Title: Whom among us Part six
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13 for now
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. ;-) I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, now based at http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Author's notes: Future fic. Assumes that Liz has a lot more luck cutting Max out of her life after 'End of the world.' There's been a lot of furor over whether this qualifies as a dreamer fic, so watch out if you have no tolerance for rebel-ness.
Spoilers: End of the world. Scattered concepts after that.
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"My sister just called me," Max said quietly as he hurried them across the campus. "I hung up on her, and told her not to try calling again."
"Call you??" Liz repeated dumbly. "M- 'Jay', why the hell are you talking like this?"
"That's better," he said with a smile. "Assume that we're being monitored. Anything that any other student at this school might be expected to say, we can say safely. But I imagine that there are dozens of words or phrases that are being searched for. If we speak any of those, our voice could be recorded and used to find us."
"I... got it," Liz muttered, her mind reeling with the possibilities. Who would have the capability to do something like this? The list of words that might be dangerous spooled itself out in her mind: their names, Max, Isabel, Michael, Tess. Alien. Powers. Telepathy. Healing. Star. Planet. Lightning bolt... She concentrated, trying to come up with a 'safe' question.
"Do... do you have any idea who might be doing this?" she finally tried.
"The... the old man, I showed you?" Max stuttered out, seeming to be having at least as much difficulty with censoring himself. "He isn't a man. A device, an electronic imitation, that would house... a different kind of species."
"Ah," Liz replied blankly. An android? An exoskeleton for a different race of aliens? She wasn't sure how to clarify when obviously these words were on the danger list too. But it helped things fall into place. Extraterrestrial electronics could well be capable of doing what Max had said - monitor all speech on campus... or at least that which wasn't behind closed doors too far away.
But there were so many people talking that one being wouldn't be able to understand it all, so apparently he'd have to depend on a none-too-flexible computer analysis. Picking key words out of their conversation like a search engine. And Max had recognized the android in time, and given her the cue, so that neither of them would be saying any keywords. Now... "Well, what now?"
"We should be able to go home, but it'd be safer to find somewhere to stay put for a bit and find a long way around," Max suggested. "These... people can track by more than sound. It... may have the equivalent of a picture of me, and they can tune in on..." Giving up on finding safe words to convey the end of that thought, Max settled for extending his hand very obviously in front of him, then tapping his hand. Liz caught that one too - his powers, or maybe even the potential for power that existed in Max's brain. If he got too close, since the potential for power wasn't something that Max could turn off, and the alien presumably hadn't locked in on it yet.
"Let me lead," Liz suddenly suggested. Max had been heading a rough course straight away from where he has seen the robot, and it seemed to Liz that they needed to take off in an unexpected direction, and get lost amongst other people. Max nodded, and Liz cut quickly over to the Whitman building and inside. Down a hallway, Liz took a look inside the fourth door on the right randomly, and saw a bunch of student-aged people, maybe nine women and seven guys, arranged around a series of tables in an oval pattern.
"Well, hello!" a woman called from across the small chamber. "Welcome. And who're you now??"
Liz blushed with a very old shyness. "Um, none of you know me, but..."
"Hey!" another girl called. "Are you Barbara's friend Nina?"
Liz considered that for a second. Nobody was shaking their heads, so Nina was presumably unknown to all the company. "Where... is Barbara?" she said tentatively.
"She couldn't make it this week - her babysitter canceled," the girl explained. Willing to take the plunge, Liz stepped forward, unobtrusively waving Max in too. "Uh, this is..."
"Oh, your husband Kevin, right?" the first woman said without much doubt in her voice. Liz shrugged mentally and decided to see if Max would accept this. It seemed like a good opportunity to dodge the robot and hide safely, if...
"H-hello, everybody," Max said, waving and putting an arm around Liz's shoulder, obviously playing the nervous husband. "How's it going?" He walked her to a pair of empty chairs next to each other and sat down.
"Well, shall we get back to it?" the woman who was apparently leading this meeting, whatever it was, asked. Liz nodded... and then had to stifle a laugh when it became apparent that this was some kind of 'mature students' meeting. Mature? Serious, maybe, but at twenty-two Liz was sure she didn't fit the bill.
But it wouldn't do any good to advertise that now, so she did her best to play the part of mature, shy, married Nina as the other participants talked about various things that had happened over the past month and plans for some kind of social. Max was also content to keep his mouth shut and observe silently, which Liz was glad of.
It was quickly apparent that a lot of the other participants were also in married couples, at least ten of them, possibly twelve or more out of the unbalanced sixteen present, and hints were dropped that at least one of the girls had a husband who was a member but not present today. Maybe that was the point of the group, in fact - not mature, but married students. Well, I definitely don't qualify for that, Liz admitted. Not in this lifetime. Not for the first time in the past few days, the memory of her marriage-that-never-was with Max haunted her thoughts.
As a polite debate raged over the musical entertainment to be hired for the social, a noise outside the door caught Liz's attention. Through the tiny window, she caught sight of a familiar face... the man that Max had pointed out. The robot, he was here!! And Max had said that the machine would be able to recognize his face. Both of their chairs were facing more or less towards the door - Max could not turn away without drawing extra attention to himself. And he probably didn't even know who was outside!
Liz did the only thing she could think of. And you always said you were imaginative. Half launching herself out of her chair, she pressed her lips to Max's in an enthusiastic kiss, trying to not only cover his face, but get her body between Max and the door. Caught by complete surprise, Max started to lose his balance, and Liz deliberately pushed harder that way. Within seconds his chair had toppled over and they were both on the ground.
This was even better - they were both hidden by the table. When Max started to mumble through her lips, Liz reluctantly broke off the kiss and shushed him, her arms still around him. From where she was, Liz could see the bottom of the door swing wide as it opened, and two feet step halfway into the room with what seemed an unnaturally mechanical precision.
"Yes, what is it?" That was the group leader again.
"My apologies. I seem to have been given the wrong direction." Liz shivered at the unearthly timbre of the robot's voice, though she knew she wouldn't have been able to put her finger on what was so strange about him if Max hadn't told her. Those feet backed up, the door closed, and footsteps proceeded further into the building.
"Um... feeling impulsive today, 'Nina'?" someone asked Liz, looking down at the two of them behind the table.
"Uh..." Liz stuttered, standing up as Max did the same. His cheeks were red, and Liz knew she must be blushing up a storm. "Err... bye." Without another word, the two hurried to the door and left the way they had come, secure in the knowledge that the robot had gone in the other direction.
* * * * *
"The Kaffarrans are from a solar system near ours, Isabel, as you'd remember if you paid nearly as much attention to our lessons as Max did," Bentor explained. "They never pursued the powers of the mind, the same way the species of the five planets did. They specialized in technology instead, and for many centuries the two star systems enjoyed the benefits of trade. Many of the machines you've seen were designed by your mother and built by Kaffarran artisans. The pods. The orbs."
"Okay," Michael said, nodding. "So?"
