"THE FLAX" "Hey, hey hey." "I am doing it." "Whoa." "Wait." "I'm-I'm not doing it." "You're doing it barely, but just..." "Don't-don't show me." "Don't show me." "Port side." "Port side thrusters." "Slicker'n snot." "My microbes had to have translated that one wrongly." "Southern metaphors, darlin'." "You ain't heard the half of em." "You know, you're picking this up more slowly than the dumbest recruit." "But I am picking it up, Aeryn." "The more I modify my module with Moya add-ons... the more I need to understand biomechanoid technology." "Now, you do that one again and I'll kill you." "Oh, sorry." "I almost hit that big sun out there." "There's nothing out there, John." "Exactly, Aeryn." "That's why we picked this spot." "Nothing for me to hit." "Perfect for a driving lesson... like a big mall parking lot on a Sunday morning." "I used to have 70,000 servants." "Rygel, why don't you get yourself something to eat?" "And during festivals, I used to have 50,000 more." "Mostly females." "Rygel?" "They would worry about my every nanomoment." "Make sure I was always smiling, always entertained..." " Rygel!" " And never bored!" "I'm bored." " Bored, bored, bored!" " Will you stop doing that?" "!" "Look, whatever you're doing there it can't be important." "You're just scared I'll win." "Come on, let's play." "I can't take Moya's pregnancy much longer." "The walls of my cell are excreting some sort of gel... and Pilot says it is due to Moya's condition." "The center chamber has taken on some kind of strange odor as well." "Have you noticed?" "I have a Luxan's olfactory sense." "How can I not notice?" "Where the hezmana are Crichton and Aeryn?" "They should be back by now." " Teaching Crichton takes time, D'Argo." " Teaching Crichton is a waste of time." "Am I the only one here who remembers we are being tracked by bounty hunters?" "Aeryn believes that anything we can do to make Crichton more effective, the better." "This sector is very peaceful." "It's perfect for Crichton's trai..." "Rygel!" "If you do not stop that this instant..." "You'll what?" "Please do tell." "It may be preferable to this mind-numbing tedium." "Shut up!" "Aeryn, lighten up!" "Have some fun." "Fun?" "How am I to have fun?" "Well, I don't know how you're supposed to have fun, but this is fun." "This is Top Gun, this is The Need for Speed, you like this stuff, admit it." "I have no need for speed." "Yes, you do." "I see it in your eye all the time." "You miss the adrenaline of combat flying." "I miss the teamwork of combat flying." "The reason why I agreed to teach you to do this, is because you may become vaguely of some use to me one day in battle." "Oh." "Well." "Thank you for that vote of confidence." "Well, you may have noticed we're short of hands." "I didn't exactly have much choice." "Watch out for the starboard thrusters, you're banking too sharply!" "I got it." "What exactly do you mean by vaguely useful?" "You're hardly a quick learner, are you?" "Oh." "You're trying to telling me you weren't the least bit challenged, learning to fly one of these things?" "Not challenged the way you seem to be." "And you have it easy, here." "In Peacekeeper training, there's no room for mistakes." "You screw up on the last day of simulation flying, you die." "Right." "The simulator kills you." "Now why does that not surprise me?" "What are you doing back there?" "Getting something to eat." "I always get hungry when I..." " What was that?" " What was that?" "What did you touch?" "I didn't touch anything!" "Aeryn, any idea what this is?" "No, I don't!" "There's something pulling us in." "Still pulling us in." "I'm not getting any pulse-back soundings." "That's impossible." "Well, you think I'm making this up?" "Lookit... there's nothing out there." "I can't hold her!" "Aeryn!" "Aeryn!" "You okay?" "Aeryn!" "Damn." "Don't scare me like that." "Scare you?" "What, you think I had something to do with that?" "No, I thought you might... never mind." "You gonna be alright?" "Think so." "You?" "If you don't count a broken neck." "A couple of aspirin, I'll be fine." " We hit something." " No, we didn't." "Hey, look." "I was in a head-on when I was 19." "We hit something." "There's nothing out there." "There's no mass readings." "No mass?" "How can there be no mass?" "Something's