Chapter 4.
There were many places to hide on a Command Carrier. This particular one, an improvement over the one Crichton had destroyed, held over 100,000 Peacekeepers. The security systems were improved, scanners at every entry point and guards posted in the event any unauthorized boarding was attempted. First Command knew that there were enemies beyond the insignificant and extremely fortunate John Crichton. Perhaps there were even enemies among them now, the ones that Braca couldn't see, whose motives he couldn't know.
As much as Grayza liked to believe that Braca was at her command, she was mistaken. Her powers over him appeared to be weakening as though he had built up immunity to a drug. He believed it was only a matter of time before she was removed from command like her predecessors had been, in another Peacekeeper power struggle conducted outside the purview of High Command.
Part of Braca's job was to ensure that security was in place. He had hand-picked the guards, was certain that none of them had sworn an allegiance to Scorpius. An errant Prowler would have no chance of entering the Carrier without first being routed through central communications. Grayza had entrusted this to him and he had not disappointed her.
"Captain Braca."
He stood at the passageway to her quarters. Grayza was dressed and sitting on her chair, a table in front of her lit up with military strategy maps. He snapped his heels together and waited.
"Come." She put out her hand and motioned him inside. As he entered, he saw a Peacekeeper officer, some faceless minion sitting on the floor near her, like a pet. Braca tried not to blink at the sight, to not notice it at all. She smiled at the officer and he smiled in return, then got up and left without looking at Braca.
"Ma'am?" Braca said through clenched teeth.
"Captain." She stood up and walked past the table towards him. "Any word on Crichton?"
"No, ma'am. There is no indication that they've rendezvoused with the leviathan." He swallowed hard, trying not to look at her as she walked around him, taking him in. He sensed that she was tired but she did nothing overt to give that away.
"So we have a traitor and four escaped prisoners eluding the entire Peacekeeper force. Is that what you're telling meCaptain?"
He felt her fingernails along the back of his neck and he did his best to keep perfectly still, to not provoke her in any way. At first, he'd been flattered by her attentions until he'd realized that he was just one more pawn to her. If there was one male she wanted in this universe, it was John Crichton and his destruction. No matter what the subject matter of their strategy sessions, they always ended with the name John Crichton.
"Tell me, Braca," she continued. "What exactly do you find so interesting in the breeding sector? Do you have unauthorized offspring there?"
He kept his voice calm. "Ma'am?"
"Oh, there's no shame in it, really. Senior officers breeding outside the accepted channels is not unheard of. And it certainly won't ruin your career." She stopped behind him, her breath on his neck. "Unless, of course, there's more to it than that. Something you're not telling me perhaps?"
His nose caught the fragrance before his body felt its effect. "Something, Commandant Grayza? What do you suspect, ma'am?"
"Oh, I don't know." She stood in front of him now, her lavender eyes burning into him and he could feel his resolve turn to liquid in the face of any attempts to control himself. "What is possibly so important in that sector, Braca? What are you keeping from me?"
She waved her fingers under his nose and he fought back tears of frustration and hatred, hatred of both her and himself as he allowed her to lead wherever she wanted him to go.
*****
It stood out in the distance, a ship that would have been the equivalent of 1000 football fields if anyone in this part of the universe knew what a football field was. The Command Carrier.
John glanced at Aeryn and saw her bite her lower lip as she piloted the Marauder, trying to conceal her own anxiety. His nerves were strung tightly-- rattlers, damn rattlers, hissing away like he was about to fall into a whole pit of them. He and Aeryn had dumped Scorpius in the Marauder's small holding facility. The ship reminded him of Talyn in a way—black, red and claustrophobic.
"How far?" John asked.
"We still have at least an arn before we reach it," Aeryn said, checking the sensors. "I've not picked up any indication that they suspect anything unusual."
"And D'Argo?" He looked around, wishing this thing had a rear view mirror.
"Still tracking behind us. He won't be able to get much closer without risk." She took a deep breath. "We need to talk," she said and looked at him, eyes narrowed as though she dared him to protest.
Timing was everything and obviously she wasn't familiar with that saying. "This isn't going to be a long good-bye, is it? I hate long good-byes."
She blinked as though she'd been struck, naked pain in her expression. She looked down, trying to hide it. "John said that" she cleared her throat.
"Before he died," John finished quietly. "Crap."
