Chapter 36
Once they had made it out of Earth's orbit, Mark laid in their course and went back to check on Zoltar. There were only two seats in the small ship, so the Spectran Leader had been left lying on the floor, with wrist and ankle restraints in place.
Mark bent over, checking the restraints to make sure that they were still tight, and ensuring that the Spectran Leader was still out cold. Suddenly, he felt a crawling sensation creep over him, as if…
"Stop staring at my ass, Jason!"
"What?"
"I can practically hear you smirking about a Panty Alert, except that the only person present to hear you is out cold." Mark snapped. "Just give it a rest, for now, okay?"
"You know about the Panty Alerts?" Jason actually appeared to be slightly embarrassed.
"I've known about them since the first time you used the phrase." Mark rolled his eyes.
"But that's not possible! The first time I ever said that I was…"
"You were watching a video of the team training in Birdstyle." Mark finished for the Condor.
"Yeah…" Jason confirmed, looking suspiciously at Mark. "And the only other person there was…"
"Me." Mark sighed.
"No." Jason shook his head. "The only other person there was Mark."
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Jason." Mark said. "I know it's hard to believe, but I'm Mark."
Jason just stared at Mark for a moment, then burst out laughing.
"Yeah, right…" he grinned, his eyes roaming over the soft curves revealed through the Swan's Birdstyle. "You're Mark, and I'm the Chief…"
"I'm being serious, Jason." Mark growled. It didn't help that his words came out in Princess' dulcet tones.
"Uh huh…" Jason was almost falling off of his chair with laughter now. "And if you're Mark, then just who is it that we have tied up back there?" The Condor gestured at the unconscious form of the Eagle.
"That would be Zoltar." Mark sighed, knowing that he had just made his story sound even more improbable to his second.
"Zoltar?" Jason was in hysterics now. "So, you're saying that you're Mark, and Mark is Zoltar, and that's why you knocked him out and tied him up?"
"Oh, Prin," the Condor said, wiping a tear from his eye, "I didn't know that you and Mark had even officially acknowledged your feelings for each other, much less that you were involved in these kinky roleplaying games!"
"This isn't a game, Jason." Mark said, with as much patience as he could muster. "One of Zoltar's scientists somehow managed to develop a device that switches brainwaves from one body to another. Zoltar used this device to impersonate me. He's been living my life for over a week now, gathering information about our identities, Center Neptune, and Galaxy Security!"
Jason instantly sobered at this statement.
"That's an awfully serious charge you're making, Princess." he said. "Do you have any proof?"
"Just think, Jason." Mark encouraged the Condor. "Hasn't the 'Commander' been acting strangely in the past week or so?"
"No, not…" Jason's eyes suddenly opened wide. "Wait… he's been much more open about his feelings for you, Prin." His eyes narrowed again as he contemplated the events of the last few days.
"And when we were flying toward the Urgosian ship, he was actually encouraging me to shoot some missiles and blow it up!" Jason continued.
"Urgosian ship? What the hell is this?" Mark cried in shock. "The Urgosians attacked us?"
"Yeah, on Venus." Jason replied. "You remember. You were there."
"No." Mark shook his head. "I wasn't. That was Zoltar."
"Look, Prin, don't you recall arguing about shooting the missiles? Or rescuing Prince Oolengin?" Jason asked.
"I'm not Princess." Mark reminded him. "I'm guessing it was she with whom you did those things. I wasn't there."
"So," Jason appeared confused, as if he were trying to sort out the details, "just assuming that you're telling the truth, you're saying that a few days ago Princess was Princess, but Mark was Zoltar. But now, Mark is Zoltar and you are Mark."
"That's right."
The Condor threw up his hands in disgust.
"So, where is Princess?"
"She's on Spectra. That's where we're going." Mark showed Jason the flight path on which the spacecraft was traveling.
Jason looked up at Mark, and for the first time, the Commander actually saw an indication in the Condor's grey eyes that Jason might actually be accepting the truth of what he was being told.