blocking our view." "The sensors say there's still nothing out there." " What the hell does that mean?" "!" " I don't know." "Will you stop playing with that?" "I will play this game for as long as I like..." "Give it to me..." "You are..." "Pilot!" " So sorry." "I appear to have hit the wrong Comm." " You desired our attention, Pilot." "An unidentified vessel is approaching." "It is signalling, asking permission to come aboard." "Is it armed?" " It depends." " What do you mean "it depends"?" "Moya's scan has found traces of weapon pieces." "Pieces?" "But nothing that constitutes a whole weapon, and certainly nothing that is operational." "It seems a most... curious vessel." "The name's Staanz." "Oh, there's no need for the firepower, friend." "I disagree... "friend"." "Move." "That pretty little female here's not gonna look at you in quite the same way when she learns you've killed the only person who could've saved you." "Saved us from what?" "You see how much you need me?" "You're headed straight for it and you don't even know it's there." "Headed for what?" " The Flax." " What is that?" "It's a magna-drift mesh 75 million zachrons long." "I've never heard of anything called "the flax. "" " And what species are you?" " Luxan." "Luxan?" "Never heard of it." "Doesn't mean you don't exist." "Our ship's sensors have not picked up anything that size in this area." "Well, they wouldn't have picked up much of anything, would they?" "That's the flax." "It's invisible until you get snagged in it and then..." "It's all over." " Who put it there?" " Zenetan pirates." "What, you never heard of them?" " Consider yourself lucky." " I will warn Crichton and Aeryn." "Heh, you got another ship out there?" "Warning them's probably a good idea..." "if you're not already too late." "What exactly are you?" "My name's Staanz." "I'm a garbologist." "I'm a... connossieur of what other people throw away." "Define "connossieur. "" "Tadek, eh?" "You're set's in... uh... very nice shape." " Do you play?" " Oh, I used to... dabble." "You any good?" "Perhaps you can't give me a few... pointers." "Perhaps I can." "We need to get the ship stabilized and assess the damage." ""Stabilized?" According to this, we're too stable." "We're not moving." "There's no drift, no spin..." "What?" "I-I don't know." "It's as if we're suspended in one place." "The sooner we get this thing fixed and blast the hell out of here, the better." "No comms signal." "Probably busted in the crash." "No, the equipment's working just fine..." "it's just there's no signal out there." "Aeryn, if I'm reading this right, calorics are flat-line." "We don't have any power." "Oh, that's impossible." "I fed the batteries just before we left Moya." "Yeah." "Impossible." "This isn't good." "I can't make contact with the transport pod." "Aeryn and Crichton aren't responding." "They can't be that far out." "Staanz's story about the flax could be true." "It could be what's affecting the comm transmission." "If it is... if he did come to warn us... then the question is, what does he want from us in return?" "Anything he can get his hands on." "I've just accessed the criminal ident files from the Peacekeepers." "It seems our Mr. Staanz has quite a record." "He came offering help!" "Shouldn't we at least give him the benefit of the doubt?" "We don't know that the Flax doesn't exist." "And what if it does?" "He may be leading us straight into it." "For all we know, he could be one of those bounty hunters." "No, Staanz is trouble." "And we do not need to take that risk, especially while Moya is pregnant!" "I agree that Staanz may be the most unusual species, but you can't surely condemn him, just because he is an ex prisoner of the Peacekeepers!" " Are you forgetting that we are all ex prisoners?" " How could I ever forget?" "Have you ever looked at your own records to see what lies the Peacekeepers have written about you?" "Have you?" "Not everyone imprisoned by the Peacekeepers was innocent." "Meaning?" "Meaning that I do not have time to stand here and discuss this with you, while he is looting what precious little we have!" "Interesting move." "Very unconventional." "Care to raise the stakes?" "Ossoh scent." " How pure?" " 90 parts." "They won't be able to resist... even you." "What