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Moya is a female Leviathan transport vessel; a living sentient bio-mechanical space ship, who was once captured by the Peacekeepers. She escaped captivity along with the people imprisoned on her by the Peacekeepers. She has given birth to one offspring, a male by the name of Talyn. Being bio-mechanoid Moya contains both biological and technological components. She was 23 cycles old when John Crichton came aboard, making her 27-28 cycles old at the end of the Peacekeeper/Scarran War.

Moya became a friend and home to her crew and they have been through many bizarre, disheartening, and exhilarating events together. Indeed, on one occasion, when Crichton was asked why the crew were fighting so hard to save Moya, Crichton compared Moya to a mother, as she "gave birth" to all of them by bringing them together and giving them a home.

As with many others of her race, Moya was captured by a Peacekeeper squad at a young age. Her original pilot was slain and another, more cooperative Pilot was bonded with her.[1] This artificially rushed process caused both Pilot and Moya a great deal of pain. Their mismatched nerve endings caused no end of mischief and never quite healed.

At this same time, Moya was genetically altered by Crais to produce Leviathan-Gunship hybrid offspring, but a shield was also installed, by Velorek, so she was not impregnated immediately.[1]

Moya and Pilot, with the help of Crichton, Zhaan, Rygel and Ka D'Argo, manage to escape by accidentally causing the Peacekeeper control collar to release.

To avoid recapture by the Peacekeepers, the crew begins to dismantle any Peacekeeper tech they find. D'Argo finds the shield and destroys it, causing Moya to become pregnant.[2] She gave birth to one offspring, a male who is a Leviathan-Gunship hybrid. Because of the baby's weaponry, he became stuck during the birthing and had to let off a low yield shot to get free.[3]

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.[4] To show her gratitude, Moya asked Officer Sun to name her offspring, and Aeryn later named it after her own father, Talyn.[5]

While being hunted by the Peacekeepers in an asteroid field, Crais comes to Moya seeking asylum. The crew warily let him on board, Aeryn even gives him a tour of Talyn. While the crew are distracted dealing with Scorpius and his command carrier, Crais escaped on Talyn.

It is discovered that Aeryn was part of the squad that killed Moya's former Pilot. In a fit, Pilot begins destroying his connection to Moya. When the unnatural bonding between Pilot and Moya is discovered by the crew they insist on correcting it. The nerve endings are not glued or soldered but allowed to grow together naturally.[1]

The crew hear news of Talyn. He fired on a ship but only after it fired on him.[6]

Moya follows a familiar signal that leads her to a being proclaiming himself to be Kahaynu, a builder who gave Leviathans a soul. He says that he created these ships as beings of peace, but Moya's offspring can dispense carnage and therefore she must be decommissioned. Moya shuts down her systems in sequence willingly, making Zhaan, who is the only one on board other than Pilot, extremely upset. Zhaan's compassion for and strength to protect Moya and Pilot convinces Kahaynu that Moya is in good hands and will not be exploited. Moya is reactivated and Pilot wakes. Kahaynu briefly gives Moya the ability to speak to Zhaan and asks her to sing.[7][8][9]

Later, Crais contacts them, wanting a truce. When they meet, Talyn tells Moya that he's happy and Crais is not mistreating him. But Crais tells the crew that Talyn is becoming more aggressive and Moya's crew must help him disarm the ship. During the discussion, a ship approaches and Talyn fires on it, destroying it, before starbursting away. The crew learns later that the other ship was carrying novatrin gas, a forbidden cargo, and Talyn thought he was protecting Moya.

Moya is infested with Karack metallites after the crew rob the Shadow Depository, which causes her to suffer metal fatigue.[10] To eradicate the metallites, a firestorm is ignited and surges through Moya's corridors. Talyn hears Moya's distress and returns. The crew get a Diagnosan to help Moya recover.[11] After another encounter with Scorpius, Talyn and Crais starburst away.

Moya starbursts to Talyn after receiving his distress call. When arriving they find Talyn adrift and uncommunicative. Crais is unconscious. When he awakes he tells the crew that they were attacked by a Peacekeeper retrieval squad sent to capture Talyn.

Moya and Talyn separate again. Moya receives an offer from a Relgarian named Linfer, who was working with Scorpius on wormhole travel. She believes she has solved the shielding problem and offers it to Crichton, in exchange for Moya. Pilot and Moya seem ready to accept such an offer but Linfer soon discovers that her shield has merely delayed the liquefication.

Talyn and Moya rendezvous. Talyn has become increasingly, emotionally unstable. When he attacks a medical ship, killing the 600 people on board, Crais and the rest of the crew decide something must be done. Moya is uneasy but after Aeryn talks to her, she agrees to allow them to shut Talyn down. When Talyn hears this he deliberately attacks Moya. They eventually convince Talyn that he is sick and needs help and they begin to shut him down.[12]

Talyn is brought aboard Scorpius's command carrier for a full cognitive replacement. Once there, the crew realize they need to destroy the carrier to protect the wormhole knowledge. Crais says the only way to do it is to starburst inside the carrier. Talyn sacrifices his life to save the crew of Moya.[13] Talyn starbursts within the carrier, causing a massive energy wave that progressively consumed the carrier while leaving enough time for most of the crew to evacuate the ship.

Talyn's remains were carried by Moya to the sacred Leviathan burial space, something of an elephant graveyard of Leviathans, space they regard as holy and where they go to die. A rogue Leviathan whose three offspring were all killed by the Peacekeepers will not let Talyn, a part/half Peacekeeper, be buried here and attacks Moya. Moya understands the grief of losing a child, but has decided that this Leviathan's behavior is unacceptable... therefore, Moya asks the crew to kill the rogue. As the rogue Leviathan is dispatched, Talyn is mourned by Moya and her crew, with Chiana and Jool overseeing the release of his remains and Rygel delivering a eulogy where he proclaimed that Talyn had been a credit to both his species.[14]

Moya, like all Leviathans, has no weapons and is capable of only one defensive maneuver, Starburst. The ability to starburst is a faster than light drive system that is unmatched in its ability to evade pursuers. A starbursting Leviathan cannot be caught unless its drive system is disrupted just as it begins ignition. Once a Leviathan has entered starburst, it can travel enormous distances in far less time than most other vessels. Aiding this ability to evade is the imprecise nature of traveling by starburst. Often even the ship and its pilot have no idea where they are after a starburst.

This randomness is likely biological, due to it not having been duplicated on any other sort of ship, despite the Peacekeepers interest in the starburst ability. Starburst begins with an energy build up in an internal chamber which surges through the pilot's den, around the pilot. The energy is then released out the rear of the ship to surge over the ship's hull. Upon reaching the nose of the ship it opens a tear into another dimension and the ship enters it. The ship is shifted through that dimension until it is pushed out at random achieving travel speeds unmatched by all but wormhole travel. Only the Scarrans have ships that can come close to the performance of a Leviathan.

Background information [ edit | edit source ]

Rockne S. O'Bannon recalls the trouble they had when initially designing Moya. He stated, "The notion of a being that was large enough to carry other beings inside as parasites seemed like a cool idea. The tough part was to come up for a design for Moya, particularly the interior, because, as I kept saying to Ricky Eyres, I wanted it to look 'suggestive' of organic, but I didn't want it to give the sense that when people walked down the passageway you'd hear a squishing sound. I didn't want it to be off-putting in that way. If people tuned into the show and didn't know that Moya was a living being, they'd think that our characters were inside a ship with very unusual lines. then when you tell the audience it's a living organism, they can see it." ("Farscape Chronicles" - Starburst Edition DVD v1.1)