Part 3 of 3
"Throw away your weapons."
Aeryn assessed their current situation coolly. She had virtually no room to make a move, so it seemed highly unlikely she could do anything about this new development. Chiana and Jool did have the room to do something, but because she was sitting in between them and the female Peacekeeper, their reaction would only result in her death. Realizing she had no options left, she smiled as she threw away her pulse pistol and one knife. "Look, Chi, it's our new friends."
Chiana smirked as she threw away her pulse pistol and looked up at the male Peacekeeper. "How're the mivonks?"
Jool also threw away her pulse pistol, not wanting to get the other two killed. She looked at the two Peacekeepers, one male, one female, and from what she understood from the banter between Aeryn and Chiana, these must be the two Peacekeepers they had captured earlier. Not wanting to be outdone by the two women, she eyed the two mock-angrily. "What did you do to my leather restraints?"
Chiana giggled at Jool's quip. Jool had definitely grown since she had first awoken aboard Moya. She was now more able to keep a cool head when in danger.
"I suggest you keep your mouths closed, or we will shoot you where you are."
Jool raised a questioning eyebrow. "How would you do that?"
The female Peacekeeper's look of surprise was comical. "As you can see, we have two pulse pistols."
Jool eyed her back coolly. "I can see that, but I am wondering how you are planning to pull the trigger without your hands."
The female Peacekeeper looked at Aeryn, frowning. "Is she magra fahrbot?"
Aeryn shook her head. "No, she is quite smart and sound of mind." She looked the female Peacekeeper in the eyes. "You should have stayed away. This time I will kill you." She heard Jool taking in a gulp of air and quickly covered her ears with her hands.
Chiana also foresaw Jool's pending scream in time to cover her ears and watched in satisfaction as the two Peacekeepers received the full force of Jool's lovely, eardrum-shattering scream. Chiana immediately lashed out with her foot, again hitting the male in the mivonks. He didn't seem to know what to do with his hands; cover the sore spot between his legs, or his ears, or to break his fall before curling into a fetal position.
Aeryn managed to make enough room for herself to kick the female hard in the gut. As the female Peacekeeper doubled over, Aeryn locked her legs around the head that had conveniently come into range. Falling together to the ground, she managed to give it a twist that snapped the neck.
Jool stopped her scream as she saw the female dead on the ground and Chiana kicking the male in the face.
Chiana released her hands from her ears and straddled the dazed male, shoving a forearm hard against his throat. "Tell me what ya did with my friend's restraints or I kill you right now."
"I... I left them in the corridor."
"Thanks." Chiana grabbed his knife and slit his throat.
Aeryn watched as Chiana stuck the knife in the waistband of her pants and went to get their weapons back. She hadn't thought Chiana would just kill a Peacekeeper in cold blood, without even looking back. Aeryn made a mental note to keep an eye on her, make sure it wouldn't come back to haunt her friend later. "Jool, how's Hirsch?" She turned around to see Jool helping Hirsch to sit up.
Jool tilted her head towards Aeryn. "It seems he was only knocked unconscious, though I doubt he can walk on his own. Getting out of here is the first priority. I can take care of him later."
Chiana had gathered their weapons along with some of the weapons of the Peacekeepers and handed Aeryn two of the pistols, her knife and a pulse rifle. "I'll help Jool get him to their ship. You get to shoot Peacekeepers."
Aeryn nodded. "Great plan. Very straightforward."
Chiana helped Jool pick up Hirsch. "We're ready. Let's go."
"Frell."
Aeryn's muttered frustration at seeing their new problem had the two other women on alert immediately. They both helped Hirsch sit down on the floor before raising their weapons and joining Aeryn to see what exactly the new problem was this time.
"Whadda ya think, Aer?" Chiana eyed the corridor again before turning back to Aeryn. "Explosives or just warning sensors?"
"Explosives are more likely." She turned to Jool. "I don't think Grayza had any intention of allowing any of you to survive, Jool. These had to have been planned. It is highly unlikely the Peacekeepers would have taken so many with them under normal circumstances."
