Farscape Tracker (4) “Are you insane?” John said looking at D’Argo, “What makes you think that it’s not a peacekeeper ambush or a green eyed monster thingy. Pilot can’t even pinpoint the signal and you think its safe? I know something is out there guys.” “For once Crichton is right,” Aeryn interjected, “Until we know what we are dealing with we shouldn’t do anything. And if Crichton is right and there is something out there, whatever it is we haven’t done anything to provoke it…yet.” “I agree,” Zhann concurring with John and Aeryn. “Score one for democracy.” John replied. “FINE,” D’Argo snarled, “But if whatever you think is out there and attacks us first, one of you is going to have to deal with me.” “Pilot?” “Yes Zhann?” “How long can we continue searching until our rations run out?” “Moya and I have already taken that into consideration. We estimate that there is enough rations to last 57 solar days with 3 days of emergency rations if you all keep to the allotted amounts.” “ALLOTED AMOUNTS? Dominars do not have allotted amounts. If we stay out here any longer, I’ll starve. 60 days is not nearly enough. We will all die before we can get to a suitable commerce planet.” “Relax Ryge, you can have my cubes…I hate ‘em,” John said. “Rygel, your concern should be with Moya, not with your stomach,” Zhann said annoyed, “Pilot, I will help you and Moya in any way possible.” “Your help is always appreciated Zhann. Moya and I thank you.” “Do what you will but MY survival is what is utmost importance not what’s happening out there. If you need me I’ll be in my quarters,” Rygel said turning his throne sled around and left command. “If we do run out food I know who’ll be the first that I’ll eat,” D’Argo said sternly looking at Rygel as he left. Aeryn walked over to John who still had his back to everyone and was looking out. She stopped and stood by his side and looked out with him trying to see what he was looking for. She paused for a bit and finally asked, “What do you see?” “I don’t know. It’s like a wave, a ripple. Like when you throw a rock across a lake and it skips along the surface of the water.” As the words came out of his mouth, she turned and looked at him, first at his eyes then his lips and stared at him briefly before catching herself. She quickly turned her head facing forward, again looking out the window. “What? Like a wormhole?” “No,” John said, “I can spot those in a heartbeat. This. …This is different.” He sighed and looked at her, “Maybe D’argo is right. My obsession with wormholes has gotten way out of hand. Maybe I am looking for something that isn’t there. But I’m telling you Aeryn, I’ve got a gut feeling about this.” He turned his head and tried to continue looking for whatever it was he saw but all that he could see was her black silky hair that he wanted to touch. “Maybe it’s the food cubes,” Aeryn replied. “Huh?” John said caught off guard. “You said your gut was hurting you.” “Oh…. umm it’s just an expression…you know when…” he turned and looked at her and she did the same and the futility of what he was meaning was too difficult to explain to her. But at least she did show that she cared. “Forget it. I think you’re right,” he said cracking a smiling and they both turned and continued to look at the cockpit window. The interior lights were shut off. All non-vital functions of the ship were kept to a bare minimum. He looked at Moya and her movements and matched them exactly with precession. She was methodically executing a search pattern trying to get closer to the signal that she was so desperately seeking. After a time, Traynor entered the movements of the pattern into the ship’s computers so that he would be able to put the ship on automatic when he was ready. He saw that Moya was executing a star cluster search pattern, slow, precise, leaving nothing to chance, Peacekeeper Special OPS procedure, a procedure that a crew from a Marauder would carry out. Traynor’s suspicions were confirmed. There was a Peacekeeper on board. No pilot of a leviathan would ever be taught any type of Peacekeeper procedure or method. “This may be harder than I thought,” he said out loud to himself. He looked over to his right and glanced at the console and it’s readings. Moya was increasing the intensity of her scans but were no doubt bouncing off of SAT’s hull and redirected back to her. He knew that she was confused and growing frustrated. He stared at Moya intensely and knew that the moment had arrived. The moment that he has waited for over a cycle. He entered some more instructions into the computer and left command for the weapons bin then headed for the Raptor. The tridelium torch was in place and the Raptor was fueled. He was armed with his pulse pistols, strobe grenades, and a vibra-net and after checking his gear and body armor one more time climbed into the Raptor. “Strange.” “What is it Pilot?” Aeryn asked. “All of Moya’s scans are being redirected back to her. She has intensified her scans but she is getting the same result. Moya is directing the scans to where she believes the origin of the signal is located but it appears that her scans are hitting something, bouncing off and returning back to her.” Aeryn turned away from the clamshell and looked out the window. “If there was