In Space:

D'Argo, I'm getting blasted over here, could you assist?
Sorry Aeryn, I'm taking a beating myself. There are ships everywhere, but they don't seem to be going after Moya.
They don't want to kill us, just disable our ships so Scorpius can bring us in. He wants Kate, but he'll use the rest of us to get to her.
Aeryn, can you make it back to Moya?
You are not going to do what I think you're trying to do, I won't have it. We've been together too long, you're not turning yourself in to save us.
It would buy you time to get away.
D'Argo, is that my Prowler up ahead?
Yes, it's Kate. Kate? What are you doing?
I can't just wait for the two of you to get killed. This is my fault and I'm going to have to put a stop to Scorpius.
Kate look out! D'Argo yells into the radio, as a pulse blast rips through Kate's ship. Aeryn's Prowler spins out of control and Aeryn and D'Argo watch in horror as the Command Carrier draws her in.
D'Argo, no, this cannot be happening. Kate? Kate?
Aeryn, did she say anything?
No, I'm going after her.
No, I will, you get back to Moya. D'Argo banks Lo La and goes to the site where Kate was shot. The Command Carrier has stopped its netting, and a series of Marauders line up between the docking bay and D'Argo's ship.
Aeryn,
I know, I know, we can't penetrate that line. Can you get a good pulse blast off, maybe we could take a few of them out before we go.
My pulse reactor is frelled.
We'll have to turn back. This Renegade is on minimum function and I'm still having trouble. We can get to Moya and go after them. D'Argo, I'm so sorry.
The Command Carrier fires up its main engines and accelerates in a burst of black as it rips the sky apart. The Prowlers take a few final shots at Aeryn and D'Argo, while the Marauders blast Moya. The Leviathan drifts, severely weakened by the onslaught. Aeryn and D'Argo dock with Moya just as the last Peacekeeper ship departs. Crichton is waiting for them in the bay. Aeryn unsnaps her helmet, throws her gloves and helmet onto the floor and jumps down from the Renegade. Crichton approaches her cautiously.
Aeryn, where's Kate?
Neither D'Argo, nor Aeryn can speak. Crichton sees Aeryn biting her lip and a dribble of blood spills down her chin.
Aeryn, talk to me. Where's my daughter? D? Come on, tell me, whatever it is.
D'Argo's nostrils flare as he stands stone silent before Crichton with his arms behind his back. Crichton shoves D'Argo but he refuses to speak. He turns his attention to Aeryn, whose eyes are filled with unshed tears. She looks downward to avoid looking at him, and tears run down her cheeks.
She's dead isn't she? That last Prowler that spun out, that was Kate wasn't it? He turns over the tool table that stands beside Aeryn's Prowler space; the outline of the craft faintly visible due to scorch marks and leaking re-cep fluid.
Why won't either of you say anything to me?
Rygel floats over to Crichton.
You're wasting your time, they aren't going to tell you anything. It is their Warrior Code. Which means they don't know if Kate was alive or dead when that Command Carrier sucked her in. They don't want to speak either eventuality into existence. If you ask me, no one could have lived through a blast like that. It was a stunning show of Peacekeeper brutality.
No one asked you, Rygel. Crichton, Aeryn and D'Argo, they aren't trying to -to hurt you. They just, they don't want to jinx it if, you know, if. Chiana twitches nervously as Crichton begins fuming. She takes his hand, but he pulls it away from her, leaving them all standing in the docking bay.

A few hours later, Aeryn finds Crichton holed up in Pilot's neural cluster. He is dirty and disheveled, as if he has crawled through the bowels of the ship. She lays her hand on his cheek and he turns his face to her. Tears have left gray streaks down his face, and she wipes his cheeks with her thumbs.
As a warrior, I cannot cry for Kate. To cry is to accept an eventuality that I'm not willing to accept. We will get her back.
We may get her body back, but it won't be Kate. She's gone Aeryn. She told me that she wouldn't live through another round in the Aurora chair. She's as good as dead.
Then you've lost your faith?
What's the point?
The point is that we can catch up to Scorpius' Command Carrier, we can get her back. Until you have a body, a warrior is not dead. We'll set a place for her at our table, we'll follow Scorpius to the ends of the Uncharted Territories if we have to, but we will get her back. Scorpius may get the worm hole technology, but we can raise an army to stop him from attacking the Scarrans. Don't give up hope, Crichton.
What purpose would she serve once he gets his hands on the worm hole technology? You think he's just going to let her go after everything that he's done?
Then we have to get to her as soon as possible, as soon as Moya has recovered. Come with me Crichton, we'll get her back if you trust me. Aeryn extends her hand to him and waits. He looks up into the face of the woman he loves, her slender hand outstretched, her eyes pleading with him to hold onto faith, to trust her. Aeryn nods to him and extends her hand a bit further. He takes it.




