Farscape: Dice (R), John/Aeryn, Chiana/D'Argo.
Some knowledge ran too deep to be removed; some had bled into his soul.
previous part
IV.
Scorpius agreed to send John to meet Grayza alone. By alone, he apparently meant with three armed guards trailing in his wake, but John didn't mind them. Peacekeeper commandos didn't ask questions.
If Harvey were here he would advise him to side with the devil he knows, but Harvey’s gone and John can’t quite allow himself to regret that, even as some strange part wanted to.
“Too old for imaginary friends,” he muttered to himself, turning away. Grayza was after power, pure and simple, but that had never been Scorpius’s game, not really. Scorpy wanted revenge and he didn’t care how he got it--he’d do demeaning work without thought if it got him where he needed to be, but Grayza wouldn’t.
Grayza was only concerned with climbing to the top. Personally he hoped she fell hard if she ever got there.
She looked him over from his boots to the tips of his hair, smiled a little, placed a hand on her hip to emphasize the return of her Peacekeeper Barbie figure. "Find Scorpius, take him into custody along with Captain Braca and the Kalish," she said, and motioned her guards, as well as John's, to go on ahead so that it was only them, standing there together in the vast docking bay.
She titled her head a little and smiled wider. "I had not believed Scorpius would send you as the welcoming committee," she said. "You're looking well, Crichton."
"You too," John said. "I see you got the bun out of the oven. Where is the little tyke? Flying prowlers yet?"
"She has been assigned a unit," Grayza said. "She will be in nursery for a few cycles more."
"Charming," John said. "You've got that maternal glow."
Grayza stepped closer. "You never asked me, Crichton," she said slowly, "if the child was yours."
John laughed and looked at the floor. "I figure someone probably would have noticed if you were carrying around a part human child, and that's pretty much as irreversibly contaminated as it gets with you guys, isn't it?" John asked.
She nodded in acknowledgement. "You are correct, but I am, of course, exempt from such things," she said.
"Yeah, I've noticed that, you and your magic sweat, Scorpy and his cooling rods, you all taking your cues from Hitler or what? Be as I want to be, not as I am?"
"I do not know what you mean," Grayza said.
John laughed again and shook his head. "Yes, you do," he said. "Because you're a lot of things, but I don't think you're stupid. So let's make a deal, Mata Hari. You've done a lot of talking about peace, peace this, peace that, peace out--let's have a little less conversation, a little more action."
Grayza acknowledged this by meeting his eyes. "What are you suggesting?"
"The Scarrens are after my family," John said. "Scorpy's promised to save them if I get rid of you."
Grayza smiled. "And you're telling me this because?"
"Because if you help me save them now, then I'll help get rid of him instead," John said.
"I admit that I would like to see Scorpius die," Grayza said thoughtfully. "But he has a habit of not staying buried."
"Maybe you should have gotten into that grave and checked for a pulse yourself," John said.
Grayza smiled. "Maybe I should have just shot him myself," she said. "My faith in Braca almost undid me."
"That too," John said.
"I admit I am surprised, Crichton. I had believed that you and Scorpius were becoming allies," she said.
"He likes to think that," John said. "The truth is I want him dead more than anyone. Even you. So you win the lotto. Congratulations. I'm sure we'll all see great things from you."
Grayza's smile widened. "And from you as well," she said.
"Is that a deal?" John asked.
"You realize, of course, to save your family, you would have to know where they are," she said.
"The thought had occurred to me," he said.
"And do you know where they are?" she asked.
"You don't need to worry about that," John said. "I know how to find them."
"Going after Scarrens is a breach of the treaty," she said carefully. "I was threatened, just earlier today, by you if I remember correctly, against any such actions."
"You keep playing coy and I'm gonna get bored," John said. "Don't delude yourself. You're not my only way out of this, you're just easy, is all. You need me a hell of a lot more than I need you."
Grayza shook her head. "To be honest, Crichton, I think the sanest course of action is to put you to death. What you are capable of--" she trailed off. "Well, you horrified even me, and I do not frighten easily."
"You need to understand something," John said. "I don't stay buried well, either, but the fact that that power scares you? That's why I'm here talking with you and not Scorpius. Cause it doesn't scare him, and that's why he's not my ally, that's why he won't ever be."
"This power scares you?" Grayza asked.
John stepped up close to her, close enough he could smell the sick sweetness of her sweat, but he gave no sign that he noticed it. "Lady, I've spent the last four cycles terrified out of my mind, my tolerance has gotten pretty high, but yeah, it scares the hell out of me, and that's why it works. And that's why you're going to do what I tell you to."
"Speak your terms," Grayza said, tilting her head back.
John smiled.
- - - - -
Chiana stepped out of the way as five Peacekeeper commandos went running past the cells. She turned back to D'Argo in alarm. "We've got to get you out of there," she said.
D'Argo shook his head. "No, if Scorpius comes to check on me, I have to be here," he said, "and you need to stay out of sight."
"You sound like Crichton," Chiana complained. "We don't have a choice. From the sound of it, his plan is already going to hezmana."
"Chiana," D'Argo said quietly, "that's why you have to go find him. I'll be right here. You can come back for me."
Chiana shook her head. "No, no, I'm not leaving you here, D'Argo, I'm not, what is it with you frellniks? Why do you think it's okay to put yourselves at risk but not the rest of us?"
"It isn't like that," D'Argo said with a sigh. "I want nothing more than to get out of this cell."
"Good," Chiana said, moving to the lock. "Then let's do it."
D'Argo reached through the bars to grab her hand. "But we have to trust Crichton."
Chiana let out a breath. "I love Crichton," she said. "He's family, and I'd do anything for him. But he doesn't think clearly when it comes to Scorpius. We can't leave this to him this time. We need to come up with a plan of our own and then get him out of here."
D'Argo glanced down the hall as more commandos went running by, ignoring them both. "As good as that sounds, it would never work and you know it. As usual, we're going to have to try one of Crichton's fahrbot plans, and that means I stay here, and you go find him."
"D'Argo--" Chiana started.
"We'll get out of this," D'Argo said. "We just have to play along a little longer."
Chiana glared at him, but stepped away from the lock. "I'm tired of playing," she said. "You better still be here when I get back."
"I'm not going anywhere," D'Argo assured her.
Chiana followed after the commandos, without looking back, cursing both of the men in her life all the way down the hall.
- - - - -
Aeryn took in a deep gasping breath, not quite sure how she was still alive. The world came into focus slowly, and there was Stark, looking down at her with a little frown. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"You're supposed to be looking after D'Argo," she said.
"I left him in the care of Rygel and Noranti," Stark explained.
"Exactly," Aeryn said, before getting carefully to her feet. She dusted bits of Scarren off her shirt, and stared down at the mess lying at her feet. "What did you do to him?"
"Radiation," Stark explained. "Such as the one you call Sikozu emits. Designed to destroy the heat gland. Very messy death, very messy, but effective, yes, very effective, he blew up everywhere."
"I can see that," Aeryn said. "Stark, if you knew how to do that, why didn't you just kill them all?"
He stared up at her with that one crazy eye like that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "I didn't know I could to do that," he explained.
"Of course you didn't," Aeryn said, before turning and heading towards her son. "Noranti, how is D'Argo?"
"Oh, quite well," Noranti said. "Are the Scarrens dead?"
"Yes," Aeryn said. "Your weapons worked amazingly well."
"Yes, yes, I thought they might, just an idea I had, strangely enough from the Eidelons, who really only like peace, you know, but I--"
Aeryn tuned the old woman out and switched her comm. to contact Pilot. "Pilot, are you and Moya both alright?"
"We are fine, Aeryn. All the Scarrens have been killed," he said, sounding rightly a little surprised.
Aeryn let out a breath. "Any sign of reinforcements?" she asked.
"No," Pilot said. "I am detecting no ships on sensors."
Aeryn nodded, knowing that it was good news as much as bad. No ships meant no Scarrens, but it also meant no Chiana and John. She let out a sigh of relief when she turned the corner and saw Rygel sitting with D'Argo in his arms. D'Argo was laughing and pulling on his ears. Aeryn kneeled down beside them, glancing up at Noranti and then back to Rygel.
"Thank you, all of you," she said. "I can never repay you for protecting my son."
She leaned forward and placed a kiss on Rygel's forehead, the way she had seen John do once or twice, and Rygel pulled away, uncomfortable with this affection. "Yes, well, don't expect it to happen again," he said. "This baby is going to get as big as that gangly husband of yours. He's already getting hard for me to hold."
Aeryn carefully took D'Argo from his arms and placed a kiss on his forehead, as well. "He will," she agreed. "He's going to look just like him, aren't you?"
D'Argo laughed again. Aeryn had noticed that D'Argo rarely cried. He laughed almost all of the time. "Yes," she said, holding him closer. "You're going to be just like him."
"The Divine Eternal help us all," Rygel muttered.
- - - - -
"So we're agreed then?" John asked.
"It seems I have little choice but to acquiesce," Grayza said. "I will do as you say."
"Good," John said, and grabbed Grayza by the arm to pull her closer. She grinned and fell against him. John ignored her and carefully pulled her pulse pistol from the holster on her thigh. She let him without complaint. "You know, you should really think about investing in some anti-perspirant. I hear Secret is the way to go, made for a woman, strong enough for a man."
Grayza pushed him away. "Go, before I change my mind."
She didn't have to tell him again. John pushed the pistol in his waistband and covered it with his jacket before moving out into the hall. There were no guards waiting for him. Grayza had reassigned them all to one task--find Scorpius.
No one was paying any attention to him for the first time since he stepped on this godforsaken carrier. John had his suspicions that Scorpius wasn't surrendering without a fight. He started back towards D'Argo's cell, and let out a yelp when someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into a closet.
"Chiana, what--"
"Shh," she said, pushing hand over his mouth and leaning past him to shut the door. "What's going on?"
John pulled her hand down and grinned. "I've got a plan," he said.
Chiana groaned. "We're doomed, aren't we?"
"Probably," John agreed, and opened the door, checking down the hall. "You ready to go get D'Argo?"
Chiana nodded, and they slipped out of the closet. Chiana grabbed John roughly by the arm to pull him in front of her. "Hey--" he started.
"Keep moving, Crichton," she said loudly, as a group of commandos went by. They glanced at them for a moment, but kept moving on.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked.
"What, not being a tech or your server girl?" she asked. "Yeah, it's kind of nice."
"I do love a girl in uniform," he told her.
"You don't look so bad yourself," Chiana told him.
John opened his mouth to respond, but D'Argo loudly cleared his throat. "If you two are through. . . ?" he said.
