Title: Las Cruces Rendezvous and the Battle of Carlsbad
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Roswell, or Las Cruces, Carlsbad, or Antar. Just makin' stuff up.
Pairings/Couples/Category: Romance/Adventure, Max/Liz Michael/Maria Isabel/Alex Kyle/Ava
Rating: Mature.
Summary: Sequel to 'Fateful Moments.' Liz has given up hope that Max will return from Antar, when she spots a familiar face. But she didn't guess what was really bringing him back to Earth.
That morning began, for Liz Parker, very much like any other day. She woke up when her clock radio started playing something a bit nostalgic for the early Nineties, and she slipped off to the washroom down the hall before many of the other residents of Rimes hall, third floor, had roused from their beds yet. The music she left on, to help her roommate drift more gradually out of dreamland.
For those first few minutes, it didn't really register on a conscious level that it had been two and a half years since she had seen, or heard news of, the great love of her life. In the middle of her shower, though, some other girl happened to mention the name 'Max' out loud, and that was enough to make her gut clench a little bit.
Her tour in the bathroom done, Liz returned to her room, and in the other bed Ava Sullivan was already sitting up and running a hand under her blonde hair to shake it every which way but loose. "Hey, there you are, Parker," Ava said, her gruff tones only half masking a deep affection she had for the other girl. "Is this afternoon Kyle's big game?"
"He's *your* boyfriend, Ava," Liz repeated, a constant refrain. "Has been for... well, more than two years now, right?" Ava nodded sleepily. "So why is would it be my job to memorize his game schedule?"
"It's not a job - nobody pays you for it," Ava shot back. "But you *do* it anyway. You can't not."
"Well, that is true." By this time Liz had nearly finished assembling an outfit for the day's classes - baggy blue jeans, a purple pullover with a close neck, and a pink camisole underneath that. Comfy clothes, something that she felt she needed on this February day, even though it was sixty degrees and change in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Her emotional life had been bleaker than the weather lately. "And no, I think he's got practice today, but no game. That's tomorrow."
"Thanks." And Ava pulled herself out of the bed and onto her feet. "You're a life-saver, cornball."
"Then just once, could you actually use my given name?" Liz replied, but Ava was already charging out of the room in her tank top and panties.
--------------
Liz heard the name in dining hall, about thirty seconds after paying for her breakfast. That was the first shock to the dreary but normal routine that had settled on her life.
'Serena.' It was a name that had weighed on her for years, for long before her friends left even, and the way that she had found out about it was still so strange, so bizarre, that she wasn't sure what to make of it. Liz had never told anybody but Maria about her visit from Future Max, not really, and now Maria was gone too. At least her sacrifice hadn't been in vain. Wherever they were, Max and Tess were together - not romantically, she hoped, but they were able to watch each other's backs, and fight the same battles. Michael was with them too... except that was only three. 'We're stronger when all four of us are together,' Future Max had told her, and now it was Isabel who wasn't with the rest of the foursome, here at Las Cruces with Liz and the others who had stayed behind. Liz hadn't quite realized that when everybody had been making their plans, and wasn't sure if it mattered now.
In any event, she hadn't even gone into many details about Serena with Maria, even. She hardly knew much herself, just that there was a girl named Serena who would become a great friend of hers, if her life still followed anything like the path that Future Max had remembered. Except of course, that everything HAD changed. Liz didn't know if she'd still meet this Serena or not. Possibly they'd meet and they WOULDN'T become friends, even great enemies. But the point was, nearly ever since that day, Liz had been wondering when she'd hear the name Serena and wonder if something big in her life was about to change - if it was the same Serena that Future Max had told her about.
The one thing that she certainly hadn't expected, was that when she turned to that table in the cafeteria, and listened for just long enough to sort out who was 'Serena' and identify that individual's face, she would recognize it.
Recognize the young woman twice, actually, on two different levels. To a certain extent, the classic profile was strongly reminiscent of Isabel Evans, but Liz knew that she wasn't looking at Isabel. There were the hairstyle and the wardrobe, and the makeup style - and Liz knew another, better explanation. Suddenly certain beyond logic or common sense of what she had to do, Liz stepped up close to the table and repeated "Serena?" in just as dumbfounded a tone as she felt, staring straight at Lonnie.
