What Was Lost

Part 1: Sacrifice
The episode opens in the Den of Elack’s Pilot. The vast chamber is steeped in the gloom of a Leviathan near death from old age and the bodily insults suffered at the hands of the Grudek toubray hunters. Old Elack’s Pilots great navigation Console is dark but for a couple bags of greenly glowing material as John stands beside her and tries to make her more comfortable by repairing some of the damage and helping the old ship to see again. A couple of sharp electrical snaps signal some neural synapses coming back online...

John: That do it?

Elack’s Pilot: (very tired) Elack senses - a planet but the erratic weather patterns are interfering...

(cut to somewhere in Elack’s neural clusters where Chiana, Rygel and Sikozu are assisting John with the repairs - well Sikozu is anyway... )

Rygel: (as a neural connection spits sparks in his face) Oh! Frell!

John: (on comm) Sparky can you fix - (his comm signal skips) - scan?

Rygel: I'm trying!

Sikozu: (to Chiana and Rygel) Come here and hold this!

Rygel: Hold 'em yourself! (he chuckles wickedly as something else shoots sparks and she yelps)

(cut back to the Den)

Elack’s Pilot: (sounding pitifully tired) Crichton - why are we searching for this planet? Arnessk is - uninhabitable.

John: No - Jool told us every few cycles the magnetics drop low enough for the dig team to remain there for a while.

(cut back to the neural clusters)

Sikozu: (again appealing to Chiana and Rygel) Help me! My hand is still too weak.

Rygel: Yeah-heh-heh - right! Pull the other one and I'll whistle Felanussen. (he and Chiana snigger derisively)

(cut back to the Den)

Elack’s Pilot: (fretful and sick) No life forms are registering on Elack’s senses but I - but I'm so weak I-I-I can't be sure.

John: (leaning close to the old Pilot as he says with gentle reassurance) Shh - rest. You rest sweetheart. We're gonna go check it out.

Chiana: (cut briefly back to her in the neural clusters as she says via comm, with a note of unkindness in her anxiety) Hey Crichton - don't go down without me. I don't wanna be here when Psycho zaps the final zalk. (don't ask us - we just copy it down)

The scene shifts to later as the transport pod from Moya that Chiana and Rygel had used to limp back to the Leviathan burial ground approaches a rocky coastline on the planet of Arnessk. It's an Earth-like planet with a blue sky and a bluer sea white surf. The landscape is stony and semi-arid. A couple pyramid-like structures stand in the distance and mark the site of the Interion archeological dig at an ancient temple. The scene shifts to the seemingly deserted dig itself. The main exterior facade of the site is a low stone building set into the surrounding tan rock. Squared-off shafts, or corridors like those seen in ancient Egyptian tombs, run back into the rock behind the plain facade. Outside is a plaza dominated by a raised stone platform whose square top is painted turquoise blue with a brick-red circle in the center - an alter. John walks across the plaza as Chiana shines the beam of a flashlight into one of the dark shafts that slope underground to other parts of the temple. John walks up the steps to the raised altar as Chiana calls to him and their voices echo in the stillness of the place)

Chiana: I don't see anyone. You see anyone?

John: No. (the scene shifts again to soon after as they enter one of the dark shafts of the ruins. A few dim utility lights clinging to the walls are the only indication that anyone alive is around this tomblike place - Chiana hesitates and John looks back at her) Whassamatter?

Chiana: I just got a feeling.

John: (cautiously) Well... Is that a feeling feeling or...

Chiana: Just - a feeling.

John: Okay. (they move on and time passes as they walk deeper into the inky tunnels. The utility lights still line the walls - but the flashlights they carry are the only real source of illumination. Soon they're wading in the water of an underground stream that has invaded the ancient corridors and it's John’s turn to be nervous) Okay - now I'm gettin' a feeling. You're not gettin' a feeling?

Chiana: No. No feelings. (well John's got a feeling - he takes out his gun and hands Chiana his flashlight)

John: Hang on - take this - take this. My chakkan oil's low. (meaning his gun needs fuel)

Chiana: Right. (she moves ahead with both flashlights as John follows, fretting with his gun. Chiana rounds a corner and stops - face to face with something) Then again I - might have had a feeling. (John rounds the corner and stops as well - startled by the black-haired man standing there holding a gun on Chiana. His jagged hairline identifies him as an Interion - a member of Jool’s race. His name is Tarnat and his tone is grimly wary. John quickly raises his hands in surrender)

Tarnat: (to Chiana) Get back. (to John) Peacekeeper - drop your weapon.

John: Ah - that's a common mistake. I'm not a Peacekeeper.

Tarnat: Drop your weapon or the female dies.

Chiana: He's not a Peacekeeper. (but at that moment, a familiar squeal is heard in the corridor behind Tarnat and who should rush into view - but Jool)

Jool: Wait! Tarnat stop! (she's still clad in her usual tight, black, soft-core S&M gear (screamingly impractical for archeological fieldwork) - but she's thrilled to see Chiana and makes a beeline for her. Chiana seems unsure what to makes of the over-enthusiastic greeting. And right behind Jool comes D'Argo, booming with the joyous glad-to-see-ya ebullience of a proud host who's just hit the A-list jackpot)

D'Argo: JOHN! (John braces himself)

John: D'ARGO! (he's swept off his feet and swung around in a Luxan bear hug) HNGH!-yerbreakin'mybackleggo!

Jool: (giddy) We didn't know it was you so we hid! But it's you! It's really you! (D'Argo cups John’s cheeks in his hands and looks John up and down)

D'Argo: Look at you! (Tarnat stands glaring in the middle of what he clearly regards as quite an vulgar display of affection. Chiana's enthusiasm is tepid as well though as she extricates herself from Jool’s embrace)

Chiana: Yah it's really me Princess. (John's getting into it now though as he yells)

John: D'ARGO!

D'Argo: JOHN! (and they fling themselves into each others arms for another hug)

Jool: CHIANAAAAA! (Chiana stops the redheads open-armed lunge with surly stare. Tarnat continues to glare at John as he demands dryly of Jool)

Tarnat: Who is this Peacekeeper?

John: (inanely as he does a Happy Guy Dance with D'Argo) How 'bout them Bears ?

Tarnat: Why is he with the tralk? (that gets some attention as Chiana and John reply at he same time)

Chiana: He's not a Peacekeeper.

John: She's not a tralk! (with a little gasp of embarrassment, Jool quickly lays a restraining hand on Tarnat’s shooting arm)

Jool: Forgive Tarnat - he's new security here and he's just a little- gung-HO - about protecting the dig.

Tarnat: (flatly, to Jool) You've been warned. There are races who would kill for what we've discovered.

Jool: Tarnat! These are my friends... (as she gives him a swat and a scolding - John and D'Argo turn away to catch up on the situation)

D'Argo: So are - Aeryn and Rygel with you?

John: Rygel - yeah. Aeryn we haven't heard from. Has she contacted you?

D'Argo: No not yet. (unable to conceal his doubt) But ah - you know she will.

John: Right. (he walks away from D'Argo to some stone arches that overlook an underground pool of water. The crumbling masonry is etched with archaic symbols and a slug-like insect pushes itself up the wall with a single rear-mounted leg as John stares pensively out over the cool grotto. Meanwhile Chiana and Jool do some catching up of their own)

Chiana: (anxious) I-is Moya here? We didn't d-detect her when we came aboard.

Jool: (seeming surprised Chiana should ask) No! (at the grotto edge, John listlessly examines some of the symbols carved into the wall. He lays his hand in one that is a stylized five-fingered handprint. The symbol above it is even more familiar - an udjat - the ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus, but it doesn't seem to register on him. Jool continues to Chiana) You've got to come with me!

Tarnat: I don't think the Instructor would want that.

Jool: Tarnat! Just put it back in your pants and calm - down. (meanwhile John's gone back to staring moodily out over the grotto as D'Argo approaches)

D'Argo: (gently) Cheer up John - (he pats John’s shoulder reassuringly and says) - I have a lot - to tell you about my travels. (he steers John back to the others as Jool continues to gush loudly)

Jool: Can you believe it? We're here! We're here and we're alive! And nobody - is trying to kill us! (she squeals deliciously) Come on!

And as the reunited friends (plus Tarnat) retreat, the softly glowing green water of the grotto begins to roil - suddenly he head of an aquatic creature breaks the surface and watches them move off. Like many an aquatic creature it's extravagantly colored. Yellowish-orange plates shaped like Gothic arches march back over its head and intelligent, widely-spaced yellow eyes stare from over a toothy, black-lipped mouth. Its chin and fleshy neck are white and little weedy tufts sprout from the sides of its head and its shoulders. When it re-submerges, its mottling and color camouflage it well in the shimmering underwater light as it swims off using its webbed, hands and feet to propel it through the subterranean waterways of Arnessk.

(cut to soon after. Jool has brought Chiana and John to see the Archeological Wonder Of The Millennia. Frankly it doesn't look like much and Chiana and John look bored. They've left the underground shafts and are out in some dry woods that abut the rear of the site. The whole area is honeycombed with sunken courtyards and gateways from which more shafts plunge into the rock. Jool flicks on a bank of floodlights and leads them through a short tunnel to an open courtyard)

Jool: (gleeful) Check this out! This is the most important planet in the universe! (although John is aware of her background in archeology - he's still perplexed by her odd silence on the Very Big Mystery of what the heck went on with the wormhole and Moya...)

John: Jool - Moya got spat out like a fur ball. How the hell does that happen-? (but the redhead throws her hands up impatiently, cutting him off)

Jool: STOP! That's all I remember! Please! D'Argo's gone to find the weird old lady and she'll explain what happened. She spoke to Pilot for arns. Okay? (John sighs as Jool points to a device on the courtyard wall)

Jool: These sensors are for the magnetics. When it's blue the levels are safe. Red is bad. Red means don't pack - fly! (she runs over to a sharply downward sloping tunnel entrance as Chiana and John sit on a stone slab in the courtyard and exchange A Look) But this - This is what I was talking about. This is the greatest archeological discovery of the - (breaking into rapturous giggles) - last 1000 cycles!

Chiana: (with a dangerous grin) This?

Jool: Yeah! (Chiana rises and begins to pace the courtyard with ominous impatience) I mean - it may not look like much to the untrained eye but- (Chiana cuts her off)

Chiana: My eye's okay Princess. (and she proves it by indicating a blue ceramic figurine that John has picked up. At first glance it seems to be a crowing rooster - at second glance it seems more like a sinuously leaping fish) Hey! Is that valuable?

Jool: (brightly) I'm not sure - but I'll run some tests and che- (but instead, she yips with alarm at the sight and sound of the figurine shattering as it's hit with a stone pitched by Chiana)

John: (under his breath) Nice arm.

Jool: (a gasp of horror) What are you doing?

Chiana: As fantastic as this is - I'll take the tour later. (she stalks moodily off through the tunnel by which they entered the courtyard. John remains on the slab, looking thoughtful as Jool sits down by him)

Jool: What is her problem? What did I do?

John: Nothing. You did nothing. She just had a rough time away from Moya. Jool - if it's all right - I'm gonna find Grandma. (he starts to rise but Jool desperately grabs his arm)

Jool: NONONO! StayhereDArgosgettingher! Please just wait here and let me show you all this! Please! Please! (John's stymied by the strange intensity of her plea and allows himself to be led away for the Grand Tour...)

(cut to Chiana. She's back to prowling the dark stony corridors of the ruins, hunting for someone who might be more informative on what matters to her just now than Jool is...)

Chiana: D'Argo? Wrinkles? (she pauses to shine her light on some complicated, almost pre-Columbian looking designs on a pillar. But her examination of the local artwork is interrupted by a bank of floodlights being switched on. She startles and whirls about to face D'Argo as he steps into the light with her) Frell...!

D'Argo: (dreamily) It's remarkable isn't it?

Chiana: You scared me. (in response to his remark) I dunno. (D'Argo cuts the floodlights, plunging them back into the mysterious half-light of the place) I thought you were gonna go find Wrinkles.

D'Argo: I was I - couldn't find her down by the cliffs. So I thought she might have come here. (hesitantly) It's... it's good to see you again Chi.

(cut back to John and Jool as she leads him by the hand down into the subterranean corridors of the site again. The aquatic beast - out of water now - hovers nearby in concealment, listening as Jool tells John all abut he site)

Jool: 12,000 cycles ago - Arnesskan priests worshipped. Mystics. Somehow they maintained a truce with the Scarrans and the Peacekeepers for 500 generations. Imagine - imagine if we could discover their secret for peace. No-one knows how they achieved it because - one day they just vanished. And it's like everyone just left - In a microt. And no-one - (John joins her as she finishes with an air of spooky mystery) - knows why. (he can't suppress a smile at her enthusiasm and she smiles back - but they're startled by the golden glare of another bank of floodlight snapping on and the sound of a cool female voice answering them)

Vella: I know why. (Jool steps reassuringly between John and the newcomer. Vella's an older but still handsome Interion woman whose auburn hair is as long and curly as Jool’s. She has none of Jool’s girlish expressiveness though - her alto voice is utterly cool and toneless and her brown, pajama-like clothing is identical to Tarnat’s - as well as being much more appropriate to the setting than Jool’s)

Jool: (her tone is deeply respectful and her stance indicates to John that he should be respectful as well) This is Instructor Vella.

Vella: You're John Crichton.

John: Yes. (he squints into the bright light, trying to get a better look at her as she circles him, sizing him up)

Vella: Tarnat said I'd find you here. I see why he mistook you for Sebacean. Same size. Weight. Coloring - (she pauses in front of him) - though the brain cavity appears smaller.

John: Yeah but my choppers are first class and I do an excellent turn my head and cough. (he demonstrates his turn-head-and-cough maneuver. Vella’s impassive gaze is unwavering) What?

Vella: I see you're not interested in any of this.

John: I just have some unfinished business to attend to.

Vella: (with a derisive snort) This is more fascinatingg than any business you might have. (she turns her back on him and paces away as she speaks) Believe it or not this planet was once a paradise. Virgin water. Panoply of life forms. (John rolls his eyes a bit at her dryly professorial account of wonderfulness which he knows she doesn't find half as wonderful as her own wonderfulness. But if Vella notices his eye-rolling, she ignores it as she lifts a star-shaped metal device from a niche in the ancient stone wall) It was 3 of these Probes - which form the Darnaz Triangle - that were launched by enemies of peace. They created magnetic summers that killed the priests and drove civilization away. Are you understanding any of this?

John: (affecting a country bumpkin voice) We-ell - ah missed a cupple o' th' big werds - so mebbe ah should jist... (he makes a walking motion with his fingers accompanied by a trot-trot tongue click and attempts to follow his fingers away - but Jool pulls him back and whispers reverently)

Jool: Instructor Vella has found 2 of the Probes.

Vella: Legend has it if I find the third Probe - I can reverse its damage and so reactivate the Darnaz Triangle. (reactivate it? Wouldn't you have to DEactivate it? Slip of the tongue - or jist us not gittin' the big werds?)

(cut back to Chiana and D'Argo elsewhere in the the temple corridors as they continue their conversation)

D'Argo: Jool started to drive you crazy yet?

Chiana: (with a kind of weary despair) She- she just keeps going on and on about this place.

D'Argo: Well it ah - can be like an obsession. We've been working from dawn till dusk. (he turns and walks to an area nearby where he begins shifting things about. Chiana trails him)

Chiana: What you and the Princess? (D'Argo glances at her and grunts affirmatively in a way that suggests it's been just him and Jool. from dawn to dusk... him and Jool... Chiana is crestfallen) You and the Princess. (he looks up at her - signaling that she heard right. Now she's disgusted) Did the Peacekeepers capture you a-a-and steal your brain and replace it with whatever you're using now? What's the matter? (D'Argo sighs with annoyance and begins to move off. But Chiana follows, bent on having it out with him) They were always this far away from getting me. How come they didn't get you?

D'Argo: Lo'La hid me.

Chiana: Lola? (D'Argo stops near a square exit from the dark halls of the ruins. Outside is the stony plateau that rises up from the coastline. He corrects her accent of the word and then speaks a few works in ancient Luxan)

D'Argo: Lo'Lah. Be'toit. HAH'je skun'TA. (and as they watch - his small silver fighter ship fades into view - parked there in the sunshine on the stony expanse)

Chiana: Your ship can disappear.

D'Argo: For a short time. (the little ship fades to invisibility again)

Chiana: (the barest hint of disapproval in her tone) And you named her - Lo'LACH?