John turned to look at him in surprise. He hadn't realized they had already reached the cells. "Right," he said. "Okay. Bad news first. A Stryker's gone after Aeryn. But, hey, Grayza's on board."
Chiana tensed. "I'm gonna kill her--" she said.
"No, Chi, believe it or not, that part was the good news," John said. "I made a deal with her."
"Wait--you're double-crossing Scorpius?" D'Argo asked, leaning against the bars. "Is that a good idea?"
"Of course it's not a good idea," John said. "But here, look, it's not a double-cross exactly, it's just playing the odds. Scorpy. Grayza. One of them is going to screw me, and only one is going to come out on top. So I'm making deals with both of them just in case. We'll call Grayza plan A. Scorpy is plan B."
"But we always end up going with Plan B," Chiana complained.
"Okay, Grayza can be Plan B," John said.
"That isn't any better," Chiana said. "How about Plan C? We all get in a ship and you make us disappear through a wormhole so we can go rescue Aeryn and D'Argo?"
"I don't need rescuing," D'Argo protested.
"Not you, the kid," Chiana said.
"What kid?" D'Argo demanded.
"My son," John said. "We named him D'Argo."
"You named your son after me?" D'Argo looked touched and nearly teary-eyed, so John decided to mess with him.
"No, we named him after some other Luxan warrior," John told him.
D'Argo reached out and grabbed him for a full on Luxan body hug. John sucked in a breath and thought he heard his ribs snap. Those hugs were painful enough when there wasn't a set of bars pressing between them. "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."
"Hmm," Chiana said speculatively. "I'm pretty sure I could top it."
John felt a familiar presence tickling at the back of his neck, and he turned to look down the hall. "Pip, get out of sight," he said.
She slipped around the corner just as Scorpius was escorted into the hall along with Braca, and thrown into the cell across from D'Argo. John watched as the cell was locked. The guards glanced at him, and then retreated again without a word.
John stepped forward. "Now that's what I call poetic justice," he said.
"Have you betrayed me?" Scorpius asked, leaning forward with his hands on the bars. Braca was pouting behind him. John was not surprised Sikozu had not been caught.
"You really need to stop being surprised," John said.
"I was not lying about your family," Scorpius said.
"No, I don't believe you were," John said. "But I don't trust you to help them, and they can take care of themselves."
Scorpius shook his head with disappointment. "I gave you too much freedom, too much reign on this ship. Rest assured, John, when I get out of here, I will not make the same mistake. This I can promise you, Grayza will not help you, your plans will fail."
"I think Grayza is willing to do whatever I ask, as long as I get rid of you, as long as I hold off this war," John said. "But you? You want me to start one."
"You've ruined us all," Scorpius hissed.
John stepped forward. "You know how I know for sure when I'm doing the right thing? When you tell me I'm not." John looked back behind him. "Chiana."
Chiana moved around the corner, smiling, her pulse pistol un-holstered. "Yes, John?"
"Let D'Argo out," he said. "We're moving up the timetable."
Scorpius' eyes widened as he took in the transformed Nebari. "You're making a mistake," Scorpius said.
"Add it to the list," John said, turning away. Chiana deactivated the lock on D'Argo's door with her ident chip. He stepped out beside them.
"She won't let you leave, John, I could help you," Scorpius said.
John laughed out loud, spinning back to face Scorpius. "It's always the same thing with you, isn't it? Always wanting to help me. It's time you face facts, Scorpy, you're not my peer counselor. I don't want your advice, and I don't want your kind of help."
"He wants you dead," Chiana said, before lifting her pulse pistol and firing.
Scorpius was thrown back into Braca, specks of white blood leaking out his lips. John watched dispassionately. "That won't kill him, Chi," he said. "It's been tried before."
"Maybe not, but it was fun," Chiana said.
John looked up as the alarms started blaring. "And it also just advertised our little prison break."
Chiana leaned past him to look at Scorpius gasping on the floor. "Still worth it," she said, nodding, and then aimed her pistol, and fired at his chest again. There was a small blue explosion as the pulse blast impacted his suit, and Braca and Scorpius were both thrown a little way across the floor at the impact.
"Woah," John said, reaching out and bringing her arm down. "Are you trigger happy or what?"
"He needs to die, Crichton," Chiana said, trying to lift the gun again.
"Stop it," Braca demanded. "Haven't you done enough?"
"We're not even yet," John said.
From the floor, Scorpius laughed, coughing up more of that strange white blood. John winced as he watched. He could still taste it on his tongue. "Oh, but you're gaining on me, John," he said weakly. "Look how far you've come."
"We have to go, now," D'Argo said roughly, grabbing John's arm in one hand and Chiana's in the other, before dragging them down the hall. "It looks like Plan C wins out again."
"I don't know why I even bother making a Plan A," John complained. "No one ever listens to me, but no, we're still smack dab in the middle of Plan B. Chi, you take D'Argo to the docking bay, make like D's your prisoner, and Grayza sent you to move him to her ship."
Chiana's eyes narrowed. "And where will you be?"
"Tying up loose ends," John said, turning to head back down the hall. D'Argo grabbed the neck of John's jacket, and tugged him back before he could make it two feet.
"I don't think so," he said. "We're leaving now."
"D, man, hey." John tried to disentangle himself from D'Argo's iron grip, but wasn't having any luck. "I'll be there, okay? I just need to take care of something."
"Knock him out, D'Argo, we'll carry him out of here," Chiana said.
D'Argo shook his head. "We're not getting out of this unless he leads us to a wormhole, and that's just what you're going to do, isn't it, John?"
"Yes," John said, pulling away and taking a step back from them. "Right after I finish this."
"John," D'Argo snapped, stepping after him.
John moved further away. "You have to trust me," he said. "I'll be there. I promise."
D'Argo pointed at him. "You had better be," he said. "You do not want me to have to come and find you."
"Noted," John said. "Now go. We're running out of time."
John spun on his heel and started back towards the cells. Chiana let out a strangled cry of frustration, and D'Argo grabbed her to get her moving. After a few feet, she shook off her anger at this further detour to their plans and started to lead D'Argo down the hall.
"Move faster, Luxan," she said, when a few Peacekeepers passed, but her heart wasn't in it. She sounded closer to tears than anger.
She supposed she should be grateful everyone was moving too fast to notice them at all.
- - - - -
Sikozu watched as the Peacekeepers went running past the doors, and pulled her hood further down over her eyes. The Kalish refugees were being entirely ignored by the Peacekeepers. Sikozu had slipped inside with them, and disappeared.
She had tapped into the communications system and learned that Scorpius and Braca had both been taken into custody for breaking the treaty. The Luxan, on the other hand, had escaped. No one was saying anything about Crichton, but Sikozu knew he would be behind whatever was going on.
She moved towards the door, dropping her borrowed cloak to the floor. She would be safe here, with her people. Peacekeepers did not pay attention to those they viewed as lower races, whether the supposed lesser races were actually their betters seemed irrelevant to them, and she knew if she just stayed here she would go unnoticed.
But Sikozu had changed much in these last cycles. She no longer ran from her problems. She faced them head on.
She slipped out into the hall, and moved to an armory. It had been nearly picked clean already, but a few weapons remained. She threw a pulse rifle over one shoulder and grabbed a pulse pistol.
She knew she had become something other than what she was intended to be. She was an engineered soldier, true, but as was the Kalish way, her methods of war were always meant to be intellectual--she was supposed to outsmart the Scarrens, kill them with radiation only if given no other choice. She was not supposed to be so comfortable holding weapons.
She wondered who she had to thank for that. Scorpius, or John Crichton.
It was not hard to avoid being seen. If someone was coming around the corner, Sikozu simply walked up the wall--and waited on the ceiling for them to pass. It was slow going, but she still understood caution. This rescue would have to be timed well.
Sikozu stopped at Scorpius' quarters. She was surprised to see they were not guarded. No doubt Grayza did not believe the single missing Kalish to be a threat. Sikozu grabbed the medical kit from the table and then ran out the doors, heading towards the containment area.
D'Argo was the last person she expected to run into. Sikozu came to an abrupt stop, wary when she realized he had been captured. She glanced at the Peacekeeper and raised her weapon, ready to defend herself. That was when she noticed the smile the girl was wearing.
She knew that smile. "Chiana?" she said, with disbelief.
"Hey, how you doing?" Chiana asked, and then sent her sprawling to the ground with a sucker punch. Chiana shook out her hand. Her knuckles were grey where the paint had chipped. "That felt good."
D'Argo stared at Sikozu for a moment with a look of disappointment, and then stepped over her and took off down the hall. He was half way down the next hall when he realized that Chiana had not followed.
He returned to where he had left her just in time to see her kneeling by Sikozu, snapping a small black case shut. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "Leave her."
Chiana got to her feet. "Nothing," she said innocently, and hopped over Sikozu. "Let's go."
- - - - -
John came to an abrupt stop in front of Scorpius' cell. "Oh, you still here?" he asked. He looked Scorpius over. He was on his feet, but breathing hard. "You're looking a little peaked."
John let out a startled cry as Scorpius' hand shot out and grabbed his wrist, tugging him against the bars with almost enough force to break it. Recovering quickly, John laughed and pulled his pulse pistol out to press against Scorpius' head. Braca just hung back and watched.
"Oops, sorry," John said, "forgot you're not supposed to taunt the wild animals at the zoo. You want to let my arm go?"
"Go ahead and shoot, at least have the decency to finish the job yourself," Scorpius hissed. "You owe me that much, Crichton."
"No," John said, slowly drawing the word out.
Scorpius let him go in disgust. John stepped back out of reach, but no farther. "You can destroy a dreadnought but not me, why, Crichton?"
"I never wanted to hurt anyone," John said softly. He laughed suddenly, but the sound was filled with pain. "Back on my side of the universe I used to watch the news, channel eleven, you know, and look at all the horrible things people did to each other and just think--how could they do that?"
John heard the click of heels coming down the hall. He didn't take his eyes from Scorpius. "But we all have it in us, whether we know it or not. It's all about control, Scorpy, and you strip mine away every single time. I'm through letting you."
"Letting me live is a tactical error," Scorpius said, smug, because he could see whatever he said it didn't matter--John was incapable of pulling the trigger on him. "I taught you better."
"Everything you taught me I plan to forget,” he said.
"A wise plan," Grayza said smoothly, coming to stand beside him. She ran a hand across John's shoulders. He tightened his jaw but said nothing and didn't pull away.
Scorpius hissed at them. "You think you've made a deal with him, don't you? But he's betrayed us both. He's freed the Luxan and another of his friends is here in disguise. You should have let us be, Grayza. He'll destroy you the same way he has me."
