The children played in the stony wasteland under the amber-tossed skies. Energies still crackled in the air but the O-Storm had passed, leaving behind it the flotsam of a shattered world. 40 years had gone by since the meteor had graced Earth with its presence in such a memorable manner, but the ashes and dust still floated with the Storms the meteor had birthed. The meteor dust settled slowly, reluctant to become planet-bound despite the inevitableness of the process.

It was this dust that the children sought, for the clay they could make from it was more pliable and dried slower than what they manipulated from the typical wasteland dirt. They brought the water up from the caves where it still flowed cool and untainted by the years of destruction. The heat of the sun and the land evaporated most surface water quickly and was more than adequate as a kelm. If it had not been close to evening time, the heat would have been intolerable, at least for the girl. The boy had his own peace with the hot sun.

"And upon his trusty steed, my knight errort draws his sword..." The trill of laughter from his sister stopped the boy mid-sentence and he looked over at her.

The bright blue eyes framed by golden hair that had escaped its braid sparkled at him. "It's 'errant'. Adventure -- not error."

The boy shrugged and started again, "The knight errant shakes his sword at the dragon that has approached his castle and threatened his people." He put the figure of the knight down next to the castle and started mixing the next blob of clay into a dragon shape.

The clay the girl was molding was large and currently ovalidal. Gradually it was developing a shape, though what that shape would be was only known for certain in her head. After her brother's statement, the girl added her portion of the tale. "And the people in the skyship watched through their sensors. Their mission was to 'explore strange new worlds,'... and to help the people they met there, but only if their aid was asked for. Their mission was also to protect life in all its shapes and forms, and they sorrowed at the plight of the people, for the dragon that threatened was one of the last of its kind."

The nearly formed dragon was temporarily placed on the ground as Michael scowled at it. He turned the scowl on his sister, "Jacine! That's no fair. I can't kill the dragon if it's the last one!"

"I said one of the last." She continued to make her starship. "And you could always make friends with it."

"Make friends with a dragon?" Michael looked dubiously at his dragon.

"It would be a knightly enough deed. Or you could ask my people for aid." She didn't quite repress a grin.

The scowl left his face and turned into a very similar grin. Michael laughed, "Jacine! I don't set you up like that!"

"Of course not. You're my older brother-knight. Your job is to protect the helpless maidens."

"You're not helpless!" The dragon was once again picked up and altered to look slightly less ferocious. The tale continued again, "The knight set out to determine if the dragon could be tamed. He got near and... What was that?" Michael turned his head to one side, listening.

Jacine looked up. She couldn't hear anything yet. She started to concentrate on the fringes of her hearing, discarding anything she could identify. Her brother had the better natural hearing, but she tried hard to match him -- as she tried in everything.

Just as she started hearing the sound, Michael spoke, "I think it's a person. Hard to tell, pretty heavy breathing. Coming this way." He stood up, the clay figures forgotten. "We had better go in. And tell Aunt Mirabel." Only a year older than his sister, he was still the more responsible of the two.

The sounds were starting to make more sense to Jacine. And she thought she could also hear some words... Carefully putting her starship in the shade of a rock, Jacine also stood up and started to reluctantly follow her brother.

Michael waited to make sure she was following, then he moved down the gully to the cave where the adults were working on connections broken in the storm.

Jacine paused as the words came clearer. It was a constant mutter, repeating in a hoarse voice, the single word 'water'. She looked back up the gully to the flat top of the cliff. Nothing was in sight, but... She looked to the water bag next to their abandoned clay. Michael hadn't noticed her stopping, and he was still heading towards the cave. Jacine retraced her steps, picked up the water bag and moved up the gully.

"Aunt M!"

The adults looked up. Mirabel moved out from behind the hover-car, a scanner in her hand. "What is it, Michael?"

"There's a person outside! He's heading this direction."

Carlos drew his stunner and quickly strode the space between him and the boy. He visually scanned the gully. "Michael, where's your sister?"

