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 What is this? Liz skims the pages quickly. As she reads, the pressure in her head builds. It feels like a bowling ball ... that feeling you get when you have a cold, when your sinuses are so congested you can't breathe. Liz can't breathe.
"Hey, girlfriend ...," says Maria making a grand entrance with her makeup bag.
Liz doesn't notice her friend. Her jaw is on the floor. She flips through the pages, absorbing as much as she can understand.
"What's wrong?" asks Maria, who becomes aware that something of importance just happened. She sits on the bed beside her friend. Liz turns to her friend, eyes wide open.
"I'm one of them," says Liz.
"What? What are you talking about?"
Maria grabs the paper.
"Them," points Liz.
Maria reads the title, "Star Children - Forensic Ancestry of Native Americans."
"No, no," says Maria, "You might be a little different. After all, you died and were healed by an alien, but that doesn't make you an alien."
"Look who wrote it," says Liz.
"William Atherton, 1959. Okay, I'm creeped out. I thought that Star Children were just folklore."
"This is actual DNA evidence. You can't deny this."
"I can deny it. I don't understand it. So, what does this have to do with you?"
"Certain Indian myths talk about Star Children, children born from human mothers and alien fathers."
"And you think because you are part Native American, you're alien?"
"Just look at this, Maria. It's my DNA analysis."
"It's just as unreadable as the Destiny Book is to me. And how do you know it's yours?"
Liz flips back through the pages ... to page one where her name tops the page.
"Oh! Okay, so explain it to me."
"Okay," says Liz, pushing her hair back, "Have you ever heard of the Star Child Project?"
 Max plants himself on the floor of the UFO Center's archive section. Anytime he has extra time, he flips through the books and reports, looking for info, any info that might help him find Antar and eventually, his son. He wants to explain how he feels to Liz, but the words ... they don't come. It's such a mess ... The Tess Mess. There is nothing he could say that doesn't sound lame. He screwed up big time. He has to find a way to make everything right ... to save his son ... and save his relationship with Liz.
Now another alien threatens them ... again connected with Atherton. He had to learn as much as he could find about Atherton and why Nasedo killed him. And if Nasedo killed Atherton in 1959, why did Atherton's network of underground "helpers" continue to support the alien presence? Surely, they would have fled. All the stories of "evil aliens" would have come true with Atherton's murder ... that is, unless they didn't know he was murdered. Did Riverdog tell anyone outside of the Mesaliko Reservation? Did Liz's grandmother know that Atherton was murdered? But if Riverdog told his people, wouldn't he have told the others ... for their own safety ... so they could protect themselves? God, if only he could talk to Liz right now.
"Max Evans?"
Max, deep in thought, had not seen anyone enter. The man from the photograph startled him.
"I was told that you might be able to help me. My name is Charles."
"Okay, give me the Cliff Notes version," says Maria "while I create a black hole on your back."
"Thanks, Maria," says Liz.
"You're welcome. Now spill. In English please."
"In 1928, a woman and a child were found in a secret burial chamber in Mexico. The woman was completely normal."
"Human?"
Liz nods.
"Native American, but ... the child wasn't normal."
"Alien?"
"Inconclusive. The child had an abnormally large brain cavity."
"Very X-filish."
"There was an article is one of the recent science magazines. It concluded that the mother was human through the mitochondrial DNA, but they couldn't get any nuclear DNA to analyze the chromosomes to detect any information about the father. That was part of something called The Star Child Project."
"How does this help you?" asks Maria, waving some Goth lipstick in her hands. “Grandma Claudia died in 1999."
"Don't get ahead of me. The purpose of the Star Child Project is find out whether or not that child's father was an extraterrestrial."
"Where there is myth, there is a historical event on which the myth was based."
"Exactly," says Liz. "So how come this report, dated 1959, has DNA evidence based on solid scientific collection techniques that were not available to us in 1999?"
"Maybe a human didn't write it."
"Or maybe a human with alien connections?"
"Atherton ... or at least someone close to Atherton like Grandma. I think Nasedo was looking for someone."
"The child from 1928?"
"Me."
"Okay, you lost me. You weren't born in 1959."
"This report from 1959 did get the nuclear DNA of the Star Child, how I'm not sure, because we can't even get DNA from the same bones. It's maybe at least two years ago from being technologically possible. But based on Atherton's 1959 report, the father was alien."
"And because you have Native American ancestry, you're alien? You're reaching, Petunia."
Liz flips some more pages. Near the end, in different typing, there is an addendum.
"My DNA analysis."
"You said that before."
Maria checks the date. Sept, 1999.
"I don't get it. How can that even be possible?"
"Obviously, the aliens have been coming to Earth a lot longer than before 1947. There are accounts of space ships appearing in Mayan art, Renaissance art, and even in cave paintings."
"How do you even know that?"
"History Channel."
"But why? Apparently we don't taste good."
"Not funny, Maria."
"All I'm saying is that we haven't been appearing in their frozen food section."
"We're the experiment, Maria. For some reason, aliens have been trying to mate with humans for thousands of years. Think about the book."
"Why us?"
"I guess because our planet is similar to theirs. For some reason, they are coming to earth to either perpetuate their species somehow ... or their planet or galaxy is dying. They've been colonizing the Earth for a very long time."
"Just like Pierce said."
"Only now the descendants of the original Star Children have become human."
"I still don't get it."
"Modern Native Americans descend from one of five lines of mitochondrial DNA."
"And ..."
"The same applies to ancient Native Americans."
"So?"
"The Star Child and I come from the same line." Liz flips to another page and points some figures on the page.
"I don't know, Liz. Aren't you reading too much into this?"
"Why would my grandmother have my DNA analysis unless there was something unusual?"
"Why would she even have it at all?"
Maria had a point, thought Liz. How did she get it?
"How can I help you?" asks Max warily as he watches Charles pour over Brody's computers.
"Sophisticated set up," says Charles. "Your doing?"
Max shakes his head.
"I study radio waves, microwave signals actually," says Charles, "and a year ago this past May, an unusual radio signal was received right here in Roswell. May 14. Brody said you knew about the signal."
"We talked about it, but we weren't able to pinpoint where the signal originated."
"Well, we know Point A is Roswell, don't we?"
"And?"
"I know Point B."
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