1. Kelly Hill (ceallaig)
"He's following me again."
Aeryn looked around, but the only other person she could see in the mess
room was John. "Who?"
"Him." John gestured back toward the door. "Little Blue."
Aeryn looked in the direction John had indicated but still saw nothing...
except the little mechanized form hovering in the shadows. "You mean the
DRD?"
"Yeah. He's been tagging along after me for days now. Almost stepped on
him twice today."
Aeryn shook her head. "Crichton, I've always thought you were strange.
This confirms it. 'Little Blue'?"
"Well, yeah, that's kinda what I've been calling him since I patched his
antenna-thingie with the blue electrical tape. I got to thinking of him as
Little Blue, even after he was fixed right, and the name just stuck. You
know, it's like a stray dog or cat - once you name it, you're stuck with
it."
Aeryn looked confused. "Dog? Cat?"
"A pet. Haven't you ever had a pet? God, look who I'm asking .... Just
trust me on this one. He follows me around all the time now. Don't know
why he thinks I'm special. I mean, I'm the one who busted his antenna in
the first place. Well, I didn't, the canopy from my ship did, but ..... "
"Crichton, this is a robot. It doesn't have feelings."
"I don't think I'd let Pilot hear you say that, if I were you. He's pretty
protective of these little guys. If he doesn't have feelings, why is he
following me around like this?"
"Because he likes you. I'd say it's quite obvious." Zhaan came into the
room and stooped at the doorway, running a gentle hand down the DRD's back.
The little robot's antennae waved, scattering spots of light on the floor.
"They don't usually take to someone so readily, John. You should be
honored."
"Oh, not you, too!" Aeryn nearly slammed her tray on the table. "He –it -
is a robot, for goodness sake.. You're both talking sentimental nonsense."
"Maybe, but I like it," John said, spearing a green cube off his plate.
He really didn't know what these things were made out of, and was never
going to ask any of the others. Some things were not meant for humans to
know. "He reminds me a little of a dog I had when I was a kid. Found him
on the doorstep one day after school, looked like he'd been in a fight with
another dog, kinda banged up but not bad. He was a little guy, probably
not much bigger than Little Blue. I brought him inside and Mom helped me
clean him up. I named him Sparky. He slept on my bed every night, and
really hated thunderstorms. Had him a long time – he died the summer
before I left for college. I'll bet you've had pets, Zhaan - how about it?
Any good stories?"
-----------------------------
2. Laura Folden (kitsah)
“Pets? No, I’ve never had any pets….” She smiled gently, her face
suddenly radiant. “When I was a little girl on Delvia, my father used to
take me to Mountain. We would spend weeks there, just the two of us,
hiking the trails and sleeping under the stars.”
“My dad used to take me camping too.” John also smiled in recollection.
“He would always take the easier trails, so I could keep up. One day, he
took me to the edge of the Forest, on a cliff overlooking a deep valley.
The trail was very steep, and I had a hard time keeping up. But he kept
promising me that all that effort was worth it.”
“Was it?” Aeryn found herself caught up in Zhaan’s memories. She’d grown
up on a space ship, with dark closed hallways and tiny cramped rooms.
Zhaan smiled gently at her. “Yes, although I didn’t know it then. I kept
whining—I was really quite a lazy child, wilfful and spoiled and rotten to
the core.”
“You?” John exclaimed in disbelief.
“Oh yes, I had to have my own way in everything.”
“And you still do! All that…blue, if you ask me.” Rygel humphed, floating
into the room. “It’s just not natural.”
“Shut up, Spanky,” John commanded, turning back to Zhaan. “You were
saying?”
“Oh…when I finally made it to the top of the trail, I was very out of
breath and quite cranky. I was going to have a screaming temper tantrum
right there. I rounded the bend and saw my father sitting with his back
against a rock, looking out over the valley.” Her soft voice was
breathless with remembered wonder. “And then I saw the birds.”
“Birds!” Aeryn sat back, startled. “Birds?”
“Thousands of them, hundreds of thousands, flying above the valley. In all
colors—browns and greens and reds and blues—flying and circling and gliding
all around me. Maybe because I was a child…but it was the most incredible
thing I’ve ever seen.” She laughed softly.
“Hmmph. Birds. You’ve lived 812 cycles, and the most incredible thing
you’ve seen is a bunch of squawking flapping birds! Yotz to that! Why
I’ve seen things that will take your breath away!” Rygel spat vehemently.
