SITE LINKS

Earth 2 Home
Main Page
COMMENTS?

C. R. Salway

THE DAY BEFORE

He jabbed his finger at a place on the map showing a break in the isobars about twenty kilometers north of their current location.
"There. Granted, it may or may not be anything, considering the information used to make this map is practically useless, but it bears checking out. It might be a way through to the river where we wouldn't have to burn out the transrover coaxing it up and over the hills."
"Maybe, but it's twenty kilometers out of our way. It'll be an additional fifty or more when we take in the actual distance across the hills and the distance back to this spot," she indicated a location directly across the hills from where they were now, "where the closest bend in the river is. Seventy additional kilometers is almost four more days of travel."
John Danziger felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. Not again. He leaned forward and rested the weight of his upper body on his elbows on the map. It was spread out on the roughly flat top of a large rock surrounded by smaller ones. He rubbed his eyes with his thumbs. "It isn't going to matter, Adair," he said patiently. "It'll probably take us longer to coax the transrover over these hills than it will to drive it around if this is a break in the terrain."
"That could very well be, but we're here now, John. After losing so much time when the rains kept us mired in one spot, I don't think it's necessary to go so far out of our way and add another two or three days to reach the river. We can take it slow and get there in two days."
"Okay. Okay." He straightened up and looked around. "You and Lonz take the dunerail back to camp and get people moving. I'll take the ATV over to see if this thing is a pass and if it is, I'll drive the transrover around myself while the rest of you go straight across to the water. Though, after the rains I don't know why you're in such a hurry to reach water. We've got more than enough to make it around the hills and beyond."
Devon Adair gave him one of her exasperated looks, the one that was supposed to convey infinite patience along with her disagreement with his reasoning. "It's not the water, John. It would be nice to take a real bath in the river, but that's not important. It's the time. We need to make up some time. We can do it here."
"What harm can it do, Adair? If I'm wrong, I'll be back to meet all of you here and we'll take the rover over the hills as planned. If I'm right, I'll take it around myself so the rest of you can traverse the hills and wait for me at the river. I just don't want to have to take the rover's engine apart and possibly rebuild parts. If I can avoid it, it'll be worth it."
"I realize that, Danziger, but you heard Alonzo. He said the hills are not that steep. He's been to the highest hill and he's coming back and he thinks the transrover can make it."
"Lonz has never driven the rover on terrain like this. He doesn't know anything for sure. Any hill is too steep for it until we get it to the top."
"In the interest of time, I think we should trust Alonzo's judgement. He had no problem on the ATV, and the engine on that thing is small - small enough for Uly to have mastered it while he was still sick."
"The ATV weighs practically nothing, Devon. It's not a fair comparison."
"I appreciate that, John. I do! Really! I'm not trying to be difficult. I'm just trying to make up for lost time."
There was that look again.
"Well, I'm trying to avoid losing more time, too," Danziger told her, his voice rising. "If the engines burn out we'll be stuck at the river until Matt and I can take it apart and put it back together again. It could take a week or more."
"I know," Devon answered, matching him tone for tone, "but I believe Alonzo knows what he's talking about, too. The rover will make it over the hills."
John stared at that obstinate expression in her eyes for a few moments before throwing his hands in the air. "All right, all right. We'll go over the hills. You can take a bath in the river day after tomorrow," he said and whirled around to stalk away. "I don't know why the hell I always think maybe this time we'll do something other than what you've already made up your mind to do. Hasn't happened yet, odds are it will never happen, but for some reason..."
He let his words trail off as he came up to the dunerail and reached into the back seat for his canteen. Unscrewing the cap, he sat down on one of the wheels and leaned his head back for a long drink of water. The sound of the ATV's small engine reached his ears as the vehicle crested the hill behind him and started down the slope. He replaced the cap and dropped the canteen onto the driver's seat.
Devon refolded the much maligned map the Eden Advance team was following to New Pacifica and tucked it into the back waist band of her pants and waved at Alonzo before walking toward the dunerail. "Piece of cake," he announced with a wide grin. "Made it back in an hour and a half.." Devon smiled at him and looked at Danziger pointedly.
"Hey, " he said crossly. "I gave up. Remember?"
Alonzo couldn't help but laugh. Devon and John had disagreed about something, but too bad he'd missed the brunt of it. Their showdowns were high entertainment as far as he was concerned. "Let's go back and give the rest of the group the good news, okay?" Devon suggested and walked around the rail to climb into the passenger seat. After Danziger folded himself behind the steering wheel, she crossed her arms and looked at him.
"For your information, I'm not in a rush to reach the river just to be able to take a bath. I was only using the idea as an example of one of the uses the river would have for us."
"Vehicle start."
"Another good reason to get there as soon as possible would be dietary. Fish would be a welcome change for everyone after a winter full of dried meat. Not to mention there might be berries growing along the banks."
"Vehicle forward."
Alonzo laughed out loud and began to turn the ATV around. He laughed louder when he realized neither of them was aware of his reaction.
"You're not going to answer me, are you? I hate when you do this, you know." She put on her dark glasses and looked away, pretending to watch the scenery go by as he turned the dunerail in the direction of camp. Of course, he knows. Well, I don't have to talk to him or listen to him, either. He's not the only one who can shut someone out.
Behind the rail, Alonzo watched them drive away and put on his gear. Whistling through his teeth, he called to Julia Heller, and she answered immediately. "We're on our way back," he told her. "Devon and John are acting like they had a pretty big fight. I missed it all, but I know serious when I see it."
Julia's image raised her eyebrows. "What else is new? Did the sun rise today, too?"
"Hey, I'm just giving fair warning. The rain put us all in a bad mood. You remember what happened the last time people took sides."
The doctor breathed deeply. "Alright. I'll talk to Yale."
The dunerail trundled over the hills and grasslands at a steady speed, following it's own trail made earlier in the day when it's passengers were on their way to scout the hills. John lifted his canteen from his lap and removed the cap for another drink.
Devon looked over and watched him. She couldn't stand it anymore. "You can't ignore me forever, Danziger."
He gave her a thin smile around a mouthful of water and returned his eyes to the path before them. "Fine. Go ahead. I can take it as long as you can hand it out." She went back to ignoring him, too. The silence lasted until the camp came into view on the horizon.
"John, you're going to have talk to me sometime. We have to tell the camp what we're going to do and make plans to get moving in the morning." She waited for a reply, though she knew she wasn't going to get one. The camp loomed closer. She grabbed his canteen, opened the top and took a drink herself. No reaction. It didn't work. This was serious.
Danziger glanced over both shoulders to find Alonzo's location, then swung the dunerail toward the transrover and commanded the vehicle to halt, which it did, gliding to a smooth stop. He climbed out quickly and began striding toward the tents grouped a short distance away. Everyone was rushing up to them, True in the lead.
"Dad!" she yelled and raced into his arms.
He chuckled a little and lifted her high over his head, spinning around a couple of times before lowering her to give her a kiss on the cheek. Laughing, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Did you bring me anything, Dad?"
Shifting her weight to his other arm, Danziger thrust his left hand into his pocket and brought something out. It was a chunk of quartz-like rock about an inch in circumference. He held it up to catch the sunlight and it glinted a serene teal blue.
"Oooh! I can almost see through it,"she said and reverently took it to examine more closely. "It"s beautiful, Dad. I love it. Thank you." She hugged him again. "I love you, too."
"Same to you, sport," he answered and let her slip to the ground. She was still examining her rock closely.
They came face to face with the other members of their group, and Danziger's expression had hardened once again. Devon, walking alongside Uly who had run up to her at the same time True had reached her father, stopped a short distance from Danziger and smiled at everyone.
"Good news," she announced. "We'll be moving out in the morning. Alonzo found a route straight west to a river we should be able to reach in two days time."
Her declaration was met with enthusiastic chatter. Everyone wanted to be moving again. She glanced at Danziger who was pretending his attention was all on True, but the expression on his face wasn't meant for his little girl. She gritted her teeth and looked away. She was about to take another drink of water when she noticed she still holding his canteen, not her own bottle.
"That is very good news," Yale said in his slow, measured way. "Do you have the map, Devon?"
"Certainly." She reached back and pulled it out of her waistband and handed it to him. She looked at Danziger again. "John, we need to discuss this and make plans. Can you be ready in an hour?"
He turned to glare in her direction, bringing up one index finger to point in her general direction, then stopped, thinking better of it. He took a deep breath.
"No, I can't. I quit."
He walked away without a further word of explanation.
It was too much for Devon. "Well...Good!" she demanded of his back and hurled the canteen after him. "You forgot this!"
The half filled object spun through the air and hit him on the back of his right arm and fell to the ground with a thunk. He turned and picked it up, giving one last withering look at Devon Adair as he took two steps backward and said, "I mean it!", before whirling around and stalking off to his tent.
"Good!" Devon replied, and threw one hand in the air. "You don't hear me arguing, do you?"
She, too, stalked off, heading for what was being used as the mess tent.
True Danziger was the first to giggle.

The evening meal was nearly over when John Danziger finally showed up at the mess tent to join the others. He helped himself to a small portion of food and sat apart from everyone else, but close to his daughter, who was at a small table with Uly and Bess Martin. She was showing them the contents of her little pouch of treasures her father had given her since crash landing on the planet - souvenirs of a sort that he would always bring back for her when he was away from the camp without her. The turquoise chunk of quartz being the latest addition to her collection. He watched her lining up the items, mostly stones of different colors, but here and there a rock with a fossil embedded in it, and the one manmade item among them, the VR chip of her mother. Devon, Yale, Julia and Alonzo were gathered around a table together looking at the map. At a guess, John figured they'd already settled on a route to the river and were now studying the land on the other side of it. He really ought to go over there, but damned if he was going to let Adair off the hook before morning. From the corner of his eye, he could see her look in his direction now and then. Of course, she might just be checking on Uly.
At least she was letting him eat in peace.
After he'd calmed down a bit, Danziger had a good laugh over her throwing his canteen at him. It must have been a sight the others wouldn't likely forget soon. The CEO actually losing her temper like a normal person. He wished he could have seen it instead of being on the receiving end. It must have been hilarious.
Finished with his meal, he took the bowl and spoon and carefully washed them in the solution set aside for this purpose and placed them upside down on a folded length of material with several others. He took a cup next and filled it with some of the hot coffee, now lukewarm, that was served with every meal. It was bland no matter what temperature it was. He was making his way toward the wide opening in the tent, when Yale's voice stopped him.
"John," the teacher called to him quietly. "We have been studying our course for tomorrow." Danziger stopped and turned to look at him. "And?"
"And... I have noticed what appears to be a pass through the hills several kilometers north of here." He tapped his finger on the map where earlier in the day John had done a similar thing. "It appears to wind a great deal, but would it not make a safer route through which to take the transrover?"
Danziger shrugged. "Good idea. Why didn't I think of that?" he drawled unenthusiastically.
Devon gripped Yale's arm and shot Danziger a "don't start" look at the same time. A wasted effort, he was still ignoring her. "Yale," she said, "we talked about it earlier today, but decided going straight across the hills would save time. Alonzo is sure the transrover can make it over the hills."
"I see," Yale answered, and he definitely meant he did, indeed, see.
Danziger wandered out into the fading sunlight and was soon helping Baines and Walman get a bonfire going. Bess left the tent soon after and joined the men around the fire.
Across the tent, the children started talking again as soon as it was plain there would be no more fireworks between their respective parents.
"I think it's the best present you have so far," Uly was telling True as he fingered the shiny turquoise rock. "The sled I got for my birthday was great, but this is really great. You can see through it and everything is upside down. I can't stop looking at it."
True giggled. "I know. I got a really great present once before, a long time ago."
"What was it?"
"When I was six, Eben let me keep her synth cat for her while she went away on a cold sleep jump."
"A synth cat? Why didn't she give it to you for keeps? Presents are supposed to be for keeps."
"Not all the time, Uly. Sometimes presents are just for a while, but they're still presents. She knew I loved her synth cat, so she let me keep it while she was away to see if I would do a good job of taking care of it. I wanted my dad to get me one, but he didn't think I was old enough for one."
"Oh. How did she know you liked it?"
"She used to live with my dad and me when I was really little, after she first came to the stations from the lunar colony. It was the first time I ever saw a synth cat and I thought it was great - until I saw a real one, anyway."
"You did? You saw a real one? Where?"
"On Station Twelve. Lauren took me there when I was eight and they had one at the children's zoo. She used to live on Station Twelve when she had a marriage contract. She came to Station Five when it was up."
"Who's Lauren?"
True gave him an exasperated look. "Lauren! You know! Magus?"
"Oh! Yeah," he answered . "Did she live with you, too?"
"No. She and my uncle, James, were friends for a while."
"Did she go away on a sleep jump, too?"
"No, but my dad and I did. We took a fifteen month jump to one of the water stations in the outer Oort Cloud. Boy, it was dull out there. All the VR programs were older than I was!" "What happened to the synth cat?"
"I gave it back to Eben when she came back from her jump. After I saw the real cat, I didn't like the synth cat anymore. Well, I missed it, a lot, after she took it, but now I want a real cat. If we ever get back to the stations, my dad said I could get one. Well, maybe, anyway. If we have enough for a pet allotment."
"Wow. I never had a pet. They made me sneeze a lot and I couldn't breathe. Their fur did that to me."
"Kobas don't have fur," True said, "and I don't know why everyone is still so afraid of them, anyway. If you're nice to them, they're nice to you. Just like people."
"Just like the Terrians," Uly added, "but the kobas are poisonous and they hurt people."
"Only if you're mean to them," True insisted. "Besides, their poison doesn't kill. If I was really hurt bad, or if I was really sick, I'd want to use their venom to put me to sleep until I was better."
"But, you can use a sedaderm for that anytime, right , Julia?" Uly looked over his shoulder at the doctor.
"What if we run out of sedaderms?" True said. "Or a grendler steals one of our medpacks? Then we could use koba venom, couldn't we, Julia?"
The adults still in the tent had gone deadly silent during the conversation between the children. Forgotten was the map in front of some and the food and drink in front of others, all were listening with elaborate casualness to True's innocent revelations.
The doctor, realizing she'd been frozen in place during the conversation, glanced at Alonzo and found him staring at the map. Clasping her hands in front of her and rubbing them slowly together, she answered.
"Actually, Uly, True might have a very good idea there. I, um, wish I thought of it." She slowly rose from her chair and stepped quietly towards the children. In doing so she looked across at Cameron and Denner who were sitting together at another table and finishing their meal. They looked blankly back at her. She turned slowly and looked toward Devon, but it was Yale who caught her eye. His wide eyed expression was uncharacteristically furtive. He didn't seem to know where to look.
The children were talking again, asking Julia questions and she thankfully sank into Bess' vacant seat and started answering them. She looked up guiltily when, a few minutes later, Devon left and walked straight to the tent she shared with her son.
The others began to leave one by one, also, and Julia guessed they were all going outside to look around the camp with a new perspective. She lingered and left with the children, but when they ran ahead to the fire, she hung back and watched the group gathered there for a while.
Talking, laughing, joking, teasing - they were all unwinding from the day's activities just as they had always done since crashing on the planet. Julia had never seen any indication of past relationships among the group. John was as free and easy with her as he was with everyone else. His merciless teasing of her after the scout where she'd gotten stuck in a rocky crawlspace, and he had to pull her out, wasn't any different from his teasing of Magus after she ran the dunerail into a waist deep pool of stagnant water, nor of Cameron when he tried to rig a camp light to an energy source too powerful for it. She'd have never guessed Sinh and Danziger were once lovers. Even now, watching them at the fire, John and True and little Uly sitting together, and Eben playfully teasing Cameron about something, and John joining the laughter about it - no indication there, Julia thought.
She turned to go to the med tent for a sweater, it was getting chilly, and she saw Yale hesitate as he leaned down and looked through the opening to the Adairs' tent. Slowly, one step at a time, he disappeared inside.

