Wormholes Are Easy

[ShipsCat]

A big, big thanks to aeryncrichton for beta duties. I wrote this because I was thinking about how the story could be continued..so many people seemed convinced that PKW solved everything!

This fic won Best Drama (medium/long), second in Best Characterization, Scorpius, and third place in Best Action/Adventure (short/medium) in the 2005 Sparky's.

Post-PKW, PG for language, and it was first posted on Kansas Dec. 29, 2004.



Wormholes Are Easy

It was all his fault..crap, why hadn't he taken the nasty device apart as soon as possible? What had possibly possessed him to leave it, intact, on Moya? It was like leaving poison ivy in the backyard, a gun in a preschool, lye in an unmarked bottle under the sink..

He could excuse it by saying that they had been busy with the baby. It was amazing how joyfully time consuming that that one little guy could be.. he could say that it was the honeymoon, short and crowded though it was, or that it was even that the aftermath of the Peace Accords or mourning Big D had distracted him.

And he knew-thought he knew-that he could never use it again, that no one could. That his brain was blissfully silent and empty. Blonde again. And alone. No one poking or prodding him, but also no one to throw ideas around with, no one to tell him what he'd missed, to have a sense of self-preservation greater than his own, or most importantly, to let him know what Scorpius might be up to..even in little hints or clues, nothing purposeful, but bouncing a thought past his inner demon always yielded something useful.

Frell, he couldn't blame it on Harvey's absence either. There was only one reason that he had forgotten to dismantle the doomsday device-the thought, far back in his psyche, that he might have to use it again. That someday it would be necessary or even desirable to scare the crap out of the universe again, to flex his muscles, to prove his strength, even if it wasn't real, and he could never make another galaxy eating wormhole. After all, they didn't need to know that, did they? The rest of the universe?

And Aeryn had said nothing. But since when did she ever throw a perfectly good weapon away.

--------



"He's been doing this all during what's *supposed* to be the sleep cycle," Aeryn said wearily.

John regarded her guiltily. He did not doubt that the baby had kept her up all night-the shadows under her eyes would have convinced him of that, even if he did not believe her, but he had managed to sleep through it all himself.

"You shoulda woke me up, Babe. I'd have taken my turn..."

"What he wanted you can't provide," she said pointedly. "No point in both of us missing sleep."

"Maybe he's going through a growth spurt," John said, stroking the baby-fine hair of the small head that was still placed at Aeryn's breast, sucking noisily.

He had grown considerably during his first month of life, both lengthening and filling out. An uneasy thought occurred to John. Perhaps it wasn't just the healthy growth of a baby had started out a good size at birth, maybe it was going to be a 'geometric' infancy. *Maybe* he was going to turn around and the kid would be coming home from prep school, like a soap opera kid after they were sent to Kindergarten.

"Aeryn," he started carefully. "You don't think...PK kids don't have special growth enhancements, do they? I mean, is Lil D going to develop..normally?"

Aeryn fixed him with her patented glare, made less intent by the fact that her eyes tried to droop shut.

"How the frell would I know?"

"Well, yeah.." his voice trailed off. What did he know about child development himself? How big had he been at a month? And how did that translate to sackma's? Hmm...his mom said he walked at about ten months..when was it that she said he doubled his birth weight? Tripled it? He'd have to give this some thought, maybe he'd come up with some guidelines. They should have picked up a copy of Dr. Spock when they had a chance.

"He's probably just trying to get as big as his namesake," John offered.

He was rewarded with a weary smile, and then further rewarded by the still incongruous sight of Aeryn talking baby talk to their son. He listened for a microt as Aeryn assured baby D'argo that he would indeed grow to be as big and strong as the warrior he was named for,and then reached out for the baby. Even as tired as she was, she seemed reluctant to let go.

"You get some sleep," he said softly. "We'll be fine for a couple of hours, won't we, big guy?"

John ran his free arm across Aeryn's back, rubbing lightly as she swayed into him. Uneasily he noted how much her spine portruded as he attempted to convince her to go back to bed.

"Time for some guy time!" he announced cheerfully. She stared at him blearily again..but he was successful. She rolled over onto her side and pulled the covers up around her shoulders. She was asleep before he got up from the bed, he was sure.

He quietly changed Lil D's makeshift and clumsy diaper, wishing for Pampers. Disposable diapers had displaced chocolate as the most longed for item from home.

He jiggled the baby up and down as he walked down Moya's corridors to his destination. He was intending to work on some of the Hammond side repairs today. Although they'd made much progress in repairing Moya, they were still finding areas of damage from water and from her painful harpooning.

Baby D'argo yawned sleepily. John knew from experience that with his tummy full he would soon be asleep, and stay that way from anywhere from twenty minutes to a couple of hours, and then wake ready to play or eat again. He was hoping it was longer rather than sooner. Aeryn needed the rest. He didn't like the way she was looking these days..

Maybe for the next kid-provided Aeryn even bought that idea-they'd find some way to get rid of this 'geometric pregnancy'. It was too hard on Aeryn. He had no idea how she'd managed to survive what must have been horrific demands on her body to produce the energy required to make a child in a matter of solar days, but it had left her with nothing in reserve for nursing the little guy. she had always been thin, but she'd lost weight everywhere except her breasts (not that he planned to complain about that!) and he shouldn't be able to count her ribs.

"You," he said, shaking a finger at the little person that was reclining on his shoulder. "You could be eating dissolved food cubes. It wouldn't hurt you a bit. Everyone can eat food cubes."

The round blue eyes regarded him seriously.

"We could stir'em up, put'em in a bottle." Evidently deciding to ignore him, the blue eyes closed and the baby drifted off to sleep. John tucked him into the basket he had brought along for the purpose. He was lucky and D didn't wake up being put down. Breathing a sigh of relief, he got to work.

