They Know Not I Knew Thee
An Earth - Final Conflict story by Tina Price
(TinaP@prodigy.net)
Original Story Idea © 1998, Tina Price. All rights reserved.

Preview: Despite being surrounded by his fellow Taelons and supported within the Synod, Zo'or walks very much alone. When pride clashes with desire and ego with the commonality, there can be no room for friendship or love...Or can there?

Disclaimer: Earth - Final Conflict, all characters and images therein are the property of the Tribune Entertainment Company. Several characters appearing in this story are my own creation. Any similarity with anyone living or dead is purely coincidental.

Authors notes: This story takes place before the series episodes "Through the Looking Glass" and "Infection". Nivian's note contains an excerpt of the poem, "Farewell" written by Lord Byron. The story's title is taken from this excerpt. I have NOT written myself into the story anywhere, so don't even go there...This story is rated PG-13 for some very mature themes. Anyone desiring the uncut, R rated version should e-mail me and state that they are an adult. As always, I am in no way receiving 'privileged information'. Any  advice, criticism and kudos are always welcomed. Please contact me at the above e-mail address.

They Know Not I Knew Thee

Image is from Earth - Final Conflict and is the property of Tribune Entertainment    

        Zo'or boarded the shuttle which was to take him from his New York abode to the Taelon Research Facility in Washington, D.C.
        Seating himself, he waited exactly two seconds after Sandoval took the seat next to him before addressing the human pilot.
        "Well? Are we to sit here all day?" he asked, unpleasantly.
        The pilot flinched and finished his pre-flight checks in record breaking time. Taking the shuttle into a jump almost as soon as they had lifted off, he kept casting nervous looks back over his shoulder.
        The United Nations Representative looked on with a satisfied smirk.
        Humans! They were so easily led - it must be a pleasure for such simple creatures as themselves to finally have the guidance of a truly superior race.
        Watching the flux which played colorfully over the shuttle as it navigated through an alternate dimension, he prepared himself for the day ahead. Kee'sha had need of his opinion upon his latest research. As a one time member of the Synod, who was familiar with their secret agendas, it was decided that he should study the situation first hand and report back to them.
        This assignment had taken him away from other important projects, which frustrated him no end. Still, Da'an was highly unsuitable for the task, harboring as he did, a strongly protective attitude towards the human race.
        Zo'or allowed himself a small smile. Spending so much time surrounded by human scientists and workers would not be pleasant, but once again being chosen over Da'an had been a satisfying accomplishment.
        His self absorbed musings came to an end as the shuttle re-entered normal space/time.
        As they approached the roof of the facility, he observed the human pedestrians below with contempt. They were like ants - but not so highly organized - swarming about, ignoring each other, working against each other...harming each other... His human-looking lips actually curled back in disgust. Research spies, corporate raiders, complete corporate control of important medications - these were all things which his people had been bewildered by and worked hard to eliminate. No wonder they had not developed cures for AIDS or cancer until the Companions' arrival! How could they when there was no sharing of research information or medical breakthroughs, when the need to profit from discovery outweighed the greater good of the populous?
        He carefully schooled his features as the shuttle finally landed. It would not do to let his contempt for the human race show as he made his way amongst them. Next to him, Sandoval stood and waited for him to follow suit. His implant really was nothing more than a automaton - a programed slave who had no choice but to worship him and protect him with his life.
        The U.N. Rep. looked the attaché over. Humans considered him to be a handsome, charismatic man and he had certainly made an excellent media representative for the Taelons... Still, Zo'or could not help but wonder why he lacked the personality which Da'an's implant, William Boone, displayed. It was as though Boone retained an essential spark of individuality, of awareness which Sandoval had somehow lost. It was the fire in Boone's eyes, the barely controlled disapproval which Zo'or saw there which spiked his interest in the tall security chief.
        With a mental sigh of disappointment, he followed his implant into the building, and then took the lead, moving quickly in the direction of the elevators.  A quick ride took them three floors down to the area which housed some of the more secure laboratories.
        Zo'or, in a rush to get his new assignment over with, stepped quickly out of the elevator as soon as the doors began to part - and directly into the path of a running human.
        The two slammed into each other and went down in a tangle of limbs as Sandoval looked on in shocked surprise.
        Zo'or sat up at the same time that the human pushed itself up off the floor with its arms.
        "You idiotic..." Zo'or began and instantly stopped as the human flipped its hair back off its face, revealing itself to be a somewhat annoyed human female. As their eyes met, her deep brown ones widened in surprise.
        For some reason, Zo'or seemed unable to put her in her place. "You should not have been running within these confined areas," was the best he could manage, as he slapped Sandoval's offered hand away.
        He was completely surprised when she snorted.
        "And you shouldn't be leaping out of elevators the second they stop," she threw back as she rose gracefully to her feet and offered him a hand up.
        With barely a second's hesitation, he took the offered limb and allowed her to pull him to his feet. He felt a jolt pass through him briefly during their contact and then as suddenly as she had appeared, she was moving off quickly toward the stairs.
        "Please excuse me, " she threw back over her shoulder, "but I have a patient to see..."
        In the next instant, the stairwell door had closed behind her.
        Mentally shaking himself, Zo'or turned to glare at the humans who had stopped to stare at the spectacle, sending them quickly upon their way. Then he turned to face his implant, who seemed to be hiding a smirk.
        "Find out who she is," he commanded. "and what her function is. Report back when you have something. I shall be in Kee'sha's lab."
        With a bow, Sandoval headed off towards the stairs.
        Turning to the left down the hallway, he continued towards the secured area. There was a brief pause before the large steel security doors as his voice was recognized by the system and then he passed on through...

        "...and so, I do not believe that it is feasible for us to rely upon this method to spread the cybervirus amongst the humans..." Kee'sha finished.
        With some effort, Zo'or came to attention. Kee'sha's incredible talent for boring his audience had lulled him into a state where his thoughts had strayed back to the woman he had quite literally run into in the corridor not thirty minutes ago.
        Realizing that Kee'sha was patiently waiting for a response, he stood and moved to windows. "This project would prove invaluable to the Taelon race if we can find a way to correct the problems you have brought up. We cannot afford to abandon it out of hand."
        "Can we not find an alternate method of delivering the CVI?" Kee'sha said. "I do not feel comfortable with using a vector... it is simply too risky..."
        Zo'or turned and glared at him. "Your comfort does not enter into it," he sneered. "Get to work upon the first problem. I shall offer my input once I have finished studying your research. Once Agent Sandoval returns, tell him to find me in your office."
        Kee'sha bowed slightly, but gave him an exasperated look as he made to leave the room.
        Walking down the corridor, he turned into the second office on the right hand side and after closing the door behind him, seated himself at Kee'sha's desk.
        Unbidden, the image of the female human popped back into his mind. She had dared to reprimand him! She had looked him in the eye and spoken to him as if to another human!
        She had treated him...as an equal and when their hands had met, he had felt...
        There came a knock at the door and Agent Sandoval entered. With a brief bow, he spoke.
        "The woman's name is Nivian Ibraham. She's one of the top researchers here and a practicing pediatric specialist. Her research deals with finding a cure for and a way to reverse the damage of Tay-sach's Disease."
        "Ah yes," he replied. "One of the few genetic problems we have been unable to prevent...as yet."
        "She was on her way to an emergency call at the hospital next door when you ran into her..." Sandoval apparently couldn't resist saying.
        Zo'or stared at him coolly, prompting the implant to clear his throat and continue.
        "She's forty three years old. I would have put her at about thirty five," he shrugged. "She is widely known and respected in this facility - a genius with a true eidetic memory. Apparently they tried to determine her I.Q. twice and were not able to come up with a definite number..."
        "Has she a family?" he found himself asking. "Is she...married?"
        Sandoval looked startled. "Not married," he replied after a pause. "but I have not yet researched her family connections.."
        "Never mind," Zo'or snapped. "It is your lunch time, is it not?" At his implant's nod, he continued, "Eat then and return after sixteen hundred hours."
        Sandoval was about to leave when something occurred to the Taelon. "Wait," he rapped out.
        The implant turned and patiently waited for him to speak.
        "Find out when Ms. Ibraham is expected back in her lab and where it is located before you go."
        With another nod, Sandoval left the room.

