Puzzles
By Jewels

Notes: I found an old rubix cube this morning while searching for breakfast. The resulting actions of my family, and most of the people in the common room this lunchtime resulted in what you see before you...

Disclaimer: Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict are copyright Tribune Entertainment Company and the show is produced by Roddenberry/Kirshner Productions.

Do not archive without asking me first. Set during season one...

Lili twisted the object in her hands so hard, Boone thought she was going to break it. He'd long since lost interest in reviewing the security arrangements for an scientific conference, and was watching raptly as Lili tried to solve the puzzle she held. She'd been at it for nearly an hour now, and it had been entertaining for the last ten minutes to watch her sweat as she tried to solve it, her cursing getting more varied as time went on.

"Dammit!!" she snapped finally, slamming the rubix cube down on Boone's desk, making several items jump alarmingly. He put a hand on his coffee mug to make sure it didn't fall off the end. "Whoever invented this STUPID thing was obviously some sort of sadist!" she declared loudly, folding her arms and glaring at the cube as if it were about to attack her.

The rubix cube was one of those things that had inexplicably come back into fashion without any warning whatsoever. What had been the last one? Oh yes, yoyos. That craze had swept the country to the point where Doors had ordered any yoyos seen to be confiscated on sight. Boone had a feeling it wouldn't be too long until he was confiscating cubes as well.

"Want me to have a go?" he asked, and Lili looked at him as if he'd suddenly gone mad.

"You've gone mad." she informed him. "This thing..." she pointed at the cube. "Is more insidious than a Taelon plot. In fact, it must be a Taelon plot, designed to keep the minds of the people of Earth on the rubix cube and off the Taelons, leaving them free to do whatever they want."

Boone stared at her for a moment. "Lili... that's a little extreme, don't you think?"

"No." replied Lili curtly. "I think it's a perfectly reasonably theory." She smiled sweetly. "But if you want to try it, go ahead."

Unable to resist the implicit challenge, Boone picked up the cube and started twisting it one way and another. It should have been easy, his CVI should have allowed him to better visualise the series of moves needed in order for the rubix cube to have blocked colours on all sides.

Except it didn't seem to be working.

Boone was unaware of Lili's rather smug expression as she watched him fight with the deceptively easy puzzle, then she grinned widely as he started muttering various curses under his breath. He wasn't even aware of the time passage until Sandoval's voice interrupted his focus.

"Boone, Da'an wan... what are you doing?" Sandoval sounded puzzled. Which was a good description of Boone's state of mind. Puzzlement, mixed in with pure frustration.

"What is it, Sandoval?" Boone demanded, not taking his attention away from the cube, still spinning and twisting it in his hands.

Sandoval stared at him for a moment. "Da'an wants to see us immediately, it concerns the conference."

Boone looked up at him blankly. "What conference?"

Lili shoved the file he had been scanning nearly an hour ago under his nose, and his CVI finally decided to ignore the cube long enough to give him the information he needed. "Oh right, that conference."

Lili stood up, still smirking smugly. "I'll ready the shuttle." she told them, grabbing her jacket up from the back of her chair as she strode out of the room.

Sandoval sat down in the chair vacated by Lili and stared at the rubix cube a moment. "I haven't seen one of those in years." he said. "Mind if I..."

Boone stopped trying to get the cube to co-operate and peered at Sandoval. "Do you want to lose your sanity forever?" Boone shook his head as the other Implant was about answer. "Never mind. I forgot for a moment that you were never sane, here you go." Sandoval glared at him, then deftly caught the cube in his hands as Boone tossed it across the desk to him.

Sandoval started off pretty calm and collected, and remained that way for a while, even though Boone could see the telltale signs of frustration beginning to emerge. Sandoval's head snapped up and he blinked as a cheeping noise interrupted his concentration.

Boone pulled out his global. "Lili?"

"Are you two coming? I've been sitting out here for ten minutes!"

"Uh... we'll be right there."

"But Boone..." Sandoval held up the cube.

"Solve it on the way there, let's go."

The entire shuttle journey to DC, although brief, had consisted of the squeak of the plastic of the rubix cube, as Sandoval kept trying to solve it. By the time they landed at the Embassy, Boone was ready to skrill the damned thing into non-existence.

Sandoval actually kept fiddling with the offending object as they made their way through the Embassy towards Da'an's audience chamber. The two Taelons there, Da'an and Zo'or stared at them both.

"You are late." said Zo'or accusingly.

"We were unavoidably detained." said Boone, giving Sandoval and elbow in the arm to hopefully make him take the hint and put the cube away. Either Sandoval didn't know what it meant, or his was just ignoring him, but throughout the first five minutes of their meeting with the two Companions, he occasionally turned the cube in his hands and tried to get a side.

Eventually, it was Zo'or who cracked, snatching the cube out of Sandoval's hands and glaring at it. Boone was sure that if Taelons' eyes were lasers, Zo'or would have been holding a melted lump of plastic.

"What is this?" he demanded of the two Implants.

"It's a... a..."

*Gee, Sandoval, that's so helpful.* thought Boone, peeved, and proceeded to explain the concept of the rubix cube to Da'an and Zo'or. Da'an looked fascinated, but Zo'or just looked irritated at this aspect of Human culture.

"It is a simple logic puzzle." he told them. "Hardly requiring of such attention."

"Yes, Zo'or," Boone and Sandoval chorussed dutifully.

They made their way through the rest of the meeting without any mention of the brightly coloured cube, but occasionally, Boone thought he caught sight of Zo'or giving the rubix cube an experimental twist when he thought no one was looking.

At the end of it, they were dismissed, both Boone and Sandoval frustrated at the fact that they hadn't been able to solve the puzzle.

"If it is such a 'simple logic puzzle'," Da'an said, with a trace of smugness that almost equalled Zo'or when he was in a good mood, "Then may I ask why you cannot solve it?"

Zo'or glared at the US Companion and returned his attention to the cube. "It is deceptive in its ease," he said defensively, then waved the cube in the air. "It is obviously a plot by the Liberation Movement to keep Taelon minds occupied while they..."

"If that were so, why would they distribute this object to their own people?" asked Da'an.

"They are Human." said Zo'or, as if that was all the explanation required, then returned to trying to solve the puzzle, hissing in Eunoia every so often.

Da'an turned his attention away from Zo'or with something akin to exasperation as Doctor Bellman walked in. "Da'an, Zo'or," the Human Doctor said courteously. "I have those test results you said I should... is that a rubix cube."

Zo'or glowered. "It is."

"Can I try? I haven't done one in a while."

Zo'or held it out to her, almost glad to be rid of it.

"Thank you, anyway, as I was saying..."

Bellman proceeded to rattle off the test results, all the time messing with the cube in her hands.

"So, I believe that all was actually going on, was a mild case of influenza, rather than mutated hallucinogenic fungus in the canteen casserole as Agent Sandoval claimed. It interacted badly with his CVI." she finished.

"Thank you, Doctor, you may return to your duties." Da'an told her, gesturing gracefully.

Bellman made to leave, then stopped and turned around, holding up the cube. "Here, you'll want this back."

She tossed it across the space between herself and Zo'or, and the Taelon was too amazed to chide her for throwing it. He held the completed rubix cube in his hands. "How did you-"

"Oh that," Bellman waved dismissively. "I have the cheat book."

With that, she departed, and Da'an turned to Zo'or and gave him a passable smirk. "Yes, definitely simple."

Zo'or made a mental note to order all rubix cubes destroyed on sight.

-Fini