"What was I supposed to do again, Pilot?" Joolushko asked as she climbed down into Pilot's neural cluster.
"Try to repair as much as you can." Pilot's calm voice said above her.
Joolushko shook her head.
"All right," she said. "But I'm not much of a mechanic."
She dropped herself to the ground and examined the damage.
"I know how to work machinery and devices and stuff." Jool went on as she picked up broken cables from the ground. "I learned that in my archaeological expeditions and field-trips I went at school and in my studies. But I'm not much of an expert with cables and technical stuff.
I'm more of an observer. You know?"
"I understand." Pilot said. "But please try your best anyway. I will appreciate any help you can offer me."
"All right." Joolushko said. "Here I go."
She grabbed on of the cables and attached it to a colon of wires.
Pilot screamed and other cables started to tear apart.
Quickly she yanked the cable out of the colon.
"I'm sorry, Pilot!" she shouted to Pilot. "I told you I wasn't much of a mechanic.
I'm no expert at this, quite the opposite!"
Joolushko started to cry.
"I'm useless. I can't even do this right!"
"You are not useless, Joolushko." She heard Pilot say over the comms-device she had been given by one of the DRD's.
"You did well."
"Apart from everything starting to blow up!" Joolushko replied.
"Moya and I cannot expect you to have it right at the first attempt. Try again." Pilot said.
Joolushko wiped her tears away.
"All right, Pilot. I'll try again."
She held the cable tightly in her trembling hands as she attached the cable to, what seemed to be centre colon, near some similar-looking cables who were also attached there.
She jumped as she heard Pilot gasp the moment when she pushed the cable into the colon.
"Pilot? Are you all right?"
"SCARRAN DREADNOUGHT APPROACHING!" he shouted.
Joolushko had repaired the power to the outer sensors, and Pilot immediately spotted the Dreadnought which approached them with deadly accuracy and immense speed.
"STARBURSTING NOW!"
Blue light surrounded Moya's hull as the Leviathan fled into Starburst.
FLASH
"You probably think this is a smart move." Harvey said to Crichton.
"But it isn't."
John tried to ignore the words of the neural-clone as it kept buzzing in his ears.
"Scorpius will recognise you." Harvey went on. "Remember the Gammak Base?"
"I remember that perfectly well." John answered in his mind.
FLASH
John did not intend to be captured.
He was planning to steal another Marauder, disguised as a Peacekeeper.
Maybe kill Bracca and Scorpius while he was at it.
That was the only thing John could come up with to escape the planet.
To escape death, for that matter.
"Follow me." Bracca said.
Crichton followed like a obedient soldier, supposedly looking for himself, in this tattered and destroyed facility, with corpses lying everywhere.
"Sir, I see movement!" one of the other soldiers suddenly said.
In a dark and silent sleeping quarters, a few scientists and Peacekeeper techs were hiding under their beds and inside closets, hoping to avoid death.
"Keep your hands where I can see them!" Bracca ordered.
The scientists obeyed.
For a moment, Crichton was afraid Bracca was going to kill them all, but he didn't.
He accepted their surrender.
"Enough Sebaceans have died today." Bracca thought.
Bracca should know. He has killed half of them himself.
He had their blood on his hands. And on his face.
Bracca's forehead was covered in dried-up blood.
His own, and that of twenty other Peacekeepers.
5 of them were his enemies.
Bracca felt horribly about killing fellow Peacekeepers.
But he had to kill them, in order to survive.
In order to carry out his orders.
"Escort these prisoners to the Marauder." Bracca said to four of his men.
"You three stay with me." Bracca said to two others, and to Crichton.
Bracca reported the capture of the scientist to Scorpius.
Crichton heard Scorpius's voice on the other end of the comms-link, and it sent shivers down his spine.
"You did well, Bracca." Scorpius said.
"Sir, if I may say so..." Bracca said.
A gut feeling told him it was unwise of him to say this to Scorpius.
"If we cannot find Crichton, shouldn't we not return to the Carrier?"
An alarming silence erupted.
"Crichton is here." Scorpius said. "HE was HERE. The neural-chip in his mind is sending him back to me, and I cannot risk losing him. Not again."
"Sir..."
Bracca didn't say it.
He even did not want to think it.
But he did.
He suspected Scorpius's obsession with Crichton going too far.
"He IS here, Bracca." Scorpius said. "I can smell him."
Crichton felt his heart beating in his neck.
"But perhaps you're right. Perhaps we should return to the Carrier. Things have gone from bad to worse here. It would be unwise to linger here any longer."
Bracca felt his uneasy feelings towards Scorpius fading.
Reason has not abandoned Scorpius. And it never will.
"Call for another Marauder to pick us up and meet me in the lobby." Scorpius said.
Bracca agreed and ended the conversation.
"Let's go." He said to his men.
Crichton followed.
"This was a bad idea." he thought to himself.
"It's not too late to surrender, you know." Harvey whispered in his ears.
Crichton's hand began moving out of his own again.
"Don't even think about it, Harv." John said as he focused his energy on keeping Harvey in line.
As Chiana closed the Transport Pod's doors, Jothee felt the cold wind leaving the Pod.
"Take us back to Moya!" Chiana shouted, wet and shivering.
"You got it." Jothee replied as he steered the Pod towards outer space.
"Come on, D'Argo." Chiana muttered as she laid his body on the floor and tried to wake him up.
"Come on, D'Argo, wake up."