"Most Kaffarrans are peace-loving people who seek productive lives on their home planet or compatible situations on other worlds, like ours. But Kaffarran bounty hunters are legendary. They can build exoskeletons capable of operating in any environment and blending in with the local populace - with heightened senses to track their targets, and unnatural strength. They machinery is even capable of nullifying or tracking use of The Power - which is why Max told you not to use your powers."
"How do we even know that these Kaffarrans are after us?" Tess asked somewhat doubtfully.
"Who else in Tempe is wanted dead by a galactic warlord, Tess?" Michael shot back.
"He's right," Kenner put in. "There's a one in ten thousand chance that we, or more properly you," his gesture indicated the three of them plus the missing Max, the Royal four, "aren't the quarry, but we can't afford to take that chance." He turned to Isabel. "Max said to find him??"
"Uh... he mentioned it," Isabel said somewhat doubtfully. "Not with any vehemence, just kind of like 'if we have the time.' I got the impression he's hoping to shake this Kaffarran dude himself and get back here. He was much more insistent that we take precautions and not venture into any danger ourselves."
"A wise choice," Bentor agreed. "Once we leave this room, probably, we must act as if our words are being monitored by the Kaffarran's audio sensors." The sage had already set up white noise generators at the doorway to the suite and near the windows to reduce the risk of anything said within being audible. "Don't say any of our names, 'alien', 'Kaffarran', 'exoskeleton', 'android', 'robot', 'powers', 'telepathy', 'tracking'..."
"Yes," Michael butted in once again. "I believe we can extrapolate the entire list ourselves." He was still noticeably anti-drunk. "Time is passing, and in the event that our comerade Maxwell cannot extricate himself, we may be needed." Bentor nodded, and they filed silently out into the hostile world.
* * * * *
Pete Wilson sighed as he made his exit from Scientific Logic 2. He was feeling reasonably happy. That was his last class of the day, so he could take off for his parent's place in Sedona any time. His stomach rumbled. Okay, so best not to head out to the car until I've had some lunch. He'd already packed his things and they were waiting for him in his old secondhand Sable.
On the way to the cafeteria in the Terriman square, Pete caught sight of a familiar face. "Hey, Davis! How's it going!" The friendly football player looked around and adjusted course to intercept him.
"Hey, man! How's it going?" Randy raised his fist and Pete allowed him to make his strange little bumping-hands greeting.
"Doing good, man. Where you off to?"
"Uh... on a food mission. Thought I'd grab lunch at the micky D's in the student union."
Pete considered that. "Sounds good. Mind if I come along?"
Randy shrugged. "Sure man." He turned down a corridor that would bring them to an exit from which they could conveniently walk to the student union building. Pete and Randy weren't really tight friends, but Pete had gotten to know the jock pretty well while he had been dating Liz last year, and recently...
"So, I did it, man." Pete announced out loud, though not loud enough that anyone but Randy would have reason to pay attention. "I asked Liz Parker out."
"Whoa."
"That's... that's okay with you, right? I mean, I wouldn't want to step on..."
"It's fine," Randy assured him. "Liz is great, but it was never going to work between us. I haven't changed my mind about that. But... well, what did she say? How did she react??"
"She gave me an emphatic maybe," Pete confessed.
"Dude! Sorry to hear it."
"I'm not giving up," Pete said defensively. "She said... that it wasn't a good time for something like this." He sighed. "Whatever that means."
"'Not a good time?'" Randy repeated slowly. Pete watched the other guy as they headed out into the open air. He'd learned more than a year ago not to underestimate Randy just because he was an athlete, and tended to express himself with too much slang. There was a good brain hidden under all that wavy brown hair, and he had a real feel for people.
"Well, is there anything unusual about this 'time'?" Randy mused out loud. "There's midterm fever in the air for most of us, but Liz is always so on top of her schoolwork it could make you sick, so it can't be that..."
"I think it might have to do with these, um... new people," Pete suggested. "She came over to borrow my laptop and the rest of my gear early this morning. That's when I asked her, actually. We carried the stuff all the way over to the Congreve tower." He concentrated, thinking. "A couple of guys, around our age, and two real babes with them. All of them dressed funny. And there were a few older people running around. Liz said they had a fancy suite set up on the eighth floor, but I didn't get up to see it."
"'New people?'" Randy repeated. They were approaching the union now. "You ever seen them around before?" Pete shook his head. "Hmm... weird. I wonder if they're from Roswell."
"Ros..." Pete stopped himself before he could question that. "Ah, Liz's old digs, right?? Well, none of the girls was 'her bestest friend in all the world ever, Maria.' I know that much." Pete smiled, remembering the first time he had met Liz's friend Maria, at a new year's vacation down in Mexico that the two Roswell girls had unexpectedly arrived at.
"Hmm..." Randy said again. As they headed into the student union, Pete led the way up to the burger-joint fast food window, which was unusually short on students lining up for their lunch. Pete ordered some chicken nuggets, a small fry, and orange juice, and indicated with a small gesture to Randy that he should order too. Pete intended to cover lunch for both of them. It was the least he could do to pay Randy back for listening to his romantic troubles - with Randy's ex.
Randy ordered a specialty double cheeseburger slathered with all kinds of sauces, a large onion rings and chocolate milkshake, and led the way to an empty table in the food court. "Well, I've never really told anybody about this," Randy started, "even Liz herself, but back last spring when I was wanting to get more serious, I..." He paused, trying to put the thoughts into words right. "I kinda got the feeling that she still had issues about some guy from when she was back in Roswell."
"Really?" Pete asked after washing down a bite of chicken. "Liz? She always seems so together."
"Well, yeah," Randy admitted. "That's Liz for you. But there's something... something big, that she always keeps hidden inside. Probably..." He paused again, working something out in that brain. "From her sophomore year at West Roswell high, near as I could work it out. So that's a lot of time gone by even before she came here to Arizona. But... as much as Liz really believes she's put this thing, this guy, behind her - she can't really do it. Does that make any sense to you, man? I mean, you've known Parker a year longer than I have."
"Hmm..." Pete considered that. "Yeah... I guess I can see that, now that I'm looking for it." He considered. "Any idea who this guy is she's so stuck on?"
Randy shook his head. "Nope. Not Kyle Valenti, 'cause she rattled on and on to me about him quite enough. But the real guy... I don't think she ever let slip his name."
Pete sat and chewed on that, (well, that and a few fries.) "So, what do I do now man?" He wasn't sure whether Randy would have any useful advice, but it never hurt to ask.
"Well, you've got to give her a little space. How did you leave things with Liz by the way?"
"Hmm? Uh, she said she'd think about it, I said to talk to me next week..."
"No." Randy shook his head. "How did you leave it body-language wise? Was there a kiss? Any kind of gesture involving physical contact? It's important, man."
Pete thought back to his meeting with Liz earlier today. "No, man, there wasn't... any of that."
"That hurts you," Randy admitted. "Any chance you can swing the drop-by without Miss Parker getting suspicious??"
"I dunno," Pete bemoaned. "She thinks I'm heading straight out of town, as per ususal. Plus, I don't even know which suite they're in."
"Oh." Randy took another think break. "Well, don't risk it then. Leave things for the weekend... oh, no, on second though, leave her one of those cute 'just thinking about you' emails tonight. With your out of town phone number, just in case she'd like to talk." Randy chuckled. "I'll see if I can find a way to help out from here, man."
