Setoma: This is incredible. You came through the portal without formula and you're unharmed.

Devin: I kinda have special properties...

Setoma: (pause) You're not human, are you?

Devin: I'm trying to be. But you're not human either are you?

Setoma: Half...but...before we get into that, how about some formalities. I'm Setoma Memont! This is my daughter Whilea. My wife Linka is resting in the back. And this is Professor Jelaned. He works in this facility where they do dimensional research.

Devin: I'm Devin. Devin Whitman.

(Offers his hand for handshake.)

Setoma: (Shaking his hand) Tell me Devin Whitman...what do you know of things like healing stones?

Devin: I know my friends call them balance rocks.

Setoma: I guess that makes some sense. In a way, I guess that's what they do.

Devin: My friend Max said you might be from wherever he is from.

Setoma: How old is he?

Devin: He's seventeen. But he was in stasis for more than thirty years.

Setoma: Incredible. I have a son almost seventeen too. He's watching our house...at least from as close as he dares get to it.

Devin: You told Max you were in danger.

Setoma: This is a long story. Why don't we go sit down in the professor's office?

Professor Jelaned: Yes...please...I didn't mean not to be polite. I was just being amazed that we're talking freely with someone from the other dimension and we're not afraid of each other.

Devin: No need to be afraid of me. I came to see what we might do to help.

(The three go to the office.)

Setoma: Want something to drink, Devin?

Devin: No, but thanks anyway.

Setoma: I think maybe I am right. You don't need to liquids to live do you?

Devin: I can drink, I'm just not thirsty.

Setoma: My understanding is you can't stay here very long, so let's cut the façade and agree to be straight with each other, OK?

Devin: OK!

Setoma: It's true. I'm half alien. My father was on a ship that was blown into this dimension when another one like it crashed more than 50 years ago. There were actually two ships forced here with about 12 people, both men and women, on each one. The dimensional shift did something to the ships' propulsion systems forcing the people to land.

Devin: Max is sure he was on the ship that crashed, but was in stasis at the time and for many years thereafter.

Setoma: That would explain his age. I guess I can't put the blame for the crash on him. Anyhow, the humans here captured all the people on the ships and put them in a kind of isolation. They took the ships themselves to a laboratory. They didn't really do much to the people at first, but they kept them separate from the rest of the world. My father was very young at the time, maybe only twenty or so. He was sent with the others to a small town that was heavily guarded. No one was allowed out and only a few humans were allowed in to provide services, medical help, and a few necessities. The people were given what they needed. They had food. They established a school. Some married and had children but they weren't allowed outside the city. The government didn't want to mix races. A few tried to escape, but were shot.

Devin: And this village still exists?

Setoma: No, I'm afraid not! There's a lot more to the story. There were some human doctors that came to examine the captives from time to time, even though our people almost never got sick. The humans discovered that components from our people's blood could help cure human diseases. It started slowly, but as word got around that the alien blood was medicinal, the humans turned into virtual vampires. Every alien was forced to "donate" blood...sometimes as many as five or six times a week. Demand increased, and even with the additional children those that married created, demand exceeded supply. The humans demanded more of each person than one could reasonably donate and remain healthy. Fortunately, one nurse that came to collect blood took a liking to my father. She was kind to him and didn't always make him give his quota. Eventually, she figured out a way to smuggle him out. She hid him in a wooden container that normally held about 30 pints of blood. She had been setting aside a pint or two of blood every time she visited for a month or so. As they were unloading the boxes at the blood bank, she arranged for her sister to create a diversion. She got him out of the box, dressed him in scrubs so he looked like someone who was supposed to be unloading the boxes, and filled the box with the bottles she had been putting aside. They drove off together. She hid him, got him a new identity and they eventually married. He had been taught woodworking while a captive and he worked as a home finisher for years. I was their son. So, indeed, I'm half alien.

Devin: Was he the only one to escape?

Setoma: I heard there were others, but I've never met any that I know of. We got excited when detected the healing rays in the dimensional portal. I was sure they were the same kind as my father told me about his people using. I knew the villagers had healing stones. My dad gave me some several years ago. He said they might be useful some day, but I've never been able to make them work.

Devin: So, what happened to the village? You said it's no longer there.

Setoma: The village is gone...all traces of it. A few individuals still survive in protective custody, but the village population became so weakened from the blood "donations" that a disease actually began to affect them. It became an epidemic and many died. The few remaining were taken and forced to procreate so that the humans might still have their precious blood components. Even that didn't work out. While some did recover, the disease affected their bodies. Their blood, and that of their children, no longer produced the antibodies the humans needed.

