Once he was inside The Obelisk, he noticed Simon standing off to one side studying the consol. Simon looked back, "I'm going to go set the video feed up, should only take 10 minutes, and then start the examination." he informed Alex.

Alex only nodded in response. As Simon left, his mind turned back to the day's events. Was he sulking because of jealousy over taking a backseat to Mr. Simon? He recalled his uncertainty over whether he could even contribute to this project. It then occurred to him that everything he accomplished today was out of pure luck, and that his main contributions have been in interpretation of data. If he was truly honest with himself, he would have to admit that it makes sense that an engineer would be better suited to decode the workings of an alien machine. Perhaps he…

"Alex?"

Alex was stirred out of his reverie and looked up. It was Simon. At least he looked like Simon, but there was something odd about him, that he couldn't quite place a finger on…

"We're inside a pylon." stated Simon, looking around.

A what? Pylon? Those little orange cones he sees in road construction suddenly popped into head. The imagery didn't make any sense.

"This is TAO-1 isn't it?"

"Tau-wun?" Alex struggled to make sense of what Simon was saying.

"Uh, never mind. I'll just go…back to setting up the camera." Simon headed back towards the entrance. Before leaving he turned back towards Alex. He looked like he wanted to say something but was unsure whether he should or not. Finally he spoke, "Whatever you do, make sure you don't let me put the wrong crystal in the wrong hole." With that he turned and left.

Alex just gaped at the now empty entrance. What the devil was that all about? wondered Alex. It was about a minute later that Simon re-entered The Obelisk carrying a tripod and camera. He put the camera down and calmly set up the tripod, adjusting it to the height and position he wanted it in.

Alex looked at him quizzically, "Did you just change your clothes?"

Simon gave Alex a double take, "What? No, I've been wearing these all day." Simon then proceeded to attach the camera to the tripod.

Is he messing with me? Alex was certain that the clothes Simon was wearing now were different from the clothes he had on just a minute ago. He decided on a different tack, "What's a tau-wun?"

Simon didn't even bother to look at Alex, "I don't know. What did tau win?"

He MUST be messing with me. Alex glared at Simon as he briefly left and brought in some cables. He then saw it…

"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Alex, and hurried out of The Obelisk. He looked around the cave, nothing seemed out of order. He could see Sarah, Morton and Krause working at different parts of the cave, Lt. Barrow and Fenske at the work stations. There was no one else. Alex quickly went around to the back of The Obelisk, but nobody else was there.

Alex hurried over to the communications station. "Lieutenant, did any one just leave here?"

Lt. Barrow just shook his head, "No. The last person to leave was Miss Mandres, and she left about five minutes ago. Why? What's wrong?"

Alex couldn't believe it, but there was no doubt about it. "We have an intruder."

"What? It's not possible!"

"Rewind and sync up the surveillance tapes and I will show you." instructed Alex. At this point Sarah had joined them to see what the commotion was all about.

The surveillance images rewound a couple of minutes, before moving forward again at normal speed. The main image showed Simon leaving The Obelisk, glancing at the camera before walking to the back of the artifact. "That's just Mr. Simon." observed Lt. Barrow.

"No," corrected Alex, "that's Mr. Simon right there." Alex pointed to a second image on another screen that clearly showed Simon unpacking the camera equipment. Lt. Barrow backed up the images to the other Simon coming out of The Obelisk and freeze framed it with him glancing at the camera. "Whoever that is," declared Alex, "looks very much like our Mr. Simon but he's wearing different clothes, has longer hair, and has a couple days growth of stubble."

"That's not possible." breathed Sarah, "Did he do anything while inside? Or say anything?"

"All he did was talk to me." answered Alex, "He knew who I was, said something about pylons and 'tau-wun' and then asked me not to let him put the wrong crystal in the wrong hole."

"So where did him come from?" questioned Sarah, "And more importantly, where did he go?"

"Hey guys!" came a voice from behind them, it was Simon, "I've got the video feed set up and I'm ready to go." When he didn't get a response he joined the group and peered around them at the monitors in an effort to see what was holding everyone's attention.

"Hey!" he shouted in surprise, "That's me!"