Andrew sneered, "You lost the right to complain when you entered my mind without permission and ... and altered me! I don't care how much your society has changed or how much it has stayed the same, if you cannot respect the privacy of a person's mind you've gone wrong somewhere."



"You see this? All of you, do you see this? The way he casually reads our minds? Invades our thoughts, the only place a person can be truly private and he has torn that away!" Fuck you Micheal! Can you hear this? Fuck you! Stay out of my head!

Steve started at Michael's comment and wondered,

*He read my mind?!? I'd thought my shield would... AH!*

Steve holds up a hand and says,

"For someone seriously perceptive and intelligent, I gather I was obvious. I could have figured out what I was thinking from my body English."

(Activate Sooth)

Kara looked indulgently at her younger mother, "Of course mother. I certainly wouldn't permit it to be otherwise. We've been quite happy together for over a century and a half, that speaks for itself."

To the room in general and to Andrew specifically, Michael takes on a patient look, "My old friend, please reign in the drama, it is unnecessary and just a bit hypocritical. Yes, I know you were the least comfortable with the 'adjustments' that were made back in your own time but you did condone them. Now, you must understand that while taint has not been cured, it has been neutralized the way that I did with you, and as long as you are here and I consider you dangerous I will do as I see fit. When you leave your taint madness will be returned to you in full if you wish it." Michael frowns, "Since our personal meeting has gotten off to such an unpleasant start we might as well get down to business and hopefully we can enjoy each others company afterwards."

He looked at Lorean and in a business-like way said, "I have prepared the weapons you came here seeking and they are ready for installation at your convenience. I expect it will take two to three days to complete."

He looked to everyone else gathered, "I'm afraid that money or even wealth in the traditional sense no longer mean what they did in your own time. However, I have... or rather we," he glanced at Kara and they shared a smile, "have made certain arrangements for you all. Resources have been gathered which you can take with you if you wish, they will make you as rich where ever you should choose to go as you could wish. We have also taken legal steps to provide for you should you ever return with the intention of settling down. Your descendants assumed control of your business and property interests after it became apparent that you weren't returning quickly. Do you have any questions or requests before we put aside these matters and just socialize?"

Andrew stared at Michael, his lips pressed together into a white line. Don't call me your friend, a friend would have asked before invading a person's mind. Go to hell. If you were ever my friend at all that man has long since been twisted into someone whose actions I cannot condone.

Curtly he turned his back to Michael. To the others he sent via the link, *I won't put up with Michael's bullshit or his god complex, I'm going back to my the ship. Lorean please transport me now.*

With an uncomfortable look at Andrew, Meredith shrugs diffidently and says, "I wouldn't mind a chance to see more of the technology you have here. I've gotten pretty good with stuff like that. Just the tiny bit I've seen so far is amazing. I'm still not sure how you can..."

She makes a gesture interlocking her fingers, "...combine metals and living molecules the way you do. I can see what it's made of, but I'd love to get it under a microscope or even better, see how it's made."

Michael raised an eyebrow at Andrew as he was teleported out then shrugged and looked at the group, "I'm sorry that I offended him so. I know you all are guests here and even responsible for the fact that this world has had the opportunity to exist, but it is the law that any nova with mind effecting taint has to be stabilized. Not a law that I created I might add."

Kara smiles at Meri, "Certainly. I can have someone give you a brief demonstration of the assembly and let you watch it happen. It is done via nano-assembly of course and is built atom by atom, but to a specific template. Your impression of the technology is very close but not quite accurate. It isn't technology merged with living matter, it is technology that was designed as living matter. The metals and other things have their own DNA and are capable of self repair along with whatever other function they have been programmed with. It all grew out of Gemma's research into jump technology."

Living technology?! Omar's soul screamed out to him. The idea was a threat to everything Omar believed; that only God could create life. That man had progressed to the stage that they could replicate God's greatest miracle, put Omar's stomach into knots. What would God do to humanity for such a feat? Would He seek retribution? Would He remain neutral, until humans created a being that would destroy them? For Omar, it was a crisis of faith. He knew Lorien was alive, and for some reason the religous implications behind her had never bothered him. But this!?