Jool looked at the large number of flat, circular devices attached to the corridor walls. "I can't allow them to blow up the priests, or any of the Interions."
Aeryn nodded. "I know. We'll need to deactivate them. They all seem to have temperature sensors attached to them. If we walk past, they will most likely trigger the explosive charges, or at the very least warn the Peacekeepers up ahead."
"Deactivate them?" Chiana looked unbelievingly to Aeryn. "All of them?"
Aeryn smiled. "It is not as much work as you may think. All the explosives are linked to each other. If we deactivate one, giving the proper commands, all of them will deactivate at once."
"Wouldn't the Peacekeepers on the other side notice and reactivate them?" Jool thought it was highly likely they would.
Aeryn shook her head. "They might notice, but they wouldn't be able to reactivate them from their side until someone comes to find out which specific device is malfunctioning, or optionally take it out of the link chain. That one over there seems to be the main charge. Without it, they can't reactivate the sequence at all. Either way, it would take them time to get here. Standard ops would dictate one grunt and one tech would go investigate it."
Chiana grinned. "Well, a tech and a grunt shouldn't be too difficult to deal with."
Aeryn smiled, though not too comfortable with the idea of Chiana looking forward to taking out others so blithely. "Yes, but they will send more if they realize they've lost two people. Then a larger group will follow, and I am planning on evading them."
"How?"
Aeryn turned to Jool. "You know this place better than any of us. Are there alternate routes to the caves containing our ships?"
Jool contemplated the question, casting a quick glance to Hirsch to make sure he was still alright. "Only from the outside. But if we go back a short distance, to the last intersection, we could take the other corridor that leads to a section of the dig that is quite close to the two caves. The dig itself has been closed and it's unlikely the Peacekeepers would have bothered with the dig after it was closed up. It might even be difficult to get out."
Aeryn nodded in agreement. "That seems satisfactory. Right, I'll start the deactivation of the explosives." She grabbed a knife and threw it at one of the devices, hitting it just on the lower rim. Immediately one of the lights on the device faded. "Sensor disabled for that one." She looked at Chiana and Jool. "Stay here."
Aeryn moved to the explosive with the now-damaged sensor and opened it, making sure to stay out of the sensor range of the other explosives. She examined the innards of the device thoroughly. She was glad she had picked up on tech work these past cycles on Moya. It gave her much more insight into the workings of many devices, allowing her to find the proper connections to sever in order to deactivate the charges.
Aeryn took her knife and severed the first connection, relieved when nothing exploded. She quickly severed the second connection. Now the last connection, but this one had an added complication. Within five microts of disconnection, she needed to reroute it to a secondary connection point. She studied the wire closely and it seemed to be long enough to bridge the distance to the other connection point.
Aeryn took a deep breath and closed her eyes momentarily. When she opened her eyes again she grabbed the wire at its connection point. Her hand would be in the way, preventing her from seeing where she would reconnect the wire so she had to do this solely by judging the distance she had moved the wire. She inhaled once again and disconnected the wire. Now she was committed to this action; there was no turning back now. She moved her hand to the location she was sure she needed to reconnect the wire to, but had a little trouble to find the exact location. The device gave a beep every microt, increasing in pitch. Finally she found the connection point and pushed the wire into its new position. She exhaled the breath she had been holding. Frell, that was close! Just one microt left.
When Aeryn looked up she noticed the other devices were turning off one at a time.
"Judging from the pitch of those beeps, you were frelling close to gettin' us all killed."
Aeryn, startled by the sudden nearness of her Nebari friend, turned her head. Chiana was grinning so she had tried to make light of it, but her stance betrayed her nervousness. Aeryn smiled. "You don't want to know how close."
Aeryn stuck her knife in between the two power connection points, shorting it out. She closed up the device and grinned at Chiana. "Now we wait for two new friends for us to play with."
