Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2003 4:31 pm
Chapter 32
They were all seated around the kitchen table. An alien king, his queen and his daughter, and their protector. She was wrapped up in a bathrobe, her daughter curled up in her lap. Her hand was tucked in his, gripping it tightly. He was worried - having once again been forced to realize the fragility of happiness, and life.
”Why is this happening to her?” he asked the protector, craving answers in order to be able to stop whatever was happening to his love.
The protector shook his head - not possessing any much more knowledge than his king.
”When you told me earlier that Liz had these...premonitions of her attack that revealed themselves in her dream state, I thought that it was just due to the fact that she was carrying Emma - and Emma was the source to it.”
”But Emma didn’t even exist when it all started,” she said, pulling Emma closer to her.
She felt her soulmate squeeze her hand and she welcomed the energy and reassurance he was sending her.
The protector rubbed his forehead with his fingers, an expression of confusion on his face.
”Yes...that’s what doesn’t make sense. And even if that had made sense, it had failed to explain what’s happening now..since you’re not pregnant now. Right?”
She shook her head. She would have known if she had been pregnant.
”Then what’s causing this?!” the king asked, starting to lose control over his emotions. ”She was dying!! We have to stop this! If it happens again it can kill her!”
”Okay,” the protector said and took a deep breath, trying to figure this out. ”This is the first time this has happened in an awake state, right?” He received a nod from her and he continued, trying to puzzle together his knowledge about his planets and his people with the knowledge he had collected about humans during approximately thirty years.
”According to my knowledge, you wasn’t even going to be able to carry Max’s baby. But something certainly changed when Max healed you, and opened up a connection between you. I believe that you two are bonded, something that once again is very rare on our planet. Therefore I have not much information in that area. I have tried to do some research on it these last couple of days, but there is not many who know anything. Not more than I do, anyway. However, I do know that powers can be shared between the connection-”
”What’s pwowers?” the princess’s small voice piped up. Her mother kissed the crown of her head.
”I will tell you later, pumpkin,” she whispered. ”Kira, please continue.”
”But somehow you haven’t used any of Max’s powers. So far you have used a power that Max doesn’t even possess. The power of foresight.”
”So there is a power like that?” the king asked.
”Yes,” his protector answered. ”There are some people on my home planet that have that power, yes. But what I can’t understand is why she is able to possess a power that she can’t get from you.”
”Maybe it’s one of Emma’s powers,” she proposed.
”No, as far as I know powers can only be shared through a connection between bonded individuals - not between a parent and their child. But that doesn’t mean that Emma is not in the possession of foresight. If that is a power possessed by you, Liz, then it can have been inherited to Emma. We know that Emma has inherited Max’s healing powers. There would have been a simple answer to all of this if Liz had been alien. But it always comes down to the same problem. Liz is human.”
”But if it’s a power, than why is it hurting her?” he asked.
”It’s probably due to the fact that she is human, and her body can’t handle the power,” the protector answered.
”But a power is suppose to help you, protect you,” he said, his heart filled with fear for something that was out of his control.
”In an alien body, where the powers are integrated in the DNA they are.”
”But in a human body the powers are treated like a virus, and the powers act like a virus,” the young woman who held the king’s heart whispered.
”Yes. The one thing I could resemble it to would be the human disease HIV. As the powers are progressing and are starting to become more or more rooted in your system your body will not be able to control it and the immune system will break down. Just like under the last stages of HIV-”
”You mean AIDS?” he asked.
The protector nodded.
”Oh my God,” she whispered.
-----------------------------------------------------------.
”Wait here,” the man who had been their escort for the evening said. He left the car and knocked on the door to the warehouse. The knocks held a code to the inhabitants. Maria leaned forward in the seat and looked at the man in front of the warehouse.
”Wow, you would think we were dealing with the president here,” she mumbled.
”In some respects we are,” Michael answered beside her.
