Copyright 1999,  Lyta. All rights reserved. No part of this story may be re-posted in part or in full without written permission from the author.
Disclaimer: Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict is Copyright 1998, Tribune Entertainment Co., its characters are used without permission. No infringement is intended.
Rating: PG
Title: Cat and Mouse
Author: Lyta
Lyta_1028@yahoo.com

Author's Notes: This is a revised version and differs slightly from the story posted on the Philosophy Sphere.

"Cat and Mouse"

    Liam Kincaid led Jonathan Doors into the Flat Planet Café's back room. With the curfew in place, the cyber cafe was uncharacteristically deserted but Liam lived above the bar and thus had a key to the back door. It would be dangerous to remain here long, but both he and Doors needed to catch their breathes and wait out the last few hours of the curfew until Liam could move Doors to a Resistance safe house nearby.
    "Who do you think it was that attacked us?" Doors asked. He still looked odd to Liam in his tan jacket and rumpled plaid shirt. Then again Liam had previously only seen him in upscale suits.
    "I don't know, but his implants looked an awful lot like the ones Augur sported a while ago."
    "Speaking of Augur, I hope he and Julia got away."
    "Me too." Liam said quietly. He checked his gun, and it came as no surprise that he was almost out of ammunition. Then they were both startled by the sudden chirp of Liam's global.
    It was Lili, but Liam couldn't see much of her location, it was simply too dark.
    "Lili, where are you?" Liam exclaimed, relieved to see her.
    "I'm on a cloaked Jaridian ship." Lili informed him and tilted the global to give him a better view. "I had hoped to find some usable information or devices, but everything here aside from the cloak device has a  Taelon counterpart we've already seen."
    "Can you salvage it?" Doors queried.
    If Lili was surprised to hear from him, she did not show it. "If I remove the cloak then the mothership will discover the ship. As soon as I get out of range from the moonbase and the mothership I'm taking the cloak device and hightailing it away from here. With luck, no one will notice my detour and the Taelons will be so focused on the Jaridian ship, they'll divert resources from the strike teams."
    "How bad is it?" Liam said slowly.
   "Augur and Julia have been captured. They are being held on the mothership. The prisoners will be forced to talk sooner or later Liam, and when they do we will need to be ready to go underground." Lili took a deep breathe before continuing. "We've lost over thirty percent of our cells from what I've been able to find out from Sandoval. Our one saving grace is that they have underestimated the size of our group, but Sandoval will catch on once he starts breaking the cell leaders. The European Resistance got wind of our situation and is scattering, the Taelons are focusing on the American movement. We are the largest and the most well known, thanks to Jonathan's notoriety, and if they can break us it will send a powerful message to the groups in other countries."
    Doors frowned. "Unfortunately the Taelons are right, we depend on the other movements for equipment and intelligence. Were you able to warn any of our people? Liam and I have been too busy playing tag with Volunteers."
     Lili nodded. "I contacted Halley right after Thompson's speech. Last I heard they haven't got any of her people but enough who have been caught in other cells can ID them, so they've fallen back to their secondary base. Only a select few know its location. What is your status?"
    "Liam, Augur, Julia and I were ambushed.  The Volunteers managed to split us up and Liam and I lost track of Augur and Julia. We are safe for the moment, but since Augur and Julia are captured, we will move on as soon as we can. With the curfew in effect its too dangerous to move about, especially with as recognizable a face as I have." Doors told her. "There is also no way to know if anyone identified Liam, so using his position to get us through won't work." 
    "Be careful. I'm passing over the dark side of the moon and the transmission won't be able to reach you soon." Lili told them.
    Liam nodded. "I understand. See you soon."
    "Just in case I don't get the chance to tell you this later, its been an honor serving with you. Make sure I do get the chance to tell you that in person. Take care of yourselves, both of you."
    "We will." Doors assured her before Lili's image dissolved into static.
    Liam shut off his global and leaned against the wall., then turned to face Doors with a strange expression on his face. "We both know a lot about the Liberation. Any ideas on if we are caught and interrogated?"
    Doors smiled coldly. "Belman told me that Taelons use a specific chemical in their interrogations to soften people up. I have had a small device implanted in my body, and if that chemical is introduced into my bloodstream, the device will release another chemical that will react fatally with the first. You?"
    "Very few know my true nature. Not even Mitch or Julia. I'll use my shaquarava."
    "What if something prevents you from doing that, the Kimeran equivalent of a failsafe to prevent you from injuring yourself?" Doors asked seriously. He adjusted the bottom of his jacket and settled into a chair. He looked at the door toward the bar longingly, but knew he had to keep his mind clear.
    "Then I'll flash my shaquarava around a few Volunteers with skrills. As far as they know, only Jaridians have active shaquarava." Liam said softly. He stared at the faint reddish marks on his palms.
    The two men stood in silence for several moments, considering the seriousness of their circumstances and wondering if they would in fact be compelled to implement their respective last resort measures. Then both jumped at the sound of approaching booted footsteps. Liam readied his gun and quietly moved into the hall, using a corner to conceal his presence as he tried to glimpse the identity of their visitor or visitors. Without warning, Liam found himself shoved up against a wall and pinned there by his wrists. His weapon clattered uselessly to the ground. Liam was too surprised to use his shaquarava before a Volunteer skrilled him into unconsciousness a moment later.   

