"Chiana? Chiana!" D'Argo called into his com.
"Yeah, D'Argo, I'm here."
"Where are you?"
He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around, qualta blade at the ready, only to find himself face to face with the Nebari. She gave him one of her open mouthed grins "Behind you."
"This is no time to play games." D'Argo said gruffly, bundling her to one side so that they were standing in the shadows. "Were you followed?"
"Nah, I, ah, I don't think so."
D'Argo looked around the now deserted street. There was no movement. No people. No danger that he could see. He turned back to Chiana. "We must find Crichton and Aeryn, rescue this Tiva and then get the frell away from this place." He began moving away.
"Well, what about Rygel?" She called after him.
D'Argo stopped and sighed impatiently. "What about Rygel?"
Chiana came up to him, stance angular and eyes wide. "If they spotted me then…then they might suspect him…"
"One thing at a time, Chiana. We find Crichton and Aeryn first, then worry about the rest."
Her mouth quirked in a grin, but her eyes remained concerned. "OK. So where do you want to start looking?"
"I was checking the buildings near the market place when you commed me. We should return there."
"OK." As they started to walk towards the marketplace she said in a quiet voice "Do you think that Crichton's in trouble?"
"Chiana, when is Crichton not in trouble?"
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The door to the cell banged open and four guards entered. Crichton barely had time to note that, like their original captors, they all had the light red complexions of the ruling class and wore green law enforcement uniforms before two of them dragged him to his feet. The one that seemed to be in charge grabbed Aeryn by the hair, hauling her upwards until she, too, was standing. He looked at Crichton.
"Your friend here refused to tell us where the rest of your crew are, but she's probably already told you that. Did she tell you what we did to her?" He grinned. " Well, I suppose you can see that for yourself. Not pretty is it? Such a shame. I feel terrible about it, I really do." He smiled again and one of the men holding Crichton laughed. "You know, Crichton, we only want to know where the others are." He continued. " If you tell us then we'll leave her alone." He ran his finger down the side of Aeryn's face. " There's nothing here that won't heal in time. She'll be as good as new." He pulled on her hair, forcing her head back "But, between you and me, she is stubborn and I don't think she's going to give us the information we need. And this time we're not going to stop until we either have the information, or she is dead. So you see, unless you help us, she will die."
"You're wasting your time. I won't tell you." Crichton hoped that he sounded more resolute than he felt.
"Ah, well, looks like we're going to do it all over again, Officer Sun." He slipped one arm around her waist. He noticed Crichton looking at the dressing on his hand. "She bit me." He explained. He put his mouth close to Aeryn's ear. "But, I'll make her wish she hadn't." He grinned at Crichton. "Maybe you'd like to come and see for yourself what happens?"
Crichton's eyes flew to Aeryn's but her face was a mask.
"Bring him with us."
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"Pilot. Is there any sign of the transport pod?"
"No, Zhaan."
"Goddess! Rygel should be here by now. Something must have happened!" She turned to Tarone. "Perhaps we should try to contact them. They may need our help."
"Crichton said that we shouldn't contact them. If they are in hiding or our transmissions are detected, comming them could place them in danger. Let's give them another arn or two. If we still haven't heard anything, maybe we can try contacting them then."
"You are right." She smiled faintly at him. "We should wait." Zhaan leant against the consul nearest her "Pilot, please inform us the microt Moya's scanners identify the transport pod."
"I will, Zhaan." Pilot's voice sounded a little tetchy.
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The room was small and tiled, like a shower room without the shower. Crichton was placed in a chair to one side, while Aeryn was thrown roughly into the far corner and hosed down with water. She struggled to her feet, staggering a little, and pushed the hair from her face as one of the guards approached her. Crichton was getting that queasy feeling again. Although every fibre in his being screamed at him to go and help her, he forced himself to stay where he was and to tear his eyes away from her to look at their captors and assess their situation.
