So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
And nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters

Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
But I know

So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters

Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
But I know

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters

Never cared for what they say
Never cared for games they play
Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
And I know

So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No nothing else matters

 
**********************************
 
"Chiana!" D'argo shouted, firing his qualta as he ran down the alley way. Stark rushed passed him as several guards in red uniforms followed suit, firing after them.

Chiana pushed away the cans she had fallen over, grunting as she wobbled to her feet and ran. She gasped as several guards cut into the alley, forcing her to turn down another corner to catch up with the others farther down.

"We must starburst now!" Pilot shouted into her comm. "We're under fire, Moya is afraid!"

"Pilot wait!" D'argo screamed into the comms. "Damn you Crichton! I'll never forgive you for this!"

"D'argo!" Chiana gasped as she dodged a guard coming around a corner towards her, whirling out of his grasp. A second rushed, slamming her against the wall. She cried out as they tackled her to the ground. She swung, cutting one of them across the jaw. A third kicked her in the ribs and she jolted, screaming as they took her arms and forced her against the wall again as they wrapped her arms behind her. She kicked the wall, sending her captures back.

"Nooo!" She screamed, fighting against them as they cuffed her hands, forcing her forward. "Leave me alone! I didn't do anything!"

"Run Chiana!" Crichton shouted into her comm. "You've got to hide, can you hear me? Chiana!"

"Crichton!" She cried high pitched as she bent at her knees, sending her captors stumbling as she tilted her head in tears. "Don't leave me..."

A man snatched the comm from her breast, narrowing the black eyes of his gray face as she half rose, staring back at him pleadingly.

"Welcome to Drangelden," he stated as he dropped it to the ground, smashing it with his heel. "Chiana."

************************************************

"Get your frelling hands off of me!" Chiana shouted, kicking at the wall as they entered the underground of a station into what literally looked like a small dongeon. The guards struggled with her into a cell, forcing her to stand straight as the guard who spoke to her began to fit a control collar around her neck.

"No!" Chiana writhed violently, struggling against him until she was struck across her knees with a baton and forced to them. She gasped, becoming silent as she swallowed.

"I am Captain Arden Rel," the man stated as he eyed her. "You do not look familiar to me, Chiana. Tell me, what are you doing in sector Rashen?"

"Nothing!" Chiana barked, crying out as one of the guards hit her across the back with his baton. She trembled violently, gasping for her breath as she flexed her numbing fingers in the cuffs.

"You seem unusually hostile," Arden stated smoothly as he brought a small control to his hand. "You have no ident chip which means you aren't even legal to walk down the street much less the behavior, resisting questioning, refusing to comply to security and attempting to escape authority. We may have been able to over look one discrepancy since you are Nebari ... tell me, are you from Nebari Prime or are you a renegade of Gilgamesh? Who are the unauthorized aliens you were with?"

"No one," Chiana gasped at the floor as she struggled with the restraints.

Arden pressed on the control, watching her as the control collar rang off and she began to choke, struggling on the floor until he stopped. Tears spat out of her eyes as she gasped, terrified of the familiarity. She drew to her knees again, her shoulders hitched high to her neck as she shifted them.

"You are familiar with these," he said quietly. "Your people conformed my world very long ago. I assume however, that you are more than familiar with that fact. I don't think you want me to hand you over to Nebari control as one of their escapees. All I need to know is if you are a renegade of Gilgamesh from another sector. Are you?"

"Yes," Chiana barely nodded as she stared at him with her head slightly lowered. "F-from sector..."

"Anith Five..." Arden raised a dark eyebrow as he seemed to smile.

"Right," Chiana muttered as she dared a glance towards the guards.

"Now," Arden leaned forward slightly. "Tell me who your friends were, what are you doing here?"

"We were just - looking for food," she barely smiled with a nervous laugh as she wrung her wrists in their cuffs. "We had some trade and - we hadn't seen a planet in a while..."

Arden tapped his lips, considering her for long moments.

"I'm afraid you are of more use than your confessions will be Chiana. I think I can claim jurisdiction over you without your confession."

"What -" her eyes widened on him as he motioned the guards to leave her. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Make an example out of you," he smiled as he narrowed his eyes on her. "You just may be enough to disrupt the renegades of our planet into a mob. It's easier to arrest them when they come to protest. Especially for a Nebari."

 
**************************************
 
D'argo snarled viscously, almost seeming to rattle like a snake as he wrenched his face and grabbed Crichton by wads of his shirt, hoisting him high above him.

"I said WAIT for Chiana!" He nearly screamed as he slammed Crichton's back into the docking bay wall. "I would have rather DIED than come to this ship without her! I told you to let me off the frelling transport!"

"It was nothing but a waist of frelling time!" Jothee joined, glaring up at Crichton coldly as he stepped to his fathers side. "We spent 18 arns down there so you could have a frelling brain. For what? I'd rather see you burned alive than have another microt of you in my sight! We go back for Chiana, now!"

"Look, guys..." Crichton blinked slowly, tears in his reddened eyes as his head lolled and he tried to grasp at D'argo. "It wasn't my fault. We're going back as soon as Moya can starburst again. I didn't want to leave her any more than you did. It wasn't my fault."

"That's right, that's right!" Stark spoke up defensively as he crouched against the wall not far from Crichton and planted his hands against it. "So put him down before I - "

"Before you what!" D'argo raged as he flared his eyes into Stark, snarling as the Banik eased back along the wall, gaping at him with a wild eye.

"I'll find Chiana myself and tell her what you did," Stark grimaced sulkingly. "I'll tell her you threw Crichton out of an air lock the microt we boarded because you cared more about Moya starbursting without her than you did the brain surgery we risked ourselves to give him. All fixed up is he? Maybe we should put him in the chair and spin him around for your pleasure. Spinny spinny spinny D'argo! One more time! Just one more!"

"Ngggaaa!" D'argo roared as he let Crichton down harshly and punched his fist into the wall. "I told you to let me out of the transport! They wanted Chiana, they could have cared less about you!"

Crichton blinked slowly again, seeing D'argo hazily as Stark dragged him away from the Luxan.

"I'm sorry D'argo," he barely muttered as he felt Zhaan take his hands. "We'll go back in just a few arns, really ... me and Aeryn will find her, no problem."

Zhaan lifted her eyes to Stark worriedly as Crichton laxed into unconsciousness.

*********************************************************

Aeryn lay in the casket, cold and lifeless as he stepped forward. Her pale skin remained unmoving, thin against her bones as if she were made out of paper mache. She had been starved to nothing, literally skin stretched against bone. His heart began to pound, he hadn't remembered her this way ... Her eyes suddenly came open, wild with life.

Crichton woke up screaming in horror, sitting up in the sweat soaked bed as the terror raced through his body, thumping hard through his chest as his heart galloped painfully. He turned his feet to the side of the bed and planted them on the floor. His hands raced through his damp hair as his slowness to awaken brought him back into the realization Aeryn was dead. It was like the realization were fresh again though it had been very many solar days, he no longer knew how many.

"Please stop doing this to me," he weeped into his hands as he rested his elbows on his knees. It was always the same nightmares, Aeryn coming to him, insisting she wasn't dead, that it was all a mistake. Then he would wake up believing she was alive, sometimes it took him almost an arn to remember. He kept looking for her through the ship, trying to comm her when his thoughts were preoccupied on something else. Everytime the others commed him ... which was very rare now ... he was expecting her voice to come through.

