Moya, Aeryn's quarters
Aeryn sat at her desk cleaning her weapons, not because they needed cleaning, but because it gave her something to do while letting her thoughts go over the current situation. The bioloid John had come up with a plan to rescue her John. She had already committed the entire plan to memory and knew exactly what she would have to do. As such, her thoughts were not so much focused on the plan, but rather on the subject of the rescue.
Despite assurances from both copies aboard Moya, she was very worried about John's current well being. After all, neither of the two had any insight into the actual state John was in. The fact that Scorpius had informed them John was heavily drugged and would not be able to walk once they disconnected him from the computer was not helping ease her worries.
The worst part was that she would be the one who needed to convince John to leave the virtual room. She had no idea on how to accomplish this but was afraid to talk about it with the copy of John, partly because she felt she should have realized this was not the real one and partly because she should know exactly how to convince her John. She couldn't stop thinking about another niggling question. Why wouldn't John want to leave that fekkik room? What was the real situation on the gammak base and with the computer? It just didn't make sense that John was stuck there because of his own indecision. It just made no sense… He had said he would never leave her. He had said she was his world. There was something not being said…
"Tell him about the baby," John said from the entrance to her quarters as if he had read her mind.
Aeryn startled. Yet again, he had managed to come near her without her realizing it. She looked at him with a questioning look, wondering if it was because she was paying less attention or because he was getting better at sneaking up on her.
"If he hears you're pregnant he'll know you're not some virtual copy he conjured up himself," John explained, interpreting her look as demanding an explanation to his earlier comment. "Besides," he continued with a small shrug, "it'll save you both the problems we were having because of your secrecy."
Aeryn nodded her assent. "You are probably right on both accounts. Will it be enough to convince him to come out of that virtual reality?"
"Are you kiddin'? Of course it's enough reason to come out. He's going to be a father and believe me, he wants to be."
"Even if he did not conceive the child," Aeryn asked, voicing her biggest worries about the pregnancy.
"Aer, I... John loves kids. He doesn't care if it's from his twin or some anonymous Peacekeeper he never met. Hell, he wouldn't care if the kid would have four claws and could multitask or have three stomachs and could fart helium." At her raised eyebrow he conceded, "well, maybe not that. The point is if it is your child, it will be his. He loves you and he will love any child you give life to."
"Then why did you try to avoid me," Aeryn demanded.
"Because you tried to hide it from me," John answered. "You still didn't plan on telling me and that really hurt. My only defense to that was to stay away from you, ignore you. I was coming 'round to talk to you about it."
Aeryn nodded again in thought, while reassembling a pulse rifle. "What makes you think Scorpius hasn't told John about me being pregnant?"
"He doesn't know, because I never told Grasshopper about it."
"But he could have heard us talk about it."
"No he couldn't. His spy toys weren't working until the day after our little talk, we haven't talked about it since and I'm pretty sure nobody else knows. If you want, I can ask him if he did hear it."
"Maybe that would be a good idea," Aeryn replied, moving her cleanup duties to a pulse pistol.
"Yo, Scorp," John said into his comms, "could you come to Aeryn's quarters for a microt?"
"Certainly John, I am on my way," the reply came.
A few microts later Scorpius entered Aeryn's quarters. "How can I be of assistance," he asked.
"Did you tell Scorpius about the pregnancy," John asked.
"I did not know of any pregnancy," Scorpius answered. After a little bit of thinking he turned to Aeryn. "Officer Sun, you are with child?"
"See, his toys were not working until after we talked about it," John said to Aeryn. "He will believe it's really you when you tell him about the pregnancy. More importantly, you'll be the one who tells him, not Granny, Pip, or D, but you."
Aeryn just nodded. She was relieved John would not know about the child and that his copy was certain it would be the thing that would make him believe she was real.
"There is one other thing that may cause him to doubt you are real," Scorpius said. "My counterpart may have told John that the Nebari girl and you have perished in the Starburst Chamber."
"Then, would it not be wise to have D'Argo or Rygel try to convince John to leave the virtual room?" Aeryn asked.
"No," John answered, "you are the one who'll be able to convince him. You're the one he loves, his guiding star. I'm not saying it's gonna be easy to do, but you're definitely the one that has the best chance of doing so."
Aeryn sighed, knowing that he was probably right. She clicked the chakan oil cartridge in place in the pulse pistol. "Alright, I need some time to think about what to say to him."
"Sure, we'll get out of your hair," John said as he turned around to leave her quarters. This caused him to miss the frown on Aeryn's face, followed by a slight shake of her head and a dismissive shrug. John just motioned Scorpius to leave and followed him out of her quarters, closing the door behind him.
Aeryn lay back on the bed and focused her mind on things to do or say that would convince John to leave. One thing was certain in her mind: she would not leave without him.
Sikozu's quarters
Sikozu sat on her bed feeling slightly despondent. Her initial plan had been to go to the real Scorpius as soon as she arrived on the Space Station so she could inform him of the plan to rescue the human. Unfortunately, the copy of that deficient human had come up with a plan that would not allow her to do that in a satisfactory way. She sighed as she remembered the discussion.
"I think we all agree we'll have a better chance with Scorpy off the base. He's the only one who can see the difference between me and the real John."
At that point Sikozu had almost interrupted him. She realized that such an interruption might make them all suspicious of her so she remained silent and followed the rest of the discussion hoping she would be able to turn things to her favor without raising any suspicions.
"How do you propose we lure him away?" D'Argo asked.
"I've been thinking," John said, "Grasshopper, Scorpy doesn't want the Peacekeepers to know he uses bioloids regularly, right?"
"That is correct John. If Peacekeeper High Command learns of this fact, they would no longer trust him. Up to now, no one has ever known this, not even Braca."
"Right, so if you contact him and tell him you were kicked off the boat, he would come and pick you up himself."
"Indeed he would. But he would certainly check where my signal is coming from, as he has done during previous contacts."
"So? We'll just drop you off at a planet before you contact him."
Sikozu saw this as her opportunity to get to the real Scorpius and inform him of the rescue plan without the crew knowing it. She would only need to remain with the bioloid and everything would be fine. She knew exactly how to assure she would be able to accompany him.
"He should not go alone. During my last link I detected a severe problem which may cause him to deactivate soon, perhaps even before he makes contact. I should go with him. Should he shut down I can reactivate him again."
Scorpius looked at her. "She has a point. My counterpart is also aware of her... regular visits to me and he would believe you have expelled her with me because of her... interest in me."
Luckily the human had agreed, albeit reluctantly because he needed to revise his plan again. She was relieved she would get a chance to get close to the real Scarran half-breed but was worried about it as well. For reasons she could not fathom, Scorpius needed the human, but by luring the Scarran-Sebacean hybrid away from the Space Station, she would jeopardize Scopius' containment of Crichton.
If she wanted to inform Scorpius she would have to use the bioloid, reprogram him again so he could contact his real counterpart to warn him. The bioloid would be the only one capable of using the specialized communication device to send the message. After the contact she could travel to the Space Station with the bioloid Scorpius.
It was unfortunate she would need to wait until after the bioloid lured his counterpart away from the Space Station. The bioloid had given his back-up communicator to the human so they would know when Scorpius was prepared to leave. If the crew did not hear the communication they would realize that the bioloid had betrayed them and Sikozu knew the crew of Moya well enough to realize they were dangerous should their plans be revealed. The fahrbot crew was really good at changing tactics on the fly, since their plans almost always went south. She was confident, however, that she could out think them and warn Scorpius in time to thwart the rescue.
