Title: Redemption
Author: Banshae, 2001
Rating: R (violence, implied rape, cussing)
Disclaimer: You know and I know that I don't own these characters. I'm just
borrowing them for my own little passion plays. However, I DO own the original
characters and places, so no snurching!
Spoilers: All of seasons 1 & 2, pretty much all of season three, up to IP:
Icarus Abides
Archiving: You actually want this?! Just let me know: morgayne@hotmail.com,
so I can jump up and down and do a happy dance.
Summary: Takes place after IP: Dadelus Demands. Talyn's crew stops off at a
commerce planet and Aeryn turns up missing.
Special thanks to Felix, who argued with me and encouraged me and gave me great
ideas. This fic wouldn't have been the same without him.
Redemption: Part 1
"They actually have the mivonks to call this rock a commerce planet?" Rygel groused. He, Stark and Aeryn stood at the entrance to the market square, where they hoped to find some much needed supplies. Weatherworn buildings made up four sides of the square, while numerous tents selling consumables and native goods took up the center. Rygel moved his throne sled into the market, still grumbling, "If this the extent of the off-world trade here, we'll be lucky to find speelik pods!"
Aeryn said nothing, her eyes tracking the movements of the smoothly furred bipedal natives. She didn't know what they were called, and at this point, she didn't care. She didn't care whether they found fresh food, or whether they found the couplers they needed. There were a lot of things she didn't care about any more.
She'd only come down to the planet because the others had harangued her into it, Crais saying "The Hynerian and Stark can't be sent to the planet alone, you know that. And I cannot go. Someone must stay with Talyn." He'd fixed her with his dark eyes and mercifully left unsaid what she knew he was thinking: If John were still alive...
With effort, Aeryn focused her thoughts on the here and now: she was supposed to be watching the others' backs, even if she cared nothing for her own hide. Stark was ahead, walking slightly behind Rygel as the Hynerian grumbled and perused the displays in the shop windows. They'd arrived on the planet near dusk; now it was getting dark. The air was thick with water condensing into vapor, making it even more difficult to see.
Aeryn followed behind the others, still silent. It took too much effort to speak to them. It took too much effort to think. She felt as though she was moving in a thick fog all the time, but she didn't care.
Deeply ingrained training gave her the appearance of alertness, even though her mind was a thousand metras away. She didn't have the energy to be appalled at her lack of caution. It just didn't seem important anymore. Nothing did.
Rygel stopped abruptly, peering into a shop window, "They might have the couplers we need. Stay here, I'll go in and negotiate-"
"Shouldn't we stay together?" Stark glanced over his shoulder at the crowded square and then back at Aeryn as if he expected her to agree.
"Doesn't matter."
Stark looked from her to Rygel, then laid a hand on her arm, "I'll go with the little one. You stay here?" Aeryn looked down at his hand and then back up at him. The pity in his eye suddenly repulsed her and she shook off his touch wordlessly. He seemed to take this as assent on her part and nodded once before following Rygel into the shop.
The natives steered a wide berth around her as she stood outside the door. One or two risked a glance at her and quickly looked away, unwilling to meet her vacant gaze. Aeryn was oblivious to their discomfort. She had her own pain to carry. The place at her side felt empty. Grief twisted in her chest so sharply that for a moment she couldn't breathe.
John How many times had they been down to commerce planets together? His unflagging enthusiasm for the new and different his wonder at all the things she'd taken for granted. For her, born and raised in the closed confines of space-going vessels, the openess of sky overhead was always a distraction, the feel of dirt and grit on her skin a constant discomfort. But John would chatter nonstop about the shape of clouds and the diferences between whatever planet he was on and his beloved Earp. John had loved going planetside as much as she'd disliked it...
With an almost physical effort, she pushed the memories into a corner of her mind and slammed the door. Now was not the time.
"Officer Sun?" Crais' voice over her comms.
"Yes?"
"What is your status?"
Aeryn glanced into the shop. Rygel was haggling over something with the large, yellow-furred shopkeeper as Stark looked over a piece of equipment. "We may have found the needed items. An arn or two more and we will leave for Talyn."
"Excellent. Contact again in an arn?" Crais asked.
"Affirmative." Aeryn faced the street again. It had gotten even darker in the few hundred microts she'd been standing outside the shop. A lamp flickered on across the square, too far away to really alleviate the gloom.
More natives moved through the vapor, intent on their errands. One of them brushed against her and bounced off, bowing, "A thousand apologies, gentle-being."
Aeryn nodded absently and a moment later the native was gone in the swirl of the crowd. Rygel and Stark emerged from the shop, Stark carrying a bag.
"We got one coupler, thanks to my superior bargaining," Rygel said smugly. He pointed his throne sled towards another shop, this one displaying fresh consumables.
"Greens! Greens!" Stark was already halfway across the square, mumbling to himself.
"Is there anything you want, Aeryn?" Rygel asked. He risked a sideways glance at her when she stayed silent. "Aeryn?" A shake of the head, but her face remained blank, not even evidencing surprise at his uncharacteristic offer.
Rygel sighed inwardly. Much as he hated to admit it, he was worried about her. John's death had affected them all, but Aeryn had withdrawn into herself in a way that made even Rygel anxious.
It was if she was completely numb. The only passion she'd shown was in insisting that they bury John in space: 'If he can't go home, at least he can be at peace among the stars.' And her eyes had burned with pain. After the short ceremony, Aeryn had gone to her quarters and stayed there. She came out for her shifts on Talyn's command, but other than that she avoided them all.
