Following is
my idea what happened around the time of The Ugly Truth. Who really was to
blame? Who was to blame for the death of the Plakovians
The Uglier Truth
by GitonCrais
Talyn had become difficult to control. When he
discovered that he could control Crais through the neural link by exerting
physical pain to the extreme, he had done so to get his own way on several
occasions. Each time the assaults became stronger, leaving Crais weaker or even
unconscious when he tried to exert his own control over Talyn. Something had to
be done.
After the last encounter Crais felt it was
imperative to curb Talyn's bloodlust.
They had met a Sheyang-vessel. Given, the Sheyangs
were not one of the species that believed in peaceful co-existence with other
species and their main income-source was mercenary, slavery and war in general
but it still didn't give Talyn the right to deliberately attack them.
Crais had been hailed by the Sheyang vessel and
asked to state his business. He had been travelling through a sector they
controlled and he had explained to them that he was only traversing through the
area and would be out of their space soon. They had accepted his explanation.
After he had broken the transmission Talyn
complained about the Sheyang's tone of voice, in his opinion it had been
hostile.
Crais had smiled, "Yes, Talyn, you are
right but take no notice of it. That is the way the Sheyang speak, there is no
hidden meaning behind it."
~Then why are they following us?~
"They are not following us, they are
escorting us out of their own space."
~I don't like it~ grumbled Talyn.
Crais felt uneasy with Talyn's last statement,
"Talyn, it is just an escort. Take no notice of them. We'll be out their
space soon."
He became more worried when instead of calming
down he could feel Talyn power his guns up. "No, Talyn," he shouted,
"You will desist!" But the Leviathan continued.
"Talyn, power down your weapons, they might
see it as a hostile act and attack!" Crais moved to the main console to
manually override Talyn's systems. The youngster wasn't very pleased with the
actions of his Captain. He felt he had to protect them both.
He send an electrical charge through the
console, enough to let Crais move away but Crais was not going to stand by and
let Talyn attack and moved over to the console again.
Talyn used the link to exert his control over
Crais. A high-pitched tone reverberated within Crais' skull and drove him
screaming to his knees while he clasped his hands over his ears in a futile
attempt to shut out the noise. The resulting Cybernetic bleed-back that coursed
through his body opened up lesions in his chest and shoulders, the pain was
tremendous. Still Crais tried to crawl over to the console, he had only one
thought in mind: shut down the main weapons console. In his agony it had not
occurred to him to shut down the neural link, although he had tried that in the
past during one of Talyn’s tantrums and only with minimal results.
The next onslaught sent so many spikes of pain
through Crais' body that he lost consciousness.
When he regained his senses, he was lying on the
floor of the Command Centre. Everything around him was quiet. Opening his eyes
made him nauseous, he barely suppressed the urge to throw up.
He tried to talk to Talyn. Talyn came back to
him over the Transponder. "Talyn," he asked hoarsely, "What
happened to the other ship?"
Talyn beeped softly, guiltily.
He shouted, "Talyn, show me what you did to
the other ship!" He tried to get back to his feet and stood at the console
on unsteady legs. "Talyn, show me!" This time it was not a request.
To protect the young Leviathan as well as
himself against excessive force used by Talyn, he had arranged a meeting with
the Plakovians to exchange Talyn's main gun for a dampening net. That way, if
Talyn had wanted to attack another ship while he took Crais out, the damage
wouldn't be so extreme.
He would need the crew of Moya to help him
install the dampening net, he couldn't do this on his own and he knew the
Plakovians would only exchange the weapons but would not help him implement it.
He dared not go to a Tech-planet to have the net placed.
He had Talyn search for his mother and her crew,
while he took some much-needed rest.
Somehow he had managed to screen his thoughts
from Talyn, it had left him constantly tired with the effort. He did not dare
to fall into a deep sleep and his sleep-cycles had been short. The Leviathan
knew they were getting a dampening net but he assumed that he would get it on
top of all the other weapons, which were already part of his arsenal. He was
also very excited to see his mother again. It had been nearly a Cycle since he
had last seen her.
Crais was awaiting the meeting with the Moya
crew with mixed feelings. The last time they parted had not been on good terms.
They would blame him for everything, he knew that already.
He felt uncomfortable for another reason too.
