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Liars, Guns And Money Part 3
Plan B

December 18, 2000 - UK
January 19, 2001 - US
2.21

Writer - Justin Monjo
Director - Tony Tilse

Guest Cast
Paul Goddard . . . Stark
Wayne Pygram . . . Scorpius
Claudia Karvan . . . Natira
Matt Newton . . . Jothee
Nicholas Hope . . . Akkor
David Franklin . . . Braca
John Adam . . . Bekhesh
Thomas Holesgrove . . . Teurac
Phillip Hinton . . . Voice of Teurac
Jeremy Sims . . . Rorf
Linal Haft . . . Zelkin


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Episode Summary
In LGAM3 - "Plan B", the crew of Moya and their mercenaries, having found Jothee on their doorstep, have no need to rescue him anymore. But since John turned himself in to Scorpius in order to win the boys freedom - they do have to go rescue him instead.

John spends most of the episode restrained and spread-eagled atop a metal frame while Scorpius does some really scary messing around in his mind.

And so the crew of Moya and their mercenaries embark on their rescue mission. Things start off well. Pilot and Moya buzz the depository with the same alarming gusto that they faked the PK attack in ACN. The distraction helps the others get to the depository and enter it. That's when things begin to fray.
First it turns out their Bloodtracker, Rorf. has a nose of clay. It's the females of his kind with the best sniffers, but he’s better than nothing and manages to locate John's scent before getting caught. He’s questioned, but won't talk - until Natira gouges one of his eyes out. Then he talks, tells the whole plan. Not that it makes that much difference. The rescue plan is really kind of a seat-of-the-pants sort of affair anyway.
But then, their fire-breathing Sheyang - Teurac - turns out to be too old and asthmatic to heat up a can of soup much less destroy the shadow depository generator. So he shoots himself. It is a little known Fact that Shayangs explode violently when they’re shot you see, so it Teurac’s suicide is quite adequate to plunge the depository into anarchic darkness. Well all right - dimness - there are some emergency lights but you know the place always did go for dim mood-type lighting anyway.

In the midst of all this, Natira lets slip that although Scorpius plans to kill John when he removes his neural clone and the wormhole data - he doesn't really need to. The chip can be removed without killing John. Scorpius is just being nasty. This gives John a new lease on life and he cuts a deal with Natira to release him and he'll help her escape Scorpius who's planning to kill HER. He knows that because the neural clone in his head told him so and for some reason has no problem with confirming that nugget of information for Natira. So when Aeryn, Bekhesh and D'Argo arrive to rescue him - John 's already split with Rorf and Natira to escape on his own. So now no-one knows where the object of the rescue mission is at.
THEN - Rygel can't pick them up in the getaway pod he's driving because the crews Zenetans turn out to be in Scorpius' employ and paralyze both the pod and Moya with their Flax net.

Yep - things are looking grim. The situation in the depository becomes a chaotic bloodbath that takes up most of the second half of the episode. Rorf buys it by taking a bullet for John and Natira dies a good gangsters death.
But hark! A glimmer of hope! Back in space, Chiana manages to smoke one Zenetan instead of herself by sheer luck and Talyn shows up, pissed about them and their darn Flax messing up his Ma. So he reduces the other one and the Flax to space debris.
Meanwhile dozens of depository staff and PKs die screaming at the hands of our heroes who are of course unscathed and manage to hide in one of the super-dooper-anti-destructo depository containers which enables them to survive Talyn’s destruction of the entire shadow depository - which he cheerfully does at he crews request.

Oh did I mention they found John before that and make him hide in the container with them? He does sustain a bloody nose and a psychotic breakdown but other than that he's fine.
Anyway they escape back to Moya - who's possibly permanently disabled from the fire of LGAM2 - with a heap of riches they stole from the ruins of the depository. Bekhesh vows to take Rorf and Teurac’s shares to their families which is darn nice of him and the Zenetans families get bupkiss!

Scorpius is presumed dead and his neural clone living in John's Head is not pleased about that. It is determined to take our leading man as deep into madness as he can be driven. John begs D'Argo to put him out of his misery.

And that’s it.

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TRANSCRIPT
The episode opens with John and Scorpius in the high-windowed room of Natira’s shadow depository where D'Argo has been held. John is spread-eagled on his back and restrained atop a spherical metal frame that brings his upside-down face to eye level with Scorpius who stands and talks to him. Why can't villains just strap their victims to a nice flat table? It always has to be some backbreaking contraption like this. But John thinks he knows what he's in for and seems to be taking it with grim aplomb. He tends to oversimplify things though...

John: All right Frankenstein - let's get it on. Get your property out of my head.

Scorpius: (with something like sympathy) It's controlling you isn't it John?

John: I don't know what you're talking about.

Scorpius: (he taps John's forehead with one gloved finger) In there. My neural clone. It forced you to me.

John: (he doesn't bother trying to explain his actions) Nothing forced me here. Annual check-ups are essential to good health.

Scorpius: (as he moves to a control panel next to the spherical metal frame) You're lying John. I always know. Don't worry. Soon we'll take the pain away.

(cut back to Moya where the crew has found a farewell message from John that he left for them before turning himself in to Scorpius in exchange for D’Argo’s son. Aeryn, Chiana, D'Argo and their mercenaries have gathered in the Command to watch it on clamshell viewer)

John: (on recording) This thing in my head - this chip. Part of me now wants it to control me. So I'm gonna go to Scorpy and have him take it out before it's too late - before I no longer want it gone. Goodbye my friends. At least by swapping myself with Jothee I can do you some good. (the recording cuts out)

Aeryn: (to D'Argo, her voice is husky and reproachful) You see how you misread him?

D'Argo: (ashamed, his voice is just a whisper) Yes.

Aeryn: (to all, with steady resolve) This doesn't change anything.

Rorf: What's not changed?

Aeryn: The plan. Why we brought you all here.

Bekhesh: Hey! Nobody brought me, I volunteered! (grandly) *I* - am the Holy Warrior of Taru! (D'Argo rolls his eyes)

Aeryn: Whatever. All I'm saying to the rest of you is that you were willing to go and save Jothee, and instead - (her tone becomes rushed, as if wanting to sneak this one by as fast as possible) - we'll just - go - and rescue Crichton.

Zelkin: Excuse me, you're forgetting one thing.

D'Argo: What?

Zelkin: We came on this 'adventure' for one reason. You said you could pay us.

Teurac: That's right!

Chiana: Well, that's true but-

Teurac: (cutting her off in his gravely voice) Have you any currency now?

Chiana: (fumbling) Well, um... We did have currency. Uh - what we thought was currency - actually turned into a creature. (the mercenaries start to roll their eyes and groan) And it uh - it was alive, and we had to burn the ship... (her voice trails off as the round-faced pirate, Zelkin, shakes his head and smiles at her)

Zelkin: (gently cutting her off) Yes... yes... yes... yes. I understand that girl. But you see my problem, don't you? I don't do anything unless I get paid. And since you no longer have currency - (he and his second, Kurz, whip out their guns on Chiana) - Moya is now mine. (D'Argo hisses softly but no-one dares to make a move for a long moment)

Aeryn: Go on, shoot her. (Zelkin makes no move and Aeryn continues with contempt-) You're an embarrassment Zelkin.

Chiana: (apprehensive) Aeryn-

Aeryn: (she ignores Chiana and continues cutting down Zelkin) No you're worse. You're worse than an embarrassment. You're an idiot.

Chiana: (she looks pleadingly at Aeryn as she whispers) Aeryn, what are you doing? (but the ex-PK just goes on appealing to the pirates rough sense of pride and fine sense of avarice)

Aeryn: There are 30,000 containers in the shadow depository filled with riches that you could have, but you're rather point a gun at a girl!

Zelkin: (shaking his head, he knows the game) What are you trying to do Aeryn? Shame me into going with you?

