SquidgeWorld Archive

The Uglier Truth
By GitonCrais

Talyn had become difficult to control. When he discovered that he could control Crais through the neural link by exerting physical pain to the extreme, he had done so to get his own way on several occasions. Each time the assaults became stronger, leaving Crais weaker or even unconscious when he tried to exert his own control over Talyn. Something had to be done.

After the last encounter Crais felt it was imperative to curb Talyn's bloodlust.

They had met a Sheyang-vessel. Given, the Sheyangs were not one of the species that believed in peaceful co-existence with other species and their main income-source was mercenary, slavery and war in general but it still didn't give Talyn the right to deliberately attack them.

Crais had been hailed by the Sheyang vessel and asked to state his business. He had been travelling through a sector they controlled and he had explained to them that he was only traversing through the area and would be out of their space soon. They had accepted his explanation.

After he had broken the transmission Talyn complained about the Sheyang's tone of voice, in his opinion it had been hostile.

Crais had smiled, "Yes, Talyn, you are right but take no notice of it. That is the way the Sheyang speak, there is no hidden meaning behind it."

>Then why are they following us?<

"They are not following us, they are escorting us out of their own space."

>I don't like it< grumbled Talyn.

Crais felt uneasy with Talyn's last statement, "Talyn, it is just an escort. Take no notice of them. We'll be out their space soon."

He became more worried when instead of calming down he could feel Talyn power his guns up.

"No, Talyn," he shouted, "You will desist!" But the Leviathan continued.

"Talyn, power down your weapons, they might see it as a hostile act and attack!" Crais moved to the main console to manually override Talyn's systems. The youngster wasn't very pleased with the actions of his Captain. He felt he had to protect them both.

He send an electrical charge through the console, enough to let Crais move away but Crais was not going to stand by and let Talyn attack and moved over to the console again.

Talyn used the link to exert his control over Crais. A high-pitched tone reverberated within Crais' skull and drove him screaming to his knees while he clasped his hands over his ears in a futile attempt to shut out the noise. The resulting Cybernetic bleed-back that coursed through his body opened up lesions in his chest and shoulders, the pain was tremendous. Still Crais tried to crawl over to the console, he had only one thought in mind: shut down the main weapons console. In his agony it had not occurred to him to shut down the neural link, although he had tried that in the past during one of Talyn s tantrums and only with minimal results.

The next onslaught sent so many spikes of pain through Crais' body that he lost consciousness.

*

When he regained his senses, he was lying on the floor of the Command Centre. Everything around him was quiet. Opening his eyes made him nauseous, he barely suppressed the urge to throw up.

He tried to talk to Talyn. Talyn came back to him over the Transponder. "Talyn," he asked hoarsely, "What happened to the other ship?"

Talyn beeped softly, guiltily.

He shouted, "Talyn, show me what you did to the other ship!" He tried to get back to his feet and stood at the console on unsteady legs. "Talyn, show me!" This time it was not a request.

*

To protect the young Leviathan as well as himself against excessive force used by Talyn, he had arranged a meeting with the Plakovians to exchange Talyn's main gun for a dampening net. That way, if Talyn had wanted to attack another ship while he took Crais out, the damage wouldn't be so extreme.

He would need the crew of Moya to help him install the dampening net, he couldn't do this on his own and he knew the Plakovians would only exchange the weapons but would not help him implement it. He dared not go to a Tech-planet to have the net placed.

He had Talyn search for his mother and her crew, while he took some much-needed rest.

*

Somehow he had managed to screen his thoughts from Talyn, it had left him constantly tired with the effort. He did not dare to fall into a deep sleep and his sleep-cycles had been short. The Leviathan knew they were getting a dampening net but he assumed that he would get it on top of all the other weapons, which were already part of his arsenal. He was also very excited to see his mother again. It had been nearly a Cycle since he had last seen her.

Crais was awaiting the meeting with the Moya crew with mixed feelings. The last time they parted had not been on good terms. They would blame him for everything, he knew that already.

He felt uncomfortable for another reason too. The day before, he and Talyn had an "argument" which Talyn had won. Crais had contacted the crew on Moya on a secure channel and had left Talyn out of the link. Talyn had not been very pleased with that and after Crais had broken the comm.-link to Moya, Talyn had demanded to know what had been said and Crais had refused to give him the full story.

