Title: Was It A Dream? Author: jane

Disclaimer: They are not mine. The characters of Roswell belong to Melinda Metz, UPN, Jason Katims and all the wonderful people who we all love for starting this fabulous series. No infringement or disrespect is intended. I'm just borrowing them! I would like to thank Carol (spacemom) for allowing me to use her character names (Mason and Cheryl) from her story "Acting Alien" and for all of her help and advice-jane

Summary: This story is a sequel to "I Can't, I'm Different" and I highly recommend that you read it first before reading this one. Just before their wedding day, Max Evans and Liz Parker met the actors, Mason Blair and Cheryl Appleton, who look exactly like them. Pictures of Max and Liz are taken, but mistaken for Mason and Cheryl. To keep their privacy, the two couples stay apart until they meet ten years later, when they both have children of their own. Seven year old Philip Evans and Suzie Blair meet for the first time and have a magical experience together. A reporter had followed the famous couple to the beautiful Antarian community of Airatan and taken some pictures of them. Once again the friends must part, to keep Max and Liz's privacy intact. Years later, when Philip and Suzie meet in college, will they recognize each other? Does Suzie remember that special night with Philip, or does she believe that it was only a dream?

Was It A Dream? Part 1

Seven year old, Suzie Blair was enjoying visiting the Sixth Annual Airatan Art Festival, with her parents, Mason Blair and Cheryl Appleton and her five year old brother, Matt. They had been camping for a couple days, when they heard about the art fair and decided to go see it. She and Matt had really like watching all of the artists at work. The loud banging noises, as a metal sculptor fit two pieces of his statue together. Suzie had no idea what the statue was supposed to be, but it had been fun to watch it come together. The fluid grace of soft clay, as a potter formed a lovely vase on her wheel. The vibrant colors used by a painter, as he tried to depict something, which only his imagination could give a name to. The whole town was like something out of her storybooks. All of the buildings had curves, peaks and valleys. She had never seen anything like it, even on one of her father's or mother's movie sets, in Hollywood.

Suzie looked up at her father and mother and grinned. It was so funny to see them when they tried to disguise who they were. All of her mother's lovely, long, brown hair was hidden underneath a baseball cap and her face, was hidden by sunglasses. But her father was the funniest looking of all, with his scraggly beard and mustache.

She understood that they did this so that the four of them could have fun together, without being bothered by pesky reporters. Sometimes, her daddy called reporters by bad names, if they tried to bother one of them. It made her tummy hurt to hear her usually kind and gentle father speak that way.

She loved it when her family could spend time together like this for days at a time. Usually her parents were busy working hard. Her father and mother were famous actors, but they had told her that being her mommy or daddy was their most important job and they spent as much time as possible with her and her brother.

"Hey, Suzie, you want to come with your old dad, to see how they blow glass?"

"Ohh, yes! How do they do that Daddy? How do they make such pretty shapes?" Suzie asked as she looked through the window of a glass-blowing studio and saw shelf after shelf of lovely glass figurines.

"Well, I don't actually know. Let's go see for ourselves, shall we?" Mason suggested, as he took her hand and they walked into the glass-blowing studio.

"You're not old, Daddy." Suzie told her father.

"You don't think so? What about this gray hair I'm getting at my temples?" Mason asked, as he took off his hat and sunglasses to show her.

"It looks nice. Very dist...dist-sting-squished." She tried to use a big word she had heard recently.

"My hair is sting-squished, Oh No!" Mason teased her as she giggled.

"I think the word you are trying to say is distinguished, little-one." An old woman came forward, looking both of them over with an observant eye; eyes, which opened wide in shock, for just a moment, when they saw Mason and then returned to normal.

"And you are very correct; your daddy is not old. I am old." She said. Suzie looked up at the old lady and watched as she moved around the studio.

"Well, your hair is a pretty white, not gray and you do have just a few wrinkles, but otherwise you don't look that old. How old are you?" Suzie asked with the honest candor of the young.

"Suzie, that's none of your business." Mason told his daughter, reprovingly.

"Oh it's alright, sir. She's only being curious. My name is Nasus and I am 86 years old."

"That's older than my grandmother." Suzie said, after a moment's thought.

"Yes, most probably, young-one. But you came in to see how glass is blown, not hear an old lady talk about herself. What would you like to see me make?" Nasus asked.

"I don't know; show me how you make those glass balls...and how you make them all those pretty colors." Suzie requested.

"Very well, this is how I start..." And Nasus proceeded to show Suzie and Mason her art of glass blowing.

Time flew by and then father and daughter left the studio.

"That was so beautiful, Daddy. How Mrs. Nasus made first that red ball and then the ball with the green ribbon flowing inside it!" Suzie chattered as they came out.

"Yes wasn't it?" Her father agreed with her. "There's Mommy and you brother. Let's go joint them." He said and took her hand to cross the street.

As they drew closer, Suzie could see that a man was speaking to her brother. She heard her mother call the man Max Evans as she looked intently at his face, as he stood up to shake her father's hand. The man looked exactly like her father, except that he didn't have her daddy's funny-looking beard and mustache. She saw that he had a kind face and gentle eyes, when he glanced down at her and smiled. She smiled back up at him.

Soon her parents were taking hers' and Matt's hands and leading them over to the man's car. It seemed that this was a friend of Suzie's parents and all four of them were going to go and stay with his wife, Liz and their family for the night. Suzie and Matt were safely buckled into the back seat, on each side of their mother, while their father sat up front with his friend.

Soon the car passed through a huge gate, set into an enormous, green wall, which seemed to open magically, before them and close after them the same way. On the other side of the green wall, Suzie could no longer see the pretty, little town, but saw instead a beautiful valley unfold before her very eyes. She caught glimpses of more storybook houses through the trees, as they drove by. Then they drove up to a house, larger than any of the others Suzie had seen on their drive through the valley. It had arched windows and a flowing roof. None of the walls were straight either, but curved.

"Let me take you around back, where the kids are playing." She heard her daddy-look-a-like say.

'Kids? Playing? Could she play with them?' Suzie wondered, as they circled the house. Then she saw a woman who looked just like her mother, run over and hug her parents. 'Boy this was getting weird!' She thought to herself, but her attention was caught by the play-area, over by the trees. There was a swing-set with a big slide, set up on the grass and then wonder of wonders, a fort, which looked like something out of the "Swiss Family Robinson" book she had at home, with lots of rope ladders leading from one level to another, built among the trees.

Suzie almost squealed in delight, when she saw the playhouse built in among the great roots of some big, old tree and there, flitting among the branches was another little girl, with blond hair...and fairy-wings! Was this some sort of magical valley, her family had found? Were this man and woman, who looked exactly like her parents, king and queen of the fairy-people? She wondered to herself, allowing her imagination to run free. Then she and Matt were instructed to greet the kind-eyed lady who was smiling down at them.

"Hello, Mrs. Evans." They both said politely.

"Would the two of you like to come and play with two of my children, Phil and Libby?" Suzie and her brother both nodded and the mommy-look-a-like took their hands and led them over to where the other two children were playing.

"Phil, Libby, these are Matt and Suzie. I want you to play nicely with them and be on your best behavior." The lady said and Suzie thought that she was saying something else to them with just her eyes, before she left them to play.

This was not the first time that Phillip and Libby's mother had brought stranger's children over to play with them. Their parents had visitors several times a year. They were either Antarians, who lived elsewhere on Earth, or they might be visiting from the Unified Alliance of Planets. Sometimes, ambassadors from other alien worlds came to visit their parents, who were the King and Queen of all Antarian people. Luckily, the Evans children were happy, outgoing kids, who loved nothing better than to have someone new to play with.

"Do you want to play rescue the princess?" The little girl asked Suzie.

"Okay, what do we do?" Suzie asked.

"I'm the magical fairy and you can be the princess who needs rescuing! Come on, I have a dress and crown inside my playhouse." She said.

"I get to wear a crown?" Suzie asked in delight as she followed the blond-haired girl into the playhouse, which looked like a smaller version of the big house.

"Do you want to play the good knight, or the evil knight?" Phil asked Matt.

"Mmm, the evil knight! Does that mean I get to tie my big sister up?" He asked with glee.

"Um, sure, we usually just shut the princess up in the tree-house, but I think there might be some yarn up there you could use for your magical, unbreakable cord."

"Ohh, magical, unbreakable cord. I like the sound of that!" Matt grinned.

"Okay, then after you tie her up, I'll have to fight you to set her free, because I'm the good knight." Phil motioned to the white breastplate and helmet he was wearing. "Come on, your black helmet is in the fort." He said and both boys ran into the rustic, wooden fort, built underneath another large tree, nearby.

When they came out of the fort, wearing their armor and carrying their plastic shields and foam-rubber swords, the girls were waiting. Suzie had a knee-length, pink ballerina-skirt on, over her white shorts and top, but she still had on her red tennie-bops and red bracelet, which she had been wearing all day. Her crown, which was made of intricately bent wire, covered with gold glitter and sequins, was bobby-pinned, more or less straight, onto the top of her head.

"I get to tie you up with my magical, unbreakable cord!" Matt said, gleefully to his sister.

"Only if I let you, Matt-y." Suzie taunted, using the nickname her brother hated.

"OH you...you are my prisoner and I get to tie you up and shut you into my fort." Matt grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the wooden fort. It had a platform about five feet off the ground, with a railing all around it, a green canvas shade on top and rope and wooden ladders, to climb up to the platform, on all sides, which created the "walls" for the lower part of the fort.

Suzie carefully climbed the rope ladder, not wanting to ruin her princess costume and good-naturedly let her brother loosely tie her up with the yarn. Really, Matt was a pretty nice brother and fun to play with.

"Now I'll lock you in with an evil magic spell." Matt made a dramatic wave of his hands.

"But your friend, the Fairy Queen is here and will be able to break the evil spell with my magic wand, if the good knight can win the battle against the evil knight." Libby told Suzie, who was watching from behind her upstairs balustrade.

"Ah ha, Evil Knight, you have imprisoned the Princess with your magical, unbreakable cord and your evil spell, but I will fight you until you agree to release her." Phil intoned, dramatically and both boys started to fight with their foam-rubber swords. They made many sound effects and exclamations as they fought.

"Clash!"

"Ah ha, I got you, you evil villain!"

"Boom!"

"No, I deflected your weapon with my magic!"

"Crash!"

"Do you give up?"

"Never!"

The boys rolled around on the ground, until Phil was able to pin Matt onto his back.

"Ah ha, now I have you! And I am going to tie you up with my own magical, unbreakable cord, which the Fairy Queen gave me." Phil produced his own piece of yarn.

"Oh rats, foiled again!" Matt muttered.

"Can you break the evil spell, Fairy Queen?"

"Of course; with a wave of my magic wand, I can break any spell." She did so and Phil scrambled up the rope-ladder.

"I am here to rescue you, Princess!" Phil stated, grandly as he untied her.

"Thank you. You are my hero!" Suzie said and then puckered up her lips for a kiss.

"Hey, I ain't kissing no girl, yuck!" Phil cried. He might be a prince, but he was only a seven-year-old prince. Suzie took that comment good-naturedly. She wasn't sure about this kissing thing either, but she saw her parents doing it all the time...

The children then started to play their game all over again. The girls critiqued the boy's fighting style and a couple times, Suzie and Phil traded parts. Phil became the wounded knight, locked up in a dungeon to die and Suzie became the brave, Amazon Princess, who fought Matt, who would always be the Evil Knight, to save him, with the help of her friend, Libby, the Fairy Queen.