Aeryn: No. No because even if you wanted to, I wouldn't go into battle with you now. Do you know why? Because you're a coward and an idiot! What do you think you're going to get if you steal Moya? She's a half-burned Leviathan. (she laughs derisively) You have to be the stupidest pirates I've ever met!

Kurz: (he offends easier than Zelkin and whips his gun around at Aeryn, growling) We are not stupid!
(at that moment Jothee and Stark blunder into the Command)

Jothee: Hey! What's going on? (Kurz, already overheated, looks sharply at the newcomers and everyone who has a gun uses the momentary distraction to whip out their own weapons and point them at someone - which locks up the whole room)

D'Argo: (he's in a position to have the best gun coverage of the lot of them) STOP RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE AND REMAIN CALM! (no-one moves) Everybody keep calm.

Chiana: (sneering) See Zelkin? You don't have the numbers. GET THAT GUN OUTTA MY FACE! (she stands, but before she can get away, he grabs her and another brief flurry of activity erupts, Rorf makes a grab for Jothee and D'Argo makes a grab for Rorf - the tableaux freezes again as everyone looks around uncertainly, trying to see who, if anyone, now has an advantage)

Rorf: (pretty much fed up) I THINK THIS WHOLE IDEA ROTS! I WANT - (ah, but now they've gone and excited Stark who starts one of his Crazy Rants)

Stark: I WANT! I WANT! MY SIDE! YOUR SIDE! ALL OF YOU "I WANT"!

Rorf: (who seems never to have seen so many nut jobs in his life as he has since coming aboard Moya) What's the matter with YOU frek-face?

Stark: (his voice is high-pitched with hysteria. Everyone in the room stares as he screams into Rorf's face and the Vorcarian tries to get away from him) MATTER? MATTER? I'LL TELL YOU MATTER! AMTI-MATTERMATTERMATTERMATTERMATTERMATTER! SCORPIUS KILLED 10,000 OF MY PEOPLE! 10,000 CAST INTO SPACE! 10,000 souls scream in my brain! The chair, the chair remember the chair! (Jothee gapes)

Rorf: (looking around for help and getting none) What chair? This frek is crrra-zy!

Stark: (hyperventilating as he plucks madly at Rorf) You coming? D'you agree? Agree?

Rorf: Will you fight like this down there?

Stark: (he seems quite incoherent) Of course! Of course! Look! No hands! No hands! (he pulls his sleeves over his hands and flaps the loose ends in Rorf’s face)

Rorf: (with an appreciative snarl - maybe Vorcarians are people who think they insane have Powers) Then I change my mind Zelkin. This one has the spirit of the hunter and not the prey. But I want currency if I come. And plenty of it!

Aeryn: (seizing on Stark's inexplicable inspiration) You'll get it! You'll all get it. So are we agreed? Are we going down to rescue Crichton?

Pilot: (breaking in via comm. He sounds very anxious) Aeryn? D'Argo?

Aeryn: (without taking hers eyes off their treacherous employees) Not now Pilot! We're negotiating.

Pilot: (blurting it out apprehensively) But - there's a ship approaching!

D'Argo: Is it Scorpius?

Pilot: No, no it's - it's Talyn!

Chiana: (apprehensive again) Talyn?

(cut back to the shadow depository. John is still on the metal frame, He now sports a metal band around his head with a scanning device positioned over the right side of his face. Natira has joined Scorpius and has clambered up onto the frame where she is closely inspecting John's painfully arched body)

Natira: Scorpius, tell me something. Why are you so interested in this human? (she seems to be eyeing John's crotch with particular care) There's nothing impressive about the species. (John jerks a little and makes a strangled grunt thanks to Natira’s curious probing)

Scorpius: (he stands with his face mere inches from John's and quickly moves to calm him. There's a tone of real concern in his voice, as if John has got into his head just as he's hot into John's) Try not to move so much. One flinch at the wrong time and this will - (he stops abruptly before finishing, as if surprised by himself) - paralyze you.

John: (strained, like someone whose blood is all pooling in their brain from being restrained with their head hanging upside-down) It's kinda hard not to flinch here Scorpy, with Frau Blucher tickling my prostate.

Natira: (bored) What are you doing to him? Why don't you just take him and leave?

Scorpius: (irritated) I must soften his neural receptors to see if my clone in his brain has reached the information I need. If I have - then I will call my Command Carrier back from battle and be away from you.

John: (offering Natira his own cynical assessment of Scorpius' intentions) See - Flavius Scorpius here wants to visit foreign lands, meet foreign people - and conquer them.

Scorpius: You overestimate me John. I have no desire to dominate the universe. But know this - the wormhole technology in your brain will sway the balance of power as we know it. Imagine - the ability to move an army in an instant. (almost dreamily) The power to make hostile planets disappear. (he passes one hand over his control console and this time John flinches and grunts from the increased intensity of Scorpius' scan)

(cut back to Moya floating in black space. Talyn hovers next to her and there are great cables running between the two ships. Pilot speaks to Crais from his Den via comm)

Pilot: (his tone is formal and gently plaintive, as if wanting to talk about Moya’s condition) Crais - we are very thankful that you allowed Talyn to respond to his mothers distress call. 8 entire tiers are burnt - and Moya’s immune levels are falling to critical.

(cut to Aeryn and Crais. He has come aboard Moya and Aeryn is showing him the fire-devastated areasfirst hand)

Crais: (responding to Pilot) The nutrients Talyn is supplying should start to heal Moya. Keep a check on the electrocel levels. They mustn't rise above 6 parts.

Pilot: (ever so slightly annoyed) I am well aware of that.

Aeryn: (to Crais) How much longer will Talyn remain linked to Moya?

Crais: 2 arns.

Aeryn: And then you'll be leaving.

Crais: There is little more that Talyn can do. Is there some reason that you wish us to stay?

Aeryn: We are planning to attack the shadow depository on the planet below.

Crais: And you want Talyn to help?

Aeryn: Scorpius is in the depository.

Crais: Tempting. I thought you didn't want to use Talyn for violence. You all said that from the beginning.

Aeryn: Yes, but this is different.

Crais: How? Is this violence more acceptable? Because it's for you?

Aeryn: No it's because Scorpius has captured Crichton and he's going to kill him if we don't get down there.

Crais: (he chuckles, who'd o' thunk Bialar Crais would ever be the guy on the high road? He takes an understandable dig at the crews past sanctimoniousness) There's always a reason for violence Aeryn. Thousands of people die, for the most virtuous causes.

Aeryn: (feeling the irony and not liking it) You don't have to lecture me Crais.

Crais: (he stops and turns on her) I believe I do! You've lectured me countless times! (there's a long pause as Aeryn takes her lumps in silence. Then Crais ask, gentler-) How long has Scorpius held Crichton?

Aeryn: 4 arns.

Crais: Then I recommend you bring down a basket without any holes - so that Crichton’s liquid remains are not lost. He's already dead Aeryn. (Aeryn watches as he walks away)

(cut to elsewhere on Moya where Rygel and Stark are with the mercenaries. Stark is trying to explain his assault plan to them. Clearly Stark's brief career as a strategist is over. Perhaps the deaths of 10,000 of his people on top of his own recent demise and resurrection are weighing on him. What he's done with the blueprints he had of Natira’s depository we do not know - for now, he's trying to work from a crude sketch he's made on the floor. The mercenaries eye each other as he babbles)

Stark: And all the doors are cross-synchronized so that when you're here (he indicates a point on his map) I'm uh - (he hunts for another point on the map) Here! And everything's perfectly in time because we're on a silent count, right? (Kurz, his eyes wide and his lips slightly parted, shakes his head with pitiful and total confusion while Rorf looks around to see if anyone else is getting it 'cos he sure isn't) Right? Right? (The mercenaries look around in silence from the floor to each other to Stark. They’re not getting it. Stark becomes frustrated) You pay attention! If ONE piece of this plan fails then the ENTIRE plan fails! You got it? You got it?

