"Deus ex Machina" Farscape Fanfic (Part 6)
Title: Deus ex Machina
Genre: Farscape; J/A; romance/action
Rating: PG or PG 13 at most for violence and some suggestive situations; mild swearing.
Disclaimer: Please see Part 1
Author's Notes: See Part 1
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
"It's happening quicker now, isn't it?" Officer Jadasa asked where she crouched down near Crichton. "It works," she said, sounding somewhat proud
John gasped as he recovered from the most recent flash, his heart racing.
"And you still have the memories don't you? If Grayza interrogates you, you'll still have the knowledge."
John looked at the cold Peacekeeper, his face as closed off as he could make it.
Whatever Officer Jadasa saw, still seemed to please her, and she nodded to herself, satisfied.
John tilted his head to look to the blonde Sebacean.
"I devised it you see," she explained, a hint of wistful pride in her voice.
"You're a tech?"
"I used to be," Officer Jadasa replied.
"I thought once a tech, always a tech."
Officer Jadasa shrugged. "I just follow orders. They told me I was no longer a tech. I didn't question it. A good Peacekeeper doesn't question orders." She looked back to where Aeryn lay, still unconscious. A look of contempt filled Officer Jadasa's face a moment before she schooled her expression.
"Hey, Alicianth," one of the black clad commandos called from the back of the pod near the supplies that John and Aeryn had loaded. "Look here," she said, holding up a black fur blanket. "Come help us see if they have anything good."
John watched as the former tech went to help her fellow Peackeepers loot the supply crates. As he looked back, he caught a glimpse of Aeryn slumped against a back wall, still unconscious from whatever she had been given. He desperately hoped that she was okay.
Then he felt it again, the pressure in his forehead. It felt like the probe was expanding in his skull and he had a ringing in his ears this time as the probe read yet another memory...
John stood watching all his calculations literally go up in smoke. All his careful work, lost in an instant.
"This is a dying ship. There shouldn't be anyone on board a dying ship!" Sikozu spoke with firm conviction in her voice, bringing John back to the situation at hand.
"Absolutely correct, Tinkerbell. Okay, now my turn. Who, what, when, where, why and how?"
"You must listen to me," Sikozu insisted urgently.
John turned around brandishing his pulse pistol. "Oh, no. No, no. I'm no good at listening."
"Just ask, Aeryn," he thought, completing the statement in his mind. "Oh, and if you find her, tell her that coin tosses suck," he continued his inner monologue.
"My brain cannot tolerate translator microbes," Sikozu said clearly as she walked in front of the distracted human to get his attention.
John aimed Winona at the new arrival once more.
"I'm...I must learn your language through hearing it," Sikozu insisted, ignoring the threat of the weapon. "This...the name, the word," she asked, pointing at the gun.
"Winona, my pulse pistol," John supplied, kissing the weapon dramatically.
"More words," Sikozu demanded.
When John ignored her, she grabbed his face and turned it to her own. "They will be here soon and you will be dead before you see them," she said in a kind of slow sing-song chant voice, as if she spoke to a particularly dense student.
She began to point to various objects as John began to name them.
"Module, box, workbench..."
Then John began to point as he listed out the names.
"Junk, more junk, tools, bulkhead, ceiling, floor, shirt, wine, face..."
"Your alphabet," Sikozu demanded, then added, "in order."
"God, I haven't done this in a long time," he began, pausing with a strange smile on his face as he proceeded to sing the Alphabet Song...
John fought against the probe, struggling to find his way back to awareness. For a moment, he found himself free of the memory flash, but then he felt his mind being twisted by the probe as he delved back into his memories. In a strange blur of thought, he saw Sikozu as she was in the alternate universe as Stark. Her image blurred and he saw her change into Stark himself. The pressure built in John's head and he was thrust back into a memory of the Gammak Base...
John sagged in the guards' arms as they dragged him into the prison cell.
"Hey! Hey you! Don't put that thing in here! I don't want a roommate! Get it out!" Stark raged as the guards slammed the door home. "Hey, that's my mat! Now get off my mat! Go on! Go!"
