Crichton watched as the sprawling bulk of the royal palace swum into view.
Swum into view. There was a reason he used that phrase. He couldn't quite shake the sense of claustrophobia, knowing there was a hundred thousand tonnes of water just above his head.
The transport pod groaned ominously.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" Rygel marvelled. He hovered behind them with the excitement and enthusiasm of a child at Christmas. Crichton guessed finally reclaiming his birthright could do that to anyone, even the cynical little Dominar.
A beam of light from the pod swept across a dome.
Aeryn made a a nondescript kind of noise as she steered the pod closer. "It's ugly." she said.
"Sixty thousand slaves died to build it." Rygel declared, as if this was some sort of mark of authenticity. "It took over a hundred cycles to complete. It is glorious! And in an arn, it will be mine again..."
Crichton glanced nervously at the ceiling as the pod creaked again.
"And why exactly was it built underwater, Sparky?" he inquired.
"Security." Rygel replied. "The first royal palace was destroyed during the war with the Charrids. It was bombed from orbit. Its difficult to shoot what you can't see."
"You'd be the expert on that." Aeryn said quietly.
The transport pod glided across the ocean floor, its floodlight illuminating a minuscule part of the huge, dark underground city.
And a city it was. The royal palace itself was only a part of the sprawling structure. It would have reminded Crichton of the Vatican City if Rome had been build underwater, and if you exchanged the clergy for greedy, scheming little slugs.
Actually, it was just like the Vatican City...
In the lower city were the tradesmen, the engineers, the salesmen, the bustle of any city. None of it ever encroached on the palace which perched above.
Ships docked with the lower levels all the time. Visitors and their currency were always welcome. No ships docked with the palace itself however, the mere attempt would see the crew finding an early, watery grave. Unless of course someone disabled the primary generator. Then there would be about a space of about one hundred microts before the external defences and sensors switched over. During this time a ship could in theory dock with the royal palace undetected.
Jothee and Noranti it just so happened, had placed a rather large quantity of explosives in the primary generator. It should be going off right about... now.
Crichton peered out fretfully. The city continued its damp existence, seemingly unperturbed.
"That was it." Aeryn declared.
"It was? What was it?" Crichton said.
"There was a power surge for just an instance. The generators are down." Aeryn said confidently, pointing at a display Crichton hadn't seen change.
"Are you sure?" Crichton persisted.
"We'll find out in a few microts either way." Rygel said calmly.
Crichton glared at him. The little Hynerian returned his gaze without a hint of fear. He'd been waiting for this day for so long, his usual cowardice was overridden with determination.
Crichton held his breath as their pod glided agonisingly slowly towards the lurking palace. To his surprise, it remained uncaring or unwitting to their approach, and completely failed to annihilate them.
There was an echoing thump as the transport pod came alongside one of the docking ports.
"Alright, this is it." Aeryn said. She stood and hoisted a cannon almost as long as she was tall.
Rygel raised himself to his full height, for what that was worth.
"Bishaan the Usurper, your cycles of tyranny now finally come to an end. Your betrayal, your reign of injustice are finally over. I, Dominar Rygel the Sixteenth, am finally returned from long exile to lead my people to salvation. Aided by my gallant and loyal companions shall I - oh, wait a microt. Wait for me!"
The royal palace was every bit as extravagant as Rygel had said. The grand décor failed to hide the fact that it was also conspicuously deserted.
"Ok, Ryg. I thought you said there would be guards." Crichton queried.
Rygel frowned. "There should be. I don't know..." he trailed off and looked around apprehensively.
They continued through rooms and corridors under Rygels direction. All were eerily devoid of life.
They arrived at the same featureless corridor Chiana had passed through earlier. The turrets stood silent and the huge door was open.
"Looks like Chiana actually managed to do her job." Aeryn said grudgingly.
"Of course she did." Crichton said.
He felt a strange need to defend the erratic grey girl. He knew that since D'Argo's death – that is to say, D'Argo seniors death she had been acting strangely. Of course, strange was a relative term. On the surface she seemed her same old carefree self, but at times it seemed like something was missing. Unfortunately in Aeyrns case it seemed to be that little part that told her when to stop. Chiana took great pleasure in driving Aeryn to the limits of her patience.
Sometimes, when Crichton passed her chamber at night, he thought he could hear her crying. His attempts to talk to her had been met with outright hostility. Eventually he had decided to leave her be and hope that she would come to him if she needed to.
In the meantime, Chiana and Aeryn maintained a increasingly frosty relationship.
Something exploded beside Crichton head.
He ducked belatedly. Enough guns had been fired at him that he was automatically searching for his aggressor even before pieces of the wall rained down on him.
He levelled his pulse pistol, painfully slowly.
He looked into the red eyes of his assailant, unpleasantly aware that he had to swing his arms all the way round in the time it had to take it to move its finger a very small distance to pull the trigger.
Time seemed to slow down. Typical of it.
Couldn't time slow down when he was doing that interesting, flexible, and as his spine reported the next morning - extremely painful things with Karen Shaw? Couldn't it have slowed down when he'd been in the maintanance bay with Ayeyn and she had grabbed him by his...
The point was, why did time always insist on slowing down in the quite frankly rubbish moments of his life, and to speed up to an unrecognisable blur on the rare moments something nice actually happened?
The only good point was that he got to watch in slow motion as a fraction of a second before it fired, the Charrid flinched. The blast singed his earlobe from a shot that would have otherwise have taken his head off. The Charrid fell on its side, ribs sizzling.
