(a quick thanks to Lee in Limbo for his help)
Chapter Three
"Are you sure they're listening in on the comms?" Chiana asked. She and Crichton had stopped at his and Aeryn's quarters to get his pulse pistol. She leaned in the doorway as he rummaged through the room, looking for something – it wasn't Winona, because she was pretty sure she had already heard him strap on his holster.
"No," John answered, "but we know it can be done and I don't want to take the chance. We have no idea what the hell they want, so we're all better off if we can keep outta their way until we come up with a plan to get rid of 'em."
More noise ensued. "What're you doing, Crichton? Aren't we supposed to be in a hurry?"
"Yeah, but I had an idea. I'm almost finished…." She couldn't tell just what he was doing from the faint sounds he made as he moved around the room. "Nebari don't like things to be out of their control, right?"
"Right…"
"Kind of throws them for a loop if they get startled or surprised?"
"Mmm hmmm…" She was beginning to get a bit impatient.
"Just setting a little booby trap for them, if they happen to come in here."
Her curiosity piqued, Chiana asked, "What kind of booby trap?"
"Some old fashioned, head bangin' rock music. As loud as this baby can go."
"Your stereo?"
"Yep."
She laughed. "I just wish I could see it if they set it off."
"There, that ought to do it." She heard the scrape of his boots on the floor as he turned toward her and said, "You may at least be able to hear their reaction. 1812, front and center." Chiana heard the faint whirring sound of something moving out from under something else in the far corner of the room. The whirring came closer, stopping very near to where Crichton was standing. "I need you and your cousins to hook this up to Moya's internal speakers." Crichton turned back toward her and took her hand again, leading her back off into Moya's interior. "If they set it off, we'll hear it all over Moya and hopefully be able to use it to our advantage." She felt a tug on her hand as he stumbled and then caught himself.
"Crichton?" His idea of the booby trap and worry about the comms had gotten her thinking…
"Yeah, Pip?"
"Wasn't Moya able to talk to Talyn using a…a…a…a…laser beam? So no one could listen in?"
Crichton stopped in his tracks, pulling Chiana to an abrupt halt. "Yes, Chi. Yes, she was. Nobody could intercept the communications unless they were in the path of the beam…" She could almost feel him looking at her. "What d'you have in mind?"
"Maybe she could do something like that with us. I mean, maybe Pilot could use the DRDs to…to…to set something up that we could use like that."
"Hmm. Maybe. But it would pretty much have to be a line-of-sight thing, or at least close proximity…" He started walking again, a little faster than before.
"Well, maybe it could…maybe it could be something like the DRDs carrying messages for us…. There're DRDs all over Moya. They're just a part of her. No one would notice if they moved around."
"I think you might have something there, Pip. Let's get you set up in the laundry room and we'll go from there."
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Noranti started around the corner, her third eye open and glowing red. She was quite surprised to see a group of armed Nebari approaching, stopping at each corridor and cell, looking for something. Or someone. She quickly backed up so they wouldn't see her. After a couple of microts, she cautiously peered around the corner. While she watched, she made note of the fact that the group got a bit smaller with each branching corridor.
Of course, Pilot had said that there was an emergency and that they were all to meet in the center chamber. He just hadn't mentioned what the emergency was and she hadn't been awake enough to ask about it. She regretted that now. It had been over a quarter arn since he had awakened her, just before Moya had gone into some kind of spasms. That had certainly forced her to wake up – her knees and wrists still hurt from being thrown to the floor. Ah, well, she supposed she was going to be late for the meeting. She heard voices in the corridor. Oh, yes, the Nebari. She suspected she would have been late in any event, given their unsettling and unexpected presence.
Since she was still fairly close to her own quarters, where she kept a good portion of her supplies, Noranti wheeled around and headed back to her room as quickly and as quietly as she could. Slipping inside, she rooted through bags and boxes and jars of powders. Perhaps some of that powdered xekrakka root… She wasn't sure if it would react appropriately with Nebari physiology, but it was supposed to cause instant confusion and vomiting in anyone inhaling it. That should give her enough time to slip past them and get safely to the rendezvous point.
Assuming, of course, that the center chamber was still available for them to meet. She had attempted to comm both Crichton and D'Argo earlier and received no response. She thought Pilot might have turned the comms off. That would make sense. It certainly wouldn't do to have the Nebari listening in on all of their plans. But, if the comms had been turned off, and they were scattered about in different parts of the ship, how were they to make their plans?
Noranti shook her head and turned, powdered xekrakka root in hand, at the sound of booted feet approaching her door. She sighed. They would think of something. They always did, so why should it be any different now?