Grayza watched him dispassionately. She gave no reaction at this declaration. She only turned to John, and handed him a stack of clear plastic documents. "Diplomatic immunity, for you and all your friends, as agreed," Grayza said. "These papers will protect you from any Peacekeepers. I cannot promise the same of the Scarrens."
"And Scorpius cannot void these?" John demanded.
"He cannot," Grayza said. "He will not be in any position to do anything, in any case. I suggest you get on your way."
John nodded. "I'm not going to say thank you," he said.
"I do not expect or want your thanks," Grayza said. "I do suggest you leave quickly."
John nodded, and with one last glance at Scorpius, he took off back down the hall after his friends. Realization was dawning slowly in Scoripus's eyes, and he forced himself to stay on his feet, breathing heavily and holding onto the bars for support. "You're letting him escape!" he roared.
Grayza glanced at him. "Yes," she said. "His presence here disturbs the Scarrens. We were returning to a state of unrest. The threat of this power keeps the peace, but Crichton must remain a neutral party. As long as he is the sole arbitrator and neither side controls him, there can be peace. The moment one side possesses him the balance is disturbed."
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Scorpius demanded. "We could have destroyed the Scarrens!"
"At the cost of my people?" Grayza asked. "No. No, I think not."
"He played you," Scorpius said, disgusted. "He talked you into setting him free."
"Perhaps," Grayza said, "but if that is so, I let him do it, because his reasoning was sound. I do not wish to possess his power. I do not believe anyone should have that power. But he is right. The fact that he does hold it is all that keeps us from killing each other. John Crichton will be the man we speak of in fearful whispers, the man who could turn space against itself. He is like a story meant to frighten us, to keep us on our best behavior."
"You are weak," Scoripus said. "You are frightened and you are weak."
"Frightened, yes," Grayza said. "But weak? It takes strength to choose peace over violence, Scorpius. This, I fear, is something that you will never understand."
"You fear much," Scorpius growled, and little specks of blood came flying out with his words.
"But not you, not any longer," Grayza said. "Your reign of terror is over. We will have peace despite your efforts."
"This is not peace, this is a stalemate," Scorpius said. "Crichton will not live forever."
"The threat of what he can do will live on past his life," she said. "And with him out there, somewhere unknown, unreachable? We'll never know if he's watching. Waiting. The peace will hold."
Grayza glanced at Braca and then back to Scorpius. "But it is no concern of yours any longer. Braca is to endure the Living Death. You, Scorpius, are to be beheaded."
Scorpius let out a choking laugh. "Was that a condition of Crichton's?"
"It was a condition of mine," Grayza said. "I want to make sure you're not coming back this time. Once we reach High Command, your sentences will be carried out publicly as an example to us all."
Grayza stepped away, and motioning to the guards to watch the prisoners, headed back to command her new carrier.
- - - - -
Sikozu woke to someone shaking her. "Wake up, Kalish."
She opened her eyes. A Peacekeeper commando was staring down at her with distain. "It's time to join the others," he said. "You've just been relieved of your command. Whatever your job actually was, anyway."
He pulled her roughly to her feet. "I’m sorry," she said.
He laughed. "Yeah, well, believe it or not, we're expecting a bit more than an apology," he said. "I'm still locking you up."
"You misunderstand," Sikozu said, and held out a hand. A burst of fire slammed into him in the chest, and he started screaming. She reached down and grabbed the pulse rifle and medical kit, before moving around him and down the hall. "I meant I was sorry for that."
Peacekeepers died much more easily than Scarrans. He had stopped screaming by the time she turned the corner. Her time to play it safe was at an end. She had no idea how long she had been knocked out by that stupid tralk, and she had to reach Scorpius fast.
Another guard came at her, and she lifted the pulse rifle and shot him once, sending him flying back. "Sorry about that," she said, again, and kept going.
The two guards standing watch over Braca and Scorpius were similarly easy to kill. It amazed Sikozu the way these commandos looked down on techs, when they were the only reason they were any use at all. Without all their technology, they were next to nothing. They had no innate internal defenses, no outwardly impressive strength.
"Pathetic," she said, and shot the lock off the cell door.
Her eyes narrowed when she saw Braca holding Scorpius up. "What happened?" she demanded.
"Not now," Scorpius hissed, surging forward. Braca followed and caught him, keeping him on his feet. Sikozu immediately stepped forward to support him on the other side. "Crichton is escaping."
"As we should be," Sikozu said. "Grayza has ordered all of our deaths."
"Why did you come back for us?" Braca asked.
"I did not come back for you," Sikozu snapped, and left it at that.
- - - - -
"Five more microts, and then I'm going after him," D'Argo snapped.
Chiana shook her head. "No, you're staying here. I'm going after him. I’m the one with the disguise, remember?"
"Chiana, I'm not going to argue about this," D'Argo said. "I'll go, because I'm the one that can drag him back here whether he wants to come or not--"
"You two arguing over little ole me?" John asked, as he slipped past them and straight into a Marauder. The others followed him quickly.
"Crichton, where have you been?" D'Argo demanded, and added, after noticing what he held, "and what are those?"
John dropped them on the floor and slid into the pilot's seat. "Tell you later," he said. "Let's get the hell out of dodge while the getting's good."
"Are you certain that Grayza will not fire on us?" D'Argo asked, leaning over John's shoulder.
John started the ship up. "Not at all," he said.
"Great," Chiana said. "This is great."
"Anyone coming, Pip?" John asked.
Chiana shook her head. "Whatever Grandma did to my eyes, I can't see through walls at the moment. Your guess is as good as mine."
"Okay then," John said. "I suggest you all cross your fingers."
"What in hezmana for?" D'Argo demanded.
"For luck," John said, as he took the ship out into space. "We're going to need it."
D'Argo looked down at his hand, and attempted to cross his fingers. Chiana leaned forward on John's other side. "What about our exit strategy, how's that coming, old man?"
"Oh, it's coming," John said, continuing to pilot the craft.
Viente. Diecinueve. Dieciocho . . .
- - - - -
Braca and Sikozu stumbled into the docking bay, holding Scorpius up between them. Scorpius growled as they watched the Marauder speed off just as they entered. "We have to follow them," he said. "Quickly!"
"A Prowler is quicker," Braca said. "We may be able to catch them."
"No," Sikozu snapped. "Grayza will not risk firing on Crichton, and Marauders can not be penetrated by sensors. We take a Marauder. She will not know which holds Crichton."
"Agreed," Scorpius said.
"Then we had better hurry," Braca said, nodding towards the open space beyond the bay. In the distance, vibrant and spiraling, a wormhole was coming to life.
- - - - -
Grayza watched over Command. Crichton should be making his miraculous escape at any moment. She would feign surprise but command her soldiers not to fire on his position. After all, he was, as always, too valuable to kill. Unique was the word Scorpius used, in all of his many long-winded reports.
"Ma'am! The prisoners are escaping!"
Grayza nodded, smothering a grin. She turned. "Send out the Prowlers, but attempt only to disable the ship, Crichton must be brought back alive."
Grayza knew they would not reach Crichton in time, not if he kept his end of the bargain. If he didn't, and he was caught, she would be able to work with that. Either way, Crichton was her asset now. She would not make the same mistakes as Scorpius.
"What about the others?" a solider asked.
Grayza frowned. "The Luxan? He is of no consequence, but he will be with Crichton, and I--"
"No, ma'am, Scorpius, Captain Braca, and the Kalish spy," he interrupted. "Your orders regarding them?"
Grayza froze. "They have escaped?" she demanded.
"Yes, ma'am," he said. "The guards watching them are dead."
Grayza frowned. That wasn't really Crichton's style. She doubted that he had double-crossed her. The Kalish must have set the others free. "Stop them," she said. "Kill all three of them."
He nodded, and turned to leave command, motioning his subordinates to follow him. One of the techs ran up to Grayza, looking terrified. "Two Marauders have just launched without authorization."
Grayza grinned. "Good, shoot down the one holding Scorpius," she said. "Retrieve the one with Crichton."
"But we do not know which is which," the tech explained.
Grayza turned to stare at the viewscreen. A wormhole was opening, and there were two Marauders racing towards it. "Find out," she yelled. "Scan them! Which one is Crichton's? We cannot let Scorpius escape!"
Grayza turned to glare at the tech, and she stepped back, going pale. "We cannot tell," she said. "Our scans cannot penetrate the Marauder's shields."
When Grayza turned back to the wormhole, both ships had already disappeared.
- - - - -
"There's a Marauder right on our tail," Chiana warned.
"It can't be Grayza's," John said, looking at the sensors. "She promised more of a head start than that."
"And she's so trustworthy," D'Argo said.
John watched the ship for a moment, and shook his head. "It's Scorpius," he said.
"You can't be sure of that," Chiana protested.
John pulled the ship to the side of the wormhole, skimming at the edge of the anomaly like a surfer on a wave. "Don't worry, we'll lose them," John said. "They're never going to be able to follow our exit. They don't know where they're going."
"And you do?" Chiana asked.
John nodded. "Like there's road signs," he said. "I know where every exit leads."
Chiana watched the progress of the Marauder behind them, but its course was erratic. They seemed to be having trouble staying on course. She grabbed onto the edge of the console as John sent them spinning straight out into normal space. D'Argo reached out and grabbed her, holding onto her waist and balancing them both.
"Home sweet home," John said, and looked up expectantly. There was nothing there.
"Where's Moya?" Chiana asked, searching the sensors.
"Are you sure you came out at the right place?" D'Argo demanded.
"What? Yes," John said. "These are the coordinates Chi gave me. Moya should be here."
"Maybe they Starburst," Chiana said, nodding. "When the Stryker came, they must have Starburst away. I'm sure they're fine."
John glanced frantically at the empty space around them. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, that makes sense, they probably--"
"John," D'Argo said. "I'm picking up a ship on sensors."
"I thought you said that Marauder couldn't follow us through?" Chiana demanded.
"It couldn't have," John said, moving to look at the sensors. "That isn't a Marauder."
D'Argo nodded in agreement. "That is a Stryker. And they're sending a transmission."
"Marauder. State your business here." The transmission was grainy, but they all recognized the voice. John burst out laughing.
"Aeryn, baby, it is good to hear your voice," he said.
"John? John is that you? Chiana? Are you both alright?" Aeryn sounded somewhere between frantic and relieved. John could relate.
"We're here, we're all alright," John said. "How about you? Where are the kids?"
"Safe on Moya," Aeryn said. "We had a little run in with some uninvited guests. I borrowed their ship to wait here for you and sent Moya to hide in a nearby nebula."
"You all okay then?" John demanded.
"We're all fine," Aeryn said. "I want you to dock here and get on board this ship. The Stryker is much faster than a Marauder, and I want to return to Moya as quickly as possible so we can Starburst away from here."
