John's eye scanned the stall of the commerce planet thoughtfully; a shiny array of brightly coloured bottles caught his eye. They were quite pretty, he thought, maybe I could just- he reached out to a glimmering red bottle, pulled the stopper and took a long, deep, sniff.
It smelt so familiar… it was just like…
Aeryn's hair.
He replaced the stopper again. Man, he thought, I am a sad, pathetic guy. I can't just buy this because of-
"You like it Peacekeeper?"
Crichton's head turned, standing behind the stall was a plump woman with long green hair and pitch-black skin. Her face was one of those kindly saleswomen who would gently urge you into buying something.
John rubbed the bottle with his thumb.
Oh, what the hell.
"How much for this?"
He strode off to look for the others, he pushed his way through the crowd and came across Chiana. The young Nebari was looking through her cloth bag at her 'purchases'; she had lifted a bottle out of the bag and was examining it. It was very similar to the one Crichton had just bought.
"Bought or stolen?" He asked.
"What do you think?" She replied coyly.
John let it go, he knew the answer. "Have you seen D'argo or Jool anywhere?"
"D'argo went to buy supplies and I think little-miss-princess went shopping," answered Chiana, sniffing the bottle.
"We'd best get back to the transport pod soon."
"Sure."
Chiana looked at the bottle in John's hand "You got that 'cause it reminded you of someone?"
"What? What are you? I mean…" His voice trailed off under the Nebari's sceptical gaze.
"That's real cute John," she purred.
"Leave off Pip."
"No need to be like that, that's why I got this," she held up her bottle "I stole this stuff from Zhaan's apothecary once. It's Bassem oil, the smell kinda reminds me of her."
"Oh."
"I miss her a lot."
"Don't we all," muttered Crichton. Chiana sighed and quickly changed the subject "I'll… go back to Transport pod and wait for you."
"Cool, I'll go find D and Jool."
Jool was huffing through the stalls angrily, fuming at the things on offer, how dare they charge that much for so much… DREN! Back home there were such beautiful things in the markets. Perfume, clothes, pottery and books! How she missed it! She missed home, her parents, family, friends and, she sobbed as she thought, little Tricket.
Her little pet Tricket, poor thing; he must be missing her so much. If he was still alive that is.
She suddenly found herself staring at a secluded little stall, which housed a menagerie of… creatures. Allsorts of strange snouts, beaks and claws whistled, barked, squeaked and chatted from behind bars and on top of stands at her as she edged closer.
"Ah! My dear beautiful princess! See something you fancy?"
The cry caught her slightly off guard; it came from the apparent owner of the stall. He was a fat, short man with several pairs of arms and one eye in the middle of his forehead. He grinned with a mouldy set of jagged teeth "I'm sure we will find something worthy of your… heavenly face! Why, to gaze upon it is to gaze upon the goddess of beauty herself!"
Jool couldn't help but feel flattered.
"We have many creatures from all over the Uncharted Territories, trelkez, exotic me'cash (all the way from Delvia my good woman!) And the best breeds of trunkas this side of Peacekeeper territory!"
Jool gazed at the animals "I wouldn't mind something, well behaved and easy to keep."
"Well! Look no further! How about a me'cash? They make an excellent pet, their singing soothes you to sleep and also," he smacked his lips "make an excellent pie if served well-"
"AWWWW!!" Jool's sudden shriek made the vender jump and cover what could pass as his ears. She dived towards a cage that held the object of her affections.
If John Crichton had been the one to gaze at the creature, he would have commented that it looked rather like a cat, squirrel and skunk hybrid. It gazed at Jool with bright, shiny and, quite frankly, adorable eyes. It ruffled it's black fur, yawned and then sneezed. It was quite cute really.
"It's so adorable!" Jool cooed.
"Yes, this is a karret. They originate from the jungle moons in the Kasira system, they are very good pets. Clean and well behaved…" the vender was wondering how long it would take for her to take a hint.
"What to they eat?"
"Oh, anything you put in front of them! Plants, meat, food cubes… so try not to put your finger in front of them, they have a very nasty bite."
Jool gave it a thought, on the one hand, it was so cute, it was clean, she'd keep it out of the way on Moya, she could feed it with her share of food cubes and… it would be like having Tricket back again. On the other hand, D'argo would be angry, Chiana (the little trelk!) would probably sell it to a fur trader and as for John…
He might understand, he was much more sympathetic than the others. She rather liked him, but still didn't like him that much. He did cut up her poor cousin's brain. Pilot might not like the idea of the little cutie running around…
OH FRELL THEM! They had no right to tell her what to do; she was not about to take orders from them! If she wanted a pet then she was frelling going to get a pet! Whether they liked it not! So there!
"How much?"
"To you, one hundred credmers."
"What!? One hundred? No frelling way! Fifty!"
"Fifty is an insult!"
"I don't give a dren, fifty."
"Ninety-five!"
"Sixty!"
"Ninety!"
Jool realised that this was going to go on for quite some time, so she tried a little trick she learned when trying to bargain for a dress back in the markets at home.
"Eighty."
"Seventy five!" The vender was sweating.
"DEAL!" Jool squealed with triumph. The street vender gave up, the oldest trick ever and he'd fallen for it. Oh frell it, he wanted to see the back of the annoying little dren anyway (and the karret to). "Fine! Take it!" He cried.
Jool handed over the money and took the cage with the little karret in it. As walked back through the street she cooed at the thing "Izzywuzzy woo! Wooes a ickle cutie? You are! Yes you are!"
John nearly bumped into here as she head back to the transport pod. "Hey Jool," he greeted her with a smile. She quickly hid the cage in her bag "Hello Crichton, are we going?"
"Yeah, I found D'argo, we need to leave a.s.a.p."
"Good, I can't wait to leave this piss hole of a planet."
John felt a stab in his memory. That's roughly what Aeryn said on their first visit to a commerce planet… "Yeah," he said, bringing his brain back to the present "Let's go."
Back on the transport pod, Jool looked into the bag at the very bedraggled looking karret. She carefully put a food cube into the cage for him to eat "I'm never going to let anything bad happen to you, mommy's going to protect you."
"Who're talking to?" Chiana asked.
Jool looked up in alarm "None of your frelling business!" She cried in shock and covered her bag quickly. Chiana's face took on an expression of false shock "Sor-ry! Who put a bug up your eema?"
"Children, can't you save it till we get home?" John cried to the back.
Jool and Chiana scowled at each other and looked away out of the window.