Nivian Ibraham sighed as she washed her hands. She had some bad news to relate to Anthony Jarvis about his patient. The seven month old was indeed showing symptoms of Tay-sachs. The tests she had ordered would most likely bring confirmation of the grim facts in a day or two.
        Drying her hands, she pushed back a stray lock of hair and glanced at herself in the mirror. A slender, solemn-looking woman with shoulder length hair, which had once been a very deep brown and had, somewhere along the way, gone almost entirely white, stared back. Her complexion was fair and lack of exposure to sunlight had spared her the wrinkles her contemporaries were sporting.
        She sometimes wondered if it had been worth it - the lack of a personal life. She rarely went anywhere or did anything 'just for fun', having chosen to pursue her research instead. Yet, here was a small child whose life was about to be robbed - taken from her slowly over the course of the next year or so...
        It made her feel guilty. She had a been granted life and never really lived it. Surely her life wasn't a waste - she worked hard in the hopes that others would live - but lately she had been realizing that it wasn't exactly what it should be either. There was so much missing from it...
        Behind her she heard a nurse flirting with a handsome O.R. tech and shook her head. She probably had more in common with the Taelon she had fallen over than she did with most of the human race...
        Slinging her bag over a shoulder and picking up her charts, she made her way out of the building.
        It was a beautiful autumn day outside. The sun was warm and the air cool. Trees around the medical center were blazing red and yellow while only shedding a few leaves. She longed to take her lunch out in the research facility's courtyard, but as usual, she was running behind. She would have to eat in her office again.
        With a sigh, she re-entered the facility, leaving the outside world behind once more. Taking the first available elevator up to the fifth floor, she turned right and made her way into the large laboratory at the end of the corridor on the left.
        "Any messages?" she asked Anne, her chief tech, as she walked through and entered her office.
        "Nothing," Anne replied, poking her head in the door. "I heard that you upended a Taelon when you went upstairs earlier," she continued with a smile.
        "It...He should have been watching where he was going," she said with a raised eyebrow.
        Anne's face became serious. "You know... I hate to tell you this, but I'm sure you're going to find out soon enough..."
        She sighed. "Let me guess - the Taelon embassy wants me to apologize on live TV," she joked.
        "Don't laugh!" Anne said sharply. "You knocked over their U.N. Representative!"
        For a moment she was flabbergasted. "Zo'or?"
        "Mmm-hmm."
        She dropped her things on her desk and shook her head. "From what I've heard about him, he could use a good shove once in a while. Remind me to do it again sometime!"
        She and Anne laughed for a moment and then she waved her friend off and sat. She still had to put in a page to Jarvis.
        Anne reappeared only moments after she hung up the phone. Her face was pale and she looked nervous, immediately making Nivian think something horrible had happened in the lab.
        "What's wrong?" she asked fearfully.
        "You have a visitor," Anne replied as a tall, slender Taelon stepped into view behind her.
        It was the one she had tripped over outside the elevators - Zo'or.
        Instantly she came to her feet, although she forced herself to seem nonchalant about it. "Thank you Anne," she answered, dismissing the relieved technologist. Turning she gestured for the alien to enter as she greeted him. "Good day, Zo'or. What may I do for you?"
        Stepping in, he pushed the door shut behind him and stared her up and down. She felt her face coloring at being so rudely scrutinized and decided on the spot that, Taelon or not, she wouldn't put up with it.
        She waited until his eyes came back to meet her own. "I want you to know that if you were a man, I would feel obligated to slap your face," she stated.
        His eyes widened for a second before narrowing ominously. They were incredibly blue - bluer than she would ever have believed any being's eyes could be.
        They seemed to glow with some inner light as he nodded stiffly.
        "Then, it is well for me that I am not male," he replied, as he continued to hold her gaze. "In any case, I apologize for any imagined rudeness. There are so many subtitles inherent in human interaction, that it will be some time yet before we Taelons are familiar with them all."
        Mollified by his apology, she indicated a chair and sat down herself.
        "I guess that makes us even," she said with a small smile. "...as I'm sorry about that fall we took outside the elevators. You were right - I shouldn't have been running."
        "Of course," he smirked, causing her smile to quickly fade away.
        Crossing her legs, she clasped her upper knee with both hands and leaned back in her chair. "What is it that you want?" she asked bluntly, no longer amused by his presence.
        His eyes flicked briefly to her legs before returning to her face. "Since our...unexpected meeting earlier, I have taken the time to review your personnel folder," he announced, causing her to flinch. "I am impressed with your accomplishments," he admitted.
        "And?" she prompted, drawing an annoyed look from him.
        He tilted his head and gave her a look which made her feel like an insect. "I simply wished to visit with you. You strike me as an interesting individual... and there are so few who are capable of arousing my curiosity."
        She could not help but stare at him, rendered speechless by what she knew was a grudging admission of respect.
        Noting her loss for words, he smiled slightly. "May I ask why it is that you have chosen to make Tay-sachs the center of your research?"
        She was momentarily dumbfounded. "Surely you know that it is one of only a small handful of genetic disorders which your people have been unable to eradicate? We're working on finding a way to stop or undo the damage caused by the accumulating GM2 ganglioside! If we can at least find a way to deliver the critical enzyme, Hex A to the neurons... Think of the lives that would be saved! Think of the anguish which would be avoided..." Reaching forward, she laid a hand over his own, where it rested on his leg. "Don't Taelons love their children? Can you not imagine the horror of watching a seemingly healthy infant suddenly start simply fading away before your eyes? First they can no longer sit, then they cannot crawl or speak or talk or think..."
        Zo'or stared down at her hand and then back at her, his eyes fixed intently upon her own, a look of pain crossing his features. She shuddered when she realized that she could not see her own reflection in those blue orbs.
        "The Companions did find a solution," he stated. "We initiated a worldwide screening of the human population. Those who carried the genes were informed of their status. The were cautioned to check the status of perspective mates so that afflicted children would not be born..."
        "And still they are, aren't they?" She shook her head. "You can't squash love simply because there might exist the chance of afflicted children, Zo'or. Wherever there are couples who love each other, there will almost always be the desire to reproduce - to produce a new being who is part of each individual and yet unique unto itself... I know what it's like," she continued, unable to stop. The horror, the emotion of the past simply came spilling out. "I watched my own child die of Tay-sachs..."
        Zo'or's eyes closed momentarily, as he suddenly began to glow blue, lit as if from within. His free hand suddenly came down upon her own, clenching it tightly, turning it so that he could clasp it with his other hand, palm-to-palm with their fingers meshed.
        "Share this with me," he demanded as he leaned forward, bringing their faces closer. "I must feel more!"
        She gasped as she felt his mind touching her own, at first prying and then cajoling. She shied away, trying to retreat, only to have him advance, offering tidbits of his own life and memories. She moved to meet him, suddenly unafraid and more importantly, curious.
        They danced a tango around each other, he snatching at a memory of her ex-fiancee, her grasping at a memory of him verbally sparing with Da'an - the American Companion. He snatched this, she sneaked that...each getting a better sense of the other.
        Suddenly they met head on...
 
        Minutes later, they each slumped backward in their respective chairs, their hands still clasped together before them..
        Nivian struggled to release her hand, staring at her alien visitor in wonder, fear...and a sense of shock. The experience had proved to be one of the most erotic of her life, though she could not for the life of her understand exactly why...
        Zo'or slowly looked up at her as he released her hand. He was trembling enough to make standing difficult, and yet, that's what he did. Rising to his feet, he steadied himself with his hands on her desk and stared at her as though she were poison.
        Without a word, he opened the office door and shuffled out, leaving her in a state of complete and utter confusion.
        A second later, Anne reappeared. "Well?" she asked, interested in hearing about the strange visit.
        "I'm going home now," she whispered, as she rubbed her temples. Her head felt as though it would split. "Please cancel the three thirty meeting and make my apologies."
        "Are you OK, Nivian?"
        "No!"

It was only slightly after two when she arrived home. Quickly locking the front door behind her, she dropped her bags on the floor where she stood and immediately headed for the kitchen. Hunting around in the refrigerator, she finally came up with a bottle of white wine, which she uncorked and after a quick glance about her, drank without the benefit of a glass.
        After polishing off the little which was left, she tossed the bottle in the trash, made her way to her bedroom and shucking her outer clothing quickly hid beneath the thick blankets.
        Unbidden, she relived the moments of her strange encounter with the Taelon, down to the slightest shared thought. It was the curse of her photographic memory to constantly dredge up those things she wished she could forget. Once more her 'gift' was finding a way to torment her...
        "What the hell did he do to me?" she whispered.
        Once again she saw him as he saw himself...different from the OTHERS - possessing traits which no Taelon should have...
        Hiding...
        He was hiding what he was... what he felt...
        If the others knew that he felt desire, fear, anger...loathing...dispair...
        If THEY knew, he would be considered an abhorrence and asked to join the void - something which he would not willingly do!
        The others didn't know - couldn't possible know - that his emotions made him stronger than them...that they gave him an edge, the kind of edge which had led to him becoming the youngest Synod member ever!
        Unfortunately, those same feelings had cost him that position a while back...
        Nivian peeked out from under her blankets as revulsion for the mind she had touched was tempered with compassion.
        He hated humans - despised them - because they reveled in their emotions and individuality - something which he himself was unable to do. Secretly, he yearned for the freedom to simply be...himself. For his entire life, he had walked alone. He was alone even when in communion with the commonality, having learned at a very young age to hide a part of himself from the rest of his kind.
        He wanted... He wanted to be a part of them - the Taelon race...but could not be. He even yearned at times for acceptance by the humans, but that too was an impossibility - and he was filled with a deep self-loathing for ever having desired such a thing.
        And yet...
        To be accepted for oneself was a human concept which had touched him deeply. Surely it must be one of life's finest pleasures...
        A tear ran down Nivian's face at the realization that he was so very much like her. While they had been touching...when she had discovered these secrets even as he had found her own, their mutual recognition of each other had drawn them closer and...
        ...The result had been a spectacular feeling of warmth - a warmth which had blossomed into full fledged pleasure.
        They had collapsed then and withdrawn from each other. Each suddenly frightened of what the other had learned.
        Sitting up, she threw the covers off herself as a sudden thought occurred to her.
        "Perhaps she knew too much. What if he decided to simply make her disappear as so many influential humans who had come into contact with the Taelons had?"

Sandoval re-entered Kee'sha's office at sixteen hundred hours to find Zo'or hunched over in a chair. Before he could open his mouth to ask if there was something he could do for him, the Taelon waved him off with a delicate hand gesture.
        "You may go, Sandoval," he said without bothering to look up. "I will contact you when I am ready to leave this place."
        "As you wish," he replied with a bow and quickly left the room. After all, he had plenty of things he could be checking up on...
 

        Zo'or let a sigh escape him
        What had he done? What had possessed him to reach out to the female human?
        They had been talking and she had reached out to him first! She had grasped his hand and leaned forward, speaking passionately about her calling...and he had felt something...
        Their flesh was making contact and he had felt her passion, her conviction and something familiar - something which made him want to know more about her, to feel more of her thoughts.
        Beside himself with his need to know,  he had clasped her hand and commanded her to share with him - and she had not disappointed!
        Her mind was strong, her will stronger. She had denied him what he sought until he himself had yielded some of his own memories. She had navigated through the realm of the mind as though long accustomed to doing so and in a flash he remembered what Sandoval had said about her...
        She possessed one of the rarest human abilities - a perfect memory - total recall. It was a trait which all Taelons possessed and which had allowed her to stand on nearly equal footing with him when their minds had connected.
        Closing his eyes, he relived again the experience which had left him shaken, but wanting more...
        She had never fit in. Even as a child, she had been called before psychiatrists and doctors who had questioned her, tested her...stared at her strangely. School had always been easy and she found it to be a fun game which occupied her time. She had been in the second grade when she had finally realized that the other children found it to be work - that they did not simply remember things as she did.
        By the third grade, they were all whispering behind her back, shunning her because she was different, even though they did not yet know why. Before she left grade school they did grasp why and things escalated to the point that she was called names.
        "Freak! Brainiac! Weirdo! Bookworm!" they had yelled whenever she came close.
        The rest of her school years were spent with her throwing herself into her studies. She no longer sought out company, but hid what she was and absorbed information like a sponge. She was not one of them...
        She could never be accepted by them...
        When she finally began dating men, things went from bad to worse. One by one her boyfriends eventually discovered either her IQ or her memory. Threatened by her intellect - feeling that secretly she found them stupid, one by one they had quickly vanished from her life.
        Zo'or shifted in his chair and sighed as his/her memories took a different turn.
        Nine years ago, already a successful doctor, she had loved a man who had not loved her, to whom she was nothing more than brief fling - not that it mattered - she had already decided that she would sleep with him regardless. She had been willing to accept a short time in which she felt wanted and loved - in which passion finally won out over reason, rather than spending another lonely few weeks alone.
        The affair had been perfect in more ways than one, as it had led to the birth of a daughter, a beautiful, dark haired, green eyed child who had smiled and laughed early in her life.
        Zo'or had seen the child's life through her eyes - its brief life and longer death... The genetic syndrome, Tay-sachs, had slowly destroyed her and a part of her mother as well.
        For a long time, Nivian had been unable to function, to find any joy in life, but then she had emerged from her despair with a new purpose - to eradicate the suffering that Tay-sachs brought...
        To that end, she had devoted all the years since. Outside of work, she had no friends and no family. Her parents had passed on years ago and all her other relatives lived far away.
        Surrounded by so many other humans, she was completely and utterly alone and weary unto death of it.
        She was just like him...
        Zo'or opened his eyes and stared at his reflection in the tinted office window, but in his mind's eye, it was Nivian he was looking at.
        She WAS just like him - an outsider - someone different enough that they could find no acceptance among their own kind.
        Be that as it may, he would be a fool to seek her out again...