Chiana just nodded and turned around, heading back to Jool and Hirsch. Aeryn had seen the look on Chiana's face before she turned, though. She suspected the girl had started to realize she had just killed someone without conscious thought.
"This is the one." The tech put down his scanning device and rummaged around his toolkit to find a tool to open up the charge and inspect its internals.
"You better get this one working again, tech." The female grunt had an obvious distaste for techs and wasn't bothering to hide it. "This is the main charge. Without it this mission has failed, the other charges will do nothing without this one."
The male tech was apparently not one to accept being looked down upon by anyone. "I will do my job. Make sure you do yours." He closed his toolkit and attempted to open up the charge.
The female grunt grabbed him and pushed him hard against the wall. "Watch it, tech! Without me, you would be dead already. All you techs are just too weak to be real Peacekeepers. I cannot understand what High Command still keeps all of you around for." She let go of him again.
The tech just grinned at her before he turned back to the device, finally opening it up. "And what would you have done now if there was no 'weak' tech around to save your collective eemas? Just forget about this mission?"
He inspected the innards more closely. "Hmm, blown-out power supply. We will have to take one from the other charges." He moved to the neighboring charge. "So, you haven't answered my question. What would you have done without any tech in this situation?"
There was a solid thump behind him.
"Same thing she did now. Die."
The male tech turned around to see yet another Peacekeeper. This one didn't seem to be part of their team, though. His eyes fell on the lifeless body of the grunt, before he looked back fearfully at the newcomer, who radiated danger.
Aeryn didn't see any point in killing him. He wasn't a threat to them, at all. Knocking him unconscious would be the better option. She gave him a feral smile. "You're not a very good tech, are you?"
The tech looked affronted. "I am one of the best techs on this mission."
Aeryn snorted. "Perhaps you should look again at the explosive device." She pointed to the one she had sabotaged.
He hesitated slightly before making his way to the still-open device and inspecting it.
"Who did this? Not only are the safety lines severed, but the device has been purposefully rerouted so it would deactivate the others. All of them will need to be reinitialized, taking arns at least, and this one would need to be replaced with another main charge." His voice went up in awe. "That must be one good tech to come up with this solution." He regarded Aeryn speculatively.
Aeryn smiled. "I've learned quite a bit since Crais declared me Irreversibly Contaminated. I'm glad he did that, though."
"Crais? You are Aeryn Sun?"
Aeryn didn't like this development. The tech seemed a little too glad to meet her. Still, she nodded in acknowledgement.
"You better leave quickly. Especially if the one called Crichton is here. I heard some special operative was aboard with the intention of killing this Crichton and anyone that was on his side."
Aeryn looked dubiously at the tech. Why was he telling her this, helping them?
"Don't look so suspicious. Crichton may be our only hope when the war with the Scarrans starts. Not everyone thinks Peacekeepers are the best force around, either. Now, get out, but before you do, knock me unconscious."
Aeryn was certain he never saw the Pantak Jab coming.
Karinta rushed to the docking bay. She'd been informed the Commandant had been severely wounded and was barely conscious. She made her way as fast as she could to the bay the Marauder was bound to land in. Not that she wanted to help the Commandant, not after what had happened a cycle earlier, but because she knew the penalty should she, as head med tech, not be there before the Marauder touched down.
No, for all she cared, the Commandant could die of her wounds. Briefly, she wondered if someone else had planned this, taken revenge. But no Peacekeeper would dare to do that. They would, in essence, be signing their death warrants with such an action. But maybe it hadn't been a Peacekeeper at all, just someone else who had vengeful feelings towards the Commandant.
Karinta shook her head, trying to dispel these random thoughts. It didn't matter, she would need to make sure the Commandant would heal and remain alive, regardless of her own hatred towards the Commandant. She arrived at the docking bay mere microts before the Marauder flew in.
Microts later, the Commandant was carried out. Karinta moved closer, intending to take a closer look at the wounds. The Commandant had regained consciousness.
