Non Compose Mentis
NC~17
 
Summary:
Crichton and Chiana survive being clones from an exploding Leviathan to the Nebari host vessel that picks them up. They escape on the planet the vessel stops for repair finding a world of new trouble for themselves while they're still not ... quiet ... all ... there ...
by
ChianaGray
10/22/01
 
 
Crichton landed on his hands and knees with a harsh gruff as the Leviathan blew apart around him. He blinked, gaping at the body of Chiana where she lay in the corridor of bones. He touched her arm as fire swirled out like a dragon tongue above him. Her body was still warm but she was dead.

Flashes raced through him like brilliant shots of light as explosions ripped through the corridor. He finds himself running, realizing then that Chiana is over his shoulder. It seems morbid, the shock seeming numb to him as he wiped at the blue blood splashed across his clothes. He kept running, thinking only of the transport as he cuts into the docking bay. He looked up wide eyed as he caught the very end of the transport pod leaving without him through the bay entrances eye into space.

"No!" He screamed as the floor cracked around him and beneath his feet. Explosions fired off again in violent gun shots.

He leaped as flashes surrounded him again. He found himself throwing open the hatch of an emergency capsule, shoving Chiana's body inside. A horrified groan at what he was doing escaped him as he slung the hatch shut behind himself. Fire rushed into the face of the capsule as he screamed. The heat was almost instantaneous, imbearable as the capsule suddenly ripped around in a shattering shot and began to spin. He screamed again as limitless stars of space raced across the capsule's view. He looked down in the slow realization he was holding Chiana's hand to his chest, unsure of what he had done. His scream continued as he stared at the bites that had been taken out of her arm. His heart began to slam into his chest as the capsule hurled through space.

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

"Evasive!" The Nebari captain shouted as debris flying across the host vessel crashed into its hull. The ship began to spin wildly as it tried to veer.

"Hull breech on starboard side!" A report flew in. "Captain!"

Captain Ganoth snarled as he grasped the helm, explosions lighting around him as he hit comms. The ship began to smooth out as they cleared the sudden debris.

"Reports!" He shouted, he felt a sudden burning shard of pain, his hand instinctively coming to the metal rod of shrapnel sticking out of his side. "What the frell did we run into!"

"A Leviathan sir," a Nebari woman reported as she came to him. "We detected a life sign among the debris, we're picking them up now."

"Life signs, in that?" He gasped deeply as she placed her hand on his chest, looking into his eyes calmly as she yanked the rod out of his side. "Gnaaah! Damn it!"

"Come my guide," Chaelsmond muttered in a calm, solemn voice as she lifted his arm over her shoulder and wrapped the other around his waist, helping him out of command.

Ganoth struggled to hold on to her, trying to walk as a young man took up his other side and began to carry him more swiftly into the medical bay. He stopped cold on the scene set before him.

What was left of his engineering crew were laying on the med tables and on the floor. The medicals not tending to them were working feverently over two others he didn't recognize. His eyes turned to the Nebari female in the critical condition capsule, the medicals race to hook her up inside, tubes injected to her naked, blood covered form as devices are placed on her temples and forehead. Her body begins to writhe in a fit as they induce reactivating her brain and heart.

In the critical capsule next to her they are working on a Sebacean in the same conditions though not as badly off. Ganoth twisted his black brows at the two in critical as he is helped to sit on a med table. The aids cut his uniform away from his wound as he watched the meds trying to revive the Nebari girl with more interest.

"Who are they?" He asked as he raised his arm, gasping again as an aid bluntly shoved a thin metal device into his wound. "I can feel that!"

"Only for a microt my guide," they spoke evenly as they hypoed the captain directly into his heart.

"GHAA!" Ganoth shouted, several of his men holding him to the med table as turned to jump off of it. He glared to the capsules. "Someone tell me who those people are!"

"He's stable," A medical sighed as they began to attach several wires to the devices on the Sebaceans temples. Ganoth turned his attention to the young Nebari woman who seemed to be fareing far worse.

"The damage is irreversible," an aid stated from a small helm just behind the capsules. "I'm increasing neuro enhancement to compensate."

The young woman's body began to writhe again, her eyes fluttering until a groan escaped her.

"End neuro stabilization!" the lead medic, Coratis, called out as he placed a device over the Nebaries eye. The patient screamed as the device pulled her eye out of their socket and then swiftly planted a chip into the stem, pushing her eye back in. "Optic complete, she's beginning to stabilize. Someone frelling increase the life support suspension immediately! She's loosing blood too swiftly!"

