Da’an turned toward his young protector, Liam Kincaid. He looked at him attentively during a moment. The young man was turning his back at him and the Taelon could observe him quietly. In Humans terms, Liam was a pretty man. Da’an could not deny being attracted toward him. He did not dare think about what would have happen between them if Liam had been completly Kimera. He could still remember the tingling he had felt when his hand had touched Liam’s, for the only time.

He sighed, without much noise. He was truly sad that their relationship had degenerated until this point. Liam was more gentle with Zo’or than with him. They almost never talked, and when they did so, it was just on a cold, official, diplomatic tone. If only Liam could understand. But Da’an knew that praying for that was futile and hopeless. No Humans could ever, even just think to imagine, what it was to be the last chance of survival of your whole race. To see his friends, his parents, his children even, die without be able to do anything. The genetic lack of the Taelon people was already beyond the point of no-return when he had been born. Da’an could not blame himself for something he was not responsible of.

He thought during a second and smiled to himself when he had found the way he was searching for. He raised. Before he had done three steps, Liam turned toward him sharply. Da’an almost shivered when he saw the cold look in Liam’s eyes. The American Companion needed to control himself for not lose his Human facade when he saw the mix of sadness, shame, anger and pity in his protector’s eyes.

“Liam… I wish to show you something,” he said. He wanted his voice to be steady and normal but it was just a faint whisper that escaped his lips.

Liam stared at him, evidently curious. The Taelon blinked longly, hiding for a moment his intenses blue eyes. The young man sighed soundly and raised. Da’an started to walk toward the door that was the only exit to his office. He saw vaguely Liam follow him after grabbing his coat. “Where are we going?” asked Liam.

“You will see,” answered Da’an looking briefly at the hyrid that followed some steps behind him.

Liam understood that the Taelon would not say anything more. He was in a very bad mood and locked himself in a dead silence.

The climbed to the last level of the Embassy. Liam had never been authorized to go beyound the second floor. The closed, cold look on his face letting place to astonishment, to the joy of Da’an. The floor of the Taelon building was a section reserved to the Taelon personnal only. An odd thing was in the middle of the room. Very alike the one that Zo’or had used for transfer himself in a Human body.

“Da’an…?” questionned Liam, the curiosity hiding for a time the fear in his voice.

“Take off your coat and lay down, Liam,” the Taelon told Liam while gesturing absently to the table on the left, still not answering his question.

Liam seemed to hesitate but he finally decided to do as Da’an had suggested. He lay down on the table, looking at Da’an doing the same beside him.

“Give me your hand,” asked Da’an. Liam hesitated, a little bit longer than before, but ended but giving his hand to Da’an’s. He felt a strange coolness run in the nerves of his fingers and hand for finally disapear as coldness in his upper arm. He sensed another strange sensation, more like a faint tingling this time, as Da’an changed back to his natural energy appearance. The aliens fingers in his hand became insubstantials, as water, but with still something solid deep inside of it. Liam did not even have the time to paniq when he fell unconscious.

“Liam… Liam answer me…” Liam opened his mouth for answer but, when he tried to speak, no sound exited his lips. No air! He realized that he was not even breathing. He opened the eyes and saw his own face looking at him. A logic part of his mind noted that he did not feel bad because of non-breathing, just like it was perfectly normal. Just the action of opening his eyes, and keeping them open during some seconds, made his head ache like hell. He closed his eyes. His own voice spoke. “Shhh… Calm down Liam. All is well,” the ‘Other’ told him. He did not know who it was. He opened his eyes again, trying to support the unbelievable pain that burned through his head.

Yes, it was definitly Liam Kincaid that was beside him. But, this attitude, this look on the face seemed at the same time alien and oddly familiar. He managed to recall. Da’an… This strange thing... What had been done to him?

