Talyn is a sentient bio-mechanical starship that appears in the sci-fi TV series Farscape. He is the offspring of the Leviathan Moya, the living ship that provides the main setting for the series. Unlike other Leviathans, however, Talyn is also a gunship. Leviathans do not carry weapons naturally, but Talyn is the result of an experiment carried out on Moya while she was under the control of the Peacekeepers.
History[]
The Leviathan Moya was subjected to a hybridization experiment by the Peacekeepers while in captivity. A synthetic stimulant/contraceptive was placed in her by a Peacekeeper Leviathan expert called Tam Velorek, the leader of the experiment. It was accidentally released by Ka D'Argo six months after Moya's escape from Peacekeeper captivity, leading to the conception of a fetus. Roughly a cycle later, Moya gave birth to a baby Leviathan. Because of the baby's weaponry, he became stuck during the birthing and had to let off a low yield shot to get free.
In his infancy, the baby had a few disagreements with his mother and refused to talk to her. Moya felt that a Peacekeeper should talk to him and asked Aeryn Sun to assist. Aeryn boarded the infant Leviathan and succeeded in convincing him to listen to his mother. To show her gratitude, Moya asked Aeryn to name her offspring, and Aeryn later named it after her own father, Talyn.
However, the result of the Peacekeeper experiment was obvious: Talyn was far from a normal Leviathan. The contraceptive had been contaminated with DNA that produced weapons, and Talyn was born with integral weaponry, the most notable of which is his main gun, the sonic ascendancy cannon. These weapons caused difficulty at his birthing from Moya but also proved to be the solution when he used a low level blast to blow out two tiers of Moya otherwise leaving her unharmed.
Not long after his birth, Talyn was commandeered by defecting Peacekeeper captain Bialar Crais. Having been bred by Peacekeepers, Crais believed that Talyn would be inclined to take commands from a Peacekeeper. Talyn had been designed to function without need for a Pilot like other Leviathans, instead being operated via a neural interface. Talyn attached a neural transponder to Crais and together they ventured into the Uncharted Territories.
Some time later, Talyn would reunite with its mother Moya. Crais was having difficulty keeping Talyn in line and the hybrid had lashed out against others without Crais' orders. Moya and Aeryn attempted to reach out to Talyn in order to calm him, though circumstances made these efforts very difficult.
During Season 3, Moya's crew would become divided when a Peacekeeper retrieval squad came in search of Talyn. At the time, John Crichton had been twinned by the alien Kaarvok and existed as two individuals. One of the Crichtons remained on Moya with D'Argo, Chiana and Jool while the other went aboard Talyn along with Crais, Aeryn, Rygel and Stark. The two Leviathans would reunite months later after the threat of Xhalax Sun and her squad had been eliminated, but the Crichton who had been aboard Talyn had died following a conflict with the Charrids on Dam-Ba-Da. Not long after the reunion, Talyn's paranoia had reached new heights with tragic consequences as it opened fire on an unarmed hospital ship, killing 600 innocent sentients. Crais, Aeryn and Pilot came to an uneasy agreement with Moya; since Talyn posed a threat to himself, Moya and everyone else, it was decided that Talyn's neural circuits would be disconnected, essentially lobotomising him.
Death[]
During the two-part story "Into the Lion's Den", Crichton and the crew of Moya had boarded Scorpius' command carrier, supposedly to assist Scorpius with his wormhole research. Their true intent was to stop Scorpius' project dead in its tracks and as the situation escalated it became clear that the group would have to destroy the command carrier completely. Talyn was in the command carrier's main hangar while PK techs worked at installing new components that would revive the seemingly brain-dead Leviathan. Crais informed the others that the only hope they had of destroying the carrier while giving its crew time to evacuate was for Talyn to starburst while inside the hangar. Moya and Pilot were informed of the plan and, while it pained them both, Moya knew that Talyn's life was likely to come to a violent end. At least this way, Talyn would die for noble reasons. With Moya's permission, Crais boarded Talyn for the last time and ordered him to starburst. The massive energy release within the confinement of the carrier's hangar caused an explosion that destroyed Talyn and Crais and caused the carrier to collapse on itself.