Zhaan made her way back to the cell tier where Berret was located. She was surprised to find Crichton there conversing with the Shrike. She cleared her throat so the pair would realize she was present. At the sound John startled and apologized to the Delvian for not seeing her and then made an excuse to leave so the Shrike could eat. Berret watched the man leave with enough deep concern in his eyes for Zhaan to pick up on almost instantly.
"What's wrong, Jared?" asked the Delvian woman.
Looking as far down the corridor through the bars as he was able to be sure they were alone, he turned back to her and whispered. "There is something wrong with this Crichton."
Zhaan looked around herself before replying. "What do you mean?"
"He came here to ask a few questions about our trip back to Moya and in the middle of the discussion he started to act strange. It was like he was talking or arguing with someone standing right next to him only there wasn't anyone there. He also said Scorpius' name several times," Berret told her.
"Do you think it means...?" asked the Pa'u.
"I don't know... I was hoping you knew something about his behavior and it's not what we think it might mean," answered the Shrike.
"At this point in our time, Scorpius was still very much a threat," said Zhaan. "And we have to remember, here you, Malika, and Andar never arrived to make that trip to the Command Carrier to steal the codes."
"I remember. But why would this John be carrying on imaginary conversations with him? I don't recall our John ever acting like that when he had the neural chip still inside him," commented Berret.
"He didn't because we got it out in time. There must be something seriously different going on here then what we experienced. They don't seem to be aware of the chip. Maybe here, Scorpius caught them and implanted one in all of them?"
"If that's the case, what happens if the rest of them start acting like that? We may never leave and get back to where we belong if they're all going crazy in this reality," said Berret.
"Be calm, Jared. Let me go talk to the others and see if I can find out more of what's going on here before jumping to conclusions," she said.
"That's easy for you to say," replied the Shrike sarcastically, "They don't have you locked in a cell while the little Scorpius voices in their heads tell them what to do."
"Relax!" repeated the Delvian, "Now you're starting to sound more like Chiana everyday."
"Well, she makes a lot of sense at times!" he said.
Zhaan smiled down at the four children gathered around her workstation. It was a big enough shock to find they'd returned to a different Moya with a few extra crewmembers, but she never considered that there would someday be children living here with them. The half Nebari boy looked up at her and broke her train of thought with a question.
"Have you found a away to get our Dad back yet, Aunt Zhaan?"
It had taken the Delvian a few arns to get use to being called aunt by the children. She smiled again and touched his arm to comfort him. "I'm still working on it, dear," she told Chiana's son.
The two Nebari children both wore worried expressions on their young faces and nothing their two friends tried to interest them in seem to work. Zhaan wondered about their father, a man she'd never met. In this plane of reality Chiana had bonded with another Earthman like Crichton and she wondered what her D'argo would make of that in light of their current relationship. To make matters worse, the Zhaan here was involved with this D'argo and that revelation had almost been disastrous when the Luxan and Stark almost came to blows before everything could be straightened out. She was just trying to figure out a nice way to ask the children to leave her to work when the other Delvian, Malika, entered the lab and chased them out.
The one thing Zhaan wouldn't have minded would be to have another Pa'u aboard her Moya. She found Malika to be a very intelligent young woman. Zhaan enjoyed her company and working with her. Malika had explained that her Zhaan had been training her in the Delvian Seek and that she'd reached the third level in her studies. Another time she might have thought it counter productive for the young Pa'u to be carrying a rather large fighting knife in her belt, but the last cycle or so aboard Moya were she found herself carrying a pulse weapon more often then not, led her to remain silent on the subject of an armed Priestess.
Malika smiled at the older Pa'u. "How are you coming along?" she asked.
"I'm still looking through all the information and sorting facts. I believe this new weapon of the Scarrens may have had something to do with our Pods changing places in each other's planes of reality. I'll know more when I've finished," she told the younger woman. "Have you seen Stark?" Zhaan then asked her.
"He's on the Command tier. He and John are still mapping the wave front the Scarren's weapons caused when the warhead detonated. According to Rygel's information the Peacekeepers lost six Command Carriers and a number of support vessels at sector zero of the blast," reported Malika.
"Such an awesome weapon of destruction. To be powerful enough to cause a rip in the fabric of space twelve sectors away," Zhaan shuttered. "I hope neither side in my reality develop this weapon... no offense meant, dear," Zhaan added so the woman didn't think she was being cold to this reality's dilemma of actually having to live with them.
"None taken, Zhaan," said Malika with a smile. "The good news is that the Scarrens don't have the resources to build many more like it." For the sake of this Moya's crew and the children aboard she hoped that was true. As far as Zhaan was concerned the prototype weapon was already one too many.
The encounter with this D'argo disturbed the Shrike more then he wanted to admit. The Luxan and he had their share of conflicts when he'd first come aboard Moya. Eventually they worked out a truce that led to a working relationship and then to becoming allies and friends. Berret realized that he found the lost of the Luxan's camaraderie very depressing. Now with this Crichton possibly going insane it made the situation much more dire. He was considering escaping from his cell and going to find Zhaan. Once he found the Delvian he thought it best if they took their Pod and got the hezmana away from this crew. They could figure out how to get back to where they belonged as soon as they were safely away. He was well into planning their breakout when his microbe-enhanced sense of smell brought him a familiar scent. He hadn't realized that his senses where working at a hyper level until that moment.
