Retun to Bermudas Index
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Aeryn…John thought immediately. She got out. His first reaction of relief and joy at seeing her again vanished like a shooting star. Wait…John burst into a sprint and headed towards the docking bay. He released Winona from her place strapped to his leg and called out to Pilot, “Did you say Prowler-s? More than one?”
“Two! And they will overtake Chiana in ten microts. She is within range of the docking web right now.”
“Crais! D’Argo! Did you get all that?”
“I’m on my way.”
“Right behind you!”
It was D’Argo’s voice again—“John, Crais, they can’t know you are here. They may have time to relay that to Scorpius. You must stay out of sight.”
“Frell!” What to do…what to…he was almost there. Got it! “Crais, get into an access shaft. We can come around behind them and take them out that way. D’Argo, you distract them.”
“Right!” they said in unison.
John ducked into the nearest shaft and deftly maneuvered through the tight space until he found himself in a spot where he could better assess the situation. He had gotten there just in time to see the Prowlers land on either side of the transport pod. Chiana must have seen them come in from behind her because she was frantically trying to climb down the steps of the transport and run for safety before the Commandos emptied out of their fighters. John trained his pulse pistol on the closest Prowler trying to cover Chiana’s exit. He hoped to hell that Crais or D’Argo was covering the other side. She ran as fast as she could to the maintenace bay and took cover.
The hatch to the Prowler closest to him opened and a black-clad Commando hopped out of his seat with relative ease, holding a pulse rifle at the ready. He did a methodical search around the transport pod making sure no one could sneak up on them, then continued over to the other Prowler, where that Commando’s feet were just hitting the floor with a loud clomp. Slow and deliberate, visually scanning the areas around them, they moved forward with their guns primed. The first Commando gave an order to his subordinate as he continued to scan the area ahead of and around them.
“Garen…eliminate the girl and the Luxan and anyone else you find. I will meet you in command after I incapacitate the Pilot. We need to get this Leviathan back to Scorpius.”
Garen broke away and cautiously walked toward the exit. John watched their progress another moment. Where was D’Argo? What the frell was he waiting for? He expected to hear the blast from D’Argo’s Qualta blade or even Crais’ pulse pistol. Maybe Crais didn’t have a good shot, but D’Argo? He should have been charging in here microts ago with a diversion. John was about to unload Winona into the squad leader when a familiar sound stopped him. For a split second, he thought it was Bowling for Dollars night when he realized he better get the hell away from the shaft opening. Now.
The blast tore through the fusilage of the Prowler on the far side of the transport sending shrapnel in every direction. Even in the shaft, the light from the explosion was bright enough to make John turn his head away. When the debris began to settle, he could hear the moans of one of the Commandos nearby. He headed back to the opening leading to the docking bay and could see the squad leader attempting to get up even though a piece of metal lodged in his leg and another immobilized his arm. He was using his rifle as leverage to stand and get to his troop who was lying dead a couple of metras away. John and Crais both came out of hiding, weapons drawn, still out of sight to the struggling Peacekeeper. From the smoke came a whirring sound followed by Rygel on his throne sled going about hech five toward the Commando. John and Crais looked at each other, surprise on both their faces, and stopped in their tracks. John could just barely make out D’Argo and Chiana walking through the hangar door as Rygel pulled up close to the wounded man.
“Die you Peacekeeper bastard.” He pulled out a weapon John had never seen before and stabbed him in the chest. The Peacekeeper contorted as convulsions shook his body. Rygel pulled out the Ractor he had acquired from the Charrid on Dam Ba Da, dropping the Peacekeeper to the floor—dead.
Walking toward Rygel, John put Winona away. “That was pretty…Rambo of you, Sparky.”
Rygel adjusted his robes and looked at Crichton. “Yotz! You didn’t think I would trust one of your fahrbot plans to go smoothly, did you? Scorpius is not going to just ‘let’ us get away, or have you lost your frelling mind once and for all?”
John was about to defend his plan for the millionth time when everyone else joined them near the dead Commandos. Looking around at the damage, one Prowler was totalled, the transport pod had minor damage, and the second Prowler had some scratches and dings. Looked to be in good shape. John glanced at Rygel again and began to chuckle. “So, Buckwheat, I see you finally figured out the problem with the Stevva Crystals…I’m sure Durka would be very proud.”
Proudly, Rygel answered, “I’ve been practicing.”
