Return to Bermudas Index
by wordboy
The mob descended on her as she got close to the lab.
Aeryn slid to a stop as part of the mob rounded a corner. She tried to change direction, but saw another part of the mob come up behind her. Aeryn frowned, drew her pulse pistol and braced herself.
“I’m calling the Archangel, Officer Sun,” Parsifal said, “but she is a bit occupied with Lieutenant Biranda.”
“Excellent, Parsifal. Just excellent.” Aeryn looked around and shook her head. “It’s a good thing there aren’t more humans out here. They’ll be the end of me yet.” She raised her pistol and opened fire.
The mob hit her from both sides.
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Antandra watched Biranda begin to pace around the chamber, his pulse pistol never wavering from her. “Lieutenant, you have to let me disable the generator. Not only is it keeping me from returning to my own time, it’s beginning to tear Rhianda apart and turning your crew into a mob of savages.”
“Nonsense. It’s not doing anything of the sort.” There was defiant madness in Biranda’s voice.
“Just look around this chamber, for God’s sake! One side is moving hyper-fast, the other is moving hyper-slow. And there are mobs of people stalking the ship, trying to kill anyone they find. That to you is normal?”
Parsifal’s voice whispered in the back of Antandra’s mind, distracting her. “Archangel, Officer Sun needs your assistance immediately! She’s being overwhelmed by the mob!”
“Tell Aeryn to hold on as long as she can, Parsifal,” she whispered. Antandra looked at Biranda again. “What was the real reason this project was started?”
“We have to stop the Scarrans. We need all the weapons we can get. If this time generator can stop the Scarrans, or allow us to go back an eliminate them before they became a space faring power, think of the lives that will be saved!”
“Think of the lives that could be lost! You can’t go back to the past and change one thing without changing history! If you eliminate these Scarrans, then the need for weapons never exists. So there’s no need for weapons, so they’re never created. So the Scarrans grow to be a threat, so you need weapons…it just goes round and round. It’s a paradox!”
Rhianda shuddered again, and Biranda staggered back. Seeing an opening, Antandra sprang forward. She rolled aside as the lieutenant squeezed off a shot from his pulse pistol, then continued forward. Antandra felt a moment of misplaced amusement at the look of surprise on Biranda’s face as she lifted him off the deck.
“Now, you’re going to stay out of my way while I disable the generator!” Biranda giggled maniacally. “It’s affecting you, too.”
The deck heaved again and Antandra lost her footing. As she fell to the deck, Biranda twisted free from her grip. He rolled away and ran from the chamber, still giggling.
Antandra spared him a quick glance before retrieving her sword. She looked over the generator and activated the sword’s vibe generator. “How’s Aeryn doing, Parsifal?”
“Losing ground quickly, Archangel.”
“I’ll be right there.” Antandra raised the sword and plunged it into the generator. She then swung it in wide arcs, cutting deep into the casing. Alarms sounded and the chamber went dark. “Is it deactivated, Parsifal?”
“Yes, Archangel.”
“Tell Aeryn I’m on my way.”
“Her response is: About frellin’ time.”
Antandra glanced once more at the generator then ran from the chamber.
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She rounded the corner in time to see Aeryn lose her footing and disappear into the crowd.
“Oh my God! AERYN! Safetyoffkill!” Antandra waded into the crowd, her pistol covering her right side, the sword covering the left. Slowly, Antandra made her way to the last place she saw Aeryn. She looked around quickly, holstered her pistol and sheathed her sword. Quickly, Antandra began to dig into the crowd, throwing bodies aside with desperate ease.
“Aeryn! Aeryn!” Antandra flinched as a pulse pistol was thrust into her face. “Whoa! Hang on, Aeryn! It’s me! Antandra!” She dragged Aeryn to her feet and quickly checked her over. Blood trickled from her nose and the corner of her mouth, and her eyes seemed glazed over, but Aeryn appeared to be otherwise all right.
“Do you know where you are?”
