Love will last forever (CC, I/A, ADULT) Pt 37/37 - Feb 1 09

[Chrisken]

Part Thirty-one

"Well, let's see," Raydeleen said, looking around at the other members of her party before continuing to speak. Vorjal nodded appropriately princely permission. "The warning klaxon came when we were... just sitting down to dinner, actually, at Vorjal's estate. Alinda was across the city of Landorin, resting in a clinic after treatment for the lesions in her lungs. I... I should have been by my Lady's side, and then perhaps she could have escaped as well..."

"Do not go over this again, Rayde," Turik insisted. "If you had attempted to get her to a ship that could have evaded Kivar's attack... you would likely have both been captured. She was simply in no shape to react so quickly to the assault."

"Then we should have planned her medical treatments better," Rayde grumbled, but she seemed to concede the point. "Everyone who - who could be allowed on His Highness' ship immediately left the table and hurried on board. We've never drilled for that particular warning klaxon, but everybody knew what to do. Including the household staff, who assisted us in our departure, not knowing how badly they might fare in the invasion to come. Nor were we able to find that out as we launched and raced towards a warp space point sufficiently far from Vrelayan to make our transit."

This time it was Karia who made an interjection. "I suspect that even Kivar's troops would not use lethal force if they allowed them to make a search for you. They would have fared much the worse for trying to protect you in the city."

"True enough," Vorjal grunted, not looking happy.

"The last we could tell from direct observation... there had been a few missile strikes near the city, probably 'warning shots' meant to hit unoccupied areas," Rayde said. "Three small troop transports had landed in the area, obviously meant to envelop the Sanctuary district with a cordon of soldiers and work inward."

"Okay," Isabel said. "I think that's all we need to hear for now - we'd be interested in any details about what happened to Alinda afterwards, but that's not so important if it's all secondhand." The dinner with Chairone Karia of Ceeta colony, Prince Vorjal of the Antarian loyalists, and his closest advisors had finished, and those who had eaten together had moved off to more comfortable chairs and light sweets. Isabel wondered if Claudia Parker-Szjevt had been mistaken in her statement that there'd be some kind of game played after dinner, because nobody else had mentioned it. The conversation was hard enough to navigate through without other distractions, though.

"Your highness," Karia asked Vorjal, carefully but with clear assertiveness in her manner, (and her voice, as well as the automated translators could convey, "do you have any plans for what you and your people will do after leaving Ceeta?"

"Those who remain with me upon 'A forlorn hope'..." And Vorjal quacked in the same way that Karia sometimes did, which Isabel had already started to interpret as an alien laugh without thinking much about it. "We have decided that our best hope is to join the Saphiran Libertine navy." Isabel wondered if that 'we' indicated a democratic vote, consensus, or royal perogative had led to the decision. "They have often expressed interest in a joint venture with the Liaretian loyalists, and even though we can lend them less support than before, it seems that Kivar also withdrew most of his forces from the Saphiran sector in order to put through the Vrelayan push. Together, we hope to finally liberate that sector from Kivar's control, hold it against what force he can manage to bring back to bear, and consolidate ourselves there for future challenges."

"I see," Karia said. "I believe that Kivar has deployed nearly twenty intercept-Destroyers along a planar search pattern near the Goland trade routing. It will be - difficult to pass them without being discovered."

"I have great confidence in our navigator," Turik and the young Antarian who had been introduced as Vorjal's son said at almost the same time. "But if you can provide any data or sensor readings of those ships, Lady Karia, it would be appreciated."

"I shall so order them released to you," she replied gravely.

"Well, I wish you a lot of luck with all that," Isabel told Vorjal. "Getting to the Saphiran sector, bringing the war there to free them." She looked over at Ava, wondering if the other hybrid girl had made her choice about joining the Liaretians. Unfortunately, her lead-in seemed to backfire in the worst possible way.

"Miss Isabel," Vorjal said in a very portentous and commanding way, "do you not yet realize that you will be leaving Ceeta with us, and coming along?"

"Oh, really?" Isabel silently counted to five, so as to only lose about half of her temper. That seemed to fit. "On your royal say-so?"

"Because we need all of the family to assist during these desperate times," Turik put in. "Even those who are unprepared for the realities of the greater galaxy outside their own world. We would come to collect Max and Michael as well, except that it would increase the risk of being captured unacceptably..."

"COLLECT them?" Isabel groaned. "Like they're - I don't know, power crystals or something, to be used by the cause without even asking them? The royal four - gotta catch 'em all!"

"I don't understand exactly what you're getting at," Vorjal muttered. "But - none of us have much say in the light of our duty to the people of the entire Antarian realm. You... you might feel hard done by on account of your upbringing on Earth... but it wasn't easy for me either, growing up on the run, never sure when Kivar might finally capture my entire family."

"Okay, so..." Isabel took a deep breath, and felt Alex's presence inside her mind, calming and encouraging at the same time. "You have suffered, and you have undertaken this duty. Maybe suffering isn't necessarily relevant. But - but that duty, that obligation, is not binding on me unless I choose it so, or the exact way I will live up to that... that opportunity," she finished lamely, not being able to find any other word to use that didn't legitimize a debt-of-honor type thing. "We could talk all night about the philosophical rationale for responsibility, but I think that's the nub of it. I choose what my obligations are, and I don't believe I'm duty bound to come with you. Not right now."

"A spoiled little child!" Vorjal suddenly raged once she was done. "I... I did not want to believe such things, not about you, Isabel, nor about your predecessor, my Aunt the Princess Vilandra. But that is what I see before me, a whiny and wretched little *chipotkla*, var de bee..." Abruptly, Vorjal's temper tantrum continued untranslated for several more sentences that she could easily believe were full of vulgar epithets in the Antarian language. Finally, because Vorjal didn't seem to have even realized that something had changed and she couldn't hear him, she cleared her throat, and that sent Ava off in giggles. Finally, baffled, Vorjal looked around, and noticed Karia standing up at her place, with a little wireless control dondle in her left hand.

"First off, until I change the setting, only my voiceprint will be translated into English," she began. "Your highness, with all due respect, I think that you forget your circumstances. You are no longer a prince among your own people. You are refugees who have begged temporary sanctuary here from my councillors. Isabel and Ava, on the other hand, are honored guests here, come at my personal request, and I am glad that they have come. Therefore, all within these walls will speak to them with common courtesy and respect. Do I make my understanding perfectly clear?"

For a second, it seemed as if Vorjal would lose his temper at Karia next, but Raydeleen drawled something that seemed vaguely amused, and then Turik agreed in earnest, with the son, (what was his name again anyway?) nodding eager approval. So Vorjal rose, bowed to Karia, and Isabel, and Ava, speaking much more calmly and a little bit conciliatory. "Very well," Karia said, and pushed a button. "Translation in full resumed, and you should repeat what you've said for their benefit."

Isabel wondered briefly if translation of English to Antarian had ever been suspended, or if Vorjal would have been able to hear her while she couldn't hear him. Well, it didn't really matter now, and she wasn't exactly about to give him a hot piece of her mind now that Karia had spoken much more eloquently on her behalf. "My apologies to all of you," Vorjal said, his voice nearly at a whiper now. "I am overwrought with worries over my grandmater, and many other dear friends, family members, colleagues in arms, and so on. I did not mean to raise my voice in anger to you, but..."

"A further word to those who would be wise to listen," Karia said pointedly. "I have promised Isabel the right of safe return to Earth in the Granilith, and I will defend her right to do just that, unless I am quite certain that she is not being coerced in her choices. She has been quite firm in resolve with respect to the challenges that she is returning to, and so I doubt your honeyed words will sway her."

There was an awkward silence. Then Raydeleen spoke up. "And just what challenges is Karia referring to, Isabel?"

Isabel stiffened, all kinds of thoughts going through her head. How to explain about Alex, and her daring quest to restore him to life? Would they think it was hubris of her to attempt it? (Probably not, if Alinda had arranged the plan to clone the Royal Four, but perhaps impertinent to follow in their footsteps.) And worse, would they call her hypocritical for refusing to accept her life as a continuation of Vilandra's, but still cloning her dead lover in the same way? Well, she could at least tell the truth as she saw it - that she was grateful to the Liaretians for arranging her life anyway, and determined to give Alex's soul another chance even if he chose not to pursue romance with her for whatever reason afterward.

Fortunately, after a long enough silence to make it clear to everyone that she was reluctant to answer, Ava took the initiative and started a new conversational thread. "Pradley," she started, adressing Vorjal's son, which Isabel hoped wasn't a faux pas under the circumstances, "do you know if anybody's been in contact with Larek? How he's dealing with the continuing developments? I mean, we first heard about the attack on Sanctuary from... from another Liaret family escapee, I think, who sought asylum with Larek, and went over to Kaalto colony."

Pradley looked at his father, who looked at Karia. As far as Isabel could interpret those gestures, Pradley didn't want to speak without his father's permission, and Vorjal would rather have fielded the question himself, or insisted that Isabel actually answer Rayde's question... but he didn't want to risk Karia's displeasure again, since his people and his ship were under her power - and Karia had no reservations at all about using the threat of her displeasure to let Ava and Isabel handle the conversation exactly how they wanted to. So, after a moment, Vorjal nodded, and Pradley cleared his throat, (with a sound that was almost a very quiet bark.) "Yes, the lady Karalla, we're glad that she and her family reached safety. I believe that Rayde has sent a few messages back and forth with Rahlicx, Larek's world, but only indirectly. In terms of his response, he's been successful at protecting his own people, which his first priority. Except for a few Rahlicx nationals who were in Landorin at the time of the attack, and were hurt. For the future - he's said that he'll help us if we can, like declaring a non-agression treaty with us formally, which would let ships loyal to us fly into his borders safely, while if Kivar's ships pursue, it could be treated as an act of war."

"I can't imagine that Kivar would be too happy about that," Isabel said. "It might mean that Kivar declares war on Rahlicx. Is Larek prepared for that possibility?"

"I'm sure it's occured to him," Vorjal said gruffly. "In some ways it's not ideal, but it does give him an opportunity to join in bringing the fight to the usurper."

"Who's in charge of Vrelayan, anyway?" Isabel asked. "Whoever it is, can't be happy about the attack, unless it's actually an Antarian colony under Kivar's authority, with the Liaretians hiding there under his nose."

"No, technically Vrelayan is beholden to Gevina, though the planetary governor has acquired considerable autonomy," Rayde said, and made a face. "HAD Acuired. Duchess Kathana was upset when she found out that her Governor was willingly sheltering us and hadn't informed her, so... we believe that she provided Kivar with the information he needed to find Sanctuary, and granted him permission to carry out a police action. At the same time, officials loyal to Kathana regained control of the Governorship office, and ex-Governor Guinnem is awaiting trial for... what were the charges again, Turik? Not treason, Kathana didn't try to pin that on him, but..."

"Gross malfeasance, Wilful negligence to his fealty responsibilities, endangering the Duchy, and maybe something else," Turik recited in a nearly bored voice.

"Kathana hasn't allied Gevina with Kivar's regime permanently, has she?" Ava asked, concerned.

"Oh, no, don't worry about that," Karia assured her. "Kathana will never take sides permanently in that struggle until one side is vanquished utterly so she can be sure of picking the winner. In fact, from what I know of her, she's probably gotten Kivar to agree that he owes her a favor, which is no small accomplishment."

"Yes," Rayde agreed. "And honoring Kathana's marker can be a difficult thing, especially as she usually chooses the most inconvenient times to collect."

"I've made my decision," Ava suddenly announced.

"On what matter?" Turik asked her.

"That... that I'll go with you, when you leave Ceeta. If you'll have me, that is. Isabel has things to do back on Earth, but... but there's not as much waiting for me back there." Ava sighed. "I'll miss her friends and family, and be sorry that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye - but I think that helping in this fight is worth it. Especially if Kivar's lackeys had anything to do with my Zan's death."

There was a stunned silence. Then Rayde spoke up. "If Vorjal doesn't want you, Ava, then I do." Vorjal turned to look at her. "Hey, there's still room on the ship, and I do think that my privileges as gehrvellkah extend this far, still. Recruiting a qualified person into Alinda's private service."

"I doubt that Ava will have the chance to meet my grandmother," Vorjal said solemnly. "And if she passes away soon, what then? You would enter my own councils, Rayde, and..."

"I'd choose to join you, if you'll have me, Vorjal," Rayde qualified. "But don't speak about that transition as if it's automatic. Would you refuse Ava and put her off the ship once we had already left?"

"Enough of this bickering, father," Pradley put in. "Just accept Ava's offer, yourself. I don't think that you'll regret it, and you do have priority I think..."

"I'm not trying to one-up anyone," Rayde assured him. "Just announcing that I'd step in as a fall-back if I needed to."

So, after a bit more umming and awwing, the deal was struck. Rayde and Turik made an appointment to interview Ava the next day and evaluate the skills that she had learned by herself or from the other New York pod squadders. Then everyone seemed to start talking about other things they needed to attend to before the night.

"I hope that we meet again, Isabel," Pradley said shyly as his father watched them say goodbye. She nodded in agreement. "And good luck in the Saphiran sector."

Pradley just nodded agreement, and Vorjal said, "Thank you very much, Isabel Evans." He paused weightily. "I'm not sure I can speak yet for your priorities, but clearly you are a lady of uncommon character and courage. I do wish that you were free to join our cause at this time as well."

Isabel was speechless, and looked over at Karia, who smiled at her. "You're very kind. If... if you have a chance to communicate directly with Earth without being jammed or traced by Kivar... we'd be eager to hear more. I... I don't know the technical specifications on the communicator chamber, but..."

"I am familiar with that unit," Turik said stiffly. "Unfortunately,. it can only orient on a fixed band of Earth's surroundings as it rotates, and we are going to be outside that range soon after we leave. But perhaps we will be able to relay messages through other inhabited worlds that do lie on the band - it was specifically placed to cover several nearby colony worlds as well as Antar itself." Turik shot a look over at Karia. "The fact that Ceeta is within reach was pure coincidence."

"Lucky for us," Karia replied. "Now, no need to drag the goodbyes out any longer. Isabel, I know that you're tired and will want to retire. I've arranged rooms for both of you girls here, rather than send you back to the campus at such a late hour."

Ava finished talking with Rayde and they made their getaway. Isabel smiled to herself, quite glad that Karia had arranged that dinner despite her trepidations when it had started, and at times during the conversation. Too bad there hadn't been any games after all.

------------

After that evening, the rest of Isabel's stay on Ceeta wound itself down fairly anticlimactically. Though she had a repeat of the dream involving being chased by a shadowed figure, outside of the habitat, nothing played out in real life that seemed to indicate when or how she might be forced into such a situation, especially now that she was on guard. She even managed to find the terrain that had figured in the dream, not far from the college campus dome, by observing out through the windows. Claudia Parker, when told the story of the dream, had said that very few people ever went outside, even in protective airsuits.

One relatively intense high point was the report of Vinta Moreoglore on Isabel and Alex's psychic health, and what came of it. Isabel asked Claudia to come back with her to help as a translator, and then Karia said that they could probably hold the followup briefing over a privacy-encoded videostream, and asked if it would be an imposition for her to sit in as well. Isabel hadn't even felt very much awkwardness about agreeing to this - no matter how very different they were physically, in their personalities and the details of their lives, she was starting to think of Karia as a personal friend. Moreoglore was briefly phased by the crowd peering it at him on his own videoscreen, including the leader of the entire colony, but went ahead with his findings fairly quickly and professionally. "Miss Isabel Evans, and... and the deceased spirit of Alex Whitman are in reasonably good health, considering the danger of their situation, and have every good chance of surviving compatibly together for a year or more. Still, in good conscience I must point out that it is a precarious balance which could upset when she returns to planet Earth, and without any trained Essentologist there..."

"If you're going to tell me I should let Alex's soul pass on naturally - then no dice," Isabel told him. "Or move him into some other guy who he can balance better with. Is there anything else helpful you can give me? Warning signs, psychic first aid techniques? Or something that you could do here that would reduce the risk?"

Moreoglore was silent even after Claudia had conveyed that. "Yes, I can tell you of the warning signs of a critical psychic imbalance, but if such a thing happens, the only thing I could possibly recommend would be to allow him to depart before your own mind is too badly compromised to recover. I am sorry to say this. In any event, once that point is reached, you would NOT be able to endure together long enough for any other plan to succeed. Not one point of probability in a hundred billion."

"Okay," Isabel said. "Is that it?"

"No." The Vinta paused and considered. "With a careful neural energy adjustment, I will be able to submerge Alex more deeply in your own mind for a period of many months. This will give both of you more safety and more time, however, you will not experience him so clearly or distinctly, at least, not nearly as often."

Isabel hesitated, torn by this choice. Alex, who'd been watching the scene invisibly, felt no such reticence apparently. "Izzie, I know what you're thinking, but - but you've got to do it."

*Oh, yeah, you're just finally sick and tired of spending so much quality time with me,* she thought back heatedly, wondering if the others, (aside from mabye Ava,) just thought she was mulling the possibility over carefully. *Even halfway to oblivion is better by this point, huh?*

"No, you know that that's not it," Alex said, stepping near and holding her left hand in the two of hers. "Am I happy about the thought of spending much less time with you over the next several months, of being less aware of anything at all? No, of course not. But - but if it could mean the difference in your health, and the success of this plan to bring me back - then it's a sacrifice that we're going to have to make, both of us. We can't not."

Isabel felt her eyes trying to fill with tears of regret and anger at the situation, and she pulled her hand away from that spot and turned back to the screen. "Vinta, is there any risk in the procedure, either to myself or Alex?"

"Some... some minor risk," he said, speaking in his broken english himself instead of waiting for Claudia to translate this time. "Of - of discomfort or inconvenience, nothing that could be fatal to either of you. Not often done in this situation, but is application of long-standing practice undertaken for other reasons, like dulling pain of harsh memories."

"I... I don't know," Isabel muttered, "I can't decide this now." She got up, and looked around the small meeting room that they were using for the conference. "Somebody - somebody make sure to get the warning signs notes for me, okay? I... I just have to go." And suiting action to word, she ran out of the room, across the office floor outside, hesitated briefly, not sure where to go, and took a chance on a heavy door. Beyond was a stairwell that seemed to be unused, except for emergency evacuations, and that suited it just fine to Isabel at that moment. She didn't want to be anywhere where there were other people. She only managed to sit down on one of the stairs before the tears overwhelmed her, and she alternated crying with her hands covering her face, and thrashing about in impotent rages, banging her arms against the walls and the handrail, for a few minutes.

"Feel any better now?" When Isabel heard the voice, and cleared her eyes out enough to see Alex's face, for a few seconds she was not at all happy to see him. Only a few seconds, though - if only because it occured to her that if she didn't want to see him now, it was foolish to be so upset about the thought of seeing him less.

"No, not really," she muttered. "Are you the only one who's going to come find me?" She wasn't even sure why she asked, or would expect him to know.

"I... I think so. I was actually able to sound out words for a few moments after you ran out, there. Ava understands - maybe she's explaining to Karia and Claudia about how that works. But let's not worry about them right now. What - what's bothering you so much about this? I know it won't be pleasant, but - but you're realistic enough to take it for the sake of the quest, I know that you are. You've done damn near everything else to bring me back."

That question cut through Isabel's wildly storming feelings somewhat. "I... I don't know, or... maybe, hmm." She had to ponder and sit for a while before it would come out in anything resembling the right words. "If, if I go through with this, deep in my heart it won't feel like something that I'm doing as a sacrifice to get you back. Even if that's the truth of it, that part of me - will feel like it's the first step towards losing you forever."

"Oh, honey." Alex sat down next to her, and pulled Isabel close to him, cradling her against his chest and running his fingers through her hair, making sweet soothing noises. "No, I'm not going anywhere permanently, you can't lose me, you're not going to be rid of me that easily." He sighed. "If what we've been through already doesn't mean that you're sure of that, then - well, is there anything else I could do, or anybody could do, to make you feel better before we go through with the procedure."

"I... I don't know, it's not a logical or rational thing," she started.

"So we do something irrational, maybe, something that has an emotional significance for you," he suggested earnestly. "But I'm not going to let up on this. It's the smart thing to do, and we really do need to be smart about it if this pie in the sky plan has a shot at working."

"Then... then I want to have some kind of a bonding promise deal with you," Isabel blurted out, looking up at him. "Hopefully they can find some of those same energy crystals for a chapel, so that you can be visible and touchable by other people, and maybe find a traditional ceremony that fits - for living couples, at least. We can adapt the rest of the way. I... it's not like I want to crowd in on Max and Liz's deal, getting engaged - and having a dead fiancee is somehow a little weird in a way that having a dead boyfriend isn't." They chuckled about that. "But just a moment where we say how much we love each other, in front of other witnesses, and that we want to be together forever... it'll make me feel better, and also - it's the best thing I can think of to actually motivate you to come back to me once the submergence deal wears off."

"You actually think I need more motivation for that?" Alex asked, and kissed her lips. "But sure, we'll do this. It sounds really good to me too - except, I have to admit I have one weird caveat. Probably not a big deal, but..."

"Yeah?"

"I... I sort of don't want to promise anything specific for after... if we do get the clone plan to work, to vow that we'll be together after that." Isabel stiffened in surprise. "I *hope* that we will be, but - it's hard for any of us to guess what might happen after I've been through something like that. Hanging around while you were having dinner with cousin Vorjal and the others brought that home to me I guess." Alex stared deep into Isabel's eyes. "You're so different from the Vilandra that he expected, and I don't think it's just because of human DNA, or that you can't remember much of her life. Character and personality are affected so much by early environment and the way that the brain happens to start connecting itself up, from the second it's distinct from anything else."

"Well, yeah, there's that," Isabel said, and took a breath. "And, and probably nobody else has even tried doing what we're talking about doing, aging you until you're nineteen in the clone vat just so you'll be the same age as me."

"Doesn't have to be nineteen," Alex joked. "You can let me out when I'm fifteen, and you'll be the hot older girl. Don't think anybody would push the point of cradle robbing."

"You know what I mean," Isabel told him, not even reacting to the joke in her worry. "Are we being crazy for this? What if the accelerated aging part... goes wrong?"

"Let's not worry about that part now," he said, and pulled her to her feet. "We've got a promise ceremony to plan."

------------

Karia was happy to lend Claudia to Isabel again for making the arrangements on the ceremony, and said that she'd show up to be a witness before rushing off on more important colony business. (Actually, she'd left the conference room by the time Isabel had gotten back, and she'd had to track her down several rooms away, already going over some numbers that apparently had to do with funding for the mass transit system.) Feeling a bit self-conscious about her idea by this point, Isabel insisted on a small gathering - with Ava, Claudia's family, and the magistrate to officiate. Ava suggested inviting Turik and Raydeleen, insisting that they would 'be cool' with the whole idea.

So she stood up in front of that small crowd, pledging her love to a temporarily visible and touchable Alex, telling him that he would always be a part of her heart no matter what, that she would do everything that she could to restore him to life, and of her hopes for a long life together after that. Alex replied with his own testament, thanking her for everything that she'd brought into his life, even and especially sheltering his spirit after tragedy took his body, declaring his love for her and his hopes that they'd be able to fufill their dreams side by side.

And after the Magistrate solemnly intoned that he stood witness to their testaments, he and a few of the guests offered brief and kind advice or best wishes, and there was a selection of snacks brought out, in the same meeting room that they'd used as 'chapel'. (Apparently in Antarian societies, there wasn't necessarily the same casual association of religious venues with events like weddings - religious groups the Antarian sphere had, several different varieties, but the gap between them and the more secular world seemed to be larger.) Mischievously, Alex popped a little treat into his mouth before Isabel or Ava could stop him - and somewhat to their surprise, several of the guests commented on how pleasant they found the resulting smell - including Karia, Rayde, and Turik. Claudia was the only one who seemed to entirely share the distaste that the earth hybrids felt in the presence of the 'zombie breath' effect... which was probably because out of everyone there the three of them were the ones with the most human DNA, she pointed out.

It wasn't long after the reception before Isabel was rushed back to Moreoglore's office for the submergeance procedure. She hadn't been at all sure beforehand what to expect from the event, if she'd be unconscious like in a serious surgery, or if she'd feel thing poking into her head while she was awake or what.

It turned out to be not quite like either of those, and fairly dull on the most part. She lay stomach down on a sort of table/couch and began to feel rather drowsy as the Vinta and his assistant used their powers on her, mostly in the vicinity of her heart and her chest, not really initiating a full connection but something like that. She caught a few flashes that she wasn't sure what to do with, and Alex spoke to her as reassuringly as he could, but when his voice seemed to fill with static she told him, regretfully, that it was better for him just to be quiet than bring home to her that their link was, in a certain and controlled way, under attack.

She did get a very brief vision near the end of it, so clear that it seemed remarkable, though given her unusual state of mind Isabel supposed it could have been just her imagination - of Ava in uniform and working in a room full of aliens, with Rayde and Pradley noticeable near her. Was that her future, on Vorjal's ship?

She called for Alex once the operation was finished, and didn't get so much as an internal twinge of response. Even though that would happen if he was blinked out normally, Isabel nearly broke down in tears again, and couldn't keep from crying a little with a straight face as she waited for the car to take her away. This night, she would be staying in a free room that had opened up near to Claudia and her family, and the next day, they'd all be leaving - her in the Granilith for Earth, with the memory implantation technology, and Ava with the Liaretian ship.

