Chapter Two

Keith took off his helmet and ran a hand through his sweat-dampened hair. He was once again thankful that he had gotten it cut. His head cooled off so much faster than it had before it was closely-cropped. He grinned at the Princess who was coming out of her chute.

"Good practice," he remarked.

"Only because you destroyed all of us...again," she said good-naturedly. "I'll get you one day, Commander. You just watch your back."

"I'll be looking foward to it, Princess."

Hunk and Pidge joined them, both breathless.

"That was a good maneuver, Skipper," Pidge said. "I've got to use it sometime. How did you ever come up with something like that so quickly."

"It takes planning, Pidge. I wanted to use that move on Lance, but seeing as he's sick, I had to use it on you."

"Is he really sick?" Allura questioned suspiciously. "He's done this before."

"Only because he was in cahoots with the nurse," Keith said. "But Doctor Gorma checked him and he says Lance was out like a light. He woke up long enough to go to his quarters and he wasn't seen since."

"I'll bring him his breakfast," Hunk volunteered.

"You mean you'll eat his breakfast," Pidge snickered.

"I'm a good friend!" the bigger man said, feigning wounded pride. "I would never let a sick friend starve."

"Well, if that sick friend hadn't glued your underwear drawer shut I would believe you," Keith put in.

Hunk reddened as he glanced at Allura. She laughed.

"Don't worry, Hunk," she assured him. "I'll try not to wonder what you're wearing."

"Now I know why my boxers were all stretched out," Pidge said, snapping his fingers.

Their bantering was interrupted by an anxious Coran approaching them. The smile on Keith's face disappeared.

"A group of Calion's security men caught two intruders this morning," Coran said.

"From where?" Keith asked, puzzled. "We didn't pick anything up with scans."

Coran and Keith began to walk towards the main control panel, the other three close at their heels.

"Apparently, there was no aircraft in sight nor an ion train indicating that there had been one," Coran explained. "It's as if these two appeared out of thin air."

Allura chewed her bottom lip pensively. She recalled her feeling of unease earlier and wondered if it had anything to do with the appearance of these strangers. She looked up and found Keith's dark eyes on her face.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Remember when I called here earlier, asking if something was wrong?" she said. "I think that was it."

"The intruders?" Coran said, stepping towards her. "Do you think...?"

"My skills are hardly finely tuned, but I have enough natural control of the...the Magic to be able to feel when something happens," the Princess explained haltingly, feeling uncomfortable talking about it. "I think that something happened this morning, but I can't tell you what it was."

"Are they bringing them up here?" Hunk asked.

"No. I told them that you would go there to pick the intruders up," Coran answered.

"I'll go," Keith said.

"I want to come," Allura said, putting a hand on his arm.

He nodded. "We'll just take the Black."

They started for the chutes, when Keith turned.

"Hunk, have you upgraded the separator forcefield in the cockpit yet?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Good. We'll probably need it."

Mulder kept his head down, but stole glances at their captors every few minutes. They looked deceptively like a band of Merry Men. They were all wearing the same green tunics and brown pants, but the electrical forcefield keeping him and Scully stationary told him they were centuries ahead of Robin Hood. He had touched the forcefield to see what would happen and had gotten a nice shock in return. So, he and Scully were stuck sitting on the sole cot in the space they had. She was unabashedly staring at the equipment around them. They were in some sort of security base for monitors were everywhere, with scenes ranging from alleys to the sky above them.

"Twilight zone," Scully muttered.

"That's what I'm thinking," Mulder said. "Or we've been abducted."

Scully let out a long-suffering sigh. "You're not that lucky, Mulder."

"Scully," he said, impassioned, "The blue leaf, these strange men, these advanced devices. We are obviously not on Earth."

"How do you know?" she argued. "What if we're on some unknown base somewhere in South America? Thousands of plant species have yet to be discovered and those trees could be one of them."