He stood without the strength to live, wondering where he would go and sat back down again to try to think of somewhere or something on Moya he could do. He cried, trying to pour out the dark emptiness that seemed to be shrouding over him like a dark, silent cloak. Not even his own dreams would comfort him now. He wished the others had let him die. There had been no one else but Aeryn to really talk to ... his recorder was long gone ... his memories of home ... Well, he could remember his dogs.

He laughed as his tears feel warmly down his hot cheeks and wrapped his arms around himself as he rocked.

 
***************************************
 
"Are you really Nebari?"

Chiana grimaced deeply as she stepped closer to the wall the person in the next cell was talking to her from. There was a large, long crack along it, just enough for her to see a slant of their face. She swallowed hard as she crouched with her hands to her hips and then tilted her head at the wondering gray eye that stared.

"What are you doing in here?" She asked warily as she leaned into one foot. "I've seen prison plants before you know. If you want to call this sewer a prison."

"We're just a few denches from the sewer systems," the eye winced as they spoke. "I'm not the one who lied to you. Security did. There are no Nebari officials on this planet, who ever you are you're no different from any other Nebari that has ended up here. Just some traveler they're going to use to try to keep their lies over us. You should never have come."

Chiana gaped at him as she drew as close to the molded crevasse as she dared, her ear drawing to her shoulder. "What lies?"

"Arden was right," they spoke quietly. "Our people were conformed to Nebari Prime centuries ago but there are no Nebari left here. They say they are in the great tower exacting what our governmentals deem the law for the rest of us but ... no Nebari has ever come out of the tower. There are no Nebari officials for Arden to surrender you to our government only wants us to believe there is."

Their eye gazed upon her desperately as they tried to wedge their dirty fingers through the crack.

"You've got to understand and swiftly if you can escape, the keepers of Gilgamesh remember our times before Nebari Prime. If you ever gain the chance to run, find them first I bid you. There is no one else."

Chiana lifted her eyes into the fine brush of her bangs as she heard the outer door into the dongeons opening. She moved to face the cell door as Arden approached with his two guards. The two were glaring at her from either side of him, sporting black eyes and busted noses. Chiana swallowed, refusing to look at Arden as she turned her head to one side, a bruise at her lip revealed in the dim light that came through.

"How did you get that bruise?" Arden asked.

"Ask your frelling guards," she cut her eyes at him as she rested on her knees. "Or come in here and I'll show you."

"You are still in a much too arrogant disposition for my tastes Chiana."

"Go frell your tastes," she swayed her head at him as her lips parted, gazing into his eyes almost distantly.

Arden smiled mildly as one of the guards opened her cell door.

"I'm sure you'll come willingly enough," he stated as the guards entered and snatched her arms, forcing her to her feet. "I have something to show you."

He took her chin as they brought her to him, looking carefully into her eyes until she turned her head away. "It's been two days. If you show a little more cooperation I may find something for you to eat. You must be hungry by now."

**********************************************************

Chiana followed the guards into a large open room of fine marble. They lead her out to a balcony with Arden where she over looked a court yard almost like an arena filled with people. In the center of the yard was a platform with two short, black pillars on it. A man stood naked in the center of them, his hands on the tops of the pillars.

Chiana felt her heart leap into her throat as she swallowed. She had to get better control of her anger. She wasn't sure what had gotten such an easy rise out of her. Only a few cycles ago she would have already been trying to be as compliant as possible to Arden.

She drew closer to the balconies wall, gazing down at the man.

"Watch," Arden smiled as he rested his hands on the balcony wall and leaned against it.

The crowd began to roar as the two black monoliths began to glow a dark, rich ruby red. The mans head flew back as he fell to his knees and screamed. Something at his head flared to life as if he had a small star right in his face. He writhed, convulsing in place until two men in black hooded robes stepped up to him with halbreds of gold blades and touched him with them. He screamed through the roar of the crowd as he was consumed in a shard of light and vanished.

Chiana gaped, forcing herself to breath as her chest tightened with fear. She stepped back, tilting her head as one of the guards planted his hands on her shoulders.

"You decomporalized him?"

"There," Arden pointed out as the crowd turned, raising a voice of awe in unison as a tall tower shaped as a monolith beyond came to life with a red orb at its pyramid top. The orb glowed for long moments and then dissipated. "The Great Tower. It is the only way inside."

He looked to her as he lowered his hand, his eyes sparkling with a fascination that sent a cold chill down Chiana's spine.

"It's glorious Chiana. Perfected by your own kind - for us."

"You - " she shook her head as she let out a harsh grunt of laughter and backed up restlessly in the guards hands. "You're farbot."

"You'll do very well," Arden half nodded as he stepped back into the open hall. "We just have to make you look like a Keeper. Be proud Chiana, it is for the greater good."

Chiana cried out, fighting with the guards until one of them pressed his control and sent her writhing to the ground as her control collar blared its alarm.

"Your cooperation won't be necessary, to a degree." Arden commented as he took her by her cuffs and half dragged her up to a strange machine that looked almost insectal.

"Please," Chiana sighed softly as they pushed her into a capsule like opening in the machine, turning her head into Arden's neck. She sighed at his ear, touching his chest as a guard released her from her cuffs and slotted her other hand into a small pipe opening. "Let me talk to you first. I can be as cooperative as you want if we could just - be alone for a while..."

She grunted a small protest as the guard pushed her other hand in, turning her eyes up to Arden pleadingly as something started to come down high above her and metal rods shot out to hold her inside the capsule. Arden closed his eyes, turning his head to his shoulder.

"Please," Chiana nearly whispered desperately. "I - I don't want to die. Let me stay with you, I don't want to - to go to them..."

Arden turned his eyes to her intently as he stepped closer and touched her cheek.

"Don't be afraid," he smiled. "They'll try to save you before you'd ever vanish. I promise."

"Then get me out of this thing," she choked as tears ran down her cheeks. She let out a harsh cry, trying to jerk her hands free as an egg shaped dome began to lower down her head. The dome swallowed her inside of it, a piercing sound ringing from it for long moments before it raised again.

Chiana was lifeless as the guards pulled her out of the devise. Arden raised her head from their hold, gazing into her eyes as she barely opened them. Between her eyes just at the end of the bridge of her nose was a diamond shaped shard of clear crystal that looked as if it were deeply imprinted into her. Her blue blood began to seep around it.

"That will work nicely," he stated as he let her head fall again. "Return her to her cell."

 
*****************************************
 
"Rygel I demand you come out of there now!" D'argo snarled into the Drd access.

"Nothing doing!" Rygel shouted back. "You want to return, you'll do it without me!"

"Coward!" D'argo bellowed as he stood. "I hold you responsible, do you hear me! You brought us here and it should be you who comes with me. You knew this world was conformed to Nebari Prime, didn't you! Don't ever turn your back on me Rygel, EVER!"

"A coward," Rygel spoke with indignant pride in the shadows as he raised his brows, flexing his small fingers with a solemn expression. "But a very wise one Kha D'argo."

D'argo growled deep within his throat as he turned to the transport pod his son was already powering up.

Rygel sucked in his breath, coming out as Stark entered the docking bay practically holding Crichton up as Zhaan came swiftly behind them.

"You can't take Crichton with you Stark."

"I must," he stated gently as he coaxed Crichton into a prowler.

"But," Zhaan shook her head, her gentle face fixed with worry. "He can barely stand. How can he help you look for Chiana in this condition?"

"I've got to do something," Stark muttered as he came to her, his face wet with his tears as he took her hands. "He can't just lay up here after all our efforts or he'll die."

"Humph!" Rygel gruffed as he plopped onto his throne and glided to them. "That's just what Chiana needs, two mind frelled idiots blundering around a mind frelled planet to find her."

