 a major incident. Several bald Faey were interviewed for the piece, one of which declared that it was the new "in" look for Faey who lived in Washington.

Songa finished her research, and brought only one piece of information that looked to be of any use at all... but it was a piece of information that disturbed Jason, disturbed him very, very much.

There was an old, _old_ case of a Faey noble dying from a bio-engineered agent after visiting Moridon. It was noted in the archive that it was clearly an assassination, but the fact that the assassin had managed to penetrate Moridon security to deliver the agent made it big enough to remain in the archives after all this time. It was from over a thousand years ago, and it was one of the cases that had led to the Faey ban on biogenetic weapons.

What troubled Jason, and the doctors, was the fact that the agent that killed Maeda Karinne was _also_ a complex molecule that attached to the DNA of her immune cells, and caused her immune system to attack her own body and kill her.

_Exactly_ what they'd done to Jason.

But why? Why they would reach back so far and dust off a thousand year old illegal weapon and modify it to attack him? And after doing that, how did they know where he'd be to deliver it, and how did they get past the famous Moridon security to deliver it? If they knew where he was, why didn't they simply attack his dropship as they came back from Moridon?

It just made no sense.

It was, however, just what they needed. There was some information in that old archive about how they tried to treat her, and it was enough for the doctors to start work on a cure for his condition. They were going to pick up on where those doctors a thousand years ago left off, and try to create a counter-agent that would cause this agent to break up. Once all the molecules were destroyed, it wouldn't self-replicate, and Jason's system would be purified.

But Jason just couldn't help but keep coming back to it, and coming back to it, and coming back to it. There was just so much about this that made no sense that he couldn't leave it be. He thought about it almost all the time. He even dreamed about it at night. Day after day went by, then a week, then two weeks, as Yohne, Songa, and Rann worked on finding a counter, and Jason just couldn't get this out of his head. It was maddening! What was he missing here? There was something important here, something very important! He even typed it all out in a file and read over it and over it, trying to see what he was missing, trying to find that missing piece of the puzzle.

Over those days, he certainly had enough people distracting him. Jyslin was there almost every waking hour, and they talked all the time. Tim visited both to supply him with information on what was going on outside and just to see him and spend time with him. Symone was a frequent visitor, as was Kumi, and everyone in the resistance tried to stop by at least once a day to say hi and make him feel better about being stuck inside his little bubble, as Shelly called it. Every time he tried to focus on what he was missing, then someone would come in and distract him or make him lose his train of thought.

There were other things going on as well. The new mines were effective, so they were sending at least one of each kind out a night. Every day, at least two more Sticks came down, and so far that bitch Myleena hadn't come up with a counter. They were also releasing a gun drone every few days, when they got them built and ready, but had not built any new rings or other exotic devices. Those usually required Jason to build the boards, for that was something that most of the others couldn't do. They hadn't been trained for moleculartronic boardwork, and the boards in those devices weren't stock boards they could buy from someone else, like the boards in the mines and such were. Jason couldn't do that in the bubble, so they'd been working only with gun drones and mines since Jason had gotten sick. The mines were very effective, but the drones were less so. With all the fighter coverage in space, a gun drone was usually intercepted and attacked within 45 seconds of activation. That gave them enough time to fire on one or two Sticks, but not enough time to wreak the kind of havoc the first one had managed. They still brought some of the work up to him, sending data or pictures to the panel he had inside or talking with him about other issues they were having in the shop, and they managed to keep disrupting his train of thought on the matter at hand.

It stayed elusively out of reach until Kiaari finally returned to the mountain... and she didn't come alone. Nor did she come in her usual manner. It shocked the hell out of Jason, waking up in the middle of the night and seeing two pairs of luminous eyes looming over him.

It took him a moment to realize that one of them was Kiaari, in her _natural_ form, her lupine form. The other form was a Kimdori, but a Kimdori he had never seen before. It was massive, way bigger than Kiaari, with burnished silvery fur, and it was a male. Somehow, the two of them had infiltrated his sterilizing field, and were inside with him.

