Chapter 9 – Missing
"What do you mean you lost her?" D'Argo said urgently. "John!"
He grasped the human's face, trying to make him focus. "John!"
"I don't know what happened, D'Argo…I…the rope went taut and
it…it wouldn't budge." He shook his head.
" I tried to swim back but the current…it was too strong, so I tried to pull
myself back." He covered his face with
his hands, muffling his voice. "The rope came away in my hands. She was gone."
D'Argo placed his hand on the human's shoulder trying to
give him some comfort. He swapped a
frantic look with Chiana. Out of the
corner of his eye he saw Jothee move towards the pool again and turned
hopefully, only to see Hailen and then Damor emerging from the water. He left Crichton's side to rush up to
them. "Did you see Aeryn?"
They both looked at him blankly.
"Aeryn became detached from Crichton on the last
section." D'Argo said impatiently. " Did you see her?"
Hailen looked over at Crichton who was sitting with his head
in his hands and then back at D'Argo. "No, I did not see her." Damor shook his head as confirmation.
Crichton looked up, a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"But if something had happened to her, you would've seen her. Right?"
He scrambled to his feet. "Maybe…maybe she panicked when the rope came
away and got turned around. She
could've gone back the other way and reached an air pocket. She could still be down there. She could still be alive." As he spoke he
was throwing off his blanket, preparing to take to the water again, shrugging
off Chiana's restraining hands.
Damor stepped between the human and the pool. " I am
sorry. If she had managed to go back
along the tunnel we would have seen her.
Besides the current is very strong on that last section. I fear that an inexperienced swimmer would
not be able to make it."
"You said that you had trouble with the current,
Crichton." Chiana reminded him softly.
Crichton closed his eyes. "So where's her…" He just couldn't
say it. "Where is she?"
Damor frowned. "Perhaps she did get disorientated as you
suggest. There are other tunnels off
the main way that she might have gone down by accident or been dragged into by
the current."
"I saw no other tunnels." D'Argo frowned.
"Neither did I."
Rygel agreed.
"They are not obvious as you travel along the main tunnel,
but the entrances are located behind the main rock walls in parts of the
narrower sections. These walls have
large spaces behind them, which split off the tunnel at various stages, but you
have to know where to look. You were
probably so concerned with negotiating that part of the tunnel that you did not
notice these others."
"So we look there."
Crichton said impatiently. "We
go down there and we look for her."
Hailen looked at him sadly.
"If she did enter one of the other tunnels then she is dead. You must accept this."
Crichton looked at her as if he couldn't quite understand
what she was saying. D'Argo put his
hand out towards his friend, but Crichton shoved it away "NO!" He left his arm extended, enforcing a
distance between him and the Luxan.
"No." He said less
forcefully. "We've got to look for her
if there's a chance. No matter how
small that chance is. I've got to look
for her." He looked at his friends
helplessly, tears running down his face.
"Please. You have to understand…we have to try. We have to." He said hoarsely. Chiana
came up to his side and wrapped her arms tightly around his middle. He looked down at her. " I told her everything would be fine. I forced her to swim through that tunnel and
I promised her she wouldn't drown. I
looked her in the eye and promised her." He looked up at D'Argo.
"Even if…I don't want to leave her here. She shouldn't be here."
He said quietly.
Rygel looked at Damor.
"I assume that you can swim against the current?" Damor nodded and Rygel continued. " Show me
these other tunnels that Aeryn might have gone down." D'Argo thought the Dominar's voice sounded strange.
"You can't go into the tunnels!" Hailen said anxiously.
"It's too dangerous. It's
certain death."
"I'm hardly going to drown, am I?" Rygel hobbled towards the pool edge, attaching a com to his
robe. "Just show me where these tunnels
are."
"Thank you, Rygel." Crichton said hoarsely.
"Yes. Well. Despite all appearances to the contrary, she
was my friend too." The Hynerian said
gruffly
Crichton nodded and watched Damor and Rygel disappear into
the pool. He continued to stare into
the water long after they had both disappeared from sight.
D'Argo watched him closely, fearful that he would try to
re-enter the tunnel himself. He was so
engrossed in his task that it took him a few microts to notice Hailen standing
beside him and another few to notice that she was shivering. He took the blanket from around his own
shoulders and passed it to her. "Tell
me, if the current in this tunnel is so strong, how do your people get back to
the other island?"
