You're Not Seeing This Planet At Its Best

"You figure there's a problem getting signal? You think she's in trouble?" Damon wondered out loud.

"Signs of trouble generally involve screams or loud cries for help. Lighten up, little boy, she's fine." Jake replied. Alright, Kristen had been gone longer than he figured it should have taken to make one call to her mother to tell her about how great the weather was on Hawley Lake, but it was more likely it was just an attack of conscience on her part. Kristen had issues lying to her mother. Which didn't much make sense in this case because she didn't have to lie, Jake had looked it up on his cellphone, the weather report was completely truthful.

Damon gestured at the window. "Maybe she's forgotten she's telepathic."

Jake looked around to see Kristen standing out in the street, looking back into the tea shop, and waving at him. He had another bite of his scone and grudgingly headed out to find out what was wrong. She was probably just looking for advice on what to say, it hardly seemed reason to interrupt him from a scone.

"You could have asked telepathically," he told her as he stepped out of the tea shop.

"Yes, but then all three of you would have heard, telepathy isn't any good for private conversations," Kristen pointed out.

"So what's up?" Jake asked, he wasn't sure he wanted to know what Kristen had to say that she couldn't say in front of Damon.

"It's Kal, what are we going to do about him?"

"I don't know, that's kind of something we need to discuss. But you and me can't decide that out here, that's a discussion we need to have with Kal." Jake could sense there was something she was avoiding.

"I already promised him we'd help," Kristen confessed.

Jake now understand her hesitation. "We?" he challenged.

"Who the hell else is supposed to help him?"

"Fine, but without talking to us about it first?"

"Sorry. I thought you'd want to help." Jake could sense her regret. And her fear, she was afraid she'd crossed the line, screwed up, that he'd never forgive her, that their friendship was over already.

"I do want to help. And we will, I just, you're right, I don't like being taken for granted. But come on, there's worse things than being taken for granted. You'd pretty much have to completely betray me before I'd walk away." Jake tried not to sound too irritated by her presumption. It was also bleeding obvious to him why she'd done it.

"Do you always have to be so bloody reasonable, I'm trying to feel bad about not asking first. I really am sorry, and it's just, he really needs help. And I know, I promise, next time I'll talk to you before I make any promises..."

"However cute you think the alien is?" he asked, tactfully trying to let her know he could see right through what she was really thinking.

Kristen scowled at him, she'd finally paused long enough to sense that Jake hadn't been upset with her at all, he was just joking with her to try and make her feel comfortable. Which would have helped a lot more if she'd worked it out a few minutes earlier. "You know, it's like this is E.T., but for real. And I'm Elliot," she confessed.

Jake grinned at her sadistically. "Only I don't remember the part where Elliot wanted to shag E.T."

"Yeah, well they obviously just cut that scene from the movie to get the kids rating," Kristen started to get her confidence back.

Jake felt the need to caution her. "I don't want to spoil the fantasy for you, but E.T. lacked the equipment. And as much as this guy might look like us, he's still alien underneath. You don't what he might be packing downstairs."

"Yeah, that's the other favor I was going to ask."

"What?" Jake asked, suspiciously.

"You're a guy, I was wondering if you could, you know, follow him into the toilets or something, sneak a peek, let me know whether I'm wasting my time or not?" She caught Jake's slightly disturbed expression. "It's okay, I'm joking."

"No you aren't." Jake told her.

There were moments she really, really hated telepathy.


"It's anecdotal, but it's interesting," The Lieutenant stuck his head in through the door to Sierpinski's temporary office.

"Yes Lieutenant?" Sierpinski figured she could do with the interruption. Bloody typical that immediately she escalates the situation to a Code Black Special that everything should grind to a halt. People always thought a job like hers would be so exciting; non stop, break neck, unfolding like a string of firecrackers. But that only happened in the movies, the movies missed out the empty moments like this. No new leads in the search, no progress with the leads they already had, no progress from the Doctor on the condition of his patients, nothing. She was bored.

Sierpinski closed the web browser on her laptop and gestured to the Lieutenant to come in.

"Two people in silver suits walk into a store to buy clothes," the Lieutenant started, as if coming out with the opening line of a joke. "Said their clothes were destroyed by the army because they strayed over the line and got contaminated."

"There is no contamination," Sierpinski smiled, this was more like it.

"And we don't hand out silver jump suits either."

"Okay, I'm interested."

The Lieutenant handed her the report to read. "The guy didn't speak, they thought he might be foreign or something. The girl did all the talking. The story was completely plausible, the people in the shop saw nothing unusual in their behavior. They only mentioned it jokingly to the sergeant, wanted to know if he was planning on waylaying other unsuspecting tourists, and if he did then would he recommend their shop. They were trying to drum up business."

"The sergeant?..."

"Stayed on story. Told them he was unaware of the incident, indicated it was quite possible, but suggested that the number of people exposed was expected to be three or four at the most. The shop owners were satisfied."

"They have CCTV?"

"Yes. I'm assuming that we don't want it officially requisitioned though."

"Bloody hell no."

"The store closes at 5:00 PM. We have a team prepped to go in and retrieve the discs shortly after that, copy them and get out cleanly."

She nodded her approval of the Lieutenant's efficiency. "No one on the team is to be informed of the real purpose of the mission. I don't care what you make up. The data is to be relayed back here and no one else is to see it. Understood?"

"Yes."

"What do you think?"

"One of them spoke English. I was out of line suggesting they were aliens."

"Or they learned the language damn fast," Sierpinski countered, smiling. She liked being argumentative. Guys she dated hated that.

"They're intuitive, turned our own cover story against us."

"So they have some way of monitoring the news broadcasts about the situation. They had their story planned before they went into that store."

"Resourceful. We have no clue how they managed to get out of the exclusion zone."

"What bothers me is that this implies they know we're after them, and they know how to protect themselves, they know how to blend in."

"Finding them now will not be easy. They look like a couple of random hitchhikers. The only way we'll be able to isolate them is to instigate a full lockdown. Stop and search every individual in a thirty mile radius. That is going to be impossible to handle discretely."

Sierpinski shook her head. "No, Lieutenant, you just have to think outside of the rocket ship. Get me pictures of them. They want to use our cover story against us? Two can play at that game."

She waved the Lieutenant away and briefly flicked through the report. Evidence of subterfuge, but no real threat. There was no way that the situation warranted a Code Black Special, not yet anyway. Then again, the Code Black Special made her life a little easier, it gave her a much wider range of actions she could take without having to worry about getting prior approval. She was starting to feel confident they'd catch up with the other two survivors, it was only a matter of time, which meant all she had to do was sit there bored for another couple of hours. She glanced frustratedly at her watch. She threw the report down and went back to working on the web site she was setting up for her two cats. It helped keep her sane.


Jake and Kristen headed back into the tea shop to find Damon and Kal sitting there silently, nervously avoiding eye contact. Both of them were a little apprehensive about dealing with strangers, it maybe hadn't been the best idea to walk out and abandon them like that, Kristen didn't need Kal getting himself uncomfortable than he already was.

~So how come you aren't green and tentacled. I guess life in the universe isn't infinitely variable. I mean you aren't exactly all that, well, varied.~ Jake sat back down, took another bite of his scone, and tried to restart the conversation.

~There are certain basic biological forms that are fundamentally suitable for survival, they crop up over and over again throughout the galaxy,~ Kal started to explain.

"I've been reading Simon Conway Morris in biology," Damon jumped in, "He calls it Evolutionary Convergence. I would love to use this for my homework assignment. I had cream tea with an alien, this strongly supports Morris's ideas on evolutionary convergence. However the fact I had cream tea with an alien strongly suggests the rare Earth hypothesis Morris also advocates is complete bollocks."

~He's right,~ Kal backed Damon up, "Two arms, two legs isn't all that uncommon, although in this case, I don't know. The similarities do seem a little freaky.~

"But not impossible?" Kristen was looking for a little reassurance.

"There are loads of examples," Damon educated her. "The placental wolf, Canis lupus, and marsupial wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus are incredibly similar to look at, both evolved that basic form in complete isolation. Of course, the similarities don't go very deep. The marsupial wolf has a bifurcated penis for a start..."

Jake frowned at him. "Do we really need to know this?"

There was silence for a moment.

"So what do we do now?" Kristen desperately felt the need to try and shift the conversation back on track. "You said something about a relay beacon..."

Kal nodded, tucking in to his second scone. ~I need to get somewhere, high ground, activate the beacon, that has to be my first priority. Then I need to head back and find the others. They'll be fine for now, I placed them in stasis, but I want to try and revive them, the escape capsules don't have the resources to maintain stasis for more than about thirty hours without external power. Then somehow I have to keep them alive until the rescue ship arrives. Which could be as long as ten days. That part won't be easy, they weren't in good shape, but I have a few ideas.~

"You sound like you know what you're doing." Damon observed.

Kal half smiled. ~I'm a med student, well, I was, until they kicked me out of med school. Actually what happened was that they threatened to kick me out and I told them I quit anyway. Not sure I should have done that. Trying to work things out, I guess that's why I was on the passenger shuttle. Sorry, I'll shut up boring you, it's a long story. But if I'd lasted the course then I would have been a bloody good medic. I know enough to give them a fighting chance. They'll survive.~

Jake weighed up the situation. "You worry about your patients, we'll worry about getting that beacon deployed."

~You'll help?~ Kal sounded cautiously hopeful. ~I mean, Kristen said you would, but, she hadn't talked to you about it then, and mostly she was offering to help because she thinks I'm cute. Actually, she thinks more than that, but...~

Kristen winced, her subterfuge trying to keep that between her and Jake had been completely wasted.

Jake helpfully interrupted Kal's thoughts. "I think you're cute as well, though not necessarily in the exact same inappropriate way Kristen does." He glanced across at Damon, who caught on to the question and nodded. "Okay, we discussed it, looks like we all think you're cute, you want the help or not?"

"I want to get off this planet. I'll take all the help I can get. Thanks." Kal finally seemed to relax a little.

"Yeah, well, you've got the harder job," Damon reminded him. "The humans are going to try to get into those capsules, I don't know how much damage they can do, but I guarantee they've moved them already."

Kal wasn't too worried there. ~We've got the transponders, we can track them. These humans make you that nervous?~

Damon shrugged. "Most of them are harmless enough."

