TITLE: "WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS"

AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL

FANDOM: "Farscape"

PAIRING: JOHN/D'ARGO

RATING: NC-17. M/M. *SLASH*

STATUS: New.

ARCHIVE: Yes. Just let me know where.

FEEDBACK: Welcomed

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

"WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS"
A "Farscape" slash story
Written by Alison M. DOBELL
* * * * *

The Peace Keeper could not help it. Eskar warned him with her eyes. So dark, so eloquent, so totally afraid that he would do something stupid. Any show of emotion was dangerous around their quixotic commander and Scorpius was less forgiving than most.

"I only want to look in on him. I won't open the door."

She answered with a frown. As worried about the human as he was but less inclined to show it either in her expression or actions. He walked briskly and she followed at a slower pace, unconsciously watching his back. She paused when he got to the cell door, watched him place his eye against the glass viewer and held her breath. Nobody came, the action was not marked. The camera was inside the cell not in the corridor outside. She watched Carver's body stiffen slightly and resisted the urge to join him. Someone needed to keep watch. At last he walked back to her and they fell into step, silent until they reached the relative safety of the shadows.

"Well?"

He sucked his bottom lip a moment. "I can't tell. He looks unconscious."

"Is he still bleeding?"

Carver looked uncomfortable with the question. "I'm not sure, I think so."

"You think so?"

He frowned at her then nodded slowly. "Blood stains on the floor."

Her voice became an awed whisper. "Do you think he's dying?"

A shrug. An attempt at uncaring nonchalence that fooled no one. She looked confused.

"I don't understand. Scorpius wants something from him, wants it so badly that he's been hunting this human half way through the Uncharted Territories. Why would he kill him now when he still hasn't go what he wants?"

Carver shook his head. "Who knows? Maybe he thinks the human will never give him what he wants."

A silence stretched between them. He looked at her, eyes suddenly wary.

"We have to go, Beth."

She hesitated. "You know what will happen if the human tells him what he wants to know?"

Carver nodded.

"And you know what will happen if he dies before Scorpius can get that information?"

He sighed. "Nothing we can do but keep as far away from this cell block as possible."

She shook her head, disagreeing. He fastened large haunted eyes on her and for a long moment just stared, as if taking inventory of the contents of her soul. Whatever he saw there made him tremble slightly. "We cannot do any more for him."

"We could help him escape."

His eyes widened in shock then gradually a low laugh bubbled up briefly to taste the air. A microt later all trace of humour had vanished. "You are quite mad, Beth." He said softly.

She smiled sweelty at him. "That's why you love me."

He was non commital, thinking about the task she was setting them. Worried. "This is not our problem..."

"Yes it is. You know what will happen unless we stop Scorpius. That's why we had to use the tracker."

"I don't like it."

She risked raising herself up on tip toe to give him a quick hasty kiss, as if afraid someone would see them and report even this most fleeting of intimacies. When he opened his eyes at the fading of her lips she was gone. He suffered the loss like a mortal wound then thought again of their problem. The human's presence on the ship making everything that much more difficult. Not just for the human but for all of them.

* * * * *

Aeryn looked at the baby. He had stopped crying but his face was filled with such pain and sadness that it tore at her heart. Those eyes. So like Crichton's that emotion robbed her of words. Chiana rocked Rion gently. D'Argo was pacing the floor. Zhaan had gone to offer prayers to Kah'leen . Just then Rygel floated in on his throne sled. He seemed particularly concerned for some reason she could not quite fathom. Not sure whether he was genuinely worried about Crichton or concerned for the baby. The Dominar was watching the baby with a sad expression on his face. Aeryn was surprised to discover that the Hynerian actually cared about anyone other than himself. Perhaps she had mis judged him or perhaps the human was rubbing off on him. Crichton certainly did have a surfeit of emotional baggage.

She noticed Rion was now looking at her, his sad blue eyes calm and unwavering, Aeryn had the distinct impression that the baby wanted her to hold him. She straightened slightly in surprise, the small movement abrupt enough for Chiana to look up.

"May I hold him?"

If Chiana was surprised by the request she sensibly held her tongue and carefully passed him on to Aeryn. A kind of peace stole slowly over her as the baby rested in her arms. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise. She thought about Crichton and in that instant she had a vivid flash of a prison cell and him lying on a cold stone floor. The image was as fleeting as it was startling. She gave a small gasp and almost dropped the baby. Chiana held her arms out to take Rion back but Aeryn had recovered and shook her head, her eyes on those amazing pools of blue. So calm, knowing and wise.

