Liam left his apartment. It was now half past seven. It certainly was too early to go to the mothership, but he could not make Zo'or wait for him again. He could even get suspicious, and that was something Liam really did not need. At that moment his global bleeped. He opened it and Augur's face appeared. “Hello Liam!” he greeted him. “I just checked my scanning system and I recognized something.”
“Well? What is it? Go on Augur.” Liam urged. “Well, according to these scanning results yesterday evening an interdimensional transfer took place, and it's to say here.” Augur said. “Wait a moment Augur! What does that mean? Interdimensional transfer?” Liam asked, confused. Could this have anything to do with the Taelons? “That means someone from another dimension came here. To be exact, directly to St. Michael's church.” the hacker explained. “But - it looks like it didn't happen on purpose. The vortex seems to have been quite uncontrolled. I need you to come here immediately!”
“No, Augur. Whoever was there will be gone now. I'll deal with this later. But if I'm late again, Zo'or will kill me.” Liam replied. Imagining having to explain his delay again to Zo'or, made him feel slightly panicked. “Liam! At least you can convince yourself that nobody is there. That can't take you that long.” Augur suggested to him. Finally, Liam felt himself defeated. “Very well... okay, Augur.” he answered and pushed his global together. It mildly intrigued him though, what had happened there. Besides, he still had enough time to get to the mother ship. So he began his way to the former headquarters of the resistance.

 
* * *
 

When Ben woke up, he saw a man, who was talking to him. He tried to remember where he was and what had happened. And who was this man? Somehow he knew him, but then he did not. Finally, the man turned away from him to deal with another person. Ben sat up. Where was he? He was obviously in a church, which also was strangely familiar to him, although he was sure he had never been here before. And what did happen, anyway? He dimly remembered a glowing and being in the park with Sarah. Sarah?! Now he realized the man was taking care of Sarah and obviously trying to wake her. The man had his back turned towards him now, but Ben was sure he had seen him before. But where? And had he brought them into the church?

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Ben. “Hey, you're Robert Leeshock!” Ben shouted. The man turned around and looked at Ben, clearly confused. “No, you must be mistaken. I'm Major Liam Kincaid, protector of the Companion for North America, Da'an. You probably have seen me before and now you've mixed me up with another person.” Liam suggested. Ben looked at him skeptically. “Right - very funny.” he said ironically. He wanted to stand up, but suddenly felt the stabbing headache he must have gotten somehow, and decided to stay seated for awhile longer.
Liam now seemed to be really confused. “What's supposed to be funny about that? Don't you believe me?” he asked, but then something seemed to occur to him. “Do you maybe know my counterpart from your world?”
*My world? He doesn't honestly want to say me we are in a parallel world! Wait a minute! Liam Kincaid? This church? Oh no!* “What?! We're in 'Earth: Final Conflict'?!” Ben shouted. Liam still seemed confused. “Earth final conflict? What does that mean?” Ben grinned. “Let me guess! You are Liam, leader of the resistance and son of Ha'gel. Right?”
Liam seemed to be shocked. But obviously he realized there was no point in denying it. “Right, but how do you know that? I mean, you are not even from this world.”
“Well, in ours this reality is more or less a TV series. That's why I thought you were Robert Leeshock. That's your actor.”

Liam by now was completely confused. This boy claimed to come from another world, in which his world was a TV series. He wondered what else this boy knew of, since he already knew all his personal secrets. He did not know himself how it came into his mind, but he asked, “Who is the main character?”
The boy did not seem prepared for this question, because he seemed to feel slightly unsure. “Hmm... I don't know if I should tell you that.” he said finally. “Why not? That information is useless to me anyway.” Liam told him. *That's right. So why am I interested in it?* Liam thought. But the boy gave him a nod. “You are right. Well, first Boone was the main character, but after his death.....you took his place.” the boy answered. Liam shook his head. “You're making fun of me.” Then he looked at the boy, who obviously had really meant it. *I'm the main character? But that has to mean in that world probably half my private life is known to everyone...*
“Oh by the way, my name is Ben Bring and that's Dr. Sarah Fince.” the boy interrupted his thoughts. Liam looked at him. “Oh... Erm... yeah, nice to meet you.” Liam said, and gave Ben his hand. Though he didn't admit it, this whole thing concerned him very much. “Are there any other important persons in this show of yours?” Liam asked. Ben rolled his eyes. “Of course. You're not the only figure in this series. The other important people are, one moment...Augur, Renée, Sandoval, Da'an and Zo'or.”

