Dr Belman's clinic
downtown Washington
While Augur had his little shouting match with Renee in one end of the city, Sandoval had a more pleasing conversation in the other end of the city with Dr Belman. She had not been hard to convince to help out. Sandoval watched as she packed up a medical bag of what they might need when they got Liam back and cancelled all of her appointments in the immediate future. Her reaction to his news had been most surprising. It hadn't taken 5 minutes to for her to accept his story, even with the weak evidence he had to support it. He didn't even have to ask for her help, she had immediately jumped in and offered on her own.
"Do we know, which state he's gonna be in ?" Juliana really didn't want to know but had to ask. If Liam didn't get the proper treatment and died as a result, she would never forgive herself.
"No, but there's a strong possibility, that it's bad. Really, really bad." Sandoval's CVI started conjuring up the different possibilities, even some he had done to Liam, or others, himself while working for the Taelons, and he shuddered.
"Basically anything goes then." Juliana sighed, then closed her bag, hoping she had everything necessary. "OK, let's go !"
Kimeran Mastship "Justice"
orbiting Earth.
"Keep us in ID space. No use in letting the humans know, what is going on until we have located the Child." Anr'el ordered. Ca'el simply nodded. "Open hailing frequencies to the rest of the fleet." As it was being done, Anr'el, and every other Kimeran in the fleet, suddenly received a flash of intense pain through the now strong bond with the Child. A picture of a human, a perverse pleasure shining in his eyes, imprinted itself in the mind of every member of the fleet.
A cry of rage rang through the Commonality, making it's way all the way through time and space back to Kimera Prime, as they realised what was happening. He was tormenting the Child. And he was enjoying it.
Anr'el shook with anger as she managed to shake the picture from her mind. He would pay for this. They all would. In that moment, there was nothing she would rather do than reduce Earth to a pile of ashes.
Beneath the Pentagon
Interrogation Room
The pain was subsiding slowly. The Taelon device had been deactivated for the time being. He found himself shaking with anger as the cloud of pain eased. He should be afraid, but for some reason he found himself angry instead. How dare these people do this to him ? Then the Man reactivated the device and this time, Liam screamed.
The Man couldn't understand it. Up until now, things had gone according to plan.
It had been afraid.
It had been in pain.
It had been close to breaking.
But now, in that last scream, he had sensed something different. It was angry. Very, very angry. And anger tended to mess up even the best interrogations. Emotions like that hardened the resolve of the subject, instead of the weakening he was aiming at. It was weird. But then again, this WAS an Alien. And who knew what a freak like that would react like. He turned around to pick up another little toy from a nearby table. Maybe a little more pain could do it.
He didn't notice the faint glow, which emanated from Liam's hands for a few seconds.
Kimeran Mastship "Justice"
Orbiting Earth
The pain was fading slowly. At least for now. She knew it would be back, though. And this time, worse. It always came back worse. But what was more important was the fact that Anr'el had been able to detect the faintest of responses from the Child's mind, on what she suspected to be a subconscious level. Maybe they could spare this Little One from the worst of the pain. She leaned back in her chair and entered the floating reality of the Kimeran Commonality. A soothing murmur of voices rose to greet her.
"We need to set up some sort of mental pain shield to help the Child through this." she send
"But the link is so weak...How do we know, this can be done? The Child has lived so long without a true connection to us..."
"But if we don't try, then maybe all of this will be in vain...Even if we found him alive, who knows, which damage the Little One's mind have taken due to this...this incarnation of evil..."
"It HAS been done before. But we cannot take away the pain completely...Only share it..."
"If we were to share it with the members of the fleet, each one taking a little part of it...It would be bearable...But someone would have to channel it..."
"It would have to be me...For some reason, my connection to him is the strongest...I sensed a weak response the last time we connected with him...No one else did..."
"You are the commander of the fleet, friend Anr'el...If something critical was to happen to the Child...It would hit you too..."
"In such a situation, Ca'el is qualified enough to handle things until I am able to return to duty..."
"Then so be it..."
"Thank you"
The connection was made...
Interrogation Room
Beneath the Pentagon
He felt odd. For a second it had been like someone entered his mind, like the Sharing he had once done with Da'an, but on a deeper, more intimate level... Odd... And now he felt almost numb in comparison to the excruciating pain he had felt before. He vaguely remembered this level of pain as to being close to no pain at all, but with the level of abuse, he had taken these last couple of days, he hardly remembered what it was like NOT to be in pain anymore.
