Talyn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the fictional Farscape universe, Talyn is a Peacekeeper/Leviathan hybrid gunship, a living spaceship that is the progeny of the Leviathan Moya.
Talyn is named after Aeryn Sun's father.
The Leviathan Moya was subjected to a hybridization experiment by the Peacekeepers while in captivity. A synthetic stimulant/conceptive was placed in her by a peacekeeper Leviathan expert called Velorek leader of the experiment. It was accidentally released by the Ka D'Argo six months after their escape from peacekeeper captivity, leading to the conception of a fetus. Roughly six months later, Moya gave birth to a baby Leviathan, though the baby was far from normal: unlike typical Leviathans, which are streamlined and have no weapons whatsoever, the infant was "covered with weapons." During the birthing process, Talyn's external weaponry caused him to become stuck in the birth canal, and he had to fire a low-yield shot from those same weapons to free himself. Shortly after his birth, he had a few disagreements with his mother and refused to talk to her. Moya felt that a Peacekeeper should talk to him. Aeryn boarded Talyn and succeeded in convincing the young Leviathan to listen to his mother. Moya asked Officer Aeryn Sun to name her offspring, and Aeryn named it after her father, Talyn.
At times, Talyn could be emotionally unstable, even going so far as to deliberately attack Moya. He also panicked easily. It is unclear whether this resulted from his violent childhood, or from errors in his genome, perhaps the result of trying to create a warship from an essentially nonaggresive species.
[edit] Sonic Ascendancy Cannon
Mounted on a gun turret at the top of the ship, this is Talyn’s largest weapon, and has been used to lethal effect, able to cripple or destroy some of the series' most powerful ships. At one point, worried about Talyn's destructive potential, Crais wanted to replace it with a dampening net. Ironically, Talyn shot the net salesmen with the cannon and Starburst away. In later episodes, Talyn used the cannon to destroy the Shadow Depository and Scorpius’s Marauder.
[edit] Internal defenses
Talyn has multiple weapons emplacements, not only his impressive complement of external weapons but powerful network of internal defensive weapons to repel boarding parties. He used them to kill a Scarran, a noteworthy feat as they are known to be difficult to kill.
[edit] Classification
Talyn is classified as a Leviathan/Peacekeeper gunship hybrid. Unlike other Leviathans, Talyn doesn't have a Pilot bonded to him, but still has a vestigial Pilot's den: although he physically could be bonded to a Pilot (he managed to bond temporarily, yet successfully, to Stark in one instance through the Pilot's den), he does not require one in order to navigate himself and fire his weapons. He can operate purely on voice command; still, a humanoid can be implanted with a device that allows direct interface with Talyn, although not to the same extent as a Pilot (Talyn can resist orders from time to time: they're more suggestions than orders). This device, unless properly modified, can also be a two-way street through which Talyn can force feedback through to injure the implanted humanoid. It also leaves the humanoid open to feeling Talyn's pain as Pilot feels Moya's pain. The device's sympathetic effect can even go as far as to physically blind the humanoid if Talyn's sensors are damaged. Also because of the connection strength Talyn can force those connected to him to do his will to a certain degree. This causes great pain to the humanoid pilot to the extent that was seen on Crais.
Talyn is regarded as one of the most advanced ships ever created; not only is he more powerful than a standard Peacekeeper gunship, with superior weaponry, sensors, and maneuverability, but as a living ship he can automatically heal himself over time without having to put into drydock. He also comes with his own DRDs (internal maintenance robots), which don't look like the DRDs of other Leviathans, having an armored appearance.
Talyn was a very powerful ship when young, and had he achieved maturity he would likely have been one of the most powerful ships in the galaxy. He was young (and quite childlike) for much of Farscape, and was dwarfed by his mother Moya, although he did grow gradually over the series. It was theorised by Pilot that he might even have grown larger than a normal Leviathan.
At the end of season 3 Talyn sacrificed his life to save the crew of Moya. Captured and disabled while docked inside the Peacekeeper Command Carrier that had been following the crew for three years, Talyn starburst within the carrier, causing a massive energy wave that progressively destroyed the Carrier (while leaving enough time for most of the crew to evacuate the ship). Talyn's remains were carried by Moya to the Leviathan Sacred Space region, something of an elephant graveyard of Leviathans; space they regard as holy and where they go to die. He was mourned by Moya and her crew.