”Right,” Maria said and leaned back in her seat again. The door to the warehouse opened, but the door shielded Maria’s curious eyes from perceiving who it was that had opened. She could see their escort talking with the unknown person and then the door was closed again, and the man walked towards the car. He opened the door on Michael’s side and motioned for them to get out.
”It’s clear, sir,” he said. Maria proudly hooked arms with Michael, feeling V.I.P:ish at being the girlfriend of a former ‘vice president’....or second-in-command as the aliens called it.
”Follow me,” the man said and they walked up to the warehouse. He opened the door and the first thing Maria saw was Liz. She shrieked and run straight into Liz’s arms.
Michael motioned inside, shaking his head. He was acting causal, but he couldn’t quite hide the grin that was threatening to break out on his face. The two girls hugged tightly, their voices mixing together as they told how much they had missed each other, asked how the other had been, and so on.
Max stepped up to Michael and gave him a brotherly hug.
”Hi Michael,” Max said.
”Hey,” Michael said and nodded towards the two babbling girls. ”I guess we shouldn’t let those two be separated for too long from now on.”
Max looked at the humans that meant so much to them, as Liz now had started to drag Maria around the warehouse to show her how it looked like.
”I guess not,” Max said smiling.
”Max... Liz looks...wow,” Michael said.
”I know,” Max said softly, love filling his voice.
”Yeah, of course you do. But to you she’s always beautiful, even if she would shave her head and dress in a black garbage bag. What I mean, Maxwell, is that there’s something different about her. Really different.”
Max turned around and followed Liz around the room with his eyes. She was always beautiful in his eyes, and that had never changed - but he knew that something was different about her.
”The connection is open again,” he said.
Michael Guerin, formerly known as a bona fide alien with a stone wall around his emotions, couldn’t stop himself from pull Max into another manly hug. But he was quick on letting go again. He straightened his shirt, and looked somewhere behind Max - somewhat embarrassed that he let his emotions get the best out of him. It was just that he knew how much it had been killing Max that the connection was blocked, that Max was unable to reach Liz. And Michael was just so happy for him.
”That’s really great, Maxwell,” he said.
Max grinned from ear to ear as he nodded.
”Then how did you guys manage to unblock it?” Michael asked, and watched as a red coloration started to spread in Max’s face. He arched on eyebrow.
”Oh, I get it! You did it, huh?! I knew it! Maria was going on and on about how Liz wouldn’t ‘cause she was so sick. But hah, I was right!” Michael had now a large smug draped over his features.
”Do you want something, Michael. Coffee, a coke, a snapple..?” Max said, quickly wanting to change the subject. What happened between him and Liz was private and holy, and he was not going to discuss it with Michael.
”Sure, a snapple would be great,” Michael answered and followed Max into the kitchen. ”So she’s like fully recuperated now?”
Max opened the refrigerator door to retrieve two snapples, but not before Michael had a chance to see his face glaze over.
”Yeah, all her symptoms are gone,” he answered and gave Michael one of the snapples and closed the refrigerator door.
”But....” Michael prompted. He knew that there was something else behind all this.
Max looked innocent.
”Nothing,” he said and shrugged.
”Maxwell,” Michael said, his voice holding a warning note. ”Don’t start keeping information from me again. If there is something else - something alien-related - I think I have the right to know.”
Max inhaled deeply.
”Liz has powers,” he said.
”So?” Michael said, not understanding what could be so wrong with that. Liz certainly had some powers already when she reached for Max in New York City five years ago. So what was the big deal?
”Her body can’t handle it,” Max said.
”What?” Michael sank down on the couch with a thud, eyeing Max for any information on what the hell he was talking about.
”She’s human, Michael. She isn’t suppose to even have powers,” Max explained.
”But she has had powers for a while now, right?” Michael asked.
”Well, theoretically no,” Max said. ”Kira explained to us a while ago that she didn’t actually have powers. She was just tapping in on them through the connection with me.”