She sighed again as she gathered her few possessions and headed toward the docking bay. They would leave for the planet soon. Timing was everything. If she failed to warn the real Scorpius in time, she was certain he would want nothing to do with her and most likely Moya's crew wouldn't want her around either, regardless of the outcome.
Moya, Corridor
"Listen, D," John said as they walked towards the docking bay, "I know you feel a little guilty about making me take one for the team back on Arnesk, but it's okay, you know. It had to be done, we needed a diversion and there was simply no other way. Besides, it didn't happen to the real me so there's no need to keep beating yourself up about it."
"Cri-John," the tall Luxan responded, accepting the bioloid version totally as the same friend, "I appreciate you are not blaming me, but I had no right to ask this of you. We should have thought about another way."
"Like I said, D, it didn't happen to the real me, so once I'm gone and he's here you can stop worrying about it. But I think it would be wise not tell Aeryn about it. Even though it was me that tralk abused, I'm pretty sure Aeryn would confront Grayza. And while I couldn't care less what happens to that bitch, I think Aeryn should not deal with it. Besides it might make her feel even guiltier about leaving me...him...us behind."
"I promise you I will not tell Aeryn. I also promise to deal with that tralk if I ever see her again."
"Thanks D, appreciate it." John slapped his tall friend's shoulder.
They entered the docking bay to see Scorpius and Sikozu ready to board the transport pod.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road," John said jovially. "Once you've landed on the planet we chose earlier, you get Scorpy on the horn and tell him we gave you the boot."
"Yes John, I remember the plan," Scorpius responded, correctly interpreting the strange human phrase to mean 'forced off Moya'.
"Right, well if all goes according to plan," John continued as he pointedly ignored the resulting snorts, "you should reach the planet in about an arn. You two lovebirds have fun!"
Neither Scorpius nor Sikozu responded to his remark as they climbed the stairs to board the pod. The sooner they were on it, the sooner they could leave the ever-chattering human with his strange sayings behind.
As soon as the transport pod had left the docking bay, the crew began preparations to board Lo'La and head for the Space Station. In less than a quarter of an arn they too left Moya behind as she moved to a safe location almost two systems away from the Space Station.
"Why did we have to bring Wrinkles?" Chiana asked John, who sat up front in the copilot seat.
John turned around to look at Chiana, who had chosen a spot directly behind D'Argo. "Pip, Granny has some powders than can be very useful. Besides, would you really have felt better if we left her alone aboard Moya?"
"No, but we could have sent her along with fek-face," Chiana responded. "Let her stink up that place." She turned her head to look at Noranti sitting behind her. "And why do you not bathe?" she asked.
"No bathing, have to preserve the juices," Noranti replied.
"I do not understand why you brought me along," Rygel said from the back. "You could have left me aboard Moya, I can be trusted."
"Yeah, trusted to snurch our stuff," Chiana said.
"If there is anyone snurching, it would be you," Rygel responded.
"Kids, just shut up, alright," John said.
"John," D'Argo said to his friend while reaching out to pat his shoulder, "what did you say then? It is fun to travel with children?"
"Yeah, but this time we're preparing to fight."
"This is not unusual," Aeryn said from behind John, "Peacekeepers always tease each other while on route to a mission. It helps reducing stress levels and forges a bond between team members so they will trust each other."
"Fine, just don't bother me with it. I need the quiet," John said.
After a half arn they came up to the Space Station.
"Damn, it's big," John muttered under his breath. "Alright kids, we're here. We'll have to wait about a quarter arn before Xerox Scorpy contacts the original version. As soon as Grasshopper leaves the station, we dock and enter as planned." From behind him he could hear Aeryn checking the oil cartridges of her pistols and rifle and he figured it would be good idea to check on the girl strapped to his thigh. Full Chakan oil cartridge in place and two reserve cartridges stuffed in the pockets of his coat.
Moya, Corridor
"Come on guys, time to get me out of this hell," John muttered, trying valiantly to ignore the two zombies talking to and touching him although their vile smells and sloshing sounds as they moved just grossed him out. The two had not left him alone at all during the last couple of arns and he was getting tired.
The corroded hand of the Aeryn ghost slide itself along John's ribcage underneath his thin t-shirt. He shuddered with the touch of her cold clammy hand. "'Woah, d-don't go there…back off!" he yelled and gave her a shove away from his rigid body where he sat on the couch. Zombie-Chiana took the opportunity to slither around his back and reach her skeletal arms with their rotting flesh around his neck. He ducked underneath her and jumped off the couch. "Scorpy!" he screamed into the air, "This isn't gonna jive with me. No matter how you direct it, the girls aren't real. I gotta give you this much, you've added great smell-o-rama and senso-sound but it still don't play 'cause you don't understand the language. On my world the dead stay dead except in cheap B-grade horror movies. I might be dumb but I don't have the chin. Give it up."
John stood with his back to a wall as far away from the apparitions as possible. They continued to make little whimpering sounds and cries and their skin and body parts continued to peel and crack and the smells of death and corruption were appalling. He closed his eyes and forcibly turned his mind away from thoughts of the girls. He had told himself he would not work on the wormhole equations, no matter what. He wondered how the guys would get him out of this twisted Myst. What would be their plan? Gotta be pretty frelled up to rescue him from this mess.
His mind had pondered earlier about the deaths of Aeryn and Chiana. He had the feeling the accident Scorpius had mentioned might not have been an accident. John was pretty sure the fake Scorpius had something to do with it. He hoped Aeryn had figured his own doppelganger out, put two and two together and figure out Scorpius was acting odd to. If that would be the case and she reacted quickly when whatever had happened had happened, she may have been in hiding with Chiana, faking their deaths and awaiting a good moment to deal with the fakes.
He leaned against the wall and thought about the rescue plan they had to come up with, once Aeryn and Pip had found a way to deal with the two Xeroxes. If the guys come for him, they should take a convoluted route to fool Scorpy and the PKs. Yet, if either Aeryn or D'Argo come up with the plan, it'll be based on a simple straight-forward frontal assault 'cause they always worked that way. Maybe he shouldn't be assuming that they would come for him at all given that his replacement doppelganger is there on Moya still surely keeping up appearances and the two women dead. He sighed and shoved that fear aside. So, they will come for him. What would they need? They need to find out where he is. Even finding his location in space wouldn't really help, unless they knew about this computer game and how to get him out.
The more he thought about it, the more John was convinced that Scorpius was holding out on his fellow Peacekeepers. He was certain that ole Scorpy didn't want the Peacekeepers to know about his look-a-like. So, if D'Argo, Rygel, or anyone else on Moya were smart and had found out about copies, he hoped that they would use that information to turn the tables on Mr. Scarren Half-Breed and thus empty the base of soldiers to make it easier to perform the rescue. The best way to do that would be to dump one or both clones on a planet and force Xerox-Grasshopper to contact Mr. Real-Live Nosferatu on this base, thereby luring the original Scorp off the base. Then with Scorpy away, the mice could play. In his gang could come like a bat outa hell, yank out all the connections to his body and presto, freedom.
John knew any rescue depended on the crew discovering the body switching as well as his current predicament. Still, he figured it was better to hope than to dispair. So he kept the hope that his friends would come to rescue his ass once again.
"John, why will you not work on the equations," Scorpius asked. John jumped at the sound and kicked himself for his inattention. He had missed Scorpy's David Copperfield act because of his daydreaming.
"I see no reason to," John said. "Only bad things can happen when I give you wormhole tech, so I've decided to not give you any scrap of data anymore."
"John, as long as you refuse to work on those equations, the apparitions of your friends will continue to trouble you. I know you do not like the smells, sounds, and thoughts of their gruesome deaths. Consider their unfortunate end on your conscience."
