Ethereal Chorus Part 1

by ChianaGray

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She stood poised, gazing down at the dark rocks far below. It was a drop of death, a small pebble falling to the canyon below as if to emphasize the danger of what she was doing only moments after the boy had failed and fallen to his death. If she didn't emit just the right tone, the sound net would not activate to catch her. She raised her arms and turned, allowing herself to free fall as she saw the stalactites above. The sensation of the fall swept over her. The cool cavern air around her as the edge she dropped from raced farther and farther away. She eased out her call gently, a sense of calm in her near trance concentration as she plummeted down.

"Ooooooooeeeeeeeee........."

Chiana opened her eyes, waking up from her dreams with the sound of her tone still drifting through her as she sat up. She felt as if something were urging her but she couldn't place her finger on it as she dressed. She wondered absently if it was just something in her dream she missed, something about herself in those moments she had taken the stone.

She made her way to central command, gazing out over the stars in the portal screen as she pondered. The sense was still there as she began to wake up more, like she was missing something or maybe it was trying to reach her. She felt as if the sound was still there as she gazed out at a massive constellation of gases traced with silvers and flaring gold reds. Suns beamed with brilliance within the swirls and wash where spreads like ocean waves in phosphorescent particles exploded in wings like a rose bloom only to dissipate and dwindle. Streaks like lightning stormed through the galaxy like constellation.

"Pilot," she awed as she drew closer to the screen. "What is that?"

"I don't know," Pilot blinked up from the clamshell.

Chiana turned, her lips gently parting as she looked to Crichton standing at the command helm.

"I didn't realize you came in," she narrowed her eyes, coming around him when he didn't answer her. She looked to the passage way as Zhaan stepped in, a surreal sensation coming over her, as if she were still dreaming.

"Zhaan?"

Zhaan paused before the portal screen, gazing up as if she were hearing something that seemed strange to her as Aeryn and D'argo stepped into the chamber. Chiana's eyes widened on D'argo as he looked around himself like a lost cub. He looked almost transparent. Crichton and Aeryn looked only slightly more tangible than he did.

"What's going on?"

She reached out to D'argo, her gloved hand slipping right through him. She jerked around, looking to Aeryn as she stepped right past her, through her hip.

"Hey!"

"It's in space," Crichtons voice came around her as if he were walking in a circle around her as he spoke though his form stood at the helm, turning to Aeryn. "So there has to be something about it that we can understand. Maybe it's a planet being formed or just some kind of freak storm."

"Look at me John," Aeryns voice came as if she were close enough to Chianas ear that she grasped it. "I'm a prowler pilot. I've skimmed past dwarf stars that didn't frighten me as badly as this thing does."

"Woe, Aeryn. Afraid, doesn't sound good coming from you."

"Then take me more seriously and try to get us to pull away from this thing."

"I can't," Crichton shook his head. "The others..."

"Crichton," Chiana eased to the helm and tried to gain his eyes. "Crichton! Hey, can't you hear me?"

Crichtons brows creased, his crystal blue eyes turning to her unseeing as he slowly eased out his hand as if he were at least trying to touch her. She tried to take it, clenching her fist when her hand went straight through his.

"Frell!" She cried out in frustration, swinging her fists as she twirled away. "Can any of you hear me? Aeryn, D,argo?!"

"Chiana?" Zhaan gaped as she looked around herself almost blindly. "Chiana, I can hear you - you've got to-"

Chiana felt a brilliant flash of light as if it were surrounding her from within her own mind. She felt as if she were racing through it like a StarBurst and screamed out her fright. She jolted, finding herself in her room as her out cry seemed to literally circle around her and then rise into Moyas cieling as if someone were moving in that direction before it dissipated. She plopped down on her bed, looking over her room apprehensively before she laid back with the strange sensation she was laying back into her own body. She felt near to sleep when someone grasped her ankles.

"Hey!" She shouted as she slipped out of bed from their pull and grasped her sheets to try to hang on. The sheets came with her as she was dragged into the hall and down the corridor by unseen hands. She planted her hands on the floor, the dragging stopped as her feet were released and plopped down. She blinked slowly, looking up as Crichton stepped into the hall. He frowned down at her as he scratched at his eyebrow.

"Problems?"

"You want to tell me what the frell is going on?" She asked as she came to her knees and tilted her head at him. "Or am I having some really strange dream?"

"Well, you're laying in the middle of the cooridor, is that strange?"

"It is if you just got pulled out of bed by nothing that was there," she spoke quietly as she looked around herself. "I - I thought Moya was in trouble with that energy mass in space."

