Melissa came back over to Alex. "It's all right," she smiled. "lead the way."

Alex led her into Holosuite Four and activates the room. It rezzed up into a fusion of starship cabin and startship design lab. The living quarters were complete and comfortable, the design equipment and holodisplay blended seamlessly into the motif. The door closed behind them and the illusion became complete. An added touch of telepathy completed the illusion, erasing the traces of the holosuite from her enhanced perceptions.

"All right, Ms. Crane. You are now in one of the six most secure rooms in the entire Federation as far as surveillance and eavesdropping is concerned. What shall we talk about first? You, or why you and the fascinating Ms. Phillips are here?"

He motioned her to the gel couch he sometimes slept on, and paused by a replicator to retrieve a glass of lemonade. Sitting on one end of the couch, he looked towards her, waiting.

Melissa smiled. "Thank you for all this," she waved a hand at the room. Taking a sip of her root beer float, she paused for a moment, then continued. "It's a rather long story. Like I said, I don't specifically know why Lt Phillips is here, other than that Starfleet assigned her. She hasn't said any more than that to me. That's also the official reason I'm here too--but the keyword there is official."

Alex nodded. "Isn't it always?"

Melissa shook her head. "No, they don't know about--what I really am. I'd like to keep it that way if at all possible. I have no idea who's mixed up in this and who isn't."

"I doubt that many people really know about your ... true nature."

"Well, for starters--this..." she indicated herself, "isn't really me. It's pretty close to what I used to look like, all the time I mean. But the real me...maybe you'd better not look for a couple of seconds."

"I seriously doubt that what you do presents a threat. I like seeing new things." he said with real interest.

Melissa shrugged. A moment later, she was enveloped in a bright glow that emanated from her entire body. After a moment or two it passed, then she was visible again, but no longer appeared human.

Her skin and hair had turned a gleaming silver white, her eyes solid yellow and pupilless. Those eyes met his, her face somehow managing to look both ageless and very young all at once.

Watching the transformation, Alex filtered out the excess light. He nodded again as he looked her over. "Very pretty ... yet also ... sad, I think."

Melissa nodded. "I'd have to agree there." She sighed. "I gained a lot when I became this...but lost a lot, too. But then, that's the way it always is, isn't it?"

"Tragically, yes. Still, not a bad looking form, although it is a bit on the young side, isn't it?" Alex asked.

Melissa nodded again. "I wasn't all that old when--when this happened. He said he wanted to keep me just the way I was and in a way he did." Looking at Alex, meeting his eyes, she noticed that something seemed familiar, but she couldn't immediately place it. "I was sixteen." she continued.

"I know of species who don't live a fraction of that time." Alex's eyes narrowed slightly. "Looking at you now ... I know the species you're based on, I believe. Not a very friendly lot..." He took on a thoughtful look as he sips his drink. "Sixteen...." he continued, "not old enough to make such a responsible decision ... at least not for most girls that age." He looked into Melissa's yellow eyes. "Are you more comfortable in this form? I suppose it might be like tensing a muscle. Not inconvenient or uncomfortable, just .... not as relaxed. I have learned that to be comfortable is one of the important things in life ... particularly when one cannot keep friends."

Melissa shrugged. "Not that there's any effort involved in keeping myself looking the other way, but it does feel more comfortable to drop it when I can...which isn't often when I'm not out there.." She waved a hand in the direction of the outer hull, indicating the void that lay beyond that. "As for being young, you're right about that." She shook her head. "I suppose it makes me a cliche, but I was young--and in love."

"Ah, the other Great Unknown. It is rare that anyone discovers its true form. Mostly only shadows are known, glimmerings of what might be, amplified by the hope that it could be. So it was love that compelled you to do this? The rosy mists of the heart which cloud the eyes of reason. One of the oldest stories in Creation." He took another sip of lemonade. "Sounds like a tragedy, since you're alone now."

Melissa nodded "I didn't know that then, though. You said you recognized what this form's based on--the one I fell for turned out to be the...the prototype for the rest...though it wasn't till years later that I knew any others existed."

"Hm ... so that's what he told you, eh? Or did you find this out later? I suppose there had to be a first one, somewhere. A rather perverse creation of a thankfully dead race."

