Chapter 13:
The transport pod tore out of the entrance to the wormhole at the highest velocity that Sikozu dared demand of it. The pod was followed mere microts later by the pursuing X-473. The Earth ship was about 50 times the mass of the tiny pod and bore down on its wounded prey like a giant house cat chasing a mouse, ready to finish it off. However, the pilot of the Earth ship was immediately distracted by the even larger bulk of Moya, which waited close to the wormhole, ready to swallow the pod.
The gunner of the X-473 could not help but see Moya as soon as they cleared the wormhole. The Leviathan presented an undoubtedly more attractive target and he immediately set to re-aiming his weapons. Besides, within seconds the pod was arcing behind the larger craft, diving through its tails, presenting the pod as a much more difficult target relative to its mother ship.
Like all on the X-473's bridge, the gunner was so fixated with first the pod and then the Leviathan that he entirely missed the far more important object rapidly approaching from the empty space behind the maw of the wormhole. The Earth ship fired its secondary weapon once, striking Moya on one of her long tails.
The X-473 never managed a second shot: The earth ship shook, its hull screaming as something, perhaps several somethings, struck it with incredible force and accuracy. Engines, electrics, and weapons all immediately went off line. The battered hulk of the X-473 began to tumble end over end, out of control, venting gas and debris into space. Sorenson breathed a sigh of relief that they did not seem to have suffered a major hull breach. It was a small mercy.
"What the hell was that? How long till…?" he began, but the question died on his lips as a new sight, one like no other he had ever seen, came into view through the front screen of the X-473's bridge. Bearing down on them was another ship, and it was huge. It looked like a metallic brick in space, maybe a couple of miles long, with an enormous hoop extending amidships. A flotilla of smaller ships poured from it, towards the X-473, like a swarm of angry bees.
As the initial shock passed, Sorenson recognized the ship from the database downloaded a few years before from the alien derelict: It was a Peacekeeper Command Carrier. And that meant that they were hopelessly outclassed. Their only hope now was that the Command carrier would stop firing on them and deign to take them prisoner.
"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
Sikozu breathed a huge sigh of relief as she set the transport pod down safely in one of Moya's docking bays.
"Was all that true? What you said back there" Kovack asked her as they unfastened their restraints. Sikozu frowned in incomprehension and was about to make a remark about yet another impossible human when Kovack explained. "About Crichton and his family being under all that protection from people out here?"
"Oh that!" Sikozu replied, standing and checking around herself that she had everything which belonged to her. "Of course it was," she added, affronted at the mere suggestion that she might have made it all up.
At that moment, Pilot's voice came over the pod's comms. "Sikozu, Lieutenant Nybar, I have just had word from Commandant Zobrek on the Peacekeeper command carrier. Clow is coming across with some of her senior officers. She wishes urgently to discuss the situation with you."
"You'll be able to ask the Peacekeepers yourself in a while, if you don't believe me," Sikozu said off-handedly to Kovack whilst Nybar confirmed the details with Pilot.
However, instead of getting to meet the Peacekeepers, Kovack found himself escorted back to his cell, whilst Nybar and Sikozu went off to greet the Commandant. After what seemed like about an hour alone to consider the events of the day, a pair of Moya's ex-Peacekeeper crew appeared at Kovack's cell door and indicated that he should come with them.
As he entered the central chamber, Kovack quickly took in that it already contained Sikozu, Nybar and a number of new Sebaceans, wearing what he took to be formal Peacekeeper uniforms, rather than the informal collections of civilian and military clothing favoured amongst many of Moya's crew. He was ordered to sit, and Nybar introduced him to their leader, a woman he called Commandant Clow Zobrek. Kovack noted that he did not introduce any of the other Peacekeeper officers present.
"Your leaders seem unwilling to accept our word on the situation regarding Commandant Sun and her family," Zobrek said to Kovack, after the pleasantries, such as they were, had been concluded. "You, on the other hand, have only to look out of the window to see my Command Carrier and the danger posed to your planet if your people continue to attack our ships and hold our people."
"Whatever my views may or may not be, I don't see that they are entirely relevant," retorted Kovack.
"I will leave that point for you to consider. However, Moya and Lieutenant Nybar have agreed to convey a Peacekeeper military delegation through the wormhole to your planet," Zobrek continued. "They will be sufficiently resourced both to defend themselves and to be persuasive in ensuring that our people are returned." Kovack frowned. This did not sound good, but he could not yet understand why she was telling him this. "Purely in the interests of peace and goodwill towards your people, we have decided not to take a larger force, such as the Command Carrier, through the wormhole at this time," Zobrek continued. She was well aware that they could not safely do so, but also suspected that Kovack probably did not know that, so had elected to present this decision to him as something which might work in the Moyans' and Peacekeepers' favour rather than against them.