“Now where are those food cubes?”
John rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right. Anyway—“
“I have!” Rygel stopped hunting for food. “I’ve seen things your limited
brain can only begin to dream of!”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
Rygel huffed irritably. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Actually, I would like to know.” John leaned forward, interested despite
himself. “Come on, Spanky, ‘fess up.”
3. Ron Dreyer (EyeOnStorm)
“It would take too many arns to even educate you enough to comprehend the
sights I¹ve viewed from my throne before it was snatched from me!” Rygel
punctuated his sentence with a lightning fast grab for a food cube from
Crichton’s plate.
Quickly evading the attack, John shook his head. “Whoa there, big fella!
You gotta earn your vittles around here!”
Aeryn and Zhaan exchanged sideways glances as Rygel grumbled to himself.
“All right, if you insist upon my taking part in this ridiculous bonding
ritual I demand the proper respect!”
At that moment Moya rocked violently, throwing Crichton, Aeryn and Zhaan to
the floor, leaving Rygel on his floater suspended above them. “Ahh, at
last, you¹ve all found your station in life, beneath my feet!”
Having landing next to Aeryn as usual, Crichton grinned . “We¹re gonna have
to stop meeting like this.” Pushing Crichton aside, Aeryn jumped to her
feet as tremors continued to rock the hull. "Pilot! What¹s happening?"
Immediately, Pilot¹s worried voice emanated from a wall console. “I’m
afraid Moya made a sudden and quite unexpected course change. I¹ve had no
time to make the proper inertial compensation. If she remains on her
present vector there will be continued turbulence.”
“Fasten your seatbelts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!” John quipped, helping
Zhaan to her feet. Aeryn shot John a puzzled look. “But, where is she
headed?”
“I’m not quite sure,” Pilot continued. ”You see...It seems we are being
pursued by...another Leviathan...”
“STAND BACK!” D’Argo whirled and raised his blade in the direction of the
bulkhead. “I do not like being followed around!” he threatened, moving to
the bridge as quickly as he could. At his feet were three DRDs following
him down the corridor like chicks after a mother hen. Crichton reached the
bridge just seconds after D’Argo, followed by the rest of the crew.
“I see you’ve got a couple of little friends of your own, D’Argo.” Crichton
noted, pointing at D¹Argo¹s feet. D’Argo walked in a circle in an attempt
to extricate himself from the little entourage.
Zhaan entered the bridge and crossed to the navigation station. “Pilot, how
close is the other leviathan?”
she asked, with a bemused expression as she observed D’Argo’s predicament.
Pilot appeared on his holographic display. “The Leviathan you see here is
a young male...one of three in the area. I have attempted to make contact
with them all using the regular protocols but there has been no response.
They are too young to have undergone the joining, so communication with me
is, at best, limited.”
As the crew watched the view screen in amazement, the leviathan pod drew
near, spinning and arcing in beautiful geometric flight patterns.
“Young males, huh? Crichton remarked. “Does anybody else get the feeling
they might be lookin’ for something a little more substantial than a
handshake...?”
#4. Megan (sci fi chic 9)
"Pilot, by leviathan standards is Moya considered…attractive?” John asked
with a grin.
“Attractive? Why, I don’t know.” Pilot replied. “I suppose she could be.
I’ve never considered it.”
“Well, uh, if I’m not mistaken, I think these boys are looking for a little
action. Put them on-screen, will you?”
“Complying with you request,” Pilot answered. The screen filled with the
image of stars and stray wisps of gases against a deep black background,
but no other ships were in sight. “I don’t see the other leviathans, Pilot.
Where are they?”
Pilot came back on-screen. “They went to starburst right before we put
them on. I can plot their courses for you, if you’d like.”
“No, Pilot. Forget about them. As long as they’re nowhere near us then
we’re fine. Let’s go.” D’Argo said, looking upset.
“Now D’Argo,” Zhaan said gently, “What if those Leviathans were seeking
help? We don’t want to turn down the chance to assist them. And, perhaps
they have star charts on-board. In return for helping them, they may let us
copy the charts. Pilot, plot the courses of those ships.” D’Argo looked
angry at being contradicted, but then it dawned on him. “My son. I could
find my son.” He said softly.
