A/N: I was supposed to have posted this ages ago, but stuff happens. There's still lots more to come in this story, so I thank all my readers for their patience.

Chapter 10: The Faction Unmasked

"New Pacifica?" Derek Walman blurted out. "How can that be? What the hell just happened to us?"

"The same thing that happened to me, John, Julia, and Devon," Alonzo replied from his kneeling position next to the downed Ulysses Adair. "It's something to do with those caves and the webs those spiders spin—"

"I don't care about any spiders right now," Valerie Magus interjected heatedly. "What are we going to do about Uly?! And what if those… Z.E.D.s find us again?!"

"We need to bury him," Alonzo said, his voice flat and toneless. "I rolled him over. There's an exit wound. If it was a worm bullet, we don't have to worry about it. But we still should bury him…"

Derek shuddered. Burial was something that was still so foreign to so many of those station-born-and-raised members of the crew. Bess Marvin stared at the boy's still figure for a few moments. Something must have come to her mind, for a visible change came over her face. Wordlessly, she started walking towards to shoreline.

"Bess," Derek called out after her. "Where are you goin'?"

But the woman wouldn't heed him. She continued on in the direction of the gently surging ocean tides, wet sand clinging to the soles of her shoes. When she was ankle-deep in the saltwater, Bess crouched. She removed her outer layer of clothing—a thin jacket—and doused it thoroughly. After wringing out the excess moisture, Bess returned to the puzzled remnant of the Eden Advance crew.

In silence, she began to undress Uly, removing his stained shirt. Gently, Bess bathed his wounds, wiping away any trace of blood from his small chest and from his back. She did the same to his dirty face and grubby hands.

The others stood by, watching Bess' ministrations, none of them daring to breathe a word or to make a move to interfere.

True Danziger's tears were petering out. John continued to hold her, massaging her back while remaining mute. After all, what could he say that could alleviate the overwhelming sadness of their situation?

At last, Bess was finished. She pulled the boy's shirt back over his head; slipped the thin arms through the sleeves, then smoothed down the fabric.

"Now you may bury him," she said to no one in particular.

When Julia regained consciousness, she was aware first of pain, mild nausea, and a pounding headache. Her hands and feet were like lead weights; her tongue a slab of drying clay. A general grogginess pervaded, and she realised she was laid out on something flat, hard, and unyielding. Gradually, other senses returned. She could hear a low hum from something mechanical; an air filtration system, perhaps. Next, there were hushed voices, too distant to be identified. There was something vaguely antiseptic about the air she breathed—not quite like the space stations, but similar. The mental fog slowly began to recede, allowing a series of questions to race through her mind.

Where am I? What happened? The caves! Reilly and the Z.E.D.s found us and attacked us! We tried to make a break for the spider tunnel. I remember Yale falling, and Uly… What happened to Uly?!

It was as if a boa constrictor had crawled inside her chest and coiled itself around her heart. Julia managed to peel open her panic-stricken eyes. She found herself to be in a tiny room, dimly lit, with a distinct sterility that automatically reeked of a Council infirmary on the Stations.

A door to the left opened unexpectedly. Julia gasped at the sudden movement caught by her peripheral vision, and fear replaced the panic. No matter how hard she struggled, her body refused to obey when she tried to move, and now someone was entering the room.

"You're awake."

Bile rose in Julia's throat. The voice of the newcomer belonged to Reilly. His leering face hovered above hers, eyes piercing.

"What have you done with Uly?" she dared to ask.

The leer was replaced by a scowl. "He got away from me," Reilly muttered, barely keeping a lid on his simmering anger. "Something about those caves… One second they were escaping down a tunnel, and the next…" Reilly snapped his fingers for effect. "Gone. Must've been some Terrian trick. Transported them right out of there."

He doesn't know about the vacuum tunnels! Julia thought in elation. She could be glad of another thing: The fact Reilly had referred to her friends in the plural meant there were multiple survivors to the ambush in the caves.

"Needless to say," Reilly continued. "We will find Ulysses Adair, and you're going to tell us where they are hiding, Citizen."

Julia almost laughed out loud at the demand, but the sharp inhalation caused a new stab of pain to slash through her right side. Reilly noticed the grimace.

"Careful, Citizen. Don't strain too hard. After all, you were shot. Those worm bullets can leave some nasty damage."

"Worm bullets?" murmured Julia, heartrate spiking. Was one of those infernal death devices still burrowed in her side, drilling its way slowly and inevitably towards a vital organ or an artery? She tried to move her hand to the source of the pain, but still the limb refused to obey. It dawned on her Reilly had probably induced some kind of medical paralysis that restricted such movements.

