Title: Sowulo
Author: Jewels
Website: http://www.b-jewelled.co.uk/
Fandom: Earth: Final Conflict
Disclaimer: Alliance Atlantis has this one, but it's been about eight years, so I don't think they care anymore.
Summary: Sequel to Inguz. Boone recovers from his injuries at the hands of Ha'gel, but the Taelon's biggest concern is that their captive hybrid has escaped the Mothership, and they need him tracking down.
Word Count: 17,098

~*~

William Boone had enough experience at this point in his life to be familiar with the effect of coming around from a deep state of anaesthetised unconsciousness. Hearing came back first, tricking the brain into thinking that it was awake, and it was just unusually heavy and immovable at that moment. He could hear persistent beeping, and the soft voices of the nurses standing over his bed.

"Doctor Abroath says he's never seen anything like it. A biostatic coma, induced by something internal."

"I thought David was kicked off the ward."

"Yeah, the Taelons brought in their own physician for the monitoring. Julianne Belman, I think. Works at the private labs uptown?"

Boone fought to open his eyes, managing to get them to crack to narrow slits, and the nurses stopped their conversation. One, a pretty dark haired woman, looked at him and smiled.

"Hello," she said, and nodded to the other nurse, who disappeared, presumably to go and locate a doctor. "You're at Bellevue hospital, William. You were injured, but you're a lot better now. Can you hear me?"

He nodded slowly, awkwardly.

Her smile brightened. "Alright. What we're going to do now is take you to your room, and Doctor Belman will be along shortly to see that you're doing ok." She gestured to someone out of Boone's line of sight, and a moment later, the bed he was in started moving.

As he was wheeled through the corridors, he tried to recall the last thing he remembered. The moment of the explosion of brick that tore through the skin on the side of his head, embedding in his skull, the pain as crystal clear and sharp as the moment it had happened. He tried to force his CVI away from recollections of that moment and to what happened afterwards, but the time between then and now was lost in a haze of blue that he guessed meant that he had been unconscious.

At least he wasn't dead. That was something.

He was left in a white-walled room that smelt nauseatingly of disinfectant, lit by the open window that let in the too-sharp winter sun. The daylight was broken up by the bare branches of a tree that he could just about glimpse from his reclining position.

He raised his hand, squinting at the back of it. There was a line running into the skin, hooked up to a bag of fluid hung by his bed. When he tried to turn his head, the side of his face twinged oddly. He reached up slowly, running his fingers over his cheek. The skin there felt too smooth and warm, new flesh rather than old. It was tender, and after probing it for a moment, the growing soreness persuaded him to drop his hand, and let the throbbing fade.

The clicking of heels on the plastic floor heralded Doctor Belman's approach, and she entered, dressed professionally in a magenta suit jacket and skirt, giving him a smile that just barely hid the worry in her eyes. "Ah, welcome back to the land of the living," she said, with forced cheer. He could tell that she was concerned by the way she quickly reached for the digital slate that held his chart.

"Sorry if I gave you a fright, Doctor," he said, tiredly, "If it helps, I really wasn't trying to get shot by an alien convict."

Belman flashed him a small, tight smile, and directed her attention to the chart in her hands. Her eyes skimmed it rapidly; her thumb jabbed at the screen to turn the pages. After a moment, she relaxed almost infinitesimally. "You, William Boone, are a lucky man."

Boone raised his head to look at her. "Should I be out buying lottery tickets?"

She chuckled. "Well, if you weren't an Implant, you'd probably be dead, or have some pretty severe brain damage. Your CVI managed to maintain neural integrity even in the face of oxygen deprivation."

"Oxygen deprivation?"

"Yes, you were crushed under a wall for the better part of twenty minutes. You stopped breathing." Belman's fingers moved over the chart, reviewing a few last pieces of information before she nodded. "At least, that's what I can determine from these readings. I'm afraid I only got access to you when you were moved here yesterday. Looks like the Taelons did a pretty good job of putting you back together."

She lifted her eyes and gave him a significant look. "It doesn't appear they found any major anomalies in your system."

Translated: they hadn't worked out that his CVI had been altered. Small mercies.

"Good to know," he said, sincerely.

Doctor Belman smiled, and tucked the chart back into its slot at the end of the bed. "I'll leave you to get some rest. I'll be back to check on you later today."

"Thanks, Doctor," he murmured, feeling the pull of drowsiness no matter how much he tried to resist it. He had his eyes closed before Belman had left the room.

He dozed for a while, coming to when he heard the click of the door being opened. His eyes snapped open, and he turned his head, ignoring the nausea the rapidity of the motion induced, and saw Lili Marquette looking at him apologetically.

"Sorry," she said, "I was trying to be quiet and not wake you."

He gave her a smile, weak though it was. "No, no, that's fine. I wasn't really asleep anyway." He held up his hand and she stepped forward, grasping it and squeezing gently with cold fingers.

"How are you feeling, Boone?" she asked, gently, eyes dancing over his face. He had no idea what she saw. Belman hadn't given him a mirror to look into.

"Rough. How do I look?"

"Not as bad as you did eight weeks ago." Lili squeezed his hand once more and let go, pulling a chair over to his bedside and sitting, making herself comfortable.

He frowned. "I've been here for eight weeks?"

Lili hesitated, then shook her head. "Actually, no. You only got here two days ago, right before you woke up. We-" Her odd emphasis left no doubt that she was referring to the Resistance, not the Taelon forces, "-were looking for you, but as far as we could tell, you didn't seem to be anywhere on Earth. Best guess is that you were at a Taelon medical facility."

"Da'an didn't tell you where I was?"

Lili shook her head, and glanced towards the doorway quickly. She kept her voice low. "I've not seen Da'an in weeks. He's been 'in seclusion', ostensibly for security reasons."

Boone's stomach churned, a shot of adrenaline making his heart pound in his ears. "Ha'gel's still-?"

"No," Lili quickly stopped him before he could work himself into a panic, "Ha'gel's dead. You caught up to him about a block away from... from the church and were injured in the firefight. You got hit by an exploding wall, then the rest of the building came down on top of you."

"And here was me thinking I'd been hit by a truck."

Lili smiled. "I think you would have been hurt less by a truck." Her smile faltered, making her look vaguely guilty. "I was sure you were dead. We had to let the Taelons take you, their medical technology-" She halted, conscious of the fact that they weren't somewhere where their privacy was assured, and she had to be very careful what she implied. "You were a mess," she finished, awkwardly.

"You made the right call," he told her, hoping to ease her mind.

Lili's smile was more of a grimace than a genuinely comforted expression. "I'm just glad you're okay," she said, in a low voice, and tentatively reached out to grip his hand. She squeezed once, and then let go quickly. "I should probably let you sleep," she said, "Your eyelids are drooping."

"Nothing personal," he murmured. She wasn't wrong; he did feel terribly tired, like a leaden weight was pulling at his body.

"Get some sleep, Will."

He didn't need much encouragement.

~*~

Boone was released from the hospital's care three days later, and in the intervening time, he had a chance to look at himself in the mirror. He hadn't been far wrong when he'd thought the flesh on the side of his head felt new. It was visibly pink in comparison to the rest of his face, and looked like someone had papered over tears in the flesh with new skin. It wasn't as bad as he feared. He had what looked like some fading bruises, and he had been warned not to exert himself physically.

Li'sha, Belman told him, wanted him to report for a thorough physical check up to make sure that the new 'framework' was holding. Boone hadn't been brave enough to ask what she meant by 'framework', but guessed that he had a little more alien tech than the CVI in his body now.

He had no idea who Li'sha was, but guessed that it had to be a Taelon healer.

"Commander Boone!"

Boone had decided, after briefly stopping at his home for a change of clothes and a shower to rid himself of the antiseptic smell of the hospital, to head straight for the Interspecies Relations office, to see what backlog had built up in his absence. Lili had apparently taken over as pro-tem Director in his absence, she had told him, but the fact was that it was the woman who greeted him, Mrs Harriet Entwhistle, who generally kept the whole office running.

Harriet Entwhistle was a woman in her sixties, hair thoroughly shot through with grey that she periodically attempted to cover with hair dye, plumb and none too agile, she nevertheless ran the Interspecies Relations office in all ways but name. She was his secretary, deciding which cases to bring to his attention, and which to distribute to the other staff members working at the department. She functioned as main point of contact for Human functionaries and the media, and kept his calendar in order even though he was constantly being summoned to Da'an in his role as head of security.

Her son had been one of the early victims of Companion Reaction Syndrome, and Boone had struggled to understand why she would voluntarily work for them until she had told him, apropos of nothing, that it was because of her son that she was utterly devoted to Interspecies Relations, making sure that nothing like him and the thousands of CRS victims ever happened again.

"Harriet," he said, warmly, as the woman in question took off her glasses, letting them dangle from a chain around her neck. "Miss me?"

"If you'd have had the courtesy to tell me that you were planning to get yourself hospitalised..." Harriet's worried tone belied the curtness of her words, and she stood, coming around her desk to look him up and down. "You're quite sure you're alright?"

He grimaced, scratching idly at the point where the old skin on his face met new, and tried to look reassuring. "I'm alive," he said, honestly.

"You silly fool," Harriet chided him, and held out her arms expectantly. It was an awkward hug, given that she was so much shorter than him, but it wasn't a hardship. When it was done, she sniffed, handed him a mug of coffee, steaming hot, that she'd apparently prepared for him and urged him through with a chastisement to check his messages and get back to her on any that he was concerned about. Then she sat down behind her desk, slipped her glasses back on, and recommenced typing at demonic speeds.

Boone rather thought the whole office might fall apart without her.

Lili's desk showed signs of habitation, with files and discs scattered all over the place. Boone's office was neat and tidy, as usual, and, in spite of the fact that he knew the cleaning staff never went in (partly for security reasons, and partly because Henry, the building's janitor, found the Taelon addition to the building 'damned creepy') there was no dust anywhere. It was an oddity of the living space that Boone never quite got used to.

He had been expecting an impossible backlog of messages, but Lili had apparently been taking care of things, Harriet diverting most of his duties at ISR to her. There was a note from Lili herself, written at three in the morning a week earlier, saying that apparently a person needed a CVI to keep track of the amount of crap he dealt with daily, so he'd better make a quick recovery and get back to work. His heart briefly warmed as he recognised the genuine sentiment there. Lili always tended to try and deflect any emotional displays with sharp words.

