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Part 4: John
John Crichton looked out the viewscreen in the front of the transport pod at the fragile blue and white sphere in front of them. Earth. Home. Or not. He’d been on an emotional roller coaster from the moment he’d been granted this reward. Damn it, why did everyone in the Uncharted Territories think they could go rummaging through his mind! In this case, the Do’ya had reached in and found his heart’s desire – the chance to go home for a visit, knowing that he wasn’t making a one-way trip. It was the equivalent of Dorothy, clicking her heels and saying “There’s no place like home” three times…and being able to do the same thing to return to Oz.
But getting there and back was only half the story. There was still the issue of what to do, who to see, what to bring, how long to stay – how to get down to the planet without being seen, how to get OFF the planet without being seen….and the little green guys had left all that up to him. One thing he knew for certain was that he didn’t want to stay. He’d been in the Uncharted Territories too long, had been irrevocably changed, for good and for ill. And he was still haunted by memories of a visit “home” in which he’d failed to protect D’Argo and Rygel, and then had fled with Aeryn, fully expecting to die. No, he couldn’t stay.
But the thought of being able to see his father, and his best friend DK, to let them know he was okay, of being able to show Aeryn just a little of his homeworld, of who he was, where he’d come from – it was irresistible. He wanted to show off to Aeryn – and he wanted to show Aeryn off to his dad and DK…. In the end, he had accepted the gift, and tried to think what he most wanted to do while he was there.
Now they were on their way down to the planet.
He knew he’d surprised Aeryn when he strapped on his gun before they left Moya. She’d expected to have to argue with him. They’d argued for days over this trip, and his plans, but he knew it was because she was afraid for him, so he didn’t let it upset him. Besides, her Peacekeeper training showed him every flaw, every potential pitfall. He might choose to disregard her advice, but he did pay attention to what she said…..
The plan was to hope they could sneak in from high orbit without being detected, and for D’Argo to drop them off in a relatively sparsely-populated area not too far away from where John’s father lived. John thought that they ought to be able to hitchhike into town and then walk to the house. Between himself and Aeryn, he wasn’t concerned with the potential dangers of hitching. Even a serial killer wouldn’t stand a chance with Aeryn…
He could feel her standing behind him as he looked at the viewscreen and the home he’d been away from for so long. He knew she wasn’t happy about this. Sometimes he couldn’t read her at all, but this one, he understood. It wasn’t that she begrudged him the chance to visit his homeworld. She didn’t. She was afraid she would lose him here, one way or another. He turned towards her – away from Earth, even as the planet was growing larger in the viewscreen – and pulled her to him, holding her tenderly in reassurance. He ran his hands gently up and down her back, and she leaned into him, accepting the comfort. John knew it would be the last time she allowed herself the luxury until they were back aboard Moya.
“Hey. I love you,” he whispered.
“I know,” she said to his chest. “I love you too.”
D’Argo growled a warning that they were entering the atmosphere and things would get rough. “Okay,” John said quietly. He reluctantly let go of Aeryn and they both sat down and strapped in for the landing.
John slapped D’Argo on the arm and said, “All right, Big D! Here goes nothing! We’ll be back!” Carrying a bag with all the things he wanted his dad to have, he headed down the ramp, aware of Aeryn still behind him, confirming contact plans with D’Argo.
It was early morning, still somewhat dark but lightening rapidly, and it was chilly. He was glad to have the long Peacekeeper coat, though he imagined Aeryn wouldn’t feel as much need for hers. When Aeryn came down the ramp, he grabbed her hand and scurried for the cover of some nearby trees.
The transport pod took off again quickly, and John was amazed at how much noise it made in this context. Aeryn scanned the skies for any sign D’Argo was being pursued, and John did a visual sweep of the area, hoping that the noise hadn’t attracted any attention to their presence. Although the area was basically rural, there were a few scattered homes, and there were some drivers on the road as well. No lights turned on, no cars stopped.
When it appeared that they were down and safe, John allowed himself to just stand still, breathing in the sights, sounds and smells of Earth. Traffic. Cattle. Electric power lines. Dry brush. Exhaust fumes. A jet flying overhead. Birds. Constellations he recognized. The familiarity was so overwhelming, he had to shut his eyes and bow his head.
Aeryn watched him quietly, but didn’t intrude. After a moment, he shook his head to clear it, and said, “Well, come on. We’ve got a plane to catch. The highway’s over there.”
John slung the bag over his shoulder and held out his hand to Aeryn. They walked towards the roadway quietly, both of them looking around with curiosity. John didn’t think he’d ever been here before, though he’d lived less than an arn away at one time, but it still screamed “home” to him.
