"IN FARSCAPE, NO-ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM..."
PART ONE OF ...... probably loads....
by Chris Marshall (looking_glass@ic24.net) If you want this, take it! Just let me know!
Farscape is not mine. Although I darned well wish I had thought it up. All rights are reserved: Farscape is the property of Hallmark, Jim Henson Home Entertainment, Network 9 Australia etc. You all know the drill! Other copyrights: 20th century Fox. Alan Dean Foster for those brill books.
Praise be for Mr o' Bannon and everyone who makes the show.
Rating- 15 (at least- has a few bad words, no sex though ... ; ) ) SPOILERS- Season 1 and 2
This is my very first fanfiction. It is ambitious, maybe too much! I had started writing this around after I had seen 'that old black magic', and then stopped due to too much work. I have since then gone back to it and tweaked it somewhat, adding characters and references to things that have appeared in later episodes. Please let me know if it still seems too segmented, as I would write a bit and then go back to it weeks later!
Lastly, the crossover sublect matter is very probably obvious, yet I will not mention what if you have not worked it out from the title and acknowledgements. This is because I wanted to leave it as a surprise. Some things may point you in the direction of the type of crossover that this is, but I wanted everyone to be genuinely surprised when you read the introduction of the 'crossover element' of the story. Yak yak yak yak.........enough!!!! On to the tale!
Sebacea was not a conventional home system planet by any means. The majority of the population had moved to the stars and other worlds via ships many cycles ago. On the surface, it was barren and devoid of life. High winds threw up small sandstorms, unforgiving gales battering against the bare blasted rocks. The reddish grey clouds overhead swirled incessantly, making the sky seem as if it were boiling.
Everything that mattered on this planet was underground. The only structure on Sebacea's surface was Peacekeeper High Command. It was a monolith. Sleek, black and unbelievably high with clouds swirling at its peak, only the giant Peacekeeper symbol showed any signs that anyone was at home, and that this something had been built, and was not a natural part of the alien landscape. It was said that weather permitting, the giant symbol could be seen from orbit.
Thousands of ships and transports circled the structure. Ships landing and taking off smoothly with little effort, seemingly barely able to avoid hitting others. A command carrier transport circled the structure, circling lower and lower, before gliding down to one of the many landing pads.
As the craft's engines whined to a stop, ten guards flanked the cargo doors awaiting the occupant to exit. The doors hissed as compressed air released and the doors began to open, dust swirled around the guards legs, wind whipping their black capes. None paid any heed to the dust. All concentrated on the doorway, some unconsciously repositioning their pulse rifles in anticipation.
The doors stopped, and one man stepped out. He was of average height, yet he carried himself with an air of arrogance. He looked at the guards, barely keeping the contempt from his face. The first of the guards stepped forward. He cleared his throat before speaking.
"Welcome to Sebacea Captain, the council has been looking forward to your ah, visit" the guard smiled.
The man's lips thinned with poorly concealed rage,
"Take me to him then, lets get this frelling charade over with."
The lead guard nodded slightly in agreement. He snapped to attention and barked out orders to his men.
"Captain. If you would follow me?"
The soldiers led him to the nearest lift. The leader of the squad of men waited until eight of the other soldiers had joined him and the Captain inside. Two soldiers stood outside on guard. Without further delay or words he pressed the down button.
The Captain stood calmly, taking everything in. The lift went down and down, seemingly forever. Floor after floor blurred by. Finally, the lifts slowed to a stop. The leaders of the group opened the doors and strode out, immediately behind were two of the guards flanking the Captain. One of the soldiers silently motioned for him to follow his superior. He gestured with his pulse rifle, indicating that Captain or not, if he tried anything he would be dealt with.
They walked down a long, poorly lit corridor that to the Captain seemed to have seen very little life pass through, until now. The group walked for what seemed like an arn. He glanced to the soldier on his right and saw tension in his face the closer to the end of the corridor that they got. He briefly noted that there were security cameras every ten metras. If anything, that meant very little escaped anyone's notice down here. He looked up ahead and saw a faint, insignificant light at the far end of the corridor. The tension seemed to be getting to him too.....
The soldiers stopped at large double doors at the end of the corridor. The commanding officer turned to him,
"You may go straight in, they are.....expecting you."
The man raised his hand in salute, and the soldiers filed out and back down the way they came. As he passed he spoke, softly so only the Captain could hear,
"Good luck...."