"...capture Officer Sun, the lead Interion and the Nebari girl. Bring them to me, alive. I will personally execute them for doing this to me."
So it was revenge! Karinta had heard, of course, of the notorious Officer Sun. An Irreversibly Contaminated Peacekeeper who had found an alien mate. The same alien male the Commandant had... interrogated on this same planet not so long ago. The Nebari had also been part of the crew of the Leviathan ship they were on.
Again Karinta shook her head mentally. This was not the time to wallow in admiration of this nicely-executed revenge. She moved closer to the Commandant and looked under the cover. One hezmana of a lot of blood and tearing. She stuck her head above the cover. "Who was the attacker? There's a lot of damage."
"A group of Grizans."
Karinta quickly hid her face behind the cover again, afraid someone would see the smile forming on her face. Grizans! Frell, this was one very well-planned-out and brutal revenge. She wished she could have been there to watch it. Karinta was grateful the threesome had seen it fit to teach the Commandant an important lesson. For a moment Karinta saw her brother's face, but this time his face wore a smile, not the despondent look he'd had the last time she'd seen him.
Karinta moved from under the cover. "Not much I can do for her here. Bring her to the medical bay quickly." The Commandant turned to her and motioned her closer.
"They also removed the gland," Grayza said softly.
Karinta understood what she meant. She had frequently examined her and was aware of the Heppel Oil gland that had been implanted in the Commandant. Karinta also knew that removal of the gland would lead to death within arns of removal. Well, that wouldn't do. The longer the Commandant lived, the better. Ever since her brother had taken his life because of what this tralk had done, she had been dreaming of a way to remove the gland without it causing death.
Karinta knew that for someone like the Commandant, recreation was a necessity and, before the gland had been implanted, the Commandant had had considerable difficulties finding recreation partners due to her obvious hybrid status. Yes, the three women had taken their revenge and now Karinta had a chance to prolong the suffering of the Commandant.
Aeryn grunted as she pushed though the last obstacle in their path. She looked back at the others, noticing Hirsch had at least stayed conscious and was even regaining mobility. "Alright, stay low and quiet. I'll do some reconnaissance." She quietly and quickly moved out of the entrance of the cave, staying low to the ground. She had a reasonably good idea of which direction they needed to go and spotted a nice location to remain out of sight and still have a good overview of most of the area.
Lying flat on her stomach Aeryn carefully peered over the edge, quickly making an inventory. One Marauder, four Prowlers in the open, five Peacekeepers near the entrance where her Prowler was hidden. There didn't seem to be anyone near the other cave that should harbor Jool's ship. Just as she wanted to retreat she saw her Prowler rolling out of the cavern and she silently cursed. She cursed again under her breath as she saw her Prowler lift off, accompanied by one of the other Prowlers.
Aeryn moved away from the edge at the same time the other three arrived. She turned to Chiana. "I hope you didn't leave anything important on my Prowler. They just flew away in it."
Chiana shook her head. "No, took everything with me. Sorry 'bout your Prowler, though."
Aeryn shrugged. "It was in need of proper maintenance anyway. I will just have to take one of the other Prowlers." She looked at Jool. "There are a number of Peacekeepers near the entrance of the cave my Prowler is... was hidden in, but the one where your ship is, is not being guarded. Can we get to it from here without being detected?"
Jool thought about the situation, looking around and even taking a short peek over the edge herself. "It's not going to be easy. The entrance to that cave lies in direct sight of the one with our ship. Their attention needs to be diverted."
Aeryn was in deep thought. How the frell are they gonna divert them?
Chiana, done with her turn of peeking over the edge, giggled. "Hey, I know how I can divert their attention."
Aeryn looked at her, seeing that despite the little laugh, Chiana was indeed serious about the comment.
Chiana looked back at Aeryn. "Hey, I... I know I can reach the... the Marauder without being detected. I can. I also know how to use its weapons."
Aeryn shook her head. "The pilot will have remained aboard."
