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: An Unexpected Occurrence: Part One
Author: Lyta
Lyta_1028@yahoo.com
Summary: Liam and Zo'or are forced to spend some quality time together.
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"An Unexpected Occurrence"
Part One

   
    Liam Kincaid was not having a good day.
    First he forgot to set his alarm and woke up later than usual. He had to rush to work with his hair still a bit damp from a hasty shower. Then he found himself drafted to play chauffeur for Zo'or, and when they entered ID space Liam discovered that the shuttle had been sabotaged. Now he was stuck on an alien world with a being who would not hesitate to kill him if the truth of his heritage was ever revealed. Liam hefted the pack containing everything he'd been able to salvage from the downed shuttle and trudged back to the makeshift campsite. Zo'or was waiting for him, and to complete Liam's day the Synod leader was in one of his less pleasant moods. Liam had to fight the extremely tempting urge to just blast Zo'or and blame his death on the Jaridians. To distract himself, he began to gather kindling as soon as he set the pack down. 
    "Major Kincaid?" Zo'or demanded. "What are you doing?"
    "I'm picking up wood to start a fire." Liam explained.
    Zo'or looked confused. He quickly covered the expression with one of arrogant disdain that Liam's fingers itched to wipe off his face.
    "This planet is not exactly warm, and when night comes it get much colder. Humans are susceptible to hypothermia and the fire will help keep me alive.   It will also assist rescue efforts in determining our position on this world." Liam said as cleared away foliage and created a small circle of stones to contain the fire. He pulled a small lighter from the pack, but to his extreme annoyance it was completely empty of lighter fluid. If he were able to get rid of Zo'or for a few minutes he use his shaquarava to ignite a small fire, but with the way his luck was running today Liam did not want to risk even a small chance of discovery. He heaved a long suffering sigh and began rubbing two of the sticks together. From Sandoval's memories of camping with his scout troop, Liam knew that this was going to take quite a while.
    Zo'or watched the human work, curious as to whether his primitive technique would work. The Synod leader was used to the confines of the Mothership or Taelon embassies. He had been very young when the Jaridians destroyed the Taelon homeworld and subsequently the only memories he had of it before the devastation were vague or belonged to an ancestor. Being out in forests was something to which he was not accustomed. Zo'or looked at Kincaid with distaste. He would much prefer being stranded with Captain Marquette or Agent Sandoval to this particular human. Now not only was he stuck with Kincaid, but Zo'or had to rely on him until help arrived.
    It was a most distressing realization.

    Elsewhere on the planet, a Jaridian probe had been activated by the crash of the Taelon shuttle. Long dormant it had been seeded on this world on the off chance that someday a Taelon would venture here. The probe blossomed to its full shape and began to search for the Commonality frequency of its master's enemy. After some time had passed, it succeeded in isolating the solitary frequency. The probe began to jam the Taelon's Commonality frequency. It would not be long before the effects could never be reversed.

    Zo'or gasped as he felt something foreign interfere with his connection to the Commonality. He instantly lost control of his form.
    "Yes!" Liam exclaimed as he rushed to nurse the tiny flame he'd created with dried grasses. Soon it licked hungrily at the kindling and danced about within the circle of stones. Liam chanced to turn in Zo'or's direction and immediately forgot about the fire he had spent over an hour starting. The Taelon's distress was evident, even to someone whose understanding of the intricacies of reading Taelon emotions came from rather garbled ancestral memories.
    It had not happened as often as he grew older, but Liam still occasionally experienced psychic visions. At that moment a massive vision nearly knocked him out from its intensity. Whether it was a glimpse of the past or the future he could not say. The only thing he was sure of was exactly what he saw.
    An atavus.
    "Leave now!" Zo'or hissed, pain and shame washing over him. Liam did not relish a third encounter with a "Neanderthal Taelon" as Augur had once put it, he quickly scrambled to his feet, made a grab for the pack and sprinted away. Even as Liam began to leave, Zo'or's body rippled strangely. The Synod leader let out an inarticulate cry of anguish as his regression completed. With his last remaining seconds of awareness, he stared down in horror at the twin lights of his shaquarava before an overwhelming hunger consumed him and he set off after Liam.
    Liam glanced behind him as he ran, knowing somehow that the Atavus that had been Zo'or was in pursuit. Though he was not a part of the Taelon Commonality himself, he did have access to it and now used that access to ascertain that whatever was disrupting Zo'or's connection to the Commonality was not far. He pushed through the brush until he came to a slight clearing where a Jaridian probe like the one found in New South Wales lay like a deadly metallic flower.
     He wasted no time, remembering Lili's account of the previous probe's defenses. A double shaquarava blast easily destroyed the probe, but Liam was left with the remaining problem of the Atavus hot on his heels.
    Liam stared at his shaquarava. Right now he could see only three likely outcomes to this situation. One, he killed the Atavus. Two, the Atavus killed him. Three, he restored Zo'or to the Commonality and as a gesture of thanks the Synod leader had him killed by the first skrill wielding individual they came across.
    The choices were not particularly good and Liam heard the Atavus coming toward him. He raised his palms toward the Atavus as it fired at him…