Title: Continuation
Author: Jewels
E-mail: jhantor@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters and places are the property of Tribune Entertainment. They're not mine, never have been mine, even though I wish they were.
Summary: Little post-Dark Horizons story. Immediately after the episode, when Liam is presumably still on the bridge.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Dark Horizons, Epiphany

**

Renee had already left the bridge, apparently to meet up with Da'an and a pair of Taelon healers to retrieve Sandoval from the core room, since he was unresponsive to any hails. The ship was running on a skeleton crew: all Taelons who were not needed (which meant anyone other than operations staff and engineers) had remained on the stasis deck, apparently too frightened about their core energy loss to leave.

Liam remained in the command seat, the piloting controls open before him. He was not going to breath easy until they were out of Jaridian space, in spite of their lack of ID technology, and didn't want to release the ship to AutoPilot until they were safely away.

The view through the sheilding at the forward of the bridge was truly spectacular. The sight of stars rippling gently with the hyperspace currents, and when the occasional sun or plant went by, the view changed. Beautiful really. And hypnotic. Liam had to consistantly remind himself to keep his attention on the controls, in spite of the view. He didn't ever really pilot a ship the mother ship's size through deep space, and he didn't want the ship being caught in a stray graviton wave and forced off course into a black hole because he was stargazing, after all.

"Major Kincaid."

Zo'or's voice brought him away from the piloting display, looking towards the Synod Leader, who was approaching through the archway. Liam's eyes automatically flicked towards the navigational array, then back towards him.

"Zo'or." he said courteously in greeting. "How are you and the other Taelons?"

"Weakened." Zo'or said, approaching the dais on which the command chair sat. "And concerned. However, the Taelon core energy in the possession of the Jaridians," Zo'or said the phrase as if it were distasteful in his mouth. "Has supplemented our needs for now."

"And you?" Liam asked, repeating the first part of his question. The little Taelon character on the navigational map showed the ship nearing the edge of Jaridian space. He made a slight course correction to avoid a superjovian, and returned his attention to Zo'or.

"I am well." was Zo'or's uncharacteristically subdued response. He came to a stop just at the edge of the dais, allowing him to look directly at Liam at eye level.

The ship had reached the edge of Jaridian territory, this information scrolling along the base of the display. Liam made one final course correct, then switched control of the flight over to the computer. The display automatically flickered off.

"It must have been difficult." Liam commented, moving the seat to follow Zo'or as he paced across the dais.

"Of what do you speak?" Zo'or said.

Going to play it like that, Zo'or? Liam thought, watching Zo'or carefully. "Humbling yourself. Before the ANA like that."

"That was not the hard part." Zo'or said, pausing and stepping up to the dais, looking down on Liam where he sat.

"Then it was asking for help from me?" Liam asked, looking genuinely puzzled.

Zo'or hesitated. How hard was it to explain to this human? How could he make him understand the true fear that had preyed on his heart.

"No," he said slowly. "In fact, that was the easier task." He raised a hand slightly, unconsciously forming gestures that were a subtext for the Taelons in their speech, another level for their communication. "You have saved my life, and the life of my fellow Taelons, at great risk to yourself. It is perhaps certain to say that of all humans, and Taelons, I do indeed trust you with my life."

Liam looked rather stunned at the statement. "Well, thank you." he said, rather awkwardly.

"Would it truly be necessary for you to know what was difficult regarding this situation?" He asked, hands slowly becoming stiller with the remembrance.

"Not necessary." Liam said slowly.

For some reason, in spite of this opening for Zo'or to dismiss the human and refuse to answer his question, he found himself speaking. "Humans have personified the concept of death, if I recall correctly. Give it a form."

"If you're thinking of the guy with the scythe," Liam said, fingertips absently brushing over the armrests of the chair. "Then yes, that's true."

"I felt death creeping upon me." Zo'or said, somewhat surprised at his own words. "That has happened before. But I have never had the urge to... hide myself."

"You went to stasis." Liam said, in the intervening pause. Then he cleared his throat, gently. "From previous experience, I know how much it disturbs you."

"The prospect of suspending myself in the moments between life and death? The thoughts that you may never be revived foremost in your mind?" Zo'or glanced aside slightly, towards the ripples of ID space. "Would it not disturb you?"

Liam said nothing for a second, but Zo'or was sure he saw the Human's jaw tighten before he spoke. "The moments between moments." he said softly, almost too softly to be heard.

"Exactly." Zo'or said, equally softly. "An infinity of time, without the passage of it." Liam did not seem inclined to comment again, so he continued.

"The commonality, revived in all its strength, projecting the stasis decks as a refuge against death. A place where it could be forestalled. At that moment," Zo'or said, contemplatively. "The only thing I could contemplate was the continuation of myself, and my species. That moment..." he hesitated. "That moment made me see that stasis was perhaps the only choice. And that was the hardest thing."

"Strange how the prospect of death has a manner of changing a perspective." Liam said, almost as if he had had a similar awakening himself in the past. Zo'or did not, however, recall such an instance. Curious.

"It does indeed." He said, then hesitated. "We understand one another."

Liam inclined his head slightly. "I think so."

Zo'or felt unaccountably pleased at that. "One last thing, Liam."

Liam smiled. "Yes, Zo'or?"

"Get out of my chair."

"Yes, Zo'or."

-End