Reflections

At New Pacifica, three weeks after the arrival of the Colony ship:

True Danziger reluctantly submitted to Doctor Heller's examination, squirming as the cool diag-glove touched her warm skin. She wriggled restlessly, waiting for Julia to complete her ministrations. Her father, John Danziger, hovered behind her anxiously, also waiting for Julia to finish.
"Well?" he demanded the instant she had. Heller glanced down at the diagnostic glove on her arm, then looked up at her friend, attempting a reassuring smile.
"I can't detect any virus or infection in her body. She seems to be suffering some sort of allergic reaction to something. Possibly a plant or flower somewhere around here," the young doctor suggested. Danziger frowned, the arm around his thin daughter's shoulders holding her to him. He'd never had to deal with True being ill. She hadn't suffered terribly much from the usual chidhood illnesses, which was just as well, since their tiny account back on the station could not have coped with extra's like medication or hospital bills. John found himself wondering how on earth Devon Adair had managed with her son, Ulysses, being sick so long with the Syndrome.
"What does that mean, exactly?" John demanded roughly. Where his daughter was concerned, he was very protective. But he couldn't save her from something he couldn't see.
"Exactly, that means just what I said, John," Julia said, smiling. "I'm sure she'll be fine. I'll give her an injection to take care of the symptoms," and, as she spoke, Heller readied a hypospray and pressed it to True's neck. The girl writhed away from it, scowling as its contents were sent into her bloodstream. "Just watch her carefully for the next couple of days. It's probably just something coming into season, or she would have experienced the reaction earlier." Heller frowned absently. "If the shot doesn't help her symptoms, we might have to try something else. Meanwhile, I'll continue analysing the new spring flowers and see if I can find out what it is that's making her feel so awful," and Julia gave the girl a fond smile. As the injection began to ease her blocked nose and her lungs relaxed, letting her breathe a little easier, True found herself able to smile back, just a tiny bit. The allergy attack had come on suddenly that morning, and it was an unusual experience for the normally healthy girl. For the first time, True felt sympathetic towards Uly, who must have felt this way his whole life. In that moment she generously forgave him all the things he'd ever done to annoy her.
"You're sure she'll be okay?" John demanded anxiously, looking at his daughter in concern.
"I feel better already," True offered in a small voice. She didn't like to see her dad so upset, especially not over her. She wanted him to think of her as tough and brave, not sick and clingy, like Uly used to be with his mom.
Heller smiled. "See?" She patted True's arm. "You tell your dad if you start to feel sick again, or come straight here if you have another attack. Got it?"
True grinned, starting to feel even better. "Got it!"
"Okay. Take it easy for the next few days, though," Heller warned, and the stern glance from her father reinforced the condition. Scowling, True nodded. "Taking it easy" meant she couldn't play with all the other kids that were around here. The Syndrome kids, having been Healed by the Terrians as Uly had been, were still in the hospital, under supervision of the overanxious Dr Vazquez, despite Julia's and Devon's reassurances that the Change was permanent. But there were a few siblings of the Syndrome kids, some around her age, whom True had been sorta hanging around, much to Uly's disgust. She knew he thought she'd been ignoring him. Maybe this would give her a chance to play in VR with him, like they used to. Before the Colony ship arrived.
"Sure. Can I go now?" True asked, struggling against her father's arm to get out of the chair and stand. At Julia's nod, John lifted her up and deposited her on the ground, ignoring her indignance at being carted around like a baby.
"Remember what I said about taking it easy!" True heard Julia call as she left the building. True called a vague reassurance over her shoulder, hurrying down the hallway towards the exit.

In the year since the Eden Advance crew had reached New Pacifica, it had changed dramatically. In her mind's eye, she could remember what it had looked like: clean, untouched, perfect and beautiful. Now, it was still beautiful and clean, but the signs of humanity's presence were everywhere. Devon and her dad, as well as a lot of the Advance crew, had been determined to keep it as it was, and try not to destroy its beauty with ugly buildings and structures, but New Pacifica was a growing town. There was only one large building, and that was the hospital, out of which True now emerged, already looking around for Uly. His mother had built their house a few klicks away from the main centre of town, but it wasn't quite finished yet, and they still lived in town, like most people. True frowned absently to herself, as she always did when she was lost in thought, and turned her head, scanning the township for any signs of her friend.
~Maybe he's over at the stables~ she thought, and, turning on her heel, headed in that direction in her usual determined gait, if a little slower than normal. Both she and Uly had been delighted to discover that the Colony ship's cargo included more frozen horse embryo's, and they'd watched excitedly as more horses, like Pegasus, grew. These ones hadn't been damaged in any crash, and they didn't get sick, like Pegasus had. Although the horses officially belonged to the entire Eden community, True and Uly had picked out their "own" horses. Uly's was a big, brown horse, with a star, like Pegasus. True's own favorite was a petite white mare with splotches of brown that delighted her. She'd named her Angel.