are you doing?" "I was just about to raise the..." "I had him right where I wanted him!" "You have a criminal record with the Peacekeepers." "Do you have any idea how difficult that is in this game?" "I have criminal records with a lot of people!" "It's who I am." "Doesn't mean his money's no good." "I don't deserve it." "I never robbed anybody..." "well, I used to rob anybody... but now I'm an honest garbologist." "Ask anyone." "I can give you a list of names..." "well, it's a couple of names..." "Aaah!" "Hey!" "I used to be a Zenetan." "One of the pirates who run the flax and loot ships that get caught in it." "I can prove it." "If you put me down." "Thank you." "Slowly." "Oh, for heaven's sake." "Zenetan gang murals?" "I spent nine cycles in a malsonic labor stockade." "My Zenetan "brothers" did nothing to help me." "In fact, cause of what they were doing on the outside," "I got beat close to death more than once on the inside." "So... when I got out, I went my own way." "I work for myself now." "Part of the fun is getting to the flax before they do." "Also, I like warning people like you." "Pisses the Zenetans off no end." "Anyway, I figure when you send me on my way..." "you might give me, I don't know, a small reward?" "Put those back on." " Where are your, uh... your, uh... your..." " My, uh...?" "For an anthropoid biped, there's seems to be something missing." "Yeah, I know." "Well, I'm a Yenen by species." "We're not exactly..." "cut from the standard mold." "If you are truly interested in helping us, our transport pod is still out there." "Two of our complement are aboard and we've lost contact." " They're not family?" " No." "Good." "There's nothing worse than losing family." "We don't." "Get a move on, Crichton." "The message buoy's almost ready so we'll need power to launch it." "I'm working as fast as I can, Aeryn, but these schematics are hard to read... like half cat-scan, half blueprint." "I know you don't read them at all." "Don't be ridiculous, it's tech work." "What happens if you crash-land your Prowler, and you have to repair it?" "We're not trained to repair, we're trained find and secure somebody else's ship." "Secure?" "As in, take by force." "Well." "It beats uh, learning to read those." "Not today, it doesn't." "I think..." "I've redirected the remaining power from the auxilary systems." "Message buoy away." " You ready to go home?" " Very." " Staanz." "Where did you get those boots?" " Huh?" "Let me go!" "Let me go !" "Those boots are Luxan." "A Luxan would never lose his boots unless he were dead." "I didn't kill him, he was already dead!" "His ship got caught in the flax!" "Oh, so you robbed the dead." "No, no... a Zenetan killed him." "He ejected..." "He ejected the body!" "I tried to get aboard the ship, but..." "look!" "They blasted the crank outta me." "You tried to loot a dead Luxan ship." "Of course I did." "That's what I do!" "I see a ship, I try and loot it." "Well that ship, my friend, was a Luxan Deep-Space Voyager." "Now, it may have on board some map fibers that I desperately need." "Can you take me there?" "Well, I don't know." "It was... earmarked for destruction." "They might've already... melted it down." "If you take me there, everything on board after I get those map fibers is yours..." "Well, that sounds like a deal to me." " What about the flax?" " Oh, not a problem." "If... you know what you're doing." "Let's do this while we still have power." "200 trads, are we clear?" "Not yet." "I'm increasing to 80%." "This is gonna hurt, isn't it?" "300 trads." "Should I punch it?" "90%." " Should I punch it?" "!" " Not yet." "400 trads." " Now ?" " It's too storng, I can't hold her!" " Now, Aeryn!" "Now!" " 500 trads." "Clear!" " Now?" " Wait!" " Man, this is really gonna hurt..." " Now!" "Crichton!" "Aeryn, were are you?" "I haven't the faintest idea." "Aw, man." "I knew this was gonna hurt." "I'll be alright if I can get it out." "Can you pass me that ax?" "Yeah." " What are you going to do with it?" " I'm going to hack my foot off." " Oh, no." "Well, let me, then." " Oh, just give it to me." "Did we break free?" "Right." "You mind if I check that in a minute?" "I wanna get these flames out first." "D'Argo, the distress buoy's broadcasting full coordinates." "Aeryn's message is