Chiana held her pulse pistol up high. "I have this. I'll be on that pilot before I get detected. Trust me. When I'm in control of the Marauder, I can simply shoot just above the entrance and it'll collapse."
Aeryn realized they didn't really have any other options, but sending Chiana out alone, with no way of providing adequate defenses should things go wrong, was not a much better option. Plus, she might need to kill another one, and while certainly not the first time Chiana would have had to kill a Peacekeeper, it was clear to Aeryn she was already having difficulty dealing with the earlier kill. Adding yet another one so soon would probably compound the problem. Aeryn sighed. It was the only viable option they had.
"Alright." She grabbed her friend before she moved. "Be careful, alright? I don't want to have to explain to D'Argo why you died."
Chiana grinned. "Don't worry, Aer. You know I can do this. Nobody is as snarky as me."
"I think you mean sneaky, Chiana."
"Sneaky, snarky... whatever."
Aeryn smiled as Chiana moved away, back in the direction they had come from. Chiana was right, she was very good at sneaking around undetected, but Aeryn hoped Chiana wasn't overconfident of her skills. Aeryn turned around to Jool and Hirsh. "Is there a way we can get closer to the ground and the cave without the Peacekeepers detecting us?"
Jool nodded. "Yeah, just through there. It's pretty steep but we'll be completely hidden from view."
Aeryn inspected the steep path down. It seemed to be a reasonably smooth and solid surface, with the mountain wall on the right side and a ledge at the left high enough to hide them from view, but low enough for Aeryn to look over every now and then to see if Chiana was still undetected. She turned back to Jool. "Do I need to help with Hirsch?"
Hirsch shook his head. "No, I will be fine with Jool. You should stay in front and make sure the path is safe."
Aeryn nodded her head, glad he understood sound tactics. She turned around and started to descend.
Karinta was impressed. Whoever had removed the gland had done a very good job. The Commandant would have lived for monens at least. But she knew how to prolong that lifespan even further. The Commandant would be able to live many more cycles, cycles in which recreation would not be so easy; if she would even ever desire recreation, of course. Karinta had been informed the Commandant was found naked amongst a group of twenty or so Grizan males, trapped in their holding pen for an unspecified period of time.
That was another thing the Commandant would be living with. Now she'd know how most, if not all, of the males who... whose services she had made use of felt like afterwards. Karinta quickly completed the procedure that would prolong the Commandant's life and only then set to work to take care of the other damage.
A smile played on Chiana's lips. It had been incredibly easy to make her way to the ground and behind the Marauder without detection. She made sure the landing struts of the Marauder were at all times between her and the cave entrance, just in case one of the Peacekeepers would look this way and actually pay attention. Just a few more motras and she'd be at the back of the Marauder, hopefully able to use the rear maintenance access hatch.
Once at the back of the Marauder, Chiana changed her mind about the maintenance access hatch. In all likelihood, it was equipped with a sensor and opening it would alert the pilot. She was better off taking a chance boldly walking up the boarding ramp and the still-open hatch the unit had used, even with the risk of being detected by one of the Peacekeepers.
Aeryn peeked over the ledge again and saw Chiana had made it to the rear of the Marauder. It was obvious the Nebari was contemplating using the maintenance access hatch. Aeryn was relieved to see her discard that option in favor of audaciously entering through the main access hatch after checking to be sure no Peacekeepers were standing near the cavern entrance at the moment to spot her.
Without taking her eyes off the openings where any likely trouble would manifest itself, Aeryn whispered to her companions, "Chiana has entered the Marauder. Get ready to go to your ship when I give the signal."
Behind her, she could hear Jool and Hirsh shift in preparation to move out quickly. Aeryn divided her attention between the cave entrance and the Marauder, trusting the others to follow orders as directed.
