Captain Lili Denner Marquette sat on a bench in a park. The sun was bright and flowers bloomed along the path in rainbow profusion. She heard the sound of laughing children, but did not see them. It was a beautiful day.

It was also a lie.

She had been in prisons before. During the war, her F-22 was shot down over Manchuria. After spending a week evading Chinese patrols she was captured and taken to a POW camp. She spent nearly a month there until American forces liberated the camp and it's prisoners. The Chinese had honored the Geneva Convention, but she had still hated the whole experience. But not as much as she hated what was happening now.

How could I have not seen it? She wondered. At first she had been blinded to the reality of her imprisonment by the familiar sights and people and places of Earth. Later, it had been the words of a friend, in this case a false Liam, that had led her astray.

And now the Jaridians have interdimensional travel. Now they can invade Earth.

She bent down and plucked a flower from beside the bench. It was a Stargazer Lily, her favorite flower. One of the few good memories she had of her father was of him giving her a handful of the flowers on a Fourth of July night when she was ten. As fireworks blossomed like burning flowers overhead, he told her what they were called. "Stargazer Lilies, for my stargazer, Lily," he said. She recalled she found the play on words hilarious at the time. She had always watched the sky and the stars, thrilled to see planes flying overhead (I'm really showing my age, she thought with a small smile, if I'm old enough to remember when planes were still common) and skipped school once to watch a space shuttle launch on tv.

And then the Day of Arrival, changing everything, everyone, forever.

Paving stones on the path that led her here, to Jaridia.

"Lili?"

She turned, startled by the familiar voice, and saw a man standing behind her. His face was craggy, worn by time and loss, and he smiled a sad smile. He had a solid look to him. He wore a black leather jacket, and a skrill was attached to his right wrist.

Lili found herself unable to breathe.

William Boone.

"Boone, I . . . " She stood and embraced him. Her eyes closed and she felt his arms closing around her back, holding her tightly against him. "I never thought I would ever see you again."

"It's all right, Lili. I'm here."

"So much has happened, so much has changed. The Resistance, the Taelons, everything . . . " And then she stopped herself. Boone was dead, murdered by Zo'or while he was unconscious and helpless. She knew of his brief resurrection as Lazarus, but Lazarus too was no more. Her shock and joy at seeing Boone alive turned into anger. "Impostor," she hissed, angrily pushing him away.

The false Boone looked at her oddly. "What do you mean?" His surprise sounded unsettlingly genuine.

"Boone's dead. You can't be him."

The false Boone nodded. "You are correct. I chose this form based on your memories. You loved this male, did you not?" He asked in Boone's stolen voice.

Tears, hot and salty, began to well up in her eyes. "Yes, maybe, I don't know." She shook her head. "But he's dead. How dare you taint my memories of him my stealing his shape." Just seeing Boone again opened old wounds, reawakened old feelings.

"I would have thought you would be pleased to see Boone alive again."

"But he's not alive, is he? You're just a Jaridian who's stolen his shape and his voice. Why? To see if you could pry more secrets out of me?"

"No, not that," the false Boone said. "I only wished to make you feel more at ease. You are still our prisoner, but we do not wish you harm."

Her temper flared. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? You gained my trust, you stole my memories, impersonated my friends and you used them to manipulate me into betraying my species!"

The false Boone shook his head. "You have not betrayed your species, Lili Marquette. You have saved them from Taelon domination. You should be proud. That is what you have fought for, is it not?" He looked at her questioningly. "What Boone fought for?"

For a moment, she considered that. Defeating the Taelons was something she had wanted, and she had always wondered about the true motives of the Jaridians. But now that she had been manipulated by them, she questioned how altruistic they were. She shut her eyes and shook her head. "Why didn't you just ask me?"

Silence.

Then: "It is not our way."

That just about says it all, doesn't it? She thought. How could anyone fully understand the thoughts of alien minds? She had Shared with Da'an once, been more intimate than lovers, and yet the Taelon was as much a mystery to her as he had ever been. But no matter what the motives, what the differences, her convictions told her that some things were just wrong, for any species. "And it's not our way to trust people once they've betrayed us," she shot back, eyes narrowing. "No matter how familiar or friendly their face is. I think you'll find most of my species thinks the same."

The false Boone just stared at her for a moment, then his smooth human features began to melt into the pebbled, yellow-and-black skin of a Jaridian. "I am most . . . sorry that I have hurt you," it said, Boone's voice becoming deeper, rougher, less human with each word. Then the Jaridian turned and walked away from the bench and down the pathway, vanishing in a shimmer of air. Lili hugged herself and stared at the imaginary skies of an imaginary Earth, wondering if she would ever see the real thing again.

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