The Uncharted Territories
Part 1 – Thoughts of the Princess
We have yet to own the rights to Farscape…We are just borrowing it
The Royal Planet
The Uncharted Territories
My Brother Tyno and I have always been different from the other children.
For a start there's the age thing. You see, you may not believe it to look at me, but I am nearly eighteen cycles, though I appear not a day over fourteen. My Brother is ten cycles, but he looks eight.
Then there is personality, oh my brother is pretty much 'normal' on that account, always reading his books and quoting the scholars like some kind of encyclopaedia. Myself on the other hand, I've always had an adventurer's instinct to leave behind what was known and see the undiscovered, the uncharted. As a child I expressed no interests in my lessons of history or politics, a trait both uncharacteristic and undesirable of one who is to ascend to the thrown.
My Father, the Regent Crichton, always use to assure my mother that I would grow out of it...
I never did…I still dream of travelling the stars…I've just learnt to hide it.
Of course, they are just dreams, and soon even living will be a distant memory as I fast approach the day which marks my birth. I am being called upon to find a suitor, one who is genetically compatible so that together we shall embrace the stone for eighty cycles…watching and learning all we can for the day we rule by each others side.
It is my destiny…my duty to the people of my world…
… it sucks mivonks.
"Jonah". She considered not answering the voice at first, hiding so it would appear that she was not in the room, perhaps walking through the gardens to clear her head before the party.
Her mother was already at the door before the young girl had finished making up her mind.
"Jonah, I see that you are ready". The Princess was indeed ready, dressed in her finest of clothes, hair immaculate, and make up perfect. She looked like a painting to her mother, the radiant features of her the empress pronounced, complimented by those beautiful eyes…the crystal blue eyes…
"Smile my daughter", The Empress Katralla beckoned of her eldest child. "Tonight is a very special night".
"Yes Mother, very special". Jonah winced at the unintentional tone her voice had taken on, knowing how much it must have upset her mother, her mother who had such high expectations and had already suffered so much, who did not deserve any more pain.
Instead of the reaction she had been expecting however, Jonah found herself enveloped in her mothers warm embrace, the taller woman burying the girls head in her shoulders, stroking her hair like she use to when Jonah suffered nightmares as a child. Jonah remembered what was so special about today, and how she may never feel her mothers heartbeat against her own chest again…it was all she could do not to break down in sobs as Empress Katralla pushed her away to frame her daughters face in her hands, stroking a gentle thumb across the Princess's cheek to dry the few tears that had fallen.
"I know that tonight is one of the hardest nights you will ever live" Empress Katralla closed her eyes, and Jonah imagined that she was remembering her own party nearly a century before that night. "But as my daughter I know that strength is within you to undertake the task that as first born you must fulfil". She stepped round and walked over towards the door. "I love you".
"I love you to Mother". Jonah mirrored her mothers smile as she left the room. Sighing, she turned to reapply the eye makeup that her tears had dislodged, but instead found herself closely studying the moon outside…the stars fascinated her…though she never knew why.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard the music. The party had started.
The Essence
Take the drop, place it on your tongue…he does the same and they touch…you mix the tastes…you sample the smell of the other…let the essence spread.
You kiss…let the essence consume you…sink into him and read him like a book…his genetics compared to your own.
Recoil back because it tastes sour, your tongue stings as you swallow the last of the foul substance, its after taste burning your throat. It is not sweet…he is not the one.
Jonah didn't know whether to laugh or cry as yet another potential suitor walked away, his face crestfallen. In all of five seconds he had lived the dream of possible Regency and watched it fall away with just a simple kiss.
From the other side of the hall she could see that the expressions of her parents were similar…obviously as eager as everyone else was that Jonah find a suitor that night.
She smiled at her father, who returned the gesture with a simple nod before leaning down to speak to Tyno, Jonah's younger brother and she felt a better suitor for the throne than she would ever be. She could barely keep her own life in order sometimes, how the frell was she suppose to cope with the population of a whole planet, even with help.
As if on cue, another potential 'helper' approached her, nodding his silent request to share with her the kiss. She agreed, her reluctance remaining private as they went through the steps of the ritual…touching…kissing…different…
…his essence consumed her in a different way, a violent electricity which seemed to spread out through her body, she almost shook as it reached its peak before regressing to a dull ache in her thighs and between them as she tasted the substance in her mouth…sampled how sweet it was.
Sweet, again she didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, but the man with whom she had shared the kiss shared no such inner conflict. "It is sweet". He announced to the crowd who had gathered to observe the kiss, who now cheered as guards surrounded the future couple, the music arrested to await the announcement.
The Regent Crichton stood before his daughter and her suitor, facing the crowd with his arms raised in a gesture that requested silence. "My loyal subjects…the Princess my loving daughter has found tonight a suitor who will bare her strong children for the future generations, with whom she will embrace the stone and protect those who are to come. Let the celebrations begin".
At that the music began again, more upbeat this time as the suitor leaned in to kiss her again. Jonah kissed him back…although as she blinked a single tear traced its way down her cheek, the closest thing her body may ever come to the journey it so greatly desired.
The suitor's name was Piotre. He wished to be a poet and writer by trade, a skill which would serve him when he was required to write motivating speeches or dinner addresses.
The morning Jonah had as a time to get to know her future husband. She concluded that most of his gentleman niceties were a front, although his wonderful sense of humour was not something that could be faked…and he did make her laugh…did make her temporarily forget how she felt inside.
The afternoon they underwent further testing, conformation of their genetic compatibility. They were also measured for their clothing, and adviced to decide on a pose that they desired to embrace the stone.
