Chapter 38

"Long Way to Morning"

At the end of the stairway and down a dark corridor Deanna finally meets up with Wil. He is there clean and neatly dressed. Far from what he was just a few weeks before. Ethan is there as well Deanna runs to her husband open arms and cries tears of anguish and pain. It had been so long.

"Oh Wil I was so worried something had happened to you."

"That day when I woke up and you weren't in my arms I thought I had lost you forever. My thoughts were not of me but for our daughter. Ethan showed me the way to the tunnels one day while I was in the fields. As much as I wanted to see you I knew that I should stay here."

"Ethan why didn't you tell us you were here to help us?"

"There was still so much you had to experience and learn. This whole place it is a recreation of what the both of you have from your memory."

"But we were drugged and Deanna was taken away."

"You were not drugged. It was just a side effect of us probing your minds. We had to make everything seem real."

"It seemed real it even felt real. Everything I experienced, everything was a mirage?"

"To some degree yes it was."

"Ethan who are you?"

"The question is not who I am it is who we are?"

"What do you me we? Is there more of you?"

"Yes, there are five of us on this planet. We have lived on this planet for over 1000 years. We had never met anyone of a different race. When we saw you passing on your way to Vanta III we intercepted. We saw the opportunity to study an new race."

"You have never met anyone besides your own species?"

"A millennium ago our race was at war with the Batrachians. They were a cruel and evil race. They sought to rule the planet. Our people were destroyed the survivors went to reclaim our planet. I was one of the survivors. I was only a child then and I had lost both my parents. My family were killed, I watched in the shadows of these tunnels as they killed each one of my family one by one. Soon there were only a few dozen of us left. Many of the survivors have passed 500 years ago a group our elders sent 12 of their children to the real world. Over the years many have died."

"There are more of you? Where are they?"

Ethan looked over into the shadow as a figure emerged from the darkness of the cave. She was young and beautiful.

"This is my mate her name is..."

"Aurora."

"I am sorry I had to deceive you but I needed you to believe in me. I needed to see if our creations have changed."

"Yes, in order for us to re-join our race we needed to experience being human. Or in this case half betazoid, and half human. We had to see inside your heart to see if your race has changed over the last 1000 years. Today you have shown that you both are pure at heart."

"You mean everything we experienced all the pain and suffering wasn't real?

"We had to make you believe that our planet was at war in order to complete our mission.

They never knew what we were. One male did find out the truth he has been searching for us for 100 years."

"Logan?"

"Yes."

TBC...Chapter 39