Ethereal Chorus Part 2
by ChianaGray
Chiana opend her eyes, her head pounding painfully like a hammer as she drew to her knees and stared at the containment cell door.
"There is no planet, Chiana!" Crichton shouted right into her ear. She grasped it, whirling her head to him but he wasn't there.
"You can't leave now," Aeryn spoak to her other side. It was as if she was standing not far away from her shoulder but the cell was empty. "I told you we should starburst the frell out of here."
"You got to give them a chance to come back," Crichton spoke gently. "They couldn't just disapear."
"It's going to rip this ship apart!" Aeryn spoak more heatedly. "Starburst now damnit!"
"Oh my frelling god," Crichton retorted in beat with the pounding that hammered at Chianas tempils as she eased up to the cell door and jimmied its lock. She was out in only a few microts, running towards the docking bays again. "Oh my frelling god, Chiana! Since when is sound as fast as light!"
Chiana came to the transport, sliding the pods door open with a harsh grimmance as Crichton repeated himself over and over in the hammering beat. She hopped into the pilot seat and powered the transport into life, shooting out of the bay and towards the other leviathen. She sighed deeply when his voice and the pounding seemed to fade away, her eyes wild with curiosity and fear as she eased the pod into the dock of the mirror leviathen. It was pitch dark inside except for the deep blue glow of emergency reserve lights.
She stepped out, raising her finger tips to her comm but somewhere along the lines it had fallen off. She looked over the dark patches of black shaded in deep midnight blues, unable to see much of anything as her foot steps echoed. She paused as she saw the bright antennae lights of Drds trafficing around, wondering at first if they were the sparks of light again. She jerked her head up to the sound of foot steps, slipping away into the dark cautiously. D'argo entered the bay and she watched him with a tilt of her head. He stood glaring out blindly with narrowed eyes, his nostrils flared as he held his qualta in its rifel from.
"Who is there," he demanded with a tilt of his head, growling deep within his throat.
"Is - is that realy you?" Chiana asked lightly.
"Chiana?" He asked as he lowered his qualta and tried to find her with his eyes. "I thought I told you to stay out of the areas without power."
She crept up to him, her heart feeling as if it might pound out of her as she dared to plant her gloved hand on his chest. She turned her head into him and held him tightly, closing her eyes at the feel of his warm strength as his hand came to her back and he seemed to growl his smile. His heart beat was solid and steady, all the fears and unknown seeming to melt away as she held on to him.
"What are you doing?" He asked softly. "I told you it isn't safe to wander around."
"We've got to get out of here," she spoak quietly as she looked up into his eyes. "Have I been on board all this time?"
"Yes," he smiled as he gently placed his hand to her cheek. "But I still haven't found a way into either one of the other Moyas."
"The other Moyas?"
"Have you been sleeping?" He let out an amused breath through his nostrils as he gazed affectionatley into her eyes. "There are two Moyas on the starboard side. You and I have been thinking we are stuck in demensions from starburst again because no one else is here, not even Pilot."
"Yeah," Chiana swallowed as she glanced around herself. "Well, I went to one of the other Moyas with a transport pod and it was the same thing."
"What?"
"I - I want you to come with me D'argo. We are on the wrong Moya. Will you do that?"
He nodded as he placed his hand on her shoulder and held it there with a gentle firmness.
"We'll go to both Moyas and see."
"The - the farthest one first," She muttered as she took his hand and pulled him along, hoping she could get him into the transport before she saw this other self of her he had been stranded with. "I've got this feeling - I mean, I think these aren't realy Moya. They're mirrors. I saw Crichton and Aeryn but it wasn't realy them - but they said Moya had come into this because she thought there was a leviathen here. But, it was herself."
"Then we'll just have to find out which one is the real Moya," D'argo stated as he clambored into the pilot seat of the pod. Chiana sat in the seat next to him, sighing with the relief that melted through her as the pod powered back out into space."I just can't believe this," D'argo muttered.
Chiana gaped out at the five Moyas they began to pilot past in row of each other. As far as they moved more Moyas came into thier view. They remained silent as D'argo continued along almost a dozen more. It seemed like some were missing along the line, yet others looked like they were beggining to fade and disapear.
