Back on the home front, Rommie and David were again at the dance club. Somehow, they found themselves dancing close to each other, when Gandalf cut in.

"May I be your dancing partner, Rommie?"

"Sure"

After a while, Gandalf left, as he had early morning errands to do, and so the two friends were dancing again. Soon, their bodies were a mere 5 centimeters from each other, and they were holding each other close, until, David excused himself and went to go get a drink.

They danced some more, and again were very physically close to each other. This time, neither wanted to decrease the proximity and as they danced. When the music stopped, they snapped out of this. Neither knew what to say about what happened.



A month later, David got an offer, from the new Commonwealth News Service for a reporting job, which Rommie read to him.

"This sounds like a good opportunity" Rommie commented" "But….."

"My true passion is writing short stories and novels" David said, finishing her sentence.

"Besides, I like the people here"

"Oh?"

"Like my friends and stuff"

"Why don't we go celebrate your receiving this offer by….?"

"going to the Dance club?"



Again, Rommie and David went to the dance club for some fun, but as they were dancing, Rommie found herself putting her face closer and closer to David's.

"I sense someone's face. Who could it be?" David, glibed, trying to hide his nervousness.

"It is I, your grandmother" she answered sarcastically

"ha ha. My grandma would not smell as sweet as you do"

"I bet you say that to all the girls." Rommie answered coyly

"Just ones who are as special as you", their faces were within kissing range.

" I think you're special too" their foreheads were leaning on each other, as they started to kiss.

In the meantime, Gandalf was going to join them, when he saw them kissing. This spoiled his mood, and he decided to visit his mother.

"Hey mom" he said as he came in.

"Hey. I thought you were going to the Dance Club" she could sense his foul mood.

"No, I changed my mind"

"Were Rommie and David there?"

"Yeah" he said in a tone that attempted neutrality, but failed.

"and..?"

"They were kissing" Gandalf said harshly.

"I see" she was not surprised.

"You don't sound surprised"

"I've been seeing the signs for a while now."

" I didn't really see anything that pinpointed their mutual attraction until tonight"

"People only see what they want to see." Jalicia knew that Gandalf had a long time crush on Rommie, which he managed to hide from everyone but her, and that he did not want to admit it to himself.

"David's nice, but he's too young for her"

"Sometimes, age is irrelevant" Jalicia replied.

"but still.. anyway….have I told you about what happened with the reservoir project?" Gandalf decided to change the subject.

"No what happened?"

"The residents won. Hopefully, this won't set a precedent for other cases"

"The avalanche has started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote" Jalicia replied.



Back at the Club, they stopped their kiss, decided to go home. Once there, they kissed again, and, decided to spend the night together.



A few days later, back on the Commonwealth capital, Dylan read David's latest letter, in his office. and thought to himself. "So much for that plan".



Time passed and Life was going great for David, he was in a great relationship, with a great person, his short stories were selling well, and getting great reviews, and soon, he would be publishing his novel.

"Guess what Rommie!" David said, as he came home, " Another short story of mine got published."

"That's wonderful" she replied, kissing him.

"It's the one where the main character is based on you" he said shyly

"I'm honored to be your muse" she said beaming "By the way, does your father know about us?"

"No. It was hard enough for him to accept my living with you, as a friend."

"I see" she replied "When do you plan to tell him?"

" I don't know"



Dylan, for his part, was sitting in his study, when he starting to remember or relive the first time he met David's mother.

He and Tyr had been on a secret mission, which Dylan could not really recall, and somehow they had split up. Soon, Dylan found himself among several Kalderans who wanted to kill him. Just as he was feeling ready to go down fighting, a woman suddenly appeared, helping him by fighting them with her wooden quarter staff. After thanking her, he asked

"Who are you?"

"Call me Arwen"

"That's a pretty name."

"It is the name of my grandmother"

"I see, is there anything I could do for you?"

"I ask nothing of you"

"Do you need to go anywhere? I could give you a ride" Dylan really had wanted to help her somehow, and he found her attractive, with black wavy hair, and eyes of the same color.

"Well, I suppose I could stay in your ship"

Her stay was supposed to last only a week, but that week extended to a month, and that month, a half-year, until, at a certain point, after which she and Dylan became lovers, she started to learn about how the ship ran, a difficult task, as , according to her, she came from a world, where people did not really space travel. Most of her duty time was spent in med-bay. After a while, she become better at identifying and buying plants that could treat patients.



The cook telling him that dinner was ready interrupted Dylan's reminiscing. Thanking the woman, Dylan , went on to dine, an activity that had little pleasure since David decided to move out. He missed his son's conversation which varied from that latest books he had devoured, to his latest story, and any number of things. After he started eating, his reminiscing began again.

