Surprise Visitors - Chapter 1

Bialar Crais was thrown from his bed by the violent lurch of Starburst. Momentarily confused by abruptness of his awakening, he called out, "Talyn, what's wrong?"

I've found her!

Moving to a sitting position on the bed until they emerged from starburst. "Found whom?"

Moya! We are almost there.

Crais felt the lurch as they emerged from starburst. He contemplated encountering those on Moya again. While he had grown used to life without them, he found he did miss their companionship. He was not one that made friends easily, and while he did not consider them his friends, they tolerated him more than most.

After they destroyed the command carrier, it had taken Talyn half a cycle to heal and regenerate. That was one of the aspects of Crais' experiment that had not worked as well as planned. It should have taken Talyn much less time to recover from his injuries. Of course, if they had been able to dock a Peacekeeper support facility it probably would have gone more quickly.

They are comming us, Talyn announced before piping the audio to Crais' quarters.

"Crais? Is that you? Are you still alive, you son of a bitch? " Crichton asked.

Crais rolled his eyes. While the human used a derogatory term, he could hear no malice in the man's voice. Even after spending a half cycle trapped with the human, he still not understand the nuances of the language, and truthfully, he had no interest it understanding them. "Yes. Talyn and I are most obviously alive."

"Well that's great news. Aeryn and I are on our way over. " Crichton replied.

"I would prefer to come over there."

"We won't hear of it. Moya says that Talyn wants to see me again. I can see how he's grown. We'll be there momentarily, " Aeryn replied.

Crais could tell that he was not going to win that argument. He could also tell from Aeryn's voice that she was anxious to get here as soon as possible. "I will meet you in the Hammond side hangar bay."

Looking in the mirror at his wild mane of hair, he realized there was no way for him to tame it before they arrived. If he did not meet them at the hangar, they would come searching for him and find him before he was ready.

Dressing quickly, he decided to leave his hair as it was. As large as Talyn had grown, he made it to the hangar as Talyn was cycling the atmosphere. When the hangar doors opened, Crais braced himself for the greeting he was going to get. He had no idea what it was going be, but he was certain that he would not enjoy it.

Crichton threw his arms wide, huge grin on his face and shouted, "My boy Crais," before wrapping his arms around the former Peacekeeper.

"Crichton," he replied tersely.

"What the hell happened to your hair?"

Crais ignored Crichton's question and focused on Aeryn. "Aeryn, it is good to see you again." He noticed that she was carrying something in her arms, something swathed in black.

"Crais, it's good to see you and Talyn, too. We were quite surprised to see him emerge from Starburst."

"Yeah, how did you survive and what happened to your hair?"

"Did we disturb you?" Aeryn asked.

"It is the middle of my sleep cycle, but that is inconsequential. What are you holding?" he asked, unable to conceal his curiosity anymore.

She pulled back the blanket and smiled proudly. "This is our son, D'Argo Sun-Crichton."

Crais looked down at the sleeping child. "Your son?"

"A lot has happened since you've disappeared. It'll take a while to explain. And we'd like to hear what happened to you."

"Of course. I have nothing but time."

"We can come back later," she offered.

"Why don't the two of you, three of you, go to command? Talyn can show you some of what happened and I will join you shortly."

Crais watched them walk down the passageway before heading to his quarters. If he was forced to confront the human, he would be presentable.

Why was she carrying their son? Talyn asked.

"Most young are dependant on their mothers. Leviathans are unique in that respect."

Why are the young born helpless?

Crais really didn't want to answer these questions right now. It only accentuated his loneliness. "We will discuss it later. The less time I keep them waiting the better."

Will we stay with them?

"For now. Unless they tell us we aren't welcome."

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A/N: This was started for a "Come as you are " challenge, but it has since morphed into something much more. If folks are interested this is a chaptered fic and I'll post more of it over here.