    Da'an had been somewhat startled to be arrested by a very subdued Agent Sandoval and escorted to a holding cell by two Volunteers until he saw his protector lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. Even before the virtual glass barrier that enclosed the cell was activated, Da'an knelt beside Liam and after a few moments he was able to revive him.
     Liam's green eyes blinked rapidly as he mentally reconciled his current circumstances with recent events.
     "Da'an?" He questioned. "What's going on?"
     "That, Major Kincaid, is what I would like to know." Zo'or said from behind them. He was accompanied by the same skrill wielding man who earlier had tossed Liam against a wall as though he weighed nothing.
    The Synod leader deactivated the virtual glass barrier and walked over to Da'an. Taking advantage of the Volunteer's focus on the Taelons, Liam hit him with a small shaquarava blasts. The man fell back against the wall before slumping quietly to the floor.
    Zo'or was speechless. He stared at Liam's glowing palms with shock and undisguised terror.
    Liam motioned for Da'an to get out of the cell before he sent a small energy burst that knocked Zo'or out, he instantly reverted to his true form. Liam then reactivated the virtual glass barrier.
    It was relatively easy to free Julia, Doors and Augur and to relieve a few guards of their weapons. Almost too easy, Liam thought as he watched Julia check out a rifle she had appropriated from one of the Volunteers who had been guarding her Resistance cell.  They were almost to the shuttles when alarms began to blare all around them.
    Liam caught sight of Sandoval and two heavily armed Volunteers approaching. He grabbed Julia by the arm. "Get the others to the shuttles. Both Da'an and Augur can fly one. I'm sure it has a homing device, so ditch it as soon as you can. Understand?"
    Julia nodded and gestured for the rest of the group to follow her. Before they disappeared around a corner, Julia turned back and shot Liam a questioning glance. He motioned for her to keep going.
    Liam prepared himself to make as big a diversion as he could. As Sandoval raised his skrill into firing position, Liam activated his shaquarava and held up his glowing palms.
     The look on his human father's face was absolutely priceless.
    Sandoval motioned for the two Volunteers to back off. They stood there facing each other for a tension filled few seconds before the Mothership unexpectedly rocked. The cloaked Jaridian ship, Liam thought even as Sandoval and one of the Volunteers took advantage of the situation and fired. Sandoval's blast hit Liam in the chest sending him against the wall. The Volunteer's blast scorched part of the wall near his previous position.
   Still dazed from the blast, Liam winced and fired. The energy flung   Sandoval and the two Volunteers against the wall. Liam limped forward and picked up Sandoval's global. He had to know that Lili was not on the Jaridian vessel when it collided with the Mothership. She was surprised to see him, and was quick to assure Liam that she was indeed safe on Earth. Liam replaced Sandoval's global and started toward the shuttle bay.
    He collapsed suddenly as another Volunteer arrived on the scene and fired.