-----------

"You know, for all that we agonized over this luggage, it's not like I used much of it here," Isabel commented, going through the contents of that suitcase. "And seriously, if there's anything of mine that you'd like to take with you..." She hesitated at that point. "Well, you should ask at least."

"Cute," Ava replied, considering. "No on the clothes, really... they'll have their own stuff that can fit me, actually, and it makes sense not to flaunt where I came from by wearing Earth clothes, in an environment like that." Isabel nodded. "Would it sound too weird to ask you to take some of my stuff back?"

"Sort of - unless there's something in particular you think Liz would like, or something," Isabel replied. "I know she's going to miss you - again, and you're around the right size." She considered. "Or you could leave something here - it might be a collector's item, who knows."

"We can ask Claudia," Ava agreed. "CDs I *will* take, and thanks. I've checked that they'll be able to power the CD player, or build it into their power system or something. And some of the books, maybe..."

They still hadn't finished sorting through everything before the door knocked, and Ava sighed softly when she saw Turik up there. "Already?"

"Yes. There's a storm heading in - I guess it won't affect the Granilith, but we don't want to take off in it. And we've got somewhere to be." Turik spoke through another little miniature translator device - mostly for Isabels' benefit, as Ava was already starting to learn the Antarian she'd need. "Thank you, Isabel."

"For bringing Ava to you?" she said with a little smile.

"That, and other reasons. For showing us a bit of what your life was like on Earth."

"Alright." Then Isabel did a double-take. "A storm, outside?" It was just after she'd spoken that she recognized the flaw in her thinking.

"Just because the air outside doesn't have oxygen, doesn't mean it doesn't move and develop storms in more or less the same way," Turik pointed out, though she'd realized it herself.

"Yeah, yeah, got it." Isabel sighed. "Well, I've still got several hours before the Granilith launches again, and not much more packing to do - can I come and see you guys off? Say goodbye to Pradley, and Vorjal, and Rayde?"

"Pradley and Vorjal... will not be seeing anybody off," Turik said stiffly. "They have already boarded the vessel and are under guard. There... there was a threat against them from some Ceetan native or group of natives."

"Really?" Isabel said as Ava got her bag. "I thought that you guys were so popular here. That Karia - well, she hinted that she might not have given you permission to land at all, but the council - and thus, by assumption, their constituents - insisted."

"In general, I believe that the... the constituency," This 'stutter' seemed to be an affectation of the translator as it searched for the correct word form rather than uncertainty on Turik's own part, "is very pro-Liaretian in general. However, it only takes a few of the discontented minority to accomplish an assasination, if they are determined enough."

"I suppose that's true, and a good precaution no matter what," Isabel agreed. By this time Ava was all ready to go, so they stepped out of the room, which slid closed behind the three of them, though Isabel hoped that she'd be able to find her way back and use a palmprint to get back in. "I don't suppose that you'd let me go aboard the ship and see them off myself? Surely I'm not considered a threat."

"No, you're not," Turik agreed, "but I don't think that there's time to consider that option. When the time comes for us to take off, we will have to launch even if you haven't safely deboarded..."

"Oh, right, got it," Isabel agreed. "Don't really want to go take a tour of the Saphiran sector myself, so - what about Rayde?"

"Raydeleen should be available for a personal goodbye, I expect."

"Good." Isabel thought of something else to ask. "Any more news from Antar, Kivar, and Queen Alinda?"

"Yes, actually, it's still not good. A... a priest, from the sect that she practiced in her youth, has been summoned to the Royal palace. They have a - a ceremony of preparation for the afterlife."

"Huh." There was a lot to assimilate here. "So is it weird that Alinda came from a devout sect before she married the King?"

"I never really thought much about for a long time except as a point of history, but... I suppose that back when Sanren was alive, there probably was some talk about it. He would probably have done better as a queen for the stability of his dynasty if he'd listened to advisors who wanted more publicly acceptable choices - I'm guessing here, but I suspect that there would have been advisors saying such things. But..." Turik sighed. "But he was in love and would hear nothing against the wedding."

"And Kivar, if I know him, probably used whatever bigotry there might be against the religious people on Antar, as one way of attacking Zan," Ava muttered. "Trash talking his momma, literally."

"Yes, I suppose so," Turik said. "It's not pleasant for me to remember those years, or to think what might have been if - well, if Kivar hadn't been quite so brutal and clever."

"So you were a part of those events, so long ago?" Isabel asked him. "Sanren dying, Kivar... executing the Royal Four?"

"Indeed I was, my lady Isabel," Turik said solemnly. "I... I even met the Princess Vilandra once, but I'm not sure if you really want to know about the circumstances."

"Oh, come on, you can't just tell me something like that and not expect me to..." Isabel turned around in the groundcar and stared at Turik. "Does this have to do with... with Kivar, and her betrayal of the Liaretians." Turik nodded very solemnly. "Maybe I'd better know."

"It's simple enough to tell, and doesn't really resolve the questions you probably have one way or another," Turik said. "I was in the City Guard, and we intercepted Vilandra, Kivar, and his party after they'd entered the capital city, on their way to the palace. My unit captain... he said that Kivar was an enemy of the state and would have to be detained until word came of what we were to do with him, and that if he resisted detainment we were empowered by law to use force. Vilandra said that she was bringing Kivar to her brother for a meeting, to make peace between them... and I *do* think that she believed that. Not that Zan had been aware of this meeting beforehand..."

"And Kivar turned the tables on her, seized his advantage when he had it," Isabel said, a bit sadly. "But - was she really in love with him, then? Or was he just clouding her mind with some kind of alien trickery, or was she naively trying to help her brother in the only way she could think of."

"That, I have to say I don't know," Turik said, and Isabel had to be content with that much. The rest of the drive to the small spaceport was very quiet.

"It was a great pleasure to meet you, Isabel," Raydeleen said when they found her, amid the business of getting the ship ready to launch. "One of my duties for Alinda in recent years was to gather what information I could of both sets of the Royal Four on Earth and tell her anything I found out. The sources of information were sketchy... but I probably know more about you and your friends than you suspect." She paused. "Please carry this message to them: that none of you are alone in the universe. It may seem at times lonely on Earth, or not. But even if we cannot help you as directly as we might wish... there are those of us out here who care about you. I guess that that's it."

"Hmm... okay," Isabel said, and on an impulse she hugged the alien woman. Suddenly she got a flash of Rayde sitting and talking with a cheerful and energetic older Antarian lady, laughing with her. Immediately she knew that was Alinda. The moment was interrupted by a sort of a high-pitched whine. "Is that the last boarding call?"

"I do believe that it is," Turik said. "Farewell, Isabel Evans, and fair winds of the flue back to Earth."

"Flue?" she asked, confused.

"An old word for warp space," Rayde explained. "Never mind about that."

"Bye, Isabel," Ava chimed in, hugging her briefly. "Tell Liz that I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to say goodbye for good - and I'll send them a message by relay to the Pod Chamber as soon as I can." Pause. "So don't blow it up when you land, m'kay?"

Isabel laughed. "Yeah, I'll do my very best." And she waved as they hurried off to the jetway-like connector that joined the waiting area to the ship, outside in the bad air. There was a window that looked out here too, and she waved as 'A forlorn hope' took off. Hopefully, she thought, one day soon it won't seem so forlorn.

------------

The scene a few hours later when Isabel prepared to board the Granilith seemed very similar. Karia, Claudia, and Arina all took turns hugging her goodbye, and Claudia's husband and son added their best wishes. "Are you sure you don't want a full airtight suit for the boading?" Claudia asked her nervously as Isabel prepared to go out into the airlock.

Isabel considered one more time. "No, it'll just be in the way, especially when I land on Earth again. This little contraption will be quite enough. Remember, I can hold my breath for a long time when I need to." As she closed the inner airlock door, Isabel once more inspected the mask that covered her eyes, nose, and mouth with a firm rubbery seal, sort of like some scuba gear that she'd seen, and connected to an air source slung over her shoulder, that would feed her more oxygen when she needed it, and vent the stale air that had too much dioxide from her breathing out into the rest of the bad air about her. She pushed the button to start exchanging the air in the lock and snapped the mask over her face, waiting until the blue light went on, as she'd been told, to indicate that as much of the good air had been saved as possible before letting in bad air. At that point, she opened up the outer door - there was no pressure difference here, just a change in composition, and no need to wait for a complete exchange in the lock before proceeding out.

There was the Granilith, and the memory transfer unit carefully placed underneath it. Holding up the key, as she had to set the countdown earlier, Isabel commanded it first to load up the memory transfer gear, and her other luggage. Finally, stripping off the face mask and holding it in her hands, she willed herself into the Granilith's structure as well, and waited for the launch.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chrisken]

Part Thirty-two

It was a very lonely trip home to Earth for Isabel, with Ava heading off in another direction, Alex 'blinked out' for most of the time, (or just faintly in the back of her mind and nothing more,) and feeling very homesick for all of her friends, family, and familiar settings that she was racing back to. Alex did manifest within the Granilith 'cabin' for about two hours along the way, and they spent about half of that time making out, and the other half talking about what they'd seen on Ceeta and what it would be like to be back home. Finally, after about sixteen subjective hours in warp space, (as closely as Isabel could work out,) the Granilith finally arrived at Sol star system, rocketing back to Earth. Merged in with its systems while the Granilith was in normal space, Isabel could sense it cloaking itself from human detection systems, and orienting on the Pod chamber site. *Yes, land there,* Isabel confirmed, though the computer controlling the ancient alien artifact hadn't really asked her for permission to continue. *But carefully - and if there's any way you can repair whatever damage the launch did as you go, do it.*

*Understood, program engaged,* the response came back. So a few minutes later, Isabel suddenly found herself back in a Granilith chamber that wasn't much different from how she'd left it, except with many fewer people around of course, and the lights seemed dimmer somewhat. The memory transfer gear was piled next to her - she checked to make sure that it was all in good order, and moved it against one of the walls, well away from the door, so that nobody would trip over it by accident. Soon enough, she and the rest of the gang would need to start using this rig in earnest, saving as many memories of Alex into the device's storage unit as they could so that they could be incorporated into Alex's clone, when they got that far. Karia had said that it was a quality and flexible unit, that it should be able to tap into the memories associated with Alex's spirit even when he was submerged, but it could only copy a few memories per session, and living brains needed time to recover from such an experience. It would take a lot of memories for clone Alex to really remember who his predecessor had been, and Isabel wanted to start early so as to give him as many as possible. Surely Liz and Maria would participate in this as well... the instructions said that memories from another perspective could mostly be corrected for in the subject, though and recollections that were skipped on the corrections might be disorienting for him...

Finished with the transfer unit, Isabel also stowed the alien oxygen mask in the pod chamber, went through her luggage to make sure that she hadn't picked up anything else that was identifiably nonhuman, and headed out of the chamber door. It was night outside, which somehow made her think of that night, so many years ago, when she, Max, and Michael had first emerged from their pods and gone out to confront the big wide world outside. It was a spooky enough feeling just leaving the chamber alone - come to think of it, she had done that the time she first found the Granilith, as well, and it had been night on that occasion as well...

But something else was strange to her. This hadn't been any ordinary visit up to the pod chamber. Well, in a sense it almost was, except for the part where she'd gone to another planet fromt the pod chamber, and come back several days later. (That was a pretty big 'except' now that she spelled it out in her mind.) Plus, she wasn't even sure if there would be transportation back to town waiting for her when she climbed down to the foot of the mountain - it would make some sense if somebody had left her car there, but things had been a bit hectic and she didn't remember paying any attention to that detail. Also, when she'd been preparing to come back at this point, Isabel had been assuming that Ava and Alex would be with her, every step of the way. Ava was definitely not coming back, and Alex was not back yet it seemed.

But as she let the chamber door close and hesitated before starting the climb down, she suddenly realized that there was a much better thing to do first. Fishing in her luggage, she retrieved something that had actually been completely useless on Ceeta, but she'd gotten so used to carrying with her at all times that she'd left in in her jeans pocket when she boarded the Granilith with Ava - a small cell phone. Held down the 'talk' button to turn it on, would it even respond? Yes, it was powering up, but only had one little bar of battery power showing. Hopefully that would be enough. And up here on the Granilith peak, she actually had two bars of signal, though neither of them, if experience was a good judge, would have stuck around if she climbed very far down the path.

Address book. A moment's hesitation over which name to choose, and then Isabel settled on her strongest instinct. "Hey, Isabel," Max's voice answered her quickly. "You're back?"

"Yeah, umm, just landed a few minutes ago..."

"Good," he reported. "Maria said that she saw something brighter than an ordinary shooting star in the sky north of town, and I wasn't sure whether to look forward to you coming back, or be worried about some other Czechoslovakian showing up."

"No, it's just me," she said. "Didn't even notice anyone else in the area on my way in, aside from the usual suspects in low orbit. Listen, Max - Ava didn't come back with me, and Alex... Alex isn't going to be around so much for a while."

It took Max a long time to absorb that. "Ava... didn't come back? What happened to her?"

"She's gone travelling with Cousin Vorjal," she said, hoping that Max would catch the reference to the alien prince. And then the phone beeped at her. "Listen, Max, my phone battery is dying. Do I have to wait for one of you to pick me up, or..."

"Oh, right. Your car is in reach, but not the usual place - you'll have to walk about a third of the way clockwise around Pod Chamber Peak, and then look for a shallow depression. It's drivable back out onto the path, but less noticeable there. Since it was going to have to be there a few days... I'm sorry, but things are happening, so come to the Quarry first thing."

"The quarry?" Isabel asked, but no answer was forthcoming, because the telephone now apparently no longer had enough power reserves to produce one. Muttering under her breath, she started to climb down the path. "Okay, so since I'm coming from inside the clock, if I want to go clockwise, I'll have to head... right when I get to the bottom..."

------------

The car started up easily enough at least, when she found it, and getting back on the main highway had a positive effect on Isabel's spirits. She spent a little time trying to sort through the luggage and figure out if Ava had a cell phone that she could try, but couldn't find one. And also, she nearly hit another car, trying to look for it while she was driving.

She'd also never had to find the turnoff for the quarry, at night, heading this way into town, took at least one wrong side road off 285, then missed the right one, and had to go turn off into a parking lot and head back north again after realizing that she'd come too far. Eventually she parked next to the Jeep and near other familiar cars from the gang members, and hurried over to hug the first person she saw, who turned out to be Liz. "Boy, am I glad to see you guys, and what do you mean by, 'what's up'?"

Max hugged her hello too, but the look on his face was slightly bemused. "Isabel, why didn't you try putting more juice into your cell phone with your powers?"

"Oh." The implications hit her with a fresh wave of humiliation. Of course she could do that, she'd done similar tricks with other lithium batteries over the summer. "Sorry, just spaced - it's been one of those days."

"It's okay," Max muttered, and let her hug the next person in line, who turned out to be Michael. "Are you sure that you want our side at this point? What about Ava??"

"Oh, right." Isabel sighed. "You need more details than what I gave you?"

"Yes, please. I know who you mean by cousin Vorjal, at least I think I do, but... how and why?"

"And is he still on the run from Kivar?" Kyle put in.

"Yeah, pretty much, though he's planning a smart way to bring the fight to the K man. Reminds me of someone else in the family that way, I suppose," she said, looking at Max. He and Vorjal were different in a lot of ways, but that determination to hit back when the people they loved were in danger was definitely a trait the two of them shared. "Let's see, our second day on Ceeta, the missing ship that got out Sanctuary, well the most significant one, turned up there, and they landed to make some repairs and so on. I met - Prince Vorjal, and lady Raydeleen who's still trying to act as the old queen's stand-in, and the right-hand man and Vorjal's teenage son. They - well, Vorjal actually tried the hard sell on me, but he didn't have anything to even make me think of not coming back here with the gear that I'd come for, and Governor Karia stood by me there. Ava - well, I guess she decided that this was a chance she didn't want to let go. Liz, she wanted me to tell you that she's sorry she didn't have a chance to say goodbye - I mean, not knowing that she wouldn't be back in just a few days."

"Yeah," Liz said. "I understand."

"Can she send a message back?" Tess put in.

"She's going to try, but they'll have to relay it through someplace that lines up with the Pod Chamber." Isabel took a deep breath. "My turn now?"

"Let me guess," Max told her. "Why are we all hanging around out here?"

"I did wonder."

"Well, let's see. There was this... kind of a mysterious stranger, who showed up the same day that you and Ava left," Liz started. "Asking a few questions about us, and... I dunno, it was hard to say why based on anything concrete, but everybody's alarm bell went off the same way. He was acting like Special Unit."

"Right," Isabel agreed. "So you all tried your best to stay out of sight and not let him find out anything." Max gave her a slightly puzzled look, and she shrugged. "Yeah, I could have guessed that anyway, but... but I had a sort of a weird dream thing, or a vision, or - I don't really know what to call it. Saw some of you guys, can't remember exactly who offhand, talking in Michael's place. He was very frustrated at having to stay cooped up indoors."

"Yeah, that did happen, sure enough. Not that it's particularly hard to guess either," Michael put in.

"So, what's happened now?" Isabel asked him. "I assume that there's been a new development."

"Well... we haven't been really sure what this guy was up to or if he has other people working with him here in town," Max said. "That's the liability of a strategy of staying out of sight."

"Yeah," Maria muttered. "I think we may want to be rethinking that. I mean, with Topolsky, even with Pierce himself, we didn't run and hide, we were investigating them as they investigated us."

"And remember how well that usually worked," Liz said. "A little hard to compare with how it could have gone, I admit."

"I don't really see the problem with those results," Isabel said. "As hard as it was to get to the end of them. Alex exposed Topolsky, ran her out of town. She came to a bad end for trying to help us later on, but that was probably nothing we could have done anything about."

"If she *was* trying to help us," Michael muttered.

"Well, whatever. And we beat Pierce, though he did come too close," Isabel summarized. "And I'm not sure you answered my question."

"Dad was doing what he could to keep an eye on this guy without looking too suspicious himself," Kyle said. "Today - he went in for a meeting at Metachem."

"Oh, boy," Isabel said, immediately seeing the problems that this could cause. "Figure that Meris Wheeler would have sold us out, if he pressured her to?"

"I don't know," Liz said. "Meris Wheeler strikes me as the kind of person who it's hard to pressure and not get scalded. But on the other hand - she's pretty amoral, and we don't have much leverage on her at this point except the threat of alien-powered payback. If this guy could convince her that he can take care of us, with her intel - and if he offered her something that she wants, she might go in with him, yeah."

"Crap," Isabel muttered. "If I'd known... maybe I'd have tried to talk Ava out of going with Vorjal. We could use all the help we can get here."

"Did she ever say anything about trying to contact Rath and Lonnie?" Tess suggested. Max stared at Tess. "Hey, I'm no wilder than any of you about the thought of working with the terrible twosome - they DID try to tear my mind apart, after all. But they're powerful, and this concerns them. If a surviving piece of the Special Unit manages to capture any of us and learns what we know, then they'll probably be next. Safety in numbers, and all that."

"No, I don't think Ava ever said anything concrete about that," Liz said. "Just that she thought they went abroad, or something like that, yeah?" Isabel nodded. "And aside from the memory transfer unit, you didn't happen to pick up any useful alien hardware, Isabel?"

"Umm... no, it didn't occur to me. Didn't even really talk with anybody about fighting or that sort of thing," she admitted. "There's something that's nagging at me that I can't quite put my finger on, though... something about alien tech that we already have. I'll need to think on it more."

"Okay," Kyle said, and continued the story. "Dad is going into Metachem tonight - there's a job opening for a night shift security guard. He's going to keep his eyes open as much as he can without being too obvious about it."

"Fortunately, we never really mentioned Kyle or his dad to anyone at Metachem," Max pointed out. "Then again, they were investigating me before and of us even talked to them, so Meris might know more than we'd like about the connection."

"Yeah," Isabel said. "Still, we're not exactly up to our butts in available deep-cover volunteers who would be completely above suspicion, are we?." Tess choked out a half-laugh at the way she put that. "So, it's just a waiting game right now? Is he supposed to come and tell us something?"

"Not necessarily," Liz explained. "If he doesn't call or show up by eleven, then he's probably just been hired and already in orientation or his first shift or whatever, and we should go home. That's the arrangement."

"And what if he's really in trouble?" Isabel couldn't help asking.

"I get to make that call if he hasn't shown up by eight next morning," Kyle pointed out.

"And we're just hanging out here waiting?" Isabel asked. "In the dark?"

Max laughed, which took her by surprise for a moment. "We'd almost gotten the campire ready to light when Maria heard your car," he said, pointing down the quarry to a sort of a flattened plateau. "Not the best place for one, I admit, but it's better than nothing."

"Was murder climbing out over and over again to find firewood," Tess grumbled.

"I can't believe that you'd even mention murder around us, Tess," Michael chimed in.

"Sheesh, come on, I didn't mean it like that..."

"Alright, okay," Isabel said, and gestured for Max to lead the way. "Then once we get that sucker lit, I can tell you more alien planet stories, and if there was any further details about what I missed, you guys can fill me in."

"Sure," Liz agreed. "Would it be too weird to start with what you meant about Alex not being around so much? Max said something about that after he got off the phone with you, and... and if he's around at the moment, I haven't either heard his voice or seen you so much as glance in his direction."

"How can you tell?" Isabel asked. "I mean, you can't even tell what direction he's in, but..."

"That's it, more or less," Maria said. "I've sort of learned to do that, to guess where he's standing from the place that you look at where there isn't anything to see. It isn't always easy, but... since you arrived, you've almost always been making contact with one of us."

"Interesting," Isabel admitted. "No, he's... I can sort of feel him in the back of my head, but he's not fully manifesting, and isn't going to be. I... I can start in on explaining that part, but it really might be clearer if I start from - well, from when we landed at Ceeta."

"Okay." Max sat down against a sort of 'stair' formation in the rock, waited for Liz to get settled against him, and ignited the pile of dead wood with a little ray of red light that shot out of his index finger. "Go ahead."

-----------

It wasn't at all what she had expected, but sitting with her friends around the campfire in the old quarry, telling them all about her experiences on Ceeta and chatting with them, turned out to be a pleasant way to re-acclimate to planet Earth. Nearly everything she told about was met with rapt interest by the friends, including the alien sports game, dinner with 'Claudia Parker's family, (though Liz still clearly found references to her own grandmother's namesake to be strange,) the night she spent at the Ceetan college campus, finding out about 'A forlorn hope' showing up and asking permission to land, her appointment with Vinta Moreoglore the Essentologist, dinner with Vorjal and his crew, Ava's decision to go with them, Moreoglore's prognosis that Alex needed to be submerged, Isabel's fury at that necessity, and the idea about having a promise bond ceremony beforehand.

"So you're engaged too?" Michael asked when they got to that part.

"No, not really." Isabel sighed. "And not just because I didn't want to step on you guys' fanfare, Max, Liz. It just didn't seem quite appropriate, so we chose a precursor ritual that seemed to be more on the level of high school kids exchanging promise rings."

"It certainly doesn't seem inappropriate," Maria put in. "You'd both be in high school, if he weren't dead and you didn't get out early for good behaviour." She shot a look at Michael that was clearly meant to hint at the possibilities of promise rings, but Michael managed to not catch her eyes with considerably practice.

"Oh, that reminds me, has anything interesting actually happened at the school?" Isabel asked. "Did not showing up there qualify under the 'staying out of sight' routine, or..."

"No - at least not officially," Max said, glaring in Michael's direction himself. "But things have been quite quiet there too. Whatever this new guy is up to, he hasn't tried coming to find us in our natural habitat."

"He'd probably need a cover to avoid attracting attention there," Liz pointed out. "Like Topolsky's."

"Did you ever find out just how they got her in there?" Tess asked.

"Actually, yeah, there were some special unit papers that... that were at the old house, your place, not long after we got the Book translation," Michael said. "I never really figured out how they got there, unless Nasedo brought them when he came to town that last time."

"Probably he did," Tess said. "He might have even been going to tell you about them, if Whittaker hadn't killed him too soon. Or then, maybe she left them when she searched the house, to confuse or distract us. If there's a connection with her, then you can't necessarily trust them."

"Hmm, I hadn't thought of that," Michael said. "Well, anyway, there was a full case file on that first Special Unit investigation - code name 'West Roswell High.' From when Jim first called an FBI contact, Agent Stevens, and showed him... Liz's dress, with the hole in it. Stevens pulled Topolsky out of the regular FBI ranks, because she had done some teacher's college, and forged a message from the State department of education to the principal - 'a followup note' to a prior message that never got sent. He knew that the principal wouldn't be surprised at the red tape getting misplaced."

"Interesting," Isabel said. "I wonder what she thought, when she was first assigned to that case. Did Stevens tell her that she was hunting an alien first thing, or wait a little while?"

"The report didn't say that," Michael said. "There's a passing reference to giving her an opportunity to observe the material witness under classroom conditions..."

"Math class," Liz breathed. "I remember that. She was the substitute teacher first - did she have seperate cover documents for that?"

