Royal Accident

Author: Jeci
E-mail: elfemage@yahoo.com
Rating: PG, I think.
Disclaimer: All Farscape characters and the space they are in do not belong to me, as much as I wish they could. All others have sprung out of my imagination and if you wish, with my permission of course, you can use them. The idea behind Alara is from the L.J Smith Nightworld series, but she is mine.
Background: OK, time for a little background, because this is based on a fanfic still in progress. Alara Drache; shape shifter, earthling, and youngster, has found her way aboard Moya when the crew discovers her stranded on a commerce planet they just happened to be on. She has no idea how she got there, nor why. This story is set about three weeks after she becomes a part of the crew, and is just a short story it won’t be a part of the hopefully soon to be completed fic. Thanks for the wait, now enjoy!

He was fixing or modifying, or possibly a little of both, the Farscape module. Again. But he had to do something. There was nothing he could do for Moya. She would heal on her own, and the biomechanoid parts he could fix, he had. So it left one thing, Farscape.

“ Hey Astronut, you know the saying; all work and no play makes John a dull boy.”

The sudden break of his concentration startled him, causing the part he was working on to come crashing down right next to his head and directly on the black booted toe of his interrupter.

She cursed fluently in English and several other Earth languages that he couldn’t name, but easily understood the intent. He slid out from under the module and waited until she had finished clutching the abused foot.

“ You know, Alara, kitten, you oughta wear a bell. That way, you would save us heart attacks and your toes from bruises. “ John looked up at the youngling, and was again amazed by the fact that she was only sixteen. You definitely couldn’t tell from her lean, street fighter body, the waist length gold and flaming red striped hair, and the eyes, feline pupiled and changing colors like a mood ring. They were, right now, a gold-amber color that matched her hair. They were also filled with knowledge and age that most got only when they had left the nest and lived in the world on their own.

“ A bell? What’s the point? By the time I need to be quiet, it’ll give me away.” She leaned against Farscape 1, handing him the part that had landed on her. “ Pilot said that there was a commerce planet headed our way in about an arn and wanted to know if anyone wanted to go down. Jool need some new meds, Rygel-”

“Wants some better food.” They both said simultaneously. Alara grinned and continued.

“ D’Argo and Chiana are…busy.” She chuckled, glad she got her own room a few days ago. “ Jool and Rygel both annoy me when they’re shopping but I want to go down for some entertainment. Care to come along?”

“ What about Aeryn?” He cleaned his hands with what used to be one of his t-shirts.

“ She’s working out and after the last episode, we both decided to not repeat the experience. At least until we taught each other some of our tricks.” He chuckled.

The two women were evenly matched and it had taken nearly a full 2 arns of fighting before one was grounded. He had watched the match last week with great amusement, betting on Aeryn to win the match, being older and more experienced.

They had both scored hits on the other, both sported black eyes. Alara had a split lip and swollen ankle from a bad landing after a leaping front kick. Aeryn had bruises the size of Alara’s fists and feet on her midsection and a wrenched hip from a tumble over Alara’s shoulder.

In the end it was Alara’s match, even Aeryn could tell the younger, more agile fighter was beating her. In a swift, hardly seen movement, she had whipped her braid of hair around Aeryn’s ankles, catching it and then pulling the Sebacean’s feet out from under her. As she fell, Alara sprang forward, unsheathing the boot knife she always carried and sat on Aeryn, a knee pressed firmly into her solar plexus. She laid the knife along Aeryn’s throat and grinned, pleased that the move had even worked, she had just thought of it a microt before she tried it.

“ Cry Uncle?” Aeryn frowned, confused at the expression. Alara didn’t bother to explain it. “ Do you yield?” With a nod from her captive, she smoothly slid the knife back into her boot and helped Aeryn up, both grinning and panting slightly.

“ You were better than I thought you would be, for your age.” Aeryn said as she paced, cooling her muscles off.

John frowned as the memory reminded him that he owed Rygel a few bits of currency for that lost bet. “ So you want me to come with you?” She nodded. “ This isn’t some way to get my old self on a date is it?”

