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***Disclaimer*** I acknowledge that Farscape is owned by Henson and I am using their creations for fun not profit. I hope they have as much fun with FS as I do. :-)
Time - At least half a cycle after Fractures.
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The Way Home - Part 1
The moonbeams streamed in the window, lighting the darkened room and giving it a surreal glow. He stood at the window and stared out into the darkness seeing nothing. Did this news change anything? He didn’t know, but the phone call had stirred up those rattlers in his stomach. He hadn’t felt them this bad since..... He shook his head. Remembering that day was still hard.
Jack Crichton had faced a lot in his life. From walking on the moon to losing his only son three years ago, he had seen it all. He just didn't know how much more he could take. He had never been the kind to give up, but hope was a fragile thing these days and he didn't want to let it in again only to have it come crashing down on him. The pain would kill him. He loved John so much, had been so proud of him.
John's test flight that day had been the proudest moment of his life, surpassing his own achievements. The horror that had followed hadn’t changed that, but it had changed him. Not just the new lines on his face, but somewhere deep inside. His efforts to find out what happened to John and recreate his experiment had come to a stand still. The military had taken over the investigation of the wormhole events and it seemed that everyone believed his son was dead. Everyone except him.
He hadn’t been able to bring himself to believe that he would never see John again. He had fought as hard as he knew how, but every avenue he had gone down had dead ended. His continued run-in’s with General Cooper as well as some of the other IASA program heads had left a sour taste in his mouth.
He still had friends left at the center willing to help, but until tonight they hadn’t been able to tell him much. As months turned into years, failure had eaten at him like acid until, finally, he had to admit there was nothing he could do. He’d given up.
What would John think of his dad now?
The light come on overhead blinding him for a few seconds. Mary came into the room, tightening the belt to her robe.
"Dad? Who was on the phone?" She came to stand beside him not liking the expression on his face. "What is it?"
She saw a strange mixture of fear and hope and her heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t be about.... She tried to tap down the butterflies in her stomach. The silence lingered and she tried again.
"Dad? What's happened? Talk to me."
Jack turned to his oldest daughter. These last three years had changed her as well. She had taken charge since John disappeared. She had wanted to move in with him after John disappeared but he’d put his foot down. She had her own life to live and he didn't need to be babied. He would manage.
Mary had made a great show last week of needing his advice and a place to stay while she was on business here, but he knew she was checking up on him. The loss of her baby brother had been a huge blow and it was hard for her to be upbeat, but she still tried...for his sake. He wondered what would she make of this news.
He took a deep breath and knew he had to tell her.
"That was..... a friend. The wormhole reappeared." He paused for a second "And something came through."
* * * * *
Aeryn sat against the wall rubbing her head. Frell, it hurt. She had no idea where she was. She was a prisoner, she knew that, but what kind of strange prison cell was this? The room was very strange. The walls were a bright white and made of some soft material that turned out to be very strong when you tried to rip it apart. Crichton had never told her walls on Earth were like this. No wonder he had thought Moya so strange at first. She looked around the room. Even stranger than the walls was the fact that there was nothing in the room. Just her.
She had been here for arns with nothing to do but think and she was tired of it. Tired of reliving the pain that had driven her to fly the Prowler away from Moya. She was growing disgusted with herself. When had she become this frelling weak thing, she wondered? But she knew when. And then, because she couldn’t help herself, she remembered it all again.
John had been out in his module experimenting again. After their victory over Scorpius he’d turned his attention to using the wormhole technology to get home. He’d spent most of his time working on his module and then her newly acquired Prowler, trying to modify the stabilizer. The others were just glad for a rest from the turmoil they’d been in since they started the quest to destroy Scorpius.
With nothing to keep her busy, all she had to do was think. And grieve... She had never felt so alone. When she'd seen the wormhole appear, with Earth on the other side, something had snapped inside her. It had all come rushing back, the feelings she’d been trying so hard to pretend didn’t exist.
She had promised to go to Earth with him. Her head rang with the sound of his voice, ravaged by radiation, saying he wished she could have met his real Dad and....and... she missed him so much. More than she would ever admit, even to herself. She didn't know how to deal this. Everybody had kept talking to her about love, but nobody had ever explained how you survived the loss of it. Everything she did only made it worse till she thought she would be as fahrbot as Stark soon.
