The two suns brightened the grey
mountains of Yo'brakh as they crawled over the horizon and reached
the skies, and turned the mountains orange in the morning sky.
But
the pale light of the suns never did reach the dark gloomy cellar of
the base which lied within those mountains, as Commander Moxan went
on with the current activities of the day, ignoring Scorpius, the
hybrid who was terrorising his base of command.
He hoped that
Scorpius would go away, quickly, and that he would take away his
prisoner, John Crichton, with him.
He hated them with an equal
amount of hatred.
Scorpius, for taking over his base.
Crichton,
for luring Scorpius here in the first place.
As Moxan tortured his
prisoners and experimented on new weaponry he finally was able to
forget Scorpius.
But not for long.
The lights
flickered.
His equipment began to fail, were they used to
succeed.
Moxan did not know what was going on.
But he did know
who was responsible.
"Scorpius!"
Moxan yelled his name
through the darkness of his base.
As he approached the main hall
of the facility, hís facility, he knew something was
wrong.
"Scorpius!" he yelled again in fury.
"Commander
Moxan." Scorpius said.
As Scorpius worked on his new equipment,
brought down from the Carrier, he did not bother turn round to look
Moxan in the eye.
"How good of you to join us." Scorpius
added.
"What the frell are you doing to my facility?" Moxan
shouted.
His voice was almost unheard through the noise of the
many devices which were attached to the Aurora Chair.
"I am
borrowing some power to give my Aurora Chair all the energy it
needs."
"To do what?" Moxan asked frustrated.
"To
revive Crichton." Scorpius asked.
"When I tried
to locate Crichton, I found only this..." Jack said.
After he
said it he pointed towards a holographic image that appeared behind
them, which seemed to be generated by Talyn, but neither Talyn or
Crais ordered the machine to be activated.
The holographic image
was as clear as glass. It was almost like they looked at it through a
window.
The image displayed a planet, surrounded by an
asteroid-field, seen from the perspective of a wormhole.
Crais and
Aeryn could tell that, because of the image being round, and it's
edges being bright blue.
"That's Yo'brakh." Crais said as
he recognised the planet were they were before.
Only a couple of
days ago.
"Is Crichton there?" Aeryn asked Jack, but he did
not answer.
He just pointed at the image again, which seem to zoom
in on the exact spot where Jack was pointing.
In the shadow of the
planet a large craft was visible.
Aeryn and Crais recognised it
immediately.
"A Command Carrier." Aeryn said.
"Scorpius's
Command Carrier." Crais corrected her.
"My Command Carrier."
Crais said in his mind. "The Command Carrier Scorpius stole from
me."
"Who is this Scorpius?" Jack asked.
"A Peacekeeper
scientist of high rank." Aeryn said. "He has been hunting
Crichton for the wormhole-knowledge he possesses."
"You know
of the wormhole-knowledge?" Jack asked.
"Yes, we do." Aeryn
said.
She asked herself why she was telling him all this, as she
did not know or trust Jack.
But Jack seemed honest and powerful,
and not a type to betray or kill them.
He took the form of someone
Crichton trusted and loved.
Someone close to Crichton.
Aeryn's
Peacekeeper instinct told her that that position would be the perfect
position to kill Crichton, but Aeryn's heart told her that this was
not the case.
Jack has chosen the form of John's father for
another reason.
Maybe he feels like he's responsible for him.
Maybe he feels like his teacher. His mentor.
Maybe he feels
like John's father...
"How do you know of the knowledge I hid
inside John's mind?" Jack asked.
"It was Scorpius who
discovered it." Crais answered.
Jack sighed.
"Do you
believe Scorpius has captured Crichton?" he asked.
"Scorpius
has tried everything to get his hands on Crichton..." Aeryn said.
"To get his hands on the knowledge. He has hunted him down, he has
tortured him, he has put a chip inside his brain..."
Jack
finally understood why Crichton's signal was so distorted.
The
chip in Crichton's mind was the cause.
"Do you believe
Scorpius has captured Crichton?" he asked again.
"We believed
Crichton to be dead, before you told us otherwise..." Crais
answered.
The unconscious Crichton was transported
again on a stretcher to the Aurora Chair.
The doctors disapproved
this second transportation from operating room to hallway, for it
could damage their patient severely if something were to go
wrong.