Devon was lying on her cot on her left side, legs bent, one arm under head, the other straight along her body. She looked over as Yale entered the tent.
"I just wanted to see if you were all right. You left the mess tent without a word."
"You needn't have worried. I'm tired. I've had a long day."
"Of course. I'm sorry I worried."
"Yale?"
"Yes, Devon?"
"Do you consider me a loner? Am I what a loner is?"
"Now, Devon, there are many definitions..."
"I once called Danziger a loner, and he said I was the only loner in this group."
"There are many ways in which one might be thought to be a loner..."
"John is the best friend I've ever had in my entire life."
"Perhaps you should talk to him about this, not me."
"Yale, I don't know!" She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the cot, unaware of the look of astonishment on Yale's face.
He had never heard such an admission from her before. Not even when she was a child.
"When I heard True talking about their past life on the stations I realized I don't really know John at all. He's my best friend and I know so little about him, Yale. I've come to depend on him so much, and I don't even know when his birthday is, how old he is, how he knows so much about things on a planet we never encountered until we crash landed." She rubbed her hands over her arms and got to her feet. She automatically grabbed a sweater for her son on her way to the open tent flap, walked past Yale and stepped outside.
The sun was down and it was full dark. The crowd around the fire was going full steam.
Devon turned to give Yale a nervous smile. "I suppose I'd better go over there and find out what he quit and why."
He watched her walk away and it was several minutes before it seemed he could breathe again. Of course, Uly and True were sitting in the dirt on either side of John Danziger, doing their combination laugh-shout-talk-Icansayitbeforeyoucan method of telling him what they'd done here at camp while he was away that day.
Devon dropped to her knees beside Uly and ruffled his hair. "Ulysses. It's getting cool tonight. Better put this on."
He did his obligatory "Aw, Mom," routine as he let her slide the sweater over his head and willingly pushed his arms through the sleeves. Immediately he returned to his race with True to be the first to reach the end of their account of daily activities.
Devon waited for a break in the chatter. When the kids momentarily turned to repeat a part of their story to the others, she tapped the back of her hand against Danziger's arm. "Hey. I'm sorry I threw your canteen at you."
He leaned his head toward her and turned slightly. "No problem. Wasn't like I didn't ask for it."
She smiled. "See? I told you, you couldn't ignore me forever."
"I could if I wanted to."
"I'm sure you could, but you don't really want to, do you?"
"Like hell I don't."
She laughed. "Come on, confess. Sometimes you think I'm okay."
"Well, sure," he agreed. "When I'm on scout, for instance, and you're at camp, yeah, then I think you're okay. I don't have to listen to you naggin' at me about every little thing."
"I don't nag at you, Danziger! I never have!"
"Well, that's what it feels like over here on the receiving end!" He jumped to his feet and turned to walk away. The box he'd been sitting on was in his way and he had to step over it. It gave Devon the time she needed to stand, too, and force him into a face-off.
"Discussing something in detail is not the same as being nagged about it!"
"It is when I'm the one getting the brush off!"
"I've never brushed off any suggestion you've ever made, Danziger," Devon assured him, shaking her head a little for emphasis.
"Why should you when you can just ignore them?"
She looked at him with renewed understanding. "I might have known. This is all about taking the transrover fifty kilometers out of our way to get it through the hills instead of going straight across and saving two days of travel time."
"Of course, it is!" he bellowed back. "The hills are too steep for it! We'll be lucky if we just overheat the engine dragging it up and down those hills!"
"Then you'll drive it very carefully, won't you?" She crossed her arms and gave him that look again, that ‘you're getting on my nerves but I'm so understanding and patient I'm going to let you get away with it' look.
"No, Adair, I won't. I quit, remember?" He turned and stalked away. "Come on, True. Let's get you ready for bed."
"You quit what, Danziger?" Devon demanded and rushed after him. She caught up to him and grabbed his arm, stopping him in mid stride.
"You!" he shot back, glaring into her eyes. "I quit you and your marching committee! Find someone else to be your damn dart board!"
"Dart board? What's that got to do with anything?"
"Sleep on it. I'm sure it will come to you."
He quickly walked away before she could come back with a retort.
Devon turned back to face the fire, a ‘How did that get out of hand so fast?' look on her face.
"Uly? Bed time, come on," she said wearily and went back to her tent.
"What happened out there today, Alonzo?" a half dozen voices demanded of him at once.
"I don't know," he said, waving his hands helplessly, "but, I'll bet if she just kissed him it wouldn't happen again!"
The laughter that rippled around and around the campfire passed over a very surprised Uly.

THE FIRST DAY

The following morning, the camp was busy early as the group rose at dawn to begin breaking down the tents and packing the vehicles for travel. After stumbling through breakfast, a yawning True came back to the tent she and her father shared. It was on the ground and he was folding it. "Dad, Devon and Yale are waiting for you at the mess tent."
"Sweetie, I'm busy here. Would you go back and remind them I quit?"
She swung around and trudged away, still yawning. Danziger watched her for a few seconds, laughing. She was still half asleep. If he had told her to spin around three times and dance a jig, she probably would have. The thought made him laugh harder, and he went back to work stowing the tent and their few belongings.
She was back a short time later, but all the activity still hadn't wakened her fully. "Devon said you're impossible and what's wrong with you."
With a smile, John lifted her in his arms and carried her across the compound to the transrover. The passenger door was open and he stepped up easily and maneuvered her into the front seat where he put her down and kissed her head gently. "Stay here until you're ready to rejoin the living, True girl."
"Hey, Danz," Walman called as he went past carrying a load for the transrover. "Devon is looking for you."
"Here, let me have that," John said and took the bundle he was carrying. "Look, Matt, I quit yesterday and I meant it. I'll finish up for you. As my last act as a member of Adair's marching morons, I'm promoting you. You, my friend, are the new moron. Go have fun."
Walman stared after him openmouthed as John swung around and walked away. Then Matt rushed forward. "W-wait, wait a sec! You don't mean that!"
"Yes, I do," he said over his shoulder. "If Adair has any objections, that's too bad. You're in charge, pal. Now, if you'll excuse me, boss, I've got my own tent to pack up."
"John!"
"I mean it, Walman. From here on, you lead, I follow."
Walman stopped, mouth open but no sound came forth. He swung around and came face to face with Yale, who seemed as surprised as he was. "Did you...? He just...he told me to take over for him, Yale. Can he do that?!"
Yale looked helplessly over at Devon and back at the stunned man before him. "Don't worry. Go about your business. I'll tell Devon and Alonzo he won't be joining us today."
Relieved, Walman nodded. "Okay, great, uh, okay..." He beat a hasty exit.
Danziger made himself useful for the next hour, helping everyone load up and secure the vehicles for travel, inwardly amused by the surprised and often sidelong glances everyone was giving him. Only Mazatl seemed to take the change in stride, as if he'd been expecting it all along.
John pointedly avoided Devon and Yale, but noticed when they finally put away their things and got ready to move. He took a deep breath. Ahh! It felt good to go a couple of hours without having to argue with anyone over trivial matters.
"Uh, John?" Walman's voice cut into his good mood.
He turned and was faced with Matt, Cameron and Baines, all looking a little uncomfortable.
"Yeah? What is it?"
"We're ready to pull out. Uh, are you, you know, going drive the ‘rover?"
He was about to make a sharp retort, but thought the better of it. Hell, he may not be a member of the first team anymore, but he was still the ops chief, and his crew still saw him that way.
"No," he said levelly. "You take first, then Baines, and Cameron. Mazatl and I will start out driving tomorrow. All of you, be careful when we hit the hills. They're going to be a lot trickier than anyone thinks, okay?"
The other men nodded, agreeing, and scattered to spread the news. The ops chief was still functioning. Danziger felt a tap on his arm and he turned to look. Mazatl handed him a canteen and a small pack to carry. "Thanks, Chris," he said and looped the straps of both over his shoulder.
"Perimeter check okay?"
"All clear," the other man answered. "We got everything we need and the trash is buried. We're good to go."
Denner joined them. "Say, do you think we'll ever get all the mud off our boots?"
"I doubt it," Mazatl said. "The mud got into everything. Who knew it could rain for five days in a row?"
"We've still got a river to cross, Di," Danziger told her. "We'll either get rid of it there, or trade it for sand."
"As long as we get there before it decides to rain again," she said. "I can take more mud and even sand, but I can do without rain for a good long time. Mud and sand wash out - mold doesn't."

The ground was still wet from the rain even though it had stopped falling a day and a half earlier. There were puddles, some deep, some drying, but still muddy, in the hollows between many of the hills. Walking up and down the slopes was difficult even though there was plenty of grass and other vegetation growing in the soil. Slipping and sliding in both directions made gaining distance harder than anticipated.
By midday, the group had covered only six kilometers with fourteen left to go. There was enough mud in some of the hollows to coat the transrover's wheels and treads and make traction even more difficult on the slopes. While the smaller ATV and dunerail had less difficulty with the muck coating their tires, the bigger vehicle was laboring.
If Danziger was feeling guilty about staying out of the loop, Chris Mazatl could see no sign of it. For the first time in quite a spell, the ops chief was behaving like the John Danziger of old, the man Mazatl knew on the stations and with whom he'd worked off and on for over ten years. On the one hand it was a welcome change, but on the other hand, it meant a big blow-out was coming soon. Devon Adair had only so much patience when it came to John Danziger.
"You know what I miss?" the doomed man asked suddenly.
"What?" Mazatl, chewing on a stalk of grass, said and looked to his left, and squinted against the bright sunlight reflecting from John's sunglasses.
He and Danziger, a little ahead of the group, were waiting on a hilltop for the others to catch up with them. John was laying down, hands behind his head, staring up at the sky as if he hadn't a care or worry in the world.
"Going out on jetpacks for routine maintenance. Remember when we were building the sensor arms for the ship? We had it all down to a science. You'd go one way, I'd go the other, and no matter what, we met exactly in the middle."
"Yeah, good teamwork, we had that," Chris admitted. "It was as close to flying as we ever got, but I miss the indoor stuff we did with ropes, you know? Rappelling off the scaffolding and climbing up the walls before the finishing touches were put in. Maybe after we get to New-Pac I'll volunteer to do mapping, or exploring until the colony ship arrives."
Danziger chuckled. "I know what you're thinking about, man. The cliffs at the old campsite where Solace disappeared that time, right? I noticed them, too. They would have been perfect for rappelling down and climbing back up."
"I was tempted, weren't you?" Mazatl asked, leaning back on his elbows and blowing the stalk of grass in an arc toward his feet.
"All the time. We're going to be so out of condition for zero gee construction, we might as well take desk jobs. All the walking in the world isn't going to keep us in shape for that kind of work." Chris shook his head. "No. No desk jobs. We could take up show business - like zero gee ballet, maybe? Pushing off walls with the kind of power our leg muscles have now could make us pretty good at acrobatic ballet!"
"Sure. Or we could be human rockets. We could thrill spectators by kicking off from the outside of the stations and reaching escape velocity."
"But getting pulled back at the last minute by long tethers!"
They both laughed.
"We're pretty much screwed as construction drones, aren't we?" Mazatl said shaking his head. "Pretty damn much. We can always hope fifty years of progress hasn't changed the construction business too much," Danziger told him, sitting up as he did. "Man, what's taking so long?"
Mazatl pointed a little to their right. "Transrover should be coming over the hill any time now."
As he finished talking, the dunerail appeared at the top of the nearest hill to the east of their position, followed by a couple of people on foot. It was some time before the transrover finally crested the hill. By then the dunerail was halfway across the wide valley separating the two and all the walkers were close behind it. Alonzo Solace, with the mag-pro, was bringing up the rear with the Zero unit.
Two of the walkers behind the rail veered off and began to walk towards Danziger and Mazatl. "Looks like E and Denner spotted us," John said.
Mazatl picked another stalk of grass and twirled it in his fingers, glancing toward the women only briefly. "Launching ourselves into space on tethers, huh?"
Both men started to laugh all over again.
"Zoom!" they said in unison, making upward motions with their hands. "Boi-oi-oi-oi-oing!"
The two woman stopped a few feet from them and watched them for a few seconds.
"I'm not even going to ask," Sinh told her companion.
"About what? I don't see anything," Diane said. She looked at Eben and they both went around the men and continued walking.
Danziger and Mazatl got to their feet and fell into step behind the women, still making jokes about their sorry state of physical degeneration.
The dunerail with Devon driving and the two children with her passed them easily and started down the other side of the hill. Cameron, Magus and Yale were taking their turns riding in the transrover, and Baines was on the ATV scouting ahead - probably very far ahead.