Michael spun around in surprise. Mirabel and Ki traded exasperated looks. Ki muttered in an aside to Mirabel, "And I said that two children wouldn't be any more trouble than one!"

The corner of her friend's mouth twitched up briefly, "We didn't count on the second being Jacine." Mirabel retrieved her stunner and also moved forward. Ki reached inside the hover-car for her medical kit.

Michael had been listening for sounds of his sister as he and Carlos walked up the gully, and he finally heard her saying, "Would you like some water, mister?"

He turned to Carlos, "She's giving him water."

Mirabel caught up with them, "Is there any immediate danger?"

"He seems to be thinking she's a mirage."

Back at the actual scene, Jacine had finally persuaded the man to drink some of the water. The slightly tepid water was cooler than most of their surroundings and it seemed to revive the man slightly. He looked at the girl in front of him. "Little girl, where did you come from?"

Jacine stamped a foot, "I'm not little! I'm eight years old." She pointed back towards the ground that looked darker than the surrounding area, and was actually the gully. "That way."

The man took another gulp of water then shook his head. "The city is that direction." He indicated his wrist-com, which was blinking on one edge. Jacine stared, fascinated, at it.

Suddenly the man spun around, "The Recs! They were right behind me... Little girl, run!" He shoved her in the direction his wrist-com had indicated.

Jacine looked behind them and saw nothing, but the land wasn't smooth and could hide many things. She hadn't even seen the man until she was close to him. Her mom had told them about Recessives... They had seen a few, but always Mirabel and Carlos were there to protect them. She turned towards the gully. "No! This way! Michael!" Her brother was almost certainly listening. Her hand snaked out to grab the man's and she pulled him in her direction. Still slightly dazed, the man followed.

With relief, Jacine saw her Uncle Carlos coming out of the gully. He started heading towards them, stunner in hand. From the side, a rock hurtled -- barely missing his head. Jacine screamed as several figures moved in between them and Carlos. The Recs had a singularly vacant, mean look about them that only served to emphasis the difference between them and her brother.

Turning around, the man saw more Recs moving in behind them. To the side was the only clear area. He grabbed the girl and started her moving in that direction.

Jacine saw that the direction was the only left to them, but... "That's the cliff edge!"

The man cursed, but they kept moving. Over by the gully, the Recs were falling with the blue nimbus of the stunners. Carlos and little Michael had accounted for many of them, but the Recessives had no fear of stunners and kept coming. Jacine pulled out her own stunner, but her hand was shaking too hard to aim. The man stared for a moment, then he grabbed it from her and used it to better effect. They were close to the cliff edge and the Recs were hemming them in. Cursing again, the man didn't stop firing but spoke to Jacine, "Girl, run to the edge and try and hide there until your family can reach you." He gave a slight push for emphasis, then he ran towards the Recessives, yelling, "It's me you want, you bastards -- come and get me!" Even while running he had good aim and many of the Recs reaching out for him went down instead.

Jacine reached the edge and turned back. She saw several of the Recs reach the man at the same time. They grabbed him... The horror within Jacine was too extensive for her to make any sort of physical sound or move, but she felt the scream reverberating within her head, bouncing around and around.

Over at the gully, Mirabel and Ki had arrived with the laser cannons. While the Recs had no fear of Stunners, something within them recognized the finality of death. The smell of burning flesh and the sight of dead companions started breaking up the circle of aggressors. One by one, they stopped attacking and started running away.

None of this was noticed by Jacine, though, as four of the Recs moved in her direction, cocking their heads to hear her. She tried hard to stifle her breathing, but fear was keeping her to gulps of air. They moved closer. She edged back until she was on the very lip of the cliff. The lead Rec grinned and reached out for her. He crumpled in smoke as a laser beam bisected him, but Jacine had already reflectively jerked back. Her scream was loud but didn't last long as she fell.

