Chapter 4

"Alright, first we need to contact Moya to let them know we'll be staying a while longer"

"Umm, Aeryn, won't our comms be picked up by the Scarrens?" She gave him her patented "talking to the deficient human" look

"Of course they will John, that's why I'll be very careful what I say. We want the Scarrens to think that we have decided to spend the night here."

"Why would we want that?" The look became more arch

"I thought you wanted to spend "quality time" together?"

"You heard? Damn, I always forget about the comms privacy mode"

"Well, convincing the Scarrens that we want nothing more than to spend time together and, what do you call it, yes, that's it "make out", is a good cover"

"Yeah, I'm sure it'll be just like spring break." She ignored this comment and carried on

"Anyway, we have to contact Moya because we don't want the others to come storming down here when we don't appear back at the ship on schedule"

"We don't?"

"No. Contrary to your opinion of my plans, I think that this should be a stealth operation"

"Right, we do stealth! Well that'll be a first"

Nightfall found them sitting together in the hotel restaurant. The contact with Moya and all of Aeryn's other clandestine preparations had gone like clockwork, so they were taking this time out to relax a little and set "the sting" as John called it.

The hotel owner observed the sebacean-looking couple who had checked in earlier surreptitiously from his position by the bar. He was being paid a handsome sum by the Scarrens to keep tabs on this particular pair. He noted how they could hardly stop touching each other, just a hand on a knee or the clasp of fingers but they touched constantly. They couldn't seem to finish their meal quickly enough. His last sight of them was on the elevator surveillance camera. The woman had the male up against the side of the car. Lips, hands and tongues seemed to be everywhere. It was a wonder the camera lens wasn't steamed up. "Won't be no trouble from them tonight, except perhaps a broken bed" he grumbled as he went to report to the Scarren commander.

The door of their room slammed shut behind them as Aeryn pulled away from John.

"That should have them fooled into thinking that we'll be frelling all night"

"It kinda had me pretty fooled as well," replied Crichton, bent over with his hands on his knees and taking deep breaths to try and recover from Aeryn's X-rated performance in the elevator, "but I was obviously in the wrong fantasy land. Why is my life always full of the promise of good things that never quite come off?"

"Stop moaning John" she said with a smirk, "anyway, who says the promise won't come true, just a bit later?"

He took another steadying breath. His brain knew this was the completely the wrong time to say something but his heart seemed to be in charge of his mouth right at that moment.

"Well, given how we've been the last weeken or so, I'd say that the odds were stacked against me." Her smile faded at his words

"I know John, but now is not the time to talk about it"

"I know, I know baby, but you just have to tell me what's wrong. I can't think of anything I've done or said but, hell I'm just a guy, so please tell me" she came over to him and put her hand on his cheek.

"It's not you, it's me. I have some, some..issues at the moment that I just need to work out myself. I'm sorry if I've been a pain in the eema. I promise we'll talk about it later"

"OK, Aeryn, but, honey, that's supposed to be one of the good things about being in a relationship. You have someone who's there to work issues through with. You're not alone anymore." She acknowledged his words with a slight nod and a pursing of her lips, then turned away. He was hurt by her lack of openness with him but realised that now was not the time to press the issue further. As if to confirm this they heard a noise from below. This was the signal from Pralesh. Aeryn opened the window and let down the rope that she had retrieved from the transport pod. She nimbly climbed over the railings of the balcony and shimmied down the rope out of sight. Crichton hastily followed her, thankful that they had been given a room at the back of the hotel. Pralesh came out of the shadows to greet them.

"You weren't followed?" Aeryn questioned him

"No Aeryn Sun, I made sure of it"

"What of the other things we talked about?"

"Some of my colleagues will escort the research staff to a safe haven on the other side of the planet tonight. I have the codes for the security access doors to the research facility here"

"What about the surveillance system?" A rare smile spread across Pralesh's face

"Fortunately the guard on duty tonight is also one of my rebel colleagues. He will ensure that there is no record of our activities. The guards at the entrance to the facility are due to change shift in an arn so we should hurry"

"Very good, Pralesh, you have done well. Now let's go" Aeryn was now in full military commando mode and John just had to follow, though it felt more like obey!

They reached the entrance to the bunker housing the research facility in good time. For concealment it was behind the power plant in an area where few people went, even during the daytime. Whilst this was good for routine security, Aeryn hoped that it would play to their advantage in allowing them to get in and out of the facility unnoticed. They hid behind a nearby building and Aeryn observed the two guards patrolling the entrance through her oculars. Within a short time two new guards came to relieve them. After a few laughing exchanges the ones going off duty hurried away, obviously anxious for a break.

"Right, their shift lasts 6 arns. That should give us plenty of time to get in, destroy the weapon, wipe the computer system and be back in our hotel room before anyone notices! So, John, you take the one on the left as quickly and quietly as possible. We don't want to give them any chance to raise the alarm."

"OK, so no shooting then?" he asked with a wry grin. She didn't bother to reply but pinched him on the arm and gave him a "please try and be sensible" look.