"Hey kids, come wash up for dinner." Liz called out."

"DINNER!" They all yelled and came running, costumes still on and weapons and wands still in their hands.

"Oh my goodness! Where is our camera?" Both mothers exclaimed and ran into the house to find their cameras. A few moments later, pictures had been taken, hands and faces had been washed and armor, dresses and wings had been removed. Only Suzie still wore her crown as everyone sat down to dinner.

"Hey you make a lovely princess, Sweetheart." Mason told his daughter, who blushed and hid her happy face behind her two hands.

Max and Liz looked at Phil and Suzie, who were sitting next to each other. 'Could this be a prophetic moment here? Our son, our Prince; sitting next to his Princess?' Max asked Liz, silently, as they both thought about their own Royal Circlets, hidden in the secret compartment, in their bedroom.

'I don't know, but they do look cute together. So do Matt and Libby!' Liz gazed at the children with a dreamy look in her eyes.

After a delicious dinner, the children were taken in, given their baths, tucked into bed and read stories, before they fell asleep. Libby and Suzie shared Libby's full-sized, canopy bed and Matt slept on the lower level of Phil's bunk bed, since he was only 5 years old.

The parents cleaned up the kitchen and then went back out onto the patio to chat for a couple hours, getting to know each other, as they had so wanted to do, but couldn't, over the past years. Finally they too went into their rooms, to sleep.

Suzie woke up in the middle of the night when she heard a noise in the room across the hall. Phil's room, she remembered. She looked at her new friend, Libby, but she was fast asleep. Suzie got out of bed, slipping her feet into her tennie-bops as she did and put her sweater on over her summer pajamas, before walking quietly out of her room, across the hall and into Phil's room. In the moonlight, she could see that Matt was also fast asleep. She heard a voice and looked towards the room's window.

"Come on Phil." A boy urged from outside, while a second boy stood about a yard back from the window. As she watched, Phil slipped out his window and ran off towards the woods with his two friends.

Suzie bit her lip. What should she do? Should she go wake up her parents, Phil's parents? What could she tell them though, she reasoned. She didn't know where they went. It would be better if she followed them, found out what they were up to and then came back to get her parents, if need be, she decided with a nod and slid out the window and ran across the grass towards the woods.

There was a full moon out tonight and its light filtered down through the tree branches so that Suzie could sort of see her way as she followed a bobbing light up ahead. She came to a clearing in the woods where she saw lights shoot up into the air, break apart and then fall to the earth like multi-colored firecrackers. She moved forward, but stayed hidden behind a tree.

It took several minutes for her eyes to adjust to the dark and her mind to figure out what she was really seeing. Half a dozen kids, both boys and girls, of about thirteen years of age were in the clearing, plus the two friends of Phillip's, who looked as though they were nine years old and Phillip, who she thought was seven.

Incredibly, the older kids were throwing stones up high into the air and somehow making them soundlessly explode into a rainbow of sparks, which fell harmlessly to earth.

"You try it Jimmy, Marcus." One of the older boys encouraged Phillip's two friends.

"I'll show you how to do it, Phil." One of the girls said and she came over to him and they huddled together for a few minutes, but Suzie didn't see her 'show him' how to do anything.

"Let me try." Jimmy called out, as he threw a stone up into the air. It didn't do anything and just fell back to earth. The older kids were grinning.

"Let me try." Marcus called out next as he threw a stone up into the air. It also came falling back to earth.

"Let me try." Phillip called out, nodding to the older girl who had been helping him. He threw his stone up into the air and it exploded loudly up in the air.

"All right, Phillip!" The older kids called out. "You used a little too much power, ease up a little so that the stone glows with heat on its way up and then just breaks apart into tiny, multi-colored pieces on its way down." They advised. Phillip concentrated for a moment and then threw another stone up into the air. It started to glow on its way up and then silently exploded into tiny, multi-colored sparks on its way down.

"All right, Phillip!" They all clapped for their friend, with respect in their eyes.

"Not many kids can do that before they're nine or ten." One of the other girls said.

"You are your father's son, alright." Another said and Phillip ducked his head shyly at their praise.

"I wanna try again." Both Jimmy and Marcus cried out.

"One at a time, guys." One of the older boys warned and Jimmy threw his stone up into the air, it exploded, loudly.

"Rats!" Jimmy exclaimed. "You try Marcus." He said and Marcus threw his stone up into the air. It glowed on the way up and silently exploded into colorful sparks.

"Alright Marcus! Jimmy you try again. Come on, we know you can do it." They encouraged him.

Jimmy threw his stone up into the air and this time, it did what it was supposed to do, sending radiant sparks down to earth.

"Alright, Jimmy!" All the kids clapped for him.

"Hey let's do figure eights." One boy suggested next and they all nodded.

"Just follow our lead, Phillip." Marcus said, as all the kids allowed their hands to start glowing.

Phil made his hand glow and then followed the older kids as they ran around the clearing, in a figure eight, crossing in front of each other in the middle, their glowing hands raised above their heads.

"On three, everyone down." A girl called out. "One, two, three." And all the kids dropped to the ground, extinguishing their hands and lay on their backs, gazing up at the glowing figure eight, which hung in the air for several minutes.

"Oh my gosh!" Suzie exclaimed, excitedly. "I'm going to get closer." Phillip heard a noise and looked towards the encircling trees and saw Suzie move from one tree to another.

'Oh no, what's she doing here?' He groaned to himself. 'I have to get her away from here.'

"Hey Jimmy, Marcus. I think I sensed my mom waking up. She may come to check on all of us. I'd better get home. Thanks for showing me how to make fireworks!" He called over to the girl who had helped him and then ran into the woods. He came up to where Suzie was hiding.

"What are you doing here?" Phil asked.

"I heard a noise and saw you slip out your window and decided to follow." Suzie answered. "Are you guys fairies, or witches or something?" She asked, excitedly.

"No we are not fairies or witches." Phillip denied. One of the first things Antarian children are taught is to never, ever betray your people by telling anyone what you are. He felt that it was his fault that she had seen as much as she had in the first place. He had to make sure that she would keep their secret.

"Then what are you?" Suzie asked.

"I can't tell you. I won't betray my people. Can you understand what would happen to us if other people or the government found out about us? We'd be locked up...or worse." Phillip didn't like to think about the 'or worse-part' and Suzie's eyes had become big and round as she nodded.

"Will you keep the secret of what you saw here tonight?" Phillip asked her.

"Oh yes, don't worry, I won't tell anyone, not even my parents." Suzie promised.

"Just think of what you saw as a dream. Something you imagined." Phil advised.

"That won't be hard; this whole day has been like a dream. Suzie sighed.

"Okay, let me take you back to the house now." Phil said as he took her hand and led her back through the woods, to his house. On the way home, though, tears started running, silently down Suzie's face.

"Why are you crying?" Phillip asked, alarmed, when they reached his bedroom window.

"This has been the best day of my life. I don't want to forget it." Suzie sobbed. "I won't tell anyone, but I don't -sob- want -sob- to forget -sob-."

"I know; I'll make you something to remind you of this valley and of your promise." Phillip said.

"Okay -sob-." Suzie said. Phil reached into the pocket of his shorts and pulled out seven pennies and laid them on the ground in a V.

"Now I have to concentrate. I just saw Marcus do this last week and I have to remember what he said to do." Phillip stayed quiet and still for a moment, concentrating. Then his hand started to glow and he passed it slowly over the pennies three times. Then he picked up the solid piece of copper and showed it to Suzie.

"See, I melted the pennies together and made this map of the valley." Phillip said. "Here's the town, here are the two rivers, here's our house and here's the clearing and I put the word 'promise' in between the last two."

"Ohh that is so neat!" Suzie exclaimed.

"Shh, you'll wake someone up." Phillip warned. "Now let's get inside, before someone misses us." Phillip helped Suzie up through the window and then he slipped inside himself, closing the window behind him. They walked across the hall to the room Suzie was sharing with Libby.

"Thank you." Suzie said, simply and then she leaned in and kissed Phillip on the cheek, before scurrying into her room and closing the door.

She put a hand over her mouth to keep her giggles from escaping. On the other side of the door, Phillip put a hand up to touch his cheek. He didn't know whether to grin at receiving his first kiss from a girl or roll his eyes, as his friends did, when girls tried to talk to them.

'Phil.' He heard his name called silently and looked around. His father was standing a couple yards away and was beckoning him towards the family room.

'Uh oh.' He thought and walked in that direction as well.

"I guess you know all about my going to the clearing." Phillip said, right away, his head dropped.

"Of course; we don't mind your experimenting and having a little fun with your powers, as long as you're careful and get enough sleep. You know that someone is always watching, just in case anyone gets hurt, but you were with a good bunch of kids tonight and everyone was careful." Max broke into a smile. "And you made fireworks, on your first try. That's great, Phillip!" He hugged his son and drew him over to the sofa.

"Well, actually my first stone kind of exploded, but my second stone did what it was supposed to do!" Phillip explained.

"I'm still proud of you." Max said. "Now about Suzie..."

"I brought her home as soon as I realized she was there. She didn't see much, honest. And she promised not to tell..." Phil said, anxiously. Max was silent for a moment, concentrating.

"Yes, I know and she is already asleep. Even though she wants to remember, I don't think she will. Once she leaves here, her time in the Valley will become a dream-image to her."

"Daddy, did you, did you dream-walk her?" Phil asked.

"It's not something I like to do; it's not something anyone should do, unless it's for an important reason, as it was tonight. I needed to know the state of her mind, how she is handling what she saw tonight, whether she will tell her parents."

"She won't Daddy. She promised."

"Yes, I think you're right. I think she will keep her promise." Max agreed after one more peek into Suzie's dreams. "Well, are you ready to go back to sleep, Son? There's a lot to do tomorrow."

"Yeah, I am tired." Phillip yawned and father and son got up to walk back to their rooms. Max tucked Phil back under his covers and then returned to his worried mate.

"Everything will be alright. They're both safely asleep and I truly don't think that Suzie will remember anything." Max said, as he drew Liz into his arms. "Go back to sleep, love." He kissed her tenderly and she closed her eyes to sleep. Max watched her sweet face for a few moments and then drifted back to sleep, as well.

Back in Libby's room, a few minutes earlier, Suzie stifled her giggles at kissing her first boy, with her hand and moved over to where she could see her knapsack on the floor, in the moonlight. She took the V made of copper and slipped it down among her other favorite things, which she always took with her when she traveled. Then she slipped into bed and was asleep in moments.

The next morning, Suzie was roused from sleep by a gentle hand shaking her.

"Wake up sleepy-head, you've slept the morning away and we need to be leaving soon." Cheryl told her daughter.

"Mmm, wah time is it?" Suzie yawned.

"It's nine o'clock. Your Dad is out touring the valley with Mr. Evans and the kids are at their day-camps."

"Okay, Mom." Suzie got out of bed and her mother helped her put fresh clothes on, to speed her along and then they went out to the kitchen where blueberry pancakes were cooking.

"Good morning, Suzie. My you must have tired yourself out, playing so hard yesterday." Liz said, casually as she watched the little girl for any signs of her remembering what she saw in the middle of the night.

"Mm, are those blueberry pancakes for me? They're my favorite!" She smiled as she watched Liz flip them onto a plate.

"Yes, these are for you. A little bird on your mother's shoulder told me what your favorite breakfast food is. Come and eat them while they're hot." Suzie came to the table and dug in.