"You got it," John said. "That little bitty ship going to be big enough for all of us, though?"
"It will hold three of us no problem," Aeryn said. "Three Scarrens were on it previously, and we're all considerably smaller."
"What about four?" John asked. "One of whom is considerably larger?"
The comm. went silent for a moment. John could imagine the wheels turning in Aeryn's head. "What do you mean four?" Aeryn asked. "John, Scorpius isn't--"
"What? No, god, no, nothing like that. This is one surprise you're gonna like, darlin'," he said.
"I don't like surprises," Aeryn said sternly. "John--"
John laughed. "You will. I got nothing but good news for you, I promise," he said.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Aeryn said.
John glanced at D'Argo. "Yeah, you will," he said. "Docking now."
John secured their air duct to the one on the Stryker, and heard the hatch on the other side opening almost immediately. He quickly grabbed up their pardons and then headed towards the back. "I think she's a little impatient," John said, reaching out to open theirs.
He barely had the door open and Aeryn was in his arms, gripping him tightly. One of her hands was wrapped in his hair, pulling him down so her mouth was level with his ear. "If you ever, and I mean ever, do something like that again," she whispered.
"I think between the three of us we can keep him in check," D'Argo said.
Aeryn froze, the hand she had wound in John's hair going slack. John smiled at her brightly as he spun them around so she could see the Luxan face to face. "D'Argo?" she whispered.
D'Argo stepped forward and grabbed Aeryn up in a hug. "I hear you named your son after me," he said.
"You were dead," Aeryn said, and she was so relieved she had started shaking. "How did you survive?"
"That's a long story," Chiana said. "They haven't even told it to me. Personally, I don't really care how, just that he is."
Aeryn turned to Chiana, and reached to grab her arm. "Thank you, Chiana, for everything, for bringing them both back."
John moved past them into the Stryker, and the others followed. John gave it a cursory once over, and decided he had no idea how to fly it. "Aeryn, honey, what do you say you take us home?"
She grabbed him again and kissed him. "We will talk more later," she said sternly.
"That sounds like a threat," John said, calling after her. "You can't be mad! Everything worked out!"
"I said we'll talk later," Aeryn said coolly.
Chiana laughed. "Oh, she's definitely mad," she said. "Hey, Aeryn, how about this? Next time we get ourselves knee deep in hezmana, we can make D'Argo and John stay behind and watch the narl and we can keep all the excitement for ourselves."
"Well, that's a start," Aeryn said reluctantly.
John laughed and leaned against the wall, he pulled the pardons out of his jacket and gave a low whistle. "Maybe these will help too?" he asked.
"What are those?" Aeryn asked.
"Diplomatic immunity," John said. "We're free agents. No more bounties. No more insane military commanders riding our ass. We're free, baby."
Chiana let out some kind of war cry and jumped on John, hugging him tightly. "Are you serious?" she asked.
"As a heart attack," he said.
Chiana grabbed hers from him. "I don't know what that means, but it better mean hell yeah," she said.
John sat down next to Aeryn as D'Argo and Chiana looked the documents over. "You know that those are meaningless the next time they need you," she said.
"Next time they aren't going to find me," he said. "Harvey's gone. We can go anywhere. We can do anything. Anything you want."
Aeryn turned to look at him. "I love you," she said, placing a hand on the back of his neck to pull him in for another kiss.
"Hey, eyes on the road," Chiana said with a laugh.
"She is sounding more and more like you every day," Aeryn said wryly.
"It's not my fault, it's all that television she watches," John protested.
"I like the soaps," Chiana said. "I could always relate to those the best."
John laughed and leaned against Aeryn, watching out the window and waiting for Moya to appear.
- - - - -
"You must have gone the wrong way," Braca yelled.
"It was not me," Sikozu snapped defensively. "It is the wormhole. It did not take us to the same place, or perhaps, not the same time. They are not here. There is nothing here. We are stranded."
"Sikozu."
Sikozu turned around at the soft voice, and kneeled beside Scorpius. The pulse blasts had not even broken a hole in his suit, but the damage was there. He was still spitting up more blood than she liked, and there was smoke coming from his old cooling rods. "You are getting worse," she fretted. "Did Crichton do this?"
Braca kneeled beside them, and shook his head. "It was the Nebari," he said.
Sikozu looked startled. "Chiana did this?"
"Without hesitation," Braca said. "I believe she has gone slightly mad."
"I'm fairly certain she started out that way," Sikozu said. "Still, I would not have expected this of her. Braca, hand me the medical kit. We need to change his cooling rods. He's overheating."
Braca handed her the kit, and Sikozu gratefully took it from his hands. She opened it up, and stared down at it with disbelief. "They're not here," she whispered. "The cooling rods. When I retrieved it--someone must have--"
Scorpius watched her expressions, and let his eyes be drawn to the empty case. He could feel the heat inside him building. He couldn't hold it off much longer. "This is why he always wins," he whispered.
"Scorpius?" Sikozu said. "Stay with us."
"We're always so preoccupied with him, we pay too little attention to the rest of them," he explained, and he laughed, choking on more of his own blood. "I always thought it would be him. I always thought he would be the one to kill me."
Scorpius watched as Sikozu continued shouting at him, but he could no longer hear her words.
"At least one of them was learning," he said, and closed his eyes.
----epilogue----
Her eyes were fading back to normal. Every time she blinked they got a little less blue. She had spent almost an arn in the shower, washing everything off. It was novel to see the black and white mixing and going down the drain, instead of the blue or red that she was used to.
Their reunion with Moya was everything that she could have hoped for. Moya hadn't quite felt like home anymore without D'Argo, but now they were almost all of them back where they belonged. She still ached a little when she thought of Zhaan and Jool, but she didn't miss Scorpius or Sikozu one bit.
D'Argo adored his namesake. John and D'Argo had spent arns just sitting with him since they had come back. Neither had thought to see any of the others again. Aeryn had simply stood guard over them. Chiana had hung back, leaning against the wall. She still felt a little off center.
D'Argo's miraculous reappearance should have fixed everything that was broken in her, but then she hadn't exactly been whole even before she had thought she lost him. D'Argo was distant as well. He had joined the ranks of their dead. Aeryn, John, they had been through this before. Returned as ghosts. Not quite the same as they had been before.
After Chiana had emerged from the shower, Nebari again, wearing her familiar clothes, she went looking for D'Argo and found him in command, not in his quarters, though they had left everything exactly as he had it. Not even Rygel had taken one single item from his room.
"How you doing?" Chiana asked softly.
He was at the window, looking out at the stars. They had left the nebula behind, Starbursting themselves even further towards the edge of space. Chiana always felt a little better, the farther from Nebari Prime she got.
"I'm alive," D'Argo said.
"Yeah," Chiana said. She took a slow step forward. "And there's peace and everything. I keep waiting--well, I keep waiting to wake up."
"Peace," D'Argo said wryly. "Right. And how long do you think it will last? How long until Scorpius shows up again?"
Chiana leaned against the wall, and continued to watch him. "He's not going to show up again. He's never going to hurt either of you, not ever again," Chiana said.
D'Argo kept his eyes on the stars. They were all new ones. It didn't matter that Crichton's pardons, those proclamations of diplomatic immunity, meant that they could go back. The rest of them had spent so much time looking for home, and none of them wanted to go there now that they could.
D'Argo sighed and leaned his head against the window. "How can you be certain of that?" he asked. "Are you seeing the future again?"
Chiana pulled the thin blue rods from her pocket, and dropped them into the waste receptacle, one at a time. "Something like that," she told him, and watched as the last one was flushed out into space.
D'Argo turned to face her. "You never answered me. How long do you think this peace will last, really?"
Chiana gave a sly little grin, and moved over to him. "At least until morning," she said. "So let's sleep, and get back to saving the universe tomorrow."
D'Argo smiled and pulled her closer, kissing her and then just holding on, as tight as he could. "Stay here with me, then," he said softly. "Until morning."
"Even after, for as long as you want," Chiana said, and framed D'Argo's face with her hands, kissing him again.
He never asked her why her hands were so cold.
- - - - -
John rested his head on his arms, watching little D'Argo sleep. "You know what dad did at work today? I sent a Dreadnought down a wormhole," he whispered. "They had already surrendered. I killed them anyway."
"John," Aeryn whispered, reaching out.
He stepped away, pacing to the other side of the room. "Everyone keeps saying I did the right thing, Scorpius, Sikozu, D'Argo, Chiana, you, but Aeryn, how could it be?"
Aeryn caught his face between her hands, stilling his pacing, forcing him to look at her. "You did what you had to," she said. "No one should have the power you were given, John. No one should have to make the choices you were forced to make, and maybe there was no right answer; you just did what you had to."
"I don't know I can forgive myself this, Aeryn," John said tiredly, and he sounded as though he already knew he couldn't.
Aeryn met his eyes fiercely. "And if you had let D'Argo die, John? That would be better? You could forgive that?"
He tried to pull away, but she wouldn't let him go. He thought she probably never would, and he found it comforting even as he fought to be left alone. "No," he said. "I wouldn't forgive that."
"Then you did the right thing," she said firmly. "Not the easy thing, because you never take the easy way out, John. You never let yourself get away with anything, and that's why you're not like them, that's why you're different. They do things like this and don't care."
John laughed. "It's the caring that's killing me," he said.
"No," Aeryn said, shaking her head. "No, you've taught me better than that. It's what keeps us alive."
"How do we know that this time it's over? How do we know that this time we'll be safe?" he asked.
"Who says we have to know?" Aeryn asked. "What comes will come. Look at what we have now. That's all that matters."
John leaned into her, placing their foreheads together. "When did you get so smart?" he asked.
"I've always been this smart. Now come to bed," she said. "You'll wake the baby."
John let Aeryn lead him over to the bed, and she pulled him close. They were both still wearing their clothes, their boots. Somehow it didn't seem to matter. Just down the hall he could hear D'Argo and Chiana laughing as they went to their room. It wasn't something he thought he would ever hear again.
He could still hear the wormholes too, going off like firecrackers in the back of his mind, fighting for his attention. He could still hear Harvey, even though he wasn't there. His voice played like an echo in his head anytime he closed his eyes. We can go to the beach! I know a place with naked Sebacean girls and margarita shooters!
They would tear him apart if he let them; wormholes, Scorpius, Harvey, all of the dead. If he let them, they would pull him to pieces.
Aeryn weaved their hands together, saying nothing, and he rested his head on her chest so he could let her heart beat drown them all out, and hold onto the things he still had. Moya. Pilot. Stark. Rygel. Noranti.
Big D and Chiana. Aeryn and Little D.
And Hope. Always there was hope.