Rorf: (defensive) Look! All I understand is that I am going down first!

Stark: With Bekhesh! (Bekhesh looks up with surprise, he seems to have missed that part)

Rorf: (with sarcasm) Great! WE are going down. While you all stay up here out of danger!

Rygel: (he's carrying around Durka’s head on a stick) You are the tracker. You must locate Crichton before we all risk ourselves.

Rorf: (he leans down to the level of Rygel’s face and snarls) What are you doing with that head?

Rygel: He's an old enemy. I like that he doesn't talk back. (Rorf backs off)

Stark: As soon as you locate Crichton, then the rest of us will follow straight down. And then Teurac and I will destroy their generator.

Bekhesh: (sullen) How come I don't get that job?

Stark: (sweetly) Because you can't produce a fireball that burns at 7000 klances. (Bekhesh acknowledges this reluctantly)

Teurac: How will I know when to start burning the generator?

Stark: (almost losing it) I TOLD YOU! We'll all be on a silent count for the entire battle! ACH!

Rorf: (skeptical) A silent count? While we're fighting?

Stark: (he swings around to face Rorf with a strained grin on his face) Yes! It's easy!

Teurac: (with a toadishly gravelly grunt) It's complicated. (Rorf rolls his head and snarls as Bekhesh groans and bows his head with the tiresomeness of Stark and his silent counts)

Rorf: (indicating the Zenetans who sit nearby looking downright aristocratic next to this lot) What do they do?

Stark: The Zenetans will deploy the Flax.

Rorf: (outraged) The FLIX? What the frell is the FLIX?

Kurz: (pointing arrogantly at Rorf) The Flax is a net that will trap any ship coming after you!

Rorf: (contemptuous) A net. Oh I see! They stay up here opening a net while I'm down there risking my life!

Zelkin: (smoothly returning Rorf’s sentiments) What's the point of a plan if you don't get away at the end? Pack animal!

(cut to Jothee in D’Argo’s quarters. He picks up his fathers Qualta blade and looks at it curiously - and at his own reflection with it in a mirror. Unbeknownst to him, D'Argo is watching from the doorway)

D'Argo: (softly) Do you know what that is?

Jothee: No. What is it?

D'Argo: It's uh - it's your blood ancestors Qualta blade. My fathers father used it in the Siege of Rekmek.

Jothee: You're kidding me - he fought with this? It weighs a drakik.

D'Argo: It's perfectly balanced. I still use it myself. (there's a moment of silence as Jothee lays the Qualta back in its place. D'Argo continues awkwardly) I'm uh, I'm sorry that we haven't spoken.

Jothee: (his tone is steady and blunt) Don't be sorry. I don't know what to say either.

D'Argo: (he tips back his head and quietly, hesitantly, indicates Jothee’s damaged nose) Who did this to you? Who mutilated you?

Jothee: (unflinching) You did. In a way - you've done everything that's ever happened to me.

D'Argo: (whispering, shocked by the blunt assignment of blame) Jothee... Son... I had to send you away. After your uncle accused me of killing your mother-

Jothee: (cutting him off) I'm not - angry with you. (he changes the subject) Look, what's going on on the ship - (he pauses a second, trying to find the right words but finally just using blunt ones) - you don't expect me to help you save Crichton do you?

D'Argo: (it's dawning on him that he doesn't know who this young man is at all and he is confused by that) I thought you would want to, I-

Jothee: (angrily snapping him off) Listen! I'm interested in saving myself! For 10 cycles, I've been running. Trying to survive.

D'Argo: (frustrated and not knowing what to say) I realize that, I want to know everything that has happened to you-

Jothee: (snapping him off again with furious determination) NO! NO YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW! BELIEVE ME - you don't wanna know. I have done things - many things I am not proud of, to survive. I don't wanna shame you - but I am not going back to that planet. I only just got my freedom back. I'm not gonna risk losing it again. (he storms out of the room leaving D'Argo alone and bewildered)

(cut back to the shadow depository. John lays on the spherical metal frame and waits, still with the scanner at the side of his face. He's not looking so good. Scorpius makes some final adjustments to the scanner before turning away. Natira hovers nearby)

Scorpius: There. He's ready now.

John: (sounding exhausted, sick and a little stoned all at he same time) Oh don't stop now Scorpy. Roll me over and baste the other side.

Natira: (she quickly takes Scorpius' place at John's head and stares at him with morbid fascination while she messes in his hair with her talons) Are you going to take out the implant?

Scorpius: No. (he comes back, having donned an apparatus with red and blue lights on it like the scanner affixed to John's head) I'm going in. (and with that, he waves a hand across his control console and John spasms violently. The scene abruptly shifts to somewhere inside - John's head. It is night. He is standing on a dock. Bright moonlight shimmers on the surface of a lake. John is wearing a pale grey IASA uniform as he suddenly becomes aware of himself standing there looking out over the water)

John: What the he-? (he turns and looks around as Scorpius/Harvey, the neural clone, walks onto the dock and stands looking out at the dark water) This is Sawyers Mill. My dad used to bring me fishing here when I was a kid.

Scorpius/Harvey: This is a place inside your memory John. A place in your brain.

John: In my brain?

Scorpius/Harvey: Yes! We're inside your brain. And no. I'm not Scorpius. But he is. (he looks towards the shore and John looks too - to see Scorpius/Harvey’s twin, the real Scorpius, approaching)

Scorpius: Hello, John. (to Scorpius/Harvey) Have you attained the wormhole information?

Scorpius/Harvey: I believe I've burrowed far enough. But the information was well hidden by the Ancients. I suspect even Crichton is unaware of the specifics. (John looks from one of them to the other as they talk around him)

Scorpius: Is he ready to have the chip removed?

Scorpius/Harvey: Oh, yes.

Scorpius: (he has reached John and stops in front of him but continues to speak over John's shoulder to the clone) I'll call my Command Carrier. (then, to John, as he starts to walk past him) When we reach my ship, and I remove my neural clone - your death will be painless.

John: Screw this! (but as he passes John, Scorpius turns and buries a needle-like device in his neck. John screams and crashes to the dock where he lays as Scorpius continues towards the clone) I can't move. God I can't move.

(cut back to Moya and Talyn hanging hear each other in space. A transport pod drops away from Moya and makes the short transit to Talyn. Cut to Talyn’s Command as Aeryn enters, in pursuit of Crais)

Crais: I'm sorry Aeryn - you're wasting your time if you came here to beg.

Aeryn: (sullen) I'm not begging.

Crais: Choose your own word.

Aeryn: Look Crais - we're all going to die if you don't help us.

Crais: (still on the high road as he touches one of Talyn’s control panels) Will other lives be lost in this attack?

Aeryn: You can have anything you want. Anything.

Crais: (he stops and eyes her) Aeryn Sun - are you... offering yourself? (she makes no response other than to gaze steadily back at him) Crichton, if he's alive, must mean a great deal to you.

Aeryn: You take what you want and I won't stop you.

(cut to soon after, back Moya. D'Argo is alone working on something in a maintenance bay as Jothee enters and walks up behind him)

Jothee: I don't want you to think I'm a coward.

D'Argo: (he turns to face his son) I don't. I've been thinking about what you said earlier. I was wrong to ask you to join us in battle. It's not your fight.

Jothee: No father. If it's your fight, then it's mine too.

D'Argo: (quietly pleased) Thank you. (but at that moment their reconciliation is interrupted by the entrance of Kurz, Teurac and Zelkin)

Zelkin: Ka D'Argo - we need to talk. About the plan.

D'Argo: (muttering to himself) Not again. (then. louder, as he approaches the dastardly trio) Pilot! Would you mind telling these - fools - what we talked about earlier?

Pilot: (dutifully) D'Argo advised me to auto-program the maintenance bay. If you try to mutiny, the chamber will fill with benom gas and render you unconscious.

Zelkin: (completely unimpressed) We have no desire to die Ka D'Argo. But you are a warrior - you must admit this plan seems uh - flawed.

