CHAPTER 18


   Dee pounded her fist on the fold out table. "I don't care what any of you say. I see it now. Jerry was trying to commit suicide. Pete is clear because of all kinds of reasons. Nobody else in the group even comes close to fitting the bill here. That leaves Gary! We can't account for his whereabouts’ in the desert at all. He probably got Julia sold off just like what almost happened to me."

Harry responded, "what about the whip marks on his back?"

Dee stood up and stomped around the tent, "maybe he lost at that game he was talking about. You know the one they almost played on me! He knew more about this planet than I did. He's got a lame excuse for not telling me. He was close to the only people who could have planted that bomb. It's him! We need to hunt that bastard down and swing him by his balls!"

Vitosk was rocking back in the chair, "are you finished Doctor Brewer?"

Dee turned on him. She felt like turning on every man in sight right now. She hated this place. Dee had never harbored anything close to what she thought were radical feminist tendencies but, that had all changed now, oh boy, you bet you. She never liked guns before coming here either. Now she was planning on pushing for a law back home making it mandatory for women to carry them at all times! That was assuming she ever left this accursed little planet and what it passed off as civilized behavior.  

"That's easy for you to say Vitosk. You're a man!"

"I applaud your observation skills Dee, but that is my personal business," replied Vitosk. "Now if you are finished, then, maybe, we can get down to something more productive. I would like to point out for a second that we have a multitude of problems confronting us at the moment. We are still all in mortal danger. A bullet in the back of the head is not as painful as many slashes from a blade but, you will still be just as dead."

Dee felt a sudden surge of logic. "I hate you when you're right!"

Jack shook his head as Dee sat back down beside him. "All right Yurgani, what have you got here?"

Vitosk stood from his chair. He had both computer screens pointing towards the chairs that he had arranged for his comrades. "First, I would like you all to bear with me on this. I realize that for the most part we are all scientists and, as such, we generally require a great deal more proof than the average person. I don't have it. I only have some basic theories. Well, the beginnings of theories really. Just keep in mind we are not trying to establish a scientific principle here. We are, in fact, trying to save lives, ourselves included."

Everyone shook heads in basic agreement so Vitosk went on.  "First, as current information dictates, our saboteur is alive and well, almost without a doubt. That is the first part of the question solved. The second is that this information that we now have is directly connected with the gene that Doctor Brewer and I found in the cave. I have discovered something of what the gene does. Since part of this gene renders a person sterile our saboteur has no children. That would, of course, eliminate our two couples that have procreated since our arrival."

Dee looked at Jack very strangely. Then she looked at Vitosk, "Well I guess you're saying that it clears you too since you had a kid. That only leaves me, Jack, and Gary. I think you said at one time you trusted us so that leaves us right back at Gary."

Jack shook his head, "what does this gene have to do with our spy?"

"Bare with me please," Vitosk got back on track. "It is more to the point, what does our spy have to do with that gene. We are also not looking for a spy, or a government agent, or anything as such. You see we did indeed have a spy on board but the man is now dead, and did not kill Larry, or kidnap Julia."

Vitosk pointed to the second computer with the ships diagram on it.  "According to the information that Doctor Brewer found, the bomb was planted on the outside of the machine shop module, just past the air lock there. It took me a while to figure that part out, why it kept sending alarms through my head. It was the same place that Jerry was tampering with the airlock."

"He was trying to kill himself Vitosk," replied Dee, "I would to if I had killed all those people like he did."

Vitosk nodded, "I originally thought so as well. Only if that were true he somehow coincidentally was doing it at the same airlock the bomb was at. It would have made more sense for him to kill himself in so many other number of ways. Why go to all the trouble of by passing the security system, the double locks, and all of the safety features when he could have just taken some pills?"

Saiid shrugged, "so what? The guy was just strange. You knew him better than the rest of us. You should know that."

