Air Date: August 17, 2001
Written by Justin Monjo
Directed by Rowan Woods
Transcript by Xenajules2
Edited and put on-line by Bluey
Episode 3.17 - The Choice
Previously on Farscape: (we hear the voice of Bilar Crais)
Scene One: from "Thanks for Sharing", Crais shows Aeryn and JohnG Talyn's logs of the PeaceKeeper attack. Aeryn figures out it was a retrieval squad.
Scene Two: from "Thanks for Sharing", Xhalax Sun visits young Aeryn in the barracks. She tells her she was "conceived in love."
Scene Three: from "Thanks for Sharing", Crais tells Aeryn that the retrieval squad is commanded by "Senior Officer Xhalax Sun." Aeryn: "My mother!"
Scene Four: from "Relativity", Xhalax Sun tells Aeryn that PK Command knew she visited her daughter and required her to kill Talyn inorder to 'redeem' herself.
Scene Five: from "Relativity", A distraught Aeryn tells John and Crais: "We let her live, she comes, she hunts us down again." John: "Aeryn, you should not be the one to do this." Crais: "We must not let Xhalax live!" John: "You want her dead. You do it." Crais: "As you wish." John takes the gun away from Aeryn. Crais: "Go! Go now! You must not witness this." John leads Aeryn away and holds onto her when they hear multiple shots fired. Aeryn sobs as John holds her.
Scene Six: from "Infinite Possibilities, part 2: Icarus Abides", Aeryn and John stand face-to-face beside his module. Aeryn: "What is the matter?" John puts his forehead against hers: "Radiation. Massive radiation."
(as he says this, the scene where he lunges to close the displacement engine's hatch and he is irradiated is showing). "I couldn't stop it."
Scene Seven: from "Infinite Possibilities, part 2: Icarus Abides", Aeryn is lying beside John, as he dies. John: "Don't worry about me. I've never felt better." He stops breathing and Aeryn is devastated. She closes his eyes and climbs under the covers with him, as his death knell tolls.
And now, on Farscape..........
PROLOGUE
Outdoors, on a planet teeming with people, John stands in the middle of a crowd, in a city square. He is dressed in a blue sweatshirt and jeans. He is soaking wet. (this "John" is from "A Human Reaction). A woman, wearing a long dress, with a scarf wrapped totally over her head and face walks past him. As she glances towards the dripping John, we see that it is Aeryn. There are crowd noises and bells ringing in the background. As Aeryn walks on, a begger touches her arm. He has a stick for a cane and blood weeping from his eyes.
Begger, whispers: "I talk to the dead. I...I can help find the dead one you seek."
Aeryn starts to climb some steps. The begger follows her: "Pay me! Pay me and I can help..."
Aeryn whips around and points a Charrid knife at him. He gasps and backs away. She turns, without speaking, and continues up the stairs. As she reaches the top, there is a faint sound of John's voice: "Aeryn." She turns and looks towards where he had been standing, but there is no sign of him. She turns back and continues on.
Aboard Talyn...
We hear Crais and Stark arguing.
Crais: "It's your fault Aeryn's down on Valldon!"
Stark: "S'not my fault! Trying to help!"
Stark is fliting about the bridge, from console to console.
Crais: "Trying to help? She's in mourning for Crichton! How are you helping her by filling her head with crazy tales about spirit channelers?"
Stark: "S'not crazy! She wanted to get away from you! She sees you following her."
Crais: "I'm following her? You're the one that's following her!"
Stark: "Me?!" Aeryn wants me around. She wants me to watch over her. T....She...She wants me to protect her from people like...you!"
Rygel floats over to interrupt: "You stupid, selfish naknots! Aeryn has made it clear she wants nothing to do with any of us. She wants no part of your plan to find Moya, and..."
Stark: "Can't leave her on Valldon. It's dangerous. It's filled with mystics and criminals."
Rygel: "Then it's just like here. You're a mystic, and we're criminals. But Aeryn doesn' t want to
be here. "
Stark: "You don't understand."
Rygel: "I un...."
Crais interrupts: "What is it we don't understand, slave?"
Stark: "She's...she's going to talk to Crichton."
There is a flash of light as the scene changes....
On the planet, Aeryn is sitting on a window ledge, lit only by backwash and neon. She is wearing brown tights, long boots and a dress that is slit to the waist. Her hair is loose, around her face. She is leaning back, with one leg up, planted on the ledge. She has a bottle in her hand, which she drains and tosses over the edge. Colored lights from the street alternately sweep over her face. She picks up the Charrid's ractor she had pulled on the begger, and examines it. She glances inside and looks at her pulse pistol. It, it's holster and belt lie abandoned inside
the room.
Aeryn stands facing some kind of computer terminal or communications device mounted on a wall. She presses a button and there are several 'beeps' from the machine.
Voice from machine: "Is it you?"
Aeryn: "Yes, it's Aeryn Sun. I've changed my mind. I want you to raise that man."
Voice: "Which one do you seek?"
Aeryn: "Talyn Lyczak, my father."
END OF PROLOGUE
ACT ONE
Aeryn is lying on a bed. She lifts her head and looks towards a mirror. Reflected in the mirror, she sees an old, old man sitting on a chair by her window. He is holding something in his hands, looking at it.
Old Man, quietly: Do you remember?"
When he speaks, Aeryn turns her head to look directly at him.
He looks up at her.
Scene from "The Locket", from behind a tree, we hear old John and old Aeryn both groan as they sit down on stumps.
Aeryn snorts at seeing this. She half smiles as she turns away and lays back down.
Aeryn: "Who the frell are you?"
Old Man: "I remember it all now."
Aeryn, half asleep: "What are you talking about?"
A shadow crosses her face. She flinches from the movement when the old man sits down on the bed beside her. She glances up at him but turns away, trying to keep her eyes tightly closed. Up close, we can see that the old man is the John Crichton who went with Aeryn to the planet in "The Locket".
Old John: "Touch me."
Aeryn flinches again but keeps her eyes shut and turned away.
Old John: "Don't be afraid girl. I...I ain't gonna bite. Touch me."
Aeryn's eyes open and she starts to turn her head towards him.
Old John: "Remember it all."
Aeryn screws up her face in anger and strikes out at Old John. When she does...
Scene from "The Locket", Old John and Old Aeryn are sitting on stumps and John is talking to her.