D'Argo: (as he walks away from her) It's short for Lo'Laan. In memory of my wife.

(the scene shifts briefly to old Elack, whose engines strain to maintain a steady orbit above Arnessk. In his hangar bay Sikozu is breaking John’s cardinal law of Don't Mess With My Module - by messing with his module. Since it's the only craft on Elack that she could use to escape in should the geriatric Leviathan kick the bucket - she can hardly be blamed for being concerned about it being out of fuel and no gas stations in sight. But after tinkering awhile she has an idea and she jogs over to a circuit box on the wall in search of the raw materials she needs. Meanwhile, back on Arnessk - John is walking through the dry forest near the temple ruins and talking to Rygel and Elack’s Pilot via comm. The scene shifts between the planet and Elack’s Pilots Den as they speak)

John: Ryg - D'Argo and Jool are here and D'Argo's got his ship back. (back? Had he lost it? Another item for the Left On The Cutting Room Floor list?) They expect that Moya's gonna be back sometime soon. (Rygel responds from his seat on Elack’s Pilots Console. Her Den echoes with odd pings and the sounds of energy fluctuations from her ships failing engines)

Rygel: (worried) Well she better hurry - I can barely hear you and the heat's nackered in here. (urgently, in a low tone as if trying to spare sleepy old Elack’s Pilots feelings) Crichton this Leviathan is dying! We've got to get off it soon! (in the hangar bay - Sikozu yanks wires from the circuit box and back in the Den John’s response to Rygel is unintelligible before cutting out completely) Crichton? (in the hanger, Sikozu pulls the wires back to John’s module) Crichton?

Sikozu: (to Rygel via comm - with no sincerity whatsoever as she wrestles with her rewiring of the module) Were you still talking? Sorry.

Rygel: Connect me back to Crichton!

Sikozu: Cannot do it. External comms are dead. This ship is entering termination shutdown. In case we need it in a few arns - I want to get this module started.

(the scene shifts to elsewhere in the universe - not too far from Arnessk. A Peacekeeper Command Carrier moves through the void at a stately pace with its requisite phalanx of smaller craft. This is Commandant Grayza’s Command Carrier. She sits in the captain’s quarters, clad in the same provocatively chest-baring outfit she was last seen in. In fact she seems to have widened the spread of her lapels which offers a fine view of her entire solar plexus and exposes both breasts just shy of the nips. She's watching a small holo of Instructor Vella which is being presented by a survivor of the destruction of Scorpius' Command Carrier)

Vella: (the tone of her recorded voice is as flat and arrogant) Pilot and Moya - Crichton and the others are here on Arnessk. Their presence is a source of irritation. Retrieve them now or we'll have to take our own steps.

Braca: We intercepted this transmission to Moya 60 microts ago.

Grayza: You were right. They did follow the Interion to the planet. How long will it take for our Command Carrier to get there?

Braca: 10 arns.

Grayza: Make it 5. (she rises and walks past him - hinting at the reward for success in meeting her demand) Captain. (Braca allows himself a small smile behind her back. Grayza pauses) But first - come and see this.

(the scene moves to elsewhere on Grayza’s Command Carrier - the Aurora Chair room. There, Braca grimly watches images of Scorpius' childhood as a misshapen and tortured genetic experience aboard a Scarran Dreadnought as they flicker by on the Chairs screen. And there is Scorpius himself, restrained in the Chair. It seems that having survived the Scarrans and 3 catastrophic attempts on his life by John Crichton - he is now to be laid low by an exhibitionist PK dominatrix. But survival is his forté and Grayza's just the latest in the long line of his tormentors as she stands there smiling at him)

Scorpius: I find your amateur attempts at - torture, to be quite pleasurable. I could resist it for cycles.

Grayza: Maybe you can. Or maybe you can't. (she touches a control on the device implanted in his brain and it spins out to expose the coolant rods he depends upon) But this rod will make it a little more difficult. (Braca has a silver tube with him. He shows it to Scorpius now as he pulls what looks like a coolant rod from it - except for that this rod is milky yellow instead of cold blue. Scorpius shows some alarm at the sight of it as Braca hands it to Grayza)

Scorpius: Don't do this Braca - I made you!

Braca: (as he pats the half-Scarran patronizingly on the shoulder) No - I made you.

Grayza: (as she removes a blue coolant rod from the device and replaces it with the yellow one) I think now - you will finally tell me... all you know about John Crichton.

Scorpius: (his voice is harsh with anxiety) I told you everything about John Crichton!

Grayza: (smoothly, as if reassuring him while she sends the yellow rod spinning into his brain) No Scorpius - you hold onto secrets because you fear that when you finally do tell me everything you will die. And you're probably right. (Braca powers up the Chair and Scorpius stiffens as his mouth gapes in a silent scream)

(cut back to Arnessk where John is wandering around the temple precincts hunting for the old woman and whatever she might know about what happened in the wormhole)

John: Grandmaaaaaaa.... (as he walks under a stone gate in the undergrowth, two people pass by on the forest path overhead)

Vella: I studied his responses as I told him about the Darnaz Triangle.

Tarnat: I still don't trust Crichton.

Vella: He has no interest in it. Oh don't worry - It'll be over soon. Our last vector test will reveal the third Probe. (John steps out from under tha gateway and looks up in the direct on of their passage. But they're gone and so he turns back to the gate and is nearly bowled over by the old woman exiting the narrow mouth of a shaft beneath it. He jumps back, badly startled)

John: OH! Damn! Grandma! (but before he can recover from that sudden encounter - what should step out from behind a pillar a few feet away but the weedy orange aquatic creature. It seems as startled as he is and ducks out of sight with a snort as John fancy-foots it back towards the old woman) HOH! DAMN! The creature from the black lagoon - sorta... (the thing seems to be gone, so he looks back at the old woman, who seems lost in her own world) Grandma - how ya doin'? (she stares owlishly at him) You remember me? (he does his Tarzan imitation to her Cheetah stare) Me - Crichton. You - Grandma. (as he makes to touch her on the word 'Grandma' - the aquatic creature suddenly bursts out of hiding - as if coming to the old woman’s rescue. John jumps back again but the 3-eyed old lady has the creature under control. She rounds on it - flapping her hands with annoyance and scolding)

Old Woman: (breathlessly) Get away Oo-nii scat! Go on! Go on! Scat! Go on! (the creature - Oo-nii - obediently scats and the old woman turns back to John and says in a childishly pleased tone) I remember - you're huh-man!

John: (nodding and smiling) Right.

Old Woman: Crich-ton! (she throws her arms around his neck in a big hug)

John: Oh! Ah -damn! (he speedily disengages from her rancid embrace) You need a bath.

Old Woman: (whispering) Never bathe never bathe - It washes off the juice. (Farscape Barf Bags are on sale at the Pilot Paradise Concession Stand for $8.99 each)

John: That's - more than I want to know. Listen -Jool said - that you guys got spat out of a wormhole. She said that only you knew what happened. (Oo-Nii lurks out of sight, listening as they speak)

Old Woman: Ask Pilot. Pilot knows. I talked to Pilot. (she turns to go but John stops her)

John: But now Pilot knows what?

Old Woman: No-no-no - ask him. I must follow Vella. (again she makes to go and again John stops her)

John: Hey I need to know about wha- (but she cuts him off with a question that's really on old persons demand of who the Hezmana young whippersnappers think they are anyway)

Old Woman: How old are you? How old? I am 293 cycles. Anytime there is goodness it will be destroyed, by-by a cause. A weapon. (she claps her hands to her large fleshy ears as the sound of sonorous chanting echoes in her head. She gasps and continues her babbling) Oooh – yes, yes - this is Holy Land! Yes! Oh no! I won't let Vella have any of it! It's the voices - the voices! They scream to me! The Darnaz Triangle must never be used again! (John's had it with her senile nattering already though and reaches to take her hands away from her ears)

John: I don't hear - your voices. (and again, as he touches her, Oo-Nii charges from hiding - but this time John whips out his gun) Back off! Get back! Go on! Get back. (Oo-Nii's clearly not much of a fighter and quickly retreats as John says in a low, dangerous tone to the old woman) I'm not - interested - in your voices. You know what I'm interested in.

Old Woman: (she chuckles smugly and then replies in a perfectly lucid manner) Aeryn’s child. You pierced my subliminal message.

John: Yeah. And I might have stopped her if I'd known sooner.

Old Woman: Why would you want to stop her?

John: She's carrying - my child - my DNA.

Old Woman: Oh I didn't keep that secret from you - she did. I just wanted you - to accept Aeryn’s decision. But now - I can help you forget. (she yanks one of Arnessk’s one-legged slugs, which in the light of say looks like a big bird dropping, off the stone wall and says gleefully like a grandma offering sweet candy to a pouty child) Lakaaaah! (she then squishes a red glob out of it and proffers it to the human as Oo-Nii looks on and snarls softly) It's all over this planet! Squeeze the joozmeze out of it and stick it up your nose! You'll get a jolt - wham! (in the sensuous tone of a good pusher) And for 500 microts nothing bothers you! No think of Aeryn - nothing!

John: (disgusted) Get that thing away from me.

Old Woman: Okay. Away away. (instantly cool, she brushes the slug and its little guts off her hands before turning back to John and saying as if she were a clever lawyer) Ask Vella - if all the Priests died here - why are there no bones? (she blinks and looks away. muttering to herself) Why are there no bones? (and without further ado - she bustles off with Oo-Nii scuttling cravenly after her. John watches them go and doesn't bother pursuing)

John: O-kay.

(cut to D'Argo and Jool elsewhere in the dig. She's standing very close to him and showing him how to use a digging tool called a carver that's strapped to his arm. It uses an energy beam to expose buried artifacts)

Jool: (softly) Do you feel that? Just let the tug of energy tell you how fast you need to work. (the golden beam of the tool blows away debris that has filled in old etchings on a stone wall) I guess - now that Crichton's back - you'll head off with him again soon.

D'Argo: (also very softly, awkwardly) Yeah... I mean uh - perhaps. I've ah... Being here - I've really enjoyed it.

Jool: Yeah?

D'Argo: Yeah. (Vella pads quietly up behind them) You know, I think we've really found something here. We should uh - clean it up and show Vella - and stick it up her nose. (their school kid giggles are cut short by Vella’s dry response)

Vella: That's a prayer wheel. Found on every wall in the site. And it would never fit up my nose.

D'Argo: (flustered) Yeah well - I didn't actually mean that, I- (but the Instructor cuts him off with an inquiry regarding the carver)

Vella: Now - why are you using that?

D'Argo: Well for this- (but Vella’s queries are rhetorical as she takes it away from him and puts it to her own arm as Jool stands by looking chastened and guilty)

Vella: In unskilled hands, a carver can be perilous. You see Luxan - the process that strips away cycles of age - when it hits living flesh - absorbs the molecular signature of whatever it touches. Thus - that laka - (she aims the carver at one of the single-legged slugs that infest the place and hits it with a bolt of golden light. It's instantly petrified) - is now rock. (thus warned - D'Argo looks chastened too)

(cut to Grayza’s Command Carrier. After a fine time torturing Scorpius, the Commandant is having a nice soak in an elevated tub for two that's filled with milky eater and rimmed with cobalt blue lights. Her arms are outstretched as she basks and listens to Braca - who's standing halfway across the room behind her and giving report)

Braca: Magnetic pulses surrounding the planet make it impossible for the Command Carrier to land. But Marauders - with less sophisticated electronics - can make it through.

Grayza: How much longer will the dig site remain habitable?

Braca: 40 to 50 arns.

Grayza: (as she languidly plays her fingertips one the surface of her bathwater) Closer.

Braca: (awkwardly) Well that's Chief Scientist Dalek’s best estimation ma'am.

Grayza: No. You. Closer. (oh. Braca hesitates only a second before stiffly stepping up next to the tub. Eyes front and center) Down. On your knees. (without moving any part of his face or body other than his legs - he lowers himself to her eye level) Are there any other vessels near the planet?

Braca: Just a dead Leviathan in decayed orbit. I'm prepping a squadron now. (Grayza brushes her fingertips across the skin of her breast from which is extruding beads of an oily substance)

Grayza: Closer. (Braca nervously glances at her and leans forward a wee bit) Closer... (he's forced to unclasp his hands from behind his back to obey and she reaches up and brushes his lips with her oily fingertips. His eyes roll up into his head a bit as she asks in a carefully measured voice) Braca - does it bother you what has happened to Scorpius? (Braca seems to have suddenly lost his inhibitions as he smiles and looks down at her)

Braca: No. (Grayza looks away, Braca seems dazed)

Grayza: We won't need a squadron. We'll go to the planet together. (she slides her other hand closer to him) You and me, 3 Marauders, 20 soldiers. (he watches her hand as if hypnotized and slowly takes it in both of his own. His breathing is erratic)

Braca: W-wh-why? (as she responds, he brings her hand to his lips and licks her fingertips)

Grayza: I always assumed John Crichton was just an outlaw. An excuse for Scorpius' mistakes. But he destroyed a Command Carrier. The Scarrans desire him. Perhaps - somehow I can use him. Perhaps- (entranced, Braca lowers her hand and begins to lean towards her face) - Scorpius' enemy will be my - friend. (she turns back to face him but just as his lips make contact with her face - she places her hand under his chin - and pushes his up and away. The spell is broken and Braca grunts, unnerved and disoriented by this strangely sensual - and manipulative - experience)

(cut back to Arnessk where Vella, having put D'Argo off - is alone with Jool in the labyrinthine corridors of the ruins. Handgrips have been placed on a stone block that is set at eye level in an ancient wall. Vella takes hold of them and applies pressure)

Vella: Grave robbers leave snares. (with the heavy sound of rock grating against rock - the block moves slowly) Ah! This has been opened. Here - (she beckons Jool and shows her how to move the block. But D'Argo is nearby, out of sight around a corner and eavesdropping) Make certain you turn your face away - and open it. (Jool obeys and as she moves the block - a weak flash like a dud firework hisses briefly and is gone. Vella quickly takes over) Just a primitive jarness flash. Only if it hits your eyes will it cause damage. (she pushes the block back into place without further interest. She then turns and walks Jool away - D'Argo quickly moves his listening post as well) You're brave and listen well. Do you plan to keep studying when we leave the dig?

Jool: If I'm allowed - yes.

Vella: (a hint of warning in her tone) And the Luxan?

Jool: He is - he's my friend.

Vella: (with angry contempt) But not your equal! Intellectually – Luxan’s are a subspecies. He will make mistakes - you will be blamed for them. (she strides off and sadly, D'Argo hears Jool’s sigh and comment meant to be heard by no-one but herself)

Jool: I know. (and she follows the Instructor away)

(cut to John. He's standing on the flat slabs of naked rock that form the plateau of the cliffs above the sea. Behind him, are the facade and plaza of the temple precincts near the cliffs and behind that are the dry woods that much of the subterranean ruin lies under. He has his hand up to block the sun whose white glare further washes out the dusty colors of the place. At the sound of his name - he turns around and squints at two figures approaching along the cliff - Tarnat and the old woman. The Interion has one arm around her neck and a weapon trained on John)

Old Woman: Crichton! He's arrested me!

Tarnat: Hands up. (John complies)

John: Oh! Yo! Yo - hey! No need for - no need for guns.

Tarnat: The old lady told me how you planned to stop us.

John: I didn't plan to do any- (but he's interrupted by a yelp of pain from Tarnat and a squeal of triumph from he old woman as she sinks her mossy choppers into the mans hand. He shoves he to the ground)

Old Woman: (to John) He's one of the defilers! They lie! They will not use the Probes for good! Kill him!

John: (in the tone of a guy who just wants one tiny thing and keeps getting crap) No.

Tarnat: Vella may not fear you but I know you're their leader. I've heard about you.

Old Woman: (as she scuttles over to hide behind John) Get him Crichton! I helped you! I showed you Aeryn!

John: (irritated) You didn't show me squat! Sit! (he shoves her down too) Just sit! (he turns back to Tarnat) Listen to me - (Tarnat tenses as John takes a step toward him. The human quickly takes a step backward, still looking at the Interion, but pointing at the old crone crouching behind him) I don't even know - this old ladys name. She came on board our ship like a really bad smell that won't - go - away. I'm not a threat to you. I just want Moya to come back - so I can get the hell outta here. That's it. (he looks out over the Arnesskan sea) Except one thing. (he whips around and in one fluid motion, pushes Tarnat’s weapon down with his right hand, slams the heel of his left into the Interions face and as the man goes down, pulls out his own gun) Do not point GUNS at people!

