After the grilling months training, the young agents, Jessie and Mary, were grateful for a vacation, but a sense of doom rested uneasily in Jessie's mind. The ship that they were travelling in was modern but not quite luxurious. It hardly mattered though. Of course, the island that they were heading was some unknown place near the equator in the Pacific.(something like the island from The Beach) It should be a nice comfortable trip.

Twelve hours into the trip, Jessie and Mary got called into the captain's office. They were surprised and curious, but being good agents said nothing. The captain did not look friendly, but resembled the drill sergeants at their training camp.

The captain said, "Good evening, Jessica, Mary. I have the misfortune to tell you that this is not a vacation that you won, but a mission." The captain did not allow either Jessie or Mary to answer, and continued to describe the island that they must penetrate. They were told that this was a colony of hostile foreigners gather to attack United States and that they were building weapons for that purpose. Jessie and Mary must determine the exact location and plan a way to destroy it.

Still dazed, they went back to their room and found that their weapons and tools were all prepared for them. They were going to be dropped off in a few hours, so they slept for the rest of the night.

At dawn, they were given the last of the instructions and dumped overboard.

Mary and Jessie weren't very good swimmers, and it was surprising that they made it to the island at all. They hadn't been able to see their destination until the very last minute as they crossed through some kind of cloaking force field. (like in Star Trek) Then like a mirage, the island appeared in front of them.

As they climbed out of the salty ocean, they opened their back packs and changed. They began a careful trek through the island's jungle and almost a day passed before they finally found the edge of a cement wall. The seven-story high wall seemed to stretch forever, but they decided to follow it anyway.

At some point, the foliage dropped off, and an open field opened in front of the wall, and they wondered how was this huge island kept so well hidden.(like in Futurama, episode of the robot world) Finally, they reached the front door which were equally tall and seemed to be twenty meters wide. They were made of some unknown alloy that their detectors could not identify. They would have tried to climb over the wall, if it wasn't so very high, so instead, they retreated back to the foliage and hid in wait of the morning.

Morning in the beautiful forest was enchanting, certainly for Jessie. But instead of enjoying the beauty around them, Mary was looking intently at the door barely visible at their distance. Finally around noon, Mary saw movement. They weren't certain how to approach, but they thought there was nothing to lose and just wondered over.

There were many people outside, all seem to be gathering things from the forest and returning them to the fort(what Mary and Jessie decided to call the place.) Surprisingly, everyone minded their own business and didn't notice them at all. Jessie was grateful that their strange trekking suits matched what the local inhabitants were wearing.

As they turned to face the opening of the doors, they saw a huge valley, with every kind of structures imaginable. (like in Wild Wild West when they saw the crazy guys's kidden valley.)The technology look far more advanced compared to our own backward society. They looked for a long time and finally decided to try getting inside.

To their utter surprise, they just walked on premises without obstacle, and they breathed a sigh of relief.

The society they encountered was surprisingly well organized. It was like everyone had their own mind, except their individual purposes never conflicted with anyone else's. They represented every race, yet they lacked any kind of cultural difference. Mary thought it was fascinating and Utopian. Jessie, more cynical, knew that there was something wrong with this little world.

It happened afternoon when they saw a group of their friends, or at least people they thought were their friends. The group of young people were all workers in one of the factories, and they were heading home contently, when they say Mary and Jessie, they even said hi.

Mary was tempted to say hi back, but Jessie squeezed Mary's hand and just smiled back at the group.

"Mary, that wasn't our friends." Jessie said.

"What do you mean? They look just like our gang at the camp. Maybe they were sent in to help us."

"No! There is something wrong. Let's go."

Mary remained unconvinced, but Jessie saw no way of explaining her intuition. By dusk, however, Jessie had a revelation.

"Mary, I know who they were. They are our friends' counterparts in this world," Jessie shook Mary's hand really hard as she explained excitedly, "and similarly, we have counterparts. It was just by luck that our doubles weren't with them. Do you realize what that means? They are workers in the factories. It's possible our doubles are workers, too."

"But, Jessie, well..."

Jessie cut Mary off and continued her train of thought out loud, "We have to retrace our steps and find the spot where we met them. If we can pick up their residual molecules, we might be able to trace which plant they come from."