“Hey! What do you know about the Taelons?” Liam asked. Ben thought about it. What did he know about the Taelons? “Well, not very much. The viewer somehow doesn't get much helpful information about them, either.” he finally answered.
“Well, but you've got to know something. Did you, for example, watch a conversation of the Taelons?” Liam wanted to know. “Well yes, but most of the time there are only Da'an and Zo'or talking about their disagreements.” Ben, unsure, answered. He did not know what else to say about it. “Zo'or!!” Liam suddenly exclaimed, and looked at his watch. “I was supposed to meet him today and I only have got five minutes left!”
“Hey, and what about us?” Ben threw in. “Well, then you best go to Augur.” Liam suggested. *Well then I will have to stand up* Ben thought to himself and began to rise. Although his head was still aching, he made it. “You have to help me carry Sarah!” he shouted to Liam. Together they lifted up Sarah and carried her to Augur. The hacker's eyes nearly fell out of his head when he saw the three coming in. “Liam! What's all this about? Are these the people from the other world? Why did you bring them in here?” he began questioning Liam. “Augur, I don't have time now, bur I'm sure he can explain everything.” Liam said with a gesture in Ben's direction, and left the room.

When the lift doors had closed, Ben was alone with Augur, because Sarah was still unconscious. “What do you have to explain to me, then?” Augur asked, excited. Ben looked at him and could hardly believe he had actually met Liam and Augur. Then he concerned himself with Augur's question. “My name is Ben Bring and this is Dr. Sarah Fince. We obviously are from a parallel world. Well, and there we have this world as a TV series, at least partly.” Ben explained. *What am I doing here? I'm actually standing in the former headquarter of the resistance and talking to Augur! That's really crazy!* Ben thought, because he still could not believe what was happening. “Hm“, Augur said. “This is getting really interesting. I think I should call Renée.”

 
* * *
 

When Liam arrived on the mother ship, he was already five minutes late. He began running and met Da'an. *Somehow this seems really familiar.* Liam thought. “Good morning, Da'an!” he called, ignoring the feeling of deja-vu. The Taelon looked at him, astonished. “Liam, weren't you supposed to meet with Zo'or again?”
“Yes Da'an, I'm sorry, but I'm late again.” Liam replied, and ran on. *Oh no, I hope I won't meet T'than and Mit'gai now.* As a precaution, he went around the corners slowly. *Just don't knock down a Taelon again.* he thought panicking, because he also had to hurry. Finally he met Sandoval. “Major, what are you doing here?”
“Excuse me Sandoval, but I don't have time. I have to go to Zo'or.” Liam replied. “Well, I don't mind.” Sandoval said, shrugging, and continued on his way. Finally, Liam stopped in front of Zo'or totally out of breath, who was already looking kind of annoyed. “Excuse me, Zo'or! Something kept me.”

Zo'or was standing and waiting. Major Kincaid was late again. Finally, the Major came rushing in and apologized hurriedly and completely out of breath. “Very well Major! Since you are only ten minutes late today I will forget about this.” Zo'or said calmly, “Though, I would like to know the reason for your being one hour late yesterday. You seemed to be quite distracted, when I called you.” Somehow it interested him, and it just might be useful to know more about the humans, because they were the key to the survival of the Taelons. “Well, I overslept.” the human said hesitantly. “And you woke me up. I wasn't fully awake. I'm sorry, Zo'or.” Well, this clearly demonstrated once again how weak the humans were. However, he also had to find out more about this, too, because they had many hidden abilities, which were not fully known even to them. However, he would talk about this with Da'an first. “Well Major, we should begin.” Zo'or said, making a delicate wave with his hand towards Ma'el's relic.

