Deep in the Uncharted Territories

"Oh, frell! Where the hezmana did that come from?" Jool screamed as the unknown craft opened fire on them. "I mean, no warning, no anything! And it's not even a Peacekeeper! Who else would want us dead?"

"Well, there's always the Nebari, but that's not a Nebari ship - good thing, too, because we'd be dead by now if it were. Not Scarren either," Chiana replied as she maneuvered the transport pod. "Has Moya responded?"

"No - we're just beyond her sensorizon, I'm activating the distress beacon now," Jool answered as the transport took a direct hit from enemy fire.

As the transport pod spiraled out of control, Chiana said, "This is all your fault!"

"How could this be my fault?" Jool cried.

"Because it's always your fault!"

Planet 2063 Yankee

Captain Shane Vansen couldn't believe the run of bad luck the 58th Squadron, the Wildcards, were having. Lt. Paul Wang was killed in action, she and Lt. Vanessa Damphouse crashed and were captured by the Chigs, and now an ISSCV ferrying wounded to the Clara Barton had been shot down by the Chigs, and the two survivors joined Vansen and Damphouse as prisoners of war. And one of those wounded was the Wildcards' commanding officer, Lt. Col. McQueen. Even though he was severely injured himself, McQueen managed to keep everyone's spirits high, encouraging them to hang on until the SAR teams could find them.

"Why did they stop interrogating us so suddenly? Not that I'm eager to have that Elroy-L model put me through the paces again. It was just, odd," Shane asked.

"I dunno, but I'm not complaining. Between the crash and the interrogation, I'm pretty messed up," Vanessa said. Her statement was followed by a commotion in the outer chamber.

"That's why they stopped questioning us," McQueen said, and nodded towards the hallway. "They had fresh meat to play with."

Now, prisoners of war, they all had been interrogated by the Chigs' allies, the Silicates. And the Silicates, or AI's, were not known for their gentle persuasion.

Although their cell was dimly lit, they could view the procession: the Elroy-L model led the way, followed by two pairs of Chigs, each pair forcibly dragging a prisoner to the cell. The prisoners' faces were hidden by shadows, but they were clearly female. One wore a tight-fitting gray outfit, the other wore a long, black dress, and their wrists were shackled behind their backs.

Chiana finally saw Jool again - they had been interrogated separately. But neither of the life forms could understand them - they didn't have translator microbes. Clearly, the purpose of the interrogation was to inflict pain, not gain information.

Chiana, always defiant, said to the Sebacean-looking one (he looked Sebacean, except for his eyes: instead of iris and pupil, he had a target's crosshairs): "You call that an interrogation? Lemme tell ya, I've been interrogated by the Peacekeepers, the Scarrans and the Nebari, and you're an amateur. Do you hear me? An amateur compared to them."

"Chiana, why do you bother? They can't understand us," Jool said quietly.

Chiana laughed. "Makes me feel better," she replied.

Shane attempted to stand, but the restraints held her back. "You bastards! You have no right to treat civilians this way!"

Elroy replied, his voice eerie. "And why would you care how we treat these two? They are not even your own kind." The AI opened the cell door, and stepped aside, revealing a human looking girl, but with gray skin and a shock of white hair. She took one look at the four faces staring up at her, and her eyes widened in recognition. "Frell! It's bad enough to be taken prisoner--" she stopped talking when Elroy shoved her into the cell, causing her to stumble.

Jool finished the sentence. "But to have to share the cell with Peacekeepers, that's just adding insult to injury." Jool managed to keep her balance as she, too, was pushed into the cell. She looked at the Sebaceans in the cell. She didn't like Peacekeepers, but she couldn't bear to see how badly injured they were. No one, not even a PK, deserved the torture that the robot performed. Jool offhandedly wondered why Peacekeepers built robots in the first place.

Elroy addressed the humans. "Remarkable, isn't it? They speak two distinct languages, yet they understand each other perfectly. Neither language is in my database, and my translation program does not have enough vocabulary to work with. And it seems they both understand everything we all say. I wonder how they do that."

Chiana stood next to Jool, looking at their new cellmates. She looked to one of them and said "You're Peacekeepers, you've got translator microbes, will you tell this drannit that he can take his frelling attitude and--" Chiana stopped when she was met with uncomprehending stares. All of the other prisoners looked to the same man - the one with silver-blond hair.

"He must be the commanding officer," Chiana said to Jool, who nodded in agreement.

McQueen looked at his new cellmates. The gray one was bleeding at the corners of her mouth - blue blood, not red. The other--human looking except for vertical ridges on her high forehead and skin that was more gold than beige-- was also bleeding, but her blood was red.

