Dangerously Clueless People

"Something's happened. There are soldiers everywhere out there," John noted, staring out of the window into the wet and misty street.

~Keep your voice down, John, she'll be back any minute with the toast and we don't want to give ourselves away,~ Carol sent back to him, irritated by his apparent lack of caution.

"Don't worry so much. I'll sense if anyone's coming," John pointed out.

They were having breakfast in Ambleside, a quaint, traditional little place, very friendly. The front room of the house had been converted into a dining area, and right now John, Carol and Elizabeth had it all to themselves. John had finished eating and was now occupied with the mystery of what was going on outside.

Chris had tried to talk them into staying at a small guest house across the road from him, but now they had the belts programmed they had the ability to flit backwards and forwards with ease, and they were hoping that being in Ambleside itself they might stumble on a little useful gossip from the proprietors of the bed and breakfast, or the other guests.

Of course with the radiation scare there were no other guests in the place to gossip with. Practically no other overnight tourists in the whole town. The landlady had been talking to others in the trade and only one other bed and breakfast she'd spoken to had anyone staying there, and that was a bunch of teenagers. Carol was thankful they'd avoided that place, John would have spent the whole time doing nothing but complain about the younger generation.

John, of course, had found other things to complain about. Like the unusual activity in the street, he was sure that couldn't be anything good. He was also complaining about the landlady, a little unfairly, Carol felt. The attention they were getting as the only guests there was excellent to the point of being overwhelming, and John was wishing they could have a little less of it.

"Who exactly is the extra toast for?" he asked, noting that the others looked pretty much finished as well.

Carol shrugged. "We told her no, but she didn't appear to hear. Really though, if I eat any more, I don't know. I'd forgotten how unhealthy Earth food was."

"Didn't stop you clearing your plate and asking for seconds," John noted, much to Carol's irritation.

"Just being polite," she replied pointedly, and went back to her bacon and eggs.

Moments later the landlady walked in with more toast and a newspaper which Elizabeth grabbed.

The landlady noted John staring at the activity outside. "Terribly worrying all this radiation scare. Not that I want to scare off my only guests, but I feel so sorry for those two kids they're looking for. Tragic really. Well, if you want anything more, just let me know," she smiled.

Carol thanked her as she left the room. ~Two kids? You don't think?~

"It is." Elizabeth confirmed. She handed the newspaper to John.

John scanned through the front page story. "No mention of the other two, so the authorities must have them. And if these two are trying to keep one step ahead of the authorities, then this is not going to make it easy for us to head them off." John was frustrated.

"Take a closer look at the picture." Elizabeth prompted.

"I recognize the boy, Kal-umun. The medical student that got himself suspended from med school for inappropriate conduct, whatever that meant. The other..." John shook his head. "Have you reconfirmed the passenger manifest? The bureaucratic idiots must have screwed up and given us the wrong identification photographs."

Carol grabbed for the newspaper, feeling left out of the conversation.

"No. I double checked all that before we headed here," Elizabeth continued. "And photographs apart, the rest of the people on board were upwards of being in their fifties, she isn't any of them."

"A stowaway? How did a stowaway get on board. That's all we need. A stowaway and a school dropout. Explains the sorry state of the relay beacon."

"They're just kids," Carol argued, although she could understand John's frustration.

"Kids who'll be dead if we don't catch up with them within twelve hours . And please tell me that isn't the daughter of that Kal-umun's former med school's principal. Last thing we need right now is a diplomatic incident with the Habiruan."

Elizabeth shrugged. "It really doesn't matter who it is, does it? Whoever it is, we're here to rescue them. We do what we're here for. We keep on and on after them..."

"And hope we get to them before we run out of time," John finished her sentence.

"If the military is focussed on searching the town here, that could help. They might have reduced the number they have guarding that farmhouse," Carol specu lated.

John wasn't so sure. "I wouldn't count on anything right now. But we're running out of time. So I'll go and settle our bill here You two get back to Chris and start getting everything ready. I want to be ready to jaunt in there no later than 7:30 AM."


~I don't like this. There are soldiers everywhere out there.~ Damon noted, staring out of the window. ~What do you think, just try and walk out of here the four of us, blag it?~

~Worst thing we could do is act suspiciously.~ Jake agreed. ~But Kristen, keep Kal up there for now.~

Kristen was still up in the room with Kal, Jake and Damon were downstairs having breakfast. Kristen had claimed not to be hungry, although it was more the fact that a cooked breakfast held little appeal for her. Kal was still asleep, they planned to let him lie in until it was time to check out, give him as much chance to catch up on lost sleep as they could..

"Yesterday was sunny. Today it's pissing it down." Damon spoke out loud, figuring they would look suspicious if they remained silent the whole time they were sat in there eating.

Jake munched on his sausages. "It's a bank holiday weekend in November, what the hell did you expect?"

~I hadn't thought it was all that sunny here yesterday,~ Kristen was keeping track of the conversation from upstairs in her room. ~And yet somehow the both of you managed to end up sunburnt. What did you do, hike up the mountain without shirts on?~

Jake and Damon glanced guiltily at each other.

Kristen picked up on the emotion. ~No, I'm not even going to ask.~ She had concluded that discretion was definitely the better part of valor there.

Jake was still eating. ~So how about it, little boy, any chance you can take a wander outside, get an idea of what's going on there.~

~How?~

~I don't know, just, do I have to tell you how to do everything?~

~No, but that's never stopped you trying before.~ Damon glared confrontationally at Jake for a moment, then gave a shrug and headed out.


"I've printed those off." Chris wheeled himself over to the printer in the corner of the living room to pick up the sheets it was busy churning out.

John took a marker and began to draw on the aerial photographs pinned up on the wall board. The living room of Chris's apartment at the care home wasn't the ideal place to be planning the mission, but it was better than they'd have had otherwise, and Chris was more than thrilled to continue to be of use to them.

"We have two signals," John briefed them. "I'm trying to match up the readings between the transponders and the Earth global positioning satellite system, which is difficult without a proper cross reference, but I think we can estimate this is accurate to within about ten meters."

Carol studied the pictures intently. "These aerial photographs are useful, internal floor plans of the buildings would be better."

"The internet is wonderful, but it can't replace TIM. Once we're inside the buildings, without a reference we'll be working blind. This farm isn't all that big, which doesn't give us many options. The trick will be to jaunt in as close to the transponder source as possible, but not too close, we need to remain undiscovered. The job will be hard enough as it is, once they are on to us it will become nearly impossible."

"They're most likely to have the heaviest security around the survivors. However hard we try, we aren't going to stay undiscovered long," Elizabeth didn't much like the look of their chances.

John kept his focus on the practicalities. "Don't forget, it will take two of us to lift each one of those capsules out of there. That means two trips."

Carol agreed, "By which time they will know we're coming."

"Where are we planning to jaunt the capsules to. No offense, your apartment isn't small, Chris, but four capsules in here is going to raise suspicions." Elizabeth tried to be diplomatic. "It's bad enough the looks we get from that woman on the front reception with just the three of us visiting."

Chris smiled. "She's nutty as a fruit cake is that one. Nice enough, but nosey, that's why she loves being on reception, gets to poke her nose into everyone's business."

Carol reminisced, "It's a pity we had to decommission the old lab. We couldn't use that store room, the one in the basement of Debenhams could we?"

John wasn't enthusiastic about the idea. "The further we have to jaunt carrying those capsules, the riskier the navigation is going to get. Jaunting them all the way back to London without TIM to help, that's pushing it."

"There's an old barn out back here. Used for storage, no one ever goes there," Chris suggested.

"Sounds perfect." John preferred that idea. "We'll go down there, program the belts to be able to bring us back there."

"What about the last transponder?" Elizabeth asked.

John thought for a moment. "Monitor it, if it moves then we need to be ready for one of us to jaunt there immediately, my guess is that the two survivors who escaped will have to head back there at some point, but they're not in any immediate danger right now. Our first priority has to be the two who are still in the hands of the Earth authorities."

"What about the two empty capsules?" Elizabeth asked.

"We can instruct those to self-destruct when we're on our way away from here." Carol suggested.

Chris was curious. "You have to destroy all traces?"

"You know as well as we do the dangers of the Earth authorities getting their hands on alien technology." John reminded him. "We destroy everything. It's the only way we can be sure."


'Hitchhikers Contaminated: Can You Help?' Kristen slammed the flyer down on the bedside table.

Jake had no clue what to say, he could appreciate her frustration. Another part of him had some admiration for whoever had come up with the cover story. It was kind of clever, admitting to a clerical error, saying they'd been given the all clear when in fact they shouldn't have been. Inquiry underway, but in the meantime it was critical that the two people in the fuzzy CCTV photograph were tracked down and properly decontaminated. It was simple, it was convincing, it complicated things a lot.

Kal was sat on the bed, silently watching. He still looked pretty tired, but much as they had wanted to let him sleep, he needed to be involved as they discussed what to do.

Damon was feeling bad about being the bearer of bad news. Sure, the situation wasn't his fault, but he still felt bad. He'd headed out to try and get information, and unfortunately he'd succeeded. It hadn't been all that difficult a task, the soldiers had accosted him almost immediately to give him the flyer that explained everything. As usual when things went wrong he found himself looking at Jake for ideas. "What do we do?" he asked.

Jake was frowning. "I'm thinking."

"What the hell am I going to tell my mum? What the hell happens if she sees that?" Kristen was agitated.

Jake looked up at her. Fixing that was simple. "Call her now. Make it into a joke, tell her you already had three friends call and ask if you were okay, and you honestly didn't think the picture looked anything at all like you, but obviously someone did. Tell her you haven't been anywhere near any radiation, but you plan to keep a low profile today because if, you know, pick the name of some close friend, if they can make that mistake, you don't want to end up being decontaminated for something you didn't do. Then ask her if she thinks the picture looks anything like you, make out the picture is ugly, the hair isn't you at all, too fat, too skinny, whatever. Get her to agree with you that it couldn't be you. Hey, point out you don't have a top like the one the girl in the picture is wearing, your mom will spot that easily, then tell her actually you like the look of that top and might just get one like it, but obviously not until after they find this girl. Joke about it like it's silly and irritating, but don't overdo it."

Kristen grabbed her phone and stepped out into the hall to make the call.