***
The room was cavernous with an ornate, yet extremely high ceiling. The room was very dimly lit, with only one stark spotlight in the centre, leaving the corners mysteriously cloaked in shadow. This was where the most important, yet possibly the darkest of deeds took place. The room was empty save for an oblong table at the far end at which three men were seated. The floor was adorned with a large peacekeeper sigil. At the other end of the hall a pair of large double doors opened, and the Captain entered. Without looking around, he walked straight to the table at the far end of the hall. He stood before them and before he could be addressed, spoke to the men that were seated in front, watching him.
"Well, here I am. You 'sent' for me? What do you want of me? Am I to be executed now?"
The middle of the three spoke. He was of middle age and had grey at his temples with an angry red scar down one cheek. His hair was tied tightly back, as was the fashion for high ranked officials. On his collar was a sigil of High Command's rank. He arched an eyebrow at the newcomer.
"Sent? Sent for you? No. I think we ordered you here. We are not in the habit of being disobeyed or ignored, but greater plans mean that trivial matters must fall by the wayside, and we have decided to spare you from the living death. You may yet still be useful to us, defector. You have flaunted your command, and it is only luck that we did not let Scorpius have you. And believe me, he really wanted you."
The High Commander paused as if for effect.
"Captain Crais... Bialar Crais, you have a blatant disregard for orders, and irrespective of your so called resignation, we need you for ....well lets just say that if you assist us, we will soon have the next generation in warfare.."
The man gestured for Crais to sit on the chair that was left for him and smiled wryly.
"Besides, you have no idea how satisfying this will be........"
As Crais sat in the chair, restraints appeared as if from thin air, and bound his arms and legs to the chair. Another restraint snaked out and circled his neck tightly, trapping him and leaving him motionless. He yelped in surprise. It had been a ruse!
"Damn you to Hezmana!" he shouted, "I_will_ frelling_ kill_ you! I will come back and haunt you all, you.... pieces of dren!".
Spit dribbled down his chin as he spoke. His face was crimson with rage, veins on either side of his neck almost bursting with the effort as he tried to release himself. The man on the right of the High Commander stood, and Crais could now see he was a tech of some description. The tech took a syringe with a yellow liquid from his pocket, tutting as he moved towards the stricken captain
.
"Now now Mr. Crais, shhhhh, there is no need to be so rude. We need to do it this way. You are the most ideal candidate. Well, actually our only obvious candidate at the moment. And we do need to get this done most efficiently so please, do relax; you won't feel a thing. Not much anyway."
He moved to the right of Crais and injected him in the neck. Crais screamed in agony, thrashing wildly in the chair. The injection felt like liquid fire and ice together moving through his veins. The world seemed to dim, thin fingers of black lightly touching his vision. Sounds merged together creating a roaring sound, voices were muted to a strange buzzing. He could hear his blood pumping round his body, pressure seemed to be building around his temples. It was so hard to focus, to think. He looked at the men in front and noticed that the man on the left had begun taking notes. Dimly, he was aware of doors opening and a group of people rushing to take him somewhere. And with that, he passed out.
Crais awoke slowly and painfully. His head pounded as if a pulse rifle at point blank range had hit him. He opened his eyes tentatively. Looking upwards toward the ceiling, he slowly surveyed round the room to get his bearings. He saw that he was in some sort of holding cell. A very rarely used one if he was not mistaken. Frell his throat hurt! Slowly, with muscles protesting in pain, he began to rise from the mat that he had been lying on. Rolling to one knee, he braced for the effort to stand. And an effort it was. As soon as he stood at his full height, he almost immediately began to collapse, his limbs feeling like water. He thrust out a hand against the wall to steady himself and took a deep breath. He started to cough. Pain in his throat in turn made the headache lance right through his head and down his back. He screwed his eyes shut, the pain threatening to send him into the abyss of unconsciousness. Rage and despair warred within him. He could not take this! He wished for death, frell, even the living death would be preferable to this. With the support of the walls, he moved over to the door of the cell and looked through the small window.
"What have you done to me?" he screamed. "Let me out or kill me! I deserve at least an honorable death! Damn you......arghhhh!" He pounded the door in frustration.
What strength he had slowly fading, he slid down the door until he was sitting back down on the floor. He began to cough again until it transcended to retching and his muscles spasmed uncontrollably.
"What in Tauvo's name have you done to me?" he breathed.
