AUTHOR: player
RATING: R - Graphic violence, language, and some sexual suggestion.
SPOILERS: Season 1, and Season 2 up to OoTM
SUMMARY: Sorry, not this time. Anything I write would give too much away.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters, the Jim Henson Company does,
and…whatever. I'm too lazy to write out the entire disclaimer. Yeah, I
could copy and paste it, but I'm too lazy to do that, too.
ARCHIVING: If you want it, ask me first. Otherwise, I'm going to… Frell,
I don't know. I'll just do something.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the third of six fics in the "Natalie Grant
Series", or…whatever you want to call it. I haven't come up with an actual
name yet. Anyway, the previous two fics are "Going Home?" and "A Mother's
Love". "Going Home?" takes place two weeks after OoTM, so none…well, most
of the events that happened after that episode never occurred in this AU.
If you want to understand what's going on in this story, you
NEED to read those two fics. They’re not that great, but you
still need to read them. You can find them in the Farscape Library or at
various FanFic archives including Redbeard's
(http://fffa.soliii.net/cgi-bin/archive.pl) and The Void into the Uncharted
Territories (http://www.geocities.com/farscapevoid/).
Sharon, you inspire me in ways that one else can... Saying 'thank you'
just isn't enough for all that you've done for me. I don't know what I
would've done, and would do, without you. Thanks, once again, to 13thNight
and Aleria (and their "red pens") for being my absolutely fantastic beta
readers. And I have to thank White Zombie. It's amazing how listening to
their song 'More Human Than Human' helps you get into the writing mood. :D
Flashbacks denoted by asterisks.
John looked ahead of him and to the right at D'Argo through his
night-vision monocle with a worried expression on his face when he heard
the Luxan break their silence. "What?"
"Just what I said," D'Argo responded, as he pointed his qualta rifle up and
lifted his boot off the ground. "Dren."
"Just be sure to wipe it off as soon as we get back to Talyn," Chiana said
from her position behind John. She held her breath and took a few
tentative steps back in the waste conduit, which was large enough for even
D'Argo to stand upright. She looked down at the ground around the pulse
rifle she was holding while she stepped back, being sure not to get any
dren on her boots, just as John shot a glance her way.
D'Argo turned around to look at his companions through his monocle with an
annoyed look on his face as John turned back to face D'Argo. They couldn't
see D'Argo's exact expression, only his body heat, his stance showed them
exactly what he was thinking. What D'Argo felt didn't matter, though.
They had to get Jothee out of the barracks they were heading for, and get
him off the mining colony.
"Shall we?" John asked. "This is your son who we're trying to
rescue here."
"I know he's my son," D'Argo yelled.
"Dammit, D'Argo," John quietly warned through gritted teeth. "Don't yell.
Do you want everyone on this frelling planet to know we're here?"
D'Argo just growled in response, turned around with his tenkas flailing in
the slight breeze flowing through the conduit, and stormed off towards the
barracks. John turned around to look at Chiana who only shrugged and they
both followed their Luxan shipmate.
Carefully and quietly, the armed trio continued down the waste conduit
attempting to avoid stepping in, on, or through anything that would alert
their 'enemy of the week' to their presence.
Unfortunately, the three unknowingly walked past a motion detector as they
made their way to the drainage conduit leading up to the grate in the floor
of the barracks.
Walking around a steady trickle of cleansing fluid flowing down the side of
the drainage conduit behind the ladder, they came to stand directly under
the opening to the conduit and looked up.
"There it is," John whispered.
D'Argo converted his rifle back into a blade, sheathed it, and said, "Let's
go." He reached up to grab the lower rung of the ladder that was bolted to
the side of the conduit and hoisted himself up into it.
Chiana slung the strap of her pulse rifle across shoulder as John got into
position under the conduit to help push her up. Unfortunately for him, he
also had to stand under the cleansing fluid, which flowed off his hair,
down his face, and over his black jacket, to help her up. Chiana walked
around John, put her foot on his knee as he put his hands on her hips, and
she put her hands on his arms.
"On three," John said, with Chiana nodding in response. "One…two…three."
John held his breath, straining his muscles, and pushed Chiana up into the
conduit as she pushed off of him. She grabbed the lower rung and John
pushed her once more. He continued to hold his breath and Chiana climbed,
first using John's shoulders for leverage, then his head.
"Dammit, Chiana, watch where you're steppin', will 'ya?" John ordered in an
annoyed tone.
"Sorry," she said sarcastically. "Frell…would you rather have me fall?"
"No, but could you at least start laying off the sweets? You're getting
heavy…"
"Hey…" Chiana started, but D'Argo stopped and interrupted.
"Shut up, both of you," the Luxan warned.
"Sorry," Chiana sheepishly whispered as she looked up at her ex-lover.
John just looked on, showing no emotion whatsoever.
With a growl, D'Argo started up the conduit again. He reached the grate
and cautiously pushed it up far enough for him to take a quick look around
the barracks and see what was inside, or rather what wasn't inside. "What
the frell?"
"What?" Chiana asked, but didn't get an answer.
D'Argo didn't respond. He just pushed the grate to the side and climbed
into the barracks.
"D'Argo, what the hell are you doing?" John asked through gritted teeth.
He didn't get a response, either.
"What should I do?" Chiana asked John, anxiously.
"Follow him."
"Dren."
Chiana started back up the ladder and followed D’Argo out of the conduit
while he covered her. Raising her pulse rifle, she took position on the
opposite side of the opening from D'Argo to help cover John. She looked
around the barracks through her monocle with her mouth gaping in disbelief.
Once John had climbed out of the conduit he pulled his two pulse pistols,
one holstered on his right thigh and the other the behind his back, and
took aim, looking for any threat. But there was nothing there, nothing at
all. "What the frell is going on?" he asked.
The trio moved around the room to check for any threats and to look for
anything that would tell them where everyone went. All they found were a
few canvas cots folded and stacked up against the wall at the far end of
the barracks and a door at the opposite end.
As they walked back to the drainage conduit, John and D'Argo reholstered
their weapons and Chiana moved to make her way down the conduit again to
move to the next barracks, as per the plan. A blinding light suddenly
engulfed them, forcing them to take their night vision monocles off. John,
D'Argo, and Chiana were blinded for a few microts, but when they regained
their vision they heard pulse rifles charging above them.
"Oh, frell," Chiana yelled as she looked up, raising her pulse rifle
mirroring John and D'Argo who also aimed their weapons upwards, and saw
dozens of guards on the catwalks above with their weapons trained on her
and her friends.
It was a tense standoff, with no one making a move or saying a single word
after Chiana's initial outburst, but the standoff lasted for only a few
microts.
The guards opened fire.
D'Argo went down immediately as the pulse blasts cut through his body like
a hot knife through butter, spraying his blood and gray matter everywhere,
even on John and Chiana. Seeing that there was nothing they could do for
D'Argo, John tried to pull the screaming Chiana, who was firing her pulse
rifle maniacally at the guards above, back into the drainage conduit, but
one of the guards threw a charge down at them to block their escape route.
"Frell," John yelled. "Chiana, run!"
They tried to make a run for the door, dodging the pulse fire, when the
charge exploded sending John and Chiana to the ground with shrapnel
embedded in their bodies. The smoke from the explosion caused the guards
on the catwalks to fire blindly into the cloud, and John did the best he
could to avoid the blasts as he tried to find Chiana. Unfortunately, the
smoke started to clear leaving John out in the open, and once the guards
saw him they all opened fire on him.
The pulse blasts cut through John with gruesome ease, and he immediately
found himself on the ground unable to move, his blood flowing freely from
his numerous wounds. Across from him was the lifeless body of Chiana, a
horrified expression frozen on her face, laying in a pool of her own thick,
light blue blood. He looked at her, hearing only his own diminished
breathing and slowing heartbeat. A number of microts went by before one of
the guards slowly came into his field of view. John watched as the guard
slowly turned around. To him it looked like the guard was yelling, but
everything was happening in slow motion. As he listened to his own
breathing, John watched two more guards come to stand on either side of
their comrade. They spoke to each other, but John couldn't hear what they
were saying. He lay helpless as they raised their rifles, aimed them, and
fired.
Everything went black.
Aeryn shot up out of her bunk on the left wall, waking up from her
nightmare shaking and covered with sweat. She frantically looked around
for a few microts before realizing that she was still in the small, sparse
quarters she shared with John, and found that she was alone once again.
She wasn't surprised, though; she usually was alone when she woke up. Not
that she minded. She didn't want John to see her scared out of her mind
because of a nightmare that just happened to be the same one she had been
having for the past weeken. She had started having that particular
nightmare of John, D'Argo, and Chiana being killed on the mining colony
after they had gotten information two weekens earlier that Jothee was being
held as a slave and had been put up for sale. Of course, that was after
Chiana had somehow managed to procure the layout to the colony.
Unfortunately, that nightmare was no better than the one it had replaced.
In the eight monens since she and John had rescued each other she'd
continuously had nightmares of being tortured in the Aurora Chair with
Scorpius and Crais looming above her, and of what the Aurora Chair had
forced her to remember. Her dreams were horrors that she had been forced
to relive nearly every single night, and they had taken their toll on her,
both physically and mentally.
Getting up from the bunk, Aeryn stripped off her black Peacekeeper standard
issue underwear and walked over to the recently constructed private alcove
in her quarters to take a shower. Frankly, the crew had all grown tired of
bathing in Talyn's small communal shower that was similar to the communal
bathing areas on Peacekeeper ships. No matter how much they all, except
John and Aeryn, tried not to take a shower at the same time, someone always
ended up having to bathe in front of one or two other people. For D'Argo,
Natalie and Chiana, it was very disconcerting.
As Aeryn walked to the alcove, she noticed John's black vest, which had
once been the black jacket Chiana snurched for him eight monens ago, laying
on top of his new, ankle length, black, all leather duster on the small
table jutting out from the opposite wall. Seeing it there concerned her
because John always wore his vest unless he was in a hurry to get out of
bed, and Aeryn knew why. She watched him at times when she couldn't sleep.
He was having nightmares just like she was, but he didn't normally wake up
shaking and in a cold sweat. John would usually toss, turn, and, on
occasion, he would quietly moan in reaction to his nightmares. Then he
would wake up, get dressed, and leave to go to the bridge, the center
chamber, or the docking bay rather than staying to talk to her about it.
On some nights, such as this night, the nightmare would be so bad that John
would only get partially dressed before leaving to clear his mind.
Aeryn knew she had to talk to him to get him to open up; she even wanted to
talk to him. But no matter how much Aeryn wanted to talk to him she
couldn't bring herself to open the subject. At least not today, because in
a few short arns they would be arriving at the mining colony to rescue
Jothee, and they all needed John to be focused on the task at hand. That
was, of course, if she couldn't convince the others to try something
different; something other than a suicide run.
As Aeryn activated the shower and stepped inside to let the warm,
refreshing cleansing fluid cascade down her body, she thought, I'll just
have to find the time to talk to John later about that…among other things.
"Aeryn, look," John interrupted. "This time, we don't have any other
options…"
"No, John, there are always other options. We have two Marauders
and five Prowlers. We could go to a commerce planet and sell one of the
Marauders and three of the Prowlers for money to buy Jothee. At least that
way the chances of your being killed won't be as high as they are with
your plan."
"No," D'Argo yelled from his position at the back of the bridge with Chiana
nearby, leaning against the last support pylon on the right. "We are here
and we have to do this now. If we do as you say, there's the chance that
my son will be sold before we get back."
"How do you know he hasn't been sold already?" Aeryn yelled back.
"You just want to keep me away from my son," D'Argo yelled, going into the
beginning stages of hyper-rage. "I should kill you for that."
"D'Argo, no, I'm not trying to keep you away from your son," Aeryn said
softly. "I want to help you get him back, but I don't want to lose you,
any of you, in this suicide mission."
As John would say, all of Aeryn's cards were on the table, and she just
hoped she had a winning hand. While Aeryn hadn't understood John's
references to 'cards on the table' or 'a winning hand', she understood his
meaning when he said that expression himself a few monens ago.
"Aeryn," Natalie said from her usual spot on a recently installed stool at
Talyn's right main console. Getting everyone's attention, she continued,
"I don't like this anymore than you do, but there is no other way. And
D'Argo's right. If we leave to try to sell the Prowlers and Marauders now,
there's the chance that Jothee will have been sold by the time we get back.
But you're right, too. Right now we don't know if he's been sold or not.
But, that is exactly the reason why we have to go down now. We have
to be sure if Jothee's there."
Aeryn had known from her Peacekeeper training that Grant was right, and
Aeryn didn't need to be lectured like that. In the end, though, they had
to go down to be sure whether Jothee was there or not. She looked around
the small bridge, pausing to face each person who had come to mean so much
to her, and stopped as she came to look into John's eyes. In his eyes, she
saw the barest hint of understanding, which, she knew, was all she was
going to get from him, but at least he understood what she was going
through. She knew he understood that she didn't want to see any of them
die, but she also knew that despite understanding, he didn't agree with
her. She came to a decision and said, "Alright, we'll do it your way."
