Chapter 13
"Can't we just go to a commerce planet nearby, Pilot? You can keep a look out for Crichton on the long range scans. I really need to get some things" Jool whined to Pilot
"Yeah and I need a good drink and some different company" agreed Chiana, glaring at the red head "The princess here is driving me insane and Rygel obviously ran out of soap several days ago"
"It has only been 19 solar days since Crichton left and he said wait for 20 days. There is no commerce planet within range, and besides Moya refuses to move from here for the time being"
"Pilot, Pilot, it's been 23 days now and we still haven't moved. Let's face it, Crichton and Aeryn are not coming back. They're either dead or they're shacked up somewhere much more pleasant than this" Jool was starting to lose patience.
"I'm forced to agree. I haven't had anything but stale food cubes to eat for the last three days. We need more supplies" Rygel joined in the debate
"Moya and I are still reluctant to abandon hope that Commander Crichton and Officer Sun will return. We propose to wait for just one more day and then we will leave for the nearest commerce planet" replied Pilot
"I think that is perfectly reasonable, Pilot" replied D'Argo, glaring at his dissenting shipmates. "We are perfectly safe here and we owe it Crichton and Aeryn to wait as long as we can"
A few arns later, Rygel and Chiana were playing yet another game of Tardek. Their level of cheating had reached such heights (or perhaps depths) that they barely bothered sticking to any of the rules. D'Argo and Jool were both sleeping when they were rudely awakened
"Everybody" Pilot's voice sounded worried. "I have picked up two command carriers on long range scans"
"Two? I thought they never travelled together?" replied a startled D'Argo.
"Well there are definitely two and they are heading this way. 300 microts until they will be able to identify us from their scans, 500 microts until we are within weapons range. They appear to be pursuing a small transport craft. It is trying to hail us"
"Pilot, forget about them and starburst now" shouted Chiana, "we don't need anymore stowaways from the Peacekeepers"
Suddenly a familiar voice came over the comms
"Pilot, Pilot, pick up the phone old buddy. We're in deep frelling dren here"
"Commander Crichton is that you?"
"No it's the cookie monster! Sure it's me, Pilot. Get the docking web out real quick and then get us the hell out of here"
"You are not yet within range of the docking web, Commander"
"Oh Shit." A flash of light came from one of the carriers. The crew watched in horror as Crichton's ship managed to dodge the shot. A second shot clipped the wing of the transport, making it veer violently.
"I've lost manoeuvrability, propulsion down to 70%. Another shot and we're toast"
"I've got you in the web, Commander," shouted Pilot, "prepare for starburst people." A "yeee haahh" was heard distinctly over the comms as Moya went into starburst. They had made it away from the nearest carrier with microts to spare.
When Moya came out of starburst the others rushed into the cargo bay where Crichton had landed the transport. He came out carrying Aeryn.
"John, it's good to see you and I see you were successful in finding Aeryn. How did you manage it?" asked D'Argo, a big grin on his face.
"Good to see you too guys, I'll tell you all about it later, but right now I need to get Aeryn to the medical bay. Jool, she needs your help real bad. The Peacekeepers used her as a punch bag but I had a doctor patch her up. She seemed to be recovering fine then about a day or so ago she started getting very hot. She developed heat delirium and then about 4 arns ago she became unconsciousness; I think it might be the living death," he finished helplessly.
In the medical bay, Jool fussed around. "She has an infection which I can treat, but the most important thing is to get her temperature down. We need ice packs or something to keep her cold"
"God, we've only just come from an ice planet. If I'd known I would have stayed there longer"
Jool suddenly became efficient and swung into action, throwing out orders as she zipped around the med bay, mixing up a concoction to give to Aeryn. "D'Argo make up some ice packs from the supplies in the freezer. Crichton, Chiana, I want you to bathe her in very cold water." They all did as they were asked. Even Rygel hovered about looking anxious. Jool peeled away the bandage from the area across Aeryn's midriff where the doctor had operated. It hadn't healed properly and had become infected. Once she had cleaned and redressed the wound she turned to John, a sober look on her face.
"There's not much more I can do John. I've given her something to fight the infection, but if we don't get her temperature down she'll slip into the living death and then there's not a lot of hope. We must keep bathing her and hope for the best."
The others all tried to help but John wouldn't be drawn from Aeryn's side and he continued to bathe her with ice cold water.
"Come on baby, don't leave me, not now, not when we've made it safely back to Moya. You can't do this, not with everything we've been through" He was desperate for her to recover.
While John kept up his vigil, Moya headed deeper and deeper into areas of the uncharted territories they had never been to before, to put as much distance between themselves and the pursuing command carriers as possible. Three days passed in which John hardly left Aeryn's side. Chiana did her best to get him to rest.
"Hey, old man, you look like a fekkik and you smell worse"
"I love you too Chi!"