Pete blinked in surprise. "Well... thanks man."
"No thanks necessary," Randy admitted. "You're gonna do this man, you're gonna get that date with Liz, and plenty more after the first. Then I'll talk Liz into setting me up with that friend of hers, the sexy Teslik chick, and we can double." He laughed. "I can't ask an ex-girlfriend to set me up with a friend of hers unless she's dating someone else too."
Pete joined in the laughter as he finished up his lunch. "Well, I'd better head over to the parking lot man. Thanks for the company, okay? It's been real." He offered his hand for a shake.
"Keep the faith, brother." Pete smiled and emptied the garbage from his tray into a bin. From here... well, if he took 'the south way' to parking lot four, he'd pass within sight of the Congreve tower. (Never mind that the north way was shorter.)
And he reminisced as he went.
It had been last January, and a remarkably cold wind for the Arizona desert had driven warmth-loving students inside by the hundreds. Pete and Liz had waited for the storm to blow over in the residence suite in Carlton dorm they had each applied to be at the beginning of the year, along with Randy and a couple of their suitemates and friends. It was a festive atmosphere, with no-one worrying about classes or homework, and the party started getting down once Pete brought out a little booze he'd hidden away. At least, almost no-one had been worrying about classes or homework...
"C'mon, Liz," Randy called into her room. "Do you really want to spend all evening slaving away over your assignment on red giant evolution patterns?? There's a bash going on out here! You can get your schoolwork done later."
"Randy," Liz's voice came back. "Don't be like that, okay? I'm just sticking to my schedule. I want to make sure I don't lose a handle on this material at the wrong time."
"You can catch up on your schedule tomorrow," Randy tried persuasively. "Look, there are a lot of people out there who would love your company, and frankly you're being a little rude hiding away in here by yourself."
Pete stifled a snicker. "Okay, okay," Liz admitted. "I'll come out for a little while. Just..." Her voice trailed out amidst footsteps, followed by Randy's calling "Okay, here we go!"
Liz let out a little yell. "Randy!! Get out and let me put something on."
"You look great to me!"
"Ran-"
"It's not a formal 'soiree', Liz. Don't worry about it." Shortly after he said this Randy rounded the corner into the living room, a rather annoyed Liz in his arms. Offhand, Pete had to agree with Randy. Liz was wearing a pair of thin sweat pants that went halfway down past her knees, a black halter top, (the heat had been turned way up in the dorm building against the cold outside,) and bare feet. Her hair was just starting to grow out at this point, and reached down her neck and towards her shoulders with slightly shaggy optimism.
To Pete, she looked incredible. He'd been hanging out with Liz for about a year and a half now. She had dated during freshman year some, which Pete had been glad of in a vaguely big-brother sense (for all that Liz was actually a month and a half older, that didn't stop Pete from acting like a big brother.) Pete had had a great time himself that year, trying his luck with any pretty girl he met. Sometimes there had been less luck and sometimes more, but overall there had been quite a collection of fun memories.
Somehow, though, Pete hadn't really realized how dateable Liz was until she had been seeing this Randy guy for about a month. For the life of him, he couldn't think why now. She was so sweet, funny in a kinda shy way, and smart. So gorgeous, with that lush brown hair, eyes that seemed to look straight into you, and... umm - 'a perfectly lithe figure.'
Which figure was shown off very well by the clothes Liz was wearing, and Pete had to force himself to not stare at another guy's girlfriend. Fortunately, the festivities soon provided distractions, as the liquor continued to flow modestly. The television was turned on by the guy from the room opposite Pete's, and Randy booted up the suite's computer and started looking for silly games on the internet.
At the end of the night, Randy had fallen asleep on the loveseat, and Pete, (after several vodka cocktails,) found himself dancing with Liz, between the coffee table and the kitchen counter, to some kind of vaguely haunting music that Beverly's sister had put on the stereo. All the lights were turned down.
Before he even knew what was happening, Pete's lips were against Liz's and his world was falling apart from the inside out. He couldn't stop kissing her for a few seconds, and when they finally pulled away, Liz was looking at him with some kind of fuzzy confusion.
"Uh... Liz, oh, god, I'm so osrry," he muttered. And then she passed out in his arms. As far as he had ever been able to figure out, she'd never even remembered that forbidden kiss the next morning.
That anachronistic self-commentary roused Pete out of his daydreaming. Just as well, because the Congreve tower was right up ahead. And... were those some of Liz's mysterious friends? He had hung around out of sheer curiosity after delivering the computer, and had gotten a good look at several of the people who had come to pick it up. He hurried forward to catch up with them.
* * * * *
"Okay," Liz said to Max, pointing to the end of the corridor they were taking through the Carson chemistry building. "From that exit, setting a bearing due south will take us straight back to home base, and we'll be able to hug the dormitory buildings for half the way. Is this roundabout enough?"
"Sounds good," Max commented softly. He had been extremely quiet since they'd left the 'Mature students' meeting, and Liz couldn't help but wonder why. It was entirely possible that he was just trying to reduce the risk of saying something incriminating while they might be overheard... but was it conceivable that he was angry with her because she had kissed him again? It had just been part of a plan to divert them from the robot's attention, but she hadn't exactly been able to explain that at the time... or since.
Meanwhile, Max was taking the lead now that Liz had pointed the way, pushing through the double doors into the Carson's southwest foyer, and passing under the hanging stairway without even giving any signs of noticing it. (Liz had always found those stairs so unusual - going up on one side of the foyer, crossing above the doorway, and then continuing up to the second floor offices.
Carefully, he peered out of the glass windows that allowed full view of the outside in two directions. Liz guessed that he was first making sure that the area was secure, then finding the route Liz had mentioned that would take them back to the Congreve. "Come on," he urged her shortly.
As she stepped out into campus exterior, Liz was struck suddenly by the thought that this place had been 'home' for her, for... what? More than two and a half years?? Roswell seemed so very far away right now - a lot further than four hundred-odd miles. Just up one way was the Markman building, where she had spent hours in more lectures, tutorials, labs, and project research sessions than she could count. Along the path in the other direction was the Carlton dorm, where she had lived for two years. And now she was living in Bailey hall, the second residence building they'd be crawling along the edge of in an attempt to get back to the home base.
As they walked quickly, quietly along, Max nudged her slightly. Up ahead a loose web of individuals were heading in their direction - Liz recognized Michael, Tess, Isabel, and the others. Max waved to Michael slightly, and Michael nodded. No words were said yet, in an unspoken caution.
And then, just when it seemed like they were home free, Liz passed the corner that led into the Bailey Hall courtyard and noticed a woman walking across the small lawn. Her movements seemed ever so slightly unnatural - just jerky enough to set off a warning bell. Quickly Liz spun around, warning back Max, who luckily was lagging behind her somewhat, and kept him from turning the corner himself. With gestures she indicated where she had seen the alien, and he carefully peeked around the brick outcropping, then turned back to her and nodded. It was another android, or whatever, and seemed to be heading generally this way.
