Engines stirred as the countdown commenced. The giant claw above them twitched as rusted power forced the old machine back to life. Then the sky opened and the tiny natives shielded their eyes from the light. A hundred dingy ships flew towards the widening chasm, barely a strip of blue but ever increasing into an open sky, racing towards freedom, but Rygel and Chiana knew that if they would crash against the stone ceiling now they wouldn't feel any different about it.
Traffic erupted like panicked fireflies escaping the carcass of some giant dead animal. With no time to appreciate that illusion of a new breath of fresh air, Chiana improvised, randomly mashing controls in her stressed state trying to keep the Pod from crashing into any other moving vessel, and she couldn't help but have the time of her life.
The beast's back closed beneath them when suddenly they were pulled off their course and back into the atmosphere. A blinding distant sunset painted orange clouds. They were dragged down into the light, screaming. Their Pod was no match for the bounty hunter's tricks.
Hooks had been planted into the Pod's sides, tightening. At the other end rattled a small craft.
Rygel was barking desperate orders while Chiana rocked the controls. If it was a fight he wanted then a fight he was gonna get. They both knew who this was. Just under three weekens ago they had taken care of his partner and buried him under the rubble of an old Peacekeeper Marauder and this guy had vowed his pathetic revenge. Chiana wondered if he had planned to drag them all the way to Grayza herself. Could be fun.
But his engines wouldn't last and Chiana knew it. She imagined the look on the Sebacean's face when he would realize that they had swapped engines days ago right under his very nose. The fires of his exhaust ports blinked in and out of existence, before -with a final puff- gravity reclaimed them both. The bounty hunter's smaller vessel, still attached via grappling hook, pulled the Transport Pod down and they were in no shape to reject his invitation. Their engines roared until it almost pulled them apart. Plummeting through the clouds locked together, Chiana could only barely apply thrusters to counter their fall, whilst trying not to fry their circuitry. Finally they simply soared on the winds over a sea of pine trees as the dirt grew closer. Then a race to see which would touch the ground first.
Chiana won.
She didn't even care he was in the middle of conversation. Negotiations would have to be cut short. She cut through the plentitude of guests at the bar, grabbed him by the ear and violently whispered to him that it was time to leave. Before the Hynerian had a chance to get his bearings she took hold of both sides of his hover-sled and pushed him on towards the tent's exit while his business partner watched on.
Rygel could hear her hissing plainly through the cacophony of local music. He crossed eyes with the confused bartender and a group of laughing blue-robed women before a gust of cold brought him back to his senses. The night was young. A long line of beautiful bachelors were already walking up the mountain path below them to join the local celebrations. They were all wearing the same blue robes.
All the paved streets at the top of the path had been decorated in many-coloured flags. Their flapping sounds was the only thing penetrating the late silence so far, besides the pounding music from within the bar, as heavy winds from the west had them flail and flicker.
"What the frell are you doing?" Rygel yelled at her when she finally let go of his sled. Chiana looked even more manic in the light of the blazing torch. Her nails were frantically scratching her cheek whenever she freaked out. She stopped when she caught him noticing.
She peered out into the twisted forests surrounding the encampment looking for signs of movement and then she skipped from one foot to the other.
"They're watching us," Chiana said.
"Who are?"
"The bounty hunters. Who'd you think was watching us, Rygel?"
Rygel indulged her.
"Chiana, this is the fourth bar we've been to in less than six arns. We're never going to get anything done if we keep moving like this..."
"Sure. If you want to get done dying."
"We're all dying. Some of us just slower than others."
When the natives passed Chiana stared them down to see their faces. Some of them returned the favour and then she heard them talking about the weird grey girl as they left. She didn't care.
"Yeah, real funny, Ryg. Gets funnier every time you tell that joke."
She kept moving her hips, shifting her weight, moving slowly like a dance, and she couldn't stop. But when he peered into the shadows he saw nothing but trees.
"Are you sure this time?"
"I was right the last time wasn't I?"
"Hmmph," he concluded. "Listen, we don't want any trouble. We should pay our tab at the bar and then leave."
Chiana agreed by heavily nodding. She'd already drawn her pistol but resheathed it before she would re-enter the tent. But first Rygel lead her out back somewhere in the shadow of the large tent. He told her to keep watch while he stuck his finger down his throat and barfed up a small leather bag. While his insides burned from stomach acid, Chiana snatched the slimy satchel out from the grass and unravelled the rope around it so he could count the goods inside.