Talyn retaliated. The onslaught had left Crais unconscious for nearly three arns. When he came to and looked in the mirror he could see deep gashes over his shoulders, Talyn had been extremely vicious this time and Crais wondered if he was doing the right thing by staying on Talyn and commanding him. When he confronted Talyn, the young Leviathan was remorseful for what he had done. He hadn t meant to hurt Crais so much but in his eagerness to have a word from his mother he had lashed out. He felt very sorry.

This time Crais let it go. These tantrums should soon be over once the dampening net was installed.

*

When the Moya crew arrived, Crais had already disengaged his link to Talyn using Privacy mode. He let Aeryn believe he was still attached to Talyn before taking the transponder out of its seat, then handing it over to Aeryn and "rendering himself defenceless".

It amused him to see that they came on board fully armed and in force. The only ones missing were Rygel and Chiana.

The others found him standing in the Command Centre more rigid than normal and subscribed this to his blatant arrogance. Crais just tried to look calm and composed while he was aware that the recent onslaught of Talyn had left him with a painful reminder. Even wearing his

Peacekeeper s coat put too much pressure on his shoulders.

After the formal greetings, the Luxan in his normal verbose style attacked him and grasped him by the shoulders. The pain that went through Crais was tremendous and he tried to mask it from the others. Besides, defending himself from the Luxan would not have solved anything. He needed their assistance. He had to swallow his pride and his pain to get their cooperation. They knew that and the arrogance with which they displayed their moral high ground, rankled on Crais  nerves.

He was almost happy to see the approach of the Plakovians.

What he hadn t foreseen was the reaction of the Banik at the sight of them. Stark and Crichton had a scuffle near the main weapons console. With Stark trying to activate the main guns and Crichton trying to stop him. In horror Crais saw Crichton shut down the manual override on the console and could feel Talyn power up around him. He didn t need the link to know what Talyn s intentions were.

"No. Talyn, don t!" But it was too late. Talyn used his main canon to open fire on the Plakovians and shot the ship out of existence. Anger surged through Crais. Crichton in his "infinite wisdom" had just deprived him of the means to control Talyn s growing aggressiveness and his chance to stop the pain.

They had all watched in numbing shock and horror as the other ship blew up, sending debris and bodies through space.

The Moya crew were now blaming him for the attack, not Crichton, not Stark, not even Talyn, no they blamed him. They wanted to take over Talyn, take him away from Crais and he could not allow that, not in the state Talyn was in.

He took the second transponder out of his sleeve-pocket and put it with some difficulty into the seat in his neck. He could feel Talyn again who was angry with Crais for not letting him know why he had sent for the Plakovians. Talyn had listened in on the conversation between the Moya crew and Crais and he could understand why Crais was not forthcoming in his information, he wasn t pleased about it and at the same time he felt sorry for having destroyed the other ship.

Crais was angry with Talyn for having attacked and destroyed the Plakovian ship. He understood that Talyn had wanted to keep his arsenal intact and was angry to have Crais try and replace it with more placid weapons but to utterly destroy the ship!

The confusing thoughts assaulted Crais and he knew that he might be losing his temper soon. He feared for the safety of the others. Talyn might include them in his outburst too and with his guns fully charged anything could happen.

In his own anger and worry for their lives he shouted at the others to leave his ship, "Get of my ship now!" He had shouted.

*

His angry face had been enough to sent home to Moya. He had wanted to stay in the area to make sure they were safe on board Moya but Talyn had other thoughts. He was ashamed to confront his mother and had left the area in Starburst before Crais could counter the order.

*

Oh yes, Talyn let him know what he thought of it. If Crais had thought that the previous attack on him by Talyn had been bad, this one was worse. This time Talyn did not only lash out in anger at Crais, he had also been angry and ashamed with himself. He had not even given Crais the chance to explain himself to him.

As soon as they dropped out of Starburst, Talyn had shouted in his mind >Why?<. Each shout reverberated in Crais  skull, bounced off and built to a mounting headache. Each angry shout opened another lesion. Crais finally managed to take his coat off. The bleeding was already staining his shirt red. He tried to explain but Talyn wouldn t let him.

