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.

The man remained calm. Perhaps he was a Disrupter after all. "Aeryn, put the

pistol down. You want to know who I am? I'm someone who cares about what happens

to you. All I want to do is get all three of us out of this in one piece."

I pushed the pistol into the side of his head a little harder. "Do you think I'm

frelling stupid? No one cares about me. No Peacekeeper ever cared about another.

And no non-Peacekeeper could care about one of us. Talk!"

He smiled. "Velorak cared about you. You turned him in, but you felt like dren

afterwards. You cared for him. And your mother cared about you. Enough to tell

you that she had cared for your father. That you weren't an assigned birthing."

Now I was scared. "No one could possibly know about how I felt about Velorak or

about my mother. What the frell are you?"

"Someone who does care for you, although I don't know why if you'd do this to

him." I felt the barrel of her pulse rifle against the back of my head. Frell!

She had snuck up behind me.

Suddenly I was tired of the whole frelling thing. I reversed my pistol and

handed it to him butt first but kept my hand on it. When he took the butt, I

moved my hands up and covered his finger on the trigger.

"Just kill me now. I'm frelling tired of being used. I'm tired of being lied to.

I'm tired of the whole frelling thing. You're going to kill me any way, one way

or another. Just kill me now and get it over with." I started pushing his finger

against the trigger. "Just kill me, please. I don't want to be left here or in

the desert to die by denches or go into the living death. Kill me, please."

He managed to pry my fingers off the pistol and tuck it in the back of his belt.

For some reason, I found myself with my head resting on his shoulder and both of

his arms were around me. "Aeryn, I'm from a race called humans. We don't get the

heat delirium. I can handle the desert with no problems. We planned to use the

space suit to bring Queen Flavia back. She's who you were supposed to impersonate.

We expected to find her here. We'll take you back and everything will be okay,

Aeryn."

I pushed him away. I was determined to die with a shred of dignity left. "I

can't go with you. Why do you think I was in a cell? Why do you think I attacked

you as soon as you opened the cell? I knew the people who brought me here would

never reinstate me. Peacekeepers who are irreversibly contaminated are never

reinstated. I tried to escape. I didn't know we were in the middle of a frelling

desert until I got outside." I pulled up the leg of my pants so they could see

my leg, still red and raw from the pulse pistol blast that had wounded me. "I

can control the pain as long as I'm just walking around in here. If I have to

march for two nights, I'll never make it. You have no choice. Kill me and let me

die with dignity." I stood to attention and waited for one of them to shoot me.

The man knelt and examined my leg. "Aeryn, can we fix this with the stuff in our

medical kits?"

The woman bent over and examined my leg. She pulled out her medical kit and

started working on the leg. The man stood and walked away. "I'll see if I can

find the water. Be back, Hon."

I stared down at the woman. Somehow, I couldn't think of her as Aeryn Sun. "I

don't understand this. I don't understand you. And most of all I don't

understand that frelling human at all. Why is he doing this?

She laughed. "You already understand everything now as well as I do after all

these cycles. As to why he's doing it, that's simple. He doesn't let his friends

die. Neither do I."

She pulled the pant leg down and stood. "Okay, Aeryn Sun. Your leg is as good as

I can make it. Now let's go."

I decided it was pointless to try to make sense out of either one of them. I

followed her down the hallway.

JOHN

We left the abandoned research station about an arn before sunset. I kept a

close eye on the new Aeryn. In an arn she started limping, but kept up with us

and never complained. She was my Aeryn all right. Whoa! That was a very strange

thought. We kept marching towards the waterhole.

"John." I stopped when Aeryn spoke.

"What is it, Babe?" We had been marching most of the night and now were only a

few arns from sunrise.

"We made a wrong turn. This isn't the canyon we came through coming here. We're

headed away from the cave."

I looked around me. "You sure, Hon?"

I should know better than to ask that kind of question. She was sure. I checked

the canyon walls. They were too steep to climb, even if they were only ten

metras or so high.

"There was a fissure in the canyon wall about a quarter of an arn back. We could

climb back up there and get back on course." Aeryn One Eye was as sharp as my

Aeryn.

"Turn around people."

A half an arn later, I had fallen down the damned fissure three times and my

Aeryn had fallen once. It was no use. We headed for the entrance to the canyon.

By the time the sun rose, we were a good three arns behind schedule. I helped my

Aeryn into the space suit and offered Aeryn One Eye the use of my arm to lean

on. She looked like she was going to hit me and then curtly declined. Could I

handle having two Aeryns around? Hell, could I survive two of them?

