Alternative Version
This story is the result of the second posting of the teaser at the ICQ New2Earth2 message board. Same beginning as the original, but a different plotline altogether and a twist in the middle where I tried to throw Rich and Beverly off a little, but they took to the plot change with no problem.





Authors:

Beverly,
Richard,
and Robert


Teaser:
If there was anything Danziger disliked more than the cold weather and lack of warmth inside the Quonset hut he shared with his daughter, it was having to get up in the middle of the night to take his turn on watch. Leaving the chilly atmosphere of the shelter for the freezing cold of the winter night made him wish every dire fate in the universe to befall the Council members who stranded him on this planet. He would be safely on his way home to the stations but for those anonymous, manipulating idiots.
He took his place beside the campfire and bid goodnight to Cameron.
"Take it easy, Danz," the other man said. "Night`s been quiet, really quiet. You and I are probably the only living creatures stupid enough to be out in this cold."
"I`ll buy that. See you later."
Slinging the mag-pro over his shoulder, John put a few more logs on the fire and decided to take a quick walk around the camp.
The walk around camp was a short one, proving only that what Cameron said was true. No creature with any sense was out in this cold, but himself.
Returning to the fire, Danziger sat on one of the crates and held his hands and his feet as close to the fire as he could. When he felt a little warmer, he reached for the thermal blanket Cameron left draped over another crate and pulled it across his back. It wasn't much of an improvement.
Huffing on his fingers and rubbing his hands together, he tried to relax a little and stay alert. He looked around the camp and asked himself for perhaps the one thousandth time why he wasn't longing for the stations anymore. As hard as life had been there, it used to be home. Now it wasn't. When had that changed? When had he changed? To what about this godforsaken planet was he becoming so attracted?
"John?"
Danziger started at the sound of his name and looked to the right. A steaming cup of hot coffee was being offered by a gloved hand. He looked farther upward.
"Adair? What are you doing awake at this time of night?"
Devon made an all encompassing gesture. "I heard you getting ready to come outside. You weren't being too quiet about it."
As she spoke she sat down on the crate next to him, back to the fire and sipped from her own cup of coffee.
"Thanks for the coffee," John told her. "It`s pretty cold out here. You`d better go back inside and try to get to sleep."
"I did try, and it`s no use."
"Well, you`re going to freeze like that. Here. Take the end of the blanket."
Without hesitation, she turned on the crate to face the fire and wrapped the shared blanket around her. It was a little better, and the fire was warm on her face.
"Thanks," she said simply and looked up at the sky. "I wonder why the stars always look so much brighter and clearer on cold, still nights?"
Danziger glanced up briefly. "I don`t know. Yale probably does."
She laughed. "No doubt." She looked at Danziger. "I didn't mean to startle you just now. You were thinking pretty hard about something, I guess."
He nodded and took another sip, then said the first thing to pop to mind "I was thinking about the shoreline we saw at the other end of the spider tunnel."
"You were? What about it?"
"It was warmer there. Means it`s farther south than we are, doesn't it? The closer you get to a planet`s equator the warmer it gets, right?"
"Uh...yes, that`s true. It was quite a bit warmer, wasn't it? I hadn't noticed."
"Warm enough for fruit to still be growing, anyway."
She smiled at him. "There was a lot I didn't notice, I guess." About more things, and people, than the differences in climate.
"John? Do you think we would have made it as far as we have if Commander O`Neil had lived?" Devon asked. "Sometimes I think about how different our progress would have been if he was still in charge. He was determined to go after our missing supplies first, no matter what."
Danziger looked at her for a long time before answering. He turned back to face the fire and took another sip of the cooling coffee.
"Do you mean would we still be in the area where the pod landed?" he asked. "No, I think what happened to Uly changed you more than you know. With Yale backing you, we would have moved on, with or without O`Neill. Why would you worry yourself about that?"
"I dreamed about him after we started moving, after the second time he...after he really died. He said I`d regret not retrieving more of our vehicles. He said beyond the mountains we`d face hard times." Devon gestured with one hand. "These are the mountains and we`ll be going beyond them when the season changes."
"It was just a dream, Adair. Even on this planet a person can still have an old fashioned nightmare." He lightly tapped the back of his hand on her knee. "Let Solace have the meaningful dreams, Devon."
"You don`t think it could be a warning? An omen of some kind?"
He shrugged. "Ah, who knows. We`ve had our setbacks, our successes, but we were responsible for creating every one of them. I doubt O`Neill had anything to do with them."
He could hear the smile in her voice when she spoke again.
"Does that mean you really are looking forward to reaching New Pacifica? Future obstacles and all?"