She shook his head and shook his body.
She tried anything to wake him up.
"WAKE UP; DAMN YOU!"
She slammed his chest.
Chiana knew he was still alive.
He had to be.
She could feel his heart in his neck, but he did not respond.
"How's he doing?" Jothee hollered whilst he flew the Pod out of the planet's atmosphere.
"He won't wake up!" Chiana replied, as he hit D'Argo's chest hoping to get the water out of his lungs.
"He won't FRELLING wake up!"
"Please, dad, wake up." Jothee muttered as he watched the blue sky fade into black.
"Live."
"You're cold." Chiana said. "That's it, isn't it? You need heat!"
She took off her coat and laid it over D'Argo's chest.
"Please don't die here, D'Argo." Chiana whispered. "Not now. If you die in my arms, I'll kill you."
She smiled briefly as she heard her own words, but she swallowed them as she looked upon D'Argo's unconscious body again.
Nothing seemed to wake him up.
Nothing but the faint beating of D'Argo's heart told Chiana that D'Argo was alive.
"D'Argo!" she shouted.
"What the frell..." Jothee muttered.
"Where's Moya?"
Suddenly the Pod shook and stopped moving.
The turbulence caused Jothee to fall to the ground.
He didn't see what happen next.
The Pod was pulled in by a Scarran Dreadnought.
From this point on, they were prisoners to the Scarrans.
Crichton imprinted the entire facility in his memory.
He looked for all exits and entrances. Windows and doors. Anything which he could use to escape.
Bracca entered the lobby and immediately saw Scorpius standing in the centre, surrounded by the three soldiers which escorted him.
"Any sign of Crichton?" Bracca asked.
"Nothing." Scorpius said.
He was outraged by the fact he couldn't find Crichton, although he saw him through the security-camera.
"Perhaps he has left the facility." Bracca said.
"Perhaps." Scorpius said cold.
His rage could be read in his eyes.
The black suit reflected the pale light from the lamps above them.
Shadows hid their faces.
"But there is no need to worry, sir." Bracca said. "There is no way Crichton could have left the planet. He's still out there. We can still find him."
Scorpius looked at him silently.
"A part of me agrees with you." Scorpius said. "But another part of me says to me that we will never find Crichton again."
"We will, sir." Bracca said.
"Indeed." Scorpius replied.
Suddenly his eyes wandered to Bracca's soldiers.
"I thought you said you were with three soldiers?" Scorpius asked.
Bracca turned around and saw only two.
"I was." he said.
"Three soldiers accompanied you. Two remain." Scorpius summed up.
His mind went into overdrive as he finally draw his conclusion.
"Crichton!" he said enraged.
"He fooled us! He put on a Peacekeeper uniform!"
"Sir, I assure you, I couldn't have possibly known..."
"Find him!" Scorpius said.
The soldiers scattered and left through several corridors. Bracca left as well.
Scorpius remained silent as he stood in the centre of the room.
Watching and waiting...
"I know you're here, Crichton." Scorpius said.
His words echoed through the destroyed facility.
"I can smell your fear."
For a moment, everything was silent.
"You can smell my fear?" John Crichton suddenly said.
"I doubt it."
Crichton emerged from the shadows with two pulse-pistols aimed at his foe.
Scorpius smiled fearless.
"What's the matter, Scorpy?" John said.
His eyes sparkled insane.
"Cat got your tongue?"
John walked slowly into the light. He walked around Scorpius. Slowly.
John did not blink, and never took his eyes off his nemesis.
Or his guns.
"I only have to make one motion. One small movement with my finger. And you're dead. And I'm in paradise. Because when you're dead, it means my dreams must've come true."
"Well then." Scorpius said chilling. "What are you waiting for?"
Scorpius's eyes pierced through Crichton and almost seemed to see the wormhole-knowledge Crichton carried with him in his subconscious mind.
"Kill me." Scorpius said to Crichton.
Crichton's eyes seemed to burn.
"Do it." Scorpius said, knowing that the chip would not let him do it.
Crichton shot Scorpius in the right-leg.
Scorpius fell surprised to the ground, clutching his leg in great pain.
"That has to hurt!" Crichton said.
Perhaps this comment was meant to be funny, however there was no sign of humour in Crichton's expressions.
"But the pain you are feeling now is tiny, compared to the pain you put me through."
With every step Crichton took, he moved a bit closer to Scorpius.
"You tortured me. You hunted me. You hurt me."
A single tear rolled down Crichton's left cheek.
"You killed Gillina!"
Crichton shot Scorpius at his right shoulder.
He fell on his back, with his face to the ceiling.
As Crichton stood over Scorpius's trembling body, his shadow cast a darkness over his face as John stood right between Scorpius and the light above him.
"...You killed Aeryn..." John whispered.
His heart bled.
John aimed his gun at Scorpius's head.
"Crichton!" Scorpius tried to say. "Crichton!"
"But killing you would only mean the beginning of my vengeance. My bloodlust. My rage."
The gun trembled in Crichton's hand.
He wanted to pull that trigger, but Harvey wouldn't let him.
John struggled and fought, but he couldn't get himself to pull that trigger.
He put all of his strength into that single movement.
That one decisive moment...
"Crichton!"
Bracca appeared with 4 soldiers at his side, guns drawn and firing upon Crichton.
Crichton looked one final time in Scorpius's eyes, before he ran away, and left Scorpius trembling and bleeding on the floor.
"Crichton!"