There was a report from Agent Sandoval also in his inbox regarding the incident with Ha'gel. It was encrypted and designed to be displayed only once and for thirty seconds before self-deleting, meaning that you had to have a CVI or a recording device to be able to read it. It didn't tell much more than Boone already knew: Boone had cornered Ha'gel, who had attempted to kill the Implant, taking out a wall, but Boone managed to get off a skrill blast that killed the Kimera criminal just as Sandoval and his agents came around the corner. The report didn't mention how Ha'gel had only fired when Sandoval had startled him, making him think that Boone was trying to lull himself into a false sense of security.

A waste, Boone thought, frustrated. Not only had the Resistance lost a potentially invaluable ally, but if Ha'gel really was the last of his species, that meant that the Kimera were now extinct at his hands.

It wasn't a pleasant thought.

Boone accessed Da'an's schedule at the embassy, seeing where he needed to catch up on the Companion's plans and was already mentally running through a list of agents to speak to about upcoming security arrangements when he realised that the schedule he was looking at was blank. He put a call through to the Embassy, and found himself face to face with Sandoval, who seemed to be sitting in his own office.

"Ah, Boone," Sandoval said, looking relatively pleased by his call. "You look a lot better than the last time I laid eyes on you."

"Getting a building dropped on you will do that," Boone said, dryly. "Why has Da'an's schedule been cleared?"

"Da'an's orders," Sandoval said, another way of saying that he had no idea. "He's in seclusion on the Mothership."

"Seclusion?"

"Yes, as is Zo'or," Sandoval looked impassive, but Boone could read between the lines. Sandoval didn't like being kept out of the loop, and if Zo'or, who Sandoval had been seeming to pay more attention to than his own Companion some days, was also out of contact, then something very strange was going on. "For the moment, Un'aa and Ro'fen have been covering any duties which require a Companion's presence."

The Mexican and Canadian Companions, respectively. Boone nodded slowly. "I see. You'll inform me when Da'an returns to Earth?"

"Of course," Sandoval said, and with a brief exchange of pleasantries, cut the connection.

Boone wanted to contact the Resistance, find out what they knew, but realised it would be very bad to do that when things were unsettled. Better, perhaps, to keep his extracurricular activities to a minimum until the status quo resumed, and the Taelons recovered from the reappearance of an old enemy. So instead of grabbing his jacket and heading back out again, he bent over his computer, striving to avoid Harriet's displeasure by clearing as much of his backlog as possible.

He was halfway through drafting a reply to a Senator's query about the planned construction of a Taelon-modified hospital in his state when Lili arrived, a cup of coffee in one hand, and her briefcase and a bag of pastries in the other.

"You know, I think you're on medical leave for another few days," she said, mildly, as she dropped her briefcase on her own desk before coming into his office proper and dropping the bag on his desk.

"An Implant never lets anything come between him and his duty to the Companions," Boone told her, opening the bag and taking a peek inside. There were freshly baked almond croissants from the bakery down the street inside. He took one and took a bite. His CVI let him revel in the buttery texture long after the initial bite. "Especially not near fatal injuries."

"I think even the Companions make allowances for that," Lili said.

"Got your message, by the way," he said, using his croissant to gesture to his screen.

Lili cleared her throat. "Ah yes. Well, I meant it, you know. You're never sticking me with this job again if I have to resurrect you myself."

"You could always take a CVI," he said, teasingly, and, predictably, she snorted.

"Don't you start. I get enough of that from Beckett."

"She still bothering you?"

Lili shook her head, and took a croissant for herself. She'd brought two, and had doubtless realised that he'd be there, working, in spite of what she'd said. "She's gone back to the UK. I've not heard from her since she left. Didn't even see her at the debriefings."

Boone frowned. "I thought she suspected you of breaching Companion security."

"So did I," Lili said, thoughtfully. "But it seems between her and Sandoval leaving the church, and you getting into a firefight with Ha'gel, she lost all interest."

"Probably should keep an eye on her just in case she gets it into her head to start investigating you again."

Lili nodded, discomforted.

Boone dropped the subject, asking about what had been going on at ISR in his absence. Lili was halfway through detailing a rather entertaining confrontation with a farmer who couldn't be convinced that the Taelons hadn't abducted him years earlier for "inappropriate probing" (as Lili related, barely keeping a straight face) when the communications system started chirruping for attention. Boone negligently waved the screen on as he turned towards it, and was surprised by the face he saw there. "Da'an," he greeted, "I was informed you were in seclusion."

"That is no longer the case," Da'an said. His words were clipped, rapid, and Boone recognised that he was in no mood for small talk.

"What can I do for you, Da'an?"

"You must come to the Mothership immediately," Da'an said. His hands were out of the view of the screen, but the way his arms were twitching, Boone knew that the Taelon's fingers were waving anxiously. It was rare to be able to read Da'an so easily, but he was getting better at it.

He hesitated. "The portal network does not, I believe, currently connect to the Mothership."

"That will not be an issue," Da'an waved brusquely. "The atmospheric locks on Captain Marquette's shuttle will be released. Report here at once." And then he was gone.

Boone turned, to give Lili a wide eyed look. Neither of them said anything, but they were out of the door, hastening to the shuttle before even a minute had passed.

"Jesus," Lili whispered, as she called up the navigational display. She was staring at a flashing notice informing her that the destination safeguards had been released on Synod notification. She waved it aside and pulled up the navigational system. Even Boone, with his limited understanding of the system, could see that it contained a great number of new options.

"It'll go out of the atmosphere?" he asked, as he settled into one of the passenger seats and closed the restraints over his chest.

"This thing could go from one end of the system to the other in less than ten minutes." Lili stared, wide-eyed, at the interface and shook her head. "Incredible. I designed this system, I never knew it could do anything like this."

"You can drool later," Boone reminded her gently, "Da'an sounded like he wanted us right away."

Lili shook her head sharply, as if coming out of a daydream. "Right. Uh. Looks like there's a navigational stream for us to follow, uplinked from the Mothership." She raised her arms, and the shuttle lurched into flight.

And then it shot straight upwards.

Boone only felt a slight press of inertia, nothing like the force his brain told him he should be experiencing as the shuttle rocketed upwards against the force of gravity. A few seconds later, a flip of Lili's hands sent the craft into the space between dimensions, and even that slight pressed ceased. Beyond the virtual glass barrier, the pale blue of the sky he was accustomed to seeing ripple in interdimensional flight vanished, to be replaced by black barely broken by stars.

"Wow," he said, sincerely.

Lili's eyes were fixed on the readings. "Amazing," she said, though apparently for different reasons than him.

They both fell silent, for a long moment until finally Lili raised her arms. "Coming out," she said, and the disjointed reality fell aside for the vastness of space. The virtual glass barrier might as well have not been there. Boone felt like he could have reached out and touched the stars themselves.

Was this what the Taelons felt all the time? Small wonder that they considered Humans so small in the vast scheme of things. Lili, on a whim perhaps, turned the shuttle so that they could see Earth, framed against a velvet background, so small from their position near the moon.

"I never wanted to be an astronaut," Lili said, eventually, "But now I get why Paul always wanted this."

Boone realised that if he raised his hand he could obscure the Earth and all its billions of inhabitants with a minute gesture. They were very small indeed.

~*~

They were ushered into the ship via an aperture that irised open, the Mothership's hull visibly retracting. It was slightly eerie, as Boone had seen no joins in the hull before it did so, but the cavernous space that lay beyond, housing what looked like dozens, perhaps hundreds, of shuttles, gave them pause.

"They can grow them to order," Lili said, "So why do they need so many on standby here?"

They landed on a small extrusion of Taelon bioslurry, that ubiquitous building material found in all Taelon installations. Boone wasn't sure what they'd find when they stepped off the shuttle, but he wasn't expecting a young woman, a young Human woman, who looked barely out of her teens, to be waiting for them with a patient expression. She stood at parade rest, clad in a figure hugging black and glossy jumpsuit not unlike the exocoverings that the Taelons wore. Peeking out from her collar, he could see the glimpse of... something.

"Commander Boone, Captain Marquette?" At their nod, the girl relaxed her stance and gestured towards the exit. "I've been ordered by Da'an to escort you to the bridge. Follow me, please."

She left without waiting for them, leading the way. Lili and Boone glanced at each other once, then followed along. The girl led them through hallways that twisted and turned and seemed to coil back on themselves, but she never faltered, confused. She knew where she was going. The familiarity of the place was nagging at Boone, though, and it wasn't until they walked past a cluster of Taelons that turned and stared at them as they walked by that it hit him.

"I've been here before," he said to Lili, taking care to keep his voice low. Their guide was several feet ahead of them, and seemed to be mostly ignoring them.

Lili frowned. "You have?"

Boone nodded. "I remember, after Ha'gel, I woke up just before I got sent to Earth. I think I was here, on this ship."

"No wonder we couldn't find you on Earth," Lili said, looking about her with wide eyes at the alien architecture on display. "You weren't there."

They turned the corner, and the corridor abruptly opened up into a wide space with no apparent delineation between it and the hallway outside. Taelons in their natural forms walked about the multi-tiered space, some enclosed in control pods. There were more Humans like their escort, moving with sharp, efficient movements. They were there to do their jobs, clearly. They ignored the newcomers, focused instead on consoles or datapads. In the centre of the room was a Taelon sitting, alone, on a slightly raised dais, his eyes half closed. Zo'or stood next to him, glowering at the him.

One vast side of the room was open to a view of space, although it obviously had a virtual barrier in place. It was there that Da'an was standing, looking outwards, at the stars and the moonbase that filled most of the available view. Without being called forward, Boone was reluctant to say anything, and knew that Lili would follow his lead. In such gatherings, she was generally expected not to speak anyway.

A minute or so later, footsteps arrived, and Sandoval, unescorted, arrived on the bridge. Apparently, that was what Da'an had been waiting for. He turned away from the panoramic view, and beckoned them forward towards the dais, stepping closer as he did so. Lili hung back behind Boone and Sandoval as they stepped forward, by virtual of her lower status.

