Chapter Ten

John wearily eyed all the weapons that were trained on him and D'Argo and the Peacekeepers who wielded them.

Knowing that there were too many of them for him to even consider fighting John retracted the denn'bok, put it away inside his cowl and took a couple of steps back from D'Argo. All the while trying to appear as non-threatening as possible.

As soon as he was a few steps back from D'Argo the male Sebacean who seemed to be the guy in charge made a hand gesture and two of the figures behind him moved forward. They roughly manhandled the wounded Luxan getting him back on his feat and placing his hands in what were obviously handcuffs. They paid absolutely no attention to the moans of pain from D'Argo as the cuffs pressed against his broken wrist. A third Peacekeeper went and picked up D'Argo's Qualta blade from where it lay in a puddle of water.

Ignoring the wounded Luxan Senior Officer Tauvo Crais walked up to the strange Sebacean looking male who'd so easily beaten the Luxan in combat. Officer Sun when she'd bumped into them had already told him a little bit about John Crichton. The fact that he wasn't a Sebacean instead belonging to a previously unknown species called Humans, and that he was some kind of soldier for a military force that called themselves Rangers or Anla'shok. A military force that belonged to something called the Interstellar Alliance. Personally Tauvo didn't like the sound of that. Interstellar Alliance implied two or more races working together, if that was the case then it could become a serious threat to the Peacekeepers.

"Who are you," Tauvo asked.

"Anla'shok John Crichton," John replied eyeing the man suspiciously. The man facing him had the same air of arrogance and superiority that Aeryn Sun did. In fact he seemed to be even worse. And there was something else, something that put him on his guard. They guy definitely reminded him strongly of Clark's most loyal and fanatical followers. The ones who had made his families lives hell during President Clark's reign of terror.

"Where are you from," Tauvo demanded. "Why are you here." John didn't answer. "You will answer me now," Tauvo ordered. John bristled at the mans tone. Tauvo began to get frustrated by the lack of response.

"Very well then if you don't answer my questions here then you'll answer them on the Kraymor or back on the Lendrolla. Take him away." Peacekeepers moved forwards to take him.

Aeryn Sun watched and suddenly knew that she couldn't let this happen. She'd seen Crichton's ship up close even from an external inspection it seemed far superior to anything the Peacekeepers could build of similar size. At least as big as a Marauder the Farscape embodied a new and obviously highly advanced technology. She couldn't let Crichton be interrogated in the normal Peacekeeper manner, if and when his people found Peacekeeper space then they might not take kindly to it at all. Peacekeepers and this Interstellar Alliance would find themselves at odds from day one and Aeryn did not know who would win if that tension escalated into war.

So she made a decision. A decision that she did not yet know would change her life forever.

"Sir," she said.

"Yes Officer Sun," Tauvo asked. "You know something about this alien?"

"Only that I have spoken to him and seen his ship up close," Aeryn replied. "He's not our enemy." Tauvo frowned he did not like this at all. Peacekeeper soldiers knew not to speak out of line yet here was Office Sun an outstanding member of the Pliesar Regiment doing it. There could be only one reason for this.

"As you know Officer Sun Peacekeeper High Command has strict procedures regarding contact with unclassified alien life forms," he said. Aeryn realised with a jolt of horror deep inside what was happening. She started to speak to defend herself. But Tauvo continued before she could speak. "You may well have exceeded those limits Officer Sun. Which would make you irreversibly contaminated."

"Sir no please," Aeryn started to say.

"Take her away take them all away," Tauvo ordered. "You and you search them then take them to the transport. The rest of you come with me we'll have to head the other escaped prisoners off."

"Yes sir."

Two large grunts both without led Crichton, D'Argo and a stunned Aeryn Sun who herself was now being placed in handcuffs away. Tauvo for his part took his remaining men and went to search for the other two prisoners from the leviathan. The sooner he rounded them up the sooner he could get off the miserable excuse of a planet.