He smiled to himself as he asked out loud, "Have you come back to make more threats yourself, or are you just going to leave any further ones to D'argo now?"
"How did you I was there?" asked Chiana as she stepped into view in front of the cell door.
Berret gave her what he hoped was a friendly smile, "You probably don't want to know and you would probably take it the wrong way if I did tell you," he said to her.
Chiana was obviously trying to make small talk with the man. "No. I really do want to know how you knew. I though I was being very quiet. It's a trait you have to have when you're a professional thief, ya know?" she said.
Berret remembered how his Chiana use to pride herself on her skills and how important they were to her.
"Yes, I suppose you're right on that account," he told her. "You were very quiet. I never heard you coming."
"Then how...?" she asked confused by the reply.
Berret walked over to the cell door and was pleasantly surprised when she didn't back away at his approach this time. "The microbes I have at times augment my senses. Like our Luxan friend, I was able smell you coming," he explained to her. At the twisted look on Chiana's face he continued with some amusement. "Not that you smell bad or anything," he told her in a hurry. "You can imagine that someone in my position, in my reality, would... 'ah?'... know your scent very well."
He was glad when the Nebari girl didn't become angry again over the implied intimacy between them.
She instead apologized for the earlier discussion they'd had and told him that it looked like their story was turning out to be true.
"Zhaan said that maybe I should talk with you. I had questions about where you both come from and your lives. She thought it best if I asked you personally about your life. If you don't mind I'd like to sit and talk with you."
Berret smiled at her, seeing both the wild girl and the mature woman his bond-mate had been and had become in this Chiana. "Not at all. I'll tell you anything I can," he said.
Chiana looked around but there was nothing she could use as a seat presently in the corridor.
"I'd open the cell door and let you out or I'd come in to sit with you, but I don't have the door code," she told him. He was surprised for a microt that she'd consider going against the other's decision about keeping him locked away, but then he remembered how much of a rebel his wife could be and realized he shouldn't have been so surprised after all. He gave her his version of Chiana's devious grin and said,
"No problem."
He reached through the bars and tapped a code into the lock. The door cycled open.
"As John likes to say... Ta-Da!" he said with a flourish.
Chiana stood there with her mouth opened in amazement. "You mean you could have walked out of there at any frelling microt you wanted!" she asked.
"Well, not any microt," he answered. "It took awhile to figure out the code but it wasn't that far off the one we use."
Chiana looked at the lock and then stepped into the doorway to look at it again from what would have been Berret's prospective. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she said,
"It must have been hard to work at it from this angle. You'd have to almost be able to read it backwards to figure it out."
He smiled knowing it was a test of a sort. "I know. My Chiana taught me how to do it. She thought it was a useful skill to have in case you're caught without your lock picks."
It was obviously the same belief this Chiana also held as she nodded her head in agreement with his explanation.
"She sounds like a smart girl," she said breaking into the first real smile she'd given him since he set foot aboard this Moya.
"Yes," he chuckled, "but there were times she was a real bad influence on me."
He waved her over to take a seat by the cell's bed so they could begin their conversation.
Berret looked at this Chiana, so much like his wife of ten cycles ago, but not really her.
"So we're really bonded where you come from?" she began.
"Yes," he said softly, turning his head to the side so she could see the bonding earring that was the twin to the one his Chiana wore.
"Wow..." she said as she tilted her head to get a different angle of view of the piece of jewelry. "That's really beautiful," she added admiringly.
Berret chuckled despite his situation. "Well, it should be. You... I mean she, picked them out." He quickly lost his humor as he thought of the possibility of never seeing his wife and children again. Seriously he said to her, "I know it must be strange to hear that in another reality you're bonded to a total stranger. I can assure you it's even stranger for me to try and remember you're not her."
"You must miss me... I mean her, very much," Chiana said.
"Yes, I do. Very, very much," he said quietly.
"It's probably very hard for you to talk with me then. I should have realized that before coming here. I'm sorry... I better go," she said getting up from her seat.
"Please no, it's alright. Stay if you can," he told her. "If I can't be home with her at least when we talk I hear her voice," said Berret in explanation. Chiana sat back down in her seat.
"If you don't mind... will you tell me about our kids?" she asked, not bothering to correct herself because it was getting too tiresome. Berret smiled at this other Chiana in silent agreement to ignore the confusing mix up in words.
"I can do a little better then just that," he said pulling out a holo disk on a chain from around his neck. He placed the disk down flat on the bed and keyed it on. A hologram appeared in the air above it, showing the family. Chiana saw an image of the man before her and an older version of herself standing side by side. Berret holding a three cycle old Chulee in one arm with his free arm around the Nebari woman's waist, a six cycle old Jalen stood in front of the other Chiana. She had her hands resting on the boy's shoulders as if to keep him from running away before the image could be taken.
"I've been meaning to update the images, but Chulee is six and Jalen is almost nine now," apologized Berret.
Chiana held back a sniffle. "By the Goddess, they are beautiful. I never realized..." she began and couldn't finish.
"Yes, just like their mother," murmured Berret more to himself.
Chiana inspected herself in the holo. "Oh!" she said, her hands beginning to shake slightly, "Look how long my hair is." Berret looked at the image of his wife with her.
