Farscape: Exit To Your Left (PG-13), Gen.
There's no place like home. Say it three times fast.
(note: I recently came down with the flu from hell, so the request fics have been on hold for a bit. I thought I'd post another older fic as I continue to work on them! This one is an episode tag for Won't Get Fooled Again)
"Why aren't they back yet?" Aeryn demanded.
"Are you honestly surprised?" D'Argo asked. "I told you that we should have gone with them."
Aeryn glared at him, before reaching for the comm. "Crichton," she said. "Crichton, please respond. Chiana! Where's John?"
"Uh. . . yeah, he's busy," Chiana said, sounding strange.
"Chiana," D'Argo snapped, "you know we only let you and Crichton go down there alone because you promised to stay together."
"We, ah, did," she said. "Mostly. But then John said he had to go get some stuff, and--"
"Chiana, I need you to listen to me very carefully," Aeryn broke in, "you need to tell me where John is."
"He said he was just going to look for some module parts! Frell. I wanted to pick up a few things, and I couldn't really have him around, you know, he'd want me to pay for them, and I--"
"Chiana!" Aeryn interrupted. "Where exactly did he say he was going?"
"This machine shop, Jeriny's Top Bop, or something," she said. "He's only been gone about an arn, but uh, the guy in the shop, he said Crichton never came in."
Aeryn spun on her heel and started to leave command immediately. D'Argo let out a deep sigh. "Zhaan," he said. "Can you come to Command? Aeryn and I are going down to the planet to find Crichton."
"Is everything alright?" she asked.
"I doubt it," D'Argo said. "That human could find trouble on LoMo."
"Please let me know when you find him," Zhaan said with concern.
"Oh, we will, because he'll be needing a medic," D'Argo said. "If he's not already hurt, I plan to knock some sense into him, so you'll be seeing him soon one way or another."
"D'Argo," Zhaan said, letting out a sigh. "Have patience. John cannot help that he is curious."
"He has a saying, that curiosity killed the feline," D'Argo snapped. "He should really take his own advice and stop wandering off alone whenever he sees something shiny. Chiana's just the same. We were asking for trouble sending them off together."
Zhaan laughed. "I'm sure they will both be fine, you should not worry so much," she said.
"I'm angry, not worried," D'Argo protested, but Zhaan only laughed again, and he sighed. "I've lost all respect," he muttered to himself.
- - - - -
Aeryn had already left without him when he reached the hanger bay. Her Prowler was gone. He let out another heavy sigh. He had been forced to bring yet another transport pod down to the surface, and Chiana was waiting for him anxiously as soon as he came down the steps.
"Where's Aeryn?" D'Argo asked.
"She already went to--to the shop," Chiana said. "She looked really mad."
"You should have let us know Crichton was missing," D'Argo snapped.
"I didn't know he was missing!" she protested. "I thought he was at the shop. I only just went to look for him when Aeryn commed me."
D'Argo grabbed her arm. "Take me to this shop."
She pulled away from him, but started towards the city. "Look, Crichton can take care of himself," Chiana said. "You guys are getting worried over nothing."
"Just take me to the shop," D'Argo said. "And I'm not worried. I'm angry. This is anger."
"Right," Chiana said, disbelievingly.
When they entered the shop, they saw the owner splayed out on the ground, one of Aeryn's boots resting over his neck, her pulse pistol pointed a little south of his stomach. "I'm going to ask you again," she said, rather sweetly, and Chiana always thought Aeryn was at her scariest when she was smiling--except maybe for the kind of smile she smiled for John, but that was a whole other story altogether.
"A Scarran," the man finally gasped. "A Scarran grabbed him outside, took him down the alley."
"A Scarran?" Aeryn said. "And you did nothing? Are you working for the Scarrans?"
"No!" he protested. "I want nothing to do with them, that's why I did nothing, that's why I said nothing."
Aeryn stepped back with disgust. "You know nothing else?" she demanded.
He shook his head. "No, I swear, that is all I know."
Aeryn glanced back at D'Argo and Chiana, before storming past them. "We need to find him. Now."
"Aeryn," D'Argo started, as he and Chiana followed her down the alley. "They might not still be here. A Scarran--"
"John is here," Aeryn said. "We will find him."
