Brief synopsis:
A Peacekeeper Marauder comes aboard Moya, but this time, the crew think they are prepared. Crichton dresses up as a Peacekeeper captain, with Aeryn a lieutenant. The others are either locked in cells, or servants to Crichton. They put on a convincing display, but this doesn't stop an intellant virus getting loose and causing havoc on moya. When nobody knows who the virus is in, who can you trust?

The Main Story:
When a damaged Marauder comes aboard Moya, Crichton is quick to come up with a plan. He gets D'Argo, Zhaan and Rygel to play prisoner, whilst he and Aeryn dress up as Peacekeepers and go to welcome their guests. Pilot confirms that the Marauder is not from Crais's Command Carrier, so they hope that these Peacekeepers aren't looking for them. However, when they arrive, the Captain, Larraq, a special ops officer, takes over the ship, stating that his mission is of greater importance and that he must not be questioned.

Thanks to a little DRD powered attack, and the well timed arrival of John Crichton, the invaders are put on the back foot, and Crichton offers his help, as long as they ask nicely. He takes them to view the prisoners, and agrees to help them take their cargo to a nearby Gammack Base. Chiana is curious about this cargo however, and when she visits the Peacekeepers acting as a servant, she makes a crude copy of the key they use to open the casing, using the imprint formed on a foodcube.

Aeryn tries to learn more by talking to Larraq, and discovers that the cargo has taken them nearly a cycle to capture, using a stungun, ready to be analysed by the scientists on the base they are heading for. At the same time, Rygel manages to escape through one of his tunnels, and heads for the container. There he meets Chiana, with key, and the two agree to split the winnings 50:50. Once inside however, things go badly as not only is the creature inside open to access, but the investigation is cut short by the arrival of the Peacekeeper, Thorrn.

Thorrn goes to the cargo, and unfortunately touches the alien. Some kind of transformation occurs, and when Thorrn's fellow officer Rhed arrives, he shoots and kills Rhed. The mystery effect is then transferred to Chiana, and so when Crichton and the others arrive, the location of this unknown problem is similarly unknown. Larraq and Hassan explain that the creature was carrying an intellant virus that they had tracked for a cycle. It moves from host to host to avoid capture, and then lays its spores. When Thorrn admits to suffering memory loss, Chiana tells them it is inside Rygel, and the hunt begins.

When D'Argo and Zhaan also break free, a firefight nearly begins, but John manages to negotiate a truce that will allow them to work together to find Rygel. As they search, Larraq admits to Aeryn that he has lost 4 crewmembers now in the hunt for this virus. When they do find Rygel, Larraq stuns the Hynerian, and stores him in the same way as their previous cargo. Chiana uses this opportunity to transfer the virus to Crichton. Zhaan clearly notices something happen though, and later requests that Chiana visit her cell, as Zhaan and D'Argo are locked up again once Rygel is found.

Crichton meanwhile takes out the one person who has an antibody for the virus. Hassan, the female Peacekeeper. He kills her, and smashes the stungun. However, Zhaan is on to him as she tests Chiana's acidity, and finds traces of acid that show she was affected by the virus. With John on the bridge increasing the speed towards the base, and with Aeryn and Larraq with him, Thorrn announces Hassan's death and heads to the bridge. Zhaan, D'Argo and Chiana meet them there also, and though the charade is now over, the problem is that Zhaan believes Crichton has the virus, and that it is still loose.

Crichton causes a massive scuffle between all present, and when this finishes, everybody has a gun pointed at somebody, with the exception of Chiana and Zhaan who are unarmed,and John who suffers memory loss after having been released by the virus. However, who is it in now? As the virus can't re-enter a host, John and Chiana seperate themselves from the main group. Zhaan then sets up an antibody which rules out herself, and then Aeryn, followed by Thorrn. This leaves D'Argo and Larraq. D'Argo takes the test, and this shows it must be Larraq. The infected Peacekeeper runs away, and manages to take Aeryn hostage.

Larraq defends himself, and kills Thorrn. When John and D'Argo arrive, he stabs Aeryn. Whilst D'Argo stays to help Aeryn, John chases after Larraq, the logical choice as John can't be reinfected. Chiana tries to help too, but is unable to stop the man. Crichton has a plan though, and tells Pilot to let Larraq get aboard the damaged Marauder again. Crichton then asks that Moya turn around, 180 degrees, and initiate the first stages of starburst. This creates a spark that ignites the trail of caesium fuel leading to the damaged Marauder, exploding the ship, and destroying the virus.

When Rygel is released from the stasis container, D'Argo shows his annoyance at the Hynerian's actions which led to the release of the virus that could have caused far more damage than it did. Meanwhile, Aeryn begins to recover from her wound as John watches over her. The two talk, and happily, Aeryn seems grateful for John's support.

References and continuity:

The visiting Peacekeepers ask why Moya isn't wearing a control collar. This huge device was seen in Premiere, controlling Moya and preventing her escape.

D'Argo complains about faking imprisonment, and later vows never to be taken prisoner again, again. He was falsely imprisoned, and it must have been especially hard for the Luxan to spend so many cycles locked in chains.

Notice that Chiana takes the Peacekeeper ident chip from Larraq in the scuffle between the two at the end. This becomes very useful in the next episode, Nerve.

Funny or interesting quotes:

Rygel: "Snurch? I don't snurch, I procure!"

Rygel won't confess to being a thief as he was once a Dominar, but does admit to aquiring items from time to time.

Chiana: "Is everybody aboard this ship kinkoid?"

When Zhaan asks Chiana to lick her bed coverings to test for acidity, Chiana thinks the entire crew has gone completely mad.

Crichton: "Okay, the virus is in one of you, and you all got guns. Great."

Crichton, with memory loss after being infected struggles to keep up, and when he does figure things out, he is troubled by the number of guns pointed at different people.

Chiana: "Hey, lighten up, you didn't do it."

Logical and clinical, Chiana points out that it wasn't John himself who killed Hassan, but the virus. John, typically human, still feels guilt for what his controlled body did.

Crichton: "You got lucky, he missed your heart."
Aeryn: "Closer than you think."

Though the blade missed Aeryn's heart, she had nearly fallen for the special ops Peacekeeper. Was John in the back of her mind stopping her though?

Episode Trivia:

The intellant virus has complete control over its host, and moves around until its location is unknown. It then tries to breed, laying thousands of spores to infect huge regions of the galaxy. There are antibodies, but the only way to detect its presence comes after a person is infected. They leave the host with slightly raised levels of acidity and short term memory loss.

A Delvian colony was wiped out by a similar intellant virus.

The Peacekeepers are expanding their research with bases setup in the Uncharted Territories as well now, bases unknown even to Officer Sun.

Writer:

This episode was written by Doug Heyes, who also wrote: