and she smiled bravely, trying to prove it. "Goodnight, John."

"Night, Julia." He closed the door, leaving Julia with her own thoughts.

Julia wandered across to the small window and pulled open the shutters. For the first time in months, she felt like seeing outside. With every passing moment, the world felt a little safer, no more night monsters to come and steal her away, like they stole Alonzo....

She missed him still, even after all this time, yet as she stared at the night sky, she suddenly felt as if it would all be okay again. "Alonzo?" she whispered. "I don't know if you can hear me, but-" She paused. "I don't even know why I'm saying this, but I feel close to you tonight. I know you're out there, somewhere, and I just hope you're listening.

"I had a nightmare before, and just now, when I woke up, I thought you were here. Strange, huh?"

A voice in her head told her no.

"I just want you to know that things are going really well here now. The Colony ship arrived without a hitch, the hospital was ready, and we're coping. It's not going perfectly but it's happening. We really are building our future.

"I wish you were here to see it." She fell silent for a while, looking at the stars, and for one moment, it seemed like Alonzo was right there, pointing them out to her. "I'll never forget you."

Outside, a Terrian rose from the ground, and smiled.