Summary: Jool is stranded on Moya. Ever since she woke from her cryogenic sleep, she has desperately been hoping that she was living a nightmare, but she never seems to wake up. All she wants is to go home, but they have yet to find a suitable planet, not that she had the currency to pay her way home. Now, they are babysitting a wounded Peacekeeper and his gunship and she has been enlisted to help.
Setting: Thanks for Sharing.
Misc: This was written for the Terra Firma Starburst Challenge for characterization to take a character whose POV you don't normally wrote. Jool screamed, er, spoke to me louder than the others. :) I may do more from her POV as I find it interesting.
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Jool considered the new arrival, Captain Crais. Captain! How could he continue to call himself captain when his ship was gone? True, he had Talyn, but that was hardly enough to qualify him as a captain. He was just another pompous Peacekeeper, as he proved when he regained consciousness. Just like any other Peacekeeper, the first thing he did was resort to violence. She was trying to help him, and he had tried to strangle her with no provocation.
She was definitely beginning to rethink her decision to stay on with this ship of inferiors any longer. Even though it had been cycles since she had been frozen, there had to be something for her on her planet. At the very least, everyone should have forgotten about the trouble that led to her departure.
Having learned that Crais was not particularly well-liked, she looked forward to when he no longer needed medical care and would go away. It was bad enough having a Luxan onboard.
Examining his test results, she prepared the next, and hopefully final, dose of medication he would need. She was definitely leaving on the next planet with a spaceport. Filling the injector, she returned to the patient area. "This is going to hurt," she said gleefully before plunging the needle into his arm.
"You did that on purpose," he growled.
"Of course I did. What did you expect after you tried to kill me?"
"I did not know who you were, where I was, or if I was in danger."
"So you decide to kill the first person you see," she replied sarcastically.
"I was not trying to kill you. Only to encourage you to release me, and if you were dangerous, to take control of the situation."
"Hmph. Well, that should be the last injection you need. I suggest you rest for a while. If you need anything else, don't call me."
As she walked back to her quarters, she tried to decide what to do. Everything she had heard about this planet was that it was not a friendly place and did not have a lot of outside visitors. She needed to find a planet that was a commercial hub. Unfortunately, until that gunship was well, they weren't going anywhere. She hoped that it wasn't going to take too much longer.
Now that her duties were done for the time being, she wanted to get some rest. Aeryn had been quite insistent that she take care of Crais, and the few times she had tried to leave Maintenance Bay over the last two solar days, she had been coerced into temporarily staying there with her patient. Now that her patient was conscious and as well as she was going to get him, she was going to get some much-needed rest. She didn't have to do anything for these people; they weren't paying her.
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"Jool, wake up. Come on, Princess," John said insistently as he shook her awake.
"What the frell time is it?" she asked groggily.
"Time for you to get up."
"What's wrong?"
"I need you to run that genetic scan."
"Can it wait?" she asked impatiently. She knew he was an inferior species, but she had hoped that he would at least have some consideration.
"No. He's on Talyn right now, so this is the best time for you to do it, prove that I'm the real Crichton."
"Fine. Whatever. I'll meet you in your quarters." She decided that if she didn't do this now, he would only pester her endlessly until she did. After stopping at her lab to get sample equipment, she went to his quarters. "Remove your lower garments, and face away from me."
John sounded wary. "What the hell for?"
She sighed. "You asked me. If you want a genetic comparison, I need a specimen."
"Of what?" asked a shocked John.
She was tired of having to explain everything. "Well…skin. Unless you prefer I test your internal organs."
"You can stay the hell away from my internal organs, lady," he replied defensively.
That was the reaction she had expected. "Well, skin then. Preferably something with the least amount of solar radiation." She made a move towards his backside.
"Ah! Shoulder!" He pulled his shirtsleeve up. "I use SPF thirty."
She had no idea what 'SPF thirty' was, but the sooner she could get the sample and do the test, the sooner she could get some rest. Making a jab at his posterior, she got her sample and smiled victoriously. She tried not to laugh when he jumped away from her. "Thank you."