Melissa sighed. "Perverse?" She shook her head. "*Most* of them were *at least* that, yes. I'm not sure it's all that dead, though. That's why I'm here--but I'm getting ahead of myself. Perhaps it'd be best if I started at the beginning." She took a long swallow of her root beer float, then settled back into the seat.

Listening as she began her tale, Alex simultaneously accessed the records of his Borg consciousness. "Species 3548 Beneficial traits: Stage 8 mutagenetic engineering science and Stage 7 advanced recombinant engineering technology. Colony worlds assimilated on..." The report flashed through his mind and he was quite satisfied that all large population bases of that particularly warlike race had been assimilated. In fact it was some of their technology which had allowed his own reengineering, but he was not going to argue with her about it. Whatever stragglers there were were of no consequence.

"It started, oh, a little less than a year before this happened. I went with Jeff--my brother--and his girlfriend to the County Fair. That's where I met Scott...that's what he called himself. He just seemed like a regular guy, if a little strange, then. By strange, I mean he didn't know some things--things most people did. Like what a coke was. I just thought he came from somewhere really back in the woods--even more so than the town I lived in."

(Basic infiltration of subsophisticated culture.) Alex thought to himself. (They must have found some critical metagenic factors in her DNA and quantum profile. It's nice to know that this one time someone was there to save her. So many victims across so many worlds)

Not noticing Alex's introspection, Melissa continued telling her story. "Three days later he showed up in town and we started seeing each other not long after that. I guess one of the things that got to me was the mystery there always seemed to be around him. He never talked much about any family, or where he was from. Plus he was one of the few people besides my brother who...who seemed to understand what I was interested in. Most of the girls I knew weren't." She paused, meeting Alex's eyes. "You have to understand that this was a long time ago--back then..." she swallowed "back then we, that is Terrans, hadn't even gotten someone on the Moon yet. The only thing we knew about people from other planets was what we saw in the movies and that was fantasy."

"This was Earth, I presume. When exactly did this happen?"

"Like I said it was a long time ago. Specifically--" she swallowed. "Well, the last full day I lived as a human being was April 30. April 30...1966."

Alex looked thoughful for a moment and then spoke. "I ... see. Thank you. Please, continue."

"Scott had been rather edgy when I met him that night. I finally pinned him down, got him to tell me what was going on. I thought maybe he'd been drafted, or he had some other girl, or something typical like that. I'd never have imagined...this. He said he was the only one, that he'd rebelled against his creator's purpose and left. Then he was so alone and started looking for a companion to share his existence."

Her eyes filled with sadness. "When he said I could come with him, that he wanted to show me the places he'd been, the things he'd seen..." she shook her head. "I loved him, or thought I did--and part of me--I remember watching the orbiter launches on TV, there'd been a few of those, and wondering what it was like for the men who did that. More than that I wanted to be out there too...so when he started talking about places and beings I'd never even imagined it...it was too much. I know that probably makes me sound like the most gullible person there ever was, but...!"

Alex chuckled. "You should have seen me when the Federation President told me he was going to 'help me'. You're not the only gullible person in the universe, Ms. Crane."

"He said it would only be a little while, then we'd be together. That's all I could think of, I wanted to be with him so much, wanted to see for myself the beings, the places, he was talking about...I'd wanted to become an astronaut someday, remember, so this seemed like *more* than a dream...so I let him do this."

She looked away from Alex for a moment.

"The next thing I know, I was waking up like this,and Scott was nowhere to be seen. I woke up in some sort of government lab--that's where Morgan found me. I was trying to get out of there and so was he. Only I didn't know it was Morgan, not then. He looked different but I thought he was Scott..."

More pieces clicked into place, and Alex nodded. Simutaneously, more bits of information about Lt. Phillips came to light, and his brow furrowed briefly. (How interesting.)

"He helped me get away and we...we tried to sort out what had happened. That was the next big shock. Scott's little while...had somehow turned into thirty years. The day I woke up--was December 23, 1996."

She took another sip of her float, then continued. "After we'd gotten out of that base, we decided to try to get to my brother, but before I could talk much to him..." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I was still trying to figure out what I was, I didn't mean to but I ended up hurting Jeff, and before Morgan or I could figure out what to do about that, there were government agents all over the place."

