Strangers

supreme force that created the universe-"
        "God?" Brendan interrupted. "Are you saying they see themselves as servants of God?"
        "Something like that," Bennell said. "However, they aren't spreading any religious message. They simply feel they have a sacred obligation to help intelligent species find one another, to bind intelligences across the vast emptiness of space."
        "Bind," Falkirk said ominously, and he looked at his watch.
        General Alvarado had been moving slowly to his right, putting himself at the periphery of the colonel's vision. He took another step.
        Ginger was increasingly uneasy about the undercurrent of antagonism between Falkirk and Bennell and Alvarado, which she did not entirely understand. She moved closer to Dom and put an arm around him.
        "And they bring another gift," Bennell said, frowning toward the colonel. "They're such an ancient species that they've evolved certain abilities we think of as psychic. The ability to heal. Telekinesis. Other things. Not only have they evolved those talents, but they've learned to… to infuse the same abilities in other intelligent species that lack them."
        "Infuse?" Dom said. "How?"
        "We don't entirely understand," Bennell said. "But they can pass these powers along. That is evidently what was done with you, and now you have the ability to pass the power to others."
        "Pass the power?" Jack said, astonished. "You mean Dom and Brendan could give us… or anyone… what they have?"
        "I've already given it," Brendan said. "Ginger, Dom, Jack - you didn't hear the news Parker brought from Father Wycazik. Those two I healed in Chicago - Emmy and Winton - they've both got the power now."
        "New sources of infection," Falkirk said somberly.
        "And evidently," Parker said, "since Brendan healed me, I'll have it too, sooner or later."
        "Although I don't think it's passed only in healing," Brendan said. "It's just that the healing is such an intimate contact. Along with knitting up the tissues of the person you're healing, you somehow pass the power to them."
        Ginger's mind reeled. This news was every bit as earthshaking as the existence of the starship. "You mean… my God… you mean they came to help us evolve to a new level as a species? And that evolution is now already under way?"
        "It would seem to be, yes," Bennell said.
        Looking at his wristwatch again, Leland Falkirk said, "Please, this masquerade is getting boring."
        "What masquerade?" Faye Block asked. "What are you talking about, Colonel? We were told you believe we've all been somehow possessed, some nonsense like that. How can you have gotten such a crazy idea?"
        "Spare me this charade," Falkirk said sharply. "You all pretend to know nothing. In reality, you know everything. Not one of you is human any longer. You're all… possessed, and this innocence is play-acting to convince me to spare you. But it won't work. It's too late."
        Repelled by Falkirk's air of madness, Ginger turned again to Bennell. "What is all this stuff about infection and possession?"
        "A mistake," Bennell said, moving a few steps to his left.
        Ginger realized he was trying to pull the colonel's attention in that direction, away from General Alvarado, in order to give the general a better chance of slipping entirely out of Falkirk's notice.
        "A mistake," Bennell repeated. "Or rather… an example of the human race's typical xenophobia - hatred and suspicion of strangers, of anyone that's different. When we first viewed some of the videodisks I mentioned, when we first learned about the extraterrestrials' desire to pass these powers to other species, we apparently misinterpreted what we were seeing. Initially, we thought they were taking possession of those they changed, inserting an alien consciousness into a host body. I guess it's an understandable paranoia, after all the horror novels and movies. We thought perhaps we had a parasitical race on our hands. But that misapprehension was quickly dispelled when we'd seen more of their disks and had time to puzzle out some of the finer points. Now we know we were wrong."
        "I don't know it," Falkirk said. "I think you were all infected and then, under the control of these creatures, you began to downplay the danger. Or… or the disks are merely propaganda. Lies."
        "No," Bennell said. "For one thing, I don't