Michael's scream lasted much longer as he rushed forward, ignoring the calls of his family, and the Recs that were running by as they escaped to freedom. He ran to the cliff and crouched down, looking, searching, straining with all of his senses to find his sister.

Carlos came up behind him, still keeping a wary eye for Recessives. Michael didn't look back, but he said in a voice that was quivering with pain, "I was the knight. I was suppose to protect her. Jacine..."

Mirabel watched, but left them alone for the moment while she directed the others. "Ki, find Richard and take the car down the long way. Be sure and take floods, it'll be dark soon. Carlos and I will rappel down with the portable med." She looked up at Miranda, who had come out of the caves. Ki passed by her after a touch to let Miranda know she was there.

Miranda stood, pale and frightened. When she heard Mirabel pause, she spoke, "What happened to Jacine?"

Compressing her lips briefly, Mirabel looked towards Michael and then back, "She fell off the cliff. Did Oracle tell you what was happening?"

Jacine and Michael's mother nodded and tried to be brave. "What can I do, Mirabel?"

Her friend sighed. "Miranda, you and Michael will have to start moving the important things further back in the tunnels. We're going to have to seal the outer caves."

Miranda nodded, "The RCF is going to come looking for their lost colonel. Oracle and Wren have already started transferring circuits."

Shooting a startled glance towards the man's body, Mirabel wished she hadn't, but did confirm that the collar tags were that of a colonel. She started to mention the Recessives as well, but a voice coming out of the modulator box at Miranda's side interrupted her.

"Michael should go with Ki and Richard."

Carlos and Michael had been coming back just at that time. Mirabel exchanged startled looks with Carlos.

Mirabel put their startlement into words, "Oracle, are you sure?" Unspoken was the thought that after such a fall as that, the odds of Jacine being alive were slim.

The computer repeated himself, "Michael should go with them." It paused and then added, "There is a Recessive awakening. At 67 degrees to your left."

Mirabel looked, but there wasn't any immediate danger. She addressed her remarks to the others. "We have to move quickly. Michael -- Ki will meet you at the car." Miranda gave a slight nod, indicating that Oracle had informed Ki and Richard of the addition to their group. Michael appeared close to the breaking point, but he started heading to the hover-car. Miranda also moved back to the caves. Mirabel's heart ached for her friend, but there was no time for comfort. She looked at Carlos. He looked to the Recessives that were stirring, then back at her.

"Well, Commander? We can't leave the Recs like this."

"No." She rubbed a hand over her face. There was really one decision to be made, she just wished she didn't have to make it. "You go get the rappelling equipment. I'll take care of it."

He nodded and squeezed her hand briefly in acknowledgment of a hard duty. Then he also left. Mirabel looked at the stirring bodies in distaste, then hefted her laser and moved towards them.

Jacine had lost consciousness within moments after falling -- thankfully, only to a padded pine branch, and not one of the unforgiving stones. She woke up briefly when the tumbling fall stopped for more than a few minutes. Pain flashed though her entire being as she opened her eyes. She quickly closed them again, but mumbled to herself, "But I bet it's still not up to Michael's daily pain." The thought gave her the courage and impetus to open her eyes again. This time she closed them at the sight of the distance below her. A pine had caught her securely in its grasp within reach of ground, but she didn't dare move. The cliff was not so sheer at this point, but it was more than she could handle with as fuzzy thoughts as she had at the moment. After some seconds, she fell unconscious again.

When she woke up again, it was dark outside. She felt weak and drained. With sluggish curiosity, she wondered what had wakened her. Gradually she became aware of movement around her. Her eyes snapped open and she saw shapes, each with two glowing points that moved about. She heard growls and felt fur rub against her. Suddenly, she knew greater panic than she had felt with the Recs all around her. A raspy tongue licked the side of her leg where bone had broken though the skin. Not trying to repress a cry, she shook her other leg, feeling pain shooting though it as well. The movement made the creatures back off for a moment, then they returned. Emboldened by the weakness of the movement, and driven by the constant hunger of those that lived in the wastelands, the coyote licked the blood again, then took a deeper bite. Jacine had thought she was near the limits of her pain, but this was more than pain and she screamed. The effort sent her consciousness back into the void again -- it was very quite and dark in the void.