Actually, Jake Baines was making a return trip to the rest of the group. He had indeed taken the little vehicle as far ahead of the others as he could - not because he was really scouting the land, but for the thrill of speed he got from the ATV barreling along as fast as he could push it. He could hardly wait for the colony ship to arrive so he could get back into space and to the stations. He wanted to fly again, really fly again, and not just pretend he was soaring while on the back of a machine with a top speed of forty klicks per hour and a battery life of eight and a half hours. He slowed the ATV to a more respectable speed as soon as he caught sight of the group a kilometer or so east. It wouldn't do to have Danziger catch him hill jumping on the little vehicle. Although he suspected that Danziger probably already guessed what Baines liked to do on the ATV, the mechanic had said nothing directly to him, yet. Besides, just a short time ago, he'd learned a valuable lesson about looking before one leaped. He'd almost hill jumped the ATV over a dead end. A dead end no one knew was dead ahead of their present course.
Coming up face to face, as it were, with the others, Baines momentarily forgot the situation and aimed the vehicle towards the group of people with whom Danziger was walking. After a few seconds he swung away with a wave and redirected himself toward the dunerail.
Danziger's companions watched him out of the corners of their eyes. When he showed no interest in the flying ATV, they were surprised.
Damn. The guy was serious about quitting.
Jake Baines skidded to a stop slightly ahead of the dunerail, and he leaped out of it and waved to the other driver. "Devon!" he called.
Adair turned in his direction and stopped beside him. "What is it?" she asked.
He was looking at the top of the hill as he answered. "Solace said he went as far as the highest hill yesterday, right?"
"Yes. He said he could see the river in the distance and that the hills from there became lower and farther between."
He glanced at her as he flicked on his gear and swung the viewer into place. "He should have gone on a little further. I went three hills beyond and got stopped cold."
"Why?" Devon asked as he spoke into his gear unit and summoned Alonzo to come forward. "What stopped you? Baines?"
"Is Yale with you?" Baines was asking the pilot. "Bring him and the map up front." He looked at Adair. "About three klicks beyond the big hill the ground falls away, like a flood went through between the hills and cut a deep, wide gash in the soil, north to south That was probably the water Lonz saw yesterday. It wasn't the river."
"Oh, no," Devon muttered. "How deep?"
The man shrugged. "At a guess, maybe eight, nine meters. Quite a drop. It runs straight up north for quite a ways, but banks off to the east and disappears from sight. I followed it about three k in both directions before turning back. To the south, it was still slowly turning in the direction of the real river."
"How far ahead is it?"
"Eighteen klicks. At the rate the transrover is moving we won't get there until tomorrow afternoon or evening." He looked toward the top of the hill again. "Assuming, of course, the rover makes it over this hill at all."
Alonzo and Yale came over the top a good ten minutes before the heavy vehicle did.
Noting the group gathered around the other two vehicles, and having an idea of what was going on thanks to Yale, Cameron wisely didn't stop the transrover but kept going towards the next hill.
"We're in luck in other ways, though," Baines was saying as he drew his finger across the map. "There are a couple of hollows, I think here and here, going east to west where we can get the transrover through without having to go up and over. This one is about three klicks ahead and two klicks to the south - we'll get through it today and there's a nice wide valley eight k's farther that'll make a good campsite. We should reach it by sundown, if we're lucky and gain time and ground in the hollows."
Yale said, "I think we should stop and recharge the vehicles soon. Despite the hollow, as Jake has called it, there are still many hills we do have to go over before we get there. The last two times, Cameron was using the momentum gained from one downhill run to help us get up the next slope." Devon agreed. "All right. We'll go one more hill past that one," she indicated the one the ‘rover was slowly climbing, "and stop at the top for a break."

Eben Sinh stopped and turned around, looking from Danziger to Mazatl as if they were crazy. "Work?" she said with incredulity. "You miss work? All this talk is about missing work?"
"Are you crazy?" asked Diane, also stopping to look at them. "If you're going to miss something, why not . . . well, why not ice cream with chocolate syrup? Corn on the cob? Bread sticks and spaghetti sauce?"
"Going down to the Buzzer on Dirt Level for a real drink and some music," Eben added.
"Whenever I think about the steak dinner at Halley's Comet and compare it to eating weeds, I could just about give up."
Danziger laughed lightly. "E, most of the steaks served on dirt level are soy products. What's the difference?"
"Texture and taste, smart guy," she began and stopped, reaching up to swing her gear eyepiece into place. She listened for a time and said, "Alright," to whomever was speaking to her. She moved the eyepiece back out of the way. "We're stopping to recharge at the top of the next hill. Devon says we need to hear what Baines has to say. The river is farther away than everyone thought."
Mazatl barked a short laugh. "Score another point for the map. Why am I not surprised?"

Danziger spent the break sitting in the shade of the transrover and listening to Cameron describe the problems he was having with the big vehicle. He couldn't think of anything different to try to help it climb the hills, but seemed pleased to hear about Baines' hollows ahead. Any kind of relief for the engine was welcome and he was glad to hear Adair was willing to go the two kilometers out of their way to reach the hollows. The knowledge was second hand and he showed no interest in taking part in the confab around the dunerail to learn more or to contribute ideas.
When the group started moving, he got behind the wheel of the dunerail and True and Uly climbed into the back to sit high atop the small boxes and folded materials stowed there. As they were about to drive away, Julia Heller jumped into the front passenger seat.
"How about some adult company, too?" she asked, looking at him expectantly.
What? Danziger thought. Does she think I'm going to throw her out?
He nodded. "Be my guest. Let me know when we're getting too far ahead."
"Great! I can do that." She slumped down in the seat and raised her knees to rest her feet on the front of the rider's compartment. For several minutes she held her silence, watching the tall grasses go by as they followed Baines' trail to the southwest to the first of the short passes through the hills he'd found.
The kids, sitting behind and above them, talked together quietly in the background as they played a VR game.
They had barely gone a kilometer before she dropped her pretense of interest in the countryside and turned to look at Danziger.
"John, what happened yesterday? What is this all about?" Seeing the expression on his face change, she added quickly, "Don't look so innocent! You know what I mean."
Letting out a small sigh, he glanced at her and tried to indicate the children with a nod of his head. He chose his words carefully. "Everyone has a breaking point, Julia. I just reached mine, that's all. I need to step away and do something else for a while. No big deal. Just taking a rest." That sounded informative and nice enough for Uly to relay to his mother, should she ask him, but it left Julia with a frown. Danziger knew she dying to rip into his answer, but the presence of True and Uly kept her tongue in check.
No big deal? The doctor thought, still looking at him. Disrupting the chain of command, leaving Devon high and dry - this is no big deal to you? She looked away at last. They were cresting a hill and going down the other side.
Julia managed to hold her silence for a full minute or so.
"John, it may be just a step back for you, but for some of us it's more than that. We've been following you and Devon for almost a year now. Some of us are here because of her, and some of us are here because of you. You know that. Your ops team is loyal to you and they show Devon the same respect because you do. Taking yourself out the decision making group is saying you no longer agree with her decisions as a leader."
Danziger scoffed, "Don't be melodramatic, Heller. When, or if, I ever get to that point I won't make a secret of it." He turned to look her in the eye. "Look, just think of it this way. I'm taking some long needed r'n'r, okay? Since I can't pack my bags and get away from it all, I have to just step aside for a while."
Julia shook her head. "I'd buy that but for one thing. We just had a winter full of r'n'r, enough to last us all a good long time."
"Don't be dense, Doc. You know what inspired my vacation as well as I do." As well as everyone else does, too, he thought.

The campground Baines picked for them was on a low, wide valley and amid the first large stand of trees they'd seen since encountering the rolling hills. It was just before sunset when they stopped for the day. To the east the grassy hills were fading into darkness, a sight they were glad to be putting behind them, and to the west, beyond the high, long, and tallest hill they would find the river they were seeking. That hill, visible in the distance as a dark, irregular line reaching from the northern horizon to the southern horizon, was casting a twilight shadow over the valleys and hills between it and their present position.
Tomorrow they would face the tasks of getting over the promontory and then finding a way past the washed out area Baines said was blocking their way. Perhaps it wouldn't be as big an obstruction as he'd described. He did have a way of overreacting to things.
Camp was established quickly, the perimeter secured, and a fire for cooking was roaring before the last of the tents was erected. While the children helped Cameron and Denner check the plants in their traveling crates, and others looked over the vehicles, Devon and Julia unpacked some of the food, and determined how much of the water to release for cooking and other uses. Because it was so late the ‘other uses' would be at a minimum.
Helping Devon fold back the tarp covering the containers, Julia looked at her apologetically. "All we talked about were generalities, because he didn't seem to want to talk in front of the kids. I asked him point blank what was going on and he just waved me off. I couldn't get anything out of him."
Devon sighed. "Well, I don't understand it. It isn't like we've never disagreed over which route to take before. To be honest with you, I kind of like the arguments we have. No one but Yale has ever stood up to me like this before, and Yale always lets me win. John never does."
Julia looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "We've all figured that out for ourselves, Devon."
Devon wasn't listening. "The thing is I always thought Danziger liked the arguments, too."
Julia laughed lightly. "Don't worry, he does, but we'll just have to wait and see why he's decided to let this one drag on so long. My guess is he's having fun making us wonder and worry."
"Yeah, well, I figured that one out for myself, Julia."
Well, perhaps she had been listening.
Their companions were tired from the longer than usual day and most would be eager to sleep and rest for the day to come. Devon and Julia pulled off a container three quarters filled and carried it closer to the fire.
"Devon, Alonzo could probably get more out of him tomorrow. I'll ask him to try."
"Julia, I'm not trying to drag answers out of John! I just, uh. . . Wondered what you and he and the kids talked about all afternoon."
"Of course."

Within an hour only Alonzo, standing first watch, was still awake and moving about the campsite.

DAY TWO

The midday sun was a nice contrast to the chilly wind blowing over the hills. As long as the sun was out the air was warm, but when a cloud passed overhead and blotted out the sun, the chill of the spring air could be felt even through layers of clothing. Ah, spring.
Danziger walked along with Cameron and Denner and the two children. He listened as the other two, a geologist and a biologist respectively, talked to the kids about plants and rocks. An occasional glance over his shoulder at the transrover was the only concern he showed for matters going on around him, but he wasn't the only one who noticed the ‘rover was falling farther and farther behind. Devon, in the ATV, kept hanging back to bring up the rear where Mazatl and Magus were walking with the mag-pros.
Everyone knew what was coming, and Devon was deliberately not scouting ahead, which was the responsibility of the ATV driver each day.
They were all hoping the obstacle in their path wouldn't be as bad as Jake Baines was saying it was, but as soon as the forward most walkers had seen the huge, deep gash in the ground, their hopes for reaching the river before nightfall were dashed. Word relayed back to the vehicles brought Devon and many of the others rushing forward to see for themselves.
While she and Alonzo and some of the others gathered around the dunerail and contemplated the natural barrier in front of them, Danziger stood next to the ATV with Sinh and Cameron and kept the kids from getting too close to the edge. The ground was still damp in areas where pooled water was slowly evaporating.
After a few minutes, he decided to help the children use up some of their restless energy by walking toward a small stand of trees about a half kilometer to the north. Trees in groves were almost nonexistent in the hills, though large, solitary trees silhouetted the horizon here and there. Magus, sent ahead by Mazatl, tagged along with her weapon.
They found a thicket of berry bushes, laden with ripe fruit, and plenty of firewood on the ground. The children excitedly sent the word back over their gear and they all waited for Julia and her scanner to arrive on the ATV to analyze the berries. Afterward, they slowly walked back to rejoin the others.
An hour later, the transrover still hadn't joined them, though Walman and Baines, riding inside with Morgan called in to say they were still moving. Danziger was hard pressed to maintain his relaxed attitude.
"Dad?" True's voice interrupted his thoughts. "I've been watching the hills. The transrover came over the hill with the big rocks, but not the next one, and I saw some smoke just now. Just a little."
Forgetting all about his half finished design drawn in the dirt, John grabbed a pair of jumpers from the ATV beside him and turned to the east. "Where did you see the smoke?"
"Behind the rocks on the left side of the pass we came through. It was gray smoke."
Finding the area she mentioned, he zeroed in on the spot and scanned slowly left to right and back again. "Okay, I see it. Why don't you go tell Devon or Alonzo someone should take Zero back there to see if it needs to be pulled the rest of the way. Something in the engine is smoking pretty bad."
"Aren't you going to go?"
He looked down at her. "You think I should?"
"Yeah. You're still in charge of the machines, aren't you?"
"You're right. Go get Zero and bring him to the dunerail. Quietly. Most of my tools are on the ‘rover."
"Am I going with you?"
"Of course. You're my best assistant. Wouldn't go anywhere without you."
She smiled up at him and turned to race away. "We'll meet you at the dunerail."
John waited until he'd climbed into the driver's seat of the dunerail before putting on his gear and calling to the people in the transrover.
"Hey, Baines? Got your gear on?"
"Danz?" The relief was evident in his voice. "That you?"
"Yeah, it's me. What's going on? I can see smoke from here."
"Matt says we're losing power. Even with the momentum from coming down a hill, it's getting harder to climb the next. We've been trying to get over this one, but finally gave up and took off the engine cover to help it cool off, but it was already burning the lubricants."
"Okay. I'm on my way with Zero. We'll pull you the rest of the way if we have to."
"Oh, great. Thanks, Danziger. We'll be here. We ain't going anywhere. Figures we'd make it until the very last hill, doesn't it? Sometimes I think someone's watching us and arranging these little trials and obstacles."
Danziger humphed an answer and swung his optical piece out of the way and looked around. "True! Zero! Get a move on!" He hoped the three of them could make a getaway before Devon realized what was going on and tried to come along. Not that there was really anything wrong with her - she was a ordinarily a damn good traveling companion and a damn attractive woman, but man, she could get on his nerves in the worst way! Somehow, very early on, she'd figured out the buttons to push with him and she never let up. Not for a minute. Not for a damn minute.
"We're here, Dad! Let's go." The girl leaped onto the passenger seat and settled in.
John looked over his shoulder, grateful to get his mind off the last person he wanted to be thinking about. "Come on, Zero, just dive in and hang on! We haven't got all day."
"Yes, sir." The robot took the suggestion literally, flopping face first on the rear seat and announcing, "I am secure."
True laughed. "Go, Dad. He's enough in to not fall out."
"That is what I said. I am secure," Zero said as the vehicle lurched forward and sped away.

"Well, everything is fine," Danziger said after poking around the engine. "The smoke was from a piece of mylar tubing that began to smolder from rubbing against a chain.. As soon as you cut the engine, the friction stopped and the air intake closed, smothering whatever flame there might have been. Let the engine cool and charge the batteries for a few minutes. The chain dragging on the tubing was making the engine work too hard. The lubricants are fine."
Walman nodded and handed Danziger a rag to wipe his hands. "What does the rift Jake was talking about look like?" he asked, referring to the gash in the ground caused by flood water on the other side of the next hill.
"Pretty much what he said. Eight to ten meters deep and maybe thirty across. The ground is soft, though, rocky, sandy soil. The water cut through it like butter."
True, on top of the transrover's cab, had fallen asleep ten minutes after reaching the vehicle.
Danziger left her up there. He sat down on the front fender. "We'll be camping on the other side of the hill until they figure out a way to get across. There are some trees and rocks a little to the north where Adair wants to set up the tents."
Walman looked at the last hill between himself and an evening meal. "Do you think we should put some tents and other things on the dunerail and send Zero back with them?"
"Hey, good idea. I'll give you a hand."