"Don't worry, I've slowed the progression and halted the detonation countdown—for now," Reilly said, waving a small, flat control device in his hand. "Tell me what I want to know, and I'll have the bullet removed. Refuse and… well, you've seen what happens..."

"Even if I did know where they went, I still wouldn't tell you," Julia managed through clenched teeth.

"Defiant to the end," Reilly uttered with a shake of his head. "How is it your ideals were so easily compromised, Heller? How is it you turned your back so quickly on a lifetime of service to the Council?"

When Julia gave no answer, Reilly continued: "I'll tell you why: you're a failure. And the Council knew you were a failure. Why do you think you were deemed expendable? Why do you think you were not warned about Blalock's bomb on the Advance ship?"

"The Advance ship wasn't supposed to leave when it did. I shouldn't even have been on board…" Julia said in confusion. "You implied Blalock was acting against the Council's wishes… that he'd been 'put out to pasture' after what happened."

Reilly snorted in derision. "I told you what you wanted to hear, Heller. You still had trust in the Council then, but you were wavering. I had to try to placate you because we thought perhaps you could still be of use to us; because you could earn their trust and could bring us Ulysses Adair."

"'We'? 'Us'?"

"Oh, you didn't think I was alone here, did you?" asked Reilly. "My role as The Watcher doesn't mean it was a solitary posting. Come on, Heller. I thought you were smarter than that."

"So where is 'here'?" Julia chanced to ask.

"We're still on G889, if that's what you're asking," Reilly replied. "The Council has had a presence here for quite a while; longer than you ever knew."

Julia's head was abuzz with this information. Franklin Bennett and his team of Council scientists had been on G889 more than fifty years earlier. Mary's parents couldn't have been much further behind their arrival, and Julia could only take a wild stab at how long the Council had been using the planet as a dumping ground for so-called criminals like Sheppard and his band… And how was it, exactly, that Reilly discovered that removing Terrians caused harm to G889? Was that from Bennett's research? Julia now wondered. She hoped not…

Knowing Reilly could clam up at any time, Julia risked more probing questions: "The Z.E.D. that attacked us the first time… He mentioned the 'satellite brass'… Other than EVE, is there a Council ship or station orbiting us?"

"I'd really love to answer, but that would be a waste of time," said Reilly, like a cat who'd finally grown bored of toying with a mouse. "Where did the others take Ulysses Adair when they escaped down that tunnel?"

"I told you: I don't know," Julia answered evenly.

The Council lackey raised the device and tapped its screen with a thumb. Searing pain slashed through Julia's side: the worm bullet had begun to drill again.

"Just say where they are and the pain will end, Heller," Reilly coaxed.

Julia simply shook her head. "I… don't… know…" she gasped as a thin sheen of perspiration bathed her brow.

"Did the Terrians take them to some other underground cavern? Where?!" Reilly's voice was rising in volume now. He started pacing around in frustration that his efforts were coming to naught.

Julia knew if she opened her mouth again, something might slip out that she could regret. If Reilly and the Council faction present on G889 were unaware of the spider tunnels and their unusual power, they weren't going to hear it from her. But even with her genetically advanced physiology, the pain was becoming intolerable. Soon, Julia knew her body would start going into shock due to the agony, internal blood loss, or a combination of the two. If she lost consciousness again, she had no way of knowing for sure if she would ever wake again.

But at least it would mean I wouldn't have betrayed my friends again, she decided.

"Tell me where they are, now!" bellowed Reilly, bending over Julia's pale face.

"I'd rather die," Julia whispered.

"Have it your way." Reilly tapped the screen on the device once more. For Julia, it seemed like a white-hot brand was drilling through her ribcage. Uncontrolled tears flowed from her eyes; her vision was starting to fade to blackness. A scream of torment gathered in her throat. She was on the verge of passing out when the door to the room opened once again.

"Citizen Reilly, stop."

The command reached Julia's ears, causing her heart to skip a beat. A voice she thought she left behind twenty-two light years ago was somehow speaking right there in the same room. The torturous worm bullet ceased its burrowing and the intensity of the pain was nullified. Reilly was obeying the instruction of this newcomer.

A mature face Julia thought she would never see again in the flesh came into focus above hers. The blue eyes that stared back were almost exactly like Julia's, but they were icy, lacking any trace of warmth or compassion. The face even bore similar features; however, it was a cold, stony beauty that Julia beheld, and the fact it was here sent waves of shock and dread through her system.

"Mother?" she rasped in confusion, not knowing whether to believe her eyes.

"Only because of the genetic material we share… 'Daughter'."

TBC