Reality caught up to Chiana with the sound of pulse-fire blasts.
Surprised for an instant, she wondered what was happening until a pulse bolt shattered the wall by her head. With an alarmed squeak she threw both arms up protectively over her head and huddled down closer to a ruined brick wall that would have been only waist height to her when standing. Luckily – she wasn't standing at the moment. "What the hezmana was going on?" she asked herself.
"I told you this was a bad idea!" said an unfamiliar voice from nearby.
Chiana uncrossed her arms enough to look in the direction the comment had come from in time to see an unknown young Sebacean male raise a pulse rifle up over the top of his part of the low wall, and crank off several rounds before ducking back under cover. A flurry of return fire struck the barrier as the man flinched and tried to make himself smaller.
"Oh, this just sucks," said the man while brushing brick dust from his long shaggy dark hair.
"Who the frell are you?" Chiana managed to yell out to him a moment later.
In response the stranger gave her an annoyed, disbelieving look before saying, "Stop screwing around and help me… unless you want to end back up in a Peacekeeper stockade."
"How?" she asked him in growing panic. More shots were landing around them. "What's going on?"
"Jesus H. …" the man sputtered, "Pick up your damn gun and… SHOOT AT THEM!"
Chiana looked downward and noticed for the first time the PK issue rifle lying on the ground next to her. She snatched the weapon up as if it were a lifeline and clutched it to her.
"Okay, got it. Now what do we do?" she asked.
The man quickly checked the charge in his own rifle before answering. He nodded to himself as he got ready.
"On the count of three we both get up and empty our guns at them. There should only be four or five of them left over there… maybe we can get most of them if we take them by surprise."
Chiana returned a nod in acknowledgement, and gripped her rifle even tighter. It sounded simple enough and if anything, she was good at what someone had called, "spraying and praying", when it came to gun battles. Oddly, she couldn't remember who had said that to her at the moment.
"Ready?" he asked, "One… Two… THREE!"
Both at once, the Nebari girl and the unknown man bolted up from behind cover and opened fire. The roar of the pair of guns drowned everything else out. Almost at the same time both weapons ran dry and fell silent. The pair dropped back down behind their barrier an instant after the telltale click of an empty Chakan magazine.
From their opponent's side of the battlefield, which Chiana then saw was an alleyway, came cries of pain and surprised – followed by Sebacean voices cursing.
"Hah!" spat her new companion, "Superior race my ass!"
The man's elation was broke an instant later as more concentrated enemy pulse fire plowed into their protection.
"Aw damn," the man continued after pulling out his spend rifle magazine. "I think we just pissed them off more." He padded around through several pockets and pouches obviously searching for a reload. Not finding any spare ammo for the rife, he set the weapon aside and pulled out a pair of Peacekeeper pulse pistols.
"No frelling dren?" barked Chiana as she slammed the only Chakan clip she could find into her rifle. "What the yotz are they shooting at us for?" she then asked the stranger.
The Sebacean man only gave her another of the disbelieving looks with the question.
"You gotta be kidding me," he finally replied. "Enough of the games, Chi… what's the cheat box have to say about the area?"
"The what?" the girl asked dumbfounded.
"Leatherboy's little black box! He's supposed to have downloaded a surface map of the town into it. Maybe we can use it to find another way out of here passed the PKs."
"What the hezmana are you talking about…?"
The man frantically gestured at Chiana's hip as another barrage of gunfire hit them. The Nebari girl looked to where he pointed and saw a folding data-reader in a leather pouch attached to her belt. She fumbled and got the device out but found she hadn't a clue as how to work it.
"I don't know how it works!" she shouted out.
"Give it here!" demanded the stranger.
Not much else she could do, Chiana tossed the reader to the man opposite her. He flipped it open and hurriedly punched a few buttons. He spent a few microts reviewing something on the small screen and then flicked the palm-size device closed.
"According to Mister Wonderful's toy there's supposed to be a drainage grate around that corner behind us."
"Just great!" snapped the gray girl as another bolt almost hit her. "How do you propose we get from here to there without getting our eema's shot off?"
The stranger reached into a jacket pocket and pulled out a scratched up Tarbik grenade.
"I guess we can use this," he said with something of a sigh.
"You had a frelling grenade on you and you didn't use it before now?" Chiana barked in astonishment. "What the frack is wrong with you?"
"You know I was saving this for a special occasion," the man replied in almost comedic sincerity.
"What?" Chiana asked at his odd statement. "Never mind… just throw the damn thing and lets get outta here!"
"Oh well… I guess I can always get another one," the young man told her with a somewhat reluctant tone. "Get ready to haul ass."
Her companion set the timer and without further warning chucked the explosive device over the makeshift barricade toward the Peacekeeper line.