“Excuse me,” Pilot said, attempting to gain everyone’s attention. “I have
tracked the ships’ courses, but according to the readout, they should be…”
Suddenly the ship lurched violently. No one was left standing, except, of
course, for Rygel floating on his hover chair.
“This is not fair. I have to get me one of those floating chair things. I’m
sick of always falling every time the ship hits a speed bump.” John said.
“Pilot! Pilot, what happened?” D’Argo inquired, sounding enraged. “PILOT!”
“As I was saying,” Pilot said meekly, “If Moya had kept going on the course
she was on, they would’ve rammed her. She made a course-correction right
before they were about to hit.”
“They’re attacking us!” Aeryn said. “An unprovoked attack. These Leviathans
must be being controlled by some means.”
“I do not believe so. As I said earlier, they are too young to have
undergone the joining, and without a pilot the ships are uninhabitable, so
unless some new means of controlling Leviathans had been discovered, I
believe that they are.”
“Well if they’re not being controlled, then why are they attacking us?”
“I’m afraid I am not certain.”
“Great,” John said, “just great. This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Everyone just stood there, looking at each other for a solution, but nobody
presented one.
“Pardon me,” Pilot said, shaking everyone out of their daze, “but one of
the ships is coming around again. I think he intends to ram us again.”
“Pilot, just starburst us outta here,” John said worriedly. “I don’t like
where this is going.”
“I agree with Crichton. If there is any trouble, I will be in my quarters.”
D’Argo began to walk down the hall, but nearly tripped on the DRD’s
following in front and beside him. “That’s it!” D’Argo raged, unholstering
his Qualta blade, “I’m sick of these DRD’s following me everywhere!” The
little robots scattered.
“I know how you feel D’Argo, I have one following me too. C’mon Pilot, go
to starburst already.” John said with a chuckle.
“I would adhere to your request if I was able, but unfortunately, I am
not.” Pilot said
“What do you mean, you’re not able?”
“There is a large body of mass directly in front of us that is radiating
large amounts of X-Rays and has a very strong gravitational pull. Moya can
not starburst whilst within the gravity well of a star or planet.”
Aeryn said, with a puzzled look on her face, “Why don’t you just take us
out of the gravity well then?”
“I’m afraid that it’s pulling us in. There is nothing I can do.”
Zhaan turned on her comm badge. “D’Argo, you might want to come up here.”
“On my way.”
John walked over to the corner and sat down and began muttering
thoughtfully. Zhaan walked over to him and stared while he talked to
himself. After a minute, she said, “John, what are you doing?”
“Shhh! Hold on a second.”
“What are you doing?”
“Shhh!”
“Crichton, in case it’s escaped your notice, we seem to be in a bit of a
crisis here, so will you please get up and help us figure something out?”
Aeryn said, exasperated. John said nothing in reply, but held up a finger
to silence her.
“Crichton, will you take one micron out of your thinking to tell us what
you’re doing?”
“Trying to remember all the information I was supposed to absorb in
college. Just give me a second to do the equations.”
“Okay, but I don’t see how human sciences will help us here. Your species
has not even explored you own solar system.”
“Okay…okay…yes…YES! I got it!”
“Got what? What did you get?” Rygel demanded.
“I know to get us out of the gravity well.” he said with a self-satisfied
smile on his face.
“You do?” Rygel and Zhaan said in unison.
“Yep.”
“Well, what do we do?” D’Argo said from behind him. John jumped.
“Pilot, are those three Leviathans still out there?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Okay, here’s what we do.”
-------------------------------
#5 Christopher Henriksen (squireson)
"John, can we skip off of the mass's atmosphere as we once did before?”
Zhaan asked.
"No. That mass that’s emitting x-rays is a black hole. " John's mildly
preoccupied voice trailed off.
"The reason it's emitting X-rays, if I've got this right..." sensing
Zhaan's dissatisfaction, Aeryn completed John's lecture, "the atmosphere
that we would be skipping off of is spinning into that ... thing ... with
so much friction that it gets hot enough to burn red .... well, burn X-ray
hot . "
"Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right, Aeryn. And that would cook Moya's paint
job real quick." Surprise briefly distracted John before he returned to
his work. In a place with so many surprises it was worth the time to savor
the pleasant ones.