John glanced over to the couch where the two ghouls had been painting each other's boney nails and dripping pus on the frayed material. He suddenly realized that his two haunted-house guests were now sitting motionless. "There's a pause button?" he asked Scorpius pointing in the direction of the couch.
"John, I have full control over these surroundings. These two are only a small example. I can enhance their reality and add much, much more to the scenario. Things will not remain as easy for you if you do not start working on these equations soon."
"Take your best shot," John said, but Scorpius had already disappeared again and the two zombies once again make their sexual wishes known with their unwanted touching and pawing at him. "What the frell is keeping you guys?"
Transport pod, one system away
The bioloid of Scorpius piloted the transport pod and adjusted his course to head to the chosen system. They needed less than a quarter arn to reach their destination and after the latest course change he had not much to do besides keep an eye out for possible trouble.
Beside him Sikozu sat quietly, staring straight ahead. They had been talking for a while but just before the course change her demeanor changed. Scorpius assumed she was getting nervous about the upcoming rendezvous with the real Scorpius and decided to say nothing and give her some time to deal with things on her own.
Sikozu however was dealing with a totally different problem. Despite the great technological advancements in her type of bioloid which should have prevented anybody from tampering with her programming, some sort of foreign programming had penetrated her core processing unit. It took a large amount of processing power to take care of the problem before it would get out of hand, which resulted in her quiet behavior.
She concentrated on tracing the path of the errant bits of code as they invaded more and more of her addresses and neural pathways. As she scoped out the damage she realized that this invasion had commenced with the first time she linked with Scorpius. That's when part of his programming tried to break in to her programming. The bioloid had implanted a worm in her systems. Although the overt attack had been partly successful that time, its true mission was to commence a more covert hacking that initialized itself on her second connection. Both the Scorpius virus attacks were eventually thwarted by her security protocols but it now looked as if the whole ordeal opened up a way for something else to penetrate her defenses.
That was her current problem, dealing with whatever had penetrated her defenses during the virus battle. Sikozu couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. She had reinitiated her security protocols as soon as she had become aware of the problem which should have been enough to deal with the problem right away. Unfortunately, the unknown worm was able to elude all the detection efforts by her stepped up security. Sikozu dug further down using all her available processing capabilities and finally tagged the bug.
Suddenly, she found herself in a virtual room. It looked very much like the room she where she was first activated. Slowly fear began to assert itself as she started to realize she was no longer in control of herself.
"So, you wanna warn Grasshopper about the rescue, do ya?" the human's voice echoed from behind her. "I don't think that would be wise."
Sikozu turned around and eyed the human suspiciously. "Are you the programming that penetrated my systems?" she asked him.
"Sure am," John replied with a smirk. "Wasn't easy either. I got in alright but couldn't do much at all. I did have the time and ability to nose through your memory banks. Interesting things I found there, like where you were activated," he stated while gesturing towards their environment, "and that you're part of the Kalish resistance."
"You have no right to go through my memories," Sikozu said indignantly.
"What else was I s'posed to do? Don't worry I won't tell anyone about your darkest secrets."
"Why are you here?" Sikozu asked.
"Got nowhere else to go," John replied with a small shrug. "I'd almost think you don't want me here."
"I do not want you here. Go away."
"As I said, I got nowhere to go. Now, relax a bit. Scorpy is about to land and I'm sure he needs to know you're fine. We'll talk later."
Space Station Gammak Base, Scorpius' private chamber
Scorpius was intrigued and irritated by the stubbornness of the human who was still refusing to work on the equations in spite of Scorpius' recent threats to up the punishment levels. He pondered the image of Crichton; watching him pace back and forth across the room trailed by the two dead versions of his crewmates. John had been on his feet and plagued by the ghastly smells, sounds, and touches for over eight arns and although he was stumbling with fatigue and most likely hunger still he refused to cooperate.
Why was the human so in transitory? Didn't he understand the strategic value provided by the capability of harnessing the power of wormholes? With the wormhole tech the Peacekeepers would be able to defeat the Scarrans once and for all with very little loss of Sebecean life. Surely the human did not want the Scarrans to take over the Uncharted Territories and known Peacekeeper space? If that should happen, John Crichton must be aware that he and his friends would be killed sooner or later.
The Sebacean-Scarran hybrid was getting very frustrated by the human's lack of assistance. He contemplated the steps to make life more difficult for John, difficult enough to force him to continue his work on the equations. Scorpius switched cameras to the one in the computer room and quietly watched the status of the real Crichton. The human's face held a grimace and his muscles in his jaw twiched despite the muscle-relaxing drug, thus giving testament to the torment his mind was going through. Scorpius was well aware of the fragile nature of the human body (having had John Crichton in custody before). Working with this man had to be a delicate balancing act. So, for now, the current assault on the human would have to serve. Switching the view back to the virtual room, Scorpius said, "You are doing this to yourself, John. You know how to stop this torment, you are just being stubborn."
Transport pod, approaching Tirnu
Sikozu noticed the room had disappeared and found herself back sitting in the transport pod looking out the forward portal. A mere microt later she couldn't remember what had happened during the past quarter arn.
"My dear Sikozu," Scorpius said from beside her, "I am about to land. Is everything alright?"
"Uhm, yes, I just can not remember the last quarter arn," she replied.
"Yes, I noticed you were deep in thought. I assumed you were a little nervous about the situation and so left you with your thoughts." Scorpius looked at her with a little concern as he noticed her frown. "You do not remember anything from the past quarter arn?"
"No, nothing," Sikozu replied. "My internal logs do show a huge amount of processing power was used for security protocols, which may explain why I do not remember much. Still, the lost time should have been recorded in my memory banks as well." She was no longer trying to hide her bioloid origins and it felt very good to be able to be that frank, very liberating.
"Your security protocols? Is there something wrong with your programming?"
"There appears to be small irregularities in my programming but the infected locations, although not important, were difficult to clean, which explains why so much processing power was needed. Everything is clean now."
At that moment Scorpius landed the transport pod and shutdown the engines and the navigational systems.
"We are precisely on time," Scorpius said with some satisfaction. "John," Scorpius said into one of Moya's comms, "Sikozu and I have arrived at our destination. Have you arrived at your destination?"
"Yeah, Grasshopper," John replied over the comms. "You can reach out and touch someone."
Both Sikozu and Scorpius shook their heads. Sometimes the human could really be incomprehensible.
Scorpius grabbed the special comms that connected him with his counterpart and stepped out of the pod, followed by Sikozu. "Scorpius," he said into the device when he had put some distance between the pod and himself, "I have some news to report."
"What now," the snarled reply came from the device. It appeared the real Scorpius was not very happy.
"The crew has forced me to leave Moya. I am currently on the planet Tirnu. I do not want to risk flying the pod in your direction because the crew might be tracking it."
Over the comms they could hear Scorpius hit some surface with quite some force. "That is only two systems away! Are they aware of the situation with the human?"
"I do not think they know. After the crew put me and Sikozu in the transport pod and forced me to leave, they seemed to have gone away from your position. The human bioloid still has enough of the wormhole equations to proceed with the test and I believe they will do that."
It was quiet for a few moments before Scorpius replied again, this time using his carefully cultured voice again. "The Kalish girl is there as well?"
"Yes, the crew felt she had come to my defense too often. She was also unhappy with the crew and would rather be with you."
"I will ask Braca to guard the human..."
Aboard Lo'La near the Space Station
"...and upgrade security for the base. I will come to pick you up and expect to arrive about a quarter arn after that. I will contact you as soon as I leave the base." The crew heard the comms click off.
