Part 2: Broken
~~~
The sound of footfalls that had echoed throughout the complex for what seemed to be arns had finally faded. As far as John could tell, he was alone. Scorpius and his men had apparently departed.
John felt a sudden pang of regret that he'd insisted that his friends not be present for his operation. Perhaps, if they had been there, they could've prevented Scorpius from taking the chip. No, he told himself. No more time for recriminations. I would've-should've. But I didn't. And it's no one's fault but my own.
He closed his eyes again, and pulled at the restraints half-heartedly. He was impatient. John had expected to die – no, he'd resigned himself to it. At least he'd get to see Aeryn again. But Fate was frelling with him again – and he was still alive. And alone, with no one to put him out of his misery.
As he meditated on these self-pitying thoughts, a new sound intruded. Footfalls, again. He wondered if Scorpius had changed his mind and was on his way back to kill him after all. But no – these footfalls were cautious, stealthy… and scared?
Hope suddenly jumped up in John's chest. Could it possibly be…?
~~~
Upon landing the pod, Chiana's anxiety doubled almost immediately. She glanced at Zhaan, but was not surprised to find a similar preoccupied look on her face. Jothee seemed to be the only one oblivious to the suddenly ominous atmosphere that hung over the complex. They exited the pod cautiously, looking around.
The area was deserted.
"Zhaan? I don't like this. It's too quiet."
Zhaan only nodded. Chiana looked at Jothee, who had finally also picked up on the sense of something being terribly… off. He stood close to Chiana, nervously fidgeting with his overcoat.
"Chiana, are there any weapons on the transport pod?" Zhaan asked suddenly.
Chiana said, "I don't know, Zhaan. Let me check." Chiana disappeared up the stairs of the pod. A few microts later, she emerged, carrying a pulse pistol and two pulse rifles. She handed the rifles to Jothee and Zhaan, keeping the pistol for herself.
"Something terrible has happened here," Zhaan observed. "Goddess protect us."
~~~
The trio moved through the complex swiftly and fairly quietly. At every turn, they encountered more and more cryotubes, containing an endless variety of species. As they worked their way closer and closer to the doctor's laboratory, where they'd last left Crichton, their feeling of dread grew. They had been in the complex for nearly a quarter arn, and they had not encountered either the Diagnosan or Grunchlk.
"Where the frell is everyone?" Jothee asked quietly.
Zhaan suddenly drew in a deep breath, and held up a hand, stopping both Chiana and Jothee in their tracks. She pointed to the ground in front of them.
"Oh, no," Chiana murmured.
The frost-covered ground had been disturbed recently. Boot prints marked the path of at least half a dozen people. And they were leading in the direction of the laboratory.
"Who do you think it is?" Chiana asked. "Peacekeepers?"
Zhaan's jaw tightened, as did Jothee's grip on his rifle. "Scorpius," Zhaan spat.
"Are they still here, do you think?" Jothee asked. His eyes had taken on a look of tightly controlled panic.
"No. I don't hear anything. Jothee, you're half Luxan, can't you smell them?"
"I'm only half Luxan. My sense of smell isn't as developed as a Luxans. And there's too many species here; it's interfering. But, yes, I do smell Sebaceans," he said.
"If Scorpius was here, then… oh, no. Crichton," Chiana said. "We've got to find him." She strode forward, ignoring Zhaan's hiss of warning to be careful. Chiana broke into a run, finding her way to the lab. Jothee took off after her, leaving Zhaan with no choice but to follow.
~~~
"Oh, God." The words fell from Chiana's lips. She stood in the doorway, looking at the scene that had suddenly paralyzed her. Zhaan came to a halt behind her.
"By the Goddess," Zhaan gasped, her face a portrait of horror. "John?"
The man laid out on the table squirmed, trying to get a look at who had called him. He uttered a string of unintelligible syllables, in her direction. Although Zhaan couldn't understand what he said, she understood his urgent tone.
"John, what? I – I can't understand," she said, coming quickly to his side, carefully avoiding the corpse of Tocot. She took his hand, gripping it firmly.
He muttered something again, just as incomprehensibly. Zhaan turned to look at Chiana, feeling helpless. She saw that Jothee had put his arm around Chiana's shoulders, hoping to comfort her. "Chiana, come here. Take his hand."
Chiana pulled herself from Jothee's side, doing as Zhaan instructed. "Hey, old man," she said brokenly, trying to hold back tears. Zhaan moved around towards Crichton's head, examining the grievous wounds there.
John gibbered something in response to Chiana. She hushed him, and said, "Just hold on, okay, John? We're gonna get you outta this. Right, Zhaan? Right?" Chiana looked up at Zhaan. "Why can't I understand what he's saying? Are his microbes frelled up?"
