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Part 3: Jack
After four years, Jack Crichton forgot for weeks at a time that his son was dead. And then something would happen that would bring it back with a shock that was almost as sudden as it had been when the Farscape I module had vanished, taking John with it.
This time, the reminder had come in the form of a very odd phone call from John’s best friend from early boyhood, DK. An hour later, Jack was sitting in DK’s car, going somewhere, and remembering the days immediately after the accident. DK had been John’s partner on the Farscape project, and was the leader of the IASA team that tried desperately to analyze what little telemetry and data they had recorded when the module had been hit by a radiation wave and vanished from sight in a flash of blue light. Jack, as a senior member of the astronaut corps and the father of the missing pilot, had bulled his way onto the team, and lead the search for some sign of the module in case it had crashed on Earth. But there was very little to go on; the radiation had made the data iffy at best, and there was nothing on the radar indicating a crash. No matter how much they wanted to find some trace of John, they had had to conclude that he was gone. The official report suggested that the module had broken up during John’s slingshot maneuver and been destroyed in some sort of electrical storm. Privately, DK told him he thought the ship had been sucked into a wormhole; the two of them took comfort in the possibility that John was still alive, somewhere. But they didn’t really believe it. They hadn’t been in touch with each other in almost four years.
And now, out of the blue, here was DK with some cryptic story about needing him to see something. Just hearing DK’s voice on the phone was enough to bring back memories of the accident, and he knew that DK was remembering the same things, and feeling the same loss. What had possessed DK to call? And for that matter, why had he agreed to go on this mystery tour?
It hit him suddenly, and he turned to DK, sitting silently in the driver’s seat. “This is about John, isn’t it? They’ve found the module.”
“Sir, do you really think that if they’d found something, they’d have sent me to tell you about it?”
Thinking about standard protocol, Jack said, “I suppose not.” After a few more moments, he asked, “Where are we going?”
“Your house, Sir.”
“Why?”
“In all honesty, I’m not sure. If it turns out to be nothing, you can kick my backside all the way back to IASA.”
“I’ll do that, son,” he said, and lapsed back into silence.
Thinking about John reminded him that DK had gotten married and was a father himself. “How’s the baby?” he asked.
They talked for a while about Joey, the two-year-old. DK obviously enjoyed fatherhood.
After a moment Jack commented, “John was sure a handful at that age. I imagine you were, too. Make time to enjoy his childhood.”
“We do. Every minute.”
“Good. I wish I had.” It wasn’t that he’d neglected John, or his younger sisters, exactly. But he knew that John, especially, had been fit into the corners of his busy life. At least with the girls he hadn’t had so many missions to train for, or to fly, and there’d been more time. He wondered, sometimes, if John would have fought so hard to fly Farscape I if he hadn’t still been trying to get his father’s attention.
DK pulled the car into the driveway and turned off the engine. Jack looked at him questioningly. “We get out,” DK said.
All right, thought Jack, we’ll just play this out, whatever it is. He climbed out of the car and started towards the front door, pulling out his keys.
“No, this way. The back,” DK said, heading for the gate.
From the way DK craned his head trying to see over the fence, Jack had no doubt that he truly wasn’t sure what would be waiting for them. Still, it was HIS house, and Jack kept pace with DK. He was right behind him as DK opened the gate and they started into the back yard together.
He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but he was startled to see two figures in long black coats standing by the gazebo. They were facing each other and leaning together so their foreheads touched, hands on each other’s upper arms, as if they were holding each other up. They look like fugitives from a ‘Matrix’ movie, or members of a terrorist group, he thought. Well, they were in HIS yard, and he started across the lawn towards them, DK following silently.
Then they straightened up and looked at him, and he could see they were a man and a woman. The woman wore her dark hair in a braid down her back; the man – Jack inhaled sharply and stopped dead. The man couldn’t possibly be who he seemed to be. John was dead. His brain repeated it over and over, but his eyes insisted that the figure across the lawn was John.
It looked like John, and yet it didn’t. He looked leaner, sparer, tougher. Older. Maybe a lot older. The coat, the boots, the leather pants – his son would never have dressed that way. But now “John” started towards him slowly, and the body language added to the general physical appearance to increase the illusion. He moved like John.
Afraid the figure would vanish, Jack called out, “Son?”
John stopped walking, tension apparent in every line of his body. “Dad,” he said.
“John?”
