"Crais?"
Aeryn walked into
Command and was surprised to see that nobody was there.
"Pilot?"
she asked. "Where is Captain Crais?"
It took a while for Pilot
responded.
"Crais has returned to Talyn." Pilot answered
slowly.
"He requests your presence there."
Aeryn bowed her head, thinking about Crais's request.
"You shouldn't
trust him." Jothee said suddenly, as he appeared in the
doorway.
"What?" Aeryn said to him.
"You shouldn't
trust Crais." he repeated to her.
Aeryn looked at her with her
cold eyes.
"You can't trust Crais." Jothee said firm.
"You
sound like Crichton." Aeryn said to him.
She didn't even
notice it at first.
This was the first time she mentioned
Crichton´s name, since his death.
As new tears started to
grow in her eyes, Jothee bowed his head.
"I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to..."
"I know Jothee." Aeryn said.
"I didn't
want to upset you." Jothee went on, "I just wanted to help."
"I
don't need help, Jothee." Aeryn said. "And I do not need your
protection."
She walked out, heading for the hangar-bay.
As
Aeryn was about to board a Transport-Pod, on the planet below her
Chiana was left alone with D'Argo as Rygel went out to search for
Grunchlik.
Both of them sat on opposite ends of the table,
desperately avoiding eye-contact with each other.
But Chiana hated
these uncomfortable silences. Especially concerning her ex-lover.
"Do
you hate me?" she asked the Luxan.
D'Argo's eyes slowly
drifted towards her.
Again he was reminded of something he was
desperately trying to forget.
"I need to know." Chiana asked
again. "Do you hate me? Because I don't want you to hate
me..."
"I don't hate you." D'Argo interrupted as he
looked kindly but painful in her beautiful eyes.
Those were the
most kindest and relieving words Chiana has ever heard in her
life.
She immediately felt a lot better.
"...but I will never
love you..." D'Argo added sadly, with cold words.
"Never
again."
Chiana began to cry, but she wiped them away swiftly,
knowing that this was her punishment, for the crime she committed:
breaking D'Argo's heart.
"I am willing to put my life in
your hands." D'Argo finally said.
"But not my heart."
Rygel
suddenly zoomed into the room on his levitating throne, breaking the
tension in the room as he entered.
"I have just had a
conversation with that horrible creature, Grunchlik..." he said
loudly to them.
"And?" D'Argo asked.
"We will pay
17.000 crendars for Moya's treatment." Rygel said.
"You were
supposed to haggle, Rygel!" Chiana shouted at him.
"That is an
awful large amount of money!"
Rygel just smiled at her as he
waved her words away.
"I have managed to get something extra for
that money."
"Like what?" Chiana asked.
"A ship."
Rygel answered luxuriously.
D'Argo and Chiana just stared at
him.
"Why buy another ship, Rygel?" Chiana said. "Are you
planning on leaving Moya?"
"Perhaps I am." Rygel said.
"With
Crichton dead," he explained. "we will no longer be hunted
throughout the universe."
"But we are still fugitives!"
D'Argo said.
"The Peacekeepers will forget about us!" Rygel
said. "They don't care about a bunch of escaped prisoners! The
only thing that kept us from returning to our homeworlds, was
Scorpius. Don't try and contradict me!
If it weren't for
Crichton, the Peacekeepers would've given up on us a long time
ago!
Crichton was the only reason why we were still hunted down
like animals, and now he's dead! Scorpius won't hunt us anymore!
We are free men at last! Crichton should've died many years ago,
that way we all would have been better off!"
"DON'T SAY
THAT!" Chiana shouted to Rygel as he said those words.
Rygel
looked at the ground.
"Sorry, you're right. I shouldn't have
said that. And certainly not out loud."
"Perhaps you are
right." D'Argo suddenly said to Rygel, to Chiana's
surprise.
"We are no longer being hunted. I could go back to the
Luxan homeworld, find Macton..."
"I'm not leaving Moya!"
Chiana said.
"That's easy for you to say!" Rygel said. "Your
homeworld wants you dead! You would gladly stay on Moya, because you
have nowhere else to go!"
"So you intend to leave Moya as soon
as she's healed?" Chiana said to them. "You intend to abandon
her and Pilot after all these years?"
"We are not abandoning
her," Rygel cunningly said to Chiana. "Yóu are staying,
aren't you?"
Chiana didn't know what to say.
"So you
really want to leave Moya?" Chiana said to D'Argo. "Do you
really have no other reason to stay?"
D'Argo looked her
straight in the eyes as he said it.
"There's nothing for me on
Moya anymore."
"Only death." Rygel added.
Aeryn
docked her Transport-Pod in Talyn's docking-bay.
Quickly she
left the hangar and walked past the dark red walls of Talyn towards
his Command Deck, where Crais was waiting for her.
She noticed how
large Talyn had become over the years.
Aeryn still remembered when
he was still a baby, with nothing more then a few chambers and his
Command Deck.
Now Talyn has a docking-bay, sleeping-quarters for
passengers, a common room, and hallways that stretched out for miles,
it seemed.
Talyn's doors opened automatically as she approached
them.
Aeryn knew she was being expected.
"Thank you for
coming, Aeryn." Crais said to her, welcoming her aboard Talyn
again.
"Talyn really appreciates your help."
"But I
haven't done anything yet." she said.
"Coming here at our
request shows that you have good intentions. That you love
him."
Aeryn didn't notice how Crais's eyes began to glow as
he stopped talking.
"It's hard nót to love something as
beautiful as Talyn."
Some lights flickered and a short and low
sound was heard.
"Talyn thanks you for saying that." Crais
said, interpreting the sounds of Talyn to Aeryn.
"I myself feel
that only Peacekeepers can truly understand Talyn's beauty."
Crais
smiled.
"Talyn is a Leviathan, a peaceful and caring creature,
harnessed with Sebacean technology and weapons. This makes him truly
a Peacekeeper."
Crais wanted to say more, but his eyes revealed
that something was happening.
"What is that Talyn?" he said
with a loud voice. "A transmission? Where is it coming from? Let's
hear it!"
A rumbling voice was suddenly heard on Talyn's
Command Deck.
Aeryn's heart jumped as she recognised who it
was.
"The signal is Scarran." Crais said. "And it's coming
from the planet's surface!"
