The Prisoner of Zendai

By UCSBDad

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Farscape or anything of Anthony Hope's. Rating K. Time: Long, long ago in a Farscape galaxy near you.

"I recreated with others in exchange for a place to sleep, Sir." Recreated, my

eema. Frelled and beaten by a succession of thugs who enjoyed having a

Peacekeeper to humiliate. "Not all of them were Sebaceans, Sir." I carefully

observed the two. Surprisingly, neither seemed to react. The woman kept her eyes

moving at all times and her pulse rifle aimed at my heart, but nothing more. The

man seemed oddly upset about my story, but he didn't display the disgust at my

actions that I knew they both felt. I waited for a reply. Finally, I got one.

"Okay, " the man said, "what happened next?"

I took another deep breath. They knew everything. That was the only possible

explanation for them ignoring what I had done. They had known for a long time

and the disgust had worn off. But I was still alive. I continued.

"There was a Luxan named B' Graat. He, well, he sort of liked me. He loaned me a

pulse pistol so I could hunt for runaway miners who lived in the hills and

raided for food or women. There were bounties on them, Sir. I killed five in one

monen. I made enough to buy a pulse pistol of my own and a few other things. I

was good at it, Sir. In a cycle I had made enough buy passage to another planet.

There was a battle between two factions of fisher-folks who operated on the new

planet I went to. So, I got a new job."

The man interrupted. "I saw you in a bar. A girl challenged you and you shot

her."

Frell! I had never seen this one before. He had not been in the bar. I knew it.

Unless he could change his appearance like a shapeshifter. I suddenly looked at

both of them. Were they even Sebacean? I had to get a hold of myself. If I kept

this up I'd be so confused and disoriented they'd kill me for being absolutely

useless.

"Yes, Sir." Suddenly I flinched. A burst of pain tore through where my left eye

had been.

The woman threw something to me. I caught it and stared at it. A field medical

anesthetic stick. She hadn't asked the man if she could give it to me. Was she

really in charge? Did they know so frelling much about me that they had planned

out what to do in every possible situation? I hadn't had to do so much thinking

when I was a Peacekeeper. I activated the end of the stick and pressed it just

below my left eye. In a dozen microts I couldn't feel any pain at all. That was

so good.

"You drink to dull the pain. You drink too much." Said the man.

"Yes, Sir." Yes, frelling sir, I wanted to scream. You live for frelling cycles

with your eye throbbing. You wonder what will happen if you lose the other eye.

How will you die once no one needs to fear you?

Frell! If I survived these two, someone else would kill me. Why did I fear

death? My death had never seemed important before.

"The planet was called Serengretti, Sir. Nothing but a run-down commerce planet.

One local clan had hired me to take out some competition. I thought back to that

day. Where had the man been when he saw me?

"Ehrni! Didn't I tell you to keep my frelling glass full?" I had yelled.

I was dressed in a pair of dirty black Peacekeeper issue pants and a black tee

shirt. I had a pulse pistol riding on each thigh and a pulse rifle lying on the

bar I was standing at. A short, almost globular being, raced over to refill my glass.

I was in a shabby bar on a poor planet somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Daylight shone through the poorly made wooden plank walls and the floor was

packed dirt. Fortunately, it rarely rained here. I tried to remember everyone in

the bar. No one looked remotely like the man or the woman.

"SUN!" The scream surprised everyone in the bar.

A young girl stood in the doorway of the bar. She was dressed in ragged clothes,

but had an embroidered scarf wrapped around her head. At her hip was a pulse

pistol.

"You killed my whole clan, you Peacekeeper bitch. I'm all that's left but I'm

here to kill you."

I had turned to face the girl. "Go away, little girl. The S'Fanta clan didn't

want to pay to kill off children. And I hate to kill and not get paid for it."

We two stood facing each other. Suddenly I drew and a bolt of yellow light went

through the girl and her gun clattered to the floor. The girl followed it.

Ehrni peeked around the end of the bar. "She's dead."

I snorted. "Of course she is. I don't miss."

"No, you don't, Officer Sun. That's why I need to hire you."

I turned to face the speaker. He was a tall Sebacean, seated at a table near a

window. The man opened his coat to show he was unarmed. "Will you allow me to

buy you a drink, Officer Sun and propose a business deal to you."

I walked over and sat by him.

"My name is Macton Tal and I have a problem with a Luxan. I believe we'd both be

happier if he was dead."

I smiled and the man started running his hand over the inside of my thigh and

outlining his plan.

"That's pretty much the way I remember it, too, Aeryn." If I hadn't known better

I would have said he was sad.

"What happened next? I missed the rest."