Once they reached the highway, he explained the genteel art of hitchhiking to Aeryn. “See, you stand by the side of the road, and you hold your thumb out like this,” he said, demonstrating by holding out his right arm, hand in a loose fist with the thumb sticking up. He was overtaken by another wave of nostalgia – hitchhiking with DK to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break in college. God, he’d been so young.
Aeryn stiffly imitated the gesture.
John looked at her for a moment, stifling a smile, then moved in close behind her, putting his outstretched arm alongside hers, and trying to mold her body to his own looser stance. “Like this.” He couldn’t resist leaning forward and whispering it in her ear, his left hand on her hip.
“Stop it,” she snapped, pushing back at him sharply with her hips. “We’re supposed to be hitchhooking!”
“Hitchhiking,” he amended, not at all repentantly, though he knew she was right. Focus, he thought. Focus. You’re trying to get to your dad’s. “Okay, try again.” They practiced for a while until Aeryn relaxed a bit. It wasn’t much better, but it would have to do.
It was light enough now that traffic was picking up. He hoped they wouldn’t have much trouble. They started walking along the road, prepared to thumb a lift.
“Well, now what?” Aeryn demanded half an arn later after a long series of vehicles had passed them without so much as slowing down for a better look.
“Well, to be honest,” John said, discouraged, “I wouldn’t pick us up either.” Somewhere during the time they’d been walking, he’d taken a good, long human look at the pair of them. They looked like a surefire recipe for getting carjacked. Between the coats and the boots they both wore, and the way Aeryn carried herself – totally on the alert, no matter how much she tried to “fly casual” – it just wasn’t going to happen. Not even one of those serial killers he’d joked about would pick them up.
Aeryn searched his face, then said, “Well, if we’re going to follow your plan, we need to get to your father’s house somehow. Can we get one of those transports?”
“Cars,” he corrected absently. “Well, we sure can’t buy one, we don’t have any money. And I’m sure my credit history’s toast.” Not that they could buy a car even if they HAD money. That required identification, and he couldn’t provide any.
“We’re just going to have to borrow one.”
“Don’t you mean steal?” Aeryn asked.
“Borrow,” John said adamantly. “We’ll only take it as far as we have to, and we’ll leave it where it’ll be found and returned. Borrow.”
Aeryn shrugged. “Borrow,” she agreed, soothing his conscience. “Where are you going to find one to borrow?”
He looked around. They had walked several miles down the highway, and were near several houses. One had a car in the driveway that looked similar to the last car he’d owned. It seemed quiet enough still at that hour that with a little luck, they ought to be able to get it started and get going without anyone noticing. “That one,” he told Aeryn, pointing. She gave him an approving nod and started towards it.
“I’m going to have to hotwire it,” he said.
“Whatever.”
Well, John thought, all that tinkering with his module over the past four cycles had been good for something. The engine started with a roar. Feeling more cheerful, he leaned across the passenger seat and opened the door for Aeryn. “See!” he said in triumph. “Get in, and we’ll get going, just in case the guy who owns this car happens to come looking for it any time soon….”
Aeryn shrugged. “Well, since this is your plan, that’s probably guaranteed.” She put the carry bag full of John’s “gifts” for his father into the back of the car, then wrapped her long leather coat around her and climbed awkwardly into the front.
John leaned across her and pulled the door closed. As he sat back up, he saw the nervousness in her eyes. He paused for a moment and ran a hand down her cheek. “It’ll be all right,” he promised. He really hoped it would be.
Aeryn buckled her seatbelt, and John put the car in gear, backed out of the drive and started down the street. It was an odd sensation, initially. It had been four years since he’d driven a car. But driving seemed to fall into that old category of “just like falling off a bike,” and soon he was much more comfortable. He got out on the highway and pointed the car towards town.
After they’d been driving for a while, John had an inspiration. “Hey, check the glove compartment, why don’t you?”
“The what?”
“The glove compartment.” He gestured with his right hand to panel in front of her. “People keep all sorts of things in there. There might be something we can use.”
Aeryn fumbled with the latch and opened the door. She held up a roadmap and asked, “Do you need this?”
John gave her discovery a quick glance and said, “No, we’ll do fine. This is the main highway. If my dad hasn’t moved, I can find the house in my sleep.”
After sorting through sunglasses, a hair brush, packs of tissues, and other items that populated the average suburban glove compartment, Aeryn came up with something she apparently couldn’t even guess the function of. “What’s this,” she asked, holding up some sort of small electronic device.
“Jackpot!” exclaimed John. “That’s a cell phone! Scourge of mankind, but it means we don’t have to find a way to pay for a phone to call DK.”
