The Scarran Artokh finally found what he was looking for.
He could not find a door to enter the facility, and so he was forced to create one himself.
He melted away one of the walls of ice with his bare hands.
The hot Scarran blood that ran through his veins made sure the wall disappeared quickly into the ground as it turned into a liquid substance.
After he successfully infiltrated the building he scanned for high concentrations of energy fields, generated by devices that would need a lot of energy.
Devices like a long range communicator.
And Artokh found it, and he used it to contact the Scarran homeworld.
His first attempt to establish a communications-link with his Scarran Emperor failed, as the communicator did not have enough capabilities to reach that far into space.
For that reason Artokh decided to search for Scarran signals closer to his location.
And strangely enough he found one.
"This is War Minister Akhna, commanding the Scarran Dreadnought "Executor". Who are you?"
The female Scarran who appeared on the screen was of small stature, but her appearance made up for her size.
She was terrifying and the look in her eyes demanded obedience from everyone who spoke to her.
There were few who could look in her eyes without feeling inferior to her.
"My name is Artokh." The Scarran said with his rumbling voice. "I request that you redirect my signal immediately to the Emperor."
"What for?" War Minister Akhna simply said.
"I must speak to him," Artokh continued. "...but I myself am not able to contact him."
War Minister Akhna gazed upon him with her burning gaze.
"Perhaps you could tell me, and I can tell the Emperor." Akhna said.
"My mission is confidential." Artokh answered. "Only the Emperor may hear my words."
Akhna's suspicions were true.
Emperor Staleek had sent this Scarran on a secret mission.
She could use this new information to her own advantage.
Against the Emperor.
She hated him. She hated that she was his inferior. His subordinate.
She should be Empress instead of him!
Her father was Emperor of the Scarran Empire before Staleek.
If he hadn't taken power into his own hands, Akhna would have been Empress!
Instead, she is forced to grovel before him, obeying his words and commands.
But when Staleek let's his guard down, she will take the power back to it's rightful heir.
But unfortunately Emperor Staleek isn't a fool.
He knows of her plans and intentions.
Akhna wonders why he has not interfered in her plans yet...
"Then our conversation is over." War Minister Ahkna said to Artokh, threatening that if he did not tell her, she would end the transmission.
"No!" he shouted.
Just as she wanted him to.
"I will tell you, as long as you sent my report to the Emperor himself."
"Agreed."

Captain Bialar Crais and Aeryn Sun listened silently how the Scarran Artokh sent his report to Akhna's Dreadnought.

It took a moment before Akhna had read his report.
"You failed to capture John Crichton?" she asked when she was finished.
"I did not expect the renegade Crais to be there. He shot me down before I could escape the system."
"And so you used an escape-pod to escape the explosion?"

"It's the same Scarran that tried to capture Crichton!" Aeryn said to Crais.
"I thought you killed him!"

"I did." Artokh answered War Minister Akhna.
"And now you claim John Crichton did the same?"

Aeryn's heart began to race.

"No." Artokh said. "There was only one escape-pod, and I used it to escape the explosion."
"But you claim..."
"I say that Crichton jumped out of the vessel before it exploded."
"This would mean that Crichton jumped into outer space! He cannot surive that long in space! He is probably dead by now!"
She almost terminated the conversation, but there was something about Crichton that made her believe that he survived it.
She had heard about him as well.
The crazy human. The 'immortal'. The unknown species, hunted down by the traitor Scorpius...
"He is not dead." The Scarran said.
His rumbling voice echoed through the halls of ice.

And it also echoed through Aeryn Sun's soul.

"John Crichton is alive, War Minister." Artokh said. "This device confirms my claim."
John Crichton's heartbeat was heard over the communications-channel.
"Where is he?" Akhna asked.

John Robert Crichton Jr. kissed the lips of his love.
"I love you." he whispered in her ear.
Aeryn smiled.
John smiled back as he grabbed her hands and put them on his body.
He kissed her again. Lovingly. Passionate.
Slowly they moved through the darkness of his mind.
Dancing.
She was wearing a beautiful black wedding-gown.
He was wearing a shining white tuxedo.
Together they danced through the darkness.
Blind for everything but each other.
Blind for pain. Blind for death. Blind for sorrow.