D’Argo has heard some of the conversation. "Then dive directly for it and
open one of your wormholes. You said that they were related to these dark
holes. "
"Black holes. Anyway, it doesn't work like that ... Look, this is a
spinning black hole -- that means it's not perfectly symmetrical -- create
a wormhole around that, try to dive through and it'll pinch off to a
singularity before you can say Captain CRUNCH. " John had enough trouble
explaining his idioms to the Luxan, let alone astrophysics. "Look, never
mind. We can't create a wormhole anywhere near that thing.
Besides, I have a better idea."
Rygel harumphed to this last. "If Crichton has a better idea then I'm all
for abandoning ship. Pilot, ready a
pod !"
John's blood was up as he furiously punched at the control board in front
of him. "Pilot , can you steer us towards that black hole at ... this ...
angle?"
"That would be almost directly at the mass you are referring to." Pilot
began the maneuver but looked unhappy about it.
Aeryn leaned into John and mildly commented, “Does leaning into left hooks
suit you ? ... Or is this some plan that you've come up with?"
He only spared a glance at Aeryn's jab before he said, "Pilot, gimme the
vectors of the oncoming male, and, uhhh ... yeah , yeah ... our closest
approach to the hole!"
"Certainly, though I would like to know what it is exactly that we will be
attempting here." The displays lit up with the hieroglyphics of arithmetic
and algebra. Somewhere in there John saw what he was looking for. What he
saw made him smirk.
It was growing obvious that everyone was uncomfortable with the situation
as they looked furiously at one another for an alternative. Any
alternative. John's ‘better ideas’, though generally successful, had
gained something of a reputation onboard Moya .
"What in yotz are we going to do with the other male!? Hold a dance?!"
Rygel was the first to voice his concerns .
" Simple geometry, my amphibious friend. Have you ever played billiards?"
If John had been paying less attention to the control boards he may very
well have considered not saying anything at all...
" Billiards, John? Is this an Earth game involving mating around a
radiative mass? " On Zhaan's face, a raised eyebrow was the only indication
of her intended irony.
Pilot could be heard saying, "We have begun your maneuver, John, but ... "
" No, Zhaan, actually it’s a game where you smack one ball into another
while trying to get one ball into the pocket and keep the first on the
table."
A look of disgust glued Aeryn's features as she shakes her head. "Oh ...
no. No, I really don't like the sound of this plan."
"John," Pilot continued, "I should point out that now we are not only
going to be pulled into the mass but we are also going to impact with the
Leviathan male."
"This is suicide! PILOT!! Break trajectory NOW !" The Luxan roar had a
distinct sound, though generally one that was unacquainted with panic.
Thankfully, the other voices that had been raised were drowned out by it.
"It is too late," Pilot could be heard above the cacophony, "We are
already locked into the gravity well . "
Aeryn leaned to John and quietly asked, "One question: are you any good at
this 'billiards'?"
------------
#6 Robert Wolfe (cmcdunah)
Every body on the bridge was found airborne for a short second. Then three
of them impacted abruptly with various sections of the forward walls and
control panels. Even Rygel's squat, snub nose floated precariously close to
the main viewer. He went nearly cross-eyed focusing on the panel before him
and let out a slow, thankful breath. A small cloud of vapor condensed on
the flat pane in front of his face. Then the entire view screen leaped dead
into his face as the ship vaulted backwards.
From his position-pinned painfully up under the manual control
kiosk-Crichton asked, straining, "Can we get a little help here, Pilot?
What's happening?"
"Compensating . . ." Pilot responded. Slowly, the pressure holding bodies
to walls was relieved and Moya's crew righted themselves. Crichton was sure
bruises were already forming as he drew a full breath again.
"Crichton-what the hezmana have you done?" barked D'Argo. New disdain for
primitive Earth science was spilled across his face.
"Nothing! I mean, not this time. That wasn't supposed to happen-not like
this." He moved toward a control panel.
"Well what IS going on?" asked Zhaan. Her voice was decidedly devoid of
amusement. "Pilot? Is Moya all right?" she queried, her tone lined with
concern. "The baby-"
"What the hell is that?" Crichton blurted out, pointing to a port side view
from the ship that he had called up. A large vessel of unfamiliar design,
snaking neon tendrils of hot pink energy out toward Moya, loomed in the
distance. The two tendrils had fixed points of origin front-port and
front-starboard on the alien ship and were obviously fixed to points
near-right and far-left of the camera they were looking through. Between
each set of points, the energy beams thrashed wildly, though Moya's
backward motion seemed steady and true.