"Ah, look, ladies, we have no idea what you're saying. You obviously don't belong here though, so we're sorry you got mixed up in all this. I don't know where you came from or how you got here, but you stumbled into a war zone."

Chiana shrugged her shoulders. "Not the first time," she stated.

The Silicate slammed the cell door closed. "Enjoy your stay with us, everyone! I will do my best to keep you entertained!" he said as he turned away, the Chig guards following.

Moya

D'Argo stormed into command. "Any answer on the comms, Pilot?"

"Not yet, Ka D'Argo. It appears they are too damaged to function," a harried Pilot answered

"Well, Jool did say in her last transmission that they were being fired upon," Aeryn said, her voice wan.

"Well, leave it to Jool to get shot down during her driving lesson. Have ya got that thermal scan, Pilot?" Commander John Crichton asked.

Pilot replied, "Soon, Commander Crichton."

"Thanks, Pilot. I'll go prep the other transport pod for-" Crichton began, but was interrupted by his friend and ally, Ka D'Argo.

"We'll take my ship."

As soon as their captors were out of sight, Chiana said, "It's been over an arn, there's no sign of anyone from Moya, and those frelling bastards have confiscated our comms. We need to come up with an escape plan," as she vainly tried to pull her wrists through the handcuffs.

"Agreed. Although I'm sure Crichton and D'Argo will rescue us." Jool did a few knee bends.

"What the yotz are you doing?" Chiana asked.

Jool smiled, and said "This!" as she jumped up, pulling her knees to her chest and lowering her wrists as far as she could and moving them forward. Jool smiled as she landed, her bound wrists now in front.

"I'm not sure if that was krell, or if you were showing off! Where did you learn that?" Chiana asked.

Jool smiled and said, "The Interion Academy of Ballet." She calmly took a hairpin from her copious curls, straightened it, and began to pick the lock of her handcuffs.

"I'm glad to see that you paid attention in class, Princess!" the Nebari thief said with a laugh. After their experience with the freslin dealer on the pleasure planet, Chiana taught Jool a few things about getting out of tight situations.

"Well, I am a quick study," Jool replied as she quickly removed Chiana's handcuffs. "Now, let's get the shackles off the others."

"But they're Peacekeepers!" Chiana protested.

Jool shook her head. "I don't think so-there's too much blood. I'll have to examine them more closely to be sure, though."

Chiana nodded, took Jool's hairpin, and started working. Jool began checking the wounds of her new companions. When necessary, she ripped strips of cloth from her skirt to make bandages. She was glad she wore a floor length skirt.

"Are you a medic?" the man in charge asked as she bandaged a woman's head. Jool smiled nodded.

To Chiana, he said, "And it looks like this isn't the first time you've had to get yourself out of handcuffs without a key."

Chiana gave a sly smile and purred, "Sometimes, it's more fun to keep them on."

"Chiana!" Jool hissed.

"You really do understand what we say, can't you?" the man asked, giving each alien an intense look as he did so.

Jool nodded again, then moved to check on his wounds. She frowned as she took inventory: head wounds, several contusions and abrasions, internal bleeding, right leg amputated six inches below the knee. Jool ripped off yet more of her skirt, and made a new tourniquet for him.

As Jool finished tying the tourniquet, Chiana knelt in front of the soldier. Chiana pointed to the hallway their captors had used, then made a cross with her two index fingers, and placed it front of first one eye, then the next, hoping he'd understand what she meant.

"You want to know who your captors are, don't you?" he asked, as Jool continued to work on his other wounds.

The gray girl nodded and said something in her language--McQueen was sure it was her species' equivalent of "duh."

"They are Silicates, robots with artificial intelligence. They were actually made by us, by our planet, until they declared war on us. The AI War ended seven years ago. Last year, two of our colonies were attacked by the Chigs--they're the other ones holding us here-- and the AIs joined the Chigs against us." the man stated. "Our first contact with life from another planet, and it's a war. I hope your people don't decide to declare war on us, too."

"Interions don't believe in violence or war," Jool said, with her characteristic air of smug satisfaction.

Chiana rolled her eyes at Jool, but admitted "I wish I could say the same about the Nebari.

Shane Vansen eyed the gray girl. "That doesn't sound good."

"It isn't, unless you like being mind-cleansed," Chiana answered, even though she knew her cellmates couldn't understand her.

Jool placed a hand on the soldier's forehead, checking his temperature. Surprised by what she found, she quickly checked all the other prisoners.

Chiana smiled at her new companions. "Well, they're not too bad for Sebaceans. What do you think, Jool - an agricultural colony that forgot to take translator microbes? Maybe another breakaway Sebacean colony?"