D'Argo: It's more than flawed. It's frelled. Which is why I say we forget about it.

Teurac: Forget it? You think they're just going to let us walk in down there?

D'Argo: Pilot is Moya well enough to do us one more favor?

Pilot: (cut tot him his Den as he speaks) What - kind of favor?

D'Argo: A low level maneuver through atmosphere.

Pilot: I think she might be able to manage it once. I'll ask her.

D'Argo: This is what I think we should do. Moya should prove a distraction, and we go down there, burst through the front doors and storm the place. It's what we do best. (well he's got a point... But before the others can respond, they're interrupted by the entrance of Aeryn)

Aeryn: (her voice is toneless) Are you ready to go down now to get Crichton?

Zelkin: But we all heard his transmission. What if Crichton is worse - and won't be rescued.

Aeryn: Oh that's easy. I put a bullet in Crichton’s head and end it.

(cut back to the high-windowed room in the shadow depository. John lies atop the spherical metal frame, Akkor and Braca join Natira and Scorpius, who has exited John's mind and is resting near his captive)

Braca: The Command Carrier's arriving 6 arns earlier than expected sir.

Scorpius: Well, that's too bad.

Braca: I thought you wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Scorpius: (as he shifts in his seat with a creak of tight leather) I do but uh - good news. I'm always suspicious of good news.

John: Hey Scorpy, why don't you cut me down - isn't torture time over?

Scorpius: (he seems a tad muffed as he rises and walks towards John) I don't torture people John; you misunderstand me. Now that my neural clone has reached the information that I need, I'll remove it. As soon as my Command Carrier arrives. It seems - (but at that moment he experiences a jolt of pain that prevents him from finishing his thought, he growls and holds his head, Natira rises and moves towards him with cautious concern)

John: (mumbling) Aw - whatsamatter? Got a little warm head? How 'bout I change that rod for ya? I got some spares.

Scorpius: (ignoring John, he snaps) Natira! Lock this chamber down. Open it for no one but me! (he gimps hurriedly out)

Akkor: (quietly to Natira) I'll do it. (he and everyone but Natira and John vacate the room. Natira watches them go and then looks back at John and approaches him curiously)

Natira: Human. You are surprising. I've never seen Scorpius worry about anyone as much as you.

John: (his voice is hoarse and sick) Don't be jealous Frau Blucher. He only loves me for my mind. Maybe you should come in and visit sometime.

Natira: Why would I ever want to go inside you?

John: So the Scorpius in my head can tell you exactly how he's going to kill you.

Natira: (the look of shock in her face is quickly replaced by feminine fury) Well I can tell you - you're about to taste blood. (and she lashes out and claws his lip open)

John: (he winces and licks his lip) Was that good for you?

Natira: (she seems pleased as she touches one talon to his bloody lip and then puts the talon in her mouth before turning away) Yes.

(cut to the lobby of the shadow depository. Outside the eternal thunderstorm of the planet crashes and inside Bekhesh and Rorf are trying to be inconspicuous. Bekhesh keeps watch as Rorf pokes furiously at their comm)

Rorf: (frustrated, to Bekhesh who seems clueless) Moya? Anyone! How does this frelling thing work?

Rygel: (his voice is heard on the comm) I hear you Bloodtracker.

Rorf: We're just outside the depository and yes - you were right - the guards aren't looking for a Vorcarian or a Tavlek.

Rygel: (cut briefly to him and Durka’s head) Can you smell Crichton?

Rorf: No but -

Rygel: Why not?

Rorf: Well, it's just that - (but he's cut off by Bekhesh who snatches the comm away from him. Rorf groans as the Tavlek leans close to his face and tattles)

Bekhesh: The problem is he's a lousy tracker! It seems smelling is a females job!

Rygel: (with a weary groan) Aaaawww - FRELL! I don't want to hear excuses - just find Crichton!

Rorf: (furious, his pride wounded) You're no help Bekhesh! Why don't you frell off? Hm? I would have found him by now if it wasn't for you clumping around behind me!

Bekhesh: Fine! From now on, you're on your own. (and he opens his mouth and makes a gagging sound at Rorf)

(cut back to Moya. Zhaan is walking down a corridor when suddenly a jet of vapor plumes out into the hall accompanied by a feeble wheezing sound. She walks towards it and as she reaches the room it came from, another cloud of harmless vapor envelops her. When it clears she sees Teurac sitting in the room, wheezing pitifully)

Zhaan: What's the matter Teurac?

Teurac: (he seems embarrassed and tries to wave her off as he chokes out a response) Nothing! (he coughs a little)

Zhaan: Can you produce flame?

Teurac: Of course!

Zhaan: (she suspiciously approaches the old toad and says firmly-) I will not let you endanger the rest of us. Stark's plan depends upon your ability to produce flame. If you cannot - I must warn the others. (she turns to leave)

Teurac: (he quickly decides to come clean rather than face that humiliation) No! I still have flame nutrients. But can no longer tap into them. Unless -

Zhaan: Unless what?

Teurac: If you have takar serum.

Zhaan: (apprehensively) But that's poison.

(cut back to the shadow depository. To a great empty confluence of corridors lined with stately gothic pillars and latticework grates. Suddenly the incongruous form of Rorf leaps out from a side hall and does a little ninja dance with his Very Large Gun to check for the presence of enemies in all directions)

Rorf: (as he proceeds to edge along the wall he speaks into his comm) Pilot! Answer this frelling thing will you?

Pilot: (cut briefly to him in his Den as he speaks) Ah, I'm sorry Rorf - I've been training all my sensors on healing Moya. (he sounds a little forlorn, as if no one wants to hear about his problems)

Rorf: (and indeed he has no interest in Pilot and Moya’s troubles at all) I got through the waste vents, and Crichton's on the level above the main chamber he's- (but at that moment he comes to another junction in the corridor and finds himself face to face with Akkor and a few guards. Rorf snarls at them but without a word, one of the guards clubs him and he drops like a sack of Gravy Train)

Pilot: (cut back to him in his Den as he calls mildly) Rorf? Rorf?

(cut to soon after in the high-windowed room where John is still captive on the metal frame. Rorf has been brought there and is chained sitting down, to the sphere that John lies on top of. His nose has been bloodied and he is being interrogated. Akkor, Scorpius and Natira are present. John's eyes are wide and alert as he listens)

Rorf: (to Akkor who is holding Rorf’s head in his hands and is in charge of the interrogation) I've told you! I don't - know - this human!

Scorpius: (smoothly) Bounty hunter - why are you here?

Rorf: (with exaggerated politeness) Well I was planning to make a deposit. (he laughs)

Akkor: Of what? Fur lice?

Natira: (stepping up alongside Akkor and Rorf) Akkor, back away and shut up.

Akkor: I'm just doing-

Natira: (cutting him off) Back away now. (he does)

Scorpius: (bending down to look into Rorf’s face) Bounty hunter - this is the last time I will ask. What are you doing here?

Rorf: Get - frelled! You know what I was doing! I was casing the joint for Zenetan pirates! I didn't know you were here and I don't know who he is.

Scorpius: (he looks back at Natira and murmurs with some concern) Zenetan Pirates...

Natira: (in a pleasantly civilized tone) Please - allow me to question the animal. Sometimes a female’s touch...

Scorpius: (he eyes her and then says quietly to Rorf) You should have answered me. I was trying to save you. (he pats Rorf’s chest before stepping away. Rorf knows he's in trouble now and stares up at Natira with pure dread as she raises the appendages on her head, tipped with talonned stingers. They fan out around her face in her full-blown Medusa look)

Natira: (she approaches him and leans close, he squirms and whines uncomfortably) Animal. You have lovely eyes. I love red eyes. Very sensual. Very unusual. (she suddenly grabs his neck and one of the talonned appendages slams down near his right eye, holding it open as her other head arms wave nearby) Animal. What are you doing here?