Kovack considered this new development for as long as he dared. It seemed the stakes were steadily being ramped up, and with both the X-469 and X-473 now gone, Earth had very little left in the way of space-faring defenses. For the sake of everyone, it seemed, he needed to do what he could to help defuse the situation.
"I'm not making any promises," he said, slowly and cautiously, "but I'd like to come along and try to help sort out our… misunderstandings." His heart sank even as he said it, realizing he was probably overstepping the line of what might be seen, by those back on Earth, as acceptable. He needed someone to bounce his thoughts off of, to get some clarity before he got in any deeper. A thought occurred to him as to how he might persuade his captors to let him do so. "I'd also like to talk to my people: It looks like you might need more than just my help, so …"
Zobrek, her face still set in a mask, nodded assent, and Nybar called two of the Moyan crew across. After they had received their instructions, Kovack found himself on his way towards the cells where the rest of his people were being held. As they walked, Kovack could already see the evidence of the Peacekeeper troops massing on Moya as he passed knots of them in the previously uncrowded corridors of the enormous vessel. It was clear they were not wasting any time in getting ready to travel to Earth.
Within arns, three full companies of Peacekeeper commandos and four Black Ghost squads, complete with Marauders and Prowlers, all under the personal command of Commandant Zobrek, had transferred to Moya from the command carrier.
Nybar glanced around Moya's command. He couldn't remember the chamber to have been so crowded since the days of the Kkore war. In addition to her normal, full command crew and the human Kovack, Zorbek and her personal retinue had crowded into the chamber, nearly doubling the numbers present.
"Lieutenant Nybar, Moya and I are ready to enter the wormhole now," Pilot confirmed from the clamshell. Nybar looked to Zobrek, who nodded her assent, before turning to Sikozu, who stood by Moya's manual flight controls.
"Take us through Sikozu," Nybar ordered. She nodded and secured her grip on the tiny joystick, before edging Moya forwards and downwards.
"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
Aeryn huddled in the corner of her small, nearly bare cell. It was not that she felt or intended to act in any way submissive to her captors. However, her arms were restrained by a straightjacket and her ankles joined by a short shackle, all of which gave her little choice in her movements. In the few short hours that she had been conscious since being captured the guards and any others who had come to see her had found her far too dangerous to be allowed more physical freedom. Hence, after a short struggle and, aided by a brief period when they had chemically sedated her, they had fitted her with the jacket and shackles.
She had been left alone for a couple of arns now, and was quite surprised when Dr Katherine Flyte entered the cell alone. Aeryn couldn't help but observe that the doctor seemed to be acting furtively, as though harbouring some guilty secret she was afraid might be discovered. The doctor crouched next to Aeryn and, having swiftly glanced around the small bare cell, whispered urgently to her.
"I didn't mean any of this to happen. What they're planning on doing… what we're doing here… it's wrong. I'm going to try and get you and you and your kids out of here. You have to trust me….." Aeryn frowned, unsure how to respond, especially since Flyte had now fallen silent at the sound of the cell door opening.
"I see you're getting to know the subject," Laszlo remarked as she entered, flanked by an armed, heavy-set male security guard.
"Well, I've never met a live alien before," Flyte shrugged in an off-hand manner, standing and putting on a detached expression to match the new tone of her voice.
"So long as you don't get too attached," Laszlo responded, raising an eyebrow and looking pointedly at Flyte.
Aeryn silently cursed whatever gods might be eavesdropping on her thoughts. How come, she wondered to herself, that almost every time I have a stasis pregnancy I end up getting held prisoner by a psychopath? She resolved to herself that in future she would not go around with a pregnancy in stasis: It just seemed to be tempting fate too much. It would be far safer for everyone just to get on and have the narl straight away. Still, there was no time to dwell on that now: Aeryn had urgent questions which needed answering.
"Who the frell are you?" Aeryn croaked, her mouth dry form dehydration. She wished she could have spat the words, but she lacked the saliva, she reflected dryly.
"It really can speak English!" Laszlo commented to Flyte, but looking curiously at Aeryn. "But it's not human?"
