Pancake talks to Keto

Justin then appeared out of nowhere. "I've got it!" He shouted at the top of his
voice. "Bring Keto this way!"
Jayne and Seymour tried to pick the injured Keto up, making him scream more and
fought them away. "I'll walk you cretins!" He shouted.
"This way!" Justin said, pointing to the next shop.
The next shop along the Promenade was a pet shp, and Pancake ushered them in.
Sounds of squarking birds and barking dogs filled the air as the tiny crew
entered.
Justin pointed to a large doggie bowl with the name "Rex" written on it. The
bowl was full of water, complete with a thin film of doggie saliva on the top.
"Easy." Said Pancake. "Put the powdered ointment in there, and Keto's got a nic
bath of healing skin ointment. What more could you ask for?"
"Erm… warm water." Seymour said sarcastically.
Keto took one look at the water and almost bolted the other way. "No way!" He
said. He was stopped by Jayne, who held him on his burning skin.
"Ouch, you stupid clone! Watch my skin." Keto moaned.
Justin sprinkled the powdered ointment into the doggie bowl, and it turned the
water thick and gloopy.
"You can't be serious." Said Seymour next to him. "That water is disgusting.
It's full of doggie spit. You'd never get me in there."
"Well luckily it's not for you!" Justin said. "It's for our chief doctor. Who
I…we need. Besides, it's not real doggie spit. It's only fake doggie spit."
"Fake doggie spit?" Asked Seymour,
"Yeah, you're not allowed real pets on a JMC mining ship remember!" All these
pets are synthetic, like the ones on Bladerunner!"
"Then why does this robotic… `Rex' need water?"
Justin shrugged his shoulders "No idea. Hydrogen fuel cells or something."
Jayne threw Keto into the dog bowl against his will, where he splashed around
angrily. "I'll get you all for this! When you next come to me requiring medical
attention… I'll get you!!"
After a few moments he started to like it, as the cooling ointment repaired his
skin.
A few metres away though, "Rex" the robotic dog whose bowl Keto was relaxing in
had noticed the trespass in his water, and started clawing at the door of his
metal cage.
Jayne, Seymour, |Rosette and Wolfgang moved on to the next shop, leaving Jusin
and Keto alone.
"You really don't have to watch me take a bath." Said Keto.
"I don't mind." Said Justin.
"No, really. I don't want you to watch me take a bath!" Said the Doctor.
"Oh sorry." Said Justin. "Actually though… I wanted to talk to you about
something."
Keto grumbled to show that he was listening, even if he wasn't interested.
"I've been seeing these messages." Said Justin. "Messages that only I can see."
"What sort of messages?" Keto asked.
"Words, written on things. Always the same. It says `Corridor of Infinite
Perversion.' And points in a direction. They pop up and seem to guide me in a
certain direction through life. When we met all those Blue Dwarf's from
different dimensions I saw it written in Polish on the Polish JMC's ship. When
we were in the 12th Century, I saw it carved into a tree in Sherwood Forest.
When I met Willy Eckerskike, the Director of the entire JMC, I saw it written on
the door of a mysterious cupboard that he always kept locked, I never did find
out what was in there. Also, when I met the alternate version of me from a
parallel universe who was working for the Hymenoptera… he whispered it to me
before he died."
"And only you can see these messages?"
"Mostly. But sometimes it's real."
"Sorry, you're talking to a Doctor. You need a psychiatrist." Keto admitted.
Justin nodded. "Maybe. But… it's not always in my head. Look at this piece of
paper."
He held out a scrap of paper with "Corridor of infinite perversions" written on
it.
"I found this in my pocket. I think someone's watching me!"
"Anyone could have written that." Said Keto. "You could have written that! It
even looks like your handwriting!"
"Oh yeah it does a bit. But I swear I didn't write it." He said. "Oh, and also,
the reason I had the idea to use this dog bowl as a bath was that it has it
written on the side too."
"Where?"
"There, on the side."
Keto leaned over and looked over the edge.
"Oh, you've washed it off now by splashing it!" Justin said.
Keto paused for a moment and splashed the creamy water around in his large round
bath. "So what do you want me to do about it?"
"Nothing. I just wanted to tell someone." Justin admitted. "I think there's
someone trying to force my life in a certain direction. Like fate."
"Oh?" Said Keto.
"Yes… I think it's got something to do with…" Justin lowered his voice to a
whisper. "With…. The Hymenoptera."
"The Hymenoptera?"
"Yes. Almost every time I've seen that message has been when the Hymenoptera
were around. In Sherwood forest it helped me find the baby Hymenoptera, you
know, Rosette's babies? And when I met the version of myself from a parallel
universe, he was working for the Hymenoptera as a sort of… collaborator."
"What about when you saw it on the door of William Eckerslike, head of the JMC?"
Keto asked curiously.
"I'm not sure. I got a weird feeling from him. He was asking me all these
questions about the Hymenoptera too. I think he really likes them, it wouldn't
surprise me if he wanted to form an alliance with them."
"An alliance with the JMC and the Hymenoptera!!" Keto spat. "Don't be stupid!
They're huge insects that like nothing more than to destroy Humans and invade
our planets!"
"They're not all bad." Justin said. "In fact I like them. I want to be half
Hymenoptera like Rosette. As a Doctor, can you do that? Can you give me
Hymenoptera DNA?"
"Don't be ridiculous man!" Said Keto. "Rosette LaChance is a big enough security
risk as it is. She's almost killed us all once before by contacting the
Hymenoptera and letting them know our location. Captain Chrysler is stupid to
keep her on board in my opinion!"
Justin looked sullen. "I thought you'd understand." He said.
Their conversation was cut short as a kennel door behind them burst open and a
large robotic dog burst out, and bounded towards them.
<Tag!>