"Where's Matt?" Suzie asked when she had a clear mouth again.

"He's out on the swings, see?" Cheryl said.

"Oh. Where's Daddy?"

"He went with Mr. Evans to see more of the valley before we leave."

"Do we have to leave?" Suzie asked, disappointed.

"I'm afraid so. Daddy's new movie starts filming the day after tomorrow and mine starts next week." Cheryl saw that her daughter had polished off her breakfast plate.

"Are you done?" At Suzie's grin and nod. "Go brush your teeth and make sure that everything's back in your knapsack and I'll be in there in a minute."

Suzie ran and brushed her teeth and then scurried into Libby's room and over to her knapsack. As she had eaten breakfast, what she had thought was a dream, from the night before, came back to her. But now she wasn't sure if it had been a dram or for real. If she could find the small copper V, which Libby's brother had given her that would prove that it was real, she thought to herself. Otherwise she would guess that it was a dream. When she couldn't find what she was looking for, Suzie dumped everything out of her knapsack and pushed everything aside, looking for her memento.

'It has to be here, it has to be. It was real; I know it was real...wasn't it?' Suzie began to doubt herself when she couldn't find the copper V. Unbeknownst to her; the little memento had slid through a small crack in the lining of Suzie's knapsack and was stuck down there.

"Suzie, it's time to go, Sweetheart. Your father and Mr. Evans are back." Cheryl came to get her daughter. "Oh, Suzie, what have you done? Let's get everything back into your knapsack, honey. What's the matter, did you lose something?" Cheryl asked when she saw her daughter's sad face.

"I guess it was just a dream after all." Suzie said, sadly.

"What was just a dream, pumpkin?" Cheryl asked.

"Nothing." Was all Suzie would say.

Cheryl took her daughter's hand in one of hers and her knapsack in her other and guided Suzie out to the family room, where she reminded her children to bid their hosts goodbye. Hugs were exchanged and the Blair family was walked out to their car. As her father drove them out of the valley, Suzie looked back the way they had come.

'Was it really a just a dream?' She wondered.

A couple weeks later, Max and Liz received a large envelope from Mason and Cheryl. The letter read:

Dear Max and Liz,

We are afraid that we have some bad news. A photographer tracked us down while we were in Airatan and took the following pictures. At least this time the pictures are of us and not of the two of you. The photographer believes that we were just visiting your art festival, as he never saw the four of us together.

We are sorry, but this means that we probably should not try to return to your lovely valley. If the Press were ever to see the four of us together, you might never get them out of your beautiful town.

We would really like to keep in contact with you, if you think that would be all right. Here are our street and e-mail addresses and our private phone numbers. Please let us here from you.

Very sincerely, your twins, Mason and Cheryl

"Oh Max!" Liz exclaimed sadly. "I was so hoping that it would be okay this time. I really liked getting to know Mason and Cheryl and the kids had so much fun playing together."

"I know Sweetheart, but it can't be helped. We'll stay in touch with them as much as we can, without being found out by the Press." Max promised.

Part 2

September 14, 2024, 7 years later.

"Happy birthday, dear Phillip. Happy birthday to you!" Everyone sang and then clapped and cheered, as Phillip blew out all fourteen candles on his birthday cake.

"What did you wish for?" Amy Guerin asked.

"Don't tell, or it won't come true." His sister, Dee warned him.

"You get to make another wish when you make the first cut in your cake." His mother told him, handing him the cake-knife.

"Alright, I'll give it a try, but you remember what a mess I made of it last year." Phillip reminded her.

"Why don't you just use your powers?" Jimmy Valenti asked.

"May I?" Phillip asked, eagerly.

"You may, but I don't think you get the second wish, since you won't truly be cutting the cake." Liz warned.

"Hmm, I think it will be better all around if I skip the wish and use my powers to serve everyone their piece of cake." Phillip decided. "How many of us are there?" His eyes grew large when he realized that there were twenty-seven of them, his family and best friends, sitting and standing around the large dining room table. "Alright, let me concentrate for a moment. This is a big cake, but I still have to figure out how to cut enough pieces for all of us."

Phillip concentrated and then cuts started to neatly appear in the cake and pieces started to float over onto the plates. His twelve-year-old sister, Libby used her powers to dip out the ice-cream and move the plate aside quickly enough to always have a clean plate ready for the next piece of cake, Phillip floated towards her. Finally, everyone had their cake and ice-cream and not a crumb had been dropped.

"Oh, Grandma Amy, this cake looks fantastic! Chocolate, with chocolate frosting on the outside and raspberry jam between the one, two, three, four layers, just like I requested. Thank you so much for baking this for me!" Phillip grinned at Amy Valenti.

"You're welcome, Sweetheart." Amy smiled back.

For years now, all of the grandchildren had been calling all of the grandparents, 'grandma' or 'grandpa', whether or not they were related. Amy had retired from her pie and cake baking, but was still asked to bake her delectable cakes for the birthdays of her extended family.

"Why don't you kids go back into the family room to eat your dessert and we'll come in a few minutes to watch you open your gifts." Max suggested. All of the kids filed out of the room, eating their cake as they went. As the kids disappeared out of the dining room, Liz sighed.

"They are all growing up so quickly."

"That they are." Jeff agreed. "Now maybe you'll understand what we were feeling when you were this age."

"Absolutely." Max agreed. "And I think we have it a little easier than all of you did. Each of you had this adopted child, who was sometimes secretive or downright strange!" Everyone laughed.

"Speak for yourself, Max!" Isabel called out. "I was a perfect angel, right Mom?"

"Well, most of the time, honey!" Judy and John chuckled at the shocked expression on their daughter's face.

"I think we do have it a little easier than you guys did." Michael agreed. "We know what to expect from our kids. There aren't any secrets and with the Connection, I think communication and understanding each other's point of view is much easier."

"Well, and on that note, should we all go join our kids?" Liz asked, seeing that everyone had finished their' dessert. "Will, everyone bring their dishes out to the kitchen, please?" She requested. The adults got up from the table and did as Liz asked; quickly cleaning up the dining room before they all trooped into the family room.

The teenagers and pre-teens were all sitting on the floor, thoughtfully leaving the sofas and chairs for the adults to sit on. Even the birthday-boy was sitting on the floor, between his two, best friends, Amy and Marcus Guerin. All of the gifts had been arranged on the floor, in the middle of the room.

"Alright, Phillip, are you ready to open your presents now?" Diane asked her grandson.

"Oh yeah!" Phillip answered excitedly.

"Then why don't you start with that one, with the big, purple bow on top?" She suggested and Phillip dove for it.

As he opened his gifts and thanked each person for what they had given him, Phillip could not help notice the physical resemblance between his friends and sisters and their parents.

His best friends, Amy and Marcus both had Aunt Maria's large, green eyes, but sixteen-year-old, Marcus was the one with her blond hair. He had his father's hawk-like nose and chiseled high cheekbones. His fourteen-year-old sister, Amy had her father's light brown hair, which she wore no longer than shoulder length, so she could keep the natural curliness; she had inherited from her father. She had her mother's full lips and lovely smile, though.

The thirteen-year-old twins, Judy and Charlie looked a great deal like their parents, Aunt Isabel and Uncle Alex. It was interesting to see Judy sitting next to his twelve-year-old sister, Libby, as she was tonight, because Libby also looked a great deal like their aunt and biological grandmother, Belisa. Phillip's other sister, Dee looked more like him. They both had straight, brown hair, with little bits of gold and red highlighting it. Dee's hair reached down past her waist. She had their mother's large, chocolate, brown eyes, but their father's large earlobes, which was one reason she wore her hair long. He himself had his father's amber eyes and prominent cheekbones.

Sixteen-year-old Jimmy and his fourteen-year-old sister, Nancy looked a great deal like their parents, Uncle Kyle and Aunt Tess. Jimmy, with his dark brown hair and blue eyes and Nancy, with her curly, blond hair and equally blue eyes. He felt extremely grateful that he had such a large, extended family and good friends. He knew that all of their parents had grown up pretty much alone, afraid of giving their secret away. Even his own mother had, had only her adopted sister, Tess.

"All of these gifts are great! Thank you, everyone." Phillip said, as he finished opening his presents.

"How about a game of touch-football?" Max suggested.

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered.

These games showed how active and physically fit their parents, who were forty-one years old and their grandparents, who were in their' sixties, kept themselves. All four grandfathers could still throw a football out for a good, long pass and their grandmothers could catch the ball with the best of them. Their parents often continued to play, even after their kids had given up for the night. As much as they teased them about being So Old, the kids liked to see that the adults in their lives were happy and healthy and were probably going to live for a good, long time.

"It's my birthday, so just remember the penalty for 'touching too much'!" Phillip warned, grinning at the grownups.

His parents and aunts and uncles liked to take advantage of this game by 'touching' or even gently tackling, their soul-mates and then forgetting about the game going on around them. At his age, Phillip still did not understand the magic to be found in kissing girls, even though he had tried it a couple of times. He knew that in some distant future, he would want to have what his parents had with each other, but he was still unclear and uncomfortable with the details of finding and keeping such a relationship. He had many years to go until he reached his parent's forty-one years of age. He figured he had plenty of time yet.

Much later that night, Phillip came back from meeting his friends at the clearing. Tonight, he walked in through the front door and went in search of his parents, to tell them good night. Ever since that first time, seven years ago, when he had snuck out of his bedroom window, to go to the clearing, his parents had set a limit to his going there. He could only go two nights a week and during the school year, he could only go on Friday and Saturday nights. Knowing that his parents always knew where he was, he usually told them beforehand that he wanted to go. But every once in a while, he would slip out his window, just for the fun of it and just to show how cool they were, his parents would play along, pretending that they didn't know what he had been up to.

But tonight, he had told them that he wanted to go to the clearing and they had just told him to have fun, but to be careful. Now, he returned and went in search of them. He was almost sure that they would not yet be asleep, even though it was eleven o'clock. He followed his senses and found them in the library. His mother was leaning over his father's shoulder as he showed something to her and asked her advice.

'I want this, someday.' Phillip thought. 'This partnership with someone special.' Each of his parents had their own careers. His father was a family lawyer, the senior partner in the firm, which his grandparents had joined before his parents were even married. His mother was a microbiologist and a tenured professor at the University of New Mexico - Albuquerque. They both worked hard at their jobs, but then they came home and played equally as hard with him and his sisters, during the evening.

It was on nights like this, when he came home late, that he realized that his parents put in many more hours, after he and his sisters were usually asleep, caring for their community, their kingdom. As king and queen of the Antarian people, they carried the responsibility for making Airatan a thriving, safe and beautiful place to live. They settled the rare disagreements, which Earth law could not resolve. And they kept in touch with the few Antarians who still lived out in the Unified Alliance of Planets and with the Alliance Council, as well.

"Good night, Mom, Dad." Phillip said after watching them work together for a few moments. He walked over to kiss his mother on the cheek and hug them both. "Thanks for making my birthday so special!" He grinned.

"You're welcome. Go get a good night's sleep, now." His mother said.

"You too; don't work too hard." He said, before he left the library.

"We should be done here shortly." His father assured him.

As Phillip got ready for bed, his mind drifted back to the first time his friends, Marcus and Jimmy had taken him to the clearing...and to the little girl who had followed him and seen what she wasn't supposed to see, since she wasn't a part of the Community.