"Yes I did," replied Vitosk  "Which is why his death always puzzled me so. An act of suicide is taking the easy way out. Those who choose to do so usually do not pick the hardest method. Reasoning that, you would think that if they liked easy paths then they would never go to so much trouble."

"So what was he doing," asked Jack, "launching the bomb?"

"No, the bomb was already launched before Pam discovered him working. He would have had no reason to still be there if this was the case. Also, if he knew the bomb was going to destroy the ship why try and save Julia's life? No, I think Jerry was trying to stop the bomb from going off. He was not trying to open the air lock. He was trying to get behind the panel and cut the relay circuits in the bulkhead. The detonation command was transmitted through those circuits from our own ship."

Harry was confused, "Well if he was trying to stop it..."

Dee cut him off, "then he wasn’t the spy. It's Gary!"

Vitosk groaned.  "Doctor Brewer, I never seriously looked at Gary as our spy. You see while most spies are intelligent people acting stupid, Gary is just the reverse. Working with him as I did on solving the local languages I quickly came to realize that his Nobel Prize winning techniques in the art of language study were far from his own. I knew them better than he did. What Gary is good at doing is getting other people to do his work for him and then take credit. Not a likely saboteur, or at least not a successful one."

"Go on Vitosk," said Jack clapping his hand over Dee's mouth.

"Jerry probably had a change of heart at some point. Either he did not want to die himself or maybe he felt that he could redeem himself by saving all of us. It is clear that he was a plant of some sort. Obviously so, because he knew about the bomb before any of us. Next, that brings us to the cave gene. I think I should explain it a little. At least what we know of it at this point."

Vitosk sat down at the computer and everyone gathered behind him for a closer look. "This Gene, or at least part of it rests in the entire human population. The reason why we could not get it to work was because that it would only become activated if certain environmental conditions were met. The first being that it only becomes dominate in a specific branch of humanity. On Earth that would be the people we have come to call Jews. The descendants of Israel in particular. Here it would be an almost extinct race of midgets that are just barely surviving in the high mountains of Jumani."

Harry watched the simulations on the computer screen running, "So what does it do Vitosk?"

"When activated, it quite literally turns on the entire brain. The person who has it would grow up having almost unlimited powers of thinking, calculation, memory, maybe even racial memories. In other words, wisdom beyond the ages. If the man known as Jesus Christ was indeed the recipient of the benefits of this gene then it would unlock other powers as well. That is if you believe the accounts in the bible as truthful tales of his miracles."

"Yes," Saiid blurted out quite flatly.

"The reason why I believe that Jesus is involved is," Vitosk went on, "that he and the local prophet ZeDollas were born on the exact same day. That is by my best calculations. They both displayed godlike powers, had wisdom beyond that of any man, and talked of the same values. Unfortunately, I believe that it was only part of what they had to say. Jesus was killed, and his followers either did not get the story right, or as time went on, most of what he said was forgotten or misunderstood. Here ZeDollas' message was taken to a cave and left on it's walls. Again, unfortunately there is no one left alive at present date that can read most of it."

"I think I'm following you Vitosk, but what..." Asked Jack.

"I'm getting there Jack. Now, since we know the dates of the activation of this gene on both Earth, and here..."

Harry jumped in, "We can easily calculate when it will activate again! Holy... Ho... we know when the second coming is! The revelations all that stuff. I always just thought..."

"It already has happened," said Vitosk.  "Several times over I'm afraid to say." Vitosk brought up another screen. A series of dates were displayed on the screen, "The gene seems to become dominant in one or two individuals in an almost random pattern. It has occurred several times since the year four B.C. That being the year of birth for both ZeDollas and Jesus Christ. I am sure there is a pattern in the gene's activation, but it is a very complex one. The days of the month and particular years are completely random and never the same, at least by our calendar."

Dee ran her fingers over the screen, "I agree but it looks like it occurs every two thousand years without fail even if the rest of the dates don‘t fit in. We need a good computer that can work with chaos theory to figure out the pattern."

