One Man's Layered Realities

by Seven


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



Note from Author:  Recently there was a cry for S2 to have been a dream. How about a dream-within-a-dream...



*********



"The coil's reaching critical!" Sandoval shouted as the arcing bands of energy swept the engineer's console. Nearby Liam Kincaid held up his hands and restrained his shakarava, keeping them dormant.

Liam waved the forcefield away and began to reconnect the circuits, when Sandoval shouted, "Get away from the console, Major!"

Liam couldn't. He had to keep reconnecting the circuits. As he clicked the last one into place, the console shattered into a thousand spinning shards, slicing at his unprotected hands and face. As he staggered back, an energy flux hit him in the head....

****

The man within the blue tank was sloshing, convulsing as he came to awareness. Slowly, the fluid began to drain away, and the man was gently lowered to the floor, the harness detaching as he collapsed.

Da'an was just outside the tank as the walls dissolved. He watched as the man began to wipe the fluid from his eyes and looked at the Taelon blearily. "I am glad to see that you are well, Boone," he said quietly.

The man stared up at Da'an. "What?" he slurred.

Da'an looked somewhat perplexed. "You do not remember me?" he asked.

Boone staggered to his feet. "Yes... I remember... but..." He stared around the room. "I was... in the engineering section... repairing a damaged coil... and..."

Da'an smiled a little. "You were dreaming. The fluid sometimes has that effect."

Boone shook his head. "I was THERE, Da'an... and... I wasn't me... I was... Liam Kincaid."

Da'an looked even more confused. "I beg your pardon?"

"Liam Kincaid!" he almost shouted. "I am... I was... I..." Boone stopped, gasping, confused. "I don't... I can remember... all of his thoughts... he was me and I am him... and..."

Da'an sighed. "Perhaps you should undergo a neurological scan, Boone. Your body has been healed, but perhaps your mind has suffered some damage."

"No, I'm fine," Boone said, wiping some of the fluid from his hair. "Da'an, I can remember all of it... including... Liam witnessed my death..."

Da'an frowned. "Boone, I am ordering you to undergo a neurological scan. Immediately. As soon as you dress."

****

Boone lay on the examination table, with Doctor Belman running scan after scan. "I told you, I'm fine," he said mechanically. But his thoughts were running along a well-worn path that they had trodden several times before.

He could remember everything in his life, everything... who was he? Liam Kincaid, or William Boone?

"I can't find anything wrong with you, aside from some skin irritation around the sites where Ha'gel slashed you," Belman was saying. Then she lowered her voice. "Meet Lili at the you-know-where. The Madonna is going to have her baby."

Boone nodded. Yes, Beckett's.... hold on. How had he known that?

****

The Liberation HQ was in a frenzy. Lili ran to the door and gave Boone a quick hug. "Beckett had her baby a few minutes ago, and..." She screwed up her face and gestured at the table.

Sitting on it was a dark-haired boy.

Liam Kincaid.

Boone stepped back. He remembered all of this, everything. But not from his own point of view: from Liam's. Boone began to shake his head. "No," he said nervously. "This isn't happening."

Lili frowned. "Boone, what is it?"

"Don't call me that," the man spat. "My name is not Boone, it's Liam."

Lili was looking at him as if he had lost his mind. "That little boy is Liam, not you," she said, pointing a finger at the boy, who was playing with a large blue and purple puzzle.

The man was breathing deeply. "I remember that puzzle. You and Augur gave it to me, said you'd like to see me figure it out. I did, and I just stunned Augur. I was only a few hours old."

"Boone, what is-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" he shouted. "I am not William Boone! I am Liam Kincaid! And this is not real!"

"What do mean?" Augur asked, from next to the child.

"The last thing I remember is being hit with an energy strand on the mothership," the man said heavily, backing away. "In the head. It could have caused neurological disorders. I'm not even conscious. I'm reliving my life through someone else's eyes!"

"Just calm down and-" Augur started.

"NO!" shouted the man, pulling out a gun. "There's only one way to find out."

The other said nothing. They simply looked at him.

"You don't even care, because now I've realized what's happening." He took a deep breath. "Well, here goes nothing."

He pulled the trigger...

****

The man awoke on a medical table, staring at the swirling designs on the ceiling. They were, he noticed, very pretty. Da'an was bending over him. "Are you awake?" he was asking, concerned. "Can you answer me?"

The man took a deep breath. "Who am I?"

Da'an looked very worried now. "Liam Kincaid."

"What... happened?" Liam asked.

"You were hit with an energy discharge," Da'an said.

Liam closed his eyes and breathed deeply, raising a hand to touch the blistered welt on the side of his head. "Da'an... did you ever want to have someone else's life?"

****

"You believe that you may have inadvertently absorbed the memories of William Boone from Lazarus?" Da'an asked, slowly pacing through his office with his protector at his side.

Liam nodded. "That would explain why we seemed to be one person. He—I didn't even know who I was. He was. Whoever."

Da'an smiled a little. "But you have no recollection of anything that happened during Boone's lifetime?"

"No. Probably tucked inside my brain with all of Ha'gel's knowledge. I may reach it someday, but not now." Liam sighed. "I... recently was wondering what Boone was like. I hear so much about him, but I never even knew him. Now..." He shrugged. "I suppose now I can know him better than anyone, since I WAS him for a time."

Da'an smiled.

Liam looked thoughtful. "There's only one thing that's been bothering me. How do I know that this is reality?"

Da'an lowered his head a little, peering up at Liam. "I can only assure you that this IS reality." He almost glided out the door, still smiling.

Liam stood alone for a moment, then closed his eyes and slapped himself, hard. He slowly opened one eye, peered around the office and at his own body, then smiled in relief and followed Da'an out of the office doors.