"Twenty-four, Twenty-five..." he proceeded as he pocketed a small amount of credits, before wrapping the satchel up tightly again and swallowing it whole.
"All done?" Chiana asked, turning up her nose at the stench of Rygel's former dinner which now coloured the grass orange.
Rygel burped. The heartburn followed him home as three other bags filled with credits jingled inside him.
"Now I'm hungry again," he said. "Come on then."
"Is that all?" she asked.
"It's enough."
The twisted forest outside the confides of their Pod seemed to be an improvement over the mountains of solid waste and rubble they had been forced to call home for quite some time now. Inside, they had lost track of the days. It almost seemed to have gone on forever.
The garbage scow had made frequent stops at several Commerce Planets before touching down upon this barely populated overgrown outpost.
Rygel snorted, trying to keep his cold under control. His nostrils had turned raw from rubbing it too much. A crust of tears had formed in the corners of his sore eyes.
Wading through the mud, Chiana caught sight of the stars on this clear night. Dawn was coming. Mosquitoes and other longlegged bugs whizzed about to catch their unwholesome smells, while hanging branches rattled in the wind. It was almost as if those bright stars were mocking them.
"Not much longer now," she told herself. If it hadn't been for the trail of destruction their Pod had left behind on the bottom of this overgrown valley she would've forgotten where they had parked. The Pod's control crystal was pressing against her leg inside her pocket every time she turned to see whether they were being followed.
"I don't like this," Rygel murmured.
"Just keep going."
Just another bar. Just another planet. Just another bounty hunter with an axe to grind. There had to be a better way to do this. Except neither of them knew what the frell they were doing anyway.
Chiana stumbled through the mud, following Rygel's little light through the dense forest, but still she could barely see. Twigs snapped beneath her boots and leaves crumbled as she clambered her way through this forked maze of branches. She hoped the loud noise she was making would scare away any potential predators, but then again more of them could be waiting for them at the Pod.
She knew for a fact they would be. Her finger was already feeling for the trigger.
His skin stretched almost to a breaking point to extend a courteous smile. His face red and burned as a landmass of pain stretched across an ash grey planet, or a pumpkin slashed with wrinkles and spots. The ash Nebari never aged as well as the white race.
He bore his sharpened teeth at her as she woke until she lay atop him in a single breath with her fingers dug into his neck. His eyes turned red as he flailed and kicked around this small white room trying to call for help.
Flashes, silhouettes and smells rushed by almost unnoticed within her. Stabs and twitches of pain wrapped in memories erupting from her hands as she had grasped his labcoat and saw the silver trolley come down. Needles in old Chinman's locker. Her parents telling her everything was going to be okay. That awful stench of disinfectant in the waiting room. Knives and syringes scattered, no longer sterile, across the floor as she nearly pushed the old doctor underneath her bed. Fight now, think later.
The orderlies wrung their hands underneath her pits and pressed a cold shoe into her naked calves. They were never going to take her alive. She could see nothing but the blur and feel nothing but the pressure and her hair screaming freely as she slashed the air with her nails. A dull heartbeat beat an unstoppable rhythm that seemed to radiate inside her eardrums. She felt like she was glowing warmly, but feared this feeling was never going to go away and her heart would never stop drumming in her ears.
But she needed it right now. Safe was supposed to be better than running, but she felt like running right about now.
They tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't let them.
"Just calm down!" the orderlies forced into her ear, but she twisted her neck away. They wrung her hands behind her back and pressed her cheek against the cold tiles on the floor. But she knew those new leather restraints weren't gonna cut it.
"What? You're already leaving?" she taunted as they put her back on the bed, flushed with anger and out of breath. A painful bluff. She was shaking at all the parts where they'd manhandled her to the ground, dying to get their stench off her. They'd even taken her clothes and now she was wearing this crappy piece of paper. Frell, they'd taken her clothes...
"It doesn't matter anyway!" she shouted at the people in the other room. "You're too late! They already had their way with me. I don't care anymore..."
She wrestled herself to the ground again, rolling over and over until she would find a way out of her bonds.
"Too easy."
She could hear the old doctor whining 'She choked me! She choked me!' as the door opened again, just before a new victim offered himself up to the monster.
"Chiana, I'm so sorry..." he said. "Let me get those restraints off you..."
"I wouldn't if I were you..." Chiana warned.