Alonzo Solace stood beside the ravaged landscape and wondered if he was standing too close to the edge. He could see across the break where dirt had crumbled away from the top and fallen into the gorge. Clumps of grass and weeds were dying where they fell.
Hell, was this even a gorge? How big did a break in the earth have to be to be a gorge? Well, it looked like a gorge to him for the simple matter that it was holding up their progress.
Having never seen water in any great abundance before arriving on G889, it was still unbelievable to imagine water could do this kind of damage. Rain made their clothes damp and moldy if you didn't dry them quickly, rain washed away footprints and scents and produced mud. Rushing water carved chasms out of the ground like nothing.
Well. Live and learn.
He turned away from the edge and walked back toward the campsite, his head bowed and his hands in his pockets, getting it straight in his mind what he was going to tell Devon. There were Terrians in the area, but he got the impression they were passing through. None lived in this part of the country. Waking up from winter hibernation, they were busy going about their business serving the Mother.
He tried to contact them, but got nothing helpful from them beyond the fact that there were few cavern systems in this area, so the Terrians did not gather here in great numbers. Grendlers didn't like the area, either. The ground was too soft, sandy and rocky, and easy to compress, but still too loose to safely create caves. There were safer caves closer to the river where grendlers lived and the Terrians often stayed.
Somewhere to the south was a body of water where the Terrians could replenish the power of their staffs, and many were traveling through this place to reach it. And, not all the Terrians were interested in communicating with him. Many ignored his presence on the dream plane, some were curious, but not helpful. He got the distinct impression many thought the humans in this group were strange.
Same old, same old, thought Alonzo. We humans are a known presence, but a somewhat baffling one. Even after being shown the way to link with the mother, we did not. . . . and no Terrian he met on the dream plane understood why.
He wasn't sure if what little he learned from them would be of any help. Most of it he could see with his eyes. The ripped earth extended in both directions for quite a way. He was shown a large lake, now greatly diminished, where the water had originated when a bank gave way after the heavy rains and released water to rush across the countryside for tens of kilometers.
Julia was watching for his return. "Hey," she called as he was about to walk past her. "Find out anything?"
He turned toward her voice, head still lowered, and he stopped walking. He shook his head and finally looked up. He smiled with one side of his mouth. "No. They're just waking up from hibernation, and this thing is brand new, but not uncommon. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were amused by our predicament. Serves us right for living above the ground and not staying in one place. Something like that." He sighed and put a hand on her arm. "Come on. Let's go talk to Devon. We'll just have to send people in both directions to look for a place to cross. Any way you look at it, we're going to lose time."
Julia let him turn her toward the tents, and she fell into step beside him. "More than you know. The Martins took the ATV to that little clump of trees and bushes to start a fire. Devon wants to set up camp over there. Guessing we might be here a long time, I don't blame her. And the Danzigers just took off in the dunerail with Zero. I think they're going to see why the transrover isn't here yet." She lowered her voice a little. "Did you get a chance to talk to Danziger today?"
"Nope. Funny thing. He seemed to suspect I was going to try, and he kept avoiding me." Alonzo looked at Julia and tilted his head. "Julia, the man isn't stupid. He knows Devon is sending us to pry into his business. I felt like a damned spy who got caught! I'm not doing it again." He turned slightly toward her and jabbed a finger in her direction. "And I don't think you should either!"
Julia stopped walking and turned to face him, crossing her arms and giving him a look through widened eyes. "Don't try to tell me you're not curious about what's going on, Alonzo! I've seen you and Tim watching John all morning."
Solace opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by Devon calling his name. He let out a breath of air and his posture loosened. "Oh boy," he muttered and gave Julia a helpless look. He turned around and put his most winning smile on his face. If that didn't work on Devon, he was going to turn around and run away as fast as he could before she could chew him out for other things that weren't his fault, besides the unhelpful Terrians.

It was well into mid afternoon before the big vehicle trundled over the last hills and came to a stop well away from the edge of the rip in the ground. The tents were already set up and someone was cooking. Danziger couldn't remember whose turn it was, but it meant they were going to be here the rest of the day. He jumped off the back of the ‘rover and, after making sure his sleeping daughter was alright, he walked toward the tents.
Julia, standing outside her tent, came to meet him. Danziger almost pretended he didn't see her, and walked in another direction, but he was getting tired of avoiding people today. Might as well repeat the speech he gave her the day before and get it over with.
She greeted him with a wide smile. "John, I need your help. I can't get the bio-scanner to work. Bess found something similar to a mushroom inside the grove of trees and I was trying to analyze it but the scanner quit. Got a minute?"
He spread his hands. "All the time in the world."
"Good! My gear isn't working, either, and Morgan said the small generator won't start."
"Hold on! Let me get some of the tools from the ‘rover." He headed back for the tool box.
"Okay. Morgan! Bring the generator over. Danziger will take a look at it!"
Danziger turned back to face her. "Well, don't announce it to the world!" he said. "I still have to put up my tent! I'll be swamped with stuff to fix."
"John, if you can get the scanner working, I'll put up your tent for you. Those mushroom things look and smell good. "
True to her word, Julia did erect the Danzigers' tent with help from Denner and Walman, while John carefully picked his way through an avalanche of gear, lumalights and lanterns, and a variety of other small items in need of repair.
Danziger wondered why the stuff had been allowed to accumulate. It had been mere days, less than two weeks since leaving the biodome, and if they were this hard on their equipment, there was going to be a shortage of working devices before long.

Later in the day, True shuffled along the open way between the tents and stopped next to where her father was busy with the wiring on a lumalight. She looked at him instead of what he was doing. "Bess said the food is almost ready," she said. "Julia said we're having a treat. Looks like a whole bunch of sponges to me, but she says they're good when you cook them."
"All right," he said.
True wanted to ask him who he was and what had he done with her father, but that would be impertinent, and Yale said impertinence wasn't polite. Her dad and Alex Wentworth taught her to be polite. She wished she could be impertinent just this once. I mean, it's not like I never was before.
John looked up. "What's the matter? Nothing to do?"
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him anyway, but she held back. Instead she climbed onto a nearby box and sat facing him with her legs crossed and her chin resting on her clenched fists. "Dad? How are we going to get across the hole?"
"I don't know, pal. That's up to the movers and shakers."
This was definitely not her dad! She squinted at him to pretend she wasn't really scrutinizing him. "I think we should cut the trees down and make a bridge," she ventured.
Danziger glanced at the little thicket of trees and bushes. "There aren't enough for that. If it was up to me I'd use a mag pro to knock some of this dirt to the floor of the rift until I had a ramp to drive down and then make one on the other side to drive up."
True frowned. "Really? The transrover will get stuck in the dirt."
"Maybe, maybe not. There's a lot of sand and rocks in the soil. Driving the dunerail and the ATV back and forth across the ramps would tamp down the dirt enough to get the ‘rover across."
True thought it over and said, "Devon and Alonzo want to build a bridge."
Danziger grunted. "Not surprised."
"Yale said it would take days."
"That it would."
"Do I have to eat the sponges, Dad?"
Danziger laughed. "Well, why don't you just taste them to start with, okay? Julia's been right about a lot of things, you know."
She considered this for a few seconds. "Okay. Can I help?"
He looked up. "Uh ... sure. Start taking apart the lumalights. Just the bottoms. Most of the ones I've looked at just have loose connections. Rattling around in the back of the ‘rover can do that." He handed her a small pack of tools. "Don't loose any of the connectors. Put ‘em in your pocket."

The evening meal was subdued. To further darken the group's dispositions, a cold front had moved through the area just before sunset, bringing with it high gray clouds, but no rain. People lingered in the mess tent longer than usual. The wind had picked up, too, heightening the cold, and no one was really interested in going outside to sit by the fire.
Danziger, still keeping his distance from the handful of people gathered around the maps with Adair and Yale, talked quietly with Walman, Magus and Mazatl.
"I might not be a designer, but I am a builder," Walman said in a low voice, "and there aren't enough trees in the grove out there to build a safe bridge across the gap. We'll have to go back quite a distance to find the last two or three groves we passed to get enough wood."
Magus shrugged. "We could carry a lot our stuff across to lighten the ‘rover's load."
Mazatl glanced toward the table where Devon, Julia, Alonzo and Yale were talking and leaned forward. "Anybody want to bet we have to dump the bridge idea and go around?"
"What have you got to offer?" Matt challenged.
Mazatl smiled. "A week of midnight watch?"
Danziger shook his head. "Too steep. Four nights."
"Too easy," Baines leaned over from the next table. "That's a sure thing, Chris, and you know it."
"Not necessarily," Danziger said. "You know how stubborn Adair can be when she gets an idea in her head."
Walman muffled a short laugh. "We'll be here the rest of our lives trying to build the perfect bridge!"
"It'll have a pedestrian walk and gates at both ends."
"Don't forget the toll booths."
"Knock it off, guys," Sinh hushed them. "That's not funny."
"Say that again when the first attempt falls down!"
"Or sinks into the dirt!"
Danziger got up from his seat. "Well, whatever you decide, I'm in. I'm going to finish repairing all the gear you folks have been mishandling."
As he made his way to the tent's flap opening, Julia got up and followed after him. "John, wait." she said. "Can you take a look at my micro-optics? They've been kind of out of whack lately." He ducked through the tent flaps. "I'm going to have to open a fix-it shop what with the way you people treat sensitive equipment."
The two of them disappeared into the windy darkness, and a handful of the others got up and left the tent, too. True and Uly sat at a nearby table with Bess and Morgan Martin and played a game Bess had made up using different colored stones. If True didn't know better, she'd have guessed Yale had put Bess up to teaching the children the game. It was hard, it made you think, and Bess always won. It sounded suspiciously like an educational game to her young mind, and she was losing badly.
"You know what my dad said?" True said, suddenly thinking of a way to end having to be beaten by Bess and Uly in the game. "He said if it was up to him he'd use the mag pro to knock dirt down on the sides of the big hole to make ramps and drive the transrover across."
The Martins looked at one another for a few moments, then Bess excused herself and went to the other table to confer quietly with Devon and the others.
Morgan glared at True. "Why didn't your father say this earlier? We could have done that today and been at the river already."
"Nobody asked him. Just ‘cause he's resting doesn't mean he stopped thinking, too."
Morgan reached over and moved one of his wife's pieces. "He could have spoken up, you know."
"He did. He told me." Hey! This was looking up. She moved a piece and captured three of Bess' and one of Uly's.
Uly frowned and made a counter move.
Morgan moved another piece for Bess. "Why didn't you speak up earlier?"
True glared back. "Would you have listened to me?" she asked, and moved to capture two more of Bess' stones and two more of Uly's.
Then the annoyed voices of Bess and Uly rang out at the same time:
"Morgan!"
True, winning the game now, smiled as Morgan, his hand on a stone, replied, "What?"

THE THIRD DAY

Danziger's third day as a follower was turning into one boring string of hours. It was just after the midday meal and Danziger was sitting in the shade of the transrover's canvas flaps. He was fiddling with several sets of faulty gear, none of which were as badly defective as their users claimed they were. He was taking his time to fix them just to kill time, and the paradox was not lost on him.
The kids, True and Uly, were curled up on the ground beside him, both fast asleep on a folded length of parachute material. He'd barely begun telling them a story when they'd nodded off at almost the same moment.
Must have been a boring story, he thought with a smile. True used to love it when she was younger, so maybe it wasn't boring, perhaps just outdated. She was growing up way too fast for him. Always an independent child, she was growing even more self sufficient with every passing day on this planet. Maybe he'd spend a good part of the day with her from now on, now that it looked as if he was going to have a lot of free time on his hands.
Well, one thing he could do right now was make the kids a better, more comfortable place to nap during the day. The hard ground was a heck of a thing on which to get used to sleeping. He put aside the jumble of gear sets and got to his feet. He found another section of parachute silk, which was really a nylon synthetic material, but was called silk for some reason lost to history, stowed inside the rover near his tools, and nearby were the coiled cords from the parachutes. He slung a few over his shoulder. Now all he needed was a welding torch and fuel, an awl and a few grommets.
There was still quite an excess of materials being carted around by the group, especially metal of all kinds that had been scavenged from the three escape pods and the cargo pod. He found what he needed easily. He took his load to a shady spot away from the transrover so he would not disturb the children.
By the time John heard his kid calling for him an hour later, he was ready to assemble his handiwork into a usable device. He went back to the rover to get both of them.
"About time you two woke up," he said. "I thought I was going to have to put this thing together myself. Come on. Give me a hand."
They scrambled to their feet and hurried after him. "What is all of this, Mr. Danziger?" Uly asked after seeing the jumble of metal and silk parts laying on the ground in an orderly fashion a few feet away from the transrover.
"You'll see," John promised him. "Why don't you and True take the material and ropes over to Julia's med tent and find a nice big shady spot where we can put this thing together? I'll carry the poles."
As the children walked away carrying the bundle of silk, Danziger put his tools away and stowed what was left of the cord and silk in the back of the rover. He hefted the hollow metal bars he'd welded together and followed after them.
Th commotion made by the two children caught Julia's attention, and she was standing just outside her tent watching them fumble with the material when John strode past her with his load of metal bars.
"John? What's going on? What's that?"
"Stick around, you'll see."
"Is this okay, Dad? " True asked, arms spread wide and eyes looking upward at the towering trees shading the spot.
"This is perfect, sport," he told her and began to assemble the bars into a recognizable shape.
True's eyes lit up. "I know what it is!" she exclaimed. "It's another hammock, but it's way bigger than the ones you made for Uly and Alonzo after we crashed."
"Good guess, kiddo," he told her. He tightened a few wing nuts and tested the frame for stability and stood back. "Okay, why don't you each grab an end of the silk and hook it to the frame."
The chore was done very quickly and the children needed no encouragement to rush forward and climb on the long, wide surface of silk.
"Wow, Dad. The springs make it feel all bouncy."
Uly tried to stretch out straight and laughed. "It curls you all up!" he declared.
"Dad, can you tell us another story?"
"Story?" he repeated with mock indignation. "I tried to tell you one, but you fell asleep!"
"Not this time," Uly assured him. "You can get on here with us. It's great."
"Yeah, Dad. You, too, Julia. Come on and try it. It's cool and nice."
Julia looked at Danziger and he shrugged. "Go ahead. I made it to be used."
"It does look comfortable."
"It is!" the children assured her together. "Come on, try it."
With a smile, she joined them, grabbing the edge of the material she sat down, swung her legs up and lay back in the same motion. She looked over at a brightly smiling True. "This must be what it feels like to be able to lie on a cloud."
The kids agreed enthusiastically and bounced the surface a little.
It took very little effort on the part of the children to entice Danziger into joining them.
"Might as well, John," Julia told him. "You made it, so enjoy it. It feels great. Even pressure all over. I like it. I think I'll stay here the rest of the day. Or, at least, until both of the scout teams return."
He raised an eyebrow. "I guess I can't ignore a doctor's seal of approval." John went to the other side of the hammock and laid beside Uly. It did feel good - much better than the hard ground or the unyielding cots and insulation padding they used for their beds.
"What story are you going to tell us, Mr Danziger?" the boy asked.
The doctor laughed lightly at the other side of the hammock. "Yes, Mr. Danziger, tell us a story!"
John had to chuckle himself as he made up his mind. "Okay. This is a story my grandfather used to tell my brother and my sister and me when we were kids. It has a little bit of everything in it. It's a story from old Earth, from a time long before the stations were built, when the cities on Earth were still thriving and the people could still live in them. This is just a story, Julia, take it as it is. I don't want to hear any comments about how certain things can't possibly happen, okay?"
Getting an affirmative sounding reply from her, he went on...
"Far off in the galaxy, away from Earth, there was a dying planet circling a red sun. The people of the planet knew they were doomed and went about making preparations for the end. One couple in particular had been making plans for a long time. They had a young child whose life they had decided to save without permission from their government. They secretly built a small spacecraft just big enough to carry their son and a few mementos into space far away from their planet. He would survive the deaths of both his home world and his people. Now, the people of this dying world had been studying the galaxy for many generations and they knew of the existence of many other civilizations, but only one was populated by beings similar to themselves in appearance. That civilization was us, the people of earth. These two parents decided to send their son to earth where they hoped he would be able to live and grow among beings who looked like him. Waiting until the last moment so no one could stop them, and as their planet began to destroy itself and all of the beings who lived upon it, the couple put their child into their spacecraft and launched it on a trajectory that brought it to Earth some three years later..."

