The battle against the rouge Shalench was longer then they had expected; Illithan sliced upwards with her blade, sending it through the beings left arm, feeling it hit the bone. Lunging at her it caught her side, driving through the protective armour, she yelped in pain and collapsed back; sadistically the Shalench licked the blood from his blade and she could do little more then glare at him. A soldier took her place, soon loosing his life on the end of its sword.

Her vision blurred into obscurity, everything seemed to a listless and dreamlike quality; she did not see the fall of the Shalench, nor the arrival of the medical team. She drifted into unconsciousness, feeling the gentle ebb of her own blood under her armour.

When she woke again, sometime later, she was aware of a nurse taking her pulse; she looked at her helper with a look of gentle surprise. "Another scar for the collection," The nurse mused thoughtfully, his hazel eyes locking with her brown ones. "I am not going to tell you that this is the worst one that you have had, but it comes close." She lowered her head back into the pillows and shifted slightly, her side propped on a cushion of some sort. "You have visitors; do you want me to show them in?"

Illithan nodded slightly, knowing that it was the Andromeda's party waiting outside, the nurse exited and the four entered. Harper was first to her side, "Are you all right?" He asked her, noticing the blood stained armour that lay to one side with a shocked expression. She followed his gaze to the armour stained by her own blood, she had seen the same sight so many times before that it did not affected her.

"I am not sure, I am alive and many people are known to use that as an indication into the issue of whether or not they are 'ok'."

"You nearly died,"

"Again,"

Harper's shocked gaze went to her face, and she reached the hand of her uninjured right side to his cheek in comfort for him. "In the past years of my life I have been injured a great many times, and driven off death roughly a quarter of those times, I have lived a long time Harper, the thought of death does not scare me. I cannot help but feel that when it does come it will be something of a relief." She let out a small chuckle and smiled at Harper.

He pushed himself away from her, his own hands pushing him away from her, "No," He stated in a clear voice, its sounds catching slightly. "How can you lay there and say that?"

"Because I cannot sit up,"

The attempt at humour was a desperate plea for him to understand, this view was her perspective and her opinion, it was the view of her kind and one she held very dear. "To my kind, when we have lived all these long years there is nothing left but death. We can see it as a release or as a final great adventure. I have had more then enough adventures within my life I do not need them in death as well."

"How old are you?"

"Harper!" Trance's voice snapped into the room sharply, she sounded more like his mother then his closest friend. "You never ask a lady her age," He knew this, but curiosity won out over loose manners; he found that he simply had to know.

Illithan looked towards Trance with an easy smile and Harper noted that she had smiled a lot more since they had arrived on the planet. "It is all right, within my kind it is considered impolite not to enquire a beings age when the hint has been made that they may not be as young as is assumed." She turned her head to face Harper directly, "I am one thousand, two Hundred and eighty five." Shock corrupted the faces of the two humans present and she looked directly into Harper's eyes. "With the hazards of child birth many females in my kind do not make it half of that age."

A moment of understanding lingered on Harper face as his mind replayed their earlier conversation;

She shook her head, "No, it is much like your Magog, an infestation, now it is there I cannot change it." He smiled at her slightly, looking into her eyes for a long moment. 'At least you have a chance to survive,' He thought to her and she tried to smile back but could not quite manage it. 'I'm just surviving now, a lucky break and some considerate friends at best.'

Illithan caught his thoughts like an expert catching a butterfly, knowing that he was being foolish to assume that she was annoyed at him for not knowing then what he did now she pushed a kind comment outwards using her mind. "If you would like I can have someone I know complete your tour,"

She was submitted to each of their thoughts; Harper wanted to stay with her and talk, her age having peaked his curiosity even more; both Rev and Dylan wanted to explore the city more, more curious about the surroundings then in her and Trance was indifferent. "If it isn't too much trouble," Dylan started, "I personally would like to see more of the city,"

"I know,"