"We have need of your services," Da'an said, without preamble, and waved open a datastream. It displayed the image of a Human male. It was a candid shot, rather than a formal identification photograph, and had apparently been taken while the man was in the middle of a conversation. His mouth was open and he was smiling. The background of the shot was the same blue as the walls of Taelon buildings and ships.

Da'an's fingers curled inwards. "This is Liam," he said, "He has escaped us. He must be retrieved, for his own safety as well as that of others. You will find him and return him to the Mothership immediately."

Sandoval was frowning as he stared at the image, committing it to his enhanced memory. "What did he do?"

"That is not your concern," Da'an said, tightly.

Sandoval shut up, and Boone tensed, recognising the tone. It was the one that clearly expected unwavering loyalty from the Implants in his employ. It was the voice that made him sound the most alien.

"This man must be retrieved at any cost," Zo'or said, and if Da'an was visibly agitated, then Zo'or was virtually frantic. His hands didn't move, but he seemed to be almost vibrating with the effort. Boone wondered if it was as obvious to anyone else as it was to him. "Unharmed. And without alerting the Earth governments to our search. This investigation must be carried out with the utmost discretion."

That particular proviso, that he wasn't to be harmed, was more surprising that anything. Boone glanced at Da'an, who was too occupied with looking at Zo'or to notice. Zo'or stared back, and something passed unspoken between them. Da'an inclined his head and turned back to Boone and Sandoval. "Exercise caution. We do not know how he will react when threatened."

The Taelon who had been sitting silently up to this point abruptly stirred, raising his head and looking at them. "You have been added to the authorised list of Human crew, full clearance. Make full use of the ship's facilities in your search. This is your only priority at this moment."

The unfamiliar Taelon was, Boone realised, Quo'on, the leader of the Taelon Synod. He'd never seen the alien leader with a Human façade before. Both he and Sandoval bowed slightly in acknowledgement, realising the dismissal. Sandoval turned to leave immediately, striding across the room—the ship's bridge, Boone belatedly realising what this place was—and Boone turned to follow him, but was stopped by Da'an's soft, "Boone..."

Boone turned back. Zo'or had already stalked off, and Quo'on had turned away, eyes returning to their half-lidded state. Da'an silently beckoned Boone over towards the large gap in the wall where nothing lay beyond but space, and said nothing until the pair of them stood there, on the edge of infinity, close together and far enough away from prying ears to be overheard.

"I am gratified to see you much recovered from when I last saw you," Da'an tilted his head, looking at the side of Boone's head. Boone knew that some of the hair on that side was a great deal shorter than the rest of his head. It had occurred to him that he needed to get a haircut to even it up when he'd stopped off at home, but that hadn't seemed urgent at the time. "And not, it seems, permanently damaged."

"My mother always used to tell me I had a hard head. She didn't really mean it as a compliment."

Da'an's expressed showed polite confusion. Boone was about to explain when Da'an's hand came up to touch his cheek, turning his head sideways so that Da'an could get a better look at his injuries. He held his breath. He could feel a faint tingling from the touch of Da'an's skin—which never felt like skin—that almost, but not quite, set his teeth on edge. "That you should have sustained such injuries unsettles me." Da'an's hand didn't move. "Your devotion to the Taelon race, and its survival, is admirable."

"I live only to serve," he said, the Implant's perfect answer.

Da'an dropped his hand, and appeared to be trying to stare straight past Boone's flesh into his soul. "You are unique amongst Implants, Boone." Da'an's eyes went to the rest of the bridge, an almost furtive look. "That uniqueness is an anomaly. The easiest way to account for anomalies in data is to discard them."

Boone's breath caught in his chest, ice suddenly running through his veins. Surely... "Have I done something to earn... being discarded?"

"Not in my eyes," Da'an told him, "I am firm in my conviction of your allegiances. But if recent events had not left others distracted, they may have been tempted to take matters into their own hands. Your uniqueness, Boone, is a gift I treasure. Not all see as I do."

For Da'an, it was as bald a statement as he had ever heard. Da'an was warning him about other Taelons.

Or perhaps, one in particular?

"I understand," he said, simply.

Da'an smiled, faintly, sadly. "Then you must be about your work. Liam's retrieval is our top priority."

"What is it that makes his retrieval a top priority to the Taelons?"

Da'an gave Boone the smile that he'd come to learn meant nothing and everything all at once. "His existence."

Realising that was all that he would get out of his alien employer, Boone bowed and took his leave.

~*~

"This place is amazing," Lili said to him, with barely contained glee. She had followed Sandoval to what was apparently some sort of security monitoring station, remaining while he left to secure some information or another, and had been staring at a schematic of the Mothership with a slightly open mouth when Boone arrived, having been forced to find one of the young Human crewmembers (that was what he guessed they were) to tell him where the others had gone.

"If only we could show-" Lili broke off when Boone made a sharp gesture. They were used to speaking freely in Boone's office, but there was no telling who might be listening on the Mothership.

"I'm more interested in the crew," Boone said, with false mildness.

"Yeah," Lili said, looking out into the corridor. Periodically, one of the black clad Humans walked by. The only thing that they had in common was that they were all young, none of them over twenty, maybe twenty five, and moved like they knew the ship well. "How long has that been going on?"

Boone's lips flattened. It wasn't the place to talk about such things, but Doors would want to know that there were Humans living and working on the Mothership, and had been for some time. Any conversation they might have had on the subject was ended when Sandoval returned, in the process of closing his global.

"What do we know about this man?" Boone asked, without preamble.

Sandoval waved a hand in the air, and a datastream started to flow. Surprisingly, it was more coherent than the datastream in Da'an's office, the images clearer. The one on the bridge had been the same. An upgraded form of the technology, Boone guessed, and tilted his head. All it displayed with the same photo that they had already been shown.

"That's it?" he asked.

Sandoval sighed, betraying a hint of frustration. "Yes. There's no biographical information in the ship's database, and Zo'or brushed off my request for additional information quite comprehensively."

Lili's mouth twitched, no doubt imagining what such a brush off would consist of.

"How many ways off the ship are there?"

Sandoval opened his global, skimming down what information he'd already gathered. "Three: portal, shuttle and airlock."

Boone looked at Sandoval in askance at the last.

Sandoval looked back evenly. "I highly doubt that he attempted to make it all the way to Earth via the airlocks."

"Yes, but there's a chance he could just be outside the hull, either in a suit or not." Boone hesitated, and frowned, wondering if the Taelons even kept suits that would be suitable for Humans on board. The Taelons themselves had no problem existing in a vacuum; they had no need to breath. But they obviously had Human crew, so perhaps provision had been made for them.

Sandoval nodded slowly in agreement. "I'll have the Taelon engineers send crawlers out onto the hull. Anyone who leaves the ship by airlock would be caught by the Mothership's artificial gravity well. They wouldn't move off too far."

"Or he could have gotten aboard a shuttle for Earth," Lili said, hands on her hips, lips pursed thoughtfully. "Or taken a portal."

"Where do the portals on board connect to?"

"The moonbase only, as far as I'm aware." Sandoval closed his global again.

Boone looked at his fellow Implant thoughtfully. "Have you been here before?"

Sandoval tucked his hands behind his back. "Yes. As you have not, you should memorise the deck plan and security procedures. I'll transfer the files to your global."

Boone nodded. "Also, we should check out where it is this 'Liam' escaped from," he said.

"I don't know where that is," Sandoval said, "We'll need to speak to Da'an."

~*~

Da'an was still on the bridge when Sandoval and Boone went to speak to him. When they explained what they wanted, he hesitated for a long moment, and looked towards Quo'on. Quo'on simply inclined his head and continued to read the datastream he'd been examining.

"Very well," Da'an said, "I will escort you belowdecks. These are the Taelon spaces, and Humans are not permitted there. Captain Marquette must remain outside the restricted zones."

Non-Implanted Humans need not apply. Lili just looked to Boone, who ordered her to start looking into the security recordings for the shuttle docks, seeing if she could spot their charge, aware though he was that it was likely pointless, since those recordings would have been the first thing that the Taelons checked before summoning them, but she just nodded and went to do as he asked.

Da'an led Boone and Sandoval through the ship. There were no elevators, as Boone might have expected for a ship as obviously vast as the Taelon's homeship, but instead there were gentle sloping ramps that transitioned between decks. There were no hard edges anywhere Boone looked, and if he listened, he could hear the gentle hum of organic machinery that he'd come to associate with Taelon buildings, such as the embassy, but here it was more present, more immediate.

"Is the Mothership alive?" he asked, as Da'an took a left in an unmarked labyrinth and led them down a counter-clockwise corkscrew, and then right at a fork up a small loop that raised them up another metre and a half.

"All Taelon technology is based on organic principles," Da'an reminded him.

Sandoval seemed to have no interest in their surroundings, but Boone caught his curious glance as he waited to see what Boone would ask next. Boone rather thought that Sandoval was curious, but that since there was no need for him to know about the technology to do his job, he did not see the point in asking.

"But is it... I don't know... a lifeform? It doesn't feel like the embassy. I feel like-" Boone cast around for an appropriate phrase.

"You're being watched?" Sandoval suggested, quietly.

Da'an halted next to a ribbed section of wall that emitted pale blue light. He seemed almost translucent in its glow. "Very perceptive," he said. "The Mothership has a mind, less than a Human, though more than a skrill." He turned, and walked another few metres, before placing his hand on a bioslurry wall.

"Place your hands next to mine," he said.

Sandoval obliged, Boone only a second after, and Da'an flushed a bright blue, a pulse of energy coming from his hand, flooding the wall. Boone felt a tiny vibration under his fingertips, and then the wall retracted, the bioslurry pulling backwards with an audible slurp.

"The Mothership will recognise your access rights to this area," Da'an said. "Beyond here are the Taelon areas where no Humans are permitted. It has already been decided to make an exception for Implanted Humans, however, before now that has not been necessary. There was no need to summon any of you to the Mothership before."

"What's down here?" Boone asked, aware that he could be considered impertinent for such a question, but Da'an didn't appear offended.

"Personal quarters, my own included," Da'an gestured broadly. "Non-operational areas."

Boone glanced behind him, although the corridor was empty. "So, the Human crew are confined to operational areas."

"Yes, except for drive core operations."

