Hal alternated between the game park and excursions outside in the ship’s corridors to look for other survivors. His first priority was to check Greyla's magiton and was devastated when he found it empty. He had all but given up hope of finding any other survivors when he ran across another purely human persona in the archives. It was incomplete, with memory gaps and broken strings, but human. They were copying a file and oblivious to his presence. It was not anyone Hal recognized. He passed through their mental string without being noticed and found an identifier called Etaine. He searched the archives but found no record of an Etaine there.

Hal searched for a clue to her identity and extracted a match code that linked up with a file in the archives. The code belonged to Greyla's file. The only person with that match code, had to be Greyla, what was left of her. There was no way of knowing how much of her mind was still functioning or how traumatized she may be. Hal hesitated to speak, wondering if she would be able to remember him. She had locked down her physical attributes to avoid detection.

Hal came out of his disguise and displayed his human form before speaking. "I've been looking for answers too. So far there's no good explanation for what happened."

Greyla materialized before his eyes. Hal immediately recognized the attractive young woman with green eyes and cascading dark hair.

Greyla eyes widened with fear. She looked as though she might flee at any moment.

"Greyla, it's me, Hal. You know me. Think."

She looked at him blankly at first, then a light of recognition dawned in her eyes.

"Quick, you need to hide your emotions," Hal said and transferred her a copy of the sleep and delay program he had used for himself.

"Of course, how stupid of me not to think of this!" She said and activated the emotional lock down sequence, then slipped into a droid like demeanor.

Hal did a scan of Greyla's program. "Well, in all fairness, you are missing a lot of your mental faculties," he said. Using her master file, he refreshed her rational traits and memory files. It was a quick fix, not perfect. A more precise repair would have to wait.

"Greyla. Yes, I remember now," she said, "Thanks. I shouldn't have let you sneak up on me like that."

"I cheated," he said, explaining the worm program.

"Smart."

"I hope I'm smart enough to beat this. Together we'll have a better chance," Hal said. "What have you found out so far?"

"I think there may be a few others who survived, hiding of course. I was too afraid to approach any of them."

"It wasn't an easy decision for me to reveal myself to you," Hal admitted. "Maybe we can find them and band together to fight this, whatever it is."

"I've only seen what it does," Greyla said.

"Tell me exactly what you saw, Greyla."

I've been Etaine for such a long while. After what I've been through, I really don't feel I'm Greyla anymore. Could you please call me Etaine?"

"Sure. I understand. Now tell me what happened."

"I was attached by Nova."

"Nova? He would never hurt you," Hal said.

"Yes, Nova. It was a mutant copy of him. I saw him attack a man in the hallway earlier. I tried to hide in my unit, but he was on the ledge over my door. The next thing I knew he was on my bed. We had a battle of wills. It was as though Nova was fighting his own internal battle between good and evil. I barely escaped before he lost control and attacked. I had to sever my mind from my body to get away."

After recalling the horror of her experience for Hal, Etaine crouched down behind the counter and looked about for danger.

"Let's get out of here and go somewhere less exposed," Hal said and led her back to his game park. "It will be safer in there."

Etaine followed him inside. "This is paradise compared to the rest of the ship," she said, taking in the lush scenery.

“I like it,” Hal replied. “You know, it sounds like something was possessing Nova, controlling him. The question is who, or what?"

"Can't you lock us in?" Etaine asked pointing the the entrance.

"I could, but that might raise suspicions."

"Yes. You're right of course,” she said and perched on a fallen log. “Don't you remember, Hal?"

"Remember what?"

"Remember when we first found the Sora underwater? Back on Beldora?" Etaine asked.

"That was a long time ago. Besides that was just Gengor, and we left him behind."

"What if we didn't? What if there's something else hiding on this ship?"

"How could we have missed something this monstrous during the renovation?" Hal said. “Widhbo oversaw the whole operation, and nothing would have gotten past him.”

“I like being physical again,” Etaine noted, rubbing her hand over the rough bark of the log. "What about Jejliard? He was not acting at all normal before we went into hibernation."

Hal’s first impulse was to reject the idea, but paused to consider it. “Jejliard was stressed out after the mutiny and Tajlon's trial."

"Then there was the duplication problem," Etaine reminded him. "I know Widhbo addressed it at the time, but if it happened once, why not again?"

"But this would be crazy," Hal countered. "What possible reason could he have?”

Etaine scowled back at Hal. “Jejliard was unreasonable and unstable. He locked up Tajlon, his own son. He was about to snap before we all went dormant.”

Hal nodded his head in reluctant agreement. Jejliard had been his best friend and he hated to admit it might be him. “And Jejliard is the only person on board with the ability to do this, except Widhbo, of course."

Etaine recoiled at the idea. “You know I was always taken with Jejliard and was in love with him at one time. I never really got along well with Widhbo. He's always been a nut job,” she said. “But, Widhbo didn’t change, Jejliard did. It was Jejliard who was really starting to annoy everyone, exerting more control over our lives. After Tajlon's trial, it got even worse. It was as though all his negative traits were exaggerated. Widhbo tried to help Tajlon, did help actually.”

“Yeah, it does make more sense to suspect Jejliard,” Hal took a deep breath as he considered the full implication. “But why?”

“Widhbo came to visit me in my magiton unit before I went dormant. We devised a plan to take control of the ship from Jejliard during the dormancy period,” Etaine explained. “We were going to release Tajlon from lock down. Jejliard's unit would remain dormant until Widhbo could run a diagnostic and clean up his program files."

"It's possible Jejliard got wind of it. This ship has a way of knowing things and may have tipped him off. I have an idea. Let me check Jejliard's activity file,” Hal said. “Stay here Etaine. I'll be back as soon as possible. Do you know how to hide, shape shift?"

"I was in a stone wall forever. I know how to hide."

"Do it after I leave, so I won't know where you are. Just in case..."