He had once known her first name, but that had slipped out of his memory over the past seven years. He could barely remember what she looked like. Long, straight, brown hair and light brown eyes. She had promised not to tell anyone what she had seen that night and apparently, she had kept that promise, because they had never heard from her or her family ever again. With that feeling of security, Phillip's memory of the little girl (Had there also been a younger brother?) had faded to join his memories of playing with other children, who's parents had come to visit his mom and dad, over the years.

In the master bedroom, Max and Liz were finally getting ready for bed. Liz held up an envelope.

"We received a letter and some photos from Mason and Cheryl, today."

"Oh great, let's see them." Max said, as they both got into bed and leaned against each other to read the letter and then glance through the photos.

"Looks like fourteen-year-old Suzie is still quite the swimmer. Here's a picture of her coming in first-place, in freestyle, at a swim-meet." Liz showed Max, the picture.

"Here's twelve-year-old Matt in a play with his summer theater club. I wonder if he is going to follow his parents into acting." Max wondered. "I'm glad he's just acting in school plays and hasn't become some child-star. Mason and Cheryl are doing their best to give their kids a normal childhood." Max said.

"He certainly had a lot of fun playing the evil knight that one summer all four of them came to stay with us, one night!" Liz chuckled and then they both remembered what else had happened that night.

'Obviously little Suzie never told anyone about what she saw, or we would have heard about it by now.' Max and Liz communicated silently, together. 'And Phil and Libby have never asked about them.' They assured themselves that the whole incident was long forgotten. If either of their children had asked about the Blair family, who had come to stay with them one summer night, they would have explained to their children why they could never see them again. How a reporter had found out that Mason and Cheryl were camping in the National Forests of New Mexico and had followed them to the Airatan Art Festival, which they had come to see for one day. No one in Airatan wanted reporters snooping around.

"I'll write Mason and Cheryl tomorrow, thank them for the pictures." Liz said. "Now, how about a back-rub, big-boy?" Max could only groan. "Roll over onto your stomach." Max did so and felt as if he was in Heaven, as Liz's small, but strong fingers massaged and rubbed their way up and down his well-muscled back.

"Oh Liz...that feels...so good." Max groaned out.

"How's your neck? Oh my gosh, Max, your neck and shoulders are so tense! I knew I shouldn't have let you work so late tonight and all the other nights this week." Liz said as she kneaded the muscles of his neck and shoulders.

"There was a lot to do." Max said, sleepily.

"Well, give some of it to your junior partners at the firm, or let me help you more around here." She lay down, half on top of Max, lined up against his bare back.

"You have plenty to do, too. I'll be fine. I will get Johnson to take on some more work at the firm, though. All I need from you is what you've always given me, your love and support and the pleasure of sleeping with you in my arms throughout the night." Max said, as he rolled over onto his back, beneath her and wrapped his arms around her, bringing his lovely Liz down fully on top of him.

"Mmm, yes this is pleasant, isn't it?" Liz said, arching back a little, so she could look into her beloved husband's eyes. "Oh, Max you look so tired. Close your eyes and go to sleep, Love. I'm right here. Let me look after you for once." She said as she gently stroked his forehead and cheeks.

"You look af'er me lots o' times." Max said, his speech slurred as he fell into a deep, dreamless, sleep. Liz kissed his closed eyelids and then his lips, before laying her head down on his chest. His arms stayed around her tiny body, even in sleep.

Earlier that same day, Beverly Hills, California.

"Sue, honey, what are you up to in there?" Cheryl Appleton-Blair asked when she found her fourteen-year-old daughter in the back of her closet.

"I wanted to find the T-shirt, Aunt Susan gave me last year, but it isn't in my dresser and it isn't hanging up in here, so I thought that it might have fallen off its hanger and onto the floor or something. Man, can you believe all of the junk that's in here?" She asked her mother.

"Maybe you could clean it out, when you get back from Aunt Susan's." Cheryl suggested.

"Maybe." Sue said, unenthusiastically. "Ah ha, here it is! It had fallen off of its hanger. Oh my gosh, look what I found under it." Sue backed out of her closet and into the light. "It's my old backpack, from when I was a little kid."

"You still are a little kid." Cheryl told her daughter. At fourteen, Sue was still a few inches short of her own petite height. "But you're still in your growing years, so keep drinking your milk and you'll be towering over your old mom, in no time!" Cheryl grinned at her daughter.

"Right Mom, I'll be sure to do that." Sue said.

"Well, I just came to tell you that lunch will be ready in about twenty minutes."

"Okay, I'll be there in a minute." She told her mother, as Cheryl left to go back to the kitchen.

'Might as well start cleaning out my closet by pitching this.' Sue thought and tossed her old backpack across the room, towards the wicker basket, she used as a trashcan. It landed on top of the basket, but was too big to fall down into it.

"Oh rats!" Sue muttered as she went to push the nap-sack further into the trash.

Something stopped her though and instead of pushing it down, Sue pulled it back out of the basket and looked inside.

"Just as I thought, empty.' She thought to herself, but then she did a double-take. 'Wait a minute, what's that?' She reached in to touch something, which was peeking out of a small crack in the lining. It felt solid and she tried to pull it out. 'Oh it's stuck.' She thought and jiggled at it a moment before it would slide out of its hiding place.

"Oh my gosh, Oh My Gosh!" Sue squealed, as she saw what she had in her hands. It was a small piece of copper, in the shape of a V and had a simple map of a valley imprinted upon it.

The object brought back memories of dreams she had, had when she was younger. She had thought that the dreams might be based on memories, but could not remember clearly. What little she remembered looked surreal and made no sense, princesses, fairies, fireworks and ghostly images floating in a night's sky. And pennies, which melted themselves into copper mementos.

Had her parents read her one too many fairytales as a child? Was she remembering seeing her very first fireworks display? She remembered watching an old lady blow melted glass into lovely ornaments. Was she imagining that, that was how her piece of copper had been formed? Except where did the ghostly, figure eight fit in, then? And why did she always see a glowing hand passing over seven pennies, to create the little map in her hand?

Not that it was a very detailed map. She looked at it closely. The tiny squares and circles in the upper right 'leg' of the V, was supposed to symbolize a town and the two squiggly lines, running down the middle of each 'leg' of the V and converging at the apex, was supposed to symbolize two rivers. But Suzie had no idea what the tiny circle and the small triangle, down near the bottom of the V, meant.

She looked closer. The work 'promise' was printed between the circle and the triangle. What did that mean? Promise what? To remember? To forget? To keep a secret? But what secret?

'Oh never mind, I can't think any longer. My stomach is empty and my brain is overflowing with questions. I'll leave this alone for a while. Is lunch ready yet?' Suzie asked herself as she put the object into her jeans' pocket, left her room and walked towards the kitchen.

Part 3

Suzie's head was still overflowing with questions the next day. They circled around and around in her mind and gave her no peace. She had spent the rest of the day before, wandering around her home, or sitting, alone in her room.

"Honey, is there anything wrong?" Cheryl asked her daughter, after Sue had just picked at her favorite dinner, lasagna, made with Italian sausage, but had not really eaten any of it.

"Uh no, nothing's wrong, Mom." Sue answered.

"You're sure there's nothing you'd like to talk to me, or maybe your father about?" Cheryl persisted.

"No thank you. I'm fine." Sue said. "May I be excused, please?"

"Sure honey." Cheryl sighed.

Sue spent the rest of the night in her room and went to bed early, not waking up when her father, Mason Blair looked in on her later that night. She was still quiet and thoughtful the next morning, as she and her mother made the 1 1/2 hour drive to her Aunt Susan's house.

The drive usually excited Sue, because she loved spending time with her aunt and it gave her active imagination a chance to play 'spy'. Sue knew that they must not be followed by the Press, on their way to Aunt Susan's house. Aunt Susan and Uncle John, Susan's neighbor and old family friend to her father, had kept the friendship between themselves and the Blairs, a secret for almost twenty years. Their two houses were the only private places, outside of their own home, where they could rest and relax, without the chance of having the Press show up, and they guarded that secret, jealously. Sue usually made a big deal out of scanning each car they passed and watching out the back window to make sure that they weren't being followed.

But not today, Sue had narrowed all of her thoughts and questions down to just a few questions and bits of logic. Even if her memories were mixed up with dream-images, some of what she remembered must be true; otherwise she would not have the copper V-map in the first place. Nor would she even know what some of the symbols meant. Her instincts told her that the small piece of copper held many of the answers she was looking for...if only she could remember what it all meant.

The memento reminded her to keep a promise. Of what, Sue did not know, but keeping the promise meant that she could not really talk to anyone about it or even ask questions, which might give her some answers. This was her dilemma. How to find answers without being able to ask questions?

At last, she had come to a decision, which brought her some peace. She would ask no questions. Nor would she tell anyone what had been troubling her. She would try to act normally again, while she looked for answers, herself. Perhaps she could find pictures in the family photo-albums. If she and her family had visited this magical valley, they might have taken some pictures.

Sue came out of her thoughtful concentration to find herself sitting in her godmother's living room, alone. She had been so engrossed in her thoughts that the drive here had passed by without her noticing it. She vaguely remembered her mother looking at her with worried eyes and having a murmured conversation with her aunt, about whether or not to leave Sue there, for her mother to stay with the two of them, or for her mother to go, hoping that Sue's staying in her home away from home, with her beloved aunt, might bring her around.

Sue arose and went in search of her aunt. She found her in her library, at the back of the house, typing away on her computer. She looked around the room; one of her favorites in this house, from the doorway, while her Aunt Susan had her back to her.

The library was not large, but every bit of wall-space had been covered in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, crammed with books and videos. The collection ran the gamut from romance; historical, contemporary and time travel, to mystery/intrigue, action/adventure, to science fiction. Then there were the books on architecture, gardening, history and all the cookbooks, which would not fit into the kitchen, as well as classic literature. There was one, comfy, upholstered chair, by a window, in which Sue could remember spending many happy hours, reading.

"Why do you have so many different kinds of books, Aunt Susan? And why do you keep them at all? Why not just check them out of the public library?" Sue asked, breaking the silence.

"Because sometimes I'm in the mood to read a romance and other times I want to read science fiction. I keep them, because having good books in your house is part of what makes it a home. And besides, public libraries aren't open at one o'clock in the morning, when I might want to reread a favorite story of mine." Susan answered, after turning around to face her goddaughter.

"Well, you look much better than you did half an hour ago. I was going to give you about fifteen more minutes of peace and quiet, before I came to try and speak to you. You had your mother and I worried. Is there anything I can help you with, Suzie? You know I'm a good listener. There is nothing you can't talk to me about."

"I know that, Aunt Susan." Sue replied to the only person she allowed, to call her Suzie. She remembered the many times her aunt had listened with total attention as she told her about what was going on in her life, or asked one of her hundreds of questions.

"I just had something on my mind. Something I just had to puzzle through for myself. I'm sorry that I worried you and Mom."

"Yes, your expression does look a great deal less troubled than it did when you arrived." Aunt Susan noted. "Perhaps you'll call your mother this evening?" Sue nodded. "If you've found your answers, then we won't speak of this again, but if you ever need to talk..."

"I'll come to you." Sue smiled.

"Good. Now are you ready to have some fun?"

"Yeah!"

"Here's what I thought we might do this weekend..."

"Aunt Susan?" Sue asked, late, the next afternoon. They had, had a fun-filled day the day before and now they were taking it easy, reading, chatting and watching videos, during which, Sue had started to think again.

"Yes, Suzie?" Her aunt came up out of the book she was reading.

"Do you have a jeweler?"