"This is my plan remember, so you do as I say. We go on my command"

"Will that be after three or on three?" he replied

"Now" was her only comment as she silently left their hideaway and stealthily made her way towards the guard on the right. A quick pantak jab and he was disposed of for sometime. John needed two right hooks and a knee to the forehead to deal with his man but soon they were both unconscious, trussed up and stashed away where no one would see them. Pralesh punched in the first set of security codes for the main doors and they were through. He led the way to the elevator that descended to the research bunker.

Pralesh used his last set of codes to open the door to the research facility. It was a very white sterile environment. The large room was filled with a myriad of computer equipment. In the centre of the room was a large cabinet made of a clear Perspex-like material. Inside was what looked like a small silver hubcap.

"Is that it?" said John

"Yes, this is the prototype. It is made of a material that will attach itself irreversibly to the metal of a ship's hull. It is then able to emit a type of radiation with extremely long pathlength that can induce the living death to any sebacean exposed to it within the arn. Even a weapon of this size could kill the crew of, say, a marauder."

"Holy shit" was John's only reply. Aeryn, ever practical, said "How do we destroy it without making too much noise or mess?"

"It is unlikely that we would be able to do that here," said Pralesh "the material is extremely resistant and can easily withstand blasts from a pulse pistol"

"Well, I take it this one's not armed at the moment? It's pretty small. Can't we just take it with us and trash it in space once we're back on Moya?" suggested Crichton

"Yes, that is a possibility, but we must be careful. If it attaches itself to any metal it is immediately activated"

"And I'm right in thinking that this material it's made of has a high magnetic charge so that keeping it away from metal will be no mean feat?"

"You're thinking is very sound John Crichton"

"Yeah, but I really would have liked to be wrong on this occasion. Leave it to me. I'm gonna try and find something to transport it in"

"No, I'll do that John. You set about the computers. They're much more your thing than mine. There are the virus codes that pilot gave us." John sat down at the largest workstation and started pressing buttons in what looked to Aeryn like random fashion but soon the computer sprang into life.

"Ha," he cried, clapping his hands together "time for action, Johnny boy!" Aeryn had to smile at his look of determined but excited concentration; boys and their toys! Suddenly the screen died.

"That should do it. Pralesh, try and boot up the other computers"

"You want me to kick them?"

"Ahh, no. Translator microbe glitch. Turn them on and see if you can find any memory." They checked all of the computers but all were completely wiped. John turned to Aeryn with a triumphant grin.

"Now that's what I call a pretty impressive virus. Who would have thought good old Pilot could come up with something so devious"

"Well I'm glad he did. I would have just had to blast the computers and there goes our cover"

"Yeah, darlin', but it was your idea to use a virus. Getting very tech- minded in your old age"

"Watch who you call old, old man," she replied with a smile and handed him a backpack she had constructed with a lining of come rubbery plastic-like material she had found. They turned their attention to the cabinet containing the prototype device. It appeared to be completely sealed.

"How the frell do we get it open?"

"Can't find any handy buttons. It's probably opened from one of the computers"

"Which we just effectively destroyed"

"Damn, just as everything was going so well"

"Alright, we need to make it look like it has been disturbed as little as possible." With that Aeryn climbed up on the cabinet. Positioning herself precariously on the top, she took out her pulse pistol and adjusted the setting. As she pointed it at the edge of the cabinet top Crichton shielded his eyes and half ducked, expecting a load explosion. When he looked back, instead of the usual pulse the pistol was emitting a thin beam of yellow light that was cutting through the cabinet top.

"I never knew it could do that. Can Winona do that too?"

"It always pays to know your weapon intimately, Crichton," Aeryn said with pride in her voice "just change the setting here and here"

"Right and I do know Winona intimately, I mean we sleep together every night. I've just never fiddled with all her knobs." Aeryn just snorted and carried on as John stared to work on the other side of the cabinet. They finished quickly and managed to lift out the top in one piece. Crichton grabbed the weapon and placed in carefully in Aeryn's prepared backpack. They then carefully lowered the top back in position.

"Wouldn't know that we've been here," said John with a grin. He jumped down and turned to see Aeryn attempting the same move, but instead she swayed slightly and clutched onto the cabinet, eyes closed. He could se she was very pale, even for her.

"Baby, you OK?" he asked with a worried look, giving her his hand and using a steadying arm.

"I'm fine" she said through gritted teeth "I just looked up too quickly" she let out a long breath and taking another deep one seemed to recover. "Now let's get out of here." John slipped on the backpack. They scanned the room before leaving; it looked exactly the same as when they had come in, except for the missing prototype.

They headed back towards the elevator. They had nearly reached it when the doors opened to reveal a platoon of troops accompanied, worse still, by two Scarrens. Their cover had obviously been broken.

"John, cover me while I get the door controls" they both fired off shots; Aeryn's accurately taking out the door controls and John's randomly spraying the occupants of the car as they returned fire. The doors mercifully closed shut with Aeryn's last shot.

"Frell" was her only comment.