"It's just you and me now, Chiana. I need you."
She started pacing. He knew she was breaking. This was pressure point number one. This was THE pressure point. Her weak spot. It's always been Nerri, deep down, that could hurt her the most.
"Twenty years," she said. "I don't care."
When she tried to move past John and to the door, he pushed her back towards the bed. The room was small. There was only the bed and the door.
"We don't have time for this right now!" John said. Good god, he needed her more than she needed him. "I'm this close to doing something incredibly stupid."
She crawled out of bed, her boots kicking up the tussled sheets, stinking of sweat. He pushed her back down.
"So why don't we do it together?" she said. "There's no-one to stop us now."
When John tried to push her again, she pushed back, but she didn't go for the door.
"Let's kill them all. Just... let's..."
"You and me against the world kiddo. Just not like that. Never like that."
"Yeah..." She breathed out a laugh, singularly, self-deprecating, half-heartedly.
"Let's focus on Aeryn."
With two hands, Chiana pushed into John's chest, her hands too fast for his defense.
"It's always about you, Crichton. Why does it always have to be about you?"
"It's not... my... call..." John emphasized softly. "Peacekeepers, Pilots, Nebari...hell... Ancients, and Hynerians, and Kalish, and Hanarians...! Let's just take them on... one at a time."
"How are you enjoying the gift I sent you? You must've been getting pretty lonely on a base like that."
General G'dishi's smirk flashed across the huge screen, a knowing perverse smile that cut through all the scars on his ancient face. He would've winked if it hadn't been for the eyepatch.
Deccan eyed the woman waiting in the corner. "Her service is impeccable."
"Good. Murae has a way of clearing your mind by cleansing your body. She'll get you focused and the programme back on track on schedule within the time parameters."
"I'm not sure if that is possible, General."
The general's smile vanished. A displeased growl took its place.
"Listen to me, boy, I don't care about your pets. High Command has ordered another five hundred of them to be installed into Leviathan transport ships. We're getting them as young as possible. ever since we found the Birthing Grounds, to take away the need of a control collar."
"Five hundred units?" Deccan spoke.
"There is a fuel shortage, and these Leviathans have no need of them. They're a miracle to the economy. We should have thought of it sooner."
"How do I convince five hundred of them to leave their planet for good?"
"Make them. Force them. I don't care. You have all the resources at your disposal to take control of the native population as soon as you deal with your little problem."
Little problem?
The general ignored Deccan's cries. "High Command wants five hundred now, and seven hundred next solar year. Breed them. And report back to me in the next five days."
The transmission terminated. Deccan felt nothing but disdain for this daunting task.
"Breeding..." he muttered to himself. "That's all he ever cares for..."
The woman in the corner, Murae, took her opportunity to approach Deccan one last time.
"So," she said, unzipping her leather front. Her full bosom was whiter than a corpse. "do you want me now?"
"No. Just leave."
She slapped him across the face. Hard.
"You're not a real man," she said.
Deccan brushed his sore cheek, turned his shoulder and hit her cheekbone, his black metal ring cutting a gash beneath her eye.
"I said LEAVE." And she obeyed.
His hand was shaking in the dark.
General G'dishi was expecting a report by the end of the week. There wasn't enough time for Scorpius's plan to take effect. When the general set his mind to something it was impossible to turn it around, and with High Command taking a special interest. It must really be bad back home.
How was he going to inform Scorpius about this? He knew why High Command preferred to circumvent him rather than face him head on. Ever since he was given the title of Arbiter of the Accord, enforcer of the wormhole treaty heading a special taskforce, High Command had started to fear him. As long as he kept to the outer rim and the uncharted territories, his usefulness as an asset outweighed his risk value as a threat to the power structure of High Command.
Deccan had no interest in politics, but General G'dishi had not made a secret of his dislike of the hybrid, especially after a few drinks, and was more than willing to spill the beans on internal gossip among the higher ups once he got started. He could be equally sociable and terrifying, especially because he was so sociable. He always kept Deccan on his toes, wondering whether his next word may be his last.
A message blinked on the console in front of him and he tapped to read it. With a swipe of his hand, he moved the file to a transparant triangular glass pad he held in his hand, to read while he walked around his room. He immediately regretted it. The Nebari requested for specimens to examine before they participated in the auction.
As far as Deccan knew, there was no auction.
"As a token of our friendship and non-agression, I present you to this gift..."
Scorpius amiably signalled two fingers into the air and two adjudants came running in surgical uniforms pushing a large refridgeration unit into the middle of the room for inspection. When the lid opened with a hiss, after the proper acces codes were tapped into the device, it seemed to buzz for a moment, and cold air billowed from within. Nerri seemed to enjoy the smell, as he approached slowly with his arms folded behind his back. The unit's contents were straightforward.
