As Bialar rounds a corner, the lights in the corridor ahead of him die. The unwholesome rasp of the environmentals has stopped, replaced by an even more disconcerting silence. Making his way through the darkness, he vows to master Talyn's ability to read infrared signals as soon as he has the opportunity to do so. He hears someone running in his general direction and stops to listen. The erratically paced footsteps become louder, and are soon accompanied by heavy breathing interspersed with words.

"... coming, Mina! If you would... tell me... what it is you're so... frightened of..."

"Gemmi!"

Using her voice to gauge her location, Bialar makes a grab for her. He misses, but she stops running and calls out to him. After a few microts of fumbling, he manages to get a hold of her wrist. She is wearing a pressure suit, and the baggy material makes it difficult to grip her sufficiently.

"I have to get to Mina!" Gemmi pants, tugging on his arm.

"That suit won't have enough propulsion, and you can't take the transport pod, not with Moya's systems failing." He wraps the fingers of his free hand around her forearm. "Mina will be safe. Our best alternative is for you to cooperate with Sikozu in the hope that she can reverse the damage to Moya."

"She'll kill me when she sees it, Bialar!" Gemmi makes a futile attempt to break free of his grasp. "When she sees Scorpius, I mean."

"You killed him?" Bialar's hand contracts involuntarily until Gemmi yelps and stops squirming.

"No! I wanted to complete the transfer, but he-- he wouldn't let me. Sikozu had him in a coolant fluid tank because of his condition, and he tipped it over so there wouldn't be a reason for me to stay."

"He... tipped it over?" Bialar repeats, his own internal temperature rising slightly as he struggles to make sense of what Gemmi has just said.

"I wasn't going to leave him, but he told me to go back to my Leviathan, and then he rocked the tank until it shattered. There's nothing I can do here now!"

"This happened in your laboratory?" he asks.

"Yes, but what does it--"

"Then that is where we are going. We can load Scorpius in the stasis pod that was used for Jayza." He resumes walking toward the laboratory, dragging Gemmi with him.

"But Mina--"

"At this time, Mina needs her mother as well as her pilot."

"Crew of Moya, I regret the recent... disturbances. Moya and I are once again in full control of all functions, including life support, and... Mina's long range reconnaissance sensors have detected a Scarran dreadnaught that appears to be locked on to our location."

Pilot's announcement leaves them both frozen, staring at each other in the newly re-lit corridor.

"So that's what she's afraid of," Gemmi whispers.

Bialar snorts. "Mina is the Atavist! After she used her unique ability to disable the stykers, she has no reason to fear the Scarrans. If the dreadnaught is disabled as the strykers were, we can handle it in the same manner."

"But that's not it..." She closes her eyes and bites her lip for a few microts before continuing. "She's not afraid of the Scarrans. She's afraid for them."

Bialar releases Gemmi and waves a hand in irritation. "Then go to her. You are more equipped to deal with such a crisis of conscience than I am."

"What about Scorpius and the stasis pod?" Gemmi asks.

"Irrelevant. With control restored to Pilot, there is no reason to bargain with Sikozu. We can box the corpse in an empty crate and load it on her transport."

"No." Gemmi shakes her head and resumes walking toward the laboratory.

"No?" Bialar repeats incredulously.

"No," Gemmi calls over her shoulder. "Now that Pilot is back in control, I'm in no danger here on Moya. There's no reason for me to leave. If there's any chance your idea about the stasis pod will work, I have to try it."

"Gemmi--"

"Scorpius was willing to sacrifice his own life in order to keep me from risking mine. I don't pretend to understand why, but I do owe him for it. And Mina agrees."

Dumbfounded, Bialar watches for a moment as she jogs away from him. As he moves in the opposite direction, headed toward command, he muses that allowing Gemmi to remain Mina's pilot may have been an error, one that will be almost impossible to rectify. He had hoped that Gemmi's pliable nature would allow him to influence Mina. Instead, the hybrid's stubbornness and Gemmi's foolish sentimentality appear to have merged, creating a composite being with limitless potential to frustrate him.

Something taps at the toe of his boot, and he looks down to see a badly dented DRD holding something in its extended claw. He kneels down and takes the proffered item, a familiar metal spike. Having finished its delivery, the DRD zooms away, probably overwhelmed with repairs. Bialar slides the transponder into place and receives an immediate greeting from Talyn.

