Part 35

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"And what the hezmona was that about?" Inton asked, nearly over Perkunas' shoulder.

Perkunas looked over both of his shoulders. The tiny group of resistance volunteers who were able to assemble in the warehouse radiated alarm and confusion. Aside from gasps and stares, however, they were keeping more composure than many of the crowd between them and the Minister's estate. Of the small group, only Inton, eternally patient and collected as the sharp shooter was, could speak at the moment. Perkunas struggled to keep his thoughts on the next course of action and not on his own feelings.

"I'm more" Perkunas paused another moment to steady himself before continuing. "I'm more concerned with what is next. The crowd may attempt to break in. Let us find Larran's artifacts first." The group fixed their attention onto Perkunas, horrified at the thought of the artifacts being looted. "Mish" Perkunas glanced over to the tech "where is the plan of the Estate?"

The tech quickly rummaged around and handed a communications pad to Perkunas. With one look at the plan of the massive estate, at least so far as the plan Oshana provided detailed, Perkunas scowled. He couldn't guess where the artifacts might be, and the estate was impossibly complex for the group to search.

Inton was still looking over Perkunas' shoulder, and he snorted at the display. "Is that the Estate or the whole of the Urlain sector?"

"Operatives Orren Nus and Tannac are already in the Estate" Perkunas tried to salvage some hope. "They found some way in, probably disabling security at a small service entrance. Perhaps....they know. Clan" he startled the young woman from her stare out the window. "Gather supplies. Inton" Perkunas held his arm out to gesture for Inton to meet with him in an adjoining nook.

Once in the nook, Inton polished his rifle and waited a moment for Perkunas to speak. Seeing that Perkunas was at a loss, Inton spoke. "Where is this....Bursamen?" Inton asked. "I have heard of some little activity or other Bursamen achieved. I would like to speak with him."

Perkunas sighed to himself at the misfortune of only having Tannac and Bursamen as relatively capable members. Bursamen was always busy trying to perform actual tasks the militia would be easily handling were it worth calling a militia. Probably as a result, Bursamen seldom worked closely enough with anyone. As usual, Perkunas didn't even know where Bursamen was or what Bursamen was trying to do.

Inton nodded at the unspoken admission from Perkunas. "Not available" he grinned. A smile seemed out of place on the sharp shooter's chiseled features. "Orren Nus and Tannac is it? Orren Nus. I've not heard of her, but evidently your connection claimed she was accomplished, so there may be something useful there. But Tannac" Inton pursed his thin lips. "Is she really involved in this?" he pointed a sharp look from his brows at Perkunas.

"Yes" Perkunas assured him.

"It isn't that I question your honesty" Inton explained "only that victims of Murgori's Attrition are usually euthanized long before this."

Perkunas hid his surprise. Or was he surprised? As much as Tannac intrigued and fascinated him personally, she was little use to the Cause since arriving. She was never able to keep her mind together long enough to do any of the projects he had begun by assigning her, and couldn't be bothered with the rest of the militia. All she seemed to be intent on doing was to waste away at her makeshift hovel in a former garbage dump. Tannac wasn't able to help herself, let alone the militia. Watching John Crichton had been the only thing he'd seen her accomplish. Now he knew one reason why, and was more surprised that he hadn't figured it out for himself by now.

Perkunas looked at Inton. He was all too aware of the hopelessness of the situation, but it was setting in heavier by the moment. "What do you intend to do?"

Inton locked the last piece of his pulse rifle into place and checked the fit. "It is clear what I have to do. And it's just as well for me to try it alone." Inton gathered his things and discretely left another way.

Perkunas then walked over to the leader of the small volunteer militia that had assembled. The petite young lady was anything but commanding. He knew how elated Clan had been when they'd heard the capable and experienced Tannac was coming to their militia. Many joined only when hearing Tannac was joining the militia. Despite rumors of Tannac's personal and mental problems and her reputation for free-wheeling, they had all been expecting that she was the change they'd wished for. No one had heard of her physical condition or expected that Tannac was in no state to have trained and led the militia.

Instead the position had been assumed by the young Clan, who was herself in as much of a need for good training and leadership as he wanted to imagine any new militia volunteer being. He realized he was hard on the girl, but he didn't want to even think of the state of her inferiors.