"Da'an, forgive me," he said, trying to phrase things in such a way that it would sound more like an Implant hurt at being lesser in the Companions' affections, "But why are there non-Implanted Humans on the Mothership, when Agent Sandoval and I were never allowed here?"

Da'an smiled, and raised a hand. "Because they volunteered."

Boone glanced at Sandoval, who made the tiniest quirk of the eyebrow. Give it up, it seemed to say.

"I see," Boone said, although he didn't. More to the point, if non-Implanted Humans weren't permitted in the Taelon areas, what had Liam, who Boone guessed wasn't Implanted or he wouldn't have run, been doing there?

"This way," Da'an said, and led them deeper into the ship.

~*~

Lili got lost twice on her way back to the shuttle hangar, where she recalled seeing a Taelon enmeshed in some sort of spherical console. She hazarded a guess that he functioned as traffic control for the Mothership and its surroundings, and figured it would be a good place to start.

The Taelon, however, did not seem particularly receptive to her questions. "No unauthorised launches have been detected."

Lili licked her lips, trying not to show her unease. The Taelon was staring at her, and he probably had little contact with Humans, as he wasn't affecting blinking. There was something about that sort of thing that, to Lili's animal brain, seemed very wrong.

"I see, but have you seen anyone around here that shouldn't have been?"

The Taelon stared some more, and then said, "No unauthorised launches have been detected."

Lili held her breath until she could speak without sounding frustrated. She pulled out her global and called up her copy of the photograph of the mysterious 'Liam' turning to show it to the Taelon. "Have you seen this man?"

The Taelon's eyes flicked negligently down to the image, and then he reacted in a surprising fashion. He abruptly blushed bright violet, and his arms and fingers coiled sharply towards the body. It was the equivalent, Lili had learned, to a startled gasp and a backwards step in Humans.

"He is the one you seek?" the Taelon demanded, in a more animate tone.

"Yes," Lili said, slowly, unsure of what had caused the reaction.

"I will begin scanning all flight records for the last forty eight hours," the Taelon said, sharply, straightening, and sharply gestured to a nearby Human in black. "Drone," he said, calling the man's attention. "Assist Captain Marquette in accessing hangar security recordings."

The man nodded and stepped closer. He seemed barely old enough to shave, thin and gawky, and his dark skin was covered in what looked like a pale dusting of glittering powder. "Security recordings can be accessed from this console," he said to Lili, and gestured to a nearby console embedded in a wall.

The man, the 'drone' that the Taelon referred to him as, preceded her to the console, and activated it, fingers dancing across it to bring up what appeared to be a file directory. Lili might have noticed that it was a variation on the interface she'd designed for using Taelon technology, but she was more occupied by staring at the small, greyish thing, ribbed and tentacled, that emerged from the collar of the drone's jumpsuits, and went up to either side of his ear. She could just make out the slightly puckered flesh beneath the tendrils that she recognised meant that there was something growing under the skin.

The drone abruptly stepped back to allow her access to the console.

"Thanks," she said.

The drone made no response. His face was blanker than the Taelon's had been.

"What do you do around here?" she asked.

The man blinked once. "My primary concern is the ship and its crew."

"So you're a member of the crew? What's your job?

"My primary concern is the ship and its crew," he repeated in that same, dull tone. "Do you require further assistance?"

Lili bit off her words and glanced at the screen. She could follow the interface easily enough. "Yes, thank you."

The man walked off without acknowledging her further. Lili turned to the console, rummaging through what files she could, imagining the look on Jonathan Doors face when she reported everything to him.

~*~

The Taelons that Da'an led Boone and Sandoval past were all in their native form, tangles of energy skeins that turned to follow them with eyeless faces. Boone never found this as unnerving as Lili said she thought uncovered Taelons were. It never seemed alien to him, only different. Sandoval, of course, was indifferent to the whole thing. He walked silently behind Da'an as they were led through the maze of corridors, and Boone was grateful for the perfect recall his CVI provided him. He would have been completely lost otherwise.

Da'an came to an archway covered with thin bioslurry. Boone stared at the bulkhead surrounding the arch, and reached out to touch the darkened, burned spots. The bioslurry was solid, rather than the slightly resistant material he was used to, and felt almost like burned plastic.

"Did our escapee do this?" he asked.

Da'an made a negative gesture. "An engineering crew did," he said. "It was an emergency, and subtlety was not an option."

Sandoval and Boone looked at each other, but neither said anything. Da'an waved, and the doorway retracted.

Inside was a wide open space, with a padded floor that Boone's feet sunk immediately into. He glanced down, and prodded it with the toe of his shoe. The bioslurry gave immediately, having been fashioned into a spongy substance, like dense foam. The room itself was odd, with what looked like a bed sized for an adult Human extruded from the wall, a pillow on it and a quilt that looked like it had been picked up at a craft fair, brightly coloured and covered in patterns. There were toys pushed against the wall, stacked neatly to the side and out of the way, looking like they were intended for children of various ages. There was a single low table, too low for any adult, placed in the centre of the room, and beside it knelt a Taelon that Boone had never seen before.

"Gi'ra," Da'an said, in clear surprise, "You should not be here."

Gi'ra was cradling a piece of paper in his hands, clutching the edges tightly. "Where else should I be?" he asked, almost bitterly. "Liam is my charge, my responsibility. In his defiance, I have failed him."

Boone took a breath, debating whether to speak, but it was enough to draw Da'an's attention. "May I ask a few questions?"

Da'an seemed reluctant, but Gi'ra set the paper in his hands face down on the low table and raised his eyes to stare intently at Boone. "Ask your questions, Implant of Da'an."

Boone desperately wanted to know who this man was, and why he was so important, but he had to be circumspect. An Implant wouldn't care why he was important, only that he had been ordered to bring him back. He stepped forward, Gi'ra's eyes following him. "Can you think of why Liam escaped?"

"He desired to see Earth," Gi'ra said, "Such a wish he had conveyed to me previously."

Pointless to ask if he wasn't permitted. Liam had clearly been a prisoner. Sandoval spoke up. "Does he have any family on Earth he might seek out?"

"No." But Boone caught the minute flicker of the eyes towards Da'an before Gi'ra responded. There was a family, of some sort.

"How long as he been gone?"

"The last time I saw him was ship's night last. I came to wake Liam for the day, and found him gone. Before you ask, I saw no sign of how he left this room."

The doorway did appear to be the only exit. The walls for the rest of the room were smooth, and there were no convenient duct coverings that would allow someone to enter the maintenance crawlspaces.

"Thank you for your time," Boone said, raising his hands in the Taelon salute, realising that there was nothing else they could learn there, apart from one very important thing.

Gi'ra stood, abruptly. "You will not harm Liam," he said, sharply.

"Gi'ra," Da'an began, warningly.

"If harm should come to him, you will answer to me."

Da'an hissed a chastisement in Eunoia, and Gi'ra visibly deflated, almost literally, crumpling back into a sitting position on the floor. He picked up the paper he'd set down previously, and clutched it tightly. "He is nothing but a child," Gi'ra said, "Such a thing I thought I would never witness again, whether he was of my own kin or not."

Boone caught a glimpse of what was on the paper as Gi'ra tilted it slightly, allowing the light to shine through, giving a shadowy hint of what was there. His CVI did the rest. It was a drawing, childlike in its simplicity, of a Taelon. It was clumsy, but Boone would have had to guess that it was a picture of Gi'ra.

No wonder Gi'ra sounded heartbroken.

"We'll find him," he assured Gi'ra, trying to take away some of the misery that seemed to hang around Gi'ra's shoulders as if it were a heavy cloak.

Gi'ra didn't acknowledge him, and Da'an ushered them out. "Did you find what you sought?"

"I believe so," Boone said, before Sandoval could say anything.

Da'an inclined his head. "Good." He gestured to the hallway. "Please find your way back to the common areas. I believe Gi'ra requires my attention."

The two of them offered brief salutes, and then started back out of the Taelon area.

"And what, precisely, did we learn from that?" Sandoval said, a little irritated.

"Just one thing," Boone said.

"Oh? And what might that be?"

"That he didn't escape," Boone said. "He was let out."

Sandoval gave a disbelieving snort. "Only Taelons have access to this area. No. There has to be another explanation."

The problem with Sandoval's CVI was that he couldn't conceive of the Taelons working in any way against each other. In this situation, though, it was the only reasonable explanation that Boone could think of.

~*~

Lili's search of the security recordings turned up nothing, and Sandoval expressed an intention to remain on the Mothership to continue investigating. Boone was pretty certain that there wouldn't be any clues to be found on the immense ship, and so he headed back to Earth with Lili.

"Tell you the truth," Lili said, as the shuttle skipped across dimensional touchpoints, "That place was starting to give me the creeps. Not just the crew, but the geometry kept feeling... off."

Boone frowned slightly. "It looked fine to me."

Lili snorted, but said nothing.

After landing, they waited a respectable amount of time before making their way to the Resistance HQ, where Jonathan Doors took one look at Boone and said,

"You're not dead. Good. It'd be a pain to have to replace an inside operative with your access."

"Nice to see you too, Jonathan."

"That's not me being stoic," Doors said, unsmilingly, "That's me being serious."

Boone folded his arms and gave Doors a sardonic smile. "And that's why we all love you so."

Doors shook his head and sat down at the conference table. "So you two come in here, looking like news, so what have you got for me?"

The general atmosphere was still tense in the Resistance headquarters. Siobhan Beckett had come to the church, following Captain Marquette, but before she could come anywhere near the underground entrance to the church, Agent Sandoval had caught up to her. They'd exchanged brief words, and then left, the Resistance's secret base still secret. Lili wouldn't have been surprised if Doors had been prepared to abandon the base and set up somewhere else. For all she knew, that was still the plan, but Doors wouldn't tell her. She'd wondered for some time if having Boone and she knowing the location of the cell was a good idea. If they were interrogated by the Taelons, they could easily betray them. And all the people in the cell knew their faces, if any of them were captured by the Taelons, it could be disastrous.

Lili had to put her faith in Jonathan Doors, and that he knew what he was doing, because it sure as hell wasn't the way Lili would have run things.

Unsettled by all the revelations of the day, of the Taelon Mothership and what it contained, she found she couldn't sit. Instead she paced the floor near the table, while Boone sat down, looking as relaxed and loose as he ever did.