They fanned out into a standard search pattern; the aliens that had previously filled the streets had vanished not wishing to do anything that might attract Peacekeeper attention. The Peacekeepers had been walking for a good few minutes when they received a message from the Kraymor. The transport pod Moya had sent down to the planet had left the atmosphere a few minutes ago and was now docking with the leviathan. They hadn't spotted it before because their stealth position behind the moon coupled with the heavy orbital traffic had hid it from view. The Kraymor also reported another ship leaving the leviathan, a ship of unknown configuration that there sensors could not lock onto. It was heading down to the planet at full speed.

Simultaneously Tauvo received word that the guards escorting the prisoners were down and the prisoners had escaped.

"Back to the spaceport," he ordered his men. "That ship must belong to Crichton and is coming down to pick him us. We must stop them before they can escape."

Quickly the Peacekeepers changed direction and hurried back to the spaceport.

*****

A Few Minutes Earlier

After leaving the main group of Peacekeepers and moving into a side street John and D'Argo were both pressed against a cold concrete wall and methodically searched by the two Peacekeeper grunts.

One of the guards turned John back around and began searching his front opening the cowl. He removed the denn'bok from its place on John's belt and examined the small metal cylinder. It didn't look like much how could it extend into that metal staff they'd observed Crichton use with such ease and lethal precision of the Luxan.

"How do you work this thing," he asked Crichton. John hid a grin when he saw that the Peacekeeper was looking down into the denn'bok and the other end was pointing right at his companion standing beside him searching D'Argo. They had an opportunity to escape here. An opportunity they wouldn't have if the grunt had had more common sense.

"Simple," he said. "You just make a slight shake of your wrist while holding the centre of the cylinder. Curious the Peacekeeper started to follow John instruction. His partner abruptly noticed what was going on and he had slightly more sense.

"Don…" the second grunt started to say. But he was too late! The first grunt flicked the denn'bok as John had instructed.

The denn'bok opened with a snap. Instantly expanding to its full length. The metal staff slammed into both Peacekeeper grunts as it did so and both hit the deck out cold as the extending denn'bok had hit them both in the face. John laughed.

"Morons," he said. "You don't look down a denn'bok and try to open it at the same time." D'Argo also snickered despite the pain he was in from his broken wrist. He now realised that he had been wrong to assume John had betrayed them to the Peacekeepers. He just wished he hadn't let his fear get the better of him, then he could have avoided the beating and broken wrist that John had given him when they'd fought. On Moya there was technology to quickly heal broken bones but he would ache for days as all the bruises came out.

John knelt down and retrieved keys from one of the two downed grunts, keys that would open their cuffs.

"Unlock me," D'Argo said holding out his cuffed hands.

"No unlock me," Aeryn said. John hesitated. "Come on there isn't time he's a criminal."

"We all are now," John replied annoyance in his voice. He looked at D'Argo and held out the keys. "Unlock me."

Taking the keys from John D'Argo did as he was told. In turn John unlocked him. Then John took the keys and went to unlock Aeryn.

"Your not going to let her go are you," D'Argo growled.

"She's like us now D'Argo. I cannot in good conscience leave her here."

"I won't go with you," Aeryn snapped. "Not with him." She glared at the Luxan in mutual dislike.

"You've been irreversibly contaminated remember," John replied.

"It means death," D'Argo added sneeringly.

"It's my duty," Aeryn replied. "My breeding. Since birth its what I am." John looked at her sympathetically realising that she knew next to nothing about the real world and how beautiful the universe could be.

"There is much more to life than blind obedience. You can be a lot more than what you are. If you are brave enough to make the journey," he replied. Aeryn thought about it. Truth be told she didn't want to die, but to leave the Peacekeepers. To become a fugitive. It wasn't a good thought. But yet something inside her urged her to follow John, to go with him, to become something more. She offered no resistance as John undid her handcuffs.

Then he turned away and picked up the denn'bok and with a quick flick of his wrist returned it to its transport state and stashed it back on his belt. He also picked up one of the grunts pulse pistols. D'Argo at that point retrieved his Qualta blade from the other grunt and with great effort returned it to its sheath on his back.

