The wormhole seemed to freeze for a moment before collapsing into a shower of blue fragments. From the alien console, John stared in fascination as they reentered normal space. He turned to Aeryn, who was standing close behind him and smiled broadly. "Did you see that?" She rolled her eyes and nodded. The frelling human had been at this for hours. "Aeryn?" John stood up and walked over to her. "What's wrong?" Aeryn lifted her head up to meet his questioning gaze. "Oh, nothing. Go on." He sensed there was something bothering her but chose to ignore it for now. He was too excited. "Look at this. The computer has thousands of planets documented." This only made her feel worse. "So, maybe they know where Earth is?"

D'Argo stepped into the strange brown ship and found two of his friends hunched over the controls. "John, have you found one yet?" Crichton looked up at him and nodded. "Yes. There's a planet with healing facilities close by." The excited human turned back to the computer and punched in some commands. "This ship can get us there in a few arns." D'Argo nodded and moved towards the door. "Do it then." He walked outside and headed to command. Meryl would want to hear about this. As he made his way down the hall, something still troubled the Luxan. Something that Tom had said before they left. D'Argo wasn't completely sure, but it had sounded like the young human had said, "No."

"You did good Chiana." Zhaan smiled at the hopeful Nebari and took her hand. Chiana peeked into the lab where Meryl sat diligently beside her sleeping human. It had been her idea to use one of the cryo-pods. That way they could keep Tom in stasis until help could be found. She smiled back at the Delvian and walked down the hall. Away from the depressing sight. Zhaan followed close behind her. "How about you Zhaan? Are you ok." Zhaan frowned slightly. "Of course." They separated at the first junction and Chiana watched her friend leave with more than a little worry.

Meryl stroked the cold glass with her gloved hand and sighed softly. Inside, she could see Tom's innocent face locked in a solemn expression. The pod kept him basically alive but no one had any idea about how long it would last. She heard voices from outside as they drifted farther and farther away. Chiana and Zhaan had been keeping watch over her. "How is he?" She jumped at the sound of Pilot's voice. "The same, thank you." He grunted something in return and terminated the comm. The room was left in silence again. "You didn't have to do this. They would have found another way." The words did nothing to soothe her nerves. Meryl wanted to reach in and smack him around a bit. Knock some sense into the foolish human.

Rygel floated down the hall in a blind daze as he recalled the events of the past few days. It was unlike him to get so worked up about someone else. Especially a person he hardly knew. Yet it had become harder as time went by not to be affected by the emotions of his fellow crew members. Chiana almost bumped into him as he passed by Tom's cell. "Sorry Rygel. I was just..." He shook his head. "I was going to his room. Would you like to join me?" She smiled unevenly and nodded. They walked inside and started looking around. Chiana sat on the bed and ran her fingers over the human's things. "I still remember the look on his face that first day at the laundry." Rygel laughed. "You were playing with him."

<<<<>>>>

The marauder blasted through space on a vector towards Scorpius's gammek base. In the cockpit, he kept a close eye on the stars above while navigating. "No more surprises." He whispered the words to himself again. Almost feeling confident again. Despite the previous day's calamities, he would be back on track very soon. The sequence was still fresh in his memory. Scorpius felt that his day had finally come. Soon his name would be revered throughout the universe.

Zelaya crept out from her hiding spot and took in her surroundings. The marauder was empty except for herself and the hybrid. He sat quietly in the cockpit making strange gestures with his hands. She stood and stalked carefully forward. Without warning, Scorpius turned in his seat and looked back towards her. Zelaya dove to the ground just as his eyes passed over where she had stood. "No one there." She found herself leaning against the co-pilot's chair. Just climb over and jump him. The plan seemed simple enough.

<<<<>>>>

The planet came into view of Moya's scanners and immediately a plan was being prepared. Meryl would go down with the cry-pod. John and Aeryn would go them for protection. Pilot opened the hanger doors and the transport navigated out into the darkness of space. "What did the computer say about this doctor?" Aeryn looked over at Crichton and caught him staring off into the distance. "John?" He snapped out of it and turned around. "It said he was a specialist in deep tissue trauma." She frowned. "What the frell does that mean?" John shrugged and glanced back at the other two. Meryl had her arms around the pod to keep it from moving too much. "Did you tell her to bolt it to the floor?" Aeryn nodded. "She didn't want to."