"So when you said you had to rescue a friend…"
"Princess' life is in danger." Mark confirmed. "She's in a strange body, she doesn't know what's happened to her, and she may be the target of an assassination attempt."
"I said yesterday that I trusted you." Jason spoke slowly, weighing his words. "And whether you are Princess, or Mark, that holds true."
"I appreciate that, Jason." Mark sighed with relief.
"So, explain to me how this all came about." the Condor said.
Mark described what had happened to him since the Astricon mission. With every word, Jason became more and more amazed.
"So you are responsible for Spectra's peace overtures?" he asked in disbelief.
"Well, me, and Xan." Mark replied. "He is really the one who conceived of this whole plan. I only hope that he is with Princess right now. He, at least, could help her understand what is going on."
"I can't imagine what it would feel like to wake up and discover that you are Zoltar…" Jason shuddered.
"Let's just say that now that I've survived it, there's nothing that scares me anymore." Mark smiled wryly for a moment, before his expression turned serious again.
"Except, losing one of you." he added, after a moment of contemplation. "We can't let anything happen to Princess." His mood was grim.
The Commander continued to fill in details of the past week for his second, while the Condor was obviously struggling to grasp everything he was being told.
Once their ship had emerged from the other side of the Crab Nebula and they were within range, Mark opened a short range comm channel, attempting to locate Xan by his personal transmitter. Fortunately, the message got through, and Mark was grateful that the Blackbird had told him about this particular device during the time he had been on the Planet Spectra.
Xan's face appeared on the screen less than thirty seconds after Mark had initiated the communication. The Blackbird stared at him in amazement.
"Commander?" he asked, after a brief moment of confusion.
"Yes." Mark nodded. "Something went wrong with the transfer…"
"I know." Xan replied blandly. "After the transfer was completed, I went in to check on you… only it wasn't you: it was the Swan. The door to the other chamber had opened and she had fallen to the floor, half in and half out of it. I was about to assist her when I heard Yol's voice announcing that the self-destruct sequence had been initiated…" A quiet tear fell from the Blackbird's eye.
"I am sorry about your brother, Xan." Mark said respectfully.
"He was doing what he thought was right." Xan said stoically. "He was serving the Master. I only wish that he and I could have…" the Blackbird sighed.
"In any case," Xan continued, "I knew we had to leave. But then the Condor appeared and I ducked back into the other room, knowing that we did not have the time for a confrontation. I felt certain that he would take care of the Swan."
"That's about right." Jason said quietly to Mark. "Princess and I split up to look for the Commander… at least, the man we thought was the Commander… and on my way back to the Phoenix I saw Princess… you… lying in some kind of strange laboratory. I remember thinking that I heard someone else nearby, but since we were running out of time, I didn't investigate."
"I did not confront you for the same reasons." Xan acknowledged. "I took Lord Zoltar's body and fled to his escape pod. I reached it only seconds before the self-destruct sequence reached completion."
"But the person you have isn't Zoltar." Mark told him. "It's the Swan."
"I realized that as soon as she awoke." Xan revealed. "She didn't understand what had happened to her. Yet since she was occupying the Master's physical form, her position was very dangerous, as I did not know whom else Yol had had under his control… people who might try to harm Lord Zoltar's body, thinking that it was you inside, Commander."
"We heard the official announcement about an assassination attempt." Mark stated. "What was that?"
"That was my lack of preparation." Xan admitted. "It was the only explanation I could think of, to prevent the Federation from being blamed for the destruction of Yol's ship." he revealed.
"Since the Master and I were the only survivors, the Spectran people had no choice but to believe my tale." Xan continued. "I said that the self-destruct sequence had been activated by rebels, who had injured Lord Zoltar, hoping he would die onboard. I let it be publicly known that I had been able to get 'the Master' to an escape pod. I have kept his body sedated ever since, because I feared that if the Swan awoke, she would refute my version of events."
Jason bristled at the thought of Princess being kept sedated by a Blackbird, but the Commander place a calming hand on his shoulder.
"He has a point." Mark told the Condor. "When I first awoke to discover I looked like Zoltar, I wasn't entirely rational for a couple of days."
