Title: Redemption
Author: Banshae, 2001
Rating: R (violence, implied rape, cussing)
Disclaimer: You know and I know that I don't own these characters. I'm just
borrowing them for my own little passion plays. However, I DO own the original
characters and places, so no snurching!
Spoilers: All of seasons 1 & 2, pretty much all of season three, up to IP:
Dadelus Demands
Archiving: You actually want this?! Just let me know: morgayne@hotmail.com,
so I can jump up and down and do a happy dance.
Summary: Takes place after IP: Dadelus Demands. Talyn's crew stops off at a
commerce planet and Aeryn turns up missing.
Special thanks to Felix, who argued with me and encouraged me and gave me
great ideas. This fic wouldn't have been the same without him. Thanks also to
Darkman., Intrepid Beta Reader.
Redemption: Part 8
Alaethe moved through the crowded auction room, a silent, grey-veiled figure amidst the sea of colorfully clad buyers. She was sweating under the veils; half-formed thoughts and images assaulted her mind in a wordless, whispering chorus of greed and lust. All her concentration was focused on maintaining a delicate balance between leaving herself open enough to discover what each buyer wanted and shielding herself against the oppressive miasma only she could see and feel.
Now and again she stopped beside knots of customers, murmuring into her comms. Listening were Kelhvek's minions, who pulled the required slaves from the hold and readied them for the auction. This was the hateful duty the slaver had forced upon her when he discovered her enhanced senses. With her insight, he was able to provide his customers with exactly the "merchandise" they were looking for, making his auctions much more profitable than those of his competitors.
No one touched her or spoke to her as she walked. She reached the far end of the auction room and started to turn back when she heard one word in her mind so clearly it was if someone had spoken directly in her ear.
Aeryn.
She froze. This was not supposed to be happening. She could not mindspeak another unless she was in physical contact with them. She looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. Cautiously, she stretched out her senses, searching
*****
Where is she? I can't believe we came this far and she's not here, dammit! It's not going to end like this-- I'm not giving up, even if we have to turn this whole goddamn place inside out! John thought viciously.
He saw Crais looking at him out of the corner of his eye and snapped, "What?"
"There is no Sebecean on the sale list-"
"Yeah, yeah. Doesn't mean she won't show up on the block."
"Crichton is right. We should wait until the auction is over." D'Argo glared at Crais, who nodded in reluctant agreement.
"Okay, we stay till the end of the sale at least. She's got to be here somewhere." John chewed on his lip. She's got to!
"John Crichton."
He spun, startled by the soft voice at his elbow. "Wha?"
The veiled form moved closer despite Crais' and D'Argo's hands on their weapons. "You are searching for Aeryn Sun."
"Who are you?" Crais demanded. "Where is she?"
"She is not here. Kelhvek has sent her to the Peacekeepers to collect the bounty on her head."
"Oh shit," John breathed.
"Wait a microt," D'Argo said. "Who are you and why should we believe you?"
**
Alaethe could feel their doubt and she didn't blame them. Before any of them
could move, she reached out and grabbed the arm of the one whose mind had so
clearly spoken to her moments before. She knew she didn't have time to persuade
them to listen to her; she would have to show them she was telling the truth.
She swept the veil from her face with her free hand and locked eyes with the
one called Crichton.
**
The alien moved so quickly John couldn't pull away. She had a vice-like grip
on his arm before he knew it, removing the veil to reveal her face. He got the
impression of skin like liquid metal, silvery and translucent at the same time,
and fine-boned features reminding him eerily of storybook pictures of elves
he'd seen as a kid. Then a voice both powerful and fragile filled his head.
I must you show this, JohnCrichton.
And he fell into her depthless eyes
*******
Chiana was bored. She was sitting on a chair in command, her feet up on one of the consoles. The chair was tilted back on two legs as she balanced precariously, nibbling on a food cube.
She still couldn't believe that the others had gone off and left her and Jool alone on Moya. The whole excuse about it not being safe was all dren as far as she was concerned. After all, she'd been by herself long enough as a kid to learn how to take care of herself. And besides-
"Chiana!"
The chair skittered out from under her, depositing her ungracefully on the floor. "Pilot, what the frell are you yelling about? I practically cracked my head open!"
