Self Inflicted Wounds

Part 1: Could'a, Would'a, Should'a
The episode opens with the majestic sight of Moya sweeping through a solar system. The arc of a large brown planet looms behind her. In the near distance a small gray moon hangs over a blue planet that lies directly beneath the Leviathan, its atmosphere is streaked with clouds. Cut to the not-so-majestic view inside Moya of Aeryn and D'Argo sniping at each other as they steer the bulky cryopod containing the corpse of the Interion man through the cavernous spaces of her maintenance and hangar bays. Aeryn's pushing and D'Argo is pulling.

D'Argo: (crabby. Very, very crabby) Why the hezmana don't we just JETTISON this thing into FRELLING space? (between clenched teeth) Crichton - first he wants to question these creatures, then he wants to BURY them - I mean, why don't we just open the last chamber and ASK them where Earth is?

Aeryn: And then he'll die in the first 30 microts like this one did.

D'Argo: (crabby - and gloomy as well) Well death isn't always a bad thing Aeryn. Who wants to live when your place in the universe has been suspended?

Aeryn: Jothee and Chiana are just kids D'Argo.

D'Argo: I don't want to discuss it.

Aeryn: They were rebelling, they weren't trying to hur- (well they certainly did knew their actions would cause hurt Aeryn!)

D'Argo: (cutting her off) REBELLING? Rebelling is smoking some galla root. Rebelling is NOT sleeping with- (they make the turn into the hangar bay and he backs into the little ship that Pilot pulled in out of the wreckage of the space station. Its force field defense gives him a nasty jolt) ARRRGGGHHH! (Aeryn patiently waits while he curses a curse so hideous that it causes a temporary work stoppage amongst everyone’s translator microbes)

Aeryn: Look D'Argo, if you want to talk-

D'Argo: I'm not ready. (they set to their task again of wheeling the cryopod to wherever they're heeling it to. Aeryn glances balefully at the little ship as they pass it)

Aeryn: Now that ship I'd like to jettison. (it is ugly. It looks like an abstract sculpture of an elephant, or a swollen tick, welded together out of - found material and painted dull silver)

D'Argo: What if there's some weapon aboard we can use?

Aeryn: What if the next system we set off destroys us all?

D'Argo: (lugubriously) We're already destroyed Aeryn. It's just that some of us don't know it yet.

Zhaan however, has no morose illusions of destruction, she is living it for real. Cut to her in her quarters - which are in the section of Moya that was devastated by the fire that burned her as a result of D’Argo’s own obsession with regaining his son to the exclusion of all caution and rational thought. Zhaan sits in front of a shard of her mirror and looks at the terrible lesions that cover her scalp, her blue skin is discolored on her forehead. Stark watches, unbeknownst to her from the doorway. As she replaces a shawl over her head, which gives her the appearance of a Madonna, Stark turns away, a tear glistening upon his cheek.

(cut to Pilot in his Den. He seems strained and annoyed as John speaks to him via comm)

Pilot: I am as concerned about Zhaan’s welfare as you Commander. However-

John: (cutting him off) Stark says that we gotta get her into the ground. (the scene shifts to him in the Command. He's playing handball using the clamshell viewer Pilot is talking to him on as a backboard. This is what seems to be causing Pilot’s discomfort as the ball passes through the image of his face, causing the entire viewer to wobble violently as it ricochets back to John. Pretty darned hostile behavior - we hope Pilot bounces a few DRDs off Johns face the next tome he goes to the Den) How long?

Pilot: (wham! He grunts and flinches as the ball hits the viewer) Uunngghh!! A planet meeting - (wham! Pilot tries not to look at the projectile ) -Zhaan’s aaaah-tmospheric requirements is less than an arn away!

John: (flip - in full Jerk Mode) So hetch it up baby! Come on! Let's go!

Pilot: (gritting his teeth) I simply thought you'd like to see this before it went away!

John: What? (in response, Pilot switches the view out Moya’s main port to reveal a wormhole, its sides shimmer and move like water being sucked down a drain. John gapes, his rude ball game forgotten as he breathes-) HO-ly- (suddenly Pilot's his best friend and tech partner as he backs towards the door to the Command and issues a rapid fire string of orders) Pilot - take readings. Complete spectrum roll, diffuse electron analysis across the electromagnetic range. It's only theoretical but we'll look for a dimensional bend in the halo effect!

Pilot: Commander-

John: (as he bobs towards the door of the Command, trying to watch the wormhole as he hoes, the scene begins to shift back and forth between him and Pilot in his Den) I know! I know! Zhaan. Look - scan on the parabolic curve, give me a chance to dip in for some readings! Prepare to launch my module!

Pilot: Commander!

John: (stopping to assert himself in view of Pilot’s apparent hesitation) Pilot! My call.

Pilot: (but it's not hesitation - it's apprehension as his great head swings back and forth taking in wild readings from his Console. He stammers urgently) There's a ship approaching! I -I think!

John: Where? (he steps back into the Command, looking out the main port)

Pilot: Not sure! These readings can't be!

John: (pacing further back into the Command, impatient) Pilot save the golly gee-whiz for later. Just tell me where it is.

Pilot: (frantically trying to make sense of what he's reading) It's traveling too fast! Too- impossible!

John: (with sour sarcasm) All right. So far I've got "Not sure." "Can't be." and "Impossible." Where the hell is it?

Pilot: (with a great groan, as if he's in pain from trying to analyze the data) Up there!

And then John sees it - in the wormhole, something materializing as it exits. It's an alien ship, built like a string of pearls that’s stiffened into a spiral. The ship spins like a drill as it shoots out of the wormhole and straight at Moya. He turns to flee the impending collision.

John: PILOT! STARBURST!

But it's too late. And as the alien vessel spins towards them the horrified face of one of its crew in one of the translucent pods that make up its structure is briefly seen before everything is obliterated by the white explosion of impact

Some time later Moya can be seen, intact, but drifting lifelessly in the blue energy streams of the wormhole. The alien ship is there too - it has impaled her diagonally through the thickest part of her body and protrudes above and below her. The sections of it, which looked pearl-like head-on, are now seen to actually be crystalline capsules arranged in a spiral. The scene shifts to Moya’s Command where John lays sprawled on the floor unconscious. A DRD rolls urgently up to him with one of its little attachments outstretched. It rams his hand and he immediately wakes up and staggers to his feet.

John: Pilot! Pilot! (but at that moment he focuses on his surroundings. The Command is almost unrecognizable. Its once open, loft-like space is now filled with a maze of thick white columns that stretch at odd angles from floor to ceiling. A steamy hiss is the only sound as vapors swirl amid the angled columns and sparks drip from ruined circuitry. He gapes at the weird structures, which seem to simply be a part of Moya, rather than something that has broken through her walls) That ain't part of Moya - What the hell? (he frantically comms for his shipmates) AERYN? D'ARGO! ZHAAN! PILOT!

Pilot: (he responds by clamshell viewer and he looks and sounds terrible. His voice is groggy as he heart wrenchingly moans) Commander... what did -did we-?

John: (as he speaks, someone’s else on the Command is listening too. An alien from the spiral ship peeks from behind the white columns. Her name is Neeyala) I don't know! Some kind of collision. You okay?

Pilot: (he's struggling to speak) Moya and I- are- UUNNGGHH! - Hard - to think- (and with that his great head pitches forward and his image on the clamshell viewer fizzles out. At that moment someone else strides into view, another alien from the spiral ship. His name is Kreetago. He and Neeyala are human in shape and hairless. Their heads are large and they have gill-like structures where their ears should be. Their noses are flat and their shin has a metallic sheen to it. Neeyala is greenish in color, which may reflect her seniority, the others are bluish and all have individualistic shading and marking on their shin. All are dressed in silvery tunics that have a plated construction, and long skirts that fall to their ankles. Their appearance is generally rather fish-like and their language is sibilant)

Kreetago: NEEYALA! We have extensive damage! (he and John catch sight of each other almost simultaneously. John whips out his gun and Kreetago flares the gills on the sides of his head, revealing needlelike bristles within, as he announces-) ALIEN PENETRATION OF OUR VESSEL!

Neeyala: (correcting him) An impact during phase resolution!

John: What the hell did you do to Moya?

Kreetago: (ignoring Johns question as he responds to Neeyala) We must maintain integrity as described.

Aeryn: (entering the Command at a run) Crichton my comms aren't wor- (she stops herself as she takes in the scene and whips out her gun - but she seems unsure if she should point it at John or the aliens as she yells at him-) WHAT DID YOU DO? (she and Kreetago face off and yell simultaneously)

Kreetago: NEEYALA! BACK OFF! IT CARRIES A WEAPON!

Aeryn: GET ON THE GROUND NOW! GET ON THE GROUND!

John: Aeryn! Whoawhoawhoa! Stop it-stop it. I don't think they understand what we're saying! (he reaches out to push the muzzle of her gun down as he lays his aside and makes a palms-out sign to the aliens. Kreetago snarls suddenly the comms come back on and the panicked cries of all Moya’s crew come in all at once. The scene shifts between all of them as they move through various parts of Moya. And everywhere are seen the white columns, steam and sparks)

Chiana: WHAT THE FRELL HAPPENED?

Zhaan: (wailing) DEAR GODDESS HELP! MOYA IS IN AGONY!

Chiana: SOMEONE ANSWER!

Stark: TIER 3 IS DARK! RUPTURES EVERYWHERE!

John: Zhaan! D'Argo! You guys okay?

D'Argo: I am, but Moya is frelled!

Zhaan: Anyone hear from Aeryn?

Rygel: What about me? No one asks about me! (and at that moment, just as he makes to enter the Command, he makes eye contact with Neeyala, who glares at him with her gills flared wide. He hurriedly puts his hoverchair into reverse) OOOhh...

John: Listen Pilot's not in too good a shape - is anybody nearby?

Stark: I'm on my way!

D'Argo: (to Stark) I'll meet you.

Kreetago: (murmuring to Neeyala as they observe all this with amazement) So many different tongues - yet they communicate.

John: Pip! You still there?

Chiana: Tier 6 is a total loss!

Kreetago: (to Neeyala, his tone is low and suspicious) A consortium.

John: Sparky go help her.

Rygel: (peeking around the edge of the door) Doesn't simply shooting them dead strike you as viable?

John: Just, go! (Rygel huffs with disgust but flies off to see what can be done to help Chiana. Next, John addresses a nearby DRD) DRD! Translator microbes. (the little droid fearlessly powers towards Neeyala and rams her foot with its microbe hypo. Needless to say the spiral ship aliens do not react well to this)

Neeyala: (panicky screaming as she dances around shaking her foot) They've injected me with something!

Kreetago: Fight while you have strength! (which is what he intends to do as he resumes an aggressive stance in preparation to fire his gill quills. Aeryn responds in kind, swinging her gun up to firing position again. John intercedes and again makes a gesture for calm)

John: WHOA- NO! NONONONONONONONO! Stop - please! (everyone stops, poised to attack) Just wait... wait... Just- (he's gained enough time, and he watches Neeyala intently as she stares at him) - My name is John Crichton, can you understand me?

Neeyala: (amazed) He - speaks - and I comprehend!

Kreetago: They have altered your mind.

Neeyala: I am Pathfinder Neeyala. Commanding Research Vessel Rado Sssthlana.

(cut to Pilot’s Den where D'Argo and Stark stand at the side of the Console looking at the Great Navigator, who's sitting stiffly at his station. His arms are uncharacteristically still as he shakes his head and says is a sick, frightened and completely bewildered tone-)

Pilot: I don't know what's wrong! I don't know what's happening to us!

D'Argo: All right, just calm down Pilot, and tell us how you feel.

Pilot: Well I feel - (ah well - why tell when you can show? With a massive retch, Pilot sends cloud of pale green vapor laced with quite a bit of dark green vomit hurtling towards them. Stark catches the load full in his face but D'Argo, who was standing slightly behind the Banik, gets only glancing slime job. The Luxan, yowls in dismay and leaps back but Stark just stands there with puke running down his face staring at Pilot in shocked disbelief. Pilot has that awful look a sick kid has after puking, mouth wide, eyes pinched shut, moaning)

D'Argo: I had no idea that he could do that!

Stark: I had no idea - anyone - could do that! (oh just shut up and get poor Pilot a wet washcloth to wipe his mouth off with, you guys)

Pilot: (speaking with great difficulty) I apologize - colors - lights - sensations - This region of space - I cannot function under the bombardments! (read - he's carsick)

Stark: Can we isolate you from the stimuli?!

Pilot: (nauseously) Unngghh - Neural clusters -containment nexus circuitry...

D'Argo: Re-route it?

Pilot: Dis-

Stark: Buffer the leads?

Pilot: Dis- (sounding like he might erupt again at any moment)

D'Argo & Stark: WHAT?

Pilot: Disconnect!

D'Argo: Right! (and for their love and compassion and patience, Pilot lets fly another mass of stomach contents the size of Rygel. This lot comes up in large gelatinous blobs like giant, celery green tapiocas that bounce and splash playfully onto the surface of his Console. D'Argo and Stark dive for cover before fleeing to help Pilot from afar)

(cut back to Aeryn and John and Neeyala as Moya and the spiral ship continue to drift on the blue streams of the wormhole. They have entered the spiral ship where its and Moya’s Command are fused. The interior of the spiral ship is gleaming white. The pillars seen on Moya make up its infrastructure. A silver machine that looks like a puzzle made of thick metal rods, dominates the operations center of the alien ship. Aeryn and John look around in wonder at this abstract sculpture of a spaceship as Neeyala offers her technical assessment of what happened)

Neeyala: (her tone is that of an earnest egghead) We were regaining dimensionality when our ships collided. They must have been subjected to a massive burst of photonic distortion. Once the phaztillion generator is repaired, we'll dose ourselves and hope your living ship doesn't interfere with non-thermal dimensional forces.

Aeryn: (very quietly, to John) Do you understand any of those words?

John: (under his breath) Yeah I watched all kinds of Star Trek. It's just the order that they're in.

Neeyala: (to John) You said you studied wormholes.

Kreetago: More trickery Neeyala - of course they would suggest-

Aeryn: (to Kreetago) You can shut the frell up, I think. Because if you're not going to take the translator microbes - you don't participate. Tell him that.

Neeyala: (she eyes Kreetago but instead of chiding him, offers a conciliatory suggestion to Aeryn) You've seen our research vessel. If we are to trust each other -

Aeryn: (with a sigh, she motions Kreetago to come with her) Yes. I'll take him around our ship. Come on. (they exit so the two science-types can get on with hashing things out)

John: So keep it simple - How do we get the ships apart?

Neeyala: (in response, she issues a terse order to one of her technicians, Shreena, who stands at a nearby control panel) Display. (a hologram appears in the air near them. It shows a large wormhole, ringed by several smeller ones. It is a model of the one they are in) Wormholes, always gravitate toward each other in segmented loops. (Moya and the spiral ship shudder, like a plane hitting a rough patch of air) First jolts mean we've exited one fragment of wormhole - (there is another rumble, which she seems to expect, the hologram expands a little and she continues Johns instruction) - and then, quickly, into another. Only this gap - (she points out a spot on the hologram) - is large enough to permit escape.

John: And how often do we pass it?

Neeyala: Every third of an arn.

