Liam accompanied Zo'or through the portals to the ‘Flat Planet’. Why on earth was Zo'or in such a hurry to get back to the apartment? Did he want to get into another fight with Ben? Liam hoped he was somehow able to prevent further quarrelling, but then he did not even know what it had been all about. He did not feel any motivation to ask Zo'or about this, so he had to ask Ben sometime.
When they stepped into the café, quite a few people could already be found there. Zo'or suddenly stopped. What was going on now? The café looked the same as it always did. Liam rolled his eyes, but was careful that Zo'or did not see this. The Taelon finally turned to him. “This place is very popular with humans, isn't it?” he noted. “That's possible.” Liam answered, with an already slightly annoyed tone in his voice. He surely had had enough trouble for one day. But Zo'or's eyes were sparkling with joy. “Just go to your apartment! I'll stay here.” he told Da'an's protector. “Here?!” Liam asked, surprised. What did this Taelon have in mind? “Yes, Major. I'll mix with the humans here. And don't worry! I won't leave the building.” Zo'or ensured. “Alright.” Liam answered, thinking of the surveillance system Augur had installed to always be able to keep an eye on the café. If Zo'or disappeared, he at least would know immediately. “Do you need something else?” he asked. “Well, maybe you could give me some money. I mean, I don't have any myself.”
Liam sighed. Why had he asked this in the first place? He gave the Taelon some money and began his way to his apartment.
The first thing he did when he came through the door, was activate the closed-circuit TV. Ben, who was also sitting in the room, looked at him, confused. Liam smiled apologetically. “Augur installed this system, before he gave the apartment to me.” he explained. But Ben did not seem impressed by that. “Yeah, I know of that. I have to wonder why you're switching it on right now.”
Liam rolled his eyes. What else did this boy know about his world? “Zo'or is in the café.” he answered.
The boy's eyes widened in shock. “What?!” he shouted, horrified. “Be glad he didn't come back in here with me.” Liam pointed out. “What happened in that warehouse anyway?”
A slight smile played on Ben's lips. “I think he had some trouble with me pointing out he didn't have any useful suggestions about how to get out of there, either.” he replied.
Liam nodded gravely. “Maybe you should be careful about what you say. I think you know as well as I know what Zo'or is like.”
“Of course! I love Zo'or!” Ben shouted.
Liam looked at him, disbelieving. “Come again?” he said, confused.
“Oh well, Zo'or has always been my favorite character.” Ben said, grinning. Liam shook his head with a desperate look. There clearly was no hope for this boy. He must have seen much better than he did how the Taelons were, but even so he was always so fanatic about them. Until now Liam had just taken that in stride somehow, but now he was starting to admire Zo'or...