"Why don't you go have a bath and a shave while I look after Aeryn?"
"No, I want to be here when she wakes up." Chiana didn't like to say that it was looking increasingly unlikely that she would ever wake up. The others gathered in Pilot's den to discuss Aeryn's condition. Chiana and Jool sat next to Pilot, comforting the huge creature who was extremely anxious for his friend.
"She's not recovering as she should. She was obviously too far gone before I could treat the infection. I don't think she's going to come out of it. Someone's going to have to talk to him about this and I don't think it should be me" said Jool
"I'll do it," replied D'Argo heavily "but we're all going to have to be there for him."
D'Argo walked quietly up to John as he sat in the med bay bathing Aeryn's face.
"Well my friend, we haven't really had a chance to talk since you got back. Where did you find her, John?" he asked
"They had her at High Command like we thought. I got there just before she was scheduled to be executed. They had tortured and beaten her but she was still defiant" He stroked her fevered face.
"How did you get her out?"
"Just like I said I would D" he replied with a lopsided grin
"What, you just walked in and walked out with her?"
"Well that was pretty much the essence of the operation"
"So why were you being pursued by two full command carriers?"
"Um, I kinda left my calling card and blew a bit of a hole in their headquarters!" This made D'Argo chuckle but then he became more serious
"Well at least you've got Aeryn back to Moya where she belongs. She would have been happy to know that John"
"And she will know it D'Argo, she will" replied John with determination. D'Argo rested his hand on his friend's arm.
"Oh my friend, this is one of the hardest things I have ever had to say to anyone, but you know that Aeryn wouldn't want to be left in the living death and she wouldn't want you to waste your life sitting here in false hope. You have to remember the promise you made her cycles ago not long after you first came on Moya; that you would end her pain if this happened"
"No, no I won't, I can't" cried John, tears welling in his eyes.
"I know my feelings for her are different to yours John, but she is my friend and I will do this for her and for you"
"No I won't let you D'Argo, not yet. I won't give up hope yet," he said, his voice cracking as the tears started to fall. He lay his head down on the side of Aeryn's bed, his arms thrown across her. The strain of the last monen taking its toll, he wept. D'Argo stood and looked down at his friend and patted his shoulder awkwardly. He glanced at the others standing by the door. Chiana wept openly.
The med bay was now quiet, except for the background sounds of Moya and Aeryn's somewhat shallow and laboured breathing. The others had respected John's feelings and left him alone with Aeryn for the time being. They knew that he needed time to accept that easing Aeryn's death would be the merciful thing to do. He sat silently watching her chest rise and fall. His gaze switched to her face. The bruises and cuts had almost faded. The fever gave her an almost healthy flush. She looked so beautiful to him that he couldn't believe that there was anything wrong with her.
"I remember the first time I saw this face" he said, stroking her cheek, "right before you kicked my butt all around that cell. I remember seeing it angry and determined, tender and loving; I remember everything about it, about you. Aeryn, I love you and I always will. Please try and fight it, honey, I need you." He laid his head down on her bed and slept.
John was dreaming of Aeryn and it was a great dream. They were lying together on the shore of his favourite lake in Maine. There was a cloudless blue sky above them and they were watching the insects skit across the water. There was an occasional 'plop' in the water as a fish came up to catch one. Aeryn was gazing at him with love in her eyes and her hand was softly stroking his hair. Confused for a minute as sleep clouded his brain, he realised that it wasn't all a dream. There really was a hand stroking his hair. He raised his head and met Aeryn's weakly smiling gaze.
"You look like dren" she croaked
"You're not exactly an oil painting yourself, darlin', but you look much better than you did a few arns ago. Seeing you awake at all is a sight for sore eyes"
"What happened? I feel like I've been run over by a herd of Barillian gomchars"
"I've no idea what they may be but I think I can understand the affect. You got an infection in your wound and almost slipped into the living death" She looked around her
"Am I dreaming or did we make it back to Moya?
"Sure did, babe, and I intend us to stay that way now; the next time you go on recon in your Prowler I'm coming with you, " said John, clasping her hand tightly
"I can't go on recon again, I don't have a Prowler any more"
"I'll find and secure someone else's for you Babe"
"Don't you mean take by force?" she smiled, echoing one of their previous conversations
"Anything to keep you happy" replied John, happy that her mind seemed none the worse for her recent brush with the living death.
The others came into the room on Pilot's alert that Aeryn was awake. She smiled weakly at them. John had a big soppy grin plastered on his hairy face and they knew that everything was all right.
"Back together again. Welcome home Aeryn" D'Argo was the first to speak. Aeryn thought about his words and realised that they were right. This was her family, her home.
"Thanks, its good to be back with you on Moya, to be home"
The End
[Note: I toyed with the idea of not having a happy ending but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Sorry to those of you who would like to have more angst!!]