Tugging Mary along, Jessie raced back through the maze of boring cement houses as they retraced their steps. Jessie retrieved her auto-detector. She frowned at the results. She could only find two sets of unique expiration patterns, meaning they were from Mary and herself. So were these people they met mirages?

Meanwhile, Mary had dug out her own detector and suddenly exclaimed, "I get it. Look Jessie, there were five of them, and there are five expiration patterns. Except these patterns contain a high concentration of silicon dioxide. That's strange. I mean what would cause a reaction like that."

Jessie caught Mary's hand and said, "Shhhh. I think I know. Oh, my god, our government is wrong. These aren't unhappy foreigners, these are aliens, or life forms of another species."

"Huh?"

"Remember silicon life forms, species of life with silicon as their basic unit. They would be very similar to us just as silicon is very similar to carbon. It strange that their development so closely match our own though." Jessie explained. (Note: silicon life forms are considered impossible because the temperature at wich silicon dioxide is gas, the temperature would be so high that other silicon based molecules cannot hold a stable form.)

"We have to warn our people." Mary exclaimed.

"No, we need information. We are going to pretend to be our counterparts and go to work right now. Can you pick up those doubles' trail?"

"Yes sure. Here." Mary and Jessie headed to the factory. They didn't sign in but told the night watcher that they were there to do some work that wasn't finished during the day. The night watcher was kind and completely trusted their explanations that they had slacked during the day and must finish their assignment at night.

In silene, they looked around for hours, before Mary said, "So what do you think these components are for?"

Jessie shrugged, "I don't know!"

"So, what are we going do?"

"Well, let's get out of here before our doubles show up."

They left smiling to the door keeper who was eating something that looked like glass chips. Jessie gave Mary a see-what-I-mean look. Mary shrugged.

There were many pipes that lead out of this factory, and Jessie pointed to one of them, and they walked along the pipes until they reached the end of the island. They were surprised that on this end, the Silican's (what they dubbed the inhabitants by now) were brave enough to build right onto the edge of the island.

"They know of our existance, right?" Mary asked.

"I sure hope not."

"No, I mean, do they know there are carbon-based people out there?"

Jessie thought for a while as she looked out at the ocean. God this was a freaky assignment. All of her sci-fi reading hadn't prepared her for this, but she answered anyway, "I think they know, why else would they use cloaking sheild. God can you imagine how many years they have been here? Silican!"

Mary shook her head and wondered how she would report what she has discovered. It would sound like a fantasy story, and unless they take a sample, they would have no way of corraborating their story.

Jessie and Mary wondered along the cliff that fell off sharply into the ocean. Jessie looked at the way Mary's hair blew into Mary's eyes, and wondered why her own hair was so good and remained in a ponytail. She tugged the rubberband out and her hair flowed like willow branches in the a gentle spring breeze.

Like out of some crazy romance movie, Jessie saw a young man out of the corner of her eyes. He stood on the veranda and looked directly at her. Jessie smile, and self-consciously pushed her hair out of the way. She was vaguely aware that Mary was walking ahead, yet something kept Jessie back and she looked at the young man on the veranda again.

He was walking towards her by way of a convenient staircase at the end of the veranda. He jogged over. His shiny, brown hair bounced in the wind. He waved at her, smiled, and finally when he was close enough, he said, "You know, this is very dangerous. These cliffs aren't stable."

Ahhhh, he cares. Jessie thought. She didn't answer but looked deeply into his golden brown eyes and sighed dreamily.

He laughingly said, "Let me guess, you think I am an idiot to worry about you. Right? You probably walk around here all the time."

"No, no, I'm just... arghh.." Jessie looked over to Mary who was a long, long way off, "well, strolling with a friend."

"I can see that." He said. "Come on, let's catch up with her."

It seemed so natural to walk side by side with him and instead of running to catch up with Mary, they strolled in the rising sun and felt a content belonging. Jessie felt at last right. She walked slower and slower in hope that their walk could be lengthened.

Suddenly, Jessie saw a dove and she smiled. It must be a sign that they were meant to bring peace to their people, to establish contact of sort.

Jessie smiled and didn't notice that the path along the beach turned abruptly away from the cliff, and she almost walked right off the cliff. But he caught her hand just in time, she looked back, feeling rather foolish. They continued after Mary who was way ahead of them by now.