"No," Tess spoke up. "I mean, I don't know for sure, but I know how Nasedo would probably have arranged something like that, if he were in Stevens' place. Topolsky goes to introduce herself to the principal, it's monday morning, five different things are probably going wrong as per usual... and the math teacher is out sick. He'd almost naturally ask, 'tell me, Miss Topolsky, I know this isn't what you're here for, but do you remember your geometry?'"

"That does fit," Max pointed out. "It *was* a monday."

"And she didn't remember enough of it," Liz pointed out. "I caught her in a pretty simple goof."

"Yeah." Max sighed, and then he held Liz tighter. "Stevens wrote that report, Michael?"

"I think so, why?"

"Topolsky mentioned him to Mister Valenti, that last time she was in town. He told me about that later. That... that Pierce had killed Stevens, because Stevens tried to get out of the Special Unit."

"Really?" Maria considered that. "I wonder why?"

"Maybe he was starting to reconsider whether we needed to get hunted down and caged like animals?" Isabel said.

"One might hope," Michael drawled.

"And Pierce killed him, for whatever reason he wasn't with the Special Unit program," Tess said soberly. "I think that's what we're faced with again. People who were determined enough to stick to the mission statement even after Congress pulled the plug."


And everybody sat silent for a moment. Almost on cue, a strong wind blew by, raising an eerie howl somewhere not too far off in the desert. "Oh, man," Maria muttered.

"Come on, we need a change of subject to something a bit happier," Liz insisted. "Anybody?"

"Well, I sort of have an announcement, but I'm not sure if you're going to call it good news or not," Kyle said, smiling gamely in the firelight.

"I think I know what this is going to be, and for the record, I don't really mind, though I'm not doing handstands either," Liz shot back.

"What is it?" Isabel asked, and then took a somewhat wild guess. "Something to do with the hybrid girl you're sitting next to, Mister Valenti?"

Kyle groaned. "Great, ladies. Spoil the surprise and everything." Tess giggled quietly and reached out to touch him, surrounding his forearm in both of her small hands. "Yeah, we're making it an official thing. I... I admit I tried to play it cool all summer, considering - well, as they say, mistakes were made, foolish roads walked down... but as weird as it sounds, I've gotten past that now. She 'my girl' now, and... and what happened to Alex was a foolish mistake, best left in the past as much as possible."

"Hear, hear," Isabel chimed in. "I've been thinking I should say something along the same lines since back at the Labour day barbecue or even earlier, and this seems like the occasion for it. Tess... I may still have some anger about what you tried to do, but... but there's a time for real forgiveness and I think it's come. I know that Alex feels the same way himself, even if he's not with me strongly enough to say so just at the moment. You've done your good behaviour all summer, it's not enough to be a get out of jail free card if you're really going to do something else stupid in the future, but... but the past is the past."

"Wow," Tess said, a big smile on her face but tears making their way out of the corners of her eyes. "I... I can hardly think of what to say, I... I don't really I deserve forgiveness yet, but..."

"Well, that's the thing about forgiveness, they say," Maria told her. "We none of us deserve it, including aliens I suppose, and we all need it. I... I've been holding onto more anger towards you than is really Christian, and I'll wipe the slate clean if you do too. I mean, really, we've had our moments of treating you pretty nasty too, nothing that quite compares one might say, but you're not supposed to weigh sins against each other. That's not the point, and it just leads you down the path of self-righteousness..."

Everyone else chimed in with their own words of acceptance and charity for Tess, and just as the hubbub was dying down, and they'd toasted to Tess and Kyle's good news with cans of coke, a new voice spoke up, sending a glad shiver down to the base of Isabel's spine. "Hey, what are we celebrating?"

"Alex!" Isabel exclaimed, almost getting up to greet him and then deciding instead to wave him down to join her. For a moment the only thing that could possibly be worth celebrating, to her, was his return.

But though everybody else around the campfire was pleased to hear her say his name, and to hear Alex's voice themselves, (since it was quickly evident that they all had,) not all of them were just as single-minded about it. "Hey, Alex, man," Kyle called out into the thin air around him. "Tess and I are makin' it official, now, and we've all..." Suddenly he seemed to realize that it wasn't certain how Alex would feel about this last bit. "We've all sort of forgiven her for what she did to you," he finished lamely.

There was a pause as Alex sat down on the stone next to Isabel and held her close to him. After a few seconds of that, he spoke up without letting her go in the least. "I'm glad to hear it." His voice seemed a little bit strange, otherworldly but authoritative.

"Tess... I already made my peace with you, not long after we figured out the mystery of my death," Alex continued. "But, at this point, I'd like to give you a few words of warning. What you were driven to do to me in Las Cruces... that was a terrible misdeed - one that nobody should ever have been subjected to. No matter how loyal your deeds have been since then, I suspect that some of the seeds of hatred that pushed you to abuse me so are still in your heart." Tess gasped, Kyle wrapped an arm around her as if to protect her from Alex's words, and even Max frowned in concern.

"I do not say this as an accusation, merely as advice. All of us have tendencies inside our soul that could lead to evil, after all, and yours are perhaps not the most loathesome, no matter what they have already driven you to. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, as a great man once said, and I think that applies to the sin within our own hearts. Beware your own anger, and the determination to get your own back no matter the cost, Tess, along with the other failings that perhaps only you know, Tess. It you'll take my advice, challenge these demons in your own heart before the circumstances of the world try us with the fire again." There was an expectant pause. "Okay, that's it for me and the speechifying. And congratulations about Kyle."

"Umm, thanks," Tess said. "I'll have to think long and hard about what you've told me."

"Hopefully that's good," he told her. "Now, Isabel... as much as I do look forward to spending some time with the whole gang, howsabout you and I sneak off for some private time together?"

Speechless for a moment, Isabel looked around to see how her friends were reacting to this, and then decided that they weren't, that the last bit had been spoken only in her mind. *Umm, honey, as much as I'd normally love to take you up on an opportunity like that, especially since it's not often you're making the first move with me...*

"Ahh, that adorable 'but'." And he reached out to poke the side of her bottom near where it met the ground.

*Yeah. But I'm tired from the trip and would rather not move from this spot. But there's really no good place to go for a quiet and private moment around here. But I'm enjoying spending the time with my friends. But Valenti might be calling, or showing up any time, with important news, and I do want to know...*

"Okay, okay, I get it, here we stay," Alex said, and leaned in close to kiss her. In the middle of that distraction, Liz cleared her throat. From her point of view, there must have been another awkward pause.

"So, umm, Isabel, tell us a bit more about Ceeta. About - well, about this Claudia Parker lady..." Max probably nudged her gently at this point or something, because she broke off with a soft exclamation. "Well, what's wrong with asking... Oh!"

Alex snickered as he let her go, and as Isabel looked over at Liz, she realized that Liz's usually rosy cheeks were a particularly bright red. "Don't... don't worry about it," she muttered, and Liz nodded gratefully. "Claudia, let's see. I can't really say much if she reminded me of your Grandma, because I never really met her, but - she was very cool. Working mother, devoted and cheerful. I think that she may have already been assigned as our colony liason long before Ava and I arrived, since she'd practiced speaking and understading contemporary English and translating it to Antarian and back."

Liz smiled. "What about her family? She had kids of her own?"

"Yeah, two. Aarina was a sweet girl like her mother, just started at the colony college. I didn't really get to spend too much time with her, but I think that we could be friends. And the little brother - oh, I can't remember his name just now, but he's fun too, a bit of a pest and all."

"Well, little brothers are supposed to be that, really," Maria said wistfully.

"He'd be a high school freshman or sophomore in our terms, I guess. Said something about maybe leaving the colony when he was legally an adult, which Claudia was upset about, you know. And then, there's Claudia's mate, a sensitive-guy type who actually reminds me a lot of Alex, grown up a bit more. Umm... Crimbin, that was his name. And the little squirt was Varnt."

"Go back to the big about... about Varnt maybe wanting to leave," Michael suggested. "Is that a big deal there? I mean, I thought that they were really isolated in this place."

"Yeah, it is a big deal, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen," Isabel said, warming to the subject. "I mean, you have a lot of young people growing up in a community that's isolated and culturally diverrse at the same time. Even though I'm starting to think it's a pretty good place to live, there will be a few people who are convinced that they just don't fit. I think that a lot of young people dream or talk about leaving, but far fewer do, especially because the Ceetan economy values self-sufficiency and containment, and they don't maintain any kind of advanced spacecraft factory."

"Yeah, that would be a stumbling block," Maria admitted. "What *are* the opportunities for leaving, then?"

"Varnt said that some of his friends were talking about building a ship - like a couple of kids putting together a clunker of a car from spare parts and what was left of a wrecked chassis." She sighed. "A few of these home-builds leave Ceeta every year, but they're not sure how the people who fly them out fare. And then, there's the reuse-a-ship plan - for most refugees petitioning for extended asylum on Ceeta, one of the standard conditions is that as soon as they land, they give up their ship. There's a sort of a waiting-list-lottery system to determine who gets to use it."

"Interesting," Liz said. From her voice, Isabel suspected that she was saving the idea of refugees incoming to Ceeta for a later discussion. That was considerate of her, Isabel decided, since she had more to say on this particular spiel.

"The toughest thing, maybe, is that they always tell anyone who wants to leave, over and over again, that they can't be guaranteed right of return. Mostly because that seems like an obvious window for covert attacks. It sometimes happens that emigrants will be allowed re-landing rights, but the standards are probably even higher for her than for strangers."

"It seems to me," Max said, "that the Ceetans probably thought of those days as a remarkable convergence of events. One set of visitors arriving on a temporary basis and leaving again after only a few days was probably unusual enough by itself. A second group being allowed to land before you'd left probably seemed beyond the bounds of probability."

"Yes," Isabel agreed thoughtfully. "Neither of us knew that the other was there or coming, and yet we knew of each other in a way, and had a chance to meet face to face." She sighed. "I'm glad I got the chance to see those people, but yes, it's been an exhausting few days, in more ways than one."

"Hopefully you'll be able to relax soon," Kyle put in.

"Yeah," Michael agreed a bit vaguely. Then he looked up and over towards Isabel. "Okay, this might be a foolish question, but... I know that Karia already promised us that if we all came in the Granilith, to stay, she'd keep the thing safe there and not let anybody but us use it... right?"

"Hmm." Isabel thought about it. "Yeah, I think... something along those lines, at least. Which would imply that she'd be granting another exemption to the 'landing spaceships are forfeit' policy, as we'd be using the G as a spaceship again. Probably worth clarifying that with her again, as soon as we can get an open communicator line to Ceeta again, which will be when? Another few months, maybe??"

"Not too long, sometime mid-October I think," Max said. "A month and a few days, really."

"Okay," Liz agreed. Once again there was silence, this time broken by the sound of a cell phone ringing. Everybody checked their own phones, even Isabel though she hadn't bothered to recharge hers. Max made a sort of a shushing sound once he looked at his and hit the talk button.

"Hey, Mister V, what's the word?" There was a long pause, and a few short questions that Isabel couldn't entirely hear, even though she was right next to her brother. Finally, after another expectant silence, "Alright, thanks for letting us know. Have a good night." He hung up and looked at all of the young people staring back at him. "Umm... he'll be working through the night, and probably won't be able to call again. Wasn't able to find out too much about the meeting, except that our Mister mysterious is named David Fisher, and whatever he was meeting with Wheeler about, it's over now, and he's left. The building is quiet tonight."

"That is either good news, or very ominous," Maria decided.

"Except for the name," Michael put in. "That's just plain ominous."

"Huh? Why's that?" Kyle asked.

"When Agent Pierce came to town, he had a cover identity as a rookie cop transferred in from Santa Fe traffic control," Max said in a low voice.

"Yeah, I remember that, sort of. He was working as one of Dad's deputies." Kyle made a face. "That was why I recognize him when... when I slipped into the UFO center and set him free, gave him a gun. Sorry again for that, by the way..."

"Ssh, don't worry about that part," Tess said, patting Kyle's leg. She remembered, as they all did, how that final act of their struggle had played out - Kyle had hidden behind one of the UFo center's many partitions, on Pierce's advice, and Pierce had taken them by surprise, jumping out of the chair before they realized that he was no longer tied down, shooting at anybody in the group. Valenti and Michael had immediately returned fire - Michael had slain Pierce with a burst of alien energy, while Valenti had accidentally shot his own son through the thin divider hiding them from each other. Only Max's healing powers had saved Kyle's life that day.

"Yeah, well... the name that Pierce was using was David Fisher," Isabel filled in for Kyle's benefit. "It was a good cover - your Dad called Santa Fe and checked up on the new guy, and didn't find anything amiss. So *somebody* put in the time to arrange that background for Pierce."

"Hmm." Kyle considered that. "You don't think it was a completely fake name assumed by Pierce from the start?"

"Could be fake," Liz told him. "But it doesn't seem to fit that Pierce spent all that time in the Santa Fe area dutifully looking for people running red lights or going the wrong way down Canyon Road. And he was presumably busy doing other things at that time - getting Stevens killed and either setting Topolsky loose or chasing her down, either way."

"Alright," Maria said. Isabel decided that Maria had probably never thought much about this herself. "So... so Pierce picks a young recruit who sort of looks like him, maybe he's named David Fisher or maybe not, and has him go to Santa Fe and get on the squad. He works there for eight months or so - most of the time from when Stevens first saw Liz's uniform until - until they get a chance to make sure that Fisher fills a transfer request that Mister Valenti put in..."

"Yeah, that's about what I think," Max agreed. "Fisher leaves Santa Fe, but doesn't go to Roswell, and Pierce arrives in his place. Starts watching me, and expecting Nasedo to make his move."

"And where does the real Fisher go?" Michael asked. "Some secret hiding place, or a major FBI headquarters in a nearby town?"

"I don't know," Max admitted. "I'm not even sure where Nasedo went after leaving Roswell, if he really knew where the real Pierce would have gone, or what."

"Or what he told them," Liz said. "They must have known that Pierce had Max in Eagle Rock... oh, maybe he went back there?"

"It's late," Tess suddenly said, "and this isn't really getting us anywhere helpful. We... I think that we have to go back to town, but... but with Fisher still on the loose, and nobody sure what he's up to... I don't really think that any of us should be alone tonight. Or... or only with those who - who don't have any special means to protect themselves..."

"Hmm... well, just how do you expect to arrange that?" Maria asked. "You can certainly cover Kyle if you like, but... I don't think that I can arrange to sleep over at Michael's - or over at Valenti house."

"Well, frankly, I don't care what my parents think, or yours," Max suddenly decided. "I won't be able to rest until I know that you're under the same roof as me, Liz my darling."

"Oh, really?" was all the reply Liz could manage to that right away.

"Hmm... well, when I show up, we'll have to say that I'm back from abroad, right?" Isabel said after a moment. "Maybe make up something about how you're so interested in hearing every little detail about it that you haven't had enough, and I invited you over for a last-minute slumber party?"

"Hmm... could work," Liz admitted with a smile. "With a little effort. Maria?"

Maria looked from Michael, to Tess, and back. "Michael, did you ever notice any red ants over at your place?"

"Huh?" Michael had to think about it. "I've squashed a spider or two in my time, and a few other crawlies, but I don't think I've ever noticed..."

"Fire ants can be *very* dangerous," Maria said over him, "and from the number of them that *I* saw, there must be a nest nearby in the building. It's too late to call an exterminator, unless you want to pay with an arm, so... so you're coming home with me. No arguments." She giggled slightly. "What could my mom say to that?"

"Okay, okay," he said. "But you don't even have a couch long enough for me. I'll be banished to the recliner, I think."

"You love that chair, lazy boy," Maria reminded him.

"For sitting back and watching the game, yeah. Not so wild about trying to get a night's sleep in it, but never mind." He sighed. "So, that pretty much covers everybody, yeah?"

"Yeah," Max said, and got up. "Where's the fire pail, oh, here." He dumped sand onto the embers, suddenly plunging the group into darkness until Kyle and Michael turned on flashlights.

"Oh, by the way, Isabel, I like that outfit," Liz said as they headed back to the cars.

"Huh? Ohh... this!!" Isabel nearly jumped when she realized that she was still wearing a Ceetan tunic-dress. It didn't really look that much more outrageous than some stuff she'd seen in downtown stores right here in Roswell, but... "it was so comfortable I didn't clue in. Should I, umm..."

"No, it looks just nicely exotic enough," Max said. "Mom was expecting that you'd come back wearing a souvenir anyway."

"Okay." Isabel looked around for Alex, and sighed as he just had time enough to wave goodbye before disappearing. That hadn't nearly been long enough.

"Well, let's make this look good, Liz. You should ride with me, and not Max, if Mom is going to buy the slumber party thing. Do we go by your place first?"

"Umm, sure." Liz kissed Max once, (having to get on her tiptoes and pull him down somewhat to reach,) and headed over to the passenger seat of Isabel's new car.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chrisken]

Part Thirty-three

"Hmm," Liz exclaimed after dropping her cell phone down so that its back was flat against her leg. "Well, mom wasn't really happy about my not coming home, especially when I'm going to be under the same roof as Max, but she didn't really make a fuss about it. Especially because it isn't a school night, and I called in before my curfew, and all."

"It's not a school night," Isabel repeated. She'd guessed this already, but still something wasn't quite adding up - the days that she'd been gone specifically. "I left on a Friday morning, and landed on Ceeta later that day, so..."

"I'm willing to bet that it wasn't really that quick," Liz said with a friendly smile. "There's a mention in the book about time discrepancies with warp-space travel. Considering how fast the Granilith is supposed to warp, the disparity is longer than we expected, I guess..."

"How long *have* I been gone, in Earth time?" Isabel insisted. "I need to know before I call my own parents."

"Yeah, I guess you do," Liz said. "It's just about two weeks since you left. Friday night again."

"Hmm..." Isabel tried to come to terms with that, and then filed it away in her brain for later."Could have been worse, I guess. If we ever need to pull this trick and come back again, it's one other thing to keep in mind I suppose."

"As opposed to pulling this trick and *not* coming back?" Liz said, a slight tease in her voice, or maybe just an emphasis on the question.

"Well... I won't deny that I'm interested. Compared to what sort of lives we face here, Ceeta seems so much the better alternative - a community that's come together to support and protect each other, no matter what race or background."

"Yeah, I do know what you mean," Liz agreed. "And the contrast is heightened by the news you came back to, huh?" Isabel nodded. "I do sort of wish you had more of a chance to explore the University..."

"Hmm, well, I didn't mention this, but I did get one chance to go back," Isabel said, laughing almost silently. "This was after Alex was... adjusted, and - we were still waiting for that Gevinon patrol ship to leave before either the Liaretians or I left."

"Didn't they notice the Liaretians coming in for a landing, and come in for a closer look?" Liz asked.

"They probably saw, but no, they didn't stick around or come closer. I asked Claudia about that. She said that she wasn't sure why, that they were probably either scared of the 'great ancient technology' at the Ceetan site, or had just rendezvoused with another ship or a base, to make a more detailed report." Pause. "The Gevinans aren't allied with Kivar against the Liaretians or anything, so maybe they were just barely interested."

"I think that they'd still be interested in knowing where Prince Vorjal is," Liz pointed out. "Maybe they withdrew just enough that they could try to track 'A forlorn hope' without being spotted themselves." She considered for a moment. "The colony city hiding the Liaretian sanctuary - who did you say that they owed fealty to? The ones who gave permission for Kivar to organize that raid?"

"I... I didn't," Isabel said, frowning. "I'm *sure* that I didn't mention that much detail of my dinner with Vorjal, Liz. Not even that there was somebody who had done those things. How did you know about that part?"

"I... I could have sworn that you told..." Liz broke off, curious. "I... I thought that you said so, but I can't remember anybody else commenting, or where it fit into the explanations, so maybe you're right." She thought about that for another few seconds. "Do you suppose I could have gotten the info on a subconscious level, like a dark flash, when we touched before heading to the car?"

"I guess so," Isabel told her, smiling. "You haven't been practicing your powers any more, have you?"

"Not really," Liz admitted. "Worried about maybe something going wrong. But I probably should take a chance. In the meantime, do you *have* an answer to that question?"

"Hmm... oh, the sovereign over Landorin city?" Isabel racked her memories. "Duchess Kathana of Gevina, actually, yes. But - but allowing Kivar to conduct that raid was party an attempt to get a significant favor out of him later, and partly anger that her governor in Landorin had allowed Sanctuary to exist there and not told her." She considered. "I.. I don't think that she'd turn Vorjal in to Kivar again, but she might try to put the squeeze on him too if she can."

"Yeah," Liz said. "Well, I hope that they can figure out a safe route through the treacheries of war and politics, and that Ava will be okay."

Isabel nodded, and idly counted up the minutes, not many now, before they would get to her place. "So what do you think about this Tess and Kyle thing?"

"I do still sort of think that he's playing with fire," Liz admitted. "And he's a good guy, I'd wish someone who I could trust a bit more completely for him if I could, but... but nothing's been hidden from him about what kind of a person Tess is, and he's made his own choice. She does have much to redeem her, that we've seen in the time since - since that day at the Valenti's place. I wish them both good luck."

"Cool," Isabel decided. "I do too. Very well put."

Liz chuckled. "You know, I really do think that I got some subconscious memories of your trip to Ceeta. It's really kind of cool."

"Oh, yeah?" Isabel thought as she turned up her street. "Like what else?"

"A visual - the little wedding chapel that you and Alex took your vows in. "Do - do you suppose that they'd let Max and I get married there."

"Absolutely not," Isabel said quickly. "Karia would insist that it be in one of their greatest community auditoriums - or maybe that sports arena..."

Liz actually swatted her sister-in-law-to-be on the shoulder, through the stray tips of her golden hair.

----------

Isabel groaned slightly as she lifted her head from the pillow to face the world. "I... I didn't expect to be so much about 'slumber' last night and so little party," she muttered to herself, looking around for Liz. Hmm - there was a sleeping bag on a thick foam mattress in the middle of the largest empty patch of floor in the bedroom, but it wasn't occupied, and in fact, the sleeping bag looked as neat as it possibly could be without being rolled up. Why hadn't whoever just tied it together, then?

Probably it had been the combination of Liz's revelation about time dilation in the war space trip, and finally being back in her own room with her own comfortable and familiar bed, that had hit her like that. It had sort of seemed like she suddenly had days and days of sleep debt from that trip to pay off, even though she hadn't experienced them as days and days without sleep, in fact, she hadn't even been tired when she was inside the cone. Oh well...

Washing and dressing was a case of good news and bad news - pleasure in the simple home comforts and her little rituals, and disappointment that once again, Alex wasn't here to enjoy them with her. She hadn't experiences any real sensation of her connection to him since leaving the bonfire... had she? Maybe a very faint trace of him in her dreams, but then, she might have been imagining that. Freshly clean and bathed in all of her most earthly scents... (she had brought a small bar of sandalwood soap to Ceeta, but had forgotten entirely about shampoo and borrowed something from Claudia with 'girinko sap' in it, not to mention the nearest equivalent to deodorant...) she headed down to the kitchen, aware that the clocks were creeping up to ten o'clock.

Max was sitting in the living room as she passed him, poring over a thick school textbook, but nobody else seemed to be around. "What happened to Liz?" she asked casually.

"Gave her a lift back to the Crashdown. Maria and Michael are both on shift too. Kyle's going to come over later, and I sort of volunteered you to keep an eye on him while Tess and I try something."

That seemed interesting, but she wasn't about to give Max the satisfaction of her asking him what he meant - or even just letting him rattle off the answer if that pleased him. "I didn't just mean why isn't Liz here," she pointed out. "What did I miss when I was sleeping, last night? And - why aren't mom and dad here, while I'm at it."

"They had a couples trip to Carlsbad trip - I guess that was arranged while you were gone," Max explained. "As far as Liz and I - well, we messed around a little. Betrothed or not - well, there's a time and place for making love, and this didn't seem to be it."

"And you could actually restrain your big unearthly passion?" Isabel teased him.

"Yes, of course... just like you can when Alex is around - most of the time," Max shot back. "There's a part of me that wishes I could... could be with Liz like that every hour, every day. And not just the obvious piece of me, as it were. But... but neither is in charge."

"But the sex is great?" Isabel pushed. Max blushed and barely managed a nod. "Okay, just wanted to make sure of that little detail. Now... Liz brought me up to speed on just how long I was away. How long ago was it that the mystery man came to town? Something like five days after I left?"

"Hmm." Max thought about that. "Yes, it was Thursday afternoon at school that we first really realized what was going on. That was probably when you - you had your dream experience, or whatever it was."

"Or at least when you guys experienced it," Isabel said. "We don't know if there's a lag effect in picking up something like that light-years away through psychic powers. That does seem to be what happened, but..." She sighed. "Another thing I should have asked more questions about on Ceeta, I sort of gathered that a lot of people there have alien powers to some degree or another, but didn't find out much about how they use them, or what we should be careful about NOT doing."

Max nodded a sober agreement to that. "Anyway, Tess has an idea for turning the tables on these guys that I think is worth a try, which is why we're counting on you and Michael keeping an eye on the rest of the usual suspects. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, I guess so... Kyle's not so bad lately, and I can needle him with lots of questions about Tess and see if he's jumpy about the whoe thing with her." She sighed. "I'm a bit more worried about this plan of Tess and how risky it is, though."