Slightly dazed, Crichton looked up at Aeryn.
"Thanks." he mumbled.
Aeryn scanned the corridor before offering him a hand. "You're welcome. What the frell are Charrids doing here?"
Crichton pulled himself to his feet. "I don't know! Rygel!"
Rygel didn't answer. The expression on his face was answer enough. He hovered in full view as more Charrids rounded the corner and began firing.
Crichton leaped desperately and tackled the Hynerian to the ground as gunfire ricocheted overhead. He pulled himself up and fired wildly in the general direction of the Charrids. The barrage wasn't particularly accurate, but it did give him precious seconds to pull Rygel to cover.
He fired another few shots, then darted back into cover without waiting to see the result. Aeryn fired a single blast and was rewarded with a howl of pain.
There was a sense of movement and a grey blur, then someone pressed up against him. Crichton glanced sharply, then relaxed.
"Hey Pip. Digging the Princess Leia look." he said approvingly.
"Crichton!" Chiana gasped breathlessly. "There are Charrids here!"
"Really?" Crichton fired off another volley and heard someone collapse. "Thanks for the warning."
"Scarrens too!"
"Crap! Ok, we've got to get out of here. Sparky, stay down! Aeryn, did you bring those grenades?"
There was a small, gasping sound from Rygel. He looked up at Crichton, blinking as if he had just awakened from a long sleep.
"Charrids! Here? How can this be?" he mumbled.
"Don't know, but we want to not be here – I know that." Crichton said.
"No." Rygel said sharply. "I must find Bishaan! Whatever his flaws, he would never allow those monsters here."
"Ryg!" Chiana hissed, "This place is crawling with Charrids. We'd never make it!"
Rygel climbed back into his sled. "I must try, I will not abandon my people to the Charrids."
"Rygel, wait!" Crichton made an ineffectual grab for Rygel, but he hovered higher. He darted out and across the corridor. Crichton half rose to follow. He felt something hit him in the back. He fell and felt a warm body land on top of him. He struggled to rise.
Then the corridor exploded.
Bits of white hot shrapnel rained down around him. He pushed himself into the floor and shielded his head with his arms. Gradually the maelstrom died down.
He looked up at Aeryn, his head still swimming. "What..."
Aeryn rose to her feet and offered him a hand. "Grenade. Did you like it?"
"I love you."
"That's nice." Aeryn looked down at her leg. She grimaced in displeasure, and without visible sign of discomfort, yanked a twisted piece of metal out of her thigh. She examined the bloodstained shrapnel for a moment, then tossed it aside. "Where's Rygel?"
Crichtons eyes followed the piece of metal, then returned to her leaking leg. She'd shielded him with her own body, he realised. He really wished she'd stop doing things like that.
"He ran off - well floated off. Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. What do you mean he ran off? Why didn't you stop him?"
"I tried!" Crichton said defensively, "He said something about finding Bishaan."
"Well we have to stop him, that's suicide." Aeryn said flatly.
"Aeryn," Chiana pulled herself to her feet, brushing dust out of her hair. "the inner palace is filled with Charrids. They've got an army in there. There's Scarrens too."
Aeryn wheeled on her. "Well what do you suggest, that we abandon him?"
"Of course not, I just thought I'd point out how completely insane we all are." Chiana picked up a pulse rifle and grinned.
"What about a distraction?" Crichton said thoughtfully.
"What do you have in mind?" said Aeryn.
"How many of those grenades do you have left?"
"Five. Why?"
"Can you set them to a delayed explosion?"
"No." Aeryn paused, "But I can set a pulse pistol overload, that will detonate the grenades with it."
"Perfect. We make a big bang. Soldiers come running to see what all the noise is. We get a free run to the throne room. What do you think?"
"I think you've outdone yourself."
"Thank you honey."
"No, she means its the worst plan you've ever come up with." Chiana cut in.
Crichton glared. "They're Charrids! They're not exactly Mensas best and brightest! Well have either of you got a better plan?"
"We ambush some Charrids, steal their uniforms and just walk into the throne room." Chiana shrugged.
Crichton paused reluctantly. "Ok, that is a better plan."
A brief scuffle and a change of clothing later, they arrived at the throne room.
"Alright," Crichton whispered after a couple of soldiers had passed. "We don't know what to expect in there, but you can bet Bishaan will be heavily guarded and won't be pleased to see us. Ready?"
"Don't these Charrids ever bathe? Its like a sewer in here!" Chiana complained.
"Good. Lets go."
Contrary to expectations, the throne room was dark. There were no guards, and the throne itself, raised up on a dais, was conspicuously empty. They wandered around, nonplussed.
Crichton heard a panicked shriek. He turned.
Chiana was crouched down. She picked something up. It was Rygel's throne sled. It too was empty.
It was covered in what looked suspiciously like Hynerian blood.
Crichton felt his heart sinking. He took a few steps towards Chiana.
The doors swung open. A couple of Charrids charged in. They levelled their weapons at the trio.
"Identify yourself." one growled.
Two pulse blasts rang out. Two more Charrids became ex-Charrids.
Aeryn pulled off her helmet. "Frell." she statedas she shook out her black hair. "I guess that out covers blown?"
Chiana let out an animal like howl of rage. She tore her helmet off and hurled it across the room. She clutched Rygel's sled to her like a mother holding her baby.
Crichton looked away uneasily. "Any idea how we get out of here now?" he said.
Aeryn shrugged, "Grenades?"