Maybe that last device had done some damage to his tactile senses... But he was careful not to show his sudden lack of pain. He was afraid of what the Man would do next, if he found out, that he was no longer responding to pain. Liam felt a flare of hope. Maybe he COULD get out of this alive. He needed a plan...
Kimeran Mastship "Justice"
Orbiting Earth
The Connection had taken. Anr'el could feel the relief and hope, which flared in the Child's mind due to the absence of pain. But not much else. Anr'el frowned as she opened her eyes. At this point, the Child should be able to sense her and to respond to her presence in it's mind. Especially since the Child was obviously a strong mind. The bursts of pain and the cry, which had reached Kimera Prime had shown that. It took strength to not only send over that kind of distances but also break through the strong mental barriers that all Kimera had from nature's hand.
But the Little One didn't respond to her easily detectable presence at all. There was something deeply wrong here... Ca'els voice called her back to the matters at hand. Thanks to the new link, the danger of a sudden flare of pain like the previous ones was gone. They now had an open connection and the pain flowed slowly out of the child and into every member of the fleet, making it manageable. Anr'el wished that there had been no pain at all, but as it was, this was the best solution.
"Send down the search teams, two people on each. Concentrate on the major cities, especially this Washington DC area where Hag'el was killed. We need to find some sort of lead on this Child's identity. Hack into the portal system for access to the planet and use the Jaridian shielding technology to remain undetected until the teams have found suitable DNA profiles to replicate a human guise from." Anr'el ordered, eager to get to this Little One and get him away from whoever was hurting him. "I will go to Washington myself as well. Ca'el, you stay here until further notice. I need you to take over in the event that anything unforeseen happens to me."
Ca'el started to protest "But..."
"Do not worry, nothing will happen, but just in case, I need someone capable up here. I have left orders in the main databanks as of what to do, if the worst thing happens. You have the bridge." Anr'el quickly made her way to the ID-portal before Ca'el had another chance to protest. If the situation had been less grave, she would have smiled at the confusion radiating from her second in command.
He, too, was still so very young.
Main portal
Washington DC
Craig Johnson had the dubious honour of taking care of the arrivals in this always too busy part of the portal system. He hated it, but he was one of the few who had qualified for the job. Strange.. For a second his screen had flickered. Even stranger was the fact, that the monitor showed 25 arrivals from Bangladesh instead of the 24 expected. He quickly counted heads.. No, only 24 was standing on the platform... Maybe some sort of weird glitch. Even Taelon computers could be wrong. And no one had triple helix DNA anyway. Well, there was that alien guy, what was his name Lium..Lee...LIAM !... But he was dead. Nah, probably just a glitch. But just to be on the safe side, he checked his monitor again. Now the records only showed the 24 scheduled arrivals. Yup, just a glitch. Better get maintenance down here after closing hours...
He didn't notice how the leaves of a nearby plant waved as something invisible edged it's way around it to avoid colliding with a small group of travellers.
The Lair
Beneath Saint Michael's Church
The 4 people in the Lair was getting low on ideas. Every data bank, every lead, every avenue had been exhausted in the search for Liam.
Street sighed, stretched her arms above and beyond her head to relieve her aching neck muscles.
"If only we were connected to some sort of Commonality, like that one the Taelons have, then Liam would be able to tell us where he was..." she mumbled incoherently, fighting a big yawn.
"What did you say ?" Augur said, straightening up.
"I said "To bad, that we are not connected to a Commonality.."" The baffled Street repeated, only to be rudely interrupted by an eager shout from Augur.
"Of cause ! The Commonality !" He jumped up and stormed over to one of his backup units. Sandoval, who had been half asleep (even implants get affected when they don't sleep for days) draped over the couch, reacted on the sudden movement with the instinct of long practice and jump upright, raising his now skrillless arm in front of him. "Augur ?" He asked, then realised what he was doing. And for the first time since the Government stripped him of his skrill counterpart, he was glad. If he HAD been armed, Augur would have been a black spot on the wall by now.
"The Commonality, Sandoval !" Augur was shifting through old datapads until he found the right one. "Remember when Da'an turned into an Atavus ?"
Sandoval nodded. That one had been kind of hard to forget, even without a CVI.
"Well, it happened because I hacked into the frequencies the Taelon Commonality uses for communication. Later we used the same technique to shield Beli'al from detection." He said.
"But what has that got to do with Liam? And how to find him ?" Sandoval asked, more than a little confused.
