"Hand me those supplies!" D'Argo
shouted.
"What supplies?"Jothee shouted.
Aeryn's
condition became increasingly worse.
"That box over
there!"
D'Argo pointed at the supply-reck in the corner as he
desperately held Aeryn down.
"What's happening to me, D'Argo?"
Aeryn asked as she woke up in agony.
"We don't know yet. We
are helping you as much as we can."
She fell in and out of
consciousness over and over again, and her skin turned
blue.
"These?"
Jothee grabbed packets out of the
supply-rack into D'Argo's hands.
"Yes."D'Argo said as he
caught it in the air. "That's exactly what I need! A bag of
Nellon! You frelnik!"
He threw it back onto Jothee.
" Well,
isn't that good?"
"No! Nellon is manure!"
"How was Í
supposed to know?" Jothee said as he searched for what his father
asked of him.
"Grab the box over there! Right in front of
you!"
"And what the frell is manure doing in a infirmary?"
Jothee said, as he grabbed the box and gave it to his father.
"I
don't know!"
D'Argo grabbed the box out of Jothee's hands
and opened it.
For a split second, before he looked into the box,
he looked upon his son and realised that this was the first normal
conversation they had since D'Argo found out about him and
Chiana.
And they talked about manure.
"What's that?"
Jothee said as he looked into the box.
The box was filled with a
strange powdery substance.
"Chlorium." D'Arg said. "It's
a sedative. It might ease her pain."
"Isn't
chlorium..."
"Yes, I know. That's why I'm only going to
use as little as possible."
He grabbed a bit of chorium between
his fingers and poured it in her mouth.
As Aeryn's painful
shocks decreased, D'Argo looked surprised.
"What is it?"
Jothee said. "What!"
"I can't believe it actually
worked..."
"Leave me, John." Zhaan said.
John was
astonished and couldn't say anything.
He thought he and Zhaan
had already gone through all of this.
Almost a year before Zhaan
was tricked into sharing her mental ability to conquer her anger with
another Delvian priestess, only to be betrayed when she stole that
ability from Zhaan.
She had to learn everything all over
again.
Live everything all over again.
But thanks to John she
was back to normal.
But was she?
As John looked upon his
tormented friend, he saw he was wrong.
"Leave, John!"
"No,
Zhaan!" John said.
"I am you're friend. WE are you're
friends. And we're going to help you."
"You can't."
Zhaan said and she turned away as if she were hideous.
"Leave
me!"
"No!"John said and jumped in front of her.
"Stark
and I are going to save you! You know why? Because we care!"
"Yeah,
Zhaan!" Chiana said and walked in. "We care about you!"
"More
then life itself!" Stark said and Zhaan really appreciated his
words.
All their kind words.
"We are going to save you from
becoming the one thing you tried to kill."
"I tried to kill
you!"
"No, Zhaan." John said. "It wasn't me. It was
Scorpius, remember?"
"Evil." Stark muttered.
Zhaan turned
away with strength but Chrichton grabbed her hands.
She was forced
to listen. She was forced to speak.
"As I saw you, sitting in
that cell," Zhaan began to say, "...you were but a echo of what
you used to be. A shell. Inhabited by this monster.
I saw what he
was doing to Moya and the evil he spread as a plague.
I refused
to let him spread his evil any longer."
John understood what she
told him.
"But that's not why I hate myself." she went
on.
"As I crushed his throat with my bare hands...(Chrichton
swallowed)...a part of me was glad that I was killing him. Killing
you. That way, I would end you're suffering..."
Zhaan was
finished.
Chrichton looked into her red eyes.
"I forgive you,
Zhaan."
As she sighed, her shining red eyes turned back into
blue.
"Beautiful blue." Stark said and Zhaan smiled.
"Now,
can you help me?" John said.
"Can you help Aeryn?"
Zhaan
stood up.
"I shall try."
As they entered the infirmary,
Zhaan rushed towards the unconscious Aeryn.
"How is she?"
"She
is sedated." D'Argo said. "And she's turned
blue."
"Fascinating." Zhaan said.
"I'm no doctor."
D'Argo answered with a smile.
"Nor am I." Zhaan said, as she
took a closer look at Aeryn's mouth.
As Zhaan's medical tests
took some time, Chiana and Jothee walked away.
"What's the
matter?" Chiana asked.
"Nothin'" Jothee said.
"It's
D'Argo isn't it?"
"No,"Jothee said, "No,..it isn't
about him. It's about me."
"What do you mean?"
"I've
been thinking..."
"Thinking about what?"
"About us!"
He
sighed.
"D'Argo is my father, Chiana. He has put everything at
risk to save me, and how do I repay him? I'm sleeping with his
wife!"
"I'm not his wife!"
"But he wants you to
be!"
Jothee hesitated to talk further.
Chiana feared this
conversation would turn out to be another fight, just like all the
other conversations they had since D'Argo found out.
"Every
time I'm around my father, I'm reminded about my
betrayal...
Everytime I'm with you,...I think about my father!
Don't you see?"
"See what?"
Chiana hoped so badly that
he wasn't going to finish what he was going to say.
"That I
have to go."
He stopped for a microt, just to see Chiana's
reaction.
"After all of this is over, first chance I get, I'm
leaving Moya."
Chiana freaked out, but tried her best not to
show it.
"Where are you gonna go?"
"I don't know. But
as far away from here as I can get."
"But..."
Chiana
didn't get to finish her sentence as Jothee walked away.
But
that was all right; she didn't know what to say anyway.
"How
are you doing?" D'Argo said as he sat down beside John.