Still, there was little choice if they were to attempt anything, so he took a deep breath and spoke. "Clan, our first objective then, is to find a means of entry, perhaps that used by operatives Orren, Bursamen or Tannac. Once in, our first objective is to find the Stakira, Oshana, or, alternatively, our operatives. Assess any possibility for recovering artifacts. The Minister Larran is expendable. Overriding objective is to recover the Sister and John Crichton and lead them to safety."

"Safety? Where?" Clan asked, looking more like a startled child than a commanding figure. "And is that even.....her?"

"It is her, or may help us to discover more of the truth we seek" he looked around the gathering group. He could only hope they believed him. "Either case, we will do our best to recover them. Mish has the plans as provided by our informant. I might approach Authority Guide Gulmac to try taking the estate off of his hands once it's been secured. Gulmac will be suspecting me of being involved, so I may as well. He just might grant it, in order to restore some status quo and make it difficult for me to be effectively involved in militia activities. The Authority Guide wants the appearance of peace and order above any concern for justice. Do not reply to any contact claiming to be from me, it would be a trap. I won't attempt any until I know if Gulmac is going to watch closely, and how he will do so. Eventually some of you will find a way to contact me."

"Where do we go in the meantime?" Clan asked. "Where do we take her?"

"You will have to find somewhere to hide out, but I don't suggest going to any of your usual places for a time" Perkunas replied, despite a growing sense of futility. He had never organized any operation that had any resemblance to any of the situations that may be involved. He didn't know what was wise to do any more than the young volunteers, but he knew he had to try whatever he could think of and try to appear like a knowledgeable leader. "For a short time, use one of Minister Larran's illicit storehouses. The one at the edge of the Urlain Sector might be best. I doubt they would find any reference to it, even if they studied Larran's entire estate. If my attempt is successful, you can use them indefinitely. All of you have scouted many of them from time to time, correct?"

Perkunas spread a scowl around the group. They nodded and busied themselves gathering their supplies and gathered at the door. "One more thing" Perkunas gathered the nerve to say. "Inton is not to be considered an ally. I believe he has decided that the agenda of his militia is no longer in agreement with ours at this point. We should not stop him or risk conflict, but if he is found to be any threat to your objectives, you are to do whatever is necessary. Understood?"

Clan nodded, but as he expected, the loss of Inton and the prospect of having to confront him didn't help the unit any.

Perkunas checked them cursorily and straightened the collar on one. "I suspect Tannac would have entered by the service entrance in the garden perimeter off of the southern most street."

Clan lifted a delicate eyebrow skeptically at Perkunas. "That's too obvious."

"Exactly" Perkunas grinned, opened the door and watched Clan lead the group into the bustling mob.

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Oshana squatted in a dark corner of a desolate, grimy room, tensely wringing her hands. John emerged from the darkness around the room and sat down against the wall a few feet away. "Dragged Pip into an empty room huh?"

"Not meee! No, a woman." Oshana looked to him with her royal blue eyes wide.

"A woman? Like....Eve? Queen of de Nile? Emily Frost? Nana Visitor? Susan Hunt? Samantha Brown? Blondie? Gwen Stefani? Anne Bolyn? Anne Frelling Rice?!" The next instant he was seeing from his own eyes again, looking at the inside of a room. A slightly singed and very naked Tannac was trying to wake Chiana. "Whoa talk about your weight watchers" he remarked before the glimpse ended and he found himself looking at Oshana again in the empty room or cell.

"The one who was with you! Who is it?" Oshana twisted her finger in a fist.

"That's Tonic" John explained. "Operative. Closet Fena, Double Espresso variety. Okay, so she dragged us in from the balcony, somehow. Couldn't leave us to our spastics on the balcony. Bit late though. Pip thinks there's gonna be trouble from the cheap seats."

"Trouble?" Oshana's eyes stared wide as if he were an oncoming truck.

John contemplated for a moment, and then scratched his ear. "Well you haven't been out much, Pumpkin. See, there's this thing that people down home call the mob effect. And now I think about it, those people out there probably haven't been to many major Canadian ice hockey events. See, they don't know what to do. So, rather than do nothing, they'll panic. Pan-de-monium. Riots, sacking, raping, pillaging, burning, plundering, Scourge of the Spanish Main, Long John Silver, everything upside down, Elvis is back, dogs, cats humpin', no lines at the DMV, WalMart execs learn respect, Martha's paying like she ought to, all the good Nebari are gettin' down on the farm, Ozzie makes a good record, ain't pretty."