"Yes, you started... 'she' started to let it grow when she was pregnant with Jalen," said the Shrike. It was obvious that the Nebari was becoming emotional so Berret keyed off the holo. "I'm sorry," he apologized again. "I didn't mean to upset you."
Chiana wiped at a tear that had started. "No. No, you don't understand," she said waving him off. "I'm not upset... I'm actually happy to know that this is one possibility for me. That there is hope that I... that we, won't always be running."
"Do you think that I'll ever meet the you from this universe?" she asked. "And that someday I'll have a family like this?"
Berret shook his head. "I really don't know. In my universe at this time, we are not yet bonded but I have been aboard Moya with you for over half a cycle. This other Jared has never appeared so maybe here he was never abducted and sent to the Scarrens. He could be back on earth right now with his own family, a different family then mine," he considered. "Also Malika and Andar have never appeared and the Stark from our plane has yet to resurface or maybe never will. Besides you're with D'argo now, and as you know that never happened in our history."
"I know," said Chiana, feeling badly. "It must hurt your Zhaan a lot to see us together."
Berret nodded, "I'm sure it does to some extent. But like me, she realizes that your D'argo is not her D'argo. It just takes a little adjusting to get past the disorientation." Berret though for a few microts then chuckled. "I wonder what our D'argo thinks about your Zhaan if she's with our crew!"
Chiana giggled with him, "If he's anything like my D'argo... I'm sure he's lost." She paused a moment in thought. "Tell me about the me there... the older me," Chiana then asked.
Berret thought a micron and started, "Well, she was very much like you when we first meet... very mischievous and a very bad influence on me as I've said." That comment brought him another giggle from his audience. "But at the same time she was patient and caring. She put a lot of herself into rehabilitating me after she found me. It took a long time for me to straighten out this emotion thing. To understand what I was feeling and dealing with what the Scarrens did to me. She never gave up even when I did. She pushed me when I needed it, and comforted me when I needed that. I learned to care and like life watching her, and then she finally taught me to love life," Berret said and Chiana could almost sense a feeling of awe in his voice as he described his bond-mate. "It was a real shock the day I finally realized that whether I knew it or not, the first time I laid my eyes upon her... that I fallen in love with her. Everyone but me seemed to know it. John, Zhaan, ...even D'argo did their best to open my eyes and make me understand. If it wasn't for them, I would have lost her in the end." Berret stopped speaking lost in the memory of his own thoughts.
Berret recalled one of the first times he realized but didn't understand that the Pixie meant more to him then just a traveling companion aboard ship. They'd been negotiating for food items at a Supply Base and Chiana had used her wanton charms to make a better deal with a Vendor of food cubes. As she purred and lounged herself over the man Berret found himself becoming more and more annoyed, to the point where he would have liked to kill the man to remove the leering look from his face and his roving hands from Chiana's body. He'd seen her perform the act many times and she'd almost always managed to handle her victim and get what she wanted without putting herself at too much risk. He didn't understand why this time was different and what the emotion meant. He had thought he had hid the unexplained feelings well, but the Nebari girl seemed to have picked up on them anyway.
"You're jealous! Admit it!" said Chiana as they left the vendor's place of business.
"I... am... not... jealous," denied Berret sullenly.
Chiana danced around in front of him grinning, her gray overcoat twirling around as she moved.
"You were too!" she said triumphantly and then gave a short chuckle.
"Why do you take such pleasure in tormenting me?" asked the Shrike.
The Nebari tilted her head to one side as if she had to think for a microt and then answered,
"Because I can!" and her grin grew even wider.
"You..." Berret responded while tapping a finger on the tip of her nose, "are sometimes a bad person."
"Yeah, but I'm fun to be around," she shot back.
Berret thought a moment and had to agree with her on that fact; She did make life interesting. Chiana fell into step beside him and they continued walking. Her hand ducked into the folds of his cloak and found his, not minding the cool metal plates of his amour. Her touch was electric and he looked down at her with a smile, everything seemed to be forgiven despite the bad feeling her flirting had left him with, but stubbornly he wasn't ready to let the Pixie have the last word.
"But you didn't have to be so 'cozy' with him," he said half seriously.
She playfully yanked on his arm and said, "See! I told you, you were jealous."
The thought seemed to make her happy though he didn't understand why it should.
"I was not!" he said in a low voice off to the side, and wondered if he really was.
The young Chiana sharply drew in a breath bringing him back to the present conversation.
"I don't know what to say... I never thought anybody could view me in that way," she said.
To himself, Berret wished he had seen her that way sooner then he did in his past.
"There are many things about you to love," he told her. "You just have to let someone in to find the friend, lover, and mother that's waiting inside for her turn to come out."
Berret smiled sadly and reached for one of her hands. She wasn't wearing her leather gloves and she didn't pull away from his touch. He turned her small hand over gently as if inspecting a fragile work of art. He brought it up to his lips and kissed her palm, allowing himself for only a single microt to forget she wasn't his wife. Chiana found herself feeling sorry for this man so far from his home and family, her heart went out to him.
"Little Pixie... don't take this the wrong way," he said quietly while looking into her dark eyes. "But I hope to leave here soon and to never see you again." His words weren't harsh or hateful, but instead filled with love and she knew where he wanted to be when he left this Moya.
"I understand," she said squeezing his hand to show her support. "I really do."
Berret smiled at Chiana; able to see the woman that was his wife somewhere inside her. They had both lapsed into a few microts of silence where there was an interruption.