Ganoth winced, his pain is numbed but still greatly sore as he looked down to his bandaging. Chaelsmond returned to him, bowing her head to him slightly.

"Captain, the host vessel is severely damaged. We estimate arriving to a neutral area for repair and retrieval to be in the course of ten solar days. We were hit by particles of a Leviathan, we've located the origin of its explosion to be a sector from us."

"That," Ganoth points to the Nebari and the Sebacean. "Explain that."

"The male is the life signs we detected sir," Chaelsmond spoke gently as she placed her hands behind herself and lowered her head slightly to him. "They were found in a Leviathan emergency decompression capsule nearly out of the last reservoirs of air. It is assumed the male brought the Nebari female with him prior to her death. The male is not Sebacean. He is in stable condition but - no one is familiar with the aliens physiology."

"The Nebari survives?" Ganoth gaped disbelievingly at the female in critical.

"Yes," Chaelsmond nodded slightly. "Though much of her brains function has to be artificially restored, she was still well within the time limit for normal Nebari perimeters to resuscitate. She has a deep penetrating puncture wound to her neck directly into her cerebral. Shall we turn course to investigate the larger Leviathan debris or continue to the neutral servicer planet?"

"I want to send a team," Coratis stepped up to them, crossing his arms as he looked into Ganoth's eyes mildly. "The damages to this Nebari are not within my sciences. I greatly suspect she was used for some sort of experiments in mind alterations I haven't seen yet. It is very possible this - Sebacean like male attempted to flee the Leviathan with the Nebaries body as her assailant but he is close enough physically for me to assess he has the same patterns of neural discrepancy. I would like to know for certain if they have both been test subjects or at least return evidences to Nebari Prime least there be any concern for building resistance against our directives in the use of a Nebari for alien experimentation's."

"Sending anyone is not very reasonable Coratis," Ganoth sighed heavily as he wiped his face. "Ten solar days ... your team may starve before they caught up with us again. We'll fire a beacon into the area for a later investigation. What are these discrepancies you mention?"

"That's what troubles me Captain," Coratis narrowed his eyes. "Both the Nebari and the alien show the exact same patterns of weaknesses in their neuro scans. It looks almost like someone has literally stolen the Nebaries higher faculties and then began to try to erase even more. What little I can do for her shall take much longer than ten solar days to compensate the damages."

"Well, will she be of any use to herself if she survives?"

"Yes," Coratis nodded slightly as he turned his eyes away. "That is, she and the alien would be of great use to our sciences on the study of this bizarre occurrence. Hopefully she will be able to tell us what happened."

"Fine," Ganoth sighed, grimacing as he stood. "Launch the location beacon and give me a status report on the Nebari and the alien every arn. I want to know the moment one of them is capable of any sort of coherent consciousness."

"I shall send the Nebaries DNA pattern out for her identification."

"No, leave that," Ganoth shook his head as he turned his gaze to the young woman again. "Our mission has already been frelled, I don't want to end up loosing how close we are for one Nebari who's going to end up a test subject to our sciences of no consequence to me. We'll simply turn them both over to authorities on the neutral planet and let them weave through all of this."

"I must admit it is greatly disturbing," Coratis muttered as he pressed his finger tips to his upper lip and gazed into Ganoth wide eyed. The captain tried to avoid the look as he tried to stand with Chaelsmond's assistance. "Some of her wounds ... I'd almost swear she has been bitten into. Perhaps even by this alien male, and we have found temporary mind cleansing chips in his eye stems."

Ganoth turned back to him, his lips parting as he widened his eyes on the lead medical.

"We can easily restore most of the damages," Coratis stated. "But, what ever has happened it is alarmingly heinous. I think this man has taken bites out of the female. I must officially state a protest we take this investigation."

"Keep that thing secure in his capsule!" Ganoth snarled as he clenched his hand into the wound in his side. "Your protest will be denoted in my report. In the meantime is there anything more you can do for the female than stabilize her condition? Is the damages to her neurological status irreversible?"

"Any damage to the brain is irreversible," Coratis spoke quietly as he looked down. "The artificial compensations and enhancement injections however should restore her to a competent level in due time. We have done the same for the alien but I'm not sure if it will work on him. I would like permission to remove one of the temporary mind cleansing chips to access the neuro data."

"Fine," Ganoth nodded as he turned away again. "I'd like to see that report."

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

Crichton rested somewhere between awake and asleep. It was a dark place but not uncomfortable. He felt actually, comforted, like an infant still in their mothers womb. He numbly became aware of his own thoughts, it seems like a processing almost. He felt like he was in his module talking to Pilot as he went over system checks through a flight simulation.

