In no time, Seo, Dave, and Alison had assembled and constructed the equipment she'd needed. Adapted from some bits and bobs that had already been lying around the basement of this shopping mall, presumably to let a human being interface with the shopping mainframe.

The comms crackled.

"We've reached the dome," said Zed Square's voice. "You're right. Already starting to fail. We can see it."

"It's all lightningy and weird," came Dawn's voice.

Seo turned to Dave. Who was standing beside the harness that had been created, specifically, so that Dave could be lowered into the essence of the Nestene consciousness. He hooked up the last few bits of wires and things into the entry-ports around the harness.

Alison was on the other side of the machinery. Checking readings and output settings. "I'm set over here!" she called to them.

Seo looked at Dave. "You all right with this?"

Dave wasn't.

That was plain to anyone, simply from looking at him.

He glanced over at her. Hesitant. His face almost… confused. As he studied her, carefully. "Guess I'm just a sucker for a knockout beauty," he muttered.

"You think I'm a knockout beauty?" said Seo. "What, really?"

Dave didn't answer that.

"One thing I need to know… before I go in," Dave said. His voice lowering to a whisper. "Is Alison… my sister?"

Seo blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"My older sister — I don't remember that much about her," said Dave. "Barely know how she looked. I always assumed… she'd been killed, during the invasion. She wasn't with the other slaves, at the Rechortia. But…" His eyes flicked over to Alison. "She looks familiar. Like… a memory I've almost forgotten."

Seo looked between the two.

Then grimaced.

And told Dave the truth.

"Alison's from the twenty-first century," said Seo. "We're time travelers. She's not your sister — more like… your Great-Aunt. Or Great-Great-however-many-Greats Aunt. Depending on how many generations are between her five-year-old David Korjensky, and the David Korjensky that was your grandfather."

Dave didn't answer.

"If your sister's still alive," said Seo, "I can try to find her. Promise. But… it's not Alison. I'm sorry. Her brother David… well, he doesn't even look like you."

Dave nodded, slowly.

"You… don't believe me, do you?" Seo asked. Shaking her head. "Time travel's a bit hard to wrap your head around."

"I don't know what I believe," said Dave, turning back to Seo. "Or why." He stepped into the harness, doing up all the cables and making all the connections. "But you're right about one thing. After we crashed… when every child in the Pachoran Slave Cluster started turning on each other — I tried to stop it. I wanted to stop it."

Seo gave a little smile.

Dave tossed her his last gun. Then raised up his hands, completely without weapons for the first time since he'd escaped from the Rechortia.

"So go on," said Dave. "I'm trusting you. Now lower me down."

"And they keep coming," sneered a voice behind them.

Dawn and Zed Square turned around.

Dawn's eyes narrowing, as she recognized the person behind her. Remembered him from their last encounter, when he'd taken the term "total wacko" to new limits.

"More flashes from my past," said Professor Trinch, from behind the force-field. He was clutching his side, which dripped with blood, as he staggered forwards, giving them a shaky laugh. "Shame the pulse won't kill you, too, Dawn. I'll have to get the boy, here, to do that for me."

"Yeah, no offense," said Zed Square, "but I don't take your orders. And kill her? Hey, she's hotter than you." He shot Dawn a grin. "And she looks damn foxy in the nude."

Dawn smacked him on the arm.

"But you are loyal to your species," said Trinch. "You've seen the state of Earth Empire. If I don't step in, who will protect us from the monsters? How long before the entire Empire falls apart, our people hauled off by aliens en masse and used as slaves?"

Zed Square faltered, at that.

The comms crackled.

"Almost ready on this side," came Seo's voice, through the speakers. "Get ready to disable the force-field, on the count of three."

Zed Square was frozen.

His hand on the lever.

But unwilling to pull it.

"There's no one left to wipe out the monsters," said Trinch. "No one to keep out the invaders. The military is a joke. You ready to let humanity be crushed by the Nestenes?"

