A soft feeling crawled down her spine as Joolushko slowly stepped through the doorway leading to Pilot's Den, following the DRD as it squeaked as a sign to keep on following him.
Or her.
Joolushko did not know if the little robot was either male or female.
"Can you make any other noise then that awkward squeaky sound?" Joolushko asked the little yellow droid.
It responded with another squeaky sound.
"Right." Joolushko said.
As she looked up, she gasped for air as she saw this enormous room in front of her.
And a strange, giant blue creature sitting in the centre, behind a great console.
The creature seemed asleep.
As Joolushko looked down she saw the yellow robot driving towards the centre of the chamber.
Joolushko knew that this had to be the most important chamber of the ship.
The heart of the ship.
The bridge.
Something of certain importance or significance.
She looked up.
The ceiling went on and on into the sky.
She looked down.
She could look all the way down, to the lower tiers of the ship and the entire structure and interior of the ship was visible from here.
It amazed Joolushko.
"Chiana, is that you?"
The creature began to speak.
And Joolushko understood it!
His eight limbs began to move and the creature looked her straight in the eye.
"Who are you?" Pilot asked Joolushko.
He feared her, but did not sense any hostility.
In fact, he noticed the tears in her eyes, and began to wonder why she was crying.
Joolushko began to realise that this creature was the reason the little droid asked to follow it.
It wanted her to meet it. This blue creature.
"My name is Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis." she answered as if she had memorised the sentence.
Which she had.
"How..." Pilot asked with great difficulty, wondering why he did not sense her. "How did you get on board?"
"I came with Chiana." Joolushka answered.
Her amazed eyes wandered through the room.
Pilot could see her trying not to look down.
Her red hair transformed slowly into a soft mixture of orange and gold, which surprised Pilot.
He had never seen anything like that happening in front of his eyes.
"She helped me." Joolushko said. "Well, not exactly...I followed her. And now I can't find her."
"She went back to the planet." Pilot said softly.
"What? She's gone? I can't believe it! She left me behind!"
She stomped the floor with her foot in anger, but as she did it, she quickly averted her eyes as she looked down.
Joolushko's hair turned into a soft brown colour as tears rained down on her cheeks.
"She will be back..." Pilot said. "She told me –she told me she'd be back..."
Sudden pains and electrical surges made his head go numb.
"What is going on?" Joolushko said.
"Help me..." Pilot said to her. "Please. The pain is too much. Joolushko..."
The entire ship began to shudder and shake.
"What is happening?" Joolushko said as she fell to the ground, more out of own volition then because of the quakes.
"I'm shutting down all power to the entire ship!" Pilot shouted in agony and stress.
"I'm opening all hatches and doors to outer space!"
Joolushko suddenly realised what that meant.
"No!" she shouted. "We will suffocate! Or even worse!"
"No, I'm opening everything except the hatchways to this chamber!"
The doors to the Den closed loudly.
"That way you will survive."
"Oh." Joolushko said out of lack of better words.
Pilot had temporarily shut down all life-support systems on Moya, except for the systems in the Den.
This way he would save precious energy, which he could use to strengthen himself and Moya.
And to survive a little bit longer.
Pilot sighed as he felt the pain go away.
Not entirely however.
"I need medical attention." Pilot said. "I need help."
The shaking and shuddering of Moya had stopped, however Joolushko could still feel the floors tremble a little bit.
She saw the little yellow robot she followed earlier standing in front of her, blinking with it's eyes and squeaking it's abnormal sound.
"Perhaps the little thing knew that this was going to happen." Joolushko thought.
"Perhaps this little droid just saved her life."
She didn't know that it was Moya, helping her indirectly through the little DRD.
It was Moya who told Pilot to shut down life-support to ease his pain, but when she felt Joolushko and heard her cries, she told him to wait.
She guided her to Pilot, where she would be able to breathe, and where she would be able to help Pilot.
This way she saved both lives.
And they would save each other.
"What can I do to help?" Joolushko said.
Crichton unlocked the crude and primitive lock with Kaarvok's keys which he held in his hands.