Zhaan probed carefully at the hole. "No, no. As far as I can tell, the chip has been removed," Zhaan said, looking up at Chiana. A spark of hope had generated in her eyes.
"But why did Scorpius leave him here? And, if the chip's been removed, where is it?" Jothee asked.
Zhaan searched the table of instruments that had been laid out. There was no sign of anything that looked as if it could have possibly come from the inside of the Human's head. "I don't know, I don't know," she said. "And it appears he cannot tell us himself. There is a way…"
"What, Zhaan?" Chiana asked, cocking her head.
"I… I could try to enter Unity with John again," she said nervously. Only arns ago, she'd attempted the same, and it had ended disastrously. The chip had taken control and nearly broken Zhaan's calm. But if the chip was gone…
Zhaan steeled herself. There was no other option. If she were to discover what had occurred, she would have to do it.
~~~
Scorpius exited the marauder that had returned him and his troops to the command carrier. Braca moved to his side immediately, ready to execute any order.
"Sir, what do you wish us to do with the body of the defector?"
"For the moment, nothing. Move it to a secure med lab, and keep her in stasis. I shall deal with her when the time is right," Scorpius answered.
"And Grunchlk?"
"Put him in a cell. Alone. I want a constant guard on him. Do not leave him unsupervised for a microt, do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," Braca said. He turned and began giving orders.
Scorpius strolled out of the bay and towards the captain's quarters, which he'd taken as his own after Crais had defected. He entered the large room to find a pleasant surprise – Officer Nerz, the assistant who had been injured at the depository, was present.
"I trust you are well, then?" he asked. He was surprised to see her – she had been released back to duty earlier than expected.
"Sir," she said curtly, with a nod of her head. "And I trust you are better than well?"
"Yes, yes," Scorpius said, a smile crossing his features for a microt. "I was not expecting to see you back on duty so soon. But it is a pleasure." He noticed that the med techs had done their job well – there was almost no scarring left from the jellifan paste that had nearly killed her.
"And Crichton, sir?" Nerz asked.
"Crichton is no longer a concern. I now have the wormhole technology."
~~~
Zhaan gripped John's head firmly between both hands. She had left him secured to the table, fearing any unnecessary movement would cause him further injury. So, instead, she had seated herself beside him. As she lowered her forehead to his and mentally prepared herself, she said a quick prayer to Kahalen.
The light engulfed them both suddenly and with a faster pace than it had ever done before. She felt her consciousness merge with John's, and she opened her eyes – no; their eyes, and found herself staring, somehow, into his – or were they hers?
"Zhaan?" his voice echoed in her head. "Can you understand me?"
"Yes, John, I can. What has happened here?"
"Scorpius did. He came in. He killed the doctor and took the chip. He said he wanted me to live, so that I'd suffer." John's voice sounded hollow, devoid of hope. Something in Zhaan shrank at the sound, but she blocked that feeling before he could sense it.
"Oh, John," she breathed in sorrow. "I am so sorry. But I don't understand – why can we not understand you?"
"The doctor said that the chip was near my speech centers, or something. He had to frell with them to remove the chip. He said he was going to put them back, but he didn't get a chance." His voice broke on the last word.
Zhaan calmed herself, attempting to extend the feeling to him. His soul was raging – anger, hatred, sorrow, and guilt all fought for dominance. Below it, she could sense the old John who had comforted her all those monens ago on the New Moon of Delvia, but it was a faint spark, barely there.
"Do you think you can fix me?" he asked. She could sense that he knew the answer before he'd asked it.
"John, I am a healer at best, but I am no surgeon. I know almost nothing about your nervous system! The best I can hope to do is to repair your skull, so that we may leave this place."
She felt him close his – their – eyes, and his sorrow deepen. "Is there any chance that you can heal the doctor?"
"No, John, I'm sorry. He's dead."
"Fine. Patch me up. Get me the hell off this planet."
A moment later, the contact was broken. Zhaan was left staring down into John's eyes. He stared back, his gaze dull. Zhaan ached with the lingering feel of his grief. "I will do my best, John," she said, wiping at her eyes, which had grown wet.
She drew in a breath and turned to face Chiana and Jothee, who were watching her expectantly. "It was Scorpius. He took the chip, as we suspected. John can't speak, because removing the chip had an effect on the speech centers in his brain."
"Can you fix him?" Chiana asked numbly.
Zhaan said, "No. I cannot repair the damage done to his speech centers. We must find another surgeon to do that. However, I may be able to replace his skull, so that we may leave this place."
"How can we help?" Chiana asked.
~~~