Jack browsed the dates, "So what does it mean when this gene activates?"

"What it means," said Harry, "is you get a very exceptional individual with almost magic like powers every time that thing goes off. I mean you would be border line calling the person a human being. Kind of like, let's say mules. You breed a donkey and a horse and you get a different creature, the mule. Only up until recent times it was sterile which this gene definitely does to whoever is born with it."

Jack looked over the dates. He was trying to run through his scant memory of history class. "Vitosk I don't remember us having a Jesus Christ showing up more than once."

Saiid pointed at the screen, "That date looks familiar. I just can't remember why?"

"Yes," said Vitosk, "being Russian I also recognized it."

"April twentieth, eighteen eighty-nine," said Jack reading off the screen, "I don't remember any famous Jews showing up around then. I also can't remember many famous Jews since Jesus. None that could walk on water anyway."

Vitosk nodded in agreement, "Well that brings me to the next part of it. You have to remember that history generally only records the side of the winners. The Jewish people, on a whole, since until most recently were a subjugated people in many lands. For a person to make history, even with such power as this, an opportunity would first have to exist. Then people would have to want to remember. A good deal of these exceptional people probably never left their mark because they never had the chance, or they were unsuccessful at their attempt. That is of course assuming that they wanted to change the course of the world in the first place. Some very well might not have chosen to."

Vitosk pointed at the date. "When I discovered the significance of this date, that is when I discovered the dark side of this gene. It also in some way goes to explaining where it came from and why relations between the sexes have been generally poor on Earth and extremely poor here. You see the Hebrew people were said to have received instructions from god that were both exact in nature, and enforceable by death. This included breeding habits. Very strict, in which the actual birth giver, the female, actually became property of a sort. On Earth this would be by monogamous relationships in which most of the world practices now. All of which are a direct result of following the original Jewish traditions."

Harry began jumping up and down, "of course! Control the birthing, and you keep the activation of the gene in its intended population group! Two points woosh!"

"Now wait a minute here," said Dee, "are you saying that God came down, planted this sucker, and then said go ye forth and enslave your women?"

Vitosk shrugged, "I cannot tell you who. I can say that when Harry and I began diving into this gene in earnest, little doubt formed in our mind that it was artificial in creation. I now believe it was intended as some kind of gift to the human race maybe. No way to really be certain, I cannot possibly fathom any other reason. Every now and then it would activate to advance us along, these sign posts, guides if you will, are born to keep us on the right path."

"So what's the bad news here Yurgani?" asked Jack

"That date there, twenty April, eighteen eighty nine. You see there is an unknown type of chemical, a buffer if you will, that protects the conscious mind from being bombarded by large amounts of data all at once. The mutation models I developed showed that the buffer was not as strong in some cases, non-existent in others. In the cases of it not being there the individual would probably die soon after birth. The damage that the strong impulses of the brain would cause, without the buffer, differs as you decrease the buffer from the full strength produced by the pure gene. It could produce effects from madness, to psychosis, even split personalities are possible. Also there is the problem that the mutated gene will not give the person the full benefits in other areas. Jesus was probably the last one that had that."

Harry snapped his fingers, "Yeah, the Romans scattered the Jews to the four corners of their empire not to long after Jesus. They started breeding with others on a far larger scale after that. The environmental activators would have gotten into the European population."

Dee thought about it, "That very well might explain how Europe got so far ahead of the rest of the world."

"Possibly, but that ground I will leave for some historian to dwell on later," replied Vitosk. "Right now let me tell you what this date is."

Jack had his arms crossed, "I've been waiting Yurgani."

"It's Adolph Hitler’s birthday."