~I don't sense malicious intent, not from the humans around us.~

"Tea shops are not generally known as being hotbeds of malicious intent," Jake tried to clarify. "Your bigger problem with the humans is that they're clueless. It's the damage they cause because they don't know what they're doing is what you have to worry about."

~I know a few people at school like that,~ Kal joked.

Kristen watched the conversation. It bothered her the way that they were all quite so dismissive about the humans.

Jake seemed oblivious. "Damon, you want to go hike up a mountain with me to set up the relay beacon?"

"As long as I'm not the one has to do all the bloody hiking."

Kal looked bemused. Jake and Damon were clearly both totally off their rockers. ~The beacon's designed to be piss easy to assemble, there's instructions in there.~

"Written in alien?" Damon queried.

"Can't be worse than getting Ikea furniture delivered to discover the only assembly instructions they've included were in Swedish," Jake assured him.

Damon turned his head sideways slowly. "I never knew you had a fetish for Swedish furniture."

"I don't," Jake snapped back quickly, resenting the implied accusation. "My sister went all Ikea when she moved into her new flat."

"Right, makes sense now. Totally explains why you got her that Swedish phrase book."

Kristen's patience ran out. "Guys, can we focus here? We need to get moving."

Damon shrugged. "Right. I need to go pee before we head out, though," he informed them.

"You do that. I'll go pay." Jake agreed.

Kal was curious, ~you pay for food?~

"Right." Kristen looked at him, she was still thrown by how one minute he could come across as just another ordinary guy, then the next she would sense a confusion in his mind that made no sense to her at all.

~I understand the words,~ Kal admitted, ~but I don't get what you're trying to say. Surely food is a basic right, not a commodity for barter.~

He really didn't get it. Kristen felt oddly reassured by the confession, the last couple of weeks she'd spent desperately trying to grasp so many concepts that seemed alien to her, it was reassuring to feel like she wasn't the only one struggling.

"That's just how it is. On this world, food is a commodity for barter," She tried to explain.

~How do you survive on a world this primitive?~

Kristen had no answer. It hadn't really occurred to her before, but he was right, the world she lived in really was quite primitive.


Kal followed Damon into the toilets, glancing around, obviously not quite sure of where he was or what he was doing there. The toilets were clean, functional, a little spartan, and small. There was only barely enough space in there for the two of them. Kal watched Damon for a moment and then stood next to him at the urinals and glanced down. "Ur-gisgal," he observed, working out how to undo his flies.

"Sounds rude, and yet complimentary," Damon declared to no one in particular.

~Toilets.~ Kal stated, ~I was wondering how the whole toilet thing was done here.~

"No shit," Damon observed.

"No shit." Kal tried to repeat the phrase.

Damon smirked. "That's pretty close. You'll learn the language in no time."

"Nu sed," Kal translated the phrase into alien. ~Scary, even some of the words sound similar...~

"Nu sed," Damon observed. Inappropriately pleased that those were the first alien words he had learnt.

Kal started to pee. ~Urogenital tract appears identical, you're not marsupial anyway, bone structure looks about the same. You know the similarities are way more than superficial...~

"If you want to examine me properly, you could ask..."

~Sorry. Can't stop thinking like a medic. Just, I didn't want to quit, stupidly backed myself into it. Truth is, there's nothing else in life I ever really wanted to do...~

"So why did you quit then?"

~To piss my parents off, I suppose. I got in trouble at school, they said I needed to rethink my attitude, I told my parents I wasn't going back on the school's terms, I'd rather quit. No surprise they didn't like that. But, I should have thought it through, the school was never going to back down. And I like the school, well, mostly, just, it's a bit straight laced, and I'm not. I like a bit of fun now and then, and alright, that wouldn't have been such a big deal if it hadn't been the principal's daughter I got caught with.... What?...~

"It's scary as hell how similar we are."

Kal's eyes were drifting. ~What, on account of the size of my...?~

"No," Damon interrupted. "On account of your attitude to school I was thinking."


Kal and Kristen had managed to find a clearing in the woods. It was early afternoon, the mist had burned off, and it had turned into another uncharacteristically sunny November day. Not exactly warm, but certainly not as cold as a late November afternoon should be.

They hadn't walked far, it was literally only twenty or so minutes hike from the car park where they'd parted company with Jake and Damon, but it was far enough off the beaten track that they had some privacy. Of course it helped that the area was deserted because of the radiation scare. Jake's car had been the only one parked at the trail head.

~So we can use these tracking things to get a fix on the other two capsules, that gives us the navigation we need to jaunt directly there, even though it isn't line of sight. That's pretty cool,~ Kristen told him. Kal was giving her a quick run down on how the transponders operated.

Kal looked at her quizzically, once again puzzled by her reaction. ~I don't get you sometimes. What is difficult about jaunting places you can't see?~

~So how do you visualize a place you can't see in order to get there?~

~I don't know, I don't understand the question. You just do it, I don't know how to describe it. I can't understand how you don't know. I mean, line of sight is the first limitation you learn to get past in jaunting lessons at school. The teachers show you what to do, and, I never stopped to think how it was different.~

~Jaunting lessons?~

~You really don't know, do you?~

~No.~

~It's incredible. Telepaths growing up in complete isolation, only vaguely aware of what they're capable of. No cultural framework around them to define the limits. You have to learn everything, every single thing by trial and error. Wow, seriously wow. You lot would make an incredible sociological study for my school project next year.~

~Great. I've always wanted to be the subject of a school study project.~ Kristen retorted sarcastically.

~Sorry.~ Kal realized his mistake. ~It's just, it must be so tough growing up on a closed world. I've always had it easy, maybe too easy, maybe that's part of what I'm rebelling against.~

~Closed world?~

~Right,~ Kal smiled. ~A planet where there is intelligent or semi-intelligent life, but that hasn't made contact with us yet,~ he quoted the dictionary definition.

~You wait for them to make contact with you?~

~Always. That's the rules.~

~And didn't you get kicked out of school for not playing by the rules?~

~Yeah, well, that's why I'm stood here giving you the benefit of my wisdom when I shouldn't be talking to you at all. You know, screw the rules.~

~Did I tell you how much I liked you?~

~No, but I have noticed how often you think it.~

Kristen blushed, aware what else he had probably noticed her thinking. ~I'm sorry, I try, I just can't stop the way I think at times.~

Kal was puzzled again. ~Why would you change how you think? People can't help what they think sometimes, you have to learn to deal with it, that's part of being telepathic.~

~You saying you don't mind? Because you do mind, I can see that,~ Kristen challenged him.

~There was a moment sat in the tea shop there I actually forgot where I was, nearly laughed at some of Damon's jokes, and then got pissed off with myself for finding anything funny right now. Everything is just such a mess. You know, Ra-dalhamun died less than twenty hours ago, what the hell right do I have to find anything funny right now. I don't know what to think. It isn't that I mind what you're thinking, it's just that I don't know how to react to it, I don't know how to react to anything. But I have to keep going. Ra-dalhamun died to give the rest of us a chance. Now it's up to me to keep us all alive long enough to be rescued. And if that means that working out how to react to you isn't all that high on my list of priorities, I'm sorry. But honestly don't worry about it. You know, in a way it's a reminder, something Damon said, about how much alike we are. Right now that's a good thing, it's good to know I'm not completely on my own here. I think I'd have freaked out completely long before now if I had been.~ He stumbled through the explanation then stalled.

All of which, Kristen noted, just made him even more cute. Humans could be in touch with their feelings, they could guess about other people's feelings, but they could never actually see other people's feelings, and that Kal made quite unlike any guy she'd tried dating at school. Was it possible she had more in common with aliens than she did with humans?

~So what's the plan?~ she tried to focus, aware that here mind had been starting to stray inappropriately again.

~We leave one of the transponders here to give us a lock on getting back. I'm thinking we jaunt directly to the location of the other two transponders. Then we grab the capsules and jaunt out with them. The distances involved are short enough that it shouldn't be a problem. We'll be gone before the humans even realize we've been there.~

~Can we carry that much back with us?~

~Between the two of us, yes. First lesson; telekinetic power increases exponentially with the number of minds you can combine. There's a small risk attached to jaunting Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan while they're still unconscious, but from what Damon was saying, leaving them there would be a lot more dangerous.~

Kristen nodded, trying to soak in as much information from Kal as she could. ~This should be a piece of piss, as Jake would say.~

Kal caught the undertone of sarcasm, ~you don't sound convinced.~

~What Damon said was right, the military will have moved the capsules, they'll have them under guard. It just seems, maybe, a bit insane to jaunt into a top security facility and expect to jaunt out again just like that. There has to be a catch.~

Kal thought about it for a moment. ~I guess the catch is the turnaround time. There's different ways of navigating a jaunt. Line of sight is definitely the fastest, that can be a matter of seconds. Using the transponders, that can take a minute or two to get a lock.~

~Two minutes is more than long enough to get us both killed. You sure you know what you're doing?~

~No,~ he responded, noting her concern. ~But I'm cute. And that seems to be good enough reason for you to trust me. I don't pretend to understand that, but I'll deal with it.~

~Come out with patronizing shit like that and you won't stay cute long,~ Kristen joked. ~Alright, so what do we do?~

~Okay, stand there, facing me, and we both hold onto this transponder. I'll activate it. Now, let your mind drift into the transponder, as if you were visualizing as a destination for jaunting.~

~I see, something, things, I don't have the words to explain.~

~It's the other transponders, the transponder links. Pick one and focus on it , follow it, then with your mind try to see around it, try to look...~

~I can see, vaguely, faintly. A large open space. The capsules on the floor. The capsules are open.~

~Empty. Shit. That isn't good. Three people in there working, other people, outside maybe.~

~I can sense where there's space, where there isn't space, where there are people, where there aren't people. Nothing more than that, no details, no... I don't know.~

~That's generally all you get. Some people can see more, gifted remote viewers can see all sorts of details. But to jaunt there, all you need to see is whether there's space to jaunt in to.~

~In full view of the people working there.~

~Look where the people are. Look where the space is, or rather where the space isn't. Explore a little.~

~I keep losing focus and falling back to the transponder location.~

~Yeah, you will to start. That takes practice. Just, word of advice, don't jaunt if there is any danger of losing focus while you're jaunting. That way lies deep shit.~

~Right. Deep shit. I'll remember that.~

~Can you see? They're enclosed on four sides. On two sides there are other people stationary outside.~

~Outside wall, guards?~

~Could be, don't know. Other two sides, a courtyard maybe, more complex wall structures. Significantly fewer people inside.~

~Like the guards outside aren't allowed into the main buildings.~

~Maybe, but, be careful about guessing there. Don't delude yourself we have a clue about what we're heading in to.~

~Right. What's that. Area out on its own. Looks like people, only, they're seriously vague. Wishy washy, not there.~

~It could be the others.~ Kal suggested.