The day before, he and Talyn had an “argument” which Talyn had won. Crais had
contacted the crew on Moya on a secure channel and had left Talyn out of the
link. Talyn had not been very pleased with that and after Crais had broken the
comm.-link to Moya, Talyn had demanded to know what had been said and Crais had
refused to give him the full story.
Talyn retaliated. The onslaught had left Crais
unconscious for nearly three arns. When he came to and looked in the mirror he
could see deep gashes over his shoulders, Talyn had been extremely vicious this
time and Crais wondered if he was doing the right thing by staying on Talyn and
commanding him. When he confronted Talyn, the young Leviathan was remorseful
for what he had done. He hadn’t meant to hurt Crais so much but in his
eagerness to have a word from his mother he had lashed out. He felt very sorry.
This time Crais let it go. These tantrums should
soon be over once the dampening net was installed.
When the Moya crew arrived, Crais had already
disengaged his link to Talyn using Privacy mode. He let Aeryn believe he was
still attached to Talyn before taking the transponder out of its seat, then
handing it over to Aeryn and “rendering himself defenceless”.
It amused him to see that they came on board in
force. The only ones missing were Rygel and Chiana.
The others found him standing in the Command
Centre more rigid than normal and subscribed this to his blatant arrogance.
Crais just tried to look calm and composed while he was aware that the recent
onslaught of Talyn had left him with a painful reminder. Even wearing his
Peacekeeper’s coat put too much pressure on his shoulders.
After the formal greetings, the Luxan in his
normal verbose style attacked him and grasped him by the shoulders. The pain
that went through Crais was tremendous and he tried to mask it from the others.
Besides, defending himself from the Luxan would not have solved anything. He
needed their assistance. He had to swallow his pride and his pain to get their
cooperation. They knew that and the arrogance with which they displayed their
moral high ground, rankled on Crais’ nerves.
He was almost happy to see the approach of the
Plakovians.
What he hadn’t foreseen was the reaction of the
Banik at the sight of them. Stark and Crichton had a scuffle near the main
weapons console. With Stark trying to activate the main guns and Crichton
trying to stop him. In horror Crais saw Crichton shut down the manual override
on the console and could feel Talyn power up around him. He didn’t need the
link to know what Talyn’s intentions were.
“No. Talyn, don’t!” But it was too late. Talyn
used his main canon to open fire on the Plakovians and shot the ship out of
existence. Anger surged through Crais. Crichton in his “infinite wisdom” had
just deprived him of the means to control Talyn’s growing aggressiveness and
his chance to stop the pain.
They had all watched in numbing shock and horror
as the other ship blew up, sending debris and bodies through space.
The Moya crew were now blaming him for the
attack, not Crichton, not Stark, not even Talyn, no they blamed him. They
wanted to take over Talyn, take him away from Crais and he could not allow
that, not in the state Talyn was in.
He took the second transponder out of his
sleeve-pocket and put it with some difficulty into the seat in his neck. He could
feel Talyn again who was angry with Crais for not letting him know why he had
sent for the Plakovians. Talyn had listened in on the conversation between the
Moya crew and Crais and he could understand why Crais was not forthcoming in
his information, he wasn’t pleased about it and at the same time he felt sorry
for having destroyed the other ship.
Crais was angry with Talyn for having attacked
and destroyed the Plakovian ship. He understood
that Talyn had wanted to keep his arsenal intact and was angry to have Crais
try and replace it with more placid weapons but to utterly destroy the ship!
The confusing thoughts assaulted Crais and he
knew that he might be losing his temper soon. He feared for the safety of the
others. Talyn might include them in his outburst too and with his guns fully
charged anything could happen.
In his own anger and worry for their lives he
shouted at the others to leave his ship, “Get of my ship now!” He had shouted.
His angry face had been enough to sent home to
Moya. He had wanted to stay in the area to make sure they were safe on board
Moya but Talyn had other thoughts. He was ashamed to confront his mother and
had left the area in Starburst before Crais could counter the order.
Oh yes, Talyn let him know what he thought of
it. If Crais had thought that the previous attack on him by Talyn had been bad,
this one was worse. This time Talyn did not only lash out in anger at Crais, he
had also been angry and ashamed with himself. He had not even given Crais the
chance to explain himself to him.
As soon as they dropped out of Starburst, Talyn
had shouted in his mind ~Why?~. Each shout reverberated in Crais’ skull,
bounced off and built to a mounting headache. Each angry shout opened another
lesion. Crais finally managed to take his coat off. The bleeding was already
staining his shirt red. He tried to explain but Talyn wouldn’t let him.