        Anne quickly picked out a table as Nivian followed behind her with her own lunch tray. It had proven to be one of those rare, leisurely afternoons when she had no meetings or conferences to attend, which was a relief. She had spent the last three weeks avoiding the Taelon and the fewer places she had to be, the less likely it was that they would accidentally meet.
        "Nivian, what's wrong?" Anne asked after they seated themselves at a cafeteria table near the windows. "You haven't been the same since you went home with that migraine the other day and you look like someone killed your cat..."
        "I don't have a cat."
        "You know what I mean. By the way, maybe you should get one. It can't be good to keep going home to an empty house."
        She sighed as she pushed her salad around on her plate. "I'm OK. I just have so much going on right now," she said, realizing how lame the excuse was and ignoring the advice about getting a pet.
        Anne took a bite of her burger and suddenly looked over Nivian's shoulder with a startled expression on her face.
        "What?" Nivian asked her.
        Anne struggled to chew and swallow the bite she had taken, but unable to respond quickly enough, she merely pointed her chin towards the corner of the room behind her friend.
        Even as Nivian began to turn, a sudden silence fell over the cafeteria, causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end.
        Making his way across the large room was Zo'or and his bodyguard!
        As soon as he spotted her, he approached, seemingly unconcerned with the staring faces around him. His guard pulled out the chair next to Anne and without a word, the Taelon settled himself into it.
        "This is my implant, Ronald Sandoval," the alien said with a brief gesture toward the handsome asian man standing behind him.
        As Nivian nodded towards the man, Zo'or and Sandoval stared about them at the rest of the cafeteria's patrons, who, realizing their rudeness, immediately went back to their own conversations.
        "Ms. Caldor," Sandoval addressed the lab tech. "Perhaps we might move to another table?"
        Taking the hint, Anne grabbed her tray and moved off to another part of the room, leaving Nivian alone with the alien.
        The Taelon looked down at her half eaten salad and then back up at her face.
        "Please... finish your meal," he said.
        She picked up her fork, but only to play with. "What is it you want?" she found the courage to ask.
        "I think you already know the answer to that," he replied before changing the subject. "Why have you moved out of your domicile?"
        She stared down at her salad and let the silence stretch out between them.
        "Did you think that I would harm you?" he asked suspiciously, immediately drawing her eyes to his.
        "...I...I don't know what to think," she stuttered. "I'm not sure what happened to us the other day... but it scares me..."
        He nodded. "It was foolish of me to initiate a sharing with you," he admitted. "At the time, I could think of nothing but forging a better understanding of your motives..."
        "And?" she prompted.
        "And... you and I have now formed a connection which cannot be easily broken. We recognize each other. We know each other..."
        "We're alike," she finished for him.
        "In many ways." He nodded, gesturing towards her plate and she automatically took a bite of salad, thankful for the opportunity to chew it and be silent.
        For a time he sat, equally silent, seemingly content to patiently watch her eat. Then he slowly extended his hand, palm up on the table top. Glancing around them and finding that no one was watching, she slid her own free hand forward to met his.
        Instantly, the shared feelings of loneliness and a yearning for companionship returned. She even picked up that knowledge that he had struggled to remain away from her for the past three days...until Sandoval had told him that her house was now vacant. A sudden anxiety - a fear that she would run - had prompted his appearance in the cafeteria.
        Their eyes locked and she felt a sudden calmness wash over her as she gazed into the bottomless phosphorescent depths of his very blue orbs. The sudden knowledge that she could be accepted by a Taelon - an alien - brought confused tears to her eyes even as her heart began to beat rapidly. She was feeling a sudden desire for him - a yearning which seemed so very out of place...
         Her face flushing with the sudden warmth which came over her, she gently withdrew her hand. Looking at him, she could see that he seemed amazed and equally confused. Portions of his face seemed to be taking on a bluish color...
        "You were right to try to stay away," she finally whispered. "This is...crazy. It can never ever..."
        "I do not believe that either of us has a choice," he interrupted. "I too believe this to be a destructive course of action...however, my people believe that when a bond is meant to be, that it cannot be avoided. Good or bad, it will occur, whatever the ultimate consequence."
        "This bonding - is it a meeting of the minds, such as we shared in my office?" she asked.
        He nodded. "That and more. It is a complete joining of everything which we are."
        "But... a human and a taelon... bonding... Is such a thing possible?"
        His face momentarily became cold and distant again. "Da'an and his implant, Boone, have been moving towards such an event for some time. I suspect that it is possible."
        "You sound as though you disapprove," she observed. "as though the idea revolts you."
        His eyes narrowed slightly. "You are correct. I do not approve. I find it to be...unnatural and shameful..."
        She dropped her fork into her salad plate and grasping her tray, made to stand up.
        Everything had changed.
        He quickly grasped her forearm, stopping her in place. His expression had softened and his eyes looked troubled. "...however..." he continued. "I see you as more than just a human."
        "Thanks," she muttered dryly. "That makes me feel so much better..."
        "Go then," he urged. "but know that we will speak of this again. We have no choice." His face again became a cold, inhuman mask.
        "I was raised to believe that we always have a choice," she responded.
        His arrogance returned. "Such human beliefs will not aid you in this," he sneered. "but you will learn that soon enough..."
        Even as she fled the room, she saw Agent Sandoval stand and move to the Taelon's side.
        Anne caught up with her in the corridor outside the elevators. "What's going on?" she hissed as Nivian repeatedly stabbed the elevator call button. The car arrived and they stepped inside just as Taelon and his Implant entered the corridor.
        The last thing she saw as the doors closed, was the expression of both yearning and fear that he threw her across the space between them...

It was with some surprise that William Boone entered the embassy gardens late that evening and found Zo'or seated at the fountain. His first inclination was to quickly backtrack and return later on, but something about the Taelon's posture halted him in his tracks.
        Slowly he approached. "May I sit here?" he asked as he settled onto the fountain edge next to the U.N. Representative.
        Zo'or merely glared at him.
        "I haven't seen much of you lately," he commented, trying to draw the strange, and oftentimes unlikable alien out. "Busy schedule?"
        "I am currently aiding Kee'sha at the research facility," Zo'or replied.
        "Still? I thought that assignment ended a few weeks ago," Boone said, truly surprised by the news.
        Again Zo'or glared at him, this time his bitter expression informing the implant that he had touched upon a very sore subject. Without another word, Zo'or stood up and walked off, not so much as glancing at Da'an as the North American Companion entered the garden.
        Boone stood and waited for his companion to reach him before nodding in the retreating Taelon's direction.
        "There goes a Taelon with some major issues..." he breathed.
        "Yes. I have noticed that he is not himself of late," Da'an replied before turning to look at his friend. "All is not right with that one..."
        "Has it ever been?" Boone's rhetorical question drew an amused look from Da'an.
        Together the two of them moved off down the path.

By the middle of October, Nivian had settled into a comfortable, two bedroom condo closer to the research facility.  Although she had come to accept that the Taelon did not mean her any harm, she decided that getting rid of the house was probably the way to go and it had finally sold for the asking price a few weeks back.
        Now, as she began preparing dinner, thoughts of the alien once again filled her head.
        Had there been a single day in which she hadn't thought of him?
        She had seen him several times in passing since the afternoon in the cafeteria, but they had never done more than exchange a quick, pained look. That very afternoon, they had ridden the elevator together and he had not so much as glanced in her direction.
        His sudden indifference had actually hurt her feelings...
        Angry with herself over the sudden turn of her thoughts, she chopped her green onions viciously.  She had to be insane even thinking that there could be anything...
        "Ssssssss...." she hissed as the blade of her knife sliced into her forefinger and thumb. Judging by the sudden spurt of blood, she didn't need to actually see the wounds to know that they were bad.
        Quickly wrapping a kitchen towel tightly around her hand, she grabbed her keys and ran for her car. In her profession, having useable fingers was required!
        Five minutes later, she parked her car in the emergency physician's parking area and ran into the main E.D. entrance.
 
 
 

        Zo'or left Kee'sha's lab well after dark and boarded the elevator with Sandoval. Since the roof was being re-tarred, the shuttle had been parked on a grassy hill near the hospital's helicopter landing pad, which necessitated an elevator trip all the way to the ground level.
        Still - it mean that there was a chance, however slim, that he might see Nivian again...
        As usual, they made numerous stops on the way down, as several departing facility workers hit the elevator call button in the hopes of catching a ride down themselves. One by one they were denied access to the car by Sandoval.
        When the car stopped on the fifth floor, Sandoval once again made ready to stop the waiting worker from boarding, but Zo'or recognized her as Anne Caldor, Nivian Ibraham's co-worker and stopped him with a small gesture of his hand.
        Without a word, the woman stepped aboard and after a brief nod of acknowledgment towards him and his implant, turned to face the closing doors.
        "Working late, Ms. Caldor?" Sandoval asked.
        "Yes," she replied with a nervous glance at Zo'or.
        "And are you leaving for the night?" the implant continued. "Where is your coat?"
        "Uh...no. I mean yes...Uh..." she stuttered as her anxiety became more pronounced.
        Zo'or shot his implant a quick look and Sandoval quickly responded. "What's wrong?" he asked in gentle tone. "Please - let us help if we can."
        Finally the woman turned towards him and unburdened herself. "It's Nivian. She's had an accident and needs a ride home from the emergency room."
        Zo'or was taken aback. "How badly is she injured?" he asked, as the elevator doors opened onto the ground level.
        Anne stepped out and made for the main entrance with him right behind her. "I'm not sure. She said she cut her fingers...I guess it's not too bad, or they wouldn't be releasing her..."
        Coming to a decision, he spoke, "We shall accompany you. perhaps there is something we can do to aid her."
        Shooting him a grateful look, Anne led the way out.
 

 
        "Oh my God, Anne! What have you done?" Nivian moaned when she saw Zo'or talking with her attending Physician. She was still seated on the gurney in bay four while awaiting her release papers and had nearly fallen off said gurney when Anne had entered with Zo'or and Sandoval in tow.
        "Sorry. They were in the elevator and one thing led to another and..." Anne stammered.
        "It's all right, Anne. I understand," she said as she tilted her head so that her hair swung forward, helping to shield her face. "I feel like such an idiot..." she whispered.
        "We all have accidents, Nivian," her assistant replied. "..although a Doctor cutting their fingers with a kitchen knife is a real no-no..."
        "Yeah, if I had used a scalpel in the lab, at least I could hold my head up," she joked.
        Just then the R.N. who had been caring for her brought the mandatory follow-up care information and release papers, which she quickly signed.
        "Let's get out of here," she said under her breath as she stood up.
        Too late. Zo'or was blocking her retreat.
        "We shall see you safely home," he announced, giving her a very serious look. Before she could protest, he had turned toward Anne. "You may return to the laboratory to collect your coat," he instructed. "Dr. Ibraham will be... well looked after."
        Several of the other E.R. patients stared in her direction when they heard that she was a doctor herself.
        "Could you have said that any louder?" she asked the Taelon, aware that her face was red. She could swear that there was a malicious twinkle in his eye when he answered.
        "They are no doubt staring at you because of my presence and not due to the fact that you have managed to damage yourself in a needless accident."
        "Accidents ARE needless. That's why they're called accidents," she shot back.
        "Ah, but are there not the unavoidable accidents, which occur through no fault of the victim's versus accidents which are due to inattention?"
        "I'm going now," Anne announced as more heads turned to stare at them.
        "Thanks for stopping by," was all she could manage before the shy scientist retreated.
        Sandoval indicated that she should precede him out. "This way, Doctor. Our shuttle is conveniently located near the helopad today."
        Silently, mortified by all the attention, she fell into step beside Zo'or and made her way to the alien vehicle.
 