"CHIANA!" roared D'argo from the open doorway of Berret's cell.
Chiana dropped Berret's hand and shot up from her seat. "D'argo!" she said in surprise. "It's not what you think..." she began.
"It's exactly what I frelling think!" he shouted. "I told you to stay away from her," he said turning to the Shrike.
"We were just talking, D'argo," Berret tried to explain as he got to his feet. The Luxan growled and strode into the cell, his boot steps almost sounding like thunder to Berret. Without thinking Berret made another mistake and pushed Chiana behind him, automatically seeking to protect the woman as if she were his Chiana. The enraged Luxan snarled at the move he perceived as the Shrike challenging him, meaning to keep the Nebari woman for himself. With a shout of rage he charged the man.
"Uh-oh!" said Berret as he realized his mistake. With the huge warrior bearing down on him, Berret barely had time to pick Chiana up and toss her on the bed to get her out of the way of D'argo's attack. Turning back to face the Luxan, he had just enough time left to dodge the large fist sailing at his head. Berret dropped straight to the floor and in a move that would never have worked now on the D'argo he'd trained with for over ten cycles, he rolled away under the arm and came back up to his feet behind the warrior. Before D'argo could turn the Shrike stomped on the back of his nearest knees driving the Luxan to the ground.
Using his foot and knee to keep the Luxan's leg pinned he reached over and took a painful hold on a few of his tentacles. Giving them a light twist to get the warrior's attention, he shouted, "D'argo stop! Nothing happened and I don't want to fight you for real."
D'argo face twisted up in pain from the hold on his sensitive tentacles. Still the stubborn Luxan managed to growl back at the Shrike.
"That's because you are a coward!"
Berret realized too late that D'argo's elbow was on its way to strike at his groin. He'd managed to turn his hips away slightly but the powerful blow still struck him full in his thigh, causing the entire limb to go numb instantly. The Shrike lost his hold on the Luxan and was forced to roll away. Berret tried to get back to his feet but his numb leg wouldn't cooperate. He got himself up on one knee as the big warrior started to regain his feet.
Without thinking, Berret said to him as if he were sparring with his D'argo, "You cheating Bastard!"
The offhanded remark gave the Luxan pause as he tried to figure out why the Shrike would expect him to fight fair. The break in the fight was enough for Chiana to place herself between them.
"Stop it! Both of you!" she shouted placing one outstretched hand against D'argo's chest to keep him from moving in against the downed Shrike. "Nobody owns me or tells me who I can or can't talk to. I do what I want to do, when and how I want to do it!" She glared at both men until she was sure they would continue to behave themselves. Satisfied the combat was over for the immediate micron she turned her attention to the Luxan warrior at her side. "Listen to me D'argo," she asked in a softer voice. "Nothing happened or will happen between Jared and me. He was just telling me about their life on the other Moya. I asked him about his family and things got a little emotional. He was saying how much he wanted to leave here and be back home." Chiana glanced over at the Shrike who was just starting to find his feet again. "Jared showed me what my life could possibly be," she turned back and looked the Luxan in the eyes. "What 'our' lives could be... a family, a real home... we could finally be safe. He showed me hope." She leaned closer to the big warrior and lowed her voice so only he could hear her next words. "It's sad, D'argo. He misses 'her' so much. I can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he talks. Even though it has to cause him a lot of pain he still shared his life and family with me. I was only trying to give him a little comfort in return."
D'argo paused to consider Chiana's words. Looking back at the Shrike he saw no anger or hate in his eyes, as there would have been in another beaten foe. Perhaps Chiana is right in this case thought the Luxan to himself.
"So what are we going to do about this slight mix up we have going here?" inquired Crichton to the group of people gathered around the table in the center chamber. It was bad enough that Zhaan and this new guy, Jared Berret, chose to sit apart from the others, as if they were afraid to be separated again. They were both watching him intently as if they expected him to grow horns.
"The only solution that I can come up with is to repeat the Multi-phasic Particle wave that brought us here," the Priestess said.
"Wait a microt!" said Aeryn. "You want to construct a MPP weapon... here, on Moya?"
"And destroy half a sector of space using it," added Crichton.
"No... no," said Zhaan holding up a hand so they'd let her finish speaking. "The device we have to build only has to produce a minuscule wave front. Once it's activated we only have to fly the Pod back into it at the same hetch and we should be returned back to our universe."
"Well, that's a relief," said John. "Then you can send our Zhaan and Stark back the same way. Right?" Zhaan glanced over at Berret. "Well, that it one of the major problems," she replied.
" Damn! I knew it!" said Crichton. "Nothing's ever easy."
Aeryn caught the Delvian's attention. "What exactly is the problem, Zhaan?"
"I'm afraid I believe that in order for this to work. Both Pods will have to make the attempt at the same time." Zhaan explained.
"Great! How do we get that to happen?" asked John.
"I think that since our two universe basically parallel to each other..." put in Berret, "that by now your Zhaan with help from Malika and Andar have already come to the same conclusion. The only difference is that they will not have to build such a device because the effect already exists in our plane."
"Nice, but that still doesn't explain how we're going to have both Pods go through at the same time?" said John. Berret shifted in his seat, knowing what he was about to say next wouldn't sit well with the man.