"Accidents happen." Alex said gently. "Sometimes they have good consequences, other times they don't. From your voice, I don't think this particular incident had a happy ending."

Melissa nodded sadly."We did make it, find a place to lie low for a while, and then things got crazier than they already were." She took another swallow of her root beer float, then went on. "We found out that the beings who'd created Scott had reached Earth, that they'd been working with the government to make a better model of him. The government had been using some of their own people as subjects...! We did manage to stop them but it wasn't easy. I..." she swallowed, "I almost died then, but Morgan saved me. He did that a lot."

She paused and it was clear to Alex that even now, after so many centuries, this still hurt her. "They'd taken Jeff, too, and he died in there. Before he even knew who I was." She shook her head. "Our parents had both died during the thirty years I was...wrapped in silk, so to speak...so to lose him, too...they all died never knowing what had really happened to me. I know there's...there's not anything that can be done about that but it still hurts somewhat."

"Pain is a part of life. It certainly helps people appreciate happiness."

"Now you're probably wondering what this has to do with today and now...." She paused and took another swallow of root beer, then continued. "A few years ago, some archaeologists dug up what remained of the old research station...'Area 54' they called it. I guess Morgan and I didn't trash it as completely as we'd thought. Even after all the time that's gone by since then. Some of the records were apparently still intact, enough for someone to try and pick up where the old US Government left off."

She waved a hand in the general direction of the Z'tarnis Nebula.

"It's out there. Somewhere in the Z'tarnis Sector. I'm sure of that much, but I haven't yet been able to zero in on exactly where. The only way anyone could pull this off, though, is if they had help. People in high places help. Which today and now means someone in Starfleet, or the Federation. Probably both."

"You would be surprised at what a resourceful mind can accomplish." Alex replied. "True, neither Starfleet or the Federation have always supported the concept of full disclosure, they have an entire section which deals with suppression in fact. "Defenders of the Scientific Truth', who restrict the advancement of technology in certain areas ... like genetics research and psi studies, for example. While your idea has ample solid ground, it is not fully set into that ground. How do you expect to find these ... higher eschelons ... if they -do- exist?"

"I'm not sure but I know I have to try. I know there's a lab out there. There's been too many hijackings of too many cargoes of scientific equipment for it to be just coincidence, or simple black marketers. They get a...a Scott Mark III into mass production and we could be in for something that'd make the Borg at Wolf 359 look like children playing in a sandbox." She shuddered.

Alex's violet eyes studied her reactions with cutting scrutiny, and his mind examined her structure, noting the differences between her form and the ones of its like his memory held. It had taken a full quad of cubes to capture one of the third generation of biomorphic warriors created by Species 3548. Structurally most of them were different, but their power system was the same from warrior to warrior. "I'm sure you're right. Perhaps the research is for something to shorten the Dominion war. A disturbing thought, and one I'll not connect with the majority of Starfleet, but not outside the range of a small faction of desperate fools. Even the best systems have their weaknesses." He looked into her eyes as his mind considered possibilities.:: "Ms. Crane ... do you know what happened to Morgan?"

Melissa noticed his stare, then looked into his violet eyes once more. "I..." she swallowed, "no, I don't. I wish I did, but we lost touch a long time ago."

He saw a flicker of pain in her eyes as she replied.

"We had become close, those first few days--when I thought he was Scott. When we realized he wasn't, it wasn't easy for either of us, but we were still, we'd shared too much to not be, tied, to each other. Does that make sense?" She paused, still looking at Alex. "Now I know what was so familiar about you...those eyes. There's not that many humans with just that shade of violet. Morgan had that color eyes, when he was still human. I saw pictures. And so did his daughter--I remember noticing that the first time I saw her, which wasn't long after the other things I just told you about."

"Sometimes the coincindences of the universe can be very...amusing."

She nodded. "I suppose...though....well, let me try and show you." There was another momentary bright glow around her, and when it faded, she had changed again.