D'Argo then turned around and abruptly left the bridge to retrieve his
qualta blade from his quarters. Chiana followed him out to grab a pulse
rifle, go to the docking bay, and board the Marauder while John and Aeryn
stayed on the bridge, looking into each other's eyes. While John saw
sadness and fear, Aeryn saw nothing in those blue eyes that used to convey
most of what John was feeling.
The two stood like that for a few microts before John turned away and
walked off the bridge to get his black vest, duster, and pulse pistols.
Aeryn dipped her head, closed her eyes, and leaned back against the console
as John walked out. She wanted the old John back, or at least the person
he was before Scorpius captured him for the second time. They all wanted
the John they once knew back, but they also understood the need for John to
be the way he was now, since Aeryn's renouncement of being a warrior eight
monens ago.
With a sigh, Aeryn pushed herself off the console and walked off the bridge
to ready the Marauder for their so-called 'mission'.
Natalie sadly watched as the Sebacean who had grown to become a close
friend walked dejectedly off the bridge. When the two had first met, Aeryn
would never have shown as much emotion as she had in the past few moments.
Natalie thought, I wonder if she even realizes just how much she's
changed.
Not dwelling on the thought and focusing on the 'mission', Natalie swiveled
around on her stool to face the console, then turned her head back around
to look at the beta channel in the floor and on the ceiling that the
Leviathan used to communicate with his crew. She asked, "You ready,
Talyn?"
Talyn responded to Natalie the only way he could, with a series of low
tones and flashing lights that indicated an 'affirmative'. While Talyn
wished he could communicate better with his crew, especially Natalie, he
still had issues about trusting someone with the power that they would have
over him with the neural transponder, due to Crais' betrayal.
"Alright. Let's do it," Natalie quietly said.
As the Marauder came to a halt under Talyn's tail, Aeryn activated an
internal comms channel to the jump bay where John, D'Argo, and Chiana were
waiting. "Are you ready?"
"We're ready, Aeryn," John responded as he, D'Argo, and Chiana took their
seats with weapons in hand.
Aeryn lowered her head, closed her eyes, and sighed as she thought once
again about the situation she and her friends now found themselves in. She
just hoped that they would be successful in finding Jothee, and that they
would all be able to leave the system alive. She then pushed the thought
out of her mind and activated an external comms channel to the small, but
powerful gunship. "We're ready to go back here."
"Alright, we're going in," Natalie responded from Talyn's bridge. The
Leviathan activated his cannons, fore and aft, and shot out from behind the
small moon of the mining colony with the Marauder tucked underneath him
like a remora to a shark.
As Talyn approached the planet's atmosphere, he fired on the approaching
self-tracking weapon platforms, but there were so many they nearly
overwhelmed the small Leviathan as he approached. Undaunted, Talyn pressed
on, destroying as many weapon platforms as he could with his five cannons
in order to protect the small Marauder that was hiding under him, and to
get into the planet's atmosphere.
Talyn tried to maneuver out of the line of fire of the platforms that were
swarming around him, weaving in and out, avoiding the pulse blasts as best
he could. But one platform managed to stay in front of him. As soon as he
got a good lock on it he took the shot with his main cannon, disintegrating
it as the other weapon platforms tried to get into position to fire at him.
Fortunately for Talyn, he was now too far into the planet's atmosphere for
them to harm him any further, and he managed to get away from them with
major damage to some non-critical areas and minor to others.
Luckily, Natalie fared slightly better than Talyn, suffering only minor
scrapes, cuts and bruises from being tossed around, but the last hit had
thrown her across the bridge and sent her crashing to the floor. She
picked herself up off the floor, walked back over to the right main
console, took a seat on the stationary stool, and said, "Talyn, we need to
get you some seatbelts. Anyway, how are you and the Marauder?"
Talyn immediately activated the holo-imager in the console that Natalie was
seated at and an image of him appeared on top of the console, showing the
worried human exactly where he had been damaged.
"Well, all you need is a few days of R&R with a hot, female Leviathan with
a pair of huge 'thrusters', and I'm sure you'll be as good as new."
Talyn responded with many positive sequences of low tones and flashing
lights, and Natalie could've sworn that the lighting on the bridge had
become brighter.
"Boys will be boys," she mumbled with a smile. "Alright," she said,
becoming serious. "Enough of that. How's the Marauder?"
Talyn then became silent and showed her a holo image of the Marauder, which
was still flying underneath him.
"Aw, shit."
"Just frelling wonderful," Aeryn yelled as she put out a fire in the
console next to her. She put down the fire extinguisher and began checking
the Marauder, ignoring for the moment the large scrape over her right
eyebrow and the small pieces of shrapnel that were embedded in the right
side of her face when the console to her right had exploded. Fortunately,
her leather coat managed to protect her body from the flying shrapnel, but
she did receive a few bruises from being tossed around and knocked out of
her seat.
"So how are we?" John asked.
"Not good," Aeryn responded. "There's a hull breach on deck
two...and…frell…"
"What?"
"We have a cesium fuel leak. It's not that bad now, but it's bound to get
worse. We have to get back on board Talyn now and abort or we're frelled."
"No!" D'Argo yelled. "We've come this far and we're not turning back."
"Sorry for eavesdropping guys," Natalie interrupted, as she listened in on
the comms channel the others were using for their conversation. "But
D'Argo's right. We can't turn back now. Not because of Jothee, but
because Talyn can't take another two beatings from those weapon platforms."
"Damn," Aeryn whispered. "How is Talyn?"
"He'll recover, but if we abort, leave the planet and try again, Talyn
might be too severely damaged to help. So we have to do this now."
That was something Aeryn didn't want to hear. She didn't want to have to
choose between risking the lives of her friends and the life of the man who
meant more to her than anything, and the life of the Leviathan she had
befriended when he was born.
"We don't have time for this," D'Argo yelled. "Talyn, you will destroy the
generator. Aeryn, you will land the Marauder now!"
"Damn, D'Argo, you don't have to yell," Natalie said, with Aeryn responding
at the same time.
"Fine."
"I'm not deaf, you know," Natalie added. "Alright, Talyn, let's go kick
some ass."
With Natalie's exclamation, Talyn quickly made his made his way to the
large building holding the power generator as Aeryn piloted the Marauder to
the waste conduit that lead to the barracks Jothee was being housed in.
Aeryn wished that the frag cannons the colony guards used to shoot down
invading ships were connected to the power generator instead of having
individual power generators so that they would be knocked out with the rest
of the colony's systems, but as usual she and the others weren't that
lucky. And the guards and mine owners weren't that stupid so she was
forced to make her way to the waste conduit.
The others were depending on her to give Talyn the order since he would
only listen to her and Natalie tried to push that part of her to the back
of mind, but she couldn't. She knew that destroying the complex would
haunt her for a long time to come, but she didn't care at the moment nor
did she have a choice. It was either the mine owners or her friends, and
she would choose her friends and family over anyone, any day.
Seeing that they were coming up on the complex fast, Natalie said, "All
right, Talyn, start your run and fire when I tell 'ya…"
Talyn dove and began flying about a hundred metras off the ground at top
speed with his guns at the ready. As Talyn flew in, the frag cannons on
the ground began firing. He managed to roll and maneuver around most of
the frag discharges, but took a few head on. The hits slowed him down and
knocked Natalie off her feet a few times, but didn’t stop them.
As Talyn neared the complex, he charged his main cannon, readying himself
for Natalie's order to fire.
Natalie watched on through the small forward portals as the ground passed
beneath and the frag discharges whizzed by when two discharges managed to
hit Talyn full-force throwing Natalie over her console onto the floor where
she hit her head. She was knocked out briefly, and Talyn worriedly tried
to awaken her with frantic sequences of tones and flashing lights.
Slightly dazed, Natalie regained consciousness after a few microts, opened
her eyes, and slowly stood up, using the console for support. She noticed
Talyn's frantic flashing and beeping, and said, "Don't worry, I'm alright."
As Natalie began to remember what was going on she confusedly looked out
the forward portals and saw that they were getting closer and closer to a
complex. As they got closer to their target, Natalie managed to shake off
her confusion and in realizing just how closer they were, she yelled in
surprise, "Shit!" She then braced herself back against the console and
ordered, "Do it, Talyn! Fire!"
Talyn did as ordered and fired five shots into the large complex, causing
it to collapse in on itself in a huge explosion. Talyn pulled up hard,
avoiding the explosion and the resulting large mushroom cloud. The
g-forces from going vertical pushed Natalie even harder back against the
console, and she felt like she was on a space shuttle during lift off
again.
Reaching the upper atmosphere of the planet, where neither the weapon
platforms in orbit nor the frag cannons could reach them, Talyn leveled
off.
With a sigh Natalie slumped to the floor, brought her knees up, smoothed
back her tousled hair, and said, "Talyn, open up a comms channel to the
Marauder."
With a few tones, Talyn let Natalie know that he had done so.
"Hey, Aeryn," Natalie started. "The generator's been destroyed."
"Right, we're going in," Aeryn responded over the comms, then closed the
channel.
"Now comes the hard part."
"D'Argo, wait for us!" John yelled, then ran after his Luxan shipmate with
Chiana right in front of him, but stopped when he heard the Marauder take
off just in case someone saw them land and was on their way to take them
out and their method of escape. He noted that the departing craft didn't
sound right so he turned around to look at it through the monocle he wore,
and he didn't like what he saw.
"Frell," he yelled, and activated his silver comms with a red center
microphone. "Aeryn, you better set down somewhere. That fuel leak is
getting worse, and if someone takes a shot at you, you're toast."
"I know," Aeryn responded. "I'll try to find some place safe to land, but
I doubt I will. So I'm going to try to see if I can get back to Talyn and
get the other Marauder."
"We'll all be waiting when you get back."
John watched as Aeryn made her way to the upper atmosphere in the Marauder,
then turned around to run into the conduit after Chiana and D'Argo, just
before the ship disappeared from view.
With the night-vision monocle John wore, he could see the silhouettes of
D'Argo and Chiana running ahead of him, and at their speed it would take
him a while to catch up. As John ran, his duster catching in the wind
blowing through the conduit, he tried to ignore the smell of dren that
permeated the conduit, but to no avail. The running wasn't helping his
nausea and twice he had to swallow the bile that rose up in this throat as
he tried to catch up with his two friends. Normally he would've stopped to
throw it all up, but this time he couldn't afford to stop for something
like that.
John saw D'Argo abruptly stop with Chiana ahead of him, and heard D'Argo
say as the Luxan lifted his boot up off the ground, "Dren."
D'Argo just sighed and began to run towards the drainage pipe again.
Chiana ran after him again, and said, "Just be sure to wipe it off as soon
as we get back to Talyn."
John watched on as Chiana and D'Argo, who had converted his rifle back into
a sword and sheathed it, reached the drainage conduit. He saw D'Argo jump
up to grab the lower rung of the ladder and hoist himself up with Chiana
right behind him. After Chiana disappeared from view John began to sprint
as fast as he could. When he got close enough to the drainage conduit, he
jumped and caught the lower rung with his momentum swinging him forward.
As he pulled himself up, he looked upward and saw that D'Argo and Chiana
weren't there and that the grate at the top of the conduit was gone, and he
started climbing. John reached the top of the conduit, but instead of
getting out he threw back the side of his coat and grabbed the pulse pistol
from his thigh holster.
John took a few breaths and popped up out of the conduit to make sure the
area was clear. What he saw when he popped out surprised him and he
stepped out of the conduit and walked over to stand next to D'Argo who was
holding his rifle in hand. He looked around the barracks, and said,
"Frell." Keeping his eyes forward, John added, "D'Argo…I'm sorry, man. I
know how much you wanted to be with your son, but…I'm sorry…"
Turning around to go back down the drainage conduit, John said, "C'mon,
Chiana, let's go."
"No!" D'Argo yelled, gaining John's and Chiana's attention. "He has to be
here, and we will keep looking."
"D'Argo, take a look around, will 'ya?" John frustratingly said. "Jothee
isn't here. We're too late."
"No, the information we had could be wrong and he could still be here..."
"D'Argo," Chiana sadly interrupted. "The information wasn't wrong. I
know, especially because of the price I paid."
D'Argo responded to Chiana's statement was a growl and a cold glare before
saying in a low menacing voice, "We keep looking."
Neither John nor Chiana could tell if D'Argo didn't want to believe that
Jothee was gone, or if Chiana had hurt him, but they weren't going to argue
with him, especially because he seemed to be on the verge of hyper-rage.
Walking to the door of the barracks to check out the others, the armed trio
heard a massive explosion coming from a few metras away. They worriedly
looked at each other before John activated his comms.
"Aeryn, 'ya there?"
