Chapter 50
Pilot
Pilot scanned the readouts for the thousandth time; no the ten thousandth time. Moya prodded his to make more scans. "I have been Moya! There is NOTHING there!"
Moya's voice boomed through her chambers in despair.
"I know, I know!" Pilot screamed back.
Moya made a slight attitude adjustment and Pilot felt the motion. "That is an excellent, idea, Moya. If we can realign your antennas…"
A voice broke into the comm channel. "Pilot? You in there? It's Chiana, you… haven't, haven't locked me out… have you?"
Pilot's concentration on the planet below was shattered. "Yes, Chiana," he answered in irritation. "We have ben… seeking the others."
"What's the matter? And can you snag this frelling thing in her docking web?" the Nebari refugee asked. "I don't think this piece of dren will hold together much longer."
"I thought you were staying another ten solar days with the trading vessel? It was the Tupellians, I recall."
Chiana laughed. "Naw. Those hezmana losers were no fun at all." She sniffed. "They practically threw me off their smelly ship. How was I to know they would be allergic?"
Pilot's head rose in alarm. "Are you bearing a contagion? For if you are, you will have to undergo full decontamination. Moya will prepare," he sent three DRDs to erect a security door in the maintenance bay, "an enclosure. Strictly a precaution, Chiana."
The Nebari laughed. "Disease? Like a virus or a parasite or something? I'd like to see the disease that can infect a Nebari. On Nebari Prime we are all - erh - modified - fortified, to resist such things."
Pilot threw a quick thought Moya's way and the Leviathan agreed. "Nevertheless, Chiana, Moya and I must insist. Pilot and Moya were both unsure that Chiana was entirely trustworthy. Commander Crichton seemed to think otherwise. He tended to call the Nebari girl Pip, which made no sense at all to anyone on board. Pilot had been unable to ascertain what possible allure there was for the gray girl. Until he knew otherwise, he was keeping a very careful eye on her.
"So okay, just let me in? This ship has got an auto function to send it back to the freighter." She coughed. "And they sorta, didn't exactly let me have it, I sorta took it. So best to, to… let it go home."
"I see," Pilot said. "Moya has opened the docking bay."
He watched as the tiny craft, hardly more than a life pod and a drive system, came inside Moya. The ship set down, a hatch opened, and Chiana rolled out, making a rude gesture of some kind. The tiny craft's hatch slammed shut and it lifted off and retreated.
"Chiana, follow One-Eye to the chamber Moya has prepared please."
"One-eye? Who the frell is that?"
Pilot sighed. "The DRD with the broken eyestalk. Commander Crichton damaged it. It has been sort of a mascot of his since."
"So why doesn't Moya fix it?" she laughed. "Oh this one?" she pointed to a DRD with a drooping camera stalk. She bent down in her odd splay legged fashion and peered at it, cocking her head from side to side. "What's this blue stuff wrapped around it?"
"Crichton attempted to repair it. Curiously the DRD will not allow itself to undergo the process." Pilot coughed. "Most unusual."
Chiana laughed. She had seen and felt the unusual ways that John Crichton affected the people on the Leviathan. When she was with the human - such a strange word - for some reason she felt calm and safe. He also called her Pip, a word she did not understand, or why he did so, but no one else had ever called her such a thing.
"Crichton is different. Lead on little DRD. Where's he taking me?" The bot moved across the bay and a small door opened. "In there?"
The DRD beeped and she entered. The door swung shut and the chamber was filled with a bright orange light.
Chiana giggled as the light made her gray skin look brown. "What is this?"
Pilot coughed. "Moya suggested that you undergo this simple procedure. It will only take a few arns."
"What's it do?"
"It will remove any dangerous pathogens."
She laughed. "It's not likely that this dinky light will do much."
Pilot grunted. "Moya assures me that the long wave treatment will be effective against surface pathogens."
"Pilot! I told you that Nebari…" she stopped. "Is this a jail cell?"
"No, just a simple precaution." Pilot coughed. "Please remove your garments and relax on the couch."
Chiana watched as a panel flipped down and a long table protruded. "Couch?"
"The platform is heated and will keep you warm."
"Okay, but where is everybody?" She sat on the platform and it did feel both warm and soft. She started to strip off her boots. "They all up in command or in the center chamber?"
"No, Chiana. I fear that…" he coughed again. "While you were gone from Moya, Ka D'Argo, Officer Sun, and Commander Crichton descended to the planet below. They went down to a small mining colony to trade for food since supplies are rather limited at the moment."
"So they'll be back soon?" Chiana dropped her clothing to the floor and stretched luxuriously. If Crichton had seen her he would have said like a cat, from her lithe movements. "And Zhaan and Rygel?"
"Uhm, well… you see…" Pilot felt absolutely timid for what he had to tell her. "The first three appear to have crashed their pod during a violent storm on the surface. Pa'u Zotah Zhaan and Dominar Rygel went down in the other pod to bring them home. I fear that all five of them have now gone missing."
Chiana sprang up and started beating upon the sealed hatch. "Open up! Open the door! Pilot? I can help!" He fists beat upon the door. "Frell!"
One-eye, the DRD, sat there beeping forlornly outside as the woman screamed and pounded on the door. After a hundred microts it switched off its aural sensors and started to calculate prime numbers while the Nebari continued to beat on the panel.