"No Pilot it's the other one," he snorted. "Yeah, not that thing but the other thing. Heh, hey no dren this thing's workin man! You're unbelievable Pilot."

"John Crichton," Pilots voice seemed to come over comms. "Try to remain calm, I am accessing the main processor of your module now. Can you feel any pain?"

"What ... pain?" Crichton creased his brows as he narrowed his eyes. It seems like he was on a med table now. It's cold, he can hear the voice of the being trying to remove Scorpius's chip from his brain. "My speech Doc ... don't take my speech."

"Your clarity is increasing Crichton," Pilots voice returned casually. "I am attempting to activate the wave pattern correction to run independently of my system. Do not be alarmed."

"Famous last words Pilot, 'don't be alarmed and oh dren'." Crichton began to awaken. His body leaned forward expecting to touch the controls of his module but everything is blurry and orange. "Where am I?"

He touched glass, dimly becoming aware he was covered in tubes and devices. He is in some kind of liquid that feels thick and almost like pepper against his flesh. It's in his lungs. He lurches, trying to scream but no sound would escape him. He struggled until he felt a rushing warmth wash through his body, calming him, laxing his muscles. He closed his eyes.

"Don't do this to me Pilot." He opened his eyes slowly, seeing only blurs beyond the glass. He touched it again as numerous murmurs back dropped in his thoughts. "Aquaman. That's it ... I'm Aquaman. Yo Harvey, are you messin with me man?"

"Do not attempt to access the anomaly."

"Frell you," Crichton jutted his head as he tried to move himself closer to the glass and look beyond the haze of orange. "How many times I gotta tell you this is my head you freak."

"Gr-gr-greater ... greater good."

"Greater good," Crichton looked out, trying to focus, concentrate on something. He saw another glass tube like his own. It was blurry but he could see Chiana well enough suspended in her own bat of orange liquid. Tubes run from her as what looks like small sharks swim over her body, attaching themselves to various wounds on her. Her entire body flexes in the fluid but he can't tell if she is aware too.

"It's for the greater good, John."

Crichton wrenched his face. He tried to slam his fists into the glass but he feels so lethargic and sluggish from the thick substance and the drugs being pumped into him. His mind screams as he jerks his body inside the fluid. "Who's talking to ME!"

"Unfortunately you must remain conscious for the next process," the voice of Grunchlick's doc clipped through his mind. "Resisting will only make this process longer."

"What the frell are you doing to me," he pursed his lips as he gazed distantly up at the shards of crystals above him. "What the frell is going on! What are you doing to Chiana?"

"Saving your lives Crichton. However, you do not seem to remember your crimes. I'm afraid, we cannot let you leave suspension until we have corrected the anomaly in your brain."

"What crimes?" he tried to clench his fists against the glass, barely managing to lift his leg to kick against it. "What anomaly?"

"This anomaly you call Harvey," they speak in Scorpius's voice. "They're trying to find me John. In your brain ... they want me to regret the fact that you are a cannibal."

"What?" Crichton twisted his face into a scream that couldn't be made. "NOOOOO! Doctor Spike! Doctor Spike!"

"Yes, Jhon!" Harvey chirped as Crichton then saw him walk down a flight of stairs to him. The clone of Scorpius smiled as he wiped his hand along the rail and then turned his eyes to him. "I highly recommend your escape John. They think you're Hannibal Lector. They're going to destroy me, trying to fix your mind. Unfortunately, without me ... what sanity we may have left is lost forever!"

"You're sick!" Crichton snarled, spittle flying from his lips as he stepped closer to him, his face flushing red. "That's sick! Who the frell are 'They' and what the hell do they want from me!"

"Are the lights on?" Harvey narrowed his eyes as he tapped Crichton in the forehead with his fingertips. "The Nebari have you and I'm very much attached in your psychi Crichton. Escape, before they rip me apart for crimes you haven't committed!"

"So they rip you apart, good riddance."

"I'm disappointed in you John," Harvey turned from him slightly, a mild look of disinterest is in his dark eyes. "Have you forgotten? Doctor Spike is it? Try ... Karvok. You've been cloned Crichton. I've no idea how many times ... but one clone should be able to recognize another. Hurry, before they realize you're just some faded copy of the real John Crichton."

"No-no-no-no-no way man! No frelling way MAN!" Crichton shoved Harvey, knocking him to the ground. He batted his eyes amunantly, trying to remain aware of where he was as he began to grow drowsy. "I'm John Crichton! I'm John Crichton! I'm who I'm supposed to BE! You hear me you twisted frell! I'm who I'm supposed to be! I'm freaking Popeye!"