"That must be why we ended up on the planet," Chiana awed as she glanced from them to D'argo. "They're starting to deteriorate."
"Maybe the variation was unstable," D'argo suggested with a nudge of his head to a Moya alive with light in a starburst that was not comming. "It looks like the ones that try to starburst are falling apart."
The last Moya they finaly came to was directly over the constellation mass where what looked like a whirlpool of burning clouds was directly under it.
"She's stuck," Chiana noted with a blink as she leaned forward with the exitement she felt. "Can you get us in?"
"I can try," he grimanced as he brought the pod up high and then dove down towards Moya into a docking bay.
Chiana barely waited for them to land when she had the hatch open. She stepped out into a bright dock. Everything looked fairly normal. She turned at her shoulders to look to D'argo as he stepped out and pressed on his comm.
"Pilot, is anyone else here?"
"D'argo," Pilots voice came back and Chiana twirled around D'argo, laughing as she grasped his forearm. "Chiana, I am very suprised to hear you."
"We're here," D'argo breathed through his flaring nostrils with a seething smile as he walked with Chiana towards central command. "Who else is on board?"
"Crichton and Aeryn. Are you alright? We have been searching for you as well as Zhaan and Rygel. They are still missing."
"Yes we're fine. Have Crichton and Aeryn meet us in the central command."
"They are already there.""Yeah we been watching these leviathens explode into nothing when they starburst," Crichton snorted as he wrapped his big arms around the hug Chiana gave him. "And there is a planet."
He turned to the control helm and drew his fingers into it, eyeing the portal screen as the whirl pool like raging fires for clouds came on screen.
"Down there," He nudged his head to it. "I'm not sure about what you were told by that imaginary me, Chiana. Moya did think there was another leviathen here but we've been able to figure out that what ever it is she was attracted to it's down there, through that and that's where we think the others are."
"I checked a few of these miraged Moyas," Aeryn spoak up as she sat down and droped a food cube into her mouth as she looked to them with raised brows. "But I got frelling tired of meeting myself."
"Yeah," Crichton snorted. "These light entities or what ever they are have had a little fun with us too."
"So are we going in?" Chiana asked as she drew closer to the portal to try to catch a glimpse of the dark brown and swirling red planet through the eye. "I - I know where to look. There was a lake with a giant tree, I don't think you could miss it even if this planet was as big as Rygels ego."
"I think it's just a little smaller than mars," Crichton muttered as he looked to her. "The problem with this hole is that it is holding Moya in position and starbursting out may not be such a great idea with the gasses this thing has clouded in it. I'm not so sure once we got down to the planet we could get back out either."
Aeryn flinched, grasping the table as Moya was suddenly consumed by light that sent a thundering bellow through the hull like an explosion. Crichton held tightly to the helm, looking to D'argo and Chiana as they were thrown to their hands and knees.
"And I don't think we have a very long time to try to get to them."
"That is the unstable gasses?" D'argo stated more than asked as he helped Chiana rise with him.
"It's another Moya trying to starburst," Aeryn said as she stuck another food cube into her mouth and chewed on it with her eyes blinking, glancing around herself in frightened irritation.
"Every time they starburst, we get a little jolt of it." Crichton finished as he ran his hand through his hair.
"I can do it," Chiana spoke quietly as she stepped closer to the portal again, gazing out at the planet in wonder of it. "I can get them out..."
"Chiana," D'argo sighed.
"I got out didn't I?" She asked as she looked to him though the fear in her eyes was clear and sparkeling. "I should go... to Zhaan."
"To Zhaan?" Crichton eyed her. "You mean, to one of the Zhaans on the other ships."
"That's exactly what I mean," Chiana stated as she turned to leave. D'argo stopped her, taking her upper arm gently but firmly as he looked into her eyes.
"Do you know what you're doing?"
"Not likely," Aeryn muttered as she tossed a pulse pistol up into the air and Chiana caught it. Aeryn seemed to smile as she stood. "I'll take you to the third leviathen down. I saw Zhaan there. You have to be careful, some of the ones that look like us aren't very niece."
"Are you sure you want to come?" Chiana asked as she raised her brows.
"Or stay here and wait for when one of these ships starburst and Moya explodes as a result?" Aeryn stated cooly as she walked passed them. "It's frelling nerve racking."
TBC