*****************************************************
They didn’t have much time to waste. Scorpius would send another squad to capture Moya if his men did not communicate with him soon. Crais had told them he believed that because Talyn should have been reported destroyed by the retrieval squad, they would want Moya to produce more gunships like Talyn for the coming war. They had to let Moya starburst to safety, so John, Crais and D’Argo prepared to leave. John packed his bag quickly throwing in his notes and schematics as well as some extra clothes and a spare Peacekeeper officer uniform. He ran down the corridor to Aeryn’s quarters. He found a bag on her floor that looked half-packed, so he filled the rest of it with clothing for her hoping that she would need them. With the two bags flung over his shoulder, John raced to meet Crais and D’Argo.
“Pilot!” he yelled as he ran down to the docking hangar. “Do you have the rendezvous coordinates?”
“You gave them to me yourself, Commander.”
“Right. And you’ve got the DRDs fixing the transport pod incase the girls and Rygel need it?”
“Of, course,” Pilot answered just as John was just reaching the doors to cut through the maintenace bay. He could see sparks shoot out of electric panels as a flock of DRDs busily tried to fix the damage done by Rygel’s bomb.
“Well, be careful out there, Pilot.”
“You too, Commander.”
D’Argo and Crais were already waiting on the pad by D’Argo’s ship when John trotted up to them. Jool, Chiana and Rygel stood nearby waiting to see them off. Their goodbyes were rushed and the girls looked pensive. John hugged Jool and told her to keep practicing her medical skills incase he needed them later. When it was her turn, Chiana threw her arms around him and whispered in his ear, “Don’t worry about Aeryn. She’ll come back to you. She promised before I left.”
Chiana’s words were only mildly comforting. He was sure she had promised to return, but to him? He seriously doubted that. Letting Chiana go, he said, “Thanks, Pip. And, hey, try not kill each other before we get back, OK?”
John patted his bag and said to Rygel, “Hey Sparky, got all my stuff with me. Nothin’ for you to think about takin’.”
Rygel hurumphed, and said, “So that is the thanks I get for saving your pathetic mivonks? Yotz. For all our sakes, Crichton, I hope your plan does work. Just don’t come crying to me when it doesn’t.” He spun his throne sled around and glided away from the parting friends.
John turned to D’Argo and lightly punched his bulky upper arm. “Are you ready, big guy?”
“Since the day I was taken prisoner.”
“Well, then, I’ll be right behind you. See you on Talyn.”
D’Argo and Crais got into D’Argo’s ship and John climbed into the Prowler. He flipped some switches and fired up the engines and watched patiently as D’Argo smoothly took off. John was not overly confident flying the Prowler, but before he, well, Harvey, destroyed Aeryn’s Prowler, she had been showing him how to operate it. He had picked it up quickly enough, but he preferred the…familiarity of his module. He knew though, the Prowler would come in handy when the time came to board the Command Carrier.
John exited Moya and watched as she starburst away. As beautiful as it was, it was also one of his least favorite views. Without Aeryn, Moya was his only safety net. She was his only other comfort in the vast universe he was now fumbling through and it momentarily stunned him not to see her graceful form sailing through the stars.
“Finally, some peace and quiet.”
“Maybe for you, Harv. Why don’t you beat it and let me have some too?”
“Really, John, I just wanted to…catch up on old times. See how you were faring without Officer Sun.”
“Can it.”
“Ah, touchy subject. Or, not so touchy subject?” Scorpius’ neural clone laughed to himself.
“Ha…ha.”
“Seriously, John. Your plan will get her killed. And that’s what she wants. She would rather be dead than be with you.”
John concentrated on flying the Prowler and staying within sight of D’Argo’s ship. He glanced down at the console to make sure everything looked ok. They hadn’t had time after the blast to really test to make sure the Prowler would run properly. So far so good.
Harvey continued, “On further reflection, I believe Officer Sun would rather be a Peacekeeper again than be with you. Have you thought of that? Maybe she’s…giving you up…to Scorpius right now.”
“You know what, Harvey? You know less about Aeryn than you do me, so why don’t you just…shut…up?”
“Very well. But your plan will fail and then Aeryn surely won’t want to have anything to do with you. If she’s still alive.”
John went on ignoring Harvey and finally, he could no longer feel his presence behind him. He peeked over his shoulder just to be sure. Nothing but baggage back there. His and Aeryn’s.
***************************************
Talyn had the vid link up and running when John stepped on to command. He noted how Talyn had grown since he had last been there about a cycle ago during a run in with the Plokavoids…Plokavians. There were no additional control consoles, but the rooms seemed…less close. Maybe it was just that Aeryn was not with him this time.