_____________________





The fires still cracked and rumbled through Tallos even as the pops of discharging small arms had all but ceased. Chreelana had given up her battle when she escaped from the burning armory right before it exploded. She had took the first dress that she could find and changed into it since the area that she was in was crawling with enemy soldiers. She had been nothing but wandering ever since. She had given up looking for her own army since it was becoming increasingly clear that it no longer existed.

Hordes of civilians were wandering around in the chaos so Chree found herself fitting right in. Her plan had gone in the blink of an eye from one of triumphant acts to that of simple survival. She hit upon a new course and that was to slowly work her way out of the city. If she could make it make it past the gates then she might have a shot at escaping for good.

What happened after that, if she made it, seemed like an unrealistic dream that could never happen. She would be going back to her homeland and finding her father. In days past, Chreelana would have never dared to go for the impossible. It was always so unimaginably high. Now, even in the wake of defeat, she knew that it was not. Chreelana had learned the most important lesson in life. The only thing stopping her was ultimately her own mind. That one conquest was a victory even in the wake of military defeat and it could not be taken from her.

She reached a city fountain. The bodies in the square around it were almost three and four deep in places. Several of the buildings in the vicinity were now on fire. Chree shrank as she saw an army patrol on the other side. People were walking past them without incident and Chree knew that she was going to have to try it sooner or later. She took in a deep breath, let it out, and walked on like nothing was wrong.  

One of the soldiers stood there in the road with his weapon resting on his shoulder. He watched her closely as she walked past. Chree just kept looking forward as she walked by. She had passed them! Then she heard a voice, "You! Woman! Stop!" Chree just kept on walking until the man who shouted finally caught up with her.  

He was an officer in charge of the group she had just passed. He grabbed her arm, "I told you to stop!"

Chree remained calm, "I'm sorry Master." That word almost choked coming out of her mouth. It had been a long time since she used it. "I did not realize you were talking to me. I was just trying to find my master. I am afraid for him with all of the fighting... I..."

"Shut up!  Come with me," he led Chree back to a group of women standing up against a wall. There was a line of soldiers facing them. Their weapons were lowered and the bayonets attached. Chree looked down the line she was forced to stand in. Another officer was looking the women over carefully. Every now and then he would make one strip down. When he was finished with whatever he was doing he would send the girl on her way.

Chree wondered what his game was? He went to the next girl. He looked at her face.  "Smudges of powder. Like you were biting open rifle cartridges. Strip woman." The girl slowly undressed, watching the officer as she did. The man looked over her body carefully, "and where did you get these scars?"

"The fighting master. A rebel shot me."

The excuse didn't work. The officer grabbed the woman by the arm, "you are lying. These are old bullet wounds."

The woman kicked the officer between the legs and ran for the street. Chree's heart shrank. She had such scars! They would discover them!  

The officer screamed out and the soldiers turned. They fired a full volley at the woman and her back exploded from multiple hits of mini balls. The officer recovered something of his posture. He looked back at his line of suspected rebels, "Where did the red headed one go?"

The other officer had been watching the shooting. He looked back, "Uh... I.... well.... she was right there a minute ago!"


Zamtha reached over and grabbed Tish by the arm. She squeezed tight. "I'm scared."

They had been captured. The ammunition had run out. Tish tried to get them to shoot her. With her last shot fired she had gone after them with bayonets, then she used rifles for clubs and then, finally, she was down to her bare hands before she was overwhelmed. For some reason they were trying to take prisoners. In the end they had simply overpowered them with numbers. Tish had a bad feeling as to why they were doing this. There were at least thirty in the group and all of them women now. The men who had been fighting with them had been marched off to somewhere else. Tish wasn't sure of their fate but she heard several volleys of shooting long after the battle was over. She could guess what had happened to the men.

What really scared Tish right now was the question of what had happened to Julia. Almost as soon as they had been taken to the courtyard, of the army barracks, several soldiers had shown up and taken her from them. That pained Tish more than her own probable fate. She had hoped so desperately, she had wanted with all her heart, for Julia to somehow survive.