"Are you alright?" Asked Chiana anxiously.

D'Argo hovered, ready to retrieve their son if it looked as if Aeryn was going to faint. Her face had lost colour but now the colour was slowly returning. "What happened?" Asked D'Argo.

"I saw John."

Everyone evinced shock, momentarily speechless. Then Zhaan's voice drifted to them from the doorway as she joined them. "How did you see John?"

Aeryn looked at her briefly then looked back at Rion. "I don't understand this but somehow the baby seems to be linked to John. I was holding him and wondering where John was then an image flashed in my head."

"What image?" Said D'Argo anxiously.

"He was in a prison cell. Lying on the floor."

Rygel looked solemn. "Was he awake?"

She shook her head, trying to hide how much the image had upset her. "No, and he looked as if...as if he had been tortured."

D'Argo paled. "The chair."

Rygel eased his throne sled close to Aeryn, his expression serious but voice calm. As if he knew something they did not. "I would like to hold the baby, Chiana."

The Nebari opened her mouth to object but something in the Hynerian's expression stopped her and she nodded her head. Reluctantly Aeryn handed Rion over to Rygel and watched as the little Dominar carefully settled the baby in his lap, his large eyes almost luminous as he looked down at the child. "Now, little one, we shall see what we shall see."

Zhaan opened her mouth to say something but Rygel gave her a look and she closed it again. Aeryn frowned and watched Rygel return his attention to the baby. D'Argo was getting impatient but everyone else seemed to think this was important so he kept his own counsel for a little longer. After a few microts Rygel sighed, his voice gentle when he spoke. Such a contrast to his normal dour and grumpy demeanour that the others paid keen attention to what he had to say.

"This child is special, Chiana."

Chiana tilted her head, about to say of course he was but Rygel had not finished. Rygel looked at each one of them slowly in turn. "I don't know how it has happened but he sees things, is connected to all of us in a way which is totally unique."

"I don't understand," Said Chiana. "How can he be connected to all of us?"

"Don't ask me," Grumbled the Dominar quietly, then his features softened again as he gazed down at the child.

"What do you see, Rygel?" Asked Zhaan gently.

"I see something I failed to see or understand before, though now that I see it I know it is obvious." He paused. "It's the human, he is the link that binds us all together. He has touched all of our lives in ways we hardly realise. The baby has some of his DNA and this is what is connecting us all through the baby to him." He sighed and very gently stroked the baby's left cheek with a stubby finger. Rion was looking at the Dominar with such a wise look on his face. Rygel forced himself to look up. If Aeryn did not know better she would have said he looked close to tears but that was impossible, wasn't it? "The baby is telling us that John does not have much time. If we are going to act we have to act now. Before it is too late."

"But we don't know where John is!" Exclaimed D'Argo in frustration.

"We don't," Agreed Rygel stoutly. "But Rion does."

* * * * *

Bialar Crais heard Talyn out in silence, allowing the leviathan to explain why it was a good idea to go after Crichton. He sighed deeply. He did not want to do this. Talyn was not ready to take on a Peace Keeper Command Carrier but the leviathan would not be swayed. Crais shook his head. "Why is this so important to you?"

<The biomechanoid speaks to me, calls to me, asks for my help. I cannot refuse>

Crais held up a hand, trying to make sense of what he was being told. "One moment, if you please Talyn. Are you saying you want to risk everything to try to rescue Crichton for the sake of a droid?"

<Yes>

"Why?"

<Because the droid knows my name>

That stumped him. "What?"

<He knows my name>

"Who? I mean, how is that possible?"

<As a leviathan develops and gains independence it acquires the ability to produce droids to aid and service itself. This forms a very strong bond, one that is similar to that of family. A sense of belonging>

Crais put a hand up to his forehead. He was beginnging to get a headache. "Talyn, it is a droid*. Not even one of *your* droids."

Something thrummed through the leviathan's senses and touched Crais through the neural interface. He caught the top of a console to steady himself. Images of biomechanoid bonding leaving him in no doubt that this was something that went beyond semantics. This was the leviathan equivalent to drawing a line in the sand. He nodded, realising that Talyn would not be
swayed. "I would have helped Talyn, you know that. I just would have gone in search of Moya to get some help first."

<No time>

He frowned. "Why?"

