Do not take Anything for Granted!

And it's Sovay who stumbles across it when she takes a quick reading with her Detector wand...

Sovay

We'd known from the start in this leg of the Quest that things not only could be different from the reality we'd just visited earlier, it would be different. Being that this business (which smacks something like that one Gungligner's strange ideas of fate, call it Ka seems to center around Crichton and those aboard Moya repeatedly, we felt that the difference would soon show itself somewhere on Moya (or with someone aboard Moya). Crichton himself had muttered that's just the way his life works, you know.

Well, whether or not that is going to be true after this Quest is done in the end will something he shall have to handle on his own. Right now, I am frankly more concerned with the here and now, thanks!

....

Sigh, I do so VERY much want to get this part of it over and done with! And being that this . . . .

"OH shut up!" I finally mutter, casting a spell at the still belligerent entity known as Pilot.

It would appear that unlike the analog I'd met back in Season 3 Crichton's reality, this one was had an attitude problem in addition to the disposition of a harassed bookkeeper! Entirely too rude for my tastes.

Entirely too rude and what had happened to Moya here was entirely HIS (not OUR) fault.

....

No, let's first start off where things started to diverge from what had happened before on that other variant Moya. Wasn't Crais who had the Key Component within him (though he'd proved to be under a spell just like the resident Crichton, both playing out parts that Flagg or whatever had set down for them). This time it was Aeryn Sun who had it inside. At a guess I believe that as a prisoner of the Peace Keepers, she'd be safe enough until they got around to putting her on trial for desertion and whatever. Long enough time for Flagg, I'm sure, to have come back sometime and collected.

As before, I and the others down in the Maintenance Bay ambush both Zhaan and Sun and I again cast the illusion of the two women. Chose them to make those absurd faces to, for the moment, put their would be captors off guard and out of sorts. Besides . . . . Warner Brother cartoons appeal to my sense of the absurd!

....

Anyway, things go pretty much as they could go. My friends who'd gone up to Control to make sure nobody died needlessly step in to prevent deaths when it becomes otherwise unavoidable (i.e. casting spells here and there to knock all but Crichton and Crais out at the end). Knock both of those people out when they come out of their trances, even though I think that we're being overly cautious. Surely this Hex isn't as delicate as the other's fear, the booby trap so hair triggered as the others think it is. Then again, don't want innocent blood on my hands so caution is the word of the day.

The real tripping point is Pilot, who insists on doing things his own way despite my attempts at persuasion. Oh, he agees readily enough to fly his Moya into the wormhole to get away. Only way he sees any hope of escape. However, he take the time to turn the Leviathan, which in turn gives the PK forces time to drill Moya with more shots than what they'd otherwise manage if Pilot here would have just thrown Moya into reverse (like I'd told him).

Then the shell headed . . .

....

Hrmph, then he has the nerve to complain about the damage done to Moya, saying basically it was my and my friends fault . . .

That's why he's asleep now. Cannot tolerate fools.

Besides, if he's this balky at following simple instructions, how will he do flying Moya the way Crichton (or the Doctor) need him to fly to get them all to the only safe place we know of? If Moya had gotten a few more Frag Cannon shots, we'd have to risk flying her to that one ice planet where supposedly this realities version of that Healer we'd dealt with earlier lairs (re: 42641). With the luck that Crichton is reputed to have, we'd surely run into Scorpius (or this reality's version of him). Thanks but no....

So, we manually fly Moya to Earth where she'll heal (and the natives will be left with scratching their heads). Again we shall leave a note, explaining the basics of what's going on here (underneath a silver bullet, ala The Lone Ranger, something that Crichton will recognize I'm sure especially when the bullet will start to play the theme song from that show when someone touches it). Again we'll dump the PK boarders in this reality's Gammak Base (this time just dumping Crais with his goons instead of the Aurora chair). Do it this way in order to avoid as many entangling questions as possible. I can live with that. Once we are done with the Key component carriers, they're going back to where they need to go, no doubt so don't worry!

Sometimes diplomacy is nice. Sometimes a more direct, swift approach is called for and BOY is it called for here. At least we'd managed to save a few lives and such!

1. We go .back into the wormhole to make plans and plots. Believe it or not, this next job will perhaps be even MORE difficult than the last! Yes, next stop the PK John universe!...

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