Jejliard had called for a meeting in his conference room. Widhbo invited Hal, Greyla and the Raemolles. Greyla didn't show.

"Where's everyone else?" Jejliard asked. "I need to begin jury selection. The trial can't proceed until I assemble a jury,"

"I see this as more of a preliminary meeting," Widhbo said. "We need to sort things out first."

"Where I come from you can't have a murder trial without a body," Danlea said.

"On this ship I'm the law," Jejliard said matter of factly. "We are far outside the jurisdiction of any Beldorian council, but I will adhere to the spirit of their law where it applies. I have recorded evidence. That will be sufficient."

"Well, good luck finding anyone. I won't be on you jury," Danlea said.

"Nor will I," Raemolle chimed in.

"I have the entire crew to choose from," Jejliard said and dismissed them with a waive of his hand.

"Who's going to represent Tajlon? " Hal asked.

"He's intelligent enough to represent himself," Jejliard replied. "But if he needs help, I'm willing to stand in for his legal representation."

"The hell if you will. I can do it," Hal countered. "I'll need a little time to prepare."

"I'm the most qualified one here and more impartial," Widhbo said. "It would be highly irregular for an accuser to represent the defendant, Jejliard."

"You have no legal responsibilities in this dimension by your own admission," Jejliard said. "I recall a mention of diplomatic immunity. Regardless of what status you held in your own dimension you are not qualified. Just as you can't be put on trial here, you can't be involved in any of our legal proceedings."

"No. You forget whose ship you're on," Widhbo countered. "We may not be in my dimension, but you are all guests on this interdimensional ship which set out from my dimension. I am, therefore, the captain. I have the ultimate command and responsibilty. My authority cannot be questioned. That makes me the law on this vessel, not Jejliard."

Jejliard's face reddened, and he balled up his fists in anger. "I'm in charge and you know it."

"I know I had this very same discussion with the original Jejliard. It was settled long before you manifested in his image.," Widhbo replied.

"If you want to be Tajlon's legal counsel, fine. The jury will decide his guilt and I'll be the judge," Jejliard said.

Widhbo fluffed up his feathers and continued, "I will allow the trial, but due to mitigating circumstances, the maximum sentence will be banishment from this ship for life. To clarify, that's one mortal lifetime."

"That's ridiculous," Jejliard came back. "We need every member of this crew functional. We should execute him and regenerate him."

"Get your own ship if you want to be in charge, Jejliard," Widhbo said and disappeared from the room.

* * *

Greyla decided she'd just as soon skip the conference. The last person she wanted to see was the man who killed their Jejliard and was now persecuting Tajlon. She found the door to her apartment ajar. Her luggage was open on the floor and her clothing had been dumped out. Everything was in disarray. She straightened up her mattress and bedding wondering what was so important and speculated Jejliard, or more likely one of his guards, had been there looking for something.

She checked to make sure nobody was hiding in her room, then closed the door and locked it behind her. Her mind kept going back and forth between Tajlon's arrest and the comment Widhbo let slip. She was furious at Hal for refusing to tell her everything that happened on the sub.

"I feel so alone," she thought aloud. "If I'd stayed on the sub, I would have never known any of this happened." She sat on the bed going over events since they had discovered the wrecked ship. It had certainly wrecked their lives.

A knock on the door startled her. "Who is it?"

"Widhbo."

Greyla unlocked the door and let him in. "Really? Now you're knocking on the door?"

"I have time at the moment," he said. He came in, placed a box on her dresser and plopped down on her bed.

"By all means, make yourself at home."

"Nice bed, if I do say so myself." He looked about the room admiring his handiwork. "Jejliard designed the blueprints for the living quarters, but I furnished everything."

"It's lovely, thanks," Greyla said. Her own emotions were foremost, but she could sense an extreme sadness in Widhbo. He wasn't handling the situation as well as he pretended. "I can't believe Jejliard's dead," she said. She didn't bring up her grandfather's death. That would have to wait.

"You are most welcome. I tried to think of everything. It appears I overlooked the most important one. If only I'd known the ship had an agenda of its own," Widhbo said. "Now everything is ruined. It just never occurred to me."

"What exactly is its agenda?"

"The Sora has become conscious and is looking for a form in which to express itself as an independent entity. It's evolving and using Jejliard's program as a template to build on. It's trying to assimilate Jejliard and effectively become him."

"That's horrible. What's to keep it from gobbling up the rest of us?"