”Heavy,” Michael said and opened his coke.
”But now that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.”
”Okay, Max. You’re stalling. Just tell me what it is already,” the impatient side of Michael said.
”This morning she had a premonition...you know, she think she saw the future. According to Kira, that’s a power. But I don’t possess it - neither of us do - so she couldn’t have acquired it from me.”
”Are you saying that powers are just mysteriously popping up inside of her?” Michael asked.
”Something like that,” Max said.
”But that’s good, Maxwell. It’s good that she has powers too so that she can protect herself.”
”No, it’s not,” Max said. He leaned back in the arm-chair, closing his eyes - his face worried.
”Then what?”
”Like I said, it seems as if her body can’t handle the power. Her body can’t accustom itself to the power. Instead the power is making her immune defense turn against her.”
”You’re kidding, right?” Michael sighed. Would this ever end?
”God, Michael. You don’t know how much I wish I did,” Max mumbled.
”What are we going to do about it?” Michael asked.
”I don’t know. Kira doesn’t know. As far as he knows humans are neither able to bond nor get powers from aliens.”
”But now Liz is doing just that. Get Kira to look it up. He’s our damn protector, it’s his job to protect us. And if Liz is acquiring powers - then I think it certainly includes her too.” Michael was getting angry. They were stuck on this planet, and they had let fate play around with them for too damn long. It was absolutely not to soon to take some action. That man who called themselves their protector seemed to Michael as he didn’t know a shit, and it was making Michael really angry. He didn’t like putting his life, his security, and most importantly the people he cared about into someone’s hands that was clearly incompetent at doing his job. He couldn’t understand how Max could trust him.
”He’s trying, Michael,” Max said tiredly. ”He has his men on it, doing research. But this is the first time this has ever happened. They don’t know anything. And what they know they have informed me and Liz about.”
”That’s just crap,” Michael said. ”Why don’t you do something yourself, Max?”
”I wouldn’t know where to start looking, and I don’t feel comfortable leaving Liz and Emma alone. My hands are tied.”
”Are you just going to let her die?” Michael said, and put the can on the table with a bang.
”No, Michael,” Max said angry. ”I will not let her die!!”
”No? Then do something,” Michael demanded, raising from his seat, unable to sit as the feelings of annoyance and anger cursed through him.
”What are you doing?” Maria’s voice interrupting them. The two men were now standing about one meter from each other, looking hardly and challenging at each other.
Max felt a surge of calmness through the connection and turned his head to look into Liz’s chocolate eyes. Obviously she had felt him getting all worked up.
”You aren’t going to start to fight, huh?” Maria asked. ”We’ve only been here for about ten minutes and they are all ready hitting at each other with their sticks. Unbelievable!!”
”Max, what were you talking about?” Liz asked.
”Nothing,” Michael huffed.
Liz eyed him. He was looking at her differently. Like he was...worried about her.
”You were talking about me, right?”
Max walked up to her and encircled her in his arms. He needed her. Needed to be reminded that she was okay.
”Max, I’m fine,” she whispered reassuringly to him.
”What’s going on?” Maria asked, feeling left out.
Liz released herself from Max’s embrace and took Maria’s hand.
”Maria, there’s something I need to tell you,” she said.
”Why do I get the feeling that it’s something bad?” Maria murmured as she sat down on the couch, preparing her body for whatever weird things her already freaked out life was going to be filled with.
------------------------------------------.
Their leader sat behind the large desk, going through every document they had gathered on Zan. Their was a knock on the door, and one of the guards positioned by the door opened it.
”I have a message for Isacha,” a voice said - who the leader recognized as belonging to the highest commander among his men here on Earth.
”Let him in,” he ordered and the commander entered. His normally expressionless face revealed something else for once.
”What is it, Magnin?”
”I have news for you, sir,” Magnin said with a small smug on his face.
”Yes?”
”Sir, we have localized their position,” the man said.
”Then it’s time to put our plans into action.”
