TITLE: "RUMOURS AND LIES"

AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL

FANDOM: "Farscape"

PAIRING: JOHN/CRAIS series

RATING: PG-13

STATUS: New.

ARCHIVE: Yes. Just let me know where.

FEEDBACK: Welcomed

SERIES/SEQUEL: SEQUEL to "DOUBLE JEOPARDY

The usual disclaimers apply. No infringement of copyright is intended.

"RUMOURS AND LIES"
A "Farscape" slash story
Written by Alison M. DOBELL
* * * * *

Crichton lifted Aeryn off her feet and spun her round in his arms, oblivious of the fact that they were standing in Command with the rest of the crew of the leviathan. "God Aeryn, you were priceless! I would have loved to have seen the look on Mirkot's face."

D'Argo was laughing, everybody was happy except Rygel. Unable to be heard above the clamour of good hearted bon hommie he elevated his thronesled and hovered over their heads then shouted. "Will you mindless relkits listen to me!"

It was Crichton who looked up and hushed the others, seeing that the Dominar was unusually serious. Distressed even. "Okay, Buckwheat, you've got our attention. What's up?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. The Carrier wasn't the only thing out here."

The look on D'Argo's face mirrored their sudden loss of euphoria. "What are you talking about?"

The Hynerian pointed to the viewscreen. "I'm talking about *that*!"

All heads turned to look. At that moment Crichton felt the bottom fall out of his entire world. No matter that Earth was many thousands of light years away - if that close. All his hopes, dreams and wishes looked like folly now. His mouth dry, he could not move. Rooted to the spot as the huge Scarran Dreadnought rose from the last mists circling Pilot's homeworld. It was Chiana who spoke first.

"Have they seen us?"

As if her words broke some spell they errupted into action. Aeryn spoke to Pilot and Moya began to move away, create some distance. Unable as yet to go to StarBurst they had to find some way to stay out of the enemy's reach long enough to make that a viable option. <He who fights and runs away> thought Crichton. But as they moved so did the Dreadnought. Any hope that the Scarran vessel had not yet seen them was vanquished on the spot.

* * * * *

Scorpius was not sure what to make of the calculations but he was nothing if not thorough. Setbacks were simply signposts showing him where he was going wrong, which directions led only to dead ends. Yet another process of elimination bringing him nearer and nearer to the desired outcome. Only he did not have all the pieces. He did not have John Crichton. Inwardly he
seethed. He needed that technology. The Peace Keepers had no weapons powerful enough to avert the Scarran invasion that was coming. Without the wormhole technology they were lost. And after them the rest of the universe would undoubtedly fall. It would take time of course, but nothing would be able to stand in their way. He knew. None better.

Lt Braca continued with the tasks alloted him but from time to time he glanced surreptitiously across at his Commander. Concerned that things were not going well. His volatile Commander was too still, too contained. It put him on edge, like a man waiting to see on whose head the ax would fall.

* * * * *

Pilot's voice came over the com. "Prepare for StarBurst!"

"At last," Mumbled Crichton. "Everybody hang on!" He yelled.

Microts later they emerged from StarBurst. Everybody was wide eyed, watching to see if the Dreadnought had followed them through. Aeryn went to check, Crichton right at her shoulder. "Well? Did they follow us through?"

Her fingers flew over the console, concentrating on the information scrolling on the screen. Her voice slightly puzzled. "No." She looked up and out at the empty space around them. "No, it didn't."

Crichton could not understand why she was not more elated. "That's good, right? Tell me that's a good thing."

She looked at him. The others listening to every word. "Yes, it is."

He frowned. "Well don't look so happy about it."

"John, that was a Scarran Dreadnought."

"Yes, Aeryn, I know."

"A Scarran Dreadnought with the capability to go to immediate StarBurst whenever it likes."

"What are you telling me here, Aeryn?"

D'Argo answered for her, realising where she was going. "It means a Dreadnought, unlike a leviathan, does not have to gather strength or energy before it can StarBurst. It also recovers between StarBursts in a fraction of the time."

He looked at D'Argo for a microt then slowly looked around at the faces of all his companions. No one was smiling now. They looked so serious you would have thought the Dreadnought had caught them. "Okay, what am I missing here folks?"

"The Dreadnought let us get away." Said Aeryn.

"But that's good, right?"

"Why did it let us get away?" Asked D'Argo quietly.

"I don't know, D'Argo, I give up. Why did it let us get away?"

Rygel hovered closer. "You are asking the wrong question. As usual."

"What do you mean, Sparky?"