“I have transfered my mind in your body Liam. And your mind in my body,” answered Da’an, to the question he had not asked. Liam then understood that Da’an could hear and understand all his thoughts. “Do not be worry Liam. I am easily able to respect your secrets,” Da’an said, sensing his increasing fear. Liam would have sigh in relief if he had been able. Da’an knelt on the ground and took Liam’s hand in his. “Breath Liam. I could do it, so you are, too, able to do it. Just think about it.” Liam closed his eyes and did just like Da’an had told him. He concentrated the harder he could on this simple action and thought : breathing. To his surprise, he sensed the cool air fill inside his chest. He needed to do the exactly same effort to breath out. If he wanted to breath, he did not just need to think about it but to think to activate the whole mecanism inside.

He was finally able to pronounce a word. He was almost surprised when he heard the melodious voice of Da’an exit his lips. “My Lord…” was all he said, that truly represented what he felt.

Da’an, in Liam’s body, smiled, a typically Da’an-esque smile though. “It’s awful, is it not?” It was sadness in this voice, that was his own, a kind of despaired resignation. “You may say it Liam, I will not feel upset by your sincerity,” he said, in an amused tone, that just made the whole thing more sad even.

Liam thought in a second to what he could say. “How can you stand that?” he asked finally, trying to not appear disgusted.

“I spent almost my whole life like this. As all Taelons,” whispered Da’an. He passed an arm around Liam’s waist and helped him to raise. Liam felt his legs shake under him. He nearly lost his balance and gripped the edge of the table.

“This pain…” asked Liam, trying, vainly, to not smirk. “You always sense it?”

Da’an, in Liam’s body, nodded. “After many centuries, I do not really sense it,” he responded with a slight smile. Liam briefly closed his eyes.

“Why did you do that?” he demanded, worry and fear clearly present in his voice and mind.

Da’an sat beside him on the edge of the table. “Do not worry Liam. I have not trapped you in my body. You will come back to yourself when I will have finished to show you what I want you to see. I know that you have no trust in me. And, be sure that I regret it a lot. But I wanted you to understand what it was. What it is to be a Taelon, prisonner in a way, in this fragile and weak shell.” Da’an raised and started to pace the room from one side to the other. “Our ancestors had decided to bring our race to such a spirituality that our bodies became only an envelop, just a shell that they fastly abandonned. That was their mistake. Our bodies started to degenerate. We spend so much time to cultivate our spirit that we completly forgot our physical bodies. If the body cannot survive without the spirit, the spirit cannot survive without a receptacle. Then we met the Kimeras…”

Liam interrupted him, “Your people killed them all because you needed their bodies, their energy,” said the young man, for the moment in a Taelon body, in an accusating tone. Da'an only nodded in acceptance.

“Today we face the consequences of what our ancestors have done. Our race is, as you surely doubt, on the edge of dying. We are unable to reproduct and our true bodies stay alive during only some years, as yours. We passed from an existence that could be long during millenia to only some years. But wait, I must show you something first Liam,” said Da’an. He seemed sorry of what his race had done in the past, even if he was not responsible. His species was, by the manner he spoke of it, already in an advanced state of deterioration when Da’an had been born.

The ‘Taelon’ went toward a table against one of the purple walls. On this table was a slight, little knife, much alike a scalpel. Da’an tested it with the tip of his (Liam’s) finger. Liam opened wide eyes when he saw Da’an approach with the small scalpel, visibly cutting. “Da’an…?” he asked, starting to get worry.

“Calm down, it will not hurt you and you will sense nothing,” Da’an, in Liam’s body, reassured his protector. Da’an took his hand, his own hand, and turned it so that the palm was turned upward, toward the celling. The body had no human facade. He put the scalpel deeply between the small energy lines, in Liam’s (Da’an’s) arm. He saw his eyes widenning when Liam constated that he obviously sensed nothing. Da’an slid the knife along the forearm, until it reached the center of the palm and took it out. Liam tried to touch the cutting with his other hand. “No!” exclamed Da’an, stopping him, “Do not touch it,” he added, more calm.