After a few troubling minutes, Omar had calmed down and his rational mind reasserted control. He spoke slowly and calmly. "Was anyone concerned with the religious and spiritual implications to creating life? As a Catholic, such a feat is left to God." Omar looked around at the others. "Did the Catholic Church and other faiths not protest such a line of research?"

Dissent, competition, and opposing ideas had been - had been - the great engine of human change throughout the history that Ulric knew. He was more than a bit curious about what, if any, such things still existed here. He took nothing for granted.

How had the religious survived (if?)? How about the anti-technologists? Were there any of them left and how had they been dealt with?

He arched an eyebrow and looked to Michael expecting an interesting answer. There were many possible ways that Society could have dealt with these forces of opposition. He wondered how it had played out.

There was a certain amount of thoughtfulness to Michael's expression at Omar's words, but it was Kara who answered.

"That's quite a big question packed into so few words uncle Omar. Even two hundred or so years later people still debate the answer to that, but it is only debate. The technology has been part of our society so long that there is no possible way that it could be changed even if people suddenly decided after all this time that it was a religious problem. It's the friendly kind of debate people had back in the old days when you guys were around over whether there was only one reality or a multiverse... In other words, not something to take too seriously especially when that technology is as pervasive in our society as say, plastic was in your own." Kara frowned a bit distastefully, then continued, "In the early days of the technology there was more heated discussions and even some religious extremism, but fortunately the things you all instilled in society through the indoctrination program kept it all to a low boil especially in the wake of the Crisis." Kara's expression brightened somewhat in the reflected memory of her thoughts, "There were just too many people still alive that had lived through the Crisis and experienced the Melding. Whole Religions around the world simply vanished in the years that followed. Not that the people were less spiritual afterwards, the opposite in fact, but the divisions that had separated people seemed trivial in the face of what had happened. That coupled with the emphasis the indoctrination program had placed on tolerance and unity meant that a more all encompassing faith came to take their place."

Kara chuckled, "I suspect you will have mixed feelings about your accomplishment, but it was thanks to what you put in place that we made such a smooth transition. Without what you did it never would have happened organically, it would have required intervention and probably force. Today we more or less have a single religion focused on personal spiritual enlightenment. The basic tenets of the faith are belief in God, reverence of the teachers of the past and the positive aspects of their messages, and focus on personal spirituality. There are no temples or churches or organized religion anymore."

Michael nodded agreement with Kara's words then spoke with surprising sensitivity, "Judging from your face, I think you might be having a hard time with this Omar. I hope you understand that while the institution of the Catholic Church is no more, the ideal that it was originally founded on is very much alive. After all the very word Catholic means Universal does it not?" He smiled sympathetically and added, "Besides I think Kara is making it sound a bit more universal than it truly is. There is a universal religion and almost every member of the entire human race considers themselves to be part of it. There are however, still small groups that adhere to one or another of the old religions, but even for most of them it it just a casual thing. It is considered the height of rudeness to intrude on another's spiritual journey by trying to influence them in any way and that effectively eliminates conversion to one of the old religions unless the individual happens to find their way to it through their own seeking."

Michael moved closer to Kara and put his arm around her waist and gave her a look that no one in the room could mistake for anything other than love. When he turned his face back to the group he looked very serious, "Ulric and Joani, I owe you both a debt of gratitude. If it were not for Kara I doubt I would have maintained my balance along the path to where we are now. Andrew is wrong in his judgment of me, but I caution you that in other versions of this timeline in which I did not have Kara to hold onto, you might find a very different Michael, one that would be quite the monster that Andrew believes me to be. I would not have tampered with Andrew if it were not the law."

