He looked at his hands again, and schematic diagrams flashed through his consciousness. His memories were all jumbled, adding to his disorientation and confusion. The series of stars burned themselves out, but a massive cloud rose from their destruction. He tracked the site, following it for several seconds before he realized that he was beyond the atmosphere. His body appeared to still be breathing, but when he stopped it, nothing bad happened.

::Cosmetic purposes only, I suppose. I have to think this through ... and who was that girl who kissed me?::

Thinking about her, his vision reoriented to reveal her. She was far beyond the orbit of the Moon, and his vision tightened to focus on her.

::Duh. I'm invisible in space,:: he realized, looking at his black hand against the void. ::As long as I don't eclipse anything.::

Morgan flew out to where she hovered, apparantly gaping at the planet, then led her down to air thick enough for them to talk. In space he noticed that his feet only glowed green and not blue-green as they had on Earth. His eyes moved from his feet to the young woman and back again as they entered the transitional layers of the outer atmosphere. He knew exactly when the atmospheric elements of his flight began, and associated the color with a feeling in a part of his mind. When they reached thick enough air, he stopped and simply levitated, staying in place.

"Do I know you?" he asked. "Someone blew an H-bomb off under me, and I'm not quite thinking straight. What did you call me? Scott, was it?" He looked at himself, then at her, and his black skin turned into flawlessly mirroring chrome. "Ah. I understand. This form reflects energy attacks, while the black one absorbs them."

With another slight effort, his skin returned to its original black metallic color. "Learn something every day," he remarked. Feeling the wind flowing over him again, he remembered that he was still essentially nude. Quickly he blocked her view of his crotch, although she didn't seem to mind. "I'm sorry, this outfit didn't seem to come with any clothes."

Smiling, she gestured at herself. "This didn't either."

"Yeah, but you ... don't have the same details."

Morgan looked her over and realized that if they were what they seemed to be, they were going to have problems if she wasn't wearing a suit. He floated there in front of her, wracking his brain for answers. "Am I your ... no ... that's stupid, not after that kiss. How did we ... get to be like this? What's your name? I don't think you said. Are we ... lovers?"

"We were--don't you remember anything?"

"We were...." He blinked and looked at her. "The harder I push to remember, the more jumbled things get. All of these memories keep playing through my head ... I'm sorry, but my mind's all mixed up. I don't remember being old, but I think I've been around a long time. The ... man, this is awkward. The more I think about it, the more confused I get. I think my name is .... was ... Morgan, but now you tell me it's Scott. Something -else- makes me think that neither one of those are right. I just don't know right now."

"I'll tell you what I remember, Scott--if that'll help. My name's Melissa, Melissa Crane. And you--I knew you as Scott Keller, until last night--at least I think it was last night."

"Okay. Scott Keller ... got it. I thought I knew someone who had a name starting with 'M'." More pieces fit together. "We were ... together, last night? Like this?"

"You're the one who did this to me." she went on. "You told me you were some sort of alien and--and you wanted me to come with you. Only I had to, to become like you to do that...and I...I wanted to see the stars so much I let you do it."

"An alien..." His brow furrowed in thought. "I ... guess I must be. I remember being on other worlds. Flying through their air, making contact with the beings.": He rubbed the back of his head. "That must have been one serious bomb." He appeared to think for another moment. "I am -seriously- confused. I guess it's a good thing you're here to straighten me out. I just wish I knew why I remember the name Morgan. That's what I called myself when I talked to those troops. Maybe I was some kind of spy?"

"Not as far as I knew," she replied. "However the big question I can't figure out is how we ended up in there." she gestured back towards where the base had been. "The last thing I remember is your holding my hand in the woods...and feeling like some sort of electric shock was going through me."

Morgan also remembered a tingling. Looking at his hands, he remembered it moving through his spine and then filling his body. "Holding your hand." He nodded. "I remember the tingle. How long were we ... like this? Where did we live?" Reaching out, he touched her cheek and looked into her eyes. "You must love me a lot, to let me do this to you. Do you miss .... being normal? I mean ... if we're lovers ... how do we...?"

"I...I don't know." she said slowly. "I didn't even know you weren't human until last night. You hadn't told me more than a little before you started this. I don't even understand why you look like this now and not like -this-" indicating Morgan on the first 'this' and herself on the second.

"You mean silvered? I can do that, but I think my energy level is low. It might be automatic ... some kind of recharge mechanism or something."

"Then why didn't I come out that way?" she wondered.

"Maybe you were already 'charged', or it might be a defensive reflex, since any amount can be reflected, but only a finite quantity can be absorbed?" He smiled. "Hey, I remembered that."

Turning his eyes towards the Earth, he remembered what he'd said and done inside the base. "I must have worked there or something. I knew who to ask for and ... I said I was a major named Morgan Parafaith. What if I'm neither of those people?

"You didn't work there, at least not as far as I knew. In fact you said you were *made* somewhere else, to be a soldier of some sort, and left because you didn't want to be."

"Okay, if I didn't work there, then how did I know to ask for the Project Director? Besides, I only have memories of making war in the past. Maybe I gave it up?"

"It didn't sound like you'd fought at all, but then you didn't say a lot about that."

More jumbled bits showed themselves. "When I -did- fight, it was always in defense of something. I'm sure of that. I was never the aggressor." A point became very clear to him. "I can never strike first. I can only respond to an attack." He thought again. "If I'm an alien, who -knows- what my name really is, or why I'm here? With the base destroyed, I'm out of leads. All I have ... is you."

"I'll help you, Scott--any way I can. Though it wasn't supposed to be like this...we certainly can't go off with you like this."

"Go -where-? Mars? Alpha Centauri II? Graneb's Star? New York? Vegas? Los Angeles? Atlan--? No, can't go there, they wiped themselves out." He paused, trying to think. "Okay, if you didn't know I wasn't human until last night, then I must be able to make myself look human. So if I made you to look like me, you must be able to do it, too."

Her yellow eyes met his silver ones. "We...we were supposed to...you were going to show me the stars." she said softly. "The things, people, you'd seen out there..." she shook her head. "I don't know what's happened to you that you've forgotten all that--maybe that bomb you mentioned did something."