Oshana stared.

"They'll break in to find out what's going on, think maybe they'll rescue her or something, but all them babies will be out with the bathwater once they get started. They'll storm the place, burn it, haul it off by the handful as souvenirs, build their houses with it, next thing you know it looks like the Roman Forum. It'd probably be a whole lot better if we weren't here."

"Why?! Why do this madness!?" Oshana grabbed him by the shoulders and shook, John's perceptions weaving much like a real hard head shake.

"Idlebloble" John garbled until she stopped shaking him. "I'm thinking that Pip managed to see that they're wigging out over some hairy human streaker coming up behind Chiana, doing an E.T. finger thing from the forehead, then their Sister appearing to choke, collapse, have an ugly scene, and be dragged back inside by some streaking stick of a Nebari. Does any of that sound normal to you? No. Not even for this place. It was pretty bad timing to segue into the exorcism right there, Pumpkin."

Oshana shrunk back into the corner and stared ahead, biting her nail. "Bad idea?"

"Well ....Yes." John had to agree.

"But the shield is up?" Oshana half-stood.

"Sure. How many frazzled Fenas is it good for?"

"Ooh" Oshana sunk back into the corner and returned to biting her nail.

"Not many, yeah. Kinda figuring that. Oh well. So, Pumpkin: what's the plan? Don't look at me, mine suck." He watched Oshana vanish. "Hey I understand you wanting to disappear, Fruitcake, but we need some action here!" he hollered at the walls. "You trap Larran like he trapped Chiana, like he trapped you! Keep him from getting back and get him out of Chiana. How about finishing that exorcism and saving that good woman's soul?! Channel that demon back to the fires and brrrimstone!"

"It's not supposed to-! None of this is-!" Oshana partly reappeared from the waist up, flinging itself from wall to wall. John felt as if Oshana's mind quivered around him.

"Supposed to?" John replied despite Oshana's hysterics. "Pumpkin, you're talking to a guy who is supposed to be back on his home world" John pulled a wooden soap box from the shadows, dusted it off and stood on it. "Not supposed to have a clue if intelligent life exists anywhere else. Supposed to be married to Alex with 2.3 children. Supposed to be taking out a 90-year mortgage on a very average home sandwiched between others. Supposed to be watching angry inner city gangsta types shy on respect turn his nice little neighborhood and kids into miserable, ugly hoods. Worry whether his little theories about speed and gravity are gonna prove him an idiot!"

"You're an idiot?" Oshana honestly asked him.

"Depends on who you ask I guess" John stepped off of the soap box and kicked it away. "I'm not supposed to be going through any of this crap! But I've got a feeling it's only the latest in a very long list of screwed-up, Bad Humor ice cream bar unhappy happenstances."

"But I don't doooo these things!" Oshana fully reappeared and paced in front of him, which was the more remarkable to John for the fact that she wasn't moving her legs. "I know what she wants!" Oshana pointed at him before returning to pacing. "But I mean I don't know how, I just do things! How, what was known was....lost." She avoided his gaze, looking ashamed.

"Hey, I don't remember you asking to be born into this mess." Before continuing, he waited until his point was heard and he had her attention, which he could sense whether or not she appeared to be looking at him. "I think we oughtta do what Pipmeister commands, but first I head the Larran 'n' Chiana sandwich toward where you and Larran are havin' a soul jam. You can try to get him off her hands and give her a break for whatever she has in mind. Then when she's done and Mad King Louis the Ninetieth is gone, us assorted Life-Savers can go back to the right stay-fresh individually wrapped packages. Especially the cute one."

Oshana quit wringing her hands and stared, her royal blue eyes disappearing from her face before he felt himself pouring at them like water through a drain.

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Tannac stumbled back several feet into the opposite wall when Chiana came to with a wrenching scream. As if fighting with something swarming around her, Chiana flailed blindly around and snatched at thin air. She just as suddenly collapsed again into a slump against the wall.

Before Tannac's body could decide whether to move toward Chiana or stay where it was, the door burst open. A figure leapt at her and tackled her. Tannac rolled out from the attacker, briefly gaining leverage and pinning the attacker into the wall. With a strong jab into her side, the attacker struck her away, then snatched one of her pulse pistols and moved toward Chiana.