"Step one going according to plan," John said. "Damn, Grasshopper really wasn't happy."
"John is probably being obstinate again. That usually makes us unhappy as well," Aeryn replied from behind him. Though she said it with a smile, it did heighten her worries about him. She quickly squelched the fear that was rising and temporarily erected the Peacekeeper barriers to bar all emotions. They would only hamper her during the first part of the rescue.
"You're probably right. Well, you all heard Scorpy: the security will be beefed up but I doubt they'll have security where we'll board the Space Station."
The crew nodded and D'Argo remembered the discussion about how to enter.
"Scorp, you said this Space Station was expanded a few cycles back, right?" At his confirming nod, John continued. "Doesn't that mean there's an old docking bay as well? One that's no longer used?"
"Yes John, there is an old airlock, but it is not usable."
"Why not?"
"It is placed on what was formerly the station's outer hull but that area is now surrounded with the added sections of the station. The airlock is still there but since it is unreachable from the outside by any vessel, it has been closed."
"But it can be opened from the outside and there's probably no security there at all, right?"
"You are correct on both accounts, John. However, if we can not reach it, it is of no use to us."
John rubbed this thumb over his lower lip for a little while. "D, you can control your ship through voice commands, right?"
"Yes, but I do not see how that is going to help us."
"How many EV-suits do we have?" John asked in general, for the time being ignoring any questions.
"Three as far as I know," Aeryn replied.
"Alright, D, you can survive in space for what, a quarter arn?" At his nod he continued, "Do we have a spare oxygen tank?"
"We have two additional tanks," Aeryn answered. It was good thing she had made it her business to be up to date on anything that could be used if they were under attack.
"Great. I noticed we have a container the size of D'Argo in the maintenance bay. That thing is airtight, right?" At Aeryn's confirming nod he continued, "So, we stuff Granny and Spanky in there, providing them with oxygen; Aeryn, Pip, and I get into the EV-suits; and the three of us and D guide the container with the old bat and the old slug to the airlock and we enter there. No shooting and no-one will know we're there."
D'Argo shook his head slightly. It became clear to him that this duplicate of his friend was indeed a perfect copy. He had come up with a fahrbot plan that would probably fail at some point, but not enough to get them all killed and work out in the end. He watched as the old woman and Rygel got into the airtight container while Aeryn, Chiana, and John put on their EV-suits.
While Aeryn and John focused on sealing the container, Chiana walked up to stand next to her lover. "It'll be alright, D'Argo," she said as she stroked one side of his face with her hand. "We'll be doing this together and we'll look out for each other."
D'Argo looked at her with all the love he felt for her. "We will," he said. He was about to say more but was interrupted by the comms.
"This is Scorpius. I am on my way to you now. I will arrive in a quarter arn."
"Show time," John said and sealed his helmet. Aeryn and Chiana did the same and D'Argo fastened his breathing mask. When they were all ready, D'Argo motioned them to get into the airlock and cycled it. They slowly drifted over to the Space Station, towing the container with the Hynerian and the Traskan with them.
Surface of Tirnu
Tirnu was definitely not habitable. Although it had an atmosphere that would allow most species to live there, it had virtually no water or vegetation. Luckily, it wasn't too hot so Scorpius would not have to worry about using up his cooling rods too fast.
Sikozu used her link to deactivate Scorpius and quickly started the coding sequence to resurrect his original programming. She was almost finished with the final pathways, when she found herself transported to the secret meeting place of the Kalish resistance.
"So this is where you meet your fellow resistance fighters. The furnishing certainly screams Ikea."
The vision of John stood in front of her staring at the dusty floor and torn up walls of the decrepit room with its broken chairs. Just as she turned to answer his snarky statement, she paused as the entire previous encounter came back to her memory in a flash. "How dare you dress in Kalish clothes!"
"You didn't expect me to come here stark naked, did ya?" John countered. "I figure these clothes are more appropriate for these surroundings than my usual clothing."
"Just leave me alone," Sikozu said with annoyance.
"Don't think so," John countered, "I'm here to prevent you from making the biggest mistake of your life."
"What mistake?"
"Hooking up with Grasshopper," John said matter-of-factly. "Worst thing you could possibly do, unless you want to die and undo all the good things the Kalish resistance has accomplished so far."
"I do not think Scorpius would harm me or the resistance; he hates the Scarrans even more than the Kalish do."
"True, but he'd do anything to accomplish the destruction of his father's race, even kill you if necessary. But don't take my word for it, just ask Scorpy himself."
"Ask him? How?"
"Simple. While we were talking I took the liberty of getting Scorpy's personality in here too via some fancy programming over our previous link. Oh, Scorpy, come out, come out, wherever you are," John said, making a show of scanning the surroundings.
'Even his programming is annoying and deficient,' Sikozu thought.
"Hey, I'm right here you know; it's not very nice to think bad things about me when I know what you're thinking," John said. A smile crept into his face as he saw she realized the full extend of his connection to her.
"John, where are we?" Scorpius asked. Sikozu jumped in spite of herself when the black-clad apparition seemed to pop out of nowhere.
"Secret Kalish resistance meeting place," John answered. "But more accurately, we are inside Sikozu's central processing unit and the surroundings are just generated from her memory. Not unlike what Harvey usually does to the real me."
"Harvey?" both Sikozu and Scorpius asked. Then Scorpius realized what he must mean. "You are referring to the neural bleed-back from the chip Scorpius once put in your brain."
"Yep, Harv always liked to root around in my memory and give unwanted advice in the weirdest places he pulled out of my memory. You should name me too; John seems inappropriate since I'm not really him. Harvey is obviously taken; Clarence maybe? Hmm, no I don't like that name for myself. Hmm, lemme think..."
"Crichton!" Sikozu yelled, getting incredibly annoyed by this human virus.
"No, like I said, my own name wouldn't be appropriate; pay attention will ya?"
"John, why are we here," Scorpius asked.
"Hmm, what?" John replied distractedly, "oh, right, the reason we're here. We're gonna give Sputnik some insight into Scorpy's psyche. She doesn't believe me about Habius-Scorpius' real goals and total dedication to achieving them, but I'm sure she'll believe you."
At that John walked away and left the two alone to talk.
Space Station Gammak Base, old airlock
The crew had safely entered the Space Station through the abandoned airlock and docking area. As predicted, there was no sign of any security.
"Alright, Pip and D, you get to Scorpy's place and grab that thingy. Granny will go with you. Aeryn and I will clear a path to the chamber where John is linked to the computer game. Guido here will follow us to secure our exit."
They each gave a small nod acknowledging the plan. It would take less than half an arn for Scorpius to return and they needed to be ready for the plan's next stage by then.
D'Argo, Chiana and Noranti had a fairly easy part. The route to Scorpius' private chambers was short distance from their current location. They did not encounter anyone during their rapid travel to their destination. Just as D'Argo began to remove the grating from a maintenance duct near the entrance, the door to Scorpius' room opened. D'Argo quickly ducked around the corner. He could not believe their luck: Braca left the chamber, seemingly leaving it unprotected and unlocked. This would make Chiana's part much easier and less dangerous.
As soon as Braca disappeared around the corner, the Luxan removed the grating and motioned Chiana to approach. As he helped her inside he said, "Braca has left the room and I do not think he placed security there. This will make it easier, but you will need to hurry; he could come back any microt."
Chiana smiled to him. "D'Argo, I'm always quick when it comes to snurching. Don't worry, nobody'll catch me." She gave him a peck on the cheek and made her way through the maintenance duct towards Scorpius' room.
D'Argo quickly replaced the grating to avoid detection. As he turned around he saw a Peacekeeper standing there, aiming a pulse pistol at him.
