Smelling it out and spelling it out!

Chiana

"The Key Component is near....but seems to be on the move," he says softly, staring at the corpses of the PK zombies, worried.

A quick scan by tricorder by Ragan confirms that the dead bodies are dead and not faking. That would just be great to have our backs turned on the "dead" and they suddenly jump up and attack us from behind!

"I don't remember anything like this from the episode," Ragan mutters, looking a bit squeamish, waving at one of the less unsightly pile of bodies.

Oh right. She and Betty are not used to violence. Tended to cast sleep spells instead of the more lethal kind of spells. Sleep works, but you gotta admit I didn't meet to many in the Uncharted who were shy on violence!

....

Kind of refreshing, actually. That and Betty and Ragan are. . . . nice. It'd kind of be sad to see it change and she and her analog lose that shyness to violence.

....

Something isn't right about this. Yeah, over there is the Pilot, as frelled up as Betty had told us he'd be by both his traumatized, pained glazed look (by both having some of his arms having been cut off and eaten AND everything else that had happened to and around him). However, she'd not said anything like this. It is like these PK zombies tried to mob somebody armed with a pulse weapon (and something else that crisped more than a few here) and only gave up after a bit of a battle.

Either these zombies have more fighting spirit in them or they're hungrier than what they were in the Farscape episode dren Betty and Ragan remembers. Either way, it's possible trouble.

Yep, it's never easy. Besides there possibly being zombies being more hostile than expected.... See, well armed or not, there are a LOT of zombies aboard I gather. Bad enough but there was a definite possibility that one of these frekfaces was our target (and I don't wanna even think what it was like for Flagg's victim, having their mind degenerate into these blighters after he'd transformed them or whatever). That had been one of the hallmarks of the Key Component victims. They get transformed and the Key Component to the Dark Tower locks it in permanent like AND since this Demon named Flagg has a grudge against ALL Frederigo D'Honaires and Astra Thessamers for some reason (according to the Rules and Agents back at the beginning of this mess).

Well, at least whoever (or whatever) has the Key Component within them, they're still alive and well. If they'd kicked it, then we'd have already failed before we could very well start.

Even in this form, I can at least smell that Crichton had been here.

.....

Now I have a better understanding on what it's like for D'Argo when he has to go and track down John after yet another....

Nevermind.

I can smell where Crichton had been and sort of the way he went off, but I also smell a rather familiar scent of female Nebari, what I had smell like before becoming a Dragoness. After meeting my own analogs, I recognize now what D'Argo must have smelt from me. Not too unpleasant at all, really, compared to Crichton's scent, but..... I smell two scent trails....instead of ONE! That and I smell something kinda like that one pixie male named Triakoth (rather pleasent scent that one had, really). It's kinda like his, but more . . . . feminine somehow.

That's just what my nose tells me. Don't ask me how it does, but it does!

"There's no dead Twinned Chiana amongst the dead," Solik'tril reports, after snapping his tricorder closed after yet another quick scan around the Den. "Even checked for the possibility that one of the more charred customers here was Crichton. Nothing but PK zombies up here, thank goodness!

"But I did detect the remains of a Luxan male somewhere below," he adds softly, pointing down somewhere below us, in the shadows.

Dren. Why couldn't we have arrived earlier to have prevented that D'Argo's death? I mean, he's kind of NOT D'Argo, but a clone. Then again, from the way that both Betty and Ragan jumped on me for dismissing the Twinned D'Argo (and Twinned Chiana) as not being real..... Well, they're as real as the original from the way both humans put it, though it was kinda....

I mean, it wouldn't be like me meeting an analog sister. More like something that might scare me grotless, really. It's just something, way back as a kid that I'd had nightmares of and.... Well, it's kinda hard to explain but the thought of being cloned like that kinda scared me. My television avatar sure had been when she saw her twin (and vice versa).

"They went this way and....." I begin, sniffing softly, following the trail for a few seconds only to stop. The scent just . . . . stops like they'd been swept out of existence! Or . . . . somehow their scent trail had been cloaked somehow! "It's gone. Their scent just fades out of existence!"

I look over at Ragan, who just looks back.

“In that TV show thing of yours was there a female pixie involved?” I ask her. “Something that wasn’t overly important in the show that might be important now?”

Sigin

“Say what?” my long time human student blinks. “Hell no. While Farscape was more science fantasy than science fiction, yeah, it never actually had fantasy races in it. Or at least nothing like that in ANY episode!”

Well, while I and the others trust both Betty’s and Ragan’s TV knowledge and trust them to provide the pertinent information we’d usually want to know about (Jool’s screaming had only been an annoying exception to the rule), something is definitely odd here. It could be just this Author’s (Crossroads Man‘s) mucking things up and knocking it all afoul from what Betty and Ragan know things to have been scripted (as it were), but maybe something previously unimportant might have proven important now, if you follow me. Turns out from what Ragan just said to not be the case, so the smell of pixie (as fleeting as it is) must mean it’s an entirely new alien element, probably thrown into the mix either by the Author on a whim OR by Flagg (for whatever reason that Infernal would bother to do that).

I and the others just have to wonder, because right at the moment there are no answers to be had! If I was better at the school of necromancy (no head for it at all, us Dragon Mages have) I....

No, I forget. These human (or rather Sebacian) corpses about cannot tell me anything beyond what an animal could! Seems that somehow after getting Twinned two dozen times or so that happens, according to Ragan.

....

Despite the horrid creations this Twinnings eventually creates, I would love to have a look at that device that does this Twinning. Just call it . . . . professional curiosity. I know a few spells that can create duplicate non-living items, to an extent, but this.....!

Do like this science stuff.... Sometimes it’s even more fascinating than magic, rather.

No, nobody and nothing to tell us what happened . . . . and we cannot easily track Crichton and friends down inside this huge Living Ship. Tricorder range is rather blunted due to the ship surrounding us IS a living, breathing (as it were ) entity. Nothing.

....

Nothing, except our somewhat catatonic Pilot here who’s missing an arm or three....! He’d been here the entire time and maybe could perhaps tell us a few things (like perhaps if this mystery pixie somehow was responsible for our human’s and two Nebari lady’s missing scent trails)?

Might be able to detect it if I go full dragon, but I somehow doubt it. Besides, didn’t Ragan say that the Pilot here had been through Hell? Very stressed out, as it stands! Even if he’s never seen one before, I’m sure I’d put him in the grave if I did that in front of him!

“Pilot,” I say softly, approaching the dazed looking chap in question. “A word with you if you please?”

Pilot. The name of the species and the name of each and every individual who EVER bonds with a Leviathan. Must say that there is a stunning lack of originality, there.

But as luck would have it, he starts to softly scream as I first start approaching him, only to get louder and louder as I get nearer to him.

Backing off quickly, I look in consternation at Ragan, who just looks a bit sad as she sighs and looks back at the now shivering Pilot.

“Seems that he’s more traumatized than I gave credit,” I say softly, a bit embarrassed for having misread the situation. “Still, there’s ways around that, if only for a bit.”

I begin to softly sing one of the more gentle calming spells I know of, which should....

Oh dear, I'd made some educated guesses over the mental tranqualizing spell after getting a rundown on what spells Betty and Ragan had used on Moya's Pilot, but I think I overdid it here. I hadn't killed him, but I hadn't meant to leaving him in quiet this state.

1. He's smiling daffily, and a bit of drool is coming out from the side of his mouth!

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