something out there we would have hit it and picked something up with the search pattern,” John said. Aeryn turned back to face the clam shell, “Pilot run a diagnostic and have the DRDS check to see if the sensors are properly calibrated.” “Officer Sun, I have already run a diagnostic twice and everything is running at optimum levels,” Pilot replied. “Then run it a third time. The DRDS must have missed something,” Aeryn said sounding frustrated. “We’re chasing a ghost,” John said quietly to himself his back still turned and looking out into space, his eyes moving left to right, up and down straining to see what was out there. The cargo bay doors opened up and the blackness of space entered the bay. A faint light in the bay fought against the black that was engulfing everything in its path but was quickly absorbed by it. The Raptor shot out of the bay rapidly reaching hetch 3 in less than 3 microts and would continue to increase in speed until it found its target. Traynor felt the pressure building up against his chest and legs as he stood and piloted the Raptor. The pressure would only increase as the Raptor gained more speed and would make piloting it more difficult and he was already feeling the strain as the Raptor fought against him. The small craft held only one and had no automation, no comforts. The only item that was automated was the torch. Traynor had to do everything else. The Raptor reached hetch 7 and flew to the right of Moya past her flying upwards several hundred metras above her. “What the hell was that?” John said as he saw something emerge out of the darkness. From the distance John thought it was a shooting star. Aeryn turned and walked over to him and caught the tail end of what he was seeing and thought that it was just space debris as it flew to the right and past Moya. “Its just space debris Crichton.” “Garbage doesn’t turn on an angle to avoid hitting us head on Aeryn.” She stood there with an incredulous look. The Raptor began its rapid decent from above and was approaching hetch 9. Traynor struggled with the controls guiding the Raptor onto its target, fighting the urge to pass put as the blood in his body rushed out of his head and into his legs. He deployed the landing gear, which consisted of 3 legs. Attached to the base, neatly hidden, were what appeared to be claws made of stratix metal, one of the strongest and sharpest metals known to the mining community that can cut through almost anything. The proximity alarm sounded off, at first in slow consistent beeps then grew steadily increasing in pace as the target closed in. once the legs were fully retracted the claws popped out and the Raptor was ready to engage its prey. Traynor fired the retro thrusters and the Raptor slowed down just a bit to try to soften the landing but not enough to make a difference. The Raptor landed hard and the jolt sent Traynor into the air causing him to hit is head on the roof of the cockpit as he felt the blood rushing back into his head. The hard landing caused vibrations that were felt all throughout Moya. “Whoa!” John said as he turned to face Aeryn. “You guys feel that?” “Feel what Crichton?” Aeryn asked annoyed at him and his persistence. “That…. that thing. You guys didn’t feel the ship shake?” he said. Pilot ignored him and Aeryn answered, “No more than she usually does. What’s the matter?” “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” John said sounding concerned. As he lower hatch opened up, Traynor reached for and put on a portable breathing mask as he waited for a pressure seal to be formed between Moya and the Raptor. The torch slid into place and turned on and began cutting through Moya’s hull. The intense light that was being generated forced him to close his eyes and he pressed himself up against a corner in the cockpit to try to avoid the tremendous heat that the torch was producing. He grabbed his hand and began to massage it as he prepared himself to enter enemy territory. The torch cut deep into Moya and she let out what seemed to be a howl. She shifted and turned on her side moving violently as she struggled with the pain. Everyone and everything on board were thrown about, food cubes; supplies, even the transport pods, and Aeryn’s Prowler’s were nearly upended. “YOU GUYS feel that?” John said sarcastically as he caught Aeryn in his arms, as she fell forward into him. She was extremely surprised at how strong he actually was and gave him a look that even caught her by surprise. “Pilot REPORT!” Aeryn shouted. “Something is cutting into Moya’s outer hull and is attempting to force its…” Just then the ship listed once again violently going into a three hundred and sixty degree spin. “PILOT!” John shouted out. “I am trying to keep all life support systems sable and I am attempting to gain control of Moya but she is not responding!” John let go of Aeryn, but rather she let go of him and he tried to regain his balance and look towards the window while Aeryn fumbled her away across to where the manual controls were to see if she could help pilot. “Crichton, Aeryn! What the satra is going on!” Dargo shouted over the COM. “Something…ugh…is cutting …into Moya,” Aeryn said as she tried to regain control. “Chiana and I are in the galley and we are loosing