Shock registered on his face, along with no small measure of disbelief. She clearly had -no- idea of the magnitude of his confusion. "-Maybe?- You think I'm always like this? I'm lucky to be able to speak English!"

"I'm not sure what to think right now. This wasn't the way you were in the woods, that's all I know for sure."

He fought down his distress, knowing that it would serve no purpose. "How was I different? Or am I better off not remembering?"

"You always seemed like you -knew- so much. Though until last night I never realized how much. I'll help you remember."

"It's in there ... I just have to sort it out. Okay, if you didn't know I wasn't human until last night, then I must be able to make myself look human. So if I made you to look like me, you must be able to do it, too."

"That makes sense." she replied, and thought for a moment. "I'm just not sure how yet, though."

"We can't just stand around up here. We're going to need money and a place to stay while we figure out what's what. Any ideas?"

"I suppose you don't remember what you looked like before last night...so going back to my parents' place is out for now. How would I explain you--nobody knew who you really were but me and I didn't know that much." She thought. "What state -are- we in, anyway--" she looked around at the desert terrain below. "New Mexico? Arizona??"

"We're over northwestern Nevada." He pointed slightly off to the south west. "Reno's that way. I have a map of the ... the whole -planet- ... in my head. I must really have known my way around ... but when I try to remember where I came from, I get ... nothing. What if I never remember who I really am?"

"I'm sure you will." she replied, hoping her voice sounded more certain than she felt. She'd walked away from her whole life for him and now... somehow he'd lost his.

"You sound awfully sure, but your voice is different. I just hope you're right."

His body froze for a moment as his mind wrestled with itself. "No, I am -not- going to lose my grip. I will just stay calm, go with what I -know-, and work from there. Okay. We -could- go anywhere to think, but I'd rather stay somewhere I didn't have to touch you to talk to you." He smiled. "Of course, touching you is extraordinary. First priority is to figure out how to make ourselves look normal. That will stop people from staring at us."

Morgan twitched, and brilliant light burst from his body. The flareup was so bright to Melissa that her entire visual field was swamped and overloaded.

She flung her hands over her eyes. "Scott--!" What had happened? She'd seen him flare up like that before, just before he'd changed in the park, but it hadn't been quite so--blinding--then. Since her changing, everything was working differently, even her eyes--how else could she explain the strange colors she'd seen around people and had even started to see around him?

When she could see again, Melissa's eyes fell up on a handsome young man, complete in every detail. Hair, fingernails, eye lashes, and every other anatomical facet which would be normally visible. He could easily have been a movie star or an actor from television, but when he spoke, he still had the same voice.

"Native camouflage," he said. "What a strange idea that is. At least I can explain the process. Picture an image in your mind. Put it in front of you, and then sort of ... step into it in your head. Color changes don't generate a photon discharge, but shape alterations do. Watch your eyes. I'm going to change again."

Another flash, and he looked like the actor Kevin Sorbo. Every change made any form seem as valid as the others. "Hey ... this is nice. I can look like anything I can imagine, within size restrictions. I ... I have -hundreds- of images of people. This guy was from Atlantis before it sank." Morgan focused on that library of images, and his jaw dropped. "I must be capable of ... time travel. I have images from the -future-, as well as the past." He laughed, skating the edge of madness. "No wonder I'm confused. There's going to be a base on the moon in a couple of years. The chief technologist there is going to have an artificial heart. I think his name is ... Bergman. In two thousand and one, a lone astronaut is going to have an encounter with an alien intelligence in orbit around Jupiter." Pausing, he thought. "This doesn't make sense. There were no talking apes on Earth in '73." He covered his eyes with his hands. "Oh, this is just great. I'm remembering -television- as if the events were -real-. I can't tell the difference!"

"Now I -really- don't understand what's happening." she said worriedly. "I'm not getting anything like that...and--" she broke off as something else he'd said hit her. "'73?? what do you mean *'73*....it's not even '67 yet..."

Morgan was too busy dealing with his own problems to catch what she said. Another shock hit him, as he was bombarded by hundreds of television channels. He screamed, and clutched his head. "Stop it!" he shouted. Just as abruptly, the signals stopped, and his skin turned silver.

It took a few seconds for his mind to clear, and he looked at Melissa with an intensity which bordered on the manic. "I'm not sure what to do next. I need to find a place to -think- for a while. I can't think about who I used to be right now. That just confuses me more and more. I have to figure out who I am -now-, first. What should we do?"

Morgan noticed that she did not answer his questions completely, but then maybe she was trying to play down his doubts and uncertainties. He was certain that he'd worked there in some capacity. There was no other explanation for knowing what he remembered.

He looked off into the billowed clouds for a few moments, trying to make sense of it all. The cold, crisp air around them flowed over his skin, and he knew all of its properties. He felt the sensation of the cold, but it was being muted somehow, and he deduced that the sharpness of his senses was being modulated by something he could only guess at.

Melissa paused. Maybe that '73' had just been something else he was mixed up about. "Well like I said my parent's place is out--but there's a national forest not too far from there, with cabins and the like. It's still a bit early for the summer people to be there, so that should be OK."

Morgan took on the actor's form again and nodded. "All right ... just lead us there. I don't know which forest you mean."

"Chequamegon...now let me see. You said you had a map in your head. I don't seem to. At least not yet. That's in North Wisconsin, so if we're in Nevada..." she turned in the direction she thought Wisconsin should be and started off. "It should be this way. As for what I look like...let's see..." She glowed brightly for a moment, and then she was hovering before him, a very young looking girl with long brown hair and dark eyes, wearing blue jeans and a tie dyed T shirt. A long string of blue beads hung from her neck and a red bandanna pulled her hair back from her face. "This was what I looked like, before."

"Really?" Following her, he altered his appearance to look more her age. "Hmmm... clothes, too. Every time I picture clothes, I get the feeling that I can't do them yet."

He looked around, and found a clothes line some forty kilometers away which had clothes his size hanging on it. Wireframes appeared around a set of the apparel, and he knew those were the ones he needed.

"Just a minute," he said, and streaked off towards the north.

Six minutes later, he returned wearing worn black jeans, a white tee shirt and a pair of thick black socks. They were an ideal fit, as his body subtly shifted to optimize the appearance.

"Much better," he said. "At least I won't shock -other- people now."

