"Don't get too concerned, guys," Max said. "Alex and I can go around looking for Jim if you want us to, but don't let this ruin your night in..."

"Give me the phone." Alex held out his hand expectantly. Kyle passed over Max's cell first, then caught himself, returned that to Max, and offered Alex the cordless handset. Alex tapped out a number quickly.

There was a fairly long pause before he spoke. "Good evening, it's Alex... No, no word from Maria, I'm sorry... Actually, I called for the opposite reason. I'm here at the Valenti's place with Kyle and Tess, and Tess just wanted to make sure that Kyle's dad was accounted for..." There was another longish pause, and Alex smiled. "Yeah." He took the mouthpiece away from his head and put his free hand over it. "So, Mister Valenti is over at the DeLuca's, they're having a night in of their own and Jim is keeping Amy company. Do any of you need to talk with him direct?"

Tess shook her head, smiling brightly, and Kyle shrugged. Alex was uncovering the mouthpiece when Max held out his own hand for the phone, so Alex shrugged too and handed it over. "Hi, Mister V," Max said quietly. "It's not that important, but I'd like to chat with you at a convenient time. Liz had a few thoughts about - about whoever kidnapped Laurie, and Frazier woods..." He paused, deep in thought for a moment. "Right, yeah, that'll be okay. Oh - there's something I have to tell you about Brody Davis... No, no, he's not a suspect or anything like that... Yeah, goodbye."

"Thanks for thinking of that, Alex," Tess said. "I should have clued in myself."

"I just hope that we didn't interrupt anything important," Kyle added. "I mean, if he turned his cell phone off..."

"If the two of them really wanted to not be disturbed, they could have turned off the ringer on the house phone," Tess said. "But then we'd still be anxious."

"And I guess Amy wouldn't have wanted to risk missing a call from Maria," Alex guessed. "Okay, this is the point where we get out of the way and let the two of you have the house."

"Thanks, man. For everything," Kyle told him.

"You're welcome. So, where to next, Max?"

"Um - My place. Maybe we can intercept the girls before Liz goes out on her fact-finding mission." Alex nodded and closed the front door behind them.

Tess turned to Kyle. "And what's next for us?"

"We'll need food, first of all," Kyle said. "Order in pizza?"

"How about Thai?" Tess bent her head down slightly so as to peer up at him through eyelashes.

Kyle thought about that. "I'll give it a try, this time."

"Thanks."

"And if it sucks, I think that there's some leftover spaghetti and meatballs in the fridge."

Tess rolled her eyes as she picked up the phone again.

#

The Thai food was pretty good, though Kyle couldn't deal with as much of the hot sauce as Tess liked. They both enjoyed the DVD movie, a comedy adventure about a ragtag gang of vampires determined to save the world even though everybody assumes that they're the bad guys - including other bad guys.

The last of the food had all been nibbled to destruction and Kyle and Tess were paying more attention to kissing than listening to the dialog when Kyle's cell rang. It took ten seconds before he bothered answering it, and snapped out "What is it now?" Tess sighed and paused the DVD.

"Kyle, it's Liz." Liz sounded worried enough to decrease Kyle's frustration at the interruption. "Listen, this is a long shot, but Grant isn't over there, is he? Giving you or your Dad a hard time or anything?"

"Grant?" Kyle repeated under his breath. "Over here? No, there's nobody here but Tess and I. What made you call up and ask?"

"Well, it's just, Isabel and I can't track him down in any of the usual places that we'd expect, and I remembered you mentioning that he was pissed at you for that bike thing. So I thought it was worth a shot. Sorry for disturbing..."

"Wait!" Tess hissed intently. Her eyes were closed, and her arms were waving to and fro, in a way that gave Kyle the creeping chills. "He's out there somewhere - not far."

"Just a minute, Liz," Kyle put in, and when Liz stopped talking he realized that she'd been talking at the same time as Tess, and he had only been listening to his girlfriend. "Tess thinks that he might be lurking around here." He took the phone away from his mouth just a little. "How can you tell? Do you sense his mind with your alien powers or something?"