"How long is it going to take?"
"A few arns. I'll let you know when I have the results." Taking the sample, she turned to leave the room. When an explosion rocked the ship, she screamed as she was tossed onto the bed.
"Pilot!" John shouted.
"Missiles! Launched from the planet. Exploding in the atmosphere," he replied.
Now she was positive that she had to get off this ship. They were being shot at. This was no place for her to be.
"Aeryn, I'm going to Command. You stay with Captain Crunch," John ordered.
She watched John run off. "What about me?" she whined and decided that it was probably best if she stayed where she was. Bracing herself for further impacts, she began to reconsider her decision to not remain on this planet. Of course, the others on the ship had essentially ruined any chance she had at being accepted here. They would associate her with this band of criminals.
After quite some time without another explosion, she assumed it was safe to move. Knowing that Crichton was likely to bother her if she didn't work on the genetic comparison, she decided she would work on that, and then she would get some rest.
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Jool was engrossed in her analysis when she received a comm. "Joolushku, you are needed in the Maintenance Bay."
"I'm busy, Pilot. Tell Crais I'll be there later." She would never get any work done with all the interruptions. This was a very dysfunctional group.
"It is not Captain Crais. Commander Crichton was injured in an explosion on the planet, and his ship will be arriving shortly."
She sighed and set down her work. "Fine. I'll be right there."
When she arrived in the Maintenance Bay, she could hear the air cycling and tapped her foot impatiently while she waited for the door to open. She was shocked at what she saw when D'Argo carried him through the door. "Sylveko! He's bleeding!" She wasn't sure that she could treat him. It looked like he needed a surgeon. While she had decent medical skills, surgery was not her specialty.
"You have a keen grasp of the obvious. Help him," D'Argo ordered as he carried John to the diagnostic table. "Help him!" he said more emphatically when she didn't move.
She jumped at his admonishment and hurried over to the table to examine John. D'Argo was standing over her shoulder, making her nervous. She definitely had to get off this ship.
"You're doing fine," D'Argo reassured.
She did her best not to laugh as she continued to treat his injuries. "Yeah, right. I could be killing him for all you know." She wished he would just go away. Having finished closing the wound, she shut off the tissue regenerator. "A major artery's been cut. He's lost a lot of blood." Even though she had stopped the bleeding, he wouldn't survive long.
"Well, then replace it. You're similar species."
Her people had never really had any interaction with Luxans, but from what little she had heard, D'Argo seemed to be living up to the stereotype. "Are you klempt? Even within my species, the subtypes have to match. My blood…is donor incompatible."
"Take mine," replied the other John as he entered the room.
This offer surprised Jool. She knew how much John, either one of them, hated the fact that there were two of them. A part of her almost wished that he had not agreed to help, but then she came to her senses and realized that she was not the type of person that wanted to be responsible for another's death. Though, her recent experiences had reinforced her belief that she did not want to be a healer. Once they were done arguing, she hooked the two John's up to a transfusion machine.
"How long is this going to take?" the uninjured John asked.
"Half an arn. I don't want to take the blood too fast. You will be a little weak when I finish, but you will recover soon," she replied curtly.
"Great bedside manner, you've got," John said sarcastically.
She was examining the injured John and trying to ignore the one that was speaking to her. The injured one was now unconscious, and his vital scenes were weak, but she thought he would survive with the transfusion.
"What have you learned about the genetic test?"
"Nothing yet. It's impossible to get any work done on this ship because every time I try to do something, one of you has an emergency that only I can solve," she replied in an irritated voice.
"All right, sorry. I was just curious. Have you taken a sample from him?"
She sighed, willing herself to be patient. "I haven't had the opportunity yet. Sit there quietly while the blood transfuses. I'll take a sample, and once I'm done here, I'll finish the analysis."
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After finishing the analysis, she sought out the uninjured John. "I've finally finished it."