She made it! Once again Chiana had proven her stealth skills were above those of anyone else. Suppressing the triumphant giggle that was brewing inside, she quietly made her way to the pilot area, hearing a voice as she neared it. Either the pilot was talking to someone on comms or he was not alone. Chiana decided it was best to wait a little longer to determine just how many people were actually in the cockpit. The male voice spoke again.
"I just made another sensor sweep. The area is still clear."
"Make sure it stays that way."
The answer had not come from someone in the cockpit, but rather through the comms. Comms was good. Comms meant nobody there but one lonesome pilot. Chiana only needed to wait until the comms were closed again before taking out the pilot. That last thought made Chiana queasily eye the knife still stuck in her waistband. She still couldn't believe she had actually killed someone without a second thought. Sure, she had killed before, but not like this.
Chiana shook her head, trying to dispel these thoughts for now. She needed a clear head for this. Thinking and regrets could come later, when they were back on Moya. At last the comms were closed and Chiana immediately recognized the sound of someone standing up and taking a few steps. He was coming her way!
Chiana pressed herself against the separating wall between the pilot area and the main crew area she was in now. As soon as the pilot stepped past her, she shot him. Chiana edged closer to the fallen Peacekeeper, not certain he wasn't faking it. At the last possible moment, Chiana had adjusted her pulse pistol setting so she wouldn't kill him. Even so, her eyes had involuntarily closed when she squeezed the trigger.
Kicking the Peacekeeper hard in his sides did not elicit any reaction. Satisfied for the moment that he was indeed unconscious, she quickly moved to the cockpit and aligned the Marauder's weapons at the top of the cave entrance and fired. Seeing the cave ceiling crumbling and falling down, trapping the Peacekeepers inside, she returned to the unconscious pilot and dragged him to the boarding ramp. She unceremoniously dumped him out and hit the control to pull up the ramp and close the hatch.
Aeryn watched as the cave entrance collapsed. "Now, Jool!"
As Jool and Hirsch departed in haste, Aeryn sprang up and took care of the two sentinels she had spotted earlier. As she had expected, the two were distracted by the Marauder's firing and the subsequent collapsing of the cave entrance. The two fell to the ground before either had a chance to turn towards her.
Aeryn glanced to the Marauder and saw Chiana pushing the pilot out. Another glance tracked Jool and Hirsch making their way to their ship as fast as Hirsch could move. Aeryn quickly ran past them to make certain their cave was indeed empty.
Aeryn glanced around but didn't see anyone or anything. She heard the ship descend from the ceiling, indicating Jool or Hirsch had activated the mechanism. The ship didn't appear until it had touched down and the boarding ramp extended.
Jool started helping Hirsh up the ramp but turned around when she realized the Sebacean wasn't following them. "Are you coming, Aeryn?"
Aeryn shook her head. "No. I'll take one of the Prowlers." Aeryn took a comms out of her pocket and threw it to the Interion. "Here, take this. You'll be able to contact Chiana or me."
Jool nodded. "Thanks. I'll need a few microts to get the ship ready for flight, and then I'll follow you two." She turned back and headed into the ship.
Aeryn was heading for one of the Prowlers when her comms came to life.
"Aer?! You and the Princess still alive?"
"Yes, Chi, Jool and Hirsch have entered their ship and I'll be taking one of the Prowlers with me. You can take the Marauder."
"Sure, no problem."
Aeryn ran the last few motras to the Prowlers and to her joy she spotted one of the newer models. Now she really didn't mind the Peacekeepers taking her Prowler. She quickly climbed in and started the power-up sequence. "Chi, Jool. Listen, the Peacekeepers trapped in the cave will have requested assistance by now, so be prepared to encounter other Prowlers and Marauders soon."
"Got it, Aer!"
Jool's reply was not the confirmation Aeryn expected. "Like D'Argo's ship, the weapons on mine can be operated even when shrouded. I should be able to extend the shroud to cover your Prowler. If we follow Chiana undetected..."
Aeryn engaged the engines at the same time as Chiana lifted the Marauder off the ground and nodded her understanding, finishing, "...we could take care of the Peacekeepers following her. As it appears to be only one Marauder, they will at most send three Prowlers in pursuit."