He was lucky again in that D slept for around an hour and a half by his reckoning, and seemed content on wakening to watch Dad repair wiring. They passed time pleasantly that way, with John explaining what he was doing and why he was doing it-not simplifying the jargon, since he figured the baby really was just listening to the sound of his voice.

Aeryn's voice interrupted as he was explaining the finer points of welding. "How's the baby?" she asked without preliminary.

"He's great," John answered. "We got a lot done."

"We?"

"Yeah, Little D just repaired the seal between these conduits."

"He's quite the prodigy, " Aeryn said, amused.

D'argo stirred and his face crumpled at the sound of her voice. A big breath in indicated that he was about to cry.

"Food cubes," John whispered warningly. He wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or not, but the baby immediately found something interesting to look at on the ceiling and forgot about crying.

"What are you doing out of bed?"

John couldn't quite make out what she replied. It sounded like 'shtupping by faith!'

'What was that?"

"Breakfast," she clarified. "I'm eating like a Hynerian."

"I resemble that remark. I have never managed to put away as much food as you have the past couple of days," Rygel's voice came over the comm, indicating that, not surprisingly, he was in the galley with her. The tone turned from indignation to admiration. "Actually, it's inspiring."

"Good," Crichton replied, ignoring Rygel. "We're fine, take your time."

"I'll be down in a bit," Aeryn said.

Aeryn's voice was followed by Pilot's, surprising John by informing him that they were preparing for immediate Starburst.

"Whatever for?" he asked.

"Moya and I sense the imminent appearance of a wormhole," Pilot said gravely. "And we would like to be out of the way should something-"

"Certainly, Pilot," John replied, although it hadn't really been a question. John thought with some amusement that Moya and Pilot seemed almost 'uppity' these days, but then remembered that the loss of their elected Captain had left them with little choice but to be more self-governing. He and Aeryn had been wrapped up in themselves and the new baby, and had paid little attention to them except for the hard work of the necessary repairs.

Wormholes. He had not sensed, not cared that there was wormhole activity nearby. No tingling, no spider sense, and even hearing from Pilot that there was a wormhole, he had no pull to stay and see, or investigate. Not one ounce of scientific curiosity, much less the overwhelming need that had consumed him for cycles. Freedom. Contentment in his life, in knowing where his place was, left him feeling perversely free.

The next voice that he heard shattered that contentment as surely as if it had been a pulse shot.

"John!" in the voice of an old friend that had not seen him in years, but was delighted to run across him unexpectedly. His stomach clenched..surely this was a fig newton of his imagination, a bit of undigested potato, the last remnants of his personal pookah. It would not be the first time that Harvey had faked his own death.

John turned his head slowly from where he was on his knees to look behind him for what he was hoping was a disembodied voice. It wasn't-there was a full visual hallucination as well.

Scorpius stood before him with his arms spread out expansively, a beatific smile on his face, if anything could be said to be angelic on such a devilish visage. He wasn't wearing a Mambo shirt, but he might as well have been, as his whole attitude said that he was ready to party.

"Go away," John waved his hand casually, "you're not needed or wanted here."

"Is that anyway to greet an old friend?" the vision chided him. "After all, I came here just for you."

"Bored now," John said, in his best Whedonesque imitation, and returned the wires sticking out of the bottom of the conduit. His attention was caught by his son, who was staring intently over his father's shoulder, and wiggling his feet in the beginnings of his comical process of trying to talk. First the feet wiggled, and then the activity worked its way up to his hands, and finally a coo would come out of his mouth..but that was in response to someone to talk to..John realized that D was trying to greet his hallucination.

Winona was out of his holster and in his hand before he knew it, one leg pulled out from under him, one still on his knee, his body twisted to face the intruder.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, "I thought that you were off spying on Scarrans or pestering Peacekeepers or something." And then, more logically,' How did you get here?" because as far as he knew, no ships had boarded Moya.

The answer crushed Crichton. He sagged under the weight of the words.

"Wormhole travel, my dear boy," Scorpius gestured grandly. "It's the only way to travel. I've seen such amazing realities already..and I know that each one brings me closer to my ultimate destination."

'But..but..how?" he whispered. It was impossible. Even with Scorpius in front of him, he would not, could not believe that he was the holder of the God like power to travel to and therefore create infinite realities. Surely the universe was not so unjust as to allow this, now, when things were finally..good.

Scorpius smiled even more widely if possible. "It turns out that it's very easy to get information from a Stykera that's been..dispersed. It's simply a matter of finding the right way to gather his knowledge."

"What did you use, a colander?" popped out of John's mouth, even as he wondered if it was possible. He knew that Stark had been there when his twin had passed over, and he knew that he retained knowledge from those who passed..like the Eidelon's secret to peace, and the once all important address for Katratzi. But the hidden knowledge? Hidden so deep that it took him cycles to find it himself? But his twin had found it already, hadn't he?

Poor Stark. He wondered if he would be able to put himself back together this time, and if his new found sanity would be lost if he did.

"We're going on a wonderful adventure, John," Scorpius said delightedly.

"What do you mean we, paleface?"

"You're coming with me."

John wondered again if this was possible. He had taken others through wormholes himself before, but that was with a *ship*-Scorpy was obviously freefalling, traveling through reality without a ship or spacesuit, and, he was sure, without sense or conscience.

A moment's indecision was too long. He turned back for D'argo, instinct demanding that he grab the child and not be separated from him before reason told him that it was insane to take the baby with him. Before he realized the proper course of action, it was too late. He was in another place and reality and it was far too late.

He should have shot him, killed Scorpius to prevent himself being ripped from his own time and place. But now he needed him to get back.

It didn't keep John from slugging him, though. He hit him on the leatherstrapped chin with enough force to drive him against the wall, but not enough to make him do anything more than laugh at him. It didn't even ruin his good mood.

"A Command Carrier, I believe," Scorpius said, running a hand over the symbol on the wall. The symbol was different than the expected red, black and white..a little busier, it had a bar sinister crossing it and some sort of fleur de lis on the other side.