"There is another tunnel we use. It is much longer, but the current is not so strong." She looked over at Crichton as she blotted
her soaking hair with the blanket. "He
looks very upset."
"I fear that he will not survive this blow." The Luxan said sadly.
Hailen looked at him, disbelieving. " I hope you will not mind me saying so, but
they did not appear that close."
"Their relationship was not without its problems but you
should not doubt the strength of feeling between them."
Hailen nodded solemnly and continued to rub at her
hair. D'Argo felt a sense of relief as
she moved off. He liked the girl, but he
did not want to concentrate on anything now except his friends and his own
loss. He felt his eyes suddenly fill
with tears as he thought about Aeryn Sun.
Two monens ago he had felt the pain of her death keenly and he had
rejoiced at her miraculous return as much as anyone, except perhaps
Crichton. To have her ripped away from
them again was too cruel for words. He
silently cursed the Gods that had allowed this to happen.
Seeing Jothee walking towards him, he quickly wiped away his
tears.
"Should I contact Moya?
Tell Stark and Zhaan what has happened?"
D'Argo closed his eyes for a microt. In amongst everything else he had forgotten
Zhaan. She didn't know and telling her
would be hard. D'Argo shook his head at his son. "No, Jothee. I will tell them when we are on board Moya." He looked sadly over at Chiana and John,
still standing by the pool.
Chiana had replaced Crichton's blanket over his
shoulders. Although she continued to
speak to him softly, her own tears running down her face, there was no sign
that the human heard her. He seemed to
have retreated within himself.
Chiana cast a worried look at D'Argo. It was clear that she didn't know what to do
or say for their friend. D'Argo
continued to look on as she took Crichton's cold hand in hers and stood beside
him, her head leaning against his shoulder.
"I am sorry about Aeryn Sun." Hailen stood in front of Crichton. If he knew she was there, he gave no sign.
"Thanks Hailen."
Chiana tried to smile kindly at the girl. "Could you get Crichton another blanket or something…and a warm
drink? Jothee'll show you where." Hailen seemed reluctant to go. "Please, Hailen." Chiana said firmly. The
girl nodded and withdrew.
D'Argo felt his hearts swell with pride at the way Chiana was
handling the situation. Placing her own
grief second to care for and protect her stricken crewmate. She had come a long way from the girl they
had reluctantly allowed to join them over a cycle ago. She was a vibrant, caring young woman and he
loved her deeply. Something he didn't
tell her often enough. He promised
himself that he would rectify that situation.
Just as soon as they left this cursed place.
He focussed on Crichton again. He looked like an empty shell.
D'Argo remembered only too well the pain and grief he had felt when he
had lost Lolaan. It had nearly broken
him. And yet he had managed to do the
unthinkable. He had gotten past all the
unhappiness and the guilt to live and found a new love. Not better, not worse, but different and
just as wonderful. He hoped that John
would give himself time to do the same.
But his instincts were telling him that he would soon be witnessing the
human's death. Not by what the human
had once called 'suicide', but by some accident borne out of a carelessness
that comes from not caring whether you live or die: a rash decision whilst under fire; an accident in his module due
to poor maintenance; a fall; eating something that his delicate human system
could not handle. The list of
possibilities was endless but all led to the same place.
D'Argo wasn't sure how long he had stood there, watching
Crichton, when a sudden sound made him switch his attention to the pool as
Damor emerged from the water, gasping for breath.
"What did you find?"
D'Argo demanded.
"Nothing." The boy
said standing up and accepting the blanket that his sister offered. "Dominar Rygel said he was going to check
the tunnels to see if he could find your friend." He shivered. "But he will
never make it."
D'Argo growled. "Hynerian's are aquatic. Rygel should be in no danger."
"But the current in the other tunnels is so strong, I do not
see how he will swim against it. He may
well survive the water, and he may even find Aeryn Sun's body if it is down
there, but he will not be able to get out again."
Chiana had pulled Crichton away from the pool and coaxed him
into sitting down. She had wrapped a
second blanket around him and he held the hot drink that Hailen had brought in
his frozen hands. He seemed lost in his
own thoughts.
D'Argo knelt in front of them. "John?" When he received
no answer he looked at Chiana. "How is
he?"
She smiled sadly.
"Quiet." D'Argo reached out and
wiped away a tear from her cheek and she leant into his palm.
"Rygel's back."
Jothee shouted reaching into the pool and pulling the little Hynerian
out of the water.