Lonnie/Serena, to give her credit, didn't hesitate or stall. "Oh gawd, Liz... Sorry, guys, we're gonna need a long moment here. Come on, Liz." And she stood up, moving away from the small remainders that were left on her tray with no regret at all, and stood in the aisle between tables, nodding to Liz to choose a free spot where they could sit together.
Liz blinked for a second, trying to adjust to the new developments, and then looked around. A table four or five down from them was half empty, and she led the way there, taking a seat three in from the main aisle, arranging her own tray in front of her. Lonnie circled around the table and sat opposite Liz, looking straight at her. The silence continued for a few seconds longer. "Okay, it's your nickel, speak your piece," Lonnie said, as irreverent as ever.
"One, what are you doing here, and two, why the name 'Serena'?"
Lonnie had to blink. "Okay, I didn't expect you to ask about that - the name, I mean." She sighed. "I dunno, I guess I didn't feel like I wanted a name that had anything to do with Vilandra, anymore. That's not who I am, anymore. Your friends, they seem to find having their own names much more freeing - well, except for Ava. I'm a little surprised she hasn't tried changing it before now, especially given the history there, and her friendship with you."
"Well, I know that Ava has my back, and that she's not interested in Max," Liz said, though she wasn't quite sure why she was explaining this to - to Serena. "She and Kyle are quite happy together."
"Bully for both of them, huzzah huzzah," she drawled. "Anyway, as to why I picked this name - well, it just kinda struck me. The connection with Serenity, and thus peace - that's what I'm looking for these days, Liz, honestly. And there's a cool book that's just come out back in New York, 'Gossip Girl' - but never mind that. It's not really important, just a coincidence. That's what gave me the idea, but never mind."
"Okay, okay," Liz said. In terms of whether Lonnie was the 'real' Serena, she was on the fence - but probably that didn't matter just yet. If somehow Lonnie had found out about the significance of the name to her - like from dreamwalking Liz herself, then she was playing that fact very close - but Liz wouldn't really expect anything less out of such a determined and canny person. "And back up one?"
"Hmm? Oh, right, your first question." Lonnie let out a breath. "I don't suppose you'd buy that I wanted to see if I could get a look at the Quantum computers myself, just for giggles?"
"No, not really," Liz said. "You have to have known that we were already taking classes here - all five of us. Which means that you were deliberately putting yourself into our territory. I think that the last time you ran into Michael, Maria, and Ava, they told you..."
Lonnie smiled a little. "MICHAEL told me," she started, stressing the name. "...not to come to Roswell, or to initiate contact with himself or Maria again. He didn't cover the rest of you when you weren't living in Roswell."
That was the sort of thing that might have slipped Michael's mind, Liz had to admit it to herself. But this sort of nit-picking, 'I'm following the rules' behaviour made her furious, and above all she didn't want to lose her temper in front of the other girl. So she forced herself into the only sort of reaction she could manage that WOULD create the right impression - a superior one. "Very well, I've got the story now, and I'll tell the usual suspects that you're around. When we've come to a decision, we'll let you know. In the meantime, you should probably go back to your friends. I'm done with you now."
Serena's face filled with anger too, and Liz realized that she might have made a dangerous choice in what she'd just said. Lonnie was possibly the single most vicious and powerful alien remaining on Earth, and above everything she hated for anybody else to act superior to her. However, Liz also knew that she was without alien allies, and that she wasn't stronger than Isabel and Ava put together. (Or at least, she hoped these things.) If 'Serena' hurt Liz, there would be a payback out looking for her.
So she just got up, smiled a frosty smile, and headed away from the table. While watching her go, Liz noticed for the first time the relatively tame and sedate student clothing that Serena had chosen, though her choice of colors was still somewhat bold. Had she been sincere about trying to find some peace in her life? Well, that question wasn't one that Liz had to decide for herself.
She did have to eat very quickly if she was going to make it to her biology lab, though.
-------------
It was on the way to her English lit lecture, (which she took with Ava,) that Liz's routine really took a beating, though. Again, it was a little thing that started it. A person stepped out from a side corridor in the Curtis hall wearing unusual clothing, a jumpsuit full of bright, blocky colors, and her eye was immediately drawn to him, curious once again about a face. And the similar moment of recognition, more amazing in its way than seeing Isabel/Lonnie/Serena in the dining hall.