And to make things worse, there was John. The one that had lived. When he’d first been twinned she had been confused to have two of them vying for her attention, but had refused to think of what it meant to her. She’d been so busy putting up walls with John in the first place it hadn’t seemed to matter if there were two of them or not.
But circumstances had forced her make a choice and, once made, she had accepted that decision. They had never talked about the other one, but he was always in the back of her mind. She never wanted to hurt him, but she saw no alternative. There was no turning back. She had given her heart to John Crichton. Now she gave the one with her on Talyn her body and soul. She would just have to learn to live with the guilt. It had been easy while he was alive.
Back on Moya, it had come back to haunt her. It wasn’t bad enough that she had to try and live with the memory of John dying in her arms. Now she had to look in his eyes and watch them fall with uncertainty. The grin slowly fade as he started to understand something was wrong. She couldn’t go through all that again. It would kill her. Better to not look at that beloved face, ignore the husky voice. Pretend he didn’t matter.
How was she supposed to handle this? She had been bred to be a warrior, it’s what she knew, what she was. If John hadn’t died she might have been different, but he ‘had’ died and that made her feel the guiltiest of all. It should have been her that made the sacrifice, not him. It was her decision for him to go after Furlow alone. Around and around the thoughts had swirled in her mind.
When she had seen the wormhole appear it seemed to be the answer.
She hadn't cared much whether she ended up alive on the other side or not. In fact, she had figured that either way she was sure to see one of the Crichtons again. She remembered heading into the wormhole and the Prowler’s violent shaking. What happened after that she wasn’t sure. Just before she had entered the wormhole she remembered hearing John yelling over the comm, panic and fear in his voice. Begging her to come back. The tears had started then and the rest was a blur.
She couldn’t be sure that John had tried to follow her into the wormhole, but if she knew him, he’d been right behind her. If he had, had his ship made it through? Was he here on Earth looking for her, or was he back in her world trying desperately to get the wormhole to reappear? She knew he would never leave her here, no matter what had happened between them recently. Would he know where to look for her?
Those monens on Talyn had resulted in more than just learning how to love. John had taught her about his world. Had drawn her maps of Earth, discussed coordinates, as well as taught her some English. They had never spoken it out loud, but they both knew that it was in preparation for the day he might find a way to go home. She’d had the coordinates she had learned from John programmed into the Prowler before she ever entered the wormhole. The damage to her ship hadn’t affected the trajectory systems, though, they had held steady.
She didn’t remember much about the landing, though she knew it had been a hard one. She had a vague memory of humans dragging her out of the ship.
Remarkably, her worst injury was this gash on her forehead, but that didn’t seem to have left her with anything more than a head pain. John had called them headaches. Her head was killing her. She almost laughed. Crichton had used that phrase more than once. The pain in her head wouldn't literally kill her. At least she didn't think so.
Her hand reached up to check out whether or not she was right. She felt a tender place on her right temple but it didn't seem too bad.
She struggled to stand up and groaned involuntarily as pain shot through her head. She stretched, trying to loosen muscles stiff from sitting motionless for so long. It eased after a microt and she began to pace the floor. What were they planning on doing with her, she wondered?
She could still remember the last time, when she thought she was on Earth. She hadn’t liked John’s version of what might happen. Just thinking of Rygel brought a stab of fear. Death she didn't mind, but that was the least of her worries if John had been right. Suddenly she realized the enormity of what she had done. She should have thought of that before acting like a drannit and flying into the wormhole. She was all alone here. What was she going to do?
A noise at the door alerted her just in time to see two men in uniforms, weapons at the ready, open the door and gesture for her to come with them. She wanted to go on the offensive. Wanted to tear them apart. She knew she could take them, but a familiar voice sounded in her head saying in that husky tone "Hold on, baby, don't do anything rash. Check it out first. See what they want. Listen now, fight later" She relaxed slightly. All right. She would do it John's way. Well, she would try.
* * * * *
The small craft glided over the Everglades, flying so low it sometimes skimmed the water with its belly. Finally, it slowed and descended into a heavily overgrown section of the swamp.
John landed Farscape I as easily as he could considering the urgency of the situation. Water from the swamp covered the sides as it gently settled into the muck. He checked over the panels to make sure nothing was damaged. Without the modifications he had made he'd never have flown this bucket of rust again, but it had held together.