He didn't get a response.
"Aeryn? Natalie? C'mon, talk to me, you two."
"I'm here, John," Natalie responded. "What's up?"
"Is Aeryn there with you?
"No, she isn't. Why?"
"That fuel leak had gotten worse and she said she was going to try to make
it back to Talyn…but we just heard a pretty big explosion…"
"What?" Natalie surprisingly asked. "Shit. I'll try to find a way to
contact her. Did you find Jothee?"
"No, not yet, but we're going to keep looking."
"Alright, good luck then, and watch your ass."
"I always do," John responded, and closed the comms channel. He then
turned to D'Argo and Chiana as he threw back the left side of his duster,
unholstered his second pulse pistol from behind his back, and said, "Ready
when you are."
"Alright, let's do this and get the frell out of here," Chiana said as she
brought her pulse rifle to her shoulder.
"We'll split up," D'Argo stated. "That way we'll have a better chance at
finding Jothee, and we'll be able to get out of here sooner."
"I don't think that's a good idea, D'Argo," John said. "We have to stick
together; watch each other's backs."
"No!" D'Argo yelled as he stood nose to nose with John, looking down at him
with fire in his eyes. "You will do as I say."
John, in turn, stared back at D'Argo with an icy cold glare.
Before, John would've been more understanding of what D'Argo was going
through, but this time John wasn't going to take any of D'Argo's
controlling attitude, whatsoever. And on any other day, D'Argo would've
been worried about the change in his Human friend, but today he was more
worried about Jothee than anything else and in D'Argo's state of mind he
wasn't going to have anyone tell him what to do.
"Hey," Chiana interrupted. "Will you two stop thinking with your mivonks
so we can get going?"
John and D'Argo turned their heads to look at Chiana, who had a 'very
annoyed at men' look on her face. The two men turned back to each other
for a microt before they turned away from each other and walked to the
door.
"We'll start with the barracks nearest to this one," D'Argo stated.
"Chiana, you take the one on the left. John, take the one to the right.
I'll go up the middle."
Both John and Chiana nodded, letting D'Argo know that they were ready to go
along with his plan, but John had seen one too many movies that had this
exact situation in them. He knew that things weren't going to go as
planned and he was worried, but he pushed his fear and his emotions to the
back of his mind to focus on the task at hand.
D'Argo positioned himself right beside the door with John behind him and
Chiana to his left ready to palm open the door. Once he was ready,
mentally and physically, D'Argo nodded to Chiana, silently telling her to
open the door. She did, and D'Argo shot out and ran across the street to
the barracks straight ahead of him. John followed him out and stayed close
to the barracks' wall ready to shoot anything that moved, covering D'Argo's
back as he ran.
Once John was sure that the area was clear and there weren't any threats he
signaled Chiana to come out and she ran along the wall for the barracks to
their left just as D'Argo entered the barracks he had run to. John watched
on as Chiana ran to the barracks, looking for any threat to his friend's
life, and saw her palm open the door and go inside.
He took one more look around to make sure no one was there and he took off
as fast as he could, sticking to the wall, for the barracks to the right.
As he ran he took off his monocle to see where the shadows on the building
were. Seeing one large shadow next to the door of the barracks he was
running for being cast by the building next to it, he ran to the shadow and
dove into it, rolling out of the dive and planting his back next the
building's wall. He put his monocle back on to check things out, and once
he saw that the area was clear he stepped out of the shadow, palmed open
the door, and with his pistols at the ready, he carefully and silently went
inside.
She checked the lower bunk to her right and, seeing that it was a Banik,
she climbed up the ladder to the next bunk, then to the next. She
continued checking the bunks on the right side of the barracks and when she
climbed down the ladder to the bunk that was halfway down the aisle she
heard the distinct sound of a pulse rifle charging up. Chiana froze in
terror at that sound, and managed to whisper, "Oh, frell."
Chiana did as the guard ordered and dropped her rifle, and turned around to
face an armor-clad Peacekeeper. She worriedly thought, Oh, dren…
Regaining her composure, Chiana cocked her head to one side, and flashed a
smile at the male Peacekeeper, secretly coming up with a plan to take out
the bastard. She took a few steps forward, her hips swaying seductively,
catching his attention, and said, "You look like you could use some fun."
"Stop right there," he responded, and tightened his grip on his rifle.
"Oh, c'mon…a guy like you…and a girl like me…"
"Well…you could have other weapons on you…" the guard started with a
sadistic grin growing on his face as he lowered his rifle a little. "And
I'd have to strip search you to find out…"
"If that's what you have to do," she replied, and began to unhook the
clasps on her gray bodice, slightly revealing her breasts while walking
towards the guard again. "Then that's what you have to do."
The Peacekeeper hungrily licked his lips and lowered his rifle to his side
as he watched Chiana unhook the last clasp on her bodice and remove the
garment, revealing a see-through mesh undershirt and her ample cleavage
Seeing that his attention was entirely focused on her breasts, Chiana made
her move and charged the soldier, taking him completely by surprise and
knocking him to the ground. While on top of the guard, Chiana tried to
grab his pulse rifle, but he punched her in the jaw with his free hand,
knocking her off him. Then he sat up, rolled over on top of the young
Nebari, grabbed her neck, and pointed his rifle at her.
Chiana then flung her right leg up and around his neck, choking him and
pushing him away. Once she got him off her, he laid at her feet
perpendicular to her and she kicked him in the balls with her left heel,
kicked him in jaw with her right heel. He rolled onto his left side,
facing her, and howled in pain awakening the slaves. He had curled up into
a ball while grabbing his crotch, forgetting about the charged rifle that
lay behind him.
Getting up, Chiana tried to run, but the Peacekeeper, ignoring the searing
pain he felt in his crotch, grabbed her boot, causing her to fall flat on
her face.
As she rolled over, he stood back up, cradling his crotch in his left hand,
and said, "Now we’re going to have some fun, slut."
Terrified, Chiana crawled backwards as he loomed over her. He stopped and
knelt down between her legs, his feet holding her legs in place. He
grabbed her arms, pinned them above her head, and kissed her hard on the
lips, shoving his tongue into her mouth. Chiana tried to struggle against
him, but that only aroused him even further.
The kiss went on for a few microts, until he tore his mouth away from hers
and smiled sadistically at Chiana. He took both her hands in one of his
and with his other hand, he made a move for her pants when a shot rang out
from nowhere.
The Peacekeeper tensed and looked at Chiana. Then he quickly stood up and
spun around as he tried to grab his pulse pistol, but another shot came out
of the shadows and struck the Peacekeeper in the chest. The Peacekeeper
stood there with a shocked expression on his face then fell to his knees
before keeling over onto his side with blood spilling out of the wound in
his chest.
Surprised at what had just happened, Chiana sat up and watched as the
person who just saved her life stepped out of the shadows. When she saw
who it was, she looked on with her mouth wide open in shock, and all she
could say was, "Frell me."
As John stepped out of the shadows to let the Luxan know he was there,
D'Argo raised his qualta rifle and aimed it at John, not realizing it was
his friend. John stopped and raised his pistols up in the air to let
D'Argo know he wasn't a threat. Once D'Argo realized that it was John he
lowered his rifle and ran across the street into the narrow alley between
the barracks just as John ran into the shadows of the barracks in the alley
to join him.
"Did you find him?" D'Argo asked as they both kneeled down on the ground
for better cover.
"Sorry, I didn't, but I could've sworn I heard weapons fire."
"I did, as well," D'Argo stated.
The two knowingly looked at each other and simultaneously said, "Chiana."
Just as the two were about to come out of hiding they spotted Chiana
walking out of the entrance to the barracks she had searched, but she
wasn't alone. Both D'Argo and John were astonished at who was with her,
and they both shared a look at each other then looked as Chiana spotted
them and made her way towards them. As John watched the person Chiana was
with draw nearer, he whispered, "Well, son of a bitch…"
Chiana and her companion joined John and D'Argo in the shadows in the alley
and knelt down on the ground. With a grin, Chiana said, "Hi, guys. Look
who I found."
Once John got over his initial shock at seeing the person who was now
kneeling across from him, he said, "Stark, what the frell are you doing
here?"
"I came to a commerce planet not too long after I left Moya on the
transport pod you gave me, and I was trying to find anything about other
Baniks there. But I was jumped from behind and knocked out. I found
myself here when I woke up…" Stark began, then turned to face John, and
added, "It's good to see you again, my friend."
"It's good to see you, too, man…" John started, but D'Argo interrupted.
"You have been here for nearly a cycle so you must have seen my son," the
towering Luxan began. "Where is he?"
"Your son? Jothee?"
D'Argo nodded in response.
"Yes, I have seen your son," Stark began. Seeing D'Argo's hopeful look
saddened him, but he had to let D'Argo know what happened. "But…he was
sold a weeken ago in a lot of ten thousand slaves, and was shipped out
three solar days ago. I am sorry, Ka D'Argo."
D'Argo didn't say a word. He only blankly stared straight ahead of him at
the barracks wall.
Chiana and Stark worriedly watched their friend and his silence only
increased their fear for him. Outwardly, John wasn't showing any emotion
whatsoever, but on the inside he was just as worried as Stark and Chiana.
None of them could imagine what it must be like for him to come so close to
finding his son only to have Jothee slip away.
"D'Argo?" John said, trying to get his friend's attention.
D'Argo didn’t answer. He just sat there blankly staring at the wall and
was also trembling slightly. The others could see that he was, and could
tell that he was getting really pissed off.
"D'Argo…" John began, but shut his mouth at the sound of laughter coming
from the street. He took his eyes off D'Argo to look out at the street,
and saw two Tavleks coming their way. "Frell." John turned back to D'Argo
to try to talk to him, but D'Argo was focused on the two Tavleks.
With an ear-splitting battle cry, D'Argo shot up from his position and ran
towards the Tavleks, converted his rifle back into a blade as he ran.
"D'Argo!" John yelled as the Luxan ran towards the two Tavleks who were
caught off guard.
The two Tavleks saw D'Argo coming at them, but for one it was too late.
D'Argo spun around, bringing up his qualta blade as the Tavleks raised
their gauntlets, and swung his blade around to take the head off the
nearest Tavlek.
The other Tavlek tried to fire at D'Argo, but the Luxan used the body of
the dead Tavlek as a shield, protecting himself and inadvertently covering
himself in blood. D'Argo threw away the body of the dead Tavlek, and
ducked as the remaining Tavlek fired. As D'Argo ducked, he swung his blade
up and sliced the Tavlek in half.
D'Argo stood up with his massive chest covered in blood and looked down at
the bodies of the dead Tavleks. One lying in a pool of blood with his
intestines sprawled out all over the ground, the other in a pool of his own
blood, but missing a head.
John had barely set foot out into the street to join D'Argo when a
spotlight on a nearby watchtower suddenly activated and shone down on the
carnage in the street causing D'Argo to pull off his monocle. John stepped
back into the shadows in the alley, and thought, Dammit. How the hell
did they get emergency power up so fast?
John, Chiana, and Stark watched on as half-a-dozen guards (including
Tavleks, Peacekeepers, and Scorvians) surrounded D'Argo and aimed their
weapons at him.
"Drop your weapon and get on the ground now!" one of the Peacekeepers
standing at D'Argo's side ordered.
D'Argo just turned his head and coldly glared at the Peacekeeper. He then
looked past the Peacekeeper and with the help of his night-vision monocle,
he noticed John getting into position to fire at the spotlight with a pulse
rifle. Turning around slightly to get a better look at the two guards
behind him, a Tavlek and a Scorvian, D'Argo slightly raised his qualta
blade, getting ready for when John shot out the spotlight, and turned back
around to face the three guards in front of him. Fortunately, they were
all standing fairly close…and were really dumb.
John looked over at D'Argo and saw that he was ready. He looked into the
sight on the pulse rifle and, seeing that he had a clean shot, he fired.
Once the spotlight was taken out, D'Argo quickly spun around, swinging his
qualta blade in a wide arc, and sliced open each one of the guard's necks.
If D'Argo could've seen them in the darkness, he would've seen the shocked
expressions on the guards' faces as blood flowed out of their throats.
Suddenly, a spotlight on another tower behind him lit up and beamed down on
D'Argo and the carnage at his feet. The guards in the tower began firing
at him, and the Luxan converted his blade back into a rifle as he spun
around, and returned fire; but he forgot about the watchtower behind him.
John tossed the pulse rifle back to Chiana and pulled out his pulse
pistols. He ran out into the street as the guards in the tower behind
D'Argo began to fire at the Luxan. With both pistols, John fired at the
two silhouettes that he could see in the tower with his monocle. As he
fired, John ran up to D'Argo and pushed him across the street into the
small alley between barracks for cover. They made it just in time, too,
for as soon as they made it between the barracks a platoon of guards
arrived, half at one end of the street and half at the other, and started
firing at the four shipmates catching them in a crossfire.
