Originally posted on under the name armitage374 on 06-24-02

Updated on 02-05-16 after a Grammarly run through and some attempted reformatting

The Price of Freedom

First part of the "Phoenix From Ashes" Series

By

Armitage374

Denmark

Rating:

PG 13 (Hey, it got some major suggestive things on torture in here, so better safe than sorry. And I never could figure the rating thing out ).

Summary:

The war is over, the Taelons gone. And Liam..Liam is dead. Or is he ?.

Authors note:

This is what happens when you guys keep writing up all those Liam Hurt stories: My muse turns dark side on me and I have no other alternative then to go with the flow... And as some of you probably is going to figure out, I have a couple of issues with poor Renee, dating back to when she pulled a gun on Liam... OK, so I carry grudges for a long time.

Series:

I never intended this to be more than a one-shot story, but after several requests and a lot of pressure from my always over active muse, I se at least 2 sequels coming up. Since that makes this a series, I've chosen to call the entire 3 (or more) episodes the "Phoenix From Ashes" series.

Nominations: This Fan fiction was nominated for the BEST NEWCOMER category at the SUMMER SHAQARAVA AWARDS 2001.

Archives:

My own pages. Anyone else, just ask.

Feedback:

Hell yeah! I LIVE off the stuff! Just please take into consideration, that this is my first EFC fan fiction to make it online.. And don't let the fact that I got a pipeline to the dark side and a couple of really, really good connections in some very hot areas below scare you off. *BIG NASTY EVIL GRIN*

Standard disclaimers:

They belong to someone else (those pesky types at those companies all Liam Kincaid, Da'an and Zo'or fans are now boycotting, you know, Tribune and Alliance/Atlantis). Except Anr'el and the rest of the gang with her. They belong to me. If I DID own them all, we wouldn't have to be afraid to loose Liam. He would live forever.

Dedication:

This story is, as all of my stories in the Earth - Final Conflict universe, dedicated to two persons:

Robert Leeshock for giving us fans so much, both in terms of acting and in terms of interaction and to Liam Hag'el-Sandoval-Beckett, Alien Enough to be Human Enough small talk, here comes the story...

Year 10 AC. The war was finally over. The Taelons had been kicked off the planet with a vengeance, and since they were no longer here, the Jaridians also lost every interest in the planet. We were no longer a threat. And someone had managed to persuade them to spare Earth from their vengeance. Nobody really knew who, though. Just that it was someone high in the resistance hierarchy. And now, everyone could go back to their old lives, a bit battered, a bit more scared. Even Sandoval was pardoned after it turned out he had actually worked deep undercover for Operation Dark Knight.

Everything could go back to normal. Except for one person life. In those final days, the public had finally learned Liam's big secret, and they had, as he had feared, reacted with repulsion:

He was alien.

He was not to be trusted.

He was a threat.

He was alone.

He was free game.

Even if he had been the leader of the North American Resistance. But, as several tabloids had merciless pointed out: He had no other choice. The Taelons would have killed him if they had known about him.

Sure, in the start, everything had been OK. There had been a feeling of euphoria in the air, and he had been given due credit, there had even been a couple of parades in his honour, but soon the tabloids started picking up stories of small things really, like getting almost getting into a fight with someone at the Flat Planet when a drunk testosterone driven bovine of a man didn't take Renee's "No" for an answer, blowing them out of proportions and slowly his reputation was eroded.

The verdict of the public was the usual: Don't believe you're someone. You're not. We can always pull you down.

Renee had been to absorbed in her own glamorous life to do anything about it. Dr. Belman had tried, but in vain, her attempts at rectifying the rumours had gone over the counter as the attempts of a desperate surrogate mother to protect her charge. Dr. Park, as well as Joshua Doors, had been killed during the last fights and thus couldn't help. Dr. Curzon had bailed out in the name of her good reputation. J-street and Augur had also tried, but who would believe a couple of ex-cons? Sandoval had also tried himself, but, as with Augur and J-street, he was not trusted.