Moya backed out of the gravity well until perpendicular to the other ship,
and then they both continued to speed away from the whirling menace.
The three young leviathans traced perfect geometric patterns widely about
the alien craft. They completely ignored Moya now and seemed, instead,
intent on a reverie focused on this newcomer. As the crew looked on,
several more of the great beasts came out of the distance and joined the
dance.
Even at the comfortable distance the instrument panel indicated it to be,
the alien vessel was large enough to be seen through an unmagnified camera.
Their view of the massive object, easily seven or eight times the size of
Moya, was roughly head-on but slightly below its horizontal axis. It
appeared to be made mostly of a dark blue metallic substance, though it had
some accents of lighter blue and silver. It positively gleamed in the
available starlight and had the appearance of something slow moving and
inconceivably heavy.
Four main sections were visible. The vessel had remained perpendicular to
Moya and these main sections were lined up one behind the other, smallest
section in the front, largest to the rear. All were aligned along the same
central axis, as if skewered by a tremendous axle, except it was the two
central sections that spun on the axis, like giant lazy fan blades. The
rear one spun slowly clockwise and the front one, counterclockwise. The
most massive section, at the rear, was a huge, dark, half-sphere with its
flat side facing forward. A wide metal circle on the face of this flat
side, lighter blue in color, made a border around the darker blue interior.
The interior itself was a random field of a city's worth of what looked to
John to be large electrical boxes, corrugated metal piping, HVAC ducts, and
wire casing.
In front of that section, rotating slowly in opposite directions, were the
two, massive, identical, oblong rotors, one in front of the other. They
were thick and bulky elliptical constructions and were slightly longer than
the diameter of the large hemisphere, so that, if viewed from behind, their
tips could still have been seen lazily rotating about the ship. Their front
faces were flat, narrow ellipses and had design elements resembling the
large hemisphere's (a light blue border band with dark blue machinery
covering the rest of the surface). A wide, smooth, continuous band of the
darker blue metal encircled the perimeter of each front face and connected
it to each rotor's rear elliptical face. Spanning the widths at the end of
each construct were long, slender, rectangular openings in the dark blue
metal. Each of these openings was venting a fine mist of light green gases
out into space. Wispy tendrils of the gas spiraled about the whole vessel,
crossing each other's paths, and eventually dissipated.
In the very front of the vessel, the smallest section sat like a diamond
cap on the axis the two giant rotors turned on. It resembled a light blue,
metallic pyramid-viewed from the top-however, it had a diamond-shaped base
rather than a square; it was longer vertically than horizontally. It
appeared seamless and all the corner lines and points were rounded. A
slender, silver piece bisected the whole thing vertically, like a giant
piece of chrome trim. It extended out well beyond the pyramid's top and
bottom points, ending in blunt points itself. There were two deep,
relatively large, diamond-shaped openings right and left of this centerline
which straddled the horizontal centerline. The openings were located closer
to the base of the pyramid than the top. These were the points of origin
for the energy beams gripping Moya. Hot pink highlights bounced randomly
off of the gleaming surfaces of the vessel as the beams writhed violently
in the space between
the two ships.
"By the fifth sun of Melvia," gasped Rygel, in awe.
Moya felt dwarfed.
"It's the Behemoth," confirmed Aeryn.
Moya felt welcome.
"It can't be," stated Zhaan flatly.
Nothing but welcome.
"WHAT is the Behemoth?" demanded D'Argo.
"It just pulled us out of that gravity well," said Pilot.
"It's a big, spinny, metallic ship with a pointy front and tractor beams
with nice special effects," quipped Crichton. "You know, maybe this is a
good thing. I wasn't all that sure of the billiards plan after all."
Three hot stares and a nonplussed holographic look from Pilot and Crichton
quickly responded with, "Just kidding! I just thought this moment needed a
little levity . . . so, what's this 'Behemoth' thing again?"
The biggest things were totally lost on the earthling and the smallest,
most inconsequential items constantly either amazed or horrified him,
thought Aeryn. She pulled her most disgusted "what an idiot" glare off of
Crichton and turned to give D'Argo her answer. "It's a myth. It's about a
sentient, mechanoid entity of unbelievable size and strength developed by a
long dead race from beyond the known territories. It supposedly explored
the known galaxies on their behalf, generally from enough of a distance to
remain thought of as a rumor by most, really. However, it seems this
amazing artificial intelligence, sustained by a hulking frame made up of
entirely non-organic parts-self sufficient for a millenium, they say-one
day crossed over the line from detached observer to interested caretaker of
spacefaring lifeforms, leviathans in particular. The legend goes that after
its master race died off, the explorer took up a new reason for being. The
Behemoth swept through leviathan home space and emerged with a colony of
followers called the Believers. It and they left for the uncharted
territories and have never been seen since."
