They looked at each other once more, trying to comprehend what was going on.
Aenos was just aggressively woken up by Kaarvok and thrown in a pit.
He had no idea where he was, and what he was supposed to do.
But slowly he began to understand what was going on.
Did he have to fight Crichton? Was it a duel? A death-match?
Everything was wet and dirty in the damp and dark pit.
Both Crichton as Aenos were covered with mud.
Kaarvok and his army of critters looked down upon them, hoping for some action.
Some entertainment.
Some blood.
Crichton wasn't going to give in to Kaarvok's sick game.
He wasn't going to kill for someone else's amusement.
"Why not, John?" Harvey asked him as he appeared beside Crichton in the dark and gloomy pit.
"This won't be the first Peacekeeper you've killed, and I'm certain it won't be your last."
"This is different, Harv." John spoke.
"Is there a difference between smashing into someone's Prowler as you escape, or choking a man to save your own life? Dead is dead, John. There is no difference."
"There is, Harv." John said. "The difference is looking someone in the eyes as you..."
"No
John!" Harvey interrupted loudly. "This is about survival! And
you know it!
Kill him, and save yourself!"
"No!" John shouted.
But Aenos thought otherwise.
He rushed towards the human and forced Crichton to defend himself.
After a few hits to the stomach and face, John knocked Aenos to the ground.
He fell splashing into the water.
"Come on!" Aenos said to Crichton. "Kill me!"
"So this is how I am going to die, huh?" D'Argo thought to himself.
"Alone and stranded in the middle of this freezing planet."
D'Argo fell down to his knees, knowing that he could not go on anymore.
There was no point.
He had escaped the Scarrans, but ran into the arms of certain death.
Was he a coward?
No, he thought not.
D'Argo felt his heart freeze.
He hoped to find some other way of leaving the planet.
Perhaps there was someone to help him out there, in another facility somewhere, but there was no-one on this barren, inhospitable, cold world.
If there ever had been any life on this planet, it would've probably left ages ago.
He was going to die.
D'Argo closed his eyes.
The last thing he felt before he was overcome by the blizzard, was snow and ice.
An arn passed.
A large and mysterious figure appeared from the cold mists.
His feet burned through the cold and soft snow.
"I have found the Luxan, my brother." Gyrshna said over the comms.
His hot, boiling, blood kept the Scarran warm in the cold blizzard.
"Good." Artokh answered him. "Perhaps we will be much more successful in acquiring the information we need from him. The Hynerian hasn't been very helpful."
"I will take him back to the facility." Gyrshna responded.
"I will await your arrival."
Gyrshna approached the frozen Luxan, who was laid unconscious on the cold ground, which was covered in snow.
The Scarran mistook the sound of an approaching Transport Pod for the sound of the blizzard.
"There he is! We've found him!" Jothee shouted happily.
"There's someone else with him!" Chiana said, who sat beside Jothee in the Pod.
"It's a Scarran." Jothee said, recognising the shape of the figure.
Everything was white, and the enormous brightness of it all almost blinded both Chiana and Jothee as they looked down upon this world of ice.
The wind grew stronger as the Transport Pod approached Gyrshna.
He looked up and saw the vessel flying towards him.
"What are you doing?" Jothee shouted at Chiana as he saw the ship move closer to the ground.
"Slow down! We're going to crash!"
"Oh, no we're not." Chiana said.
She went faster and faster, but also lower and lower.
Gyrshna did not recognise the craft, but knew that the Luxan's friends were flying it, attempting to rescue their friend.
The loud noise of the approaching and speeding Pod woke up D'Argo from his cold nap in the snow.
He couldn't feel his face anymore, and tasted the snow in his mouth.
He saw the Scarran standing over him.
"You're going to get us killed!" Jothee shouted at Chiana.
D'Argo kicked at the Scarran's feet.
The Scarran looked round and saw D'Argo getting up on his feet.
"We're going to crash!" Jothee shouted again.
Chiana ignored him, and screamed her deadly battle-cry.
