Morrow stood a few feet away from Victor Bergman's unconscious form.

"How is he?"

Helena turned from the vital sign monitors to look at Paul.

"About as well as can be expected, considering the beating he took."

Paul looked around the lab, at the other personnel, and nodded his head toward Russell's office. Silently, she followed him. They entered the room, and Helena closed the door. Paul took the note from his back pocket, holding it out in front of him.

"I know Victor sent you one; did you read it?"

Helena nodded, "Yes, that's how I knew he was in trouble."

Morrow shook his head, "He should have come to me."

"Paul, how could he? We had him confined to his quarters, as if he was some kind of raving madman. Neither of us gave him the benefit of the doubt, and he obviously thought he needed to demonstrate the truth to us in order to save Alpha."

His voice was soft, "I suppose there's no way we could have known."

"No, not with certaintly. But we do now."

"Yes, that we do. The question is, what do we do about it?"

"Where do we stand with Operation Exodus?"

"The Commander--alien, whatever he is--ordered me to commence with Operation Exodus immediately."

Helena frowned, "Is there any way to stall?"

Paul pursed his lips in thought for a moment, "Actually, there might be, but we'll need some help."

Russell's brow furrowed, "The more people we involve in this, the more dangerous it becomes, and the greater the chance that he'll figure it out."

"Yes, I know. But I don't see how the two of us can stop him by ourselves; according to Victor's note, he's got Alan and the landing party working with him. And from what I've observed, it's true."

"Yes, I interrupted the seven of them during a private meeting; God only knows what they were plotting."

Paul paced in front of Helena's desk, "Did you discuss any of this with Victor before the Commander attacked him?"

"Some......he thinks that the Bintossians are beings that exist only in energy. Entities that are looking for corporeal forms to inhabit."

"And Alpha can certainly provide that....."

"Yes, but apparently, they have to get us down to Bintoss first."

Paul frowned, "But the Commander hasn't been on the planet."

"That's true.......maybe one, or some of them can transfer at a distance. I don't know, Victor and I didn't get that far, because I was still so unsure of him."

"We need Victor on this."

"Paul, I don't think we can count on that."

Morrow's eyes grew sad, "It's that bad?"

"I'm afraid so."

He drew in a long breath of air, "Is there any way that you can bring him to for a few minutes? Just long enough for us to talk to him....."

Helena shook her head, "It's too dangerous right now, Paul. It could kill him."

"Then we'll have to bring in Sandra and Kano, we'll need both computer and communications in order to stall, even for a little while."

"I suppose that's true."

"All right.....I'll speak to the two of them quietly, and once I know whether or not they're on board, we'll move forward with some kind of plan to stall the evacuation of Alpha."

She nodded, "I'll be down here....I don't want to leave Victor."

She watched Paul as he walked out of the Med Lab, and then she walked out of her office, and looked over at the still figure on the bed. She felt heavyhearted by the fact that Victor might not make it. But then, the rest of them might not either.

The air in Main Mission was tense as Operation Exodus proceeded. Several of the screens showed different areas of the evacuation preparation in progress. Natarak watched through tired blue eyes as the humans packed, tested, and moved equipment toward the Eagle pads. She could sense the uneasiness emanating from several of the command crew, and wondered why humans lived in a constant state of worry. That thought brought her to her own concerns; but she had been assured by Thontal, who occupied Alan Carter's form, that all elements of the backup plan were in place, in the event that they had to force an evacuation of Alpha. It would be far easier if these humans would just get into their puny ships and fly down to Bintoss, but she knew better than to rely on it. She felt tired. Maintaining a carbon-based form was a lot more work than she remembered. One had to think about eating, sleeping, taking exercise, relaxing....... Natarak was not sure that she wanted to make a permanent transfer; she liked living with the freedom her energy form allowed her. Although, given the fact that she had to share her current body with the human who originated it, she was certain that the experience had been clouded and overly difficult. She smiled; she could always try it, and if she didn't like it, she could simply transfer back out. One human would die; what was one human when you had so many?

The essence from within screamed out in passionate anger at her, and for a moment, she lost control of her form. Sandra Benes turned to see the Commander holding his head in pain. Natarak lashed out at the entity inside, for having caught her off guard.

"Commander? Are you all right?"

For an instant, it almost appeared that Koenig might collapse, but then he recovered.

"Yes, Sandra, I'm fine. Just a little headache that I can't seem to shake today. Nothing to worry about."

He smiled at her, and she turned back to her console. Her eyes shifted almost imperceptibly to Paul's, ending the look with a slight nod. Morrow glanced over at David Kano, who also nodded ever so remotely. A moment later, an alarm began to sound throughout Main Mission. Kano turned to face Koenig.

"Commander, computer reports a problem with the navigational systems of the Eagles."

Koenig stalked over to Kano's station, and glared at the man, "What kind of problem?"

Kano looked him directly in the eye, and continued in an even tone, "The onboard systems are malfunctioning, Commander, some kind of glitch between computer, navigation, and communications. It would be impossible to fly the Eagles using computer's navigation, and a manual approach to the fourth planet is out of the question due to the high velocity winds just inside the atmosphere. Even the best pilots would be unable to calculate the adjustments needed quickly enough before crashing."

Koenig could barely maintain a façade of rationality, "How could you let this happen?"

"Sir?"

"You're the computer expert, Kano, how could you let this happen?"

"Well, I--"

"--Nevermind! How long until the problem can be fixed?"

Kano shrugged, "I estimate at least six hours until I can isolate what caused the glitch in the first place, and then probably another six hours until Sandra and I can have it back up and running."

Pacing, Koenig barked at the man, "Twelve hours? You're telling me we have to postpone for twelve hours?"

Kano's voice remained calm and quiet, "Yes sir. At least that's my best estimate."

Koenig turned on Benes, "And you.....what can you add?"

Benes looked evenly at the Commander, "There is a problem with the interface between the navigation and communication systems; computer has been unable to make its own adjustments. Kano and I will have to work on this together."

Seeing that Koenig was losing patience, Paul jumped in, "Commander, that's actually helpful in a backhanded sort of way." The angry glare of the Commander turned toward him, and Paul rushed to continue, "We could use the extra time to double check the data collected from the planet, and also to recheck our inventory and make sure that we are taking everything that we need."

Realizing that any other response would be seen as questionable, all Koenig said was, "Fine. Keep me apprised."

He quickly left Main Mission, and Paul let out the air he'd been holding in his lungs. He smiled over at Kano, who nodded and returned his attention to computer. Morrow walked over to Sandra's station, and leaned in conspiratorially.

"We've got twelve hours, you know what to do...."

Sandra smiled and nodded. Paul left Main Mission, heading for the Med Lab, and an update with Dr. Russell. He hoped her news would be as promising as his.