Hope that maybe this time they would manage it. Maybe this time they would outrun them all.
The End.
previous part
IV.
Scorpius agreed to send John to meet Grayza alone. By alone, he apparently meant with three armed guards trailing in his wake, but John didn't mind them. Peacekeeper commandos didn't ask questions.
If Harvey were here he would advise him to side with the devil he knows, but Harvey’s gone and John can’t quite allow himself to regret that, even as some strange part wanted to.
“Too old for imaginary friends,” he muttered to himself, turning away. Grayza was after power, pure and simple, but that had never been Scorpius’s game, not really. Scorpy wanted revenge and he didn’t care how he got it--he’d do demeaning work without thought if it got him where he needed to be, but Grayza wouldn’t.
Grayza was only concerned with climbing to the top. Personally he hoped she fell hard if she ever got there.
She looked him over from his boots to the tips of his hair, smiled a little, placed a hand on her hip to emphasize the return of her Peacekeeper Barbie figure. "Find Scorpius, take him into custody along with Captain Braca and the Kalish," she said, and motioned her guards, as well as John's, to go on ahead so that it was only them, standing there together in the vast docking bay.
She titled her head a little and smiled wider. "I had not believed Scorpius would send you as the welcoming committee," she said. "You're looking well, Crichton."
"You too," John said. "I see you got the bun out of the oven. Where is the little tyke? Flying prowlers yet?"
"She has been assigned a unit," Grayza said. "She will be in nursery for a few cycles more."
"Charming," John said. "You've got that maternal glow."
Grayza stepped closer. "You never asked me, Crichton," she said slowly, "if the child was yours."
John laughed and looked at the floor. "I figure someone probably would have noticed if you were carrying around a part human child, and that's pretty much as irreversibly contaminated as it gets with you guys, isn't it?" John asked.
She nodded in acknowledgement. "You are correct, but I am, of course, exempt from such things," she said.
"Yeah, I've noticed that, you and your magic sweat, Scorpy and his cooling rods, you all taking your cues from Hitler or what? Be as I want to be, not as I am?"
"I do not know what you mean," Grayza said.
John laughed again and shook his head. "Yes, you do," he said. "Because you're a lot of things, but I don't think you're stupid. So let's make a deal, Mata Hari. You've done a lot of talking about peace, peace this, peace that, peace out--let's have a little less conversation, a little more action."
Grayza acknowledged this by meeting his eyes. "What are you suggesting?"
"The Scarrens are after my family," John said. "Scorpy's promised to save them if I get rid of you."
Grayza smiled. "And you're telling me this because?"
"Because if you help me save them now, then I'll help get rid of him instead," John said.
"I admit that I would like to see Scorpius die," Grayza said thoughtfully. "But he has a habit of not staying buried."
"Maybe you should have gotten into that grave and checked for a pulse yourself," John said.
Grayza smiled. "Maybe I should have just shot him myself," she said. "My faith in Braca almost undid me."
"That too," John said.
"I admit I am surprised, Crichton. I had believed that you and Scorpius were becoming allies," she said.
"He likes to think that," John said. "The truth is I want him dead more than anyone. Even you. So you win the lotto. Congratulations. I'm sure we'll all see great things from you."
Grayza's smile widened. "And from you as well," she said.
"Is that a deal?" John asked.
"You realize, of course, to save your family, you would have to know where they are," she said.
"The thought had occurred to me," he said.
"And do you know where they are?" she asked.
"You don't need to worry about that," John said. "I know how to find them."
"Going after Scarrens is a breach of the treaty," she said carefully. "I was threatened, just earlier today, by you if I remember correctly, against any such actions."
"You keep playing coy and I'm gonna get bored," John said. "Don't delude yourself. You're not my only way out of this, you're just easy, is all. You need me a hell of a lot more than I need you."
Grayza shook her head. "To be honest, Crichton, I think the sanest course of action is to put you to death. What you are capable of--" she trailed off. "Well, you horrified even me, and I do not frighten easily."
"You need to understand something," John said. "I don't stay buried well, either, but the fact that that power scares you? That's why I'm here talking with you and not Scorpius. Cause it doesn't scare him, and that's why he's not my ally, that's why he won't ever be."
"This power scares you?" Grayza asked.
John stepped up close to her, close enough he could smell the sick sweetness of her sweat, but he gave no sign that he noticed it. "Lady, I've spent the last four cycles terrified out of my mind, my tolerance has gotten pretty high, but yeah, it scares the hell out of me, and that's why it works. And that's why you're going to do what I tell you to."
"Speak your terms," Grayza said, tilting her head back.
John smiled.
- - - - -
Chiana stepped out of the way as five Peacekeeper commandos went running past the cells. She turned back to D'Argo in alarm. "We've got to get you out of there," she said.
D'Argo shook his head. "No, if Scorpius comes to check on me, I have to be here," he said, "and you need to stay out of sight."
"You sound like Crichton," Chiana complained. "We don't have a choice. From the sound of it, his plan is already going to hezmana."
"Chiana," D'Argo said quietly, "that's why you have to go find him. I'll be right here. You can come back for me."
Chiana shook her head. "No, no, I'm not leaving you here, D'Argo, I'm not, what is it with you frellniks? Why do you think it's okay to put yourselves at risk but not the rest of us?"
"It isn't like that," D'Argo said with a sigh. "I want nothing more than to get out of this cell."
"Good," Chiana said, moving to the lock. "Then let's do it."
D'Argo reached through the bars to grab her hand. "But we have to trust Crichton."
Chiana let out a breath. "I love Crichton," she said. "He's family, and I'd do anything for him. But he doesn't think clearly when it comes to Scorpius. We can't leave this to him this time. We need to come up with a plan of our own and then get him out of here."
D'Argo glanced down the hall as more commandos went running by, ignoring them both. "As good as that sounds, it would never work and you know it. As usual, we're going to have to try one of Crichton's fahrbot plans, and that means I stay here, and you go find him."
"D'Argo--" Chiana started.
"We'll get out of this," D'Argo said. "We just have to play along a little longer."
Chiana glared at him, but stepped away from the lock. "I'm tired of playing," she said. "You better still be here when I get back."
"I'm not going anywhere," D'Argo assured her.
Chiana followed after the commandos, without looking back, cursing both of the men in her life all the way down the hall.
- - - - -
Aeryn took in a deep gasping breath, not quite sure how she was still alive. The world came into focus slowly, and there was Stark, looking down at her with a little frown. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"You're supposed to be looking after D'Argo," she said.
"I left him in the care of Rygel and Noranti," Stark explained.
"Exactly," Aeryn said, before getting carefully to her feet. She dusted bits of Scarren off her shirt, and stared down at the mess lying at her feet. "What did you do to him?"
"Radiation," Stark explained. "Such as the one you call Sikozu emits. Designed to destroy the heat gland. Very messy death, very messy, but effective, yes, very effective, he blew up everywhere."
"I can see that," Aeryn said. "Stark, if you knew how to do that, why didn't you just kill them all?"
He stared up at her with that one crazy eye like that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "I didn't know I could to do that," he explained.
"Of course you didn't," Aeryn said, before turning and heading towards her son. "Noranti, how is D'Argo?"
"Oh, quite well," Noranti said. "Are the Scarrens dead?"
"Yes," Aeryn said. "Your weapons worked amazingly well."
"Yes, yes, I thought they might, just an idea I had, strangely enough from the Eidelons, who really only like peace, you know, but I--"
Aeryn tuned the old woman out and switched her comm. to contact Pilot. "Pilot, are you and Moya both alright?"
"We are fine, Aeryn. All the Scarrens have been killed," he said, sounding rightly a little surprised.
Aeryn let out a breath. "Any sign of reinforcements?" she asked.
"No," Pilot said. "I am detecting no ships on sensors."
Aeryn nodded, knowing that it was good news as much as bad. No ships meant no Scarrens, but it also meant no Chiana and John. She let out a sigh of relief when she turned the corner and saw Rygel sitting with D'Argo in his arms. D'Argo was laughing and pulling on his ears. Aeryn kneeled down beside them, glancing up at Noranti and then back to Rygel.
"Thank you, all of you," she said. "I can never repay you for protecting my son."
She leaned forward and placed a kiss on Rygel's forehead, the way she had seen John do once or twice, and Rygel pulled away, uncomfortable with this affection. "Yes, well, don't expect it to happen again," he said. "This baby is going to get as big as that gangly husband of yours. He's already getting hard for me to hold."
Aeryn carefully took D'Argo from his arms and placed a kiss on his forehead, as well. "He will," she agreed. "He's going to look just like him, aren't you?"
D'Argo laughed again. Aeryn had noticed that D'Argo rarely cried. He laughed almost all of the time. "Yes," she said, holding him closer. "You're going to be just like him."
"The Divine Eternal help us all," Rygel muttered.
- - - - -
"So we're agreed then?" John asked.
"It seems I have little choice but to acquiesce," Grayza said. "I will do as you say."
"Good," John said, and grabbed Grayza by the arm to pull her closer. She grinned and fell against him. John ignored her and carefully pulled her pulse pistol from the holster on her thigh. She let him without complaint. "You know, you should really think about investing in some anti-perspirant. I hear Secret is the way to go, made for a woman, strong enough for a man."
Grayza pushed him away. "Go, before I change my mind."
She didn't have to tell him again. John pushed the pistol in his waistband and covered it with his jacket before moving out into the hall. There were no guards waiting for him. Grayza had reassigned them all to one task--find Scorpius.
No one was paying any attention to him for the first time since he stepped on this godforsaken carrier. John had his suspicions that Scorpius wasn't surrendering without a fight. He started back towards D'Argo's cell, and let out a yelp when someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into a closet.
"Chiana, what--"
"Shh," she said, pushing hand over his mouth and leaning past him to shut the door. "What's going on?"
John pulled her hand down and grinned. "I've got a plan," he said.
Chiana groaned. "We're doomed, aren't we?"
"Probably," John agreed, and opened the door, checking down the hall. "You ready to go get D'Argo?"
Chiana nodded, and they slipped out of the closet. Chiana grabbed John roughly by the arm to pull him in front of her. "Hey--" he started.
"Keep moving, Crichton," she said loudly, as a group of commandos went by. They glanced at them for a moment, but kept moving on.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked.
"What, not being a tech or your server girl?" she asked. "Yeah, it's kind of nice."
"I do love a girl in uniform," he told her.
"You don't look so bad yourself," Chiana told him.
John opened his mouth to respond, but D'Argo loudly cleared his throat. "If you two are through. . . ?" he said.
John turned to look at him in surprise. He hadn't realized they had already reached the cells. "Right," he said. "Okay. Bad news first. A Stryker's gone after Aeryn. But, hey, Grayza's on board."
