The Danger Within
Chapter 41
XLI
Max stopped in front of Rahn's room and stared at the door for a moment. "Have you see Rahn today, Liz?"
Liz thought for a moment then shook her head. "Come to think of it, I don't think I saw him yesterday either. That's odd, Max. He usually socializes with everyone. Maybe we ought to check on him. You think he's in his room?"
"One way to find out." Max knocked on Rahn's door. "Of course, he could be in town… or somewhere else."
"But it's not like him to not let anyone know," Liz said.
"Yeah, I know… You're right," Max agreed, as he knocked again. There was no reply.
"Doesn't look like he's here. He must have gone down to town."
Liz nodded, but deep inside, she had a bad feeling that she couldn't quite put a finger on.
"Do you think we should go look for him, Max?"
Max appeared to think about it then he shook his head wearily. "No."
"You concerned about all the people down there who want you to heal them?"
Max shook his head again. "No. I could disguise myself. I'm just not feeling well today. I don't know what it is. I never got sick before… but the last couple of days… I'd swear I had the flu or something. Even my bones ache."
"Maybe all the people you've healed have taken too much out of you, Max. You need to rest. Michael told you you're going to burn yourself out. You're trying to give too much of yourself. There's just not enough of you to go around. You can't heal everybody who needs you."
"Yeah. That could be it, Liz."
Max didn't really believe this, but he had no other explanation for the weakness he felt, and healing did take a lot out of him. For some reason, he just didn't seem to be recuperating the way he should anymore. And his body seemed to have gone haywire. One moment, he would look perfectly normal, then he would go to comb his hair and it would feel like he was trying to comb porcupine quills down. Then there were the hairs on his legs. One moment they would be bristly. "Buffalo legs," was the description Max had used. But the next moment they would unexplainably seem normal again.
Liz, too, had experienced some strange and abnormal physiological events, though she had tried to downplay them, pretending that they were nothing or that they had been merely products of an overactive imagination. But Max didn't think they were nothing… or her imagination. He had helped Liz rub an anti-fungal cream into the skin on her legs, feet, and back, because she thought she had caught some kind of rash. But after rubbing the cream into her skin, Max had been left with something in his hands that looked like fish scales. The problem was that, within an hour, Liz's feet and legs… and her back… were normal again, and she had written the whole thing off, declaring that the cream had worked wonders. Max didn't think it was the cream, but with the problem gone, he could scarcely argue the point.
Max stopped at his younger double's door and knocked on it.
"Come in."
The voice was that of his double, but it sounded weak… even desperate almost. It shocked Max. Max opened the door, and he and Liz went in. The younger Max was in bed.
"A little early for bed isn't it, Mini Me?"
The younger Max hated this moniker, and Max knew it, but he didn't show any reaction. That in itself spoke volumes.
"I needed some rest," the younger Max said. "Healing so many people has taken a lot out of me. I haven't had time to take care of myself."
"You think that's all it is," Max asked his younger self.
The younger Max shrugged wearily. "What else could it be? I don't get sick. You know that. You don't either."
"Yeah. I don't know what else it could be, either," Max from Antar admitted. "Have you had any odd… uh… things happen to you in the last day or two?"
"Odd… like how odd?"
Max looked flustered. "I don't know… like… like… the hair on your legs going all bristly or the hair on your head getting hard and bristly… then being normal a few minutes later…"
The younger Max looked shocked.
"Never mind," Max from Antar said quickly. "It was just a stupid question. I didn't mean that anything was happening… like that… you know… I just wondered. I don't know why."
The younger Max pulled the cover off of himself and rolled over with some difficulty. His back was pocked with deep leathery pocks, and along the length of his spine there were small ridges, like the beginnings of the fins along the backs of some dinosaurs. But these kept moving around as Max looked at them. They came and went, appearing first at one point then at another point along the spine.
"I can't control my own body," the younger Max said weakly. "It's draining all my strength. I don't know how long I can… go on."
Max from Antar looked at his younger double aghast. His mouth opened several times, but no words came out. Finally, he shook himself and managed a reply.
"We'll get to the bottom of this. Just hang on. Don't give up, whatever you do. I'm going to send Varec up here to look at you… to see if there's anything… conventional that can be done. Then I'm going to find Rahn. Somehow I think this is something that he can explain."