At the same time they used the hologram to see their future children, beautiful children with their father's blonde hair and build, their mother's eyes with everything except the longing. Jonah held the female infant in her arms, its tiny fingers clasped around her own, and she smiled through her tears as she handed the baby to her father, showed Crichton and Katralla.
The evening was her own, but instead of the sleep she so obviously needed, Jonah preferred to sneak back into the hologram chamber. She had often snuck in to the room as a child, because it was the only room in the palace rarely frequented the one room where she could be alone when she wished to be.
'Why do I feel like this?' She thought to herself. 'I have every reason to be happy. Am I just being selfish? Why does everything feel like a lie?'
'Why do you let them live your life for you' Another thought
'I must fulfil my duty to my people'
'You have served the people your whole life. What about yourself, what about Jonah Crichton'
Footfalls…she abandoned the internal conversation and slowly crept round to hide behind one of the stone pillars that supported the structure, peering in to the room to watch a shadow approach the hologram. The light activated and Jonah saw that it was her mother, the Empress Katralla dressed in the gown she had worn when she had embraced the stone herself ninety eight cycles previously. She had embraced late Jonah had heard, almost a decade after she had been suppose to…something about the right suitor being such a minority…a poisoning of her DNA that only one person could overcome.
"John Crichton" She demanded of the matrix…but why…why would she wish to see a hologram of Jonah's father…
…the man which appeared in the hologram was not her father however. He was a tall man with brown unkempt hair and dressed in what appeared to be peacekeeper uniform…although all that Jonah had to go on was the images she had seen…but she didn't think that this man stood before her mother was a peacekeeper…his eyes had to much brightness in them. Peacekeepers were zombies her father had always said…her father was John Crichton so who was this man…
"Jonah has found a great suitor. She will embrace the stone". The hologram said nothing but smiled. "Your son Tyno grows stronger every day, and asks more questions than even the scientists dare to comprehend. They are both so much like you…different parts of you…Tyno has your intelligence and desire for knowledge…Jonah your love of the stars. She even learned to be a pilot, though she knows that she will never use her skills. Tyno…the one who bears your name and title…says that it is a determination that will serve her well in the coming cycles". Katralla reached out and took the holograms hand within her own, stepping into the matrix. "Watch over them Crichton…your daughter and son". They embraced, and as the hologram deactivated Katralla left the room.
Jonah didn't even realise that she had been holding her breathe until Katralla was gone, and then she could only manage it in short, usless hitches as she approached the matrix herself. "Jo…John Crichton". She demanded of it, but instead of the man her mother had spoken to Jonah was presented with an image of her father…of the John Crichton she knew…the Regent.
Tyno…the one who bears your name and title
Watch over them Crichton…your daughter and son
"Are you my Father?" She asked, both of the image she was seeing and of the one that had stood before.
Nobody is perfect, everybody does things that they regret, acts born out of greed or selfishness, or simply out of a great desire to know the truth. It is part if nature, something anyone would do in a situation like this one.
No matter how many times Jonah told herself that it didn't make her feel any better as she snuck into her parents chamber…absent with her parents conducting affairs of the state. Her heart was beating so hard she thought it might break out of her thorax as she carefully pulled the chest out from under her parent's bed and opened it, coughing slightly as disturbed dust entered the air. As impossible as it seemed, her heartbeat seemed to increase in both rate and intensity, for from beyond this action there was no turning back. She was still for several minutes, her hands rested over the clothe, shaking slightly as she thought…she had to know…she had to…
She pulled the clothe back and studied the dates labelling each manuscript until she found the right one, the one narrating events right up until her mother took the throne…
I know that my DNA is poisoned by Clavor's hand. I pray that a mistake has been made, that there is still a suitor…but deep down I know that by this act my Brother has assured his passage to the throne. He will be King, and as greatly as it pains me…there is nothing I can do to stop it.
I almost did not believe it when it happened, but alas I have found a suitor despite my brothers intervention. His name is Crichton, an outsider with a mercenary type Leviathan known as Moya. At first I feared that he would choose that life over the one that our compatibility grants him, but my Mother the Empress is wise, and has assured his loyalty to our cause. He has seen our children, seen the future, and seen the face of his enemy the Hybrid man Scorpious.
I carry Crichton's child, I discovered this morning on the day that I am to embrace the stone. He does not know, and I shall not tell him until after we have completed the cycle, I do not want him to see it as leverage to embrace along side me…at the end I wish for it to be his complete decision. He needs little persuasion anyway.
Eighty cycles have passed. I carry Crichton's child, but he shall never see her. He was unable to return to the stone, so Tyno took his name and place by my side. Crichton returned to Moya, returned to his old life. He is probably dead now, so far into his future. I shall miss him. We kept some of his DNA for future children, children who we shall claim as Tyno's…no one will ever know except myself and my husband.
Jonah felt for a moment that she was reading a story, not a recital of history about her own life, her own past. Crichton, her father Crichton was Tyno, who despite genetic incompatibility had agreed to rule beside his wife, his true love. Herself and her brother were the result of DNA implantation, the child of a man who had lived over ninety cycles ago, who wasn't even Sebacean. No wonder they ages so slowly, no wonder she longed for the stars.
Part of her felt angry, the truth had been kept her whole life, locked away from her and her brother. Should she tell them that she knew, should she tell her brother…no…it would ruin everything. He loved his Father so much, she would not tarnish that. But what of herself, she knew now, and she could unlearn what she had learned…but she could use it…
…to give purpose to her plan.