Once again John started moving towards him. Some part of Jack’s brain noted that the woman behind John was standing where she’d been, surveying the scene and taking in everyone’s movements.
But then he was standing in front of John, and he could see unshed tears in his son’s blue eyes. Without any more thought, he wrapped his arms around his lost son and held him tightly, trying to take the pain away, his own eyes tightly shut against threatening tears. He dimly noted that John was still solidly there. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t hallucinating.
After a moment, John looked over Jack’s shoulder and spoke to DK. “Thanks for trusting me, man.”
“I, uh, couldn’t take the risk. I mean, if it was you…hell, I had to see you.”
“There’s not a squad of Marines or a SWAT team preparing to move in, is there?” John asked, apparently quite seriously.
“No.”
John backed off a little from his father and smiled. The smile helped. He looked more like the man who had gone into space four years ago and never returned.
Behind John, Jack could see his companion. She had left her post by the gazebo and come up to hover protectively. Still stunned, Jack said, “Is it really you, Son? Where have you been?”
“That,” he said to both Jack and DK, “is a very long story. The short of it is, yes, it’s me. Stuff has happened, a lotta stuff, but, it’s me…. The Farscape module and I got sucked into a wormhole and ended up a long ways from here in a very bad place and couldn’t get back. I, uh, can’t stay here forever. How long I can stay depends on whether you guys think you have to turn me in…. “
Turn you in? Jack thought blankly. To whom?
While he was trying to form a coherent thought, DK apparently said something that sent John over to hug him as well. “I’m sorry,” John said, “both of you,” he added, looking over at his dad. “I’m so sorry.” He backed away from DK, and the three men looked at each other for a moment.
I cannot believe he’s here, Jack thought.
Then John looked back over his shoulder and smiled at the woman with him. Jack looked at her face for the first time, as she smiled at John. She had a kind of severe beauty about her, and a remarkable air of dignity. John reached for her free hand and pulled her forward to stand beside him.
“Aeryn,” he said, gesturing to Jack and DK, “this is my dad, and my best friend DK.” He put his arm around her waist and continued proudly, “Guys, this is Aeryn Sun, my wife.”
“Hello,” she said in oddly accented English.
It was the last thing Jack had expected John to say. Maybe it was the identical coats and boots, or the ‘Matrix’ image, but he’d assumed she was a comrade in arms, or a bodyguard, but now, looking at the way she leaned into John’s embrace….. He realized he’d misjudged her. Well, well, a son reborn, and a daughter-in-law….
Aeryn held out her hand awkwardly to him, surprising him yet again.
Jack looked back and forth from his son’s glowing face to his wife’s more tentative expression, and then took her hand. He smiled at her, and she smiled cautiously back, as they shook hands. She reminded Jack of a deer – skittish is the word he would have used to describe her at that moment.
But as soon as they were done shaking, Aeryn retrieved her hand and looked around the yard critically. After a moment she spoke matter-of-factly to John, but her words were incomprehensible.
Jack looked at DK then, both of them realizing suddenly that if John were telling the truth about where he’d been, she might well be from a very long ways away.
John, unaware of their scrutiny, said to Aeryn, “Probably a good idea.”
He turned back to his father and said, “Can we go in the house? It’s pretty exposed out here.”
Jack and DK exchanged more glances. He wondered again what John was so afraid of. Still, paranoid or not, he was not letting John get away until he had some more answers about what had happened to him. He nodded and said, “Sure, Son. If that’s what you want.”
John sighed, recognizing the tone of voice, but Aeryn nodded in apparent satisfaction and said clearly, “Thank you.” John took her hand, and the two of them and DK followed Jack into the house.
Forcing himself not to look behind to make sure John was still there, Jack headed for the family room. It was a comfortable room, and had enough places for all of them to sit.
There were so many questions swirling in his head, Jack couldn’t seem to sort even one out to ask. He finally fell back on Southern Hospitality. “Would you like something to drink?” he offered, hoping fetching refreshments would give him more time to think..
John brightened perceptibly at the question. “What do you have? Do you have Coke? Root beer? Any beer? Lemonade?”
Taken aback, Jack said, “Well, I’m sure there’s a fair collection of different things, why don’t you come with me to the kitchen and pick something out?”
“This is great!” John exulted. “Aeryn, what do you want?” As John gave her a rapid-fire list of suggestions, Aeryn gave him a look Jack could only think of as long-suffering, and said something briskly. John grinned, and she smiled and added something more gently. He said, “Okay,” then leaned over and kissed her forehead and headed for the kitchen.
