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Still inna box. Still on a base. Still in Scarran space.
Outside the box, things are changing.
There are people on Katratzi Stark would give anything to see, if only he knew they were there. Yes, even Rygel. There is a bomb. There is a room full of flowers. There are Peacekeepers. There is Scorpius, and there is another Stark. If Stark had known, he wouldn't have been able to say which of these two people disturbed him more.
The bioloid tortured the Scarran half-breed. The human wore a nuclear bomb. The Peacekeepers and Scarrans negotiated for peace, and failed. There was talk of wormholes and more talk of wormholes.
Inside the replicator, Stark still slept, ignorant of the chaos surrounding him.
The torture ends, the half-breed is freed. An escape attempt is foiled. The Peacekeeper commandant begins to think war would be a better option than peace. The human comes up with a plan.
The human is always coming up with plans. This one involves elevators and the nuclear bomb still strapped to his hip and, ultimately, escape and freedom. Freedom for everyone, even, hopefully, the Banik who was still oblivious. Oblivious and asleep and dreaming.
**
Some dreams are nightmares. Some dreams are the type that would have Stark screaming himself awake if this were a normal sleep. These are almost unbearable and made all the worse because there is a part of Stark that knows he can't wake up while he's trapped in this box.
The worst are the dreams that seem to come directly from the memories he most wants to forget. Memories of dark cells and of spinning Chairs. Memories of the sickly sweet rotting smell of a Budong mining colony. The memory of feeling ten thousand deaths and being unable to do anything to stop it, anything to even make it easier. Memories of being a small child cowering before the Scarran upper caste. Memories of being sold and bought and sold again. Memories of being trapped in a passageway with doorways being sealed all around him just when he most needed to be somewhere else on the ship. Being awake on this base was terrible. Being asleep was sometimes worse.
But thankfully nightmares, like all dreams, end eventually.
**
"Sikozu may not be able to provide elevator access, therefore we need to locate someone who can. Stark."
The Hynerian gave the Scarran half-breed an incredulous look. "What?"
The Traskan was simply confused. "Who's Stark?"
"Another lunatic with the wrong number of eyes," the Hynerian answered.
"Oh."
The bioloid Stark entered the chamber then. The Hynerian turned to watch him. "And there he is."
The Scarran hybrid asserted that no, that wasn't the real Stark. The real Stark, he said, would never torture him. This was a bioloid. And the real Stark was undoubtedly imprisoned within the bioloid duplicator.
And now there was another plan. Or at least an addition to the original one.
[Italicized bit taken almost straight from an episode transcript from the "We're So Screwed" trilogy. And I love that my canon has episode titles like that.]
There are people on Katratzi Stark would give anything to see, if only he knew they were there. Yes, even Rygel. There is a bomb. There is a room full of flowers. There are Peacekeepers. There is Scorpius, and there is another Stark. If Stark had known, he wouldn't have been able to say which of these two people disturbed him more.
The bioloid tortured the Scarran half-breed. The human wore a nuclear bomb. The Peacekeepers and Scarrans negotiated for peace, and failed. There was talk of wormholes and more talk of wormholes.
Inside the replicator, Stark still slept, ignorant of the chaos surrounding him.
The torture ends, the half-breed is freed. An escape attempt is foiled. The Peacekeeper commandant begins to think war would be a better option than peace. The human comes up with a plan.
The human is always coming up with plans. This one involves elevators and the nuclear bomb still strapped to his hip and, ultimately, escape and freedom. Freedom for everyone, even, hopefully, the Banik who was still oblivious. Oblivious and asleep and dreaming.
**
Some dreams are nightmares. Some dreams are the type that would have Stark screaming himself awake if this were a normal sleep. These are almost unbearable and made all the worse because there is a part of Stark that knows he can't wake up while he's trapped in this box.
The worst are the dreams that seem to come directly from the memories he most wants to forget. Memories of dark cells and of spinning Chairs. Memories of the sickly sweet rotting smell of a Budong mining colony. The memory of feeling ten thousand deaths and being unable to do anything to stop it, anything to even make it easier. Memories of being a small child cowering before the Scarran upper caste. Memories of being sold and bought and sold again. Memories of being trapped in a passageway with doorways being sealed all around him just when he most needed to be somewhere else on the ship. Being awake on this base was terrible. Being asleep was sometimes worse.
But thankfully nightmares, like all dreams, end eventually.
**
"Sikozu may not be able to provide elevator access, therefore we need to locate someone who can. Stark."
The Hynerian gave the Scarran half-breed an incredulous look. "What?"
The Traskan was simply confused. "Who's Stark?"
"Another lunatic with the wrong number of eyes," the Hynerian answered.
"Oh."
The bioloid Stark entered the chamber then. The Hynerian turned to watch him. "And there he is."
The Scarran hybrid asserted that no, that wasn't the real Stark. The real Stark, he said, would never torture him. This was a bioloid. And the real Stark was undoubtedly imprisoned within the bioloid duplicator.
And now there was another plan. Or at least an addition to the original one.
[Italicized bit taken almost straight from an episode transcript from the "We're So Screwed" trilogy. And I love that my canon has episode titles like that.]