 
* * *
 

Zo'or sat at the bar and watched the other people. Next to him sat a young woman of about 20 years of age, who was drinking some fizzy concoction. Zo'or tapped her shoulder and she turned around to him. “Yeah, what?” she asked kindly. Zo'or looked at her skeptically. “What are you drinking there? Maybe you could recommend something to me?” he asked curiously. He had to drink something as well like the other humans here or he would surely attract attention. The woman grimaced. “It's just Coke.” she said, obviously not very amused. “I've got to drive.” Zo'or did not really get the connection, but decided not to go into this topic any further. “Perhaps you could order a drink for me? I don't know exactly what's what.”
“Of course.” she said, and called the waitress and ordered something. That moment three other women came to the bar and tried to pull her with them to another table. “You can't just sit there alone! You just can't do that!” said one of the three of them. The woman, who had talked to Zo'or, just called a short “Bye!” over to him and then went away with the others.
A short while later the waitress came back, placing a glass with some strange looking liquid in front of him.
Zo'or watched it disapprovingly and wondered if this odd color matched any natural substance on this planet. Although this obviously was not the case, he decided to drink it. He put the glass to his lips and took one sip. First there was a pleasant taste - sweet, as the humans called it - but then he tasted another one, which he clearly disliked. How could the humans drink something like this? He was about to turn around to have a better view on the rest of the room, when a blonde woman of about 25 years went past him. Because of his sudden movement she slightly stumbled and spilled some of her drink. Although Zo'or only was hit by a few drops on his shoes, he immediately stood up completely and looked the woman up and down with a disapproving look. “What're you doing?” he snapped at her. The woman looked at him guiltily. “Hey, I'm really sorry.” she said and took the paper tissues the barkeeper gave her to clean up the mess.
Zo'or watched her. This woman really was impudent to treat him like that, but obviously she knew at least it was her fault. He should punish her, but maybe this was the only chance to get in contact with humans, when they did not know, who he was. “It's alright, it wasn't all your fault.” he to his own surprise heard himself say. “Thanks.” the woman said. “Do you perhaps want to come over to our table?” By saying that she indicated to a table at the right side of the bar, where another woman and two men were sitting. “Of course, I'd like to.” answered Zo'or. If they included them into their circle, he probably would find out something about the humans. When they started to get over to their table, the blonde woman turned around to him again. “Oh, I'm Michelle and what's your name?”
“Zo...ey.” Zo'or said, hesitating, when he realized he could not tell her his name. “My name is Zoey.” he repeated. The woman only nodded, and then they arrived at the table, where her friends were sitting. “Hey, who're you bringing along?” one of the two men called, grinning amiably. He had tanned skin and short blonde hair, which was sticking-out by the obvious use of some amounts of gel. The other man was also grinning. He was a little paler and had short brown hair.
“I spilled some of my cocktail over her shoes.” Michelle said, shrugging. “Well, what else could we have expected from you.” the other woman now interrrupted. She was slender and had long brown hair, which she had tied up with a hair clip. “Hey, it isn't that bad yet.” Michelle protested. Then she looked at Zo'or again. “Oh, that's Zoey.” she introduced him. “I'm Celine.” the woman said. “My name's Frank.” the blond man announced. “And mine's Daniel.” the other man said.

 
* * *
 

Ben and Liam were watching the screen. It showed one part of the café, on which the bar could be seen, where Zo'or had decided to sit. First he had briefly talked to a young woman, who had obviously ordered him a cocktail and then he had collided with another woman, who seemed to have spilled some of her drink. According to Zo'or's reaction it had not just hit the ground. Ben grinned maliciously. But Liam seemed to be worried. He obviously was afraid the situation could escalate. Ben could not blame him, because he himself had, although he had known who Zo'or was, had a fight with him. He wondered even more when Zo'or made no move to get annoyed about that woman any further, but even went to a table with her, where another woman and two men were sitting. Had Zo'or actually managed to mix with the humans without acting suspiciously? Ben now also recognized the Taelon already was moving much more like a human.
“Maybe I'd better interfere.” Liam interrupted his thoughts. Ben turned towards him. “I don't think that'd be a good idea.” he said thoughtfully. “I think that's what Zo'or was up to from the beginning. He wanted to learn first hand, what's so great about the humans. If you get him away from there now, he'd probably be very angry.”
Liam nodded, sighing. “You're right. I can only hope Zo'or isn't causing more trouble.”
“Speaking of trouble.” Ben changed topic. “What happened to these guys, who locked Zo'or and me in that room?”
“Well, honestly I don't know either. I think they ran away, when they heard the shuttle. You said they went outside, because they were afraid someone else could come. Then they probably cleared off as fast as possible.” Liam answered.
“Anyway, I hope they stop kidnapping people.” Ben noted. Then he turned to the screen again. Zo'or seemed to have a lively conversation with those people and it did not seem to look like anyone was in any danger.

 
* * *
 

Zo'or was still talking to the humans, who seemed to amuse themselves here. “Hey, don't you want to finish this?” called Daniel, the human, who was sitting on the opposite. Zo'or looked at him, not understanding. “Your drink, of course.” the human explained. Zo'or looked at his glass. He hadn't drunk any of it for some time, but it seemed to be normal here to always keep drinking. Because he did not want these humans to become suspicious, because he maybe could still get some useful information from them, he decided to drink his drink, although he did not consider it refreshing at all. So he took the more than half-full glass and emptied it in one go, which caused the four humans to yell and clap loud. Zo'or did not understand, what the meaning of that was, but the humans seemed to be happy; so there was no reason to worry. “Hey, I wouldn't have drunk that bottom up.” Celine said, appreciative. “Shall I stand another round?” The other humans roared in agreement and Zo'or also nodded, smiling. Strangely he suddenly was feeling very good.
Celine stood up, went over to the bar and ordered something to drink. Michelle also stood up to help her with the drinks. The humans each took one of the drinks they brought and Zo'or took one as well. He tried it, but it tasted even worse than what he had drunk before. But not to attract attention he took some sips and finally noticed it was tasting better and better. In between he also realized he was feeling slightly dizzy. But he tried to ignore it; that would probably not become a problem.

