No Ordinary Life by laceym

Chapter 1

"Damn!" John swore as he aimed Winona over the overturned barricade. "Aeryn! Where the hezmana are you!"

The intercom statics, "John, calm down, I'll be there in a few microts."

"I don't have a few microts!" he screamed.

"Ugh!" came the grunt in reply. The intercom went silent.

"Damn! Damn!" John continued swearing. He had to wait until the others fired before he could return the volley. He shook his head to clear the sweat that dripped into his eyes. "I'm going to kill that flying rat," he promised.

There was a loud bang and a shout. John heaved a sigh of relief as he saw a fully armed and enraged Luxan barreling through the people who had him pinned down.

"John!" D'Argo yelled.

"I'm right here," John returned.

"Get over here," D'Argo ordered.
John quickly leapt from behind the barricade and ran past the Luxan warrior. D'Argo laid down cover fire and they made their way to the waiting shuttle pod. John climbed onboard and D'Argo fired the engines and lifted off from the planet's surface.

"How is it that you manage to get into trouble everywhere you go?" D'Argo asked quietly.

John grimaced. "It's Rygel's fault," he explained.
"Rygel?" D'Argo sounded amused.

"I'm not amused D'Argo," John said. "Where's Aeryn?"

"She's in her prowler laying down cover fire. You know that these things don't have weapons attached," D'Argo waved his hand. "We'll be aboard Moya soon."

"Good," John nodded. "That means that I can send Sparky out the airlock."
"What did he do?" D'Argo asked.

"He…he…" John stopped speaking.

"I see," D'Argo suppressed a grin. "I don't know if Zhann will allow you to harm Rygel."

"I really don't care what she wants at the moment," John muttered. "I'm going to hurt him this time."

"Fine," D'Argo said.

The docking web was deployed and the pod was taken into the landing bay. John got up quickly from his seat and raced into the main compartment of Moya.
"Where is he?" John yelled.

"Who are you looking for John?" the calm voice of the Delvian priestess Zhann sounded behind him.

John spun around and faced Zhann. He shook his head as her beautiful blue skin shimmered in the internal lighting of the living ship.

"Buckwheat! Sparky! That flying rat that thinks that he's still in charge of an empire!" John railed.

"Ah John," Zhann sighed heavily. "Surely there is a better way out of this."

"Nope," John shook his head.

The sound of running footsteps came down the corridor. Aeryn along with D'Argo rounded the corner.

"Crichton!" Aeryn called to him. "We don't have time for this."

"Yes, we do!" John screamed. "I'm going to kill him."

"Excuse me," Pilot's voice came over the communications unit.

"Yes!" Aeryn, D'Argo and John said at the same time.

"We have ships approaching," Pilot said. "They are signaling us to stand down."

"What?" Aeryn shouted.

"Pilot, we need starburst now!" D'Argo ordered.

"I'm afraid that will not be possible for another five microts," Pilot answered.

"Oh by the goddess," Zhann whispered.
"I'm telling you it's that damn Hynerian's fault," John roared.

"What did he do?" D'Argo demanded.

"He stole my tape recorder and traded it…I don't know what the Hell the traded it for, but I got it back!" John waved his hands.

Aeryn stared at John for a moment, "So you got it back? Why were they shooting at you?"

"I don't know who they were," John admitted. "I left the trader with my tape recorder and then these goons came out of nowhere."
"Goons?" Zhann sounded puzzled.

"Not now Zhann!" both John and D'Argo said at the same time.

"If you are wondering about Rygel," Pilot chimed in. "He's not on board at this time."
"What!" all four of them shouted.

"Oh!" John ran his hand over his face. " This is great! For all we know Sparky's behind this."

"Well," Aeryn interjected. "We don't know that yet."

"This is Rygel we're talking about," D'Argo said. "Pilot are you sure that these ships are hostile?"

"They are demanding that we stand aside and be boarded," Pilot confirmed.

D'Argo began a stream of Luxan curses that the translator microbes couldn't manage.

"Are my translator microbes working?" John wondered.