All four guards were armed, but they all seemed caught up in what was happening in the far corner of the room, even the man that was meant to be watching him. Well, that could be worse. A quick look over his shoulder confirmed that the door behind him was not locked and on the way to the room they had seen no one else. OK, that was good on both counts. Now all they needed was…
A sharp cry from Aeryn brought his attention back to her. The man standing closest to her had just smacked her across the face, sending her to the floor and was shouting at her to stand up again. She seemed to be out cold. Lying face down. Not moving. Crichton looked at her desperately, his panic growing. He couldn't see whether she was breathing or not. One of the guards poked her with the toe of his boot. No response. Crichton thought he might throw up. The man nearest to her made a comment to his friends that Crichton didn't catch and began reaching down to grab her.
"That's ENOUGH!" Crichton yelled. All four men turned to him, their prey momentarily forgotten. "That's enough. I'll tell you what you want to know, just you leave her alone…just… just leave her alone."
"Don't waste my time, Crichton. Tell me where." The head guard snarled. "And don't think of lying to me because if you do, I will kill her slowly in front of your eyes."
Crichton's gaze flitted back to Aeryn's prone form, then back to the guard. His eyes were red rimmed and his expression screamed defeat. "Outside Finsis' house. They are both outside his house." His voice was not much above a whisper.
"And your ship?"
"I don't know. We were meant to contact her and arrange to be picked up when we had completed our mission here."
"There, that wasn't so difficult now, was it? Unfortunately, you might be a little late to save your friend's life." He shrugged. " Tasda, here, can be a little heavy handed and he thinks he killed her with that last blow." He leant against the wall facing Crichton, grinning.
Crichton looked at him coolly "I think Tasda got it wrong."
"Very wrong." A female voice came from behind them all.
The three men turned back to see Aeryn standing behind the guard called Tasda with her arm around his throat. His pulse rifle was in her free hand and pointed at the remaining guards. "Make no mistake. I will kill you if you reach for your weapons."
Crichton grabbed the weapon of the man nearest to him and quickly disarmed the others. He grabbed the man Aeryn was holding and threw him down against the wall and motioned for his friends to join him. He came back to stand by Aeryn, never taking his eyes from the guards on the floor. "Are you OK?"
"Yes."
"You were supposed to lie down quickly and pretend, Aeryn." He took a quick look at her, noting the blood that was running down her cheek. "Instead you decide to go the full twelve rounds."
"It needed to look real or they wouldn't have let their guard down."
"Yeah, well, it looked real alright." He stepped forward and motioned for the man nearest to him to take off his coat and shirt. Crichton helped Aeryn put on the coat over her wet clothes and pressed the shirt against her cheek in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "We need to get out of here, Aeryn. Can you walk?"
"Yes."
"OK. You." He spoke to the head guard, pointing his pulse rifle at his temple "Do you know where I can find a slave boy that belongs to Finsis called Tiva? He has a brother called Tarone. And let me warn you, you sonovabitch, just incase you are intending to bullshit me, that I am just itching to kill you right now."
"I don't know anyone named Tiva." He replied sullenly.
Crichton's rifle pressed harder against the man's temple." Are you sure?"
"Y..yes. I've never heard of him." The guard replied, a little more rattled.
"And just how many of Tean's finest, apart from you four, are in this building?"
"No-one. Only us."
Crichton looked at Aeryn. "What do you want to do with them?"
She gripped her rifle hard and walked up to the guard closest to her pointing it at him. She seemed to stand for the longest time before letting out a frustrated groan. "Get up!" She motioned at them with her rifle. "We'll lock them up in the cells."
He looked at her and she almost smiled at his expression. "If I said kill them in cold blood, you wouldn't let me anyway." She shrugged then winced a little.
"Oh, I don't know, Aeryn." He said grimly as he hauled the head guard to his feet. "I just might."
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Crichton locked a cell door behind him and turned to the last remaining guard. The one called Tasda. "Your turn. Move." He said, motioning with his rifle.