John: "I was a pilot, Aeryn, astronaut. I was what I wanted to be. "
Aeryn is sitting up, and she looks at Old John.
Old John: "It's all there. "
Aeryn is sitting alone on a bed that lies on the floor of a wreck of a room. The walls are covered in graffiti and the furniture looks eons old. Her hair is still down and she is wearing the same dress.
Scene from "The Locket", as Old John is talking, Old Aeryn is struck by a pain. She groans and bends over.
Old John: "You all right?" He reaches towards her.
Old Aeryn: "Yes. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just the same old pain, same pain." She puts her hand under her right breast.
Aeryn gasps and leans forward, holding her hand under her right breast.
Old Aeryn: "It's just the same old pain. Same pain. She holds herself.
Aeryn holds herself and gasps for breath. We can see that the dress she is wearing is ragged and worn. She gets up from the bed very slowly. Old John watches her from his seat near the window. As she starts to move, she gasps again and bends over. She picks up the ractor from the floor.
Old John leans down and picks something up off the ground. He can only use one hand, because the other is holding onto a walking stick.
Old John: "Oh, I got it. I got your locket." He sort of jiggles it in his hand. "Whose, uh image you got in here, anyway?"
Old Aeryn: "You know who's in there."
As Aeryn stands in the room, looking towards Old John, with neon lights strobing on her face, there is a knock at the door. She crosses past Old John and the open window to go to the door.
There is a figure, wrapped in rags, standing outside her door, facing a small grille, which she has opened.
Man at door: "Are you Aeryn Sun?"
She opens the door without speaking and moves aside to let him enter.
Man: "I heard you speaking to someone. I thought you were alone."
Areyn, as she sits down at a small table: "I am."
As she sits, the ragged man enters and walks around the table. We can see that the chair where Old John was sitting is now empty.
After she is seated, she continues: "Now, you knew I came here searching for someone else, but...let's do it." She puts her feet up on the small table, legs crossed at the ankles.
Man: "Do what?"
Aeryn gesticulates with the ractor as she speaks: "You found me. You told me that you could contact my dead father. So...show me."
Man: "You don't believe I can reach him?"
Aeryn: "Look, you're here. I'm willing to pay. And that is all that should concern you. Will you show me your face?"
The man slowly turns to face her. He lifts his hood off his head to reveal a face that is split in halves. One side looks mainly sebacean. The other side is a monstrosity of armadillo type plates and bones with no flesh on them, sticking out. One of these protrudes from the corner of his mouth and causes him to talk with a slushing sound. Aeryn has no visible reaction to his appearance.
Man: "If I may ask. What business have you with Talyn Lyczak?"
Aeryn brings her hand to her face. The cuff of her sleeve is ragged and holey.
Aeryn: "I was his daughter."
The man makes a small snorting noise and turns away from her.
Aeryn: "So...can you contact him?"
Man: "I can do more than that. I am...Talyn Lyczak."
Aeryn again shows no reaction. The man slowly turns back to look at her.
The crowded city at night. A faint voice can be heard: "This world is full of demons!"
Rygel: "Get away! Get back!"
Stark and Rygel are coming into a building. Stark hears a voice, a whisper: "Stark."
Stark: "Rygel! Rygel! There!" He points into the crowd.
Rygel: "What? Do you see Aeryn?"
Stark: "No. For a moment there, I thought I heard Zhaan's voice."
Rygel: "Oh, frelling brazma! Tell me you're joking, right?"
Stark: "No.....no."
Very faintly, in the distance: "Stark."
Stark heads towards where he thinks the voice is coming from.
Rygel: "Crais! Crais!"
Onboard Talyn, Crais comms: "Yes, Rygel. Have you located Aeryn's signal?"
Rygel: "No. She's masked it. We've been all over this stinking city. Now, we're in some kind of nakky hotel. Stark's meeting every cousin and furbot he ever knew." They appear to be in a lobby with a huge statue and booths almost like a bazaar. Stark goes to a booth to ask questions. A begger comes up to Rygel and growls at him. Rygel ignores him: "It's a planet of Starks down here!"
Crais comms: "You're exaggerating."
Stark :"There. There it is again. Zhaan's voice." Stark wanders off in a different direction.
Rygel: "Crais! Get down here. I can't stand it alone with him."
Crais: "No, no, no. Stay with him until you find Aeryn."
Zhaan's voice: "Stark. Stark."
Stark is kneeling now.
Crais: "Call me when you do."
Rygel: "Crais? Crais!" Rygel gasps as the begger with the bleeding eyes touches him.
Begger: "I talk to the dead. Uh, uh...I...I see..."
Rygel: "Oh stop. Just stop. That blood's so fake it's laughable." Rygel laughs a fake laugh: "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" and turns to fly away.
The begger whispers: "Kellor. Kellor. She misses you."
Rygel suddenly stops and turns back towards the beggar.
Rygel: "Kellor?"
Begger: "She forgives you. She knows that you couldn't go against your parents."
Rygel: "How do you know her name?"
Begger: "She knows that a Dominar cannot just..."
Rygel growls: "Arggg! Get away from me!" He flies off with the begger following.
Begger: "Wait! I know more. Secrets. Secrets she didn't want me to tell you. Pay me and I could tell you."
Rygel continues to attempt to flee through a crowd made up mainly of beggers and thieves. Finally, he finds Stark.
Rygel: "Did you tell them about me?"
Stark: "Rygel, did you get touched?"
Rygel: "I'll touch you if you keep telling these fekiks about me!"
Stark: "But I didn't. I warned you that this planet had dark powers."
Rygel: "You're full of yotz! This whole place is full of yotz."
Stark: "Rygel. You must guard your spirit. Now follow me. I was told that the owner of this hotel may know where Aeryn is."
Stark goes off into the crowd again. Rygel follows, muttering "Back! Back!" at the multitude that jostles and pushes him.
As they depart, the camera zooms in on a hooded figure among the crowd. A female with an oddly familiar, haunted face. Xhalax Sun.
The camera zooms in an Aeryn's profile. As it pulls back, we see that she is once again sitting in the window, with her leg up. Lyczak is sitting at the small table.
Lyczak: "I had my face surgically altered, so I could hide."
He pulls something out from inside his rags and holds it up for Aeryn to see. "Do you know what this is?"