Rygel was the second to enter after the handsome young doctor. It felt less like a betrayal and more like a sick joke. She would've sworn this new guy looked familiar. He was ash grey like the previous doctor, with a round kind face she could've sworn to have mocked before, and those big ears deserved a mention too, but it was the eyes that charmed his way into the room.
He reached his hand out towards her until Rygel suggested otherwise, implying she wouldn't hesitate to bite it off.
Chiana laughed: "Screw you, Rygel."
The curses, the lashing out, were suddenly second-nature to her. It was honest. The next one to lie to her would end up regretting it.
"I know you've got questions."
"Lie to me and you'll lose more than just a hand," Chiana laughed. "Where am I? What did you do to me?"
"Nothing, well, not nothing," Bellon said. "We found your ship adrift in this sector. You were severely dehydrated...We helped you."
"Frell you."
"Chiana...don't you recognise me?"
Neural synapses in her brain fired off in all directions in search of the answer, like fireworks exploding into a dark night. Images flooded over her, moments in time washed away, singed at the edges by the fire that is her life, flickering before her eyes. A corrupted holochip.
"I was actually expecting to find Nerri...where is he?"
"Bellon?" Chiana asked and she was met with a smile. He kindly leaned over her to rid her wrists of their heavy shackles. Her knees chafed the cold hard floor.
"You'll probably want your clothes."
"You think?"
He arranged for her boots and clothing to be brought to her, whilst she couldn't wait to relocate this conversation someplace else.
"I've had some friends of mine take a look at that Pod of yours. It's pretty banged up, if you ask me. Have to wonder what happened to it..."
She could still feel her heart pounding away inside her chest. She didn't feel like dredging up the past.
"We don't need your help, okay?" she snapped, but Rygel begged to differ.
When the orderlies came in to hand Chiana her washed clothes Bellon stepped aside.
"It's okay," Bellon added, and she saw him exchange looks with Rygel. "I understand."
"No, you'll never understand," she grumbled under her breath as she pushed her foot into her boot. She couldn't stand the fact that they had put in new laces.
Then she stopped, shuffling her feet around waiting for them to move. She scratched herself and thought about biting her nail before realizing there was blood underneath it.
"I'll just leave you to it then," Bellon nodded, but he lingered. She had to stare him down.
"What, are you just going to stand there all day?" she told them. "Get lost. I've got stuff to do."
She chased them to the door and then kicked it shut. There wasn't a frelling lock. Instead, she checked for cameras or peepholes.
Her old self wouldn't have hesitated to undress in front of them just to shock them, although she probably didn't want them to have any satisfaction of seeing her naked. Now she just wants to be alone. It doesn't feel as it should anymore. It feels dirty.
She didn't want to stay here any longer than she had to. Bellon was here. They used to rob stores together, hopped freighters, ran from all the proper authorities and lived in the slums. Together. And now look at him. He actually looked good. He looked old. He looked better than she was doing right now.
Her clothes seemed to fit better than they did before. Her body had molded them into shape and now this was her look. This is how Bellon found her. Who knows what they could've done to her while she slept?
Bellon and Rygel were waiting for her. She would've stormed out, but she didn't know this place. They were probably watching her. On her way down she saw a ward filled with the newborn, some more grey than others, but all of them distinctly Nebari. It was like something out of a dream. Or a nightmare. Through the glass walls she could see the Nebari nurses keep watch over the crying babies, a pacifier in one hand and a syringe ready in the other...
Bellon caught her finally wandering.
"I'm sorry," Bellon said. "I know how much you hate hospitals. Let's get out of here, okay? Get some air."
He lead the way. First thing she did was shoot a glance at Rygel and he immediately tried to set her at ease.
"They've been very helpful so far," he said, somewhat grumbling. "I don't trust them, nor anyone for that matter, but I haven't any issues with them so far. Their services have been impeccable. They've even given me my own suite."
"Yeah..." Chiana exhaled, remembering how pleasant the Nebari could be, before they'd spring their trap and eat you whole.
"This one says he knows you," Rygel added with a personal interest and a cynical twist of mouth. "He sat by your bedside the entire time."
"How long was that?" Chiana asked.
"Four solar days."
Introductions were short. This brand new ship came with a brand new story. A story that could've been hers if life had taken her toward a different destination...
Bellon took her to the roof of this facility to see the bluest of skies.
"This is home," he told her, beaming with pride, as they looked down upon this artificial world. He still had that cut she'd given him in the back of his neck. She'd scraped him with a key and it had never properly healed, because of the infection.