Chiana tensed. "I'm gonna kill her--" she said.
"No, Chi, believe it or not, that part was the good news," John said. "I made a deal with her."
"Wait--you're double-crossing Scorpius?" D'Argo asked, leaning against the bars. "Is that a good idea?"
"Of course it's not a good idea," John said. "But here, look, it's not a double-cross exactly, it's just playing the odds. Scorpy. Grayza. One of them is going to screw me, and only one is going to come out on top. So I'm making deals with both of them just in case. We'll call Grayza plan A. Scorpy is plan B."
"But we always end up going with Plan B," Chiana complained.
"Okay, Grayza can be Plan B," John said.
"That isn't any better," Chiana said. "How about Plan C? We all get in a ship and you make us disappear through a wormhole so we can go rescue Aeryn and D'Argo?"
"I don't need rescuing," D'Argo protested.
"Not you, the kid," Chiana said.
"What kid?" D'Argo demanded.
"My son," John said. "We named him D'Argo."
"You named your son after me?" D'Argo looked touched and nearly teary-eyed, so John decided to mess with him.
"No, we named him after some other Luxan warrior," John told him.
D'Argo reached out and grabbed him for a full on Luxan body hug. John sucked in a breath and thought he heard his ribs snap. Those hugs were painful enough when there wasn't a set of bars pressing between them. "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."
"Hmm," Chiana said speculatively. "I'm pretty sure I could top it."
John felt a familiar presence tickling at the back of his neck, and he turned to look down the hall. "Pip, get out of sight," he said.
She slipped around the corner just as Scorpius was escorted into the hall along with Braca, and thrown into the cell across from D'Argo. John watched as the cell was locked. The guards glanced at him, and then retreated again without a word.
John stepped forward. "Now that's what I call poetic justice," he said.
"Have you betrayed me?" Scorpius asked, leaning forward with his hands on the bars. Braca was pouting behind him. John was not surprised Sikozu had not been caught.
"You really need to stop being surprised," John said.
"I was not lying about your family," Scorpius said.
"No, I don't believe you were," John said. "But I don't trust you to help them, and they can take care of themselves."
Scorpius shook his head with disappointment. "I gave you too much freedom, too much reign on this ship. Rest assured, John, when I get out of here, I will not make the same mistake. This I can promise you, Grayza will not help you, your plans will fail."
"I think Grayza is willing to do whatever I ask, as long as I get rid of you, as long as I hold off this war," John said. "But you? You want me to start one."
"You've ruined us all," Scorpius hissed.
John stepped forward. "You know how I know for sure when I'm doing the right thing? When you tell me I'm not." John looked back behind him. "Chiana."
Chiana moved around the corner, smiling, her pulse pistol un-holstered. "Yes, John?"
"Let D'Argo out," he said. "We're moving up the timetable."
Scorpius' eyes widened as he took in the transformed Nebari. "You're making a mistake," Scorpius said.
"Add it to the list," John said, turning away. Chiana deactivated the lock on D'Argo's door with her ident chip. He stepped out beside them.
"She won't let you leave, John, I could help you," Scorpius said.
John laughed out loud, spinning back to face Scorpius. "It's always the same thing with you, isn't it? Always wanting to help me. It's time you face facts, Scorpy, you're not my peer counselor. I don't want your advice, and I don't want your kind of help."
"He wants you dead," Chiana said, before lifting her pulse pistol and firing.
Scorpius was thrown back into Braca, specks of white blood leaking out his lips. John watched dispassionately. "That won't kill him, Chi," he said. "It's been tried before."
"Maybe not, but it was fun," Chiana said.
John looked up as the alarms started blaring. "And it also just advertised our little prison break."
Chiana leaned past him to look at Scorpius gasping on the floor. "Still worth it," she said, nodding, and then aimed her pistol, and fired at his chest again. There was a small blue explosion as the pulse blast impacted his suit, and Braca and Scorpius were both thrown a little way across the floor at the impact.
"Woah," John said, reaching out and bringing her arm down. "Are you trigger happy or what?"
"He needs to die, Crichton," Chiana said, trying to lift the gun again.
"Stop it," Braca demanded. "Haven't you done enough?"
"We're not even yet," John said.
From the floor, Scorpius laughed, coughing up more of that strange white blood. John winced as he watched. He could still taste it on his tongue. "Oh, but you're gaining on me, John," he said weakly. "Look how far you've come."
"We have to go, now," D'Argo said roughly, grabbing John's arm in one hand and Chiana's in the other, before dragging them down the hall. "It looks like Plan C wins out again."
"I don't know why I even bother making a Plan A," John complained. "No one ever listens to me, but no, we're still smack dab in the middle of Plan B. Chi, you take D'Argo to the docking bay, make like D's your prisoner, and Grayza sent you to move him to her ship."
Chiana's eyes narrowed. "And where will you be?"
"Tying up loose ends," John said, turning to head back down the hall. D'Argo grabbed the neck of John's jacket, and tugged him back before he could make it two feet.
"I don't think so," he said. "We're leaving now."
"D, man, hey." John tried to disentangle himself from D'Argo's iron grip, but wasn't having any luck. "I'll be there, okay? I just need to take care of something."
"Knock him out, D'Argo, we'll carry him out of here," Chiana said.
D'Argo shook his head. "We're not getting out of this unless he leads us to a wormhole, and that's just what you're going to do, isn't it, John?"
"Yes," John said, pulling away and taking a step back from them. "Right after I finish this."
"John," D'Argo snapped, stepping after him.
John moved further away. "You have to trust me," he said. "I'll be there. I promise."
D'Argo pointed at him. "You had better be," he said. "You do not want me to have to come and find you."
"Noted," John said. "Now go. We're running out of time."
John spun on his heel and started back towards the cells. Chiana let out a strangled cry of frustration, and D'Argo grabbed her to get her moving. After a few feet, she shook off her anger at this further detour to their plans and started to lead D'Argo down the hall.
"Move faster, Luxan," she said, when a few Peacekeepers passed, but her heart wasn't in it. She sounded closer to tears than anger.
She supposed she should be grateful everyone was moving too fast to notice them at all.
- - - - -
Sikozu watched as the Peacekeepers went running past the doors, and pulled her hood further down over her eyes. The Kalish refugees were being entirely ignored by the Peacekeepers. Sikozu had slipped inside with them, and disappeared.
She had tapped into the communications system and learned that Scorpius and Braca had both been taken into custody for breaking the treaty. The Luxan, on the other hand, had escaped. No one was saying anything about Crichton, but Sikozu knew he would be behind whatever was going on.
She moved towards the door, dropping her borrowed cloak to the floor. She would be safe here, with her people. Peacekeepers did not pay attention to those they viewed as lower races, whether the supposed lesser races were actually their betters seemed irrelevant to them, and she knew if she just stayed here she would go unnoticed.
But Sikozu had changed much in these last cycles. She no longer ran from her problems. She faced them head on.
She slipped out into the hall, and moved to an armory. It had been nearly picked clean already, but a few weapons remained. She threw a pulse rifle over one shoulder and grabbed a pulse pistol.
She knew she had become something other than what she was intended to be. She was an engineered soldier, true, but as was the Kalish way, her methods of war were always meant to be intellectual--she was supposed to outsmart the Scarrens, kill them with radiation only if given no other choice. She was not supposed to be so comfortable holding weapons.
She wondered who she had to thank for that. Scorpius, or John Crichton.
It was not hard to avoid being seen. If someone was coming around the corner, Sikozu simply walked up the wall--and waited on the ceiling for them to pass. It was slow going, but she still understood caution. This rescue would have to be timed well.
Sikozu stopped at Scorpius' quarters. She was surprised to see they were not guarded. No doubt Grayza did not believe the single missing Kalish to be a threat. Sikozu grabbed the medical kit from the table and then ran out the doors, heading towards the containment area.
D'Argo was the last person she expected to run into. Sikozu came to an abrupt stop, wary when she realized he had been captured. She glanced at the Peacekeeper and raised her weapon, ready to defend herself. That was when she noticed the smile the girl was wearing.
She knew that smile. "Chiana?" she said, with disbelief.
"Hey, how you doing?" Chiana asked, and then sent her sprawling to the ground with a sucker punch. Chiana shook out her hand. Her knuckles were grey where the paint had chipped. "That felt good."
D'Argo stared at Sikozu for a moment with a look of disappointment, and then stepped over her and took off down the hall. He was half way down the next hall when he realized that Chiana had not followed.
He returned to where he had left her just in time to see her kneeling by Sikozu, snapping a small black case shut. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "Leave her."
Chiana got to her feet. "Nothing," she said innocently, and hopped over Sikozu. "Let's go."
- - - - -
John came to an abrupt stop in front of Scorpius' cell. "Oh, you still here?" he asked. He looked Scorpius over. He was on his feet, but breathing hard. "You're looking a little peaked."
John let out a startled cry as Scorpius' hand shot out and grabbed his wrist, tugging him against the bars with almost enough force to break it. Recovering quickly, John laughed and pulled his pulse pistol out to press against Scorpius' head. Braca just hung back and watched.
"Oops, sorry," John said, "forgot you're not supposed to taunt the wild animals at the zoo. You want to let my arm go?"
"Go ahead and shoot, at least have the decency to finish the job yourself," Scorpius hissed. "You owe me that much, Crichton."
"No," John said, slowly drawing the word out.
Scorpius let him go in disgust. John stepped back out of reach, but no farther. "You can destroy a dreadnought but not me, why, Crichton?"
"I never wanted to hurt anyone," John said softly. He laughed suddenly, but the sound was filled with pain. "Back on my side of the universe I used to watch the news, channel eleven, you know, and look at all the horrible things people did to each other and just think--how could they do that?"
John heard the click of heels coming down the hall. He didn't take his eyes from Scorpius. "But we all have it in us, whether we know it or not. It's all about control, Scorpy, and you strip mine away every single time. I'm through letting you."
"Letting me live is a tactical error," Scorpius said, smug, because he could see whatever he said it didn't matter--John was incapable of pulling the trigger on him. "I taught you better."
"Everything you taught me I plan to forget,” he said.
"A wise plan," Grayza said smoothly, coming to stand beside him. She ran a hand across John's shoulders. He tightened his jaw but said nothing and didn't pull away.
Scorpius hissed at them. "You think you've made a deal with him, don't you? But he's betrayed us both. He's freed the Luxan and another of his friends is here in disguise. You should have let us be, Grayza. He'll destroy you the same way he has me."
Grayza watched him dispassionately. She gave no reaction at this declaration. She only turned to John, and handed him a stack of clear plastic documents. "Diplomatic immunity, for you and all your friends, as agreed," Grayza said. "These papers will protect you from any Peacekeepers. I cannot promise the same of the Scarrens."