"So you are a worker, right?" He asked.

"Ahh, yes." Jessie hesitated.

"Oh. You just seem smarter than that. Will you aspire to improve?"

"I guess so. We should all try to improve."

He shot her a funny look and then smiled, "Well, that's good. Then at least we'd have a chance at a future."

Jessie almost laughed out loud. A future? What future? She was carbon-based life form while he was silicon-based. There was no future for them. It's not like they could exactly marry and have children. At that thought, she suddenly froze. This could be the guy she has been looking for, and they can't ever be together.

In her sudden agitation, she blurted out, "Look, I have to tell you something. I am not who you think. I am a carbon-based."

He dropped her hand as though she shocked him.

"What? How did you get in?" His confusion was so plain, but then suddenly, his confusion cleared and a purposeful determination replaced his confusion.

"You got to leave. Now!" He told Jessie.

"You don't understand, I can't, I have to stay here and finish my investigation." Jessie answered.

"Your lives are in danger. Don't you see, us silicon-based people transmit our thoughts like radio-waves to a central processing unit. It doesn't control us, but it hears all of our thoughts and predetermines if we would be dangerous to ourselves or other people.

"When you told me that you are carbane, this information has already been transmitted to the CPU. Get out of here before they get here and capture you." He said as he pushed her towards Mary who had heard the last part of the conversation and was already starting to run towards the big iron doors.

"But, I .. I..." Jessie never got to say anything before she saw a group of running people dressed in uniform racing towards them.

"Run!" He told Jessie again, "I am important enough that they would not harm me. Just go. I will handle it."

At that, Jessie pulled out her gun and began to race after Mary who was already at the closing front gates. Mary waved frantically at Jessie and began to pick off the soldiers chasing Jessie.

As Jessie reached the front door, they were closing, and the doors were conducting high voltage electricity. Blue zig zag's of electrons jumped from the left to the right, and Jessie despaired at leaving alive.

"Mary, leave without me. I don't stand a chance."

"No, come on, climb under."

Suddenly, the electricity was turned off, and as Jessie squeezed through the closing doors, she had enough time to turn back to see the man she had been talking to be being arrested. An insulating helmet was put on his head. He looked like he was in great pain. Before Jessie could try to help him, the electron flow between doors started again. Mary pulled Jessie and they began racing into the foliage for cover.

When they arrived at the shore, they were surprised to find their cruise ship waiting for them. How did they know that Mary and Jessie were in trouble? Nevertheless, Mary and Jessie climbed on board. They were send to a "rest room".

It was a decontamination room, where they were forced to sit in some sort of muddy-looking solution for the duration of their trip.

When they were released from the ship, they were already back at their headquarter. The headquarter was a huge warehouse, mostly containing high-tech weapons. It was disguised as an import/export company. Mary went in to make the report.

Jessie was far too emotionally unstable to talk about the incident, let alone report on it. She wondered through aisles after aisles of wooden crates. At the far back of the huge hangar, she saw two rows of marchandise all marked with the same pink mark. She was drawn to it for some reason.

Upon closer inspection, she realized the name of the island she just returned from was intricately twisted into the pattern of the flower. Shocked, she began to open some of the crates, and saw electronic components and bills that stated the United States was importing these components.

From the date on some of the crate, she realized that United States have been doing business with Silicans for years. She ran into the office where Mary was making her report.

The room full of executive-looking officials looked up at her. They were startled and even more so when she dropped a handful of silicon chips on the table.

"You lied to us! You knew them, and knew exactly what they were." Jessie accused. A man not sitting at the oval table, but sat half-hidden in the corner stood up and said, "Very well done. You have found us out. You are right. We have know about the them for a long time. In fact we have been doing business with them for a long time as well. But we were never allowed to visit their island.

"Now, they have become dangerous. We needed you to give us details of their society and their city. With the information about their CPU, we will be able to fire a strong shot to their CPU and turn their society into chaos and complete this mission." He finished talking and sat back down.

Jessie was agitated and almost didn't notice that the man was reaching for a gun hidden under the arm rest of his chair. Nevertheless, she was only shot in the shoulder and she rolled out of the room.

She now had a purpose and ran towards her destiny.