Part 32

---

Bursamen unfolded his arms, surprised by the female's sudden change in behavior. With recent injury and other apparent problems to do with the Stakira, he didn't expect her to be moving. He expected Larran would disengage from the Stakira, at which time it would probably be for the best to kill Larran, as he was prepared to do. Instead Larran was still engaged in the light cast from the Stakira, while the female thought to be the Sister had begun lurching around but apparently voluntarily, as if methodically attempting to gain movement.

The female gradually gained the ability to stand, and soon, walk awkwardly. The first attempt to speak was a garble of noise, but gradually speech became clear. She began ordering Kastara to clean and dress her. Kastara hurriedly obeyed, but as far as Bursamen could tell, Kastara did not appear to reveal his presence.

Bursamen felt a sense he'd never felt before. Indefinable excitement, that this could be Nerri's sister before his eyes, combined with vague horror that something beside the obvious was terribly wrong. Unnoticed at first, Crichton began to rise from one of the hammock like containers. Bursamen narrowed his eyes on the naked Sebacean, noting the viscous fluid covering him, likely a treatment for burns. Lurching at first, then with increasingly fluidity, Crichton gained his feet. He walked up behind the female and put a hand on her shoulder.

The female turned her head sharply. Crichton's intent face said volumes, but Bursamen wasn't able to translate.

"You cannot stop me" she said, a perverse smile etching her face. She turned and stepped from under the hand on her shoulder, fastening her shirt and walking to the door. Bursamen recognized the sense she gave in expression and movement. His eyes widened in alarm.

"They are not the ones" Kastara spoke low from over Bursamen's shoulder. Stakira were mysterious and little understood to Bursamen, but he gathered it involved passage of something of someone to or from the Stakira. Some alarming possibilities were occurring to Bursamen as his eyes moved from Larran and the Stakira to the female. He'd always known of Larran's complicity with the Establishment concerning the Sister's remains, but he'd never thought of Larran manipulating the Sister in any way as literally or as abhorrently as it now occurred to Bursamen that Larran intended to do. Bursamen's fist trembled in rage and smashed into the nearest surface.

"Of course that's why he wanted the relics! Or a clone!" Bursamen nearly shouted at Kastara. "It was so obvious!" The wave of fury crested and ebbed. Bursamen barked a bitter laugh. "Ha! A good thing then, my mind refused to work that way?" Bursamen then turned his head to the door through which Larran, in the Sister's body, had left. "Come with me" Bursamen grabbed Kastara by the shirt and pulled him along.

"Nooo! Where are we going? We can't stop him now!" Kastara protested but tumbled along with Bursamen's purposeful stride.

"Yes I can! I would sooner send the Sister back to the other realm than see her used to destroy the Cause for Larran's benefit!"

"Nuu!" Oshana tried to protest, but Crichton's foreign body was too awkward yet to speak with. As best he could, Oshana struggled after Bursamen.

---

"Okay I'm not panicking. I am not going to panic" John told the unquantifiable fabric of existence he seemed to be a part of.

"Not panicking" he heard, or rather felt, Chiana say or think.

"Right" John agreed. Falling silent, he felt around a little, but there was nothing replacing sensation, just the detached awareness of deep sleep.

"Hey."

"Yeah Pip?"

"Just ah....you're still there?"

"Yeah. I think so. That's more a question for Stephen Hawking. Think time's passing over there, Pip?"

"Ah. Yeah. Maybe."

"Yeah. Where's Harvey?"

"Haven't ah....I don't frelling know."

"So are we in Oshana or....somewhere else?"

"I don't frelling know, okay?"

"Yeah yeah I was just.....wait a minute."

"Like I have a choice?"

"Yeah, the only way we could still be in Oshana and have the penthouse to ourselves is...."

"She's....in somebody else. One of us. And if Larran's got me...."

"Oshana's walking in my shoes? She's using my....! What the hell! Take a joyride in your own wheels! Man, what is wrong with these people!?"

"They don't share your munificent dradness?"

"What am I thinking, she won't want my body."