"This is all my fault," Chiana said, bringing her arms around herself. "I should have--should have stayed with him."
"Yes, you should have," Aeryn snapped.
"Stop it," D'Argo interrupted. "This is not Chiana's fault. This isn't anyone's fault. It's just the frelling universe frelling us over again. But we will find him, Aeryn. We will."
"Or maybe he'll find us," Chiana whispered, and pointed past them.
John was stumbling towards them with his eyes pressed closed, one shoulder and the side of his head leaning against the wall to support his weight as he made his way along. He was humming some kind of song to himself, whispering every once and awhile about rainbows and lemon drops, and being somewhere far away.
Aeryn was at his side in an instant. "John," she called, reaching out for him.
He jerked away with a startled cry, his eyes opening and going slightly wild. He took two steps back while one hand stayed on the wall, holding him up. He squinted at her for a minute, and then said, quietly, "Aeryn?"
She nodded, trying to step closer, but when she moved forward, he moved back.
"You, you're really Aeryn?" John asked. He looked behind her and saw D'Argo and Chiana. "Where are we?"
"The commerce planet, John, you came with Chiana, do you remember?" she asked.
He nodded. "Yeah, that I remember," he said.
"Where is the Scarran?" Aeryn asked quietly, her hand hovering by her pulse pistol. "How did you escape?"
"What?" John asked. He wouldn't look her in the eye.
Aeryn took another step forward, and this time she caught John's wrist when he tried to move away. "You need to tell me what happened, John," she said.
"Nothing happened, nothing, I'm fine, doctor, just fine," he told her, and then slipped from her grip to his knees.
She reached out and grabbed him as he stumbled, pulling him back against her. He slumped into her arms with a strained kind of laugh, and she realized his holster was empty. It was miraculous enough that he had escaped on his own, it was almost impossible to think he had done it without a weapon. "Where's your pulse pistol?"
"I think I lost it," John said, glancing at his empty holster. "I think maybe it exploded."
"John?" Aeryn grabbed at him, placing a hand on his chin to turn his face to her. His eyes were unfocused and distant when they finally met hers. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened."
"I don't know, I--" John trailed off. "I went to Earth, but nothing was quite the way it should be, and you were there, and D'Argo, and Chi, but it wasn't exactly the Wizard of Oz, if you know what I mean, and I--"
"I don't know what you mean," Aeryn interrupted. "John, speak clearly."
"I think I've forgotten something," John told her, grabbing onto her shoulders to keep himself upright. "I think I've forgotten something really important."
"It's okay," Aeryn said, running a hand through his hair. "Whatever it is, it's not important, it doesn't matter."
"There's no place like home," John said, and went limp against her. "Say it three times fast."
Aeryn looked up at Chiana and D'Argo as John's breathing evened out. "He's burning up. We have to get him back to Moya," she said. "D'Argo?"
"I've got him," D'Argo said, carefully lifting John from Aeryn's grasp, mindful of any unseen injuries.
- - - - -
Aeryn paced the width of the med bay while Zhaan leaned over Crichton. "What do you know about Scarran interrogations?" she asked.
Aeryn shook her head. "Very little," she said. "Only a handful of Scarran prisoners have been known to escape, and most were not able to speak coherently about what had taken place. Almost all of them were suffering from the Living Death. They were executed at once, for mercy."
"Small mercy," Zhaan said tiredly, placing a hand on John's forehead. He turned his head away from her and she pulled her hand back with a frown.
"He said he didn't remember what happened," Aeryn continued. "I've never heard of their interrogations causing memory loss. Their heat probing would not have caused that."
"That you know of," Zhaan said. "But there's no telling what effect it may have on someone human."
Aeryn paused in her pacing to glare at Zhaan. "No, I guess not, but that's beside the point. What I want to know is whether he is going to be alright," she said.
Zhaan sighed. "It is too soon to tell," she said. "The problem is that I can find nothing wrong. He has some bruising, a few cuts, but I do not know what was done to him."
"Right," Aeryn said, "I'm going back down to the planet."
Zhaan frowned and took a step after her. "Aeryn, John needs you here."