Liz crept forward to take a closer look. She was the one who wasn't really a part of Max's party, so her face wouldn't trig any file match alarms or something. But as she got closer, a voice from the parking lot called out "Isabel? Michael?? You're Liz's friends, right??"
The effect on the android was instant, her head immediately swivelled up to orient on the words and her feet quickly followed. Liz stifled a groan as she recognized the voice. Unbelievably, it was Pete's! How did he recognize Isabel and Michael, let alone know their name? And what co-incidence had led him to walk by and call out to them at exactly the wrong time??
She had to stall the android. She walked confidently over and began with, "Excuse me, miss. You can't come this w..."
As the woman approached, she warded Liz away with a relaxed, innocent pushing gesture. At least, it looked relaxed and innocent. The force in that seemingly casual gesture was enough to send Liz flying five feet into the air, twelve feet away, and have her splash noisily down into the middle of the courtyard pool.
The small of her back made solid contact with the bottom of the pool, forcing her head underwater for a second, but it wasn't a bruising impact after that much boyant force had been applied to her body. She was entirely drenched by the time she struggled back up to a crouch, though, and at once frightened and respectful of the alien robot. Frightened by the strength it had so casually used on her, but apparently it had also been discrete enough not to hurt her.
If she had actually winded up to take a punch, that much force could have either sent Liz through the residence wall or flying out past the parking lot - and either way, broken every bone in her body.
From where she sat in the pool Liz had a good view of the robot charging up to the mouth of the courtyard. "Help!" she called out, hoping to alert Max and the gang. "Watch where you're going, lady!!"
Suddenly a blue force-field stretched over the exit, and Liz stifled a sigh of relief. That would be Max... though she didn't know his forcefields could be any color other than blue. But he'd had years to practice - maybe different colors made different things. The robot seemed to concentrate, and a section of the forcefield dimmed but didn't go out, and then re-asserted itself. That looked promising. The robot couldn't nullify Max's powers to block out the force-field, because the force-field protected Max from the blocking effect. Maybe Michael or some of the others were helping him out.
Exoskeleton-lady's next strategy was to point at the force wall, and energy bolts started to come out of her hand. Liz was picking herself out of the pool by now, and as much as she wanted to directly help Max, she had to realize that she couldn't, both because of not having alien brain cells to contribute to the effort (and protect herself with,) and because she was caught on the wrong side of the wall. In fact, it would be good if she was elsewhere before the robot realized that she was one of Max's friends.
So Liz took off for the doors that led south out of the courtyard into the residence hall, and rushed as quickly as she could, dripping water and slip-sliding across tile, towards the door that she knew led out from the south side of the building, from which she could hopefully dash to the Congreve. She noticed several students staring at the soggy spectacle she presented, including a few guys whose stare lingered where the wet shirt and jeans clung a bit too tightly to the curves of her body. Horndogs. At least one guy was with a girl who slapped him for his gawking, and Liz had to supress the urge to laugh. It would have taken energy better used for running.
* * * * *
Max groaned with supressed effort as the Kaffarran fem shot pulse after pulse into the force wall. This ploy wasn't going to keep him safe for long - they needed another plan.
"What... what the heck is going on?" First things first - deal with whoever it was who had blown their identities.
Michael took care of that for him. "Go. Now," he instructed the college student. After a second's hesitation, the guy did - heading straight for the Congreve. Well, at least he was out of the way.
As he left, a familiar sensation took hold - Isabel mentally connecting him to the others at a subconscious level. It was a strange effect less like communication than becoming, briefly, one mind with his consort, his sister, and her husband. To think that he could become part of a collective intelligence and slip back to individuality was a strange notion (and completely at odds with what they said on 'Star Trek,') but it did make planning easier.
In this case, the planning stage was quite quick, because Isabel didn't want the telepathic field up for long, just in case the Kaffarran could sense it from behind the force wall. The goal was simple - they needed to get away from this location, hopefully without the android being able to track them. But Max could only keep the force wall up at close range against this kind of punishment, the exoskeleton would be faster than they were, and tracking them by sight would be an insult to the alien's abilities.
So... deception. Tess would be able to create a false lead with her mental powers, even to the extent of deceiving the alien inside the exoskeleton about what its tracking devices read about where power emanations were coming from, if Isabel would assist by manipulating the creature's mind. But neither of them could use their powers through the force wall either, so...
The mind merge dropped, and Max let the force wall go. Secure in the knowledge that Tess was creating false images to cover his escape, Max ran over to Tess, trying to see if she needed any assistance. Her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving - obviously this particular mind warp was demanding all of her concentration. Max scooped her light frame up in his arms and kept rushing towards the apartment building. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Michael helping Isabel along, the two of them passing him as they hurried to home base.
Finally, groaning with the effort, Max struggled up to the door. (It would have been so much easier to use some power, but he knew he couldn't risk that with the Kaffarrans around.) Right then Tess opened her lovely eyes and struggled to her own feet. "I think it's okay," she managed to gasp out.
"I agree," Isabel whispered to Max. "She fell for it."
"Who was that woman?" University-boy asked them as Max walked into the lobby of the building.
"I can't tell you," Max said simply, frustrated at the nuisance.
"Uh... okay," he muttered. "Hey, where's Liz?"
"Here Liz is," a familiar voice announced, brushing through the door. Liz was all wet, but she still looked beautiful to Max. She looked speculatively at her friend, and Max realized that she had to be thinking about what to do next about him. That fem Kaffarran had his voiceprint on a short list - it wouldn't be safe for him to wander about the campus alone. But if they undertook to protect him, he could lead the androids right to them all.
Fortunately, Liz had another option, based on things Max hadn't known about. "Pete, do you still want to go out of town for the weekend?" she asked him.
"Uh... yes."
"Are you ready to go now?" 'Pete' nodded. Liz turned to Michael. "Can you make sure he gets to his car safely, Michael?"
Michael turned to Max for confirmation, and Max nodded. "Okay," Michael agreed. "Tess, Kenner? You're with me." He got ready to hurry the poor boy off.
"Oh, Pete?" Liz called as he was about to leave. Pete turned around, and Liz met him with an uninhibited liplock. At first she tried to hold her drenched clothes away from him, but Pete reached his arms around her, heedless of a little water, and Michael had to clear his throat loudly several times before they seperated.
"Take care, Pete," Liz murmured as they seperated. "Watch your back. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."
Max watched this all a bit uncomfortably. It seemed that he wasn't the only one who had found other romantic interests. As much as Max would like to think that she just sat and pined away waiting for him to come back, obviously Liz realized that she had to get on with her life and she had. Intellectually, he was glad of that.
But deep down, he wondered if Liz felt the same way he did right now when she watched him with Tess.
Michael, Pete, Tess, and Kenner left, and Liz crossed the lobby to signal for the elevator. "So... back to work on the computer program, I guess?" Max asked her.
"First, I need a hot shower," she pointed out. "Boy, I'm glad I brought some clothes over here so I'll have something dry to put on."
And as he waited for the elevator, Max tried not to let his imagination run away with the concept of Liz changing. Without much luck.