Boone laid out what the Taelons had wanted, that they were hunting for someone who had escaped from the Mothership, and the edict that he not be harmed, but instead returned to the Taelons.

"They want him badly," Doors said, thoughtfully, "How did he escape the Mothership?"

"I'm not sure it matters," Boone said, with a shrug. "Probably portalled to the moonbase and then inserted himself into a commercial portal projection to Earth. The point is that Sandoval's so occupied trying to trace Liam's steps that we can get ahead of him. He's definitely on Earth, we just have to find him."

Augur wasn't in the room, apparently he'd been occupied in one of the server rooms two levels down, but he came quickly when Doors summoned him, and he took one look at Boone and clapped him on the shoulder. "Mi amigo, you look like you've been through a warzone."

Boone shrugged slightly, running a hand self-consciously at the oddly pink flesh on his cheek. It was remarkably quickly taking on the tone of the rest of his skin, but it was still a noticeable aberration that Lili had to make sure not to stare at. "Pretty accurate, don't you think?"

"Don't worry," Augur said, cheerfully, "The ladies love a man with scars."

Boone chuckled, and Lili shook her head. The moment of levity, though, calmed her down, and she took a seat next to Boone as Augur slid into a chair on the other side of the table, dropping his laptop on the surface and slapping the keys to wake it up, and took Boone's offered global. He looked sceptically at its contents.

"This is all you have? A picture? No DNA scan? Fingerprints? Neural signature? Family history?"

"What you have there is all the Taelons provided." Boone took back the global, Augur having taken the picture and put it in his computer.

"Big Brother is slacking off," Augur said, looking disgruntled.

Lili leaned back in her chair and shot Augur a grin. "I thought you liked challenges."

Augur pulled a face, but his eyes glinted with anticipation. He was terrible at hiding his enthusiasm for a technical challenge. "Well, I'd at least appreciate a place to start."

"He disappeared less than twenty four hours ago. Probably hopped a commercial portal."

"Hmm." Augur stroked his goatee thoughtfully, brain already moving a mile a nanosecond. Lili could almost see him writing the code he'd need in his head. "Well, that does give me somewhere to start. I can put together a program to scan security recordings from Portal Terminals to see if his face was spotted at any of them. Might even be able to get a DNA trace if he went through one of the scanners. Any idea where he might have been heading to?"

Boone shook his head. "Not one."

Augur hissed softly. "That's a lot of security recordings. It might take a few days. Portal projections happen every few minutes now."

Doors raised his chin. "If the Taelons want this guy so badly, then we want him. I want to know what's so valuable about him or what he knows that they want him back intact, and why he has no file."

"Big job," commented Augur.

Boone smiled placidly at their hacker friend. "Then you'd best get started."

Lili leaned forward, lacing her fingers together and giving Doors a triumphant smile. "And while Augur works on that, we have a lot of stuff to tell you." She raised her eyebrows significantly. "About the Mothership."

Doors, for the first time, looked genuinely intrigued. "Go on."

~*~

Siobhan Beckett hated living in London. It was dirty, crowded and so noisy she thought that she'd forgotten what silence felt like. Shop assistants never looked you in the eye, and there was a general conviction that if you weren't from London, you were a barely literate Neanderthal. She sometimes thought longingly of the wide open spaces where she had grown up in Ireland, her aunt's farm not too far from Cork where she had spent days walking around the nearby woodlands with the dog. She could have lived further away from London, shuttles made commutes irrelevant, but that would have put her too far away from Hu'on, her Companion, and so it was inconceivable.

But one good thing about London was that if one happened to walk in any given direction for five minutes, one would walk into a coffee shop. This was a great relief, as Siobhan felt in dire need of caffeine.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the unmarked silver-grey car that had been trailing her all day pull into a rare parking space, while she also took note of the men who had been walking down the street behind her as they took up unassuming positions against walls, reading newspapers, or engrossed in studying an A to Z.

She knew she was being followed, because Hu'on had told her she would be. He had called her into the Embassy early in the morning, his normally placid demeanour showing clear signs of being disturbed, and told her that she would be followed from that moment on for an indefinite period of time.

"Is there a problem with my service to you, Hu'on?" she'd asked, genuinely concerned. If her recent loss of memory and injuries at Ha'gel's hands had left her in need of watching, if he thought that she wasn't capable of fulfilling her role as his Protector, Siobhan wasn't sure what she'd do. Fear bubbled up in her stomach that she'd failed her Companion.

Hu'on didn't seem to care about her distress. "There is no issue with your service. You are to be followed. Proceed about your normal routine and do not concern yourself with their presence. This is a direct order, Lieutenant."

And so, because her Companion ordered it, she was unconcerned. She dismissed worries about their presence as soon as they welled up, her CVI striking down any doubts or fears she may have held. But the early rise had meant that going back home was pointless, and so she'd retired to her office to work on paperwork, and it was now only nearing mid-afternoon and Siobhan realised that she hadn't eaten much for lunch. She didn't require much sleep, as an Implant, but her requirement for food was increased, and hunger unpleasantly dulled her senses, pangs distracting her.

So she made time for a coffee and a sandwich, and ignored her tails. She was turning away from the barista who had made every attempt to pretend that she wasn't there, intent on taking her light lunch back to the Embassy to continue preparations for Hu'on's attendance at the opening of Parliament in a few months time, when she ran straight into a solid wall of flesh and yelped reflexively as he upset the coffee, dumping it all down the front of her coat.

Siobhan's ire was instant raised. Fortunately, the scalding coffee hadn't been able to penetrate her coat, but it and the scarf were now ruined. "Watch yourself!" she snapped at her unwitting assailant. The coffee shop was crowded, but that was no excuse for carelessness.

"I'm so sorry," the man said, and his accent immediately gave him away. American. Typical. "Here, let me buy you another one."

Siobhan should have responded to that by throwing what little remained of her coffee in his face, and skrilling him through the window of the shop, but reminded herself that it was probably just the caffeine deprivation talking and that Companion Agents didn't conduct themselves in such a manner. It was a pleasant fantasy though, just for a minute.

She sighed heavily. "Fine. Large latte." Once upon a time she would have asked for it to be low fat, but the CVI did wonders for her metabolism.

The man smiled quickly, apologetically, and darted back to the counter to get her a replacement, leaving Siobhan to dab awkwardly at the spreading coffee stains with a handful of paper napkins. She was throwing them in the bin with vague disgust when her assailant reappeared, paper cup in hand.

"Here," he said, "I really am sorry. I'm Liam, by the way."

"Liam," Siobhan echoed, softly, as she took her new drink from him. Liam... She shook herself, mentally, and said, "Do I detect a little Irish in that American accent of yours?"

Liam looked embarrassed and shrugged, offering her a boyish grin. "A little. My mother's Irish."

"Ah," she said, "Come to this side of the pond to visit her?"

Liam nodded. "Yeah, we've never really... we haven't really had the chance to talk before. Circumstances kept us apart. There was... well... difficulties about my birth."

In spite of herself, she was curious. He reminded her of someone, though who she couldn't quite put her finger on. "A scandal?" she asked.

"A mixed marriage, sort of." Liam was looking at her with unnerving intensity, and half of Siobhan's brain was screaming at her to run, fetch the agents trailing her, and hide, and the other wanted her to stay, to make him talk to her some more, for him to explain why she got this nagging sensation that she should know him.

"That's a shame," she said, "Family's important."

Liam's eyes slid to the window, looking at the people outside. "I should let you get back to whatever you were doing," he said, "You look like a busy woman."

"I..." She faltered, unsure of what to say. Eventually she admitted that he was right, that she had duties to the Companions that didn't involve standing in a coffee shop, talking to a handsome stranger. "Yes, of course. It's nice to meet you, Liam." She held out her free hand for him to shake.

To her surprise, he took it and raised it, kissing the back of her hand gallantly. It didn't feel like a romantic gesture, it felt like he was paying her a great respect. "It was wonderful to talk to you, Siobhan. Thank you." He seemed terribly sad, and all Siobhan wanted to do was to understand why. She forced the feeling away with effort.

Siobhan gave him a small, confused smile, and left the coffee shop. It wasn't until she got back to the Embassy that she realised that she'd never introduced herself to the young man. She tried to tell herself that he must have seen her on the news in connection with the Companions. But still, that feeling of nagging familiarity lingered.

She looked at the back of her hand, and found that however much she used her CVI, she couldn't remember ever meeting him before.

~*~

It took three days for Augur's software to chew through the visual records of dozens of worldwide Portal Terminals. Da'an was still on the Mothership, though what he was doing Boone had no idea. Every twelve hours, Da'an called for an update, and when Boone couldn't provide any information, he shut off the connection quickly. Boone had so far been focussed in utilising the resources he had to continue the official hunt for Liam on Earth, setting Companion Agents on several trails, and allowing them to do the lion's share of the information gathering drudgework. Boone's largest problem in pursuing the investigation was that there was so little to go on that he was forced to wait for Augur to get any leads.

So he kept up his duties at Interspecies Relations, since there wasn't much else to be done. The problem was that an awful lot was backing up due to Da'an's unavailability. While Da'an was still taking calls from the President, since it wouldn't have been seemly to cut himself off from the US government, the more general appearances had suffered from his absence. Various lectures, appearances and openings had been sidelined, postponed indefinitely, and Boone was receiving increasingly agitated enquiries about when those commitments would be honoured, and Harriet could only do so much to deflect it. The worst were the press, who were speculating wildly and begging for comment.

Boone was contemplating the best form of rebuttal that wouldn't result in sending the gossip press into a frenzy when Augur called, and was grateful for the reprieve.

"I found him," Augur told him, triumphantly. He was plainly in his personal lair. Boone could barely make out the background thanks to the poor lighting. "Sort of."

"That doesn't sound especially promising," Boone said, and frowned at the image of Augur on the monitor.

"Give me a little credit," Augur scoffed. "I hit a brick wall until I realised that really I had to look for portal projections where more people came out of the ID stream than entered. Eventually I got a hit: Paris. I'm guessing that he took more conventional transport to Britain, because there's an image of him passing through the London Portal to Washington DC."

"Good work, Augur."

Augur held up a quelling finger. "I'm not done yet."

Boone, who had been halfway out of his seat, ready to chase down some leads, sat back down obligingly and waited. "Well?"