"D'Argo…you alright?" John yelled as he removed the chakan oil cartridge in
one of his pistols.
"No, I'm not alright," D'Argo yelled back. He stood up and, using the
corner of one of the barracks as cover, began firing at the guards at the
end of the street with the spotlight shining down on them. He hit a
Peacekeeper in the gut with his first shot, but the other guards took cover
before he could kill them.
After replacing the chakan oil cartridge, John stood up and, using the
corner of the other barracks as cover, began firing at the guards at the
other end of the street. John managed to hit two Peacekeepers before a
spotlight on another tower at his end of the street lit up and momentarily
blinded him because of the sensitivity level of his monocle. He spun
around as he ripped the monocle off his face, closed his eyes, and braced
himself up against the wall of the barracks.
John could hear pulse fire whizzing by his left side. From the sound of
it, he knew that he and his friends were outnumbered and that they had a
very slim chance of getting out the situation alive.
He blinked a few times trying to clear his vision, looked up, and could
barely make out D'Argo's back and tenkas in the bright light of the
spotlight through the afterimages he saw. He then looked to his left
through the pulse fire and could barely make out Chiana and Stark in the
alley across the street. Chiana was taking cover against the barracks on
the right and was helping D'Argo by firing at the guards at the right end
of the street. Stark was flat against the barracks, taking cover, on the
left and was firing at the guards on the other end of the street.
John figured he might as well make the best of the situation, and
straightened his head and opened up his vest to activate his comms when
D'Argo spun around.
The large Luxan looked at his friend's nearly blank stare, and worriedly
asked, "John?"
"Don't worry about me," John said. "I'll be alright."
D'Argo paused for a beat to watch his friend before spinning back around to
kill some more guards.
John activated his comms, and yelled, "Chiana, give your comms to Stark. I
wanna talk to him."
"What?" Chiana responded. "Are you crazy? You want to stop and chat in
the middle of a fight?"
"Chiana, don't argue! Just do it."
"Fine," Chiana yelled as she took off her comms and threw it to Stark
before going back to firing at the guards at the end of the street.
"Stark, 'ya there?" John asked, his sight beginning to return.
"Yes, I'm here."
"Is there any way we can get the other slaves to help us out here?"
"No," Stark responded as he fired at the guards down the street. "The mine
owners and their guards have been so brutal that the other slaves are too
terrified to do anything."
"Frell. Alright, then explain to me why the Peacekeepers are here, and
what the frell are they doing working with other so-called inferior
races?"
"They're not Peacekeepers, Crichton. They're ex-Peacekeepers and Sebaceans
who were never conscripted…" Stark began, but was interrupted when a blast
from a pulse cannon hit the barracks D'Argo was hiding behind, sending
shrapnel into the Luxan's side and throwing him to the ground.
Both Stark and Chiana looked across the street as John rushed to D'Argo's
side and checked the Luxan's wounds. Chiana took her comms back from
Stark, and yelled, "Crichton, how is he?"
"Not good," John responded. "He's unconscious, has a large chunk of metal
in his left side, and his blood is black."
"Well, do something! You can't just let him die."
"There's nothing I can do here, Chiana. He'll lose more blood if I pull
this frelling thing out than if I leave it in. We have to get him back up
to Talyn. But…there's our obvious problem…"
"Frell," Chiana whispered.
"What do you mean, problem?" Stark asked, beginning to sound
panicky.
"We can't get off the surface…" Chiana started.
"What?" Stark interrupted frantically. "Why can't we get off the surface?"
Chiana was about to explain what happened, but was interrupted when the
ground started shaking and Stark and Chiana looked up. They saw a large
black and red blur pass directly overhead, and watched on as the powerful
Leviathan passed above them firing at the three watchtowers with his fore
and aft cannons, causing them to erupt into massive fireballs.
The fireballs dissipated, sending flaming debris to the ground, and John
watched as Talyn looped over, inverting himself, and fired at the guards at
both ends of the street with his main cannon, killing them all in massive
explosions. All that remained were charred skeletons and huge firewalls at
both ends of the street that lit up the entire area like daylight.
Talyn started to circle the camp when John holstered his pistols, ran out
of the alley, and yelled, "Stark, get over here. I need your help with
D'Argo." As Stark made his way over to D'Argo, John yelled into his comms,
"Natalie, am I glad to see you."
"Well, I figured you might need Talyn's and my help."
"Did you…" John started and was about to ask Natalie if she had contacted
Aeryn when suddenly a Marauder appeared over the horizon. He thought it
might have been Aeryn and was relieved by her appearance. But at closer
inspection, John saw that the Marauder wasn't leaking any fuel, and there
was no way that Aeryn could've patched up that fuel bladder in that short
amount of time.
"Stark, Chiana…we've got company," John yelled as he watched the Marauder
close in on them, and pulled out his pulse pistols as he ran back into the
alley to join his friends.
As the Marauder set down, Chiana, kneeling down on the ground, and John,
who was standing above her, used the barracks as their cover once again.
They aimed their weapons at the ship, waiting to fire at anything that came
out while Stark tended to D'Argo and tried to make his blood run clear.
Time seemed to stand still for John and Chiana as they waited for whoever
was in the Marauder to make their move when suddenly a voice rang out over
their comms.
"Get in. What the frell are you waiting for?"
John and Chiana just looked at each other, then looked back at the
Marauder, and simultaneously asked, "Aeryn?"
"Yes," she replied in an annoyed tone. "Now, will you get the frell on
board?"
"We're coming, baby," John responded as he holstered his pistols, and moved
with Chiana to help Stark carry D'Argo. "But give us a few microts will
'ya? D'Argo's hurt pretty bad and it's going to take us a few to get him
inside."
"Well, do it fast. That firewall isn't going to hold for very long, and I
saw more troops on their way here as I was coming in."
"We're going as fast as we can, Aeryn," John replied as he carried his
wounded friend. John tucked his arms under D'Argo's and wrapped them
around his chest while Stark held onto the Luxan's feet. Chiana stayed
behind Stark and John as they carried D'Argo, with her pulse rifle at the
ready.
Once they were on board, John, Stark, and Chiana all managed to get D'Argo
strapped in, being careful not to jar his wound and make his blood run
black again. When the three shipmates were strapped in, John yelled into
his comms, "We're in, Aeryn. Hit it."
Aeryn 'hit it', as John said, and took off just as the troops reached the
firewall, and started blindly firing into the flames, hoping to hit
something or someone. The guards began firing at the ship through the
firewall as it took off, but fortunately, to no avail. All they could do
was watch the ship fly away.
They all felt the g-forces pressing down on them as the Marauder shot up
off the ground with Talyn providing cover, and John got the feeling of
being on the shuttle during lift off. And was he glad that he had the
training to handle it, otherwise, he probably would've thrown up.
Reaching the upper atmosphere, Aeryn prepared to dock with Talyn when John
called her over the comms. "Aeryn, we heard an explosion down there…what
happened?" he asked. He had wanted to find out what happened, but getting
D'Argo on board and getting the frell off the surface had been more of a
priority.
She heard the hint of worry that laced his voice, but she knew he wouldn't
ask how she was; at least not now…not any more. "One of the frag
discharges hit the cesium fuel trail and ignited it. I was forced to dump
the fuel bladder. And when it exploded, it knocked out my comms. I
managed to repair it, but the patch won't last long."
"Alright…" John paused. "I'll help you out with the repairs once we get
outta here."
Perfect, Aeryn thought as she maneuvered above Talyn in the planet's
upper atmosphere and entered his docking bay.
Talyn closed his outer doors after Aeryn landed the Marauder and Natalie,
from her usual spot at Talyn's right main console, said into the comms,
"Hang onto something, everybody. This is going to get a little bumpy."
She then looked back at the Leviathan's beta channel on the ceiling, and
said, "Alright, Talyn, let's haul ass."
Talyn pulled up, and with his cannons at the ready, he began firing at the
weapons platforms as soon as they left the planet's atmosphere, trying to
make a hole to escape.
Just like their last encounter, the approaching weapon platforms tried to
overwhelm Talyn with their numbers and swarmed around him, firing at full
power. But instead of trying to run as the self-tracking platforms had
predicted, Talyn was getting extremely annoyed as they slowed him down, and
he began picking them off one by one with his four aft cannons. With his
main cannon, he concentrated on the platforms in front of him to make a
large enough hole.
The platforms firing at Talyn's belly managed to puncture his elastic skin,
creating a hull breach. Other platforms beneath Talyn saw this with their
sensors and began firing at the breach, trying to disable him. All they
did was annoy him even further.
Talyn rolled and began firing at the platforms that were under him and
picked them off, destroying them in massive fireballs.
As he rolled and fired at the platforms surrounding him with his four aft
cannons, he managed to create a large enough hole in front of him and shot
through the hole at full speed.
Once he was clear of the platforms, Talyn retracted his guns and starburst
to safety.
"That's what I've wanted to do, Chiana," Natalie said as she popped a food
cube into her mouth.
After Talyn had starburst to safety, the crew had carried D'Argo to Talyn's
medical facility, which was filled with scavenged medical supplies. They
had watched as Stark expertly tended to D'Argo's wounds before eventually
splitting up. John and Aeryn had gone to the docking bay to repair the
damage the Marauder had acquired, while Natalie and Chiana had met in
Talyn's galley to share a meal of food cubes and water.
"You're serious?" Chiana asked, holding a food cube in her hand, waiting
for Natalie to go on.
"Yeah, I'm serious," she responded before taking a gulp of raslac. "All I
ever wanted to do since I was a kid was walk on my planet's moon. That's
why I wanted to join the space program back home. I hoped that humans
would go back to the moon someday, and that I would be the first person to
do it. But then I turned sixteen…and had Jason…" Natalie popped a small
food cube into her mouth and swallowed before going on. "Don't get me
wrong…I love Jason, and I would never give him up for anything, but…"
As Natalie ducked her head, letting her hair hide her face, Chiana
reassuringly put her hand on the woman's arm that was now resting on the
table. "But what?" she softly asked.
Natalie looked back up at Chiana as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
"My parents made me choose." She reached up to wipe away the tear then
took another gulp of raslac. "They were being such assholes…they made me
choose between Jason or being cut off from the family. They said that they
had plans for me and that my having a son didn't fit into those plans.
Being the rich, arrogant, self-centered little shits that they were, they
expected me to either give Jason up for adoption or have an abortion
because they always got what they wanted... Of course, being in the
Navy made my Dad even worse." She looked down at her tray, pushed it aside
and folded her hands together on the table before looking at Chiana. "But
I didn't give Jason up."
"So what'd they do?"
"They cut me off…just as they said they'd do." She looked back down at her
clasped hands and continued. "So the family of a close friend of mine took
Jason and me in. They helped us out…and I won a scholarship to MIT..."
Natalie stopped at Chiana's confused look. "MIT is a major university on
Earth. It's the same university John went to. Anyway, after I graduated I
joined IASA. A few years after that happened, my parents and I managed to
patch things up, but I still think they're assholes. Anyway, I had hoped
IASA'd put me up, but I was also realistic. I knew that there was a very
slim chance of me actually going up, but here I am. On my first goddamned
mission, I ended up here in the Uncharteds. And Jason is no doubt with my
parents."
"What's so bad about that? You did say they were rich," Chiana said, and
popped a food cube into her mouth.
Natalie let out a small laugh at that as she looked at her friend who was
almost like a little sister. "Why am I not surprised you said that?" She
shook her head as she looked down and looked back up at Chiana who let out
a small laugh of her own. "Well, they are rich… My Dad inherited his
wealth. But like I said…they're assholes and arrogant, self-centered
little shits. Just like Rygel. I don't want Jason to grow up to be like
them, and I'm afraid that because he's staying with them…he will."
“What about your brothers? He could be with them.”
“No… Knowing my parents, they took Jason. Besides, my brothers were at
sea when I left. There was no way they could take Jason in. So I know
they’re with my parents.”
"Well, you could get lucky and he won't grow up to be like them," Chiana
reassuringly said as she took one of Natalie's hands and gave it a squeeze.
She cocked her head and smiled. "Who knows? He could grow up to be like
me."
"Oh no…" Natalie started as she sat back, and shook her head with a smile.
"There is no way that my son is going to grow up to be like you. Besides,
my son is a guy. There's no possible way that he can grow up to be like
you," she laughingly said. "If he does…he and I are going to have a
long talk."
"Well…" Chiana started, but was interrupted when D'Argo walked in.
Natalie turned around to watch the Luxan with Chiana as he grabbed a tray
of food cubes and a bottle of water and slowly made his way to the other
end of the table. As he sat down, Natalie asked, "Hey, D'Argo…how're you
feeling?"
"I'll live," he said as he took a swig of water. When he put down the
bottle, he turned to look at Natalie, and then gave Chiana a cold stare.