"Ahhh. There you are." The rather handsome Nebari standing in her open doorway looked a bit confused at her reaction to his arrival. "Come closer, dear, I have something to show you."
He gestured toward the corridor with a pulse pistol of some sort – she was unfamiliar with the design – and said, "Move into the hall, old woman."
"Well, really! I see no reason for you to be rude." She certainly hoped he was alone, but how could one be sure when one couldn't see past him to the corridor beyond? She stepped slowly forward, striving for the appearance of nervous compliance to his command.
"You are now my prisoner, old woman," the young man said, rather pompously, she thought, still aiming his pulse pistol at her head.
"Well, of course I am," Noranti acknowledged, stepping just a bit closer and willing him to not shoot her. "You're the one with the weapon, after all." There. That last dench was all she needed.
Before he could react, she blew the greenish powder into his face, some even going into his mouth as he had been about to say something else when she made her move. The dust caused him to double over with a violent sneeze and then fall to his knees over the threshold into her quarters, vomiting just as violently.
"I do hope you plan to clean that up, young man," she said, as she stepped nimbly around him. Reaching behind her as she left, she hit the door control and locked it. The only way the unknown Nebari would be able to leave the former cell would be by someone outside opening the door for him.
"Yes, I'm definitely late," she muttered, hurrying on to her appointment.
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"What to do? What to do? What to do?" Stark muttered under his breath as he stood locked in indecision at a crossroads in Moya's corridors. "Center chamber…laundry room…center chamber…laundry room…"
Pilot had awakened him from a very pleasant dream of his beloved Zhaan – who, for some reason, bore a striking resemblance to Aeryn – to tell him to go to the center chamber. The only explanation Pilot had given was that there was an emergency and that Captain D'Argo had called a meeting.
Stark had gotten dressed and left his dream of Zhaan/Aeryn behind, heading quickly to the center chamber, when he had been stopped first by some sort of convulsions through Moya and then by the arrival of Tinkerbell. The Diagnosan's assistant had come flying around a corner, a blur of orange and red, and caught herself on the collar of his shirt. Righting herself and hovering at eye level, she had told him in an urgent whisper to stay off the comms and go immediately to something she had called the "lon-der-ree room." His confusion must have been obvious to her, as she had repeated her instructions, but they had been no clearer to him. It had taken him a couple of microts to equate the lon-der-ree room with the amnexus chamber, but by the time it had come to him, she was gone.
Pilot had been very sure the meeting was to be in the center chamber, but Tinkerbell had been equally certain that it was to be in what Crichton had dubbed the laundry room. The center chamber made sense, but a laundry room was a very odd place to hold a meeting…
"What are you doing, you wellnitz?" Stark jumped at the sound of Rygel's gruff voice behind him.
"Pilot said to go to the center chamber. Tinkerbell said to go to the laundry room."
"Yes, they did." Rygel sounded irritated, but then, that wasn't unusual. "So why are you just standing there?"
"What do we do? Where do we go?" Stark wished this were one of his better days. Some days he felt clear and full of purpose; others he was cloudy and lacking in direction. Unfortunately, this was one of the latter. He would've been fine if only one person had told him where to go, but now he had conflicting instructions. His head hurt.
"Come on, Stark. We're going to the laundry room. The meeting has been changed by the Nebari." Rygel slipped past Stark, not even looking back to see if he followed.
"The Nebari!?" Stark came to a dead stop, staring after the retreating Dominar. As Rygel disappeared in the distance, Stark shook his head and ran after the Hynerian.
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Frell! Aeryn thought. She was lying flat on the floor, hidden in a duct inside of Moya's walls – a place usually reserved only for the DRDs. Not far away, she could see D'Argo lying very still, something gray wadded up under his head. There was a Nebari male sitting on a bench perhaps a motra from him. Another Nebari, a female, was tapping away at a diagnostic station.
While there were only two of them apparent in the enormous room, the Nebari nearest to D'Argo was watching him intently. The man was armed with a pulse pistol strapped to his thigh and a rifle held loosely in his hands. His casual pose didn't deceive her – he had the air of military training about him. That relaxed grip would tighten in a fraction of a microt if she made a move toward her friend. I didn't think the Nebari had any sort of military force, she thought. They usually lean more toward subversion…
She looked around for something she could use as a diversion so that she could strike with a real chance of getting D'Argo safely out of the hangar. Hampering her strategy was that she couldn't see enough of the room from her current position to be sure of enemy numbers. According to Chiana's vision, which Aeryn was beginning to take seriously, Moya was being overrun by Nebari.
Aeryn began easing back out of her cramped hiding space to move to one with a better vantage when the hangar door opened. She froze, waiting to see who or what would come through it. A microt later, Diagnosan Tikrel, hands apparently secured behind his back, was pushed into the hanger by another Nebari male. This one was carrying a pulse rifle aimed at the center of Tikrel's back.
