The next morning Zo'or woke up and realized that something was really wrong this time. He remembered that he was now in a human body, but he was feeling very strange. Then he noticed he was not lying in the bed alone. Another human was lying next to him. But why was that? He expected the humans to know better than to barge in to his private quarters unannounced, even if these were not technically his quarters. Annoyed, he tried to sit up when he suddenly screamed and instantly stopped in his movement. He could not explain what had just happened, but he had an incredible headache. The human next to him, woken by his scream, slowly began to move. Zo'or now was able to recognize him; it was that boy. But how could he dare to sleep in his bed?
Ben finally opened his eyes and blinked sleepily. When his gaze met Zo'or's, he startled.
Zo'or's eyes flashed in anger. “Why are you here?”
“You'd be the one to know!” the human replied angrily, standing up abruptly and leaving the room.
Why should Zo'or know that? The human's words did not seem to make any sense at all. But what had happened yesterday, anyway? He had tried to learn something about the humans at the ‘Flat Planet’. The last thing he could recall clearly was sitting at the table with the other four humans and drinking. After that all his memories were very blurry. He dimly remembered Da'an, the embassy and Ben. Why Ben? That boy seemed to be the central point of his vague memories.
Then he put aside his doubts, because he had to deal with his immediate problems first. As far as he knew a sudden headache of that kind was not normal at all for humans, and anyway he was not willing to endure this any longer.
He left the bedroom and went into the living room. Although Ben was in the kitchenette, the Taelon ignored him and directly walked towards Liam, who still was lying on the sofa asleep. “Major, wake up!” he barked, which made the pain in his head just to get worse. Kincaid stirred slightly, but did not open his eyes. Only when Zo'or grabbed his shoulder and shook him did Liam wake up, giving Zo'or a startled look.
“Nice that you're finally awake. Maybe now you'll tell me what happened. I consider it extremely odd that I almost can't remember anything and that human slept in my bed.” Zo'or said, clearly annoyed.
Liam sat up now. “Well, you were drunk and when we tried to put you in the bed, you strictly refused to let go of Ben.” he replied.
Zo'or just looked at him angrily. What was Kincaid talking about? Why should he refuse to let go of that Ben; that was completely absurd, and drunk could humans only get by swallowing some fermented drinks. Drinks? Slowly the connection of those drinks from last night and his present condition dawned on Zo'or. But that was completely impossible; he would not have lowered himself to get into such an undignified condition. But he had to admit the symptoms clearly were pointing to that. As far as he knew, humans could hardly remember what happened while they had been drunk, and also got intense headaches afterwards. In addition, drunken people usually did strange things and the Major had said that he had done something really strange. But he decided first to try and solve his biggest problem at hand.
“Major Kincaid, does your species have some method to lessen pain?” Zo'or asked his temporary protector. Liam grinned and stood up. “Wait a moment.” he said, and began to look for something.

Ben grinned to himself as he watched Liam looking for painkillers. Hopefully he would not find any. Maybe they would get some peace and quiet from Zo'or then. Then Ben sighed. Of course, in that case it was much more probable that the young synod leader would not leave them in peace at all.
Ben turned his attention back towards the coffee, he was cooking. Liam had finally found what he had been looking for and turned towards Zo'or again. The Taelon looked at the Major rather helplessly. He seemed to wonder what to do with the pills. Ben could not help starting to grin once again. He had good reason to be gloating. But to help Liam, he handed a glass of water over to him. Liam smiled thankfully, but Zo'or still looked at both of them, uncomprehending.
Suddenly, Liam's global bleeped. The Major opened it. “Oh, good morning, Da'an!” Ben heard him say. Then his glance fell back on Zo'or, who looked at him quite angrily. “You had better turn your full attention to me!” he demanded.

Liam turned around immediately, when he heard Zo'or's demand, but also Da'an seemed to have noticed, who had been the one speaking. “Zo'or?” he asked.
"Uhm yeah, he's here too.” Liam answered his Companion. Then he went over to Zo'or and pressed the global into his hand without saying a word. Maybe it was better anyway, if Da'an talked to Zo'or now. By now T'than had surely told the synod everything about what he had observed last night, and Liam would be glad if he was not the one who had to explain to Zo'or what had happened in the first place.
“Zo'or, are you alright?” he heard Da'an ask.
“Of course, everything's alright, Da'an.” the younger Taelon lied. “Why do you ask?”
“I ask, because yesterday's events weren't indicative of that, Zo'or. Your behavior was very unusual.”
“My behavior is none of your business. And anyway, that's all the humans' fault.” Zo'or was clearly worked up.
“That's possible. But T'than already has reported everything to the synod. If I hadn't convinced them that in a human body you're not accountable for your actions, they would've banished you.” Da'an explained.
Zo'or's image now looked annoyed, but also a little terrified, on the global's screen. “How does T'than know about that? And how do you dare to say I wouldn't be accountable!?” he called angrily.
“Zo'or?” Da'an sounded worried. Probably he wondered about Zo'or not being able to remember last night's events.

