Part 20

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She held the nuruwai fruit overhead and tilted her head back, squeezing its juices into her parched mouth. Dropping the whole chunk of fruit into her mouth and laying down, her brow tensed. Something she had seen in the fragments the fruit dreams had evoked from her was incessantly nagging at her. She couldn't even tell if it was a recovered memory, some inexplicable perception or only imagination. Whatever it was, it wouldn't let her find peace until she knew what had alarmed her.

Running her fingers through her hair at the sides of her head, she moaned lightly at the fever like sensations returning. While her body moaned distantly, her mind was cast off in a sea of vision. All around her were areas of visions, each different. John lurked in one particularly inviting area to what felt like her right front. On her left front a piece of skin was peeling in a fixated slow motion, repelling her. To one side she applied makeup to look Sebacean.

Behind what seemed like her head, some one hit her seemingly metal head with a hammer, making her yell. The person with the hammer told her in a close voice not to go fight.

"What?!" she yelled loudly although she thought perhaps it was only to the voice behind her.

It all turned on whim, but she tried stilling herself to find whatever it was that troubled her and let it move her to discover what it had to say. Suddenly a thought behind a word came through her.

"Changed" she whispered the thought. The word was the key. It led her to reach through, past many scenes around her to a small cockpit of a vessel she shared with John. "That's fine, Crichton" she found herself telling John, who was seated in the chair in front of hers "but they're just giving m-my people the perfect chance to walk right in, and if we don't make it-"

"-No" he yelled back over his shoulder, his attention on steering the craft in the flow of a blue ribbon around them. "Nobody's going to let the damn Nebari take over the friggin universe with or without us."

Then she didn't see or hear anything. Gradually the sounds of the biodome filled her ears. Chiana blinked, suddenly seeing blurry outlines of the trees overhead. Her partly whitened eyes blinked in confusion. Her mind tried to grasp the fleeting threads of thoughts from the vision. She shook her head from the sensations the fruit left lingering in her while it dissipated, like she'd just broken a critical fever. "Wha?" she gasped, too dry to speak easily. Coolness along her skin soothed the prickly heat inside.

Dropping onto her feet, she walked unsteadily from the nuruwai bush. "Oshana?" she called as loudly as her dry throat would allow. She had to find Crichton, and share this with him, in his mind where she could share what she'd seen and perhaps make better sense of it. She took a deep breath and called louder.

---

Entering her rooms by the bamboo ladder she'd made, Chiana heard hammering and welding noises. At first she held back, sensing it was coming from the loft she used to sleep at. Since the spirit living just a few walls away in the attic had communicated with her, Chiana had decided to quit sleeping in the loft or anywhere else when it came to that. Slowly stepping up the ornate metal railed, pink carpeted stairs to the loft, she saw the work was being done by Oshana. The Stakira was replacing the panels that had fallen open, exposing the passage through the attic to the pool area.

Oshana was so absorbed in her task and mumbling to herself about how she should be basting something for dinner, how something was up then down, and how the wall covering wasn't going to match that Chiana guessed she might be able to sneak up behind her unnoticed. Oshana had just finished using a panel welder to spot the panels back up and started to try pasting on new wall covering. The thin wall covering kept wilting from one side, driving Oshana frantic. Instead of break out laughing, Chiana decided to hold up the wilting corner for her.

Oshana bent down to pick up some paste. Chiana reached a couple of fingers to one side of Oshana's pants. Pulling the string tying the lacings on, Chiana smirked to herself at her mischief. Oshana kept focused on her frantic pasting and pressing covering into place. She was oblivious to the pale pink rear exposed by the slipping pants. She even tried to move Chiana's arm by moving her own shoulder. It took a few puzzled movements to get her attention that it wasn't moving because it wasn't her arm. "Oh thank you, thank you" Oshana said before realizing Chiana was there. Chiana laughed. Oshana's focus snapped onto Chiana with a gasp.

"Looking for you" Chiana cocked her chin to Oshana and slid her front up against Oshana's back. "Like your pants" she brushed her hips side to side against Oshana's rear with a giggle. Oshana gasped again, moving forward to pull her pants up, finding them undone. She fumbled with the side lacings until Chiana squished Oshana between herself and the wall. "Not after your bod-ay, Miss-ay. You helped Larran get into John's mind, right?"

"Nn-n-n"

"Yeah. You did. Oh I know you did."

"I don't know what happens when that happens!" Oshana squealed or bawled. "I don't remember anything! If-if you say I d-did then I g-guess I-I d-did" she sniffed. "I am a vessel" she widened her eyes at finding her explanation.

"Um hm" Chiana agreed "that's better. Yeah. You did."

"I'm" Oshana sniffed again "terribly terribly sorry, terribly sorry, he um....did he have his way with your um....he-he didn't seem very pleased!"

