Chapter 2 -- Too Good to be True

"What the hell is that?" John muttered, taking the Prowler in closer. He turned on the Comm. "Yo, D!"

"Go ahead, John."

"I'm sending some pix your way. Tell me if I'm hallucinating." He had to be. The mass looked like a ball of water, floating serenely in the vacuum. A huge ball of water. The thing was easily the size of earth, and had been obscured from their sensors by the asteroid field.

"What the frell…" D'Argo's whisper carried over the Prowler's Comm.

John grinned. "Yeah, that was about my response. You ever seen anything like it?"

"No."


"If I may interrupt…" Pilot interjected.

"Shoot…" John told him. "You know what it is?"

"I have heard… stories of such phenomena. Spheres of water, floating in space."

"What keeps it together like that?" Chiana's eager voice asked.

"Surface cohesion…" John replied quickly. "Pilot, is it drinkable?"

"Quite possibly."

John nodded, relieved. Assuming that the fates were in a better mood than they had been lately, their problem was solved. "I'll bring a sample back to Moya."

"Bring a big one back!" Chiana laughed.

John laughed. "Copy that. Dibs on the first shower!"

***

Aeryn awoke to a feeling that she never would have imagined begin so grateful for. Someone was smoothing a damp cloth over her face. "He found water?" she whispered, opening her eyes and smiling at Zhann.

"He has." Zhann nodded and helped Aeryn sit up, holding a glass to her lips. "Enough to supply us for years to come."

Aeryn gave a small sigh and leaned back, smiling. "He's finally done something right…"

Zhann laughed softly. "Indeed he has, child. He's bringing another load back now."

Aeryn nodded and struggled to sit up.

"Lie back. You are still weak." Zhann smiled at her. "Just rest, Aeryn."

"Where did he find it? Planet? Trading Outpost?"

Zhann shook her head. "A miracle from the Goddess. A sphere of water, floating in open space."

Aeryn frowned, narrowing her eyes. "I've heard of them, but…"

"They aren't supposed to exist." Zhann nodded. "Yet here you and I are, living proof that they do. We'd have been dead days ago if not for John's find."

"Days?" Aeryn repeated, frowning. "How long was I unconscious?"

"This is the third day since Chiana found you. John found the water that same day."

"Frell…" she whispered. "That's cutting it close."


"Yes, but all is well that ends well."

Aeryn nodded slowly. "You've heard tales of these water-planets?" she asked.

Zhann nodded. "Mmm-hmm. Many years ago, when I was still a child. Why?"

Aeryn shook her head. "Nothing. Just… thinking. It's funny. Whenever I heard these tales, they were always ghost-stories."

"Ghost stories?" Zhann repeated, startled.

Aeryn nodded. "When we were children, we would tell each other scary stories. They always started the same way. Some Marauder crew or retrieval squad, lost and wandering aimless, out of water… they'd stumble across these water-planets and the crew would start dying…" She shook her head, shrugging. "Strange stories. I never saw the point myself. No real moral or cautionary point…"

Zhann frowned. "Get some rest, child…" she told Aeryn, rising. "You are still weak."

Aeryn nodded. "Yes, Zhann."

"Call if you need anything."


"Okay."

Zhann smiled at her and left. Once she was out of ear-shot, she activated her Comm. "Pilot, you said that you have heard of these water-planets as well?" she asked.

"Yes, Zhann."

"What have you heard of them?" Zhann asked gently.

"What do you mean?" Pilot asked, and Zhann could hear the caution in his voice.

"Aeryn says that she's heard no good of these places, Pilot. What have you heard?"

"Mmm…" Pilot began.

Zhann frowned, startled. Pilot was seldom genuinely reluctant to answer a direct question. "I'm coming up there, Pilot. We'll talk when I arrive."

"Yes, Zhann." He looked up slowly when she arrived, reluctant to speak.

"Pilot, is this thing dangerous?" she asked softly.

"Perhaps, but the crew will die if we don't go."

"What have you heard?" she pressed.

"Tales of Leviathans, their Pilots, their entire crews, dead of dehydration in orbit around these water-planets."