John: Right. So we'll activate your phassse-

Neeyala: Phaztillion.

John: -generator - and then we'll separate.

Neeyala: (rueful) In theory. However, we're not even sure how far into the turbulence zone this collision threw us.

John: Say that again?

Neeyala: We've ricocheted into the distorted region that divides a wormhole from normal space time.

John: (spluttering with alarm and slow comprehension) What? Wha-? It-?-Uh- I mean - we're not even on the fairway? We're in the rough?

Meanwhile, Zhaan is in her lab looking pensively out of a porthole at the blue streams of light outside Moya. She catches herself as the ship lurches and when she returns her gaze to the window, her eyes widen with wonder as an Earth-like planet passes slowly by in the streams of blue mist. When the second lurch comes, the planet is gone, replaced by a thick black shadow that writhes like a snake outside the port. She backs away from the window, unnerved by the vision, and jumps as Stark enters quietly and touches her shoulder.

Stark: I didn't mean to startle you.

Zhaan: I am to die soon. The Goddess has chosen my harbinger.

Stark: (reassuringly) A magnificent planet lies just out there to rejuvenate and sustain you.

Zhaan: A serpent lies between.

Stark: You are ill - hallucinations.

Zhaan: (caressing his face) My Stark... My wonderful Stark - so afraid to let go.

Stark: (confessionally) I have a darkness which frightens lovers away. Whenever I assist the dying, I cannot help but absorb a tiny spillet of their existence. Over the cycles, the endless parade of death... I've accumulated a vast reservoir of evil. I cannot bear to lose the one thing that mitigates this twisted core of my existence. (Zhaan brushes her thumb across his lips and pulls him to her in loving embrace. A sheen of tears glistens on her cheek as they rest their heads on one another’s shoulder)

(cut to soon after. John has been spreading the news around of what Neeyala said and the crew is trying to get their heads around it. They speak via comm to each other as they move through different parts of Moya)

D'Argo: (he's in the neural clusters shorting things out) None of what you said makes any sense!

Stark: (walking in a dark subpassage) I think he said we're in the wall of the wormhole.

John: (pacing through a cargo bay and looking grim) Well, that's kind of what she said. Look, we gotta wake Pilot up. He's got to give us starburst when we hit this particular gap.

Zhaan: (turning around in circles in a main corridor trying to settle on something to do first about the mess) But can we do that while joined to another ship?

John: (in another main corridor now - still looking grim) I'm not sure, but they're dead in the water, so Moya's gotta pop us free. (at that moment he encounters Aeryn and Kreetago, who's looking around at Moya with something between wonder and revulsion and pretty much complete incomprehension since he can't understand anything anyone is saying)

Aeryn: How do we get the ships separated?

John: Save that for later- (he waves a hand to get Kreetago's attention) - Colonel Klink! Yo! inspection is over! - (back to Aeryn) - Aeryn, I need you to take Neeyala's countdown. The rest of us are gonna seal the breeches before starburst. (he continues on his way as he calls over his shoulder) I have the auxiliary conduits.

Aeryn: I'll take the hammond side hatches on the way to Command- (she points Kreetago in the direction she wants him to go in) - Move it! Now! Go!

Stark: (hustling down the subpassage) I'll go to Pilot!

Zhaan: (setting off decisively) I'm close to the selticore vents!

Rygel: (with satisfaction at the chance to mess around in his favorite part of the ship as he sails down another corridor) And I'll take the cargo bays.

D'Argo: (from the neural clusters) Well, I'm going to need someone up here with another pair of hands. (ask and ye shall receive, at that moment, Chiana enters)

Chiana: (all somber sincerity) What can I do to help?

D'Argo: Two tiers down, 4 chambers across - Moya’s external pressure sensors - yank 'em all.

Chiana: I mean, what can I do about us?

D'Argo: That relationship does not exist.

Chiana: We could die. It exists for me.

D'Argo: If you did not want to marry me, you could have found some other way to tell me. (that is true)

Chiana: When I'm cornered, I-I don't think clearly. (grow up)

D'Argo: At least now you're speaking the truth. (he turns back to his work)

Chiana: External pressure sensors?

D'Argo: Yank 'em all.

Chiana: (as she turns to go make herself useful) I'm kinda in the mood to be destructive. (well maybe D'Argo is too. He furiously yanks something loose that sends a particularly bright cascade of sparks flying)

(cut to Rygel down in the hangar bay where the last frozen Interion lies in its cryopod. He's is hovering next to it and it's releasing vapors and hissing like a boiling teakettle as John enters)

John: What did you do?

Rygel: Ugh! I was checking the hangar! This started leaking!

John: (he hurries to the cryopod and tries to fix it) It regulates with self-venting!

Rygel: I tried to close the valve but it wouldn't turn!

John: Because - it was already sealed!

Rygel: Um-hm. Then I twisted it the other way!

John: (poking furiously at he Hynerian) RYGEL! You opened it! Opened it! OPENED IT! (and at that moment their kvetching is interrupted by the cryopod lid - which abruptly pops wide open, sending a cloud of fog into the air as they duck away, coughing from the vapors. Inside, lies a woman. John tries to fan the vapor away with his hands as he steps up to side of the pod and peers inside)

Rygel: (loudly and with the sensitivity we' all come to know and love so well) I'll bet you 40 mezots she gurgles and dies before she can tell you where Earth is! (but as the mist clears and the occupant of the pod comes into view John doesn't rise to Rygel’s bait. The occupant of the pod is indeed an attractive young woman - with bright red hair that spills from her jagged hairline in a mass of curls. She has no eyebrows and wears a high silver-studded black collar like her male companion who died earlier. Her lips are slightly parted as he eyelids flutter and john says softly, with profound regret-)

John: Hey... Sleeping Beauty... Wake up and die. (and with that - she does indeed wake, and stares up at him with wide green eyes)

Interion woman: Who are you?

John: My name is John. Listen - we don't have much time-

Interion woman: (curt) Correct. (she sits up and glares at him) Yours is up. (and without further ado - she scrambles to her feet and proceeds to climb out of the pod. John makes to give her a hand but she swats it away testily as Rygel looks on appreciatively) GET-! Don't touch me! (she hops lightly to the floor and looks around. Asleep she may have looked angelic but her waking demeanor is haughty to say the least and her outfit screams 'Dominatrix!' Like her male counterpart, it's all black, unlike his, there's plenty of skin showing, mostly in the form of some impressive cleavage. She also has on high heels)

John: (pitifully) Do you know me? My race?

Interion woman: (disdainfully) Sebacean. Intellectually suited to carry weapons and die marching in formation.

John: (earnestly, not rising to her bait wither) Human. Your species and mine might be related.

Interion woman: (with a coyly sneering little laugh) Of course they are. I have a brother who's a Stinerian lizard.

John: (a note of desperate hope in his voice) Have you ever heard of Earth?

Interion woman: (she fixes him with a contemptuous stare) On Trintika Major, the Predorian fly transmits a fatal rheumatoid disease called - Arth.

Rygel: Ah - very similar. (John whups him upside the head one and the Interion woman’s arrogant gaze turns to Rygel)

Interion woman: The animal speaks? (suddenly Rygel doesn't find her so funny anymore and with a nasty snarl, he starts towards her. But John holds his hoverchair back)

John: (to Rygel) Whoa- (to the Interion woman in a tone that says he might have taken about all he's going to) What's your name?

Interion woman: (she pauses and then turns away while saying her name very quickly so they won't catch it and will have to ask and thus give her more ammunition with which to point out their stupidity) Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis. (but they don't react as expected)

Rygel: (with a laugh at the absurdity of it) What do they call you for short?

Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis: (annoyed - and lying since her male friend called her what John is about to) My whole name.

John: Listen, Jool - what's the last thing you remember?

Jool: (there is a pause as she wavers, her insecurity suddenly showing. She ignores his question and asks with dread-) How long have I been in this chamber?

Rygel: Manifest says 22 cycles. (Jool's response is to throw her head back, open her mouth in a gaping yawn and scream. The scream she screams is no ordinary scream though - it's a long drawn-out sound like the whistle of a teakettle. As John and Rygel try to cover their ears from the pain of it and the tips of some tools laying on a nearby workbench sag, their metal softened by the Interionish shriek)

John: Whoa! Hey! Hey! Hey! Lady! Dial it down!

Aeryn: (breaking in via comm) We're ready Crichton - (cut to her on Moya’s Command with Neeyala and Kreetago) - prepare to starburst, in - 5 microts. (but back in the hangar bay Aeryn’s words are drowned out by Jool’s banshee wail)

John: AERYN I CAN'T HEAR A THING YOU'RE SAYIN'!

Aeryn: (via comm) 3 microts- (Rygel can't take it anymore and does the only sensible thing - he removes his little fists from his ears and fixing Jool with a deadly glare - he aims his hoverchair - and head-butts her. She is effectively silenced as she goes sprawling) 1 - (cut back to Aeryn on the Command with the spiral ship aliens)

Neeyala: It is time!

Aeryn: Starburst.

(cut to Pilot’s Den where the Great Navigator looks sick and groggy as Stark stands behind the Console shaking Pilot’s head and yelling insistently-)

Stark: You die later! Starburst now!

Outside, where Moya drifts at a horrible, almost vertical angle in the wormhole, the brilliant light of starburst flares to life at her tails and creeps forward along its channels in her body. But instead of enveloping her completely and creating the transdimensional gateway that it normally does, there is a blinding explosion when the starburst energy hits the spiral ship embedded in her body. Starburst is always a bouncy ride, but inside Moya things are more than bouncy. Explosions erupt on the Command and in the hangar bay. The crew is thrown about and Moya’s decks tilt at sickening angles. Jool’s inert form slides quietly across the hangar bay floor and Rygel becomes airborne independent of his hoverchair.

John: (who's clinging to the empty cryopod for dear life and bellowing-) KILL STARBURST! KILL STARBURST! (and thankfully, Pilot encouraged by Starks pep talk, cuts the ballistic starburst that has Moya spinning wildly out of control, like a rocket launch gone bad. And again she and the spiral ship drift and roll, completely at the mercy of the wormhole currents)

(cut to Moya’s neural cluster as Chiana re-enters. The bad starburst has thrown D'Argo to the floor where he's sustained a head injury. He allows her to help him up)

Chiana: Bad?

D'Argo: (angry) Is 2 of you bad?

Chiana: That so depends.

D'Argo: Well it's not bad enough.

Chiana: You should let Zhaan have a look at it.

D'Argo: (moving past her) Zhaan does not have much respect for my head.

Chiana: You know, it's okay to be in pain D'Argo. But since you're all right - I'll get back to work. (D'Argo rumbles with annoyance as she leaves)

(cut to soon after, in the center chamber where Zhaan is trying to tend to injuries sustained during the aborted starburst by a doctor-shy member of Neeyala’s crew. Aeryn, John and Neeyala enter, deep in discussion about their predicament)

John: We're gonna have to separate before we do anything. Suggestions - Zhaan - you oughta hear this.

Aeryn: (to Neeyala) Um - am I wrong or is your phaz-tillion generator the key?

Neeyala: Ah, correct pronunciation, and yes.

Aeryn: Can you repair the damage before we are all incapacitated? (how much more incapacitated can you get?)

Neeyala: The belief is so. However circumstances, you will attest, are less than conducive.

Zhaan: (frustrated) Pathfinder Neeyala - if your crew will not accept translator microbes, then I cannot communicate. If I cannot communicate - I cannot heal.

Neeyala: (primly) Ah we have rules against alien exposure. It is sufficient I have broken them. (well then quit whining about things not being conducive)

Zhaan: I understand - but under these extreme circum- (but at that moment she is interrupted by a the entrance of two members of Neeyala’s crew, Shreena, supporting a badly injured man)

Shreena: (distressed) Pathfinder! Pathfinder help him please! His leg - (which seems to have been traumatically amputated) - we need help!

Zhaan: Tell her to follow me. My lab is the only place I might heal him. (Neeyala makes no response but at her nod the pair limp away with Zhaan)

Neeyala: (in a commanding tone, as she returns her back to Aeryn and John) Besides my people healthy - I need empirical information about our position in the wormhole. Despite the danger, would you help?

(well they would if only they could... Cut to Pilot’s Den where Stark still stands with Our Big Fella who's nodding at his station)

Stark: (to Pilot, gently) Can you hear me? (then louder, via comm) Crichton - stopping starburst midway through took everything out of him.

John: We need him to get the hangar doors open.

Stark: (as Pilot wheezes softly) Right now, he can't even open his eyes. There's not much else I can do Crichton.

(cut to Aeryn, John and Neeyala as they walk through Moya’s corridors. The Leviathan is a wreck again, Her lights flicker, sparks drip from damaged circuitry. Neeyala is carrying a silver device that looks like a purse-sized of the phaztillion generator)

Neeyala: Does this negate our plan?

Aeryn: No it doesn't. I can open the doors from Pilot’s Console. (excusing herself and John) - May we have a moment? (Neeyala makes a polite sound of acknowledgement and Aeryn walks John a few steps away where she stops, looks at him and says very quietly) Insane.

John: Since birth.

Aeryn: Suicidal.

John: Test pilot.

Aeryn: Do you trust her? (John glances at Neeyala who's watching them, she quickly looks away)

John: If we don't do something, we're gonna die.

Aeryn: I'm worried you're a little too excited by all this.

John: It's wormholes. That's what Scorpius wants.

Aeryn: Scorpius is dead. That's what you want.

John: Aeryn. It can be a tool or a weapon. Let's get there first.

Aeryn: Let's get there alive - first. (she turns and leaves for Pilot’s Den. Neeyala watches her go and then blandly offers her assessment)

Neeyala: She doesn't like you.

John: Nah it's a phase. It's part of her charm.

Neeyala: (she eyes John and then takes Aeryn’s side) Hm. I admit to some skepticism myself.

John: (woman-weary) This way.

(cut to moments later as John stands next to his module in the hangar bay. Neeyala stands a few feet away with a look of incredulousness on her fishy face as John lays a proud hand on his flying machine)

John: My module jams in wormholes.

Neeyala: (she seems offended by the very sight of the thing) If this is - some kind of - jest-

John: Just give me the gizmo and tell me what to do.

Neeyala: (outraged and very dubious) Without this data, our assumptions would be worse than - than-

John: (talking over her impatiently) Flight times and vectors - that's all I need.

Zhaan: (breaking in via comm) Crichton is Neeyala with you?

John: (annoyed) Yes - Blue.

Zhaan: (cut briefly to her in her lab as she says very curtly - so she doesn't cry) Please tell her I couldn't save Cresto I'm sorry.

Neeyala: (she seems saddened and says in a softer tone to John) I do appreciate the risk you take for us, and our families. We shall return that effort in selfless kind. Use this to record as much positional data inside the wormhole as you can.

Back in her lab, Zhaan has a crystal which she waves over the shrouded body of Cresto as she says a death prayer for him. Suddenly, the otherwise still room is disturbed by a wind that causes her shawl to flutter and the dead mans shroud to ripple as if it were a living thing. She freezes, gasping a little, as she watches with wonder and dreadful awe while the spectral wind riffles through the dark room.

(cut to Pilot’s Den where Aeryn has arrived to do her thing. Stark is preoccupied with poor Pilot, who is unresponsive)

Stark: It's no use. Even with the isolation D'Argo's providing, we're traveling too fast for Pilot to cope.