Jack followed him, watching his body language as he went through the doorway and headed straight for the refrigerator. If it wasn’t John, he was doing a very convincing imitation of someone who knew his way around the house.
“Hey, you got a new fridge!” John announced. He stood looking at it for a moment.
“The old one crapped out about 3 years ago,” Jack told him. “Go ahead and take a look, I think there’s a little bit of everything in there. When your sisters and their families come, everyone wants something different.”
“Are they okay?” John asked wistfully.
“They’re fine, they’re fine. The kids have grown, of course.”
“Of course,” said John, subdued. After a moment he shook himself and pulled open the refrigerator door.
Jack watched as John started pulling out cans and bottles. The mention of families brought Jack’s thoughts back to the woman John had brought with him. He thought back to his initial impression of her.
“Aeryn carries herself like a soldier,” he offered. “Like she ‘s always watching your back.”
“I thought you might notice that.” John looked up for a moment, and then was distracted by something in the refrigerator. “All right! Coca Cola!” He put several cans on the floor, and then continued as if he hadn’t stopped. “Yeah, she was born in space, raised to be a Peacekeeper – They’re kinda like Nazis….. “ Once again he pulled out a drink in triumph. “Meeting me got her thrown out – irreversibly contaminated by contact with an unknown species.” He made a dramatic face and thumped himself on the chest with both hands. “Unknown species, that’s me!”
Jack took this in. “You’re saying she’s not human. She looks human. She’s very beautiful.”
“Nope, she’s Sebacean. It’s a good thing humans look Sebacean, though. It probably kept me alive more often than it almost got me killed.”
Jack filed away the word “Se-bay-shun” for future reference.
As John pulled out a few more cans, muttering, “Aeryn will love this one,” Jack watched, amused at his pleasure in such ordinary things. Somehow, more than anything else, that convinced Jack that wherever his son had been for the past four years, it hadn’t been on Earth. He looked at the collection that was growing, and went to a cupboard.
“Here,” he said, handing John a tray to put his drinks on. John looked a little sheepish, but accepted it and began filling the tray. Watching, Jack went back to the subject of Aeryn. “Nazis, you said?”
“Well, not exactly Nazis. But not very nice guys. Aeryn was a Prowler pilot. Um, like a fighter pilot, but more of a grunt. You follow orders and do what you’re told,” he continued, not noticing that he was hardly reassuring his father.
Just when Jack was about to offer another comment, John stood up with his tray and added guilelessly, “But that was a long time ago. She’s an ex-Peacekeeper now, has been for a long time. It’s been amazing watching her bloom away from the PKs. She’ll always be a soldier, but she’s become so much more.” He grinned at his dad. “This is SO cool! She’s gonna love this stuff!”
Jack looked at all the bottles and cans on the tray and remarked, “If she doesn’t float away….”
As they came back into the family room, Jack heard Aeryn’s voice saying what sounded like the word John had used for her race. DK was leaning forward and had obviously been enjoying a conversation with her. Jack wondered if she spoke more English than he had thought. She obviously understood it.
Jack watched as John shared his loot with Aeryn. He couldn’t help remembering John sitting at the dining room table with a bag of Halloween candy, sorting through it and giving his little sisters the pieces he knew were their favorites. He must have been what, 10 or 12? But this time, obviously, his wife had no favorites for him to bestow, because nothing was familiar to her.
She gave John a very dubious look when she tried the Coke. When he encouraged her to give it a second chance, she made a wry remark, but gamely went along. Watching them interact, Jack began to relax. John was bouncy, almost hyperactive. Aeryn was much more reserved – but obviously willing to indulge him in his excitement. She tried a series of drinks after John had opened and tried each one himself, savoring every remembered flavor.
It was comforting to see that wherever John had been, however far away, he had found someone who cared for him, in every sense of the term. THAT thought, however, reminded him that he still had a lot of questions, and he also had the sudden thought that John was using the drinks as an excuse to avoid talking. He interrupted the tasting session. “John, you said you can’t stay. I don’t understand. You’re home now…”
John closed his eyes briefly and sighed. He stopped playing with the drinks, and sat down next to Aeryn again. He reached out and grasped her hand, pulling it into his lap.
“Dad, I’m not stupid, I know I should march right in to IASA and announce I’m back.”
Damn straight you should, Jack thought, but he didn’t interrupt.