"Max!" the younger Max called out, as his Antarian double turned to leave the room.
Max turned back around. "Yes?"
"Have you seen Liz… I mean… my Liz? Is she… alright? It doesn't matter about me. Just make sure that Liz is alright. Please?"
Max nodded.
"I saw her this morning," Liz from Antar said to Max's younger double. "She seemed fine, Max. I think she's okay. We'll check on her, though. You hang on. I already paged Varec… He's on the way."
Even as Liz spoke, Varec appeared. Max let him in and quickly tried to explain what was going on, but it was difficult, since Max had little clue himself what was going on. He could only describe the symptoms to Varec.
"Check him out Varec, please. Take him to the healing ward if you need to. I'm going to look for Rahn."
Max rushed out of his double's room with Liz by the hand. At Rahn's door, they stopped again.
"Max," Liz said, "I think we'd better check Rahn's room." She didn't say why; she didn't need to. Max passed his hand over the sensor, and the door opened. The doors to all the rooms were preset to recognize certain people. Max was one. Liz, Michael, Maria, and Jim Valenti, as well as Alex, Isabel, and Kyle would be recognized, too. In fact, everyone on the original trip from Antar who belonged on the ship had access to all the rooms, though they did not generally let themselves into someone else's room without knocking or asking for permission first. This was a special case, however. Rahn either was not there or… well, Max hated to think of the possible alternatives. He looked quickly around the room and in the bathroom and closets. Liz looked, too. It was Liz who first spotted him… on the floor behind his bed. Liz rushed to Rahn and lifted his head gently…
"Rahn, can you hear me? Rahn! Answer me, Rahn. Please be okay!"
Max rushed to Liz's side. "Is he… Is he…?"
"I don't know," Liz said, shaking her head. "He's breathing, but I don't think he's conscious."
At that moment, Rahn opened his mouth, then he opened his eyes and looked at Liz and at Max. It appeared as though he might close his eyes back at any moment… for the last time. It frightened Liz to think that they could lose Rahn. He had become such a good friend.
"Rahn, can we do anything for you?" Liz asked. "Can you tell us what's wrong with you? Is there anything that we can do?"
Rahn breathed out a long ragged breath and closed his eyes, but then he opened them again and seemed to find a reserve of strength from somewhere within himself. It wasn't much, and Liz knew that it wouldn't last long.
"You are… in danger…" Rahn managed to say in a whispered voice. "I must… help you."
"You need to help yourself first," Liz said. "You don't have enough strength to help anyone else."
"There is… nothing… I can do… for myself." Rahn struggled with the words. "Xiangar viper… bit me… I have… no powers… to shapeshift… I… will die… before today… is over. Only… J'Shalo… can help… and he will not."
"J'Shalo?" Max and Liz repeated as one, looking at each other with a puzzled look. "Who is J'Shalo," Max asked.
"Nasedo," Rahn managed to say weakly. "You may know… as Nasedo."
Both Max and Liz reacted as though they had been asked to hold a bare power line and someone had suddenly switched on the electricity. The younger Max and Liz would have had no idea who Nasedo was, because Nasedo had never shown up in Roswell in their dimension… until now. But Max and Liz of Antar knew very well who Nasedo was.
"Nasedo is on this ship… on my ship?!" Max asked, in a voice somewhere between incredulity and shock.
"He… J'Shalo… Nasedo… touched your minds… in your sleep. He… changed you. You must get help… or you… will die… all of you."
"What can we do," Liz asked, sitting beside Rahn on the floor and cradling Rahn's head in her arms.
"If I… had not been… bitten by… viper… I could help… prepare… your minds… to accept the touch… but I have… no power now… no power to help with."
Liz shook her head, desperate to help Rahn, who was fading fast even as they spoke.
"Rahn, what can be done for YOU? We need to help YOU!"
"No one… can help. J'Shalo will not. Only… another… shapeshifter."
"Liz!" both Max and Liz said at the same time. "You changed Liz," Liz from Antar said, referring to her younger double. "You changed her mind to let her alter her spine so that she could walk again. Could she help you?"
Rahn was silent for several moments. Liz wasn't sure if he was thinking about it or if they were losing him.