Old Woman: (bouncing to her feet) That's right! Hit him again!

John: (in a tone that says he wouldn't for no reason other than that she wants him to) NO!

Old Woman: Oh go on Crichton! Let me show you! Like this! And - (she minces over to where Tarnat is sprawled and slugs his jaw. His head barely moves but the bones in her hand sure do) - OOOPH! See?

John: (outraged) What the HELL - are you doing? What-why are you telling me - TO SHOOT PEOPLE?

Old Woman: Because you have to! (her tone suddenly becomes sharp and lucid again) Vella will take the Darnaz Probes and use them as a weapon.

John: (under his breath, as he turns away and reholsters his gun) No I don't.

Old Woman: Why do you think she sent the rest of the dig team away?

John: I have no idea.

Old Woman: There was peace here once! (John’s compassion gets the better of him as he sees the old lady’s agitation and he reaches out to try and comfort her as she rants) You must see what was lost here! I can't let this happen anywhere else!

John: Would you- (but alas - the old woman is no lady like good Elack’s Pilot, and his attempts to sooth her are cut off as she lifts her hand to her lips and blows a palm full of white powder into his face. He recoils and yells with pain as he's blinded momentarily by the stuff while she begins to intone)

Old Woman: There - See... see the ancient world. See... (he blunders perilously near the edge of the cliff, but as the drug takes hold, he finds himself facing inland, back over the temple precincts below. It seems to be covered by thick fog. The sound of myriad chanting voices are heard rising from the mist) See - what I see... (the mist clears and John finds himself in the temple precincts - not as they are - but as they once were. He is at the top of the blue altar platform where the practitioners of some fine religion are carrying out their primitive rites. A priest clad in scarlet robes stands with a long, thin knife. He has a wimple-like hood on his head and his face is painted red and black with flame-like yellow wings on his forehead. He has a 4-eyed, rat-tailed goat- like creature by one of its 4 horns and slashes its throat there on the high altar. The chanting stops abruptly and John finds himself back on the cliff with the old woman. He looks down and then reaches to pick up a golden object lying at his feet. It's a tiny pyramid. One of the many symbols visible on its flat sides is the udjat. The old crone next to him whispers mystically) The children’s tiles. The peaceful thread within us all - It started here. (with the blood sacrifice of innocent animals. That explains a lot) See... (John woozily gapes around - and then up as a distant explosion is hear overhead) See the Darnaz probes - (beyond the atmosphere of the planet, a brilliant flash shines for a moment like a small sun. As it fades, a cyan blue halo spreads out from it and 3 bright points of light, spaced to form an isosceles triangle, ride the edges of the halo as it falls towards the planet. With ground-shaking force - the halo and its points of light make a direct hit on the temple precincts. John cringes at the terrible sight of the energy prison thundering down from the heavens) See it all... (staggered, John sits down abruptly at the edge of the cliff and murmurs)

John: I saw priests... And a goat... Probes falling from the sky. I saw where they landed. (the old woman scurries over to crouch next to him and whisper in his ear)

Old Woman: Like a wormhole - back to the past. See... See the peace... (and with that - she blows another handful of powder into his face. He falls backwards and lays on the cliff edge, flailing and gasping helplessly. The old hags whispering takes on a slightly menacing tone as she hisses-) Now - sleep! Sleep Crichton.

(and the next thing John knows - he's in the seawater below, floating face down in the surf. He reflexively jerks his face out of the water and flails briefly as he orients himself to where the shore is. Fortunately he's bobbing in the shallows not far from a low, rocky beach. But he isn't alone in the water as Oo-Nii’s bright orange head rises from the waves near him and says in a man’s voice-)

Oo-Nii: Crichton! Wait! Wait - I just had to wake you! (but one look at Oo-Nii’s fishy face at close range in the water is all it takes for John to set a speed record back to shore. He stumbles up onto the rocky beach as Oo-Nii lumbers after him) WAIT! WAIT CRICHTON! STOP! I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU! (John staggers up the shore a ways further before finally stopping to catch his breath and looks around. Oo-Nii manages to catch up - but maintains a respectful distance)

John: (gasping for breath) Oh! HELL! You scared the hell outta me! I thought you were a - sea monster - creature - critter. Somethin'... (he looks around - the sky of Arnessk has gone from blue to glaring white, as if a storm is on the way) What's with this weather? I musta been out for a long time.

Oo-Nii: Not long. You must stop old woman. (John can't believe it - yet another strange person insisting he stop what some other strange person is doing)

John: Will you just let me - clear the antifreeze outta my head?

Oo-Nii: (insistent) Vella! She has found the third Probe - it's still under the ground! Your old lady! She swears - she will kill Vella so she cannot use it as a weapon!

John: Nah. No no... Sh-she's just nuts. She's not gonna do anything...

Oo-Nii: (pointing out a Small Fact) She take your gun. (John’s hand claps down - on his empty holster)

John: GRANNY! (he takes off at a run and Oo-Nii huffs softly with satisfaction)

(cut back to Elack. In her dark Den, Elack’s Pilot sits slumped at her station, eyes closed, singing softly to herself in her quavering voice. Suddenly there is movement and Rygel rises up from down in front of her. He has one of those mesh bags full of green luminescent stuff which he plops onto the Console. Elack’s Pilot startles)

Elack’s Pilot: (sleepily) Wha-? Wh- Who's there? (Rygel reassuringly pats her great left upper claw that's resting on her darkened Console)

Rygel: It's all right. There's no one here - no one at all.

(cut back to Arnessk where Jool finds D'Argo lurking in some dark, lonely hall of the ancient temple - drowning his sorrows - perhaps with some ancient sacramental wine...)

Jool: (cheerful) Hey! (the Luxan drains his bottle and tosses it. Jool watches it roll away and looks back at him - a bit concerned) Hey - what are you doing?

D'Argo: Why didn't you stand up for me?

Jool: (softly apologetic - sort of) D'Argo... Most Interions think Luxans are inferior. That's just the way it is.

D'Argo: What do you think?

Jool: (in a guilty whisper) Don't ask me that. (there's a long pause as he steps closer and asks very quietly)

D'Argo: What do you think?

Jool: (in despair) I think - that you're unusual for a Luxan.

D'Argo: Yeah. Yeah I am that. (and with that- he leaves her alone in the stony hall)

(cut back to Elack where Rygel keeps vigil next to the semiconscious Elack’s Pilot and Sikozu continues to work on John’s module)

Rygel: (urgently comming the Kalish - but keeping his voice low so as not to disturb old Elack’s Pilot) Sikozu! Have you finished with that module? (no response) Sikozu! (Elack’s Pilot mutters fitfully in her sleep and Rygel hushes her softly. And in the hangar bay - John’s module flares to life with uncharacteristic blue-white light that flashes from its rockets while Sikozu smiles triumphantly)

(meanwhile, back in the temple ruins of Arnessk - Jool is trailing D'Argo. She's upset and contrite but sadly, her inept interpersonal skills are showing)

Jool: (quavering) D'Argo - you can't blame Vella if she thinks she's smarter than you.

D'Argo: No, but I can blame you.

Jool: I never believed that any of you - cared what I thought.

D'Argo: I care. And just so you know - if someone had criticized you, or insulted you. Called you a stuck up, arrogant little Princess - I'd have defended you. (and again, he walks off, leaving her standing)

(cut to the dry woods outside the dig. John is hunting for the damnable old woman and his gun)

John: GRANNY? (she's nearby in one of the old temple shafts and can hear him - but she keeps quiet) GRANNY! GRANNY I JUST WANT WYNONA SO I CAN GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! (in the temple, the old woman raises John’s gun and whispers)

Old Woman: Receive the spirit. (outside, John squints against the Arnesskan sun. He turns around, almost as if he can hear, or sense her whisper) Receive the spirit... (in the dripping corridors of the ancient temple, the old woman peeks around a corner - and not finding her quarry - moves on, John’s gun raised and at the ready)

John: GRANNY! (he jogs into one of the cleanly squared-off shaft entrances, but stops only a few feet in as a shadow momentarily dims the miasma of hazy light outside - he jogs back to look) Granny? (but she's still lurking in the subterranean ruins - talking to herself in a voice that seems to be coming from her very mind rather than her lips)

Old Woman: Must stop Vella - not let her destroy another world.

And while she prowls and John searches - D'Argo mopes. The Luxan is also on the move through the silent corridors, running one hand along the wall as he walks as if he's very tired. Suddenly he spots something glinting dully on the floor. He picks it up -

D'Argo: The carver.

Somewhere nearby, Vella works alone in the dank shafts and the old woman pauses near a door that lets out onto the woods. She's agitated and the voices of the ancient priests of Arnessk chant to her in her head.

Old Woman: (whispering to herself) Have to protect. The voices - the voices say... Don't let them use it. Don't let them!

The chanting voices increase in pitch and tempo. Their clean sound becomes disturbed by a rustling hiss, as of many voices whispering at the edge of hearing. Meanwhile Vella moves through the corridors and comes to an area being used to store artifacts. As she places something on a shelf, she becomes aware of a rustling sound in the tomb-like stillness around her.

Vella: Who's there? (she intuitively whips her head around towards someone lurking just out of sight around a corner) Show yourself! (the lurker steps out of hiding and she says with mild disgust) Oh what are you doing here? (outside the temple, John wanders in the shadow-less haze of the white sun as Vella, suddenly cautious, inches away from her silent visitor) Is this some sort of joke? (John trots through the underbrush outside as Vella raises her hands and cries-) NOoOO!

John is just blundering past an overgrown entrance to the subterranean complex as it's lit by a flash of brilliant light and Vella’s cry breaks the eerie silence of the place. He pulls up and peers into the pit-like entrance.

John: Grandma? (there's no response - so he carefully drops through the vegetation and in. He hasn't got far to go, for Vella’s storage area is only a short way in from the vine-covered entrance. John comes face-to-face with her as he rounds a corner. One of her arms is still thrown up in a futile effort to protect herself - against a carver beam which has turned her to solid stone and embedded her into the wall of the ancient temple. John raps her stony forehead with his knuckles and mutters) Uh boy. (and with that, he's seized from behind and dragged away from Vella’s remains) GUH-OH! DAMN! (luckily it's just D'Argo, who shushes him as they lurk in the shadows - but John's too creeped out to be shushed) Wh-what happened here?

D'Argo: Quiet!

John: I turned my back for like - 5 minutes, and- (D'Argo shushes him again but John is fairly spluttering as he points at Vella) What is Laura Croft doin' in the wall?

D'Argo: (urgently) Quiet! Quiet! (and at that moment, the reason for D'Argo’s urgency becomes clear with the arrival of Tarnat)

John: (murmuring as Tarnat enters) Don't shush me! (Tarnat strides past their lurking place speaking to Vella as he comes)

Tarnat: Instructor Vella - are you all right? We saw- (but at the very moment he gets an eyeful of Vella’s fate - D'Argo grabs him) What have you done! (but D’Argo’s only answer is a fist in the face and Tarnat goes down. The Luxan then makes a second lunge for the fellow skulking behind Tarnat - Oo-Nii. He grabs the aquatic man and pins him to the wall with the softly thrumming carver at his chest)

D'Argo: Now don't say a word. Not - a word.

(cut to later. The old woman has made herself a small cairn/alter and is delivering a touching prayer for the immortal soul of the late chief archeologist)

Old Woman: Receive the spirit of Instructor Vella. No matter how selfish. How evil...

Fortunately she's keeping her spirituality to herself outside the temple complex. The others are inside, gathered around Vella and the wall with she has become one with. Oo-Nii is intoning a gurgled prayer in his watery language as he rocks and bows before Vella’s remains. Chiana is right there between them, dividing her curiosity between him and the petrified Interion. John is leaning against a wall looking disgusted - and D'Argo's just standing there staring at Oo-Nii and Vella. Jool rises from examining Tarnat, who's still out of it on the floor.

Jool: D'Argo - you knocked him out. (he ignores her)

Chiana: (rather morbidly fascinated) She's like - in - the wall. What happened to the rest of her?

D'Argo: She told me that if the carver hits living flesh it alters the DNA.

John: Nobody cares about the DNA. Why did you knock that guy out?

D'Argo: (surly) If he'd seen me with her he would have attacked and then he would be dead. I saved his life. (Oo-Nii makes a guttural sound like a man with a sick stomach - apparently part of his prayer - and outside the old woman comforts herself)

Old Woman: Receive - her spirit... (and back in the temple the others talk)

John: We're still missing one person.

Chiana: Who Wrinkles?

John: (as Oo-Nii gurgles woefully) Yah.

Chiana: You think she did this? She can't even take a bath!

John: She's been actin' weird.

(cut back to Elack. Sikozu is sitting in the open cockpit of John’s module with is rattling like an old pick-up truck as Rygel appears beside it and eyes her)

Rygel: If you're planning to escape in that I'm going with you.

Sikozu: Does all your species have truncated spines?

Rygel: (unimpressed with her snideness) Don't play arky-arky with me - I promise I'm smarter than you'll ever be.

Sikozu: Then you should realize - even with the combustion liquid I've synthesized - this module would not travel for more than an arn so - No - I am not - trying to escape in it. (suddenly the module’s radio picks up a staticky series of beeps)

Rygel: What's that?

Sikozu: (concerned) It's Peacekeeper code - three Marauders are heading to the planet.

Rygel: That receiver has never picked up coded transmissions.

Sikozu: (anxious) I know - I modified it.

Rygel: (now he's impressed) Oh!

Sikozu: Go to Pilots Den - (she indicates the closed doors to Elack’s launch tunnel) - get that hangar door open! Then hide in the neural cluster. That will shield your life signature should the Peacekeepers scan.

Rygel: What are you going to do?

Sikozu: I'm going to warn the others so they can hide.

Rygel: You're lying!

Sikozu: I told you! I would not last longer than an arn in this! Now get those doors open. Move! (hearing the urgency in her tone, Rygel moves to comply as she calls after him) Then send a secure comm to Moya - stop her from coming until the Peacekeepers have gone!

(cut back to Arnessk. Tarnat has regained consciousness and John has the carver. They're walking along the high cliffs overlooking the sea near the temple ruins. The flat slabs of rock form rough steps and the cliff is also home to a statue of a beast looking out to sea and a stone monolith)

John: Do you smell Granny?

Tarnat: No. (John stops and lets the carver drop to his side. Tarnat continues on a ways)

John: Nah - she's not here. (he looks around. squinting in the bright sun) Weird. (Tarnat stops and looks back at him)

Tarnat: What?

John: I-I've been here. Deja-vu. This... (he looks over past Tarnat and points) There. (he trots across the rock, to the spot he indicated, flicking the controls on the carver as he comes) How's this thing work? It's point and click - right?

Tarnat: Keep it away from me.

John: Hey it's not a problem. (he turns the golden beam of the carver on a bump of rock) Under here there's something that has I think - symbols on it. Most of them alien - one - maybe I recognize. Maybe. (the carver, having reduced the rock to sand and vapor, exposes a golden object - the little pyramid that he'd seen while under the old woman’s drug-induced spell. He reaches down an picks it up)

Tarnat: How did you know that was here? (but John is preoccupied with turning it over in his hands till he finds the side decorated with 3 carved-out figures- one of which is the udjat of ancient Egypt)

John: (murmuring) Holy crap - it's real.

Tarnat: What is it?

John: A child’s tile. (he hands Tarnat the tile as he jogs past him, back up the rock steps to look searchingly out over Arnessk) You know any of these.

Tarnat: (as he turns the tile overt in his hands) This one's Interion. That one - might be early Sebacean. Never seen the others.

John: What do they mean?

Tarnat: This symbol is peace. Security.

John: (thoughtfully) Peace. (Transcribers note: The udjat is a symbol of protection and was a very common amulet for good luck in ancient Egypt. Its inclusion here as the symbol from Earth is apropos considering the incredible luck John's had in surviving his adventures so far)

Tarnat: Do you recognize any of the symbols?

John: One - maybe. Egyptian. From my home world. (he jogs back to Tarnat and taking the tile, urges him back the way they came) Come on - got a change of plan. Let's go!

