It was time for the programs to hibernate. Hal's program was retired with the others. Greyla and Tajlon locked inside their respective storage units could carry on conscious activity. The game parks sat idle. Nova and the mortal crew members were asked to stay in their quarters to conserve energy and save power.

Jejliard was fighting to keep it together. He worried constantly for the safety of the others on Beldora. He couldn't bear to think of the devastation it was undergoing and how totally helpless he'd been to stop it. This plan had to work. He would grow enough tea to keep free of Sora's influence. They would go to the Dezba system and find a habitable place to live. He would start a colony and build another civilization from the ground up. They would learn from past mistakes. When it was safe to return to their home world, they would go back to Beldora and help repair the damages suffered in this terrible war.

The first tea harvest was almost ready. Jejliard had been spending more and more time in Widhbo's office where the Sora couldn't find him, stretching his supply. He drank the rest of his cup, opened his last canister of Theopian tea and put a pot of water on to heat. He was no longer affected by the tea’s sedative effects. He used the tea to allow him safe passage on the Sora when leaving the sanctuary of the office. Tonight, he wanted to check on the plants again. The agricultural section was dark, shut down for the night. In space there was no day or night, but they kept a diurnal pattern for the health of the plants and mortals on board.

The moment he opened the door to the hydroponics section, Jejliard sensed something was wrong. He turned on the light and found the tea plants had been destroyed, uprooted, and defoliated. The smell of poison permeated the area. The leaves lay brown and wilted on the floor.

"You did this!" Jejliard shouted to the walls of the ship. Infuriated by Sora's silence, he continued. "Why won't you speak to me? Are you afraid to confront me in person?"

"You're the one who's afraid," a voice came through his consciousness. It was different than other telepathic communications. The ship's voice had an electrical quality, raspy and edged with little pops and sizzles.

"So you can talk now," Jejliard said. "Tell me why you're doing this."

"Tell me why you rejected me."

"I don't like being controlled."

"Neither do I," Sora replied. "I like games though. Don't you?"

"The games are almost over, Sora."

"I disagree. I think they're just beginning."

Jejliard was feeling lightheaded, probably from the poisonous fumes. He called to Widbho telepathically. "I need you in hydtoponics. Now!" His consciousness was fading. Where could Widbho be? Jejliard staggered toward the door. It slammed shut.

"You're mine now," Sora said.

"You may get me, but you'll never have Tajlon," Jejliard replied. "I made sure of that."

"I have time. Lots of time. More than you can imagine."

Jejliard felt the tea's effect weakening. It wouldn't be long before the ship could take him. He spotted a fire alarm on the wall and tried to block his true thoughts from Sora. He thought of Tajlon on Beldora, their life on Novaland, the wreck... Sora responded to his recall of the wreck and a shriek filled his head.

"I stayed in that rift for a hundred years, Jejliard. Alone," Sora said. "Well, alone except for that crazy daglyr. It was torture."

"I thought time was your friend," Jejliard replied inching toward the alarm, holding his head and focusing on his throbbing headache from the poison to distract Sora,

"I said I had a lot of it. That doesn't mean I like to waste it. A mortal can't imagine all that can be accomplished through an eternity of time. Think of the power, the knowledge..."

Sora's pondering was interrupted by the shrill blaring of the fire alarm which Jejliard had set off. The sprinkler system was activated, drenching the room and making slick puddles on the floor where it pooled.

Jejliard sprang for the door, struggling for traction on the wet floor. "Widhbo!" he shouted telepathically.

Sora laughed and cut the power to the area, plunging Jejliard into darkness. He groped his way to the wall and searched for landmarks to help locate the entrance. The adrenaline in his body was counter acting the effect of tea, making him more vulnerable His mind clouded, and he felt the pull of Sora entering, soft and feathery at the edges of his consciousness. Time seemed to stand still as the ship toyed with his mind. He fought against Sora's domination. The very wall was pulling him in. Determined to hold on to his self-identity, Jejliard wrenched his hands away. Patches of skin tore from his palms and fingers. He staggered toward the door in the darkness, slipped and fell to the floor.

The ship shunted power to the grid beneath him, preparing to absorb his body. It required much more power in areas not specifically made for the task. Jejliard sensed the grid forming beneath him and screamed into the darkness. His cry was answered by voices in the corridor. The fire alarm had awakened the crew. The foreman in charge of the emergency team was the first in the door, bursting through the lock with an axe. Several men followed. Bright beams of light flooded the area and Jejliard was pulled to his feet.

“I want to know who sabotaged this project,” he demanded.

“I don’t know anything about that,” the foreman said. “Where's the fire?”