"One…" said Seo, through the comms.

"You're trying to kill tons of humans, too, Trinch!" Dawn shouted.

Zed Square wasn't listening to her, though.

"Two…" Seo counted.

"He kept the Nestene at bay," Zed Square realized. Taking his hand off the lever. "Kept it scared. Moment we cancel out his machine… it'll invade. Take over. Wipe us out."

"Three!" said Seo.

"Oh, screw you!" Dawn shoved Zed Square out of the way, and grabbed up the lever. "There!"

Yanked it down, as hard as she could.

Dave felt himself drowning.

Couldn't see, couldn't feel his own body. He was spread thin, could see through every bit of plastic around, could feel it all tingling through him.

And that Consciousness…

Swirling around him, dwarfing him, threatening to tear him to pieces — only just held at bay by the equipment Seo had constructed for him.

It was like Dave was a child, again. Like he was back to staring out and realizing that the monsters were tearing down the door, killing everyone, and he didn't know what to do.

Or like being age 12, stranded on that alien landscape, trying desperately to stop everyone from killing one another, even as the forces and antipathy around him grew out of his control, and everyone began screaming and dying and murdering…

No.

Stay strong.

He would. He must. He wasn't 'D-man', wasn't 'D', wasn't Dave — he was David Walter Korjensky III, and he wanted to believe in miracles.

"It's coming," David said. Feeling the power buildup tingling and beginning to sear the plastic polymers under his control. "The pulse blast."

He was prepared.

As the consciousness-destroying pulse burst out of the force-field, and surged forwards.

"Everything's stable over here!" said Seo. "Cancellation field seems to be working."

"Life signs stable for Dave," Alison confirmed, from her machine banks. Then, with a small snicker, "Your fancy-man."

Seo didn't look up. "Don't know what you mean."

"It's sweet!" said Alison. "You've fallen for a soldier-boy from the future! Try that on for a holiday!"

Seo, in order to avoid responding to Alison, turned back to the comms equipment. "Cancellation field is in effect," Seo reported in. Holding the comms to her mouth, to order around her aunt. "Now get those Autons in there and destroy that machinery, Aunt Dawn, before Dave's mind gives out under the strain!"

The comms didn't respond.

"Aunt Dawn?" Seo said.

Still, no answer.

"The Autons around the force field," said the shopkeeper, translating for the Nestene Consciousness. "They have been vaporized. The organics have betrayed us."

Alison and Seo looked at one another. Realizing… they were in very big trouble.

"You maniac!" shouted Dawn, trying to wrestle her way out of Zed Square's grip. "Don't trust Trinch! He's nuts!"

She was shoved inside a metal cage, meshed around what looked like it used to be a furnace.

And shut up, within it.

Trinch, meanwhile, was finishing off the last of the Autons using Zed-Square's blaster gun.

"He's unhinged, sure," said Zed Square. "But your niece is handing over control of everything to the Nestenes. Think I wanna let that happen?"

"The last time Seo and I faced this Trinch guy, he was using humans as lab rats to test alien viruses!" Dawn shouted. "He doesn't care about humanity! He doesn't care about anyone except himself. He'll turn against you in a second!"

"Earth Central might be a joke," Zed Square said, with a shrug. "But I won't betray humanity. Not even for someone good-looking as you." He turned back to Trinch. "What now?"

"They're using David's brain to counter the field?" Trinch asked. "Filtered through the Nestene Consciousness?" He was still breathing heavily. But his side — where Dave had shot him — had stopped bleeding, since Zed Square's injection a short while ago. He gestured back towards the dome. "I can manipulate the frequencies. Get around it."

"Right behind you," said Zed Square. "Let's save Dave and the rest of humanity!"

Trinch paused. "Which reminds me." He swung around.

And shot Zed Square full-on, with the vaporizing gun.

Zed Square exploded into white light and vanished before he even had time to scream.

"David's not making it out of here alive," said Trinch. Heading back into the dome. "Not if I can help it."