"Yes. Why did you want to go shopping? I'm afraid they aren't open on Sundays, but perhaps the next time you come for a visit..."

"No, I mean, yes, you know I love to shop, but that's not why I asked. I have an object, and I was wondering if your jeweler could make it into a pendant for me."

"Probably, what is this object? May I see it?"

Sue reached into her pant's pocket and brought out the piece of copper. The two ladies had been sitting on the sofa, with their backs up against each arm, and their legs stretched out towards the middle of the sofa. Suzie handed the copper-V to her aunt.

"Oh, this is beautiful, Suzie." Her aunt exclaimed. "Where did you get it?"

"I think I got it at some art fair, when I was little. I don't really remember. I just found it yesterday, when I was cleaning out my closet." She said, casually. "I just thought it might make a nice pendent."

"Which way would you like it to hang; with the point up, or down?"

"I think with it pointing down, so that it looks like a V. I have a chain, just the right length, so that I can tuck it inside my shirt, if I want to."

"If you want it to hang like a V, you won't want the chain to run between the two legs of the V, would you? Wouldn't you rather have one end of the chain start at the top of one leg, circle around your neck and end at the top of the other leg? I could have a clasp put in the middle of the chain, at the back of your neck." Aunt Susan suggested.

"Oh yes. That sounds great! But how much would a new chain cost? I don't have mine with me?"

"Don't you worry about it, why don't I make this an early birthday present for you?" Aunt Susan offered, smiling.

"Oh Aunt Sue, would you? That would be so great of you! Thank you." Sue exclaimed, grinning.

"Alright, I'll take it to my jeweler tomorrow, after work. Speaking of tomorrow, I'm afraid that your dad will be here soon, to pick you up, so that you can attend school tomorrow."

"Oh." Sue said, disappointed. Not with the idea of seeing her father, or even having to go to school the next day, but with the realization of this special time with her aunt, was almost over.

"I hate leaving you. We always have so much fun together. Not that I don't have fun at home, or when Mom and Dad's co-stars and friends from "Among Us' come over, but with them it's always loud and noisy. I like it here with you, where it's peaceful and it's more one-on-one." Sue complained.

"I hate to see you leave, as well, sweetie, but you'll be back soon."

Less than an hour later, Mason Blair, complete with baseball cap and sunglasses, arrived at Susan's house, to pick up his daughter. He instantly saw the change in her, from how Cheryl had described her to him, Friday night. He looked gratefully over at Susan.

"I see your magical oasis has done its trick again, Susan. My daughter is back to her happy self again." He said, as he extended his arms to Suzie, for a hug, then he gave a quick hug to Susan.

"Thank you for always being here for us. I wish we could both stay for a little while, but..."

"But you have a long drive ahead of you. Have a safe one." Susan said, understandably, hugging them both again, before seeing them off. "Hope to see all of you again, soon." She called and they waved back at her from the car.

Susan went back into her home and quickly cleaned the guest room, stripping the sheets off of the bed and taking the towels out of the bathroom. Knowing herself well, Susan knew that if she did not do this right away, it would not get done until just before another guest was to arrive. After her guest suite, as she like to call it, was put to rights, Susan settle down at her computer. She needed to find a gift for another friend's birthday and figured that the internet would be a good place to look. As she sat down, she felt the copper-V in her pocket and pulled it out.

She took a closer look at it, noticing the two waving lines, which ran down the middle of each leg of the V. The circles and squares clustered together on the upper right-hand leg of the V. Then she noticed the small circle and triangle, down near the apex of the V, as well as the work 'promise' between the two symbols.

'What does that mean?' She wondered to herself. 'What do any of these markings mean? Or, are they just random shapes on a piece of copper?' She placed the pendant-to-be on her desk and concentrated on searching the Web.

Susan had been unsuccessful in finding something special to send her friend, when she happened upon the website of an artist's community, out in New Mexico.

'Mmmm, the Airatan Artist Community, this looks promising. Oh my goodness, how beautiful their work is!' Sue thought to herself, as she glanced at several sample pictures of artwork, offered by the community's artisans.

'This furniture is gorgeous! The woods they use, the carving...I'm going to start drooling on my keyboard any minute now!' Sue thought, as she searched the site, in more detail.

'Forget my friend's birthday present; I'm going to buy one of everything for myself! Where is this town located? They give a map...' Sue clicked on a button and a map of northern New Mexico came up. 'Wow, they're right in the middle of the National Forest. I wonder how they managed that. They're around 1 1/2 hours northwest of Albuquerque.'

On the map, she zoomed in on the town itself. It showed the shops and studios for the artisans, clustered together, where one of the valley's two rivers came bubbling out of the rock, to run down one side of the V-shaped valley to join the second river, before they both went underground again. Susan thought the two rivers were interesting. She knew from her college geology courses that most rivers flow downstream, often joining with one or more other rivers, along the way. The joined rivers, in turn flow further downstream and so on and so on, forming endless chains that look like the letter Y. She knew that it was rare for two rivers to go back underground to form a V-shaped valley, totally enclosed within its mountain walls.

'Wait a minute.' Susan thought to herself, looking closely at the map. 'Two rivers, running down the middle of two valleys, to join together at the apex, before going back underground and a village of artisans clustered together in the upper right-hand leg of the valley.' Susan picked up the small piece of copper.

'Could this be a map of Airatan?' She wondered. A piece of information called out from her memory, for attention.

'Have I heard of this town before?' She asked herself and then remembered where she had heard of it before.

Susan stayed linked to the Airatan website, but shrank the window down. Then she opened a file on her computer, which was more like a photo-album and scrap-book. It contained every bit of information about the careers and personal lives of Mason Blair and Cheryl Appleton, which she had ever seen published in newspapers or magazines. She had gathered all of the articles and pictures into this file, over the years. She herself kept the file for two reasons only. Mason and Cheryl were her friends and she did enjoy reading about them and seeing pictures of them, but the real reason she kept this extensive file, was for the children, Suzie and Matt. She figured that someday in the future, they would want a record of what their parents had done, over the years. She had already shown many of the pictures to them, during their visits to her house.

She opened up a search-box and typed in the word 'Airatan'. Up came a picture and a small article, from seven years ago. 'Ah, I thought that name sounded familiar.' She said to herself. 'Mason and Cheryl took the kids camping and visited the Airatan Art Festival one day, where a photographer had found them and taken several pictures.' She frowned in distaste. She felt it was shameful, how the Press never seamed to allow celebrities any privacy. Even though she did read the articles they wrote and kept the pictures they took, she just did not approve of the measures; some reporters took to get their stories.

The file came in handy now, though, containing as it did, several pictures of the Blair family, seeing the sights of Airatan. The pictures, with many of the town's fanciful buildings in the background, set off another memory in Susan's mind. She looked around her library, trying to find a clue to the memory's origin. Half of a memory popped into her head and she turned back to her computer and opened up another file, containing the catalog, which listed all of the videos and DVDs she owned. In the spreadsheet, she filtered out all but her science-fiction movies. Then she scanned the column, where she sometimes made notes about a movie's extra special scenery or music. Susan found what she was looking for, near the top.

''Among Them', of course.' She thought to herself. 'But 'Among Them' was the name of the TV series; one of my favorites, but the movie was titled...'The Royal Four, Among Them.' And that is what I was looking for.' She got up and walked over to the shelf where her movie DVDs were shelved and pulled out the one she was looking for.

'Let me watch this for a minute.' She thought, as she walked towards the living room. She popped the DVD into her player, turned on the TV and sat down nearby, with the remote in her hand.

'The spot I'm looking for is coming up.' She thought and a few moments later, the scenes she was looking for, played across her screen.

"Ah, I was right. The houses and buildings in this movie look exactly like the ones, built in Airatan, even down to the decorations.

'I know that these movies were based on the books by Eric Petersen, one of my favorite sci-fi authors. I wonder if he had anything to do with the scenery design.' Susan clicked fast-forwarded to the end of the movie and carefully read the credits.

'Yes, Eric Petersen is listed as a creative consultant, as well as...well this is interesting...Olaus Petersen is also listed.' Susan ejected the movie and walked back to her library.

'Oh my goodness. No wonder that architecture looked familiar to me. It was designed by one of my favorite architects, Olaus Petersen.'

Susan went to the bookshelves, which held her architecture collection and pulled out a large book. She flipped to the inside, back-cover, where the author's biography was printed, under a black and white picture of the famous architect.

'Olaus Petersen was born in Sweden, but immigrated to the States in 2007. He now resides in Airatan, New Mexico, a town he helped to design. He is a professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico, at Albuquerque, where he has built up quite a following.' The biography noted.

'Could Eric Petersen and Olaus Petersen be related?' She asked herself and walked over to the shelves, which housed her science-fiction collection and pulled off one of his books. Once again, Susan turned to the inside, back-cover of the book and read Eric Petersen's brief biography.

'Eric Petersen currently resides in Sweden and is busy writing his thirtieth and what is believed to be his last book, 'Among Us'.'

'Hmm, the biography says that Eric is living in Sweden.' Susan flipped to the verso page, at the beginning of each book.

'But 'The Royal Four of Antar' was written in 2004 and Olaus Petersen's book was written in 2020, four years ago. Eric could be living in the States now, especially since he had so much to do with the production of the movie and TV series, 'Among Us', from 2008, to 2013.' Susan reasoned.

'So, it would make sense that Eric Petersen could have found his inspiration for the other-worldly palaces and buildings in his books, from Olaus' designs. Then Olaus was a creative consultant for the movie, at about the same time he was designing and building the small town, Airatan. Well, that mystery is solved. No alien influences, just family connections can explain the similarities between the movie and the town.' Susan thought to herself, as she put the DVD and science fiction book back on their shelves. She kept the architectural book out, though, planning to look through it later.

Indeed, later that night, Susan was sitting up in bed, slowly glancing at each page in the book.

'These houses and buildings are truly works of art.' She thought to herself.

'They are as Olaus Petersen describes them; sculptures you live in.' She marveled at the pictures in the book. Susan glanced at a page before turning to the next one and then quickly turned the page back to take a second look.

'What is Mason doing in a picture with Olaus Petersen?' She asked herself, as she read the caption under the picture.

'This house, which was the first one built in Airatan and is one of its pride and joys, was built for Airatan's mayor, Maxell Evans, shown here with the architect.'

"Oh my goodness, that man is the spitting-image of Mason Blair!" Susan exclaimed out loud, as she looked closely at the picture, at both the man and the house.

The house was indeed, magnificent, made with brown brick for the walls and white cement, for the domes, peaks and valleys of the extensive roof-line. She could see several stained-glass windows, lit from within, which were works of art in themselves. In fact, one piece of stained-glass especially, caught her attention. She could not see it well, but she was almost certain that the front door had stained-glass with some sort of V-shaped design or crest in it. Susan's curiosity was truly piqued now and she untangled herself from the bed sheets, so that she could get up and go into her library again. She had a magnifying glass in the library and she took another look at the front door's design under magnification. What she saw only whetted her appetite.

'This is so strange. I'm almost certain that I've seen that design before.' Susan thought, as she glanced at a piece of computer equipment, which she rarely ever used. When she had upgraded her computer, six month's before, the store was having a deal in which they were including a scanner with the upgrade.

'Maybe I could blow up this picture so that I can see the front door better.' Sue thought, as she switched on her computer.

A few moments later, her equipment was warmed up and ready to use. She placed the book page, face down on the scanner's glass surface and let the equipment do its thing. A short time later, the picture appeared on her computer screen.