    Liam woke up groggily. He really hated coming to in prison cells and was worried that he was beginning to make a habit of it. He groaned inwardly when he turned his head to see Sandoval and a very annoyed Zo'or standing safely on the other side of a virtual glass barrier.
    "It would appear that your deceptions ran deeper than I had previously imagined." The Synod leader said with a smirk.
    "Why don't you come in here and we can discuss it up close and personal." Liam said sarcastically. He rose from his position sprawled out on the floor to stand, but a wave of nausea made him compromise and sit up. He rubbed the back of his head which was throbbing.
    "And allow you the opportunity to use your shaquarava on me again? I think not." Zo'or said.
    "I believe," Sandoval said, inserting himself into the conversation. "That the real question is who are you. Kincaid cannot be your real name"
    "Its as good as any."
    "Who are you?" Sandoval demanded, more forcefully this time.
    "My, how Vorlon."
    "This isn't a game."
    "No," Liam said seriously. "It is not a game." He smirked as he prepared to lay out his trump card. Liam straightened himself to his full height, shrugging off the dizziness this caused, and looked Sandoval directly in the eye. This was going to be good. "Last year, Ha'gel took your form, correct?"
    "Yes," Sandoval said cautiously.
    "Ha'gel encountered Lt. Beckett and joined with her while in your form. A resistance member dragged her away from the scene and I was born nine hours later. My mother's memories were repressed via her CVI and she was left where she would be found. It was discovered by the Resistance that I have three parents: Ha'gel, my mother, and you. Don't expect a father's day card this year…Dad."
    Sandoval looked sick and Zo'or lost control of his human facade in his shock at Liam's revelation. The Taelon's gaze darted back and forth between the two trying to see any physical resemblance between the two men. Not really finding any, he returned his focus to Liam.
    "May…may I be excused Zo'or." Sandoval managed to say after several minutes of working his jaw back and forth in a futile attempt to form coherent words.
    Zo'or nodded, and Sandoval all but fled the room. He hurried to the shuttle bay. He needed to distance himself from this whole situation. He wished he could still get drunk.
    The Synod leader glared at Liam after his remaining human parent left. Then his lips curved into a smirk that sent chills down Liam's spine.

    Even after three months, it was still difficult for Ronald Sandoval to believe that Liam was in any way his son. After all, Sandoval was not old enough to have a child of Liam's apparent age. Still, as the tired cliché his mother had often reminded him of went, appearances deceive.
    The motivational imperative on his CVI had deteriorated months ago, leaving him with the blessing/curse of the ability to think for himself. Many of the hours he should have spent sleeping were consumed by the tremendous guilt his actions caused. He was doomed to remember the faces of those he hurt as though it happened only hours ago. One thing Sandoval felt the most guilt over was Liam's fate. He was sickened by what Zo'or had done to the young hybrid, his son and Siobhan's.
    The CVI the Taelons had specifically engineered for Liam dampened almost all traces of his previous personality. According to Ka'na, the scientist who oversaw his implantation, Liam's CVI was a variation on an experimental model with a longer life span that had been modified for Liam's unique brain chemistry. According to Ka'na, implants became "used" to the MI and their brains eventually found ways around it, particularly after the trauma of re-implantation. Sandoval  thanked everything he held holy that no one considered implanting him with one of the new cyber viral implants. 
    The most visible change in Liam was his style of dress. After his implantation, Liam had abandoned his usual turtlenecks and black leather coat for dark three piece suits not unlike the ones Sandoval himself wore. Those outfits, combined with the intense expression on his face, gave Liam a severe look absent only a few months ago. Sandoval was startled to realize that Liam scared him now.
    Liam noticed Sandoval's stare and he met his gaze briefly, Sandoval again noticed the lack of emotion in his son's green eyes. They were as hard as green stones now. He also wondered how he had failed to notice that Liam and Siobhan shared the same eyes.
    The FBI agent wished he could say something to his son, but the MI would compel Liam to report any behavior unusual for a Companion Agent to Zo'or. Attracting that kind of attention would result in even more unpleasantness than he already had to endure. Sandoval sighed in frustration and wondered if this was the universe's way of exacting revenge for all those he had harmed while under the influence of the motivational imperative.

Fin