***
It was late, and John Crichton was bored. No, not just bored, he was TOTALLY bored. Things were quiet, way too quiet as far as John was concerned. He'd sort of gotten used to lurching from one crisis to another, being chased by vengeful Peacekeepers or having mad aliens after his hide. Now there was, well, Nothing. Nada, zip, zero, everyone was asleep, even resident insomniac Chiana. Moya was fine, no technical hiccups, and the crew even had a plentiful bounty of food. Still, he asked anyway.
"Yo Pilot, how is Moya doing today?"
"Moya is fine, everything is operational and we are traveling at full capacity." informed Pilot
"What about yourself? Any DRD's on the blink?. What about the others?"
"I am fine, and there is nothing amiss at this time. Everyone is asleep. CommanderCrichton, is everything all right? You seem, restless. You have asked me how we are several times in the last arn. Is there anything we can do for you? A sleep agent perhaps?" he said dryly.
Crichton rose from the bed in his quarters, and stretched lazily.
"Nope Pilot, I'm just peachy. Just at a loose end, that's all"
He scrubbed his face as if to wake himself up.
"Pilot if you need me, I'll be in the cargo bay working on my module some more."
"As you wish. I will inform you of any minor......developments."
John smiled at Pilot's attempts at humor. It seemed that his human 'quirks' were starting to rub off on Pilot, he was no longer the one that everyone took for granted.
John reached the cargo bay. He moved to Farscape1 and took the rear engine covers off in order to get better access underneath. Once this was done, he proceeded to give the main energy conduits to the hetch drive an overhaul. As he worked, he started to hum a tune to himself, and realized that he was humming the theme tune to 'Rawhide'. With a wry smile to himself as he picked a tool from the floor, he began to sing as he worked.
"Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' Rawhiiide! Move 'em on, move 'em out, move them in Rawh- "
"What in the world, is that horrid tune Crichton?"
"Oww! Jeez Aeryn, do you ever have to sneak up on me? Can't you like, walk noisily?
"That was noisy. Anyway I was on my way up to the terrace, and as I was passing, I wondered if you wanted to come along."
John slid out from under his module. Rubbing his forehead furiously, he sheepishly looked up at Aeryn standing over him.
"Yeah sure, why not? I'm not really getting anywhere here. I'll have you know that song I was humming was a classic. Clint Eastwood in his prime. Rowdy Yates." Upon seeing Aeryn's perplexed look, he shook his head.
"Sorry, more human nonsense. Skip it, let's go."
***
When they reached the terrace, they found Zhaan there. She was sitting cross-legged and looking at the constellations. Thankfully, as far as John was concerned anyway, she was not naked.
Opening her eyes, she looked over at John and Aeryn. Then smiled slightly, almost knowingly, as if she knew something that she shouldn't.
"Hey Zhaan, thought you would be sleeping, feeling restless as well?"
"Hello John, Aeryn. No. I like to come up here and just look at the stars, try to sense where Delvia is. Somewhere out there is my home, waiting for me to return. Something just out of reach, yet... sometimes, sometimes, I almost sense it out there. Home."
Zhaan uncrossed her legs, and swiveled round to look at Aeryn and John. She motioned for them both to sit next to her. John sat on one side of her, while Aeryn sat on the other. Looking up at the nubulae, he smiled half to himself and half to Zhaan.
"Y'know, I do exactly the same thing, I always have. Ever since I got here, I sometimes wander up here when all you guys are asleep and just stare at the stars, trying to feel which one was my home, which one could be my solar system although I admit it is just a case of eenie meenie mynie....mo."
He pointed to no star in particular, then as was his curious human reaction to some things, he shrugged.
Zhaan cocked her head slightly, looking John in the eyes.
"You said 'was'. Don't you mean is?"
John sat there, digesting what he had said.
"You know, I've been around here what, a cycle? It's taken me a while. But lets face it guys,I don't think I am really going to get home. Even if I did, I'm not the same man that left." He sighed, "Y'know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that Moya is now home. When you accidentally left and I was stuck on Aquarra, I tried to settle, make a life for myself. I thought that I had found a place in that world, and then you guys turned up again. And I realized that without really being aware of it, I had missed Moya, the quiet hum, the excitement when things go all nuts. I'd missed all of you, hell even Sparky. And then when I went to that false earth..."
He paused, gathering himself and then exhaled loudly.
"When I went to what I thought was home, I was happy for a while. I saw who I thought was my father, tasted and smelt things that I had missed so badly, but it just didn't seem like I was going to stay. I sort of felt that it was too good to be true. I know if I ever get back for real, I would spend the rest of my life in a giant glass house. 'Here is Exhibit A, the man who saw aliens and lived to tell about it'."
