The Sputnik is not amused

[sputnik_shanu]

I realize that I have been chosen because I am situated right on the edge of your comfort zone. Perhaps you think I will thrive in a game of this sort. But I feel I must remind you, since you do not seem to be bright enough to have picked up on this yourself, but I am not Chiana. I do not live on my back on other people's mattresses.

[Sorry, Chi, she's just mad.]

Perhaps you should rethink your choice because I do not think we are well suited to one another. Someone rather more near your level of intelligence would be more appropriate. Perhaps one of Crichton's dogs would be a better match. I hear they are very smart for non-sentient creatures.

Comments

[sputnik_shanu]

All right.

[She gets down on her knees beside him, making her now just tall enough to have proper access to his head. And for her part, she can imagine how uncomfortable this is for him, how unpleasant, and she isn't as unsympathetic as she perhaps might have been when they first met. She knows more now, has been through her own versions of hell and she does understand, on some level, what this is like for him. Having a little Scorpius in her head would certainly be a hell for her, too.]

It won't hurt. I learned a lot from Cotat when I was working at the enclave.

[Not that he has lived that time yet to remember finding her with Grunchlk and the Diagnosans. She holds up the scanner between her eyes and his skull and looks in, searching for the nodule that she thinks might be able to store a hidden memory.]

[ss_buttcrack]

I'll have to take your word for it. [Since he has no idea what she's talking about.]

[It's about now he's beginning to wonder just what the heck Harvey thinks of the whole plan. He's got no doubt that the bastard has been watching intently. He pushes that inquiry mentally to him, and there's hardly a pause in Harvey's reply.

I'm as eager to affect this change as you.

It could be that Crichton's way of thinking has changed him from his originator quite a bit more than he realized. For he feels the extermination of all the uncharted territories is not at all an acceptable outcome, even if it does accomplish the task of destroying the Scarrans. His job is to find a way to do that already, and he still maintains that he might, even with his power diminished. His true master seems to have let himself slip too far in his quest; if Harvey makes this change, perhaps that can be reversed as well.

I will give it my sincerest effort.

It's a relief for Crichton to hear.]

Harvey says he's onboard for this. So do what you have to do.

[sputnik_shanu]

[She nods, though she can't help but be painfully curious as to how exactly the neural clone communicates with him. She knows better than to ask, though, and instead continues her scan of his brain.

There is part of her that wants to comfort him, too, but it was never something she was especially good at. And the notion is almost hilarious, her a dead Kalish fighting for millions of other dead Kalish on the battlefield of a human brain, a war she is by no means certain she can win, and he a man out of time, an obsessive, myopic human who still somehow engendered sympathy in a heart as broken as hers. But she thinks better than to make any attempt at comfort, as well. She doubted how constructive it would be, in any case.

The chip itself had been removed, but she knew for a fact that there was something still in there. Scorpius had known the moment that Crichton and Aeryn had been reconstituted because of it, so all she had to do was find it...]

There!

[She can't help a little excited smile when it finally reveals itself to her scanner. Still holding that instrument in one hand, she produces another from her holster, and this one definitely looks sharper and more dangerous, though she has no plans to actually cut anything. She softens her voice, tries to make it kind while also carrying the warning.]

Please, hold yourself as still as you can.

[ss_buttcrack]

[If she asked how he and Harvey talked, he would have told her. He was letting her do a scan of his brain right now, he was past hiding things about the situation at this point. For now though, she'd have to take his word for it.]

Taking that as a good sign?

[Besides, he feels a lot less chatty when he sees her taking out that very sharp looking tool. Oh, he is so familiar with this game. 'Hold still.' Those words have such uncomfortable familiarity. What was it Scorpius said? Something about holding still or he would be paralyzed? He didn't plan on moving, though his palms were were getting slick with sweat.]

Just...don't screw anything up.

[sputnik_shanu]

[Perhaps the largest reason why she ventured nothing with him right now was not the critical nature of the procedure, all the lives that could be brought back from the brink if they succeed, but rather because she knows that he's never had any particular fondness for her, and up until the last few months in her own timeline, he never really trusted her either. She doubts that he fully trusts her even now, but because it is in his nature to put himself on the line for everyone else he is allowing her this.]

Very good.

[In the end, it doesn't really matter. She can't waste energy now trying to prove her loyalties. If the timeline doesn't change, he will see them for himself when she boards a Prowler and flies out alone in the middle of a battle.]

I will take every care, Crichton.

[She keeps her voice soft still. She can't blame him for his concern and snapping at him won't do either one of them any good. Bringing up the sharper tool, she holds it above the scanner.]

You might feel a slight pinching sensation.

[The spikes on the front of the tool light up when she turns it on, and they direct a focused surgical laser through the bone of his skull and onto the nodule she's located.]

[ss_buttcrack]

I know you will. You hurt me, you hurt your chances of this working.

[No, he doesn't trust her. He's learned a lesson in trust from the school of hard knocks.]

Let's just get this over with.

[He feels the pinching, just like she warns. He grits his teeth together, and breathes heavy out of his nose, but he doesn't flinch even a little.]

How long do you reckon this will take?

[sputnik_shanu]

[She doesn't take offense. Really, she hasn't got much ground to stand on with him in that regard, and she knows it. She doesn't begrudge him him a stab at his perception of her lack of compassion. He has seen some of the worst the galaxy has to offer. The fact that she has, too, doesn't really cross her mind.]

Not very long.

[She manipulates the laser with precision. If she's honest, she's never seen this exact procedure done before because, frankly, Crichton is the only person she's ever heard of to be in a position remotely like this. But all the theories, all the knowledge is there.]

