Space Station Gammak Base, corridors

The bioloid Scorpius made his way through the maze of corridors quickly. He had changed his route and was now following the same one as his real counterpart. Shortly after exiting the Marauder, he had come to the unwelcome realization that his real counterpart was on a route that might put him in the path of the escaping crew of Moya.

A number of factors had enabled him to find and unlock the wormhole secrets which had apparently been copied to the bioloid John. The John personality inside Sikozu had also carried that information but it was unlikely it had even realized he had been able to obtain the wormhole knowledge through this link. That was an unexpected side-effect, especially since the bioloid John was not aware of the knowledge at all. But he had soon realized he would not be able to use this knowledge at all. To use it required precise control of where and when the wormhole ends would open up; control that was apparently embedded into the real human's entire being.

As soon as that realization had hit, he had changed his course to pursue his real counterpart and began to wipe the wormhole knowledge from his memory banks. Leaving it there could possibly lead to his counterpart finding it later. He increased his speed again, hoping to find him and the crew of Moya in time to help them out.

Space Station Gammak Base, storage room

Scorpius looked at the group standing before him. They had once again managed to liberate one of their crew and thwart all security precautions. "Braca," he said into the comms, "please send a number of guards to the storage room adjacent to the computer room. I have come across some uninvited guests."

D'Argo noticed the Kalish standing close to the real Scorpius. "You betrayed us," he snarled at her. "I thought you could be trusted."

Sikozu could only shake her head. All this time she had desperately wanted to betray them but was unable to do so; being accused of doing just that actually hurt her a little. It was their own fault they were caught and yet they dared to accuse her of being the cause of their situation. She was shook from her thoughts when Scorpius' hand closed around her throat.

"You knew this was going on?" Scorpius growled, his Scarran half gaining control. "Why did you not tell me?"

Sikozu was now physically unable to speak, with Scorpius' grip on her throat. Scorpius once again returned to his cultured voice, suppressing his Scarran heritage.

"My dear Sikozu, you have reprogrammed my two bioloids, have you not?" Still not able to speak she just nodded as much was possible.

Without losing his grip Scorpius turned around to look at the group. His eye fell on the human in the Luxan's arms. His vision confirmed this was indeed the real human and not the bioloid copy. He then remembered Braca had said the human was still in the computer room. Had they managed to rescue him from under that incompetent man's nose?

"Braca," Scorpius asked into the comms, "what is the status of the human?"

"Sir," his flunky replied, "the med techs have completed to reconnect him to the computer just a microt ago."

Reconnected him? Either Braca was lying or they had switched the real human for the bioloid copy. But why would they have done that? As a diversion from the actual rescue attempt perhaps. But if the bioloid was reprogrammed, he might also be left there to wipe out the wormhole data.

"No!" Scorpius yelled. "Disconnect him at once! Severe every connection to the computer! Use a pulse pistol if you have to, but disconnect him, quickly!"

"Yes sir," Braca replied. Before the comms closed a pulse pistol could be heard firing.

He turned to Sikozu again. "If the wormhole data is still intact I will link you to the computer together with the human as I had initially planned to do. I am sure the two of you will quickly solve the puzzles of wormhole technology. If the data has been destroyed, you serve no real purpose and you will be deactivated. The information regarding the Kalish resistance I can obtain from your memory banks later."

"No! I will not allow it!" The bioloid Scorpius had appeared at the door and had heard the threat to Sikozu. Before he had finished his sentence he grabbed his real counterpart by the throat and thereby forcing him to let go of the Kalish female.

Sikozu fell to the ground and coughed violently. In her mind she started to realize just how dangerous this man was. She would have been a captive or been deactivated if it wasn't for the intervention of the bioloid Scorpius. She also acknowledged the fact that Scorpius was only interested in the wormhole technology and had intended to link her to the computer. She was also sure his reasons for desiring information regarding the Kalish resistance was for his own personal gain.

'Finally, she sees the light,' the human virus said in her head. 'Better late than never.'

Sikozu ignored the voice for now and crawled towards the crew. Just as she reached them a dozen Peacekeepers entered through the door, aiming pulse pistols and rifles at the group.