Alara made a face. “ No! You’re not old, younger than my parents anyway. I just want to go for drinks, get you out of here before you go mad in black leather from the lack of anything to do. Again.” She ran a finger down the bridge of her nose, rubbing it. “ Besides, I’m too young and will be for some time. Not to mention Aeryn made her claim long before I got here. Just think of me as the younger friend that you can go out and hang with, without the emotional attachment part.”

A thousand half-excuses ran through his head, most along the line of her being too young to drink and inexperienced with the crowds that usually lurked in the bars and clubs of the Uncharted Territories. He ran a hand through his dark hair. He knew very well she could handle herself, the bout with Aeryn proved that. But he thought of her as a little sister, the spot Chiana had grown out of somewhere along this roller coaster ride. But she was right; he needed to get off Moya before he went crazy with nothing to do.

“ I’ll go mad in black leather, will I? All right, since I have no hurry to stroll down memory lane. Let’s go.”

Hardly an arn later they were on the planet, each duo leisurely heading towards separate destinations. John and Alara wandered the market place, doing a bit of shopping. Ok, so Alara was doing the shopping. New clothes, so she didn’t have to keep borrowing his, she said. After she had gotten what she had felt was a suitable amount of clothing, not as much as John had feared, they dropped off the few bags and went back in search of the clubs they had inquired about earlier.

They sat at the bar, immediately being served what seemed to be the drink of the evening. It was a deep, clear blue and tasted a little like wine. She told John about this after a cautious sip, and then slowly finished it while looking over the other people.

One in particular stood out to her, he was tall with blue and silver hair down to his shoulders. Alara looked him over carefully. He wasn’t Sebacean, but then this wasn’t a Sebacean colony. There were rows of blue and light grey feathers down his arms and they framed his face, making the features seem fuzzy and more shadowed than normal. His clothes were unremarkable compared to the rest of him, plain brown leather pants and a vest that showed a well-built chest, spotted with tiny down feathers.

A hand waved in front of her face, turning her attention to John, who was grinning knowingly. She frowned, more out of annoyance than anything.

“ What?”

“ Nothing, just wondering if you were going to sit there all day drooling, or go over and talk to the birdman.”

She shrugged and finished her drink, hiding her sudden discomfort resulting from his question. “ I don’t know, he seems ok, but we should know that looks aren’t everything when it comes to people, especially out here.”

She groaned as she saw the birdman was coming towards them. Apparently he had noticed her staring.

“It’s not like I’m asking you to be my mate,” he said as soon as he was in earshot. “ All I want is a dance.” He glanced at John, not sure if he would put up a fight over losing the female for a few microts.

Alara stood up, sliding off her perch, standing next to Birdman. “ Can I go?” She pleaded, silently with dark blue eyes that matched John’s own for the moment. He knew she could hold her own with one guy if anything came up. That unnatural strength and her daggers would be enough, even if she didn’t resort to shape shifting, to keep her alive until help came.

“ Sure kitten, just be back before the coach turns back into a pumpkin okay?” She thanked him with a grateful glance and moved to the dance floor, the birdman following her.

John watched them go and start dancing to the odd beat techno music that blasted from hidden sources. Soon, a lovely lady bedecked with dark green feathers and hair with dark olive skin sat on Alara’s vacant stool and took his attention from the dancing pair.

A few arns later, Alara came back, her chest heaving and looking around her like a hunted deer. She grabbed John’s wrist and physically dragged him out of the club and towards the Transport pod.

“ Come on, it’s time to leave. NOW!” John looked at her, surprise written all over his face, but he followed immediately without questions.

“ What happened?” He glanced and saw several black clad armed people come out of the club, heading in their direction. He pulled her into a darkened alleyway between two buildings and put a finger to her lips, stilling any protests. He then motioned her to go ahead of him, her eyesight being far better than any human’s or Sebacean’s.

They wandered the deserted late night streets, avoiding the guards, and getting closer to where they left the pod. Alara explained along the way in hushed whispers.

“ We were kissing and then Ranoosh, birdman, just keeled over. Stone dead.”

“ What!? He just died?”

“ Yeah, and either he had an inflated feeling of importance or he was the ruler of this planet, Lord regent or something or other.”

Alara held up a hand, stopping both conversation and movement. A pair of guards passed the tiny doorway they hid in, barely covered in the shadows. Then they moved on.  The Transport was now in view, a bare 15 yards away from them, and flanked by about 10 of the black clad guards.