(cut to D'Argo in his ship - Lo'La. He's powering up systems as he hails Chiana. The bright, oddly barren seascape of Arnessk with the statue overlooking it in the near distance is visible out the viewports)

D'Argo: Chiana can you hear me? Chiana I'm prepping for a fly over to see if I can find the old lady, can you hear me? (suddenly a discordant alarm sounds) Chiana I'm getting some sort of proximity alarm warning - can you hear me? Chiana! (no response - he hisses with frustration and exits the ship, Qualta blade in hand)

(cut back to John and Tarnat as the re-enter the subterranean temple complex)

John: Do you know what this means? It means there's a link between my world and this one. Somehow they're connected. (suddenly Chiana is there in front of them, rounding a corner in the dank corridor. Her arms are behind her back and she has an unhappy look on her face) Pip!

Chiana: (whispering) Peacekeepers. (John instantly realizes her hands are bound. He and Tarnat - who's absolutely aghast - pull up short, but it's already too late. John turns to flee and finds himself face-to-face with a few of Grayza’s soldiers who've come up behind him. Surrender is his only wise option and he puts his hands up. Meanwhile the PK herding Chiana steps into view behind her and in that unnecessarily nasty way that PKs have - delivers a blow to her back that sends her sprawling)

Tarnat: Peacekeepers! (like John, he turns to flee - and runs headlong into the PKs behind them. Unlike John - he makes a dash for a side shaft and is instantly cut down by pulse fire)

(cut to D'Argo. He has his Qualta at he ready as he moves stealthily in a circular sunken courtyard ringed with entrances to the claustrophobic underground shafts of the temple. He taps his Moya comm and murmurs-)

D'Argo: Chiana - if you can hear me - I think the ships- (but he's interrupted by a quiet voice that he hasn't heard before)

Sikozu: The Peacekeepers already have them. Stop - the comms. (one can almost feel his skin crawl as he looks ever so slightly up and over his shoulder in the direction of her voice. She's showing her spooky gravity-defying ability by standing on the wall above the shaft entrances - her body perfectly parallel to the ground and her gun aimed at the top of his head) We must come up with a plan. (he sighs and lowers his Qualta. As a Luxan, he's annoyed at being snuck up on - as a guy who's been hanging around with John too long, he's annoyed at being snuck up on by some new weird alien who no doubt will just live to irritate him...)

(cut to Chiana and John as they are roughly herded into another corridor by their captors. John is shoved to the floor and quickly rolls to a sitting position against the wall. Chiana is forced onto her knees. The place is clearly a predetermined meeting place, as Commandant Grayza appears at the far end of the hall with a soldier/bodyguard hovering behind her. She advances casually and ignoring Chiana, stops a few feet from John)

Grayza: Remember me?

John: Oh yeah. I remember a couple of things.

Chiana: Tell her to shove it up her torr Crichton. (Grayza will put up with John’s sneers for now - but not Chiana’s. Without taking her gaze from John, she raises a hand and a soldier powers the butt of his rifle into the Nebari’s back, knocking the air out of her as she pitches forward. Grayza continues to John)

Grayza: (she speaks in a tone that is slow and patronizing - like a teacher speaking to a dull student) I can make things easy for you. And to prove my goodwill - Braca! (Chiana and John look as the sound of a heavy chain rattling is heard and Braca pulls Scorpius into view from a dark side corridor. The half-Scarran is collared like an animal and being led on his hands and knees. He seems much the worse for wear, spasming and drooling profusely. Chiana gapes at this spectacle - but Grayza has screamingly miscalculated John’s emotions. The human is not relieved or happy or even interested - he is just disgusted and averts his eyes. But Grayza is too narcissistic to notice) He'll never bother you again. Scorpius? Scorpius... (but the half -Scarran is non-verbal and struggling just to stay upright on his hands and knees. So Grayza gives him a kick and he immediately collapses in a puddle of his own drool. John glances at the commotion - But looks away again. Grayza eyes him - and supposing perhaps he doesn't grasp the utter abasement of his archenemy - she raises her foot and Scorpius, with a few encouraging blows from Braca, struggles up to lick the sole of her boot. She looks back at John who, to his credit - is refusing to watch this cruel spectacle. Grayza's annoyed and a bit perplexed as she removes her shoe from the reach of Scorpius' tongue and approaches John. Braca follows, dragging Scorpius along to within easy reach of the human) Do anything you want to him - anything at all. (face-to-face with John - the damaged Scorpius tries to speak)

Scorpius: Crichton... (but that's all he can get out around his numb tongue and John’s lips pull back from his teeth in a tiny smile somewhere between a sneer and grimace)

John: No thanks. I don't think I can come up with anything better than that. (a look from Grayza prompts Braca to drag Scorpius back into the shadows while she crouches down by John)

John: What do you want from me?

Grayza: What I want - (she brushes the skin of her breasts with her fingertips) - May not be as bad as you think. (she extends her fingers toward his face and he jerks away - but she persists gently, wafting her fingers near his nose. He begins to relax and looks back at her - and her fingertips) You might even like it. (but just as he seems entranced - he lashes out and holds her at arms length. The hovering soldiers surge forward, but Grayza stops them as she and John stare each other down)

Chiana: (anxiously, to John) What are you doing? (but John doesn't respond as he tries to resist Grayza’s pheromonal spell. Her too-blue eyes are coldly intense and calm. But he's struggling - twitching, unable to speak. He begins to lean towards her as Chiana watches, horrified) Crichton... What are you doing? (John’s lips meet Grayza’s and the PK woman permits him a long kiss as Chiana looks away and breathes) Crichton...

Grayza: (gently pushing John back) Wait an arn - then we'll meet. (as she stands, his hand trails down her body while he stares up at her, lost in her attraction. She turns to the waiting soldiers and says curtly as she exits) Secure the site. (the soldier guarding Chiana takes the opportunity to shove her flat onto the floor again and as Grayza departs John, well aware that he's been drugged again - shakes himself and tries to regain Mastery of his Domain...)

(cut back to Elack where Rygel is in the Den trying to awaken old Elack’s Pilot. He swats determinedly at her great slumbering nose with one tiny hand)

Rygel: Wake up! Wake - UP! (but alas - he may as well be a fruit fly trying to shift a buffalo - so with a frustrated huff and growl - he sinks his blunt but efficient teeth into her upper lip)

Elack’s Pilot: AAaAaHhh! I'm awake! What's the matter?

Rygel: Peacekeepers! We have to get a secure comm to Moya!

Elack’s Pilot: (the poor old thing quavers her gentle apologies) Elack’s transmission core is corrupted. Everything's dying - I can't do it... (she trails off with incoherent dithering as Rygel groans)

Rygel: No no - Pilot... (she starts to sing her tuneless song to herself again) Stay with me - Pilot! Pilot!

Elack’s Pilot: I-I'm finished Dominar I'm sorry. (she trails off again, and our hearts are broken by her sweetly sorrowful plea) Please forgive me...

Rygel: (softly as her mind and words fade to gentle murmurs) Please... Pilot... (he turns away - without the heart to torment her any more)

(cut back to Arnessk where Grayza is meeting with Braca privately in the in temple halls. Braca still has the panting Scorpius on all fours at the end of his chain and one of the Interions magnetic sensors is making a faint buzzing sound on the wall)

Braca: The orbiting Leviathan is empty. At present we've captured the Interion, a Nebari - and an old Traskan.

Grayza: What about the Luxan and the Peacekeeper traitor?

Braca: Ah - nothing.

Grayza: (eyeing the sensor) And this?

Braca: The magnetics have spiked. (he looks closely at the sensor) According to this we've got approximately 20 arns left and under these circumstances I think we should leave. (but Grayza seems in no hurry as a soldier appears and hands her another yellow rod like the one she'd inserted into Scorpius' coolant device before. She eyes the half-=Scarran, who isn't drooling as much now)

Grayza: He's regaining motor stimulus. Change him. (she hands Braca the yellow rod and under her watchful eye, he goes to Scorpius and spins open the coolant receptacle. But the half-Scarran is able to lash out at his former second and grab his face)

Scorpius: (whispering) No more Braca! (but he apparently hasn't the strength to prevent Braca - and the man smiles back at him and whispers)

Braca: This is for all the times I've had to say yes. (Braca reaches to place the rod into the chamber and in a snakelike movement - Scorpius bites his wrist. Braca grimaces but makes barely a sound as he finishes the job and rises, giving the newly agonized Scorpius a vicious kick as he goes)

(cut to Oo-Nii as he swims through the green subterranean waterways to the grotto where he first saw John. He climbs out of the drink and moves a slab of stone that conceals a small compartment)

Oo-Nii: Good - they're still here. The 2 Probes are safe.

(cut to another place in the temple. A grate over an alcove is serving as a holding cell for Chiana, Jool and the old woman. Outside the cell, a soldier sits on guard in a large, dark room of wet stone. An exit to the planet’s surface is nearby)

Old Woman: (incredulous) He found a tile?

Chiana: Yeah. Th-th-that he saw or something with that powder that you whacked him with.

Old Woman: A real tile?

Chiana: Yeah. That's what he said - from the vision.

Old Woman: (softly) Oh no...

Chiana: What? (but the old woman just shuffles off to the back of the cell, deep in thought) What's the matter?

Jool: Chi?

Chiana: Yeah? (she turns to Jool who's sitting slumped against the wall and looking like the end of the world)

Jool: (dully) When we first met - did you know I was on the run? Accused of stealing from a Noatian gem mine. (to her credit - Chiana doesn't even blink much less gloat at this tawdry bit of news)

Chiana: (flopping her arms in exasperation) Okay. We've all gotta cheer up - okay? Because you - are drivin' me nuts. (she goes to sit next to the redhead)

Jool: I stole things from digs but things that I needed - to study. To learn more. You understand?

Chiana: I don't have a problem with that Jool. (uh-oh - these two must've missed the date on their Learn-A-Word-A-Day calendars when "RATIONALIZATION" was discussed)

Jool: (miserably) But I never stole from here. There is this legend - of this glorious temple. Here - that touched the sky - and no one's ever found a trace of it. And I dreamed of discovering it and... now I'll never discover any of it.

Chiana: Thanks for sharing. (bored with Jool’s tragically dashed grandiose dreams - she gets up and walks from her only to have the old woman start again)

Old Woman: No - the priests will help us. You'll see. You'll see. I'll get Crichton.

Chiana: (disgusted) Crichton is nally-whipped!

Old Woman: Give me a distraction and I'll save us all.

Chiana: All right. (anything to get the smelly old geezer away from her) Okay Wrinkles - follow my lead. (to their guard) Hey! Minya! Hey ah - the old lady - she's er... She's got a problem. (in a loud whisper) Down below!

PKguard: (deeply suspicious) What do you mean?

Chiana: She needs - to go - to the nooly! (she and the guard look to another soldier who's entered and is standing in the middle of the room)

PKsoldier: (in a tone that suggests he'd rather not even think about it) Okay - go.

(cut to John and Grayza. they're standing on the cliffs overlooking the sea. Grayza's changed into a low-necked dress and is collecting some of the pheromonal oil from the skin of her chest as she gazes at him and he waits. She touches his lips and he's immediately overcome, sinking down on a shelf of rock behind him. She presses herself close to him, between his thighs, as she lays a pulse gun on the rock next to him. He moves to pick it up - but his hand sweeps right over it and back to her. She leans into him and runs her lips over his neck and ear. He sits stiffly - but powerless to resist. Over his shoulder, she can see Braca and Scorpius watching from a ways away. Scorpius ducks down, like a predator who's been spotted by its prey, but Braca’s stare remains steady. She leans back and looks at John)

Grayza: Do you like that?

John: (slurring a bit as he gazes at her) It's better than what Scorpius used to do.

Old Woman: (cut briefly to her - speaking perhaps from the nooly among the trees outside the temple complex as she whispers) Peace can only be maintained if there is sacrifice. (she continues to speak as Grayza nuzzles John some more and his eyes roll up in his head as he shudders with ecstasy) Peace... Sacrifice...

Grayza: Do you like that? (John’s first response is to pull her forward onto his lap as the old woman whispers again - "Peace...Sacrifice...")

John: (murmuring dreamily) Whatever you want. Whatever - (his head lolls as she strokes his face and his neck) - you can have it. (and as the surf thrashes against the rocks below and a long shaft of golden sun breaks through the growing shadows, he opens his mouth to receive hers as she leans into him, pressing him down onto his back on the stony shore where they grapple like the most passionate of lovers)

Old Woman: (cut to her briefly as she intones) Peace can only be maintained - if there is sacrifice.

(cut to much later. John is still on the cliffs by the sea - but he's alone now. The sky is very blue and the rock is flooded with brilliant sunshine beating down from almost directly overhead. He looks like he feels so dirty... He's sitting with his knees drawn up tight up to his chin and resting his head on his folded arms. The old woman approaches him)

Old Woman: (typically cryptic) Never been real before.

John: (dully, without looking at her) What are you doing here old woman? (she comes and sits next to him)

Old Woman: In the vision I enhanced - you saw a tile. A child’s tile.

John: Yeah just like the one I found. What did you do to me?

Old Woman: (whispering to herself) Must be the magnetics. - pushes the vision further. Somehow the suggested turned real. (louder) Does Grayza know you saw the Darnaz Probes?

John: No.

Old Woman: Good. I have seen the carnage weapons of mass destruction bring. For Vella to have had one was awful to consider. But the Peacekeepers - they must never have it Crichton. (he gives no indication of hearing - or caring) Do you know where the final Probe landed?

John: Yeah.

Old Woman: This is my fault. I wanted only to show you the peace they had achieved. Somehow I showed you - what you must not know. (and then - as if poor John hasn't had been mind-mucked enough already, she whips up her hand and blows a palm full of her hallucinogenic powder past his ear and into his nose and eyes. That gets him moving - he jumps away from her, staggering)

John: (with despair) NO! (but yes - he has time for only one resentful backward glance at her before the drug takes hold and he begins tripping)

Old Woman: The vision I showed you - (he sees the temple as it was again, with the red-robed priests standing around the high altar with their sacrificial goat) - became real. (his experiences on Arnessk replay in his minds eye - the priests and their sacrifice. Himself standing on the sea cliff with one hand stretched up to the pale sky. Laying his palm into the handprint symbol on the grotto wall. The old woman blowing her powder into his eyes. Himself watching the ancient explosion in the sky. The priest with the red-painted face raising his knife. The little golden pyramid called a child’s tile in his hands. The Darnaz Probes thundering down on the planet like a prison door slamming shut. The old woman and her drugs) Grayza can never know where the final Probe is. (and now he sees something new and alarming - the red robed priests at their suddenly empty alter turning to look at him - plainly visible on the sea cliffs just past their temple. He backs up apprehensively as time seems to jump forward and two of the red priests approach him on the cliff) You cannot tell her. You - must die. (John continues to back up as the advancing priests pass the old woman where she still sits on the rocks. She seems very contrite about the terrible thing she's doing - but that doesn't stop her from doing it as she moans) Oh forgive me - forgive me... (cut briefly to Braca - part of reality not the vision - as he and a soldier hunt through the dry woods for the escaped prisoner) No other way! (cut to Braca again as he breaks into a run) Forgive me. (full of dread, John continues to back away from the coming priests, who walk slowly, as if merely herding him. The old woman gasps and says urgently) Walk to the cliff! To the cliff! Go now! Forgive me. (cut briefly to Braca and his men, running through he woods) Forgive me. Receive his spirit - (John struggles near the edge of the sea cliff with the two priests, who exist of course, only in his mind) - Forgive me. Receive the spirit of John Crichton. (John rushes to the cliffs edge and teeters for a moment, looking down on the waves crashing against the rocks far below. He catches himself and turns back to the priests - who like the figments of any bad trip, disappear and then reappear, advancing anew upon him) He has to die. Oh forgive me! He has to die! Has to! (and now as John stands on the cliff with his back to the sea - he sees that the faces of the menacing priests are that of the old woman)

Braca and his men arrive on the scene to neb the old woman - but instead follow her gaze to the drama playing out at the edge of the cliff. They see only John, clearly deranged, staring wildly into space.

But what John sees is quite different as the hags drug does its work. He sees the two priests with her face raise their hands to their lips and blow a small storm of white dust at him. He flails frantically trying to wave it off. But he is under her power and his eyes roll back as he starts to tip backwards. He sees himself standing again on the cliff with his hand raised to the harsh glare of the Arnesskan sky. Again he lays his palm into the handprint on the wall of the temple grotto. His own blue eye, whose folds echo that of the udjat, looks up to the sky. The Darnaz Probes crash down on Arnessk. His eye rolls further up. A red-robed priest with a red-painted face raises his sacrificial knife. He holds the child’s golden pyramid tile in his hands. John leans back over the deep blue sea behind him. The two priests/old women before him raise their hands to their lips again - and John turns and bolts for the sea.

