Half an arn later the AI announced, "We have reached the desired location."
Berret flicked off the autopilot control and check his board readings.
"Wraith, lay in a course another 15 degrees to port and match speed."
The AI obeyed his order and confirmed the new heading as soon as it was matched. When the ship was back up to normal cruising speed, Berret signaled Andar to release the grapples. The Wraith shook slightly as the crate was released to travel along at the same current velocity as the craft.
"Wraith, empty the trash hold," Berret next ordered. A short burst of compressed air and the contents of the trash bin traveled along side the crate and the Wraith.
"Time to go home," Berret said as he steer away from the cargo crate and bomb, allowing them to continue on with their journey. "Wraith, Bring us back onto the rendezvous coordinates."
"Acknowledged, changing course 108 degrees starboard. Coordinates adjusted and laid in," reported the AI.
"Adjust speed to Hetch 8 and engage autopilot," ordered the Shrike.
Malika flopped back into her chair. "The first thing I'm going to do when we get back to Moya is take a nice long shower and sleep in my own bed for about a weeken."
Andar leaned back and rubbed his temples, "Me too," he said, "Probably right after the eema chewing we're gonna get from the others for taking off without telling them."
Malika frowned. "No good deed goes unpunished, huh?" she said with a lopsided grin.
Andar chuckled, "You've been hanging around Rygel too long."
===================================Epilogue===================================
The massive maintenance bay doors rumbled opened as Berret started to descend the Wraith's short main staircase. Andar and Malika were already on Moya's deck as the rest of the crew came rushing in. Zhaan plowed forward and embraced the Delvian and Sebacean both at the same time. She alternately laughed in relief and attempted to scold the pair, her stern reprimands broken by periods of laughter and hugging. Berret hit the deck with his cloak draped over one arm just as Chiana arrived, panting and almost totally out of breathe from running to the landing bay. She paused as her eyes found the Shrike's tall figure waiting there. Berret wasn't sure if the young woman was angry with him or not when he first saw her but he thought he had his answer as the girl charged forward and wrapped her arms around him. He was genuinely surprised by the welcome, but when he tried to speak she stopped him.
"No, don't say anything. I am so frelling mad at you I don't know where to start."
Berret was confused. "If you're angry with me, why are you hugging me like you are not?" he asked.
"Just shut up. We'll talk about it later," she told him as she continued the embrace. "We're just glad you all made it back alive."
Aeryn and John approached the Shrike as Chiana finished speaking.
"Well, I'm ready to talk about it now," said the ex-Peacekeeper as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at Berret. "What the frell possessed you to take those two children and run off to visit Scorpius without consulting with the rest of us?"
"You would have insisted on coming along," answered the Shrike.
"And what? Spoiled your fun?" Aeryn said sarcastically.
"No, gotten us caught," Berret said. "What did Andar tell you?" he asked nervously glancing at Chiana.
"What?" replied Aeryn. "Nothing, Zhaan has barely let us have two words with him or Malika. She's too busy mothering them."
"That's because you were trying to interrogate them. Slow down, you can work them over with your rubber hose later," put in John.
"Rubber hose?" Berret asked Chiana, who only shrugged to show that she had no idea what Crichton was talking about either.
Crichton turned to the Shrike. "Berret, I don't agree with the way you did things but I'm grateful to all three of you for taking this risk for me. Zhaan says she should be ready to transmit the codes to the neural chip in an arn or so." He held out a hand to the ex-assassin. Berret looked unsure at the offered hand until Chiana whispered to him what he was suppose to do with it. The two shook hands as John said, "I owe you one, Man. I won't forget it." Crichton then took Aeryn by the arm and led her away from the couple saying,
"Come on, drinks are on me in the center chamber." He looked up at the holo-comm on the wall as they passed and shouted, "Pilot, prepare to Starburst. Get us the hell out of here."
"Right away, Commander," answered Pilot's image. "Starbursting in thirty microts."
Berret turned back to Chiana. "What one does he owe me?" he asked her.
The girl smiled up at him before replying, "It means he'll be there for you when you need him."
She had started leading him out of the maintenance bay and before he could ask another question their path was blocked by D'argo's huge form. Berret wasn't looking forward to facing the warrior's anger and he was hoping to put it off for a while until after he'd had a chance to rest. D'argo apparently had other ideas.
The Luxan stood in the doorway with both massive arms crossed in front of his barrel-like chest just as Aeryn had. His eyes narrowed as he silently scrutinized the Shrike. A low growl began to issue from his throat, though unlike the normal growling the warrior did when he was angry... this growl had a lighter, almost tolerant tone to it. After a few microts the Luxan nodded his head almost as if giving reluctant approval and then uncrossed his arms and left the bay.
"Well," said Chiana as Berret watched D'argo leave the bay in wonder, "It looks like you won a small bit of respect from some people." She smiled up at him again and he looked back at her with an odd look on his face. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"I didn't do it for respect," he said.