Jake resumed his cogitation, he just wasn't having many good ideas. The CCTV photograph was so widely distributed now that it was really going to screw up anything he could do to explain it away. Separating Kal and Kristen would help, people would be less likely to recognize them apart, but that didn't solve the basic problem. Sooner or later they were going to get spotted. There was no way they could get through another ten or eleven days of this if that was how long the rescue ended up taking, assuming they turned up at all, but he decided that was a pessimism he intended to keep to himself.

"A haircut might help. Worked for me, my face was all over the newspapers and no one ever recognizes me now." Damon suggested.

"You volunteering?" Jake responded cautiously, ignoring Kal's obvious discomfort. The idea had some merit.

"I got scissors. One of us is going to have to do it." Damon grinned. Kal looked even more worried.

Jake shook his head. "And you have a smile on your face that says Vidal Sassoon meets Freddy bloody Krueger. You should not be that happy about this opportunity."

~Do I get a say in this?~ Kal interrupted them.

"No, not if you want to live," Jake pointed out.

Kal looked intently at them. They were serious. He resigned himself to getting a haircut.

"What's the problem?" Damon asked as he brandished pair of scissors he seemed to have conjured out of his sports bag. "This against school rules as well?"

~Actually, yes.~ Kal replied.

Damon pushed a towel around Kal's shoulders and started cutting indiscriminately. "Then you should be happy. You get to break more school rules. And tell me this isn't as fun as the other rules you broke!" Damon challenged sarcastically.

~Jake's right, you are getting way too much pleasure out of this,~ Kal noted nervously.

Kristen came back into the room and did a double take at the bizarre sight of Kal getting a hair cut. For a moment she reacted like she'd walked in on something inappropriate and looked like she was about to turn around and walk right back out again.

"You get through?" Jake asked.

"What?" she asked, distracted, then caught herself. "Yes. No problem, it worked. And for the record, I know we can't kill, but Damon will learn that there are things more painful than death, like a swift kick in the bollocks if he thinks he's cutting my hair to try and make me less recognizable as well. Any progress on figuring out what we do next?"

"I think I'm over-thinking this," Jake conceded. "The best plan here, on account of I can't think of one, is no plan. The further we are from here, the better our chances. Let's just get in the car and drive. We get worried about any checkpoints, you guys can get out, jaunt past and we'll pick you up further on down the road."

Kristen shrugged. "Sounds good enough to me. Anything that means I don't have to look like that," she gestured at a Kal, now almost unrecognizable with short spiky hair.

"Okay people, let's pack up, I'll go pay for all this. Damon, if he can ever wipe that silly grin off his face, can get to the car, the rest of us can jaunt directly there to him. Got to say though, the haircut idea worked."

Kal could sense they were looking at him. He was not too happy that they seemed to think he now looked pretty dorky, on the other hand he was reassured by how effective they seemed to think the result was. He could handle looking silly if it kept him alive. ~Trying to stay alive is all I can do. The rescue ship will be here. We just have to have faith.~

"You're that confident?" Kristen asked him. Jake had told her about the quarantine warnings.

Kal was pragmatic. ~No. But I'm not giving up until it's game over. Faith is all I have.~


John was impatiently checking his watch. It had gone 8:00 AM already, and they were still at Chris's. The barn had turned out to be more cluttered than Chris had remembered. They'd managed to clear a little space, but they were out of time, they had to get moving now.

Carol was coordinating the jaunt with Elizabeth.

"So what have you got?" John asked.

"Not so many people milling about this morning. But it's still not easy to get a clear reading. We think there's an area here adjacent to the main garage that we can jaunt in to. From there, I don't know. The capsules seem to be under constant guard."

"No surprise there." John agreed.

"Can't you cause some kind of diversion, distract them while you move in?" Chris suggested.

"Or maybe we could pretend we're there to clean the telephones or something like that?" Elizabeth tried.

"There are surveillance cameras all over the place,"

Carol pointed out. "Whatever we try, the element of surprise isn't going to last long."

John had another worry, a conversation with Chris he'd had the day before about the police state the country seemed to be turning into. "If they see us on camera, are they going to be able to use the biometric scans on our identity cards to track back to who we are?"

Chris shook his head. "The photographs I submitted were modified, the automated face checking identification isn't likely to recognize you at all. the software isn't that good."

"So these ID cards are useless?" Carol asked, wondering why Chris had bothered to go to all the trouble of getting them cards that didn't work.

"Anybody looks at the card, they'll figure your face matches, it's only the automated systems that'll fail. Visual checks are all they're ever used for, and most people trust them implicitly for that. Makes it really easy to scam them," Chris explained.

Elizabeth stared in disbelief. "So these ID cards are worse than useless?"

Chris shrugged. "Depends which side you're on. They're great if you actually want to get up to no good. Only the innocent have anything to worry about. Every now and then the ID checks screw up and innocent people get hauled off on suspicion of terrorism, but as the government says, it's a small price to pay for security."

"I never thought I would say this, but I'm so glad we don't live here any more," Carol confessed.

John tried to nudge them back to the matter at hand. "We'll jaunt in where you said. Let's try and keep out of sight if we can. Remember, we have only eleven hours and counting."


~Military, here, downstairs, now.~ Jake came running back up the stairs and into the room, breathless, it had taken him a lot less time to sort out the bill than they'd expected. He wasn't looking happy. "They're going door to door, they want to talk to everyone. They'll be knocking here before any one of us can get far enough away to jaunt the others past them. We're screwed."

Damon looked around, desperately trying to look for somewhere they might be able to hide Kal long enough for one of them to make an escape. He found himself staring out the window, and another idea occurred to him. "Out onto the roof, we can jaunt across the road out the back, there's plenty of cover out that way, and we have mobility on our side."

"Go." Jake didn't wait for anyone to agree or to complement Damon on the idea, he pulled the window open and started heaving the bags out through it. He paused to let Kristen and Kal out, then he and Damon brought up the rear.

Jake immediately felt nervous looking at Damon and Kristen standing ever closer to the edge, both of them peering over, which wasn't easy in the pouring rain. He figured he would stick close to the window, let them jaunt down, then he would jaunt directly to their location. He'd never done it before, but he figured the motivation of being scared shitless should help him learn quickly.

~Can't get a clear view of that yard from here. I can see down to the alleyway but that doesn't help us, we'd still need to get past the soldiers that way.~ Damon called out.

Kristen was having more luck. ~Think I can see it if I get around the edge here, only one of us needs to see down there to jaunt.~

Jake couldn't watch, she was way too close to the edge for his comfort, reaching around the chimney stack to try to get to the other side, presumably for a better view. Jake closed his eyes, thankful he wasn't expected to help out. He could never have gotten that close to the edge.

His eyes were still closed when it all went wrong.

Kristen was talking while she was trying to get round the chimney stack. She felt momentarily unsteady and grabbed at the brickwork. Which would have been fine if the mortar holding the bricks together hadn't long since crumbled. The corner of the chimney gave way and she found herself clutching emptiness.

~Jaunt anywhere, now.~ Jake screamed at her, opening his eyes as she started to fall.

He saw the faint yellow glow and watched her fade from sight. Hope turned to despair as he saw her reappear inches above the ground. Closer to the ground, but still falling as fast as she had been four seconds earlier. He heard the thud and looked away. He couldn't look. His eyes started to tear over. Piece of piss he'd said. It was his fault, he'd told her to jaunt.

He glanced up, Damon and Kal had already jaunted down to the back alley. He could sense Damon, silent and distraught. Jake tried to remain functioning. He had to jaunt down there. How the hell was he going to explain his way out of this one? And he hated himself for being so insensitive that all he seemed able to worry about talking his way out of it. And Kal, he could sense Kal was... Kal was... Jake forced himself to get close enough to the edge that he could see over and then jaunted down to the alleyway.

~You don't jaunt if you're in free fall unless you have some form of inertial damping set up. Any bloody idiot knows that. You people are dangerously bloody clueless.~ Kal spat out, torn between concern and anger. Kristen had landed on the driveway just off the road. She was moaning, her body hopelessly twisted and broken, but somehow not quite dead yet. Kal knelt down.

"Don't move her." Damon stuttered.

Jake dared to look down at her. Damon's advice might be sound from a first aid point of view, but it was clear she was way beyond help like that that now.

Kal twisted round and glared back at them. ~What is up with you two? If you want her to live then I have to move her. What planet are you from?~ Kal fired back.

Both Jake and Damon looked away as Kal reached out and started twisting broken limbs back into place.

~She's lucky.~ Kal informed them. ~Most of the force of the impact was taken up by the bones. Broken neck, left arm shattered in three places, broken back, multiple smashed vertebrae. Legs more than a bit of a mess, but practically no organ damage. That's good.~

"That's good?" Jake questioned him disbelievingly.

~Repairing internal organ damage without the right tools is a bugger. Broken bones are easily fixed, that's more like first aid. Keep a watch, this will take a minute or two.~

Jake glanced across at Damon, he could sense that the two of them were feeling equally incredulous, but it was obvious Kal genuinely seemed to consider the injuries as minor.

Jake stared on as Kal worked. "Four weeks I spent in a bloody wheelchair," he contemplated, "someone with powers like ours who knew what they were doing and I could have been up and running in four minutes. Wouldn't have a bloody limp either. I had no clue we could jaunt places we couldn't see either. Still don't know how. Turns out you can jaunt while you're walking, Turns out it's a very bad idea to jaunt while you're falling. I had no clue how bloody dangerous that was. And I told her to jaunt. I didn't know, I just didn't know."

"Not your fault dude," Damon tried to reassure him.

"Yes it is. Kal's right. We have all these powers, but we don't know what we're doing. We really are dangerously bloody clueless here."


Elizabeth was puzzled. ~Nothing. I'm not sensing anyone at all in the building.~

~Unless they're deliberately making it appear easy, trying to lead us into a trap,~ John warned.

Carol glanced back at the two of them and chanced opening the door. She needed to get some air. They'd jaunted into a supplies closet, and it hadn't been smelling too fresh in there. Something had been left to go off after the farmhouse had been evacuated. On top of that it had been claustrophobic in there, there hadn't been much room for the three of them, but it had unquestionably been the safest place to jaunt in to, safety was more of a priority than comfort.

Carol peered into an empty hallway. "Something's not right. It shouldn't be this easy to wander around here."

Elizabeth joined her in the hall. "Unless they've moved out, and we're wasting our time here. No signs those surveillance cameras are even active."

~You're still getting a signal from the capsules, right?~ John asked, closing the closet door quietly behind them.