"Credible tales?" Zhann asked, frowning. It made no sense that an entire crew should die of dehydration in such a fashion. There would have been at least a handful of survivors.


"I… do not know."

Zhann sighed deeply. "John has told me of a human saying: if it is too good to be true, it probably is."

"Then you are concerned?" he asked.

"Somewhat." She nodded. "It would perhaps be wise to stay for as short a span as we may, take only as much water as we need…"

"Moya and I are… in agreeance with you, Zhann."

Zhann smiled and lightly touched the crest of his head. "You have mentioned that there is much piracy in this sector. All the more reason to leave quickly. I will speak to the others."

"Thank you, Zhann. Moya and I are grateful."

Zhann smiled gently and left, secretly troubled. A priestess might be forgiven a certain degree of superstition, but when Pilots and Peacekeepers were afraid of ghosts… it was not impossible that the ghosts were real. And deadly. Caution was more than advisable in such situations, and the pirates that swarmed the area were as good an excuse as any to sway the others where fairy-stories might not. Had they not been so desperate, she would have endeavored to convince the others to bypass the water-planet altogether.

***

"Hey, looks who's back on her feet!" John called loudly as he half-supported Aeryn into Command.


"Hey!" Chiana smiled and joined them. "Good to see you vertical again."

Aeryn smiled faintly. "Thank you, Chiana."

"Aeryn." D'Argo smiled. "We're almost in visual range. You're going to love this. It is magnificent."

"Good." Aeryn smiled, feeling a little uneasy from one too many childhood ghost-stories. She brushed that aside and approached the view-screen. "Any sign of pirates?"

"Nah." Chiana shook her head.

"They seem to avoid this particular area of space…" Rygel added.


Aeryn glanced at him, blinking as she recalled a dream in which he had given her water. "Really?" she asked, digesting what he had said.

"But discretion is still called for…" Zhann added gently.

Aeryn nodded in agreement. "Always, yeah."

John watched in silence as the conversation unfolded. Aeryn was spooked, Zhann was spooked, Pilot might have been spooked but it was not always easy to tell with him. Even the bad guys avoided this part of space. He found himself feeling more than a little spooked as this information put itself together in his head like the pieces of a puzzle. Yeah, pieces were still missing, but he was not liking the overall shape one bit.

"So we go in, get the water, and get the hell out of Dodge?" he asked. "That the plan?"

"Good plan." Chiana nodded. "I think. What's Dodge?"

"Never mind, Pip." John shook his head. "The point is that we do this as quickly as possible and then leave as quickly as possible. That sound about right to the rest of you?"

"There it is!" Zhann exclaimed suddenly, pointing to the small, but rapidly growing, blue mass on the screen. "Pure water."

"Pure, drinkable water…" D'Argo corrected her, smiling.

Chiana smiled widely. "It is going to feel so good to be able to take a shower again."

John looked around for Aeryn and saw that she had slipped away. Sighing, he went to find her.

***

"Do Peacekeepers have horror flicks?" he asked as he walked on to the Terrace.

Aeryn was crouching there, in the center of the Terrace, staring at the blue, rippling surface that dominated the entire view in all directions. She did not look up at John. "I don't know. What are they?"

"A form of entertainment. Aliens, monsters, ghosts, killers, or whatever stalk unsuspecting humans, usually teenagers."


"And this is amusing?" she asked, frowning.

John shrugged. "In it's own way, yeah. My point is that the characters in these movies always do the most stupid things. They hear a scary noise, they go to investigate, usually alone, they get killed. They know a spirit is evil, they summon it anyway, they get killed. They're told to stay out of the haunted house, they go in anyway, they get killed. Sensing a pattern?"

Aeryn nodded tersely. "Natural selection, Crichton. The unfit do not survive."

John rolled his eyes. "No, Aeryn, the other pattern. The one where people do things that they know are a bad idea and end up dead. That pattern."

"I see."

"You've been on edge since I discovered this thing. Anything you want to share with me?"

She turned and regarded him thoughtfully. "We need water. Without it, we die."

"And that thing is full of water. So what's got you so edgy?"