He fell, planting his hands on the ground as darkness folded around him, trying to drag him deeper into his subconscious. He laid his head on the floor, staring off at what looked like Pilot wearing a control collar. Pilot looked up at him as he paused his pinchers over the helm. "I am attempting to bring you back. Your condition is critical."

"I'm Popeye," Crichton stated as he began to laugh.

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

Crichton could feel himself suspended, he saw Scorpius crawling up his form, his wretched face twisted with the effort to climb. He touched Crichton's shoulder, a foot in his hip as he reached up for one of the crystal shards above them on the capsules cap.

"I don't - think so ..." Crichton barely opened his eyes as he reached for Scorpius and began to try to pull him back down. He looked up, his motions agonizingly slow as he grabbed Scorpius's wrist and used it to pull him up higher in the stasis fluid. He pushed Scorpius's hand away, grasping one of the shards. Scorpius struggled with him, fighting to possess the crystal when it snapped off. Crichton wrenched his face as he tried to jam the crystal into Scorpius's chest with what strength he could gather. The sound of glass cracking consumes everything around him, making him feel like he's being ripped apart. His lips part as he felt himself being pulled out of the capsule. Tubes snap from him as he falls to the ground, his body meeting open air with such abruptness every muscle clenches. He tried to suck in his breath, desperate for air.

He threw up, the orange liquid mixing with that already on the floor. He gasped, desperate for breath that would barely come as he threw up again. He choked, gagging for the air as he forced himself to his knees. His hands reached out for support, finding the capsule Chiana was in. He stabbed the crystal into it, falling to one side as the glass shattered and she came spilling out with the fluid.

Chiana's hands flopped where she lay. She began to choke weakly. Crichton rolled her to her side, bringing her into his lap as she choked more desperately for air, heaving it in gasps.

"Please say I didn't bite you," Crichton muttered weakly as tears race down his oranged face. "Please wake up and say I didn't bite you."

Chiana's eyes fly open, heaving in her breath again as she cringed in his hold. She jerked her head around, her eyes startled and terrified as she looked into his.

"You've got to help me Chiana," Crichton spoke softly, holding her almost too tightly. "You've got to tell your people I didn't bite you."

She trembled as she jerked her head around, gaping over the surroundings. "Where ...?"

"We got picked up by the Nebari," Crichton tried to help her move with him, his muscles feeling weak and like Jell-O as he scrambled to a rack of lab robes, clutching Chiana tightly. "We're getting out of here before we're both mind cleansed."

He pulled the robes down, falling to the ground as the ship rumbled and jarred around him. "Think we landed?"

"Nhya!" Chiana clutched a robe, yanking it from him as she tried to stand with it. She crumbled to the ground, her eyes meeting his in fear as he came to his hands and knees over her. "Nebari ..."

"Okay," he nodded as he caressed the side of her face. "Okay, we're going alright? Just - ah, just jet your bionic powers on and let's get moving. Just, Chiana, please tell me I didn't bite you. They want to frell my mind because they think I killed you."

Chiana creased her brows. Her eyes winced as she tried to crawl out from under him. She turned her head to him, breathing unevenly as her foot settled into his knee. "John ... you're naked."

"Huh?" He blinked, looking down as he clutched to a robe. He quickly began to slide his arms into the robes sleeves as Chiana did the same, struggling to gain her feet with the aid of a lab table.

Crichton managed to his feet, wobbling to her as she rested her hands on the table, trying to catch her breath. "Whe - where we going?"

"Escape," Crichton sighed heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Escape Chiana. Before we're mind frelled?" He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes. "C'mon Pip, catch on!"

"Right," She nodded, moaning through her nostrils as she licked her lips and swallowed. "I'm - I'm alright now?"

"You've been dead for arns," Crichton said absently as he grabbed what looked almost like a yard long fork on the table. "You feel anything like pet cemetery or something? Cause, I don't want you uh - y'know, flipping out on me or anything."

"Wha-?" She furrowed her brows on him as droplets of the orange liquid string from her hair.

"We're clones Chiana," he sighed as he nudged his head to her. "We're Doctor Spike products, and we got left behind by the others because we're probably on freaking BOARD!"

"No," Chiana breathed as she shook her head.

"Yes," Crichton took her arm. "You're the dead Chiana, the Nebari brought you back somehow ... they think I killed you!"

Chiana choked in her laughter as she dropped to her knees. "Are - are we kinkoid?"