"Two capsules." Carol confirmed. "This way," she gestured.

They followed her through a doorway into the garage workshop area. John spied the four capsules and after a brief telepathic check to make sure there wasn't any immediate danger, he walked across and tried unsealing one.

Elizabeth checked the second. It took only seconds for the futility of the exercise to hit them.

Carol checked the fourth and confirmed. "The capsules are all empty, they've moved the survivors out."

"You think they're around here?" Elizabeth asked, asking more out of optimism than expectation.

John shook his head. "Doubtful. We'd know if they were here, at this close range we ought to be able to sense them. They've been moved, and we have no mechanism for tracking them. I'm afraid the trail is dead."

Elizabeth shook her head disconsolately. "Which means the survivors are as good as dead."

"I can't believe we came this close to fail now," Carol sounded exasperated.

John wasn't ready to give up. "We still have one or two chances left."

"We know they were injured, because they'd just have jaunted away otherwise." Carol considered. "So they'd need medical attention. The Earth authorities would have to move them somewhere nearby with medical facilities. Secure medical facilities."

"Which we're more likely to find by searching maps back at Chris's place than aimlessly wandering around here." Elizabeth pointed out.

"There's still the last beacon as well." Carol reminded them.

Elizabeth agreed. "Maybe we should mount a watch on that, keep someone there at all times."

"You still getting a reading on that?" John asked.

Carol nodded. "For now, yes."

"How long do we wait?" Elizabeth challenged.

"Ten hours. Until we have to give up because we'll die if we don't. In the meantime, we'll go with the idea of converting the relay beacon into a telepathic distress beacon."

"Could we use that to make contact with the new Tomorrow People as well?" Carol asked.

"It doesn't allow us to locate them, it just gives them a channel to contact us through if they choose to. How they'll react, I have no idea, but yes, that's the other idea in the back of my mind. The problem is going to be the range. With the transponders the range is more or less a quarter of a million miles. We'll be lucky if the telepathic distress signal makes it sixty miles."

"It works fine from orbit. There must be a way of boosting the power," Elizabeth considered.

"Power isn't quite so much the problem, it's the elevation of the transmitter that limits the range," John reminded her.

"Broadcast the signal from the rescue ship then." Carol suggested.

"Not with the cloaking shields up. And lowering those, they'd be visible to every Earth tracking station on the planet. That violates the directives on contact with closed worlds. If it were my choice, we'd break the rules. But we aren't in command of that ship."

Carol had an opinion on those kinds of rules and regulations, and it wasn't polite. She kept her mouth firmly shut.

"How long to convert the beacon?" Elizabeth asked.

"A couple of hours." John stated. "Let's get out of here. We've wasted enough time as it is."


Jake finally worked up the courage to look across at Kal and Kristen. He wasn't sure what Kal was up to, but Kristen was now lying on her back, and nothing was sticking out at a completely disturbing angle any more. He could sense Kal was getting tired, very tired, the healing thing was really taking it out of the guy, but he kept on working. That, Jake guessed, was what responsibility was all about. Kal might have his doubts, but Jake was already pretty sure the guy really would end up graduating as a medic one day.

Keeping watch seemed like an exercise in futility, there was nothing they'd be able to do if someone did wander past. Thankfully Kristen was out of any direct line of sight of the road. Jake was more surprised that no one else had heard the thud when she'd hit the ground, it helped that the soldiers had everyone distracted right now.

Damon, meanwhile, was getting restless. "I'm going to take a walk around front. See if I can see what's going on. I'm not comfortable about how long this is taking, I want to try and give you as much warning if anyone starts heading this way."

"Yeah, mate, good idea." Jake agreed.

Damon headed off, and Jake, feeling more comfortable now it looked like Kristen was going to be okay, wandered over to join Kal.

"How long?" he asked quietly, not wanting to sound like he was hurrying the guy.

~Mostly done.~

"She's unconscious?" Jake observed.

~I know, I was a bit hesitant to do that, pushing someone into a temporary coma has risks, but the amount of pain she was in. It was overpowering my mind, making it difficult for me to help her. It was a judgment call thing.~

"You seem pretty good at making judgment calls."

~Part of the job.~

"So what happens, we still need to think about moving out of here. Not trying to rush you, but, how long before it's safe to move her?"

Kal was done with the healing. He crawled across and propped himself up against the wall. The rain had eased off but the guy looked soaked, water dripping down his face. Both his hands were shaking, his face was looking pale, drawn. ~Safe to move her now. The bones will take weeks to bond properly, she'll be stiff and in some pain for a few weeks. She'll be fine.~ That was the good news, he hesitated before delivering the bad. ~But it wouldn't be good to wake her up for an hour or two, and she won't be in any state to jaunt again for another couple of hours after that.~

Jake understood. It complicated things, but he would just have to work it out. Kristen would be okay, that was good enough. Right now he was more worried about the state Kal was in. "What about you? That healing takes the crap out of you."

Kal laughed weakly. ~Why they say sex and healing don't mix. But this, I don't know. I'm starting to get worried about the quarantine warning.~

"Connected?"

~I'm shivering, thought it was adrenaline related. But maybe it's not. Prion triggered cerebral deterioration is what the caution was describing. Shivering, that would be second stage. Difficult to be conclusive, but that would the infection is progressing faster than I'm happy with. Don't worry though, I'll make it through until the rescue ship gets here.~ Kal informed him.

Jake could sense the undertones of doubt. Telepathy was a bitch at times. "I need to get the car over here. That's the only way we'll get her out of here. Only way we'll get you out of here as well judging by the state you're in."

"No chance." Damon had returned.

"Shit," Jake didn't want to be hearing this.

"They're moving in, slowly, but there's no way we'll get past them without jaunting."

"How long?"

"Minutes."

Jake glanced across at Kal who just shook his head.

Damon stared at him. "Look, I know you aren't going to like this, but in a few hours she'll be able to jaunt again. She knows how to jaunt to where we are now. It isn't a problem if they catch her, she will not have a problem escaping again when she's ready."

"I don't know." Jake answered. But he could see Damon was right, their options were limited.

Kal agreed, with a proviso. ~I'll stay with her. I need to be there to help when she regains consciousness. I can jaunt out with her, it's not a problem.~

Jake wasn't happy at the idea. "Seems like an unnecessary risk to me."

Kal wasn't going to be dissuaded. ~Necessary risk, my risk. You two go. Get out of here. Be ready.~

Jake hesitated then nodded. "Take care of her. Take care of yourself, du-sa."

Jake and Damon made a reluctant departure.


Her new office was empty, featureless, anonymous. On one hand Sierpinski felt less self conscious now that she wasn't invading someone else's space, on the other hand feeling more comfortable wasn't an improvement she rated as desirable.

But not much could spoil her mood right now, the voice of the Lieutenant came over the speaker phone confirming the report she'd just been handed. "We have them. They're on their way here now."

Elaine Sierpinski felt triumphant, her little bit of subterfuge had paid off. Finally she was in a position to be able to get to the bottom of the mystery. "They said anything yet?"

"The girl is unconscious. The guy doesn't speak English."

Why the hell was she unconscious? Sierpinski hadn't been warned about that complication. That meant they'd have to find some way to talk to the guy, they'd have to find a translator. "What language does he speak?" Sierpinski enquired.

"We don't know."

"Then find out, Lieutenant, I want that information by the time you get back here."

"Understood," the Lieutenant signed off.

Sierpinski hesitated. The problem was contained, she really needed to call in and cancel the Code Black Special alert. Then again, maybe it would be prudent to wait until she'd spoken to the two survivors they'd just located, especially now there was only one of them who was in any state to talk.

"Doctor Vidal," Sierpinski addressed the Doctor who was loitering nearby. "Find out why the girl is unconscious. That is not a development I like."

"No?" the Doctor challenged flippantly. He'd been loitering there a couple of minutes, his presence wasn't connected with the news Sierpinski had just received. "Well here's a development you'll like even less. After I noted the immunoresponse anomalies I sent off some blood samples for DNA testing. The results just came back," he continued.

"Amuse me, Doctor. How much won't I like the results?"

"The patients aren't human."

"What?" she stared at him, daring him to repeat that statement. This wasn't any time for jokes. The Doctor wasn't smiling. And of her two experts, the Doctor had always been the more rational. She continued to stare at him disbelievingly, it had to be a wind up.

The Doctor smiled curtly. "Genus Homo, not sapiens. Not human in the strictest sense of the word. Although I accept it doesn't make them alien either."

"Then what the hell does it make them?... I can't believe I'm seriously asking this."The Doctor dismissed the idea quickly. "We share a common ancestry, diverged about twenty to forty thousand years ago. In evolutionary terms if you want to think of the great apes as distant cousins, these people are a sister species. Reproductively compatible, offspring likely infertile."

"This is more ridiculous than aliens Doctor, you don't seriously expect me too..."

"The DNA tests are verified. I didn't believe them myself so I had them checked. It doesn't matter whether you believe or not, these are the facts. They're not human."

Elaine Sierpinski stared into space, slightly mind-blown. The Doctor wasn't lying, he wasn't that stupid.

"Okay," she challenged him, "now you've strayed into Doctor Who territory as well, what do you say? Give me a theory that fits the evidence."

"Wild speculation?"

"They aren't human. I think we already crossed that line."

"A bunch of cavemen were kidnapped by aliens forty thousand years ago, taken off to some alien planet. These are their descendants."

"What are they doing back home?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I stand by my original answer. I still think their presence here is entirely accidental."

"Not from this planet, Doctor? That makes them aliens as far as I'm concerned." How the hell was she supposed to make that report? No one was ever going to believe her.

"Thank you, Doctor. Get back to your patients, and I suggest you brush up on your knowledge of first contact protocols, I have a feeling you might be needing that very soon," she dismissed him.

She hit the secure dial button on her cellphone as he departed. There was no way she could report aliens yet, but that time would come, and she needed the groundwork prepared.

"Elaine Sierpinski here. Code Amber." She waited, knowing how many emergency alarms those words would have triggered. "We've re-established containment for now, but the situation has escalated. For now I will attempt to pursue a resolution within the constraints of the cover story we've already prepared, but I recommend you prepare the groundwork. We may need a full mobilization of all armed forces. We may need to publicly declare a state of emergency. We may need to suspend the government and impose martial law... Yes, sir, it is my professional opinion that the situation may become that serious... No sir, you can be assured that if there is any way to resolve this quietly, any way at all, I will take that option... Yes, sir. Whatever the cost."