"I - right," He nodded slightly as he snapped his fingers and then smacked the ball of his fist into his palm.

"Are," she cut her eyes to him, beginning to have a strange feeling. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Never better, Pip." He spoke with amusement as he pointed his finger to her chest and then flicked her nose when she looked down. "Gotta get some things done. Maybe you should try laying back down or something."

"Right," she nodded as she backed away. "Whatever. Just ah - pretend I wasn't even here."

She shook her head to herself as she came into central command to gaze once again into the portal screen. The mass was still there. It seemed closer now, brilliant with light and movement as what looked like silver sheets of flame twisted out, leaving behind where it had disappeared a silhouettee of shimmering light. She turned her head to her shoulder as she pressed her comm.

"Zhaan. Are you seeing this?"

A brilliant light flashed. Chiana twirled away from it on instinct and came into a crouched stance, finding herself staring at Zhaan in the tier. Zhaan sat cross legged in front of the brilliance of the constellation. It seemed as if it were all around them, sounds like thunder rumbling through Moyas hull as she quietly chanted to herself.

"Zhaan..."

Zhaan turned her head slightly, her eyes searching worriedly as her brows creased with the unsureness that lined her intricate features.

"Zhaan," Chiana knelt in front of her, tilting her head as she dared to reach out to her in curiosity and touched her shoulder. Zhaans hands came to the sides of Chianas head. She held her gently but firmly as she touched foreheads with her.

"We're on different plains," Zhaans thoughts drifted through her mind. "Chiana, you've got to reach the right one and convince Moya to StarBurst. She wants to go into the field."

Chiana gaped as she grasped her wrists.

"Me? Why, Why not you?"

"You are the only one who is jumping the plains we are in and I can't reach it. She must not go into the field!"

Chiana gasped, feeling as if something snatched her by her stomach. Zhaan pulled away from her and looked deeply into her eyes beneath her brows. A silver light seemed to surround her, illuminating her blue and gold speckled flesh.

"Chiana, hold tightly to me!" Zhaan cried out as the light consumed her, spilling around Chiana though she did not feel blinded by it.

She grasped for Zhaan, feeling the same sensation of being raced through the light like a starburst. She moved her hands down, searching for solid ground to plant them on. It seemed like an eternity for her hands to reach down in front of her in the brilliant silver. She began to feel cool flooring slip past her fingers, sliding down smooth, cracked stone as the light began to swirl away from her. Her knees came down, the light still brilliant within her mind behind her eyes as she closed them. She felt almost sea sick in the wild images that raced through her mind and behind her eye lids. She saw with the perfect realness as if she were looking upon it in true life, a lake surrounded by mountains. There was mist rising over the water. Clouds brilliant with boiling fire and arctic lights filled the sky over it like a horrible storm. She swallowed hard as the vision swept over jagged peaks of crystals reflecting the lights in the storm and down to the waters edge where stood a single tree, massive and ancient upon a mound of roots that had rises and depths it could have taken her days to explore. In them were cave entrances, shadowed by the massive limbs that stretched out as far as the quarter of a mile. The naked, leafless tree was as huge if not larger than Moya. The only sign of life upon it were thousands of tiny purple buds, no larger than a pinkie nail. She refused to move from the solidness of the stone floor, her body trembling until hands came to her and urged her to rise.

She looked up with careful ease, a sense of awe washing through her fear as her eyes met what looked almost like the same tree beyond. It was in the darkness where the stone edge dropped into the nothingness. The tree seemed to follow it down forever, not in any true sense of form but as a powerful, artistically designed gathering of lights, fires, electrical currents and masses of energy.

Zhaan let go of her and dropped to her knees. She crossed her hands in front of her breasts, lowering her head as she began to chant near into a point of sobbing as tears raced down her slender cheek bones. A small particle of light came towards them emitting a high pitched tone. It expanded into a wide band of waves, its tone drawing deeper the wider it got. It curved itself around Zhaan, repeating her chant in her own voice. Her chant then seemed to whisper from every where as various tones, vibrations and sounds came from small particles of light that gathered around them, drifting from the tree.

Chiana spread out her arms, awing at the brilliance around her as many of the particles collected together and began to sing perfect tones within the others in Zhaans voice.