Michael looked again at Kara and something passed between them that was beyond words and Michael nodded. "Everyone please take a seat. I have something to say to you all and I think now is as good a time as there will ever be." He waited until everyone was seated including Kara, but he paced back and forth for a moment more filled with anxiety than you have ever seen him. Finally, Kara caught his hand and stopped his pacing and giving him a look of sympathy and encouragement. With a sigh he sat beside her, and began, "I have a confession and I don't think you will be happy with me when you have heard it. I manipulated you all during the early days of the Cabal. I used your trust to ensure that when you left this timeline you would leave me in charge. In a way I was very much the monster that Andrew accuses me of being." Michael looked at Cody, "You most of all, I must apologize to. I used the opportunity that the Caroline situation presented to make "adjustments" to your mind to allow me future access to your psyche. At the time I also made adjustments to you that would prevent you from questioning me. Over the years we became the best of friends and while I regretted what I had done, I never removed the triggers I had set in the event that I might need them someday. I will remove them now if you wish." Looking to group again he continued with even greater regret, "It is worse than that. I actually caused the Caroline situation. Not in the sense that I created her or made her do the things she did, but I discovered her and what she was doing to Joani and I manipulated her caused her meglomania so that she would attempt to not only take over the life of one woman, but would actually try to take over the world. I thought to use the situation to test you all and see how you would react under threat to your plans. At the time, I couldn't fathom that you could actually be as altruistic as you claimed. That crisis showed me that you were sincere, and over the years I came to realize that you really did mean to leave one day and relinquish all the power you had gathered into your hands. It was my intention to lead humanity in your absence. Rule would have been a better word for my intentions perhaps, but I was deluding myself at the time and believed my own motives to be pure." He sighed with regret and relief to have finally unburdened himself of a secret that he'd held for three hundred years.

"Kara was my salvation. Through my feelings for her and her love for me I learned just how far from the path I had strayed. I can't possibly make up to you for what I did and I don't deserve your forgiveness, but for what it is worth, I do offer you my sincere apology. I was a monster, it is only a shame that it took Kara to make me see it. I would like to think I would have eventually seen the light on my own, but I know better. I've looked into other timelines and seen what I became going down those paths and it was not pretty."

Meredith feels a sense of nausea trickling down her spine at the thought of someone, anyone, being in her mind. She swallows thickly.

"Did you...do anything to me?" she asks. "I mean, I was only here once, I just went -shopping-. You wouldn't have needed to do anything to me, right?"

Her tone is almost pleading.

Joani's face mirrored the emotional rollercoaster she was living through as she listened to Michael's confession. For a moment she felt hatred and desperation boil up in her as she relived the torment Caroline had put her through. Squeezing Ulric's hand was the only means for her to contain her built up anger which quickly gave way to a big emptiness the spread through her bowels. How much had she been manipulated? And not only her, but everyone present. What was the truth - the real truth behind all this schemes?

Biting her lips she slowly calmed down but the empty feeling remained. Helplessly she looked at her daughter formulating a wordless "why?" with her mouth.

Her mind slowly caught up with all the revelations of Michaels confession and all of a sudden she felt his sadness and regret. He was being sincere about his apology and she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. They both had to sacrifice a lot in their lives and live with it... and both had found peace in love. Michaels drama oddly mirrored her own in some strange twisted way and the key had been her daughter, his wife.

"I... I accept your apology, Michael. Even though I'm at a loss of words to honestly describe how I feel.", she said fighting back tears although she didn't know why she cried. The truth was close to being too much for her to bear.

Michael looked seriously at Meri, "No, I never made any adjustments to your mind, I did not feel the need or see you as a threat." He cocks his head slightly and looks at Meri curiously for a moment then starts to say something more but then closes his mouth and looks at Joani instead. "You are most gracious and more forgiving than I deserve."

Steve apparently doesn't mourn the "death" of the Church, but he's very surprised at Michael's confession and watches Joani to see if she blows up.

Steve frowns for a moment and lets Michael finish, then he says,

"This is just a guess, but... you didn't do anything to her, but you are surprised to see that someone else did?"

Meredith, having relaxed at Michael's apparently sincere words, stiffens again.

"I don't -think- that could be," she says with a frown. "I was normal until the asteroid hit my Earth. I wasn't even a nova. And after it hit, there was hardly anyone left and the ones that were left weren't the subtle kind."

Still, she looks nervous, and looks at Michael worriedly.

Myriad thoughts course through his mind, but only a paltry few are what he feels needs to be said - now.

"Life is a road, not a destination. We should all keep that in mind when judging what our world has become in our absence."