"How do you suppose they got us here then?"

He looked at his watch. It had stopped. He out his hand triumphantly. She let out a huff and stared at a table where the coffeepot that was confiscated from Mulder sat.

"This is consistent with most abductions. Loss of memory, my watch stopping," he recited. "Come on, Scully. We've been through this before."

Before they could continue their discussion, activity at what Mulder guessed to be the main controls caught their attention. A large image of the sky appeared and hovered in the air. Withing seconds, an enormous robotic Lion appeared in the view.

"What is that?" Scully breathed.

"A flying Lion," Mulder replied.

"Commander Knight and the Princess are here," one of the Merry Men said to another.

A few minutes later, two people walked into the room. Mulder and Scully stood when they neared. They were both wearing dark gray flightsuits; the young man had a red turtleneck on while the young woman had a blue one. They both had helmets, red and blue respectively, tucked under their arms and appeared to be pilots. Mulder glanced at his partner from the corner of his eye and knew that she was thinking the same thing.

How old are they?

The young man stood a few inches away the forcefield, his dark eyes sizing up Mulder then Scully. A small wrinkle formed between his eyebrows. He turned his head and said something into the young woman's the Princess' ear. In unison, they turned to look at the agents.

"Who are you?" he asked in Alliance standard. "What do you want with us?"

Scully shook her head, her expression one of exasperation.

"Do you speak like the Arusi?" the Princess asked in Arani.

"Nope," Mulder said with a sigh. They had gone through this with the Merry Men already.

"You speak English," the young pilot said with perfect American English. He sounded relieved.

"Yes...." Mulder said. "So do you." He was confused. He hadn't expected their abductors to be able to speak their language. It didn't seem to fit with his whole theory.

"I'm Commander Knight and this is Princess Allura of Arus," Knight introduced.

"Nice to meet you," Mulder said, bemused. Princess?

"Why are we here?" Scully demanded, stepping forward.

The Princess put a hand up to stop her from going any further. "You might touch the forcefield," she said, her words accented. It sounded like a mixture of European accents. "To answer your question, we don't know why you're here. We were about to ask you the same thing."

Mulder crossed his arms. "We don't know how we got here either. We just...popped up."

Commander Knight and the Princess exchanged a look. Knight then turned and said something to a Merry Man. He drew the sleek and deadlly-looking weapon from his side holster and pointed it at the agents.

"Do not make any sudden movements or you're going to wake up with a nasty headache," he warned. "We are going to lower the forcefield and put restraints on you both."

With a flicker of light, the forcefield went down and two Merry Men bound Mulder's and Scully's hands with devices that looked like handcuffs except the two wristbands were connected by a steel bar so that their movements would be restricted. They walked after the Princess at the Commander's gesture. She led them out the door. The Lion they had seen on the viewscreen was sitting right outside. Scully and Mulder tilted their heads up to get a better look at it.

"Where are we?" Mulder asked.

"On Arus," Knight replied as if Mulder knew what he was talking about.

"Right."

"I'm Special Agent Dana Scully and this is my partner Fox Mulder," Scully said. "If you let us go now, we won't press charges."

Knight gave her a funny look. Next to him, the Princess tensed, but she didn't say anything.

"Special Agents?" the Commander said carefully. "Of what?"

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation."

His eyes widened. "The FBI? It shut down a hundred or so years ago." He looked thoughtful. "It would explain the clothes."

"Shut down?" Scully repeated. "And what about our clothes?"

"A hundred years?" Mulder echoed. "What's the date?"

"It is 2215 AD," was the reply.

There was a momentary pause and then Mulder let out a small laugh.

"My God...my body should be beyond ashes by now!" Mulder crowed.

"And why are you so happy about that?" Scully questioned.

"Because it so obviously isn't," Mulder retorted, posing a little.

She raised an eyebrow and her mouth quirked. He always found a way to ease a situation. "That's great, Mulder."