Jothee walked out of Moya's storage bay, carrying Peacekeeper weapons he had grabbed from some old containers.
As he turned the corner, he saw Chiana standing in front of him.
Jothee knew what she was doing, but ignored her.
"I'm going with you." Chiana said.
"You are NOT coming with me." Jothee replied violently.
"Frell you!" Chiana said. "You maybe D'Argo's son, but I love D'Argo too, and-and I want to help him just as much as you do!"
Jothee stopped for a moment, as he tried to come up with a reply to stop Chiana from coming with him.
He was mad at her.
The love
which once burned for her not so long ago, now only strengthened his
hatred toward the grey Nebari girl.
It was her fault he lost
his father's love.
And now he was going to lose him entirely,
and with D'Argo's death Jothee would lose any chance for
reconciliation between father and son.
And his chance to make it
up to him.
To prove himself a worthy son, and to prove that his
rescue from the slavers wasn't just a waste of his father's time,
money and love.
He would lose his father, for the second time.
All because of Chiana.
But the only thing that grew stronger then Jothee's hatred towards Chiana, was his hatred towards himself.
"I'm going with you, if you like it or not." Chiana said.
"Fine." Jothee replied, not knowing what else to say.
Jothee knew that he was wasting his valuable time talking to Chiana, when he could be saving D'Argo's life.
He had to be quick, before his father would freeze to death.
"We'll be back shortly, Pilot." Chiana said over the comms, as they entered the Transport Pod and prepared for departure. "And when we're back, we're going to heal your pain, just like we promised. Don't worry."
Chiana felt she was forgetting something.
Suddenly she remembered the girl from the cryo-pod.
Joolushko.
Chiana shook her head.
They
were going to be back within a couple of microts, she hoped.
In
the meantime, that girl could handle herself.
The Pod ascended from the floor and left the docking-bay, as it headed for the cold planet.
Moxan smiled.
He had just received a, did he dare say it, wonderful transmission.
All his problems would be over soon.
Silently and carefully he spread the word, until every one of his officers knew of the news.
It was time.
Guns were loaded and pistols were drawn.
Consoles were encrypted. Passwords were changed.
Doors were locked and the security was tightened.
A plan was designed. A strategy devised.
Soldiers walked through the marble corridors, with Moxan as their leader, walking in front of the squad.
Moxan
opened the doors of his control centre with a violent push.
The
steel doors smashed against the walls.
Moxan looked directly at Scorpius, knowing that he had his full attention.
"I warned you!" Moxan said, pointing at Scorpius. "I told you to go back to your Command Carrier, but you wouldn't listen!"
Moxan threw a datapad at Scorpius, who caught the device confidently.
The
device displayed a message.
It was from Peacekeeper High Command,
and it was addressed to him.
It was an order to end his hunt for the human Crichton and to return to High Command, where his exploits in the Unchartered Territories will be examined and judged.
During his examination, his Command Carrier will be assigned to a new captain.
The letter was formal and clear, but Scorpius knew what it truly meant.
He had to return to High Command, where he must surrender his vessel and be imprisoned and executed.
Peacekeeper justice is the worst form of justice. Especially in the corrupt High Command, where allies can turn enemies when their backs are turned.
Scorpius threw the datapad on the floor.
"High Command orders your retrieval." Moxan said. "And who am I to disobey orders?"
Scorpius saw how the loyalty of his soldiers around him began to waver.
He had to act swiftly.
Scorpius was never going to surrender to
Moxan.
Not in a million years.
"How many admirals and commandants did you bribe to get this order, I ask of you." Scorpius said.
"All of them." Moxan said. "But it was not I who bribed them."
"Of course," Scorpius thought to himself. "He had help. An accomplice. Moxan would've never dared to do such a drastic assault by himself."
"Scorpius." Moxan spoke. "If you do not leave this planet and return to High Command at once, I will arrest you in name of the Peacekeeper Alliance."
"I told you, if you should stand in my way again, I will kill you..." Scorpius spoke chillingly.
"All right boys, kill him!" Moxan ordered.
"This is my gift, John Crichton...to you..."
Those strange words, spoken by a strange voice, echoed through John's mind and subconscious.
He woke up and opened his eyes.
He was hanging upside down from a tree.
Strange, dark, humanoid creatures stared at him with smiles on their faces.
Crichton closed his eyes.
And then he opened them again.