"Now would be a good time to run," the male announced nonchalantly.
Chiana didn't have to be told twice. As alarmed cries from the other side broke out, the Nebari bolted to her feet and headed for the corner, and the supposed salvation of the drainage grate.
Just as predicted they found a metal work grate seated in the ground just around the bend from their previous position. Behind them the grenade detonated just as the man used one of his pulse pistol to blow the locking clip off the grillwork.
Chiana bent down and heaved with all her might and the cover came free in her hands.
Her unknown ally sniffed the air and then wrinkled his nose in distaste.
"Damn… a sewer! Why do we always end up in sewers? I hate sewers," he complained.
"Would you like to go back?" Chiana asked with scorching sarcasm while she quickly searched her pockets. Her effort immediately turned up a small but powerful hand torch. Something she knew no good burglar would be without while out snurching. "I'm sure the PKs wouldn't mind putting you in a nice comfy cell… that is if they don't just shot you first."
"Nope… that be the same thing as the sewer," the man flippantly replied.
"Then stop your brattle-sniping and lets go!"
The man smiled. "Ladies first," he said with a flourish of one hand.
The gray woman rolled her eyes and dropped down into the hole in the ground.
The man followed Chiana down just a microt behind her. He reached over his head and bulled the grate back into place, hoping the Peacekeepers would miss it when the regrouped enough to search the area.
Chiana shouldered her rifle then gazed at the lit hand-screen of the data device, and quickly picked the best route back to the nearest spaceport – where she hoped they had a ship waiting. It was odd that she couldn't remember such a simple fact. Her head felt funny, so she concluded she most have injured herself during the firefight and was momentarily confused. Her head would probably clear if she gave it enough time. Meanwhile, it wasn't safe to stay there where they were at the moment.
"This way," she ordered the man and then took off in the direction she indicated.
Her companion followed her as they jogged through the filthy water in the drainage tunnels. The Nebari girl didn't stop until after they had taken several turns in the maze of pipes and she was sure that even if the PK's had figured out where they had gone, it would be a while before they could track them.
"We'll stop here for a microt," Chiana announced.
"I'd rather keep hauling tail back to the ship," the stranger replied.
Chiana chose that moment to turn on the unknown male. Shining her light into the man's eyes to momentarily blind him, she poked him under the chin with the stubby barrel of her palm pistol.
"And I'd rather know who the frell you are!" she growled. Under the bright hand-light, she got to see the man was barely a boy, though a tall boy, probably in his late teen cycles. His age didn't matter much at the moment… she didn't like to be mind-frelled with.
Instead of being alarmed, the younger man only looked annoyed with her action.
"Stop messing around, Chi. This isn't the best time or place for it," he told her. "And get that god-damned light outta my eyes!"
Chiana twisted the gun into his under-jaw harder.
"Do I look like I'm frelling around?" she asked. "Now answer my question or I'm going to be the only one walking out of here."
This made the man do a double take as he realized the Nebari female's seriousness.
"You're not kidding, are you?" the stranger asked instead with a surprised look."
Chiana cocked her head and raised an eyebrow in answer.
Something seemed to dawn on her companion at that moment.
"Aw! Hell no, Chi," he suddenly exclaimed. "Not again… you promised you wouldn't!"
"Promised?" she asked, "What the yotz are you blabbering about? I've never saw you before a few microns ago – let alone promised you anything."
The man seemed not to be interested in her new question.
"You did it anyway, didn't you?" he accused. "You gave me your word that you would leave it alone from now on."
"Leave what alone, you frellnik?"
"That damned Crystal," he told her. "After the last time, you promised me you'd never play with it again." He said this while pointing to a leather cord that she hadn't noticed until then hanging around her neck.
Chiana pulled on the string and a transparent sack of Klizet silk came up out of her bodice.
Inside the small bag sat a bright blue crystal with red highlights somewhere deep inside it.
"What the hezmana is this?" she asked, lowering her gun with the new mystery.
'It's a goddamn dream crystal, is what it is," the man explained. "Every time you play with it something like this happens."
"Like what?" she asked in growing bewilderment.
"You forget things… like where you are, who you are… who I am," the stranger continued.
"I know who I am. The question still is – who are you?"
The man exhaled in exasperation.
"I'm Jason," he finally said, "Jason Crichton."
"Ja… Jo…" Chiana began to stutter, "Crichton? I know that name… Crichton."
The youth calling himself Jason Crichton rolled his eyes.
"Hello? After three years… I mean, after three cycles… you better know my name."
Chiana shook her head slightly. "No… no, something isn't right about this. But I can't tell what."
Jason snorted. "Well… yeah! I can tell you what isn't right… you baked your brain again tripping on that cheap video game imitation. I told you not to take it from that crazy old woman," Jason reproached. To himself he muttered out loud, "You should never trust an old witch with a third eye in the middle of her forehead."