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To be continued...
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13 for now
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. ;-) I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, now based at http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Author's notes: Future fic. Assumes that Liz has a lot more luck cutting Max out of her life after 'End of the world.' There's been a lot of furor over whether this qualifies as a dreamer fic, so watch out if you have no tolerance for rebel-ness.
Spoilers: End of the world. Scattered concepts after that.
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"My sister just called me," Max said quietly as he hurried them across the campus. "I hung up on her, and told her not to try calling again."
"Call you??" Liz repeated dumbly. "M- 'Jay', why the hell are you talking like this?"
"That's better," he said with a smile. "Assume that we're being monitored. Anything that any other student at this school might be expected to say, we can say safely. But I imagine that there are dozens of words or phrases that are being searched for. If we speak any of those, our voice could be recorded and used to find us."
"I... got it," Liz muttered, her mind reeling with the possibilities. Who would have the capability to do something like this? The list of words that might be dangerous spooled itself out in her mind: their names, Max, Isabel, Michael, Tess. Alien. Powers. Telepathy. Healing. Star. Planet. Lightning bolt... She concentrated, trying to come up with a 'safe' question.
"Do... do you have any idea who might be doing this?" she finally tried.
"The... the old man, I showed you?" Max stuttered out, seeming to be having at least as much difficulty with censoring himself. "He isn't a man. A device, an electronic imitation, that would house... a different kind of species."
"Ah," Liz replied blankly. An android? An exoskeleton for a different race of aliens? She wasn't sure how to clarify when obviously these words were on the danger list too. But it helped things fall into place. Extraterrestrial electronics could well be capable of doing what Max had said - monitor all speech on campus... or at least that which wasn't behind closed doors too far away.
But there were so many people talking that one being wouldn't be able to understand it all, so apparently he'd have to depend on a none-too-flexible computer analysis. Picking key words out of their conversation like a search engine. And Max had recognized the android in time, and given her the cue, so that neither of them would be saying any keywords. Now... "Well, what now?"
"We should be able to go home, but it'd be safer to find somewhere to stay put for a bit and find a long way around," Max suggested. "These... people can track by more than sound. It... may have the equivalent of a picture of me, and they can tune in on..." Giving up on finding safe words to convey the end of that thought, Max settled for extending his hand very obviously in front of him, then tapping his hand. Liz caught that one too - his powers, or maybe even the potential for power that existed in Max's brain. If he got too close, since the potential for power wasn't something that Max could turn off, and the alien presumably hadn't locked in on it yet.
"Let me lead," Liz suddenly suggested. Max had been heading a rough course straight away from where he has seen the robot, and it seemed to Liz that they needed to take off in an unexpected direction, and get lost amongst other people. Max nodded, and Liz cut quickly over to the Whitman building and inside. Down a hallway, Liz took a look inside the fourth door on the right randomly, and saw a bunch of student-aged people, maybe nine women and seven guys, arranged around a series of tables in an oval pattern.
"Well, hello!" a woman called from across the small chamber. "Welcome. And who're you now??"
Liz blushed with a very old shyness. "Um, none of you know me, but..."
"Hey!" another girl called. "Are you Barbara's friend Nina?"
Liz considered that for a second. Nobody was shaking their heads, so Nina was presumably unknown to all the company. "Where... is Barbara?" she said tentatively.
"She couldn't make it this week - her babysitter canceled," the girl explained. Willing to take the plunge, Liz stepped forward, unobtrusively waving Max in too. "Uh, this is..."
"Oh, your husband Kevin, right?" the first woman said without much doubt in her voice. Liz shrugged mentally and decided to see if Max would accept this. It seemed like a good opportunity to dodge the robot and hide safely, if...
"H-hello, everybody," Max said, waving and putting an arm around Liz's shoulder, obviously playing the nervous husband. "How's it going?" He walked her to a pair of empty chairs next to each other and sat down.
"Well, shall we get back to it?" the woman who was apparently leading this meeting, whatever it was, asked. Liz nodded... and then had to stifle a laugh when it became apparent that this was some kind of 'mature students' meeting. Mature? Serious, maybe, but at twenty-two Liz was sure she didn't fit the bill.
But it wouldn't do any good to advertise that now, so she did her best to play the part of mature, shy, married Nina as the other participants talked about various things that had happened over the past month and plans for some kind of social. Max was also content to keep his mouth shut and observe silently, which Liz was glad of.
It was quickly apparent that a lot of the other participants were also in married couples, at least ten of them, possibly twelve or more out of the unbalanced sixteen present, and hints were dropped that at least one of the girls had a husband who was a member but not present today. Maybe that was the point of the group, in fact - not mature, but married students. Well, I definitely don't qualify for that, Liz admitted. Not in this lifetime. Not for the first time in the past few days, the memory of her marriage-that-never-was with Max haunted her thoughts.
As a polite debate raged over the musical entertainment to be hired for the social, a noise outside the door caught Liz's attention. Through the tiny window, she caught sight of a familiar face... the man that Max had pointed out. The robot, he was here!! And Max had said that the machine would be able to recognize his face. Both of their chairs were facing more or less towards the door - Max could not turn away without drawing extra attention to himself. And he probably didn't even know who was outside!
Liz did the only thing she could think of. And you always said you were imaginative. Half launching herself out of her chair, she pressed her lips to Max's in an enthusiastic kiss, trying to not only cover his face, but get her body between Max and the door. Caught by complete surprise, Max started to lose his balance, and Liz deliberately pushed harder that way. Within seconds his chair had toppled over and they were both on the ground.
This was even better - they were both hidden by the table. When Max started to mumble through her lips, Liz reluctantly broke off the kiss and shushed him, her arms still around him. From where she was, Liz could see the bottom of the door swing wide as it opened, and two feet step halfway into the room with what seemed an unnaturally mechanical precision.
"Yes, what is it?" That was the group leader again.
"My apologies. I seem to have been given the wrong direction." Liz shivered at the unearthly timbre of the robot's voice, though she knew she wouldn't have been able to put her finger on what was so strange about him if Max hadn't told her. Those feet backed up, the door closed, and footsteps proceeded further into the building.
"Um... feeling impulsive today, 'Nina'?" someone asked Liz, looking down at the two of them behind the table.
"Uh..." Liz stuttered, standing up as Max did the same. His cheeks were red, and Liz knew she must be blushing up a storm. "Err... bye." Without another word, the two hurried to the door and left the way they had come, secure in the knowledge that the robot had gone in the other direction.
* * * * *
"The Kaffarrans are from a solar system near ours, Isabel, as you'd remember if you paid nearly as much attention to our lessons as Max did," Bentor explained. "They never pursued the powers of the mind, the same way the species of the five planets did. They specialized in technology instead, and for many centuries the two star systems enjoyed the benefits of trade. Many of the machines you've seen were designed by your mother and built by Kaffarran artisans. The pods. The orbs."
"Okay," Michael said, nodding. "So?"