"It wasn't a long good-bye," she continued. She looked at him then away; her voice was soft but matter of fact. "He died peacefully. In my arms. His painwas short-lived. At least, I prefer to think of it that way."
"Aeryn." He ran his hands over his face. "We don't have to talk about it." And he wasn't sure he wanted to know how John Crichton had died. It was all too bizarro world for him. It could have been me. Easy to assume but he knew that he would have done exactly the same thing. She was the only thing that separated him from the other guy. Everything she and Crichton had done would have gone exactly the same had he been the guy with the black T-shirt.
She turned to him and smiled slightly, almost wistful. "The child wasn't planned."
"I know that." He stayed at his console, wanting to move so that he could stand next to her and hold her but he held fast to where he was, feeling his own ghost standing between them.
"And you're risking your life to save it. Did you mean what you saidbefore?"
"That it's mine? Yeah." He nodded. All that flying had given him plenty of time to turn it over in his head, to accept that no matter how the kid had come into existence, it was his and Aeryn's. He would no more abandon it than he would have abandoned her. He had put his life in her hands without forethought of how they were going to get here or how they were going to succeed. She could not rest until they found the baby. He had accepted that he would rather die than run the risk of never seeing her again.
"John, I can't" She began but her words were interrupted by the Marauder equivalent of a tin cup being dragged across metal prison bars.
"Frell," she said. She stood up and reached for her pistol.
"No, no," he said. "You fly. Let me check this out." He pulled Winona from his holster and moved towards the back of the Marauder where Scorpius was locked up. Scorpius dragged his cooling rod apparatus back and forth across the metal bars, his only means of making loud and obnoxious noises.
"What the hell you doin', Scorpy?" John asked. He put his hand through the bars and on Scorpius' head and pushed back.
"Can't your inferior ears hear the alarm, John? You are wasting valuable time talking. We're approaching the first checkpoint and only I can pass the voice scan. You need to let me out." He was still tied up and he leaned against the wall of the small containment area. Apparently, they weren't built for much more than one prisoner. John supposed Peacekeepers rarely took prisoners—why waste the space?
"What? Aeryn?" He turned towards her and saw her nod.
"He's right. They're hailing us. Let him out," she said.
John unlocked the cell, pulled Scorpius out and pushed him towards Aeryn. "Do whatever you need to do so we can throw you back in there," he said.
Aeryn took Scorpius by the arm. "Come on then." She pushed him towards a console they hadn't used yet. John had never been in a Marauder; the most he could do was ride shotgun and hope he didn't break anything. It was almost as bad as Lo'La. At least Lo'La had a couple of chairs.
Scorpius held out his bound hands to Aeryn. "No," she said. "Your mouth is free. That's all you'll need."
- Scorpius sighed and reached out to open a channel.
"Officer Mol, Ukarian regiment," Scorpius said into the comm. He turned to John smugly, waiting.
John looked at Aeryn. "That's it? He couldn't even change his voice?"
She shrugged and shook her head, unsure. John strode over to Scorpius and leaned over his shoulder. "Okay, Officer Mol'. Wrap this up."
Scorpius waved him away. "Patience, John."
The response came back over the channel. "You have clearance, Officer. Landing bay twelve."
- Scorpius turned to John and smiled, showing all his bad teeth. "That's a cargo and supply bay, usually with the least security." He clapped John on the shoulder companionably, using his bound hands almost like a club. John jumped back a little. "You've just become a supply runner," he continued. "Much lower profile than a Prowler pilot or a Commando unit. I've demonstrated my good will." He held out his hands. John looked at Aeryn but she shook her head.
- "No," she said.
- "Officer Sun," Scorpius said. "An act of good faith on your part would certainly strengthen my trust."
- John laughed. "You got cojones the size of grapefruits, Scorpy. We didn't kill you. That's our act of good faith. So keep talking before we change our minds." He pushed the pulse pistol at Scorpius' face.
- Scorpius turned away and paced around the Marauder. "There are spare uniforms and helmets in storage. And encrypted comms."
- "Okay." John motioned at him to continue. "Comms aren't much good if we don't have anyone but each other to talk to. We don't intend to get separated."
- "And I didn't intend to accompany you to the command carrier. I left one of the comms with your new shipmate—Sikozu, is it? She seemed willing enough, given that I'd saved her life."
