"Zhaan, you must come back immediately. Moya's sensor's have picked up a Peacekeeper vessel." Pilot's voice filled the cockpit of the prowler.
"Have they seen us?"
"No, but we should retreat as soon as possible. Moya insists."
"Very well, Pilot. I am coming back now."
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"Chiana! I thought you said you could drive this thing?"
"I'm driving it, aren't I?"
"If you danced naked in the streets during rush hour you couldn't draw more attention than you are now."
"Relax, Crichton. There's no one about anyway."
"Just try not to swing around so much and go easy on the clutch. The idea is to get there in one piece...and unnoticed."
"Well, if you are such an expert, why don't you drive?" Chiana brought the vehicle to an abrupt halt.
Crichton angrily banged on the partition separating the back of the van from the driver. "What the hell….! Have you lost you mind, Chiana? CHIANA!" He heard D'Argo speaking softly, though he couldn't make out what he said. A microt later the vehicle started moving again, slower and more smoothly this time. "Go, Big D." He said to himself, looking down at Aeryn's head cradled on his lap. "Looks like we might make it after all. I told you my plans always work." He said softly, smoothing her hair back from her face.
"What are we going to do about Tarone?" Rygel asked from the other side of the vehicle. "Flush him out of an airlock?"
Crichton shook his head. "No Sparky." Looking down again at the unconscious Aeryn, he added "But he might wish we had." He raised D'Argo's com to his mouth. "Hey Zhaan! You there?"
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"What's happening?" Tarone was asking Pilot as Zhaan entered command. "Zhaan! Pilot won't tell me what's going on."
"The Peacekeepers have arrived and we must leave before we are detected." Zhaan explained distractedly, her eyes studying the consul in front of her. "Pilot? How long until we can starburst?"
"180 microts."
"We're leaving?" Tarone was shocked. "But the others…"
"Yes, I know. It is regrettable, but we cannot help them now."
"I must stay." He blurted out
"Don't be foolish, Tarone. If we can, we will return, but we must leave now."
"But my brother…Zhaan, I must stay. Let me take a ship. I… I could take the prowler."
"A prowler is not a ship that can be flown by amateurs. You can't fly a prowler."
"Yes, I can."
"Really…" Zhaan looked thoughtful. " Are you certain? Have you flown one before?"
"Yes. Please Zhaan."
Pilot's face appeared in the clamshell. "Prepare for starburst."
"No, wait a moment, Pilot. Our young friend is leaving us. Prepare Aeryn's prowler for take off." She smiled at the obviously relieved Tarone.
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Crichton, Rygel, D'Argo and Chiana were all gathered in the transport that everyone but Rygel had come down in. Aeryn still lay unconscious, her head in Crichton's lap. Nobody spoke. They were all looking at the com in D'Argo's hand. Waiting.
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"Escaped?" Finsis looked at the man in front of him, incredulous. "How can they all have escaped?"
"I…I'm not sure, sir. I wasn't in the prison at the time, I…"
"Don't give me excuses! Get them back!" Finsis snarled, leaping to his feet and throwing his goblet at the retreating law enforcement officer. He sat back down and tried to regain his composure as he watched a servant clean up the mess he had made only microts earlier.
"Sir?" He looked up to see another servant standing beside him. "Officer Kysam is here with two others and wishes to speak with you."
Finsis nodded slowly. "Show him in." He closed his eyes. "I'm a dead man." He whispered to himself.
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"Something's wrong." Chiana said softly.
"Nothing's wrong, Pip. We've just gotta be patient."
"D'Argo. Crichton." Pilot's voice was greeted with sighs of relief all round.
"Yes Pilot." D'Argo said.
"Tarone has left Moya on Aeryn's prowler."
"Thank you, Pilot." Crichton looked at his friends. "Well, I guess that sorts out the poor slaves from the heirs to the throne." He gently slid out from under Aeryn and stood up. "OK, let's finish up here and get the hell away from this frelling planet!" He watched as Rygel, Chiana and D'Argo began to make their way to the transport exit. " You've got the map to Finsis hanger, right?" Chiana waved it for him to see. "Be careful. They might have men watching Rygel's transport." A microt later he added. " Maybe I should go with you, and Chiana can take Aeryn up to Moya." He looked at Aeryn and then back to his friends.
