Thanks to Nehaalshrug for bringing be back to the story.
Chapter 6: Paradise Lost
John took a step towards her but the sand in front of him gave way to a pool of shimmering blackness.
"Where's Einstein?" he demanded, taking the hint and stepping back.
"What are we doing here?" Aeryn asked before Furlow could answer.
"And what are you doing here?" John continued the barrage of questions.
"Whoa there, boys and girls. One at a time. As for what am I doing here…" Furlow drawled, motioning to the pool at their feet. "Pay attention, flyboy."
The blackness of the puddle began to coalesce into swirling colors. The randomness of the pool began to take form and the image of John and Einstein slowly took shape. Soon their images were as distinct and clear as if they were merely on the other side of a window.
"Tell me about the Ancients," John insisted.
"Members of my species substantially modified to live in your realm."
"They're here to spy on us. Narcs."
"To catalogue, report and influence."
"What is this John?" Aeryn asked as the image faded.
"My first trip down the bunny hole" John explained, dragging his thumb across his lip.
"The truth was always right in front of your eyes John, you just chose to ignore it" Furlow commented condescendingly.
"You're an Ancient?" John said, struggling with the consequences of the realization. Aeryn stood stoically by his side, but he could sense her growing unease.
"Yes, I am an Ancient. Or was an Ancient."
"Just stop Furlow. I'm too old for riddles that are wrapped in enigmas that are living in a beach house with conundrums. Cut the bullshit and tell us why we are here."
"To catalogue, report and….influence." Furlow repeated Einstein's words back to them. "Like I said, you just weren't listening."
The puddle again displayed the first meeting between Einstein and John
"I have little time. From the moment the Ancients implanted that knowledge, you exist to service a larger-" Einstein pleaded.
"No" the reflected John said, cutting Einstein short. "That's what you want. My name is John Crichton. I'm not your pawn. "
"Every civilization follows a similar pattern," Furlow began as the image faded. "Once it reaches a certain point in its history, does one of two things. Plunges itself into debilitating conflict or evolves and becomes enlightened. One your mud ball the called the Dark Ages and the Renaissance."
"Yeah, somebody woke up one morning and decided it was a bad idea to keep the dead plague victims in the drinking water. So what?"
"The enlightenment lasts for cycles, the civilization continues to evolve, eventually leaving their planets and exploring space. However, ultimately reaching the crossroads yet again. Millennia ago the Eidolons were present to ensure that peace would endure and enlightenment could continue. But they could not enforce that peace alone. Thus we guided them to Earth to stock the Peacekeeper race. Eighteen cycles ago the galaxy was once more about to head into crapper, but you know how that story ends."
"Yeah, the zebra did it" John commented dryly, the best he could do at this moment.
"It was not by coincidence or some sort of sublime providence..."
"Spit it out Furlow, I can see you're dying to do the evil-genius laugh."
"C'mon now Johnny-boy, didn't you think it was odd that everyone that passed through a wormhole, the Pathfinder and her crew, the Peacekeeper test pilots, all kicked it? But you and yours saw no ill effects from the journeys."
"What are you saying, that you allowed us to travel safely? That our interactions were part of some big plan?"
"To a degree, yes. The power of ultimate destruction is not something that can be given to just anyone, y'know. While your human heritage is what drew us to you initially, your mind is often permeated by your emotions. These emotions are your greatest asset and ultimately a serious liability. We needed more than a good SAT score and a cute butt. Thus, we needed to test you."
The pool illustrated a quick cascade of images. John's 'visit' to the false Earth, his reactions, freeing Aeryn from the base and implantation of the wormhole knowledge by Jack. More images, of the Pathfinder ship stuck in Moya, his meetings with Furlow and then to events on Dam-Ba-Da. The battle, Jack, Furlow, the weapon, the destruction of the Dreadnaught and ultimately the other Crichton's death.
"Zhaan, the other Crichton, killed in freakin' test?!"
"While the Delvians sacrifice was admirable, it was not intended. The Pathfinder and her crew could not be allowed to return to their home world with the data they had collected. They had pocked their noses into to many honey pots.