With a small, barely suppressed curse, the two ducked into yet another alley as the guards open fired on them. Then abruptly the gunfire stopped, and they heard a short, barked order and the sound of moving feet. Alara glanced around the corner, seeing the guards gone and only one figure there, one covered in dark green feathers.

“ Your lady friend’s out there. Her guards are gone.” The last comment was followed by more gunfire, proving it wrong.

“ Damn! We were this close to getting out of here without a fight.” John spat. “We have the worst luck in the history of bad luck; we have Wily. E. Coyote bad luck. It just had to be you he kissed before he rolled over and died.” He looked around the bend in the alley, where the guards were slowly advancing towards them. “ There’s only ten, not too many for two of us. “ John unholstered Winona. He looked at Alara, expecting her to do the same.

“Um, problem man, no gun.”

“ What?” He hadn’t realized she didn’t carry one.

“ No gun.” She repeated slowly. “ I never used one at home, only my daggers and my own skills. “

He groaned. If they lived through this, he was going to have to rectify that situation. Suddenly he heard the flutter of wings and a blast of wind came from where Alara was standing. He peered through the darkness. She was gone. Thinking she had flown the coop in the midst of a crisis he cursed and yelled out her name.

Then he heard a strained call from the Transport pod, calling off the guards. He poked his head out into the open, surprised to see the woman he was talking to earlier in a very stiff pose, her olive skin yellowed with fear. Alara stood behind her, a dagger across her throat and twisting an arm back.

He stepped out, gun trained on the woman. “ Thanks, kitten. I should have remembered you could do that.” Alara looked up and grinned, the lighting and the fact that her eyes were still glowing from the “shift”, making her look more feral than usual.

“ Now, it’s Kamala, right?” The woman nodded slightly, a light trace of pinkish liquid running down her throat where the knife dug into it. “ Why were you shooting at us?” He gestured to Alara to ease up on the knife.

Kamala swallowed and then spoke, clearly and without the shaking that should have been present. “ That was my brother she killed, Co-Heir to the title of High Regent. The drink she had was laced with Tetsu, a deadly poison to those of Royal blood. It reacted instantly when your female kissed him. The guards were present only so we could establish to my parents that we did indeed look for the murderer.”

Alara growled lightly at being called someone’s female but remained silent for the most part.

“ Whoa, so you aren’t going to kill us?” John asked, not really believing that his luck was actually getting better.

“ No,” Kamala scoffed. “ Why should I waste my time with offworlders? Besides, I have the feeling you are very hard to kill, considering her being able to change like that. My brother was a fop; he wasted our parent’s money and spoiled most of the court’s women. Lucky for him, our law states that if there are more than one offspring, once they are of age they will live among the people until the parents are deceased. Of course, accidents always happen during this time and there is usually only one left to rule. Pity isn’t it?” She chuckled softly, not disappointed in the way things turned out.

John gaped at her, still not completely understanding. “ So we can go? Nothing at all to keep us here?”

“ No, there isn’t. Unless of course you plan on killing me, then you will have problems.” Alara immediately let go of Kamala and pivoted on heels, hopping up into the Transport pod.

“ So what are we waiting for? Let’s get off this rock.” Alara said as she started the engine sequence, waking up Jool and Rygel out of their still drunken stupors that they had fallen into.

“ What happened? Are we leaving already? Itsh not even light outshide yet.” Jool muttered, turning over in her seat. John climbed in, not even looking at Kamala, who stood just outside the door.

“ Nothing, we’re just ready to get back to Moya.” Alara said, sitting down. John still wouldn’t let her drive.

As they approached Moya, Alara groaned. “ A bloody, frelling accident. This is the first time I’ve accidentally killed someone. Usually I plan ahead of time who I’m going to kill and how. Not to mention, I only got one kiss, one drink and didn’t even get smashed off my ass on the first planet I’ve been to.”

“ Well, that’s Murphy’s Law for you. At least you know you won’t have a mad hatter chasing after you.”

“ Yeah, yet. I’m still stuck out here with the rest of you. Who knows what the frell will happen.”

John couldn’t reply to that, knowing full well what she meant. He, of all of them, should know that much.

The End