Can the neural clone hear me if I speak, or must you relay information?

[ss_buttcrack]

[It would not be comforting for him to know she's going on nothing but theories here, not that he's in a position to argue now. But, he still remembers How well her so called expertise of Leviathans had served them.]

He can hear, he can see, he can feel, so you should go ahead and assume he knows everything I do at all times.

[sputnik_shanu]

[She was naive then, still practically a child. She's been through a crucible since and she's no longer fool enough to believe that everything will go exactly as she's read, or even exactly as she imagines. The real world is dirtier, harsher, and more complicated than she'd ever known then, despite her indoctrination and her intelligence.]

All right.

[A moment more of manipulation, and the laser gets turned off. Sikozu replaces it and produces another tool, this one with a rounded edge and a spherical center piece that looks like a clear glass marble.]

Does he have knowledge of the relative positions of planets within Peacekeeper territory?

[ss_buttcrack]

Does Scorpius? Excluding the last three years, he knows everything Scorpius does. Something tells me that's a yes.

[sputnik_shanu]

Good. It will save time not having to enter coordinates.

[She stares down the scanner for a moment more and the spherical tool makes a whirring noise but should cause nothing but a mild sense of disorientation.]

How should I address him? If I may.

[ss_buttcrack]

[He closes his eyes and rides out the sudden dizziness. What did she just do?]

Just call him Harvey. That's what I call him. You don't have to do it respectfully either.

[sputnik_shanu]

Harvey.

[She doesn't question it. She's well beyond questioning the nicknames that Crichton gives to things, herself included. The whirring tool disappears again and the sharp looking one returns, though she does not turn it on yet.]

I have opened the input receptor cell cluster and configured it to accept and encode new information. You are aware of the location of the Pilot planet? There is an intermittent portal to grey space in that system. You comprehend?

[ss_buttcrack]

[Crichton nods slightly to relay the affirmative.]

He says he knows the planet. Sputnik, what is Grey Space? I've never heard of it.

[sputnik_shanu]

Please remain still.

[She could mention that he's lucky the laser wasn't on when he nodded, but she doesn't.]

There is not a lot of information available. From what I understand, it is another layer, a separate realm of space. Something like your unrealized realities, only its existence is not contingent upon possibility and choices, but rather it is immutable. And it is where the Kkore come from, a race more populous and formidable than the Scarrans and the Peacekeepers combined.

[ss_buttcrack]

Right...sorry. Neck's getting stiff.

One universe isn't enough?

What do the Kkore want? Why come all the way into our plane of existence? What the's point?

[sputnik_shanu]

Hopefully I will be finished soon.

[She turns the laser on again and he might be feeling that pinching in his head again.]

Supremacy. They want to master our universe and all of its people. Perhaps they have delusions of godhood. I know that they have been meticulously planning this invasion for a very long time, sending out ships to gather intelligence and create projections for every eventuality of their proposed invasion for years. In all likelihood, if there is a more vital element to their conquest, they are keeping it well hidden until their control of the galaxy is absolute.

[ss_buttcrack]

They want to take over the world? That's the oldest cliche in the book! Unbelievable! If I can have anything to say about it, they aren't going to get what they're after.

Speaking of, how's it going up there?

[sputnik_shanu]

[She actually kind of cracks a smile at that, in spite of everything and even though he can't see her. Or perhaps especially because he can't see her.]

Proceeding well.

[She pauses again to manipulate the laser.]

Harvey. Your directive upon return to our universe is to affect the collapse of the portal to Grey Space without delay. I believe this can be done by cross-coupling the fuel cells of a transport pod and causing it to explode in the mouth of the portal.

[A little bit more soft humming from the laser.]

Harvey. Directive accepted?

[ss_buttcrack]

He says yes.

[Crichton manages to keep his head still this time to answer.]

But, he'd like to know how you came to that conclusion. With the transport pop, I think he means.

[sputnik_shanu]

[She pauses, looking down at him for a moment before deciding how to proceed.]

From his original, actually.

[Not that she expects Crichton to be especially fond of the source, but her logic is sound.]

The portal to Grey Space is a rift in space-time, very similar to a wormhole. When we were on Earth, Scorpius was prepared to use his transport pod to destabilize the wormhole rather than allow Grayza or the Scarrans to find it. A conclusion natural to Scorpius' thought patterns will adhere best to receptor cells designed to interface with his brain. It will work.

[On every level, she hopes.]

[ss_buttcrack]

I thought as much. I believe the theory is sound. Of course, a more reliable method might be achieved using your knowledge of wormholes, John.

[Crichton grimaces. He's not even going to dignify that comment from Harvey with a response.]

He say he thinks it will work.

Is that it yet? You done poking around in there?

[sputnik_shanu]

A moment more. I have to seal the cells against alteration.

[The laser whirrs again and she is silent for several minutes before finally turning it off and sitting down on her heels. It is hard to believe that something so small could have such a huge potential for change. Even she, terminally confident in her own abilities, is afraid of the possibility that this might not work.

Still, things couldn't really get much worse. And if it does work, if he does go back and close the portal before the Kkore can come through then maybe she will finally have saved her people, the one single goal that had ever given her life meaning.]

I am finished. How do you feel?

[ss_buttcrack]

[He sits and twiddles his thumbs idly while he waits for her to finish up.]

I don't feel any different. Should I?

[sputnik_shanu]

No. You should feel just the same. I've sealed the information in the protected cells of the nodule. It should not affect any of your processes and it should be inaccessible to any outside forces.