True had been right. Uly was in the stables, slowly and methodically brushing down Aramis, 'his' horse.
"Hey Uly," she called, pausing a few feet away from him. The little boy, who was no longer quite so little, having had several growth spurts over the past year, stopped what he was doing and looked up at her.
"Hey True." He resumed grooming the horse.
"Whatcha been up to?" the girl asked, biting her lip. She really should have paid more attention to him lately. But when the Colony ship had come, and there'd been a whole heap of other kids for her to play with, True had remembered what it was like on the Stations, with all the other Drone kids, and space brats to hang around with. It'd been a little weird having only Uly to play with for so long, but she'd come to enjoy it. When they weren't fighting. He was, in a weird kinda way, her best friend. Whenever the new kids said something bad about him, True always defended him. In fact, she'd gotten into a couple of fights the last week or two because of that, and had a feeling she was beginning to alienate her new friends. It just didn't seem like she could win. "Nothing," Uly replied with the casual coolness he'd been developing over the past month. True wasn't sure if it was something he'd picked up off his mother, something to do with his growing up, or because of his connection to the Terrians, but he had developed the ability to detatch himself from everyone else, and the annoying habit of seeming to look straight through a person. It irritated her when he used it on her, even though she knew she probably deserved it.
"Wanna go for a ride?" the girl offered hopefully, knowing even as she said it, that she shouldn't. She still didn't feel all that great.
"You're too sick," Uly answered, a glimmer of concern in his huge dark eyes. "You went to see Julia, didn't you?"
True nodded and said down on the hay-strewn floor, leaning against the wall and watching him continue grooming the horse. "Yup. She said I had to take it easy," and she made a face.
"So you can't play with all your new friends, right? So you came to me so you wouldn't be bored, right?" Uly sneered, turning his back on her. True frowned, unexpectedly hurt by his cut-down.
"It's not like that... I'm sorry I've been ignoring you lately, but there's just so many new people..." That was the wrong thing to say. She knew it when she saw his thin back stiffen and his hand momentarily stilled on the horse's side, before he relaxed. "You don't like it, do you? All the new people, I mean."
"The other sick kids needed to come here to be Healed by the Terrians," Uly replied implacably.
True looked at him. "Yeh, but don't you sometimes wish they'd all go away and everything could go back to how it was? Y'know, just you and me?" she asked. Although she'd spoken in an attempt to draw Uly out, True realized in a flash that she sometimes did wish it were just her and Uly again. There were times she'd taken a group of kids along the river and shown them places she and Uly had played, and had felt like she were betraying something. Times when she'd watched them running around and thought bitterly "get off our planet!" Was that how the Terrians felt? she wondered. It wasn't really her planet, but it was more hers than it was those other kids!
"Sometimes," Uly said so softly she almost didn't hear him. He turned around and looked at her, silent for several moments. "You're well enough to groom Angel, aren't you?" he asked, smiling just a little.
True nodded. "Sure am. I just can't do much running around and stuff." And, smiling back at her friend, she stood up and walked over to where Angel was stabled. Leading her horse out, she tied her next to Aramis and picked up one of the brushes Uly wasn't using. She hesitated a moment, since big gooey emotional outpourings weren't really something she was good at, but smiled at Uly. "I'm glad we're still friends," was all she said. His answering smile made her glad she'd said it and, with a calm heart, True stood near him as they groomed their horses in comfortable silence.

