Aeryn's pulse-pistol was taken from
her, but she wasn't unarmed.
As a former Peacekeeper she knew
that one should always take another pulse-pistol with him.
In case
you get captured and used as a hostage by a Scarran.
Yes, a
Scarran.
Aeryn had quickly figured out who her opponent was, and
she wasn't surprised at all.
Scarrans have been interested
in John for quite a while now.
They wondered what could be so
special about this person, that Scorpius would chase him around the
Uncharted Territories for so long.
This person, who appeared out
of nowhere seemed to be more dangerous then first speculated by the
Scarran authorities.
The first time the Scarrans encountered
Chrichton was a brief and unpleasant encounter.
Their attempt to
add The Breakaway Colonies to the Scarran Empire by poisoning
Princess Katralla, who was next in line to become Queen of the
Breakaway Colonies, so that her DNA wouldn't be compatible with
anyone of her own species, backfired as she seemed compatible with
Chrichton.
This ruined their plan to put Prince Klavor on the
throne so that he could become 'allies' with the Scarrans, and
ruined the possibility for a huge advantage over the
Peacekeepers.
Several attempts to kill Chrichton failed, and only
resulted in the death of the Scarran Ambassador on the Royal
Planet.
This encounter made the Scarrans even more curious
about the human.
They sent a Scarran to capture Chrichton. To
learn more about him.
He was indeed captured, but he managed to
escape his mental breakdown, and he killed his attacker. As the news
arrived the Scarran homeworld, they were stunned by his
persistence.
But the most interesting of all, was the fact that
according to the logs by the Scarran who captured Chrichton,
Chrichton was dead.
Rumours told that Chrichton was immortal, or a
sentient being, or a scout for a new race of aliens which were about
to attack.
The Scarran Emperor disregarded these rumours, knowing
that these were false.
But he knew one thing.
John Chrichton is
dangerous.
The Scarran Arnokh was sent to observe Moya at
first.
"They must not know you're coming." The Emperor said
to him.
"If you succeed in not alerting them to you're
presence, you will have the element of surprise."
A special ship
was crafted by the Kalish to do the job efficiently: a stealth
Stryker, which could create a subspace-bubble around itself, which
absorbs every form of light which falls onto the surface of the
bubble, and prevents the ship from being detected by the naked
eye..
In other words, it could turn invisible.
The Kalish also
devised a special invisibility harnass so Artokh would have the same
ability.
Artokh didn't like this sneaky way of achieving
ones goal.
But it was a direct order from the Emperor. And he
would not disobey him, because he was loyal to him.
Other then
some Scarrans he knew.
Artokh despised them.
After a month
he found the Leviathan called Moya, flying through some unknown part
of space.
He would've missed her, if her hull wasn't burning
at the time.
The fire was visible even in the farthest reaches of
space, were they thought to have found a new star, only to see it
fade away after a couple of weeks, months, or years...
Artokh
followed them. Invisible and silent.
He was unfamiliar to Moya's
crew and had a hard time remembering their names.
But then he
witnessed the destruction of the Shadow Depository, and he would
never forget them.
"Aeryn Sun." He said to his
prisoner.
"John Chrichton will not rescue you! He does not
care...about you."
Aeryn was surprised. And shocked.
"What?"
she asked confused.
Artokh growled again, ignoring her questions,
and listening to Chrichton's plan over the comms.
"Listen
up." John said to Chiana. "I've got a plan."
"I'm
going to demand a settlement between us and the Peacekeepers,
demanding their help in saving Aeryn from the Scarran."
"Yeah,
that's great," Chiana said. "...with their weaponry we can
easily take on a Scarran.
But how will you get them to help
us?"
"If they kill the Scarran, I shall turn myself
in."
Chiana couldn't believe what he was saying.
"I shall
go to Scorpius."
"Do you hear it?" Zhaan said.
D'Argo
listened, heard nothing and turned to Zhaan. "What?"
"Moya."