"Rahn… Rahn! Don't die on us! We need you! Stay with us, Rahn!"
Rahn coughed weakly. "I… I don't… know. It may… be… possible. But she… is not… trained… not… experienced. She… could not… be expected… to know how… to help."
Max was already paging the younger Liz on the ship's communication web, and he put an EXTREMELY URGENT tag on the message, asking her to report immediately to Rahn's quarters. Liz was either not far away or she flew there, because almost before Max had put down the paging device, Liz was running down the hall towards them. She looked around, her eyes asking the question.
"Over here," Liz from Antar said, calling to her younger double. The younger Liz rushed to Rahn's side.
"What happened? What's wrong with him?"
"A shapeshifter named Nasedo turned himself into some kind of viper that is deadly to shapeshifters and bit Rahn. Rahn thinks another shapeshifter could help him… to get rid of the poison."
"How," Liz asked. "Just tell me how."
"It is… not… something… I… can explain… how to do," Rahn said. "You will… have to… feel the answer… in your mind… and… in your… heart. You need to put… one finger here…" Rahn indicated a point near his temple. "Another… here…" He indicated behind his right ear. "Then you… would need… to feel… my thoughts… my mind. Open… the door that… holds… the poison. Release… the poison. If you can… release it… from the… box… Nasedo has put… around it… we may… be able… to destroy the… poison… together."
Liz put one finger on the spot Rahn had indicated near his temple and the other finger behind his ear as he had shown her.
"I don't know what I'm doing," Liz said frantically, tears starting to roll from her eyes. "I don't know what to do to help… to make it work."
"Just… concentrate," Rahn said weakly. "Concentrate on… the box. Find it… with your mind… open it."
Liz shook her head. "I'm trying… I can't see anything, Rahn." Tears ran freely down Liz's cheeks, and she began to shake.
"It's okay," Rahn said, touching her arm gently. "You could… not be expected… to do… this. Do not… feel bad."
Liz closed her eyes and gritted her teeth with a newfound determination, concentrating with all her mind and all her heart… then…
"I found it!"
It was right there, in Rahn's mind, a sort of blockade composed of pure thought waves that held back some kind of neuronic poison… kept it right where it would do the most harm… and where Rahn could not reach it. With her own mind, Liz nudged at the thought waves holding back the poison. Then she nudged again. The "box" distorted briefly but went back to its original shape.
"He's dying," Liz from Antar said, as Rahn began to tremble in her arms.
In desperation, the younger Liz closed her eyes, and her mind released a blast that she had not known she was capable of directly into the thought wave blockade in Rahn's mind. Apparently, the power of her feelings were sufficient… in fact, they were more than sufficient. The blockade, composed of remnant thought waves placed there by Nasedo, burst apart, blasted into nothingness by the power projected from Liz's mind. She then concentrated on the poison itself. She had no idea how to destroy it or how to eliminate it from Rahn's brain, but she was not about to let that stop her now… not now!
Liz concentrated and projected her own mind waves at the poison. The poison reacted almost as though it were alive and protecting itself… as though it were a solid entity living in Rahn's brain. With the sheer power of her mind… and its newfound abilities… Liz reached into Rahn's mind and grabbed the poisonous entity, strangling it and wrenching it from its chosen spot in Rahn's brain. The moment it lost its hold, Rahn's brain seemed to come back to life… as though a switch had been turned on and the lights had just come back on inside a dark room. Liz felt – and, in a way, she actually saw- Rahn grab the poisonous entity along with her, and together, they ripped it apart. Rendered inert and harmless, the poison began to vaporize then simply disappeared.
To Max and Liz of Antar, watching from the side as she held Rahn's head in her arms, the light in Rahn's eyes, which had been almost extinguished only moments before, seemed to come back on suddenly. Liz gasped and knew in her heart that her younger double had succeeded.
The younger Liz knew it, too. She opened her eyes and looked at Rahn then at her double and Max. Then she smiled and wiped the tears off her cheeks.
"I think I did it."
Liz from Antar grabbed her double and hugged her then began to cry, letting out the feelings she had been holding back, as the two girls held each other for several long moments. Though clearly affected, too, Max said nothing. His face, and especially his ears, became redder for several minutes, and his eyes looked misty. He smiled at his wife and her younger double then at Rahn.