John looked over at Aeryn, noting that she had been awfully quiet.
"Hey, you've been a little quiet over there Aeryn. You all right?"
Aeryn snapped out of her reverie and focused on John. She looked at him then Zhaan, then back to John. She bit her lip.
"Do you mean to say that, if a wormhole opened up right now. A stable wormhole. And that your home was at the other end, you would not go?"
"Of course I would go Aeryn, hell yeah. And I would be a more careful driver too, no crash landing in the middle of some old lady's back yard, just somewhere out the way. I would just want to go and let my dad, and D.K know that I was alive, even just posting them my tapes or something would do. But it would be better to speak to them face to face, even for just a few hours. To let them know that they don't need to feel guilty, sad and grieve over my death, to just turn up and say 'hey look I aint dead after all, have I got a tale for you...'. To tell them I am doing O.K That would be enough. Oh and bring back a drenload of chocolate, but other than that I....." he trailed off, unable to word how he really felt about her.
"Aeryn. I said I would never leave you. Zhaan, you guys are my family now. And I want to see you're homes, wherever that is."
At that statement Aeryn got up and ran out of the terrace, leaving John and Zhaan startled. John got up to go after her.
" 'Scuse me Zhaan, but I think I just put my size 10 in it again" He smiled apologetically and made to run after Aeryn.
"Certainly, I have no idea what you mean by size 10, but by all means...."
Zhaan nodded slightly to John in sympathy, and as John left, she sighed to herself and offered a small prayer for Aeryn. ' Oh the Goddess, when will those two ever acknowledge their feelings and stop torturing each other, get it out in the open?' she thought. She looked back to the stars, noting a bright star that seemed to be moving. She watched for a few microts realizing that it was not a star. The object had increased speed and appeared to be getting closer. She activated her comm badge and spoke to Pilot.
"Pilot, what is that strange anomaly that appears to be moving in this direction?"
"Yes Zhaan? Where? Moya is scanning." There was a brief pause as Pilot tried to find out what Zhaan was referring to. "I'm sorry Zhaan, we are picking up nothing, no readings at all. We see...nothing."
"Well Pilot, I assure you I can see something that looks like a comet. It is traveling very fast, and it appears it will hit us in about one hundred microts at this rate!"
"Zhaan, we see nothing out of the ordinary, could you not be mistaken?"
"I am telling you Pilot, I think we should brace for impact!"
"Very well, I will inform the rest"
Zhaan turned to look at the bright light, when the anomaly suddenly accelerated at an impossibly fast speed. It grew in size until Zhaan had to shield her eyes from the glare.
"Pilot, surely you have to have something on your sensors now. This thing is about to hit!"
"There are no readings Zhaan. As I have said, I see only stars, a few local planets and nebulae. Moya senses nothing out of the ordinary"
The light grew brighter and brighter, until it reached the intensity of a supernova as the object came close. It streaked towards Moya, and hit side on with tremendous speed, slamming into her right side. Zhaan was hurled to the floor, and slid several feet. Jagged bolts of lightning arced from the impact crater on her hull. Moya shuddered at the impact, and all lights aboard went out. A groan of what seemed to be an intense pain to Zhaan escaped from Moya, and more shudders rippled through her. Zhaan tried to rise, but lost her footing as the leviathan began to fly more erratically toward the nearest planet.
***
John smiled to Zhaan as he left, and began running after Aeryn. This to him seemed to be getting all too regular. He would say something, hurt Aeryn in some way, and then run about looking for her and apologizing or soothing the wounds. As he turned round one of the tiers, he caught a glimpse of her leaning against the wall. As soon as she saw him she made as if to start running again.
"Hey Aeryn, wait! C'mon, whats the matter?"
He reached Aeryn and saw that she had been crying. Which was crazy, as Miss Tough PK Chick of the Uncharteds did not cry. Much less let John see that she had.
"Aeryn. Look at me. What is wrong?"
Aeryn looked at John briefly then looked at the floor. She looked ready to bolt. She also seemed to be having difficulty controlling herself.
"I..... You... I just, you know feel.... I want...."
"Shh Aeryn, c'mere"
John reached out and brought her into a hug. At John's initial contact she stiffened, but after a few seconds relaxed into John's embrace. They stood enjoying each others company. For all of her steel, she could be pretty fragile emotionally.
"Attention. Zhaan says that we should brace for impact. We are about to be hit by..... something."