 
* * *
 

Ben desperately looked at Sarah. She had not woken up yet. “Augur, couldn't you somehow tell me, if she's alright?“, he asked the hacker. “Well, I'm not a doctor, but it seems to me she is just unconscious.” Augur said calmingly. At that moment, the lift door opened and Renée came in. “What's up, Augur? Why did I have to come here immediately?” she asked Augur. Then she noticed Ben and the unconscious Sarah. “And who are these two?” she demanded. “Well, it seems these two came from a parallel world.” Augur answered. “Okay, but why did you bring them here? Isn't that too big a risk?” Renée noted. “Normally you'd be right, but in their world our reality exixts as a TV series. I wouldn't have believed it, but that boy there seemed to have convinced Liam.” he explained. “Well, that's right! My name is Ben Bring and that's Dr. Sarah Fince.” Ben introduced the two of them for the third time. “Welcome to our world!” Renée said and shook his hand. “My name is Renée Palmer.” she said. “I know.” Ben replied and smiled apologetically.

Half an hour later Sarah finally woke up. She opened her eyes and understandably seemed to be confused. “Where am I? What happened?” she asked, and then she noticed Ben. “Ben? We were in the park... but I don't remember anything further. What happened?” Ben looked at her calmingly. “Everything is alright. But obviously we are in a parallel world.” he said briefly, so as not to confuse her too much. She seemed to be quite weak. Maybe it was because she had directly touched the glowing arc. “Parallel world? The existence of something like that is only theory.” she finally said, unsure. “Well, at least it seems like it really has happened. I believe we're in a world which corresponds to a TV series.” Ben now mentioned. “TV series? Oh no, please don't tell me we're in one of your science-fiction series!” Sarah groaned and sat up. “I'm afraid so.” Ben said. “Science-fiction?” Renée joined in the conversation. “Oh well, in our world there are no Taelons. So your world is science-fiction to us.” Ben explained. “Taelons?” Sarah suddenly asked. “Didn't you somehow compare them to my experiment?” *Oh no, the experiment! I forgot about that.* Ben thought and of course there already was the question. “Which experiment?” Augur and Renée asked in unison. Before Ben could do anything, Sarah began explaining. “I've discovered a possibility to turn amounts of energy into viable creatures. And I believe he compared the energy accumulation to those Taelons.”

Augur and Renée were speechless, and Ben knew exactly why. This experiment could actually help them. “You mean you could turn a Taelon into a human?” Augur finally asked. “Well, if a Taelon is an accumulation of energy, then the answer seems to be 'yes'.” Sarah said, sounding skeptical. “Taelons are energy beings.” Ben explained to her. “This could actually be interesting.” Renée admitted. “Yeah, but where do we get a Taelon for that?” Augur said, thinking hard. “Well, maybe Liam could ask Da'an if there's a Taelon, who is willing to do it. After all, it could save them from dying out.” Renée suggested. “This could work.” Augur admitted. “But could you reconstruct the experiment from here?” he asked Sarah. “Of course. That's quite easy.” she answered.

 
* * *
 

Liam was on his way to the Taelon embassy in Washington. How was he supposed to ask Da'an something like this? He probably would not be amused to hear what kind of experiment they were planning, and he could not imagine that any Taelon would simply allow them to perform experiments on him. Feeling uncertain, he entered the embassy and made his way to Da'an. “Liam, you wanted to talk to me?” the North American Companion asked. “Erm, well, I wanted to ask you what you'd think of an experiment that could mean the survival of your species.” Liam asked slowly.

 
* * *
 

Da'an was sitting in his chair in the embassy. Liam's offer actually seemed to be intriguing. Nevertheless, he could not imagine any Taelon undergoing this experiment willingly. The idea of being human was terrifying to the Taelons. Although... Zo'or at least had been in a human's body, and obviously he had even enjoyed it. But when Da'an thought about what that one had done as a human, he doubted this was a good idea.
Finally, it occurred to him Zo'or or any other Taelon would probably not be as strong as in Pierce's body. It would at least be worth a try.