He dropped to his knees, his hands clapped over the sides of his head, a scream had issued from his mouth. By the time the headache reached its pinnacle he could taste blood in his mouth and when he touched his nose he found it bleeding. He had already lost most of the conception of time and space.

Slowly he fell to his side and curled up. His scream had turned into a long drawn out moan.

Still Talyn was not satisfied and would not relent.

He rolled and pitched the deck, slamming Crais repeatedly into the console until he finally lost consciousness, only then did Talyn stop.

His sensors scanned Crais, he was still breathing but with difficulty.

Talyn realised what he had done and felt remorseful. What if Crais would not get up again?

He sent the DRD s to try and revive Crais, to no avail. This time he had gone too far.

He looked at his Captain and saw blood streaming down his nose and saw how the lesions on his shoulders had left trails of blood on the floor. There wasn t much he could do but to wait.

*

Crais came to with a shuddering moan. His head felt sore and when he opened his eyes he blinked it shut again when even the overhead lights hurt his head. He brought shaking hands to his head and rolled over. Stabs of pain tore across his chest. He lay still for a moment, letting the nausea pass.

>Crais?< Talyn asked cautiously.

Crais ignored him for the moment, locked in pain, not wanting to answer him.

>Crais?< the question was more demanding.

Crais moaned, "Go away, Talyn. Not now." Let Talyn feel how upset he was.

Now that Crais was talking again, Talyn tried anew >Crais, I m sorry. I didn t mean to be so harsh. I was upset, scared. I thought you were going to neutralise me<

"Neutralise you," Crais laughed sarcastically but it ended in an agonised coughing fit.

He tried to stand up and reached for the console to help him rise but dropped back to the floor when stabs of pain surged through his body. He lay on his stomach and tried to block out the pain that threatened to black him out.

"Talyn you are growing too violent," he coughed and pressed his arm to his chest, the ribs must have been damaged, either cracked or bruised. He had no way of knowing yet. "And not only to me. You can t go around attacking other vessels. When I tell you to stand down, I do that for a reason. Do you understand?" He coughed again and spit up blood.

>I m sorry, Crais, if I failed you<

Crais made another attempt to get up. He ignored the pain when he pulled himself up with the support of the console, nearly blacking out in the process. He had to get over to Medical and treat himself. With unsteady feet he left the Command Centre. He had to steady himself against the bulkhead on his way to Medical.

He had switched to silent communication to Talyn to conserve his strength and breath.

"Maybe we have failed each other, Talyn. I don t know." His progress was slow.

>How could you have failed me?<

"Maybe I should not have taken you from your mother." The microt the thought formed in his mind Crais knew he had made a mistake.

>You took me from my mother?< The Leviathan screamed at him and Crais reeled. >She did not abandon me?<

Talyn took the gravitational controls off line for a moment and lifted his nose steeply.

In horror Crais could feel his feet leave the ground and fell the full length of the corridor. Talyn restored the gravitational controls. Crais couldn t even grasp at anything to cushion his fall. He slammed into the bulkhead at the end of the corridor and was knocked out immediately.

Talyn looked in anger at his Captain. He had lied to him. He had stolen him. His mother had not just left him. He  Talyn calmed down. It was true that Crais had done all that but he had also been kind to him. Had taught him how to handle his weapons. Had been with him for nearly a Cycle now. Had been his only family. Talyn felt alone with his Captain knocked out and that scared him even more. Was Crais still alive? He sent one of the DRD s to nudge Crais and was satisfied when Crais responded in his mind and with a soft moan.

This time it took a while for Crais to regain consciousness. Four arns Talyn looked at his still form.

When Crais came to each movement was searing agony. Bile rose to his throat and he retched, unable to stop. Rolling away from the vomit made him almost black out again. His mouth was dry and dried blood had caked on his lips and face. It felt as if every bone in his body had been broken but he could still raise his hand towards his face.

He began to assess himself painstakingly slowly and came to the conclusion that he might have sprained, bruised and twisted muscles all over his body but probably no broken bones.