As for the other Crichton, who I think was cuter by the way, when you were cloned it presented us with a truly unique opportunity to assess your resolve."
"But you killed Jack I-I saw his body" Aeryn choked, her emotions running the full gamut all at once.
"What you did not see were the two Charrid soldiers positioned in the hanger rafters watching our every move. His death was…unfortunate, but it was necessary to retain the stability of the trial. He was willing to give his life in order to discover if John was worthy of the gift he had given him."
"You would have risked giving the Scarrans wormhole tech in order to see if I had the balls to kill myself to keep it safe?"
"I'll say this in small words to keep form losing you. Soon afterward you would use your knowledge and end a cataclysmic conflict before it had a chance to destroy this galaxy and other realms too complex for you to understand.
"So then our job is done, let us go home." John said, knowing that wasn't going to work.
"Not that easy Ace, your jobs are just beginning."
This time the puddle showed a young brown-haired boy throwing a ball with his father. His mother sat in the background, putting together the pieces of something that was shattered, apparently by the same ball.
"D'Argo" they chorused meekly.
"The Eidolons are going to be unable to prevent the Nebari from activating the contagion. The Nebari Establishment has no higher morals to appeal to, so the Eidolons' talents are useless in this conflict. Their time has come and they will need your counsel, as frightening as that sounds."
"'Their?' What do you mean?"
The pool shimmered again, but this time they were not looking at a reflection in the water. Their minds were transported to a time they both, to this day, strove desperately to forget.
"Push, baby, push" John said holding her hand.
"I frelling remember!" she said, releasing her grip on his hand and moving it directly to his throat.
"Ack— Right, doin' great baby." John squeezed out as he wrestled to loosen her hold. He would have thought that without the pulse fire, explosions, and that whole people-trying-to-kill-them thing, this delivery would be easier. John was wrong a lot it seemed.
"Arrrgh!" Aeryn grunted.
"Very good Mrs. Crichton, keep going" the doctor encouraged, a concerned look on his face.
John looked over his shoulder at the bio-screen behind him. There seemed to be a lot of red numbers on it that weren't there a few minutes before. They were told their normal physician was in surgery and was unreachable. John didn't like the idea of some random doctor delivering his child, but he didn't have much say in the matter. Also, Aeryn was likely to feed him his own mivonks if he suggested delaying the birth.
"Is everything alright doc?" John asked, worried.
"Fine, keep pushing!" his tone not comforting or reassuring; something was clearly wrong.
John felt his heart leap as the head and body came into view.
"Almost there baby," John said softly. "God, she is beautiful."
Once the baby was out and the cord cut, the doctor began sternly barking orders to his nursing staff. A small med stretcher was rushed in and the child was placed carefully on it.
"What the frell is going on?!" John demanded, as the doctor wheeled the newborn out of the room.
"Mr. Crichton, I need you to remain calm" a nurse said blocking him from following the doctor.
"Don't tell me to remain calm, where did you just take my daughter?" Raking her with wintry blue eyes.
"There was a problem with the delivery…"
"John?" Aeryn called, her voice uncharacteristically frightened.
"It's ok, honey, I'm here" John said, rushing back to her.
"I wanna see her, I want to hold her" she appealed anxiously.
"I know babe, they're just making sure she doesn't have any Hynerian in her" John said forcing a smile.
Moments later, a sullen figure appeared in the doorway. Aeryn and John each read the doctor's reaction instantly, and their souls crashed together.
"Where's our baby, doc?"
"Mr. Crichton, I don't know how to tell you this…" his admission cut short as John rushed forward. He seized the shocked doctor and heaved him hard against the delivery room wall.
"There was nothing I could do! The child never had a chan…" his words were lost as John thrust his muscular forearm against the doctor's throat.
"She gave birth in the middle of a frelling war zone," John seethed through clenched teeth. "We are in a fucking hospital!" The tears were flowing freely now.
"Mr. Crichton, please" the nurse said attempting to restrain him; her efforts were rejected with a violent shove.