"Most Kaffarrans are peace-loving people who seek productive lives on their home planet or compatible situations on other worlds, like ours. But Kaffarran bounty hunters are legendary. They can build exoskeletons capable of operating in any environment and blending in with the local populace - with heightened senses to track their targets, and unnatural strength. They machinery is even capable of nullifying or tracking use of The Power - which is why Max told you not to use your powers."
"How do we even know that these Kaffarrans are after us?" Tess asked somewhat doubtfully.
"Who else in Tempe is wanted dead by a galactic warlord, Tess?" Michael shot back.
"He's right," Kenner put in. "There's a one in ten thousand chance that we, or more properly you," his gesture indicated the three of them plus the missing Max, the Royal four, "aren't the quarry, but we can't afford to take that chance." He turned to Isabel. "Max said to find him??"
"Uh... he mentioned it," Isabel said somewhat doubtfully. "Not with any vehemence, just kind of like 'if we have the time.' I got the impression he's hoping to shake this Kaffarran dude himself and get back here. He was much more insistent that we take precautions and not venture into any danger ourselves."
"A wise choice," Bentor agreed. "Once we leave this room, probably, we must act as if our words are being monitored by the Kaffarran's audio sensors." The sage had already set up white noise generators at the doorway to the suite and near the windows to reduce the risk of anything said within being audible. "Don't say any of our names, 'alien', 'Kaffarran', 'exoskeleton', 'android', 'robot', 'powers', 'telepathy', 'tracking'..."
"Yes," Michael butted in once again. "I believe we can extrapolate the entire list ourselves." He was still noticeably anti-drunk. "Time is passing, and in the event that our comerade Maxwell cannot extricate himself, we may be needed." Bentor nodded, and they filed silently out into the hostile world.
* * * * *
Pete Wilson sighed as he made his exit from Scientific Logic 2. He was feeling reasonably happy. That was his last class of the day, so he could take off for his parent's place in Sedona any time. His stomach rumbled. Okay, so best not to head out to the car until I've had some lunch. He'd already packed his things and they were waiting for him in his old secondhand Sable.
On the way to the cafeteria in the Terriman square, Pete caught sight of a familiar face. "Hey, Davis! How's it going!" The friendly football player looked around and adjusted course to intercept him.
"Hey, man! How's it going?" Randy raised his fist and Pete allowed him to make his strange little bumping-hands greeting.
"Doing good, man. Where you off to?"
"Uh... on a food mission. Thought I'd grab lunch at the micky D's in the student union."
Pete considered that. "Sounds good. Mind if I come along?"
Randy shrugged. "Sure man." He turned down a corridor that would bring them to an exit from which they could conveniently walk to the student union building. Pete and Randy weren't really tight friends, but Pete had gotten to know the jock pretty well while he had been dating Liz last year, and recently...
"So, I did it, man." Pete announced out loud, though not loud enough that anyone but Randy would have reason to pay attention. "I asked Liz Parker out."
"Whoa."
"That's... that's okay with you, right? I mean, I wouldn't want to step on..."
"It's fine," Randy assured him. "Liz is great, but it was never going to work between us. I haven't changed my mind about that. But... well, what did she say? How did she react??"
"She gave me an emphatic maybe," Pete confessed.
"Dude! Sorry to hear it."
"I'm not giving up," Pete said defensively. "She said... that it wasn't a good time for something like this." He sighed. "Whatever that means."
"'Not a good time?'" Randy repeated slowly. Pete watched the other guy as they headed out into the open air. He'd learned more than a year ago not to underestimate Randy just because he was an athlete, and tended to express himself with too much slang. There was a good brain hidden under all that wavy brown hair, and he had a real feel for people.
"Well, is there anything unusual about this 'time'?" Randy mused out loud. "There's midterm fever in the air for most of us, but Liz is always so on top of her schoolwork it could make you sick, so it can't be that..."
"I think it might have to do with these, um... new people," Pete suggested. "She came over to borrow my laptop and the rest of my gear early this morning. That's when I asked her, actually. We carried the stuff all the way over to the Congreve tower." He concentrated, thinking. "A couple of guys, around our age, and two real babes with them. All of them dressed funny. And there were a few older people running around. Liz said they had a fancy suite set up on the eighth floor, but I didn't get up to see it."
"'New people?'" Randy repeated. They were approaching the union now. "You ever seen them around before?" Pete shook his head. "Hmm... weird. I wonder if they're from Roswell."
"Ros..." Pete stopped himself before he could question that. "Ah, Liz's old digs, right?? Well, none of the girls was 'her bestest friend in all the world ever, Maria.' I know that much." Pete smiled, remembering the first time he had met Liz's friend Maria, at a new year's vacation down in Mexico that the two Roswell girls had unexpectedly arrived at.
"Hmm..." Randy said again. As they headed into the student union, Pete led the way up to the burger-joint fast food window, which was unusually short on students lining up for their lunch. Pete ordered some chicken nuggets, a small fry, and orange juice, and indicated with a small gesture to Randy that he should order too. Pete intended to cover lunch for both of them. It was the least he could do to pay Randy back for listening to his romantic troubles - with Randy's ex.
Randy ordered a specialty double cheeseburger slathered with all kinds of sauces, a large onion rings and chocolate milkshake, and led the way to an empty table in the food court. "Well, I've never really told anybody about this," Randy started, "even Liz herself, but back last spring when I was wanting to get more serious, I..." He paused, trying to put the thoughts into words right. "I kinda got the feeling that she still had issues about some guy from when she was back in Roswell."
"Really?" Pete asked after washing down a bite of chicken. "Liz? She always seems so together."
"Well, yeah," Randy admitted. "That's Liz for you. But there's something... something big, that she always keeps hidden inside. Probably..." He paused again, working something out in that brain. "From her sophomore year at West Roswell high, near as I could work it out. So that's a lot of time gone by even before she came here to Arizona. But... as much as Liz really believes she's put this thing, this guy, behind her - she can't really do it. Does that make any sense to you, man? I mean, you've known Parker a year longer than I have."
"Hmm..." Pete considered that. "Yeah... I guess I can see that, now that I'm looking for it." He considered. "Any idea who this guy is she's so stuck on?"
Randy shook his head. "Nope. Not Kyle Valenti, 'cause she rattled on and on to me about him quite enough. But the real guy... I don't think she ever let slip his name."
Pete sat and chewed on that, (well, that and a few fries.) "So, what do I do now man?" He wasn't sure whether Randy would have any useful advice, but it never hurt to ask.
"Well, you've got to give her a little space. How did you leave things with Liz by the way?"
"Hmm? Uh, she said she'd think about it, I said to talk to me next week..."
"No." Randy shook his head. "How did you leave it body-language wise? Was there a kiss? Any kind of gesture involving physical contact? It's important, man."
Pete thought back to his meeting with Liz earlier today. "No, man, there wasn't... any of that."
"That hurts you," Randy admitted. "Any chance you can swing the drop-by without Miss Parker getting suspicious??"
"I dunno," Pete bemoaned. "She thinks I'm heading straight out of town, as per ususal. Plus, I don't even know which suite they're in."
"Oh." Randy took another think break. "Well, don't risk it then. Leave things for the weekend... oh, no, on second though, leave her one of those cute 'just thinking about you' emails tonight. With your out of town phone number, just in case she'd like to talk." Randy chuckled. "I'll see if I can find a way to help out from here, man."