"Then why did you do it?"
"Wasn't it the right thing to do?" He asked looking at her, copying the way she sometimes tilted her head.
"That depends on the person," she told him.
"Would you have gone?" he asked next.
"I dunno. That's hard to say," she admitted. "I never know what I would do until I'm in that situation."
Berret turned away and they began walking toward the center chamber again.
"You would have, that's why I went," he said a few microts later. "I'm trying to be more like you."
She paused him in their walk as what he was saying sunk in.
"Berret... you have a lot to learn about me. I can't say that I would have risked myself for somebody else. It's not in my nature to put my neck out. I'm not as good as you see me."
He looked into her dark eyes and then asked, "Would you have come after me if we hadn't returned?"
"I wanted too, but Aeryn and Zhaan wouldn't let me take a Prowler..." she stopped as she realized what she's just said.
The Shrike smiled and took her hand to begin their walk to the ship's mess once again.
"Maybe I know you better then you think," he said with a smile.
They felt the familiar throb of raw power as Moya leap into Starburst a microt later.
Later that night, Berret found himself alone on the Command tier gazing out the forward view screen. Chiana had fallen asleep after the long talk they'd had about his "stunt" as she called it. Unable to sleep himself, he thought now would be a good time to sit in Command to think over the adventure they had on Scorpius' Command Carrier without worrying about the danger of running into the still irate Aeryn. Zhaan had had some crossed words for him but in the end she understood why he had done things the way he had. The Delvian priestess had forgiven him after he promised to not to go off without discussing it with the others again. Somehow, Berret thought that just might turn out to be a difficult promise to keep, but he would try his best to honor it. Malika and Andar had disappeared, probably each to their quarters after the meal, but not before the pair made an odd reference to something being a double standard in the Delvian girl's favor. The Shrike watched the stars slide by for a few microns then became aware of the slight hum coming from the holo clamshell.
"Hello, Pilot," Berret said without turning around from the view screen.
"Good evening, Berret. I trust you are well," asked Moya's helmsman.
"Yes, thank you. And Moya and yourself?" the ex-assassin asked being polite.
"We are fine. I must tell you... Moya and I are most impressed with the performance of the three of you. We are happy to have you back."
"Thank you," said the Shrike with a slight bow of his head as he turned to face the image, "But it is Andar and Malika who deserve the commendation. They had the most dangerous parts of the plan to execute and they performed their parts admirably. They work extremely well together."
"Yes, for those so young, they showed extreme courage. Crichton is now no longer in danger and we have you three to thank for it."
Berret nodded his head along with Pilot's comment but he still looked as if something bothered him.
"What else is wrong, Berret?" Pilot asked.
"I'm afraid I failed to watch over them as well as I promised I would. They were on their own much of the time," he confessed.
"Moya and I are sure you did what you could to protect and guide them," replied the image.
Berret chuckled amusingly and at Pilot enquiring look he added, "I'm afraid they are the one's who guided me. They told you about us helping rescue Val'Cirrus?"
Pilot's hologram nodded at him, "It took great courage to help your enemy."
"What they didn't tell you is they had to force me do the right thing. I was all for leaving her in Scorpius' care."
Pilot blinked his big eyes and simply nodded his head at his statement. Berret thought he was changing his mind about what he thought about him.
"Aren't you disappointed with me?" he asked, fully expecting Pilot to express his changed feelings.
"You still help Shenna and the others rescue her?"
"Yes."
"You still went on the mission to help Crichton?" Pilot blinked his huge eyes again at him.
"Yes," Berret said again.
"Then you are trying to become a better person despite your past. That is all we or anyone else can ask of you, Berret. We are still proud of what you've done," Pilot finished with a smile.
Strangely relieved to still have Pilot's and the Leviathan's good thoughts, he turned back to the view screen.
"Thank you, Pilot. Your and Moya's opinions mean a great deal to me. I will try to live up to them in the future."
"As long as you try... it will be enough," Pilot told him.
Outside a comet cut across Moya's path a few million metra ahead of them. Berret allowed himself a small smile. "This new life is full of changes," he thought. He hoped he was up to the challenge of making a home for himself here with this crew for the time they had left together. These values these strange beings were trying to teach where confusing most of the time. Time and again they would protest the folly of sticking their necks out to aid someone else and time and again they would do it anyway. Contradiction seemed to be the rule of the day most of the time among this jumble of contrary beings. Berret sighed to himself. It seemed that Pilot and Moya where the only unwavering personalities aboard. The Shrike decided not to think about it anymore and let his mind wander out with the stars for a while. Before he realized it a yawn escaped him and he felt pleasantly tired. He decided to head back to his quarters and get some sleep; strangely... he was looking forward to a night of the Pixie poking him in the side with her elbows.