On the view screen, Crais, D’Argo, and John watched over the shoulders of Peacekeeper scientists as Techs hustled around and inside the Prowler docked in an adjacent room to the lab. Scorpius was no where to be seen.
“This thing get the Playboy channel too?” John asked.
Ignoring Crichton, Crais hit a button that changed the view to Scorpius’s quarters. Crais was more than familiar with the room—it was laid out exactly like his had been—but Scorpius lacked the combat experience that brought with it a taste for the exotic. Scorpius came up through the ranks of scientists. His quarters looked more like a lab than the lab did. His neural observation equipment along with his cooling rod maintenance gear took up one corner of the room, and an Aurora chair and control console had been built into another corner of the room. Crichton’s jaw twitched slightly at seeing the chair again.
“So this is how the other half lives.” Again, no Scorpius. John turned to Crais and asked, “Any contact from Aeryn yet?”
“Talyn was able to make the connection and Aeryn confirmed that with him. She told him she was going to look for a safer place to hide until we returned. I have not spoken with her yet.”
John tried to maintain his poker face infront of Crais, but D’Argo could see his obvious relief and thumped Crichton on the back. “Can we contact her now?” D’Argo asked.
“I believe we should be a bit closer so we can make sure any prolonged contact remains undetected,” Crais suggested. “We need to be in visual contact with the carrier so we can see if other ships will block the link.”
John, seemingly deep in thought, asked, “How are we going to get that close without being seen?” The silence that answered him was broken after a moment or two.
“I know how we can do it.”
John and Crais both turned to look at D’Argo who had a small smile playing across his lips. “My ship. It has a deception shroud.
“You…are…THE MAN!” John exclamed, throwing D’Argo a high-five.
Crais was not as enthusiastic. “Ka D’Argo, we can not possibly hide Talyn with a deception shroud made for a ship a fraction of his size.”
John began looking around Talyn’s command at the different systems monitors. There had to be a way to make this work. He had to talk to Aeryn. Hear her voice for himself. That was it.
“We can amplify it. Surround sound.”
“The point is not to be noticed, Crichton. Making noise will just draw attention…” Crais interjected, perplexed as always by this human’s notions.
“No, no. Crais…doesn’t Talyn have some sort of defense shield?”
Crais nodded. “Yes, this IS a Peacekeeper vessel.”
“Well, can we patch D’Argo’s cloaking device into the defense shield systems?”
“Deception shroud, Crichton” D’Argo corrected.
“Yeah, yeah…deception shroud…cloaking device…baseball hat and sunglasses…whatever. Just so long as hides Talyn. Can it be done?”
Crais thought about it for a moment or two. “Possibly. If Talyn will allow it and the technology is compatible. Ka D’Argo, why don’t you and I see what can be accomplished?”
Leaning in to speak to John, D’Argo said quietly, “Don’t worry, John, I will make sure this works.”
“I know you will, D.”
******************
As Crais and D’Argo worked at connecting the shields, John continued his surveilance on Scorpius. A team of scientists—strangely they were alien and not Sebacean—huddled around a 3-D hologram of a wormhole. They seemed to be conferring about something that John could not hear. A Prowler had returned with only the liquid remains of yet another pilot Scorpius had condemned to death in his pursuit of successful wormhole travel, and the commotion drowned out the scientists’ meeting. John knew now that Linfer had not been lying to them about Scorpius’ experiments.
He watched some more as the Techs cleaned out the Prowler and the scientists ran numbers on their consoles that slightly altered the model of the wormhole each time. He had yet to see Scorpius, but this was a Command Carrier and he was in charge of it. Other duties must be calling. John switched back over to the view of Scorpius’ quarters and within microts, he entered the room followed by Braca.
“Well, if it isn’t theUncharted Territories own Marquis de Sade…” John mumbled.
Scorpius took a seat on the edge of a table while Braca opened up his case of coolant rods to begin the replacement process. The chamber in Scorpius’ head piece began spinning its way out of his brain. Braca reached in to pull out the glowing red rod—shades of revulsion flickering across his face—and set a neon-blue rod in its place. John couldn’t think of a more unappealing job. Amused though, he wondered if Braca received some sort of hazard pay for his trouble. Scorpius dismissed Braca—ordering him to oversee the work being done in the lab.