Still entangled with Aeryn he spoke, sounding amused "Pilot, whaddya mean 'something', can't you tell? Moya having a bad day at the office?"
"I am afraid that we are not detecting a thing, but Zhaan assures us this is valid, although I am.... well, concerned. We sense nothing!"
"How come Zhaan can sense this and not you Pi-"
At that moment it hit, John and Aeryn were thrown sideways against the wall. John, still holding Aeryn bore the brunt of it with his back. He grunted in pain as they fell to the floor. After that, the lights went out. All was dark.
"John! Are you all right? What the yotz was that?! John! Pilot? Dargo? Zhaan? Anyone? IS ANYONE THERE??! ......Frell! Frell! Frell!!".
She crawled over to John's inert body, ignoring her own pains and moved over him. Lying almost on top of him, she looked in to his face, murmuring his name over and over. She brushed a lock of her hair from his face as she leaned in closer. A few corridor lights flickered brightly for a second, before fading to a muted murky yellow, giving very little light, but enough to see without stumbling.
"John, don't you die on me! I will frelling come to wherever you humans call an afterlife and kill you. You said you would never leave me. Prove it! WAKE UP!"
John moved ever so slightly. He opened his eyes marginally, peering through slits. His forehead was wrinkled with the pain. Hot sharp pains lanced through his right shoulder.
"Shit. Son of a Bitch! Did someone get the, ow! Number of that truck? Ahh!." he rasped.
John made as if to try and get up, but Aeryn was in no hurry. She rather liked lying here in the dark with John like this. It felt, comfortable. After a while, she quickly realised that this was neither the time nor the place. She swiftly rose to her feet, John rising as well. He was in serious pain.
"John are you OK?"
John was still holding his shoulder, the arm hanging limply.
"I'll be all right in a sec, ahhhh.....son of a... shit!shit!shit! In a minute Aeryn, I just gotta do something."
John moved over to the nearest bulkhead and leaned against it. With his left hand he steadied himself and pressed his right shoulder against the bulkhead.
"John? What on Tarsis are you doing?"
"My...arghhh... My shoulder is out. I have to, ahhh, put it back in. Mel Gibson eat your heart out, I never ever thought I would need to do this again.....oh crap."
He spread his feet apart for leverage, took a deep breath, leaned back and yelled as he swung his right shoulder, slamming it into the bulkhead. Aeryn almost winced as she heard a loud click as his shoulder re-aligned. He jerked back, groaning and stumbled. He slumped on the floor and lay on his back with his eyes shut. Breathing heavily, he lay there for a while before finally opening his eyes. Aeryn moved over and held out a hand for John in order to help him up. John grasped her hand and slowly and tenderly got to his feet. Both of them kept their eyes locked on each other. For a few seconds, they just looked in each other's eyes. John cleared his throat and spoke first.
"So um, what's next? Everything seems to be screwed here. You get anything on the comms?"
Amazed that he was not mentioning the pain that he must be in, Aeryn absently massaged her hip where she had hit the floor. Thoughts raced through her head. Were they attacked? Was it Peacekeeper? How...? What...? She came to a decision.
"Nothing on the comm it is completely dead. We should get to Pilot's chamber, see if Pilot is all right. We'll need to split up, cover more ground that way. You go to command and try and find anyone on the way. We need to know what happened and what's going on. I'll help Pilot and see if there is anything he can do. If he's alive that is. Then I'll meet you in command. I'll try to pick up some of the others on the way. Hopefully, if anyone has any sense, that's where they will go too."
"Right. Command. Right. Aeryn, if we are under attack, what about weapons?"
"I'll take care of that, lets just get going. One thing at a time." She smiled, " If we are under attack, you could hide while I find weapons. As I recall when Dargo was in hyper rage, you were rather good at it." She flashed a grin at John and with that she ran down the corridor, quickly obscured by the gloom.
John went in the other direction, toward command. It was not easy considering that it was almost pitch dark. Aeryn was probably in her element, running around doing her commando bit. His thoughts wandered about the others as he moved and how they were doing. And hoped that they were still all alive.
***
Dargo was sleeping fitfully, having the same dream that he had every night for the last cycle. It involved Zhaan, Lolaan, arguing over him. He always felt sure of his love for his wife, yet Zhaan had begun to mean more than an ally. Yet, so did Aeryn to some degree. It was an area that he would rather leave locked away in his mind, unsure if he could separate friendship from other, possibilities. Pilot awakened him
"Attention. Prepare for impact, we are about to hit... something."
