Currents Go Awry

by Lyta

Disclaimer:  Earth: Final Conflict and its characters are copyrighted by Tribune Entertainment Company.  All rights reserved.



Note from Author:       Sequel to "The Face of an Enemy, The Face of a Friend Stories I, II, III" and "Cat and Mouse".



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"The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

No traveler returns, puzzels the will,

And makes us bear those ills we have

Than fly to others we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;

And enterprises of great pith and moment,

With this reguard, their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action."

(c)From "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" by William Shakespeare, Act III, Scene I.

For Da'an the return to awareness of the physical world around him came in stages. He had always found leaving the state of Samhaad to be a strange experience. Upon opening his eyes, Da'an noticed the dull gray and brown room where he had been laid on a narrow metal cot and the leaden sky through the tiny, barred window. He moved to the window and stared at the faintly rolling landscape of what he recognized to be the American Midwest, most likely Kansas.

Behind the Taelon, the door opened and he turned to see Lili Marquette as he had never seen her before. The former Marine Captain and shuttle pilot wore faded denim jeans, a loose shirt, and it appeared that she had lightened her hair. Da'an also noticed that Lili wore black rimmed glasses.

"Is there a problem with your eyes, Capt. Marquette?" Da'an asked politely.

Lili pulled off the glasses and handed then over to him, Da'an noticed the lenses were perfectly clear. "Makes my features harder to notice, people will remember the glasses rather than the face behind them." Lili said by way of explanation.

Da'an just nodded.

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After exiting his shuttle, Liam Kincaid rubbed the back of his neck, he had slept awkwardly the night before and could not seem to get rid of the crick in his neck.

The shuttle was in a warehouse rented for the sole purpose of concealing his shuttle. After the last failed attempt to find Da'an, he had voiced concerns about Sandoval's loyalty to Zo'or. The Synod leader took any break of security very seriously. He ordered Sandoval to be monitored constantly, and his CVI was to be replaced soon. Sandoval was privy to many of Zo'or's projects and secrets and any replacement would take up valuable time in getting up to speed.

Kincaid cautiously approached the house his informant told him Da'an was hiding. He was careful not to use the Commonality, that might alert Da'an again. With a slight mental shift, his shaquarava began to glow brightly. It took little effort for him to blast a hole large enough to walk through in the aged brick wall.

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Da'an and Lili heard the noise upstairs, but before they could mount the basement steps, they saw Liam Kincaid in front of them. His shaquarava glowed and he was focused on Da'an, preparing to fire.

Then he crumpled to the ground.

Lili and Da'an looked up at Augur standing on the stairs just behind where Liam had been holding a pistol with the wrong end towards where Liam had been standing. Lili found a pair of magnetic hand cuffs and securely locked Liam's hands behind his back.

"Is there any way we can reach Liam, somehow break the hold the MI has over him?" Lili asked Da'an.

Da'an looked uncertain. "I have a possible solution." He said and approached Liam, who was returning to consciousness. He motioned for Lili to release the hand cuffs, and pressed his palms against Liam's.

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Da'an had previously only joined with other Taelons, and then only a handful of other times. Liam's mind seemed to be caged with only fragments of his true self free. Da'an tried to find the motivational imperative and disable it. He thought he succeeded when he saw the mental cage dissolve and the real Liam emerge frightened, but free.

When the Joining ended, Da'an stepped back and noted the hopeful expressions on the faces of his two human friends. Liam was once again unconscious, and it took all three of them to carry him upstairs into the unmarked van approprieted for them by the local resistance cell.

Somehow a bird had gotten trapped in the van and with some amusement, Augur and Da'an tried to get it to fly out the window. Lili covered Liam with a blanket and laughed the first genuine laugh she'd had in many weeks at their attempts. Finally they got the little thing out and Lili hopped into the driver's seat.

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Liam was dreaming, and remembering. He once again lived his own birth and heard the love in his mother's voice as she breathed his name, exhausted by her marathon pregnancy. He hads felt cold then, even after he was wrapped in the pale blue blanket, and he felt cold now despite the dark blue blanket he found wrapped around him now. He had never felt so tired, or so relieved at the same time. As soon as he had awakened, it was with the knowledge that his MI was gone. He also knew he would rather die than be reimplanted with another fully functioning CVI.

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After several hours on the road, they pulled into a cheap motel. Da'an remained in the van, to meditate fot the night. If passers by saw him they could not help but recognize him as the North American Companion. That would provoke questions that could lead Zo'or's people to the fragments of the Resistance command staff.

Liam still felt weak and Augur had to help him over to the bed. He promptly dropped to sleep, unaware of the blood that began tricking from his ears moments after Augur tip toed out and carefully closed the door. Some hours later, Liam awoke from his hazy, nightmare filled dreams and felt a sudden warmth suffuse his entire body. He forced open his eyes to see his mother and Ha'gel standing beside his bed. Siobhan, wearing a flowing white dress, extended a hand to him and Liam eagerly excepted it. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed,he noticed that his earlier exhaustion was gone as though it had never been. Liam sank into his mother's embrace until she pulled away from him and smiled at her son, ruffling his dark hair. Next, he turned to greet Ha'gel in the Kimeran fashion.

Liam did not notice that his pillow was soaked though with blood, or than his body still lay still on the bed, motionless.

THE END