"Can't we just go to a commerce planet nearby, Pilot? You can keep a look out for Crichton on the long range scans. I really need to get some things" Jool whined to Pilot
"Yeah and I need a good drink and some different company" agreed Chiana, glaring at the red head "The princess here is driving me insane and Rygel obviously ran out of soap several days ago"
"It has only been 19 solar days since Crichton left and he said wait for 20 days. There is no commerce planet within range, and besides Moya refuses to move from here for the time being"
"Pilot, Pilot, it's been 23 days now and we still haven't moved. Let's face it, Crichton and Aeryn are not coming back. They're either dead or they're shacked up somewhere much more pleasant than this" Jool was starting to lose patience.
"I'm forced to agree. I haven't had anything but stale food cubes to eat for the last three days. We need more supplies" Rygel joined in the debate
"Moya and I are still reluctant to abandon hope that Commander Crichton and Officer Sun will return. We propose to wait for just one more day and then we will leave for the nearest commerce planet" replied Pilot
"I think that is perfectly reasonable, Pilot" replied D'Argo, glaring at his dissenting shipmates. "We are perfectly safe here and we owe it Crichton and Aeryn to wait as long as we can"
A few arns later, Rygel and Chiana were playing yet another game of Tardek. Their level of cheating had reached such heights (or perhaps depths) that they barely bothered sticking to any of the rules. D'Argo and Jool were both sleeping when they were rudely awakened
"Everybody" Pilot's voice sounded worried. "I have picked up two command carriers on long range scans"
"Two? I thought they never travelled together?" replied a startled D'Argo.
"Well there are definitely two and they are heading this way. 300 microts until they will be able to identify us from their scans, 500 microts until we are within weapons range. They appear to be pursuing a small transport craft. It is trying to hail us"
"Pilot, forget about them and starburst now" shouted Chiana, "we don't need anymore stowaways from the Peacekeepers"
Suddenly a familiar voice came over the comms
"Pilot, Pilot, pick up the phone old buddy. We're in deep frelling dren here"
"Commander Crichton is that you?"
"No it's the cookie monster! Sure it's me, Pilot. Get the docking web out real quick and then get us the hell out of here"
"You are not yet within range of the docking web, Commander"
"Oh Shit." A flash of light came from one of the carriers. The crew watched in horror as Crichton's ship managed to dodge the shot. A second shot clipped the wing of the transport, making it veer violently.
"I've lost manoeuvrability, propulsion down to 70%. Another shot and we're toast"
"I've got you in the web, Commander," shouted Pilot, "prepare for starburst people." A "yeee haahh" was heard distinctly over the comms as Moya went into starburst. They had made it away from the nearest carrier with microts to spare.
When Moya came out of starburst the others rushed into the cargo bay where Crichton had landed the transport. He came out carrying Aeryn.
"John, it's good to see you and I see you were successful in finding Aeryn. How did you manage it?" asked D'Argo, a big grin on his face.
"Good to see you too guys, I'll tell you all about it later, but right now I need to get Aeryn to the medical bay. Jool, she needs your help real bad. The Peacekeepers used her as a punch bag but I had a doctor patch her up. She seemed to be recovering fine then about a day or so ago she started getting very hot. She developed heat delirium and then about 4 arns ago she became unconsciousness; I think it might be the living death," he finished helplessly.
In the medical bay, Jool fussed around. "She has an infection which I can treat, but the most important thing is to get her temperature down. We need ice packs or something to keep her cold"
"God, we've only just come from an ice planet. If I'd known I would have stayed there longer"
Jool suddenly became efficient and swung into action, throwing out orders as she zipped around the med bay, mixing up a concoction to give to Aeryn. "D'Argo make up some ice packs from the supplies in the freezer. Crichton, Chiana, I want you to bathe her in very cold water." They all did as they were asked. Even Rygel hovered about looking anxious. Jool peeled away the bandage from the area across Aeryn's midriff where the doctor had operated. It hadn't healed properly and had become infected. Once she had cleaned and redressed the wound she turned to John, a sober look on her face.
"There's not much more I can do John. I've given her something to fight the infection, but if we don't get her temperature down she'll slip into the living death and then there's not a lot of hope. We must keep bathing her and hope for the best."
The others all tried to help but John wouldn't be drawn from Aeryn's side and he continued to bathe her with ice cold water.
"Come on baby, don't leave me, not now, not when we've made it safely back to Moya. You can't do this, not with everything we've been through" He was desperate for her to recover.
While John kept up his vigil, Moya headed deeper and deeper into areas of the uncharted territories they had never been to before, to put as much distance between themselves and the pursuing command carriers as possible. Three days passed in which John hardly left Aeryn's side. Chiana did her best to get him to rest.
"Hey, old man, you look like a fekkik and you smell worse"
"I love you too Chi!"
