A Human Guest

  DEO Daily Log; recorded and encoded by Agent Dox.

She slowly came to her senses. Literally she was awake the entire time, but only started to become aware of her surroundings. I was in my human appearance at the time so as not to completely disquiet her. Winn was standing right next to me and no one else was present, except the woman herself that is.

“Do not be alarmed.” I told her simply. “You are quite safe here.”

“That is all that matters to me.” She replied in a tone of which I could make nothing. “I mean that sincerely. I'm in the DEO so be it. As long as it's closer to a barracks than the lab-or-atory, I AM alright with that. It really doesn't surprise me.”

“You've been here before?” Winn said in a surprised voice.

“Almost 30 years ago I gather. Or is it 'I estimate'. Learning English is easy. Using it like a native...confusing.” She looked between the two of us, smiling slightly. “I'm a Xavallen. My people are low-level empaths. Not reading thoughts more, sensing a persons motives and intentions...*way more keyed into the emotions in a room than most humans. Naturally my use of language is...proportionately based on the emotion or sensation it invokes. Most people think I'm damaged or TESOL. It's...hard to fit in completely, even were I from San Francisco or whatever.”

“You're not a telepath?” Win said, as if to reassure himself his thoughts weren't being invaded.

“No, I'm just paying attention really. I'm not an intentional security risk. If you can tell me truthfully that I'm more of a prisoner than a science experiment and I won't want to leave anyway.”

“I think we can assure you of that.” I told the woman in what I hoped would be a kindly voice.

“You're Coluan aren't you?” She asked me bluntly. I started; I couldn't help it. “I know of no other species as soft-spoken nd matter of fact as you have presented yourself. And yet, you seem more... sincere, I guess, than most I've heard of?”

“I've never heard of your kind.” I told her...I honestly couldn't think of anything to say.

“My home planet is 'fifty miles past nowhere' relative to the rest of the galaxy. Only explorers and conquerors go out that far. And only settlers and vacationers ever find us. We are quite literally shielded from the rest of the cosmos.”

“Then how did you get here?” Winn and I asked almost precisely in unison.

“Every thirty-two years we take the shield down and those of us who want to leave, can. And in case I'm making things more muddled than I should, it's relative isolation not deliberate obfuscation... We're out of reach not out of touch. What are you called, as an individual?”

“My name is Querl Dox. My friends just call me 'Brainy'.”

“Most people who know me call me 'Sasha'. Only the closest friends and most distant strangers call me 'Nikita'. As a matter of course, does that mean I am right...you are...bio-mechanical?”

“I use the term 'techno-organic'...But essentially yes.”

“I take it you're not using a personal image inducer.” J'onn said as he walked into the room. If I believed in any particular God I could have sworn to God that all color completely drained out of Sasha's face at that moment. She looked some mixture of revolted and horrified.

“As if you would even need to ask.” She said bitingly. “Great tactical thinking. Not that it matters to you I bet.” There was what I could only call contempt in her voice and she said nothing else for several seconds. Then again, neither did anyone else in the room.

“Uh...Am I missing something here?” Winn said in a voice no less confused than my thoughts.

“I'm sorry, I honestly thought things could have changed that much in thirty years. Whether this is a 'second in command' thing or 'false sense of security you did it.” Her voice seemed to slow. “Do you not...You don't know what I'm talking about?”

“Not really.”

“Thirty years ago I was a lab-rat at the DEO...at your hand. At least... under the watchful eye of someone with your face.”

“The original Hank Henshaw.” I said aloud.

“You are...you and I have more in common than you think.” J'onn Jonzz said solemnly. He transformed into his natural green form. Which of course made him a good foot taller than he had been a moment ago. “Hank Henshaw , saw me as a threat and did everything he could to take me out, including hunting me like a deer to the middle of the amazon jungle. He died that day. I assumed his identity to try to reform the DEO closer to...well defense than the equivalent of ethnic-profiling. I do not need to ask if you believe me...I am sorry I scared you.”

“You couldn't have known how I'd react, without knowing I'd been here before. Anymore than I could have known there were still green Martians about. I am glad some of us still work for peace without turning ourselves into...I'm trying to describe a' valor without renown' situation. Those of us who help without fighting on the extreme front lines of everything.”

“ 'Us'?” Winn queried.

“Non-terrestrials. People who live here but are not from here.”

“How old are you?” I asked her. Winn and J'onn both turned to look at me. “How long have you been on Earth and how old are you?”

“My people become older adolescents at 20, legal adults and self-determinate at the dawn, literally the rising of the sun, on our 32nd anniversary of life. I came to Earth almost 60 years ago..at the age of 42.” A shadow passed over her face. “Listen I don't...I'm going to need some spinach pretty soon.”

“That's pretty specific.” I said in an attempt at humor.

“Other than having a cardio organ where you have your left kidney...physiologically we're not that different from humans, not even with our digestive system. Nutrition is another matter. My people don't need iron and protein as much as we need magnesium and tryptophan. Being an emotion-centered race what we NEED are emotional stabilizers. Physical fitness matters even less than physical attractiveness.”

“You know Star Trek.” Winn said out of nowhere.

“40 of those 70 years were spent in this county. And It is nice to see if the 'other team' is getting anywhere close to right.” Sasha said with a smile. “I made references to Space Seed; and episode of the original Star Trek where they meet a tyrannical but tactical genius from a darker time in Earth's past.” She looked around, tilted her head to one side and quoted as if in a dramatic performance 'you are an excellent tactician Captain: you let your second in command attack...while you sit and watch for weakness.' “ She smiled warmly and resumed her normal intonation. “I'm rather delighted any-one could pick up on that intent with so oblique a reference.”

“Agent Schott, see about getting Sasha a salad and bread sticks. Brainy...take our guest to a more private room, make sure she is comfortable.” He morphed back into his human state. “I'll let Kara and Alex know what's going on and keep things on alert.”

“He plays things just as close to the vest...but he inspires loyalty instead of demanding obedience. It is a HELL of a lot easier to respect a leader one naturally trusts.” Sasha said in a thoughtful voice.

“I'll show you to your room.” I said in a bantering tone. Something Sasha apparently appreciated as she gave me a soft smile and a 'lead the way' gesture with her right hand. We made our way into one of the more empty but expansive rooms in the DEO. The instant she got inside Sasha went to one of the windows and gazed out. She stood there for a full minute and a half before turning back to face me.

“What did you mean when you said I was...kindlier...than the rest of my race?”

“Why haven't you heard of mine?” She responded equally bluntly. I asked her to elaborate. “My people are not xenophobic. We know of Martians and Xerilians and they know of us. You're people are supposedly the fount of all knowledge, living memory machines of the galaxy. Why do those records apparently not include my kind.”

“Because those records...have a lot of gaps, when I'm from.”

“...And by your time my people might actually have faded into obscurity.”

“Do you...always take people at their word?”

“I take things as I see them, yes. I live and react according to what I sense, not what I see. And what I see in front of my face not what I'm told by...anyone really. If I see a liar, I take what they say with a grain of proverbial salt. I have no reason not to trust what *you say Brainy.”

“You've learned to tell who you can trust...and you trust your own intuition.”

“...Yes essentially.”

“I believe J'onn intended me to informally debrief you.”

“I'm glad it's a fellow non-terrestrial to do so. Not against their intelligence, just their experience. Also the more curious ones are SO busy interrupting the interviewee with more questions, they never hear the answer. I can't even get angry at them for being that inconsiderate, because they are simply being curious. Let's find a place to sit and I'll tell what I can.” She sat cross-legged on the floor where she was and I followed her movements, sitting across from her.