He dropped to his knees, his hands clapped over
the sides of his head, a scream had issued from his mouth. By the time the
headache reached its pinnacle he could taste blood in his mouth and when he
touched his nose he found it bleeding. He had already lost most of the
conception of time and space.
Slowly he fell to his side and curled up. His
scream had turned into a long drawn out moan.
Still Talyn was not satisfied and would not
relent.
He rolled and pitched the deck, slamming Crais
repeatedly into the console until he finally lost consciousness, only then did
Talyn stop.
His sensors scanned Crais, he was still
breathing but with difficulty.
Talyn realised what he had done and felt
remorseful. What if Crais would not get up again?
He sent the DRD’s to try and revive Crais, to no
avail. This time he had gone too far.
He looked at his Captain and saw blood streaming
down his nose and saw how the lesions on his shoulders had left trails of blood
on the floor. There wasn’t much he could do but to wait.
Crais came to with a shuddering moan. His head
felt sore and when he opened his eyes he blinked it shut again when even the
overhead lights hurt his head. He brought shaking hands to his head and rolled
over. Stabs of pain tore across his chest. He lay still for a moment, letting
the nausea pass.
~Crais?~ Talyn asked cautiously.
Crais ignored him for the moment, locked in
pain, not wanting to answer him.
~Crais?~ the question was more demanding.
Crais moaned, “Go away, Talyn. Not now.” Let
Talyn feel how upset he was.
Now that Crais was talking again, Talyn tried anew
~Crais, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so harsh. I was upset, scared. I thought
you were going to neutralise me~
“Neutralise you,” Crais laughed sarcastically
but it ended in an agonised coughing fit.
He tried to stand up and reached for the console
to help him rise but dropped back to the floor when stabs of pain surged
through his body. He lay on his stomach and tried to block out the pain that
threatened to black him out.
“Talyn you are growing too violent,” he coughed
and pressed his arm to his chest, the ribs must have been damaged, either
cracked or bruised. He had no way of knowing yet. “And not only to me. You
can’t go around attacking other vessels. When I tell you to stand down, I do
that for a reason. Do you understand?” He coughed again and spit up blood.
~I’m sorry, Crais, if I failed you~
Crais made another attempt to get up. He ignored
the pain when he pulled himself up with the support of the console, nearly
blacking out in the process. He had to get over to Medical and treat himself. With
unsteady feet he left the Command Centre. He had to steady himself against the
bulkhead on his way to Medical.
He had switched to silent communication to Talyn
to conserve his strength and breath.
“Maybe we have failed each other, Talyn. I don’t
know.” His progress was slow.
~How could you have failed me?~
“Maybe I should not have taken you from your
mother.” The microt the thought formed in his mind Crais knew he had made a
mistake.
~You took me from my mother?~ The Leviathan
screamed at him and Crais reeled. ~She did not abandon me?~
Talyn took the gravitational controls off line
for a moment and lifted his nose steeply.
In horror Crais could feel his feet leave the
ground and fell the full length of the corridor. Talyn restored the
gravitational controls. Crais couldn’t even grasp at anything to cushion his
fall. He slammed into the bulkhead at the end of the corridor and was knocked
out immediately.
Talyn looked in anger at his Captain. He had
lied to him. He had stolen him. His mother had not just left him. He… Talyn
calmed down. It was true that Crais had done all that but he had also been kind
to him. Had taught him how to handle his weapons. Had been with him for nearly
a Cycle now. Had been his only family. Talyn felt alone with his Captain knocked
out and that scared him even more. Was Crais still alive? He sent one of the
DRD’s to nudge Crais and was satisfied when Crais responded in his mind and
with a soft moan.
This time it took a while for Crais to regain
consciousness. Four arns Talyn looked at his still form.
When Crais came to each movement was searing
agony. Bile rose to his throat and he retched, unable to stop. Rolling away
from the vomit made him almost black out again. His mouth was dry and dried
blood had caked on his lips and face. It felt as if every bone in his body had
been broken but he could still raise his hand towards his face.
He began to assess himself painstakingly slowly
and came to the conclusion that he might have sprained, bruised and twisted
muscles all over his body but probably no broken bones.
He tried to stand up but swayed and fell down
hard again. He managed to keep a grip on his senses.