'This is silly, it's eleven o'clock at night and I have to go to work early tomorrow morning.' Susan grumbled to herself, but she continued with her work.

First, she zoomed in on the figure of Max Evans, enlarging it until she could easily see the color of his eyes and his cute, large-lobed ears, which poked out from under his hair a little.

'He Does look exactly like Mason. I wonder if they could be related in any way. But I've met the rest of Mason's family and none of them look especially like him. Nothing like this man resembles Mason, anyway.' Next, Susan zoomed in on the stained-glass in the front door of the Evans' house.

"Oh my goodness, what a beautiful piece of stained-glass!" Susan exclaimed out loud, as she inspected it in detail.

'But I'm certain that I've seen that design somewhere before.' She thought to herself and glanced around her library, once again, looking for a clue.

Her eyes fastened on Eric Petersen's books and she got up to go take 'The Royal Four of Antar' off the self again. She started at the front of the book and looked through the pages coming upon that which she was looking for, quickly. The caption under the picture stated that it was the Royal Antarian Crest for the King and Queen of Antar.

'The mayor of this tiny, little town, in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico has a royal crest on his front door. Okay, is that utter and complete arrogance on his part, or have I just stepped into the Twilight Zone?' She asked herself.

'Max Evans doesn't look arrogant in this picture, though.' Susan looked at the book again. He was wearing well-worn jeans, a denim work shirt and sneakers. He had an arm around the older man's shoulder, like a son would stand with his father. Max Evans also had an open, honest-looking face and a great smile. He looked down right handsome and sexy, but not arrogant.

'I've never heard anything about Antarian-themed parks or camps, as I remember hearing about for Klingon enthusiasts in the 1990s.' Susan thought to herself and then she allowed her sci-fi/fantasy- oriented mind to wander.

'Their architecture and artwork really struck me as 'other-worldly'. They live out in the middle of nowhere, hidden away within 10,000 foot high, mountain walls and from what I read on their website, the town was founded in 2007 and they started to host their art festival in 2013, only six years later. To my way of thinking, that's down right fast. Too fast. There's no way they could have popped in from...' Susan pointed a finger up towards her ceiling. 'Creating a town almost in the blink of an eye, out of whole-cloth, so to speak...could they?' She wondered. Then a grin cracked her face and she started to laugh, almost hysterically.

'Oh Susan, that just shows how much you need a vacation.' She told herself. 'You read 'fiction' about aliens and fairies, but this is the real world we are talking about here!' Still laughing, she closed down her computer, put the books away and went to bed.

A couple hours later, Susan sat bolt-upright in her bed, wide awake from one more bit of memory, which had just come to her, while she slept.

"Wait a minute, wait just a minute..." She exclaimed as she got out of bed once more and raced into her library. She went directly to her copies of Eric Petersen's books and pulled down 'The Royal Four of Antar' once again.

"Where did I see...?" She muttered to herself, as she scanned the pages. "Ah ha, here it is!" She exclaimed. "Airatan was the name of the capital city on Antar, where the King and Queen had their home. Could it be? Could they really be?" She asked herself out loud, as she plopped down into the comfy chair in the library and just starred into space for some time, thinking, before finally falling asleep.

Part 4

Susan Nelson woke up Monday morning and found herself slumped in her home library's upholstered chair.

'Oh how did I end up here?' She asked herself and then looked down at the book in her lap.

'Oh yeah, now I remember. I woke up in the middle of the night remembering that most of Eric Petersen's Antarian books mention that Airatan was the name of the capital city on the planet, Antar. I began to really think about all of the connections and coincidences between the town of Airatan, New Mexico, its citizens and the books, the movie and TV series, written or created by Eric Petersen and finally fell asleep in this chair.'

'But wouldn't it be interesting if the townsfolk of Airatan were really all Antarians? Aliens who came to Earth and founded their own little community there, among the mountains and forests of northern New Mexico? They created the artist's community so that they could share their culture with us, peacefully. And Eric Petersen wrote parts of their history down in the form of a science-fiction story so that others besides themselves might learn about them even if they think that it's all make believe. The name Antar would live on.' Susan sat back quietly for a few moments, lost in her fantasy and then started to grin and chuckle.

'What an imagination I have!' She laughed at herself. 'As much as my science-fiction-self would like that to be true, my rational, logical self knows that, that kind of thing just does not happen here on Earth. There is no U.S.S. Enterprise out there in space. Not yet, anyway! As for that little copper V Suzie gave me, her parents probably bought it for her at the Airatan Art Festival seven years ago. End of subject. There need be no other explanation for her having the memento and the rest is all coincidence.' Susan told herself as she put Eric Petersen's book away, one more time and went to take a shower and get ready for work.

Airatan, New Mexico, One week later.

Phillip and his two sisters Libby and Dee walked over to the Guerin house, Saturday morning, a week after Phillip's fourteenth birthday.

"It's too bad that Aunt Isabel, Uncle Alex, Aunt Tess and Uncle Kyle had to go home so soon after your birthday and take Judy, Charlie, Nancy and Jeff with them." Libby said, dejectedly, mentioning the names of her four cousins and friends, who had flown in for Phillip's birthday. The Whitman's, from Silicon Valley, where Uncle Alex was a computer programmer and Aunt Isabel was a model. The Valentis, from Roswell, where Aunt Tess part owned and managed the Crashdown Café and Uncle Kyle was Roswell's sheriff, now that all of their parents were retired and split their time between Roswell and Airatan.

"They'll probably be back next month for Halloween, like always. It's an easy trip if the Community's plane picks them up." Dee reminded her sister, even though she missed her extended family and friends, as well.

"Hey you guys." Aunt Maria called out, from where she was weeding her vegetable garden.

"Hey Aunt Maria." The three kids called back.

"Is Uncle Michael in his studio?" Libby, a budding artist, asked.

"Yes and he told me that he'll need your help today, so go on back." Maria answered.

"Okay, see you guys later." Libby told her brother and sister.

"Marc and Amy are around here someplace. You know that all three of you are to stay and have lunch with us, since your father is to announce his ruling in the Doug Maisels matter."

"Yeah, Mom told us. Thanks Aunt Maria." Phillip said. He would have liked to have stayed and watched his father give his ruling, but the procedure was open to only those directly involved in the case. He would ask his father about it later.

"Hey you two, would you like to play some volleyball?" Jimmy called out, from the side of the house.

"Yeah!" Both sister and brother yelled and ran to where their friends were waiting to play.

Office of His Royal Highness, King of the Antarian People, Maxwell Evans.

Liz's desk had been pushed into a far corner and chairs had been brought into the library/office and placed in rows, facing Max's desk, where he sat, with Liz standing behind him. For this ruling, they both wore their white robes, with the gold embroidery running down the front and around the floor-length hem and with the Royal Antarian Crest emblazoned below their left shoulders. They were also wearing their Royal Circlets on their heads; bands of gold imprinted with symbols of every planet on which Antarians lived, including Earth. These symbols represented all of the Antarians, over whom Max and Liz ruled as king and queen. These hearings were one of the few occasions when they took on their formal, royal personas, preferring as they did to be treated like everyone else, rather than as royalty. Max cleared his throat and started the proceedings.

"The Queen and I have heard your testimony, witnessed the illegal act through the Connection and have studied our laws and those of the Alliance. We are ready to give our ruling. Douglas Maisels, are you prepared to hear your sentence?"

"Yes, Your Highness." The young man said, solemnly.

"Very well. Douglas Maisels, you have been accused and found guilty of using your mental powers to mind-warp Chris Sloan, here to break into Nasus' studio and rob her of 800.00, held there. You are half Antarian and half Speerk, a species who has the power to mind-warp, where Antarians cannot. Therefore we searched Alliance law for presidents to your crime. In the Alliance, mind-warping is considered to be a combined crime. One of invasion of privacy, as you force your way into the depths of your victim's mind, in order to control them against their will and without their knowledge. And of coercion to commit a crime, because why else would you have to force a person to do something against their will, if not to commit a crime." Max continued.

"Alliance law recommends two years in jail, but there are several circumstances we must take into account, here in Airatan. Your parents are good, decent members of this community. This is your first offence at all, the Connection verified that. You have just graduated from college at the top of your business school and you have shown true remorse for your actions. Lastly, this is a very small town and everyone will have their eyes on you, within the law, to make sure this never happens again."

"Therefore, using the Connection, you will confess what you have done and publicly apologize to Chris Sloan and to Nasus, so that every Antarian can hear you. The 800.00 has already been returned, but you will work for Nasus in the evenings and on the weekends, after you finish your managerial position in your parent's clothing design studio, until you have worked off an additional 800.00. Is that acceptable to you, Mr. Sloan, Nasus?" Max asked formally.

"Yes, Your Highness, thank you." They both said.

"Is your sentence understood and accepted, Mr. Maisels?" Max asked.

"Yes, Your Highness." Doug answered, quietly.

"Very well, you will work out the details of your sentence with Nasus, but she or Chris will come to us if there are any problems, understood?"

"Yes, Your Highness." They all said.

"These proceedings are concluded." Max said, formally as he deactivated the orb, which had been recording the meeting.

Liz and Max came out from behind the desk and shook hands with everyone involved, including young Mr. Maisels, who bowed formally over their clasped hands, before leaving with his parents. Max and Liz then showed Chris Sloan, his family, Nasus and her mate, Nohtanoj out their front door, a short time later. After they had closed the door, Max took Liz into his strong arms.

"It's only one o'clock and the kids will be at Michael and Maria's for a couple more hours at least. Would you like to get out of these robes and..."

"Mmmm, I'd love to. How about a bubble bath first? Or would you rather have one...later?" She asked, pressing her body to his and stroking Max's chest through the material of his robe.

"I'll run the water if you'll take care of the music and get some...strawberries?" He wiggled his eyebrows, suggestively.

"No whipped cream?" Liz asked, disappointed.

"If you'd like, I think your skin is already sweet enough." Max said.

"I'll be there in five minutes!" Liz said and ran for the fruit.

An hour later, Jimmy, Amy, Dee, Libby and Phillip came into the house through one of the family room's French doors.

"Let me get my baseball-mitt and I'll be right back. You guys could pack some sodas into a cooler, for us to take with us, if you'd like." Dee said, as she headed for her room. A moment later, she came running back.

"Oh man, Mom and Dad are doing you-know-what, in their room. I heard 'The First Time, Ever I Saw Your Face', coming through their closed bedroom door."

"In the middle of the day?" Fourteen-year-old Phillip asked and his sister nodded.

This response was more of an imitation of his friend's attitudes towards PDAs, than his own. Deep down, Phillip and his sisters all enjoyed watching the many ways in which their parents demonstrated their love for one another and their children. The shared glances, hugs, little touches, quick (and not so quick) kisses, endearments and many other things they did for each other and their family, made their lives and this home a warm and happy place to live in.

"What is it with that music they so often play, when they are doing whatever they are actually doing in there?" Twelve-year-old Libby asked. She knew generally what married couples do behind closed doors and how babies are made, but nothing beyond those general ideas.

"Mom told me once, that, that is the music Dad picked out and played for the very first time they ever made love. It reminds them of that very special night, she said." Dee sighed at such a romantic idea.

Well why don't we leave and give them some privacy." Phillip suggested, itching to go and play some baseball. His sisters and friends agreed and they left the way they had come, forgetting to take any sodas.