"We'll just have to rely on the similarities of our universes to assure that the time when we decide to go will also be the time your Zhaan and Stark decide to go," Berret explained.
"Oh! That... is... just... lovely!" said Crichton leaning back in his seat. "We're relying on Lady Luck."
"What's wrong, Jared?" asked the Delvian woman.
Looking as far down the corridor through the bars as he was able to be sure they were alone, he turned back to her and whispered. "There is something wrong with this Crichton."
Zhaan looked around herself before replying. "What do you mean?"
"He came here to ask a few questions about our trip back to Moya and in the middle of the discussion he started to act strange. It was like he was talking or arguing with someone standing right next to him only there wasn't anyone there. He also said Scorpius' name several times," Berret told her.
"Do you think it means...?" asked the Pa'u.
"I don't know... I was hoping you knew something about his behavior and it's not what we think it might mean," answered the Shrike.
"At this point in our time, Scorpius was still very much a threat," said Zhaan. "And we have to remember, here you, Malika, and Andar never arrived to make that trip to the Command Carrier to steal the codes."
"I remember. But why would this John be carrying on imaginary conversations with him? I don't recall our John ever acting like that when he had the neural chip still inside him," commented Berret.
"He didn't because we got it out in time. There must be something seriously different going on here then what we experienced. They don't seem to be aware of the chip. Maybe here, Scorpius caught them and implanted one in all of them?"
"If that's the case, what happens if the rest of them start acting like that? We may never leave and get back to where we belong if they're all going crazy in this reality," said Berret.
"Be calm, Jared. Let me go talk to the others and see if I can find out more of what's going on here before jumping to conclusions," she said.
"That's easy for you to say," replied the Shrike sarcastically, "They don't have you locked in a cell while the little Scorpius voices in their heads tell them what to do."
"Relax!" repeated the Delvian, "Now you're starting to sound more like Chiana everyday."
"Well, she makes a lot of sense at times!" he said.
Zhaan smiled down at the four children gathered around her workstation. It was a big enough shock to find they'd returned to a different Moya with a few extra crewmembers, but she never considered that there would someday be children living here with them. The half Nebari boy looked up at her and broke her train of thought with a question.
"Have you found a away to get our Dad back yet, Aunt Zhaan?"
It had taken the Delvian a few arns to get use to being called aunt by the children. She smiled again and touched his arm to comfort him. "I'm still working on it, dear," she told Chiana's son.
The two Nebari children both wore worried expressions on their young faces and nothing their two friends tried to interest them in seem to work. Zhaan wondered about their father, a man she'd never met. In this plane of reality Chiana had bonded with another Earthman like Crichton and she wondered what her D'argo would make of that in light of their current relationship. To make matters worse, the Zhaan here was involved with this D'argo and that revelation had almost been disastrous when the Luxan and Stark almost came to blows before everything could be straightened out. She was just trying to figure out a nice way to ask the children to leave her to work when the other Delvian, Malika, entered the lab and chased them out.
The one thing Zhaan wouldn't have minded would be to have another Pa'u aboard her Moya. She found Malika to be a very intelligent young woman. Zhaan enjoyed her company and working with her. Malika had explained that her Zhaan had been training her in the Delvian Seek and that she'd reached the third level in her studies. Another time she might have thought it counter productive for the young Pa'u to be carrying a rather large fighting knife in her belt, but the last cycle or so aboard Moya were she found herself carrying a pulse weapon more often then not, led her to remain silent on the subject of an armed Priestess.
Malika smiled at the older Pa'u. "How are you coming along?" she asked.
"I'm still looking through all the information and sorting facts. I believe this new weapon of the Scarrens may have had something to do with our Pods changing places in each other's planes of reality. I'll know more when I've finished," she told the younger woman. "Have you seen Stark?" Zhaan then asked her.
"He's on the Command tier. He and John are still mapping the wave front the Scarren's weapons caused when the warhead detonated. According to Rygel's information the Peacekeepers lost six Command Carriers and a number of support vessels at sector zero of the blast," reported Malika.
"Such an awesome weapon of destruction. To be powerful enough to cause a rip in the fabric of space twelve sectors away," Zhaan shuttered. "I hope neither side in my reality develop this weapon... no offense meant, dear," Zhaan added so the woman didn't think she was being cold to this reality's dilemma of actually having to live with them.
"None taken, Zhaan," said Malika with a smile. "The good news is that the Scarrens don't have the resources to build many more like it." For the sake of this Moya's crew and the children aboard she hoped that was true. As far as Zhaan was concerned the prototype weapon was already one too many.
The encounter with this D'argo disturbed the Shrike more then he wanted to admit. The Luxan and he had their share of conflicts when he'd first come aboard Moya. Eventually they worked out a truce that led to a working relationship and then to becoming allies and friends. Berret realized that he found the lost of the Luxan's camaraderie very depressing. Now with this Crichton possibly going insane it made the situation much more dire. He was considering escaping from his cell and going to find Zhaan. Once he found the Delvian he thought it best if they took their Pod and got the hezmana away from this crew. They could figure out how to get back to where they belonged as soon as they were safely away. He was well into planning their breakout when his microbe-enhanced sense of smell brought him a familiar scent. He hadn't realized that his senses where working at a hyper level until that moment.
He smiled to himself as he asked out loud, "Have you come back to make more threats yourself, or are you just going to leave any further ones to D'argo now?"