"Have you any other suggestions?" Stark asked mildly as he cut his eye to him.

"Yes," he charged as he raised his head. "Take me with you."

**********************************************************

Stark landed the prowler on the outskirts of the citadel into a mangled works that looked something like a long abandoned refinery covered in black ash and the dust of the red sanded outland.

It was desolate here, the wind kicking up the rust red sand into Crichton's face as he followed Stark and Rygel inside. The light was dimmer in the warehouse they stepped into, everything covered in the dark red dust and the black smote of some long ago burn out. Crichton sat down heavily on a small metal crate, trying to cough out the sand he had swallowed. Stark sat on the floor, cradeling his knees into his arms as he gently rocked himself and chewed on his thumb.

"This isn't right," he muttered, glaring out as tears fell freely down his eye. "Not right. There should be people here. There's nothing. Nothing."

"What were you expecting?" Rygel asked as he gazed over the place and gruffed. "No one has been here for cycles."

"You figure it out!" Stark suddenly lashed out at him as he clamped his fists at the sides of his head and then threw his hands out in his frustration. "Someone should have been here, the poor, the diseased, the mind frells that didn't work! Anyone that these people haven't gotten under the control of Nebari Prime."

"We won't find anything just sitting here," Crichton muttered listlessly as he stood, feeling as if his heart was dead. "Let's figure a way inside. If she had her comm she would have answered it by now."

He stopped short as several shards of light surrounded them. Stark stood immediately as Rygel screamed, the long shards expanding until they were replaced by Drangelden's in black hooded robes.

"Woe!" Crichton barked, narrowing his sharp blue eyes on them as he pulled out his pulse pistol. It was hard to focus, they looked blurry. His mind was spinning as he tried to collect what he was looking at exactly. "Damn Scotty you should really warn me about these things."

"Please do not become alarmed," a woman spoke as she removed her hood. She gazed up at Crichton, a small diamond like shard sparking between her eyes of a deep midnight blue. "We are Keepers."

"Fine," he shook his head tiredly as he closed his eyes, his arm that held the pulse pistol dropping. "What ever you want, just tell me if you can help us find our shipmate or not now so I'll know if this little encounter is a waist of time."

"Ch-Ch-Chrichton," Stark stared at him intently as reached out as if to touch him and mushed his lips together. "Don't speak. Just - just stay ... quietly."

"It's alright," the woman spoke gently as she came to Crichton and gently placed her fingers on his chest, closing her eyes. "We understand his loss. Such a very deep pain ..."

"No-no-no," Crichton shook his head as he took her wrist and pulled her hand away from him. He sucked in his breath as he felt something pull inside him as if trying to take back her touch. A sensation washed through him like a deep ocean wave crashing to some unknown shore, laxing throughout his body and mind in its ebb flow as he pushed her hand away and staggered back. "I didn't ask you for the psychic reading Madam Rainbow."

"That's beautiful," she smiled slightly as her ashen eyebrow raised from her dark eyes. "I may comfort you if you wish."

"Endara," one of the men stated gently as he approached and touched her shoulder. "They are looking for someone else, not us."

"What are you?" Stark asked as he gaped from Endara's disappointed look to the man. "Healers? What is your keeping exactly?"

"That would be much to explain," he said as he moved back his hood and gazed on Stark mildly. The crystal between his eyes was an emerald green that seemed to almost glow and subtly sparkled like a chasm. "We are the ones who have been inside the Tower. We are the unity known to our people as Gelkhaumesh. I am Thorn."

"Gilgamesh?" Crichton snickered deep in his throat, his face flushing red as he sat back down. "That's great!"

"We're looking for a young Nebari female," Rygel stated as he raised his head to them. "Her name is Chiana."

"Nebari," Thorn wondered as his eyes softened on Rygel. "We have not seen any Nebari travelers in almost 200 cycles. If she is still here, she is in great danger."

"We know," Rygel sighed solemnly as his brows dropped. "You are under Nebari control."

"Yes," he nodded slowly.

"Then you must help us," Stark pleaded. "Before she is taken by Nebari Prime."

"We know what should happen to her," Endara spoke up as she took Crichton's arm and urged him to stand again. "We will take you to our center to help you find her."

"There are no Nebari here," Thorn explained firmly as he looked to Stark. "Nebari Prime cut their contact with our world over a hundred generations ago."

"But you're still using control collars," Rygel nearly gasped. "We saw them. The men who were going to arrest us said it was for the greater good!"

"Come," Thorn nodded to him. "We will provide for you and explain. We do not want a Nebari in the hands of our governmentals any more than you do."

 
**********************************
 
Metallica:
One

I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me
Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up I cannot see
That there's not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God wake me

Back in the womb it's much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live
Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God help me

Now the world is gone I'm just one
Oh God help me
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live I cannot die
Trapped in myself body my holding cell

Land mine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms taken my legs
Taken my soul left me with life in hell

 
*******************************************
 
Chiana stared at the small crack in the wall, wondering distantly if the person in the other cell would speak to her again but it seemed as if they were gone now. She closed her eyes slowly, reeling in the dizzy sensations that came over her as she did. She felt like someone had slammed her upside her head with a sledge hammer. Her mind felt pierced as if with a white hot poker.

She tried to make herself move but felt too tired, too dreamy as she managed to roll to her back and slowly blink at the ceiling. She managed a small groan through the thickness of her body that she felt and closed her eyes, welcoming the deep sleep that swept her down.

Her eyes barely opened to Arden at her cell door. There was no telling how long he had been there, staring at her. She remained unmoving, staring back as he crouched. Next to him came a man in a black robe, the hood of it hiding most of his face.

"You cannot take her to the platform so soon," the hooded man protested gently. "Your rushing is not only against our laws it may kill her and we may never see another Nebari for another 200 cycles. Arden. You must listen to me. Do this according to the exact process. You cannot prevent her from being jaunted, think more of her and less of Gilgamesh."

"I do not need to hear this from an exile, Wraith." Arden grumbled darkly. "She will be exactly whatever I wish."

"Keepers will come for her." Wraith stated gently. "And she will be jaunted. They won't be trying to save her Arden, they'll be ensuring she is taken."

"I don't believe that for one microt," Arden snarled as he stood.

"You should," Wraith commented as he lowered his head. "It is the very last platform. Your predecessor assured that cycles ago. The sector wars are over, you will not gain a riot of the supporters in this Nebari. I must persist you do this appropriately and gain her if she returns from the tower, none of these pursuits before then are of any use and you risk her true value. You cannot make a Keeper out of her without the trueness of the jaunt, nor will you succeed in preventing it just to capture one or two Keepers who will do you no service."

"She goes to the platform," Arden insisted as he tightened his grip on the cell doors bars. "Tomorrow."

**********************************************************

The gold crest came into a red sky as night passed its deep blues over to the rising sun. The crowd gathered in the arena like square, filling it quietly as several guards escorted the gray robed youth to the platform. Her robe slipped away, the crowd rising to a rushing murmur as the guards brought her between the two small monoliths and two others in black robes stood ready with their gold halbreds.

Chiana knelt as they placed her hands on the two small monoliths, silent as the metal cuffs around her wrists seemed to lock to their top surface. The crowd around her was muttering like waves crashing into a beach. She swallowed as her eyes slowly closed and then opened, trying to carry herself out of the thick haze she felt, to wake up enough to fight against her capture. It seemed like it was so far away.

She turned her head slowly to an unusual sound and several brilliant flashes, staring at several men in black robes as they seemed to appear from the flashes of light and snatched her guards by their throats in unison.