"What is going on?" Chiana barely breathed as small sparkles surrounded her, several of them repeating what she said in perfect voice. She whirled her head to the sound of a distant scream of horror. It began to draw closer, rising out of the depths below like the scream of a woman in terror and rage at the same time. Chiana grasped her ears at the piercing pain that stabbed into them, her eyes shooting up to the huge shaded mass of a reddish wing of light as it raced high above them in a mass of screams and then twisted like a flame into the tree where it seemed to explode into a wash of fire. It was followed by a wash of small particles that sounded near to chimes and the shattering of glass as they came swirling through the depths and then scattered out among the other particles. She jerked away as a light exploded in front of her making a deep vibration like a tuning fork and then shot away. In their place sat Rygel with his stubby hands over his eyes, screaming. Chiana knelt to him, taking his small hands and tilted her head to her shoulder as she gazed into his eyes.

"Take it easy Froggy you're alright now," she stated as she glanced to Zhaan who sat poised, tranced in her reverent chanting. "Zhaan said Moyas got to pull away from this thing."

"Are you farbot!" Rygel nearly squealed as his brows lifted high like sharded antennas. "If you haven't noticed we're not on Moya. If she leaves now we'll be stuck here!"

"Do you have any suggestions on how to get back?"

"Not a clue," he muttered, his brows faltering as he looked down. "If we don't do something, Aeryn has convinced Crichton they should leave. I have tried everything, I even tried biting their frelling hands off and they can't hear or see me!"

"Great," Chiana muttered as several particles gathered around her and began to chuckle and sing in tones of her own voice, interluded by a flaring red that swooped past Rygel in his own scream. "It's like were stuck in some kind of recorder or something."

"Don't look at me," he waved his fingers at his sides with a solemn look into her eyes. "It's frelling confusing. Ask Zhaan, this should be right up her alley."

"Yeah," Chiana smiled lightly though her eyes were filled with solemn fear as she looked to Zhaan. "But I don't think she's exactly present at the moment."

"The sounds are associated to colors," Zhaan muttered as she slowly swept her hands over her head and lifted her eyes to the tree distantly. "You must find the right tone that causes the light that brought us here."

"What did you say?" Chiana nearly chuckled as she raised an eyebrow as she half stood. "Since when did light travel the same speed as sound?"

She didn't answer, returning to her chants as Chiana eased closer to the edge and gazed down into the dark depth the tree spindled down into.

"I'm willing to try anything," Rygel muttered sadly. "If we stay here we shall starve!"

"Well, we can't just be stuck here." Chiana glanced at him and then turned her attention to trying to see what was far below. She looked up but the limbs of the tree forested away any ceiling, consuming what ever was above into a realm of color and life until it was as if she were looking into the brilliance of cut stones. She let out a gentle hum, her eyes brightening with curiosity as many of the particles began to collect around her and emit the same tone, gathering together into a larger spectrum when they began to match. When she stopped the spectrum shot away.

She turned her head to her shoulder, staring off into the bolts of lightning that shot down the trunk of the massive form as she shifted her feet and let her arms rise away from her. She thought of the stone, the way the pebble had fallen, the jarring of the sound net. She could remember the way she had felt believing Nerri was dead, the wrath that had lurked within her with no great villains to lash it out on. There was nothing to go to, no one had even listened. Part of her had not believed his death but the emptiness she felt for him had seemed to of just expanded like a dark dred. She had felt her heart twinge and pull at that place within it were he was held, not finding some whisper of him there to tug back from the fine strand. It was like someone had lashed her open like she had to take out the blue chip and then shot her with their pulse rifle in cold blood. Taking the stone had been like that shot, oddly enough though it also felt like it had revitalized her own life. She wanted to live, she always had but she wanted to face the fringes of that reaper who seemed to take people away from her and then leave her behind with the open wounds where they had rooted and flowered so deeply in her own spirit. She wanted to close the wound, maybe even, catch a touch of Nerri in that fine border line between living in life and living with death as the final result of it. So everybody dies, she wanted to do something more than just survive when they did. Somehow, defy the figment bastard that took Nerri away ... show him how she felt about the depth of the loss in her life ... retaliate and maybe even challenge the unseen with a gentle stretch of her finger tips to touch whatever places he must have gone. Maybe death would take her too, she had to know.

"What are you doing!" Rygel cried out as Chiana stretched out her arms further and stepped closer to the edge. She turned, gazing up at the spectrum above as she began to fall back.

"Ooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

She thought of Moya, how much she had come to care for that ship and the others. She could almost smell the light, distinct scent of her corridors even to the dringy mechanic smells in the docking bays. She pretended to see Pilots face as he concentrated over his helm, his arms darting up and down over his various panels, crystals and controls. She could feel as much as see the lights that began to collect and swirl around her. It was a strange sensation. A drop into the abyss without blind faith or even hope, only the great urges of must and home, she felt only a sense of gentle, calm will to be there with Pilot. Images flashed through her like a strobe light. She closed her eyes as the fall carried her beyond her breath and sucked it in to try again. She didn't feel the light like it was in her mind, this time it felt like it was expanding through her chest. She was jarred, hitting flat surface with the feeling someone had just knocked the hezmana out of her. The last of her breath flew out of her lungs and she opened her eyes, grasping for its return as her lungs squeezed together. She saw Aeryn come over her, her breath coming in heaves as she helped her sit up.

Chiana bent over where she sat and struggled for the air as Crichton bent down to her and grasped her shoulder.

"You okay?" He asked with alarm. "Where in the hell have you been? Chiana?"

She nodded, grasping Aeryns shoulders as she helped her stand. She looked to Pilot as her breath began to steady, her lungs accepting the air finally though it was painful to breath.

"You - you gotta turn Moya around," she looked desperately to Crichton. "We have to go - go back for Zhaan and Rygel. D'argo, where's D'argo?"

"Wait, wait," Chrichton shook his head as Chiana struggled away from them and ran to the door way, grasping it as her body screamed with pain at her movements. "Chiana, what are you talking about? Go back where?"

"The frelling constellation we passed," she grimaced as she stammered into the hallway and tried to struggle out of Crichtons arms as he grasped her. "The lights, those - those lights took us to something in there. They're on a planet -"

"Look, Chiana, just take it easy okay, there is no planet out there."

"I saw it!" Chiana shouted. "We've got to go back!"

"Chiana just - " Crichton raised his hand to her face, searching her eyes until she stopped struggling with him. "Just let me show you something, alright?"

She nodded, taking in several deep breaths to try to calm her racing heart as Crichton lead her into the central command with Aeryn. He glanced at Chiana as he pointed out at the constellation mass they edged. Above the great storm and not far from them was a leviathan. Crichton grasped her shoulder as she moved to speak, bringing his finger to his lips.

"Wait a second, okay?" He asked as he searched her eyes again. "Look, you guys weren't here when Aeryn and I woke up and we found that when we tried to scan the mass for any signs of you. There was nothing even remotely resembling an inhabitable planet out there."

"You thought we were on the other leviathan?" She asked as she gazed out at it with them.

"At first," Aeryn nodded. "Only, that leviathan isn't real. It's Moyas own reflection. Moya was attracted to this place because she thought she was picking up on another leviathan."

"That thing out there," Chiana nodded slightly as she glanced at both of them. "It's been portaling us around. That's how I got here from the planet. The tones, they - somehow the lights are sound and when you have the right sound you can travel through it."

"Chiana," Crichton sighed as he wiped his face.

"Then where are they!" Chiana demanded as she turned away from them. "Where was I, how the frell did I get here if I'm making this up?"

"I didn't say you were making it up," Crichton turned to her slowly. "Maybe you dreamed that part."

"Dreamed it?" She balked at him, her eyes lighting wide as she jerked her head forward and began to laugh.

"Chiana," Crichton blinked. "Since when does sound travel as fast as light?"

"Don't try to rationalize this with me," she narrowed her eyes at him with a slow curve of her head until she nearly had an ear facing the floor. "Maybe there isn't something right about you or this Moya. I could be on the wrong frelling ship."

"Oh," Aeryn blinked as she glanced at Crichton from her shoulder. "Then what would we be Chiana, your imagination?"

"Or something like that," Chiana tilted her head to the other side as she raised it with her lips parting, eyeing them suspiciously. "What are you going to do about finding the others?"

"We've already tried everything we can," Aeryn spoke quietly. "We can't stay here forever Chiana, face it. If we do we should starve."

Chiana turned and dashed away from them into the corridors. She ran like a wild fire into the nearest docking bay, heading straight for a transport pod. The other two were fast behind her, Aeryn catching up with her first and tackling her to the ground. Chiana oofed as she planted her palms flat in front of her. She twisted out of Aeryns grasp as she tried to stand with her, sucking in her breath with a horrified sensation as Aeryns arm seeped into her stomach as she pulled free, her arm coming out of her back. It was as if she were just a little more consistent than completely transparent. She threw herself to the transport, struggling to get the door to open as Crichton came up behind her and swung up with his pulse pistol, whacking her across the side of her head.

"Ungh!" Chiana swung away, standing for a moment. She blinked at the floor as it began to blacken around the edges of her sight and then close in.

TBC