Aeryn sat at her desk cleaning her weapons, not because they needed cleaning, but because it gave her something to do while letting her thoughts go over the current situation. The bioloid John had come up with a plan to rescue her John. She had already committed the entire plan to memory and knew exactly what she would have to do. As such, her thoughts were not so much focused on the plan, but rather on the subject of the rescue.
Despite assurances from both copies aboard Moya, she was very worried about John's current well being. After all, neither of the two had any insight into the actual state John was in. The fact that Scorpius had informed them John was heavily drugged and would not be able to walk once they disconnected him from the computer was not helping ease her worries.
The worst part was that she would be the one who needed to convince John to leave the virtual room. She had no idea on how to accomplish this but was afraid to talk about it with the copy of John, partly because she felt she should have realized this was not the real one and partly because she should know exactly how to convince her John. She couldn't stop thinking about another niggling question. Why wouldn't John want to leave that fekkik room? What was the real situation on the gammak base and with the computer? It just didn't make sense that John was stuck there because of his own indecision. It just made no sense… He had said he would never leave her. He had said she was his world. There was something not being said…
"Tell him about the baby," John said from the entrance to her quarters as if he had read her mind.
Aeryn startled. Yet again, he had managed to come near her without her realizing it. She looked at him with a questioning look, wondering if it was because she was paying less attention or because he was getting better at sneaking up on her.
"If he hears you're pregnant he'll know you're not some virtual copy he conjured up himself," John explained, interpreting her look as demanding an explanation to his earlier comment. "Besides," he continued with a small shrug, "it'll save you both the problems we were having because of your secrecy."
Aeryn nodded her assent. "You are probably right on both accounts. Will it be enough to convince him to come out of that virtual reality?"
"Are you kiddin'? Of course it's enough reason to come out. He's going to be a father and believe me, he wants to be."
"Even if he did not conceive the child," Aeryn asked, voicing her biggest worries about the pregnancy.
"Aer, I... John loves kids. He doesn't care if it's from his twin or some anonymous Peacekeeper he never met. Hell, he wouldn't care if the kid would have four claws and could multitask or have three stomachs and could fart helium." At her raised eyebrow he conceded, "well, maybe not that. The point is if it is your child, it will be his. He loves you and he will love any child you give life to."
"Then why did you try to avoid me," Aeryn demanded.
"Because you tried to hide it from me," John answered. "You still didn't plan on telling me and that really hurt. My only defense to that was to stay away from you, ignore you. I was coming 'round to talk to you about it."
Aeryn nodded again in thought, while reassembling a pulse rifle. "What makes you think Scorpius hasn't told John about me being pregnant?"
"He doesn't know, because I never told Grasshopper about it."
"But he could have heard us talk about it."
"No he couldn't. His spy toys weren't working until the day after our little talk, we haven't talked about it since and I'm pretty sure nobody else knows. If you want, I can ask him if he did hear it."
"Maybe that would be a good idea," Aeryn replied, moving her cleanup duties to a pulse pistol.
"Yo, Scorp," John said into his comms, "could you come to Aeryn's quarters for a microt?"
"Certainly John, I am on my way," the reply came.
A few microts later Scorpius entered Aeryn's quarters. "How can I be of assistance," he asked.
"Did you tell Scorpius about the pregnancy," John asked.
"I did not know of any pregnancy," Scorpius answered. After a little bit of thinking he turned to Aeryn. "Officer Sun, you are with child?"
"See, his toys were not working until after we talked about it," John said to Aeryn. "He will believe it's really you when you tell him about the pregnancy. More importantly, you'll be the one who tells him, not Granny, Pip, or D, but you."
Aeryn just nodded. She was relieved John would not know about the child and that his copy was certain it would be the thing that would make him believe she was real.
"There is one other thing that may cause him to doubt you are real," Scorpius said. "My counterpart may have told John that the Nebari girl and you have perished in the Starburst Chamber."
"Then, would it not be wise to have D'Argo or Rygel try to convince John to leave the virtual room?" Aeryn asked.
"No," John answered, "you are the one who'll be able to convince him. You're the one he loves, his guiding star. I'm not saying it's gonna be easy to do, but you're definitely the one that has the best chance of doing so."
Aeryn sighed, knowing that he was probably right. She clicked the chakan oil cartridge in place in the pulse pistol. "Alright, I need some time to think about what to say to him."
"Sure, we'll get out of your hair," John said as he turned around to leave her quarters. This caused him to miss the frown on Aeryn's face, followed by a slight shake of her head and a dismissive shrug. John just motioned Scorpius to leave and followed him out of her quarters, closing the door behind him.
Aeryn lay back on the bed and focused her mind on things to do or say that would convince John to leave. One thing was certain in her mind: she would not leave without him.
Sikozu's quarters
Sikozu sat on her bed feeling slightly despondent. Her initial plan had been to go to the real Scorpius as soon as she arrived on the Space Station so she could inform him of the plan to rescue the human. Unfortunately, the copy of that deficient human had come up with a plan that would not allow her to do that in a satisfactory way. She sighed as she remembered the discussion.
"I think we all agree we'll have a better chance with Scorpy off the base. He's the only one who can see the difference between me and the real John."
At that point Sikozu had almost interrupted him. She realized that such an interruption might make them all suspicious of her so she remained silent and followed the rest of the discussion hoping she would be able to turn things to her favor without raising any suspicions.
"How do you propose we lure him away?" D'Argo asked.
"I've been thinking," John said, "Grasshopper, Scorpy doesn't want the Peacekeepers to know he uses bioloids regularly, right?"
"That is correct John. If Peacekeeper High Command learns of this fact, they would no longer trust him. Up to now, no one has ever known this, not even Braca."
"Right, so if you contact him and tell him you were kicked off the boat, he would come and pick you up himself."
"Indeed he would. But he would certainly check where my signal is coming from, as he has done during previous contacts."
"So? We'll just drop you off at a planet before you contact him."
Sikozu saw this as her opportunity to get to the real Scorpius and inform him of the rescue plan without the crew knowing it. She would only need to remain with the bioloid and everything would be fine. She knew exactly how to assure she would be able to accompany him.
"He should not go alone. During my last link I detected a severe problem which may cause him to deactivate soon, perhaps even before he makes contact. I should go with him. Should he shut down I can reactivate him again."
Scorpius looked at her. "She has a point. My counterpart is also aware of her... regular visits to me and he would believe you have expelled her with me because of her... interest in me."
Luckily the human had agreed, albeit reluctantly because he needed to revise his plan again. She was relieved she would get a chance to get close to the real Scarran half-breed but was worried about it as well. For reasons she could not fathom, Scorpius needed the human, but by luring the Scarran-Sebacean hybrid away from the Space Station, she would jeopardize Scopius' containment of Crichton.
If she wanted to inform Scorpius she would have to use the bioloid, reprogram him again so he could contact his real counterpart to warn him. The bioloid would be the only one capable of using the specialized communication device to send the message. After the contact she could travel to the Space Station with the bioloid Scorpius.
It was unfortunate she would need to wait until after the bioloid lured his counterpart away from the Space Station. The bioloid had given his back-up communicator to the human so they would know when Scorpius was prepared to leave. If the crew did not hear the communication they would realize that the bioloid had betrayed them and Sikozu knew the crew of Moya well enough to realize they were dangerous should their plans be revealed. The fahrbot crew was really good at changing tactics on the fly, since their plans almost always went south. She was confident, however, that she could out think them and warn Scorpius in time to thwart the rescue.