 
* * *
 

Liam just came from the shower, when he heard Ben calling. “Liam? I think you'd come and watch this.”
Because he was already fearing he had to run after Zo'or again, Liam dressed as quickly as possible and ran into the living room, where the boy was watching the screen. “What's up?” he asked breathlessly.
“Well, I think Zo'or didn't bear in mind the effect of alcohol in his actions. That could become a problem.” Ben noted.
Liam threw a glance to the screen and his eyes widened. “That could not become a problem - that is a problem.”
“What now?” Ben asked desperately.
Liam turned to the screen again, so he could see a Zo'or who had completely lost his Taelon behavior. He was obviously chatting with those people, laughing happily, so Liam doubted the Taelon was conscious of anything he was doing.
“Ben, please go down to them and make sure nothing happens to Zo'or. I think I should inform Da'an now.” Liam ordered.
“That won't work, Liam. You know what happened last time, when you left me alone with him.” Ben objected, horrified.
“I don't think he'll even recognize you right now, and even so you're not alone.”
“Okay, you're right.” Ben answered and disappeared through the door.
When the boy was gone, Liam took his global and dialed the number he could directly reach Da'an through. “Hello Liam, is everything alright?” his Companion greeted him.
“Well, I think we've got a problem. It seems Zo'or drank a little too much.” the protector answered.
“What do you mean?”
“Zo'or wanted to stay at the ‘Flat Planet Café’ for some reason, but he seems to have forgotten about the effect alcoholic drinks have on humans.” Liam explained.
“Then tell him to come to the embassy.” Da'an replied.
Liam looked at him nervously. How could he possibly explain this to Da'an? He could not really bring Zo'or into the embassy in that condition.
“I don't think Zo'or would understand that, if I told him. I doubt he would understand anything at the moment.” he finally said.
Da'an looked at him urgently. “Then just bring him here!”
“But Da'an...” Liam wanted to say, but the link was cut. Sighing he deactivated the screen and went towards the exit.

 
* * *
 

Reluctantly, Ben entered the main room of the ‘Flat Planet’. Why was he always the one who had to deal with Zo'or? And anyway, he did not know what to do now. Zo'or seemed to be completely drunk. So, how was he supposed to talk him into anything?
He finally reached the table where Zo'or was sitting with the other four people. Suddenly, he realized he had to come up with an idea to join the little group. After all, he could not just tell them the truth. So he went towards the table and took a better look at Zo'or, immediately noticing that Liam obviously had been right when he said they had a problem, and began speaking. “Um, don't we know each other?” he asked Zo'or, hesitating, although he could not expect to get any meaningful answer in reply. But the woman sitting opposite Zo'or immediately started to interfere. “Hey, wasn't that kinda lame? Couldn't you think of anything better than that?” she asked Ben not too kindly, causing him to blush deeply. He had totally forgotten that question could be taken that way. “No, I was serious. I believe we know each other.” he insisted, as he grabbed Zo'or's shoulders and turned the ‘Taelon’ around to face him. But the young woman still seemed to be skeptical. “Zoey, have you ever seen this guy before?” she asked a momentarily silenced and now quite drunken synod leader.
Ben exhaled in relief. At least he now knew the name Zo'or had given himself for these people, but he seemed not to have chosen this name with much creativity. Ben decided to postpone his thoughts about this topic to a later time. His priority now was to somehow get Zo'or away from the café, and especially the alcohol.
“Yeah... right, Zoey was the name, I remember now!” Ben said as if he had just recalled the name. But Zo'or still did not make a move to speak, and just grinned happily to himself. “Hey, Zoey!” the woman interfered again. “Do you know him?”
“Oh, ‘ullo Ben, you'rre it.” Zo'or blabbered, unable to speak without slurring his words.
“Uh, okay. Maybe you should come with me to get some fresh air, you don't look too good.” Ben noted. “I don't think he's wrong about that.” one of the young men agreed. Ben nodded gratefully. Then he tried to help Zo'or to stand up from his chair. When the Taelon finally got to his feet, he seemed to become dizzy. Because he had nothing left to hold onto, he just let himself fall into Ben's arms. Ben stumbled and took a step backwards, but kept a firm hold on Zo'or. The teenager's eyes widened in horror. Anyway, at least now he could be completely sure that Zo'or's mid had drifted away with the fairies. “Want sho Daan.”, the Taelon blabbered into the young human's ear, which caused Ben to become even more startled. Now he did not know at all how to behave. All this was not typical for Zo'or, and it started to scare him. He began hoping Zo'or would not be able to remember anything of this tomorrow, while he desperately tried to support him and to pull him outside.