Max Evans.
She tried to squint at the figure in the unusual outfit, wondering in the back of her mind if she was imagining the resemblance, and if squinting would really help with a delusion. Every so often, she did run into a guy who fit Max's general type and thought she saw him - usually the confusion only lasted a few seconds, but...
Somebody bumped into Liz from behind, because she had slowed down walking when she started squinting, and so she hurried up a bit, and that meant she was walking towards the guy in the jumpsuit, whoever he was, and the guy in the jumpsuit was walking right towards her. It couldn't just be Max, could it? He was on another planet. He couldn't just...
Then again, if he was going to come back from another planet, was it really so strange a way, to show up in her university building wearing an unusual jumpsuit? Was she imagining this whole scenario, to the point where there wasn't even a guy in a jumpsuit?
And then there was nearly no more distance between them, and Max, (she really believed it was him now,) eliminated most of the last of it by wrapping Liz up in a huge hug. "Liz, beloved," he whispered clearly into her ear. "It's so good to see you, but there's a lot we have to talk about. Is it okay if I steal you away for an hour or so?"
Something had thrilled through Liz's nerves particularly when he said 'steal you away,' but the more rational part of her head wasn't so sure. "Max - is it really you? Steal me from whom?"
Max's voice chuckled richly. "Yes, of course it's me - it's only been two years and a bit. Can't you be sure of me?" She didn't answer that. "And - steal you away from your regular routine, I guess, your next class or whatever else you'd be doing."
She made her decision then. "Alright, Lit class can wait. Where do we go from here?"
Max kissed her first, on the lips - not a huge PDA, (though she heard a few exclamations from other students nearby at even that much public intimacy,) and all of Liz's doubts fled as she felt a flash of Max's thoughts - the sensation of Earth rushing away as he left in the Granilith, the singularity of himself and his friends inside the Granilith cone being replaced by a kind of cabin as the Granilith entered warp. Somewhat dazed, she let Max rearrange himself so he was beside her, arm draped around her shoulder, and navigated her towards the same side corridor that he had emerged from. Instinctively Liz let her own left hand slide out and settle at the far side of Max's waist, as if it had always belonged there.
She had to giggle when he opened the door of a broom closet and waved her on in ahead of him. "Just like the eraser room," she told him, as he closed the door behind him.
"Almost like," he told her. "With one minor exception." And Max withdrew a small alien orb from a pocket of his suit, activated it, and in the blink of an eye they both disappeared from the closet.
------------
Instantly with a little flash, the two of them appeared in another room, a small box with mirrors on all the walls, so that wherever Liz looked, she seemed to be peering through a crowd of Maxs and Lizs. (There was a faint light source somewhere in the box with them too, but she couldn't immediately identify it through the funhouse mirror craziness.)
She had almost no time to appreciate this effect, though, because after stowing his little orb back away, Max immediately reached out, touched the mirror behind him, and a section of that wall pivoted outwards like a door. Again, Max was pointing the way for her, considerately helping her navigate the little 'lip' of mirrored wall that hadn't come with the rest of the door and that she might otherwise have tripped over. Beyond was a corridor with light blue walls and black trim around the floor and ceiling. (The floor itself seemed to be a pale gray.) Michael was waiting out in the corridor for her, wearing much more conventional Earth clothing - jeans even baggier than hers, and a slightly ripped black t-shirt. "Hey, Michael," Liz started. "It's so great to see you too. Is Maria...?"
Max held up a hand, and Liz immediately trailed off, though she wasn't quite sure why she should. There were footsteps behind her in the hallway, and she turned just in time for Tess to hurry past, so that she had to turn BACK to see the hybrid girl. Tess, too, was back at home in Earth fashions, actually, the top and skirt she had on were ones that at certain times Liz would have delighted in calling 'trampy' - though not to Tess' face. Certainly to Maria, though.
Max nodded silently at Michael and Tess, and each of them held up a little orb like the one Max had - as if reassuring Max that they hadn't forgotten them. One more nod, and Michael and Tess filed into the mirror box and did something to make the door close behind them. There was a flash - not really from the box, since no light could easily get out of it, but from the alien equipment nearby, and a soft BANG-ing sound. A curious look on his face, Max reached out to open the box up again, and now it was empty. He let out a long breath.