And Colonel Zeke, who had also shown a surprisingly adamant defence of Liam, had disappeared right when he was actually turning the tide to Liam's favour. And when he disappeared, the rumours came back worse than ever. There were even some whispers, that Liam perhaps had killed him in a brawl and successfully hidden the body. And all his previous actions were slowly forgotten. Until the only thing left was the story of his alien heritage, the heritage he had so desperately tried to forget, suppressing it to the point were even blood scans didn't show his 3rd strand of DNA anymore. Suppressed it to the point, where his very life had been in danger.

Only in the end, when Sandoval had shown true colours and had almost been killed by another companion agent for it, had the Kimeran heritage manifested itself again, Liam's shaqarava had activated themselves, absorbing the skrillblast, which had been meant to end Sandoval's life. Sandoval never knew why. Liam had told him, that there would be time later, when all the racket had died down a bit. Sandoval HATED not knowing why.

He had his suspicions, though, but when he confronted Liam's old resistance friend, Augur, to get either a confirmation or an explanation, all the former hacker, now turned business man, would say was: "He'll tell you himself when the time is right." But then THE story launched. The Taelon story of the Kimera being a race of vicious terrorists was suddenly given a lot more credit than validated, remembering the source, and ended up being blasted all over all the news channels, even the more sedate parts of the press picked it up.

And Liam became quickly became the target of every bigot this side of the North Pole. Sandoval leaned back in his chair and sighed. It had ended up with a dispirited Liam having to go into protective custody. But that hadn't been enough.

And now Liam was dead.

Apparently attacked by a corrupt guard with a grudge against everything alien. The tired and worn Liam had not stood a chance. The guard, killed by one of the other watchers, had somehow gotten his hands on a high-powered energy weapon and totally evaporated the unsuspecting Liam. There was nothing left. Only the witness statements of the other guards was left to tell the gruesome story of Liam's last minutes.

Wait a minute: Only statements? Suddenly Sandoval frowned. His CVI picked up some memories from his own FBI days. He went over the files, that one of his old colleagues in the FBI had sent him, on Liam's death once more. Something wasn't right here.

He opened his global and punched in a now familiar number. "Augur, I need you to check up on something for me..."

Meanwhile, in a secret government installation deep beneath the Pentagon.

The prisoner was slowly returning to the world of light. The last thing he remembered was following the FBI people out to their car, then everything went black. His head swam as he attempted to sit up. A second attempt was more successful, and he started to survey his immediate surroundings.

The room was barren, 3x3 meters and one end was open, sealed with a barrier of virtual glass. On the other site of a corridor, he could see a replica of his own cell, but that one was empty. Back to his own cell. There was a cot, on which he was sitting, a sink and a toilet, the entire thing was being lit by a harsh light from a panel in the ceiling and that was it.

He wasn't even wearing his own clothes any more, just some sort of grey jump-suit, which brought back unpleasant memories of the garment the prisoners onboard the Taelon mothership had worn. There was a slight pain in one of his arms, and when he pulled up the sleeve, he could see a small puncture mark, like that from a needle. Funny, he had never, even when the whisper campaign was at it's worst, thought that the biggest danger came from the humans.

He had always thought, that despite their distrust, one day, they would see their error. A sardonic smile curled his lips. Well, he had been known to be wrong before. He wondered what they wanted from him, if it was some kind of knowledge they thought he possessed or if they just wanted to pull him apart piece by piece to see exactly what made the "Alien Hybrid Bastard" (to quote some of the more polite phrases he had heard lately) tick.

He was pulled out of his bleak thoughts by the sound of someone deactivating the virtual glass shield. A couple of heavily armed guards entered the small room and roughly yanked him up from the cot, then proceeded with yanking him down the corridor to another room, where a man with a predatory gleam in his eyes waited.

When he saw what was behind the man, he made a desperate attempt to escape. To no avail. The fight was short but vicious. And he lost it.

And soon after he groggily found himself strapped to the stainless steel table in a room, which could only be described as a torture chamber. The unknown man gave him a cold smile, which send shivers down his spine.

"Now let's discuss what those inherited memories of yours can tell us about Kimeran technology." Not one sound made it past Liam's lips, but in his mind, he was screaming.