"Well, as I remember it, the Kimera has the same sort of thing going on, a Commonality, I mean. Only with the difference, that they do not depend on it to survive, right ?" The last part was directed at Dr Belman, who had just joined them.
"Yes, that's true...But what..." She was as confused as Sandoval.
"Well, if the Taelons was able to track someone using their Commonality signature, then we should be able to do the same thing. Only this time we use Liam's signature." Augur continued while loading in the data from the datapad in the mainframe.
"But we don't know Liam's frequency. Or if he has one at all." Street piped in.
"It's worth a shot, though." Juliana said.
"OK, let's start by filtering out the normal stuff: Television, radio, airlines..." Augurs voice trailed off as he started the search.
ODK Cell
Beneath the Pentagon
Bettis was FINALLY getting somewhere. He had discovered a weak point in the virtual glass barrier leading up to the concrete wall, which was the other 3 walls of his little cell. The weak point was a small hole between the barrier and the wall, granted not big, but if he could connect the barrier to the electrical wire of the control box right next to it... The surge created by the hot-wire should be enough to destabilise the force field for long enough for him to get out and then he could get the others out as well. He could use his glasses. They had a metal frame. That should be able to do it.
He quickly made eye contact with the Colonel, then made a small nod, to let him know, that he was ready to move at anytime now...
Colonel Kincaid had a hard time suppressing the smile, which threatened to show. Finally. On a small hand signal, his men got ready to move...
When Bettis saw, that the other members of the small ODK team was ready, he made his move. Under the pretence of cleaning his glasses, he carefully bend the frame at an angle, which would make it possible for him to insert it into the joint of the control box while keeping it connected to the Virtual Glass barrier. With a little bit of luck, he would make some sort of connection with the uninsulated end of an electrical cord. Otherwise they were screwed, to put it mildly.
They had made other escape attempts, but without any luck and the punishments had been dire. This time, there was no room for error. They needed to get the kid out. Bettis casually made his way to the weak point in the barrier.
Colonel Kincaid, or Zeke as the others called him, watched as Bettis got ready to do his little piece of magic. While he waited, he allowed his thoughts to stray, thinking about the other person, they were hoping to get out of here with them. Liam, the man , or rather child, he had allowed to borrow his name for a while, was a good person. Zeke had seen others break under the kind pressure he had been put under. But not Liam. His actions during the Taelon occupation had shown his courage, his intelligence and compassion. But there was more it than that.
It was a deep belief, that someday, things were going to be ok, a never wavering hope of a better world. OK, so Liam was basically a kid caught in a grown body, but still...Liam wasn't naive, he was just... Zeke couldn't seem to find the words. Then again, he had never had a big way with them.
What the hell was Bettis up to? He seemed to use his glasses to...
In that instant, a big blue spark was drawn between the control box and the Virtual Glass of Bettis's cell. Zeke could only watch helplessly as Bettis was thrown backwards through the air as a result of the electrical surge. And then the Virtual Barriers went down.
The Mans office
Beneath the Pentagon
The Man was sitting in deep thoughts. Something was wrong. The subject didn't respond as it should. Things had been going fine even after the unexpected burst of anger in It, but something had happened. He didn't know what and it annoyed him. He took pride in his work.
Maybe there was some other way of making It talk. Maybe it was time for the mental conditioning.
He was pulled out of his planning as the shrill sound of klaxons broke the silence. One of his lab assistants slammed the door open, breathlessly.
"The ODK people have escaped! They are on the loose somewhere in the complex." This was NOT a good day.
"Well, don't just stand there, man! Help round them up !" The Man bellowed. No, not a good day at all.
Saint Michael's Church
Washington DC
Only moments earlier
She had come here, to the place where he had died, trying to understand the motivations, which had lead Hag'el to father a child under the dire circumstances, in which he had been at the time. She hadn't understood it. She sat down, barely acknowledging the 5f10 Asian man, who went past her, his trenchcoat brushing against the clothes, that her human host had been wearing, when she choose her. A small smile curled her lips, as she felt the Child fall asleep. The Child's mental barriers were down. Carefully, she entered her bond with the Little One.
Liam's Cell
Beneath the Pentagon
They had stopped the interrogation only hours ago, and he was getting some much needed rest. He was dreaming. But it wasn't peaceful. Nor was it the nightmares one would expect. He found himself completely lucid as he watched the strange starscape spread out over a mountain range, which he was pretty sure had no equivalent in the real world.
"At least not in the world, that you know, Little One."