"You should be asking what it is doing here."

"Okay. What is it doing here?"

The others looked at each other. Crichton looked at their faces for a microt. He was starting to get annoyed. "Is this some Mason thing where I have to join a club and learn secret passwords before you tell me anything?"

"No, John." Said Zhaan, his voice of reason. "But we have to wonder what a Scarren vessel and a Peace Keeper Command Carrier are doing here."

They watched his face as the penny dropped. "Oh my gawd, you think... you think they're working *together*?"

* * * * *

Crais reviewed the information Talyn was able to give him. Pacing up and down, hands clasped behind his back, brows drawn down deep in thought. <You are sure it is Scorpius?>

<Yes>

<And he has not detected us?>

<No. This moon is more than adequate for the purpose of shielding our energy signature and hiding us from detection>

Now that it came to it, Crais was nervous. This was what he longed for, thirsted for, but Scorpius would be no easy prey and to underestimate him would be a mistake he would not live to regret. He had given the matter a great deal of thought and decided the best way to handle Scorpius was
not to handle him at all but to use a different method. Talyn had firepower but it was not the equal of a Peace Keeper Command Carrier so he had been creative in selecting his method. What he needed was sufficient firepower to blow the carrier to hezmana. The gunship could not do it but a bomb could.

"How close are we?"

Talyn brought up the holographic images complete with the distance marked out in dench and metras. Still too far away. "We need to get closer." He muttered darkly to himself. But to do that meant coming out from behind the shadow of the moon. He cursed silently.

Talyn thrummed a query.

"No, Talyn, there is nothing we can do for now. We will have to wait him out, when the Peace Keeper Command Carrier moves so must we. I'm going to check on the device and see if there is not some way we can *enhance* the delivery system."

* * * * *

The ship was beautiful in a way that most ships were not. The shimmering surface of her biomechanoid skin had grown more lustrous as pubetry came and went in the young leviathan. Captain Mirkot had never seen the process before. Was disturbed at the pain of the newly installed Pilot as he was linked directly to the pain receptors so that he would know and understand not only what was being asked of him but why. Many things in the universe he
did not understand. Why should this be any different? He wanted them to know it did not matter. They, of course, did not listen.

The pain was unbearable but the determination not to show weakness kept him upright. Just. Raknor watched the Sebacean and his technicians monitored the leviathan's responses. He had been most interested by the glimpses he had seen of Moya just before she StarBurst. Later, when
he had made the rendezvous with the good Captain, he explained. He did not tell Mirkot that the crew of the leviathan had lied to him. It was hardly worth mentioning. Especially when it played into his hands to say nothing. Alliances worked best when you kept your own counsel, pooling only the knowledge necessary to ensure the furtherence of your joint aims. For now it was enough to continually impress upon Mirkot and his crew the ties that bound them together. Orders that Peace Keeper First Command knew nothing about. An operation so secret that their respective masters would kill them both if it ever became public knowledge. Only the success of the project
mattered. Failure was not only not an option, it was also suicide on a biblical scale for both their races.

Raknor only had this one leviathan as yet. Only one among the few that the Captain had been finding Pilots for. If this worked it would be the first of many. He watched Mirkot and decided it was time to take him to the next level. A signal was passed to his crew. Instead of being released to watch the next phase as he expected, the Captain was held in thrall while the completion of the bonding was initiated. He felt every nerve in his body ring raw with searing pain, the cries of the Pilot issuing forth from his own crazed throat, his mind being plied with images he had no words for and no base to form a compatible understanding. Only agony was a perfect symetry. The language of the Pilot species hummed inside his head, shock jerking his body in the frame in which he had been hung. No one aboard his vessel was privy to what was happening. Had they known they would have rammed the leviathan then self destructed to prevent it. <Ignorance could be such bliss> thought the Scarran. The air warped around his mouth with heat as he opened his mouth and laughed without making a sound.

The only sounds in the whole ship were those of the Pilot adjusting and muting as he absorbed the pain of joining and the shrieks from the Sebacean as he was impregnated with the genetic code of the Pilot and merged with the leviathan. His pain would be temporary. His bonding a rite of passage. His value afterwards beyond calculation. Raknor watched the Captain hover on the
brink of consciousness and had him injected with stimulants to keep him awake. He did not want him to miss anything. Like any recording device, the brain had to be switched on to absorb the information. The pain was secondary but privately it pleased the Scarran almost as much as what he was going to do with it afterwards.

* * * * *

They were stunned. All eyes on the screen. No one daring to speak for a microt as they steadied out of StarBurst. The unbroken sea of stars winked back at them. Mocking them for their timerity.