Crichton seemed to reanimate immediately and he rushed over
to the poolside. "Rygel?"
Rygel looked up at the human. "I've only come to get a
flashlight before I go into one of the tunnels. It's dark and I can't see a frelling thing down there."
D'Argo held out a flashlight. "Rygel, Damor says that if you go down one of the tunnels you
might not be able to swim against the current to get back out."
"Yotz! I've been
part way in already and managed to get out.
The current is strong, but is no match for a Hynerian. Besides, none of Damor's people have ever
been down these tunnels, so how the frell do they know what it's like?"
D'Argo nodded. It
was rare that Rygel acted bravely, but it was something that he was capable of
given the right set of circumstances.
However, those circumstances usually involved saving himself, and D'Argo
was surprised that he had chosen to place himself in danger in this instance. He suspected it had more to do with Crichton
than with Aeryn. Looking at Crichton
now, D'Argo thought that it would take someone made out of stone not to want to
do everything they could to help him.
Zhaan was fond of saying that despite his many faults, Rygel had a good
heart. Although D'Argo had to admit that
most days he saw little evidence to support her theory.
As the Hynerian disappeared underneath the water again,
Crichton backed away from the pool, helplessly. "I can't just sit here, Chi, I'm gonna go crazy."
"There's nothing we can do until Rygel looks in those
tunnels." Chiana said softly.
Crichton's voice broke. "If only I had swum behind and let
Rygel take the rope. Maybe I could've
helped her. Or if I'd been a better
swimmer. Maybe she would be here now."
"It wasn't your fault."
Hailen said, her face full of concern for the human. "The current is so strong, very few could
swim against it." Hailen put her hand
on Crichton's arm but he jerked violently away from her touch, banging into
Chiana in the process and making her stumble.
Hailen stood looking at the human, not knowing what to say or do for
him.
D'Argo's hand on her shoulder made the girl jump. "Hailen, we need to start getting your
people up to Moya so we can leave this place.
Your father already has them gathering food. Can you start loading up a transport? I'll be along in a microt."
He watched her go and then turned back towards Crichton. "Maybe you should go too, John." He said gently.
Crichton shook his head.
"No, I want to be here when Rygel gets back."
"Chiana?"
"I'll stay too."
"Very well, I'll be back soon. Com me if anything happens."
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Stark and Zhaan met the transport in the hanger.
"Thank the Goddess you are safe!" Zhaan came rushing up to D'Argo.
"But who are all these people?"
She said, watching Grisott and around 15 others come down the transport
steps.
"It's a long story."
D'Argo told her. "But first I
have something important I must tell you."
D'Argo turned to Grisott. "Stark
will show you where you can stay." He
looked at Stark who nodded and then he turned back to Zhaan. "Perhaps we should go to your quarters."
She inclined her head slightly, a worried look settling over
her features.
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Chiana placed another drink in Crichton's cold hands and sat
down beside him once more. "Sorry if
it's a bit lukewarm, it's raining heavily out there."
"Aeryn loved the rain."
Chiana felt he was talking more to himself than to her. "It fascinated her, even when we were on the
run on the false Earth."
"What happened on the false Earth?" She tried to keep him talking, to keep him
there with her instead of buried inside his head. " D'Argo told me that he and Rygel were taken out of the
simulation early. So, what happened to
you and Aeryn?"
"We went on the run from the military guys, thinking they'd killed
Rygel and D'Argo and would come for Aeryn next." He cocked his head slightly to one side, a ghost of a smile on
his lips at the memory. "We made love for the first time, the only time." The smile was replaced by a look of
self-loathing. " And then, when I realised that my world was fake, I abandoned
her, thinking that she was fake too. I
left her alone in a strange world surrounded by people that she thought were
going to kill and then dissect her. I
never apologised to her for that. I
guess now I never will." He looked at
the Nebari with tired, red-rimmed eyes.
" I failed her then, I failed her when that chip took me over, and today
I failed her again."
"Nerri once told me that, sometimes, no matter what you do,
things don't turn out the way you want them to." She took his hand between her two much smaller gloved ones. "You
can't blame yourself for this. Aeryn
wouldn't have blamed you. She loved
you, Crichton. We never heard her say
it but we all knew."
"I just…I just don't know how I'm going to go on without
her." Crichton let out a sob and threw his full cup away from him, lowering his
head to his hands. Chiana put her hand
on his back and gently rubbed, hoping that it would give him some comfort, but
knowing, deep down, that nothing would.