Three arns after sunrise Aeryn One Eye was starting to limp badly and then

stumbled badly. I lifted her up. She looked like dren.

I looked at My Aeryn. "Okay, Hon, we'll put the space suit on this Aeryn and

I'll rig a sunshade out of our blanket. We'll rest for a while, and I'll douse

you with water."

My Aeryn didn't say a word. She just stripped off the suit and put it on the

other Aeryn. She was only wearing her black PK BVDs. I helped her lie down and

started pouring a little water on a cloth and wiping her with it.

"You gonna be okay, Hon?" She just nodded. Christ, now that was scary. Normally

Aeryn would at least glare at me for suggesting she wasn't 100 percent in

control of everything. In another half an arn, Aeryn One Eye looked like she

might be ready to go. I switched the suits. Aeryn One Eye actually started out

pretty good, but in another half an arn she started to stagger and then she

started getting the shakes. I looked at My Aeryn through the faceplate of the

suit. She looked like dren, too.

"Hon, I'm going to carry her. In a half an arn, we'll put her back in the suit

and then I'll carry you."

"John, don't be a fool. You can't carry us through this heat." Aeryn could

barely whisper.

"Aeryn, I can't leave either one of you, either." Unless I have to, I said to

myself. I bent over and got the other Aeryn over my shoulder and started off

again.

In half an arn we switched, but My Aeryn refused to let me carry her. She

staggered along by my side and I managed to get an arm around her waist and held

her up. Pretty soon I had the other arm around the other Aeryn in spite of her

being in the suit.

"Aeryn, what was the name of the Scorvian spy you fought on Moya?" I asked.

Aeryn tried to stop but I pulled her along. "What the frell are you asking that

for, John."

"What spy?" Mumbled Aeryn One Eye in the suit.

"Just answer the question, Aeryn."

"Matalla. She was frelling Matalla." Aeryn glared at me.

"I need to tell if your mind is starting to go, Honey."

"We need to worry about your mind, Crichton." She replied.

I dragged them on for nearly another arn. I had to stop. "I think we're lost

ladies. Even going as slow as we were, we should have gotten to the cave by

now."

My Aeryn staggered a little and turned around, then grabbed me. "Too far." She

whispered. She waved vaguely behind us. Then I saw it. A little grove of stunted

trees near where the cave was. I grabbed both women and headed for the cave. "I

love you, Aeryn. " I said as I gently kissed her forehead. "What would I do

without you?"

In two hundred microts we were in the cave. I picked My Aeryn up and carefully

placed her in the spring. I pulled the other Aeryn out of the suit and put her

in the water, too. My Aeryn put her hand on my arm and pulled me to her face.

She whispered in my ear, "You'd be frelled without me, human. And don't you ever

forget it."

I checked the Other Aeryn. She looked a lot worse than My Aeryn. Her skin had

been hot and dry and her eyes seemed to be out of focus. As I put her into the

water, she had shuddered and started twitching slightly. I got as much of her

under water as I could and then went in with her. I held onto her so that only

her face was out of the water. "Aeryn? What was your father's name, Honey?"

She turned and looked in my direction. "Tal, " was all she could manage.

After a quarter of an arn, My Aeryn sat up in the spring and very slowly waded

over to the two of us, keeping most of her under water.

"Aeryn, are you okay?" She looked better, but I wasn't sure she was better.

"I feel like dren. I'm so tired I could sleep for a monen, but my body temperature

is about normal and no permanent harm has been done. " She began checking

the Aeryn I was holding onto. The Other Aeryn's eye opened and seemed to focus.

"How do you feel, Aeryn?" She asked quietly.

"Too hot." Was the only reply the Other Aeryn could manage.

We sat there holding her in the water and talking to her for another arn before

My Aeryn was finally convinced she had recovered without any permanent damage.

I picked the Other Aeryn up and put her down on the blanket we'd brought. Aeryn

laid down next to her and I examined both women.

"She's skinnier than you, Aeryn. She's had a harder life. She has more scars,

too." I wondered if there were other Aeryns in other Universes like her.

My Aeryn chuckled. "She never had a good human man to take care of her before.

She'll be all right now."

I wondered what life would be like with two Aeryns. Twice as interesting or twice

as complicated? My Aeryn tapped the blanket beside her and smiled. I tried to lie

down on the outside of the blanket, but Aeryn insisted I get in the middle, in case

the Other Aeryn needed help.

"Are you two going to be okay?"

My Aeryn nodded. "We're both very tired, that's all. I think that Pilot's DNA

may have changed my susceptibility to heat a little. I seem to be in better

shape than she is."

TBC