John crawled on all fours to the other side of the cell feeling like a building had fallen on top of him and he was still carrying it on his back.
"Fine. I don't want any trouble."
Stark continued to rave on his side of the cell. His arms waved wildly to illustrate his words, back and forth.
"That's mine! This is my side! That's your side. You stay on your side. My side, your side! My side, your side! My side, your side..."
"Report," Captain Neracc bellowed as he entered the transport pod.
Startled, the commandos came to attention and saluted their commander. Officer Jadasa stepped forward.
"Officer Sun and Crichton were plotting escape. When we moved to separate them, they became aggressive. I thought it necessary to sedate Officer Sun."
Captain Neracc looked over to where Aeryn lay against the wall, still unconscious.
"And Crichton?" The captain prompted.
"The probe appears to be effective. It is searching his mind and memories for information on wormholes," Officer Jadasa reported.
"Have they returned from reporting to the Command Carrier yet?"
"No, sir."
Captain Neracc looked to where John shivered on the floor of the transport pod.
"I'll be glad when this assignment is over," the Peacekeeper captain said quietly.
"Hey, why don't you just let us go and you can get back to dominating the lesser races without any further inconvenience," John quipped through chattering teeth as he continued to recover from the last mind probe memory flash.
Captain Neracc ignored Crichton and turned to the other members of the retrieval squad. The four commandos stood at attention, still in the back of the transport pod. "I want you on reconnaissance," he ordered.
"Yes, sir," they said in unison and made their way out of the pod.
Captain Neracc crouched down in front of Crichton once the soldiers had left.
"I'll also be glad to deliver you to Grayza personally," he said, his voice cold as he hit Crichton.
With the contact of the captain's fist, John felt the mind probe pull him back into his memories once more...
John was strapped tightly into the Aurora chair. Scorpius stood on the platform, holding onto a support bar as he watched John's reactions.
"My name is Larraq, Peacekeeper, Special Ops."
"Unfortunately wrong...on all counts," Scorpius said in his cold elegant voice.
John strained in the chair as Scorpius' female assistant, Niem, adjusted the control dials, sending another wave of pain through the human.
"I am Scorpius."
"But of course you are...Peacekeeper. Funny, you don't look like a Sebacean," John quipped, his voice strained.
"On the other hand, you do look Sebacean," Scorpius drawled. "Yet your energy signature is quite dissimilar. What species are you? And who are you working for?"
"Get stuffed," John spat, defiant.
Again a shock of pain made John strain at the straps of the Aurora chair as Neim adjusted the control dials.
"You attempt to provoke me. Perhaps you are hoping I will lose my composure and kill you before I have extracted any information. I long ago learned the advantages of patience," Scorpius spoke in his calculated and educated voice.
He signaled to Niem to adjust the control dials once more. This time, the chair forcibly recalled memories from Crichton's mind. John writhed in pain as much as his restraints would allow. Scorpius watched with interest.
"What the hell was that?" John gasped in pain.
"Pain memory - random and indistinct at the moment. It will take some time to map your neural patterns.”
"You stay the hell out of my mind, you…”
John was interrupted by more pain as the chair stripped his mind bare.
"That was a leviathan ship, was it not?” Scorpius asked, almost casually.
He spoke to Neim,” I seem to remember a report of an escaped leviathan prison transport. Have Javio check the data files.”
Scorpius returned his attention to the gasping human in his chair.
"You're a most interesting spy…”
Scorpius," John hissed as he came out of the memory dredged up by the mind probe. He felt like he had just came straight out of the Aurora chair.
"Scorpius?" Captain Neracc asked.
John was surprised to see the dark Peacekeeper captain crouched down in front of him, staring intently.
"Where is he? Where is Scorpius?" Captain Neracc asked, his voice containing more than just Peacekeeper tenacity. There was, in fact, a distinct note of personal interest in the captain's voice.
Before he could stop himself, John looked over to where Aeryn slumped, her breath shallow but regular. Captain Neracc noticed John's look.
"Tell me where Scorpius is. Give him to me, and I'll let her go," the Peacekeeper said, low and intense.