“They’ll examine me, debrief me – and they’ll never let me out again. I have a home out there, Dad, and friends….I’ve changed so much. So much has happened to me. I’ve seen so much ugliness, and so much beauty.” He looked at his father earnestly, and said, “I can’t stay on a planet that doesn’t even have space travel – and I can’t ask Aeryn to stay. I’ve already cost her too much.” He turned and looked at her, guilt written all over his face.
She smiled reassuringly, but Jack was shocked to see tears appear in her eyes.
“A lot has happened,” John repeated. “I’ve been away from Earth for four cycles – years – in the hell hole of the universe. If the IASA goons ever get a chance to do a physical, they’d lock me up and throw away the key, never mind what they’d do to Aeryn.”
Jack was beginning to get an idea of why John was so nervous. “Son, I think you saw too many science fiction movies as a kid. We don’t dissect people at IASA,” he said soothingly.
“Maybe. You’ve probably noticed Aeryn and I can understand each other, and she can understand you. That’s translator microbes. They colonize the base of your brain and translate for you. That’s just for starters.” Aeryn leaned her head on John’s shoulder then, and Jack was unaccountably alarmed. “Besides that, I’ve had…a….a brain injury, I’ve got alien brain tissue in my head just so I can talk. I’ve got some memory loss. But I’m me. I’m not brainwashed, I’m not a clone, a copy, a twin, a shape shifter, or a robot… But, they’d never trust me. Hell, I don’t even know if you will….”
Jack kept his face blank as he listened. Brain injury. Memory loss. Speech problems. These were not things any man wanted to hear relating to his son. He sensed that they must be true, though there must be a lot more to the story. He could see the lines in John’s face from more than just the passage of time.
But John had indeed hit the nail on the head in terms of all the dire possibilities that would be considered, and for which tests would be devised. Simple tests, complex tests, painful tests, short tests, long tests – probably never enough tests to allow the government to declare him to be John Robert Crichton, Jr., back from the dead. No wonder he didn’t want any part of that world.
Jack and DK looked at each other in concern. DK asked John what he wanted from them, and at last John explained what this whole cloak and dagger routine was about.
“I have some stuff for both of you. Tapes, a kind of diary.”
A diary, Jack thought. To know what had happened….but John was continuing. It seemed he had brought all the things a scientist would think were important – Data on his trip, information about wormholes, even material about potential threats to Earth.
“I can give you guys this stuff now,” John said, “and we” – and here he looked over at Aeryn – “can leave. You can turn it over to the proper authorities, and say we overpowered you, or ran off before you could stop us. Or, hell,” he shrugged, “say you came home and found the stuff sitting on the front porch. At least this time I know that you guys know I’m okay, and we got to say goodbye.”
Jack set his jaw and he saw that DK was looking upset too. No way you’re running out on us yet, Son, he thought.
As if he had read his father’s mind, John ran his hand through his hair, took a breath, and started again. “Or, if you’re willing to take the risk of being found out, Aeryn and I can stay for a little while, we can catch up in more detail. You guys,” he said, looking wistfully from Jack to Aeryn, “can get to know each other a little better. Maybe I can see the girls somehow…. have a pizza…. some chocolate…. Hell, maybe even watch ‘Star Wars.’”
Thunderstruck, Jack heard himself saying, “I got the DVD’s for you.” He had never admitted that to a soul, not even his daughters. When the first ‘Star Wars’ movies had come out on DVD at last, a year or so after John had disappeared, he had found himself standing in front of a display in a video store thinking, John would have been so thrilled….and he couldn’t stop himself from buying the set. For John. And then he’d come home and put them in the back of his bedroom closet, where they remained, unopened.
He wasn’t sure if John had heard or understood the comment, since he was asking Aeryn about staying for a visit. Her reply this time had some recognizable words in it.
“Did she say ‘Yoda’?” Jack asked.
“And ‘Dagobah,’” DK agreed.
John laughed. “Yeah, well, I did what I could to keep Home alive….”
Jack suddenly realized how alone John must have been, lost in a hostile end of space. He threw a glance at DK, and then said to John, “Give us a minute, okay?”
“Sure, Dad.”
Jack and DK moved off towards the kitchen and spoke in low tones.
“Where did he come from, DK?”
“I swear, I don’t know any more than you do, Sir.”
DK continued on, but Jack ignored him because it was the answer he had expected. When DK ran down, he asked, “It is John, isn’t it,” hoping for confirmation.
“You think so, don’t you? He’s your son.”