He’d been a little worried about that part of the plan. His father’s house, assuming Jack Crichton hadn’t moved in four cycles, had a back yard that opened onto a sort of greenbelt that would allow them some flexibility. They could run without being trapped, if they had to, and D’Argo could actually land the transport pod there and pick them up, in a real emergency.
Aeryn had made it plain she didn’t like the fact that he intended to telephone DK and have his friend bring his father to the house. It made more sense to just show up unannounced. She was right, but he desperately wanted to see both his father and DK, and if something went wrong and they had to run, there wouldn’t be another chance. They would have to go back to the Uncharted Territories without spending any more time on Earth.
So, the plan was to get DK to bring his dad home, talk to them both, and hope they’d be willing to keep his visit a secret. At least he would be able to see them both, have the chance to say goodbye….
Aw, screw this, he was getting morose again…. Dammit, I’m HOME, I’ve got Aeryn, and I’m going to see my dad! he thought. To distract himself, he reached forward and pressed some buttons on the dashboard. Sound burst forth, and he broke into a grin! “All right! Radio!”
Aeryn had been staring out the windows; now she turned towards the sound. “And you call this?”
“Music,” he announced gleefully. “Well, I don’t recognize this, exactly,” he said with a small frown, “but it’s rock and roll. You want to tune it for me? If we find an oldies station, there’ll be stuff I know.” At least, he hoped there would be.
Aeryn looked at the controls dubiously, but soon found that punching one set of buttons made the music change.
“Just keep going till I tell you to stop,” he said.
After a series of stations that either had commercials or unfamiliar music, Aeryn landed on one with a song he knew. It wasn’t even a song he had liked very much, but he hadn't heard a single piece of human music that didn’t involve his own voice in four cycles. He said with delight, “There! That’s perfect! All right!” He started bouncing in the seat and tapping his hand on the steering wheel. He wasn’t actually singing – he didn’t actually remember the words, since it hadn’t been a favorite – but he hummed along with the music, loudly.
Aeryn watched him curiously.
At that moment, everything that had happened in the past four years fell away. He was driving down the highway, playing the radio, with his girl – no, even better, his wife – by his side. For the first time in four cycles, he was truly relaxed. A knot in his stomach that he hadn’t even been aware of, disappeared.
He flashed Aeryn a giddy smile, then turned back to the road in front of him.
But as he drove along, the giddiness drained away.
I just stole a car, he admitted to himself. John Crichton, Astronaut, had just stolen a frelling car, even if he was planning to “give it back.” And what was more – it hadn’t only been Aeryn, with her PK “Don’t frell with me” attitude, that people were shying away from when they tried to hitchhike. A glance in the mirror on the sun visor confirmed that he had the same hard look in his eyes. You can’t go home again, he thought.
Though he didn’t actually turn the radio off, he did turn the volume down. They drove along in silence until they reached the turnoff.
“Okay,” John announced, “this is the neighborhood.” They were driving down a street with row after row of homes. “Can you see into the back, behind the houses?” This was the key to his plan – that there had been no change in the undeveloped land behind the back yards.
Aeryn peered out the window, studying sightlines. “I can see a little,” she said, “not enough to tell if there’s really no one there.”
“That’s okay, most people wouldn’t be trying to look over the fence anyway. Privacy issues. Can you tell how far back the yards go?”
“Yards?”
Damn, the woman had gaps in her vocabulary. The translator microbes surely understood his meaning – which meant Aeryn didn’t. “The stuff without any buildings on it….”
“I can’t tell,” she said. “Is there a way to see this from another angle?”
“Yeah, we’ll drive around the block and look from there,” he said, throwing a glance over his shoulder to check for cars. And just as suddenly as that, John recognized his father’s house, and it stopped being an abstract exercise. He nearly stopped breathing, and he did slow down the car to a crawl, despite all instincts to the contrary.
Aeryn looked at him, mildly alarmed.
“That’s the house,” he said, pointing. “Right there.” After only four years, it didn’t look much different. A few different plants, but everything else was the same, at least, as much as he had ever really paid attention. ”The trees look bigger,” he said.
Aeryn watched him some more, and then reached a hand out to touch him gently on the upper arm.
John told his heart to stop pounding, and picked up speed with the car.
Driving around the block, he confirmed that the area was pretty much unchanged. “Okay,” he told Aeryn. “Let’s go park someplace and I’ll call DK.”
But when the time came and he held the phone in his hand, he panicked. What if DK said no? What if DK wasn’t there? What if his father had moved, wasn’t even with IASA anymore?
Aeryn watched him stare at the phone. After a moment she reached out her hand for it, and said, “Show me.”
“Huh?”
“Show me how that thing works.” He still didn’t quite comprehend, and she added, “I’ll do it.”