She sighed again as she gathered her few possessions and headed toward the docking bay. They would leave for the planet soon. Timing was everything. If she failed to warn the real Scorpius in time, she was certain he would want nothing to do with her and most likely Moya's crew wouldn't want her around either, regardless of the outcome.
Moya, Corridor
"Listen, D," John said as they walked towards the docking bay, "I know you feel a little guilty about making me take one for the team back on Arnesk, but it's okay, you know. It had to be done, we needed a diversion and there was simply no other way. Besides, it didn't happen to the real me so there's no need to keep beating yourself up about it."
"Cri-John," the tall Luxan responded, accepting the bioloid version totally as the same friend, "I appreciate you are not blaming me, but I had no right to ask this of you. We should have thought about another way."
"Like I said, D, it didn't happen to the real me, so once I'm gone and he's here you can stop worrying about it. But I think it would be wise not tell Aeryn about it. Even though it was me that tralk abused, I'm pretty sure Aeryn would confront Grayza. And while I couldn't care less what happens to that bitch, I think Aeryn should not deal with it. Besides it might make her feel even guiltier about leaving me...him...us behind."
"I promise you I will not tell Aeryn. I also promise to deal with that tralk if I ever see her again."
"Thanks D, appreciate it." John slapped his tall friend's shoulder.
They entered the docking bay to see Scorpius and Sikozu ready to board the transport pod.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road," John said jovially. "Once you've landed on the planet we chose earlier, you get Scorpy on the horn and tell him we gave you the boot."
"Yes John, I remember the plan," Scorpius responded, correctly interpreting the strange human phrase to mean 'forced off Moya'.
"Right, well if all goes according to plan," John continued as he pointedly ignored the resulting snorts, "you should reach the planet in about an arn. You two lovebirds have fun!"
Neither Scorpius nor Sikozu responded to his remark as they climbed the stairs to board the pod. The sooner they were on it, the sooner they could leave the ever-chattering human with his strange sayings behind.
As soon as the transport pod had left the docking bay, the crew began preparations to board Lo'La and head for the Space Station. In less than a quarter of an arn they too left Moya behind as she moved to a safe location almost two systems away from the Space Station.
"Why did we have to bring Wrinkles?" Chiana asked John, who sat up front in the copilot seat.
John turned around to look at Chiana, who had chosen a spot directly behind D'Argo. "Pip, Granny has some powders than can be very useful. Besides, would you really have felt better if we left her alone aboard Moya?"
"No, but we could have sent her along with fek-face," Chiana responded. "Let her stink up that place." She turned her head to look at Noranti sitting behind her. "And why do you not bathe?" she asked.
"No bathing, have to preserve the juices," Noranti replied.
"I do not understand why you brought me along," Rygel said from the back. "You could have left me aboard Moya, I can be trusted."
"Yeah, trusted to snurch our stuff," Chiana said.
"If there is anyone snurching, it would be you," Rygel responded.
"Kids, just shut up, alright," John said.
"John," D'Argo said to his friend while reaching out to pat his shoulder, "what did you say then? It is fun to travel with children?"
"Yeah, but this time we're preparing to fight."
"This is not unusual," Aeryn said from behind John, "Peacekeepers always tease each other while on route to a mission. It helps reducing stress levels and forges a bond between team members so they will trust each other."
"Fine, just don't bother me with it. I need the quiet," John said.
After a half arn they came up to the Space Station.
"Damn, it's big," John muttered under his breath. "Alright kids, we're here. We'll have to wait about a quarter arn before Xerox Scorpy contacts the original version. As soon as Grasshopper leaves the station, we dock and enter as planned." From behind him he could hear Aeryn checking the oil cartridges of her pistols and rifle and he figured it would be good idea to check on the girl strapped to his thigh. Full Chakan oil cartridge in place and two reserve cartridges stuffed in the pockets of his coat.
Moya, Corridor
"Come on guys, time to get me out of this hell," John muttered, trying valiantly to ignore the two zombies talking to and touching him although their vile smells and sloshing sounds as they moved just grossed him out. The two had not left him alone at all during the last couple of arns and he was getting tired.
The corroded hand of the Aeryn ghost slide itself along John's ribcage underneath his thin t-shirt. He shuddered with the touch of her cold clammy hand. "'Woah, d-don't go there…back off!" he yelled and gave her a shove away from his rigid body where he sat on the couch. Zombie-Chiana took the opportunity to slither around his back and reach her skeletal arms with their rotting flesh around his neck. He ducked underneath her and jumped off the couch. "Scorpy!" he screamed into the air, "This isn't gonna jive with me. No matter how you direct it, the girls aren't real. I gotta give you this much, you've added great smell-o-rama and senso-sound but it still don't play 'cause you don't understand the language. On my world the dead stay dead except in cheap B-grade horror movies. I might be dumb but I don't have the chin. Give it up."
John stood with his back to a wall as far away from the apparitions as possible. They continued to make little whimpering sounds and cries and their skin and body parts continued to peel and crack and the smells of death and corruption were appalling. He closed his eyes and forcibly turned his mind away from thoughts of the girls. He had told himself he would not work on the wormhole equations, no matter what. He wondered how the guys would get him out of this twisted Myst. What would be their plan? Gotta be pretty frelled up to rescue him from this mess.
His mind had pondered earlier about the deaths of Aeryn and Chiana. He had the feeling the accident Scorpius had mentioned might not have been an accident. John was pretty sure the fake Scorpius had something to do with it. He hoped Aeryn had figured his own doppelganger out, put two and two together and figure out Scorpius was acting odd to. If that would be the case and she reacted quickly when whatever had happened had happened, she may have been in hiding with Chiana, faking their deaths and awaiting a good moment to deal with the fakes.
He leaned against the wall and thought about the rescue plan they had to come up with, once Aeryn and Pip had found a way to deal with the two Xeroxes. If the guys come for him, they should take a convoluted route to fool Scorpy and the PKs. Yet, if either Aeryn or D'Argo come up with the plan, it'll be based on a simple straight-forward frontal assault 'cause they always worked that way. Maybe he shouldn't be assuming that they would come for him at all given that his replacement doppelganger is there on Moya still surely keeping up appearances and the two women dead. He sighed and shoved that fear aside. So, they will come for him. What would they need? They need to find out where he is. Even finding his location in space wouldn't really help, unless they knew about this computer game and how to get him out.
The more he thought about it, the more John was convinced that Scorpius was holding out on his fellow Peacekeepers. He was certain that ole Scorpy didn't want the Peacekeepers to know about his look-a-like. So, if D'Argo, Rygel, or anyone else on Moya were smart and had found out about copies, he hoped that they would use that information to turn the tables on Mr. Scarren Half-Breed and thus empty the base of soldiers to make it easier to perform the rescue. The best way to do that would be to dump one or both clones on a planet and force Xerox-Grasshopper to contact Mr. Real-Live Nosferatu on this base, thereby luring the original Scorp off the base. Then with Scorpy away, the mice could play. In his gang could come like a bat outa hell, yank out all the connections to his body and presto, freedom.
John knew any rescue depended on the crew discovering the body switching as well as his current predicament. Still, he figured it was better to hope than to dispair. So he kept the hope that his friends would come to rescue his ass once again.
"John, why will you not work on the equations," Scorpius asked. John jumped at the sound and kicked himself for his inattention. He had missed Scorpy's David Copperfield act because of his daydreaming.
"I see no reason to," John said. "Only bad things can happen when I give you wormhole tech, so I've decided to not give you any scrap of data anymore."
"John, as long as you refuse to work on those equations, the apparitions of your friends will continue to trouble you. I know you do not like the smells, sounds, and thoughts of their gruesome deaths. Consider their unfortunate end on your conscience."