The flood-lights from the hover-car washed out the infra-red patterns though her goggles and Mirabel blinked. She hadn't realized they were that close to the bottom. And still no sign of Jacine. She and Carlos had been following the track of Jacine's fall, but they had lost the track at a point where the cliff curved inward. Glancing over to her right, Mirabel looked over the area Carlos was covering. When she finally spotted him, he was looking in her direction. She flashed the belt-light in a code informing him that she was going down. He blinked an acknowledgment and indicated that he would remain at this altitude, searching.

Rappelling quickly down the remaining distance, Mirabel met her friends in the car. They, also, had seen no sign of Jacine. She and Ki were discussing their options when Michael interrupted.

"I think I heard her."

Silence descended as the three adults tried to hear something. Richard was shaking his head, and just about to speak, when a piercing scream left no doubt in their minds that Michael was right.

"That way!"

They moved off; Mirabel unhooking her ropes and joining them in the car. Richard directed the floods while Ki drove. The cry had come from Carlos' search range, but further out then the area they had been covering. The scream was not repeated and they stopped when they were no longer sure of the direction. Carlos had moved over to the same general region, but had also halted.

Mirabel gauged Carlos' position and then asked Richard to turn off the floods. She was hoping that the infra-reds could pin point the location more exactly, now that they knew there would be a heat reading. The readings should last for away, even if that last scream did mean... Gulping, Mirabel shoved that thought away and tried to concentrate on just finding Jacine. Tears threatened to well up behind her eyes, but she didn't let them. Time for all that later. After they rescued Jacine, safe and sound. She had to be -- for Michael's sake, if not for their own, or herself.

Signal lights flashed down from Carlos. There were a great many heat forms moving around in the general area -- most of them Jacine's size. He couldn't differentiate with all the trees and rocks in the way. Coyotes, probably. Some were fleeing the area, others were bunched in a spot... He was moving towards the bunch and needed cover. At this time of year, the animals of the wasteland were desperate for any type of meat they could come across. Mirabel's heart contracted yet again as she suddenly realized what the scream had meant. She snapped orders to Ki and Richard, not caring that she sounded cold and harsh -- she was very scared for the girl she called her niece.

The hover-car reached the position below Carlos. It could go no higher, and Mirabel switched on her own infra-reds and climbed up the cliff. About 20 feet up, the slope gentled out and she was almost crawling rather than climbing. Coyotes poured out from the brush around her, snarling and swerving off only as members of their pack fell to her stunner and that of the people in the car below. She turned off the infra-reds as her vision flared with the deep colors of fire. Carlos had set some isolated trees on fire to drive off the creatures from their prey. Below, Richard turned on the floods again as he realized they weren't using their infra-red.

Mirabel moved to the tree Carlos had climbed. He looked down at her, his face a mask of sorrow.

"She's here," he said in a voice that sounded very old and tired. His hands were busy with the portable medkit as he spoke. Mirabel climbed up and gasped as she saw the bloody husk that was barely recognizable as Jacine. By some miracle, her face was relatively untouched, but the rest of her... Aside from being in one piece, Jacine looked worse then the dead colonel on the cliff-top above them.

"By the Gods!" Mirabel exclaimed. "Is she still alive?"

"She's still bleeding." Carlos grimly replied. He had tied a tourniquet on her leg immediately, then another on her arm. Currently, he was trying to patch a gash on her chest where a broken rib bone protruded. The blood was dribbling out slowly and then in short gushes as her heart gallantly kept trying to push the blood through the arteries. Without another word, Mirabel grabbed a patch and attempted to do the same on Jacine's other side.

