“Let me get this straight,” Alessa began. “You expect me to believe that you were…traveling, as you put it...observing the Earth. And then you – whatever you are – were somehow forced into the body I see in front of me?”

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Kerrith’s relief was palpable. “Exactly. I was feeling an intense curiosity about the creatures of this planet, and the next thing I knew, I was inside of one.”

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Alessa squirmed. Obviously, the man was unfamiliar with irony. Even heavy irony. But there was no way she’d believe he was an actual alien.

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“Again, let me thank you for your understanding,” he said. “I have...observed, as you put it...your home world, and I know that its people are just as quick to respond to the unknown with cruelty as with kindness.”

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Damn, he seemed so… sincere. Logic battled with her gut instincts, but she decided to see where this would lead. As a doctor, she’d often found that instinct served her better than logic.

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“So where did you, er, find this body?”

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Kerrith seemed to hesitate at the question. “I was observing it, and discovered that I admired it,” he admitted finally.

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Alessa didn’t know quite how to respond to that, since she had admired it herself just a few minutes ago by the side of the road.

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“But it belongs to someone,” she pointed out. “Someone human. And I’ll bet he’s not too crazy about what you’ve done to him.”

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“He’s not,” Kerrith agreed. “I can sense him here with me, but he knows this was an accident. He knows I mean him no harm.”

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“But you are harming him, whether you intend to or not. You’ve taken his body against his will, and now you’re forcing him to do things.”

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Kerrith shook his head. “It’s true that I’ve usurped this body, but I would never force it to do anything it didn’t want to do. I was curious about the human experience, but I never intended to be part of it. We are both victims, in our different ways. You must believe me.”

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Alyssa frowned. He was certainly sticking to his alien story.

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Kerrith reached out and took her hand. “Please. Help me. A healer helps people, doesn’t she? You said yourself that’s what doctors do. Help me, Alessa Brown. You may be the only person who can.”

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