"Sir," Braca's voice came from the comms, "the human has been disconnected but there is severe damage to the connections. Techs say it will take an arn to repair the damages."

Scorpius was still dealing with his bioloid counterpart. They had equal strength and agility but he knew how to deactivate his counterpart. His hand unerringly found the deactivation button and pressed it.

With the bioloid copy now lying slack on top of him, Scorpius managed to roll him of him. He looked at the bioloid first, then to the crew before turning to the Peacekeepers. "Guards, place these people and this... imposter in a high security cell. At least four guards should remain to guard them. Braca", he continued in his comms, "I want those connections repaired in half an arn. See to it the techs complete the task within that time frame."

Space Station Gammak Base, high security cell

The crew was locked up in a rather big cell in an even larger room filled with half a dozen cells of different sizes. The guards that were supposed to be watching them had apparently chosen to do so outside of the prison room. John was slowly regaining his mobility and moved around the cell, Aeryn following closely behind.

"Sorry guys," he said to the crew. "I know it's my fault we all got locked up again."

"Yeah, you acted like a drannit again," Chiana said with a smile and a wink. "I thought we discussed it?"

"Yeah, Pip, but you know me. Speaking of drannits, could someone tell me what a drannit is?"

"Yeah, Crichton likes to know what he wanted to frell," Chiana laughed.

Everyone in the cell started to laugh, except John. John, realizing nobody would tell him now and that he apparently had made a fool of himself with that particular phrase, just sighed and turned around to Aeryn's smiling face. Not wanting to be the target of their joke any longer he continued to walk around the cell, if only to keep moving. Aeryn kept following him like a shadow.

"Who's Granny?" John asked her.

"Her name is Noranti," Aeryn answered, still smiling. "I do not trust her. I advise you to keep away from her, if only to avoid the smells."

"Right, and I assume Sputnik here is our resident resistance fighter? What did you call her? Sikozu?"

Sikozu overheard him and replied herself. "My name is Sikozu Svala Shanti Sugaysi Shanu and I am part of the Kalish resistance. If it was not for me, these deficients would have never accomplished obtaining your location or the deactivation and reprogramming of the bioloid copies of you and Scorpius."

"Well, Miss Britannica, I think you're kinda full of yourself. If you'd really been as smart as you think you are, you'd have stayed away from Grasshopper instead of coming with him." John was about to say something else when he noticed the Scorpius bioloid became active again. "I thought RoboScorp was deactivated?" he asked to nobody in particular. "Why is he active again?"

"I reactivated him," Sikozu answered. "You can trust him. His programming still prevents him from deceiving you."

"That answers the 'how' but I'm more interested in the 'why'," John said.

"We could use him later to switch with the real Scorpius and get us out of here," Sikozu replied. Seeing the doubtful look on his face she continued, "it was your plan. I do not think it will work either."

"What do you mean 'it was your plan'? I never talked to you about any escape plan, because I still don't have one."

Sikozu sighed, realizing she would need to explain an embarrassing situation. "During my link with the two bioloids, John's programming managed to slip through my defenses while they were focused on removing Scorpius' programming. I now have your programming inside me. This... virus is being annoying by giving me advice I do not want."

"Wait, wait, you got a Harvey?" John asked while a grin started to form. "Oh, this is good! So, what do you call your mental partner? Please tell me you didn't pick Clarence. I hate that name."

"It suggested the same thing," Sikozu answered. "It also promised it would leave me alone once you are all free so I did not see a reason to choose a name."

The bioloid Scorpius chose that moment to interrupt. "Sikozu, you must tell him it is imperative he removes every bit of himself."

'What? Why?' John's voice sounded in her mind.

"Why?" Sikozu relayed the question, admittedly being curious herself. The real human also showed considerable interest in this request.

"During my link with you, I received a large amount of information regarding wormholes. Information that is to be kept inside John at all cost."

'I don't have wormhole knowledge. Scorpy couldn't copy that from the real me to the bioloid me.'

"The virus says he does not have that knowledge because Scorpius was unable to transfer that knowledge to the bioloid."

"That is what both Scorpius and I have assumed. It appears the Ancients have not hidden but rather encoded the information."

"So, there's a lock but you don't have the key."