D'Argo clapped him on the shoulder. "Do not worry, John. We can handle this. See that Aeryn reaches Moya safely and we will join you there soon."
"Yeah." He gave D'Argo a little smile. " Just be careful out there, OK?"
"I could take Aeryn back to Moya." Rygel said hopefully.
"Shut up, Rygel." The Luxan pushed the dominar's throne sled through the exit and followed him.
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Zhaan waited nervously in the hanger for what seemed like an eternity until the doors opened.
"Hey, Blue! You're a sight for sore eyes!"
"John! Thank the Goddess!" Zhaan rushed forward, eyes on the unconscious Aeryn that Crichton held in his arms. " Take her to her quarters. I have already assembled everything I need there." She gestured for him to go ahead and looked expectantly behind him. "Where are D'Argo and Chiana?" She called to Crichton, running to catch up with him. "Has something happened to them? Pilot has made contact with Rygel in the other transport and he is on his way, but he says he is alone." She sounded upset.
"Relax, Zhaan. They're fine. They're just picking up a little something for our sleeping beauty here."
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"Uncle! I have returned!" Tarone burst into Finsis' main reception room.
Finsis turned from his visitors, with barely concealed anger. "What are you doing here? You are meant to be on the Leviathan."
Tarone nodded his greeting to Officer Kysam and another man in Peacekeeper uniform that he didn't recognise before answering his uncle. "I was, but the Leviathan and her pilot spotted the Peacekeeper vessel approaching and starburst away. I only just managed to persuade the Delvian to allow me to return to Tean." He smirked. "I told her that I couldn't leave my brother."
"The Leviathan is gone?" Finsis asked hoarsely.
Tarone looked at his uncle a little confused by his reaction. "No." He smiled uncertainly. "They think that I am trying to locate the others. The Pa'u will bring the Leviathan back to retrieve them soon. She has no idea that they already in our custody."
"They're not."
"What?"
"They're not in our custody." Finsis was having trouble keeping his temper with the boy. "They escaped and took their transports. You would know that if you had stayed onboard the Leviathan, as we agreed that you would, until we concluded our agreement with the Peacekeepers. You might have persuaded them to return."
"But they have nowhere to go. Moya has gone. I saw her starburst away myself. Crichton and the others can't fly around forever. They will have to return here." He looked at his uncle for some sign that his explanation had been accepted but Finsis' face was a mask.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Tarone saw movement at the far side of the room. A strange looking man, dressed from head to foot in black leather and a face like death itself, walked towards him. Tarone looked back at his uncle and was surprised to see fear in his eyes.
"Tell me, boy, you say you saw the Leviathan starburst. Have you ever seen a Leviathan starburst before?"
"Well, no…"
"But yet you are certain that is what you saw?"
"Yes." He smiled uncertainly. "The ship was preparing to starburst as I left, I watched it move off at great speed. What else could I have seen?"
What else indeed." The thin man nodded slowly. "Tell me…did the Leviathan, by any chance, disappear in a flash of light?"
Tarone's laugh was nervous, suspecting a trick. "No." He heard his uncle groan.
"Then what you saw was not starburst." The man moved towards Finsis. "I must admit to being disappointed by this turn of events." Though quiet, his voice was full of menace. He turned his attention back to Tarone." How did you return to the planet?"
"The Delvian let me take the Peacekeeper's prowler."
"And she didn't seem surprised that you could pilot it?"
Tarone felt his mouth go dry. He shook his head "No."
"Well then it would appear that she had her suspicions about you and simply wanted you off the ship. Where did you leave the prowler?"
"On the outskirts of town, in my uncle's private hanger."
The man half turned his head towards the sebacean standing behind him. "Assign some men to watch that hanger. So far as we know it is their only offensive weapon. They may try to recover it."
Finsis nodded. "I will have some of my men show them the way."
"No. That won't be necessary. We have other matters to discuss."
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"How's she doing?"
"I think she'll be fine. I have given her something to help with the pain. She should wake up soon.
Crichton nodded and ran a hand over his hair. "I was really scared for her back there, Zhaan." He said softly
She nodded sympathetically. "Sebacean's heal quickly, John. In a weeken her bruises and cuts will be gone and her ribs will nearly be mended.