Some Time Later:


Kate swirled in the mist, pirouetting as she had as a child. The cosmic colored cloud enveloped her, and she laughed as she pointed from star to star. Crichton stood behind her watching her delight in the wonders of the universe. He knew not to touch her or she would disappear, so he watched; content to let her play in his mind the way she had for four desperate years when he was on earth. She turned to him with a package, a new twist to the dream. He wouldn't take it from her and he took a step backward. Kate grimaced and he heard her voice roaring towards him like a far off train. A deep resonant scream of a single syllable that he couldn't make out. Her rounded mouth contorted, and she spun faster and faster, her hair whipping around her face, obscuring her features. Crichton reached into the ether surrounding Kate and caught her shoulders. He stood with his mouth agape, surprised by this new turn a familiar dream was taking. She struggled to look at him as her head lolled to the right. He pulled her to his chest and whispered, Hold on, Kate. Just hold on a little bit longer.
Crichton awoke with a start, his heart pounding in his chest. He was clutching at the sheet, pulling it up to his chin. He covered his face with his pillow, and burst into tears as he had many nights before all of this. In the many months since Kate's disappearance, Crichton and Aeryn found themselves wandering from port to port, trying to gain information that would help them get to Scorpius.
Crichton felt revenge boil up in his chest; fantasies of strangling the Sebacean-Scarran monster sustained him. He felt Aeryn stirring beside him, and she draped her left arm across his chest. He stared down at the gleaming Valek stone that he gave her nearly a year ago and the sinking feeling left him. Crichton rolled over and laid his head on her burgeoning belly, listening for the heartbeat of his soon to be born daughter. Though he couldn't be sure in his heart that he might never see Kate again, it was easy to lose hope in the faint light of the early hours on Sollis, their new home chosen for its name.
In the past year, Crichton and Aeryn settled into a routine of acquiring weapons, recruiting mercenaries, and securing safe passage aboard the Command Carrier. As Aeryn became certain that her pregnancy would continue, she took on a less active role and began the mothering rituals; having her abdomen blessed by a Sha-Den healer, listening to Rill music while teaching the baby Sebacean history, and frequenting the cool salt baths to meditate. While Aeryn whispered histories and love stories to her baby, Crichton spent his days plotting Scorpius' downfall. Hate consumed him, and he found himself becoming increasingly short tempered. Aeryn was the only one who could bring Crichton back when he drank himself into a frenzy, and she was often called down to the inn to retrieve him. Crichton, swaying in the middle of a room of drunks, describing the many ways in which he would torture Scorpius, Aeryn sweeping in in yards of materna silk, gathering him into her arms, guiding him to their modest home. On those nights, Crichton would sob in her arms begging her to make the screaming stop. Aeryn would ease him into their bed, and hold him until sleep claimed him.
D'Argo had spent the year mustering a small band of Luxans who pledged that they would stand with him against Scorpius; Crichton would join them after Aeryn's delivery. But D'Argo too was becoming impatient, knowing that they would have only one chance to bring Kate back, if she was still alive; they would have to take the opportunity as it presented itself. A paid spy forged ident chips, and provided D'Argo a security clearance. Shortly after Kate's capture, D'Argo had approached Crichton about a rescue attempt and the two men came to blows. An event which should have brought the two men together had driven them apart, each too grief stricken to comfort the other. Crichton had lashed out at D'Argo and despite Aeryn's and Chiana's pleas, he left Moya for the commerce planet of Be'Tah leaving Chiana to assist Crichton in delivering Aeryn's baby.
D'Argo, holding on to hope that Kate was alive, had taken half of the bonding tattoos given to him by Aeryn as a blessing for their marriage rites. He stared into his palm, the curved figures looping around his thumb, signifying fertility. The long line descending to his wrist signifying longevity. He prayed for the day that he could press the bond into Kate's palm, the pink searing to an angry red splash before settling on a crimson pattern, making her his wife. D'Argo climbed into his ship with thoughts of Kate's soft eyes staring up at him, begging him to hurry. The warrior in him wanted to roar, but the depth of his sorrow choked him, and he let out a pained whimper in the darkness.
As Crichton lay with his head on Aeryn's belly, hoping that Fate would again turn in their favor, D'Argo and his men were making their way out of the Be'Tah Station; twenty Luxan ships swarming towards a distant corner of the Peacekeeper's stronghold.

* * * *


What is she saying?
The same thing she says every time we put her in the chair: My gift to you.
What's Scorpius trying to get at? What does she know?
I don't know, something about worm holes, it doesn't make much sense.
So he just keeps putting her in? Seems to me he would have given up by now.
He's got nothing to lose. He says she's holding something back and he's going to find out what. Can you check your levels against mine, see if we're getting the same readout?
Yeah, I'm getting a 4.7 on the Haltrex Monitor. I don't know if I feel sorry for her for being so stubborn or for being driven mad.
Either way, she's frelled. Scorpius isn't gonna get anything coherent out of her. She's done in. She can barely feed herself anymore.
Why haven't you told him he's wasting his time?
Tell you what, you tell him. He likes bad news.
What was that?
Sounded like an explosion, think we should check it out?
We'd better not, better get her going before Scorpius gets here, the grunts will take care of it.
Right, here we go again. She strapped in?
Of course. Fire it up. Give her a good spin. I'm stepping outside before she starts the screaming. Great, here she frelling goes again.