"Exactly John. This was the reason the bioloid John did not seem to posses the wormhole knowledge even if it was present in his memory."

"Then how did you find out the knowledge was copied?" Aeryn asked.

"I could not tell you. That particular piece of information has been removed from my memory as a precaution. I do know I was able to obtain it because of the link between Sikozu and myself and the fact that John's programming had penetrated hers. There were other factors that led me to the information but I do not know which."

"I'm not complaining or anything, but why are you so worked up about Scorpy getting all the crap that's in my head."

"John, after I obtained the information I began to realize the full extend of wormholes and the danger they harbor. One small error could have catastrophic consequences for the entire universe. Wormholes are only safe for the Ancients and you, John. The Ancients have given you all elements required to safely harness and control the power of wormholes. It is incorporated into your very being, not just DNA and memory. I have already removed all the equations from my memory banks and it is important that it is removed from Sikozu as well."

Aeryn looked away. The whole discussion about wormholes brought back the memories of the other John and his death, also to keep wormhole tech from falling into the wrong hands. She did not want this to happen a second time and certainly not because of wormholes.

"So, I'm guessing we will have to obtain or destroy the bioloid me as well, just to make sure Grasshopper doesn't get the info from him and screws the whole universe."

"Indeed John. First, however, we must get out of this cell."

"Any ideas?" John asked him. It felt strange to work with the man instead of against him.

"I know the codes of this facility; I should be able to open the lock."

"Don't you think Scorpy will have changed the codes if he wants to keep you in here?"

"He has no reason to do so. He deactivated me and will have assumed the only means of reactivating me would be the way he is used to, which is to connect me to a bioloid control device. He would not have realized Sikozu's ability to link to me directly and a normal bioloid control device is too big to carry with you without anyone seeing it."

During his speech he had moved to the cell's door control and tapped the keyboard. A moment later the cell door opened. Scorpius immediately strode over to a well hidden compartment in the wall opposite the door to the prison room. In the compartment were a number of pulse pistols and rifles. D'Argo, Chiana, Scorpius, Aeryn and John all grabbed a weapon, effectively emptying the compartment.

"Grasshopper, do I want to know why this compartment is here?"

"Scorpius is firm believer in being prepared for any eventualities. There are other compartments as well as passageways hidden throughout the entire station. We will use one of them to get out of this prison room."

Scorpius walked back into the cell and tapped twice on a panel in the wall at the far right corner. A section of the floor popped up as a result, eliciting some gasps from the crew and Scorpius smiled inwardly. He watched as they one by one entered the darker corridor. John entered the cell just before Aeryn and closed the door after she entered the cell as well. If the guards would come in, they would find a closed cell door but no prisoners.

Scorpius waited until John and Aeryn had disappeared into the dark and hidden corridor and followed them in as the last person so he could close the hatch again. It would take some time for Scorpius to explain to the guards where the panel to open the secret doorway was located and how to use the mechanism to open it, buying them valuable time.

"Can I ask something," Chiana asked standing next to D'Argo in some kind of room where several secret corridors met from various directions. She held up her pulse pistol. "How are we going to kill fek-face with these things? And how do we even know if fek-face is the real fek-face?"

"I could tell the difference between the real Scorpius and other bioloid copies," Scorpius replied. "I do not know if we can kill him. We would have only a single opportunity and pulse pistols are nearly harmless to him, even if we would all fire simultaneously."

"I may have the solution to that problem," Sikozu said. At the curious looks she continued, "I am... genetically engineered to kill Scarrans by emitting an intense radiation that specifically destroys their heat-producing gland. The radiation should also kill Scorpius since he still possesses a heat-producing gland."

"I admit it'd be great if we can get rid of Nosferatu," John said, "but it's not a priority. Our priority is to get my robotic twin and then get the hell out of Dodge."

Space Station Gammak Base, computer room

Scorpius stood at the entrance to the computer room and observed the techs working franticly to repair the damage within the time frame he had given them. He could see there was no way to improve the efficiency of the task but that they would not meet the schedule. He motioned Braca, who stood inside the room to supervise the techs, to come to him. "Braca," Scorpius said softly when his sidekick had joined him, "the techs are granted an additional half arn to complete this. I think it would be wise not to tell them now... keep them motivated."