 
* * *
 

Liam and Zo'or slowly stepped into Da'an's office. Kincaid finally had explained to the young Taelon how to use the painkillers. Zo'or seemed grateful to him for not making fun of him, but kept his distance after he had gotten a short summary of the previous evening from Da'an. After another conversation with the synod, Da'an was sitting on his chair and saw the Taelon and protector coming towards him.
“Zo'or, I see you're better now.” the North American Companion noted. Zo'or did not react, but just turned his head away, annoyed. Because Liam did not expect any reaction from the synod leader, he began to speak. “Why did you want us to come, Da'an?”
His Companion turned his head towards him. “The synod wants an exact analysis of the events of the previous evening. Their opinion, obviously, is that Zo'or's behavior was caused by the human body. It is because of that that you and Ben are called to the synod on the mothership.”
Liam gave him a confused look. “What does the synod need Ben for? Zo'or and I can report about everything alone.”
“I don't think you understood, Liam. Zo'or's ban not to come to the mothership is still in place. You and Ben will work together to complete each others report.” Da'an replied.
“How can the synod want to be informed about my behavior without hearing my opinion first?” Zo'or interrupted, now quite indignant. Obviously he did not like the thought of being lowered from researcher to research object.
“The synod doesn't tolerate protest!” Da'an sternly reminded him. “Find Ben and come with me to the mothership immediately!” he then demanded from his protector.

 
* * *
 

A short while later Ben was with Da'an and Liam onboard the shuttle. The Major had already explained to him why he had been called to the mothership. Even so, Ben was still visibly uncomfortable about the whole thing. It wasn't enough that he had had to deal with Zo'or the whole time, now he had to explain Zo'or's behavior to the Taelon synod. Anyway, the whole incident would only be treated as yet another example of what an inferior species the humans were. But it was not like he had any choice.
Ben sighed. After all, he did not have to think up lies to cover his origin or the resistance, because that was not what they were trying to find out. Besides, the synod knew the worst of this whole situation with Zo'or already - thanks to T'than.
Nevertheless, he became more anxious the closer they got to the mothership. When they finally arrived at the shuttle bay of the mothership, Ben removed his seatbelt, hesitating, and stood up. Da'an and Liam also rose and stepped into the corridor. Ben followed them. They walked through the mothership and finally came to a passage leading into a large room. “Wait here! I will ask you to come in, when the synod is ready to see you.” Da'an informed his two companions.
Liam turned to Ben. “Is everything alright?” he asked, worried. “I think it'll be okay.” Ben slowly replied.
“Just tell them what you know and don't let them provoke you, if they call humanity underdeveloped. That could cause some trouble otherwise.” the Major tried to calm Ben, but also to warn him against making rash statements.
“Of course. I didn't intend to.” Ben in turn calmed the Major.

 
* * *
 

Zo'or was very annoyed that the synod had obviously chosen to completely leave him out of this meeting. And on top of that, he now had to stay in Kincaid's apartment alone. Although, he had to admit it could be interesting to explore a human's personal dwelling. That said human was one of his subordinates made it even more interesting. Maybe he could question Kincaid about a few things.
But Zo'or did not know where to begin. All in all, he had seen the whole apartment already. After all, he had slept in Kincaid's personal bedroom. Finally, he decided to begin there. He entered the room, in which he found the bed in still the same untidy state as he had left it. Next to it there was a small cupboard. The Taelon took a step towards it and opened a drawer. Inside there were some long receptacles, which obviously contained some kind of liquid. Zo'or took one and undid the cap. Under that seemed to be a nozzle. When he tried to have a closer look at it, he noticed the nozzle could be pressed down and by that let some kind of gas out into the air. To Zo'or's surprise he found it decidedly pleasant-smelling. He turned the receptacle in his hand and read the label ‘Deo-Spray’. Next to it was printed ‘for men’. The synod leader shrugged, not being aware he already had adapted the trait from the humans. He could not find a reason why humans needed something like this. He decided to ask the Major later.