 
          She was not surprised that Zo'or insisted upon accompanying her to her home, nor was she upset by it. On the contrary, she needed to talk with him, be with him. As frightening as it was, he had been correct when he had told her all those weeks ago that sooner or later they would be drawn back to each other.
        Regardless of how he unnerved her, he alone seemed able to alleviate her loneliness.
        Unlocking the door, she headed directly for the kitchen so that she could get some water. Now that the excitement of the shuttle ride was over, her hand was beginning to hurt. It would be best to take the pain medication now, before it got worse.
        She was filling a glass when Zo'or, having closed the front door behind him, wandered in.
        "What is it that you are consuming?" he asked as she opened the medicine bottle.
        "Something for the pain," she answered as she prepared to toss down the pills. His hand on her arm restrained her.
        "Wait awhile," he entreated.
        She stared at him in confusion. "Why?"
        "Humor me," was his sole response as he turned away and fixed his gaze upon the bloody chopping board. "You have not yet eaten," he finally commented. "Shall I have Sandoval bring you something?"
        She carefully lifted the chopping board with her good hand and threw it in the sink followed by the knife. "I'm not hungry anymore,:" she finally answered. "...unless you are?"
        He gave her a strange smile then. "My species does not eat per se. In addition, we lack the sense of taste, as well as the sense of smell."
        "How do you meet your basic energy needs?" she asked as she moved to face him. It was the scientific curiosity in her coming out.
        "We implement ...far more efficient methods," he said as he blinked slowly and reached out to gently take her injured hand. "Your fingers are beginning to pain you," he stated and then narrowed his eyes. "The emergency physician related to me that he suggested you see the specialist. Why did you refuse to do so?"
        Knowing she had no logical explanation to offer him, she blushed to the roots of her hair. Feeling trapped and suddenly very uncomfortable she tried to withdraw her hand, but he tightened his hold, forcing her to remain where she was.
        "Please..." she pleaded.
        Carefully he brought his other hand up to grasp her forearm and then he loosened his grip on her injured hand and gently moved his hand over it. She stared as he stroked her hand and gaped as his own began to glow a bright blue. Within seconds her pain lessened and then disappeared.
        Still, he continued, stopping only when he suddenly reeled backward a step, releasing her in the process.
        Without thinking, she made a grab for his arm and managing to somehow keep him from falling, steered him to a chair. He looked shaken and drained.
        Only then did she realize that she had easily used her injured hand to steady him.
        Quickly she unraveled her bandages and stared in shock at her fingers.
        They were completely healed! Although the tiny stitches were still there, the wounds were nothing more than thin scars. What was more, she had complete control of her fingers and there was no numbness whatsoever!
        "They're healed!" she exclaimed, looking at the Taelon, who was watching her through lowered eyelids. "How...why...?"
        "You did not see the specialist, for you secretly hoped that your injury would provide you an excuse to stop working in the medical field," he stated, as he struggled to sit straighter in his chair.
        She knelt slowly beside him as tears began to gather in her eyes.
        "You would have eventually regretted that decision," he continued, as he seemed to slowly regain his composure. "I could not allow that..."
        Overcome by the care he had shown her and hardy daring to believe what she was doing, she reached out to stroke his cheek. A second later, she raised herself up, leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth.
        His eyes widened slightly and then closed even as her own did.
        Finally she pulled back and looked at him. "Thank you," she breathed.
        His eyes slowly opened and he looked at her as though really seeing her for the first time. Every bit of the arrogance she had come to associate with him was gone. One hand reached out and pulled her back to him, as he initiated another, longer kiss.
        After several heated minutes, the fact that she was kissing an alien finally penetrated her addled brain. Breaking off the kiss, she sat back suddenly on her heels.
        They stared at each other over the distance of a few feet which suddenly seemed to be light years across. Nivian found herself shaking with reaction, but still was unable to look away from his gently glowing blue eyes.
        After a time, Zo'or leaned forward slightly and brushed her hair back from her face with a shaky hand.
        "Ask," he sighed. "I feel your confusion."
        "You're not...male," she gulped. "..or female?"
        "Both and neither," he smirked.
        "...I don't understand..."
        "When Taelons join, each bears young," he replied, clearly proud of his race's physiology. "Each of us has the ability to impregnate and be in turn impregnated, which, by human scientific definition would make us hermaphroditic..."
        "But Taelons are not matter-based organisms," Nivian finished for him.
        "Precisely," he nodded. "Our form of procreation is not in any way linked to your own and cannot be defined by your standards."
        She summoned her courage and asked, "And where does this leave us - provided there is an 'us'?"
        He leaned further forward, bringing their faces close. "When we are linked, I feel what you feel and I know what you know. I know what pleases you," he said softly, seductively, as he began stroking her hair. "I could please you if you allowed it... and in so doing, I would share in your...release..."
        Nivian swallowed, suddenly nervous and confused.
        "Agent Sandoval is waiting for you," she breathed. She needed time to think things through. Their relationship was already strange and confusing without bringing more intimacy into it.
        Zo'or's eyes narrowed as his arrogant demeanor returned. "And he shall wait the entire night if need be," he said, leaning closer still, so that their lips brushed. He was obviously wishing for another kiss.
        Silently, he offered right hand, palm facing towards her.
        Briefly, she wondered if Taelons really had tongues or if they were part of the illusion of humanity they assumed. Even as they kissed again, she shuddered at the turn her thoughts were taking, broke away from him and scrambled to her feet. "Uh...I'm not... I don't think..." She took a calming breath. "I think you'd better go."
        A look of amazement crossed his face but quickly faded to disappointment and then barely contained anger! Rising to his feet, he approached her.
        "There is little sense in denying me," he hissed as he glared at her. "It is unproductive to delay the inevitable!"
        "Don't push me!" she hissed back, matching his scowl with one of her own. "I decide when AND if and I don't believe in fate!"
        He pulled back a bit, surprised by her reaction, but then smiled and turning about, headed for the front door.
        "Tomorrow it would please me to show you Kee'sha's lab," he said, with a suddenly calm tone, as he opened it. "I will await you there."
        She stared as he closed the door behind him, certain that she wouldn't make sense of any of this anytime soon. Sinking into the chair he had recently been in, she wrapped her arms around herself and frowned.
        Zo'or was not accustomed to being denied. Their sharing had revealed the self-centered and very egotistical side of himself to her. Adding the beginnings of sexual frustration to such a denial was bound to bring out the worse in him, yet she knew they had to slow down and tread carefully. There was so much about him which she didn't like, but the underlying person - the relatively young Taelon who feared to simply be himself and who was so lonely... drew her to him. Realistically, she knew that falling for the 'bad boy' usually led to disaster. She couldn't ever change who or what he was. It was something he would have to do for himself.
        But...would he?
        Thinking back to something he had said during a previous conversation, her thoughts turned toward Da'an and his implant. Tomorrow she'd pay William Boone a call. Maybe he'd be able to answer some of her questions.
        Then again, maybe he'd tell her she was an idiot to bother him with such things. Ah well, the worst he could do would be to throw her out...
        Shivering, she stood and moved off towards her bathroom. She had a pair of suture scissors there. Maybe she could get her stitches out herself...

        Zo'or dismissed Sandoval as soon as they arrived back at his New York residence and wandering down a hallway, entered a guest room. The room was pleasant enough and he had taken some pains to see that it was decorated by one of the best designers. The delicate cherry furniture glowed with a pleasing warmth and the curtains and bed coverings consisted of patterns and colors which he himself found attractive. On the bureau was a crystal vase filled with earth flowers.
        Moving to stand before the large mirror which hung over the dresser, he gazed pensively at his own reflection before moving to sit in the armchair which stood in the corner.
        She had kissed him...
        Him!
        She had felt no fear - only some confusion over his lack of true gender.
        That kiss... He had always viewed such human customs as primitive, ritualistic and utterly beneath him. Little had he realized how wonderful the sensation was!  When she had touched her lips to his, all thoughts of himself had vanished - he had thought only of her - of her closeness and warmth... He had felt her sudden desire for him through the contact and had himself felt a pleasure which was difficult to describe.
        When she had drawn away, all he had thought about was kissing her again. Even now...
        He balled his delicate hands into fists and forced himself away from the memories which now tormented him.
        She had panicked and rejected his offer of a sharing. She had withdrawn from him and he had made the mistake of allowing his hurt to manifest itself as anger.
        Zo'or sighed. Nivian was angry with him now and likely to avoid him on the morrow, but he was no longer willing to allow her time in which to withdraw from him. He would have Sandoval keep an eye on her and then, at the first opportune moment, he would seek her out.
        Standing up, he looked around the room.
        Implant or not, one way or the other, he would see Nivian Ibraham living out of this very room... and regardless of the feelings he had for her, he vowed that no one - Taelon or Human - would ever know the truth - That he, who professed to despise the human race, had fallen in love with a human...

William Boone navigated through the corridors of the research facility and made his way unerringly for laboratory 5109.
        He had memorized the building layout months ago as it contained several Taelon labs and was funded by the Companions. In the interests of his position as head of Companion Security, he had made it a point to familiarize himself with the layouts of all Taelon- frequented buildings.
        Pausing briefly in the doorway, he poked his head inside and noting the offices near the back, moved forward in their direction. Several of the scientists nodded at him as he passed their work areas. Doing as Dr. Ibraham had requested, he proceeded to her office and knocked on the door.
        A slender woman of medium height opened it. She had hair which brushed the tops of her shoulders and had gone silver. Her eyes were large and very dark. He had, of course, checked her profile and knew her to be only a few years younger than himself.
        All in all, she was quite lovely and extremely intelligent.
        He nodded to her.
        "Please come in, Mr. Boone," she asked as she indicated her office.
        He moved past her, aware that he in turn was being sized up. After she closed the door behind her, he shrugged.
        "What can I do for you, Doctor?" he asked as he ran a hand over a plaque on her wall.
        "Please have a seat." She indicated one of the chairs as she herself sat next to her desk. "Mr. Boone..."
        "William," he insisted.
        She smiled. "William, then. I recently became aquatinted with one of the Taelons here at this facility and I was hoping you could give me some pointers on interacting with them."
        He couldn't help but smile then. "Kee'sha is it? He's one of the more approachable Taelons stationed here..."
        Her face fell. "Actually...it's Zo'or."
        His own smile vanished instantly. "You don't want to 'interact' with him," he advised her. "You'd be better off avoiding him like the plague."
        "I know he's not very popular..." she began.
        "You could put it that way." Leaning forward, he sighed. "Look, you asked for my help in this and I'm about to do you a huge favor. Stay away from Zo'or. He's devious, only interested in what others can do for him...and he's made more people disappear than you'll ever know!
        He was shocked to see tears gather in her eyes. "I guessed that," she sniffed. "but I'm afraid that it's already too late to do as you've advised."
        Boone felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. "Are you telling me that you two are forming a bond?"
        She nodded, looking like a lost soul indeed and, in that instant, he felt his heart go out to her. Leaning forward, he took her hand in his own and squeezed it reassuringly.
        "Tell me," he encouraged.

        Less than ten minutes later, he lifted his chin off the hand he had propped it against and blinked slowly. He was quite literally speechless for several seconds before he managed to speak.
        "You...kissed him?" he asked, trying to keep his revulsion from showing.
        She gave him a withering look.
        In response, he sat up straighter. "I'm not sure what I can do to help you..." he sighed.
        "You can tell me about you and Da'an," she urged.
        He flinched. "How do you know about..."
        "Zo'or mentioned the two of you." She placed a hand on his arm. "I'm sorry. If you feel it's an invasion of your privacy, I'll understand."
        "No...no...it's OK," he assured her. "I don't think my story's going to help you, though. Your relationship with Zo'or and mine with Da'an, are very much unique in their own ways."
        She withdrew her hand. "Does he treat you well?"
        Thoughts of the times he had spent with his Companion brought a soft smile to his face. "He's quite the mother hen," he laughed, bringing a smile to her face as well.
        "Do you love Da'an?"
        Their eyes locked. "More than anything or anyone," he admitted, suddenly very serious. "We've never kissed and I don't know if we ever will, but when we touch..." His mind began to wander as he was gripped with a CVI memory.
        "Yeah..." she breathed. "When we touch..." for a moment her expression mirrored his own, but then it became troubled.
        "What is it?" he asked as he focused on her once more.
        "Oh, William, he's so...lost..." she turned a frightened look on him then. "He hates what he is and he hates those who surround him - human and Taelon alike because he can never be a part of either group..."
        "What is he?"
        She ignored him. "He's got so much bottled up inside and it all slips out when we touch. He knows that I understand, because I'm an outsider as well and that's what keeps pulling us back together, but he..." For a moment, she paused to compose herself.  "Zo'or's afraid that I'm going to discover something about him," she whispered. "I can't tell what it might relate to, but he's terrified! I'm terrified as well, because, should I discover his secret, I fear that he'll harm me..."
        "If he's seeking to bond with you, he knows that you WILL learn everything about him," Boone explained. "He would have killed you already if he feared discovery."
        She nodded. "I suppose you have something there..." Then she glanced at her watch. "You'd better be going, I wouldn't want Zo'or to find you down here with me..."
        He stood and placed a hand on her shoulder. "If there's anything at all I can do, please don't hesitate to ask," he said, as he squeezed it gently.
        "Might I perhaps meet Da'an one day?" she asked. "I've never met any Taelon but Zo'or..."
        "I understand. I'll ask Da'an, but I'm sure that he'd be very interested in meeting you too." With a nod at the doctor, he slipped out of the room.
        She had left him with a great deal to think about...