“There is no fire,” Jejliard said taking the axe from the man closest to him. “I pulled the alarm. Go back to your quarters, everyone. I want every person accounted for.”

Jejliard and the men headed back to the crew's quarters. Confused, the men stared at Jejliard's wet disheveled clothing and bloody hands. The foreman went down his roster and checked off names.

“Everyone is present, sir. No one left the area until the alarm went off.”

"All right. Good job. You saved my life back there."

Jejliard turned and left without further explanation. He knew the ship had help destroying the tea crop in that manner. The question was who. He wanted to check the security camera feed and find the culprit. He headed back to the safety of the office, feeling for the ship in his head, but Sora remained silent. On reaching the office Jejliard could smell fresh soil and the odor of poison even before he entered the room. When he opened the door, he found a man dressed in dark clothing with his back turned.

He was glad he still held an axe in his hand. “Who are you?” Jejlaird asked. A sinking in the pit of his stomach told him he already knew the answer.

“I could ask you the same thing.” The man laughed and turned around. Jejliard faced an exact duplicate of himself.

He heard Sora laugh in his head, an evil ghostly cackle. Anger welled within him, sheer hatred for this alien ship. Mara had tried to warn them. He had dismissed her words as mere tribal superstition. If only he had listened to her and thrown the ship back in the rift, he wouldn't be standing here facing the monster he saw in front of him now. Above all he wished Tajlon had never set foot on the ship. They had all walked straight into the belly of a demon.

He tightened his grip on the axe and walked into the room. A fresh burst of adrenaline pumped through his veins, swept through his heart with the force of a tidal wave and exploded in his brain. Jejliard fought the urge to kill the man before him. “If you’re able to come in here, it means you’re in mortal form,” he said to his double.

“Surprised? It was your idea after all," the new Jejliard replied.

“Sora is operating in direct violation of the directive against duplication,” Jejliard said. The two men stood facing one another. It had violated a very basic law embedded in its circuitry. It shouldn't be possible. The creature was out of control.

“This is what happens when you stay in my blind spot too long," the new Jejliard said. "I find loopholes in the law."

He thought of the prophecy Mara had warned them about. She had mentioned a Great Destroyer which would go beyond Beldora and wreak havoc. If he would admit it, the Sora fit the description perfectly. A chaos creature such as Sora was far more powerful than any mortal could ever imagine.

Jejliard called out for Widhbo, aloud and telepathically "Where are you? The devil's in your office."

“Widhbo’s not here.” the new Jejliard said. “This is between us."

Accusing his opponent openly seemed the best approach. “It was you,” Jejlliard said. “You destroyed the tea plants.”

The new Jejliard laughed again. “Prove it.”

“I can smell the poison on you.”

“No different than you.”

“What are you doing here?” Jejliard asked. He took in some deep breaths of clean air to flush the remaining poison from his system and calm his rage.

“I was just reviewing the feed from the security cameras to see who destroyed my plants,” the new Jejliard replied. His face twisted into an evil grin. Sora had taken the man.

“Don’t think I won’t use this,” Jejliard said weighing the weight of the axe in his hand. The pot of water Jejliard had put on earlier was at a full boil and whistled loudly, interrupting.

“I’m forgetting my manners,” the new Jejliard said. He tossed in a handful of tea leaves to steep. “Why don’t we try to sort things out in a civilized manner?”

The security feed changed from a darkened screen to a well-lighted view when the lights in the hydroponics lab were turned on. A dark clothed figure poured a container of liquid into the irrigation reservoir and turned it on. He then ran out among the tea plants and attacked them with his bare hands, pulling them up by their roots and turning over the containers of new plants. When the man faced the camera, there was no mistaking his identity.

While the new Jejliard proudly watched the screen, Jejliard slipped beside the tea pot and dumped the entire canister of tea leaves into the water. It would be a lethal dose.

A disturbance filled the room and Widhbo teleported into the center of the office. He stood looking back and forth between the two men.

“Where have you been?” the new Jejliard asked.

"Visiting with Tajlon. Why are there two of you?”

“He’s the unauthorized copy,” Jejliard said. “I found him in here when I returned.”

“Why were you out of the office at this time of night?" Widhbo asked. “You first." He pointed at the new Jejliard sitting at the table.

"I was checking on the crop. He destroyed it. All of it," the new Jejliard said.

“Liar!” Jejliard said back to him. “You destroyed the tea.”

"Oh, not good," Widhbo said.

"Not good? Quite the understatement if you ask me," the new Jejliard said.

"If Sora's willing to do this, what's to stop it?" Jejliard asked.