"How are we to get back to Moya," he asked. "I told the others not to wait for us the transport pod is bound to have left for Moya now."

"Leave that to me," John replied. First he activated the comm unit Pilot had given him on Moya. "Pilot," he said into it.

"Yes Ranger Crichton," Pilot responded.

"Open the hanger bay doors. My ship will be launching in a few moments."

"Understood." John signed off with Pilot. Then fished a small cylindrical ISA link out of a slot on his bed and activated it to the Farscape's communications frequency. Though the link was coded in these situations the AI matrix on a Ranger ship was only programmed to respond to orders in Adronato the language of the Minbari religious caste for security reasons since few outside the Minbari and the Anla'shok knew the language which was the most complex of the three main languages of the Minbari. So when John spoke next it was in Minbari.

"Ship," he said into the comm link.

"On line," the Farscape's AI unit responded in the same language.

"Power up engines and launch. Full stealth cloaking. Land at the closest place on the landing field to my current coordinates."

"Understood Anla'shok Crichton. Powering drive systems. Stealth systems active at full power. Moya's hanger bay is opening. Launching now. ETA three minutes."

"Very well."

Neither D'Argo nor Aeryn understood a word of what was being said. Their translator microbes were not able to decipher the language John was now speaking and being spoken to in. After a moment John cut the comm link and stopped speaking in Minbari.

"We need to get to the landing field. My ships coming down to meat us," he said. "It will be down here soon."

"That's this way," D'Argo said. "Who were you speaking too?"

"The AI matrix on my ship," John replied. "Now lets go before these pair wake up."

"This way," D'Argo added. Before they started moving he noticed Aeryn pick up a pulse pistol from the other downed Peacekeeper grunt. For a moment he considered objecting but then he decided against it and instead led the way to the spaceport.

*****

They reached the spaceport without incident. They reached it to find the Farscape already sat down on the grid and the embarkation ramp lowered from the rear end between its aft stabiliser fins.

John took a cautious look around before they began moving quickly across the landing field. He kept the pulse pistol he was carrying at the ready.

They were almost to the Farscape when pulse blasts began to rip through the air at them. A group of Peacekeepers were firing at them from near a blocky transport ship. John and Aeryn immediately returned fire sending red energy bolts flying through the air at the Peacekeepers, at this range though both sets of pulse weapons were not particularly accurate. They managed to reach the side of the Farscape and were beneath the ships starboard wing but they couldn't get towards the tail as the volleys of pulse fire from the Peacekeepers were making it difficult.

"D'Argo take this," John said giving the pulse pistol to D'Argo. The Luxan carefully held the pulse pistol in his non-wounded left hand and joined Aeryn in firing at the Peacekeepers. John in the meantime yanked out the link cylinder again and quickly gave an order to the Farscape's AI unit.

An instantly later a low powered bright yellow pulsed fusion bolt shot out of the Farscape's starboard cannon with a loud boom, low power since had it been at full it would have ruptured there ear drums as it fired and the backwash from the bolt would have vaporised them at any rate. The blast of energy struck the Peacekeeper transport and the grunts using it as shelter while firing at them. The grunts were instantly vaporised and the pulse went straight through the Marauder-class transport vaporising most of it and reducing the few bits that survived to flaming wreckage.

"Niece," D'Argo said admiring the few semi-molten and burning fragments of the destroyed Marauder.

"And that blast was only at twenty percent," John added. "At fill power the backwash from the shot would have vaporised us as well. Now lets go before the other Peacekeepers show up. There are two other transports of theirs on this grid and they'll be after us in a moment."

John led them up the embarkation ramp and into the Farscape. After closing the airlock and retracting the embarkation ramp he went straight to the bridge and sat down in the pilots command seat and got the modified Blue Star class scout ship up into the air and set course back to Moya. For there part Aeryn and D'Argo looked around the bridge impressed by what they saw and also more than a little intimidated by the advanced nature of the ship's technology.