"Sensors have picked up a Peacekeeper Marauder in this system." Pilot's voice was hitched up half an octave in his agitation.
"Are they headed for us?"
"No, it seems they are on a trajectory to the planet below Tesso3."
"Oh frell! Pilot, we need to get the guys out of there!" Chiana was immediately at the communications console, fingers flying. "Why isn't this thing working?" She shouted in frustration.
"It seems we are out of comms range. We will have to move closer."
"Do it." Chiana leaned over the console, dark eyes fixed on the viewscreen as Moya moved out from behind the planet they had chosen as a hiding place. "Hurry, Pilot, please hurry!"
**********
The man who said he was her father helped her into the seat. She went compliantly and sat still as he buckled her in like a child. "We'll get you some medical attention as quickly as possible, but first we have to get off this planet before the real Marauder crew shows up." He smiled at her again. "Our ship looks like a Marauder to the people out here, but a Peacekeeper would see through the disguise in a microt."
Would they? I didn't. Aeryn thought to herself. She should have seen the differences right off. Maybe she was getting soft.
The female commando walked in, shutting the outer hatch, "Talyn, we need to go."
He glanced down at the chrono on his wrist, "You're right. Go start the preflight, I'll be right there."
The other woman glanced at Aeryn, smiling shyly. "I'm Jaina Sekais, by the way."
Aeryn just stared at her. No frelling way she would be a commando, look at how tiny she is. When she didn't answer, Jaina shrugged, still smiling, "We'll have plenty of time to get acquainted later." She turned and went forward to the cockpit.
Talyn stowed the pulse rifles, then pulled out a field medkit and rummaged through it. "Ah, here it is..." he popped the seal on a pressure bandage and reached for Aeryn's shoulder.
She couldn't help herself, she shrank away from his touch despite the brittle pain of her broken ribs. Don't touch me. Don't.
A shadow flitted across his open face, "Is that how it went?" He asked softly into the silence. "Be easy, Aeryn. I won't hurt you..." slowly, as though he were dealing with a wild animal, he leaned forward to gently swab the pulseshot wound on her shoulder. "I wanted to get to you earlier, you know. I just couldn't think of a way to get on that slaver's freighter without being indentified..." he kept talking softly as he placed the pressure bandage on the wound. "It was Jaina who heard you'd been captured and were being turned in for the bounty. We knew this was our chance to get you."
Aeryn listened to his voice, not really hearing the words. His hands on her wound were gently competent as he sealed the bandage and stepped back.
"Talyn, we have company. Looks like the Marauder, 2,000 metras and closing fast." Jaina said from the cockpit. The engines fired and she expertly lifted them off the planet surface.
"Keep low so they don't scan us, and swing around to the back side before we head back to the base." He said over his shoulder. Quickly closing up the medkit, he gave Aeryn a reassuring look, "Don't worry. We do this all the time."
And he winked at her.
**********
Lieutenant Commander Selkyn nudged the dead man's hand with the barrel of his pulse rifle and cursed. The smell of scorched flesh was strong this close; the man hadn't been dead for long.
"This one's dead, too," Officer Livan said from the other side of the clearing. She strode over to where the Lieutenant stood, "Only the two of them."
"No sign of her in here," another commando said, exiting the shuttle.
Selkyn turned in a slow circle, taking in the scene. It was so quiet all he could hear was the wind and the ticking of the Marauder's cooling engines. High in the sky the shapes of some airborne scavenger circled, waiting for them to leave. He suddenly felt uncomfortably exposed under all the white space above.
Signaling to the others, he started back toward the Marauder, "Let's pay
the slaver a visit."
************
Omigod, Aeryn John reeled back as the alien released his arm. After-images of what he'd seen in her eyes burned in his mind like the ghost fire left after staring at the sun too long. He clutched the edge of the table, heart pounding with vague, desperate rage.
"Crichton, are you alright?" D'Argo demanded from behind him.
"I-she-" John scrubbed at his face, trying to get the words out around the thickness in his throat.
"What did you do to him?" Crais snapped, drawing his pulse pistol and pressing it the alien's side.
She turned her gaze on him, "His mind is veryopen. I showed him what I have Seen."