John looked carefully at the captain.
"Give him to me, and I will let Officer Sun go free. I have no reason to lie to you. Grayza will be satisfied with you and the knowledge that you carry. It will be easy enough to say that we never got Officer Sun, or that she escaped."
"Why? Why do you want this?" John asked, his voice full of distrust.
"Does it matter?"
"What about the others," John asked, knowing that Captain Neracc would understand who he was referring to.
"They are not our mission's prime objectives."
John began to shake as the pressure built to pain in his skull, interrupting his conversation with Captain Neracc...
Scorpius walked around the surgical platform where John lay. The gasping Diagnosian flailing on the floor behind Scorpius was already forgotten. Coolly, Scorpius considered the helpless man, his brain exposed to the chilled air. John raged with a stream of irate gibberish.
"Well, Crichton... So much to say," Scorpius drawled in his cultured voice.
John continued to rage incoherently.
"And yet, so little capacity," Scorpius finished, taunting and smug.
The half-Scarran worked his way to the head of the table as John continued to rage with a voice that was torrent of gibberish. Scorpius reached for the container holding the neurochip.
"I only hope the wormhole technology I've waited so patiently for makes more sense."
The incoherent response coming from John left no doubt as to his anger.
"Don't need a translator microbe for that one, do we?" Scorpius said, taking delight in his opponent's pain.
Still standing at the head of the surgical platform, Scorpius leaned over to address John directly. "You've cost me much. And I do not suffer disappointment well. I condemn you, John Crichton,” he paused, taunting the human, "to live! So that your thirst for unfulfilled revenge... will consume you."
John struggled, helpless and unable to say anything.
"Goodbye,” the triumphant scientist said coldly, leaving Crichton to scream in anger, unable to move...
John came back to awareness with a scream in his throat, his eyes wild and angry.
Captain Neracc waited for it to pass, his dark eyes intent on John's face. John gasped after his scream had died away. Panting, he considered the Peacekeeper before him. The dark man's face was both intensely focused and distant, making it very hard to read.
"She'll be free," the Peacekeeper said quietly before he rose and stepped back, giving John space.
Captain Neracc stood back considering John with a quiet intensity until he was interrupted with, "Sir?"
The captain looked over to Officer Jadasa, who was holding out a small meal packet.
"You should eat, sir. Get some rest," she said carefully.
Captain Neracc simply stared at the meal packet a moment before he finally took it from the blonde Sebaecen. Opening the packet, Captain Neracc began eating as he stepped outside of the pod. Officer Jadasa watched the direction that her commanding officer had gone for a moment longer before she crouched down to reach Crichton's eye level.
Before she could say anything, John asked her, "So what does Neracc want with Scorpius? What is it between them?"
Alicianth responded with a question of her own. "Do you know where he is, Scorpius?"
John was silent until the Sebacean woman sighed, looked to where Captain Neracc had gone, then turned back to John. "Scopius was given one of the special units that Captain Neracc commanded, to use as subjects to develop the Aurora chair." She paused a moment before continuing, "They all died in the experiments. One of them was the captain's sister."
Alicianth looked once more to the vacant pod door before speaking again, "Neracc defied High Command and attempted to retrieve his sister from Scorpius. It did no good. Scorpius killed her with his experiments and put Neracc in the chair. The only reason that Captain Neracc is here at all, is because of Grayza."
Something that Officer Jadasa saw in John's face made her continue. "I don't know how or why, but Grayza made sure High Command didn't try him for treason. He was reduced to captain and put in Special Ops."
"And you don't like that," John said quietly.
Alicianth shook her head in denial, "No, I didn't say that."
She looked back to where Aeryn could still be seen against the back wall and shook her head again before she looked to John. "I don't understand people like Neracc and Sun."
"Officer Sun was one of the most elite battle pilots. Those who knew, said that she would have her own command one day, that she would rise very high in the ranks. Then she gave it all up, for what, you?" Alicianth's face took on an expression of both disbelief and dismissal. "I don't understand. Why would anyone give up being elite, or being a Peacekeeper?"