"Apparently so. Although Sebaceans are very similar, of course," Flyte confirmed. "With just a few differences…"
"Which I expect your full report on…" Laszlo interrupted. "With an analysis of and differences between the alien and the hybrids. And humans, of course."
"Why are you doing this to us?" Aeryn asked. Laszlo considered this for such a long time that both Aeryn and Flyte wondered if she was going to answer at all. But when the answer did come, it chilled Aeryn to her marrow.
"I think, Officer Sun, because we can," observed Laszlo, as though explaining the simplest of concepts to a child. "You'd better get on with studying this one – I don't expect it'll be with us for very long," she added to Flyte, before turning to leave.
"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
Two Maruaders, of the very latest design and operating in full Stealth mode, sat down in the Columbia countryside, disgorging six human soldiers and three armed figures in full Peacekeeper equipment. To their own surprise, the humans were all also armed. None of them would have suspected to have been armed and free on Earth just a day before. However, having been briefed by Kovack regarding everything which he had seen and heard in recent days, they were all in agreement with him regarding what he felt needed to be done. They were sworn to the defense of their country, and no one on the ground seemed to understand just how dangerous it might be to persist in holding the Sun-Crichtons or to keep up such a belligerent attitude towards the aliens. Someone needed to try to sort matters out, and it looked as though that task had fallen to them.
Dr Katherine Flyte kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto her couch: It had been another long day at work, now that they had four subjects to work on. In the two days since Sun and Crichton had been captured, she had not ever been able to truly relax even away from work. Not only was she growing increasingly concerned about the work she and her team were being asked to do, after her own short abduction, she now had a team of armed guards following her around 24/7. She knew two of them would be out the front right now, sitting in their sedan, munching on doughnuts and drinking coffee, or whatever it was they got up to. What was worse than the guards, though, was that she was finding it hard to justify to herself what she and her team were doing at Fairfax. These weren't hostile aliens, intent on World domination. They were just a family. A rather well armed family, granted, and a family that had somehow gotten themselves caught up in someone else's grand plan, but they were clearly not part of some alien invasion of Earth. She had just picked up the remote to turn the TV on when the doorbell rang. Dropping the remote on the couch, she sighed and made her way to the door.
Flyte peered through the spy glass to see a couple on her doorstep, both with the hardened, smartly turned out look of military or secret service types. One was a man, maybe about 40 years old with close cropped, almost shaved hair, wearing military fatigues, and the other was a woman who looked in her early twenties, with her dark hair tied back in a severe ponytail. She didn't recognize either of them, but could easily guess why they were here.
"Yes?" Flyte drawled, bored already.
The man flashed an official looking badge of some sort towards the spy glass and said in clipped tones. "Ma'am, can you let us in please? It is a matter of some urgency."
Flyte sighed and unfastened the door. It was still opening when the man marched inside, closely followed by the woman, who was now holding some sort of device which resembled a large PDA and was waving it around in front of her as though she was scanning the room. The man turned and pushed the door shut before motioning Flyte to follow the woman into Flyte's living room. Flyte opened her mouth to protest when the man raised a silencing finger.
"Narsh, scharth gepecht," the woman said, looking up for the first time and nodding at the man.
"What the hell…!" Flyte began. But in her heart she already knew: She had heard four other people speak like that in the last few weeks, and they were currently all incarcerated by her employer.
"Captain John Kovack, 82nd Airborne Division, most latterly of the X-469," the man introduced himself, holding out a hand. "And this is Sub-officer Pittach, one of Aeryn Sun's crew. And she was just saying that she has disabled all the listening devices in this room."
Flyte slumped onto her couch, all energy knocked out of her. Not again! And what listening devices?
"But you're dea…" she began half-heartedly. It was now self evident that she had been misinformed in that small matter.
"Apparently not," snapped Kovack, interrupting her. He sat down in front of her to make sure he kept her attention. Pittach continued to prowl around the room, splitting her attention between her scanner, the windows and doors and the information coming through her earpiece from the team on watch outside, who were reassuring her that nothing was happening out there for her to be concerned about.
"How did you… what do you…?" began Flyte. This was all getting too much for her. Multiple armed intrusions into her home, her life. Kidnappings. Threats. Dead people and aliens walking around her living room. It was all a bit much to cope with.
"I'll get straight to the point, Dr Flyte: I need to know if Aeryn Sun, John Crichton or their children are being held at the Fairfax site where you work," Kovack asked. "Are they? Being held there?" He arched his eyebrows, such as they were.