"It's been nine cycles since I came and settled here, can you imagine that?"
"I can imagine a lot of things," Chiana said.
Words just seemed to float away to die. You get stuck in your head and it won't let go. She was ashamed of herself.
She finally dared to look out over that edge and the world was all around her quite literally, ever turning. For a moment there she thought she was looking at some hollowed out world or the insides of some giant sphere and Bellon told her the latter was more accurate.
It was a mechanical wonder, a giant superstructure, shaped like a giant cylindrical tube, and there wasn't the slightest sound of an engine to be heard. Instead a mild summer wind surged through her earshells and sent a pleasant chill down her spine. They were slowly spinning and when Chiana looked up she could see another settlement founded on the opposite interior wall.
A fake sun seared her retinas just when she was beginning to enjoy the view, and it was a long way down too.
"My wife insisted that I invite you over for dinner this evening."
"Your wife?"
"Low key. Just the three of us. Four of us, if your friend would like to come along as well. He's invited too, of course."
Rygel cleared his throat; ready to deliver the bad news:
"We weren't planning on staying lo-"
The rest of his sentence was incomprehensible due to Chiana crushing his windpipe with one hand.
"Sounds great," she interjected with a broad smile. "We'll be there."
"Tonight," Bellon added. "At powerdown. It's not far."
"We'll find it. Don't worry."
"We could catch up. Talk about old times."
"Yeah."
"You know, I never liked Nerri. Couldn't stand his guts, actually. But I always liked you."
"I remember," she added and she bit her lip. "Vividly."
"What was all that about?" Rygel barked as they hurried downstairs.
"You wouldn't know. You wouldn't understand."
"I thought you said you wanted to leave!"
"I do. It just wouldn't be polite to decline an invitation like that, that's all," she lied.
"It wouldn't by any chance have to have anything to do with him mentioning he's married, is it?"
"No!" she said. "I just want to know. I just want to meet her, that's all. I just wanna see..."
She stormed off without him.
"He'll disappoint you, you know!" he yelled after her. "I mean, look at you!"
She never listened. He sighed and scratched his brow, before tending to the bubbles inside his multiple stomachs.
"Ungrateful little bitch," he said. "The sooner we get back to Moya, the better."
The magistrate's representative was a poorly dressed man who thought a toga would make him look more like royalty, but it would've been disrespectful to laugh to his face. Chiana wondered how anyone could take him seriously, but he was nice she supposed.
She couldn't believe what Bellon had told her about this place, wholly populated by Nebari. It was hard to imagine Nebari living in peace like this without some heavy medication. She remained skeptical, but he ensured her there was no Establishment involved here. They were completely independent and separated and a long way from Nebari Prime. This was their new home now, but Chiana didn't trust it. She expected soldiers on every corner, but instead there were these weird palm trees waving in the sun and the smell of the sea. People were smiling, holding hands, and there was a busy body of voices talking over each other against loud music in a market place. She kinda liked it here.
The magistrate informed them that he extended Chiana and her Hynerian friend all courtesies as their guests who could stay as long as they wanted. The 'Home Ship' was a safe haven for all Nebari refugees and had no quarrel with outsiders. They pleaded Chiana to stay and enjoy the safety of their magnificent vessel, but she opted to rather check out what's left of their Pod.
Set down remotely against the Home Ship's exterior shell it was far removed from the interior's sounds of life. Inside the Pod it was unnaturally quiet without any engines or life support running. An unattractive void. Not sleeping, but dead.
Once she had dragged herself across those steps the sounds of the city dissipated into long breaths. Then nothing, except a radiating silence.
Heavy footsteps into the centre room. She sank to her knees and removed the panel underneath the bulkhead in the corner. Her arm could almost fit entirely into the hole there, the secret compartment where she'd stashed her favourite belongings.
She tried to remember the last thing she saw before she passed out, or did she pass out at all? Rygel was nattering away about how he'd suffered at the hands of those bounty hunters and told the thin air for the longest time about how he had ruined his imperial teeth biting away at the thick rope that bound his hands and feet. Yeah, impressive feat for a Hynerian, but it would've been more impressive if he hadn't let himself get captured in the first place.
"For three hundred cycles I've been suffering at the hands of lesser men now," he'd said tired. "And I don't see it ending any time soon."
She saw their faces again now against the stark darkness inside the Pod. Inside the blindness she could still feel them as her hand rummaged inside the Pod's crevaces and the fabric of her sleeve scraping the edges. It was right at her fingertips, but she just couldn't reach.