Scorpius did not want that to happen, but he needed
Crichton.
Crichton was the key to the entire process.
His
knowledge had to be taken.
His consciousness had to be
restored.
Only then would the knowledge Crichton possesses be
safe.
And can it be safely extracted.
They strapped
Crichton for the second time in Scorpius's Chair.
Luitenant
Bracca almost felt sorry for the human.
Scorpius would save
Crichton, so that he could kill him.
Moxan would have stopped
the process which would destroy his facility, but he did not.
He
was too afraid.
No other scientists touched the Aurora Chair
but Scorpius.
He was the expert. A brilliant scientist.
He
attached several devices and strings to Crichton's head, and the
chip that resided inside it.
Before he would activate the process,
he had one more thing to do.
The white marble that surrounded him
in the hallway disappeared as his mind dwelled into Crichton's, as
he made contact with the chip.
Harvey awaited for him at the usual
spot.
"You intend to awaken Crichton?" Harvey
asked.
"Yes."
Scorpius explained the process to his mental
counterpart in Crichton's mind, and he immediately knew what
Scorpius intended to do.
"It could work." Harvey said.
"It
will work." Scorpius corrected.
Harvey nodded and obeyed his
master.
The lights flickered again, before shining brighter
then before.
All the energy of the facility was re-routed towards
the Aurora Chair. And to Crichton's mind.
As Scorpius pulled
some switches and pressed some knobs, slowly the effects of the
Aurora Chair on Crichton's mind were visible, as the human's body
began to shake and shiver.
Scorpius stared at his prisoner as he
finished the process.
The last remaining power flowed towards
Crichton, until the machinery stopped, and the lights of the facility
came back to life.
"Wake up, Crichton..." Scorpius mumbled to
himself, so softly that no-one could hear it.
He did not like this
violent way to try and wake Crichton from his coma, but he did not
know any other way.
He would rather risk losing the
wormhole-knowledge, then to always fear of losing it, and by doing
so, never unlock it.
If he would never try to unlock the
wormhole-knowledge, out of fear of losing it, then Scorpius would
accept his own defeat.
He would rather want him to have tried and
lost it, then to have it, but to be unable to use it.
Scorpius
knew that he was gambling with the fate of the universe...
"Wake
up, Crichton..." Scorpius mumbled again. "Wake up!"
One
star-system away, two signals stopped being broadcasted:
Artokh's
device, which displayed Crichton's life-signs, suddenly
stopped.
Jack suddenly felt a jolt go through his mind.
The
Ancient had monitored Crichton's signal for a long time now, hoping
to find the human, but instead he found his companions.
The signal
came from a mental echo inside John Crichton's mind.
The echo
created a bond between Jack and John, so that if needed, Jack could
find him again, but the echo has been distorted for some time. Jack
does not know why.
And now it had completely faded.
The signal
is gone.
And there could be only one conclusion drawn from
that.
"John Crichton is dead." Jack said suddenly, and he
stared at the ground, hoping for a sign which would tell him that
this news is false.
"What?" Aeryn asked.
"I am sorry."
Jack said. "I cannot sense him anymore. Which can only mean, that
Crichton is dead."
"No!" Aeryn shouted. "How dare you say
that!"
In her eyes a fire burned. A hellish fire, burning for
the love of Crichton.
Burning for the fear of losing Crichton.
Again.
"Why...do you torture me like this..." Aeryn tried to
say.
She was shivering. Shaking.
"Why do you give me hope,
and then take it away again..."
Hope.
A word which Crichton
brought to Moya.
"I am sorry." Jack said again.
For a brief
moment, Crais thought he saw a hint of emotion in Jack's
eyes...
But before Crais wondered again about Jack's true
intentions, Talyn told him something that could possibly be
true...
"If Crichton is dead," Crais said. "Then it is
possible that Scorpius has extracted the chip from Crichton's mind,
killing him in the process..."
"You believe this Scorpius to
have taken the wormhole-knowledge from Crichton?" Jack asked.
"I
believe Scorpius is capable of that." Crais answered.
Jack's
eyes glowed.
"Then I have no other option." He said.
Aeryn
and Crais and Talyn did not understand what Jack was saying.
"I
must destroy the Command Carrier, and Scorpius along with it."