"He needs me to find out what the frell happened to him, so we can fix it," she snapped, before walking to the hanger bay. "D'Argo, I'm going back to the planet. We need to find out where this Scarran is and make sure its dead."
"Agreed," D'Argo said. "I'll meet you in the hanger bay."
D'Argo caught up to her as she was running a preflight check on her Prowler. "Planning to leave without me again?" he asked.
She ignored him as he squeezed into the back. The Prowler had not been designed for Luxans, but he somehow managed to fit. "I did not have time to wait for you," she said tightly. "John was in trouble. I doubt you would have waited for me if it had been Chiana."
"Does that mean you have the kind of relationship with John that I have with Chiana?" D'Argo asked quietly.
Aeryn glared straight ahead as she closed the cockpit. "My relationship with John is none of your business," she snapped.
"He's my friend," D'Argo said unrepentantly. "And so are you."
"You're spending too much time with Chiana," Aeryn said. "We're warriors, D'Argo. We don't talk about such things."
"We might not have before, but they're not warriors," he said. "Maybe they need us to."
Aeryn ignored him, and reached up to check the settings as she prepared to land. "Have you ever taken on a Scarran before?" she asked.
"I can handle it," D'Argo said. "How about you?"
"Don't worry about me," Aeryn said. "Worry about that Scarran if I find him still alive."
- - - - -
They find the building not too far down the alley the shop owner had directed them to. There was a staircase leading down from a door in the middle of a long wall, and Aeryn went down first. She kept her pulse pistol out at her side, eyes wary, but all she found at the bottom was what was left of a corpse.
D'Argo stepped beside her, looking caught between being proud and being disturbed. "John did this?" he asked quietly.
The Scarran was missing most of its head. They could see the remnants of John's pulse pistol mixed in with the bits of flesh. "Crichton's nothing if not resourceful," Aeryn said, stepping away from the body to go to the console. "Shooting at him would have only made him mad."
D'Argo was scanning the room. "This looks more like a research center than an interrogation room," he said.
"There are many forms of interrogation," Aeryn said. "I think I've found some kind of recording." Aeryn reached out and started it.
Brain wave patterns are increasingly irregular. The captive is finally weakening. Increasing stimuli to kalvor 9.
"It must be some kind of metal torture," Aeryn said, feeling sick. She looked back at the Scarran, almost sorry it was dead. She would have liked to have killed it herself.
Kalvor 10. Dead? All neural activity ceased at 635 avneith 1.
"Playing possum," Aeryn said quietly.
"What?" D'Argo asked.
"That's what John calls playing dead," she explained.
Captive apparently suffered full synaptic overload at stimulus level kalvor 10.
"Aeryn, you can't fool these sensors," he said.
Because no baseline data exists with this species, this reaction could not have been anticipated. Remains of the captive will be held for post--
The creature broke off his report, and Aeryn and D'Argo stepped closer to the recording. They could hear a distant kind of buzz, the sound of a pulse pistol overloading, and then the loud crack as it exploded.
Aeryn was reaching over to shut it down, when she heard John's voice coming from the recording. What happened? I feel like . . . I died.
There was a beat of silence, in which no one answered, and then they heard John's voice again. Don't get too comfortable, I'm gonna-- The transmission went to static, the circuits finally fried by the explosion, and Aeryn reached out to shut the recording off.
"Who was he talking to?" D'Argo asked.
"Probably himself," Aeryn said, uncertainly. She glanced around the research center. "The Scarrans will no doubt return here."
D'Argo grinned. "Well, let's make sure they don't find anything," he said.
"You always know just what to say to make me feel better," she said, and slapped an explosive charge right onto the center of the console.
- - - - -
The explosion of the Scarran base had been satisfying, but Aeryn and D'Argo had been forced to get back to Moya fast. The authorities probably wouldn't take too kindly to their destruction of property, and they had wasted no time in Starbursting once they were aboard. D'Argo had gone to Command to finish his shift.
Aeryn had gone to find John, but though Zhaan was in the med bay when she reached it, John wasn't.
"Thank the goddess you are here," Zhaan said. "I left for just a moment, and John was gone when I returned."
Aeryn felt that same dread from when John hadn't answered his comm. rising yet again. He couldn't do this to her twice in one day. "He could not have gotten far," she said. "Pilot, can you locate John?"