"That's fair," Max said. "There's some element of danger, but we can't keep operating under silent siege like this. We'll be using the best conventional disguise techniques to keep from being recognized, and between Tess' mindwarps and my shields, I don't think there's much of a chance that we'll be hurt physically. Nothing for it but to make a try."

"And what's the objective?" Isabel asked quietly, bringing her bowl of cereal over to him. (Ahh, the simple pleasure of frosted flakes.) "Are you trying to kill this guy?"

"No, not at the moment, though... though I won't say we can't escalate to lethal force if we're pressed further," Max said. "At the moment, our plan is to sweat the answers to some questions out of him if he'll sweat, then scare him away. Oh, and do you remember that little special unit camera that I planted in Tess' house and Nasedo took to show Valenti?"

"Yeah," Isabel said, a little sadly. It wsa Alex's skill with computer circuitry that had allowed them to turn that Special Unit technology to their own plan. He might still be able to help out like that, but only when he was around and able to manifest fully, which would be much less often now.

"Nasedo had a small trove of stuff like that. He was better than I realized with the tech side, and we've got a lot of it sorted out now. I've got a little gizmo I want to use against these guys - broadcasts the location, audio, body temperature and pulse of the... recipient. Given that it was special unit in the first place, they'll probably be able to recognize and deal with it before too long, but somehow I doubt that this one guy is a surveillance electronics expert himself. Nobody in the Special Unit can be an expert in everything."

"Well, not unless James Bond has a *real* grudge against aliens," Isabel agreed with a small smile. "Anything else you want to tell me about this plan?"

"Hmm." Max considered it. "Oh, for extra effect, we've taken out the alien crystals from Michael apartment and are using them to lay our trap."

Isabel considered this. "Right, they do more than just manifest ghosts, right? Something like making thoughts sensible... are you going to try to bring this specil unit's deepest fears to bear against him, or something like that?"

Max chuckled. "No, nice idea, but Tess doesn't think that the crystals will respond to the thoughts of a pure human. It's going to be the two of us controlling what he sees, and what he hears."

"Do not adjust the horizontal or the vertical," Isabel wearily recited. "Okay, well, do let me know how it goes, and if you need help..."

"You'll be the first to know," Max told her. "Literally. I don't want to bring Michael into this except as a last resort."

She nodded acceptance, and then cocked her head as if she were missing something. And then headed into the kitchen, because she'd figured out what that was.

Pancakes. Genuine earth home-cooked pancakes, from her father's batter mix recipe.

----------

Max took a few flapjacks, but left before Isabel had run out of batter, and Kyle showed up just as she was finishing the washing up, of course. (He was happy to 'clean up' the leftover pancakes though.) After a bit of an awkward moment where neither of them were sure what to say, Isabel brought out a deck of cards. Poker for two didn't really hold her own attention, though, so she ended up talking Kyle into learning a game that she'd learned a bit of on Ceeta, which was sort of like gin rummy with a bit of poker mixed in.

"So, you mentioned that Alex got submerged deeper in your head, last night at the campfire," Kyle said as he shuffled the cards before the second hand of the game. "Did you happen to ask how that might affect - well, I know you don't really want to hear about it this way, but... the backup plan?"

"Oh, you mean, you volunteering as a stand-in to share Alex's life?" Isabel asked him. "Still interested in that one? How does Tess feel about it? Do you really think that it's fair for the two of us to share your one body?"

Kyle flushed to a bright enough red that Isabel felt a little bit sorry for humiliating him. "No, umm, I haven't mentioned this to Tess since - well, since we got back on the slow track at the mountain cabin, I guess. And I... I will discuss it with her, she does have a right to know, but I thought I'd ask how you're feeling about the contingency first. And that's what I'm doing now, in a manner of speaking."

"Yeah, I guess that you are," Isabel agreed. "Okay, let's see. I didn't ask Vinta Moreoglore specifically about any effect that this... this slow track that Alex and I are on now would have on integrating him into your mind and body. He..."

"Wait a moment, sorry, I've gotta ask before we leave this behind," Kyle interrupted. "Vinta Moreoglore? That's the name of this soul doctor guy?"

"I... I think that Vinta is a title of respect, a bit like 'Doctor' over here," Isabel told him. "And I think I came across names that were even weirder than Moreoglore over there, though I'm not sure I can remember any of them. Satisfied?"

"Sure, carry on."

Isabel sighed. "So where was I? Right - he did push me to do something like that instead of continuing to work towards the cloning thing - or at least, I think that was one of the things he was pushing me to. I didn't really give him a chance to rattle off the whole spiel."

"Imagine my surprise," Kyle said. "From the moment you realized what was going on with you and Alex, you haven't been about to let anybody else tell you what to do about it - except maybe Alex himself."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Isabel decided. "I wouldn't have gone through with the submergeance procedure if Alex himself hadn't talked me into it, if he hadn't been convinced that it was our best chance for a happy ending. I know that he didn't want to do it either, didn't want to spend less time with me..."

"But I think it's harder on you, than it is on him," Kyle put in. Isabel blinked in surprise. "Well, I'm guessing. But if this is like the 'blinking out' bit that he's been doing since he died, just more often and for longer, then he doesn't experience time when he's not with you. It's like sleeping without dreams, or a very temporary period of non-existence. YOU have to live through that time, without Alex being around, but for Alex, it's just that every time he pops in, more time has gone by on the calendar and he can't stay for long without skipping forward."

"Yeah, I guess that you've got a point," Isabel said. "But still, I can take it, and it *is* worth the sacrifice. And, going back one subject, I... I think I'd have listened to Moreoglore more, as a professional expert, and weighed what he had to say - if it hadn't been so hard to listen to him butchering my language." Kyle laughed. "In terms of integrating Alex with you as a last resort, I get the impression that the submergence will have pretty much worn out in six or seven months, which is still well before we need to consider last-ditch measures. Especially since I'm supposed to get that much more time in exchange before I'm in serious trouble."

"All right," Kyle said. "So... you're still considering it? Should I tell Tess so?"

Isabel groaned. "Yeah, tell her you're on deck as my backup, as long as it's okay with you." She cocked her head again, considering the ramifications. "Which means that if this is going to be an issue in your relationship with Tess, you should feel free to tell me that you're pulling out. It's your choice."

"Yeah," Kyle said. "On the other hand, if Tess isn't willing to share me for Alex's sake, and yours... then maybe I'm not so sure that she's the girl I want to be with after all."

"Again, that's your call," Tess said, though she sort of liked that chain of reasoning.

The card game lasted for about an hour, and then the two of them had lunch together, and started watching some of the new TV season that Max had recorded for Isabel while she was gone. Isabel kept looking around at every little sound, hoping that Alex would come to visit her again, but every time she was disappointed. Kyle seemed to notice just how distracted she was, but he didn't say anything about it.

Finally, quarter past two and about halfway through the Smallville series premiere, the phone rang, and when Isabel picked up, even before saying hello, Max's voice greeted her. "It's over, and I think we did it."

"Umm, great!" Isabel replied happily. "Are you coming back here? Or going straight over to the Crashdown?"

Max considered that for a moment. "Why don't you guys meet us at the East side library?"

"Sure," Isabel answered him without considering it for than a moment. "Anything we should bring other than ourselves?"

"No, that should do it." She hung up the phone and turned to Kyle.

"Okay, we're on the move."

------------

"Maybe no plan ever goes off just as intended, but this one didn't do too bad," Tess told them in a whisper. She was still wearing most of her 'disguise' - elevator boots that had allowed her to stand a little taller than usual without obviously being lifts, a straight dark wig and brown contacts, little plastic adhesives on her face that matched creamy pale skin and adjusted the contours of her cheeks and nose, and a very dumpy top that insulted her usually-bouncy figure. Max was done up in some of the same tricks and a few others.

"First, Max walked by without any of his disguise, acting as the bait," Tess carried on. "It was obvious that David Fisher recognized him at once, and Max did a pretty good job of pretending not to notice David, I think. Led him up through that alley off Indiana avenue, down Kentucky street, which was nearly empty, and around the old empty thrift store. At this point, I spot them visually, and throw a small mindwarp to make David see Max heading up into the Episcopalian church."

"So you weren't observing them all the way up?" Kyle asked her to confirm.

"No, Tess' position was between the store and the church," Max said. "But back on Indiana, she started tuning into what Fisher was seeing. She's been practicing that one, with my help. I realized that it could come in handy."

"I guess so," Isabel said, through she was uneasy with any increase in the flexibility of Tess Harding's already formidable powers, no matter how strongly Tess protested that she was completely on their side now. "So what happened next?"

"Max changed into his disguise, so that he wouldn't be recognized later," Tess said. "I kept leading David on, into the church, and the... the sanctuary, is it? The big room where they actually hold services. Followed behind him, out of sight."

"Is *that* where you set your trap for him?" Kyle asked, shaking his head. "Right in the holiest of holies?"

"I think that's a jewish term, not Christian," Max commented. "For the extreme end of the temple in Jerusalem, where the Arc of the covenant was held, and only the high priests could go on the holiest day of the year." He sighed. "In any event - it was in the sanctuary itself. Tess just led him through there for the dramatic effect. It was too big a space for what we wanted to do. I met up with her just as she got him into one of the Sunday School rooms."

"Why were you using a church at all, anyway?" Isabel asked him.

"It was a semi-public building, open but without many other people likely to be inside that we'd have to worry about," Tess explained. "I'm not sure if there's really a God, but if there is, I can't see him being upset with our using his digs in an hour of need."

Isabel nodded acceptance of this, and looked over at Kyle to see if he had another question. Kyle just shrugged. "So, you had the crystals set up in the sunday school room?" she prompted after a moment.

"Yeah," Tess agreed. "No real need to go through the whole program right now, but... we started off hard, both scaring him and at the same time trying to drive home the point that we didn't want to be a threat, that we had no plans of conquest or extermination on Earth and just wanted to be left alone for as long as we were here. He demanded that we show ourselves, and Max thought it would probably be for the best to do just that."

"It would have reminded me a bit too much of the white room in reverse, otherwise," Max explained. "I think I made the same demand, and Pierce never gave me the satisfaction - I saw his face, but only after he had rendered me even more helpless."

"And of course, what Max got for his trouble was that Fisher took a shot at him," Tess put in. "But he was able to shield in time - I think that the ricochet grazed Fisher's hip. We kept at him for a bit longer, until he was clearly getting overwhelmed, and then I was able to get close enough to him to knock him out. Then Max used his powers to implant the tracker-bug, and we vamoosed."

"Are you getting a reading on him now?" Kyle asked, and Max casually passed over his new cell phone - a flashy number with a lot of special features, some of them courtesy of Alex's expertise before he left for Ceeta with Isabel. "Not bad. So he's on the road heading north - maybe heading for Santa Fe, maybe Colorado?"

"Yeah, we think that the latter is more likely," Tess said. "After he gets wherever, we can decide if we're going to return the courtesy visit. The Special Unit headquarters is probably where your soul transfer gear is being stored, Isabel."

"Yeah, I know," she said, sighing. "But, well, I can't quite face that, yet. Not so soon after Ceeta. Yes, I know that it probably makes more sense to go sooner rather than later, in case they use this time to prepare for us or mount a bigger offensive."

"Hey, I'm alright with laying low for a bit," Max said, smiling. "In fact..." He took the phone back from Kyle and peered at the readings. "Now that he's gotten a bit further out of town, and there's no further sign of trickery, I think I might just go for a Galaxy melt."

"I'll bet," Tess said. By this point there certainly seemed to be no more jealousy or resentment in her face when she realized that Max was talking about going to spend time with Liz - it was just the same kind of friendly teasing that Isabel herself might deliver on such occasions. Did that mean that Tess was starting to become a surrogate extra sister to Max? Well, probably better that than the alternative, though Isabel still oddly held on to the notion that *she* was Max's only real sister.

"Oh, one thing first," Isabel whispered, waving at Max - and reapeating it slightly louder when he shook his head in confusion. "Scaring that guy off, tracking him - that's all good, but I thought there was sort of one more thing to the plan. Did you find out anything about what he was here for?"

"Oh, that." Tess sighed. "We tried, but he wasn't spilling much, yet. A bit about how he was just on assignment to scout out the territory and watch a few people, and nobody would get hurt. I sort of think that he believed that, but I really don't. I did try to get him to say who he was working for, but no joy there."

"Which might be seen, in an odd way, as corroborating evidence for the FBI SU theory," Kyle said very softly. "I can't think of many other people who would instill that kind of loyalty and secrecy in their recruits."

"Okay," Isabel said. "Well, there's one other thing that I need to do before we make up our mind about the psychic transfer gear."

"What's that?" Max said, with a concerned look on her face.

"Visit Meris Wheeler again, and find out if she told Fisher anything last night."

"Come on, Isabel," Max said. "You can't break into Metachem all alone - not after all that's happened already. We - we can all go..." Isabel just smiled slightly back at her brother, but Tess made a 'stop it' wave. "What am I missing?"

"I'm not going to be going back to Metachem, Max," Isabel said.

"Well, then what?" Kyle asked. "Umm... go to her house?"

"No," Isabel finished. "I'll go straight to her dreams."

-----------

Isabel went to the Crashdown herself that afternoon. It was after Liz had left, probably to go be with Max, but Maria was still working and Michael was munching on some fries at one of the tables, probably waiting for her to be done. Mister Parker noticed her, asked her a bit about her 'trip abroad', and then followed that awkwardness up by asking if she'd be available to work weekdays now, since many of his summer regulars were back in high school. Isabel was caught by surprise, but said that she thought she'd be able to and would talk to him about it later. She'd certainly appreciate the distraction of some long hours earning more money if she could fit that in, but it did narrow her options with respect to heading out of town again and tackling the Special Unit issue.

"What are Kyle and Tess up to?" was the first thing that Michael said to her once Jeff Parker moved away to check on some customer in one of the booths who seemed to be upset with his Asteroid burger.

"Gee, hi Michael, nice to see you too," I quipped.

"Sorry... hey there, how's it going?"

"Alright, except... I miss Alex," I admitted, knowing that it would have a slightly different meaning to anyone else who overheard.

"Right," Michael said, and nodded. "Sorry."

"Yeah. And, to answer your question... I think Kyle said something about going to a movie on the Westside promenade."

"Alright, cool."

"So, are you going to ask me what I think about the Kyle/Tess thing too?"

"Hadn't thought about it until now," Michael admitted throughtfully. "Thinking about it - deciding no, not just at the moment." Isabel laughed at the way he put that. "I've been sort of wondering about Maria and me, though... I mean, rocking the boat is usually a bad idea when it comes to the two of us, especially as things have been great lately, but still - I mean, Max made this really big and grand gesture to Liz, you're practically moving worlds on account of your love for Alex, and even Kyle and Tess are managing to move forward - admittedly, they're only just catching up, but still. I know that Maria would love a big sign sort of deal like that, but I'm not quite sure what I can pull off. Not just a gift, though those can be hard enough to get right when it comes to her, but... urgh, I don't know."

"Yeah," Isabel agreed, and considered for a moment. "Well, good luck with that."

Michael's jaw actually dropped a bit for a second. "What, you're not going to butt in with well-meaning advice?"

"Did you actually want me to?" she shot back sweetly. "I thought it was a good thing that I was trying to be less bossy lately." There was a short pause. "In other people's lives, at least."

"Hmm." Michael considered that for a moment. "Yeah, I guess I won't argue with that. It just... took me a bit by surprise."

"So, no actual requests for guidance and advice? I think this'll be your last chance for a little while. Ooops, it's already too late."

"Meanie," Michael accused me fondly.

"No, not my doing. Just - Maria is changed and heading over."

"Ohh." Michael took a moment to perfect his laid-back smile. "Hey, sweetie. How's it going?"

"Not too bad, if only because work is over."

"Oh, did Max tell either of you guys about..." I let the subject drift off. Max would at least have told Michael that he was trying something this morning.

"Yeah, I got the scoop," Michael told them. "Good news. I'll fill you in as we go, Maria."

"Umm, alright." And then they were heading off, leaving Isabel all by herself again. So very much the seventh wheel, until Alex could pop in again, at least. She ordered some alien-themed munchies from Carlene, one of the waitresses who would have just started her junior year at Roswell High, a year behind Liz and the others in the gang - and a different school, obviously. Tried to figure out what she could do with her evening while waiting for Alex. Would they be able to establish a regular schedule after a few days, at least?

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chrisken]

Author's note: First off... Come on, people - I've been updating so much this month, and no comments at all?
Secondly - I'm actually a little bit in advance of where I'm posting, for a pleasant change... I just finished part 36, and I think that part 37 will be the end. I started this story in February of 2006, so I think I'll have it finished in under 3 years.

Part Thirty-four

The next morning Max actually dragged Isabel out of her bed at around 2:40 am, to go up to the pod chamber, check out its condition, (he didn't actually say that he was worried that the room or the Granilith might have been damaged,) and try to catch a communicator window from Kaalto. Nobody commented as he drove first into the center of town to collect Liz.

"You know, we tried using the orbs in the pod chamber while you were gone, Isabel," Liz commented after a few minutes of driving. "Not Kaalto - what was the first place that we tried talking to?"

"Umm... I can't remember right now," Isabel admitted grumpily. "No luck?"

"No, it was like after that solar flare in the summer or whatever. Nothing seemed to be working, and without Alex here, we couldn't even have him do his diagnostic." Liz sighed after that mention of her ghostly friend.

"So, do you think it's at all possible that the launch fried things totally?" Isabel asked, her voice a bit sharp though she hadn't intended that.

"No... or at least, I don't suspect it's likely if the Granilith repaired the other damage we saw in the chamber complex. Max and the others tried to fix patches with molecular manipulation, but there was so much smoke stain and charring and dust and what-have-you that they soon gave up. Michael and Tess agreed that it didn't make a big difference what the place looked like."

"I didn't see any of that after I got back out of the Granilith," Isabel admitted. "So the instructions I gave for it to clean up after itself worked on at least a cosmetic level, I'd agree that far. Will they extend to the functionality of the communicator, whatever's affecting it - that's the question."

"Yeah, I guess so," Max agreed.

They got part of the answer as soon as they opened the chamber door and let their eyes adjust to the glow dimmer than starlight inside. One light stood out - the one that they had established was a 'message waiting' on the communicator. "Was that on when you came through here, Isabel?" Liz asked her. "I mean..."

"I - I don't remember seeing it," Isabel admitted, "but I might have missed it."

"Even though you had to cross the room from the Granilith door," Max pointed, "to the storage cubbies," and he drew a line that went pretty much over the spot of light on the floor, "to stow the memory transfer gear?"

"Maybe, I don't know."

"Don't give her a hard time, Max," Liz said softly. Max shrugged. Isabel just went over, put one orb on top of the spot, and held the other one in her hand, ready to retrieve the messages. "Wait a second," Liz said just in time to interrupt that process. "Didn't we use to have to leave the orbs here, in that exact spot on the floor, to record messages?"

"Hmm... yeah, I think so," Max agreed. "One more little mystery. What do you think, Isabel? If you have any input or opinion, that is..."

Isabel smiled slightly. "Maybe the big G gave us a systems upgrade. Let's see what the messages are."

"Do you suppose maybe there's an actual message from the Granilith?" Liz whispered curiously. Max grunted dubiously, and as it happened, if that was possible it still hadn't occured this time. There were two messages.

One was a very terse missive from Garvickle Wean, the first place they'd ever tried talking to with the communication orbs, which had always been very standoffish about dealing with them. The trend continued, Isabel supposed, with this: 'Contact us as quickly as you can. This may be important.'

The other was from the 'War minister of Antar', a young and brutish man, (through the communicator's image conversion routines at least,) who made a couple minute's worth of threats and posturing, about how actually using the Granilith while continuing to defy King Kivar's demands that it be returned was a 'further insult and provocation' and if they did not contact Antar to begin the negotiation process, a strike force would be dispatched to Earth.

"Oh, brother... no offense meant Max," Isabel said, unable to entirely contain a loud yawn immediately afterwards. "So, I think that we can afford to ignore Kivar's threats. He's still got too much to deal with to really worry about us and the Granilith. If somebody else confirms that he really has launched a mission to Earth, then we duck and cover - or run like heck."

"Yeah, I guess," Max said, though he did look somewhat nervous. "What about Garvickle Wean? When's our window of contact with them?"

"I'll need to recheck the star maps," Liz told him. "In the meantime, we've got less than two minutes before alignment with Kaalto. Places?"

"Yeah," Isabel agreed. They waited out the time, activated the orbs and made their initial call, and then waited while an operator at the colony switchboard passed them on to the Administrator's office. Finally a semi-familiar face appeared. "Max, Liz, Isabel, Alex... it's good to see you, but I'm afraid I have bad news."

Alex? Was he really here? Isabel spun around, nearly dropping the orb, (which would probably have cut the communicator line - they'd never tried it before,) and spotted Alex standing a little behind her with a big grin on his face. Why hadn't he said something? Had he appeared at the same moment that the orbs activated? Maybe because he showed up on the orbs, they could actually trigger his manifestations?

"What is it?" Liz was asking, meanwhile. Max nudged Isabel casually, and she turned to face forward again. "Alinda?"

"Yes," the administrator, (his name was Chelew, Isabel thought, or something like that,) said somberly. "Her Emeritus Majesty has passed away several days ago. I thought of sending a message to you, but... but I thought it might be better for you to find out in a conversation, when you could ask questions."

Isabel struggled against an odd stiffness. Just two of her personal days ago, she was still back on Ceeta, where they would probably have heard about this fairly quickly and told her as soon as she knew - but that trip back had taken so much longer than it seemed... "Did she die w-well?" Max managed to get out. Isabel wasn't quite sure what he meant by the question, or what Chelew would take it to mean.

"Very well. She has lived a long and full life, and done much for her people, even through great tragedy," Chelew said. "At the last, Kivar apparently had a rare change of heart, and did what he could to allow the widow of his great enemy to die with dignity, allowing her the solace of the priests of her faith, and communication with her relatives over the hyperwave..."

"So that he could try to track down the surviving Liaretians by their comm signals?" Max asked.

Chelew chuckled. "Perhaps - but perhaps not. Most have access to communication technicians too skilled to allow that. But we shall have to see."

"What about Prince Vorjal?" Isabel suddenly put in. "Did his ship make it safely to the Saphiran sector yet? Or is it still in transit?"

Chelew looked meaningfully at her. "Well, I believe that 'A forlorn hope' has indeed rendezvoused with the Saphiran Libertine Navy, though as of the moment word was sent they were just across the border of the sector. Still, that was at least hours ago, and they have probably crossed, or will emerge from warp space within the sector at the conclusion of this jump." Another shrewd pause. "They are also reported to include a half-human hybrid in the ship's company at this point."

Liz smiled. "That hybrid - Ava - she may try to contact you, or send a message through you."

"Well, I will be happy to. Do you have a message that you want us to pass on to... Ava, when she talks to us?"

Liz and Max exchanged a look. "Tell her that we wish her the best of luck, and that she'll always be our friend and part of our family," Liz said. "That ought to cover it."

The alien colony leader nodded soberly. "So it shall be done. The Saphiran campaign should be quite... tremendous."

"May it lead to better days for the entire Antarran region," Isabel said fervently.

"Yes, shall it be as you say." Chelew muttered.

"So say we all," Max echoed, with a humorous glint in his own eyes.

"Yeah. Does that cover everything?" Liz asked. "Oh - what about the lady Karalla?"

"She is well - back at my lord Larek's court on Rahlicx. Her cousin Vorjal has invited her to join him in the Saphiran sector, with her family, but I understand that the lady is nervous, and believes that they may be safer in Larek's company."

"Yeah, I can understand that," Isabel muttered. "Well, send her our best wishes and greetings as well."

"Understood. I believe that the alignment on your end is starting to drift off us, so goodbye," Chelew said.

"Already?" Liz asked. "Well - goodbye."

"Go well," Isabel called, and Chelew nodded in agreement, and disappered.

Liz turned to Max. "Do you want me to find out about Garvickle Wean's schedule right now?"

"Um, no," Max said regretfully. "I'd better get all of us back to town, and our respective homes."

"Can't argue with that," Isabel said, relaxing into Alex's arms, and wondering how long she'd have with him this time.

----------

The next night, just as Isabel was propping herself up on some pillows, Max came into her room. "Hey, you all ready?" He could obviously tell that she wasn't exactly going to sleep herself anytime soon.

"Yeah, as prepared as I'm going to be." She flipped around a little photo printout to show a good snapshot of Meris Wheeler that Michael had taken, back before they'd made their bargain with her in the first place. "Should be no trouble."

"Yeah, sure, I believe that," Max said, sitting down at the foot of her bed - because of the angle at which she was sitting, her own feet didn't reach all the way down. "You know that you don't have to put yourself at risk this way..."

"Ssh, stop it," she told him quickly. "If there's a risk, then there's a... well, not quite a reward - what's the word I'm looking for? An advantage, a windfall there to be gained, if I handle myself well with Meris. I bargained with her pretty well last time, didn't I?"

"Do you think that she'll be in the mood to deal again?" Max said, his lower face twisting somewhat.

"I... I'm not sure, I admit," Isabel said. "I'm *not* going to bargain with her if I think that she's already struck a deal with Fisher, or if I suspect that she's going to play us off against each other. But beyond that - it's hard to tell. Do I have signing authority from you, to make a bargain that commits the group, or you specifically? I won't abuse that trust."