"Calmly," the male told him, putting a monstrous clawed hand on his chest. "I am Kereth, Elder of the clan, and keeper of the knowledge of welfare and medicine to serve the clan's needs. Miaari sent me to bring to you the cure to your disease."

"_Cure_?" Jason gasped. "You know how to cure me?"

"Would I be here if I could not?" he asked with maddening ease, giving him an amused look. "We are familiar with the research your Faey doctors are undertaking, but where they still search for the answer, we have already discovered it. We have shared this knowledge with them as they slept. They will awaken believing they have had a revelation, and will know what to do. We wished to see you and let you know this, and I also wished to meet you. You will be out of this containment field soon, Jason Fox. So be calm and have patience."

"Wait a minute," Jason said. "How did you know about this? That research they're doing is from a thousand years ago!"

"I remember it like it was yesterday," he said with an eerie smile.

"No way!" Jason said in disbelief. "You're a _thousand_ years old?"

"A little over fifteen hundred," he said with that same smile. "I told you, human, I am an _elder_ in my clan. That title is no empty word among my people. I was alive when news of Maeda Karinne's unusual death became known, and Kimdori being Kimdori, we investigated the matter. That is how the memory of that research came to be with us. I have kept it for the clan for a thousand years. "

"Wow," Jason breathed. "I had no idea you lived so long." He looked at Kiaari speculatively.

She laughed. "I'm only 52," she told him with a grin. "I'm just a baby compared to my elders, Jason. I won't even be taken seriously by them until I'm at least two hundred."

"If then," Kereth mused, which made Kiaari give him a quick, unfriendly look. He then moved his huge hand up to Jason's neck, and Jason felt that moment of _expansion_, where Kereth's ability joined their minds into a single contiguous consciousness, though Jason felt very little from Kereth. "I see, child," Kereth chuckled. "But you haven't given him what you were told to give him."

"The exomech was destroyed, elder," she explained. "The need for it is gone."

"Still, you were commanded to share that knowledge, and it has not been done."

She bowed her head. "I'll see to it immediately, elder," she said contritely.

"Share with him the knowledge of Faey fighters as well," he ordered. "He might have use of that skill."

"As you see fit, elder," she assured him.

"Well. It was definitely worth the travel to meet you, Jason Fox. May the Denmother seed your path with good favor."

With the huge hand still on his neck, Jason suddenly felt the overwhelming desire to sleep. Before he could even think about why, he spiraled down into slumber.

                                        * * *

When Jason woke up, he knew that Kiaari had done her elder's bidding, for it was there.

All the controls, all the indicators, they were all in there, like he was born knowing how it all worked. He laid there and thought it through in his head, going step by step through the procedures to start and operate an exomech, and found that he knew exactly where every control was, know what every display meant, and could operate every system in the unit. And when he closed his eyes, he could _see_ the entire layout of a Faey Dragonfly fighter, and a Starhawk, and a Lancer, and even the control layout of the new Raptor. Though the flight controls were the same as a skimmer, the other systems weren't, and he knew how those worked as well.

Kiaari. He could kiss her. Thanks to her, he could operate an exomech, and he could fly any mainstream Faey fighter in production. He wouldn't be a very good fighter pilot, but he _could_ fly the ships.

He saw they were already at work. All three doctors were hunched over his panel, sending in excitement as they went over a "brilliant idea" that Yohne had had the night before.

So, given he had little to do before those three managed to figure it all out, he went back to the problem. And the problem was, what was he missing here? He went over the list he'd compiled in his moment of peace before Jyslin got there. She always knew when he was awake, and hurried to him as soon as she was aware of it. He looked at the two comparisons. Jason contracted this condition by tampering by Trillane, and they had little direct information about exactly where he'd picked it up. Rann's idea that it was released into the atmosphere actually didn't wash, for there was no trace of it anywhere. The agent attacked him by attaching to his DNA and causing his immune system to go haywire.

Okay.

According to the records, Maeda Karinne contracted the same condition after a visit to Moridon, where an assassin had managed to poison her. The agent used against her attached to her DNA, and caused her immune system to go haywire, just like Jason.