"Shit!" John exclaimed, rubbing his hand. "Why the frell did you do that? What makes you think I want to go on your magical mystery tour with you?!"

"Don't you want to be there to help choose your new world, John? Most of us don't get a chance to choose their own destiny."

"I want to be back on Moya," John said forcefully. Shaking his head, he added, "I left my son alone in the passageway. Aeryn's gonna kill me."

"Your devotion to your offspring is admirable," Scorpius replied. "If difficult to comprehend. But if I am understanding this correctly, he will be fine. He doesn't actually exist while we're out of his reality-if we return a few moments after we left, we'll just appear to have blinked out of existence momentarily."

"That's very..reassuring," John said sarcastically, "and what do you mean 'if?' "

"I'm sure that we can find a reality that meets the requirements in which you also have your progeny and mate," Scorpius said dismissively. "You could have a whole squadron of offspring, for all I care."

John fought down rising panic and rage. This was not the time for that, this was a time to think. What do you do if someone tells you their toaster is talking to them? If someone is working from a reality that is nowhere near yours? Oh, yeah..that's it, you asked what the toaster was saying.

"What reality are you looking for, Scorpy?" What twisted, insane stunt are you trying to pull now? he refrained from saying.

"I am..going to make the world a better place. A place without Scarrans. That's the reality I'm looking for-one in which the Scarran race doesn't exist, or never evolved, or has no power. A world without..evil."

As you define it, John thought. "It doesn't work that way, Scorpius. You can only pick destinations to places that you've been. In other words, any particular reality can only be found by someone who's already been there."

"That's why we're exploring, John. To find a place that we want to have already found. It appears to be a matter of will and focus..I'm working on imagining that which I want. With mixed success, I admit. I was hoping that you could provide some help."

John stared at him like he had lobsters crawling out of his ears.

"Perhaps not. Oh, well, let's see what we've found, shall we?"

Scorpius eagerly led the way to Command. The carrier appeared to be standard issue, except that red and black did not prevail in the decor-there were other colors..white, blue, orange.

The next difference John observed was in the person of the Captain in charge of the boat. Grayza. His stomach turned at the sight of her, but one glance towards John as she greeted Scorpius warmly revealed that she had no memory of him..Scorpius she knew, that was obvious, but that made sense, since this was his version of reality and not John's.

She also looked healthier, calmer..her uniform buttoned to the top, her skin pink and glowing. He realized suddenly that he must be seeing her as she would have been had the heppel gland never been implanted.

Unlike his other experiences traveling through alternate realities, they did not appear to have arrived in the middle of a crisis. When it became obvious that introductions were necessary, Scorpius smoothly introduced him as a visiting scientist.

"I'm sure you'll find this phenomena very interesting," Grayza said with a charming smile. 'While our primary purpose is military, exploration and discovery are equally as important, don't you agree?"

"What phenomena would that be?" John asked, barely keeping himself from adding a Ma'am to the end of the question.

"Our Science Officer discovered some anomalous readings in this area. It seems to be a disturbance in the space-time continuum."

"Wormhole activity?" John asked. Grayza looked briefly at Scorpius, then nodded. "So you just decided to...pull over and take a look."

'Yes...and I understand that you know quite a bit about wormholes."

"I've studied them for some time now," John said casually.

"Well, you'll have to confer with our wormhole expert when she gets to the bridge,' Grayza said, then moved on to give some orders to the young man that John thought must be driving.

'Well, this is interesting," Scorpius said quietly to John, with the air of someone who was taking notes but without the pen and paper. "This is the least war-like I've seen the Peacekeepers of all the realities I've been to so far. It must be your influence."

"Un-REALIZED realities," John corrected him. "And I aint influencing anything, Scorpy-Sue. I'm just along for the ride, and not thrilled with doing that."

"This reality is not to your liking?"

John actually thought briefly. It wigged him out a bit that Grayza was playing Captain Janeway, and Scorpius had the role of Spock-but he had grown up with Star Trek, and the apparent orderliness of this world was appealing.

"Just think about it, John..we don't know that you and yours don't have their place in this world...and perhaps your friend, the Luxan, perhaps this time he lived." Scorpius persuaded.

That hurt. The thought that D'argo could still be here, that he could still have the best friend that he had ever had in his life by his side..

John shook his head stubbornly. "Weren't you happy enough manipulating the Scarrans and Peacekeepers against each other again? I'da thought you'd be off doing your best to make someone's peacetime miserable after the accords."

"Pah," Scorpius spit. "There's no place for me in peace. The Peacekeepers no longer see any value in my knowledge of the Scarrans or my spying against them, and the Scarrans have thoroughly decided that I was too treacherous a triple agent to deal with. And no one sees me as an authority or agent for peace. Do you know what the Scarrans have done?"

"Uh..no," John said, still trying to digest Scorpius's unaccustomed sharing of himself.

"They've quietly taken over the outlying planets of the Hydrogeans. And the Peacekeepers aren't doing a thing about it because they don't want to threaten the peace!"

"I don't know who the Hydrogeans are..what do they have to do with this?"

"Well, I don't give a frell about them either..but if Peacekeepers are afraid to go to war, there's no stopping the Scarrens. They'll take the galaxy dench by dench til there's nothing left."

"This sort of thing happened with the Russians, too, after World War 2. It's not the end of the galaxy."

Scorpius glared at him.

"It all worked out. Give it fifty cycles or so."

With rolling eyes and mouth open to retort, Scorpius was distracted by the arrival of another old acquaintance on the bridge.

"She looks smaller without the hat," Crichton commented. And she did-almost demure and definitely petite, Akhna saluted Grayza smartly and started asking questions about the phenomena. She was obviously the resident wormhole expert.

Scorpius' pale skin darkened and his eyes flashed. John cringed internally..he had that feeling of impending embarrassment, when someone you're with is about to commit a terrible faux pas. He knew what was coming but there was nothing he could do to prevent it, and somehow he didn't want the tranquility of this strange UR disturbed.