The mere presence of aliens did not constitute a Code Red. She needed to determine they were a clear threat before she gave the politicians an excuse to declare a state of martial law. She didn't really trust any politicians with that kind of unchecked power. These aliens, if they really were aliens, hadn't given any indication they were dangerous. Sierpinski knew the dangers of overreacting.


Carol was huddled in her rain coat, sitting on a tree stump in the woods, holding up an umbrella to ward off the drizzle. She was keeping watch on the last transponder and not having much fun with the task.

Elizabeth had headed off in search of an electronics shop to pick up a few components that John needed to complete his task. Not expecting to find much locally, she'd headed in to London. The rain there was even heavier.

John, meanwhile, was sat in the comfortably dry and warm living room of Chris's apartment, working on the relay conversion, and taking the opportunity to talk to Chris without having to worry about Carol or Elizabeth listening in.

Chris was equally appreciative of the opportunity to get some blunt answers to some blunt questions. He wasn't the sort who was comfortable pulling punches. "So what are you really going to do about the new Tomorrow People?"

John sounded resigned. "I don't know what I can do. They don't exactly seem to want to be found."

"After what happened to them, I can't say that's exactly surprising."

"I thought once we recovered the survivors, there would be time to get down to the South coast with the converted relay beacon and send out a telepathic broadcast from there, it was a pretty remote chance at best, but..."

"You're not even convinced you'll manage to rescue all the survivors, are you?"

"We'll get some of them. I don't think there's much chance of us getting them all out of here safely. And there won't be any time left to try and make contact with the new Tomorrow People, no."

Chris had guessed as much. "Look, if you want to get a message to them, your new lot. I've still got some time left, I can use that to try and make contact with them."

John paused, he hadn't been wanting to ask, but as Chris had raised the subject. "I didn't want to ask in front of Carol and Elizabeth, but I get the impression..."

"Six months at most, they say," Chris confessed.

"You seem, I don't know..."

"Happy? No. I'm not happy, John, but I'm ready to accept the inevitable. Look at me, a positive attitude doesn't change the fact that living like this is not easy. I'm not looking to die any sooner than I have to, but at the same time, when I reach the end of the road, I'm ready to go."

"You want this job so that you can feel like you achieved one last thing?"

"If six months is all I have left, I plan to make the best use of it I can."

John considered for a moment. "There hasn't been time to think about what we'd say to them. I suppose give them the usual speech about how the future of this world is their responsibility, the usual stuff. What I would really like to do is to stay and help them, but that just isn't an option. Like it or not, they're going to have to learn it all for themselves. Maybe it's enough for them to know they aren't alone in the universe."

"They've already demonstrated they're as resourceful as you lot."

"Exactly. No need to waste time warning them about our friendly neighborhood serial killer, they solved that one on their own. What they do need to know about is Stephen. Really that's all that matters. It's critical that there's someone Stephen can contact if and when he makes it back. Someone to take his report, and then tell him that he has to turn around and head straight back where he came from if he wants to survive."

"You really think there's still a chance he's alive?"

"Yes. I'll admit the chance is slim, but still a chance.""What exactly was his mission? I don't know anyone ever told me that."

John wasn't sure he had much of an answer. "It was a fact finding mission. No one really knows what the Wastelands are. No one ever came back alive enough or sane enough to explain."

"And you still kept on sending people to find out?"

"They all volunteered."

"And I remember you shouting at Stephen, calling him insane for volunteering. Him and that other kid," Chris reminded John tactfully.

"They were convinced there was something dangerous there. Something we needed to know about. And Stephen always was a little stubborn. Which is why I still hold out some hope he'll be back. And if he does make it back, I don't want him thinking we abandoned him. If there are new Tomorrow People then they have to be there for him."

Chris nodded. "I'll find them, I'll get the message to them. Somehow. You have my word."


Some Of Us Are Dying To Leave

Sierpinski stared at the two figures on the monitor. The aliens, or whatever it was they were. Whatever they were, it wasn't remotely what she had expected.

They were in an isolation lab, it had seemed like a sensible precaution. Although if there was any risk of contamination, the damage had already been done. She probably should have had whole of Ambleside quarantined, pulled in everyone who'd had any contact with the two of them, but her instinct told her that wasn't necessary, and her orders were to avoid a panic. She figured she could get away with it.

And the Doctor, at least, seemed happier in his new surroundings. He had decent facilities to work in and an office adjoining the isolation lab with an observation window, so he could eat at his desk and still monitor the patients. No more bloody arguments about taking lunch breaks.

Sierpinski continued to at the monitor. The girl was lying there unconscious and the boy was sat beside her, holding her hand. That was protective behavior. They were intelligent, they were resourceful and they certainly didn't look like aliens. And that was the problem, Sierpinski told herself, she had no clue how to deal with them.

No cryptic mathematical puzzles to decipher to unlock some universal secret, no glowing ambassadors to negotiate with. What she had was a couple of kids who looked like they were scared shitless. And under the circumstances she could hardly fault them for feeling like that.

There were a dozen protocols in place for first contact and Sierpinski had studied every word of every one of them. But none of them covered a scenario like this one. Confronted by the reality of standing face to face with aliens, the carefully though out plans were all a bunch of crap.

But that was why the powers that be had called her in as their field expert. She was the one who was supposed to be able to think on her feet, to adapt to a rapidly changing situation. She was the one who could throw out all the standing protocols if necessary and the one they trusted to still get the job done right. Fine, throw out the rule book, she could do that. What she couldn't do was get over the fact she was looking at real live aliens. For so long she'd lived in the shadow of thinking that she would never achieve her life's ambition, she'd never stopped to consider what she'd do if her dreams actually did come true.

Sierpinski wandered out of her office and into the Doctor's observation room. Through the glass she could see the two alien kids for real. It made them seem even more human. Doctor Vidal was standing there reviewing pages of notes. He looked up as she entered.

"Have you been able to speak to them?" Sierpinski asked.

"No." The Doctor replied. The male certainly seems aware of us. Seems cooperative. We just aren't getting through to him. He makes some attempt to speak, to the girl, not to us, but we can't understand any of it. We have absolutely no basis for communication. We even set that white board up in there, tried writing, pictograms, text book first contact stuff, he just looked at us like we were a bit simple."

Sierpinski held back a smile. "The girl was the one who spoke English. What state is she in?"

"It's difficult to know. We can't get all that close. Yes, she needs a full medical exam, but I can't do that without the cooperation of the male. Last thing I want to do is frighten them."

"We need to in some way gain their trust. Show them we mean them no harm. Suggestions?"

"None. To be honest, considering the way you've been treating the other two, you haven't even got me convinced we don't mean them any harm."

Sierpinski couldn't take her eyes off the figures she was now watching through the observation window. "Point taken, Doctor."

She hesitated for a moment then picked up the phone from the Doctor's desk. "This is Elaine Sierpinski. Give Doctor Vidal authorization to allow the two new patients access to visit the other patients. Yes, immediately."

"Arranging a reunion?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, Doctor. You have any objections?"

"None. In fact, It's the first decision you've made that I'm actually completely happy with."


~How are you doing?~ Jake called in. He was back sat in the car with Damon, watching the rain pound relentlessly on the windscreen.

Kal closed his eyes. It was getting difficult to concentrate, difficult to maintain the telepathic link. ~Holding out. They gave me something to eat. Not as good as fish and chips. Something to drink, definitely not as good as beer. I can't sense much of what they're saying, but I can definitely sense that they're nervous.~

~Makes sense. They seem to think that they've caught their first genuine aliens. Which I guess is half true.~

~They've stayed away from Kristen so far. Hopefully we'll be out of here long before they have a chance to get suspicious.~

~How long do you figure?~

~I'm ready to wake her up now. It'll still be a couple of hours before she's ready to jaunt out of here. Would help a lot if I could get her some painkillers. She's not going to have a fun time of it when she does wake up.~

~I suppose we could try working out a way of getting those to you. You under surveillance?~

~Constant, yes. Why?~

~Thought I could jaunt in with a couple of ibuprofen, then jaunt out again.~

~What's ibuprofen?~ Kal queried.

~Shit, I don't know. Damon, what's ibuprofen?~

~2-(4-isobutylphenyl)propanoic acid. It's a cyclooxygenase inhibitor.~ Damon chipped in.

~And you just know shit like that?~ Jake asked.

~I'm studying biology.~ Damon pointed out.

~I'm studying a lot of things, doesn't mean I remember them.~ Jake complained.

Kal managed a weak smile listening to the two of them. ~Damon, that formula, show me again.~ He stood up and walked over to the board.

~Not a bad idea, ur-gisgal.~ Jake sounded positive.

~Can't say I'm hopeful, that medic they had in here, I could see his thoughts pretty well. He was frustrated, under orders not to treat us.~

~That's messed up.~ Damon stated bluntly.

~It'd be better if we had a clearer idea what they were up to. Kal, is there any way I could link minds with you next time one of them is in there with you, listen to what they're talking about, I can understand the language even if you can't... would that work or am I talking bollocks?~

~That would kind of work. Might even be a way of talking to them, you could tell me the words to say. Worth a try.~ Kal finished drawing on the board. ~Well, lets see if this gets their attention.~


"What do you think?" Sierpinski asked.

"He drew that, now he sits there staring at the observation window like he can see through it. Like it isn't one way glass. Like he knows we're in here looking back at him," the Lieutenant answered, sounding a little creeped out by it.

"He's trying to communicate. And whatever he's drawn there, it's a little more complex than the basic mathematical stuff we showed him."

"He's not a mathematician. He's a kid." Sierpinski contemplated.

"One of those kids has medical knowledge an order of magnitude beyond anything we understand," the Doctor reminded her.

"Well then Doctor. Assume that his specialization is medicine. What's he drawn?"

"A chemical formula," the Lieutenant jumped in ahead of the Doctor with answer.

The Doctor concurred. "Hexagonal structure, organic molecule. Could be."

Sierpinski smiled, her team finally seemed to be functioning again. "Find out what it is. And, if you can, get me some of whatever it is."

She watched Doctor Vidal go sit himself down at the computer terminal. Her thoughts were interrupted by the Lieutenant.

"You think it's wise to give them this stuff, assuming we can fabricate it?" he queried.

"I wanted a way we could establish trust. This could be my way."