The building was situated in the center of a small mining colony. It was completely cut off from the town by large stone walls that encircled it. Dr. Weisz waited outside the main entrance with one of his assistants alongside him. The transmission had come in just after the leviathan had steadied itself in orbit around the planet. He had never seen such a ship before. "Amazing." He whispered the words to no one in particular. His assistant grunted behind him. "What was that?" It grunted again. The air shifted the dirt around their feet a little as the transport pod landed in the courtyard in front of them. Four Sebaceans exited the craft with a cryo-tube in tow. "Is that the patient?" The first one out, a fierce looking woman, nodded and pushed the contraption past him and into the building.

"This machine, very good." Weisz swept over the comatose Tom with some sort of scanner. Instantly, the young man's image appeared on a monitor hanging on the wall. "What do you mean?" John looked at Aeryn with suspicious eyes as the funny-looking doctor tended to his new patient. Meryl stood quietly beside them. Her vacant stare had returned. "If you had not placed him in it, your friend would already be dead." John shook his head. "Thanks pip." Weisz glanced upward. "Excuse me?" Aeryn stopped the conversation before it could begin. "Can you fix him?" The doctor nodded eagerly. "Yes, but one of you will have to strip him." No one moved. Finally Meryl stepped forward. "I'll do it."

<<<<>>>>

Chiana opened the large chest that lay beside Tom's bed and rummaged through it. "At least wait until he's dead." She shot an angry look at the Hynerion. "I'm not stealing you idiot." Rygel shrugged and floated over beside her. "Then what are you doing?" She wasn't quite sure what to answer back. Before either of them could get another word in, something fell out of the box and to the floor. Chiana picked it up with interest. It was a folded piece of paper. "What language is that?" She pushed him away and opened the letter. "It's Luxan."

<<<<>>>>

Zelaya pounced onto the co-pilot's seat and jumped at the surprised hybrid. Scorpius roared in pain as her pointed teethe sliced at his exposed shoulder. He managed to push her backwards with all the force he could muster. She hit the wall hard and fell in a heap to the floor. But her strength had not run out yet. "You're going to die Scorpius." He raised a pulse rifle out of its wall holster and pointed it at her. "Even if you die with me Ferrian?" She considered the question for a moment before smiling grotesquely. "As a matter of fact..." Scorpius did not wait for her to finish. He reached out rapidly and punched the ejection button for her chair. The jets erupted instantly and sent her flying out into space. "Goodbye."

She heard him whisper something just before the deafening roar assaulted her ears. Next thing she knew, Zelaya was blown out into the darkness on a very unstable boat. The seat rocked and twirled on its journey out. Without a seatbelt to hold her down, she had to dig her hands into the fabric and hope that everything would be alright. Zelaya finally opened her eyes and looked around. It suddenly occurred to her that she could be in a worse situation. "You can survive in space remember." She shook the nerves off and looked around. The marauder had already disappeared from view and nearby planet was edging closer by the microt.

<<<<>>>>

D'Argo was sitting quietly in his cell when the call came. "What is it Pilot?" The creature noted his irritable tone and continued cautiously. "There seems to be an alarm sounding in the hanger. The sound waves are disrupting my navigation skills." Just as the words left his mouth, Moya rocked slightly from side to side. "I'll check on it Pilot." There was a burs of static from the comm. "Thank you D'Argo." He stood and walked out the door. His Luxan hearing system had already picked up the troublesome noise. It was faint but definitely there. Some other sounds could be heard now too. The rustling of items close by. The seemed to be coming from Tom's cell. "What the frell are you two doing in here?"

Rygel and Chiana looked up as D'Argo pushed open the doors angrily and stepped inside. The Nebari hid her note behind the chest and hoped he wouldn't investigate further. "Just thinking about Tom. We weren't stealing anything." Rygel smiled mischievously and winked at D'Argo. The Luxan frowned back at him. "What?" The Hynerion fought to choke down the insult he had been preparing. For Chiana's sake, he would restrain himself. "Nothing. Just saying hello." D'Argo growled. "Hello."

<<<<>>>>

Tom's body floated naked inside the machine that Weisz used to heal victims of penetrating wounds. Dozens of tiny entry points glowed red and stained the clear liquid that held the human up. "How many are there?" The doctor looked over at John and frowned. "Just over a hundred. Most only reached his external layers but a few are deeply rooted." Aeryn didn't like the sound of that. She left Meryl's side and walked over next to the machine. "And the machine does what?" Weisz pointed towards the body and pressed a button on his console. The liquid started to churn inside and then just as quickly stopped. A sucking noise could be heard faintly from behind the glass. "Frell me." John gasped.

