, as the crew members left behind, assist Pilot in helping Moya give birth. There's not much they can do -- Rygel has hundreds of children, but he's always avoided the actual births.
Unfortunately, back at the secret Peacekeeper base, Scorpius summons Gilina and some other techs to help boost the power of the aurora chair. Thinking quickly, Gilina volunteers to do some systems patches by herself, only to slip in some sabotage while she's at it.
When she's done, she makes contact with Crichton again, telling him to remember their kiss on the Zelbinnian, back in the episode "PK Tech Girl".
Crichton refuses at first, worrying that he'll betray her. But then, as Scorpius and Crais enter to take Crichton for another session, Stark distracts the jailers long enough for Gilina to convince Crichton.
Scorpius again offers a kind of mercy, telling Crichton the torture will stop anymore if he'll just give up whatever he's hiding. He's genuinely puzzled by Crichton's resistance, asking "What's so important that you'll go through all of this?" Crichton doggedly insists he has nothing to hide.
Because your kiss I can't resist . . .
In the chair, Crichton concentrates on the kiss. On the display, the memory is interrupted by Crais entering and beginning a conversation with Crichton.
(The beautiful blonde kissing Crichton as the "memory" begins is not Gilina -- a smart touch in both Gilina's aurora chair programming skills and Justin Monjo's writing.)
As the pre-programmed "memory" unfolds, Crais tells Crichton about his background as a poor farmer's boy who has risen as far as he could using guile and hate. However, the wormhole data Crichton has provided to him will help Crais rise much higher.
Even Crichton is surprised by this "memory", which thoroughly implicates the hapless Crais as Crichton's spymaster, but Crais is livid with anger. He slaps Crichton, demanding to know the truth behind this trickery.
Crichton collects himself enough to "confess" to having given Crais the wormhole data to save his own life. Crais grabs him, screaming, "He's lying! Damn you, Crichton, tell him the truth!"
Sometimes a loyalty oath just isn't enough
Scorpius confronts Crais, who still denies everything. The only way for Scorpius to be sure is by putting Crais in the distinctly uncomfortable chair.
Outside the base, D'Argo has finished getting equipment out of the transport pod while Zhaan upgrades their relatively puny supply of explosives. Having found an access hatch into the base, Aeryn heads down a long set of stairs into one of the corridors.
Crichton is amazed at Gilina's subterfuge, and wants to use the time he's gained to find an escape even though the interrogation has left him a physical and mental wreck.
Taking pity on Crichton's condition, Stark removes his mask, and light shines from the hidden half of his face. He gives Crichton the peace of restful thoughts, and tells Crichton his story.
Stark has been here nearly two cycles. He is one of the last of an alien race with minor mental powers, but the Peacekeepers only keep him alive because his ability to hide memories from the aurora chair interests them.
Back in the chair itself, Crais lives through a variety of unpleasant experiences, including his father's orders to protect his brother. Scorpius asks him, "Don't you like your past, Crais?"
Aeryn to the rescue
Pretending to be a patrolling guard, Aeryn makes her way through the corridors. She grabs Gilina, frightening her badly, but then thanks Gilina for saving her life. Gilina tells her that nobody can get into Crichton's cell without orders from Scorpius.
On the surface, Zhaan and D'Argo prepare an explosive ambush for any Peacekeeper troops that might follow escaping prisoners.
As it turns out, Aeryn has come up with a plan. She brings the base's chief security officer to Crichton's cell, telling him that she has detected magnetic signals.
To his great surprise -- and probably Aeryn's, although Gilina may have learned of Stark's device and told her -- he finds the signal of Stark's lockpick and enters the cell. Aeryn then promptly clubs him into unconsciousness.
Scorpius has penetrated the last of Crais's memories, learning that he killed Lt. Teeg and defied orders from the Admiralty in a previous episode, "That Old Black Magic".
Of course, he has no actual memory of wormholes, but just as Scorpius realizes that Crichton's "memory" was fake, Crichton's escape with a Peacekeeper accomplice is announced.
"Seal the base," Scorpius orders. "Everything. He must not get to the surface."
Nowhere to run, somewhere to hide
Aeryn, Stark, Crichton and Gilina flee through the corridors. They find the stair to the surface, but only Stark has time to head up the stairs before a squad of pursuing Peacekeepers catch up to them.
