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As they made their way to the docking bay, John and Aeryn lagged a bit behind the others.

"Hey."  Crichton said.

"What?" Aeryn asked irritably, then felt a pang or remorse as she saw a hurt look flash briefly across John's face. Mentally she cursed herself for saying the wrong thing... again. I always seem to be able to say just the thing that's an insult in his native tongue! Or I'll let something completely belittling out of my mouth... and he always tries to hide the hurt and anger. I hate him sometimes! She ignored the tiny voice in her head that whispered, No you don't...you love him. "Did you have something to ask me?" she said in a nicer, more contrite, apologetic tone.

"Yeah, actually... Do you know what was with that Aken guy's 'Peacekeeper' comment? He seemed rather...well, hateful."

Aeryn shook her head. "Old history. Don't worry about it."

Crichton stopped abruptly, as though he had walked face-first into a brick wall. "Old history? Wait... you can't mean that you dated this guy...can you?"

"That's exactly what I mean. Why is that so troubling?" she asked curiously.

"Ah... no real reason. Just... did you and he part as friends?"

"No." She seemed discomforted by the question, giving a short, terse reply.

Crichton nearly growled in frustration. Any time I get the woman to really talk to me, I say something stupid, and we're back to monosyllables again. Argh!

"So..." he tried again, "You had a bad break-up?"

Aeryn snorted in reply. "You don't know the half of it," she muttered, and hurried to catch up with D'Argo, who would ask her no probing questions.

Aken smirked to himself as he readied himself to greet their new 'hosts,' as Kassandra insisted on calling them. Aeryn Sun... how long? Four, five years? Well, maybe the Ice Queen will have thawed by now, and be more... receptive to me. If not, he mentally shrugged, Well, I'll just have to make sure she's not wearing boots this time. He had found out in an extremely bad way (for males) how strong Officer Sun's legs were. All because she couldn't be a good little PK girl and be friendly with the civilians-namely, him.

Kassasdra watched him out of the corner of her eye, not liking at all the sadistic smirk on his face. She hoped it wasn't about her; he was a brute of a man, she'd found in the weeks he'd been on board with her.  She was glad she would finally get the chance to get away from him; he gave her the creeps.

"Penny for your thoughts?" she offered.

He looked at her, mentally admiring her figure, then comparing it to Aeryn's. No competition. "What for my thoughts?"

"Human phrase. What are you thinking about?"

"An old... friend."

"Oh, you mean that dark-haired woman?"

"Yes, of course; why would I know any of the rest of them?" he impatiently snapped.  She shrank back at his tone.  His mouth twisted into a sneer at how easily this female was frightened. He continued, "We have some unfinished business to attend to. If you'll just keep that male human out of my way, I guarantee you that I won't bother you anymore."

"Oh," she laughed suddenly, "You won't have a problem getting me near that human! He is soooo cute!" She exclaimed.

"What do I care about your mating prospects?" He grimaced at her words. "Keep it to yourself."

"Keep your own to yourself then," she shot back, knowing full well what 'business' Aken had with the woman.

He lunged at her, gripping her shoulders painfully in his massive hands. "You keep that chattering mouth shut about my business!"

"I will." She said, then smiled slyly. "On one condition."

His eyes narrowed. Glaring at her, he said, "I don't do conditions."

"You'll do this one. In exchange for keeping quiet about your plans, and keeping the guy out of your way, you keep the woman very busy, and out of my way. Use whatever means you have to, just keep her away."

"Why should you care what she does?" Aken asked suspiciously.

Kassasdra blew out an irritated breath, puffing her peroxide-blond hair out of her face. "Men," she muttered to herself, "Even across the universe, they're still dense."

"What did you say?" the now-furious Aken asked; he hated it when people didn't speak loud enough that he could hear them!

"I said that only if you were three-quarters blind, deaf, and dumb could you miss the looks they gave each other. It's obvious that they're in love. And it's equally obvious that neither has any idea. So if we make our moves now, there will be no problem of them preferring each other to us. Understand?"

He nodded slowly, absentmindedly dropping Kassandra to the floor. "Yes, them falling in love would pose a problem... she'd have a protector then..."

"So, is it a deal?" the blond asked, looking into a mirror and teasing her hair so it fell in a cloud around her face.

"It's a deal." He agreed, then turned to exit the ship.

Go on to part 4
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