Scorpius hissed at Grayza. "This-THIS is your wormhole expert? You leave your science to the most barbaric and least evolved species in the galaxy?"

Grayza colored. "Of course. LT. Akhna is very well accredited in her specialty."

"You are making a mistake even letting her on this bridge. Is this standard procedure for this..this.. for you?"

Grayza looked at him very oddly. "Sir, this is a fully complemented Scarran/Sebacean Federation vessel. As you well know..." she lowered her voice. "And for you, of all people, to express antiquated ideas of bigotry is simply..incomprehensible."

Scorpius snarled and gnashed his teeth, but left her quickly, no doubt fearing that security would soon be coming for them.

John felt like a small and helpless child running after Scorpy, but he feared being left behind. The feeling was heightened when he suggested that they head home, back to Moya. Whining, damnit, he was reduced to whining.

"Let's talk-think about this. Take a moment to make a plan."

"On to the next!" Scorpius declared, with a hand gesture very much like scratching something off a list.

"You don't know what you're doing, you boneheaded skeleton faced fool! Do you have any idea what harm you can do? Didn't-" A thought struck John. They had not spent any time in the strange glacial world, instead hopping effortlessly from Moya to here. "Didn't you talk to Einstein? Have a conversation about time? you know, he looks human-like me, only he has bottomless pits for eyes."

"A guide for wormholes?" Scorpius guessed, looking puzzled. "No. This is probably some figment of your overactive imagination."

"No, no this is the old guy who lays down the rules..tells you not to arrive before you left, that kind of thing. How do you know what it means to travel through Unrealized realities if you didn't get it from him? How did you come up with the," he stopped himself from saying crazy-he was trying to reason with Scorpius,after all, "plan to make a UR real?"

Scorpius actually clapped his hand on John's shoulder. "From you, Crichton. From you, when you took me with you. It's not difficult for someone of intelligence to figure out the ramifications of traveling through time and space."

Another thing to keep him awake at night.

John didn't notice the transition to another world as they were still on a Command carrier and the blast that had just hit the carrier was more noticeable than the gut-wrenching feeling of being displaced in reality. His first clue was that Braca, not Grayza, was in charge, and the realization that this time they were in a moment of crisis-they were being fired on by a very recognizable Scarran dreadnought.

"There's your Scarran-free world, Scorpy!" John said bitterly.

Scorpius was in the moment instantly, moving to the front of command, taking stock of the situation and planning strategy. His suggestions were not taken well by an irritated and busy Commander Braca.

"Have you forgotten your place?" Braca menaced Scorpius as he stood beside him.

Scorpius looked nonplused, as puzzled as John had ever seen him.

"Have you forgotten that I've fought in more battles than you've studied in primary school? Have you forgotten who the master of foresight and preparation is? Who's saved your sorry eema from every power-hungry egomaniac in the Peacekeepers?"

Braca blushed and looked away, John was amused to notice. Maybe not everything had changed in this world, even though Braca was clearly in charge and Scorpius was wearing lieutenant's stripes.

"Let's talk about this in private," Braca whispered. "Later," he added softly.

"What would your suggestion be, Lt. Scorpius?" Braca asked loudly, for the benefit of the crew. "Do you know some way we can get past this dreadnought and down to Katratzi before we are blasted to bits?"

Scorpius was silent. John knew that he wondered, as he did, just what the objective was and how they were expected to accomplish it.

"You have *five* microts to get out of here," a crisp clear voice interrupted.

A view screen in front of them was filled with the commanding visage of a small redheaded woman. Sikozu, larger than life and twice as snippy.

"We have no wish to destroy you. It is not our place to violate the treaty between our people and yours. But you have crossed into Kalish airspace and ignored our warning shot. If you do not depart immediately you will be disintegrated."

She paused, catching sight of Scorpius. "And you..you two-faced liar. You have ruined something...unique."

Scorpius paled a bit. "Perhaps retreat is not out of order."

Braca ignored his quiet observation.

"We will not honor treaties with a species that practices slavery!' he roared. "The Peacekeepers are prepared to fully support the Scarrans bid for freedom."

John was impressed. He didn't know Braca had it in him.

"What?" Scorpius rounded on Braca. John could see the spittle flying from where he stood slightly behind Scorpius. "Are you trying to tell me we are helping a Scarran revolt against the Kalish!?"

Braca looked at him as if he were mad, and it was the first time he'd noticed. "Well, of course,' he said, almost placatingly. "That's what we do..we protect the innocent, guard the weak, defend the indefensible. We're Peacekeepers."

"Defend the indefensible is right," Scorpius growled. "How anyone could defend the vile, animalistic, raping, pillaging Scarran menace is incomprehensible." Scorpius went into a tirade, growling and swearing in Scarran, John supposed, because he couldn't understand the language.

Knowing what was coming next, John clamped a hand on Scorpy's shoulder from behind just as he started to turn away from the scene.

"This is enough!" John yelled in his ear. 'I am tired of playing Clarence to your Jimmy Stewart, bogle to your Marley, Jiminy Crichton to your demented Pinnochio. It's not a wonderful life, you're never going to understand the true meaning of Christmas, and I don't give a pity's damn about your life and your problems. See a shrink about it, but we're going home!"

With a wrench of Scorpy's shoulder-a wrench of John's stomach, a wrench in the scenery and a wrench in time and space, they found themselves elsewhere.

Elsewhere, but not home. The most elsewhere place John knew, with black skies and icebergs of blue and white, and John was on his hands and knees on the ground. Strangely, though he had stood there several times before and not felt cold, the ground *was* cold, and the palms of his hands were scraped. It didn't seem as if it should be that real.

It also didn't seem as if it should feel so real when Scorpius kicked him in the ribs.