"Sure, okay," Max said. "Of course, I trust you."

"Good," Isabel told him with a smile. "Now you'd better head out. I think I'm starting to get a dream sense on Miz Wheeler."

"What, like you can't use your talent while I'm watching?"

Isabel sighed, nearly groaned. "Alright, if you want to stick around while I start, that's okay. But no waiting around the whole time I'm dream walking, it's sort of creepy."

"I'm worried about you being inside her head alone," Max insisted. "She's a devious woman..."

"But she doesn't know any way to lay a trap for me inside her own head, and I don't think that she's disturbed enough that her mind is a trap in and of itself," I said. "You go as soon as I..."

And that quickly, Isabel got sucked into Meris Wheeler's dream.

-----------

It came together in a very sequenced way - there was a brief glimpse of a forbidding castle interior that looked like it might belong in an old-fashioned monster movie, but the scene changed very quickly to a much more modern and elegant mansion - and then several details of the decor changed. A meal manifested on the long table dominating the room, (there had been one in the original version, but it had been somewhat rotten and full of splinters, now excellently carpented and finished.) Clayton Wheeler appeared to join his wife, and as a final modification, Isabel found that she was no longer in her hot pink silk pajamas, but some kind of a maid's or servant's uniform.

The nerve of her! This was not random subconscious dream stuff, Isabel was sure of that. Dreams just don't usually work so methodically. The only thing she knew of that could explain it was lucid dreaming - she knew a lot of the techniques of lucid dreaming herself, and had found they helped her navigate through the dreams of others. Occasionally she had used that in her own dreams, or the subconscious mental spaces she had built with Alex before he... well, never mind.

But Meris must be an expert lucid dreamer to have taken such control of this dream so quickly, and Isabel wasn't even sure what would explain that she had been able to work her will on Isabel's own persona in the dream. Probably the steel will and mental strength that she had already noticed in Missus Wheeler helped.

And Meris was calling on her 'girl' now to... to go and fetch something from the kitchen? No, to open and pour a bottle of champagne. Well, even if Meris didn't realize that she was about to start a conversation with a dangerous rival, Isabel didn't intend to undercut her own position by accepting the servile role Meris had in mind.

So, concentrating hard, Isabel changed the scene even more radically. She put Meris in her office at Metachem, a room that Isabel knew well enough, and dressed her in one of her bright red work suits. Isabel had herself standing standing at the side of the room, wearing a casual halter-top and denim shorts that weren't a great match for the fall weather, but never mind that. Clayton Wheeler wasn't added back in, but she had an image of David Fisher, the alleged Special Unit diehard, sitting in the chair opposite Meris' desk.

There was a moment of tableau in which nobody moved or reacted. David Fisher's clothes and his position in the chair shifted slightly, and then Meris looked around, saw Isabel, and got a slightly frustrated expression, mostly in her eyes. It took a lot to crack the poker face of either of the Wheelers, but Isabel knew that Meris recognized she had made a mistake, and confirmed that Fisher had indeed met with her in this office.

Then Fisher disappeared, and Meris waved Isabel over from where she hugged close to the wall. "Why don't you take a seat, so we can talk comfortably. I guess I know a lot of what you want to ask me."

"Sorry to take you away from your regularly scheduled dreaming," I admitted. "You must miss Clayton a lot, so why haven't you left Roswell already?"

"You mean, since the only reason I came here was looking for Max, and that's over and done with?" Isabel nodded as she took the other seat, not wanting to take Fisher's place even in a dream scene. "Well, there's a few reasons. One, I started a few important projects here while I was waiting that didn't have anything to do with aliens, and I don't want to either transfer those teams to another branch arbitrarily, or let someone take over supervising them. More importantly, because I made a lot of alien-related inquiries from here, it seemed likely that someone else would look us up and ask to make a deal for what we'd already found out."

She smiled a somewhat fierce and proud smile at Isabel. "You should be thankful for that prediction I made. If somebody else had been in charge when David Fisher showed up, they might have told him some *very* interesting things."

"So you're saying you didn't give him any info at all?" Isabel asked, dubious. As far as she'd seen, it was hard for people to lie to her effectively in a dream, but they could still be deviously evasive.

"Hardly anything. I admitted having hired Liz as a summer intern, and that she didn't really work out. It didn't seem likely that he could reliably confirm any other meetings between us, so I denied meeting any of the rest of you. Sosa caught wind of the thing and tried to go behind my back to Clayton and the executive committee - there were quite a few people who wanted to take Fisher's deal. Money, access to certain technology, both government top-secret and alien, opportunities to experiment on any extraterrestrials they captured, and protection against any alien retribution for the information we have on you and your friends."

"Did Clayton want to take it?"

Meris' smile was more genuine than usual at this point. "Clayton didn't take a side until both had presented their arguments, and then he went along with me, which swung enough undecideds, even if he didn't have a deciding vote himself."

"And just what was your line of debate, Meris?" I continued with a smile that was nearly as sincere. This was the key point. I either trusted Meris or concluded that she was a very good stinking liar, based on this rationale. She would *never* have refused the deal just for our sake. Only if she thought protecting us was the best course for herself, and for Metachem.

"Let's see... we already made a deal to keep your secret, and you've been more honorable than we have. I'm weak enough to break my word when the rewards are juicy enough, but it's not really how I like to do business, and neither does Clayton." She paused. "And then, there's the point that if we deal with them, we're pretty much betting on Fisher's team - that they can beat you, that they could protect us from you, that they'd capture you etcetera."

Isabel considered that, and her smile finally felt genuine. "Okay, so how about betting on us instead?"

"Might be a hard sell with the exec team - I can't make this call without them, this time."

"Is it a hard sell with Clayton? He has a deciding vote, right?"

Meris laughed. "Just what is the deal you're proposing."

Isabel shook her head. "I only just decided to trust you - give me a minute." The office started to tremor slightly. "Or maybe I'll call you later, the old-fashioned way."

"Okay, if you must," Meris told her with a smile, as the dream dissolved away.

-----------

"So you actually believe her?" Michael exclaimed the next day in his apartment. "After the stunt that Metachem pulled in the middle of Max saving Clayton Wheeler's life?"

"I do," Max suddenly announced. Michael boggled in amazement. "What Isabel heard her say about having a code of honor, in her own terms, rings true to me with everything that we saw from her, and Clayton too. They double-crossed us, and there's no excuse for that in their terms other than the profit they saw - but we proved that we can guard against that treachery, and I think in a weird way that'll make them more likely to toe the line this time. As long as there's something in it for them. So - Isabel, did you make any promises? Any idea what she might ask for as payment this time? More healing? Blood??"

"No, we didn't really get to that part," Isabel admitted. "I have a suspicion that she might be interested in having me dreamwalk business rivals, spy out their secrets, and report back to her." Big deep breath. "Not really the biggest point at the moment. What are we asking for as merchandise this time? Information on the special unit team? I'm not sure she has much. Got the impression that David Fisher took her by susprise. They might have some useful gear to prepare for a raid I suppose."

"They could *get* info on the team, if she pretends to take Fisher up on his offer," Tess said thoughtfully.

"Then what does she give him, that won't endanger us, Tess?" Liz asked. It wasn't asked as a 'how can you be so stupid' rhetorical question, though - she seemed genuinely interested in this possibility.

"Anything but the truth, I suppose - something as far from the reality as possible. Actually, feeding Fisher misinformation might be a valuable exercise in itself," Tess replied.

"But we'd need to be careful with it," Michael said, also thoughtful. "Nothing that could be disproved too easily, that'd ruin Meris' credibility, and they might try feeding her bad intel too. And... nothing that could possibly incite the Special unit towards hurting innocent people."

"Oh - yeah, valid point," Tess said, seeming disappointed a bit. "Both of them. That'll be harder, sure enough."

"Yeah, but if we think about it for long enough we should come up with something," Liz said. "Do you think it's a good idea, Isabel? Basically turning Meris into a double agent for us, having her pretend to work with Fisher but ultimately stay on our side - at least in exchange for whatever we do to pay her back?"

There was a rather lengthy silence. "I'll have to think on that one," Isabel admitted, and sighed. "But probably not too long, because she'll be wanting answers, and we know that it's bad news when Meris Wheeler gets impatient." She sighed. "I admit I didn't anticipate these difficulties before dreamwalking her."

"Yeah, but what would life in Roswell be without these little challenges?" Michael joked. "Okay, Parker, I think that you and I have shift in half an hour, right?"

"Yeah." Liz turned to kiss Max. "Are you working today as well?"

"I think so," he agreed. "Just starting at one in the pm."

"Oh, that reminds me," Isabel said. "I'm supposed to show up to get..."

"Re-oriented, or something like that," Liz filled in. "I meant to ask you if you remembered that one." Isabel shrugged. "Want to come over with us? You can grab an early lunch before your call time."

"Yeah, or maybe we can get started early." Isabel sighed. "I still feel like there's something I'm missing about the Metachem/Special Unit situation."

"You don't think that Wheeler would really have you shot again, do you Isabel?" Max asked.

"No, of course not. But if I stall too long after starting this with her, she might have other ways of expressing her displeasure." Isabel didn't feel too concerned about that, though.

"I don't have anything else to occupy me today, so I may keep brainstorming," Tess put in. "Kyle's on shift at that stinky garage."

"Hey, why haven't you gotten a job of your own?" Michael asked. "Help out the family and so on."

"I... I don't know," she admitted. "Why, do you think I still need something to keep me out of trouble?"

"No," Liz said. "But we really do need to get going. Have fun brainstorming, Tess."

"See you when you come in for lunch, Max," Isabel called teasinly as she followed Michael and Liz out.

-----------

Isabel was actually covering some tables, in the waitress' uniform, that evening when Meris Wheeler came into the Crashdown. She stood just inside the door for a few minutes, watching, and then when Mrs Parker came over to ask if she needed anything, Meris pointed to the one empty booth between the two that Isabel was helping out and asked to be seated there. (Isabel had to chuckle a bit at the notion that the Crashdown could ever be the sort of establishment where the staff 'seated' you at a particular table.)

Liz volunteered to take Wheeler's table, but Isabel insisted. If Meris had gone to so much trouble to meet with her right here, she didn't want to head those machinations off. "Hi, welcome to the Crashdown cafe, would you like to look at a menu?" she asked in her best artifically cheerful voice, stepping close.

"No, I think that I know what I want," Meris replied very distinctly. "The galaxy burger, some fries, and a diet coke."

"Alright, I can get you that," Isabel said, and waited just a moment to see if there would be any further cue from Meris that this was more than an ordinary meal transaction. But Meris had already done what she would do with any other waitress - she had apparently stopped paying any attention to Isabel.

That same pattern more or less went through the whole meal - Meris behaved perfectly normally for an arrogant customer who saw the help as just slightly beneath her. When she finally left the table, there were two things left on the billpad.

The money to pay for her meal, plus a tip that Isabel later figured out came out to exactly nineteen percent, rounded off to the nearest cent.

And her copy of the bill, with a message printed clearly on it in blue pen. "My office. 10pm tonight. Bring as many of the 'gang' as you like. Destroy this bill once you've read it."

----------

"Why does she want us all going to her office?" Michael asked. "If she doesn't want Fisher to be able to figure out that we're connected to her..."

"Fisher isn't here anymore, Michael," Isabel rhymed off as she adjusted her black sweater, which seemed both stylish and practical for a meeting like this. "Anyway, the Metachem building will probably be nearly empty, and only one night security guy watching the door, and another on the cameras, while the others are on rounds elsewhere in the building."

"One of whom is Kyle's dad," Tess put in.

"Yeah, but the point is, she doesn't need to tell ALL of them to forget that they saw us," Max said. "But Meris didn't tell Isabel to bring everybody - just to bring who she likes. So she's probably prepared for anything from Isabel herself to a group of eight or more."

"Yeah, and I think this will be good," Isabel said, looking around. "I hope that Maria and Kyle don't feel left out, I'm not saying that I don't trust them to take care of themselves, just..."

"Actually, maybe Maria should come," Michael said after a moment. "Just - she's always got a bit of a nose for a mystery, and a good sense for when another woman is on the con. Not that I don't trust in your instincts too, Isabel, but the more common sense we've got the better, right?"

Isabel considered. "Okay, call her. Tess?"

"Actually, could Maria take my place, and Kyle and I will be the backup plan?" Tess suggested. "I never did meet Meris much, and so I'm an unknown quantity to her. We might want to keep it that way."

Isabel considered. "No, sorry, I'm keeping nothing in reserve this time. If Meris asks what skills we have to trade with, I want to be able to demonstrate... your specialty."

"Got it."

"So that makes us six?" Max asked. "Myself and Liz, Michael and Maria, and the two of you ladies?" He was speaking to Isabel and Tess.

"Sounds like quite enough," Liz said. "Miz Wheeler will have to get a lot more chairs for her office.

"Yeah," Isabel said. To herself she wondered how long Michael would stay on the phone with Maria. He gets one more minute, she decided, looking at her watch.

"And have you decided what we're asking out of Meris?" Max asked Isabel.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to go with the idea about fake info," Isabel said. "Meris may be talented at deceit and connivance, but I think I'll be able to tell if we can count on her over the long run..."

"Yeah, okay," Michael said. "She might even have good ideas about the specifics."

"Yeah," Isabel said. "Okay, this isn't immediately relevant, but I just clued in something that was missing - or somebody. Initials of K L..."

"Oh, Langley," Liz said. "We didn't tell you anything about him when you came back?"

"No, and I didn't think of asking about him, but what's the deal?" Isabel pressed. "He agreed to look after you guys if there was trouble, and I think that David Fisher qualified."

"Two things," Max said. "One, he's got some casting negotiations to participate in back in La-la land. Supposed to be one of next year's top ten films, possibly even an Oscar contender, for whatever that's worth. It was important to him, and you agreed that we wouldn't ask anything of him that would have a negative effect on his chosen career."

"Hmm." Isabel mulled over that, and started to stew. "But still..."

"Max had me talk it over with him, since anything the King hinted at might have more of an effect on Kal's mind than we bargained on," Liz put in. "He understands how important the situation is, and if we're truly in danger he'll come, for all the right reasons. But - if it's alien hunters, then Langley might be in danger himself, and the best way to avoid attracting suspicion is to keep at his usualy business just exactly as if he doesn't really know us at all, or anything about the Special Unit."

"Hmm... okay, yeah, that does make sense," Isabel said. "Well, I guess it's time to go over to Meris'. Not quite sure what we'll say to her - guess it's time to make things up as we go."

------------

"So, how did that all work out?" Alex asked Isabel as soon as she opened the door of her bedroom later that night.

*Alex!* she sent, and hurried over to hug him - actually, to sit in his lap and throw her arms around his neck, which was the closest that she could managed as he was sitting in her desk chair. "I... I don't know how much time we have together, and there are more important things," she whispered quietly enough that nobody else in the house would even be able to tell that she was speaking. "Can't you just read that out of my mind, anyway?"

"No, not now I can't," Alex answered, stretching his own hands around her middle, and Isabel realized that to Alex, this was just as important as more lovey-dovey talk and activities. Maybe he had a point - there was a time and a place for reaffirming their love, but with so little time in contact, they did need to stay in touch with other parts of... of her life, at least. "Since Ceeta. If your thoughts have clear words in them, or strong sense impressions, I can pick those up like always, and if I'm lurking inside your head instead of in my own ghostly body, then I can share whatever you're seeing and hearing directy. But I can't just wander through your recent memories and acquaint myself with what happened while I was looped out. Maybe that's part of the point of what happened - I'm seperated from your mind a little bit closer, so that we won't become so close that we don't know where you end and I start. Yes, I do see the appeal in that, and I know you well enough to know that you do too - but I also realize that it might be the dangerous bit."

"Yes, I do realize that too," Isabel sighed, and got up. Absently she started to take off her shirt, feeling almost as comfortable in the act as if she were really by herself and not with her beloved. *Coles notes for now, okay? Meris Wheeler has agreed to act as a mole or a secret asset in Brian Waverley's secret Special Unit cell - giving them an account of finding and trying to capture an alien Healer in Roswell that will distract them from the four of us, and from Liz. She's also going to gather information on their defenses, the location of the alien gear that Waverley has been using, and anything else that might help with the last step of my plan.*

"Right." Alex got up, stepped close to Isabel, clutched her bared chest to him, and leaned over the edge of Isabel's bed - both of them bounced together on the mattress, as Isabel started to pull Alex's ghostly shirt from his shoulders. (That was more fun than simply wishing it away, most of the time.) "But she's going to want something in exchange, right?"

"Yes," Isabel muttered back quietly. "She wanted fresh blood, but none of us were really particularly inclined to let her get away with that - so on the samples side, Max talked her down to a fresh skin scraping. Liz thought that was unlikely to be used against us in any significant way. If they can make some real use of it, I guess that they're welcome to. And... and Tess and I have agreed to lend our special skills to her for one particular undertaking, involving another company, that has a bioresearch breakthrough, well..."

At this point, Isabel sort of had to break off explaining, because the amorous activities that the two of them were taking up too much breath and concentration. What surprised her more, really, was that she did once attempt to put the metaphorical brakes on sex in order to concentrate on conversation, and Alex would have none of that. He'd been the one to ask in the first place, after all, and she didn't normally think of him as the more insistent and urgent lover, during their romantic trysts. Not that she was complaining, or particularly needed an explanation for that behaviour of his. It was just hard not to notice the break in the pattern. (With a living boy, there were certain points beyond which stopping was very undesirable, she knew, and to a somewhat lesser extent with women. Did any of the same sort of thing apply to ghost-boy?)

In the afterwards, as they held each other tight, and after the panting was pretty much over, Alex spoke up. "So you're agreeing to work on a corporate espionage job?"

"Yeah... I'm not wild about it, but since we're up against the Special Unit, I don't want to scruple too much at something that's pretty much a gray area. Meris was able to put together a reasonably convincing argument that this is for the greater good... a narrow range cancer cure cocktail that Metachem has been working on for a few years, but this smaller laboratory in Albuquerque has raced them to one specific compound that they'll need for the full cure, and is going to be able to assemble a patent application first."

"Ahh, I see," Alex said. "Well, yeah, that doesn't seem so bad I suppose. I guess she won't want you to steal a copy of the information, just sabotage their records, so that Metachem can catch up."

"Yeah, squash a bottom-feeder that isn't really trying to contribute anything useful, just suck some money from a bigger company through a settlement and the threat of infringement lawsuits." Isabel sighed. "I suspect that there's probably a lot of this cloak and dagger stuff going on anyway, and I don't really mind putting my talents into the mix, as long as I can do it safely."

"Right. But with the timing - Meris doesn't expect you guys to do this for her before the Special Unit is dealt with?"

"Umm, we're not quite sure how the time factor is going to play out," Isabel admitted. "Might have to be flexible."

"Of all the horrible fates," Alex drawled. Isabel whipped her pillow around and thumped him.

-----------

The next few days stretched into a week without any great drama or crisis. Isabel went back to work at the Crashdown, generally doing the eight to three shift while Liz, Maria, and Michael were in school, four days a week, and also started volunteering at the local food bank again, as they began to prepare for their annual Thanksgiving turkey drive.

Settling her time with Alex into a regular schedule was also something that worked itself out after time - she found that he would be there when she woke up, spend time with her as she prepared for the day and had breakfast, and then disappeared, to only return as the evenings were drawing late. It was as if he were alive, but had a twelve-hour-a-day job that he absolutely needed to go to all the time. Isabel found it fairly easy to accept that, and cherished the time that she got to spend with him all the more, realizing that things could indeed be much worse.

Meris' part of the plan also seemed to go well, from the reports that she was able to send back to the gang without being noticed. Isabel started to get a bit worried at a meta-paranoid level -- if Brian Waverley were the kind of guy who would rise to a level of at least local leadership in the Special Unit, avoid all the 'accidents' that Nasedo had arranged when he stepped into the leadership wearing Daniel Pierce's face, and then disappear with a squad into a forgotten military base rather than accept Congress' decision to disband the unit, (which was what he had apparently done,) then he had to be quite paranoid himself, and therefore he should have taken measures to be sure beyond doubt of Meris Wheeler's trustworthyness before accepting her intel or allowing her access to her personnel. As far as Meris could tell, only the most cursory checks had been made on her in this way. Was Isabel wrong about her conclusions, or had Meris missed the signs? Or... or was the great trial yet to come?

Isabel did watch out for signs of any 'big surprise' that Michael might be preparing for Maria, but didn't see anything there herself. Either what Michael was planning, he didn't want to let her know about or find out about... or he'd forgotten about the idea entirely, possibly. Tess and Kyle were definitely spending a lot of time in each other's company, and all of the Parker and Evans parents seemed to be uneasy about how much time Max and Liz were together themselves, or how they acted around each other, but the two young lovers made sure to not neglect anything that their parents might use to object to the pairing - they took to studying together every evening at one house or the other, and even traded off household chores somewhat so that even in that time they could be together.

And every time Isabel went up to the pod chamber to check for messages, there was only an ominous silence from the stars beyond.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chrisken]

Part Thirty-five

Isabel was just walking out of the Crashdown's side door when Tess fell into step beside her. "It's time. You and me, hybrid sister. Road trip up to Colorado."

Isabel blinked and boggled, her legs still automatically walking her. "Huh? Well, where are we..." Just at that point, she walked into her car and bounced off it. "Huhnh? Tess, what the hell?"

"Hey, it's not my fault if you can't walk and talk at the same time. This is serious, better up your game Miz Evans." Despite the playful words, Tess' half-smile was somehow all business.

"For a road trip?"

"Wheeler called in. She's just leaving a tour of the Special Unit's headquarters near Trinidad, and she thinks that this evening will be a perfect time to get in and grab the gear we need. Most of the brass is going with her to meet Mister Wheeler, and half of the troops are getting leave in town. The whole place will be running on a skeleton watch."

"Umm..." Isabel's brain was still humming in an attempt to absorb all of this, sending out dozens of questions that she couldn't manage to express out loud. Had she known that Meris was going to a visit on Brian Waverley's home ground this soon? Wasn't Trinidad, Colorado a bit too obvious and well-travelled a spot to put a secret hideout? (She remembered her parents driving through there on the way to a vacation with some Aunt and Uncle.) Why would it just be the two of them? One question made it out??

"How do you know? Did Meris contact you direct?"

"Of course not," Tess exclaimed. "You guys haven't given me the passwords for that super-secret email account. Max checked it from work, I think, and called around. I was the only one who could pick up - everyone else has to work until late tonight. So Max said to wait until you were off-shift, this was just ten minutes ago, and take off."

Isabel considered this. It did make sense that Liz, Michael, and Maria would be working late at the Crashdown tonight, and Max had said something about a fall 'tour of the paranormal' making things hectic at his own job. She wasn't so clear on Kyle's work schedule, but... "I hope you don't mind if I just pop in and try to grab a word with my brother before we leave."

Tess seemed to be struggling with her temper for about a second, and then spent another two choosing her words. "If you feel that you must. Try and make it quick though."

As it happened, Max had placed himself near to the door of the labyrinthine museum, counting out tickets or something like that, so it was very easy for Isabel to confirm the details with him. "I thought that you would be able to rein Tess in and make sure she doesn't take too many risks," he muttered quietly. "But the timing is important. If you leave now, you should get to the base just around night, and apparently that's the window of best opportunity, between eight and midnight tonight. Case the area, then make the call on if you go in or wait for another chance." He laughed a bit dryly, perhaps guessing what call Isabel was inclined to make. "The four of us, or five if Kyle wants to come... we'll be following as soon as we can, but we'll probably only be getting there as things are finishing up, in the best case."

"Okay, wish me luck," Isabel said, hugging her brother impulsively. "Do the cavalry in the nick of time as well as you can."

"Yeah, we'll try," Max agreed. "Tess has all the intel that Meris sent along, and it's a bundle. You can probably check for updates while you're on the road too."

"Okay, good," Isabel said, and hurried back across to the Crashdown parking lot. Tess was holding a box that she must have taken out of her blue SUV and waiting for Isabel at the new car.

"Emergency raid supplies," Tess said, in reference to the box. "I think that you've got another one, we've both been preparing for this day for a while." That much was true. "I figured that your wheels are a bit more low-profile than mine."

"Sure, yeah," Isabel said, opening up the car and then tossing the keys into Tess' box. "You drive 'em. I've got studying to do."

Tess silently passed over a combination digital assistant/cell phone, (that Max had bought before Isabel went to Ceeta, on Alex's recommendation,) over to Isabel, and got behind the steering wheel.

-------------

Neither of the girls said much all the way up through Vaughn, which was probably the most familiar of the roads that they would be taking on this particular trip. From Vaughn, Isabel was more familiar with the west route, which tended into Albuquerque and had a branch shortcut to Santa Fe, than the northeast road towards Las Vegas, New Mexico, and on up into Colorado.

"From what Meris is saying here," Isabel finally decided out loud, "it sounds like the 'skeleton watch' is made up of seven men, including the Lieutenant in charge. Well armed with guns and a few weapons that were apparently adapted from alien tech, which Meris hasn't been able to find anything concrete about yet." Looked over at her. "You still eager to do this thing?"