"Yeah he tried everything that resembled a rod in all kinds of nice assorted ways, rough was my favorite" she cackled and bucked her hip into Oshana. "Yeah it's a wreck but it's had worse. No he wasn't pleased cause I didn't let him have his way because I let him have his way. See, to piss him off completely you gotta let him get his way when he doesn't want you to let him get his way and don't let him get his way when he wants you to let him get his way. He seems unpredictable but really he's very very predictable. He didn't want me to let him get his way, so I didn't let him get his way by letting him get his way, got me?"

Oshana's eye raced side to side for a moment. "Yes, we-we can get some help for the-"

"Look, forget the body. We got more important things to do. Ah....mbut that reminds me....Larran's been lacing his food right? Drink? Crichton's."

"Y-yes, drink, and, but I won't do it, it's Kastara, he does it, and he, and Larran, he made Skarle do it too, that's double it, after that time you stuck Larran with that pin!" Oshana thrust her finger at her head, laughing as if laughter was new to her.

"Whoa easy there" Chiana patted her side. "Hey, he....he wouldn't ah, r-remember anything after it really kicks in would....he?"

"A couple of arns after taking it? Nooo I'm sure he'd be, no at double dose he wouldn't remember a thing he did for the next, half a solar day!"

"Doubling it?"

"Doubles potency, not duration, doubles potency not du-....why, did Larran tell you what he has him doing!?"

"He....suggested it. Couldn't resist. He'd control you, make you eat dren, and tell everyone, laughing at how you were so fharbot to eat dren. Fekkik. Look ah you're sure he won't remember, cause if he remembers, he'll really hate himself and that, that's, just you're sure?"

Oshana ducked her head slightly and nodded timidly.

"Couldn't you be a little, little bit more confidence inspiring? Frell. Ah...." Chiana looked around "It- won't hurt him right?"

"Nnno it's not toxic at any amount, m-mbut!....too much stimulus too long, it's out of control, it's going to overload!"

"Wo is overloaded but ah it is under control. Up and up" Chiana pointed her hand up in front of Oshana's view. Oshana laughed hysterically. "There you go again....Forget that body too. So what, he'll be a better frell? Better he's....insulated from....the worst of whatever the fekkik makes him do. Right? Right. Now....About this Stakira mind transport dren. Crichton, he doesn't like that either, get me? But you need to get me in. It's about us. Crichton and me. Won't mind. He told me there's all kinds of room in there, nothing much going on. Cause he's a male of his species." Oshana looked back to Chiana, puzzled. "Well" Chiana looked aside "he said it. Not me. Him. So? Is he....off the stuff right now?"

Oshana sniffed and nodded. "Yes....But!"

"But?"

"The paste! I'm pasted to the wall now!"

"Ah frell. Well at least we know you won't be going anywhere. Let's pay Crichton a visit. From here."

---

The big book slapped shut, a cloud of smoke sent out. The bottom of the world in John Crichton's mind dropped out. John's hand slipped from his hold over the library cleaning lady's hand. He fell straight down alone. With a strangely weightless crash, he landed someplace. The only features immediately obvious were a lumpy canvas pad under himself and the fact that it was very dark.

"I believe we're in the basement" Harvey answered although John didn't remember asking.

"What, for all the tornados in my upper hemispheres?"

"And hopefully not storage for all your overly-abundant dirty thoughts" Harvey remarked while he struck a match.

"Sheeit man, I'm a guy. Just a human guy. More or less anymore. No telling what crap's down here."

"The encouragement is appreciated. Perhaps we'd be better off staying put for the rest of our life and avoiding the monsters" Harvey leered at him.

John decided to get up. Picking up a candle, he took the match from Harvey and lit it. Harvey fell into step with John and they walked past row after row of piled-up junk. "Hey!" John stopped when he saw a very large object covered by a dusty black canvas.

John set the candle down on a nearby crate and pulled the canvas off of it. The cockpit of the white and black craft popped part of the way open and Chiana's head popped out. "Finally!" she hissed. "I've been yelling my frelling eema off forever."

"Whoa sorry, didn't hear ya" John went to help her out. "I love it when you turn up in here, Pip." She gave him an odd blank stare. John tried opening the cockpit more and realized the cover was still caught half way off, preventing the cockpit from opening enough for her to get out. "Hey Harv, wouldya get that?" John pointed over to it.

"Of course" Harvey grinned at John and helped him remove the cover. "Even here in this forsaken wasteland of useless brain space, you would store yet another example of the object of your dirty thoughts" Harvey surmised. John let his end of the cover fall. Harvey stumbled with the cover sliding onto him.

"So what brings you down here, Pip?" John helped her out. "Cute" he remarked of the black lace hood, fur shoulder pieces and gray stretch top and pants she had on.

"It was ah laying around" she swung around, inserting herself in his way from walking over to Harvey. "What do you mean, what brings me down here? I'm down here because you're down here, and it's not like I liked being stuck in that primitive little durtz of yours. Where were you, anyway?"

"I was busy with you! Harvey! Would you tell her I wasn't, hey, I was with Harvey the whole time! I didn't stick you anywhere, you guys just come and go all over. I don't know who half these people are and-"

"Apologies for the interruption, Crichton, but we are on fire" Harvey pointed out and ran between them.

