Chapter 4
The crew were in the galley discussing the results of Noranti's analysis.
"So let me get this straight" said Chiana "On the basis of a complete frellnik's dren-faced ramblings and some weird experiment involving granny gobbing on a bunch of the crystals, we now believe that John and Aeryn are not dead. We think that what we have here is just what's left of their clothes and that they were just spirited away by that alien blast and are now somewhere else. Is that the gist of the situation 'cos I wouldn't want anyone to be confused or just a tiny bit sceptical"
"That's about it" replied Stark
"Do we have any idea where somewhere else might be?" Chiana ignored him and continued questioning
"Not really. Pilot's still a bit woozy and his link to Moya is not great yet but he can't find any trace of any life on this planet or any of the others within range." D'Argo answered her question. He had been filled with hope by Noranti's pronouncement, but Chiana's reasonable caution had started to quash that hopeful feeling again.
"So for all we know, John and Aeryn may very well be dead. Just dead somewhere else that we don't know about"
"Yes they might be, Chiana, but they might equally as well be alive and therefore we owe it to them not to give up hope. You know that if it was the other way around John wouldn't give up hope of finding us; look how he was when the Scarrens took Aeryn"
"You're right D'Argo, you're absolutely right," she said, softly caressing one of his tentacles. "I'm sorry to be sceptical, but it's difficult to find a way forward when you can't see; literally. Any ideas of where the frell we start looking?"
"It occurs to me that we need help with this one and we do have one source of help that would be very willing to help retrieve John Crichton under any circumstances" Rygel spoke up
"Rygel, I can't believe that you would suggest that we deliberately involve Scorpius in this," replied D'Argo not making any pretense of not understanding who Rygel was referring to.
"Why not? He now has a command carrier at his disposal and he has shown to us that he wants to protect Crichton, not harm him, until he gets that wormhole knowledge"
"It's not the idea of Scorpius that bothers me, it's what we might have to promise to give him in return"
"If you worried about your conscience Luxan, I'm happy to do the negotiation. I'm used to making promises that I have no intention of delivering on. It's what being a politician is all about." The small Hynerion and the huge Luxan stared at each other, but the fleeting animosity soon disappeared in a silent recognition that they were both partially right.
"I suggest we vote. All those in favour of contacting Scorpius to help find Crichton and Aeryn." D'Argo, Rygel and Chiana raised their hands. Stark couldn't decide and kept putting his hand up then down again. Noranti abstained as a matter of principle. "Pilot?" queried D'Argo.
"Moya and I vote to contact Scorpius as we can see no other way of quickly locating Commander Crichton and Officer Sun"
"That's decided them. Pilot, initiate the communication" ordered the ship's captain.
Author's note: You may have noticed that I have singularly failed to explain anything about the weapon used to "transport" Crichton and Aeryn. I would like to put forward three possible reasons for this omission: 1) in true Farscape fashion I want to leave a number of questions unanswered; 2) I'm going to bring it in to later chapters or 3) to quote D'Argo "she was vague to the point that I suspect that she doesn't have a clue". I leave it to you to figure out which is the real reason!!