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The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection. |
2780.290 Oasis -> New Light |
Katya, Mirris, and Kye wake up, as someone knocks on the window of the truck they seem to be in. It doesn't have a steering wheel, just a driving computer and a button. Mirris absorbs the background of the man knocking at the window - he's been driving the long straight roads of Oasis most of his life. He's just a truck driver. He advises them that when they need to take a little nap, it's best to pull over and not block traffic. They apologize and do so.
Suspicious of whether the others with her are her teammates or not, Katya reads Mirris's mind, and then Kye's - Kye resists. Very suspicious. Mirris asks if she can steal his background. He wants to know if he has a choice. Yes, of course he does, she claims. He finally agrees, and is verified to be Evil Kye - er, that is, the party's Dr. Kye.
Kye investigates the back of the truck. There's a stack of boxes, full of starship parts. They seem to be for delivery from a starship mechanic's supplier, and presumably going to wherever the truck will go if the button is pressed. Kye sets deathtraps in a couple of the boxes. Mirris thinks it's time to hit the button.
Katya scans the planet for Jayla, but can't contact her - maybe she's asleep. Martan is also in range, closer, but unconscious. Kye communes with the van. It sepnds most of its time at the parts depot, but it travels all around. The van is mostly associated with a guy named Zeke, but also somewhat with other people. Katya scans for "the other Dr. Kye". There he is in the truck! Whoops. Apparently distinguishing Mirror people isn't a job for Str of Psi. Katya does determine that the Mirror Kye, and the Mirror Katya, are not in the truck.
"This is not the van of solutions, this is the van of spaceship parts." - MirrisMirris thinks it's time to hit the button to have the truck go to the plot. On the other hand, perhaps they should just ditch the truck, flee through the countryside to a spaceport, and head for New Light. Katya scans for Jim. Yes, he's within range too, but distracted by driving. The group is still dressed as wedding guests, which could be difficult to explain; Mirris suggests that they look embarassed and say "We don't want to talk about it" if it comes up.
The button is finally pressed, and the truck proceeds along the road to a field, in which the Hector has landed. Hector directs them to start unloading into the cargo bay. (One box already there is labeled "Touch this and die. -Janzur".) Kye claims he obtained all the supplies, and asks for help unloading. Well, Archon Therive certainly isn't helping with manual labor.
"He's complaining about carrying things? Increase his black doasage." -JanzurKatya finally attracts Jim's attention, and sends him a picture of a bowl of petunias. (Code phrases / pictures were set up during the finale, though Katya seems to be the only one to have noticed.) Jim is mystified by the appearance of a bowl of petunias in his head, though he does eventually figure out that this is a new talent of Katya's. ("Flowers? How sweet.") She sends a picture of a map, and he notes that he's on his way back to Hector. She cuts the connection.
Katya lets everyone else know that that Jim has a black hat, which makes them a bit more worried (Evil Janzur is one thing, but Evil Jim?) The group considers again fleeing through the fields to New Light.
Hector notes that none of the android subsystems that were requested are on the cargo manifest. Kye pleads foolishness. Mirris and Kye keep unloading, losing some of their fancy dress.
"Was this a formal supply raid?" -JanzurKye takes a break from unloading, and heads into the ship, to investigate his quarters. There's lots of stuff there that he didn't get to steal as Hippocrates crew. Old antiques and the like.
"I don't want to talk about it." -Mirris "It was... odd." -Kye
The group considers fleeing once more, as they get slower and slower unloading the last of the boxes. Mirris tells Kye if something goes wrong, he has to get Katya back to the other universe. That point of responsibility sorted out, they finish with the boxes, leaving the two deathtrapped boxes as the second and third in line to be unpacked later.
Kye wonders if they should return the truck - Janzur notes that he's always worrying about things like that. The group convenes in the conference room, which is much like the Hippocrates conference room but with a sword painted on the conference table. Janzur is already there, looking bored, and Mirris absorbs his background for who they're supposed to be.
Janzur and Hector start the briefing: Sharra, Jayla, and Kith have betrayed them. They wrecked Bishop's white distribution project, and the stress test of the machine was a disaster. They also damaged the Hector android body, and took down Katerina and Bishop. Since Katerina was there, does she have anything to add?
Katerina looks sulky, and looks at Mirris, who says, "That about covers it," pretending to be mind-controlled to talk for Katya. At their last known location, the renegade crew were aboard the Invisible Razor at the Hanging Gardens.
Janzur points out that he was with Sharra; he left her at the site of the most recent disaster to see if she could find clues. Bishop was with him as well, but according to Hector, Bishop is off getting android parts. Eve and Bishop and Sophia were also together when Janzur and Sharra were working on the satellite. While Bishop did spend enough time wandering by himself that he might possibly have been doing both things, Sharra was definitely in two places at the same time.
Hector asks if Katya noticed any inconsistencies. Mirris says "nothing out of the ordinary, it was all very sudden."