To help ease his mind, he flew spirals around her, making small adjustments to their course. A small alert seemed to go off in his mind. He was learning more about those little warnings. They were sometimes sounds, but other times small images would come unbidden into his thoughts. "We've been picked up on radar," he said. "I can feel the energy."

Targeting the source reflexively, Morgan began emitting a counter signal to neutralize their outgoing radar. He could see the waves colliding and collapsing each other. "It's not a problem, though." Thinking about Melissa, the image of red hair kept coming back into his mind, along with ....was it snow?

"It's strange ... but I thought you'd be older. Maybe it was going to be part of the metamorphosis. Still ... I can stay like this. I don't mind. It's too bad you don't have a picture of me. That would really help. Do I look okay? I can make adjustments, if you don't like the way I look now. That part I have figured out."

"There were a couple pictures, I remember them being taken, but they're at my parents' and we can't go there." She shook her head. "Well, if we're going let's go. The forest should be this way...I'm still not sure about this. I don't seem to -have- a map in my head like you say you do. Maybe that's something I have to learn to do later."

::So she doesn't like the way I look now, I guess,:: he thought. ::I must seem like a total stranger to her.:: "I think the map thing is learned, not imparted. Now that I know the name of the place, I can get us there."

Taking her hand again, he led her towards the destination she'd named. "Are you disappointed? You seem ... terse. What were you expecting?"

"I guess I just didn't think that anything would go wrong, that's all. Something must've, or else how'd we end up in that lab?"

"Seems like we've both done our share of non-thinking. I had no trouble detecting the firebreak bombs back at the Facility. Why didn't I pick up the bomb they set off beneath me? What was I thinking about then? Maybe you?" His brow furrowed, and he shrugged. All he could do was hope that his mind could be straightened out.

A short while later...

"That's it--and the campground should be...there," she said. She pointed towards a clearing among a massive expanse of trees and hills. Morgan had been scrutinizing the area for nearly the last five minutes of their journey there. A neat row of cabins were arranged in a large clearing which was linked to several others by a series of hiking trails. There were only a couple of cars parked in a lot at a distance the cabins, and the lights were on in only one of the structures. By the time they touched down, he knew who was there, what they were doing, and that their landing would not be noticed.

Morgan stood there for a moment, absorbing the feeling of the forest. The scents which reached him were sampled, scanned, identified, and stored automatically. His vision expanded and swept out for five kilometers in every direction, noting details humans would never consider, much less makes notes of.

::I -must- have been a spy, or a scout of some kind. My senses are reconnoitering the whole area by themselves! Or maybe I was a scientist. I remember -being- a scientist. Morgan was one, but what was Scott?::

Taking her hand, they walked along the trail to the cabins. It was a quiet night, and the moon was nearly full in the sky. The earthen trail beneath their feet muffled the sounds of their passage, and Morgan observed while his senses cataloged the local flora and fauna. The cabins themselves had been recently renovated, and of the twelve there, ten were unoccupied. There was a rustic feel to them which seemed new to him, as if it had been a long time since he'd been in such a setting, if he ever had.

Melissa looked at the cabins, trying to figure out whether any were occupied, since no cars were allowed in this far. The windows were shaded by curtains drawn across them, and a wave of frustration rose within her. Suddenly something shifted in her mind,. and she found herself looking at a room where a man and a woman lay sleeping. She gasped, and when she blinked, her vision returned to normal.

"Scott--I...I just *looked through* the wall of that cabin...I didn't know we could do that."

"If it disturbs you, then don't do it. We can do a lot of things normal humans can't do. It puts voyeurism in a whole new light. Only two of the cabins are occupied. Number two and number five. I think we should take twelve, on the end."

"Twelve it is--and don't worry, this isn't something I want to make a habit of. If they'd been--" she broke off and shook her head, not wanting to complete *that* thought. "Though...Scott, would you mind if I--I mean, we both need to find out more about what we are now, and since I didn't know that much about you...would you mind if I took a look?"

"It won't work," he said. "I've tried, but I know what I am inside. I think it's some kind of security measure. I'll tell you whatever you want to know. I certainly owe you that much for putting you through this."

Morgan walked down to the cabin they'd chosen and opened the door. He didn't even realize that it had been locked. Going inside, he turned on the light and looked around. It wasn't the Ritz, but it wasn't bad. It had an enclosed bathroom and a small kitchenette in the back, and the front was divided into a single bedroom and a living room. He remembered other places like this, but only glimpses, as if looking through books of photographs. Knowing there was a woodpile on the side of the cabin, he turned around and looked at Melissa as she came in.

"Would you like a fire in the fireplace?"

"If you'd like. Though I don't seem to feel the cold like I used to. One more new thing, I suppose." she smiled and put a hand on his. "I'm still getting used to how everything feels now. Like there's so much -more- to the, the slightest touch.."

Leaving for a minute, he came back with an armload of wood, and had a fire going before the next had passed. A red field of energy flared around his hand, and Melissa saw the burst of infrared as the focused heat lit the fire.

"There's nothing in the refrigerator or the cabinets. I'm not sure if I'm hungry or not, though. I don't seem to have the feeling anymore. I remember eating, so at least we can if we want to."

"You'd have had a hard time passing for human if you couldn't." Still smiling softly, she continued. "Though I do remember having to explain to you what a Coke was, that first day at the Fairgrounds. I just figured you were from somewhere way back in the sticks, the mountains somewhere, and *that* was why you didn't know."

"I probably didn't say a whole lot."

Sitting down on the couch, Morgan closed his eyes and stopped thinking. Maybe a clear head would yield better results. When he did that, things started happening. It was as if he had been struggling against something the whole time, with each side gradually making concessions. Pieces of events started to shuffle themselves in his memory like a badly edited motion picture. There were still many gaps, but things were starting to fill in as memories were combined and a common language was developed.

He had been places and seen things no human had even conceived of. Planets, inhabited and otherwise, drifted through his mind's eye. Artificial worlds, water worlds, arid wastes, worlds like .... Earth. He had a great deal of information about Earth, as if he had been sent here or had decided on his own to come here just for the express purpose of studying it. Something had drawn his attention to this particular planet. Something dangerous.

"I ... I really -am- an alien," he said. "An experiment. A hybrid project... The first not to be force-grown... allowed to develop ... independently. Individually, not preassigned to a particular .... they wanted to see what I would -choose-."