That actually made him smile. He could just imagine her talking to DK…. “No,” he said gently, “I’d better do it. He knows me.” He tilted his head sideways and added with a smile, “He thinks I’m dead, but he DOES know my voice….And besides –” he added, as the thought struck him, “no translator microbes.”
Aeryn gave him a look which said, “I knew that, you idiot! Now do it!”
Chagrined, he touched her cheek, then dialed the number for IASA headquarters and asked for DK’s office. There was a pause before the phone rang, and then a brief delay before someone picked up the phone and said distractedly, “Hello?”
John froze. He couldn’t quite form a thought beyond the recognition of DK’s voice.
“Hello?” DK asked again.
“Is he there?” Aeryn asked, and John realized he hadn’t said anything. If it had been him answering the phone, he would have decided it was a junk call by now.
“No, no-no-no-no-no, DK, don’t hang up!” John said frantically.
It seemed he’d caught him in time. “Yes?” came a cautious voice on the line.
“DK, uh, DK, it’s me, man. John.” This was the moment of truth. Could he get DK to listen to him? Believe in him? “DK? Are you there?”
“I don’t know who you are, but this is a pretty poor joke.”
John just kept babbling, hoping he’d be able to get through. “DK, DK, please don’t hang up. I know I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, but not on the phone. Please. Can you do something for me?”
After what seemed like forever, DK asked, “What?”
John mentally breathed a sigh of relief. DK was going to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Does my dad still live in the same place? And is he still at IASA?”
What DK made of that, John couldn’t tell, but he answered, “Yes, to both questions.” After a pause in which John mentally thanked the fates, DK asked, “Why?”
John took a deep breath. “DK, I’m asking you to make a really big leap of faith here. I know you must be wondering who the hell this really is, and why I’m bothering you…. I’ll explain, I promise. But can you do something for me? Can you get my dad? Call him, ask him to come with you, no questions asked? Bring him out to the house. I’ll be there, in the backyard. I need to talk to you both, privately. Please.”
“You’re asking a hell of a lot, John, if it really is you…. Your dad’s going to want explanations, you know how he is…. I haven’t talked to him since, since we stopped looking for you.”
John began to get edgy. He understood why DK was so reluctant to get involved, but….he NEEDED for this to work. “It’s important. You can do it, just tell him, I don’t know, tell him anything.”
DK took a deep breath that was audible over the phone. “Why don’t you just call him yourself?” he asked reasonably.
“Because,” John said softly. Because I couldn’t handle it if he didn’t believe me, he suddenly realized. Because I couldn’t handle it if he talked to me, and he still wouldn’t come. But he only said, “I need to see him, and I want him to be able to see me from the first. And I don’t want my voice on his phone where it might be recorded by random security.” That last was true enough, and he could see Aeryn agreeing with him.
“What is this all about?”
“Do I have to spell it out, DK? We both know if I’m who I say I am, a lot of people are going to want to talk to me. And I don’t want to talk to them.” He definitely didn’t want to talk to them! He continued, “Please, DK. Just do this one thing for me. Don’t tell anyone. Bring my dad to the house, let me talk to you both for a little while. After that, we’ll see what you need to do, okay?”
John could guess that DK thought this whole situation was insane, but he was relieved to hear his friend say, “I’ll try….John. I’ll try. Where can I reach you?”
Knowing DK, he probably felt at this point that he’d made a commitment, and would do his best to fulfill it. It was the best John was going to get. “There’s nowhere you can call,” he told DK. “Just bring my dad to the house. I’ll be in the back. Please, DK, I’m begging you, don’t tell anyone else.” And with that, he hung up, afraid to give DK the opportunity to talk himself out of coming.
He looked at Aeryn, and she searched his eyes. “It’s okay,” he told her. “He’ll come. I think. Without telling anyone.”
“All right,” she said. “How long?”
John thought for a minute. DK would have to work up the nerve to call his dead best friend’s father and invite him on a wild goose chase. Then he’d have to get John’s dad, and drive out here from IASA, where they both worked. “An arn or two,” he told her. “Depends on how much my dad argues. No more than two.”
She nodded. “Should we go then?”
“Yeah. But I need to make a some random phone calls with this thing.” When Aeryn looked puzzled, he told her as he dialed, “To keep the billing record from leading straight back to DK. This way it’ll look like kids making crank calls.” This didn’t clear things up, but it apparently convinced her he had a purpose, and he went ahead and made the calls.
“There. The cops will find it, and get it back to the owner,” John said, as he and Aeryn walked away from the car. “No harm, no foul. Well, I guess he’s out a little gasoline….” He wondered what a gallon of gasoline cost these days, and wished that he had something to leave to “pay” for the inconvenience to the car’s owner. But didn’t see what else they could have done. He sighed and put it out of his mind.