"Now!" She heard Arden scream. "Stop it now! Kill the Keepers! Kill them!"

Chiana felt something grip her as several more guards rushed around her and began to fight with the men in their black robes. A Keeper fell to her feet, a pulse fire blast hollowed in his chest. She stared dimly at the smoke drifting from the mass of blood as she was consumed by light. Cold metal pressed against her back and she screamed up at the sky as the touch of the halbreds sent a brilliant shard of pain through her like an electrical bolt. She convulsed, her body fitting against the current. She felt as if she had been twirled around violently as everything vanished.

The crowed rose into its own unified scream as they moved and massed in a rioting chaos. The tower beyond exploded with light at its tip into a brilliant emerald green orb that remained for long moments, streaking lighting over it until it was gone.

 
*******************************************
 
Cricthon wiped his face, staggering and drowned in sweat as the Keepers brought them several levels underground and into a great hall centered by a deep, circular pool of pure, crystal clear water. In the center of the pool was a massive fountain of three creatures like praying mantises back to back of each other. The clear water poured from a sphere their heads held up, sparkling back down into the pool over their bizarr, frighteningly beautiful forms. The room was made of pure marble, cracked and crumbled in many places to reveal the earth behind them of hard stone. Crichton found himself gaping at the hall, Stark supporting his weight, guiding him as the Keepers moved on through an arched passage and into a long hall of black stone.

"What is this?" Crichton asked quietly, his voice echoing as he passed rows of giant black sculptures of the same mantises with huge red shards between their eyes. Rygel gasped as he saw them, his mouth gaping at the rainbow like spectrums the saffires at their triangular heads chasimed through the room, providing the light they were seeing by.

"It is the remainder of our world before the Nebari invasion," Endara explained as she helped guide Crichton. "These beings you see, we once honored long ago as a more highly sentient race among our own kind. They provided us guidance and protection of our world from invasions and in return we cared well for our world and our civilization. These are monuments to the Nyfara. We found them in our attempts to escape the Nebari. These were once tombs, they are now our sanctuary to the great hope. The only thing the Nebari let us keep."

"I hope this great hope isn't anything like the greater good," Crichton sighed as they passed two great double doors into what looked like an inverted fortress with three stories of walkways above into rooms and halls. The center of this room had a large circular helm that looked almost insectal in its contours and shape. Several Drangelden's were at its broad, angular control desk that wrapped around it. In the center of it was a cylinder shaped hologram of blue that shafted all the way up to a head sized blue diamond coming down from the ceiling in a mass of an insectal like network.

Endara coaxed him to the helm, gazing up as the tower appeared in the center of the hologram.

"That is the Great Tower," she stated. "The government controlling our world is the remnant of Nebari Prime. They have attempted to kill the knowledge we Keepers keep alive for generations, so that the people will believe that the Nebari are still here, in that tower. It has been their way of keeping the sense of Nebari control alive."

"We found her," Thorn gaped in awe as he came to Endara's side and ran his fingers over several grooves and shapes on the control panel. "We're almost too late."

Crichton blinked slowly as he saw Chiana's naked form kneeling on the platform. Several Keepers rushed into the room, their bodies flashing into shards of light. He gaped as he saw those same lights appear around Chiana and a fight ensued.

"No," he groaned from deep within himself as he planted his hands on the helm, watching in dim horror as she vanished in a whirlwind of lights. "This can't be real ... "

"Stop it!" Stark cried out as he grasped Thorn and clutched his robe at his chest and shoulder, pressing him against the helm. "Stop it now!"

"I cannot," Thorn spoke sadly. "There is nothing we can do but hope she is returned from the tower."

"What? Where is she?" Stark shook him slightly. "What have you done!"

"Forgive us Banik," a Keeper muttered solemnly as he came to them and placed his hand on Stark's chest. "Please do not judge us so quickly."

"Read my thoughts, read my thoughts!" Stark cried as he threw Thorn away from him. "Did you think I wouldn't be able to hear their misery? Where do you hide them? Where are you torturing them!"

"In there," Thorn spoke shakily as he pointed to the tower in the hologram with a trembling arm. "I'll take you, we must hope that she comes out again."

"You should hope she does come out, if you hold her prisoner I swear - "

"No," Endara shook her head near tears. "You can't blame us for this. She has to come out, she has to!"

She folded her arms around herself and turned away, sparking into a shard of light before vanishing.

"You guys are very sensitive," Crichton muttered as he slapped his hand on Thorns shoulder. "You want to tell me what the hell you're talking about while we're on our way?"

"There's little time to," Thorn muttered solemnly as he began his own teleportation. "If your friend comes out, we will have to get to her first."

Crichton reeled, swaying in Thorn and Stark's grasp as they appeared at the foot of the tower. It was surrounded by a high wall, four high platforms reaching to the towers walls by bridges. People were already flooding around them, murmuring with excitement as guards awaited on the platforms where two long metal rods rose from their centers like a tuning fork.

"She could appear at any one," Thorn explained as he pointed up. "There is no other way in or out of the Great Tower. The Nebari did it, they closed it away from us all, turned it into a virtual prison when it once centered our entire civilization. Arden waits for her already. We will have to get to her before he does or he will cause..."

Thorn blinked slowly as another Keeper came to his side, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What, tell me," Stark persisted as he grabbed the sides of his head and gave out a sudden high pitched shriek. "Why do you Keepers cry out in such misery? I cannot bear the horror of his planet! It's so full of death, where does your agony stop?"

"We hope," Thorn muttered as he gazed up plain faced to the platforms and swallowed. "Each time a Keeper is made. She must jaunt, they have to let her."

"Who has to let her?" Crichton exasperated as he wiped his face. "Damnit what the frell are you talking about!"

"The Nyfara," Thorn spoke softly as tears welled and fell down his young face. "We're the only ones who know they're in there. So few will believe us anymore."

"You frelling sick bastards!" Stark screamed as he flailed his arms out and glared angrily at the gathered people who moved swiftly out of his path. "Can't you see what these Keepers are for? Can't you see how you are being used? I can hear them pleading in agony! And you think that is glorious you stupid fools! I hope they free themselves to -"

Crichton reached out, striking Stark swiftly across the face, knocking him down cold. He sniffed, looking down at Stark with a shake of his head. "Rule number one on a prophecy crazed planet Starky Larky, don't rain on the parade."

Thorn knelt to Stark, helping him up by his shoulders. He gasped suddenly, his dark eyes carrying to one of the platforms as the stone between his eyes literally began to shine. The two metal rods on the platform began to hum deeply, rising in tone until it was resonating over the sudden rushing roar and cries of excitement from the crowds. More guards rushed to the platform bearing halbreds that looked almost more like a blade fashioned fire arm.

"Keepers!" Arden bellowed from a small tower built into the wall. "Keepers! You will no longer filter our people with your lies! The Nebari is mine! You will stay away from her so that Drangelden will at last know the real truth from her own mouth as a true Keeper! A true Nebari! If you try to take her from me once again, I will not rest until your entire underworld is mine! Anyone, ANYONE! Who dares to spread these lies of our traditions and history with this Nebari in our coming, will be executed! The Nebari will exact her hand upon it!"

"Oh my God," Crichton gaped up at the man. "They've lost their damn minds..."

 
********************************************
 
Chiana collapsed to a floor, staring into the large dome shaped chamber as she tried to gather where she was. She laid there for what seemed like arns. She felt her self recoil inside, unable to move as creatures approached her.

They were very tall, at least nine feet in height and looked something like mantids.