Rygel had had to do some cajoling to get her to come down to the commerce planet. He didn't know if it she'd just gotten tired of listening to him, or whether she knew no one else could go, but eventually she'd agreed to join them.
He risked another glance. Well, it didn't look like this was going to make things any better. Yotz.
"I'll wait here." Aeryn stopped outside the door of the shop, taking up the same stance as before. Rygel disappeared inside and shortly she heard his distinct voice raised in haggling.
It was full dark now, and the streets were thick with natives wearing pale cloaks and not much else over their short, dense fur. With the heavier foot traffic, Aeryn was not surprised when another native bumped into her and performed the same bow and apology as its earlier compatriot.
A moment later, she felt a tug on her left hand. Before she could draw her pulse pistol, her eyes made out a child-sized shape. Relaxing fractionally, she pulled her hand free.
The child had a high, fluting voice, "Please, gentle-being, have you seen my mamma?"
Aeryn shook her head and gestured vaguely at the crowd. The small native gazed up at her with unsettling green eyes, "Please, I need my mamma!"
"I do not know where your 'mamma' is." Aeryn realized how she sounded when the child recoiled from her, but she didn't change the tone of her voice. "One of these others can surely help you."
"But." The child's chin began to tremble in the universal precursor to tears.
Hey Sunshine, she's just a kid!
The voice in her head was so real that Aeryn found herself squatting down to eye level with the little native. "What's your name?"
The green eyes were set in a heart shaped face covered with short, smooth dark fur. Pointed years set high on the child's head and its shortened nose gave it a vaguely ursine look. "I'm Arragalli. What's your name?"
"Aeryn."
"Are you a P-Peacekeeper?" Arragalli asked, one paw-hand going to her mouth anxiously.
Aeryn felt a pinprick of apprehension under the pervasive numbness. PK forces this far in the Territories? Shaking her head at the little one, she said, "No, I'm just a Sebacean."
"Oh." Arragalli glanced down at the pulse pistol doubtfully.
"Where did you see your mamma last?" Aeryn said, hoping to forestall more questions.
The child pointed to a shop several doors down. "She was over there and now I can't find her."
"Come with me," Aeryn took Arragalli's paw-hand and set off.
A few microts later and they were in front of the shop the child had pointed out. The lights were off in the display window, and the nearest overhead lamp looked like it had burned out, making this area much darker than the rest of the square.
"Are you sure this is the shop?" Aeryn asked Arragalli. The whole corner looked closed and the traffic pattern took almost none of the natives down this far.
"I'm sorry-" in the gloom, the child's eyes glowed strangely.
Aeryn felt a tickle of warning instinct, then something bit her on the side of the neck. Flinching, she shoved Arragalli away and dropped to the ground in a defensive crouch with her pulse pistol in her hands. "Go!" She hissed to the child. Sidling along the wall, she cast about for cover and felt her neck for a wound at the same time.
Something came away in her hand and she looked dumbly down at it. Frelling frell. A frelling tranq! Even as she identified the tranquilizer dart, she could feel its affects: her reflexes felt dulled and her vision was narrowing.
The movement of air on her left drew her attention and she swung the pulse pistol that way, palming her comms with one hand. "Crais! I've been hit with a frelling tranq! Lock my signal and get Rygel and Stark into the transport!"
"Officer Sun?!" Crais' voice sounded tinny-or was the drug affecting her hearing already? "Locking your signal-"
Something struck Aeryn from the right with enough force to knock the wind out of her. The pulse pistol fell from her suddenly nerveless grip. She tried to reach for the blade kept in her boot, but the drug was affecting her in earnest and her body would not obey her mind's commands.
A dark shape coalesced out of the vaporous air over her. Through sheer will, Aeryn forced her legs to kick out. There was a satisfying grunt as she connected, then a flash as her head was knocked painfully against the ground. "Stupid trelk," a voice hissed. "More of that and I'll just kill you here."
Aeryn felt herself picked up and thrown into some kind of vehicle. Rough hands searched her, "Get rid of this-" Her comms was pulled from her vest and passed from one hand to another, to disappear beyond her field of vision.
She could no longer move or speak. The vehicle lurched into motion.
One of the dark forms bent over her again, sneering, "A pretty catch indeed!"
Then the world faded.
************************
"What the frell do you mean, you can't find her?!" Crais demanded.
"We've looked everywhere-" Rygel's voice was sharp with equal parts anger and fear.
Bialar closed his eyes, willing himself under control. Talyn was already anxious enough- no need to add his own emotional turmoil to the Leviathan's. "Talyn says her signal is right there," he ground out.
"Wait-" Stark's voice now, sounding strangely calm. "I've found her comms."
The three of them were silent for a long moment, none of them willing to state the obvious: Aeryn was a fully trained Special Commando, and if someone or something had gotten close enough to drug her, then remove the comms, she was in some deep dren.
Bialar spoke first, "Stark, get your eema into the transport and get back up here. You'll stay with Talyn. Rygel and I will continue to search for Officer Sun." The Bannik murmured his assent and broke contact.
Heading for the docking bay, Bialar dealt with Talyn, "We will find Aeryn, but we will need your help. Stay calm. The native population does not have any offensive firepower. Stark will stay with you, and I will be in contact with you at all times."
The Leviathan sent a burst of emotions: fear for Aeryn, dislike at being left alone, anger at whomever or whatever had attacked Aeryn.
"We will find her, Talyn," Bialar said.
He wondered who he was trying to comfort more: himself or the Leviathan.
TBC...