Synopsis:

Scott was on his way west to meet up with his friends to start a new life in L A. What he came across in the desert after his car broke down would change him forever. He wondered if his friends would recognise him once they finally met again. He didn’t think this was what his friend’s intended when they said, "start a new life."

Chapter Twenty-One

"We do?" gasped Sara as the implications of Kim's last statement sank in. She quickly formed the nexus that would pull the others in, so they could be there to hear this.

"We have tried to turn your race towards a better path than the one you are on. It's slow work, but people are beginning to change. There is another matter that we need to address, your burgeoning mental powers, shows the start of a new era in understanding. Do you realise that soon, if you progress at the same rate, you will surpass even us. Already you are maintaining a nexus without the aid of the Krin. We do wish you to continue to wear it, so its powers can further advance you to our level. There will be no further monitoring of your activities, unless you call for us. It will act as the interface for us to join our minds, until you no longer need it."

"Okay, that's fine, but you still haven't told us the reason why we hold the key to our races survival." Sara, acting as the mouthpiece for the nexus, reiterated.

Kim looked down at her hands for a moment, as if weighing the information she had to impart.

"We think a race inimical to the human species will be here within 200 years. We ourselves have encountered them, with initial disastrous results. Without the power of mental communication, humans encountering alien life will probably panic, and start a self-destructive downward path, that could end all life here. We hoped that the first contact, would be with us, so we could assist you, when the need arises."

"Holly crap!" Uttered Sara, as the shock rippled through the nexus.

"We need you to help us spread the power of telepathy throughout the world."

"How is that going to help, other than save us on phone call costs? Why are we so important? I'll buy the saving us from ourselves, to preserve our uniqueness and culture, but we aren't going to be able to fight off an invading enemy with a shuttle and a few missiles," argued Sara, as each mind in the nexus tried to find fault in Kim's statement.

"First, you won't need ships to fight the Nemesis, that's not how it works. Neither can we be seen to fight them either, if that happens they will come back later when we may not be here. The way this race works is in secret. They work on people's fears, getting them to fight amongst themselves till they are easy pickings. They are only effective on non-telepathic races, where each individual is isolated in his own head. They have some sort of mind projector that brings up each persons fears and magnifies it a thousand fold. Now that you have proven that humankind can deal with the concept of aliens and use telepathy as a means of communication, we can start more overt means to introduce ways to help earth become a telepathic race."

"I'm not sure everyone will be enthusiastic to have their minds open to all," Sara smiled, thinking of the politicians and the other covert agencies.

"Understood, but it must happen, things will change drastically. The effective way is to get the next generation to develop telepathy, that way, it avoids the people who would likely use it to gain more power than they have already."

"What will we have to do?" asked Sara, seeing her ideas of living a normal... well a sort of normal life with Kevin fly out the window.

"For now, not a lot. You need time to learn more about your gift. Once you find that you 'hear' the thoughts of the non-telepathic, we will show you how to develop a shield that will block them from being heard. I know it sounds cool to be able to read the minds of anyone, but you'll some realise that it gets annoying very fast." Kim explained to them.

"So what about the places we sold and the money we got for them?"

"Keep it, you'll need someplace to live, and something to live on, until we get you set up. We will make sure you have proper identification, for all the lives you will be living. You realise while the Krin will make you immortal for intents and purposes, you will need to take on new identities as time goes on."

"You mean like that TV series Highlander." Sara asked, intuitively.

"Yes if you stay at one place for a long time resetting your age to stay young will raise questions. The other thing, is that with computers monitoring our personal details for most of our lives, a person with the same name and address living longer than four score and ten, will certainly raise flags. We will organise new identities and your home will appear to have been sold to a new couple. It's easier for your previous identities to disappear or die than to retain them."

"One question, why did you have us appear here as newlyweds, not that I didn't enjoy it." Sara asked, looking at Kevin speculatively.

"Well I could tell you were in love, when I was with you in the car. I just wanted to give Kevin a glimpse and a hint of what you would look like. Has he proposed yet?" Kim smiled, looking at Kevin with a raised eyebrow.

"Not exactly," sighed Sara, "but he's hinted a few times," she added in his defence.

"I haven't found the right moment for it yet," promised Kevin. "I want it to be special," he added, taking her hand in his and touching the back of it with his lips in an unspoken agreement.

"Will we be getting the use of the car again, or will you be taking that?"

"As I said earlier, it’s an older model, with a lot of add ons, our new ones have sophisticated holographic screens that show you a list of the options. It’s still reliable apart from the crude recharging method. The new cars use the same tech as the Krin, which mostly superseded the use of the car as the main means of transformation. I guess you experienced the bugs in that model when switching back and forth," grinned Kim.

"Yeah, we nearly got stuck several times," admitted Sara, remembering the time when the car ran out of power leaving the others stuck as triplets. Then there was the time when Leanne was stuck as Sara for a time.