"It could be..."

"A trap, a weapon?" Sierpinski interrupted. "You're letting the soldier in you get in the way of your reason."

"I'm offering advice and caution, as I was ordered to. They might just be a couple of kids, but as the Doctor has pointed out, one of them has medical knowledge we don't understand. We have no idea what else they know. Yesterday they had the runaround on us. Right now they might not be a threat, but what if that's a drug that miraculously restores their health? We don't know how dangerous they might be if they realize we're keeping them locked up here."

"Yes we do." Sierpinski pointed out. "They may be injured now, but yesterday they weren't. If they'd wanted to kill us, we'd be dead already."

"Point taken."

"And if it is some miracle cure, just maybe that will help win us their trust."

Sierpinski thought for a moment. The alien was staring back at her through the glass. Looking at her, not the others in the room. Like he knew she was the one giving the orders. On impulse she walked towards the window and zigzagged left. His eyes followed her the whole way. That made her mind up for her.

"Doctor, I'm going in to try and speak to him myself. If you get any information on that chemical compound, I want..."

"I think we've got that coming through for you now."

"That was fast. I'm impressed. I'm authorizing whatever it takes to set up a facility to try and..."

"1.99, and I take cash," the Doctor stood up and grabbed his jacket from the bench and reached into the pocket.

Elaine Sierpinski stared at him with mild incredulity. The Doctor threw her a small flat box. She caught it and looked at the label. "Advil? He's complaining about a headache? You have got to be kidding me."

The Doctor shook his head. "Near enough, that's what the formula is for."

"How near?"

"He's drawn dexibuprofen, you're holding a racemic mixture."

"You think you can explain that difference to him?"

"I don't know."

"You're with me, Doctor. You're going to try."


The woman walked into the room and sat down, staying close to the door. Kal looked across at her. He hadn't seen her before, but she was the one he had sensed in the next room, the one who had been watching him, the one who was giving all the orders. She was holding a small box, she opened it and sat the contents on the floor in front of her. Kal assumed it was the ibuprofen. Looked like she was going to make him come across the room for it. The medic one had entered as well and was standing even closer to the door.

~You ready, Damon?~ He called out. They'd figured Damon was more likely to be able to handle the medical terms that needed translating.

~Go for it.~ Damon came back.

Kal gently let go of Kristen's hand and turned to face Sierpinski. He edged slowly towards her, then hesitated. He caught her eye, he could sense she was scared shitless. It gave him some confidence. He showed her his hand, it was clear she didn't quite understand the gesture. He slowly reached down and touched the box with his fingertips. He could sense the tension building.

Sierpinski gestured at the drawing on the white board, then back to the box on the floor. The meaning was obvious. Kal picked up the blister pack, not quite sure what it was he had to do with it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Doctor moving towards the whiteboard, he dropped the blister pack and backed off.

Everyone froze. The Doctor slowly picked up the pen and started drawing. Kal felt a little dizziness and took the opportunity to sit back down.

~You getting this, Damon?~

~Yeah, he's drawing ibuprofen again. I think.~

~Not quite. Looks like the enantiomer.~

~Right. Not sure why. Dexibuprofen is the active form, but there's an isomerase reaction in vivo, it doesn't matter which you get. Anyway, he'll have given you a racemic mixture.~

~Can I just say here,~ Jake cut in, ~I'm happy as buggery I don't have to understand this shit.~

Kal tried desperately not to laugh. ~Okay, Damon, if we're going to do this, lets do this. How do you say 'enantiomer'?~

Kal stood up again. He was still feeling a little light headed and the strain wasn't good for him, but he needed to do this. He walked across to the board and stood facing the Doctor.

"Enantiomer." Kal gestured at the two chemical structures on the board and repeated the word. "Enantiomer."

"Is that his word for Advil you think?" Sierpinski asked cautiously.

"No, I think he's trying to speak English. That's our word for non-superposable stereoisomers. We were trying Janet and John stuff, I think we hit the wrong level."

"Cyclooxygenase inhibitor," Kal tried pronouncing. He was aware they weren't exactly starting with the easy words. Still, it seemed to be working.

The Doctor nodded, then gestured at the blister pack on the floor. "Racemic mixture."

Kal nodded back and repeated, "Racemic mixture." He headed cautiously back over and picked the blister pack up, looking at it curiously. ~Okay Damon, I now know what this is. But what the hell am I supposed to do with it?~

~Yeah, that's kind of harder to explain.~ Damon admitted.

Kal looked up. Sierpinski seemed to have picked up on his confusion. She had grabbed the other blister pack out of the box, popped one of the tablets out, put it in her mouth and then gestured towards the water on the table.

Confused, Kal grabbed a glass of water and handed it to her.

Sierpinski hesitated for a moment, then swallowed the tablet down and handed the water back. Kal realized his mistake. She'd only been demonstrating, she hadn't actually needed to take one.

"You aren't in pain." Kal just about managed to get the words out.

"No." Sierpinski replied.

"Kristen, I need to wake her. When I do, she'll be in a lot of pain. This drug will help." Kal tried to get the words out that Damon was giving him. It was clumsy, and his pronunciation was crap, but Jake had been right, that imperfection was helping to sell the effect. He could sense Sierpinski become a lot less fearful.

Kal took the opportunity to head back over to Kristen. He put his hand on her forehead and started the process of waking her up. He felt his own energy draining rapidly as he did so. It was what he had to do, but he knew the trade off was going to have consequences for him.

"You can understand what I'm saying?" Sierpinski asked.

"Some. Slowly helps."

"The girl, she could speak our language quite well."

"Kristen is a language student. I'm a medical student. I don't speak languages well."

"What are you doing here?"

"Lost. Not meant to be here."

Kal stumbled. The effort of standing, speaking and maintaining the telepathic link was getting too much for him. It should have been easy, should have been trivial. Kal began to realize he was running out of time. He tried to prop himself up and fumbled it. It took him a moment to regain his balance. He noted that neither of the two humans had made any effort to help him.

"What's wrong with you?" Sierpinski asked.

"Don't know. Something here, something in the environment, a poison."

"All four of you?"

"Probably."

"What do you need?"

"Rescue."

"Is rescue on it's way?"

"Yes. Starting to worry if they will get here in time."

"Where are you from?"

"Far away. I can't translate any better than that."

"How did you get here?"

"In a ship. I don't know it works. Sorry, I'm a medic, not a starship engineer."

He slipped and fell again, he rolled over and lay on his back. It was becoming difficult to breathe.

He could sense Sierpinski trying to talk to him, but he couldn't maintain the link he needed with Damon to be able to understand her properly.

He could sense tension. The people in the room were worried. Not worried about him, so much as worried about the consequences of what was happening to him. He could sense Kristen waking up. He tried to reach out to her but didn't have the energy left.


"Shit, I've lost him. Completely. The link was getting weak, but it's gone. Shit." Damon felt he was ready to kick something, would have kicked something if he hadn't been sat in the car.

For a moment the hammering of the raindrops on the roof of the car was the only sound to be heard.

"It went wrong when he tried to wake Kristen up. That medical stuff takes it out of him and he wasn't in great shape even before that," Jake finally voiced his fears.

"Bloody great. I mean I think he did it, last image I got from him, he thinks he did it, Kristen should be okay. But what the hell are we supposed to do? He hasn't got the strength to jaunt out now. We'll get Kristen back, but. Bloody all this for nothing. We're useless, we're completely bloody useless." Damon was getting frustrated.

Damon could sense Jake wanted to say something, the way he did, say something to make Damon feel better. But all he had to offer was bullshit, and he knew that didn't work on Damon.

Jake had been right. They had all their powers, but they didn't know how to use them. That was the worst part, it wasn't that they were incapable of doing this stuff, it was that they were too ignorant to be any bloody help. If there had been time, maybe Kal could have taught them to jaunt places they couldn't see, could have taught them first aid techniques. But time never seemed to be on their side.

Damon tried to pull himself together. He glanced across at Jake, sitting there motionless. "How do you deal with this? I mean, when the whole world is turned upside down around you, aliens, flying saucers, doesn't that mess with your head?"

"It's messed up, but you just get on with it." Jake observed calmly.

Damon had no reply. They continued to sit in silence.


Kristen looked up at the ceiling. She remembered falling from the roof, trying to jaunt, that was all she remembered. Now she was lying on a makeshift bed in some sterile area and there were people there, they were trying to talk to her. No, not trying to talk to her, trying to talk to someone else. What the hell was going on? She looked blankly, confused. She tried to sit up, she felt stiff and it hurt to move, and she had a splitting headache. All she could do was listen.

Listen to panic. Listen to an argument.

"Neurological disfunction," the Doctor was saying.

"Caused by?" That was a woman's voice.

"I don't know. Nothing, no mechanism I understand. But then I don't understand much about these people at all."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"I don't know, my instinct is not, but..."

"Bottom line?"

"Brain function is failing. Neural pathways seem to be firing, but signals aren't getting through. Like Parkinson's disease, but that only affects motor function, this is affecting critical autonomic responses like breathing. Bottom line, he's dying and I don't know why."

"Shit." Sierpinski started pacing.

The Doctor continued, "if we can put him on life support. It won't cure him, but it will keep him alive longer. Honestly, unless we have some clue what is normal for these people, I don't know I can do anything more."

"The others?"

"Looks like similar symptoms, not as advanced. Probably because of the way their metabolisms have been slowed down. And they're on life support already, they're in a lot better shape than he is. The girl, it's possible that's what her problem is, although all he seemed to think she needed was Advil."

"But you haven't examined her properly?"

"She's partially conscious, but she's delirious. She would benefit from the painkillers, but you won't let me administer those."

"She has access to them. I'm sorry Doctor, if she takes them herself that's fine, but you can not administer them. Those are your orders. Have you managed a blood test?"

"There were traces of blood on her space suit from an earlier injury, didn't show us anything we don't already know."

"Could she treat the others?"

"You heard him, he was the medic, she's a language student."

"Doctor I have a problem. I cannot allow you to take any action that is categorized as invasive. As long as they administer the treatment themselves, we can support them, give them the help they need, but we cannot risk being the cause of death. Now we know they're alien that's even more true than it was before."

"I realize the consequences. Aliens come along, think we were the cause of death, blow this planet out of the sky in retaliation. Or maybe they'll have a measured response, just exterminate me. You think I want that? But even at the risk of my actions being misinterpreted, I can't stand by and do nothing, I'll take the risk, and I'll take the responsibility. If they come looking for vengeance, feel free to hand me over. But let me do my job."

