Starburst Supreme? Does that come with a side of fries?

"Greyscale" (aka "Sigin's" Chiana)

Greyscale. That's the pet name that Sigin whispers to me at night when we snuggle up together on the Hoard. Both a play on my skin coloration in my human seeming and a reference to my new, permanent race. Dragon

Scales aren't grey, but still I'm sure you see the small play on words? Gonna go by that nickname right now out of deference to my sisters aboard this drenheap of a ship, considering all they've gone through here so far. My, if any more "me"s show up here, we're going to have to rework this and start using the number system!

One Chiana. Two Chiana. Three Chiana, Four!

.....

Whatever, not important right now. Though that little ditty that I kinda picked up from one of the elves is kinda catchy and fits....

....

What is important is what's going on here and now. Have already talked with my mate and my friends back up in the Den and decided, for the time being to take things slowly and calmly. Somewhere, though, I got elected as spokesperson for the Champions. Of all of us, I have a leg up on the others because of the simple fact that I'm an analog of these two Nebaris before me!

Dragon or not, I and they are . . . family of a special sort. Must say that it had been hard enough to talk that little pixie into staying around as us Dragons approached. Now that we're here, she sees (as the Fey have that ability) that we somehow are LIKE her.

Courts and dren like that. Don't ask me how it all works. I myself am part of a clan called "Eternity Inc" and it kinda works that way with the Office I work for, now, for her.....kinda.

Get a feel off of her that's odd. Oh, she's not a Champion like us, but my Champion Sense (oy, do really have to hit again John sometime for that joke he said on THAT matter) tells me that she's LIKE us, but . . . . my sense tells me that she doesn't belong to any particular Office.

Weird. Kinda ups the chances that she's the object of our Quest here for the Key component. Just would love to wave the Wand at her and the others of John's group to make sure (last Wand reading vectored down at their location), but magic users kinda don't like wands pointed at them. Kind of like me waving a pulse pistol at you, see, and not expecting you to get cranked. Wands are weapons, sometimes!

"Oh God," John breaths as I feel the feeling of kinship flood through me again. "Another Chiana analog? How many are there running around here, anyway, due to that brainsucker SOB?!"

"Not . . . really," I say softly, wondering how to do this.

....

Right. Nevermind. We'd already discussed this on the way down here (in between close encounters with PK zombies). It goes against what I've learned and like, but Sigin insists it is the only way. Fey folk cannot tolerate lies and can smell one from millions of metras.....miles off!

Frell, its just not fair! Lies are the best thing I do.... But things changed. Haven't even snurched anything from my new friends. No harmless snurching. Me!

But I think you already know why. First a lot of what the other Companions have in their quarters just doesn't . . . do anything for me any more! I know, I've looked! It's just the dragoness in me! Dragons are . . .I have higher standards, now, I guess. Sheesh, compared to what I sleep on with my and Sigin's Hoard....

Well, that said I also . . . . kind of would feel. Frell, cannot believe I'm saying it. I'd feel bad if I did. That and finally where's the fun in harmless snurching if on the outset they told me everything inside the TARDIS belong to all. Even the rather large stashes that the Doctor has for "rainy days" (whatever exactly that means).

.....

Lies still are easy for me. Best thing I can still do, for most people.

Sigin....

.....

I don't have to lie to him. Don't want to lie to.....him.....

....

Chiana, wake up and keep your mind on business here and now! Daydream about Sigin later!!

Note: Yeah, Chiana has it bad. That's how it is for Dragons who've newly fallen for their mate. Live with it! :)

Well, let's just say that I, doing something I normally wouldn't do this way (not totally), manage to talk them into the plan that the Doctor had concocted on the way down. See, he says that he had been able to, by just looking, figure out in his head the way back through the wormholes to the realities that these two Leviathans came from!

.....

It's a Timelord thing. Go figure. Not going to argue with the Doctor over that, after all I'd see him be able to do. See what Timelords fly around in.

Holy Hezmanna, the TARDIS is one amazing.... I-I never even dreamed that something like her could exist and....

....

And anyway, back to what I'm talking about here. I propose that we all join forces together and get off this nightmare. I and Sigin had lucked out and gotten all the dren we both needed. We're willing to share. Only problem for them is that even IF their Pod gets out, they have no place to go without us. They're reasonable. Decide to follow along with us into that OTHER Leviathan.

Just have to take care of two things. One thing in particular will definitely take care of the other, but you know Inquirer. Well, actually it's kinda endearing, really. Understand her, even, from where she's coming from. Seen too much war... Enjoying being a civilian instead of soldier and all that dren. Hey, who am I to knock that? Having fun and all that, eh?

Myself, I'd done more than my share of killing (always in defense). Well.....

....

Never kills in cold blood, she says. Brainsucker will be given a chance before one last Starburst is commanded from Pilot's controls. The Pilot himself we're (amazingly enough, but my Sigin IS amazing) taking along with us after Sigin manages to stabilize him (and put him into magical stasis) after we separate him (with permission) from the brain dead Leviathan. Kinda a tight fit in the other's Pod. (What, you expect we put him in OUR Pod? Kinda tight as it is with the centaurs).