"Look, what's going on here? How come you're with…?" Flyte nodded towards Pittach, unsure quite how to describe the alien woman, "And how come you're alive, when everyone reckons you're dead?"
"Look, Dr Flyte, we don't have much time. Quick precis, we may've been the bad guys…"
"I know," Flyte conceded., nodding her head. "I've been thinking the same. We should go to the authorities…"
Kovack raised a questioning eyebrow again.
"While I'm behind the sentiment, ma'am, that may not be so wise. There's powerful forces at play here, and we don't know the half of what's going on. It seems there are people involved who would probably happily see us all dead to get their way… I'm the living proof, if you like."
"And that's it, is it? You've switched sides to save your skin? You're with the aliens now?" Flyte accused. Kovack shook his head vigorously in denial.
"No, no, that's not it. That's not it at all." Kovack insisted. "Sun and Crichton are well connected. There's aliens up there, powerful aliens like you wouldn't believe, threatening all sorts of nastiness for all of us if they aren't returned, safe and sound. Those in charge, your boss, my boss, I don't know how deep or how far it goes, but they don't seem to be listening, they don't want to hear that. My guess as to why is as good as yours. But I've been up there: We need to give the aliens Sun and her family, or there's going to be hell to pay."
Flyte blinked a few times, and tried to think of something to say, but could not quite formulate the words. Thinking about Beth Laszlo, her personality, her behaviour, Flyte could well believe and understand that there were powerful people behind all of this who would not easily give up their position, would not back down one inch. Not until or unless they were forced to do so, and damn the price anyone else might have to pay.
"Which brings us back to the aliens and Crichton," Kovack continued, interrupting her train of thought. "Are they still alive? All four of them? Are they OK? Are they at the Fairfax site?"
Flyte made a fateful decision: What this man was saying fitted well with what she'd been increasingly thinking. It seemed it was time to choose a side. "Yes, they're there, and they're safe, for now. But I don't know for how much longer," Flyte admitted.
"Well, then we need to start planning how to get them out, with as little risk and collateral damage as possible," Kovack replied. There was already enough ill will on both sides, he thought. The last thing that they needed was to make matters worse by the Peacekeepers attacking Fairfax blindly with all the force that he knew was at their disposal. "I'd like you to describe the site in more detail for me, and tomorrow I'd like you to wear a couple of miniature cameras, so we can get a really good feel for the place. The more we know, the easier it'll be to get them out without people getting hurt." Kovack knew that the last sentiment was a lie, of course: He couldn't see any way that some people weren't going to get hurt now. But he prayed that, if he played his cards right, and if they got lucky, that wouldn't include either the Sun–Crichtons or too many innocent bystanders.
"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
Flyte and her team had scarcely managed any work the next morning before Laszlo summoned her to her office. Still wearing the alien miniature surveillance devices she had been given by Sub-Officer Pittach, Flyte entered the office quietly and without knocking to find that Laszlo was already accompanied by three men, none of whom the doctor recognized. All three men were heavy-set, one bald and the other two with short-cropped hair. All three had hardened demeanours. To Flyte, they fairly radiated menace and violence.
"…safest if we use an unlisted mobile to call the news channel on the way…." One of the men concluded, falling into a tight-lipped, red-cheeked silence when Laszlo pointed and nodded towards the door to indicate that they had company.
"Sit down, doctor," Laszlo snapped, indicating a spare chair between two of the strange men.
"Could I ask what all this is about? I've got a busy schedule this morning," Flyte demanded, smoothing her skirt primly as she sat.
"Concerning the subjects?" Laszlo countered, irritation at being addressed in such a way by an underling evident in her tone of voice. "Well, you'll be pleased to hear that I'll be lightening your workload, then."
"Pardon?" Flyte replied bluntly.
"The two male subjects and the older female subject are to be transferred to a different facility, this morning."
"But I'm in the middle of important….Why was I not informed?" Flyte responded, struggling to keep a professional lid on her emotions. Apart from her own work, this could really screw up any plans for a rescue.
"You're being informed now," Laszlo retorted sharply. "You will liaise with Mr. White and his team to prepare the subjects for transportation." The bald man nodded to indicate that he was Mr. White.
"But…."
"They will also be needing you along for the first part of the journey," Laszlo continued, interrupting Flyte's attempts to protest. We'd like you to prepare some mild sedatives. Nothing too serious, we don't want to risk harming the subjects. Just enough to make them more docile."