Danziger looked beyond the fire at the snow and trees softly illuminated by the fire, and thought, Uh, well...
John knew what she meant - the conversation the two of them had on the beach on the eastern shore of the continent. He had to be the one to bring it up, hadn't he? There was no going back, he had to answer her in some way. The silence was drawing on too long.
"Do you mean the trip itself?" he asked, finally, choosing a topic he thought would be neutral ground. "Yeah, I`m looking forward to being on the move again. You`re always talking about the pioneers of the American continent, how they braved the elements to settle the land, but you never said anything about how they lived through a time as dead as winter."
Devon shrugged, something he could feel because the blanket moved, and said, "I don`t really know how they did it. Probably the same way we are. By meeting their challenges head on and finding a way."
"I think you just answered your own question, Dev."
Devon turned and looked at him. "Did I? Well, I guess I knew talking to you would do it."
Danziger laughed. "You could have talked to yourself and come to the same conclusion, Devon."
"No. I needed someone to point me in the right direction. You always do that."
"Could have fooled me," John said with a sigh. "You don`t listen to what I say half the time."
"That`s not true!" Devon told him indignantly. "I always listen to you, John."
"Name one time when you took my advice seriously."
Tilting her head to one side, she raised a finger, and lowered it. She sipped her coffee and adjusted the blanket. Aha!
"Okay. Just a few minutes ago I took one end of the blanket to stay warm when you offered it."
"I advised you to go inside, Devon. The blanket was an alternative."
"But I took it."
Wanting to change the subject to something safe from one with such argument potential, but not knowing exactly how, Danziger drained his coffee with a long swallow and set the cup aside. He got to his feet, shrugging the blanket away and hefting the mag-pro in his hands.
"I`m going to take a quick walk around," he said. "Make sure the lasers are working."
"Do you want more coffee? I`ll get some while you`re gone," Devon offered, rising, too.
"I`d really like you to go inside and stay. Try to get back to sleep. There`s no good reason for you to be out here in the cold."
She smiled. "You woke me. You have to live with the consequences. You`d better get going or the coffee will be cold by the time you get back."
Danziger couldn't argue with that. Moving was better than standing still. He left the circle of firelight and headed towards the vehicles.
To be perfectly honest with himself, it was nice having company, any company, but especially female company, around the campfire so late at night. For one thing the time flew when you could talk to someone.
As he passed the vehicles, and turned towards the tents and prefab huts close to the biodome, he couldn't keep one picture from his mind - the sight of Devon on the loft in the dome, not too long ago, looking out the window, lost in thoughts of Sheppard the night he died.
He wondered if that was what was really keeping Devon awake tonight. Thoughts, maybe dreams, too, of him. He was her dream man after all. Literally.
At the solar converter he could see the fire again. Devon was there, huddled under one end of the blanket with a fresh cup of steaming coffee in her hands. He guessed it didn't matter why she was keeping him company tonight. He`d be grateful for the companionship and let his other thoughts slide.
Devon greeted him with a smile. "I just remembered something. Yale did tell me once why the stars are so bright."
With the arrival of dawn, the camp began to come alive around Danziger and Devon. John damped the fire from it`s nighttime size and prepared it for whatever cooking the group would be doing throughout the day.
When Magus arrived to take over the watch, she didn't seem surprised to find Devon at the fireside, wrapped in the thermal blanket, while Danziger shifted the logs around the flames.She merely nodded and yawned in the direction of both of them and picked up the mag-pro. Like John before her, she began to walk the perimeter of the camp.
Devon got to her feet. "I`m going to see if Uly is alright, and then help Bess and Eben. Want me to check on True?"
Danziger made a `hah` noise and waved his hand. "Sure, if you wish, but she`s an open book. She`ll sleep until she smells food. End of story."
"I`ll look in, anyway."
"Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it."
Devon picked up the two cups and began to walk away.
After a few steps she stopped and turned back and leaned her head to one side. "Thank you, for letting me sit up with you."
He straightened his stance and looked at her."No problem. I always wanted to know why the stars looked brighter and clearer on still nights than on other nights."
"Okay, okay, so I talked too much! Thanks for not chasing me away."
"Ah, it was no problem. Made the time fly."
After she nodded and walked away, Danziger headed for the vehicles to help Walman with whatever he was doing there. While he covered the distance he amused himself thinking, Made the time fly - except for that part about how to reprogram synth pets to do tricks.
"Hey, Matt, need a hand there?" he called out.
Walman greeted him with a smile. "Yeah, thanks, John. We need another tent set up beside the dome. The ladies want to try drying some of the herd meat with sun stones instead of fire."
"Let`s do it."