Joy and hope had risen within him when he had come to this planet, for it was beautiful, but along with that was the dread of what had drawn him. He could not remember what that something was.

"Something tried to ... change me ... remake my mind into a weapon. If that is true ... then who is Morgan? Who is Scott? Who... am -I-?" His head lolled, as he was drawn deeper into the damaged mangle which was his memory. "Loneliness .... separation .... pain. So much pain. Can't remember -why-. Must stop ... need time to ..."

"Scott--what..." Her hands went to her mouth. What could they have *done* to him, to cause *this*?? And how could she help him come back to himself when he hadn't told her all that much??

Morgan blinked, and sat up straight. "I can't think about it any more right now. I have to wait until it doesn't hurt to think. Whatever they did to me, I'm still healing from it. Come ... sit next to me, and tell me what I used to be like."

"If you're sure you want me to talk about things." she said, still uncertain. "I don't want to make it worse, whatever they did." She did move to sit beside him, though, slipping an arm around his waist as she did so.

"Where...where would you like me to start?"

Morgan put his arm around her shoulders and looked into the fire. "Tell me everything. What we've done, where we've been, what we planned and dreamed. It might shake a few more pieces into place." He let his hand travel down her arm until it was his skin against hers. She didn't have much of a scent, but he imagined what she would smell like if she were normal. "My memory has a -lot- of gaps, but I know I've never felt anything like I feel when I touch you, and the more you tell me about how I used to be, the more I can be like that, even if I don't remember it all." He gave her bare arm a little squeeze. "If I have to be someone new, I want to be someone you'll like."

* * *

Elsewhere..

Speeding down an almost non-existent road, the sedan bounced and nearly flew off the road when the ground shook. The driver floored the gas pedal, and even through the dark film obscuring the windows, the light from the nuclear flash made the intervening mountaintops glow.

Behind them also was the small house the driver lived in, and the small garage which wasn't a garage, but was actually the terminus of a tunnel leading to the underground base on the far side of the mountain range. The driver's orders had been short and simple: Wait for the passenger and then leave the area as quickly as possible. Looking at the illumination of the area ahead, and the sharp shadows thrown by the mountains themselves, he understood all too quickly why.

The engine abruptly sputtered and died, and sparks issued from beneath the dashboard. He had to fight for control, but managed to get the car to stop before they wrecked. Stepping out of the smoking vehicle, the passenger lit a cigarette and felt the stirring of warm wind. Behind him, the driver opened the hood and looked at the fused electronics.

"We wait here for the chopper," he said. Looking at the driver, the Project Director knew he was a loose end. "What was that about?" the driver asked. "It looked like someone set off a nuke." "America would never set off a nuclear blast on its own soil in this age," the Director replied. "It must have been terrorists ... or maybe a faulty warhead went off." "What's on the other end of that tunnel?" "Do you really want to know/" The driver swore at the engine and slammed the hood shut. "I just nearly got my ass blasted by whatever just happened. I think I deserve to know what it was. What was on the other end of the tunnel?"

He looked over at the Director just in time for the hole to appear in his forehead rather than his temple. He caught just a glimpse of the cloud rolling over the mountains before he died.

"What tunnel?" the Director asked.

When the helicopter arrived, it picked up the lone figure standing by the burning car. He was coughing slightly, and his face was smudged with soot from the greasy smoke which boiled from the car. The pilot and copilot just caught a glimpse of the burning body behind the steering wheel, and the shattered glass where the driver's head had struck the windshield.

"Poor dumb bastard," said the co-pilot.

"Yes. I guess he -should- have worn his seat belt."

"We radioed for another chopper to come when we saw the smoke. We have orders to get you back to Nellis, ASAP, Sir. There's a call for you on the scrambler." The copilot handed him a headset, then closed the door and returned to his seat in the front.

Putting on the headset, the Director turned on the microphone and listened. "Yes, it -was- necessary. There was a containment breach. I know that two EBEs escaped, possibly four. No, the rest were ... disposed of." He listened, and would have cringed if he still could. "Yes, there was some loss of personnel, but it was unavoidable. The EBEs were walking through the security teams like they weren't even there. We're tracking the two who flew off. The other two might have been vaporized in their tunnels, but the site is going to be too hot to investigate. They went transatmospheric and then re-entered, so we know that they're space-capable. We'll have them contained within four days at the most, although I -will- need some of the Special Projects equipment from Area 54." More listening, but his composure was returning. All he had to to was get the lid down quickly and keep it down.

"My teams are already in the field. Make sure their new identies are established." He took a calming drag from his cigarette. "Don't worry, it's taken care of." Nodding he flicked the lengthening ash onto the floor of the helicopter as it tilted and picked up speed. "This is what happens when you don't enforce the protocols. Of -course- the Old Man's going to have a fit, just tell him it was a biowarfare facility that had an accident, and that the Firebreak system was activated. I'll call again once I've established a new command center. Standard blocks on the FBI, CIA and NSA. Oh, and I'm going to need a new driver. Mine had an accident."

The call ended, and he watched the view through the windows. How many people's ashes were mixed in with those clouds? They were going to have to make some quick deals to get that area decontaminated. The airspace had been cleared and every surveillance satellite passing overhead had experienced 'technical difficulties' at the time of the detonation, again courtesy of their 'special friends'.

His mind turned to the voice which had come over the command center's speakers, and the face with the silver eyes. He knew that face. Ten years ago he thought he'd erased that mistake from the face of the world, only to find that he'd created something even more dangerous in the doing.

As he had left the Facility via subsurface shuttle, he'd watched the escape via the security network of cameras and sensors. He knew that Morgan Parafaith was hurt, and what could be hurt could be killed. All it took was the right weapon, and they had a -lot- of weapons at Area 54. Weapons of many kinds and many natures.

--------------------

Back at the cabin...

She closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the contact. "Well let me see...where to start, I guess the best place would've been the county fair, last June. I went with Jeff and Becky. You were there, just looking around like you'd never seen a carnival before and..." she laughed slightly. "I guess you hadn't."

Morgan was listening raptly. "Maybe I just didn't have a reason to. Go on."