Braca and his man sprint for John.

But it's too late and John sails over the precipice. Braca and the soldier skid to a stop and watch him fall. His body arcs out, missing the rocks that break the surface at the very base of the cliff - but disappearing into the punishing surf just beyond with a wild splash.

And he's gone.

Old Woman: (her show of remorse now vanished) He had to die. (Braca stares at the old woman, perplexed - and then back out to the crashing surf below) He'll never tell you now. Never.

TO BE CONTINUED

Part 2: Resurrection
The episode opens moments after the point where "WWL1 - Sacrifice" left off. John’s inert body is floating face down in the rough surf just off the jagged shoreline of Arnessk near the ancient temple complex. Something approaches him from below - and his eyes fly open as if in subconscious response to lurking danger. It's Oo-Nii, and as the aquatic man comes at him with his long teeth bared, John repeats a scenario he's already acted out once. He jerks his head out of the water and flails madly to take in air and orient himself to shore. But this time, Oo-Nii grabs him and drags him under. John manages to slither away from him long enough to break the surface again and start to make for the stony shore - but several PK soldiers are arrayed there and as soon as they see him, they begin to shout.

PKsoldier: COMMANDER! OVER HERE! GRAYZA!

And as they bring their rifles to bear and commence shooting - John is yanked under again by Oo-Nii. He's between a rock and a very wet place as he struggles with the aquatic man amid a storm of air bubbles and the soldiers taking pot-shots at him every time he comes up gasping for air. But he's no match for Oo-Nii in the water and he's finally pulled down. Down past the sunlit surface waters and into the green gloom of the bottom. There Oo-Nii drags him into a tunnel where their heads finally break the surface again as they ascend. They pass through a raised portcullis and into the dimly glowing temple grotto. But Oo-Nii’s intentions in saving John from the PKs are not entirely honorable - he's angry and snarls at John as he tows him through the water and pins him down at the edge of the grotto.

Oo-Nii: You're with Grayza! You'll give her the Darnaz Probes!

John: (gasping) Look - Grayza doesn't give a rats ass! (but Oo-Nii's not having any of it)

Oo-Nii: I saw you with her. (and with that - he dunks John’s head under the water and holds him there flailing till just short of the drowning point before hauling him back up)

John: (spluttering and gasping as the desperately protests) PWAH! Grayza - doesn't give a damn - about Probes! She just wants what's in my head!

Oo-Nii: Vella was my friend! I'll not let you take what she discovered! You not give it to them! (John yells as he's jerked abruptly off the edge of the grotto again and held under the water. Again he thrashes frantically, losing all his air in his panic from the suddenness of the assault. But again Oo-Nii yanks him out and he tries desperately to get a grip on the flat, wet stone that forms the lip of the grotto)

John: (with water streaming from his mouth and nose) GET OFF ME YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'm not gonna tell anybody that I saw where the Probe is!

Oo-Nii: You saw it?

John: It's buried - but I'm not gonna tell anybody!

Oo-Nii: Tell me WHERE! (he thrusts John’s head back under the water and holds him there as he snarls) Where is the final probe? (John’s struggles are weaker now as he's brought to the drowning point again - but fortunately Oo-Nii is interrupted by an outraged voice)

D'Argo: What are you doing? I told you to find him not drown him! Now GET OFF!! (Oo-Nii looks up rather guiltily at D'Argo and Sikozu who are standing at the edge of the grotto - the Luxan has his Qualta opened to its pulse gun function. He silently lets go of John, who pops to the surface and splashes hastily away, toward D'Argo who holds out a helping hand) Here. (but as John gets close enough to take the offered hand, Sikozu covers her nose and mouth and D'Argo yelps) Wha-? OOOHHH! (he lets go of John who plops listlessly back into the water) Back in the box for you my- OOOHHH... (John manages to get enough purchase on the stone to pull his upper body out of the pool as D'Argo and Sikozu eye him warily from several feet away) WHAT - is with the stench?

John: (looking around and sniffing) I don't smell anything.

Sikozu: Maybe that is the reason?

John: Maybe that's the reason what?

Sikozu: (staring intently at John) It could not be!

D'Argo: (growling) You know her - she starts sentences and then she doesn't finish 'em and it's - (at Sikozu) - VERY ANNOYING!

John: The reason - WHAT?

D'Argo: You know - you and Grayza with the- (he wobbles his head like one of those little toys people used to set in the back windows of their cars)

John: (sheepishly) You know about that?

D'Argo: John - everyone knows.

John: (he looks away, moaning) Oh - no... (yep - the whole town knows about the worst date of his entire life)

Sikozu: I must be wrong but- (to D'Argo) Heppel oil?

D'Argo: That's a myth.

Sikozu: It would explain the smell.

John: (with a heavy sigh as he clings to the edge of the pool) What are you guys talkin' about?

Sikozu: Dellos concubines have a gland implanted that creates heppel oil. (John's hanging there on the edge of the pool with his head lolling back and his eyes shut. He combs water from his hair with one hand which leaves it standing up all over his head. He's looking more status post Date From Hell every second) Its perfume targets the erogenous zones and - it makes you... (she trails off)

John: (sighing ruefully) Yeah I know - what it does.

Sikozu: But Grayza would never desire it!

John: Why not?

Sikozu: Well its effects are irreversible. Once the gland has been implanted the concubines die cycles before their time.

John: Ugh - she touched me! UGH! (as Oo-Nii watches all this in silence from behind a pillar on the other side of the grotto, John tries to wash that woman out of his hair by dunking under the water and scrubbing squeamishly at himself as he pops up again and says hoarsely) Man! I'm not goin' anywhere near that woman again!

D'Argo: John you have to see her one more time.

John: (with a punch-drunk laugh) Screw-hew you!

D'Argo: Well to use one of your expressions - you're gonna have to take one for the team.

John: Technically I've taken two!

D'Argo: Now it's time for the triple. Listen - she still has Jool and Chiana and we have a plan to get 'em out. (he throws it over to Sikozu, who's taking her hair down)

John: (waiting - to Sikozu) Yes?

Sikozu: We are operating on a need-to-know basis and we think it best that you only know your part.

John: Excuse me?

D'Argo: Well we feel that if you know the whole plan then - (he does the head wobble again)

John: (irritated) What? Y-you two work it out - and come up with a plan. Now you trust her and you're not gonna tell ME the plan!? (he pulls himself out of the water and sits on the edge of the grotto) Well let me tell you - I do NOT get back in the saddle with Mata Hari until I get - the whole plan!

Sikozu: IF you go back - can you be sure that Grayza will not make you tell everything you know? (John makes no response but to look away)

D'Argo: You know it's the right thing to do John.

John: (very quietly resigned, bit still angry) Fine. What do you want me to do?

D'Argo: Okay - the Marauders are prepping to go. We think they want to take you with them. You have to keep Grayza busy for about 2 arns.

Sikozu: (snide) From what we have seen that shouldn't be too har-rd.

John: (uneasily certain) Trust me - it'll be hard. What am I supposed to do in 2 arns?

D'Argo: Just - wait for my signal.

John: Right.

D'Argo: (fretting) And John - when they find you, it's gonna have to be believable - y'know? That you're hurt, that you'd taken a fall - you can do that?

John: (muttering as D'Argo frets) I can fake that. I can fake it.

D'Argo: Now you may HAVE to- (John cuts him off)

John: I SAID - I can - fake it.

D'Argo: Okay, okay. (he pauses) Are you sure?

John: (sullen) I'm sure.

D'Argo: Okay. (and with that, he uses his whip-like tongue to lash John’s neck - the Luxan answer to the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. John wobbles and his eyes roll up to cast D'Argo a reproachful look)

John: (with another bitter, punch-drunk laugh) You bast- (and he keels over into the pool, stunned)

(cut to soon after along the wild coastline of Arnessk. PK soldiers are ranging over the rocks searching. They finally spot their quarry - John, draped carefully over a bolder, dead to the world as the surf crashes behind him. A soldier approaches and after a cursory look, hails his comrades)

PKsoldier: He's alive!

(cut to soon after. John's been taken back to the ruins of the Arnesskan temple where Grayza has taken over a deep inner chamber in the temple complex, it could be a funerary chamber or a sort of inner canctum - an altar room. The chamber is an odd mix of style elements. A rough, raised stone slab dominates the room. John is on it, laying on his belly, unconscious and in black leather 4-point restraints that are attached up near the ceiling somewhere, those would be Grayza’s contribution to the decor. Dark columns with vaguely Mission style capitals stand at the periphery and red light from somewhere casts sharply defined pools of color on the floor. And as if that isn't enough - tall wax candles are randomly placed around the slab for a little Gothic romance/horror mood lighting. Suddenly John grunts a little as he swims back up to consciousness - and a familiar voice immediately starts in on him)

Grayza: (coolly) I let you walk unguarded. (she takes a seat on the slab behind him, outside his line of vision) And you repay me - by trying to escape.

John: (mumbling groggily) I'm not Steve McQueen. I wasn't trying to escape. (Grayza runs her fingertips across the oily skin of her breast) I thought someone was throwing me off a cliff. (he sighs) I live in a strange universe. Things like that are fairly normal. (she reaches over him and his body jerks reflexively against the hated oil as she wafts the pheromonal scent under his nose)

Grayza: (sensual and pouty) You tell me why the Scarrans want you so badly and I will find your love - Aeryn Sun.

John: (murmuring) Aeryn...

(cut to the dank room where Chiana, Jool and the old woman are being held in the grate-fronted alcove. Their reward for the old woman’s escape is that they've all got their hands manacled in front of them now. Braca is there with Scorpius, the half-Scarran is still on all fours, collared and chained. Braca shoves him with one foot toward a stone basin)

Braca: Drink. (Scorpius puts his hands up on the basin and proceeds to lap water like a dog as Braca drops the chain and saunters off, smiling with satisfaction. Meanwhile, Chiana approaches the old woman, who's standing at the bars of their cell, and grabbing a handful of her hair, yanks the old lady’s head sharply back)

Chiana: (in a furious, hissing whisper) I thought - you were gonna get Crichton to help us!

OldWoman: He had to die. No other way.

Chiana: I didn't think you were gonna try and kill him - Wrinkles!

Jool: We're all gonna die soon. (Chiana lets go of the old woman and storms over to the redhead and hisses into her face)

Chiana: Frekkah! (then she paces away from them both and throws herself against the wall like a caged animal. But Jool gets her attention back with a sharp hiss) What?

Jool: (in a loud whisper) The magnetics! You see how the color is fading from everything? (the Arnesskan sun that filters into the room is indeed beginning to have the same bleaching effect it had earlier during a spike in the magnetics) The walls - your clothes! (but Chiana's in too much a snit to care right now)

Chiana: I never had much color to start with Princess!

Jool: But don't you feel it? How you're getting hotter? (Chiana twists uncomfortably and grunts as Jool moves to stand next to the old woman) If we stay in here any longer - we'll all be dead in 10 arns - the flesh cooked off our bones.

Chiana: (with a bitter laugh) Great! Just great - I am stuck here - with the suicide tralks. (she leans towards them and says vehemently) I am not gonna let you get me down. I - *I* am gonna get us out of this! (but before she can make a move - her favorite person in all the world steps into the holding area and addresses the 2 PK guards and Braca)

Sikozu: All right who is in charge? (the men just stand there and gape at this pretty, in a stringing-haired, trashy sort of way - young redhead with the wide, wet lips. So she takes a guess, and brushing past the muzzles of the soldiers guns - approaches Braca with an open-mouthed smile) Captain - I am your promotion. (but Braca is a lesson in life for every young women who believes herself to be irresistible and just stares at her - waiting)

(cut to Elack as D'Argo lands his small ship. Lo'La)

D'Argo: (on comm) Rygel I've docked. Meet me in the transport hanger. (soon after Rygel has joined him to hear his and Sikozu’s Brilliant Plan. They're sitting in what looks like the ruins of John’s former hermit’s pad, using a create as a table) If we can get Elack to crash into the Marauders on the planet, we might be able to escape in the explosion wake or at least - far enough so the Command Carrier can't track us.

Rygel: (knowing John’s affection for the old Pilot) Crichton know about this plan?

D'Argo: He may not want to go along with it, but we have no - other - option. Can you convince the old Pilot to do it?

Rygel: (unenthusiastically) I think so - no matter what - she knows she's soon to die. (D'Argo nods and makes to leave but Rygel stops him) Do you know why this plan is going to fail?

D'Argo: Rygel-

Rygel: Sikozu will betray us again. Do you really think you can trust that female to do her part?

D'Argo: I have no choice. (Rygel grunts and D'Argo heads back to his ship)

(cut back to John and Grayza. He's still on the slab but is on his back now and the leather restraints have been removed. Grayza's undressing him, one passive limb at a time, and he's bare-chested. He's also telling her all about the wormholes as she finishes working his shirt off along his right arm)

John: (sounding ever so slightly doped) I know they're always out there... in the sky... waiting.

Grayza: (her tone is languid and dreamy, making it clear that although she keeps her head a bit more - the heppel oil aphrodisiac wets - we mean whets - her appetites as well as those of her victims...) If these wormholes are always there - why can't they be seen?

John: It's that - they're like this - (he holds his hand up so the side of his flattened palm is to her, presenting a very narrow profile) - invisible. (she smiles understanding) Sometimes under the right conditions - they turn - (as he speaks he rotates his hand so the broad flat of his palm is to her) - and appear. (she shows her appreciation of his science lesson by taking his thumb gently in her teeth and giving him a kittenish play bite. He runs the thumb along her lower lip as he lies) I just don't know how to make them appear. (as Grayza responds, Braca strides briskly into the room and stops at a respectful distance, but Grayza has eyes only for John)

Grayza: And do you think it's worth risking your life-

Braca: (urgently) Ma'am! (Grayza ignores him)

Grayza: -to find out about these wormholes?

Braca: (insistent) Ma'am?

Grayza: (without looking up from John) Go - away.

Braca: (with sigh) It's important Ma'am. (with an irritated click of her tongue, Grayza pulls herself away from John’s caresses and strides over to hear what he has to say. Sikozu's been brought along as well, escorted by 2 soldiers) I'm sorry to ah - disturb you but ah... (his voice lowers to a murmur as he reports. Grayza’s eyes drift back to John, partly to keep an eye on him and partly out of annoyance. John lays on his back, staring at the ceiling. His head listlessly rolls to face away from Braca and Grayza - and something catches his eye - a glint of silver in the candlelight. It's a knife, like the one he'd seen the Arnesskan priests sacrificing their animal with while tripping on the old woman’s dust. He takes it and conceals it along the side of his body as he returns his gaze to the ceiling. Braca finishes his quiet chat with Grayza and turns to leave, issuing a curt order to the men waiting with Sikozu) Bring her.

John: Bad news from Smithers? (Grayza moves languidly back to his side, speaking to him as she comes)

Grayza: Your Luxan has failed. (she sits down, leaning over him with one hand on either side of his body) My soldiers are hunting him down. He'll be dead within an arn. (spurred by anger, John whips the knife up in an arc toward her throat - but Grayza doesn't even flinch as it stops just short of her skin. John uses his other hand to try and force himself to slash her - but to no avail. Grayza’s face remains a smooth mask of serenity as she removes the weapon from his trembling grip. John falls back onto the stone slab, panting and shaking as she lays the blade against his chest and runs it gently down his sternum) Don't - fight me.

John: (panting from the strain of resisting her) Scorpy- Scorpy brief you on this? (she looks at him, puzzled by his meaning as she continues to draw the blade down his belly - just hard enough to tease without cutting) You wouldn't do this - not on your own - not this far away from High Command. (Grayza pauses and presses the knife against his navel while she undoes his pants before continuing on down with it. John raises his head and whispers his best insult) You're just his whore - (she cocks her head and her expression of cool sensually fades to one of hard displeasure) - doing what he tells you to do. (Grayza lifts the knife from his skin and adjusts her grip on it - to stab)

(cut to soon after outside the subterranean temple complex in the dry woods that surround it. John's been brought out for a little hard labor. He's digging a grave under the watchful eye of Grayza. Braca's there with Scorpius crawling on the end of his chain, the crew of Moya, Sikozu and the old woman stand under guard nearby. The heat and work has only lubricated John with a different kind of oil as he pauses and asks-)

John: Is that enough dirt outta your hole boss? (his insult isn't lost on her but she doesn't deign to acknowledge it)

Grayza: Get out of there. (Braca drags Scorpius to the hole as John tosses the shovel aside and says pointedly to Sikozu, who's crouched at the feet of a PK soldier, and growls)

John: Congratulations Peacekeeper whore. Perfect plan. (she doesn't look proud as he vaults out of the hole and dusts off his hands as Grayza approaches him with a pulse gun dangling limply from one raised hand)

Grayza: One charge. You think - Scorpius is the brain. Go on - kill the half-breed genius and ruin everything. (John eyes the gun critically - he's not willing to play these people’s games)

John: There's no charge in that weapon.