Late that night, the Connection woke every adult in Airatan, out of their sleep. The Connection was a psychic link, between every Antarian, in Airatan, across the Earth and out into space. It had been surprisingly created during Max and Liz's coronation ceremony, years before. Each person had complete privacy, but was also able to communicate with their children, their mate, on a family frequency, on up to a community-wide frequency. This communal connection was powered by the subconscious minds of hundreds of Antarians, which allowed the entire population to be constantly on the alert to any danger, natural or manmade, without taking away their concentration from other, more important and everyday concerns.

The Connection had sensed a lone helicopter experiencing sudden engine troubles. The quickly awakening Community reached out, psychically, trying to help the faltering craft, but were only able to slow it down some. They watched as it fell from the skies and crashed into the trees in the National Forest, on the other side of one of the Valley's mountainous walls.

The Community could sense life-signs among the crew and flames spreading out from the downed craft. Emergency training sprang into use within minutes. Fire crews assembled and drove out through the small, narrow tunnels, which had been excavated through the mountain walls every half mile or so, for quick access to the slopes outside the valley. Max, Liz and other emergency medical teams joined them, with an urgent need to reach the wounded helicopter crew as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, General Sam Jones was hitching a ride on another army helicopter, flying several miles away. He heard the one S.O.S. message, which the crew of the failing helicopter was able to send out, before it crashed. He ordered the pilot to change course, to search for the downed chopper. They spotted the crash site, a short time later and Sam ordered the pilot, co-pilot and crewman to drop him off and then go aloft again to watch the rescue attempt from above. They could all see that some other emergency crew had arrived to help, but the injured might need to be flown to Albuquerque for medical treatment. The helicopter had a stretcher, which could be winched down from above and then could lift a wounded person back up into the cabin of the helicopter. Sam took their first-aid kit and started hiking into the crash site, from the nearest road, the helicopter could set him down on.

Back at the crash site, Max, Liz and their people arrived at the scene. They all carried the proper fire and first-aid equipment, but Max set the firefighters to extinguishing the flames, using their powers, which obviously were more efficient. This was September and they were in the middle of forest-fire season. He did not want to see acres and acres of forest go up in flames from a man-made source.

The medical teams fanned out to find the crew. Because the Community was able to slow the decent of the falling helicopter, the two crewmen still in the chopper were in pretty good shape, with broken bones, but nothing more serious. The third crewmember had not been so lucky, however.

"Max, Liz, over here." Johann called, from where he had found the third man, two hundred feet or so from the crash. Max and Liz ran over.

"Looks like some sort of explosion might have thrown him out of the helicopter before it crashed. He has burns, broken bones, just about everywhere; spine, legs, arm, a badly damaged spleen, broken ribs, one of which has pierced his lung, deflating it and he is already going into shock. He is not going to make it using the first-aid supplies we brought with us...unless we do something else to help him." Johann reported hesitantly.

"He needs to be healed." Liz said, urgently.

"But if he tells anyone what we did..." Johann cautioned.

"He's unconscious. He won't know what we did to him. I'll only heal what absolutely needs to be healed." Max made the decision and started to place his open right palm over the poor man.

"Uh Max, wait a minute; someone's coming. Not one of us, but I think it's...General Sam Jones." Johann sensed a movement before the General broke his way through the trees, nearby.

"Sam, good to see you, did you bring help?" Max rose up from his crouched position to greet his friend.

"I brought our first-aid kit and I'm well trained. My helicopter is hovering over there, out of the way, so its blades don't stir up a wind down here. We can medivac everyone into the University Medical Center, in Albuquerque, if necessary." He said.

"Great, why don't you go check on the two crewmembers, who were still in the chopper?" Max suggested, trying to steer the General away from what Max needed to do, but what Sam could not be allowed to see. No luck there.

"That's Sgt. Miles Howell you're working on. He was a part of one of my antiterrorist units, when I was stationed in Europe." Sam squatted down by the badly injured man. "How is he?"

"Pretty bad, he's burned; he seems to have numerous broken bones. We think he's going into shock. Why don't you go and call your chopper in to take him to Albuquerque." Max suggested, trying to get his unknowing friend to step away from the sergeant long enough for him to heal what urgently needed to be healed, if the man was to live.

Sam Jones hesitated a moment, looking intently at the young man beside him, listening to the instincts he had always had about Max Evans, ever since he had met him, so long ago, that there was something special about Max, something noble. Sam had always felt as though he were in the presence of someone who outranked him, maybe even someone royal, whenever he was near the younger man.

"Max, could I speak to you for a moment, privately?"

"We don't have time. We need to get Sgt. Howell on that chopper." Max exclaimed.

"Please, Max." Sam gestured him a few feet away, just out of earshot, or so he thought.

"Max, ever since I met you, so many years ago, my gut has been telling me that there is something special about you. Not to sound hokey or anything, but you almost have an aura, an energy about you. I've always felt it whenever I've seen you. It has always made me feel as though...you could do things...the rest of us can't." Sam paused for a second.

"Max, Miles Howell is a good man, a good soldier and father. He has a wife, three kids and another on the way. If there is anything, anything you can do to help him...I will do anything to repay you. I'm worried that he won't make the trip, otherwise." Sam pleaded, urgently. Max hesitated for a moment...looking around him at the activity near the chopper, to Johann, to Liz.

'Sam is a good man too; I think we can trust him.' Liz told Max, through their psychic connection. Other voices, agreeing with Liz, came through the Connection, but the people of Airatan would trust their king and queen's judgment, whether or not to risk all of them to save one man's life.

"I have this gift...to heal. I was about to use it, when you came." Max made his decision quickly and turned back to his patient.

"He's in worse shape than we told you at first, but I'll try to heal as much of his serious injuries as possible, then you can fly him out to Albuquerque, for any other treatment he'll need." Sam nodded.

"I take it that Liz and Johann know about your gift?"

"Yes." Was all Max said, as he concentrated on what he needed to do before placing his palm on the sergeant's chest.

Max quickly sensed that Miles Howell was very close to death. There was so much wrong with him, Max was not sure that he would be able to heal him in time. He healed one injury and then moved onto the next. Soon though, he could feel his power weakening. Max tried to draw on the Connections' power supply, but he was expending his energy faster than the Connection could replenish it. Johann moved in to help, but Max ordered him not to expose himself to the General. Max continued to heal Sgt. Howell, but he was struggling. Finally, Johann could follow his king's orders no longer and placed is hand over Max's. Several other Antarians came over, against orders, as well and placed their hands on top of Max's and Johann's.

Sam Jones looked on in wonder, as Max Evans placed his hand on Miles' chest and it began to glow. Soon, however, it became apparent that Max was weakening. That was when the real surprise happened. Johann and several others came over, obviously against Max's wishes, even though he never said a work, and placed their glowing hands on top of his. He glanced up to see Liz Evans with her hands gripping her husband's shoulders, her eyes closed in concentration and her head thrown back. Somehow she was giving support to Max, as well.

'It isn't just Max. It was never just Max.' Sam thought to himself. 'But he is the leader, he has to be. The way everyone treats him and Liz; deferentially, protectively. Just as he tried to protect them by making me think that he was the only one who was 'different'.'

"Argh!" Max exclaimed, coming out of his concentrated trance along with the others.

"That's all we can do for now. He'll be safe to transport to a hospital now. There is still quite a bit to be treated. Can you call your helicopter in, General?" Max asked formally, knowing what was to come once the injured had been taken care of.

Sam nodded and reached for his radio and called the chopper in. He was shocked to see that only fifteen minutes had passed by. The chopper came into view and hovered, while its metal-mesh basket was winched down and each of the patients were carefully placed inside and lifted up into the chopper. Sam ordered the pilot to fly directly to the nearest emergency room.

"We would have called in our own chopper to take the worst case to a hospital and taken the rest to our clinic, where we have an excellent medical team, but under the circumstances, it's probably better that none of them were taken into Airatan. I suspect that you have quite a few questions, General."

"Yes I do, but Max, we've been friends for years now. I know that you're a good man. That your...people are decent and kind and what I saw here, tonight only confirms that to me. You use whatever gifts you have for good. You don't have to worry, whatever you choose to tell me, will go no further."

Max could only nod and lead him to one of their jeeps. He, Liz and Sam got in and headed back to their house, leaving the other crew members to clean up and clear out.

Sometime later, Max, Liz and Sam sat in the library as Max finished up the story of who he was, who they all were, their discovery of each other, their origins, the other Antarians living in Sweden and out in space. He told the story behind the buying of this valley, when they had met the then Colonel Sam Jones, the immigration of their people from Sweden and outer space and the building of this community. Sam sat transfixed for a few moments after Max finished speaking.

"Incredible, simply incredible; an entire community of aliens, living here on a defunct military base. Growing hydroponics down in the base's secret, underground complex, turning the old missile silos into artist's studios. And you and Liz are the king and queen of all of these people?" Max and Liz nodded, intensely watching his reaction.

"I don't know what else I can say at this point. I am numb. I will have plenty of questions once I've had the chance to think about all of this, perhaps on your couch for the rest of the night?" Sam suggested."

"Uh, sure, Sam." Max said.

"But I'll reiterate what I said out in the forest. What you have told me will never go any further."

"Thank you, Sam." Max said and the two men shook hands and Liz hugged Sam.

"Let's get you settled on the couch then, since it's too late to move any of the kids out of their rooms, tonight." Liz said.

The next morning, Sam was awoken by the sound of bare feet quietly sneaking up on him. He peeked out from between his eyelids, to see young Dee Evans tip-toeing her way across the family room floor, towards him. All of a sudden though, Liz appeared in the doorway to the bedroom wing, her eyes pinning her young daughter from behind. She had not said one word, out loud anyway, when Dee spun around in surprise.

Sam watched as a silent conversation must have taken place through this connection, Max told him about last night. Liz had her hands on her hips while staring at her daughter for a moment and then Dee's head and shoulders drooped and she walked slowly over to her mother, who hugged her briefly and then sent her back to her bedroom with a swat to her bottom, as she passed by. Liz glanced over to where Sam was still pretending to sleep and then went back towards her bedroom, as well.

'Well, that was an interesting sight to see first thing in the morning.' He thought to himself. 'But in the interest of peace, I had better get up.' His rising allowed the children to come out of their bedrooms and shortly thereafter, everyone was sitting down to breakfast.

"So, Uncle Sam, are you going to keep our secret?" Libby asked all of a sudden.

"Of course I am, Libby. I told your mother and father that last night. I just have a few questions, which have been on my mind for years now."

"What are they?" Max asked.

"I've always wondered about the connection and coincidences that there are between you and Liz, Mason Blair and Cheryl Appleton, the books, movies and TV series."

"Eric Petersen, the author of the Antarian books, is one of us. He started to write those years ago, when he thought that he and his family were the only Antarian survivors on Earth. He wanted something of Antar to live on, even if it was in the form of science-fiction. Each of those books tells a part of our planet's history."

"And so 'The Royal Four' told the true story about how your planet, Antar was destroyed by your sun, Antaria, when it went nova. It all happened, your parents putting you children into tiny ships and sending you out into space, hoping against hope that you would find a safe place to live?"

"Yes." Was all Max could say.

"And then they made the movie from that book. You went to see it didn't you?"

"Yes, we did." Sam could hear the emotion in Max's voice, when he answered.

"But I take it that everything in 'Among Us' was make-believe, right? What you told me last night doesn't fit with what Eric wrote in that book."

"That's correct. All four of us were still in our stasis chambers until 1988 and 1989. We didn't even meet Eric until after 'Among Us' was published. Eric was just writing what he hoped had happened to us, in his book."