They walked a few blocks and then detoured into the parkland behind the house. It was more than a greenbelt, but less than a real forest. It was easy to walk through, and comforting. All the plants, even the weeds, were things he’d taken for granted all his life, until four cycles ago. He mentioned that to Aeryn, and she gave him a wry smile.
“Remember, I was born in space. All plants look alien to me.”
It was an interesting perspective.
He counted yards, and reached the one he thought was right. He led Aeryn forward and unlatched the gate.
Aeryn followed him quietly into the yard. The back had changed more than the front, and he looked around, trying to satisfy himself that this was the right house. There was a whole new patio, and he didn’t remember so many bushes along the north fence. Then he turned to his right, and saw the gazebo. He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He walked up and slapped a white post in satisfaction. “This is it. Mom loved this gazebo. It’s why they bought the house.” His gaze swept the yard and up to the back of the house.
“Did you ever live here?” Aeryn asked curiously.
“No, I was in college by the time they bought it. My sisters did for a while, though, and I came to visit a lot, at least till my mom got sick.” He stopped abruptly, unwilling to revisit those memories.
Instead, he set the bag of tapes and notebooks down on the steps of the gazebo, and began to pace around the yard, stopping to touch trees, flowers, even a brick wall.
The leaves were beautiful, the flowers overwhelming. He stood for a moment and just inhaled the fragrances of home.
John could feel Aeryn’s eyes on him from where she sat on the gazebo steps. Her voice washed over him as she quietly commed D’Argo, no doubt making sure he was on the alert. How odd that she was his anchor, even here on the world that had shaped him.
His thoughts turned to his father. He hoped DK was having luck convincing the very stubborn Jack Crichton to come along, no questions asked. Every time he heard a car drive by in the neighborhood, he froze, waiting to see if it would turn into the driveway.
It was ironic. On the one hand, he’d spent his childhood worrying that his father might not return from a mission. On the other, it had been John himself who hadn’t returned from a flight. He imagined his father’s face when he saw him there, alive – part of him couldn’t wait, and part of him felt incredible guilt over having put his father through the pain in the first place. Go figure. He was the one who’d been lost, chased, mind-frelled, tortured, doubled….and he was worried about his father. Humans.
He walked around the yard some more, trying to push aside his fears that DK would be unable to convince his father to come. He finally headed slowly back towards Aeryn.
She must have realized how nervous he was, because she picked up the bag and carried it over to where he stood.
“What if he doesn’t want to see me?” he whispered. “What if he doesn’t believe it’s me?”
“Shhhh,” she whispered back, brushing his cheek with her hand. “The man I met risked his life for us.” When he started to protest that that had been a construct, not his father, she slid her fingers over his lips and said, “You believed in him then, why not now?”
He leaned forward, touching her forehead with his. “You’re right, I guess. I just really need to talk to him, I need for him to have missed me as much as I missed him.”
Without a word, Aeryn reached across to put her hands on his upper arms, lending him strength, and he followed suit, accepting her support gratefully. He would be lost without her, and he knew it.
They stood quietly for a little while, leaning together. When a car stopped somewhere near them, John hold his breath. The sound of two car doors slamming followed. “They’re here,” John whispered, but he didn’t move, not ready to see if DK had been successful in getting his father to come.
When the gate at the front of the yard creaked open, he and Aeryn both glanced in that direction, still not breaking contact. “Two men,” she said quietly. “Is that them?”
John let out a sigh of relief and straightened up as he saw that it WAS his father and DK. His father started across the lawn determinedly, and then stopped, a stunned look on his face. Nervous, but unwilling to wait any longer, John started towards his father. Aeryn stayed behind and watched him.
Jack called out, “Son?”
John stopped walking, tension apparent in every line of his body. “Dad,” he said simply, unable to get any more out.
“John?”
Once again John started moving towards his father, and Jack did the same. This time they didn’t stop until they were standing only a few feet apart. John could feel tears fill his eyes, and then his father wrapped him in a hug so tight he could hardly breathe. Overwhelmed with relief, John tightened his own arms around his father in return.
After a moment, John looked over his father’s shoulder and spoke to DK. “Thanks for trusting me, man,” he said with all his heart.
“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?” He didn’t really think there was, but he had to ask.
DK took the question seriously. “No,” he said, without trying to joke it off.
John backed off a little from his father and smiled at both DK and his dad.
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.” He’d practiced the capsule summary, still not completely sure that he and Aeryn weren’t going to have to run. “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.” That was an understatement. He continued, some of his nervousness showing, “I, uh, can’t stay here forever. How long I can stay depends on whether you guys think you have to turn me in…. “
DK blinked. “I knew it was a wormhole!” he exclaimed. “We never had any good readings, but it was the only thing I could think of that fit the data we did have. There wasn’t any debris….” He trailed off suddenly.