Dargo had no time for a reply as he was thrown out of his bed as the ship hit. He flew across the room and hit his forehead on the corner of a storage unit.
***
Chiana was exploring. In a ship this big it was too tempting not to, at night she would regularly sneak around looking for things worth snerching. Tonight, she had been exploring the lower levels of Moya, and was on her way back to her quarters. She had just passed the main cargo hangar when Pilot informed her of an impending impact. Acknowledging Pilot she started on her way to command, which was likely where everyone else was. As the leviathan was hit, Chiana had just passed the doors of maintenance bay one. The world was raining spare parts. The toolbox, which John used for his ship amongst other debris, rained in her direction.
"Oh Frell! Why the Hezmana does all this always happen to me!?!"
She moved fluidly, dodging a spare prowler part, which hit the wall hard behind her. Ducking as another piece of metal flew in her vicinity she thought she was lucky. A squealing DRD flew through the air in front of her, smashing into a multitude of parts. She threw her hands up to protect from shards of metal and wiring flying in every direction. Exhaling with relief and exertion, she thanked the gods for her agility. A creaking sound could be heard directly above her. Frowning, she looked up. Just in time to see a bulkhead groan, split and then fall, swinging down straight at Chiana. Legs jerking into action, she swore as she leapt, using some words she had heard John use. It seemed appropriate.
" Son of a betch!"
***
Crais lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. He had looked at the same spot for the last 10 arns thinking of glorious ways of escaping, but none were feasible. His throat, though still sore, had subsided slightly, the convulsions no longer as frequent. In fact, apart from the fact that he was hungry, sore and demoralised, he was fine. His mind thought back to the time that they had apprehended him and sent him back to Sebacea. Talyn, frell his circuits, had starburst without warning, despite his control of the ship. He had been knocked unconscious in the process. Apparently, according to his captors, they had jumped straight into a convoy of Peacekeeper scoutships on routine deep patrol. Talyn had fought well without the guidance of Crais, partially destroying one of the cruisers. But he was out numbered and outgunned. A stun missile had knocked the young leviathan senseless, then the commandos had simply secured Talyn, boarded and taken him prisoner. He could still sense Talyn at the back of his mind despite the great distance, the neural link to the leviathan still active. He could sense Talyn's frustration at being captured, his panic at being unable to escape. He had been sent on a fast transport to high command for sentencing. And now here he was, in this mess. Death, to him, was more honourable and very probably, preferable.
The door to the cell opened, and a guard appeared, he held fresh clothing and some rations. He threw them on the floor in front of Crais.
"Get dressed and eat, you are going to see the Fleet Admiral Wexlen. He wants you to be more presentable." He said as he closed the cell door.
Crais moved to the food and ripped open a ration pack, his nose wrinkled at the smell, they were worse than food cubes. Still, better than nothing. As he ate, he looked at the outfit he was to wear. It was like a prowler flight suit, but with a difference. The material seemed to be a tough synthetic of some sort and on one of the sleeves was a wrist computer. Curious, he thought. As he ate, he took off his clothes and changed into the suit, noting that it was a perfect fit. As he fastened the final clip at his neck, the wrist computer beeped and activated. A small needle penetrated his skin and stayed in. After the initial pain, he realized that he could not feel it, but he did not like this and tried to unclip the fastening at his neck and found that he could not. Panicking slightly, he tried to remove any of the buttons and found that this garment was stuck on him. The wrist computer chirped once, and a display switched on. He saw that it monitored his vital signs, and in the top right of the screen he also saw that it had a timer, counting down.
The door to his cell opened again, and the same guard as before motioned for him to follow. Moving out into the corridor, he saw that it was the same one that he had first walked down what seemed like weekens ago. Following the guard, he felt that he was on the edge of a precipice and that whatever happened next was going to send him spiraling out of control and over the edge into oblivion, and death.
He was led to the same room that he had encountered some time before, he looked around and saw that it was empty. Two chairs were in the middle of the room, one obviously for him and another for the mystery person who was yet to show. He examined the room closely this time, as his previous encounter had not allowed him to look around much. At the far side of the hall, there was a large observation window. Surmising that it had been hidden at his last encounter, this piqued his curiosity. Whatever or whoever was behind the glass could be watching right now. As he reached to touch the glass, he was startled by a voice at the other end of the room.
"I see you have noticed the observation window, Captain."
Crais turned to face the speaker, and saw who he deduced must be the Fleet Admiral.