"I understand, Xan." Mark said, turning back to he viewscreen. "Where is the Swan now?"
"She is with me, in the jungles of the Rantorian Continent." Xan replied. "It is a very remote area of Spectra, and no one has bothered us here. I will send you the co-ordinates."
Jason nodded at Mark as the data were received by their spacecraft.
"We are approaching Spectra now." Mark informed Xan. "We will be there shortly."
"I await your arrival." Xan bowed his head respectfully before the communication was terminated.
"So, we just approach Spectra in a Federation ship, kidnap their 'Leader', and take off again?" Jason asked doubtfully.
"Not exactly." Mark smirked. "I did learn a few things while on Spectra."
The Commander input a few commands into the Federation ship's computer system.
"I've just changed our impulse signature to mimic that of a short-range Spectran personal transport vessel." he informed the Condor. "Hopefully since we'll be landing in a remote area, we won't be deemed worthy of further examination by the Spectran patrols."
"Are you sure you're not Princess?" Jason grinned. "That certainly sounds like something she would think up."
"Perhaps some of Princess is rubbing off on me." Mark smiled.
"Princess can rub off on me anytime." Jason smirked, making an obvious attempt to check out the Swan's bottom. Mark growled threateningly, but took the gesture as it was intended: a way to break the tension. They were, after all, about to land, without permission, on an enemy planet that had openly declared that they wanted peace with the Federation.
After a few tense moments, they broke through the Spectran atmosphere, and the steamy jungle of the Rantorian Continent lay below them. There was no sign of pursuit, despite the Spectran ships they had glimpsed on radar during their descent.
"I guess we got in." Jason said, letting his breath out in a hiss. Until that moment, Mark hadn't realized that his second had been holding it in. The Condor carefully composed himself into his usual confident manner.
It was not difficult to locate the small jungle dwelling in which Xan had taken refuge, given that they had the co-ordinates. Less than half an hour after first contacting the Blackbird, they were looking at Xan face to face, the Condor holding the body of the Eagle slung over his left shoulder.
"The Swan is in here." the Spectran man said, leading Mark and Jason into a small room off of the main chamber of the hut. Zoltar's body lay on a bed, and the Spectran Leader appeared to be sleeping.
"Once I knew that you were coming, I discontinued the sedative." Xan told them. "She should be awakening in short while."
Mark looked at the body of the Spectran Leader, trying to come to grips with the reality that it was Princess who was inside of this form. Even having been through his experiences of the last week or so, the Commander found it difficult, until he looked down at his own body wearing the pink and white uniform of the Swan.
"Princess…" he whispered softly, bending over and touching her cheek.
There was a murmured response, but Mark could not make out anything that was being said.
"So what now?" asked Jason, as Mark straightened up. The Eagle glanced at the Condor and noted that his second turned away guiltily. Mark sighed. He swore to himself never to participate in another Panty Alert for as long as he lived.
"We have to find Dr. Mansonstein and get everyone back to their original forms." Mark stated, choosing to turn to look at Xan, rather than reprimand Jason for his wandering eyes.
"There is a problem with that." the Blackbird admitted. "The Doctor was killed when Yol's ship self-destructed."
Mark mentally smacked himself for forgetting that Dr. Mansonstein had been onboard the doomed spacecraft. His heart sank. Would it ever be possible to return everything… and everyone… to normal?
"However," Xan continued, causing Mark's head to snap up, "the Doctor was held in his country home, just outside of Spectre City, for weeks after Lord Zoltar knew of his invention. I know he worked on the device there, and it is likely that he left his prototype equipment in his laboratory there."
"Likely?" Jason raised an eyebrow.
"There are no guarantees." Xan sighed. "But this is the best chance we have."
"You remember how to operate the device?" Mark asked the Blackbird.
"I can figure it out." Xan said, after a moment of brief hesitation.
"You know, Mark," Jason whispered, nudging the Commander in the side with his elbow, "this guy doesn't exactly fill me with confidence."