"Sorry for... sorry for all of the hurryness and lack of explanations," Max said then, putting his arm around Liz again, "but we were on a tight schedule. Our ship is in a fairly low orbit, and it was only going to be within range of Las Cruces for a few minutes. I wanted to go down first, to find you and bring you up here if I could. If I didn't make it in time, then... well, never mind the contingency plans. Things might have been interesting. But everything worked through without a hitch."
"Interesting," Liz repeated, wondering exactly what he meant. If it was just that she and Max would have been spending time down in Las Cruces until the ship came around the next time - well, there was his outfit to think of. Speaking of which... "How come Michael and Tess were able to find ordinary Earth clothes to - to beam down in, and you had to use what I'm assuming is an Antarian uniform of some kind?" She blinked a bit at the combination of black, white, gray, light blue, and darker blue that found their way into Max's jumpsuit.
"A few reasons," Max said. "I didn't have time to spend on wardrobe myself so much, and it's important that I should be in uniform while I'm up here. Royal authority and all that. Plus, I figured that if I was wearing something eye-catching, it might actually save time."
"I have to admit, that last one is a point," Liz told him. "Okay - is Maria with you? Do you have any crew on this ship? Are - are you back to stay? What are Michael and Tess going to be doing?"
"Always so full of questions, aren't you, my darling dear?" Max smiled, and kissed her again. She didn't get a specific flash this time so much as a surge of great love and longing from him - and a tongue in her mouth playing tag with her own. "Michael and Tess - are going to find the rest of our friends and spread the news that we're back, that's the short version of their mission at least. Maria is here, yes, and you'll get a chance to see her and talk to her soon, but I wanted to get you all to myself first for a little while because I know that I won't get any of your attention when your long-lost best friend is in the room." Liz stamped playfully at Max's toes for that line, knowing that she couldn't really hurt him even if she scored, with those heavy boots he was wearing. "Aside from the four of us, three Antarian nationals have come along, to help us manage the ship and assist in our mission."
A mission. Was that Liz's answer to whether Max was 'back to stay'? "Okay, okay, you've got me all to yourself." And this time Liz initiated a kiss, just a soft peck on the lips, and Max smiled back down at her. "What's the plan - talking, making out, or a mix of both? I guess we've both got lots to catch the other up on."
"True, so I suppose it should be mostly talk," Max agreed regretfully, taking her hand and leading her down the corridor of the ship - the way that Tess had come from. "We'll have time for the other stuff later."
The chamber that he led her into this time was clearly his cabin or bedroom aboard ship - a nearly double-wide bunk half set into the wall, clothes in an unfamiliar (Antarian) style mostly hung up, favourite books and some that she didn't recognize. With a gesture, he offered her the choice of sitting on the edge of the (neatly made) bunk or the metal and plastic armchair, and Liz picked the chair. "Okay, so - you haven't really had any news since we left, right?" Max started, smiling a touch sadly.
"No." Liz flung the word back at her, almost an accusation. "No abductees have come around to brief us, no friendly aliens at all, and whenever Isabel tried to dreamwalk you, she nearly exhausted her powers in reaching across the stars. We knew better than to try the whirlpool pendant again after Isabel nearly died the first time she tried THAT, so how else were we supposed to get updates?" She sighed. "There was one minor run-in with some of Kivar's lackeys who were still alive, stuck on Earth, that didn't quite make it to open hostilities. But they weren't too talkative, and I don't think they'd heard much recently anyway."
"Right," Max said softly. "Sorry about the silence, but - well, we *did* try to send someone to 'borrow' a human body and meet with you, like Larek. She - she nearly died, and we didn't think that it was safe to try again."
"Oh - sorry, I didn't realize," Liz muttered. "Okay, so, do you want to start from the beginning with all the little details, or just give me the headlines?"
"Something like the headlines, or else Maria will break in here," Max said with a laugh. "She'll go through it in more detail I think. So - we landed where we were supposed to, met the Liaretian rebels and Michael's clan, and they were happy to see us and started to make plans at once. That's where we met Raydeleen, who's come with us for this trip. She's - Zan and Vilandra's mother, Queen Emeritus Alinda, is still alive, but her health isn't good, and so Rayde is sort of her personal stand-in. She's an amazing woman and a talented leader in her own right, and probably one of the few people without whom the Liaretian movement would certainly have crumbled."