<The human is dying>

Whatever else Crais was about to say fled from his mind. He gave a sharp nod and ordered Talyn to home in on the droid's co-ordinates. His expression grim, anger dancing in coal black eyes that promised death to anyone who tried to stop them.

* * * * *

Scorpius reviewed the information on the neural chip for the hundredth time but again it could not give him all the information he needed to produce a stable wormhole. He sat deep in thought, his agile alien mind trying to sift through all the information in a methodical fashion. There was not much time left if they were going to thwart a Scarran invasion force. The only reason the Scarrans had held off this long was the belief that Scorpius had access to weapons beyoind the wormhole. That the technology was already in their grasp. It was a lie of course and now the fabric of that lie was growing dangerously thin. If he could not produce some evidence soon the Scarrans would launch their attack and wipe out the Peace Keepers forever. He could not allow that to happen.

He looked up and called the Captain over. "Have Crichton brought to me."

She nodded, said nothing, and left with a couple of his men. Sulkily the half-Scarran looked out of the viewport and considered his options. He was not prepared for the Captain's rapid return or her agitated state. Her face was devoid of colour, eyes staring as if she knew the words she would utter next would completely seal her own fate. "The human. He is gone!"

* * * * *

He was drifting in a sea of pain. Oblivious to the hands that grabbed and carried him. The swaying motion making no impact on his consciousness. In his dreams other hands held him, firm alien fingers prodding and probing him, invading him and forcing attentions on him that he had never asked for. His body trembled as memories washed through him in a continual loop
tormenting him. He ached with it, powerless to stop the constant scroll of images as he relieved everything that had been done to him. Everything Scorpius had made him relive again and again in that damned chair. He was trembling hard now, feeling D'Argo's hands on him, his tongue flicking slowly inside his mouth as he kissed him, coating his tongue and mouth with strange
secretions that frelled with his mind while rough hands became gentle as they pawed him. Stripping him of his clothes to invade his flesh. He could again feel the firm hand stroking him, pumping his shaft into a rod of iron then coating him with more secretions to increase his arousal. He jerked hard against the phantom hand as he relived it all again, felt the Luxan take him in his mouth while inserting his fingers up his back passage and massaging the entry until he had his whole huge hand inside him. His hips were bucking now, not with pleasure but remembered pain. The movements weak and more of a tremble than the hard erratic rocking of his nightmare.

A pained moan of agony dripped from numb lips, crushed out of his lungs as his heart laboured to keep going. A trickle of blood oozed out of a slack mouth. The hands that bore him became frantic, steps increasing, yet he was oblivious to everything but his own private hell. He could feel the coarse wet glide of the Luxan's tongue washing down from his face and neck, sliding
back and forth to tease his nipples before travelling on down to his crotch. He could not stop trembling, dribbling now as he tried to speak, to beg him to stop, but no words would form and his jaw was too heavy to move. The hand rode him roughly inside, jerking him about as the tips of the fingers jabbed into his prostrate then the hand slid out momentarily, returning to caress
him inside and lather him with another gel, one to make him even more sensitive to the Luxan's touch. He could not cry out. Could not wriggle free. Then the Luxan's penis was slid into the entry, slowly worming its' way inside him, slick and sensuous, rubbing slowly along the prepared
walls like a train gliding on an oiled track. He was way beyond pain now but not sensation. As the penis filled him it started to thicken, the Luxan moving his hips in and out and rolling his crotch so that he could touch all of his insides and get the maximum sensation. He jerked, he trembled. In his nightmare he cried out. In his broken state tears washed his face and stained them.

For unknown arms he was gently carried. The pod prepared for him was small but such care was taken that he was not jostled or thrown around but laid carefully upon a pile of blankets to cushion and comfort him. It was very cramped inside the pod when they joined him and closed the hatch, sealing them inside. The little droid had followed discreetly but was not quick enough to get through the doorway before the hatch was sealed. Quickly the droid clamped itself on to the outside of the pod and shut its' system down for the journey ahead. To conserve energy it powered down everything and shut off its' signal. Time enough to resume when the pod reached
its' destination.

The man dabbed gently at the ribbon of blood running out of Crichton's mouth, distressed because he could not stop the flow and knew the blood meant he had internal injuries. The female simply watched but was no less anxious. So many hopes rested on this one creature. She prayed the Gods would watch over him and spare his life. Otherwise the universe as they knew it would never be the same again.

* * * * *
END