"Good! The DRD found you. D'Argo's called everyone to command... things are intense at the moment."

"I am headed there. What of Ceredin? I take it she was able to restore Pilot, but is she in tact herself?"

"She's fine, other than what she did to her bioloid. At least, I think she's fine. She's been a little strange ever since we removed the wormhole data from Crichton's memory."

"Gemmi can run diagnostics later, when she's done with Scorpius." Bialar ends the conversation and proceeds to command.

When the doors open, the scene before him makes the descriptor "intense" a gross understatement. Against the backdrop of the viewscreen, Sikozu stands flanked by Talyn and Ceredin, who each hold one of her arms. D'Argo stands in front of them, his qualta blade drawn, but lowered. If Moya's elected captain is attempting to preside over an impromptu tribunal, he is failing miserably. The other four people in the room-- Noranti, Crichton, Aeryn, and Chiana-- are all talking at once.

As Bialar enters, Rygel glides toward him while stuffing his thick-lipped mouth some sort of grain product from a bowl on his lap. "Fascinating to watch, isn't it?"

Bialar nods agreement and then ignores the greedy little toad, focusing instead on the clamor of voices around him.

"-- know I don't even like her, but this is completely krastic!"

"If we dose her with heema root powder and yulaberry paste, that will--"

"Even on a Peacekeeper vessel she would have some form of due process."

"--got a warship the size of a moon on our tail and we're arguing about this?"

Bialar coughs just loudly enough to be heard and is half surprised when the tactic works. The others all turn to face him. He chaffs at the thought of acknowledging the Luxan's authority, but understanding the need for order, he says, "Captain D'Argo, if I might make a suggestion..."

D'Argo nods, looking surprised at the acknowledgment of his position.

"Have Ceredin deactivate Sikozu for the time being. Gemmi is putting Scorpius onto a stasis pod at this very moment. Neither of them is an immediate threat. The Scarran dreadnought is."

"That's already been tried," D'Argo growls. "The traitor apparently found a way to deactivate her off switch. Besides, I wouldn't trust her to stay inactive."

Ceredin nods and shrugs. "I'm sorry. With a model this advanced, she could go into a hibernation mode instead of shutting off."

"Then do it--" Bialar begins. After taking a deep breath and turning to face D'Argo, he decides to revise his wording. "Then I recommend you deactivate her by a more direct method." As the Luxan starts to raise his qualta blade, Bialar hastily adds, "Direct, but not permanent."

"Explain," D'Argo says.

"If she loses a sufficient amount of electrolytic fluid, she will fall into a state of osmotic paralysis, correct?" Bialar glances from Talyn to Ceredin, and both nod. "And any damage will be reversible with the help of a competent bioloid technician?"

"That's terrible, Bialar." Ceredin eyes D'Argo's qualta blade and shudders slightly. "We'll have to keep cutting her, because her nanocomponents will try to seal the tubes."

"We're not doing that," Crichton says flatly, crossing his arms.

"No way am I gonna watch you torture a helpless prisoner," Chiana adds.

Sikozu makes a wordless sound of frustration. "I can disable my nanocomponents! If that's what you're going to do with me, then frelling do it before the Scarrans catch up with us all."

"You're going to-- you're going to just... let them?" Chiana asks, shaking her head in disbelief.

"I can be repaired, as long as I'm not blown to pieces by a Scarran dreadnaught." Sikozu jerks her chin to indicate D'Argo's qualta blade. "Just get it over with."

"We can send her back to the Kalish resistance cell she came from," Ceredin agrees.

No one else voices an objection. D'Argo raises his blade and makes a careful slice across Sikozu's thigh, creating an instant fountain of electrolytic fluid. Within a tenth arn, Sikozu's body goes rigid, not even responding when a pair of DRD's bump into her feet as they suction the fluid from the floor. Talyn and Ceredin both release their grip on Sikozu's arms, and the inactive bioloid clatters to the floor.

D'Argo nods in satisfaction and turns to face the clamshell. "Now that that's taken care of, Pilot, how long do we have to prepare for the dreadnaught?"