William Boone, dreaming white orchids bleeding red upon gravestone gray, wakes bleeding red upon white linen. Realizing he is too weak to move, Boone gathers the strength of four to combat the effects of his deteriorating implant.

Boone hears Da'an as lavender-blue: "My Jha'du'ur, we are dewdrops upon webstrands of a neverending weave. Each of us prisms our shared light distinctively, illuminating others. I have learned in this time with you that I can never truly appreciate or fully apprehend the wholeness of our shared light without that unique refraction. I will not willingly part with the prisms, the dewdrops, with whom I share this strand of consciousness."

Boone hears Liam as lavender-green: "I'm not going to let you die. I've already lost my mother, and though I do love him, I sometimes despair at the thought of Sandoval. I'm not going to lose the man who wants me to call him father."

Boone answers Liam as lavender-red: "Yes, I want that, but I don't deserve it. I killed your father, Ha'gel."

Liam answers Boone as lavender-gray: "You killed. Ha'gel killed. Sandoval killed. Beckett killed. The Taelons killed. I was conceived amidst imperatives, politics, and misunderstandings. I love Mother, Ha'gel, you, Da'an, and Sandoval not in spite of your blame, but because of your awareness of it."

Boone hears Lili as lavender-blue: "Too many funerals....I've been to too many funerals. You've got to fight this, Boone. We've got to fight this."

Blue, green, and red, the four unite to inwardly prism their primary auras, creating a healing spectrum, accented by shared lavender. The colors seep through the channels of Boone's hemorrhaging brain to ferret out ruptures, seal tears, and destroy the remaing cyberviral shards. External measures record the passing of an hour before Boone rises in the eternal present.

Boone hears a wistful Liam as lavender-green: "I wonder if my mother experienced as much pain as you were in before she died."

Boone gives solace as lavender-red: "Don't think of her pain, Liam. Think of her promise."

At that, they both recall Beckett's last words, as she holds the infant Liam in her arms: "Our time together in this world has been short, my son, but I'll always be with you. If you ever lose your way, just look up, and I'll be shining a star for you."

Liam finishes as lavender-gray: "Guide my soul 'til morning."

Boone, Da'an, Liam, and Lili make that same promise to each other, as they ponder the implications of Boone's situation. Lili is the first to address the matter: "Belman will notice your CVI is missing. What do you plan to tell her? She won't accept a half-truth as easily as the Synod."

"Then, I'll have to tell her the whole truth," decides Boone.

Within Boone's mental picture, Lili's eyes widen. "Are you crazy, Boone? Doors will find out for sure. You know how close he and Belman are. Even if she doesn't plan on saying anything, all we need is one slip."

Da'an interjects, "You must appeal not to the resistor, Boone, but to the physician. Her cooperation is essential in altering the scans of your absent CVI, for we must also obscure the truth of our tetrad from the ill-prepared Synod."

At his next check-up, Boone follows Da'an's advice: "....So, you see the risk, Julianne. If we're exposed, Liam is exposed. Neither side would hesitate to have him killed, and killing Liam would mean eliminating the last of an entire species -- committing genocide."

Dr. Julianne Belman does not speak for several minutes. She stares at the monitor with an expression hovering between fear and excitement. When the words arrive, Boone is relieved it is the physician speaking them: "Genocide! No, no, no. Not going to happen. I'll flatten Jonathan first, and he knows it. Jesus, Will, the possibilities....psychic surgery; treatments for Autism, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's that work from the inside out; alternative methods of commmunication for the deaf....Hell, what am I talking about. Using variants or isolating the properties of the cluster structure, we could probably eliminate disabilities all together. Where's my pen? Oh, wait. There can't be a record. There's no God! There's one thing, though. Why can't I just implant you with another CVI?"

Boone, who has been waiting for her to take a breath, answers: "Because it would be redundant, just as the first one is....was, and to paraphrase those old Westerns, my brain isn't big enough for both of 'em. The energy that binds us allows me the same abilities, naturally."

"Fascinating, and I noticed a tense change before from 'is' to 'was.' Why is that?"

"Very observant, Julianne."

"I have to be since I can't write any of this down."

Boone laughs, continuing: "Kimera and Taelons exist in a perpetual present. It's an effect of the link. Until that link overrode the increasingly unnecessary CVI, my implant helped me keep my temporal relationships straight. I just have to readjust. That's all."

"That's all, you say." Belman shakes her head. "A scientist should be exploring this, and instead, it's left to a couple of spies."

"I thought that scientists WERE spies."

Da'an blushes at that line, worthy of Ma'el. The North American Companion has dropped his facade, preparing to initiate the Pad'Ar ritual. He faces the orb, C'thos, the symbol of their home. Just as he does so, however, an image from Lili intrudes. Da'an sees through her eyes, as she spies Sandoval from a distance. Her vision enhanced by the tetrad bond, Lili watches Sandoval access the Taelon database with HIS handprint. "When would he have....? Ah, it can only have been while I was frozen within aloneness by the Pesh'tal virus." In the fullness of the present, Da'an addresses the implant, feeling both are torn between duty and guilt: "Tread carefully, Agent Sandoval. You are not, as you think, the spider in the web. You are a dewdrop upon a strand."


Disclaimer: Earth - Final Conflict and all characters therein are the property of the Tribune Entertainment Company.