Aeryn, Crichton and Gilina make do with hiding under a floor grating. After the search party departs, Gilina reports there's a new lock on the access hatch, one that requires a senior officer's ident chip to open. Aeryn goes to search for a senior officer.
Pilot has just learned that for Moya to give birth she'll have to equalize the pressure inside and outside of her hull in the next 80 seconds -- effectively opening her interior to vacuum.
That's not enough time for Chiana and Rygel to join him in his den, so they take shelter in a pressure tank in one of the cargo bays.
Rygel gets comfortable, but it's uncomfortably close to Chiana. He's also getting nervous about the confined space -- and nervous Hynerians are flatulent Hynerians.
The Tristan Adams school of psychiatry
As it transpires, the first senior officer Aeryn finds is Crais, still strapped in the aurora chair. She has a long-awaited confrontation with him about his branding her "irreversibly contaminated" by her contact with Crichton, then takes his ident chip.
Crais vows he'll track down and kill her. In turn, Aeryn gives him his life -- and makes him watch it by turning the chair back on at maximum power. She departs to his screams.
While Gilina and Crichton wait, Gilina demands to know what Crichton's feelings are for Aeryn. He hesitates before answering, and Aeryn's return prevents a firm response afterward.
Unfortunately, Scorpius and his aide have found Crais. Quickly figuring out the plan to escape to the surface, they head for the elevators in order to surprise the fugitives when they emerge.
As said fugitives reach the stairway, Crichton notices Gilina is no longer with them. Aeryn tells him Gilina's decided to remain behind, and stops Crichton from going back for her. "It's her choice," Aeryn tells him.
Moya repressurizes her interior, allowing Chiana and Rygel to emerge from the pressure tank. Now they have a new problem -- the baby Leviathan is caught on one of the vents and is covered with weapons.
Episiotomy in space
When D'Argo breached the contraceptive wall half a cycle ago, Pilot explains, the Peacekeeper-altered DNA must have contained instructions for producing weapons. It's the first time any Leviathan has had weapons, and it's uncertain where the baby's loyalties might lie.
Of course, Chiana and Rygel focus on the more immediate complication. Moya's birth canal isn't designed to accommodate the baby's gun-bristling shape. Since it can't get free on it's own, it is starting to charge up its weapons in panic.
Pilot can supply air through the vent the baby is caught on, but Chiana will have to go in and cut the baby free.
Birth, death and other explosions
Meanwhile, Aeryn and Crichton join the others on the surface, but Peacekeepers are in hot pursuit and a running firefight is in progress.
As they flee, Crichton and Stark reflect on the secrets they were trying to keep from the Peacekeepers. Crichton had been protecting Gilina by hiding their kiss, while Stark has been concealing a wonderful memory of a place he had seen as a boy.
Chiana has little luck freeing the baby, which will fire on Moya in moments. Surrendering to the inevitable, she asks Pilot to tell the baby to fire its trapped weapon at the lowest possible level. The blast should free it without seriously harming its mother.
On the surface, the rest of the crew remains pinned down until Stark and Crichton set off a chain of the explosives Zhaan placed and make a run for it.
On Moya, Chiana also flees the explosion set off by the baby's weapons. "That," she exclaims, "was a low-level blast?"
Just before Crichton makes it to the ship, Scorpius grabs him, only to be distracted by Gilina with a gun.
Scorpius reacts quickly, shooting Gilina. Crichton takes advantage of the distraction to grab Scorpius' gun; Scorpius flees.
D'Argo and Crichton then gather up Gilina and run for the ship. From the smoke and flames, Scorpius watches them go.
A beginning and an end
Before heading to the surface, Gilina scrambled the base's computer files, and even Crais' ship won't be able to find Moya for a while. That's good, because Moya is still in no condition to starburst.
Otherwise, both Moya and the baby -- a male -- are healthy. The question is, as D'Argo muses, "what kind of beast is he," with such a powerful natural arsenal.
Gilina is dying, although Crichton does his best to reassure her. Stark also helps, easing her pain with a memory of the wonderful place he saw.
As she falls away, Gilina asks Crichton, "Do you think if things had been different, you could have loved me?"
He nods. They share one last kiss, and then she's gone.
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