"Remain where you are!" Tannac shouted, aiming her multi-facility pulse rifle at the attacker, whom, as she had a hunch, was Bursamen. He halted, half aimed at Chiana. "That is not Larran" Tannac enunciated.

"Then where is he?" Bursamen shifted his aim to John, then to her.

"I don't know" Tannac held up a calming hand. "But she's fighting something."

"You perhaps?" Bursamen smiled thinly, truing his aim at her.

Tannac smirked.

Bursamen frowned and aimed at Chiana. "Then what do we do? Wait until Larran tells us who he is now?"

"Well, you're not shooting her" Tannac replied with a brittle stare.

Bursamen set down his pistol after seeing his life counting down in her eyes. He stood, adjusting his jacket in a vain attempt to look less of the unnecessary appendage he felt like he was. "What do we do then?" he decided he might as well ask.

A change in the noises from the mob outside caught both of their attention. Shrieking and loud slaps of some current cut over the noises of the mob. "I don't think what we do next is our choice exactly" Tannac observed while she moved over to the window and peered outside.

"Hey I'm sorry!" John blurted to life. Running the balls of his palms over his forehead, he clenched into a ball.

"Take...." Chiana spoke softly, barely heard above the noise outside "take me to, the...." she trailed off, gazing with depthless sorrow toward the window. A tear clung to one lower eyelash.

Knelt on one knee in front of Chiana, Tannac rested one hand on one of Chiana's shoulders. Tannac's slightly open mouth gaped more in a crestfallen gasp to see the tear in Chiana's eye and deep stare aside and downward. It was beautiful and tragic as if she hadn't known either.

John stood, suddenly covering between his legs with his hands in a panic and sitting back down. "Hey, Persimmon, you mind?" he gestured to Bursamen.

"Hm?" Bursamen passively watched John make all kinds of bizarre gestures before figuring out that John meant he wanted to borrow Bursamen's jacket so he'd have something on. "Oh" Bursamen decided to give it to him, wondering to himself if he'd ever be needing anything before long.

Tannac made an affronted hum to Bursamen while John put on the jacket. "Sheeez I feel like a flasher" John muttered, reaching over and starting to help Chiana stand.

Chiana leaned her face into John then listlessly shoved him away. "Nnno!" she blindly turned into the wall.

"Damn. Pip's pissed, knuckleboy went and complicated the plan again, you better take her, Tonic" John handed Chiana's arm to Tannac.

"You give up easily, but better for me" Tannac opinioned. Seeing neither John or Bursamen were taking her innuendo, she sneered. "The name's Tannac. Take her where?"

"Her room. That's over in the Presidential Suite."

"Get serious or I'll make you serious" Tannac pushed the barrel of her multi-facility rifle at his buttocks.

"The big fancy building in the center, go in from the adjoining wing" John elaborated, letting Tannac go ahead and walking gingerly after her. "Man what I'd give for some dignity. Hey at least I'm not alone" John whistled, watching Tannac's bony body walking. "Now that brings new meaning to lean. Hey stringy, I got plucked and barbecued, now I'm a runaway off the table. What's your line?"

"Clinthan gas. Sentinels" Tannac explained. "You're okay if you can hurry through it and not inhale any, but they'll rot just about any fabric right off of you."

"If you inhale any?" John asked.

"You're incapacitated as your air passages blister and fill with puss."

"Ooh I asked" John reminded himself. "What old Chemical Ali would've given for that."

"Look useful, hunky, and cover for us" Tannac told Bursamen.

"What about him?" Bursamen asked, gesturing to John.

"He's hunky too" Tannac answered, guiding a muttering, stooped Chiana out the door.

Chiana suddenly shrieked. "NeaA! N-n-nnn" she tried speaking. In the blink of an eye, she grasped for Bursamen. "Lost him!" she stared to Bursamen, unseeing through her white eyes.

"Larran?" Bursamen grasped Chiana by the shoulders. "He's back in his own body? Frell!"

"No need, and no time, rabble" Larran spoke through John's voice, grabbing Tannac's arm with one hand and taking the nearest pulse pistol on her with the other. With a hard jerk, her forearm snapped in half, a sickening crunch and twist of her arm followed by a gasping shriek from Tannac as she fell back, knocked unconscious. "Now mo-k!" Larran was caught by surprise at Chiana landing a hard knee strike into his chest.