"You may stand," a voice that seemed more like it was a will in her mind spoke as they surrounded her.

She stood, staring despondently at the marbled floor as a Drangelden placed what seemed like a visor over her eyes. She felt as if she were being surrounded by information, suddenly understanding things she had never encountered before. The world of Drangleden was as if it were being incorporated to her in its entirety. She moaned, her heart racing with the sudden fear of being mind cleansed as she reached out with her hands and tried to turn at her shoulders to run.

"This one is not prepared appropriately," one of them spoke as their great triangular shaped head came in front of hers, their dragonfly-like eyes a brilliant emerald green, stark against their royal blue and metallic gold exoskeletal.

"None have been for generations," another muttered softly.

"Nebari," another seemed to whisper into her. "And uncleansed. We are greatly fortunate."

"No, this one is far too unprepared" the first spoke. "If we return her she may die trying to achieve our task."

"We must try," a third spoke up. "Please, please try. I plead to the Nebari. Please try."

Chiana shook her head slowly as she rocked in place, a deep moan of fear escaping her as she tried to speak. She grasped the hand of the Drangelden as he took the visor from her eyes.

"Never give up hope," the first responded as he followed the Drangelden as he cradled Chiana's shoulders in his arms and guided her to into an egg shaped capsule. Chiana let out a small cry of protest, swaying her head in resistance as the information began to subside. "I understand ... Chiana. You needn't help us. Help yourself. There will be others. Consider what you would have to live with, we bid you."

Chiana closed her eyes, tears shooting down her cheeks as the capsule closed. Anger filled her as she tried to scream, her fists clenching in her desire to lash out at them in retaliation. She moaned, wincing her eyes as she lethargically forced her fists into the mantids chest and tried to step out.

"Not," she spoke slowly in a profound drowsiness, her voice coming in a forced harshness. "Not ... my - fault."

She sobbed, gaping as her tears flowed down her face. The mantid slipped away from her as the door began to slide close.

"We do not blame you," they seemed to speak softly into her mind as light surrounded her.

"NO!" Chiana growled deeply in her sudden rage.

She screamed, her arms stretched out, her head rocking back as she came upon the platform between the two long metal rods that resounded and vibrated like a tuning fork.
Her head lolled back down, falling to her knees as two guards rushed to her in a violent and massive roar of a screaming crowd. They wrapped her in a black robe, clasping its fold to her shoulder and helped her stand again as they tied its belt. Chiana moaned in tears, throwing out her arms again as she willed herself to run. She managed only a stumbling step forward away from the guards, collapsing as her body trembled violently.

A figure seemed to appear before her and cradled her into his arms, smiling softly as the gold shard between his eyes gently glowed with light.

"Like this," he muttered softly as he placed her fingertips on the one between her own eyes. "Now think of where you want to be. Swiftly. It's the only chance we can give you or we suffer a far worse wrath from Arden than this once..."

Chiana choked, sputtering in her urge to speak as her eyes fluttered closed. A shard of light began to grow, shafting from her head down her body with his help.

"We'll find you," he whispered. "Run."

Chiana saw only a brilliance of light at first, then she found herself in the alley Arden had smashed her comm. She forced herself to her hands and knees, her eyes narrowing in the tears that came as she placed her delicate fingers on the smashed comm and pressed. It clicked, static buzzing out of it for long moments. She clicked it again, her eyes wild with desperation.

"Cri-chton," Pilots voice came through the static choppily. "Is ... you?"

Chiana pursed her lips, a mournful moan escaping through her flared nostrils as she clicked the comm again, her tears pouring freely as Pilots voice fizzled in and out. Her lips parted as she shook her head in dismay, clicking the comm again.

"Chiana - " Pilots voice came again more gently. "Chiana? Please, are you there?"

She grimaced as she clicked the comm.

"Hang in there Chiana," Pilot spoke breathlessly. "We're looking for you."

"Pilot," she barely whispered as she clicked the comm again, tilting her head to one side as a pair of boots of a guard stepped to her. A bare smile crept up along the bruise at the corner of her mouth as her welled eyes softened into a wince. She blinked the tears slowly, her head slightly shaking with the regret and surrender she felt wash through her as if in release as she let out a ragged breath. "You - you're ... looking for me?"

The guard hefted her up, dropping her into the hands of another callously as he confiscated her comm and flicked it over his shoulder. She stared at the comm laying in the alley dimly as they carried her out. When it was gone she let her eyes close, her heart ripped with pain and a sense of loss as she welcomed the deep subconscious sleep she had been trying to resist.

 
*****************************************
 
"Chiana!" Cricthon screamed at the sound of her own, barely able to see her from the ground as he ran through the crowd towards the platform. He saw the flash of light and then a Keeper stand where she had fallen. The two guards fired into the Keepers back. His scream was cut short as his chest exploded open, his body collapsing straight down lifelessly. "Oh God no, no! Chianaaaa!"

He struggled with the many hands that began to pull him down, his eyes wild with confusion as he grasped his pulse pistol from its holster. He snatched Thorn by his robe and pulled him down with him to his knees, planting the barrel end of the pistol into the young mans forehead.

"We had to teleport her away!" Thorn gasped as he wrapped his arms around himself. "If we had taken her Arden would never rest until he had every part of the underground to find her! She had to get away on her own!"

"Thorn!" Crichton wrenched his reddened face as he pressed the pistol harder into his forehead, twisting his head to one side as his finger squeezed at the trigger. "You'll take me and Stark to her right frelling now!"

"You must understand, please -"

"Thorn, I'm not in the mood!" Crichton snapped through his pursed lips. "It's your civilization that's playing pinball with my friend, now take me where you teleported her!"

"Yes, yes," he nodded amunantly as he glanced to Stark. "As you wish."

Stark closed his eyes, feeling a great sense of pleasure in the jaunt of light that carried the three of them. It was almost an ecstasy, not like unity with Zhaan but it was very close. He could feel the unity that all the Keepers shared, as if their emotions and passions were fine threads streaming inside the jaunting, touching delicately at his body as if he were naked. He could nearly experience such delightment forever. His eye slowly opened, his face solemn but placid as he turned to the alley they had come into and stood with Crichton.

"Crichton!" Pilots voice came through the comms excitedly. "I've just received a very strange comm transmission I believe may have been Chiana."

"I know Pilot," Crichton sighed heavily as he picked up the broken pieces of the comm laying in the alley. "We just found the comm. Have you heard from D'argo?"

"Not for quiet a few arns," his voice came more solemnly. "He and Jothee have not answered any of my comms for much longer."

"Let's get going," Crichton prompted as he grabbed Thorn by his shoulder. "She couldn't be taken far if she just commed!"

He turned to Thorn in confusion as the young man came to his knees and wrapped his arms around himself. He began to cry out gently as the crystal between his eyes sharded with a sharp light.

"I can go no farther," he grimaced. "It hurts..."

"What is it?"

"Go," Thorn shook his head. "For the sake of Nyfara help us find her first. Its punishment from Arden..."

"Frell," Crichton sighed heavily as he forced him up and turned him by a wad of his robe at his shoulder. "Can't just leave you here kid, let's go."

Stark dashed out of the alley without waiting for them. He stopped short as he gazed desperately down the wide streets filled with pedestrians. He gasped as hands snatched him by his arms and began to drag him down the street. He turned his head back from the guards, wrenching his face, his eye brilliant with horror as he screamed.

"CRIIICHTON!"