Da’an slid his (technically Liam’s) fingers along the injury and, to Liam’s surprise, pulled out the edge of it. Liam’s mouth opened widely when he saw Da’an completly remove the energy ‘skin’ that covered this part of the Taelon’s body, as he pulled out a simple clothe.

“Ah… My God…” murmured Liam. He agitated his hand in front of his eyes. He could move his fingers. But it was not flesh or any other living material! It was a skeleton, made of something that seemed the Taelon version of metal, that clinked each times he moved.

“Our ancestors, when they were finally able to face the truth, did not accept to see their body disintegrated after only some short years of existence,” Da’an started to explain again, posing the scalpel on the table where it was at first. “They invented this kind of inamated metal skeleton. In enveloping them with energy, they were able to control the matter et to make it move as our old bodies did in the past. There was many advantages like the fact to do not get age, the fact to do not be weak, the fact to be difficult to kill… But the disadvantages were more numerous. On the moment, they did not understand, evidently, because they were so preoccuped by their survival and nothing else. But now, we all regret the mistakes they have made in the past,” he stopped and turned his gaze toward the night sky that was shown through the virtual glass. “…And we pay the bill, as Humans would say.”

Liam staggered and almost fell. Da’an was quickly beside him. He helped him to lay back on the table. “Your mind is not… I’m sorry Liam, but it’s true… Not enough evolved for survive in a body like mine. I will transfer you back.”

Liam closed and moaned in pain. He vaguely saw Da’an lay on the table beside him. And all became dark once again.

“Da’an? Da’an, do you hear me?” The Taelon, returned in his body this time, turned on his side and opened his eyes for look straight in Liam’s.

“I am well Liam,” said Da’an simply. He mentally ignored the pain, that after these long years, had became his usual companion of every days. He moved his fingers and his hands and raised slowly, trying to not stagger. He saw the hand of his young protector on his shoulder, sustaining him. Liam could understand now. With a tilting of his head, Da’an brought back the Human mask he always wore. He did some pace in the room and was nearly relieved to feel the familiar sensation of dizziness.

He looked thoughtfull at his hand, freed from its ‘energy skin’ and sighed.

“It’s good to be back,” said Liam, some meters behind him.

“And I would have be thankfull to keep yours, instead of returning live this torture in this shell.” He showed, with a disdainful gesture of the hand, his own body.

Liam did not reply, as if he was thinking, “I’m sorry, I should not have said that,”he whispered. Da’an lowered the head and closed his eyes.

“You have seen what we really are Liam. I wanted to show it to you, to make you live it for a time, because I hoped you could understand… why we are so despaired,” murmured Da’an so low that Liam almost did not hear him.

Liam sat on the edge of the table and waited for Da’an to continue. The Taelon was looking attentively to his metallic hand. His eyes were seeing things that only him knew, lost in his bottomless memory. “And the Jaridians came,” he said finally, weakly, as he remembered bad memories. “When our ancestors, have decided to evolve toward the perfect spirituality, a small group of us departed from the mother planet. They were not aggreing with the Synod’s decision and have exiled on a planet we had recently took possesion of. They evolved, following their own way, and became a people of fighters. But now, we are at the same point, our two species are barren and dying.”

“The Jaridians are in the same… state than you are?” asked Liam, astonished, but somewhat sorry at the same time.

“No. They have the advantage of being at less a thousand time more than us. And they are still able to fight by herself. Their bodies are intacts. It’s only the genetic lack in their blood that caused a problem. Between the two choices, they chose the better. If we start the war again, they will win, it’s certain…”

Liam continued, “It’s why you use Humanity like that,” he said coldly.

Da’an nodded. “But I think you were our last hope Liam. The only man that thought that a peace was possible between our two races is dead since a long time. And I believed that you could understand, but I was obviously wrong,” said Da’an neutral. Liam understood that he had been dismissed.

“Da’an, your hope is not completly futile.” Da’an turned toward him. The look in his eyes was one of complete resignation. “I wanted to made you know that I understand now, what it is to be a Taelon.” Liam turned on his heels and prepared to leave the room.