Braca nodded. "Yes sir." Scorpius gave a curt nod back, turned and left the techs and Braca alone. In his mind he replayed the last arn. Things were beginning to make more sense now, especially why the Kalish had been so quiet. She must have been afraid he would find out about her interfering with the two bioloids' programming. That would explain why it hadn't appeared to be a lie when she explained him why she had been quiet; she really had been nervous.

Making his way to his private chamber he continued his ponderings. There was the issue of how she exactly had achieved to get a bioloid control device aboard Moya, without either of the bioloids noticing. The control devices where not very small and could not be hidden on anyone. No, it would have been impossible for her to carry it with her to Moya without his bioloid counterpart noticing it, let alone be connected to one. Even the deactivation button would not have helped anyone as it was keyed to his DNA. So, knowing his bioloid self had not been deactivated with the button and that it would not allow to be connected to a control device, what would one be left with? A smaller, more advanced control device was a possibility. The crew had been searched thoroughly so none of them had that device with them now. Unless... could it be the Kalish had created such an advanced bioloid that it would be able to link to another bioloid and deactivate and/or reprogram it? If that was the case...

"Guards," Scorpius said into his comms more calmly than he was feeling. "Make sure the Scorpius imposter is removed from the room and transferred to the cell two tiers below." How could he not have realized that before? If they had succeeded in reactivating his counterpart, they could be well on there way off this station!

"Sir," the reply came through the comms a moment later, "the prisoners have escaped."

Scorpius growled. "How is that possible? I ordered you to stand guard, did I not?"

"Sir," the same Peacekeeper replied, "we thought we could wait outside the prison room. They could not have left that room without anyone of us noticing. There were four guards at the entrance at all times."

"Yet, they seem to have escaped," Scorpius replied. Then he remembered the precautions he had taken should he end up in one of the cells. The bioloid was fully instructed on these precautions. "Enter the cell the prisoners were in and go to the far right corner." Scorpius waited for the guard to notify him he was in place. "At the wall, just a dench above the floor and two denches away from the bars is a small panel, less than half a dench in width and height. Tap it twice and a section of the floor will pop up, revealing a secret corridor. Follow this corridor until you reach a room. Take the fourth corridor from the left on the opposite wall from where you entered. Send a secondary team to the docking bay. I assume I will not have to tell you the human must be captured alive?"

"Understood sir."

Scorpius growled a second time. He turned again and quickly made his way to the docking bay.

Space Station Gammak Base, secret corridor

The crew made there way through the corridors, following the bioloid Scorpius' directions until they reached what appeared to be a dead end. Scorpius made his way to the front and again tapped twice on a well hidden panel. The wall opened up and the crew quietly entered the room, all realizing they were now in the open again.

Their surroundings were unfamiliar to them, except for Scorpius. He saw the questioning looks on their faces. "This is the main storage room where all confiscated property is kept. This would mean all your property should be here as well and quite possibly the bioloid John." Scorpius scanned the room's many boxes and crates and walked to the crate with a label indicating it contained property confiscated today. John and Aeryn were the first to join him as he opened the crate.

"Winona!" John exclaimed upon seeing his favorite pulse pistol. "Oh baby, daddy has missed you so much!" He tossed the pulse pistol he currently carried away and holstered his girl. Realizing that leaving a loaded pulse pistol was both a waste of good chakan oil as well as giving the Peacekeepers another gun to point at him he grabbed the other pistol again and stuck it in the waist band of his leathers.

Aeryn reacquainted herself with her knife, grabbed a second pulse pistol and also stuck it in her waist band. To her surprise the neural interface was also among the contents of the crate. Grabbing it she asked Scorpius, "why did Scorpius not take this back?"

"I doubt Scorpius has had time to look over your possessions and he will not have noticed his neural interface is missing. The guards who confiscated all of this will not have realized what the device was and just stored it here. Do not bother taking it with you; he can have a new one made for him in less than two arns."

"Yes, but maybe we can use it in another situation." Aeryn stuck the interface in her pocket.

Chiana in the mean time had grabbed her smaller pistol, D'Argo got his Qualta Blade and Rygel seated himself on his thronesled, glad he wouldn't have to crawl again.