True dreamed she was being suffocated by a giant koba. It was lying on top of her and, much as she struggled frantically to dislodge it from her face, it stubbornly refused to move. She gasped, whimpering fearfully, trying to breathe. She batted her hands around, feeling the satisfying thunk as they connected with something.
"Ow! True, watch it, sweetheart!" she heard a familiar voice say, and awoke with a start. She was in her father's arms, being carried somewhere, and the feeling of suffocation from the dream was still with her. Gasping for breath against the pain of her lungs and her stinging eyes, True began to feel a little disoriented, a little detatched from reality. She wasn't sure whether she was still dreaming or not, as her dad rushed her through the night to the hospital, rousing Julia with his yells as he set her down on a bed. Julia must have been sleeping nearby, because she arrived quickly, strapping on her diag-glove and examining True. The sense of detatchment increased, and True felt like she was floating on a soft, fluffy cloud, far away from all the frantic activity going on around her as Julia and another medic tried to help her.
"... never seen such a strong allergic reaction...."
"... get Vazquez..."
"..... help her!"
Words floated in and out of her hearing, though they were being spoken right next to her. True didn't even think to wonder why she felt so strange, she just kept floating pleasantly.
"True? True, look at me!" Someone grabbed her face and forced her to look at them. True scowled. Couldn't they just leave her alone? She felt so nice and warm now. But they pinched her hard, and she let out a yelp, focussing on her father's blurry face.
"Daddy?" She began to worry. Why did her dad look so scared? He never looked scared. Something was very wrong.
"Julia, please, do something!" John begged the doctor, clutching his daughter close to him.

Heller glanced up at Danziger, taking note of his frightened expression, and matching it with her own. "I'm trying, John!" She looked up with relief as she saw Dr Vazquez enter, along with the medic she'd sent to fetch him.
"What's going on?" the man demanded.
"She was just brought in. She's suffering a severe allergic reaction to something - I still haven't identified what. None of the usual treatments seem to be working." Julia stopped suddenly, seeing a small face peering around the corner. "Uly? What are you doing here? You should be in bed." It was, after all, the middle of the night.
But Uly just stepped into the room, drawing everyone's attention. Even True glanced distractedly in his direction, trying to work out what was going on, and why everyone was crowded around her.
"I can help her," he explained and stepped close. Julia watched him in confusion. "The planet is making her sick," Uly told her, matter-of-factly, his gaze taking on that far-away look she'd often seen when he was in what she privately termed 'Terrian-mode.' "The planet can heal her," he continued. Julia then saw that he had a handful of dirt in his hands, and had a flashback to the day a Terrian had rubbed dirt over a relapsing Ulysses, instantly making him a little better. Dr Vazquez moved to stop the boy from going to True, but Julia held him back. Although Vazquez had read her reports of the past two years, and had seen, with his own eyes, the healing of the Syndrome children, he still distrusted the Terrians, as did quite a few of the parents.
"Let him do what he has to," Heller hissed at him, holding him back as Uly stepped up to his friend. Danziger moved away, still keeping one hand on his daughter's shoulder, as the boy gently, almost tenderly, pushed True back, so she lay down. Then he let the dirt in his hand sift fall lightly across her chest, while one finger trailed a line of dirt across her forehead. Almost instantly, the girl's desperate gasps stopped, and she began to breathe just a little easier. The improvement grew more pronounced with each passing moment, as Julia strapped on her diag-glove, urging Vazquez to do the same, and examined her. Smiling with relief, for she'd had no idea how to help the sick girl, Julia bent down next to Uly.
"Uly?" He looked up at her, already losing the Terrian-expression in his eyes, and looking more and more like a little boy. "How did you know True was sick?"
"I had a Dream," he told her calmly, smiling. "I know what's wrong with her, but she has to go see the Terrians to get better. I just helped her for now. She'll get sick again if she doesn't go to them."
Heller frowned, beckoning Danziger closer. She watched Uly carefully. "What do you mean, Uly? What did the Terrians tell you?"
The child shrugged his thin shoulders. "That there's something in the planet making her sick, something in the air. It's going to come every year to this place. If she wants to stay here, she has to go to them. They can help her body accept the planet, sorta like with me."
Danziger tensed beside Julia. "Like with you? Uly, True doesn't have the Syndrome! She's fine! She's just allergic to something... Julia said a plant or flower or something..." The man trailed off, when he saw both Julia and Uly shaking their heads.
"I've never seen such a reaction, before, John," Julia told him quietly. "We all suffered allergies when we first landed, and there's been a rash of them lately, with spring arriving. But none as bad as True's. From what Uly's said, it sounds like she's especially succeptible to some factor in the air that comes with spring, something local to this area, since it didn't effect her last spring. Maybe the Terrians can help her..."
"They want to," Uly said quickly. "They don't want her to feel sick. They know she's my friend." He looked at John, whose face registered reluctance and fear. "Please, Mr Danziger, they won't hurt her. They didn't hurt me."
"But -" John couldn't express his fear of seeing his child Changed, as Uly had been.
"They won't change her like they did me," Uly added with that odd appearance of mind-reading he'd been exhibiting lately. "They'll just teach her body how to accept the planet, and not fight it. They'll add something of the planet to her, so it's a part of her, and that way she won't get sick again." Having, apparently, said all he intended to, the boy turned away and walked over to True, talking to her quietly.
Danziger looked at Julia. "What do you think?"
The doctor shrugged. "We still don't know exactly what they did to Uly, John. I can't tell you what they'll do to True, but from what he says, the change won't be as pronounced. I don't think she'll be able to Dream with them, or use Lightning, like Uly can," and she smiled quirkily. "But I can't think of any other way of helping her... None of our medicines helped her tonight... If Uly hadn't come in when he did...." And the doctor trailed off fearfully.
Danziger's big frame shuddered at the thought of what could have happened. He glanced over at his little girl, swallowing convulsively. "Okay." John turned his intense blue gaze on the doctor. "Okay, if the only way for her to get better is through the diggers..." He stopped, and Julia read the depth of the battle raging within him. John did not trust the Terrians, he never had. But he loved True more than life itself. Giving something he cared so deeply about to something he trusted so little was very hard for him to do... But he had no other choice.
Julia put a hand on his arm, trying to comfort him silently, and looked over to Uly, who was talking to True. She only hoped Uly knew what he was doing. Or that the Terrians did.