"Seven is much better than the full complement of the base, which is what, twenty-five to thirty?" Tess asked, and I nodded. "Since we want the psychic transference device, either we'll have to go in or we'll need to find some way of persuading them to bring it out, and frankly I like our chances better going in." She sighed. "But yeah, if we have to go up against all seven, especially if it's all at once, I'll be hesitating. But that base isn't small, and they'll probably be spread out. We should be able to take them out, one at a time..."

"Until one of them manages to sound the alarm," Isabel pointed out reluctantly.

"Yeah. Well, even that won't be the end of the caper. They DON'T have a full video surveillance setup, if we can believe what Wheeler reports on that score. Too worried that somebody else would be able to turn it against them. That much matches Eagle Rock."

Isabel shuddered at the casual reference to the base where Max had been put into the White room. "I almost wish we could have, but yeah, it is a bit of a consolation that they won't be able to find us immediately when the alarm is sounded."

"If the alarm is sounded," Tess said. "It might not be, though you're probably right if you think that we can't count on that much. So what else do we have in our bag of tricks? Your specialty won't be terribly much good - I don't think that going into anybody's dreams will be a help this time."

"No," Isabel admitted. "I've been working on a few things, since Ceeta, though. Shooting rapid-fire bursts of low-intensity energy - they'll only stun anybody that they hit, but that should be all we need in most situations."

"Yeah, not bad," Isabel admitted. "Being non-lethal is probably still considered an advantage, even with nutcases like these."

"As long as they're not coming after us at home," Isabel agreed. "What about... your mindwarp? I... I get the impression that you've been practicing that too."

"Yeah," Tess agreed, taking a deep breath. "Going for longer durations, more people affected, keeping the warp up while moving... but unfortunately, all three at once doesn't seem to be the ticket."

"Doesn't surprise me too much," Isabel said. "But even making one man see what we want him to see for a second could mean the difference. Don't strain the warp for too long if there's any other way of dealing with a particular situation. You'd tire yourself out that way."

"I can set 'em up, with the mind warp, make them see something that gets them out from behind cover and standing in one place," Tess suggested. "Then you knock 'em out with the energy bursts."

"Sounds good," Isabel agreed. "We should probably work out as many signals as we can during the trip - both hand signals and whisper keywords. We'll need to communicate clearly, without being overheard."

"Yeah, a mental link would help with that, if you can manage it," Tess suggested.

But Isabel shook her head. "I can stay in touch with your subconscious mind while we're in there, but that's not great for this. I'd get too much stuff that's background, that's not relevant to what's really going on, and anything I tell you that way, it might take too long for you to actually twig to the factoid. That's what I was dealing with when I was trying to warn Max, after the Summit... I mean, well, there was the distance factor, which I assume was making it harder just to keep the line open, but mainly... no matter what I said to him, he wasn't paying attention to it... oh." I suddenly realized what I'd almost said to Tess.

"Until you put Liz in the back of his mind, and he saw her right away." Tess chuckled darkly. "Yeah, it's probably a good thing that I'm mostly over the Max obsession now, or that reminder would bug me a lot more." Pause for sigh. "And then, well, there's the complication - if you HADN'T been able to warn Max with that trick, then he'd have been squished, and I'm not quite sure what Lonnie and Rath would have done once they were done with me. Probably killed me, or maybe offered me up to Nicholas to see if I was worth anything as a live prisoner, even after the way the Summit went."

"Oh, come on," Isabel countered. "I mean, I don't want to be especially cynical, but they didn't just scram because they heard Max coming, did they? You were able to turn the tables on the terrible twosome and fight them off all by yourself."

"Well, yeah," Tess admitted. "But then, I knew I had someone to fight for. That was giving me an edge. If I'd just seen Max die, I don't think I could have managed it."

"Alright." Isabel sighed, and tried to trace her path back to the original conversation. "So, no dreamwalk line open between us this time."

"Yeah, okay," Tess said. "If it's okay with you, I can try keeping an open line to your mind with the mindwarp sense, not affecting you, just being aware of what you're seeing and hearing. I can sometimes get a very faint hint of what somebody is thinking with that, too."

Isabel considered the proposition. "That doesn't tire you out nearly as much as an active mindwarp?" Tess shook her head. "Okay, we'll give it a try if it seems worthwhile... if we have to split up and be out of sight of each other. Doesn't seem worthwhile if we're close enough to use hand signals."

"Okay, alright," Tess agreed. "How many signals do you suppose we'll need?"

"Hmm." Isabel started thinking of desperate situations that she'd been in since starting to learn about the secrets of her alien side, and anything she'd ever needed to convey to someone else in such a time. After a moment she pulled a fresh sheet of paper and a pen out of the glove compartment, and one of her old history texts from the back seat, and started to write out a list.

-----------

They were pulled over by a highway patrollman in the half-mile before the state line, which Isabel realized was something that could have been a seriously thorny event a few years earlier. Now, though, both girls had drivers' licenses which showed them to be over eighteen, and after a very casual look around the front seat of the car, the officer let them carry on. He didn't even pay any attention to the box and old dishpan full of rather unusual gear that was stowed in the backseat.

Having made fairly good time to Colorado, Isabel and Tess agreed to stop for some spicy drive-through Mexican in Trinidad, stretched a bit, and continued along the back roads towards the perimeter of the base grounds as Meris had sent directions. From the edge, they couldn't see much, just a bunch of trees behind a fence that read 'FEDERAL PROPERTY - trespassers will be persecuted.' "I'm almost glad they don't limit their persecution to aliens," Tess said, snickering, after she read that.

"Not a bad warning," Isabel commented. "Some people might think that they mean prosecuted, as in the law, but I doubt that the Special Unit are going to call in the local law for trespassers - unless they're VERY sure that the offenders are harmless."

"Which we're not," Tess said, with a slightly eager smile. "So what now?"

Isabel looked one way and another down the road. "Park on the shoulder for a little while, on the side AWAY from the fence, and finish our food. Then we can make a circuit of the fence and see if there's anything to see."

"Alright," Tess said, reaching for another tidbit. It wasn't hard to hear the impatience in her voice, but Isabel considered herself as the leader of this expedition, and they had time remaining even until darkness fell, never mind the midnight deadline. Max had said to 'case the area', and she intended to do just that, in as thorough detail as she could. She didn't want to move ahead into dangerous ground if there was any way she could prepare from a vantage of greater safety.

It was too bad that they hadn't had much luck with using alien powers to observe or sense danger at a distance, with the minor exception of items that were broadcasting coherent radio signals or something else that had a long range.

The sun had set and twilight was closing in by the time they had finished Isabel's 'circuit.' The fence enclosed something like three quarters of a square mile of rocky scrub and forest, with a hill near the center of it noticeable from some vantage points - not as high or impressive as the Pod Chamber Peak, just for example, but one of the most noticeable characteristics of the terrain. Isabel wondered vaguely if the actual base might be tunnelled under the hilltop. Meris' information on that score had been somewhat vague - she had included info on how to reach 'the front door' and the relative layout of the parts of the complex she had visited, but the dispatch had obviously been hurried and therefore was skimpy on contextual clues. Frustrated, Isabel wondered about sending an email back asking for further details, but a look at the available key entry area on the phone made her rethink the plan. Too bad she hadn't packed one of those folding keyboards that could be hooked up to the little device.

There were three gates where a road passed through the fence, all locked up tight, and equipped with cameras, which had motivated Isabel to not approach them directly and detour around the access roads. Isabel was able to sort out which one was on Meris' route to the front door, so on that basis, she labelled them the front gate, back gate, and side gate. "Okay, what now?" she asked Tess, curious what the other girl would come out with.

"First, since Wheeler said that she was leaving to fly home in an email she sent nearly two hours ago, I think that we can call her without worrying too much about the Special Unit guys finding out," Tess suggested. "I've been looking for anything that could tap into a cell phone signal from here, and I haven't found anything."

"Did she say that she was going home?" Isabel looked for that passage. "I thought that she said she was leaving to catch the flight, but didn't comment on where she was going." She found it. "Oh, right, the thing with Clayton. THAT home, not the place she keeps in Roswell." Tess nodded. "But we know that she invited Waverley and some of the other officers to meet him. Maybe they're close enough that she can't talk, that we shouldn't even be talking to her?"

"Oh, right, damn," Tess muttered. "Sorry, I really should have thought that through a bit more."

"No, it's okay," Isabel said, though she felt obscurely pleased at Tess' minor flub and more determined to be cautious. "What else?"

"Well, we've learned about as much as we can from here, and we can't go in on the roads through the gates," Tess reasoned. "So we make our way through the fence, the quick way, and look for a place to hide that's within what looks like a safe escape range. See if we can spot any outside guards without them spotting us. One good thing about all those trees, is that they can hide more than a base."

"Okay," Isabel said and thought about that. "But I've got a thought about this fence - but let's go first."

"Go where?" Tess asked.

"The obvious place."

-----------

The side of the fenced-in territory that didn't have a road leading into it wasn't flush with a road shoulder, like the front gate side - instead, that fence was just an arbitrary line through scrubland dotted with trees. Together, Isabel and Tess managed to find an unlikely looking 'path' - really a twisting route through the uneven ground that was more or less just flat enough to drive on without endangering tires or other vital parts of a car - and backed Isabel's car up along this route carefully, so as to be able to make a quick getaway if they needed to. When they were done, Isabel parked the car, within twenty feet of the fence, got out and went to examine it, looking carefully for more cameras anywhere along this stretch of the fence, but she didn't find any. There was one audio pickup far enough away to be of some little use, she judged, and something else that was both trickier and more basic.

'Power lines', she signalled to Tess using the hand signs that they had sorted out before. It wasn't quite what she would have conveyed, and she was tempted to whisper, but fought the urge for the moment. There were indeed wires running through the fence at particular levels, carrying electric current with them. Somehow she was certain that any interruption in that current would set off alarms in the base - another kind of a circuit. And she wasn't ready to let anyone know that they might be coming.

Tess nodded, and came closer to the fence to examine the wires herself. There were two of them in this section of the fence, one that came up to about mid-thigh on the petite hybrid girl, and another that was more like mid-torso. The most obvious answer was to leave the wires undisturbed, and try to climb through the fence without disturbing. Going above the high wire would be quite an impressive jump, but maybe they could manage it with a boost from their powers. Going between the two wires would be a manageable fit, but require very awkward contortions to balance. And then...

Tess looked back at Isabel meaningfully, and gestured at the area below the lower wire. Isabel considered, and nodded. They'd have to crawl nearly on their bellies to get underneath that, but it seemed like the best shot - practical AND rather unlikely to be noticed. So Tess waved at the fence and severed the links and silently led the way, her butt flexing noticeably in tight black jeans as she squirmed. (Isabel wasn't that interested in the sight, but suspected that Kyle would disagree, and even Max and Michael might have stared a moment too long.) That thought reminded Isabel of Alex, and she looked around vainly for her ghost boy, before scrambling underneath the fence herself, and following Tess.

A few minutes, both girls were perching carefully on branches about ten feet up the same piney tree trunk, and about six hundred feet away from the fence. It only took less than another minute after Isabel had claimed her perch before there were footstep sounds approaching - a tall, handsome but hard-looking man in green camoflage fatigues. Would he notice the hole in the fence, or even spot the girls himself? Isabel readied her stun blast and tried not to focus too much of her attention on the big M-16-ish looking gun that the soldier was holding.

He stopped on a footpath not far from the tree and looked around, a somewhat concerned look on his face, but didn't turn his head up or head closer to the fence. From this area, the section of fence that Tess had cut away was hidden from view by some waist-high bushes, which was good, as long as they'd be able to find the spot again later on their way out. The car, also, was very hard to spot unless you knew where to look.

That was the closest that Isabel and Tess came to being caught in the piney tree, although they waited there for nearly twenty minutes more. By that time, they had seen guards routinely pass through the open clearing between them and the hill; three guards who always appeared in the same order, and with more or less the same amount of time in between. Tess started to make a proposal in gestures - waiting, then running, and she pointed toward the top of the hill. They hadn't seen any of those guards disturbing the trees there... did that mean it wa safe? Could there be someone else waiting under cover there? No, it seemed like a poor application of manpower. Could there be mechanical safeguards at the peak? Was it possible that spot was the true entrance to the base?? An elevator? Wouldn't that be less defensible than a regular door?

Isabel hesitated, looked around for Alex's help once more, checked everything that she was carrying - realized that the cell phone was set to ring and turned all of the profile settings to vibrate-low or silent, and then nodded her agreement to Tess. Leading the way, Isabel crept closer to the patrol route so that they would be as near to the hill as possible when guard number two next passed by, without any worry of getting caught no matter what variation of his route he took. Actually - that was it - each of the three guards took a slightly different path as well. Two was the furthest out... and their chances of pulling this off would be best if they waited for three to pass first. She signalled a 'wait' to Tess, not worrying about explaining at this point.

They got halfway up the hill before realizing that any further climbing would be dangerous in terms of making a sound, because there was lots of loose earth and rocks closer to the peak. But Isabel knew that they had managed to get well inside the patrol routes, and travelling around the hill on this level, they should be able to spot their entrances to the base complex itself. Soon she could tell that they were indeed above a tunnel complex, and had spotted two possible entrances - one of which was the front door that Meris Wheeler had told them about, a steel doorway with a small electronic control panel next to it.

All that she could tell of the other entrance was the concrete tunnel opening, next to a makeshift parking lot. The back-gate and side-gate roads met together at this small gravel field, as far as Isabel could tell, and she thought that it was more promising than trying the front way in, even if there was really nothing more than a gut feeling telling her so. That hole in the earth didn't seem rationally inviting, but Tess didn't mind following Isabel's lead down in that direction - not after a 'wait' signal to let another sentry pass by. (Isabel hadn't really been about to go down until the way was clear herself. Seriously.)

-----------

Neither of them liked entering the tunnel, but this time Tess led the way, probably because she realized that waiting around until the next guard came around wouldn't be much good either. Inside the fluorescent glow of a single green pipe or conduit down the ceiling managed to provide just enough illumination to see by, and the color managed to make Isabel feel ill. Just how did they manage to make it radiate in that pukey shade, she wondered. Was that some obscure technique that had been refined from the crashed ship?

It was when Isabel could no longer make out the tunnel opening behind her clearly, or any details about the other end in front of the two girls, that the sound of footsteps came. Of course. Isabel wasted two seconds looking around her for somewhere to hide, (foolishness!) and considered readying her stun blasts... but this was not the place to leave fallen soldiers, or a spot from which it would be easy to carry them. So...

She pointed at Tess, a signal so basic it hadn't been on the list that they'd agreed on, and crept cautiously about six feet down the tunnel before lying down against the side wall, trying to become as small and out of the way as she possibly could. A few stray air currents, and confidence in her solution, told her that Tess was also lying down in a similar position, closer to where they had both been when hearing the sound. And then the waiting started.

There was nothing else you could have done, Isabel told herself silently. We needed Tess' mindwarp power to keep whoever it was from seeing us, but that wouldn't do much good if they bump into either of us. Now, that's unlikely, but still not impossible, depending on what part of the tunnel they walk through. If there was a bump... well, Isabel wasn't quite sure how that would work out. She'd have to jump up and start blasting at anything that wasn't Tess, knowing that Tess would keep the mindwarp up as long as she could, so that none of the soldiers realized what was happening, and also fight back if she could. They'd be able to win the moment, she felt sure, but the numerous questions of alarms, noise, unconscious bodies, and so on would make further progress very difficult and hazardous.

The footsteps were getting faint again before Isabel actually realized that they had passed by without any hint of a problem. More waiting, until there was no trace of sound other than a faint machine hum and very faint birdsong, before Isabel was willing to get up. Tess followed her, and in the dim green light, signalled 'defense weak, must rest.'

Isabel nodded, grateful that Tess' powers had done as well as they had, and pointed forward. If they could find a place to rest in the base itself, Tess could recharge her mental strength. There would be no respite here, after all.

------------

At the other end of the tunnel was a set of double doors with a double deadbolt lock - nothing that difficult - Isabel didn't find any particular difficulty opening both parts of the lock with one hand, and checked for a security system. There was an alarm panel just inside the door, and again, her powers were able to trick it into generating a valid code and not logging the opening of the door without any trouble. She almost started to wonder if there was some trick to all this - she'd have expected more from even a small and unimportant Special Unit base. Eagle Rock had certainly been much harder to sneak into, with the depleted Uranium bolts and the x-ray scanners and what all.

Just down the hall, Tess pointed out a utility closet with the door ajar - the two girls crowded inside, closed the door, and Isabel waited and stood watch as Tess rested her mind. Would somebody notice that the door was now closed, instead of slightly open? Did they have some sensor system that Meris hadn't been able to warn them about? And if not... since they hadn't gone in the same way as Meris had, which way should they go now? Try to find the part of the base that she had been able to map, or simply cut across the back of the base to look for the storage galleries themselves?

After maybe three or four minutes, Tess opened her eyes, (blinking slightly at even the dim light of a forty-watt bulb, if that, in the closet,) and pointed at herself. Isabel paused in uncertainty for a moment, and then nodded, not quite sure what Tess was saying about herself, but willing to follow the other girl's lead at that moment. Tess proceeded to bend down close to the floor, considering her shoes and Isabel's, and then straightened up again, apparently well satisfied. Isabel thought about that for a moment, and then clued in - they were both wearing sneakers, which would actually be good for sneaky stuff. If the shoes had been prone to any kind of loudness, Tess would probably have insisted on slipping them off.

She then led the way back out of the closet, slowly, and further down the corridor. Isabel followed, making as little noise through her movements and her breathing as she could - this was obviously important for two different reasons. First off, obviously, they didn't want any of the guards to be able to hear them. Secondly, their best defense against being discovered visually and/or practically was in knowing when a guard was coming before he was there, and that depended on being able to hear him coming.

Tess led them in exploring the base for a little while at this slow pace - not having any particular plan in mind, Isabel thought, and modifying her movements more than once based on faintly-heard sounds elsewhere in the complex, and the desire to stay well away from such. But she didn't allow them to stay stuck in territory that they'd already explored once, and when Isabel realized that they'd come upon a corridor that she recognized from Meris' description of her visit to the base, Tess turned around and headed off to another turning that they'd passed by a minute or so before.

The first bit of real excitement happened at around the point where Isabel was no longer sure for how long they'd been wandering, though she suspected it might be in the twenty minutes to half an hour range. A patrolling indoor guard coming up nearby forced them to scurry down a side corridor and into an unoccupied office, and then the soldier followed them in. Isabel wasn't sure why - if he had heard them or not. Tess made a face at Isabel as the door opened, and on impulse, Isabel let loose with her long-restrained energy weapon. The staccato pulses of energy shot into the guard's body like an ellipsis of light, and he keeled over very quietly and calmly. Tess nodded at that with approval, considered the weaponry and gear that the man had been carrying, and then pointed to Isabel, the fallen body, and a desk that seemed to have enough room to shove him underneath without being seen.

In the quiet of this office, Isabel decided to risk whispering a few words, as quietly as she possibly could. "Somebody might notice him missing. We need to hurry. My turn."

Tess look at her questioningly, but didn't say anything. Isabel understood, though, or thought she did, and nodded. Tess hadn't realized that Isabel had a notion of where to go at this point to find what they were looking for. If the base was organized along the sort of functional lines that she vaguely remembered from Eagle Rock, that was...

The first warehouse section was more or less where Isabel had expected, but Tess had to use her mindwarp to create a diversion for them to get there, and it was just ammunition, bottled water, and canned rations stored there. Right down the hallway, they found another large storage area with no trouble, but voices were starting to rise in consternation in the distance, and this one seemed to hold office-type supplies, uniforms, bedding, and other necessities for keeping personnel housed in barracks.

Isabel was just about to lead the way back out when she heard a voice coming closer, and her skin started to crawl. Was the whole population of the base going to come charging in on them? Tess grabbed her arm and led her behind a set of shelves full of paper, and the two girls waited, bracing themselves for the attack that would come. But nobody came inside, and eventually all but the most distant of noises went away.

Third time had to be the charm, and Isabel wasn't even sure where the third warehouse section would be from here. As she led the way back out into the corridor, it was clear that there was no other door on this particular stretch of corridor, and the hallway ended in a T-junction with two possible ways to go. On an impulse, Isabel chose the way that seemed to lead further into the 'depths' of the base, though that was possibly a faulty assumption as the thing was based in a circular hill. First door on the left, a lavatory. It seemed odd to have one in a government installation that wasn't clearly labelled with the usual men's icon. (Or a woman's for that matter. She didn't know if there were any females on Brian Waverley's team or if this was a male-only sanctuary.) Second door, on the right, a living quarters with three two-level bunk beds, all apparently empty except for one where a man was snoozing, wearing something less than a full uniform, but still full-length pants and an undershirt thing above the waist.

Isabel recoiled out of that room so vehemently that she nearly slammed the door, but that could have been disaster. Tess took the lead this time, hurrying her towards the T-junction and past it, along on to the other branch. The first doorway in this direction led to a staircase, going downward. The two girls shared a look.

Well, why not, Isabel thought to herself. All of the base that they had explored so far had been on one level, with no sign of lifts or stairs - though there had been many doorways that they hadn't looked behind. But why wouldn't they store their deepest secrets in a basement? Isabel tried to push ahead, but Tess insisted on remaining in the lead silently, and Isabel didn't want to make too much of a deal with it. Down the first switch of stairs, Tess peeked around the corner and... WICH!

Isabel reflexively lashed out with her powers, and Tess may have exerted hers, too. Something flew past and buried its head in the far wall - something long and sort of arrow-like. Tess froze for a second, lost her balance, resumed it, and then waved a hand frantically, as if testing. "Okay, I guess that one was it," she gasped out loud.

"That one what?"

"It's a crossbow I think," she said, pointing down the stairs, though Isabel couldn't get more than a general direction from that. "Rigged up to a motion detector or something."

"Oooh." Isabel quickly hurried past, trying to be on the lookout for other booby-traps as well. "Something like that might set off a warning alarm elsewhere in the base, too. Why would they have set it up like that? Can it be disarmed from the right station, do you think, or would Waverley have to trip the trap if he wanted to come down here himself?"

"Isabel?"

"Yeah?"

"Just because we can probably talk here doesn't mean you have to ramble."

"Oh - okay."

Isabel used her powers to create better light, (making her own palm glow softly,) as they reached the bottom of the stairs, because the light here wasn't good. Tess' guess about the crossbow and the motion-detector seemed to be on target - the weapon seemed to be capable of being loaded with three different arrows, (or bolts, or whatever you called them,) but none were loaded at the moment, so presumably it had been left with only one armed. And the door was pretty formidable, with a big metal wheel, and a red display with different patterns of lights showing up on a twelve by twelve grid. "Do you think it's depleted uranium?" Isabel asked, getting a sinking feeling.

"I don't know, only one way to tell," Tess admitted. Concentrating on the display, she waved her hand over it, and the pattern sped up. Gradually certain parts of the image started to steady into a particular geometric pattern. Finally satisfied, Tess nodded to Isabel, who started to spin the heavy wheel around. The door finally creaked open on a very small storage room, lit by buzzing blue arc light fixtures - and Alex, who was leaning against a wall.

"Took you long enough to get in here!" he teased Isabel, who was so startled to see him that she nearly burst out into nervous giggles. But she managed just enough self control to not make a sound, or pantomime kissing him as she would usually do, though she sent as fierce a stream of affectionate emotion at him as she could manage on a moment's notice, as Tess hurried into the vault, and then Isabel slipped inside as well, pulling the door closed after both of them.

"Alex is with us," Isabel managed to mutter for Tess' benefit, and then slipped naturally into silent communication with him. *How long have you been in here?*

"Just a minute or so, since you got to the stairs I think," he said. "Must have naturally manifested in here because it was where all of your attention was focused, even if you didn't realize it. And, on that basis... this is part of what you want. I just know it."

"Yes, I agree," Isabel agreed out loud, looking down at the item that Alex had indicated with a wave and a kick of his ghostly foot. Colors were hard to judge in this blue light, but it seemed somewhat reddish or purplish, with a metallic luster to its surface, and the shape of it... Isabel realized that Langley had tried to explain this shape to her, and she hadn't quite been able to picture it. At the top of it, five triangular faces met at a single point, forming a flattened five-sided pyramid, and below that, there were more triangular faces, making a double band around the side of the thing - some triangles pointing down, touching the ones on the top pyramid, and others pointing up, below the ones pointing down and between them. The way they were arranged, all the edges were the same length, and other shallow pyramids were formed at offset angles, each made up of two trangles on the top pyramid, two on the upper band, and one on the lower band. Intuitively, Isabel realized that the pattern could have continued on to a final pyramid on the bottom, except that Langley had mentioned something about that. "An icosahedron, a twenty-sided solid, except that the bottom is flattened out, right?" she said to Alex.

"Twenty-sided die," Alex said. "That's what I remember it as, from my dungeons and dragons days, long ago. I don't think that the bottom is flat, though?"

"No?" Isabel picked the artifact up, wondering if she'd misremembered Langley. It was possible that the bottom pyramid was nestling into a hole in the floor that had been made with a five-sided pattern - but no, there was no protrusion on the bottom. The alien artifact was bulky, more than a foot across, but not that heavy. Isabel managed to balance it against her left hand and arm enough to touch the 'flattened' spot - and her hand sank into where she had expected a flat expanse. That triggered the memory. "The bottom pyramid, it wasn't flattened, but reversed, so that it poked into the interior as a shallow concavity, instead of pointing out."

