Past Aggressions 4
Have you been waiting for Stark's plan to fall
apart? Well, get ready for Past
Aggressions 4!
Disclaimer:
The characters of Farscape all are part of that wonderful happy Jim Henson
family. To put it simply: He owns them (but in a wonderful and happy way). I'm
just borrowing them for some non-profit
fun.
and now,
on
Farscape...
Past
Aggressions 4
"I'm sorry, you
don't have security clearance to purchase those
charts."
"Listen, I need charts. You need
currency."
Rygel finished John's thought: "We
have currency. You have charts."
"Well, I
can't go around violating clearance, can
I?"
----------
"They're
getting closer."
"I'm going to fly away from
the planet. We can meet up with Crichton and the others
later."
Aeryn began to nod in agreement, but
she froze, seeing an eerie green flash in the
distance.
----------
"Are
you
bribing
me?"
"Not so much bribing as simply offering
you a generous premium for your
services."
John turned to Rygel and
whispered, "Watch it Sparky, we don't want to get thrown off this
place."
----------
"Sentry
probes?"
"Yes, they spread out and create an
invisible energy field that traps
vessels."
"Like the
flax?"
"Exactly."
----------
"Well,
I suppose if someone was to carelessly leave some currency lying about, I just
might carelessly leave some charts on the
table."
"Exactly how much would you have to
find to make you so... careless?"
"Oh, maybe
double the price of the charts."
"What?! As a
Dominar, I have never been so publicly
offended!"
"Can it, Sparky. We don't have
time to
waste."
----------
"I
can destroy some of the probes and fly through the hole in the
field."
"That won't work. They'll have at
least 30 probes out, and the others will compensate for the gap in less than two
microts."
"Well then what options do we have
left?"
----------
"It
was nice... not... doing business with you," said the shopkeeper as John and
Rygel walked out.
Rygel turned to John. "You
know we just got-"
"Taken to the cleaners?"
John turned to Rygel and smiled, "I
know."
----------
"Oooohhh!
Look at these f'lavbel herbs! They would really spice up our food
cubes."
"Get away from those plants, granny!
You heard what Crichton said, only what we absolutely need." Chiana paused a
moment, feeling satisfied with her control of Noranti and Stark. The feeling
didn't last. "Frell! Where's
Stark?!"
"Hmmm... I think he went over that
way." Noranti pointed towards a long hall filled with shops and
marketgoers.
"Why didn't you tell me this
earlier!?"
"I assumed you knew where he was
going."
"Chiana?" John's voice on the comms
was just barely audible over the street noise. "Listen, we got some charts and
we're headed back to the transport pod. Take whatever supplies you've got and
meet us there in a quarter arn."
"John?"
Chiana hesitated to respond.
"What's
up?"
"We've got a bit of a
problem."
John's tone dropped as he said
"Frell. What is it?"
Chiana paused. Despite
the noise all around her, all she heard was
silence.
Noranti blurted into her comm,
"Chiana's lost
Stark!"
----------
"You
can't expect me to pay that much for something of such low
quality."
"Oh come there," the shopkeeper
acted mildly insulted. "I would never misrepresent a
product!"
"Sure you
wouldn't..."
"And besides, what do you know?
You've only got one eye!"
Stark took offense
to this and walked off, completely oblivious to the noise coming out of his
comm. Something at another vendor's stall caught his eye, and he approached the
small establishment.
"Can I assist you?" The
shopkeeper was a surprisingly charming elderly woman. She even had reading
glasses that carefully balanced themselves on her dull-ish grey
nose.
"I was wondering about this..." Stark's
voice trailed off as he picked up a somewhat-metallic, somewhat-semicircular
handheld device that appeared half-organic. He vaguely seemed to recognize
it.
"Well, I'm pleased with your interest..."
She paused after saying this.
Stark looked up
and said, apprehensively, "but..."
Taking
that as a cue, she continued: "But, I'm afraid that item would be of little use
to you if you don't know what it is."
"Tell
me. What is it?"
"Well, it's a semi-organic
matter transference matrix," she paused, apparently trying to think of a simpler
explanation. "Think of it as a matter
mover."
"No, no. I understand. This would be
incredibly useful-"
"Yes, it would be, if you
had another one." The shopkeeper's voice was as crestfallen as Stark's
expression. "The device moves inanimate matter into flux, converting it out its
physical state and back, transferring it from matrix to matrix. There needs to
be movement to create the flux in the matter's state, that's why you need two
devices. One matrix can't do anything."
"But
if I had another..." Stark still thought the device sitting in front of him was
very familiar.
"Then it would work, if both
matrixes were calibrated properly. One to the opposite inverse frequency of the
other." Her voice faltered again. "Unfortunately, these are matrixes are very
hard to come by. I've only seen one other one in my life... I'd be rich if I
just had a pair."
Stark pulled out all his
currency. "I'll buy this
one."
"But-"
"Trust
me." Stark hadn't meant to say that, but it seemed to work. He walked away less
than 60 microts later with the device, and no
currency.
----------
"You
what?!" Chiana felt like strangling Stark just for running
off.
"That kind of currency could've bought
us food for half a cycle!" Rygel was furious. About the
food.
"I mean I've heard of impulse
purchases, but this has
got
to take the cake!" John's number one concern was still getting back to Aeryn and
D'Argo. "Listen, we'll deal with this
later."
Stark wasn't finished pleading his
case. "But this could be very useful-"
"That
piece of dren?" Rygel was nearly turning red in his green face. "You've
completely lost it! Or maybe that eye of yours is going bad! Maybe I should deal
with you myself!"
"Cool it, Sparky." John was
nearly running back towards the transport pod. "We can deal with
this-"
"Come on Crichton! Wait up for
us!"
"Sorry, Pip. I'm going to warm up the
engines. Just don't lose anybody this
time!"
Less than 500 microts later,
Chiana and the others arrived at the transport
pod.
"Crichton?" Chiana was suddenly worried.
John wasn't warming up the engines, he wasn't even in the pod. He was around the
side, banging his fists on the side of the pod. "Crichton? What is
it?"
His voice was at a loss as he just
barely said: "We've been impounded."
"What?
Why?"
"Either they're dissecting Moya or they
found out about Aeryn and D'Argo somehow." He turned to Chiana, genuinely
panicked. "It doesn't matter, though. Either way, we can't rendezvous with them
in time now."
"Don't say that Crichton. We'll
think of something!"
John submerged
himself in his own thoughts, focused. He didn't even notice Harvey approaching
him.
"Well John, at least one of us has a
plan."
Posted: Thu - April 1, 2004 at 06:55 PM