"It's something like that," Tess muttered. "Not like anything I've ever sensed before - but I'm sure that he's near. God, what does he think he's accomplishing, stalking us in the darkness?"

"I don't know," Kyle muttered. "But I'm pretty sure that this kind of harassment is an open invitation to an ass-kicking that'd even stand up in court." He put the phone down and stood up.

Tess rose from the couch just in time to block him from the door, (and she was a soft and delightful body-block to run into, too.) "Another time, I'd agree with you, Kyle, but not when we need his help with the alien crystal thing. You just let Liz and I handle this, okay? Promise me?"

Kyle hesitated. "You're not going to get close to him yourself, Tess? I mean, I know that you can take care of yourself, but he doesn't like either of us, and if he gets any notion of how you're different..."

"No, of course not," Tess told him. "I'll just narrow down the where, and let Liz handle the approach."

Kyle considered. "Okay..." He considered what he could do to keep busy while Tess would be occupied with this little mission. "I guess I'll hit the john first, okay? I promise I won't go outside, until the Grant thing is taken care of. But if he comes in the house, then all bets are off."

"Okay, that should be good enough." Tess kissed him on the cheek, and then bent down to pick up the phone. "Hey, Liz, it's me. How far are you from my borrowed home?" Kyle shrugged, and headed down the hallway to the bathroom.

#

By the time Tess had managed to guide Liz to her rendezvous with Grant Sorenson, Kyle had made up a small pot of decaf au lait, and played two boards of computer games. When Tess wandered into the living room, somehow Kyle could tell just by looking at her that she wouldn't be up for resuming either the movie or the make-out session. So he saved the game, went over to the couch, and offered her a cup of the coffee.

"Thanks, yeah." Tess took a big swallow, made a face, and put the mug down at the far corner of the end table. "So, umm..."

"This sort of thing is probably going to keep popping up in our lives, isn't it?" Kyle said, with a sigh. "I mean, there's been FBI special agents, murder charges, mysterious UFO experts, killer Congresswomen, the Skin secret societies, long-lost twins suddenly showing up..."

"It doesn't show any sign of slowing down so far, no," Tess agreed sadly. "Probably I'm the one who's a lighting rod for alien trouble as much as anybody and you're just getting hit because you happen to be nearby." She gazed into his eyes. "If you wanted to make yourself scarce because you couldn't handle the alien abyss, I wouldn't blame you for that choice."

"Right." Kyle shook hi head. "If I was at all inclined to book out, then implying that it's on account of fear would be the best thing that you could do to keep Kyle Valenti around - just for reference."

"Oh." Tess reached out to hold his hand. "Is that one of the macho things?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Can't help it, won't apologize."

"I wouldn't want you to," Tess sighed. "And I'm glad to hear that I don't even need to appeal to the macho mentality for you to deal with my craziness. Not that I was talking about being crazy myself, though I suppose in some ways you could make a good case, as well as that there's craziness that surrounds me..."

"Tess?"

"Yeah."

"You can stop babbling now." And to make the point, Kyle leaned close and kissed her.

#

It was less than fifteen minutes before a phone rang again - this time, Tess'. "Yeah, hello, who is it now?" she asked.

"Michael Guerin checking in," he said. "Is something wrong back in Roswell?"

Tess crawled off Kyle's lap, and he looked over at her and shook his head slightly. "Not really. Kyle and I are trying to have a movie night and people keep interrupting - but I did really want to hear from you, Michael. What's up?"

"We just crossed the Arizona state line," he said. "Laurie said that we could talk to her mysterious grandfather in Tucson. You know: the one who looked a lot like me, when he was young at least."

"Didn't she completely freak out when she saw you for the first time and run straight back to the FBI because her grandfather was dead, so she thought that you were a zombie or something?"

"Yeah, ," Michael agreed. "She's not exactly consistent about her stories. But Tucson seems to be where the grandfather lived, and she might have family here, though the FBI apparently didn't find out about them. Bottom line, it's a lead, and if it doesn't pan out, we'll figure out what to do next."

