Deyan knew there was something about Fayala that was of  much interest to the gods. The strange room he once again found himself in was vast and imposing. There were many strange devices with wondrous images and sounds that both amazed and frightened him. A display the gods were particularly interested in looked like two sets of perpendicular lines that twisted around each other and were connected by horizontal short lines of assorted colors.

          Deyan stood close to the same examination table that he himself had lay on twice before. Now it held an unconscious Fayala, the elder of the gods had placed her there and was looking intently at the transparent copy of her body displayed above the machine. The one thing Deyan did get from Fayala before she was put on the table, was that these beings were not gods and Mira was not the Earth Goddess.  Her attempt to explain what she had seen in their minds only served to confuse him further. 

Two female giants had joined the group and now all five were busy moving about the room examining and analyzing the information being produced by the machines. They were excitedly communicating between themselves making for an inharmonious din that had Deyan covering his ears to muffle the screechy sounds they produced.

The noise created by the fervent activity had reached such a fever pitch that he was becoming worried about Fayala.  His concern for her well being increased with each passing moment, he moved close to Fayala placed his hand on her arm.

   Bienn frowned as the display he had been studying changed, he looked down at the examination table then gently picked up Deyan between his fingers and moved him away from Fayala. Feeling flustered Deyan cautiously approached Mira and when she placed her hand on the table grabbed and shook one of her long fingers. He got her attention but his effort only succeeded in eliciting a rebuke from her as well.

Then Mira looked back down at him and signed, "do not worry, everything is fine." The exchange did little to ease his concerns.
_________________

              Mira, Bienn and Otead continued their study of the information being produced from the tests on Fayala.  Tiasha and Sirena were excitedly reviewing a genomic data stream. They focused on her brain as her telepathic abilities were far beyond that of any  species they had data stored on, including humans. Sirena concluded that the abnormality causing her hearing loss was directly linked to her extraordinary mental capability.  

     Sirena determined that Fayala always had the ability to perceive feelings and read the emotional states of others but it was her direct exposure to the advanced mental abilities possessed by Mira that caused a unique sequence of genetic strands to fully activate.  It was Tiasha who discovered the polyploidy chloroplast DNA strand that gave Fayala her psychic abilities,  interestingly it was a gene unique to Miorpeans, not humans.  

Mira looked thoughtfully  at a chagrined Deyan. "Deyan," she signed, "how many humans in the settlement are like Fayala and do not have the ability to hear?"

"Oh only a few," he signed excited to be included. "Fayala has a sister born like her, unable to hear, as was their mother and her mother before her," he added. 

    Otead looked accusingly at Bienn, "the tests also indicate that these humans, he gestured to Fayala and Deyan, are not direct descendants of any human species that inhabited this planet at the time of the terraforming, what is it that you are you not telling us about this, prohibited sector?"

Bienn closed his eyes and slowly sat down, he directed that all external communication links be secured then motioned for the others to join him. Fayala still lay on the exam table and sensing it safe Deyan slowly eased over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Bienn looked down at the two small humans, took a deep breath and somberly addressed his colleagues, "this should not have happened, I am afraid that the best intentions of a few of our scientists may have gone awry."

Bienn sighed heavily, " what I am about to tell you cannot be repeated beyond this facility."