"How did you I was there?" asked Chiana as she stepped into view in front of the cell door.
Berret gave her what he hoped was a friendly smile, "You probably don't want to know and you would probably take it the wrong way if I did tell you," he said to her.
Chiana was obviously trying to make small talk with the man. "No. I really do want to know how you knew. I though I was being very quiet. It's a trait you have to have when you're a professional thief, ya know?" she said.
Berret remembered how his Chiana use to pride herself on her skills and how important they were to her.
"Yes, I suppose you're right on that account," he told her. "You were very quiet. I never heard you coming."
"Then how...?" she asked confused by the reply.
Berret walked over to the cell door and was pleasantly surprised when she didn't back away at his approach this time. "The microbes I have at times augment my senses. Like our Luxan friend, I was able smell you coming," he explained to her. At the twisted look on Chiana's face he continued with some amusement. "Not that you smell bad or anything," he told her in a hurry. "You can imagine that someone in my position, in my reality, would... 'ah?'... know your scent very well."
He was glad when the Nebari girl didn't become angry again over the implied intimacy between them.
She instead apologized for the earlier discussion they'd had and told him that it looked like their story was turning out to be true.
"Zhaan said that maybe I should talk with you. I had questions about where you both come from and your lives. She thought it best if I asked you personally about your life. If you don't mind I'd like to sit and talk with you."
Berret smiled at her, seeing both the wild girl and the mature woman his bond-mate had been and had become in this Chiana. "Not at all. I'll tell you anything I can," he said.
Chiana looked around but there was nothing she could use as a seat presently in the corridor.
"I'd open the cell door and let you out or I'd come in to sit with you, but I don't have the door code," she told him. He was surprised for a microt that she'd consider going against the other's decision about keeping him locked away, but then he remembered how much of a rebel his wife could be and realized he shouldn't have been so surprised after all. He gave her his version of Chiana's devious grin and said,
"No problem."
He reached through the bars and tapped a code into the lock. The door cycled open.
"As John likes to say... Ta-Da!" he said with a flourish.
Chiana stood there with her mouth opened in amazement. "You mean you could have walked out of there at any frelling microt you wanted!" she asked.
"Well, not any microt," he answered. "It took awhile to figure out the code but it wasn't that far off the one we use."
Chiana looked at the lock and then stepped into the doorway to look at it again from what would have been Berret's prospective. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she said,
"It must have been hard to work at it from this angle. You'd have to almost be able to read it backwards to figure it out."
He smiled knowing it was a test of a sort. "I know. My Chiana taught me how to do it. She thought it was a useful skill to have in case you're caught without your lock picks."
It was obviously the same belief this Chiana also held as she nodded her head in agreement with his explanation.
"She sounds like a smart girl," she said breaking into the first real smile she'd given him since he set foot aboard this Moya.
"Yes," he chuckled, "but there were times she was a real bad influence on me."
He waved her over to take a seat by the cell's bed so they could begin their conversation.
Berret looked at this Chiana, so much like his wife of ten cycles ago, but not really her.
"So we're really bonded where you come from?" she began.
"Yes," he said softly, turning his head to the side so she could see the bonding earring that was the twin to the one his Chiana wore.
"Wow..." she said as she tilted her head to get a different angle of view of the piece of jewelry. "That's really beautiful," she added admiringly.
Berret chuckled despite his situation. "Well, it should be. You... I mean she, picked them out." He quickly lost his humor as he thought of the possibility of never seeing his wife and children again. Seriously he said to her, "I know it must be strange to hear that in another reality you're bonded to a total stranger. I can assure you it's even stranger for me to try and remember you're not her."
"You must miss me... I mean her, very much," Chiana said.
"Yes, I do. Very, very much," he said quietly.
"It's probably very hard for you to talk with me then. I should have realized that before coming here. I'm sorry... I better go," she said getting up from her seat.
"Please no, it's alright. Stay if you can," he told her. "If I can't be home with her at least when we talk I hear her voice," said Berret in explanation. Chiana sat back down in her seat.
"If you don't mind... will you tell me about our kids?" she asked, not bothering to correct herself because it was getting too tiresome. Berret smiled at this other Chiana in silent agreement to ignore the confusing mix up in words.
"I can do a little better then just that," he said pulling out a holo disk on a chain from around his neck. He placed the disk down flat on the bed and keyed it on. A hologram appeared in the air above it, showing the family. Chiana saw an image of the man before her and an older version of herself standing side by side. Berret holding a three cycle old Chulee in one arm with his free arm around the Nebari woman's waist, a six cycle old Jalen stood in front of the other Chiana. She had her hands resting on the boy's shoulders as if to keep him from running away before the image could be taken.
"I've been meaning to update the images, but Chulee is six and Jalen is almost nine now," apologized Berret.
Chiana held back a sniffle. "By the Goddess, they are beautiful. I never realized..." she began and couldn't finish.
"Yes, just like their mother," murmured Berret more to himself.
Chiana inspected herself in the holo. "Oh!" she said, her hands beginning to shake slightly, "Look how long my hair is." Berret looked at the image of his wife with her.
"Yes, you started... 'she' started to let it grow when she was pregnant with Jalen," said the Shrike. It was obvious that the Nebari was becoming emotional so Berret keyed off the holo. "I'm sorry," he apologized again. "I didn't mean to upset you."