"Okay." Tess thought for a moment. "How's Maria holding up?"

"Her temper's a little short; this certainly isn't her idea of a dream road trip. But aside from that, I guess she's doing fine. I'm a little surprised to hear you asking after her."

"What, you think that I'm never concerned about humans?" Tess teased back. "My horizons have broadened recently, and I'm trying to keep broadening them."

"Cool... So, what's going on in Roswell?"

"Let's see - when did you last check in?"

"Just before school let out. Max told me about getting interrogated."

"Okay, well, Liz is talking to Grant Sorenson about Frazier woods and trying to figure out why alien crystals would be hanging out there. And Isabel was suggesting that she could use Brody Davis to phone home to Larek, but I don't know if Max has given her the go-ahead on that plan yet."

"Hmm... okay. I just wish I knew what the connection was between Laurie and her handsome grandfather, and those blue alien crystals."

"You and me both," Tess said, chuckling at the way Michael had put it. "So, is that it, or do you want to talk for longer?" Her phone beeped twice. "Oh, I have another call coming in."

"I'll check in again soon," Michael said quickly. "Bye, say hi to Larek for me if you get in touch."

Tess shook her head slightly, since Michael had never met Larek before, and touched the button to switch to the incoming call. "Tess Harding here, hello?"

"Hi Tess, it's Isabel here. Listen, can you come down to the UFO center?"

"Yeah, in another ten minutes or so I guess. Are you actually going to try the Larek trick?"

"Yes. Max agreed to let me try, if you were nearby. He said that since you know more about alien powers than any of us, you might see a danger sign or know what to do if something goes wrong."

Tess shook her head in bemusement at that sign of trust from Max Evans, but couldn't find an objection to his reasoning, especially considering her own somewhat unexpected Czechoslovakian event with Grant Sorenson earlier. That reminded her... "Have you heard from Liz? Is she done with Grant Sorenson?"

"Not finished talking yet, but I just left them in the Crashdown. I don't think he noticed that I was there, and he was saying a bunch of stuff about the high water table out in Frazier woods that made me feel nervous. If there are alien life forms down there in the underground rivers - what if they find their way into the public water source?"

"Ooh, yeah, that's not a comforting thought," Tess agreed. She stood up, straightened clothing somewhat, and made eye contact with Kyle. "The UFO center, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you."

"I understand how important it is." Tess hung up the phone at that point and cocked her head slightly at Kyle. "What do you think, want to come along?"

"Get a chance to see Isabel turn the UFO center multi-millionaire into an alien body snatcher?" Kyle summarized. "Yeah, I'm so there. Anything you need before we roll wheels?"

Tess looked back and forth as if expecting to see something obvious that she needed to pick up. Nothing suitable caught her eye. "Let's motor."

#

"I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with so many of your friends being around while you try to hypnotize me, Isabel," Brody Davis said as Tess and Kyle took their seats. "I mean, I welcome your help if you can manage to get further than a hypnotherapist has before, but my abduction experiences are very personal to me."

"Well, I want Tess to stay as my second, my assistant," Isabel insisted, looking around the UFO centre office. "Anybody else that you ask to leave, they're gone - but I hope I can convince you to trust in our discretion. We all know how to keep secrets."

Brody considered Max and Liz, sitting next to each other, and then Kyle. "Let's get underway then. But I've been told I have a high natural resistance to hypnotic trances."

"And if you believed it, then that resistance would become real," Isabel whispered. "The power of suggestibility can work against itself."

"Oh, give me a break," Brody shot back.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I have experienced several paranormal incidents?" Isabel asked, her voice still low and throaty. "That I've self-tested with a psi rating of medium to strong?"

"I have no idea what difference it would make to me if I did," Brody said.

"Don't you believe that psychic phenomenon could be real? You believe in alien abductions."

"I know that I was abducted."

"I know that I have the ability to touch somebody else's mind directly," Isabel insisted. "You don't have to call that a psychic power if you want, but it'll be easier for me to get through if you're open to the possibility."

"All right, all right, I'm open," Brody said, rolling his eyes slightly. "But..."