"I'd take it."

"Thanks Pip. Remind me to muss your hair when we move back."

"No problem. Ah. Crichton?"

"Yeah?"

"What if I forget?"

"Don't worry, I'll remind you."

"Crichton?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I borrow your eema sometime?"

"No honey, no messing my mojo. Unless I get to borrow yours."

"I'll ah, get back to you on that. Crichton?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we're crazy?"

"No. But the rest of the universe is."

"Oh."

---

Larran reeled around a corner, holding his forehead and forcing the body to stand upright and continue. With an impatient tug, he shifted the subtly yellow white silken robe over the deep to nearly black green velvet bodice. His head proudly held, he soon had the curiously responsive body hustling in a quick stride.

It impressed him that she had been walking around seemingly unaffected while the body was in this condition. That, and for all the weakness and odd sensation, it still buzzed with adrenaline. He sneered while tugging the bodice where it spilt over the long, white slacks to compliment the pant legs flaring wider at the ankles. None of the other glorious and wretched subjects had managed to reach this condition, to say nothing of remaining resilient as the genuine article had.

The half-aware, addle-minded products of past attempts to create a living clone from the Sister's remains seldom lasted long and never were the kind to pass off as the Sister. The non-conforming trelks he'd imprisoned and attempted to groom for the role fared better, but it had only been a matter of weekens before they would become irrational or suicidal. This one might have broken into a useful condition, but perhaps not, with her unpredictable streak. Still, she had been by far the greatest object in his collection. The clones of her were still underway but far more promising thanks to fresh samples.

Now there was no need to bother. Now that he'd taken the risk and proven it was possible for him to occupy the Sister's body, he decided it'd be wise to cast her being away into the Stakira's void forever, using either his own or this body when needed, keeping either body artificially sustained when not in use. He kept it walking and soon forgot it for his own thoughts.

Oshana thought she'd hidden her interest in the Fena parties from him, but he was aware she had some contact with those misguided radicals. He had planned to use Oshana to reveal the Sister's presence and bring rebel leaders to a meeting. From there he could manipulate them and cause their arrest or death as desired to strengthen his power in the Establishment. It was a perfect plan, and all the better for the unexpected circumstances.

Now the mobs had come to him. Inviting the rabble's leading figures to an audience with the Sister, he could arrange a coup leading to their neutralization. That would surely elevate his position. Authority Guide Gulmac would see the error of slighting him, and would be among the first to pay. Between a powerful position in both the Establishment and what passed as resistance, the possibilities were virtually endless.

A glorious destiny now laid only a short walk away.

---

Bursamen saw a nook between a doorway and a wall and inserted himself into it, pulling Kastara with him. "Why? Why?!" Kastara held his hands up as Bursamen held the alarmed slave against himself by the back of the Bannik's shirt.

"Remain calm" Bursamen advised with a wry smile to his voice. "I hear a grenade preparing to-"

A loud blast jarred through the corridor, despite the source being far enough away that they saw no sign of the explosion. Still, Bursamen remained where he was. Light wisps of smoke crept around the intersecting corridors three corridors past, soon followed by the sight Bursamen was hoping he wouldn't see. Glowing blue lights preceded the silver orb's appearance through the smoke. The sentinel continued toward Bursamen.

Kastara tried to run, but Bursamen kept himself shielded behind the Bannik. Just as Bursamen was bracing for it to attack or pass by, rapid pulse fire splattered through the corridor, seeming to impact everywhere except striking Kastara and Bursamen. He peeked his eyes over Kastara's shoulder.

Bursamen didn't think that the Orb had fired the ordinance. Sure enough, the Orb emitted its own volley. Tendrils of lightening struck back down the corridor the direction it had came, the strikes focusing on several target surfaces, which seemed to explode the moment they were reached by the strikes. The Orb then hovered in place as the debris and smoke dissipated.

Looking down the corridor as best he could through the debris, Bursamen saw a battered metal table top on its side standing at the center of the corridor. Another grenade was dispatched from the cover of the table. Both Bursamen and Kastara yelped and ran, Bursamen scrambling desperately to keep right in front of Kastara while Kastara scrambled to keep running without stumbling over Bursamen.