"Well?" Asked Crichton. "What happened to the big bad wolf?"

"If you refer to the Scarran Dreadnought, Commander, Moya can detect no sign of it." Pilot continued checking Moya's sensors before looking up at them all through the clamshell monitor. "We do not appear to have been followed."

Crichton whooped with joy and punched the air. His less exuberant crewmates exchanged wary looks. He gave them all a quickly sobering look. "Look guys, this is good news. You do know what good news *is* right?"

D'Argo gave him a dark look full of annoyance. The human could be most irritating at times. "You heard Aeryn. They *let* us get away."

"Okay, Big D, I can live with that."

"Well I can't."

He looked at Aeryn in surprise. Once again he had made the assumption that what pleased him would please her. Wrong. Go to the back of the class, Johnny boy. "Why not?"

She turned to face him, eyes flashing, her look hard. Bitter almost. "Because if the Scarrans are interested in leviathans it means they are going to a whole new phase in preparation for war."

He raised his hands palms outward in front of him. "Woah just a minute. Back up. What war?"

The others exchanged looks. D'Argo rolled his eyes and turned away. Only Chiana did not look at hiim in dispair. Zhaan looked as if she were trying to pretend he had not just said that.

He was beginning to feel really pissed off now. Either he was part of this crew or not and if he was part of it he should know what they knew. Wasn't that how it went? Share and share alike? Or was that everybody except the dumb human? What was he here, ballast? "Okay," He said
slowly, keeping his voice level to prevent his anger leaking out. Getting angry never solved anything. Just gave you one more problem to deal with. "Suppose you tell me exactly what you think is going on with the Scarrans? And I mean *all* of it. I don't want to be treated like some
frelling mushroom."

D'Argo frowned. "Mushroom?"

"Yeah." He almost smiled but now was not the time for it. His anger vanished as his inate good humour began to reassert itelf. "It's an earth plant, grows in moist soil, a funghi. It means I don't want to be kept in the dark and fed bullshit."

"What is bullshit?" Asked the Hynerian Dominar, puzzled.

"Forget it, Sparky. It just means don't keep me in the dark okay? If I'm a member of this crew I would like to be treated like it."

* * * * *

Talyn was restless, anxious. It was making Crais edgy. "I know you do not like this Talyn but it is the best way."

<We are too close>

"We have to be close or it will not work."

<There is no guarantee it will work>

Crais paused. "No, Tayn. You are right. There is *no* guarantee."

<Then we should find another way>

He shook his head. His jet black hair swept back from his face in a ponytail. His dark features set in determination. "No, Talyn." He paused a microt. "Trust me. This *will* work."

The leviathan gunship held back his disagreement. Unhappy but unwilling to go against Crais. When Crais got no response he nodded slowly. "Thank you, Talyn."

He did not tell the gunship he would not regret that decision. Crais looked at the bomb. It carried an antimatter device at its' core and was becoming more and more unstable despite the heavy shielding. He had left it to the last microt before assembling it so that it would remain stable for
the longest time. That time was running out.

"How far is it away now, Talyn?"

Talyn told him. Scorpius's Command Carrier would be coming round the shadow of the moon any microt now. Crais had the bomb on a special hoversled. Quickly he got it to airlock and put it in place then retreated behind the pressurised door. He equalised the pressure then had Talyn plot
the exact microt to release the bomb into the Carrier's path.

<Now!>

Crais watched the airlock open and expel the device then seal shut again afterwards. "Talyn, get us out of here!"

The leviathan turned and moved away from the bomb, a sharp retreat intending to take them back behind the moon before they went to StarBurst. But things rarely went without a hitch in the Uncharted Territories. The bomb detonated early. The only one in its' immediate range was
Talyn. As the percussive wave hit, the space around them lit up with the force of a small sun exploding. Talyn was half thrown, half fried, several thousand hentas. Crais lost contact with any physical surface of the ship then seemed to find all of the angular planes of Talyn's consoles. The pain of ripping flesh was nothing compared to the heat. He was choking, suffocating in a vast immolation that gave him agony beyond imagination. Talyn screamed but Crais could not be sure it was not coming from his own torn and ragged throat. A rag doll being ripped apart by a maelstrom. A fool daring to walk where even angels feared to tread.

And approaching at a calm and steady pace was the Peace Keeper Command Carrier. Completely unscathed. Its commander viewing their distress with an assured smugness. He smiled at Lt Braca. The calculations made sense now.

* * * * *
END