He tried to stand up but swayed and fell down hard again. He managed to keep a grip on his senses.

There was no pride left in him. He crawled towards the wall and used it to get into an upright sitting position. At his feet the DRD s were cleaning up the vomit. He stood up slowly. Closing

his eyes briefly against the pain.

Hugging the walls for support he made it over to the Medical facility.

Talyn had kept quiet and Crais wondered whether he should be relieved or afraid. Once in the Medical facility he stumbled to the bed and sat down on it. With trembling hands he pulled the Regenerator towards him and set it up for scanning and repairing. He knew it might not be adequate but it was better than nothing and if Talyn didn t mess with the equipment it would be all right. Warily he lay down, pulled the machine over his body and switched it on.

He felt the tingling sensation of the machine s repair mode; at least it would take care of the damage to his ribs. The cuts and bruises he had to treat later.

He closed his eyes and slept while the machine hummed away.

>Crais<

Crais woke up with a start and fear gripped him.

>Crais?< There was remorse in Talyn s voice.

Crais had broken out in a sweat. He, Bialar Crais, who had never been afraid, was now afraid of the Leviathan he helped create.

"No, please Talyn," he whispered. He wouldn t survive another onslaught so soon after the last.

Even now while his muscles were knitting back together, he knew he was too weak to even sit up let alone stand.

>I m sorry, Crais<

Crais could feel that the Leviathan meant it, "I know Talyn."

>I don t want to loose you. I was confused. I was angry. You didn t tell me everything<

"And if I had done, what would you have done then?"

Talyn remained silent.

"You might have killed me Monens ago."

>I wouldn t do that!< Talyn answered incredulously.

"Yes, you would have Talyn and you know that too."

He could feel Talyn reluctantly agree

"You would have killed me and be alone with no one to guide you." He shifted his position on the bed and nearly cried out in pain. "You are stronger now but you are still a child. You still have so much to learn." He closed his eyes, "The truth is, I am not sure if I am that person."

>You want to leave me?<

"I don t want to leave you but I don t see another option."

>I don t want you to leave<

"I might have to."

>I promise not to hurt you<

"Until you do it again, Talyn."

Talyn stayed silent for a while. Crais tried moving but fell back. It was too soon.

He felt a strange sensation at the base of his neck, Talyn was feeding his synapses something, he didn t know what yet and he was afraid, "Talyn, what are you "

>Hush, Crais. It s all right<

Crais tried to fight back, lift his hands to the Transponder. His arms were too heavy; his whole body was too heavy to move. He was afraid that Talyn would paralyse him to gain his objective. His mind stayed remarkably lucid, which made it worse.

"Talyn, what are you doing to me? Let me go!" He couldn t keep the panic from his voice or out of his mind.

>You have to relax, Crais, everything will be all right. Trust me<

Insane laughter welled up in Crais  throat but stayed stuck in his mind. Trust a mad Leviathan?

Talyn had only tried to kill or cripple him just arns ago.

The sensation spread from his neck downwards, pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. A tingling warmth which was quite pleasant coupled to a constriction of the throat which made it hard to breathe.

>You have to relax, Crais<

Crais wanted to bring his hands up to his throat, open up his collar, anything to be able to

breathe. The harder he struggled, the worse the constriction became.

>You are fighting against it< admonished Talyn.

"What do you expect me to do," thought Crais, gasping for air, "Let you strangle me to death?"

>I m trying to help you heal< Talyn was miffed.

"You have a strange way of doing that," thought Crais, his muscles tense with the effort to move.

>You will only hurt yourself more if you don t relax<

Maybe the Leviathan was right. He tried to relax but by now his struggles to get air in his lungs had become a reflex. His sight darkened. The air seemed to be leaving him completely. He smiled at Talyn in his mind. "I think you are succeeding in killing me," he thought before he passed out.

*

Talyn set to work. He had only wanted to help heal Crais. He had not taken into account how frightened Crais had become of him after the attacks. But with Crais out cold he could finally begin.

Slowly he fed some of his own regenerative energy to Crais. Slowly the gashes and welts almost disappeared. It would still leave scars; he couldn t do much about that. But at least it had stopped the bleeding. The muscles around the ribcage smoothed out and the broken bone in Crais  hand knitted together again. The pain started to fade from Crais  face and he breathed easier and on his own again. Talyn withdrew and watched his Captain sleep.