~Now who's guessing?~

~Yeah. You got a better idea?~

~No, no better ideas. Look, how do you keep your concentration up long enough to do this? I'm struggling here. I can certainly see why this is not exactly the fastest way to jaunt anywhere.~

~Practice. You'll get the hang of it in time.~

~The one other someone who was in that room with them has just headed out. If we're going to take this gamble, I don't see there being a better time.~

~Take my hands, hold on. I'll make sure you don't drift off.~

Kristen didn't figure the sensation was much different from regular jaunting, it just seemed to take a few seconds longer than normal.

They found themselves in a makeshift hospital room. It seemed primitive to Kristen even by her standards. Looked like it had been office space at one time but most of the desks and all of partition walls had been ripped out. There were beds on wheels lined up against one of the walls, covered over with plastic drapes. There were various devices and items of medical equipment dotted around, and some machines connected up to worryingly makeshift power distribution blocks, and there were trailing cables across much of the floor.

Kristen looked around and spotted the key in the door. She walked over and locked it, then pulled the one remaining desk across to act as a makeshift barricade. It wasn't much, but she figured it would keep people out for the minute or two they would need to make their escape.~

Kal was already examining Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan. ~This is not good.~

~Problems?~

~Bloody interfering idiot humans, Jake was right about them. When they took them Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan of the capsules, the induced stasis was disrupted. Their metabolism is slowly reverting to normal, but they aren't ready to survive yet. I need... Shit. I had this all under control until they bloody messed with it. And what the hell is this medieval crap they're hooked up to. Monitoring stuff I think. I don't know. Shit.~

She could sense him thinking through options, there was one he kept coming back to. ~We need to get them back in the capsules?~ Kristen asked.

~Yes, but it isn't that easy. I need to stabilize them first. And then we need to get to the capsules, and bugger knows what we do for power. And...~

~And we could be out of time any second now.~

~I'm having issues thinking this through. I thought that we could grab them and walk away. We can't jaunt them out in this state it's way too dangerous. I have no clue what we do now.~

Kristen could sense his frustration growing. ~Start doing whatever it is you can. Keep them alive a little bit longer. If we have to we leave, we come back later, the four of us.~

~I'm just a med student, I'm not qualified yet, and I've got nothing to work with, no medical equipment, no...~

Kristen could see that Kal was in danger of losing his perspective.

~They're dead if you don't try.~ Kristen tried to jolt him back to reality. She stopped, Kal's mind had gone blank. For a moment she was worried he'd lost it completely, then she saw he was staring at some frame like structure with some kind of gas tanks attached. It wasn't that his mind was blank, his mind was racing.

~Oxygenation equipment. This stuff is barbaric, but it...~ he trailed off as he tried to work out how the valves on the oxygen tank operated.

Kristen smiled, the guy was sounding like a medic again.


John was sat on a bench on the edge of a park area right across the road from the local bus station. He was just far enough out of the town center to be able to escape the crowds. He'd had to make a strategic withdrawal, the dedication of these people to their shopping had been a little too enthusiastic for him to deal with right now. He needed peace and quiet to make his report, this was about the best he was going to find.

He took his new cellphone out and pretended to make a call on it, cellphones were a great way of disguising telepathy.

Carol listened patiently.

~Damon Jackson has an overprotective mother who has spent the last three or four months fending off inquisitive reporters who won't leave the boy alone. If I push too hard she's liable to have me arrested and that is a complication we don't need. Anyway, I managed to find out he went off to visit friends on the South coast this weekend. He's a needle in a haystack down there. I think we're going to need that beacon.~ John's afternoon had not been particularly productive.

Carol had little to offer to cheer him up. ~Not much luck here either. We've made it to Ambleside, which is as close as I think we're going to get to the restricted area without drawing too much attention.~

Carol and Elizabeth were sat in a tea shop in Ambleside. The only tea shop in town that was open as it had turned out. Carol was enjoying the first toasted teacake she'd had in years. The ones she got on other planets just weren't the same.

Elizabeth added her report. ~I've got us all checked in to a bed and breakfast here. Turned out to be easier than we expected for a bank holiday weekend out of season, not many people wanting to sleep this close to a radiation leak~

~How is the radiation?~

Carol tapped on the geiger counter she was carrying. ~Readings are consistent with background levels we would expect around here. No indication of anything abnormal.~

John wasn't surprised. ~There wouldn't be. How many people are going to go around taking radiation readings to check if the official story is true? And if anyone does point out they can't detect anything, I'm sure they'll be reassured that's because the radiation fallout area has been successfully contained and decontaminated.~

Carol and Elizabeth exchanged a glance, they were used to John's little rants against officialdom.

~John, we've surveyed the hills around here. Based on the estimated crash site we think the most likely place to mount the distress beacon would be Wansfell Pike.~ Elizabeth informed him.

~And even if it isn't, it gives us a good location to try a short range scan from. We may get lucky and pick up one of the short range transponders from there even without the relay beacon.~ Carol added.

~Well, I suppose we could do with a miracle or two right now.~ John noted cynically. ~What kind of people have stayed around?~

Elizabeth jumped in to answer that one. ~The usual suspects. Japanese tourists who travelled too far to change their plans now. A few of the Great British stalwarts who came to go hiking and will not be deterred by any amount of wind or rain or radiation poisoning.~

~No sightings of aliens?~

~None.~

~Pity.~ John concluded. ~Alright, you two go ahead and scout out that Wansfell Pike. I have one more lead I want to try while I'm down here. I managed to get an address for this Jake Laris. I was also able to establish that he and this Damon appear to spend a lot of time hanging out together these days. It isn't far from here, so I think it's worth heading that way, see if I have any more luck there.~


Jake and Damon had been climbing for about an hour and a half. Jake was pretty happy about how well his knee was holding out, the hiking stick he'd bought before setting off was turning out to be a major help. All things considered it was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon. A chance to get some fresh, sheep scented air, and a chance for some deep, meaningful conversation.

"You're totally batshit insane if you think this is going to work," Damon pointed out.

"Go on, tell me what you really think." Jake responded sarcastically.

Wansfell Pike was far enough from the exclusion zone that it was still getting some fairly heavy tourist traffic. Enough traffic that Damon was doubtful they'd be able to erect anything up top of there without someone getting suspicious. And as always he was more than happy to tell Jake exactly what he thought.

"Going waterskiing only a week after you got the cast off your leg, that's insane. Helping an alien on the run from the military, that's insane. Do you see the pattern here?"

"But you only like me because I'm insane like that."

"You that desperate to be liked?"

"I'm that desperate to stay alive. And we need each other to stay alive. We're in this together whether we like it or not."

"So you're only nice to me because your life depends on it."

"That would be a fair summary of the situation."

"That's a bollocks summary of the situation, Jake, and you know it. You like doing the right thing, you just always have to disguise that by pretending to be a smug, selfish bastard. Well that might fool the monkeys, but it doesn't fool me."

"So why are you helping Kal?"

"We both know what'll happen if the humans catch him. I don't need any more excuse than that to want to help. You got a problem with that?"

"Piss off, Damon, you know I don't. It's just, generally people find selfish interest more believable than altruism. The truth isn't always the easier reality to have to justify."

"Jake, this is me you're talking to. You don't need to justify anything to me. I've seen your mind, I know your deepest, darkest secrets and I still trust you. I just wish you'd quit all the pretense. At least when you're talking to me."

Jake stopped as they reached the top. Damon was right. "Sorry. It's just, force of habit."

Damon ignored him, he hadn't needed the apology, he knew Jake too well for that. He was much more interested in looking out across the valley. "Wow, now this is what I call a view. Not exactly not seeing anywhere inconspicuous around here to assemble the beacon though. What do you think?"

"Right here at the summit."

Damon frowned. "What Kal said was..."

"But Kal doesn't understand the human mentality."

"Keeping it a little bit out of the way does make a certain sense though, regardless of the culture."

"If we tried to keep it hidden, that would just make it more obvious. Trust me. We stick it in plain sight, everyone will look at it, reach their own conclusions about what it is, and that will be the end of the story."

"I think you're asking for trouble making it this obvious. The authorities will be looking for anything suspicious."

"And half hidden would be twice as suspicious. No alien would be stupid enough to put it here, that's why it's pure genius."

"So what are you expecting people to think?"

"Weather monitoring equipment."

"And why are they going to think that?"

Jake brandished a permanent marker. "On account of the label on it that is going to say 'property of the met office'."

Damon tried not to smirk. The idea was typically bloody Jake. "And that's enough to keep people from messing with it?" he challenged half-heartedly.

"You want to argue about this?"

"Is there any point?"

"If you absolutely, totally think I'm wrong, then come up with an alternative and we'll talk about it."

Damon shrugged. "I never understand how your mind works at times, but I guess you get away with it often enough..."

"Is that a complement I'm hearing?"

"If you think it's worth a gamble, I'll trust you. I'm just pointing out, subtle it isn't."

"Thanks." Jake joked as they set to work on erecting the mast. It was a pretty simple job, and it only took them a matter of minutes before the structure was complete and they had activated the relay. The thing resembled a steel pylon that stood about eight feet tall. It was fairly anonymous from the point of view that it didn't look particularly alien, the met office label wasn't entirely improbable, however the thing was definitely not discrete.

Damon stood back to survey their work. "Wish we could hang around. I figure it would be pretty interesting to see what the other aliens are like."

"Dunno," Jake wasn't convinced. "Boring lot the way Kal talks about them."


~John?~ Carol called out. She was sat with Elizabeth on a picnic bench on the edge of a car park. They'd needed a location where they could spread out the maps a little more easily than they'd been able to manage in the tea shop, and also somewhere that afforded them a little more privacy. The car park wasn't completely deserted, a single solitary car was parked there, but the owners were nowhere around, it was good enough.