Both men dived around the nearest intersecting corridor, tumbling into each other and trying to untangle when the explosion jarred down the corridor. Both men froze in place as the Orb passed by, apparently without noticing them. They continued staring while the table top approached. When it stopped halfway through the intersection, Bursamen found himself exchanging gapes with Tannac, shielded behind the table.

Tannac spoke up first. "Do you realize how dangerous-" her lecture was interrupted by another round of the Orb's electric volleys. Bursamen couldn't see if she had survived for the resulting cloud of debris and smoke clinging to the floor, until a giant multiple facility pulse rifle perched on the top of the table and fired.

As soon as that volley of fire stopped, Tannac popped out of the cloud to mid-chest level, staring with a wild defiance in the direction of the Orb. "Missed the frelling brainscrambler!" She whipped her head to Bursamen. "Do you realize how dangerous these are?!"

Her appearance was causing Bursamen some difficulties in his effort to take her lecture seriously. The upper half of her overcoat had been blown away, leaving seams at the shoulders, cuffs around her forearms, and a tilted, smoking collar looking very silly trimming the unbelievably bony Nebari's body. Her singed, shock-blown spiky hair and black-smudged skin didn't help. He hoped he was managing to keep a perfectly blank face.

She rose up higher, taking aim with the rifle over the table, revealing that almost the only things left on her were damaged straps barely holding an astonishing arsenal to the bony excuse for a body. At a glance he saw a crate worth of rifle cartridges, a few pulse pistols, some knives, grenades, tracking balls and more. There were a few other items, but he was too busy noticing she seemed to have been wearing nothing under her shirt and preferred tough looking but tiny black leather underwear. Bursamen exchanged an impressed look with Kastara.

"I need a distraction" Tannac looked wildly at Bursamen. He returned Tannac's glare with a pat smirk. Her eyes narrowed. "Fine" she said. Bursamen's face straightened. Tannac began backing towards the men. How she was moving that big metal table top around, Bursamen wasn't exactly sure, but he soon realized she was luring the Orb back to make them her distraction.

"YeAAA!" Kastara and Bursamen scrambled up to hide behind the table, squeezing the teeny Tannac in between.

"As tempting as this is, you two can find your own furniture" Tannac's muffled voice dryly complained. Both men were shoved away to either side the next moment. "Use your Bannik!" Tannac bossed Bursamen.

"Yes lady" Bursamen grabbed Kastara up in front of himself and crawled back to her side. "Ready to run?"

"I don't know, is it?" Tannac looked at the Orb that was now hovering in the corridor intersection.

Bursamen shook his head, to clear it. "Are you crazy?"

Tannac simply looked back at him as if she wouldn't be the one to answer that.

"Why are you pursuing that, that thing?" Bursamen shook his hand in the Orb's direction. "What's the matter with you? Besides emaciation?"

"I've got my enemy in front of me. Where's yours?" she looked aside at him with wide eyes.

"Dren!" Bursamen shouted, urging Kastara ahead and using him to slide past the Orb. It was monitoring them, but his hunch had been right that the Orb wasn't a bad shot. It was evidently programmed not to strike Larran's slaves.

As soon as the two men cleared the area of engagement, another volley of the Orb's fire was followed immediately by the explosion of another grenade. A flash of light accompanied another explosion, followed by a triumphant cry from Tannac. "Hm, she got it" Bursamen remarked.

"I just figured their timing" Tannac said, hurrying up to walk at Bursamen's back, brushing against him. "What are we after?"

"Larran" Bursamen replied.

"Can it wait?" she tugged at the back of his belt.

"Yes" Kastara helpfully suggested.

"No" Bursamen immediately corrected, reaching back and taking one of the pulse pistols from Tannac. "Larran is going to use the Sister to address the Fenas for his interests. We've got to prevent him."

"Where is he?" Tannac snatched the pistol back from Bursamen.