Rorf: (terrified but stubborn) I - told you-

Natira: (cutting him off) Do not lie again! Who were you communicating to? And what is the plan to free the human?

Rorf: (his voice is unsteady with fear) What plan? I don't know of any plan.

Natira: (sensually) Animal. I love your eyes. Your - lying - eyes (and with that, using one long, particularly sharp talon, she gouges his left one out. There is a brief interlude of Rorf’s screams, which are like the howling of a wolf, before the scene shifts to moments later. The Vorcarian is pressing a rag to his left eye socket and spilling everything to Natira and Scorpius)

Rorf: They plan to destroy the generator! Then attack in the darkness. The darkness is the key! Pleeaase! Don't take my other eye! (he breaks down in piteous sobs as Scorpius looks closely at him)

Scorpius: Natira, my sensors tell me that this animal is telling the truth. Braca, come with me. If we secure the generator, their plan will fail. (they exit leaving Rorf mourning his eye and John grimly staring)

(cut to one of Moya’s transport pods. Aeryn, D'Argo, Durka’s head, Jothee, Rygel, Stark, Teurac and Zhaan are aboard and preparing for their assault on the shadow depository)

D'Argo: (in a tone of command as he passes out weapons and lays out his meat and potatoes plan) We will have to be fast! Once we land on the planet, Moya is going to run a distraction. Teurac, Zhaan and Stark, I want you to go through the waste vents into the depository and destroy the generators. Aeryn and I will meet up with Bekhesh. Once the power is gone we'll be able to storm through the center chamber doors and rescue Crichton.

Jothee: What about me? I thought I was going too.

D'Argo: You're going to stay here, on the transport pod, with Rygel.

Jothee: (angry) I said I'd go! That’s why I-

D'Argo: (cutting him off) Look it is NOT your fight! (gentler, but firm) I've lost you once before, I am not going to lose you again.

(cut to the shadow depository which has been thrown into high alert thanks to poor Rorf’s information. The place is swarming with security guards hustling to take up posts. Scorpius is hustling too, flanked by Braca and Akkor)

Scorpius: Braca - while I secure the generator, get to the monitor and be my eyes and ears.

Braca: Yessir. (he peels off for the security room)

Scorpius: (to Akkor) Tell me - Is there a back way to the generator?

Akkor: Yes.

(cut back to the transport pod)

Aeryn: Pilot we'll be touching down on the planet in 30 microts.

Pilot: (cut briefly to him in his Den) Good luck Aeryn. Good luck to you all.

Aeryn: Thank you Pilot. Rygel, I'm handing control over to you - now! Let's do it. (and with that, having placed Rygel and Durka’s head in control of the pod, she jumps out of her seat and scrambles to action with the rest of the assault team)

(meanwhile, back on Moya, Pilot comms Chiana who's been left to direct the faithless Zenetans)

Pilot: Starting descent now. Chiana, tell the Zenetans to prepare for a low level maneuver.

Chiana: (cut briefly to her in the Command) You got it Pilot. (and with that Moya touches the upper atmosphere of the shadow depository planet, kicking up a long trail of fire in her wake)

(cut back to the shadow depository where Natira stands in front of the high windows that afford a panoramic view of the stormy planet. The clouds seem to have broken a little and some watery sunlight filters through the sullen clouds. John can see it from here he is strapped to the metal frame)

Natira: (almost smiling as she looks at the sky) Blue eyes, look out at that. That is the last sight your eyes will ever see.

John: You are a sick puppy. Scorpius has to kill me and you're still getting your jollies.

Natira: Oh, he doesn't - he doesn't have to kill you blue eyes.

John: What? He - he can get the chip out without hurting me?

Natira: (her own red eyes have gone green as her head appendages fan out and she approaches John) Oh, yes. (but Scorpius and his chips aren't what she wants to talk about) First red. And now blue. Scorpius wants your brain. He said nothing about your eyes. (she sighs with deliciously sensual pleasure as she leans close to his face, the wickedly sharp arms of her head move slowly in front of his eyes, ever so provocative) Blue eyes... so soft. Very rare. (but she's interrupted by a crackling sound like distant thunder - yet not thunder. She whirls about to face the windows and sees something headed towards her at high speed) What the frell is that?

John: (his voice almost cracks with longing) That's Moya. (and the great Leviathan and her Pilot swoop down among the spidery skyscrapers of the depository city. They roar so close to the high windows of the room that for a moment they blot out the view entirely causing the building to shudder and the glass of the huge windows to shatter. Natira staggers and aboard Moya, Chiana lets loose an exuberant whoop "BRRRR-AI-YIYYIYIYIYAAH!!")

Pilot: (cut briefly to him in his Den as he comms the transport pod) You're clear to land Rygel! Get in there now! (cut to a view of the pod arcing in and skidding to a stop on the plaza of the shadow depository)

(cut to Braca in the security room where he observes the landing of the pod and the crew leaping out, guns ablaze, to start taking down the guards posted there)

Braca: (coming Scorpius) Sir we have a problem.

(cut briefly to the firefight on the plaza where our crew and their allies are efficiently mopping up the security force. Bekhesh, gauntleted and as deadly as he is ugly, has joined them)

Aeryn: (calling her companions on) Go! Bekhesh! Take out the camera! (and as Braca watches back in the security room, the Tavlek pauses, looks up at the camera, raises his arm and fires. The camera goes dead. Braca looks apprehensive. Cut to Scorpius striding through the corridors of the depository amid dozens of security personnel running around as alarm strobes flash)

Scorpius: Mobilize every available soldier. Have them stand by outside the main chamber. (black-garbed guards with their faces covered by sleek black helmets, begin to fill the corridors of the depository beyond the lobby)

(cut back to the high-windowed room where the wind is whipping and Natira is no longer In The Mood. she's retracted her head appendages and is hurrying about preparing herself for the worst which includes arming herself with a gun that's like a portable cannon. Rorf remains chained and John lays atop the metal frame sphere and calls to her with newfound strength)

John: (almost crowing) OOOHHH! DEAR! DEAR! DEAR! WHAT HAS MOYA DONE HERE? YOU ARE SO SCREWED, MEDUSA! I TELL YOU WHAT, YOU GET ME OUT OF HERE I'LL HELP YOU SAVE YOUR LI-IFE!

Natira: Why do you want to escape now human?

John: You just told me that I could get the chip out of my head without dying! When you get me outta here I'll give you the damn chip. Hell, you can have the wormhole technology. As a bonus you can have one of my eyes!

Rorf: LET US GO YOU BITCH!

(cut back to the chaos of the battle between our crew and the depository guards who are dying loudly on all sides as Stark, Teurac and Zhaan make for the depository generator)

Stark: Generator's this way!

Zhaan: Quick! (the smoke of battle and the strobe lights of the depository alarm system cover the last steps to the generator room . They arrive on a catwalk overlooking the great angular dynamo) Teurac! There's their generator! Burn it!

Teurac: (a gruff demand) Give me the takar serum! Give it to me now!

Zhaan: Are you sure? It's 7 units. It's a lethal dose!

Teurac: Not for us! Younger Sheyangs have survived 9! GIVE IT TO ME! There is no other way! (Zhaan whips out a hypo gun with the serum and hits him with it. The scene shifts immediately to Aeryn, D'Argo and Bekhesh who are mowing down the depository staff by the dozen as they try to get to John. The scene is an utter chaos of flying bodies, explosions, sparks, noise and smoke. Their progress seems to have been halted by some large gun the defense is using. It must be some gun because EVERYONE is toting weapons the size of large vacuum cleaners)

D'Argo: We have to get that frelling gun! (Aeryn acknowledges and moves forward with Bekhesh, D'Argo covers but suddenly comes face to face with a guard who has an absurdly large gun - presumably the one they're trying to get. D'Argo makes to take him out with his Qualta - but it misfires so her heaves it at the guard in its blade form and it impales the man through the chest. He looks stunned. Aeryn blandly eyes D'Argo)

Aeryn: Good shot.