"Yes"
"Please, sit. You have questions."
It was a statement, not a question. And it was one that Crais had not expected, he had thought that this cloak and dagger approach to whatever meant his death. But here was a high-ranking officer, wanting him to ask questions! Unheard of! He cleared his still tender throat to speak,
"Yes, I have many. First, what did you give me and what do you want of me? Why, am I still alive and why are you still referring to me as Captain?"
Wexlen smiled at the choice of questions and pursed his lips. Sitting in one of the chairs, he made as if brushing some unseen speck of dirt from his uniform before answering.
"Firstly, you are still a Captain. We still need you to carry out a task for us. One that if you had no rank, or were of civilian class, would've been rendered impossible. Second, we gave you an experimental sedative with other properties, those of which slowed your metabolism and gave your internal organs extra resilience to prevent from any internal injuries during our..... shall we say, test phase. Thirdly, the suit you are wearing is to ensure you live long enough to complete this mission, which you will find out in due course."
Crais sat down on the other chair, tensing as he sat when he expected there to be a little surprise. There was none. He leaned forward as he spoke,
"Admiral Wexlen, tell me everything. I have resigned. You will have to persuade me greatly if you want me to do your obviously dirty task, tell me everything you know, or you may as well shoot me now."
Admiral Wexlen looked at Crais, eyes seemingly trying to bore into Crais' mind. Wexlen pursed his lips again as he mulled over whether to simply shoot him or tell him what he needed to know.
"Very well. About three cycles ago the deep space cruiser Palanis under the command of Captain Jormesh Torvik, was deep in the uncharted territories looking for a viable additional homeworld for us to colonize and use as a further stepping stone to progress deeper into the uncharted territories. We found a suitable planet with a single moon, it was small, and a large part of the world was covered by ocean. It had been inhabited at one time but the occupants had either left or were wiped out, it was deserted. It was simply called TZ-96-Decca Three by the scientists who had found it. The High Council renamed it Sebacea Prime and were looking to move every undercover, black ops, dirty and secret mission and also the high council itself onto that world. There was thought to be no major life on the planet, no claims from other species. It was free for us to take. We built a temporary base on the surface and proceeded to construct a new center of operations. On a routine scouting mission, a group of commandos discovered an enormous derelict spacecraft that dwarfed even the largest leviathan. It had been apparently been there for at least 500 cycles. It had not shown on the scans of the planet because 75 percent of it was buried. Upon investigating this craft, they found something unlike anything else in the known territories. But I move too fast, let me put this situation and ship in perspective. It seemed that the ship had been designed for many purposes, the main of which had been a research lab. The technology that they had is in advance of our own in some respects, but alas most of the ship was unsalvageable. There was one area however, that upon further investigation still had active power cells. A small team of ten went to look around for anything to salvage and to also find out what this ship was doing there."
Crais, listening intently, moved closer to the Admiral.
"What does that have to do with me? What did they find? Who were the former occupants of that planet?"
"Please, in order for me to explain, I have to give you all the details in order to make sense." The Admiral took a glass and poured some refreshment. He looked over to Crais and offered a glass. Crais took it gratefully. Holding the drink without drinking, he motioned for the Admiral to continue.
"As I was saying, we went there for salvage and also to learn anything useful, as this information could have a bearing on the future of Sebacea Prime. The area that was still operative turned out to be in fact, medical. Think of it! Power cells that had lasted over five hundred cycles! Medical science was advanced compared to us, it seemed their society was geared to medicine and less on military. In one of the labs we found specimens in some sort of stasis tanks. It took half a cycle for our people out there to break down the encoding on the ship's data and get a translation, but it was worth it. The data that we retrieved has been astounding. It turns out that your 'friend' John Crichton may be the only surviving member of his race. You see, that planet now called Sebacea Prime was originally called, Earth."
"What! That is impossible! John Crichton is inferior! He said himself, that his coming here was a galactic accident! Thousands of light years from his home!" Crais shook his head in disbelief.
"Nonetheless, that planet is indeed his former home. But back to the tale. Amongst the data that we could retrieve intact, was some startling information. It turned out that an earth spacecraft one hundred and seventy cycles before that ship had been conceived, had encountered an alien species. To cut a long story short, events unfolded that meant that eventually this alien species found it's way to earth. It appears that despite deaths of many people who had encountered this creature, humans were determined to tame it. Thus the large craft was built. Originally meant as an orbital research lab, it should have never been near 'Earth'. But again something happened that is not clear, and the ship crashed here. From what I understand, and some of which we are guessing, but I believe that the planet was overrun. Yet there are no surviving creatures nor any other animal life. It seems they all died out. But some of the research still exists, on that ship, in it's labs. We took the specimens and the data, and used it to our own ends."