Scorpius, Noranti and Sikozu had had no possessions and waited for the crew to get theirs back.

"Any idea where my robotic twin might be?"

"He should be in this room," Scorpius replied. He looked around carefully but it wasn't until he scanned the room a third time that he noticed it seemed smaller than it should be. He strode to the far wall and studied it closely. After a few microts he found what appeared to be the same kind of panel used for the secret door mechanism. He tapped it twice and stepped back slightly when the entire wall rose up, revealing a smaller section with perhaps a dozen Scorpius bioloids. Amongst them was also the John bioloid.

"So this is where he stores us," Scorpius said more to himself than anything else. "My dear Sikozu," he continued as he turned around to her, "can you link to the human bioloid and erase all his memories?"

"Yes, but we need to separate him from the other bioloids. When so many of them are so close it becomes difficult for me to locate the right bioloid."

Scorpius picked up the human bioloid and moved him to the center of the room. While Sikozu began her task John had formulated a plan in his head.

"Scorp, does Grasshopper depend much on these robots?"

"Yes John. He uses them on many occasions considered dangerous or when he has to deal with something in one location when another... problem has to be taken care of in another location."

"So, if we destroy him, he's going to need time to build new ones, correct?"

"Yes, but I must warn you that these bioloids will emit a warning signal when they are disconnected from the control device as well as when you try to destroy them or the device. Even Sikozu should not link to them as the device will detect the secondary link."

"I see," John said in apparent thought while his thumb found his way to his lower lip.

"Oh, for the love of Cholak," Aeryn muttered. All the signs indicating one of her human's fahrbot and dangerous plans forming were present. "John," she asked out loud, "what fahrbot plan are you thinking about now?"

John turned his head to her and grinned. She could read him like a book and he reveled in that knowledge. He turned his head to Scorpius. "What would be the best way to destroy them all at once?"

Scorpius pondered the question momentarily. "The control device could be instructed to initiate a self destruct sequence on all the bioloids. The self destruct will take less than two microts to be completed but programming the device will also warn Scorpius."

"Hence he will come here and we can get rid of him. That is, if Sputnik is sure she wants to try it." John looked straight in her green eyes. "Are you sure you want to take that risk?"

Sikozu nodded. "Yes. He is a dangerous man and while I admire his commitment in fighting the Scarrans, I do not approve of his cruel ways or the possible destruction of the universe."

"Right, so how do we do this? Anything special you need?"

"I require two microts for the radiation to become potent. You must not look upon me at that moment." She looked at the bioloid Scorpius. "Especially you." She looked back to the human. "Once the radiation has stopped I will appear unconscious for a quarter arn at minimum, at most a half arn. Someone will have to carry me out."

"My dear, I will personally carry you to freedom," Scorpius said softly as he caressed her cheek with one hand and looked into her eyes.

"Wait a minute," John said, "is this radiation thing dangerous to us?"

"No, but if you look at it you might go blind. Depending on the amount of exposure this could be permanent. For Scorpius it will be dangerous. Even if he is a bioloid, he still shares the exact same genetic and biological make up."

"Right. I propose Xerox-Scorpy is going on the look out while Miss Britannica deals with the robots here. RoboScorp can than see whether or not the real Skeletor shows up, warn Sputnik so she can power up her internal ray-gun while the rest of us hides away behind the crates here. It's a simple plan and there's no chance of it getting screwed up, so prepare for trouble."

'Hey Sputnik, I think it's time I move out. Should something go wrong and you do get captured, Scorpy-Sue will not get the wormhole data.'

'I am sorry I did not listen to you from the beginning.'

'It's okay; you had no reason to do so. Go do your stuff and once you're out of here kick some Scarran ass for me. I'm sure Moya's crew here will help you as much as possible.'

'Thank you. For what it is worth, though you can be incomprehensible at times, you, John Crichton, are not as deficient as I claimed. How much time do you think you require to remove yourself completely?'

'I already removed a large portion of my memory, only the memories of the last two arns are present. In about 30 microts I will be gone completely.'

"Sikozu, is everything alright?" Scorpius looked worriedly at the Kalish girl.