Finding a place to ford the river was beginning to look hopeless to the first scout team rocking along in the dunerail far to the south of the campsite. There would be no easy fix here, no way to fashion ramps to get across, definitely no chance of building a bridge across the fast water.
Another bend in the meandering flow was in sight up ahead, and judging by the trees hugging the riverbanks the bend swung sharply back in the opposite direction ten klicks or so farther on. There were so many hills along the way it was impossible to tell where there might be a break in the trees to explore the river's edge, Even from the top of the highest hills one couldn't see beyond the next ones in any direction.
Devon Adair badly wanted to find a break in the trees, or even a hill with a clear unobstructed view of the river for some length, no matter how short. There had to be a place to cross somewhere around here, but even she was getting tired of picking her way through the underbrush clinging to the edges of the river to look for a safe spot.
It seemed the farther south they went the wilder and more uninhibited the land became. Even the grasses were tougher, stronger, less easy to bend with the weight of their passing.
Dreading the reaction she knew she was going to get, but knowing it had to be done, Devon pointed toward the sound of the river coming from beyond the trees to their right. "Let's try going through over there," she said. "We've come almost nine kilometers since our last stop. Surely there must be a change in the land around here."
Behind the wheel of the dunerail, Alonzo Solace swung the vehicle toward the trees and managed to keep himself from joining the groans and mutters coming from the rear seat where Matt Walman and Eben Sinh sat crowded with supplies and equipment around them. He could see Devon clench a fist tightly and squeeze it with her other hand, and it almost made him tell the other two to knock it off - almost. He was too weary of the exploratory walks to the river, himself, to say anything. He knew it wouldn't help. He pulled to a stop in the shade of some tall bushes and commanded the engine to cease and recharge.
For their part, Walman and Sinh were fast out of the vehicle, for despite their protestations, being cooped up in the dunerail bothered all of them. The journey to New Pacifica had turned the Eden Advance group into physical fitness fanatics. It may be hopeless, but at least hacking their way through underbrush and low branches was something to do.
Twenty minutes later, they stood overlooking the river from at least twelve feet above it. For as far as they could see in either direction both banks of the river were thus.
Devon turned away. "Let's take a break and have another look at the map."
While the other three turned back for the return hike to the dunerail, Walman lingered for a while and just looked at the sight before him. In spite of his frustration that the damn planet didn't seem to want to cooperate in giving them a place to cross the river, it still was a very beautiful place. In fact, this particular spot reminded him of a holovid program he and his father used to enjoy a long time ago. Fly-fishing in Idaho, the program was called, and the only differences his memory could recall between it and the real thing before him was in the placement of the rocks and the fact that he wasn't holding a rod and reel nor wearing a tackle box on his hip.
"Matt?" Eben Sinh's voice interrupted him. "Coming with us?"
Slowly he turned around to face the others, all looking questioningly at him. He smiled. "I was just wishing I had a fishing pole with me."
It was the right thing to say to brighten the mood for the next half hour.
After having a small meal and a brief rest, the scout team moved on to the south another forty klicks before Devon was willing to admit the banks of the river were becoming steeper with every passing kilometer and the likelihood of finding a natural ford were slim at best.
Discouraged and unhappy at having to give up, the foursome headed back up river towards camp. Devon put on her gear and contacted Yale, who, along with Danziger and the doctor, was holding down the fort with the children, and told him they were on their way back.
"We've been almost eighty kilometers, Yale. If there is a place to cross, it must be a lot farther south than we can go in one day. What have you heard from the foraging scout?"
"They have had a better time than you. We will have fruit and vegetable tubers to take with us when we start moving again. There seems to be an abundance of edible plants along the river banks to the north of camp."
Devon showed no reaction, merely ended the direction of conversation by asking about Uly. Yale smiled. "I was just about to go look for him and True for their afternoon class. They were helping Danziger repair tent supports this morning after class, but I have not heard a sound from them since they went back out after lunch. I saw John working with a welding unit not long ago. Perhaps they are aiding him."
"Perhaps," she agreed, thinking, I hope they're driving him crazy with their aid . "We'll be seeing you shortly, Yale."
"We shall be expecting you." Devon had just clicked off her gear unit and was slumping back in her seat when Eben's voice from the rear seat made the skin crawl on the back of her neck.
"Walman, where's the water filtering unit?"
"What?" he answered. "Lonz, where did you put the filtering box?"
"What do you mean me?" Alonzo answered.
"You used it last to test the spring on the cliff top."
"And then I returned it to the stack of equipment ready to be reloaded on the rail."
"No, you didn't," Sinh told him. "I reloaded all of that stuff myself and it's all here, but the filter."
"Oh, no," Devon said. "Are you sure, Eben? Is it on the floor boards?"
"I'm positive," the other woman said. "It's too wide to fit between the seats and too long to fit on the back. We had to put it between us. It was poking me in the side all the way from camp this morning. Now it isn't."
Alonzo brought the dunerail to a jerking stop, and he jumped out quickly. "It's got to be here," he declared and went swiftly around the vehicle looking for it. "I know I put it back on the pile of equipment."
Walman looked at Eben knowingly. "Grendler's out this way just got a free gift."
"No, they didn't!" Alonzo bit out, and threw himself back behind the wheel of the ‘rail. "Not if I can help it!"
He swung the vehicle in a sharp U turn and sent it flying back in the direction of the cliff top which was easily ten miles behind them.
"For pete's sake, Lonz! Slow down! Do you want to shake the rest of the equipment off the back of the rail?" Walman demanded. He got no reply, but the dunerail seemed to increase it's speed, if that was possible.
Matters went from bad to worse. The unit was gone when they arrived at the spring, and the headlong rush depleted the vehicle's batteries to a low level requiring more than an hour's time to recharge. A jumper scan of the surrounding area located the grendler who had taken the water filtration unit disappearing to the south at a fast clip, but without the dunerail to give chase there was little the scouts could do but watch their unit vanish from sight.
It was mid afternoon and the heat was just starting to climb. Devon and Eben sat beside the small spring and splashed their faces and arms with cool water to combat the heat. Alonzo was sitting sullenly in the small patch of shade provided by the solar panels of the dunerail, and Matt Walman was relaxing in the grass not far away. He'd taken off his shirt, soaked it in the cool water and put it over his face and upper body to keep cool.
No one wanted to be the one to call camp and explain why they would be arriving back a little bit later than originally stated.
For Eben Sinh, this was her first long range scout with the brass - or what was left of the brass. She usually pulled foraging duty with Cameron, Denner and Mazatl, or cooking and cleaning duty with Bess Martin and one or more of the other three. She was taking Lauren Magus' place on long-range because Magus had been smart enough to foresee how events would unfold on a scout without John Danziger's presence. Sinh didn't know that was the reason at the time Lauren backed off, but Sinh understood plain as day now.
Walman was a whole different person when responsibility was heaped onto his shoulders. Normally an affable guy, he was tense, short worded, and bad tempered trying to be a leader. Not that he was a wimpy type, far from it - he just wasn't a natural leader. Eben liked him better as Danziger's right hand man. Like her, he would follow John anywhere.
Alonzo, on the other hand was a trained and experienced leader, but he was loathe to make a final decision alone. He was used to having a bridge crew around him with whom to bounce ideas back and forth, and he was pretty good at taking suggestions and listening to other points of view before settling on a final goal. But, it had to be a group decision with him, not his own.
So...Eben guessed that was why he never challenged Devon beyond a small suggestion here and there.
Devon as the group leader was in her element. She had been in command of something, be it a cyborg tutor or a corporation's board of directors, since the day she was born. Sometimes it seemed she knew no other way to relate to people. Once in a while, though, and these moments were rare, she let the tough demeanor drop and became just another member of the crew. Not surprisingly to Eben Sinh, it was almost always Danziger who brought these moments, kicking and screaming, out of Devon. It was knowing there was this other person hidden under the cool, tough exterior that was why the whole group followed along after her and respected her leadership.
Eben could see, at the moment, something besides the lost water filtering unit was bothering her, but Devon didn't seem to know quite how to bring it up. Her attempts at small talk didn't go far, though Sinh was more than willing to talk about anything at all to stay out of the way of the men and their irritable moods.
So they bounced from subject to subject, touching briefly on Eben's childhood at the lunar colony and her subsequent move to the stations. She explained that her paternal great grandparents were teachers who had been hired to run the colony's school, and that her mother's family had done the hiring and brought them to the moon from Earth. In spite of the fact that most of the human race lived aboard the space stations, a teacher with an Earth based education at a ground side university was still more highly prized by the lunar colonists than teachers with educations obtained on the stations. The school system on the moon was much closer to the old Earth one teacher - one classroom way of educating students than the in-home, individualized, computerized, virtual reality enhanced method employed by the stations - for a fee.
Eben revealed she was the first one of her generation to choose a profession other than teaching as her life's work. She had bucked family tradition by going to work in the hydroponics department of the colony, and then by becoming a construction laborer. She did not want to spend her life cooped up inside the domes of the colony like her family. She wanted a life outside the artificial environment of the colony, and she had helped construct a seventh dome before leaving for the stations and work as part of a construction crew building station nineteen. There she apprenticed to become a technician, and eventually was hired as an ops crew tech.
For a moment there, she thought Devon was finally going to approach the subject she was trying to work her way to discussing, but Adair didn't seem to know how to ask her questions.
So, it was with some disappointment Sinh stood and went back to the dunerail for the ride home after Alonzo announced the batteries were charged and ready to go. Whatever Devon had wanted to know was a lost subject they never returned to explore.
The ride back to camp was uneventful and quiet. The men were still sullen, and the women were each preoccupied with their own thoughts.
Even before the vehicle came to a complete halt beside the transrover, the four team members were climbing out of the dunerail. Silently they began to unload it to carry the items to their appropriate places within the camp.
Alonzo looked around as he swung a strapped item over his shoulder and grabbed another. Odd that there was no one running over to greet them, especially not Uly.
"Kinda quiet around here," he said to no one in particular.
"Yes," Sinh agreed. "Where is everyone?"
Devon looked around, suddenly very aware of the quietness of the camp. She spotted Yale at the far side of the compound, working alone near the water tanks. "I see Yale over there," she ventured, looking in his direction.
"It's still pretty early," Walman said. "Foraging team is probably on it's way back. Maybe the others are preparing the fires for cooking."
"You're probably right," Devon said. "Yale did say the foragers found a lot of edible plants and fruit."
He grunted something and marched off toward the med tent. As he reached a tarp covered stockpile of equipment, he stopped short and began to laugh. He put down his items and waved his arm , beckoning the others to join him. As they rushed toward him, Walman called to Alonzo, "You gotta see this, man. This is your life with Julia ten years from now."
He chuckled and turned to lift the tarp over the stockpile and stow the items he was returning. When he turned back, he fought the urge to laugh even harder.
Alonzo, the man in love, looked as if he wanted to bolt and run; and Devon... Well, she looked as if she'd been shot through the heart by a mag-pro at close range. Only Eben seemed to see the humor in the strikingly heartwarming and peaceful sight in front of them - but then, again, she might just be trying not to laugh at Solace and Adair, too.
A large hammock had been made and erected in the shade of the tall trees beside the med tent, and upon it were the sleeping forms of the children and two adults. Julia was on the closest side, one arm hanging over the edge of the hammock, the other folded across her waist. Beside her were the Danzigers, True snuggled tightly against her father, using one of his arms for a pillow and clutching his hand in both of hers. On the other side of Danziger, also curled and snuggled against him, using his other arm for a pillow, was Uly with one small arm flung across the man's waist.
For an instant, Walman thought Devon was going to dash over and snatch her child and run away with him as fast as her legs could carry her, or that Alonzo was going to get sick. There was nothing like the sight of domestic bliss to make an adventurer-at-heart like the pilot turn green around the gills. He did see Eben grinning hugely just before she turned and quick trotted away to do her laughing out of earshot of the others. He decided to do the same. Maybe Yale needed some help? At any rate it was a good idea to make himself scarce for another reason:
"Hey, not that E and I are scared or anything, but we'll leave it up to the two of you to tell Julia we lost the water filter. I'm going to see if Yale needs help."
The reminder galvanized the other two who quickly went about stowing the units they were carrying, and leaving the sleeping foursome in peace for another few minutes.
When Devon returned a short time later to wake them, she was again in control and in form. Looking as surprised and amused as she could muster, she walked around the med tent calling loudly for her son, and at almost the exact moment, Alonzo, calling for Julia, was doing the same thing coming around the other side of the tent. They looked at one another in acute embarrassment, but luckily the foursome on the hammock were just waking and didn't notice their playacting.
Uly, perking up immediately, rolled off the side of the hammock and raced around to greet his mother. "Mr. Danziger told us the best story ever, Mom!" he said by way of greeting her. "Better than any story Yale ever told me!"
"Is that so?" she asked, unable to hold back a smile as she leaned down to give him a hug. "Better than Hannibal crossing the Alps on elephants? Better than fighting the oil fires of Kuwait?"
"Way better, because it wasn't real stuff pretending to be stories. It was a story !"
Devon glanced over at Danziger and Julia who were laughing about something with Alonzo. Alonzo!? The man who a minute ago was staggered by the sight of what might very well be a vision of his own future family life? Well, he was a far better actor than she was, no doubt about it. Taking her boy's hand, she led him away from the others.
"Well," she said to her son, "maybe you should tell it to Yale and give him an idea what a real story is."
"Okay," he agreed and tried to skip on ahead, "but first Mr. Danziger has to finish it. I fell asleep before he was done. I have to find out how it ends first."
"That's always a good idea."
The story turned out to be all Uly would talk about for the rest of the day as he ran circles around everyone, including an annoyed True, pretending to fly and swoop down to rescue helpless pieces of equipment from certain death and destruction.
The sight of her child so caught up and excited about an idea, no matter how absurd, did more than just brighten Devon's mood after the disastrous and futile day of scouting for a way across the river, it helped her resolve to do better the next day. If Danziger was going to be unavailable for help from now on, she would live with it and go on as usual, she decided. She was no longer going to let it be such a big deal.