With a flash Andrew disappeared from the gathering and reappeared on board Lorean. He growls with frustration as he stalks toward the bridge. "Lorean, can you please block all further telepathic transmission. I don't want to risk Michael or anybody else deciding to reprogram me yet again. Know what? If the others try to contact me please route it through ships speakers, I don't even want to hear another person in my head through your comms." Andrew storms into the bridge and gets an order of food and booze from the replicator. He sits down to eat and as he does so he watches the earth rotate below.

Lorean's hologram nodded sympathetically at Andrew's request, then said aloud, "Certainly Andrew. Although I must warn you, that I doubt I could keep Michael out if he decides he want's in."

*****

Michael looks curiously at Steve, "You could say that..." He trailed off looking again at Meri.

"I'm sorry my dear, do you mind if I examine you? Nothing invasive I assure you. Or if you would prefer Kara could do it."

As Michael told his tale of manipulation and alteration, Omar's fists pumped rhythmically in anger. The man that they had brought into their inner circle and trusted with their secrets, had used them. Even in this universe, Michael had the same desires as the Divis Mal in theirs; though this Michael seemed far more tolerant of normal humans.

Omar began to calm down as he realized that this was Michal's world, and not the Cabal's. Even so, it was also Joani's and Ulrich's, and Michael should have informed them of his intentions. It was for them that Omar felt anger and sadness.

The manipulation of Cody's mind by Michael was horrific, and Omar could not imagine how his friend was feeling. To know that your thoughts and actions were not wholly your own was a violation akin to rape- at last that is how Omar saw it. He wondered how Cody would react to this revelation.

As for the death of the Catholic Church, Omar felt sad. There were a billion Catholics only 200 years ago, and now there were none. Could the same thing happen on his own world if gestalt-like episode happened? Now that God (the Church) was dead, was man now divine? Maybe God was still there, but he had changed how he interacted with humanity? There were too many questions for Omar to have to ponder at this time.

Finally, he spoke. His deep voice directed straight at Michael. "Who else did you 'modify' to achieve your goals. I hope that Cody was the only one."

Meredith looks between Kara and Michael and Steve, one hand going to her little necklace to hover over her heart. The substance of her flesh starts to rapidly shift composition like it had once before; to metal, to stone, a flicker of flame, a flash of wood. Each new change starts before the last is complete, making weird ripples of new textures that travel in waves over her.

"Why?" she asks in a frightened voice. "What is it? What's wrong with me?"

Michael looked to Omar and nodded, "Yes, Cody was the only one, because at the time I made those manipulations he was the only one with mental defenses and it would have been noticed if I had just forced my way into his mind. By the time the rest of you developed your own defenses, I was no longer worried about you not being as honest about leaving as you claimed." Michael looked sad, "I hope you understand that I truly regret what I did and how cynical I was."

Steve evaluates,

*Cody, Caroline. Caroline then did Joani and some others but let's ignore them for now. Cody's defenses were down, so that was obvious, but Caroline was probably pretty good. Of course it might have been a light touch to send her off on that tangent, she was crazy regardless.*

*Translation: Michael was seriously strong, even back then. Who else? Amber wasn't alive.*

*Omar? Joani? Max? Ulric? ...Steve?*

*Meri was like Amber, not there. Everyone else...? Andrew was the obvious choice, low risk, high reward. Highly enhanced mind in the middle of things.*

*Wait a moment. No. Stop thinking about it right now.*

Steve glances at Amber and says,

"I don't know. I can't read minds, I just noticed him noticing something and deduced what it was."

Andrew nodded, "Of that I have little doubt, but I think that if he feels the need to punch through your psychic shielding to attack me further, and attack me he did, regardless of his reasons, I think if it comes to that we have more to worry about than just that." Andrew pushed his food away, no longer at all interested in it.

Kyria had sat through Michael's unpleasant revelation and its aftermath silently. She placed a hand on Cody's shoulder and kissed his cheek, then stood up and left without any other communication.

Joani wasn't really following the conversation feeling lightheaded all of a sudden. Her thoughts circled around the days when she was in Caroline's grasp. She thought she had come to peace with what had happened but obviously she didn't.