The ice was slick, too, John found out with a sense of satisfaction as he pulled Scorpy's booted foot out from under him and watched him land on the ice, spread out like a roach lying on its back on a slick linoleum floor.

"What have you done?" Scorpius said rhetorically and breathlessly.

Had he done it? John wondered, with a growing sense of hope. Perhaps his part in this venture wouldn't be as helpless as he had thought.

Or maybe, other forces were at work.

John jumped to his feet, slipping and cartwheeling to gain his equilibrium. "Einstein!" he hollered, to no effect. Where were the cops when you needed one? The guy was probably on a doughnut run.

"EINSTEIN! Come On! We need you, Santa. The misfit toys want to go home!"

John rubbed his hands together to warm up his fingers and stamped his feet impatiently.

"Waiting for something, John?" Scorpius asked. He was sitting on the ice, his arms on his knees in front of him.

Had Scorpy dispelled him? Found some way to destroy him?

"What have you done to Einstein?"

"Your mentor? Never met him. In fact, I've never been here before. Are you sure you didn't make this up? Invent your God?"

"I'm afraid that I'm just not intelligent enough for that. This guy has us both beat in the existential knowledge department. "

"Well, back to work, John. Let's get going."

[ShipsCat]

"No, stop. Stop. This is it. This is the wellspring, the place from which all wormholes flow. You want to know what it is that you're screwing up in the universe, this is where you can find out."

"I don't care," Scorpius hissed through his pointed teeth. "There's only one thing wrong with this universe, and I was put here to put it right." He took a few steps forward, towards the end of the ice. "Do we leave from there, do you think? Jump off into nothing?" he asked curiously.

John moved physically farther away from him, but mentally farther still, concentrating on staying in this reality, as unreal as it was. Scorpius assayed a step, and stopped before it was executed, finding himself quite literally hanging over thin air. He looked back at Crichton, incredulous. "Are you-?"

John leaned back a bit, planting himself in the ground, or what passed for ground, and made himself heavier and heavier. Scorpius strained. The ice rumbled, and cracked, and John found himself stranded on an ice floe that was tipping and pitching must like he imagined it would in the Arctic Ocean. No matter. He could leave from here, go home to Aeryn and the baby. There was nothing that he wished for more. He was sure that he'd be more successful at reaching home this time than he was when he had landed in his own past on Earth-this time he had no lingering desires, no split loyalties, no guilt over disappearing and leaving his family grief stricken. Just the need to be with Aeryn and D.

"Well, if that's what you want," Scorpius called to him. "You want to stay behind and miss out on the glorious adventure, go right ahead."

But what havoc would Scorpy wreak without him? He could change his world, wink out his very existence, and he'd never know about it. Or worse, show up to find out he wasn't there. Dren, it hurt your head to think about this stuff. Coming to a sudden decision, John made a mighty leap over the gap in the ice. He hit the ground running, which soon turned into sliding as he lost his footing, and he barreled into Scorpius full force, grabbing onto him as they both went over the edge. Together.

John was surprised to find out that he was standing quietly beside Scorpius, instead of landing together with tangled limbs. Surprised, and grateful. He was even more grateful to find out that he was in Moya's loading bay, the Farscape 1 beside him.

"You're *home*," Aeryn's husky voice said excitedly.

"Yeah, baby, I'm home!" He could see her sitting on a crate, holding the baby in her arms, evidently expecting his arrival. He first realized that something wasn't quite right when he noticed that her hair was cut short, and not that her belly was protruding with another child.

"You've cut your hair!" he said, horrified. "Why did you do that?" It was still very full and it was cute in a pixie-ish sort of way, but most importantly it was missing. Gone. Short. Almost as short as his.

She glared at him. "You know why. We've had this conversation already. The babies keep pulling it..and besides, it's just too much trouble to take care of now."

"Babies?" he breathed, and turned around and stared at Scorpius, who shrugged noncommittally.

"It's about time you got back. Here," she said, turning around and pulling another infant seemingly out of nowhere and depositing it in his arms. "Chiana, he's back."

Chiana came down the bay between crates, carrying yet another infant and trailing others behind her. One toddled over to John and grabbed his pant leg with grubby fingers, displaying little baby teeth in a wide grin. Two crawled towards him. All of them human, it seemed, or human/sebaceans. Chiana deposited the smaller baby in his other arm. "Tired of narl sitting, old man. I didn't think you were ever going to get back."

"But..but..." he started to object. How was this possible? It looked like they'd had a litter, but they weren't all the same age. He didn't have to look behind him to know that Scorpius was grinning his Jack-o 'lantern grin.

"No objections, John." Aeryn said sharply. "You know that it was supposed to be your turn when you got back."

"Uh, yeah.." he sputtered. He looked more intently at the babies in his arms, the ones on the floor, even the one Aeryn was carrying. They looked like Crichtons, all right. A couple of tow-heads, a redhead, that one and that one dark like Aeryn and that one poor little crawler was completely bald. All of them with bright blue to blue-grey eyes, all cute and healthy. But not one of them looked like little D.

"What are you looking at?" Aeryn said even more sharply.

"Just looking for my child," John said thoughtlessly.

"They are all *your* children, John Crichton,' Aeryn said furiously. "You should have warned me that humans were so fertile. As a matter of fact," she said, turning to leave, taking the littlest one with her, "I'm pregnant again."

"I can see that, honey," John said, in what he hoped was a soothing and supportive tone.

"Not this one," she said, smoothing her hand over her tummy. "There's a new fetus. And if you think it's coming out of stasis any time soon, you have another think coming!" With that, she gave a toss of her non-existent hair and stalked out of the room. "Oh, and your daughter needs changing."

Chiana nodded to indicate the babies in his arms. "I'm going to go take a long soak in the tub."

"My daughter?" John asked, looking from one to the other. He guessed that that was going to require a look under the hood-neither was dressed in pink, that was for sure.

