Continuum

"What am I trying to tell you? We can look like you, Stevo!  We have perfected our ability to be indistinguishable from any other human. We even bleed, and our 'blood' would pass any test you care to give it. What is more, we have the ability to move our consciousness from one container or touring body to another, which gives us a major tactical advantage which you humans could never hope to overcome.  Another tactical advantage is our ability to communicate telepathically at much greater speed than you do using your speech. Altogether, we are much smarter than you as well. - All these things make us vastly superior to you as a species, or can't you see that?"

Stevo was uneasy at this. How correct she was!  He had taken her at her word when she told him that her kind - her Unity - had meant humankind no harm. Was that changing now?

Seeing his expression, Mary said, "Oh, we are not a threat to you, because we would never attack humans, Stevo.  That is beside the point.  We are a threat because of what we can do, and what we are. Think it through, my friend.  You need to understand this completely. We can extend your human life with our nanocites. We communicate telepathically. We are able to move among you undetected. We have bodies that can be exchanged at will. - Any one of these is great cause for your world to immediately to go to war with us!"

Then she added, "But these things are not the worst of it, Stevo.  We are truly aliens here on your world. I am as much an alien as if I had stepped off a starship onto your world!"

Mary continued, "Humankind is not ready for us! It might be many decades before you could ever accept us peacefully, if ever. Why, even some of our statistical projections predicted that if we just went dormant for a century or two, we would awake to find that you had obliterated yourselves. In any event this world would have become ours at that point."

Stevo was utterly despondent over this. He turned away, unable to look at her.

"Mary, you are right! People would gladly kill to get their hands on your technology! And your ability to mimic us will be seen as a real threat to mankind. I had even thought that the technology you have to share thoughts was valuable, but this healing of an old body cannot be shared with the world yet. Yes, there would be war over this!  You and your Unity might even be annihilated because of it. I know people are not ready for any of these things, Mary, so what are you going to do?"

* * *

Mary walked over to him. "Take my hand, Stevo. Take it like you did once before, so long ago."

Stevo hesitated only briefly. He thought he knew where Mary was going with this. Taking her hand in both his own was still quite a shock!  He pushed his finger briefly under her sleeve. Turning her hand over in his, he saw the crease lines in her palm, and fingerprints at the ends of her fingers. Turning her hand back, he saw well formed nails and fine, barely visible hairs on the back of her hand. Her hand felt warm to him, just as any woman's hand should feel. Squeezing a nail, he watched the blood under the skin rush back in to restore its pinkness. Gone was any trace of the "otherness" about Mary!