Prologue: Origins

[Seryna]

Jenny
[It's best if you aren't told the exact parameters, Alice.] Jenny said slowly.[As it stands, they others would only be concerned you followed my order. If you knew what it was and continued, they may become more cross with you.
The nature of the disk is very general- it will answer Kasey's questions without blowing your cover. It's more subtle than overt.]  Jenny glanced away, downwards towards the main Chee rooms.

[Good luck, Alice. I fear that I may be retasked by the time you return to us. Take care.]

[FuBar]

[Aww, I do hope they let you stay on as Liason... I mean, providing everything goes well, they should have no reason to reassign you from this, especially if it's something you like doing.] I reasoned, hoping to allay her fears a bit. [You take care too, ok?] I asked rhetorically, switching my hologram back on.

It seemed she believed the data on the disk would not threaten my cover, and I had no reason to distrust her opinion on this, so I would play the disk's message to the Humans.

[Seryna]

[Thank you, Alice, but my ideas on how to interact with the humans is meeting opposition. Hopefully my fears are unfounded. Good luck.]

Jenny switched her Hologram back on and departed the room. She paused to give Kasey, Reece and the others a wave before heading down to Chee Central to meet her uncertain fate.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey stares after Jenny for a moment, watching her walk down the hall for the second time today. This suddenly triggers a memory of earlier this morning, when Jenny had dropped the device. She straightens up, still leaning against the ball, but finally nods at Jayden and Kevin.

"Yes. Yes. I think we're decided. We'll work with you....so, what do we need to do?" She asks in a rather reluctant voice.

[Seryna]

"It might be easier on you if we do this separately." Kevin suggested. "We have to get into detail on a lot of little things you probably don't feel like sharing. From the names you call your kid brother to what you're scarfing at the dinner table, we really need to know just about every thing that might come up in the next day or so- where you were last night, what your family plans to do tonight.
Maybe you guys are best friends, but we don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"Yeah, Torrence suggested. "The rest of us can go outside and call the people who went home, see if they want to meet up later. About how long do you need to talk?"

"About two hours."

[Kit Cloudkicker]

"Okay." Kasey stands up, "Jayden, I can bring you over to my house if you'd like. I don't think my parents will be home... Reece, if we meet later can you bring that thing I let you borrow? I think it would be cool if we could show that to everyone else; they might get a kick out of it."

[Breekan1]

Reece nods. "Grand Theft Auto works best as a party game, and it'll be fun to see if it makes Damien vomit!" He observes his surroundings. "It might be safer if we do as much as we can here; Sandra's over at my place often enough," his eye twitches only slightly, "my parents wouldn't even care if she were there without me." He clears his throat. "Which, yeah, could be dangerous."

[Seryna]

"Okay," Jayden agreed. "I'll go with you to your house, Kasey. You can show me around."

"As much as we can here, no problem, man." Kevin replies, making an improvisational pancake bacon sandwich as he spoke. "Have a seat, load up on carbs and proteins- is this protein or just fat?"
He wondered as he eyed a bacon for a minute before eating it anyway.

As the others moved out, Kevin began to talk to Reece about his life. When Kasey and Jayden reached TKasey's house, they found that her parents were gone and they had the run of the house.  The other 'operative' also expressed interest in every aspect of Kasey's life.

 At first it was comfortable and conversational - for Reece, talking about Sandra, his parents, friends at school; for Kasey discussing her father's career, how she and her parents got along as well as her friends.  Soon the conversation seemed to veer off from discussing where one liked to shop to how they did at school.  The conversation quickly became tiresome after that with how detailed the operatives were about past experiences- likely because someone in their life might reference it.

When Jayden and Kevin seemed satisfied, they excused themselves.  Kasey and Reece realized they'd been conversing with their operatives for 2 hours! When the two came back, they'd made themselves up as Kasey and Reece. Jayden even had a wig cut and colored just so- the likeness was very good.

"Now, we can handle the infestation process, send you the information and get out of your hair," They were told. "- unless you want us to come over on a recurring basis."

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey sinks into the couch, and pushes the heels of her hands into her eyes. She groans, "I don't know. I really don't. What kinds of things am I going to hve to do if I'm pretending to be infested? Are there things I have to do other than going to the pool to get fed?"

[Seryna]

"The only thing that there might be is Sharing meetings." Jayden stated. "I'll send you a text with whats said to me from Yeerks when I'm 'you' so you don't have to worry that they'd figure you out.  You don't have to decide right now- no doubt it's all piling up right now, huh?  I'll handle tonight so you can deal with whats going on with your friends, if you want."

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey bites her lip, then nods. "That would be for the best. There's a banquet tonight that you'll have to go to. There's an outfit hanging up in my closet for it...you'll have to stay the entire time. Smile and nod...you know the routine." she takes a deep breath, and adds, "I think that's when they're probably going to make some sort of move. At one of my dad's events. A lot of people, lots of noise...easy enough to nab someone for a few minutes there."

She stares down at her hands, and begins to pick at one of her finger nails. Without looking up, she asks, "Torrence, did you get a chance to contact the others? We should probably meet soon. I'd like to meet at my place, if that's okay. My parents will be gone until after the banquet."

[Breekan1]

Reece looks down at his hands for a little bit, before speaking. "Yeah, Kev, see if you can handle tonight, and the Yeerk stuff. If I need you for more than that, I'll let you know..." He sits back in his chair and wonders if he'll have the wherewithal to keep up the act as Sandra's boyfriend, even knowing what's in her skull.

[Seryna]

"Alright." Jayden replied. "Well, I'll be off. I'll call you later to tell you how it goes. I'll also call you when we leave the banquet, so you guys know to get out of here."

The Operative gave Kasey and her friends a smile before leaving to get dressed in the outfit Kasey had chosen for herself and departed.
Torrence, who had been waiting outside while Kasey and Jayden talked, peeked her head in after she thought she'd heard her name. After Kasey repeated her question, Torrence replied she hadn't.

Torrence sent out texts to Autumn, Alice, Brit, Christina, Damien, Eddie and Reece, asking 'K. wants to meet at her place, you up for it?


"For sure." Kevin replied, checking the time with his cellphone. "Well, no use putting this off. I'll hit you up later, tell you what went on. Later."
Kevin said his goodbyes and headed out, destined for a hell of an uncomfortable night.


Elsewhere, just within the forested area of Lakeside; located 2 miles from Kasey's house


I had absolute faith that you would be able to get the Escafil.
 The alien said softly in your head as you settle around the lean to.  The sun is just setting in the distance, bathing the forest in an amber light.

As I told you before, it will allow me to heal from my grievous injuries.

The extent of her injuries has never been explained to her three companions, for the blue horse - deer alien was laying down, a large blanket covering her posterior. A long, large blanket that made one wonder what injury she was hiding under there.

You have been very quiet since I explained my reason for being here. Yet... you risked your lives to assist me with selflessness. I am genuine in how I'd like to be able to thank you.

The main eyes move to look at the three of you in turn, although her stalk eyes are glancing somewhere behind your heads, at the Forrest beyond.

[Breekan1]

Reece sees Kevin off and then not long afterwards checks his cellphone. Reece texts back "sure, i'll be right over." He heads over to where Christina was hanging out. "You want to head out?"

[Seryna]

Christina

"Yeah, okay." The girl replied, closing her phone. A gleam came into her. "You wanna fly there?"