"The DRDs are already searching," Pilot said. "I will inform you as soon as he is found."
"I think I know where he went," Aeryn said, and turned on her heel. Zhaan started to follow, but held back before going out the door. Aeryn silently thanked her for letting her do this on her own.
She nearly ran all the way to the terrace, but she stopped before going in, suddenly terrified of what she might find, of what John might do, or say, or--
Aeryn stepped inside, and nearly tripped over the little DRD that John called One-Eye. He was stopped in the doorway, and Aeryn glanced up. John was sitting at the far side of the room, facing the stars.
Aeryn kneeled beside the DRD with a frown. It looked to have been here awhile, but Pilot had not been contacted by it, or he would have informed her. "Weren't you asked to find him?" she asked it.
She never used to talk to DRDs; this too, could be blamed on Crichton. He had a way with them that had at first confused her, and later endeared her, and they always seemed to work a little faster, harder, when it came to doing what Crichton asked them.
This DRD in particular seemed to have a strange affinity for Crichton. Pilot called it damaged, Crichton called it personality. The DRD beeped at her indignantly, as if to say, I did find him, and then rolled past her out the door.
With no one left to talk to except John, Aeryn rose to her feet and stepped forward. "I asked him not to," John said quietly.
Aeryn came to an abrupt stop. "Who?" she asked softly.
"The DRD," John said, but didn't turn around. "I asked him not to tell anyone where I was."
"He shouldn't be listening to you," she said. "He reports to Pilot."
John shrugged. He still wouldn't look at her. "Maybe he knew I wanted to be alone."
Aeryn ignored the dismissal in that statement, and took another step closer. "You should be in the med bay," she said cautiously.
"I'm okay, Aeryn," he said tiredly.
Aeryn took a deep breath. "Are you, really?" she asked.
He finally turned his head to look at her, and gave her a small smile. It didn't have the force his smiles usually did, but Aeryn felt herself relax for the first time that day, relief finally settling in. He hadn't been broken.
"I think I am," he said, turning away again. "But that's kind of what scares me."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"When did . . . something like this, become just another day?" he asked. "It wasn't any worse than the Aurora Chair, just memories thrown back at me, Bizarro-world, but still, nothing new."
Aeryn frowned, not quite catching the reference. She took another step, grateful that John had still made no move to move away. "John, can humans . . . can you temporarily stop your brain activity?" she asked.
"No," he said. "Why do you ask?"
She frowned. "It's not important," she said. "We think maybe the Scarran's equipment malfunctioned, and once it had shut down you killed him by overloading your pulse pistol."
John shrugged. "I don't remember that. The last thing I really remember is my mother; she was asking me to be with her when she goes."
Aeryn took another step forward. "John--"
"She was probably the hardest part, but even that, it wasn't anything I couldn't have imagined on my own. Haven't imagined on my own." John leaned forward, resting his head against the invisible barrier between them and the vacuum. "I may feel like I went three rounds with D'Argo, but I'm okay, really."
She was standing right behind him now, but it was her turn to be unable to face him, to not want to look him in the eye. "There is a kind of affliction, sometimes Peacekeepers, who have seen horrible things, they start to--things stop bothering them," she said. "We're supposed to be emotionless, strong, but mostly it's an act. It's a mask, if a good one. But sometimes, certain times, it isn't an act any longer."
"You think I'm going crazy," John said, turning to look at her. "It's okay, I get it. I'm pretty sure I am."
"John," Aeryn started.
"Let's just call it a day, Aeryn," John said tiredly. "The bad guy died, and we got away. We need to take our victories as they come."
Aeryn lowered herself to the floor beside him. Hesitantly, she reached out to place a hand at the back of his neck, and guide him to lean against her. She let out a sigh of relief when he let himself be drawn to her, and didn't pull away. His forehead came to rest on her shoulder, and she lightly kissed the top of his head.
"You said, back on that planet, that you'd forgotten something," Aeryn said. "Have you remembered what it was?"
John let himself rest against her and closed his eyes. "No, and I don't think I want to," he told her, and he thought, for just a moment, that he could hear Scorpius laughing, like he was right there sitting beside them.