"He's using some sort of scrambler to get past the DNA scanners. They got a reading, but if you take a look at it with an expert eye, it's meaningless junk."

"Probably how he got past through the Portals off the Mothership," Boone said, and nodded.

"He's travelled under different IDs on both his trips, both of which were reported stolen by passengers in the terminals not long after he used them. Both those who got their pockets picked were a rough match for his apparent age and description."

"So we still don't have any clue who this guy is, is what you're saying?"

Augur tutted reproachfully. "Ye of little faith, Boone. Am I not a genius? The security cameras as the terminals allowed me to get a very good look at our mysterious friend, enough for me to get a nicely detailed look at his face. Enough points of reference that I can use the global identification database to find a match for his face without having to take the next few decades off to work on it."

"Nice. How long?"

"A few hours, maybe a day. I'll have gone through the entire system by tomorrow morning. If he's not in there, he doesn't exist."

Boone sighed heavily, and thought of the number of places someone who wanted to could hide in DC, assuming that he stayed within the city proper, and didn't immediately hop on the first bus out of town. There were a lot of places someone could hide, and Boone wasn't as familiar with the city as he could be. He disconnected from Augur and put in a call to Bob Morovsky.

"Hey, Bob. I was wondering, do you have any contacts in the DC precincts?"

~*~

"Captain Harvey Mulgrave," the man introduced himself with a guarded look and a handshake that seemed like he was trying to grind the bones in Boone's hand to a fine powder. He had glanced at the edge of the skrill that peeked out from under Boone's sleeve when he'd entered the bullpen, and his expression had hardened before Boone had even introduced himself. "Can I help you?"

"Bob Morovsky said you might be able to help me?" Boone could understand the distrust. Companion agents, Sandoval especially, had a habit of running roughshod over any sort of local law enforcement if it suited their needs. His colleagues in Taelon service had managed to gain a bad reputation for themselves that irked Boone, as it tended to interfere with his own investigations. Theoretically, that was part of the reason why Da'an had instituted the creation of Interspecies Relations.

Mulgrave's look of distrust instantly relaxed. "You're Will Boone," he said, "Bob said you were a good cop."

"You never stop being a cop," Boone said, sincerely, "Whether I'm a good one is up to other people to decide."

It was the right thing to say. Mulgrave jerked his head towards his office. "Come on in. Coffee?"

"Please."

Mulgrave poured two mugs from the steaming pot sitting on a hotplate. No doubt it was better coffee than the swill that constituted standard department fare. "So how can I help you?"

"We're looking for this man," Boone took a token sip from his coffee, and pulled a printout of their photo of Liam, handing it over. "We have reason to believe he might be in DC."

Mulgrave took the photo and stared at it thoughtfully. "You know," he said, "I heard about the manhunt, a couple of months ago, over west. I heard about how the Companions were hunting down someone, and six cops died. Good men, by all accounts."

If Mulgrave was a friend of Bob's, he'd no doubt heard of their disastrous hunt for Ha'gel. "This isn't like that," Boone said. "I have no intention of risking anyone's life. I'm just looking for information, not a manhunt. The Taelons, I think, want to keep this on the q.t." And if Liam was going to injure anyone, he would almost certainly have done so by now.

Mulgrave looked at the photo again, more carefully. "I don't recognise him off the top of my head," he said, "But we can run it through our databases, see if anything comes up."

Boone nodded. "That'd be appreciated."

Mulgrave took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. He opened a drawer and started rummaging around inside, coming up with a handful of sugar packets. He emptied three of them into his mug before he could sip it without wincing. "I can give you some hints that might help you, though. If someone really wants to disappear in this city, they head for the Fringe."

"The Fringe?" Boone frowned and shook his head. "Never heard of it."

"It's sprung up in the last couple of years since the Taelon arrival, and the advent of everything being routed through the System. You need food, shelter, whatever, you register with the System and you can access whatever you need. But if you don't want to be registered, you head for the Fringe. The last bastion of poverty, and, some say, privacy. Buncha anarchists, but unless there's a full blown riot, the cops keep away. Mostly new age folks, some minor criminals. Fringers like things kept quiet, though. They've been known to tip off the cops whenever someone truly nasty moves in."

Boone considered that, taking a hefty swallow of his coffee. It had an acidic edge, but it wasn't unappealing. Possible, Mulgrave just didn't like the taste but needed the caffeine hit to carry him through the day. Boone certainly remembered days like that. These days, his CVI did the work for him, in a way coffee never had. "Can we put the word out that there's a dangerous man in the Fringe? See if anyone tips us off?"

Mulgrave nodded. "We can do that." He gave Boone a guarded look. "I don't want to lose any men on this."

Boone shook his head quickly. "Don't take any action if your men get word that they've found him. Just give me a call." He handed his business card over to Mulgrave, it gave his global address as well as the phone number of ISR. "I'll take care of the rest."

~*~

Doors had been quietly beside himself ever since Lili and Boone had given their report about the Taelon Mothership and what was inside. Augur had been forced to endure his pacing for most of the last few days as Doors worked through the implications of the news.

"Humans on the Mothership," Doors muttered. Periodically he would speak up, giving voice to his thoughts. According to some members of the liberation, who had worked with Doors as he'd built up Doors International, it wasn't an unusual way of his to work. "Serving as crew to the Taelons. But why?"

Augur had thus far been ignoring Doors, focussed instead of running the searches Boone had required to try to find the Taelon's wayward prisoner. He was munching on a bowl of popcorn as he waited for searches to run and code to compile, wondering if he should add a bit more sugar.

"Implanted, and loyal," Doors continued, and abruptly slapped his hands down on the table next to where Augur was sitting, working. Augur, in spite of himself, jumped. "Because they don't have enough people to run the ship themselves."

He was addressing Augur directly now, and Augur belatedly realised that he was expecting a response. "Well, it is a big ship," he pointed out.

"It's a Taelon ship, the ship that supposedly brought them to Earth." Doors sat down, his fingers pressed together before him, and directed an intense look at Augur. It was the same look that had persuaded Augur to sign up to the resistance in the first place, and he'd forgotten how intimidating it could be to the unprepared. "So why would it be too big to hold the crew?"

Augur almost gave a glib response, but then thought the better of it and gave the matter a moment's serious thought. "Maybe it held the crew that have since come to Earth?"

"Only diplomatic and scientific staff transferred to the surface, not operational crew. They wouldn't need to recruit Humans for those positions if they had sufficient crew."

"But," Augur set his popcorn down on the table, "They got to Earth. They obviously had enough crew to fly the ship."

Doors sighed heavily. "And that's what bothers me. Why recruit Humans if they didn't need to? So far as we know, they've never been willing to have Humans on board before, Implants or not. From the sounds of it, this crew's been in place for a while." He dropped his hands, and his frowned deepened. "They've been taking people who wouldn't be missed."

"Boone said Da'an told him they volunteered."

Doors scoffed audibly. "And you believe that?"

"With the Taelon's track record, I'll admit it's unlikely." Augur canted his head sideways and gave Doors a shrewd look. "But you have to admit that there's plenty of folks who'd volunteer to work for the Taelons on board their ship, even if they knew they'd be getting implanted as a result."

Doors pulled a face. "Augur, sometimes I hate it when you're right," and he stood up and walked away, presumably to continue thinking on the puzzle of the Taelon Mothership.

Augur tried to eat a few more kernels of popcorn, but suddenly the sweetness stuck to his tongue and was sickly rather than appetising. Augur grimaced and pushed the bowl away. It would get eaten by others quickly enough.

He leaned forward, staring at his computer screen. It was nearly at the end of searching through worldwide records; he'd had to quietly coopt a few dispersed computation networks to accelerate the search from glacial to something that would be finished before both he and Boone died of old age. Nothing had come up so far, and with only two percent of records still to go, Augur had his doubts as to whether a record would be found. Admittedly, that last two percent was still several million people, but Augur was sceptical that anything would materialise.

Whoever Liam was, he didn't exist.

~*~

It didn't take long for Mulgrave to get back to him. Apparently, the cops had gone to pass information to the Fringers, and had been given a tip off by the man they'd approached to disseminate the information. According to the information Mulgrave had forwarded to him, Liam had been spotted dealing with a young woman in the Fringe who, it turned out, lived in some sort of trailer. Boone went alone, hoping to avoid Sandoval's attention.

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting with the Fringe, but what he'd seen hadn't been the ghetto he'd been anticipating. It was certainly more run down, that was for certain, with graffiti liberally decorating any available wall space, but the way that people had looked at him as he'd walked through the area marked him clearly out as a stranger, and he got the feeling that the community of this place was tightly knit. He flashed Liam's image at one or two, and was directed to small silver trailer tucked away in a sidestreet. They knew why he was there, and were clearly eager to get rid of him.

Boone hammered on the door of the trailer, the sound muffled by the gloves he wore to ward off the chill of an unusually long winter. The door was flung open to reveal a cheerful looking young woman with her hair dyed a bright shade of blue, who grinned at him, and said, "Hey, come on in, it's freezing out there, I know, right?"

She stepped back, beckoning him in quickly. Boone, surprised, hesitated before he entered. He hadn't been expecting such an eager welcome. He climbed the steps into the trailer, and had to admit it was definitely more pleasantly warm inside than out. The girl had dropped herself onto a seat.

"So, how can I help you?" she said, cheerfully.

"And you are?" Boone asked.

The girl wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "You really expect me to answer that? You're a Taelon agent, aren't you? Unless they start handing out those things-" she wiggled her fingers at his right arm, "-to anyone who asks."

"You're right, I am a Companion agent." Boone didn't see any point in lying. In that respect, the skrill was a bit of a giveaway. He offered a picture of Liam to her. "Have you seen this man?"

The girl leaned forward, giving the picture on the global a quick scan. "Nope, never seen him before in my life. Want a drink? I've got this fresh algae smoothie that's guaranteed to purge your system of any nasty toxins. And, ah, anything you've recently eaten'll go through you pretty quickly too, if you catch my drift."

Boone looked at the green sludge that she was offering and fought back a sudden wave of nausea. "Ah, no, thanks for the offer. Are you sure you haven't seen him?"

"I've got a good memory," she said, shrugged, and poured herself some of the sludge, swallowing it without any apparent distaste. "Sorry to disappoint."