short, but it's clear." "The transport pod is caught in some sort of stasis but they see no stars." "That's the flax, alright." "We are aboard Staanz's vessel now and ready to launch." " Wish us luck." " Rha'nalan be with you." "A triple quadra-hent." "That means nothing to you, but..." "I would have won all this fair and square." "Even if he hadn't left it behind." "Luxan Voyager, here we come!" "When I get her really firing I can get this baby up to Hetch 4!" " It stinks in here." " What?" "It stinks!" "Oh, does it?" "I had my smell pods cauterized." "Helps in my line of work." "You mean you actually go out of your way to collect all these things?" "I follow space streams and I pick up what other's throw away." " That's all garbage." " Garbage?" "I don't touch garbage." "I'm a professional scavenger." "I only pick up the gems of what others throw away." "I've got 9 million onnyxi play partners." "They particalize, they levitate..." "everything!" "One day I'm gonna sell these babies and make a killing." "They burn good, too." "You say that you can take me to this Luxan ship." "Unless it's already been melted down." "You and me go on board, get what we need, stay no longer than an arn, and then we go to rescue Aeryn and Crichton." " You said they'll be safe for a while." " Well, they're stuck in the flax." "They're going nowheres." "You said it was a small pod?" "The Zenetans aren't gonna be in a rush to get there." "Oh, we have plenty of time." "Okay." "Come on, baby... come on!" "We're not moving." "We're till stuck." "I think there's some sort of field out there holding us in place." " You mean like a natural phenomenon?" " You ever hear of a natural phenomenon like that?" "Well, whatever it is, we have to find a way to break free." "Any suggestions?" "The distress buoy got away." "Well, I guess we just wait for..." "D'Argo and the others to come rescue us." " I'll deal with propulsion system." " I'll take environmentals." "Go on, have a chew!" "It's delicious!" "No, not that bit." "It's got to rot a bit more." "Here, try this." "No, I think I'll pass." "Hang on." "If I don't get to this, she's going to blow!" "What?" "!" "Come on, baby!" " Why don't you just get it fixed?" " I did fix it." "That's why it works when I whack it a few times." "Help me!" " Oh, no." " What?" "Hang on." "You see that?" "That's Kcrackic's tracer beam." " Who's Kcrackic?" " He's red mentor to the Zenetans." "Is that like a rank?" "No, there's nothing military about these guys except their firepower." "Then why are you so afraid of him?" "I'm not afraid, exactly." "It's just... maybe I should've mentioned it earlier, but..." "I'm kind of on Kcrackic's hate-list." "I told a few of his secrets to get out of prison." "So you betrayed your own leader..." "Betray?" "Never." "Look, the bottom line is... if he knows where we're at, he's gonna seal the flax up... and we're not gonna get to that Luxan ship... or your friends." "He missed us." "But he's headed straight for your ship." "For Moya?" "Warn them... they've never heard of me!" "They've never seen me!" "I understand, D'Argo." "We will strive to keep them distracted as long as we can." "I will strive to keep them distracted." "Greetings." "I am Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan." "You are Kcrackic?" "You know me?" "Your reputation is well-known in these parts." " For what?" " Cruelty." "My scan shows that your leviathan is pregnant." "You're lucky." "Why?" "I once tried to commandeer a pregnant leviathan. 80 men died." "A mother will protect her child." "A tracer ship was last seen heading in this direction, run by a pewnkah named Staanz." "Have you seen it... or him?" " No." "Perhaps I can offer you and your men something to eat?" " You offer us nothing." "What we want from your ship, we take." "And I see nothing of value here." "Let's go." "Commander Kcrackic, may I present Rygel XVI, Dominar of..." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "How do you do?" "Pleased to meet you and all that yotz." "Where did you get so many kelvic crystals, little one?" "I won them." " Playing tadek?" " No, inter-species tugg wrestling." "Idiot." "So you believe you play well." "I know I play well." "And you, I believe, are an easy mark." "I'm still not getting a clear reading." "More than half the pod's sensor relays have been fried." "Do you think Moya's got that distress buoy yet?" "Don't know." "But even if she did, if we don't buy ourselves a couple of hours... arns... we'll be dead by the time anybody gets here." "The atomspherics mix line is crushed." " Can you fix it?" " Maybe." "I might be able to weld it, but I'd need a welding torch." "There should be one in the equipment pack." "The problem is... there's too much pure O2 in here right now to risk firing it up." "What about if we depressurize?" "Blast it out into space?" " Fix it in our suits?" " Yeah." "Aeryn, that's a great idea." "You sound surprised." "You okay?" " Yes." "You?" " Yeah... just... peachy." "Are you comfortable?" "Shall I get you a pillow?" "Do you think your people have kept Kcrackic occupied?" "Well, why don't we just call Moya and ask them?" "Perhaps you can speak to Kcrackic himself." "Let's get out of here." "Kcrackic isn't the kind of person you give a second chance to find you." "Come on." "Sing for daddy." "Sing!" "What's wrong?" "Oh, nothing, nothing." "Sometimes she just needs a bit of a push to get going." " A push?" "!" " Yeah, you know." "Like a grav-spin around a planet, or something?" "I need you to get me to that ship fast so I can find that map fiber." "If you want to get there, open the furnace." "Hmm?" "This had better work." "Come on, burn!" "Come on!" "Burn, baby, burn!" "Okay... here we go..." "Oh, great!" "What's wrong?" "We're caught in the flax." "Impressive." "We'll be out of here in a few microts." "Rygel, surely you're not going to give up so early?" "Who's giving up?" "I'm not giving up." "Leave me alone." "I know what I'm doing." "Ante up, Hynerian." "It's going to be like a wind tunnel in here when we depressurize." "I'll get the release sequence started and leave out the last line... that might save us..." "We have a problem." "What's the matter?" " It's broken." "Is there another one of those?" " Exactly that." "One." "So one of us gets to die." "Torch looks like it's in working condition." "Unfortunately, there's no way to test it before we depressurize." "Kill shot." "We use them in battle triage." "They stop brain and heart functions." "And this is a nerve shot." "You use this one to bring me back." "Whoa, hold the phone." "Let's talk about this." "There's nothing to talk about." "You know welding... you should do the repairs." " Yeah, but Aeryn, that means that you..." " They are sebacean." "They are meant to be used on my kind." " Yeah, but still..." " The oxygen is rising in here quickly so you'd better get ready." "Aeryn, you notice anything about that?" "It's useless." "It's also mine." "Yours isn't gonna fit me." "Tell me exactly what I have to do." "We could wait." "The others may come." "No... we gotta fix the line, otherwise we're both dead anyway." "And if we get another spot-fire in this place, it's going to go up like a blast furnace." "How long do I have to do the repairs?" "I don't know." "Without oxygen, my brain can last four minutes... maybe five or six depending on my body temperature." "Pick a number." "Tell me how long I have and I'll follow it ... but show me what to do while there's still time." "Torch." "Shall I tell Baca to fire up the engines?" "Why not?" "I should be there shortly." "Very unusual move." "Where did you learn it?" "Uh..." "I made it up myself." "Did you?" "I know somebody else who makes that move." "Good for you." "You sure this thing's going to work?" "Mm-hmm." "It should kill you." "Well, it's not the kill shot that concerns me." "I'm sure you guys got that one down fine." "It's the wake-up call that's got me worried." "Well, we can't be sure it works until you're dead." "Great." "It works perfectly well on sebaceans and sebeacean and human physiology appears to be similar enough, so..." "I say 50-50." "You call that good odds?" "No." "No, no, no." "I'm gonna teach you CPR." " What's that?" " It's a human resuscitation technique, Aeryn ... very low-tech." "We don't have time for this." "Aeryn, I got time, okay?" "I need a back-up plan in case your little nerve shot doesn't work, Aeryn." "What does it involve?" "It involves you breathing for me..." "keeping my blood flowing so I don't die." "Don't be ridiculous." "It sounds far too