There was a moment or two delay before John replied. When he did, he sounded frustrated. ~Please tell me you have some good news for a change.~

~The relay beacon just went online.~

"Finally!" John exclaimed out loud, then realized somewhat self-consciously that the people in the pub were giving him funny looks. They already thought he was crazy, coming into there asking odd questions about a traffic accident that had happened on the road outside ten months earlier.

~Things not going well?...~ Elizabeth was hesitant to ask.

John sighed. ~I can't find a single person will even admit this Jake Laris exists. I can see people are blatantly lying, but that doesn't help. He seems to inspire a level of trust in people that makes them willing to tell any lies necessary to protect him. And these people talk to each other. I asked the first person I contacted there a few questions about him, and every person I tried to contact after that had already been warned about me. I had a feeling like I had walked in on some conspiracy to cover something up. I'm not going to get anywhere here.~

~Then you might want to head on up this way. We're looking at the maps now, the area is fairly exposed so I don't know how...~ Elizabeth paused as she momentarily lost contact.

John materialized next to them.

Elizabeth continued out loud. "So I don't know how close we can safely jaunt in without being seen. We might have to hike some."

"They chose a hill we have to hike up?" John frowned. "They seem intent on making this difficult for us."


It's Not All Bad News, Some Is Worse

The farmhouse was making her claustrophobic, there wasn't any easy escape, nowhere she could get some momentary peace and quiet. She wandered slowly around the edge of the kitchen, it was also difficult to get decent cellphone reception anywhere inside the buildings, particularly the house itself.

Sierpinski had finally relented and allowed the Doctor and the rest of the team to take a break for some lunch. The house itself had been the only place they could set up a couple of tables and lay on some microwave pizza. It meant security cover inside the barn and workshop areas was light, but security outside remained heavy enough, no one would get through them without an alarm being raised. And Doctor Vidal had reassured her that his patients would survive the half an hour or so he'd be gone.

The conversation over the pizza had not exactly been stimulating, she hated that kind of forced social interaction. The phone call had offered her a welcome interruption, the bad signal had provided her with an excellent excuse to leave the table.

There was a spot just by the door where she could get two bars on the signal level, it was the best she was likely to find. She called her voice mail to pick up the rest of the message, then after a moment or two to review the situation she discretely summoned the Lieutenant over to speak to her.

She kept her voice low. "I might need your assistance, Lieutenant. I have just been informed that Doctor Vidal has not been authorized to take any action regarding the patients that might be considered invasive."

The Lieutenant looked nervous. "What if he considers it to be inconsistent with his Hippocratic oath to comply with that request?"

"Then, Lieutenant, your orders are to restrain him."

The Lieutenant shook his head. "I am not comfortable with those orders."

She stared at him dispassionately, the last thing she needed was the Lieutenant giving her grief as well. "If we can establish where these people came from then I might be able to get the orders reconsidered. If you don't like the situation, then go away and get me some answers. Until then you will follow my orders. As I will follow mine. Your protest is noted," she dismissed him.

Sierpinski was frustrated. She agreed with the Lieutenant, although it would have been totally unprofessional of her to have reassured him of that fact. In her opinion denying the patients treatment was a dangerously stupid mistake, but her recommendations had been ignored. She was supposed to be in charge of this operation precisely because of her ability to make judgment calls like that, and she didn't like it when suits in Whitehall tried telling her how to do her job. It was these kind of politics that reminded her why she preferred cats to people.


Three figures materialized underneath a rocky outcrop. It was well off to the side and out of sight of the long pathway up Wansfell Pike. They hesitated, quickly getting their bearings and trying to judge the quietest moment to make a move. It wasn't easy, it was late afternoon but the stream of tourists marching up the hillside seemed never ending.

John was irritated. "They could have picked any out of the way summit within fifty miles, they had to pick the busiest. When we find them I think a serious lecture in surviving a hostile planetfall will be in order."

"I once wondered if you would mellow with age, but you haven't." Elizabeth thought out loud.

Carol was less charitable; "John, mellow with age? I can't say I ever imagined that was possible."

"If you two are quite done?"

They picked their moment, rounded the outcrop and climbed steeply up to join the path. The summit still looked a long way off, it was a delay they would rather have avoided, but this was as close as they'd figured they could get without risking too much unwanted attention.

Carol smiled and waved a cheery "Good afternoon" to a group of Japanese tourists as they passed. In the distance they could see only a couple of people still at the summit, most people on the path seemed to be on their way down rather than up. Carol was reassured, that ought to make things a little easier for them.

The rest of the hike up did little improve John's temperament.

Elizabeth couldn't keep a straight face any longer. "What about those two boys we passed. All they could think about was how 1970s we looked."

"I think John would have clipped them round the ear for thinking that if it hadn't given away the fact we were telepathic," Carol agreed.

"Teenagers today just have no respect for their elders. And frankly, considering what they were wearing, they have little right to be criticizing our fashion sense."

Carol was trying not to sound too much like an old school-mistress, but she knew that sometimes someone had to fulfill that role. "Don't be such an old fuddy-duddy, John. And we might want to pay some attention to what they were thinking, we're supposed to be keeping ourselves inconspicuous here."

"And talking about staying inconspicuous..." Elizabeth observed sarcastically, looking at the eight feet high aerial that had been mounted on the summit.

John was looking at it with a disgust that made it clear his irritation wasn't about to be forgotten any time soon. "I have to confess I am astounded at the level of incompetence being exhibited here. What idiot did this?"

Carol made short work of retrieving the relay as John was busy disconnecting the aerial. He pulled off the 'property of the met office' sticker in disgust. "I suppose this is somebody's idea of a joke. Probably those two disreputable kids we saw."

Elizabeth glanced back at them as she kept watch. "Getting a signal?"

"Four signals," she hesitated knowing John was not going to be much impressed with the rest of what she had to say. "They've split up, one signal is miles away from the others."

"Stick together, don't wander off. Twice as many groups is twice as hard to find." John cynically recited the line from the safety briefing everyone had to sit through every time they got into a passenger spacecraft. "I always thought it was pointless to repeat that stuff time after time after time. But they do, and people still don't listen."

"It isn't going to be a problem if they've stayed in telepathic contact," Carol pointed out.

John was not about to be reassured. "As stupid as these people seem to be, I wouldn't count on it. Anyway, as little time as we have, we can't afford to take a chance. We have no choice, we have to split up and go after all of them.


~And on the way down, I tell you, there are some weird people hike in the Lake District. These three, dressed like they stepped straight out of the 1970s. I thought Jake was about to burst a gut laughing. And the matching belts, wow, just, disturbing. You know 1970s retro came and went, and these were like pensioners, they looked like they did the 1970s thing the first time round. So how are you doing?~ Damon asked.

Kristen was still in the makeshift medical facility that had been set up at the farmhouse, still stood by the door keeping watch, still surprised they'd made it this long without being found out. Chatting with Damon was keeping her helpfully distracted. ~Don't know, he's busy doing weird medical stuff. I don't understand. Seems to know what he's doing. So where are you now?~

~We got done, headed back to the square, where we were suppose to be meeting you about now.~

~Yeah. This has taken a lot longer than I figured it would. Look, okay, hold on, I'm sensing people approaching. I'll get back to you, don't go away.~ Kristen looked across at Kal who was still working away. She hated interrupting him, but there was definitely someone out there in the corridor headed their way. ~Kal, trouble, I think we've got company.~

Kal stayed focussed. ~A few more minutes.~

The door handle turned, someone was trying to get in.

~We don't have a few more minutes.~

Kristen could hear shouting in the corridor outside. "It's been locked from the other side. Key's still in. Raise the alarm."

~Kal, time's up.~

~One more minute, I'm trying to get a reading from this stupid monitor thing. I don't understand the calibration, but I should be able to judge relative settings, I still need to fine tune the oxygen levels. It's close but I can do better.~

~They're in worse shit if we don't stay alive.~

~Get a reverse lock on the transponder then. Start the process of jaunting us out of here.~

Kristen picked up the transponder, she was nervous, she wasn't really sure what she was doing. She could see the woods, well, she was pretty sure it was the woods, but she couldn't hold the focus. She lost focus completely when there was a sudden loud, abrupt crunching sound from outside.

~What the hell was that?~ Kal jumped.

The noise came again. ~Axe, something like that. They're trying to smash through the lock.~ The door was now jammed against the desk, but that wasn't going to hold long.

~Alright, I'm done. I hope.~ Kal joined her in the middle of the room as the assault continued. The lock had given way and they were now targeting the door itself. There was another crash as the door was rammed hard, shifting the desk a few centimeters.

~I can't keep my focus, they'll be in here before...~ Kristen was shaking.

~Shit. Take my hands, let me try.~ Kal tried to take the transponder from Kristen but she fumbled and dropped it.

There was another attempt at the door. This time the desk was pushed far enough out of the way for them to be able to get in, the door had bounced back shut, there was a pause as the soldiers outside prepared to storm the room.

Kristen reached down for the transponder, but Kal stopped her. ~No time. Plan B. Call Jake, Damon now.~

Kristen was clueless but followed instructions. ~Jake...~

Kal seized the telepathic link almost as soon as she had established it. ~Jake, Damon. Visualize. Show us where you are. Now.~

~What?~ Kristen had lost her connection with what was going on.

~Can you see where they are?~ Kal prompted her.

~Yes.~

~Easy as line of sight, just lock on to their line of sight. Don't stop, don't think, just jaunt.~


Sierpinski ran into the room. Hours of nothing happening, then all the excitement had come at once. The web site for her cats was going to have to wait. She wasn't sure she ought to be this excited when things were going wrong, but they were going wrong in ways no one seemed to understand, that was the kind of challenge she lived for. "Report, Lieutenant," she tried to catch her breath.

"This was on the floor when we entered the room." The Lieutenant held up the dropped transponder. "Identical to the two we found in the occupied capsules, and missing from the unoccupied capsules. No question, the two other survivors, the ones who escaped, they were here."

"How the hell did they get in?" Sierpinski looked around the room, looking for cameras. These were makeshift facilities but there still should have been cameras. "Surveillance?"

"Nothing in here. Nearest cameras were out in the hall, we've been through every frame. No one in, no one out."

Bloody typical, no cameras in the one place they needed them. She took a deep breath and resisted her desire to have somebody strung up for that, there was no point now. Probably no point. "We sure they've gone?"

"Infrared sweep of the place, seeing nothing."

"Like you saw nothing on the cameras? Which means you don't know," she didn't bother concealing her irritation.

