Farscape/Blakes7 (G)

[lady-smith.livejournal.com]

Title: Liberations by Astrogirl
Pairing: Stark-Zen, Stark/Zen if you squint.
Author on LJ: astrogirl2
Author Website: Blog: Maximum Verbosity
Why this must be read:

astrogirl2 is one of those very rare authors who have been rec'd by this noble institution for two fandoms, specifically the two fandoms presented here. Moreover, Farscape and Blakes7 are clearly her two passions, and it shows in the vividness and accuracy with which she writes the characters of both series, especially her "pet characters" - two of which are definitely Stark and Zen.

An ongoing mystery in the Farscape universe is how exactly Stark managed to reconstitute himself so relatively quickly after having been blasted out of corporeal existence in "The Ugly Truth". Astrogirl proposes he had help.

Zen is the ship's computer aboard the Liberator, and in the episode "Terminal" sacrificed himself for the survival of his crew. Though possessed of a flat, mechanic voice and vocabulary, he nonetheless impressed Blake enough to be numbered as the 7th in Blake's seven, and be referred to (rather vehemently at times) as "he" and not "it". He was possessed of a strange charm and dry wit, and was eminently competent at his duties of flying the ship and running the matter-energy converters. He begs the question as to how much consciousness an AI requires to pass into the afterlife. Of course, if the afterlife is merely a different energy state, as seems to be the case in the Farscape universe...

He has encountered many souls here, some transitioning from life to death, some, like him, trapped between. But this one is different, unlike any he has encountered, the feel of it precise and clean even in the anguished throes of death.

I, it cries as it wanders, lost. I, I am, I am, I, as if its individual existence were something new and precious it is desperately afraid to lose.

Who are you? he asks, as he moves to touch it, offering comfort because that is what he does.

I? I am. I am Zen. I am Zen. The name, so close to one he knows, gives him a pang in the phantom memory of his chest. There is a reason, he remembers, a reason to want to return to the world of the living. A reason to want a body and a heart.

Go, read, savor the stark zen of Stark-Zen, and be sure to review.

Liberations