Chapter 20

Year 3, Day 42, Endeavour, Terra Prime.

Matt Campbell resisted to the urge to roll his eyes as the FSU Ambassador Felix Green, formerly of the US State Department, droned on, it was the third time that week that the man had barged into Matt's office demanding to speak to him about some trivial matter or another, all of which were used as a springboard to demand more access to the technological research, and a greater number of 'diplomatic' transits.

"Chancellor Campbell, one transit a week simply isn't enough to ensure the smooth running of such an important embassy!" Green said, his face purple and covered in sweat from the February heat.

"Ambassador, as I've told you before, on many occasions, our pan-dimensional transfer capacity is strictly limited and you will just have to make do until such time as we manage to improve the situation" Matt said, straining to keep his voice calm, thinking all the while 'you should have thought about that before you started shipping booze and other luxury goods back home you prick'

"Ah yes, 'limited', you claim, yet Harlow is constantly on the move, doing god knows what!" Green snarled.

Matt noticed his personal assistant, a young woman from the 'Roman' world, stiffen at Green's tone and use of Alexander's surname without any honorifics. He needed to deal with that before Green was found beaten to a pulp in some dark corner. Almost everyone respected Alexander, but the people he had freed from slavery damn near worshipped him, it was troubling at times.

"Lord Alexander" Matt said stressing the title, "is the sovereign ruler Terra Prime, and the man most responsible for the destruction of the Espheni forces on your world. You will show him the proper respect!"

"Please forgive me," Green said with a false smile, "It's this abominable heat you see"

Matt hid a sigh, it was going to be a long afternoon. He really wished Dyatlov hadn't been sent to the FSU...

Year 3, Day 45, Commerce Planet, Farscape Universe

Alexander was getting heartily sick of the looks directed his way, they were either nervous, fearful, or thinly veiled hatred, sometimes all three at once. He debated if a stick a sign to his back loudly proclaiming "Not a Sebacean" would work, before discarding that plan as unworkable, and dangerous to his health.

As annoying as the looks were, they did at least keep him safe, the Peacekeepers had a serious reputation, and Alexander wasn't above riding upon it, at least when it came to the hellhole he was currently exploring. The planet made downtown Baghdad seem like a safe place... in 2003.

It did have one thing going for it, variety. Alexander had never been in a place with so many different Alien races, and he'd been to Nar-Fucking-Shaddaa.

Alexander was examining what appeared to be an Alien version of a hotdog when he froze. It had something to do with the very large weapon muzzle a few centimetres away from his face.

"Can I help you?" Alexander asked, his voice calm, but his guts felt like crawling out of his body the hard way. He mentally cursed himself for a fool for taking his helmet off.

"Die Peacekeeper scum!" The Alien, a big Luxan brute, snarled.

'Reputation is a double edged sword it seems.' Alexander mused internally as he twitched the fingers on his left hand, "Actually I'm not..." that was as far as Alexander got before he saw the Luxan's finger tighten on the trigger and he pressed his thumb against the side of his hand hard.

To any spectators it appeared at first like the Luxan's weapons fire vapourized the peacekeeper, something almost unheard of with all but the most powerful pulse weapons; however then the Peacekeeper in the strange bulky black armour appeared behind the Luxan.

Alexander grinned as the world faded back into view, 'perfect, wondered if that would work in the field.' He pulled his arm back and slammed it into the neck the Alien, careful to modulate his augmented strength and the armours inbuilt enhancement. He didn't want to kill the beast after all, even if he had tried to kill him, it was a fair mistake.

The Luxan dropped like a sack of bricks, his head bouncing off the hard surface.

Still grinning Alexander turned to face the crowd that had gathered, "Anyone else want to try?"

Excerpt from Alexander Harlow's Personal Journal. Day 320, Endeavour, Terra Prime

After extensive tests I'm confident that my short range defensive transit will function as intended.

I still need to test it in the field but the ability to jump from the path of weapons fire to a location nearby should do wonders for my survivability.

Automation will have to wait until Project Brainiac is complete however, as everytime I enable the program my brain feels like someone is sticking a red hot poker in it. A pity, the programming was relatively simple, any fast moving projectile (either energy or ballistic) would trigger a 'hop', but again my 'primitive' (and god I wish I could get LVIOS to stop calling me that, it's giving me a complex!) brain got in the way.