"Then how did Mason and Cheryl, who look exactly like the two of you, get chosen to play your characters?"

"That was an incredible coincidence and quite a shock to me and Liz; when we literally bumped into them, down in Roswell, a few days before our wedding, let me tell you!" Max said.

"Remember also, that even though Max and Isabel look exactly like their parents, Wellmax and Belisa, now that they're grown up, neither Eric, nor his father, Tage would have known that, because they were only six years old when they left Antar. It was truly a coincidence that Eric wrote Max's character, Zan aka Matt Devon, as looking just like his father, Wellmax. He then used Wellmax's features to describe Zan as well and gave that description to the casting director, but Eric had nothing to do with choosing the actors. Who could guess that they would find Mason Blair to play the part of Zan, or Cheryl Appleton to play Zan's soul-mate, a completely fictitious character, as far as Eric was concerned?"

"Incredible!" Sam shook his head in wonder, while he grinned. "So, have you kept in touch with Mason and Cheryl? I understand that they married several years ago."

"We've only been able to keep in touch with them indirectly, through mail. All those years ago, when we were in Roswell for our wedding, a photographer mistakenly took our pictures, thinking that we were Mason and Cheryl, we didn't want a repeat of that." Max answered.

"Well, and there was the time, seven years ago, when they and their two children, came to Airatan by chance, during our art festival. We were able to visit and catch up with them for one evening, but the next day they had to leave. A few weeks later, they send word that a photographer had followed them to Airatan and taken some pictures, of them this time, but we didn't want that photographer to have reason to come back, so they've never been able to visit us since then." Liz said, sadly.

"That is rotten luck. From what I've read in magazines, they seem like a really nice couple and devoted parents." Sam said. "Anyway, let me change the subject to what I hope will be a more pleasant topic. I've always wanted to buy some land in this valley and I was wondering if there was any way I might be allowed to do so, now that I know your secret. I would build a vacation home for now, but I plan to retire in about ten more years and I would very much like to live here when I do. I have no other family and you have become very good friends...do you think that would be alright?" Sam asked hesitantly. Max and Liz glanced at each other and then back at Sam, before breaking out in grins.

"Of course you can move here, Sam! I'm sure that we can find someone willing to sell some land to you, once they know that you hold our secret safely in your hands." Max said.

"Great!" Sam grinned, as well.

As everyone else at the table laughed and smiled at the idea of their friend Sam Jones buying some land in the Valley, Phillip was thinking hard.

'Could that little girl, who had seen he and his friends using their powers, one night out in the clearing, have been the daughter of Mason Blair and Cheryl Appleton?' Phillip wondered to himself. That had always been a part of his inability to remember her very well, even though he wanted to, sometimes. He had always been bad at remembering names, back when he was six and seven years old.

'So her last name would be Blair, but what was her first name? Sheila, Sara, Susan, Suzie? Yes, that was it, Suzie, Suzie Blair. But what good did that do him? He would probably never see her again, especially since his parents had to stay away from her parents. Oh well, playing with her that day had been fun, he would remember that time more easily now that he knew her name.' Phillip thought.

Part 5 2031, Seven Years Later

"Hi Sue." Dee Evans greeted her new friend, as she took a seat beside her in their architectural history class.

"Hi, Dee." Sue Blair, known at Harvard University as Sue Best, answered, smiling up at Dee.

"I've been thinking that it's great that we met, since we have so much in common." Dee said.

"Yeah, these elective courses are nice that way. Students from different years and programs can still take them together. I'm a senior, studying microbiology and you're a sophomore in pre-law, but we're both using this course to fulfill one of our humanities requirements." Sue answered.

The two young women had met for the first time, one week ago, on the first day of classes and had started up a tentative friendship, sharing with each other their likes and dislikes, favorite activities or hobbies, but nothing any deeper than that, as yet.

"So let's talk boys." Dee suggested, watching Sue closely. "You've had a chance to study him, what do you think of Ian Zervos, sitting over there; pretty cute, huh?"

"Uh, well, yeah, I guess so." Sue almost stuttered, not looking at the cute guy at all.

Dee frowned a little at Sue's response. It was more than acute shyness, with Sue. It was shyness towards men only. Sue seemed perfectly comfortable among other women and not in any homosexual way at all, Dee was sure. Sue had responded in the same way towards other males, which Dee had pointed out to her, or who they had passed on the street, after class. Sometimes it was even as if Sue totally shut down, ignoring any male they saw.

"Oh no, I hope some creep hasn't hurt her. Could she have been the victim of some awful assault, in the past, to act this way?' Dee asked herself, worrying about her new friend. Well, she was not good enough friends with Sue yet, to ask her about that. Dee would just continue to keep an eye on her for now.

"Um Dee, are you still going to come watch the swim-team practice, this evening?" Sue changed the subject.

"Absolutely, my brother and his girlfriend might come as well, if that's okay." Dee answered.

"Sure." Sue replied.

Swimming was one of the few things in which Sue felt really confident. She was acknowledged as the best swimmer and was made team captain, the year before. Meeting Dee's brother would be okay, she told herself, especially if he already had a girlfriend. Boys with steady girlfriends seemed to be more polite to unattached females than unattached boys were. Class had started shortly after that and then the friends had, had to split up afterwards, to go to other courses, but Dee restated that she would be up in the bleachers, watching practice, later on.

That Afternoon in Airatan, NM

'Hey Liz, come look. Mason and Cheryl sent us an e-mail, complete with pictures of their kids, Sue and Matt.' Max called silently over their private connection.

"Coming...Oh my, Matt certainly has shot up at least a foot since the last picture they sent us. But oh no, what did Suzie do to her hair? She cut it all off until now it's just a cap of short, straight, brown hair!" Liz exclaimed. "This new hair style isn't unattractive, it really enhances her lovely bone structure and large, dark brown eyes, but her hair was so gorgeous and long when she was in high school."

"The letter says she's still on a swim-team, at Harvard now, she may have cut it for convenience sake." Max suggested.

"Did you say Harvard? The Harvard where two of our three children are going to college? I thought she was going to Stanford? That's what Cheryl said just before Suzie graduated at the top of her class, from high school."

"You're right, but hasn't Cheryl or Mason mentioned what college she's attending since then? It's been three years." Max asked.

"No, not the university's name, I'm almost sure of that."

"Well, at least we probably don't have to worry about any of them meeting. If they haven't met after being in the same town for three years, they probably never will." Max said, hopefully.

"I hope you're right. And it's for the best if we don't get mixed up with anyone who might bring the Press down on us." 'Although it did take Max and I four years of living in that same, small town, to meet.' Liz thought to herself, as she read the e-mail further.

"Oh look, Cheryl says that Sue is studying microbiology! Isn't that interesting?" Liz smiled.

"Yeah, I remember Cheryl mentioning how well she's doing in all of her classes." Max replied, allowing his attention to shift from the letter on his computer screen, to his lovely, sexy wife, who had come to sit on his lap.

"Mmm, you smell wonderful...cinnamon and vanilla. That's not your usual scent. Have you been baking?" He asked, as he allowed his nose and lips to nuzzle her behind her ear, under her chin and into her soft, silky hair.

"Mmhm. I'm baking my cinnamon coffee-cake that Libby likes so much, since she's coming home for the weekend."

"Good, it'll be nice to have one of our children home for a short while at least." Max went back to nuzzling his wife.

"Do you think Libby and Marc Guerin are getting a little too serious, Max?" Liz asked, worriedly.

Libby and Marc had grown up as best friends, but when she turned eighteen, something had changed and both young people had started seeing each other in a more romantic light. Now, Marc was doing a little teaching as a TA in the art department at the University of New Mexico - Albuquerque, having graduated the year before and Libby was at the university, studying architectural engineering and design under a semi-retired Olaus Petersen.

"Yeah, I think it's getting pretty serious. I've been waiting for Marc to come and ask me for her hand, for a few months now." Max answered.

"You think they're going to get married? But Libby's only nineteen!" Liz exclaimed.

"Marc is twenty-three."

"They're both so young and Libby's still in college." Liz argued.

"And so I will tell him, if, or when Marc actually comes to speak to me. I would certainly like to see Libby finish college and get a little more established as an architect, before they marry." Max soothed.

"Good, you tell him that." Liz started to nuzzle her husband back, now that some of her worries were settled.

"It's been interesting, watching them grow up as best friends and then turn into boyfriend and girlfriend, after all of those years of treating each other almost as brother and sister." Max noted.

"Yeah, it's a shame Amy Guerin and Phillip never made that leap." Liz sighed, partly because of her thoughts and partly because Max had just found that one certain spot behind her left ear. All thought flew out of both of their minds, as their kissing and caressing grew more intense.

"Libby's not coming home until tomorrow, right?" Max asked.

"Right; around two o'clock."

"Then come with me, my lady, to the sun-soaked rug."

"What's wrong with right here?" Liz asked, as she shifted around until she was straddling Max's lap, as he sat in his padded desk chair and began to unbutton her blouse.

"Nothing, nothing at all is wrong with right here, as long as you're right here...with me." Max said, as Liz opened her blouse to his gaze and started on his shirt...

Los Angeles, California

Niko Giuliani was searching his parent's house, while they were out of town. His father, the famous photographer, John Giuliani, who was known in the business as "Sneaky John", had photographed the famous and wealthy of the world for thirty years, including the great, all-powerful, Mason Blair and his tattle-tale wife, Cheryl Appleton. Niko thought, sourly.

Niko figured that he had as much talent behind the camera as his father did but just because he made a pass at Blair's precious wife, one time on the set, Mason Blair had, had him thrown out of the studio, completely. After that, not even dropping his father's name around town could get him any sort of job, except with the tabloids.

Even though he blamed Mason Blair for all of his bad luck over the years, since then, Niko realized that he fit in better with the other photographers who worked for the same rag he did. They did not let anything like ethics, privacy, or even the law, get in the way of uncovering people's secrets. But in his case, Niko figured that a little search through his old man's picture files would not hurt anyone and they might hold some juicy tidbit, which he could exploit.

At that moment he was trying to hold down his lunch, while he rifled through yet another file, containing pictures of Mr. Big-shot-Blair and his smarmy wife, making goo-goo-eyes at each other. This file had been marked "Among Us-Roswell set". Niko was about to give up on his search, before running to the bathroom, to throw up, when something caught his eyes.

There seemed to be two sets of pictures, taken at two different times, judging by the clothing worn by the subjects and the scenery behind them, but what caught his attention were the dates and times automatically imprinted at the bottom of each print, by the camera. The picture gave the same day and the same time, within seconds of each other on both sets of prints.

'How could this be?' Niko asked himself. 'Photographers can call for costume and scenery changes during a photo-shoot, but not within seconds of each other. Could this have been a camera error? No, my father took better care of his equipment than he ever did of his own son. He would not have allowed a camera to print incorrect information onto a negative.' Niko thought about the alternatives for a few minutes, before coming up with the following idea.

'What if Dad had two different cameras and gave one of them to a trusted assistant to use...something he's never allowed me to do.' Niko thought, angrily. 'So my Dad and the other photographer walked around town, snapping pictures of this couple in different parts of Roswell. But that wouldn't work unless...unless there was a look-a-like couple working on the movie, as well as Blair and Appleton.' Niko was getting excited.

'Could they have been stunt personnel?' He doubted it. Stunt people weren't used in publicity shots.

'So where had that other couple come from? I'll have to keep searching...'

TBC