Chiana walked in step behind her Sebacean companion as they marched towards Talyn's
command center. She could sense that something had happened. Good or bad she couldn't tell.
It was all clouded in her mind. Her eyes drifted to Aeryn's right hand. It was held, no frozen in
place, above a pulse pistol. 'Someone's in trouble. At least it isn't frelling me this time.'

Behind her, Keller also walked in silence. His head turned from side to side as he walked, taking
in everything that was the leviathan gun ship. A being he had helped create so very long ago.
The peacekeeper tech ignored the two women in front of him.

The three of them finally reached the door to command. Aeryn lifted a hand up and slipped it
over the controls. A few steps back, Chiana could see that the hand was trembling slightly. The
metal door slid open and she entered. Her gun already rising towards the man inside.

The Nebari stepped forward to follow when the entrance slammed shut in her face. "What the
frell!?" Chiana tucked her head back just in time to avoid losing the tip of her grey nose.

Sounds of pounding fists echoed down the hallway as Chiana fought to bypass her restricted
access. "Frell, dren," and other such words escaped her lips.

Keller had stopped a bit further down the passageway to stare at the ceiling. "Never in my
wildest imagination..."

"Frell! She never gives in does she? It's always none of my frelling business! After all-." Chiana
finally managed to calm herself down and stop hitting the door. Breathing heavily, she turned to
her other companion.

He felt the pair of eyes burning into him from down the hall and broke his stunned gaze. The girl
was standing at the door, apparently angry, with fire in her eyes. "What?"

"She locked us out!"

Keller suddenly realized what was going on. He should have expected something like this to
happen. After all, that was the point of his being here. "We should just wait out here."

Chiana was in no way calmed by his words. She narrowed her eyes at him. "What the frell is
your problem?! You're the only peacekeeper I've met who doesn't like to growl and blow dren
up!"

She paused as if trying to calm herself again. "And for once it's pissing me off."

The tech stared blankly at her for a moment before speaking. Images of the people he had killed
flashed in his memory. It was a short list. "It wouldn't do any good to go in there. Aeryn needs
to do whatever she's going to do."

Chiana tilted her head as curiosity set in. "And what do you know about it?"


Keller now had to ignore his surroundings for a little while. Explanations were required of him.
"I worked with a man that Aeryn once knew. Someone she thought was dead."

Her eyes went wide as connections snapped into place. "That peacekeeper guy! Velorek, the one
who worked on Moya?"

He nodded curtly. "His execution was never carried out. I imagine that Captain Crais has some
things to account for."

Chiana smiled at this. "Aeryn's gonna kill him."

Keller returned her gesture with an equally amused grin. "That would be the general idea."



Aeryn lifted her pulse weapon and fired. The beams of light exploded around the room and sent
sparks flying over the three of them. Her eyes never deviated from Crais' face as she pulled the
trigger.

"Aeryn! Stop it!" John grabbed the rifle and tried to force it out of her grip. He found this feat
harder to do than expected. She pushed him off without ever taking a glance in his direction.

"I know that you must be incredibly pissed right now. That's understandable." John took a step
back to make sure he wasn't in immediate firing range. "Why don't you just calm down for a
second."

She finally turned to look at the human. His pleas only made her angrier. Once Aeryn had
believed that he understood how she felt about this. She wasn't so sure now.

"I thought you'd want this." Her gun hand started to shake slightly. "Crais dead, that's what you
were hoping for isn't it?" The words spat out of her mouth, making them difficult to understand.

John didn't like where this was going. "Sure, I never liked the guy. But you can't just kill him
like this. Not now."

Crais, who had been standing silent up to this point, finally opened his mouth to speak. "I
appreciate your assistance Crichton, but you are mistaken." He stepped forward until the pulse
rifle's muzzle was touching his chest. "She has the right."

Interestingly enough, this statement threw her off a bit. Aeryn looked at John and saw that
compassion she knew so well. Maybe she was the one who didn't understand.

"Tell me! Why did you keep this from me?" Her voice calmed slightly but the gun remained
aimed and ready.


"I could not kill the one man that knew every facet of this ship. That would have been a tactical
mistake." Crais' eyes never left Aeryn's. Remorse, yes. Shame, out of the question.

"After the encounter with your mother, Talyn and I felt it best to leave the past as it was." At his
words, the gun ship lit up in protest.

Aeryn looked around at the flashing lights and was suddenly enraged again. "Talyn? You two
felt it best! What gives you the right?!"

Crais stood firm. "There is little my mind is able to hide from him."