“And you were a lot closer to him than I was.” It was an admission that nearly every parent had to make eventually – their children grew up and away from them, no matter how strong the bond.
DK seemed surprised.
Jack turned his attention back to John, and he couldn’t help but observe Aeryn too, since they were still sitting side by side on the sofa. She had a faint, enigmatic smile on her lips. John had his arm around her shoulder and was idly playing with wisps of hair that had escaped her braid. His other hand was in her lap again, playing with the fingers of her hand. Although his eyes roamed the walls, his attention seemed to be totally on Aeryn. They’re joined at the hip, Jack thought. If he stays, it’s going to be a two-for-one deal. And if he goes, it’ll be because she thinks it isn’t safe for him to stay.
DK came to much the same conclusion. Soulmates, he called them, and then, going back to the issue at hand, he declared, “Yes, I think it’s him. There’s probably no way to tell for sure without medical tests, but he seems dead set against that. Maybe if you spend some time with him, get him to relax….”
Jack, thinking of the tests he’d already imagined, and many more that he couldn’t, made up his mind. “I’m not doing anything that will betray him. I’ve got my son back at least for a little while, and I want him here as long as I can have him. What about you?”
He watched DK agonize for a long moment. In the end, DK came to the conclusion he expected – he wasn’t prepared to risk his family’s security, but neither would he endanger John. Satisfied, Jack briefly rested a hand on DK’s shoulder, and the two moved back across the room.
John and Aeryn looked up expectantly.
Striving to reassure Aeryn almost more than John, Jack took a deep breath and said to his son, “I won’t deny that you seem different from when we lost you…. But….my heart says that you’re my son John. And I really don’t want to let you go again so soon after just finding out you’re alive. I’d lie to the President of the United States if I had to, to keep you here a little longer.” He looked over at DK and then back to John and Aeryn. He could see the tension ease in both of them. With satisfaction, he continued, “I’m an old Hero whose son just came back from the dead – even if they were inclined to give me grief, I can call in enough favors with the government or the media or whatever I need, that I’ll be okay if they find out that I didn’t tell. You can stay here for as long as you’re willing. I’ll call in sick. They owe me.”
John gave Aeryn an “I told you so” look and Jack smiled to himself.
“But I have a family now, John,” DK said reluctantly. “A wife and a little boy.”
John was excited to hear that, and they talked for a few minutes about Heather and Joey. Jack was idly wondering if he would ever see John’s children, or if it was even possible for John and Aeryn to have a child when DK asked Aeryn, “Do you have children?”
He looked as if he regretted the question, but Aeryn only replied, “No,” with the ghost of a smile, and then added something in Sebacean.
“Not yet,” John translated quietly. “We know we can have healthy kids though. When the time is right.” He looked at Aeryn again and grinned. “That’s the story of our relationship! ‘When the time is right’!”
Jack found that the prospect of half-alien grandchildren didn’t bother him in the least. He was sure that John wouldn’t be staying on Earth, and the thought that he could have some kind of “normal” life where he was, was appealing.
Looking at DK, Aeryn spoke urgently to John.
“She’s right, DK,” John said, for all the world as if they’d all been able to understand her. “We have no right to endanger you – your family needs you. You should go now before someone notices you aren’t at work.”
DK asked curiously, “How do you know I won’t tell someone?”
“You’re my best friend,” John whispered. “And besides, if Aeryn trusts you, believe me, I trust you.”
Now that, Jack thought, was the truth.
“Jack,” DK asked, “I think your car’s still at IASA. Are you going to be able to get it?”
Truthfully, Jack had forgotten he’d left it in the parking lot when DK picked him up. He assured DK he’d work something out, and watched DK and John say their good-byes.
DK let himself out the front door, leaving Jack to stand awkwardly with John and his wife, wondering where to begin.
John broke the silence by saying, “So, do you have any chocolate?”
Jack felt the tension drain out of him, and he let out a huge laugh. “If not, I guess a trip to the market is in order. We should probably get you two some different clothes, too, if we’re going to go out. You’re kind of conspicuous,” he said, with a smile to soften the criticism.
Aeryn said something to John with a grin, and he laughed and kissed her.
“I promise,” John told her. “We can find some jeans or something. Obviously PK chic is out of fashion.”
Jack looked back and forth between them and said, “Did you bring any of those translator microbes with you?” John looked dumbfounded, and Jack explained with a big grin, “Well, how else am I going to get to know my daughter-in-law?”