"No wait, did I hear you correctly? You are looking for Tarone's brother?" Tasda spoke quickly.
"Yes." Crichton cocked his head. "Do you know something?"
The guard nodded "Yes. If you let me go, I will tell you what I know."
"I'm listening."
"Do I have your word that you'll let me go?"
"Well, that depends on what you know." Crichton aimed his rifle carefully at Tasda's head. "So, what do you know?"
He grinned nervously. "I know that Tarone doesn't have a brother."
"Doesn't have…" Crichton's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"
"Because I know Tarone. Tiva was his father's name."
"His father…"
"His dead father."
"How do you come to know Tarone?" Aeryn asked suspiciously. "Do you know every slave boy on Tean?"
Tasda's grin widened "Tarone isn't a slave. He is Finsis's nephew."
"But his skin is dark red. He's a Selack."
Tasda shrugged. "He dyed it recently. He said he needed to pass himself off as a Selack for a while." He looked at Crichton and Aeryn's clearly sceptical expressions. "I've known Tarone since he came to live with his uncle. Finsis hired some of us to provide protection for him when he was very young. He's no Selack, quite the opposite. His uncle raised him to be his heir."
"And you know him well?"
"Yes." Tasda nodded enthusiastically.
"If he is Finsis' nephew then he must be like royalty around here. What could the heir to the throne and a cop…law enforcement officer…have in common?"
"Flying. Tarone loves to fly and I used to be a pilot, before…well, I taught him how to fly. He's good too. Can fly just about anything."
"Anything? What are we talking here? Transports?"
"Oh, yes. Transports, heavy goods ships and many combat ships."
"Combat ships?" Crichton said, surprised. "I thought Tean was a peaceful commerce planet."
"We are. But Finsis has quite a collection of close range combat models."
"Any Peacekeeper models? Any prowlers?"
"Yes. He got a couple through that Peacekeeper friend of his…Officer Kysam. Tarone and I use them all the time. They handle beautifully, much better than..."
"Where does Finsis keep all these ships?" Crichton interrupted, impatiently.
"He has a hanger on the outskirts of town. I can show you a map, if you want."
"Yeah, maybe later." Crichton put his hand on the guard's shoulder and pushed him firmly back to a seated position on the floor. "Stay." He turned to Aeryn and made a face as he came to stand next to her.
"Do you believe him?" She asked quietly.
"I don't know…but something about this whole thing stinks."
"This man might be lying or trying to prevent us from finding the boy by pretending he doesn't exist."
"Mmm." He bit his bottom lip. "Y'know, Tarone conveniently forgot to tell us about the law being in Finsis' pocket."
"Maybe he didn't think it was important. If he has no brother, why did he pull apart the crates in the cargo hold looking for him?"
Crichton rubbed his eyes. "Maybe he was planning ahead. Maybe he knew that we would capture him eventually and needed a good story to pull at our heartstrings. To persuade us to return to Tean." He groaned. "And suddenly I'm remembering something else."
She took her eyes from the seated guard from a moment to look at him "What?"
He ran his hand over his hair and returned her gaze "We never did see that note telling Tarone that Finsis had his brother."
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A Quarter Arn Later:
Aeryn pulled out the med kit from the drawer with an almost audible sigh of relief. She opened it and began looking for something to numb her pain. She was so engrossed in the task that she didn't register that Crichton had returned until he spoke.
"I still can't find our coms." He leant against the wall regarding the man still sitting quietly on the floor with his hands and feet tied. "I don't suppose you know where they are?"
Tasda shook his head. "I was here when they brought you both in and I saw no communications devices."
"Yeah." The word came out like a sigh. "That's what your buddies said too."
"We need to get out of here." Aeryn said quietly. "More men could come at any time." She winced slightly as she tried to apply a salve to the cut on her face.
