Legacy
Part 3 – Faith and Fate
No mine, no cash, no suing.
Rygel's pain shot through Zhaan like fire, burning her nerves but she withheld it with an inner strength even she had not know herself to possess, fighting both the pain and her own self doubt.
What are you doing? A voice mocked her You'll only make it worse, hurt him like before when he was sick, sick and helpless like he is now
She concentrated so hard on the broken body, on the shattered soul, pulling the pieces together until they fell into place. Only with a body so small could she have done this. Rygel began to moan and again Zhaan nearly pulled away, it was the same sound he had made when she had…had hurt him for Liko. A dark part of her almost relished the sound as she continued her work, scanning for every torn muscle, her powers so strong that her eyes were completely turquoise. The pain became intense and Zhaan silently screamed, and then it was over.
Rygel's moaning subsided and she removed her hand, watching as the Hynerian opened his eyes, darted them around and focused on her, instantly knowing what she had done. "Well that feels better". He chuckles.
"You are still in pain?" The Delvian couldn't believe she had helped him so much.
"I've never felt better. Thank you". Thank you.
A small lapse can be forgiven if faith is strong enough to overcome the wrong done. Zhaan rose, her faith in herself restored, a P'au once again.
Silence fell over the two friends, but the serenity was disturbed by D'Argo's voice. "Zhaan, the Peacekeeper's have found us". The Luxan's voice was in the shadow of frantic.
"We are on our way D'Argo". Zhaan lifted the dizzy Rygel and placed him on the hover chair. The Hynerian was beside her the whole way to command…neither afraid to be near the other.
Moya was in orbit of Nioloth, as was the peacekeeper ship, closing fast with gun ports open.
And helpless, Lenner / Crichton and Aeryn were watching it on a six foot screen, not sure how the worked and not really caring as they focused on the scene.
"Pilot why won't you starburst?"
"There is no time for full starbursts. The gun ports have targeted Moya. We will have surrender to avoid destruction".
"Your danger is because of me. I am sorry". Lenner spoke.
Sorry. Lenner there has to be something we can use as a weapon
"My people do not believe in them".
"In what?" Aeryn asked, having not heard the first part of the conversation.
"Unless". The beginnings of a plan worked in the joint mind and Lenner / Crichton ran along the catwalk to a console on the far side, studying the scans of the planetary orbit as precisely as they could. Lenner was calculating projectors and distances with an amazing speed that made the scientist she inhabited envious. "Yes, it could work. Aeryn Sun, tell your Leviathan pilot to wait for my signal, and then to move her out of orbit as fast she can without starburst".
"Why what are you going to do?" Again Aeryn's question was ignored and Lenner / Crichton worked quickly at the console.
What ARE you doing?
"Fulfilling my destiny by rescuing that of your friends". The machine began to hum…the liquid within the bulbs swirling quickly as sparks of electricity filled the room, so hot that Aeryn began to feel dizzy as she communicated to Pilot and told him to make preparations. She trusted the seemingly mad Crichton in front of her despite everything her instincts were screaming at her.
"Moya wishes to remind you that even her top speed can not out run this class of Peacekeeper ship".
"I know Pilot, but I think Crichton, or whoever is controlling him, might have a weapon we can use".
"Controlling him?"
"Trust us. Make ready to move".
The machine was louder now, vibrating as its work began, the spherical top opening to reveal a fork of lightning that, without any real warning, shot into the roof of the chamber, causing several of the looser rocks to fall. "Aeryn Sun, tell your ship to move NOW".
"Pilot go…" Aeryn was cut off as a rock fell beside her and high above a pure white beam shot out of the machine, burrowing its way through the roog and into the sky of Nioloth.
Moya moved out of orbit at an angle, the pressure of the Peacekeeper ship gained as the impressive vessel made ready its weapons. A beam of light pierced the atmosphere of the planet, began to grow, to cover the circumference. It became a wall of fire, travelling the orbit, and heading straight for the peacekeeper ship.
The ship was hit at an angle, causing it to spin into the fire left behind by the wall. It was incinerated before the eyes of D'Argo, Zhaan and Rygel on the command deck, but they ignored the small victory in the wake of a greater site, that of the yellow planet below becoming fire, becoming white, becoming green. Sea's were formed, continents made whole, and where once a dead rock had stood now the beginnings of a living planet could be experienced.
Pilot broke the silence. "The peacekeeper ship has been completely destroyed, but the weapon used seems to have provoked the planet to start…evolving. Moya's scans are detecting evidence of basic vegetation, oceanic plankton, basic micro-organisms".
"Life from death". Zhaan muttered quietly.
The blue liquid of the many chambers continued swirling, the genetic material within already beginning its work, growing into the new population of Nioloth.
"I am Lenner, the last, the first. In one hundred cycles you will see my people thrive".
One hundred cycles…got ya
"My journey ends here. The machine can tend for itself now". A strange sensation came over John and he fell to his knees, not out of pain but at the sudden feeling of warmth after so long in the ghostly cold of the spirit's grasp. Lenner let go, her thoughts and presence leaving John's mind to haunt the halls of the temple forever.
Goodbye, John Robert Crichton Junior. Vessel of the First. Thank you.
"Goodbye". Crichton returned.
It had only been twenty four hours tops, but it still felt strange for John to have his own head back, though not as weird as it felt to know what he had just done. "I just played Sid Mier with a whole planet baby".
Aeryn gave him a quizzical look.
"Forget it". John Whispered.
For the most part the fire of the machine had passed over the actual ground, but effects of the wave were visible. Pioneer grasses growing, replacing the stale air with fresh oxygen, the dead soil with nutrients. In the distance, the sea could be heard against an unseen shore. Give it a hundred cycles, and it would be as if the desert had never been there.
For possibly the first time in his life, John was speechless as he followed Aeryn to the luckily untouched ships and ultimately Moya high above.