*********************************************************

Crichton gagged, snatching the wrist that shot to his throat and hoisted him off the ground as he came around a corner of the alley. The keeper looked up slowly to him, his eyes burning just under the crest of his robes hood. They narrowed, piercing into Crichton as the Drangelden's gentle features shifted subtly with disdain. The brilliant red crystal between his eyes was sharded intensely.

"You're a very rude man Crichton," he snarled in a low, painfilled voice as Thorn crumbled to the ground. "You'll come now. No more running around for you."

"Chi - Chiana," Crichton barely managed to speak as he planted his foot into the Keepers chest.

"Is going to be retaken by us as soon as that time is to our advantage," the Keeper stated coolly as the shard between his eyes began to dim to a glowing saffire, the pain in his eyes subsiding. "We can't let you frell this up."

"Dauth, please," Thorn pleaded as he struggled to his feet shakily and grabbed him. "Return to the sanctuary now. I bid you."

"Zhaan," Crichton commed and suddenly went sailing against the alley wall. He shouted with the pain of his landing and rolled over to his back, trying to focus his eyes on Dauth as he planted his foot on Crichton's chest.

"I'm here John," her voice came gently.

"Better get your blue butt down here sweety."

"Sound advice," Dauth grimaced as he stamped his foot into Crichton's chest and swung his leg out to kick him.

"Woe woe! Watch the frelling head buddy I give!" He raised his arms flailingly in the daze he was in. Dauth snatched him up and hoisted him up over his shoulder. Cricthon began to laugh as he raised his head, planting his hands on Dauth's back. "Gee darling shouldn't we talk about this first?"

Dauth growled deep in his throat as he carried him a short way down the alley with Thorn before teleporting.

 
***********************************
 
Metalica:
The outlaw Torn

You know I wait my whole lifetime for you

I ride the dirt I ride the tide for you
I search the outside search inside for you
To take back what you left me
I know I'll always burn to be
No one seeks so I may find
And now I wait my whole lifetime
My whole lifetime

So on I wait my whole lifetime for you
So on I wait my whole lifetime for you

The more I search the more my need for you
The more I blast the more I bleed for you
You make me smash the clock and feel
I'd rather die behind the wheel
Time was never on my side
So on I wait my whole lifetime
My whole lifetime

And I'm torn
And if I close my mind in fear
Please pry it open
And if my face becomes sincere
Beware
And when I start to come undone
Stitch me together
And when you see me stretched remind me of what left this outlaw torn

And if I close my mind in fear
Please pry it open
And if my face becomes sincere
Beware
And when I start to come undone
Stitch me together
And when you see me stretched
Remind me of what left this
Outlaw torn

 
***********************************
 
Chiana cried out, swinging her head violently as she tried to literally rip her hands free of the cuffs the guards clamped on her, holding her arms stretched between two rods like the ones she had returned from the tower to. She screamed out, kicking one of the guards down, her foot planting into his temple when he knelt. She forced her breath, snapping at Wraith when he came to her, trying to bite his wrist as he moved to plant his hand on her chest. He drew it away swiftly and stepped back, lowering his head as he closed his eyes. Chiana cried, sobbing deeply and openly as her body began to tremble, crumbling to her knees when they refused to support her. She jerked her arm, shouting out at the pain she caused herself before dropping her head away in choking sobs.

Arden watched her quietly, waiting until she seemed passive again before approaching her. He knelt down to her and took her chin, raising her face wet with tears. Her eyes met his pleadingly and distant as her lips trembled with words she couldn't form.

"You can't do this," Wraith muttered quietly without moving. "How many times must I tell you? She is not ready. She cannot do this before the right has been taken. If you do this to her before she has attempted our right you could kill her or worse. You will push her much too far, much too soon."

"You make it sound as if I want her to take the right," Arden stated. "Chiana, just remain calm. You will experience no pain if you do not resist."

Chiana closed her eyes, turning her head away from him as she weeped. There was a sound that began to emmit from the rods as they began to resonate like tuning forks. She gasped, her body tensing as the shard to her forehead began to shine. She screamed as she felt herself being surrounded inside a deep blue light, she could feel tendrils of touch as if she were naked again, spiraling through her in subtle pleasure. She gasped, swallowing for her breath as they began to increase and spiral in through rushing waves that slowly grew for what seemed like arns. Her body shivered in the ecstasy that rose her, edging away at her fear and defiance.

"Excellent," Arden smiled as he stepped closer to her shivering form but didn't touch her as she let her head drop. "I was hoping that would be her keeping."

"It can easily change," Wraith stated as his eyes cut to Arden from his hood with a piercing glare. "You could easily have her turn it to rage - against you. You're a disgrace to everything we once were Arden."

"There in lays the difference," Arden chuckled as he turned to him with a cut of his own eyes. "Between you and I, Wraith. Your dead world of nonexistent Nyfara, and my living world of long dead Nebari. It isn't about the past you fool. It's about control. With this girl I shall possess the entire citadel. Then we shall see the laws change with the Keepers in our conformity. There shall be a new way to the greater good."

"You forget," Wraith grimaced as he hid his face into his hood. "It is the Keepers who have been inside the tower. What the common wealth believes in you or I is nonessential. The right is all that matters and the Keepers will come for the Nebari to see that she takes it. It is the only hope the Nyfara have. Stifle that Arden, and it is you who shall run to the underground's. Do not push the Keepers into the war they attempted to prevent today."

"What do you suggest?" Arden laughed. "Hand over my fine prize so they can give her a right I forbid?"

"Promise them," Wraith stated tonelessly as he turned his eyes up to Chiana solemnly. "That you will. I plead you, let her take the right. Our entire world is centered around this one thing."

"Oh that I will," Arden seethed as he crossed his arms. "Once the Keepers have stopped their lies and admit the Nyfara are dead. Chiana will never take the right. I assure you, not until we are ready for what may occur. The Nyfara are dead Wraith. This world, will never be theirs again if they were. That is what I assure you. Death, to your dead lies."

Wraith hid his face deeply into his hood as he folded his hands into his sleeves.

"As you wish," his voice came in a soft, haunting tone.

Chiana groaned suddenly, struggling in the restraints as the increasing waves of ecstasy washed over her like rushing waves from the ocean. She tried to move out of it, willing herself to wake up again, return to the room she had been in. The sense of danger slowly began to fade as she felt her body throbbing. She resisted, her movements becoming slower and slower as she tried to cling to the things she had been told and heard. She felt drowsed but tried to keep awake, cry out, anything to resist whatever it was Arden was doing to her.

"I've never seen anyone respond so strongly," Arden commented gently as he knelt in front of Chiana and gazed into her eyes. "Increase the pulse."

"Do not carry out that order," Wraith seethed as he turned his back to Arden, facing the servicer at a podium like control helm.

"Then leave the room," Arden muttered as he brushed the damp hair away from Chiana's cheek.

"Never," Wraith spoke darkly to a near whisper as his head tilted deep within his hood. "If you want a keeper at all it will not be done without my direction. Else, you can trust I will kill her."

"Fine."

Chiana opened her eyes, staring into Arden as she trembled. Her lips parted as she let out a heavy sigh and leaned her head into him. He ran his hands into her robe, up her thighs as he gazed into her eyes. Her eyes drifted as she moved her head from side to side slowly. She drew up to her feet in a ragged sigh, sliding her knees past his sides, sitting into his lap. She moaned at the sensation of touch satisfying the desperate aches throughout her, closing her eyes again as he leaned into her closely. The essence sent spasms of desire and pleasure through her.