"I need to help you now… all of you," Rahn said, trying to stand up.
Max started to suggest that Rahn should rest first, but then he remembered that his own double was in much worse shape than he was… and there was no way to know how the others who had been touched were faring. He helped Rahn to stand up. Rahn stood on his legs for several moments, as the strength came back into them. Then he turned to the younger Liz, who had just saved his life.
"Let me check you first."
Liz nodded. Rahn put one finger near her temple and one behind her ear and nodded then smiled.
"It is just as I thought. I prepared your mind when I gave you the power to transform your spine. J'Shalo did not know this. He thought that every one of you had been affected by his touch, but you were not."
Rahn reached toward the other Liz and placed his fingers on her head the same way. Then he concentrated for several moments.
"There. You should be okay now."
He motioned to Max. Max stepped closer, and Rahn placed a finger behind his temple and another behind his ear and concentrated. Then he opened his eyes and smiled.
"Was that all there was to it," Max asked.
"That's all there was to it for you," Rahn replied. "I prepared your mind just now. You see, what J'Shalo did was activate the part of your mind that sends orders to shapeshift. But he did not also activate the other parts of the mind that would allow you to control it. Without that ability, you would become more and more out of control. Eventually, you would be changing into different things constantly… totally out of control… or more likely, your body would simply destroy itself trying to do something that it cannot do… because you are not shapeshifters. The strain would kill you. At some point, your mind would rupture. Then you would simply collapse onto the ground… and be dead… turn into dust if you are Antarian. J'Shalo counted on this."
"But… Nasedo was one of our protectors, Max said, clearly having trouble understanding how the Nasedo of this dimension could have done what he did. "How could he turn against us like this?"
"Nasedo has been away from Antar and from his charges for too long. He is basically not what you would call a nice person. He kills… and it doesn't bother him. Once, he was forced by an oath stronger than death to protect you, but after so much time… that devotion has worn away. The final shreds of J'Shalo's devotion disappeared when he found out that on Antar there is no longer a king."
"And Kivar?" Max asked.
Rahn shook his head. "Kivar was killed five years ago. Antar is dominated by factions now… disjointed factions. None of them have the support of most of the people."
Max nodded, absorbing what Rahn had said. "Let's go, Rahn. Can you walk now?"
Rahn nodded. "I think so."
"Good. We need you to help my double… and the others Nasedo touched… while there's still time."
Max held Rahn by the arm to make sure he didn't fall while they left Rahn's room, but Rahn's strength was returning faster than Max would have thought possible. Rahn, Max, and both Lizzes ran to the younger Max's room. He was lying on the floor now, and his body looked like a large sack that someone was struggling to escape from. Arms and legs would appear randomly all over his body, suddenly protruding from nowhere. Appendages that Max didn't even recognize appeared on his body then disappeared just as quickly as they had come. For a moment, the young Max became covered with feathers, then just as quickly, he looked like a fish flopping on the ground out of the water. What was totally obvious was that his body would not be able to stand this stress for much longer. His mind would rupture, and it would be over.
Varec, standing at the younger Max's side, had done everything for him that he knew how to do and then some, but this was clearly beyond Varec's abilities, as vast as they were. He had already requested an aide to assist him in moving Max to the healing ward, a place rarely used on the New Granolith, since no one got sick there and Max could heal most injuries on site.
Rahn reached out and touched the side of the young Max's head, placing one finger behind the right temple and another behind the right ear, somehow holding his fingers there as Max flopped around on the floor. After a few mere seconds, Max's body relaxed… then became calm. The look on his face went from agony to utter relaxation.
"He will live," Rahn said simply. "He will be fine. We need to find the others."
Max of Antar looked at his double. The young Max was lying on the floor, sound asleep after his ordeal. The younger Liz and her Antarian double took the cover off the bed and covered him up with it.
"He'll sleep it off," Rahn said. "We need to go. Varec can stay with him."
The others knew that he was right. What had happened to the young Max could very well be happening to the others as they spoke.
Max rushed to the room of his best friend from Antar, Michael Guerin, with Rahn and both Lizzes right behind him. He knocked on the door urgently, and Maria, Michael's wife, opened the door.