Aeryn: (she slips behind the Console without so much as a glance at or comment on, Pilot’s misery) It's all right. I know the hangar door configuration. (Stark, annoyed perhaps by the coldness of this creature who Zhaan has sacrificed her life for, slowly turns away from Pilot and stands close at her shoulder, sniffing a little and staring intently at her. Aeryn doesn't need to stiffen any, but she looks up from the Console and intones without looking at him-) Something wrong?

Stark: (in a quiet, bitter, tone) You're very pretty. (I think she looks a bit dry but I digress...)

Aeryn: (quickly giving up some indication that she is aware of the feelings of those around her) But I'm not Zhaan, right? Never be her. It's all right Stark. We're going to get her out of here and we're going to put her in the soil she needs to heal. (they look at each other, Stark seems mollified by her gentle words - and moves away silently)

(cut to the operations center of the spiral ship where Kreetago speaks with Shreena as she works on the damaged phaztillion generator)

Kreetago: Despite your fears, this must be accomplished.

Shreena: The generator's leaking phasic restin ions. Lethal - Kreetago.

Kreetago: I know what they are Researcher. (there's a long pause as he paces around her before saying quietly-) Expose yourself briefly as possible. Accomplish the task Pathfinder has laid out for you.

Shreena: (there's a note of desperation and dread in her tone) May I interdict Kreetago?

Kreetago : No. (in a firm, quiet, voice) The knowledge this ship has amassed must be saved. Even if we die in the process. (he walks away as she looks after him with resignation. She then turns back to the generator and unseals a cover on the end of one of its silver rods)

(cut to Rygel in the center chamber with Jool. He's apparently been assigned, or taken upon himself, the task of looking after their red-haired guest who stumbled aboard at such an inopportune moment)

Jool: (she sounds more disgusted than bereaved) I can't believe my cousins are dead.

Rygel: (matter-of-factly) They didn't suffer... Much.

Jool: (it's hard to tell if she's just calling him names or addressing him) Animal! How did they die?

Rygel: (with a bored grunt) if you must know - We were at a surgical facility where you were all frozen. Crichton needed a brain- (at that moment Chiana enters and cuts Rygel off with a swat up the backside of his head as she takes over the explanation)

Chiana: -STORM - on - how he could rescue you. We saved, uh... 2 pods. (she's taking a cue from John and playing with a ball as she speaks, which h doesn't do much to convey the sincerity of her compassion)

Jool: One of my cousins survived?

Chiana: Yeah - for 30 microts. Then he oozed this-this black gunk. We don't know how the other one died, do we Ryg? (Rygel sniggers. Oh yeah - it's not compassion motivating Chiana - it's just covering for John in case the redhead might not like that one of her cousins was killed to be used as a donor. The ball prevents her having to make eye contact as she tries to put Jool off. but Jool isn't so easily lulled)

Jool: What is it you're not telling me?

Chiana: (flip) Well, that we're in a crisis Hairdo. So you can either help, shut up, or go back to sleep.

Jool: (she fixes Chiana with a steely gaze and rises slowly) I won't be spoken to like that by some - alley whore. (whoa-ho! The redheads perception isn't so bad after all)

Rygel: (laughing as he says to Chiana with feigned shock) How could she know that about you? (Chiana hasn't got a snappy comeback for Jool so she swats Rygel again instead. The Hynerian cheerfully fires a verbal shot back, ricocheting it of Jool) Did you know she had a fiancée? Till she slept with his son? (but before the catfight can get any more interesting, John comes tearing in and grabs Rygel from behind)

John: Buckwheat! You still want to get off this boat man?

Rygel: (groaning as John pulls him backwards) More than ever! (referring to Jool) This creature sheds!

John: Good! Cause your Uncle Sam needs you! (and with tat, he yanks Rygel out of his hoverchair and tucking him under one arm, tears back out of the room leaving the 2 women staring after them in silence. A concerned look crosses Chiana’s face and suddenly she reaches for her mouth - and pulls a long red hair out)

(cut to the area where the operations center of the spiral ship and Moya’s Command are fused. Neeyala is there with her technicians as she and John prepare to work together on finding a way to separate the ships)

Neeyala: We enter conventional space within 30 microts. Once clear, spiral hard, 71 degrees, vector briko.

John: (via comm) Roger. Copy that. (cut to John in his module, flipping switches in preparation for take off. Rygel is in the rumble seat behind him with Neeyala’s purse-sized, silver data recorder. He's fidgeting while John talks Top Gun talk) Thanks for the intel. This is Farscape 1 - Ya'll leave the light on for us.

And with that, the Farscape 1 launches from Moya and out into the wall of the wormhole. It then continues on and enters the wormhole itself. The ride is like a rollercoaster with square wheels rocketing down a narrow, watery tunnel. Rygel is, quite sensibly, terrified.

Rygel: What's happening?

John: It's your basic ass-kickin' wormhole Ryg. How ya' doin' back there?

Rygel: (his voice is hoarse and quivery) Lou-sy!

John: (cool and in his element) Excellent. Turn on that alien gizmo - maximum power. (Rygel does, and the thing begins ticking like a clock. The ride through the wormhole instantly goes from the harrowing to the sublime. Silence descends on the module and it glides like a swan on still water. The speed of passage through the wormhole seems somewhat decreased, or at least more controlled)

Rygel: (with quiet dead) Are we - dead?

John: (with quiet awe) Ooohhh no... Rygel you know what this is?

Rygel: No.

John: The Holy Grail. The Zone - we are in the effin' zone man. This is the dirty little secret of the universe. It all works if you know how to use it.

Rygel: (with fearful awe and no trace of grand designs for once) Can these things take us - home?

John: In a heartbeat -if you know where you're going.

(and while John and Rygel ride the Universal Superhighway - D'Argo continues to tear out sensory connections in the neural clusters back on Moya. Aeryn comes to find him, calling his name as he enters)

Aeryn: D'Argo! D'Argo! Pilot has been unconscious for over an arn now.

D'Argo: (annoyed as he sits down, panting from his exertions) Well why didn't you stop me earlier!

Aeryn: Well somehow I have a feeling this isn't about him anymore.

D'Argo: I'm sorry... I'm angry with myself because I can almost forgive her.

Aeryn: (she makes herself comfortable for a chat) Why don't you?

D'Argo: How can I trust Chiana with my heart? Can you trust Crichton again?

Aeryn: (pensively) He trusts these aliens.

D'Argo: We know nothing about them.

Aeryn: I think wormholes blind him.

D'Argo: Well at least he has a hobby.

Aeryn: Help me keep an eye on it. (so much for their relationship discussion which at this point is interrupted anyway by a strange hissing sound that is growing louder. D'Argo looks down into a vertical shaft that neural conduits follow up through Moya’s body, and yelps with alarm as a huge, snakelike creature shoots out of it and past them as it continues up the shaft) What the frell was that?

D'Argo: (somber) Zhaan told Stark she saw a serpent. She said that it was an omen for her.

Aeryn: (unnerved) Did that look like it was aiming for Zhaan?

(cut back to the Farscape 1 gliding through the liquid tunnel of the wormhole. The thrill is gone for Rygel now as he counts off the module hitting the quantum space equivalent of speed bumps)

Rygel: Wormhole. (quantum speed bump) Normal space. (quantum speed bump) Wormhole. (big moan of boredom) What are we doing here?

John: Making 17 loops to their one. Each time we lap 'em, it calibrates their position in the slower wall of the wormhole.

Rygel: Engrossing. Who cares? (he flicks through the data the silver device is recording) It's only collecting images - none of which mean anything!

John: (patiently piloting his ship) Well you gotta know how deep the doo-doo is Ryg, if you're gonna dig your way out.

Rygel: Next gap is the big one right?

John: Yep.

Rygel: Why don't we just escape?

John: Does it ever bother you? Being selfish?

Rygel: It's self-preservation - and no.

John: What about our friends?

Rygel: What friends? We were thrown together against our will and we're all just trying to make the best of it until we can get the chance to screw the others and get what we want. (there is a documentable iota of truth in this) I vote out at the next gap.

(cut back to Moya, Pilot’s Den, Pilot still sits, dead to the world while Stark keeps watch. Zhaan has come and stands with her face next to his as she moves one hand softly over his lips and nose and cheeks. Pilot comes sleepily to life)

Pilot: (mumbling in a tiny, groggy voice) Pa'u Zotoh...

Zhaan: Hello Pilot. Soon you must deploy the docking web to rescue Crichton and Rygel.

Stark: You are masterful with him. (well most things work better than yelling at someone to work now and die later - it's called 'catching more flies with honey than with vinegar')

Zhaan: I am but a servant. This you will learn.

Stark: I could never replace you.

Zhaan: Stark you must. For me - you must remain here and minister these souls. I'm relying on it.

Stark: But I love you.

Zhaan: If I did not feel the same and more - could I ask this sacrifice of you?

Aeryn: (breaking in via comm) Zhaan, I need you to meet me in command.

Zhaan: It must wait Aeryn. We are about to deploy the docking web.

Aeryn: (cut briefly to her as she moves through a corridor on Moya) No - your omen, the serpent - is anyone else meant to see it? (Zhaan looks away from Stark and Pilot, apprehensive)

(cut back to the Farscape 1 as the little white death pod hits the large gap that Neeyala had pointed out to John earlier)

John: And the big gap. Exit's clearly marked. Normal space. (Rygel grabs his chance, he makes some alteration to the silver device and all at once the module hits severe turbulence) Hey! Whoawhoawhoa! Keep your hands off those controls! (he reaches back to try and restrain the Hynerian but Rygel, for some reason, has decided he'd rather get off the wormhole merry-go-round God-knows-where than return to Moya)

Rygel: You have no right to make decisions for me! (a struggle ensues as John takes his hands off the modules controls to try and get the device away from Rygel, who fends him off with his teeth. The careening module bursts out of the wormhole through its wall and into normal, black space. Rygel is triumphant) We're free! Escape! Save our lives! (but John's in no mood to run off with Rygel, and says grimly as he takes a moment to get the module under control-)

John: Guido - we are goin' back! (this time he goes for Rygel with something that's hard to bite - his elbow. With his right hand on the modules joystick, he delivers several vicious blows to Rygel’s face with his left elbow. The Hynerian flops about helplessly under this assault and finally drops the silver device. John stares straight ahead and grits as he aims for the wormhole-) Son of a bitch!

Rygel: (pitifully) You - broke my nose. (and it's bleeding profusely green)

John: (angrily) You ain't got a nose Guido! You got slits! (at that moment the module lurches in that particular way things do when they are hit by a gravity beam. Rygel and John both yelp before John calls cheerily out to their shipmates, as of nothing unusual is going on in the module-) Farscape 1 to Moya - positive contact with the docking web! Hey nice catch guys!

Rygel: (in a painful growl) I won't forget this Crichton - I swear you've attacked me for the last time!

John: You brought it on yourself, rugrat.

(cut to the place where Moya’s Command meets the operations center of the spiral ship. Aeryn and Zhaan are questioning Neeyala about the serpent. Aeryn, with her usual finesse, has Neeyala’s head pinned against a control console. Zhaan seems to be OK with this)

Neeyala: (the gills on her head are partially flared) You delay my preparations for Crichton’s data! The serpent is harmless!

Aeryn: Less than convincing. Try again.

Neeyala: I never imagined you'd encounter this beast - otherwise I would have issued warning! You must believe me!

Zhaan: How can we Neeyala? Look at what you've done to our ship! (well gee Zhaan - look what Moya's done to HER ship - we mean really! Pilot shouldn't have parked at a tunnel exit y'know. At any rate, Neeyala is justifiably angered by this and squirms free of Aeryn with the sudden agility of a fish. She then faces the Sebacean and Delvian, her gill quills exposed and ready)

Neeyala: (spitting mad) What I have done? (there's a long pause as the 3 women size each other up and Neeyala catches her breath) It is YOU who have destroyed my life’s endeavor whilst I have suffered your probing, your confusions AND your smell. (noting Aeryn’s hand on her gun) Do you not think that my bristles contain enough poison to dispatch you all? (she retracts the quills, but the gills stay flared) Yet, when I fail to overload what are clearly inferior intellects with a drist of needless information - YOU - bring weapons to bear! Kill me if you will - see how you fare on your own!

Aeryn: Do you feel better? Now - about the serpent.

Neeyala: (exceedingly pedantic) The creature you have seen - exists exclusively inside wormholes. Corporeal only when the generator shifts are phase present.

Aeryn: Which one would have to do to repair it.

Neeyala: I doubt it even senses us. Be less alarmed. (and at that moment Chiana and Jool enter the Command at high speed, screaming. Especially the Dominatrix, whose bravado seems restricted to the intellectual laying of waste - she's hanging onto the alley whore - WE MEAN CHIANA - and trying to hide behind her)

Chiana: (screaming at Jool) SHUT UP! WOULD YOU SHUT UP?

Zhaan: What happened?

Chiana: (terrified as Jool shrieks hysterically) Something really weird! And-and I tried to shoot it when- (Jool continues to yammer and Chiana, Aeryn and Zhaan yell "SHUT UP!!" - the power of 3 seems to work and Jool stops abruptly)

Zhaan: (it isn't hard to guess what they saw) Neeyala said the serpent doesn't even know we're here. (perhaps not, but it certainly knows the white pillars of Neeyala’s ship are there - for now it appears again, levitating weirdly in the air and wending its way straight at them around the structural elements of the spiral ship. It's flat and its sides are lined with tiny millipede-like legs. Jool screams with horror as it seems to look right at them, and nearby the plugs on the old defense screen panels from the Zelbinion begin to sag and melt. Aeryn fires a shot or two at the wormhole worm and it spirals off out of sight. She then turns a very baleful stare towards Jool but before a word can be said or blood can be shed, Chiana does the redhead a favor and claps her hand over her mouth. A distant roar like wind is heard and Neeyala looks unnerved)

(cut to one of Moya’s small subpassageways as mist blows through it like ghosts and D'Argo and Stark run into each other. They're tense)

D'Argo: I thought you were with Pilot.

Stark: I thought you were in the neural cluster.

D'Argo: Filtration's down on tier 1. You can't even breathe in there!

Stark: Junctions are frying everywhere. Pilot can't stop it.

D'Argo: Well, you had better tell that 4-armed, bug eyed, whiney little slijot to GET HIS DREN TOGETHER! (same to you wiener-head!)

Stark: IT'S NOT HIM! THE STRESSES ON MOYA ARE FRYING JUNCTIONS EVERYWHERE! (he opens a circuit box that reveals charred wiring) She's dying D'Argo - The wormhole is killing her. (D'Argo blinks)

(cut to later, John and Rygel have returned to Moya and Rygel is with Zhaan in her lab, his nose slits newly bandaged. While she bustles about, he's picking out a scalpel from a tray)

Zhaan: Do you hope someday to be Dominar, Rygel?

Rygel: (he starts, and looks over his shoulder at her) I am still Dominar! Always Dominar!

Zhaan: (she comes to stand next to him) I mean ruling from a throne, instead of a throne sled.

Rygel: They'll never know if I kill Crichton.