As long as Julia was alive there was a hope. There was a chance that one day this might happen again. Maybe the next set of girls would be more successful. Now even that faint hope had been taken from her. They had identified Julia! It seemed to Tish that Julia had only postponed her fate with a stake. There were certainly plenty of them lying about on the barracks grounds.

The unexpected visit by a high ranking general revived Tish's one hope. The man identified himself as Shlendon. Tish recognized that name. He was the commander they had opposed so often since invading the Middle Republic.

He spoke to them, "the act of impaling is a barbaric practice that deserves to be forgotten even in history books. I do not wish to practice this. There are certain realities that I, and you as well, must face. The law-abiding citizens of this land wish that an example be made. I, therefore, am bound to make at least one execution. For the burning of cities, for the murder of the General staff and the legislatures of the Middle Republic, a price must be paid. I will spare all of you this gruesome fate. If you only give up the Virgin Mary. Identify her and you will all find that more humane fates await you."

Zam whispered, "They don't know who Julia is!"

"I know," Tish was excited, "shut up!"

Shlendon paced, "What say all of you? Give her to me and you shall be spared much agony."

Tish stood up," I am Mary!"

Zamtha stood up next, "No, I am Mary!"

Soon the entire group was standing. They were all proclaiming to be the famous Virgin Mary. Shlendon nodded at this. He called Rizen to his side, "give orders Rizen. Torture them all. The last who maintains this claim will be our Virgin Mary. Execute her and then sell the rest off to help pay for this war."

Rizen pointed out, "Do you think it wise to sell them back into servitude? They might not make the best of women after having..."

Shlendon raised his hand, "We have had enough killing for now Rizen. Let us just say that I admire their spirit. Men should have been so proud to have fought as bravely as they did. It is not their fault that their leader was not as smart as I. In victory, one must show a certain amount of grace to those who have been vanquished. This is no longer war Rizen. It is now politics and that game is played by an entirely different set of rules. Now if you will excuse me. I have an appointment I must see too."



Julia sat quietly on the sheets. She was in a bedchamber and an extremely nice one at that. This entire place, that they had brought her too, looked like some sort of palace. Everything about it was plush, comfortable, and ornate. Julia had found some new clothes lying on the bed. It was the kind of full-length dress with lots of frills that Gurcia had always called party dresses. It was the kind that was kept for women that did nothing but entertain their masters guests. Along with the clothing was a drawn bath in the corner of the room. It made Julia wonder what was in store for her. Why had they taken her?  

All of this should have been frightening. Julia was not scared and even she could not explain why. She undressed and lowered herself into the tub. The water was warm and it relaxed her muscles, soothed her nerves, and put her strangely at ease. She felt so good to be clean again. It had been a very long time.  

After drying off, Julia slipped into the dress. She went to the mirror and found a comb on the dresser. She began fixing her hair with a smile on her face. It seemed an eternity since she had made herself look pretty. Julia liked looking pretty. She had missed it. She wanted to be pretty, be a woman, not a general, or a soldier, and most certainly not some leader of a misguided cult. Julia wanted to just be Julia Rice, plain and simple.  Just to raise her son and be allowed to live a simple life was enough. Why had that always been so impossible to do?

The door opened. A soldier, an officer even, was standing there. He invited Julia to follow him. She did so with no care or worry in the world. They entered another door and inside was a chandelier hanging low over a table fixed with a great feast. This was a small room, not a dining hall, but more a private chamber. The officer left Julia there and closed the door behind him. Julia heard no lock turning. There was nothing keeping her here but herself.  

Suddenly there was a man sitting at the end of the table. How had she missed him when she came in?

It was of small consequence to her, "You are Shlendon."

The man sat his glass down and clapped, "bravo my dear but, then I expected that you would have known this for some time. Please, sit down, enjoy my table."

Julia nervously sat down two seats away from him on the side of the table. He nodded to her. Julia reached out and took a few pieces of food and put it on her plate, "What do you want?"