A different teenager stood before him. One well on her way to becoming a surefire heartbreaker. Estimating her age at nineteen, she had an almost Classic beauty. Long black hair cascaded down her back to nearly her waist in gentle waves, but her angel's face had the look of someone haunted and sad. The sparkle in those violet eyes is not that of a happy young woman, but a troubled, possibly haunted one.

Melissa's voice emerged from the new face. "This was her, the last time I saw her...which was just before she went off to college."

Alex's memories stirred and started to surface. He reflected that his memory search process needed refinement. The sight of the woman was affecting him beyond just her attractiveness. "Hm. Cute girl, but was she sad, or is that you?"

Melissa took another sip of her root beer float. "I'd stayed as long as I did because...well, I didn't have any family left, so his family was like having my own back in a way. And he'd done so much for me, been there when I was so alone, so lost, during those first weeks..."

"Hm. Not all that long, considering how long you've been away. What? Five, six years? Hardly any time at all. You must have been anxious to leave. I guess you were disappointed when you found out that your love really didn't exist. I wonder how he felt when you left? Sounds like he'd have grown pretty fond of you. Especially if he let you go when you wanted, rather than trying to get you to stay with him."

Melissa shook her head. "I waited, till his children were all grown. And he didn't need me, he had Constance. I was just....once we knew he wasn't Scott, what Scott really was, things were never the same. We were still friends, but that was all it could have ever been."

She was still wearing Bianca's form, and he could see the violet eyes filling with pain, with the tears she couldn't shed.

"So you loved Scott, and not Morgan? But you did love him when you thought he was Scott? How does that make sense? If you loved him then, how did he change when you learned he wasn't the Scott you knew? Did you love the man, or the name?"

"It was like...first I thought he was Scott. Physically changed, damaged, by what the government had done. Then when we found out about what Scott, those like him, were...." She shook her head again. "I realized I was in love...with something that didn't really exist. An image."

Alex could see the anguish that simple fact had caused her for so long written all over her face. But there was something else she clearly didn't know. He shook his head. "Morgan was no image."

He went over to one of the work consoles and manipulated its virtual keyboard.

On its viewscreen, a genealogical chart appeared, going back several generations. One branch is short, only spanning three generations, but the other goes back through the decades, then the centuries, showing names, dates, pictures.

Finally it stopped on a face of a woman in her thirties. A woman with dark hair and violet eyes. Beneath the face was printed the name 'Bianca Whitehall-Parafaith'. The face was a slightly older version of the one Melissa was now wearing.

"I know a lot more about you than you think, Ms. Crane. My bloodline goes back to the Parafaiths of the late 20th century. It was almost wiped out, but always managed to fight its way back." Still looking at her, he brought up a photo of Morgan in a USAF uniform. "I know Morgan ... and I know how he felt about you, even after the thing with Scott. I think you should see this."

Alex brought up displays of Morgan's private journals. It is filled with photos of Morgan and Melissa, both in various forms, but Morgan always with the same intense violet eyes. There were other photos, but Melissa's eyes are drawn to those. Alex altered the data, and brought up screen after screen of intimate poetry, scribbled song lyrics, and pencil sketches of her as she was and as she had become.

"He did love you. Maybe through Scott's artifice at first, but even that wasn't really Scott. The thing you knew before your change was nothing like who you thought he was. That is their art, to find suitable hosts and ... prepare them. It was Morgan who cared and helped you. When you left, ...." He advanced the text to that day, and she saw Morgan's private thoughts, where he had debated on revealing his feelings and how he felt once she had decided to leave the world they had helped so many times.

"As you can see .. he really did ... care for you." He looked at her and touched her cheek, feeling the trembling there. "It's easy to see why. Even now. The coincidences are ... not so amusing, sometimes."

Drawing her into a close embrace, Alex closed his eyes.

Melissa felt his tears falling on her shoulder.

"I know you want to cry, but can't," he whispered. "So I cry for you. I can feel your pain even now ... so -alone-..." He could feel the ache inside her, too much for words.

Melissa simply held on to him as the dry tearless sobs shook her.

Eventually, though, the wave spent itself, but she made no immediate move to pull away from him.

"Thank you." she whispered. "I...needed that. I didn't even know how much I'd missed being that close to anyone until now. It's been so long..." She paused. "Alex...can I call you that?"

"I don't see any harm in that ... Melissa."