    Upstairs, Zo'or stood at one of Kee'sha's lab windows and stared down at the street below. Sandoval stood at attention behind him, having just informed him of Nivian's unexpected visitor.
        The U.N. representative's eyes narrowed as Boone finally exited the building and hailed a cab. As soon as the implant had disappeared, he turned and motioning Sandoval to remain, left the room.

Nivian stepped out of the lab and nearly slammed into Zo'or out in the corridor. For a brief moment they stared at each other suspiciously and then she laughed.
        "We seem destined to keep colliding," she said and then nearly blushed at the double meaning. If Zo'or had caught it, he showed no sign. He continued to stare at her suspiciously. Certain that he must know of Boone's visit, she took his arm and steered him back toward the elevators.
        "I was just on my way up to see your labs," she said. "...If the invitation is still open, that is..."
        "Of course," he finally replied as he stopped their forward momentum. Backing her against the hallway wall, he leaned close. "What was William Boone doing here?" he hissed near her ear.
        She decided that there was absolutely no point in lying to him. "I asked him to stop by. I wanted to ask him some questions about..."
        "About what?" he prompted when she did not continue.
        "..about forming a relationship with a Taelon," she whispered.
        His expression suddenly softened. "Did his advice prove useful?"
        She nodded in the affirmative and he stepped back while gesturing towards the elevators down the hall. "It would please me greatly to show you about the laboratory," he announced as they began walking slowly together.
        "Why have you been stationed here so long?" she finally asked. "You're not a scientist..."
        "I have several different responsibilities," he responded. "And you are incorrect. I do have experience in the sciences. Be that as it may, I am here to supervise Kee'sha's work. The Synod wants to be certain that progress is made in the correct areas."
        "What areas might those be?" she asked as she pushed the elevator call button.
        He looked sharply at her. "You must understand that I cannot reveal that to you."
        They stepped into a deserted elevator. "Sooner or later you will," she said as the doors closed. "If we move towards a bond, you won't have much choice. What then? What happens to me when I, a lowly human, becomes privy to deep dark Taelon secrets?"
        A troubled look crossed his face and then was quickly replaced by his usual, unreadable expression. "Once we have bonded, you will not betray me," he said with conviction.
        Their eyes met then, and she felt more closely connected to him than ever. Needing to convey her feelings to him, she reached out and grasping his hand, gave it a quick squeeze. She was delighted to see his eyes light up warmly.
        The two of them stepped off the elevator on the twelfth floor and the tall Taelon led her through the check point. He brought her on a quick tour of the labs which ended at the office he shared with the Taelon scientist, Kee'sha.
        As they entered the small room, she saw the other Taelon seated before an alien terminal which seemed to project images within an energy stream of some sort. He looked up, startled by their appearance and with a wave of a hand ended the projection.
        "That was what we call a datastream, " Zo'or explained. "And this is Kee'sha." he turned toward the scientist. "This is Doctor Nivian Ibraham," he introduced.
        Kee'sha stood and stepped closer to her, extending his hand in the human handshake greeting. "I am pleased to meet so fine a fellow scientist," he greeted as they shook.
        "I'm glad to make your acquaintance as well," she replied, liking him instantly.
        "Please tell me about your research," asked eagerly. "I have read everything available on the nature of your project, but I wonder how you planned to deliver the enzyme, Hex A to the affected neurological cells of your patients. Moreover, how do you propose removing the accumulated GM2 ganglioside from the cells? Our research shows that even in the presence of the correct enzyme, removal of the accumulated ganglioside is necessary for any acceptable recovery to be made. Hex A alone cannot completely reverse the damage done to the neurological cells."
        She nodded her head. "I'm impressed with the interest you show in my work, Kee'sha. It is the highest form of flattery amongst us scientists, is it not?"  At the Taelon's grin she explained. "Part of my project entails the creation of three separate virus vectors to deliver the three separate enzyme components directly into the cells themselves. When subunit-a, subunit-b and the activator protein are delivered in this way, rather than having to be assembled by the cell or moved about by carrier proteins, there is a rapid and complete breakdown of excess GM2 inside the cells as well as in the surrounding tissue."
        Kee'sha's eyes widened. "An admirable solution," he said with a smile. "I assume the vectors are self perpetuating?"
        "Yes. They replicate in the spleen, where, due to their slow replication, they do minimal damage to an already unnecessary organ. Once the vectors have been introduced, they're there to stay. Our patients will only need a weekly shot of the actual enzyme components. Perhaps we could engineer some of their own natural bacterial flora to produce it... thus offering them the chance of a normal life."
        "If I may be of any use, please...." Kee'sha began.
        Zo'or interrupted him. "You have your own projects to complete," he reminded him. "The Synod is not pleased with your results to date."
        Kee'sha lowered his eyes and Nivian felt badly for the humiliation he had just been subjected to. "I must return to my work," the scientist said as he made his way quickly to the office door and departed.
        She rounded on her smug-looking companion. "Why did you do that to him?" she asked. "It was cruel and unnecessary!"
        "It was neither, I assure you," he said as he moved closer, slowly backing her towards the office wall. "Taelons are well aware of their duties. We do not feel emotion as humans do. I was simply reminding him that time was growing short... It was done with his best interests in mind."
        Zo'or reached up to brush her cheek with his hand and her indignation faded to confusion and then, as he leaned forward and kissed her, to desire. In a moment he had her pinned up against the office wall and had clasped her hand firmly with his own. Her other hand moved up to his shoulder and then curved around the back of his neck, where she stroked the base of his large cranium.
        As they kissed, she felt his mind connecting with her own again.
        <...show me how...> he seemed to plead as their kissing became more frenzied.
        The tip of his tongue brushed her upper lip even as she realized what it was he wanted her to show him. Grateful that he at least possessed a tongue, she sighed and began exploring his mouth with her own. His mouth was warm and relatively dry. Of course, his kind had no reason to need saliva, so she supposed it made perfect sense...
        His tongue was unnaturally smooth -  no taste buds, she assumed. For some strange reason, he did possess teeth, although they, too, felt strange to her...
        Then his tongue began to move against her own and sought entry to her own mouth. He explored her with abandon and all thoughts, scientific or otherwise, fled her mind as they shared each other's dizzying thoughts and a rapidly escalating passion.
        They broke apart as her knees threatened to buckle and she freed her hand from his own, bringing it up to meet the other one around his neck.
        "What were you saying about Taelons not feeling emotions as humans do?" she asked as she steadied herself against him and looked up into his gently glowing eyes. "It seemed very clear to me that you were feeling exactly the same way I was..."
        He rubbed his cool nose against her own. "I rely upon you to keep this discovery to yourself," he breathed.
        She sighed as his arms moved around her waist and held her to him.
        "Nivian..."
        "Hhmmm?"
        "Come with me to New York," he asked as he rubbed his cheek against her own. Her skin tingled everywhere their flesh made contact.
        She moved her head around so she could see his face again. "When? Why?"
        "Tomorrow. I have things I must attend to Saturday, however, I would relish the opportunity to show you my residence and the city itself."
        "An alien to my world is going to show me around?" she teased. She was rewarded with something which could be called a grimace. "When are we leaving?" she asked.
        "Tomorrow at seventeen thirty. Meet me on the rooftop," he said, a triumphant glint in his eyes.
        They exchanged a few more kisses before she pushed him away. "I really need to get some work done if I'm going to be going away with you this weekend," she said as she tried to catch her breath. A glance at him showed that his eyes were glowing softly again.
        He was wearing a dazed look and could only manage to nod at her.
       She took the opportunity to slip out of the office.

"William."
        Boone turned as Da'an's voice brought him out of his introspection. After leaving Doctor Ibraham's lab, he had made his way back to the embassy and up to the room he used as his own when he was in town. Here, he had spent over an hour thinking about the strangeness of life.
        That he and Da'an could find themselves so bound together was one thing, but for a Taelon like Zo'or to become attached to a human as well was... incredible. Could it be that taelons and humans needed each other in such a fundamental way that they were destined to seek each other out on a personal level as well?
        Now, surprised by Da'an's appearance in his room, he snapped instantly back to the present.
        "Yes Da'an?" he asked his friend.
        Da'an approached him slowly, his head tilted in a way which made Boone aware that he was curious about something.
        "What is it which occupies your thoughts to the extent that you have kept yourself locked away for the past hour?" the companion asked as he came to a stop facing his implant. The two of them were standing very close to each other.
        "Do you believe in fate?" the redhead asked as he attempted to order his thoughts.
        "I do." Da'an looked closely at his face, as though trying to decipher the emotions which had prompted the question. "All my people believe that each of us is destined to serve a purpose in this existence."
        Boone raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever wondered about us?" he asked before he could lose his nerve.
        Da'an blinked slowly, making a sound which was very much like a sigh. "Quite often," he admitted.
        "What destiny do you believe we are serving?" he breathed.
        Da'an blushed blue, but continued to look him in the eye. "I believe we are to show our people the way to understanding and acceptance of each other," he said softly.
        "And what if other Taelon-Human bondings were occurring even as we stood here? Wouldn't that imply that it is not our sole purpose in coming together?"
        Da'an's eyes searched his face. "...Then I would say that it is simply our destiny to support...and love one another," he said whispered.
       Boone felt a lump start in his throat at the verbal admission of caring.  Without a word, he gathered Da'an close to him, enfolding him in his arms. His friend and secret love put his arms around his waist in turn and rested his head on his shoulder.
        A feeling of profound peace came over him then. He knew beyond a doubt that, for as long as he lived, his companion would be a part of his life.
        "William, what has brought about this sudden need to define us?" his perceptive companion asked.
        "I'm not entirely certain, but I suppose that I would have gotten around to trying to do so sooner or later," he sighed.
        "How very... Human," Da'an smiled.