Aeryn blinked and shook her head to clear it. “In the final moments of a losing battle?”
Antandra smiled grimly. “Well, not yet. Let’s go!” She drew her sword and began to swing it like a scythe, cutting through the mob. Slowly, they proceeded down the corridor.
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John tried to stop pacing the maintenance bay, but couldn’t. He was far too nervous, far too concerned. He could hear gunfire in the distance, liberally mixed with yelling voices and the screams of the mob. More than once, John wanted to leave the maintenance bay. Only the knowledge that Jool would not be able to stop any of the Peacekeepers who wanted to take the transport pod kept him from following Aeryn.
He slapped his comm. “Aeryn, what’s your status?” He growled in frustration when he heard only silence.
John heard Jool come down the ramp. “Anything?”
“Nothing yet.” John stared through the door and again began to pace.
“Mr. Crichton!”
John jumped as Parsifal’s voice came from his comm. “Yeah! Parsifal! You’ve tapped into the comms?”
“It took a little longer to find the correct frequency than I thought. Archangel Pandora and Officer Sun are on their way back to you. We should reach you in a few minutes. However, Lieutenant Biranda and several of the technicians are ahead of us.”
“I’ll be ready for them, Parsifal. Tell them not to sightsee.” John drew his pulse pistol and looked back at Jool. “Get inside and be ready. There’s a pulse rifle in there…”
Jool looked insulted by the suggestion. “My people don’t use weapons!”
“Then get inside and stay there.” Maybe we can send Jool back to Earth and keep Antandra with us…no, I couldn’t do that to them.
At the sound of footsteps, John turned back to the entrance. Instead of seeing Aeryn and Antandra, John saw Biranda and a few techs run into the maintenance bay.
Biranda trained his weapon on John. “Thank you for leaving us your transport pod. I’m sure you’ll find something here on Rhianda that you can use.”
John backed up, keeping his hands in sight. “Y’know, it doesn’t have to be like this. We can all leave, then Moya can take you wherever you want to go. I’m sure Pilot would be willing to…”
“Oh, your pilot will cooperate with us. After all, this experiment has to continue.”
John saw Aeryn and Antandra appear in the doorway. “You are not going to use Moya for these experiments!”
“And what will you do to stop me?” There was a quiet hum, and Biranda inhaled sharply. He dropped to the deck, followed by the techs.
Antandra lowered her pistol and shook her head. “Never try to reason with a lunatic.”
“It’s one of the things I learned in college,” John said. “Right up there with ‘never argue with a philosophy major.’ Now, let’s get them…”
Jool screamed and pointed at the deck. John glanced down and gasped.
Where Biranda and the techs had fallen were now skeletons…in the exact positions the original skeletons were found.
The four of them glanced at each other. “Um…okay. This is just way too weird.”
Aeryn nodded. “May I suggest we get the frell out of here before we join them?”
As the transport pod powered away from Rhianda, the Leviathan shuddered and seemed to collapse onto itself. It seemed to shimmer for a microt then shrink into a single point of light…and was gone.
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“…and you can’t meet us, Aeryn?”
Aeryn glanced at the communications console and smiled in sympathy. She could understand D’Argo’s irritation. Being trapped in a transport pod with Rygel and Stark could test the self-control of most anyone. “I’m sorry, D’Argo. But we ran into a few problems out here. Several of Moya’s systems are damaged. It’s going to take a few arns to make the repairs, but until then, we aren’t going anywhere.”
A sigh that sounded like high wind came from the concealed speakers. “All right, Aeryn. We’ll rendezvous with you in three arns.”
“Fine. How was your trip?”
There was silence. “Rygel is lucky to still be alive. I’ll explain later.” There was a click, then silence.
Aeryn sighed. Maybe now things will return to normal. Only one other thing left to deal with…
She turned as she heard footsteps in the doorway and watched John and Antandra walk in.