"Alright, with you so far," Liz said. "Looking forward to meeting her, with all of that build-up."
Max chuckled. "Soon enough. Let's see - Michael's cousin, Kelim, pushed them into announcing their marriage bans quickly, and at the same time..."
"Whoa, wait a minute, hold the phone," Liz immediately insisted, even doing a 'time out' gesture with her hands. (And reminding herself of that Friends episode where Ross' British girlfriend completely misunderstood the sentiment of that - but Max would get it, even if he'd been away for a few years, right?) "Michael and Maria are married? I missed their WEDDING?"
"See what happens when you miss your flight?" Max said, grinning just a little. "Maria's got motion captures for you of nearly everything - not quite the same thing as being there, I know, but... well, yeah. It was a beautiful ceremony, and they're really happy together I think."
"Wow - any kids yet?" Liz couldn't help but ask.
"Umm... I, uhh, I think that I'm going to let Maria answer that one herself." Liz considered and decided that meant the answer was not 'no,' though alien things being what they were, it just might be some species of 'it's complicated.' "Can I continue with my own version of the headlines now?"
"Oh, sure, of course, go right ahead," Liz told him.
"So, in the meantime, Rayde started to spread more - propaganda, I guess you'd call it."
"Right, that was the plan that Larek had in mind before you left," Liz said. "Though I guess it wouldn't be up to him to run with the idea. Trying to get Kivar's supporters to desert him, and attract more power blocks to the Liaretian side."
"Yes, there was that, and also something a bit different, kind of an honour challenge," Max said slowly. "I wanted to resolve this issue without a battle, if we could, and that meant giving Kivar another kind of a chance."
"Like a duel?" Liz said, her heart squeezing into her throat, even though obviously with Max sitting in front of her, he hadn't died years ago. "Wasn't that taking a terrible chance? He was this alien warlord, with enormous powers, and you had so many disadvantages - only half Antarian, no formal training in your powers until you got off Earth..."
"Well, yes, there was all of that," Max admitted. "I wouldn't have gone with this unless I thought I had a good chance to kick his ass. They put me through my paces, and some of those things you mentioned could be turned into advantages - being half human gave me some defensive advantages against the use of Antarian powers against me, and being self trained meant that I had a few tricks up my sleeve that nobody would expect."
"So you met Kivar in single combat and vanquished him," Liz repeated, hardly believing it. "What about his lackeys?"
"Well, umm." Max muttered. "I actually tried to spare Kivar's life and just bind his powers, but I guess the guy couldn't stand to live as a failure - he'd kept a knife in reserve and used it on himself when he realized that he wouldn't get to me. I think he wanted there to be some controversy over if I'd had an assassin attack him from the stands or something like that - but enough people, even those not on my side, could tell that I'd beaten him already by that point. There wasn't much point in my using a dirty trick."
"Okay," Liz said, reaching out to take Max's hand and comfort him. He smiled at that, and somehow it seemed the most natural thing to get up from her chair and sit next to Max on the bunk. "And..."
"There were a few lieutenants who started fighting with Kivar's army," Max agreed. "Not so much in his name, as trying to secure Dominions for themselves, but between the Liaretian forces and the majority of Kivar's forces who honoured the terms of the duel, we were able to settle them. That did take a while, though, mostly because of the need to move carefully and avoid killing innocent civilians."
"Of course," Liz agreed. "And probably there were a lot of other details to sort out in terms of the new leadership structure for the planet." Max nodded. "So this is the first chance you've had to get back to Earth, in a shiny little ship - and maybe you wouldn't even have been able to get back here so soon except that there's a mission to take care of here, which probably means hairy alien danger."
"More slimy than hairy," Max put in with a laugh. "But I don't know why I thought I'd have to take a long time explaining all of this to you, you seem to understand it all better than I do, and I lived through it."
"Well, I *am* pretty smart," Liz pointed out with a wide grin. "But respectfully, at this point, I propose that we've had enough talking, and should spend our time another way until Maria comes knocking."
Max actually seemed tempted, and Liz realized that he had his own questions about what had been happening back on Earth while they'd been gone. But the lure of long-unreachable smoochies and maybe a little light petting was too much to resist, and he bent his head slightly to drink deeply from her full lips.