She took a step away from the ex-captain and looked up. The neural center above had gone
uncharacteristically silent. Aeryn couldn't believe what she had just heard. Talyn had done
wrong before, that was true. But never before had it seemed like this much of a betrayal.

Aeryn's left hand rose slowly and touched the cold surface of the neural center. "I gave you my
father's name," she whispered. Her face shifted from anger to a look of terrible defeat. Both
hand and gun slid down to her sides.

Moving slowly, John placed himself between her and Bialar. He stayed respectfully away and
never made any move to touch her. "Aeryn?"

She looked up at him with vacant eyes. The distance was gone in that moment. It was just the
two of them again and yet somehow the same. "What?"

"We'll get him out. You understand me?" He turned to look at Crais. "He'll tell us where
Velorek is and we'll go get him. Ok?"

Aeryn's expression did not change. She lowered her eyes to the floor and said, "Ok."



"So, what? You helped make Talyn?"

Keller looked up from the conduit he was examining and nodded. He didn't have the mental
willpower to answer verbally at this point. All he could do was stare. The tech began to move
slowly down the hallway, away from command.

"Pretty amazing isn't he?" Chiana tried to keep her mind off what else was going on. It seemed
easier to just cool it for the moment. "I've never seen anything else like him."

He shook his head. "This ship is an abomination." Keller's demeanor suddenly darkened. In
Talyn he saw everything that he had worked to stop. All for nothing.

"I'll grant you, Talyn is kind a messed up. But-."

Keller shook his head angrily. "You've been on Moya for what? Almost three cycles?" He
gestured towards the peacekeeper-like designs. "This isn't what a leviathan is built for."

"So why'd you do it?"

Chiana stared intently as the man stepped away from the conduit he was looking at. She could
see in his face that it wasn't wonder he was filled with. No, something much worse. The Nebari
had never felt completely comfortable aboard Talyn. Now more than ever.

Keller sighed. "I didn't have a choice." He glanced over at the door to command and saw that it
was still shut. Waving to Chiana, he now began to run down the hall.

"Where the frell are you going?" Chiana watched in confusion as he disappeared around a corner.
Somehow she knew this wasn't going to end well.

"Come here!" Keller's voice echoed from down the corridor.

She broke into a sprint and was soon close behind the peacekeeper. Chiana rolled her eyes angrily
as she caught up. "Where?"

The tech suddenly stopped and pointed towards a door on his left. "Pilot's den."

That same feeling she had when warning Crais came back to the young woman. Looking into
Keller's eyes she saw darkness. "What are you going to do?"

He moved to open the door. "Do you trust Crais?"

The question was just what she had expected. "No, but I don't trust you either."

Keller smiled. "I wouldn't ask you to." He pointed into the room beyond the door. "I have to
stop this ship before-."

Chiana cut him off with a wave of the pulse pistol she was carrying. It was the one she had taken
from Aeryn. "I won't let you hurt Talyn."

He shook his head. "Listen to me. This ship is getting stronger." Keller met the Nebari's
probing eyes and nodded. "You can't trust it or Crais with that kind of power."

Keller paused for a moment before continuing. "You can't imagine what Talyn would do."

Chiana lowered her pistol. Things were somehow falling into place. "Actually, I think I can."
She walked past him into the room.

The door slid shut behind them.



She straightened herself up and looked coldly around the room. This place had never seemed like
home to her, not like Moya. Strange, since it was the closest to a command carrier she had been
since defecting. Aeryn stopped when her eyes reached Crais.

"Tell me."

Bialar nodded slightly and turned to look out the forward portal. He could still see the drifting
Vigilante outside. "After you betrayed him, High Co-."

"Don't think you wanna be making her any madder, Crais." John snuck the comment in as quietly
as he could. Nevertheless, both of the Sebaceans in front of him looked annoyed by his intrusion.

"It's the truth." Aeryn reached up to wipe the sweat off her brow. She motioned for Crais to
continue.

Talyn's neural center caught the ex-captain's eye. 'How easy it is for you.' He met Aeryn's eyes
again.

"High Command instructed me to discover Velorek's treachery and then dispose of him." Crais
braced himself. "He was tortured for arns, days, but never spoke a word."

He smiled slightly. "I disobeyed orders and had him incarcerated. Not a peacekeeper prison, but
one I knew from outside contacts. No one would know who he was. Only I would know he was
alive."

Aeryn tensed to keep from reacting violently again. "But they know now."

"My escape from the peacekeepers was not perfectly planned. There was enough among my
personal things to indicate that."

