The Maze part 2

by ChianaGray

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The group ventured down the stairs, comming out into an underground world of halls with passages and pipe lines on second and third stories above. Thier first task looked like the locked gate in front of them with a map to the side of it red lining a path through a major system.

"Do you know much about these tests?" Aeryn asked to Valkry as she inspected the map, unable to pry it from the wall though it looked like many had tried to do the same thing.

"Typical rat maze right?" Crichton wondered as he peered through the gate and then up at the passages above. "Please tell me this isn't some mindless labrynth for our average intelligence to pile through."

"It was never meant for strangers," Valkry stated as he placed his hand on the gates flat plate at its keyless lock and it swung open with a clink. "I went through one of these when I was a boy. It was easy to follow the maze but there were large rooms where the tests were. I had spent days in many of the rooms until I learned to wait for someone to enter to slip out again. If you do not escape the rooms, the floor will open and drop you into another pen, uness you can find something to hold on to. We had been sent through to amuse the Kryn. This one I expect to be much the same as delapidated as it is."

"I got it covered," Crichton nodded as he slipped out the pulse rifel in his cloak and waited as Aeryn assembled various parts for one attached to her uniform and stuffed in pockets. She handed Zhaan her pulse pistol as Chiana watched them with a small smile crossing her lips.

"Let me guess," she hopped back as she let out a laugh. "You made a deal and you're going to kill the monster they can't get out of here, to cheat the tests and walk away."

"Something like that," Crichton spoak as he wrapped an arm around her neck and moved her forward with him. "Chiana my dear, the next time you want to drink a coco-nut on an alien planet, pay for the frelling thing alright?"

"How was I supposed to know he was selling that?" She asked defensivly as she skipped ahead to Valkry and Eshran. "We went through a whole frelling forest of the things when we came to this citadel."

"This way," Aeryn nodded to the right as they came to a crossing hall. "I still think we should have left you to learn something out of this. I can't believe I'm doing this because you wanted something to drink."

"Here we go again," Chiana sighed as she tocked her head and cut her eyes to Zhaan. "I'm never going to hear the end of this one am I?"

"Perhaps some good does come out of this," Zhaan commented thoughtfuly to her. "Valkry and Eshran would be facing this alone if anything had occured any differently."

"I think the term is fate, or what, destiney?" Crichton spoak absently.

"I was thinking more along the lines of spirit, John. That ones path is not nessisarily pre-destined, but each turn apon it has reason."

"The only reason I have right now is to get the frell out of here," Aeryn grunted. "I don't want to spend days in this thing."

"Well then it's settled." Chiana pipped up as she peered down a hall and then shrugged her shoulders. "If you hadn't come, you'd still be waiting around on Moya for me to get out!"

"Oh don't you reason yourself out of this one," Aeryn glanced at her broodingly.

"Hold up," Crichton waved to them as he stepped ahead. "The tests are in large rooms right? Because I think we're just about to head for one. A maze with manditory stop spots has to mean this maze does have a leading pattern."

"And the point?" Chiana asked as she turned her head to him.

"The point is that even if we get split apart we are all going to end up at the exit, and we're all going to end up in one of these rooms."

"The map only shows you one level at a time," Valkry stated. "Sometimes these mazes have two or three levels. Finding the exit will not be easy. Many times it is disguised. We will not be lead to it, but we will have free run of the entire maze."

"Sounds like the fun house is just getting better and better."

"Pilot," Aeryn commed. "Can you hear me?"

"Why, yes." His voice came back with mild suprise. "Is something wrong Aeryn Sun?"

"Yes," she closed her eyes with relief. "We're trying to get through an underground system designed to illude us from leaving. Can you locate the exit and diagram our positions to it from there?"

"I have it, " he chimed after a long pause. "You are approximatley a quarter of a mile from an exit chamber north east of your current position."

"Can you see any other life forms?"

"Apart from your grouping I am reading two life forms north west of you."

"Thank you, Pilot."

"You're welcome. I shall keep you monitored until you've reached the exit chamber."

"Good ole Pilot, " Crichton sighed as he turned from the others and stepped cautiously into a large, box shaped room.

Crichton blinked slowly as he moved forward, and yet stayed right where he was. He turned around, and yet he didn't. Both of him saw each other. He looked to Aeryn and Chiana as they entered the room and split into two different selves. Both Aeryns stopped and stood perfectly still with thier mouths dropped as one Chiana turned to the other in awe and curiosity, both trying to figure the other one as they reached out with a gloved hand and touched fingertips.

"Oookay," Crichton one raised his brows as Valkry passed his right, and then passed his right again followed by an Eshran and then a Zhaan. "Do you know what this is by any chance?"

"This feels frelling wierd," Crichton two sighed as he wiped his face and then stared at his one. "Ummm, you aren't exactly mirroring everything I do, are you."

"I still feel like myself over there or right here." Crichton one said to him and then chuckled. "This is a trip."

