A CHRICHTON STORY: PART TWO
by Lt Commander Lewis
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…16 cycles earlier…
…he walked through the dusty commerce town’s main street. For the first time in several monens, John was allowed to go down onto the commerce planet. They hadn’t seen any sign of Peacekeepers for a good monen and a half now. Dressed in his black and red leather Peacekeeper vest, John Robert Crichton Jr., former IASA astronaut, now fugitive from the universe, struck fear into most beings he passed. Crichton had learned a long time ago that fear was your friend…he had learned it the hard way. The dust made John cough slightly as he turned to look at another shop. Prowler parts. That’s what he was looking for, Prowler parts. Something had broken on Aeryn’s Prowler and it was essential to get a new…hetch drive coil. John spotted the needed part and approached the vendor…
“300 credits! Are you out of your frelling mind! I know of where I can find it for 150 credits!” John stormed off in the direction of Aeryn…hoping that she could go back to the shop and reason with the insane merchant.
Crichton found her at the other end of the market…with Peacekeepers. There were three of them, all commandos by their appearance…like Larraq and his team. One of them had recognized her and was holding a pulse pistol on her. Aeryn, being one of self preservation, had backed up and had her pulse rifle on the Captain. She knew Peacekeeper protocol. She knew they wouldn’t care about one measly Captain…she did know that they cared about John Crichton though…the man standing about twenty feet away.
John pulled out his pulse pistol and shot one of the three commandos before they even knew what was happening. He wasn’t so lucky with the next shot. It missed the second commando barely and was enough to distract the Captain Aeryn was aiming at so that she could drop him. The second commando did an about-face and fired.
John felt a strange shocking sensation run through him and he fell to his knees. He put his hand on his abdomen and when he pulled it away his hand was covered in thick red, sticky blood…his blood…
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…Present day…
…John sat curled up in the empty room…sobbing quietly. It was hard enough to experience those memory flashbacks, and puzzling enough why he even had them in the first place…but to know that they were his father’s was too much…
To Be Continued…