John glanced over to the couch where the two ghouls had been painting each other's boney nails and dripping pus on the frayed material. He suddenly realized that his two haunted-house guests were now sitting motionless. "There's a pause button?" he asked Scorpius pointing in the direction of the couch.
"John, I have full control over these surroundings. These two are only a small example. I can enhance their reality and add much, much more to the scenario. Things will not remain as easy for you if you do not start working on these equations soon."
"Take your best shot," John said, but Scorpius had already disappeared again and the two zombies once again make their sexual wishes known with their unwanted touching and pawing at him. "What the frell is keeping you guys?"
Transport pod, one system away
The bioloid of Scorpius piloted the transport pod and adjusted his course to head to the chosen system. They needed less than a quarter arn to reach their destination and after the latest course change he had not much to do besides keep an eye out for possible trouble.
Beside him Sikozu sat quietly, staring straight ahead. They had been talking for a while but just before the course change her demeanor changed. Scorpius assumed she was getting nervous about the upcoming rendezvous with the real Scorpius and decided to say nothing and give her some time to deal with things on her own.
Sikozu however was dealing with a totally different problem. Despite the great technological advancements in her type of bioloid which should have prevented anybody from tampering with her programming, some sort of foreign programming had penetrated her core processing unit. It took a large amount of processing power to take care of the problem before it would get out of hand, which resulted in her quiet behavior.
She concentrated on tracing the path of the errant bits of code as they invaded more and more of her addresses and neural pathways. As she scoped out the damage she realized that this invasion had commenced with the first time she linked with Scorpius. That's when part of his programming tried to break in to her programming. The bioloid had implanted a worm in her systems. Although the overt attack had been partly successful that time, its true mission was to commence a more covert hacking that initialized itself on her second connection. Both the Scorpius virus attacks were eventually thwarted by her security protocols but it now looked as if the whole ordeal opened up a way for something else to penetrate her defenses.
That was her current problem, dealing with whatever had penetrated her defenses during the virus battle. Sikozu couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. She had reinitiated her security protocols as soon as she had become aware of the problem which should have been enough to deal with the problem right away. Unfortunately, the unknown worm was able to elude all the detection efforts by her stepped up security. Sikozu dug further down using all her available processing capabilities and finally tagged the bug.
Suddenly, she found herself in a virtual room. It looked very much like the room she where she was first activated. Slowly fear began to assert itself as she started to realize she was no longer in control of herself.
"So, you wanna warn Grasshopper about the rescue, do ya?" the human's voice echoed from behind her. "I don't think that would be wise."
Sikozu turned around and eyed the human suspiciously. "Are you the programming that penetrated my systems?" she asked him.
"Sure am," John replied with a smirk. "Wasn't easy either. I got in alright but couldn't do much at all. I did have the time and ability to nose through your memory banks. Interesting things I found there, like where you were activated," he stated while gesturing towards their environment, "and that you're part of the Kalish resistance."
"You have no right to go through my memories," Sikozu said indignantly.
"What else was I s'posed to do? Don't worry I won't tell anyone about your darkest secrets."
"Why are you here?" Sikozu asked.
"Got nowhere else to go," John replied with a small shrug. "I'd almost think you don't want me here."
"I do not want you here. Go away."
"As I said, I got nowhere to go. Now, relax a bit. Scorpy is about to land and I'm sure he needs to know you're fine. We'll talk later."
Space Station Gammak Base, Scorpius' private chamber
Scorpius was intrigued and irritated by the stubbornness of the human who was still refusing to work on the equations in spite of Scorpius' recent threats to up the punishment levels. He pondered the image of Crichton; watching him pace back and forth across the room trailed by the two dead versions of his crewmates. John had been on his feet and plagued by the ghastly smells, sounds, and touches for over eight arns and although he was stumbling with fatigue and most likely hunger still he refused to cooperate.
Why was the human so in transitory? Didn't he understand the strategic value provided by the capability of harnessing the power of wormholes? With the wormhole tech the Peacekeepers would be able to defeat the Scarrans once and for all with very little loss of Sebecean life. Surely the human did not want the Scarrans to take over the Uncharted Territories and known Peacekeeper space? If that should happen, John Crichton must be aware that he and his friends would be killed sooner or later.
The Sebacean-Scarran hybrid was getting very frustrated by the human's lack of assistance. He contemplated the steps to make life more difficult for John, difficult enough to force him to continue his work on the equations. Scorpius switched cameras to the one in the computer room and quietly watched the status of the real Crichton. The human's face held a grimace and his muscles in his jaw twiched despite the muscle-relaxing drug, thus giving testament to the torment his mind was going through. Scorpius was well aware of the fragile nature of the human body (having had John Crichton in custody before). Working with this man had to be a delicate balancing act. So, for now, the current assault on the human would have to serve. Switching the view back to the virtual room, Scorpius said, "You are doing this to yourself, John. You know how to stop this torment, you are just being stubborn."
Transport pod, approaching Tirnu
Sikozu noticed the room had disappeared and found herself back sitting in the transport pod looking out the forward portal. A mere microt later she couldn't remember what had happened during the past quarter arn.
"My dear Sikozu," Scorpius said from beside her, "I am about to land. Is everything alright?"
"Uhm, yes, I just can not remember the last quarter arn," she replied.
"Yes, I noticed you were deep in thought. I assumed you were a little nervous about the situation and so left you with your thoughts." Scorpius looked at her with a little concern as he noticed her frown. "You do not remember anything from the past quarter arn?"
"No, nothing," Sikozu replied. "My internal logs do show a huge amount of processing power was used for security protocols, which may explain why I do not remember much. Still, the lost time should have been recorded in my memory banks as well." She was no longer trying to hide her bioloid origins and it felt very good to be able to be that frank, very liberating.
"Your security protocols? Is there something wrong with your programming?"
"There appears to be small irregularities in my programming but the infected locations, although not important, were difficult to clean, which explains why so much processing power was needed. Everything is clean now."
At that moment Scorpius landed the transport pod and shutdown the engines and the navigational systems.
"We are precisely on time," Scorpius said with some satisfaction. "John," Scorpius said into one of Moya's comms, "Sikozu and I have arrived at our destination. Have you arrived at your destination?"
"Yeah, Grasshopper," John replied over the comms. "You can reach out and touch someone."
Both Sikozu and Scorpius shook their heads. Sometimes the human could really be incomprehensible.
Scorpius grabbed the special comms that connected him with his counterpart and stepped out of the pod, followed by Sikozu. "Scorpius," he said into the device when he had put some distance between the pod and himself, "I have some news to report."
"What now," the snarled reply came from the device. It appeared the real Scorpius was not very happy.
"The crew has forced me to leave Moya. I am currently on the planet Tirnu. I do not want to risk flying the pod in your direction because the crew might be tracking it."
Over the comms they could hear Scorpius hit some surface with quite some force. "That is only two systems away! Are they aware of the situation with the human?"
"I do not think they know. After the crew put me and Sikozu in the transport pod and forced me to leave, they seemed to have gone away from your position. The human bioloid still has enough of the wormhole equations to proceed with the test and I believe they will do that."
It was quiet for a few moments before Scorpius replied again, this time using his carefully cultured voice again. "The Kalish girl is there as well?"
"Yes, the crew felt she had come to my defense too often. She was also unhappy with the crew and would rather be with you."
"I will ask Braca to guard the human..."
Aboard Lo'La near the Space Station
"...and upgrade security for the base. I will come to pick you up and expect to arrive about a quarter arn after that. I will contact you as soon as I leave the base." The crew heard the comms click off.
"Step one going according to plan," John said. "Damn, Grasshopper really wasn't happy."