"The microbes don't translate everything," Zhann sighed. "For that we are grateful." She looked at D'Argo who continued with his rant.

"What are we going to do?" Aeryn asked.

"I don't know," John stared at the floor. "But I'll come up with something."
"I'll have a real plan," Aeryn said.

"Right," John snapped. "I forgot. I'm inferior."

"It's a statement of fact John," Aeryn smiled at him.

John huffed and stormed away from them.

He walked cautiously into his chambers and checked that nothing else was missing. He placed the recovered tape recorder on the table. He turned around at the sound of a D.R.D. John sat on the sleeping pallet and buried his face in his hands. This was no ordinary life and it was certainly not the extraordinary one that he had wished for either. He was the son of an astronaut, who simply wanted to make his mark that made him different from his father. But here he was in the middle of space with a ship full of escaped criminals and very pissed off Peace Keeper who had been deemed 'irreversibly contaminated' because she stuck her neck out for him. He was nowhere near anything that resembled normal and he was still uncertain about the whole 'living ship' deal. The D.R.D. stayed in the corner and observed John.

"Pilot," he called.

"Yes Crichton," Pilot appeared in the communications display.

"Are those ships still on approach?" he asked.
"Yes," Pilot answered. "We have also located Rygel."

"Does this mean that I can flush him out of the airlock?" John's mouth twisted into a smile.
"Far be it for me to comment on that one Crichton," Pilot appeared aghast.

John chuckled. "It's okay, Pilot. Don't worry about it. When can we starburst?"

"As soon as we get Rygel onboard," Pilot replied.

"Good," John nodded. "I'll go meet Sparky in the launch bay."

"Yes Crichton," Pilot murmured.

John walked out of his chambers and noticed that the D.R.D. followed him. This was the one he had repaired with some tape. The one he had broken when he first came aboard.

"Uh, Pilot?" John called.

"Yes John?" Pilot answered.

"Why is the D.R.D. following me?" he asked.

"Moya is worried about you," Pilot answered.

John exhaled. He turned to the D.R.D. and got down to eye level. "Don't worry about me girl," he said softly.

The D.R.D. blinked twice and then sped off down the corridor. John continued walking and came face to face with Zhann.

"Don't interfere," he warned.
"I wouldn't dream of it," Zhann said.

"Why are you walking with me?" he asked.
"I'm merely going in the same direction as you are John," Zhann replied quietly.

"Uh – huh," John murmured.

"That sounds like you don't trust me," Zhann said reproachfully.

"Oh, I trust you all right," John told her, "I trust you to be you."

Zhann appeared puzzled.

"The translators can't translate everything Zhann," John reminded her quietly.

Zhann's face merely became unreadable. They walked together to the launch bay. The pod containing Rygel landed. He floated off it and stopped when he saw John.

"Yes?" Rygel waved imperiously.

"Sparky!" John said with enthusiasm.

"The others won't allow you to kill me," Rygel declared.

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that one, Rygel," Aeryn's voice sounded from behind John.

He glanced at her out of the corner of her eyes and noticed that D'Argo was with her.

"What the yotz is going on?" Rygel demanded.

"You stole my tape recorder!" John said. "You stole it and you traded it for something!"

"You're not supposed to steal from any of us Rygel," Zhann said placidly.

"The trader wanted something unusual," Rygel argued. "Crichton is about as odd as they come and he would have strange things."

"Did you search all of our things?" Aeryn asked a bit too quietly.

"No," Rygel veered off a bit.

John's eyebrow arched. "You mean?" he looked at her.

"Oh yes," Aeryn smiled. "Once we realized that he took something small we checked to see if anything we had was missing."

Rygel gripped the controls of his chair tightly.

"I will not stand for this," Rygel muttered.

"What did you get in return for our things Rygel?" D'Argo asked.

"Something that I needed," Rygel jutted his mouth.

Zhann closed her eyes. "The goons as John called them, may not have been in response to anything of John's but one of us."

"What?" John was stunned.

"Of course," Aeryn agreed.

"Great!" D'Argo spat.

The communications display came on. "Starburst now," Pilot announced.