He gestured with his glass of alcohol in hand, "What I want Julia, and that is your real name is it not, I already have."

"I mean with me? What are you going to do? Be like all the other pig men on this world. Treat me nice then rape me when my guard is down?"

He laughed, "I do not know what drives you to think me such the beast. Actually Julia, our goals were, and still are, one and the same."

"What goal would that be?"

Shlendon raised his glass, "Why equality of the sexes Julia. Your persona, the Virgin Mary, wishes to raise women to the level of men. While I myself have decided on the easier course of lowering all men to that of women. I must say I owe you a great deal of thanks my dear. I would have never found such a golden opportunity to get rid of the dead weight around here had your little rebellion not come along. Oh my how much does war create vacuums to be filled."

Julia did not know what to make of this man, "I don't believe you."

"Quite right, I do have the most ungentlemanly habit of lying from time to time. Why don't you ask someone you trust?"

A figure stepped in from the back door of the room. Where had he come from? He walked into the light and sat down at the table directly across from Julia. Fescan smiled at Julia as he began filling his plate, "I hold your beauty once again my dear. I did so miss it."


"Fescan!  You rat! You sold us out!  You traitor! You told them our plan of attack!"

"Please Julia," said Shlendon, "it would be so hard to call the man a traitor. He never actually swore any devotion to your cause did he? Besides, please do not think my abilities so short as to have to rely on the tattling of Fescan.  He is a weakling, and a man who runs in battle. He served under me in the war against the Empire. If I had not recognized his talents he would have been shot for desertion."

Fescan admitted carefree, "It is true Julia. I told you I was a coward at heart. I cared not for his cause, or yours in this war. I only cared for you."

Julia still accused him, "then how did he know we were coming across the lake? How did he know I had divided my army? How did he know to take the guns off the wall? How Fescan?!"

Shlendon gestured to Fescan, "she really does not know does she, how sad."

"I told you this," replied Fescan as he began stuffing his face.

Julia huffed, "What are you here for Fescan?"

Shlendon answered Julia's question, "He's here for you Julia. I got the lazy bastard to do you a simple favor. Feel honored for he would do that for no other. Even me."

Julia looked at Fescan. He ate without regards to the conversation. "What favor? What are you talking about?"

Shlendon pointed to the door in the back of the room. "Your fate. It lies elsewhere Julia. Go through that door and don't let me ever see you again."

Julia stood. She did not believe that this was happening. It had to be some kind of trap. Shlendon merely pointed again. Julia slowly walked to the door. She held her breath and reached out and just barely touched the knob. The door swung open.  Julia stepped through. The door shut behind her with a swift thump. She stepped even further into the room. There, sitting in a chair, "PETE!  PAM!"


_____________________


"All this is just dandy Vitosk," said Jack. They had been going over the information on the gene for over an hour now. It was interesting, amazing even, and everyone was busy throwing out theory after theory about the implications of what they had found. It didn't solve the problem or, for that matter, even connect it with the problems at hand. "Now what does this have to do with us, now, here in the present."

"Everything, look at the last date of the gene's activation."

"OK, what about it? All right, so we got a saint or devil running around back home. So what?"

Vitosk stood up from the computer. He began to pace while chewing on the end of his glasses. He had to find a way to put this in a believable manner.  "Let us go back to the bomb. Now, we have established that Jerry was not trying to kill anyone, even himself."

"So Yurgani," Jack was getting tired of guessing. It was the Marine in him. Give him a straight up target to shoot at any old day, "get to the point."

"He went into the hydroponics module after Julia, correct? To save her life?"

"I'm not following you ether Vitosk," replied Dee looking away from the gene model on the computer screen.

Vitosk went on, "When McCandles was killed in the desert, and Julia was kidnapped..."

"Wait a minute," said Jack, "McCandles died in the Assur camp."

