Alex let loose with one of his piercing whistles to stop the barrage. "They can't even understand what we're saying! Let's slow down."

One by one, they asked their questions, and Max and Liz fielded them as best they could.

"We don't have all the answers yet," Liz insisted. She and Max explained everything they had learned, including their conversations with Grandma Claudia. They tried to play down their "special place in history" and their "combined force." They instinctively knew this would infuriate Michael, hurt Tess, and annoy Isabel. But that made it harder to broach the subject of their next step.

"My dad is arranging for us to go to Mesa Verde this weekend. We'll explore the Cliff Palace, search for the sacred artifact, and try to put the last pieces of Grandma's puzzle into place," explained Liz.

"Alone." Kyle's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Your parents are letting you go to Colorado with Max alone. Give me a break, Liz. When we were dating, I wasn't even allowed to visit you in your room."

"Yeah, well . . . " Liz began. "My dad is sending us to stay with camping friends of his, and then a friend of Grandma's will be with us at the Cliff Palace."

"I'm coming with you," announced Michael.

"No, Michael. Not this time." Max's voice was calm, but confident. He was the leader now.

"Look, Maxwell, we have been in this together since we were little. You're always on my case for going off alone, and now you're planning to do exactly the same thing!" His eyes moved to Liz and his voice became low and intense with barely disguised resentment. "Except you won't be alone, will you, Max?"

His unspoken accusation weighed heavily in the air. The others shifted uncomfortably. Maria took Michael's hand, but he pulled away from her. He didn't want to be comforted or appeased. He wanted to search for his past.

"We're not doing this lightly, Michael. We've thought this through, and we've been advised by Liz's grandmother. She's made it clear that this is our journey. This connection we have has always been strong. Now we finally know why. We must do this together, just us."

"Max, this affects us all." Isabel appealed to her brother's sense of fairness. No one knew better than he did how much Michael wanted answers. "If there are answers out there, they belong to all four of us. We should be a part of it."

"If it were up to me," Liz spoke up, "we would all go together. We don't really know what we're doing, and it could get scary. But my grandmother somehow knows that this is something Max and I have to do. We felt such a strong pull in Chaco Canyon . . . as if something were calling to us." She sighed in frustration. How could she explain this so it made sense to the others?

"So we're supposed to sit here in Roswell and just wait. Is that it? Do nothing?" Michael was the world's worst at doing nothing, and he knew it.

"Just this once, Michael. I promise we will tell you every detail of what we learn or find. We don't want to leave anyone out. And I will need your help on Friday. We still haven't told my dad or Liz's mom what's going on. Since we have no idea what will happen once we get there, we're going to keep the secret a little while longer.

"Tess, we sort of need your help with this one. Can you make them see us leaving on an astronomy club trip from school on Friday? I think they had one last year right before school started, so it should seem very believable."

"I guess so." Tess knew better than to argue with Max. She had less influence on him than anyone. It was ironic, in her view, since she had expected to have considerable influence on him. Now she just had to continue to earn his trust. "You want them to see maybe 15 kids and a bus? I guess a couple of teachers, too. Will all four parents be there?"

"My dad knows already, of course," said Liz. "Max? You're telling your mom everything?"

Max nodded. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I think it would be best. Then we have one parent from each household covering for us."

"Yeah, okay," agreed Tess. "Just let me know when."

"Michael, we'll need a ride to the airport."

Michael was quiet, weighing his position on this whole thing. "You know, Max? I'm beginning to think this whole 'leader' thing has gone to your head. Where do you get off making decisions for all of us? This isn't just about you . . . or Liz. It's about us. All of us. So if you think you don't need us, then you can figure out how to get yourself to the airport." He grabbed Maria's hand and pulled her toward Maria's car. Maria looked back apologetically.

"I'll take you," Isabel said quietly, taking hold of the hand Alex had slipped around her waist. "I don't agree with your going alone, but I'll help if you need me."

Max threw her a grateful look, but his eyes turned sad as he watched Maria's car speed off, Michael behind the wheel.

Abruptly, the questions started up again. Were they really going to tell Philip and Nancy when they got back? How long would they be gone? What else was in the journals?

