Originally posted 8/31/06It's been a while since I've had inspiration and/or time to hit a Starburst Challenge at Terra Firma.... (Psst: I still have an unfinished story for SC4 that I
swear I'm going to get to soon....) But I thought I'd give this one a shot. (See
here for the requirements.) My people/items were Ahkna, Ahkna, and Leviathan, and this only sort of fits the requirements (only one Ahkna, and the Leviathan is more a setting than a player, but....), but I kinda like it. It turned out to be "Bringing Home the Beacon" filler! It was fun to write filler again, and fun to bring Aeryn and Ahkna face to face for the first time....
Rating: G
Setting: BHTB
Spoilers: Through BHTB
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my universe, no money being made.....
Thanks to Loco and MadScientist for beta duties, and to Loco again for the pic for the end.
Change of Plans
Scarran War Minister Ahkna did not like Leviathans. A ship should be a mechanism for transport, not a living, thinking being. Dead Leviathans, such as this one where the Peacekeeper Mele-On Grayza had arranged their covert meeting, were even worse. The place reeked of decay and the odor of far too many repulsive little aliens.
Ahkna turned her thoughts to the matter at hand and scowled at the bodies in front of her on the floor.
Charrids! she thought scornfully, looking back at the now-empty bioloid construction chamber. No matter what the Hierarchy believed, Charrids were useless! She kicked at the nearest body with her boot.
These had just allowed the rescue of the prisoner she'd worked so hard to get. It was fortunate for them that they were already dead....
A commotion in the doorway caused her to look up. Ah. Her adjutant and lover Pennoch was dragging a somewhat battered-looking Peacekeeper female into the room, one hand firmly encircling her arm.
"Let me go!" the female grunted, struggling in a feeble fashion to get away.
Ahkna looked the new prisoner up and down, noting bruises, angry gray eyes and long black hair that hung loose, which was non-regulation for a Peacekeeper. The long black coat the prisoner wore was lined in red – also, perhaps, non-regulation. So, Grayza had had hidden backup here on this wretched station. Eee chu ta! A spy! "Was she alone when you captured her?" she demanded of Pennoch.
"Two others were with Grayza and her aide, a Kalish and an unknown alien."
Aliens. Now, that was odd. Peacekeepers seldom allied themselves with non-Sebaceans unless it was absolutely necessary. And a Kalish! Were the Kalish conspiring with the Peacekeepers? Ahkna turned to her captive. "Who are you?"
The Sebacean spat out, "Get frelled!"
Ahkna turned her heat probe on the prisoner. "Where has Grayza gone?"
"Sorry," the woman said through gritted teeth. "No...idea."
"Well, then you're of no use to me, are you?" Ahkna shook her head, and opened her mouth to order the prisoner terminated. Before she spoke, a thought struck her. Grayza's little worm of an aide had mentioned a possible sighting of a fugitive Nebari girl on this Leviathan.
Chiana, was it? Wasn't that the name of one of John Crichton's crewmembers? There was said to be a Peacekeeper deserter among Crichton's band. A
female, if she recalled correctly. She turned a more critical eye on her prisoner. "Are you with the human, John Crichton? Is he here?"
The prisoner merely glared at her.
The brave ones were always so tiresome.
Ahkna directed her heat probe at the Sebacean again, repeating, "Are you with John Crichton? Are you –" What was that name again? She searched her memory of intelligence reports. Ah. "Are you Aeryn Sun?"
A flicker of fear passed through the prisoner's eyes, though she spoke not a word. So.
This was the famous Aeryn Sun. Ahkna increased the intensity of her probe, demanding, "Crichton! Is he here?"
Without warning, the Sebacean collapsed. Pennoch barely caught her as she fell, which left her hanging limply by her arms in his powerful grip.
Annoyed, Ahkna demanded, "Is she feigning?" He growled and shook his captive, then set her on the floor to examine her further. It seemed clear after a short time that the prisoner was in fact truly unconscious.
While Pennoch worked to revive the Peacekeeper Sun, Ahkna considered what to do next. Sebaceans were a weak species, but this one should have stood up to that level of heat probe. Perhaps she was more severely injured than she appeared, or perhaps she had been conditioned to resist the probe, as Grayza and her men had been....
As the prisoner began to stir, Ahkna came to a decision. This creature had cost her the carefully-crafted opportunity to interrogate Mele-On Grayza and learn the truth about the Peacekeepers' alleged wormhole weapons. But it appeared something could be salvaged from the disaster – Aeryn Sun was a very close link to the half breed Scorpius' obsession, John Crichton. She turned to the groggy woman now kneeling on the floor and carefully modulated her heat ray. "How long before your companions leave this dead Leviathan?"
Sun looked up at her and blinked, then shook her head, as if to clear it. "I...half an arn," she murmured, and abruptly scowled and closed her eyes.
Half an arn. No doubt less than that by now. That wasn't enough time to create a perfect duplicate of Crichton's crew member, but they should be able to make one that would pass long enough to allow a Scarran warship to home in on the homing beacon all bioloid copies carried by design. "Pennoch, put her into the replication chamber!" she ordered.
* * * * * * * *
Aeryn Sun considered her current predicament. She was a Scarran prisoner, and she stood immobilized in the same device that had been holding Grayza earlier. The Scarran that Ahkna had called "Pennoch" stood guard. Ahkna herself had left the room without explanation, but it wasn't as if that actually improved Aeryn's odds any in a physical fight.