Scorpius remained on the table, his eyes closed, for a few moments. John had never seen him look so…worn out. Ugly, yes, diabolical, more often than not, but tired? He just figured Scorpius was hell’s version of the Energizer Bunny. This was definitely a new side. Perhaps Scorpy’s wormhole obsession was taking its toll on him. John, for the first time since their unfortunate acquaintance began, could relate. It made his skin crawl just thinking about it.
Suddenly, Scorpius opened his eyes and pointedly turned his head as if he heard something. Stepping down from the table, he began to walk toward his desk. He seemed agitated. John got closer to the screen to watch…and listen.
“Really, I don’t need you chastising me about losing those pilots,” Scorpius said as he pushed around a data chip on his desk.
“It is not my fault…if you would just…cooperate…and give me the information this ‘waste’ would not continue.”
Scorpius picked up the chip and pushed it into the console on his desk. “See, John, this all rests on your shoulders…You are responsible for all these deaths. The solution is simple: work with me.”
John panicked for a microt thinking that Scorpius somehow knew he was still alive. Knew he was observing him. Maybe his plan had already failed. Before he could complete his thought, Scorpius interrupted.
“Yes, yes, I do have the information I need…But my scientists do not understand it. I need you to put it all together. Make some…sense of it.” Hovering above the desk, millions of numbers, symbols, and equations streamed down and watching from Talyn, John couldn’t help but think of playing Centipede at the arcade as a teenager. He was mesmerized at what had come out of his head. He wished it were either still only in his head or that his head had never left Earth’s orbit. Some days it was tough to decide which.
Scorpius snapped off the mathematical display and said, “I have no idea what a…flying pig is, John. Will you help me or not?”
John began snickering to himself knowing full well Scorpy wasn’t going to get what he wanted and before he knew it, he was belly-laughing, leaning against Talyn’s command console, trying to gain some composure. Crais and D’Argo were just coming back in the room to test the deception shroud, but they remained frozen in the doorway—Crais trying to figure out what was effecting him this time, and D’Argo waiting to find out what was so frelling funny.
“You guys are never going to believe this…I just caught Scorpy talking to me…well not me. A Harvey of me. …is he a sucker or what?!!” John laughed, wiping the tears from his eyes.
D’Argo rolled his eyes and shook his head, “Great. Frelling neuroclones. And I’m assuming his version of you is as irritating as the real thing?”
“Of course…and then some…I did get information though.” John took a deep breath and pointed to the screen. “Seems that Scorpy has data stored in his quarters as well as in the lab. We are going to have break into both locations.”
Crais eased his way between John and the console and began the sequence to activate the defense shield. As he did so, he said to John, “If this is operational, then we can be within visual range of the Command Carrier within an arn or so.”
John moved farther out of Crais’ way and said, “Well, Copperfield, do your magic…”
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“Aeryn?…It’s John…Can you hear me?”
“Mmm hmm,” came the sleepy voice. She sighed deeply, “…Miss you…”
“No…Aeryn.” His heart sank listening to the longing in her voice and knowing that it was not him she longed for or missed. He felt like a broken record playing the same words over and over. Not me, not me.
“Wake up, Aeryn. It’s…” he could barely choke the words out. “The other John.”
Clearing her throat, he could hear her shifting her position, collecting herself. “Right. Crichton. I can hear you.”
“Good…good. Are you all right? Are you safe?”
“Yes, I just fell asleep for a little while. I’m hiding near the waste vents and no one ever comes down this way. What took you so long to contact me? I’ve been waiting for arns.”
“Scorpy decided to send Chiana back with some wiseguys, so it slowed us down a bit. Good news though. I got you a new Prowler…well Rygel got you a new Prowler.”
“Good. Is the vid link working properly?”
“Perfect—you’re even better than McGyver. We can practically count their nosehairs.”
“I should hope it would be more useful than that.”
“It is…it is. Scorpius has a copy of the information on a data chip he keeps in his quarters as well as in the lab on the main system. Oh, yeah, one more place…in a neural clone of me in his head”.
“That’s not funny.”
“Not Seinfeld funny, no. But pretty damn ironic anyway, don’t you think?”
“Let me guess, you found this out watching him bang his head against a wall?”
“More or le…What are you trying to say, Aeryn?”
“Nothing. What’s your plan now?”
“First, we are going to get you out of there and then I am going to take care of the rest.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Aeryn argued. “I volunteered to be here, remember? You cannot just make me leave.”
John ran his hand over his face. “Aeryn, I won’t be responsible for you getting hurt…or worse. All of this mess is my problem. Not yours.”