"Yeah." He gave a sad smile. "She'll probably get over it quicker than I will."
"You should get some rest, John. You look tired."
"Yeah, I've been feeling a bit under the weather." He caught her questioning look "…off my game, not a hundred percent,…" he smiled and took pity on her "not really sick, just not really well either. I'm tired all the time and, when I do sleep, I've been having the weirdest dreams."
"Let me know if you need anything to help you sleep. There are some herbs that promote sleep without dreaming."
"Will do." He looked over at Aeryn lying peacefully on her bed. "I'll hang around here until she wakes up."
"Very well. I'll go and check with Pilot to see whether D'Argo and Chiana are on their way."
Crichton watched Zhaan as she swept out of Aeryn's quarters and then turned back to the ex-Peacekeeper.
He couldn't help his thoughts being drawn to the last time he had sat and watched her like this. It seemed like a lifetime ago. He had been so relieved when she opened her eyes that time – little suspecting that a chain of event had already been started that would send them all spiralling into a nightmare that had left him scarred… irreversibly changed. He found himself hoping that history wouldn't somehow repeat itself.
He saw her begin to stir and moved immediately to her side. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times before focussing on his face.
"John." She sounded relieved. Her eyes flitted around before coming back to his face. "We're back on Moya."
"Right on both counts. How're you feeling?"
She considered for a moment. "Better." She held out her arm to him. "Help me sit up."
"Nope. Doctor's orders. You stay where you are. But I might be able to prop you up a little." He reached for some extra pillows and began sliding them carefully underneath her neck and shoulders.
"What happened?" She said, settling back and taking the water he offered her.
"Nothing much." He shrugged. " Turned out that D'Argo and Chi still had their coms so we were able to contact Zhaan and tell her our suspicions about Tarone. The Peacekeepers had appeared by this time and she told Tarone that Moya would have to starburst away to avoid detection. Naturally he didn't want to leave Tean…"
"Naturally."
He smiled a little "So, all of a sudden, it turned out that the poor-never-been-to-space-before-slave-boy could fly a prowler. With one hand, mark you! Which kinda took care of the is he or isn't he a lying son of a hingmat question."
"Hingemot." She corrected.
"Right. So our boy took your prowler to Tean and Moya pretended to starburst away."
"Pretended?"
"Yeah. We figured that Leviathans being relatively rare and all, Tarone probably hadn't seen starburst up close before so he'd assume that what he saw was starburst. So he'd go back and tell his uncle that Moya was long gone, when in fact she just made her way to the dark side of one of Tean's moons. You and I came up in one transport and Rygel piloted the other one."
She frowned. "What about my prowler, Crichton?"
He held a hand up to placate her. "Your prowler is fine. We left Chiana and D'Argo down there to bring it back."
Aeryn looked a little happier. "Why both of them?"
He grinned "Chiana to pilot the prowler and D'Argo to keep her out of trouble."
She smiled a little. "How much whining did Chiana when you asked her to do that?"
"Actually, she volunteered. She feels that it was her mistake that led to your capture and your…injuries." He told her seriously.
Aeryn fell silent for a microt. Eventually she said "Tarone and his uncle will be in a great deal of trouble with the Peacekeepers. They may pay for this with their lives."
Crichton laid his hand softly on the top of her head as it lay on the pillow, his thumb gently stroking the small hairs back from her forehead. "Yeah, but somehow I just don't seem to give a crap."
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"The prowler has gone, Sir."
"Then it seems we have made a wasted trip." Scorpius sighed.
"Shall we continue to scan for the Leviathan?"
"No. They will be long gone. Crichton has eluded us this time but we will get him in the end, Lieutenant."
"Forgive me, Sir, but how can you be so sure."
"He will come to us, Braca. He might not even know why, but one day he will come to us." Scorpius looked at his Lieutenant's confused expression and smiled. "I know the way his mind works." Scorpius continued enigmatically. "In fact, right now, I know what's going on in John Crichton's mind better than he does." He looked with some distaste at the bodies of Tarone and his uncle lying on the floor before him. "Let's leave this place." He said, stepping over them. "We have much work to do, and not much time."