Chiana looked away from D'Argo, and with a sigh she stood up, collected her
tray and bottle, and said to Natalie, "I'll talk to you later, alright?"
"Alright. I'll see you later," she said as Chiana put away the tray and
bottle and walked out.
Natalie sighed herself as she wondered when D'Argo and Chiana would patch
things up. It was pretty hard being the friend of two ex-lovers who would
barely talk to each other anymore. She wanted to be loyal to both and
stick by their sides, but she also wanted to stay neutral. Unfortunately,
they weren't making it very easy on her, especially D'Argo.
After Natalie and D'Argo had had their talk about Jason, and Natalie's need
to get home, the two had become pretty good friends. Although they would
normally avoid the subject, Natalie had on occasion tried to get the two
ex-lovers to talk to each other about what happened between Chiana and
McDaniel, but D'Argo would hear nothing of it. He didn't want to have
anything to do with Chiana anymore, but Natalie knew that somewhere deep
down inside, the hyper-rage prone Luxan still had feelings for her. And
frankly, Natalie was getting pretty annoyed with D'Argo and his Luxan ways.
Well, she was pretty certain it was his Luxan ways, but it also could've
been a D'Argo thing. Either way, she was getting tired of it and had to do
something about it.
Rubbing her eyes, Natalie sighed, and thought, I hope he doesn't kill
me. She got up, walked over to D'Argo, smacked him in the arm as hard
as she could, and yelled, "What the hell's the matter with you?"
D'Argo turned his head to glare and her, and let out a low growl.
"Oh, don't you 'grrr' me. And don't even think about tonguing me, either…"
she paused for a second at that and thought about just how that sounded to
human ears.
She shook her head to get that thought out of her mind and walked around
the table, planted her fists on it, and leaned forward on them to glare at
D'Argo before continuing.
"Yes, Chiana fucked McDaniel. But, duh, she's a trelk. What did
you expect?"
D'Argo didn't say a word. He just kept glaring at her, but his expression
softened slightly.
"D'Argo…" she paused, and pulled out a stool from under the table in front
of her and sat down. Her expression softened along with her tone, and she
started again, "Chiana knows that she messed up, and she's very sorry that
she hurt you. But Chi is Chi… It's in her nature. The only way she knows
how to get things or make things go her way is by selling her body to both
the highest and lowest bidder. You can't change that. And you should've
accepted it."
Natalie sighed and rubbed her eyes again before looking back at D'Argo.
She noticed that his expression had saddened.
She took one of his hands in hers and gave it a good squeeze. "D'Argo, I
hate to have to say this, but this is as much your fault as it is hers.
You imposed your values onto her. Values that she doesn't, and will never,
have." With a sigh, she stood up, planted hands on the table to lean on
them again, and with a stern tone she said, "So…now do you got it through
that head of yours, or am I going to have to draw you pictures?"
"I got it."
"Alright…" she started to get up to go back to her meal, but D'Argo
interrupted.
"But…I also knew that it was my fault."
"You what?" a startled Natalie asked as she turned back to look at D'Argo.
She watched him as he looked down at the table, and sat back down on the
stool. "Whoa, wait a sec…if you knew, then what the hell's the problem?"
He looked at her and in a hurt tone, he said, "She betrayed me…"
"Dammit, D'Argo…you didn't listen to a word I said, did you? Look…yes, she
betrayed you. But, you drove her to it. So don't you dare try to
put all the blame on her," she yelled and stormed out of the galley,
leaving D'Argo there alone to think about what she had said.
"Here," Aeryn said as she handed the torch to John, and went back to work
repairing the hull breach on the Marauder.
She paused to watch John as he pounded the metal back into place. He put a
new plate of metal that they got on a commerce planet a few monens ago for
just this occasion over the hole, and began to weld it into place.
He was too quiet. Usually, in a situation such as this where it was just
the two of them, he would be talking nonstop about something…anything, but
he was only working on repairing the breach and not saying a word other
than 'hand me this' or 'hand me that'. And Aeryn was afraid that she was
partly responsible for it. She did, after all, blow up at him and tell him
that he didn't know her after they had both been through what John called
'hell'. She was afraid she had pushed him away with her words...and her
actions. After everything they had gone through and everything they had
accomplished, all it took was a few short words yelled in anger to begin to
bring it all crumbling down.
At least he was recovering from his second experience in the Aurora Chair,
Aeryn had to admit. Well…he was kind of recovering. He still had
sleepless nights full of nightmares of Crais and Scorpius and the Aurora
chair, but now he wasn't as paranoid or angry, or neurotic and
unpredictable as he had been after Talyn had gotten them out of there.
However, he was almost as cold as ice now. He rarely let his emotions
show, but when he did, it would usually be anger, an anger that was
frightening in its intensity. And the crew was frightened, but not of him.
They were frightened for him because of his anger. Yes, John Crichton had
been angry before, but never like this. The anger he showed made him seem
more and more like a certain leather-faced Peacekeeper.
John Crichton needed help. They all knew that, but they didn’t know how to
help him. Unfortunately, they all also had their own problems which made
helping John even harder. But how do you help someone who doesn't want
help? That was just one of their many problems. John didn't think he
needed help, that he would be able to work it out all on his own. He
hadn't said as much, but they all knew that's what he meant. But from what
Natalie had told them about Humans, the odds that John would be able to
work it out on his own were slim to none. They had to help him, whether he
wanted their help or not.
In trying to help John, they would try to get him to talk about things.
More specifically, what he had gone through while imprisoned by Scorpius.
They managed to learn from John that Scorpius had implanted a neural-chip
in his head during his first imprisonment because John supposedly had
wormhole technology in his brain. They had also learned that eight monens
ago Scorpius had removed the chip. John wouldn't open up any further than
that, but they were all determined to give him the help that he needed.
And this was the perfect opportunity to do just that.
"John, we have to talk."
"Alright…just give me a microt," John said as he finished welding the plate
into place, turned off the torch, and turned to her. "What's up?"
"We have to talk about you."
" Aeryn…we've already been through this. I don't want to talk."
"No, John, you have to talk to me. You have to tell me what's going on
inside your head. I need to know…we all need to know…"
"Look, I've told you before and I'll tell you again, I don't want to talk,"
John yelled, then turned and left.
"He doesn't want to talk…"
The only good place on Talyn where she could see those stars was on the
bridge, and depending on how you looked at it, it was a good thing or a bad
thing. It was a bad thing in that Talyn only had five very small forward
portals, unlike Moya with her massive forward portal and numerous other
portals that dotted her hull, and her terrace. The terrace was an amazing
place onboard Moya, and she missed it. But if she were still on Moya, then
she and Talyn would never have met. That was the good thing: Talyn.
On the bridge, she could talk to Talyn whenever she wanted. He was kind of
like a second son to her and she loved him as a son, but she wondered how
Jason would feel about having a 'big' little brother. And she loved to
talk to Talyn, but it was still pretty hard to have a conversation with
him. A few monens ago, he would show her some of the memories of his short
past in the main consoles, Natalie would ask some yes or no questions, and
they would go on like that all day. Of course, now Natalie was trying to
teach him Morse Code to make it easier to talk, but it was going pretty
slowly. Talyn would rarely use what she had taught him because he couldn't
form complete sentences and was too proud to embarrass himself like that.
But, when Talyn and Natalie were alone, like now, he would try to talk to
her with the code, but today Natalie wasn't really up to talking.
She was thinking about what she had done a few arns before on the mining
colony. She had killed hundreds of people. Technically, Talyn was the one
who killed them since he fired the shot, but Natalie had given the order.
She was the one who sent hundreds of people to their deaths, and she felt
dirty because of that. After the first time she had killed someone, she
had talked to Talyn about it, but she had still felt dirty and had tried to
wash it all away with a shower. She had scrubbed and scrubbed, but no
matter what, she still felt dirty. This time, she didn't see the point in
taking a shower. Not just because it wouldn't do anything, but from a
practical sense, it would just be a waste of water.
But what would Jason think of her now, of what she had done and become?
She also had to wonder what her friends and family would think of her now,
along with what the rest of the Earth would think. Would they all see her
as some kind of a monster that had to be locked up in a prison somewhere,
or as some kind of psycho who needed to be put in a mental institution?
Natalie didn't have the answers to those questions, at least not yet and,
frankly, she was pretty afraid to find out, no matter how desperately she
wanted to go home.
Hearing the hatch opening behind her, Natalie turned her head around to see
John walking through with the hatch closing behind him. As she watched him
walk over to the other main console, she said, "I thought you were working
on the Marauder with Aeryn."
"I was," John said as he checked the readings on the console. "Nothing on
Moya yet, huh?"
"Nope. So…what happened in there?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Right," she said as she went back to thinking and looking out at the
stars.
John looked up at Natalie and although he was slightly behind her, he could
still see her brown eyes, and he saw a look of sadness there. "Hey,
Natalie," he started, gaining her attention, but she didn't look at him.
"What're you thinking about?"
"A lot of things…" she paused, still looking out at the stars.
"Like what?"
"Jason…my friends and family…Earth…my Harley…"
"What?" he asked in surprise.
"My Harley. A '92 Softail…" she paused to turn her head and look at him,
and continued. "Metallic blue." She then turned to look out at the stars
again with a small smile on her face. "Gawd, I love that bike…"
"You owned a Harley?" John said with a small smile of his own growing on
his face.
"Yup," she said as her smile grew bigger. "And the guys at IASA
hated it." With a laugh, she started again. "I would always
blow through all the security check points before they had the chance to
close the gates after they had let another car pass through. And I always
got away with it."
John laughed at that.
Natalie thought she was hearing things when she heard his laugh, but when
she saw the smile on his face, she knew she had a good thing going and she
couldn't stop, especially not after getting John to show an emotion other
than anger. She stood up and walked around the console to sit on the
stool. Looking up at John with an even larger smile on her face, she said,
"Then there's DK…"
"DK?" he asked with a smile still etched on his face. "What about him?"
"Oh, man…he hated my bike even more than security did. I would usually
park in the lot that's right in front of his office, and on my way there I
would always ride in with the throttle wide open. When I first rode my
bike there, he came up to me during his lunch break and he was so
pissed off at me. He was so focused on what he was working on that the
exhaust note made him jump and he spilled his coffee in his lap. You
should've seen his face…"
They were both laughing so hard at that point that Natalie couldn't go on,
but they immediately stopped when Talyn tried to gain their attention with
a series of frantic tones and flashing lights.
"What's up, Talyn?" Natalie worriedly asked as she looked back at his beta
channel.
Talyn activated the comms on the right main console, and Natalie got up to
look with John. They were in complete shock at what they saw, and they
turned to look at each other. They then looked back at the text version of
the signal when John activated the internal comms and said, "Y'all better
get up here. We just got a signal from Moya."
"Anything, Talyn?" John asked from his spot next to the center right pylon
with Aeryn standing next to him.
Talyn responded with a negative series of tones and flashing lights.
"So, what do we do now?" Chiana asked as she leaned up against the forward
right pylon.
"Someone's going to have to go over there," Natalie said.
Silence reigned on the bridge for a few microts when D'Argo suddenly asked
from his spot in the middle of the bridge, "Does anyone want to die?
Because if any of us go over there, we will be walking to our deaths."
"Yeah, well…" John started as he looked at Moya's dorsal hull. "We have to
find out what's going on over there." He turned his head to look at the
others, and continued, "I'm going. Anyone want to come?"
“I’m sorry, Crichton, but I cannot go,” Stark said from the back of the
bridge. “I just got my freedom back, and I’m not going to risk it.
John looked at Stark and asked, “Anyone else?”
"Frell it…" Aeryn said. "I'll come." She turned her head to look at John
and continued, "Someone has to get you over there."
John flashed her a small grin, then looked back at the rest of the crew
with a straight face, showing no emotion whatsoever. "Anyone else?"
D'Argo let out a low growl as he looked down at the floor with his arms
crossed over his chest, then looked back up at John, and said, "I'll go."
"Do you wanna die, D'Argo?" John asked.
"No. But someone has to watch your back."
Just then Aeryn turned on the Marauder's flood lamps, illuminating the
forward half of the transport hangar. But that wasn't the only thing that
they were illuminating.
There were at least two-dozen Nebari surrounding them with their weapons at
the ready.
John watched as one of the Nebari aimed his weapon at D'Argo, and he raised
his pistols at the Nebari and yelled, "Behind you!"
D'Argo turned around, but not in time, and was shot in the chest.
John helplessly watched as the Luxan fell to the ground. John was about to
fire at the Nebari, but a pulse blast hit him in the right shoulder and he
yelled out in pain as he dropped one of his pistols. He spun around to his
left to fire at the Nebari behind him, but was shot in the chest himself at
point-blank range. He was thrown back onto the floor, but he didn't feel
the impact of the floor. He had gone completely numb from the shot. John
lay there helplessly as he watched one of the young Nebari stand over him,
pointing a Nebari version of a pulse pistol at his head.