"Yep," Alex agreed, smiling. "What else do we need? This wasn't it?"

"There's a collection of attachments," Isabel agreed, questing around. Tess immediately picked up a sort of flexible plastic bag, see-through, with no obvious opening in it. That, too, Langley had described to them, and the items inside the bag seemed to be the correct ones as well. "That's all we need to take out of here, but... is all the rest of this from the ship? Do we want Waverley to keep it all?"

"Not that," Tess said, pointing over at a collection of gear surrounding a simple wooden chair, including a helmet inscribed with alien symbols, a shirt covered with electrical contacts, and big colorful diodes. "I think it looks like something he might have used to break into your dreams, don't you?"

"Yes," Isabel said, and immediately focused her powers, dispersing the shirt into a cloud of dust and iron filings, melting the diodes, and twisting the helmet so that it wouldn't fit onto the head of any creature that ever lived on Earth. "What else?" All of a sudden they heard a lot of boots hurrying down the stairs. "Crap."

"Did I hear something about a crossbow out there?" Alex asked, his eyes alight with pure mischief.

"Yes!" Tess exclaimed. "Let them get as close as you can before arming and aiming it." Alex must have been speaking aloud for her to hear him.

"My thoughts exactly," Alex said, and walked straight through the vault door. "Get ready to move when I give the word." Isabel concentrated on working the door controls from inside, as Tess busied herself with the items still in storage here. Isabel heard at least one soft twang, possibly more - and gunfire ricocheting off the vault door, not getting inside. "Okay, anytime now, but be careful," Alex warned. "I didn't get 'em all, pretty obviously, and if they're spooked, they don't really show it."

Yeah, that's really helpful, Isabel thought to herself. So what now? She got the door latches open, pushed it open just a crack, and then dodged out to the security of another part of the vault wall. Tess picked up on the hint and pushed the door wide with her powers. A truly startling amount of gunfire poured in, and Isabel stiffened in fright, wondering if it was possible for a ricochet to kill one of them even as they hid behind cover. But no - the far side of the vault didn't seem to be walled off with the same metallic surface, it was something a bit more like wood, that was absorbing the bullets - after they tore any alien artifacts in their way to pieces.

Except one little alien device didn't seem to be so easily destroyed. With a loud buzzing whine, it shot out the door to confront its attackers and erupted into a blinding flash of light. Realizing that she had an opening, Isabel waited until the light faded just enough that she could handle it, and stunned four gunmen into submission - including at one that already had two crossbow bolts in him, just for added peace of mind.

"Run for it?" Tess asked.

"Seven people known to be on the base, one in the office, four here," Isabel counted off. "Two left. We move, but not run. Careful and quick." Tess nodded her acceptance. Tess made sure she still had the bag, and Isabel hefted up the convexa-hedron, cradling it in both her arms, and they made their way up the stairs and out into the corridor beyond.

But they weren't quite careful enough. In the bright light just outside the stairwell door, the last of the guard had planned their trap well. A gunshot tore into Tess' chest from one side, while a spike of energy from some adapted alien ray weapon hit her from the other direction. Isabel gasped as she saw Tess, the girl who had killed her man, and who was helping her bring him back, get hit.

And then she snarled in fury. No more miss Nice hybrid girl.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chrisken]

Part Thirty-Six

Isabel's next actions were a mix of pure anger and instinct. As she stumbled to a stop next to the door from the stairwell into the corridor, still apalled at the sudden attack on Tess, she saw a soldier come into view through the slanted angle of the doorway, his rifle coming to bear. Lifting up her left hand, because her right arm was between her and the wall, Isabel let a burst of her alien energy flow forth.

Was it because she was using the left hand? She had practiced with the harmless stun bolts from her right palm. Or the explanation could be terror and burgeoning grief. In any event, the soldier was knocked back by a powerful pulse, and Isabel realized that he was either dying or suffering from serious internal injuries. On his lower chest would be a glowing silver left handprint, just in case these alien fanatics couldn't otherwise guess the nature of the attacker.

Then Isabel froze for a second, wondering what would happen next. There had to be one more Special Unit guard, firing with an alien energy weapon from the other side of the hallway. Isabel couldn't get a clear shot in that direction without going through the door or crossing to the other side of the doorway - both movements that would probably put her into the line of fire.

But what she heard next surprised her somewhat - footsteps receding in that direction. Could it be a trick? After a few seconds she felt she had to check - sure enough, all she saw, beyond Tess' fallen body, was a man's figure dashing around the next corridor intersection. It might have been her eyes playing tricks on her in the suddenly brighter light, but Isabel thought that he was at most a year or two older than her - a kid mixed up in all of this business.

Isabel cleared her throat, and when she shouted her voice didn't sound at all like a teenage girl's, or even a womans. "I've got what I came for, and then some. We're leaving now, and if you don't get in our way again... that would be a good idea for you. I'm sorry about your boss there."

Then Tess groaned weakly, and Isabel readjusted her prorities. "Are you okay?" She focused on Tess' body, trying the first aid techniques that she'd worked out with Max for just such an emergency, since she couldn't match his healing gift. Tess was losing blood both inside and outside herself, and she didn't have that much to spare - Isabel did what she could to patch the bullet wound and stop the losses. Something bad was happening to the uniquely Antarian energy flows that kept the alien side of her alive, too - along the same lines as whatever had happened to Michael in the Mesaliko sweatlodge...

"Healing stones," Isabel muttered. "I know that one of us must have packed a healing stone..."

"We don't have time," Tess muttered. "Not now. There's that kid - it'd be nice if he just let us saunter out at our own pace, but I don't really believe that's going to happen. He's calling reinforcements or gearing up to take us on himself, or maybe planning something to wake up his friends down there." She waved down the stairs, at where Isabel had stunned four more Special Unit guards. "We need to move. Do you remember how to get out of this place?"

"I think the tunnel entrance is that way," Isabel muttered, pointing back the way that the young kid had disappeared. Tess made a face. "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure I can get us to the front doors going in this direction," she said, pointing the other way. "Can you stand up?"

"Yeah, but you'd better take this," Tess said, gesturing with the plastic bag. Isabel picked it out of her grasp. "Give me a hand?" Isabel offered a helpful forearm, and Tess managed to leverage herself up. "If you're carrying the gear, I should take the lead."

"Hmm." Isabel considered this. Tess probably didn't want to embarass herself by not keeping up the pace, but... "No chance. I'm leading the way, I know where to go. Alex - rear guard?"

"Oh, you betcha," Alex said, stepping out through the door. Isabel thought that he was upset at not having been able to do more to protect 'the girls', but... "Let's get out of here."

Isabel couldn't agree with that sentiment more. Carefully arranging the large artifact and the bag of smaller attachments, she started walking away from the vault.

-----------

The reinforced steel doors blew open with a tremendous concussive suddenness. Nothing but Gandarium crystal, depleted uranium... or maybe solid diamond could have resisted the force that Isabel had put behind the charge to free herself and Tess of the base, after every lesser effort to get past the front doors on full lockdown had failed. Running out of the complex, Isabel looked around, orienting herself to the outdoors again, and turned left in the strong belief that the car would be found in that direction. Oddly, she found herself taking odd hop-skip steps on the grass, as if the grounds would be littered with covered pits and bear-traps, and being careful of her footing would protect herself against such things.

Look over her shoulder. Tess was following fairly briskly, but her color in the moonlight wasn't good. Alex wasn't in evidence, but she couldn't get too worried about that, especially when the effort of setting off the crossbow might have been enough to make him blink out early. Yes, there were the familiar trees that she remembered passing the other way. Pushing past, Isabel let loose with her powers again, carving a much bigger opening in the fence beyond the trees, since there was no reason to worry about alarms going off inside the base at this point. Maybe they would be a useful distraction. And then the car, as Isabel hurried across the perimeter of the grounds. Didn't seem to have been disturbed at all, and she didn't figure the Special Unit for planting subtle sabotages if they'd discovered it. They... they had really gotten away with it! Isabel had the soul transfer gear, the last part of the secret she needed to bring Alex back as a...

Tess staggered across what was left of the fence, and pitched forward, measuring her length in the muddy grass. She didn't get up.

Her heart sinking, Isabel hurried over to her friend and bent close. "Tess... Tess - twitch if you can hear me, or something, I don't know." There was a very slow and gradual motion of one hand. "Oh, oh god..." Using her powers for extra lift, she gathered up Tess' tiny body and brought her to the passenger seat of the car, carefully belting her in place.

"What now?" Isabel muttered to herself. It was the work of a moment to take Tess' backpack, (which she had already removed from her person,) and extracted an amber healing crystal. Would using it help? Would the effort be dangerous to Isabel herself, since she had nobody else to assist in the procedure, and her emotions were in such violent conflict? Would it be better to drive away from the base directly? Or... or just maybe...

She retrieved a cell phone, (stashed here in the car so that it wouldn't distract her in the midst of the heist or let the guards track the signal to their unauthorized visitors,) powered it back on, and immediately made a call, which was answered in just a few seconds. "Isabel - what's happening?"

It was Liz - answering Max's phone. Well, maybe that wasn't so suprising just at the moment. "We... we got the gear," she muttered. "No pursuit out of the base so far, but Tess... she got shot, she's hurt bad. I... I tried to patch up the bleeding, but she's... she's slipping away from me, Liz, and I don't know what to do. I mean, I have a few ideas, I have a healing stone here, but I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do, and..."

"Okay, calm down, Isabel," Liz said reassuringly. "We're not that far from Trinidad, we're already across the Colorado state line, so we'll meet you soon. Do you think that there's ANY danger to you in staying so close to the base?"

Isabel hesitated. "Yes, I guess - there was one guy who's still unhurt in there, and... and he might have called for reinforcements, or whatever, but Tess..."

"We'll do what we can for Tess, but it won't help her if you get killed or captured," Liz reminded her over the phone. "Drive for four minutes and pull over, okay? We'll call you back then, or you can call me again. I'll use that time to bring the guys up to speed."

Isabel took a deep breath. "Alright." And she hurried around, packed up the items that they had come so far to get, and climbed behind the wheel.

---------

Isabel didn't drive the straightest and most obvious route back to town from the base, figuring that would be the route that any Special Unit personnel would be taking to get TO their headquarters, and it didn't make sense to risk running into them on the road. So she wasn't really much closer to Trinidad by the time she pulled off the road, but at least she'd made some ground away from the compound. Her phone rang again before she could finish dialling. "Yeah, Liz?"

"It's me, sister dear," Max said. "I... I don't think it's a good idea for you to use healing stones until we're all together."

"But - but that might be too late," Isabel blurted out. "She was hit by some sort of energy weapon, it gave her balance syndrome like Michael had, last... last whenever, or the year before. She's already shivering with the fever."

"That might just be the shock of blood loss," Max said, not unkindly but with the authority of knowledge in his voice. "In any event, the risks are too great, but there's one thing that might help her last long enough for me to help her. I... I want you to try connecting to Tess, and slowing down her vital signs. Fewer breaths, sluggish heartbeat, colder body temperature. Like you're putting her in a kind of suspended animation. To..."

"To make her dying slower," Isabel breathed, seeing the point and not in any mood to sugarcoat it. "Okay, listen, there's a Tex-Mex place just on your side of Trinidad, west side of the road. Vacant lot over to the left of it, as seen from the road. How about we try to meet there?"

"Yeah," Max said. "Or the first to get there calls the other for an update." Isabel grunted an agreement. "Okay, I'll hang up and concentrate on driving now. You want Liz?"

"No, I gotta concentrate too. Tell the others I said hi." That message seemed totally inadequate to how she felt about her friends at the moment, but the effort to come up with something better was just one more thing that she couldn't deal with at the moment. "Bye."

Using a simple connection to slow Tess' metabolic responses and cushion her decline seemed to work okay, but Isabel still wasn't reassured by what she sensed. And then she was off and driving again, trying to figure out just where she'd gotten off onto the back roads.

By the time she pulled into the vacant lot, the Jeep and Kyle's car were both there already - they must have driven up all this way in convoy. As Max hurried to the passenger side door to see what he could do for Tess, Isabel looked around and did a head-count - the whole club was here, including Mister Valenti and Kal Langley - who hadn't even been in Roswell when she and Tess left, as far as she knew - had he flown in from Los Angeles?

"Oh, no," Max muttered, and Isabel's heart sank. Maria ran over and hugged Isabel encouragingly.

"Congratulations," Maria whispered. "I mean, for accomplishing the mission, even if..."

"Yeah," Isabel said, but it was still hard to focus on that. The words that she was waiting to hear took a long time to come, and then they weren't quite what she was expecting, though that was probably because she hadn't thought her expectations through.

"That's - that's about as much as I can do for her now," Max said. "We'll do the healing stones routine soon, for whatever good that will be, but not anywhere as public as this. Um - any ideas where?"

"She'll need somewhere that she can relax comfortably," Langley said, stepping up toward them. "But not a motel - any of us would be way too noticeable there, and there's the question of the blood..."

"Not too much blood that I haven't cleaned up," Max said. "I did think about that. But... but maybe it would be better to just head for home, after all. I mean... nothing much is going to change for the time it'll take to get back to Roswell, and we'll have more options back in that area."

"Yeah, I'm okay with that," Isabel said. "But we can move her into the back seat, so she can rest more comfortably."

"That might help," Max said, with an unnaturally calm face, and stepped back to the car to help Isabel with the transfer.

"I'll ride with you guys," Kyle said. "Dad, you can drive, right?"

"Certainly," Mister Valenti said, holding his hand out for the keys.

--------------

(Several days later.)

Isabel looked up from the pod chamber floor as the door began opening with that familiar soft grinding sound. There was a faint mental 'click' as the memory transfer device realized that her calm meditative trance state had been broken and stopped recording, and she ran a hand beneath her golden hair, (shorn to a few inches long once again,) to detach the alien electrode-like attachments. Bright daytime sunshine poured into the chamber to mix with the faint blue glow light, streaming around a small figure that Isabel immediately realized, but couldn't appreciate the significance of for a few seconds.

"Liz!" Isabel peered past her friend. "How did you get inside? Is Max or Michael..."

"No, just me." Liz put up her own right hand, palm pointing out. "I guess my handprint is on the key list now."

"Just out of the blue? Have you tried this before?"

"Umm, yeah - a few days after you got back from Ceeta - I wanted to look at the memory transfer gear, so Max brought me up - and he had me try it out. I... I was able to make the handprint glow the first time I made the effort, but the door didn't respond. So Max tried to use his own powers to... to 'put me on the list' - like reprogramming the lock."

"And it worked," Isabel noticed. "Cool I guess. You definitely deserve this much."

"Yeah." Liz pointed at the memory receptacle unit sitting on the floor in front of Isabel. "How's that going so far?"

"Slow but steady," Isabel said. "I think that we should be able to start... start work on the cloning for Alex two in just a few days."

"So soon?" Liz asked, sitting herself down as well. "But - but I thought that his spirit, his soul, had to be transferred in by the time the clone embryo was developing a nervous system."

"Yeah, around that time," Isabel confirmed. "According to the instructions left over from the crash. Langley's been great at translating them. Too early, and the fetus doesn't have anything capable of supporting an... an adult-sized soul, or whatever. I know that souls don't really have size, but... they're energy, right?"

"Adult-intensity soul?" Liz suggested, and Isabel nodded. The door was starting to close by this point, and Isabel was disappointed that sunshine was going away, but it didn't really make much sense to try and keep it open for a long time as they talked, and she didn't want to go outside herself just at this point.

"Yeah, that'll do. And if we leave it too long, then... then the clone starts to develop a soul of its own that can't be... can't be displaced by the Alex soul that we have now." She made a face. "That doesn't sound good, does it, that this little guy is going to have the start of a soul no matter how soon we do the transfer, that has to die off so that the transferred soul can establish itself. Do you suppose that happened with us, when we were transferred into the hybrid bodies on the ship?"

Liz nodded. "I talked with Langley about that one, actually. He said that 'displaced' isn't really the right translation, more like 'integrated' - that there will be a bit of individuality in the new clone that will become a part of Alex's soul, no matter how we do it. So he won't be 100% the same person, even on a psychic level." She considered. "From knowing you guys, I think I believe he's telling the truth there."

"Alright," Isabel said, a bit relieved. "So, it looks like the key period will be around twenty-one to twenty-three days old. I'll have that time to transfer Alex soul memories into this thing, before I lose them with the soul. It's too bad that he won't get his soul memories automatically with the soul transfer, but I guess it doesn't work that way."

"The timing at the start is important," Liz observed. "I guess that's one reason we can't use the accelerated growth serum for the first two months or so?"

"Yeah," Isabel said, nodding. "And then we'll all be busy transferring our own memories of Alex over." She smiled, looking over at the progress that had already been made on cloning machine parts. "So what's going on back in town?"

"Well, your parents are wondering where you're spending so much time, and if you've got a new boyfriend," Liz said, giggling. Isabel nearly choked. "Yeah, well... I didn't think I could tell them the real explanation, after all."

"I guess not," she admitted. "What about - has anybody noticed that Tess hasn't been around for a few days?"

"Well, yeah," Liz said, sighing. "The school called Mister Valenti. He's reported her as a runaway - it seemed the easiest thing. Hanson came around and asked some questions, and Kyle trotted out the old 'she's been thinking a lot about her roots' deal."

"Yeah," Isabel said, and took a deep breath. "Poor Kyle, this must be so tough on him."

"I guess you have a unique point of view to understand what he's going through from," Liz admitted. "Okay, should I leave you back to your transfer?"

"Hmm." Isabel considered the readout, but all the dials had gone back to neutral because she'd been disconnected for so long. "I think I'll leave it for a while, actually. I only had fifteen minutes or so before I'd be in the danger zone, and this wasn't nearly enough time for the noggin to recover." She started to pack up the device. "I'll go and maybe spend some face time with Mom, and then come back." She reconsidered. "Unless you want to take your first session? There's no limitation on the hardware for how long it can work at a stretch, so it doesn't hurt anything for you to go while I can't. The only limitation is in our brains."

"Hmm..." Liz considered, clearly interested but also nervous. "There's no real need to get my hair as short as yours first, is there?" She ran a hand through her dark tresses, which weren't extraordinarily long at the moment, but fell just past her shoulder blades - she'd also gotten a wavy perm recently, which Isabel knew Max really rather liked on her.

"Hmm... it's a bit of a pain," Isabel admitted, "but shouldn't be too bad. Most of the electrodes can attach at the edge of the hairline."

"Okay, all right," Liz said, shuffling across the floor until she was next to and just in front of Isabel, facing away so that Isabel would be able to easily get at the back of her head. Isabel started to press the electrodes to one of Liz's temples and the space behind her ear - the alien devices naturally stayed stuck until they were pulled loose. "So once I'm all hooked up - what, I just start thinking about Alex and what I remember, and it all gets recorded?"

"Yeah, it's fully automatic," Isabel said. "It can sense your intentions, and won't pick up random thoughts or memories that don't fall within the desired parameters. After a little while, it will even start guiding your thoughts - or at least, that's what Karia said. What I've done has been a bit different - I haven't done it for memories from my own life yet."

"So I'm the guinea pig, huh?" Liz said. "When it's sucking memories from Alex, do you experience them yourself?"

"Yeah, some of the most intense recollections," Isabel admitted. "Like the hospital, when you asked him for his blood."

"What, really?" Liz exclaimed. "What... what about that?"

"Just how Alex felt about you that day. Turn your head this way," Isabel said, gesturing a bit vaguely, but Liz seemed to understand what she meant.

"Oh, yeah, man, he was so pissed at me that day. And - and probably a little scared about the whole deal. Is that what you mean?"

Isabel paused a moment. "Part of it. But also... well, he had a crush on you back then, Liz. I guess that's how I'd describe it. And - and he was very jealous of Max, because he could tell that Max was the only one you were paying attention to that way. Max or sometimes Kyle." The silence seemed faintly shocked. "You never knew that?"

"No, I... I guess I didn't realize that I was on his radar like that," Liz admitted. "He'd already mentioned you..."

"I was a fantasy girl," Isabel said matter-of-factly. "Back then, to him. You - you were the cute, funny, brilliant best friend that he liked but could never tell."

"I hope you're not getting a case of the g-green eyes yourself, now, Isabel," Liz stammered, obviously uncomfortable.

"Oh, no, don't worry about that. I know that it's something that doesn't mean much anymore, other than part of Alex's life before things started to develop between us." Isabel sighed, a bit sadly, because that reminded her of all the time that she'd NOT spent with Alex, since that night on the camp-out when she'd first realized that he liked her and she liked him too. All of her protestations about how her life was so complicated - yes, being an alien girl wasn't easy, but that didn't mean that either of them had been better off apart...

"Okay," Liz said, and sighed. "You know, that puts a different flavor on so much that happened back then - every time I asked him to trust me, or to do something for me. I... I didn't realize that I was leveraging that kind of a hold on him - or that there was an element of frustrated desire when he finally lost his patience with me. It - well, I guess it sort of does make a sort of sense, though."

"You've never been that aware of what a sexy woman you can be, Liz," Isabel put in. "It's part of your charm."

"Oh, that's what you think, just because you don't see me when I'm alone with..." Liz trailed off deliberately at that point.

"Ooh, thanks for stopping there, at least," Isabel said, and reached through Liz's waves to stick the last connector at the base of her head. "Okay, you're good to go. Try starting with the first time you really met Alex - that was in Frazier woods, right?"

"Yeah, he told you about that?" Liz said, her voice a bit faraway. "A young scientist-to-be trying to catch a lizard in a peanut butter jar with a hole in the lid, and a boy playing dressup with an aluminum foil and cardboard shield and a plastic sword and helmet, hot on the trail of a dragon to slay." She chuckled. "It wasn't the calmest meeting ever."

Isabel chuckled, picturing the scene. "Okay, you don't have to say everything out loud to me. Just keep remembering, and I'll keep a watch on your vitals."

----------

Even though there were excitements to the various stages of the cloning program, weeks and months kept progressing, not extremely quickly but seeming to make good time in their frequency. At the right time, Isabel finally transferred Alex into his new body, regretful that the submergence that the Ceetans had insisted on hadn't worn off, but confident that she was doing the right thing for him, and looking forward to their meeting again in the flesh, just over a year later.

They'd talked about it, up in the Pod Chamber, in between some of the last memory sessions that Isabel would be able to do on Alex, the morning before the transfer. "I... I think I know how worried you are about the waiting, and the end result," Alex said, rubbing her back and her hair as she sat close to him. "I... I can't say that much to reassure you - it's a long time, and I won't be here in your life like I am now, able to talk to you and let you know that I hear what you can say. And as hard as it is to believe, I'm not quite sure what I'll think about you or feel about you when I wake up again. So much of what we're putting into that thing is about how much I love you, though, so I think it'll be okay."

"It's... it's okay with me, just as long as you're back living in... in the world," Isabel muttered, but the usual mantra was a little bit harder to say this time. "I mean, it wouldn't be great, but..."

"I know," Alex breathed. "This is... is an incredible gift that you've fought to give to me, I hope you know that I realize that." He kissed her. "Make sure to get my memories of this conversation, and once I'm gone, you scan your side of it, right?"

"Of course, Alex," Isabel said. "I've been trying to do chronological order, but if you think that I'm going to leave out both of our memories of.. of our last day together, then you're crazy."

"Alright, fine," Alex said, smiling. "I... I want to try and come up with something to say to you as soon as I can when I wake up in my new body. Something... something that will reassure you that I'm me, and that I still love you. Or, at least... that I feel like I still love you at that point. I mean, the emotional resonances might take a little while to sort out for sure, but..."

"I think I know what you mean." Isabel took a deep breath. "Don't tell me what it'll be now, word for word, though. It - it'll be more fun looking forward to a pleasant surprise." She recognized the face on Alex's face. "You can give me a hint about it now, if you want, though."

"Okay, the Futurama episode we watched, the day after you came up with the cloning plan," Alex said. "Or sometime around then, at any rate. Long before we knew what we'd need. You remember the one I'm talking about?"

"Of - of course," Isabel breathed. "Where the redheaded boy..."

"Philip J Fry..."

"Right - where Fry died, and Leela saw him and heard from him in her dreams, and thought that she was going crazy out of grief, and in the end, found out that she was the one who had been stung, and nearly died, and dreamed his voice because he was staying by her side while she was in the coma." She grinned. "I'll make sure to watch it again before you wake up, and if you can remember any reference to it, and say that, then I'll know."

"Alright," Alex said, and his hand brushed her cheek. "You ready to go again?"

"Not for half an hour yet," Isabel pointed out. "So come on, buddy. Let's make some other great use of the time."

"What, with the electrodes still on?"

"I guess you'll have to be on top this time," she pointed out, laughing.


Brian Waverley made an appointment at Kal Langley's house in Beverley Hills, and Langley asked for Max and Michael to be there, out of sight, as he talked to the Special Unit man, in case their powers were needed. To everyone's surprise, Waverley hadn't come to try and capture aliens again, but asked to formalize a truce between his people and 'the Roswell aliens.' He told Langley that he was prepared to disband his unit and give up the Colorado base, if he could be certain that the people who had worked there would be safe from further alien retribution. After some fervent negotiations, the peace compact was drafted to the satisfaction of both sides, and Max chose to reveal himself to Waverley in order to sign. Waverley obviously recognized Max, but didn't comment on his identity out loud. Though nobody completely trusted the whole deal, there were no further signs of government persecution.

