WHEN THE PROWLERS PEELED AWAY and back toward Earth, Crichton shifted gears and immediately called D'Argo and Crais and told them of the Monitor's proposal. Both Captains agreed, both glad to be leaving and eager to be gone.
"You sure it's finished?" D'Argo asked him.
"It's getting there," Crichton assured him, "the rest is up to John, not that there's a lot he can do. He's frelling welcome to it. Get your kids ready as soon as."
Both Captains agreed and preparations were quickly underway. The Vengeance and the Monitor moved out of orbit to meet the Leviathans at Earth's moon. Halfway there, D'Argo came back.
"Okay, this is strange," he told Crichton, "Moya's received a comm from a Prowler." D'Argo seemed discomfited. "It's …Aeryn."
"What's she want?"
D'Argo sounded incredulous. "She says she wants to… 'come home'."
"Then you have a decision to make," Crichton told him, surprised but damning himself if he'd show it, "just make it snappy. We'll be there in moments." He'd not anticipated this. He must have shaken things up more than he'd realized. Or kicked things loose. Not that he cared. She'd be D'Argo's problem.
"Ah… right." D'Argo signed off.
"Unexpected." Shiv commented quietly.
"Unconcerned." Crichton told her pointedly. The Moon was filling up the forward portal. "All we're going to do is make sure they get where they're going."
"And us?"
"That we get where we're going," he adjusted their course slightly, "and finishing this to my satisfaction."
"As you say." She checked her board. "Leviathans in range in 150 microts."
Crichton nodded and considered the huge sphere of the Monitor to Hammonside. He'd made a deal and he'd keep it.
The spirit of it, at any rate.