Desperation Part I, II, III, IV
by CeRell
"Nothing." Aeryn growled, exasperated, into her comm. She stepped back from the neural cluster, her hands on her hips. A frown marked her beautiful face as she watched Crichton back down the ladder.
"There Had to be something." Crichton groused turning to face her.
She shook her head, her ponytail swaying. "Look for yourself. There's nothing there
Crichton."
He pushed closer to the small opening. Darkness met his eyes. "Must be faulty fiber cables. We'll have to replace them."
He turned, looking into her dark eyes and was met with a glare. He grinned.
Aeryn's glare deepened. "That's precisely what I said an arn ago."
His smile widened. "You were right. You're turning into quite the mechanic. First chemistry, now mechanics."
A small smile creased her lips. A light began to glint in her eye. "I apologize for my strengths."
They stood grinning at each other as D'Argo entered the room. "Well?"
"It's the cables." Crichton spoke not taking his eyes from hers.
D'Argo shook his head watching them together. "We'll pick them up at the next commerce planet." He hesitated as they ignored him then turned and quietly left the room.
He took a few steps closer to her. "You're inspiring."
"You're a good teacher." She took a few steps to close the space between them.
They lost track of time as they lost themselves in the others eyes.
His fingers, of their own violition, began to trace her face. Her lips parted as her eyes roved his face, lingering on his lips. His brain was blank as he inhaled her scent. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. A rush of passion flooded her as she pressed herself frantically to his body, shoving him back against the wall. He frantically returned her frenzy and pulled her tightly to him. Hungrily he kissed her responding without thought, living in the moment.
A violent lurch knocked them to the floor. Crichton stood, helping Aeryn to her feet.
"Pilot what is going on?" he queried the symbiant Pilot.
"It's Moya. We seem to have crashed into something, Crichton."
"Crashed into what Pilot?"
"It appears to be Talyn...but...it's not him."
He looked at Aeryn who had regained her composure. "I'm taking the pod."
"I'm with ya."
Desperation Part II Rated PG
Aeryn docked the pod at the opened hatch of the peacekeeper-modified Leviathan. Crichton settled his helmet on his space suit, handed Aeryn her rifle, opened the hatch and carefully made his way down the steps. Walking close together, rifles facing outward they slowly moved through the darkened, burnt corridors.
"Looks a lot like Talyn." Aeryn breathed into her comm.
Crichton shook his head. "Definately. Looks like they figured out how to breed Baby PK Leviathans. You know..could be the prisoner escape was an experiment."
"What do you mean an experiment."
"The PK couldn't breed them sucessfully in captivity. Allowing Moya to go free, with a small family of beings..well that worked. They could easily have recreated that senario Aeryn."
She stopped in her tracks to stare at him through her faceplate. "They could have a whole army of these."
He pursed his lips and looked into her eyes. "Yes..if they do..we are all frelled."
"Not necessarily. The Pk is a peace keeping force."
"BullDren Aeryn! They are the Nazi's of the Uncharted Territories! With these gunships," He waved his gun angrily around the corridor, "They'll be dominating every race they can encounter. No..the PK have come a long way from the peacekeeper ideology they once were."
She looked at him, her face quiet not reflecting her inner termoil and turned away walking down the corridor. Crichton followed keeping a wary eye on their rear.
"Crichton!" Aeryn's urgent summons forced him to hussle after her and onto the command. She was hovering over a prone, still body on the floor. One glance and he could tell the body was a peacekeeper. A chill ran down his spine. As she rolled the body over he felt a flash of dread. His chest tightened making it difficult to draw a breath.
Aeryn looked up at him in disbelief. "He's alive. You recognize him?"
Crichton stood frozen in his tracks. "It's.." he swallowed. "Velorek."
Desperation Part III Rated PG
"We need to get him back to Moya, Crichton. Help me." She tugged at Velorek's shoulders. Help Me!"
He stood still, thoughts swirling blindly through his brain then jealousy settling as the predominate emotion.
"Help me." She requested again her voice calm as she recognized his trauma.