"The new cars are just that, they can change shape and colour, but not the occupants. We developed the Krin as a better solution. Now can I ask you a question?" Kim asked, looking at Sara.

"Sure." Sara replied, wondering what Kim wanted to know.

"You never used the car or the Krin in a way I’d have expected. Having that kind of power at your disposal would have some corrupting influence, and yet you showed restraint, apart from selling the Ellery’s home and the property in Australia, you kept a low profile, why?"

"Well, once I knew the truck was alien property and had the power to change, I knew if we told anyone it would be taken away and never seen again. It has the power to help people and extend lives, but I couldn’t see it being used for that purpose, once the government got their hands on it. We didn’t have the knowledge to duplicate it and by the same token, we couldn’t trust anyone to find a way to do so, if it stopped working that would be it. Once we found the bracelets, the truck wasn’t so important, but who could we go too without having it become public knowledge. Ken would have taken it away, had he found out about it. It was more important as a weapon than as a benefit for mankind. Our lives would be put at risk. The government would probably kill us or at least incarcerate us for the rest of our lives to ensure nobody else found out about it.

We only sold the properties so we had something to live on while we thought of how best to use the bracelets. We just wanted to live our lives in a bit of comfort and we weren’t after power or fame. In time, we would have thought of ways where we could help those in need, other than ourselves. Helping Maggie has shown us one way in which we can help, and if we are still allowed to, we would like to help more of the transgendered to gain the body of their dreams."

"I understand, thank you. These transgendered people, would they be likely to aid us if we recruited them, after giving them what they wished?"

"Sure, I don’t see why not," Sara asked. "Recruited for what?"

"To help spread the telepathic gift, if we started with them first, and then work towards similar methods to help mankind achieve its destiny. We would also like some ideas of how to introduce the next generation to devices that act in a similar fashion to the Krin, without the changing mechanism," Kim added.

"How small can you make it and does it have to be a ring shape?" Sara asked.

"It can be about the size of a pencil eraser and any shape at all," supplied Kim.

"What about implanting it under the skin?" asked Sara?

"We have tried that with our test subjects, but most have been discovered when they broke their conditioning and asked to be checked by X-ray."

"It’s a pity the device is so big and couldn’t be injected," sighed Sara.

"Oh? Whys that?" Kim asked, looking interested.

"Well all babies born in hospitals, get a vitamin K injection after they are delivered. It would be the perfect opportunity for introducing something," Sara proposed.

"Interesting, we could use nanite based machines to assemble the device in the body. That could be feasible. I’ll pass that idea on. Now we need to find ways to introduce devices to the current youth. Don’t suggest anything now; keep it in the back of your head for later, and I’ll be in touch."

With that, Kim showed Kevin how to use the laptop to communicate with the other one that William had, and gave Kevin another code to get access to Kim whenever they needed. Kim said she had to get the ball rolling on the vitamin K idea, so she gave both of them a hug and a kiss and told them that when they wanted to leave, they just needed to call the desk. She told Sara that the weeding dress was a gift and to take it with her. Kim left then, promising to keep in touch.

Sara and Kevin decided to use the spa in the suite to unwind while they discussed their next move. Sara wanted to head back and pick up Maggie, whereas Kevin wanted to see the White House before they left.

Sara agreed to stay for the rest of the day to do some sightseeing.

"We can make an early start tomorrow," Kevin promised.

They decided to get a cab, instead of using the car. This way they didn’t have the bother of finding parking, and they got the added bonus of the cabbies knowledge of Washington, as he drove them to the various sights. Spotting something, Kevin had the cabby pull over. He pulled a confused Sara out of the cab and paid off the driver.

Kevin covered Sara’s eyes as he turned her to face what had made him stop the cab. Walking back a few steps, he uncovered her eyes, leaving her facing a Victoria Secrets.

"Do you feel an urge to buy something sexy here?" He asked, with a wicked looking grin on his face.

Sara looked at the display in the window, seeing assorted sexy lingerie draped over the display models. She looked at Kevin, seeing his now puppy dog expression, as he silently begged her to go in.

She did feel interested in checking out the store. As Scott, she would have drooled at being able to wander about inside, unnoticed, while checking out the other half. Now it was more a case of seeing what she could find to make Kevin drool in the privacy of their home.

"I think I should have you model something for me," she laughed, seeing Kevin blush scarlet.

"Um how about you go check out what you like, while I go look at that hardware store," Kevin said evasively. "Give me a call when you’re ready," he added, as he hurried away.

"Chicken," scoffed Sara, feeling sad at being abandoned.

Sara went inside the shop, not bothering to see where Kevin was headed, as a nice mauve bra and panty set caught her eye.

Kevin looked back, checking to see if Sara had gone inside, before entering the shop he’d really wanted to go in.

To be continued.

  

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 © 2005 by Prudence Walker. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, and compilation design) may be printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without the express written consent of the copyright holder.