TBC...
They were all seated around the kitchen table. An alien king, his queen and his daughter, and their protector. She was wrapped up in a bathrobe, her daughter curled up in her lap. Her hand was tucked in his, gripping it tightly. He was worried - having once again been forced to realize the fragility of happiness, and life.
”Why is this happening to her?” he asked the protector, craving answers in order to be able to stop whatever was happening to his love.
The protector shook his head - not possessing any much more knowledge than his king.
”When you told me earlier that Liz had these...premonitions of her attack that revealed themselves in her dream state, I thought that it was just due to the fact that she was carrying Emma - and Emma was the source to it.”
”But Emma didn’t even exist when it all started,” she said, pulling Emma closer to her.
She felt her soulmate squeeze her hand and she welcomed the energy and reassurance he was sending her.
The protector rubbed his forehead with his fingers, an expression of confusion on his face.
”Yes...that’s what doesn’t make sense. And even if that had made sense, it had failed to explain what’s happening now..since you’re not pregnant now. Right?”
She shook her head. She would have known if she had been pregnant.
”Then what’s causing this?!” the king asked, starting to lose control over his emotions. ”She was dying!! We have to stop this! If it happens again it can kill her!”
”Okay,” the protector said and took a deep breath, trying to figure this out. ”This is the first time this has happened in an awake state, right?” He received a nod from her and he continued, trying to puzzle together his knowledge about his planets and his people with the knowledge he had collected about humans during approximately thirty years.
”According to my knowledge, you wasn’t even going to be able to carry Max’s baby. But something certainly changed when Max healed you, and opened up a connection between you. I believe that you two are bonded, something that once again is very rare on our planet. Therefore I have not much information in that area. I have tried to do some research on it these last couple of days, but there is not many who know anything. Not more than I do, anyway. However, I do know that powers can be shared between the connection-”
”What’s pwowers?” the princess’s small voice piped up. Her mother kissed the crown of her head.
”I will tell you later, pumpkin,” she whispered. ”Kira, please continue.”
”But somehow you haven’t used any of Max’s powers. So far you have used a power that Max doesn’t even possess. The power of foresight.”
”So there is a power like that?” the king asked.
”Yes,” his protector answered. ”There are some people on my home planet that have that power, yes. But what I can’t understand is why she is able to possess a power that she can’t get from you.”
”Maybe it’s one of Emma’s powers,” she proposed.
”No, as far as I know powers can only be shared through a connection between bonded individuals - not between a parent and their child. But that doesn’t mean that Emma is not in the possession of foresight. If that is a power possessed by you, Liz, then it can have been inherited to Emma. We know that Emma has inherited Max’s healing powers. There would have been a simple answer to all of this if Liz had been alien. But it always comes down to the same problem. Liz is human.”
”But if it’s a power, than why is it hurting her?” he asked.
”It’s probably due to the fact that she is human, and her body can’t handle the power,” the protector answered.
”But a power is suppose to help you, protect you,” he said, his heart filled with fear for something that was out of his control.
”In an alien body, where the powers are integrated in the DNA they are.”
”But in a human body the powers are treated like a virus, and the powers act like a virus,” the young woman who held the king’s heart whispered.
”Yes. The one thing I could resemble it to would be the human disease HIV. As the powers are progressing and are starting to become more or more rooted in your system your body will not be able to control it and the immune system will break down. Just like under the last stages of HIV-”
”You mean AIDS?” he asked.
The protector nodded.
”Oh my God,” she whispered.
-----------------------------------------------------------.
”Wait here,” the man who had been their escort for the evening said. He left the car and knocked on the door to the warehouse. The knocks held a code to the inhabitants. Maria leaned forward in the seat and looked at the man in front of the warehouse.
”Wow, you would think we were dealing with the president here,” she mumbled.
”In some respects we are,” Michael answered beside her.