Chiana vaulted over him as he hunched over and grasped for her, striking him from behind and sending him falling forwards onto the floor. Leaping in reverse, she spun around in mid-flight by throwing one leg out to turn herself, landing on his back just as he was attempting to stand. Sliding off his back over one shoulder, she brought his head down into the floor with her hands locked behind his head. She sprung back onto her feet to kick, but lurched uncertainly as she still couldn't see.

Bursamen stepped in and grabbed John's body before Larran could recover, hooking his arms behind his back and pushed him into the wall. "Try again, Minister" Bursamen growled.

John's body slumped. Bursamen looked aside in horror as Chiana fired a pulse pistol into the unconscious Tannac. Sneering in anger, Bursamen threw John's body at Chiana, sending both bodies down to the floor. Diving into the jumble, he recovered the pulse pistol and barely held himself from shooting both Chiana and John. He realized then, however, that he might just send Larran back to his own body, where he might have a better chance of escaping.

"Nothing goes right!" Bursamen growled, throwing the pulse pistol down and grasping at John's body to restrain him.

"Tell me about it" John said, sounding distinctly more like himself.

Bursamen looked to Chiana, who was now lurching in some inner struggle.

"Chiana says she needs to get Larran and herself to the suites he was keeping her at, the center of the place?" John gestured. Bursamen nodded. "Anyway, time to decide whether to get her to Larran and Oshana's carcasses or check her into the Omni all-suite hotel in Chicago's magnificent mile" John reached for Chiana and passed her to Bursamen. "I'll try to take care of Tonic."

"Tannac. You? You don't know dren about Nebari physiology. Where's our heart?"

"Generally missing" John quipped, taking the still-stumbling Chiana back "but I take your point. Besides I don't really dig that macho movie tearjerking moment stuff."

"Where are you going then?" Bursamen asked.

"I know a great dock back home for fishing all day and making out at night when this is all done" John replied, helping the struggling Chiana down the hallway. "Meanwhile, back at the Ponderosa, jury's still hung. And man when they hung 'em back then, they stayed hung. But nothin's like it used to be huh? Gonna try for Dr. Frankenstein's lab with the monsters."

"NuuUH!" Chiana managed to swing John into the wall. John turned to face her. She forced him to stand upright and pressed into him. "Neeeeow, Crichton" she screeched in a way that was, nevertheless, definitely Chiana. "We go to my rooms, you know, where I said before you thought you had a frelling plan? Now nah!" she struck an arm at the hallway wall opposite John, then punched and kicked it as if she were trying to tear it down with frustrated rage alone. "Frelling lost him! Fekkik!" she flailed her fists into John's chest as he took her up against himself and tried to calm her.

"Hey, hey steady there, Pip" John took her shoulders and spoke softer while she calmed down. "You forgot something. What was it?"

"Hm?" she hummed and nearly whimpered, looking around blindly and trying to calm.

"You told me to remind you in case you forgot to remind me like I asked."

"Wha?" she looked up at him through her confusion and stress.

He scruffed her hair with a hand. She looked aside and smirked, then swatted his hand away. "Don't frelling muss m-my hair" she sniffed and rested the side of her face on his chest. "Please be....be serious" she muttered.

"Right, Genie's out of the bottle. Maybe Spooky can't control these things as we'd like. Might like. Hey Persimmon, wasn't there somebody with you?" he looked over to Bursamen.

"Bannik. Kastara, yes. No idea where he went, but Tannac and I were having a little disagreement, so I think he....ran."

"Good idea. Come on, flustered" he pulled a stumbling Chiana into a run down the hall alongside.

Chiana stopped suddenly and gaped into a room. "Whoa."

"What is it?!" John frantically looked into the room.

"Pretty greens" Chiana observed. "Nice chaise lounge too. Woo I'd like a recliner like that."

"I think you better get to the lab, Persimmon" John grabbed Chiana by the hand and pulled her along with him. "We're off to the Pipmeister Suite!"

A loud crackle of energy was followed with the directionless roar of a mob. "I think the shield went!" Bursamen hollered after John.

"Ah hell that's fine, I was kind of tired of the place myself" John hollered back at Bursamen. "Try to stay out of the way while the great uncleansed wash in!"

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