"Why don't you go have a bath and a shave while I look after Aeryn?"
"No, I want to be here when she wakes up." Chiana didn't like to say that it was looking increasingly unlikely that she would ever wake up. The others gathered in Pilot's den to discuss Aeryn's condition. Chiana and Jool sat next to Pilot, comforting the huge creature who was extremely anxious for his friend.
"She's not recovering as she should. She was obviously too far gone before I could treat the infection. I don't think she's going to come out of it. Someone's going to have to talk to him about this and I don't think it should be me" said Jool
"I'll do it," replied D'Argo heavily "but we're all going to have to be there for him."
D'Argo walked quietly up to John as he sat in the med bay bathing Aeryn's face.
"Well my friend, we haven't really had a chance to talk since you got back. Where did you find her, John?" he asked
"They had her at High Command like we thought. I got there just before she was scheduled to be executed. They had tortured and beaten her but she was still defiant" He stroked her fevered face.
"How did you get her out?"
"Just like I said I would D" he replied with a lopsided grin
"What, you just walked in and walked out with her?"
"Well that was pretty much the essence of the operation"
"So why were you being pursued by two full command carriers?"
"Um, I kinda left my calling card and blew a bit of a hole in their headquarters!" This made D'Argo chuckle but then he became more serious
"Well at least you've got Aeryn back to Moya where she belongs. She would have been happy to know that John"
"And she will know it D'Argo, she will" replied John with determination. D'Argo rested his hand on his friend's arm.
"Oh my friend, this is one of the hardest things I have ever had to say to anyone, but you know that Aeryn wouldn't want to be left in the living death and she wouldn't want you to waste your life sitting here in false hope. You have to remember the promise you made her cycles ago not long after you first came on Moya; that you would end her pain if this happened"
"No, no I won't, I can't" cried John, tears welling in his eyes.
"I know my feelings for her are different to yours John, but she is my friend and I will do this for her and for you"
"No I won't let you D'Argo, not yet. I won't give up hope yet," he said, his voice cracking as the tears started to fall. He lay his head down on the side of Aeryn's bed, his arms thrown across her. The strain of the last monen taking its toll, he wept. D'Argo stood and looked down at his friend and patted his shoulder awkwardly. He glanced at the others standing by the door. Chiana wept openly.
The med bay was now quiet, except for the background sounds of Moya and Aeryn's somewhat shallow and laboured breathing. The others had respected John's feelings and left him alone with Aeryn for the time being. They knew that he needed time to accept that easing Aeryn's death would be the merciful thing to do. He sat silently watching her chest rise and fall. His gaze switched to her face. The bruises and cuts had almost faded. The fever gave her an almost healthy flush. She looked so beautiful to him that he couldn't believe that there was anything wrong with her.
"I remember the first time I saw this face" he said, stroking her cheek, "right before you kicked my butt all around that cell. I remember seeing it angry and determined, tender and loving; I remember everything about it, about you. Aeryn, I love you and I always will. Please try and fight it, honey, I need you." He laid his head down on her bed and slept.
John was dreaming of Aeryn and it was a great dream. They were lying together on the shore of his favourite lake in Maine. There was a cloudless blue sky above them and they were watching the insects skit across the water. There was an occasional 'plop' in the water as a fish came up to catch one. Aeryn was gazing at him with love in her eyes and her hand was softly stroking his hair. Confused for a minute as sleep clouded his brain, he realised that it wasn't all a dream. There really was a hand stroking his hair. He raised his head and met Aeryn's weakly smiling gaze.
"You look like dren" she croaked
"You're not exactly an oil painting yourself, darlin', but you look much better than you did a few arns ago. Seeing you awake at all is a sight for sore eyes"
"What happened? I feel like I've been run over by a herd of Barillian gomchars"
"I've no idea what they may be but I think I can understand the affect. You got an infection in your wound and almost slipped into the living death" She looked around her
"Am I dreaming or did we make it back to Moya?
"Sure did, babe, and I intend us to stay that way now; the next time you go on recon in your Prowler I'm coming with you, " said John, clasping her hand tightly
"I can't go on recon again, I don't have a Prowler any more"
"I'll find and secure someone else's for you Babe"
"Don't you mean take by force?" she smiled, echoing one of their previous conversations
"Anything to keep you happy" replied John, happy that her mind seemed none the worse for her recent brush with the living death.
The others came into the room on Pilot's alert that Aeryn was awake. She smiled weakly at them. John had a big soppy grin plastered on his hairy face and they knew that everything was all right.
"Back together again. Welcome home Aeryn" D'Argo was the first to speak. Aeryn thought about his words and realised that they were right. This was her family, her home.
"Thanks, its good to be back with you on Moya, to be home"
The End
[Note: I toyed with the idea of not having a happy ending but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Sorry to those of you who would like to have more angst!!]