Zhaan answered.
D'Argo still heard nothing, but believed
her.
Zhaan is a Pa'u, tenth level Delvian priest, and has always
been much more of a spiritual being then D'Argo, was a Luxan
warrior, born to fight.
He smiled as he realised that these two
people, with so many differences between the two, were sitting side
by side. Fighting side by side.
"You know where I wanted to go?"
D'Argo said suddenly.
"I wanted to with Chiana and Jothee to a
planet somewhere, and become a family again."
Zhaan saw the
tears in his eyes.
The pain.
The pain which Harvey manipulated
and used to get take over Moya.
But also the pain of her closest
friend.
"The warrior and the priest." she thought to herself
and sat closer to D'Argo.
"I wanted to become a farmer. Build
a home for the three of us."
He cried again.
"I wanted to
leave this life. This frelling life. This insane and twisted game of
life.
This life of running away. Being a fugitive. This life of
violence, and sadness.
BUT SHE WOULDN'T...SHE
COULDN'T...I LOVED HER!"
Aenos the
Peacekeeper Commando looked at the Luxan cry.
"Sad, pathetic
beast." He said to himself.
"Luxans don't cry. They fight.
Just as Peacekeepers do. Always fighting.
Because they were
soldiers. And soldiers don't cry. They mustn't cry..."
This
was the first time Aenos the Peacekeeper Commando had ever seen a
Luxan cry.
But it would also be his last time.
"Rellick!"
John said.
He walked into the hangar bay, and watched how the
Peacekeepers drew his guns.
"D'Argo! Zhaan!" John shouted at
them as he saw them tied up in front of the ship.
Aenos held two
guns in his hands, both pointing at his prisoners.
"Harv, you
know what to do."
Chrichton let Harvey take over.
He was the
man with the plan. He knew exactly what to do.
As Harvey came into
possession of Chrichton's body again, he hesitated.
"Tell them
about the Scarran."
But Harvey said nothing.
"I'm sorry,
John."
Harvey put his hands into the air.
"I give myself
up."
"What is he doing!" Chiana asked as she looked
around the corner at Chrichton.
Jothee was standing behind her.
Both had guns in their hands.
"This isn't what we
planned!"
John was furious.
He screamed into Harvey's
mind, trying desperate to take over again, but Harvey wouldn't let
him.
His power had returned to him: energy absorbed from
Chrichton's electrical synapses.
"I'm sorry, John." Harvey
said to him. "I cannot save Aeryn."
"You sonnavu-"
"It's
too great a risk. I cannot risk the wormhole-technology falling into
Scarran hands."
"Let them go." Harvey said to the
Peacekeepers.
Rellick nodded at Aenos, and they did as they
promised.
They let them go.
Aenos pulled both of them from the
floor and pushed them behind Harvey.
Rellick grabbed
Chrichton.
"Let's go." Harvey said.
They entered the
Marauder, powering up their engines and ready to fly off.
"Pilot!" Jothee screamed.
The doors closed, just as the Marauder wanted
to take off.
"No!" Harvey yelled.
Quickly they had to put
the ship to the ground again, before hitting the ceiling or falling
to the ground again.
They were a couple of metra's above ground,
and so if they'd fall onto the floor, something's bound to get
broken.
Smoke poured into their lungs as D'Argo and Zhaan
watched the Marauder fighting to land again.
Jothee, Stark and
Chiana appeared behind them.
Jothee smiled.
"What is going
on?" Chiana asked Jothee.
"Did you plan this?"
Jothee
looked at her and said: "Yes."
Chiana was mad.
"Why did
you lie to me?"
"John said that Harvey had to believe that we
were actually going to go along with his plan, so he informed you
about it to make it look real." Jothee told her.
"But what
Harvey didn't know, was that John told me to expect Harvey to
betray him."
"He knew he was going to betray him." Chiana
said.
"Yes, and so he told Stark, Pilot and me to close the
doors if they'd plan to escape and grab the guns."
