Zo'or sat brooding in his command chair, completely oblivious to everything around him.

There were many factors to be considered, if the experiment was to prove sucessful. Twice before he had attempted it, once with his own energy signature and once with the DNA of a Jaridian, and both times he had failed.

He would not fail again!

What sense of perversity had lured Zo'or back to this project, and with the subjects he had in mind? The illusionary mouth of Zo'or stetched into a rather sinister leer.

Poetic justice.

***

Lili strolled through the dark streets of Washington. It had been a surprisingly quiet day, followed by a pleasantly quiet evening. She'd had a few ginger ales at The Flat Planet, watched Liam flirt (uncertainly) with one of the waitresses, and fended off Augur's advances. Lili smiled. She hadn't tried too hard.

She glanced over her shoulder. Something was making her very uneasy. "Come on, you're a big girl," Lili mumbled to herself. "You don't have anything to worry about." Just to be on the safe side, she shoved her hands into her pockets and walked a little faster.

Lili never even heard the man who stepped out from the shadows and skrilled her in the back.

The implant watched the unconcious Marine fall to the ground, then he pulled out a Global. "It is done."

"Bring her to the Mothership," said the voice of Zo'or.

***

Everything was hazy. The room was spinning, the faces were changing, Lili felt unbelieveably nausious. It was as if she was in an old B-scifi movie, complete with alien abductions.

There was a voice in the background, as stretched and distorted as the scenery. This was suceeded by a whirring motorlike sound, a strange sensation, like a tautness, in the lower half of her body. And then pain, horrible, horrible pain in her abdomen. There was a scream, and Lili blacked out.

She lost conciousness just as a new life began rapidly forming within her.

***

{The procedure is complete.}

{Have Capt. Marquette returned to her domicile.}

***

Lili woke with a start, in her own apartment. She was lying face up, with her feet, still in shoes, on the pillow at the head of her bed. She didn't remember that happening!

"Augur, you bastard," she groaned as she got up. "What did you slip into my soda?" Lili felt terrible. More specificly, she felt groggy, disoriented, and... fat? She ran a hand over her oddly distended stomach and started when she felt the kick. Oh, my God... She grabbed her Global.

"Augur?"

"Lili!" The techno wizard looked half asleep. "Do you know what time it is?"

"No, and I don't care. Listen, could you come over? I'm, uh, kind of having some problems."

Augur saw the look in her eyes and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, no problem, be there in five."

***

Five minutes later, the bell to Lili's apartment rang. Lili didn't answer, so Augur let himself in. He found Lili bent over the toilet bowl in her bathroom. He waited til she was finished, then started wiping her face with a wet towel.

"Lili, what... what happened? Unless I was drunk, you weren't like this earlier."

"I don't know what happened."

Augur called Liam. The hybrid's face was sleep flushed. "Augur! Do you know what--"

"Shut up. Meet me at my place in half an hour. Bring Dr. Park, Dr. Belman and Doors--wait! Scratch that, don't bring Doors; bring Da'an."

"Da'an?" Liam looked incredulous. "Augur, what's going on?"

"It's Lili. Look, I don't have time to explain, just be there!" Augur cut the connection and carried an unprotesting Lili out to his car.

***

Augur was suddenly very glad he hadn't moved out all the medical equipment when he bought his place from Jonathan Doors. It was proving very useful right now.

By the time Liam had arrived, the doctors didn't have the luxury of giving their patient more than a cursory examination. Lili had gone into labor.

Da'an, while enthralled at this chance to witness what humans termed "the miracle of life", was no less confused than Augur or Liam.

"And you know of no such genetic program?" Liam asked for the third time.

Da'an shook his head distractedly. There was an itch in the very back of his conciousness and he was having trouble scratching it. "The only comparable program would be that concerning the portals. But as that is not currently operating, I am at a loss to explain Capt. Marquette's condition." The itch was growing more persistent, more painful, and progressivly stronger.

Fine and healthy, but silent. Or so it seemed to the doctors, and to Liam and Augur.

For Lili and Da'an, there was anything but silence. With the infant's birth, there came a flood of images, the force of a conciousness more powerful than any Da'an had ever encountered. The nagging in the back of his mind had exploded, permeating his entire self. Lili was experiencing a sensation quite similiar. Had the two been able to speak to each other, they would have agreed that the experience was... soul wrenching.

Da'an shook himself mentally. "That's a good boy," Park was saying as she wrapped the boy in a blanket. "What a quiet little thing you are!" She weighed him, measured him, and took a blood sample. Then she gave the infant back to his mother.

The Taelon watched the humans work. Dr. Park was cleaning up, Dr. Belman was analyzing the blood sample, Liam was watching her, and Augur just looked uncomfortable. Da'an walked over to Lili's bed and stood by her side. She was cradling the baby cautiously, as if not quite sure what to do with him.

"I am sorry for this," Da'an said quietly. Lili looked at him. "I had not realized the depths our scientists could sink to." Still she just stared. Da'an wondered if she understood him clearly.

Lili smiled lopsidedly. "It's not your fault," she said finally, rocking her child. Our child, Da'an realized with a start. "I can feel, through him, that you had no knowledge of this. It's funny. I can hear him in my head; he's almost daring me not to love him."