"We'd already been on all the rides we wanted to," she continued. "Jeff--Becky--wanted some time alone so I--I was supposed to meet them back at the main gate in a couple of hours. I walked back through the midway, to where the games were set up. You were looking at one of those boards where you had to toss a dart at a balloon like...like you'd never seen one before, talking to the guy who ran the booth--who was about to run you off, he thought you were crazy asking 'what is the purpose of this?'" She chuckled. "Just as I walked up, you turned around and saw me--" she paused, remembering. "Though come to think of it...I'm not sure if that -was- the first time *I'd* seen *you*. I remember thinking you looked familiar, couldn't place why though."

"So we ended up saying 'hello' about the same time. I remember thinking you had a foreign accent of some sort--but you lost it pretty quickly, too. I showed you how to play that game, then we went on while I showed you some of the others. We walked to the edge of the grounds--past the last of the trailers there was a stretch of empty field. I wanted to sit down and just look up at the sky for a while--there were a lot of stars out that night, which I could see now that we were away from the midway lights. I wasn't sure you'd want to, we'd only just met. You did, though--in fact it seemed to surprise you that I could actually put names to some of the ones we saw. We started talking about that, then went on from there. You didn't say much about where you were from, just that you hadn't been in the area long. You mentioned an aunt, uncle, though there was always some reason I never could meet them..." she chuckled at that. "There wasn't any, was there?" it wasn't really a question. "We sat there for a while, I told you about my parents, Jeff. We must've lost track of the time, though, because the next thing I know Becky showed up looking for me. Anyway, we said goodbye and I went home. Then three days later, you showed up in Larrabee, said you'd gotten a job sweeping at Sowerby's..."

She stopped, noticing he was just looking at her. Not that she minded, of course--under the circumstances, however..."Does this...*any* of this... sound familiar?"

"Some of it, but my name isn't Jeff ... is it?"

"No. Jeff's my brother, my older brother. He's in the Air Force now, they shipped him off...about a week after that. We all got to the Fair one more time before he left, I remember having a picture taken of the four of us. I--I hope he's all right, the last letter we had from him was a month ago and with the war going on...we keep hearing about all these places getting shelled...Khe Sanh, Da Nang..."

She trailed off as suspicion dawned. "Oh my god. Is that it...could that be what that base was for...the war's going badly and they were trying to find something more than guns and bombs to use?"

"I thought it was a government research facility for various secret projects. I suppose it could have been built for that purpose, but there is no war in that area currently involving US troops. I'm sure about that."

"There *is*," she shook her head. "That's why Jeff's over there. We only had a letter from him last week--it's so hard to get anything through. They started shipping troops into Vietnam last year, Jeff went over a couple of weeks after the Fair in fact."

"All right," he said, yielding more of his certainty to hers. "I suppose it's just something else I'm not remembering right."

Morgan felt the urge to stretch and thought it odd, since his body really didn't need to make the motion. Still looking into the fire and having stopped struggling with his mind, he was quickly relaxing. The atmosphere was calm and he could have almost been happy if it weren't for Melissa's growing tension. He could feel it in her arm as a slight increase in its surface tension.

"I don't think we should talk about this any more tonight. It's upsetting you." Standing, he looked towards the bedroom door. "I'm going to shower, then go to bed. Are you coming?"

"Sure. Though...I don't really feel sleepy. Maybe we don't need to do that either?"

"My body might not, but my mind sure could use some downtime. You know, we're not carbon copies. There are bound to be differences." He smiled briefly. "Besides, who was talking about sleeping?"

"I...oh." she nodded, getting what he meant. "We'd never done that..."

"I do have one question. What do you think today's date is? I saw something in the room I was in, but I might have been mistaken. Too bad there isn't a tele.... Oh. Just a minute."

"You did say, it'd only be a little while. From that I figure it's not been more than a week. When we went to the woods that last time was April 30. April 30, 1966. What's it now...May 8? 9??"

Morgan carefully thought about verifying the date in his mind. The response was almost instantaneous, verified by transmissions from six different satellites.

"Looks like we -both- have a bit of a shock to deal with."

"What do you mean...?"

"It's two days before Christmas. I ... think the rest should wait. If you don't think so, look outside. It's been snowing for about five minutes. Since when does it snow in May?"

A glance out the window confirmed what he'd said. December 23....and the last day she remembered was April 30. Almost eight months while she'd been inside that thing she'd woken up to see melting around her...which, she now realized, must've been a cocoon of some sort. Scott hadn't said exactly -how- he'd change her, only that he could.

"You...you told me 'it'd only be a little while.' I guess it was longer than you'd thought--you did say you hadn't tried this before."

"Time is relative to the observer," Morgan replied.

Eight months... Melissa wondered what was happening now with Jeff, their parents, and everyone else she knew. She'd thought it only a few days, at most a week. She'd thought she'd be able to slip back in long enough to leave them with some explanation, what could she tell them now?

Perhaps once she'd figured out just what had happened to Scott, she'd be able to do that. If he could tap into television channels--maybe there'd be something on the news about how the war was going, or news of some sort about someone she knew, to give her an idea of what had happened to everyone.

For now, though--she glanced in the direction he'd gone, listening to the sounds as he moved around.

Stepping into the kitchen, he found the panel of circuit breakers and turned on the master breaker. The hot water tank began to heat, and the hum of electricity filtered through the house. He not only heard the flow of current, but sensed it in several other ways as well. The compressor inside the small refrigerator kicked on, as did the overhead kitchen light. Outside, an electric water pump began to operate, filling the tanks of the water heater and toilet. Opening the taps, he let the air out of the lines and turned them off again when the sink had filled with enough water.

His clothes had become somewhat bug-stained during their flight, so he stripped and put them into the sink. Bursts of high-frequency sound agitiated them, literally shaking the bugs out He himself had escaped the bug clouds unscathed, but he knew that he always felt better after a good shower. Hanging his clothes on the back porch to dry in the night air, he then walked into the bathroom, still thinking and now very troubled. With a gentler twist than he'd used on the door, Morgan turned on the water and stepped beneath the spray. A scrub brush hung from the nozzle by a nylon cord, and he now held one of those small courtesy bars of soap in his hand, having picked one up from the trio on the bathroom's vanity. There were no towels, but he knew that wouldn't be a problem.

Meanwhile...