So. It just didn't make sense. If Trillane knew where he was going to be to slip him this agent, they would have just shown up with a military force and killed him, then they'd have had a body to show Grand Duchess Trillane. The way they did it meant that they'd have no way to prove he was dead. And why _this_? Why dredge up a thousand year old biological warfare agent and alter it to try to kill him with it?

Well, one way they could have done it was Washington. They did

No, no, he was sick _before_ he went to Washington, and the docs told him that he couldn't have been infected for any longer than six days before he got sick enough to notice. The replication pattern of the agent was a mathematical certainty, and six days was the absolute maximum time if only _one_ molecule entered his body. So, it had to be in that six day window before he got sick. He looked back over his work at that time, and saw that he'd done some mine runs, and he'd been to Lincoln, and that was basically it. He'd not been anywhere where the Faey would have the opportunity to infect him.

Moridon. He'd been to Moridon.

Still, that was also an improbability bordering on impossibility. Again, if the Faey knew he was going to Moridon, they could have just attacked the dropship either on the way there or on the way back. And if they _did_ want to infect him, they'd have to go through that fearsome Moridon security.

Damn it, damn it, damn it! There were too many holes and not enough pegs here! Too many questions, and no matter what hypothesis he pondered, it left more questions than answers, and always created a situation that was either impossible or impractical. The Faey weren't dumb, and they weren't silly. If they did this, they had to have a viable reason and proper opportunity... and Jason could not think of any scenario that fit both of those conditions.

_Jason! We think we have an answer! Yohne sent excitedly. Give us about an hour, and we might have a treatment we can test! If we're lucky, you'll be out of there by suppertime!_

_That's great! Jason sent in reply. I'd better have a steak dinner waiting for me when I get out of here._

_Ah can take care of that, sugah, Temika sent as she came in. Ah'll let everyone know_

_Not yet, Yohne warned. We just have a theory. Let us do some tests and see if it's viable._

_Alright. Jason, Jyslin asked me to tell you when you woke up that she's takin' a nap, and she'll be in to sit with you as soon as you wake up. Ah'm supposed to go wake her._

_Don't. She needs to rest, he said. If we're lucky, she'll wake up and find me out of this stupid damn bubble._

_I doubt that, Yohne warned. If this treatment works, we'll still have to remove those filters. So you're looking at about two hours in the surgical theater._

_You had to remind me._

_I'm a doctor. It's what I do, she sent back impishly. What have you been doing in there on that panel, by the way? I've been meaning to ask._

_I'm trying to understand why this happened, he answered._

_Well, it's pretty simple, Jason. They tried to kill you._

_Yes, but how they did it really doesn't make any sense, Yohne. If they knew where I was going to be, why try to kill me like this? Why not just bring soldiers and attack me? We already know they didn't just release it into the air, we can't find any trace of it. That means someone has to get close enough to me to infect me, but we go back to that first question. If they knew where I was, and could get that close, why resurrect a thousand year old illegal bioweapon, alter it to affect me, and then infect me with it? If they knew where I was, why bother? The only place I've been where I've been out of the dropship has been Nebraska and Moridon, and we know they don't know about Nebraska. So, that leaves only Moridon. And if they poisoned me on Moridon, how did they get past Moridon security? And why bother? Why not just attack my dropship en route? It would have been much easier, and they'd have my body to prove to Grand Duchess Trillane that I'm dead. Infecting me with this agent when it took so long to affect me makes absolutely no sense given whoever tries to collect the bounty on my head has to prove that I'm dead._

_My. He has a point, Rann sent thoughtfully. Put that way, well, the only option that seems viable is that someone here tried to kill him. And of us all, only the three of us would have that kind of ability._

_Unless we have a Kimdori in the mountain, Songa sent soberly. A Kimdori could do it._

_No, it wasn't a Kimdori, Jason told them._

_And how are you so sure about that?_

_Because, we get back to the body issue, he sent, quickly coming up with an excuse as to how he'd know. If someone's trying to kill me for the bounty, they need my body. Kill me in this mountain, and you'd never get it out._