Aeryn: "Early Peacekeeper standard...blood spectrometer."
Lyczak: "Fairly primitive, yes. But accurate, to near 100% certainty."
He places his thumb in th device. It makes some electronic beeps and a whirring sound. A tiny strip of tape, like microfich comes out of it. He holds the device out to Aeryn. She snatches it from him and sets her bottle of fellip nectar on the window ledge so she can utilize the device on herself. The machine makes more noises and Lyczak holds his strip out to her.
Lyczak: "Compare the spectrographs. She takes the proffered strip and holds it up on top of hers. They match perfectly.
Lyczak: "Take a hundred of mine and they will all match."
Aeryn holds the strips up in the light and continues to look at them.
She pulls her leg down off the ledge, being careful not to spill the bottle she has set there. Lyczak comes over and sits down beside her.
Lyczak: "Aeryn." He reaches out and touches her shoulder. She flinches away and he withdraws his hand.
Lyczak: "I...I understand. This is not what you want."
Lyczak stands up to go: "Good-bye Aeryn."
As he steps away, she stops him.
Aeryn: "Wait."
In the hotel lobby, Stark and Rygel have found the front desk.
Stark: "Hello! Is anyone here?"
When no one answers, Stark hops up and leans over the counter to look behind it.
A voice suddenly says: "I wouldn't do that! Back away slowly. Very slowly."
A head appears at the back of the counter. Stark and Rygel ease backwards.
Proprietor: "Lucky I saw you through the peephole and was quick enough to deactivate it."
He stands up behind the counter. He has very white skin and a bald head, with a long fringe of reddish hair hanging from the sides.
Rygel: "Deactivate what? There's nothing I can..."
The proprietor touches a triangular shaped button behind the counter and a row of sharp stakes comes up down the middle, with a clang.
Rygel gasps.
Proprietor: "Protection and mutilation combined, much more effective than an attack animal."
Stark nods.
Proprietor: "Are you here to buy dead bodies? You gotta outbid him." He points towards a Diagnosian who isinspecting a dead body in the lobby.
Proprietor: "He buys all his from me. Buys 'em fresh."
Rygel: "We are not here for bodies. We are here to find a Sebacean."
There is a noisy fight going on behind them.
Stark: "Named Aeryn Sun. She's very beautiful. Hair is dark as a fellip berry."
Rygel whispers: "Shut up, Stark!"
Stark: "She usually wears it tight, pulled back, but recently she's taken to wearing it out, down to her shoulders." Stark gestures to show what he means.
Stark: "We're close, very close."
Rygel: "They're not close at all! He's some kind of wierd probakto and she can't stand the smell..."
Stark grabs Rygel's fingers and squeezes them. Rygel groans.
Stark: "That's not true."
Rygel: "It's more than true! But we are trying to find her so we can get out of the nak house."
Proprietor: "mmm....no Sebaceans here anymore. You might try the Stallic Hotel on the far side of the city. I hear they stay there."
Stark puts his hands together and bows over them to thank the Proprietor and starts to walk away.
Rygel: "Far side of the city?! I'm not traveling tonight. How much for your finest room?"
Zhaan's voice: "Stark."
Proprietor: "Finest room? Where do you think you are?"
Zhaan's voice: "Stark."
Proprietor: "This is a refugee city, and you've gotta fight for tent space!"
Someone comes up to the bars and bangs something against them. The Proprietor shoo's them away.
Proprietor: "Get away! Look at my foyer. Infested with cretada."
Rygel moves away and a begger comes up to the counter and starts babbling to the Proprietor.
Proprietor: "Frell!"
Rygel has joined Stark, who is staring into the crowd.
Stark puts out a hand to stop Rygel's forward progress.
Stark: "By the goddess, Rygel!"
Rygel: "What is it? Better not be Zhaan again."
Stark jumps in front of Rygel to shield him from view, turning his back towards where he was looking.
Stark whispers urgently: "Don't let her see us! Don't let her see us! Oh, don't let her see us."
He grabs Rygels thronesled and starts dragging it away.
Rygel: "Let go of me!"
Stark: "Shut up!" He's breathing heavily. "It can't be her. It can't be." He is looking towards a woman near a doorway.
Rygel: "Who? Aeryn?"
Stark, still whispering: "Uh...No, no, no, no, no!"
The crowd parts enough for Rygel to get a look at the woman Stark's been watching.
Rygel gasps: "Is that...Aeryn's mother?"
Xhalax is talking to a stooped over begger.
Xhalax: "I told you to leave them alone."
Begger: "I did. I did."
Xhalax: "You were talking to that slug." She pulls out a large knife and holds it up in the air.
Xhalax: "Were you telling them about me?"
Begger (we can now see his face. He is the one with the bloody eyes): "No...no!"
Xhalax: "I paid you a lot of money! I paid all of you a lot of money!"
Begger: "I would never betray you, Xhalax. I never would!"
Xhalax: "Not anymore." She pulls back the knife and plunges it into the begger's chest. The begger groans and falls to the ground.
Rygel: "Frell!" He scoots further back behind Stark.
Xhalax puts her knife back in her belt: "Get rid of the body." She tosses a coin to another begger and walks quickly away.
Stark looks on aghast.
A cart wheels up to collect the corpse.
Stark whispers: "By the goddess..."
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
Onboard Talyn....
Crais is lying down on his back, on a ledge and Stark is holding a gun to his face. He is hand-cuffed.
Stark: "Crichton was right! You never killed Xhalax!"
Crais: "Get them off me! Let me up!"
Rygel: "The only time we're letting you up, is when we flush you out the airlock."
Stark: "What happend to Xhalax? Tell us!"
Crais: "Let me up!"
Stark pulls him up by his hand-cuffs, and leans him against the wall. He has a pulse pistol held in both hands, pointed at Crais.
Stark: "You tell us. You tell us!"
Crais: "When you left me to kill Xhalax...I saw instantly the end."
Rygel: "For you."
Crais: "For all of us! I knew that if I killed her, High Command would send another retrieval squad after us. And, if they failed...another. And another!"
Rygel intones: "You made a deal to save us all."
Crais: "I offered Xhalax her life."
Rygel: "And what did you get in return?"
Crais: "She would inform High Command that we were all dead."