Pete blinked in surprise. "Well... thanks man."
"No thanks necessary," Randy admitted. "You're gonna do this man, you're gonna get that date with Liz, and plenty more after the first. Then I'll talk Liz into setting me up with that friend of hers, the sexy Teslik chick, and we can double." He laughed. "I can't ask an ex-girlfriend to set me up with a friend of hers unless she's dating someone else too."
Pete joined in the laughter as he finished up his lunch. "Well, I'd better head over to the parking lot man. Thanks for the company, okay? It's been real." He offered his hand for a shake.
"Keep the faith, brother." Pete smiled and emptied the garbage from his tray into a bin. From here... well, if he took 'the south way' to parking lot four, he'd pass within sight of the Congreve tower. (Never mind that the north way was shorter.)
And he reminisced as he went.
It had been last January, and a remarkably cold wind for the Arizona desert had driven warmth-loving students inside by the hundreds. Pete and Liz had waited for the storm to blow over in the residence suite in Carlton dorm they had each applied to be at the beginning of the year, along with Randy and a couple of their suitemates and friends. It was a festive atmosphere, with no-one worrying about classes or homework, and the party started getting down once Pete brought out a little booze he'd hidden away. At least, almost no-one had been worrying about classes or homework...
"C'mon, Liz," Randy called into her room. "Do you really want to spend all evening slaving away over your assignment on red giant evolution patterns?? There's a bash going on out here! You can get your schoolwork done later."
"Randy," Liz's voice came back. "Don't be like that, okay? I'm just sticking to my schedule. I want to make sure I don't lose a handle on this material at the wrong time."
"You can catch up on your schedule tomorrow," Randy tried persuasively. "Look, there are a lot of people out there who would love your company, and frankly you're being a little rude hiding away in here by yourself."
Pete stifled a snicker. "Okay, okay," Liz admitted. "I'll come out for a little while. Just..." Her voice trailed out amidst footsteps, followed by Randy's calling "Okay, here we go!"
Liz let out a little yell. "Randy!! Get out and let me put something on."
"You look great to me!"
"Ran-"
"It's not a formal 'soiree', Liz. Don't worry about it." Shortly after he said this Randy rounded the corner into the living room, a rather annoyed Liz in his arms. Offhand, Pete had to agree with Randy. Liz was wearing a pair of thin sweat pants that went halfway down past her knees, a black halter top, (the heat had been turned way up in the dorm building against the cold outside,) and bare feet. Her hair was just starting to grow out at this point, and reached down her neck and towards her shoulders with slightly shaggy optimism.
To Pete, she looked incredible. He'd been hanging out with Liz for about a year and a half now. She had dated during freshman year some, which Pete had been glad of in a vaguely big-brother sense (for all that Liz was actually a month and a half older, that didn't stop Pete from acting like a big brother.) Pete had had a great time himself that year, trying his luck with any pretty girl he met. Sometimes there had been less luck and sometimes more, but overall there had been quite a collection of fun memories.
Somehow, though, Pete hadn't really realized how dateable Liz was until she had been seeing this Randy guy for about a month. For the life of him, he couldn't think why now. She was so sweet, funny in a kinda shy way, and smart. So gorgeous, with that lush brown hair, eyes that seemed to look straight into you, and... umm - 'a perfectly lithe figure.'
Which figure was shown off very well by the clothes Liz was wearing, and Pete had to force himself to not stare at another guy's girlfriend. Fortunately, the festivities soon provided distractions, as the liquor continued to flow modestly. The television was turned on by the guy from the room opposite Pete's, and Randy booted up the suite's computer and started looking for silly games on the internet.
At the end of the night, Randy had fallen asleep on the loveseat, and Pete, (after several vodka cocktails,) found himself dancing with Liz, between the coffee table and the kitchen counter, to some kind of vaguely haunting music that Beverly's sister had put on the stereo. All the lights were turned down.
Before he even knew what was happening, Pete's lips were against Liz's and his world was falling apart from the inside out. He couldn't stop kissing her for a few seconds, and when they finally pulled away, Liz was looking at him with some kind of fuzzy confusion.
"Uh... Liz, oh, god, I'm so osrry," he muttered. And then she passed out in his arms. As far as he had ever been able to figure out, she'd never even remembered that forbidden kiss the next morning.
That anachronistic self-commentary roused Pete out of his daydreaming. Just as well, because the Congreve tower was right up ahead. And... were those some of Liz's mysterious friends? He had hung around out of sheer curiosity after delivering the computer, and had gotten a good look at several of the people who had come to pick it up. He hurried forward to catch up with them.
* * * * *
"Okay," Liz said to Max, pointing to the end of the corridor they were taking through the Carson chemistry building. "From that exit, setting a bearing due south will take us straight back to home base, and we'll be able to hug the dormitory buildings for half the way. Is this roundabout enough?"
"Sounds good," Max commented softly. He had been extremely quiet since they'd left the 'Mature students' meeting, and Liz couldn't help but wonder why. It was entirely possible that he was just trying to reduce the risk of saying something incriminating while they might be overheard... but was it conceivable that he was angry with her because she had kissed him again? It had just been part of a plan to divert them from the robot's attention, but she hadn't exactly been able to explain that at the time... or since.
Meanwhile, Max was taking the lead now that Liz had pointed the way, pushing through the double doors into the Carson's southwest foyer, and passing under the hanging stairway without even giving any signs of noticing it. (Liz had always found those stairs so unusual - going up on one side of the foyer, crossing above the doorway, and then continuing up to the second floor offices.
Carefully, he peered out of the glass windows that allowed full view of the outside in two directions. Liz guessed that he was first making sure that the area was secure, then finding the route Liz had mentioned that would take them back to the Congreve. "Come on," he urged her shortly.
As she stepped out into campus exterior, Liz was struck suddenly by the thought that this place had been 'home' for her, for... what? More than two and a half years?? Roswell seemed so very far away right now - a lot further than four hundred-odd miles. Just up one way was the Markman building, where she had spent hours in more lectures, tutorials, labs, and project research sessions than she could count. Along the path in the other direction was the Carlton dorm, where she had lived for two years. And now she was living in Bailey hall, the second residence building they'd be crawling along the edge of in an attempt to get back to the home base.
As they walked quickly, quietly along, Max nudged her slightly. Up ahead a loose web of individuals were heading in their direction - Liz recognized Michael, Tess, Isabel, and the others. Max waved to Michael slightly, and Michael nodded. No words were said yet, in an unspoken caution.
And then, just when it seemed like they were home free, Liz passed the corner that led into the Bailey Hall courtyard and noticed a woman walking across the small lawn. Her movements seemed ever so slightly unnatural - just jerky enough to set off a warning bell. Quickly Liz spun around, warning back Max, who luckily was lagging behind her somewhat, and kept him from turning the corner himself. With gestures she indicated where she had seen the alien, and he carefully peeked around the brick outcropping, then turned back to her and nodded. It was another android, or whatever, and seemed to be heading generally this way.