Crichton grimaced in sympathy and took the salve from her hand. "Here, let me." He looked at her properly for the first time since her second beating. In addition to her existing injuries, she had a deep cut to her cheek, which was still bleeding, and the white of her eye was partially filled with blood. He began to examine the cut. "This is going to need stitches." He said almost to himself. He reached into the med kit and brought out a cleansing pad and began cleaning the cut.
"We don't have time for this." She said pulling her head away.
"It'll only take a few microts, Aeryn. This cut is deep. It needs stitches, but I don't know how, so all I can do is make sure it's cleaned and covered until we can get you back to Moya and let Zhaan do her thing. We do not want it getting infected. And we need to try and stop this bleeding." He said impatiently, putting a hand on her shoulder to hold her in place. " So, all things considered, I'm thinking we have the time."
She said nothing but didn't resist when he started dabbing at her face again. Neither said anything until Crichton broke the silence.
"I'm so sorry, Aeryn."
She looked at him, confused.
"For this" He indicated her face with a small gesture of his hand. He began to re-apply the salve.
"You couldn't have foreseen this." She said. He said nothing, concentrating on the task at hand, but his expression told her that he didn't believe her. She brought her hand to his face. "You couldn't have foreseen this." She said more forcefully. She held his gaze for a moment then dropped her hand. "Now, we need to move."
He nodded and quickly placed a small clear dressing to her cheek. He hoped it would do the trick. The rest of her injuries would have to wait.
Aeryn grabbed the painkillers in the kit and placed one in her mouth and the rest in her pocket.
"Ready?"
She nodded firmly.
The guard on the floor looked up at them expectantly. "Can I go now? Finsis will kill me for letting you escape. We had an agreement. You said you would let me go."
"Yeah, well…" Crichton said as he dragged Tasda to his feet then hit him with all his might, knocking him unconscious. "…I lied." He shook his hand and waggled his fingers as he looked down at the man at his feet. "Not exactly an eye for an eye, but I feel better." He said softly. He didn't turn around to see Aeryn's reaction but instead reached down and pulled the man to his feet, putting Tasda's arm around his neck and his own arm around the unconscious man's waist. "Come on buddy, let's see if we can find you a nice cosy cell to sleep it off."
Crichton half carried, half dragged Tasda down the hallway looking through the peephole in each cell door until he found what he was looking for. "This'll do." He dropped the guard unceremoniously and began fiddling with the electronic key. "Bingo!" The door swung open and he dragged the man inside.
"Crichton?"
Crichton looked around confused. "Rygel?"
From the corner of the cell behind the door Rygel hobbled out. "Yes." He looked at the guard "You came to rescue me." He stated, sounding pleased.
"Sorry to disappoint, Spanky, but we're actually rescuing ourselves." He grinned at Rygel's crestfallen look. "You're just a bonus." He grabbed the little Hynerian "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I think that Finsis was onto us from the start. He spotted Chiana watching us – the idiot girl got too close – and when she realised that he knew that she was there and left, he had her followed. And he had me thrown in here." He frowned.
"How long have you been here?"
"Does it matter? The point is that I've been incarcerated, here, without any food or water…"
"Spanky! How long?"
"Around an arn."
"Then D'Argo and Chi may already be prisoners." Crichton lifted Rygel up until they were face to face. " Did you spot where they put your magic carpet, Ryg?"
"If you mean my throne sled, it was outside."
"OK. Let's go see."
"I'm perfectly capable of walking, Crichton. Put me down."
"Suit yourself, Guido." Crichton placed Rygel on the ground and made his way back to Aeryn.
"Where have you been?" She asked him annoyed. "Did you run into trouble?"
Crichton grinned. "Yeah." He heard the soft hum of Rygel's throne sled behind him. "But probably not the kind you're thinking of." He stood to one side.
"Rygel!" Her voice registered her surprise at seeing the Hynerian there.
Rygel looked at her. "What the yotz happened to you?"
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TBC