Stark points to himself: "Do I look like an idiot? Huh? Huh? Does he look like an idiot?" Stark points to Rygel. "Do I look like an idiot? Yah! Well, I'm not. And we're not fooled by you. If you've got a deity, you'd better make your peace with it now, because I'm going to lead you to the other side, real quick."
Rygel: "No."
Stark: "No? What, no?"
Crais: "Rygel understands our predicament. Talyn has part of my psyche. Can you fly him?"
Stark: "No, but Aeryn can."
Rygel: "And she's not here."
Crais laughs.
On the planet, in the hotel...
Aeryn and Lyczak are walking towards the stairs to the foyer.
Lyczak: "Why did you come to this planet? You said at first it was not to contact me. Who were you seeking?"
They start down the stairs.
Aeryn: "I lost someone."
Lyczak continues to look at her as they walk.
Aeryn: "He died."
Lyczak: "Were you in love with him?" Aeryn doesn't answer him.
They've reached the bottom of the stairs and start across the lobby. Xhalax, sitting with her back to the room, watches them from the corner of her eye.
Lyczak: "Aeryn. On this planet, I have seen things I never dreamed possible. At the fall of the moon, I will come back with a being who might be able to help contact the one you loved."
Lyczak: "Wait for me please. I want to try to do this for you."
Aeryn nods her assent and Lyczak leaves. As soon as he does, Aeryn hurries over to the counter and the Proprietor.
Aeryn: "Here. Have you seen him before?"
The Proprietor just looks down at the empty counter and smiles. Aeryn lays down a money tile. The Proprietor picks it up: "Yes. I've seen him."
Aeryn: "Well, do you know who he is?"
Proprietor: "No one." He looks pointedly down at the counter. Aeryn gives him another tile.
Proprietor: "Just...I hear he's been studying with the nelliks who channel the dead."
Aeryn: "Do you know where he's from?"
Proprietor: "No."
Aeryn grabs him by his shirt and hauls him towards her.
Proprietor: "Agh! I just heard he's been hiding on Valldon for a couple of cycles, but everyone's hiding, so..."
Aeryn: "Was he a Peacekeeper?"
Proprietor: "I don't know."
Aeryn yanks his shirt a little tighter.
Proprietor: "Corr. Someone could use some fellip nectar. You know where to get it."
Aeryn: "What a good idea." She lets go of the proprietor and he laughs. She walks over to a table and picks up four bottles of the blue liquid she's been drinking and carries them up the stairs. The proprietor watches her go, as does Xhalax, who has been watching the whole time from her place in the crowd.
Rygel, Stark and Crais who is still hand-cuffed, enter the hotel lobby from outside.
Stark: "How can no one have seen Aeryn?"
Crais: "They have. They're just not talking."
Stark spots a very old lady, laying in the lobby, asleep.
Stark: "Wait. I've got an idea." He hurries over to the old woman.
Rygel: "Stark, what are you doing? Leave her alone and let her die in peace."
Stark gently places his hand on the old woman's forehead.
Rygel: "Umm, yotz. Here we go again."
He flies off on his thronesled and Crais follows him. Meanwhile, Stark lifts his mask and shines on the old woman's face.
As soon as they are away from Stark, Crais stops Rygel.
Crais: "Get these off me!"
Rygel laughs at him.
Crais: "You're not a child like he is. How can I help you if I'm cuffed?"
Rygel: "Oh, you'll help. If someone starts shooting, you'll make a very good shield." Rygel laughs.
Stark removes the light from the old woman's face and hurries over to Rygel.
Stark: "She thinks Aeryn may be here on one of the upper levels."
Rygel: "Right, I'll go."
Stark puts his hand on Rygel's chest and stops him.
Stark: "I'll stay calm. I'll take this fekik with me. He can tell Aeryn what he did. You keep an eye out for Xhalax." Stark has hold of Crais' hand-cuffs and drags him off towards the stairs. Rygel groans.
As soon as they leave, Rygel is mobbed by beggers.
Rygel: "Uhg! Not now! Get away!" He roars at them to make them leave.
Aeryn is carrying the bottles of fellip nectar back to her room. The hallways she is walking through are thronged with people and covered in dirt and graffiti. She passes an alien couple who are leaning against a wall. One of them has their legs wrapped around the waist of the other and they are kissing. One of them is bald and has an extremely large tongue. They are using it to good effect. Aeryn's attention is drawn to them as she passes....
Scene from "Season of Death", John is pushing back Aeryn's loose hair, to kiss her.
As she comes to the doorway of her room, Aeryn stops again to look at the alien lovers...
Scene from "Season of Death", John and Aeryn kissing.
Aeryn looks back at them yet again. Her eyes look like two burnt holes in a blanket. She kicks open the door to her room and staggers in, setting the bottles of fellip nectar on a table. The room is very dark and the graffiti stands out harshly on the walls. She stands at the table for a few moments, head bowed. When she looks up, she glances towards the window. John is sitting on the window ledge with his hands on his knees. He is wearing a sleeveless white-T and blue jeans (again, this is a John from AHR). He turns his head to look back into the room, at Aeryn. She is looking away.
Stark, with the hand-cuffed Crais in tow, arrives at Aeryn's door.
Stark: "Right here."
Crais: "This had better not be the wrong room."
Stark peers in through the grille: "It won't be."
The alien couple is still visible down the hall. People can be heard talking and laughing.
Stark speaks into the grille: "Aeryn? Are you in there?"
Stark can see Aeryn's face on the other side of the grille.
Stark: "Aeryn. Are you all right? You look terrible. What have you been doing? Have you ... have you been...?"
Crais comes to the grille and interrupts: "This is serious. We need to talk. Can I come in?"
Aeryn shakes her head: "No."
Stark: "Alright. That does it!" He grabs Crais and pulls him away from the grille. "Get down, on you knees! face the wall!"
Crais: "I am not getting on my knees!"
Stark screams: "Get Down!"
Aeryn is watching this exchange through the grille.
Crais: "You told Rygel you'd be calm."
Stark has his gun in both hands and has it trained on Crais: "I AM CALM! You get down now!"
Crais kneels awkwardly, his hands held in front of him by the cuffs.
Aeryn opens the door and comes out, without speaking. She sits on a box that is nearby, in the hallway.
Stark turns to her: "Aeryn, you must return to Talyn. We saw Xhalax, here on Valldon."
Aeryn: "It's this place. You should see who I've seen."