Upon hearing his voice, Sikozu snapped back to reality. "Yes, I am alright. The human virus is nearly complete in removing himself from my systems. He was saying goodbye."

"So now I'm the only one with a mental companion again. Although, now I think about it, I haven't seen or heard from him since this whole fiasco started."

"No John, but I can guarantee you will hear from him soon. After you successfully blew up the Command Carrier, Scorpius realized you must have had the neural clone because you were able to lie to him without showing so in your energy signature. To avoid your clone to interfere again, he has been reprogrammed to be loyal to Scorpius. He will make an appearance as soon as Scorpius' life is in danger."

"Oh great, Harvey 2.0. So what, he'll pop up any second now, seeing we are planning on killing Scorpy?"

"Possibly. Do not worry, there is no chip implanted, so his control over you is very limited. You are still stronger than him. But he will persist and try to... convince you Scorpius should be saved. You must try to ignore him."

D'Argo started to feel restless. They were still in enemy territory but for some fahrbot reason they all insisted on talking, even though he had learned the importance of discussing a battle plan before taking action. "I think we should talk less and start the attack."

John chuckled at that. "Yeah, D, I think you're right."

Space Station Gammak Base, docking bay

Scorpius waited impatiently in the docking bay near the secret hatch the first team should emerge from. Scorpius had explained to the team inside where the panel to open the door from the inside was located. The secondary team had searched the docking bay but could not find any evidence the crew had been there. There were no vessels missing and the docking bay supervisor was certain no unknown vessel had arrived or left during the six arns of his shift.

The first security team should appear soon, either with or without the Moya crew. If they'd emerge without the Moya crew Scorpius was certain they were still on the base. The secret corridors would only lead to his private chamber, a storage room, the other prison cells and rooms, this docking bay and the secret hatch below his Marauder. The secondary docking bay could not be reached, his Marauder was still in its place, and the access panel of the secret corridor to his private chamber had an alert on it to warn him should someone try to enter there.

Scorpius was shook from his reverie when the wall slid sideways and the first security team emerged. "Sir, we have not found the prisoners," the team leader said as he saluted Scorpius.

Scorpius gave a curt nod back to acknowledge the salute. In his mind he went over the most logical location the crew could have gone to. It was highly unlikely they'd go to the storage room although his bioloid counterpart would be aware that is were they had stored all of the crew's weapons and other property. But the route to the nearest alternate nexus of secret corridors would be too long for them to travel undetected as well as increase their chance of detection.

So that left one of the other prison rooms. Most were unused and could be freely entered and exited without the risk of being noticed. And it had a much shorter route to an alternate nexus of secret corridors from one particular prison room, with corridors leading to the secondary docking bay.

"They will have gone to prison room four on this tier," he informed the security teams. "From there they could easily make their way to the secondary docking bay. I want one team at the docking bay and one team will go with me to the prison room."

After the two team leaders affirmed the orders they split up. Scorpius and his team were near the prison room when the data pad in his pocket warned him there was something wrong with the bioloids. He pulled out the device to see what the problem was exactly. There had been various false alarms since he had added the human bioloid to the bioloid control device. The system was not designed for any other bioloid than his.

To his shock the device informed him the control device was being reprogrammed to initiate a self destruct on all his bioloids. A further inquiry showed the human bioloid was disconnected. Could it be the human bioloid had not been deactivated as he had thought? Had it managed to reprogram the bioloid control device to initiate the self destruct? "Guards, continue to the prison room. If the crew is not in the room, continue in the corridor until you reach the next side corridor on your right. On the right side of the wall just before the corridor near the floor will be another panel. Tap it twice and a section of the wall will slide away. Follow the secret corridor until you reach a large room. Take the second corridor on your right. It will lead to the secondary docking bay."

Scorpius turned around and quickly made his way to the storage room. It was unlikely he would be able to prevent the destruction of his bioloids, but he wanted to preserve the human bioloid if at all possible. It could only aid him in his quest to bring down the real human should he escape.

Space Station Gammak Base, main storage room

Sikozu disconnected her link from the bioloid control device. It was wholly inadequate if it would have needed to control her. In fact, it seemed it was barely able to support any bioloid other than Scorpius. It made her wonder how someone barely able to build a control device had managed to create a bioloid that nearly succeeded in invading her programming. Actually, it had succeeded if you counted the human bioloid. She looked at it and a thought occurred to her. "Would Scorpius not use the human bioloid to learn more about Crichton?"