John saw a blue flash of light…and everything went black.
"John, wake up," Aeryn said.
He tried to open his eyes, but the light blinded him and he shut them again
with a groan.
"John?"
"Yeah, I'm up…I'm up," John said as he tried to open his eyes again. His
vision was pretty blurry for a few microts, but he could definitely make
out Aeryn's blue eyes above him. Once his vision cleared, he saw her face
surrounded by her raven hair, and she was as beautiful as ever.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm alright. Except for the fact that I have the hangover from
hell, and that some damn Nebari shot me in the head. So where are we?"
"You're on the floor with your head in my lap."
"Very funny."
"Well…" she started as she looked around the room. "We're in a cell
somewhere on tier 17. I can't tell you any more than that."
"Great…" he said with a sigh as he reached up to rub his eyes. "Just
frelling wonderful…" He turned his head to see D'Argo, who was weaponless,
leaning up against the right side door staring out through the latticework
with his arms folded across his chest. He was probably glaring at the
Nebari guard standing there, but John couldn’t see from his position on the
floor.
John sat up with a groan and confirmed that his pulse pistol was gone as he
scooted over to sit right next to Aeryn, their shoulders and hips touching.
He leaned into her and back against the wall, brought up his knees to rest
his arms on, and sighed as he closed his eyes and rested his head back
against the wall.
He opened his eyes, looked at D'Argo, and asked, "You okay, Big Guy?"
D'Argo didn't answer and just kept staring at the Nebari guard stationed
outside their cell.
"I'll take that as a yes."
That brought a small smile to Aeryn's face as she rubbed her chest.
John turned his head to look at her and asked, "How 'bout you?"
"My chest hurts a little," she said as she turned her head to look back at
him.
"Any trouble breathing?"
"No. I'm just a little sore. I'll be alright in a few arns."
"Good." John turned his head away from her and looked down at the floor.
Aeryn had noticed that look in his eye suggesting that he was thinking
about something. Then he brought his thumb up to his mouth and started to
nibble on it, and she knew he was thinking about something. She asked,
"What?"
"Aeryn…" he started as he took his thumb away from his mouth and rested his
arm back on his knee. "Did you see anyone other than Nebari on board?"
"No. Why?"
"Hmmm…" John paused and ignored her question for a microt, and turned his
attention to D'Argo. "How 'bout you, D'Argo?"
"No," D'Argo said, never taking his eyes off the Nebari guard.
"John, what is it?" Aeryn asked.
"Well…" he paused as he looked out of the latticework on the door then
turned back to look at Aeryn. "If everyone onboard is Nebari…then why
aren't we wearing control collars? You know, like the one Chiana had on
when she came onboard with Salis and Durka."
"You should've just come right out and asked that, John," Aeryn said as she
looked at him. "It would've saved you the trouble because D'Argo and I
already talked about that while you were unconscious."
"And you didn't think it was necessary to tell me about it?"
"Well, it's not like there was the chance to bring it up. Oh, unless,
you'd rather not know how D'Argo and I are doing?"
"No, Aeryn…look…just…" he paused. "Never mind," he said with a sigh and
dipped his head to look at the ground again. After a few microts of an
awkward silence, John began again while they both looked down at the floor.
"So…did the two of you come up with a plan to get outta here while I was
out?"
"Unfortunately, no. We couldn't come up with anything."
"Great," he sighed. After another few microts of silence he asked, "What
about Natalie? Chiana, or Stark?" John paused for a beat, then quietly
asked, "Talyn?"
Aeryn heard the hint of jealousy in his voice, and she closed her eyes as
she answered. "Nothing."
Of all the emotions he had to show now… Aeryn thought. She couldn't
blame him though, especially not after the way she treated him in favor of
Talyn for a while after they had starburst to safety. John had given up
his home for her, was willing to give his life for her, had devoted himself
to her, and he was still devoted to her no matter what. But she hadn't
shown him that same devotion once they were on Talyn. Aeryn realized that
the words she had yelled at him in their quarters that first night they
were onboard was what began to push him away; but by blaming him, ignoring
him, and focusing on Talyn, she had pushed him even further away.
Focusing on Talyn was her initial defense against what had happened to her
in the Aurora chair. She had a strong bond with Talyn and she thought that
would help her in those first few weekens, and it had helped very much.
She made rapid progress in her recovery, but she had changed. Aeryn had
become more emotional and everyone saw it, except for John. After a while
she realized what she had done to John. She realized that all the blame
she'd put on him for her being put in the Aurora Chair was unfounded; she
was partly to blame as well. It had been her plan to go down to get him,
after all. And Aeryn realized that ignoring him was, in his words, 'the
last straw'. The Aurora chair had changed him, it had made him cold and
angry, but she was also partly responsible for that because of what she had
done to him.
After that, she began focusing on John again, but she had done too much
damage. He ignored her and only spoke to her when necessary, but she
hadn't given up on him. In the past eight monens, she had made great
progress with him. They were sharing quarters again, they were talking
again, and they supported each other again…sometimes.
Depending on how one looked at it, it was unfortunate for Aeryn that she
and Talyn had begun to grow apart because she focused all her attention on
John. But it was also fortunate for Natalie because it opened the door for
her and Talyn. They had grown extremely close and Aeryn was happy that
Talyn now had someone whom she could trust. But she was still saddened by
her loss, even though she was making progress with John.
A sound drew the pair's attention to the left cell door, and they saw,
through the latticework, a male Nebari standing there in dark blue leather
with a fairly high collar. He had a square face and spiky hair that
reminded John of some of the punk rockers on Earth in the Eighties.
Both John and Aeryn got up at the same time that D'Argo walked over to
stand by their side. The three watched and waited for the Nebari to make
his move, but he just watched them.
They stood that way, staring each other down for several microts. Then the
Nebari finally turned all of his attention on John, and said, "You are the
one called Crichton, are you not?"
"Yeah, I'm John Crichton. Who are you?"
"Who I am is not important," he said as he palmed open the door and stepped
inside the cell. Four other Nebari followed him, while another four
stepped into the cell through the other door, surrounding the three
shipmates, and aiming their weapons at them. "And you will come
with me."
John coldly glared into the lead Nebari's eyes. A few microts passed and
John finally ended the glaring match by making eye contact with Aeryn. He
gave her a look that said, We don't have a choice.
Aeryn nodded in grudging acceptance. She didn't like it one bit, but John
was right. They didn't have a choice.
John then turned his attention to D'Argo, and gave the Luxan a look that
said, If I don't come back, kill 'em all.
D'Argo smiled and nodded in acceptance at John. He knew he had also
managed to intimidate some of the Nebari there, and his smile grew larger.
No one, not even the Nebari with their powerful weapons, were stupid enough
to go up against a pissed-off Luxan.
Walking out of the cell, three Nebari led John while another three followed
with the head Nebari walking beside him. As they walked down the golden
corridors of Moya, John asked, while staring straight ahead, "So, where we
goin'?"
"You'll find out soon enough," replied the lead Nebari, who stared straight
ahead as well.
"I'll find out soon enough, huh? Well, I say why don't we cut all the bull
and you tell me what the frell is going on now?"
"You talk too much."
"Yeah…" John mumbled. "Like I haven't heard that before."
John was led down corridor after corridor until he finally realized that
the Nebari were taking him to the central chamber. He thought, They
want to wine and dine me before they mind-frell me?
As they walked, John wondered about Zhaan, Pilot, and Rygel. He hoped that
they were still on board and that they were okay so that maybe, just maybe,
they could work out a plan of getting the Nebari off the ship and freeing
Moya. If they weren't, then they were all frelled unless Natalie, Chiana,
and Stark could come up with something, which he doubted they could. John
would trust those three with his life, but they never had to plan and
execute a rescue mission on their own. Aeryn, D'Argo, nor he had been with
them when a situation like this had occurred, and they hadn't had to plan
anything. They just did what they were told.
The group approached the open door to the central chamber and the leading
three took up positions on either side of the doorway. As the head Nebari
went inside, John heard someone say, "What the frell do you want, Meelak?
Can't you see I'm eating?"
Jesus… Rygel? John thought. He walked through the doorway and
stood there to see the little slug at the table facing the door, stuffing
his face with food cubes.
As Meelak walked towards the table to stand next to it with his hands
behind his back, Rygel looked up and stared at John. In complete and utter
shock, the tiny Hynerian dropped a food cube he was holding, and began to
choke and gasp for air.
"Heya, Sparky. How's it hangin'?" John asked as he walked towards the
table and took a seat across from Rygel with Meelak watching on.
Meelak turned to Rygel and asked in concern, "Dominar Rygel, are you
alright?"
"You don't have to worry about him," John said as he planted his hands on
the table and leaned forward on them as he watched Rygel. "It's just
another case of the intons."
Meelak looked at Crichton as if the man had spores growing on his face, but
he assumed that since Crichton had spent more time with Rygel, he would
know more about Hynerians than the Nebari did.
As Rygel began to calm and get back his breath, he said with a cough,
"Cri…Cricht…" He coughed again, and asked, "Crichton, you're alive?"
"Of course, I'm alive..." John started with a look on his face that said
'duh', but then it dawned on him. "You didn't steal our stuff did you?"
"Of course not. Pilot wouldn't let me anywhere near your quarters."
"All right. So how're you doing? They haven't tried to mind-frell you,
have they?" John had a feeling that the Nebari hadn't, but he had to ask,
anyway, just to make sure.
"What the yotz are you babbling about this time, Crichton?"
"Have they tried to start that one-hundred cycle mind-cleanse on you?"
Rygel let out a huge guffaw from deep down in his tiny gut, and said,
"Mind-cleanse? Are you fahrbot?" Rygel started laughing again, but calmed
down just enough to let out, "These Nebari are with the Resistance,
Crichton. They don't mind-cleanse people."
"Resistance?" John asked as he straightened up slightly and looked at
Meelak.
"Dominar Rygel, please excuse us," Meelak said as he looked down at the
tiny Hynerian, then turned to look at John. "Crichton and I have business
to discuss."
"What?" Rygel yelled, nearly standing up in his thronesled. "If there is
any business to be done, then it should be with me. I am, after all, the
Dominar of over six-billion subjects."
"Stuff it, Rygel, and get out," John calmly said as he stared at Meelak.
"I am Dominar Rygel XVI, and I will not…"
John abruptly turned his head to look at the self-centered Dominar, and
quietly said, "Rygel, shut up and get out. If you don't, I'll kill you.
Do you understand me?"
Terrified, Rygel sank down in his thronesled and nearly wet himself.
Crichton had never threatened anyone like that before, but that wasn't what
scared Rygel. It was the look in the human's eye that terrified him beyond
belief. Rygel saw ice in Crichton's eyes, and saw that he would make that
threat a reality. If Rygel could have gotten beyond his terror to be able
to think, he would have wondered what happened to Crichton to turn him into
what Rygel now saw as a cold-blooded killer.
Slowly backing away from the table, Rygel never took his eyes off Crichton.
He slowly flew around the table, being sure not to turn his back on the
human, while John straightened up and turned around to watch Rygel leave
the room. As soon as Rygel made it to the corridor, he hit the throttle on
his thronesled and sped off down the hall as fast as he could.
"We have business to discuss, Crichton," Meelak said, gaining Crichton's
attention.
"Before we discuss anything," John said as he brought up his forefinger.
"I want to see Zhaan and Pilot."
Meelak stood there for a few microts, and to John he looked like he was
thinking it over. But he also knew that Meelak could've been thinking
about anything.
"Very well," he finally said after a few minutes. "I will take you to see
the ship's servicer first."
And, Pilot wasn't the only one who was anxious. Moya was getting pretty
anxious herself, and Pilot was having a hard time trying to keep her calm.
She desperately wanted to talk to her son after having been separated from
him for eight monens and having to live with the possibility that he might
have been killed along with the crew. But Meelak and the rest of his
people had disabled her communications system, including her ability to
talk with other Leviathans, and restored it only when necessary.
Pilot raised his massive, shelled head up from looking at his console when
he heard the door to his den open. As he watched Meelak and Crichton step
inside, he excitedly said, "Commander, it is good to see you again. How
are you and the others?"
"It's good to see you, too, Pilot," John said with a straight face as he
came to stand next to Pilot's console; Meelak stood behind him and to his
left. "And, I'm fine. So are the others. How 'bout you and Moya?"
Pilot was taken aback by Crichton's abruptness. Crichton would usually go
on and on without shutting up and would be happy to see his large friend.
But now, Pilot observed, Crichton seemed as cold and emotionless as a
Peacekeeper.
"Moya and I are both fine, Commander," Pilot softly said, then turned to
face Meelak. "But, she is quite anxious to speak with Talyn and she wants
to know all that's happened to him."
"Pilot," Meelak began. "You know the Establishment will be listening and
we cannot take the chance that they will learn of our presence here. I am
sorry, but Moya's ability to speak with other Leviathans will remain
disabled."