_Trillane might not care about getting your body, Jason, Songa told him. If they sent a Kimdori_

_Songa, if the Kimdori found the mountain and found this many people here, would he poison me and then just leave, or would he tell Trillane about all these rebels, which would bring an attack on us? Well, I don't see an attack. So, either this Kimdori never told Trillane about the rebels, which would be kinda stupid, or it wasn't a Kimdori._

_True, she acceded._

_Well, I read in one of your human books somewhere this little blurb, and it stuck with me, Rann sent. "When confronted with a mystery, if one eliminates all that is not possible, then whatever is left, no matter how improbable, is the truth."_

_That's Sherlock Holmes, Rann, Temika told him. And that ain't how the saying goes._

_I think it's close enough. Let's look at it from that perspective, Jason. Rule out what's impossible, and look at what's left over. What's left has to be the truth._

_But like everything gets ruled out, Rann. That's what makes it so damn confusing._

_Really? The one thing I see that can't be ruled out is Moridon. You can't prove that you were not infected there. In fact, it seems the most probable place, given that you have been in a controlled location. That's the only place you've gone that wasn't your home territory, so it stands to reason that if there's no Kimdori in the mountain that did it, then that has to be where it happened._

_Alright, but that's kinda out there, Rann, because it makes no sense for them to poison me on Moridon when they could just send fighters to intercept us on the way there or on the way back. We went through Draconis to get to Moridon, for Pete's sake. That's right through the jaws of the lion._

_That's just the point, Jason. There are so many reasons why it's improbable that Trillane tried to infect you on Moridon that it rules it out._

_But then_

_Ah, but Jason, who said that it was Trillane that did it? That was your assumption._

_But they're the only ones trying to kill me. You think this attack was Imperial?_

_It's possible, but the reasons Trillane wouldn't have done it are the same reasons the Imperial forces wouldn't. Why go through all that work to engineer this compound to infect you when they could just send fighters to capture your dropship? I agree with you there. So, if Trillane didn't do it, and the Imperium didn't do it, then what's left?_

_But that's fuckin' impossible. Nobody else even cares about what we're doing here, Rann. What would some other government gain from killing me off? I mean, me being here stirring up shit with Trillane would only help some rival government, wouldn't it?_

_But it's what is left. And since it's what's left, it must be the truth. I don't really think the Faey tried to kill you, Jason. Someone else did._

_Alright, how did they acquire a thousand year old biological weapon that was engineered by the Faey?_

_Ah, but you assume again. Who said the Faey made it? I'm sure that the noble that died had enemies outside the Imperium, Jason. All of them do._

_But the information you showed me said that this Karinne woman was killed by an assassin probably hired by some enemy of her house!_

_Jason, the Karinnes had no enemies within the Imperium until the civil war, Songa told him. They were totally neutral. It was that neutrality that caused their destruction. They refused to take sides, and as a result, both sides attacked and destroyed them. That's probably why the assassination got so much attention, because who would do it if the Karinnes had no issues with any other house?_

_Alright, but we're back to this point. Why go through the trouble of altering it so it would infect me? Surely they could have used some other, more modern poison, something not specifically banned and illegal, and something just as effective that they wouldn't have to pay some geneticist to have produced._

_Hmm. That does seem to be the question, Rann sent bemusedly. Maybe they were aiming for complete untraceability._

_That ain't even a word, Rann, Temika accused._

_I guess it's not, but you get my meaning,_ he sent with an audible chuckle.

_Well, it wasn't all that untraceable, if you three could find it,_ Jason protested.

_You have a point there._

_There's something else going on here, Jason sent with an adamant tilt to his thought. Something is missing here, some information that would make all of this make sense._

_Alright, Jason, it's time for another one of those wild leaps, Rann sent. Since it seems totally illogical that someone would go through the time and effort of altering this agent to infect you, then let's assume for a moment that nobody did. If we remove that piece of information, then what do we have left? We have this dead noble visiting Moridon, and then she got sick and died. Then we have you going to Moridon, and you get sick and nearly die. The only point of commonality here is Moridon, which goes back to my original statement._

_Rann, that's crazy. If nobody altered the agent, then how did it infect me? You told me yourself that it was tailor made to infect me._

_It's crazy, yes. But it's what's left. And what's left must be the truth._

_That's too crazy, Rann. That suggests that my DNA is so much a match with a thousand-year old dead Faey that the agent couldn't tell the difference. The only way that could happen is if I was_

Related.