They were a peaceful race.

They had come close to extinction because of it once.

But when they heard the scream, their war fleet, untouched for uncounted millennia, was put in motion.

For the voice, that had uttered such fear, such pain, had been the voice of a child.

They were the Kimera.

And no one touched their Children.

The Lair

Beneath Saint Michael's Church

Sandoval had been vaguely amused to find out, that the old resistance HQ, which he had tried to find in vain during the occupation, was beneath a church. They had needed somewhere safe, and all though the war was over, only a handful of ex-resistance people knew about this place. They were as safe as they could be. At least for now.

And then there was also the fact that Augur still had all his computer equipment down here. Which ultimately meant that he was still up to some of his old games. "You can pull the man out of the hacking, but not the hacking out of the man" Sandoval muttered silently to himself, adapting an old saying to the present situation.

"What was that ?" Augur asked, accidentally overhearing the low mutter from Sandoval.

"Nothing, just making an observation" Sandoval managed to hide his snicker. One only had the fun, that one made himself. Besides, he was getting bored. His own sources had dried up hours ago without making any kind of progress, so now only the Troublesome Duo, as he had dubbed Augur and Street, had the chance of actually figuring out, what the hell was happening.

Augur and Street had been at it for hours, only taking breaks to eat pizza or sending Sandoval out for supplies. The guy at the minimarket had to be thinking that Sandoval had a thing going on with caffinated brewages and twinkies by now. But at least, it gave him something to do. Something else than thinking about what Liam was possible going through.

Thanks to his CVI, he was able to recollect the conversation, which had lead to him being here with crystal clarity.

12 hours earlier

"Augur, I need you to check up on something for me..."

"It's the middle of the night, Sandoval, can't this wait until tomorrow ?" The still sleeping Augur said, wishing to once again enter the pill induced half coma, which would allow him to forget, that Liam, his "adopted" baby brother, had been killed by a corrupt FBI man less than 24 hours ago.

Liam. The sudden pang of pain almost made him miss what Sandoval was saying.

"What did you say ?" The shock made him think he was hearing things.

"I said: I think Liam's alive! It's a set-up !" Sandoval repeated impatiently. "It's not safe to talk about this over the global. Do you have somewhere safe where we can meet ?"

Augur immediately thought of the old HQ.

"Yeah, meet me at the Flat Planet in about 20 minutes".

Less than one hour later, Sandoval had found himself here, in the cave beneath Saint Michael's, in the place, he would have LOVED to have known about less than a year ago, together with Augur and an annoyingly frisky young lady, who introduced herself as J-street. Street and Augur had not seen fresh air since.

Present

"Those BASTARDS !" Augur's angry voice rang out through the cave, breaking Sandoval's little trip into the resent past.

"What's wrong ?" Sandoval moved to stand behind Augur, being joined by Street.

"Look at this !"Augur said, bringing up a set of search results on one of the big screens. "When nothing else panned out, I set up a couple of cross-database search patterns on Liam's name." The result on the screen made Sandovals neckhair rise. The danger had just multiplied by x. It was nothing really, just a series of articles in the tabloids. But when you compared it with a bigger picture, a couple of things sprang out blatantly clear, so clear that one could not see the forest for the trees:

They were all designed to rile up the public towards Liam and they were all published within the same week. And the information the articles were based on had, anonymously, been called in from the same 3 phone numbers.

They were looking at the aimed and well-planned attempt to destroy a person.

They were up against some people, who were even more powerful than Sandoval suspected when he first fell over those first few facts, or rather lack thereof, in the official FBI files.

"Augur, start a trace.." He started.

Augur broke in: "Already on it."

Augur was steamed, both at the world and at himself. It should have been so obvious to EVERYONE !. But with the Taelons only recently gone, the public had been more than willing to turn their anger, their hate at someone else and these stories had provided them with an easy target.

Liam.

Someone, who was different, defenceless.

Alone.

But he should have know, he should have stopped it somehow. And now the Kid was in trouble. And it was his job to make it right again.

