Farscape--House of Cards by Keith R. A. DeCandido

Author:Keith R. A. DeCandido
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

CHAPTER 8

Crichton was looking forward to the meeting outside the hangar. He had great news that he couldn’t wait to share with his crewmates.

He had arrived to find Rygel and D’Argo waiting. Chiana had arrived a few microts later, having supervised the loading of the merchandise from Stran’s Used Parts Emporium into the transport pod. Aeryn and Zhaan had been contacted on the comms, and Crichton had been all ready to give his news.

Except D’Argo had insisted on going first. Well, actually, Chiana had insisted that D’Argo go first, mainly because she had heard tell of the capture of Licit’s stalker, which was all anyone on the monorail back from Stran’s could talk about, and Chiana had wanted details. So D’Argo had provided them, in impressive detail, and had also shared the relevant parts of his conversation with Licit afterward. He had ended his tale with the reluctant admission that Rygel may well have been telling the truth about being cheated.

Rygel had, of course, gotten his dander up on that subject again, but nobody had been interested in hearing an “I told you so.” They had, however, been quite interested in Rygel’s theory that Garess planned to add Zhaan to his collection of exotic plants once she was finished identifying the others Garess had collected—and also that Rygel was getting on the good side of another member of the Consortium.

Then Chiana had insisted on speaking, first filling everyone in on what she had learned about Rari: that he had specifically left Liantac to rendezvous with a Luxan trader in order to find some “important people.” As if that wasn’t enough, she had then spoken of the rumor that Stran had heard about a possible Peacekeeper presence on Liantac very soon. D’Argo had added that Licit had heard similar rumours.

Finally, Crichton got a word in.

“I think I found a way to get ships to function even with the larik particles.”

“Really?” Chiana said, sounding surprised.

“Don’t look so damn shocked—this is what I do for a livin,’ y’know? Anyhow, it was really simple once I figured it out. See, I realized that the intake—”

“Crichton,” Aeryn interrupted, “much as we’d love to hear all about how brilliant you are, we have more pressing concerns. I’m afraid that the rumors that D’Argo and Chiana heard are true.”

Aeryn then told everyone about Lieutenant Asmat.

And now I’m completely depressed, Crichton thought.

“I did warn you all that Netoros might try something like this behind our backs,” Aeryn said.

“No,” Rygel said.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” D’Argo asked indignantly.

“I mean that this isn’t a simple case of Netoros wishing to turn us in to the Peacekeepers. Zhaan was correct earlier—the reward for our capture alone is not enough to entice Netoros. And she can’t possibly have summoned this Asmat woman in the time that we’ve been here.”

Crichton nodded. “Spanky’s right, this is way more complicated than just trying to nail us. Sounds like Netoros has some other big plan in mind.”

“Then what do we do about it?” D’Argo asked.

Chiana’s head tilted.

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