Boone sat down on the long seat, a respectable distance between them. "Then what about the people who've seen him coming in and out of this very trailer?"

The girl was looking less breezily confident, and more wary as the moments went on. Boone held up a hand in an attempt to reassure her. "I'm not here to arrest you, or take you into the Taelons. But I do need to know where this man is."

The girl hesitated, and then shook her head sharply. "You know why people come to the Fringe, Mister Companion Agent? They don't want to be found, or catalogued or given a number." She bit her lip, and looked away. "If, if, I'd seen this guy, that wouldn't be why he came to the Fringe. He's not here."

"Do you know where he is now?" Boone asked.

The girl stared at him belligerently. "I don't know," she said, "And if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

Boone realised that there were two options available to him: he could keep questioning her, or leave. Since continuing to question her would have resulted in having to take her into either the liberation or the Taelons, he chose the latter. "I suppose there's not much point in asking you to contact me if you do see him?"

She offered him a small smile. "Not really."

Boone stifled a sigh and got to his feet. "Thank you for your time."

She tilted her head. "Don't worry, Mister Companion Agent, I think you'll be finding your friend real soon. Call it a hunch."

~*~

Millicent Hawthorne had been working as a receptionist at the Taelon's US embassy since they had first started advertising for Humans to fill staff positions. When she'd taken the job, she'd had images of being in close and constant contact with the mysterious aliens that had landed on Earth. The truth was that while she saw the staff coming and going, she had never seen Da'an in person, and of the Taelon's personal attendants, only Commander Boone had ever smiled and wished her a good morning as he'd entered. Still, simply saying that she worked at the Taelon embassy was enough to impress friends and family, even shutting up her mother, and so it wasn't such a bad job to have.

She'd become adept at turning away those who wanted to beg favours from the Companions, or journalists trying to sniff out a scoop. She, and the other receptionists, had been given basic self-defence training, and so when a crackpot had tried to barge his way into the building, she and Yuri, the other daytime receptionist, had disarmed him quickly and sat on him until security arrived to drag him away. Nothing phased Millicent anymore. But she still got frustrated when she was forced to deal with people who wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Sir, I'm afraid the rules are quite strict," she said, peering over the rim of her glasses at him. It was a look she'd cultivated, and it worked on more people than would admit to it. "If you don't have an appointment, you are not going to see the Companion. Da'an is very busy. I would advise you to call the public comm-code I have already provided you and make an appointment with the appropriate functionary. Alternatively, I can direct you to the office of Interspecies Relations, who will be happy to answer any Taelon-related queries you might have."

She had the entire speech well memorised. She gave it at least once per day.

The man was not to be deterred. He certainly didn't have the air of the crazy lunatic about him, in fact, he was rather handsome in a boyish sort of way, even if he did have a habit of staring a little too intensely, meeting her eyes too much. Yuri was fidgeting, Millicent could see, debating whether he should summon security to have the man removed. So far, though, all he'd done was politely ask to see Da'an.

His eyes flicked down to her name badge and back up again quickly. "Millicent," he said, giving her a broad, almost charming grin, "I'm afraid I don't have an appointment. Perhaps I can make one."

Millicent nodded, sharply. "Very good, sir. Swipe your thumbprint on the slate, please?"

The man, still grinning, pressed his thumb against the smooth black square on the reception desk, registering his ID and summoning the data for a security check. Millicent called up the general appointments calendar, and started browsing through the available appointments. He wouldn't be able to see Da'an, that was out of the question for a walk-in, but a level three functionary might-

Yuri made a choked sound that caught her attention, and Millicent turned her head to see him pointing at the security monitor. It was flashing a warning message: IMAGE MATCH FOUND. CONTACT CMDR. BOONE/AGT. SANDOVAL IMMEDIATELY.

Millicent blinked at the screen three times before she could find her voice. "Ah, sir," she said, struggling to sound calm. "I believe we may have someone to see you immediately."

The man's grin broadened. "I thought you might."

~*~

Boone arrived at the Embassy in the response to a panicked summons from the reception staff, to find Liam, the object of their search, sitting on the throne in Da'an's audience chamber, looking unconcerned by the presence of two very uneasy security guards.

"You can go," Boone said, dismissing them. They glanced at each other sceptically before Boone followed up his order with a glower worthy of Sandoval and they quickly withdrew.

"About time you got here," Liam said, cheerfully, slapping his thighs as he stood up and stepped down to the floor level. "Shall we get on with this?"

Boone was thrown. Here was a man who'd supposedly escaped from Taelon custody, something most people were not willing and eager to return to once they'd gotten away, and yet here he was, in the Embassy, looking utterly unconcerned and even upbeat. He'd stolen ID's and moved around, and suddenly he'd just returned?

"The Taelons have been looking for you," he said, gathering his wits about him, "You must be a very important man to them."

"Oh, I don't know about that," he said, with a shrug. "I'm just a man, really. Major Liam Kincaid." He pulled out a global that looked to be brand new, and handed it over. On the screen was a full service history, one that Boone knew very well, and also knew that it could not, under any circumstances, belong to the man in front of him.

Boone's eyes narrowed. "You're not Liam Kincaid."

Liam's grin just broadened, and he waved his hand, calling up the datastream and routing it to the Mothership before Boone could do anything to stop him. The image was that of Da'an and Zo'or, who had apparently been in conference, if the way they simultaneously turned towards the datastream was any indication. If Boone had ever wondered what two simultaneously shocked Taelons would have looked like, he no longer had to do so.

"Boone," Da'an said, after a brief pause, "You have succeeded."

Boone felt frustration welling up, and kept it from showing on his face due to practice and his CVI allowing him perfect control over his body. His face didn't flush, his eyes didn't dilate, and his voice didn't waver from its normal tones. "Not... exactly, Da'an."

Da'an turned his head slightly. "Then I anticipate your explanation with interest."

"He arrived at the Embassy of his own free will," Boone said. Both Taelons looked at each other and then back at him, perhaps awaiting some further explanation.

Boone looked at Liam, who looked back calmly. "He claims his name is Liam Kincaid," he said, when Liam failed to speak up. "Specifically, he claims to be a man I served with in the SI war. That is not this man."

"Obviously he isn't," Zo'or snapped, and glowered pointedly at Liam.

Liam finally decided to speak up. "I think it's time we had a talk, don't you, Zo'or? You, me, Da'an, and Commander Boone here."

Da'an looked displeased. "Commander, please remain with Liam. Do not allow him to leave the Embassy before our arrival."

"Don't worry, Da'an," Liam said, and looked past the datastream to the view out over Washington DC. "I'm not going anywhere."

He sounded so lost and alone that Boone had to wonder why Liam had come back at all. When the datastream dissipated, leaving Liam alone with him, he asked,

"Why come back? You went to a lot of effort to hide. Why return?"

Suddenly, and just for a moment, the grin slipped, and Liam directed a look at Boone that was pure, venomous spite. "I wouldn't expect an Implant to understand," he said, and then turned away, pacing across the room to stand by the window, looking out, presumably waiting for the shuttle.

Boone realised that even if he'd had a chance to speak to Liam regarding why the Taelons wanting him back, that he probably wouldn't have been heard. He'd done something to cause Liam to hate him. What that was, he had no idea.

~*~

Zo'or was the first to speak as the two Taelons entered the audience chamber. "Liam Kincaid? You have assumed a Human identity?"

Da'an paused, one foot on the step up to his throne-chair. His eyes went from Zo'or and Liam to Boone and he started to say, "Boone, perhaps you should-"

"Do not bother dismissing him," Zo'or interrupted with a sharp, cutting gesture. "Since Liam has seen fit to involve him in this situation, there is little point."

Da'an closed his eyes in a single slow blink. "You are correct," he said, and took his seat.

Boone, portraying the dutiful Implant, and not the Human who burned with curiosity, simply gave a small bow in acknowledgement and folding his hands in front of him, moving to stand just to the side of Da'an's chair, where he had a good view of all three. Zo'or had turned back to Liam, ire clear.

"How, precisely, did you accomplish this?" Zo'or demanded.

Liam didn't look threatened by an angry Taelon. He just grinned at Zo'or. "I'm a man of many talents."

"There are many things you could be called, Liam, and a man is not one of them."

Liam shrugged, unmoved by Zo'or's condemnation.

Da'an spoke. Where Zo'or seemed agitated, Da'an was calm, or perhaps it was simply that he was better at appearing that way to Boone. Boone had always wondered exactly how Zo'or could be seen to be a diplomat when every time that Boone had seen him he had been so tactless in nature.

"Why did you return, Liam? In all honesty, I could not condemn you should you have chosen to evade us as long as you were able among the Human population."

"What choice did I have, Da'an?" Liam said, pacing away from Zo'or and towards Da'an. "I could have stayed hidden but there was a very good reason why I should not. Humans and the Taelons need each other, and you need me."

"And why precisely do you think we need you?" Zo'or asked. He stepped close to Liam, close enough that most people would have instinctively leaned away from someone invading their personal space so thoroughly. Liam didn't flinch, although Zo'or was barely an inch away from him.

"You know why," he said, softly, "I showed you."

Zo'or flinched, and withdrew. Liam turned to Da'an. "I've seen the storm on the horizon," he said, "I know that something's coming, and if you and Humans don't work together, then everyone's doomed." He raised his chin slightly. "I'm the proof that you need, that proof that what you advocate is possible."

Da'an's eyes slid to Boone, speculatively, and part of Boone wanted to ask exactly what Liam meant by that, but this was neither the time nor the place.

Liam was still speaking. "I can help you, but I can't, or, more to the point, I won't do that from a cell in the Mothership. I'll work with you, but on my terms."

"Why should we accede to that request?" Zo'or asked, but more softly than he had been previously speaking. Whatever Liam had been referring to, it had served to cool his anger. "We are the ones who possess the power, here. Not you. We could simply incarcerate you, in more secure quarters than those you previously resided in."

"And you would learn nothing from me," Liam said, patiently. "I know the debate that rages in the Commonality, whether I'm a threat or not, whether I should die or not. But, if you wonder whether I mean the Taelons harm, then all you had to do was ask."

Zo'or and Da'an looked at each other, and then Da'an inclined his head, in agreement to something unspoken. Zo'or turned to Liam, and stepped forward, hand held upwards, palm outwards. Liam didn't hesitate to raise his own hand, pressing it to Zo'or's.

