Elaine's view of the cockpit:
In front of her, in the left corner of her vision, the slightly short guy Guybrush called Wally. Red hair, pudgy hands, intense, guileless eyes. The monocle made him look somewhat like an otter. On her right, closer, the space pirate Guybrush Threepwood. Medium-sized, long lanky ponytail, filthy clothes and unwashed face. All around them, the cockpit. An oily, grimy floor; walls hung with tattered photos of Earth landscapes, family and friends, and tacky tourist souvenirs; the ceiling dim and dotted here and there by hanging clumps of wire.
Looking at this, Elaine began to get very depressed. She could see the future stretching out in front of her...
But there was only one thing they could do.
Elaine began talking. "I've got another of those red rocks, here on Pael."
"We call them portal stones," said Guybrush.
"Can't say I've heard that name before. Anyway, I'm almost certain Marko knows about it. He probably knows where it is. I'd never ask this in a normal situation, but I'd like you two to help me pick it up."
Guybrush brightened up. Handcuffed or not to this hostile stranger, the prospect of imminent enrichment still had its allure.
"We'll be glad to!" said Wally excitedly. He was back in the flight chair. "Can I fly you there? You can give me directions."
Elaine sighed. "All right. Left up here..."
As they started moving, Guybrush began thinking. If they handled this right, they could come out of it with two portal stones. Once it was in the hold, a quick phaser shot and they could be off. Immediately, however, Guybrush had a vision of being handcuffed to a corpse for all eternity. Urgh... better set the phaser to stun.
But what was Elaine planning? Having seen her outwit Marko Bent, Guybrush knew she wasn't slow. She must know they would plan to steal her portal stone. Which meant she would have a counter plan... some way of keeping them on Pael until she could summon reinforcements. Maybe she already had - she'd certainly used the keyboard for a long time.
And if all that wasn't enough to worry about, there was Upchuck's pirate fleet. Why was it here? To destroy Pael? Get the portal stone? Or get Guybrush? The appearance of Marko was too extraordinary to be a coincidence, but what did it signify?
Dozens of unanswered questions floated through Guybrush's head, making him dizzy. It seemed like only a few seconds had passed before Wally pulled up and Elaine said, "Here we are."
She sat down, again pulling Guybrush forward, and typed commands into the NC-10. Guybrush looked out the viewscreen, and saw a blank metal wall with a horizontal slit in it - twice the width of their ship - about halfway up. As he watched, the slit widened into a thin rectangle as the two halves of the door pulled away from each other. The room beyond was very dark.
The doors were now fully open. Wally edged them forward. He hit a few switches and lights came on, repainting the room yellow.
The portal stone sat alone on the floor, starkly defined in the light.
Elaine breathed a sigh of relief. Guybrush whistled. "It's big," he said. "Where'd you get it?"
Elaine ignored him. She turned to Wally. "All right, turn us round to face the door. If Marko comes along, we'll be ready."
This did not particularly please Guybrush. "Pardon me, Ms. Marley, but that's not a good idea. If Marko knows where the portal stone is, he'll expect us to be here waiting for him. And Marko is the kind of guy who comes up with counter-measures. You've got to get this stone elsewhere while you still can. I know you're not about to trust us, but that's really all you can do."
Elaine sighed. "Okay, we'll do it your way. Wally, pull it up."