STORY:

He was right. Not about her leaving, of course. But about the prowler being a crappy little ship. She briefly debated whether she could make it to her destination with the compulsor unit already giving her problems, but decided she couldn’t risk it. She’d have to turn back. It was just logic, but she was honest enough with herself to admit that she wouldn’t mind proving Crichton wrong too. He had said if she told him goodbye they would never see each other again. He’d have to eat those words. Whatever that meant. And the part she needed would have to come from Crichton’s module, which would mean he couldn’t follow her even if he was tempted to, until he replaced the part. "That would be the icing on the cake, " she thought. She briefly wondered why so many of Crichton’s Earth sayings had to do with food.

As she swung the prowler around she found herself remembering the last time the compulsor unit had failed in her prowler. She was just pulling it out of his ship when Crichton had come running up.

"What’re you doing?"

"M’Prowler needs one of those Moya compulsor units."

"From my module? I don’t think so."

"Well, it’s a matter of priorities, Crichton. You know which ship is more important."

"Yes, I know which one is more important to you."

"The one that can actually get us out of trouble if we come under attack."

"I know someone who will soon be under attack if they don’t . . ." Crichton had begun, and Pilot had interrupted them just at that moment to tell them Moya had picked up something on her sensor, and Crichton had quickly told her, "You were right. Put it in."

And those thoughts immediately brought back all that had happened on Moya that day. Crichton had been enveloped by that glowing green glob and had been spit out of it, cold and shaking. And then the others had followed - the primitive one that Chiana had tried to protect, and the one who was supposedly a more advanced human. Her lips curled up involuntarily as she remembered where this creature had been seriously lacking. Only Crichton could come into the Uncharted Territories and be tripled, and then doubled. She frowned suddenly as that thought reminded her of her loss. She shouldn’t go back. They would have to say goodbye all over again. But what choice did she have? She was already headed back and the risk really was too great. She doggedly continued on, her thoughts still centered on Crichton. He had been a marked man from the beginning. First, because he had accidentally sent Crais’ brother to his death, and then because the Ancients had put the wormhole information in his mind. And then he had managed to fall into the hands of the one person in the UT who wanted that information more than anything else. On top of that, he had ended up with the clone of his enemy in his mind even after Scorpius’ chip had been removed by the Diagnosan on the Ice Planet.

The clone.

She had never told Crichton about the clone. His clone. She hadn’t told him that her John had been able to get rid of the clone. And she hadn’t told him how dangerous the clone could be. She at least owed him that.