"He fears you will give him up."

"I couldn't do that. Not now, with him staring at me like this."

Da'an looked. The child was indeed staring up at them with a solemn pair of eyes as blue as Da'an's own.

"What are we going to call him?" Lili asked. The question sounded absurdly normal.

"There is a Taelon name I favor: Da'al. But I do not believe this would suit."

"Why not? What about... Dale? That sounds something like Da'al."

Da'an smiled and nodded at the child. "Perhaps we should ask him." He laid his hand on the infant's head to intensify contact. {Dale?}

The response was swift. {Dale!} Then, picking up a thought from his mother, the child continued. {Andrew? Andrew. Dale Andrew!}

Da'an withdrew his hand in surprise. "He is a decisive child!" Lili nodded.

"And one with a sense of family. My brother's name was Andrew."

***

In the next room, Dr. Belman was discussing her findings. "He's only half human," she said, "and the other half is Taelon."

"So who's the kid's father?" Augur wanted to know. Belman started to say someting, but Liam cut her off.

"Don't bother." He was watching Lili and Da'an. "I think I already know."

***

"You're late, Major Kincaid," Sandoval said by way of greeting.

"My apologies," although Liam didn't look sorry at all. He and Da'an were standing before Zo'or on the Mothership. The leader of the Synod looked a bit distracted today.

"We were delayed by the unexpected absence of Capt. Marquette," Da'an put in smoothly. "She is ill and was unable to inform us until late in the day." Zo'or looked up, suddenly interested.

"However," cut in Liam, "Capt. Marquette feels confident that she will be able to return to work tomorrow."

Had Da'an been human, he would have felt a shiver run up his spine as he beheld the unholy look of satisfaction on Zo'or's face.

In Augur's home under St. Michael's, Dale Andrew wailed in terror at his father's fear.

***

"I am confident that Zo'or was behind Capt. Marquette's impregnation," Da'an said later. He had come alone to Augur, despite the risks to himself, to see to this matter personally. "The Synod should be made aware of this fact. However, we need to obtain proof. Zo'or must have records of this experiment in the computers of the Mothership. These files will be classified. Can you get them?" he asked Augur.

Augur snorted. "Can I get them? Da'an, you insult me! Give your boy his bottle; I'll get those files, no problem." Da'an fed his son while Augur hacked. The boy drank hungrily, but Da'an could tell that Dale's mind was not on food. Using his mother's memories, he was mentally flying Taelon shuttles.

Dale reveled in the intricate aerial manuvers he could perform while in normal space, but cried in frustration when he could not execute the same moves in interdimensional.

{Disillusioned, young one?} Da'an asked.

{Is there not a better way, Ru'sha? There must be a better way!}

Da'an could not help but smile at Dale's use of the Taelon word for 'parent'. {Perhaps you could find one.}

{I will, Ru'sha. I will. And I will make you proud of me.}

***

Twenty minutes later, Augur was back. "Problem," he said. "The files we need are triple-incoded. Three different Taelon passwords, with lock-out programs everytime I try to slip in the back. Plus the program is updated every 12 minutes. I've been beaten," he said, downtrodden. "Not even Sandoval has access to these files: you'd have to be Zo'or himself to get in."

{Or someone comparable, Ru'sha.}

{Smart boy.}

"Or someone comparable to Zo'or," Da'an said. "Someone like Jacob Wells."

"Wells?"

"Zo'or's Chief of Intelligence."

"Of course!" Augur shouted, racing to his computer. "Jake Wells, of course. Jake," he said as a young man with long, sandy-blond hair appeared on the screen.

"Augur."

"Pal, have I got a job for you. I need--"

"Got'em."

"Huh?"

"I've got the files you wanted. Transmitting now."

Augur gaped as the information was transferred to his database. "How the hell--?"

Jake smiled a Cheshire-Cat-smile. "Who's the prophet now?" He nodded to Augur and cut the transmission. Augur leaned back in his chair.

"Damn, Jake, but you learn fast. I'm gonna have to start taking lessons soon."

***

"Welcome back, Captian," Zo'or said to the woman before him. "I trust you are feeling better?"

"Yes, Zo'or. Thank you."

"What was your ailment?"

"Just some stomach problems."

"Elaborate." He thought he saw the human blush slightly.

"It was the end of my... monthly... cycle, Zo'or." Lili definitly saw Zo'or frown.

***

{You were mistaken,} Zo'or snapped at the Taelon scientist. {The human female was at the end of her menstruel cycle!}

{We could make another attempt--}

{No! You would fail again!}

***

"I trust you were successful, Lili?"

"Completely. Zo'or doesn't suspect a thing."

Da'an stepped down from his chair. "For the moment. I received a call from Augur. Dale has entered the second stage of growth. He is now a young boy of approximatly seven years."

***

In the quiet of his New York highrise, Jacob Wells was completing some computer interactions. He had ordered his weekly groceries, and his weekly books, and had sent a portion of his weekly salary to his father.

Now he was composing an e-mail to an old friend:

E -

You were right. Z has done it again.

- J

Jacob hit the Send key and privately wondered about the practice of deceit and hidden agendas.