Scorpius, from his position to look out for the real Scorpius, turned his head momentarily to her before turning back. "Quite so I presume."

"Should we take him with us or destroy him as well?" Sikozu asked.

John looked at his bioloid and sighed. "I hate to say this, but it would be best to destroy him. If we have to take him with us, two people would be carrying someone and seriously be hampered if we ran into any Peacekeepers on our way out."

"Agreed," D'Argo said, with a hint of sadness.

"Right, do it," Aeryn said to Sikozu before she turned her head. She had no desire to see John Crichton die and she focused her gaze on the real man.

Sikozu nodded and linked with the human bioloid again. She had already detected a device had been implanted when she had first linked to the human. The device would release a substance that would completely disintegrate him in a matter of microts.

Now that was odd. The bioloid seemed completely devoid of any programming and memory. Had Scorpius decided not to take any chance and completely disabled him?

She gave a mental shrug, activated the device and disconnected again. She watched as the bioloid seemed to collapse in on itself before the skin started to disappear. Two microts later the human bioloid was completely gone.

"He is coming. He has not detected me," Scorpius said as he moved and ducked behind a crate that would add some protection from whatever Sikozu was going to do.

The rest of the crew took up defensive positions in order to distract the Scarran half-breed should Sikozu not be ready when he entered. Sikozu moved to the center of the room and helds out her arms to the sides. Slowly she started to rise up in the air, a rose colored glow emanating from her. The glow started to become more intense and shot out from her body just as Scorpius entered the room and the crew ducked behind their chosen shields.

Scorpius stands motionless near the entrance, unable to breathe or move. Smoke starts to rise from his cooling chamber before it pops out of his head. He starts to gag and cry out before finally collapsing on the floor. Sikozu continues to emanate the radiation for another five microts before it stops and she too collapses.

John approaches the fallen man with Aeryn right beside him. "Down and out for the count." He turns his head to Sikozu and the bioloid Scorpius who had made his way to her in record time. "How's Sputnik?"

"She is still breathing. She will be alright." He picks her up carefully. "I suggest we leave now." He walked over to the hidden corridor they used to get here, with the crew following him.

John noticed they walked right back to where they had come from but he knew enough about the bioloid Scorpius to realize he would never jeopardize the woman he held in his arms and followed him without asking anything. When they came to the secret room with its many corridors he noted Scorpius was now taking another corridor and not the one leading back to their prison.

After they had walked some distance, Scorpius stopped.

"What's up Grasshopper?"

"I think Scorpius might have posted some guards where we are going. I do not know of another way out though; at least not one with such a low chance of detection."

"Would this help?" John held up a comms badge. "I grabbed it from Scorpy before we left. You could use it to draw the Peacekeepers away. Have them all go to the storage room where Scorpy is now."

"Good thinking John." He carefully placed Sikozu on the floor with her back against a wall and accepted the comms badge John held out to him. "This is Scorpius. I want all security teams to converge on the main storage room. I have located the prisoners and entrapped them."

He handed the comms badge back to John, picked up the Kalish again and resumed his walk to the end of the corridor. D'Argo moved from behind him and tapped the panel Scorpius indicated twice, holding his Qualta Blade at the ready as the wall slid open.

"Clear," he said softly after checking in all directions for possible threats and not finding any. He walked further into the room, while the others emerged as well. Scorpius indicated the door and D'Argo walked to it and once again checked if the coast was clear. Seeing nobody in the corridor he motioned for the others to follow.

Scorpius whispered, "to the left Ka D'Argo, until we reach the corridor on the right. On the right wall just before that corridor near the floor is another panel."

D'Argo nodded and strode ahead. When he reached the first corridor on the right he quickly scanned for the panel. At that moment the ship wide comms activated.

"Hey Scorpy, remember you were told you shouldn't mess with wormhole tech? Well, guess what. I'm goin' to make sure you won't. I've entered the computer system and managed to initiate a self destruct on the computer core."

The Moya crew, as well as Scorpius looked surprised at John. "Don't look at me! I've got nothin' to do with this."