"Maria! Are you guys okay?" Liz asked.
Maria nodded. "Well… maybe you'd better tell me what you mean by 'okay,' Liz. We're still here and… yeah, I guess we're okay. But something weird's going on."
"Like… how weird?" Liz asked. Maria turned and pointed toward Michael, who was just emerging from the bathroom. He had a full-blown feather sticking down out of his chin.
"You didn't shave it off?" Maria asked. "I thought you were going to shave it off?"
Michael winced and shook his head. "I can't. It feels like part of me. When I try to cut it, it's like trying to cut my nose off or something. It hurts."
Max looked at the feather approvingly. "Well, it does give you a nice… different… look, Michael. If it were on the top of your head instead of on your chin, you could leave it there and say you were a Mesaliko."
"Oh, yeah, funny," Michael said, clearly not as amused as Max.
"Is that all that's happened to you so far," Max asked.
"All? Isn't that enough?" Michael asked in an exasperated tone of voice.
"Well, I'm just surprised, that's all," Max said.
"Why?"
Max sat down and quickly explained to Michael and Maria about what Nasedo had done and the expected consequences to those he had touched.
"Let me touch you," Rahn said. "I'll fix it."
Michael nodded silently and leaned forward to let Rahn prepare his mind with the mind touch. Rahn placed his fingers on Michael's head, and immediately the feather began to retract into the skin of his chin, totally disappearing after about ten to twelve seconds. Michael rubbed his hand over his chin approvingly…
"When I need a shave, Rahn, I'll call you. You do good work!"
"Thanks," Rahn said sincerely. "But I do not do shaves."
"He was joking, Rahn," Maria said.
Rahn smiled. "I thought so. But I wasn't sure."
Rahn reached out and touched Maria's head for several seconds, and Maria relaxed as the mind adjustment took effect.
"You will be okay, now," Rahn said. "I have made the adjustment."
Maria looked at her fingers and smiled. "I guess you're right."
"What was wrong with your fingers," Michael asked.
"Nothing important," Maria replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I just had webs between my fingers… like an otter or something. They're gone now."
"You didn't tell me that," Michael exclaimed, alarmed that he had not known.
Maria shrugged. "It was nothing. I kept my fingers together so you wouldn't see it. I didn't want you worrying about me when you had that… uh… feather to worry about in your chin."
Michael looked at Maria aghast. "Maybe I want to worry about you, Maria. You're my whole life! My God, if anything happened to you…"
Maria puckered her lips playfully. "Well, it didn't. I'm just fine."
"If something like this ever happens again, Maria, I want to know! I want to worry! I want to make sure you're okay. Okay?"
Maria kissed Michael on the lips and smiled. "You take good care of me all the time, Michael. Let me take care of you when you need it."
Michael sighed and shook his head, then he relaxed and put both arms around Maria, pulling her to him and kissing her.
Max turned his head and put one hand over his eyes. Noticing Max's feigned modesty, Liz threw both of her arms around his neck and kissed him, too.
"I think I understand this human ritual…" Rahn said with a puzzled look. "But I do not always understand what precipitates it."
After several moments, both couples separated, and Rahn quickly suggested that they find the others right away. "They may not have suffered as few consequences as you and Maria did," he reminded them. Max and Michael both nodded their agreement and headed for the door.
Moments later, a few doors down the hall, Max knocked on the younger Michael's door, and Maria came to the door.
"Oh, Max!" Maria's voice sounded full of desperation. "Am I glad to see you! Michael called me. He wasn't feeling well, and now he's having seizures or something!"
Max looked at the younger Michael lying on the bed. He did appear to be seizuring.
"It is an effect of the touch," Rahn said, hurrying to place his hand to Michael's head at the proper points. "His mind is shifting continuously, but his body is not able to interpret the commands from his mind. The result is seizures."
"Can you help him," Maria asked. But as she spoke, Rahn's touch began to take effect, and Michael became calm, then he opened his eyes and looked around him.
"Are we having a party? What's everybody doing here?"
"You were having your own party, Michael," Max said. "Not one you'd want to go back to, though, I'm afraid."
Rahn turned from Michael and placed his hand to Maria's head at the necessary points for several seconds then smiled.
"You'll be okay now, too."
