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.

Author's note. I wrote this in 2001 and managed to lose it. Someone sent it to me some years ago and I said, "I'll post this when I get around to it." Okay, here it is. Just in case you haven't figured it out, the whole plot was stolen from Anthony Hope's 1894 novel, The Prisoner of Zenda. I do love those dead, white writers.

AERYN

"There goes Moya's starburst." John said under his breath. I checked the

readouts out of habit, but starburst was unmistakable.

"Come on, Crais. Do it, dammit. Don't wait around trying to be a frelling hero."

John was still mumbling.

"I think Crais will manage to avoid heroics, he's quite an accomplished

fugitive."

John snorted. "A regular Dr. Richard Kimble. But the only reason he's any good

at being a fugitive is that he's had lessons from the best."

I looked very thoughtful. "I don't think I taught him so much."

Before John could react to that, I saw Talyn starburst. I let myself breathe again.

John grinned at me. " Don't relax just yet. We still have the damned

Peacekeepers to worry about, Aeryn."

I went back to the readouts. They were the same. "I can't tell what class of

ship that is with only the transport pod's sensors, but it's one of the older

long range Patrollers. I doubt if a Retrieval Squad or someone working directly

for Scorpius would use anything but a top-of-the-line ship, so it was just bad

luck that led us to run into a routine patrol out here."

I noticed one readout and smiled grimly. "The ship won't have more than four

Prowlers and I can see them maneuvering to get back aboard. They're going after

Moya and Talyn. As long as we stay here in the asteroid field, they won't see us

and then they'll be gone."

"Leaving us where?" John asked.

"Here, of course. I'll be busy with the sensors, so you get to work on the map

fibers and answer that question."

An arn later we had our answer.

"The exact geographical center of nowhere. There isn't one habitable planet that

we can get to. Frell, there's hardly a damned uninhabitable planet anywhere on

these fibers." John tossed the fibers disgustedly aside.

I leaned over, picked up the fibers and handed them back to John. "Then you'll

have to be creative, won't you?"

I stood up and John put his arm around me.

"Speaking of being creative, we could try..."

"...to get some sleep." I finished for him. "Or, at least I will. Our oxygen is

limited as well as our water, food and fuel. I've shut down everything

non-essential. Now I'll shut myself down for a while until you tell me you have

a plan."

I kissed him lightly and walked back into the cargo area. Within microts of

wrapping myself in a blanket, I was asleep.

When I awoke again, I could hear John singing quietly.

"Some people claim,

There's a human to blame,

But I know, it's not

John Crichton's fault."

I smiled at him as I sat down at the controls. The sensors still showed nothing

but a sun and a few orbiting lumps of rock that had been there when I left.

"Singing to keep your spirits up, human?"

"No, Miss Sun. Singing to celebrate. I found us a place to go, I think."

I moved over as John showed me what the map fibers indicated. "There are no

habitable planets anywhere near here. According to the fibers, this is a huge

interstellar desert with no oases anywhere. But I found one."

"A habitable planet? Where the maps say none exists, John?"

"No such luck. What I found is a gas giant with a nice ring of ice around it.

Ice turns into water and with the power from the pod, we can crack water into

hydrogen and oxygen. We'll have something to breathe and to drink, at least. The

longer we can last, the better chance we have that Moya or Talyn will find us.

We can be there in less than a solar day at our best economical speed."

I looked at the fibers, but I couldn't see a better place to go. If there was

one, John would have found it. "We'll still be short of food and fuel and it

would be a miracle if we could find cesium pure enough to fuel the pod's engine.

Food is out of the question."

"Less we scare up a little budong, Aeryn. Since I solved the water and oxygen

problem, you get to kill the budong, Ah reckon."

I recognized the accent and tried to copy it. "The secret to budong huntin' is

havin' the raht bait. And Ah jist happ'n to have a lil tender hu-man astro-nut

handy."

John turned and stared at me. Then he smiled. "You are just getting too good,

Darlin'."

"Don't ever forget that, Crichton." I teased.

Two solar days later I was busy feeding chunks of ice into the water

purification unit. John had left the water cracking machinery and headed for the

cockpit.

"John, whatever's in the cockpit is not going to get us much oxygen to breathe.

And it'll be full of impurities." I called to him. I got no reply. I shrugged

and continued my work. John could just go outside and get more ice if his batch

didn't get broken down into useful oxygen.

"Aeryn, can you come here, Honey?"

I dropped what I was doing and ran to the cockpit. "What is it?" I asked.

"I thought I saw a ship on the sensors. Straight ahead at about ten o'clock

high, and maybe twenty thousand metras. If it is there, it's behind that big

frelling boulder that looks like Crais's fat eema." John tapped the readout

screen.