It was 2 days after David was born, and they still could not agree on what name to give him.

"What's wrong with the name Peter?" Dylan asked, as he was holding the newborn. "It was my father's name"

"It doesn't feel right" she answered. Arwen had insisted that they not even talk about possible names until after the child's birth, as she felt that it was impossible to know the right name for a child until it had been born and a parent could sense, from being with the child, what was the best name.

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't carry his essence."

"Essence?" Dylan had heard her say this word many times, but not in this context.

"A name must be the person and who they are."

"I see" he answered, distracted, as he was lovingly caressing the baby with his finger. The child had dark eyes, which would later turn to blue, the child's 'newborn hair' was black



"Let me hold the child" she requested with a smile.

"Certainly" he answered as he handed her the child and kissed her forehead. "I think I might have a name for him"

"Oh?"

"Thomas. It's a good strong name'

"It may be, but it imbues a different kind of strength, than what our son has. Maybe we could call him Legolas?"

Dylan just gave Arwen a look of surprise, as that name sounded too odd to him.

Dylan and Arwen spent over a week, in discussions like this, when finally, Arwen made a fateful suggestion.

"I was talking to a Wayist, who came to visit, per my request. I asked him to give me names of men with great wisdom in the various books of his religion. One such name that I found good was that of a certain king David, while making some big mistakes, he was wise for most of his life."

"I like the name David." Dylan replied, glad that they could finally start to agree on this

"How would you feel about naming our son by this name?"

"I would agree to it" there was something about the name David, that seems to fit his son.

Dylan snapped out of his reminiscing enough to go back to his study, and then remembering the day, his son got cured from his terminal illness.

The doctors had given David two months at most. Dylan, could not bring himself to make the necessary arrangements regarding getting a casket and a cemetery plot, and Beka had been nice enough to do them. He spent all the time he could at his son's bedside, and even took time off. However, when, after going home for a while, on the doctor's orders, and returning to the hospital, David's main pediatrician came up to him and asked to speak to him. Just as he was bracing himself to hear the news he had so dreaded, the doctor gave him a surprise.

"Dylan, your son is cured"

He couldn't believe it.

"What?"

"This morning, a while after, a couple of Wayists left David's room, one of the shift nurses noticed that his readings were that of a healthy young boy, and not of a dying one. She called the head nurse, who in turned called me. I ran all the tests I could think of" Niether the doctor nor Dylan were not surprised about the Wayists being there, as people from that faith like to visit patients and pray for them.

Dylan did not know what to say, he was so happy.

"When can I see him?" was all he could say.

"Now"

"Thank you doctor, for everything." Dylan's face was that of pure joy.

"I wasn't the one who cured him"

After his visit with David, he went to the nurses station, and asked one of them

"Could you identify the Wayists who came to visit my son?"

"Not really, they were wearing hoods."

"I see" While he didn't credit the Wayist's prayers for his son's recovery, he felt that their presence helped him psychologically.

Dylan stopped his reminiscing to go read a book.

Days earlier, Harper was having some memories of his own regarding Arwen. He remembers the first time she came on the ship. Dylan introduced her, when they were all together in the mess hall.

"Everyone, this is Arwen, she is coming to visit the ship for a while."

"What a babe?"

"Mr. Harper.." Dylan said warningly.

"Hello" Beka had said politely, but Harper could tell that she was not impressed. Arwen was wearing loose purple pants, and a blue shirt. Also, she had a certain arrogant air about her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you" Tyr greeted her in a voice of masked politeness.

"So, this is a ship of space?" Arwen has asked.

"You could say that?" Dylan had replied.

"I have never traveled in space."

"Then I hope to make your first trip in space a pleasant one" Dylan was laying in all the charm. How could he know that later she would leave him with a young son to care for? This was one time Harper was glad that Dylan had gotten the babe before him.

Afterwards, it took Arwen three days to choose a room, as she wanted it to have the right "ambience and essence". This annoyed Andromeda, the hologram to no end as the bots kept having to move Arwen's various things. However, after a few months, Dylan practically lived in Arwen's quarters, and only went to his when he had to dress for formal occasions.



After a momentary interruption of his thoughts by the cat insisting on being let out, Harper restarted the process of re-accessing the memory files, of the period when Arwen was in their lives, as he felt that the was something about her, and he decided to try yet again to figure it out.



One day, a week after she came, he noticed her in one of the conduit areas, cross-legged, thinking, and with an oddly shaped object, which glowed a purplish color. Harper was impressed, and tried to scan it, when it turned off and he could not read anything.