John and Chiana looked back to see the canvas, still partly on the craft, had caught on fire from the knocked over candle stick and now had the craft half in flames. "I got a fire in my head?!" John yelled, gesturing to his head. Chiana grabbed his arm and started running with him.

"It was bound to happen!" Harvey said from a few paces ahead of them, holding a fire helmet on his head. "What do you expect when you leave your mind in unsafe conditions....and your fascination of playing with fire" he leered back.

"Harvey! You did it on purpose you firebug!" he caught up and started wrestling Harvey. Chiana screamed as chaos mangled their surroundings.

"John! Crichton!" Harvey pleaded.

"Yes those are my names, you've worn them yourself when you pretended to be me before, now don't wear them out!" John strangled Harvey in a sleeper hold.

Harvey's falling upheld hand suddenly held in place when he paused. "Did I? Strange, I don't believe I remember that."

John squinted. "How can you not remember something I remember? Come to think of it, I don't remember it. But I'm sure you did it, sourdough, you're toast!"

"What else do you remember that I don't" Harvey heaved out while John bore down on him.

"What the hell do you remember that I don't!" John shot back. Something hit the side of his face, sending him down on his rear. John looked around the abstract woods he was suddenly in until he noticed Chiana was standing over him looking a little irritated. "Where are we?"

"This is your frelling brain, lummox, not mine. Sorry I hit you" Chiana uncomfortably apologized.

"Yeah, wish I hadn't fought so much...." John muttered, looking around and standing up. "Don't tell me we're lost."

"That's my line" Chiana cut a side glance at him.

"Then ask for directions" Harvey proposed, looking over a map lit by the flashlight in his fire helmet.

Chiana craned her head to peer at the map standing next to Harvey. "But all these sectors are marked dirty."

"Much as I had expected" Harvey observed. "I'm afraid you have an essentially one track mind, John."

"Huh?" John asked.

Breathy singing caught all of their attention. It sounded just like Chiana, but when both John and Harvey looked to her, it was obvious she wasn't singing. Chiana's big black eyes blinked in the spotlight of Harvey's fire helmet. She reached up and turned Harvey's head to cast his flashlight around. Finally, up in a deep purple stylized tree, a head of Chiana appeared hair first, wearing a devious grin. It continued singing until a cat-like body covered in Chiana's hair appeared to complete it, leering at them below while blissfully reciting.

"Twas a Bra-ca and an Aeryn Sun
Did a guile with Scor-py out the way
All a Nim-seek wore a quarter robe
And the nome raths pass a Grrray-za!"

It stopped and pressed its stubby paw fingers together while smiling at them.

"Sorry I hit you" Chiana made a point to repeat to John, nodding to herself in agreement with herself before staring back at the creature with wonderment.

"Did somebody need to find their way in their mind?" the head of Chiana asked, eyes cutting one side then the other. "The glibo in the shorts perhaps?"

John looked down to find himself wearing pink and red heart boxers. "Did you pick this out?" John asked Harvey. "Hey Cheshire Chi. Yeah we're looking for a way outta this cut-rate Johnny in Wonderland back to the library. Don't suppose you could give us a tip?"

"I'm flat" it apologized, pointing with a paw back to its deflating body. "But you could always look for tips at a party, say one for you....it wouldn't be your-?"

"No" John finished. "Yeah I'm in luck, what a small world this is."

"Hardly surprising, John, considering it's contained in your head" Harvey took the opportunity to point out over his shoulder.

"Yeah, a head that's subdivided into a duplex to split it with a gross grasshopper. Why don't you take a cue from Cheshire there, and fade out."

"And leave you alone with your commonplace nature and her, and simply allow your dirty thoughts to consume you? I think not" Harvey seethed over John's other shoulder.

"Afraid Chi might upstage you, Harv? I think I'm gonna send you packing here in a bit. Hey Cheshire, I was wondering-"

"-Oh, oh that's, that's quite all right" it assured him. "Shall we...." it took off its head and spun it on a finger; the head began reflecting and throwing strobe lights "....boogie?"

"Nononononono, I don't.....I mean where's the party, dude?"

"That would be that" Cheshire Chi tossed its head back on, pointed to John and a direction the opposite way by its tail "way." It resumed singing and vanished the way it appeared, hair last.

"What's a-a "Bra-ca?"" Chiana asked.

"C'mon Pip, let's go follow a figment's directions to a mad party" John tapped her rear and started in the direction the figment's tail had pointed.

"In your head?" Chiana was a bit curious if skeptical.

"You'd be surprised what people do in here" John had her know.

"After that?" Chiana shot back.

"Don't boast of your insipid imagination now, John" Harvey ran past them "I suggest you attend to your out of control thoughts!"

Both John and Chiana looked back to find the craft from the storage was now hurtling after them from the dark, immersed in flames. "Don't wait up for me, bug!" John started running with Chiana, soon catching up to Harvey.

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