"Don't die for starters."

Greyla stared at him in silence, considering all possibilities. Finally, she said, "Widhbo, I want to talk with Tajlon. Would Jejliard let me do that?"

"Not likely."

Greyla sighed. "As his legal counsel you can see him. We have to figure something out."

"I'll be right back." Widhbo teleported from the room.

"Here we go again," Greyla said. "Now what?" She sat down on the bed to wait.

Widhbo returned a short time later and deposited Tajlon in the apartment.

"You brought him here?" Greyla asked jumping up to embrace Tajlon. "I'm so sorry about Jejliard."

"You have five minutes. Then I have to take him back or the guards will get suspicious," Widhbo replied.

"We'll find a way out of this, Tajlon," she said. "There has to be a solution."

"You know I'll be found guilty," Tajlon said. "I did kill the imposter. It's all recorded on the ship's security cam."

"I have a few more tricks left," Widhbo said. "We'll see how it goes at trial. You will most likely be banished from the Sora."

"How can anyone be banished from the ship?" Greyla asked. "Where could you go, Tajlon?"

"Back to Beldora. I plan to take a transport and anyone else who cares to come along."

"You know what's waiting for us on Beldora," Greyla said.

"You've uploaded, right?" Tajlon asked, gazing toward he box sitting on her dresser.

"Yes. What difference does that make?" Greyla asked.

"You realize we're all going to die on this ship long before we reach another habitable planet, Greyla. That box holds your ticket to immortality."

He pointed to the rather plain box sitting on the dresser. "Widhbo can regenerate us after we die, like Gengor."

Widhbo added. "It would be your identical twin really. I can do that regardless of whether you stay or return to Beldora. As long as the Sora is traveling through deep space there's no reason to make another flesh and blood version, at most I would manifest you as a living digital program, a plasma projection on the ship's energy grid."

Greyla went over to examine the box. It had her name written on it. She gave a little shudder realizing a version of herself was inside it right now.

"What exactly is a living program? How is that different than being 'alive' in my storage unit?"

"You can actually walk around on the ship using its power grid and interact with persons, either in those who made of flesh or with other programs," Widhbo explained, "It requires a lot of energy. I'll have to shut the grid down to save power for the trip. The new storage units like yours have their own power core."

Greyla picked up the box. "So this is what immortality looks like? Not very impressive from the outside."

"I haven't uploaded yet," Tajlon said. "If Jejliard or his men shoot me, I'm permanently dead."

"Why are you waiting to upload?"

"We think Jejliard's chip is what caused the ship's program to go berserk. Widhbo wants to keep my storage unit away from the ship's files. As soon as another unit like yours is ready, I'll upload."

"I could have waited," Greyla said and turned to Widhbo. "Why didn't you give Tajlon this unit instead of me?"

"You were testing my new design," Widhbo said.

Greyla paused for a moment. "So, I'm the experiment."

"It wasn't my idea," Tajlon said apologetically.

"You're the perfect subject, Greyla," Widhbo said. "I've added the time loop feature you requested. I only have enough material for a few self-contained units. Tajlon, Hal and the Raemolles each get one. Everyone else will have to share a unit. They'll simply have to learn to get along I suppose."

"It's fine. Somebody had to go first." She put the box down and hugged Tajlon again. "I'll be on the transport with you. I'm betting Hal and the Raemolles will too."

"Times almost up," Widhbo reminded them.

"Why can't we just take the transport and leave?" Greyla asked.

"It's not that simple, Greyla," Widhbo said. "The ship is getting temperamental. We have to play the game and force it to make the decisions we want through rational persuasion."

"Do you know how crazy that sounds?" Greyla asked.

Widhbo cocked his head to the side. "I know what I'm talking about."

"Okay. Let me put it this way. Who's in control here?" she asked. "You or the ship, Widhbo?"

"The ship obviously. We have to outsmart the Sora and keep it happy. If threatened, the ship could fold back into its spore form. Every mortal on board would perish."

"That's not the answer I was hoping to hear, Widhbo," she said.

"I have accidentally unleased a primeval force," Widhbo admitted. "The ancients had it locked down. Tamed it for a purpose. Now I've let it out of it's cage apparently. By nature, it's somewhat chaotic and unpredictable. Fortunately, it's following a path of least resistance at the moment."

"And what path is that?" Tajlon asked.

"Being Jejliard." Widhbo said. He grabbed Tajlon and they vanished in a flash of light.