complicated." "Well, it's a lot less complicated than learning to fly a transport pod." "Fine." "Show it to me, then." " Good." "Lie down." " What?" "Lie down!" "No, flat out, on the gr- , I can't show you.." "lay down!" "Okay." "Come on!" "Where are the stars?" "The Flax magna absorbs the light before it can get to us." "It's a bummer like that." "Absorbs the light?" "If it's that powerful, how come you're not more concerned?" "Because I might be able to dissolve a small part of the flax... unless they've already changed the code." "What?" "!" "Now what I need from you is... to whack this really hard on my signal." "Whack it really hard!" "Ready?" "Three... two... one... whack it!" "Come on, baby!" "Come on!" "You can do it, D'Argo!" "That's it." "Totally." "Come on." "Yes!" "We've done it!" "We've cleared the flax!" "We're clear!" "Didn't I say it?" "Hey, stop whacking it." "We're clear." "We've made it." "Ha!" "Go with me brother!" "We're clear!" "It doesn't get better than this, baby!" "13... 14... 15... then 2 more breaths and 15 more compressions" "Right, until I start breathing again on my own... or not." "Let's do it." "You've got about 4 minutes... 180 microts..." "before my brain starts to go adios." "Let's do it." "In the chair." "Aeryn, it's real simple what you gotta do to fix the line." "I remember what you told me." "Hey... when sebaceans die, what do you believe happens?" "You believe in an afterlife?" "Heaven and hell?" "All that jazz?" "Humans believe... well, some believe..." "that there's this bright light." "And that you, uh, end up somewhere else along with your friends, family, relatives... all the people who died before you." "Does that ring a bell?" "Sebaceans believe when you die you die." "You go nowhere; you see nothing." "Yeah, guess I'll find out in a minute, huh?" "Okay. 180 microts." " Yes, I know." " Well, sorry if I'm repeating myself, it's just, you know..." "I don't want to take any chances with this, so..." "I won't let you down, John." "This... this is gonna hurt like crap, isn't it?" "Trust me, this is not going to hurt a bit." "That's it?" "Well, it doesn't hurt..." "The engine's are fired up... ready to go." "Your wager, your lordship." "But we have nothing left to bet." "This ship." "I'll wager this ship." " You can't do that, Rygel!" " I can beat him!" "I know I can." "Fear not, lovely lady." "I told you before I've had my experience with pregnant leviathans." "I don't want your ship." "I reject your wager." "Quit now." "You must quit!" " The one you call Staanz..." "I know where he is." " Rygel!" "I wager his whereabouts!" "You now have 60 microts... 59... 58... 57... 56... 55... 54... 53..." "Hey, I'm picking up some traces of atmopshere." "Atmosphere?" "Yeah, they're drifting from the coordinates where your ship's pod is caught in the flax." "Oh, and it's not just mere traces, either." "Looks like your friends might be out of luck." "We may have no reason to rush aboard that Luxan ship." "14... 13... 12....." "Time has lapsed." "Time has lapsed." "Time has lapsed." "Ha ha!" "I knew it!" "I knew I could do it!" " Thanks for the game." " But the game is not over." "Thank you for the game, little one." " Now, for that nugget of information you promised me." " Rygel, don't." "You'll tell me, or he'll blow your brains out." "I'll count to three." "One... two... three." "Okay." "Staanz was here." "One of our crew is with him now." "You can locate him by following the frequency of our crew member's comm unit." "What's the frequency?" "It's in the ship's data store." "Access the ship's data stores." "And let's go get him." "Crichton!" "1... 2... 3... 4... come on, Crichton." "Wake up." "7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14..." "Aeryn and Crichton have a second reserve tank." "They could still be alive." "Look... there she is!" "Your Luxan beauty." "Oh, you're lucky." "We're just in time." "She's next in line for the melt." "It's a Luxan Assault Piercer." "I dreamt of serving on one as a boy." "I'll bring her in nice and easy." "Come on!" "What are you looking so down about?" "You said yourself the two aboard that pod aren't family." "Look, the maps aboard that ship might be your only chance... to reunite with your real family, huh?" " My son." " Yeah, yeah." "Your son!" "13... 