"We can't be sure of anything."

"How did they get out?"

"This room was sealed from the inside. We had to force our way in. There was no one in there when we entered the room."

Sierpinski looked around again. There was no other way in or out, nothing. "So their ability to escape was as miraculous as their ability to get in?"

"Pretty much."

"Complete disaster, then," she summed up.

The Lieutenant was sounding nervous, defensive. "You gave orders to restrict access to the buildings to those who had a need to know. We didn't have the coverage we needed inside here. But the area is surrounded, we're double strength on the outside, that should have compensated."

"It's okay," Sierpinski wasn't in a mood to dwell on failure. "I'm not looking to blame anyone right now. Partly my fault for allowing us a lunch break. But I want to make sure we're more prepared next time. The need for containment no longer justifying the risks. I want you to get these two out of here and somewhere a lot more secure. I want that happening within the hour. Until then, surveillance in here at all times, and identify where else we're lacking. Anything you miss, next time I will hold you responsible for."

"Understood."

"What else, Lieutenant? You've covered the facts, give me some more."

"The indication is that they dropped this device accidentally. I don't see it being left for any reason."

"Unless it's some kind of surveillance device of theirs..." Sierpinski pointed out.

The Lieutenant nodded and the transponder was quickly removed from the room. It was clear he thought the precaution unnecessary though. "It was dropped rather than placed or concealed. I think they were interrupted, I think they left in a hurry."

"I think they'll be back, don't you?"

"I would say that's a certainty."

Sierpinski was troubled. A full scale military lock down and all her precautions had been little more than an irritation to these people. Who the hell were they? There were very few foreign powers with the capacity to pull off something quite as impressive, and thankfully those that were, they were all friendly. So why had no one owned up yet? What the hell were they up to? How had they even found their way to the farmhouse? Did they have some way of tracking the capsules?

She'd given the Doctor long enough. "So, Doctor. What exactly were they doing in in here? And how long were they in here for?"

Doctor Vidal was still busy examining the patients, he didn't seem to appreciate the interruption. He answered without breaking his concentration on the task in hand. "You know exactly how long we were eating pizza for. They had twenty minutes access at most."

"What exactly do they appear to have spent that time doing," she persisted, she wasn't going to allow the Doctor to ignore her.

"What I was planning to do. Only better."

"How?"

The Doctor finally stopped and looked at her. "Beats the hell out of me." He gestured at the equipment that was stacked up against the wall. "They modified the oxygenator, it's hooked into the suits the patients are wearing. I would have hooked it directly into the patients, but, this way is clearly less invasive which is good. I don't pretend to understand how it's working, but the readings speak for themselves. Oxygenation has increased by about 30%. That's enough to keep them alive indefinitely. They came in here and they saved the lives of these two patients, and right now I feel a little bit like a witch-doctor in comparison."

Sierpinski pondered the revelation for a moment. Was the Doctor devious enough to have made that all up to get around her orders? Had he faked all this before heading across for lunch? Well, if he had, he'd made her life a whole lot easier. "Looks like they saved me from a very difficult decision, Doctor. However, from now on I want those patients under round the clock surveillance. Sorry if that gets in your way, but deal with it. And get prepared to move them out."

The Doctor frowned at her. He had guessed at her suspicions. "I'm not in the habit of lying, I didn't do this. And you're Lieutenant is damned right, they'll be back. You'd better know what you're doing, you're playing a dangerous game here."

Sierpinski stared at him coldly. "I'm playing to win, and I hold the aces."

"And what if their idea of poker is to pull a gun on you and taking the aces back by force?"

She smiled gently. "They didn't though, Doctor, did they? They came in and they spent all their time attending to the medical needs of their comrades. If they'd had any way of getting those two out of here, they'd have done it already. The conclusion is that they're either unable or unwilling to do that right now. And that is where we've got them."

"Got them for what? What exactly do you plan to do with them if you capture them?"

"Not your concern Doctor. Just keep your focus on your two patients there."

Doctor Vidal glared at her. "In my opinion you're provoking an unnecessary confrontation."

"Doctor, as freely as they are able to wander in and out of this place, if they'd wanted to confront us, we'd have been confronted already," she informed him dismissively.

He had nothing further to add. Sierpinski turned and left.

The Lieutenant was waiting for her out in the corridor.

"I just wanted to verify, you still want to go ahead with the recovery operation at that shop?"

She hesitated for a moment. Was she wasting resources there? Would it be better to focus entirely on guarding the two patients? It would help to know what she was guarding them from. "Go ahead with that. But I think we can scale down the search operation. There's no point engaging in a prolonged and costly pursuit when we know that at some point they are going to have to come back here. They have no choice in the end. Focus all the resources on ensuring the two patients are secure. Everything."

"Understood."

Sierpinski tried to keep her perspective. The objective of the two survivors in entering the farmhouse had been one of medical intervention, they'd avoided any confrontation. Which was bloody lucky, because if these people had been interested in confrontation, there wasn't likely very much that Elaine Sierpinski could have done about it. And she didn't appreciate feeling vulnerable like that.


Damon watched as Kal and Kristen materialized right in front of them. ~How the hell did you do that?~ he asked incredulously. Kal was listening. Jake meanwhile was glancing around, worried that someone might have seen them arrive. Thankfully the town square was completely deserted.

It was also starting to get dark, the sun had just dipped over the horizon and the sky was a spectacular scarlet. The beauty of it was completely lost on Kal and Kristen. Kal was pacing anxiously, shaking his head. ~We lost the transponder. Shit.~

Jake tried to calm him. ~You're out of there safely, that's all that matters. How are the others?~

~Stable. For now.~ Kal responded.

Damon seemed stuck on his original question. ~How did you jaunt here? It isn't line of sight.~

~It was line of sight, your sight. Apparently that's good enough,~ Kristen explained, wishing the circumstances had allowed her a better opportunity to be smug about knowing something Damon and Jake hadn't.

~They're stable, you're out. What's the problem?~ Jake was trying to understand why Kal was still so upset.

Kristen volunteered a little more information. ~Not as easy to rescue. We unhook Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan from that machine they're plugged into, they won't last long.~

~I could have done better if I'd had more time.~ Kal reminder her.

Jake was more pragmatic. ~You kept them alive, that buys us time.~ He looked up at Kal, the guy was exhausted, burning energy, energy he just didn't have any more.

~But without the transponder we can't get back there,~ Kristen could see what was really bothering Kal.

~There's still the transponder you left in the woods,~ Damon pointed out.

Kal stopped pacing, ~You're right. We need to get that back. We can still do this. Come on, we'll go...~

Jake shook his head. ~It gets dark fast around here, we'll never make it tonight. We need food, we need sleep. We can start again at first light. You said yourself you think their condition is stable for now. Right now we have to take care of ourselves, right? Sod it, Kal, you're a medic, you know this shit. You haven't eaten or slept properly in over twenty-four hours. You aren't going to be able to help anyone if you drive yourself past the point where your body just gives out.~

Kal glared back. But somewhere in there, Jake's rant had gotten through to him. ~Right. You're right,~ he reluctantly accepted.

There was finally a pause as they all recovered breath. Jake and Damon pulled out Jake's cellphone and started looking at options for a place to stay for the night. Kristen had walked off across the square and was standing alone wondering what the hell had happened to her. Jake had told her to be careful, wishing for a little more craziness in her life. He was right. Crazy wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Kal wandered over to join her. She ignored him, continuing to stare blankly at the cenotaph.

~What is that?~ He asked, looking for something to say.

~Memorial, names of fallen soldiers~

~These primitives celebrate war?~

Kristen glanced across at Kal. She'd sensed a fragment of shock, the concept of war really was so totally alien to him. Kristen looked back at the list of names, she shared his confusion. She wasn't exactly sure herself how people could fight.

~They did at one time,~ she tried to explain, ~but these stand as much a reminder of the sacrifice, of the price they pay for conflict.~

~They've learned?~

~Not yet, not really,~ she admitted.

She could sense Kal picking up the names she was reading. And their ages.

~These are mostly kids, barely any older than us,~ Kal whispered uncomfortably. He was finding it hard to deal with what he was seeing.

~Welcome to our world.~

~They say that in our past we were the same, barbaric, sometimes I wondered if those were just stories to scare little children,~ he continued to stare at the name on the cenotaph.

~Giving kids guns, forcing them to kill each other. I can't even begin to imagine what that must be like, I couldn't do it.~

~None of us could. Not in anger, not for revenge, not to protect ourselves. That's the prime barrier, isn't it. War is not something any telepath like us is ever really going to understand. But these humans, they seem far too primitive to understand the futility of conflict, they have no concept of reason.~

~They try to understand reason,~ Kristen argued, ~but when reason fails, they fall back on violence. They're insecure, they struggle to understand what a conscience really is. They lash out against those they disagree with, destroying anything that doesn't fit with their narrow ideas of what 'right' is.~

~And Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan are at the mercy of primitives like that. Not really reassuring is it?~

~The relay beacon is activated. Help is on the way.~ Kristen pointed out. She put an arm round his shoulder. ~The others are in a stable condition, and you're safe with us. I'm not saying things are great. But they could be a lot worse, we're still free.~

Kal caught the edge of concern in her thoughts. ~What would the humans do to us if they catch us?~ he asked quietly.

Kristen shook her head. ~I don't know. Maybe it's better not knowing,~ she started, but she could see that wasn't enough of an answer to satisfy Kal. ~Look, if you really want to understand the depths of the human ability for inhumanity, just ask Damon about the scars some time.~


~Bad news.~ John reported from the clearing in the woods near the car park. ~I've found the transponder abandoned in the woods not that far away from where we were sat looking at the maps. It's in a clearing, but out of the way, concealed. I would say this was set up as a relay jaunting point. A secure location for the others to jaunt to if they regained consciousness and had any way of making an escape. But there's no one here now, whoever was here has been scared off. Bit of a dead end.~

~Not much better here, I'm afraid.~ Carol replied.