The keys were handmade and carved out of wood.
It was magnificent craftsmanship.
As he stepped out of his small, wooden cell he repeated his plan over and over again in his head:
Scavengers.
The Xarai were scavenging parts of the, now damaged, Marauder John flew with.
John opened Aenos's cell.
The Peacekeeper looked ferocious into John's eyes.
He wasn't very keen on working together with Crichton, but to survive one must do everything he can.
Even collaborate with the enemy.
FLASH
"I know he will betray me." John said to Harvey in his mind.
"In the end, one of us will stab the other in the back, and I only hope it is me who does the stabbing."
Harvey looked at John.
"Are you talking about Aenos, or about me?"
FLASH
Scavengers.
John remembered the Xarai taking objects which they found in the forest and bringing them into their camp.
"I hope this plan of yours will work." Aenos said to Crichton.
"It will work." John reassured him.
Scavengers.
John remembered a word the Peacekeepers said as they were about to capture him.
Vehicle.
Something, John hoped, that the Xarai had scavenged out of the forest and taken here.
John and Aenos could use it to escape.
With a fast-moving vehicle like that they could easily outrun the Xarai.
"Come on." Crichton said.
Silently they moved through the forest. Almost tiptoeing on their toes.
As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they saw many Xarai sleeping on the ground.
The only thing which penetrated the darkness was the blue light of three moons who shined through the large trees, and some powered lights which were scattered throughout the forest by Kaarvok.
"This way." Aenos said. "I think they brought it over here."
Crichton followed the Peacekeeper.
They entered a small encampment of primitive huts and dead trees.
A disgusting smell lingered in the air.
"God, what is that smell!" Crichton wanted to shout, but he didn't.
The silence was only interrupted by the noise of bugs in the forest and the sound of their footsteps as they carefully infiltrated their camp.
Some of the Xarai were still awake.
Three of them were trying to build a fire, but every time they were close to creating one, they jumped away out of fear and trembled the sparks and flames before they could grow.
It was actually kind of sad to look at them, knowing that they were once smart and intelligent men and women, who now were nothing more but animals.
"I found something!" Crichton whispered.
He found what appeared to be hundred of old and new scavenged Peacekeeper objects piled up in the corner of a hut.
He found a pulse-pistol and a half full cartridge of chakun oil.
But he didn't find what he was looking for.
As he turned to Aenos, he quickly hid the gun in his pocket after loading it with ammo.
"Nothing." he said to the Sebacean. "It's got to be someplace else."
"Why don't we just run?" Aenos said. "They're all asleep right now! We don't need bikes to get away from this place! We could go now! Run, now!"
"But if Kaarvok sends his zombie-army after us, we're dead meat." Crichton replied softly, not to disturb the either awake or asleep Xarai.
"They will find us and drag our sorry asses back to our cells."
Harvey assured Crichton that he was right.
"We need speed. We need that bikes. We need..."
"Midnight!" a familiar voice hollered through the night.
Kaarvok was awake and with his holler he awakened all of the Xarai in the camp.
Swiftly Aenos pulled Crichton into the hut.
The shadows prevented them from being seen.
"Prepare everything for the operation!" Kaarvok shouted to his minions.
The smell in the encampment made Crichton almost vomit.
He already tasted it in the back of his mouth.
"If only I had Winona right now..." Crichton said to himself in his mind.
How long before they would be discovered missing?
"There's no more time." Aenos said. "We have to do something, RIGHT NOW. I say run."
"I say NO."
Kaarvok approached from the forest, and did not see the empty cells until he stood in front of them.
"Oh my, Crichton." he whispered to himself. "You are much more challenging then I thought."
He smiled.
"CRICHTON!" he hollered through the woods.
Some birds and bats flew away out of fear of Kaarvok.
"He knows we're gone." Aenos said. "We have to act now or else this was all for nothing!"
There was no more time.
The Xarai ran through the woods in search of him.
It wouldn't be long before they would find them.
Aenos was right.
Crichton had to do something.
Right now.
Crichton sighed.
Why did his plans never work?