14..." "Come on!" "Come on!" "My god." "You did it, Aeryn." "You did it." "But you lied like a dog." "God, that hurt like hell." "How'd it go?" "The environmentals?" "Do you fix?" "I-I didn't finish." "You didn't what?" "Your time was running out." "Wait a minute... you stopped because..." "I think we have about half an arn of breathable atmosphere left." " I thought we'd never be rid of them." " You wanted them to leave!" " Didn't you?" " Yes, but I..." "You didn't expect them to leave us unscathed unless they thought they were leaving with something of value, did you?" "You gave them the comm frequency." "The wrong frequency, yes." "I told Pilot to change it the moment Kcrackic stepped on board." " Where are they headed, Pilot?" " Not exactly certain." " I could plot it for you." " No, no problem." "As long as it's far from here." "Ah." "It's certainly that." "You lost to Kcrackic on purpose?" "You think it was easy?" "He's an abominable player." "A switched-off DRD would have made a better showing for itself." "Oh, please." "Bluffing is what the game's all about." "The message buoy got out." "They could still come for us." "Maybe they've been trying this whole time." "The phenomenon that's got hold of us might not be letting them through." "They might've tried and given up already." "Oh... it's really cold in here." "It's colder than a frog's ass." "Okay." "We're docking." "If I get this right, we'll be nice and snug in the aft access port." "Oh, c'mon, you gotta be a bit excited." "You're 15 paces away from your own Luxan Assault Piercer." "The maps... you'll be able to find your son!" "You gotta be looking forward to seeing your son, huh?" "Yes." "But when I do, I want to be able to look him in the eye." "Aeryn... you should have kept working... finished the repair." "At least one of us would have survived." "To be sitting here alone now?" "I chose not to." "I thought Peacekeepers were trained to fight alone, survive alone." "Die alone." "Well, it appears my training is failing me." "I don't want to die alone." "What did you see?" "Y-you know, after the kill shot, when you were dead... did you see the things humans believe?" "The light." "Friends." "No." "No, I didn't." "All I saw was black." "I don't know, maybe sebaceans are right." "Maybe there's nothing after death." "Maybe..." "Maybe..." "I wasn't supposed to die that time." "Maybe you'll find out for certain this time." "Somebody docking?" "!" "D'Argo !" "What took you so long?" "I had to... uh... find someone to help me." "Right." "I think it's time that we left." "It's about time!" "Hey, your friends are okay!" "I told you they would be." "D'you think you could untie me, please?" "This is not fun." "Hey, welcome aboard, people!" "I'd offer you something to chew, but hey... my hands are kinda tied." "Is he dangerous?" "Merely annoying." "The flax is huge." "There's bound to be another Luxan ship in there somewhere." "I thought... maybe we could go and look for it... together?" "We go together?" "Hmph." "I'm lonely." "Everybody needs a mate, Ka D'Argo." " Even you." " A mate?" "I am the female of the species, you know that, don't you?" "In fact, false modesty aside, I'm..." "I'm considered quite the Zenetan beauty." "You know, big guy, I think I'd better..." "give you two a little time alone here... 'cause you know, in a universe this vast when..." "two hearts collide..." "Shut up." "You and me?" "I don't really......" "I love you." "Um." "Well, you.... uh..." "I love you." "I love you!" "We are now well out of the range of the flax..." "and Kcrackic's tracer." "What happened out there, D'Argo?" "D'Argo?" "A Luxan warrior must never be indecisive in battle." "My indecision nearly cost Crichton and Aeryn their lives." " But you saved them." " Barely... and by saving them, I may have given up my only chance at seeing my son again." "On every front..." "I failed." "Heat of the moment." "Exactly." " Too much pure oxygen." " Affected our judgement." "If had been you and D'Argo there, the same thing probably would have happened." "Or you and Zhaan." "Anyway, one thing's for sure... it'll never... never happen again." "Never." "Never." "Never." "One thing... just to be... absolutely certain." "You are the female of your species, right?" "I'll take that as a yes."