Stark: "No, no. Your mother is really, really here."
Aeryn laughs: "No. Guess who I've seen. Crichton. And guess who else. My father. Any microt now Stark, you're going to see Zhaan."
Stark: "You stop. You listen to me. He...he never killed Xhalax." Stark gestures towards the still kneeling Crais. "He was preparing to betray us."
Crais: "That is not true. I made a deal for all of us."
Stark points the gun back at Crais: "Liar!" (behind him, Aeryn jumps in surprise) "Liar! Now, you must come back with us. I will look after you. I
want to look after you."
Aeryn: "That would be really nice."
Stark: "Oh." He reaches out and strokes her shoulder: "Please."
Aeryn: "Don't touch me."
Crais: "Aeryn. Xhalax is alive."
Aeryn laughs and gets down on her hands and knees on the hallway floor. She crawls over to Crais.
Aeryn: "Come on. Come on. Come on Crais, you can tell the truth."
She gets up on her knees in front of Crais, flings her hair back with a shake of her head, and takes hold of Crais' lapels. "Hmm?"
Stark: "You get up! Get away from him!"
Aeryn: "Thats alright. He wants me." She turns back to Crais, looking him in the face: "Isn't that right? You always wanted to take me from Crichton and now here's your chance."
Aeryn raises herself up on her knees, takes a deep breath and begins to whisper in Crais' ear: "I do not want Bilar." She has her hand in his hair, her mouth crushed against his ear: "If I squeeze my eyes closed tightly enough, you could be someone else."
Crais grunts and tries to move away from her.
She grabs his around the neck and wraps a leg around his waist. "No! Come on, right here! Right now! Give it to me." She is holding onto him for dear life. "Give me what you've got!"
Stark rushes over and hauls her to her feet: "You're coming with me. I'm taking you now!" He pulls her down the hallway.
Aeryn: "Don't ... you... touch...me!" She forces Stark against the wall and pulls the ractor, holding it menacingly over his face. "I swear that I will spear the last eye you have left. Do you know what makes you so much worse... is the fact that you think you're so much better than him. Always pressing...against me. Stealing looks. Get out of here."
She brings down the knife and releases Stark. She walks over to Crais and hauls him to his feet: "Both of you... Get Out!" she shoves Crais down the hall towards Stark and goes into her room, slamming the door behind her. They stand together and watch her go.
Downstairs, in the lobby, Xhalax is listening as Rygel is asking a woman in the crowd: "Uh, excuse me, uh, uh. Have you seen a..a cripple who was bleeding from the eyes?" He laughs: "He knew about a certain female I..."
Woman (she glances in the direction of Xhalax): "Tah nak nee. Nee nak nak. Nah!"
Rygel: "Well, don't get excited. I just...."
Woman: "Hah!"
Rygel: "I just....peasant." The woman moves away. Rygel starts off through the crowd and bumps into Lyczak who is carrying something.
Lyczak: "Watch out."
Rygel: "Mmmm. Watch your step."
Lyczak: "Move."
Rygel: "Pushy, pushy!"
Lyczak continues on towards Xhalax. As he nears her, a man points a rifle at him and pushes him down into a seat.
Xhalax: "Do you know who that was? That slug was with Aeryn. He was trying to save her. How'd it go?"
Lyczak: "Oh, I think Aeryn's buying it all. When she sees this bastard...." He pats the round case he is carrying: "she'll suffer the way you want her to."
There are grunting noises and the case begins to shake.
Lyczak steadies it in his hands: "Ohh, someone's getting restless. I better get up there."
Xhalax: "You're all set?"
Lyczak points at the case: "Under here...solid krank."
Xhalax stares at him a moment. Lyczak looks back and points at her: "Don't miss."
Xhalax: "I won't"
Aeryn's room, seen from outside the window. The red and green neon lights illuminate a grimy, graffitied place. Aeryn is standing in the middle of the room
Aeryn: "First Talyn. Then Xhalax. What next?"
She walks to the windows and flings them open. She steps over the window sill, onto the ledge, looking down at the city far below her. She smiles. Gusts of wind blow her hair as she looks up, at the sky.
Aeryn, calling to the sky: "Crichton!" Louder: "Crichton!" She throws her head back and calls:
"CRICHTON!"
END OF ACT TWO
ACT THREE
The neon lights alternatly flash red and green across Aeryn's face as she looks out across the night sky.
Scene from "A Human Reaction", Aeryn is sitting on the edge of the bed. Her hair is back, in a loose ponytail, and she is wearing a light gray or white tank top. There is the sound of thunder. She is looking towards....
John: "That's it..." He is standing, looking out a window at Sydney in the rain. "Earth. Minus the sunshine." He is wearing a white, sleeveless T-shirt.
Aeryn is standing outside her window, on the ledge. Behind her, the John we just saw in AHR is sitting on the window ledge.
Aeryn: "This is my world now." She has an open bottle of fellip nectar in her hands. There are airships zipping through the city, below her. She half smiles and shrugs: "I think I liked yours better."
She backs up and sits on the window sill, next to AHR John. She turns her head to look at him, closes her eyes and bends towards his shoulder...
Scene from "A Human Reaction", John is sitting beside Aeryn, on the edge of the bed. He turns his head to look at her and brings his face down, towards her shoulder and lightly brushes it with his lips. He moves his head towards her face. She continues to stare straight ahead and moves her head slightly away from his, as he moves. He rubs his forehead on her cheek.
Aeryn rubs her forehead on the side of AHR John's face. As she touches his ear with her nose, he starts to turn his face towards hers...
Scene from "A Human Reaction", Aeryn turns her face towards John, moving in response to him...
...and closing his eyes, he opens his mouth and they touch noses.
Scene from "A Human Reaction", ...she leans towards him and their lips ...
He leans towards her and their lips nearly meet.
Scene from "A Human Reacton", ...meet in a kiss.
Aeryn has her eyes closed and she is holding the edge of the window very lightly, her lips nearly touching it. She leans away from the window, sits up straight and opens her eyes. She picks up the fellip nectar bottle and drinks most of it. She stands up and drinks the rest. A small shape can be seen rising towards her, through the air. Little noises are heard coming from it.
Aeryn: "Let me guess. You're my long lost sister."
Rygel floats up to the level of the window ledge Aeryn is standing on.
