After his guest left McGee pondered the idea of getting stinking drunk and staying that way until he either died or his liver gave out.  He regretfully concluded that that would have to wait.  So he only got moderately drunk. Thus he was only moderately hung over when he asked Ther'lin where Marc was.  She directed him to the bed Marc shared with Dinah.

Which indeed was exactly where he was, much to Dinah's delight, since in bed with her was where she preferred him.  She was the first to admit she was entirely selfish about him.  He was hers and there would never be enough time alone with him to suit her.  She snuggled closer to him, her hand caressing his chest and kissed his shoulder.   "I love you," she said.

"You demonstrated that quite handily, darling," he replied slightly sleepily.  He was far too contented not to be that relaxed.

She smiled, fading into sleep herself.  She wasn't amused when Aaru jerked her back into wakefulness an unknown length of time later with the news that McGee was coming aboard to see them.  "He needs a girlfriend," Dinah muttered.

"Or a sex toy," Marc muttered darkly as he pulled up his pants and zipped them. "Aaru, send him up to the observation deck, please. We'll be with him in a few minutes. And if you could manage a tray of coffee and a few sandwiches it would be greatly appreciated."

"I'll have the Vidya see to it," Aaru replied. Marc frowned. The Vidya's coffee tasted like mud. 'Now there's an idea," Marc suggested turning to Dinah. "Let's sic The Vidya on McGee."

They were both still wise-cracking about that idea when they strolled onto the observation deck and found McGee there waiting for them.

McGee was making a face over the coffee and trying not to look at the food.  "I apologize for getting you out of bed," he said.  "But...did you make any progress yesterday?" he asked.  "I'm sorry I didn't make it back before you came back here."

Marc poured coffee, smelled it and poured the coffee into an unoffending plant that was nearby. He looked up as Anja strolled in with fresh coffee. "Sorry to interrupt, but I didn't want any of you ending up with coffee poisoning."

Marc grinned a thank you at her as she strolled back out. He poured for everyone. He let out a happy sigh as he sipped from his cup. "Ah, feel nearly normal now."  

Marc walked over and took a seat, motioning McGee to do the same. Dinah perched on the arm of Marc's chair.

"Kalket and Max are running some complex tests. I'll do a deep scan of their DNA afterwards once I have an idea of what is normal for them, and see if we can identify any genetic markers that can give us a lead. Why is it important enough for you to ask the question at, uhm, 3am ship's time?"

McGee pondered his coffee cup or a while, saying nothing.  Then he took a breath and said, "We should make a trip to the Rift first," he said.

"The Rift... I've heard the term. I'm not entirely clear what it is, at least not from the perspective of science and how it divides things."  Marc sipped his coffee. "I'd like to see it, but I confess to not understanding why it is important to do it now."

"There's a problem with it and it's involved in what's wrong with the Silka," McGee said.  "I've already sent M'nala word to keep the dreamers away from there."

Marc sat back more comfortably, unconsciously toying with Dinah's hand. "Perhaps you could explain a bit more about what exactly you mean."

"I'd really rather not," McGee said frankly.  "At least not yet."  He sighed.  "Look, I know you have no reason at all to trust me, and a lot of reasons to not trust me.  I also know that over the next few days or however long this takes, you're going to have a lot more reasons to not trust me.  I can't help that.  But if you'd try to remember that saving the Silka...well, it isn't an option, it might help."

He looked up at them both.  "If you don't feel you can make a leap of faith in spite of appearances I'll understand.  I certainly wouldn't blame you."

"It isn't that I don't trust you, Jack," Marc said.  "It's more I prefer to understand things. But if there's a good reason for me to go there and be in the dark about why and how and wherefore, then lead on.  We'll drop Kal and Max on planet with their equipment and we can go see the Rift."

"Both of you," McGee said.

"Both...but why?" Dinah asked, startled.

"I'm not sure, I just know...think I know...we're going to need you."

Marc cocked his head as he regarded McGee. "Well, I wasn't going to leave Dinah behind, but it is interesting that you see her as part of the solution."

"Yes, well...let's just say I've been...that I'm sure...somehow you and she are key to solving all this."

Marc glanced up at Dinah. "All right. I'll get with Kal and Max and arrange things. Or do you want us to go with you on Ther'lin?"

"As weird as it sounds, I'd like to take the dragons," he said. 

"All right then. Give us a few hours to get Kal and Max set up and we can go see the Rift.  Anything else you want or need?"

"Prayers."

Several hours later Marc contacted McGee that Aaru was ready for departure. He'd briefed everyone. Not that he'd had a lot to tell them. The dragons seemed eerily excited about it all.

"Well, I was sitting here feeling pretty useless," Marc confessed to Dinah.

"Useless?" she asked.  "Hardly."

"Yes, well, at least I can do sex pretty well," he replied with a grin. "Or at least I'm willing to learn new tricks."

"Give it a rest," Dinah snapped.  "You do it much better than 'pretty well.'"  She glared at him for a minute daring him to say anything else.  "What do you think is going on here with McGee?  Clearly something's happened that he isn't talking about.  Cause I don't think it came to him in a dream to take a little jaunt to the Rift."

"I've no idea what McGee is up to, although I suspect he's sworn to some sort of pact and is free to tell us only so much, which I find rather intriguing. I'm not quite as bad about puzzles as Melly, but I do like to figure things out for myself."

He thought for a moment, "I think someone gave him permission to tell us more. Just a little bit more. Perhaps how we react to this bit of knowledge will get him permission to tell us more."

"And the Rift?  The barrier perhaps that keeps us in here and them out there?"

"So it would seem," Marc mused. "I confess to being profoundly curious about it."

"And the dragons are so we can get up close and personal?"