As Devon sat at a table in the open sided mess tent, eating her dinner with Uly and Yale, she heard for the hundredth time the phrase:
"It was the best story, Mom!"
This time, however, her son and True Danziger went into a bit more detail and she and Yale began to understand why Uly had been running around pretending to fly for the last few hours.
"You should have heard it. It was about a guy who could fly ." To emphasize, Uly spread his arms and rocked in his seat, pretending to fly like a bird. "He was from another planet that blew up, but his parents put him in a space ship and sent him to old Earth and saved his life just before their planet exploded!" Again he pantomimed his words. "And when he got there he discovered he was stronger than everybody and he could fly, so he used his powers to fight bad guys and stuff like that."
"That's not what it was about," True corrected him from a nearby table where she was sitting with Eben Sinh and Diane Denner. "He had two identities, the man who could fly and the man he was in real life so no one would know who he really was. He worked for a news service and his partner telling the news was a woman who never knew he was the man who could fly. She thought they were different people and she liked one, but not the other. That's what it's about, Uly. If she ever finds out they're the same."
"Yeah, but he beat up all these bad guys and stopped disasters from happening and he could go into outer space without a space suit because he was so much stronger than Earth people were."
"That's just what he did, Uly! Not who he was."
"Yes, but he did it better than anybody! He flew so fast he could get to the place where a laser was shooting before the laser beam did and stop it from destroying it's target."
"Well, I have to admit, that sounds pretty fast," Devon said with a smile at Yale.
Uly nodded. "It's just a story, Mom," he assured her, knowing full well what the smile meant that passed between his adult companions. "Mr. Danziger said you have to not pay too much attention to things that can't really happen. That's called using your imagination. He had to teach Doctor Heller how to do that today because she was interrupting the story too much."
This elicited a laugh from the adults present, with the exception of Julia, who merely looked chagrined.
When Danziger came in for his meal a few minutes later, the real fun began as the two children assailed him with pleas to continue the story. They rushed to sit at his table with him and their voices never stopped.
"Please, Dad? You promised you would finish the story later. This is later."
The two kids were dogging his heels now as he cleaned his utensils and dried his hands after finishing his meal.
"Well, so is tomorrow, True, which is what I meant. Now, I have to do some work on the rail before it gets full dark. I'm going to be busy for a while." He made a beeline for the big opening on the other side of the tent.
"Please, Mr. Danziger? Does he get to stop anymore floods and tidal waves and volcanoes?"
"I can help you with the rail, Dad, and I can show Uly what to do to help you, too. You can finish the story while we're helping you. Please, Dad? Please?"
Gesturing broadly with resignation, John gave in and turned slightly to look at the two eager, upturned faces. "All right, all right. You talked me into it. Come on, I'll finish the story, but you do exactly what I tell you to do if you're going to help."
"We will!" the two children answered in unison.
"Wait!" From her seat beside Alonzo at one of the tables at the rear of the tent, Julia half rose, hurriedly stuffing her mouth with the last few bites of her food, and washing it all down, half chewed, with a few gulps of warm tea. "Wait for me, John. Just a minute."
She gathered her utensils and carried them to the wash solution for a hurried wash and rinse, and rushed to join Danziger and the kids.
"Julia?" Alonzo said, puzzled.
She looked back at him and shrugged apologetically. "Well ... I want to hear the end of the story, too!"
John laughed a low rumble. "Will it do me any good to hope you know something about dunerails?" he asked her as she caught up with them.
"No, not a bit. I haven't a clue."
"Great. Nothing like working with a crack team of specialists."
"Oh, I think between young Mr. Adair and I, we can help you crack something on the dunerail. Right, Uly?"
"I can crack lots of things!"
"So...John? Does the woman ever find out the man who flies and her partner are the same person? I mean, they work together day after day - why is it so hard for her to figure it out?"
Danziger stopped walking and waved a finger in Julia's face. "Look, if I'm going to finish this story, it'll be on one condition - no more questions! You're jumping ahead in the story. Do you want to hear it all or not?"
"Yes!" True exclaimed.
"All of it!" Uly added.
"Yes, all right, but I still don't see how..."
"Quiet, or you stay here! I mean it, Julia."
She raised her hands placating and smiled nicely. "Okay, okay. I just find it hard to believe a woman can be so..."
True: "Julia! You're interrupting again!"
Uly: "Use your imagination!"
John: "Listen to them, or I'm calling Alonzo!"

THE FINAL DAY

Early the next morning, Devon had her team gathered for another go at finding a way to cross the river. Only Walman would be going with her and Alonzo today. There had been quite a bit of food gathered the day before and Julia asked for help in preserving it for the next leg of their journey. Not being one of the more popular jobs, both Devon and the doctor had been surprised by the many volunteers to do so. Devon wasn't bothered, though she did wish Eben Sinh had decided to take the scout again today, even though Devon still couldn't decide if she'd gotten her courage up to ask the other woman about her time on the stations. . .with the Danzigers. She had noticed the guarded looks and low conversations among her companions and Devon was sure everyone knew why she had been determined to find a place to cross the river to the south, but today she didn't care. They were going north and she was confident they would find a way across before the end of the day. She had gotten a good night's sleep and awakened rested and feeling good. Her decision to accept the situation with Danziger and work around it had been the right one. Whatever his reasons were for quitting she knew she would discover them eventually and until then she was simply no longer going to let it all be such a big deal.
So there! She thought with a small smile to herself.
As she waited for Alonzo and Walman to strap the last of their gear to the back of the dunerail, Devon could even admit to herself that Danziger had been right about the hills, they did indeed tax the transrover's engines, though not to the degree he had predicted - small comfort to Devon, but a comfort nonetheless.
It had taken Danziger and Walman less than eight hours to go over it and make minor adjustments and small repairs before pronouncing it fit, but the group had ended up losing time, anyway, simply because the banks of the river were too high to provide a ford. What appeared on the map to be the closest bend in the river was simply that and no more. The map did not say the banks of the river would be mini cliffs 15 meters above the rushing water.
The river was beautiful, the woods along the banks, though thick with underbrush, were beautiful, too, and the hills they had just crossed were a lovely sight simply because they were behind them. No one seemed to care if they spent more time here than planned. They were on the move toward New Pacifica again and that's all that really mattered.

Stepping out of the mess tent, Magus waved at the trio in the dunerail and watched as Alonzo started it's engine and roared out of the campsite. She looked around for Baines and Sinh and saw them sitting on the ground beside a pile of covered equipment, obviously waiting for her. Three bags and a mag-pro rested on the ground in front of them.
Baines looked up as she approached. "You look about as enthusiastic as I feel," he said. "We have all the food we need, the scout team is looking for a way across the river. . . I don't see why we have to walk south over already covered ground for any reason!"
Magus laughed. "Then you haven't been paying close attention to things the last couple of days! Let's go. Half a day out, half a day back."
The other two climbed to their feet and all three took a pack and slung it over a shoulder.
Eben motioned with her head. "Tell you what. Let's walk as far as the first waterfall. It was an easy climb down to the water. Maybe we can get some fish to bring back."
"We've got dried fish to last forever," Baines said. He hooked the mag-pro over the pack and held up his hands. "I know, I cleaned them."
"Then we'll have enough to last forever and a week." She moved her pack to the other shoulder and then back to the other. She shrugged her shoulders. "Besides, I'm not up for a long walk. Had a headache when I woke up this morning."
Magus looked at Eben. "Did you tell Julia?"
"Yes. She fixed me up. I'm good to go, but I never get sick, you know? Back home when everyone was down with a virus or passing colds to each other - I was always the one getting the juice and making everyone comfortable."
Baines chuckled. "Listen to her. And people say I worry too much! She gets a little headache and she thinks she's on the verge of collapse." He raised the pitch of his voice. "My head hurts, let's just walk two k!"
Sinh tried to glare, but it was hard to get mad at this guy when he was in a playful mood. "I'll have you know the waterfall is a good five klicks from here."
He looked at her seriously. "So what's so special about this waterfall?"
"You'll see when we get there."

Alonzo was optimistic. He had a feeling they would be lucky today. A ford in the river would be just up the way and all their worries would be over. At times like this he really appreciated the beauty of the planet. He could see the natural wonders and be in awe of them instead of looking at them and seeing only the obstacles they represented. He drove along at a moderate pace, humming to himself and looking around. The trees and brush were beautiful, full green and rippling in the breeze, seeming to call for his attention and admiration. He looked to his right, at the hills and in passing he saw the look on Devon's face.
She was admiring the sights, too. Instead of fiddling with the maps and checking and re-checking their coordinates, she was looking upward at the trees, the scattered, fluffy clouds, the blue sky. Today was going to be a lucky one.
An outcropping from the rolling hills was coming closer and he pointed at it. "Must be where they found the potato things we had for dinner last night."
Devon looked at the map for the first time. "It is. Eight kilometers from camp exactly. Look! You can see where they were digging." She looked at him. "Guess it wouldn't hurt to look for more farther on. Maybe we could get a couple of whole plants to take with us, to see how they seed or spread."
He nodded and laughed lightly. "Hated hydroponic potatoes when I was a kid. I might have liked them better if they cooked up bright pink like these do."
"Why don't we start looking for a place to get closer to the river?" she suggested. "I'd like to see how high the banks are and how fast the water is moving."

Dr. Heller looked around her work area and had to admit things were going smoothly. The drying ovens they'd built and the smoker they rigged up back at the biodome made the whole area smell like a cooking competition was taking place. There was plenty to do and everyone was busy. Some kept the fires going, others prepared the plants for drying, and others tended to the food that was ready to be packed away. The dried and salted fish and burrower meat from yesterday were packed in plastic bundles made from materials stored at the biodome and they'd been lucky to find some small containers that could be made airtight easily enough among the 'dome builders' extra supplies. As long as the group had water to reconstitute all the food plants they'd found along the river bank they would have plenty to eat for weeks to come.
With so many people working closely together in a small area hot from the fires she'd expected bickering to have started by now. It usually did. Instead, Morgan was helping Cameron and Denner with the vacuum pump. They were sealing the bundles of food to be saved for emergency rations. Bess was stoking the fires and probably eavesdropping on the lessons Yale was giving the children a few feet away.
Julia turned off her scanning equipment and rose from the box she was seated on and walked a few steps to get the kinks out of her legs. This was the second time the crew had made an extended layover since leaving the biodome. The first one had been miserable, but this stop was different. Villages on old Earth had been founded in settings like this one. There was lumber for building, food and water, plentiful game and fertile soil for planting crops.
At times like this she wondered what life was going to be like at New Pacifica. She wondered if they would ever be able to really settle down after so much wandering. Would they all grow bored staying in one place?
Would Alonzo grow bored? If she went back to the stations with him what would her life be like? Did she have it in her to become a sleep jumper, too, and travel the known space lanes with him if he asked her to?
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Oh, where was Danziger and his endless supply of stories when she needed one? She was thinking of the group as being past the halfway point now, and the closer they came to their destination the more she was troubled with thoughts of what was going to happen after they arrived at the ocean with no building supplies and no medical equipment. Though Alonzo was positive at least two of the cargo pods should be in the vicinity there was no way he could guarantee they hadn't been looted or destroyed.
This was doing her no good. Julia swung around and walked over toward Yale and the children to see what they were learning today.

Once they'd fallen into a steady rhythm of walking, the three crew on foot covered ground fast. "Are you going to tell me now what's so great about this waterfall?" Baines said. "The rate we're going we could reach New Pacifica three months ahead of the others if we were going west." Eben laughed. "Okay! Just a little way downstream are some rocks in the water we might be able to walk on to get across to the other bank. I know it's dangerous, but we'll be able see what's beyond the trees on the other side of the river. Besides, we saw fruit trees on the other bank, too, but Devon didn't want to take the chance to go over and see what they were."
"So we're going to be the resourceful little gatherer/hunters that we are and take the risk while no one is watching," he finished. "Something we could do with a vehicle once we get across the river as a group, I might point out."
Eben gave Baines an exasperated look. "It always has to be the easy way with you, doesn't it?"
Magus laughed. "She wants to be the first to see what's on the other side, Jake," she said. "For a sleep jumper you have no sense of adventure, you know that?"
"The hell with adventure," he shot back. "Ask anyone who ever flew the sleep runs. It all comes down to the money."
"I hate it when you try to sound like Martin," she countered.
"I didn't whine! Did it sound like I was whining when I said that?"
Sinh rolled her eyes to the sky. "Listen, both of you. Can you hear it? The waterfall is just ahead."

By midday, the drive north was beginning to look promising. The banks of the river were lower, sloping more gently toward the water. The trees were thinning as they spread out to cover a wider area along the sides of the river. The water itself was still moving fast, but the few times they'd stopped to take a closer look, the sticks and branches they were using as gauges showed a depth of less than a meter along the shore.
As long as they found solid rock somewhere the transrover could cross that depth with little problem. It would be able to pull across the dunerail and the ATV with it's winch line. It worked before. It would work again.
Walman was sitting in the back seat of the rail wondering how to keep himself from being killed. Despite the cheery start to the day and the fact that they were bound to come to a ford soon, Devon was clearly losing her optimistic attitude the farther north they drove. It didn't take a genius to figure they were getting closer and closer to that pass through the hills she and Danziger had been arguing about days ago, the pass that had started the whole quitting thing with Danziger.
If they found a way across the river anywhere near that pass he was going to be hard pressed not to see the humor in it. He was either going to laugh - physical death; grin like an idiot - if looks could kill death; or sputter a lot as he tried to keep a straight face - if looks could kill and sarcastic comments death. Right now he wanted to laugh so much his stomach hurt from holding back. What was worse, Alonzo had a big cheery grin on his face and he was looking at everything with that expression. Trees, rocks, cave entrances, the hills, the river - you name it. He was giving it his best smile.
"Hey! Another cave," Solace said and pointed at the small hills to the east. "It's the third one we passed this morning. Maybe we should check out a couple of them on the way back." His smile widened. "We might find a grendler stash."
Devon nodded brusquely. "Why don't we find a way across the river first and think about exploring caves later." She pointed toward the river. "Let's stop here and take another look."
Without a word, Alonzo turned the vehicle toward the water.
Walman was ready to knock that damn smile off his face. It was contagious.

"Morgan, honey, don't eat anymore of the berries. We're supposed to be storing them for later." Bess Martin waved her husband's hands away from the sheet of dried fruit he was putting into containers for Cameron to seal. "Why don't you go check the fire under the little oven and we'll finish up here?"
"You were just over there doing that yourself!" he said, flinging his arm out in that direction.
She gave him her patient look. "Okay. It's almost time to start cooking midday. Get the big fire going so the rocks will heat up. I think we might have found a wheat substitute. We ground up the seed heads from the dried tall grasses along the river and they produced the closest powder yet to good old wheat flour. I want to experiment this afternoon. Maybe have some Navajo bread for dinner tonight. That'll be a nice surprise for the scout team. They've been working so hard the last couple of days to find a way across the river."
"All right," Morgan said and rose from his box chair. He hated it when she openly appealed to his appetite to motivate him. Almost starving to death did things to a man. It made him appreciate food all the more. It wasn't his fault he was born with a healthy appetite and a love of good food learned at his mother's table. He could hardly wait until the colony ship arrived with the bulk of their food supplies and they could eat a real meal again.
Still, he took the long, flat rocks his wife used to cook certain foods and balanced them across the stones stacked neatly for that purpose. He poked at the burning logs and moved a few closer to the warming stones, sliding the logs underneath to heat them from below.
Morgan moved away from the fire, staying close enough to make sure the logs didn't stop burning, but far enough away to not feel the full heat. He sat on the ground and reclined to one side, resting his weight on one elbow and stretching his legs out. He looked at his wife and she was busy , not looking around as she worked. He slipped his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a handful of dried berries. Closing his fist around them, he shook them into his mouth one at a time. Maybe they weren't hydroponic strawberries, but their tart, sweet taste was wonderful nonetheless.
Yale's lessons had concluded for the morning and the two children were begging him to take them swimming in the river. Julia was hanging around them, looking as she was about to laugh at the two against one argument the majority was close to winning. Bess and Diane were carrying an armload each of food packets to the transrover. Cameron was rolling up the drying racks. The finely meshed metal screens were meant to reinforce the cargo pod walls against projectile penetration. Morgan wondered what the inventor of the stuff would think if he - or she - knew Eden Advance was using it to dry food in stone and mud ovens.
Running footsteps caught his attention and he saw Ulysses Adair coming toward him with a big smile on his face.
"Hey, Mr. Martin," he said as he ran past toward his tent, "we're going swimming. Want to come? We're all going!"
Morgan rolled onto his back, keeping his eyes on the boy, and answering to his back, "Not right now. Maybe later."
A minute later Bess appeared above him and looked down at him with a half smile. "I have a feeling we're going to be moving on soon, Morgan. Let's go with the kids and have a last wade in the water. Once we get across Devon is going to push to make up for all this lost time."
Morgan rolled his eyes. "No. I think I'll just stay here and watch the camp. Danziger and Mazatl should be back from testing the ATV they fixed. I'll tell them where you are."
She smiled. "You sure? Okay. I'll tell Cameron to get one of the mag-pros out of the rover for you. He was going to stay and watch."
Morgan hefted the mag-pro on his shoulder and waved to Bess as she and the others disappeared down the embankment to the river. He walked toward the crates under an open tent where the children just had their lessons. He took another handful of berries from his pocket and chewed them slowly one by one.

"Hey! Catch!"
Baines had barely enough time to react before a piece of fruit thunked to the ground next to him and began to roll toward the water. "Watch it!" he yelled at the two women who were farther up the west bank of the river.
He fastened the last tab on his boots and reached for the object and his pack at the same time. He got to his feet and looked at the mottled, purple, teardrop shaped thing. He looked up and started climbing toward the other two.
"What does the scanner say?"
Sinh was halfway up the nearest tree bearing the fruit and tossing down every one she could reach.
Magus knelt on the ground and examined one she had sliced in half. "Just a sec," she answered. Jake Baines nodded, even though she didn't see him and then smiled to himself. He looked back the way he had come. Answer out loud, his mother would say to him when he was little. Your head doesn't rattle loud enough for me to hear it way over here. The sound of the waterfall was so loud, he doubted Magus had heard the rattle either.
Still and all, Eben had something here. Being the first across, that is. The water was icy cold and moving fast and the pressure against their ankles and lower legs had been great, but the rocks were clean due to the rushing water as it tumbled down the fall, and keeping their balance and traction had been easy enough, considering. He looked at the water and felt as if he'd accomplished something.
Baines reached down and patted Magus on the shoulder. "Leave that for now. Let's take a walk, see what's on this side of the river." He stepped around her and began to climb the steep bank. Sinh quickly scrambled down the tree and hopped to the ground. "Oh, no, you don't! Wait for us."

Two kilometers north of Danziger's pass, a long, sloping, almost stair-like area of rock had been uncovered by the rushing water of the river. It flowed over the rocky outcropping as swiftly as ever, but the rocks were high in the water, forming a shallow area that Devon would have bet they could walk across with no trouble. From on high the crystal clear water showed the outcropping extended all the way to the other side.
Here was the ford at last, a natural bridge, and she didn't even care that she and her companions were looking at it with smiles as wide as the river itself. The group was on it's way again!
Alonzo looked around for a long stick. "Better tell the camp," he called over the noise to Devon. "It's time to be moving on down the line."
"Here!" Walman called and raised a suitable looking stick in the air, and the two men slid and scrambled down the side of the bank to see how deep the water was close to shore.
Devon powered up her gear and practically bounced in place as she waited for Yale to answer. By the time she had relayed the news and a few minutes of pictures, Alonzo and Matt were climbing back up the hill to rejoin her.
"We're good to go!" Solace announced and pointed at the stick he was carrying. "We can walk across. The water shouldn't be any higher than halfway up the dunerail's tires."
Devon looked satisfied. "Okay. Let's head back. We should have enough time to stop and explore a couple of those caves you noticed back along the way."

Just over two kilometers from the river, the hills through which it flowed dropped away in a gentle slope that seemed to go on forever. The land was turning arid again, much like the area they'd passed through after beginning their travels. Baines, Magus and Sinh stood atop the last hill and looked into an enormous concavity in the surface of the planet. Mountains or hills seemed to shimmer in the haze far across the valley. Even using jumpers it wasn't possible to tell what marked the horizon. Only time and some hard travel would reveal the landmarks in the distance.
Magus handed the mag-pro to Baines. "I'll call camp. Yale and John will want to see some pictures. It's a good thing we found so much edible plants here. I'll bet we won't be able to find much food or water out there."
Baines nodded. "We'd better get a lot of samples of that purple fruit for Julia. Might be useful enough to keep her from yelling at us for crossing the river without telling anyone we were going to do it."
Sinh laughed at that. "She'll chew us out anyway, and after her, Devon will too."
He snorted. "Better cross our fingers they found a place to cross up north. If she's in a good mood she'll tell us not to do it again and let it go at that."
"I hope so. She's been really easy to tick off since Danz quit."
"Oh, you noticed that, too? And I thought I was the only one!"
"Hey!" Magus interrupted. "Yale said to get back to camp as fast as we can. Devon and the others found a place to cross up north, and on the way back they found a spider tunnel." She started back down toward the river. "Julia said to bring as much fruit as we can carry. Cameron and Morgan will walk out to meet us."

Walman shook his head vehemently. "No!" he insisted. "It isn't safe."
Alonzo tossed his hands in the air. "Look, Matt. Devon and I have been through one of these before. It's a bumpy ride, but it works. We need to find out where it goes, and the only way to do it is to go through the vacuum tunnel. Piece of cake."
Devon shot him a sharp glance and returned her attention to Walman. "Well, maybe not that easy, but it is relatively safe."
"No, it isn't," the other man insisted. "Look, when Danziger and I explored the one the three of you and Julia went through back at the biodome, he said the ride itself was not too bad, and he was right. It was the arrivals that were to be concerned about. You and ‘Lonz were lucky to be spit out of the vacuum onto the beach, but you never figured out how Julia ended up under the ocean, or how John ended up inside the wall of the cavern. Knowing the grendlers used the tunnel shouldn't have been a reason to presume it was safe. He said if we ever ran into another one, the way to explore it would be to send Zero through to see where it came out. For all anyone knows the other end might be a hundred feet up the side of a cliff, or beside one of those acid lakes the Terrians use to recharge their staffs. Who knows how or where it'll throw you out. Oh, man! John oughta be here telling you all this, not me! He has it all figured out. And, well, look at this place. Does it look like grendlers have been here recently?"
Devon sighed and turned around, walked a few steps away. There was nothing better she could have wished for herself than to have Danziger here, but he was obstinate in his refusal to participate in the everyday scouting of the group. She turned back to the other two.
"So, how do we get him here?" she asked, feeling thoroughly miserable. "He won't answer me."
Walman shrugged. "I'll try," he said simply and headed for the entrance to the cave.
Alonzo was looking around with a new interest. "He's right, you know. This tunnel looks like it hasn't been used in a long time." He cocked his head to one side and smiled ruefully at her. "We did clear away a lot of webs near the entrance."
Devon folded her arms and looked around, too, but her mind was clearly not on the condition of the cave. "Do you think he'll come?"
Alonzo looked down to hide a small smile. "I don't see why not. Especially if he thinks we're stupid enough to go through without regard for what's on the other side." He laughed shortly, without humor. "Which, of course, I was ready to do."
She didn't hear him, of course. Her attention wasn't on him. Alonzo let himself grin. What the hell, he knew a little of how she felt but , unlike Devon, he could admit it to himself, or even out loud if he wanted to! He missed Danziger's presence on scouts, on the road, during planning discussions - even during meals, for pete's sake. The man had taken himself so far out of the loop, he wasn't even eating with them anymore. While Devon, especially Devon, and the others in the group were growing more miserable with each passing day of John's retirement, Danziger, himself, was thriving on it. True and Uly followed him around like he was the Pied Piper, begging for stories, and Julia was walking on air with all of her gadgets and gizmos working properly and having someone around who could make new ones for her as soon as she thought them up - and she occasionally joined the kids to follow Danz around like he was the Pied Piper, begging for stories. The rewards for her happiness were all Alonzo's, and while he appreciated that, he knew he, Devon and Julia needed John working with them again, not for them.
He sneaked a look at Devon out of the corner of his eye. She needed him for other reasons, most of which she wouldn't admit to in a million years.
Walman came back into the cave with a mile wide grin on his face. "John and Zero are on their way. Along with almost everyone else." He found a small boulder to sit down on. "I hope you two don't take this the wrong way, but I'm sick and tired of scouting with you. Really, truly sick and tired. You guys have to help me talk Danziger into coming back before you drive me crazy!"
Alonzo laughed. "I know what you mean. I don't know how John knows half the things he knows, but he does, and I miss having that god-awful stubborn idiot around. We'd probably have never lost the water filter if he'd been with us. Which reminds me, Matt, we still have to beat him up for laughing at us."
Devon laughed shortly, lifting one hand to rub her eyes. An absurd picture of Danziger holding them at bay with his hands on their heads while they helplessly swung their arms and fists at him popped into her head. "The two of you and what army?" she asked.
Alonzo stared at her with mock indignation. "You don't think we can take him?"
"Are you kidding me?" she asked. "Alonzo, remember when he lifted you out of the mud with one hand?"
"So, we'll sneak up on him."
Walman laughed. This was so great. Just knowing John Danziger was coming to help them was good enough to brighten their moods. They hadn't joked around like this since the day before he quit. Now, he just had to think of the right way to make him stay.