-------------
"If I'd known that I'd be seeing you again today, I would NOT have dressed like this," Liz commented a little later, picking her sweater up from where it had landed on the floor. Both of their lustful appetites had been somewhat slaked, and just like when they'd both been back in high school, Liz had regretfully put the brakes on something that might go a bit farther than she was really ready for if they both let it.
"No?" Max chuckled, as if this was a priceless joke. "But you looked adorable, that first moment I spotted you in the hallway. Especially with the sweater and the baggy jeans."
"Hmmh." Liz looked down at the jeans in question - adorable would not have been the word that she'd use, but then, Max *did* see her differently from the way she usually saw herself. That had been what first piqued her interest, after all - well, second, after the alien cells bit. "Come on, are you sure you wouldn't have rather I had on a flirty halter top, and little miniskirt down to, oh, maybe here." She gestured at the appropriate point on her thigh, unsure if that was supposed to be the hemline while she was sitting down, as she was now, or standing up. Maybe it didn't really matter.
"Sounds like Tess to me," Max said, snickering, and Liz threw the sweater at him - not a terribly effective projectile weapon, but it was what she had had to hand. "More generally, aside from a few purely personal preferences and pet peeves that I will inform you about as long as you want to know, you can dress however you like as far as I'm concerned, Liz. Whether that's comfy and casual or 'up to the nines', you will still be beautiful in my eyes, and you will always be the woman that I love."
"Okay," Liz said. "Well, I certainly don't need to wear that as long as I'm up here, it must be eighty-five." She waved at the sweatshirt, which Max had caught in both hands. "And I'm not sure I'll even miss it immediately if we beam back down without it. Can you tuck it away somewhere?"
"Here?" Max sounded surprised, but he was smiling.
"Yeah. I like the thought of having something of mine here in your room." She got up and stretched. "Oh, does the ship have a name?"
"Yes - when we first got it, it was the 'River Serranan', but I rechristened it. 'Czechoslovakia.'"
"Oh, no really?" Liz nearly groaned at the thought of that old whimsy of Maria and herself resurfacing one more time, but she was smiling too. "Okay, well, that pretty much decides me, in an odd way. If Maria hasn't come to find us yet, then I'll go and search her out. I really do want to see her after all this time, I hope you're not disappointed or..."
"No, of course, that's okay. In fact, I can spare you the searching," Max said, and reached up to tap a pair of buttons on a wall control. "Missus Guerin?" he said out loud.
"Don't call me that, Max," Maria's voice sounded clearly from all around them. "Are you finally done monopolizing Liz?"
"She thinks so," Max said with a chuckle. "Asked for you specially. D'you wanna come collect her at my door?"
"Less than a minute," Maria answered, and that was it. Max looked over at her, and then made a production out of opening a sort of drawer that was also built into the wall and stowing her sweatshirt away there.
"If you want, I'll find some way of clearing out a whole drawer for you," he said sheepishly, "but I didn't anticipate the need on the way over here."
"Well, there's no need to hurry - as far as I know," Liz said, and then suddenly the impact of Maria's last words hit her like a countdown. Running up to Max, she hugged him and brought his face down to hers for another kiss, as if they'd be separating for weeks or more again.
The same thing seemed to occur to Max. "Well, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I won't let Maria monopolize you for too long either."
"Okay - and what after that? You said that you'd be stealing me away from my regular life for an hour, Max - do I go back after that?"
"Umm... I hadn't really thought it all through," Max admitted. "I'll be fabricating a more low-profile outfit, and then - we'll play it by ear, I guess?"
"Okay, if you insist." So Liz kissed Max on his right earlobe, and then a chime sounded at the door, followed by a muffled voice of Maria:
"Okay, here you are, Parker, door to door service. Come out already!"
Liz stepped next to the door, and then had a bit of an uncertain moment with not being sure how to open it. Just stepping close didn't seem to work, or even reaching out and touching the door. Max shook his head and pointed to a small black square a little bigger than a playing card, next to the edge of the door on the wall, and Liz moved her hand to touch that. Suddenly the door swung open, and Maria yelped as she jumped backwards, just avoiding getting hit by the edge of it.