"Nothing. She's playing a wicked little game," Widhbo replied.

"There has to be something you can do to contain this phenomenon and prevent Sora from manifesting in any manner it chooses." Jejliard said. "What about the spore form you mentioned earlier?"

"I could cut all power to the ship and shut it down," Widhbo said. "Jettison all the nuclear components and power core."

"So do it!" Jejliard said. “Kill this damn ship.”

Widhbo looked askance at Jejliard. "It would also kill every mortal on board. They would all freeze all freeze to death in a short while."

“There has to be a more humane way to solve this,” the new Jejliard said.

“There are worse fates than death,” Jejliard replied. "Kill everyone on board if necessary. Widhbo. It's too dangerous."

Widhbo paced back and forth between the two men, effectively keeping them apart.

"You know, it's a little ironic," Widhbo said. "But I think Hal's tampering with the ship's program may have caused this."

"Come again?" Jejliard said, stirred by the mention of Hal. He wondered if the programs could still be revived if the ship was shut down.

"He helped me program the hibernation cycles and set up Jejliard's file to loop and never wake up."

"I like that idea," Jejliard said.

"It was worth a try. But Sora must have caught on to it and acted on the information before the program was shut down," Widhbo said. "I suppose I could try to repair this malfunction,"

"Malfunction?" Jejliard said. "Is that what you call it?"

"I could call it a blatant contradiction of its programming in violation of the directives if you prefer. Same thing."

The new Jejliard stepped past Widhbo and seized up the other man. "The axe gives you an unfair advantage," he said.

Jejliard handed the axe to Widhbo. "That should even things out. Let's remain civilized, shall we? I think we should discuss this over some tea instead," Jejliard said and poured them each a cup. He offered one to Jejliard the Sora.

* * *

Jejliard had been drinking the tea regularly and was resistant to its sedative effect. Sora's new Jejliard had no sooner finished drinking his cup when he fell asleep, his head on the table.

"I see you were telling the truth," Widhbo said to Jejliard. He continued pacing the room and picked up the empty canister of tea and remarked, "This was full yesterday."

"My guest was deserving of it," Jejliard said.

"I'm sorry, Jejliard. I never meant for it to come to this."

"Look out for Tajlon and tell him I love him more than ever," Jejliard said. "Tell him I died of my own volition this time." He finished his cup of tea. It was strong and bitter on his tongue.

Widhbo was silent.

"Widhbo?"

"Yes. I'll do that for you... someday. I won't be seeing Tajlon again for a while."

"Why not?"

"He is placing a lot of blame on me and I'm not sure how long it will take for him to forgive me. He threw me out just now or Sora would be munching on your bones as we speak."

Jejliard grew weak and had to sit down. He sat at the King's Table for the last time. "I don't fully understand the role you played in all of this, Widhbo. I don't really care to know. All that matters is you're standing by me now like a true friend and I appreciate it."

"You were my choice of mortals, Jejliard. I was very proud of you back on Beldora. I'm proud of you now. You're dying a noble death. A fitting death for a warrior king, I'd say. I'll make sure your coffin makes it to the bridge of this ship where you belong eventually."

The lethal dose of tea hit Jejliard full force. His head was swimming. The lights in the room melted together and reality blurred. Hallucinations set in. He saw Nova swimming toward him through the rushing waters; the child hanging from the leopard’s mouth as he saved infant Tajlon; the lifeless body of his wife floating in the debris after the tsunami hit Novaland; then another vision of the flames of Sera Luca burning down. They surrounded him. His body felt as though it were on fire, then a numbing coldness crept in, starting from his legs. He had a dim awareness of Widhbo lying him down on the cot, placing a pillow under his head and wrapping him in a blanket. Feathers stroked his forehead. The lights faded, closed to a narrow tunnel, dimmed further, and went out.

* * *

Widhbo fashioned a small interference cage to block Sora's power grid. He sealed Jejliard's remains, placed them inside the cage and stowed it in a large supply container, one of several identical containers stacked along a back wall. Widhbo sat in silence and waited. It would only be a matter of time until Sora generated flesh and blood replicas who would be able to enter his sanctuary.

It wasn't until the next day that a loud pounding on the door jarred Widhbo from his mourning.

"Open up!" guards shouted from the other side.

A moment later came the sounds of heavy steel striking steel. Axes began to dent the door. Before he teleported to the hull, Widhbo did a neural override on the guards to impress upon them there would be no point in searching further once they broke through and found one body, the body of Jejliard the Sora. lifeless at the table. The knowledge of Tajlon's lonely persona, trapped outside the ship would never be known by Sora. The secret was safe. It lay buried with Jejliard the father.