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Meeting with the aliens

Wendy had only been on SeaQuest for a few days when she got called to the Ward room. There was Captain Bridger, Commander Ford, Lucas and Ecco. There were also three men who had introduced themselves as General Thomas, Commander Scott Keller and Lieutenant Reinhardt.

"As you all may or may not know, the former SeaQuest had an extra terrestrial encounter.

Commander Ford, will you show us the footage?" said General Thomas.

"An extra terrestrial encounter? Aliens?" Wendy thought confused.

Ford pressed a button on the remote and an image of the old SeaQuest Sea deck showed up on the monitor. Then she saw Darwin and beside him, by the moon pool was… An alien.

Wendy was stunned. A quick look around the room told her that she was the only one surprised. She vaguely heard the men planning, and she tried to catch Ecco's eye, but he listened attentively to what the others were saying.

Then Lieutenant Reinhardt took the remote and pressed play. Wendy saw two SeaQuest crew members holding up guns towards one of the aliens. The alien simply directed its arm towards them and the two men just dissolved into thin air. Wendy gasped.

"You were getting to this part, weren't you Captain Bridger?" said Reinhardt

She heard Bridger answer something about a de-ionization process. Wendy caught Ecco's eye.

"Don't worry," she heard his voice inside her head. "They don't mean us any harm."

She had a hard time to believe that after what she just had seen.

Wendy had a difficult time to wrap her head around what she had just been shown on the monitor. So when she was called to Sea deck to investigate some mysterious infection that Darwin had gotten she welcomed the distraction.

"Will he be alright?" Lucas asked.

"He's going to be just fine."

She heard O'Neill say that the aliens were responding to the signal. Her whole inside jumped when she realized that the aliens were actually coming!

They rushed up to the bridge, just in time to see their ship through the sea view window. Wendy could hardly believe what she saw; the ship was practically a rectangular box. Then from somewhere underneath the ship a smaller shuttle released itself and went to the SeaQuest Docking bay.

Wendy followed the others to the Docking bay.

The computer said that the docking was complete and Bridger ordered Henderson to open. The door opened and revealed three aliens, much like the ones she had seen on the video earlier.

"This can't be happening" she thought amazed.

The aliens slowly descended the stairs. Their leader looked around at all the people and Wendy saw that its eyes stopped at Ecco. Then, in unison, the three aliens bowed. He answered the gesture equally courteous. That amazed her more than the aliens themselves, that they seemed to know one another.

"But how would that be possible?" she thought.

Bridger seemed as taken aback as she felt, but he soon collected his wits.

"Ah, on behalf of all the people of our confederations, we welcome you," he said.

In the Medical room at the Center for Marine research Wendy, with the help of Ecco, conducted a series of tests on the aliens.

"So, how are you holding up?" he asked. "It's not every day you get to meet aliens"

"Well, I think the first shock has subsided now. But I'm still curious why they greeted you so civil."

Wendy saw that he threw a quick glance at the aliens working on the treadmill.

"Beats me," he smiled and something told her he was lying. But if he didn't want to tell then she wouldn't pursue it.

She was heading for the Conference for the room for the Q & A when she was intercepted by General Thomas.

"Doctor Smith, you are a psychic, am I right?"

"Yes," she already had a feeling where this was going.

"I want you to read the aliens."

"I see. But why don't you ask Ecco? His powers are much greater than mine."

"Well…" the General seemed to look for the right words. "I know he's a psychic too, but we got to make use of your powers as well, don't we?" he smiled, but the smile felt hollow. Wendy got the distinct impression of a slight fear from the General at the mention of Ecco's name.

"So, you'll do it?"

"I don't like to read someone without their consent."

"I'm not asking, Doctor."

"Well, I'll try," she said diplomatically. A part of her was actually curious about the aliens.

They had all gathered in the conference room. The Q & A had hardly begun when she got a nod from General Thomas. Wendy took a deep breath and focused on the leader of the aliens. She sensed a restless anxiety, a worry that they were running out of time. Then it was like she hit a brick wall. She could not sense anything else. At first Wendy thought it was the alien blocking her, but then as she tried to push through she felt that the wall in fact came from Ecco. She looked up and saw a stern look on his beautiful face.

Wendy felt confused. How had he put up that wall? She had never heard of such a thing of a third party interrupting a link. And why had he done it?

After the Q & A, they took a bit of fresh air outside the Center. Wendy walked up to Ecco. He was wearing sun glasses so she couldn't see his deep blue eyes. She spontaneously tried to read him, but he felt totally blank and that threw her a little bit.

"How come you stopped me from reading the alien?"

"That was a dangerous thing that you did, he said. "We don't know these aliens, I mean, you could've accidentally started a war or something," he smiled slightly and now she could feel his concern for her.

"But how did you do it? I've never heard of anyone breaking a link between two people like that."

"Oh, it's easy. I f you want, I'll teach it to you some day."

Wendy wasn't sure if that was a power she wanted to have.

"You know, you have a lot of potential as a psychic. Don't be afraid to explore that side of you. Let me know if you want any help in developing your skills," Ecco said.

"Thank you for your offer," she answered.

They were all back at SeaQuest, on Sea Deck. Wendy had heard about the abduction of Commander Ford, Lieutenant Brody and Lucas, and she was deeply worried. Commander Keller was holding a drawing that Dagwood apparently had made. It was the same pattern as what he referred to as Darwin's tattoo.

Henderson came in with Dagwood.

Bridger held up the drawing.

"Did you do this?"

"Yes," Dagwood answered.

"What does it mean?"

"I don't know. Is Lucas ok?"

"I hope so."

"Was there anyone who told you to draw them?" Wendy asked, thinking someone might have been communicating with Dagwood telepathically.

"No. I just did it, all by myself.

"I think the aliens were sending a message, to Dagwood and Darwin," Wendy said.

"Why would they do that?" Bridger asked.

Wendy shrugged. She couldn't understand much of this either.

Then O'Neill came in. Bridger showed him the drawing and he suggested that maybe it was Temecuan. Wendy didn't pay anymore attention to what they were saying. She instead turned to Darwin in the pool and closed her eyes, rid herself of all emotions so that she would be open for new ones, and tried to read Darwin. But he was silent. After a few minutes she gave up and then she realized that everyone had gone except for Ecco, who was sitting on one of the stairs.

"He didn't want to talk?" he smiled.

"Ah, no. It's all very strange, don't you think? Why would the aliens send a message ahead that we can't read?"

"Maybe it wasn't meant for us to read," Ecco said.

"Then who is supposed to read it?"

"I don't know, I'm just speculating."

Suddenly the whole day seemed to catch up with Wendy. She felt unnaturally tired.

"Well, it's late, I think I'm off to bed, she said and managed to suppress a yawn. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Wendy was asleep almost before her head had hit the pillow. When she woke up the next morning, she didn't remember a thing about the aliens.