Her whole life was a lie? She started to put everything in question and the emptiness in her bowels turned into a deep black hole that seemed to drag her down. She had tried to live a dream which she thought was hers but now even that seemed to be a lie. As she slowly slid down to the floor she looked helplessly at Michael and cupped her face in her hands sobbing quietly. A part of her understood Michael's reasons but her emotional side couldn't cope with the consequences.

Searching for a way out of the confusion Joani looked again at Michael and Kara and then said firmly, "I want to undergo augmentation - I need to understand this... please."

As she walked out of the room Kyria felt a slight brush against her mind, the familiar invitation to contact that she was used to from her father. *Before you leave I would like to speak with you.*

*****
Inside the room...
For perhaps the first time in three hundred years Michael showed complete astonishment. Before he could gather himself to reply Kara went to her mother and took Joani in her arms and hugged her tightly. She whispered quietly for Joani's benefit, "I have searched Michael's memories and he did not create the situation that you were subjected to. Caroline did that entirely on her own. He was actually responsible for her releasing you from control when she did. As callous as he was for using the situation he didn't create it and he was responsible for your release by manipulating her into doing it. If he had been the cause of your suffering I never could have loved him."

Meanwhile Michael had composed himself and said, "Are you sure Joani? You haven't really had the time to absorb the implications of it. There is also the fact that when you leave you will lose access to the Sphere and with it will go all it's resources. That might be unpleasant for you." The last words trailed off quietly as Michael's lightning fast brain considered possibilities.

"There are two problems... First, in order to access the Sphere you have to undergo evaluation to ensure that you would not abuse the privilege and for you I am sure that would just be a formality, but it still has to be done. Second, you might face some withdrawal's as I mentioned. The second problem could be solved though. With your augmentation you could access Lorean's vast store of knowledge as well so leaving wouldn't be quite so harsh since you would still have that access. In a way the augmentation is similar to your Links with Lorean, but it is a much more transparent communication to a database so vast that even Lorean couldn't hope to contain all of the data. Once you get used to drawing on that knowledge you will find it uncomfortable to lack that access."

When Michael doesn't answer her, Meredith's anxiety notches up.

What was it? What was so terrible that no one would tell her? She felt like the cancer patient no one wanted to explain that she was doomed to...

Head spinning and sick to her stomach, Meri managed to mutter, "Excuse me," and headed for the door out. She had no idea where she was going. She just needed to get a grip on things. Maybe once Joani was done doing whatever she was doing, they'd have time for her.

As she left the room Michael looked away from Joani toward the retreating form of Meri and raised his voice enough to be heard, "Meredith, please stay. I am sorry that so many things are happening at once, but I would very much like to speak with you. Or if you must get some fresh air please don't go far, I think this may be quite important."

In the air beside her (not in her head) Michael's voice was projected quietly and for her ears alone, *Do not fear Meredith, there is nothing wrong with you, but I have noticed something odd and I would like a moment to study it further and verify that it poses no threat to you or the rest of us. If you would prefer Kara can be the one make the verification.*

With Kara on one side of Joani, Ulric was on the other.

"Love, I think we should carefully consider augmentation before taking that step. As has been pointed out, there is a huge downside to going through the process. We don't know what awaits us at the end of the journey we are in the midst off. We haven't decided that this is the place we want to try and make our home. Augmentation and the lack of its connectivity elsewhere would were on us. Is that what you want?"

A phrase from a song runs through Steve's head,

*...Life in the Fast lane...*

He comments, almost in wonder,

"All of you know everything, all the time. Or as much of it as you want, or can tolerate."

Omar was relieved that Michael had not altered him. He had been violated and tortured in his past and he didn't think that it would ever be possible for someone to do it to him again. With the power that Michael dislayed though, Omar was sure he could not prevent such an intrusion.

When Joani requested that she wanted augmentation, Omar's attention moved to her and her conversation with Michael. It was as he suspected; there was a price to pay. You had to be in contact with the Sphere. He wasn't sure what it was, but when Michael explained it was like a link with Lorien, it made some sense. If what Michael was saying was true, then when Joani left to another universe, she would loose her augmentation.

Moving closer to Michael, Joani, Ulric and the others, Omar spoke. "Are you saying that if Joani was augmented, and she then left this universe, that she would loose what she gained through the augmentation?"