A jubilant Crichton contacts the ship. He’s excited to have created another wormhole, but his pleasure is short-lived -- a plasma leak has developed in the starboard propulsor.

Aeryn prepares to bail out and abandon the module, but Crichton is determined not to lose one of his few links with home. Remembering that Rygel had been talking with a mechanic on the planet below, he gets the coordinates and brings Farscape One down for repairs.

In a junk-strewn shop on the desert planet called "Dam-Ba-Da Depot", Furlow the mechanic evaluates the damaged ship. She doesn’t think the damage is too serious, and is confident it can be repaired by nightfall -- even though that's not soon enough for the impatient Aeryn.

It's not soon enough for Crichton, either. The solar flares that created the new wormhole are scheduled to die out by then, and they won’t be back for almost five years.

As they look around a plaza, a recorded message begins playing. Captain Bialar Crais is offering a substantial reward for the capture of D’Argo, Rygel and Zhaan.

Aeryn quietly tries to sabotage the message beacon, but two armed and vicious-looking aliens -- Rorf and Rorg, a mated pair of Vorcarian Blood Trackers -- notice her doing it.

When the bounty hunters challenge her, she claims she’s merely interested in the workings of the beacon itself.

They are not mollified. As his companion holds Crichton at gunpoint, Rorg attacks Aeryn.

"Back off!" Crichton shouts at Rorf. "Get that weapon out of my face before I feed it to you."

Cowed, Rorf orders his companion away from Aeryn. Crichton then orders Aeryn to keep her mouth shut, "unless I order you to speak."

He demands to know the Vorcarians’ interest in the fugitives mentioned on the message beacon. The aliens proudly announce that they are bounty hunters – "the best."

"Second best," Crichton retorts. "I’m Butch. This [Aeryn] is Sundance. You can forget about the fugitives."

He tells "Sundance" to rip out the beacon. "I don’t want any other idiots seeing it and getting a bright idea – because that bounty belongs to me."

Back aboard Moya, the flares are making it difficult to contact Aeryn and Crichton. D’Argo is livid – he’s long past ready to go.

"I’m going down to that planet and drag them both back here myself," he announces.

On the planet, "Butch" Crichton talks shop with the bounty hunters. They tell him Moya was recently sighted in a nearby system, and that they figure Dam-Ba-Da Depot will be the Leviathan’s next stop.

Hoping to keep an eye on them, Crichton offers to split the bounty if they will help him capture the fugitives.

Rorg wants to split the money "70-40". Crichton insists on an "80-40" split.

Once they’re alone, Aeryn asks Crichton how long he expects to keep up the ruse of being bounty hunters. It doesn’t have to last long, Crichton replies – only until Farscape One is fixed.

Why did the scam work in the first place?

Seeing a similarity to his father’s pair of pet Dobermans, Crichton guessed that the Vorcarians are a race organized in packs, and among packs the toughest alpha male is the leader.

As long as he can keep verbally assaulting the bounty hunters, they will follow him. Any sign of submission, though, and he’s lunch.

Meanwhile, Aeryn finally finds the message she was looking for on the beacon. Captain Crais addresses her personally, promising an amnesty and honorable retirement if she will betray the others and return them to the Peacekeepers.

Crais gives his word as a Peacekeeper captain, prompting Crichton to comment, "we know what that’s worth."

Still, Aeryn looks torn.

D’Argo lands and begins to search for his missing comrades. A cloaked figure notes his arrival, and hurries to reach town ahead of him.

As the Luxan outlaw approaches town, Rorg prepares to ambush him. He’s very surprised when D’Argo sneaks up behind him and gently taps a sword against his spine.

Unfortunately, D’Argo fails to spot Rorf. She distracts him for a moment, and the male stuns him.

The cloaked figure has a quiet word with Furlow. She says she "may have a buyer who’s interested," then turns her attention to Crichton, telling him about several more problems on Farscape One that need repair.

After expressing her opinion that the ship is a heap of junk, she makes an offer to buy it. It’s the second offer she’s made, arousing Crichton's suspicions.

When pressed, Furlow admits that she’s really interested in it because some of the parts show traces of having been near the energy of a wormhole. Since nobody knows how to create wormholes, she wants to study the parts for any clues they may provide.

As she tries to strike a bargain, she mentions that she could sell him a second-hand Prowler she’s just acquired. Alarmed, Crichton rushes out to see which of his crewmates has done something foolish, telling Aeryn to stay with Farscape One.

In the plaza, Crichton sees D’Argo being led into town in chains. Crichton intercepts the bounty hunters, complimenting them on the work and instructing them to leave D’Argo with him while they pursue the others.

Convinced he’s been betrayed, D’Argo loudly promises to kill Crichton. Rorg stuns him again, then asks the human, "Crichton?"

Madly improvising, Crichton asserts that his full name is "Butch Crichton."