Rygel: "Look, Aeryn, I know you're upset. I, too, had someone important in my life. Kellor was her name. Hmm, ..I missed her for a long time. But I knew, as I'm sure you do, that self-sacrifice is not the answer. Look. I'm not like Crais or Stark. I'm not trying to save you, or recreate with you. You can do whatever you like, but...Crichton loved you, Aeryn. He wouldn't want his death to lead you here."
A gust of wind catches the thronesled and swirls it around.
Rygel: "Oh! Ah! Oh, oh! Aha! Please. Could we go inside? This height..." he laughs nervously.
Areyn: "You're not going in there."
Rygel: "Huh?"
Outside, in the hall, Lyczak comes up to Aeryn's door. He knocks.
Aeryn hears knocking from her door and turns.
Aeryn: "You have to go now." She climbs over the windowsill, into her room.
Rygel: "I... should also tell you...Crais and Stark weren't lying. Xhalax is on this planet."
Aeryn: "And I wasn't lying either. My father's here too. Crazy place, Ryg. Now go."
Rygel: "But, uh..."
Aeryn: "Go!"
Rygel sighs and floats away, down towards the street.
Aeryn opens her door. Lyczak is standing there holding the case he had with him downstairs.
Lyczak: "I've brought the seer."
The case is sitting on a table and begins to open. Lyczak kneels beside it. As it opens, inside it is revealed a huge, bald head with four eyes and a tiny mouth. There is a tiny, misformed body beneath the head.
Aeryn is sitting on the edge of the bed. As the case opens, she claps her hands three or four times, in derision.
Lyczak: "Seer Cresus. The one we seek is not long dead. His name is John Crichton. And he's from a race called Human."
The seer opens its eyes and malformed mouth and speaks to Aeryn: "Come here. Closer. I won't bite....much." He laughs, a funny, high-pitched giggle.
Lyczak: "Trust him. Don't be afraid."
Seer Cresus: "Touch me. I must feel you...to reach him."
Lyczak looks pointedly at Aeryn. She gets up slowly and approaches the Seer. She blows a breath out and touches him on top of the head.
Seer Cresus: "Huh! Huh! Huh! Soft. Touch me...soft."
Aeryn touches him again. Softer this time.
Seer Cresus: "Tell me about this Crichton."
Aeryn looks over at Lyczak, then back at the seer.
Aeryn: "Uh. He..."
Seer Cresus: "Did he...love you?"
Aeryn looks away. She swallows.
Seer Cresus: "Hold you? Touch you....soft."
Aeryn, in a tearful voice:"Yes, he loved me. He was very...." She stops for a moment and sighs. "He made me better."
The seer begins to make gagging sounds. Aeryn snatches her hand off his head and sits back down. Lyczak looks worriedly at the seer who is now screaming. Above his head, on the lid of the case, a projection begins to appear. It resolves into a face of John Crichton.
John:"Aeryn? Help me. Bring me back." The seer gasps and gags.
The projection stops. The seer continues to gag , slumps back down into its case and falls quiet.
Lyczak: "Cresus? Are you all right?"
Seer Cresus answers him in an alien tongue: "Dah. Dah keepo palah. Reekala bindorrah. Re Kalla ahh.Ahh! Kalla, akah...ahhh."
Lyczak: "Cresus says...he has rarely had a vision so powerful. And he wants me to find the Sintar. He is a creature who can...sometimes turn spirits corporeal."
Aeryn's voice is breaking: "That's not possible."
Lyczak: "Oh, Aeryn! On this planet, I have seen things I have not thought possible. Wait here. I will find the Sintar. If the connection is strong enough...if he thinks this can happen..."
Aeryn: "He can bring Crichton back?"
Seer Cresus: "Perhaps. Don't lose hope... " The seer gags: "...ye...yet."
Lyczak: "Wait here. I will not be long."
Lyczak gets up to leave: "Just believe."
Aeryn looks up at him and a single tear courses down her face. She sits for a few moments, thinking. The she smiles and licks her lips.
Aeryn: "I returned from the dead. Why can't he?" She gets up an turns around and lies down heavily on her side, on the bed. She sighs.
The wind is blowing.
A hand appears, touching her shoulder.
John's voice: "This is where it hurts."
The hand massages her shoulder.
Aeryn breathes out: "Here."
John's voice: "Right here."
The wind blows again.
John's face appears behind her head and settles in behind her. He is wearing a white T-shirt. He continues to massage her shoulder.
John: "You can't bring me back, you know."
Aeryn: "Mmm. They said that on this planet there's a ....I've forgotten his name."
John: "No."
Aeryn: "No?"
John: "No." His chin is resting on her neck, and he is breathing in her ear.
Aeryn sighs: "Was it easy to be a hero? Leave me behind?"
John: "You never think...you're gonna die. I didn't know."
Aeryn smiles, though tears are streaming down her face. She turns to face him.
Aeryn: "You...you did." laughing.
John: "No."
Aeryn: "Yes,... you did." He's smiling back at her and she touches his nose with her finger.
John: "No." He leans down and kisses her...
Scene from "The Flax", Aeryn takes John down to the floor of the transport pod, holding and kissing him. They are in their spacesuits.
They are kissing, hard...
Scene from "The Flax", Aeryn pulls up from kissing John and he reaches up to unfasten her spacesuit. She tries to rip it off herself even though it is still attached.
They continue to kiss...
Scene from "Relativity", They are in bed and Aeryn turns her head so John can kiss her. She turns her whole body towards him...
John finishes the kiss and pulls away.
Aeryn sits up on her elbows and looks over at the bed beside her. She is alone. She turns completely over in the bed and settles back down on her side, facing the window. She sighs.
Suddenly, the door crashes open with a bang. Xhalax is visible in the doorway. She has a pulse rifle in her hand.
Xhalax stalks in: "Hello solder! What's the matter? Surprised to see your old mum?"
At the first sound, Aeryn is up and backing away, towards the window. Xhalax follows her, with gun pointed.
Xhalax laughs: "This isn't quite the... family reunion you'd imagined. Sit down."
Aeryn glances down, then sits gingerly, attempting to angle her body within easy reach of her pistol. She licks her lips.
Xhalax glances at the table where Aeryn's gunbelt is laying: "Soldier without her weapon. That's against regulations." She notices Aeryn looking at her leg.