But he was getting used to that, too.
(note: I recently came down with the flu from hell, so the request fics have been on hold for a bit. I thought I'd post another older fic as I continue to work on them! This one is an episode tag for Won't Get Fooled Again)
"Why aren't they back yet?" Aeryn demanded.
"Are you honestly surprised?" D'Argo asked. "I told you that we should have gone with them."
Aeryn glared at him, before reaching for the comm. "Crichton," she said. "Crichton, please respond. Chiana! Where's John?"
"Uh. . . yeah, he's busy," Chiana said, sounding strange.
"Chiana," D'Argo snapped, "you know we only let you and Crichton go down there alone because you promised to stay together."
"We, ah, did," she said. "Mostly. But then John said he had to go get some stuff, and--"
"Chiana, I need you to listen to me very carefully," Aeryn broke in, "you need to tell me where John is."
"He said he was just going to look for some module parts! Frell. I wanted to pick up a few things, and I couldn't really have him around, you know, he'd want me to pay for them, and I--"
"Chiana!" Aeryn interrupted. "Where exactly did he say he was going?"
"This machine shop, Jeriny's Top Bop, or something," she said. "He's only been gone about an arn, but uh, the guy in the shop, he said Crichton never came in."
Aeryn spun on her heel and started to leave command immediately. D'Argo let out a deep sigh. "Zhaan," he said. "Can you come to Command? Aeryn and I are going down to the planet to find Crichton."
"Is everything alright?" she asked.
"I doubt it," D'Argo said. "That human could find trouble on LoMo."
"Please let me know when you find him," Zhaan said with concern.
"Oh, we will, because he'll be needing a medic," D'Argo said. "If he's not already hurt, I plan to knock some sense into him, so you'll be seeing him soon one way or another."
"D'Argo," Zhaan said, letting out a sigh. "Have patience. John cannot help that he is curious."
"He has a saying, that curiosity killed the feline," D'Argo snapped. "He should really take his own advice and stop wandering off alone whenever he sees something shiny. Chiana's just the same. We were asking for trouble sending them off together."
Zhaan laughed. "I'm sure they will both be fine, you should not worry so much," she said.
"I'm angry, not worried," D'Argo protested, but Zhaan only laughed again, and he sighed. "I've lost all respect," he muttered to himself.
- - - - -
Aeryn had already left without him when he reached the hanger bay. Her Prowler was gone. He let out another heavy sigh. He had been forced to bring yet another transport pod down to the surface, and Chiana was waiting for him anxiously as soon as he came down the steps.
"Where's Aeryn?" D'Argo asked.
"She already went to--to the shop," Chiana said. "She looked really mad."
"You should have let us know Crichton was missing," D'Argo snapped.
"I didn't know he was missing!" she protested. "I thought he was at the shop. I only just went to look for him when Aeryn commed me."
D'Argo grabbed her arm. "Take me to this shop."
She pulled away from him, but started towards the city. "Look, Crichton can take care of himself," Chiana said. "You guys are getting worried over nothing."
"Just take me to the shop," D'Argo said. "And I'm not worried. I'm angry. This is anger."
"Right," Chiana said, disbelievingly.
When they entered the shop, they saw the owner splayed out on the ground, one of Aeryn's boots resting over his neck, her pulse pistol pointed a little south of his stomach. "I'm going to ask you again," she said, rather sweetly, and Chiana always thought Aeryn was at her scariest when she was smiling--except maybe for the kind of smile she smiled for John, but that was a whole other story altogether.
"A Scarran," the man finally gasped. "A Scarran grabbed him outside, took him down the alley."
"A Scarran?" Aeryn said. "And you did nothing? Are you working for the Scarrans?"
"No!" he protested. "I want nothing to do with them, that's why I did nothing, that's why I said nothing."
Aeryn stepped back with disgust. "You know nothing else?" she demanded.
He shook his head. "No, I swear, that is all I know."
Aeryn glanced back at D'Argo and Chiana, before storming past them. "We need to find him. Now."
"Aeryn," D'Argo started, as he and Chiana followed her down the alley. "They might not still be here. A Scarran--"
"John is here," Aeryn said. "We will find him."