Isabel reached out, touched Brody's hand with hers, and he sagged slightly. "Concentrate on my voice, only on the sound of my voice," Isabel told him. "You can feel your eyelids getting heavy, as you fall gently down a deep hole of sleep - with padded walls and a comfy mattress at the bottom."

Kyle stifled a snicker, and wondered what Isabel would pull out of her butt next for her hypnotist routine, but there was a long silence instead. Finally Liz cleared her throat. "Isabel, what's happening?"

"He's out," Isabel muttered, sounding distracted. Her own eyes were closed, and there were lines of intense concentration on her face as she held tight to Brody's hand. "I'm pretty sure that I've found a place deep in Brody's subconscious mind that doesn't have anything to do with his ordinary life, but it's so tightly sealed that I can't find my way in."

"Right," Max said. "That does sound like it probably has something to do with Larek and getting abducted, but - don't risk hurting him just to get at it, okay?"

"You're just scared of what might happen if I let the genie out of the bottle, Max," Isabel accused, but without much feeling. "Tess, can you give this a try?"

"Yeah, sure." Tess brought her chair close to Brody's other side. "It's probably better if we're not both connecting to him at the same time, for this."

"Oh, okay," Isabel said. "He'll stay asleep for at least a minute after I let him go, but - dropping out in three, two, one..." Isabel let go, and Tess reached out to touch Brody's other arm just below the wrist. For a few seconds, Tess silently evaluated whatever she was sensing.

"Have you got anything?" Isabel pressed.

"Yes, I see the zone that you were talking about, and yes - it's structured to become dominant through direct external stimulation beyond the normal human senses - and also there's something like... if you don't trigger it in precisely the correct pattern, it just retreats into the background again. But there's no way to tell from observation what the right trigger is. It's like a password lock on an encrypted computer file."

"So there's no way to get to Larek from Brody?" Max summarized.

"Don't push it, Max," Liz warned him softly.

"Just a second... okay, there's one thing from the rest of Brody's mind that does lead into the Larek identity by itself - and as far as I can tell, it's a thought response of extremely heightened terror."

"That's ominous," Kyle muttered.

"Yeah," Isabel said. "Okay, I'm not going to insist that we ring that doorbell. Max, what do you think?"

"You have to give me the hard choices," Max grumbled. "Well, we've gone to all this trouble, and in a crazy way, it makes sense. If I was Larek, and I put in one way for Brody to call me back, instead of me choosing to come to Earth for my own reasons, it'd be when he was in really bad trouble. Hopefully he won't mind that we pulled the fire alarm."

"Are you sure, Max?" Tess muttered.

"Yes," Max said. "Count us down from ten, and then give Brody a big scare."

"Okay. Ten, nine..." Max surreptitiously edged Liz's chair behind his and away from Brody, and Isabel gave herself some clearance too, but Kyle couldn't bring himself to duck and cover when Tess was in the line of fire, as it were, so he arranged himself so that Tess was between him and Brody. "Two, one, and liftoff."

Brody groaned out loud, and there was an airless wind pushing Kyle backwards, but he immediately leaned forward to compensate and was able to keep his chair from toppling over. Tess wasn't so lucky - she'd placed her chair at an angle, instead of having it pointing straight towards Brody, and the invisible alien force boosted her right off the furniture. Luckily, all Kyle had to do to catch her was open up his arms and brace himself for the impact.

"What's going on?" Brody asked, looking around. "Max? What the void of space did you do to Brody?"

"Tess scared him," Max told Larek. "But we were trying to reach you - sorry about the imposition."

"You deliberately initiated an emergency contact?" Larek asked. "Max, there are reasons we make it hard for people like Brody to initiate interstellar contact from Earth-side - it's bloody dangerous for them." He felt over his chest - or Brody's chest. "Brody's having a heart attack, and he's not breathing right. I'm not sure if I can manage to..."

"Max," Tess shouted. "Help Brody."

"I - I can't use my powers on him," Max protested. "He'll notice the silver handprint."

"You don't need to heal him," Tess said. "Just keep his heart working for him."