Liz crept forward to take a closer look. She was the one who wasn't really a part of Max's party, so her face wouldn't trig any file match alarms or something. But as she got closer, a voice from the parking lot called out "Isabel? Michael?? You're Liz's friends, right??"
The effect on the android was instant, her head immediately swivelled up to orient on the words and her feet quickly followed. Liz stifled a groan as she recognized the voice. Unbelievably, it was Pete's! How did he recognize Isabel and Michael, let alone know their name? And what co-incidence had led him to walk by and call out to them at exactly the wrong time??
She had to stall the android. She walked confidently over and began with, "Excuse me, miss. You can't come this w..."
As the woman approached, she warded Liz away with a relaxed, innocent pushing gesture. At least, it looked relaxed and innocent. The force in that seemingly casual gesture was enough to send Liz flying five feet into the air, twelve feet away, and have her splash noisily down into the middle of the courtyard pool.
The small of her back made solid contact with the bottom of the pool, forcing her head underwater for a second, but it wasn't a bruising impact after that much boyant force had been applied to her body. She was entirely drenched by the time she struggled back up to a crouch, though, and at once frightened and respectful of the alien robot. Frightened by the strength it had so casually used on her, but apparently it had also been discrete enough not to hurt her.
If she had actually winded up to take a punch, that much force could have either sent Liz through the residence wall or flying out past the parking lot - and either way, broken every bone in her body.
From where she sat in the pool Liz had a good view of the robot charging up to the mouth of the courtyard. "Help!" she called out, hoping to alert Max and the gang. "Watch where you're going, lady!!"
Suddenly a blue force-field stretched over the exit, and Liz stifled a sigh of relief. That would be Max... though she didn't know his forcefields could be any color other than blue. But he'd had years to practice - maybe different colors made different things. The robot seemed to concentrate, and a section of the forcefield dimmed but didn't go out, and then re-asserted itself. That looked promising. The robot couldn't nullify Max's powers to block out the force-field, because the force-field protected Max from the blocking effect. Maybe Michael or some of the others were helping him out.
Exoskeleton-lady's next strategy was to point at the force wall, and energy bolts started to come out of her hand. Liz was picking herself out of the pool by now, and as much as she wanted to directly help Max, she had to realize that she couldn't, both because of not having alien brain cells to contribute to the effort (and protect herself with,) and because she was caught on the wrong side of the wall. In fact, it would be good if she was elsewhere before the robot realized that she was one of Max's friends.
So Liz took off for the doors that led south out of the courtyard into the residence hall, and rushed as quickly as she could, dripping water and slip-sliding across tile, towards the door that she knew led out from the south side of the building, from which she could hopefully dash to the Congreve. She noticed several students staring at the soggy spectacle she presented, including a few guys whose stare lingered where the wet shirt and jeans clung a bit too tightly to the curves of her body. Horndogs. At least one guy was with a girl who slapped him for his gawking, and Liz had to supress the urge to laugh. It would have taken energy better used for running.
* * * * *
Max groaned with supressed effort as the Kaffarran fem shot pulse after pulse into the force wall. This ploy wasn't going to keep him safe for long - they needed another plan.
"What... what the heck is going on?" First things first - deal with whoever it was who had blown their identities.
Michael took care of that for him. "Go. Now," he instructed the college student. After a second's hesitation, the guy did - heading straight for the Congreve. Well, at least he was out of the way.
As he left, a familiar sensation took hold - Isabel mentally connecting him to the others at a subconscious level. It was a strange effect less like communication than becoming, briefly, one mind with his consort, his sister, and her husband. To think that he could become part of a collective intelligence and slip back to individuality was a strange notion (and completely at odds with what they said on 'Star Trek,') but it did make planning easier.
In this case, the planning stage was quite quick, because Isabel didn't want the telepathic field up for long, just in case the Kaffarran could sense it from behind the force wall. The goal was simple - they needed to get away from this location, hopefully without the android being able to track them. But Max could only keep the force wall up at close range against this kind of punishment, the exoskeleton would be faster than they were, and tracking them by sight would be an insult to the alien's abilities.
So... deception. Tess would be able to create a false lead with her mental powers, even to the extent of deceiving the alien inside the exoskeleton about what its tracking devices read about where power emanations were coming from, if Isabel would assist by manipulating the creature's mind. But neither of them could use their powers through the force wall either, so...
The mind merge dropped, and Max let the force wall go. Secure in the knowledge that Tess was creating false images to cover his escape, Max ran over to Tess, trying to see if she needed any assistance. Her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving - obviously this particular mind warp was demanding all of her concentration. Max scooped her light frame up in his arms and kept rushing towards the apartment building. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Michael helping Isabel along, the two of them passing him as they hurried to home base.
Finally, groaning with the effort, Max struggled up to the door. (It would have been so much easier to use some power, but he knew he couldn't risk that with the Kaffarrans around.) Right then Tess opened her lovely eyes and struggled to her own feet. "I think it's okay," she managed to gasp out.
"I agree," Isabel whispered to Max. "She fell for it."
"Who was that woman?" University-boy asked them as Max walked into the lobby of the building.
"I can't tell you," Max said simply, frustrated at the nuisance.
"Uh... okay," he muttered. "Hey, where's Liz?"
"Here Liz is," a familiar voice announced, brushing through the door. Liz was all wet, but she still looked beautiful to Max. She looked speculatively at her friend, and Max realized that she had to be thinking about what to do next about him. That fem Kaffarran had his voiceprint on a short list - it wouldn't be safe for him to wander about the campus alone. But if they undertook to protect him, he could lead the androids right to them all.
Fortunately, Liz had another option, based on things Max hadn't known about. "Pete, do you still want to go out of town for the weekend?" she asked him.
"Uh... yes."
"Are you ready to go now?" 'Pete' nodded. Liz turned to Michael. "Can you make sure he gets to his car safely, Michael?"
Michael turned to Max for confirmation, and Max nodded. "Okay," Michael agreed. "Tess, Kenner? You're with me." He got ready to hurry the poor boy off.
"Oh, Pete?" Liz called as he was about to leave. Pete turned around, and Liz met him with an uninhibited liplock. At first she tried to hold her drenched clothes away from him, but Pete reached his arms around her, heedless of a little water, and Michael had to clear his throat loudly several times before they seperated.
"Take care, Pete," Liz murmured as they seperated. "Watch your back. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."
Max watched this all a bit uncomfortably. It seemed that he wasn't the only one who had found other romantic interests. As much as Max would like to think that she just sat and pined away waiting for him to come back, obviously Liz realized that she had to get on with her life and she had. Intellectually, he was glad of that.
But deep down, he wondered if Liz felt the same way he did right now when she watched him with Tess.
Michael, Pete, Tess, and Kenner left, and Liz crossed the lobby to signal for the elevator. "So... back to work on the computer program, I guess?" Max asked her.
"First, I need a hot shower," she pointed out. "Boy, I'm glad I brought some clothes over here so I'll have something dry to put on."
And as he waited for the elevator, Max tried not to let his imagination run away with the concept of Liz changing. Without much luck.
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To be continued...
