See previous chapters for disclaimers! Your reviews stimulate me to write more! Hope you like it, love xx Shezzi
Aeryn sat on the command floor, holding John's head in her lap, running her fingers through his hair, while Zhaan examined him. "Right before, his head was hurting him, I could tell," Aeryn told her, trying not to let her fear show in her voice. From the sympathetic look Zhaan gave her, she wasn't succeeding. Zhaan ran a hand over John's head, pausing at an area behind and slightly above his left ear.
"It's the chip," she told Aeryn, her eyes worried. "It seems to be shorting out, it's sending out slight electrical impulses. They shouldn't be strong enough to do any real damage, but..." she grimaced, concerned. Aeryn gathered John closer to her, rocking him gently. Zhaan, seeing there was nothing more she could do, nodded to Aeryn and quit the room, heading for her lab to await the delivery of one of the creatures for study.
"Fight him, John. He's not real, he's losing his grip, he's dying, you just have to fight, just a little while longer, you hear me?" She bent down and kissed his forehead gently. "You've shown me that I have a heart, and that I want to share it, so don't you dare die on me now, John Crichton!"
John wandered down a hallway, glancing around as he went. He seemed to be on the 17th Tier, Hammond Side, around where D'Argo had first tried to attack him when he came under the Luxan hyper rage over a cycle ago. John shuddered at the memory, and what he'd been forced to do to escape the enraged beast his friend had become. Suddenly, he caught a flicker of movement in the distance, a flash of long dark hair and black leather. "Aeryn? Aeryn, is that you?" He called, chasing after it. Suddenly, the air was rent by a terrible, pain filled scream. "Aeryn, Aeryn baby, where are you?" He called, running down corridors he no longer recognised. Suddenly he emerged into a familiar chamber. The Aurora Chair stood in all its glory, with Scorpius standing beside it, and Aeryn was strapped in, tears pouring down her cheeks as she stared at the dish, though John couldn't see what it showed from his angle. "NO!" He roared, furious. He started towards her, but found himself glued to the spot, unable to move.
Just then, he heard Aeryn talking, calling to him. "Fight him, John. He's not real, he's losing his grip, he's dying, you just have to fight, just a little while longer, you hear me? You've shown me that I have a heart, and that I want to share it, so don't you dare die on me now, John Crichton!" John concentrated fiercely, forcing first one foot, then the other, forward. As he continued, it got easier, as he hung onto Aeryn's words. Glancing up at Scorpius, he saw the blank fear on his face.
"What's the matter, Scorpy? Can't control me anymore? Funny that, you see, I've realised that you are nothing. You're all suggestion and bluster, no real power any more. You can't do anything to me now. So why don't you just go away!"
John bolted upright in Aeryn's arms, struggling blindly against the restrictive grip. "John, John it's all right, I've got you. You're fine, just relax." Aeryn stroked his hair gently, trying to calm him. Slowly her words broke through his terror, and he relaxed, sweat soaked, against her. She brushed her fingers over his cheek, and he captured them in his hand, drawing them to his lips, and kissing and nibbling them gently. Then he straightened suddenly.
"Aeryn, I think I know what to do for Moya. Have we succeeded in isolating them, and retrieving one for study?" Aeryn quickly relayed the questions, and received affirmative answers.
"So, what's your idea, John?" asked Aeryn, curious.
"Water and electric current. If just drowning them doesn't work, run an electric current through it. It should be safe for Moya, but Pilot would know more about that than I do. Anyway, that would be my suggestion. Flame and acidic or alkaline solutions would all be extremely harmful to Moya, but I think this is probably our best bet." Aeryn nodded her understanding.
"Can you stand? We'll go down to Zhaan and see what happens when we try that." She carefully helped him up, taking most of his weight when his legs shook. She wrapped her arm tight around his waist and slung his arm across her shoulders, gripping his wrist in her other hand. He stumbled beside her, grateful for her support.
"Aeryn, I heard you. When I was…fighting Scorpy, I heard you, your voice, and you gave me the strength to fight him. You said…that I showed you you have a heart, and that you want to share it?"
"Yes, that's what I said," she told him.
"Aeryn Sun, I love you," John wrapped his other arm over and around her waist as best he could.
"I love you too, John Crichton," Aeryn turned to face John, cupping his face in her hands and, leaning in, kissed him thoroughly. When they finished, he smiled against her lips.
"We should be getting down to Zhaan's lab, shouldn't we?" He asked, and she nodded slightly, not completely trusting herself to respond verbally.
"Yeah, we should." Taking his hand, she pulled him down the corridor, allowing him to take more of his own weight, they hurried down the Tiers, quickly arriving at Zhaan's lab. "John has a suggestion," Aeryn told the somber looking group. "What's wrong?" she demanded, concerned.
"The only thing we can think of to destroy these things is fire. We would have to burn Moya to destroy them," Zhaan told them, her expression somber.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, put away the barbeque forks, fellas. I've got an idea that may just make that completely unnecessary. Zhaan, did you try drowning the creature?"
"Of course, John. It had no effect," Zhaan explained. "The creature seems impervious to water."
"Well, what about an electric current run through the water?" Aeryn could tell, form the expression on Zhaan's face, that the idea was a good one.
"D'Argo, I need another bug," she told him quickly, and he nodded, pulling one out of a small container and tossing it to her. She dropped it in a clear plastic container, which she filled with water, and then carefully dropped a live electrical cable into it. It fizzed and sparked, then the bug collapsed, apparently lifeless. Zhaan pulled the wire out of the wall, cutting the electrical connection, then she removed the bug, which was indeed dead.
"Wonderful, John. It works," Zhaan told him, before comming Pilot quickly and questioning him on the feasibility of the plan. Pilot was uncertain, but when he heard the only other option, he quickly decided to go with the electrocution plan.
"We'll need lots of water; more than we have on board. There's a planet with low gravity and large seas on the edge of Moya's sense horizon, we can be there within two arns. I will keep the bugs confined to their current location until we get there, then we will land and flood those tiers, send through several electrical pulses and then we'll pump it out. If we collect the bugs, we may be able to make them back into the ingots we had in the first place." Pilot gave his closest attempt at a smile. "Thank you, Commander Crichton, for coming up with a solution for us."
"You're welcome, Pilot," John replied, staring blankly straight ahead, but raising a hand in the direction of the clamshell. Aeryn smiled at his attempt, then pulled on his hand gently.
"You hungry?" she asked when she had his attention.
"Starving," he declared, smiling in her general direction.
"Let's go see what there is to eat, then." She pulled him gently out of the room, ignoring the expression on D'Argo's face, smiling sympathetically at Chiana, who was standing with her back to D'Argo, her arms crossed and face resolute.