"This is all my fault," Chiana said, bringing her arms around herself. "I should have--should have stayed with him."
"Yes, you should have," Aeryn snapped.
"Stop it," D'Argo interrupted. "This is not Chiana's fault. This isn't anyone's fault. It's just the frelling universe frelling us over again. But we will find him, Aeryn. We will."
"Or maybe he'll find us," Chiana whispered, and pointed past them.
John was stumbling towards them with his eyes pressed closed, one shoulder and the side of his head leaning against the wall to support his weight as he made his way along. He was humming some kind of song to himself, whispering every once and awhile about rainbows and lemon drops, and being somewhere far away.
Aeryn was at his side in an instant. "John," she called, reaching out for him.
He jerked away with a startled cry, his eyes opening and going slightly wild. He took two steps back while one hand stayed on the wall, holding him up. He squinted at her for a minute, and then said, quietly, "Aeryn?"
She nodded, trying to step closer, but when she moved forward, he moved back.
"You, you're really Aeryn?" John asked. He looked behind her and saw D'Argo and Chiana. "Where are we?"
"The commerce planet, John, you came with Chiana, do you remember?" she asked.
He nodded. "Yeah, that I remember," he said.
"Where is the Scarran?" Aeryn asked quietly, her hand hovering by her pulse pistol. "How did you escape?"
"What?" John asked. He wouldn't look her in the eye.
Aeryn took another step forward, and this time she caught John's wrist when he tried to move away. "You need to tell me what happened, John," she said.
"Nothing happened, nothing, I'm fine, doctor, just fine," he told her, and then slipped from her grip to his knees.
She reached out and grabbed him as he stumbled, pulling him back against her. He slumped into her arms with a strained kind of laugh, and she realized his holster was empty. It was miraculous enough that he had escaped on his own, it was almost impossible to think he had done it without a weapon. "Where's your pulse pistol?"
"I think I lost it," John said, glancing at his empty holster. "I think maybe it exploded."
"John?" Aeryn grabbed at him, placing a hand on his chin to turn his face to her. His eyes were unfocused and distant when they finally met hers. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened."
"I don't know, I--" John trailed off. "I went to Earth, but nothing was quite the way it should be, and you were there, and D'Argo, and Chi, but it wasn't exactly the Wizard of Oz, if you know what I mean, and I--"
"I don't know what you mean," Aeryn interrupted. "John, speak clearly."
"I think I've forgotten something," John told her, grabbing onto her shoulders to keep himself upright. "I think I've forgotten something really important."
"It's okay," Aeryn said, running a hand through his hair. "Whatever it is, it's not important, it doesn't matter."
"There's no place like home," John said, and went limp against her. "Say it three times fast."
Aeryn looked up at Chiana and D'Argo as John's breathing evened out. "He's burning up. We have to get him back to Moya," she said. "D'Argo?"
"I've got him," D'Argo said, carefully lifting John from Aeryn's grasp, mindful of any unseen injuries.
- - - - -
Aeryn paced the width of the med bay while Zhaan leaned over Crichton. "What do you know about Scarran interrogations?" she asked.
Aeryn shook her head. "Very little," she said. "Only a handful of Scarran prisoners have been known to escape, and most were not able to speak coherently about what had taken place. Almost all of them were suffering from the Living Death. They were executed at once, for mercy."
"Small mercy," Zhaan said tiredly, placing a hand on John's forehead. He turned his head away from her and she pulled her hand back with a frown.
"He said he didn't remember what happened," Aeryn continued. "I've never heard of their interrogations causing memory loss. Their heat probing would not have caused that."
"That you know of," Zhaan said. "But there's no telling what effect it may have on someone human."
Aeryn paused in her pacing to glare at Zhaan. "No, I guess not, but that's beside the point. What I want to know is whether he is going to be alright," she said.
Zhaan sighed. "It is too soon to tell," she said. "The problem is that I can find nothing wrong. He has some bruising, a few cuts, but I do not know what was done to him."
"Right," Aeryn said, "I'm going back down to the planet."
Zhaan frowned and took a step after her. "Aeryn, John needs you here."
"He needs me to find out what the frell happened to him, so we can fix it," she snapped, before walking to the hanger bay. "D'Argo, I'm going back to the planet. We need to find out where this Scarran is and make sure its dead."