Hundreds of tiny metal shards shot out of Tom's body and into the waiting fluid. They floated calmly to the surface and accumulated there in shiny piles. Weisz rose up the ladder that ran next to the machine and plucked one out of the water. "Let's see now." He placed the specimen on a flat plate and slid it into an analyzing device. A green laser line glided over the piece of metal and sent reports back to the central computer. "Your friend is in luck." John stepped up to get a better look. "Sometimes these weapons are tainted with poison. This one appears to have been clean." Aeryn turned around and looked at Meryl. The ex-peacekeeper nodded slightly.

<<<<>>>>

The noise continued to grow in strength as D'Argo hurried into the hanger. It was definitely coming from the Regulator ship. He stepped inside and saw the computer screen. Apparently, Crichton had started another planet search. He acknowledged the match and watched as thousands of different worlds flashed by on the screen. The picture froze on a medium sized planet mostly covered with water. "Earth?" The computer replied to his question. "Affirmative." D'Argo read through the file without paying too much attention. One thing he did catch was that Regulators had not yet visited this planet. They had only seen it from a distance. Its coordinates flashed repeatedly on the screen.

<<<<>>>>

Scorpius felt the larger ships presence before he saw it. The marauder was tossed around in circles as the giant brown vessel passed over him. Whatever it was, it belonged to the same race that had fortified the Nyid home world. He followed the ship without ever getting close enough to draw attention. The sight that appeared before him took his breath away. A wormhole had opened up in front of them. The brown one seemed to have summoned it somehow. "What are you?" Scorpius directed the marauder into the blue vortex.

"It's not possible." The hybrid gasped in fear and anger at the sight he saw before him. The ship he had followed had exited into normal space right beside his gammek base. The facility was in ruins. Nothing but a black shell remained of what had been an immense and productive science center. Something slammed against his windshield. Scorpius swerved the marauder away from the ghastly debris. Bodies, burned and battered, floated everywhere. The larger ship fired at them, spraying Sebacean blood onto his own craft.

<<<<>>>>

Zhaan sat down inside her cell and closed her eyes. The disturbing feeling that had settled in over her was only getting stronger. Something bad was happening. She could sense the alignment of random events throughout the universe setting a path for her friends. A new presence that brought with it both pain and joy was coming. She opened her eyes again. The planet below was visible from her small window. "Goddess help us all." A knock at the door broke her spiritual connection. "Zhaan, got a minute?" Chiana stepped inside and sat down beside the troubled Delvian. "For you? Always my child."

<<<<>>>>

Tom's body was back in the cryo-pod with the hatch shut and stasis back in effect. John glared angrily at Weisz and then looked down at his sleeping shipmate. "What do you mean there is another problem?" The doctor swallowed involuntarily as the three faces in front of him bore into him. "I was able to remove the metal shards, as you saw." Meryl had finally opened her mouth to say more than a few words. "So, what the frell is the problem?" He nodded and punched a key on the console.

The image of Tom's body that had been transferred before appeared on the screen. His outer skin dissolved to reveal the inner sections. "Tom has suffered a very dangerous amount of blood loss." Weisz pointed to several key veins that ran through the picture. "Without a transfusion, his body will be unable to function very soon. The only thing slowing it down now is your cryo-pod." Meryl gritted her teeth and punched the first available machine. "So give him one." Aeryn tried to bring a calm attitude to the proceedings. She looked from Meryl to the doctor. Weisz was staring at John. Crichton had a similar expression. "You don't have any human blood." The words hit all of them equally hard. "Correct. My synthesizers could theoretically come up with a close enough match, but it would be too late by then."

Meryl shook her head angrily and fought to hold back the tears. "Crichton, you can give him one." John saw the pleading look in her eyes and nodded. "It would be dangerous. I would need to remove a substantial amount." He nodded in understanding. Aeryn couldn't believe what she was hearing. She pulled John aside and whispered in his ear. "You're talking about killing yourself to let him live." He stared back at her. "We don't know that for sure." Aeryn glanced back at Meryl and then back to John. Nothing she could say would stop this. John stepped forward and put his arm on the table. "Do it."

<<<<>>>>

D'Argo stood quietly inside the hanger and watched as the transport pod landed with a thud inside. The hatch was pushed up and Aeryn stepped out onto the floor. The look in her eyes was not comforting. "Did it work?" He had not believed the new at first. John was going to give up his own blood to save Tom. The Luxan had never heard of such a thing. The weak die so the strong can survive. It was a basic rule of the universe. Yet it did not seem as strange when you looked at who was doing it. "My blood doesn't match." John himself walked out with a frightening expression on his face. One D'Argo had not seen since Aeryn had died on the ice planet. Meryl came up behind them, wheeling out the cryo-pod with Tom tucked carefully inside. "There may be a solution." Three confused faces stared back at D'Argo with questions ready.