Isabel fufilled her service to Meris and Clayton Wheeler, with a few extra favors as a sign of gratitude for what Meris' information about the Trinidad complex had made possible. In the absence of Tess being able to fufill her own share of the terms, Max did heal two rich people that the Wheelers referred to him, in exchange for favors that the patients would owe the Wheelers, and under conditions of utmost secrecy, including having the patients asleep at the time that he was working on them.

At Thanksgiving, the Evanses asked the Parkers to come over for lunch on Friday, once the big dinner at the Crashdown was all cleaned up and breakfast rush was over. Max and Liz came too, and chose that moment to let their parents know that they were engaged, and their unconventional choice of a jewelry token to seal the pact, which was something that none of the older generation was exactly eager to hear about, but at least there were no big commands uttered from on high. Amy DeLuca invited the Valentis and the Whitmans over for her own thanksgiving 'do, which featured a vegetarian pasta salad as the main course.

Christmas came next, and Isabel found it more than a little hard to get as worked up about the festivities as she usually did, in fact she managed to work herself into a first-class holiday funk, especially as she and the rest of the gang had mostly finished recording their most important Alex memories and passing them on to the growing clone body at this point. Alex two was on the growth hormone by this point, but even the fact that his metabolism had successfully adapted to that, and he'd already passed the lowest and most critical preemie weight limits, didn't cheer her up. Jim Valenti chose Christmas day evening to make his own move on the engagement front, getting down on one knee and offering Amy DeLuca a ring that had been his great-grandmother's. She said yes, of course.

News finally came through from Ava and the Saphiran Libertines in the first week of January, after so long that nearly everybody had forgotten to check the communicators. A few first battles had done reasonably well, and Kivar had responded by mobilizing the Antarian fleet, conscripting civilians for his armed forces, and signing an alliance with Breoll and Taliernar. There were riots and other civil unrest actions in Antarian cities, apparently, distant colonies were declaring their independence, and Larek had come through with the treaty of friendship with Saphiran Libertine. Everybody was expecting a formal declaration of war from Kivar to Larek some days in the future.

In the spring of the New Year, there was more drama centering around Liz. After months and months of the powers that she had acquired from Max healing her manifesting in small and pleasant ways, sometime in March they just sort of leapt into a painful overdrive. During the school's career fair, she accidentally burned the hand of the Harvard rep who'd come specifically to meet with her. Max sensed her distress and the power in use and rushed across the gym to help out by healing the man, but still, the guy hadn't been able to explain any of what happened, and knew that it had started when he shook Liz's hand. The private interview afterwards had been distinctly frosty.

That was really only the dramatic start. Max immediately swung into 'caretaker and guide' role, which he was very used to by this point, trying to help Liz come to terms with everything that was happening to her, but every exercise that he led her through managed to lead to a greater disaster, or so it seemed to Liz's frustrations.

It was Langley who managed to salvage the whole deal once again, and pointed out that if Max was the original source of Liz's change, then his proximity and influence was probably an additional destabilizing force on Liz's mind and power balance during whatever development had suddenly started to take effect. It was very hard for Max to realize that he was hurting his Betrothee without meaning to, just by being near her and trying to help, but Isabel was able to help him realize that since this was something that he couldn't help, it wasn't his fault, and the only thing to do was gracefully withdraw and have confidence that Liz would be able to conquer this challenge herself, or with other friends to help her, and that once that was over they would be able to be together again.

Langley was helpful in the smaller details, too. Spring break week happened to fall at just the right time for Liz to get out of Roswell for a little while, leaving the Crashdown and everything else that made up her everyday life behind, and study what Langley had to say about the power that had come into her life, what it meant to embrace the way of the Antarian abilities as more than just a tool, what they called 'the Zhensho path of life', and other useful tidbits. Isabel, Michael, and Kyle joined in these sessions, (Kyle because he was worried that he, too, had been changed when Max saved his life from a gunshot,) and Maria came on the trip as well, to spend time with Michael and learn more about this side of him, leaving Max alone in Roswell, working very long hours at the UFO museum.

Alex's old friends looked Maria up to sing for a few gigs with them again after Spring Break, and she got 'scouted' by a New York talent rep who was full of talk and promises about a great career, but after talking things over with Liz and Michael, she decided that Gabrielle was just looking for some cute girl to turn into a plastic pop sensation, and that wasn't what she really wanted to do with her music. "Alex would hate me if I went through with something like this if it weren't the real deal," she commented thoughtfully. "Oh, can we go up to the Pod Chamber soon and check on how he's doing?"

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chrisken]

And here it is...

Part Thirty-seven

"Are you sure everything's ready?" Isabel asked, concerned. "Once we open this tank up, if there's a problem, there's no going back."

"I'm about as sure as I can possibly be," Max told her. "Trust my senses, okay?"

"Alright." Isabel took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do it."

The entire 'I know an alien club', minus Maria's mom, (who now knew a few of the facts of life with respect to Michael, but not any other aliens,) crowded close to the tungsten-walled tank that had been fashioned in the Granilith chamber, according to alien designs, holding a fully-grown humanoid body in suspension in the same way that the pods had held little children. Within was a mixture that included nutritive fluid and special enzymes and serums...

With an incredibly loud CREAK, the top of the tank was pried up by Michael and Kyle, and the body inside gasped for breath for the first time in months. Slim fingers rubbed liquid away from eyes that, once they opened wide, could be seen to have pale crystal-blue irises, with strings of wet and limp golden hair hanging down past them and dribbling more gooey fluid onto the face of...

"What the hell was I doing in..." Tess coughed, then continued, "in there, wherever there was? I... the last thing I remember was... I got shot, in the Special Unit base, and... Isabel?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Isabel said, moving around to stand in Tess' field of vision, though not directly in front of Tess, since Kyle was jealously keeping himself in that spot.

"You... you got me out of the compound, but I... I died there, next to your car."

"No, you didn't," Isabel said firmly. "Though that was probably the last time that you were fully conscious. It was months and months ago, Tess. By... by the time that I got you to Max, you were beyond his power to heal immediately. But - but we had developed so much of this biotechnology, a mix of human and alien worlds, potent enough to grow a clone. Working out a variant for supporting your brain, and healing your body slowly and surely, seemed like a natural offshoot."

"So we built you a tank of your own," Kyle put in.

"It was a practice run for Alex two," Michael chimed.

Tess looked around at all of them. "The... the cellular growth serum," she said. "It wasn't the right one to heal adult injuries..."

"No, and you're half Antarian," Langley said. "I was able to experiment with a few formulas and come up with something that worked on a culture of Isabel's skin cells, on a simulated damage."

"I... I have so many questions," Tess muttered. "But - but I guess they can all wait for a few minutes. First - well, I want to get out of this tank, clean up and get some fresh clothes on..." She looked around again. "The pod chamber - I don't suppose that any of you have brought a shower up here?"

"No, couldn't figure out how to get running water," Isabel admitted. "But I've got some things for you here..." She waved a hand, and brought the overnight bag ka-shuffling across the floor to her, and then sent some heat energy into the contents. "As good as hot out of the dryer. You can use your own powers to clean off, yeah? Obviously, there'll be less people around watching, but..."

"Don't leave me all alone," Tess immediately blurted out. "I feel like I've been alone for too long, and I want to talk more." Unceremoniously she climbed out of the tank, the clothes that she had been wearing for that trip into Brian Waverley's camp still a bit bloodstained and clinging to her once-again healthy figure. "Kyle, Isabel, Liz - can you guys stay? I've got no secrets from any of you I guess."

"Sure," Isabel said, and Kyle nodded with a little gleam in his eye. Liz seemed the most uncomfortable about staying around while Tess was changing, but didn't make a big deal about the request. Everyone who hadn't been named filed out, and Isabel wondered briefly if they would stay in the Pod room, or head out of the installation entirely.

"First question," Tess said, as she stripped entirely naked. "Just how long have I been out of action? I mean... what's the date?"

"April the third," Liz told her.

"Wow." Tess took a moment to absorb that. "Graduation coming up soon. Guess I'm not going to be getting my diploma?"

"Probably not," Isabel said. "Not even next year, though if that looked likely we could go to the trouble of coming up with the full explanation of why you left so abruptly and then came back to town. The thing is... there's more Special Unit trouble a-coming, and I'm just hoping that we can get Alex two old enough that he won't have to go through puberty all over again, and then we all get off the planet before the hammer comes down."

"Really, it's that bad?" Tess asked, while concentrating on cleaning goo off her legs with her powers. "Waverley again? I'm a little surprised that he's waited this many months without making a move, actually."

"No," Kyle said. "Waverley made his peace with Langley, and Max, back in the fall. But he said that there's this new guy back in Washington who's getting ready to start the crusade up again - Doctor Margolin."

"Did you hear that name, back when you first came to Roswell?" Isabel asked Tess.

"Umm... no, can't say that I did."

"Well, Nasedo impersonated him once," Liz said. "Came to Valenti, and then us... to convince us not to meet Agent Kathleen Topolsky after she came back to Roswell."

"Right, her," Tess said. "The first undercover operative sent here after you were shot."

"Yes," Liz agreed. "I guess Nasedo knew that Pierce was watching Topolsky, using her as a trap for us, but Nasedo also didn't want to betray his own presence here too soon. So he borrowed this Doctor Margolin's face and gave us all a song and dance about how she'd been taken back to hospital for her paranoid delusions. A week later, Valenti heard about a fire in the mental hospital back east that Nasedo had mentioned, and got in touch with the real Doctor Margolin there. When Margolin said that he'd never been to Roswell or spoken to any Sheriff Valenti, Jim realized that he'd met the alien shapeshifter, and was concerned enough that he went to talk to Max at the UFO center, putting out an olive branch that eventually bore fruit."

"Alright, okay," Tess said. "But if Margolin is talking about going after us now, then probably he wasn't just some random institution doctor, he could have been close in Pierce's counsels, and paranoid enough that Nasedo couldn't get to him before Whittaker took Nasedo out of the picture. Actually, if Nasedo was familiar enough with Margolin to take his shape, then probably it makes sense that he was a player in the Special Unit."

"Yes," Liz said. "Max wasn't really eager to run from a fight this time, but Isabel has convinced us all that it's better to try and start over again on Ceeta, instead of dealing with more persecution here on Earth."

"Will the Granilith take everybody?" Tess asked. "Who's 'everybody' anyway? All eight of us kids, plus Langley?"

"Yeah," Isabel told her. Tess spun around, (whether showing off for Kyle or air-drying herself one final bit wasn't clear,) and then dug into the warm clothes that Isabel had provided. "Crowding the thing is a worry. I'm hoping that with five aliens and one 'changed' girl using their powers to boost it, it'll do for nine."

"Alright, that's enough of that for now," Tess said. "How's Alex two doing? I guess there weren't any problems with the initial cloning?"

"No, Maria grumbled about how 'weird' her donation was, but... that was about it. He's something like four and a half years old in physical development, and we're pushing the growth serum harder than ever without any problems," Isabel said. "I've actually dreamwalked him... he recognizes me, and he's absorbed most of the memories that we transferred in, though it's still hard for him to absorb what most of them mean I think. But still, it's going to take a while longer."

"I think we should try to make his birthday October Thirty-first, if we get that long," Kyle put in. "That's about the right span of time, and it just sort of fits for an alien clone boy."

Tess considered as she pulled on a sweater and then held out a pair of denim shorts and started to arrange her legs into them. "Okay, so how careful do we need to be about me being seen? Can I sneak into town for a genuine shower? Or a bath would be better."

Kyle held out a hand to her, grinning. "I think that that much can be arranged."

"Excellent."

-----------

"No, I'm sorry," Prince Vorjal said in his sternnest tone of voice from the communicator. "No matter how you may attempt to upgrade, supperpower, fine-tune, jolly, or cram it, the Granilith will not support NINE living beings of Antarian or human size in flight mode. If you attempt to push the issue too hard, you might detonate its power supply, which would have unfortunate consequences for the Earth continent that you live upon."

"Okay, then, I guess we need to find an alternative," Isabel said crossly, suspecting that she had an idea where Vorjal wanted to take this. "All staying here and taking our chances with Doctor Margolin is one plan, it's potentially dangerous, and lives will probably be lost no matter how hard we try to be merciful. Unless you can manage to arrange alternative transport for us..."

"I think that I can probably do just that," Vorjal said. "A small warp-capable patrol yacht can be spared from the fleet, and if it is dispatched from the nearest side of the Saphiran sector, could reach Earth by the time that you're interested in leaving." He took a deep breath. "However, one of our ships will not be available to ferry you to Ceeta - especially since I doubt that they'd let our crew leave with the ship a second time."

"If I ask Karia to grant such permission in advance, she will," Isabel countered.

"But she cannot ensure safe passage though the space near her planet," Vorjal said. "Taliernar bases control that region, though they cannot approach Ceeta itself. I doubt that they will be able to waylay the Granilith, but my patrol boat crew, and yourselves, could easily be captured."

"So if we take a ride with you, we're stuck with you?" Max interpreted. "Very well... we shall consider that generous offer, but just to be clear... this proposal is NOT contingent on the Granilith also coming to you? If part of our company go in the Granilith, to Ceeta, the rest of us are still welcome with you?"

Vorjal tried not to let his face twitch, and Isabel wondered what that would look like in the alien countenance that she had seen on Ceeta, instead of this freckled human complexion that the communicator had substituted. "Quite correct, Max. I would like to have the Granilith with us, for obvious reasons both practical and psychological. But it is in your care, and you can do with it as you please. Bear in mind, though, that Ceetan policy makes any such seperation a serious matter, not easily altered."

"Yes, I'm quite aware of the ramifications of Ceetan isolationism," Max said. "Any other news to pass along?"

"Yes... the war is progressing well along the Rahlicx front. Larek has dispatched Kivar's line of Metaglioma-class Battle cruisers, and put his marines down on the airless moon Saturdis, on the outskirts of the Antar star system. By the time any of you arrive here, we may have more victories to report."

"Or some reversals," Isabel said grumpily.

"I suppose that is possible, yes."

"How firm do the Taliernar seem to be in Kivar's alliance?" Liz asked. "The Breoll I can picture, but Taliernar always seemed... better than either of those two."

"I... I have already seen some signs of friction, and unhappiness among the Taliernar populace about the choice their Director has made, but it may not amount to anything," Vorjal said unhappily. "At least, not until the tides of war change more significantly. I doubt that either world will stand firm by Kivar if they see that he will be the vanquished in any event." He took a deep breath. "I believe I will dispatch the ship for you before hearing a certain commitment. If you should decline, they will be able to scout the area for an unlikely attack upon our rear and return to report. But a few day's head start may be important if they are actually to make the journey."

"Very well," Max said. "Thank you for what you can do, cousin." Vorjal nodded deeply, and then the communicator flipped back to the image of a large spaceship, which shrank away to nothing.

"You're seriously thinking of it, aren't you?" Isabel asked Max. "Splitting up?"

Max looked around. "Yes. Isabel, I'm pretty sure that you prefer the Ceetan option, but... but Liz, Michael, and I have been talking about it. This struggle to depose Kivar, it's something that Alinda wanted the Royal Four to be a part of, and we're pretty much willing to show up and do our bit, even risk our lives if that's what it takes."

"Even though Alinda couldn't have guessed about you?" Isabel asked Liz.

"It's Max's destiny," Liz said, putting her arm around Max's waist. "I've signed up for everything that that entails."

"And Michael," Isabel said, turning around. "Did you talk to Maria about this?"

"Well, yeah," Michael told her, thinking the word 'obviously' but not saying it out loud. She could tell. "She's not so sure about it, but... we'll have to make the decision together... either to compromise, or to seperate for the time being. It's not going to be easy."

"Wow," Isabel muttered, trying to re-evaluate all of her plans. "I had no idea about any of this. Did any of you ask Tess and Kyle?"

"Yeah, I did," Liz said. "They seem to be pretty firm about Ceeta with you. Langley's up for going back to his old Liaretian bosses."

"Really?" Isabel felt flabbergasted. "I thought he hated them, that he'd rather stay here on Earth and deal with the entire US government than go back to his old masters."

"Well, maybe back when we first met him," Liz said, with a trace of a smile. "I think that working with us has mellowed him somewhat. And his terms for going was that the Liaretians would understand he was in our personal service, with no genetic reprogramming. Since he's still bound to Max's orders, and the welfare of the four of you, after all."

"Right," Isabel said, seeing it. "And presumably you stick with the same routine with him - not ordering him to anything that he wouldn't be willing to do otherwise. That's clever."

"Yeah, I thought so," Michael said. "Probably it would have been a bit tricky for him to stay here anyway, and letting us remain at the mercies of the big tough galaxy out there."

"He's welcome to come along with me to Ceeta," Isabel insisted. "Don't think anyone there would do anything to take advantage of his genetic conditioning - they're pretty vehement about anything that even smacks of slavery."

"Doesn't that mean they might resent you for what's been done to him?" Michael asked. Isabel shrugged.

"Yeah, I don't see how anybody could blame Isabel or Max for that whole thing," Liz replied. "Might get them a bit upset at the Liaretians, and anybody else who practices this sort of genetic code conditioning."

"Yeah, that's one thing that we've never asked," Isabel said. "Does Kivar have loyal-to-the-death servants like Nasedo and Langley? It'll be dangerous to make an end of him with bodyguards like that."

"Yeah," Max said. "Also - how many people CAN we take safely in the Granilith, without any risk of blowing up the country? Somebody working for Vorjal should know."

"Yeah, well, we can try talking to them again tomorrow, or the next day," Michael told them, leading the way to the door of the chamber. "There'll be time."

------------

But time spent itself relentlessly. Graduation came and went, and the summer weeks fairly flew by. With an estimated time of departure in the last week of October or early November, nobody wanted to matriculate at college, but the parents were distinctly lacking in their understanding of such requirements. Max and Liz came in for the most recriminations. Nancy Parker ranted at her daughter, saying that all of Liz's old ambitions had sapped away since she'd made the choice to put Max first in her life, and that the pair of them seemed to be heading nowhere fast in their lives.

Margolin's influence started to be felt - never seen, even in the most casual ways, by the eight children, but apparently casual friends, teachers, and other acquaintances were being questioned by anonymous authorities. When some messages came through from the Ceetans and the Liaretians about how everything was in readiness, and Michael started to draw diagrams on a whiteboard in his living room about how close the government net was drawing, Isabel made the decision to abandon the Halloween date for waking up Alex two, no matter how appropriate it might seem, and settled on the twenty-second.

Everybody wanted to be there for the big moment, but Isabel put her foot down with a spike heel on. Things would be confusing enough for the boy no matter how unthreatening they made the circumstances. She didn't even want it to be herself and both of Alex's oldest friends, so Liz bowed out, saying that she was allowing Maria's priority as one of the rights of an egg donor, which made Maria stick out her tongue. Langley and Max instructed the two girls carefully in the sequences and operations that they'd need to open up the cloning tank safely.

-------------

"What did you see?" Maria asked immediately. "What was he dreaming about?"

"About us," Isabel told Maria, smiling and sitting up straighter against the wall of the Pod Chamber. "About waking up, and meeting the whole gang, actually - it was a really happy and funny scene. Maybe I shouldn't have insisted on making it low-key."

"Maybe it's just as well," Maria countered. "Reality doesn't always go as well as dreams do, after all." She cocked her head. "What was the first thing he said to you, in the dream?"

"Umm... nothing that seemed too relevant," Isabel admitted, her face turning down slightly. With a sigh she got up. "He said hi to the guys, and Liz, and you, first, like he was making me wait for it. Then just a 'hi' - and there wasn't any more talking for a while."

Maria snickered. "But he liked you, in the dream, right? There was kissing?"

"Oh, yeah." In a way, the dreams of the past little while had served to almost defuse Isabel's nervousness about Alex two - though it wasn't the same thing as spending time with a living guy or a friendly ghost, she had lived through the subconscious scenes enough to get an idea of Alex's emotional reaction to his memories. But he never seemed to realize that he was dreaming, though there was a hint of recognition that something wasn't right yet about his life. "Okay, you ready to open this rig up and get him?"

"Almost, just a moment." Maria stood up above the visual display and stared at the picture of Alex two that it showed, floating in nutritive fluid with his eyes closed, a large artificial umbilical cord still connecting to his navel, though it was almost falling off already. "Trying to figure out how old he is, physically. Does any of the gear measure that?"

"No, but I asked Langley about it yesterday," Isabel admitted. "He said not quite fifteen, in human terms."

"So you'll be cradle robbing," Maria teased her. "Okay, come on, let's do this thing."

"Yeah." Both girls busied themselves with shutting off certain parts of the equipment, and opening up the top panel of the tank. "Come on, come on..."

The figure of the young man in the tank sat up, nutritive fluid sloshing around where his head and chest had been, tried to cough, and couldn't breathe because his lungs were full of fluid. Finally, after a lot of coughing, he managed to take in real air. Unlike Tess, he didn't bother wiping his eyes out before making a pronouncement. "I'm all sticky and naked - did I sleep through something particularly fun?"

Isabel burst into laughter, while Maria glared between them. "Sorry - Futurama line," Isabel explained, and took Alex's hand, which was indeed somewhat slick with goo. "I wondered if you were going to go with that. It seemed likely to be appropriate."

"Aww, I shouldn't have told you I'd go with a line from the show," Alex exclaimed, disappointed.

"Just how much do you remember?" Maria asked.

"I... I do feel a bit as if the noggin was swiss cheesed, which actually sounds reasonably good considering it was actually grown from scratch and stuffed with factoids using an alien memory transfer device," Alex said. "What are the three most important things I need to know about what's happened since I was transferred in here?"

"Always looking for efficiency, aren't you?" Isabel said, offering him a towel and wondering if he'd want to climb out of the tank and get dressed, like Tess had. "First - you and I leave in the Granilith for Ceeta, day after tomorrow."

"Okay," Alex said, weighing that. "What about the rest of the gang?"

"Tess and Kyle are with you guys," Maria said. "Michael, Max, Liz, Langley and I are off to the Saphiran sector and the Liaretians."

"Wow," Alex muttered. "To fight against Kivar?"

"Not really fighting to start with," Maria said. "Though the boys wanted to get some action. But Vorjal wants to see how our just being there affects the situation, once people know that we've left Earth."

"But that's not the third most important thing," Isabel said. "Them leaving and going somewhere else *is* second most important. Hmm... third is that Margolin is probably going to move in and try to catch us. But he doesn't realize that we have a way to leave Earth."

"Who's Margolin?" Alex asked. "That doctor who told us about Topolsky? No, he wasn't really the Doctor, that was... that was Nasedo, right?"

"He's old Special Unit," Isabel said. "Don't worry about too much of the rest now." She helped him out of the tank, holding his lean and very real body close, not worrying about the slime getting on her sweater. "You're here with us, again, and that's the most important thing."

"Yeah," Maria said, an awed sound in her voice. "You were dead, and you're back. It's almost like you were never gone as well."

"Oh, I was gone," Alex muttered. "I think I remember what it was like to be a ghost, just vaguely. Having a body just seems like a pain, in comparison."

"Well, I think I can remind you of some of the things that having a body is better for," Isabel told him. "Accept no substitutes."

Alex's eyes bugged out. "Speaking of which, I... I think this is probably a good time to ask you to marry me, just on general principles. Obviously I don't have a ring, or a pendant, or anything else, but... but I wanted to put my intentions to make an honest woman out of you on record."

"Good," Isabel breathed. "I don't care so much about honesty, but I just want to be YOUR woman."

"Oh, lord, the two of you are going to be worse than Max and Liz now, aren't you?" Maria asked. "At least I'll only have to deal with them on a day to day basis, after tomorrow. Are you going to be getting pregnant in a matter of days?"

"I honestly don't think I'm sure," Isabel admitted. "Tempted by the notion, but probably we have plenty of time to start a family, and there's lots of other things I'll want to explore once we get to Ceeta." She blinked coyly. "Did Liz tell you already?"

"No, what would she..." Maria got it in a moment. "Liz is? She's pregnant now? Why didn't she tell me?"

"They just found out last night, so maybe they didn't want to start spreading the news until they were on their way," Isabel realized. "But Max couldn't keep it a secret from me - not when we connected, to try and keep our bond strong over the light years."

"Wow, so much is changing," Alex said, toweling his legs off. "Sounds like I got back just at the right time."

"I can't agree more," Isabel said. "Do you remember much of Ceeta? I can't wait to get there with you for real."

"I... I think most of what I've got was your perspective on me there," he admitted. "We - we fought about submerging my essence inside me, and Prince Vorjal told you off at dinner."

"Yeah, he did," Isabel agreed. "And Karia came to my defense." She pulled Alex to his feet. Maria turned away from the two of them decorously. "Welcome back to the land of the living, my love." She kissed him hard. "And as much as I hate to say it, you'd better get dressed now."

"I know how you feel," Alex chuckled, pulling out the sweatsuit.

THE END!

Thanks for reading, everybody.