"Are you telling me that the Behemoth is the figurehead of some kind of
cult for leviathans?" Crichton asked, incredulous. Just then, the DRD's
began winging wildly about the open spaces of the bridge in intricate,
two-dimensional, geometric patterns. A few seconds later, they broke off
and returned to their routine. John's eyes met the rest of the group's with
a dark, weighty stare. "I think we might have a problem here."
The energy beams let up and Moya took up an obvious course for the
Behemoth. "Pilot, what is Moya doing?" asked D'Argo, the tension rising in
his voice.
"I am uncertain. She seems intent on approaching the alien craft. Even
compared with her distracted state of late, she has suddenly become very
unresponsive to my inquiries." He paused. "Have you noticed anything
strange about the DRD's?"
All of the DRD's assembled on the deck suddenly moved in straight lines at
complimentary angles to one another, then turned on a myriad of dimes to
run in arcs as parts of another complicated, but obvious, pattern. They
took up a new, moving configuration every few seconds without missing a
beat. Little, yellow, rolling bodies and penlight antennae roiled amongst
one
another in precise, mesmerizing, locomotive patterns all around the feet of
the crew. They seemed to have swarmed the bridge.
"Pilot, we have some serious crap going on up here with the DRD's," said
Crichton.
"I'm shutting them down; they are not performing their assigned tasks and I
am unsure of the function of that particular behavior," responded Pilot.
The DRD's rolled to a silent stop. All antennae went dark. A deep silence
fell over the ship. It was the kind of silence you endure while
waiting, anxiously peering about, soaking up the situation, for the other
shoe to drop. John suspected he would probably be happy with a size
twenty-three, made out of one solid piece of lead, hurled squarely at the
back of his neck. He knew, however, that, since coming to this part of the
universe, reality tended to come up with things far worse than he could
ever imagine.
The lights went dark. Pilot's hologramatic head seemingly appeared out of
nowhere. It provided a faint, eerie, bluish light that the group could just
barely see each other by. "Moya seems to have begun to neglect most systems
not required for her own life functions and locomotion. With what
access I have, and with the DRD's currently down, it appears all I can do
at this point is monitor her," said Pilot.
Bathed in the weak, blue light, the crew looked around at each other and at
the dead DRD's at their feet. John thought he could read varying degrees of
anxiety on most of their faces-from deep concern on Zhaan's to abject fear
on Rygel's. Even Aeryn's cold stoicism in the face of anger was broken by
the sudden severity of the situation. D'Argo, on the other hand, seemed
genuinely just plain angry and frustrated. "This situation has spiraled
completely out of control," he growled. "Aeryn, what else do you know about
this Behemoth? It seems to have hijacked Moya right out from under us. We
may have to abandon ship if we can't get the life support systems back
online."
"I really don't know anything more than what I've said," replied Aeryn,
"and all of that is just legend. Who knows what this thing is really like-I
could be wrong about it altogether."
"Pilot, is Moya neglecting even the systems that have been caring for her
baby?" Zhaan asked. "The DRD's dedicated to it are down, too?"
"Yes. Also, the temperature will be moving into intolerable ranges shortly;
but, worse for you, the air will not be recycled. In a few arns and it will
get stale. Eventually, you will die on freezing or unbearably hot decks,
filled with unbreathable air, unless something is done."
"This is not a mechanical error we can fix?" asked D'Argo.
"No, Moya seems to be doing this all herself. It is highly atypical."
"Well that's the understatement of the cycle," spat Rygel in the dark. "We
have to get off of this death trap until we can find a way to persuade Moya
to stop this madness. What good ARE you, Pilot? Don't you actually CONTROL
anything on this ship?"
"Normally, I would presume I could," replied Pilot. "However, since Moya's
pregnancy, she has been less open to my influence."
Rygel returned with, "Moya's pregnant, so we're completely frelled every
time we pass by something shiny? Is that it?" He was trying to sound
indignant, but John was sure he could hear fear in Rygel's voice.