Liam left his apartment after he had talked to Da'an. He entered the main room of the ‘Flat Planet’, where he stopped briefly to do a visual search for Ben. The boy was standing at the table with Zo'or and the other people. Liam decided not to waste time watching, if Ben could talk Zo'or into coming with him and quickly ran towards the exit. The sooner he got to the shuttle the better. They could not have taken the portal, because Zo'or probably was not able to travel that way any more.
Finally he arrived at the embassy, where the shuttle was parked. Da'an was nowhere to be seen, so he got into the shuttle and started it. Although it was a short trip, he let the shuttle jump into interdimensional space. Then he contacted Dr. Curzon.
“Dr. Curzon, please come to the embassy. I think there's a little problem with Zo'or.” he requested. Officially she knew nothing about the experiment, but had gotten wind of it through her contact to the resistance. She did not waste time with questions, but only agreed quickly. “Alright, Liam. I'll come to the embassy.”
Liam closed the link and left interdimensional space. Then he landed the shuttle near the ‘Flat Planet’. He had just left the shuttle, when he saw Ben leaving the café with Zo'or. Liam ran towards the two and tried to help Ben support Zo'or, who was clinging to the boy looking helpless and distracted. Ben also looked kind of confused, which Liam could perfectly understand. You did not drag along a drunken Taelon every day.

Ben, meanwhile, was dragging the Taelon into the shuttle with great effort, because he was hanging in his arms more than anything else. Fortunately Liam helped him with this, which made the whole thing quite a bit easier.
When he had secured Zo'or in the shuttle, he sat in the second seat and Liam started the small aircraft. They finally arrived at the embassy, where Da'an and Dr. Curzon were waiting for them. “Alright, bring him into my lab.” Dr. Curzon said with a skeptical glance at Zo'or. “Maybe you'd like to tell me what happened in the first place.” she said sternly.
Liam nodded. “Well... it's a long story. Zo'or was at the ‘Flat Planet’ and...”
“I think he's just drunk.” Ben interrupted him. “Could I put Zo'or somewhere now?” Slowly the Taelon was getting too heavy for him to support. Da'an gave him a brief look and then led the way to the lab. Ben followed with Zo'or and the two others also came with them. In the lab there was a table, on which Ben awkwardly tried to place Zo'or. But the Taelon seemed to be afraid of it somehow. Probably he just knew so much about Taelon labs that he even in his now only half-conscious condition he remembered the sort of things that were done there. “Sit down, it's alright.” Ben tried to calm him. “D'you mean?” Zo'or asked, still sounding very drunk.
Then they heard quiet footsteps. A few moments later T'than entered the room. This Taelon actually seemed to have a sense for when to appear in order to humiliate Zo'or the most. He threw a cool glance at the scene which was presented to him. “As far I can tell, there obviously is a problem.” he noted unnecessarily.
Zo'or still seemed to be confused, and T'than's appearance obviously got no positive reaction from him, either.
“Nothing will happen to you, Zo'or.” Ben now heard Da'an's voice from the background.
“Da'an?” Zo'or asked, distracted, aiming his glance at the other Taelon. Then it wandered back to Ben, who had just taken a step away from him. “Stay ‘ere!” the young Taelon called, jumped to his feet, put his hands around Ben's neck and kissed him.
Ben's eyes widened in shock, before his face turned crimson red. Then he pushed Zo'or away carefully, placed him back on the table and left the room without a word, his facial expression still showing his shocked state.