True was feeling better with each passing moment, and, when Uly approached her, she was becoming aware of her surroundings.
"Uly?" She wondered what she was doing in the hospital. Then, taking a deep breath that caused her to cough, True figured she must have had another attack. "What're you doing here?"
Her friend looked at her with those dark, Terrian-like eyes. "I helped make you better this time. The Terrians can make you better forever."
The girl's eyes widened. "Terrians?" She bit her lip. Her father's distrust of the Terrians and Gaal's loathing of them had effected her, and True had always been afraid of the huge, corpse-like aliens. And a little nervous around Uly when he started talking about them.
"They're the only ones who can make you well again. Like they did with me." Uly sat down next to her, unconcernedly playing with the red ribbon tied to his homemade Terrian staff.
"Do I have the Syndrome?" True asked, fear making her go very pale. But he shook his head.
"No, don't be silly, True. You're born with that!" Uly smiled. "It's this planet making you sick, and the Terrians can take you with them and make you better. You'll go, right?" He looked at her now with something akin to anxiety, recalling her terror of the Terrians. "They won't hurt you, y'know... They just wanna help."
True quickly hid her uncertainty, not wanting him to see it. She hated anyone seeing her scared. "I'm not scared," she told him irritably, rubbing at her eyes, which still stung her a little. "I'm just..." She could not tell him that just being in any Terrian caves frightened her, that she felt shivers down her spine anytime a Terrian came near her.
"I'll go with you, if you want," Uly offered.
True smiled shyly. "Promise?"
He smiled back and his small hand found hers and held it tight. "Promise."

Danziger watched his daughter talking to Uly and sighed, turning away. He lurched back in surprise as he realized he'd almost walked into someone.
"Dev?" John looked down at the petite Devon Adair, and smiled tiredly. "You lookin' for Uly, huh?"
Devon's eyes lost their somewhat frantic expression. "He's here?"
John nodded, jerking his head in the direction of her son and True. Adair relaxed completely upon catching sight of her son, her panic at waking and finding her son missing from his bed receeding. She wondered what was going on, and looked up questioningly at John. "What's going on?" He didn't answer. "John? There's something wrong with True?"

Glancing over his shoulder at True, who was being well taken care of by Julia and Uly, John put his arm around Devon's shoulders and led her out into the hallway outside. There, in a quiet voice, he explained the midnight attack and Uly's surprise remedy and offer of a cure. Once he'd finished speaking, he looked up from his hands and saw Devon staring at him, wide-eyed.
"Oh gods, John, I'm so sorry!" Devon reached out to him with the sympathy of one parent who'd already gone through the agony of a sick child. John let her hug him, all the more touched by the tactile comfort because Devon generally disliked physical contact.
"Thanks, Adair," he murmurred, his arms encircling her to hold her close.
Devon shook her head at this tragic, unexpected turn of events. John would never allow himself to show it, of course, but she felt his fear. "The Terrians won't hurt her, John. You have got to believe that." Devon rested her head lightly against his chest, using their physical closeness to reassure him of that certainty.
"They'd better not," Danziger growled back.