Chapter 36

Crichton

Crichton stood, no towered, above the crowded muttering Lackos miners waving his arms like a demented tent preacher. "Listen!" he yelled as the small and furry creatures continued gabbling and whispering below his feet.

"Guards!" screamed Overseer Adnon knowing that it was all going wrong. "Seize him!" He stepped back to give his people a clear shot at this fahrbot giant alien but found himself backing into the other alien – the female – who had sprung up on Council Rock. He opened his mouth to scream again but two large slender hands, with no fur on them (oddest thing he thought) clamped themselves at the back of his head and his mouth. "HHMMmm… ggrrr…" was all that came out.

The tall female alien bent down and looked hard at him. "You be quiet now, or something bad might happen." Then her hands shifted back to his long ears as she squeezed them together and he whined in pain. "Silence!"

She was nearly whispering to him but Adnon heard the edged tone to her voice. He stared up at the giant female, over twice his height, and could not but help gulp in fear as she smiled down at him. The sight of so many exposed incisors put real terror into him. She even had canine teeth! He felt sweat break out and he could not help but start to shake. Were these things carnivores? The legends told of meat eaters hunting them on the home world, thousands of cycles ago. Were these thing some of those? He opened his mouth and seeing the feral look in her eyes he could only nod, and painfully at that.

Through pain hazed eyes he saw his people, the people of Morlamm, almost paralyzed by the sight of these two interlopers taking over his meeting. At least the really tall thing with the tendrils on his bald head was held at bay by the armed guards. But at the same time, he could see the miners and their families were rather - what was the word – entranced at the scene. He had thought his people would rush to help him, but there they all stood, spellbound; enthralled by the scene. He started to yell, but the black-clad female tugged at his ears and gave him a shake that made all his joints rattle.

"Go on John, I don't think our little friend will be too much trouble," Aeryn said. Then she moved to John's side dragging the astonished and cowed Adnon with her. "So this is your plan?"

John chuckled. "Yeah; no; sorta,"

"Well don't stop now for you do have their attention. Good luck. We'll need all the luck we can get. And it had better work…"

"I know." Crichton sighed then grinned widely. "As I was saying: hi!" he yelled to the assembly and some even weakly echoed his word back. Most of the creatures below him stood like cowering bunnies. His second cousin had raised rabbits and that's just what they looked like when the neighbor's cat jumped over the fence and got too close to their cages. Their dark eyes were wide and staring, their long ears were pointed down behind their heads, their shoulders hunched, and feet poised to run.

"John!" yelled D'Argo. "These things keep jabbing me with shovels and guns!"

Crichton called back to him. "Hey!" Leave D'Argo alone! Stop poking him! He won't hurt you! Right D'Argo? Just say yes, and don't growl my friend."

D'Argo stopped flinging himself about and tried to smile. "I'm fine… fine… just… I'll stand right here and not move," he addressed his captors. "Right?"

John nodded his head. "That's a good idea," he said then realizing the extreme fright of the miners nearest him he sat down on the rock and folded his legs. "Maybe if I sit down and not make myself seem so dang tall? This better?"

"Ye..sss," squeaked one.

"Don't mean to be scary but I am tall. Now," he breathed, "let's have a talk."

Questions called out to him in squeaky and scared words. "HAVE YOU COME TO DESTROY US? WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU HERE? TALK ABOUT WHAT?"

John shook his head and waved his arms for silence, which he got. "I'll answer those. No, we have not come to destroy you or anybody. Who are we? Just some lost folk needin' some supplies; food mostly. And the last one - talk. Well what do you want to talk about? I answered your questions, how about you answering some of mine?"

More comments flew through the cavern in a thunderous babble. "Stop, stop! Calm down! Come on now." When he got mostly quiet he added, "Tell you what? Let's have Pulta Crackit come up here? Come on up, Pulta, old buddy!" He waved into the crowd and saw a small figure being thrust toward the tall boulder.

Astonished voices responded and in a few handfuls of microts the bedraggled Third Level Mining Excavator was being boosted up to the platform.

John sat there calmly while Pulta climbed up by him and as a third of the crowd laughed, but some cheered. Pulta stood a few feet away from John shaking in his boots, teeth chattering, the pulse pistol nearly dragging on the rock.

"CRACKIT! NO! Don't talk to these…" Adnon blurted out but Aeryn tugged on him and he shut up.

Aeryn bent down to him and putting a finger to her lips said, "Shush."

Adnon had never heard such a word before or seen a motion like that but he got the idea and closed his jaws tightly.

"Now," John started, "Just why have we become public enemy number one? Why go all gangbusters on us like we're Al Capone?"

"Wha… what's that?" Pulta shivered out.

"Sorry. I mean…" John looked at Aeryn and saw she was just as perplexed. John, you have to stop all the lingo he admonished himself under his breath. "Look if we disturbed you down here in your lovely caverns and mines we are sorry. We just came down here to trade for food. That's all. A big old bad storm dumped our spacecraft on its nose out in the desert. We were going to die because it's so hot out there, so we came underground. Aeryn was hurt in the crash…"

At that the bunnies' posture softened so John went on, "I guess you folks heard all the ruckus and carted Aeryn and D'Argo down here. I was outside and came inside to cool off and found them gone and all our stuff too! I was ready to look for them when something cracked me over the head. Boom! Lights out! And the next thing I know, something hairy and scary was dragging me along like a hunk of dead meat. I got away, and managed to make my way into your main caves. All a big mistake. See?"

Pulta considered the strange creature and what he'd just heard. Granted he had no fur, or nearly not enough, he was much too tall, and he had far too many teeth in his mouth, but so far he and his friends had not tried to hurt anyone. He thought what his sire used to say, "Never judge a libros by its cover." For sure this was one very strange libros. What would his sire say, his mate, or the others on his shift if he bungled this? All the Crackit's down the ages would be despised for making a mistake. What if these three were the vanguard of an advancing army? Or what if it was as Johhnnn said? They were only lost and hungry? Still he had the thing's gun… he lowered the pistol to the rock surface.

"I have known hunger," he answered to Johhnnn. "Hunger makes one do things that are…"

"Desperate," said the tall female. "We just wanted to trade for food."

Pulta measured the words. Were they truth bearing? The Underground was avoided by many travelers as it was far from the port town, the desert was extremely hot and large, and arid as it could get. The mines were too far off the beaten path to be an invasion spot. He looked at Adnon who was easily cowed now by the female. She actually seemed to be enjoying holding the Overseer at bay. Hm… the Overseer… had been very insistent, perhaps too insistent, that these three were dangerous. Why? Why did Adnon fear these people?

Pulta felt the tension growing and considered the roll of a gaming piece. His favorite game of chance used a simple coin to decide things; black or white the sides of the disc were painted. He mentally flipped it. After a few microts more had passed he spoke up. "Yes. We have food. What do you have to trade?"