"Don't enjoy yourself too much Crichton," Aeryn looked down the bridge of her nose at Aeryn two from her shoulder and stepped away as if number two were standing in a pile of dren. "I can't be in two places at once. You couldn't possibly be me."

"Which one of us entered first?" Aeryn two asked. "I think you are the image, and I think you should step back in."

"Step back into what?"

"Oh frell I feel like I'm talking to myself!"

"You are talking to yourself," both Chianas stated as they turned thier head at the same time to look at her. Chiana ones eyes then seemed to be caught by something else and she eased her head the other way. Her second soon followed in echo. They gaped, staring in awe at Zhaan who was only one but she had a brilliant glow to her and every where she stepped she seemed to be trailing echoes of herself in image. She paused, looking back at both Chianas in wonder.

"I think it's a displacement study," Valkry one said as he looked to three different Eshrans doing three different things. One stood and stared at the cieling while another crouched in play and the last was wandering in a small circle waving her hand in front of her chest while she bit her lower lip with an anxious expression.

"It's not the worst test," Valkry two said as he tried placing his hand on the door panel to the other side of the room as Crichton one whirrled to hold the door they came in before it shut close.

"You call this a test?" Crichton two curled his lip as he motioned Valkry to move and fired at the door. The shot slammed into the panel, nocking the door back violently. Crichton looked to his other self with a snort as he slung his pulse rifel to his shoulder. "I'm beside myself."

Aeryn rolled her eyes as she stepped away from both Crichtons and seemed to wobble awkwardly in her steps as Aeryn two walked behind her in stumble.

"You were a PeaceKeeper, surely you can keep in coordination with your own frelling self!" Aeryn two barked.

"Oh shut up!"

"Dren," Crichton two snorted. "And I was all built up for solving puzzles in these damn things."

"Just wait, we haven't gotten to the final exam yet."

"Y'know the wierdest thing about this," Crichton two caught up with his one as he began to leave ahead of him. "I'm in both places, but you aren't exactly following along with me. Wouldn't I say the same thing, in both places? Looks to me like Chiana and Zhaan have the right idea, but scope out Aeryn. She looks like she's dragging behind her worst enemy!"

"I don't even want to think about it. Let's just go."

Behind both of them Scorpious seemed to fade in and out, smiling deviantly as he walked up between them and planted his hands on their shoulders.

"This is going to be quiet interesting. Don't you think so boys?"

Crichton whirrled around as he exited becoming one self again as he twisted his face in confusion and searched for the extra voice.

"Are you comming? Let's get out of here."

"Yeah," Crichton nodded somewhat disbelievingly as he turned to Aeryn. "The sooner the better."
 

"No!" Chiana cried out as Crichton, Zhaan and Eshran entered a new room and it suddenly turned in its walls before Chiana, Aeryn and Valkry could step inside. She planted her hands on the wall and kicked it. "This place is getting on my frelling nerves! First the hallway we wanted didn't have a floor for fifty feet and - frell!"

She whirled away angrily and stared at the wall with a tilt of her head as if the lost look in her eyes might bring them back somehow.

"Come, we'll take that pipeline route we saw." Valkry motioned to her, urging her to run as Aeryn already began to trot ahead of them. "Crichton is right about one thing, eventualy we will cross paths again. It's just a matter of time."

"Yeah but that creature is still in here," she spoak aprehensivley as she stopped in front of a large round tunnel. "I just don't get this place. Everytime we figure out what one thing means something else comes up. I'm starting to feel like Crichton said about his hamster cages with these pipes. It's just a long way to nowhere."

"We will meet them at the next room," Valkry placed his hand on her shoulder as he gazed apon her reassuringly. "You could have escaped through the gates if it were not for me. I will see that we all get out together. I promise."

Aeryn took a point position through the tunnel, stepping warrily but quickly as Valkry and Chiana followed a few paces behind.

"Aeryn," Pilot commed. "I am reading a life form headed in your direction, comming very swiftly."

"Thank you, Pilot," Aeryn stepped back as they came to a crossing in the pipes, motioning to the two behind her as a deep scraping sound began to surround them.

"Behind me!" Chiana screamed.

Aeryn whirled around, firing as a dark mass came thundering at them from the top of the pipe.

The creature fell, tumbeling into Valkries feet as he struggled to get out of the way. Chiana screamed, backing into Aeryn who grasped her calmly and moved her aside as she kept aim on the creature.

The creature groaned as their form began to shift in its shape. Dark eyes looking up as they became a Kree just like Valkry except they were very old. The old man had a full rack on his head of ten points. His black hair was very long, long white side burns came down to half the sides of his jaw line. He began to laugh as Valkry helped him stand, smiling as he looked to Aeryn and touched his wound.

"Ane, estridan irn asher."

"He said, you got him." Valkry smiled quietly.

END OF PT 2