Nivian was a nervous wreck at work the next day. She told Anne where she was going just in case she needed to contact her and then spent the rest of the morning catching up on her work and finding someone to take call for her. By lunchtime she was too excited to eat and the hours which led up to five pm seemed to go on forever.
        Just before five thirty, she picked up her overnight case and shouldering her soft-sided briefcase, headed for the elevators. Stabbing impatiently at the call button, she groaned at the length of time it took for the car to arrive. After a small eternity, she stepped aboard the tardy car and took it to the fifteenth floor, where she found Sandoval and Zo'or waiting for her.
        "Am I late?" she quipped, drawing a small smile from the implant, but no reaction from Zo'or, who simply stared at her intensely.
        "Not at all," Sandoval replied as he took her bag and motioned her to board the shuttle.
        She stepped up into the cabin and waited for Zo'or, who took indicated she should take the rear left seat. As she sat, he sat in the seat to her right and demonstrated the use of the restraints.
        Sandoval sat in the chair directly ahead of Zo'or as the pilot began gesturing in the air and punching at what appeared to be a very sophisticated heads-up display. Before she even expected it, the shuttle lifted smoothly off the roof and accelerated away from the building so quickly that a gasp was torn from her. Turning to face Zo'or, she was amazed by the gentle smile which lit his face.
        "Last time I rose in one of these, the pilot went easy on me, I guess," she laughed.
        Sandoval turned to look at her. "You haven't seen anything yet, Doctor!"
        At precisely that instant, the shuttle lurched forward as her internal organs seemed to bounce off her backbone. The world around them vanished, to be replaced with a strange kaleidoscope of colors and images.
        Zo'or took the opportunity to explain the concept of interdimension to her, but before he could even complete the lesson, the shuttle emerged into real time.
        The tall buildings of New York City appeared directly below them, some looking as though they would scrape the very shuttle bottom as they zipped towards Central Park East.
 

Upon arriving, Nivian was given a quick tour of Zo'or's dwelling and then led to the room in which she would be staying.
        "Please feel free to wander about," Sandoval said, as he placed her bag on a chair in the corner. "Zo'or has a few matters to attend to and then he will find you.  Any preferences as to where you'd like to have dinner?"
        "Dinner?"
        "You do eat?" the bemused implant asked.
        "Yes, but he...Zo'or...Or are you taking me?"
        Sandoval took a step closer and put on a charming smile - too charming to be real, from her perspective.
        "I will accompany the both of you," he explained. "However, I believe that Zo'or is your actual...companion...on this excursion."
        Not very familiar with the city, Nivian blurted the first thing that came to mind. "How about Tavern on the Green?" she asked. "Unless it's too short a notice..."
        Sandoval smiled for real then. "Somehow, I don't think getting reservations will be difficult," he chuckled as, giving her a quick nod, he dismissed himself.
        Nivian busied herself unpacking, after which, she lay on the bed and thumbed through a guide book she had brought along with her. Not long after, something made her look up.
        Zo'or was standing in the doorway watching her. Seeing that he had been noticed, he moved forward into the room as she sat up and put her book away.
        "Agent Sandoval informs me that our dinner reservations are for seven thirty," he informed her as he came to a stop next to the bed. "Is this acceptable?"
        "That's fine," she responded. "It'll give me a chance to change clothes."
        "Is there someplace you would like to visit before hand?"
        "If it's all right, I think I'd rather tour after we...I... eat."
        He nodded. "Then, may I show you the view from the balcony?"
        She was on her feet in a second.
 

        The rest of the evening went by in a blur.
        Despite the crisp autumn air, the view from the balcony had been incredible. On one side of them was the darkness which was Central Park, while everywhere else, the city was ablaze with light. Never before had she seen so many lit windows in the dark!
        While she had been admiring the view, Zo'or had taken her hand and smiled, as he lived the experience through her.
        They had remained outside until it was time for her to change, after which they had taken a limo to Tavern on the Green.
        What a commotion their appearance had caused! With Sandoval and the limo driver seated together at a nearby table, she and her alien 'date' had enjoyed some semblance of privacy.
        Zo'or had taken delight in putting the waiters through their paces, always hinting at some small disapproval of their performance. He had even ordered his own meal and not done more than push the food about the plate. When the anxious waiter had asked if everything was all right, he had merely stared him down.
        Nivian had enjoyed her meal greatly, relishing both the atmosphere and the company, although Zo'or's penchant for small cruelties had put something of a damper on things.

        They hadn't left until nearly nine and had spent the rest of the evening touring the big apple in the limo while Sandoval . The sights had been spectacular but their last stop had topped everything.
        Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn, the limo had pulled over and she and Zo'or had walked the Brooklyn Heights Promenade while Sandoval trailed far behind them. The view of the grand old bridge, lit up at night with Manhattan in the background, had been... breathtaking.
        After a time, they had settled onto a bench and talked a while while they focused on the bridge.
        It would have been the perfect end to the evening if only Sandoval hadn't been lurking in the background.
        Finally, the chill of the night had driven them back to the warmth of the limo and they had gone straight back to Zo'or's home.
 
        Free of the implant's disproving gaze, they had shared a hug and a kiss before the alien had excused himself, stating his need to attend to certain matters and his assumption that she must be tired.
        With a final kiss, they had parted...

Nivian awoke to the vision of two pale hands reaching out to her. In the darkened room above them floated two glowing blue eyes.
        She screamed and backed away before it penetrated her mind that it had to be Zo'or. Even as she relaxed, she heard his voice.
        "It is all right," he soothed. "All is well."
        She felt his weight settle on the bed even as she reached behind her and snapped on the bedside lamp. He wore a concerned expression and with a final shudder, she settled herself into his arms.
        "I only wished to watch you sleeping." he whispered after a time.
        It was as much of an apology as she was ever likely to get from him, she knew.
        "I'm all right now," she answered. He was warm and solid and she wrapped her arms around him, holding on tightly. He reciprocated and after a short while, she tugged him down onto the bed so that they were laying together.
        "Sleep," he entreated.
        With a sigh, she leaned over him, propping herself on her outstretched arms.
        "I'm suddenly wide awake," she declared as she leaned down and kissed him.
        They spent the night together, exploring each other and Zo'or made good on his promise to please her. It turned out that he really did know what she liked!
        When it was over, they lay together as Zo'or continued to quiver.
        "Zo'or?" She spoke softly, suddenly concerned by his stillness.
        There was no response.
        Pushing him onto his back, she leaned over him.
        His face slowly beginning to take on a more human appearance, he stared back at her.
        "Are you all right?" she asked, suddenly afraid for him.
        He nodded, still staring at her oddly.
        "I guess this must really have been pretty strange for you..." she gulped.
        "Actually," he whispered, looking somewhat vacant. "It explains a great deal..."
        "About what?"
        "We could never comprehend why it was that humans wasted so much of their time copulating when they did not wish to have offspring..."
        Nivian couldn't help herself - she started laughing. "Now you know," she chuckled as she fell back onto her side and laid her head on his shoulder.
        He put his arms around her then and finally stopped shaking.
        "Are you certain that you're OK?" she asked again.
        "For the moment..."
        She raised her head. "What do you mean?"
        "I was unsuccessful in shielding our activities from the commonality..."
        The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she made sense of what he was telling her.
        "Are you telling me that every Taelon knows what we were just doing?" she squeaked.
        "Not every Taelon. Only those in this solar system who decided, out of curiosity, to...investigate the strange sensations disturbing the commonality," he explained with a smirk.
        Reaching down to the foot of the bed, Nivian grasped the covers and pulled them over her head.

         Boone stumbled to his vid screen, certain that only one person would be calling him at this time of night. He was wearing only his sweat pants, having just been rousted from his bed. Worse yet, he was certain that he was still blushing over the dream he had just had...
        "Da'an," he greeted as the Companion appeared on the screen.
        "Boone." Da'an stared at him intently, and he felt his blush deepening.
        "What's wrong?" he prompted, self-consciously pulling on the T-shirt he had carried in with him.
        "There has been a disturbance of dire proportions within the commonality," the Taelon related, blushing blue in the process.
        Boone frowned, unsure of what Da'an might be trying to say. "I'm not sure that I understand," he said. "I was sleeping and didn't pick up..." His eyes widened as he made a connection between his dream and the disturbance. "Did this...disturbance have something to do with Zo'or and Dr. Ibraham?" he asked.
        Da'an nodded. "You dreamed it?" he asked in turn.
        "I think so."
        Da'an inclined his head in a confused manner. "Boone...I did not know...I never suspected that a moment of such perfection could exist."
        The redheaded implant swallowed hard. "I don't know if I would refer to it as perfection..."
        Da'an appeared even more confused.
        "...unless I were an alien completely unfamiliar with such sensation..." he finished lamely. He cleared his throat. "Are you all right?"
        The Companion blushed again. "I believe so...however, this may have complicated matters for us..."
        It was Boone's turn to nod. He and Da'an were sure to be closely monitored from now on and he wondered if perhaps Quo'on might try forbidding them to... He quickly clamped a lid down on that train of thought.
        "What has the Synod had to say about this?" he asked.
        "Curiously, they have not yet communicated anything on the subject," the Companion related. "It is my hope that they do so soon. Many of my fellow Companions are now entertaining thoughts which are most...unTaelon-like..."
        They stared at each other.
        Boone swallowed again.
        "You must warn her," Da'an whispered, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Go tomorrow, when Zo'or makes his appearance before the Synod."
        "I thought you said that the Synod hadn't yet..."
        "They will," Da'an responded. "I know my brother well enough. Quo'on will insist upon questioning Zo'or's sudden..."
        "...Attachment to a member of the very species he had claimed to despise?" Boone finished.
        Again Da'an nodded.
        Again they stared at each other silently.
        Boone could almost feel the Companion's desire for him. It mirrored his own, but they were, both of them, in very dangerous positions. By some unspoken means, they had decided to tread slowly, building their relationship carefully and gathering support along the way.
        That did not stop them from wanting more...
        Boone cleared his throat. "You'll let me know when he leaves for the home ship?"
        "Be here in the morning, that we may contact Ibraham at the first opportunity." Da'an stared at Boone again before bowing his head. "Pleasant dreams, William."
        Before Boone could respond, the link went dead.

 
         When Nivian woke the following morning, Zo'or was gone from the room. Stretching briefly, she quit the bed, showered quickly, dressed and went in search of him.
        She found him reclining in his audience room chair, as an alien, phosphorescent energy seemed to stream around him. Freezing in the doorway, she stared at him, suddenly unsure of her welcome.
        She needn't have worried. Within a few short moments, Zo'or became aware of her presence and sat up as the energy stream suddenly vanished. He beckoned her to approach and when she did so, reached out to gather her to him in a hug.
        "Good morning," she said softly. "Did you sleep well?"
        He smiled his typical ironic smile. "I do not sleep," he informed her.
        "Never?" At his his nod, she continued. "You never sleep? How do you...I mean it seems so...strange!"
        "Best not to think about it," he advised. Rising from his chair, he grasped her hand and pulled her after him as he left the room.
        She was led to his own chambers, where a small table had been set out with a breakfast fit for a queen.
        "Please - be seated and enjoy your meal," the U.N. Representative urged. "I am expected upon the home ship, however, I shall return as soon as I am able."
        "Is this about...last night?" she asked as her stomach threatened to roll over.
        "Yes."
        "What will happen to you? To us?"
        He smirked. "Nothing. I have already devised an explanation which will satisfy my superiors."
        Giving her another, somewhat awkward kiss, he turned and left the room, but Nivian still worried...