"You know, there's a reason why the Starship Enterprise had sliding doors," Liz pointed out helpfully to Max. "Much more convenient in close quarters." She turned to face her old friend. "And you - doesn't that happen EVERY time you signal at the door of somebody's private room? Why didn't you wait well and safely out of the sweep area?"
"Oh, sure, expect logic from me," Maria retorted, giving her a big and friendly hug. Liz realized in that moment how she hadn't generally remembered, when missing Maria, how the other girl was just a few inches taller than her. It was a slightly odd thing to notice, but Ava was nearly as petite as Liz herself, and Isabel was definitely much taller, while Maria fit into an in-between height. Maria must be in flat footwear for me to notice it like that, Liz noted absently, conscious of her own brown suede flats.
And then, something else struck her from her memory, and she backed out of the hug long enough to get a good look at Maria's whole outfit. She hadn't 'dressed native' to blend in at the university campus or anywhere else down on the Earth's surface, as far as Liz could tell, but Maria wasn't in an official-looking uniform like Max was either.
The overall lines of the outfit weren't as exotic as the first impression it gave somehow - just a dress, really, sleeveless, off the shoulder but coming up close to collarbone level, and a hem that stretched down well past Maria's knees. But somehow the details kept tricking Liz into seeing the wardrobe as something much more alien - partly the way detailing that reminded her of a wedding dress or elegant evening gown was paired with designs that would fit better on the breeziest and most casual sundress. The shoes she was wearing were flat indeed, but somehow also sexy boots at the same time, and her light brown hair was down, intricately curled past her shoulders, and hung with coloured ribbons, silvery and gold chains.
Liz stopped staring at her friend, worried lest she let herself get hypnotized or something. "Ma- Maria, you look amazing, and - and like nothing that I'd have ever expected."
"Yeah," Maria agreed in a confident drawl. "You, on the other hand, seem to be letting it go a bit, girlfriend. Come on, you couldn't at least have gone for the jeans that show off your ass?"
Liz let out a single burst of laughter, grinning like a loon. "Yeah, yeah... well, if you must know, I was feeling extremely DEPRESSED this morning, because it had been years since I'd heard from four of my *best friends*, including a fairly special guy."
Maria smiled and started to walk down the corridor, waving Liz to come along. "So Tess made it on the list, really?"
"Umm - well, you know." Liz supposed that she had really meant 'three of her best friends and one girl who was starting to grow on me when she took off,' but didn't make a point out of the correction. "So, umm - oh, Max said that - well, that there was some news about kids. Don't keep me in suspense any longer."
A very pained look splashed onto Maria's face, so clear that Liz could even interpret it in profile, but she covered in a few seconds, and stalled. "So, he spilled the beans about the wedding?"
"Yeah, it came up in the headlines, but he didn't spoil any details really," Liz said. Automatically she grabbed for this as an excuse to throw her friend so that she didn't have to talk about the painful thing that children had reminded her of. What if she had lost another baby, on Antar? That would make some sense of why Max had told her she'd have to ask Maria... except, no, Max would have been strong enough to give her a warning, instead of leaving the painful chore to a good friend. "I want to hear all the details, really, and all of the people you met there on Antar, and..."
"I know that you're giving me an easy out, Liz," Maria said softly, her voice pained as she opened a door like Max's and showed her into what was obviously a shared cabin - Michael and Maria's place.
"Then you're pretty good at understanding what I'm trying not to say, even after all this time," Liz said awkwardly. Maria sat down on the edge of the queen-sized bed that dominated the cabin, and Liz sat right next to her, not having to think twice about that.
"I suspect that we'll never really lose that insight into each other, no matter what we do with our lives," Maria pointed out. "But anyway - I think I actually want to tell you the big, heavy stuff first, if you think you're up to it. It'll help to... well, I just think it'll help, okay?"
"Sure, okay, tell me whatever you want," Liz said, putting an arm around Maria's shoulders. Maria mimicked the gesture.
"Okay. I... Michael and I, we have a son. He's maybe a year and a few months old in human terms, and he's so beautiful. He's got my eyes and ears, and Michael's nose and his lips... and curly hair that's a bit hard to tell." Liz smiled and squeezed her friend, guessing that the bad part was yet to come. "And - and since I was two months pregnant, he's lived all of his life inside a biosupport growth pod. None of the doctors are sure when he'll be ready to come out and live in the real world without that barrier and nutritive fluid to keep him safe."