"Well,"
John said. "The neural-clone of the man who is chasing me down the
galaxy for over a year now, takes over my body and starts killing and
tormenting my friends.
Then I almost died, got shot at and there's
a chance that the woman I love is going to die.
Because of
me."
John looked at him.
"How would you feel?"
"Pretty
disoriented." D'Argo said. "But what I meant was..."
"Yes,
I know what you meant." John said. "I haven't seen or heard of
him for quite a while, so I'm hoping that his batteries must've
broken down and that he died whilst in my mind."
"Keep
dreaming, John." D'Argo said as he pulled another bottle out of
his pockets and took another zip.
"Yeah, I know. The universe is
against us. Nothing will ever go exactly the way you want it to
go."
"Nope." D'Argo answered wise, as he thought back upon
his happy moments with Chiana.
"You know what?" John
asked.
"What?"
"Can I get a zip?"
"Sure."
He
gave his bottle to Chrichton and pulled another one from his pockets
as he put it against his lips and drank some more.
"It seems
you were right, John." Zhaan said as she finished her tests.
"Aeryn
is indeed poisoned."
Stark looked at him.
"How did you know
that?" he asked.
"Because I poisoned her." John asked as he
stood up.
"Or at least my body did. I think he poisoned her when
he captured her on Command."
"Were you aware of you're
actions, when Scorpius did all of these things?" D'Argo asked
interested.
Talking about Harvey was a painful
subject.
"Sometimes." Chrichton answered. "But I couldn't
stop myself. It was like I was paralysed, and my body was moving on
it's own."
"Zhaan...!"Aeryn suddenly
said.
"Aeryn!"Chrichton said and he was glad to see her awake.
Slowly he began to stroke her hair.
D'Argo got up from his chair
and even Stark moved a bit closer to Aeryn's bed.
Aeryn's
voice was soft and weak, and she could barely form a
sentence.
"Zhaan, what is happening to me?"
"A poison."
Zhaan answered softly.
Aeryn was feverish and soon fell back into
her coma.
"Can you make an antidote?" Chrichton asked and
looked upon Zhaan, but he didn't stop stroking Aeryn's hair.
"I
believe I can." Zhaan said.
"But it will take at least three
arns."
"But Aeryn can't survive for another three
arns!"Chrichton shouted. "Look at her!"
"John, I'm doing
the best I can." Zhaan said.
"I recognised the toxin which he
used to poison her, and it is a very difficult and complex poison.
Very easy to make, but very difficult to cure. You see, it's all
about the ingredients he used."
"The ingredients..."Chrichton
repeated.
"But how did he manage to get these items?"
"He
was in the infirmary." Stark suddenly said. "About 700 microts
before the blackout."
"That explains everything."Zhaan
said.
"Do you have any idea what he could've
used?"
"Everything can be poisonous if you use it the right
way." Zhaan said.
"Or the wrong way." D'Argo said.
As
Zhaan tried to find a way to create a antidote, the rest of the crew,
except for Chiana who stayed to assist Zhaan, gathered at Pilot's
Den.
"How is she?"Pilot asked.
D'Argo wanted to answer
his question, but John beat him.
"She's dying,
Pilot."
"Dying?" Rygel repeated.
The small Hynerian
Dominar seemed rather shocked.
"Because of the fall?" he
asked.
"No, Rygel." D'Argo said. "She was
poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Pilot asked shocked.
John didn't
dare to look at him.
He and Aeryn always had a mutual bond with
each other ever since Pilot's DNA was transferred into Aeryn's
body.
"But what are we going to do?" Stark said. "What if
Zhaan can't save Aeryn?"
"If Zhaan can't save
Aeryn..."John said. "Then I am a murderer."
And then it
struck him.
As he thought of the fact that it wasn't him
poisoning Aeryn, but Harvey, he realised the ugly truth.
Harvey
had planned this.
He had calculated every possible event and knew
that John would face this dilemma.
Poisoning Aeryn wasn't his
prime target, but as his first plan to capture Moya's crew failed,
he was free to fall back onto his second strategy.
Aeryn.
"Aeryn's
the key." Chrichton muttered to himself.
"What did you say
John?"D'Argo asked.
"Zhaan?" John said through the comms
(John was refitted with a new working comms-device), "How is she
doing?"
"I'm doing everything I can to save her, John."
she said. "I will save her John."
She tried to seem calm and
true towards Chrichton, but she failed as she seemed desperate and
nervous.
She desperately tried every medical substance or food she
could find in the infirmary, but couldn't find the right
combination to cure Aeryn.
"Right..."John said.
"She will
save her, Chrichton."
But his hopes of ever seeing Aeryn alive
again faded away, and he only saw one option left...
Flash.
He
was standing in front of a door.
He looked around. He was on
Earth.
It was the 50's and he wore a bright white salesman's
jacket and sunglasses.
He walked through a green garden towards a
white house.
The watersprinklers were sprinkling water onto the
grass.
As he knocked on the door, it opened.
It was
Scorpy.
"Hi." John said. "I was wondering if you'd
be interested in..."
"Wormholetechnology?"Scorpius
asked.
"Please, do come in."
John entered at his own
risk.
Flash.
"Chrichton?"
John had turned his back
upon his friends, and didn't respond to D'Argo's
words.
"Chrichton?"
"Chrichton isn't here at the
moment." A chilling voice said. "Please leave a message after the
beep...BEEP!"
Harvey turned around and showed his
victorious smile to Moya's crew.
"Hi fellas." Harvey said.
"Did you miss me?"