Admiral Wexlen rose and move to the Observation window. He chapped on the glass, and the glass which had been mirrorlike before, now became opaque. Crais followed the admiral and looked at the scene before him. At least ten scientists were bustling round a large cargo container with what seemed like an industrial strength shield around it. Two techs were examining displays that were linked up to the container. Wexlen took out a com unit and spoke into it.
"Activate the sonic pulse cannons. Once they are set, everyone leave."
One of the techs pressed a button on his console, nodded to the admiral and motioned for the rest of the company in the room to leave. Crais noticed that in every corner of the room, pulse turrets had appeared from emplacements in the walls. They also had motion sensors. Crais kept quiet, not sure what was unfolding before his eyes. The last of the techs had left the room. Wexlen took a small black device from another pocket, and placed his left thumb over a touch display. Verification complete, he pressed in his personal security code. The cage's shield deactivated, and the door opened leaving a dark opening with whatever was inside free to exit.
"Crais, meet our new pet. She is quite lovely. Intelligent as well, formidable in every respect."
The creature that emerged from the cargo container was in Crais's opinion, utterly alien. Having seen hundreds of species from around the known territories, this was unlike anything he had encountered. The creature was oily black and moved lithely yet tentatively, carefully examining its new surroundings. It appeared to be at least two metras tall, with a skeletal frame and seemed to walk upright like a humanoid, but hardly resembled one. To add to it's size, it had a long, lethal looking tail which was whipping from side to side, knocking over several portable data consoles still in the room. The head was elongated and it did not appear to have any eyes. It's head glistened from some sort of secretion that appeared to cover it's body in a light sheen, light bouncing off the alien's smooth exoskeleton. The alien grabbed the side of the door with it's wickedly sharp claws. It paused outside the door, it's large head moving to and fro as if testing the air. It hissed loudly when it saw the observation window, and proceeded to look at these new creatures watching it. Almost lazily it moved to the window, saliva dripping on the floor as it moved to observe the two men watching it. Inches away from Crais it hissed, softly nudging the window, testing it. With saliva dripping profusely, it hissed again this time sounding more insistent. The alien's mouth opened wide showing the fearsome set of jaws, saliva a torrent from its mouth. It's secondary jaws shot out, snapping at Crais, banging against the window with a fearsome thud. Crais stepped back in surprise, a curse dying on his lips. He looked over at the Admiral who watched the creature with a rapt expression.
"Is it not wonderful? The grace, the sheer econonmical design. Nature has surpassed itself in this one."
Crais looked at Wexlen in disbelief. "This is a natural creature? Not genetically altered?"
Wexlen nodded, "Yes, we were amazed, but this thing is at the top of the predatory ladder for an animal."
"So, you reanimate this, thing, and now what? Tame it? That looks to be a long, long job."
Wexlen now turned, focussing all his attention on Crais. He moved to a panel in the wall and pressed one of the buttons. The viewing wall returned to it's mirrored state. He then pressed another button, and a smaller window appeared on the other side of the room. A light activated and the room on the other side was illuminated. Crais followed wexlen and moved to this new scene. In the room was row upon row of specimen tanks. There had to be at least 300 tanks, maybe more. Crais did not like the look of the strange multiple legged creatures which were in each tank.
Wexlen motioned with an arm to the window. " These are what can only be described as the alien species' procreative partners. These parasitic animals attach to a host and impregnate them with an embryo. This quickly grows in the host, while it is still alive. When it is time, an infant version of that magnificent creature emerges. After around two solar days, it is fully-grown, and begins to hunt. We have managed to find out that they work on genetic memory. That is why they are so efficient. No mothering for these creatures. Col Drassa! Simply magnificent!"
Crais looked over to Wexlen. Fearful of the answer that his next question would receive, he had a suspicion he knew already. Absently rubbing his throat and neck before speaking, he asked anyway.
"So, what does this creature have to do with myself? Why are you showing me all this, what is with the suit? Does it have something to do with, that?" said Crais, gesturing to the alien in the other room.
Wexlen looked to Crais, and smiled thinly, no hint of humor touching his eyes. "Why, you have one of them inside you."
***
end of part one.........