Chiana wiped at a tear that had started. "No. No, you don't understand," she said waving him off. "I'm not upset... I'm actually happy to know that this is one possibility for me. That there is hope that I... that we, won't always be running."
"Do you think that I'll ever meet the you from this universe?" she asked. "And that someday I'll have a family like this?"
Berret shook his head. "I really don't know. In my universe at this time, we are not yet bonded but I have been aboard Moya with you for over half a cycle. This other Jared has never appeared so maybe here he was never abducted and sent to the Scarrens. He could be back on earth right now with his own family, a different family then mine," he considered. "Also Malika and Andar have never appeared and the Stark from our plane has yet to resurface or maybe never will. Besides you're with D'argo now, and as you know that never happened in our history."
"I know," said Chiana, feeling badly. "It must hurt your Zhaan a lot to see us together."
Berret nodded, "I'm sure it does to some extent. But like me, she realizes that your D'argo is not her D'argo. It just takes a little adjusting to get past the disorientation." Berret though for a few microts then chuckled. "I wonder what our D'argo thinks about your Zhaan if she's with our crew!"
Chiana giggled with him, "If he's anything like my D'argo... I'm sure he's lost." She paused a moment in thought. "Tell me about the me there... the older me," Chiana then asked.
Berret thought a micron and started, "Well, she was very much like you when we first meet... very mischievous and a very bad influence on me as I've said." That comment brought him another giggle from his audience. "But at the same time she was patient and caring. She put a lot of herself into rehabilitating me after she found me. It took a long time for me to straighten out this emotion thing. To understand what I was feeling and dealing with what the Scarrens did to me. She never gave up even when I did. She pushed me when I needed it, and comforted me when I needed that. I learned to care and like life watching her, and then she finally taught me to love life," Berret said and Chiana could almost sense a feeling of awe in his voice as he described his bond-mate. "It was a real shock the day I finally realized that whether I knew it or not, the first time I laid my eyes upon her... that I fallen in love with her. Everyone but me seemed to know it. John, Zhaan, ...even D'argo did their best to open my eyes and make me understand. If it wasn't for them, I would have lost her in the end." Berret stopped speaking lost in the memory of his own thoughts.
Berret recalled one of the first times he realized but didn't understand that the Pixie meant more to him then just a traveling companion aboard ship. They'd been negotiating for food items at a Supply Base and Chiana had used her wanton charms to make a better deal with a Vendor of food cubes. As she purred and lounged herself over the man Berret found himself becoming more and more annoyed, to the point where he would have liked to kill the man to remove the leering look from his face and his roving hands from Chiana's body. He'd seen her perform the act many times and she'd almost always managed to handle her victim and get what she wanted without putting herself at too much risk. He didn't understand why this time was different and what the emotion meant. He had thought he had hid the unexplained feelings well, but the Nebari girl seemed to have picked up on them anyway.
"You're jealous! Admit it!" said Chiana as they left the vendor's place of business.
"I... am... not... jealous," denied Berret sullenly.
Chiana danced around in front of him grinning, her gray overcoat twirling around as she moved.
"You were too!" she said triumphantly and then gave a short chuckle.
"Why do you take such pleasure in tormenting me?" asked the Shrike.
The Nebari tilted her head to one side as if she had to think for a microt and then answered,
"Because I can!" and her grin grew even wider.
"You..." Berret responded while tapping a finger on the tip of her nose, "are sometimes a bad person."
"Yeah, but I'm fun to be around," she shot back.
Berret thought a moment and had to agree with her on that fact; She did make life interesting. Chiana fell into step beside him and they continued walking. Her hand ducked into the folds of his cloak and found his, not minding the cool metal plates of his amour. Her touch was electric and he looked down at her with a smile, everything seemed to be forgiven despite the bad feeling her flirting had left him with, but stubbornly he wasn't ready to let the Pixie have the last word.
"But you didn't have to be so 'cozy' with him," he said half seriously.
She playfully yanked on his arm and said, "See! I told you, you were jealous."
The thought seemed to make her happy though he didn't understand why it should.
"I was not!" he said in a low voice off to the side, and wondered if he really was.
The young Chiana sharply drew in a breath bringing him back to the present conversation.
"I don't know what to say... I never thought anybody could view me in that way," she said.
To himself, Berret wished he had seen her that way sooner then he did in his past.
"There are many things about you to love," he told her. "You just have to let someone in to find the friend, lover, and mother that's waiting inside for her turn to come out."
Berret smiled sadly and reached for one of her hands. She wasn't wearing her leather gloves and she didn't pull away from his touch. He turned her small hand over gently as if inspecting a fragile work of art. He brought it up to his lips and kissed her palm, allowing himself for only a single microt to forget she wasn't his wife. Chiana found herself feeling sorry for this man so far from his home and family, her heart went out to him.
"Little Pixie... don't take this the wrong way," he said quietly while looking into her dark eyes. "But I hope to leave here soon and to never see you again." His words weren't harsh or hateful, but instead filled with love and she knew where he wanted to be when he left this Moya.
"I understand," she said squeezing his hand to show her support. "I really do."
Berret smiled at Chiana; able to see the woman that was his wife somewhere inside her. They had both lapsed into a few microts of silence where there was an interruption.
"CHIANA!" roared D'argo from the open doorway of Berret's cell.
Chiana dropped Berret's hand and shot up from her seat. "D'argo!" she said in surprise. "It's not what you think..." she began.