John was astounded. It had never once in four cycles occurred to him that DK would blame himself for what had happened to Farscape I, even though they’d been co-creators of the project. He went to DK and hugged him, an apology as well as a greeting. “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.
Then John looked back over his shoulder. Not surprisingly, Aeryn had moved up behind him, carrying his bag of tapes and notes. He smiled at her, to reassure her, then 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 English.
His dad and DK looked properly surprised! John grinned at them.
Aeryn held out her hand awkwardly to his dad, surprising John as much as his father.
Jack smiled at her and took her hand.
But as soon as they were done shaking, Aeryn retrieved her hand and looked around the yard critically. After a moment she said to John, “Look, can we go somewhere less exposed? If you trust them, can we go inside to talk?”
She had a point, now that it looked like they were going to get a chance to talk. “Probably a good idea,” he told her. He didn’t even notice his father and DK react to the fact that Aeryn was speaking Sebacean.
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. Jack nodded and said, “Sure, Son. If that’s what you want.”
John sighed, recognizing the stubborn tone of voice, but Aeryn nodded in apparent satisfaction and said in English, “Thank you.” John took her hand, and the two of them and DK followed Jack into the house.
John had never lived in this house….but it still held memories for him. He tensed up again as they walked through the house to the family room. He looked at the walls, the photos, the furniture, holding Aeryn’s hand tightly as they walked. She squeezed his hand in reassurance, and he was sure she was making note of the entrances and exits…
His dad offered to get everyone something to drink.
John brightened perceptibly at the question. It made him think of all the things he missed, living on Moya. “What do you have?” he asked. “Do you have Coke? Root beer? Any beer? Lemonade?” He really didn’t care – he would take anything that was made on Earth!
When his father offered to take him to the kitchen to make a choice, he turned to Aeryn, eyes shining. “This is great!” he exulted. “Aeryn, what do you want? I bet he’s got Coke! You can try Coke! Or orange soda!”
Aeryn gave him a martyred look and said, “You know I don’t know what any of those things taste like. Just bring me something you think I’ll like.” Undaunted, John grinned, and she softened and added, “Or something you’ve been telling me about for the last four cycles!”
He said cheerfully, “Okay,” then leaned over and kissed her forehead and headed for the kitchen with his father.
“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,” his dad 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. He didn’t think there was any way he’d be able to see his sisters’ families. He realized with a pang that he missed being “Uncle John.” After a moment he shook himself and pulled open the refrigerator door and started looking through the shelves.
“Aeryn carries herself like a soldier,” his father commented. “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 bright red 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….. “ It seemed an apt analogy, for most of the PK’s he’d known, anyway.
Once again he pulled out a drink in triumph and continued, “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!” Actually, it still upset him to remember how much pain that had cost her, and for how long, even though in the end she assured him it was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
His father took this in. “You’re saying she’s not human. She looks human. She’s very beautiful.”
John grinned at the compliment. “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.” Another understatement, he thought. The almost getting killed part, anyway. Peacekeepers were remarkably unpopular in the Uncharted Territories. He kept pulling cans and bottles out of the fridge, amassing a nice pile on the floor.
“Here,” his father said, handing him a tray to put his drinks on. John looked a little sheepish, but accepted it and began filling the tray.
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. He was so used to tossing out half-appropriate references that no one else understood anyway, that he didn’t notice that he’d punched some worry buttons, and was hardly being reassuring.
When his tray was full, John stood up, careful not to tip any of the cans and bottles over. “But that was a long time ago,” he told his father, thinking of how much Aeryn had changed since they’d met. “She’s an ex-Peacekeeper now, has been for a long time. It’s been amazing watching her bloom away from the PK’s. 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!”
His father looked at all the bottles and cans on the tray and remarked, “If she doesn’t float away….”
“Aeryn, Baby, look at all this!” he enthused as he set the tray down on the coffee table in front of her. “Look, this is Coke, Dr. Pepper, um, here’s a Heineken – that’s real beer, not fellip nectar – um, this is a different beer, this is 7-Up….” He stopped when he saw the look on her face.
Aeryn gestured towards the tray and asked, “Are any of those non-intoxicating?”
Leave it to Aeryn to be thinking about being able to shoot straight when he had the Nectar of the Gods to offer her! He replied, “Most of them. Except for the beer. They’re soft drinks.” He popped the tab on the Coke can and handed it to her. She sipped gingerly, and wrinkled her nose.
“Try some more,” John encouraged. “You’ll like it! There isn’t a place on the planet where they don’t drink Coca Cola!”
