Chapter 4

"Thankfully, our distress call was finally answered. Once we were towed to the planet, I was able to receive the medical attention that I required. As you can tell, my injuries were quite easily healed as the planet was a breakaway Sebacean colony." Since Aeryn had asked him to keep her involvement secret, he did not go into detail about his rescue. He would let Crichton assume that someone from the planet had heard his distress call. In actuality, Aeryn had taken her Prowler for help and gotten a tow ship to take Talyn to the planet.

"Having regained full mobility, I was able to easily oversee Talyn's repairs. I employed a small technical staff to do any work that the DRDs could not, but for the most part, it was myself and the DRDs conducting the repairs."

John interrupted, "And his higher functions are all right? I mean, he's right in the head and isn't going to be shooting Moya again or anything, is he? I know sharing your engrams messed him up something fierce."

Crais scowled, but ignored the insult. "I was able to repair and reprogram his matrix. He has been completely stable this past cycle." He glanced briefly at Aeryn, who looked at the baby as soon their eyes met. He knew that telling Crichton what had happened without mentioning her would beextremely difficult.

"Okay, so you're better, Talyn's better. Presumably, you laid low so that the Peacekeepers didn't come hunting for you. Did you do anything interesting, or should we just skip ahead to you finding us?"

Crais was momentarily saved from having to reply by Talyn notifying him there was a ship approaching. "We have company," he announced as he rose and left the room for Command.

"What sort of company?" John asked as he and Aeryn followed Crais.

"It is a ship of unknown design. Talyn is trying to hail them and has moved to protect Moya." When they arrived in Command, Crais asked, "Do you recognize that ship?"

John shook his head. "Never seen anything like that."

They all examined the large vessel. It was slightly larger than Moya, but even more heavily armed than Talyn.

"You're sure you don't know them? I know you like to make new enemies all the time, and then they tend to come looking for us." John was recalling their confrontation with the Halosians.

"Now is not the time to argue. Have they answered Talyn's hail?" Aeryn asked.

"No. His sensors cannot fully penetrate the hull of that ship. However, we can tell that their weapons are armed."

"Aeryn, get out of here. Take D'Argo back to Moya now."

"I'm staying right here. We're safer on Talyn than anywhere else. His armor will protect us from an attack," she insisted.

"All right. They're pointing guns at us, so they probably want something. Question is: what?"

"How do I know that they are not after you? Trouble does seem to be attracted to you," Crais retorted.

"Touché. Okay, what do we do now? Shoot them or wait for them to attack us?"

"I will try to manually hail them. Perhaps they have chosen not to respond to an automated hail." He activated the comms channel. "Unknown vessel, this is the Leviathan gunship you have targeted. State your intention."

"Are you traveling with the Leviathan Moya?"

All three of them looked at each other. "Unknown vessel, identify yourself."

"I don't like this," John said.

"Why would they be looking for you?" asked Crais.

"I don't know. Really. I have no idea why anyone would be looking for us. Not that I usually do."

Crais's gaze took on a far away quality. "They have energized their weapons."

"You will answer our inquiry."

"What do we do now?" John asked.

Aeryn stared at the display. "Talyn is powering up his cannons."

"Crais, you have to stop this. Wait! Cannons?"

"Talyn has grown additional weaponry on his starburst arms to supplement his main cannon. Surely you did not think that a gunship would have but one gun?"

"Have him power down. We don't want to antagonize these guys," John said.

"I will not leave us vulnerable. In addition to that, we are the only protection Moya has," Crais insisted.

"Gentlemen, I suggest we stop arguing. It's not getting us anywhere. I agree with Crais. As long as their weapons are powered up and they are being uncooperative, we need to keep Talyn's weapons ready to fire," Aeryn said. "Do we want to tell them that we are traveling with Moya?"

Talyn was rocked as he was hit with a pulse blast. "That was not a full power blast. No, Talyn, do not retaliate," said Crais. He activated the comms. "We are traveling with Moya. Be advised that we will defend the Leviathan."

"We do not intend any harm to Moya," came the reply.

"Funny way of showing it," replied John sarcastically.

"Crichton," hissed Crais by way of warning that the comms channel was still open.

"So what do you want with Moya that you would shoot at us just to make the determination that she is here?" asked Aeryn.

"We will not discuss this matter in open space. You will accompany us to a secure location."

"Do we have a choice?" asked John.

"I don't see one," replied Aeryn as she looked at Crais.

"I do not like this situation, but as Aeryn has said, I do not see that we have a choice."

"We could starburst; I doubt they could catch us," offered John.

"Talyn has not had enough time to recover. It will be at least another arn before he can conduct another starburst."

"And if they take us somewhere that they have reinforcements?" John asked.

"Their ship has greater firepower than we do. If they wanted to attack us, they would have done so already," said Aeryn.

"They are recharging their cannon," said Crais.

"All right, let's go along and see what they want," acquiesced John.

"We will accompany you," replied Crais.After closing the channel, he added, "Talyn, remain alert."

"There isn't anything in this area, is there?" asked John.

"The nearest planet is nearly a solar day away," replied Crais.

"So, we've got time for you to finish up your story of what you did while you were gone?"

Crais stared at John for several microts. He knew that it would be difficult to keep Aeryn's secret much longer. "If you insist."

"We don't seem to have anything else to do at the moment," John replied.

Crais could see that Aeryn was not pleased, but he had no valid reason for refusing John's request. He would have to find an excuse to speak with her alone and convince her it was time to tell her secret.

&&&&&&&&&

A/N: Many thanks to those that have reviewed. I'm glad that you are enjoying this story and I hope to present an interesting theory on what might have been.

To MoyaCrewAvenger (if you are still reading, though I doubt it): I removed your review because you were making a fool of yourself. You obviously do not know what part of Farscape I generally write (Crais is my favorite character, though of the last 8 fictions I have posted, only one had any J&A subtext to it, but was not a driving part of the plot, just like in this one), and you obviously don't know what this story was about (I'm still amazed you could draw the conclusion this would be a J&A shippy fic based on the first chapter).