Liam grinned slightly. He could perfectly understand why Ben was so confused.
“An interesting performance, Zo'or. But I don't think the synod will consider this kind of behavior fitting for a synod leader.” T'than remarked in an arrogant tone. Dr. Curzon cleared her throat. “I think I should begin the checkup now.”
Da'an tilted his head in agreement and then looked over to T'than, who obviously was confused about Zo'or not even trying to defend himself. Then the war minister abruptly turned around and left the lab. Da'an followed him.
Liam made a quick glance around. “Can I also leave? I should look after Ben.” he asked the doctor.
“Of course. Just go.” she said sighing, but still kindly. It seemed like she also did not get to see such a scene every day.
At Dr. Curzon's words Liam left gratefully and started to look for Ben. He finally found him with Da'an on Liam's chair, sitting at his desk. Da'an was having a conversation via the data stream. Liam ignored the Taelon then and walked towards Ben, who seemed to already have calmed down and was just waiting for him now. When Liam was about to talk to the boy, Da'an turned around, after he had ended the conversation. “I think I was able to defer the synod's worries that had been caused because of T'than's report.” he announced. “Good, but what are we going to do with Zo'or now?” Liam asked. Da'an looked at him, surprised. “You'll take him back to your apartment. Tomorrow afternoon he'll be the synod leader again.”
Liam swallowed. “Da'an, I think we all saw that may not be such a good idea.” he said with a quick glance at Ben.
“On the contrary. Because he seems to better get along with Mr. Bring now, there shouldn't be any further complications.” the Companion answered.
Liam wanted to say something else, when Ben interrupted him. “It's alright, Liam. Da'an is right. Zo'or probably won't start another fight with me.”
Liam looked at the boy, speechless. What was up with him now?
But before he could say anything about that, his global went off. It was Dr. Curzon. “Come over to the lab, Major. I think you can have your Taelon back now.”
She ended the link before Liam could say anything.

Ben followed Liam back to the lab, where Dr. Curzon was awaiting them. “You're right - he's drunk. I can't do much there, but as far as I can see, it isn't dangerous.”
“Okay, I guess we're going to take him back then.” Liam said and went towards the Taelon in human disguise. The Taelon did not try to resist, because he probably was too exhausted.
A short while later they were back in Liam's apartment. The two humans brought the barely responsive Zo'or into the bedroom. They originally wanted to put him into the bed to finally have some peace from him. But Zo'or clung to Ben and did not seem to intend to let him go. “What now?” Ben asked, already slightly annoyed. Before, at the embassy, he had probably just overreacted, because Zo'or obviously did not know what he was doing, but this was slowly getting out of hand. “Maybe you'd stay here with him for the night.” Liam suggested, grinning.
“What?!” Ben screamed, horrified. This really was getting to be too much now. He just wanted to sleep now - on the couch.
“Well, I'd really like to know what else you did with Zo'or the whole day.” Liam mentioned, amused.
“Hey! I had to argue with this Taelon, who doesn't listen to anything I say, and then I also had to look for him and got caught, too.” Ben got worked up. He definitely had had enough trouble for one day.
“Yeah yeah, it's okay.” Liam tried to ease him. “We now just have to find an opportunity to separate Zo'or from you.”
But that was going to be problematic, because Zo'or was clinging firmly to Ben's arm and began to squeal in panic anytime they tried to loosen his grip.
“What am I going to do now?” Ben moaned. But Liam just looked at him helplessly. “I don't see any opportunity for now. Just stay here, then I'll switch off the light and you can go when Zo'or has fallen asleep, because he just has to let you go then.”
“Uh, are you sure about that?” Ben asked skeptically. It actually looked like he did not have any choice. Why could they not just tranquillize Zo'or, so they finally had a moment of peace? But Da'an probably would not be too amused by that, so Ben agreed.
He managed to get the Taelon to lie in the bed and put himself next to him at the furthest distance, where the young Taelon still could be clinging to his arm.
Zo'or actually fell asleep almost instantly, but did not let go of Ben's arm and by that gave the boy no opportunity to leave the room. After an eternity of lying awake, Ben's eyes closed.