Jool looked up. She was somewhat unnerved by the intense gaze of her last patient, but tried to hide it. "They're definitely not Sebacean. There's far too much blood from their injuries, and their body temperature is too high but they show no signs of the living death. And their uniforms - I've seen one of the patches before, but I can't recall exactly where. But it's not Sebacean." Jool knelt down next to the man in charge, and pointed to the patch on his sleeve. "This red, white, and blue one - have you seen it before?"

Chiana looked surprised. "Yeah, on Crichton's old uniform - he stopped wearing it long before you got to Moya, though. It's also on his module."

Jool smiled "Yes! That must be where I've seen it!"

The man looked concerned. "You recognize that? That's our flag," he said warily.

"How would they have seen it, though?" Vanessa asked. Like the other prisoners, she was shocked to learn of the existence of not one, but two new life forms, but now became alarmed. What if their races declared war on Earth as well?

"Well, all those probes that the space program sent out since the 1960's, maybe one landed on their planet, or something," Vansen offered.

Jool and Chiana shook their heads vigorously and tried (and failed) to explain about Crichton, when they saw their captors walking towards the cell again.

"Oh, look, they're back for another round," Vanessa said as she saw Elroy and two Chigs walk towards the cell. A puzzled look crossed Vanessa's face. "What the-?" she said quietly.

McQueen glanced at Vanessa. "You're having one of those 'anomalous intuitions' again, aren't you?" Vanessa Damphouse nodded. "Who?" McQueen asked, matter-of-factly.

"None of us, sir - Elroy!" the confused lieutenant said. The rest of the Marines looked at Vanessa. "Are you sure?" Shane asked. Damphouse nodded.

Chiana looked up, and muttered, "That's a lot of fire power," even though it was deadly quiet in the enemy compound.

Elroy scanned the cell, looking like a cat deciding which mouse to play with. He pointed to McQueen, and said "Bring the tank, he'll be good for more fun."

One of the Chigs opened the cell and moved towards the CO. An angry Jool, hair now dark red, stood with arms akimbo, blocking his path, and said, "You can't be serious! Haven't you inflicted enough pain on this man for a lifetime already?"

"Jool!" Chiana said, under her breath.

Elroy smiled coldly. "Protecting the tank, are you? Perhaps you'd like me to play with you instead."

The soldier protested. "No! You came for me, so take me and leave her alone!" The Chig jammed the butt of his rifle into his stomach.

The silicate grabbed Jool, but she was prepared. As he pulled her from the cell, Jool said, "Have you ever heard an Interion scream, metal man?"

"Ready, D'Argo?" Crichton asked as the Luxan landed his ship.

"I'm ready," the Luxan answered as he unsheathed his Qualta blade.

"Well, let's go rescue the girls," Crichton said as he raised he pulse rifle.

D'Argo looked at his friend, "Of course, it could be a trap."

"It might always be a trap," Aeryn said in her now-characteristic monotone as she, too, raised her pulse rifle.

John looked over at the woman he loved, shook his head, and silently reminded himself that 'she takes time.'

It only took Jool three screams to incapacitate the Silicate. Three ear-splitting, glass-shattering, metal-melting screams. The two Chigs, unsure of what they were witnessing, waited too long to act. As the slightly melted frame of Elroy's artificial body slowly fell to the ground, Chiana grabbed his sidearm and shot the Chig in the cell. Outside, the remaining guard called for backup as he began to fire into the cell.

More Chig guards stormed the holding area, firing upon the prisoners as they ran. Shane Vansen pulled the red-headed alien out of the line of fire, while McQueen reached up and grabbed the gun from the gray girl. "Your aim is pretty good, miss, but mine is better," he said as he lay down on his stomach and fired. "Vansen, Damphouse, get everyone in the corner, and hug the wall!" he ordered as he shot Chig after Chig coming into the cell area. Eventually, he ran out of ammunition, and was faced with three heavily armed Chigs. They raised their weapons to fire on all the prisoners. McQueen heard the weapons blasts, but didn't see anything come out of their weapons. The reason for this became apparent when all three Chigs fell down, revealing two heavily-armed humans, dressed in black, and another being with tentacles on his head, wielding a strange-looking sword.

"Oh, God, another alien race!" Vanessa whispered to Shane.

John Crichton lowered his pulse rifle and stepped forward. "Pip, Jool, you girls alright?"

Chiana and Jool but got up from the corner of the cell where they had been sheltered by their cellmates, and brushed the dust off of their clothes. Chiana nodded and smiled, and Jool said, "Yes, we're fine. But what took you so long?"

D'Argo approached the cell, to check on Chiana. As mush as he felt hurt by her betrayal, he couldn't stop caring for her. Getting a better look into the cell, D'Argo raised his qualta blade again. As he prepared to fire, the Luxan warrior said, "Oh, frell! Peacekeepers! This is a trap!"

Next : Part Two

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