"But with Talyn's close proximity to her, Moya feels that the Establishment
will not be able to hear their conversation. Even if they did, Moya would
never let the knowledge of you being onboard go over an open channel or
even a secure channel."
"I understand, Pilot, but I will not restore the comms. I realize how much
Moya wants to talk to her son, but when it comes to the Resistance, we
cannot and will not take any risks whatsoever unless absolutely necessary
to our survival."
"Meelak," John said as he turned around and leaned back on the console.
"It's Meelak, right?" At the Nebari's nod of acknowledgement, John went
on. "Bring Aeryn up here." John turned his head to the left towards Pilot
and looked down to address both Pilot and Meelak. "She'll be able to fill
you in on all that's happened. But, there won't be any ship-to-ship
communication between Moya and Talyn." John turned his head back to look
at Meelak. "How's that?"
With a sigh, Pilot responded for a disappointed Moya, "It will do."
"I will have Officer Sun brought up here immediately."
As Meelak turned around to speak to his people through a comms, John turned
his head to look back at Pilot. "Sorry, man, but it's the best I can do."
"Moya and I both understand, Commander." Pilot paused and looked down at
his console then back up at John. "How is Talyn?"
"He's doing good. Natalie's been good for him. She's been teaching him
things that Crais never could have."
"Both Moya and I are happy to hear that, Commander, but is he happy?"
John turned his head to look down at the floor and was silent for a few
microts. With a sigh he turned his head back to look at Pilot, and said,
"I honestly don't know." He looked back down at the floor and continued.
"Talyn and I aren't very close so I can't say if he is or not." He paused
to look back at Pilot and harshly said, "But, I'm sure Aeryn will be able
to answer that."
"Officer Sun is on her way," Meelak interrupted as he turned back around to
face Crichton and Pilot.
"All right," John said as he looked at Meelak. "Then, lets go see Zhaan."
He then turned back to look at Pilot and took his claw, giving it squeeze.
"I'll talk to you later."
Pilot only nodded his head in response.
Giving Pilot's claw one last squeeze, John pushed himself away from the
console and walked out of the Den with Meelak right behind him.
John stood there with his left hand resting on the door and his right thumb
hooked into his belt, watching her for a few microts while Meelak watched
him. He was about to speak when Zhaan interrupted him.
"Hello, John," she serenely said.
John jumped slightly when she spoke, and thought, Damn, she's good.
"You may come in."
John moved to palm the door open, but Meelak stepped forward and grabbed
his wrist. He snapped his head to glare at the Nebari and ask why the
frell he did that, but Meelak interrupted him.
"If you want to live, I suggest that you do not go in."
"What?" John asked incredulously. "You're going to kill me for opening a
door?"
"Not me." Meelak turned his head to look into Zhaan's quarters and said,
"Her."
John followed Meelak's gaze and looked into Zhaan's quarters to see the
Delvian standing next to her bed, naked, with red eyes. He stood there
shocked and yanked his wrist from Meelak's grip. All he could say as he
stood there in disbelief was, "Frell."
Looking away to think for a microt, John put his hand on the wall and
leaned against it as he brought his thumb up to his mouth to chew on it.
He came to a decision and moved again to palm the door open but, again,
Meelak stopped him by moving to stand in front of the door sensor.
"She will kill you," the Nebari said.
"She's my friend."
Meelak paused for a microt then continued. "When one of my men tried to
bring her some soup, she tried to kill him with the spoon."
John stared at Meelak then turned to look at Zhaan who was still standing
naked beside her bed with her hands folded in front of her, patiently
waiting. "I'll take my chances."
"Very well," Meelak said as he moved out of the way. "But first…" he
paused as he reached behind his back, pulled out a pulse pistol, and held
it to John grip first. "You should take this."
John looked down at the pistol suspiciously, then back up at Meelak.
"You and I still have business to discuss, and we can't talk if you're
dead."
Looking back down at the pistol, John was trying to decide if he could
trust Meelak. After a few microts, he figured Meelak was right; it was
better to be safe than sorry. He took the pulse pistol and looked down at
it, still wondering if he could trust the Nebari. He looked back up to
Meelak as he pointed the pistol at the floor to his side and fired.
"Satisfied?" Meelak asked.
As he reached for the door sensor, John just gave him a look that said,
What do you think?
Once John was inside Zhaan's quarters, Meelak shut the door and locked it
as he watched John walk towards the nude Delvian.
As John circled Zhaan, he kept his pulse pistol down at his side, but he
had his finger on the trigger. He noticed a tray of untouched food cubes
and a cup of water sitting on the table next to her Delvian urn, but he had
other more important things to worry about than whether or not she was
eating. He looked back up into Zhaan's red eyes as he stood to the side of
the room and stayed close to the door with Zhaan between him and her bed.
She looked down at John's pistol then looked back up into his eyes and
said, "I thought you said we were friends."
"We are."
"Then, why that?" she asked as she glanced at the pulse pistol John was
holding at his side.
"It's for your sake, not mine."
"My sake?" she asked as she slowly walked towards John. "Is that because
of the madness? Are you going to kill me to put me out of my misery?"
John raised his pulse pistol at her head as she walked towards him, and
said "Zhaan, stop right there. I don't want to hurt you, but I..."
Zhaan suddenly charged at John and pushed him up against the wall, causing
him to drop his pistol as she pressed up against him, her face mere
centimeters from his.
She whispered, "You’ll what? You'll hurt me?" She let out a small laugh,
and continued. "I don't think so. Not when I need your help…"
She reached up with one hand to grab John's ear and gave him a Delvian Kiss
as she whispered to him, "They did this to me John. I need your help to
get out of here and to get revenge for what they did to me. If you do this
for me, I will be very…" she paused as she slid her other hand down to
John's crotch and gave him a squeeze. "Very grateful."
"Oh, yeah," John shakily said through gritted teeth with his eyes closed as
he shuddered from the sensations. "I have no doubt about that."
With a great deal of effort, John barely opened his eyes and looked through
the latticework of the cell door. He saw at least half-a-dozen Nebari,
with their weapons at the ready, gathering to charge into the room.
Shakily, as Zhaan sent waves of pleasure throughout his body, he raised his
hand to call off the troops.
Meelak saw Crichton's gesture and finally looked at Crichton's face seeing
pleasure there instead of pain, despite the initial appearance that Zhaan
was pushing Crichton up against the wall to try to kill him. He called off
the troops then turned around to give the two some privacy.
"Look, Zhaan…" John paused as he shuddered, then reached up to pull her
hand off his ear. "I'll do what I can…but I can't do anything for you
while you're acting like Viagra and have me pinned up against the wall."
"Of course," she peacefully said as she pulled her hand out of his grasp
and her other hand away from his crotch.
John bent over, making sure not to look at Zhaan's breasts and hairless
crotch, picked up his pulse pistol, stood back up, and holstered it. As he
looked into Zhaan's red eyes, he reached up to put his hand on her cheek
then stroked it with his thumb, and said with a cold determination, "Don't
worry, Blue. I'll help you…in any way I can."
As Meelak unlocked the cell door and opened it, John backed away from Zhaan
and walked out of the cell, his eyes never leaving her, to make sure that
she wouldn't try to escape. Once John walked out of the cell, Meelak
closed the door and locked it.
Backing towards the opposite wall and pulling Meelak along with him, John
whispered, "What the hell happened to her?"
Meelak looked through the cell door at a still naked Zhaan and watched her
as she lay down on her bed, then motioned for John to walk with him down
the corridor. Once the two had gone far enough down the corridor to be
sure they were out of earshot of Zhaan, Meelak turned to John as they
stopped in the middle of the corridor and said, "She was cleansed."
"She was what?"
"She was mentally cleansed."
"Wait…you want to run that by me again? I thought the cleansing process
took a hundred cycles."
"It does, but this was drug induced. It produces an immediate effect, but
it's only supposed to be temporary."
"Frell," John said as he put one hand on his hip, leaned on one leg, and
dipped his head as he brought his other hand up to rub his eyes. "Okay,
you said it's supposed to be temporary…"
"It is, but something happened. Instead of removing all violent and
improper thoughts, it accentuated them."
John looked back up at Meelak and put his other hand on his hip. "Do you
know why that happened?"
"Unfortunately, no."
"All right," he said with a sigh. "How did she get cleansed in the first
place?"
"A few monens ago, a Nebari named Varla came aboard looking for Chiana.
She and her crew placed a control collar on Pilot and cleansed Rygel and
Zhaan to get them to tell her where 'the sister' was, but Zhaan went mad
and killed them all. Rygel managed to make it to Pilot's Den before all
access points to the chamber were closed."
"How do you and your people fit into all this?"
"We had heard that the Establishment was close to capturing Chiana. So, we
came onboard to try to stop Varla from taking Chiana back to Nebari space.
When we got here, we discovered Zhaan. We managed to sedate and contain
her before she could kill any of my people. That's when we decided to
stay. We needed a ship with the capabilities of a Leviathan, so here we
are."
How could he have known all that if he wasn't here? John thought.
Either Rygel or Pilot could've told them, but neither of them had any
reason to do so. John decided to pocket his suspicions for the time being.
He wanted to know what Meelak wanted with him.
"So," John said as he folded his arms over his chest. "You said we had
business to discuss."
"It went alright," Aeryn answered as she walked into command with D'Argo
and Rygel following behind her. She glanced at the image of Natalie,
Stark, and Chiana on Talyn's bridge projected on Moya's forward portal
before sitting at the strategy table next to John, who was waiting there
for them. D'Argo took a seat on the other side of the table in front of
the viewing shell where Pilot's image was, and Rygel maneuvered his
thronesled into position beside the Luxan.
"I just told him about what happened in the past eight monens," Aeryn
continued, answering John's question. "Now, what the frell is going on?"
"Meelak wants us to do something for him," John said.
"He wants us to do something for him?" D'Argo suspiciously asked.
"Yup."
"First of all," Aeryn started. "Who the frell is Meelak? And what does he
want us to do?"
"Meelak's the guy who came to get me earlier. And he wants us to steal
something for him."
"What does he want us to steal?" D'Argo asked as Aeryn looked over at the
forward portal and saw that Chiana had perked up at John's revelation.
"He wants us to steal a data crystal."
"That's it?" Rygel asked. "Just a frelling data crystal? Well, how hard
can that be?"
John turned to look at Rygel, and said, "Ryg, if it was that easy don't you
think that Meelak and his people would've stolen it themselves?"
"Oh," Rygel said as he lowered his earbrows in embarrassment. He then
perked up again, trying to cover his embarrassment. "Well, of course it
won't be that easy, but why a data crystal?"
"I don't know, Rygel," John replied, annoyed. "And, honestly, I don't
care. All I care about is what we're going to get out of it."
"All you care about is what we'll get out of it?" Aeryn asked in shock.
"Aeryn, look, Zhaan is in big trouble. She's gone into madness."
They all silently looked at John in shock.
"Yeah, I thought that might get your attention," he said as he looked
around the strategy table and at the forward portal. "Meelak said that if
we do this for them they'll help us find a way to help Zhaan, and
they'll leave Moya and give her back to us."
"Whoa, hold on a sec," Natalie piped in. "Why didn't they just help her
before? It's not like they couldn't."
"Actually," John softly said as he looked down at the table. "They can't."
"Why not?" Stark yelled.
"Meelak told me they don't have the resources to do it. They need to
concentrate on their own people and they can't be bothered with trying to
help an alien. But, if we do this for them, they'll do whatever they can
to help."
"And you buy that?" Natalie asked. "The crap about them not having the
resources?"
"No, I don't. And I don't believe Meelak's story about how it all happened
either, but we don't really have a choice. Either we do this or Zhaan will
die from the madness, and we'll lose Moya. So what's it going to be? Are
y'all in?" John paused as he turned his head to look at each of his
friends. "Or out?"
"I'm in." Aeryn immediately said as she and John locked eyes.
"Of course, I'm in," Chiana enthusiastically said with a smile. "This is
going to be so krell."
Both D'Argo and Natalie rolled their eyes, and Natalie said, "I'm in, too."
With a shrug, she nonchalantly added, "Hey, I might not have stolen
anything before, but I ain't got nothing better to do."
D'Argo smiled at that and said, "Neither do I. I'm in."
Talyn let out a few positive tones, and Natalie translated for him,
"Talyn's in, too."
"I have just regained my freedom. I will not do anything to risk losing
that freedom or my life," Stark said. "But I will do this for Zhaan and
Moya."
"If you all are going to do this, you're not going to leave me out of it,"
Rygel said.
"Alright…" John said as he got up. "I'll tell Meelak."
When they heard John's voice, Aeryn and D'Argo both turned around to see
him walk into command and joined him at the strategy table as Pilot brought
up the image of the planet.
"That's the commerce planet where the data crystal is?" Aeryn asked as the
three stood around the table looking at the holographic image.
