Close, But No Cigar

Opportunity

Claire was surprised to learn that Marcus's plan to 'out' Pria as not selling genuine vintage merchandise was actually playing out independent of their involvement. Her customers, the Benzians, accused her of doing just that! For real! The duplicitous "collector" was laying it all out for her, and while Claire was intrigued that it basically confirmed her sons' suspicions that this was a different universe altogether, she wasn't sure what her kidnapper wanted her to do about it.

"Why are you coming to me?" she asked the tall blonde woman standing in front of her literally wringing her hands, lacking her normal self-assuredness as she regaled the unsympathetic doctor with her tale of woe.

"I depend on my judgement of a person's character in my line of work," Pria began to say before Claire waved her hands and interrupted her. Pria stopped talking and just looked at Claire.

Claire regarded the statuesque blonde in front her with a jaundiced eye. "How can you judge something you don't have?" she asked derisively.

"That's cute. I'm here because I'm chancing that you're probably the only one of the former crew of the Orville who may listen to what I have to say before unceremoniously tossing me out on my ass! I propose getting as much of the Orville crew as possible and taking the ship back to your time," Pria declared.

"Why? And more importantly, how?" Claire asked, rolling her eyes to signify her skepticism.

"Okay," Pria replied, sounding annoyed, "pure self-interest. Sooner or later I'll either be incarcerated or killed, depending on who decides to act first. Your era is 'close but no cigar' when compared to the 2400's of this dimension, okay? It's affecting my cachet as a purveyor of authentic antiques."

Claire's eyes widened as she came to a realization, yelling out, "so, Ty was right! And you knew all along!"

Pria shook her head, deadpanning, "let's just say I may have noticed minor discrepancies."

Claire huffed in disgust.

"I've convinced the Benzians to 'lend' me their ship so I can return it for the 'genuine' article. I made them think I was a victim of a swindler on my end," Pria explained. "So, if you can contact the rest of your crewmembers who may want to go back, I can take us to the wormhole and get you back there."

Claire judged that Pria offered them a chance at a way back. A slim chance, to be sure, but a chance, nonetheless.

"Fine, I'll contact them and see," Claire proclaimed. She had a contact list which she kept up of a few of the Orville crew, they in turn had a list of others and so on.

Pria nodded. "Great! When you're ready to go, contact me!"

Claire just nodded, already thinking it was a long shot. But it would seem to be the only shot as far as she could tell.

She Bortus, Joanna Bartlett and John Felson. They discussed Pria's proposal, all three agreeing with her that they had nothing to lose.

"Except maybe our lives if those Benzoites figure out she's pulling a fast one," John Felson conjectured.

Claire laughed, correcting him, "the Benzians."

"Whatever."

They started contacting the others and it cascaded from there. Under the guise of a large Orville crew get together celebration, they agreed to meet where Claire found a venue, then once everything was ready, head to the ship and fly to the wormhole.

"How many of the crew agreed to this?" John asked when he talked to Joanna, who already tallied the total with Claire, who talked with Bortus.

"Almost all of them," Joanna answered, "we haven't been able to contact the rest of them yet, which amounts to a handful of people, hopefully we can get them as well. So, about 270 or so at the moment."