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"I am going back to get the rest." D'Argo said. He had
changed into dry of clothes and had had something to eat, but he still looked
tired and drawn.
"Perhaps you should try and get some rest, D'Argo." Zhaan said.
"The others can bring the other transport up when they are ready."
"No. I do not want
to leave Crichton for any longer than is necessary. Chiana cannot restrain him if he decides to do something
foolish."
Zhaan nodded sadly.
"Yes. Yes, of course." She seemed to lose her balance and her hand
went out to grab a nearby consul to steady herself. Stark immediately came to her side, placing one arm around her
waist and holding her hand in the other to give her support. "Thank you, Stark." She smiled weakly. " Perhaps I will take
some of my own advice and retire to my quarters. But on the way let us visit Pilot. Aeryn was as dear to him as she was to the rest of us and he will
be in great pain at her passing." Stark
nodded and began to lead her away.
D'Argo watched them go with great sadness. He wondered what Zhaan must be feeling,
slowly dying due to a sacrifice that was ultimately for nothing. Aeryn was dead anyway. He felt Jothee come up behind him. "Stay here, Jothee, and help Stark take care
of Zhaan. Offer to cook her something to tempt her to eat. She needs to keep her strength up."
"But…"
"Please, Jothee. Do
this one thing for me."
"Yes, father."
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"Has Rygel not returned?"
D'Argo asked Chiana.
Chiana shook her head miserably. "It's been nearly 8 arns."
She left Crichton's side and moved stiffly over to D'Argo. "We need to get him back to Moya."
"Agreed." The Luxan
knelt before Crichton and clasped his neck, causing the human to look up at
him. "We must go back to Moya now,
John."
"But, Rygel…"
"We will remain in orbit for another few arns. If Rygel can,
he will com us and we will pick him up.
If not, then there is nothing we can do. Either way, it will achieve nothing to stay here."
"Oh, God…Rygel."
Crichton dropped his head, tears beginning to flow again. D'Argo brought his friends head to his
shoulder for a microt, trying and failing to find the words to comfort him, as
he had tried and failed for Zhaan only two arns earlier.
D'Argo and Chiana coaxed Crichton to his feet and took him
to the transports. D'Argo piloted one, and Chiana the other, back to Moya.
Crichton sat in the back of D'Argo's transport, staring into
space. Hailen sat beside him, holding
his hand, as D'Argo had instructed her to do, convinced that she was witnessing
a man's heart actually breaking.
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Chiana entered command 4 arns after getting back to
Moya. She was the last to arrive.
Zhaan, Stark, D'Argo, Jothee and Grisott were already there,
gathered around the strategy table looking sombre.
"We…we're going to leave him, aren't we?" She said.
"Chiana…" D'Argo started wearily.
"Aren't we?" She
stared at the big Luxan accusingly.
"Grisott has explained to us the nature of these tunnels that
Rygel went to explore." Zhaan said
gently.
Grisott took over.
"The current in the tunnels is extremely strong and although no one has
ever been down them for obvious reasons, we have experimented; letting small
location devices go into the tunnels to…"
"Small location devices?"
Chiana knew the interruption was petty, she didn't care about his stupid
location devices, but she was angry with Grisott and his people and his planet
that had brought such tragedy into their lives.
"Yes." Grisott
continued pleasantly. "We used to use
them to keep track of our animals when we kept them, before the water covered
all the grazing land. Now we mostly use
them for keeping track of our children and the Mevi. We were interested in all the underwater tunnels as they
represented the only safe way for us to travel so we let these devices be swept
into the tunnels and kept track of them as they travelled someway under the
hill. They then seemed to stop
travelling, but continued to get fainter and fainter until we could not pick up
a signal any more. None of these
devices were ever recovered. Based on
this evidence, we think that the water probably flows down deeper and deeper to
underground caverns and eventually escapes though cracks in the rock."
"So you're saying that Rygel is…"
Grisott nodded at her sorrowfully. "If what we suspect is true, then the water falls down
considerable distances. In the unlikely
event that he survived these falls, we would not be able to get to him."
"Well…couldn't someone go down there with a rope, find him
and then be pulled back?" She looked
around the faces in the room for some support.
Grisott shook his head.
"The rope would have to be very long and whoever went would either have
to be able to breathe underwater or have an air supply with them."
"We have air tanks!"
"Chiana, we cannot take such a risk to recover a body." D'Argo hated being the voice of reason on
this occasion.