 
* * *
 

An annoyed Zo'or ran through the corridor which led to shuttle bay. Major Kincaid was already being debriefed about he should fly him to earth.
What did these humans think?! Why did he have to go to earth to meet the president? He had been informed the president was ill and Zo'or had to come to earth, if he wanted to meet him personally. Why did these humans always become ill? Well, he seemed to have no choice. At the shuttle bay he waited for Kincaid, who seemed to be late once again. This was annoying Zo'or more and more, but he could not do anything about it. *If I could just understand these humans*, he thought. He had been waiting for another ten minutes, before Kincaid came running and (once again) apologized that he had not been there earlier. Because they were running late already Zo'or said nothing about that, he was more concerned about arriving at the meeting as fast as he could. *I should talk to Da'an about this. At least, he seems to understand these humans quite well.*

When Zo'or was back on the mothership he immediately went to Da'an, of whom he knew he also was onboard. “Zo'or,” Da'an began, “why did you come to see me?”
“You seem to understand these humans well. For that reason I wanted to ask you, how you could get so much information about them.” Zo'or answered him. “I think you must be mistaken, my child. I don't know any more about the humans than you.” Da'an replied. “Possibly, but in that case you would have to aspire to reach a better understanding of them.” Zo'or stated. “Now that you mention it, I think I have found an opportunity to learn more about them.” Da'an replied mysteriously. “What is that supposed to mean?” Zo'or asked, annoyed Da'an obviously had hidden something from him. “I have heard of a kind of experiment, from which we could gain valuable information about the humans.” Da'an said, and began to explain to Zo'or what the experiment was all about.

 
* * *
 

Ben and Sarah had already spent two weeks in the parallel world. Temporarily, they were living with Augur below the church. Augur had actually agreed to this, because that way Sarah could use the computers to reconstruct her work in the experiment.
Besides her only Ben was in the room, when the lift doors opened and Liam entered. “Hello Liam!” he was immediately greeted by Ben. “I've got news.” Liam said. “Da'an seems to have found someone, who is willing to offer his services as part of the experiment.”
“Really?” Ben exclaimed, surprised. “Do you know which Taelon?” he asked curiously. Maybe he had been in the series and he knew him. “No.” Liam said. “I think Da'an didn't want to tell me. There must have been a reason. We should investigate this a bit. Oh, and the Taelon scientists want to have all data about the project.”
“Well, we won't be able to avoid that, will we?” Sarah told him. “By the way, I've finished it and just have to check through everything. The past taught me to check everything very carefully.” she said, smirking. Ben understood. Last time the whole lab had been destroyed, and then they had not been experimenting with living beings. If anything went wrong this time, it would be a catastrophe.

 
* * *
 

One day later Sarah let the final simulation run through, when Renée came rushing in. “You have to get away from here!” she called. Augur and Sarah looked at her, confused. “What do you mean?” Sarah asked. “Since you were able to transform the energy signature of the Taelons, they want you to explore this further on the mothership and help them to create artificial core energy.” Renée explained. “On the mothership?” Augur asked. “I don't think that's a good idea, either. They will hold you there until you've found out how to create core energy.” he continued. “We have to bring you back into your world.” Renée said firmly. “No.” Sarah replied, to everyone's surprise. “I don't want to go back there. In this world there are many more possibilities, and anyway nobody would believe me that I successfully ran this through. In my world one little oversight made a whole lab explode. After that experiments have only been allowed with the DNA of insects.”
“All right.” Augur said. “I'll give you a new identity.” Sarah nodded. “Yes, but I'll have to go into hiding.” she noted sadly.

 
* * *
 

Augur, Renée, Liam and Ben were standing in the former headquarters of the resistance. It was time to wish Sarah goodbye. Ben, especially, would miss Sarah very much, because he had known her for almost his whole life. She also was his only connection to his home world. Strangely, he did not miss any of the other people from his world, but he already knew the separation from Sarah would be much harder for him. One after the other, the resistance members said goodbye to Sarah. When she came to Ben, they hugged each other. “So you really want to leave me alone here.” Ben said, and tried to smile. “Well, I think you're old enough now.” Sarah said, also smiling. A short silence followed. “I'll really miss you.” Ben said, serious now. Sarah looked at him. “Yes, I'll miss you, too.” she said. Then she turned to leave. “Farewell, Ben!” she said. Ben would have loved to call out that she should stay, but he knew it would be much too dangerous for her. “Farewell, Sarah! Maybe we'll meet again sometime.” he called instead. “Yeah, I hope so.” she said finally, and left.