While she watched, the Nebari who had been guarding D'Argo gestured for the new arrivals to come toward him, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. It appeared that he was instructing Tikrel to help D'Argo. From the way the other two were reacting to him, he was in command, which made him her most logical target if she could get into position for a clear shot.
Backing as silently as possible out of the little maintenance corridor, Aeryn reached a place where she could stand upright again. Straightening, her attention on the perimeter of her new location, she almost tripped over a DRD. She started to go around it, but it maintained its place in front of her, as though trying to get her attention.
Stopping, she crouched down to the DRD's level. In one of its extremities was a small, clear crystal – the sparkle as the light hit it had caught her eye. The DRD waggled the crystal-carrying appendage at her. Cocking her head, she asked, "You want me to take this?" In response, the DRD pushed the crystal toward her. Once Aeryn had accepted it, another tool emerged from the yellow carapace and projected writing onto Moya's wall.
The message read, in Sebacean, COMMS COMPROMISED. CRYSTAL-TO-CRYSTAL LASER COMMUNICATIONS WILL NOT BE INTERCEPTED.
"Cholak!" Aeryn hissed, startled. "Pilot, is that you?" She kept her voice low – loud enough to be picked up by the DRD, but low enough not to carry beyond the confines of her hiding place.
YES, AERYN. PLEASE PLACE THE CRYSTAL ON THE BONE BEHIND YOUR EAR. IT WILL ACT AS A RECEIVER FOR VOICE TRANSMISSIONS.
Examining the small crystal in her hand, Aeryn realized that one side was flat. Pushing her hair out of the way – she'd had no time to restrain it before events had begun to unfold – she placed the flat of the crystal against her skull, just behind her right ear. There was a tiny electrical shock as it adhered to her skin. "Moya grew the crystals. The DRDs are attempting to deliver them to all of you." Pilot's voice sounded – and felt – odd, issuing as it did from the crystal just behind her ear and vibrating faintly through her head, but his familiar, measured tones were reassuring.
"Was this your idea, Pilot?" She kept her voice to a low whisper, almost subvocalized.
"Not entirely, Aeryn. Moya and I had discussed the need for a more secure method of communicating when Scorpius was on board, but the suggestion for the mode of delivery came from Chiana and Commander Crichton less than an arn ago."
"They're all right, then." Although her tone was that of a statement, the question implied in that statement was obvious.
"Yes, Aeryn, at least for the microt. They had arrived in the amnexus chamber when I last was in contact with them. As to the narrow-beam laser communications, no one should be able to intercept these transmissions unless they come between you and the DRD intermediary and are also equipped with a crystal."
Aeryn noticed that the DRD that had given her the crystal had changed its position. It was no longer in front of her, but rather had moved off to her right side and a bit behind. Apparently the fall of her hair was no obstruction to the laser, but the DRD's earlier orientation in relation to the crystal may have been.
"If John and Chiana just suggested this, Pilot, how was Moya able to create the crystals so quickly?" The Nebari invaders hadn't been on board for very long…
"They merely suggested the use of the DRDs for delivery, Aeryn. Moya had already grown the crystals weekens ago. We were inspired by Crichton's suspicions of Scorpius spying through the comms, but, since Scorpius is no longer aboard, we had not completed the crystals until now."
What had begun as a faint smile stretched across Aeryn's face into a full-blown grin. The grin faded quickly as another thought occurred to her. "Pilot, how badly is that control collar frelling with Moya's systems?"
There was a long pause, during which she thought Pilot must be conferring with Moya. Then, "Moya says that the Nebari collar does not seem to be as thorough in its limitations as those the Peacekeepers use."
Well, that was something, anyway. "Who else has received a crystal?"
"You are the first, Aeryn. So far, the DRDs have been…unable to deliver them to the rest of our crew."
Pilot sounded worried, and with good reason. Aeryn's attention was drawn by the sounds of a scuffle in the hangar. She quickly dove back down through the DRD access point, returning to her previous position.
On the opposite side of the hangar, a struggle had begun when Tikrel, hands released from their restraints, had knelt down to examine D'Argo. Knowing what needed to be done, Tikrel had turned the Luxan over and lifted a fist, bringing it down hard on the back of his head. The Nebari Aeryn thought might be the leader had caught the Diagnosan in what looked like an uncomfortable grip, preventing him from further treatment, while the female shouted something Aeryn couldn't understand.
Having been provided the distraction she needed, Aeryn lifted her pulse pistol into position and prepared to fire, provided she could get a clear shot without risking Tikrel.