D'Argo: I was aiming for between his eyes. (the guard keels over backwards, dead. D'Argo is later seen with the absurdly large gun)

(cut back to Stark, Teurac and Zhaan at the generator)

Zhaan: (without taking her eyes off the door which she and Stark are covering with normal-sized guns) Teurac! What's taking so long? You have to destroy the generator now!

Teurac: (the old toad is leaning against the wall, in a corner, gasping and groaning terribly) I'm trying! My chest - the fuel is there, but I can't reach it! (he's almost sobbing with frustration)

Zhaan: You must hurry! They'll be here soon! (and at that moment - Scorpius enters from the back door to the generator room with some guards)

Scorpius: I'm here already Zhaan. (Teurac startles and edges deeper into his corner as the guards grab Stark and Scorpius takes Zhaan) Put the weapon down. (she makes no move, and he thrusts a gun to her neck and says in his deep, harsh, Scarran voice) Put the weapon down now!

(cut to Aeryn, Bekhesh and D'Argo, they are tiring and still haven't made it to where John is supposed to be)

D'Argo: Why hasn't the power gone off?

Aeryn: It's that frelling Sheyang; he couldn't do it. I knew I shouldn't have trusted him! (Bekhesh is idly taking potshots at dead depository staff as they trudge wearily on. They come to a door) Do you think there's anyone on the other side of this door? (cut briefly to a shot of a small army amassing on the other side of that very door and then quickly to Braca observing from the security room. The scene then shifts back to Aeryn, Bekhesh and D'Argo standing outside the door)

Bekhesh: (impatient and pumped up) Are we gonna do this or not?

Aeryn: I don't see that we have any other choice.

D'Argo: None whatsoever.

(cut back to our captive heroes at the generator room. Scorpius paces with frustration, trying to hail Natira while the guards hold the disarmed Banik and Delvian. They've missed Teurac who has kept quiet and hunkered down back in his corner)

Scorpius: NATIRA! Natira why aren't you answering me? (and at that moment old Teurac struggles to his feet and draws attention to himself - as well as the aim of the guns of every one of the guards)

Teurac: Scorpius! Don't worry about her - worry about ME!

Guard: Shoot him!

Akkor: (softly) No.

Scorpius: (quickly, he seems amazed by what he is seeing) No don't! He's a Sheyang!

Teurac: That's right! I'll explode if you shoot me! Good-bye Zhaan. This is not your fault. I always knew it had to end like this.

Zhaan: Teurac! (but with that, Teurac raises his gun and shoots himself there beneath the shadow depository generator. The resulting explosion is spectacular, engulfing the huge room in flame and causing the entire building to shudder. Bodies fly, including Stark and Zhaan, who are blown clear out the door as the Sheyang fire incinerates everything it touches)

(cut back to Aeryn, Bekhesh and D'Argo at the door with the small army on the other side as the building trembles from the fiery demise of Teurac and the power goes out. In the security room, Braca’s cameras go off too)

D'Argo: (relieved and excited) They did it! They killed the power!

Bekhesh: You two go to night vision. (evidently the dark is not a problem for Tavleks - or perhaps the visor that covers his eyes adapts his vision to darkness. Aeryn and D'Argo each don a monocular that shines dimly blue over their right eyes)

Aeryn: I can't see - mine's not working.

D'Argo: (as the door is opened and he starts through) Just shoot! (the scene is more balletic chaos as the threesome pile through into the space beyond the door, guns ablaze. Aeryn shoots blindly and continues slapping fretfully at her eyepiece which gives her a view of the carnage taking place as if in many still frames)

Aeryn: (to no-one in particular) Wait - I think I did it. My night visions are finally working. (of course by that time the shooting has stopped and she finishes her sentence is black silence. Then emergency lights come on casting a dim glow over the scene. She. Bekhesh and D'Argo are standing in the middle of a corridor heaped with the bodies of depository guards. They look around, seeming a little surprised by the destruction they hath wrought)

Bekhesh: For someone who couldn't see - you did okay.

(cut to Scorpius, who has survived the Sheyangs suicide too. He is moving through a corridor lit by a screaming man who is on fire. Other members of the security force stagger about in disarray, helping wounded comrades as others cry for help. Scorpius ignores them all)

Scorpius: (on comm) Braca! Braca, do you see Crichton?

Braca: (cut briefly to him n the nonfunctional security room) No! The monitor's gone dead!

Scorpius: Then get me some emergency power NOW! (he changes channels) Natira - Natira I know you're listening to me! If you're betraying me - if anything happens to Crichton...

(cut back to the wind-swept high-windowed room where Natira stands, indecisive, between John restrained on the metal frame and Scorpius snarling over comm)

John: C'MON NATIRA! YOU'VE GOTTA MAKE UP YOUR MIND QUICK!

Scorpius: Answer me!

John: SCORPY'S GONNA KILL YOU NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS HERE! YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME? GO IN MY HEAD AND ASK THE CLONE HOW YOU'RE GONNA DIE! ASK HIM!

(the arrogant dominatrix looks around, frightened and confused, and takes a step towards John. Moments later - cut to the Sawyers Mill of John's mind. He is still lying paralyzed on the dock with Scorpius' paralyzing device embedded in his neck. Natira approaches)

John: Natira - ask him.

Natira: Where is he?

Scorpius/Harvey: (he steps right up, seeming positively eager) I'm here Natira.

Natira: (she quickly moves to face him) Tell me, Scorpius would never harm me, would he?

Scorpius/Harvey: (he indelicately looks the scorpion-lady up and down, laying his hands appreciatively on her) Now I know why Scorpius found you so - enticing. To possess a beauty like you? To feel - (he runs his hands slowly down over her breasts as he murmurs-) - all of this.

Natira: Crichton's right. Scorpius is going to kill me.

Scorpius/Harvey: Oh my lovely - how fortunate you are. (he leans close to her face and she leans back from him) Your death will be painless. (he walks away)

John: (his voice is muffled, partly from the paralysis and partly from the fact that his face is pressed against the dock) Natira! Come get this fork out of my neck! Forget about him! (she turns and trots girlishly over to him and kneels down beside him)

Natira: If I take it out - will you get me on Moya and away from Scorpius? Do we have a deal?

(soon after - cut to Aeryn, Bekhesh and D'Argo as they storm the high-windowed room only to find it and the metal frame - empty. They shout over the roar of the wind blowing in through the shattered windows)

Bekhesh: Where is Crichton? You said he was here!

D'Argo: This is where Rorf said he would be, they must have moved him!

Aeryn: Obviously!

(cut to another part of the dark and ruined building. Natira is herding John and Rorf with her small cannon through a smoky, corridor bounded by latticework walls and lit by sporadic flashes of light. Rorf’s eye is bandaged now and John seems to be struggling, holding his head. The voice of Scorpius/Harvey is talking to him and he's muttering back at it madly, willing it to stop)

Natira: There's a way out on the lower level, we must move faster! (but John gimps to a halt)

Rorf: (grabbing him with concern) What's the matter Crichton?

John: Scorpius is in my head and he's not gonna let me go!

Natira: (she comes up from behind and shoves them with her whacking great gun) MOVE!

Rorf: (turning on her furiously) Don't push him, bitch!

John: (at the end of his tether - and probably at the neural clone, not Rorf and Natira) JUST STOP IT!

Rorf: (yelling at John now) Don't you tell me to stop it! She took out my eye! (but at that moment, there's an explosion as if an entry is being blasted somewhere and shouts as men appear in the corridor behind them)

Natira: Peacekeepers!

(cut to Stark and Zhaan, also having miraculously survived Teurac’s suicide, fleeing through a corridor)

Zhaan: on comm) We're on our way to the pick-up point Rygel! Come and get us now!