John shook slightly as the mind probe triggered another memory flash...
TBC
Genre: Farscape; J/A; romance/action
Rating: PG or PG 13 at most for violence and some suggestive situations; mild swearing.
Disclaimer: Please see Part 1
Author's Notes: See Part 1
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
"It's happening quicker now, isn't it?" Officer Jadasa asked where she crouched down near Crichton. "It works," she said, sounding somewhat proud
John gasped as he recovered from the most recent flash, his heart racing.
"And you still have the memories don't you? If Grayza interrogates you, you'll still have the knowledge."
John looked at the cold Peacekeeper, his face as closed off as he could make it.
Whatever Officer Jadasa saw, still seemed to please her, and she nodded to herself, satisfied.
John tilted his head to look to the blonde Sebacean.
"I devised it you see," she explained, a hint of wistful pride in her voice.
"You're a tech?"
"I used to be," Officer Jadasa replied.
"I thought once a tech, always a tech."
Officer Jadasa shrugged. "I just follow orders. They told me I was no longer a tech. I didn't question it. A good Peacekeeper doesn't question orders." She looked back to where Aeryn lay, still unconscious. A look of contempt filled Officer Jadasa's face a moment before she schooled her expression.
"Hey, Alicianth," one of the black clad commandos called from the back of the pod near the supplies that John and Aeryn had loaded. "Look here," she said, holding up a black fur blanket. "Come help us see if they have anything good."
John watched as the former tech went to help her fellow Peackeepers loot the supply crates. As he looked back, he caught a glimpse of Aeryn slumped against a back wall, still unconscious from whatever she had been given. He desperately hoped that she was okay.
Then he felt it again, the pressure in his forehead. It felt like the probe was expanding in his skull and he had a ringing in his ears this time as the probe read yet another memory...
John stood watching all his calculations literally go up in smoke. All his careful work, lost in an instant.
"This is a dying ship. There shouldn't be anyone on board a dying ship!" Sikozu spoke with firm conviction in her voice, bringing John back to the situation at hand.
"Absolutely correct, Tinkerbell. Okay, now my turn. Who, what, when, where, why and how?"
"You must listen to me," Sikozu insisted urgently.
John turned around brandishing his pulse pistol. "Oh, no. No, no. I'm no good at listening."
"Just ask, Aeryn," he thought, completing the statement in his mind. "Oh, and if you find her, tell her that coin tosses suck," he continued his inner monologue.
"My brain cannot tolerate translator microbes," Sikozu said clearly as she walked in front of the distracted human to get his attention.
John aimed Winona at the new arrival once more.
"I'm...I must learn your language through hearing it," Sikozu insisted, ignoring the threat of the weapon. "This...the name, the word," she asked, pointing at the gun.
"Winona, my pulse pistol," John supplied, kissing the weapon dramatically.
"More words," Sikozu demanded.
When John ignored her, she grabbed his face and turned it to her own. "They will be here soon and you will be dead before you see them," she said in a kind of slow sing-song chant voice, as if she spoke to a particularly dense student.
She began to point to various objects as John began to name them.
"Module, box, workbench..."
Then John began to point as he listed out the names.
"Junk, more junk, tools, bulkhead, ceiling, floor, shirt, wine, face..."
"Your alphabet," Sikozu demanded, then added, "in order."
"God, I haven't done this in a long time," he began, pausing with a strange smile on his face as he proceeded to sing the Alphabet Song...
John fought against the probe, struggling to find his way back to awareness. For a moment, he found himself free of the memory flash, but then he felt his mind being twisted by the probe as he delved back into his memories. In a strange blur of thought, he saw Sikozu as she was in the alternate universe as Stark. Her image blurred and he saw her change into Stark himself. The pressure built in John's head and he was thrust back into a memory of the Gammak Base...
John sagged in the guards' arms as they dragged him into the prison cell.
"Hey! Hey you! Don't put that thing in here! I don't want a roommate! Get it out!" Stark raged as the guards slammed the door home. "Hey, that's my mat! Now get off my mat! Go on! Go!"