"Maria, didn't you have any unusual reactions?" Liz asked.
"Yeah… I guess I did," Maria replied. "But I was so worried about Michael, I didn't have time to die."
Everyone laughed, and Liz of Antar smiled then hugged the young double of her best friend and nodded.
"Well said, Maria! Well said!"
"We must check on the others," Rahn reminded them, hurrying everyone toward the door again.
"We need to see if Isabel is alright!" the younger Maria exclaimed. She looked at Michael as though to ask if he would be okay now, but instead of saying, Go ahead, Michael got up and walked toward the door with them.
"Can you make it," Maria asked, putting a supporting arm around Michael. Michael just gave her that patented crooked grin that said, What do you think?
Together, the group ran to the younger Isabel's room, and Maria knocked… "Isabel! Are you in there? Isabel?"
There was no answer. Maria looked at Max, and Max nodded. Maria passed her hand over the sensor, and the door opened.
"Omigod!" her double from Antar exclaimed, "We must have the same handprint!"
Though the sensors were set to respond to all the Antarian crew members, including the Maria from Antar, they had never been reset to recognize the younger doubles. Only their own rooms and common areas had been set to respond to them. It wasn't a matter of trust; no one had seen any reason to reset everyone else's doors to respond to the doubles from this dimension. Apparently, it hadn't been necessary, it would now seem.
"Isabel!" the younger Maria called out again to her friend… "Isabel, where are you? Are you here?"
Maria looked around the room, in the bathroom, then in the closets. There was no one.
"I don't think she's here," she said, turning to Michael and Max.
"Looks like that," Max agreed. "We need to look for her. Let's go see about Alex. Maybe she went to his room."
"Yeah! That's probably where she is!" Maria said, nodding vigorously. "Let's go."
The group ran down the hall and around the corner to the younger Alex's room. Again, Maria knocked. The door opened, and Alex appeared. Well… it kind of looked like Alex. Maria had to take a second look to be sure. He was covered in long, shaggy hair from head to toe.
"Omigod, Alex, you look like… like bigfoot… without the big feet," Maria gasped. Then she looked at Alex's feet… just to be sure.
"Oh, gee, thanks, Maria. I'm not bigfoot… I think he's inside of me trying to get out. I feel awful."
"That must be hot," Michael said, running his fingers through the foot-long hair on Alex's arms and face in awe.
"That's an understatement," Alex said. "Try hot, itchy, sweaty… and downright friggin' smelly. God, I hope Isabel doesn't see me like this!"
"You mean she's not here?" Maria asked, alarmed.
"I haven't seen her," Alex said. "To tell the truth, I haven't wanted anyone to see me… but right now, I'm starting to wish she were here… even if I am… what I am. I'm not sure how long I have left. I don't know what's happening to me, and if I'm gonna die… I don't want to die without seeing Isabel again. Is there some kind of alien virus or something you guys never told us about, Max?"
"It's… something else, Alex." Max motioned to Rahn, and Rahn reached out to touch the side of Alex's head. Alex pulled back instinctively, but then he allowed Rahn to touch him. He seemed to relax almost immediately. Moments later, the long hair began to disappear. It was an odd sight. The hair rapidly got shorter and shorter, looking for all the world like it was being pulled back into Alex's arms, face, chest, legs, feet… every part of his body. After about two minutes, the hair was gone… except what he had had before the ordeal. Alex was normal again.
"What did you do?" Alex asked Rahn, amazed by what had just happened. "I feel a hundred percent better. A thousand percent!"
"It's a bit of a long story, Alex," Max said. "We'll explain on the way. We have to find your Isabel… and we still have to find our Alex and Isabel and help them, too."
Alex looked suddenly pale. "Isabel's in danger? She's affected with this… whatever it is, too?"
"We all had it," Michael said. "We just had different reactions. The end result would have been the same for all of us, though. We all would have died… if it hadn't been for Rahn… and Liz. Liz saved Rahn's life, and he's returning the favor for the rest of us."
They walked rapidly down the hall towards the older Alex and Isabel's room, as Rahn and Michael took turns trying to explain to the younger Alex what had happened. On the way there, they met the young Max, who was determined to join the others after awakening from his brief nap feeling greatly refreshed and better than he had felt for some time. When they arrived at Alex and Isabel's room, Max of Antar knocked on the door.