"In the Sister" Bursamen snatched another pistol from Tannac. "I think." He shrugged slightly with a smirk over his shoulder. "Mysterious Stakira stuff."

"Noo!" all three looked over their shoulders at the approach of what almost sounded like John Crichton. "Youfkent, heus ifs see Sisser! Fwe half to fwee her!"

"Hm?" Tannac asked, taking a long look along the naked John coming up to follow her as closely as she was following Bursamen. "Hm-hm! I'd give you my coat, but...."

"Oooosisss nisse!" John's hands trailed along Tannac's naked chest and his aroused body pressed against her back.

"Would you stop it?" Bursamen scolded back at them. His eyes trailed down to John's hands grasping around Tannac's bony chest. "Just stop it" he heatedly yanked one of John's hands off of Tannac.

"Hm" Tannac remarked to Bursamen, impressed.

"This isn't the time" Bursamen tried recovering some indifference.

"Yish, yish, nn-ach!" John was moving his hands around his head, almost as if he were being swarmed by insects. "Nnnot nooow!"

"Right. You two go ahead, we'll....cover" Tannac put down her massive pulse weapon and stood, pinning John against the wall. "What's got into you?"

"Nnnit's sssomeone in my, in here, it's-" John's eyes widened "Haaarvey!"

"Quit this, Cricht-" Bursamen pointed at John, who eyed him back with wide, alarmed eyes. "Oshana?!"

"Hm?!" Tannac took her hands off while John, or Oshana, nodded cautiously. "Oh ah well, let's...." Tannac's fingers waved indecisively, her palms held out in front of John's, or Oshana's, chest. "We'll restrain Larran, in the Sister, while you" Tannac pressed a finger into John's, or Oshana's, abs "go back and load the right clip in the right ah hm, gun. So to speak." Tannac, Bursamen and Kastara made to move.

"What-" John, or Oshana, grabbed at Tannac "What is why? This is what? Why is this?!"

"It's Oshana" Tannac looked to Bursamen and agreed. Tannac picked up her enormous gun. Bursamen took a long, impressed look at her fiercely straining body. "Let's try to intercept Larran."

"Why should I- I cannot put them there!" Oshana protested.

"Try. You should be there anyway, so that he doesn't try taking your own skin if he gives up hers."

"Why do you tell me!?" Oshana nearly whined, grabbing at one side of his face with his hand.

"Because I don't trust you to confront your master directly, and besides, I've got the bigger gun" Tannac patted the barrels of her gun, then gestured to John's body with a glance. "She's got a close second there."

Bursamen rubbed his forehead. "We keep behind Kastara" he ordered, moving ahead with Kastara. "You two go back to Oshana's body."

"What's wrong with mine" Tannac shrugged. She rested her chin on Bursamen's shoulder from behind. "Besides-" she snatched the pistol from Bursamen's hand "We need a calm hand controlling the munitions." Bursamen paused when he felt the barrel brushing the hair at the nape of his neck. "Someone less calm might kill her to kill Larran" Tannac pointed out.

"Frell it, Tannac, your brain must be wasting" Bursamen replied through a tense jaw. "If it's the only chance to stop him before he uses her to manipulate the Fenas- he would devastate the Cause beyond recovery, all to increase his own power and pleasure himself. Would the Sister allow it?"

"Oh nice point" Tannac motioned Bursamen to move into a nearby room and kept the barrel to the base of his head while guiding him to the door. "Possibly she'd make the same choice. There's something in all of that you're not considering."

"Then what is more important than saving the cause? More important than saving the Sister from being perverted into a tool for Larran's power, and destroying the very people that are idolizing her? More important than saving the only faction of people dedicated to changing the Establishment's wrongs without destroying all Nebari?" Bursamen resisted at the door. "Tell me: what?"

Tannac gestured him into the room with a couple of fingers. Bursamen stepped into the room and turned to face her. Tannac slid the door closed, then destroyed the mechanism with the gun. After checking that the door was stuck closed, she waited just long enough to reply.

"A little person named Chiana."

---

Next Page