My contribution to More Joy Day - URPK Ch 17 snippet # 1
Episode 17 - The Devil You Don't
"That wasn't me." -- John Crichton
When the Farscape module touched down on the hangar deck of the carrier once more, it was quickly surrounded by dozens of techs and pilots who had gravitated to the area as the rumors spread. It had been nearly half an arn since the still newly-minted Senior Officer had set out to prove his point, and hope had been fading until the sensor crews announced the news of the ship's emergence from the wormhole, apparently still under a pilot's control.
Inside the module, John Crichton was still a bit shell-shocked by everything he'd seen and been told. He looked out into the cavernous chamber and blinked; he barely remembered leaving the wormhole and was surprised to see he'd already arrived. He saw the shocked and smiling faces surrounding him. No one cheered, but many of the techs -- and no few soldiers -- looked like they wished they could.
Scorpius, on the other hand, appeared ready to strangle John with his bare hands. Steeling his nerves, Crichton climbed down from the module and faced his commanding officer. Scorpius took a breath, ready to explode, but John cut him off.
"Do you believe me now, sir? Your project was doomed from the start, because your fighter ships are death traps in wormholes. We told you that fifteen solar days ago, but you kept sending them in anyway. How many lives were wasted for your ambition, sir?"
John could see the Scarran rage building in Scorpius' face with every word, until it finally erupted. In three long strides, the half-breed closed the distance between them. He lifted Crichton by the front of his uniform and slammed him back against the small, white ship. "I will see both you and your traitorous tralk executed for this insubordination, Crichton!"
John faced the enraged man steadily, though he quailed a bit at the threat to Aeryn. He'd expected this reaction. Hopefully he'd read the other party equally well.
"Scorpius," snapped the voice John had been hoping for. "Release him at once."
The half-breed paused, as if considering a refusal, but then complied by throwing the human across the deck. John, fortunately, had enough training under his belt to roll with the impact and get to his feet almost immediately. He found himself standing near Commandant Grayza, facing off against Scorpius and Lt. Braca. All around them, pilots and techs stood quietly, observing the showdown.
"Insubordination aside," Grayza began, her once-sultry voice growing sharper, "Senior Officer Crichton has proven to my satisfaction that this wormhole project of yours has no practical application for the Peacekeepers."
"No practical app--" Scorpius sputtered indignantly. "This project will give us the power we need to defeat the Scarran invasion, an invasion you are inviting with your 'negotiations'."
Grayza glanced around them with a frown, clearly not pleased at being so addressed in front of subordinates. "That is not your decision to make, Scorpius. First Command has authorized me to create the alliances we need to bolster the negotiations, and to...remove certain points of contention which might hinder an agreement. Under that authority, Scorpius, I am hereby ordering you to shut down your wormhole and return this vessel to Peacekeeper controlled space."
The Scarran hybrid blinked, then looked around at the crewmen surrounding them. There were only a half dozen guards from Grayza's ship present, and they were severely outnumbered by the more than fifty pilots and crewmen under Scorpius' command. He smiled darkly. "My work here is too important to be stopped by a bureaucratic functionary. Your orders mean nothing here. Lt. Braca, please take some men and escort Grayza and her associates to their quarters; they will be our guests for a while."
Before Braca even got his hand onto the butt of his pistol, Crichton had his drawn and pointed directly at the man's face, though he was still looking directly at Scorpius. "Stand down, Lieutenant," John growled. "Commandant Grayza is the senior officer here."
Scorpius snarled, then turned to the pilots standing around them. "Arrest them!" he snapped, pointing to Crichton and Grayza's contingent. The pilots shuffled nervously, glancing back and forth between their commanding officer and the Commandant, until one of the squadron commanders seemed to come to a decision and settled into a parade rest position. His squadron quickly followed his lead, followed by the rest.
Scorpius gaped at the blatant disobedience. "You have your orders! Arrest these mutineers!"
The squadron commander kept his eyes focused forward. "No, sir. You have been countermanded by a senior officer. We will take our orders from Commandant Grayza."
John could almost see Scorpius' temperature rising; someone would have to change out that cooling rod soon.
Grayza, smiling confidently after a few microts of concern, gestured to her own guards. "Gentlemen, please take Scorpius into custody; I will be having him brought up on charges when we return to High Command. In the interim, I will take temporary command of this vessel." Scorpius looked for a moment as if he would try to run, but the four pulse rifles trained on him kept him contained. Two other guards each grabbed hold of the half-breed's arms and they led him away.
Grayza turned to the gathered pilots, all of them still standing in formal parade rest, and nodded her gratitude. "Good work, ladies and gentlemen. You are dismissed."
"Aye, ma'am," the squadron leader acknowledged. He glanced briefly at Crichton and nodded, silent gratitude for the cessation of the wormhole testing passing between them. John nodded back with a small smile.
"Lieutenant Braca," Grayza drawled, gliding over to face the now-chastened officer. John stepped back, putting away the pistol he still held, though he'd stopped pointing it at Braca after Scorpius was dragged away. "While your loyalty to your commanding officer is, I suppose, commendable, as second in command of this command carrier, I would think you would have more respect for the chain of command."
Braca looked chastened and bowed his head. "Aye, ma'am."
Grayza looked at the man appraisingly, then nodded. "As you took no traitorous actions, possibly thanks to the swift response of Senior Officer Crichton, no charges will be brought against you. However, I think you have been saddled with too much responsibility lately. Perhaps some time back in the Prowler wings will give you an opportunity for reflection, wouldn't you agree, Officer Braca?"