"...bastards..." she'd cursed at the shadows. They'd called her all sorts of things. And the things they made her do. She made herself do. The things she couldn't see.
Rygel had to tell everyone. He had to boast about how much he'd endured. She didn't need to. She could handle it alone. Didn't need help.
"Frelling...frell!" She was almost there. She dug deeper with her arm in the hole, twisting her wrist out of shape. The little bag was there. Why the frell didn't she take more care placing it there? Why the frell is she so paranoid?
Finally she tugged the bag out of the hole. "I'm not paranoid," she told herself.
Then she remembered something Rygel had told her. Something silly.
"Define yourself," Rygel had told her. "Or else others will do it for you."
"Yeah," Chiana exhaled. That was easier said than done.
But there was a gun in that bag she could put to good use. Everything's easier with enough firepower at your disposal. Everything but sex. No, especially sex.
When she moved to the cockpit of the Pod she instantly pocketed the control crystal again and stared out the forward portal. In the darkness of the Pod the black vacuum of space seemed bright and blinding.
"Well, I'm glad you're feeling better."
They caught Lenara in the middle of setting the table. The white soft linen formed a ghostly outline of a table underneath the shiny silverwear, while pots bubbled and boiled in the adjacent small kitchen. Her husband was a doctor, she explained, and therefore they've always been lucky to get the best stuff.
"They're always so charitable," she said. "He'll be down shortly-"
But before she could even finish her breath there was a creak down the stairwell and there he was still buttoning up his shirt. It was just at that moment Chiana realized she'd made a huge mistake coming there and Bellon saw it too.
"Please, come in," he said. "Sit down and make yourself comfortable."
"This isn't me," she stammered.
"No, it's fine," Bellon replied. "Don't worry about it."
He turned down the confused stare of his wife and smiled.
Rygel, again, cleared his throat. "Who are we to turn down a free meal?"
Chiana elbowed him in the face.
So they sat down at a table set for five.
"Got any kids?" Chiana asked, noting the empty chair and then the conversation turned quiet as their hosts turned to each other and then to the ground.
"No..."
Chiana swallowed her words.
"I can't believe you two are bounty hunters."
Rygel nodded in agreement.
"It's a living," Chiana said.
Lenara scooped up a spoonful of chowder from the hot pan and deposited it onto Chiana's plate.
"It must be rough living out there," she added. "Surviving on a daily basis. I mean, you nearly died. What kind of a life is that? What kind of person does that make you?"
"Lucky," Rygel said as it was his turn to receive a plate full of slop. His spirits weren't diminished, however. On the contrary, he dug in.
Bellon's warm gestures to his wife, the way he smiled at her, the way she shyly laughed at his jokes and clung to his arm, weren't lost on her. She was curious, caring, and clearly loved him. Not exactly who she imagined him hooking up with in the end, but they were perfect for each other nonetheless. If he ever screwed this up she swore to punch his lights out.
"It wasn't always that bad," Bellon reassured Lenara. "There were good days."
If there were, Chiana didn't remember them.
"Remember that old skipper on Appa Appa Dailos?" he said but Chiana didn't feel like entertaining his nostalgia. A faint smile and an old jab at his former awkward lankiness would do for now. It was hard to see how much had changed in seven cycles, and how much hadn't.
"So you're a doctor now, huh?" Chiana asked, attentively.
She toyed with her fork, moving the vegetables on her plate around a lot without moving anything to her lips, and Bellon was starting to notice. She had been starving before she came here and it had been ages since she'd tasted fresh foods. Rygel was already finishing his second helping and reaching for a third. Lerana was pleased. They rarely had guests over.
They had set down candles on the table to counter the early dark. It had been half an arn since the powerful generators in the vicinity had been shut down to preserve energy and it was starting to get slightly chilly, even indoors. The door creaked. The flames flickered because it hadn't been closed properly. Bellon leaned back and pressed his palm against the grain of the wood until it locked into place.
Then he chuckled at her question. "No, not really."
Rygel moved his clay cup a few denches closer towards the centre of the table to indicate his thirst and Bellon nervously got up to pour him some more water from the jug.
"There's about a handful among us and only one surgeon, and without proper schooling I can only do so much. I've been training under doctor Tarin for seven cycles now and I've already learned so much."
"But a doctor..."
"I know, right? It was Lenara that convinced me that I could make a difference. She told me I had something, but I was just a kid...it was you that taught me how to sew up wounds, remember? Like sewing a patch on a shirt or tying your shoes..."