(cut to Jothee and Rygel in the getaway pod)

Rygel: On our way Zhaan. (but Jothee thinks he can take the little guy and moves to tale control of the pod)

Jothee: Out of the way ya slug! I'm gonna- (not cross the slug with the PK head-on -a-stick. Rygel snarls and lunges for the boys arm with his teeth but the kid has good reflexes and snatches his hand back from the pod control console with a yelp)

Braca: (cut briefly to him in the security room. He seems to have gotten some emergency power back to his cameras) Intruders in the landing bay, get a squadron up there now.

Scorpius: (cut briefly to him in another corridor, on comm) Braca! Braca signal the Zenetan Pirates.

(cut to Moya’s Command where Chiana, Kurz and Zelkin wait. The silence is broken by Braca’s voice speaking to the pirate by a tiny, hearing aide-like device now seen in his right ear)

Braca: Zelkin - deploy the Flax. (Chiana looks up sharply)

Zelkin: (with his hand over his ear) Sorry?

Brace: I repeat - deploy the Flax.

Chiana: (suspicious) Who are you speaking to? (she strides over to him) Is that a comm? (but before she can do anything, he lashes out and twists her arm behind her back, pinning her)

Zelkin: (coolly, as Chiana struggles and writhes against his body, trying to free herself) Eas- easy girl. Aw - I didn't know you cared. Kurz, release the Flax.

Chiana: (screaming as the aurora light of the Flax fans out around Moya trapping her - and their own transport pod) NOOOOOO!

(cut to the pod - stopped dead in space with the usual violent jolt as if something solid had been hit)

Jothee: (he's thrown back into his seat by the impact with the Flax - but bounces back up quickly) Why the frell aren't we moving?

Pilot: (cut to him in his Den as Moya shudders and strains) It's the Flax! We're trapped!

(cut back to the depository where Natira is still pushing John and Rorf onward. Every step seems to be torture for John who's clutching his head and face with both hands as the voice of the clove whispers in his head. He roars and screams back at it. But then they round an corner - and come face to face with a contingent of PKs, crouched in battle positions - and Scorpius, who walks calmly through them towards John. Natira and Rorf duck back for cover. But for John, external reality and what's going on in his brain have ceased to differentiate)

John: (he stares at Scorpius and bellows incoherently) GO AWAY SCORPIUS!

Natira: MOVE IT!

Rorf: SCORPIUS!

Scorpius: (calmly, as the soldiers open fire) Don't hit Crichton - I need him alive.

Rorf: CRICHTON GET BACK! (but John just stands there in the middle of the hallway nattering and babbling as the clone whispers endlessly in his head "There's no escape John." As he and Scorpius stand there, staring at each other down the hall - which is now lit up by massive gunfire. Akkor is present and Rorf sees him take aim at John. The Vorcarian roars-) NOOOOOOO! (-and springs out from his cover, knocking John away and taking the shot himself. John is thrown against a wall and this seems to momentarily break the clones hold on him and he grabs a gun and piles back into the hall and standing over the mortally wounded Rorf - he shoots Akkor dead)

Natira: Let's go! We have a deal Crichton! (John stands with the gun, facing Scorpius as Rorf screams for his mate)

Rorf: Rooooorrrrrrg!

Scorpius: (the gunfire and Rorf’s howls seem to grow faint as Scorpius fixes John with a malevolent stare and his lips move, whispering) Leave him John.

Natira: Come on!

Scorpius: (as Scorpius advances slowly towards John, John screams too, unable to pull the trigger of the gun he has trained on the half-Scarrans face. Whispering fills John's ears from within and without) Leave him. And come to me. (slowly, John lowers his gun without taking his eyes off Scorpius)

Natira: CRICHTON! (pleading) Take me to Moya! (he ignores her - his eyes riveted on his steadily approaching nemesis) Frell you Crichton! Die alone. (she turns to flee but as soon as she is clear of him she disappears in brief volley of bright gunfire as intense as the finale of a fireworks show)

In the short silence that follows Scorpius pauses and he and the hypnotized John face one another again. But at that moment the cavalry arrives in the form of Aeryn Bekhesh and D'Argo skidding around the corner behind John. Instantly all hell breaks loose yet again. In the violent storm of pulsefire that follows Aeryn pushes John aside, out of the center of the hall and Bekhesh grabs Rorf and drags him off to the side as well.

Rorf: My female! My female! D'Argo! You must go back to her! You must tell her!

D'Argo: I will! I will! (gunfire slams close to them as Bekhesh defends and Rorf dies in D’Argo’s arms)

Bekhesh: They're coming from both sides, we're trapped!

(cut to Stark and Zhaan, they are concealing themselves near the pick-up point and can see parts of the fighting below them, people fleeing. The whole depository has descended into anarchy by now)

Zhaan: (hissing urgently into her comm as running guards veer dangerously close to their hiding place) Rygel? Rygel! Why aren't you here? Rygel! (but she gets a response from someone else)

Crais: (cut briefly to him on Talyn’s Command) Zhaan - is that you Zhaan?

Zhaan: (surprised) Crais? Is that you? Has Talyn returned?

(cut back to Moya’s Command. The powerfully built Zelkin has Chiana’s head effortlessly pressed against a table with one hand)

Zelkin: Sorry about this, but Scorpius will kill me if I don't hold Moya for him. (but at that moment, he is interrupted by the sound of something powering up. Outside the main viewport, the aurora-like light that the Flax gives off when something is straining against it, begins shimmering violently. Suddenly, there is a massive explosion that shakes Moya. Talyn has fired a shot that has broken through the pirates net)

Pilot: (cut briefly to him in his Den) We're free Chiana!

Rygel: (cut briefly to him and Jothee in the pod as he says with wonder-) The Flax - is gone!

Zelkin: (on comm, with dread) Kurz? Kurz what's happening? KURZ!

Pilot: (cut briefly to him in his Den as he says with relish) Kurz is dead! Talyn has destroyed your ship!

Zelkin: I'll take Moya then.

Chiana: You're not taking anything! (and with some newfound fury combined with Zelkin's distraction - she powers up off the table and struggles with the burly pirate for possession of his gun - suddenly - it goes off between them and they both freeze. Chiana gasps and chokes as Zelkin smiles sat her and says-)

Zelkin: Oh... What a waste. (and he keels over dead, pulling Chiana down with him - she seems unharmed - but gasps with fear and the strain of her battle to the death)

(cut back to our heroes, hunkered down In the shadow depository corridor, making their last stand between the closing ranks of PKs and whatever security guards are still alive after the days carnage. Their world is all explosions, fire, screams, flying bodies and smoke now. But then Aeryn hears a familiar voice on her comm. The scene shifts between the speakers in their various locations, Crais on Talyn, Aeryn with Bekhesh, D'Argo and John near Scorpius, Stark and Zhaan near the pick-up point and Rygel and Jothee in the pod as they communicate via comm)

Crais: Aeryn?

Aeryn: Crais?

Crais: Talyn has just destroyed the Zenetan ship.

Aeryn: Have you come back to help us?

Crais: Let's just say that I'm here.

Aeryn: All right. Hang on a microt. Stark? Zhaan?

Zhaan: Yes Aeryn, we're here.

Aeryn: Do you remember from the blueprints what runs parallel to the internal corridors?

Stark: I think they're reverse pressurization chambers.

Aeryn: Where do they lead?

Stark: To the depository.

Aeryn: Perfect. Rygel?

Rygel: Yes?

Aeryn: (talking fast as she shoots and plans) Pick up Zhaan and Stark from the waste vents and come and get us when Talyn's finished.

Jothee: Finishes what?

Aeryn: Don't ask. Crais - target off my comm to destroy the depository.

Crais: Talyn’s firepower is massive Aeryn. How will you survive the damage?

Aeryn: We'll be safe. Just give us 90 microts and obviously try not to hit my signal with a direct strike. (John alone of out heroes is not fighting. He's sitting, looking stunned as Scorpius bends his mind towards him from not far away, his nose is bleeding and Scorpius' voice echoes in his head, causing the din of the battle to fade for him, "Crichton - you want the chip gone don't you?" Aeryn rises and calls the others) All right - follow me!