"I don't know how you can even stand to look at me now. You must think I'm a terrible person, to have left the way I did. And I'm not sure you wouldn't be right." She shook her head. "I really thought it'd be easier on him if I wasn't there to remind him of Scott, to get in between him and, and Constance. Not that he ever made me feel as if I were, but every time I looked at them together..." She bit her lip. "If only I knew where he was now, there's so much I'd want to tell him. He was..." she swallowed, her voice had faltered as if she was about to start crying again. "everything I had wanted Scott to be...why didn't I see it?" She shook her head again, then met Alex's eyes. "Please. If you know anything--tell me."

"You ... don't want to hear that ... but maybe you should. Remember that there was a third World War on Earth. Morgan was there. During the height of the war, an alien race you've probably never heard of decided to ... take advantage of the situation. They lived on a radioactive world and hoped to induce the creation of ... a colony. They launched selective attacks on various ground targets, tech centers, and in particular an island off the western coast of the North American continent. An island I'm sure you're familiar with."

Melissa closed her eyes, then her expression hardened as if steeling herself. She nodded. "Go on." her voice trembled.

Alex knew she must be imagining the worst. He drew a deep breath and paused, then continued before she could come to the wrong conclusions.

"Morgan was in space then, he'd detected them and gone to intercept their fleet. His entire family there .. Constance and their sons ... were vaporized. Morgan sort of .... lost himself. Magda was part of a scientific experiment, but you probably know about that. She and Bianca lived in Las Vegas after the incident with Area 54. That whole installation should have been shut down in the aftermath of the Eugenics Wars. How it kept operational, is anyone's guess. Morgan knew that there were other warriors like Scott, and other dangers which would eventually find their way to Earth. Magda and Bianca survived, because when he saw the island go..."

"What...?"

He looked towards the holographic work area and an image blossomed. "Morgan kept a continuous link between his systems and a ground station. I have access to all of his thoughts and everything he saw since his awakening in Area 51."

On the data display, the point of light which shone from the Pacific Ocean was horrifyingly bright. The silent movie continued, changing from what might have been a human's viewpoint to that of a war machine. Target reticules appeared as Morgan had looked back into space, and tactical readouts quickly followed.

"Morgan was no longer in full control of himself. He went into a powerful state of being, unlocking systems he had never used. There was nothing human in him then. Only hatred, vengeance, and the Machine." Alex continued with his explanation.

Melissa still stood there, eyes closed, her shoulders shaking. "Don't stop," she whispered, "I have to know the rest."

The image onscreen accelerated, showing Morgan's weapons systems opening fire. A power gauge which started out green shifted to yellow, then red, then a glowing black as he continued to attack.

"At this point, Morgan was using an internal matter converter to break down his own body's matter to power his weapons. Fortunately, it only cost him his right arm to finish off their fleet. His density was such that a single cubic inch had an average mass of six hundred kilograms. Bianca and her mother survived because when he was done, there was no one left to launch an attack. He crippled a ship, raided its database, and left. The recording ends with his shift into subspace. The world those coordinates led to is now dead. Its solar system was destroyed by a sudden supernova in what had been a stable star only hours before."

Melissa opened her eyes and looked into Alex's. "please...go on..." she urged him. The fear of what she would hear was clear in her expression.

Alex continued to hold her, looking into the violet eyes she now wore. Her body was warm, and was growing warmer. "He might still be alive, but as far as where ... I can't say. I can't even begin to imagine his state of mind. You're not a bad person, Melissa. You didn't know what was happening on Earth, and he never expressed his feelings for you once he learned you didn't love him. He was hurt deeply by the idea that you could love him as Scott, but not as Morgan, even though only his name had changed. Once the fire for him went out in your eyes ... I think he'd already started to lose himself. It took Constance's murder to push him off the edge, though."

Alex was still shedding tears, but they come from the memories of Morgan he was accessing. Small adjustments were being made in his body structure, adapting systems from Morgan's diagnostics into Alex's Borg-reengineered form.

Melissa clung to Alex. "I should go find him...but I *can't*..! Tomorrow I have to...!"