Aeryn lay motionless on the delivery table, long-reprised fears and pangs of loss striking her fragile psyche all at once. She could not even cry yet.
The doctor's face was turning white from the pressure of John's hold, but soon the only force greater than his contempt for the doctor would emerge.
"Dad?" a frail, concerned voice asked from the doorway.
John cut his eyes, the image of a five-cycle-old D'Argo standing there petrified.
"There you are narl!" Chiana's effervescent voice bubbling as she appeared behind him. "I have been chasing you all over the…" her eyes widened as John released the doctor who promptly slumped to the floor.
"C'mon, lil'D, let's go find something sweet to eat" Chiana said with mock appeal as she led the wide-eyed child away.
"What happened?" John rasped stonily , after giving the doctor a few moments of hacking and coughing.
"I don't know for sure. Perhaps the unique nature in which your first child was implanted into Aeryn from the Hynerian or that your DNAs simply could not produce another healthy offspring. All we know is that the child never had a chance."
"Enough!" John snarled kicking a clump of sand into the pool to disperse the image. He took Aeryn's hand; they'd had thirteen years to overcome the soul-weakening loss of that day. But the pain still felt fresh. The failed birth was what stopped them from releasing other children from stasis. They told themselves that one day they would try again, but no specialist could give them concrete reasons for the child's death. They had so much tragedy in their lives, the potential to add more seem masochistic.
"Why are you showing us this?" Aeryn asked wounded, tears streaming down her face.
"The distinctive gland in your son's mind, which only your combined genetics can create, is not alone. There is another."
Their hearts both seemed to stop beating as Furlow's words were processed.
"I do not know how, but we have sensed its presence and in a few cycles she will begin to blossom as your son is."
"She? As in our daughter? The same daughter we just watched die, for a second time?"
"How is that possible?"
"We are not omnipotent; her survival is a mystery to us as well."
"That's bullshit." He fumed, he seemed to be saying that a lot lately.
"We have no clue how she survived the birth or her present location. I only have her name to, Bel Merrin. I got no reason to lie to you; this will be our last meeting."
"What, why?"
"Jack was not lying when he said he found a planet for us to live on. My species will remain there tucked away in safety; we cannot risk being contaminated by the contagion. Einstein and the rest of the fathering race were forever cut off from this reality by the fissures caused by the wormhole weapon. A side effect that was unavoidable. When he came to you on Moya to remove wormhole knowledge from your mind, he sealed the opening behind him to prevent further degradation. As for me, the mental stress of bringing you both here will undoubtedly kill me soon. I know your both heartbroken."
"John, she is alive." Aeryn turned to him, shock and confusion but also hope in her eyes.
"I know babe and we gotta find her."
"And soon Should the Nebari release the contagion before you find her and your son, the consequences would be real bad" Furlow added.
"I can't go, Scorpy is watching me too closely and the last thing we need is to have another child for him to hang over us."
"I'll go; I'm already away from the base. What about…?"
"Don't worry about Moya, I'll convince Scorpy to have her brought to me."
"Then what?"
"I'm gonna do what I shoulda been doin' from the start," John said, turning towards Furlow to make sure she heard it, too. "Give our son another option."
As John lethargically awoke from the existential meeting that had taken place, dawn was breaking on the planet below. The rise of the sun gave light to the other constant of the day; D'Argo's training.
"Y'know, I'm beginning to see why you never simply changed my DNA to hide me" D'Argo said to the phantom vision of his father who appeared to be holding D'Argo's feet to the ground as he did sit-ups. D'Argo had never had a habit of talking to himself before coming here, but he found this delusion helped quell the homesickness.
"You think we knew this would happen?" the vision of his father responded.
"Did you?" D'Argo paused at the top of his rep. The question had been bothering him and he wished he could ask his real father.
"You're not gonna be able to stay here forever."
"I know. But I can't see how going back to Molina is a solution."
"Your mother is worried. She misses you. And she is taking out all her frustration on me."
"I figured as much" D'Argo replied with a chuckle, continuing his workout. "I need to figure out what's inside my head."