Max got up, leaned close, and laid his hands on Brody's shoulders from behind. Larek immediately started breathing more deeply and evenly. "What's going on, Max?" Larek asked him. "I'm getting the notion that this wasn't an idle dare."

"Not at all," Isabel said. "There are blue crystals, in the ground and the ground water, near the crash site. They seem to be some kind of alien life form, and an alien is trying to kidnap this girl, Laurie, and bury her among the crystals."

"Hasn't anybody told you about the Gandarium from your ship?" Larek asked.

"Umm..." Max muttered.

"No, obviously not. Listen, I can't stay with Brody much longer, but this is very serious. All Earth, all humanity is in danger, and the four of you aren't safe either. I'll do what I can to get you better information to plan with, but - the infection could spread at any time. If you've got a way to leave the planet, Max, for Kraz' sake don't wait!"

And with those words, Brody Davis' eyes slammed shut and his head lolled back against Max. "Low-power stimulation isn't bringing him back!" Max said, panic creeping into his voice. "What do I do?"

But Liz was coming close, steely determination glinting in her brown eyes. "Get him out of the chair, flat on his back." Bemused, Max followed the instructions. "Kyle, I know you took lifeguard classes. You do chest compression."

Kyle got up. "And what, you're going to give him mouth-to-mouth?"

"Yes, and I don't want to hear any snickering or see a jealous expression on your face, Max. This is our best shot." And so saying, she bent over Brody's face and blew air down into his throat.

It only took half a minute or so before Brody came round, and then they had to figure out some way to explain to him what had happened during his 'hypnotic trance' that wouldn't make him more suspicious.

#

Kyle and Tess sat up late on her bed, eating Ben and Jerry's out of the little tubs and talking about what they'd heard from Larek. "Do you really think that this is it? The end of the world? I mean, that's something they only ever talk about on Buffy the vampire slayer or whatever."

Tess shrugged. "I don't know. He said that it was an infection, and some kind of alien plague spreading across the world - that could get nasty. On the other hand - as dire as the situation was, I tend to suspect that Larek was panicking. He'd been pulled out of his normal life, light-years or megaparsecs across space into a body that was dying. I don't think that I could be thinking clearly in a situation like that. But - oh, say, do you think I should call Michael? Let him know what we've found out so far about Laurie and her connection to this Frazier woods stuff?"

"Well, Max probably called him, or Liz called Maria, or both," Kyle said. "It doesn't make much sense to keep bombarding them with telephone calls. Plus, we don't really know that much yet."

"Okay," Tess agreed. "Anyway, I don't have any specifics, just - I feel as if there has to be some way for us to stop whatever-it-is from happening before it hurts many other people. Maybe Larek will actually come through for us and give a more detailed report on this Gandarium and how dangerous they are."

"And how will he get into contact with Max?" Kyle wondered aloud, and then the answer became obvious. "Brody, again. Once Larek's had a bit of time to plan, he'll be able to come to Brody safely. So if we see Brody tomorrow..."

"Then it's better than even odds that he'll be Larek, again," Tess finished. "Yeah, that makes sense to me."

"Well, even though the results weren't really what she expected, it's probably a good thing that Isabel tried the hypnosis plan on Brody," Kyle said. "We wouldn't even have heard of this Gandarium stuff if it hadn't been for him."

"Yeah," Tess agreed, though she didn't sound happy about that.

"There's one thing that's bugging me, though," Kyle said, and Tess gestured that he should keep talking. "Wouldn't Larek have known that Max didn't have any way to leave Earth?"

"Well, no, I don't think that he's keeping such close tabs on us, and I feel better that way," Tess said after a moment. "Somehow I think that he knows that we're in Roswell - the four of us, and Brody too. If Brody's been his spare body on Earth ever since he was first 'abducted', then maybe Larek even had something to do with leading Brody to Roswell - though if that's the case, then he might have been frustrated at having to go back to New York for the Summit. And he knows that Max hasn't left Earth, but not whether he had a choice. As far as that goes, back at the Summit - Nicholas offered us passage to Antar, an offer with strings attached, and Max turned it down. Maybe Larek guessed that it wasn't a valuable offer to Max, because he had a ship that he could use when he wanted to."