John crawled on all fours to the other side of the cell feeling like a building had fallen on top of him and he was still carrying it on his back.
"Fine. I don't want any trouble."
Stark continued to rave on his side of the cell. His arms waved wildly to illustrate his words, back and forth.
"That's mine! This is my side! That's your side. You stay on your side. My side, your side! My side, your side! My side, your side..."
"Report," Captain Neracc bellowed as he entered the transport pod.
Startled, the commandos came to attention and saluted their commander. Officer Jadasa stepped forward.
"Officer Sun and Crichton were plotting escape. When we moved to separate them, they became aggressive. I thought it necessary to sedate Officer Sun."
Captain Neracc looked over to where Aeryn lay against the wall, still unconscious.
"And Crichton?" The captain prompted.
"The probe appears to be effective. It is searching his mind and memories for information on wormholes," Officer Jadasa reported.
"Have they returned from reporting to the Command Carrier yet?"
"No, sir."
Captain Neracc looked to where John shivered on the floor of the transport pod.
"I'll be glad when this assignment is over," the Peacekeeper captain said quietly.
"Hey, why don't you just let us go and you can get back to dominating the lesser races without any further inconvenience," John quipped through chattering teeth as he continued to recover from the last mind probe memory flash.
Captain Neracc ignored Crichton and turned to the other members of the retrieval squad. The four commandos stood at attention, still in the back of the transport pod. "I want you on reconnaissance," he ordered.
"Yes, sir," they said in unison and made their way out of the pod.
Captain Neracc crouched down in front of Crichton once the soldiers had left.
"I'll also be glad to deliver you to Grayza personally," he said, his voice cold as he hit Crichton.
With the contact of the captain's fist, John felt the mind probe pull him back into his memories once more...
John was strapped tightly into the Aurora chair. Scorpius stood on the platform, holding onto a support bar as he watched John's reactions.
"My name is Larraq, Peacekeeper, Special Ops."
"Unfortunately wrong...on all counts," Scorpius said in his cold elegant voice.
John strained in the chair as Scorpius' female assistant, Niem, adjusted the control dials, sending another wave of pain through the human.
"I am Scorpius."
"But of course you are...Peacekeeper. Funny, you don't look like a Sebacean," John quipped, his voice strained.
"On the other hand, you do look Sebacean," Scorpius drawled. "Yet your energy signature is quite dissimilar. What species are you? And who are you working for?"
"Get stuffed," John spat, defiant.
Again a shock of pain made John strain at the straps of the Aurora chair as Neim adjusted the control dials.
"You attempt to provoke me. Perhaps you are hoping I will lose my composure and kill you before I have extracted any information. I long ago learned the advantages of patience," Scorpius spoke in his calculated and educated voice.
He signaled to Niem to adjust the control dials once more. This time, the chair forcibly recalled memories from Crichton's mind. John writhed in pain as much as his restraints would allow. Scorpius watched with interest.
"What the hell was that?" John gasped in pain.
"Pain memory - random and indistinct at the moment. It will take some time to map your neural patterns.”
"You stay the hell out of my mind, you…”
John was interrupted by more pain as the chair stripped his mind bare.
"That was a leviathan ship, was it not?” Scorpius asked, almost casually.
He spoke to Neim,” I seem to remember a report of an escaped leviathan prison transport. Have Javio check the data files.”
Scorpius returned his attention to the gasping human in his chair.
"You're a most interesting spy…”
Scorpius," John hissed as he came out of the memory dredged up by the mind probe. He felt like he had just came straight out of the Aurora chair.
"Scorpius?" Captain Neracc asked.
John was surprised to see the dark Peacekeeper captain crouched down in front of him, staring intently.
"Where is he? Where is Scorpius?" Captain Neracc asked, his voice containing more than just Peacekeeper tenacity. There was, in fact, a distinct note of personal interest in the captain's voice.
Before he could stop himself, John looked over to where Aeryn slumped, her breath shallow but regular. Captain Neracc noticed John's look.
"Tell me where Scorpius is. Give him to me, and I'll let her go," the Peacekeeper said, low and intense.
John looked carefully at the captain.
