Was she really going to do it?

Aeryn pounded the bar with her forehead.

It didn't hurt.

She had done it so many times now the locals weren't surprised she did it again.

She did not feel the pain anymore.

She still hadn't touched her drink and it just stood there, reminding her of thirst, and of old times.

Old pains.

Was she really going to do it?

"Frell!" Aeryn muttered to herself.

This is the third time she asked herself that question, which was absurd, because she had already made that decision.

She had done it.

She had left Moya.

She had left Crichton.

Her glass trembled when she stomped her elbow on the bar and held her head within her hand.

She was tired.

So tired.

The bartender wanted to say something to her, but his fear for the strange looking female outsider made him waver, so he didn't.

He cleaned another glass and put it back on the shelf behind him.

Aeryn slowly turned her head to her right, knowing that she was being watched.

"What the frell are you looking at?" Aeryn said angrily to the bearded humanoid alien sitting next to her and he looked away, spilling drops of his beverage over his trousers.

Aeryn didn't care.

She was now meeting her contact, in this bar.

This terrible place.

But Aeryn had been to worse places.

The drink next to her elbow begged to be tasted, but Aeryn ignored her urges as she gazed at the doorway.

Aeryn was early.

Way too early.

She began to question her decision to come this early, and the fact that her Prowler would be standing at that dock for at least several arns, surrounded by eager, thieving, locals, before Aeryn would return.

How long would she have to wait?

Another arn?

Probably.

Hopefully not.

The man Aeryn had spoken to promised her, no, guaranteed her that the contact would meet her at the arranged spot.

Now where was he?

Perhaps he was already here...

Aeryn began to look around and examine the people around her.

But all these aliens looked the same.

Nothing special.

But it could be a ruse.

A test.

All these people could be in on it.

In on this test.

Even the bartender, who was looking at her right now.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Mind your own business." Aeryn said as she reached for her pulse pistol in her mind.

She was beginning to miss silence in this busy, noisy bar.

No, not silence.

She missed a particular sound. A noise. A hum.

Moya's hum.

"Well, what's this then?" a strange voice suddenly said loudly.

A strange-looking man entered with a bright smile on his face.

"Never been here before," the man said.

Then the noise, the bright lights and the disgusting smell came to his senses.

"And now I know why," the man added. "Wow, that's...that's..."

"That's what?" the bartender said, clearly insulted by the man's thoughts.

"Unique." the man said after carefully choosing his words.

He then swaggered off towards the bar, keeping his hands within his pockets at all times.

Could this be him?

Her contact?

The man she was meeting?

This strange man, with his pine-stripe suit, light brown trench coat and big eyes?

"Could be worse." the man said, putting on his glasses as he inspected the place. "Could be much worse."

"What shall it be then?" the bartender asked.

"Oh, no drinks for me." The stranger said, taking off his glasses as he approached the bar. "I'm just here to absorb some of the atmosphere. To feel the vibes. To seize the day."

This tall, skinny man jumped on a barstool next to Aeryn, gazing at the stunned bartender with a smile after rearranging his coat to suit his position.

"This man was definitely Sebacean," Aeryn thought.

But Aeryn had been wrong before.

"What?" Aeryn asked.

The man just asked her a question and Aeryn hadn't heard it as she was lost in her own thoughts.

"I asked if you've ever been here before." The man said.

"No, I haven't." Aeryn answered.

"I thought as much." The man said. "You are a long way from home, am I right?"

"I have no home." Aeryn said. "Not anymore."

"Well, neither have I." the man said mysteriously as he sat beside her, facing the door and leaning with his hands upon the bar.

"I have a ship." Aeryn said.

"So have I." the man said intrigued as he looked deep into her eyes.

Aeryn looked away.

"I never stay in one place too long." the man said as he looked away as well and gazed upon the door, never letting it out of his sight as he resumed talking, just assuming Aeryn was listening to his words.

"I always travel from place to place. Help people when I can…"

He turned his face to Aeryn again, who felt like pressing her head against the bar again.

But she didn't.

"How many drinks have you had?" the man asked her, looking at the full glass of raslak.

His questions and words started to annoy Aeryn.

"None." she said as she looked defiant into his eyes.

But what she saw in those eyes frightened her for a moment.

Something ancient. Something powerful.

Something human.

But he only smiled.

For he looked in hers.

"Such sad eyes." he whispered to her.

Aeryn looked away in fright.

She was afraid that he might get too close.

Too close to her heart.

"Go away." Aeryn said.

"What?" the man asked surprised.

"Go away. Please."

"I didn't mean to…"

"Look." Aeryn said. "If you have any business with me, which I sincerely doubt, then please say so, if not then go away. Now."

The man slowly backed away with a strange look in his eyes.

"You're getting me all wrong." The man said to her. "I did not mean to…"

"Just go." Aeryn repeated.

The man was interrupted.

Aeryn saw in his eyes that he didn't like being interrupted in the middle of a sentence.

His words may have been important, but Aeryn did not care.

She hadn't intended to hurt him with such vicious words, but in the end she strangely enjoyed it somehow to see the hurt look in his eyes.

The man closed his mouth.

"All right." He answered after a slight pause, surprising Aeryn. "Fair enough."

He stood up from his stool with a mighty leap and left the bar.

Just like that.

But then he reappeared again, popping his head around the corner as he looked at Aeryn with his eyes squinted.

"But this is a public place." he said. "I can do whatever I want."

The other guests looked at him strangely as he re-entered the bar, walking past a large table where other aliens were playing a game resembling the human game of pool, and the man snatched a ball the size of his palm from the table and threw it in the air as a game as he approached Aeryn again.

She ignored the stranger with his strange smile and old eyes as he sat down beside her again on the small stool.

"I have a gun." Aeryn simply said, not even looking at the strange man with his long brown coat.

"I haven't." the man said. "I'm unarmed, well…not entirely unarmed…I still got this..."

He played with a strange object in his hands which he had quickly grabbed from the inner pocket of his coat and before Aeryn could look upon it the stranger had put it back again.

"So are you just going to sit here and annoy me?" Aeryn asked with a unsettling and unfriendly voice.

The bartender also looked upon the strange man, washing up a glass with a dirty towel as he was chewing on a piece of gum.

"Something like that." the man said, already annoying the dren out of Aeryn.

She held the glass of raslak in her hands but still would not drink one drop of the beverage.

"This isn't really the sort of place I usually go to." the man said.

"These dusty, claustrophobic bars…things…"

He looked around the bar again with an uncomfortable look on his face and he glanced at Aeryn once before going on with his monologue.

"I'm not much of a drinker really. One drop and I'm practically losing my mind. Although I do have my days…"

"Look, I'm really not in the mood for this sort of games…" Aeryn said. "So please frell off and go find someone else to rant to…"

"I'm not ranting." the man said, as if deeply insulted. "I tend to talk a lot, yes, but that doesn't make me someone who rants. Does it?"

"You know…" Aeryn said. "I really don't care."

BLAM!

A gunshot pierced the bar.

Aeryn immediately sat upright, reaching for her concealed weapon in a reflex.

As she gazed upon the figures dressed in black armour, she noticed the stranger beside her was looking at the other door, where even more attackers entered the bar.

The music was put to an abrupt end, and a man emerged from the group of commando's, taking off his mask and revealing himself to be Sebacean, with a large scar covering the right side of his face.

"Good evening, all!" the terrorist leader said. "Don't mind us! We're here looking for Solem! And we know he's here! Be so kindly to co-operate people and you will live through this day! Thank you!"

"You should've left when you had the chance." Aeryn whispered to the stranger.

"Perhaps you're right." he replied.