Without a word, Grayza hands the gun to Braca who hauls Scorpius to his feet at the edge of the open grave. The half-Scarran has his tongue between his teeth as he stares at the sky and steels himself for what he knows is coming - and Braca puts the gun to his back and fires. The shot tears through Scorpius' body and exits his chest with a fountain of sparks as white liquid spews from his mouth - and then he topples like tree, face-first into the grave. The old woman watches him go down with a look of mild regret on her face. But John gapes - unable to believe what he's just seen. He turns to flee but a soldier standing behind him knocks him to the ground and at the same moment - Sikozu yelps as the soldier guarding her shoves her into the grave next to Scorpius' inert form.

Grayza: (to Sikozu) Is he dead? (Sikozu is pressed against the side of the grave, as far as she can get from Scorpius' body. She gives it a very fleeting glance and then looks ingratiatingly up at Grayza)

Sikozu: Yes. Yes I think so..

Grayza: Shoot her. (Chiana looks pleased. Sikozu looks stunned)

Sikozu: What? I HELPED YOU! I told you about the Luxan! ABOUT HIS PLAN!

Chiana: (furious, from between clenched teeth) Shoot the tralk Braca! (she boldly walks over to one of the soldiers) Gimme a gun and I'll do it myself! (the soldier shoves her back and Grayza turns to leave as Braca takes a rifle from another soldier and moves to the side of the grave. And in the momentary flurry of activity - Sikozu hears a voice whispering)

Scorpius: Skernak. (Sikozu looks down at Scorpius, a little puddle of white fluid is soaking into the dirt against which his face is pressed and he whispers again) Say - skernak - it'll save you. (Sikozu looks up at Braca, who's taking aim-)

Sikozu: Braca wait - skernak! (Braca freezes and Grayza very slowly turns back to look at her)

Grayza: What did you say? (a hush falls over the group, the PKs are tense, John and the others are perplexed)

Sikozu: Sker-nak! (in the silence, her benefactor whispers one more direction to her)

Scorpius: Do not - let them bury me. (Sikozu draws a shaky breath and nods almost imperceptibly)

Grayza: Get her out of there. (a couple soldiers give the redhead a hand out of the pit. Once out, she yanks her arms away from them furiously as Grayza approaches her)

Sikozu: Get off me!

Grayza: (quietly) How do you know Special Directorate Code? (Sikozu's panting with anxiety, but manages to force a bit her customarily arrogant self-confidence)

Sikozu: Same way you do. And - may I suggest - I would not bury the half-breed. I would leave him out in the sun to rot. (but her heart isn't in it and she finishes lamely) It would - scare the others more. (Grayza eyes this young pipsqueak appraisingly and smiles ever so slightly as she shakes her head)

Grayza: I don't think so. (to the soldiers) Bury him. (John frowns as he ponders Sikozu and watches the first shovelful of dirt land on Scorpius' face)

(cut to D'Argo who's moving stealthily through the underground halls of the temple complex. He pulls back into the shadows as several PK soldiers run by, their gear a-jangle in their haste)

PKsoldier: Quickly! (the sound of their footsteps recede, leaving D'Argo alone in the tomblike shaft again. He checks the corridor and then taps his comm)

D'Argo: Okay Rygel - I'm back on the planet - (cut briefly to Rygel, sitting by Elack’s Pilot. Her eyes are closed and her head is bowed and Rygel clearly has misgivings) - have you managed to convince the Pilot?

Rygel: (his joyless voice is heard on D’Argo’s comm) Yes. We'll wait for your signal.

(D'Argo makes no response as he moves on. But if he seems oddly insensitive to the thing he's asking good old Elack and his Pilot to do - Rygel seems to have grown almost as fond of them as John had. The scene shifts back to Elack’s Pilots Den)

Rygel: (awkwardly) I'd - better get a transport pod ready.

Elack’s Pilot: (her voice is strong at first but begins to quaver with dread as she finishes) Yes - I'll wait half an arn, then initiate de-orbit.

Rygel: (somberly) You'll be able to target your fall onto the Marauders?

Elack’s Pilot: (hers and Rygel’s faces are very close) Off the Luxans signal. Farewell Dominar - perhaps if our species share the same afterlife - we will meet again. (oh gawd - she's breaking our hearts - and Rygel’s too as he sighs miserably and his whole body seems to sag)

(cut back to the inner sanctum. Grayza's brought John back there for a little post death-of-Scorpius whoopee. She's laying on her belly on the slab wrapped in a black sheet with only her bare shoulders exposed as she wafts her oiled fingers under John’s nose. He's sitting on the floor leaning against the slab with his arms stretched out. His back is to her and his head lolls as he involuntarily inhales her scent)

Grayza: (as she caresses his chest and face from behind) My interrogations are much more agreeable than Scorpius' methods.

John: (shaky) Yeah... But I don't know anything else - about Scarrans. I've told you everything. (a movement catches his eye - a laka - one of the single-legged slugs that infests the ruins is pushing itself up the wall nearby)

Grayza: We don't only have to talk about Scarrans. (FLASH on John’s memory of the old woman showing him how to crush a laka as she said: "Squeeze the joozmeez out of it! You'll get a jolt - wham! And for 500 microts, nothing bothers you!") Are you listening to me?

John: Oh yeah... (and he tears his eyes away from the laka to turn around and cradle Grayza’s head in his arms for a passionate kiss)

(cut briefly to D'Argo on his lone mission. He easily takes down 2 PK soldiers on a broad path in the sparse woods with his Qualta in its sword mode)

D'Argo: (to the fallen men as he moves on) Always a pleasure.

(cut back to Chiana, Jool and the old woman in their alcove prison. Chiana watches as Sikozu enters and cozies up to the guards before approaching the cell)

Chiana: What the frell does she want?

Jool: (quietly - in an uncharacteristically venomous tone) Let me handle this. (Chiana steps back and Jool advances while Sikozu touches the guards cheek and coos-)

Sikozu: Thank you. (and with that, she steps into the cell. Without a word, Jool grabs her by the throat with both cuffed hands and pins the two-faced Kalish against the wall. The guards move to intervene - but Sikozu orders him off) Stay back! Stay back! It's all right.

Jool: I always wait. You know - see both sides. Be reasonable. But now I have nothing to lose. (unfortunately though, our Interion friend is a thinker, not a fighter and Sikozu suddenly grabs her arms and swings her around so SHE'S pinned against the wall. Sikozu then viciously twists Jool’s bound wrists) OH! FRELL! Ah-oh! OH! Oh!

Chiana: (very quietly) Let - (she drops her own manacled wrists over Sikozu’s head and pulls tight against the Kalish’s throat) - her go.

Sikozu: (with the fury of a morally righteous liar and cheat caught lying and cheating) I didn't betray you! I am bluffing for all I am worth just to get myself in here! Now D'Argo has a plan-

Jool: You're lying. We saw them not kill you. Why didn't they?

Sikozu: (through clenched teeth) They think I know some sort of secret survivor code!

Chiana: What - ah - did you say to them? (she jerks Sikozu’s neck a little)

Sikozu: (gritting) Skernak.

Jool: What does it mean?

Sikozu: I have no idea. But it saved my life and - if you stop fighting me - I will try and save yours too. (but Chiana and Jool aren't about to trust their fate to this ones flexible allegiances)

Jool: (to Chiana) Why don't you put your fingers in her ears. (Sikozu looks very apprehensive as China lifts her hands away from her throat and places them instead on either side of her head. Jool then warns Sikozu-) Stay - still. (and with that - Jool opens her mouth and lets fly one her metal-melting, teakettle shrieks. Her and Chiana’s cuffs melt enough for the pair to break out of them. The PK soldiers - in an amazing display of thick-headed military submission - just stand there as per Sikozu’s earlier order and watch as their prisoners bonds drop to the floor. Chiana and Jool eye Sikozu expectantly and the Kalish decides she'd best make good on her promise to help out. The 3 of them look at the soldiers and smile toothily before Sikozu exits the cell, running her hands along each soldiers helmet as she passes. They watch her go and them turn back just in time to take a kick to the chin each from Chiana and Jool. The Interion and Nebari high-5 each other before relieving the guards of their weapons and exiting without a backwards glance at the old woman who trails them on out)

(cut to a PK soldier in the temple grotto where the hurried search of the site continues before they all must leave. He spots a mosaic-inlaid paving stone on the floor and lifts it to reveal the place where the 2 Darnaz Probes are hidden. The water in the pool roils as the guardian of the Probes slips into it and shoots beneath the surface towards the man)

PKsoldier: (via comm) Captain Braca - I think I've found something. (but Oo-Nii surges up from the pool and grabs the man from behind. The struggle is very brief before the soldier is dragged under the water, whose surface soon becomes quiet again)

(cut back to the inner sanctum where John is back on the slab. He's on his belly and looking exhausted as he watches a couple laka push themselves along the edge of the stone only inches from his nose. Grayza is standing a few feet behind him and examining the little golden pyramid called a child’s tile by the light of one of her candles)

Grayza: You found this tile here?

John: (he lays there, unmoving as he dully mumbles his responses) Yeah.

Grayza: And this face is Interion?

John: I think so.

Grayza: And this face from your home planet?

John: I... think so.

Grayza: Do you know what this means?

John: Uh-huh. (with a sudden small motion of his hand, he grabs a laka)

Grayza: It means our two species may be very closely linked. (the laka is reduced to laka pudding with a small juicy crunch in John’s fist as Grayza obliviously continues to show off her incredible intellect) Which does not surprise me - at all. (she returns to sit on the slab behind him as he picks a red gut from the laka. He groans a little - maybe from satisfaction, maybe from disgust) What's the matter? (he quickly stops messing with the laka and closes it in his fist as he sneaks a look over his shoulder at her)

John: My back.

Grayza: It's all scratched. (she leans down and begins kissing the ouchies on his back - and John shoves the laka up his nose. Grayza pauses as John feels the jolt of the bug drug) I can hear your heart. (she goes for his back again with renewed vigor. John just fidgets as he snorts and wipes at his nose. Grayza seems to senses something amiss and pauses again, trying to get a look at his face, which he has buried in his arms) What's that? (he pushes himself up and looks at her)

John: That's you. (and he swings one arm around her neck, pulling her face-first onto the stone slab beneath him where he then lays atop her and she clearly is enjoying what she presumes is sex play)

(cut to elsewhere in the temple complex. D'Argo pauses at the square doorway overlooking the barren rock plateau above the Arnesskan sea. This is the same place where he'd first demonstrated Lo'La’s invisibility shield to Chiana. Now the black hulks of 2 Marauders can be seen parked on the rocks outside)

D'Argo: (quietly) Ush'kuhl. Hava shentavo. (Lo'La fades into view, sitting there next to the PK ships and he comms Rygel back on Elack) Rygel - tell the Pilot to commence countdown to start targeting the Marauders.

(cut to Elack where Rygel has John’s pet DRD, 1812, working on getting an old transport pod up and running. One wonders why they didn't do this before - but who are we to ask? The scene shifts between Rygel in the pod and Elack’s Pilot in her unlit Den as they speak via comm)

Rygel: Will do. (to 1812) Hurry - we don't have much time DRD. (via comm) Pilot? I'm preparing the transport pod to leave. Are you ready?

Elack’s Pilot: (a sleepy murmur) What? (startled) What? (and awake and covering) Yes! I've - talked with Elack - we are - prepared.

Rygel: (firmly) The DRD is almost done fixing this but we must start our descent in a 1000 microts.

Elack’s Pilot: (murmuring softly to herself as she nods among the shadows at her station) Must go... Must go...

Rygel: Good-bye my friend. You've served us well.

Elack’s Pilot: Thank you Dominar. Yes - must go. Must go now. (and her ancient brown claws begin to move instinctively over her dark Console)

(cut back to the inner sanctum where, with the help of a slug or 2 up his nose - John's keeping Grayza busy without getting too involved himself. He now has HER restrained on the slab. She's on her belly with her naked body partly covered by the black sheet. John's sitting next to her, walking his fingers up her spine)

John: (leaning near her face as she smiles and arches her neck) Goo-ood - you like that. Mm-hmm - (her body jumps as he slaps her butt) - you like it like that! (she squirms creamily - yes she does)

(cut back to Elack’s Pilot as she raises her claws from her Console with a tiny, old lady sigh of triumph - and her great ship leans into an arc as his engines power up strongly. Rygel hears and feels the movement in the transport hangar where 1812 is still working on the decrepit pod)

Rygel: (alarmed) Pilot what's happening? I said a 1000 microts! Ohnonono! Don't go yet! The pod's not fixed! (Elack’s Pilot murmurs softly to herself in her Den, if she hears him she doesn't show it) I'm still in the transport hangar! (he frantically comms D'Argo and the scene shifts to the Luxan who's in Lo'La down on Arnessk) D'Argo! Elack's left early! He's coming now!

D'Argo: (he hurriedly passes the word on to Chiana, Jool, Sikozu and the old woman as they make their way through the corridors of the temple) Chiana! The Leviathan's on its way now!

Chiana: How long we got D'Argo?

D'Argo: I'd say 400 microts - I'll signal Crichton!

(cut to the inner sanctum where Grayza remains strapped to the slab as John pulls on his shirt and gun belt. She looks up and around at him as his comm warbles)

Grayza: What's that? (John cuts the hail and eyes her resentfully)

John: Couldn't do it the old-fashioned way could ya? (she eyes him back, perhaps so unaccustomed to things not going her way that she can't immediately recognize it when it happens) 6-pack of beer. Night of bowling. A little skinny-dippin'... Uh-uh. I hear you been puttin' some junk on the ball.

Grayza: (coldly) Untie me.

John: (as he picks up a gun and holsters it) A little monkey. Little Gaylord Perry. A little Joe - (he draws his fingers through the slick of heppel oil on her baked chest) - Neikro. (Transcribers Note: John can't just name a few date-rape drugs - he has to offer up references to obscure baseball players famed mainly for enhancing their pitches with funny stuff like spit)

Grayza: (angry, but in the soft, hypnotic tone of command reserved for her sexual victims) No - you - stay.

John: You never heard - my heart. (he passes his oiled fingers over the flame of one of the candles and the heppel oil burns off with a brief flash and sizzle. He then turns and walks out)

Grayza: (furiously, as she tugs futilely at her bonds) CRICHTON! STAY!

(but he's gone. And as he steps into the deep temple corridors he returns D’Argo’s hail)

John: (whispering) D'Argo - I got your signal.

D'Argo: (cut briefly to him in Lo'La as he shouts) CRICHTON! HURRY!

John: Where's your ship? I'm on my way outta here. (and with that - he rounds a corner and skids to a stop at the sight of Braca and a small group of soldiers. Pulse gun charges whine) Whoop.

Braca: Hello Crichton.

John: (smiling tightly) Hiya Braca. Lemme ask you a question. You're a man of the world right? Does my ass - look big in these pants? (as he says this, he bends over just a bit, swinging his butt into profile as he strokes it so that Braca has a nice view of it. As fun as mocking Braca is - all John really wants is to get his hand near his gun and as Braca charges, he whips it out and fires. Braca takes cover and the soldiers commence shooting. John retreats back to the end of the hall and around a corner where it widens out. He's trapped between the dead-end leading to the inner sanctum and the PKs firing down the long hall at him like it's a shooting gallery. A flooded corridor is across from him but to get to it, he'd have to run the line of fire) D'ARGO! (cut briefly to D'Argo in Lo'La, looking annoyed) Okay I got a problem here!