Crichton slung his rifle over his black clad shoulder and bent down to help haul the heavy body of his rival back to Moya.
John met them in the hanger bay. His arms folded over his white clad chest. His face was etched in slight wrinkles, his blue eyes reflected a world of hurt. His lips white, a tight single line as he saw Aeryn helping to pull Velorek from the pod.
"You wanna help us here?" Crichton said as John stood planted in the doorway.
"Just what we need." John said dourly as he took a few steps closer, his voice flat. He looked down at the slack face. He laughed slightly, bitterly. "I know just how you'll feel buddy."
"John…" Aeryn looked at him her eyes reflecting his hurt.
"Just don't say it Aeryn." He nearly snarled at her. "There is nothing else to say is there." He felt her nearness as a physical pain. So close to him, yet so far. "I….I can't." He wheeled away from her, his broken heart aching. His body yearning for her. He hadn't seen her for days, forcing himself to keep away from them. She, his raven goddess and him, his nemesis. The one that shouldn't exist. The one that had the world. The one that couldn't share…her. He wheeled and forced himself to stalk proudly away. His traitorous mind reviewing that fateful day when his world split into halves.
Desperation Part IV Rated PG
It had been weeks since the split. He had ignored her. They had reached an understanding. Neither of them would act on loving her. They'd become as the twins he'd known on earth a lifetime ago. Occasionally, he wondered if that life actually had existed. Or if he'd dreamt it all up during some wild drunken binge on yet another planet. Surely he'd always existed as two entities or was that four. Afterall..he had to count Harvey, now didn't he. He laughed wildly then stopped abruptly looking around guiltily to see if anyone had noticed.
He'd been in his quarters, futilely, desperately, trying to win the game with himself. Aeryn had walked in. She'd paused, questioned Rygel, then continued on to him.
Aeryn stood a moment watching them. She reached out suddenly grasping their wrists tightly.
"Stop it! This is getting no where." She finally dropped their wrists when all they did was look at her with haunted looks deep in their eyes. They immediately resumed their fruitless game. Aeryn whirled to Rygel and yanked the medallion from his neck. Ignoring his startled protest, she marched back to them slamming the medallion to the table.
"Heads and tails. Make the choice. One of you is John. The other is Crichton." Her voice was sharp and insistant.Her pain for him clear in her voice.
The John on her left slowly reached out and turned the medallion over in his hands. He stared at his replica across the table, his face set in an exhausted frown. "Heads. John. And I'll take the room."
Crichton barely tilted his head foreward in mute agreement. They'd managed to divide the essentials, but when it came to Aeryn the best idea was to do nothing. As she herself had said so long before. And it had worked, in a cold, gut wrenching kind of way. Until that day. That day they'd split the work. He had been with Pilot while the other, Crichton, had been down in the bowels of Moya trying to repair faulty circuits. His heart had leapt at the sight of her so far below him. Her beautiful voice carried faintly up to him as he peered over the edge of the walkway.
Aeryn had tracked him down. "Crichton, you can't keep avoiding me." He kept his black clad muscular back to her. She walked close behind him. Her voice lowered, she whispered. "You can't keep avoiding me." She lifted a hand and let her fingers play across his muscles. He straighted up and stiffened. Her hand reached up to his shoulder and dug into the muscles as she forced him to turn around to face her. One hand fingered his scultped muscles across his chest, her other traveled over his drawn face.
"You should let me help. I've missed you." She said softly, simply. He tilted his head to the side, the look in his eye softened, his lips loosed.
"Ah Aeryn." He groaned and quickly kissed her. Their arms swept around each other as their passions exploded and they sunk to the floor. She pulled his black T over his head and tossed it aside. Crichton was pulling her skin tight tank off as John turned away and stumbled to his feet. Tears stinging his eyes, he pulled the black T from his torso sending it drifting down to the writhing pair so far below. As he made his way from Pilots chambers his discarded T draped itself across Aeryn's back as she straddled Crichton. Impatiently she shrugged it aside as she concentrated on her love beneath her.