Xhalax: "My leg, huh? After you left me on that planet, it got infected...and I had to amputate it myself. "
Xhalax is circling Aeryn, all the while keeping her gunned trained on her: "Now that...that hurt."
Xhalax is standing with her back to the window.
Xhalax: "You thought you could get it all."
As she is speaking, Lyczak comes quietly in the still open door.
Xhalax: "Get away....be safe." She moves towards the door, pointing her gun at Lyczak now.
Lyczak: "Xhalax! "
Xhalax: "Hello dear." She hits Lyczak in the face with her gun and knocks him onto the bed.
Aeryn screams: "No! Don't!" and jumps up.
Xhalax: "You've only just met, and already you're trying to protect your father."
Xhalax grabs Aeryn's arm and holds it. She shoves Aeryn back into her chair.
On the bed, Lyczak gets up on his elbows: "Xhalax, stop! Twenty cycles ago we made a pact to survive for...for our daughter. You couldn't hurt her then. You couldn't hurt me."
Xhalax: "I can hurt you now, old man. So get ready to die!"
Lyczak: "Remember when Aeryn was born? I snuck into the med-chamber. You had just woken..."
As he speaks, Xhalax and Aeryn stare into each other's eyes.
Xhalax: "Lie down!
Aeryn: "Listen, he's not the one that you..."
Xhalax: "Shut up!"
Aeryn: "Just leave him alone."
Lyczak: "Shut up! Oh, go on. Shoot me. I'm not scared of ya." He pats himself on the chest: "Shoot me and leave Aeryn alone."
Xhalax looks over at Aeryn, then back at Lyczak: "You know, I think I've changed my mind. You're too ugly to kill. Looking at that face. Now lie down. Lie down and roll over."
Lyczak: "Xhalax...wh...wh...what?"
Xhalax: "Turn around...now."
Aeryn: "Xhalax. Just..."
Xhalax: "Shut up! Lie down!
Lyczak: "Xhalax?"
Xhalax: "Roll over!"
Lyczak: "No, no, no." He turns his back to Xhalax and lies on the bed.
Aeryn: "Xhalax! Stop!"
Lyczak: "Xhalax, don't"
Xhalax: "Roll over!"
Xhalax fires three shots...into Lyczak's back. Suddenly, the room is quiet.
Xhalax turns the gun towards Aeryn: "So...so there's just you...and me."
END OF ACT THREE
ACT FOUR
Lyczak is lying face down on Aeryn's bed. Dead. Aeryn is sitting near Xhalax who is leaning against the window sill. She is looking at the body, not at Xhalax.
Xhalax: "You know, things couldn't have worked out better. I'm glad you two got to meet."
Aeryn: "Why?" She gets up and walks towards the door.
Xhalax: "For this. For you to suffer. For everything you did. For everything that went wrong."
Aeryn: "I....we did nothing to you." She picks up some bottles of fellip nectar and brings it back with her to sit down near Xhalax.
Xhalax: "You did everything. After your birth, High Command said I could redeem myself if... But they lied."
Aeryn sets two of the bottles on the table with a clank. She keeps one in her hand.
Xhalax continues: "The damage was done. And no matter what I did, I was never...truly...reinstated."
Aeryn takes a drink of fellip nectar: "And now you want my pity."
Xhalax levels the gun at her: "Oh no. I want your pain. To know how close I was...to love. So close...and then to lose it all in an instant. I've heard...loved ones leave you in pieces...that little by little you start to forget things about them, but that's not true. You lose them...everything,instantly, and suddenly nothing can replace them. Nothing." She brings the gun barrel up against the back of Aeryn's head.
Xhalax: "And now you...have nothing." Aeryn turns around to look at her. There are tears running down her face.
Xhalax: "How does it feel?"
Downstairs, in the lobby, Stark, Crais and Rygel are talking to the proprietor.
Stark: "You lied to us. Said Aeryn wasn't here!"
Proprietor: "No, no! I...I didn't lie!"
Crais: "Did Xhalax pay you to keep us away?" He is hand-cuffed to a bar by the payment window.
Proprietor: "Who? I've never heard of them." Stark has the proprietor by the lapels, pulling him half way over the counter. Rygel is around behind the counter, next to the proprietor.
Rygel: "Now, tell me again. How do you activate this security grille?" Rygel has his hand on the triangular button. "Do I press this?"
Proprietor: "No! No! Don't touch that!"
Rygel: "Why? Will those speary things shoot up...?"
Proprietor: "Look! Look! I had to lie to you. If I'd helped you before, that maniac upstairs would have killed me!"
Rygel: "Go on."
Proprietor: "There..." he kicks a panel that opens behind him: "...is a service lift. Xhalax doesn't know about it. One of you could go up in that. Surprise her."
Rygel notices that the crowd has moved away from them: "Uhh...Stark...?"
Stark: "What?"
Rygel, looking at several people in the lobby who have guns pointed their way: "Who are they?"
Suddenly, gunfire rings out from across the lobby. A couple of light fixtures are hit. Stark returns fire and hits one of the attackers. He runs around behind the counter.
Crais: "Stark! Uncuff me! Uncuff me!"
Rygel pops his head up and sees they are outnumbered: "Under the circumstances...Uncuff him!!"
Oblivious to the firefight below, Aeryn stands with her back to the open window, facing her mother. She takes a couple of steps closer to Xhalax.
Aeryn: "Wasn't killing Talyn once enough? But did you have to kill him in front of me? Is that what was missing?"
Xhalax is forced to look away, break Aeryn's stare. She looks back, immediately.
Aeryn: "When I first met him, I knew he wasn't my father, but he knew all these details about you and me."
Xhalax: "You're lying. You didn't know."
Aeryn laughs and backs up to side on the window sill: "Of course, I hoped...that he might be Talyn. Just as I'd hoped that I might see Crichton again..." It's hard to tell if she's laughing or crying. "But in my heart...I knew that that was not my father." She gestures at the body on the bed. "And then you walked in. You know, we Peacekeepers think that we are so remarkable. Soldiers without...equal. Precise tacticians. Pure bloods." Her voice begins to shake: "But I've realized we're not remarkable. We do nothing for love. Not one thing." She looks away from her mother.
Xhalax, quietly: "You're wrong. Cycles ago, after your birth, I was given an order. They called it a choice."