Aeryn Sun was dead.
Dead because of him.
Because he couldn't save her.
Because he made a wrong decision.

Crichton blamed himself for her death.
His sorrow consumed every inch of his body, until he no longer wanted to wake up.
He wanted to die, just like Aeryn had.

Harvey respected John.
He honoured him.
His loyalty.
His confidence.
His love.
Even his hope.
But all these qualities are lost now.
Faded away in the dying darkness of his mind.

Perhaps John should die.
Perhaps he deserves his rest.
Perhaps Harvey shouldn't have lied to Scorpius.
Perhaps he should've let him transport him to the Command Carrier, so his brain could be dissected, so John could die.
So Harvey would die.

"Should I sacrifice myself for the greater good?" Harvey asked himself, as he watched John dance with the imaginary Aeryn.
"Should I sacrifice myself so that Scorpius gets what he wants? The wormhole-technology?"
He hesitated.
Some part of his existence did not want to die.
It was afraid to die, but also to glad with life to wish it to end.
But another part of Harvey would serve Scorpius willingly, loyal and without question.
Even if it meant dying.
But to which part should he listen?

Harvey lied to Scorpius, so it would ease Crichton's suffering.
He felt that Crichton had already suffered enough.
By Harvey's doing...

Was it compassion that made him do this?
Save Crichton from unnecessary pain?
"What a strange emotion..." Harvey said to himself.

But he would not lie any longer to his master.
The life of this human is insignificant in comparison to Scorpius's plans with the wormhole-technology.
He could stop the Scarran conquest, even destroy their threat to the universe!
And perhaps, when they are all but extinct, then perhaps Scorpius will have his revenge.

"I do not know Crichton's whereabouts." Artokh said to the War Minister, who was many lightyears away on the Scarran Dreadnought "Executor", flying somewhere through space.
"But I believe Crichton's companions do know where he is."
"Find them. Interrogate them. And then capture Crichton. I want him alive."
"Yóu want him alive, War Minister?" Artokh said.
"You have a problem with your hearing, soldier?" Akhna said to him.
"No, War Minister, but my mission is to bring Crichton before the Emperor, not before yóu!"
"I am giving you new orders, soldier." Akhna said.
"No-one can change my orders!" Artokh shouted at her. "No-one but Emperor Staleek!"
Akhna's rage grew as she heard that name.
"You will listen to me now! Capture Crichton and bring him before me!"
"I do not have to listen to you!"
"But you will have to!" Akhna said. "Because I am coming to you!"
Artokh did not believe what he just heard.
A Scarran War Minister who would travel deep into Peacekeeper territory with a Dreadnought!
"You would declare war on the Sebaceans just to capture Crichton?" Artokh asked.
"Not if no-one finds out about it!" Akhna said as she gave new co-ordinates to her pilot.
"You better do as your told, soldier, or you will pay the price!"
With those words War Minister Akhna ended the communications-link.

Aeryn and Crais could not believe what they just heard.
"Crichton is alive..." Crais muttered.
"A Scarran Dreadnought..." Aeryn said.

"But the worst is yet to come..." a voice suddenly said.
Aeryn and Crais turned around, only to see a strange man standing in front of them.
His eyes were blue and the look on his face seemed frozen. He showed no sign of any emotion.
"Talyn!" Crais shouted.
Several pulse-rifles came out of the walls of Talyn, aiming for the unknown man in front of them.
"Wait!" Aeryn said. "Don't shoot!"
The man in front of them stood there silently, staring at them, waiting for the right response.
"I know him from somewhere..." Aeryn said.
"State your identity!" Crais demanded from the unknown intruder.
The man looked Sebacean, but both Aeryn and Crais knew he wasn't.
They could feel it.
The man stood there, as if frozen, in the centre of Talyn's Command Deck, unarmed and defenceless.
"My name is..." the man spoke, and he spoke several unknown words and sounds that Aeryn and Crais could not understand.
"But you can call me Jack."