Zhaan: But you will. (she holds out her hand and Rygel, with a long rumble of disgust, hands over the scalpel) Fool the others if you like. But I see the larger goodness in a small Hynerian. Separating this alien ship from Moya must be your first priority Rygel.

Rygel: (grudgingly) Have I ever told you that I appreciate your counsel?

Zhaan: (as she gives his earbrow a firm stroke which causes him to shiver with pleasure) Continuously - by accepting it.

(cut to John, sitting alone with Neeyala’s device. He's looking into it as you would an old-fashioned slide viewer, watching the images it has captured. Some are familiar, M'lee’s jungle, the Orican’s castle, the shadow depository, Skykara - many others are not identifiable)

John: (murmuring) It's amazing the number of species picked up by Neeyala’s gizmo. (Abruptly the scene shifts to Johns Head. He sits there on the hood of a yellow convertible, watching the images flash by on the screen of a drive-in movie theatre. Pilot’s homeworld, Aquara, Litigara, Dam-Ba-Da Depot, the Gammak base, the Royal Planet... Behind him in the passenger seat of the convertible, sits Scorpius/Harvey, with a sour expression on his face) Thousands of cultures spread out across the galaxy.

Scorpius/Harvey: (peevishly) I resent you calling me here at a whim.

John: That's the way it works Harvey. You don't like it, I can toss you back in the dumpster. (nearby the dumpster, glowing with hellfire from within, opens its lid and emits a long growly belch) Do you think Scorpy's still alive? (Scorpius/Harvey sits there sullenly and makes no response. John asks more pointedly) Do you think - Scorpius - is - still - alive?

Scorpius/Harvey: (grudgingly) Without a doubt.

John: What's he doing with the information he stole from my brain?

Scorpius/Harvey: The knowledge placed there by the Ancients, is by now, centerpiece of a sprawling new research facility.

John: If he masters wormhole technology, what will he use it for?

Scorpius/Harvey: (with dry sarcasm) Faster delivery of pizzas. (he's been in Johns Head way too long. Going native)

John: Neeyala thinks it's possible we can separate the ships. But only one will survive. We have to pick which one.

Scorpius/Harvey: Yes, it's a shame about Moya. She'll be fondly remembered.

John: It's not a done deal! (Scorpius/Harvey opens the car door and gets out to confront John like an angry date)

Scorpius/Harvey: (outraged) Did you call me here to talk you out of your guilt?

John: No. It's just - the information amassed inside their ship...

Scorpius/Harvey: (he marches over so hiss vehemently into Johns ear-) No contest! I sit here inside your feeble brain - listening to the arguments bounce off the hollow spaces! How could you not choose science over a beast of burden? You disgust me John! (he turns away from John and leans against the grill of the convertible with his arms crossed, pouting, as he says quietly) I long for the dumpster.

The scene shifts back to reality as John continues to watch the images flash before his eyes. The funerary planet and a Scarran are among them. It is revealed that John is sitting in Pilot’s Den. He lowers the silver device as Pilot moans fitfully in his unhappy sleep and the voice of Scorpius/Harvey echoes in Johns ears-

Scorpius/Harvey: Pilot and Moya are to die John. Take the wormhole knowledge that's fallen in your lap and call it day! (John silently lifts the device to his eye again and raptly gazes at its fleeting images)

(cut to later. John, D'Argo, Rygel and Zhaan, plus Jool and Neeyala are gathered to discuss their next move. Rygel has the best revenge on John he could hope for - they're on the same side. The reactions to Johns news that only one ship will survive and his proposal are swift and heated)

D'Argo: (furious) I cannot believe what I am hearing!

John: Facts, D'Argo - that's all.

Zhaan: How is this even a choice?

Rygel: Because some of us want to live!

Stark: If we use starburst to-

John: (cutting Stark off) What? You-you didn't get slammed against the wall hard enough the last time?

D'Argo: So we recover the data from the precious ship, and leave in Moya!

Neeyala: Our craft itself is the knowledge base repository.

John: The ship is one giant computer chip. It's all or nothing.

Zhaan: Then nothing. We will never abandon Moya while I am still alive.

Rygel: Frelling martyr! (Moya and the spiral ship lurch and rumble as they hit another segment in the wormhole)

Stark: Why not separate in one of these gaps?

Jool: We need the density of the wormhole wall to help pull us apart. Do you have only one good ear also? (she huffs and rolls her eyes) I'm not dying just because a ship can eat a nd crap. (Moya and the spiral ship hit the second quantum speed bump and she looses her footing and falls over a box with a girly little shriek. Everyone ignores her)

D'Argo: Okay - so - we separate. What then?

Neeyala: One vessel slides into the wormhole core, maintaining a chance of enduring. The other, tumbles uncontrolled through the wormhole wall into normal space - to be atomized by differentials in speed and density.

Zhaan: It is still not a choice. Moya and Pilot are living beings. They must be afforded every opportunity.

John: (offering evidence that Moya’s chance of survival in the wormhole core are slim -thus making the spiral ship the logical choice as the one to pin hopes of survival on) Zhaan - the biomechanoid parts on my ship were fried. (or were they fried by the tumble through the wormhole wall?)

Neeyala: (there is a note of regret in her tone) Calculations indicate that your Leviathans design will work against her survival.

Zhaan: Forgive me Pathfinder Neeyala, but I do not count you as unbiased.

Rygel: Hah! Like you are! You know what you and Pilot have in common besides big eyes? You're both dying! And now you want to take us with you! (John has his ball which he now aims at Rygel, hitting him square in the belly which effectively shuts him up for a moment) OOF!

John: Can it F Lee! (but, having silenced F Lee - he does Johnny Cochran) Zhaan - Pilot is unconscious. Moya’s nexus system is so backed up the Roto-Rooter man couldn't get it-

Zhaan: (cutting him off) I know the litany John. How desperate you must be for this wormhole knowledge. (she ought to know)

John: Unfair.

D'Argo : You place your obsession above the lives of your friends. (he ought to know)

John: What?

Stark: What have these strangers done to so earn your trust? (Stark has the experience of being such a stranger - he oughta know)

Zhaan: We must check the back-up systems. I need to know that Pilot and Moya are truly beyond hope. Let's go. (she and D'Argo leave. John and Neeyala exit as well, leaving Rygel with Jool to exact yet more revenge)

Rygel: You want to know what really happened to your cousin? What Crichton won't tell you?

(cut to Zhaan as she moves down one of Moya’s narrow subpassageways. She hears someone crying and then Chiana, who's been there weeping alone, approaches her)

Chiana: How you feelin'?

Zhaan: You missed the debate.

Chiana: Th-that's what I wanted to talk to you about - I feel guilty.

Zhaan: What possibly for?

Chiana: (tortured) I-I love Pilot and I-I love Moya - but I don't want to die here.

Zhaan: There is nothing wrong with a decision of the heart child. In the time that is left, use your mind to satisfy your soul that it is correct. (Chiana breaks down in heartbroken sobs and Zhaan takes her in her arms and offers the young Nebari the comfort of a safe place to shed her tears)

(cut to John as he and Aeryn meet in passing. He's enterilng and she's exiting the maintenance/hangar bay)

John: Hey - how'd you go?

Aeryn: Ah well, if it wasn't Moya, we wouldn't be having this conversation. (so she's on the side of John and Neeyala too)

John: Yeah it's the same everywhere. Total meltdown.

Aeryn: I'm going to take a run through the ion backwash chamber, see if there's anything I can do.

John: Hey - you all right?

Aeryn: No. (as she speaks the word, Moya rumbles over a quantum speed bump and a nearby valve begins to blow off vapor. Aeryn continues on her way while John goes to deal with the valve - by beating at it when it won't readily rotate. As he does so - Jool appears, unseen and toting a pulse rifle. She looks a tad vengeful. her red hair is REALLY red now. not redhead red - something closer to primary red. She brings the gun to bear on Johns back - but she isn't familiar with the weapon and, reminiscent of Johns first try with one - instead of firing, it beings to emit a high-pitched whine. John turns around and acts like a jerk)

John: What the hell are you doin'? And what happened to your hair? It's red. (Jool fumbles with the gun, unlike Johns first try, she manages to prevent it blowing up and brings up the muzzle again) You're not planning to-

Jool: Yes. (she fires, with a little squeal of alarm as she startles herself almost as much as John is alarmed. The shot is wild and he ducks while she tries to get the gun under better control)

John: What the hell are you tryin' to do?

Jool: You lied to me. You butchered my cousins brain so you could steal a wellot of his neural fluid? (she advances on him as he desperately seeks cover. Several shots are fired as she speaks. Good thing shooting isn't an intellectual skill) A member of the intellectual elite. 16 advanced degrees. Traded - for the likes of you? (but as she steps around to where she last saw him duck to - she finds that not only is he not there, but that he used the few seconds he had out of her sight to retrieve his own gun and he now reappears with it, trained upon her)

John: Cut it out lady.

Jool: If we're to perish - then at least you'll die first. (and with that, she pulls the trigger. But her shot is wide again and hits the little ship Pilot brought aboard for D'Argo earlier. Jool’s shot hits its defence shield and dissipates, but as it does so, the shimmer of the energy field reveals a blue triangular light for a moment on its side. And D'Argo sees it too, for he has entered the bay behind Jool and now uses his whip-like tongue to stun her. She falls to the floor, senseless)

D'Argo: I thought you were good with women.

John: I am.

D'Argo: Did you see what happened when she fired at the ship?

John: Actually no. I was looking at the - pulse rifle.

D'Argo: (he reaches out to the ship and passes one hand over the margin of its defense field) There's a small gap in the force field - (his hand makes contact with the right spot, the blue triangle glows again - and the force-field shuts down) which unsurprisingly, is the key to its access. (then he turns away from the little ship and back to John) Now, John - (he pats the human companionably and expresses his wishes for no further excitement) - we're trapped in this - varn of a wormhole, Pilot's unconscious, Moya is dying - and my son has slept with my betrothed. (she was actually more of an intended than a betrothed - but we understand that to him it's all rhetoric as he indicates Jool) Lock - this woman - up.

(cut to the operations center of the spiral ship where Neeyala is making poor Shreena’s day worse than it already has been)

Shreena: (as she closes the access panel on the phaztillion generator and turns to Neeyala who's just come to her with an unpleasant duty assignment) Entreaties, Pathfinder.

Neeyala: (there's a tone of real sorrow in her voice) I do not enjoy sending you to your death youngling. But options are depleted.

Shreena: (beseechingly) I want to live.

Neeyala: More important, do you want your family do live? You know what happens to ours should this ship fail to return.

Shreena: (after a long pause) Will you tell them?

Neeyala: That you thought of them, to the end. Attention now Shreena. Time is limited. These creatures - I will distract them. They must not know your true mission. (Shreena nods silently and turns back to the generator. There is the sound of it powering up under her hand)

(cut to one of Moya’s dark, narrow subpaassages. Chiana is there with a tool, inspecting one of Moya’s circuit panels. As she steps away from it, it shorts out before her very eyes and a curse of frustration escapes her)

Chiana: FRELL! (cut to soon after. She has summoned her shipmates to the subpassage where they re-evaluate their position without the input of spiral ship aliens or red-headed prima donnas. Chiana gives her grim report) I checked this panel and it was fine. But before I had a chance to close it, it shorted out. There are dozens more just like this on this tier.

Rygel: Then why are we standing here? That hatch could blow!

Chiana: (clearly not liking what she has to say) He's right - functioning DRDs are overmatched. (Aeryn looks at John but the wormhole-hugger wisely keeps his mouth shut this time and lets the others hash it out) There's no way we can repair all the damage.

Zhaan: (she's gasping for air as she speaks) Let us not forsake our friends until we are - undeniably clear that- (but she's interrupted as Moya and the spiral ship hit another quantum speed bump that causes them all the stagger and steady themselves in the cramped space. Zhaan falls backwards and Stark catches her - but she has fainted. There's a long moment of silence in the dark tunnel which echoes the shrinking lives of Moya and Pilot before Aeryn says flatly-)

Aeryn: Well that settles it then. We will go with Neeyala - and we will abandon Moya.

(cut to soon after. Moya and the spiral ship continue their uncontrolled drift on the edge of the wormhole while Stark tends to Zhaan in her lab. She's regained consciousness but is in despair. The tableaux they present is like a reverse Pieta, with Zhaan in her long blue shawl being cradled by Stark)

Zhaan: I have failed my purpose Stark.

Stark: You protect, heal, give hope.

Zhaan: This ship and her Pilot are to die.

Stark: As do all things. Once out of the wormhole, you will heal in the soil of a fertile planet. And one day - your gifts will again help others.

(cut to Chiana, sitting alone on the floor in the middle of a dim, side corridor of Moya. She is silent as she looks around in dull shock, her cheeks are wet with tears. D'Argo approaches and crouches down a short way from her)

D'Argo: I cannot take you back Chiana. But I won't leave you alone in pain. (she makes no reply but to continue staring into space)

(cut to the place where Moya’s Command and the operations center of the spiral ship are fused. Neeyala is on Moya’s side with Aeryn)

Neeyala: Have you - ever been responsible for another’s death Officer Sun?

Aeryn: (oh lord yes... she looks up from what she's doing) Yes I have.

Neeyala: This is my first time.

Aeryn: Did you know your crew well?

Neeyala: Enough to steel my determination. On their memory, I will not fail.

Up in the cavernous Den of Pilot, John sits alone with his unconscious friend. He's sitting on a catwalk that spans the abyss out of wich Pilot’s station rises, with his feet dangling over the edge and watching the infernally mesmerizing images on Neeyala’s recording device flick past his eyes. Many are the same ones he's seen, some are places he hasn't seen. The Proprietor, the little trelkez and the blue jungle of the Tavlek homeworld flash by. He speaks to the friend who last he took so for granted, but who now can no longer hear him -

John: Pilot you should see all these cultures - that you could touch with one wormhole. (he looks up from the pictures) Man I wish you were goin' with us. (he lowers to device and without looking back at Pilot says louder-) Hey Pilot - (horribly, Pilot responds with a little moan) I'm sorry. (Pilot’s lips move as he moans again, so sick, as if he's trying to say something) I'm so sorry. (regretfully) Could'a, would'a, should'a.

Should'a should'a - but the banal allure of planet after planet, place after place, culture after culture calls, and as his golden friend sits dying, he raises the silver device to his eye again. Suddenly something familiar flicks past his vision - she stops the projector, reverses it, then forwards it again - slowly and stops at one image. An image that represents Earth in this universal parade - and whose flat black and white mindlessness seems somehow appropriate. it's a still from a 3 Stooges skit - Larry getting beaned by his buddies, Moe and Curly.

But the full crescendo of the angels chorus for John is abruptly cut off by a hissing sound - and up from the depths beneath Pilot’s station, flies the wormhole worm. It has a big triangular head and there's no doubt of its ability to see him since only Johns quick reflexes prevent him from being traumatically castrated by it as it attacks. In his scramble to escape the monster, John kicks the projector away, it bangs up against the base of Pilot’s station and appears to short out amid a shower of sparks.

But John is too busy with the 20 foot long snake/worm coiling eerily in midair before him to care about the Stooges just now. It dives for him again and he hits at it, which deflects the strike but throws him off balance as well, and he goes tumbling off the catwalk, into the abyss. His luck holds for another moment though as he grabs onto the edge of the catwalk. The worm twists sinuously in the air above him and prepares to strike again. John, hanging on for dear life with all 10 fingertips, can't do much but look around to confirm the desperation of his predicament and yell hopelessly into the great lonely space -

John: AERYN! HEY!