He whipped around, eyes wide with surprise. The words had not been in an Earth language. Nor had they been Taelon. What he saw made his breath catch. It was a being made solely of pure, green energy. Blue orbs made it out for eyes. It was Kimeran. But that was impossible. Hag'el had been the last.
"No. Hag'el was NOT the last." She, he pretty sure it was a female, smiled at him, apparently reading his mind.
"Liam, old boy, you are losing it." He mumbled to himself. Anr'el laughed out loud, a burst of melodic sounds coming out of her mouth.
"Believe me, you are not going insane." She smiled again, a little wider this time. She was so happy, it had only been minutes since she had entered the bond. She hadn't expected a result this fast. "Liam, is that your name ?"
The inquiry was meet with a silent nod. He still couldn't quite believe it. Dream or reality? He didn't know and, quite frankly, he didn't care right now. He was no longer alone.
"Do you like this view ?" She decided to keep the Little One occupied with idle conversation for a while. She could sense the weariness in him.
"Very much. It's not so bad for a dream I guess." Liam answered. He silently wondered if this was some sort of remains of that sudden re-emergence of his Shaqarava all those months, which sometimes seemed an entire lifetime, ago, but the bloodscans Juliana had run afterwards had shown nothing out of the ordinary. No 3rd helix, no weird energy readings. He had decided, that it was a one time thing. And at the time he had only been grateful, that he had been able to save his father's life. Anr'el turned to him again.
"Oh, it's no dream, Child. Well, not really. More like a memory. This is the area I live in at Kimera Prime. But I forget myself. My name is Anr'el. I am the Commander of the Kimeran war fleet."
"War fleet? But I thought that the Kimera was peaceful? And how can you be here? This is my mind !" Liam asked, wondering about both the apparent disreprency between the words "Peaceful" and "Warfleet" as well as why he was having this conversation at all.
She sighed. She had been doing a lot of that lately it seemed.
"We may be peaceful, but after the war with the Taelons, when we were all but extinct, it was decided never to be that defenceless again. We only use it to defend ourselves or" she smiled crookedly "getting our Children back." Liam blushed slightly as he caught onto her meaning. Only Augur and Lilly had called him a Kid before. The rest of the world only saw him as an adult. He missed that. He returned his attention to Anr'el as she continued.
"As for my ability to be here; You have your own, weak link to our Commonality, it became active only days ago when you were threatened by the people who holds you now. Through me, and our close proximity to Earth, we have been able to strengthen that link."
"Close proximity ?"
"Yes, the fleet is currently orbiting Earth in ID-space. We are looking for you."
"I still don't believe this is reality. Hag'el was the LAST !" Liam stubbornly held onto his belief. He couldn't afford to get his hopes up now. If this too burst like a bubble... His heart wouldn't survive.
"He believed that so strongly, because he never tried to reenter the Commonality. If he had, he would have found us. And you would not have been alone for all this time." She moved closer. "But there's only one way of convincing you, that this is real. Share with me ?" She held out her left hand. Liam hesitated. Should he do this ? Then he slowly raise his own left hand.
And was brutally awakened by the sound of a blaring klaxon.
The Lair
Beneath Saint Michael's Church.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Augur jerked with surprise as the scream of a woman echoed through the cave, carried perfectly through the monitoring devices left in the church. Sandoval had just left, wanting to get some stuff from his apartment (and getting some of Augurs stuff from the Flat Planet as well). Exchanging looks with both Dr Belman and Street, he quickly flipped up the picture from the church up on the main screen. What they saw made his throat tighten.
It was a woman. But not just any woman. She was glowing a brightly green, sobbing as had her heart just broken.
The pain was almost unbearable. Anr'el found herself hugging her own body, instinctually curling up in a foetal position, in an attempt to stop it and her human facade almost collapsed as she realised, that the abrupt ending of the link with the Child had also severed her own connection to the Commonality. She still had a the link with the child, which allowed her to share his pain, but not much else. And now she carried the pain all by herself. Her and the Child.
That was the most agonising thing of it all. She had been so CLOSE to actually creating a REAL link with him. One that would have allowed him to communicate with the Commonality himself and allow them to find him. But had failed. And now Liam was paying the price. All by himself.
Kimeran Mastship "Justice"
Orbiting Earth.
Ca'el gasped as Anr'el's connection was severed. He could only hope, that it was nothing seriously.
"What was the Commanders last position ?" he demanded, intent on getting to the bottom of this.