"Okay, that's enough talking about you and Max in New York," Kyle grumbled.

"It is?" Tess looked up at him. "Then what are you going to do about it, boyfriend?" She put down her ice cream and pouted.

Kyle nearly jumped to his girlfriend to cover her in kisses.

#

The next morning, Liz was sitting at one of the booths in the Crashdown dining room, wearing a white tank top and cut-off jeans. She had a paper spread over most of the table, and as Kyle and Tess approached they could see enough to figure out that it was some kind of obscure special-purpose map. "Hey, guys. Max should be here any minute."

"That's good to hear," Tess said, slipping onto the seat across from Liz. "At that point, are you actually going to clear away enough space for us to have breakfast, or am I supposed to treat this map like a tablecloth and put my plate of waffles on top of it?"

"Please don't, yes, I'll give you some space, just as soon as I've finished explaining what I know so far."

"Just what kind of map is this?" Kyle asked. "Or will that have to wait until Max gets here, so you can explain it all at once?"

"No, I won't go too far, but I can catch you up to where he was last night," Liz said. "The map is hydrological - it maps the underground streams that make up the water table in Roswell and the west half of Chavez county."

"Did Grant give you all this?" Tess asked.

"Nah." Liz shook her head emphatically. "But he told me enough that I knew what to look for on the internet, and I was able to use one of Brody's fancy printers last night."

"So, what's so important about the water table in Frazier woods?" Tess asked,

"That would be giving you a sneak peek," Liz said. "I'm not talking until Max gets here."

"No? Well, let me look for myself," Tess said, squeezing close to Kyle to peer at the part of the map that was on that side of the table. "Well, nearly everything seems to be interconnected - among them, the underground streams in Frazier woods, the ones closer to Roswell, which presumably are drawn on for the town's water supply, and - yeah, there's ground water out here, which isn't labelled on the map of course, but we all know that it's really the old Puhlman ranch, the 1947 crash site."

"Clever girl," Liz muttered reluctantly. "And what does all of that tell you?"

"I'm not sure," Tess admitted. "But you'll be telling us what you think soon, because Max just came in. What about Isabel, anyway? We'd need more room if she's joining us."

"Isabel went off to knock on Alex's door," Max explained as he came into range. "I'm not sure how well that'll work out for her, under the circumstances, but far be it from me to keep her from trying her luck. So, how far did you get on the map, honey?" He sat down next to Liz, and brushed a bit of her hair aside so that he could lay a trail of kisses from ear down the neck to her bare shoulder.

"Not too far, I guess," Liz muttered. "There's a current in the water table from the Puhlman ranch in the direction of Frazier woods. If our blue crystals got into the ground water from your ship, they would have gotten that far - but honestly I'm not sure why they're still there, after so many decades. There's only one small water reservoir in the woods, and it's not at the same spot where you guys found Laurie buried. As far as I can tell from the flow notation, most of the ground water that flows through the woods every year comes in this direction, through town, and northeast towards Santa Fe."

"Directly through town?" Kyle asked.

"Not all of it - but there's an old well just south of here, practically right across the street," Liz said. "It's not being tapped anymore, because of the zoning bylaws, but that's why the first community developed around what would eventually be downtown Roswell. It was a minor oasis in the desert."

"Okay, let's think outside the box," Tess suggested. "These blue crystals can travel through the water, but they didn't get this far that way. Maybe there's some reason they wanted to stick around the woods? What is there in Frazier woods that there isn't elsewhere?"

"Trees," Kyle answered automatically. The other three looked at him. "I'm not pretending that that's something profound, but it's the obvious answer. There are lots of trees there, and bushes and other plants. Living roots digging down into the soil. Maybe that has something to do with why the blue crystals didn't continue to float on under the desert."

"Okay, yeah, that's a possibility, Kyle," Liz agreed. "But it doesn't really help us figure out what to do next - not a criticism, just a statement. Larek said that all Earth could be in danger if the - what was the word he used?"