"He had been shot with one of their shotguns. You saw it before we buried him Jack. The Assur in that camp had no shotguns, or any projectile weapons."

A light went on in Jacks head. Vitosk was right. How did he miss that?  "Go on, you got my attention now."

Vitosk took a deep breath.  "We cannot establish a time in which the air lock, that killed Larry, was tampered with. Therefore that sends us nowhere, except for motive. Larry was trying to fix the shuttle so it could land and take off. In other words the killer was trying to prevent our landing here."

Harry commented, "why wouldn't that be Jerry if he was a spy or plant or whatever."

Vitosk pointed his glasses at Harry, "Because Jerry would have already known that we would never reach this world. Why risk exposure by doing anything? We have all been looking for someone who wanted to be on the ship so as to prevent the mission’s success. What about other motives? Like someone who never wanted to be there in the first place. Think about it. Jerry went into the module to save Julia. In the desert McCandles was killed and Julia was kidnapped. Who do we know for certain was at those two locations, at the two separate times in which our fellow crew members died."

Dee slowly raised her head. She looked at strangely at Vitosk, "you mean Julia? That's crazy."

Jack was rubbing his chin, "That would mean that..."

Vitosk finished, "Pam didn't see what happened in that module. She took Julia's word for it. Julia pushed Jerry out into space. In the desert that night, she probably lured Gary out there to murder him as well. Unfortunately for Gary, Julia didn't know what I already did, that he was a moron. He was a therapist, her therapist, and she was going to him about the troubles that she was having with Pete. She was probably fearful that he had discovered her secret. Only McCandles, who was suppose to be guarding the females of our party, saw her.  He went to investigate and she killed him to cover her tracks. The shot drew the Assur’s attention and she had to cover her tracks even further."

"That's pretty thin Yurgani," said Dee.

Jack said nothing. He just considered it, "what secret?"

Vitosk pointed to the computer screen, "she's not who she claims to be. I told you all along Jack. The person we were looking for would be nothing of what they seemed. Julia is the one. That gene is in her and working imperfectly."

Dee raised her hands, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, there's a lot of holes there Vitosk. First, Julia's birthday is not the twenty first of July. I mean you got the right year but, her birthday is in September. Second of all she's not sterile. What about Joey?"

Vitosk sat down at the second computer. He began pulling up the personnel records. He went through the various files pulling up the information he wanted into separate screens. The first was medical, "This is from the blood tests that we all had prior to coming. Look at this here. Joey's is on the right. This is Julia's. Mike ran checks on pertinent DNA for known disease strands. Now look at the comparisons."

Harry saw it, "they're not even close. Holy... Julia's not his mother."

"How did we miss something like this?" asked Dee.

Vitosk replied,  "Because we weren't looking for it. Next question I need to put to all of you. What did Julia tell you about the boys father?"

Dee answered first, "she said that he left before Joey was born."

"Joey told me that he barely remembered his father," said Vitosk.  "I had never thought about it until now but, it would be kind of hard if Joey had not been born when the man left them. Julia said that he left prior to the boy’s birth in her security report as well. Which brings me to the second part. Her Birthday is not September third as she put on her report. I would not have guessed this except that Joey sent me a copy of a paper that he came across."

Vitosk showed it to everyone. Dee scratched her head, "That's not Julia, the mouth is all wrong."

"Pete believed so. He and Pam went after her. We'll get to most of this in a minute. Julia said to reporters that her hair was naturally black. The sketch here shows a woman with very dark hair. Yet Julia put on her report that her hair was brown."

Gina shrugged, "She dyes it, so what?"

Vitosk held the paper back up, "Gina, we have not been near a bottle of hair coloring in seven years. Her hair is just as dark as the day we left home. I thought it strange if not a very small discrepancy. So I started going through Pete's back ground checks. I found photos from Julia's school annuals. Up until the summer of Julia Rice's eleventh year she had always had brown hair. The next year she had black hair. Almost quite literally over night. So I looked to see if Pete's check had turned up anything from that summer. I found something, again, very small."