Something in that last statement trigger another fleeting though in Chiana's mind.
"Third eye?" she muttered. "I know something… someone… no, I can't remember it now."
"Yeah, great… just great!" Jason spat as he pushed passed her and caught her hand to drag her along behind him. "I swear to god when we get back to the ship… I'm flushing that damn crystal out the deposal shoot and I don't care how much you cry about it!"
Chiana had no choice but to follow along behind the boy.
"Sheesh! And you're suppose to be the one looking out for me!" she heard him say.
They followed the sewer for several metra underground and then exited near a run-down spaceport. A few moments later they climbed aboard a small cargo freighter that Chiana was sure she never seen before.
"Home sweet home," Jason quipped as he cycled the rusting hatch closed behind them. Almost immediately the ship's intercom came to life.
"Were you successful?" asked a silky voice made gallingly tinny but the old comm's speaker.
"That's a big neg-a-tory, Leather-face," Crichton replied flippantly.
Chiana couldn't tell if the person speaking to them had let out an annoyed hiss or if it was the quality of the comm system that was responsible for the scornful sound.
"I trust you have an excuse… as always," asked the voice.
"Yeah… somebody got us caught… as usual," Jason tossed in, while glancing meaningfully at the Nebari woman.
"Me?" asked Chiana dumbfounded. "What did I do?" she asked.
"Does 'just a few babbles, what can it hurt?' ring a bell?" Jason asked sarcastically. "You should have known the glittery stuff would have been wired to an alarm. We should have just grabbed what Professor Creepy wanted and got the hell out of there."
Chiana was puzzled, she didn't remember that either. She was just about to say so when the odd voice broke back in over the ship's comm.
"We are now compromised. Secure yourselves, we're leaving," it said.
The metal deck below her feet rattled as the drive came on-line. The rusty old ship shuttered and she felt it rise abruptly into the air with a rough heave.
Jason grabbed at a bulkhead strut to steady himself as one end of the ship tilted upward.
"Well, somebody's sure pissed," he muttered.
Chiana remained quiet during the next few microns, using the time to try and sort out what was happening to her, but nothing presented itself to make it any more clear to her. The young man calling himself Jason Crichton nonchalantly whistled a tune to himself while they waited for the craft to break gravity, not playing her much attention at all.
She took a few microts out to consider him as well. He was tall and lanky, obviously still young for a Sebacean to be out on his own. He had dark features and typical brown Sebacean eyes that looked recognizable in some unknown way.
She wished she could have remembered him more clearly, only the name, "Crichton" seemed to be familiar somehow really. She thought back to the recent gun battle with the Peacekeeper detail, and recalled thinking about someone and the name, John, flashed through her memory for an instant. But it slipped away before she could make any connection.
She was growing frustrated. It all seemed to be within her grasp but so far away at the same time.
The Nebari was saved from dwelling on it further as the ship leveled off and the awkward feeling of a not quite correctly calibrated artificial gravity unit kicked in.
They were in free space and heading away from whatever planet they had been on.
Jason let go of the strut and ambled over to the hatchway opposite the airlock.
"Come on," he said with a wave of his hand. "Let's get up to the bridge and get the ass-chewing over with. I'm hungry and the sooner we get that done with, the sooner we can find something to eat."
Chiana fell in behind him. Letting him lead the way to their destination.
They arrived on the freighter's cramped bridge. The lighting was so poor that even Chiana Nebari eyesight took a few microts more than normal to adjust. There were several shadowy figures at stations, but only one stood by itself just behind the helm control and pilot. It was this figure that Jason went directly two.
"We're home, boss," the young male drawled.
The figure turned slightly and it was then that Chiana caught the strange profile. The nose was hooked and the chin jutted out at a sharp angle. The person wore some leather-like helmet that also covered part of its face. The skin that showed through was pasty white and rough, almost like leather in itself, compared to the smooth healthy light gray of her own flesh tone.
The being moved it's body around to better face them, it was then she also noticed the metal brace that encased the person's entire right leg and the black and silver cane it had in it's right hand. It used the cane to assist it in taking two steps toward them.
"You both realize the set back your failure has cost my work," the leather clad creature asked.
"Well… you know how it goes," Jason replied. "Some you win, some you lose… some you lose cuz of sticky fingers. Them's the breaks, Scorpy."
"You are anything, but amusing, young Crichton," the pasty being said coolly
The leather-clad male with the cane turned to look at her, and frowned deeply. Chiana had the sudden mental flash. She knew this Scorpy person from here… and from somewhere else.
Part of her was telling her to run; another part was telling her there was no need to run.
She wondered which was right?