Did he? Or did he just want me to embarrass myself by telling what had happened

next. Frell the both of them!

"He wanted to recreate. We went to his ship. He had some food. Real Sebacean

food and something to drink. A cadet would have known better, Sir. He had spiked

something. I woke up with a bigger head than usual and with my hands cuffed

behind me. Macton Tal was gone, and two others had replaced them."

"I doubt he was Macton Tal." The man said.

I nodded. He could tell me it was frelling Bishan XXI if he wanted to. "What you

said about the alternate Universe? I heard them. They said the experiments had

led them to a reality discontinuity, but that it wasn't any good for their

purposes and they could only access one. They said I was all they had gotten

that was marginally useful."

"What did they want?" he asked.

"I'm to impersonate a Sebacean. I don't know who or why. Just that I was to stay

here and wait."

"What were you promised in return." The woman asked that. I couldn't bring

myself to think of her as me, just as the woman.

"Restitution of my rank and a return to duty." Neither one of them reacted to

that. Frell, if they were Peacekeepers, who was I working for? If I was working

for Peacekeepers, who were they? Frell! Time to try to make a deal.

"You have your own replacement for the Sebacean I was supposed to impersonate,

Sir. I know I don't rate reinstatement. I'll help you in any way I can, Sir.

Tell me what to do and I'll do it. No questions asked. I'll never talk about

this. Not ever. Just let me walk away from this when it's over."

The two of them stared at each other for a microt. I could tell they were

communicating. The woman really was me. I could almost tell what she was

thinking. If only I could get some sort of handle on the man.

The man spoke. "We don't have any need for your services at this point. Things

have changed. However, your services are appreciated. We can't get you

re-instated, of course. But we can have a doctor look at your eye and at least

eliminate the pain if not restore your vision. After that, we can provide you

with sufficient funds and transportation to a commerce planet where you can

begin your life again."

"Thank you, Sir." I said quietly. Frell! They were going to kill me. When

someone like me was no longer of any use, they got killed. I had to get out of

here, but how could I cross that frelling desert. How were they going to cross

it?

"Aeryn?" We both looked at him, "Yes?" We said in unison.

He smiled. He did that a lot. He must be a Disrupter. "Aeryn with the pulse

rifle, I didn't hear any weapons fire. How did you get rid of the other one?"

"I got rid of the other two with my small pulse pistol. They were making such an

effort to be silent while planning their ambush, I decided I'd better be quiet

when I sprang mine. The noise didn't reach back here I suppose."

The man stood and stretched. "Okay, let's check out the garage and make sure

Daddy didn't take the T-Bird's keys away. Then we can get the Hell out of

Dodge."

A hundred microts later it didn't look much like we'd be leaving any time soon.

"Frell!" The man said. "You couldn't have wrecked the calorics on this buggy

better if you'd tried, Aeryn." He stood up and kicked the useless ground vehicle.

"Sorry, John." He would be standing right where a shot going through him would

hit the engine.

"Not your fault, Babe."

These people were the strangest Peacekeepers I'd ever met.

"Sir, can't we use your vehicle to leave here?"

Both smiled as if I'd made a joke, but it was the man that replied. "We don't

have a vehicle, Aeryn. We walked here. The other Aeryn has a space suit. The

thermal controls let her function in the heat of the desert. We'll just have to

have you two share the suit until we get back. We should be okay."

They must have seen that I thought they were farbot. I tried to think of

something to say to that. He had walked here in the desert heat? That was so

unbelievable that I couldn't even contradict him.

The woman spoke. "Don't worry. He only sounds farbot. We'll make it."

"Okay, ladies. We'll need water. Aeryn with the eye patch, do they have any

here?"

I nodded.

"Well, go get it. We have about a half an arn until sundown. Aeryn, get your

suit out and check it. I don't want anything going wrong. I'm going to see if

they were dumb enough to leave anything around to identify who's involved in

this dren."

The woman obligingly busied herself with a suit. The man started pawing through

data spools that had been scattered on a desk. I headed for a supply cabinet I

was familiar with, I walked down the hallway expecting a shot in the back at any

microt. I turned unto another hall and entered the supply room. It was still

where I had seen it. A spare pulse pistol. I checked the chakon oil cartridge

and found it full. Then I sat back to wait to see who came for me. I didn't have

long to wait.

"Aeryn! Where the frell are you? We have to get going." He walked into the

storeroom and I rammed the muzzle of the pulse pistol into the side of his head.

"Who the frell are you? What the frell are you? All this talk about alternate

timelines and that dren, you sound like a frelling Tech. But the woman is a

Commando and she obeys you. But you two don't act like any frelling Tech and

Commando I ever saw."

TBC