"Oh yes," Crichton stated as he wrapped his arm around her waist and tried to help her to the door. He aimed the fork at the doorway as he bit his lip. "We're all set for the straight jackets ... how does this door open?"

Chiana stumbled as she placed her hand on a panel, daring to inspect the hall as the door slid open. Her lips parted as she turned her head from one end of the hall to the other. "We're never going to get - to get out of here."

Crichton gruffed as he knelt to Chiana and lifted her over his shoulder, carrying her down the hall as he aimed the fork like a pulse pistol. "We're not staying either."

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

"Captain!" Chaelsmond shouted into her comm as she knelt to the form of Coratis laying in the corridor. She gasped, lifting her fire arm at Crichton as he whirled around only yards away and aimed Coratis's weapon at her. "Captain the alien has escaped!"

Her comm fuzzed in and out uselessly, Ganoth doesn't respond. She narrowed her eyes to fire but Crichton is mostly shielded by Chiana laying over his shoulder. She saw the young Nebari plant her hands on his back and shake her head as if she were trying to draw conscious. Chaelsmond stood, easing closer to them though they were much too far away to run after them.

"Put your hostage down!" She called after Crichton.

"Put my hostage down?" Crichton crinkled his brows at her as he snorted. "Hey Chiana, you want down?"

Chiana nodded as she grasped on to him for support. He shifted his shoulder down and helped her stand. She held her forehead where devices were still attached, swooning in place as Crichton wrapped an arm around her waist and lead her to face the open gap from an explosion. He nodded as he gazed out at a burned out landing bay with her. Beyond it is the night sky. He put his lips to her ear. "Can you run?"

"Place the weapon on the floor. Approach me slowly," Chaelsmond commanded as she drew closer. "Release the girl ..."

"Cha!" Crichton chuckled as he rolled his head back around to her and fired denches from Chaelsmond's shoulder. Chaelsmond threw herself against the wall, pursing her lips. Her eyes sparkled wildly as she kept from the impulse to fire back. "You don't look much older there yourself, missay!"

"You must listen to me," Chaelsmond stressed as Chiana gazed at her as if awed, her lips parted. "The compensations to her mind must be rebuilt slowly. If you take the girl with you she may loose what we strove to repair of her neural function. Allow the Nebari to approach me, slowly."

"How much damage is that?" Chiana asked as she turned her ear to her shoulder.

"Severe," Chaelsmond swallowed lightly as she drew out her other hand from below the other aiming her weapon at Crichton. She motioned to Chiana to take her hand. "Come, we will be home in a matter of arns where we can do more in a larger facility."

"Your missing something," Crichton smiled as he loosened his hold around Chiana's waist and nosed her in her ear. "Want to go to Nebari Prime Chi? Free trip, one way ticket!"

"No!" Chiana groaned as she stumbled through the blast. Crichton laughed as he fired at Chaelsmond before following Chiana. He grasped her in the burned out hanger, helping her run as Chaelsmond's fire of white pulses flashed around them.

"Dren," Chaelsmond narrowed her eyes as she slapped her hand on a panel in the hall. An alarm sounds as she speaks into it. "The alien has escaped. He's taken the Nebari patient with him!"

"Pursue!" Ganoth shouted through the hall comm.

"Sir, we don't have enough security on board to -"

"I said pursue Commander!" Ganoth nearly roars. "Central Council has ordered us to keep the Nebari female contained at any cost!"

Chaelsmond gasped as she ran after them, several security officers come from different directions as she ran out from the landing bay to the pad their badly damaged ship nearly swallows over. There is no sign of the now fugitives. She turned, her eyes meeting Ganoth's as he came racing from the open hatch of another bay. He stopped, his eyes meeting hers gently as he pursed his lips, digging his fist into his wounded side. He leaned over. She grasped him, helping him stand up.

"This is frelled," he spoke in pain as he took her shoulder to help him stand. "That Nebari, it's Chiana. Can you believe that?"

"Chiana?" Chaelsmond shook her head in slight confusion as she furrowed her brows. "I'm not familiar ..."

"Well," he smiled wryly as he raised an eyebrow to the night beyond the landing pad. "You will be now. They want her at every expense, especially with Coratis's vague evidences of this Nebari being a variably removed clone."

"Now that I can't believe," Chaelsmond gaped as her eyes widened. "Even if she is the result of something as primitive as cloning, why would her capture take precedence over an alien species we haven't documented?"

"That should be simple enough," He grunted a laugh as he moved back to stand on his own. "Because she's Nerries sister."