“That explains why humans are still confined to this world,” she said, but she drank some more to please him.
John continued to hand her cans and bottles with enthusiastic recommendations, taking sips himself and savoring the tastes he’d missed for so long. If he were honest with himself, he knew he was using the drinks as a delaying tactic – but he really did miss Diet Mountain Dew!
Finally his father interrupted. “John, you said you can’t stay. I don’t understand. You’re home now…”
John closed his eyes briefly and sighed. It was time to try to explain the unexplainable. He put down the can he had picked up, and took Aeryn’s from her as well. He sat down next to her and took her hand for security.
“Dad, I’m not stupid, I know I should march right in to IASA and announce I’m back. They’ll examine me, debrief me – and they’ll never let me out again.” A bit melodramatic, he thought, but he really did think that was what would happen. “I have a home out there, Dad, and friends,” he said earnestly. “I’ve changed so much. So much has happened to me. I’ve seen so much ugliness, and so much beauty.” And you’ll never truly understand, he thought. However much I miss Earth, I can’t stay. Resolutely, he 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.
She smiled, but he wasn’t surprised 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.”
“Son, I think you saw too many science fiction movies as a kid. We don’t dissect people at IASA,” his father said soothingly.
Well, Dad, you didn’t live through an incredible simulation where they did dissect Rygel, John thought, but he only said noncommittally, “Maybe.”
It was time to try to tell his father some of what had happened to him. “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.” Actually, he thought, those little guys were pretty helpful. Civilization in the U.T.’s depended on them.
But, now the hard part…how to explain without getting into stuff he didn’t want to talk about, not just yet, anyway. Again, he had practiced it on Moya, at least trying to figure out what needed to be mentioned. Aeryn leaned her head against his shoulder, and he gathered strength from her closeness. “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.” All true. “But I’m me.” Also true. “I’m not brainwashed, I’m not a clone, a copy, a twin, a shape shifter, or a robot…” He’d hidden the twin in a nice long list, most of which had never happened, but it still hurt. He knew Aeryn was thinking of him too.
It was a pretty damning litany. He figured it boiled down to being locked up for the rest of his life. Despite the injuries and damage, despite everything, he was still John Crichton. “But, they’d never trust me,” he said to his dad and DK. “Hell, I don’t even know if you will.”
His father was looking at him with a studied neutral expression; it was hard to guess what he was thinking. It was DK who answered. “What do you want us to do, John?”
“I have some stuff for both of you. Tapes, a kind of diary. All the info I have on what happened to the Farscape I module. As much information as I’ve collected on wormholes. And some information about some really bad guys out there who might be coming this way eventually. I can give you guys this stuff now, and we” – and here he looked over at Aeryn again – “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, 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.” Being able to say goodbye was the one thing he was counting on.
His Dad and DK both looked unhappy.
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 his dad 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.’” He’d talked about Star Wars so much, even Aeryn could probably summarize the plot!
“I got the DVD’s for you,” his father said softly.
John grinned at Aeryn, who suddenly had the look of someone who had just had a revelation. “What do you think?” he asked her.
“Yoda from Dagobah?” she asked softly, eyes shining. “I’d like to see that.”
“Did she say ‘Yoda’?” his dad asked.
“And ‘Dagobah,’” DK confirmed.
John laughed. “Yeah, well, I did what I could to keep Home alive….”
His father looked dismayed, though exactly what had upset him, John wasn’t sure. Jack threw a glance at DK, and then said to John, “Give us a minute, okay?”
“Sure, Dad.”
While his father and friend talked quietly across the room, John sat next to Aeryn, one arm around her shoulder, hand playing with wisps of her hair that had escaped her braid, the other hand in her lap, playing idly with her fingers. His gaze, however, swept the room, lingering on family pictures here and there. The boy in those photos was so, so, so VERY lost now. But John hoped he could find him again, for a few days, visiting here with his father.
When his dad and DK finished their whispered conference and came back to where they sat, John’s gaze settled on his father, hoping that they would be able to stay.
His dad took a deep breath and said, “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.”
All right! John thought. That’s some serious lying coming from my dad…. It sounded like this was going to work out.
Jack looked over at DK and then back to John and Aeryn. “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.”
This sounded so much like his father that John gave Aeryn an “I told you so” look, even though she knew how worried he had been. Wonder of wonders, she didn’t argue with him!
“But I have a family now, John,” DK said reluctantly. “A wife and a little boy.”
John was surprised, and delighted. “All right! Congratulations, my man!” He slapped DK on the back. “What’re their names?”
“My wife’s name is Heather, and our son is Joey. He’s two, and quite a handful.”
“Well, he’s your son, that explains it!” John said jokingly, and Aeryn gave him an odd look.