 
* * *
 

A short while later Da'an came back to Liam and Ben. “The synod is ready now to welcome you.” he announced. The Major and the boy nodded silently and stepped into the relatively large room, following Da'an. Besides Da'an there were twelve other Taelons in the room. Except for Da'an and T'than, all the members of the synod showed themselves in their natural form. Ben looked around nervously. Even if one of these Taelons was familiar to him, he would not have been able to recognize him.
“I believe we can begin now.” Da'an opened the hearing.
“Indeed.” T'than interrupted. “We all know what kind of experiment Zo'or has done and should primarily concentrate on his behavior during the experiment.”
“I agree.” A Taelon unfamiliar to Ben began to speak. “But we first should hear the report from the beginning, if a fair judgement is to be at all possible.”
When the other Taelons only nodded in agreement, he continued. “Major Liam Kincaid.” He turned to the one whose name he had called. “After Zo'or was transformed, you accommodated him. Could you briefly describe the sequence of events of the rest of that day, after you took Zo'or with you to Earth?”
“This information is completely irrelevant.” He was interrupted by T'than.
“I agree.” another Taelon announced. “On that evening obviously nothing happened, what could be important enough to waste time with it now.”
“We will judge that once we have heard it.” the other Taelon replied. “And by the way, my name is Vi'ec.” he introduced himself to the two humans.
Liam was about to begin to speak, when the other Taelon started again. “Why do you consider it necessary to tell them your name?”
“It is much easier to gain the humans' trust, if they can call us by name.” Vi'ec defended himself.
Liam and Ben could only stand there and listen to the Taelons, who obviously had to debate about every sentence first. What did they think, what they were thinking about them? Ben was not quite sure if the synod of the Taelons still was aware that they were both still there.

 
* * *
 

Zo'or had finally turned to another room, the living room. He could watch the humans' television program on the mothership any time, but even so he switched on the Major's TV. After all, his people had said that the humans would be influenced by that medium. As a Taelon he had, of course, never been able to experience this, because he did not have such a simple mind. So he watched some of the programs, but it did not seem to cause any reaction. All the news and movies were the same as always. Finally he stopped on one channel and stood up to look for the headache pills. They seemed to have lost their effectiveness, and he did not need this at all right now.
When he came back, the channel was still on and he sat down and continued watching. He had never seen anything this. There were humans who showed things that people were obviously supposed to buy. These humans seemed to be very enthusiastic about everything they showed. But why did they want to sell it? Normally people bought things in their shops. Zo'or tilted his head. A woman was just introducing a white cloth that was called a self tanning cloth. Obviously it should have the effect of making humans' skin darker, when they rubbed down their bodies with it. But why did the humans need something like that?
Shaking his head he changed the channel. There also, things seemed to be sold. A young man enthusiastically presented a ring set with jewels and emphasized repeatedly how cheap it was considering the quality. To Zo'or it was completely incomprehensible that a human should spend money for something useless like that. It surprised him that obviously many of the rings were sold.
Confused and unnerved Zo'or switched off the TV.
What would the synod be discussing right now? He still could not remember yesterday's events. Da'an had told him he had been drunk and T'than had seen him like that, when he had been with Dr. Curzon. Typical for T'than that he had quickly used this opportunity against him. But he himself surely had done exactly the same, at one time. It really seemed to be about time to get the war minister out of his way - one way or another.
After his brief thought the young synod leader switched on the TV once again.

 
* * *
 

“And then we went to bed to sleep.” Liam finished his report of the first evening.
The Taelons were watching the two humans. “As I already explained, there were no events worth mentioning that day.” T'than said, as he took the floor once again. Vi'ec tilted his head in agreement. “You are right, but it was important to convince ourselves of this fact.”
“As you wish.” T'than replied. “But we now should turn our attention to the following day, when Zo'or was supposed to stay in Da'an's embassy.”
At these words he let his gaze wander to Da'an, who had been standing there silently until now.
“I called my protector, Zo'or and Mr. Bring to the embassy.” the North American Companion explained. “Major Kincaid accompanied me to a press conference and Zo'or and Mr. Bring were left behind at the embassy.”
“Where they obviously did not stay.” a member of the synod interrupted.
“Right, In'um.” T'than confirmed. “That's a very important point.”
“Well, Mr. Bring, why did Zo'or leave the embassy?” In'um addressed Ben. The boy swallowed. Until now he had only listened silently. But now he was supposed to say something himself. “He said he wanted to find out more about the humans.” he finally said, hesitating.
“That was his actual intention.” Vi'ec threw in. “He had to use all the time he had as a human.”
T'than gave him a cold look. “You may see it that way, but his later behavior showed more clearly that Zo'or is a danger to the Taelons.”
”I think you should proceed, Mr. Bring.” Da'an picked up the thread again. Ben breathed deeply and tried to concentrate on the previous day. “Zo'or and I went to a pizzeria, where we had something to eat.” Ben began. When no objections followed, he continued. “While I stayed in the pizzeria to pay, Zo'or went outside to wait for me. But when I went outside, I could not find him anywhere. I called Liam... uhm Major Kincaid on his global and reported the situation.” Ben thought about it briefly and then decided not to mention that Liam had first arrived with Da'an. “Finally, by coincidence, I heard a conversation about a woman who had been kidnapped by a group of teenagers. They said something about a warehouse and so I decided to go there.”
”Why had you been so sure that woman was Zo'or?” Vi'ec asked.
”Well, they said she was moving like a Taelon.” Ben answered.