* * * *

D'Argo settled Lo La onto the landing pad as gently as he could; Kate nestled in his arms like a sleeping child. He knew that he should have lain her down on a medi-cot, but she wouldn't let him go and he didn't press the issue. She had lost weight; her skin sallow and loose in places. D'Argo lifted her from the Aurora chair with no more effort than a sigh.
Four Luxans had lost their lives storming the Command Carrier, but four honorable deaths were worth it compared to what they had gained. The data banks containing Scorpius' precious worm hole technology had been destroyed. Kate was returned, and Scorpius himself lay badly injured. D'Argo dragged a babbling Kate into Lo La, and flew off on a plume of smoke rising from the critically damaged carrier. D'Argo considered sending a message to Crichton and Aeryn but thought better of it, deciding instead to deliver Kate herself. D'Argo said a silent prayer that Aeryn's mystic, the Sha-Den healer, would be able to help Kate return to him. D'Argo popped the canopy and carried his young bride to be down the ship's ramp and onto a merchant transport. Aeryn and Crichton lived beyond the Dead Circle, a ride of less than an hour. In that hour, D'Argo thought of all that he should say to Crichton about his cowardice, his lack of faith and his lack of devotion to his daughter. But as they neared the Dead Circle, a monolith of slate colored rock splashed against a plum sky, D'Argo found himself less and less able to attack the man. Jothee's image appeared to him running across the horizon of Sollis, and his guilt over abandoning the search for his son silenced him. Kate mewed in his arms, and he pulled her closer, kissing her palm where he would place the marriage bond as soon as she was well.

Aeryn heard the clanging of a merchant's bell, and hoped that it wasn't Rygel returning from his expedition to Gevartia; she didn't want to have to prepare the four courses necessary to keep the Dominar from being insulted. Crichton brought a bucket of water in from the well and poured it into a basin. When word of D'Argo's planned assault reached them, Crichton had been quiet. Aeryn lit candles and recited the warrior's prayer. Crichton consumed a pint of Barkash, and passed out in the field. Three solar days had passed with no word, and Aeryn began to assume the worst.
Crichton placed two Trelca flowers in the basin, observing Aeryn's practices as he had every Seventh day since the two took the marriage rites. She watched him kneel before her goddess, and recite the warrior's prayer. Her husband, a man of strength and intelligence, crushed under a grief so great that he could hardly revel in his new child's impending birth. She knelt beside him and took his hands; their roughness brushing her softened palms. She hated the way that her body had softened in pregnancy, and longed for the day when she could resume her physical skills training.
Crichton finished his prayer as he always did, by gently patting her stomach and kissing her. Aeryn knew that he was silently thanking her for putting up with him for the last year, and she smiled tenderly, to let him know it was okay. She'd had to rebuild him every day for the first few weeks as he gradually came to terms with Kate's loss; the uncertainty of it. Aeryn kissed his ring, and saw him smile for the first time in days. A flash of gray caught Aeryn's eye and she spotted Chiana coming towards their house. She could tell by the way the girl was running that there was news. Crichton helped her up and they rushed to the door hoping for the best, but fearing the worst. Chiana broke into a wide grin, and Crichton lifted Aeryn into his arms.


* * * *

The Sha-Den Priestess handed the baby to her mother, and Aeryn kissed her tiny palm. Kate sat beside them, her right hand bandaged from the marriage rite. The Priestess gathered her herbs and oils, and passed Crichton as he stood in the doorway watching his wife and his two daughters. Aeryn handed the baby to Kate, and lifted the blond strands falling into Kate's eyes away from her face. The two women, whose lives had been interwoven through the years, had found peace with each other at last. Kate smiled down at the screaming girl, nuzzling her cheeks and giving her soft kisses. Aeryn took Kate's hand and laced their fingers. Crichton swallowed hard and backed away from the door.
D'Argo, Chiana and Rygel sat on pillows in the dining space, recalling Chiana's adventure with a Sollisen farmer who thought he'd purchased the young woman. Chiana motioned for Crichton to sit next to her, and he took her hand and kissed it. D'Argo bowed to him, a Luxan salute of congratulations. Rygel begrudgingly offered the baby a Maarikan jewel to be worn for protection, and Crichton expressed his gratitude. As his friends sat recounting tales of villainy, cunning and skill, Crichton thought of all the ways in which his life had depended upon fate. Had he completed his original mission would he and Aeryn be welcoming their daughter Aralie? D'Argo built a fire and Crichton stared into its bright face; its tongues dancing toward him, consuming a small mound of sticks. Kate came from within the house and sat beside him. He put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head; the daughter who both took and gave him his life. He saw her husband smile at her across the flames, and he knew that Fate had finally tipped its hand...and folded.