“Do you have children?” DK asked her, whether on the spur of the moment, or in response to her expression, John couldn’t tell.
“No,” she said with the ghost of a smile. “But someday,” she added in Sebacean.
“Not yet,” John translated quietly. “We know we can have healthy kids though. When the time is right.” They really hadn’t talked much about kids yet. But she had just said, “Someday,” and he filed that away in the back of his mind. He looked at Aeryn again and grinned. “That’s the story of our relationship! ‘When the time is right’!”
Looking at DK, Aeryn spoke urgently to John. “I know he’s your friend, John, and I know you want to see him, but if he’s sure he needs to go, he should go now. The longer he’s here, the more dangerous it is for us, and for him. He has a wife and child to protect.”
“She’s right, DK,” John said, forgetting no one else could 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.” He didn’t really want DK to go – he’d barely had the chance to speak to him – but he could see how far apart they’d grown, and he respected DK’s new life.
DK asked curiously, “How do you know I won’t tell someone?”
“You’re my best friend,” John whispered, even if it wasn’t true any more. “And besides, if Aeryn trusts you, believe me, I trust you.”
“I should go, I guess. Can you get back for your car, Sir?” DK asked, looking at John’s father.
“I’ll figure something out.”
“DK, maybe you can come by later, while we’re here. We could catch up on old times….” John really wished they could, no matter the risk.
“I don’t think so,” DK said quietly. “If I do come, Heather’s going to know something’s up. I can’t bring her into this. The more people that know, the more chances for them to tell someone else. I don’t think you need to have anyone looking for you….”
John flashed him a grateful look for his perception, and reached out to hug him again. “You don’t know how good it is to see you,” he said.
“You too.” DK smiled at Aeryn, who gifted him with her most blinding smile in return. “I gotta run. Take care of yourself.”
“You too,” said John.
DK let himself out the front door, leaving John to stand awkwardly with Aeryn and his father, wondering where to begin. Well, humor usually worked on Moya. At least, that’s what he usually tried first. He broke the silence by saying, “So, do you have any chocolate?”
His father 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 grinned at John and said, “He’s not going to make me wear a dress, is he?” and he laughed and kissed her.
“I promise. I’m sure we can find some jeans or something. Obviously PK chic is out of fashion.”
His father looked back and forth between them and said, “Did you bring any of those translator microbes with you?”
John looked dumbfounded, and his dad explained with a huge grin, “Well, how else am I going to get to know my daughter-in-law?”
That was when John knew it really would be okay.
They went back to the family room and John rummaged in the bag they’d brought, looking for the syringe with the translator microbes. John felt an incredible sense of relief that he had made contact with his father, and that his father wanted him to stay. He could see that Aeryn was happier too, and touched that his father had accepted her. She hadn’t really expected it.
Aeryn commed D’Argo, letting him know they expected to be staying for at least a solar day or so, and that it was safe for him to go back to Moya and wait for them. John could hear his gruff voice wishing them a good visit.
John produced the microbes from the bag, and his father looked at the syringe uneasily. “That’s them?” he asked.
“Uh-huh. You just inject them anywhere. When I first arrived on Moya, one of the DRD’s jabbed me in the foot with ‘em. It takes hardly any time at all for them to start working.” His father looked puzzled, and he realized he’d relaxed so much, he was babbling. “Um, Moya’s the ship we live on, and DRD’s are little robot critters, they help with repairs and stuff she needs. I’ll explain more when we get settled,” he promised. “Um, you know, if we do this, you’re going to be able to understand all the human languages, too. You’re probably going to want to keep that secret. It’ll look kind of funny if you suddenly start understanding Swahili.”
His dad nodded. “Okay, Son.” He looked back and forth between John and Aeryn and said, “Let’s do this.”
John injected the microbes into his father’s arm. His dad looked down at the pinch, the looked back up again as if to say, “That’s it?”
“Just wait a minute,” John said, and then Aeryn asked, “Can you understand me?”
Her father-in-law broke into a huge grin. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, I can. This is great! So, Aeryn,” he said, “how did you meet my son?”
“Actually, we were both prisoners on Moya. I thought he was out of uniform, so I subdued him.”
“You subdued him. Well, I imagine he was pretty easy to subdue,” he said.
“Mm-mmh. I wiped the floor with him.”
“Hey,” John protested, “that’s not how it was!”
“Yes it was, and you know it.”
“Son, you never won a fight in your life.”
Jack and Aeryn grinned at each other, and John found himself outnumbered. Well, maybe not a fight on Earth, anyway, he consoled himself.
John watched as Aeryn continued talking to his father. This was going better than he ever dared hope. But there were priorities, after all. “Hey!” he interjected. “Where’s my damn chocolate!”
