SHE WALKED ONTO COMMAND LIKE SHE OWNED THE PLACE and presented herself to Braca with a snappy salute.

"Iriya Nerrimandi," she told him to his incredulous face, "Subvertor Class Tevan Nior, Authorization Mektha Level 11A. Liaison Station Chief Falla Norn. Reporting for duty."

Braca simply smiled and ordered troopers on her. She smiled into the gun barrels.

"Of course you are." He told her dryly. "Take her away!"

"Hold on!" She protested as troopers grabbed her and began to drag her off.

"Yes…" Scorpius raised a hand as he approached. Behind him a woman dressed as he was, blue haired and blue eyed, his attendant Froy. "…hold on a moment." He went to her and looked her over. 'Iriya' crossed her arms and merely looked insolent.

"You've been a guest with us here before." Scorpius informed her and Miriya nodded. She remembered. Bastard.

"So you should know I'm sincere." Miriya told the pale spectre before her. "My rank is genuine."

"Do I know this?" Scorpius reposted. "Why shouldn't I just have you summarily executed for treason and desertion?"

"What good would that do you?" Miriya cocked her head at him. "You think you're winning."

"I am winning." Scorpius sounded certain.

"You don't know Crichton very well at all, do you?"

"On the contrary. I know he will do his level best to betray me at the first available opportunity or would, were this any other circumstance. Yet, I own his planet now. I control his levers."

Miriya smiled broadly, looked about at the gloom.

"I've no doubt you control some, but I wasn't talking about that one. I'm talking about the one you don't have. You have nothing he wants – and he has no levers at all." She unfolded her arms and looked around Command. "Personally I don't care about either one. They're your problem and you're welcome to them."

"And yet, you still think you have something that will save you…"

"I know what Crichton's building. I know how it works. I also have alternatives if it doesn't. I am a very good Subvertor - as your records will doubtless show." Miriya was glad Sebaceans didn't sweat. "I have an …influence over him far more persuasive than anything you can beat him with – and mine's not something he can readily defy."

Behind them a tech handed Braca a computer pad. He scanned it.

"Scorpius," Braca called, "she is in the files as what she claims. There's doubt but no official disownment." Miriya nodded, hiding her relief. Calculated risks and bureaucracy slower than glaciers. "This says she's been with the other Crichton for some time."

"Oh, I have been," she smiled saucily, "he's told me things. Things he'd only tell to an …intimate friend. He trusts me."

Scorpius remained unreadable but his eyes held skepticism and Miriya doubted they ever held much of anything else. She also knew he knew more about her than he would ever give away. The torture she'd endured last time she was here assured her of that fact. It would either grant her credibility or doom her. Not that she really had all that much of a choice. She glanced at Froy who was slowly circling her and her trooper 'escort'.

"She's also been enhanced," Braca continued, "with a vrasij-heppa blend alteration."

Again Miriya nodded, resenting the 'addition' but understanding its uses now.

"Your 'persuasion'?" Scorpius noted.

"It's a rather specific persuasion." Miriya locked eyes with the half-breed. "Surely you can see how valuable I am."

Scorpius walked away with his hands behind his back. Froy stopped somewhere behind Miriya. Miriya tried to ignore her.

"What is John building?' he asked as he turned back to her.

"Something you don't understand," Miriya told him confidently, "but definitely something you want. He'll make sure of that."

Scorpius seemed to go still a moment. Then he turned and walked away.

"Send her to Crichton," he told Braca. "You will be useful." Miriya almost smiled in relief. Scorpius stopped but did not turn around. He raised a finger and Miriya felt a sudden sharp pain at the base of her skull. She slapped a hand to the spot and wheeled on Froy, who was standing placidly with an injector in hand.

"Just a wafer of insurance." Scorpius told her as he retreated into the gloom, "If you do anything else other than be useful to me, you will be killed instantly, without warning." Froy stepped back and then followed her master.

"Take her to Crichton," Braca told his troopers and then instantly forgot her as techs approached with reports.

Miriya rubbed the back of her neck and did her best to stay composed. She was beginning to understand better just why Scorpius, reviled as he was among Peacekeepers, was given so much power regardless. Iriya would have admired the son of a hazmot but Miriya was hoping beyond hope she could back up her boasts.

She was beginning to regret being alone in her head, just a little.