"I'd guess so," Marc replied thoughtfully. "Honestly? That's the part of this that surprised me the most. He's avoided them so much that I almost dropped my coffee cup when he asked that they go along."

"Well if it was because they'd know who he was he doesn't need to worry about it anymore," Dinah said.  "And they're acting like it's Christmas morning at the dragon lair about it all.

He nodded. "Perhaps you're right. I hope you are and that's all it is."

She moved and settled herself on his lap, putting her arms around his neck.  "So, we have a few minutes.  Wanna neck while we wait?" she asked, batting her eyelashes at him.

"How can I turn down an offer like that?" he asked and did as she bid him.

McGee stood in the doorway and cleared his throat loudly.  "Sorry to, uhm, interrupt," he said. 

"No you're not," Marc replied when he could. He was grinning, and entirely unrepentant.  "Are we ready to get underway?"

McGee nodded.  "Ther'lin already gave Aaru the coordinates.  She says Ingev is very intrigued.  Zaf on the other hand it very miffed."

"Oh, why's that?" Marc asked.

"He's stuck staying here," McGee said.  "Aaru's going to take us in as close as she can.  I should warn you, in that area of space, regardless of the dimension, the Rift causes incredible turbulence and it increases as you get closer.  That's where the name comes from.  It will be like rounding the Horn in a winter gale in a clipper.  The mariners," he went on musing aloud, "used to say, 'Below forty south there is no law; below fifty south there is no God.'  There's time to tell me to take a hike."

"Why can't Zaf come along?" Marc asked.

"He's staying with Ther'lin.  Why?  It's what we usually do if I have to leave her so it never occurred to me to bring him along."

Marc, having thought he'd heard something in McGee's voice, just shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Aaru," he added, raising his voice a tiny bit. Whenever you're ready sweetheart."

Aaru floored it.

It took just under four hours, making a fast series of jumps through d-space.  On the last jump Aaru emerged in the middle of the maelstrom McGee had predicted.  From the observation deck, where everyone who could was crowded, it was like being the center of a tornado as Aaru fought to stabilize herself, searching for a current she could ride.  Only Ingev and perhaps Marc, sensed her delight in the ride, so much like the nebula where she'd been born and had played as a child.  For everyone else it was disorienting.  On the dragon deck Ivy and Igor howled and huddled into Cola.

Looking out the window of the deck, watching as Aaru found a slipstream she liked, Dinah was stunned speechless.  Space was dark, empty, an unending void except for the scattered suns and planets.  But here, at the edge of the Rift, it was alive, brilliant with color from the arching lightening that played constantly along a curved plane, spitting color like ice shards, into the emptiness.

Marc stood in the glow on the observation deck, his eyes locked on the scene before them. "It's artificial," he said, as if he were merely confirming an assessment made years ago.

"No doubt," Dinah said.  "But it's still amazing."

"Oh, even more so for it," Marc replied. "The energy and dedication needed to keep this stable..."

Melly looked at him, her eyes shining.  "The minds behind it," she said in awe.

Marc laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "I see it, I mean how they are doing it, but the conception of it, the first implementation of it.. not to mention keeping the damn thing going... And begun with no seed. Completely created out of emptiness and nothingness."

McGee, standing back behind them, not saying a word, let a thin smile play across his lips.  "Aaru's about as close as she's going to get.  We need to go inside of it."

"And the dragons can handle the maelstrom?" Marc asked, looking back at McGee.

"Yes," he said.  "They don't know it yet, but they can.  I'm going to show them how to control it, in fact."

Marc contacted Cola and relayed the information. Although her babies objected and were frightened, Cola replied with a resounding yes!  In fact, most of the dragons wanted to go along.  Their excitement seemed nearly to be a physical presence aboard Aaru.

Marc, Dinah, and McGee teleported to the dragon deck. Marc has asked everyone else to remain aboard until the three of them tested McGee's theory.

The dragons were tense with anticipation and they keened their song in their minds when Marc checked with them. He exchanged a look with Dinah and climbed easily aboard Cola while Dinah boarded Quinn and McGee climbed aboard Kalie.

The three led the way with momentarily riderless dragons following closely behind.

McGee leant over and whispered to Kalie, who nodded eagerly.  She let him into her mind to show her what it would take, and how it had to be done.  She hummed and McGee hung on and then she was gone. Calling back to every dragon with her, and to Marc and Dinah the secret.

Marc laughed his slightly maniacal laugh when he was well and truly engaged in something extraordinary and helped Dinah focus.  It came easily to him, something of the sort which he did automatically with the CE rig. It was a matter of matching brain waves to the fields around them. He watched as Dinah concentrated on his instructions and as they did he and Dinah, Cola and Quinn and the rest of the dragons winked out.

When they landed, or stopped or whatever other word you wanted to use to describe the passage from one realm of existence into another, the three humanoid beings shared a smile of triumph. The dragons weren't quite so restrained. They raced through the suddenly calm emptiness of space excitement pouring out of them, their minds reaching outwards, calling, crooning.

Marc asked Cola to take him back to the edge of the maelstrom where he could look at it from the outside.  He sent his awareness outward to examine the thing, to test it, to feel what it was and how it was.  The only piece yet missing was a full understanding of the why of it and the maintenance of it. After a moment he gasped, realizing what it was he was seeing.

"Merde A La Puissance Treize!" he muttered examining his current hypothesis and considering its implications. He looked the question at McGee, sitting astride Kalie beside him.

McGee nodded.  "Exactly."

"Is this turbulence normal?" Marc asked, looking at the dynamics of the field, frowning at it.

"No.  It's why we're here," McGee said.  "To find out why and fix it if we can."

"Ah. Well then. Piece of cake." At Dinah's look he added, "All right, perhaps a whole cake. We'll see."