Not ten minutes after Zo'or's departure, Nivian heard a chiming coming from the audience chamber. At first she ignored it, certain that one of the staff would take care of whatever it might be. Several minutes went by before it dawned on her that the staff might not yet have returned - it WAS a Saturday, after all...
        Slowly, she entered the room, unsure of what she might find.
        What she found amazed her utterly. A strange stream of glittering light formed a column before Zo'or's chair!
        As she moved around it, towards the chair, she became aware that William Boone was standing within the stream.
        "Ah. There you are," he replied as clearly as if he were right next to her. In that instant, the stream brightened and the implant took on a completely life-like, three dimensional form.
        In the background, Nivian could make out Da'an, sitting in his chair in the audience chamber. The North American Companion's eyes were lowered, but his entire demeanor suggested that he was paying sharp attention to them.
        "What is this called?" she asked, as she waved an arm toward the stream.
        It instantly blinked out of existence.
        When it returned two seconds later, William Boone was smiling and the companion behind him appeared amused as well.
        "You just stumbled into how we turn these 'datastreams' on and off," the redhead explained.
        Nivian smiled as well. "I'm afraid you've missed Zo'or," she told them. "He left here less than fifteen minutes ago."
        "We knew that," Boone informed her. "I needed to talk to you while he was unavailable..."
        She felt herself tense up and somehow managed to keep a calm tone. "What about?"
        Boone looked very serious. "We know how you spent the evening," he stated, matter-of-factly and causing her to blush furiously. "I'm sorry to be so blunt about it, but I felt that you should know that many of the Companions here on earth experienced some of what Zo'or experienced."
        She sat in Zo'or's chair, suddenly feeling faint. "Then Da'an told you..."
        The Companion finally lifted his eyes to look directly at her. "Boone experienced the event in a dream," he explained. "His link with me allowed him to sense what I myself sensed."
        "Hey..." Boone's voice was low and soothing. "It's all right, Nivian." He glanced back at Da'an. "When you get close to a Taelon, you get used to the sharing of your life. Privacy is still possible, but difficult."
        "But...something IS wrong, or you wouldn't have called at the first opportunity," she prompted, feeling slightly better.
        It was Da'an who answered. "Now that you have forged a bond of sorts with Zo'or, he will ask you to become his implant."
        "His assistant?" she asked, confused.
        "His implant," Boone answered. "I'm one, Sandoval's one...every Companion has at least one and Zo'or's position entitles him to have one or two as well."
        "An implant is so named for the device he has within his brain," Da'an explained. "It is referred to as a CVI - Cyber Viral Implant."
        "It gifts it's recipient with amazing mental abilities," Boone continued. "One of which is total recall."
        "Nivian smiled. "I already have such recall," she revealed. "There would be no point in 'implanting' me."
        "I'm afraid that there would be a very important reason for doing so," the implant continued. "The CVI contains a hidden, Motivational Imperative, or MI, which skews your perceptions. The Companions become your first priority - your reason for living. You end up devoting all your time, energy and affection to them."
        She stared at them in horror. "Then you are with Da'an because...." The thought was too awful to complete.
        Boone winced and even Da'an looked pained. Neither could ever reveal the truth to Nivian, for what she knew, Zo'or would eventually know as well.
        "I am more fortunate than most," the attaché said. "I suspect that you would not fare as well. Once Zo'or has had you implanted, he need fear nothing with regard to you. He could kill your friends, or destroy your research and you would thank him for it." Seeing that she was about to protest, he held up a hand. "Believe me - you would help him do so, if he asked you to...and the entire time, you would be screaming on the inside, knowing that what you were doing was wrong..."
        Nivian gulped. "What we discussed in my office - about the secret I fear discovering..."
        Boone nodded. "This would be the ideal way to prevent you from revealing it to others...should you discover it."
        Behind the implant, Da'an suddenly rose to his feet and moved closer, until he was standing at Boone's side. "We have done what we can to warn you," he said softly. "I wish you well and offer my aid, should you find yourself in an...intolerable circumstance."
        "Just call me if you need help," the redhead added. "I'll get you out safely."
        "Thank you," she muttered, still in a state of shock.
        The datastream collapsed.

        "Zo'or, you understand the reason for this summons?" Quo'on asked the younger Taelon.
        "Of course."
        Quo'on stood and moving away from his chair, slowly circled the U.N. Representative. "The Synod awaits your explanation," he prompted.
        "I have begun, what the humans term, 'a romance' with a woman scientist," he smirked. "The aftereffect of our...liason was an unfortunate accident which shall not occur again. I was simply too overwhelmed to shield the sensation from the commonality."
        "And what is the purpose for so intimate a relationship with a member of the very species you have proposed that we subjugate?" the offended Synod leader asked.
        Zo'or's smile was nasty. "Doctor Ibraham has developed a carrier virus which is self propagating and may serve us well... I merely insure her continued... creativity, while placing myself in a position in which I might learn more."
        Quo'on looked startled...and disappointed. "Rather would I have wished to hear you say that you found her worthy," he murmured. "This betrayal is unworthy of even you."
        For a second, the younger Taelon actually looked wounded, but he recovered quickly.
        "It is a simple matter to pass judgment on others when one need never bear the pressure of garnering such information oneself," he hissed.
        Quo'on turned a disapproving look upon him. "I begin to see many similarities between yourself and humanity," he remarked. "Very well. You may leave. We shall inform Ne'eg of your discovery."
        "I shall take care of the matter myself," Zo'or declared.
        Giving the tall Synod leader another disgusted look, he turned and left the room.
        Quo'on waited a few beats before summoning Ne'eg.

        "Anne, calm down and tell me what's wrong!" Nivian urged her chief technician. Anne had called a few minutes back, but was in such a state that her words all ran together. Nivian was trying once again to understand what had her all flustered.
        "Take a deep breath," she urged.
        Anne puffed.
        "OK now. Tell me exactly what happened."
        Two Taelons showed up at the lab this morning and they had what seemed to be about nine guards with them," Anne gushed. "It was just the three of us working today - me, Sarah and Lynn. One of the Taelons was Kee'sha, but I had never seen the other one before. Kee'sha introduced him as the eminent scientist, Ne'eg. Anyway, Ne'eg asked to see our research on the carrier viruses and we told him that we couldn't release the information without your approval."
        Anne began to hyperventilate again.
        "Go on," Nivian urged. "What happened then?"
        "Kee'sha didn't look too good. He started wringing his hands together and quickly excused himself. Then the men - I think they call them implants, or agents or something...Anyway, the men raided our offices! They called up different aspects of our research and confiscated critical papers!  Ne'eg checked out your computer. I saw him flipping through files..."
        In a state of shock, Nivian jumped up and began throwing her things in a suitcase. "When did this happen?" she asked, as her anxiety escalated.
        "They just left!"
        She looked at her watch.
        "Listen, Anne. Make me a reservation on the next available flight back from LaGuardia. I'll call you back when I arrive at the airport."
        "OK!" Anne hung up the phone.
        Within ten minutes, Nivian had all her belongings and was headed out the door.

        Zo'or returned to his abode shortly before noon, to find Nivian gone.
        "She most likely went out shopping," Sandoval sneered.
        He knew better, though. The rooms felt as though they had been deserted...
        Walking down the hall to her room, he began opening drawers. They were all empty, as was the closet. Her suitcase had likewise vanished.
        He shot his attaché a look which would have curdled milk and the human snapped to attention. "I'll get right on it!" Sandoval announced before pivoting about and hastily making for the front door.
        The United Nations Representative slowly walked back to his audience room and taking his chair, opened a datastream to Kee'sha. The scientist looked agitated.
        "What has happened?" he hissed. "And do not bother to try to downplay it - I can feel the tension in you!"
        "Ne'eg raided Doctor Ibraham's laboratory," Kee'sha said. "He did not take any original materials - only copies..."
        Zo'or felt his human facade slipping. "Copies of what, in particular?"
        "Copies of anything pertaining to the carrier virus."
        The younger Taelon's eyes closed. He actually swayed and nearly fell from his chair. This was disastrous!
        With a wave of his arm, Kee'sha's image was replaced by that of Quo'on.
        "What have you done?" Zo'or asked bluntly.
        "What was necessary to further our objectives with concern to the probe." The Synod leader responded calmly. "We felt that we could not guarantee your cooperation in this matter."
        "And so you sent Ne'eg? You have allowed him to claim all the credit!"
        "On the contrary. All the credit is Doctor Ibraham's, is it not?" With a small smile, Quo'on cut the transmission.
        Zo'or stared blankly at his knees for a moment. Everything was undone and if he did not act quickly, all his hopes would lay in ruins! Rising, with a determined look upon his face, he summoned his shuttle pilot and Sandoval. He had to get to Nivian before she began making the wrong assumptions!

   
 
        Nivian was seated in her office with a cold cup od coffee and a major migraine when Zo'or came barging in.
        "Get out," she demanded.
        The Taelon looked stunned. "Surely, you do not believe that I had anything to do..."
        She interrupted him. "Are you saying that it was Kee'sha who informed your 'eminent Ne'eg'?"
        Zo'or took the seat next to her desk. "Our Synod leader, Quo'on, dictated that Ne'eg might put your carrier virus research to use in his own project. I had no say in this."
        She stared at him for a moment and then began rubbing her temples. "This is turning into a nightmare..." she groaned.
        Rising from his chair, Zo'or moved to stand behind her and laid his hands on her head. Within seconds, the migraine had vanished.
        "There is no nightmare, Nivian," he sighed. "Ne'eg has not stolen your research - he merely obtained copies, which he intends to put to good use."
        "But I have no control over what he does with it," she cried as she looked back over her shoulder at him. "I'm responsible for anything he might use it for!"
        Leaning down, he wrapped his arms around her. "I will check in on Ne'eg from time to time," he promised. "Is all now well here?"
        "I suppose..."
        "Come with me then."
        "Where?" she asked suspiciously.
        "To Kee'sha's lab. He wishes to see you."
        Standing, she followed him out of the lab.

        They found Kee'sha in his office. The scientist rose as soon as he saw them and approached her with his hands outstretched.
        She allowed him to take her own hands.
        "I am sorry for your troubles," the Taelon scientist said. "I fear that in sharing your work with me, that you unknowingly also shared it with Ne'eg."
        "I believe that you did nothing wrong," she reassured him, unable to think him capable of such wrongdoing.
        Kee'sha nodded. "I still wish to help, if I may..."
        She freed her hands. "Right now it would be best if you stayed away from my laboratory," she warned. "But, later...perhaps..."
        "I understand." Kee'sha looked dejected. "I want to tell you that Zo'or never suggested using your research elsewhere," he added helpfully.
        She glanced sideways at Zo'or, who looked uncomfortable. "Thank you," she told the scientist as they turned to leave his office.
        They moved down the hall a ways and Zo'or grasped her hand, pulling her into a stairwell. There he moved her up against the wall and kissed her.
        "Come back to New York with me," he urged.
        "I need to stay here now," she replied. "Besides, I need time to think and I can't do so when you're around." Suddenly she frowned. "Where's Sandoval?"
        "He is on the roof with the shuttle. I am relatively safe within the confines of this building...and I wished to..." He kissed her again. "...speak with you. You will not return with me?"
        "Not this week," she sighed. "Would you...would you like to stay with me tonight?"
        His eyes began to glow.

Sandoval, despite every objection, was forced to leave Zo'or at the Doctor's house for the night. Every argument he began against such a blatant breach of protocol was firmly squashed by the determined Taelon.
        Once the shuttle had departed, Nivian moved away from the window.
        "They're gone," she announced.
        Zo'or nodded. He had settled onto her sofa after entering her dwelling. Now that they were alone, he indicated that she should sit beside him. She did so and he felt a thrill as she leaned against him, and wrapping her arms about his waist, snuggled into his side.
        "What would you like to do?" she asked.
        "I wish to discuss our relationship."
        She looked him in the eyes then and he seemed to feel a sudden fear run through her. "I don't think I'm ready to commit to anything," she admitted, as though sensing what he was about to ask.
        He continued anyway. "I would wish you to be my implant," he stated. "As such, you would be considered an integral part of me and we would face no opposition with regard to our relationship. We could complete our bond."
        She looked at him strangely. "What does becoming an implant entail?" she questioned.
        "You would have an implant placed within your brain," he said, matter-of-factly. "The Cyber Viral Implant would boost your own already considerable mental facilities. I suspect that you would then easily stand on equal footing with any Taelon."
        "How does it boost the mental processes?" she questioned.
        "By forming newer, more efficient connections between key neural clusters."
        She frowned. "Are there side effects?"
        "None that you will be aware of," he soothed.
        She sat bolt upright. "Are you implying that I might undergo some sort of personality change?"
        "It would be necessary for us to continue," he soothed, trying to change the subject.
        "If I have to end up like Sandoval, I would have to say that ending our relationship might be the lesser of two evils."
        He was stunned. For several seconds he could do no more than stare at her. "Boone." He said. "William Boone is also an implant, and yet I dare say that you found him pleasant enough."
        "Even he seemed to be carrying some secret pain," she replied. "I don't need to have my 'mental facilities' boosted. I'm afraid that I must turn down your offer."
        "You must be my implant!"
        "I will never willingly be your implant," she shouted back.
        He opened his mouth to say something else, but she rounded him, her eyes flashing.
        "If you want me, you have me as I am. If you want to bond with me, you do it now - this night - or we say our good-byes in the morning!"
        He stood, suddenly panicking inside, and paced slowly in front of her.
        "I'm sorry, Zo'or, but it's the only way we can make this work."
        "My way would work out better. You are simply being stubborn!" he said, more forcefully than he had meant to.
        "It would work out better for you, not for me."
        He took a turn around the dining room table before returning to the area before the sofa. "It cannot work any other way. We cannot bond without your prior implantation!"
        "Why not?" She stood and moved to block his pacing. "What are you afraid of?"
        So, she knew...She knew that he was keeping things from her. She could not possibly know just how much.
        He pulled her to him then, hugging her tightly and for a time, they silently savored the contact.
        Slowly, she pulled away and looked him in the eye. "Tell me the truth," she pleaded.
        "I cannot. If we bond..."
        "If we bond, I'll learn your secrets and you may lose me. If we don't bond, you'll lose me anyway," she reasoned.
        "Once we bond, we will carry a part of each other always. We will never be free of each other, regardless of where you run!"
        She stepped back two paces. "Choose," she demanded.
        Time ticked by.
        He could not - would not choose!
        A tear slowly slid down Nivian's cheek. Slowly she turned and walking to her bedroom, shut the door between them.

In a state of numbed grief, Nivian readied herself for bed.
        Unable to sleep, she lay curled under the covers for over an hour before the tears finally came. Stifling her sobs with her pillow, she gave herself over to the grief, knowing in the back of her mind that she had suspected it would come to this all the way at the beginning of their acquaintance.
        Finally, completely spent, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
 

        She woke instantly when the door to her room creaked open. It was already dawn, the sun casting a faint glow through her bedroom blinds and faintly lighting the room in orange tones.
        Zo'or entered the room. He was in his natural state and his jumpsuit was no where to be seen.
        Slowly he approached her, and seeing that she was awake, he held his hand out to her.
        Without a word, she took it and pulled him onto the bed beside her. He hugged her close and when he spoke, his voice was full of sorrow.
        "I cannot be the one to end it," he choked out. "Therefore...bond with me. What happens after will be your choice."
        "I love you," she murmured as she kissed him.
        Zo'or pulled back. "We will only know that...afterward," he stated with some certainty.
        Nivian was completely unprepared for what happened next. Roughly pulling the covers off her, he gathered her up in his arms and kissed her.
        This time the kiss was different.
        This time she felt as though she were leaving her body behind.
        As if viewing the scene from some third party's eyes, she saw Zo'or suddenly dissolve into a maelstrom of swirling blue energy - a column of tornadic activity within which her own form was suspended.
        They began to whirl quickly around even as she felt him in her mind.
        Her perspective changed again.
        She began to relive her entire life over. Every event stored in her incredibly large memory was revealed one by one to Zo'or, who reveled in each discovery.
        The pleasure he felt was very much akin to the sexual encounter they had shared and his release was shared with her as well. She quivered inwardly at the sensation of oneness which was overtaking her and seemed to lose consciousness for a brief moment.
        His voice brought her back, urging her to take from him - demanding that she seek the core of who he was.
        Slowly, she let him guide her.
        She witnessed the pain of his own parent's rejection, the separation from his older sibling, Eh'har, who had held him and cared for him until his removal to the fostering center. She saw the aloneness of his existence.
        Nivian delved through his memories faster and faster, becoming proficient in the task.
        With each new discovery, her pleasure seemed to escalate, her mind interpreting the sudden acquisition of such intimate knowledge as the most erotic of drugs.
        Then she relived the Taelon's arrival on Earth from his perspective.
        There were the conspiracies, the coup attempts against Da'an, the attempt on William Boone's life.
        A part of her soul seemed to whither within her as she saw each and every atrocity he initiated.
        And then she saw his meeting with Quo'on that very morning.
         "Doctor Ibraham has developed a carrier virus which is self propagating and may serve us well... I merely insure her continued... creativity, while placing myself in a position in which I might learn more."  He had said.
        Quo'on had turned a disapproving look upon him. "I begin to see many similarities between yourself and humanity," he had remarked. "Very well. You may leave. We shall inform Ne'eg of your discovery."
        In more pain than she would have thought possible, she searched out the rest of his knowledge of Ne'eg's work.
        Ne'eg was manipulating a pathogen from a third race, which had been designed to destroy the Taelons! He was attempting to develop a strain which could be used to destroy the human race, should they prove to be more of a hindrance than an asset...
        <"NO!"> she shrieked mentally as pain  ripped through her and Zo'or both.
        She would not accept any more from him! She would go no further!!
        Screaming at the pain she caused them both, she began withdrawing from him.
        <"NO!"> His scream echoed her own. <"You must know the rest! It is the key to everything!">
        Still she separated herself from him.
        <"DO NOT DO THIS!"> Zo'or's fear became overwhelming. <"DO NOT BREAK THE BOND! YOU WILL KILL US BOTH!">
        <"Perhaps that is for the best...."> she managed to respond.
        She felt him beginning to fight her, trying to hold her to him just before she blacked out.

Da'an was in the middle of a meeting with the Vice President when he collapsed suddenly and without warning.
        Boone was beside him in a second, picking him up from the carpeted floor and cradling him.
        "Da'an! Da'an!" he called repeatedly, as he gently rubbed the Taelon's hands.
        The North American Companion's eyes fluttered open and slowly seemed to focus on him.
        "Are you all right? What happened?" he asked, worried by the Companion's weakened state.
        "It is not me who is in danger," Da'an whispered, for his ears only. "Something has happened to Zo'or..."

Zo'or regained his form slowly and struggled to rise from the bed. Nivian was not with him!
        Slowly stumbling into the other room, he found that she had scrawled a chilling excerpt from a human poem on the living room wall with lipstick:
 

   They name thee before me,
           A knell to mine ear;
        A shudder comes o'er me -
           Why wert thou so dear?
        They know not I knew thee,
           Who knew thee too well -
        Long, long shall I rue thee,
           Too deeply to tell.

        In secret we met -
           In silence I grieve,
        That thy heart could forget,
           Thy spirit deceive,
        If I should meet thee
           After long years,
        How should I greet thee? -
           With silence and tears.
 

      Zo'or did something unique for a Taelon then.
        He passed out.
 
 
     

        "Sir?" one of the embassy guards approached Boone as soon as he and Da'an had exited their shuttle. He could tell from the man's expression that it was something important.
        "Yes? What is it Martin?" he asked as he took Da'an's arm and helped the still shaken Companion down from the alien craft.
        "The lady you told us to allow in? Doctor Ibraham?" Seeing that he had his superior's complete attention, he continued. "She's downstairs in one of the guest chambers. She's in a bad way..."
        "She's injured?" Boone asked.
        "No sir. She appears to be insane."
        The implant exchanged a worried look with his Companion and together they followed the guard to the room in question.
        They found her sitting on the floor with a blanket over her head, mumbling to herself.
        Boone slowly approached and squatting beside her called her name. After a time, she peeped out at him and he was horrified to see that she had cut hunks of her hair off at the scalp. Her eyes seemed to be gazing somewhere far away, although she addressed him.
        "William Boone...." she whispered, sounding more like an old lady than a woman in her prime. "You're still here. So very much isn't anymore..."
        "What happened, Nivian?" he asked gently.
        "I got lost...I got lost..." she mumbled over and over.
        Boone turned a grief-stricken look on Da'an, who had moved to stand beside him.
        "Allow me," the Companion responded, kneeling down beside the researcher, who had begun rocking herself back and forth. Placing a hand on her head and one on her other hand, he seemed to concentrate.
        Two seconds later, Da'an pulled away as though he had been burned. At Boone's questioning look, he sighed and collected himself.
        "She heeded our warning and refused implantation," the Companion said softly. "...however, she DID attempt a bond with him."
        "You're saying that Zo'or risked it, even though she was not chained by a CVI? Even though he knew she would learn everything about him?" Boone was stunned. "Why would he risk it?"
        Da'an turned a sad look upon him. "He risked it because he did not wish to lose her," he explained.
        "He loves her?"
        Da'an nodded. "Nivian learned something she could not accept. I fear that she interrupted the bonding - that she withdrew. She has lost a part of herself to Zo'or, but has no part of him to replace what she gave up."
        "Can we help her? Please - don't tell me she'll be like this forever!"
        Da'an's look was not encouraging. "Perhaps, in time, she will recover. If she had been Taelon, they both would have journeyed to the void..."
        "He's going to be looking for her."
        "Yes. Once he has recovered." Da'an stood up as Boone did the same. "See to it that she is admitted to an appropriate facility. I trust that you know what to do."
        Boone nodded and watched Da'an wander slowly out of the room. He turned and stared at Nivian for a long time, willing the woman he had talked with so recently to return. when he finally came to terms with the reality of her situation, he pulled out his global and began making calls. By the day's end, Nivian would have a new identity and be safely admitted at the best psychiatric facility he could find.

        Zo'or spent weeks searching for Nivian, but to no avail. It was as though she had vanished off the face of the earth. Physically sick with grief and guilt, he shut himself away on the home ship and did not seek his energy stream for days. Briefly, he contemplated leaving this life, for he could not bear hearing her whispering in his mind and calling out for him in her dreams.
        In the end, he began to feel anger at the injustice which had befallen him and finally sought out the sustenance he required.
        Why did fate always dangle a prize before him, only to cruelly withdraw it as he reached out to take it?
        Slowly, bit by bit, he banished the portion of Nivian she had bequeathed him to the nether reaches of his mind. He locked her away to preserve his own sanity and finally emerged from his self-imposed exile more hateful than ever.
        He watched human couples walking, shopping, eating and raising families and hated them.
        He watched as Da'an and Boone played their little games and slowly formed a bond of incredible proportions and hated them more than anyone or anything! That Da'an should revel in the love he himself was denied, was the finally blow to his ego. One way or another, he would end his happiness.
        Ne'eg's project was progressing nicely and Kee'sha had abandoned his own research at the Synods request and joined the lead scientist's team. They owed their success to him, something which he made certain that they, and every Synod member knew.
        It was only when he was alone, when no one else could see, that he pulled a small page from a concealed pocket and unfolding it, read the poem within. It was the one Nivian had written on the wall the day she had vanished.
        Written by Lord Byron, it never failed to make his heart weep.

 
  FIN