"Well?"
"Analysis shows that both of you have the exact same DNA as the original sample." Hopefully, this would end all debate and get him to leave her alone.
"There has to be some sort of degradation. You can't just copy a person," he said in disbelief.
"Well, he did. You're both perfect, or as perfect as your species gets. And before you ask, I am not running the tests again. I double-checked my work and I did nothing wrong. Live with it. There are two of you."
"But D'Argo told me that the copies to degrade. I saw proof that they do. You saw proof of that."
"I don't know. Maybe Sebaceans are different from your species. This is what I found. Since I didn't get to examine the technology, this is the only answer I can give you. Now, I'm going to break the news to him so the two of you will leave me alone about this." As she walked to the quarters where the wounded John was recovering, she went over the conversation she had just had, trying to determine how to make her next one go better. She didn't want to get into an extended argument over this. However Karvok had done it, he had found a way to perfectly copy someone. She shuddered at that thought. Well, at least he was gone and wouldn't be copying any more people. She had to get off this ship before she had any other horrifying experiences. Perhaps home wasn't as boring as she thought.
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Finally done with all the work that everyone was giving her, she looked forward to getting some rest. While her bed wasn't really that comfortable, it would do. She was so tired that she didn't really care. All that mattered was that she had a bed.
She was rousted from her sleep by Chiana. "Hey, Jool. Wake up."
"What do you want?" she whined. Why couldn't they just leave her alone?
"We need your help. We finally managed to get some chromextin for Talyn, but he reacted badly to it. You are the only one that can tell us what it really is."
Throwing off the covers, she replied, "Fine. I'll be right there."
When she arrived in the Maintenance Bay, Chiana was waiting for her, and Aeryn was packing a large bag. She picked up one of the packets and poured a sample under the microscope.
After running a few tests on it, she knew what it was. "Well, it's definitely chromextin, but apparently it's laced with chlorium."
Chiana asked, "What's chlorium?"
"An anesthetic that numbs Leviathans," Aeryn replied.
"Oh, mixing that with a stimulant probably wasn't a good idea. Anyway, glad I could help, but it's been an extremely long day," she replied sarcastically. Now that she had done as they asked, she was ready for some rest.
John grabbed her arm as he entered the Maintenance Bay. "Sorry, Jool, we need you to work some overtime. We need you to strain the chlorium out of that stuff."
Why was it these inferiors couldn't do anything for themselves? "With this equipment, it's going to take forever, and even if I was sure of how to do it – which I'm not…" She had no reason to help any of them, especially Crais and his gunship. Once again, they were acting as though she wasn't there. She was just a tool for them to use and ignore when they were done with it. At least they were seeing if the Leviathan could do anything to filter the chromextin.
She returned her attention to everyone else when she heard her name.
"All right, tell Chiana and Jool what to do. I'm heading back to Talyn," Aeryn said to Pilot.
"Same here," added John.
Realizing there was no way she was going to get out of helping she turned to Chiana. "You open; I'll pour."
"Fine." Chiana ripped into a package and handed it to her.
Jool started pouring the powder into the opening, trying to do it as quickly as possible.
"You're spilling it," Chiana admonished.
It's not like there wasn't going to be enough with a little bit of it spilling. "You want to pour?" Jool hoped the answer would be 'yes', and that she would finally be able to get some rest.
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Once she finished with the chromextin, she dragged herself back to her quarters. The others could solve the political nightmare they had made with this planet. It wasn't her business. As she crawled into bed, she started imagining what her life would be like if she left. Perhaps she could get one of them to give her some money so she could get off this ship and find her way home. Definitely not Chiana. John was so difficult and self-absorbed that it was unlikely she would be able to charm any off him. Though, his species was so inferior that she thought she might be able to talk him out of it. Worst case, she was sure she could charm some currency off the Luxan. He probably wouldn't even realize what had happened.
She would start working on that tomorrow. For now, she would get some rest.