”Right,” Maria said and leaned back in her seat again. The door to the warehouse opened, but the door shielded Maria’s curious eyes from perceiving who it was that had opened. She could see their escort talking with the unknown person and then the door was closed again, and the man walked towards the car. He opened the door on Michael’s side and motioned for them to get out.
”It’s clear, sir,” he said. Maria proudly hooked arms with Michael, feeling V.I.P:ish at being the girlfriend of a former ‘vice president’....or second-in-command as the aliens called it.
”Follow me,” the man said and they walked up to the warehouse. He opened the door and the first thing Maria saw was Liz. She shrieked and run straight into Liz’s arms.
Michael motioned inside, shaking his head. He was acting causal, but he couldn’t quite hide the grin that was threatening to break out on his face. The two girls hugged tightly, their voices mixing together as they told how much they had missed each other, asked how the other had been, and so on.
Max stepped up to Michael and gave him a brotherly hug.
”Hi Michael,” Max said.
”Hey,” Michael said and nodded towards the two babbling girls. ”I guess we shouldn’t let those two be separated for too long from now on.”
Max looked at the humans that meant so much to them, as Liz now had started to drag Maria around the warehouse to show her how it looked like.
”I guess not,” Max said smiling.
”Max... Liz looks...wow,” Michael said.
”I know,” Max said softly, love filling his voice.
”Yeah, of course you do. But to you she’s always beautiful, even if she would shave her head and dress in a black garbage bag. What I mean, Maxwell, is that there’s something different about her. Really different.”
Max turned around and followed Liz around the room with his eyes. She was always beautiful in his eyes, and that had never changed - but he knew that something was different about her.
”The connection is open again,” he said.
Michael Guerin, formerly known as a bona fide alien with a stone wall around his emotions, couldn’t stop himself from pull Max into another manly hug. But he was quick on letting go again. He straightened his shirt, and looked somewhere behind Max - somewhat embarrassed that he let his emotions get the best out of him. It was just that he knew how much it had been killing Max that the connection was blocked, that Max was unable to reach Liz. And Michael was just so happy for him.
”That’s really great, Maxwell,” he said.
Max grinned from ear to ear as he nodded.
”Then how did you guys manage to unblock it?” Michael asked, and watched as a red coloration started to spread in Max’s face. He arched on eyebrow.
”Oh, I get it! You did it, huh?! I knew it! Maria was going on and on about how Liz wouldn’t ‘cause she was so sick. But hah, I was right!” Michael had now a large smug draped over his features.
”Do you want something, Michael. Coffee, a coke, a snapple..?” Max said, quickly wanting to change the subject. What happened between him and Liz was private and holy, and he was not going to discuss it with Michael.
”Sure, a snapple would be great,” Michael answered and followed Max into the kitchen. ”So she’s like fully recuperated now?”
Max opened the refrigerator door to retrieve two snapples, but not before Michael had a chance to see his face glaze over.
”Yeah, all her symptoms are gone,” he answered and gave Michael one of the snapples and closed the refrigerator door.
”But....” Michael prompted. He knew that there was something else behind all this.
Max looked innocent.
”Nothing,” he said and shrugged.
”Maxwell,” Michael said, his voice holding a warning note. ”Don’t start keeping information from me again. If there is something else - something alien-related - I think I have the right to know.”
Max inhaled deeply.
”Liz has powers,” he said.
”So?” Michael said, not understanding what could be so wrong with that. Liz certainly had some powers already when she reached for Max in New York City five years ago. So what was the big deal?
”Her body can’t handle it,” Max said.
”What?” Michael sank down on the couch with a thud, eyeing Max for any information on what the hell he was talking about.
”She’s human, Michael. She isn’t suppose to even have powers,” Max explained.
”But she has had powers for a while now, right?” Michael asked.
”Well, theoretically no,” Max said. ”Kira explained to us a while ago that she didn’t actually have powers. She was just tapping in on them through the connection with me.”
”Heavy,” Michael said and opened his coke.
