Chapter 1

John Crichton awoke to find himself naked and lying on a floor.

"Ahh crap, don't tell me this is Einstein again with another of his unrealised realities." He looked around and realised that he wasn't in that cell on Moya and his clothes didn't appear to be about anywhere. Even more importantly one other key thing from day one was missing; Aeryn. Memories started to flood back; the boat, the baby, his proposal, Aeryn's emotional "yes", the ring, and their last kiss.

"How in the name of all that's holy did I end up here? And where is here? Am I in heaven or hell?" He felt his skin; he seemed real enough. "Doesn't seem like a dream. If this is what death is like; lying on a cold floor, buck naked and freezing the boys off, I think I'll pass." Looking around he found that he was in a grey room; grey ceiling, grey floor and four grey walls. No windows and no doors.

"How the frell did I get in here and more importantly how do I get out?" As if someone had been listening to his one-sided conversation with himself one of the walls slid back to reveal an alien with what appeared to be a noughts and crosses board tattooed on his face and a rather dodgy spiky haircut. The alien just stared at him for several moments before coming into the room. The panel in the wall slid shut behind him as another panel opened up to reveal a glass window behind which a number of similar aliens sat operating banks of equipment. The alien threw a bunch of clothes at Crichton who quickly started to pull them on.

"Alien intruder, what is your designation and why are you here?"

"Umm, I presume by designation you mean my name. Well the name's Crichton, John Crichton and if I knew where here was I'd tell you."

"You were trespassing in the Qujagan Sea"

"Trespassing? Look I'm really sorry, we didn't know it belonged to anyone. Someone told us the properties of the sea would heal our ship."

"The leviathan?"

"Yeah, she's called Moya"

"Why did you leave the ship?"

"Well, that's kinda personal. Talking of which, where's Aeryn?"

"Aeryn?"

"The woman who was with me in the boat." At that moment the alien's head opened up revealing an additional three eyes; two quite normal and one on some sort of extension that looked distinctly penis-like.

"Woo, I tempted to say dickhead but that's kinda rude and I get the feeling I might just need to be nice to you if Aeryn and I are gonna get outta here with all our bodily parts intact. Now back to my question. Where's Aeryn?"

"I will ask the questions alien, not you" penis-head man spoke "what species are you? You look sebacean but our analysis shows you are not." John was starting to get riled by the guys attitude

"Well it wouldn't 'cos I'm a human"

"Human. I have not heard of this species before"

"So? What's that to ya?" The alien ignored this comment

"Are you a Peacekeeper spy, John Crichton?"

"No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

"It would best for you if you tell us. You look like a Peacekeeper. You were found in the company of a Peacekeeper"

"Don't be fooled by the clothes, man, and she's not a Peacekeeper anymore. Hell, you can tell from my DNA that I'm not one of them"

"So you say, but DNA can be altered. However, we will continue to study you before making our decision"

"Decision about what?"

"All Peacekeepers invading our territory must be terminated immediately"

"You kill all Peacekeepers? I'm starting to like you"

"Yes, and anyone associated with them. It is why we have managed to keep our people safe from their tyranny for over one thousand cycles. You were only kept alive because we were curious about your species." The alien made to leave the room as the wall slid open again.

"What have you done with Aeryn?" John demanded

"Like you said, she was a Peacekeeper"

"No, no she isn't anymore, please no, for the love of God, I beg you, please no!" The alien gave him a long assessing look with all his eyes before his face closed up and he left the room. Behind him John fell to his knees and shouted at the top of his voice as if hoping she could hear him.

"AERYN, AERYN"

The alien returned sometime later. Crichton was lying curled up on the narrow bed that had been placed in the cell. He continued to stare at the wall, ignoring the other occupant of the room.

"Explain to me why I should not have you executed immediately Crichton?" John turned very deliberately to look him in the eye.

"If you've already killed Aeryn you might as well just get it over and done with now. I don't want to go on living without her."

"You are a strange being John Crichton. You look so much like a Peacekeeper but you do not behave like any Peacekeeper we have ever encountered."

"How many times do I have to tell you people that I'm not a Peacekeeper. Where have you guys been? I mean I know we're deep in tormented space, but you guys must have the alien equivalent of CNN or the Internet. Check out the news stories. I'm famous for destroying things that belong to the Peacekeepers. I've blown up one of their secret gammak research bases and destroyed a full command carrier. Believe me, these guys are really pissed off with me. I'm not particularly popular with the Scarrens either 'cos I just nuked their headquarters. And if you read the stories well enough you'll know that I'm always accompanied by a renegade Peacekeeper by the name of Aeryn Sun. There are Peacekeeper wanted beacons all over the galaxy for us. So unless you've been hibernating for about a billion cycles, quit with the "you must be a Peacekeeper spy" crap and just do what you have to do." He returned to staring at the wall and the alien left.