Arden let his pants loose, his hardness slipping into her. She groaned loudly, waves of ecstasy rippling through her body in near agony as his hands came firmly to her buttox and he moved slowly in and out of her. Her head came back in a long, deep sigh as the overwhelming sensations expanded beyond her, peppering at her dreaminess and sending thriving spirals of pleasure through her abdomen, up into her chest in explosion. She moaned loudly, helplessly as her body became weak and she tried to sway in its entrancing capture.

Arden came up on his knees with her, holding her tightly as her legs wrapped around him. He gasped at the spasms deep within her surrounded him, suddenly shoving himself into her, driving himself deep inside her with a violent thrust as he shouted his desperate scream. She screamed as her back arched, her body contracting with the climax that exploded in washes and waves through her body, expanding far beyond her simple form and rushing in long fingered spindrels that came again and again to each thrust. Arden gasped to a sharp scream as his body tensed against her, his head throwing forward as he came into her, hot and pulsing, throbbing madly inside her. She cried out, moaning deeply in the sheer ecstasy of pleasure like a storm, calming into ripples and spirals that raced up into her chest, thriving in her abdomen in thrills that rushed up her spine like racing fingertips. Arden fell into sitting with her, burying his face in her shoulder and hair as he gasped for his breath, squeezing tightly to her buttox as she quietly moaned in sighs of release.

"Arden, sir," a voice timidly coughed.

"Not now servicer," Arden gasped.

"Forgive me, but we have captured a Banik who insists on seeing the Nebari, Chiana."

"It has to be one of the aliens she was with," he muttered as he pursed his lips and moved away from her reluctantly. "Return her to her cell, we'll allow him to tend to her while she goes through the pulse."

"You're giving a Banik slave my duties?" Wraith snapped.

"Yes," Arden grimaced as he turned and glared into him. "Care I do not take your protests more seriously than that. You may think it would all be over if you killed her, I could just as easily have the tower destroyed. Let the slave serve her if he wants to see her that badly."

"She was with several, a Sebacean had come with extensive brain damage - an unfinished surgery. You can't win Arden. She does not belong here. She's a runaway. A fleeing criminal like her friends."

"Excellent," Arden narrowed his eyes on him mildly. "Then they won't be missed by anyone."

 
***************************************
 
"Stop," Chiana barely breathed as she looked back from the guards carrying her to Arden but he hadn't come with them. The crystal between her eyes shined brightly in a brilliant blue. She turned her desperate gaze to Wraith as she tried to struggle with the guards. "Let me go. This - this is wrong!"

Wraith grimaced darkly from within the shadows of his hood, raising his hands to fold them inside his wide sleeves.

"Frell," Chiana gasped, arching her back against the guard that held her as the other opened the door to the cells. She looked at the door dimly as she slammed it back shut with a dull kick. "Frell you! I'm not ... not mind cleansed."

"It's not your mind," Wraith stated as he opened the door. "It is your emotions."

He stood still, watching as the guards pushed her into the cell with Stark. He nodded to the guards, closing the door behind them as they left.

"What have you done to her!" Stark cried out as he cradled Chiana in his arms, gasping near to a scream as he touched the crystal between her eyes with his trembling fingers. "You're monsters! All of you monsters!"

"It can be removed gentle Banik," Wraith spoke quietly as he knelt in front of them, opening the cell door.

"You've mind cleansed her! How could you allow this to happen! You're a keeper! What's a keeper! You did this!"

"Please, do not be angry with me Banik," Wraith continued quietly as he moved back his hood. He stared down at the floor with a glare in his black eyes. The crystal between his eyes was a jet black, more like an obsidian stone. "The only thing left is to take her to perform the right. It is the only chance any of us have to the great hope. If she succeeds, the crystal will be removed. It is only a key, but it must be the right one ... come with me."

Wraith snatched Stark's shoulder, wincing at the Banik's scream as they began to teleport in a dark swirl of shadows. "Don't be so afraid. You are like us."

"What are you doing!" Stark cried out, grasping tightly to Chiana as he found himself sitting in a pitch black cave.

"We are created to be enhanced of what is deep within our essence," Wraith spoke as his face dimly came into Stark's view and then was gone. "I was the first attempt by Arden to falsify our great tradition of the keepers, the only thing the Nebari let us keep about our civilization, with exeptions. It kept our people within their moral and amused them about us."

"The colors..."

"Reflect the keeping," Wraith spoke gently as he waved his hand over a crystal along the black stone wall and turned to watch as the massive chamber began to dim with light. There was no obvious source for the light as it began to increase to an average level. "The blues comfort, they are the better empaths I believe. Empathic healers, unfortunately they are greeded for their heightened sexuality and that may be all Chiana would become on my world. The greens like Thorn can heal flesh, rejuvenate life. The reds like Dauth are our warriors."

He looked to the suprised look on Stark's face and bowed his head slightly.

"Yes, I am aware of everything ever keeper is. We do share a sense of unity like you understand. It is why we welcome you priest. You are so much like us."

"You're black," Stark eyed him apprehensively as several tears shot down his eye. "Black and black and black! Why do you have these stones?"

"I was rare," Wraith muttered as he turned his attention to a great, massive structure just beyond them inside the chamber. "But even one as unique as I, could not succeed in the final right. We could spend our generations forever trying and none of us will ever be - genetically Nebari enough."

"What are you saying?"

Wraith let a small, dark smile cross his lips. He narrowed his eyes almost defiantly as he turned them to Stark. "Let them out Stark. Free the Nyfara. I beg you. I have no hope left of anything but this one time that could make my life have been worth living. Let them out."

"What danger ..." Stark gaped at him. "What danger are you hiding?"

"It is to try," Wraith muttered softly as he turned away and returned his hood over his head. "Or leave her like that."

 
*******************************************
 
"D'argo!" Crichton shouted as he pulled himself out of Dauth's grasp and ran to the Luxan and his son. "Where the frell have you been?"

D'argo sighed as he glanced to Jothee. "We were arrested."

Jothee turned his head away as he folded his arms to his chest.

"Later," Crichton waved his hand at them, shaking his head. "Zhaan, you on your way?"

"I'm sorry John," Zhaan came back on his comm. "The Drangelden's are refusing to allow me to land."

"Fine, fine." He sighed heavily, running his hands through his short hair as he turned his eyes to Rygel approaching with Endara. "Where ... is Stark?"

"Full system alert!" Dauth bellowed through the chamber as he glowered down at the helm of the central room. "Arden has initiated the underground sweep! Lock down now!"

"What are you worried about?" Crichton asked as he turned to Thorn. "You're safe down here right? You guys can just teleport out of anything couldn't you?"

Thorn grasped the sides of his head, coming to his knees as he suddenly began to scream. His scream was joined by the many other keepers in the central area. Crichton turned as Endara fell to the floor in a fetal position, grasping her fists to her forehead as she began to whail. Dauth writhed on the floor, roaring with a fit of rage, ripping at his robe as the red stone between his eyes flashed as brilliantly as a star.

"The keepers will return Chiana," Arden's voice came through the helm as the hologram britzed his face in and out. "Or you die one by one."

Crichton grasped Thorn, bringing him to his knees as he shook him violently by his arms. "What the frell is going on! Damnit Thorn answer me!"

"Wraith has taken Chiana to perform the passage of right," he choked in a trembling voice as he grasped at John's shoulders and tried to stand. "He has betrayed us all to ensure she completes her keeping."

D'argo growled deeply, snarling as he grasped Thorn's throat. He tilted his head as he glared into him. "Where is Chiana."

"If she succeeds or fails, we're all dead," Thorn cried as he grasped D'argoes wrist. "Please ... we cannot bear their torment. Let them free so that our own misery may end. The only reason the tower spared her was for that hope."