Jim arrives, and makes a grand entrance, popping a Sparky Cola and then draping himself enticingly in a chair. He wants to know what's up. Janzur says there's been some imposter trouble. Jim says he'd noticed that - in fact, he found two Martans. He has them in the back of his truck.
"I thought you'd be happy to have two." -Jim, to KatyaJim is also a little puzzled by a strange psi problem he was having earlier:
"There was a strange image of a telephone in my head..."Jim has welded the back of his stolen Sparky Cola truck shut, and drugged both Martans with some of Bishop's anti-psi drugs. Janzur eyes the welded doors.
"Can you save your daydreams for not during the staff meeting?"
"Do you have any attachment to this truck?"So, as promised, there are two Martans in the truck, tied up, gagged, and quite shot. Janzur picks up one and Jim the other, and they are carried to the brig. (Katya unties Jim's shoelaces on the way, but he manages not to stumble).
"No."
"There's been some of that recently."
Both Martans claim to be the imposter, which is somewhat confusing. The plan, then, is to figure out which one the imposter is, and kill that one. Though Jim thinks killing both wouldn't be such a bad solution.
The interrogation starts with "simple mind control", by Katya (who doesn't actually have mind control, we remind our viewers). Meanwhile, Dr. Kye heads out to rescue the Sparky Cola from the truck, and Mirris grabs the mirror-Martan's background - he's not actually evil, he's extra-good. Oh dear.
Katya puts up a telepathic link to her Martan, who tells her that he and the other Martan managed to talk a little in the truck, and that the other one is good and needs to be rescued too. But Katya thinks that his claiming to be the imposter and get himself killed is no good. Both of them seem pretty stubborn, but neither can think of the right thing to pretend to be mind controlled to say without incriminating Katya as not really a mind-controller. Ahah! Inspiration! The other Martan pretends to be speaking for Katya and says that Jim's drug is interfering.
Mirris gets everyone else to clear out, to avoid extra interference; Kye starts prowling around looking at research. Jim manages to figure out that one of the Martans is trying to nobly sacrifice himself on behalf of the other. But so is the other one. Bah. He goes to hang around just outside the brig.
Katya sends a picture of "a bed and cheesy romance music" to the other Martan. He isn't entirely sure what she means by this, but leaps to some conclusions and starts taking his shirt off.
Kye finds a research lab with the Book of the Hegemon, labeled "Touch and die." Notes on it indicate that there's not actually a ritual to save the universe from the flames - there's a ritual to enslave the universal will. The Hector party's current goals are principally focused with the pacification of Oasis, though several plans have been betrayed.
Katya has her Martan take off his shirt too, for comparison purposes. Kye wanders back down to the brig, trying to decide whether to throw the Affection in, but Janzur is a little too close. In fact, Janzur has become bored with the strip show, and heads back into the brig, announcing "They're both equally annoying. Pick one."
Everyone re-converges in the brig, and Mirris secretly opens some Relaxation before wandering back out with Kye, to get him into the computer core.
Katya, mind linked to her team, announces that it's time to start the combat, and Kye starts shooting the computer core. Hector summons Janzur to the core. Jim starts shooting both of the Martans, though Mirris steers him into deciding to only shoot the one who's not on his team. Though exactly which that one is, is unclear.
A somewhat confusing combat ensues, in which nobody is quite sure who is on who's side. TK effects could be Katya, or could be Martan. Hector starts locking down doors, and then begins to suspect that Jim is the real traitor. Janzur chops Kye, and picks him up, only to discover that the door out of the computer core has been locked down. He manages to get through, and then down to the brig. One of the Martans first aids the other, and does some kicking of Jim, who isn't so impressed.
Janzur drops Kye in the brig, Jim finally gets out of being TK-grabbed, and shoots one of the Martans, knocking him down. Then he locks both Martans, Kye, and Katya (who he has begun to suspect of TK-grabbing him), in the brig.
"Sorry sweetheart, we'll sort this out later" -Jim, locking Katya in with the "bad guys"This is deemed by Hector as evidence that Jim is the real traitor, which he passes along to Katya.
One of the Martans seizes the moment to pretend to be speaking-for-Katya: "I think I've got them under control. The one talking now is the real imposter." Hector lets them out of the brig again. Martan, pretending to be Katya-controlled takes Kye towards a spare stateroom to lock in, while Janzur ambushes Jim at Hector's command. They fight briefly, until Jim convinces Janzur that he's not actually the traitor - the dangerous ones are Katya and Jessica!
The party heads for the docking bay and the Archon Shuttle, while Mirror-Martan goes to provide a distraction to keep Janzur and Jim from catching up to them. Mirris gets the shuttle bay doors most of the way open, while Kye flies the shuttle through, sideways.
"Kye, release your hostages or I will follow you to the ends of the universe." -HectorJim finally surrenders to Janzur, and they capture the other Martan, but the shuttle has escaped. Then, it's off to New Light for the rendezvous...
"At what altitude do you want me to release the hostages?" -Kye, demonstrating that he must not be the Mirror-Kye