Jool piloted her ship out of the cave and flew just above Aeryn's Prowler. "Aeryn, you must remain within a motra of my ship, otherwise the shroud will not be able to cover you completely." Jool was confident that if she kept her vessel steady along its flight path, Aeryn was a skilled-enough pilot to match her course that closely.
"Alright, Jool, I'm ready. Chi?"
"No problem. I'll make sure they follow me out."
"Try to lure them away as far as possible. If they get the chance to inform the Carrier it would take them more time to get to our last known location." Aeryn paid close attention to Jool's ship and used the Prowler's navigational computer to maintain a constant distance between them.
Chiana shot up with her Marauder, followed closely by the now invisible Prowler and Interion ship. Just as she left the planet's atmosphere, she saw a group of Prowlers and Marauders heading towards the planet. Just as Aeryn had predicted, three Prowlers broke formation and headed her way.
Chiana increased her speed, knowing the Prowlers could outpace her. But the Prowlers were still rather far away, giving her more time to increase the distance between them and the Peacekeeper Command Carrier.
As the Prowlers were about to attack, Chiana veered to one side, making a sharp turn to take aim at the Prowlers. From behind the three Prowlers she saw Aeryn moving out of the shroud provided by Jool's ship. She immediately fired at one of the attacking ships. Chiana also fired at a Prowler, but missed it by just a fraction.
Aeryn took out the second Prowler and noticed Chiana had missed the third Prowler, which was now trying to get away from them. Aeryn realized the pilot would immediately communicate back to the Carrier, but the Prowler was already moving out of her range. "Chi, Jool, I cannot hit that Prowler. We must go now."
Aeryn had barely finished the sentence when the Prowler got caught in an explosion, immediately followed by a matter-of-fact statement over the comms.
"Did I forget to tell you this ship has shrouded mines for defenses?"
Jool's statement was answered by Chiana's giggle. "Yeah, but that's okay, Princess, seein' as you didn't forget to use them."
"Pilot? John? Are you there?"
John's voice was the first to come back over the comms. "Hey, babe. You do know you've got a Peacekeeper Marauder on your tail, right? Need some help?"
Before Aeryn had a chance to respond, Chiana's voice came over the comms. "Careful, I don't think D'Argo would like me gettin' shot, old man."
"Pip? You're flying the Marauder? Never mind that. We're sending you an updated map. Follow the specified course and you'll stay clear of the wormholes."
Aeryn frowned. "Were the previous maps inaccurate?"
She heard John sigh. "Yeah. We'll talk about it later. See ya in a bit."
As soon as Chiana had shut down the engine she sprinted to the hatch, too impatient to wait for the boarding ramp to extend. She jumped to the floor of Moya's transport bay, ran straight for D'Argo and leapt in to his arms.
Aeryn, just as eager as Chiana to get out of the Prowler and into the arms of her lover, bypassed most of the shutdown procedure. As Aeryn dropped down from the Prowler, John had already been waiting by the ladder for her. She only needed to turn around to kiss and embrace him.
"Hey, babe, missed ya."
Instead of answering, Aeryn kissed him again. "I missed you, too, John."
Chiana stopped kissing D'Argo to look at him. "Told ya I'd come back."
D'Argo nodded, smiling tenderly. "I am glad you did."
John looked past Aeryn to the new-looking Prowler. "So, traded in your ride, huh?"
Aeryn nodded and shrugged. "I wasn't given much of a choice. The Peacekeepers took mine and left this one behind."
Both D'Argo and John looked surprised and not a little worriedly at their respective lovers. "Peacekeepers?"
Chiana giggled. "Where did you expect we'd get a new Prowler and a Marauder from?"
"I don't know, maybe the Peacekeepers had left it behind after the unit was killed or something."
Aeryn shook her head. "John, you know Peacekeepers would never leave any equipment behind. If a unit doesn't survive a mission, another pilot is sent to retrieve the ship."