But no-one hears his cry and the worm dives towards him, its jaws agape.

TO BE CONTINUED

Part 2: Wait for the Wheel
The episode opens in Pilot's Den where John is hanging onto a catwalk by his fingertips over the abyss that yawns below Pilot's station. The Great Navigator is unconscious as the giant, razor-toothed wormhole worm prepares to dispatch John. But luckily John still has his gun. Thanks to lots of working out since he hasn't got like job or anything - plus a healthy dose of adrenaline - he is able to hang onto the catwalk with one hand while he unholsters and aim his weapon.

John: (to his often temperamental gun) Wynona - don't fail me now! (he fires several shots at the red glowing belly of the worm - which opts to streak away in search of less testy prey. John reholsters his gun and hoists himself back onto he catwalk. He quickly moves to Pilot's station - and ignoring Pilot who's already been written off for dead - picks up Neeyala’s data recorder with the wormhole images on it which was broken during his struggle with the worm, John is annoyed) Crap.

(cut to soon after. Aeryn and Zhaan have joined John in the Den. Aeryn is examining Neeyala’s device as John talks excitedly and Zhaan is poking around on catwalk)

John: I'm tellin' you Aeryn! It was from Earth! A television transmission!

Aeryn: What? You mean, like that Yoda from Dagobah?

John: (Aeryn eyes him with all due bafflement as he explains by imitating the Stooge Holler) Nonononono! Three Stooges! Whoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoop!

Aeryn: (setting the device aside with a clunk) Well whatever was in there, it's not any use to us now.

John: Do you know what this means?

Aeryn: (flatly) No I don't.

John: It means that some part of this wormhole is 10, 20, 30 - 40 light years at most - away from Earth! It's doable - I could get home.

Zhaan: (as Aeryn stares at John, speechless. Zhaan delivers a perfunctory response that is artfully neutral in its carefully worded blandness - and yet right to the point) Amidst our misfortune, I'm pleased for you John.

John: (annoyed, but accepting the gentle rebuke) Yes. I know - selfish. (and right on cue to remind him of their misfortunes - Moya and the spiral ship hit one of the quantum speed bumps indicating they are passing another segment of the wormhole as John stands and walks away from them to sulk a little) Forget it.

Zhaan: Where is Neeyala’s injured crew member?

John: (wearily) What are you talking about?

Zhaan: (indicating a puddle of thick white fluid on the catwalk) Well this is their blood.

John: (with a big sigh) No - serpent blood.

Zhaan: No - no this is Neeyala’s species blood John.

John: (impatient) Zhaan - there was no one here.

Aeryn: What about their crewmember who died - lost a limb - during starburst? Could the serpent have done that?

Zhaan: (hesitant) Well - possibly, but why would they lie?

John: (irritated) Yo! Both of you! Even if Mr Wiggles DID chew on that guy - there - was no - one here!

Aeryn: (unlike John she harbors no fantasies about the alien researchers) Their phaztillion generator - what does it do?

John: (impatient and pedantic) It alters the phase physicality of an object- (Aeryn’s gaze is fixed upon him. He guesses what her next question will be and answers it) Conceivably.

Aeryn: We wouldn't be able to see it.

John: Invisible.

(cut back to the operations center of the spiral ship where Neeyala is systematically sending her crew on a suicidal mission to ensure the survival of the spiral ship and its data - at Moya’s expense. Neeyala and Kreetago are by the phaztillion generator. Kreetago looks sick and exhausted)

Kreetago: (slowly) I grow weak Neeyala.

Neeyala: They must continue to believe that their Leviathan deteriorates faster than it is. Even the remotest hope will cause them to rally to her. (Kreetago looks at his own refection in the polished silver rods of he phaztillion generator and laying his hand upon it - his body shimmers to invisibility) Shut down their thermal condensers. Losing ability to regulate temperature should convince them to abandon ship.

Kreetago: (only his quiet voice, filled with resignation to his fate, is heard as he heads for Moya) I will do what needs to be done. Including destroying them... if I must.

(cut to soon after, although John's suspicions have been aroused, he remains loath to abandon his chance at share in the wormhole data of the alien researchers. He wants more proof before making a decision. He goes to meet with his allies for leaving Moya - Chiana and Rygel - in the neural clusters)

Chiana: (reluctant to commit herself to a sticking with a dying ship) There's no way to tell if this is sabotage.

Rygel: (simply pragmatic) Doesn't matter anymore if it is. Moya's frelled and our only option is to go on Neeyala’s ship.

John: And what if they are screwing us? (they're jostled by Moya as she rumbles over a segment in the wormhole)

Rygel: Especially if they've screwed us - means they have the upper claw.

John: Nah - I'm with D'Argo on this. I think we need to know the truth.

(cut to Aeryn, D'Argo, Stark and Zhaan in th maintenance bay where they quietly discuss the new information and suspicion it has aroused)

D'Argo: I do not trust Crichton’s judgment.

Aeryn: Agreed. He claims to have seen Earth again, and I'm sure he's still talking to Scorpius. (D'Argo rumbles wit concern at this)

Stark: We all know where Rygel’s loyalties lie.

D'Argo: Sadly, Chianas too.

Zhaan: All right. Then whether they agree or not, we must stick to plan.

(the scene begins to shift between the two groups of Moya’s crew as they carry on their hushed discussions separately. The conversations mesh with each other in terms of the means each group agrees upon to achieve their objective without interference from those who may be prejudiced against their POV)

John: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) First thing we do - everybody acts normal.

Aeryn: (with the anti-alien researcher group) Don't tip them off - surprise may be our only ally.

John: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) If Neeyala’s people aren't sabotaging Moya - we'll go with them.

Aeryn: (with the anti-alien researcher group) If they are - we defeat them.

Chiana: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) I'll repair some of the nexus points...

Stark: (with the anti-alien researcher group) ...so they're isolated from Moya’s main systems.

Chiana: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) That way, if they fry again...

Stark: (with the anti-alien researcher group) We'll know it's them.

Rygel: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) Do you actually believe they're using their generator to turn themselves invisible?

D'Argo: (with the anti-alien researcher group) ...it would explain the sequence of decompressions.

John: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) It's geographically consistent with someone running...

D'Argo: (with the anti-alien researcher group) ...from place to place.

John: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) Which leads us to the blood in Pilot's Den.

Zhaan: (with the anti-alien researcher group) The cavern beneath must be searched.

John: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) Can we rely on you Rygel? (the Hynerian grunts his affirmation)

Stark: (with the anti-alien researcher group) Can we rely on Rygel?

Rygel: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) All right. But not for you -

D'Argo: (with the anti-alien researcher group) He has been on Moya the longest.

Rygel: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) - for Moya!

Aeryn: (with the anti-alien researcher group) Keep comms on restricted frequency. (she rises to heave)

John: (with the pro-abandoning Moya group) Switch comms to dekka. (he rises to leave)

Zhaan: (with the anti-alien researcher group) Neeyala?

Aeryn: (she turns to face her allies again) Neeyala - Neeyala is mine. First thing I want - (she gags) - to get from them - (she gags again) - is a head count. (she retches something up out of her mouth and stares at it with a look of pure, outraged revulsion on her face) What iS this?

Stark: (in a tone of calm disgust) She sheds. (he is referring of course, to Jool - who is sitting nearby, bound and gagged. Finding herself the momentary focus of attention, the redhead kicks and tries to scream her protests at their uncouth treatment of her)

(cut to soon after. John has come to the hangar bay and found that his module is leaking fluid onto the floor. He dabbles his fingers in it and sniffs at at - but he's interrupted by a hissing sound. Looking over his shoulder, he sees the access ramp of the little alien ship that D'Argo adopted, opening. John quickly pulls his gun, and begin to edge towards it. He's visibly relieved when D'Argo suddenly appears in its open doorway. John lowers his gun and D'Argo glares as they demand of each other in unison-)

John &D'Argo: What are you doing?

D'Argo: Well now that we've both asked -

John: (defensively, and cutting to what they're both really concerned about) I made 17 loops through the wormhole - fried the organic bits on my module. If we stick with Moya - she makes less than one. And I'm just looking for - anything. Now what the hell you doing?

(cut to moments later. D'Argo has answered John's question by taking him aboard the little spaceship. With a hydraulic hiss, a metal shield that covers the vessels main port opens - revealing an American-style drivers arrangement. John is tense and annoyed a he sits stiffly in the passenger seat while D'Argo has the drivers seat where he plays space roulette with its mysterious controls)

D'Argo: Formulating ideas.

John: (peevishly) Formulating ideas? Well here's an idea - since we know nothing about this craft how 'bout you stop pushin' buttons? (the Luxan blithely ignores him and hits another switch. A sound like a fan staring up is heard) All right. 2 for 2 - You're not still feeling a little suicidal are you?

D'Argo: Not in the least. Now this looks interesting - (he hits another button and there follows a high-pitched tone that ends in a satisfied clunk as green laser light begins to loop and strobe around part of the dashboard) Now what do you suppose it does?

John: So far - scare the crap outta me.

D'Argo: (dreamily) This ship feels somehow familiar to me.

John: (impatient) Yeah - you know we have a crisis goin' on out there? (look who's talking whoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoop)

D'Argo: (annoyed) I said I was formulating ideas.

John: (pissy) I heard you. (D'Argo unerringly switches the strobing green laser off)

D'Argo: (he heaves a big sigh and pauses before going on) Being on Moya - a fugitive - it's changed me.

John: (flippant) Well if you're not feeling suicidal now is a bad time for a mid-life crisis.

D'Argo: Chiana's a young woman. She needs attention. (she needs a kick to her pasty grey ass)

John: D'Argo - you were focused on your son. It's completely understandable.

D'Argo: Still, I neglected her. Do you know what troubles me the most? I did my best. I did the best I could - and it wasn't enough. I still lost them both. (we think you did Chiana a big favor - you showed her there are consequences to her actions)

John: My Grandmother used to say that life is - a great wheel. Sometimes it grinds you down into the mud - and other times it lifts you up into the light.

D'Argo: Are we strapped to this wheel?

John: That's a given. Point is - is that, most times you get a second chance. Just gotta wait for the wheel. (at that moment Rygel’s voice is heard calling to Aeryn via comm in the close confines of the little ships cockpit)

Rygel: (somberly) Aeryn, I'm 9 tiers below Pilot's Den. (cut to him in the abyss) I've ah, found the alien girl. Well, half of her. (he has indeed found the remains of Shreena, the researcher who did not want to die. She's been ripped in half at the waist and the upper half of her dangles from a snarl of cable) Looks like a serpents bite to me. (as he speaks, the scene shifts to Aeryn on Moya’s Command, standing near the forest of white pillars that marks the segue to the operations center of the spiral ship)

Aeryn: All right, well open the gills on her head, and carefully remove some of the needles.

Rygel: (cut back to him in the pit beneath Pilot's station as he gasps squeamishly) What in hezmana for?

Aeryn: (cut back to her on the Command) I like to know my enemy. (as Aeryn is talking, Zhaan enters the Command and marches purposefully past her, into the thicket of pillars, Aeryn calls after her-) Zhaan? (the Delvian ignores her and keeps going. .Aeryn takes off after her) Zhaan! (she catches up to her ailing shipmate and grabs her shoulder, but Zhaan unexpectedly turns on her. Zhaan’s physical strength, when she chooses to use it, is formidable and she pins Aeryn against one of the pillars, staring wildly at the former PK. Her normally blue eyes shave gone blood red - the sign of brain tissue breakdown in Delvians, as she cries-)

Zhaan: That woman was invisible when she was killed in Pilot's Den! Their betrayal - must be punished!

Aeryn: (calmly, making not move against the Delvian) Not like this Zhaan. It won't help Moya. (as if in agreement, Moya bumps gently over another segment of the wormhole and Zhaan drops to a squat on the floor)

Zhaan: (panting) I must control myself.

Aeryn: (looking down on her) It was a bad trade Zhaan - your health for mine.

Zhaan: (she looks up at Aeryn - her eyes are blue again) Don't undervalue yourself.

Aeryn: I'm just a soldier. (Zhaan rises and lays a hand on Aeryn’s cheek)

Zhaan: Don't underestimate yourself.

Aeryn: I'm being realistic.

Zhaan: Don't be afraid to understand yourself. We're not as different as you assume. Violent past, no faith in the future, and then a transformative experience aboard this very ship. My time grows short and yours stretches before you. Use it wisely. (Aeryn responds with a small smile of promise)

(cut to Stark in one of Moya’s secondary corridors. He has Jool with him as he works at a circuit panel. The redheads hands are still bound behind her back but she's ungagged and looking around with a scowl on her face as she says bitterly-)

Jool: A living ship... I've never heard of such a beast.

Stark: Which obviously means it can't exist.

Jool: (deeply sarcastic) Oh you've so figured me out.

Stark: (without looking up form his work) I'm not trying to. Be quiet please. The gag remains an option.

Jool: Is it true what the animal said? that you're all prisoners?

Stark: At some time or another - yes.

Jool: (on the verge of tears - but not so that you'd feel sorry for her. Her tone is petulant. Whiny. Narcissistic...) Great. Just great. I take a multi-civilization tour for my birthday and barely make it through the first stop. I lose my deposit. My cousins get murdered. I've been frozen for 22 cycles. I've been captured by degenerate aliens. Attacked by a huge serpent- (that's it - now she's gone and driven Stark into one of his Crazy Fits. He springs to his feet and starts coming at her - much to her justifiable alarm)

Stark: (nostrils flaring as he screams between clenched teeth) DEAD! ALL OF US - DEAD! My love - DEAD! My dreams - DEAD! You - DEAD! Me - DEAD! You dead! Me dead! You dead! Me dead! You dead! Me dead! (then - in a low, deadly, and completely insane tone he hisses) Your list is short and unworthy of entree to this ship of horror! Tortured by demons you can never know! Mocked by love that will never be! (okay NOW feel sorry for Jool. She sobs and tries to get away from the raving Banik Stykera as he leans over her and begins to unbuckle the mask that covers the incorporeal half of his face) Oh you want to cry young creature? I will show you something that will make you cry forever! (Jool lets loose with one of her metal-melting shrieks as she falls back onto the floor and it isn't clear if she get an eyeful of what lies beneath Starks mask or not - but we hope she did. At any rate, the panel Stark was working at abruptly shorts out with a series of brilliant flashes. Stark holds his mask to his face as he hastens back to it. Then he comms the others - panting) It's me - tier 5, hammond level. A circuit blew, but I had it off line. Someone was here! Invisible! Get ready!

(cut to soon after on Moya’s Command where Neeyala is coming clean with Aeryn, John and Zhaan)

Neeyala: The privilege of working with technology is guaranteed by our families. Should we fail to return this ship - they will all be executed.

Zhaan: Why didn't you just lie and tell us both ships could survive separation? We would have happily remained here and perished with Moya.

Neeyala: I did not wish to see you die. But - I incorrectly assumed that given the choice, you would take the rational option.

John: So - just to be sure, you helped things along. You cripple a living ship - and we jump at the chance to escape with you. I trusted you.