_No fucking way,_ Jason sent defiantly.

_It does seem outlandish, but can you offer any other explanation? Rann pressed. The only way this all makes sense is if we assume that you and this dead woman have a matching end sequence in your DNA, because that's where the agent attaches. Since it's illogical to believe that they altered the agent to affect you, and it's also illogical that they would bother given they would have to get close to you to infect you, then the only rational explanation I can see here is that this wasn't an attack. And since this couldn't be an attack, that means that it had to be an accident. And the only way this could be an accident is if you and this Maeda Karinne had matching end pair sequences in your DNA helixes. The one thing that you and her have in common is a visit to Moridon. So, that's where it had to happen. She goes to Moridon a thousand years ago, gets infected, and she dies before they find a cure. A thousand years later, you go to Moridon, you get infected, but this time medical technology is advanced enough to keep you alive until we can find a cure._

_But that's totally impossible, Rann! Jason protested. I'd have to be related to this woman for it to work, and if you didn't notice, I don't have the right skin color for that!_

_Actually, I think it is possible, Rann sent calmly. I've been pondering your talent for a while. Given that it seems that the telepathic humans can trace their lineage back to a specific place, and it seems to be a long time ago, then the idea that you are related to the Faey makes sense to me. It explains the genetic similarities between the human telepaths and the Faey, who are much more similar to us than other humans, and the long time explains why you appear to be completely human. Over time, and the successive matings with pureblood humans, the Faey appearance has been bred out of you, but the DNA sequences dealing with telepathy have remained intact, since there is nothing in the human DNA that would interfere with it. It has passed true from parent to child, over the generations. And this illness of yours only offers another piece of confirming circumstantial evidence that supports that hypothesis. Jason gets infected by an engineered bioweapon that was specifically designed to go after a particular Faey family group, and no one can offer any solid evidence to the effect that this agent was altered to affect him. It explains why you have talent. It explains more questions than it creates. I'll put my hair on the table right now and bet all of you that when you finally find this alpha ancestor of Tim and Temika's, that it's a Faey. And I'll bet that Jason's telepathic ancestor is a Faey from a different family, which would explain the differences between him and Tim and Temika. Who wants to take that bet?_

_Rann, that's outlandish, Yohne sent._

_Outlandish, but I think it's right, he replied. Think about it, Yohne. If a Faey scouting party or scientific mission came to Terra a long time ago and left behind pregnant human women, products of unions between Faey males and human women, then that explains everything. Humans and Faey are genetically compatible, if you don't recall. We can produce children. The human telepaths can trace their lineage back to England, and it had to be a long time ago. It makes sense, since the gulf between the telepathic humans and non-telepathic humans is so wide when it comes to similarity with Faey DNA. Telepathic humans are much more similar to us, and if they were actually related to us, then that explains everything._

_But the hole there is Jason's infection. This agent only attacked a member of the house of Karinne, Yohne responded. And they were all killed a thousand years ago..._

_Actually, Songa sent. It was documented to the last member of those they could reach. The Karinnes were a house of scientists, and they always had members out on scientific missions. When word reached the expeditions of the war and the attack on Karinne, most of those expeditions snuck back to the Imperium and went into hiding. There was quite a bit of literature about it. There are some who think that some of the Karinnes escaped and lived out their lives pretending to be commoners, because some of them were never found. And it's not like the Karinne bloodline is dead. There were Karinnes who married into other noble houses and became part of the house they married into._

_How do you know that, Songa? Jason asked._

_My minor in medical school was classical Faey literature, and that requires some knowledge of history,_ she sent in reply.

