Rygel hyperventilated.
Both
Scarrans now stood in front of him.
The heat their bodies produced
was unbearable, and it got hotter as they approached him.
"I
am Dominar Rygel the Sixtienth!" Rygel said to them.
"Release
me now, or my armies will avenge my death and crush you!"
"I doubt it, Dominar." Artokh said.
His rumbling voice ended Rygel's desperate attempt to scare the Scarrans, and his attempt to strengthen his position, so that they wouldn't kill him.
"You have no armies, and you have lost your throne many cycles ago. You are no threat to us."
"There is only one reason we kept you alive." Gyrshna continued.
"John Crichton." Artokh said. "Where is he?"
Rygel exploded in fury.
"That frelling human!" he shouted. "Even in death he haunts us still!"
Rygel's loud voice woke up a sleeping Grunschlik who had fallen asleep for a microt, with a half-eaten sandwich clutched in his hands.
"He and his blasted wormholes! Will he never leave us alone!"
"Shut up!" Gyrshna growled.
The Scarran aimed his hand at Rygel, threatening to
emit a wave of intense heat into his face if he didn't shut up
quickly.
Which Rygel did.
"Brother..." Gyrshna said.
Neither of the brothers knew about the other brother's
assignment.
Artokh's task was to follow Crichton.
Gyrshna's
task was to follow Scorpius.
Both assignments lead them to this
icy planet, were they helped each other to achieve their
goals.
Gyrshna was sent by the Scarran Emperor, just like his brother Artokh, but his mission was to search for Scorpius, and to find out more about his dealings in the Unchartered Territories, and most importantly, to find out why he was so obsessed with capturing Crichton.
Gyrshna headed to this icy planet, because he had
found out that this was the place where Scorpius visited his
Diagnosian.
Knowing that he could never get close to a Peacekeeper
Command Carrier, he decided to hide here, and wait for
Scorpius.
Gyrshna would then follow him, or capture him.
Whatever
the Emperor desired from him.
He hid inside one of the cryo-pods, by advice of the local manager Grunschlik, and waited for Scorpius to appear.
Grunschlik was supposed to unfreeze him
when Scorpius arrived, but he didn't.
He wasn't going to
unfreeze him.
Scorpius was a client of his, and he payed well.
But
Grunschlik decided to keep the Scarran, so that if Scorpius would
betray him in any way, he could set the creature loose on him.
But
everything changed with the arrival of the other Scarran, Gyrshna's
brother Artokh.
Grunschlik decided to unfreeze the Scarran as a
sign of good faith.
As Artokh greeted his brother after he
stepped out of the cryo-pod, he asked him to help him in his mission
to capture Crichton.
Gyrshna agreed.
How could he say no to his
own brother? His own blood?
Grunschlik's plan backfired.
Now
there were two Scarrans in his facility.
Rygel panicked at the sight of the Scarran's hand.
"We know John Crichton is
alive." Artokh said to the frightened Hynerian.
"No more
lies."
Artokh hissed.
"Now," he said, as he set Rygel's mind on fire with his fingertips, "Where is he?"
"Moya, can you hear me?"
Crichton's
transmission was cut off as the Prowlers attacked.
Bolts of light
were fired upon Crichton's Marauder as it dove into the
clouds.
"John Crichton." The Prowler pilots transmitted to
him.
"Surrender now and land your ship, or we will be forced to
shoot you down."
Harvey terminated the transmission.
"This is futile, Crichton." he said.
"Do as they say and end this trip!"
"End it, Harv?" John said. "Already?"
His eyes shined a crazy light, which glowed in the moonlight.
"But I was just having so much fun!"
He dove to the ground.
The
Prowlers followed in his wake, circling him as hyperactive
vultures.
As Crichton made a loop over the mountainside he managed
to shake some of his pursuers off, as they almost crashed into the
cliffs.
"This is insane, Crichton!" Harvey said as he grabbed for something to hold on to.
"How many innocent lives must die before you give yourself up?"
"How many lives is Scorpius willing to sacrifice in order to get what he wants!" Crichton shouted back at the neural-clone.
John looked him straight in the eyes.
For a moment, he forgot he
was flying a Marauder in a desperate and mad attempt to escape
Peacekeeper captivity.
He almost crashed if he hadn't grabbed
the controls in time.
Dark clouds were pierced as Crichton flew through the dark sky.
He had only a second to gaze upon the beautiful starlight, as another wave of Prowlers attacked him once more.
"If you want to wreak your revenge onto Scorpius,
why not just fly into one of the mountains and end it!" Harvey
shouted.
"What's to stop you from ending his
wormhole-research. Huh?"
"You think I won't do it?" Crichton said, as he dodged another wave of pulse-fire.
"You think I fear death? I don't!"
Crichton dove towards the
ground.
The rocky cliffs came closer and closer.
Death would be
imminent if Crichton wouldn't intervene.
If Harvey wouldn't
intervene.
Exactly when Harvey wanted to stop Crichton, Crichton himself pulled his craft up and avoided the many huge rocks and cliffs like a pro.
"But I have faced death before."
Crichton went on. "So many times. Too many times.
But all the
times I faced death, I did not fear it."
Harvey gazed upon the human's dreaming eyes.
"I did not fear it, because I
knew it could not kill me. Because I knew how my death would be
like.
I would die in the hands of my love. My only love.
Aeryn
Sun.
But now she's dead. And I have no-one left to die
for."
For a moment, everything was silent.
"And now I fear every death, knowing that I'll die them without her."
"Alone." Crichton added in his mind, but Harvey heard it.
Suddenly, a Prowler swooped down from above Crichton's Marauder in another attempt to cripple the ship.
He failed, and John smashed into the Prowler, killing the pilot in the process.
Crichton grew silent after this sudden emotional
outburst towards Harvey.
He was slightly embarrassed, and used the
Prowler's crash into John's Marauder as an opportunity to check
upon the damage, and to get his mind to focus on something else.
He
did not see Harvey behind him staring in awe at the human.
Crichton's
words seemed to have touched him, but it wasn't just
that.
Crichton had crashed into another ship. He killed it's
pilot.
A Peacekeeper pilot, who was just doing his job.
Harvey
did not blame Crichton for killing the pilot, because even he did not
see him coming from that angle. It was a freak accident, as you might
say.
But the thing which scared him the most, was that Crichton
did not feel remorse.
Something Harvey hadn't noticed
before.
Crichton has become cold. Death has just become another chapter in his life.
Murdering someone to save his own life has become something so normal the past two years of his life here in the Unchartered Territories.
Suddenly Harvey felt a
strange emotion creeping up inside his chest.
He didn't
recognise it.
It felt so strange...
"I'm sorry, Crichton." Harvey said. "Yet again."
"I bet you are..." Crichton replied.
He knew exactly what Harvey was going to do.
"I can't let the wormhole-knowledge you possess escape Scorpius's grasp yet again. I must bring it back to him. That is one of my functions..."
"No, no, no –I won't...LET...YOU!"
Before Crichton could finish his sentence, Harvey closed his eyes, and attacked Crichton's mind, attempting to take over John's body and mind again.
"HAR-VEY! YOU SUNNAVABITCH!"
Crichton felt like someone was caving into the side of his head.
He felt like he was pushed into a vast, dark lake, and that he couldn't swim to the surface.
He felt like he was drowning.
Everything turned black, and then Harvey took over.
As Harvey felt Crichton's blood flowing through Crichton's veins, he suddenly recognised the emotion he felt before.
It was guilt.
But then something else happened.