There was no pride left in him. He crawled
towards the wall and used it to get into an upright sitting position. At his
feet the DRD’s were cleaning up the vomit. He stood up slowly. Closing his eyes
briefly against the pain.
Hugging the walls for support he made it over to
the Medical facility.
Talyn had kept quiet and Crais wondered whether he
should be relieved or afraid. Once in the Medical facility he stumbled to the
bed and sat down on it. With trembling hands he pulled the Regenerator towards
him and set it up for scanning and repairing. He knew it might not be adequate
but it was better than nothing and if Talyn didn’t mess with the equipment it
would be all right. Warily he lay down, pulled the machine over his body and
switched it on.
He felt the tingling sensation of the machine’s
repair mode; at least it would take care of the damage to his ribs. The cuts
and bruises he had to treat later.
He closed his eyes and slept while the machine
hummed away.
~Crais~
Crais woke up with a start and fear gripped him.
~Crais?~ There was remorse in Talyn’s voice.
Crais had broken out in a sweat. He, Bialar
Crais, who had never been afraid, was now afraid of the Leviathan he helped
create.
“No, please Talyn,” he whispered. He wouldn’t
survive another onslaught so soon after the last. Even now while his muscles
were knitting back together, he knew he was too weak to even sit up let alone
stand.
~I’m sorry, Crais~
Crais could feel that the Leviathan meant it, “I
know Talyn.”
~I don’t want to loose you. I was confused. I
was angry. You didn’t tell me everything~
“And if I had done, what would you have done
then?”
Talyn remained silent.
“You might have killed me Monens ago.”
~I wouldn’t do that!~ Talyn answered
incredulously.
“Yes, you would have Talyn and you know that
too.”
He could feel Talyn reluctantly agree
“You would have killed me and be alone with no
one to guide you.” He shifted his position on the bed and nearly cried out in
pain. “You are stronger now but you are still a child. You still have so much
to learn.” He closed his eyes, “The truth is, I am not sure if I am that
person.”
~You want to leave me?~
“I don’t want to leave you but I don’t see
another option.”
~I don’t want you to leave~
“I might have to.”
~I promise not to hurt you~
“Until you do it again, Talyn.”
Talyn stayed silent for a while. Crais tried moving
but fell back. It was too soon.
He felt a strange sensation at the base of his
neck, Talyn was feeding his synapses something, he didn’t know what yet and he
was afraid, “Talyn, what are you…”
~Hush, Crais. It’s all right~
Crais tried to fight back, lift his hands to the
Transponder. His arms were too heavy; his whole body was too heavy to move. He
was afraid that Talyn would paralyse him to gain his objective. His mind stayed
remarkably lucid, which made it worse.
“Talyn, what are you doing to me? Let me go!” He
couldn’t keep the panic from his voice or out of his mind.
~You have to relax, Crais, everything will be
all right. Trust me~
Insane laughter welled up in Crais’ throat but
stayed stuck in his mind. Trust a mad Leviathan? Talyn had only tried to kill
or cripple him just arns ago.
The sensation spread from his neck downwards,
pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. A tingling warmth which was quite
pleasant coupled to a constriction of the throat which made it hard to breathe.
~You have to relax, Crais~
Crais wanted to bring his hands up to his
throat, open up his collar, anything to be able to breathe. The harder he
struggled, the worse the constriction became.
~You are fighting against it~ admonished Talyn.
“What do you expect me to do,” thought Crais,
gasping for air, “Let you strangle me to death?”
~I’m trying to help you heal~ Talyn was miffed.
“You have a strange way of doing that,” thought
Crais, his muscles tense with the effort to move.
~You will only hurt yourself more if you don’t
relax~
Maybe the Leviathan was right. He tried to relax
but by now his struggles to get air in his lungs had become a reflex. His sight
darkened. The air seemed to be leaving him completely. He smiled at Talyn in
his mind. “I think you are succeeding in killing me,” he thought before he
passed out.
Talyn set to work. He had only wanted to help
heal Crais. He had not taken into account how frightened Crais had become of
him after the attacks. But with Crais out cold he could finally begin.
Slowly he fed some of his own regenerative
energy to Crais. Slowly the gashes and welts almost disappeared. It would still
leave scars; he couldn’t do much about that. But at least it had stopped the
bleeding. The muscles around the ribcage smoothed out and the broken bone in
Crais’ hand knitted together again. The pain started to fade from Crais’ face
and he breathed easier and on his own again. Talyn withdrew and watched his
Captain sleep.