"These 'horror clicks', they're like ghost stories, yes?"

He nodded. "You have those, too?"

She nodded. "Children tell them to each other in the barracks at night. To scare each other."

John walked to the edge of the Terrace and turned to face her, spreading his arms wide to indicate the rippling blue surface behind him. "This baby figure in to any of them?"

"Yes."

"Tell me."

She shrugged. "Did I mention they're just stories?"

"Tell me anyway."

"Okay." She nodded. "Crews, lost and desperate for water, would stumble over these water-planets. Usually, they had already started drinking the blood of their dead by this time… But… in orbit around these water-planets, strange things would start to happen." She frowned, remembering how many sleepless nights she had spent hiding under her covers after hearing this tale.


"What kinds of strange things?" John asked, approaching her. She could say that they were just stories all she wanted, but she was scared, he realized. When Aeryn Sun was scared, it was time to get scared yourself. He crouched in front of her. "Aeryn?"

She considered leaning away, but changed her mind. He was just trying to be friendly, or comforting, or whatever, in his strange, human way. "It would start with the voices…" she whispered, closing her eyes.

"Voices?" John repeated, frowning.

She nodded. "Ghostly voices over the Comm system, with no apparent source." She dropped the rest of the way to the deck, crossing her legs and thinking hard, trying to summon up stories she had not heard in better than forty cycles. "The Captain invariable dismisses them as spatial interference. Static. You've heard it on the Comm system, I'm sure."

John nodded. "Yeah, sometimes sounds like the wind, or wolves howling, or static. Never heard voices, though."

Aeryn shrugged. "Sometimes it can sound remarkably like muffled Sebacian. Teeg once swore she had heard a baby crying, and I could have sworn once that I had picked up voices singing." She shook her head. "It can be unnerving."

John nodded. "Okay. So what comes next?"

"Next members of the crew start hearing it in their quarters, or alone on their shift… no Comm."

John blinked. "Okay."

"Then people start getting sick."

"Sick?" John repeated, frowning. Ghost stories did not usually involve physical illness, at least not the brand he was accustomed to hearing.

Aeryn nodded. "Yes. The Doctors can never diagnose their condition, only their symptoms."

"What symptoms?"

"Dehydration, paranoia, delusions."

"Delusions?" John repeated, frowning.

Aeryn nodded. "Yes, they believe that their illness is not an illness at all, but the result of an attack by some entity." She sighed deeply. "Once it starts, it's over very quickly. Entire crews succumb within a matter of days." She pulled herself abruptly to her feet. "But this is only a ghost story."


"What if there's a contagion in the water?" John asked softly. "Leads to hallucinations, paranoia, delusions…"


"Zhann has screened and cleared the water, Crichton. There is no contagion."

"And the ghosts?"

"Do you believe in ghosts, Crichton? No civilized species does."

"If Sebacians don't believe in ghosts, Aeryn, why'd that story keep you up nights when you were a kid?" he breathed in her ear.

She jerked away, scowling at him. "Because children are foolish creatures!" she replied, shaking her head fiercely. "We need water!"

"Is it dangerous?" John asked quietly

"Maybe. But what choice do we have?" Aeryn challenged.

"We don't…" he sighed.

"Then there is no point in discussing it further."

"Except to be prepared if something is there."

"There is nothing there, Crichton!" she snapped, stalking off of the Terrace.

"Which one of us are you trying to convince?" he shouted after her. Sighing, he shook his head and turned to regard the rippling blue surface before him. It was very beautiful, very serene. He shook his head to dispel his own sense of unease. "No such thing as ghosts…" he muttered, sitting down and watching the surface move and change. It was almost hypnotic, definitely soothing.

"John…" D'Argo's voice came over the Comm. "We'll be close enough to begin uploading water in three arns."

"Okay. Great. Let me know when it's time."

Sighing, John rested his chin on his knees and watched the sphere before him, trying to divine what it was there that was capable of scaring people like Aeryn and Zhann.

Okay, so what do you think? Are you curious yet as to what the real deal is with these balls of water? Should I continue with my little FS ghost story?