"Oh," John's voice continued through the intercom, "did I mention that the destruction of the core will also shutdown all major systems on this piece of space junk? After the core will self destruct, which by the way will be inexactly fifty microts, this floating hunk of metal will be without life support and docking controls. I'm guessing you'll have about a half arn or so after that before this station will be unable to support any breathing being."

D'Argo in the mean time had managed to find the panel and tapped it twice to open the secret door. Just before John entered, Braca's voice came through the ship wide comms. "All security personnel converge on the computer room. I want all corridors leading from or to that room guarded. One team will enter the computer room and secure it. A tech team will also enter the tech room and prevent the destruction."

"You know," John said as the door closed behind him, "I completely forgot about that wormhole stuff. I don't know how this is all possible but if he indeed manages to wipe that data and incapacitate this piece of metal we're very lucky."

"Indeed John," Scorpius replied. "Even more lucky, now that all security personnel will have vacated the secondary docking bay. We should now have a safe route to Ka D'Argo's ship. Turn to the right at the next intersection, Ka D'Argo."

After a few more turns through the maze of hidden corridors, they finally reached the door leading to the secondary docking bay. Like the previous time, D'Argo tapped the panel to open the door and held his Qualta Blade at the ready. Surveying the bay indicated it was completely vacated. The crew followed D'Argo who said something in Luxan into his comms. Lo'La appeared, lowered the boarding ramp and powered up.

"Grasshopper," the intercom suddenly came online. "Been nice working against ya! Three... two... one... boo--" The intercom remained silent for about two microts. "Attention all personnel. Evacuation procedures have now commenced. Please --" the remainder of the messages was lost as Lo'La closed the hatch and lifted off the deck and sped out of the docking bay into open space.

arns later, Moya, Center Chamber

"That explains why I could no longer detect his programming just before I initiated the self destruct," Sikozu said, with her hand in that of Scorpius. "I had assumed the real Scorpius had not desired to take a chance on him interfering but now I realize it might have been caused by the sudden disconnection, much like what would have happened if we had disconnected Crichton while he was still interacting in the virtual environment. Or perhaps he transferred himself to gain more control."

"Whether he deliberately moved to the computer core or not, he saved our asses and got rid of the data," John said with his arm draped casually over Aeryn's shoulder, who sat right next to him. Her hand was lying on his thigh, every now and then gently squeezing it.

"John, did the mental clone try to persuade you to save Scorpius?" Scorpius asked him.

John sighed "Yeah. He's still at it but so far I've been able to suppress him."

"Maybe I can help you get rid of him," Sikozu said. "The neural interface that was used to link with the computer can be easily transformed so it can be used to purge the neural clone without harming you."

"How long would it take you to alter the device?" Aeryn asked. With her hand now moving along his thigh he started to have trouble focusing on the discussion.

"Not so long, perhaps two arns if I can find the necessary parts. I will make an inventory tomorrow and work on the transformation. If I need additional parts I will let you know."

"Well, I don't know about you guys but I'd like to go to bed right now," Chiana said after casting a short look and wink at D'Argo.

Aeryn had caught it and smiled. "I think John would enjoy the benefits of a bed as well." At John questioning look she continued, "you may even need someone to... tick you in."

John chuckled. "It's 'tuck' someone in, Aer. But yeah, I think I need that... a lot." Damn, her hand had traveled real close to his crotch. Was it really getting hot in here?

"Frelling body breeders," Rygel grumbled as he floated out of the chamber on his thronesled.

"Sputnik, I assume you're gonna take care of Scorpius'... uhm... sleeping arrangements?" As John completed the turn of his head to face the couple he noticed they were already gone. "You think we talked too much?"

"You always talk too much John," Aeryn said with a smile. She took his hand. "Come on Erpman, time to tuck you in."

Chiana watched the two walking out of Command and sighed. She turned to D'Argo. "Isn't that frelling wonderful? It's my suggestion and we're the last to go."

D'Argo smiled at her. "And yet you insist on staying here and talk to me. Chiana, you know I am a man of action so you understand why I am going to do this." He picked her up, eliciting a squeal from her, as he carried her to his quarters.

The End