Melissa went into the bedroom, then began to turn back the sheets. She'd never spent the night with Scott...that just wasn't something she'd have ever thought of doing before tonight. Now, however, she wanted to.

The subject of sex wasn't entirely new to her, even if she had not yet had any actual experience. She'd read about what people did together, of course, and when reading the textbook stuff in biology class had wondered what it would actually be like. There'd been scenes on TV, watching people kiss and hug in bed, though they never showed what you knew would happen next, just left that to one's imagination. That only made sense, since they were actors, after all.

She also remembered hearing some of the girls at school talk in the bathroom, some of them had 'done it' or they said they had. What they'd described had seemed exciting in a way, yet somehow she'd never had a particularly strong urge to try it herself. She'd never had anything like a steady boyfriend, till Scott had come along, to try it -with-, if she -had- wanted to. Then once he had come along--well, it had never seemed like the right time, that was what really held her back. She had always felt like she'd know when the time was right.

The way she was now...feeling his arm around her, the way it had felt when they'd kissed...was this what he'd felt when he'd kissed her in the park?

As the realization dawned on her, a smile spread across her face. This was the time, she knew that now--her body glowed brilliantly white for a moment, then stood looking down at the bed, still human looking but the clothing was gone. She looked from it to herself, running her hands over her bare skin...then reached for the sheets, wondering what they'd feel like...

She took her time about it, though, enjoying the feel of the linens on her bare skin. Running her fingers across the material it almost seemed as if she could feel each individual part of the weave. She smiled, savoring the sensations. While she knew she was still in the same world she'd been in before, this was at the same time like being in a completely different one. All the colors the physical sensations, she was experiencing now--had they been there all along, without her noticing? She found that hard to believe even though she knew it was only that her old self hadn't been equipped to sense them.

If it was like this touching just the sheets--if just having his arm around her had felt so incredibly wonderful, a sensation she didn't have the words to describe, what would it be like when they were...together? -This- was what he'd really wanted for her, giving her the stars had only been part of it.

* * *

In the shower, Morgan debated with himself on how to tell her what he had learned. He himself had lost ten years, but she had lost just over thirty. The question arose as to what he had been doing during the twenty years she was inside her stony chrysalis. His mind roiled again, beginning to ache as he remembered both being a child and not being one. At the same time, he realized that he had remembered a part of his own 'yesterday'.

::December 22, 1986 I've -got- to hold onto that date.:: At that moment, it seemed one of the most important things in the world. ::What has happened to me?:: he wondered. ::The way she is describing things, I was young enough to be in high school with her. Why do I feel older? It's all so -weird- ... and now there is this thing with time. I just have to put that behind me for now. Concentrate on who I am -now-, but remember that date.::

Immediately, the pain eased with the lessening of conflict. Something made him feel certain that things would get better; that the systems which were healing him had priorities beyond his identity, and that they were themselves impaired by damage.

Scrubbed down and scented with the soap, Morgan walked into the bedroom and saw Melissa looking at him from beneath the covers. His feet made no sound as he walked over and moved into the bed beside her.

"I have to tell you," he said. "I don't remember us doing this before, so if I don't ... act the same way, it's not your fault, it's mine. Just ... tell me what you want."

"We'd never...done this," she whispered back. "So I guess...we've both got something to learn. I...I've heard the girls talk but...I'm not sure where to start...maybe...this?" She leaned close and kissed him, her arms going around his chest.

Morgan felt enervated as they kissed, and he did not know if it was from the emotions, the sensation, or the odd feeling that some of those little imaginary red lights in his mind were slowly turning green. While he was holding her, he didn't hurt as much. Many of the questions he was trying not to think about became much easier to forget.

"I think that is a great way to start," he replied. Letting go of conscious thought, he let the sensations and emotions pull him up into a different level of consciousness.

His hands moved over her skin, not noticing the details, only the sensations he experienced touching her. Briefly, images of her as woman in her twenties surfaced in his thoughts, but were swept aside almost at once. His lips traveled over her body, trailing kisses while his fingers gently massaged her. Again, he did not think of how much strength he used on that supple skin. All he noticed was that it was warm and soft. Whatever humanity still remained in her mind included the parts that generated pleasure and responded to it. When she was in human form she appeared completely human, and Morgan's body seemed very familiar with the female form, as well as how to bring it pleasure.

Closing her eyes, she gave herself completely to the incredible joy as his hands moved over her. A moan slipped out, then, almost as if her body knew what to do, she began caressing him, her fingers exploring the planes of his body even as he explored hers. His chest was well defined, but not bulky like a bodybuilder. He smiled as she touched him, and she became bolder, caressing his face and tracing his lips with the tip of her finger.

His tongue noticed that she did not perspire, but this would not register on his mind until much later that night. He rolled with her, tickling and caressing her curves and planes. Since it was their first time together, he wanted to make it as memorable as he could. It seemed that in his evolution of his memory, only the strong ones survived, the rest drowning and dissolving in a sea of doubt and forgetfulness.

Even as he searched Melissa's eyes for whatever lay behind them, the memories of red hair and snow continued to resurface from that dissolving sea, struggling to be rescued and remembered rather than forgotten. The more he stopped thinking, the gentler the bedlam of his memory became.

The things she'd remembered hearing from school tumbled through her mind, then vanished as the ecstasy of their contact almost overwhelmed her. No ordinary human could ever possibly feel this good, somehow she knew that.

His body knew when their moment arrived. All that remained was for her to seize that moment and make it theirs. The world seemed to stop around them as he looked at her. The moment seemed charged with tenderness and a sense of wonder. He knew that he still had the capacity for love, even though it could not be quantified or defined. They had passed beyond the point of words. This moment would shape the rest of their future together, and he looked into her eyes to see what form it would take.

Her wide dark eyes gazed wordlessly into his, her lips trembling though no sound came out. His touch had brought every inch of her skin tingling in a way she hadn't ever imagined was possible--somehow she knew it was far beyond the reach of anyone other than the two of them.

A slight moan slipped out as she clung to him--her eyes shining with sheer joy and ecstasy as she felt the currents flowing within her strange new body, which was rapidly becoming not so strange.

*This* was the moment--she saw it in his eyes, felt it within herself and from him, too, through every place where her body pressed against his... she seized that rising current and let it take her, take both of them, where it would...there was no thought here, only feeling as they came together.

