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Chapter
Two
Dominars
Don't Have To Be Punctual
Two arns later,
he had managed to gather the entire crew complement in Pilot's
den (all excepting Rygel, who was late, as usual), and they were
all sitting or standing around with expectant looks on theirfaces.
Usually when John summoned them together, it was bad. It either
meant he was going to do something completely fahrbot to get
them all killed, or he was going to try and inflict one of his
Erp customs on them. At the moment, he was leaning in front of
Pilot, staring at the half open door.
Everyone had
different ideas. Aeryn, standing just in front of Pilot, to his
right, suspected that whatever it was he was going to suggest,
it was going to involve her primarily. It always did. She was
dreading it. She wondered what it might be this time. They weren't
in immediate danger, so Scorpius wasn't a factor. It had only
been two monens since the "Kris-mass" thing he had
told them about, and she didn't think that it could come around
again that quickly. And it had only been three monens since "Thangs-gebben".
The only other thing it could possibly be was the ceremony he'd
told her about for the day of his birth and she knew, of course,
that it wasn't for another two monens. She sighed impatiently
as they waited for Rygel, and resigned to stay curious.
Chiana was
sitting near Pilot, on the edge of his console. She was adamant,
this time, that she wasn't going to get involved. She was fed
up of visions of death and carnage, fed up of nearly getting
killed, fed up of missions, and mightily frelled off with everything
always involving her even when it didn't have to. Nope, this
time, she was staying out of it and if Jool would move her backside
out of the way, she could frelling well leave
Jool was leaning
in front of the Nebari, unaware of the dagger look shooting into
the back of her head. She yawned. John's lectures had a tendency
to get boring after a while and she wasn't in the mood to listen
today. As it transpired, she had the misfortune of having D'Argo's
quarters on one side of her, and Crais' on the other, and both
of the frellniks snored. She was running on very little sleep,
and she was cranky, and John had that annoying "I've-got-a-secret-and-you're-all-gonna-love-it"
look on his face. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that
the frelling Nebari tralk kept frelling well kicking her in her
frelling spine
D'Argo, next
to Aeryn, was in a stance that suggested anyone who came near
him would instantly lose a limb. His arms were folded over his
chest, his legs were shoulder width apart, and he wore a frown
that would shroud a small city. He did not like having to wait
for people. He also did not like any plan John was going to come
up with.
Crais was pacing
impatiently. He despised lateness, and, moreover, he wasn't too
fond of Rygel. When Rygel was late, therefore, it was the pinnacle
of annoyance. He sighed, reached the end of his current lap,
spun on one foot, and marched in the other direction, repeating
the process for the seventeeth time. Luckily, he didn't see the
positively murderous look Aeryn threw at him, and didn't sense
the impending punch he was going to get if he walked past her
one more damn time
Pilot, in the
centre of the group, was too busy multi-tasking to really take
much notice of everybody else. He was, however, becoming slightly
irritated with Chiana, because every time she kicked her legs
she edged further onto his console, and was being to obstruct
vital controls. Being a gentle creature, though, Pilot resisted
the urge to poke her, hard, and attempted to ignore her.
Zhaan and Stark
were sitting together on the floor, passing time by sharing a
mutual mental link. They wouldn't have even noticed if Moya starburst
into a wall.
Finally, Rygel
arrived. He hovered through the door without a care in the universe,
stopped in the centre of the group, surveyed their various expressions,
and simply said, "What?"
John grabbed
him and ground a fist into his head lightly, like he would a
child. "About frellin' time, Sparky!"
The Hynerian
flailed his limbs around until he got a fair swipe at John, and
managed to pull the hand from his head. "I do not plan my
time around you, Crichton."
"You said
it, Ryge," added Chiana, still absently kicking Jool in
the back.
Aeryn bodily
stopped Crais from pacing by throwing her arm out and creating
a barricade, as Rygel settled near Zhaan. The ex-Captain removed
Aeryn's arm from his vicinity and stepped towards John.
"Crichton,
just hurry up and tell us what we're here for."
"Now we're
all here," he said, looking pointedly at Rygel, "I
will."
Everyone fixed
their most interested expressions and got comfortable. Something
told them this was going to be a long meeting.
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