Flyte's jaw flapped again in empty protest and Laslzo pressed on. "Mr. Smith will go with you now, help you make the arrangements. You'll be leaving in half an hour," Laszlo concluded, dismissing Flyte with a backhanded wave of her left hand and a thin-lipped scowl.
The blonde-haired Mr. Smith was already standing, ready to leave, although the others remained seated: They clearly had more to discuss. With a resigned sigh, Flyte pushed herself to her feet to leave. As she did so, her hand slipped down between the seat cushion and arm rest, depositing one of Pittach's miniature surveillance devices there. As Flyte turned to leave the room, she prayed that any sounds picked up by the device would not be muted by the furniture and that Kovack and the aliens would be able to learn something useful from any conversation that took place in Laszlo's office after the she had left. As Mr. Smith accompanied her back to the bioscience wing, it was clear to Flyte that she would not get another private moment to try to contact the would-be rescuers before Aeryn, John and Deke were moved. She hoped that Kovack and Pittach were paying attention.
"~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
"We're nearly there," Mr. White said to Flyte, his voice devoid of emotion. "Time to do your job. We'll be needing those sedatives now."
Flyte glared at White before picking up her small case from the floor of the anonymous, windowless van, which they were all crowded into the back of. Before opening the case, she glanced towards the other occupants at the back of the van: There were another three agents, all clad in black SWAT-type paramilitary outfits and armed to the teeth, and three others, the prisoners, Sun, Crichton and the boy, Deke, all dressed in a mixture of possibly more civilian clothing. Each of the three were shackled hand and foot, their limbs strapped down and their heads covered with blindfold bags. The prisoners had not spoken since they had been brought aboard the van: They couldn't through the gags which Flyte knew were beneath the bags. White and his team were taking no chances. Flyte could not imagine why they would need sedatives on top of all the restraints.
"I can't inject them, or even prepare the injections, while we're driving," she countered. The lead agent nodded and banged on the bulkhead to alert the agents up front. The hatch to the driver's compartment slid open slightly.
"Yeah?" drawled the man riding shotgun.
"Pull over for a minute. Doc needs to do her stuff."
"Kay," came the reply, as the hatch slammed shut. Within seconds the van came to a stop and White motioned to the case on Flyte's lap.
"Do it, then," he ordered. Flyte nodded reluctantly and headed back down the van, the first syringe in her hand. The first figure she came to she knew, despite the hoods, to be Aeryn Sun. One of the agents stood ready to assist Flyte as she leant forward and pulled the blindfold bag from the prisoner, better to access the neck to make the injection.
"Don't worry; this'll just make you a bit drowsy," Flyte tried to reassure the human-looking alien. Sun glared a mixture of hatred and panic at her and bit hard on the gag as she struggled and strained to escape the inevitable needle. Flyte, not knowing how much the circumstances reminded Aeryn of her nightmarish time aboard the Scarran freighter, met her gaze, adding, even as the needle went in, "You'll act a little drunk, like your body's awake but your mind isn't really all there." Flyte smiled as the syringe emptied. She withdrew the needle and held it up, showing that it was empty for all to see. After a few more seconds Sun ceased to struggle. The Sebacean's breathing slowed and her face relaxed. Flyte smiled, glanced back to the lead agent and held out the empty syringe to him. "Next!" she snapped.
A few minutes later, a large black panel van pulled up at the "kiss and ride" point for the suburban Washington Metro station. It was nearly lunch time and only a few score people were around. None of them paid any attention to the van, or the three people who stumbled, blinking in the midday sun, out of the side door. There were two adults and a teenage boy, all dressed in black leather and each encumbered with a heavy, angular bag. They stumbled a few steps across the wide sidewalk, towards the station proper before stopping. The van's door slammed shut as the vehicle quickly drew away again, disappearing round a corner within seconds. Precious more seconds passed as the three people seemed to ponder what to do, almost as though they did not know where they were. Then the woman seemed to take charge and lead her family onwards towards the station building.
As they reached the station entrance, an amplified voice filled the concourse. "You're surrounded and outnumbered, drop your weapons!" The voice ordered. The family, along with the handful of bystanders, looked around them in confusion, all seeking a safe place to run to, a place to shelter. But from a scattering of points where shelter might have been found, gun muzzles emerged. Laser sighting dots danced around the concourse, seeking targets even as the people on the concourse ducked, rolled or ran for cover. The warning had barely stopped echoing around the building before a multitude of guns opened fire.
"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
Did I mention the cliff-hangers? Oops. Not long to wait till the next chapter, though. Or indeed until the end of the story.