Berret flicked off the autopilot control and check his board readings.
"Wraith, lay in a course another 15 degrees to port and match speed."
The AI obeyed his order and confirmed the new heading as soon as it was matched. When the ship was back up to normal cruising speed, Berret signaled Andar to release the grapples. The Wraith shook slightly as the crate was released to travel along at the same current velocity as the craft.
"Wraith, empty the trash hold," Berret next ordered. A short burst of compressed air and the contents of the trash bin traveled along side the crate and the Wraith.
"Time to go home," Berret said as he steer away from the cargo crate and bomb, allowing them to continue on with their journey. "Wraith, Bring us back onto the rendezvous coordinates."
"Acknowledged, changing course 108 degrees starboard. Coordinates adjusted and laid in," reported the AI.
"Adjust speed to Hetch 8 and engage autopilot," ordered the Shrike.
Malika flopped back into her chair. "The first thing I'm going to do when we get back to Moya is take a nice long shower and sleep in my own bed for about a weeken."
Andar leaned back and rubbed his temples, "Me too," he said, "Probably right after the eema chewing we're gonna get from the others for taking off without telling them."
Malika frowned. "No good deed goes unpunished, huh?" she said with a lopsided grin.
Andar chuckled, "You've been hanging around Rygel too long."
===================================Epilogue===================================
The massive maintenance bay doors rumbled opened as Berret started to descend the Wraith's short main staircase. Andar and Malika were already on Moya's deck as the rest of the crew came rushing in. Zhaan plowed forward and embraced the Delvian and Sebacean both at the same time. She alternately laughed in relief and attempted to scold the pair, her stern reprimands broken by periods of laughter and hugging. Berret hit the deck with his cloak draped over one arm just as Chiana arrived, panting and almost totally out of breathe from running to the landing bay. She paused as her eyes found the Shrike's tall figure waiting there. Berret wasn't sure if the young woman was angry with him or not when he first saw her but he thought he had his answer as the girl charged forward and wrapped her arms around him. He was genuinely surprised by the welcome, but when he tried to speak she stopped him.
"No, don't say anything. I am so frelling mad at you I don't know where to start."
Berret was confused. "If you're angry with me, why are you hugging me like you are not?" he asked.
"Just shut up. We'll talk about it later," she told him as she continued the embrace. "We're just glad you all made it back alive."
Aeryn and John approached the Shrike as Chiana finished speaking.
"Well, I'm ready to talk about it now," said the ex-Peacekeeper as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at Berret. "What the frell possessed you to take those two children and run off to visit Scorpius without consulting with the rest of us?"
"You would have insisted on coming along," answered the Shrike.
"And what? Spoiled your fun?" Aeryn said sarcastically.
"No, gotten us caught," Berret said. "What did Andar tell you?" he asked nervously glancing at Chiana.
"What?" replied Aeryn. "Nothing, Zhaan has barely let us have two words with him or Malika. She's too busy mothering them."
"That's because you were trying to interrogate them. Slow down, you can work them over with your rubber hose later," put in John.
"Rubber hose?" Berret asked Chiana, who only shrugged to show that she had no idea what Crichton was talking about either.
Crichton turned to the Shrike. "Berret, I don't agree with the way you did things but I'm grateful to all three of you for taking this risk for me. Zhaan says she should be ready to transmit the codes to the neural chip in an arn or so." He held out a hand to the ex-assassin. Berret looked unsure at the offered hand until Chiana whispered to him what he was suppose to do with it. The two shook hands as John said, "I owe you one, Man. I won't forget it." Crichton then took Aeryn by the arm and led her away from the couple saying,
"Come on, drinks are on me in the center chamber." He looked up at the holo-comm on the wall as they passed and shouted, "Pilot, prepare to Starburst. Get us the hell out of here."
"Right away, Commander," answered Pilot's image. "Starbursting in thirty microts."
Berret turned back to Chiana. "What one does he owe me?" he asked her.
The girl smiled up at him before replying, "It means he'll be there for you when you need him."
She had started leading him out of the maintenance bay and before he could ask another question their path was blocked by D'argo's huge form. Berret wasn't looking forward to facing the warrior's anger and he was hoping to put it off for a while until after he'd had a chance to rest. D'argo apparently had other ideas.
The Luxan stood in the doorway with both massive arms crossed in front of his barrel-like chest just as Aeryn had. His eyes narrowed as he silently scrutinized the Shrike. A low growl began to issue from his throat, though unlike the normal growling the warrior did when he was angry... this growl had a lighter, almost tolerant tone to it. After a few microts the Luxan nodded his head almost as if giving reluctant approval and then uncrossed his arms and left the bay.
"Well," said Chiana as Berret watched D'argo leave the bay in wonder, "It looks like you won a small bit of respect from some people." She smiled up at him again and he looked back at her with an odd look on his face. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"I didn't do it for respect," he said.