"Something called Saint Michael's Church" came the reply from one of the cons.
"Get a team there immediately."
The Lair
The trio was still watching in stunned shock at the screen. Both Augur and Dr Belman had seen this kind of creature before when Boone had confronted Hag'el in the very same church as this new alien was in. But this was impossible. The Kimera was dead. Liam had told them as much. Dr Belman made a quick decision and headed for the elevator.
"Where are you going?" Augur asked, slowly coming out of the shock.
"Out there. Whoever, and whatever, she is, she needs help and a place to hide until we figure out what to do with her." Juliana was wearing her no-nonsense face, the one normally only reserved for difficult patients. And Augur knew better than to argue with her when she was wearing THAT expression.
"Be careful. Remember what Hag'el did to Boone." He warned, not wanting to loose another friend.
"Boone was threatening Hag'el with a Skrill. I have no intention of doing the same. "Julianna said as the lift doors closed behind her.
"Boone? Hag'el? Augur, what's going on here ?" Street was confused. What did a dead protector and ex-resistance guy have to do with an alien and whatever that thing was out there in the church?
"Long story for a long winter's evening, kid. Right now I better keep an eye on the church."
Saint Michael's Church
She was slowly getting her act together. Although it took some time, she managed to push down the pain and she was about to do an attempt to rebuild her facade, when she suddenly heard footsteps coming closer.
"Hello ?" The voice was female, and just a little bit nervous. Anr'el looked around frantically. She needed a place to hide until she had rebuilt her disguise completely. She quickly hid behind a pillar, rebuilding her human guise as she went to dampen the glow.
Juliana entered the main ship of the church, moving carefully and as non-threatening as she could. She had seen what kind of damage the shaqarava could do, having been the first doctor on scene as Hag'el and Boone had ended their stand-off. She really didn't want to end up like that. But if this WAS a Kimera, then maybe some of the questions Liam had could finally be answered and maybe, just maybe, he would finally come to accept what a unique creature he was by getting to know a member of his father's species. And thus, accept himself. She had watched him struggle with his strange heritage from day one, watched as he came to loathe and fear what he was. Watched as his world came down as his heritage suddenly re-emerged from whatever dark part of his mind he had subconsciously abolished it to. And watched as his eyes lit up with joy and hope as she told him, that except his still very high brainwave activity, she could find no other trace of his alien heritage. The poor boy had so much wanted to fit in, that she had not been able to tell him the truth, that his 3rd DNA helix had indeed come back. And that his energy signature had shown a strong increase instead of a decrease.
He had so wanted to fit in. And people, the humans, HER species, had not wanted him. Despite it all. So if this Alien could help him, then she, Juliana Belman, MD, would do whatever she could to make it happen.
"I know that you are still in here somewhere. The Kimera can do a lot of things, but teleportation is not one of them." She spoke out loud, trying, again, not to be too threatening in her demeanour. Thank God the church was empty this time of day.
Anr'el's jaw almost dropped when the woman made that remark. How could this human woman know about the Kimera ?. She quickly contemplated the situation. The woman was, as far as Anr'el could see, not armed. She made an effort to seem nonthreatning. And she was apparently alone. Anr'el decided to gamble a little.
"What do you want? And how do you know of the Kimera ?"
Juliana almost jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice. It came from the darkness behind a pillar and she had a little bit of a hard time seeing anything at that distance without her glasses. Damned pride, she cursed inwardly.
"Almost 6 years ago, I saw the result of a fight between a protector and a Kimera, Hag'el. And I watched the child of that Kimera grow up. Up until now, I, we all believed, that Hag'el was the last." She squinted, trying to separate details in the shadow. Something moved.
"How do you know I was here ?" Anr'el asked, moving out of the shadow, keeping her hands in front of her, shaqarava glowing faintly. Downstairs, Augur tensed. Now it got dangerous. If Juliana made one wrong move, she could end up dead.
The two females were studying each other intently, to gauge the other ones actions and motives.
"There is an old resistance HQ below this church. We heard you scream over some old monitoring devices we haven't dismantled yet." Juliana decided to go for the full package.
"Hag'el's child, Liam, is in danger. We could really use your help." She didn't add, that she thought this one was in danger as well, were the public to find out about her. She was still shocked at the things they had done to Liam before his "death".
Anr'el contemplated the offer for a while. Then opened her mouth to give her answer. But never got the chance say anything as 2 of her fellow Kimera burst in the door, shaqarava glowing.