As Gyrshna approached him, he was scooped off of his feet by the Transport Pod.
He was decapitated and his lifeless body was thrown away.
It fell to the ground with a soft bang.
Gyrshna's head was swept away and eventually touched the ground some distance away from his body.
D'Argo couldn't believe what he just saw.
He passed out before he could ponder about it more.
"You almost killed us!" Jothee said. "You almost killed D'Argo!"
"But I didn't, did I?" Chiana said.
She slowed down the Pod and turned it around in order to land the craft close to D'Argo's position.
The Scarran's hot and boiling blood poured unto the snowy ground.
It melted away the snow.
And ice.
Chiana landed the Pod, not knowing that she had just landed on a frozen lake.
"Kill me!" Aenos said.
"I'm not going to kill you!" Crichton replied.
His jaw was throbbing with pain from Aenos's punches, and he tasted blood in his mouth.
"You must!" Aenos said. "This is your test! If you fail the test, you die! And I cannot allow that! Scorpius wants you alive!"
Crichton laughed.
"Even as you are stuck in this damned pit in the ground, you're still trying to be the loyal Peacekeeper."
"Always." Aenos said.
He charged at Crichton again, but the human anticipated his attack and threw him to the other side of the pit.
As Aenos hit the wall, he plunged into the shallow water for the second time.
"You must really be dying to get your medal, don't you?" Crichton said.
Aenos crawled back upon his feet and wiped the filthy water out of his face.
"I already have a medal." Aenos said.
He did.
But Aenos felt he didn't deserve it.
"Well, congratulations." Crichton said.
"I got it for capturing you." Aenos said.
"Yes, it was I who found you adrift in space." Aenos said, responding to the look on Crichton's face.
"I rescued you, and handed you to Scorpius. It wasn't difficult. You practically fell into my lap."
"It was luck that gave me that medal." Aenos thought to himself. "I do not deserve it."
"So you think you don't deserve that medal, because of that?" Crichton said.
His psychology-classes had finally paid off.
"No, I do not deserve my medal." Aenos said. "I must prove my worth. And I will prove it by sacrificing myself!"
Aenos tried to hit Crichton, but he ducked and punched Aenos in the guts.
"For what purpose?" Crichton said. "So that you can get your name on some Memorial for Fallen Soldiers?"
"The Wall of Fallen Heroes." Aenos corrected him, as he got up again and wiped his hair out of his eyes.
"Ah, so you do have one of those." Crichton said.
"Well, then picture if you will. If I kill you, who's going to write your name on that damned wall, huh? No-one! You will be lying here, rotting away in this pit..."
Crichton noticed some small humanoid remains lying on the ground next to Aenos.
"They'll report you missing in action!" Crichton shouted. "And you'll be just another nameless skeleton in this godforsaken pit! And you know what?"
Crichton gazed at Aenos's eyes.
"They won't miss you. Why? Because you are replaceable."
Crichton's words echoed through Aenos's mind.
What if he was right?
"No!" Aenos shouted as he rushed towards Crichton and grabbed his neck.
"I am a Peacekeeper Commando! I will not neglect my purpose in life! I must do my duty! Kill me!"
"No!"
Crichton punched him away, and Aenos fell unconscious into the shallow water.
For a moment, Crichton was left speechless and numb, but then he turned to the sky.
"Kaarvok!" he shouted, blinded by the sun.
He could see the silhouettes of Kaarvok and his minions in the sunlight.
"I will not kill this man!"
Crichton gasped for air.
"You know why?"
Aenos crawled up and attended his wounded face.
"Because I am NOT a Peacekeeper!"
Kaarvok smiled.
"Now I know you speak the truth." he said.
"But still...you look very similar."
Kaarvok examined Crichton for a couple of microts before standing up.
"How very odd..." he said.
His Xarai looked at him, and when Kaarvok noticed that they did, he turned to them.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Get them out of there!"
His minions growled and carried out their master's wishes.
The device on Kaarvok's wrist shined in the yellow sunlight.