Despite Crichton’s warnings that nothing will make him talk, the bounty hunters prepare to torture D’Argo for information. Crichton tries to stop them, but they’re beginning to suspect he’s got a secret connection to the fugitives.

Crichton argues that torturing D’Argo is dangerous -- when Luxans lose blood, it can cause them to undergo a fatal toxic reaction system -- and "a waste of time." Nonetheless, the bounty hunters challenge him to prove he has no interest in protecting D’argo.

"Waste a little time," Rorg says.

Forced to keep up the façade, Crichton gives one of D’Argo’s tentacles a painful twist – not so coincidentally helping to clear the blood flowing from the bounty hunters’ first attempt at torture – and begins "threatening" him, telling him that "unless you do what I tell you to do, it’s over."

"Do you understand me?" he asks. D’Argo nods, and Crichton punches him in the face.

In the repair bay, Furlow encourages Aeryn to quit hanging around watching her work. Aeryn refuses to leave – and soon spots someone trying to access Crichton’s flight recorder.

When she tries to stop him, the "mechanic" fights back with brutal skill, knocking Aeryn senseless after a long fight. Furlow then hits the imposter from behind and kills him.

Unfortunately, Aeryn has another problem. After the imposter knocked her to the floor, she accidentally looked directly at the flaring sun overhead, and now she can’t see.

Aboard Moya, a strangely cheerful Zhaan teases Rygel by pretending she’s naked. However, when she learns that D’Argo has gone down to the planet, she becomes concerned, and follows.

On the planet, the bounty hunters pick up her scent almost as soon as she lands.

Crichton reports D’argo’s capture to Aeryn. She tells him about the attack of the false mechanic – now believed to be another bounty hunter on their trail – and her hopefully temporary loss of vision.

Left alone while the bounty hunters chase Zhaan, D’Argo begins to struggle against the chains.

Sensing the bounty hunters’ pursuit, Zhaan conceals herself with a ritual. However, another photogasm-inducing flare leaves her distracted again soon enough.

Crichton returns to the bounty hunters’ lair, and is pleased to find them gone. He goes to free D’Argo, and learns the prisoner is already free shortly before the Luxan tries to kick him in the face.

"Now I can start on your sensitive appendages," D’argo says. He chases Crichton around the room as the human tries to calm him down.

"I just wanted to go home!" Crichton shouts.

"With no matter to the cost to the rest of us," D’Argo answers.

That seems a little unfair to Crichton, who points out he’s not the one who ripped off Pilot’s arm in an effort to get home. (D’Argo and most of the others did, in "DNA Mad Scientist".)

"Catch a clue, pal," Crichton says, "because I’m tired of sticking my hand out only to have you snap at it."

"Every time I let down my guard," D’Argo complains, "you disappoint me."

"Sorry," Crichton answers. "I’m only human."

D’Argo admits that he often forgets this, since Crichton looks so much like a Peacekeeper. Crichton doesn’t accept this answer, though – he thinks the real problem is that D’Argo always wants to be the alpha male.

For once, they see eye to eye, each admitting that they have their selfish and childish moments.

"We’re never going to be friends," Crichton says.

"Friendship is a lot to ask," D’Argo replies.

Crichton asks, "Then how about respect?" They agree that they can be allies, and shake hands.

Still blind, Aeryn challenges Furlow, voicing her suspicion that the mechanic has no intention of fixing the Farscape module anytime soon. She offers to make a deal.

The bounty hunters, meanwhile, spot D’Argo and Crichton heading back to the repair bay and open fire.

Crichton tells D’Argo to get Aeryn and leave in the Prowler, but D’Argo refuses to abandon him.

"Great," Crichton says. "So we can be buried together. I’ll deal with this."

He walks out into the open, but the bounty hunters aren’t cowed by his bluster any more.

As Crichton dodges their fire, Aeryn emerges from Furlow’s shop. She stumbles occasionally, but puts the message beacon out and plays it.

In the message – which Furlow has doctored – Crais announces that the bounty for the fugitives has been withdrawn.

After thinking about it, and ducking a couple of shots from D’Argo, the bounty hunters decide that the fugitives are no longer worth their time. They depart.

Crichton’s ready to get back into orbit and experiment with the flares again, but Zhaan arrives with bad news. The flares have stopped.

She tries to console Crichton, telling him there will be other stars with flare activity, but Crichton can only think of how close he came to developing a way home.

The module is ready, and Aeryn’s vision is slowly coming back. Crichton has one question, though: will Aeryn take up Crais’s offer to betray the crew?

She won’t Crais is telling the truth about the "honorable retirement", but his version of honorable retirement is a radiation-induced brain fever that leads to a living death.

Even so, she says, "it was nice just for a moment to believe it was genuine – that I could go back."

Finally, there’s the matter of Furlow’s bill – it’s substantial, and she doesn’t want food cubes. What she wants is the tape with Crichton’s wormhole data, and she wants the exclusive rights to it.

With a sigh, Crichton gives it to her. He can always start his research again.