"Are you so sure you'll want to know?" the question lingered as the familiar sound of treaded gravel signaled the arrival of someone to the plateau.
"You're early" D'Argo said by way of greeting, hopping to his feet. He was surprised to see it was not Goll who had joined him this morning.
"And you're alone. I thought I heard you speaking to someone" Felina said inquisitively.
"Just thinkin' out loud. Something I can help you with?"
"Yes, I heard about these sessions and I was wondering if you could give me a shot. I studied some fighting arts on my home planet" she said, walking over to him.
"I'm not quite sure how comfortable I'd be with that."
The words were barely out his mouth when a sharp blow struck his face with lightning quickness. The power and unexpectedness of the blow threw him off-balance and he landed smartly on his backside.
"It must be more comfortable than being down there." Felina smiled arrogantly.
"Fair enough," D'Argo challenged, rising to his feet. He took a defensive stance, which she matched.
He gave her a coy wink, to which she responded with another jab. However, he was ready this time and blocked it. They circled in the brown dirt, their eyes shifting from hips, to shoulders, to hands and always back to eyes.
Her blows were direct but sporadic. There was no consistency to her attack; she was all over the place. Her stance and the fluidity of her motions proved she had extensive training, but her strikes mirrored chaos. Then it occurred to him.
She was probing. His mother used to do it whenever she wanted to test D'Argo's progress in certain fighting styles. But it didn't make any sense, why should she want to test him? More importantly, why would she feign weakness?
"So you and Relex really seem to be hitting it off" D'Argo commented, blocking another blow with his forearm.
"Yes, we have great fun together" she replied, her punches unabated by the conversation.
"So it seems. He talks about you all the time, but he's never mentioned your history."
"Oh?" she thrust in with her elbow.
"Yeah, y'know, where you're from and what you're doing here" D'Argo said ducking under the blow.
"I'm just like the rest of you, on the run" she said, dropping her arms as a sign to rest.
"Told you about that, huh?" he replied, mirroring the gesture.
"Indeed. I am from a planet called Karpathika. My mother was a noble and selfless queen who was murdered by my inferior father because he was jealous of her. I escaped before he could do the same to me."
"I'm sorry to hear that" D'Argo responded earnestly.
Felina nodded then struck with the speed of coiled viperher fist jamming into his sternum driving all the breath from his lungs. D'Argo fell to his knees, gasping for air, but Felina merely eyed him with a predatory sneer and planted her foot on his chest driving him flatly to the ground.
"Do not ever feel sorry for me" she said slowly, straddling his body and bringing her face close to his.
D'Argo was stunned by her attack and behavior, as she hovered denches from his face a strange smile on her lips. She moved in closer, her hair falling in a fragrant ebony curtain around his face, mingled with the scent of her sweat. Her full lips drew slowly closer to his, a seeming moment in time forever suspended in those few breaths between mystery and discovery.
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" an obviously indignant Lind sniped, with what appeared to be refreshments dropped at her feet.
"No, I'm done with him" Felina said superciliously, rising to her feet. "He's all yours." She walked past the fuming girlfriend down the trail leading back to the city.
"Having fun?" she asked in a brittle tone, hands clenched on her hips.
"Lind, honey, it's not what it looks like" D'Argo lamely made a hopeless attempt.
"It looks like that tralk was straddling you on the ground."
"Well, okay, technically, it is what it looks like. But it's not what you're thinking."
"You do not want to know what I'm thinking right now" she spat, turning to leave.
"Lind wait!" D'Argo pleaded, rising painfully to his feet the soreness in his ribs a strong reminder of how he ended up on the ground in the first place. By the time he had composed himself, she was out of sight.
"Smooth" an ethereal voice mocked him.
"Shut up, Dad."
"Listen Scorpy, if I'm gonna be stuck orbiting this planet for the next couple of cycles then I'm gonna need my own space" John said as they walked down the crowded corridor.
"I understand that, John, but your request is unacceptable."