(cut to Elack’s Pilot, nodding and murmuring incoherently in the dark as Elack thunders into the upper atmosphere of Arnessk, his old body radiant as a falling star. Rygel's still with 1812 and the pod in the transport hangar)

Rygel: PILOT! PILOT! PILOT STOP YOUR DIVE! (in her Den, Elack’s Pilot hears him but can do little more than mutter and thrash a little against the call of the hereafter) STOP! YOU'RE TOO SOON! I CAN'T ESCAPE IN THE POD YET!

(meanwhile, back in the temple, the PKs still have John pinned down in the dead-end corridor to the inner sanctum. John leans around the corner and takes down one the PKs, who are slowing working their way closer. D'Argo is yelling on comm from Lo'La)

D'Argo: John! Elack's crashing down onto the Marauders now! (another PK has found a way up a flooded side shaft but John spots him before he can fire and he goes down with a splash) The magnetics are playing HAVOC with my systems!

John: (not pleased and not interested in D’Argo’s techno-troubles) So - that was your plan?

D'Argo: Elack left early.

John: (under his breath) Great plan. (he squeezes off a couple more shots around the corner and yells) D'ARGO! I NEED A LITTLE HELP HERE!

(cut to Chiana and the other women as they make their way through the temple corridors and hear John’s call for help)

Chiana: Crichton - where are you?

John: I dunno - near Vella’s chamber maybe. Just follow the pulse fire!

Jool: I know where that is.

Chiana: All right. (Jool takes the lead) Wrinkles - you go find D’Argo’s ship. (the old woman starts away and Sikozu moves to go too, but Chiana stops her) Hey hey hey! You. You stay with us. Not that I don't trust you - but I don't. Come on.

They move on to join up with John as back in the inner sanctum, Grayza strains against her own bondage gear to reach the silver knife that John had gotten his hands on earlier. Meanwhile, John continues to hold off the PKs - but his prospects of success go suddenly flat as his pulse gun fizzles - out of fuel.

John: (under his breath) Damn. (he fumbles urgently with the chakkan oil cartridge as he mutters a pep talk to the weapon) You are the most powerful hand gun in the Uncharted Territories and I don't know whether you've fired 500 shots or 600 but - (he touches the cartridge to his tongue) - 600. Empty. (and now we know how many shots you get out of one pulse gun cartridge. He slaps it back into place as around the corner the PK soldiers inch closer) Damn you! (irritably) Wynona would never do this because Wynona is very reliable! (but at that moment - the cavalry arrives in the form of Chiana, Jool and Sikozu wading down the flooded corridor on the other side of the line of fire)

Chiana: Hey! Crichton!

John: Hey hey! (he points to the pistol Jool is carrying) Jool! Can I borrow that pulse pistol? (she tosses it across the line of fire to him) Thank you! (Jool turns to the dead soldier in the waterto get his gun but Sikozu is closer and fetches it off him for her)

Sikozu: Here!

Chiana: What was that- what was that word you used to get out of the grave?

Sikozu: Skernak. (and without further ado - Chiana and Jool leap into the line of fire yelling " SKERNAK! SKERNAK! SKERNAK!" But alas - the trouble with Secret Code Words is that once they've been used - they're no good anymore 'cos everyone knows them then and the two are nearly fried by a hail of pulse fire. They dive back into the flooded hall)

John: Well it was worth a shot. (Sikozu beckons John to take the leap across the line of fire)

Sikozu: This way. (John hesitates - the PKs are holding fire - just waiting for a target to show)

Chiana: Come on! (and this time she plays the suicide tralk by leaping into the line of fire and shooting wildly down the alley at the PKs. John makes a mad dash for the flooded hall and Chiana manages to duck back too - in one piece. D'Argo shouts to them via comm)

(cut briefly to D'Argo in Lo'La, sitting next to the Marauders and acting as a homing beacon for Elack under the lowering white skies on the rocky plateau by the Arnesskan sea)

D'Argo: Chiana! Elack's almost on top of us! We have to lift off now! (since you're wondering - we'll just ask - Why doesn't D'Argo just blast the Marauders to heck since he's sitting right there in a massively armed Luxan fighter ship instead of asking poor old Elack and his Pilot to die a terrible, violent death? See our S4 heading)

(cut back to the corridors outside the inner sanctum)

Chiana: We're on our way D'Argo. Keep the engines hot. (and they're off, with Braca and his soldiers in pursuit - but not for long because just as they reach the entrance to the flooded shaft - Grayza comes storming out of the inner sanctum)

Grayza: (her voice harsh with fury) Braca!

Braca: Uh - it seems they do have a ship Ma'am. (she grabs him by the front of his jacket and shoves him against the wall)

Grayza: A SHIP?

(outside, Elack bursts through the clouds of Arnessk’s upper atmosphere, his oncoming profile silhouetted in a brilliant halo of fire. Rygel and 1812 are still in the pod docked in his transport hangar)

Rygel: (without much hope as he hangs on for dear life on the turbulent descent) Pilot sto-op! D'Argo - We're dropping through the gratosphere. I can't stop Elack!

(cut back to Braca and Grayza in the deep corridor)

Braca: (miserably) Yes Ma'am. It was off our scans.

Grayza: CAPTAIN! THEY MUST NOT ESCAPE! (she yanks him off the wall and shoves him off in pursuit of the escapees)

(cut to our heroes and Sikozu as they burst from the subterranean temple into a circular courtyard and make for the short tunnel leading out of the complex)

Sikozu: D'Argo we're here! Where are you?

Chiana: D'ARGO! WHERE'S THE SHIP FEK-FACE?

Sikozu: (stopping them all just short of the last exit) Wait - wait!

Jool: (panicky) WHAT!? (a distant roar is hear)

Chiana: What's that sound?

Sikozu: We're too late - it's the Leviathan.

It is indeed old Elack. He's screaming over the rocky coastline with its white surf and deep blue sea now in a broad arc, trailing vapor as he zeroes in on D’Argo’s signal.

John: Back inside! (Chiana and Jool hasten to hide their hearts from Elack’s coming, but Sikozu resists his pull)

Sikozu: What's the point in running? It is too close!

John: There is always a point in running! (and he shoves her ahead of him back to the shaft entrance)

(cut to sweet old Elack’s Pilot, sitting very still at her station, eyes closed as Rygel sits in the docked pod calling to her. His voice is almost gone from calling to her...)

Rygel: Pilot... Pilot... wake up… (Elack’s Pilot suddenly snaps to life with a grunt as Rygel tries to shout, but just kind of croaks loudly) Pil-ot!

Elack’s Pilot: (surprised and aghast) Dominar! Why are you still aboard?

Rygel: You left early! We need more time.

Elack’s Pilot: (her old, weak voice quavering and alarmed as her claws begin to move over her worn Console again and Elack’s engines waver) It may be too late! We must pull up! We mu-ust try.

A couple soldiers out on the plateau turn and run as Elack, whose size seems to overwhelm the entire peninsula the temple complex sits on, clips the top off one of the pyramid-like structures beyond it. Jool screams as a flash of fire from exploding archeological equipment illuminates the shaft where she and the others have sought cover. Back on Elack, Rygel looks greener than usual as he's buffeted by the impact - but Elack succeeds in pulling up and passing over, spreading bits of pyramid as big as transport pods for hundreds of miles down the coast as he goes. Back in the temple, Chiana, John, Jool and Sikozu are on the run, but slow up as they turn into a long narrow hall leading to another exit as another explosion lights it from outside.

Chiana: WHAT HAPPENED?

John: Who cares? Just go! Go! GO! (another explosion flares outside near the exit and Sikozu cringes back, but John pushes her onward) GO!

Chiana: GOGOGO!

(cut back to Rygel as he hoarsely begs one last favor of old Elack’s Pilot from the transport hangar)

Rygel: You did it. Now... open the hangar door.

(meanwhile, Chiana, John, Jool and Sikozu appear on the plateau on a dead run for Lo'La)

D'Argo: COME ON! HURRY! MOVE! ELACK'S ON HIS WAY BACK! (but at that moment - the pursuing PK soldiers catch up and commence fire. John and Jool are in the rear)

John: JOOL! (he and the Interion take cover behind a partly tumbled-down wall and return fire as Chiana and Sikozu go on. But almost at once - John’s gun makes a loud beeping sound, he stares at it incredulously) DAMN! IT'S OUT OF OIL! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S OUT OF OIL! (and as John raves, and Elack makes a broad U-turn in the pale blue sky - Rygel’s pod streaks away from the great ship whose skin seems striped like a salamanders in the bright white sun. The Hynerian heaves a great sigh of relief and more PKs join the fray on the plateau. And John's still ranting) WHY ARE THEY ALL OUT OF OIL!? (he flings the useless gun at the PKs - but it isn't even any use as a projectile as the wind catches it and blows it aside. Meanwhile D'Argo exhorts his friends to greater speed as Elack comes about in the Arnesskan sky like a small, self-propelled moon)

D'Argo: COME ON! (Chiana and Sikozu stumble into the dim safety of Lo'La as Rygel comms Elack’s Pilot from the pod)

Rygel: Pilot if you can - lock onto the Marauders coordinates again. (and in her Den, old Elack’s Pilot exhorts her great ship in their final effort)

Elack’s Pilot: (her voice is weary and frail, but convey the strength of her determination) Elack - if we don't find the strength - it's all been for nothing. (on the plateau, Elack lowers in the near distance beyond the parked PK ships and Lo'La) We must try - target the Marauders. (and as Elack highballs onward, strangely silent now as his speed outpaces his roar- John and Jool also manage to clamber aboard Lo'La)

John: We're in - let's go.

Chiana: Get us out of here! (and in her Den, Elack’s Pilot whispers her last words to her bonded partner of more than 3 centuries)

Elack’s Pilot: Elack... nooowww... (she touches a panel on her Console almost tenderly as she looks away and lights flicker over her deeply furrowed face. The sound of engines throttling back are heard - and Elack comes to his final resting place)

He strikes the surface of Arnessk well short of where the Marauders sit - but then his size is such that a direct hit isn't necessary. He comes down at a sharp angle and plows head-on into the stony planet. As a group of the remaining PKs on the plateau scatter too late - great Elack seems to stand there for a terrible moment on his head - but then the explosions begin, first at his head and then moving upwards as his body topples tali-first towards the Marauders. The concussions of his impact and fiery death shake the ground as D'Argo manages to get Lo'La aloft before Elack’s tails come crashing down, thousands of feet from the point of his impact, onto the PK ships. Grayza watches the destruction from the shelter of one of the old temples sunken entrances and turns away as debris begins to rain over the entire area. And in the transport pod, Rygel is the only one who remembers the loveliness who just passed before their eyes -

Rygel: (softly sighing as he closes his eyes and bows his head) Pilot.

(cut to Lo'La)

John: Are we clear?

D'Argo: Yeah but we've been hit pretty badly. The deception shroud's been compromised. We're going tp reappear in about a 100 microts.

Jool: D'Argo - I do apologize- (but D'Argo isn't in the Relationship Talk mood just now and pushes her out of the way as he bellows)

D'Argo: Jool - NOT NOW!

(meanwhile back in the stone temple shafts near the sunlit surface - a magnetics sensor is blushing rosy red. 3 or 4 soldiers have survived with Braca and Grayza - although the Commandants deadly tone and basilisk stare is enough to kill anyone still standing)

Grayza: The magnetics are spiking Braca.

Braca: (sounding tense and impatient - he never had this much trouble keeping his cool with Scorpius) Ma'am - 2 Marauders were destroyed but the third is still operational. We can make it back to the Command Carrier. \ Grayza: (her voice shaking with rage) And give Crichton 2 arns head start - tell the Carrier to retrieve us in flight. We're going after them now. (Braca nods curtly and takes a deep breath. Cut to soon after - as a lone Marauder floats far above Arnessk and Grayza’s cold steel voice is heard) Lock onto their coordinates Braca.

(cut back to Arnessk where the suns glare is blinding and the old woman's been left behind. She's wandering around the corridors of the temple whispering to herself)

OldWoman: The Darnaz Probes - they're still here. Don't forget them Crichton. Don't. They are not safe. I- (suddenly Oo-Nii looms out of the darkness behind her as she backs away from the harsh light shining in through and exit)

Oo-Nii: Don't be afraid. I know a way. (and he pulls her off into the deep shadows of the lower halls)

(cut to soon after, out on the stone plateau of Arnessk near the temple - oddly enough, there's no trace of a giant, dead Leviathan to be seen. The sunlight has reduced the colors of the planet and everything on it to mostly sepia tones now. Lo'La has landed and John trots down her steps)

John: (jaunty) Whoa! Whoa! What are you talkin' about? It's a great plan! God I love it! (the others, including Rygel, clamber down behind him. They don't seem as pleased with John’s cleverness as he is) We leave the planet - then we come right back!

Sikozu: We were not planning on coming back!

Rygel: Aw I knew it was a lousy plan from the microt you told me. Shoulda left me in the pod.

D'Argo: (as he begins to fret with his ship) Stop complaining - at least I picked you up. There was nothing I could do. They hit the deception shroud and the turbines were about to fail.

John: How come the Marauder went past us?

D'Argo: I fired a satellite probe. Hopefully they'll follow that for about a day.

Chiana: Oh great. Then come right back and kill us. That's great. We got a day to live.

D'Argo: (pedantically) Noo-o - because by then I would have fixed the turbines and we'll be long gone.

Jool: That is not gonna be possible. Look at your skin. (Sikozu quickly inspects her arms - obviously whatever effect is happening is too subtle for us to see since she actually looks better in this sepia light than usual. But she certainly finds it alarming)

Sikozu: This is due to the magnetics?

Jool: Yeah. We stay here one more arn and we're all gonna be dead.

John: (to D'Argo) Can you get this thing fixed in an arn? Get us outta here?

D'Argo: It'll be difficult because they hit both power grids. (John turns quickly to Jool)

John: When we first got here - Vella - she said somethin' about the Probes. If we - what? What?

Jool: (as if reciting a lesson) Get all 3 Probes, reactivate them at 600 motras apart we can - (she slows and looks at him) - reverse the magnetics.

John: Did you say motras or metras?

Jool: Motras.

John: So like - (he holds his hands about a meter apart) - just over half a metra.

Jool: That's it.

John: Let's go find the third probe. (and off they go)

(cut to down below the cliffs just above the crashing waves of the sea in a hollow carved out of the rock by the tides. The sky is white and everything else - the sea, the old woman and the brilliantly colored Oo-Ni are a sickly wan brown in the deadly magnetic light)

OldWoman: (gasping) I was wrong. It was you - not Vella. You want the Probes as a weapon!

Oo-Nii: Where did Crichton - see the Probe?

OldWoman: (huddling away from the weedy creature) I don't know. I don't know exactly.

Oo-Nii: He told me he saw it. He said it was buried.

OldWoman: (perhaps smelling salvation as she begins pointing randomly about and nattering) Oil - Crichton was there. And he was there! And he was here! He was-he was everywhere! I- (but Oo-Nii cuts her off, he has no patience for her senile schtick)

Oo-Nii: STOP! Tell me where it is! NOW!

OldWoman: I'll never tell - never! We'll all die here. We'll all die! (and at that moment, who should rappel into view down the cliff - but John and Jool. He seems unsurprised to see the old crone - maybe he had olfactory warning of her presence as well. Whatever the case - he wastes no time with hellos and Oo-Nii cowers back as he strides up to them)

John: Granny! (panting) We're going Probe-hunting. (to Oo-Nii as he flaps his hands at the skulking aqua-man) Sorry to interrupt the party Black Lagoon but you have to go now. Git! Git! Go on now - git! Git! (to the old woman, who's edging away in the opposite direction) Now look - come back. Now I know you-you hurt me - but I don't want to hurt you. (but the old woman’s rolling eye indicates it isn't him she's worried about - and John catches sight of Oo-Nii slinking towards them. The aquatic man has the carver on his arm and he's tired of being shoo'd. John straightens as Oo-Nii makes sure John sees the carver and says in his deep, gravelly voice-)

Oo-Nii: I - have... (John backs up warily from Oo-Nii’s clutching, webbed hand) I - need...

John: (to himself) Ohh - that doesn't sound too good.

Oo-Nii: I've looked for the Darnaz Triangle for 20 cycles AND I WILL WAIT NO LONGER! (he backhands John across the face with such force that the human is spun around and collapses to the ground) You tell me where it is - OR YOU DIE! (he repeats his demand as John sits up) The Probe - where is it?

John: (panting) Hey! I wanna find it - as much as you do! It's the only way we're gonna get out of this situation - if we - reverse what's goin' on. (Oo-Nii points the carver at the old woman)

Oo-Nii: We don't need her for that - where - is it?