"And Scorpius cannot void these?" John demanded.
"He cannot," Grayza said. "He will not be in any position to do anything, in any case. I suggest you get on your way."
John nodded. "I'm not going to say thank you," he said.
"I do not expect or want your thanks," Grayza said. "I do suggest you leave quickly."
John nodded, and with one last glance at Scorpius, he took off back down the hall after his friends. Realization was dawning slowly in Scoripus's eyes, and he forced himself to stay on his feet, breathing heavily and holding onto the bars for support. "You're letting him escape!" he roared.
Grayza glanced at him. "Yes," she said. "His presence here disturbs the Scarrens. We were returning to a state of unrest. The threat of this power keeps the peace, but Crichton must remain a neutral party. As long as he is the sole arbitrator and neither side controls him, there can be peace. The moment one side possesses him the balance is disturbed."
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Scorpius demanded. "We could have destroyed the Scarrens!"
"At the cost of my people?" Grayza asked. "No. No, I think not."
"He played you," Scorpius said, disgusted. "He talked you into setting him free."
"Perhaps," Grayza said, "but if that is so, I let him do it, because his reasoning was sound. I do not wish to possess his power. I do not believe anyone should have that power. But he is right. The fact that he does hold it is all that keeps us from killing each other. John Crichton will be the man we speak of in fearful whispers, the man who could turn space against itself. He is like a story meant to frighten us, to keep us on our best behavior."
"You are weak," Scoripus said. "You are frightened and you are weak."
"Frightened, yes," Grayza said. "But weak? It takes strength to choose peace over violence, Scorpius. This, I fear, is something that you will never understand."
"You fear much," Scorpius growled, and little specks of blood came flying out with his words.
"But not you, not any longer," Grayza said. "Your reign of terror is over. We will have peace despite your efforts."
"This is not peace, this is a stalemate," Scorpius said. "Crichton will not live forever."
"The threat of what he can do will live on past his life," she said. "And with him out there, somewhere unknown, unreachable? We'll never know if he's watching. Waiting. The peace will hold."
Grayza glanced at Braca and then back to Scorpius. "But it is no concern of yours any longer. Braca is to endure the Living Death. You, Scorpius, are to be beheaded."
Scorpius let out a choking laugh. "Was that a condition of Crichton's?"
"It was a condition of mine," Grayza said. "I want to make sure you're not coming back this time. Once we reach High Command, your sentences will be carried out publicly as an example to us all."
Grayza stepped away, and motioning to the guards to watch the prisoners, headed back to command her new carrier.
- - - - -
Sikozu woke to someone shaking her. "Wake up, Kalish."
She opened her eyes. A Peacekeeper commando was staring down at her with distain. "It's time to join the others," he said. "You've just been relieved of your command. Whatever your job actually was, anyway."
He pulled her roughly to her feet. "I’m sorry," she said.
He laughed. "Yeah, well, believe it or not, we're expecting a bit more than an apology," he said. "I'm still locking you up."
"You misunderstand," Sikozu said, and held out a hand. A burst of fire slammed into him in the chest, and he started screaming. She reached down and grabbed the pulse rifle and medical kit, before moving around him and down the hall. "I meant I was sorry for that."
Peacekeepers died much more easily than Scarrans. He had stopped screaming by the time she turned the corner. Her time to play it safe was at an end. She had no idea how long she had been knocked out by that stupid tralk, and she had to reach Scorpius fast.
Another guard came at her, and she lifted the pulse rifle and shot him once, sending him flying back. "Sorry about that," she said, again, and kept going.
The two guards standing watch over Braca and Scorpius were similarly easy to kill. It amazed Sikozu the way these commandos looked down on techs, when they were the only reason they were any use at all. Without all their technology, they were next to nothing. They had no innate internal defenses, no outwardly impressive strength.
"Pathetic," she said, and shot the lock off the cell door.
Her eyes narrowed when she saw Braca holding Scorpius up. "What happened?" she demanded.
"Not now," Scorpius hissed, surging forward. Braca followed and caught him, keeping him on his feet. Sikozu immediately stepped forward to support him on the other side. "Crichton is escaping."
"As we should be," Sikozu said. "Grayza has ordered all of our deaths."
"Why did you come back for us?" Braca asked.
"I did not come back for you," Sikozu snapped, and left it at that.
- - - - -
"Five more microts, and then I'm going after him," D'Argo snapped.
Chiana shook her head. "No, you're staying here. I'm going after him. I’m the one with the disguise, remember?"
"Chiana, I'm not going to argue about this," D'Argo said. "I'll go, because I'm the one that can drag him back here whether he wants to come or not--"
"You two arguing over little ole me?" John asked, as he slipped past them and straight into a Marauder. The others followed him quickly.
"Crichton, where have you been?" D'Argo demanded, and added, after noticing what he held, "and what are those?"
John dropped them on the floor and slid into the pilot's seat. "Tell you later," he said. "Let's get the hell out of dodge while the getting's good."
"Are you certain that Grayza will not fire on us?" D'Argo asked, leaning over John's shoulder.
John started the ship up. "Not at all," he said.
"Great," Chiana said. "This is great."
"Anyone coming, Pip?" John asked.
Chiana shook her head. "Whatever Grandma did to my eyes, I can't see through walls at the moment. Your guess is as good as mine."
"Okay then," John said. "I suggest you all cross your fingers."
"What in hezmana for?" D'Argo demanded.
"For luck," John said, as he took the ship out into space. "We're going to need it."
D'Argo looked down at his hand, and attempted to cross his fingers. Chiana leaned forward on John's other side. "What about our exit strategy, how's that coming, old man?"
"Oh, it's coming," John said, continuing to pilot the craft.
Viente. Diecinueve. Dieciocho . . .
- - - - -
Braca and Sikozu stumbled into the docking bay, holding Scorpius up between them. Scorpius growled as they watched the Marauder speed off just as they entered. "We have to follow them," he said. "Quickly!"
"A Prowler is quicker," Braca said. "We may be able to catch them."
"No," Sikozu snapped. "Grayza will not risk firing on Crichton, and Marauders can not be penetrated by sensors. We take a Marauder. She will not know which holds Crichton."
"Agreed," Scorpius said.
"Then we had better hurry," Braca said, nodding towards the open space beyond the bay. In the distance, vibrant and spiraling, a wormhole was coming to life.
- - - - -
Grayza watched over Command. Crichton should be making his miraculous escape at any moment. She would feign surprise but command her soldiers not to fire on his position. After all, he was, as always, too valuable to kill. Unique was the word Scorpius used, in all of his many long-winded reports.
"Ma'am! The prisoners are escaping!"
Grayza nodded, smothering a grin. She turned. "Send out the Prowlers, but attempt only to disable the ship, Crichton must be brought back alive."
Grayza knew they would not reach Crichton in time, not if he kept his end of the bargain. If he didn't, and he was caught, she would be able to work with that. Either way, Crichton was her asset now. She would not make the same mistakes as Scorpius.
"What about the others?" a solider asked.
Grayza frowned. "The Luxan? He is of no consequence, but he will be with Crichton, and I--"
"No, ma'am, Scorpius, Captain Braca, and the Kalish spy," he interrupted. "Your orders regarding them?"
Grayza froze. "They have escaped?" she demanded.
"Yes, ma'am," he said. "The guards watching them are dead."
Grayza frowned. That wasn't really Crichton's style. She doubted that he had double-crossed her. The Kalish must have set the others free. "Stop them," she said. "Kill all three of them."
He nodded, and turned to leave command, motioning his subordinates to follow him. One of the techs ran up to Grayza, looking terrified. "Two Marauders have just launched without authorization."
Grayza grinned. "Good, shoot down the one holding Scorpius," she said. "Retrieve the one with Crichton."
"But we do not know which is which," the tech explained.
Grayza turned to stare at the viewscreen. A wormhole was opening, and there were two Marauders racing towards it. "Find out," she yelled. "Scan them! Which one is Crichton's? We cannot let Scorpius escape!"
Grayza turned to glare at the tech, and she stepped back, going pale. "We cannot tell," she said. "Our scans cannot penetrate the Marauder's shields."
When Grayza turned back to the wormhole, both ships had already disappeared.
- - - - -
"There's a Marauder right on our tail," Chiana warned.
"It can't be Grayza's," John said, looking at the sensors. "She promised more of a head start than that."
"And she's so trustworthy," D'Argo said.
John watched the ship for a moment, and shook his head. "It's Scorpius," he said.
"You can't be sure of that," Chiana protested.
John pulled the ship to the side of the wormhole, skimming at the edge of the anomaly like a surfer on a wave. "Don't worry, we'll lose them," John said. "They're never going to be able to follow our exit. They don't know where they're going."
"And you do?" Chiana asked.
John nodded. "Like there's road signs," he said. "I know where every exit leads."
Chiana watched the progress of the Marauder behind them, but its course was erratic. They seemed to be having trouble staying on course. She grabbed onto the edge of the console as John sent them spinning straight out into normal space. D'Argo reached out and grabbed her, holding onto her waist and balancing them both.
"Home sweet home," John said, and looked up expectantly. There was nothing there.
"Where's Moya?" Chiana asked, searching the sensors.
"Are you sure you came out at the right place?" D'Argo demanded.
"What? Yes," John said. "These are the coordinates Chi gave me. Moya should be here."
"Maybe they Starburst," Chiana said, nodding. "When the Stryker came, they must have Starburst away. I'm sure they're fine."
John glanced frantically at the empty space around them. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, that makes sense, they probably--"
"John," D'Argo said. "I'm picking up a ship on sensors."
"I thought you said that Marauder couldn't follow us through?" Chiana demanded.
"It couldn't have," John said, moving to look at the sensors. "That isn't a Marauder."
D'Argo nodded in agreement. "That is a Stryker. And they're sending a transmission."
"Marauder. State your business here." The transmission was grainy, but they all recognized the voice. John burst out laughing.
"Aeryn, baby, it is good to hear your voice," he said.
"John? John is that you? Chiana? Are you both alright?" Aeryn sounded somewhere between frantic and relieved. John could relate.
"We're here, we're all alright," John said. "How about you? Where are the kids?"
"Safe on Moya," Aeryn said. "We had a little run in with some uninvited guests. I borrowed their ship to wait here for you and sent Moya to hide in a nearby nebula."
"You all okay then?" John demanded.
"We're all fine," Aeryn said. "I want you to dock here and get on board this ship. The Stryker is much faster than a Marauder, and I want to return to Moya as quickly as possible so we can Starburst away from here."
"You got it," John said. "That little bitty ship going to be big enough for all of us, though?"