Melissa's body was warm and welcoming as their bodies joined. There was a slight resistance and a brief tensing in anticipation, then the moment crested, and they truly became lovers. The sensation of being this close, this intimate, was unlike anything he could recall. Every movement nearly made his body tremble, and he had the simultaneous feeling of being experienced but also neophytic in this delicious realm of sharing.

Morgan didn't know how long they made love, and he didn't really care. His body was sending him every indicator that this was the thing to be doing, lighting his mind up with delight he hoped would never end. The sounds Melissa made, both loud and soft, were like music in his ears, adding to his pleasure because he knew that she was enjoying every moment just as much as he was.

The more she clung to him, letting the waves of feeling carry them both where they would, to crest after crest, the more she could feel something rising inside her, from somewhere deep within. Her pleasure continued to mount as their bodies moved. His chest rubbed against hers, and she could amost imagine sparks of delight flying through the air. Every kiss was full and sweet, leaving her glad that she did not -have- to breathe.

The energies she had felt within her from the moment she'd first awakened in the lab were surging with each moment she and Scott came together. Each time a little more, she could feel it, but she didn't care. All that mattered right now was the feel of their bodies pressing together, of touching him everywhere she could even as he touched her. Explosions of light flashed in her vision, becoming almost continuous as they became brighter and brighter.

Another moment of oneness came, then another, and then another and with each that feeling of power came ever stronger. The word 'orgasm' did not come close to describing what he was evoking in her. Again and again, his touch sent burst of delight racing through her body. The surges of power within her urged her onward to greater heights of pleasure, and Morgan was rising right along with her. She had never even imagined that being with him would be this good. No longer able to see, she felt a powerful surge welling up from what might have been the core of her soul.

She reached for him, pressing her lips to his even as the moment came again. This time as they touched, the energy burst from her, enveloping both of them for a moment in a glowing whiteness. Morgan's body stiffened, and his skin changed from its human appearance to a deep black which was swallowed up in the brilliance they had created. Energy poured from her body with an explosive flare, as if a gate had been flung open wide.

As Melissa gave him energy, Morgan gave her something in return. His arms held her tightly and her legs wrapped around his waist as they held each other. She could feel the warmth of him inside her, suffusing her and blending with her own. It was a lulling warmth, and she settled against him as her eyelids drooped. As the light faded enough for her to see again, she saw Morgan's eyes looking into hers, as if trying to convey a feeling just through his gaze. She knew the feeling even if she could not name it, for she shared it. It was warmth and joy, combined with a deep satisfaction and a sense of wholeness. Some might have called it love, but she wondered if it might be beyond even that.

His lips continued to graze against hers, and she felt his body relaxing even as hers did the same. Neither of them moved to break their joining or them embrace. They remained just as they were, sharing a kiss as they both drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Morgan's eyes opened and Melissa's opened just a fraction of a second later. He felt different. His body had made a number of adjustments while he had slept. Melissa was still nestled in his embrace, and he was not really in any kind of hurry to part.

"I feel -much- better," he said. "I think that we should not quite go so far again ... at least, not indoors." Rolling her beneath him, he kissed her nose, then her lips, savoring that sensation. "I could .... what time -is- it, anyway?"

When he checked the clocks of the satellites hanging over the earth, his jaw dropped. He blinked for several seconds, just looking into her eyes.

"Merry Christmas," he said. Nuzzling her cheek, he thought that he could just as easily spend a year in her arms as two days. "I never imagined it would be like -that-." Kissing her ear, he whispered. "To think that it will only get better..."

More minutes passed, as the lovers engaged in a little light play. Soon, both were laughing wildly, rolling around with abandon. They made love again, but more mindfully this time, stopping long before there was danger of another major lightshow. Still, they both felt wonderful.

"It seems like we have to be careful about nearly everything we do."

Morgan was lying on his back with Melissa resting on his chest. His hands moved up and down the length of her spine in a casual caress. Moving to sit up with his back against the wall, Melissa turned and sat down on his lap. His arms went around her waist, and they sat together with his chest against her back.

Soft kisses soon trailed across her shoulders. "I do have some bad news. I only learned it recently. It isn't about -us-. It's about the rest of the world. It's important to stay calm. We're having a very good day so far. Promise me you won't spoil our first Christmas together."

She pulled away from his kisses, so that she could turn to look directly at him--something in the tone of his voice unnerved her. "What...is it...?"

"Promise first," he said.

She stared at him for a long moment, then slowly nodded. "All right. I...I promise..." wondering as she said it what she was agreeing to, hoping she wouldn't regret it.

Around her waist, his hand became just a little tighter. "Melissa ... it's Christmas Day ... of 1996."

Her mouth dropped open, she stared uncomprehending. "*What*...?" finally emerged in a tiny squeak.

Gently, he helped her turn so that they could look into each other's eyes. He raised his knees behind her While their position might have been erotic before, it was just convenient now. "It's true. I've accessed several outside sources, and they all say the same. Just ... stay calm. Panic won't turn back the clock. Believe me, I'm just as upset as you are."

"But that--that can't be. How could I have...*thirty years*?!?" she shook her head. "Mom--Dad--Jeff...*thirty years*..what happened?" She stared at him, her mind clutching at straws. "That bomb must have--that's it. That bomb must have scrambled your time sense or something. You're not receiving correctly, you can't be. How could I have...slept...that long? Where...where were you...?"

"Disabled, I think. As for you ... I just don't have any ready answers. If you like, we can go pick up a newspaper or something, since you've stopped believing me."

She reached up, placing a hand on his cheek. "I....It's not that I...don't believe you...I'm sorry if it...sounded like that." Forcing herself to speak calmly, she continued. "I'm just--trying to make sense of it...thirty years..." She met his eyes. "Isn't there--anything--you remember?"

Morgan spoke gently, keeping his feeling in check. "Melissa, picture my memory as a broken mirror. I'm still trying to fit the pieces together, and in the meantime everything is flipped around and reflected. It's -hard- to remember things. Moving those memories around is just like a normal person handling broken glass. It cuts, and it hurts like hell."