Neeyala: Your feelings for Moya and Pilot are matched by those for our families. (Zhaan looks pensive) Allow personal passions to cancel each other out - what's left?

Aeryn: (with a bitter snort) Wormhole technology!

Neeyala: Yes! Garnered at great cost. With potential beyond measure. Would you compare that with the lives of a ship and Pilot which, I assure you, are doomed anyway?

Zhaan: (softly) Moya lives, Neeyala. You misjudged her will - and ours.

Neeyala: Will - (she makes a gagging sound that might be something in her own language that is untranslatable - as opposed to one of Jool’s hairs) - is a poor substitute for beersian alloy when crushed by astronomical tidal forces! (we'll go out on a branch and guess this might be what the spiral ship aliens want wormhole technology for?)

Aeryn: That's still no excuse for sabotaging Moya. Stop Kreetago.

Neeyala: (primly stating her intentions) He carries no communications device. That would give him away. He will continue his mission until your ship is incapacitated.

Aeryn: Then we shall find a way to stop him.

As they speak, the scene shifts to somewhere down in Moya’s cargo bays. The floors are carpeted with chilly mist that is suddenly disturbed as if by someone walking through it. Sick, heavy breathing is heard as a circuit panel opens - and shorts out in a brief flare of light that plunges the bay into blackness. But as Stark had admonished them - the others are ready. And almost immediately, a little company of DRDs is present - along with D'Argo and Chiana.

D'Argo: (softly) DRDs - find this frelling bastard. (and with that - the little droids begin to emit sheets of green laser light that play in the air of the huge darkened room. When the light hits Kreetago’s body, a silhouette and break in the light is created)

Chiana: (impressed) Very krell, D'Argo! How'd you think of it?

D'Argo: (ignoring the question with the wisdom that older and wiser people sometimes have) Watch for disruption in the beams. (the alien researcher is suddenly caught in the green laser light. A wet sound alerts D'Argo to the fact that Kreetago has flared his gills and is primed for throwing off the poisoned bristles within) His needles! (and with that - Kreetago launches his defenses. D'Argo shows his prowess as a warrior by deflecting several of the needles with the flat of his Qualta - but Chiana is stung)

Chiana: MY LEG! (the Luxan uses his blade in its form as a gun to fire a couple shots at the retreating researcher) D'ARGO! I'M HIT!

D'Argo: (calling over his shoulder as he prepares to give chase to Kreetago) Tourniquet! It'll stop the poison!

Chiana: WITH WHAT? (D'Argo hesitates and then paces back to his former jellyroll, who's lolling on the floor screaming, and unceremoniously clamps his hand onto her thigh just about where Kreetago’s quill is sticking. He then drags her by the leg after him in pursuit of the spiral ship alien. Cut to moments later as they emerge into a corridor, also flooded with mist. They've stopped long enough for him to get carrying Chiana piggyback)

D'Argo: (pausing to scan the corridor and its nearby forks in both directions) He's out here somewhere.

Chiana: Where?

D'Argo: Don't look - listen! (and with that hey hear the wet sound of Kreetago’s gills spreading to fire another volley. Chiana screams - but D'Argo hones in on the sound and fires - 3 blasts of his Qualta, spread for maximum coverage. In the silence that follows, a white handprint appears suddenly on one of Moya’s corridor ribs - and then streaks downwards as Kreetago, still invisible, slides to the floor - dead)

(cut back to Moya’s Command where Zhaan is placing Neeyala in handcuffs. D'Argo hails Zhaan via comm)

D'Argo: (he sounds disgusted) Zhaan - Chiana's got one of their needles in her leg.

Zhaan: (she immediately comms Rygel) Rygel, do you still have the spikes from the alien corpse?

Rygel: (cut briefly to him as he floats along one of Moya’s corridors) Ye-es - why?

Zhaan: (urgently) Meet me in my lab now. (before she goes, she yanks Neeyala around to face her and says angrily) If this young girl dies, I will come back for you and I will most certainly lose any chance I have left of meeting my Goddess. (she makes for the door, but pauses briefly as the quiet is broken by a high-pitched whine followed by a pulsing alarm coming from Neeyala’s ship. But Aeryn and John are just entering so she continues on her way and lets them deal with it)

Aeryn: Explain.

Neeyala: The generator has reached optimization phase.

John: And what does that mean?

(cut to moments alter as the 3 of them hurry into the spiral ship. Neelyala's hands are still restrained behind her back)

Neeyala: Once activated, the power cell will engorge a final time. And when it releases - we'll find out if our ships are destined to separate.

John: Aeryn you want to hold off?

Neeyala: Impossible! Even now the reactor shuts down permanently! Listen-! (the woozy sounds of a power source fluctuating wildly can indeed be clearly heard over the generator alarm) My crew is dead - this is our one chance to avoid the certainty of joining them. (John responds by drawing his gun and Aeryn acquiesces by freeing Neeyala’s hands)

Aeryn: Go ahead. (the researcher immediately moves to a control panel)

Neeyala: Be aware, should our vessels disengage, the built-in timing favors yours being the one destroyed. (and with the phaztillion generator primed - she proceeds to set the timer for the final countdown to the blast of energy that hopefully will separate Moya and the spiral ship)

John: How long do we have?

Neeyala: Hard to discern with the damage. Maybe an arn, not more.

(cut to another discussion between some of Moya’s crew regarding their situation. This one takes place via comm between Rygel floating along one corridor and D'Argo and Stark in another)

Rygel: Ri-diculous! We tried starburst - everybody heaved!

D'Argo: (grim) Neeyala has fixed it so that when we separate, she enters the wormhole while Moya is ejected through the wall and into normal space.

Stark: (aghast) From hetch-impossible to a dead stop! Sub-atomic dispersal! (the 3 of them meet at a junction of corridors and they continue on together)

Rygel: (flatly determined) All perfect reasons to be on her ship, strapping in for the ride.

D'Argo: Starburst could rotate Moya so it's us who go into the wormhole.

Rygel: Where she'll get ripped apart from the stress. I've flown there, remember?

Stark: We voted Rygel.

Rygel: I didn't get to vote!

Stark: I was your proxy.

Rygel: Pilot's in a coma. Moya's half-decompressed. Nothing works - fine! I'll kill half an arn.

D'Argo: (to Stark) I want you to reconnect Pilot to Moya’s external senses.

Stark: The neural cluster? D'Argo we shredded those synapses!

D'Argo: It'll take all 3 of us. Splice and hook, nothing permanent - (with determination) - I want to give Pilot a chance.

Rygel: He's un-conscious! (he stops and D'Argo continues on past him)

D'Argo: Well, do your part! He'll be awake.

Rygel: What if we're not done when the time comes?

D'Argo: (he stops too and looks back at them) Then we race to the other ship.

(cut to Aeryn and John as they exit the Command)

John: We gotta seal all the chambers on the outer rim. Starburst is gonna spin us like a top. One decompression and we're vapor.

Aeryn: Once secure I'll overload Pilot with Moya’s adrenal secretions.

John: I really blew this one Aeryn.

Aeryn: Not done yet. (but at that moment their progress is halted by a familiar teakettle shriek. They hasten back he way they came to find Jool and Neeyala, who they'd left to keep each other company on the Command. Both are prevented from doing further mischief by handcuffs. They're under attack by the wormhole worm. Aeryn and John open fire and although the beastie doesn't like prey that fights back, it puts up resistance before streaking away) It didn't disappear. That's new. (Jool’s howls slowly subside)

John: 'Cos the generator's fully on, right?

Neeyala: Correct. We now share the serpents phase existence, and will, until separation. (Unbeknownst to our heroes - Jool’s yowls have softened the metal of Neeyala’s handcuffs)

John: It just keeps gettin' better - (he puts out a general comm alert) One-Adam-Twelve guys! The critter's part of our reality now - be careful out there!

Aeryn: I'll try and chase it to the outer rim. (she turns to leave and John makes to follow her out)

Neeyala: (she stops John with a furious shout) You do anything to upset the balance that I have set into place-

John: (furious back) ZIP IT LADY! You had your shot - we're takin' ours. (he stalks out)

Jool: (crying after him) You can't leave us tied up like this! (but he has, and so she sobs to herself miserably) What if that thing comes back?

(cut to Zhaan in her lab as she analyzes the quills of the spiral ship aliens. Chiana lays on the exam table while D'Argo hovers)

Zhaan: These are very similar to the quellian tyboars mating spikes. Pliable root, tensile fiber stalk, metalline venom tip.

D'Argo: Will she be all right?

Zhaan: Well I believe so. (she goes to Chiana and strokes her hair a little) But not if Rygel hadn't secured these other needles for antibody serum.

Chiana: I heard the plan, I'm ready to go! (she's feeling better and begins to sit up but Zhaan compels her to stay still)

Zhaan: Ah-ah-ah! The more your blood pumps, the more chance you'll make a liar out of me child. (as she steps away from Chiana, she stumbles and nearly falls but for D’Argo’s quick hand to steady her)

Zhaan: (smiling at him) Ever my protector.

D'Argo: It is not you that needs protecting. It's the rest of the universe I fear for. (Zhaan chuckles a little and they move aside to sit down, where they face each other)

Zhaan: When I was first incarcerated on this ship - wild and murderous - I could not conceive how I would survive. I heard a rumor that a Luxan warrior was a fellow prisoner. I actually prayed that the brute would succumb to hyper-rage and kill me. (she reaches out to touch his face lovingly) How ironic is that?

D'Argo: (reassuringly) There is a planet out there that will heal you. (Zhaan’s smile fades)

Zhaan: The intent is noble. The result is in the hands of the gentle Goddess. (she takes one of his hands in both of hers and raising it partway to her face, she bows her head down the rest of the way to lay her cheek against it)

(cut to Rygel and Stark in the neural clusters working to patch Pilot back in to Moya’s external sensors)

Rygel: (lugubriously) Too bad about Pilot. I liked him.

Stark: (nonchalant) He liked you too.

Rygel: (he stops working and moves closer to Stark) Hm? How do you know?

Stark: He told me. (Rygel gasps and eyes Stark)

Rygel: He did? (Stark grunts affirmatively without looking up from his work)

(cut back to the Command as John bounds in and up to Jool who's still sitting on the floor by the defense screen with her hands cuffed behind her back)

John: (he flashes a comm badge at her) Comms chip. (and with that - he tucks it between her boobs and proceeds to move around behind her to undo the cuffs)

Jool: What are you doing?

John: Deputizing you, debutante. See those lights? (he indicated the control panel from the spiral ship that's counting down to the Moment Of Truth) They're cycling faster. Hear that noise? (it's the alarm sound that goes with the flashing lights. "Ow!" Jool yips as John pinches her a little in his haste. Neeyala sits patiently nearby and watches them) Pitch is rising. At some point - we're out of time. (he pulls the redhead to her feet and prods her towards the beeping and blinking panel) I want you to make a judgment call. When you think it's gonna blow - you get us back here. (he presses a gun into her hands and turns to race back out. Jool stammers with nervous outrage at the dire task that's been thrust upon her)

Jool: What? I mean- I don't know how-

John: (he pauses, frustrated with her and with no time to argue) LOOK - princess! I know that this - TRIP - to Krugerland was not on your itinerary! But believe it or not - I know exactly how you feel. (Jool doubts it and glares back at him like a miffed society girl, the gun slung over her shoulder like a Gucci bag)

Jool: Don't presume to know anything about me! (John stomps back to her and yanks the gun up into firing position)

John: You hold this - steady - be more afraid of what you're aiming at. (he points emphatically at Neeyala)

Jool: (she begins blubbering a girly protest) I-I've never done anything like this before!

John: (as he makes to leave again) None of us have.

Jool: YOU KILLED MY COUSIN! (John must be getting tired of being accused of killing people he didn't because he whirls back to her in a fury)

John: NOT ON PURPOSE! He was a corpsicle and your other cousin - (he stops himself and continues in a quieter tone) - he didn't last half a minute defrosted.

Jool: (angry and despairing) Then why did I survive?

John: I don't know. You're not sick. Maybe they shanghaied you for body parts. You're the freebie.

Jool: Everything I have seen so far is despicable! (not having any time or inclination to argue - John throws both arms wide and shouts-)

John: WELCOME! To the Federation Starship - SS Buttcrack! (and with that, he turns around and administers a double slap to each of his own butt cheeks at her as he leaves)

And with that - the scene begins to shift at breakneck pace from one crew member to another as they call to each other via comm from all over Moya in a final, valiant attempt to deliver her and Pilot from their hate. The great ship is nearing the limits of her endurance in the wormhole, which, combined with the build-up of power to Neeyala’s phaztillion generator, causes her rot begin to vibrate and yaw ominously.

D'Argo: (fleeing down a subpassage) DECOMPRESSION! TIER 3!

Zhaan: (from another tilting corridor) IT'S ROLLING! INTERNAL AIRTIGHTS ARE GIVING WAY!

Stark: (from the neural clusters) ZHAAN! DO NOT ENTER Pilot's ACCESS CORRIDOR!

In Zhaan’s lab, Chiana lies alone on the table and fearfully watches the Delvians medicine vials and equipment rattle furiously in their trays.

D'Argo: (racing through a corridor whose lights are shorting out as he passes) VENT TIER 3 AND 4 AIR BLADDERS! BACK-PRESSURE THE HATCHES!

John: (in another hall) I'M 3 BIG MAN - YOU GO 4.

Zhaan: (her voice is heard on comm) HE'S GOING TO BE CUT OFF! DO SOMETHING!

Aeryn: (she meets John in the corridor as she enters form the direction he's going in) NO - BLOCKED! OUTER HULL RUPTURE! LONG WAY! (John turns and follows her back, offering a little good news in all this)

John: CHIANA'S OKAY!

Aeryn: SO I HEARD!

Back on the Command, the turbulence throws Neeyala to the floor as she stands up. Jool, monitoring the timer panel, wheels to face her but Neeyala knows how to deal with this one. She stares into the air over Jool’s head and shouts-

Neeyala: SERPENT! (Jool of course spins around to look behind her - screaming her Interion scream Neeyala cringes - but achieves the desired effect as the metal of her handcuffs softens further and drips...)

(cut to Aeryn and John as they run)

John: (using the moment to get a little flattery in) It's a good call on Rygel and the gill darts. Anybody ever tell you how good you are around here? (how about a compliment to Rygel who had to dig round in the gills of a dead alien and pull them out?)

Aeryn: Matter of fact, just recently. (at that moment, the wormhole worm, looking particularly large and ugly, glides around a curve in the corridor in front of them. They come to a screeching halt and open fire - but the monster doesn't back off this time and they beat a hasty retreat - bantering as they go)

John: GO ON! KEEP MOVIN'! I GOT A PLAN!

Aeryn: (despair) DON'T TELL ME YOU HAVE A PLAN!

John: WHAT'S WRONG WITH 'EM?

Aeryn: THEY NEVER WORK! (they duck into the maintenance bay)

John: Damn these doors - (they slam the big oval swivel door shut in the nick of time - and then stand there braced against it as the worm throws itself against it from the other side) THEY ALWAYS WORK!

Aeryn: Not the way you detail them!

John: Hey look! I get results! You're hung up on details!

Aeryn: YOUR PLANS NEVER WORK!