Without thinking, Alex found himself kissing her, as he remembered memories that were not his own. He felt with the heart of everyone he had assimilated who had felt the same, seized by the memory of powerful love thought lost.

Melissa, her expression a whirlwind of emotions, returned the kiss.

Alex attempted to rein in the emotions which are rising, but it had been too long since last night, and his Phase only drove the remembered emotional tide higher. He was firmly in the grip of his sympathic power's hold, and it drew additional strength from the cascade effect brought on by his assimilated memories. Passion rose and swept him up beyond the point of no return.

His mind synched with hers, his total Focus was on her. The power she held was linked to her emotions, and it was running hot. He lifted her in his arms, his mind reflexively reprogramming the suite, shifting the furnishings and dimming the lights of the room as the stars shone in his eyes.....

Her hands moved over his body, stripping away his clothes as she changed again, becoming a nude version of her present form.

Her fingers caressed his bare skin and she moaned as his hands caressed her.

Alex could feel the energies building inside her. He knew what was about to happen and part of him welcomed it. Her power couldn't hurt him, any more than it had Morgan.

The wave came harder and harder, then peaked, and she held tightly, her lips locking against his in a kiss that went on and on until the wave passed, then they gazed into each other's eyes.

Alex smiled and ruffled her rumpled hair. His eyes were glowing with contained power, It was just a pause between waves. "No matter what you look like, or what you're made of ... you're still quite a woman, Melissa." His hand rested on her chest, rubbing the soft skin there. "Even after all this time... your soul is still your own." He kissed her again, softly, unhurriedly. "I hope I take away a little of the pain." He chuckled softly, as the heat damage to their surroundings was erased and the environment was refreshed. "I can see why you don't take a lover very often. I couldn't bear the thought of being alone for -so- long. I think we have enough time ..." His smile broadened.

Melissa returned his kiss. She gently rubbed his shoulders, then his chest. "Please?" Her tone was softer, her expression as well, she'd lost the desperate urgency he'd seen earlier, but he could see the desire was still there.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Station Ops, a technician noticed an odd reading on a monitoring panel, indicating a slight power surge, cause unknown.

* * *

Melissa remained resting her head on Alex's shoulder for a few minutes, then sat up and turned to look at him. "Thank you," she whispered. "I didn't realize how much I *needed* that."

Alex saw the flicker of pain in her eyes again, and knew it was reminding her of Morgan. "Believe me, you're very, very welcome." He pulled her against him, letting her cuddle a bit. Meanwhile, his senses continued to scan her, accumulating new data constantly. "I know you're leaving soon. It makes me wish I'd gone into the Science arm of Starfleet. I -am- qualified, but I'd have to get authorization from Starfleet Command or the CSO to go with you. You're going to be gone for a while from the sound of things. I'd tell you to be careful, but you know what you might find. Just ... try not to get hurt. Out there, if there is what you believe ... they'll be -able- to hurt you, or worse. Keep that in mind. I know you can laugh at phasers, but don't get overconfident. I want to see you again."

She nodded, slowly. "I know--probably more than anyone here, except you, what's out there. I managed to show them that there might be an illegal biolab but I couldn't risk telling them...everything. You're one of only two people on this station who've seen the real me...and..." she paused for a moment, "the other one found out only by accident. I just hope no one who's, well, dangerous, connects her to me...we did come into the bar together yesterday."

"If you're that concerned, I'll keep an eye on her when she's around. I know who you're talking about. I figure she's the one I've seen in the maintenance tunnels. I can't see you walking around openly as you normally are, and if anyone else had seen you, they'd have filed a report by now."

"As for seeing you again..." She managed a smile. "I think, no I know, I'd like that."

Alex smiles broadly."I suppose we should get ourselves together and get back to the bar. You have things to do, and I still want to talk to Lt. Phillips, if I can. May I show you to the shower?"

Melissa smiled. "Another good idea." ::takes his hand and gives a slight squeeze, then follows him to the shower, where they spend the next few minutes exploring each other in a different though no less enjoyable way.

A short while later, they reentered the bar.

Alex glanced at the chronometer on the wall, then, with a nod to Melissa, moved on to begin looking for Lt Phillips.

Melissa smiled back, then she, too, left to begin preparing for tomorrow's mission.

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