Xhalax comes to stand right in front of Aeryn: "One of you must die, they said." She puts a hand out to brace herself against the window and puts her face down next to Aeryn's: "I killed your father so you could live. I did that for love."
Back in the lobby, the battle continues....
Zhaan's voice: "Stark."
Stark has been behind the counter, evidently uncuffing Crais, who is gone. Stark comes out from behind with two guns blazing.
Stark: "It's here again. Zhaan's voice. Can you hear it?"
Rygel is on the floor behind the counter, hiding with the proprietor.
Rygel: "Not now, Stark."
Crais come up from behind the counter: "Stark! Get down!"
Stark hands Crais one of his pistols, across the counter: "Save Aeryn! I'll hold them off here." Crais folds himself into the service lift.
Stark: "Go! Go!" He continues out in front of the counter, firing and hitting, time after time, as shots hit wide of him, time and again.
Aeryn is standing on the window ledge. Her back is to Xhalax who is holding her gun in both hands, pointed at Aeryn.
Aeryn: "So. This is it? Kill me now. Destroy the last piece of your life and leave nothing."
Xhalax: "I wasn't an assassin until I killed your father. I was a pilot. I was bred to be a pilot...but they made me kill again...and again...finally I stopped caring. But I knew your suffering would ease my pain. And it has. It has."
Areyn:"The battle's over, Xhalax. You don't want to kill me."
Xhalax: "No?"
Xhalax shoots...and hits the window beside Aeryn... shoots again...over Aeryn's head. The shot hits off the top of the window.
Crais is in the hallway, fighting his way towards Aeryn's room.
Aeryn stands, facing out over the city.
Areyn: "Why don't you come out here, a bit closer? It might make it easier for you."
Xhalax walks over to the window sill and jumps it, out onto the ledge. Aeryn turns to face her.
Aeryn: "Here." They're standing face to face. "You can't miss from here." Aeryn's eyes are clear as she looks at her mother. "Unless you want to."
Shots are fired in the hall. Crais is still fighting off attackers, but the shooting stops. He backs towards Aeryn's door.
Xhalax has her gun right at Aeryn's throat.
Aeryn: "Drop the gun, Xhalax."
Crais is watching...listening for signs of more attackers.
Xhalax stares at Aeryn who looks back at her with a steady gaze.
Crais has his gun ready, as he cautiously approaches Aeryn's door.
Xhalax lets her gun drop, away from Aeryn's throat.
Crais listens for a moment at Aeryn's door...then crashes in.
Crais: "Aeryn!"
Aeryn: "No!"
He has his gun pointed at Xhalax who has turned at the sound of him coming in and has her gun pointed at him.
Aeryn: "No!" She grabs for Xhalax's gun. Crais shoots. Xhalax is hit. She screams: "Ahh!". Her gun goes flying, and she falls backwards. Aeryn grabs for her and catches her before she goes over the edge.
Aeryn turns her head to look back at Crais: "No!"
She is struggling to keep her grip on Xhalax.
Xhalax: "Let me fall, Aeryn."
Aeryn: "No." She hugs her tighter.
Crais still has his gun pointed at them.
Xhalax: "Do it." She is gasping for breath. "Let me go." She groans in pain. "I died a long time ago."
Her forehead is resting against Aeryn's. Her breaths are audible and labored. She pulls back her face, to gaze into Aeryn's eyes. She nods...twice.
Xhalax, whispers: "You live for me."
Aeryn nods once and lets go. Xhalax falls straight backwards, over the ledge, towards the street far below.
Aeryn watches her as long as she can see her. Then she looks up, and turns back towards her room.
END OF ACT FOUR
EPILOGUE
Onboard Talyn, Rygel and Crais are looking at a vision of Stark that appears in front of the forward view screen. The vision wavers, but holds.
Stark: "Zhaan's voice keeps getting stronger. I know she's trying to reach me and I must discover what she needs to communicate. Please do not waste time trying to look for me. It is vital you take what I have left you to the Crichton on Moya."
Rygel looks down at Stark's mask, which he is holding in his hand.
Stark: "He, and only he, will know what to do with it. Good-bye my friends. Take care of Aeryn. I will find you again." Stark reaches up and begins to unbuckle his mask. He removes it and the light from his face shines out at them. The vision ends.
Crais turns and starts to leave the bridge.
Rygel: "Crais? Why would Stark leave this? What'dyou think the other Crichton wants with it?"
Crais: "I have no idea. Talyn believes he's located Moya. His long-range scans have detected Leviathan transmissions from the Manin Nebula. "
Rygel: "Well, let's try to find them. It'll be good to get back to Moya."
Crais: "Perhaps."
Rygel sighs.
Crais: "As soon as our ships are reunited, and Talyn can find someone other than me to pilot him, I shall leave."
Rygel: "I...uh...hope Moya's done better than we have. Is Aeryn on her way up?"
Crais: "She'll be leaving Valldon within the arn."
Crais walks off the bridge.
On the planet, in Aeryn's hotel room, AHR John is standing by the window, looking out. Aeryn is at the dresser. She is wearing her leather pants and green, long-sleeved zippered shirt. Her hair is pulled back, in a tight, PK braid. She is buckling on her gunbelt. She takes a deep breath, like a sigh.
Aeryn: "Maybe...I could have become something different."
She is seeing AHR John's reflection, in the mirror, as well as her own.
Aeryn: "If you'd lived, I could have truly changed. But you are gone."
She looks to the side and reaches over and picks up her pulse pistol. She places it firmly in the holster.
Aeryn: "And I am....what I was bred to be." In the mirror, she sees AHR John turn around to look at her.
AHR John: "Aeryn. Come'ere" He gestures with his head.
Aeryn turns her head to look directly at him: "No. You have to go now." We watch in the mirror, as Aeryn watches directly, AHR John turns back towards the window...and disappears in a flash of light from the neon sign outdoors. Aeryn turns back towards the mirror and takes a deep, steadying breath. She turns to leave the room. As she does, the Seer's case opens.
Seer Cresus: "Wait!"
Aeryn stops in her tracks. The camera stays on her face.
Seer Cresus: "Most of the time, Aeryn, what we do is a distortion, a hoax. But, with you, Aeryn Sun, it may have been real. Shall we try...one...more...time?"
The camera stays another moment on her face, then moves to the blurry neon lights from the street.
END OF EPILOGUE