Liam's Cell

He groaned as he came to. He had just ended his first little "conversation" with the Man, as he had dubbed him. And every inch of him hurt. If Dr Belman had seen him, she would have been horrified. Not a part of his tall, lanky body had been spared and an angry looking blood red criss-cross pattern wove it's way over his pale skin, making the touch of the remains of his prison garb feel like fire.

His face was a mask of blood, cuts and bruises, his hair streaked with sweat and blood. He vaguely remembered his nose being broken maybe twice, and he had a suspicion, that a couple of ribs was cracked or at the very least bended. Nothing major had been broken, though. And he still had all his teeth. Something he found himself somewhat relieved by, for some weird reason.

But he had said nothing.

He hadn't broken.

Not yet.

He couldn't say anything because there was nothing to say. His inherited memories had disappeared along with his 3rd string of DNA. He simply couldn't remember anymore. He gave up everything to be part of this world but still wasn't accepted. And now they wanted what he could no longer give. Maybe he should just will himself to die.

Like Da'an had done in the end, after the Synod found out, that he had "betrayed" them by negotiating peace with the Jaridians. Da'an. That was the only thing he really regretted in his life, not having made up with him before it was too late. To late had he found out, that the deaths of all those resistance fighters came not on Da'an's shoulders, but on his own. Da'an had done it to protect him.

Him, Liam, the bastard child of a long dead race. Yes, maybe willing himself to die wasn't such a bad idea after all. It would be the best for all. He could do it. No one would miss him. All he had to do was stop breathing.

But a little voice in the back of his head stopped him.

"Hang in there !" it said. "Someone is coming for you.."

And Liam continued to breathe...

Kimeran Mastship "Justice", en route to Earth

Earth.

Why did it, of all the planets in the Universe, have to be Earth? Anr'el leaned back tiredly in her command chair. Her green glowing body make almost no impression in the soft material.

"Are we certain about the location ?" she asked her second in command, Ca'el.

"Yes. All indicators point towards this part of space as the origin of the mental scream. And we already know that Hag'el died there, in a city named Washington." Ca'el's voice was confident. "It's possibly he left a child there. Maybe more"

Anr'el sighed. Earth. A most dangerous place. The planet and it's inhabitants, who called themselves "Humans", had a long history of wars and paranoia. Pure insanity, she mused. Even animals knew better than to fight their own kind if it could be avoided.

Which was why First Contact had never been initiated.

They needed to evolve.

A lot.

"The Taelons ?" she asked.

"Gone. After what our informants were able to find out, they left after an altercation with the local resistance movement." Ca'el checked his datapad. "Since then, there is no news from that star system."

Anr'el leaned even further back and felt the cool bioslurry adjust to her body. She closed her eyes and carefully tested the mental bond to the Child, that the Commonality had been able to establish in that splitsecond when the Child had screamed. It seemed to be getting stronger with each parsec they got closer to Earth, although it was still very weak, like the bond between an unborn and it's parent. Mostly a jumble of vague emotions. And it seemed to be one way.

She opened her eyes and the blue-in-blue orbs glowed with a cold fury. They would find it. And if the "Humans" had hurt it, this precious Child, they would pay. Dearly.

"We are coming, Little One. We are coming."

Beneath the Pentagon, a hallway

"Is IT talking ?"

"No, the subject have shown itself amazingly resilient towards pain. Must have something to do with what It went through during the Taelon Occupation. But the physical part is only meant to be a means of weakening It's resistance anyway. We plan to move on with the mental conditioning as soon as possible." The Man smiled coldly. He loved making people talk. And this subject wasn't even human. THAT little fact only made the entire thing even more fun. He didn't have to worry about anyone getting emotional about It.

"Whatever it takes. Just get the info." The other man said, starting towards the nearby elevator. The Man's smile grew bigger, a gleam of sadistic pleasure appearing in his eyes. He had just been given Carte Blanche and he knew it.

He watched as the elevator doors closed behind Hubble Urick, then went back to his office to prepare this afternoon's little "Chat" with the Alien. He had a couple of new Taelon toys he wanted to try out...