"Its lower body, internal organs and arms are stored in a separate unit," Scorpius said. "If you would care to inspect the other as well?"
The next refridgeration unit came rolling in at Scorpius's command, but Nerri politely declined.
"Your courtesies are noted," Nerri said. He exuded an air of calm and grace, and impeccable awareness. Scorpius admired this trait, and would not underestimate their ruthlessness, despite their message of peace. Their leader may have been dressed in white, soft dress, but the soldiers were rigid, their faces stern and full of purple veins close to their skin. They seemed to follow his commands without a word, and Scorpius noted the two small metal stars implanted on his forehead. He recognised the devices.
"Then I will leave you to your business," Scorpius concluded.
Nerri smiled. "Scorpius, is it?"
Scorpius waited. He did not blink as Nerri drew his breath.
"Is this supposed to impress us?" Nerri shook his head in disappointment. "We are not here to play your little games, Scorpius. You can keep your wormholes. We want the Pilots."
Nerri's stare was calm. This was not confidence. This was certainty. Scorpius broke the stare first, smiling. "You can have them," he said, adding: "When I am dead."
"Unfortunate," Nerri said, as Scorpius turned his back on him and the Nebari soldiers showed him the door. Scorpius paused. "But that can be arranged."
Nerri smiled.
The rain was more an annoyance than an obstacle. They hindered his sight. In the sharp lights overhead he could see across the valley a blanket of droplets falling from the sky.
Deccan walked up to the nearest pool, fighting through a blinding reflection to watch the wind blow ripples across the water's surface. The rain was so light, it hardly seemed to touch the water.
"Sir!"
Deccan told him to stay back. He hated his new escort, he didn't need one before. Cordlin was one of his, at least, young and loyal, although usually the youngest were the more extreme in their trained obedience to anything High Command. He wasn't that bad. He was impressionable. Naive. And there was a scar across his face to remind him of that quality inside him every day. Peacekeepers could be cruel like that.
"Don't come any closer!" Deccan told him, yelling to make himself clear over the loud gusts of wind. "Or you'll scare them away!"
They weren't keen on visiting the Peacekeeper compound anyway, preferring to languish in the oceans far away, but usually their inherent curiosity lead them to heed the call anyway. Sadly, Deccan thought, naivety was their weakness as well. It might become the downfall of their species.
Deccan planted his knees into the muddy bank of the pool and lightly touched the water's surface, like drawing on a mirror. He knew the general would have preferred a more dramatic way of contacting the native species, like firing a pulse blast into the air or electrocuting the waters, but he wasn't like that, didn't work that way. Because he was better, and superior, to those barbarians floating around in their fortresses in the sky. And he knew they'd never understand.
Private Cordlin was already beginning to get on his nerves, but Deccan had no choice but to wait. Surely they would come.
Water dripped down his nose. Water poured down his brow and into his eyes. Water seeped through his clothes and clung to his skin. Yet he kept his hand perfectly still on the water, just above it so the water would magnetically cling to his skin and not disturb it. It became colder and colder, as if the touch of the water's edge spread all over his body. Then, as if he could feel the pressure rising, he knew it was coming.
With a mighty splash the creature exploded into the air, dousing Deccan with a crashing wave. Yet Deccan had not moved his hand, and felt the water level had dropped slightly now a huge mass had arisen from it.
The creature did not seem pleased to be summoned. It wanted to tower over Deccan just to scare him.
"I need to speak to the Elders!" Deccan spoke, while spitting water from his mouth. "Tell them! And tell them that it is important or else I would not have asked. The survival of your race hangs upon it."
"The Mother?" its voice was booming, dark, yet worried.
"The Mother is fine, for now. There are other dangers. I carry warnings, and advice.
The Pilot creature started to talk in his deep mother tongue, full of strange seemingly overlapping syllables, as if he was speaking in two voices at a time, thought and voice merging in several layers at a speed Deccan could not comprehend.
"I cannot speak now!" Deccan spoke. He knew that if he'd tell them the whole story now, they'd never speak to him. It took the Elders ages to make a decision, but if he got them together and forced them to see things his way...
"Find the Elders! Plead with them on my behalf that I must see them before this night is over! There is little time!"
The creature seemed to hum, before descending with a crash back down into the depths below.
Deccan grasped his chest. It was as if he had been holding his breath the entire time.
The Elders had denied him before. They objected to him desecrating their goddess Mother by cutting her open and creating a Den and controller inside her brain. They called it blasphemy of the highest order, but the earthquakes had stopped now and the Pilots seemed healthy, so when would they admit they were wrong? For ten cycles he'd been helping this race and never have they treated him as anything but an outsider. But from experience Deccan knew, they could be courteous, when they were afraid.