*****

From another Marauder transport on the landing field Senior Officer Tauvo Crais watched the alien ship lift into the air and shoot off towards orbit. The ease with which its weapons had obliterated the one Marauder had shocked him to the core. They needed to capture that ship now.

"Order the Kraymor to intercept and detain both the leviathan Moya and the unknown ship," he said to the officer at the Marauders comm station. The commando nodded and did as he was bid.

*****

The Farscape cleared the atmosphere of the commerce planet quickly and was swiftly making its approach to Moya.

Sitting in his pilots/commanders seat on the Farscape John was starting to relax when a proximity alarm sounded.

"Warning! Large ship approaching bearing two one seven mark three one!" the AI matrix said. "Unknown ship is confirmed to be a warship. Weapons systems are active and gun ports are open."

"Show me," John ordered the Farscape even as he entered the command that raised the Farscape's shields.

A holographic screen coalesced into being at the front part of the bridge showing the image of a large heavily armed ship bearing down on them.

"That's a Vigilante-class attack cruiser," Aeryn Sun said in identification.

"Alien ship is signalling," the Farscape reported. The overhead speakers crackled and then a powerful voice came through.

"Attention leviathan transport Moya and unknown alien vessel. This is Lieutenant Veraz commanding the Peacekeeper cruiser Kraymor. Surrender and prepare to be boarded."

"We cannot surrender to them," D'Argo stated.

"I have no intention to," John replied. "If Lieutenant Veraz wants this ship then he's going to have to fight for it. But first we need to get Moya out of here." With a stab of a single control John opened a communications link to Moya.

"Farscape to Moya. Pilot is Moya able to jump?"

"Yes," Pilot responded.

"Good. Jump to hyperspace now while I distract the Kraymor."

"What about you?"

"Trust me. We'll be back with you shortly."

"Very well we will jump now," Pilot reported. "Good luck." Pilot broke the channel.

"What are you going to do," Aeryn asked. "There's no way this ship despite its stealth system can get past the Kraymor to get to the jump gate."

"Won't need to," John replied smiling as he imagined there reactions to his next statement. There was no reason anymore for him to hide the Farscape's capabilities "This ship can make its own jump points."

"What!" Aeryn and D'Argo exclaimed in shocked unison. A ship this small able to jump to hyperspace on its own power.

"Warning! Moya has activated jump engines. Jump point forming," the AI unit reported. "Peacekeeper vessel is targeting Moya."

"Oh no you don't," John said under his breath. Without hesitation he targeted the Peacekeeper cruiser with both cannons and opened fire at full power.

Dual streams of pulsed fusion bolts ripped across space to slam into the Peacekeeper cruiser before it could even begin to react. So confident that there would no resistance from a defenceless leviathan and a single small alien ship the Peacekeepers hadn't even bothered to activate their defences. Completely unshielded and without interceptors ready the streams of pulse fusion bolts slammed into the cruiser cutting deep into the armour. Explosions rocked the cruisers bow and fountains of molten metal spewed out into space, angry silver-grey jets of atmosphere began to vent from two places where the hull had been penetrated.

Not about to give the startled Peacekeepers a chance to recover John flew the Farscape along the length of the cruiser firing at weapons and sensor arrays sending destructive explosions tearing through the cruiser. When he pulled away the Kraymor was burning down its whole starboard length and was listing badly to that side. Lights on the cruiser flickered then went dead as it lost main power. Emergency running lights flicked on.

"Ship status of enemy vessel," John asked the Farscape.

"Enemy ship is disabled. Main power, engines, sensors and weapons are down. They are sending out distress call."

"You should finish them," D'Argo said.

"No," John replied. "I won't destroy someone when they cannot fight back. There is no honour in destroying someone who cannot defend themselves." At that he veered further away from the disabled and burning Kraymor. "Ship activate jump engines."

"Jump engines on line," the AI replied.

"Jump."

A jump point opened in space ahead of the Farscape and the modified Blue Star dove in and vanished from normal space leaving the commerce planet and the crippled Peacekeeper cruiser behind.