The Gammak base

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In the fictional Farscape universe, The Gammak base is a research facility built by the Peacekeepers in the Unchartered Territories, not long before the events of the Farscape episode "A Bug's Life". Its main use was to research wormhole technology for the Peacekeepers.

[edit] Location

The Gammak base was located on a grey, oil-covered moon in orbit around a gas giant. The gas giant hads a rather large asteroid field surrounding it, in which it is quite possible to hide ships without them being easily discoverable.

[edit] Entry Procedure

The base itself was underground, and had fewer sensors than one would normally expect from such a base, in order to disguise its whereabouts. Normally, Peacekeepers wishing to land at the base would have to identify themselves before being given permission to land; however these procedures were sometimes waived with very important personnel for increased security.

[edit] History

Not much is known about the history of the base before the events of "Nerve". The base was used for various things, including making weapons, researching an intelligent virus that can move through and control the minds of hosts and, most importantly, research wormhole technology.

In "Nerve", John Crichton, Aeryn Sun, Ka D'Argo, Zotoh Zhaan, Dominar Rygel XVI and Chiana travel aboard the Leviathan Moya to the asteroid field surrounding the gas giant. Their mission is to infiltrate the Gammak base and retrieve a tissue sample in order to cure Aeryn Sun of a fatally damaged nerve.

John Crichton, disguised as Captain Larraq, and Chiana travelled to the base from Moya in a Prowler. On approach, they are asked to identify themselves; however they don't, citing security reservations as their reason. Eventually, they are given a landing vector, and dock at the Gammak base.

On arrival, they are greeted by Tollona Javio and Lieutenant Heskon, and John (as Larraq) is asked for his ident chip. Fortunately, Chiana has stolen a high-clearance chip from the real Larraq. It looks like the end for them, however, when "Larraq" is asked to pass a genetic scan in order to proceed to another level of the base, but this problem is solved by Peacekeeper tech Gilina Renaez, a friend of Crichton's whom he had previously encountered on the wreck of the Zelbinion.

Gilina synthesizes some parapheral tissue to cure Aeryn, but as John and Chiana are leaving, Crichton is stopped by Scorpius, who recognizes that Crichton is not Sebacean. Scorpius uses a device within the base known as the Aurora Chair to probe John's mind and discover that he has knowledge of wormhole technology. He then contacts Bialar Crais to try to provide John with some incentive to stop resisting the Aurora Chair. When Crais arrives in his Command Carrier, he lies to Crichton about having his friends in custody and threatens John with their lives in order to get him to stop resisting the Chair.

Gilina contacts Crichton through a security camera, hoping to help him out. Crichton instead has Chiana return with the tissue sample to Moya. Chiana, disguised as a tech, leaves the base in the Prowler, while Gilina caused a diversion, setting off an evacuation warning in the base and a targeting system blind spot. On her way out, Chiana is forced to kill Commander Javio, who has realised her true identity.

In "The Hidden Memory", Aeryn, Zhaan, and D'Argo travel to the Gammak base in Moya's transport pod, Aeryn having been completely healed. Once they land, Aeryn descends to the underground base via an access shaft, out of view of any sensors. Gilina hacks into the Aurora Chair and presented a false memory of Crichton giving Crais the wormhole technology in return for his life. Though Crais denies this, Scorpius put Crais in the Chair, believing that the Chair could not be fooled and that this will reveal the real truth. Though he is shown many dark parts of Crais's past, he finds no wormhole information. This is cut short when Aeryn and Gilina helped Crichton and Stark escape.

After hiding in a compartment below the floor for some time, the four leave for the access shaft that Aeryn used to access the base initially. In the ensuing firefight on the moon's surface, Gilina is wounded, and subsequently dies aboard Moya.

Meanwhile, Moya gives birth to a son within the asteroid field.

In "Bone to be Wild", Scorpius moves himself and some of his staff from the base to Crais's command carrier, taking control.

The base is destroyed in "Family Ties". Hoping to give Moya and her infant Talyn a chance to escape the asteroid field, Crichton and D'Argo send an unmanned transport pod filled with explosives into a collision with the surface of the oil-covered moon. The impact causes a reaction that ignites the surface of the moon and destroys the base in a brilliant fireball.

Despite this setback, Scorpius gains a new gammak base, constructed around a cycle later.