She sighed. There was no point in berating herself for taking on a Scarran – all right,
two Scarrans – alone. She'd done what she had to do to keep that frelling Peacekeeper tralk away from Scarran interrogators, and she had, in fact, survived this far. That was pretty much a miracle right there, and she decided to take it as a hopeful sign. If she could keep her wits about her, she might yet get out of this alive, with no impact on the fetus she carried in stasis. Score one for Peacekeeper genetic alternations! She could expect no help, diplomatic or otherwise, from Grayza and Braca, but Chiana and the others would certainly tell John what had happened to her. A rustle of leather and the sharp thud of boots drew her attention. She looked up to see War Minister Ahkna reenter the room and plant herself in front of Aeryn's tiny prison.
Aeryn regarded the ruling caste Scarran. She didn't have much direct experience of Scarrans of any kind, but this one was easy enough to read. Ahkna was obviously greedy and ambitious. The high boots and tall hat suggested that she was insecure about her physical stature. Still, to have risen this high in the Hierarchy, she would also be ruthless. Aeryn suppressed a snort as she found herself thinking, "The perfect match for Grayza."
Aeryn's mind was still analyzing the situation when Ahkna began speaking. It took her a few microts to realize that Ahkna had made mention of some kind of physical duplicate. That word conjured up unwanted images of two John Crichtons, and dispelled the remains of her gallows humor. She focused in on her captor. "What?"
The Scarran smirked. "Your bioloid copy, which we are creating even now, will lead us straight to Crichton. Your comrades will accept it as you, and return it to Crichton's vessel. Its homing beacon will lead us directly to the ship."
What the frell was a bioloid? Hoping for more information, she asked, "You're going to exchange this copy for me and no one the wiser? It's that good?"
Ahkna smirked again. "It is that good."
Remembering trying to tell the two Johns apart, Aeryn could feel her stomach churn. "What, you can create a perfect copy of me in just a few hundred microts?"
There was a slight hesitation before the Scarran snapped, "Of course."
Aeryn kept her face as impassive as she could, but inwardly, she breathed a sigh of relief. Obviously, whatever the process was, it wasn't the same as that which had created two identical Crichtons from one. The copy wouldn't
be her, however much it looked like her. And it would seem that the rush to have it ready by the deadline she'd given Sikozu and the others for leaving this place meant that there would be flaws in the creation. The others might be taken in, but John would find it out, sooner or later. John would find it out, and he would come for her, if only she could manage to stay alive. She shook her head.
Ahkna raised her chin and said, "You won't be so sanguine when we capture your leader. And in the meantime, you'll find we have ways of retrieving the information we require from your brain."
"I won't tell you anything," Aeryn said, reflexively. She didn't know anything about wormholes anyway; she
couldn't give them anything that would help them build a wormhole weapon.
The War Minister drew herself up to her full majesty, and then chuckled. "I assure you, Peacekeeper, our facilities on Katratzi will drain your mind. Anything you know, we will know, in the end.
Anything."
Anything you know.... Oh, frell! Aeryn's heart stopped. She'd been concerned about betraying John, which would have been bad, personally, but not a disaster in the grand scheme of things. But how frelling stupid was she, letting herself get caught?
She knew as well as Grayza did that the Peacekeeper wormhole weapon was a lie. Oh, Grayza might know a few more details about the actual state of the Peacekeeper research program, but she, Aeryn Sun, had actually been present when the Scarran dreadnought had been destroyed.... Under full Scarran interrogation, she was as big a threat to the peace of the galaxy as Mele-On Grayza would have been, at least, if the Scarrans thought to ask the right questions!
Frell! Ahkna was observing her closely, she realized, and her silence was betraying to the Scarran that she had something to hide. Through gritted teeth, she declared, "I don't know anything that would interest the Scarran Empire."
The Scarran War Minister shook her head. "I'll be the judge of that," she replied, and punched up her comms. Never taking her eyes from Aeryn's face, she said, "Captain Jenek, prepare your freighter to receive an extremely valuable prisoner for priority delivery to the interrogation facilities on Katratzi!"
"It will be a waste of time," Aeryn insisted, letting her very real fear show through. She'd never hold out against skilled interrogators. The only chance she had was to keep the focus of the questioning away from the Peacekeepers. "I don't know anything about Crichton's work, I tell you!"
Ahkna shook her head once more, ponderously moving that huge hat of hers from side to side. She didn't bother to address Aeryn again, but instead said to Pennoch, "As soon as the bioloid is ready, send it on its way and bring this one to our stryker." The huge Scarran warrior nodded, and his superior turned and left the room.
Oh, frell, John, I've really made a mess of things this time, Aeryn thought, feeling incredibly claustrophobic inside the bioloid construction device now that her attention wasn't diverted. Was she imagining a tingling sensation? She wished she could move, release a little tension, dissipate a little fear. There was no other choice, though – she was going to have to play this through. Perhaps there would be a chance for escape during transport. Perhaps John would recognize the imposter quickly enough to pick up the trail that would lead away from this dead Leviathan. Perhaps War Minister Ahkna would remain focused on Crichton, and not think to broaden the questioning.... But what if they threatened her baby, as John had feared Scorpius would do?
Stop it!With a deep breath, Aeryn let anger cover up her fear. She was a soldier, a protector. She would do her best to hold out, no matter what they asked, no matter what they did to her, no matter what they threatened. She would betray neither John, nor the Peacekeepers.
And if she crossed paths with Ahkna again, she would find a way to make the Scarran War Minister pay....
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