A newspaper clipping showed up on the screen. Vitosk explained, "The summer camp that Julia attended had a drowning accident that year. A young girl's body was found in the lake. It was ruled an accident."

"How's that important," asked Saiid?

Dee saw it as she read, "The young girl, Mary Listner, an orphan from Houston, tragically drowned... sadly the little girl was about to celebrate her eleventh birthday in nine days." Dee looked at the date of the article, "July twelfth.... that would make her birthday.... "

"Twenty one July," said Vitosk. "That was not the body of Mary Listner in that lake it was the body of Julia Rice."

"No," said Gina. "You can't tell me that the Rice's wouldn't know their own daughter?"

"If the imposter were human Gina," replied Vitosk. "Julia, Mary, whatever her name, is not a human being as we think of one. There is no telling what her powers are. Julia herself is probably not even aware. If she does not have the pure gene, and I think that likely, there maybe a chance that Julia doesn't even realize what she's doing half the time. She could seemingly have personality shifts at any time. She most likely does this under extreme stress."

Jack nodded, "all right Yurgani. Assuming you’re right for a second. Why kill Larry?"

"Simple," Dee answered, "Pete told her that he didn't want to get married until they got back home."

"You see," said Vitosk, "she was trying to speed up the return. If we couldn't land then we would return that much sooner."

Jack nodded, "if she's so powerful, then how come she got snatched out in the desert?"

"Two possibilities there," Vitosk said, "A part of her either realized that she had to leave in order to avoid our suspicion. Then again maybe she had a swift change back to the meek little woman we know and was unable to prevent it. The Assur found her and did what they had been trying to do to us all along. They had to have been there, they whipped Gary if you recall."

"Jerry?" asked Jack.

Vitosk held up one finger, "One rope, one hook, and somehow she thought it was either him or her."

Dee was reading over the newspaper article. She put it down on the table. "Oh my god Jack. Pete and Pam went after her. What if they find her?"

Vitosk humbly said, "Considering her jealousy I suppose she will kill them as well."

Jack pounded his fist against the tent pole, "Damn it! I told that idiot not to run off again without telling me!"

Dee stood up, "we're past that now. Jack we got to stop her."

"How? It would take us weeks just to get out there. Then we would have to find them on top of that."  

Jack thought about those two little kids, up in the Inn, not having a mother and father. On that count what was he suppose to tell Joey? Judging from the evidence, Julia probably killed his father as well. "We need a miracle right now."

Harry stood up from his chair, "hey, do you guys hear that?"

Jack listened for a minute. There was a slow rumble in the air.

Dee shrugged it off, "its just thunder."

Not that sound. Jack was a pilot and he knew a jet engine when he heard it. He ran outside the tent and started looking across the skies. He saw a shiny glimmer and a contrail high up in the atmosphere, "we're out of time. How in the hell did they find us so quick?"

Everybody else was looking up as well. Dee put her arms around Jack, "the satellite. It told them where we were. It'll fix the location of any transmissions from the surface." She leaned up and whispered in his ear, "I'm sorry Jack."

He looked at her, "It's not your fault what the satellite does."
Dee gazed into his eyes. She kissed him on the cheek, "That's not what I was talking about."

"What do we do now?" asked Harry. "You think they'll try and kill us for real?"

The aircraft was circling fairly close now. Jack didn't recognize the type. It was new and of a sort that probably had not even been on the drawing boards when he left. This should have been the happiest day of his life. He pulled Dee closer to him and held on tight. Was there anything he really wanted to do? Was there any reason to fight this? He thought about it, yep!  "Gina and Saiid! Get the kids and head for Pete's cabin. Stay there as long as you have to. Everybody else grab a weapon.  I'm not just going to roll over and die for these ass holes."