"It will hold three of us no problem," Aeryn said. "Three Scarrens were on it previously, and we're all considerably smaller."
"What about four?" John asked. "One of whom is considerably larger?"
The comm. went silent for a moment. John could imagine the wheels turning in Aeryn's head. "What do you mean four?" Aeryn asked. "John, Scorpius isn't--"
"What? No, god, no, nothing like that. This is one surprise you're gonna like, darlin'," he said.
"I don't like surprises," Aeryn said sternly. "John--"
John laughed. "You will. I got nothing but good news for you, I promise," he said.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Aeryn said.
John glanced at D'Argo. "Yeah, you will," he said. "Docking now."
John secured their air duct to the one on the Stryker, and heard the hatch on the other side opening almost immediately. He quickly grabbed up their pardons and then headed towards the back. "I think she's a little impatient," John said, reaching out to open theirs.
He barely had the door open and Aeryn was in his arms, gripping him tightly. One of her hands was wrapped in his hair, pulling him down so her mouth was level with his ear. "If you ever, and I mean ever, do something like that again," she whispered.
"I think between the three of us we can keep him in check," D'Argo said.
Aeryn froze, the hand she had wound in John's hair going slack. John smiled at her brightly as he spun them around so she could see the Luxan face to face. "D'Argo?" she whispered.
D'Argo stepped forward and grabbed Aeryn up in a hug. "I hear you named your son after me," he said.
"You were dead," Aeryn said, and she was so relieved she had started shaking. "How did you survive?"
"That's a long story," Chiana said. "They haven't even told it to me. Personally, I don't really care how, just that he is."
Aeryn turned to Chiana, and reached to grab her arm. "Thank you, Chiana, for everything, for bringing them both back."
John moved past them into the Stryker, and the others followed. John gave it a cursory once over, and decided he had no idea how to fly it. "Aeryn, honey, what do you say you take us home?"
She grabbed him again and kissed him. "We will talk more later," she said sternly.
"That sounds like a threat," John said, calling after her. "You can't be mad! Everything worked out!"
"I said we'll talk later," Aeryn said coolly.
Chiana laughed. "Oh, she's definitely mad," she said. "Hey, Aeryn, how about this? Next time we get ourselves knee deep in hezmana, we can make D'Argo and John stay behind and watch the narl and we can keep all the excitement for ourselves."
"Well, that's a start," Aeryn said reluctantly.
John laughed and leaned against the wall, he pulled the pardons out of his jacket and gave a low whistle. "Maybe these will help too?" he asked.
"What are those?" Aeryn asked.
"Diplomatic immunity," John said. "We're free agents. No more bounties. No more insane military commanders riding our ass. We're free, baby."
Chiana let out some kind of war cry and jumped on John, hugging him tightly. "Are you serious?" she asked.
"As a heart attack," he said.
Chiana grabbed hers from him. "I don't know what that means, but it better mean hell yeah," she said.
John sat down next to Aeryn as D'Argo and Chiana looked the documents over. "You know that those are meaningless the next time they need you," she said.
"Next time they aren't going to find me," he said. "Harvey's gone. We can go anywhere. We can do anything. Anything you want."
Aeryn turned to look at him. "I love you," she said, placing a hand on the back of his neck to pull him in for another kiss.
"Hey, eyes on the road," Chiana said with a laugh.
"She is sounding more and more like you every day," Aeryn said wryly.
"It's not my fault, it's all that television she watches," John protested.
"I like the soaps," Chiana said. "I could always relate to those the best."
John laughed and leaned against Aeryn, watching out the window and waiting for Moya to appear.
- - - - -
"You must have gone the wrong way," Braca yelled.
"It was not me," Sikozu snapped defensively. "It is the wormhole. It did not take us to the same place, or perhaps, not the same time. They are not here. There is nothing here. We are stranded."
"Sikozu."
Sikozu turned around at the soft voice, and kneeled beside Scorpius. The pulse blasts had not even broken a hole in his suit, but the damage was there. He was still spitting up more blood than she liked, and there was smoke coming from his old cooling rods. "You are getting worse," she fretted. "Did Crichton do this?"
Braca kneeled beside them, and shook his head. "It was the Nebari," he said.
Sikozu looked startled. "Chiana did this?"
"Without hesitation," Braca said. "I believe she has gone slightly mad."
"I'm fairly certain she started out that way," Sikozu said. "Still, I would not have expected this of her. Braca, hand me the medical kit. We need to change his cooling rods. He's overheating."
Braca handed her the kit, and Sikozu gratefully took it from his hands. She opened it up, and stared down at it with disbelief. "They're not here," she whispered. "The cooling rods. When I retrieved it--someone must have--"
Scorpius watched her expressions, and let his eyes be drawn to the empty case. He could feel the heat inside him building. He couldn't hold it off much longer. "This is why he always wins," he whispered.
"Scorpius?" Sikozu said. "Stay with us."
"We're always so preoccupied with him, we pay too little attention to the rest of them," he explained, and he laughed, choking on more of his own blood. "I always thought it would be him. I always thought he would be the one to kill me."
Scorpius watched as Sikozu continued shouting at him, but he could no longer hear her words.
"At least one of them was learning," he said, and closed his eyes.
----epilogue----
Her eyes were fading back to normal. Every time she blinked they got a little less blue. She had spent almost an arn in the shower, washing everything off. It was novel to see the black and white mixing and going down the drain, instead of the blue or red that she was used to.
Their reunion with Moya was everything that she could have hoped for. Moya hadn't quite felt like home anymore without D'Argo, but now they were almost all of them back where they belonged. She still ached a little when she thought of Zhaan and Jool, but she didn't miss Scorpius or Sikozu one bit.
D'Argo adored his namesake. John and D'Argo had spent arns just sitting with him since they had come back. Neither had thought to see any of the others again. Aeryn had simply stood guard over them. Chiana had hung back, leaning against the wall. She still felt a little off center.
D'Argo's miraculous reappearance should have fixed everything that was broken in her, but then she hadn't exactly been whole even before she had thought she lost him. D'Argo was distant as well. He had joined the ranks of their dead. Aeryn, John, they had been through this before. Returned as ghosts. Not quite the same as they had been before.
After Chiana had emerged from the shower, Nebari again, wearing her familiar clothes, she went looking for D'Argo and found him in command, not in his quarters, though they had left everything exactly as he had it. Not even Rygel had taken one single item from his room.
"How you doing?" Chiana asked softly.
He was at the window, looking out at the stars. They had left the nebula behind, Starbursting themselves even further towards the edge of space. Chiana always felt a little better, the farther from Nebari Prime she got.
"I'm alive," D'Argo said.
"Yeah," Chiana said. She took a slow step forward. "And there's peace and everything. I keep waiting--well, I keep waiting to wake up."
"Peace," D'Argo said wryly. "Right. And how long do you think it will last? How long until Scorpius shows up again?"
Chiana leaned against the wall, and continued to watch him. "He's not going to show up again. He's never going to hurt either of you, not ever again," Chiana said.
D'Argo kept his eyes on the stars. They were all new ones. It didn't matter that Crichton's pardons, those proclamations of diplomatic immunity, meant that they could go back. The rest of them had spent so much time looking for home, and none of them wanted to go there now that they could.
D'Argo sighed and leaned his head against the window. "How can you be certain of that?" he asked. "Are you seeing the future again?"
Chiana pulled the thin blue rods from her pocket, and dropped them into the waste receptacle, one at a time. "Something like that," she told him, and watched as the last one was flushed out into space.
D'Argo turned to face her. "You never answered me. How long do you think this peace will last, really?"
Chiana gave a sly little grin, and moved over to him. "At least until morning," she said. "So let's sleep, and get back to saving the universe tomorrow."
D'Argo smiled and pulled her closer, kissing her and then just holding on, as tight as he could. "Stay here with me, then," he said softly. "Until morning."
"Even after, for as long as you want," Chiana said, and framed D'Argo's face with her hands, kissing him again.
He never asked her why her hands were so cold.
- - - - -
John rested his head on his arms, watching little D'Argo sleep. "You know what dad did at work today? I sent a Dreadnought down a wormhole," he whispered. "They had already surrendered. I killed them anyway."
"John," Aeryn whispered, reaching out.
He stepped away, pacing to the other side of the room. "Everyone keeps saying I did the right thing, Scorpius, Sikozu, D'Argo, Chiana, you, but Aeryn, how could it be?"
Aeryn caught his face between her hands, stilling his pacing, forcing him to look at her. "You did what you had to," she said. "No one should have the power you were given, John. No one should have to make the choices you were forced to make, and maybe there was no right answer; you just did what you had to."
"I don't know I can forgive myself this, Aeryn," John said tiredly, and he sounded as though he already knew he couldn't.
Aeryn met his eyes fiercely. "And if you had let D'Argo die, John? That would be better? You could forgive that?"
He tried to pull away, but she wouldn't let him go. He thought she probably never would, and he found it comforting even as he fought to be left alone. "No," he said. "I wouldn't forgive that."
"Then you did the right thing," she said firmly. "Not the easy thing, because you never take the easy way out, John. You never let yourself get away with anything, and that's why you're not like them, that's why you're different. They do things like this and don't care."
John laughed. "It's the caring that's killing me," he said.
"No," Aeryn said, shaking her head. "No, you've taught me better than that. It's what keeps us alive."
"How do we know that this time it's over? How do we know that this time we'll be safe?" he asked.
"Who says we have to know?" Aeryn asked. "What comes will come. Look at what we have now. That's all that matters."
John leaned into her, placing their foreheads together. "When did you get so smart?" he asked.
"I've always been this smart. Now come to bed," she said. "You'll wake the baby."
John let Aeryn lead him over to the bed, and she pulled him close. They were both still wearing their clothes, their boots. Somehow it didn't seem to matter. Just down the hall he could hear D'Argo and Chiana laughing as they went to their room. It wasn't something he thought he would ever hear again.
He could still hear the wormholes too, going off like firecrackers in the back of his mind, fighting for his attention. He could still hear Harvey, even though he wasn't there. His voice played like an echo in his head anytime he closed his eyes. We can go to the beach! I know a place with naked Sebacean girls and margarita shooters!
They would tear him apart if he let them; wormholes, Scorpius, Harvey, all of the dead. If he let them, they would pull him to pieces.
Aeryn weaved their hands together, saying nothing, and he rested his head on her chest so he could let her heart beat drown them all out, and hold onto the things he still had. Moya. Pilot. Stark. Rygel. Noranti.
Big D and Chiana. Aeryn and Little D.
And Hope. Always there was hope.
Hope that maybe this time they would manage it. Maybe this time they would outrun them all.
The End.