"Crais is our..." I began.

"Punishment for our sins." John finished. "Whoa! There it is, Aeryn. It is a

damned ship."

We looked at each other. John's hand rested lightly on the long-range

communicator. "Okay, so what's out there but Peacekeeper patrols, Scarren

patrols and the occasional pirate?"

I examined the reading from the sensors. "Us, obviously. Very few peaceful,

helpful traders or other honest types would come into a section of space so

devoid of planets of any sort. And so full of Peacekeeper and Scarren warships

as well."

As another asteroid swung in front of the ship, I made some last minute

calculations based on the readouts. "The ship is small, much smaller than most

warships. And it's not in our data base."

John rested his hand on the back of my neck. "If I had a really good pilot, I'd

sneak up on him. Keep those damned rocks and ice chunks between us until we

could get an idea if he's armed, or what."

I gave John my most disgusted look. "If you had a really good pilot? You don't

know a good thing when you see it, human."

John buried his head in my hair. "Oh, I do know that, Aeryn."

Four arns of maneuvering found us landing on a rocky asteroid. As it turned,

we'd be able to see the other ship that was now only a few thousand metras away

from us.

"They left the garage door open." John commented as the ship came into view.

That was true. A hatchway big enough for our pod to enter was open to space.

I moved back to the sensors. This close, I could use our passive sensors and not

alert our neighbors.

"The main engine is shut down, but the heat signature indicates it's still

operational. Even if it's not, we can probably get more fuel and some food."

John looked at me strangely. "That ship isn't Hynerian, is it? I'm not going to

have to eat majules for the whole trip back, am I?"

I shook my head. "Not Hynerian. But, while I can't positively identify the ship,

I just have the feeling it's Sebacean."

JOHN

I glanced at Aeryn. "Sebacean? Not Peacekeeper, just Sebacean?"

Aeryn went back to the sensor readouts. I noticed a strand of hair resting on

her cheek and started playing with it. Aeryn pushed my hand away. She hates to

be distracted when she's busy. I love distracting her.

"I can't get anything definite, John. It just looks Sebacean."

I tapped the communicator and glanced at Aeryn. She nodded.

"Unknown ship, this is Leviathan transport pod. Do you copy? Come in."

I repeated the inquiry three more times and got only the same background noise

from space as a reply.

"Aeryn, if we walk in, we could be in the middle of a ship full of critters,

god-like aliens or mad scientists. I bet whoever belonged on that ship left and

left so fast they didn't close the door behind them. I don't like it."

"You'll like trying to eat hydrogen a lot less, John. We haven't got another

choice."

I reached out and brushed a strand of her hair back. "And I hate not having any

choices, Aer."

We headed for the other ship. Not so unsurprisingly, once the pod was inside,

the hangar door didn't close behind us. In another quarter of an arn, Aeryn and

I were in our suits standing in the hangar examining the air lock that led to

the interior of the ship.

Aeryn examined the controls to the air lock. "I think the problem is that the

personnel air lock is jammed on the other side. The ship's computer probably

shut all the controls down until someone cleared the jam. I think no one is left

on board, so we'll have to get inside and clear the jam ourselves."

"I assume the critters who caused the jam will thank us for that."

Aeryn gave me a look I couldn't quite decipher through the faceplate of her

space suit. But, in a few microts we found a small air lock used to move parts

into the hangar from the rest of the ship. There was just enough room for one of

us to go through at one time.

"Okay, Aeryn. I'll give a blood curdling scream if things aren't good on the

other side." I bent down to enter the hatch, but Aeryn stopped me.

"We need a soldier to go through first, John. That way, if there is a problem,

I'll handle it. Quietly." Aeryn slipped through the hatch and closed it behind

her. I could hear air being pumped in.

The fact that Aeryn was right about who should go in first didn't stop me from

hating it. All I wanted was to get Aeryn someplace where she'd be safe and happy

for the rest of her life. If the inhabitants could be taught to make a pizza and

brew beer, I could live with that, too.

Finally, I could hear the door on the other side opening. No gunfire. No

screams. I had the air in the airlock vented and climbed in. In a few microts, I

was in a short corridor that ended in a T. Aeryn was at the other end, checking

in each direction, her pulse carbine handy.

"Everything's clear so far, John. The jammed airlock should be to our left and

then another left." Aeryn took off, leaving me to cover her back. At the first

corridor we turned left and then stopped. I moved up to stand by Aeryn and then

we moved into the corridor, our weapons pointing at whatever had jammed the air

lock.

"Frell."

TBC