"Look, we're in deep space and the closest thing out there is that black
gravity well," Aeryn said. "We can't leave Moya. Where will we go? There's
no one out there to fight; the problem's here! Moya's decided to do these
things."
"Maybe not," said Crichton. “Maybe the problem is out there. Just what is
coming out of those vents? We have no systems online in here. At least in a
pod or the Marauder we'd have some sensors to work off of. It's like she's
been brainwashed by this thing. Maybe it's physiological, or
pheromonal or something. Pilot, could this thing have some kind of psychic
link to Moya? I don't see any other way to fix this thing than to go
outside of Moya and see what's happening."
"He may be right," said D'Argo.
"So it's agreed; we'll all get in the pod and take a look about outside,
then," said Aeryn. It was obvious she was going to go along with this if
that's what the group felt was right. This was not the type of tactical
situation she was trained for. It made her nervous and reminded her that
there were many areas that she had not been trained in that could save your
life in deep space.
"Well I'm in; I'm all for air and a proper room temperature," said Rygel.
"Just wait long enough for me to collect up these food cubes . . ."
The group fairly ignored him while he zipped off into the dark towards the
rations storage. They were all really waiting for Zhaan to speak.
"This is good for us, but what about Pilot?" she asked. "Pilot, can you
survive for long with Moya in this state? If we leave, will we still be
able to communicate with you?"
"Yes and yes. As long as Moya remains healthy, I should be all right. And I
believe I can keep a communications link open to any vessels you might be
in. I can see everything Moya can see, so sensory perception is not a
problem with me, but I am unsure of what is motivating her at this point.
Maybe you can affect a change from outside Moya that will get through to
her. I am unconcerned about the presence of the alien ship, myself, but I
am worried about Moya's baby. Please hurry. I am unsure of how long her
baby can survive with things in this state. It's like she's completely
forgotten about it. And, unless things change, Aeryn is right: you have
nowhere else
to go."
After a few minutes of stumbling about in the darkness, they reached the
landing bay. It was decided they would leave in both ships, in case they
really couldn't get back aboard Moya again. D'Argo, Rygel and Zhaan left
aboard the pod ship. Aeryn and Crichton left in the Marauder. Once outside
the ship, with Moya blissfully approaching the herd of dancing leviathans
and the huge alien craft, sitting in a very small ship with limited life
support and very little food, the crew separated and unsure of whether
they'd ever see Pilot again, and with no idea of where else they could go
or what could be done about any of it, Aeryn thought she had finally
realized just what
desperation was. She was not alone.
"Aeryn? You OK?" asked Crichton. She turned around and looked earnestly at
him.
"No."
She put her right hand up to her shoulder. John reached down and put his
hand on hers. She looked into his eyes and they both knew that all
pretenses between them would be dropped if the situation became any more
dire. John would not die without letting Aeryn know he really did want to
take her back to his home with him. Aeryn knew she did not want to die
alone and that she couldn't think of another person she would rather be
with right now. But all else must fail first. She put her hand down to the
control panel. "Well, what now?"
------------------------------------------------------------
#7 Julie Masden (sojushisan)
"I wish I knew," he muttered as the two little ships dropped away from the
Leviathan like leaves from a great tree into the silent pool of open space.
He felt oddly dizzy from the dark vista that yawned before them. In the
distance, the Behemoth, its size made all the more monstrous by its
remoteness. And slightly above them, against the blackness of the gravity
well, Moya slid slowly by in soft shades of bronze and gold, a fantastic
sea creature, beautiful, but suddenly alien again, inhospitable... For an
instant, all time and reason ceased to exist for John as he became once
more the uncomprehending astronaut seeing Moya for the first time. "You
will always be the most incredible thing I'll ever see, he murmured as he
dropped his gaze from the port and refocused on the familiar brown curls of
Aeryn seated in front of him.
"What did you say?" she asked.
"Nothing. Just looking at Moya."
"Many people find Leviathans beautiful," she replied absently, "You should
see one outfitted for VIP transport! Too bad we didn't get stranded on one
of THOSE! Scanning those energy beams...readings are... they don't make
sense...."
(Pilot sat motionless in his chamber, staring into emptiness...)
John leaned forward to get a better view of the Marauder’s instrument
panel. But as he did so, he froze, the hair prickled on the back of his
neck as he sensed rather than felt something move behind him...as if a
finger waved just next to his skin without touching...slowly he turned his
head...