~We tracked the transponders down to an old farmhouse where they have all four of the capsules. We didn't want to risk getting too close just yet, but from what we can tell they seem to have soldiers everywhere. There's a lot of activity.~

~There's no way we can tell how far they've managed to get with their investigation,~ Elizabeth continued the report. ~We're registering two of the capsules with transponders still inside, the third transponder is nearby, looks like it might have been removed for investigation.~

John digested the bad news. ~You don't abandon all your transponders. I don't care how stupid you are, not by choice. I think we might have maligned the crash survivors unfairly. I think we can assume that they are now in the hands of the Earth authorities, and judging by the security they have around that place, it won't be easy getting them out.~

Elizabeth agreed, ~Especially as we can't track the survivors themselves, the idea is we track the transponders. If the survivors have become separated from the transponders then there's almost no hope of us getting to them in time.~

~We couldn't see any obvious sign of them in there,~ Carol tried to clarify, ~but as many people as there are milling around in that place, it would have been easy to miss them.~

~We do know that at least one must have escaped, the one who managed to place this capsule in the woods.~ John reminded them both.

~Who happens to have run off as well.~ Elizabeth pointed out.

Carol shook her head. ~They act like they don't want to be rescued.~

~In fairness, I think it's more likely they don't want to get caught by the saps.~ John observed diplomatically.

~They must have panicked. They must have felt threatened.~ Carol was getting herself upset.

Elizabeth tried to console her. ~Is it any surprise the way we use stories of closed worlds to scare kids with?~

John remained pragmatic as always. ~If they ran, then there's nothing at all we can do for them. Except hope that they stayed in contact with each other.~

~And if they didn't, what hope then?~ Carol asked.

John shrugged. ~Practically none, I'm afraid.~ This wasn't the time to be giving anyone false hope.

~And I was hoping you could cheer me up.~

John stayed focussed on their way forward. ~Look, everything converges back on that farm house. The survivors must know that's where we'll head. With a little luck whoever it was that escaped is watching the place themselves as well. And if that fails, then we'll give up on the transponders and put all our efforts into converting the relay beacon to send out a telepathic distress call of our own, give them a way of contacting us. We're certainly not giving up yet.~

~It's getting dark. We aren't going to achieve anything more tonight.~ Elizabeth observed practically.

~We'll just have to hope tomorrow turns out to be a better day than today was.~ John concluded.

Carol didn't need to be reminded. ~It has to be. Twenty-six hours is all we have remaining.~


Elaine Sierpinski jumped out of the helicopter without waiting for the formal all clear from the pilot. She didn't have time for that.

The farm buildings had now been evacuated except for a light force keeping watch on the equipment that had been left there, and a token group of investigators working on the four capsules. Work that wasn't showing much in the way of results, the capsules were extremely effective at resisting investigation. Sierpinski had insisted on that work staying where it was, she had a few suspicions herself about the purpose of the transponders and keeping them where they were seemed like a prudent idea.

She shielded her eyes and tried to look up. There were lights on in windows in the distance, an open door. The floodlights on the helipad were blinding and it was tough to make out much of the military base in the darkness beyond. There were a lot of people milling around, that much she could see for certain, too many people. At least the farm house had been remote and anonymous. Security had it's price.

The Lieutenant was waiting for her as she reached the reception area adjoining the helipad. The Lieutenant actually looked happy. It was the first time she had seen him happy. "Talk to me," she prompted him, momentarily ignoring the makeshift welcome the base had laid on for her.

"I think we hit the jackpot," he informed her quietly.

She nodded, she had to get the formalities over quickly. Sierpinski acknowledged the base commander before quickly interrupting her to get directions to the facilities they'd assigned her. Ignoring any further attempts at conversation she headed out, followed closely by the Lieutenant. Once she was sure they were out of earshot she prompted him to resume his explanation.

He handed her two photographic printouts. "The images are poor quality, but look at this. I would say that is a pretty exact match on the silver suits the other two are wearing."

"Agreed," Sierpinski smiled, the Lieutenant's joy had not been misplaced. This was the best breakthrough they'd had all day. She flicked through to the other photograph he'd handed her.

"That's what they were dressed in when they left," he indicated. "And better than that, and I can give you this..." He handed over two more printouts he'd been holding back for dramatic effect. "Best composite images we could dig out. These are the faces of the two we're looking for."

She grabbed at the pictures impatiently, she didn't appreciate dramatic gestures. The pictures were blurred, pixellated, but more than good enough for her purposes. "Thank you Lieutenant. This is exactly what I needed. I can use this."

She stared at the two unremarkable faces. Young, very young, she looked closer, the boy couldn't be much older than seventeen, the girl was younger. The two of them were barely more than children, how could two children, on the run with practically no resources, have caused her this much trouble? Sierpinski looked more closely at the photograph of the girl, the girl who had spoken English. Dressed like just any other tourist, and out there somewhere, watching, waiting. There was no indication at all that these kids were dangerous, but they clearly weren't in the Lake District on a sight seeing tour.

And if two bloody kids could make idiots of all the military and medical expertise she could throw at them, then what the hell would the team of the four of them have been capable of if things hadn't gone wrong?

The thought made Sierpinski nervous. Maybe her Code Black Special instruction hadn't been so over cautious after all.

She had to think, she had to come up with a way of to locate them without causing a public panic, at least no worse a public panic than there already was. She paused, deep in thought. Actually, no, a public panic was exactly what she needed... As long as it was a panic she could control. Elaine Sierpinski smiled.

"Lieutenant, assemble a press team. I want this story ready to go in under an hour. Let's make life difficult for them. Let's co-opt the public into helping us track them down. Two innocent hikers were given the all clear, but it turns out they might have been contaminated after all. I want the story on every front page of every newspaper in the country tomorrow morning."

That would get things jumping. That was the kind of strategic maneuvering they paid her for. Now she could perhaps allow herself the luxury of grabbing a few hours sleep, there were facilities to grab a shower and more importantly she'd be able to find a camp bed to lie down on. She figured she had to take the opportunity while she had it. Sunday was going to be another busy day.


We Were Worried About Kristen Corrupting Him?

Jake and Damon wandered back to where Kal and Kristen were sitting on a bench down by the little river that ran through the town. It was dark already, and the town was silent to the point it was getting creepy.

Kristen jumped up and walked to catch up with them arriving. Kal remained on the bench, looking distinctly tired by now.

"I got rooms, no problem at all. Even got a discount. With the radiation scare they're having trouble giving rooms away right now," Jake informed them.

Kristen looked up, finally feeling like she could ask the question she hadn't dared address earlier. "What about the sleeping arrangements?"

"We'd have got separate rooms for all us, but we couldn't afford it. Best I could see when I checked, Kal is definitely a boy-alien, so, single room for you, family room for the rest of us." Damon handed her the key.

"Protecting your virtue is our pleasure." Jake joked.

"Thanks." Kristen replied, not all that thankfully. She nodded at where Kal was sat on the bench. "But the guy hasn't had a single inappropriate thought about me all day, and, you know, I notice these things being able to read minds. Me, I think he bends the other way, maybe it's you two aren't safe."

"Jake's safe anywhere, Jake doesn't bend either way."

"Piss off Damon."

Damon ignored him and filled Kristen in on the rest of their plans. "We're also thinking it'd be safer for Kal to wait down here, we'll check in to the rooms, then he can jaunt up. No sense in more people seeing him than needed."

Kristen agreed. "Makes sense. You mind if I hang out here with him while you two do that."

Jake eyed her like an over-protective parent and tried to keep a straight face. "Promise you won't try and take advantage of him while we're gone?"

"No." Kristen answered back bluntly. Jake laughed.

Damon shrugged. "Scary thing is, it's quiet enough out here you could probably get away with it."


Kristen sat back down next to Kal. Much as she would have liked to get away with something, he was looking too knackered to be up to it. "You okay? You look like you're shivering."

The sunset had faded into twilight, it had cooled off sharply since the unseasonable warmth of the afternoon, there was an appreciable autumn chill in the air. But Kal was well bundled up against the elements, there was no reason for him to be that cold.

Kal leaned back in the seat. ~I've been on an adrenaline rush since the crash. I think I'm starting to come down from that. I can't stop shivering, but I'm not cold. I can't seem to keep focussed properly, but I'm not feeling as tired as I should be. We didn't exactly sleep much last night. And I'm hungry, I'm actually starving. Managed to suppress that all day but if I don't eat soon then I won't be able to function and I can't afford that.~

"Yeah." Kristen was caught up in her own thoughts of the last twenty four hours. "I didn't even get to finish my fish and chips last night."

~Fish and chips?~ Kal enquired.

"Traditional Earth cuisine. Tell you what, that's what we'll eat tonight."

~Yeah, okay.~

"Not getting you enthusiastic am I?"

He smiled apologetically. ~It's not your fault, I'm just stressed out. I figure that's going to get worse before it gets better. But hey, in ten days I'll be a million miles from here. I'll get through it.~

Kristen could sense some of what he had on his mind. "The problems of being kicked out of school seem pretty pathetic in comparison don't they?"

"No shit," Kal pronounced the words clumsily.

Kristen wasn't pleased. "Oh great. Bloody Jake and Damon. What the hell have they been teaching you?"

Kal was intrigued by her indignation. ~It's a pretty interesting language. These humans can't sense emotion so they try to describe feelings using words. They've actually co-opted language as a means to compensate for their disability.~

The observation intrigued Kristen. She loved studying languages, and it had always fascinated her the way the words themselves tried and failed so often to convey nuance and passion. With telepathy she could sense those feelings directly, spoken language in some ways became obsolete. From that way of looking at, human speech was a primitive second best. "You're right," she mused. "Words aren't really that accurate a way of communicating at all. Misunderstandings happen all the time, and they cause so much conflict, so much pain."

~Come on, what do you expect? They're barely a step above savage animals. You can't expect them to understand reason.~

~They're not animals, they're human beings. They're...~

~...Alright, half way between us and animals, if you want to be generous.~ Kal interrupted. ~But you know, you're not a human being. You sometimes seem confused about that. I know you've spent your whole life forced to live like a human, but that doesn't make you one of them. You're nothing like them, I mean, they have no concept of shared consciousness...~

"...And I do?" Kristen asked, unsure of herself.

~Yes. You do. I can see it your mind that you do.~

"Some of them are good people," Kristen tried to argue.

Kal spoke gently, trying to soften the blow of what he had to point out to her. ~Then why exactly are you hiding like this? Hiding who you are, even from the humans you call friends. Why are Jake and Damon scared so shitless of being caught by the humans? Why am I on the run and fighting for my life here?~

Kristen shook her head. She had no answers.


Damon materialized in the bedroom at the bed and breakfast and whooped out loud. "That is buggeringly cool."