"Agreed," D'Argo said. "I'll meet you in the hanger bay."
D'Argo caught up to her as she was running a preflight check on her Prowler. "Planning to leave without me again?" he asked.
She ignored him as he squeezed into the back. The Prowler had not been designed for Luxans, but he somehow managed to fit. "I did not have time to wait for you," she said tightly. "John was in trouble. I doubt you would have waited for me if it had been Chiana."
"Does that mean you have the kind of relationship with John that I have with Chiana?" D'Argo asked quietly.
Aeryn glared straight ahead as she closed the cockpit. "My relationship with John is none of your business," she snapped.
"He's my friend," D'Argo said unrepentantly. "And so are you."
"You're spending too much time with Chiana," Aeryn said. "We're warriors, D'Argo. We don't talk about such things."
"We might not have before, but they're not warriors," he said. "Maybe they need us to."
Aeryn ignored him, and reached up to check the settings as she prepared to land. "Have you ever taken on a Scarran before?" she asked.
"I can handle it," D'Argo said. "How about you?"
"Don't worry about me," Aeryn said. "Worry about that Scarran if I find him still alive."
- - - - -
They find the building not too far down the alley the shop owner had directed them to. There was a staircase leading down from a door in the middle of a long wall, and Aeryn went down first. She kept her pulse pistol out at her side, eyes wary, but all she found at the bottom was what was left of a corpse.
D'Argo stepped beside her, looking caught between being proud and being disturbed. "John did this?" he asked quietly.
The Scarran was missing most of its head. They could see the remnants of John's pulse pistol mixed in with the bits of flesh. "Crichton's nothing if not resourceful," Aeryn said, stepping away from the body to go to the console. "Shooting at him would have only made him mad."
D'Argo was scanning the room. "This looks more like a research center than an interrogation room," he said.
"There are many forms of interrogation," Aeryn said. "I think I've found some kind of recording." Aeryn reached out and started it.
Brain wave patterns are increasingly irregular. The captive is finally weakening. Increasing stimuli to kalvor 9.
"It must be some kind of metal torture," Aeryn said, feeling sick. She looked back at the Scarran, almost sorry it was dead. She would have liked to have killed it herself.
Kalvor 10. Dead? All neural activity ceased at 635 avneith 1.
"Playing possum," Aeryn said quietly.
"What?" D'Argo asked.
"That's what John calls playing dead," she explained.
Captive apparently suffered full synaptic overload at stimulus level kalvor 10.
"Aeryn, you can't fool these sensors," he said.
Because no baseline data exists with this species, this reaction could not have been anticipated. Remains of the captive will be held for post--
The creature broke off his report, and Aeryn and D'Argo stepped closer to the recording. They could hear a distant kind of buzz, the sound of a pulse pistol overloading, and then the loud crack as it exploded.
Aeryn was reaching over to shut it down, when she heard John's voice coming from the recording. What happened? I feel like . . . I died.
There was a beat of silence, in which no one answered, and then they heard John's voice again. Don't get too comfortable, I'm gonna-- The transmission went to static, the circuits finally fried by the explosion, and Aeryn reached out to shut the recording off.
"Who was he talking to?" D'Argo asked.
"Probably himself," Aeryn said, uncertainly. She glanced around the research center. "The Scarrans will no doubt return here."
D'Argo grinned. "Well, let's make sure they don't find anything," he said.
"You always know just what to say to make me feel better," she said, and slapped an explosive charge right onto the center of the console.
- - - - -
The explosion of the Scarran base had been satisfying, but Aeryn and D'Argo had been forced to get back to Moya fast. The authorities probably wouldn't take too kindly to their destruction of property, and they had wasted no time in Starbursting once they were aboard. D'Argo had gone to Command to finish his shift.
Aeryn had gone to find John, but though Zhaan was in the med bay when she reached it, John wasn't.
"Thank the goddess you are here," Zhaan said. "I left for just a moment, and John was gone when I returned."
Aeryn felt that same dread from when John hadn't answered his comm. rising yet again. He couldn't do this to her twice in one day. "He could not have gotten far," she said. "Pilot, can you locate John?"