"You have forgotten which is which again, haven't you,?" Chiana said in exasperation, putting her hands on her hips. In rapid Chiana speak, she started with the oldest. "J.T., Miranda, T.J., you're holding Jerryn and Livvy, and Aeryn's got Hope. Chilnak only knows what you're going to name the next one, but you'd better start thinking fast. Aeryn said her back was hurting today. And don't forget again!" was her parting shot.

John was still in shock. On the other hand, there was a reality where Jool and D'argo were the same being, anything could happen. But-wait. Geometric pregnancy..a matter of solar days? He wasn't sure how long Aeryn's pregnancy with little D had been, because he didn't know for sure when the baby came out of stasis, and how it was effected by being freeze dried or growing in Rygel. But if the oldest was about a year..and the next one, the one chewing on his boot, was a couple of months younger..and Aeryn could carry more than one fetus at a time...Moya could be covered with Crichton rugrats in a very short amount of time. He would have backhanded Scorpius for his snickering if his arms weren't full of babies.

"You'd better shut up, Scorpy, or you're going to be finding yourself changing a diaper!" John was pretty sure that the bald one sitting on his foot was wet too. He felt..squishy, somehow. John watched with some relief and more queasiness as a DRD approached and handed a tube with a rubber nipple on the end to a blonde crawler, who immediately took it in its little hands and started sucking. He had been wondering how anyone could handle feeding the gaggle of them.

"No, no," Scorpius said, in great good humor. "I think I'll go check Moya's databanks and see how the Scarrans are faring in this world. It seems to be just the place for you!"

"Oh, no," John shuddered. "Aeryn hates me in this world. And with good reason." But on the other hand, there was no child named after D'argo..perhaps he was still here, still alive, hiding from the ankle biters. He sighed. There was no use thinking about it, this wasn't his world. He put the little ones down gently on a nearby crate, making sure they were nowhere near the edge, and detached the sticky fingers from his leather pants.

"You still don't get this, do you, Scorpy? I need my life, my wife, my child. No facsimile will do. This is close, in a way, but no cigar." He smoothed the head of one of the little ones he'd been holding, the one with dark hair who looked like Aeryn, and that he had arbitrarily decided was the girl. "I'm so sorry, sweetie. Maybe in another life.."

"Home, Scorpius," John said firmly, looking him in the eye.

"A world without Scarrans," he replied defiantly. And they left. John's last act in that reality was to comm Aeryn and tell her he was leaving again so that the children would not be left alone (if it so happened that they even really existed when he wasn't there) and her scream of "Frell you, Crichton!' was still ringing in his ears when they were assaulted by new cries and screams.

"Ben, BEN!" It took Crichton only a few seconds to decide that this was the strangest place he had ever been. There were hordes of people here, all looking very human, except for the ones that looked strangely Peacekeeperish or Nebari, or Luxan. The auditorium they were entering was very earthlike, with normal chairs and a stage, lights..and the ozone smell of air conditioning, not the more natural smell of Moya. What was strange were the banners in back of the stage, the prints on people's t-shirts, the buttons and pins and other paraphernalia. Scorpius narrowed his eyes when he saw the life-sized pictures of Staleek and Minister Ahkna.

"I hate to ask when we aren't at the autograph line, but could you sign this picture?" A sweet-faced young lady asked. "And by the way, I think it's great that you're in costume today. Love the leather!"

Someone next to her giggled. John scribbled something indistinct on her photo without looking at it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone disappearing behind the stage, someone who looked a lot like Aeryn. He got an impression of tall leanness and dark flowing hair..but he realized it couldn't be her. Not in that getup.

"That's nice, but um..could you put your real name on it? You know, Ben Browder underneath where you've written 'John Crichton'.

"Sure," he agreed easily. "How do you spell it?"

The woman gave him a very strange look. "B-r-o-w-d-e-r. Rhymes with chowder."

John handed the pen back to her and turned to Scorpius. "Ready to go?" he asked the scowling Scarren half-breed.

The woman's companion was turning a photo upside down and peering at the autograph that Scorpius had obliged her with. "I think it's in Sebacean," she whispered to her companion. "Or maybe Scarren. I can't read a word of it."

"Very ready," Scorpius growled. "I don't think a world that worships Scarrans is what I was looking for."

John didn't correct him. He was 99 percent certain that they had achieved both of their objectives. He was home, home on earth that is. .He also didn't point out to Scorpius that he was fairly sure that the cute gal up on stage at the moment was Minister Ahkna. The resemblance was not obvious, but there was something about the slight figure that made him think of being thrown across a table. If he just squinted his eyes....add some lifts, do something with her face, maybe prosthetics, and most importantly, the hat. Yes, it was definitely her. Scarrans did not exist in this world. Of course, that meant that neither he nor Aeryn, the baby, any of their companions existed either. He didn't think he'd like life as a fictional character.

"You'll have to excuse us, ladies, we have a wormhole to catch." Both women laughed delightedly, but another hand pulled at his sleeve, a camera flashed in his eyes, a question was being asked about some star gate, and the scene shifted without his noticing what was going on at all.

Scorpius looked askance at him. 'This isn't earth again, is it? I didn't care too much for the last version you took us to."

"Hey, Scorp, you were driving this time. I'm sure of it." He was certain-he'd been completely distracted when things changed. As certain as he was, though, he had to admit that it was earthlike. At first glance, he couldn't distinguish it from earth. They were standing on a dirt road in front of an earthberm house with green vegetation growing in front of it with a low fence around it. The earth appearance was even more enhanced by the Sebacean woman bending over the garden, picking vegetables and carrying a woven basket.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the woman shielded her eyes with her hand when she stood up and noticed them. "Scorpius? Scorpius! You're home!"

John looked over at his companion. His jaw was set and a stillness came over his leatherclad form. He stared at the woman fixedly.

"Who is she, Scorp? You got a girlfriend we don't know about? a wife? got some little scaly rugrats in the house behind that white picket fence?"