"I wish I could Doctor. Truth is, if you want my opinion, I think we're screwed if we do, screwed if we don't. But this is not my decision, and it isn't yours either."

Kristen felt weak, but that was mostly from not having eaten, apart from that she was recovering fast. Fast enough to know she didn't exactly like this Sierpinski person the Doctor was arguing with, anyway.

She could already feel an awareness that suggested the concussion was receding. Still not enough to contact Jake, certainly not enough to jaunt away. But then she couldn't jaunt away without Kal. She managed to pull herself up into a sitting position, no one had noticed, they were too busy focussed on Kal.

"He's dying. He needs help. We all do," Kristen managed to shout out.

She could sense hesitance, expectation. She certainly had their attention.

"We're no threat to you. We just want to live," she pleaded.

Doctor Vidal quickly walked over to her and offered her the ibuprofen and a glass of water. Kristen hesitated, she wasn't sure what effect the drugs would have on her ability to jaunt out of there, or on her ability to contact Jake and Damon. But right now she wasn't in any shape to do either of those things, and with her head hurting as badly as it was she couldn't much think straight. She opted to take the painkillers. She could sense the Doctor was relieved. She could sense he wanted to help. She could sense they all wanted to help, even Sierpinski. But they were all too afraid to help. Too afraid of the consequences. Too afraid of the unknown. They would play safe, they would do nothing. Even if doing nothing meant that Kal died.

Kal had been right, these people were little more than animals. She felt ashamed, then angry, then reflective. It wasn't as if she was human, she had nothing to be ashamed of.

Sierpinski had left the room, called out by the Lieutenant. Kristen wasn't exactly sure who the Lieutenant was, but he had a military rank, and that didn't fill her with much confidence. Only the Doctor remained. She could sense the Doctor desperately wanted to help. He was just too afraid of breaking the rules.

Kristen had to try and get through to him. "Did Kal talk to you, did he tell you he's a medical student?"

"Kal?"

"His name is Kal-umun. He a student, studying medicine. He's pretty good, gets in trouble a lot though, keeps breaking the rules." Kristen could sense she had the Doctor's attention, she could sense he was listening carefully. Maybe it really was possible to reason with animals.

"Do you have medical ethics?" she continued, "Kal figures breaking the rules is an asset. Our medics have a moral code, they're allowed to break rules as long as they do it in the course of protecting life."

"We have a code. Do no harm."

"No harm? Is that enough? Do you people not have any concept of protecting life?"

"We do. It gets lost sometimes in the noise. Look, what will happen to us if we let him die? If you all die? Would your people blow us out of the sky?"

Kristen wasn't sure she knew how to explain. The guy had no concept of the consequences of shared consciousness. "No, they won't retaliate. Not under any circumstances. Whatever course of action you take, nothing will happen to you. But the action you take makes all the difference about whether Kal lives or dies. He doesn't have to die. Isn't that what you want?"

"I'd prefer to see you live. I just don't know how to treat this. I'm only following orders because I don't know what I'm doing. If I thought I knew how to save you, I'd break the rules, I'd do it. But I don't know."

"You don't know how to save us, that's fine. You don't need to. The rescue team will handle that. All you need to do is keep us alive until then. And you do know how to do that. I heard you talking about it."

The Doctor gave no indication he had heard. But Kristen could sense it, he'd heard alright. She just wasn't sure if he was going to do anything about it.


Sierpinski impatiently grabbed the coffee from the machine to take back to her office. She turned around to find the Lieutenant was loitering in the doorway. She needed a few moments of peace and quiet to work through her options, but no one appeared willing to leave her alone long enough.

"I think you need to speak to the Doctor." The Lieutenant warned her. "I'll have him restrained if necessary, but, I'm still uncomfortable with that and I would rather you tried talking to him first."

Sierpinski shook her head, that was all she bloody needed. She followed the Lieutenant back through to the lab area. Kal had been lifted onto a bed, but his complexion was tinged with a blue color and his breathing was clearly erratic and labored.

The Doctor was busy prepping. "The patient's condition has deteriorated to the point where I have judged it has become life threatening."

"I'm sorry Doctor..." Sierpinski started.

The Doctor interrupted, he wasn't listening. "I am administering treatment, unless you intend to forcibly restrain me."

The Lieutenant caught Sierpinski's eye, reluctantly looking for the order.

Sierpinski looked down at Kal, his breathing now becoming increasingly shallow. If he'd been green and tentacled it might have been easier to stay detached, but he was just a kid. Her objectivity evaporated. "Lieutenant, I need you to accompany me, we have to leave this room and investigate our options in my office. Doctor. I am giving you an explicit order. You are not to treat your patient while we are away."

The Lieutenant looked uncertainly at the Doctor for a moment, then headed for the door following behind Sierpinski .

"Thank you," the Doctor murmured as the door closed behind them. Then he turned back to his patient, he had little time. "Nurse, set up an intravenous. If cyclooxygenase inhibitors work, then the brain chemistry is close enough that there might be some other options. I want to try a dopamine boost before we resort to putting him on a respirator."


Not Exactly The Outcome We Had In Mind

"What is it?" Carol asked.

Chris waved her to come through into the bedroom, he didn't want John interrupted just yet. "Thought you should see this," he told her.

He had the news channel playing on the TV, Carol watched the report with increasing despair. "More bad news. Does this ever end?"

~What's up?~ Elizabeth had sensed Carol's frustration. She'd been taking her turn to keep watch on the final transponder, but from Carol's reaction she had the feeling there wasn't much point in her sitting there in the rain any longer.

~They're reporting that the missing hikers have been found safe and well,~ Carol filled her in.

"You believe them?" Elizabeth asked as she jaunted back. "Isn't it possible the news report is just propaganda."

"They've called off the search, they're winding down the military presence and they're talking about declaring an all clear, re-opening the restricted zone maybe even as soon as tonight. They think they've found everything they're going to find," Chris gave his opinion.

Carol was not taking the news well. "Looks like we've failed. completely failed."

"Someone has to break this to John." Elizabeth sounded uncomfortable, she didn't figure he was going to be all that happy either.

"Break what to me?" John had already picked up on the despondency and had wandered through from the other room. "And who's watching that last transponder? If they come back..." He trailed off as he caught the news report, he stood in silence for a moment. He quickly saw there was no one coming back.

"John?" Chris prompted.

"I'm thinking."

"What are you thinking?" Elizabeth asked.

John noted Elizabeth was soaking wet and dripping on the floor. "I'm thinking we can give up keeping watch on the last transponder."

Carol frowned at him. "We? You've been inside all cozy and warm the whole time. Elizabeth and I are the ones who have been stood out in the rain watching that thing for hours."

"I'm sorry that turned out to be a wasted effort." John apologized. "But the others being captured changes nothing. Maybe it even helps us."

"How?" Carol perked up at the suggestion.

"With a bit of luck I'm hoping that wherever they've taken them, it's the same place they've got the others."

"Given the luck you've had so far?" Chris cautioned.

John remained pragmatic. "It has to change at some point. This might just be the break we've been waiting for. Once we get the relay broadcasting the emergency signal they'll be able to contact us, doesn't matter whether they've been captured or not. I'm just happy to know those two are still alive and well, and that we're less than an hour or two away from finding them all."

Elizabeth glanced at her watch. "Eight hours remaining."

"That's time enough," Carol was feeling reassured.

"What's left to get sorted?" Elizabeth asked him.

"The modifications are all done, we just need to get it where we can best send the signal from."

Carol nodded. "Back to Wansfell Pike."

"Maybe, I'm looking at the calculations based on the information Chris has sorted out for us here. The higher up we can get it, the better the range." John grabbed the map and started working out the math in his head. "Wansfell Pike gives us about sixty miles and that's fairly well centered around Skelwith. But Helvellyn is less than fifteen miles away, and the range goes up to about eight-five miles."

"Who's up for hiking Helvellyn in the pouring rain, then?" Elizabeth offered sarcastically.


~Guys?~ Kristen called out. The ibuprofen had started to kick in and it gave her just enough clarity to send telepathically again.

~Thank buggery.~ Damon came back immediately.

~What's the situation there?~ Jake asked.

~Confused.~ Kristen hesitated, her head wasn't hurting so much but she was only just on the edge of being able to manage the conversation. She tried to keep focus. ~Kal is in a pretty bad way. It's that prion infection, it's getting to him faster than he thought it would. The witch-doctors here are trying to help, but I just don't know how bad it is. They gave him something, some drug, they said he was responding to the treatment. I don't know what's going on.~

~How are you?~

~Tired. I hurt all over, and that Advil they gave me is helping. I'm still a bit of a mess, but not bad though for someone who took a skydive onto concrete from three floors up.~

~It was probably only the equivalent of one after you jaunted,~ Damon pointed out.

~Still hurt like hell.~

~I didn't know jaunting while falling was...~ Jake started.

Kristen interrupted. ~You know what, if I'd fallen three floors instead of one, that might have made a mess even Kal couldn't have patched up. I say it was a good call. You want to argue?~

~No.~ Jake responded, although it was obvious he still didn't feel all that great about it.

~Guys, I'm getting some kind of sense of something from Kal, nothing coherent, but... I think he's waking up. Hold on, we've got the witch-doctors back.~

Kristen figured it was about time she tried to sit up so she could get a better view of what was going on. She was stiff, it took some effort, but she could see Kal had his eyes open, he was sipping on water the nurse was offering him. He looked across, he must have sensed she was there.

"A-na-am azu aka a-na-am nu-luth-tha."

Kristen frowned, she wasn't getting it.

~What the hell did they plug me up on?~ Kal repeated, groaning.

Kristen felt immediate relief, Kal was obviously making a fairly rapid recovery. Whatever the witch-doctors had done, it seemed to be working. "He's asking about the treatment," Kristen translated out loud.

"The problem is with brain receptors getting blocked somehow. I can't fix the blocking problem, but I was able to boost the signal. It's not a cure. There will be side effects. The dosage will have to increase every time, the side effects will get worse, and eventually any dose won't be enough," the Doctor tried to explain.

~It gives me time.~

"Any idea how much time?" Kristen relayed.

The Doctor was blunt, "I don't know."