- "The magic act continues. You're a sly dog, Grasshopper," John said. "Now if we get into a jam, D'Argo can hear us die." He sighed and looked at Aeryn then did a double take. Her attention was focused solely on Scorpius. She walked slowly to where he and Scorpius stood until she was nose to nose with Scorpius.
- "Why," she said. She hooked her thumbs in her gun belt as though she was keeping herself from pulling her pulse pistol and shooting the bastard. "Why did you do it?" Her tone was low and threatening.
- "There are greater things at stake, Officer Sun. Unless you no longer value the Sebacean race. John had the ability to choose right from wrong, to assist us in our inevitable battle against the Scarrans. Do you want to see your child raised in a world where she can be raped and killed simply for being Sebacean?" He leaned into Aeryn, matching her focus. "I needed a lure. It was nothing more. And when you were not able to provide me with a location for John Crichton and I found this childI knew that I would eventually find John." He turned away and walked back to the comms console. "I just hadn't envisioned that Grayza would usurp my command so quickly."
- She followed Scorpius and grabbed his arm, spinning him towards her. "She?" she sputtered harshly.
- Scorpius shook her off and nodded. "I've told you, I have my informants. And they inform me that you have a daughter, Officer Sun. Her name is A'lya Lyczac. A family name, Lyczac, is it not?" He paused and turned to John. "Crichton, I will give you one last opportunity to hear reason. The child is safe. You and I flying into the Carrier serves no purpose. Perhaps Officer Sun alone might have a chance but youand me?"
- John laughed, almost too loudly, the reality of the situation finally hitting him. He slapped his hand on his thigh. Aeryn and Scorpius both stared at him, wearing almost identical looks, both of which registered that John Crichton had finally gone crackers.
- "Let Officer Sun' go alone. Do you really think that I hauled my ass out here, hauled your ugly ass in here and came all this way so I could give Aeryn a kiss while she walks onto the Titanic all by herself?" He pulled at his lip in thought. "Aeryn and I go together. You do what you want."
- "No." Aeryn's tone was firm. But when John looked at her he could only see fear in her eyes. He shot a quizzical look at her as she turned to Scorpius. "Keep him here," she said.
- "You see, John," Scorpius said. "Even Officer Sun has come to her senses."
- "You." He pointed at Scorpius. "Shut up. Aeryn"
- "No, John." She shook her head slowly. "I won't watch them capture you. I won't watch you die, not for me. Not even for her. You have better odds here with him. You're both Grayza's enemy."
- "'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'" John muttered. "Or politics makes strange bedfellows'. The answer is, no, Aeryn. You said it yourself—you'd rather we all die together."
- Her eyes lit up in frustration and she turned away then back to him. He saw her swallow hard—was she choking back words or tears? "I'd rather we not die at all. Why are you choosing now to be so stubborn?" she said.
- He reached out for her and pulled her towards him, gripping her arms tightly. "Because I love you," he said finally. He heard Scorpius hiss in disgust. "And I will not be responsible for your death again any more than you want to see mine. So knock off the martyr crap, Aeryn." He loosened his grip and ran a hand over her hair. "We started this thing together and we're going to end it together. Sound familiar?"
- Before she could answer, he heard a high-pitched squeal from the comms channel. He turned to Scorpius and grabbed him before Scorpius could answer.
- "You'd better hope that's not Grayza on the phone," he said.
- "John." It was D'Argo. John pushed Scorpius towards the console. "Aeryn?" D'Argo pressed on.
- "Open the channel," John said. Scorpius did as he was told. "Yeah, D'Argo?"
- "Sikozu has this commI wasn't sure" D'Argo sounded confused and then John heard another voice, dripping with annoyance and impatience
- "So he decided to contact you over a potentially unsecured channel," Sikozu's voice argued. "I see that Scorpius can be trusted."
- "On the matter of comms," D'Argo inserted. "John, we're maintaining our distance and so far nothing looks out of the ordinary. We have provisions for five solar days. Will that be sufficient?"
- John looked at Aeryn. She rubbed at her forehead absently and nodded. "We'll know by then," she said finally.
- "Yeah, D'Argo. Five days should do it. If that" He choked up. "Thanks, D'Argo."
- "Good luck, my friend." John heard a note of regret in the Luxan's deep voice and then the channel went silent. He turned to Aeryn and Scorpius.
- "It's now or never," he said and, surprisingly, he felt peace.