John: This way! (he jogs away from Aeryn and the door towards D’Argo’s little orphan alien ship and up its access tamp. Aeryn stops cold and demands suspiciously-)

Aeryn: How did this ship get open?

John: AERYN! GET IN HERE!

Aeryn: But we don't know anything about it!

John: AERYN! JUST GET IN HERE! (Aeryn looks back over her shoulder at the door which is being battered down by the worm)

Aeryn: This is wrong!

John: D'ARGO RUBBED THE DAMN THING! NOW GET IN! (the door swings open wide enough to admit the worm and Aeryn pounds up the gangplank into the little ship. John begins to flip switches and the ship comes lurching and beeping to life as the worm streaks for its open door - they're trapped)

Aeryn: CRICHTON - YOU IDIOT! (John scrabbles frantically at the cryptic cockpit controls as Aeryn pants and the worms tail whips against the side of the ship)

John: D'Argo found a force field here somewhere. Just gotta find the button- (and with only a little more frantic spinning around, trying to look for a likely control and watch the worm at the same time - he sees it - a Big Red Button - always a good choice when you want something to happen RIGHT NOW. He hits it just as the worm enters the ship, its trifold mandibles spread wide - and the force field comes on. The beast, half in and half out of the ship, is bisected. Luckily it isn't one of those worms that doesn't die when its cut in half and both pieces of it drop to the floor - quite dead. Aeryn and John catch their breath for a moment)

John: Idiot? Hah - world class plan.

Zhaan: (breaking in via comm) Why hasn't anyone vented tier 4s airbladders?

John: Zhaan - uh - sorry - we ran into a little problem here.

Zhaan: (cut to her as she speaks with despair and anger) The passageways beyond have opened to space. There is no way I can get to Pilot. Your excuses have failed him again John.

(cut to soon after as John seals one of Moya’s great oval doors and comms D'Argo)

John: That's it. All the outer chambers are sealed. How'd you go, Heavy D?

D'Argo: (cut to him elsewhere as he speaks over the hiss of vapor venting from an airbladder) The air bladders are completely vented. But we don't have enough back pressure to reverse the damage done on Pilot's quarters.

Rygel: (cut to him and Stark in the neural clusters) If - Pilot's dead...

Stark: Yes - we're out of here.

John: (cut to him back in his corridor) Aeryn! It's all you now.

Aeryn: (cut to her, wearing a black PK spacesuit and carrying a flashlight as she moves through darkened and dead parts of Moya) Link #4 - open to space.

Chiana: (cut to her, resting in Zhaan’s lab, as she follows Aeryn’s progress to Pilot) Only one more to go.

John: (cut back to him in his corridor) Jool! How's the timing?

(cut to Moya’s Command where the redhead stands studying the blinking, beeping timer)

Jool: I'm not sure.

John: (his voice on comm floats up from between her boobs) DO BETTER.

Jool: Faster. Maybe.

Neeyala: Approximately one third increase. Geometrically building.

Jool: (she eyes Neeyala and then turns back to the panel and says with satisfaction) The alien says I'm right.

Aeryn: (cut back to her in the dark sections of Moya as she continues her grim report) Third level in is compromised... like the last 2.

(cut to Zhaan, seated on the floor in her cell, crystal in hand, calling to her Goddesses)

Zhaan: I beseech your wisdom. Hatala- I entreat your spirit. Hatala - I petition your mercy. The gentle are stricken, the kind are helpless, the silent uncounted.

Aeryn: (cut briefly to her in the terrible darkness) I'm approaching Pilot's Den.

Zhaan: (cut back to her in her cell as she prays in a voice tinged with tears) Even as a 10th level Pa'u I am weary and without resources. Oh Goddess of All Things Holy! Hear my soul! (as Zhaan prays the great oval door to Pilot's Den slowly swings open and Aeryn steps inside) This gentle ship is pledged to my care and I am powerless. Though I am but a mote upon your winds - grant me one supplication. Ask anything in return. (in the Den - Aeryn is standing next to Pilot behind his Console. She breaks the seal on her helmet and taking it off - breathes deeply. Somehow, the Den has stayed pressurized) Just spare them their lives!

Aeryn: (cut briefly to her in Pilot's Den) The seal has held. The air is thin, but it is breathable. (cut to John)

John: YES! (cut to D'Argo as he rumbles with relief)

Rygel: (cut to him and Stark in the neural clusters as he gives a Hynerian cheer-) Yotzaaah!

Stark: (a joyous whisper) Yeah!

In the lab Chiana is so excited that she falls off the exam table.

Zhaan: (cut briefly to her in her cell, head arched back as she breathes to the universe-) Thank you... Thank you... (cut briefly to Neeyala sitting in the Command, expressionless, as Zhaan whispers her gratitude-) Thank you.

Aeryn: (cut briefly to her with Pilot. She opens his left eyelid and peers at the staring orb beneath) If we're going to try this, I'm going to need Moya’s adrenal secretions pumping on my command.

Zhaan: (cut briefly to her in her cell) Just tell me when.

Aeryn: (from Pilot's Den) So we're agreed? One shot.

John: (from hid corridor) GO!

Stark: (from the neural clusters) GO!

Rygel: (from the neural clusters) GO!

Zhaan: (from her cell, softly) Go!

(cut to Chiana gimping down a corridor like Quasimodo trying to catch the ice cream truck - D'Argo appears behind her and quickly pulls even to her as he shouts-)

D'Argo: GO!

Chiana: GO!

D'Argo: You shouldn't be up.

Chiana: (gasping for breath from her exertion) These hands - can wire- wire a whole lot of neural cluster. (he sweeps her up into his arms) Get me there!

John: (cut to him as he dashes into the maintenance bay and calls to Jool) Time?

Jool: (cut briefly to her on the Command) Fractionally faster. John?

John: (from the maintenance bay as he heads for his module) Yeah?

Jool: (genuinely curious) Why - is this ship so important?

John: (on comm) Still worried about your parents after 22 cycles?

Jool: (softly) Yes. (behind her - Neeyala sits quietly, but her arms can be seen straining at the weakened metal of her handcuffs)

John: (on comm) That's how we feel about Moya. She raised us. (and with a final grunt of effort - Neeyala snaps her cuffs and is free)

(cut back to John in the maintenance bay. He's bent over his module making some sort of adjustment to it - but as he finishes speaking to Jool - his invisible friend appears behind him)

Scorpius/Harvey: (clapping and gushing sarcastically - he's wearing a tuxedo over his leather coolant suit in honor of this night at the opera) BRAVO! BRAVO! (John stiffens) Magnificent! Encore! Encore John! (he then offers a sample of his show review) John Crichton was riveting in the role of cheerleader. (John listens without looking at him) Rallying his comrades in aid of the stricken ship he had earlier betrayed- (that's it - John whirls around and lunges at him - and abruptly the scene shifts to John's Head. Here he has Scorpius/Harvey by the throat and pinned against the grill of a white Ford semi cab as he yells-)

John: That's my Dads tux! Take it off! (abruptly John lets him go as he realizes he's in a tux too and the pair speak at once, like a couple of squabbling buddies. John plucks at his penguin suit fretfully) This is not mine! This is not my tux!

Scorpius/Harvey: You can choose the venue John, but I'm going to make sure we look good. (he makes a double thumbs-up and roars-) YEAH!

John: (having stepped away from Scorpius/Harvey - he now looks around him and realize they are standing in front of the truck cab on a muddy, sunlit rural road) Macon. Georgia. Macon, Georgia- (they again talk over each other)

Scorpius/Harvey: (rhapsodically) Ah! College! Spring break! Hitchhiking to see the strippers-

John: -on the way to Lauderdale! This is the truck stop...

Scorpius/Harvey: -at Fort Lauderdale!

John: (outraged - he turns to Scorpius/Harvey and yells) HEY! YO! YO! NO! YOU DO NOT ENTER MY REALITY! YOU DO NOT TALK TO ME IN MY REALITY! IF I WANT YOU, I'LL CALL! THOSE ARE THE RULES!

Scorpius/Harvey: (calmly determined, facing John down at close range) Unacceptable. And I suggest you sue for peace now. Your distractions are many - well I'm totally dedicated to getting a measure of freedom! No more dumpsters John. (ah those figments - yearning to breathe free! They just wanna have fun...)

John: Tabled. What do you want?

Scorpius/Harvey: You might fool them with your rah-rah. But I know the disappointment of letting Neeyala’s ship be destroyed.

John: Yeah well you can't have everything you want. (might as well get into the memory as long as he's here - a pick-up truck approaches and he puts his thumb out) I'll figure out wormholes by myself. (the truck keeps going as John turns to watch it pass with a wistful sigh) Green Chevy... I had one of those. (it probably IS yours stupid - we're in your Head)

Scorpius/Harvey: It's not too late to change the outcome.

John: (sarcastic) Oh you know everything about me. Do you want to make a point?

Scorpius/Harvey: (kind of eagerly, having lost Scorpius, it seems he's looking to share in someone’s - anyone’s - life since he hasn't really got one of his own) Excellent! Excellent! Yes! And with familiarity - we might develop a shorthand which will - benefit us both! Try this: You would do, well - anything - to save your ship. Anything.

John: (annoyed) Make a point.

Scorpius/Harvey: (intense) Why assume less of Neeyala? (a look of dread dawns slowly over John's face and he jumps - right out of His Head and back into the maintenance bay where he hits the ground running)

John: JOOL? JOOL?

Minutes later - John edges into the Command with his gun raised and ready. The only sound is the rapid beeping of Neeyala’s countdown and the soft moans of Jool, who is sitting on the floor and holding her head. Neeyala is nowhere to be seen.

Zhaan: (cut to her, somewhere on Moya, wrestling with a dangling tangle of jungle-vinelike tubes and lines as she calls via comm) Adrenal secretions fully opened Aeryn! Goddess speed.

(cut to Pilot's Den where Aeryn is demonstrating PK nursing technique in waking Pilot up. She's sitting on his Console and using it for leverage to deliver kick after two-footed kick to his side. He groans a little at each blow and his huge body limply shifts minutely under her tender assault)

Aeryn: PILOT! (he moans a little as she says loudly) Come on Pilot. Feel that nice warm adrenaline flow- (she kicks him again . He moans irritably like a sleeper who doesn't want to be awakened) - EVERYWHERE! (the Great Navigator swims up from unconsciousness for a moment and looks blearily at her. His voice is hoarse and lethargic)

Pilot: Officer Sun? Hello... (Aeryn stands down from the Console and pats him as she smiles with relief and pants from her Pilot-rousing exertions)

Aeryn: Hello. (but Pilot's amber eyes flutter shut again as he sinks back with a sleepy groan. Aeryn is dismayed) N- no- (she hurriedly hoists herself back onto the Console and starts kicking him again before he gets all the way back to lullaby land) WAKE UP!

(cut to the operations center of Neeyala’s ship as John enters, his gun drawn and at the ready, but not aimed. Neeyala is there, at the controls of the phaztillion generator. The flashing lights and alarms sounds are strobe-like now)

John: Neeyala! Let's work together on this. We'll all survive. We'll get you home.

Neeyala: (bitterly) Family executed - Me to follow. Knowledge lost. No thanks. We both defend that which we love.

John: (he swings his gun down to bear on her) You shouldn't have lied.

Neeyala: (angrily) YOU should NOT have been in our path! And I should have listened to Kreetago and destroyed you when I had the chance! I have failed my crew - and my ship. Now I will make it up to them. (she steps up onto a dais at the phaztillion generator controls and touches a control panel)

John: Don't make me shoot you!

Neeyala: (she tosses a hate-filled look at him and snaps in her sibilant lisp) Ion-charged hydrostatic vapor residue in atmospheric suspension.

John: (alarmed) One spark and we're nuclear?

Neeyala: Meager as it is, you do know more than any species we're aware of. (she turns back to the generator)

John: (desperately, stepping up to her) We can find a way!

Neeyala: (eyeing him coolly) If my ship survives, even without me, a beacon will attract our Flight Command. If by some - unfathomable circumstance - your vessel survives- (she touches another button which results in a new echoing alarm sound) We share a joined hull. I have just infused our beacon into the Leviathan's superstructure. (John can do little other than gape at her incredulously for a moment)

John: We're gonna have - another set of bad guys chasing us across the universe? (he throws his hands in the air and barks a bitter laugh as he backs away)

Neeyala: Unfortunately Commander - not you. (she abruptly triangulates her quills upon him)

John: I don't think so! (and with that, they begin a monkey and weasel chase around the phaztillion generator. She launches her darts once and they narrowly miss him, embedding themselves instead in one of the white pillars of the ship. He ducks behind the generator and she lets fly a second volley around its jumble of silver rods, but musses her dancing target again) HEY NEEYALA! YOU THINK THIS IS GONNA GET YOU WHAT YOU WANT?

Neeyala: WHAT I WANT YOU CANNOT GIVE! (another array of quills comes flying at John and he dodges wildly - they miss, but he runs full into Jool who chooses that moment to blunder onto the alien ship, still holding her head. They both go sprawling)

John: JOOL! YOU NITWIT! (he tries to scramble to his feet - but it's too late. Neeyala has him squarely in an unobstructed line of fire. Jool of course spots the grim alien woman, gills flared menacingly, and begins to scream. Neeyala speaks calmly to John)

Neeyala: (with something like gentle regret) I have never before released my bristles to kill. Your forgiveness. (and with that, her quills launch and Jool’s hair goes primary red as her screams reach teakettle intensity. Neeyal's bristles make a direct hit to John's chest - and bounce off. He incredulously picks one up and looks at it)

John: Melted tips? (whatever - he has his chance and he seizes it. Lunging at Neeyala he grabs her head and holds her gills shut as Jool screams) Neeyala what's the matter? Can't you hear me? (they struggle and Neeyala, her hands being somewhat freer than John's - manages to pin him between a couple of the tilted pillars and let fly one more volley at close range. John rolls away and catching her hands, pushes them up, which throws her off balance, she stumbles backwards into the phaztillion generator. Caught in its power field - her body immediately flames, foot to head, and her remains, in the form of small black pellets, rains to the floor. John reaches down and picks up one of her bristles - it's tip blunt and melted. He says to Jool, impressed-) That's a hell of a scream. Thanks. Come on! (with Jool yipping girlishly behind him, they rush back onto Moya’s Command as the alarm for the energy release that will separate the ships seems to be reaching a crescendo of urgency) We're almost out of time!

Aeryn: (cut briefly to her and Pilot as she speaks via comm) Crichton! it's Aeryn - Pilot's just doing the calculations now. It won't be long.

John: (cut to him and Jool on the Command - he looks at the strobing, screaming timer) WE'RE OUT OF TIME AERYN!

Aeryn: (cut to her and Pilot as she asks desperately, her eyes on Pilot) Just - a little bit more?

(cut back to John and Jool on the Command as he shouts over the timer alarm)

John: WE - ARE - OUT - OF - TIME! (he grabs Jool and pushes her up to the timer) WHICH ONES? WHICH - ONES?

Jool: (screeching) STOP YELLING AT ME!

John: THE YELLING STARTS IN ABOUT 2 SECONDS!- WHICH ONES?

Jool: (she brushes her hair back and studies the timer for a moment) These - I'm pretty sure.

John: YOU'RE SURE? BE SURE!