Chiana felt something close to panic. "But Rygel took a risk
to go and try to recover Aeryn's."
"And it cost him his life."
D'Argo stated simply.
Zhaan placed a hand on the Nebari's shoulder. "I am sorry,
Chiana. I grieve for Aeryn and Rygel as
you do, but you must see that there is little point in remaining here." She turned to the others. "We should go."
Chiana's heart was heavy as she left command. She knew that Zhaan and the others were
right. There was no point waiting any
longer. But she was finding it hard to
imagine Moya without Rygel or Aeryn onboard.
She had never been exactly close to Aeryn, and she had spent most of her
time with Rygel arguing or trying to cheat him, but they were both unique and
irreplaceable in what she had come to think of as her family on Moya.
Chiana went to mourn her friends with the only other person
she felt would truly understand.
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Chiana was not surprised to find Crichton in Aeryn's
quarters. He was lying on her bed,
still in the same clothes he had made the swim in. When she entered she couldn't tell whether he was asleep or
awake.
"Crichton?" She said
gently. He looked up at her immediately
and sat up. "No. You don't have to. Not for me."
"Hey, Pip." He gave
her a wan smile. They fell into silence
for a few microts. "Moya's started
moving again."
"Ah, yeah. Looks
like Rygel didn't make it. No point in
hanging around here any longer." The
tears that welled up in her eyes betrayed her casual words.
Crichton slowly got up and wrapped his arms around her. He had no tears left, but he felt grief
never the less.
Chiana pulled back for a microt, looking up at him. "The others will miss him but I think that
we were the only two that really loved Rygel."
She felt him bring her head back towards his chest and she gratefully
hugged him again. As she did so, she
noticed the rope, still dangling from his waist and drew back, intending to
take it off. Then she stopped.
"Why do you think you lost Aeryn?"
"What?"
"I mean, why do you think the rope came away like that?"
"She…she untied it, I guess." He gathered the rope up and held the end, contemplating it.
Chiana gently
removed the rope from Crichton's hand and wrapped it around her own waist. "Look."
She said, stepping back.
"Chi, just do me a favour and leave it, uh?" He sounded annoyed.
"Look at the rope." She repeated.
Suddenly he realised what she was getting at. The rope was too short. Way too short. He couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed before. While he was still trying to get his head
around what that meant, Chiana showed him the end of the rope again. He took it in his hand staring at it. There
was no fraying. It had not broken. It had been cut. Not as he had originally assumed, by him on Grisott's
island. But by someone else.
He felt like he was going to throw up.
"Did Aeryn have a knife with her?" Crichton looked up at the sound of Chiana's voice. He seemed a little disorientated. "Crichton, did Aeryn have a knife with her?"
He frowned. "I…I don't know. She started keeping one in her boot after…" he tailed off " but she took her boots off to swim through
the tunnel." He looked down at the rope
in his hands and then started to look around him. "Frell! I left our things
down on that planet." He activated his
com. "Hey, Pilot! Turn Moya around. We have to go back."
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A little under an arn later, Crichton ran into the pool
chamber with Chiana close behind. He
looked around almost desperately until he spotted the pack that he had brought
through the tunnel on his back. He
grabbed it and tipped out the contents onto the stone floor.
Amongst the boots and the jackets and the weapons and the
coms lay Aeryn's knife.
"She didn't cut it."
He reached for his pistol and started to move back towards the
exit. "And the list of who could've is
pretty short."
A worried frown crossed Chiana's face. "Wait, what are you going to do?"
He turned back to look at her, but when she saw his face she
almost gasped. His features were the
same but somehow different. Harder. And
his eyes held nothing but cold rage.
"I'm going to find out who cut this rope" he told her quietly, calmly
"and then I'm going to kill them."
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12 Arns earlier:
Aeryn held tightly on to the rock. She knew she had to let go.
She had made up her mind to do so several times but each time her hands
just wouldn't comply.
She was in a small air pocket and she was alone. The current in the tunnel below her was so
strong that it was dragging her legs away from under her. She knew that if she stayed here, eventually,
when she lost her grip through cold or fatigue, she would be swept into the
dark of the tunnel and she would stand no chance. If she wanted to survive she had to take the risk and go now. While she was strong and awake. While she could kick and hold her
breath. At least then, if there was
another air pocket she stood some chance of reaching it.
She made her decision and took a deep breath…
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To Be Continued.