John was met with silence and he thought maybe Aeryn had cut the communication. After a microt she answered him with a softness he hadn’t heard from her before. “John, I have to see this through no matter what the cost. Please.”
John sighed. As much as he hated putting her at greater risk, he knew he needed her there. For her skills and for the strength she brought out in him. “All right, Aeryn. Together. We’ll finish this together.”
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Aeryn had waited long enough. She was not interested in waiting for John to meet her and she was not interested in watching him die either. Surely if he showed his face anywhere near the carrier, Scorpius would find out. She had to take care of this before they were to meet. If she could take care of it alone, they could all be safe. She loved John Crichton, but his plans always went frelling wrong. Her plan would work.
Once again, she gathered up her Tech bag and worked her way back up to the main corridor. Through a portal, Aeryn could see a swirling, silver-blue, liquid-like funnel swaying back and forth rhythmically several thousand metras ahead. Another Prowler was disappearing into it. She felt nothing but loathing for this object that had been the cause of so much pain and obsession. The only good that ever came of it was John Crichton and now even he had brought her immeasurable grief. Completing this mission would erase some of her pain and maybe put the John she had chosen at rest. Standing around looking at it wouldn’t accomplish anything though.
Surprising an off-duty Commando, Aeryn knocked her out and stole her ident chip for good measure. She needed to get to the lab, but figured Scorpius would be there supervising the testing so she would head for his quarters first. Passing the lab, Aeryn found out she was right. Through the window she could see Scorpius sneering at his team of scientists as they timidly tried to explain something to him. Good. Knowing the officer class, it would be a while before he finished dressing them down. She had just enough time to get in there, steal the disk, erase the information on his console, and get out.
She pretended to be searching through her Tech bag as she stood near Scorpius’ quarters. The guards patrolling the corridor ignored her and continued past. Aeryn reached into her pocket and used Braca’s chip to enter. She recognized most of the equipment in the room from her various run-ins with Scorpius while helping John. She wished she had some of the paste Zhaan had made for John to sabotage his cooling rods again. Maybe she could save the neuralclone, too, by killing Scorpius. If she had the time she would try. First though, she had to erase the information on the data chip. She hoped Scorpius had left it in the console.
Finding the data chip had been easy, but destroying it was not possible, even for her. She would give it to John and maybe he would be able to unlock the information she was sure was in his head too. Then he could go home to Earth, and she could move on with her life. She put the chip in a secret slot in her boot where she usually carried an extra knife. Sitting down at the desk, Aeryn began wiping out information from the data console.
She heard her name and then the whoosh of the door sliding open when it was too late. Scorpius was standing at the door, his cold blue eyes freezing her where she sat.
“Officer Sun, isn’t it?…I was under the impression you were dead,” Scorpius said. “Certainly you will be once I am through with you.”
*******************
John raced down Talyn’s corridor to command. Crais had sounded almost frantic when he commed him. All he had to say was “It’s Aeryn,” and John dropped the uniform he was about to change into and ran.
Every fear John had about losing Aeryn was staring him in the face when he looked at the view screen. Aeryn sat strapped to the Aurora chair, her face hiding any of her own fear but sweat was beginning to bead on her forehead. A trickle of blood rolled down her cheek from the small cut beneath her eye. Scorpius manned the controls beside her, tracking her brainwaves. John’s face grew redder with each passing second he was unable to speak or move—until all he could do was yell at the screen in frustration and at his own anger for letting her stay.
“Let her go, you son of a bitch!”
Crais reached a hand out to restrain Crichton, but it was slapped aside as John turned on him. “Why didn’t you warn her?”
“I tried…I didn’t know she was in there…I had been watching Scorpius in the lab and didn’t change views until I thought he would be in his quarters. She wasn’t supposed to be there…How was I to know, Crichton?”
Crais, in his distraction, looked almost helpless. John wanted desperately to blame him for something…anything…but he was too busy blaming himself—again or was that *still*? Until this frelling mission was complete and Aeryn was far away and safe, he doubted he would ever stop feeling guilty and responsible for everything that happened to her. Maybe not even then.
Before he could give Crais any kind of answer or apology, the sound of Aeryn’s voice snapped his mind back to the train wreck that was his reality.
“Look, if you’re going to kill me, Scorpius, then kill me. Why waste your time with this?”
“Because, Officer Sun, I believe you know something. Why else would you be sabotaging my data?”
“Because you drove Crichton crazy until he died and I wanted you to suffer too.”
“Well…now it won’t be me doing the suffering…will it?…Shall we begin?”