"Alex! Izzy! Are you guys in there?" Max waited for an answer but heard nothing. Without bothering to call again, Max opened the door and went in, followed by the others.
"I don't see them," Maria said, looking around.
Liz went to check the bathroom, while Alex checked the closets and Max looked behind the bed.
"Where could they have gone," Maria asked. Then something dripped onto her arm, like rain. Maria looked up. There was something floating near the ceiling… something formless and ethereal. It began to drip more then dropped slowly to the floor at Maria's feet, like a cloud dropping to the ground.
"Ewwww!" Maria exclaimed, shaking the strange raindrops off of her arm. "What is this?"
Rahn looked at the formless cloud floating near the floor. "I think… that used to be Isabel… or Alex… Maybe both."
"Oh my God…" Maria whispered, turning pale. "Can you help her… them… Rahn? Do something!"
Rahn placed his hand over the pulsing, spreading cloud, but then he pulled his hand back.
"I cannot… I cannot find the head. It is all one big… formless mass. We will have to wait and see if it changes again."
"Could that happen?" Maria asked.
"It is possible," Rahn said. "But it is not certain."
For ten minutes, they watched the large plasma-like cloud spread and then contract, occasionally moving in one direction or another with slow, undulating movements. Then something changed.
From the corner of the mass, an ear appeared. It was enough. Rahn reached down and placed his two fingers in the proper positions, and the cloud of plasma began immediately to reshape itself. After thirty seconds, it looked vaguely human. After another thirty seconds, it was clear that Alex was back. He immediately grabbed the sheet off the bed and wrapped himself in it tightly, his clothes having somehow disappeared.
But there was still a large cloud of plasma floating near the floor.
Falling onto the floor beside the remaining mass, Alex pleaded with it…
"Change, Isabel… Please… Change back." He looked at Rahn imploringly. Help her, Rahn. Do whatever you did to me. Bring her back! Please!"
"I am trying," Rahn said. "But I must know where to touch. It is impossible."
Alex reached under the cloudlike mass and picked it up in his hands. It stayed together, though it looked like it might not.
"Iz, come back… please!"
When Alex said this, a part of Isabel's head reappeared momentarily, and Rahn seized his opportunity. As Rahn touched the points he had just seen, the mass began to reshape, slowly taking on the form of a human… then after a while, of Isabel.
Moments later, fully reformed, Isabel fell into Alex's arms, and he wrapped his sheet around her, too, and held her there.
"What happened to us," Isabel asked, still shaking though feeling like herself again for the first time in a long while.
"Yes, I want to know that, too," Alex said.
"It's kind of hard to explain," Max said. "The short answer is, we have an intruder on board… Nasedo. He did something to all of us in our sleep that caused our minds to go out of control, shifting, or trying to shift, continuously. If it had continued, it would have been fatal for all of us. Rahn was able to stop it, but we still have to find the other Isabel. From what Nasedo told Rahn, we think she's the last one of his victims. But we can't find her."
"She's not in her room?" Alex asked.
"No." Maria shook her head.
"Maybe she's in your room, Maria," Isabel said.
"My room?"
Isabel nodded. "You saved her life… in the caves. The two of you were very close for awhile. And she is my double, after all. If I were your Isabel… from your dimension… that's where I would have gone if I were having these problems… to check on you and Alex, to make sure the two of you were okay."
Alex nodded thoughtfully. "I did hear someone knock on my door before you did, Max. But I was… well… I didn't want to be seen. If it was Isabel, she may have gone to check on Maria when I didn't answer."
"Let's go," Maria said, rushing out the door. Everyone else followed. At Maria's room, Maria ran her hand quickly over the sensor, and the door opened. Everyone went in.
"Isabel!" Maria shouted, spotting her friend lying on the bed, as she rushed in.
Isabel lifted her head up and managed a weak smile.
"Maria! I was… was… so worried about you. Something is happening to me. I was afraid… for you… that you might be sick, too. Where's Alex?"
"I'm here," Alex said, rushing to Isabel's side, as Maria sat down on the other side of her.
"Maria and I are fine now, Iz. We were affected, but Rahn fixed it. He's going to help you, too."