"Oh, god, Maria." Liz's throat choked up even as her mind blanked on anything to try to say. Sure, in one way this was better news than another dead child - Antarian science had found a way to save the baby's life. (She assumed that nobody would have done a thing like this if it hadn't been a matter of life and death - she didn't see any other way that Maria and Michael would have approved of it, at least.) But to have your own child trapped in a kind of suspension like that, unable to truly start his life or interact with the world, stuck in a sort of extended pregnancy to an artificial alien incubator -- she'd never thought of it as horrible in this respect when she'd heard of Max and the others being in incubation pods - but they hadn't had parents nervously waiting for them to emerge. In fact, Liz usually only thought of Max coming OUT of the pod, not of all the decades where he'd slept there. "Pods like Max and the others were in?" she blurted out. "He, your son isn't going to..."
"Take forty years to grow to be age five?" Maria put in. "No, that was a special effect for the Royal Four, because Kivar might grow tired of looking if it took years and years for them to emerge. Danyel is growing at a normal rate, just in a less-than-normal environment." She sighed, and leaned closer to Liz. "There are even times when he's awake, and can see out, though I'm really not sure how much he understands about the outside world. Michael and the others can connect to him, even without touching him directly, and communicate that way. I've been practicing, but I'm not up at that level yet."
That made Liz's eyebrows go up. "Practicing... with alien powers? Is there something you want to tell me about that?"
Maria shrugged. "Nobody's sure, but the leading theory is that when I was first pregnant with Keva, that started changing a bit of my DNA to match an Antarian's. Same sort of thing as when Max saved your life, though the transmission vector is different. Speaking of which, have you been noticing any unusual symptoms or abilities lately, Miss Parker?"
"Umm." Liz blinked in surprise, not having expected this whole subject to come up. "Actually, yes. Only a few little powers, but I've gotten pretty good at controlling them, and no weird flare-ups in about a year. Kyle's starting to go through a bad patch, actually. Ava and Isabel have been working with both of us on training and such. Alex is going to be REALLY upset that you're 'different' now too and he's the last pure human."
"Yeah, he probably will, at that," Maria said, and looked around. "Okay, visual records time?"
"Yes, please!" Liz agreed. "Do you have them on little orbs or maybe something weird that looks like a cheese wedge?"
Maria chuckled. "Not at the moment. Everything's just loaded into the ship's computer memory." She pulled over a little metal card that had been sitting on the bedspread, a little smaller than a paperback book cover and less than a quarter of an inch thick. As she started tapping on different parts of the card, geometrical shapes and colors appeared. Liz started staring at the card, wondering if the visual record would appear on it, and was focusing so intently that Maria had to nudge her attention towards the cabin wall where a huge still picture, in almost hyper-real color, had manifested. "Okay, this is from not long after we landed - Michael and Max, with Raydeleen, and Michael's cousin Kelim."
"Oh-kay, alright," Liz said, trying to force herself to acclimate. The unfamiliar male figure in the picture seemed definitely alien, with strangely different facial features and coloring, while
Raydeleen was easier to relate to somehow, if only because her reddish hair and brown eyes were possible for a human being. "Is Rayde part human?" she asked Maria on a hunch.
"Yeah, actually - something like a quarter or an eighth. Human enough that she'll be able to go down to Earth without a Skin. Most Antarian's can't, you remember."
"Oh, right," Liz said, nodding. "Do you have any moving video on that thing?"
"Yeah, actually - let me see if I can find the full record of the wedding ceremony," Maria told her, beaming. "It may be hard to understand without the language treatments..."
"That's okay," Liz said. "All I want to do for now is look."
So Maria hunted through her 'organizer' for nearly a minute, and then dimmed the light in the cabin as the video started playing. Liz lost her breath into a gasp as she realized just how many Antarians had gathered on some kind of open grassy plain to witness Maria and Michael's bonding ceremony. It was hard to sort out the perspectives, but some of the spectators had to be further away from the wedding party than the length of a football stadium! How much would they be able to see and hear? Especially since there weren't bleachers or raised stands...
And somehow, the beauty of the moonlight, falling over the scene as Maria made her approach to the altar, (fortunately she didn't have to trek all the way the crowd, Liz decided,) immediately set her to crying.
TO BE CONTINUED...
