PART 7

While D'Argo, Chiana, Stark, and Blue are away on the commerce planet and John and Aeryn are strapped in those comfy chairs, Moya, Pilot and 1812 have discovered something...

"Any thing yet Pilot?"

[Pilot] "No, I'm sorry, Moya and I have still yet to find anything within this system to suggest..."

Wait, I think I've found something

"What is it?"

[Pilot] "Show us what you've found Moya"

Moya brings up a picture of one of Qujaga's moons...

"What are we supposed to be looking at?"

I didn't see it earlier because it is hidden very well

[Pilot] "It appears to be some kind of base imbedded deep within the moon's surface."

"You think that's where the ship went that attacked John and Aeryn"

[Pilot] "That seems highly probable, it is the only structure within this system"

"Is there anybody home?"

I'm having trouble scanning for life signs

[Pilot] "The structure appears to be made to deflect all types of scans. For all we know the base could be just as desolate as the rest of this system"

"But it's still most likely the place where the unknown ship went"

[Pilot] "Yes"

"So what do we do now?"

I don't think we should get to close Pilot, it could be dangerous

[Pilot] "I agree with Moya, we know nothing about this base especially whether or not it has weapons. It would be wise to wait till we hear from D'Argo and the others before we do anything."

"I guess you're right, but in the meantime we should keep a close eye on it."

[Pilot] "Agreed"

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Meanwhile back on the commerce planet the Diagnosan tells the crew all he knows about Qujaga...

[Diagnosan] "Qujaga used to be the home of my people. But that started to change about 60 or so cycles ago, when the Scarrens first started to attack our colonies for resources and were closing in on Qujaga. So my people decided to take steps to prevent them from overtaking our home planet."

[D'Argo] "What kind of steps?"

[Diagnosan] "Since most conventional weapons have little or no effect on a Scarren, weapons scientists on my planet developed one that could both capture and/or kill a Scarren. This is the weapon you observed being used on your friends. What it does is turn all organic matter it hits into a crystalline form, which shatters soon afterward. It also at the same time scans its target and sends the information back to a memory cell within the weapon itself. This information can then be used to regenerate the target using a special device or be destroyed making the target effectively dead. This weapon comes in two forms, one that can be fired from a ship and one that's small enough to be held by a soldier. The use of this weapon by our armed forces was the reason we were able to keep the Scarrens at bay for several years"

[Chiana] "That's interesting and all, but who used the weapon on our friends?"

[Diagnosan] "I'm getting to that... We also knew that Scarrens possess telepathic abilities and are also quite effective at retrieving information from their prisoners."

[Stark] "Yes, very effective"

[Diagnosan] "My people feared that if one of our soldiers where captured, the Scarrens would learn exactly what our weapon did and then cause them to no longer fear it as greatly. We also feared that knowledge of this weapon might increase their resolve to attack our planet to obtain this technology."

[D'Argo] "But still what has this got to do with who attacked our friends"

[Diagnosan] "In order to prevent this possibility my people enlisted the aid of a Scarren defector who gave us the technology to create biloids, perhaps you've heard of them."

[D'Argo] "We have"

[Diagnosan] "With this information we developed a type of biloid that would serve our needs. In fact I was one of those working on the team that created them."

[Chiana] "So what went wrong?"

[Diagnosan] "Nothing at first. The biloid army we created worked wonderfully. They were successful at stopping the Scarren advance completely and also to retake the planets we've lost. They also kept away raiders and the like. All of this allowed us to finally be able to start to re-colonize. But that's when we started to run into problems."

[D'Argo] "What kind of problems?"

[Diagnosan] "We made a mistake in their programming. We programmed them to neutralize all potential hostile presences and then return them to home base for analysis. What we didn't really do was accurately define what a hostile presence was. This caused them to see any ship that is not Qujagian as a threat and thus needed to be neutralized."

[D'Argo] "I see where that could be an issue"

[Diagnosan] "It was a very big issue. It made it difficult to start any trade with other worlds out side of our territory, which was needed to help rebuild. But when we attempted to fix this problem the biloids perceived us to be a threat and turned on us. They completely destroyed everything on Qujaga and the colonies, and because the number of biloid soldiers out numbered the number of Qujagian soldiers we lost, horribly. The few, like myself, which did survive the onslaught had to leave our planet and find safety eslwhere."

[Chiana] "So these biloids are who attacked our friends?"

[Diagnosan] "Yes"

[D'Argo] "And you believe that they are holding them captive at this moment?"

[Diagnosan] "I'm almost positive of it."

[D'Argo] "So how do we rescue them"

[Diagnosan] "That may prove to be difficult, but I will tell you all I know of their base and where it's located. And if you plan on attempting to rescue them I would suggest that you hurry soon after I give you this information"

[Chiana] "Why's that?"

[Diagnosan] "The biloids dispose of their captives when they are no longer of any use"

To Be Continued…