The former lieutenant looked like Grayza had just punched him in the gut: shocked, pained, and a bit ill. Grayza just turned away with a satisfied smirk and looked over the remainder of the crowd, mostly techs, who still lingered nearby. She opened her mouth to speak, only to have her voice drowned out by a shrill alarm. Everyone flinched, looking around; some of the pilots took off at a jog towards their Prowlers, in case they were needed.
Frowning, the commandant moved smoothly to the nearest comms panel and punched a button. "Report!" she snapped.
There was a pause, then a voice replied, "Who is this?"
Grayza's frown deepened. "This is Commandant Mele-on Grayza. Report, soldier!"
"Prisoner escape, Ma'am. We have preliminary reports of a scuffle near the hangar bays, but...this is strange...."
"Strange?" Grayza growled, her voice dropping dangerously.
"The report states that the escaped prisoner is...Scorpius. But he's the captain...."
"Negative, Scorpius was removed from command for disobeying a direct order from a superior officer. He was being escorted to a holding cell. Where is he now?"
"Unknown, Ma'am. We're searching--"
In the distance, across the cavernous space of the landing bay, there was the faint sound of shouting. John turned in time to see a figure in black pilot's gear get flung through the air and crash into the deck in a broken heap. Scorpius, clearly identifiable even at this distance, flattened two more pilots who attempted to restrain him before climbing into the cockpit of a Prowler.
John could hear the commandant growl, low in her throat, as the Prowler shot out of the hangar bay. She turned back to the comms panel. "The prisoner has fled the ship in a Prowler. Instruct all batteries to fire when they have a clear shot."
"Not possible, Ma'am. All systems are dedicated to maintaining the wormhole; we have no power to spare for weapons."
Before she could respond, John spoke up to clarify. "And if they reroute power from the wormhole too quickly, Ma'am, the wormhole could become catastrophically unstable. It would put the whole carrier in danger."
Grayza scowled in annoyance, but nodded. "Launch Prowlers, then. Their orders are to capture if possible, destroy if necessary."
"Aye, Ma'am," replied the officer on duty over the comms.
"Where does he think he can go?" Grayza wondered aloud, looking over at Crichton, though the question was clearly rhetorical. "A Prowler has neither the speed nor the range to escape us, and I doubt even his Scarran blood would protect him from the radiation in the wormhole if your theory is correct."
Crichton flashed back to the one example he knew of a successful escape from a Peacekeeper convoy. "Shit!" Realizing there was no time to explain, he reached past the commandant and reactivated the comms. "Lieutenant, this is Senior Officer Crichton. Patch me into the broadcast channel; I need to speak to the whole convoy. This is urgent."
"Understood, Senior Officer. The channel is open."
"Crichton--" Grayza tried to interrupt, placing a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged her off.
"Attention, Leviathan transports. An escaped prisoner aboard a small fighter ship may be attempting to board you and escape, either via starburst or through the wormhole. Do not let this ship board you! Moya, I'm talking to you most of all. Keep away from him, or he'll hurt you again!"
He turned away from the comms to see what the commandant's reaction would be. She looked taken aback by his lack of protocol at first, but reports soon came through indicating that the Prowler was, indeed, shielding itself among the Leviathan pod.
"Who is Moya?" she asked.
"She's the one Leviathan in this convoy who does not wear a control collar. She was injured several cycles ago and the damage prevented us from installing a new collar. She is healed enough now that she could starburst if she chose to, but she lost her memory in the accident and stays with us willingly."
Upon hearing this, Grayza nodded her approval; his warning had been timely. Through subsequent reports, it soon became clear that Scorpius was attempting to force its way aboard the one transport without a control collar
Stuck down on the hangar deck, with no view screens available to track the pursuit, Grayza and Crichton were forced to follow the events through the comms traffic. Moya, apparently taking John's warning to heart, had broken away from the pod and fled towards the carrier for safety. Scorpius could not pursue her without coming into range of the first squadron of Prowlers that had been launched. The rest of the Leviathan pod attempted to scatter as well, but Scorpius finally managed to shoot his way aboard one of the older, slower vessels.
Grayza ordered two Marauder teams to launch and board the Leviathan to recapture Scorpius. Unfortunately, the rogue Peacekeeper knew the Leviathans' systems far better than the group of prisoners who had broken Moya free of her collar all those cycles ago. It had taken them quite some time, pulling out handfuls of synapses at random, before finding the right ones to break the security locks on the control collar. Scorpius, having been in command of the convoy less than an arn before, had the right security codes to skip all of that. The Marauders had not even gotten off of the deck when the collar broke away and the Leviathan flew free.
From the reports coming in, it sounded like the ship tried to starburst, but due to the ship's advanced age, or its many hundreds of cycles in captivity, the attempt fizzled out. Microts later, the old Leviathan was diving towards the wormhole in a last-ditch escape attempt. The Prowler squadrons sped in pursuit, but the transport had enough of a lead that it was able to slip into the wormhole without any damage. The squadrons broke off well before coming into range of the wormhole; they knew that going into the mouth of that thing was deadly.
Grayza stood on the hangar deck in silence, glaring at the comms panel as if it were responsible for this outrage. Finally, however, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"Senior Officer Crichton?" she said quietly.
"Yes, Ma'am?"
"Please start the procedures to shut down this wormhole safely. I want this convoy en route back to Peacekeeper space inside a solar day."
John breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't in trouble, and everyone could breathe easier now. No more pilots would be sacrificed to Scorpius' ambition.