Jool: (squealing) I'm hurt! She hit me in the head! (get used to it)

John: WELL DID YOU SEE THE ORDER? (at that moment Zhaan enters and answers the question for Jool by pointing out a sequence on the timer)

Zhaan: This. This. This. This. This.

Jool: (looking at Zhaan as the Delvian turns away) Yes.

John: WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

Jool: (showing her book smarts - she yells over the alarm) DIAGNOSTICALLY HELIX. THE MATHEMATICAL REPRESENTATION OF QUANTUM ELASTICITY.

John: Right, right, right. That's good. That's enough. (but book-learned knowledge is Jool’s forté rather than action and she continues to rapidly explain the concept - John hasn't got time for it just now though and cuts her off, while pushing her gently onto the sidelines. she yips indignantly) Enough! Enough! Thank you - over there. (John comms the others for a head count as the moment of the generators energy release becomes imminent) Guys, I got Zhaan here with me. Where are you?

Aeryn: (cut to her - out of Pilot's Den and making her way back to Command) On my way. We're not quitting.

John: D'ARGO? STARK?

D'Argo: (cut briefly to him, Chiana Rygel and stark in the neural clusters) We're never gonna make it John. We voted to stay together. No matter what.

John: (via comm) Even Rygel?

Rygel: (positively aglow with warm fuzzy feelings) Pilot likes me!

(cut back to John, Jool and Zhaan on the Command)

Jool: (shrill) YOU KNOW I WOULD CARE TO SAY THAT ANYTHING THAT GETS ME OUT OF HERE ALIVE IS WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING!

Zhaan: (stern and dismissive of this pipsqueaks whining) You are a very ungrateful and selfish woman. Please remain silent from now on!

John: (the alarm and lights from the timer are continuous now) Zhaan none of this is gonna matter if Pilot doesn't- (and at that moment whose fabulous face should appear on the clamshell viewer but Pilot's)

Pilot: (in a half-awake mumble that belies his words) I am - readyyyy...

John: (awfully glad to see him) PILOT! HEY! (Jool reacts to her first view of Pilot as so many do. She leans to one side to get a better look at him as her brow furrows and her jaw drops with astonishment - and in her case maybe a little dismay that this dozy dragon is evidently what their hopes of survival are pinned upon. John is flying under his own Leviathan-sized dose of adrenaline though and babbles maniacally at Pilot's image) MAN! IT'S GOOD TO SEE YA! HOW YOU DOIN'? NO! NO! ANSWER THAT LATER! WE GOT A SERIOUS SITUATION HERE! What - what do we gotta do?

Pilot: (cut briefly to him in his Den as he begins a somnolent explanation of his methodology) Impulse data from each test of their generator was stored in Moya’s neural circuitry, allowing me to construct a statistical model...

John: (almost jumping out of his skin as the timer alarm becomes a high-pitched whine) YEAHYEAHYEAH! WHATEVER! I TRUST YOU TO DO THE MATH! JUST TELL ME WHAT WE GOTTA DO!

Pilot: I must initiate starburst approximately 7 microts after the generator is unleashed.

Jool: (she presses her hands prayerfully together in front of her) Oh dear Chanu! Please don't let me die this way! Please!

Pilot: (eying her with some dismay) Who is THAT creature? (well you're the one who wanted to go to space with a ship people just get on and off of like it's a bus - don't act all surprised now)

John: That's ballast - (Pilot exhales with dismay) - ignore it. How exact do we have to be? (Jool looks annoyed and stops her prayer as Aeryn enters)

Aeryn: Not as close as you think.

John: Aeryn.

Aeryn: (hurriedly fleshing out Pilot's calculations for them) Ah - once we start spinning - Moya’s weight gives us an advantage with the gravitational pull of the wormhole.

Zhaan: (fiercely) Then Neeyala’s vessel will be the one ejected directly into space!

John: (urgently) Pilot! You want to try a little manual point-and-shoot, just in case you fade?

Pilot: (sleepily) Yes - Commander. (it sounds like he was a step ahead of John on this, for even as he assents, the joystick for manual flight of Moya rotates into view. John grabs Aeryn and hustles her towards it)

Aeryn: (reluctant) Crichton, no-

John: Feel lucky?

Aeryn: (protesting as he pushes her in front of the joystick) Nonono! I've never flown a wormhole. I think it should be you!

John: Aeryn! It's easy! The exits are clearly marked - and you're better with Moya. (Jool watches all this with speechless dismay as John heads into the spiral ship)

Zhaan: (she catches him, by the arm and says in a commanding tone) NO! John!

John: (but he pulls away from her and lays his hands on either of side of her face, saying-) Zhaan... I've got this.

Aeryn: What's going on?

Jool: (snippy) Well just a guess, but somebody's got to actually trigger - the generator? (Aeryn abruptly leaves the manual flight controls and marches to John and Zhaan)

Aeryn: Get back. Both of you! Get back. (there follows a brief pushing match between her and John over which of them gets to trigger the generator - and thus be sucked into oblivion with the spiral ship. Hopefully. John, we are sure, is secretly hoping for one last chance to pilot it out and save both ships)

John: No Aeryn! Aeryn do you SEE this disco? (referring to the gleaming white columns and strobing lights) I PUT it here - I'm gonna take it away!

Zhaan: (intervening as they try to block each other from the timer) Crichton! Aeryn - Enough. You are both so good at gauging reality. Yet in this instance...

John: Zhaan - there's a planet out there -

Zhaan: A long shot at best John. The illness that is ravaging my body is frighteningly efficient. (she pulls back the shawl she has been wearing on her head and reveals to them the terrible, oozing lesions that cover her scalp)

Stark: (cut briefly to him in the neural cluster as he suddenly becomes aware of what she is abut to do) NOOOO! (he turns and takes off as fast as he can go for the Command, D'Argo and Chiana bow their heads, and back on the Command Jool stares incredulously at Zhaan)

Zhaan: (serenely to Aeryn and John) So, while I'm still sound of mind and spirit, I choose this path for myself.

D'Argo: (softly from the neural clusters) Zhaan you're needed here.

Zhaan: At one time I believe I was - but then a family was born.

D'Argo: (from he neural cluster) You birthed it. (Zhaan smiles)

Chiana: (from he neural cluster, her voice cracking) We love you Zhaan.

Stark: (cut briefly to him racing frantically through Moya’s corridors, the way to the Command is blocked by sealed passages though. He comes up against a tightly shut door and mutters to himself desperately) Decompression! Decompression! Where to go? Where to go? Where to go?

John: (in a low voice) Zhaan it'll be easy - I'll start the generator - I'll come across.

Zhaan: (smiling) If it is so easy - allow me.

Aeryn: Zhaan no!

Zhaan: N-! No - no more. If I am so needed - and so valued - and so wise. Then you will honor my words. You will obey me. (somewhere on Moya, Stark, moaning and sobbing with sick desperation, comes up against another sealed door between him and the Command - and Zhaan) For the longest time I feared physical demise - because my spiritual essence was suspect. But now I know I'm worthy. Now I know the transgressions have melted from my soul. Now I know I shall meet my Goddess, and be accepted to her bosom. (the scene shifts briefly to each of her shipmates in turn as she names them) Sensitive D'Argo - Exuberant Chiana- Wise Rygel - Selfless Aeryn - Innocent Crichton - My children. My teachers. My loves. There is no guilt. There is no blame. Only what is meant to be. Grow through your mistakes, and know that if patient, redemption will find you. (in his Den, tears roll down Pilot's great face - probably because she didn't mention HIM. And back on the Command Zhaan stops and drinks in the faces of Aeryn and John as she smiles at them with the sorrow of parting)

John: (softly) Wait for the wheel.

Zhaan: (nodding) Thank you John Crichton. (she places her hand on his cheek and kisses his lips softly. She then lays a hand on Aeryn’s cheek, withdrawing it slowly as she backs away form them. In his Den, Pilot moans as he stares straight ahead and tears roll down)

Aeryn: (she steps forward to stop Zhaan, saying in a tone of determined denial) No!

John: (he reaches out and stops Aeryn with a gentle word -insisting that Zhaan’s self-directed wishes be honored) No. (Aeryn allows herself to be held back but on her face is a grimace of pain and she refuses to look at Zhaan as she goes to the timer)

Meanwhile Stark, turns away from yet another sealed door, wailing and screaming with heart wrenching grief and horrific agony as he knows his beloved goes to her death beyond his reach. Beyond his sight. Beyond his touch. Beyond his love and his comfort and his heart. He falls to his hands and knees, roaring great guttural screams of desolation. But suddenly he is quieted her voice, speaking to him through the boundless places of the spirit and she says: "Stark - Stark - link with me my beautiful. Guide me to the place of rest. Melt into my spirit Stark... So that I may share my last moments, with the man I love."

Rygel: (and finally, from the neural clusters, a genuinely heartbroken, if characteristically gruff, farewell) Good-bye you big, beautiful, blue bitch.

On the Command, Zhaan taps the controls on the phaztillion generator timer in their proper sequence. She looks up at John and they make eye contact for a moment before she looks down at her hands - which are becoming blurry - and with that - Zhaan and the spiral ship disappear like an insubstantial wisp of smoke before a wind. Outside, the whole effect of the spiral ship and Moya blurring and separating can be seen. There is great jolt and Aeryn and John are thrown to the floor of the Command. John looks up just in time to see Zhaan looking back at them from the doomed alien research vessel, through Moya’s main part,.

In the blocked corridor, Stark stares silently into space as Zhaan’s voice echoes in his mind "Always together. Joined as one."

Aeryn and John watch as Zhaan bows and with a flourish, moves her hands over her head in the ritualized movement of a formal greeting - or farewell.

Stark, alone in his corridor, listens raptly as she speaks her last words to him - "Peace of mind, peace of spirit, peace of soul. Goodbye my love."

And then she is gone in the wormhole. The spiral ship blows apart around her and it seems that for a moment, she survives as a golden light in the blue turmoil of the vortex before fleeing in some direction that cannot be comprehended.

As the vision of Zhaan’s passage is replaced by the suddenly mundane view of the writhing, watery tunnel of the wormhole, Moya begins to buck and rumble, shaking Aeryn and John out of their stupor. They hastily scramble to their feet.

John: Aeryn! You gotta fly this baby.

Aeryn and John make a scrambling dash for the manual flight control as Moya powers into the wormhole and Pilot initiates starburst. The ride is rougher than anything they've experienced yet. Explosions erupt all over Moya as sparks rain down from destroyed and overloaded circuitry. Pilot's Console erupts in front of him as he stares out through Moya’s eyes at their quantum fall through the wormhole. The rest if the crew are thrown about violently in their various locations. On the Command, it takes both Aeryn and John to hold the great ship steady as they rocket through to wormhole like beach ball down a water tunnel toward an uncertain fate.

Cut to later. The luck of Moya has held. They found the large gap in the wormhole and the great ship floats through normal space, looking none the worse from her adventure from the outside.

But inside, it's different story. Moya, so recently having survived a difficult gestation and birth, attacks by alien ships and her own child. Disease. Infestation, mandated suicide and fire - is a shambles. Wires and lines dangle like choking vines in her corridors. Lights flicker in the places where there is lighting. Overloaded circuitry sizzles and sparks. Vapors vent freely from ruptured lines. The debris from her and her crew litters the floors.

In his Den, a couple of DRDs watch curiously as Pilot works. The Great Navigator seems back to himself and certainly with plenty to do overseeing the cleanup of his ship. But he has a visitor whose presence seems to be a but disconcerting. Rygel sits next to him, affectionately stoking his arm - the one that he helped to chop off some time past. Pilot, not wishing to be rude, looks at his diminutive admirer out of the corner of his eye.

Pilot: I - appreciate your concern Rygel. It's just that, you've never paid this much attention to me before.

Rygel: (chuckling a chuckle that an uncertain person could read many ways) I think maybe you haven't noticed. I like you Pilot. I like you a lot. (Pilot looks unnerved) And I know Zhaan did too. Shame you didn't get to say good-bye.

Pilot: (softly) When I was unconscious and in pain... she came to me, inside my mind. (with sweetly innocent sorrow) I - already miss her.

(cut to Chiana, limping like an old battle-ax, and Jool making their way down a corridor. Jool trips over something and goes sprawling, but quickly scrambles to her feet and runs after Chiana who doesn't even look back)

Jool: (with a girly squeal) Ow! Ooh - wait for me!

Chiana: (bitterly, she grits-) Not that way on Moya. You want to move faster? Get better shoes. Or maybe - get in better shape.

Jool: (superior and outraged) Do you know how much these shoes cost, young whore?

Chiana: (still grim, without looking back) For me? 3 sex acts. Probably double that for you. (Jool catches up to her and grabs her by the arm, forcing Chiana to turn and look at her)

Jool: You have some nerve to talk to me that way.

Chiana: (upset and not giving a toss about anything Jool thinks right now) One of my very - very best friends has just gone. Right now, I'm- I am nothing but nerve. You want someone to like you? Invest in a mirror. (and she gimps away, leaving Jool sanding there)

In the hangar bay, D'Argo sits alone and contemplative in the little ship.

(cut to Zhaan’s lab. Stark is there working at something and Aeryn stands nearby)

Stark: Honestly Aeryn - you don't have to hover over me.

Aeryn: To be honest in return Stark - I'd expect you to be a bit more upset.

Stark: Oh after 15,000 deaths - what's 15,001?

Aeryn: The woman you loved. (Stark turns around - he's holding a scalpel as he stares at her. She delicately reaches out and removes it from his unresisting hand. His gaze softens with quiet regret)

Stark: Those I minister to in their final moments are usually resistant to the process. Not Zhaan. Imagine being so at peace, so certain what was next was better... She doesn't want us upset. She wants us to carry on in her spirit. Positive and hopeful.

Aeryn: And you can do that?

Stark: Not always. I would appreciate you hovering then. (with a small smile, she returns the scalpel and he turns back to his work)

In Zhaan’s cell, ruined by fire, the tattered and broken, charred and tumbled remains of her life are strewn about as the clear tones of her crystals echo in the mind of the observer. Her face wavers briefly in a warped bit a mirror before fading away. And John sits alone in the midst of it. Contemplating the small remains that only hint at the great life that is passed.

The scene shifts to John's Head where his sits on the hood of the convertible parked at a drive-in theatre. He looks as if he's just come from a funeral, all dressed in black. He's listlessly holding a bottle of beer and staring into space. Scorpius/Harvey is next to him, watching the film that's playing on the big screen. It's the 3 Stooges. The laugh track rings empty in the grim silence as Larry and Moe, in a courtroom scene, grab Curly and haul him off the floor where he's rolling around like an idiot and onto a chair.

Moe: You're in a court! Not in Clancy's Pool Room! Siddown!

Curly: (in his dopey NYC accent) I'm a victim o' soycumstance! (Larry swats Curly upside the head)

Moe: Who you hittin'? (Moe gives Larry an eye jab. Curly does a "Nyuknyuknyuk" and Moe slaps him)

Scorpius/Harvey: (with a disingenuous sigh of regret) Why is it always the gentle ones that pay the price for everyone else’s ambition? Hmm?

He looks at John with mocking expectation, but John just takes a last slow drink from his beer - and then in a burst of rage - hurls the bottle into the dark and the sound of shattering glass drowns out the show.

THE END