"Yeah..." she looked away. Rygel burped.
Then she leaned forward over her plate, moving aside her cup of water so it wouldn't be knocked over, and prepared her words carefully before she even looked at him.
"But what is this place? Who built this?" she asked, almost surreptitiously, before her eyes lingered on Lenara to read her reaction.
"I don't know," Bellon said. "They said this ship was made by Nebari scientists to explore the universe, created before the Establishment took control. A ship designed not to be a ship, but a home. Designed to last centuries just feeding off the starlight. And we grow our own food. Our own wood."
"And that's it?"
"What more do you want?"
"Is someone controlling you? Brainwashing you? I mean, there's got to be a catch."
"There is no catch," Bellon smiled. He put his hand on Lenara's. His satisfaction seemed to spread by touch.
"But who's controlling all this?"
"Does it matter? What, you want to topple the government? Raise a rebellion? Because we're happy?"
"No..." Chiana scoffed.
"That's what the Establishment did, remember? Trying to get us back to the old and proper ways. This isn't the Establishment."
"Then what is it? You can tell me."
"This...is my home," he stressed. The knuckles of his fist turned white.
"Yeah? No such thing. Whatever happened to you?"
"Whatever happened to you?" he countered. "You never used to be like this. Nerri used to be the depressing sanctimonious one. You don't have to follow in his footsteps."
She shoved away her plate.
"He's off fighting a war. What are you doing?"
"Saving lives."
"Yeah, I bet you are. You're a right hero. Come on, Rygel. We're leaving."
"Chiana..." Bellon pleaded.
"No. I'm done here. I've seen enough."
Rygel burped again under the cover of Chiana's chair scraping the floor. He clutched his full stomach and prepared his richest of smiles as he addressed them, while a spot of gravy coloured his chin.
"It was an honour and a delight," he spoke mightily, dabbed his mouth with a napkin and bowed before his esteemed hosts. Then, likewise, he left. It was the best he could do under these circumstances.
Rygel was stuffed.
"This Nebari sanctuary...it has to be a fake," Chiana stammered. "Some sort of cover."
"Why?"
"...because I say so."
Rygel puffed. "Well, there's no arguing against that kind of logic."
They lingered in the dead of night outside Bellon's rustic house above the cliff. A narrow winding street lead up to...somewhere.
"Where do you think you're going?" Chiana said.
"To the Pod," Rygel burped. "I think I might explode..."
Chiana had become familiar with his heavy silences. Grown to loathe it.
"What, you were on their side?"
"I am on nobody's side," he sighed into the night. "I'm tired and I'm full and I just want to go to sleep now. Do whatever you want. Get yourself into more trouble. I won't be there to bail you out again."
"You don't know these people, Ryg," she stressed, remembering the Establishment. "You don't know what they did."
"They invited you into their home. Made you dinner. Four days in hospital and you still haven't learned those two very important words..."
"Screw you."
"Not the words I was looking for..."
"Then what are you looking for, Ryg? D'you want me thank you? Is that it? Yeah, thanks Ryg. Thanks for all of this. Thank you for my frelled up life."
"It could be worse, you know."
"Yeah, I could've punched him in the face."
Rygel chuckled and his eyes were drawn to the city hanging from the ceiling above them far far away. "Yes, that would've been a sight."
When he looked down again, she was gone.
Through the windows of the houses he passed he could see beautiful yellow candlelight keeping the dark at bay and people huddled around them for warmth. It was a comforting notion, compared to the cold empty Pod that awaited him.
Even if they could find Crichton and rejoin the others it wouldn't change much in the shape of what their lives had been reduced to. He'd always seen it as a mere phase, a transition, to what would finally be considered as the second rule of Rygel the XVIth, but that reality only existed inside his mind.
He wished he could've appreciated it more. He wished he could've been nicer to the others. On Moya, it was the same, but it was different because at least they had each other.
"Yes," he sighed. "It could've been much worse."
From the bushes a shot was fired at his hover-sled. He could yell all he want but it would do no good. Four Nebari men surrounded, shocked him to stop him screaming before scooping him into a small cage.
"The Hynerian is in our custody," the operatives reported back to their headquarters. "What about the other fugitive?"
"Keep her under close surveillance, but leave her be," the Magistrate replied. "but under no circumstances is she allowed to leave the Home Ship. She will try to fight us at first. In time she will come to realize that this is where she truly belongs...