"It's exactly what I frelling think!" he shouted. "I told you to stay away from her," he said turning to the Shrike.
"We were just talking, D'argo," Berret tried to explain as he got to his feet. The Luxan growled and strode into the cell, his boot steps almost sounding like thunder to Berret. Without thinking Berret made another mistake and pushed Chiana behind him, automatically seeking to protect the woman as if she were his Chiana. The enraged Luxan snarled at the move he perceived as the Shrike challenging him, meaning to keep the Nebari woman for himself. With a shout of rage he charged the man.
"Uh-oh!" said Berret as he realized his mistake. With the huge warrior bearing down on him, Berret barely had time to pick Chiana up and toss her on the bed to get her out of the way of D'argo's attack. Turning back to face the Luxan, he had just enough time left to dodge the large fist sailing at his head. Berret dropped straight to the floor and in a move that would never have worked now on the D'argo he'd trained with for over ten cycles, he rolled away under the arm and came back up to his feet behind the warrior. Before D'argo could turn the Shrike stomped on the back of his nearest knees driving the Luxan to the ground.
Using his foot and knee to keep the Luxan's leg pinned he reached over and took a painful hold on a few of his tentacles. Giving them a light twist to get the warrior's attention, he shouted, "D'argo stop! Nothing happened and I don't want to fight you for real."
D'argo face twisted up in pain from the hold on his sensitive tentacles. Still the stubborn Luxan managed to growl back at the Shrike.
"That's because you are a coward!"
Berret realized too late that D'argo's elbow was on its way to strike at his groin. He'd managed to turn his hips away slightly but the powerful blow still struck him full in his thigh, causing the entire limb to go numb instantly. The Shrike lost his hold on the Luxan and was forced to roll away. Berret tried to get back to his feet but his numb leg wouldn't cooperate. He got himself up on one knee as the big warrior started to regain his feet.
Without thinking, Berret said to him as if he were sparring with his D'argo, "You cheating Bastard!"
The offhanded remark gave the Luxan pause as he tried to figure out why the Shrike would expect him to fight fair. The break in the fight was enough for Chiana to place herself between them.
"Stop it! Both of you!" she shouted placing one outstretched hand against D'argo's chest to keep him from moving in against the downed Shrike. "Nobody owns me or tells me who I can or can't talk to. I do what I want to do, when and how I want to do it!" She glared at both men until she was sure they would continue to behave themselves. Satisfied the combat was over for the immediate micron she turned her attention to the Luxan warrior at her side. "Listen to me D'argo," she asked in a softer voice. "Nothing happened or will happen between Jared and me. He was just telling me about their life on the other Moya. I asked him about his family and things got a little emotional. He was saying how much he wanted to leave here and be back home." Chiana glanced over at the Shrike who was just starting to find his feet again. "Jared showed me what my life could possibly be," she turned back and looked the Luxan in the eyes. "What 'our' lives could be... a family, a real home... we could finally be safe. He showed me hope." She leaned closer to the big warrior and lowed her voice so only he could hear her next words. "It's sad, D'argo. He misses 'her' so much. I can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he talks. Even though it has to cause him a lot of pain he still shared his life and family with me. I was only trying to give him a little comfort in return."
D'argo paused to consider Chiana's words. Looking back at the Shrike he saw no anger or hate in his eyes, as there would have been in another beaten foe. Perhaps Chiana is right in this case thought the Luxan to himself.
"So what are we going to do about this slight mix up we have going here?" inquired Crichton to the group of people gathered around the table in the center chamber. It was bad enough that Zhaan and this new guy, Jared Berret, chose to sit apart from the others, as if they were afraid to be separated again. They were both watching him intently as if they expected him to grow horns.
"The only solution that I can come up with is to repeat the Multi-phasic Particle wave that brought us here," the Priestess said.
"Wait a microt!" said Aeryn. "You want to construct a MPP weapon... here, on Moya?"
"And destroy half a sector of space using it," added Crichton.
"No... no," said Zhaan holding up a hand so they'd let her finish speaking. "The device we have to build only has to produce a minuscule wave front. Once it's activated we only have to fly the Pod back into it at the same hetch and we should be returned back to our universe."
"Well, that's a relief," said John. "Then you can send our Zhaan and Stark back the same way. Right?" Zhaan glanced over at Berret. "Well, that it one of the major problems," she replied.
" Damn! I knew it!" said Crichton. "Nothing's ever easy."
Aeryn caught the Delvian's attention. "What exactly is the problem, Zhaan?"
"I'm afraid I believe that in order for this to work. Both Pods will have to make the attempt at the same time." Zhaan explained.
"Great! How do we get that to happen?" asked John.
"I think that since our two universe basically parallel to each other..." put in Berret, "that by now your Zhaan with help from Malika and Andar have already come to the same conclusion. The only difference is that they will not have to build such a device because the effect already exists in our plane."
"Nice, but that still doesn't explain how we're going to have both Pods go through at the same time?" said John. Berret shifted in his seat, knowing what he was about to say next wouldn't sit well with the man.
"We'll just have to rely on the similarities of our universes to assure that the time when we decide to go will also be the time your Zhaan and Stark decide to go," Berret explained.
"Oh! That... is... just... lovely!" said Crichton leaning back in his seat. "We're relying on Lady Luck."