Max squeezed Liz's hand, and once again, the two tried to field the barrage of questions, attempting to satisfy their friends' curiosity and assuage their fears. An onlooker would have immediately sensed that the couple holding hands stood apart from the rest, even though they were physically standing among them. There was a sense of purpose, of unity, a oneness that was unsupported in any tangible detail. It was a state of being that would be noticed by many before their journey was through.

***********

It was the middle of the night and Max was in a deep sleep, enjoying a dream of Liz that he hoped one day would be reality. When a hand touched his shoulder, he came up out of the bed with a shout.

"Isabel! What are you doing? I was sound asleep!"

"I'm sorry, Max, but I have to talk to you."

Max sank back onto the bed and pulled a pillow over his face. In a very muffled and irritated voice, he complained to his sister. "Isabel, why do you always want to talk to me in the middle of the night? Why does everyone always want to talk to me in the middle of the night?"

"I'm sorry, Max, but I just came from a Star Chamber meeting."

At least now she had Max's attention. Much to Alex's chagrin, Josh had spent a great deal of time with Isabel teaching her the intricacies of interacting with the other visitors from around the world in the sleep-state Star Chamber meetings.

"I thought I'd better tell them what you've learned, Max. It affects all of us, you know. And I wasn't even sure if it was true. I mean, Josh never mentioned anything about it. He said Voyans had been visiting here for 150 years, not a thousand and fifty."

"I wish you'd let us finish this first, Iz. Well, what did he say?"

"He was as confused as I was at first. Then some of the older members of the group, not from the hybrid generation, told the whole story. I guess it's something they don't like to talk about because it's not a very flattering part of their history, but they said yes, that there had been contact that long ago. Once things turned sour here with the factions fighting and destroying the Anasazi civilization, the ruling government banned travel to Earth and destroyed launch bays and communications satellites to ensure no one would be tempted to try it again."

Isabel sat down on the edge of Max's bed. Her original adrenalin-induced enthusiasm was wearing off. "It was only 150 years ago that a secret government agency rebuilt those facilities with cutting edge technology. I guess they feared they might have to send their leaders away for safety someday and they wanted to be prepared."

Max sat up. "Thanks, Iz. I guess I'm sort of glad to hear confirmation of all this. It's not that I didn't believe it. It's just that all this has come up so fast and it's all so weird. I felt like I was being pushed along by a tide I couldn't control."

"Yeah, Max, we all know how much you love being out of control," Isabel snickered.

He threw her a brotherly glare. "How do you feel about all this, Iz?"

"I'm okay with it, I think. In a way, it explains a lot. Like why you and Liz are so deeply connected. You know, before, I sort of wondered if there was something wrong with Alex and me because we didn't have the same soulmate thing that you and Liz have, but now I realize it's because we're an alien/human couple, and you're an alien/alien couple. You must be so happy that you and Liz are completely compatible."

Max looked down at the floor. "Maybe not," he whispered sadly.

"What? Why?" asked Isabel, frowning.

"Because Liz is the natural product of humans and aliens. I'm an engineered hybrid. There's no precedent for our particular combination."

Isabel reached over and stroked her brother's back. "How will you ever know then?" she asked softly.

Max looked at her with a sense of despair in his eyes. "I have no idea."

Isabel looked stricken. She knew that Liz was a part of Max now, and that all this alien leader really wanted was a nice, normal, Earthbound life behind a picket fence raising a family with Liz. Her heart went out to him.

"There's something else, Iz."

"What?"

"Ever since we found out about this on Monday, I've felt something pulling me to Liz. I mean almost physically pulling me to her--like magnets. And when we passed this one spot up at Chaco Canyon? We both felt drawn to it. As we passed it, we could actually feel ourselves wanting to stop there. But there was nothing there! Just desert vegetation.

"That must mean something, Max. But what?"

Max fell back against his pillow again. "I don't know, Iz. But I'll tell you one thing. We won't stop until we have answers. I'm tired of not knowing what my role is as a Voyan, not knowing how to help my people, not knowing if I can live my life with Liz."

He pounded his fist into his pillow. "I will find answers, Iz. And when I do, I swear, they will include Liz."

************

A pale moon, ribboned with clouds, adorned the night sky, offering little light along the base of the Cliff Palace. In spite of the deep darkness, two figures made their way toward one of the hundreds of stone rooms carved in the face of the rock.

"I can feel them now. They will be here soon."