"Then why did you do it?"
"Wasn't it the right thing to do?" He asked looking at her, copying the way she sometimes tilted her head.
"That depends on the person," she told him.
"Would you have gone?" he asked next.
"I dunno. That's hard to say," she admitted. "I never know what I would do until I'm in that situation."
Berret turned away and they began walking toward the center chamber again.
"You would have, that's why I went," he said a few microts later. "I'm trying to be more like you."
She paused him in their walk as what he was saying sunk in.
"Berret... you have a lot to learn about me. I can't say that I would have risked myself for somebody else. It's not in my nature to put my neck out. I'm not as good as you see me."
He looked into her dark eyes and then asked, "Would you have come after me if we hadn't returned?"
"I wanted too, but Aeryn and Zhaan wouldn't let me take a Prowler..." she stopped as she realized what she's just said.
The Shrike smiled and took her hand to begin their walk to the ship's mess once again.
"Maybe I know you better then you think," he said with a smile.
They felt the familiar throb of raw power as Moya leap into Starburst a microt later.
Later that night, Berret found himself alone on the Command tier gazing out the forward view screen. Chiana had fallen asleep after the long talk they'd had about his "stunt" as she called it. Unable to sleep himself, he thought now would be a good time to sit in Command to think over the adventure they had on Scorpius' Command Carrier without worrying about the danger of running into the still irate Aeryn. Zhaan had had some crossed words for him but in the end she understood why he had done things the way he had. The Delvian priestess had forgiven him after he promised to not to go off without discussing it with the others again. Somehow, Berret thought that just might turn out to be a difficult promise to keep, but he would try his best to honor it. Malika and Andar had disappeared, probably each to their quarters after the meal, but not before the pair made an odd reference to something being a double standard in the Delvian girl's favor. The Shrike watched the stars slide by for a few microns then became aware of the slight hum coming from the holo clamshell.
"Hello, Pilot," Berret said without turning around from the view screen.
"Good evening, Berret. I trust you are well," asked Moya's helmsman.
"Yes, thank you. And Moya and yourself?" the ex-assassin asked being polite.
"We are fine. I must tell you... Moya and I are most impressed with the performance of the three of you. We are happy to have you back."
"Thank you," said the Shrike with a slight bow of his head as he turned to face the image, "But it is Andar and Malika who deserve the commendation. They had the most dangerous parts of the plan to execute and they performed their parts admirably. They work extremely well together."
"Yes, for those so young, they showed extreme courage. Crichton is now no longer in danger and we have you three to thank for it."
Berret nodded his head along with Pilot's comment but he still looked as if something bothered him.
"What else is wrong, Berret?" Pilot asked.
"I'm afraid I failed to watch over them as well as I promised I would. They were on their own much of the time," he confessed.
"Moya and I are sure you did what you could to protect and guide them," replied the image.
Berret chuckled amusingly and at Pilot enquiring look he added, "I'm afraid they are the one's who guided me. They told you about us helping rescue Val'Cirrus?"
Pilot's hologram nodded at him, "It took great courage to help your enemy."
"What they didn't tell you is they had to force me do the right thing. I was all for leaving her in Scorpius' care."
Pilot blinked his big eyes and simply nodded his head at his statement. Berret thought he was changing his mind about what he thought about him.
"Aren't you disappointed with me?" he asked, fully expecting Pilot to express his changed feelings.
"You still help Shenna and the others rescue her?"
"Yes."
"You still went on the mission to help Crichton?" Pilot blinked his huge eyes again at him.
"Yes," Berret said again.
"Then you are trying to become a better person despite your past. That is all we or anyone else can ask of you, Berret. We are still proud of what you've done," Pilot finished with a smile.
Strangely relieved to still have Pilot's and the Leviathan's good thoughts, he turned back to the view screen.
"Thank you, Pilot. Your and Moya's opinions mean a great deal to me. I will try to live up to them in the future."
"As long as you try... it will be enough," Pilot told him.
Outside a comet cut across Moya's path a few million metra ahead of them. Berret allowed himself a small smile. "This new life is full of changes," he thought. He hoped he was up to the challenge of making a home for himself here with this crew for the time they had left together. These values these strange beings were trying to teach where confusing most of the time. Time and again they would protest the folly of sticking their necks out to aid someone else and time and again they would do it anyway. Contradiction seemed to be the rule of the day most of the time among this jumble of contrary beings. Berret sighed to himself. It seemed that Pilot and Moya where the only unwavering personalities aboard. The Shrike decided not to think about it anymore and let his mind wander out with the stars for a while. Before he realized it a yawn escaped him and he felt pleasantly tired. He decided to head back to his quarters and get some sleep; strangely... he was looking forward to a night of the Pixie poking him in the side with her elbows.