"Yup," John replied. "Well, at least that's what Dalek said. It's also
where the guys who are holding it are."
"Who's…" D'Argo started, but was interrupted by the sounds of people
walking into command and turned to see who it was.
"Sorry we're late," Natalie said as she walked into the chamber. She was
wearing her black cargo pants with the standard issue ten-hole PK boots and
her new dark blue tank top. As Chiana and Stark walked in, with Rygel
floating right behind her, she added, "We ran into a little traffic."
As Natalie and Chiana sat down at the strategy table opposite John, Aeryn,
and D'Argo, Natalie noticed D'Argo was staring at her, not because of what
she had said, but because of what she was wearing. She shook her head and
with a sigh, she thought, Men.
"D'Argo?" Aeryn said, trying to gain the Luxan's attention. When he didn't
respond, she snapped her fingers in front of his face and he snapped out of
it. "Are you finished? Did you enjoy the view?"
D'Argo just folded his arms across his chest and looked sheepish.
John changed the subject to save his friend from embarrassment. "You were
saying, D'Argo?"
D'Argo cleared his throat, looked at John and said, "Um, right. Who's
Dalek?"
"Dalek is one of the Nebari who's been studying these guys in the event
that they were going to steal the crystal. Since we're the ones who
are going to steal it instead, he's been telling me all about the guys who
have it."
"Okay, now that we've gotten all that outta the way, just how're we going
to steal the damn thing?" Natalie asked.
"We should go in at night, quietly, while they're asleep." Aeryn said.
"That way we can limit the number of casualties."
"No can do. Dalek told me they live in a fortress down there," John
replied as he sat down, putting his elbows on the table and clasping his
hands together. "Pilot, display the compound for me, will ya?" Once Pilot
brought up the image of the massive fortress that, in human terms, covered
the area of a football stadium on the strategy table, John continued. "The
perimeter wall is about a tenth of a metra high and is lined with
self-tracking pulse cannons. They've also got at least a hundred troops -
mercenaries actually - patrolling both the outer and inner perimeter."
John and the others watched as the holographic image spun, and with a shake
of his head John added, "No. We'd never make it past the gate."
"So, what do we do?" Stark asked from his spot at the end of the table
facing the forward portal with Rygel floating at his left.
"Take them while they're in transit," John answered.
"If we're going to do that, you should take them while they're away from
any major marketplaces to avoid any civilian casualties," Aeryn suggested.
John sighed as he brought his clasped hands up and rested his chin against
them. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but was holding back.
"What?" Chiana asked.
With another sigh, John started. "That compound is surrounded by a
marketplace. Sylla told me that they've got civilians working, shopping,
and living all around it, and that the people who have what we want only
travel in that marketplace when the crowds are at their peak. They
probably figure that anyone who wants to get to them won't be able to make
it past those crowds before they could get to safety."
"Frell." Aeryn mumbled.
Simultaneously, Natalie mumbled, "Shit."
"Wait," Chiana chimed in. "Who's Sylla?"
"She's the other Nebari that's been filling me in on these guys. She and
Dalek are nearly attached at the hip," John responded.
"Are we interrupting something?" they all heard immediately after John had
spoken.
The group turned at the sound of the voice and saw Meelak standing at the
back of command in front of the open door. Behind him were another male
Nebari, who looked like he could be Meelak's twin, but had a longer face
and hair, and a menacing female who had a square face, and hair that was
cropped slightly like Chiana's, but was teased up higher. Of course, they
all wore the same style dark blue leather jacket and pants with dark blue
boots.
"I'm guessing those two are Dalek and Sylla?" Natalie said.
Meelak glanced back at his two subordinates, then turned back to look at
Natalie and said, "Yes, they are."
"Now that we've gotten past the introductions," John said. "Yes, you are
interrupting."
"Then I apologize. But I came to inform you that we just received word
that the buyers of the crystal are on their way to meet our target, now.
You must leave immediately. Sylla and Dalek will accompany you to provide
any assistance you may need."
"Now?" Chiana asked, surprised.
"That doesn't give us very much time to plan," D'Argo piped in.
"We'll just have to plan along the way," John responded. "And, Rygel,
you're staying behind."
"What? I'm a part of this and I'm coming with you," Rygel yelled.
"Rygel," John said as he got up and walked around the table to stand in
front of the Hynerian. He bent down, putting his hands on his knees, and
leaned down against them to look Rygel straight in the eye. "We need
someone here to be sure these guys don't double cross us and to keep an eye
on Zhaan. Since you used to be a Dominar, I figured, who better to trust."
Everyone turned away from Rygel to cover the smirks on their faces from
John's last line.
"In that case…" Rygel paused as he considered what John had to say. "I
accept. It's about time you recognized my abilities."
"Where do you suppose the buyers are right now?" Aeryn asked.
"I think they're still a few arns away," Dalek said in a calm, deep voice.
"So we still have time," Chiana said from her spot behind the left forward
pylon.
"You have a keen grasp of the obvious," D'Argo said.
Natalie, who was standing to D'Argo's right under Talyn's beta channel,
elbowed him in the side for his remark. D'Argo growled and looked down at
her in response as Chiana flashed a smile of gratitude at her. Natalie
returned Chiana's smile, ignoring D'Argo, then walked over to the pylon to
join her Nebari friend.
"What I was trying to say," Chiana said as she leaned against the pylon and
crossed her arms while Natalie leaned back against the center pylon. "As
long as we still have time, why don't we go down there? Do a
little…'shopping'?"
"You'll never change, will you?" Natalie asked with a smile as she shook
her head.
"Not if I can help it," she answered with a naughty grin on her face.
"You know what, Chiana?" John said as he stood next to Aeryn at the front
of the bridge. "You're absolutely right. I'm going down to do a little
shopping of my own. Sylla, you're coming with me. The rest of you better
stay up here."
Nearly everyone started shouting simultaneously at John's announcement.
"I'm going with you?" Sylla asked.
"What? Why should we have to stay up here?" Chiana yelled.
"Just wait one frelling microt…" Aeryn said.
"John, I am not letting you go down there alone…" D'Argo yelled.
"Everyone, please, calm down," Stark softly said.
"Shut up! All of you," John yelled. "The map we have is not the land. So
I'm going down there to see what it's really like. It'll be a helluva lot
safer if only Sylla and I go, and the reason why she, and only she…" John
paused as he pointedly looked at Chiana before continuing, "is coming with
me is because she can provide some much needed info while we're down there.
And, Dalek…" John paused as he turned his head to look at the Nebari.
"Before you say anything…it'll look a lot less conspicuous if a male
Peacekeeper showed up with his own female personal server."
"Fine," Chiana pointedly said.
"All right," John said as he put his hand on Aeryn's arm and gave it a
reassuring squeeze. He started to walk towards the hatch saying, "Talyn,
prep the transport pod."
"The transport pod?" Sylla asked as she caught up with John. "Don't you
think it would be best to take a Prowler or Marauder rather than a slow and
unarmed transport pod?"
"Yeah, it would, but a Prowler or a Marauder would attract too much
attention to us, which is something that we do not want to do. So, give me
a microt to grab my coat, and I'll meet you down in the docking bay."
"Our target owns this whole area," Sylla responded as she and Crichton
walked downwind, his duster catching in the breeze, down one of the
filth-covered streets in the marketplace that surrounded the compound. "He
makes the shop owners pay a fee to set up shop here, but he keeps all that
money for himself and doesn't maintain the marketplace."
"In other words, he deserves what we're about to do to him."
"Exactly."
"So…does that make me Robin Hood and the rest of you my Merry Men?"
Crichton mumbled.
"What?"
"Nothing."
The two uneventfully walked side-by-side through the marketplace for nearly
a quarter of an arn, passing various booths of vendors selling pottery,
food, medicines, weapons, clothing, tools, t
=================================
"Dren."
----------------------------------------------------
"I still don't think this is a good idea," Aeryn stated as she looked
around at her friends scattered around the bridge. She turned her head to
look at John who was standing next to her behind the left main console.
All she saw was, as usual, an emotionless stare. "There are other ways…"
----------------------------------------------------
With Aeryn behind the helm, the Marauder blasted out of Talyn's docking
bay. She piloted the large craft around Talyn and tucked in under him to
avoid detection when he made his strafing run on the mining colony to
destroy the power generator. She wished they had the time to come up with
another plan, but they didn't, so here she was piloting the Marauder. She
figured that, even though she didn't like the plan and didn't consider
herself to be a warrior anymore, she was still the best pilot they had. By
piloting the Marauder, Aeryn gave the others a better chance at living
through what they were about to do than if she hadn't helped.
=================================
"Aeryn?" John yelled into the thin, black comms pinned to his vest as he
picked himself up off the floor and helped Chiana up, too. Seeing D’Argo
rise uninjured, John tried reaching Aeryn again. "Aeryn, answer me,
dammit! Are you okay?"
----------------------------------------------------
Staring out of Talyn's forward portals, Natalie could just barely make out
the colony's large hundred-story main complex where the generator was
housed, and where most of the mine owners lived along with hundreds of
other people. She knew that they needed to destroy the generator if they
wanted to succeed in rescuing Jothee, and she was ready to give Talyn the
order, undoubtedly killing everyone inside. But a part of her still didn't
want to kill them. They had found out while on the commerce planet where
they found the slave manifest with Jothee's name on it that the mine owners
worked their slaves to death, and she couldn't ignore that part. But,
killing so many people...
----------------------------------------------------
Making a few flybys over the entrance to the waste conduit, Aeryn checked
the immediate area to be sure it was clear of any hostile forces. When she
was absolutely certain that no one was there waiting to ambush them, she
set down the Marauder just as D'Argo jumped out with qualta rifle in hand
and night-vision monocle on his head, ready to kill anything that moved.
Chiana then jumped out with John right behind her as D'Argo ran into the
conduit.
----------------------------------------------------
Fortunately, when Chiana opened the door, the mechanism that opened it was
nearly silent, and it didn't awaken the slaves inside. Because she
wouldn't be able to open it from the inside she left it open, and she stood
there in the doorway looking at the rows of bunk beds with three beds to a
bunk on either side of a center aisle, and thought to herself, Frell.
This is going to take me forever.
=================================
"Drop the rifle and turn around."
----------------------------------------------------
John took a few tentative steps out of the barracks he had searched with
his pulse pistols at the ready, looked around the immediate area with his
monocle, stepped into the shadows, and squatted down on the ground, looking
for any threats. He saw movement coming from the barracks that D'Argo had
gone to and aimed one of his pistols at the doorway while keeping his other
pistol at the ready just in case another threat came up. Fortunately, it
was just D'Argo, and John lowered his pistol. Unfortunately, D'Argo was
alone.
=================================
"You what?"
----------------------------------------------------
"Hand me the welding torch, will 'ya?"
----------------------------------------------------
Leaning back against the right main console, she looked out at the vast
field of stars through the forward portals. They were like billions of
tiny fireflies that were suspended in time. Back on Earth, she used to
love watching the fireflies at night with Jason. It gave them both some
quiet time together, and Natalie could never get enough of it. He had
outgrown watching the fireflies, but they still shared some quiet time when
they could. More specifically, when he wasn’t out with his friends or
drooling over girls, and when she wasn’t training in Houston or at the
Cape. She missed him and missed spending time with him and hoped that when
she got back to Earth they could spend some quiet time together again.
----------------------------------------------------
Talyn pulled up to a stop above his mother with trepidation, allowing the
crew a perfect view of her from above through the forward portals. They
were all worried and nervous as they watched their former home drift
aimlessly with her opened outer doors. What made them even more nervous
was the fact that the first signal they had received from her had been, to
this point, the only signal they had received from her.
----------------------------------------------------
Aeryn set the Marauder down in Moya's nearly pitch-black transport hangar
just as John and D'Argo jumped out with weapons in hand. They ran to
opposite sides of the hangar and aimed their weapons at anything that
moved, or at least they tried to. They couldn't see a thing.
=================================
He barely heard it, but he knew someone had called his name. He couldn't
quite make out the voice, but it was definitely female. He thought,
God, please let it be Aeryn.
=================================
Pilot watched through the DRDs as Crichton and Meelak walked side-by-side
down the corridor leading to his den, and he was anxiously awaiting the
arrival of his long-lost friend. He was not only awaiting the chance to
talk to Crichton but to the others, as well, if there was time to do so.
----------------------------------------------------
John came up to the door of Zhaan's quarters with Meelak close behind. He
looked through the latticework to his right and saw the beautiful blue,
bald-headed priestess sitting on her bed with her back to the door,
meditating in the nude.
----------------------------------------------------
"How did your talk with Pilot go?" John asked.
=================================
"Pilot, put the commerce planet up on the strategy table."
----------------------------------------------------
"Well…" Natalie paused as she looked out the forward portals at the
commerce planet. "There it is."
----------------------------------------------------
"Damn, this place stinks."