Scorpius spoke slowly. "I think..I think that's my mother." His voice was full of wonder.

This was a surprise. John wasn't sure why it surprised him so, everyone had to have one, didn't they? But this woman looked so normal, so pleasant..even from a distance, she looked nice. Not the person one would have expected to give birth to a hellspawn like Scorpius. He thought that it would be best not to say so, though.

"Mom, huh? Going home for some of her good old apple pie, I'll bet." John looked at Scorpy's profile as they walked slowly towards the house. "It looks like you haven't seen her for a while."

"I've never met her. She died giving birth to me. But you know that," Scorpius blinked, coming out of his reverie. "That's right. Of course you don't know that. It was the neural clone Crichton..never mind. It's irrelevant to you."

John dismissed the evidence that Scorpius had been up to no goodnick things that he didn't know about, to reflect that they were in a seriously different reality. He wondered how this would affect his life, his family. It didn't look likely that he would find out soon, since they were in the exact middle of nowhere and not a nowhere that was near Moya.

Mama Scorpius welcomed them both with open arms. Scorpius was quiet and abashed-John suspected, even shy, in a way that he had never seen before. When his mother wrapped her arms around him, he didn't protest, but stayed as still as a cat being squeezed by a child. Before she let go, John thought he detected a small motion of his hands, a slight trembling and curving in, as if he wished to return the embrace but couldn't. John didn't know why. He wasn't sure if he was afraid, or embarrassed, or just didn't know how.

"Any friend of my son's is a friend of ours," she said, as Scorpius introduced them. Rylani, he said her name was, rolling the name off his tongue as if it were priceless. John let the friend bit slip by. She lead them into a well lit, open room. John was surprised at how open and spacious the room was when the back of the house was under the slight hill.

An invitation to dinner followed, and Rylani went off to wash off the vegetables she'd just taken out of the garden. Crichton and Scorpius sat down at a table with a very wide vase full of the flowers that Crichton thought were Bird of Paradise. Scorpius's hands dug deep in the wood of the table. His head hung down to where John couldn't see the expression on his face. "My mother died.... In this world, she must have survived the abduction and rape that led to my existence."

"Or it could be something even stranger. You never know with these alternate realities, Scorp."

Rylani returned with crispy grollak. She must have reheated some already made to get back so quickly. There was a sauce with it and John realized that this was the equivalent of chips and dip. Next thing you knew she'd be bringing out iced tea-or perhaps, with the overwhelmingly maternal feeling he got from her, glasses of milk. "I suppose you work with my son?" she asked John casually.

"In a way, yes."

She picked up on his hedging. "Well, of course I know that there's a lot you can't tell me about what you do. Galactic Security and all that. But we're both very proud of our son's work in the Peacekeepers. To have risen so fast and done so much with the odds stacked against him is remarkable."

John nodded. He could have sworn that Scorpius was blushing, if he had not known that that wasn't possible. Or maybe it was possible. He did have half Sebacean physiology, a point that was brought home now in a way that it hadn't before.

"Thank you, Mother."

Rylani gave him an odd look. "So formal, Scorpy!"

John was curious about the use of plurals. "Is your-husband going to join us for dinner?"

"Oh, yes, he's out in the fields. He should be along any time. You know, farming's hard..it's not easy, pioneering a new world, but I think we've done well for ourselves."

They talked small talk for a bit, about farming and the weather. Scorpius's contributions were few and far between. He spent most of the few minutes staring at his mother with an unnerving longing.

When the little tableau was upset, it was with a bang. A bang of a door as Rylani's husband entered, shaking the dirt off his boots and barking an enthusiastic welcome for the guests. He came up behind Rylani, who had risen as he entered, and put his scaly arms around her waist from behind while John and Scorpius were still staring with their mouths open. He gave her a peck on the cheek gently, turning his face sideways and being careful to keep his lips over his prominent teeth. Rylani's husband, Scorpius's natural father, was a Scarran. And not a high born Scarran either, but one of the horse-faced Scarrans that John had mainly seen as soldiers.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Scorpius screamed, turning over the table in front of him. "Get away from her! Keep your filthy reptile hands off of her!"

John reflexively grabbed Scorpius by the arm, only to find himself flung to the floor, shrugged off as easily as a bad rider on a wayward pony. From his position on the floor he could still see Rylani shrink on herself, horrified. Scorpius's father stepped in front of her protectively and yelled at Scorpius. John couldn't interpret the growls and teeth gnashing that constituted the Scarren language, but the parental tone was unmistakable. Scorpius responded in kind, and his mother had the look on her face that you never wanted your mother to have-the look that you always imagined she would have if you did something you knew would kill her, but the one that she never did get no matter what you had done. That D on your report card, the night you got caught sneaking into the bar with fake ID.. she surprised you by somehow coping with it, making it all right. But this was the look John imagined, the one that said nothing would be all right again. John rose up slowly and placed a cautious hand on Scorpius's arm. What in the world could he do to talk him down? This was only going to go from bad to worse.

Suddenly, in the midst of all the commotion, silence descended. Right in front of John's eyes, the Scarran popped out of existence, leaving nothing in his wake. Rylani followed quickly. They left cartoon cutouts of themselves in the reality around them. Inside the cutouts was nothing. Not black, not white, not grey, not the formless chaos that John had seen in the women's room on the false earth. Because those things would be something-and this was nothing. It hurt his eyes to look at it.

"Jesus Christ," John swore reverently. The upturned vase disappeared, along with the spill of flowers. The table that had been lying on its side in front of them followed.

"Stop this! Whatever you're doing, stop it!"

Scorpius slowly turned dull eyes towards him. "Why?" he asked, in a voice as dead as his eyes.

"Because-" John jumped as the floor disappeared out from under him. He clung to Scorpius like a drowning man.