By midmorning it was clear to everyone the day would turn out to be mild in contrast with the night. Yale predicted the afternoon temperature would be just above freezing.
Danziger thought it might be a good time to take another hunting party into the valley to look for more of the herd animals whose meat Bess and Eben were trying to preserve. There was no shortage of people wanting to get away from the camp on such a nice day, so he formed the volunteers into four groups of two and had the teams spread out through the lower end of the valley.
Taking Walman as his partner, John chose a route through the woods which was below the ridge near the camp. Talking to Devon last night had given him an idea that wouldn't go away.
After a few minutes of tramping through the snow, Walman made an observation."Isn't the spider tunnel you went through last month around here somewhere, Danziger?"
"Yeah, it is."
"Is that where we`re headed?"
Give the man a cigar, Danziger thought. The man is sharp."Yes," he said aloud.
Walman said nothing more until they reached the entrance to the cave.
"You didn't mention this to anyone else, did you?" he asked finally.
John laughed shortly. "Of course not. Adair would have had me tied to the transrover if I`d have told her I was curious about this place."
The other man grinned. "So what`ve you got in mind?"
"Look, man, we`ve worked together for a long time, right? I trust you as much as I trust myself. I`ve been thinking about going back through the tunnel and having a good look around the immediate area. I wish I could have brought Mazatl with us, but there was no way I could drag him along if he wanted to stay in camp and help Julia experiment with food preservatives."
Walman laughed. "I take it Devon is never to hear of this?"
John looked uncomfortable, but not enough to stifle his curiosity. "Something like that," he admitted, but added, "though it was talking to her that gave me the idea."
"Let`s do it," he said, repeating Danziger's comment made earlier that day.
The cave was no different than the last time they were inside it. The current was still evident in the webs.
As they entered the tunnel and waited for the matrix to form in response to their combined mass entering the time fold area, Danziger motioned Walman to stand back a bit.
"The last time we went through," he said, "we held on to one another and Adair pulling my jacket off must have flung me wide at the other end. I`d just as soon not end up in the wall again. You wouldn't like it either. Take my word for it."
"I believe it. Want to check me for spiders?"
"Already did." He held up a small scanning unit in one hand. " I brought one of Julia's bioscanners. We`re clean."
The matrix began to form.
"Get ready," Danziger warned. "Here it comes."
A flash of brilliant white light filled the tunnel and Walman closed his eyes.
The light faded as quickly as it formed and the two were gone.
When Danziger awakened he was relieved to find himself in the open air lying face down in the sand. He was surrounded by rocks but he could feel mist pelting his hands and one side of his face. The roar of the ocean was loud and he pushed himself to his feet to see how close he came to the ocean this time.
The waves were breaking just a few feet beyond the rocks.
He went around the rocks and looked down the beach in both directions.
"Walman!" he called. "Hey! Can you hear me?"
He started walking in the direction where he remembered the cave being located and came upon an awestruck Walman kneeling in the sand, hands on his thighs, watching the tide ebb and flow.
He looked up at Danziger and smiled. "Thanks," he said, voice raised over the sound of the surf. "Thanks for bringing me. So this is what`s waiting for us at the end of our walk to the com dish? I can`t wait to get there!"
He got to his feet, still smiling.
Danziger nodded his head. "Let`s go inside where we can talk."
Standing just inside the cave entrance, the two men looked around. To Danziger nothing had changed.
"I wish I could figure out how these things worked, but that`s beyond me," he said. "What I`d like to do is come up with a plan to follow whenever we encounter one of these tunnels. There must be more all over the planet, and there`s a good chance we`ll find another one on the way to New Pacifica."
"I guess so," Walman agreed. "Do you mean making sure we don`t come out under an ocean or in a wall somewhere?"
"More or less. I told you why I think I ended up in the wall, but we were never sure how Julia got under the ocean. We assumed a grendler took her there, but how did he get there? I`ve been thinking about this place a lot lately. There must be a way to avoid being thrown out by the tunnel. A way to arrive at the destination safely. We did it going back, if you remember."
Walman nodded. "Sure I do. You just appeared in the tunnel."
"Exactly. We knew where we were headed. I was thinking of the caves and everybody waiting for us there. I`ll bet all of us were."
"How do you figure that has anything to do with it?"
"Just a guess," John said. "The metaphysical side of the planet Julia is always talking about - it`s connected to these tunnels, and maybe to the travelers who use them."
"Okay. I`ll believe anything about this planet, even that. Now, I guess you`re going to suggest we try your theory to see if it pans out, right?"
"That`s why I wanted Mazatl to come along. We need an observer on either end of the tunnel. With just the two of us, we have to do it the hard way. Go back and forth a couple of times."