“Liam.” The young man turned back to Da’an. “I do not… want you to feel forced to take a position. I understand very weel that you only wish to save your people. I just wanted that you could experiment… what it was. In a way it is part of your Kimera heritage,” whispered Da’an.

Liam sighed and fixed the ground. What Da’an was saying sounded so familiar. A part of him was satified, but a little shame and guilt melted within him.

Da’an was still fixingly looking to his metallic hand. He turned it into a fist and longly extended his fingers, hearing the soft clicking. He finally turned his stare away and caught, with his other hand, the energy ‘skin’. He passed, dreamily like, his fingers through the soft blue-purple glowing energy and finally passed it on his skeletic hand. He concentrated a little and made the human white false skin appear. He gently storked the artificial skin

Liam spoke again. Da’an flinched, visibly, he thought that Liam was gone. “Can you show me, if you want, what you were like before…” He did not finish his sentence.

“Before changin of body?” suggested Da’an softly. The Human nodded. Da’an went to an energy stream and waved it open, making his own personal files appear. He touched some keys and a vague image was shown through the blue particles. Liam frowned and stepped closer. Da’an took a step back, allowing him to see more clearly. The background was somewhat familiar. He had seen the hologram of it in the gardens, on the moonbase. The same things so alien, but that his Kimera part recognized easily. Da’an kept his eyes fixed on the ‘screen’, as absorbed by what he saw. Liam was almost sure to see nostalgia, and also a great sadness, in Da’an deep blue eyes.

A young woman appeared. She was not clearly feminine but it was the impression her whole moves and attitude gave. She was very much like the Kimera that Liam, Lili and the Jaridian had met on the vessel. Her hairs stopped just up to her ears. Technically, she could have been or male or female. The general forms of her body were familiar too, but at the same time, Liam felt that they were completly alien. Her skin was pale, almost white. A kind of white with purple and blue reflects in it, a pearl white. She was simply walking. Liam knew this gest of the hand, those moves of the arms and the head…

“It’s you!?!” he asked, almost certain that he was all right.

“Yes, it’s me. I was just…” Da’an stopped and took the time to count. “… fifteen, of your years old.”

“But, you give me the feeling that you are… female?” questionned Liam, completly astounded.

“I was, indeed. But now, this body is just a mecanic puppet completly,” said the Taelon. “But, I have never stopped to consider myself as female.”

Liam his mouth still open, turned back to the energy stream. A young girl, that was very much alike Da’an, came from behing a plant and jumped in Da’an’s arms, who hugged her to her chest.

“Who’s she?” asked Liam, not leaving the image with his eyes.

“It’s my daughter,” answered Da’an. “Zo’or,” he added, in a whisper.

“You’re saying to me that Zo’or is your child?!?” demanded Liam, more astonished than ever.

Da’an closed the energy stream and turned toward his young protector. “You can, without much efforts, imagine what have been the life like this, and the need to watch his child grow, like this, knowing that you will watch your race die slowly. I just wanted to show you another point of vue Liam.”

Liam advanced toward the Taelon, “Da’an, I did not know…” he protested.

“No, you did not know Liam,” Da’an interrupted him, “ Punish the ignorance would be totally immoral.”

Liam lowered the eyes. He knew that what Da’an was saying was true. “Da’an, I…” The Companion interrupted him once again.

“I would be thankfull to you to do not speak of what I did here, today. But I suppose that you will act in the best way for the survival of your people, like you have always done,” snapped Da’an, his voice sarcastic and cold. He was now sure that Lian could not understand and could never understand. He saw Liam come toward him and raised his hand for stop any words that could escape his young lips. “Liam, all I need now is loneliness. Please, leave and let me alone,” requested the Taelon, weakly, the eyes fascinated by the floor.

Just before leaving, Liam touched lightly Da’an’s shoulder with his hand, “I know that you believe I did not understand Da’an. Maybe it’s the case, I’m not really sure. But I just want you to know that… I’m sorry,” he whispered.