Kristen and Kal stared at him blankly.

"Hey, look, first time I ever jaunted somewhere I couldn't see. Let me have my moment of excitement."

They continued to stare at him blankly.

Jake shook his head condescendingly, grabbed the plastic bag from Damon and started checking the contents. "Three cod, one fishcake, two large chips, two small chips and a tub of curry sauce. Salt and vinegar on two of the fish, vinegar only on one of the large chips, no salt and vinegar at all on one of the small chips. I'm impressed you didn't screw up little boy. And cherry coke for everyone."

Kristen grabbed for her cod and small chips. "We just eating in here?" She asked unenthusiastically.

The room was fairly basic, but it looked comfortable enough. It had an en suite bathroom at least. Two single beds, the third was a pull out camp bed. Damon frowned, he could guess which poor bastard would end up sleeping on that thing. But he could see her point. The bedroom wasn't a great place to eat, there wasn't really the space in there for the four of them to fit comfortably. They'd have been better heading back down to the river, or sitting in the town square to eat, but no way was Kal going to be up to walking or even jaunting that far, the poor guy was dead on his feet. Plus by the time they got anywhere the chips would be cold. It was a pity the bed and breakfast didn't have a garden out back where they could sit.

Damon hesitated, and then smiled. "Okay, I have a idea!" He thoughtfully pulled open the curtains and stared out onto the flat rooftop. It was crazy, but he'd done crazier.

"You're nuts," Kristen stared at him even more blankly than she had a moment earlier.

"It's fine," he argued, "Jake's getting better with heights, kind of. And I had a look out there earlier, before you two jaunted up here, it's safe. Better than sitting inside, and less effort than having to go anywhere."

"Eating fish and chips on the roof?" Kristen repeated slowly.

"Less nuts than eating them on the beach at night in November," Jake cautiously defended Damon, he liked the concept even if he was a bit unsure about the reality of dealing with the height of the roof.

"Less nuts, sure." Kristen shook her head. "Why is it that sanity is only ever 'relatively speaking' when you two are around?"

Damon just grinned back sadistically.


The flat roof overlooked an alleyway at the back of the house. The alleyway was unlit and there was very little they could make out in the darkness down there, but then there wasn't anything down there worth seeing. On one side of them the roof sloped upwards, and on the side opposite the window there was a large chimney. Beyond that it was hard to see, but it looked like the roof might continue on around the side of the building, none of them were anxious to go exploring in the dark, Jake in particular had stayed as close to the open window as possible.

What mattered, though, was that there was more than enough space out there to sit, and just enough light escaping from the bedroom window for them to eat fish and chips by. There was space to eat, and time to talk.

"E-akub," Kal pronounced the name. ~Means 'the trusted one'. From the mythological characters of E-akub and E-ed, the trusted one and the betrayer.~

~I like that.~ Jake stated, a slightly wicked hint of irony is his eyes.

~And me?~

"Dam-on," Kal smirked. ~Companion of the Gods.~

Jake laughed out loud. ~Shit, you can't tell him that. His head's big enough as it is.~

~Hey, I kind of like it.~ Damon complained.

Kal stuffed more chips in his mouth. Aliens clearly had no concept of it being rude to talk with your mouth full. ~It is big headed. That's why it isn't that common a name. The Habiruan are the only ones ever go there, and even they don't call their kids that very often.~

"Hab-ir-u-an," Damon tried to copy the name. ~Malodorous plundering abusers from the sky? Polite.~

~Unfair. Intentionally so, I think it was an insult way back in history. They just adopted the name, rehabilitated it. The words are the same, but the meaning becomes reversed by the way you use it.~

~So who are they?~ Kristen asked.

~They're the outsiders. I mean, we're all children of the flood. They just act like the rest of us lost the plot. They follow the old ways, some of them are pretty extreme about that, they won't even recognize the authority of the Trig. Most are pretty ordinary, normal people though, just, a bit old fashioned in their attitudes. They're strong on self-discipline, a lot of kids are attracted to that these days, there's a big revival movement. Of course the extremists don't recognize converts, they believe you're born Habiruan, it's an identity, not a lifestyle.~

~Extremists? The factions fight?~ Kristen didn't quite understand. It didn't fit with everything else Kal had been telling her about aliens. She could see there was no context of conflict attached to the word the way Kal was thinking it... Kal was right, she'd been living around humans far too long. Kal didn't answer, he didn't even appear to understand the question again.

Damon picked up the challenge. ~When humans think their own way of life is the best, they have this tendency to try and impose those ideas on others.~

~Why does it matter how other people choose to live their lives?~

~They're forever afraid that those others might try to impose that different way of life on them, I suppose.~

~So they're afraid of other humans because they know what complete bastards they are themselves?~

~That about sums it up.~ Damon agreed.

~I suppose all animals are dangerous when they're insecure, when they feel threatened. Violence is an instinctive last resort, from a survival point of view I suppose lashing out is better than failing.~

~We've got a whole planet of that here.~ Jake admitted.

~But people like us, we're not like that, we don't get dangerous when we're frightened or threatened. We're no danger to anyone.~ Kristen pointed out.

Kal shrugged. ~Exactly. That's what separates us from the animals.~

~Human extremists are a problem because they're human, not because they're extremist.~ Damon summed up.

~Now me,~ Kal smirked, ~I've spent too much time around the Habiruan. It's a Habiruan school I'm at. The fundamentalists believe all medics should be celibate. The school is pretty liberal for Habiruan, they just believe medical students should be celibate. I'm not saying I don't understand their reasons, some of their arguments are pretty valid, it does impact your ability to manipulate telekinetic fields, I just...~

~Got kicked out.~ Jake reminded him bluntly.

~Wouldn't have been that big a deal, I just lost my head. Sick of being told what to do. Said something I probably shouldn't have.~

~What the hell did you say?~ Damon asked.

"Ges-dug-usu."

~To the school principal? Shit, dude.~ Damon was laughing.

Kal was sheepish. ~If I want to go back I'm going to have to apologize for that one. But I'm going to have to mean it, and I'm, still got issues there. That's why I needed to get away. Just get away and think. Hopped a passenger shuttle home. Then it gets damaged in a gamma radiation storm, gets blown off course out of control, I wind up here...~ he gestured. "Ki-asilal."

~Welcome to Earth, friend!~ Damon joked snarkily.

Kristen watched Kal intently. She could sense some of what he was hearing telepathically reflected back. The process intrigued her. ~So when he said 'Earth', you heard that as 'home'? That's confusing.~

Kal disagreed. ~That's how you understand the word. The name of the place has no meaning to you other than as 'home'.~

~And your name for this place...~ she persisted.

"Ki-asilal." Kal repeated it.

~Just means 'the land far away'. Which is what you say because you have no clue where the hell you are.~

~Right. Kind of scary that if I stop to think about it. I could be on any random one of a thousand planets in this sector of the galaxy. I have no sodding clue. ~

~There's a universe of wonder out there.~ Jake observed cynically. ~And we, it turns out, live on planet so far off the beaten track that nobody out there gives a shit. Kind of puts life in perspective, that.~


~Chips are gone, coke's gone.~ Damon observed.

~I'd be gone if I could be arsed to get up and head to bed right now.~ Jake concurred.

~We got a plan for tomorrow yet?~ Kristen asked. Jake hated making plans and Damon didn't care about making plans, but on this occasion she felt the need to push them.

~Get up at the butt crack of dawn to get the transponder back.~ Damon threw out.

~And then,~ Jake added, ~I suggest, we do nothing. Get out of here. By lunch time we make like we're driving back from Hawley Lake to your place. We get Kal as far away from here as we can. What's the range of those transponder things?~

~Planetary.~ Kal confirmed. He could sense Jake was nervous about something. ~You worried?~

~I just know bad things are going to happen if we stick around here too long. Sooner we're a long way from here, the better I'll feel.~

~What about Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan?~ Kristen asked, not wanting anyone to forget about them.

Jake had considered that. ~Kal says they're safe for now. We go barging in there, the military's bound to be waiting for us this time. We'll just end up getting caught ourselves, and right now we don't dare take them out of there anyway, because that'll kill them.~

~So we just do nothing?~ Kristen sounded unconvinced.

~We're good at doing that.~ Damon piped up. He had wandered around the other side of the chimney and it sounded like he was peeing in the gutter.

Kristen frowned. Usually she could deal with his attitude, but right now she was feeling frustrated. She was desperately tired, she needed sleep.

Jake noted her irritation and kept his tone more serious. ~We need to protect Kal until the rescue ship turns up. Then we look at what resources that gives us. That's when we look at mounting a rescue attempt.~

Kristen persisted. ~That could be days. You have no idea what could happen to the others by the time a rescue ship gets here.~

Kal shook his head. ~No we don't, but Jake's right. We go in there again without backup, we're just going to make things worse.~

Kristen reluctantly backed down. She wanted to go on arguing, but she could see there wasn't any point. ~I need sleep,~ she confessed. ~You guys make sure you clear up the mess.~

~We'll bring it all in. Damon, come away from the bloody edge, you're freaking me out here.~

~I'm fine.~ Damon reassured him flippantly, zipping himself up as he came back around from behind the chimney. ~There's a trash can down there, I bet I can hit it from here.~

~Ten quid says not.~ Jake stared at him.

Kristen finally let her frustration out. ~I don't believe you guys. Has the concept of growing up a little never occurred to you?~

~No.~ Damon fired back.

~I don't want to know, I don't want anything to do with this. If you do anything stupid, I'm not with you. I'm going to bed.~ Kristen complained. She could see she wasn't going to talk them out of it. She glanced across at Kal hoping to get some moral support but he was grinning at the idea of the challenge, she felt somewhat disappointed.

~I'm going to try with one cold chip, see if I can get the aim.~ Damon threw the chip over and missed completely. Seconds later there was a fluttering and a large bird swooped up and over the rooftop.

Kal had been trying to stand up, and he stumbled as the bird flew past right in front of him. His reaction however was completely out of proportion.

~Hey, don't freak, it's just an owl,~ Kristen grabbed Kal's arm to steady him.

"Ua igi-Gal nu-igi-gub," he muttered defensively, almost ritualistically.

Damon looked up, puzzled. ~Why isn't the telepathy translating that properly? Sounded like 'You can look at the owls, but you cannot see them.' Which, if you don't mind me saying, is complete bollocks.