"The DRDs are already searching," Pilot said. "I will inform you as soon as he is found."
"I think I know where he went," Aeryn said, and turned on her heel. Zhaan started to follow, but held back before going out the door. Aeryn silently thanked her for letting her do this on her own.
She nearly ran all the way to the terrace, but she stopped before going in, suddenly terrified of what she might find, of what John might do, or say, or--
Aeryn stepped inside, and nearly tripped over the little DRD that John called One-Eye. He was stopped in the doorway, and Aeryn glanced up. John was sitting at the far side of the room, facing the stars.
Aeryn kneeled beside the DRD with a frown. It looked to have been here awhile, but Pilot had not been contacted by it, or he would have informed her. "Weren't you asked to find him?" she asked it.
She never used to talk to DRDs; this too, could be blamed on Crichton. He had a way with them that had at first confused her, and later endeared her, and they always seemed to work a little faster, harder, when it came to doing what Crichton asked them.
This DRD in particular seemed to have a strange affinity for Crichton. Pilot called it damaged, Crichton called it personality. The DRD beeped at her indignantly, as if to say, I did find him, and then rolled past her out the door.
With no one left to talk to except John, Aeryn rose to her feet and stepped forward. "I asked him not to," John said quietly.
Aeryn came to an abrupt stop. "Who?" she asked softly.
"The DRD," John said, but didn't turn around. "I asked him not to tell anyone where I was."
"He shouldn't be listening to you," she said. "He reports to Pilot."
John shrugged. He still wouldn't look at her. "Maybe he knew I wanted to be alone."
Aeryn ignored the dismissal in that statement, and took another step closer. "You should be in the med bay," she said cautiously.
"I'm okay, Aeryn," he said tiredly.
Aeryn took a deep breath. "Are you, really?" she asked.
He finally turned his head to look at her, and gave her a small smile. It didn't have the force his smiles usually did, but Aeryn felt herself relax for the first time that day, relief finally settling in. He hadn't been broken.
"I think I am," he said, turning away again. "But that's kind of what scares me."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"When did . . . something like this, become just another day?" he asked. "It wasn't any worse than the Aurora Chair, just memories thrown back at me, Bizarro-world, but still, nothing new."
Aeryn frowned, not quite catching the reference. She took another step, grateful that John had still made no move to move away. "John, can humans . . . can you temporarily stop your brain activity?" she asked.
"No," he said. "Why do you ask?"
She frowned. "It's not important," she said. "We think maybe the Scarran's equipment malfunctioned, and once it had shut down you killed him by overloading your pulse pistol."
John shrugged. "I don't remember that. The last thing I really remember is my mother; she was asking me to be with her when she goes."
Aeryn took another step forward. "John--"
"She was probably the hardest part, but even that, it wasn't anything I couldn't have imagined on my own. Haven't imagined on my own." John leaned forward, resting his head against the invisible barrier between them and the vacuum. "I may feel like I went three rounds with D'Argo, but I'm okay, really."
She was standing right behind him now, but it was her turn to be unable to face him, to not want to look him in the eye. "There is a kind of affliction, sometimes Peacekeepers, who have seen horrible things, they start to--things stop bothering them," she said. "We're supposed to be emotionless, strong, but mostly it's an act. It's a mask, if a good one. But sometimes, certain times, it isn't an act any longer."
"You think I'm going crazy," John said, turning to look at her. "It's okay, I get it. I'm pretty sure I am."
"John," Aeryn started.
"Let's just call it a day, Aeryn," John said tiredly. "The bad guy died, and we got away. We need to take our victories as they come."
Aeryn lowered herself to the floor beside him. Hesitantly, she reached out to place a hand at the back of his neck, and guide him to lean against her. She let out a sigh of relief when he let himself be drawn to her, and didn't pull away. His forehead came to rest on her shoulder, and she lightly kissed the top of his head.
"You said, back on that planet, that you'd forgotten something," Aeryn said. "Have you remembered what it was?"
John let himself rest against her and closed his eyes. "No, and I don't think I want to," he told her, and he thought, for just a moment, that he could hear Scorpius laughing, like he was right there sitting beside them.
But he was getting used to that, too.