atmospheric control. The gravity is beginning to fail!” “WHATS GOING ON? Are we under fire?” Chiana blurted out. “Pip, that’s the million dollar question,” John shouted back. Rygel had gotten knocked off his throne sled and was desperately trying to sit on top of it again and get out of Chiana’s quarters as quickly as he could. He had been perusing to see if there were any valuable items that he could see or steal when he had the chance. He tried to COM everyone but soon realized that it had fallen off of him when he crashed to the floor. “BY THE GODDESS!” Zhaan shouted as she picked herself off of the floor of the lab. “PILOT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MOYA?” “I’M NOT….” Pilot began as he fought in vain to stabilizing Moya and tries to keep the life support operable. “…She is not responding…she is in unbearable pain… power levels falling rapidly. I suggest that you all board a transport pod as quickly as you can. SAVE YOURSELVES!” Zhaan ran outside of her lab and went to press her head against Moya’s hull to try to alleviate some of her pain but she know what little she could do would not be enough, but in her eyes no effort was ever wasted. When Moya came out of the spin John tried to regain his focus and blinked his eyes several times in succession so that he could see clearly. When they finally adjusted he shouted out, “ LOOK!” SAT emerged from the darkness and swerved to the left of Moya and flew past her. Her interior and exterior lights came on and everyone that was on command finally saw what John had been so adamant about, “YOU see! I told you there was something there!” John said gleefully boasting. “Crichton! NOW is not the time.” Aeryn shouted back, as SAT flew to the front of Moya. “Well at least we know it’s not that ship that is firing on us,” John said as he looked at SAT. Just then the gun turrets emerged from the top and bottom both front and rear of her and all four turrets were targeting Moya. “…Well, ok so maybe it is,” John, said quickly changing his mind. “It’s a Sperian transport ship,” Aeryn said. “PILOT prepare my Prowler.” “WHAT? ARE YOU INSANE?” John shouted, “Now is not the time to be playing G.I. Jane! If you haven’t noticed the air is getting kinda thin, pretty so we are all going to look like Barney…well except for D’Argo …we need to…” “Officer Sun, I cannot open the cargo bay doors and all DRDS are trying to maintain life support. ALL OF YOU MUST GET TO A TRANSPORT POD NOW!” “What the hell to the Spearmints what with us anyway?” John asked out loud. “Sperians,” Aeryn corrected him, “That class of ship should have been destroyed right after the hundred cycle war.” John looked at her with no clue of what she was talking about. The second cartridge was nearly half depleted when the torch had finally cut through the hull and slid over to the side, he could feel how hot it was. “The cutting, it’s stopped!” shouted Pilot but Moya continued to reel in pain unsure as to what was happening to her. Zhaan continued to help ease the pain and felt the slight relief that came because the torch had stopped cutting. A temporary docking seal had formed and he took off his breathing mask. He inserted a full cartridge in the torch so that it could reseal the breech. He moved over to the hole and went in feet first, crossed his arms and slid down the tunnel. “INTRUDER ALERT! THERE IS SOMEONE ON THE LOWER TIERS!” Pilot shouted out. Traynor came out of the tunnel and landed on his feet and immediately drew both of his pulse pistols, held them against his chest and quickly pressed himself up against the wall in one of Moya’s corridors. He glanced upward and saw that the temporary docking seal retracted and the torch slid back into place and began to reseal the breach in the hull. “Ahhhhhhh!” Zhaan screamed out and she fell to the ground as Moya once again reeled in pain as the torch cut her. She listed to her right once again throwing everyone about except for Traynor who expected this. “WHERE?” Aeryn shouted out to Pilot as she was thrown to the ground as Moya learch to her right. “I can’t be sure…on the lower tiers…wait…. near Rygel’s quarters,” Pilot replied. “Please, hurry! I don’t know how much longer I can keep life support on. YOU MUST GET TO THE TRANSPORT PODS AND BLAST THE CARGO BAY DOORS OPEN!” D’Argo’s voice crackled over the COM, “IS EVEYIONE ALL RIGHT?” “Except for the roller coaster ride WE’RE HAVING A WONDERFUL DAY!” John snapped back getting back onto his feet as Moya then violently shifted in another direction. “The hull is breached and there is someone on the lower tiers near Rygel’s quarters,” Aeryn informed him. “SPARKY? YOU THERE?” John shouted into the COM “I’ll meet you THERE!” D’Argo shouted. “Right! WE’LL TRAP WHOEVER IS THERE FROM BOTH ENDS OF THE CORRIDOR!” Aeryn said as she fought from falling to the ground again as she left command. “WHA…what the hell am I supposed to do?” John said to Aeryn. “You’re gonna leave me locked up in here like 3PO and R2 on the Death Star?” Aeryn just looked at him with a confused look. “IF whatever is down there gets by us, make sure he does not get into command!” Aeryn shouted at him “Great. And me without my light saber. What am I gonna do? Charm him to death?”
Copyright © 2002 Rick Mantilla |