"C'mon Scorpy-sue, I'm giving you the island of Manhattan. I just want my shiny beads" John stepped in front of him to block the hybrid. In that moment he realized that all the Peacekeepers in sight were looking at him strangely. On the surface this was nothing new. Whenever he was around the Space Nazis, they regarded him with obvious contempt. Nevertheless, since he had been on this base he could sense the contempt was coming from a different place.
"They fear you," Scorpius leaned in closer, eerily sensing John's thoughts. "You have become mythic since the war's end. It is no longer Cholak's demon that snatches disobedient children in the night but John Crichton, harbinger of death."
"Harbinger of Death? Well it's better than the nickname I had at summer camp. 'Course now I'll need new business cards."
"And what of your wife, did she not leave to go see the Leviathan?" Scorpius asked suspiciously.
"Well, that's the other part of the deal, we had bit of a tussle and I was hoping…"
"That if the Leviathan was here, she would have to come back."
"Something like that, yeah." John should have tried this sooner. Scorpius trusted ulterior motives. That was something he was very used to, even comfortable with.
"Very well, you will have your Leviathan" he said, placing his hand on John's shoulder. The human still reflexively winced whenever he touched him, proving that ingrained apprehension does not quell with time.
It had been eighteen solar days since John got word that Moya was on her way. Hopefully she should arrive within the next solar day. He wasn't sure how, but he was gonna have to release the command collar and get her and Pilot out of here.
He hated to leave his son, but he seemed relatively safe, as illogical as that sounded what with Scorpius doing the Truman Show thing from the moon. Nevertheless, the only option he saw that didn't end in his son committing mass murder was by taking out the threat before D'Argo had to. As he flopped tiredly onto his bed he could not help but laugh at his current predicament. When did my life shift from Space Opera to Soap opera? He thought as sleep took him.
On the planet below the massive seasonal storm was at full pitch. Torrents of chilling rain assaulted the ground. The brief blue flashes of lightning threw contrast against the glistening blackness of the wet pavement. Underneath a covered walkway, two friends were making their way home lost in the roaring storm and their conversation.
"I'm telling you it'd be the draddest!" Relex shouted to be heard over the rain pounding against the roof above their heads.
"You're an idiot, you know that? No one is gonna watch 'Relex the Movie'" D'Argo said with a chuckle, clapping his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Sure they would! I'm charismatic, good looking…"
"…full of dren…"
"Of course I would have to star…and direct…and write… and produce" Relex listed thoughtfully.
"Relex you don't even know what half those words mean."
"Ah," Relex said, stopping their walk and raising a single finger like a triumphant detective. "I see where this hostility is coming from. You're afraid you won't be in it. Fear not, every hero needs a sidekick."
"What!? If anything you're my sidekick."
As D'Argo said this, the two friends stepped back from each other to allow two huddled people to walk past. However, the two people quickly shed their heavy coats to reveal black Peacekeeper armor. Each brought the butt of their rifle across the young friends' faces. D'Argo and Relex crumpled to the ground, the blood flowing from their noses lost in the pelting rain.
"Targets neutralized, you may proceed" one of the attackers said into his helmet comms.
"Conceal yourselves and hold position until confirmation." A grizzled voice responded into his ear piece.
A few city blocks awayanother two men in Peacekeeper armor stood patiently outside a nondescript apartment building. When the call came in, it brought a smile to a hard gleam to the older mans green eyes. The solar days of planning made this operation seem deceptively easy. The Prefect had told Chaz'ri of Lind location and the Peacekeeper involvement, ordering him to return Lind as well as two sebecan young men. D'Argo was to captured and placed into custody. However, should he resist, then Chaz'ri had the authority to adjudicate as he saw fit. Using the electrical storm as a cover to disrupt the Peacekeeper surveillance devices surrounding the complex worked perfectly. The four-man Shadow squad assigned to the young friends was lazy and easily overpowered. Chaz'ri ordered his men to wear the Peacekeeper armor as a precaution and to protect their identity. Soon this nightmare would be over and Lind would be back at home. He motioned to the other soldier and they made their way to the complex.