"Give him to me, and I will let Officer Sun go free. I have no reason to lie to you. Grayza will be satisfied with you and the knowledge that you carry. It will be easy enough to say that we never got Officer Sun, or that she escaped."
"Why? Why do you want this?" John asked, his voice full of distrust.
"Does it matter?"
"What about the others," John asked, knowing that Captain Neracc would understand who he was referring to.
"They are not our mission's prime objectives."
John began to shake as the pressure built to pain in his skull, interrupting his conversation with Captain Neracc...
Scorpius walked around the surgical platform where John lay. The gasping Diagnosian flailing on the floor behind Scorpius was already forgotten. Coolly, Scorpius considered the helpless man, his brain exposed to the chilled air. John raged with a stream of irate gibberish.
"Well, Crichton... So much to say," Scorpius drawled in his cultured voice.
John continued to rage incoherently.
"And yet, so little capacity," Scorpius finished, taunting and smug.
The half-Scarran worked his way to the head of the table as John continued to rage with a voice that was torrent of gibberish. Scorpius reached for the container holding the neurochip.
"I only hope the wormhole technology I've waited so patiently for makes more sense."
The incoherent response coming from John left no doubt as to his anger.
"Don't need a translator microbe for that one, do we?" Scorpius said, taking delight in his opponent's pain.
Still standing at the head of the surgical platform, Scorpius leaned over to address John directly. "You've cost me much. And I do not suffer disappointment well. I condemn you, John Crichton,” he paused, taunting the human, "to live! So that your thirst for unfulfilled revenge... will consume you."
John struggled, helpless and unable to say anything.
"Goodbye,” the triumphant scientist said coldly, leaving Crichton to scream in anger, unable to move...
John came back to awareness with a scream in his throat, his eyes wild and angry.
Captain Neracc waited for it to pass, his dark eyes intent on John's face. John gasped after his scream had died away. Panting, he considered the Peacekeeper before him. The dark man's face was both intensely focused and distant, making it very hard to read.
"She'll be free," the Peacekeeper said quietly before he rose and stepped back, giving John space.
Captain Neracc stood back considering John with a quiet intensity until he was interrupted with, "Sir?"
The captain looked over to Officer Jadasa, who was holding out a small meal packet.
"You should eat, sir. Get some rest," she said carefully.
Captain Neracc simply stared at the meal packet a moment before he finally took it from the blonde Sebaecen. Opening the packet, Captain Neracc began eating as he stepped outside of the pod. Officer Jadasa watched the direction that her commanding officer had gone for a moment longer before she crouched down to reach Crichton's eye level.
Before she could say anything, John asked her, "So what does Neracc want with Scorpius? What is it between them?"
Alicianth responded with a question of her own. "Do you know where he is, Scorpius?"
John was silent until the Sebacean woman sighed, looked to where Captain Neracc had gone, then turned back to John. "Scopius was given one of the special units that Captain Neracc commanded, to use as subjects to develop the Aurora chair." She paused a moment before continuing, "They all died in the experiments. One of them was the captain's sister."
Alicianth looked once more to the vacant pod door before speaking again, "Neracc defied High Command and attempted to retrieve his sister from Scorpius. It did no good. Scorpius killed her with his experiments and put Neracc in the chair. The only reason that Captain Neracc is here at all, is because of Grayza."
Something that Officer Jadasa saw in John's face made her continue. "I don't know how or why, but Grayza made sure High Command didn't try him for treason. He was reduced to captain and put in Special Ops."
"And you don't like that," John said quietly.
Alicianth shook her head in denial, "No, I didn't say that."
She looked back to where Aeryn could still be seen against the back wall and shook her head again before she looked to John. "I don't understand people like Neracc and Sun."
"Officer Sun was one of the most elite battle pilots. Those who knew, said that she would have her own command one day, that she would rise very high in the ranks. Then she gave it all up, for what, you?" Alicianth's face took on an expression of both disbelief and dismissal. "I don't understand. Why would anyone give up being elite, or being a Peacekeeper?"
John shook slightly as the mind probe triggered another memory flash...
TBC