"Gandarium," Max whispered absently.

"Right." Liz nodded. "If they'd gotten out of the ship. But if these blue crystal organisms are the same thing, then they're sitting out in Frazier woods, and we don't have any indication of how they're dangerous to the human race at large. They have something to do with Laurie being in danger, yeah, but..."

"Hey, take a look," Kyle muttered, pointing beside Max towards the front door of the Crashdown. Liz and Max craned their necks, and everybody could recognize Brody entering.

"Hi, Brody," Max said, as Tess silently mouthed the name 'Larek?'

"Morning, Evans," Brody said, slowly drawing near. "Liz, how's that project of yours going?"

"Well, I'm a little stumped at the moment, but thanks for all your help," she told him. "Not ordering take-out today?"

"Not for breakfast, I think, and certainly not while Maria's out of town," Brody answered. "Some of your other wait staff seem to resent the chore."

"Well, it's a service that we only extend to very important customers," Liz said. Brody didn't offer a reply, but sat down in the booth beside theirs and buried his face in his hands, a picture of total exhaustion.

"Okay, so much for that idea," Tess muttered, and Max and Liz automatically leaned forward across the table to hear her better.

"What idea?" Max asked.

"Tess and I thought that it would be Larek who would come to find us this morning," Kyle explained. "He did say that he'd try to tell us more as soon as he could."

"Well, we can't count on Larek to get us out of this," Max said. "As much as I hate to say it, I think that the time has come to move into dangerous territory. We need to know exactly what's going on in Frazier woods, and that means..." He broke off when he heard Brody moving again, rising to his feet and stepping closer to their table. "Yes, Mister Davis, what is it?"

"Hello, Max, it's Larek now," Larek said, Brody's mouth curving into a slight smile. "It looks like my idea worked out well enough. I gave Brody a subconscious suggestion to find you, and then fall asleep to allow me in."

"Oh, hi Larek," Tess said. "Why did you do that instead of looking for us in Brody's body, yourself?"

"Time," Larek explained shortly, and swung a chair up facing the table. "I won't have long on Earth, after the stunt you kids pulled last night, so I figured I might as well make it count. And if I'm not taking much of Brody's time, and leave him where he started over there, he might not notice that he was 'abducted' again. So let's not waste more time."

"That's good with me," Liz said. "Tell us more about Gandarium, and how they're dangerous."

Larek waited a moment, and caught a slight nod of encouragement from Max before he spoke. "Okay. Do you understand how... how the Royal Four are hybrids now, with new bodies that are half Antarian and half human, to allow them to blend into human society?"

"Yes, we've heard all that," Tess said.

"At about that level of detail," Liz qualified. "We don't understand exactly how it was accomplished."

"I see," Larek said. "Well, the Gandarium are critical to the hybridization process. They were genetically engineered to bridge the DNA and RNA sequencing during third-stage amino acid synthesis." Everybody looked to Liz to see how she was handling this level of technical jargon, and she shook her head slightly.

"I've heard of all those things, yeah, but I'm not quite following the process," she admitted. "But the Gandarium are an artificial life-form designed to help make cross-breeds between radically different species?"

"I guess that's the first critical point," Larek said a little stiffly. "In a controlled environment like the crew would have maintained on your ship, they fulfil their function very safely. You take an Antarian cell, and a human cell, and the Gandarium bridge the gap and allow them to be merged, or to split in such a way that a hybrid cell is one of the resulting cells. Are you with me so far?"

"Yeah," Liz, Max, and Tess all chorused. Kyle looked between them, and shrugged.

"But without that direction, the Gandarium will start to lose control. After this long without a proper assignment, they'll be looking for any human or Antarian cells they can find, and hybridize them any which way from Smarch. The results are very unpredictable - you could have human-Gandarium hybrids, or hybrids of humans with other earth animals, hybrids with plant life, even with Earth bacteria - which could be the genesis of a plague particularly deadly to humans."

"But they're not infecting just any humans," Tess pointed out. "The Gandarium seem to be particularly interested in one human girl."