Kal tried to drink some more water. He was making a very rapid recovery, as frustrating as it was to know it was only temporary, it gave them a chance. With one problem attached. ~Without the drug they're giving me I'm not going to last any time at all. I can't jaunt out. I'm stuck here until the rescue ship arrives.~


Elaine Sierpinski got off the phone frustrated. All that crap about her being the field expert, how she could think on her feet, adapt, be the one they trusted to get the job done. Now she'd made her considered judgment, gone off script, and it was like they weren't listening any more. They wanted caution. Too much bloody caution. They were starting to sound a lot like the Lieutenant she was finding herself increasingly frustrated with. It was a complete turnaround from when she'd arrived, the Lieutenant now advocating caution and reason. And Doctor Vidal, still on the edge of mutiny, only now she was inclined to mutiny with him. Right, like that would help.

Confrontation went against her better judgement, but her patience had run out. She popped her head in to the Lieutenant's office.

"You reported me?" she demanded bluntly.

The Lieutenant was clearly uncomfortable with the question. "They asked a direct question. They already had their concerns. I didn't volunteer the information, I didn't go to them, but they asked, I had to answer. I follow orders. Under protest at times, but you said it yourself, I always follow orders in the end."

Elaine Sierpinski walked away without acknowledging the Lieutenants attempts to justify his actions. She had a problem. Alright, she'd had a lot of problems. But this time she was in danger of losing control of the situation, not because of any technical flaw in what she was doing, but because of bloody bureaucracy.

She needed to talk to the Doctor.

"Please tell me that whatever you did worked." She whispered conspiratorially to Doctor Vidal as the two of them stood in the observation room.

"He's conscious."

"Talking?"

"In alien. The girl's translating."

"Prognosis?"

"I can keep him alive, the process is going to get more and more invasive as time goes on."

"We have to try and avoid any invasive..."

"You know my opinion on that..."

"I know, Doctor. But here is the problem, I stepped out of line. I do that again, and I'll be replaced, you'll be replaced, and those kids in there will be left to die. We need to talk to this Kal. Anything he instructs us to do, we can do, I can stretch the rules that far..."

"What if that isn't enough?"

"You will have to make it enough. Understand this, Doctor, I am willing to break the rules again, they can kick me out, I'll accept the consequences. But that's a one shot option, and then it's over. Over for me, over for you. Do you understand the consequences of that, Doctor?"

"Yes."

"Then go and talk to Kal. Don't waste the little time we have."

Sierpinski watched the Doctor depart. She tried some deep breathing, she wasn't used to things falling apart like this. What the hell job was worth this?


"Jake?" Damon prompted.

"I'm thinking."

"Thinking what?"

"Thinking I'm out of ideas," Jake conceded.

"What?"

"You heard me, I don't know."

"This isn't any time to be joking, Jake."

"I'm not joking. We're out of our depth. We can't speed up the rescue, assuming there's even a rescue team on the way, and if Kal can't do anything about the infection, what the hell can I do?"

"If we don't..."

"You think I don't know that?"

~Menden-gisgal?~ Kal called out to them. It was funny how alien words seemed to stay alien when spoken telepathically now that they understood them.

Anyway, Jake was appreciative of the interruption, the rain had eased off and they were sitting on a picnic bench under cover, it was cold and wet, but they'd been starting to feel claustrophobic stuck in the car. ~What did you find out?~

~Same symptoms, same neurological deterioration, but not so far advanced. The time they spent in stasis seems to have slowed the progress of the infection. And I'm thinking that's our answer. Put all of us back in stasis.~

~How long have you got if you don't~ Damon asked.

~I would say hours rather than days.~

~Ouch.~ Damon replied.

Jake concurred with the ouch. ~What about the stasis thing, in the stasis capsules. The suspended animation. How much time would that buy you?~

~A couple of days, maybe four. There's a chance the others might last longer, they're actually in better shape than me.~ Kal came back.

~Is this a real hope, or is this just clutching at straws?~ Damon asked them.

Kristen wasn't about to give in to pessimism. ~Right now I say clutch at whatever straws we can.~

~I'm not arguing there,~ Damon clarified, ~I'm just saying some straws are better than others. We sure we're clutching at the right ones?~

Jake had a more practical question. ~What makes you think the they'll go for it?~

~They let me live,~ Kal pointed out.

~Against orders,~ Kristen reminded him.

Kal shrugged. ~Somehow we're going to have make them listen. Because the fact is that stasis is the only realistic chance I have of getting off this planet alive.~


The rain was light, but persistent. It wasn't an easy slog up the side of Helvellyn. Jaunting got them part way, but one of the fundamental requirements for navigating jaunts to places they couldn't see was having some kind of identifiable structure nearby to lock on to. The barren hillside was pretty useless as a destination in that respect. A certain amount of trudging through the rain was inescapable. They were able to work in relay though, two of them hiking at any one time while the other was able to have a hot cup of tea courtesy of Chris.

It was John and Elizabeth who had climbed the final stretch to the top, but Carol had insisted on joining them at that point. Jaunting to the summit was easy once there was someone already there to navigate her in.

"What about over there, down and to the right?" Elizabeth suggested.

John disagreed. "That's a good location for a relay beacon, but for an emergency broadcast beacon we'll get the best results placing it dead center on the highest point."

"We aren't supposed to be drawing attention to ourselves," Carol reminded him.

"I don't think that's a luxury we can afford any more. We only have six hours left."

"So what do we say if anyone asks what we're doing?" Elizabeth challenged. Despite the rain they had passed a fair number of people on the path up to the summit.

John unzipped the bag and started pulling the pieces out for them to assemble. He thought for a moment, then smiled. "If anyone asks, tell them we work for the met office."


Kristen was unsure. She'd been hoping to be able to try and work on convincing Doctor Vidal of their plan, she was a lot less confident they had much chance getting this Elaine Sierpinski to agree. But that was who they were now talking to. Her and the Lieutenant.

"How long before the rescue ship arrives?" Sierpinski wanted clarification.

"We don't know. A couple of days maybe. A week at the most." Kristen explained.

"And a week is too long?"

"Unless we're placed in stasis."

"That's the state the others were in. But they began to wake up from that."

"They were removed from the capsules. All four of us would have to be placed back into the capsules."

Sierpinski seemed to be thinking hard, but the thoughts were dry, logical, no emotions for Kristen to latch on to. She couldn't see much of what Sierpinski was thinking.

"What would we need to do?" Sierpinski looked like she'd reached a conclusion.

Kristen still couldn't work out what that conclusion was, all she could do was to continue to answer Sierpinski's questions. "We would need you to provide power for the capsules."

"What kind of power?"

Kristen looked for help, this was getting out of her area of expertise. "Electromagnetic induction coils. Does that make any sense?" she relayed.

Sierpinski clearly wasn't considering that her area of expertise either, she was prompting the Lieutenant.

"Yes," he answered.

Kristen smiled. "Technical terms are difficult to get translated right, worse when I don't even know what the words mean."

"What else?" Sierpinski stayed on topic.

"Nothing else. Just, make sure you keep the transponder devices away from the induction coils. The rescue ship will need the signal from those to home in on, the induction fields would block the signal."

"And then we just stand back and wait for you to be rescued?"

"Yes." Kristen answered simply.


"You can't seriously be thinking of going for this plan?" The Lieutenant asked once they were out of earshot, headed back towards Sierpinski's office.

"Why not?" Sierpinski challenged.

The Lieutenant remained silent.

Sierpinski continued, "we are not allowed to intervene directly to try to keep them alive, the powers that be are scared shitless of us taking any action that might be misinterpreted as being the cause of death if things go wrong. I think their logic sucks, but those are orders. However, it has been clarified that we can offer any help appropriate to assist them in keeping themselves alive. It is my judgment that the plan they've presented us with falls entirely into that category. You have a problem with that Lieutenant?"

"No."

"You plan to report me for this?"

"No."

"Good to see us back on the same page. I want you to make arrangements to get the capsules here, have them flown in, I want this to happen fast. You have something you want to say?"

"Part of our objective is to learn from these people. What exactly do we learn when they're sealed up back in those capsules?"

"What do we learn if they're dead? Anyway, Lieutenant, look at them. A couple of frightened kids. What are we really expecting to learn from them anyway?"

"One of those kids knows more about medicine than we have any concept of."

"Right. And he's just a student. Imagine getting to talk to a fully qualified medic."

"What fully qualified medic would that be?"

"Think, Lieutenant. Would you send out a rescue mission without a fully qualified medic on the team?"

"No."

"Have the capsules shipped here, but not the transponders. Keep the transponders far, far away from here. Have a go setting up some of those electromagnetic induction coils. In the mean time I am going to go and sell this plan to our superiors. Because I am taking a major gamble here, and I intend to have their buy in this time."


Kal, Kristen, Jake and Damon were finalizing plans.

~I think that's all the loose ends.~ Jake concluded.

~Assuming they buy the idea in the first place.~ Damon still remained skeptical.

~That Doctor Vidal wouldn't say anything when he came in, but he's easier to read than that Elaine Sierpinski is. He seems to think they'll agree.~ Kristen reminded them.

~I don't like her, but she wasn't lying. If I had to make a call, I'd say we trust her.~ Jake conceded.

~You think you've got this jaunting thing worked out?~ Kal asked Kristen. ~As soon as they have you sealed up in that capsule thinking you're in stasis like the rest of us, you tune in to Jake and Damon and jaunt out of here.~

~And you're sure they won't notice I'm gone when they try to move the capsules?~

~The capsules are gravitationally shielded, they won't know a thing.~ Kal reassured her.

Jake still had doubts. ~Look, Kristen, are you sure about this? It isn't exactly something we'll be able to practice.~

~Stop acting like my big brother, Jake. I know the plan.~ Kristen was starting to feel her confidence returning.

~And when you get back, you need to eliminate the spare transponder. Better if the rescue team don't get distracted by that, plus it'll just wind them up, there's something in the safety procedures about not splitting up, I think.~ Kal was getting nervous, he was starting to ramble. ~I never really listen to the safety briefing to be honest.~

~No, ur-gisgal,~ Damon retorted snarkily, ~but I'm saying next time, maybe you should.~


The Lieutenant caught up with Sierpinski as she headed purposefully back to the isolation lab. "I just thought you should know. I've been given orders, to make sure you don't have any doubts about following your orders. Not that I think you would, just, telling you how it is."