Kal-umun stared at them both quizzically. ~Owls are things of myth and legend. They aren't real.~

~I thought with telepathy we couldn't be at cross purposes here. But I get the distinct impression one of us is very confused about owls,~ Jake observed.

~Got it that time!~ Damon had succeeded in getting the remains of the chips into the trash.

~You okay?~ Kristen asked Kal as he slowly sat down again.

~Yeah, just stood up too quickly, felt a little dizzy. I'll be fine. You look tired. Go to bed. I'll be fine.~

Kristen smiled at him protectively, but he believed what he was saying, she was reassured. ~Butt crack of dawn then?~

~Yeah, you may need to come bang on the door to wake us up.~ Damon informed her as he returned to sit back with the others.

Kristen shook her head as she departed. ~I don't know what's worse. The fact that you're both useless, or the fact you seem to take pride in being useless.~


~So what do we do now?~ Damon was lying down on a rug they'd pulled out of the room. Despite their intention to head back inside, they were all still on the roof.

~Go to bed I guess.~ Jake answered.

~Right. So, now?~ Kal agreed.

~We're thinking about it.~ Damon replied.

~We're just too lazy to actually do anything about it.~ Jake explained.

All three of them continued to lie there motionless.

~I'm not really tired to be honest. It's only nine thirty.~ Damon admitted.

Jake glanced across at Kal. The guy was looking fatigued, very fatigued. If Jake hadn't known the radiation story was a fraud then he might actually have started worrying about the guy. But the guy had survived an exploding spaceship, crashed on the planet and been on the run without much sleep, it was no bloody wonder the guy looked knackered. Even aliens clearly weren't superhuman.

~Any coke left in the room?~ Damon asked.

~No.~ Jake replied.

~So, coke, right, earth delicacy?~ Kal started cautiously. He'd liked the fish and chips, but...

~You didn't like it.~ Jake read his mind.

~It's okay I guess. I just feel like I need to be drinking something stronger.~

Damon grinned an evil grin. ~What we need is to introduce Kal here to another Earth delicacy called beer.~

Jake smiled an equally evil smile. ~Got some of that hidden in the car if you want to go pick it up. And we were worried about Kristen corrupting him.~


Kal opened his second can of Boddingtons, feeling somewhat happy. Alcohol was the only thing school frowned on more than it did sex. It also relaxed him, which was something he really needed chemical assistance with right now. As much as he had agreed that abandoning the others was the right thing to do at this point, like Kristen he couldn't stop thinking about them.

~They'll be fine, mate.~ Jake responded to the unspoken concern. ~Seriously, nothing is going happen to them while they're on life support. That's probably keeping them alive in more ways than one right now. Got to have them healthy to experiment on.~

Kal wished he hadn't sensed so much truth underlying the humor there, but the reassurance was helpful in the short term. Beyond that, the rescue ship would turn up and they'd all be out of there safely. Jake was right, there wasn't any point getting worked up about it. Jake and Damon had more reason to worry, they were stuck on the planet permanently.

~So what's the deal with the limp?~ Kal asked hesitantly. ~The humans do that to you? And Kristen said something about scars. It's just, scars heal, right?~

Damon looked away.

Kal closed his eyes, more than a little freaked by what he'd sensed Damon thinking about. ~You two got held prisoner by humans, experimented on?~

Jake clarified. ~He got experimented on. I just got shot up trying to escape.~

Kal let his professional curiosity get the better of him. ~Would...?~ he wasn't quite sure how to frame the question.

Jake hesitated for a moment. ~Sure, why not.~ He sat up and pulled his shirt off. ~Just don't take long, it's too bloody cold to sit out here half naked like this right now.~

Kal sat up and pulled a small disc like object from his pocket. ~Data storage, computer,~ he explained, anticipating Jake's question. ~But here I'm just using it as a flashlight so I can see.~

Jake could see the puzzled look on Kal's face as he inspected the damage.

~What causes bone fragmentation like that?~ Kal was staring, ~Mind if I?...~

~Go ahead.~ Jake offered.

Kal reached out and traced his fingers across Jake's shoulder. ~No offense, but they made a shit job of patching you up.~

~The monkeys? They tried. I'm not complaining. Anyway, if you think that's bad, you want to check out my knee.~ Jake joked.

~Yeah, I will. And damage like that is no joke, dude.~ Kal waited while Jake pulled his shirt back on and his pants off. ~I don't get it. You actually let humans patch you up after other humans did this to you in the first place.~

~There weren't really any options.~ Jake pointed out. ~Anyway, Kristen's right, most of them aren't dangerous, just a bit limited in their perception.~

Kal finished his examination. ~Nothing much I can do for the bone. Not without the right tools. I'd need an ultrasonic disintegrator to re-break the bone along the fracture lines then re-bond it all. As many fractures as there are, that would take some time, and be really painful for a while.~

~Right. Sounds fun.~ Jake declared. ~Would it have helped much?~

~The knee, yes. The way it's patched together right now isn't exactly functional. The shoulder is less of a deal. The imbalance in the weighting now, that will lead to excessive long term wear and tear, you'll need to have the joints repaired before you're much over a hundred.~

~Right.~

~The scarring I could fix. That wouldn't be difficult at all.~

~You can fix the scarring?~ Damon's ears picked up. ~How much would that one hurt?~

~Like bad sunburn, there would be slight blistering of the skin. When it healed, no scars,~ Kal explained.

~What are you thinking?~ Damon asked Jake.

~We were out on the water all day waterskiing. Didn't notice it because there was a cold breeze out on the lake, but the sun must have been stronger than I figured.~

~In November?~

~Like when people get sunburned skiing, only, waterskiing. It's close enough, trust me, it'll work.~

~Hold on guys,~ Kal interrupted them. ~I'm not actually qualified yet. What if I screwed up?~

Jake shrugged. ~You'll be a million miles away and we'll still be stuck here. What's the worst that could happen?~

~It stings like buggery for weeks and when it heals there's no improvement,~ Kal explained.

~Aren't medics supposed to help people?~ Damon challenged him.

~If the condition is life threatening, yes. This one isn't.~

~And if we're still willing to take the risk?~ Jake asked.

~It's still unethical.~

~So is sex apparently, where you come from.~

"Ges-sur-usu." Kal retorted. It didn't need any translating.

~Seriously though,~ Jake told him, ~I'm okay with the risk.~


They still hadn't moved far. Still lay there motionless.

"Ges-sur-usu." ~That's 'piss off', right?~ Damon tried to clarify.

~Right.~

He grinned. ~I love this. I totally know how to swear in alien now.~

~Girls will swoon at your feet.~ Jake took the piss.

~You need that more than I do. You should learn some of this alien then.~ Damon suggested flippantly.

"Me Gar-Ges-du." Jake fired back.

Damon shook his head dismissively. ~'Shut the shag up'?, come on, you can do better than that.~

"Lu sah sir kud," ~if you really wanted to insult him.~ Kal offered.

Damon had other ideas. ~That's okay, but what I want to know is what you call someone who's unobtainable?~ he asked.

"Šul-nu-Ges-dug."

Jake frowned. ~Did you really have to tell him that one.~

Kal shrugged. ~You do come across as a bit unobtainable.~

~I'm obtainable,~ Jake defended himself. ~Not saying I get obtained very often, but it is possible.~

~What are you talking about. You never got obtained in your life.~

~Thank you for revealing that, Damon.~

~What's your problem?~ Damon challenged.

~My problem is that I don't like gettiing the piss taken out of me by Sad Twat Magazine's geek of the week.~

~Least I had sex once.~ Damon stared back.

"Damon, Ges-dug-usu."

They lay there silently, almost to the point they had Kal worried before the two of them finally broke down laughing. Joking around was something they took far too seriously, it was sometimes tough to tell even telepathically.

~You ever do this up there in outer space. Lie on the roof staring up at the stars?~ Damon asked philosophically.

Kal pondered his answer for a moment. ~No. I think I got indifferent, you travel through space so often it loses the magic. Life loses its magic, you do crazy things to try and make it more interesting, but you don't appreciate it until you get stuck so far from home, wondering if you ever will make it back alive.~

~Shit, dude, I hope I never get like that.~

~Thanks.~ Kal laughed.

~So, any clue which one is home?~ Jake chimed in.

~Nope. Everything looks so different from here. I could show you the star map, you won't match anything up by looking though. What's that bright one?~

~Sirius. Distance 8.5 light years.~ Damon replied quickly, then frowned, he was asking for Jake to take the piss out of him for quoting statistics like that.

~Profile the relative absolute magnitude of the eight nearest stars. That should be enough to find a match.~ Kal suggested.

Damon stared at him. ~Off the top of my head? Hold on.~ He stood up, headed back through the window into the room and then reappeared a few moments later with Jake's phone.

~Right. Try that.~ He handed the phone over.

Kal took the phone and tried to work out which way up to hold it. He grabbed the disc shaped object out of his pocket that he'd been using as a flashlight and started cross referencing between the two devices.

Jake and Damon watched the process in amusement.

The amusement ended.

"Ges-du." Kal whispered.

Jake was immediately worried. He could sense fear. Something was wrong, something was very, very, very wrong.

Kal stared at them. "Ki-usumgal"

~Here be dragons? That's your name for Earth? Or is that just a translation for 'we don't know where the shit this is'?~ Damon sounded confused.

~Not exactly.~

~What do you mean, not exactly?~ Jake persisted.Kal tried to keep his thoughts steady as he proceeded to check the footnotes. ~That just means this is uncharted territory, we're off the map. We shouldn't be here, I knew that already. It's the color coding is the problem. Ki-usumgal is written in blue. It's a quarantine warning.~

Damon finally dropped the light hearted act. ~That doesn't sound good.~

"Šed," Kal finished reading and held his head in his hands.

~How bad is bad?~ Jake pushed.

~The footnote indicates a prion infection. Fatal if left untreated, and I have no clue how to treat this.~ Kal was frustrated.

~How long? I mean, still long enough for the rescue ship to get here, right?~ Jake asked.

~Don't know. I don't even know if they'll risk a rescue on a quarantined planet. You know, I was worried if I didn't get rescued that I'd be stuck here for the rest of my life. Not a problem now. The rest of my life isn't going to be long enough to make it worth worrying about.~

Damon could sense that Kal was deadly serious. "Ges-du," he echoed.