"Damn, they're still there." he whispered.
He looked around.
Two others were hung upside down in trees as well.
John recognised one of them as the Peacekeeper who chased him through the woods.
The other, also Sebacean, was dead.
As it's smell reached Crichton, he knew that he died a couple of weeks ago.
"Ah!" a voice suddenly said. "One of them is awake!"
The blood rushed to Crichton's head, as he watched the dark creatures step aside for their master: a tall, bald man, not Sebacean, and with a metal plate on the right side of his skull.
The man spoke apparently with a British accent, which was funny, because the man had probably never spoken English before in his entire life.
"Feeling comfortable?" the man asked amused.
"Cut me the frell down!" Crichton shouted.
The man laughed.
"Oh, you Peacekeepers are all the same." he said.
"I am not a Peacekeeper!" Crichton said.
"Trust a Peacekeeper to tell you he isn't a Peacekeeper!" the man said to Crichton.
"I am telling you the truth!" Crichton shouted, as he was desperately trying to break free of his bonds.
"I find that rather hard to believe." the man spoke.
"You look exactly the same as a Peacekeeper. Same size. Same weight. Same smell."
The alien walked around Crichton, who was hanging upside down, and the alien began spinning John round and round, which John found really annoying and which began to make him dizzy.
"Same skin. Same bones. Same teeth."
The alien grabbed his jaw and looked at his teeth.
"Although the brain cavity appears smaller." The man said as he grabbed hold of his skull.
Then he let go
of Crichton, and spun him round and round with his hands.
It
reminded John of astronaut-training.
It amused Kaarvok.
"Because you have all the qualifications. of a Peacekeeper, you MUST be a Peacekeeper, and therefore you MUST be lying, which also qualifies you as a Peacekeeper." the alien said witty.
"I am NOT a Peacekeeper!" John shouted. "I'm HUMAN!"
The man sighed.
"You are quite persistent, aren't you?"
"I am not a Peacekeeper! The Peacekeepers
were chasing me through the woods!
They were trying to capture
me! Trying to kill me! Doesn't that mean I am NOT with the
Peacekeepers?"
The man turned to one of the dark creatures.
The creature whispered something into the man's ears.
The man then approached Crichton again.
His long coat touched the ground, and Crichton noticed he had one white eye (probably blind) and one black eye.
His face was pale and sweaty.
"You apparently speak the truth." The man spoke.
"One of my 'Xarai' told me that the Peacekeepers
were indeed chasing you.
You spoke the truth about that, and
therefore there is a chance that you spoke the truth about your
identity. So now I face a dilemma."
Crichton noticed that
the man hated Peacekeepers.
And by the way he was dressed,
Crichton figured he once was imprisoned by Peacekeepers.
Probably
for a very long time.
"I can believe your word and let you go. Or..."
The man smiled.
"I can make you prove that your story is true."
"And how do I do that?" Crichton asked.
Crichton noticed two little, but bright, blue
lights which were placed on the metal plate on the right side of the
alien's head, and also marks of burned skin and scorched flesh
surrounding the metal plate.
He must've been in a horrible
accident...
Suddenly Crichton was cut down and was pulled to
the floor by several of the dark creatures.
As Crichtons saw their
faces up-close, he noticed that they bared much resemblance to
Sebaceans...
They lifted him onto their shoulders and brought
them to a large pit or well in the ground.
Unexpectedly, they
threw him in.
Crichton fell three meters down and into shallow
water.
Everything was mud and stone.
"What are you doing!" Crichton shouted all wet and dirty.
"I have made a decision!" the alien shouted to him as he stood on the bottom of the well.
Another man was thrown into the well with Crichton.
It was the Peacekeeper Squad Leader who was trying to capture him, not long before this chaos.
It was Aenos.
"You must prove yourself to me!" the alien spoke.
The dark creatures gathered around the well, and watched enthusiastic to what was going to happen.
"And how do I prove myself?" Crichton asked, although he knew what the alien was going to say.
"Simple!" the alien replied. "Kill the Peacekeeper!"
Crichton looked at Aenos.
Aenos looked at Crichton.
This was a test for Crichton.
And in order to pass, he had to kill a person.
And if he didn't, he would
be killed.
Eaten alive, probably.
It was kill, or be killed.
"My name is Kaarvok, by the way!" the alien spoke witty.
"Let the games begin!"