 
* * *
 

What was that again? Zo'or still fascinated, watched the TV screen. He had to admit he had not really paid attention to the human TV program yet. Why were humans imprisoned and then filmed? And what he wondered about even more was that those humans obviously did this willingly. Not that Zo'or cared what happened to some completely unimportant humans, but even so it aroused his interest. This group of humans obviously totally submitted to those who supervised the whole thing. Some of those imprisoned even had to sleep outside and got only little to eat. Meanwhile they got tasks they had to accomplish, if they did not want to be punished. Even though Zo'or found this show very irritating, he considered the interpersonal conflicts and conversations extremely revealing. Humans seemed to find it difficult to live together in a confined space for a long time.
Finally, Zo'or switched off the device. He rather wanted to turn his attention towards the Major's apartment again. After all, he could analyze the TV program onboard the mothership as well.
He finally decided to explore the kitchen next. Maybe he would find some food there. So the synod leader moved towards the kitchenette. There Ben had obviously left the coffee in the pot, standing open to the air. Zo'or scrutinized the dark liquid. He remembered that most of his human employees liked to drink this in the morning, something he had never been able to explain to himself. This liquid contained a substance that was toxic for humans. So why did they drink it, then? Especially since every human seemed to know it was poisonous. Nevertheless, the Taelon decided to taste a bit of it. He put the pot to his lips and took a sip. Startled he winced and stepped backwards, put the receptacle down, and spit out the liquid. How could humans drink this? The taste was far from being pleasant.
Finally Zo'or made do with drinking water from the tap.

 
* * *
 

”So you went to this warehouse.” T'than noted.
”Yes.” Ben answered. “I wanted to see if Zo'or was actually there.”
”Why didn't you tell anyone about this?” In'um wanted to know.
Ben swallowed. Then he replied, “I tried to contact Major Kincaid, but I couldn't get through.”
”Major?” Da'an addressed his protector, questioning. “Could you explain this to us?”
“My global was damaged, after I had dropped it by mistake.” Liam explained briefly.
Ben continued. “I came to the warehouse and climbed onto a dumpster to look through the window. I saw Zo'or, who was tied to a chair. Then I lost my balance and fell into the dumpster, which also damaged my global. The people in the place had obviously heard me. They came and made me a prisoner also. Then I was locked into a small room with Zo'or.” Ben stopped in his report. Should he mention that he and Zo'or had argued and had a fight? He did not know what reason he could have to protect Zo'or, but it seemed to him as if Zo'or had not earned it in this case. Zo'or had tortured people and done experiments with them; of that Ben knew.
“When I arrived with Miss Palmer, the two of them were still in that room and the kidnappers had disappeared.” Ben finally heard Liam say.
“What condition was Zo'or in?” Vi'ec inquired.
“He was very annoyed.” Liam answered truthfully.
“There is nothing extraordinary about that. Proceed, Major.” Vi'ec said.
“Finally, we brought him back to my apartment.” Liam reported. “As you probably know, I live at the ‘Flat Planet Café’. Zo'or said that he wanted to stay at the bar and so I left him there.”
In'um tilted his head. “That obviously wasn't a good decision.” he noted. “But tell us now, what happened with Zo'or then.”
Ben looked at Liam. He knew that it would be better not to let the Taelons know anything about the surveillance system in Liam's apartment. “We don't know exactly.” he lied. “Major Kincaid sent me out after a while to see if everything was alright. I saw Zo'or, who was sitting at a table with some other people and was drinking cocktails. Because he already looked quite drunk, I told the Major about this, who immediately informed Da'an. I went over to Zo'or and finally managed to get him out of the building, where Major Kincaid was waiting with the shuttle.”
“Well, an abnormal behavior by Zo'or can't be denied there.” In'um noted.