Devin: And your father and mother?

Setoma: Mom died a couple of years ago. Dad died just a month ago after falling off the roof of a house he was putting trim on. He was retired; but true to his nature, he was helping out a neighbor. He might have been able to heal himself if he hadn't been unconscious. They took him to a hospital and discovered through the routine blood tests what he was. The secret he'd successfully kept for years was exposed. He died in the hospital. I don't know if it was from his injuries or from excess blood sucking. His blood, having not been affected by the disease that swept the village, I'm sure was irresistible to the humans. I thank God mom wasn't here to see his final days. I didn't dare visit him in the hospital or come forward to arrange a funeral for him. Thankfully some friends of his did that; but the government kept his body. The authorities immediately came after me and my family. They know, as his son, I have to be half alien and probably posses the precious blood they want. Frankly, I don't know if I do or not. I've never really pursued it. The Professor here helped me fake the only blood test I ever had to take. I knew what dad was, as did my wife and Professor Jelaned. I hadn't even told my kids until we had to run. We were really a pretty normal family until then. I'm a computer programmer by profession.

Devin: And Professor Jelaned is on your side?

Setoma: Yes! He used to live across the street from dad. They were good friends and he was the only human outside our family that dad ever trusted with his secret. The professor's job is here at this facility where they do these dimensional experiments. He's been hiding me, my wife, and my daughter here. The authorities would never think to look for us in a government facility. But he's risking himself for us and we can't live in his lab storeroom forever. He does have one of the dimensional portal activators here but their use is somewhat controlled. He's high enough up that they allow him to do experiments with objects, but communication with the other side is forbidden. As far as transporting people, no one can use the formula without permission from the Premiere. It's carefully guarded one floor down from here.

Devin: So the messages...

Setoma: Right! He could be fired and possibly jailed if anyone found out about them.

Devin: But you want to cross over?

Setoma: Yes! If we could just get some of the formula, we could come to your dimension and be safe. I'd figure some way to get my son in here too so he could go with us. He and my daughter are only one quarter alien, but none of us is safe here anymore.

Devin: I'm not sure it would be much better in our dimension. My friends have to hide what they are, just like you do. They're afraid if people knew; many humans would be afraid of them or try to capture them and run tests on them.

Setoma: That's what they said in their note. But at least I'd be an unknown. With their help, I could start over.

Devin: My friends want to help you do that.

Setoma: You speak in the plural. There is more than just Max isn't there?

Devin: Uh...yes!

Whilea: I thought so daddy. I told you I sensed others.

Setoma: Yes you did. Good for you, Whilea!

Professor Jelaned: I'm curious, Devin. Why didn't the portal affect you? Normally, without ingesting the formula, the blood capillaries collapse going through the portal. Without blood flow, living tissue begins to die.

Devin: We saw that when a little girl accidentally put her hand in the portal.

Professor Jelaned: Did she die?

Devin: No! My friend Michael was able to heal her hand.

Setoma: He is one of my kind...an alien?

Devin: Yes!

Setoma: He must have more healing power than I do, although I do have a little.

Devin: Even if he does have more, I'm not sure he could heal a whole body if you tried to come through without the formula. Was that what you were thinking?

Professor Jelaned: I doubt he could do it fast enough to prevent brain damage.

Devin: That's true. It took him quite a while to heal the girl's hand.

Setoma: Looks like we must still have formula.

Professor Jelaned: You still haven't answered my question, Devin.

Devin: I...uh...

Setoma: He's not human or alien either, professor.

Professor Jelaned: What is he then?

Setoma: I think he's some kind of robot. Professor Jelaned: Pretty convincing robot.

Devin: (Tensing a little.) Android is the word my friends use.

Setoma: Your dimension has such things? Sentient, artificial beings like yourself?

Devin: As far as I know, I'm unique. I don't feel artificial though, thank you. I'm as real as you are. My story is a long one too. I'll tell you sometime, but I really should be getting back soon. If we do find a way to get you over to my dimension, will you please not...I mean... I have to protect my secret too.

Setoma: You mean, your type is not accepted either?

Devin: I think I would be treated like a computer...something to be used...maybe just a toy. I certainly wouldn't have a life like I have now.

Setoma: But you appear to create your own thoughts; do your own thing.

Devin: I do. My friend Alex, who is a computer genius, agrees. That's why he keeps correcting another friend who calls me a robot. I'm an android for the lack of a better description. Alex says I'm a life form.