John: (both him and Jool are breathing heavily in the increasingly deadly atmosphere) Actually we do need - her. If I can't do it - she's the only one who can... can help. We won't get a second chance without her. (he throws an arm out towards the sepia-colored sea) Probe is... It's that way.

Oo-Nii: (as he shoves Jool) You! In front with the old woman.

(cut to soon after as the 4 of them trudge along the inhospitable shore. The light makes the landscape look like an overexposed photo as they pass a square stone gate. John leads, followed by Jool and the old women. Oo-Nii brings up the rear with the carver)

John: Over there. Behind those rocks. So you know where the other Probes are.

Oo-Nii: (slyly) In the lair. That bitch Vella had them. Swore I'd get my share of the bounty. But she lied. She tried to hide the other 2 Probes.

Jool: (shocked and mystified) Bounty?

Oo-Nii: Now they'll pay me.(John points at a bump on the ground)

John: There. (Jool and the old woman drop to the ground as Oo-Nii steps up to John and delivers another blow to his head with his huge, webbed hand. John goes down and the aquatic man lumbers to the specified spot and turns the beam of the carver on it. It takes only a moment to vaporize the rock around a silver device shaped rather like a teepee. Chiana watches from concealment just below their position as Oo-Nii lifts the device and gloats in a tone as gleeful as a weedy hulk of an aquatic creature ever gets)

Oo-Nii: The third Probe - it's mine! (he then turns to John, Jool and the old woman with a line truly worthy of "The Creature From The Black Lagoon") Now I have no further use for you! (but before he can commit any monster-movie acts of dastardliness - Chiana bounces a rock off his head. He whips around with surprising speed and fires a bolt from the carver that barely misses her as she dives aside. Meanwhile John uses the distraction to come off the ground and make a lunge for Oo-Nii. They both go sprawling and Jool makes a dash for the dropped carver. Oo-Nii hurls John over a boulder and lunges for the Probe which he had dropped as well. Jool dances away with the carver and blocks his escape for a moment - but John scrambles back into the action, gasping a warning to her-)

John: No! Jool! Don't shoot him! He's got the Probe! (Oo-Nii runs for it with John, Jool and the old woman in hot pursuit)

Jool: Stop him! (but Oo-Nii makes the edge of the high cliffs overlooking the sea - and sails off it. John and the others skid to a stop and watch him and the Probe disappear with a splash into the water far below)

John: WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOIN'? HE'S GONNA GET US ALL KILLED!

OldWoman: Crichton - we're all gonna die. (Jool throws her head back and groans with frustration) But he can live down there until the magnetic summer ends.

John: (quietly, waiting) And-?

OldWoman: And- (her expression is devious as she produces a pulse gun - and tosses it over his head. He makes to grab for it - but it sails past him and disappears into the sea as well. John turns back to her and asks quietly)

John: Was that Wynona?

OldWoman: (with a shrug) Yes (as she waits for him to take her suggested course of action, he paces back to stand at her side for a moment) I really - don't wanna know - where you hid her. (and with that - he takes a run for the precipice and sails over it, yelling all the way down to the sea. Jool turns and lopes away from the cliff - she meets Chiana who's on her way up and passes her the carver)

Jool: You help Crichton! I'll get the other Probes from Oo-Nii’s lair! GO!

Meanwhile - under the sepia sea - John is able to rescue his beloved Wynona from among the rocks of the shallows. But their happy reunion is interrupted by Oo-Nii torpedoing towards them. Pulse guns may be able to withstand a dunking but their effectiveness underwater is questionable and John hurriedly kicks off for the surface. A moment later, his head breaks the surface and he treads water, trying to see his pursuer through the foamy surf. But Oo-Nii has the advantage here and he easily gets close enough to grab John’s gun arm and pull him under. They struggle and Oo-Nii squeezes John’s wrist till he's forced to let go of Wynona. With a mad and desperate squirm, John worms away from him and makes for the surface again. This time both his and Oo-Nii’s heads break from the choppy surf and John struggles towards the shore. Oo-Nii pounces on him from behind and John yells, flailing wildly before being dragged under again. Fortunately the roll of the waves in the shallows is a slight enough handicap for Oo-Nii so that John, squirming like a seal, is able to break free yet again after a short, energetic struggle. John bursts through the surface and stands there in waist-deep water just off the shore, spinning around, looking for Oo-Nii. But just when it seems the aquatic man is gone and John takes a step for the shore - Oo-Nii erupts from the water behind him again. He delivers another sledgehammer blow to John - and our hero is knocked backward, where he floats with outstretched arms, unconscious. Oo-Nii submerges and resurfaces near John’s head - but at that moment - Chiana has a clear shot on him from the shore and she fires. The energy from the carver shimmers through Oo-Nii’s body - including his hands which are resting on John’s shoulders - and then he slumps forwards onto John and they both disappear beneath the waves. But as John is pressed down by Oo-Nii’s weight - the molecular rebound effect of the carvers beam on living flesh does its work. But if it turns a woman standing against stone to stone - then it would turn a man standing in water - to water. And in a flurry of air bubbles - Oo-Nii becomes truly one with his element. Chiana scans the empty sea and calls-

Chiana: Crichton! CRICHTON! (her cry seems to cut through the water and John’s eyes fly open. He reflexively thrashes to get his feet down and his head up. His head and shoulders break the surface) Come on! (but John's not finished yet. As Chiana waits in the sickly light that's passing from sepia to bleached white, he ducks under and comes up with the third Probe. But there's one last dive to make - and Wynona, who John just knows could lay low an entire army on mere chakkan fumes - is home in his holster again)

(cut to Jool as she staggers back onto the rocks and collapses to her knees with exhaustion. Breathing heavily, she hails John, who's clinging to the rocky shore and trying to muster strength for the final act. The scene shifts between them as they speak via comm)

Jool: (raggedly) JOHN! I have both Probes!

John: Yeah Jool! I got the third Probe. How far did you say they had to be apart?

Jool: (barely able to get the words out) 600 motras!

John: All right. (to Chiana) Did you just save my life?

Chiana: Again.

John: Thanks. (Chiana manages a weak chuckle and he continues hoarsely) Hey Pip go with Jool’s - see if you can get those Probes reactivated.

Chiana: Right. (she starts off as he drags himself out of the water - but suddenly stops, having thought of a question) Hey - how do I do that?

John: (slurring with weariness) Slam 'em in th' ground an' kick 'em!

Chiana: Kick 'em .(that works for her and she trudges off) Right.

(John takes off with his Probe - wait that sounds wrong - John takes off with the third Darnaz Probe and we presume that approximately 600 whatevers will suffice since no-one has any way of ensuring precision measurements here. The scene begins to shift between John near the shore, Chiana in the dry woods, Jool up on the high plateau and the others waiting in the meager shelter of the old temple halls near Lo'La as they all speak via comm)

Chiana: Crichton - I got the other Probe.

John: Good Pip - just keep movin'. (he, Chiana and Jool stumble on, away from each other as the old woman bows her head as if in silent prayer back at the temple. The going is increasingly difficult as the magnetics intensify. The colors of the planet are robbed of proper contrast, causing people and landscape to become flattened out and indistinct. Finally John can go no further) Eh - this is far enough. (he plops the Probe down while Jool literally crawls across the plateau and Chiana falls down in the woods)

Chiana: (muttering) Frell! (she too decides that's far enough as John gives his Probe a kiss for luck) Here goes nothin' - (and with that - she, John and Jool each slam the broad pointy ends of their Probes into the rock. And in the pregnant silence that follows - nothing happens. And as D'Argo and Sikozu slowly wilt, Chiana, John and Jool sit, holding their breathes and waiting, hoping against hope that the Probes with show some sign of life. Chiana peers at hers like a wary cat and John wipes his nose with the back of his hand as he eyes his)

John: C'mon - work - damn you! (Jool topples over onto the ground as she stares at hers and John yells into his comm) IS YOURS WORKIN'?

Chiana: Nothin's happenin'! (D'Argo and Sikozu are shaking and breathing irregularly - and John decides he might as well get some satisfaction as he aims Wynona at the third Probe)

John: You son of a bitch!

Chiana: Wait - wait - (and as she watches, the Probe sitting in front of her begins to make an airy humming sound and to rise into the air) It's- It's workin'... (and back on the shore - John lowers his gun as he watches his Probe also begin to rise into the air with a sound like a tiny jet engine)

John: You guys - seein' this? (Jool also watches as her Probe rises. Upon reaching a certain height off the ground, the Probes stop and hover. They begin to glow and their sound rises in intensity to a painful scream that compels everyone to cover their ears. Then suddenly - the 3 Darnaz Probes rocket into the sky. Sikozu gapes and Jool staggers to her feet, with an open-mouthed smile of wonder as the blue halo of the Probes forms high over Arnessk. A brilliant glow builds in the center of the halo, sending radiant streamers of miraculous golden light through the sky and down onto the planet, obliterating the pain of the ancient place)

OldWoman: (murmuring) What was lost - is now gained. (Chiana stands up, laughing with pleasure. The woods around her have become deep green under a blue sky. Sikozu is a pasty-complexioned, but happy, redhead again and the tawny stone of the old temple glows golden in the healthy sun. The sea behind John is azure blue as he glances at his ruddy skin and murmurs-)

John: Son of a gun. (they all bask for a moment in the healthy atmosphere - even the old woman is full of wonder as she looks up to the heavens with 2 of her eyes)

OldWoman: I can breathe again - I can!

Sikozu: The Probes - they must've reversed the magnetics! (well thank god the genius is here to explain THAT to us)

D'Argo: John - it worked. (no response) John. (cut to John standing on the beach and looking around with a big dopey grin on his face. He probably needs a nap about now) John? (and leave it to Jool to boil it all down to what everyone's really thinking)

Jool: (squeaky-voiced with relief) I'm okay!

Chiana: (softly) Me too. (she laughs with pleasure as she revels in the newly verdant woods. Meanwhile, John climbs up to the high cliffs under such a heavenly blue sky as hasn't been seen on Arnessk for thousands of years. From the heights he has a panoramic view of a changed world)

John: Hey you guys probably wanna come - check this out. (the plain below the cliffs is now a clearly inhabited area crisscrossed with paved thoroughfares. Obelisks rise here and there and in the near distance - a huge cylindrical structure that looks as if it's been thrown on a huge potter’s wheel and supported with three great buttresses glows golden in the sun. John points as Chiana, D'Argo, Jool, Sikozu and the old woman join him)

Chiana: What's that?

Jool: (awestruck) The lost temple! (and the lost priests too - for there on the next level of the plateau down from them are now a half dozen or so red-robed people are standing about)

OldWoman: (with wonder) The Darnaz Triangle - when it created the magnetic summers it... It must have trapped part of the past.

Jool: They're the same priests that were here 12,000 cycles ago.

Rygel: Do they know time has passed?

John: I don't think so.

Chiana: So you're saying they've been - they've been frozen like Vella and now they're awake. They don't know anything that's - that's happened?

John: I don't think they know we're here. So the question is - do we stay or do we go?

D'Argo: I think that decision should rest with Jool. (she looks at him, surprised) She's the Instructor here now. (Jool looks back towards the people below them)

Jool: I'm going to say hello. (and she steps away from the group)

(cut to later. Chiana and Jool stand on the high cliffs near the statue of a beast overlooking the sea. Jool’s hands rest on Chiana’s hips and Chiana’s clasped hands rest on Jool’s décolletage as they speak quietly)

Chiana: (very softly) 'Kay... (she bows her head and doesn't look up as Jool turns and leaves her. Their hands slide together for a last squeeze before their fingers separate and Jool is gone. Rygel, Sikozu and the old woman are arrayed above them, watching from the highest level of the cliff, but Jool descends to the lower level where D'Argo and John wait. John extends his hand and Jool takes it. They walk a little ways away from D'Argo)

Jool: Well... Everything we've found proves our races are linked. (John avoids her eye and looks out over the revitalized world. They stop and Jool looks up at him) Maybe you should stay. Study what we discover.

John: Wish I could. You know I can't.

Jool: (with an understanding laugh) That Aeryn link - right? (he smiles and she laughs again)

John: Yeah. You take care. (he leans down and kisses her forehead)

Jool: I will. You too. (he turns and walks away. Jool lets her arm drop limply to her side as he lets her hand slide from his. Her smile fades as she looks out over Arnessk and D'Argo sidles shyly up to her)

D'Argo: Is uh - is he the last?

Jool: (sadly - and awkwardly) Yeah - I've said good-bye to everyone and I can't make any of you stay. (the others disappear over the top of the high ridge behind them, Chiana casting a last look back, and D'Argo and Jool are alone)

D'Argo: (making an excuse to go) Well uh - you're the only one who can stay. You're the only one not being hunted by the Peacekeepers.

Jool: (making an excuse to stay) The priests will need help. They have 12,000 cycles of catching up. (there's a long pause before she goes on with what she really wants to say) D'Argo... I am so sorry - for not defending you. Maybe you weren't Vella’s intellectual equal but- (he interrupts her with a grin, as he tries to avoid the mushy stuff and let her know it's all right)

D'Argo: Well I am now - she's a rock! (they both laugh - but she sobers quickly)

Jool: I'm trying to apologize.

D'Argo: All right - go on.

Jool: (slowly, choosing her words with heartfelt care) You... You have more courage... Integrity - and honesty - than a dozen Vella’s. And I should have said that to her. (D'Argo has no words - but he leans down and their lips meet for a long, sweet kiss. He then straightens and looks at her for a moment as he caresses her cheek - and then he's gone. Jool struggles mightily for a few long moments. She tries to fight back the tears - and is mostly successful. But her real triumph is a newfound sense compassion - not just in words - but in deed, and a burgeoning sense of confidence and direction. And as her lime green eyes and deep red hair glow in the new Arnesskan sun her grimace of pain mingles with a smile of contentment)

(cut to Grayza’s Command Carrier. Grayza is leaning against the command console in the center of the receiving area of the Captains Quarters and staring pensively into space as Braca enters)

Braca: We retrieved their satellite probe. They must have shot it ahead as a lure.

Grayza: I will find them again, and when I do... they will pay for this humiliation. (she slowly stands away from the console and walks up a few step to the throne-like Captains Chair. Her voice trembles a bit with fury and embarrassment) But if I hear - any gossip - a joke in the officers club anything at all about what happened at Arnessk-

Braca: You won't.

Grayza: If I do - you shall answer for it. (Braca’s face is a mask of carefully controlled apprehension at the thought of Cathouse Spin Doctor being added to the list of his many odious duties...)

(cut to somewhere in space. The crew of Moya - along with 1812, Sikozu and the old woman - have decided Pilot is WAY overdue and so have opted to leave Arnessk in Lo'La and go hunting for them. The Luxan fighter is tiny - it has only 2 seats and a couple small benches in the back. The mood is heavy and bored and the combination the quiet purr of Lo'La’s engines and her dim interior lights bring to mind a long, dull nighttime road trip...)

D'Argo: Oh come on Look on the positive side - at least Jool won't be hunted anymore.

Chiana: Unlike us.

D'Argo: She can stay on Arnessk, have a goal. Something to fight for.

Chiana: Unlike... us. (she turns her face to the wall and Sikozu chimes in with the obligatory 'How much further?' question)

Sikozu: (her voice is loud in the quiet cabin) So - any response from Moya?

D'Argo: Not yet. I've sent out a secure comm but I'm not even sure if this transmitter's working properly.

Rygel: (playing the part of the sulky kid who didn't want to come along in the first place) Great! We're hunted by Peacekeepers, towing a dead module, lost in the Uncharted Territories with no purpose in life. How good does it get?

OldWoman: Oh no - one of us has a purpose - don't you Crichton?

(cut to the module in tow behind Lo'La where John is reclaiming a bit of his former heritage for awhile by riding alone. Either that or he still smells enough like Grayza’s heppel oil to have been banished by the others to the trailer. But he can chat with the other via comm when the need arises)

John: Hey Grandma - why'd you try to kill me?

OldWoman: (unapologetic) If Grayza asked - couldn't have you giving her the Darnaz Probes. Better you dead than millions if she misused them.

John: What's your name old woman?

OldWoman: Uta-Noranti-Pralatong.

John: Well - Noranti - you're right. I do have a purpose.

But he doesn't seem especially happy about that purpose as he leans his head back in the darkness of his module and looks out at the stars.

THE END