At that moment, the boarding ramp of Jool's ship descended and the hatch opened. Both John and D'Argo readied their weapons at the first sound of the ramp descending.
As Jool helped Hirsch down the ramp she noticed the two males pointing their guns at her. She smiled and rolled her eye. "You two never change, do you?" She walked further down helping Hirsch maintain his balance. "I'd love to talk to you, but first I need to take care of Hirsch."
John holstered Winona. "Hi, Jool. Sorry 'bout the gun pointin'. I'm workin' on it. Need any help?"
Jool nodded. "I could use help with getting Hirsch to the Medical Bay."
D'Argo looked at Chiana. "You went to Arnessk? You had to take care of a problem on Arnessk?"
Chiana glanced at Aeryn briefly before turning back to D'Argo. This was it, now D'Argo knew where she had gone, and he wouldn't be happy to learn why. "Yeah, I did. I took care of a problem that happened to be at Arnessk right now."
Yep. Not happy. "Your problem, or someone else's problem?"
Chiana glowered at him. "I took care of my friend's problem. You remember what a friend is, D'Argo?"
Aeryn looked at John. "John, I think you'd better go with Jool without me. I'll stay here." Aeryn saw his questioning gaze traveling from D'Argo and Chiana to back to her. "Please, John. I'll explain later." Aeryn could see John still had his doubts, but he graciously acceded to her request.
She watched John walk out of the docking bay before stalking directly to D'Argo. "What is the matter with you? You know what happened on Arnessk. You do not think it was something that needed to be taken care of?"
Chiana huffed, "No, he wouldn't. He asked his... friend to go back to that tralk."
Aeryn looked at D'Argo in utter astonishment. "You... you asked him to do it again?"
D'Argo sighed guiltily. "Yes, I did. We had no other option if we wanted to escape from the Peacekeepers." He looked down. "But I admit none of us really put any thought into an alternative."
He sighed again and looked back at the two women. "John, the bioloid one, told me I shouldn't worry about it because it didn't happen to the real him."
Aeryn glared at him. "And you think that makes it alright? You send him back to her, knowing full well what it meant to him. Yes, this time it turned out to be the bioloid, but what if it had been the real John?"
D'Argo glared back at her. "You were not there! You don't know the situation we were in, so you have no right to tell me that I was wrong!"
Aeryn looked down, momentarily nonplussed. Not because she felt the Luxan was right, but more because he again reminded her that she had left them, left John, and it still hurt to hear it.
Seeing the effect D'Argo's words had on Aeryn, Chiana punched him on his arm. "Hey, I was there and I tell you, you were wrong." She punched him again. "And you have no right to talk to Aeryn like that!"
D'Argo sighed. "Sorry, I should not have said that. Listen, the bioloid John specifically told me not feel guilty about it. Do you agree the bioloid basically handled himself the same way as the real John?"
Both Aeryn and Chiana nodded.
"Then this John would have told me the same. He would have forgiven me and I would have made the same promise I made to the bioloid. I would keep this from Aeryn as he asked, and deal with the tralk myself if I ever ran into her again."
He turned to Chiana. "I'm not angry because you risked your life to take revenge on Grayza, I'm angry because I can no longer keep my promise." He turned to Aeryn. "I know it was the wrong thing to do, and regardless of John's words, I do still feel guilty about the whole thing. But I cannot go back and change this."
Aeryn looked D'Argo in the eyes. "I know John would forgive you, but I am not sure I can, not now." She turned away from him and left the Docking Bay, determined to find John.
Chiana watched her leave. The hurt look on D'Argo's face was enough to dispel her own anger at him. She fully understood Aeryn's feelings, but she couldn't leave D'Argo now. He had been living with the guilt all along and she already had put things straight in her mind, allowing her to more easily forgive him for his mistake.
She grinned at him when he turned back to her. "Hey, wanna hear what we did to her?"