"Spare," Crichton widened his eyes as he pursed his lips. "What spare! What the frell is in that tower Thorn!"

"Nyfara!" He cried near to laughter as he fell to his knees again, wracked with pain as the shining brilliance of his stone began to hide most of his face in his scream. "They couldn't be conformed Crichton ... so they locked them away."

"Thorn," Crichton bit his bottom lip as he planted his hand over Thorn's stone. He narrowed his eyes into Thorn's. "What are you driving at?"

"What's the first thing that comes to your mind now Crichton?"

"Roach hotel," Crichton stated.

Thorn laughed as his body began to spasm in the pain he was in, burying his eyes into his fists as D'argo let him crumple to the floor. Crichton ran to Dauth, grasping him up. He threw him against the helm, averting his eyes from the brilliant red that shined over most of his face.

"Dauth! You gotta take me to Chiana! Take me there now damn you!"

Dauth screamed into Crichton's face as he clawed into his chest, forcing Crichton to leap back from him. Crichton grasped his chest, gasping at the scratches ripped into him.

"Never!" Dauth screamed as he collapsed to the floor. "It's her fault! She's Nebari! Let her die with us!"

"You bastard!" Crichton roared as he turned to kick him. D'argo stepped in his path, struggling with him to push him further away. Crichton tried to leap out of his hold, swinging his arm as he shouted. He swung out of D'argo, slamming his fist into the wall. He pressed his comm. "Stark! Stark where are you?"

"I'll take you," Endara tried to speak as she came to her hands and knees. "Crichton!"

He came to her, coming to his knees as he touched her shoulder. "Endara, I think you are all in too much pain to try."

"I'll take you," she growled deeply as she snatched his arm. She glared up at him, blood in her eyes as she forced herself to her knees. "You'll all go."

 
********************************************
 
"Screaming!" Stark gasped as he held his hands to his ears, wrenching his face. "They're all screaming!"

"We're safe from the effects here," Wraith stated as he lead Chiana up into the half dome shaped structure. He rested her arms on two small monoliths on a platform that faced what looked like a Nyfara inside the half shell of the dome. It was a massive creature, seeming dormant or lifeless in a network of structures and connections to it. Chiana gasped, trying to pull her hands away from the monoliths that seemed to capture her wrists there firmly.

"What are you doing!" Stark protested in a high pitched voice as Chiana tried to wrench her legs free from a capture to her ankles.

"If Chiana's pattern matches the initiation process the tower will be free." Wraith narrowed his eyes on him as his hood came back from Chiana trying to lurch her arms free. "Don't you understand Stark, the Nebari could enter the tower through this, they left it this way incase the Nyfara were ever willing to conform. They had every intention of letting them out one day but they all died within four generations. They tried keeping lineage's intact by breeding with us but the Nebari that left never came back like they promised, now no one is pure Nebari or pure Drangelden."

"Is that what you need?" Stark gaped at him as he held his fists tight to his chest. "A pure genetic sample?"

"Something like that," Wraith sighed deeply, sucking in his breath as he turned to a small podium beside Chiana. "Our technology was combined to Nebari on this lock. The pure sample we need is this thing to recognize a certain signature that only comes from a Nebari."

"No," Chiana gasped, raising her head as the monoliths she was restrained to began to glow deeply in red. She twisted her shoulders, screaming suddenly as the Nyfara like structure in front of her began to power, its dragonfly-like eyes gently glowing into green. Stark shrieked as the creature suddenly began to move its head and appendages. He fell to his knees as he threw his fists into his lap.

"It's biomechaniod!"

"It's working!" Wraith awed, his lips parting as he stared wide eyed into the creature. "It's working..."

Chiana groaned, her head coming back as the brilliant blue star between her eyes suddenly shafted with a long beam straight into a clear crystal in the creatures chest. It looked down, raising its long mantid arms as its chest began to glow brilliantly with the light.

"Now..." Wraith whispered as he touched the podium controls, his fingers trembling violently. "Please, now. Move my friend."

"Wraith," Stark gaped at him as he came up behind Chiana and held on to her shoulder to try to comfort her. "Why would this work now, why not the last Nebari that was here?"

"Because that was my father," Wraith spoke gently as he tried to coax at the controls with his fingers almost like a gentle lover. "And the battle between powers they had with him destroyed an entire sector, leaving Arden the last in power."

"I want Chiana back, Wraith." Stark stated in a low tone as he eased up beside Wraith and stared wildly into his face, searching Wraiths expression. "You'll wish you were dead..."

"I already do," Wraith grimaced as he placed his hand into an imprint on the podium.

 
**********************************
 
The crystal between Endara's eyes shattered. Only a small gasp escaped her as she crumbled to the floor, her blood beginning to pool around the shatter. Crichton stepped back, unholstering his pistol as D'argo, Jothee and Rygel backed away from the Drangelden.

Crichton looked up, in a short distance he could see Chiana on the platform, the blue ray that shot from her into what ever was inside the half dome.

"Stop!" He shouted as he ran for her. At first he couldn't fathom the massive form that stepped in front of him. King Kong? Godzilla? He fell back, scrambling on his hands and knees as he tried to wave to D'argo and the others. "Get back! Get back!"

The twenty foot tall Nyfara stood before him, its massive head turning to look on him as it folded its mantid arms into its long body.

"Holy mother of Pearl," Crichton gasped as he watched the creature walk over him, making its way to one side of the wall. The creature twisted its head as the crystal in its chest began to shine, casting a beam into a shaft high above. It lifted its mantid arms as the wall began to push back and then slid to one side, revealing a huge cylinder shaped chamber. The creature stepped inside, reaching upward with its long mantid arms as the cylinder seemed to shape itself around it, connections snapping into place as the cylinder began to turn.

Crichton ran, looking back several times as his heart pounded into his chest. He reached the platform the same time as D'argo, stopping short as Stark grasped Chiana up and pulled her away from the monoliths.

"Give her to me!" D'argo demanded as he reached for Chiana, grasping her tightly as he turned his cheek into her soft hair and gasped. "Chiana...?"

"Nhhu" Chiana moaned weakly as she drew her head back, her eyes still closed as she searched D'argoes chest with her hand. The crystal between her eyes was gone. All that remained was a deep blue bruise verging to black.

"She'll live," Wraith spoke quietly from within the shadows of his hood. "I suggest you escape my planet now, while you can."

"She'll live," D'argo growled as he flashed his eyes at the Drangelden. "If you've hurt her -"

"A severe concussion," Wraith interrupted as a darkness began to swirl around them. Within a moment they were suddenly on a landing bay where their pods were waiting. "She will fully recover. If - you leave now."

"Look," Stark awed as he ran to the end of the landing pad. "Look at this!"

Chiana grimaced, curling herself tightly in D'argoes hold as he moved to the edge of the pad with Crichton and Jothee. She barely opened her eyes, her lips parting as she turned her gaze with them to the tower.

One by one the Nyfara were appearing between the metal rods that resounded madly, attracting masses of crowds. Crowds that began to run as the mantid like creatures flew into them and began to snatch bodies, eating those they could catch. Yet other Nyfara flew to buildings, tearing into them to catch those escaping.

"We'll allow most of them to come to the underground's in our protection," Wraith stated calmly. "Go, think no more of it."

"I tried to tell you," Chiana muttered as she rested her head against D'argo and closed her eyes. "I tried to warn you. They're starving in there ..."

"They won't be hungry for long," Wraith seemed to speak with amusement as he lowered his head inside his hood. "Though if they will ever truly forgive ... We may have only turned those tables."

end