_So, I'll also put a bet on the table right now that Jason is a direct descendent of Maeda Karinne. If he was, that would explain why his end sequence matches hers. She passed it down to him through the generations._

_Rann, that's utterly impossible, Jason protested._

_I say it's not. Now we try to prove each other wrong._

_Let's pick this up later. Right now, we're trying to get Jason out of that bubble, Yohne sent sharply, and we're playing with Demir's sword when we should be working._

_Well, it gives us all something to think about for a while, Rann sent with amusement._

It certainly did. Though Rann hadn't presented it very methodically, if one assumed that Jason and Maeda Karinne were indeed related, then it did explain nearly all of the gaps in logic in this attack on him. Simply put, the fact that it was an attack itself was the most illogical part of the whole thing. If it was truly an attack, there were so many parts of it that just didn't make any sense that made it implausible. It actually made more sense if it was an _accident_. This compound didn't decompose over time; in fact, it actively reproduced itself. If it had been on Moridon, it would have lasted for the time between this Karinne woman's infection and Jason's. Maeda Karinne might have been the target of the original attack, but if he was related to her, then it would have affected him as well because of the way they designed it to attack her. It would go after anyone with the same sequence in their DNA, giving it that perfect fit to attach itself.

But still... the explanation itself was implausible to the point of being impossible. Though it did fill in the holes if one assumed it was true, the fact remained that it seemed utterly laughable that Jason was related to a long dead Faey noble, and that the other telepaths were descended from the Faey. But, this was something they could prove or disprove. Once they got more information, could trace back the lineage of the telepaths and find a solid lead on the true alpha ancestor, then they'd know. But he doubted it. He was sure that _someone _would notice it if the Faey appeared on Earth. There'd be mention of it in history somewhere, and there wasn't. If nothing else, it'd show up as some kind of demonic invasion in the church histories, since back then, anyone that wasn't human would be seen as a creature of evil.

It still didn't seem plausible.

                                        * * *

It took them about a day to get him out of the bubble. Four hours was taken to research Yohne's idea, and then three more hours to do tests. Then, once the tests came out promising, they produced a vaccine and tested it on a blood sample. The vaccine was really just a self-replicating anti-agent that combined with the agent to reform into the same hormone the agent used to duplicate itself, rendering it harmless. It also combined with the agent already attached to DNA, breaking it off and reforming it into a hormone, making it harmless. Once they did blood tests and found that the agent had been eradicated, they removed infected white blood cells in the filters, exposed them to the vaccine, and checked them for signs of infection.

They were clean.

At that point, they were going to administer the vaccine directly to him, but they had to take some precautions first. They donned clean suits and entered the bubble, and hooked him up to a blood filtration unit, which would filter out the hormone from his blood as the vaccine did its work, reducing it to normal levels inside him. They also hooked him up to a veritable onslaught of sensors and machines to monitor him during the administration of the vaccine. Once they were done, they administered the vaccine via IV.

They told him it would take about six hours for the vaccine to do its work, and during that time they monitored him like a hawk, all three of them glued to readouts and meters that watched his body functions, watching for any signs of unforeseen side effects, paying special attention to the possible buildup of hormone in his blood or tissue. But there were none. Jason didn't really even feel anything, either. If the immunization was working, he couldn't tell.

After six hours, they did several blood tests, took three tissue samples from his foot, hand, and from his neck, and again checked the white blood cells in the filters.

Everything was clean. The agent was neutralized, and his hormone levels were normal. And what was more, the anti-agent would remain in his body, acting as a permanent immunization against another attack by that agent.

Jyslin was the first one there when they brought the bubble down. She rushed in and embraced him tightly, then she laughed and told him he needed a bath in the _worst_ way. He shot back that she should have expected it, since he'd been in there for three weeks.

But there was no time for reunions, or even a bath. The doctors wheeled him straight into the operating theater, and then he underwent a three hour operation as they removed all the filters they'd installed to protect him from his own immune system. Once they were done, they cleaned him up while he was still sedated, put him in a bed, and let him sleep it off, _outside_ the bubble.

Jason was cured.

_It was a wonderful change from before to wake up and see Jyslin's face directly over him, not on the far side of a force field. She smiled radiantly and put her hands on his face, triggering an intense communion between