Crais was surprised that he was still alive when
he woke up and not only alive but healed too. He lifted his arms from the bed
and rotated his hands in front of his eyes. He took a deep breath and there was
no pain. Talyn had not lied. “Talyn, you healed me?”
~I said I would~
“Thank you.”
~You’re welcome~
Crais got up from the bed. He was still a bit
unsteady but stronger by the microt. He kept his thoughts shielded when he
walked to his quarters. Talyn beeped to get his attention. He ignored it. The
beeping became more insistent. He ignored it. When he reached his quarters the
beeping stopped. He went in. After he refreshed himself, he changed into some
clean clothes and wondered how he could take the bloodstains out.
He opened the link to Talyn.
~Why did you not want to speak with me?~ Talyn
asked petulantly.
“Because I wanted to be on my own for while.”
~Are you angry with me Crais?~
“Upset, for certain. I don’t know about angry.
Disappointed, maybe. Disappointed with myself too,”
~Why?~
“You are a Leviathan, a peaceful species. I know
you are a gunship too. I have tried to teach you to be peaceful. I have
failed.”
~You have also taught me to defend myself. I
have done so in the past~
“I know I taught you that but not to attack
unprovoked!”
~They were a danger to us~
“No, the Sheyang were not! You attacked them for
no reason.”
~They might have~
Crais threw his hands up in exasperation, “Talyn
you have to learn when it is all right to attack and when it isn’t. In that
instance it wasn’t!”
He thought back to Talyn’s recent attack, “And
what about the Plakovians? You utterly destroyed their ship without a single
thought to the lives on board that ship!”
~They were going to take my defence away~
“No, Talyn, I asked them to deliver a dampening
net to me. They were no more than errant runners and, yes, in payment they
would have been given the main guns.” Crais voice softened, “You have become
too aggressive and you know that. I couldn’t allow you to go against the
genetics and the culture of your own species. You are part of a peaceful
species, a species of explorers. You should not have been a gunship. Part of
that is my fault. Your main thought should have been that of Peace!”
~Will you teach me?~
“I have been trying to but it didn’t seem to
make a difference, did it Talyn? Maybe you need another Captain.”
~I need you!~ Crais could feel how upset the
youngster was.
“Do you, Talyn? In the beginning you listened
but now every time you disagree with me now, you hurt me. You could have killed
me.”
~I am sorry Crais, I try not to~
“You have to learn to keep your calm, Talyn, or
else I will leave. I can’t let you go around shooting at everyone and
everything.”
~I will but you have to help me~
Crais sighed. He felt the Leviathan felt true
remorse and he believed that Talyn was speaking the truth but for how long?
Crais was afraid that his own madness when he
came on board Talyn had been part of Talyn’s paranoia and he felt he was partly
responsible for Talyn’s current instability.
The scientist in him thought otherwise. Gene
splicing had resulted in creating a Leviathan with gunship growth abilities but
was essentially still a peaceful creature. In the early stages of his growth
Talyn had not shown any instability.
When Talyn started to grow his guns he was still
listening to Crais, even when Crais was not always as balanced in his own mind.
By having to teach the youngster and take care of his own anger he had found
equilibrium.
Only once in the early period had Talyn shown
deliberate anger at Crais.
It had only been in the last Monens that Talyn
had become aggressive and progressively so. Crais was wondering what had been
different since the early period and when the first symptoms had been revealed.
He couldn’t think of anything yet.
One part of Crais wanted to leave Talyn as soon
as possible.
The scientist in him was curious about what
would happen next, biologically, chemically or mentally.
The last and biggest part of him believed he
owned it to Talyn to stay on as Captain. It had been his obsession with the
project that had created Talyn. It was he who had taken the youngster from his
mother and who had lied to the youngster how he had acquired him. It had been
Talyn who had saved him from certain death had he remained on the Command
Carrier and not taken Talyn. It had been Talyn’s presence and Crais’ longing to
be needed that had returned his sanity. He couldn’t just leave the Leviathan
now that he needed him, however aggressive he had become.
“I will stay, for now, Talyn,” Crais said
quietly. He could feel the happiness of Talyn and hoped that the price he had
to pay for his loyalty would not be his life.
THE END