So, when the "brainsucker" comes back to his cell to find D'Argo gone, he gets a rather rude surprise when he hears Starburst start up!

Now, that's a problem. Starburst is a means of a Leviathan jumping out of danger (a defensive move). Kind of pushes the ship into hyperspace, causing it to pop out elsewhere away from danger. Not quiet controllable where it will come out, but you get the idea.

Problem here is besides that this Living Ship being braindead, it had a Control Collar on it's hull. It's a PK device used to keep Leviathans under control. It also makes making a safe Starburst impossible. Oh, you can Starburst with one on, but . . . it destroys the Leviathan (and all aboard) in a very BIG explosion!

And the brainsucker knows it! Ah, amazing what the right motivation will do to make your opponent do what you want 'em to do!

He comes racing into the Den and . . . .

"Who are you?" he asks, perplexed as he looks at Inquirer. "Where's the Pilot?"

Inquirer, not bothering to be polite, just casts a spell and .....

"Zzzzz," snores the brainsucker, fast asleep. Even sleeps with a few blasts from a plasma pistol flying overhead, scaring off the PK zombies who suddenly figure that their benefactor's lunch!

"I don't have time for niceties," Inquirer mutters, levitating the insane man off the floor. Right after she kills Starburst.

Brainsucker gets trussed up and magically frozen in place after his control/twinning gizmo gets forcedly removed. Needn't borrow trouble, eh? Should just leave him here to die, but . . . that's not the Champions way. No, let's drop him off at the next PK outlet from his reality and let THEM punish or cure him....whatever. Let HIM be their problem. Right now, as it is, he's just cold cargo! As for the Leviathan...

This Leviathan deserved the dignity of death and not this living death, but the Champions were holding off. Holding off until they managed to finish off this other business with the OTHER Leviathan.

Oh, and what about the pixie? Amazing what the truth will do, especially when somehow the matter of this one male pixie who looked just like her species (except for the blue, of course). How eager she was, once she saw with her Fey senses the truth (and saw it was the only way to be with her other half to make her Whole)....

Hey, it's a Faire Folk thing. Go with it. The Champions do, that's for sure. So much easier to carry her around as a block, safely tucked away from possible injury or harm and all that.

.....

Well, the first to land inside the other Leviathan is John's group. D'Argo, with his voice restored, is the first to say it. And it's probably the best.

"Why the frell is everything red?" he asks nobody in particular, looking around this wreck of a Maintenance Bay. "Why isn't anything moving? That one Pod isn't even moving. Not even hovering, but . . .but frozen in the middle of the air!?"

John, ever the scientist (and having seen something similar on this one old scifi show called (in his world) The Girl, the Watch, and Everything, kind of figures it out beforehand. Moving a discarded cup next to this oddly familiar Module, he picks it up and attempts to drop it.

"It's like Sigourney said," he says softly, staring at the cup hanging in mid air. "Times frozen in here for everyone in here except us and the others in the other Pod. The don't have time to fall or do anything else. Kinda would like to know what the red lights all about, being that realistically all light in here should be frozen in place, leaving nothing for our eyes to see with, but still...."

Jool, meanwhile, is just gawking around, not sure just what to make of everything. They knock her out. The big centaur female tells her to shut up under no uncertain terms or else! Then they drag her here to this freakshow.....

The Chianas (Pip and Chiana the non-Champions) meanwhile aren't listening. Pip is dressed in an outfit much like she'd worn back first upon coming on Moya, her old outfit changed into by the pixie in order to tell one from the other. The other, Chiana, is wearing something akin to what you'd see her wear . . . . right around the time "Eat Me" was made. Heh.

Basically, clothing is used to tell one Nebari female from the other. Hairstyle back on Terra Prime is usually the means of telling one close looking analog form another, but with Nebari hair. Well, let's just say that ya can't do much with it beyond what you'd see on TV.

"Oh frell," Pip whispers, looking into the Pod that's frozen in the process of landing. "This brings back memories, eh?"

"Yep," the other whispers, agreeing. "Quiet a few that I'd rather like to forget!"

Nari still hurt.... And before you ask, certain events took place out of order from the TV show, but . . . different but the same results, bottom line. Ditto with slight name variences. Go figure!

Whatever the case, they both can tell from a mere glance the hurt on this one. They'd seen it in their own eyes and something . . . just told them . . .

Their younger "sister" kinda hinted at she knowing about that business as well, but how would she know? It was too early....

Finally, the Champions decide to make the scene. Doesn't really matter who is the first to step onto the deck of this particular Living Ship. The result's the same, whatever the case.

One very leery, edgy Nebari female pilot is suddenly looking . . . at herself! Several mirror images. . . . of herself staring back at her in this nearly spent Pod!!

1. "Ah, it's Crichton and D'Argo and....," the deposed Hynerian begins, stopping short when he notices what 'his' Chiana is staring at!

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