Closing his eyes, he put his hand on hers and rubbed it. "I remember space, and looking down on Earth. I also remember rising -from- the Earth, back into space. I remember soldiers, and explosions. I remember the lab I was in, and finding you. There was a vortex behind me. Some kind of aperture that was pouring out energy, but it was not ... from this space?"

He stared at her, letting his eyes travel over her body as he tried to distract himself from the pain of remembering. "It was the same kind of energy that you used to blow a hole in that grating. Remember ... it was drawn to me. Just like that ... last flareup when we were making love. Maybe that vortex had something to do with it. There was a tape ... they were testing some new kind of bomb."

Splinters of memory-glass fused together, making connections. "Mellissa I was not bombed just once ... they did it to me -twice-." His eyes widened. "I think they were ... trying to kill me. Maybe they knew that I wasn't who I said I was, and they lured me into the bomb chamber."

He took a long look at Melissa, she was his only relief from the pain of his memory. It was all he could do to stop himself from drawing her close and holding her tightly. He was becoming unglued. The signs were all there. There were so many conflicting memories, he didn't know which way was up anymore.

"I was Morgan Parafaith then. When they called me ... they called me that. How did I come to be him? He had never gone into space, although he'd wanted to. Were they testing me?" Alarms began to sound in his mind, indicating that he was hurting himself by trying to remember too much. "No ... it was a test of some kind. I wasn't being tested ... I was ... testing something. Something else."

Suddenly, Morgan gasped, and Melissa could feel the tremble which passed through his body. In its own way it was very stimulating, as his body rubbed against hers.

"What I am .... I wasn't always. I've been ... combined ... -fused- with .... -something. Both damaged ... fused to survive ... trying to heal and live. I made you into what I ... was ... but I'm not..." His voice faded, as the pain became blinding. "I'm not like that anymore."

Her emotions were pulling her several different directions at once. Part of her wanted to fly off to Larrabee right now to find out what had happened to everyone...thirty *years*? She'd be lucky to find anything recognizable...or anyone. Her parents...Jeff... Good God, what must they have thought about what happened to her?

There was Scott--Morgan--Jessaryn--whatever he called himself, though. She couldn't, *wouldn't*, go back on her promise to help him through this-- even if she had no idea how she was going to do that--she somehow didn't think her going back to Larrabee would help him.

Pulling him close against her, she held tightly. "I don't care how long it takes..." she whispered. "I'm staying right here with you till--till the pieces -are- back together, as much as they can be. We'll find out what we need to know--some other way, if you don't remember it."

"Who would know? I'm the only one like me on this planet, and I'm not going to go home again." He sank down onto the bed, wanting nothing more than to draw the covers over them, but he knew he had to deal with what was happening, rather than run from it.

"Some protector I turned out to be," he said. Rolling in the bed, he looked down into Melissa's eyes. "I was supposed to take care of -you-. You were a normal human once, with a family and friends. Now all of that is probably... changed. I guess you could say I destroyed your life as my own has been destroyed." Softly, he kissed her on the forehead, then again on the lips.. "Part of you must hate me for doing this to you. I want you to know that if I could do -anything- to change what has happened, I would." "I...I couldn't hate you," she whispered softly, gazing into his eyes. "Even if I wanted to..." her hand tightened on his. "You wanted me to come with you--I, I wanted that, too, Scott. So if you want to blame someone blame me. I *asked* you to do this...." She shook her head. "I'd no idea it'd take thirty years, though...I guess 'a while' could mean just about anything."

"I don't think it was supposed to take that long ... but the memory is really mangled. I remember eagerness to the point of glee. To have someone like me, yet here we are, still different."

The feeling of his skin aginst hers made his body want hers again. He resisted the urge and stood from the bed. "Just tell me ... how I can make it up to you, Melissa? I'll do anything to prove myself to you." Turning towards her, he looked at her soft skin and longed to hold her and keep holding her. "Just name it."

"Darling Melissa ..." He drew her near and held her. "As long as you'll have me." Morgan kissed her then, making a silent promise both to her and to himself.

He felt better after the kiss, but stepped away as his desire made itself known, almost brushing against her. "You make my body crazy for you, Melissa. Even with everything that's happened .... I must seem like a real lecher. With us both standing here like this ... I could make love with you until New Year's."

He dressed quickly in his borrowed clothes. "I know we have other places to go, if only to find out the truth about what's become of your family. Maybe something there will help me remember more, but I know I won't ever forget what we've done here."

"I won't either." she replied gently. "You never told me it -could- be like this, not in so many words anyway...but you did promise we'd be together. I'm going to hold you to that." she smiled for a moment, then it faded as she thought of the home and family she'd lost to the years. "Where--where do you think we should start...my parents? the fairgrounds, Sowerby's.." she closed her eyes for a moment... "Or I could take you to...to the clearing where--where you--did this."

Glowing brilliantly white for a moment, she changed back into the clothes she'd been wearing before, including the long bead string necklace. "I don't even know--what we can tell everyone. I...I hadn't planned on, on telling them--who you really were, back then..."

"We still can't ... who I 'really' am is still in question. You -could- try looking like someone else. Showing up as yourself might not be a prudent idea, and we'll be able to avoid a lot of questions that way. As to where to go ... right now one place is as good as another to me, as long as you're there."

Morgan thought about his memories, as Melissa talked about visiting her parents. "I had parents. That is, Morgan had them. I remember bases, but not a house." He looked around at the disheveled bedroom. "I suppose we should clean up a bit. It's funny that no one noticed us being here, don't you think?"

The more he looked at the rumpled bedsheets, the more his brain seemed to itch. In that small spot where there should have been blood, there was something which scanned more like plasma.

"Red and snowflakes," he said. "Why does that keep coming up in my head? It seems so ... important, somehow."

"I wonder if anyone is going to come looking for us? I did see some kind of escape tunnel leading west, and there were shelters underground. I remember seeing them, too. People might still be alive back there."

"With sixteen of those things going off? I don't know anything about bombs but they said the two in '45 were bad enough. Sixteen like that.." she shook her head.

Morgan thought that it was worth looking, but she seemed against it, and she was more 'together' than he was. The emergency shelters might still be intact, and that hot zone was going to be hot for a lot longer than any of the designers had planned.

"Besides...if I show you the places I talked about--maybe it'll help you put some of the pieces together."

Morgan only nodded and said, "Maybe."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

But wait, there's

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