”But now that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.”
”Okay, Max. You’re stalling. Just tell me what it is already,” the impatient side of Michael said.
”This morning she had a premonition...you know, she think she saw the future. According to Kira, that’s a power. But I don’t possess it - neither of us do - so she couldn’t have acquired it from me.”
”Are you saying that powers are just mysteriously popping up inside of her?” Michael asked.
”Something like that,” Max said.
”But that’s good, Maxwell. It’s good that she has powers too so that she can protect herself.”
”No, it’s not,” Max said. He leaned back in the arm-chair, closing his eyes - his face worried.
”Then what?”
”Like I said, it seems as if her body can’t handle the power. Her body can’t accustom itself to the power. Instead the power is making her immune defense turn against her.”
”You’re kidding, right?” Michael sighed. Would this ever end?
”God, Michael. You don’t know how much I wish I did,” Max mumbled.
”What are we going to do about it?” Michael asked.
”I don’t know. Kira doesn’t know. As far as he knows humans are neither able to bond nor get powers from aliens.”
”But now Liz is doing just that. Get Kira to look it up. He’s our damn protector, it’s his job to protect us. And if Liz is acquiring powers - then I think it certainly includes her too.” Michael was getting angry. They were stuck on this planet, and they had let fate play around with them for too damn long. It was absolutely not to soon to take some action. That man who called themselves their protector seemed to Michael as he didn’t know a shit, and it was making Michael really angry. He didn’t like putting his life, his security, and most importantly the people he cared about into someone’s hands that was clearly incompetent at doing his job. He couldn’t understand how Max could trust him.
”He’s trying, Michael,” Max said tiredly. ”He has his men on it, doing research. But this is the first time this has ever happened. They don’t know anything. And what they know they have informed me and Liz about.”
”That’s just crap,” Michael said. ”Why don’t you do something yourself, Max?”
”I wouldn’t know where to start looking, and I don’t feel comfortable leaving Liz and Emma alone. My hands are tied.”
”Are you just going to let her die?” Michael said, and put the can on the table with a bang.
”No, Michael,” Max said angry. ”I will not let her die!!”
”No? Then do something,” Michael demanded, raising from his seat, unable to sit as the feelings of annoyance and anger cursed through him.
”What are you doing?” Maria’s voice interrupting them. The two men were now standing about one meter from each other, looking hardly and challenging at each other.
Max felt a surge of calmness through the connection and turned his head to look into Liz’s chocolate eyes. Obviously she had felt him getting all worked up.
”You aren’t going to start to fight, huh?” Maria asked. ”We’ve only been here for about ten minutes and they are all ready hitting at each other with their sticks. Unbelievable!!”
”Max, what were you talking about?” Liz asked.
”Nothing,” Michael huffed.
Liz eyed him. He was looking at her differently. Like he was...worried about her.
”You were talking about me, right?”
Max walked up to her and encircled her in his arms. He needed her. Needed to be reminded that she was okay.
”Max, I’m fine,” she whispered reassuringly to him.
”What’s going on?” Maria asked, feeling left out.
Liz released herself from Max’s embrace and took Maria’s hand.
”Maria, there’s something I need to tell you,” she said.
”Why do I get the feeling that it’s something bad?” Maria murmured as she sat down on the couch, preparing her body for whatever weird things her already freaked out life was going to be filled with.
------------------------------------------.
Their leader sat behind the large desk, going through every document they had gathered on Zan. Their was a knock on the door, and one of the guards positioned by the door opened it.
”I have a message for Isacha,” a voice said - who the leader recognized as belonging to the highest commander among his men here on Earth.
”Let him in,” he ordered and the commander entered. His normally expressionless face revealed something else for once.
”What is it, Magnin?”
”I have news for you, sir,” Magnin said with a small smug on his face.
”Yes?”
”Sir, we have localized their position,” the man said.
”Then it’s time to put our plans into action.”
TBC...