"What the frell are you talking about?" D'Argo had moved to block the view of Crais' drawn weapon from prying eyes. So far no one seemed to have taken much notice of them, but he didn't want to take any chances.
"Guys-" John collected his thoughts enough to try and make sense, "Wait, she didn't do anything to hurt me"
"That's not what it looked like to us," D'Argo rumbled.
"Put that away," John reached out and pushed Crais' pistol down, "She's telepathic or something-"
"A Singer." The alien interrupted.
"Yeah, ok, a Singerwhatever. She's telepathic and she's not lying when she says she knows where Aeryn is."
Crais looked from the alien to John, clearly suspicious. "Crichton-"
"Put the damn gun away, Stubby!" Crais slowly holstered his weapon, clearly not happy about it, but at this point John didn't care. He turned back to the Singer, "What you showed me"
"It was what I Saw in Aeryn Sun." Her obsidian gaze seemed to soften, "I am sorry for it, but I did not have time to explain."
D'Argo glanced at John, "She's telling the truth?"
"Yeah."
"When did they take her?" Crais asked as though he hadn't just threatened her with a pulse pistol.
"Approximately six arns ago. They were to make the exchange on the planet below and return in time for the auction."
"It doesn't take six arns to get down to the planet surface and back," D'Argo said. "It would be more like half an arn there and half an arn back, unless something went wrong."
"What the hell could go wrong?" John asked wearily. "Everything is perfect, except for the fact that we're too damn late!"
His voice had risen enough that a few other buyers turned to stare. Alaethe dropped her veil quickly, aware that she'd already spent far too long with them. "The two that Kelhvek sent with her have not yet come back. They would be here already. I know the coordinates of the meeting place-"
"John, D'Argo, you guys there?" A voice from John's comms interrupted. "Guys, you got problems!"
John cursed under his breath, "Chi, what's the matter with you? I thought we told you to--"
"Look, Pilot just picked up a Marauder. It was down on the planet, and now it's headed right for you guys. You better get the frell out of there!"
Crais' eyes unfocused for a moment and then he nodded, "Talyn confirms Moya's scans. A Marauder will arrive here in approximately a quarter arnWe must get back to Talyn before they discover him behind the moon." He spoke into his own comms badge, "Chiana, we will be leaving immediately and will meet Moya at the rendezvous point."
"Right, see you guys there." Chiana said and comms fell silent.
"We can't just go!" John turned back to the Singer, "Look, you said you know where the exchange was gonna happen, we'll take you with us."
"John-" D'Argo started to say, but she cut him off.
"I can't leave-"
"Yes you can. We'll just beat feet out of here and you go with us. Who the hell's gonna stop us?" John turned to Crais, "Ok, Cap'n, here's your chance to play bad ass Peacekeeper. How quick do you think you could work up a panic in here?"
"Crichton, I don't think this is a good idea."
John moved fast, leaning over and grabbing the other man by the collar. "This is my show, Crais. Mine. You got a better plan, speak up now or forever hold your peace." When he didn't reply, John released him, grinning wolfishly, "Right. This little lady says she knows the coordinates where the Marauder was supposed to pick up Aeryn-"
"How do we know she's not on the Marauder already?" D'Argo asked. He still didn't look convinced.
"Wait" Crais got that far away look again, communicating with Talyn. Eventually his eyes refocused on John, "There are only five life signs on the Marauder. It carries a five man crew, so she must not be on board."
"'Kay, then. She's not on the Marauder, she may still be on the planet. They wouldn't be coming here unless they were still looking for her, right?"
"Possibly," Crais said slowly. "If something happened on the planet and they could not recover her there, it is likely they would come after the slaver to discover what he knows of her whereabouts."
"So elf-lady-"
"Alaethe is my name."
"Sorry- Alaethe- knows where they were supposed to pick her up. I say we take her with us, because she's our best bet to find a hot trail." John glanced around. The crowd seemed to be growing restless. "You know, none of these guys is going to be happy to hear a Marauder is headed this way..."
Crais met his gaze, "Take her to the transport. The Luxan and I will provide a...distraction." He gave D'Argo a tight-lipped smile.
John nodded and took the Singer by the arm, "C'mon, let's blow this taco stand."
TBC...