Zo'or inhaled sharply, flushing blue, and Liam closed his eyes, standing there and almost looking like he was asleep on his feet. Da'an watched them, fingers twitching, waiting for whatever they were doing to end. Finally, Zo'or opened his eyes, and pulled his hand away.

"I believe you," he said.

Liam smiled, but only slightly.

Zo'or turned away. "I presume your assumption of this Human identity is an attempt to force our hand in regards to your status? As is the revelation of this information to Commander Boone?" He stood in front of Boone. "He may be an Implant, but revealing anything to non-Taelons..."

"Commander Boone," Liam said, and there was a twisted note in his voice that caused Da'an's eyes to narrow slightly. Liam strode over looking at Boone, doing the same space-invasion trick that Zo'or had used. Boone managed to restrain the urge to step back, barely. Liam's grin was feral, unpleasant. "The murderer of Ha'gel."

"Liam," Da'an said, warningly.

Zo'or was smirking.

"Have you killed often, Commander?" Liam asked, tilting his head. "For the Taelons?"

"Ha'gel posed a threat to the Taelons," Boone said. Liam was close enough that he could see the flecks of his irises. "I performed my duty."

"You sure about that?"

"Liam," Da'an's voice was louder now, a sharp whipcrack. "Are Commander Boone's actions at the behest of the Taelons going to be a problem?"

Liam turned his head. "His orders were from the Taelon Synod," he said, "I know why you gave the order. You were afraid. You've all been afraid for a very long time. I don't hate you for that. I feel sorry for you."

Zo'or, who Boone would have expected to object to such a statement, said nothing, merely turning aside pensively.

"But Commander Boone here..." Liam looked at Boone, scrutinising, leaning close enough that Boone could detect the smell of the gel that Liam had used on his hair. "That's different."

"Liam!"

Liam stepped back quickly, and he looked towards the entrance of the audience chamber where, unnoticed, Gi'ra had arrived and was staring at Liam wide-eyed, hands opening and closing. Liam's reaction was nothing short of fascinating: he looked down at his feet and seemed almost... embarrassed?

Gi'ra crossed the room quickly, stopping before Liam. Zo'or withdrew to stand next to Da'an's chair, looking on with plain amusement.

"You have caused me great sorrow," Gi'ra said, sincerely.

Liam fidgeted, idly rubbing the palm of his left hand. "I didn't mean to, Gi'ra. You've been..." He hesitated, searching for the words, "You've been nothing but kind to me. I didn't mean to upset you."

"And yet, you did so," Gi'ra said. "I am aware I may have been complicit as a factor in your decision to leave. I have come to know you, Liam, and wish to assure you that I never intended for your discomfort or pain. Your presence has, to me, been an experience I never thought I would have again, and I-"

Liam quickly moved, and Boone had taken half a step forward to intervene before Da'an gestured for him to halt. Unnecessarily, as it turned out. Liam had thrown his arms around Gi'ra in a tight hug. The Taelon, shocked had been cut off mid-sentence, and his arms hung limply by his sides. After a moment, his hands came up and awkwardly patted Liam's sides. Liam took that as the cue to stand back.

"You've been nothing but the best caretaker I could have asked for in my situation," Liam said, kindly, "Thank you."

Gi'ra flushed, pathways visible for an instant. "Will you be returning to the Mothership?"

"I don't know," Liam turned to look at Da'an challengingly. "Will I?"

Da'an's fingers wavered in the air for a moment. "I believe," he said, "That we can convince the Synod of the wisdom in your continued freedom."

"But," Zo'or said, "Be assured that we will be keeping, as Humans say, a watchful eye on you."

"Fine by me," Liam said. He turned back to Gi'ra and gave a Taelon a smile. "Shall we?"

Gi'ra returned the expression, and he and Liam walked, side by side, from the room, Zo'or following soon after. Da'an remained, apparently lost in thought. Boone was starting to wonder if he should remove himself so the Companion could be alone, but before he could do so, Da'an spun his chair to face Boone.

"It occurs to me that I have been remiss in my duties here on Earth," he said, "As the immediate situation with Liam has been resolved, I do not believe it requires my direct monitoring anymore."

"Who is he?" Boone asked, looking at the ramp where Liam had last been seen.

Da'an turned his hand over, looking at his palm. "A hope," he said, "For both your species and mine." He set his hand down again. "You claimed to know the man Liam claims to be."

"Yes, he showed me identification that claimed he was a man I served with in the SI War."

Da'an raised his hand, opening a datastream and beginning a search. After a moment, the service record that Boone had been shown was displayed there. "So I see. I can only conclude that it is Liam's unusual sense of humour that has compelled him to this decision. I must impress upon you, Boone, the need for secrecy in this matter. You will reveal to no one that Liam Kincaid is not who he claims to be, not even to your fellow Implants."

"Yes, Da'an," Boone said, the dutiful Implant. "Do you want to resume your schedule right away?"

"That would be wise," Da'an said.

Boone nodded. "I'll contact Agent Sandoval and we'll set up the recommencement of your appearances. It would be prudent to issue some sort of press release regarding your absence. The press has been speculating wildly. My favourite story was the one that suggested you were pregnant and confined to the Mothership."

Da'an smiled in what for him was a very broad fashion. "That is highly unlikely," he said. "I will have Agent Sandoval issue an appropriate release."

Boone bowed and started to move away, but halted, something else occur to me. "There's one thing I don't understand," he said, "Liam..." He hesitated, and ground his teeth. "Kincaid." He might as well get used to the name now. "He referred to a 'storm on the horizon'. What did he mean? Is there a threat to the Taelons that I'm not aware of."

"Yes," Da'an said, with unexpected bluntness. "But the storm is still far away, and, as such, we have time yet. Do not concern yourself yet, Boone. Our plans proceed apace."

An answer, and yet one that told him nothing. One day, Boone decided, he would stop being irked by that.

~*~

"So we don't know why the Taelons wanted him," Lili said. She was kicked back on a chair in the resistance hideout, sitting next to Augur, who had pulled up a copy of the fake Kincaid' ID. Doors sat impassively at the head of the table. "But we know he went back to them of his own free will and made them agree to give him his freedom."

"I wonder what he has over them," Doors said, "You couldn't have tracked him down earlier?"

"I tried to," Boone said, a little irritated at Doors' implication that he hadn't been trying, "It wasn't my fault he turned himself into the Taelons. Besides, I'm not sure he would have listened to me even if I had caught up with him. He hates me."

Augur looked up from the screen, frowning. "Why? What did you do to him?"

"I don't know," Boone admitted, scratching idly at one of the puncture points where the skrill entered his arm. "But I think it has something to do with Ha'gel."

"Ha'gel? The alien criminal you shot?" Doors frowned. "What does he have to do with this man?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. But I think the Taelons were anticipating this outcome, that he would come back to them of his own free will. Otherwise I think they would have had Sandoval and I involved an all out manhunt, rather than conducting discrete enquiries."

"And there's the fact that a Taelon letting him out is still the best explanation for his escape from the Mothership," Lili said, "This might have been their plan all along."

"The Taelons are masters of the convoluted." Doors drew in a deep breath as he composed his thoughts. "We need to keep an eye on this Liam Kincaid. If he's close to the Taelons, then we need to keep him under a close scrutiny. Lili."

Lili blinked. "What?"

Doors looked at her significantly.

Lili scowled, and came out of her relaxed posture, planting her feet firmly on the floor. "If you expect me to seduce him-"

"Don't be ridiculous," Doors said, waving his hand, "But you're the only other operative we have in the Taelon hierarchy who even approaches Boone's level of access. If Boone can't get him to talk, then you have to try."

Lili huffed, though it was clear she was relieved at what he had said. "That I can do."

"I've been taking a look at his file," Augur said, "It's definitely fake, we know that much, but it's good, really good. If I hadn't known it was false, I wouldn't have been able to tell. Someone good put this together, someone as good as me. Definitely not anyone the Taelons have on their payroll."

"Any ideas?" Doors asked.

"A few," Augur stroked his beard in thought. "Let me dig into them and I'll get back to you."

Doors nodded. "In the meantime, let's talk about the Taelon Mothership. We need to find out more about the Human crew, and why they're up there."

~*~

Liam Kincaid stood before Quo'on, leader of the Synod, and endured the Taelon's scrutiny. Zo'or stood not too far away, looking on silently. He was very different from the Taelon that Liam remembered building blocks with. Maybe it had been easier for Zo'or to deal with him when he'd been so small and harmless. Liam couldn't help but feel a little regretful that such simple activities were apparently barred to him now.

"You present a convincing argument," Quo'on said, "Given that you have persuaded Zo'or and Da'an to endorse your point of view, the Synod was very unlikely to resist. In any event, you will not be confined to the Mothership. Exactly what your role will be, we have yet to determine, but if you are sincere in your desire to aid the Taelon agenda then your help will be gratefully received."

Liam bowed his head, and Quo'on raised a finger in warning. "But, I have a question for you of my own, independent of the Synod's query." When Liam nodded, he said, "You are Kimera. We killed your parent. We destroyed your race, erased your mother's memory. Why would you not wish to destroy us?"

"You have to trust me, and what Zo'or saw in my mind." Liam shrugged, and smiled wryly. "I know that trust is a foreign word to the Taelons these days, but you have to trust that I don't want to see Humanity dead, and if Humanity is to survive, the Taelons must survive. You know this as well as I. If you don't believe I want to help the Taelons, believe I want to help Humanity."

Quo'on was silent for a long moment then said, simply, "Zo'or."

Zo'or stepped forward at the summons.

"As you have vouched for this hybrid's intentions, then you will be responsible for his continued good behaviour. You will have to answer for him."

"I understand," Zo'or said, promptly.

"Then it appears our discussions are at an end," Quo'on said, "Your fate and ours are now bound. For the sake of us all, I hope that you are telling the truth."

Liam offered the Taelon salute, a gesture that had once belonged to the Kimera, one that signified no threat was presented to the one being greeted, one palm directed harmlessly towards the sky, the other towards the chest to show that harm would be done to one's self before the other. It was among the many gifts that the Kimera had given to the Taelons, and Quo'on returned it, perhaps never realising the irony.

~ End ~