Unnoticed by either, a door leading to a nearby cell lane had been standing slightly open and the prisoners had been able to hear everything. Internally putting every piece of gossip they heard in this place together with the events leading up to their own arrest, there was only one person, the two men could have been talking about.

Liam.

Colonel Liam Neville Kincaid and his ODK team took one look at each other through the virtual glass barriers of their cells, reaching a mutual understanding in a split second. They had to get out. Soon. And they were taking Liam with them.

Bettis continued working on how to override the security systems in the cells. Previously it had only been about their own lives, but now someone else's was at stake as well. He had to figure something out soon. "I wonder what Augur would have done" he mumbled, almost inaudible.

Doors International

Washington DC

"WHAT !" Augurs disbelieving voice was clearly audible even through the doors of Renee's office.

"I said; You can't help the dead !" Renee's cold voice answered. "Liam's DEAD! Get it into that thick skull of yours. And he's better of dead anyway." Renee massaged her neck, the stress of running Doors International was getting to her.

"HE IS NOT DEAD !" Augurs voice rose in volume, as he grabbed the back of the chair in front of him, almost as if trying to break it in half. "AND IF YOU COULD GET OF YOUR HIGH HORSE LONG ENOUGH TO LISTEN TO ME, YOU WOULD KNOW THAT! AND WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU MEAN BY "HE'S BETTER OF DEAD ANYWAY"?" Augur made a visible attempt to get himself under control, barely obtaining a fragile hold on his emotions. It wouldn't help the kid if he got tossed in jail for threatening the president of Doors International.

"I meant what I said: He's better of dead. He was the last of his kind, didn't fit in here." Renee sighed inwardly. She should have know, that Augur would come up with something like this. That Sandoval apparently was backing him in this insanity was a little bit of a surprise, though. But then again, who knew what went on in that implanted brain of his.

"I CANNOT believe you !" Augur came close to loosing his temper again. It rarely happened, but something about Renee's attitude towards Liam had always managed to get his protective hackles up.

"The Kid saves your life multiple times, frees an entire PLANET for crying out loud, and all you can say is "He didn't fit in" ?"

"He wasn't one of us Augur! He was a freaking ALIEN for Gods sake !" Renee was getting worked up herself. How dared he come in here and claim she owned Liam ANYTHING? She was the president of Doors International, an important person, busy as hell, and he wanted her to drop EVERYTHING to go off on a wild goose chase?

Augur was stunned.

He had expected many things from Renee Palmer, but not this. Not this kind of racism.

"I guess the truth is out now, isn't it ? You know, I shouldn't be surprised. Your actions in the past clearly should have told me, that you were like this: You laughed at him everytime his heritage came up, like the incident with Kud'on. Or when the entire thing with Ma'els ship, when you couldn't get out of that rescue pod fast enough: It wasn't about your claustrophobia at all, was it ? You wanted to get away from Liam as fast as possible." Augur's disgust started to surface as the initial shock wore of. "You know, it wasn't so long ago, when someone looking like me, with the wrong skincolor, couldn't go into the same restroom as the whites." Augur said in a deceptively calm voice.

"It's NOTHING like that! First of all, Liam was not even HUMAN! And I've got responsibilities now !" Renee fumed. How DARED he accuse her of being racistic.

"And sometimes racism isn't about skin color, Renee! The Kid gave up literally EVERYTHING for us! From day one, he fought for us, could have died several times during these last 6 years. But that wasn't enough for you was it? Well, let me share a little secret with you: Being human isn't about what your genetic code, it's about your behaviour." With that last sentiment, Augur stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

Renee sighed. That had not been pleasant, to say the least. For a moment, Renee contemplated the entire incident. Should she alert someone to Augurs erratic behaviour? No, he would soon realise his mistake on his own. Liam was dead, she had a company to lead (not to mention a party the same evening) and absolutely not the time for this.

A little voice tried to reason with her but was quickly suppressed. Earth was free, everything was peace, she had everything she ever wanted. And sometimes your dreams and personal freedom comes with the price of your soul.