This should make a good enough hiding place, he thought. Plenty of camouflage and it wasn’t too far away from where Aeryn had landed. How she knew to head for Florida and the glades he’d never know. He didn’t know if she had gotten the Prowler down in one piece or not. She had never answered his calls and all he knew was this was the trajectory she had been on before he had lost contact with her ship. The thought of her hurt or worse left him shaking, but he had to believe she was Okay. She had to be.
He flipped a few switches, turning the power off, but leaving the dampening field in operation. He had turned it on just as he exited the wormhole, more out of reflex than thought. Hopefully it had been in time. Even if they had spotted him exiting the wormhole they couldn’t have tracked him with the dampening field on. That should give him some time. Maybe a few days anyway, before they concentrated their search for him on this spot. He'd just have to take the chance it would be long enough.
He opened the hatch and stepped out of the module breathing the first real Earth air in three years. Oh God, he'd done it. He was here.
“Hello Earth!” His voice rang out in the emptiness as he looked around and drank in scenery. The sun was just starting to creep over the horizon, giving everything a golden hue. The water, the trees, everything shimmered in the light. He’d never seen anything more beautiful.
A curious mixture of feelings ran through him. He wanted to take the time to savor the moment. To look around and really appreciate the sights, sounds and smells, but he couldn’t.
Time was not on his side right now, or Aeryns, so he made himself shake off the moment. He could do that later. Right now he had to get to his dad. He could help him find Aeryn and that’s all that mattered. God, he hoped his dad still lived in their old house. He had no idea what had happened here since he left, but he was counting on things being pretty much the same.
Lizzie had always said her brother was almost as bad as Mary when it came to being a cock-eyed optimist. He'd soon find out. The important thing now was that the military didn’t find him. At least not until he knew what was happening with Aeryn. He was pretty sure they would have found her and he couldn’t stop thinking about the last time he’d thought he was on Earth. He remembered all too well what had happened then. Please God let him be wrong.
He suddenly realized how warm it was and that beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. Of course it was hot. It was Florida for God’s sake. He’d lived with it all his life, but what about Aeryn? It would be getting even warmer when the sun was high. She couldn’t take this heat, could she? Was this enough to send her into that living death thing? He didn’t know. If the military had gotten to her, like he thought they had, she should be okay. They would take her in for testing and interrogation. That meant air conditioning, one of the 10 wonders of the world.
He climbed down from the module and looked at the murky water below.
“Oh, man, this is not going to be fun.”
Holding Wynona high above his head he steeled himself and jumped in. The water was about chest high and he didn’t want to think about what was in here with him.
“Always gotta be critters” he mumbled. But at least they were Earth critters and it wasn't the Aurora Chair, so it could be worse. A lot worse. He moved as quickly as he could considering the muck dragging at his boots. He hadn’t gone very far when he spied what looked like dry land in the distance. That was good.
“Don’t tell me I’m getting lucky.” His mood lightened just a hair and he began humming to himself as he put one foot in front of the other and began the long journey home.
* * * * *
The mahogany table gleamed in the artificial light. The room it sat in had been tastefully decorated with no expense spared, but no one seemed to notice or care.
The people around the table were an assortment of men and women from wildly different fields. Some were top level military, others cabinet members and there were even a few scientists thrown into the mix. They all had one thing in common though, they all wore the same expression of concern and even fear.
General Cooper got up to stand at the head of the table, his voice grave.
“Gentlemen, most of you already know the situation. Last night the wormhole phenomenon that occurred 3 years ago reappeared. Satellite and radar information indicates that two aircraft came through. One was damaged and made an emergency landing near the Miccosukee Indian Reservation in Florida. We were lucky it was in an unpopulated area and we were able to locate both the aircraft and its occupant before any of the locals could arrive.
The General went to stand in front of the large screen on the wall behind him. A huge map of Florida was put up on the screen.
“What concerns us now is the second aircraft. It disappeared from our screens almost immediately after exiting the wormhole and our radar couldn’t track it. Satellites are scanning, but with no results so far. It was possibly headed on the same trajectory as the first craft so we are concentrating the search here." He pointed to the central section of Florida on the map behind him.
“We’ve all seen enough movies to know we don’t want to alarm the general public.” There was a scattering of snickers around the room. “So we are keeping this as quiet as possible. Is that understood?” A chorus of nods came after the question. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was getting hotter in here.
“We don’t know what came through the wormhole. The only other time we have seen anything like this was the day John Crichton disappeared. Whether or not that incident is connected to this one is your job to find out. Dr. Peterson....” He looked over at the balding man at the end of the table “is our top scientist in the field of genetics.” Dr. Peterson stood up. “What have you found out about who or what we have captured from the first ship?”