"John is probably being obstinate again. That usually makes us unhappy as well," Aeryn replied from behind him. Though she said it with a smile, it did heighten her worries about him. She quickly squelched the fear that was rising and temporarily erected the Peacekeeper barriers to bar all emotions. They would only hamper her during the first part of the rescue.
"You're probably right. Well, you all heard Scorpy: the security will be beefed up but I doubt they'll have security where we'll board the Space Station."
The crew nodded and D'Argo remembered the discussion about how to enter.
"Scorp, you said this Space Station was expanded a few cycles back, right?" At his confirming nod, John continued. "Doesn't that mean there's an old docking bay as well? One that's no longer used?"
"Yes John, there is an old airlock, but it is not usable."
"Why not?"
"It is placed on what was formerly the station's outer hull but that area is now surrounded with the added sections of the station. The airlock is still there but since it is unreachable from the outside by any vessel, it has been closed."
"But it can be opened from the outside and there's probably no security there at all, right?"
"You are correct on both accounts, John. However, if we can not reach it, it is of no use to us."
John rubbed this thumb over his lower lip for a little while. "D, you can control your ship through voice commands, right?"
"Yes, but I do not see how that is going to help us."
"How many EV-suits do we have?" John asked in general, for the time being ignoring any questions.
"Three as far as I know," Aeryn replied.
"Alright, D, you can survive in space for what, a quarter arn?" At his nod he continued, "Do we have a spare oxygen tank?"
"We have two additional tanks," Aeryn answered. It was good thing she had made it her business to be up to date on anything that could be used if they were under attack.
"Great. I noticed we have a container the size of D'Argo in the maintenance bay. That thing is airtight, right?" At Aeryn's confirming nod he continued, "So, we stuff Granny and Spanky in there, providing them with oxygen; Aeryn, Pip, and I get into the EV-suits; and the three of us and D guide the container with the old bat and the old slug to the airlock and we enter there. No shooting and no-one will know we're there."
D'Argo shook his head slightly. It became clear to him that this duplicate of his friend was indeed a perfect copy. He had come up with a fahrbot plan that would probably fail at some point, but not enough to get them all killed and work out in the end. He watched as the old woman and Rygel got into the airtight container while Aeryn, Chiana, and John put on their EV-suits.
While Aeryn and John focused on sealing the container, Chiana walked up to stand next to her lover. "It'll be alright, D'Argo," she said as she stroked one side of his face with her hand. "We'll be doing this together and we'll look out for each other."
D'Argo looked at her with all the love he felt for her. "We will," he said. He was about to say more but was interrupted by the comms.
"This is Scorpius. I am on my way to you now. I will arrive in a quarter arn."
"Show time," John said and sealed his helmet. Aeryn and Chiana did the same and D'Argo fastened his breathing mask. When they were all ready, D'Argo motioned them to get into the airlock and cycled it. They slowly drifted over to the Space Station, towing the container with the Hynerian and the Traskan with them.
Surface of Tirnu
Tirnu was definitely not habitable. Although it had an atmosphere that would allow most species to live there, it had virtually no water or vegetation. Luckily, it wasn't too hot so Scorpius would not have to worry about using up his cooling rods too fast.
Sikozu used her link to deactivate Scorpius and quickly started the coding sequence to resurrect his original programming. She was almost finished with the final pathways, when she found herself transported to the secret meeting place of the Kalish resistance.
"So this is where you meet your fellow resistance fighters. The furnishing certainly screams Ikea."
The vision of John stood in front of her staring at the dusty floor and torn up walls of the decrepit room with its broken chairs. Just as she turned to answer his snarky statement, she paused as the entire previous encounter came back to her memory in a flash. "How dare you dress in Kalish clothes!"
"You didn't expect me to come here stark naked, did ya?" John countered. "I figure these clothes are more appropriate for these surroundings than my usual clothing."
"Just leave me alone," Sikozu said with annoyance.
"Don't think so," John countered, "I'm here to prevent you from making the biggest mistake of your life."
"What mistake?"
"Hooking up with Grasshopper," John said matter-of-factly. "Worst thing you could possibly do, unless you want to die and undo all the good things the Kalish resistance has accomplished so far."
"I do not think Scorpius would harm me or the resistance; he hates the Scarrans even more than the Kalish do."
"True, but he'd do anything to accomplish the destruction of his father's race, even kill you if necessary. But don't take my word for it, just ask Scorpy himself."
"Ask him? How?"
"Simple. While we were talking I took the liberty of getting Scorpy's personality in here too via some fancy programming over our previous link. Oh, Scorpy, come out, come out, wherever you are," John said, making a show of scanning the surroundings.
'Even his programming is annoying and deficient,' Sikozu thought.
"Hey, I'm right here you know; it's not very nice to think bad things about me when I know what you're thinking," John said. A smile crept into his face as he saw she realized the full extend of his connection to her.
"John, where are we?" Scorpius asked. Sikozu jumped in spite of herself when the black-clad apparition seemed to pop out of nowhere.
"Secret Kalish resistance meeting place," John answered. "But more accurately, we are inside Sikozu's central processing unit and the surroundings are just generated from her memory. Not unlike what Harvey usually does to the real me."
"Harvey?" both Sikozu and Scorpius asked. Then Scorpius realized what he must mean. "You are referring to the neural bleed-back from the chip Scorpius once put in your brain."
"Yep, Harv always liked to root around in my memory and give unwanted advice in the weirdest places he pulled out of my memory. You should name me too; John seems inappropriate since I'm not really him. Harvey is obviously taken; Clarence maybe? Hmm, no I don't like that name for myself. Hmm, lemme think..."
"Crichton!" Sikozu yelled, getting incredibly annoyed by this human virus.
"No, like I said, my own name wouldn't be appropriate; pay attention will ya?"
"John, why are we here," Scorpius asked.
"Hmm, what?" John replied distractedly, "oh, right, the reason we're here. We're gonna give Sputnik some insight into Scorpy's psyche. She doesn't believe me about Habius-Scorpius' real goals and total dedication to achieving them, but I'm sure she'll believe you."
At that John walked away and left the two alone to talk.
Space Station Gammak Base, old airlock
The crew had safely entered the Space Station through the abandoned airlock and docking area. As predicted, there was no sign of any security.
"Alright, Pip and D, you get to Scorpy's place and grab that thingy. Granny will go with you. Aeryn and I will clear a path to the chamber where John is linked to the computer game. Guido here will follow us to secure our exit."
They each gave a small nod acknowledging the plan. It would take less than half an arn for Scorpius to return and they needed to be ready for the plan's next stage by then.
D'Argo, Chiana and Noranti had a fairly easy part. The route to Scorpius' private chambers was short distance from their current location. They did not encounter anyone during their rapid travel to their destination. Just as D'Argo began to remove the grating from a maintenance duct near the entrance, the door to Scorpius' room opened. D'Argo quickly ducked around the corner. He could not believe their luck: Braca left the chamber, seemingly leaving it unprotected and unlocked. This would make Chiana's part much easier and less dangerous.
As soon as Braca disappeared around the corner, the Luxan removed the grating and motioned Chiana to approach. As he helped her inside he said, "Braca has left the room and I do not think he placed security there. This will make it easier, but you will need to hurry; he could come back any microt."
Chiana smiled to him. "D'Argo, I'm always quick when it comes to snurching. Don't worry, nobody'll catch me." She gave him a peck on the cheek and made her way through the maintenance duct towards Scorpius' room.
D'Argo quickly replaced the grating to avoid detection. As he turned around he saw a Peacekeeper standing there, aiming a pulse pistol at him.