*

Crais was surprised that he was still alive when he woke up and not only alive but healed too. He lifted his arms from the bed and rotated his hands in front of his eyes. He took a deep breath and there was no pain. Talyn had not lied. "Talyn, you healed me?"

>I said I would<

"Thank you."

>You re welcome<

Crais got up from the bed. He was still a bit unsteady but stronger by the microt. He kept his thoughts shielded when he walked to his quarters. Talyn beeped to get his attention. He ignored it. The beeping became more insistent. He ignored it. When he reached his quarters the beeping stopped. He went in. After he refreshed himself, he changed into some clean clothes and wondered how he could take the bloodstains out.

He opened the link to Talyn.

>Why did you not want to speak with me?< Talyn asked petulantly.

"Because I wanted to be on my own for while."

>Are you angry with me Crais?<

"Upset, for certain. I don t know about angry. Disappointed, maybe. Disappointed with myself too,"

>Why?<

"You are a Leviathan, a peaceful species. I know you are a gunship too. I have tried to teach you to be peaceful. I have failed."

>You have also taught me to defend myself. I have done so in the past<

"I know I taught you that but not to attack unprovoked!"

>They were a danger to us<

"No, the Sheyang were not! You attacked them for no reason."

>They might have<

Crais threw his hands up in exasperation, "Talyn you have to learn when it is all right to attack and when it isn t. In that instance it wasn t!"

He thought back to Talyn s recent attack, "And what about the Plakovians? You utterly destroyed their ship without a single thought to the lives on board that ship!"

>They were going to take my defence away<

"No, Talyn, I asked them to deliver a dampening net to me. They were no more than errant runners and, yes, in payment they would have been given the main guns." Crais voice softened,

"You have become too aggressive and you know that. I couldn t allow you to go against the genetics and the culture of your own species. You are part of a peaceful species, a species of explorers. You should not have been a gunship. Part of that is my fault. Your main thought should have been that of Peace!"

>Will you teach me?<

"I have been trying to but it didn t seem to make a difference, did it Talyn? Maybe you need another Captain."

>I need you!< Crais could feel how upset the youngster was.

"Do you, Talyn? In the beginning you listened but now every time you disagree with me now, you hurt me. You could have killed me."

>I am sorry Crais, I try not to<

"You have to learn to keep your calm, Talyn, or else I will leave. I can t let you go around shooting at everyone and everything."

>I will but you have to help me<

Crais sighed. He felt the Leviathan felt true remorse and he believed that Talyn was speaking the truth but for how long?

Crais was afraid that his own madness when he came on board Talyn had been part of Talyn s paranoia and he felt he was partly responsible for Talyn s current instability.

The scientist in him thought otherwise. Gene splicing had resulted in creating a Leviathan with gunship growth abilities but was essentially still a peaceful creature. In the early stages of his growth Talyn had not shown any instability.

When Talyn started to grow his guns he was still listening to Crais, even when Crais was not always as balanced in his own mind. By having to teach the youngster and take care of his own anger he had found equilibrium.

Only once in the early period had Talyn shown deliberate anger at Crais.

It had only been in the last Monens that Talyn had become aggressive and progressively so.

Crais was wondering what had been different since the early period and when the first symptoms had been revealed. He couldn t think of anything yet.

One part of Crais wanted to leave Talyn as soon as possible.

The scientist in him was curious about what would happen next, biologically, chemically or mentally.

The last and biggest part of him believed he owned it to Talyn to stay on as Captain. It had been his obsession with the project that had created Talyn. It was he who had taken the youngster from his mother and who had lied to the youngster how he had acquired him. It had been Talyn who had saved him from certain death had he remained on the Command Carrier and not taken Talyn. It had been Talyn s presence and Crais  longing to be needed that had returned his sanity. He couldn t just leave the Leviathan now that he needed him, however aggressive he had become.

"I will stay, for now, Talyn," Crais said quietly. He could feel the happiness of Talyn and hoped that the price he had to pay for his loyalty would not be his life.

THE END