"You depend on technology too much for understanding" she remarked matter- of-factly.

"Well, duh! I'm an engineer."

"You should develop understanding from the essence of what's around you"

"Ooo-kaaay..One of us is a bit too obsessed with essence. That's all you ever talk about Essence here, essence there, essence everywhere. Anyway, what are you up to?"

"Just thinking and absorbing"

"I see"



"Well, I have to go" she said. "I promised Dylan that I would make him a homemade meal, as I love to cook"

"Have fun" Harper was pretending to be working on something nearby

When he was sure she had left, he asked the ship,

"Andromeda, could you give me a reading on that thing Arwen was carrying." Harper was hoping that maybe the ship had some information.

"I'm afraid I can't. She had privacy mode engaged."

"Okay" he was disappointed.

After some theorizing that day, he still couldn't come up with any explanation. Then, he went to talk to Beka about it on the Maru.

"Harper, you're just imagining things. There are logical explanations. It's probably some device that can detect scanning devices and automatically shuts down. Also, she did have privacy mode."

"But still.. I can't figure out a way that thing could have glowed. It didn't have any power sources of any kind that were visible. It was just metal, and that odd shaped thing. There's something odd about that babe." Harper was starting to get suspicious about her.

"You're being paranoid, as usual. She's kind of odd and bossy, but as long as she doesn't hurt Dylan, I'm willing to tolerate her."

"And he can have her!"

"That's a first"



Soon, Harper went to see Trance, and hoped for some insight from her.

After telling her of what he saw, he asked "What do you make of this, Trance?"

"There could be a number of possibilities" she answered.

"Gee, that's a lot of help"

"What if she's some evil alien pretending to be human?"

Trance just looked at him.

"I doubt that this is the case" she answered with total certainty.

"So, you know something."

"I just know that you are being paranoid."

In an attempt to find someone who would understand his concern, he talked to Tyr.

"As long as my survival is not endangered by her oddities, I won't concern myself with her eccentricity"

"But she could be a danger to your survival" Harper said, trying to appeal to his self preservation tendencies. "She could just be bidding her time"

"I highly doubt it. Even I find your concerns to be too premature"

"That's saying a lot"

"If you are so concerned, why don't you talk to Dylan?"

"Cause he's like blinded by the babe"



And many eccentricities did she show. Harper often saw her with that glowing object, in that same area of the ship. Many times he tried to scan the device, but to no avail, until one day, months later, Dylan came to the machine shop to talk to him. He looked furious.



"Harper, why in the hell are you spying on Arwen when she is meditating?. I know that you like admire women, but voyeurism is going too far!" the idea of anyone, even Harper, doing that to the woman he loved, was an angering thought to Dylan.

"I wasn't spying on her" he replied "I just wanted to find out about that glowing thing she had"

"I'm sure you did" Dylan did not believe him. "Please respect her privacy"

"But Dylan……"

"This is not a debate" he glared at Harper.

Hence, Harper had to stop trying to scan the 'glowing thing'. However, he had other plans to try to figure out who Arwen really was.



Meanwhile, back in the present, the cat insisted on being let in again. Soon, however, he was back to reviewing his memory files.





The next few memories related to the various things about Arwen that he noticed.

Harper noticed that Arwen, for the most part, liked to wear these long flowing dresses. Also, she had gotten Dylan to dress more in funkier things, by buying them for him. How she got the money, no one knew.

He well remembered the day, when the inexplicable happened. Arwen, and Dylan had gone alone to some local drift. A few days later, the crew got an urgent message from Dylan that said that Arwen was in a coma. When they got to the hospital, where she was at, Dylan was at her bedside, holding her hand.

"What happened?" Beka asked.

"She just fainted and hasn't woken since" Dylan replied. It was easy to see the pain in his eyes.

"What does the doctor say"

"That she might not make it."

However, a few minutes later, she woke up

"Arwen?" Dylan was surprised and joyous at the same time.

"Why are you so surprised?" she asked simply

"The doctors didn't that you would pull through" Beka replied.

"Doctors, they have the arrogance to think that they know all there is to know on how to treat people's illnesses, just because they have technology and science."

Dylan just beamed and kissed her, as Arwen returned the favor, to the point, where everyone excused themselves.



Out in the waiting room, Harper commented

"She pulled a Trance on us!"

"It was just luck" Beka replied.

"I'm telling you there's something about Arwen. She has powers, or knows people who have powers!"

"Well if she does, she doesn't seem to want to use them against us"

"For now."



Again, Harper's reminisces were interrupted by his wife, who just came home from a conference. He decided to leave his memory file review for another day.