Standing apart from them, John shook his head in understanding. Like his Nebari friend, he was
beginning to see how the pieces fit together. "If they can't get Talyn...."

"....They'll get the only man who knows how he's built." Aeryn finished the thought.

"Precisely. I-." As Crais spoke, his transponder came to life with images of something outside.
He turned away from Crichton and Aeryn. Images where flashing through his mind.

"What are you doing?" Aeryn's question did not come out of concern.

Bialar turned to face her again. "The man you brought onboard. Where is he?"


The DRD watched them as they entered the room. It retreated slowly into the darkness, making
sure not to be seen.

Keller walked up to the pilot's console and ran his hands over the cold metal. He could see
frayed wires protruding from somewhere down below. Someone had been plugged in. The
peacekeeper tech looked over at his companion. "Close the door please."

"No problem." Chiana turned and waved her hand over the door controls. They shut firmly and
took the remaining light from the room. "Uh?"

He shook his head. "There should be a light source around there somewhere."

Chiana found it and the room lit up in a bright yellow glow. "Ok, now what?"

Keller slipped around the side of the console and began tapping each of the arrays. Finally, a
small panel opened up in front of him. A series of red and black round buttons lit up. Exactly
what he was looking for. "Look at this."

The Nebari went to join him and spotted the small console. "Great. Some more buttons to
push."

He ignored her and began talking quickly. "Didn't any of you ever wonder why it was so easy for
the retrieval squad to almost destroy Talyn? Immobilizer cannons are not nearly the strongest
weapon peacekeepers have."

Chiana shrugged. "I didn't think about it."

"Talyn was designed to be the most formidable ship in the peacekeeper armada. Starburst is
important of course, but he was to be more dangerous than anything else when fully grown."

Keller looked up to face her now. "But he won't."

She just shook her head. "And why is that?" Chiana wondered if they guy would ever get to a
valid point.

"Velorek went to High Command without informing Crais. He convinced them that a ship like
this could be a liability. Especially since we didn't know if it would cooperate." He turned his
attention to the small console again. "They allowed him to build in certain restrictions.
Safeguards that only they could circumvent."

"But they're not working are they?"

Keller sighed. "The blast that hit the Vigilante. It's strength was far beyond the limits." He
pulled on the console and revealed more buttons and wiring. "I can stop him."

Chiana stood there with her mouth slightly open. She hoped her instincts were right about the
tech. Before she could respond, her comm went off.

"Chiana!" Aeryn's voice betrayed none of the emotion she was feeling. It was back to business
for the moment. "Where are you?"

The peacekeeper and the Nebari stared at each other. Neither knew quite how to respond.

"Do not allow him to touch Talyn!" It was Crais' voice now.

Keller took a step back from the console. He looked sternly at Chiana. "You must be objective
about this. They won't be able to."

She nodded slowly. "Just do what you gotta do." Chiana turned towards the door.



Aeryn ran down the corridor as fast as she could. Her anger at Talyn was great but she wouldn't
let him be harmed by any peacekeeper.

'That's why he saved me isn't it? To keep Velorek from the peacekeepers and to get himself on
Talyn.'

She could understand the first. "Chiana!"

There was no answer from the comm.

As Aeryn turned the corner that led to the pilot's den, she was frozen by the strange sight.
Dozens of DRD's were charging towards the same place from the opposite direction. They knew
more than she did at this point.

"Aeryn, wait."

The strangest sight, however, was Chiana standing in front of the door. The younger woman held
a stern look on her face and had both her hands clenched into fists.

"Chiana? I told you to-." Aeryn stopped talking as she realized what was happening. 'Stupid
girl!'

"Please trust me Aeryn." The words sounded annoyingly like dren as they left her lips. Chiana
wasn't used to asking that of people. "You can't go in."

Aeryn narrowed her eyes. "I'm not asking you. Let me by or I will remove you."

Chiana stood motionless. She met the ex-peacekeeper's glare with equal force. "No."

Enough had happened in the past day to warrant an angry reaction from Aeryn Sun. She was not
about to disappoint. Aeryn took a step forward and pushed.

The Nebari was thrown back against the wall but quickly recovered. 'Frell, frell, frell!' This
time, the swearing really did help a little.

Chiana prepared herself as Aeryn moved to push her even harder. Collecting all her strength, she
threw her own fist forward and send it careening into the other woman's face.

The punch was unexpected and landed exactly where it was intended. Aeryn, way past shocked,
fell back and raised a hand to her throbbing cheek. "You hit me!."

Chiana nodded as she raised both her fists in front of her. "You pushed me!"

Whatever their relationship was, it was about to be tested.