Sam Peterson was a small, nervous man. Giving reports was what he hated most about his job.
“We have done some preliminary tests General. We haven’t had time for anything extensive mind you. On the surface she looks quite human but preliminary tests indicate she is not.” He almost stuttered. “Hu..Human that is. Further testing will have to be done to give you a complete report. And she is speaking a language we’ve never come across before. It’s not matching anything in our data banks. She seems to have some rudimentary knowledge of English but further tests will have to be done to know for sure.”
He stopped abruptly and it took the General a few seconds to realized he was done. Hrmph. He frowned. Scientists!
“Well, find out. Get the best people you can find on it. Time is of the essence gentlemen. We don’t know who or what landed after the first ship. Whether its hostile or not, we need to know where it is, who is on it and why they’re here. Your Orders are in your briefing books, they will fill you in on your assignments. Good luck.”
His voice indicated the meeting was adjourned.
* * * * *
John was tired. Physically and mentally. He’d had little or no rest since getting here. The most he’d gotten was when the truck driver had commenced a running monologue designed to put the toughest insomniac to sleep. Even with the sun blazing through the glass of the truck, he’d dozed for a couple arns before... hours, it was hours. He had to try and remember where he was now. Things had changed since he’d been gone and he was starting to suspect it was himself.
The truck driver, the air boat pilot, the waitress... all the people he’d talked to since he arrived had seemed to be speaking a foreign language. Even when he knew what they were talking about it seemed so unimportant he couldn’t figure out why they cared. There was a whole galaxy out there they knew nothing about, and it was all he could do not to tell them about it. And he suspected he was sounding as incoherent to the people here as he did to Aeryn and the others most of the time. This was crazy.
At least there was nothing on the news about his or Aeryns appearance or wormholes, so he figured ‘the powers that be’ were keeping it quiet. Which only made him more certain that he was right to be afraid.
As he walked up the sidewalk, he saw the two-story brick house in the fading light of the sun. He was home. The place where he had grown up, learned to ride a bike, played at being an astronaut with DK. He knew it like the back of his hand. It looked at once familiar and yet so different.
There were no lights on that he could see. Was his father even home? How would he react to John just showing up on his doorstep after three years? Did he think John was dead? Had he given up on ever seeing him again? Questions flooded his mind and there was no answer except to walk up to the house and find out.
It was curious, but he felt those rattlers his Dad had talked about. He’d never thought to feel them about his own family. Would his Dad notice that he had changed? Would he understand? His feet began dragging, slowing him down till he came to a stop across the street.
What the hell was wrong with him? He didn’t have time to stall like this and fear for Aeryn was an ever present ache in the back of his mind. He forced himself to move.
He skirted around the house deciding that entering in the front might not be a good idea. You never knew who was watching. The neighbors had a way of knowing everything you did. Everything was still and all he could hear were the sounds of dogs barking and an occasional car pass by. Everyday sounds he’d heard all his life. So why did they sound so strange now? He walked up the steps to the back door and raised his hand.......
* * * * *
*ring* *ring* The jarring sound of the telephone broke the silence. Jack punched his cell phone with a vengeance and said “Hello.” His heart leaped in his chest for an instant before he heard the voice of his friend at the IASA. He didn’t know who’s voice he had been expecting. The conversation wasn’t long but it made him sit up. Rumor had it that the military had captured something or someone.
Security was tight and that’s all his friend had been able to tell him. He wouldn’t learn any more tonight, but his thoughts were racing. He’d been interviewed earlier in the day by a couple of Air Force security goons. They had asked him questions about John and wormholes, but he had had no answers for them. He didn’t know anymore now than he had then. They had given nothing away about what was going on.
Would they tell him if it were John that had come back through the wormhole? He didn’t know anymore. What if it was John they had captured? Whatever was going on, at least things were beginning to happen, and perhaps he’d get some answers now.
He almost didn’t hear the knock on the back door it was so faint. He stopped in the kitchen and cocked his head listening and it came again. Why would anyone be at the back door? His suspicions were on high alert. He opened a drawer and pulled out his 9mm Browning high power. He hadn’t used it in years but some gun oil and a cleaning rag had kept it deadly as ever. He was prepared for anything when he opened the door. Government agents. Police. Assassins. Aliens. Anything. Except for what he saw. His son.