Setoma: If you are a life form and in fact are unique, then you're being associated with my kind... indeed your coming here is...miraculous.

Devin: Professor? Do you know what's in the formula?

Professor Jelaned: Only part of it. There are four people who technically know one part of it and we all have to put in the parts we know when they want some made. Over the years, I've figured out another of the parts, but that doesn't help. Its use is generally forbidden. A few individuals have been sent to your dimension for research and I have overheard interviews with a couple of them when they've come back. Our government has determined that sending people to your dimension is a bad thing and it's basically not allowed. Like Setoma said, the formula is in a guarded room downstairs. Once in a while, I have a legitimate reason to go in there, but not often. I'm afraid if I'm involved in getting some for Setoma, your dimension would might have to be stuck with me too.

Devin: That wouldn't be bad. You could help our people cross the dimension.

Professor Jelaned: Our government wouldn't want that.

Devin: Why not?

Professor Jelaned: From what I understand, people in your dimension chose their own leaders and are free to pursue their own destinies.

Devin: That's right. In most countries anyway. Isn't that true here?

Professor Jelaned: No! The government runs everything. People are directed into careers. Sometimes they are told who to marry. The military exists to control the populace. The government runs nearly every business one way or another. I don't think they want our people to know any other system exists. That is why they don't want general travel through the dimension portal.

Devin: But you've done so much research on it.

Professor Jelaned: At first they wanted it. More recently, they've been sending people to your dimension to set up areas where we can secretly send our people. They would be in private compounds much like the old alien colony. It's ironic! They take advantage of being able to own property in your dimension so as to have the right to keep others away and preserve our people's not being able to do the same thing here.

Devin: To what effect are they sending them?

Professor Jelaned: I don't really know. They don't tell me. I just work the machine.

Devin: So, the next time they send someone, can you get to the formula? And am I correct in assuming that there must be some formula stored in our dimension if those few travel back and forth.

Professor Jelaned: You're pretty sharp. Yes! True on both counts. But I don't think anyone will be coming or going officially for quite some time and it's not a good idea for Setoma and his family to stay here any longer than necessary.

Devin: Do you know the location of the compound in my dimension?

Professor Jelaned: I know how to send something there.

Devin: Could you send me?

Professor Jelaned: What would that accomplish?

Devin: If we knew where it was, my friends and I could try sneaking in to get formula from there. Then we could send it through the portal. Besides, someone from our side ought to know about the whereabouts of people invading our dimension

Professor Jelaned: I'm sure everything's heavily guarded. You'd be risking yourself.

(Just then a loud alarm goes off)

Setoma: What's that?

Professor Jelaned: It's an evacuation alarm. They want us out of the facility. P.A. announcement: "Attention! Attention! A leak of gas has been reported. Please exit to the decontamination area immediately. Please exit to the decontamination area immediately."

Professor Jelaned: I'm going to have to go. They will miss me if I don't show up there. You'll have to go to my storeroom and stay there. Let's hope the gas isn't lethal. I suspect there is no real leak but that they're doing a security search. It's been a month since they've done one.

Setoma: Should we hide in the ceiling like you showed me?

Professor Jelaned: Yes...I lined it with copper. Their life sensors will not detect you up there.

Devin: Life sensors?

Professor Jelaned: Yes...they have a sensor that detects any life form within about 50 feet of it. They sweep the building like this every so often. That's why I lined the ceiling in the storeroom as a precaution. Devin...I'm sorry but I can't take time to send you back right now. Go hide with Setoma. I'll be back as soon as I can! Hopefully this won't take too long.

(Meanwhile in a more familiar dimension...)

Alex: I don't like it. Devin should have been back by now.

Max: It's only been four hours, Alex.

Alex: I know, but I just have a feeling something's wrong.

Isabel: So do I. I'm getting fear vibes. I recognize some of them as Devin's. His are different that other people's. But I'm getting others too.

Michael: You're able to feel them across the dimension?

Isabel: I guess so. I'm feeling something.

Max: I don't know what else we can do except wait.

Liz: Does anyone want some lunch? I brought some sandwiches.

Michael: Might as well. Like he said, there's not much else we can do. I wonder what Devin's found. Any chance you can contact him, Isabel.

Isabel: I have enough trouble contacting living people in this dimension. You're asking the impossible. All I've ever been able to do with Devin is feel his fear; fear that never seems to go away...fear that just changes in level.

Maria: How about Setoma?

Isabel: I don't know who else I'm sensing. You're asking for more than I can do, Michael. I wish could.

Alex: Then I guess we wait. Come back to us friend Devin. Come back!