D'Argo: Follow you where?

Aeryn: Here. (using her Huge Gun, she blasts a hole in the latticework of the corridor wall. Meanwhile John looks in puzzlement at his own blood on his fingers as Scorpius containers to murmur in his mind "You want the pain gone? Come to mecometome...") Go down to the depository, hide in a container - that should protect us from Talyn’s attack.

Bekhesh: Should?

Aeryn: You got a better idea?

Bekhesh: Well... (he ducks through the hole in the wall)

John: (he slowly struggles to his feet, announcing in a dazed, sleepy voice) Aeryn? I'm uh - I'm gonna go to Scorpius.

Aeryn: (snapping) Frell you are! (and she puts him back onto the floor with a swift martial arts style kick) D'Argo! Carry him! (and with a few parting shots, D'Argo hoists John over his shoulder and ducks after Aeryn through the wall)

Crais: (cut briefly to him, speaking to Pilot form Talyn) It's what Aeryn wants us to do Pilot. Destroy the entire building. (cut back to Aeryn leading the way down a relatively quiet hall, the sound of their pursuers in the distance)

Aeryn: This way! (she comes to a door and tries the handle) It's frelling locked!

Braca: (cut to him in the security room, he's almost smiling, thinking they're cornered) They're in the depositing room. (well actually they're not, but they will be in a moment)

Stark: (cut to him and Zhaan waiting at the pick-up point as he watches approaching guards carrying flashlights with their Big Guns) Zhaan - we've got company!

Zhaan: (on comm) Rygel? Rygel!

Rygel: (cut to him on the pod as he zeros in on the depository) Almost there Zhaan (cut back to Aeryn, Bekhesh and D'Argo at the door to the depository vault control room)

Bekhesh: (to Aeryn) Move! (she does and the Tavlek uses his gauntlet to blast the door open. They quickly pass through. An open container with some boxes inside is sitting just inside one of the huge blue vault doors)

Aeryn: Right! Into the container!

Bekhesh: I didn't plan on becoming a deposit.

Rygel: (cut to the pod coming in to land on the depository plaza as he's heard on comm) Touching down now Zhaan.

Zhaan: (to Stark as they quickly vacate their hiding place) Let's go! Come on!

Pilot: (cut to him in his Den) Talyn firing in - 20 microts.

Crais: (cut to him on Talyn) Locking on now. (cut to Chiana on Moya’s Command as Pilot announces-)

Pilot: Talyn firing in 15 microts.

Jothee: (cut to him in the pod with Rygel, slamming the door after Stark and Zhaan) Alright they're in! Let's go! Gogogogogo! (Rygel’s tiny hands fly over the controls of the pod in response. Back inside the depository, Aeryn, Bekhesh, John and D'Argo get settled in the container and Scorpius, moves alone, slowly, deliberately, inexorably, through the stuttering gloom of the building towards them)

Crais: (cut to him on Talyn saying softly to his ship) Wait for my signal. (cut back to the container where Aeryn urges on her friends)

Aeryn: In!

Pilot: 10 microts. (as Scorpius paces, unaware of what is coming) 9 (cut to the grim stare of Crais) - 8 - 7 - (cut to the container door swinging shut on our heroes in the vault room) - 6 - 5 - (cut back to Crais taking a breath) - 4 - 3 - (cut to Pilots lips as he utters the last digits) - 2 - 1 - (cut to the container door sealing shut and then to Crais)

Crais: Fire.

And with that - all fiery hell from above is unleashed upon the shadow depository whose great towers wobble, tilt, and topple amid the sound of screaming metal and explosions in a giant ball of dust and debris that rises as high as the tower once stood.

(cut to some time later, back on Moya. Aeryn, Bekhesh, D'Argo and John have been recovered from the container that did indeed protect them as they'd counted on it to. They also managed to scoop up the contents of theirs and a few other containers by the look of it. Rygel is in the maintenance bay sitting in from of a great box full to the brim of a veritable pirates treasure of valuables and gloating. Zhaan sits nearby looking contemplative and Stark stands off to one side, arms folded. Looking grim)

Rygel: (chortling giddily with glee to Chiana who fingers the treasure listlessly) Mine, mine, mine!. Can I have this? Can this be mine? We can all have anything we want now! Right? Any food, any female - anything! Right? Right?

Chiana: (unenthusiastically) Yeah.

Rygel: (referring to Stark and Zhaan, whose heads are bowed) Ooooohhhh - don't be like them! You're like me Chiana! (with gusto) We did it! This is not like before - this won't eat the ship! So cheer up! we got Crichton back - and Aeryn and D'Argo and Jothee -and we're rich!

Chiana: (softly, sadly with an understanding of the price that was paid) Perfect.

Zhaan: Yes but Moya is still extremely ill. Pilot says that she may never fully recover.

Stark: And Rorf and Teurac lost their lives.

Rygel: So? They knew the risks.

Bekhesh: (he strides past them, balancing a large black box on one shoulder and without stopping or looking at them, he says crisply) Don't worry about Rorf and Teurac. On my oath - I will deliver their shares to their families. Farewell my friends. And thank you for teaching me to kill again. (Zhaan watches him go with a haunted look on her face)

(cut to Talyn’s Command as Aeryn enters. Crais is behind her and she says, without looking at him-)

Aeryn: (stone-faced) I have to thank you Crais. If you hadn't have returned we all would be dead.

Crais: (he strolls towards her) As much as I would like to take credit for it - I did nothing.

Aeryn: Your attack saved us.

Crais: I had little control. Talyn came to free Moya -himself.

Aeryn: (her tone is dead) You didn't command him?

Crais: No. He acted alone. As much as any of us would want, he has the instincts of a warrior and does exactly as he pleases. (Aeryn turns and makes only the briefest of eye contact with him before striding past him to leave. Crais stops her with an inquiry called over his shoulder) How is Crichton? Today...

(cut to John, sitting alone in his cell back on Moya. He has his makeshift chess set out in front of him but the chessmen are all tumbled on their sides in disarray on the board - only the black king stands. John is rolling one of the chessmen between his hands and staring into space as he sings tunelessly to himself)

John: Daisy... Daisy... (at that moment D'Argo appears in the doorway with Jothee in tow) Give me your answer do...

D'Argo: John - I've brought my son, Jothee, to thank you. (but John doesn't seem to hear him and using both hands, he tries to place the chessman he's holding down on the board)

John: ...I'm half... - OOOwhoa! - (he jumps back from the table as he fumbles the chessman and it joins to others laying scattered about. Then he goes on singing) - ...crazy.. - (he scrabbles frantically at the pieces but his spastic hands cannot bring a single chessman other than the black king to an upright position and his listless singing takes on a frantic tone as the voice of Scorpius/Harvey in his head repeats his name over and over and over...) ...all for the love of... you... (he flails at the air around his head, trying to silence the relentless voice. Jothee stands behind his father and stares at the crazy antics of this madman but D'Argo looks pained and grief-stricken as he moves quickly to stand in front of John and calm him)

D'Argo: Sshhhh...

John: (flapping his hands at his head, he stammers) He's here and um - he blames me. Blames me for killing Scorpius, so I've been trying to... But I can't - (but Scorpius/Harvey is nattering his name over and over and over in his head and he can't hold his thought. He starts to turn away, mumbling insanely. But D'Argo seizes him and cradling John's face in his hands, makes him focus)

D'Argo: But you WHAT John?

John: (he stares at D'Argo for a long moment before saying, in a perfectly lucid tone) D'Argo - kill me. D'Argo please - kill me.

They stand there gazing at one another in silence. John's red-rimmed eyes are pleading and desperate and helpless to help himself. D'Argo strokes his friends face gently with one thumb and his own eyes are full of heartbreak and compassion.

THE END

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