Sierpinski looked up at him. Somehow the revelation didn't surprise her, it made sense they would want to keep an eye on her. Although the powers that be had accepted her plans for the most part, they had also dictated a raft of conditions and qualifications to them. This was going to be a tough one to juggle.

"Thanks for informing me of that, Lieutenant. And to reassure you, I think I am in general agreement with the orders as they stand right now," she informed him.

The question was how long she stayed in general agreement with the orders. But that was a concern it was not going to be sensible to share with the Lieutenant under the circumstances.

"Capsules and induction coils?" she queried.

"Here and being installed now."

"Right. Lets go try and present them with this legal disclaimer of liability I've been lumbered with."


"We want to help, we intend to help. We're just trying to make sure there aren't going to be any misunderstandings. We want to fully understand the risks. The risks to you, to us." Sierpinski tried to explain.

"The risk to us is that if we don't do this, we die." Kristen was struggling to get her head around the politics and bureaucracy of what she thought ought to have been a simple decision. She could sense this Sierpinski was equally frustrated by it all, but that didn't help resolve the issue.

"You really think we'd try to interfere with your rescue?" Sierpinski asked.

"You couldn't, I've seen of your technology, you don't have the capability of stopping the rescue ship."

"We could leave you to die, that would mess things up."

"You could. Are you saying you'll do that?"

"There's a risk you'll die anyway. What I'm trying to do is to quantify the danger to us if that happens. You have to see that your people, if they think we were responsible, they could easily destroy the Earth in retaliation."

Kristen was astounded. "Is that what this is about? Why would anyone do that?"

"Revenge. Justice. Anger."

Kristen glanced across at Kal, reassured to that he was just as clueless as she was. She returned her attention to the three humans in the room, feeling completely disconnected from them. She no longer had any doubts, she had way more in common with aliens than she did with humans.

She closed her eyes, desperately trying to think of a way to explain. "Look, if one of you was trapped on an island, an island populated by wild animals, and that person died of starvation, would it be justice to put the wild animals on trial for his death because they failed to help?"

"You're calling us animals?" Sierpinski challenged.

"If you can only think in terms of revenge and anger, then yes, because that's what you are."

"I mentioned justice as well."

"No, you described retribution, not justice. You seem to struggle to understand the difference."

"Wild animals might attack and kill the man on the island for no reason. We wouldn't do that."

"They might for food, for sport. There are always reasons. You might for political convenience, self defense..."

"And if we killed for political convenience, wouldn't you be justified in striking back?"

"Would you strike back against a wild animal that killed for food, when that's just the nature of the beast?"

"We might."

Kristen shook her head. It was a difficult revelation to face up to, but she finally, completely understood what separated her from the humans. "Well we wouldn't. We wouldn't strike back against a wild animal that killed for political convenience either. There's no difference, you don't really understand the consequences of your what you're doing, that's just your nature."

"We can see there are consequences."

"You guess at consequences, but you can't feel them, experience them."

"We can rationalize, we are sitting here talking to each other. We can explain reasons, explain consequences. We can communicate."

Kristen tried hard to stop herself, but the laugh came out anyway. "You call this limited exchange of words communication? I wish I could share with you, show you what communication really is. I can see you're trying to understand. But your minds are..." she gave up trying to find the find the words, "too limited to see... to see what it is you're missing."

She looked up, she could see Sierpinski was starting to grasp, maybe not the argument, but at least the magnitude of the chasm that separated them.

"You're right." Sierpinski admitted. "I want to understand. I'm trying to understand. Is there any way you can... teach us."

Kristen had no choice but to shake her head. "I wish there was. But I'm a language student, not a philosopher. Not a teacher."

Sierpinski remained silent. She was thinking hard.

Kristen tried again. "We're no threat to you. We just want to live."

"I'll arrange the induction coils, we'll give you whatever help you need to survive." Sierpinski answered finally. "You're right, maybe we are animals, but we're animals who want to take the next step, who want to learn to stop acting like animals."


"The transponders?" Sierpinski questioned the Lieutenant once they were well out of earshot of anyone else.

"Back at the farmhouse, shielded as ordered. I'm confused about our orders here though. We helped the survivors, now you act like we don't want them rescued?"

"The shielding is a temporary measure. The intent is not to stop the rescue, just to have some control over it. We need a little time to set up a proper welcome for them at the farmhouse. A day or two delay there won't result in the end of the world."

The Lieutenant was still not sure. "So our superiors are worried the rescue ship turns up, picks up the capsules, then they exit stage right, and we have nothing. We haven't learned a thing."

"That's about it. Our objective now is to get the rescue team to stop long enough to talk to us. We helped four survivors from the crash. The feeling is that they owe us for that. My orders are to see what we can get in return."

"Isn't that a risk?"

"No." Sierpinski informed him. "Unfortunately it isn't. You don't bluff a hand weaker than the one you're holding, I don't care what planet you're from. The girl was telling the truth. There's no down side, no risk to us at all."

The Lieutenant stared at her disbelievingly. "You don't sound very happy about that."

"I'm not. These are honest and decent people, and my job is now to try and take advantage of them. I hate knowing we can get away with it. Nothing would please me more than being able to go back to my boss when this is all over and say I told you so."

"You want us all wiped out?"

"No. But I want something to happen to make us stop and think for once. You know, I actually respect these people. I really want to try and show them we're better than the animals. This isn't the way to do that"

"But you'll follow orders?" the Lieutenant asked.

Sierpinski smiled, the Lieutenant remained predictable. "You wouldn't hesitate to have me restrained, would you?"

"I would prefer not to have to. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, we can't just let them walk away. "

"You were the one telling us these were aliens in the first place, and I didn't believe you. For that I apologize. For the rest, your heart may be in the right place, Lieutenant, but I think you're wrong about the best way to handle this situation. The ends never justify the means, and I think we're in danger of crossing the line there."


~It took longer to argue about it.~ Kristen observed cynically.

They were almost done with the preparations. Doctor Vidal and the Lieutenant had helped them set up an area adjacent to the isolation lab where they could power up the capsules, then Kal and Kristen had been left to finish the rest of the job by themselves. Kal was already sealing the second of the capsules.

~There really isn't much more to it than that,~ he told her. ~Induce a coma, activate the stasis field in the capsule, put the patient in the capsule, press the green button. Two or three minutes at most.~

~I remember the green button part. That's where I came in.~ Kristen was hesitant.

~You ready to jaunt? Once I seal you in you'll have only a matter of minutes to jaunt out of there before the air runs out. There is the option of hitting the red button if you absolutely need to get out that way, but if you do, you'll be on your own.~

~I'll be okay. You?~

~I'll be unconscious. If I'm not okay, if the rescue never comes, I'll never know about it,~ he shrugged.

Kristen lay back in the capsule. Kal's cold pragmatism wasn't what she needed to hear. This was not the way she wanted to say goodbye. So much had happened in so little time, now it was over and there were so many things she still wanted to say. Things she'd wanted to do, but she knew that they were both under constant surveillance, doing what she was thinking about wouldn't have been a good idea. She figured it was just as well her thoughts couldn't be monitored. She wasn't ready to let go.

~One of those questions I never got to ask, but, what exactly is the range of telepathy?~

Kal smiled gently. ~Not enough, not for what you're thinking.~

~I guess I like thinking about the impossible,~ she admitted.

Unsurprisingly he knew exactly what she was alluding to. ~Reading your thoughts, turns out I lived a way more sheltered life than I ever realized. I guess I learned something.~

Kristen tried not to blush.

~Green button,~ he whispered. The capsule closed.

Kristen looked up. She couldn't see him any more, but she could still sense him, sense him climbing into the last of the capsules. He was feeling, feeling there was something missing. There was an emptiness there. In all the time she'd know him, the whole two days, he'd been focussed, upset, confused, every emotion she could imagine, but he hadn't once had any feeling about her. Until now. Now she was gone, now it was all over, he'd finally realized he was going to miss her.

She kept watching until she sensed his mind fading, fading in unconsciousness. Until there was nothing left keeping her there.

~Jake?~ she called, and then jaunted.


"Doctor?" Elaine Sierpinski paused as she passed the observation room overlooking the now empty isolation area. She was surprised to see Doctor Vidal clearing out his desk. Not that he'd exactly had much there in the way of personal stuff there to start with.

"Looks like my job is done. Wish I knew what exactly it was I'd done, but I think they'll live. Anyway, I'm being shipped out. On a need to know basis, it seems I no longer need to know."

"Well, that's probably the right decision. Odd though, I don't seem to recall being consulted about it."

The Doctor understood the implied meaning. "What just happened here, Ms Sierpinski? Did we just have the single greatest opportunity in the history of humanity bestowed upon us, only for us to screw the whole thing up through our petty politics and bureaucracy? Was this weekend real?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"That this was a training exercise and that our failure is going to result in a thorough policy review."

Sierpinski made no effort to contain her cynicism. "Sorry Doctor. This was the real deal. And I think our failure is going to proclaim to the universe that we're a bunch of complete assholes."

"Yes, well, good luck with that," Doctor Vidal retorted dismissively. "You know what, though? I thought you were an asshole, you proved me wrong. And I'm not trying to tell you your job here, but if I were you, if I still had that one last chance to break the rules, I'd use it to try and convince the aliens that we're not a lost cause. You could still do that much. Please let me walk away from this thinking there's still some hope for humanity."

"Maybe, Doctor," Sierpinski contemplated. "But I'll have to convince myself of that first."


"Problems?" John asked as he finally completed the coupling of the energy packs to the modified relay beacon. The rain had eased off, but it was still turning out to be muddy work.

Carol rechecked her readings. "I just did a periodic check, three transponder signals aren't showing any more."

"Dead?"

"Completely dead. No readings at all."

"Only someone telepathic could deactivate or set them to destruct. That isn't likely." Elizabeth pointed out.

"Shielded then?"

Elizabeth wasn't convinced. "How would they know how to shield them?"

"Well, thankfully that's one mystery that doesn't much matter now. The transmitter is ready to go. As long as they're in range, they'll be able to make contact."

Carol felt an enormous sense of relief. "How long?"

"I don't know exactly. The power has to build up. Ten or fifteen minutes at most."

"What if they don't answer?" Elizabeth asked.

"Why on earth wouldn't they answer?..." He cut himself short. They wouldn't answer if they were unconscious or dead, and John could see there was absolutely no value in pointing that out. This was their only remaining hope, it had to work.

"And now we wait." Carol declared, sitting herself down on a nearby wet rock.