“So, every time the Halosians fired their weapon, its interaction with your defense shield caused you all to switch bodies?” Despite herself, Antandra started laughing. “I’m sure it wasn’t very amusing at the time, but…”
“Oh, it was a thrill, being trapped in Rygel’s body.” John nodded, remembering. “Although, I was in Aeryn’s body for a little while. That was…interesting.” He glanced at Aeryn and smiled.
“I’m sure a lot of men would have loved to have been in your place. Parsifal, anything from Angelina?”
“She is activating the Arch now, Archangel. The connection should be made in a few minutes.”
“Good.”
Pilot’s hologram appeared in the clamshell. “I have finished scanning the area, Commander. There is no sign of debris, no evidence of an explosion. Time appears to have returned to the rate we are most familiar with.”
John sighed and nodded. “Well, add it to the list of strange and generally weird-ass things we’ve run into over the cycles, Pilot.”
Aeryn leaned against the communications console and crossed her arms. “I wish we knew how far they’d gotten on their research. It might be worth keeping an eye out for any other experiments like this.”
“I have found something else you may find interesting, Officer Sun. There is a listing for a Leviathan named Rhianda in Moya’s data stores.”
Aeryn turned. “Really, Pilot? What do you have?”
“According to the data banks, Rhianda was part of Crais’s battle group three and a half cycles ago. She had been dispatched under the command of Lieutenant Fallan Biranda on a special research assignment. All contact was lost with her a quarter cycle later.”
The three stared at each other, then turned to the clamshell. “They disappeared over three cycles ago?” John chewed his lip and considered. “They must have jumped forward in time when they activated the generator. Man, that’s a Star Trek moment if I’ve ever seen one.”
Pilot’s hologram looked down, and he frowned. “I am picking up the distortion field again. It’s forming in Command.”
They looked around quickly, and backed away as the field began to form in front of the front window. John and Aeryn joined Antandra as she walked up to it. “Well, I guess this is goodbye.”
Antandra nodded slowly. “I guess so. This has been an interesting experience.” She glanced at the shimmering field and sighed. “John, when I first arrived, I asked Parsifal to check his history files for any reference to you.”
“And?” John glanced down at the small portable unit he held.
“Our records from the twentieth century are rather sketchy, Mr. Crichton. I do have a record of your disappearance, but…there is nothing else after that.”
“Oh. Well, that’s okay. I probably wouldn’t want to know, anyway.” Despite his relaxed tone of voice, John felt disappointment. He had hoped for some hint that he would eventually make it back to Earth.
“Archangel, Mr. Crowe is wondering why you’re waiting.”
Antandra smiled. “Tell him to relax. He’s my husband, not my father.” She looked back at John and Aeryn. “Time to go.”
“Yeah. Here.” John held out Parsifal.
The AI suddenly yelled, “Archangel!”
The field suddenly flared with unbearable white light. John involuntarily raised his hands to cover his eyes…and felt the deck disappear from beneath his feet.
When the light faded, Command was empty.
Pilot’s hologram looked around, confused and concerned. “Commander? Officer Sun? Where are you?”
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She was falling, and only the powerful hand holding onto her arm made her think things weren’t as bad as her instincts told her.
Aeryn landed badly, collapsing and rolling across a hard, warm floor. She coughed several times and opened here eyes.
She was in a large auditorium of some kind, with a large balcony overlooking it. Several people were running up to her, an average looking man and a woman with long red hair. In the center of the auditorium, Antandra stood, her arms around a dark skinned man shorter than herself.
Antandra stepped away from the man and walked up to Aeryn. “Are you all right?”
“I don’t know. Where are we? Where’s John?”
“Wherever he is, Parsifal’s with him. I’m completely cut off from him.” Antandra turned to the red haired woman. “Zoe, get Doctor Graff down here. We still have problems.”
Aeryn grabbed Antandra’s arm. “Where the frell are we?”
“Home.” Antandra turned back to Aeryn, her face whimsical. “Welcome to Earth, Aeryn Sun.”