The drive to the coordinates of the cave where the rapid transit tunnel was found, took less than ninety minutes on the small ATV with Julia and Zero hanging on to the back. Danziger didn't mind Julia's company, but he was beginning to be irritated by the robot's constantly optimistic disposition. Until recent days, he had no idea the idiot thing had a penchant for singing and reciting poetry to itself. The robot was beginning to grate on his nerves almost as much as running out of things to do at camp during the day. While he enjoyed spending time with True and Uly, he was getting tired of making up stories to tell them, and while he enjoyed their company, he was beginning to miss the company of adults. The evening gathering around the fire was fun as usual, but he was getting annoyed with their constant arguing among themselves about who was at fault for the day's mishaps. The only thing keeping him quiet about it was the guilty knowledge that he and Devon Adair used to fight with one another in much the same way about other matters and he supposed the others in the group had gotten just as tired of it as he was getting of their bickering. Also it had only been three days since he quit the first team. He was damned if he was going to admit he was already going stir crazy.
When they reached the coordinates given them and found the dunerail parked beneath a large tree, Danziger looked around with surprise. A trail had been cut through a stand of tall grass and small bushes to reach the cave entrance at the top of a slope about twenty feet high.
"What the hell...?" he muttered and looked all around.
"What is it?" Julia asked, gathering up her bags of equipment.
"Look at this place. No one, nothing's been up to the cave in months. What are they doing exploring a spider tunnel that hasn't been used for months?"
Julia looked around, too, and gave him an alarmed look. "Something's wrong with the tunnel, isn't there? The grendlers don't use it anymore."
"Let's get up there," he said grimly and took her bags from her, hefting them easily with one hand. "I hope no one tried to go through yet."
"Me, too. Come on, Zero."
Julia raced to keep up with Danziger's longer stride. She grabbed the back of his jacket. "Wait for me!"
He pulled her up the slope and into the tunnel. There were spider webs all over the place and he used his free hand to sweep them away from his face as he went through the outer portions of the cavern toward the dim glow of the scout team's glow lamps farther inside. The sound of the vacuum greeted them before the voices of the three scouts did.
The cavern in which the trio waited was heavy with webs, some knocked out of the way, most untouched and high up the walls of the cave. The tunnel beyond was decorated with many webs.
"Get a move on, Zero," Danziger's voice called over the sound of the vacuum, and Walman leaped up to rush toward the cavern entrance.
"Alonzo? Devon?" Julia's voice called out next.
"Keep coming. You're almost here," Alonzo answered back. He rose and walked toward the entrance to stand beside Matt Walman.
Danziger swept inside with the doctor hanging onto the back of his jacket and trotting at a fair clip to keep up with his longer stride.
Alonzo laughed at the sight and smilingly gave Julia a welcoming hug. "You look like True getting pulled along back there," he told her.
Julia smiled back. "It's the only way I can keep up with him. If we moved at his pace when he's in a hurry, we'd all be at New Pacifica by now."
John was putting down the bags he'd carried and Alonzo reached out to clap him on the shoulder. "Thanks for coming, buddy."
Danziger straightened and turned to look in the direction of the tunnel. "No problem. In spite of all that can go wrong, these things are intriguing. I've been hoping to run into another one. Of course, I was expecting it to be one in use by the grendlers, not an abandoned one. Nothing's been in here in months."
The other man laughed shortly. "Tell me about it, man. Something I just noticed as you were coming in, John. There are only a couple of spiders in here in spite of all the webs. It's like even the spiders know this is a tunnel they can't use anymore."
"Maybe we shouldn't even be investigating it," Julia suggested. "I mean, if the spiders know to leave, it must be for a good reason."
Devon walked over to join them. "Julia has a point. I never noticed the spiders were gone before. Maybe we should leave it alone."
John patted her shoulder. "We still need to know where it goes, if only to know why we should be avoiding the area in the future. The other end of the tunnel might be between here and the west coast. We might walk right into whatever the situation is."
"And, if it is in a dangerous place?" she asked.
"That's why Zero goes first. Nothing short of dismantling him can stop him. Even a high fall wouldn't hurt him, and he'd be able to climb back up to the tunnel."
"Speaking of Zero, where is he?" Walman asked and turned to leave the cavern for the outer entrance.
"Good question," Danziger agreed, but kept his attention at hand. "Where's the vacuum?"
Alonzo grinned. "The guided tour leaves now. Right this way." He gestured with a wave of his hand. John laughed. "Save the charm for someone who appreciates it, old man."
He followed him up a small incline deeper into the cave and to a long narrow passage with several webs at one end. Julia and Devon came behind and immediately Julia began taking readings of everything inside the tunnel.
"Pretty much like the other one. The readings are almost identical, except for the absence of the spiders all over the webs. The charges in the webs are still powerful." Her tone changed to one of chiding. "I think this is a bad idea, John."
"So do I," Devon added, "but . . .we need to know."
Danziger looked away and she skewered him with a hard gaze. He knew exactly what it took for her to agree with him.
Alonzo reached out and grabbed Julia's arm. "Don't get too far inside. The webs might take you for a passenger before we're ready."
She quickly stepped back and lowered her scanner.
"Heads up," Walman's voice said from behind them. "Zero, the intrepid explorer, is here."
Alonzo turned to look and started to laugh. "You planning to send Zero on a mountain climbing expedition, Danz?"
The stiff limbed robot proceeded Matt up the rise, and it was draped with ropes and safety gear of all kinds.
"Just taking precautions, man. If it's safe for us to go through, we might need some of that gear. Now wipe that grin off your face and help Matt and me get him ready. I told you, your pretty face does nothing for me."
Alonzo kept smiling. "I'm just feeling good."
Walman chuckled. He knew exactly how Solace felt. He felt like grinning like an idiot, too, as he pulled some of the coiled rope from the robot's arms.
"What's with you two?" Danziger demanded.
"Nothing!" they echoed one another.
"Get in here, Zero, what they have might be contagious enough to affect you."
This time it was Julia who laughed. She recovered quickly, not daring to look at Devon. She could feel the needles Adair was staring at her just fine, thank you. She didn't need to see them.
"Slow down, Danziger," the doctor said, changing the subject. "Let me watch you make that bow hitch again."

Just a few minutes later, the robot was outfitted to Danziger's satisfaction and ready to step into the vacuum. John shooed everyone out of the tunnel, and stopped to retest the security of the ropes one last time, giving the robot a few last minute suggestions as he did so. The other two men followed Devon and Julia out of the tunnel and into the main cavern.
When they were safely away and out of earshot, Danziger quickly lifted his jacket to reveal a safety belt beneath and he just as quickly tied a long end of cord from Zero to himself. Someone had to go through with the robot to help scout the other end of the tunnel. Zero was simply not meant for scouting alone. Thanks to Walman for not mentioning this part of their plan to anyone. Listening to the change in the sound of the vacuum, John stepped closer to the robot. "This is it, Zero," he said quietly. "Get your bearings as soon as we get spit out the other end and make sure I'm not stuck inside a wall somewhere, okay, pal?"
"I understand."

Walman deliberately let the others go before him. He didn't feel good about deceiving anyone, but Danziger was insistent someone had to accompany the robot. Zero was simply too literal in his programming to correctly interpret what might be on the other end of the tunnel. And, John being John, wasn't going to let any of his ops crew take the big risks when he could do it himself. He listened as John talked to the robot and lagged far enough behind the others to cover the other man's absence. He almost caught up with the others when Devon stopped and turned to ask a question. He didn't hear the question, only the name of the person to whom it was addressed, and the silence when there was no answer forthcoming.
"Danziger?" she demanded and looked up the ramp, stepping aside to see past the others.. "John, are you still ignoring...? John?!"
"Oh, no," Julia Heller said, suddenly, and whirled around. "Alonzo, John is going to go with Zero."
"Oh, no, he isn't!" Devon announced, and ran as fast as she could toward the tunnel. "Danziger! Don't you do it!"
"Devon..." was all Walman could get out as she ran past him heading dead-on for the web tunnel. "John!" Alonzo barreled past him, followed by Julia. Walman resigned himself to the inevitable and went back, too.
The sound of the vacuum in the tunnel was increasing in pitch and Devon, feeling sheer terror course through her, leaped across the remaining space between herself and Danziger. She locked her arms around his neck and held on as if her life depended on it.
John stumbled backward with a surprised, "Whoa!" And they were both gone.
Alonzo stumbled to a stop. "Too late."

The doctor grabbed Walman's arm. "Did you know he was going to do this? Matt!?"
He stared at her in surprise. Why was she so angry? "Well. Yeah, but..."
Alonzo stared at her, too. "Julia, it's not that bad..."
"Not that bad? Alonzo, the tunnel has been abandoned! Who knows what's on the other side? And, now, we've got two of our people going into who knows what kind of a situation when it was supposed to be only Zero going through."
Walman shook his head. "Not exactly. John was always going to go because Zero's programming can't reliably tell a safe situation from a deadly one."
"And if it isn't safe?"
"He took a spider from here. If it isn't safe, he'll - well, he was going to close it off. I don't know what he's going to do now."
Alonzo lifted a hand, index finger raised. "Close it off how? As soon as a spider with an opposing charge touches the web the vacuum stops. Are you saying he wasn't coming back?"
"Of course not! He would loose it away from the webs just before he came back through. There would be enough time to get back safely."
"That's cutting it too close!" Alonzo exclaimed. "What the hell was he thinking?"
"That's just the simple version!" Walman pointed out, just as loudly. "There's more to it than that. We'll know when he sends word back about what he found at the other end. He'll send a gear message to let us know if we can come through or not."
"Be quiet!" Julia interrupted. "The tunnel is still active but nothing - no one is coming back.."
"Give him a few minutes. It might take a while. You know yourselves you get there disoriented."
"Or inside a wall," Julia added. "Or under an ocean."
Several minutes after she finished speaking, the hum of the tunnel began to build.

When Devon awoke she was flat on her back on a rocky floor with a pillow of some kind under her head. A dim light was coming from somewhere to her left. She sat up quickly and her head swam, but not because she was injured. The most overwhelming stench hung in the air and it made her head ache and her throat hurt. She was in a cavern and to her right the sound of a spider tunnel vacuum hummed quietly. She got to her feet and blinked rapidly, wiping at her face. Something was burning her eyes. She looked at the floor and leaned down to pick up a jacket.
"John?" She walked toward the light. "Danziger?"
"Over here."
The light brightened a fraction, as if something, or someone, blocking it had moved. She came to a small bend in the cavern and stopped.
Danziger was leaning against one wall of a narrow entry looking out at a heavily clouded sky darkening a barren landscape. He gestured with one hand. "There is a volcanic eruption taking place about four k northwest of here. The smell is sulphur. A lava floe goes past here, getting higher and wider by the hour. It'll be high enough to reach this cave in two, maybe three days. Zero is doing a reconnoiter along the high ground above us. I sent word back that no one should follow us and why."
"You hurt your arm."
He didn't look at her, but pointed outside. "We were thrown out close to the lava floe. Zero dragged us inside."
"John?"
The quietness, almost uneasiness, of her voice made him turn and look at her for a long moment, then he lifted and extended his hand to her.
Devon crossed the distance between them in a nanosecond.
She clung to him tightly for long time, her head resting against his shoulder.
Danziger curled his arm around her, taken totally by surprise by her for the second time in an hour. When she seemed to relax a bit, he lightly kissed the top of her head, much as he did with his daughter. He took a step toward the outside and pulled her gently along.
"Take a look at the dark side of your planet, Adair." He pointed to the north. "I'm assuming the volcano was once the same height as the mountains around it, so I can't even imagine the force it took to blow away that much of the top. The trees were knocked over for kilometers and covered in that gray ash. The lake, there, to the south, was probably turned to steam and mud after the blast. The lava poured out of the volcano and burned whatever was left. It must have been a sight to behold."
Devon stepped away - "Don't go too far," he warned her - one hand still clutching his shirt, and stared wordlessly at the ruined landscape outside the spider tunnel.
Acres of fallen trees stretched away as far to the south as she could see, all of it a uniform, dull gray shade, except where the blackened stumps of burned trees poked upward from the heavy layer of ash giving the world it's monotone appearance. The only color on the landscape was the black of hardened lava filling the gully below the tunnel entrance, and the reddish, orangish color of molten lava still pouring from the volcano and running downhill to steadily cover the hardened deposits before it.
A plume of black smoke and what appeared to be ash towered above the volcano and dissipated in all directions high in the atmosphere.
Danziger saw where her gaze was directed. "Remember a month or two ago back at the biodome, we started noticing how spectacular the sunsets had become?"
She nodded. "This is why, isn't it? Where are we, John? Has Zero been able to calculate a position?"
"He picked up the Martins' beacon as soon as he came out of the tunnel. We're about fifteen hundred kilometers northwest of camp. Maybe, a thousand k north, northeast of the comm dish. Not too far beyond the mountains on the other side of the valley is the ocean. We're far enough north to be in a much cooler climate than we've been living in, but we can't feel it because of the heat from the lava." He pulled her back a little ways. "Be careful. Even this far down the slope it has a tendency to bubble and splatter unexpectedly."
She leaned against him again, wiping at her eyes before encircling his waist with her arms. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not crying. It's something in the air! How far out did we land?"
"Uh, you stopped rolling when you hit the rock over there, and the rope stopped me just short of the pile of rocks over there. Zero's grapplers worked. They stopped him just inside the entrance, but the slack in the rope between us was enough to shoot you and me all the way outside. He came for me and we took you in out of the heat."
"You didn't have to come with him, John. He could have done this on his own."
He looked down at her with a frown. "Look who's talking. You didn't have to come."
She buried her face against his chest. "You're not going to die without me, John Danziger. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life without you. Three days alone has been long enough. I can't do it alone, anymore. You have to help me, John, don't shut me out any longer."
"Adair, be careful. You don't know what you're saying."
"Yes, I do, I just can't stop it! I don't want this to happen, but I have to know. Oh, god, I don't want this to happen now!"
"Do you think I do?!" Danziger asked. He rested his chin and lips on the top of her head for few seconds. He raised his head and went on plaintively. "We're past the halfway point. We might actually get to New Pacifica, one group, all in one piece. There's a good chance we'll make it."
Devon tightened her hold on him. "You're not going to stay, are you?" she asked, dreading the answer she already knew was going to come.
He put his injured arm around her and wiped her cheek lightly with his other hand. "There was a time when I thought staying was inevitable, that getting to the ocean was going to take years. Like Alonzo, in the beginning, I thought we were going to die here. I was ready for anything. I knew something was happening between you and me, and for a while there, I wanted something to happen. I really did. " He kissed the top of her head again. "But then came Shepard - thank god, for Shepard! He opened my eyes, ripped the blinders off. He told me something I didn't know. He told me I was in love with you, and I was stunned to realize he was right. I tried to deny it, but hell, I didn't even fool myself, certainly not him. Somewhere along the way, I had started putting myself ahead of my daughter. I started thinking of my future instead of hers." He paused for just a moment, but the silence seemed to last forever. "I have to take her back to the stations. Any chance she has to be more than I am is there. And, she knows about her mother now. I have to take her back if only to decide on the fate of her mother." He sighed heavily. "I can't stay here, Devon."
Again she wiped at her eyes. "I know. I've always known it - I just needed to hear you say it."
Devon stepped back into the cave and pulled him along with her. "Come inside. I need one good memory to get me through the rest of my life. I don't want to wonder whether we would have been good together, I don't want to imagine what we might have had," she pulled him past the bend in the cavern walls and to the room where the spider webs hummed with power. "I want to know exactly what we gave up for our children."
The cavern was dark after just coming in from the entry way, but Danziger heard the sound of cloth against cloth as Devon took off her jacket and let it fall to the floor. He felt her hands grab his shirt, and he let her pull him to the floor astride her. As her arms snaked around him and he slipped his uninjured arm beneath her shoulder and head, he hoped Zero wouldn't be back for a long time.

The End