After a few more moments, Ki joined them. Panting from the unaccustomed exertion, she gave no thought to herself, but only Jacine. She bluntly announced, "We've got to get her to Island City."

Mirabel and Carlos nodded. As soon as they had seen Jacine's injuries, they had known that if there was any hope for her at all, it would be in the City.

"Now, people!" Ki pushed their hands away from the med-kit. "I can do that in the car! But we need to get there as soon as possible." She looked at her husband. "Carlos, use your harness to get her down."

"But what about spinal injuries?"

The question was valid, Mirabel acknowledged to herself as she looked again at the tight wedge between branches that Jacine had fallen into.

In spite of his question, Carlos was already wiggling out of his harness, and Mirabel helped him attach it around the small, unconscious body.

Ki replied while steadying Jacine's head, "At this point, we'll just try to keep her alive. We'll worry about paralysis later. If we don't get her out of here, she'll die."

The tree had Jacine securely within its grasp, and Mirabel used her laser to cut some room around the child. Carlos climbed down the cliff to Richard and Michael. Richard's eyes showed a deep pain as he spoke, "You and Ki will go with her, of course. We can't all go."

Michael spoke up with all the determination of a nine-year old brother whose sister was badly hurt, "I'm going." The two men looked at him.

"Michael, you can't go. The people in Island City..." Carlos trailed off -- it had not been a subject that had ever come up in front of the children.

Richard had been tapping his chin with his right index finger. Suddenly he stopped and activated the com-link. "Miranda, we've got to take Jacine into Island City."

"She's alive?!" Miranda's voice came over the link faint with relief and surprise.

"For now."

Michael spoke up before anybody else could, "I'm going with her! I'll keep her alive. She can't die."

There was silence on the other end for a moment, then Miranda spoke slowly, "Richard, I've been talking with Cecilia Mede. She says that the current High Council will... accept Michael if it is demonstrative that he has normal human brain functioning."

While she had been talking, Mirabel had signaled Carlos that they were ready to lower Jacine down. He moved out to steady the ropes and to guide. Ki was coming down next to Jacine, while Mirabel controlled the ropes from above.

Richard looked at Michael, who had stopped listening to his mother and moved to help Carlos half-way through her second sentence. "I don't think there will be much trouble with that. But it will be very hard on him all the same."

"Oracle and I have been discussing this since you left. I think, that in the long-run, it will be better for both of them to be around more people then isolated here in our caves. They should not have to suffer for my sins." The pain in Miranda's voice spoke not only of the years of pain from having to escape in disgrace for trying to save her half-breed son when she should have been a heroine for what she had done, but also the new guilt laying heavy on her for Jacine's condition. "And, Richard, I think it will be better if I was to have died as well. Gerard of the ICS might be less vigilant or vengeful if he thinks I'm dead."

Richard was about to reply when Jacine's body came into view. "Alright. Mirabel and I will come back to the caves as soon as we can." Shutting off the connection, he quickly moved to help get Jacine in the car. Already, Ki was busy trying to use what she could to save a life. Michael was her steady assistant, though his face was pale and his teeth clenched.

Richard reached down to touch the wisps of blonde hair streaked with blood. He was not bothering to conceal his tears. Briefly, he relayed Miranda's instructions about her death. Ki nodded, she would not forget. Then he hopped out of the car. Carlos had gathered all the weaponry and was handing them to Mirabel. He glanced around the hover-car, then removed the com-link and his wrist-com, handing those out as well. Ki had already given hers to Richard before she went up the cliff to help get Jacine down.

Carlos briefly hugged Richard and Mirabel. Then he maneuvered the hover-car out of the canyon, heading as quickly as the car could safely move to the City of Refuge that was also a prison.

Mirabel and Richard watched for a long time after they could no longer see the car. Then they gathered up the equipment and started the long walk back to the caves.