Chiana
smiled.
"Now we got Zhaan and D'Argo back, and we got the
Peacekeepers right where we want him."
"But they do still have
a hostage." Zhaan said, as Stark cut her free from her bonds and
tried to look her in the eyes, but she looked away.
"They've
got Chrichton!" Zhaan said.
"Chrichton...Chrichton...Chrichton!"
Stark muttered to himself.
"Was it Scorpius, was it Chrichton,
was it Scorpius? Chrichton!"
Zhaan didn't even seem to notice
him as Stark tried to hold her.
He has missed her so.
But all
she seemed to care about was Chrichton...
"Chrichton isn't
a hostage." D'Argo said as he too rid himself of his bonds and
grabbed a gun.
"He's one of thém."
"Besides,"
Jothee said. "They wouldn't kill him. He's too important for
them to be killed."
"Exactly." D'Argo said and stormed at
the entrance of the Marauder as it landed.
"We're
trapped!" Aenos said as he carefully manoeuvred the ship
down.
There was a loud banging heard on the door.
Commander
Rellick grabbed his gun, before being gunned down himself by D'Argo,
who ripped the door off with his strength (and hyper-rage) and fired
at both Peacekeepers.
Rellick was dead, but Aenos survived.
The
crew grabbed Chrichton and left the claustrophobic Marauder, but
D'Argo remained.
He looked at Aenos and pressed the gun into his
forehead.
Aenos was sweating and for the first time in his
life, he was afraid to die.
He expected a quick death, because
Luxans were vicious, but honourable creatures.
He closed his eyes,
and waited for the afterlife.
But it didn't come.
"I
should kill you, Peacekeeper." D'Argo said. "But I shall
not."
Aenos opened his eyes, and looked at the merciful
Luxan.
"Then you are weak, you crying Luxan."
D'Argo
pressed the gun even further into his forehead, pushing Aenos against
the navigation-console of the Marauder.
"I could kill you, you
know." D'Argo went on.
"I could splatter you're brain all
over this beautiful little console. But I will not. And you know
why?"
Aenos said nothing as he looked into Ka D'Argo's
aggressive eyes.
D'Argo sighed as he conquered his rage once
more.
"I am no Peacekeeper." He finally said.
With a quick
move, he pulled his weapon away from Aenos, the Peacekeeper Commando
and walked towards the exit.
Before he left, he turned once more
to him.
"Leave." He said.
"Don't ever come back."
He
left the Marauder and slammed the door back in it's opening.
Aenos
would never be the same again.
"Pilot," D'Argo
said.
"Let the Marauder leave."
Pilot opened the doors and the Marauder loudly left Moya, without it's prey.
"NO!"
Harvey shouted at Moya's crew.
The crew which he had tormented
for so long.
The crew which he held hostage, tied up, shot,
humiliated, manipulated and used, all for one thing:
wormhole-technology.
"Was it worth it?"
"Tie him down!"
Zhaan shouted.
Chiana grabbed the ropes which the Peacekeepers
used to tie up D'Argo and Zhaan and gave one end to Zhaan.
D'Argo
and Jothee grabbed his arms as Zhaan and Chiana tied him up in
between two heavy piles of supplies.
Harvey yelled and shouted and
hissed.
He was defeated.
But he smiled as he realised he still
had his hostages.
John.
And Aeryn...
"Are you going
to kill me?" Aeryn asked.
She laid on the floor, succumbed by
the poison and heat, unable to move,...unable to scream...
"I
don't have to kill you." Artokh said with his loud rumbling
voice.
"You are going to die anyway..."
Her heart was
beating in her throat.
She tried to reach for her weapon in her
shoe, but she was too weak to even lift her arm.
Sweat went across
her eyebrows as she rested her head upon the floor, unable to do
anything but watch how the invisible Scarran closed the door, and
left her in the darkness. To die.
"Chrichton..."she whispered
in the dark.
How she hated that man.