Walman sighed heavily. "Who goes first?"
"I will. I`ll go to the other end and try to come back here to the caves. You watch and see if anything unusual happens. Try to get it all on gear so we can look at it back at camp."
Walman waited patiently as Danziger disappeared into the time fold a few minutes later.
Carefully avoiding the spider webs and making certain his gear recorder was operating, he watched.
Soon the sound of the matrix forming inside the tunnel was heard and with a bright flash of light distracting him, he nearly jumped three feet straight up when Danziger appeared out of thin air a short distance to his left - at almost the exact spot he`d been standing in as they talked earlier.
Knowing the fright he`d had showed on his face, Walman attempted a smile anyway. "You`re here," was all he could think to say.
Danziger chose to ignore his friend`s initial reaction and reply as if it hadn't happened. "It worked! I thought of this wall and the rock and the entry being right over there - and here I was."
"Should I try it or not? I can take your word for it."
Danziger laughed.
"No, my curiosity about it is satisfied, but there is one other thing I want to check out."
"Don`t tell me," Walman said, holding up his hand. "The cave under the ocean, I`ll bet."
"Give the man a cigar. That`s another reason I wanted Mazatl along. Would have been nice to have a look out. Come on. I remember the area where Julia said the cave opening was."
"Let`s do it. And don`t think I`ll forget about the cigar."
The two men left the cave and approached the ocean waves more closely as they skirted the many rocks and boulders littering the beach. The sun was high in the sky and it was much warmer here than in the valley at the other end of the tunnel system. By the time they found the drop away caverns, both men were carrying their coats and had rid themselves of hats and gloves.
Bundling the items together and hiding them behind some smaller rocks, they each carried a small lumalight and one by one went into the caves beneath the beach.
Beneath the ocean, or where they believed they were beneath the ocean, Danziger and Walman were surprised to discover they did`t need the lumalights. Julia had neglected to mention the walls of the caves were luminescent. They, or something on them, glowed a dim bluish green color similar to the color of the ocean water. Pocketing their lights, they quietly and quickly descended deeper under the ocean, stopping now and then to examine discarded items laying on the cavern floors.
Inside a large cavern branching to one side, Danziger spotted several small gray crates amid piles of materials of every kind - manufactured and not.
"Let`s check out the boxes," he said quietly.
Walman nodded. "I think I recognize those, Danz. I just hope the locks are undamaged."
"Are they ours?"
Walman reached the first one and smiled brightly. "It looks like ours, but even if it isn't, what`s inside should be close enough to not make a difference. They`re tool boxes for a Zero unit."
Digging through the grendler stash did not yield anything more that would be of use to the group. Most of the items were either broken beyond repair, or too old to be of use, or they were just in bad shape. The few items of clothing were tattered or simply too dirty to get clean again.
Danziger and Walman recognized nothing more that might have come from one of the lost cargo pods of Eden Advance. Besides, it was getting late and they did not want to press their luck.
Taking the tools and a locked chest that was not too heavy, and just looked intriguing, they left the underwater caverns and went back to the beach. Retrieving their heavy clothing they took one last turn around the beach, enjoying the warmth and the smell of the sea.
At the spider tunnel, they stopped briefly to examine the chest, and discovered it was locked with a password combination that would take time to be cracked. The seal and lock would take a long time to cut through to bypass the password.
They went through the vacuum matrix and returned to the snow laden forest and valley above the biodome. It was chilly in the tunnel. They bundled up and went outside.
Tramping through the woods towards the biodome, neither Danziger nor Walman could think of a single good lie to tell the others about where they got the items they would have in their possession when they returned.
They went out looking for food, and wasted their time exploring the spider tunnel instead.
Devon and Julia would take turns chewing them up one side and down the other, but nothing they could think of sounded any better than the truth.
"Well, maybe they don`t have to know we went to the tunnels deliberately," Danziger suggested. "What they don`t ask we don`t need to tell."
Walman looked at him skeptically. "Since when did Devon or Julia let any matter drop when they could rub it in?"
"Never," he admitted.
"We`re dead men, John. Any way you want to look at it."
"Oh, well, at least I learned what I wanted to know about the spider tunnels," Danziger said.
Walman looked at him and smiled. "I got to see the ocean."
"Zero will have tools to help out more on the rest of the trip."
"Whatever is inside the chest you`re carrying might be useful."
Danziger laughed shortly. "We can only hope."
Silently they walked on, preparing themselves to face the music. It had been a worthwhile exploration for both men and they would settle for that.
When the biodome came into view, they looked at one another, and quickened their pace, and hurried home.


The End

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