Isabel looked at her legs. They were fused together, making it impossible for her to walk. It could have been a shift gone wrong that was supposed to turn her into a snake or some other legless creature. In any case, she still looked human… except for the fused legs.
Rahn touched Isabel near the temple and behind the ear, and she relaxed visibly and instantly, then her legs began to separate into two individual legs again. The whole process happened very quickly, taking no more than twenty to thirty seconds.
Rahn could change from a human into a small bird, a bat, a huge grizzly bear, or even a large snake in under five seconds if there was the need… but he was amazed that these humans and Antarian hybrids were shifting at all. He would have expected them to all react more as Michael had… suffering seizures, not changing form. Nasedo had activated a part of the brain that created and emitted shapeshifting signals to the body, but human and Antarian bodies were not capable of shapeshifting… except in very limited ways… ways that did not actually change the size or external shape of their bodies. Every shapeshifter knew that.
And Nasedo had not activated the parts of the brain that would keep the signals in check. The result should have been seizures… and eventual death. The brain would fire uncontrollably, but the body would not be able to respond properly. Without the control centers functioning, even a shapeshifter would be in trouble. The odd thing was… these humans and Antarians did shift. It was not controlled or desirable, but they actually did shift… except for the young Michael. And if the others did it… Michael might learn to.
Then again, it was entirely possibly, Rahn knew, that with the control centers of the brain now open and activated and the signals in check, their bodies might never shift again. The shifting might have been entirely the result of their lack of ability to control the cascading signals… like a broken high power cord snaking all over the place… When it is repaired, it remains still, because the signal… the power… is properly channeled. Human and Antarian bodies were not supposed to shift… ergo, it must have been a unique occurrence brought on by unusual and unforeseen circumstances, and it would most likely not reoccur, Rahn decided.
Then again… he wondered…
Isabel hugged Alex then hugged Maria to herself, as the others told her of their own experiences.
"I had to know that the two of you were alright," Isabel said to Alex and Maria, sitting beside her on the bed. I can't imagine you as bigfoot, Alex! I wish you had let me in."
"I wish I had, too," Alex said. "I'm sorry, Izzy. I didn't know what was happening. I just felt so… self-conscious about looking like… well… bigfoot… without the big feet."
Isabel rolled over and kissed Alex. "I love you, Charles Alexander Whitman… hairy or whatever. Don't ever forget it."
Alex nodded. "I know. I love you, too, Iz… and I would even if you had turned into a mermaid or something."
"Now that sounds like a match," Max said playfully… "Bigfoot and the mermaid!"
The others laughed.
"It might be preferable to being a plasma cloud, the older Alex from Antar said, thinking of himself and Isabel. "How the heck did that happen? We were just holding each other to comfort each other, because we weren't feeling well, and the next thing I knew, we kind of… dissolved or something and floated away."
Rahn nodded. "It's not really as strange as it looked… or sounds, Alex. The two of you didn't actually shapeshift… you more or less failed to shapeshift."
"You want to explain that, Rahn?"
"Well, you see, you reverted to a sort of primordial mass… something that had no form at all. You kind of… de-formed… you lost your forms… you turned into the basic components of life… you were a formless mass waiting to be formed. Do you understand?"
Isabel nodded silently.
"Well, I'm glad we seem to have headed off the problem and everyone is okay," Max said. "And I'm glad you're back with us, too, Mini Me," he added to his younger double. The younger Max pointed a finger at Max from Antar and gave him a quick shock of power to the arm from six feet away. Max yelped and fanned his arm then rubbed it. "Yeah, you're definitely back alright!"
The younger Max blew on the tip of his finger and smiled… "Just so you remember."
"No more 'Mini Me,' huh?"
"You got it."
Max of Antar nodded. "Well, I guess you have outgrown that. I'll have to think of something else to call you."
"Well, guys, we have one more thing we have to do," Michael said.
Liz nodded, understanding exactly what Michael was going to say. The others all knew, too.
"We've got a shapeshifter to track down on our ship," Max said for him. "Any suggestions?"
Isabel nodded. "How good is Jung-Jo at tracking shapeshifters?"
Max smiled. "Pretty good, I'd be willing to bet. Let's find out."
tbc