[ShipsCat]

The complete disappearance of his surroundings was not only more un-nerving than the cookie cutter shaped bits fading out, but it left him with a swimming nausea. There was nothing to rest his eyes on. The lack of gravity was not as appalling. Spacewalking had given him some experience of dealing with not having anything under his feet. But staring into emptiness made him seasick. He was starting to believe that it was the lack of land within sight that caused seasickness on boats. He would have taken the advice he'd been given in those cases and jump in the ocean. That is, if he'd had one. He settled for staring at the back of Scorpius's head and standing very still.
Scorpius stared out into the nothing placidly while John oriented himself.

"Why isn't this working?" Scorpius said softly, his voice coming out in a sigh. "Why can't I find what I want? You've done this before. You must have some idea of how it works..something you're not telling me." He turned towards John, eyes narrowed suspiciously. John adjusted himself to follow Scorpy's motion, moving his feet carefully and slowly.

John looked Scorpius in the eye and spoke slowly. "The world is the way it's supposed to be. As terrible as our reality can be, it is the most possible result of the forces of fate, the strongest reality. You're rowing upstream, fighting all the forces of the universe. You can't win..and you aren't supposed to. I'm not supposed to. It's supreme arrogance to think that you can decide what *real* is."

"Arrogance? Arrogance, you call it, when the world is so wanting. Are you trying to tell me that you find our reality so wonderful that it can't be improved?"

"No, but I'm not willing to risk what I have."

Scorpy growled wordlessly.

Of course that made no impression on him, John thought. Scorpius hadnothing to hang onto and nothing to lose.

"I *know* why, Scorp," he said wearily. He turned away from the black clad figure and ventured out into the void alone, making sure to stay behind Scorpy and away from his gaze. Away from his sight because John intended to lie and he didn't want to get caught.

"I can't believe that you haven't thought of it yourself, smart guy that you are," John said sarcastically. "You've run into a paradox problem in your quest. In any world that you exist, Scarrans exist. You can't get away from what you are, and you can't get away from what that means. Scarrans had to have been in a position to..well, for it to be possible for a Scarran/Sebacean half-breed to exist. And you can't stand that. You can't stand any permutation that allows that possibility."

It wasn't true of course. Crichton knew that. He well remembered an unrealized reality where both he and his father had Scarran features, and he was fairly certain that the earth reality they'd run into on this trip was without real Scarrans. It was more likely that if Scorpius was unable to find a world without Scarrans, that it was because he was unable to see himself as other than a Scarren half-breed. That he couldn't sort out his Sebacean half from the half that he loathed and despised. Too bad Freud wasn't around-he'd have a field day with this.

The black silhouette sagged even more, head down and shoulders curling in on himself. "I don't care. I don't care if I don't exist, it's worth it to free the universe from the scourge of Scarrans."

John felt like the worst kind of heel, beating on that dejected figure, but he needed to make sure that Scorpius knew his quest was futile. If there was even the slightest chance that he was going to try it again, John would have to make sure that he couldn't as soon as they returned to Moya.

"The *universe* doesn't care. It's a vast, impersonal machine that works on immutable laws of physics and it DOES NOT CARE! You cannot break the laws of physics, all you can do is bend them a little, and they tend to snap back if you do."

John faced Scorpius squarely, hoping that desperation would give him the conviction of truth. He pointed at Scorpius and spoke slowly and loudly. "You cannot do this. You can NOT achieve what you want. It's an impossibility, and no amount of personal sacrifice will achieve the end. Neither will lying, stealing or bullying. *You* can not do this."

John dropped his arm to his side and glared at Scorpius, daring him to argue with his next words. "And I will not."

The bony face crumpled, looking more humanly sad than John would ever have thought possible. For a moment, John thought that he was going to cry. Then suddenly, Scorpius threw his shoulders back and stood upright. John was almost proud as he regained his regal bearing and control. His voice, when he spoke, was cool and composed.

"Shall we go home then, John? Back to Moya?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

And quick as thought, they were there. John found himself staring into Chiana's eyes as she held the baby, cooing at him. "Who left you here all alone?"

Little D's eyes were even bigger and rounder than they usually were as he stared at his magically reappearing father. They were home...and just a few seconds after they had left. John felt it in the way that this world fit around him like a glove, not just in the evidence that was before his eyes. It was a pin point landing.

"Hey, Scorp, that was great. Much better than the first time I -" John's attempt to compliment Scorpius was cut short by a mighty blow. He wasn't sure if it was a fist or an elbow, but it contacted his face with a smash and sent him flying. He was grateful for Chiana's cat-like reflexes as she nimbly jumped out of his way, not even jostling the baby.

John could see black coat-tails disappearing down the corridor at a very fast clip. He was calling for Aeryn before he even untangled himself and got on his feet. "Trouble,' he gasped, trying to regain the breath that had been knocked out of him. "Scorpy..heading toward Command, I think."

Aeryn mumbled a response around something she was eating. John didn't need to hear what she was saying, he knew she'd be there as quickly as possible.


"Pilot, cancel Starburst," John also yelled into his comms as he started running down the corridor. He'd just remembered that they were about to enter Starburst when he left, but he had no idea what stage they were in.

"Yes, Commander Crichton," Pilot's voice agreed.

But it was too late. When he got there, he realized that the few seconds head start that Scorpius had were a few seconds too many. He was already in the doomsday device, powered by Moya's incipient Starburst, with unholy glee on his face as he watched the wormhole begin to grow. John lowered his pulse pistol as his heart dropped to his stomach.

Aeryn skidded to a stop beside him, pointing her pistol directly at Scorpius.

"No, No, Aeryn," John said, putting a hand on her gun. "It's too late. If you kill him, it will only continue to expand. I don't think *I* can stop it."

Aeryn looked at him fearfully. He knew that she was thinking that it had almost killed him last time, anyway.

"What are we going to do?" Aeryn spoke in the same hushed voice. He had no idea why they were talking as if they were in a library or a church. It just seemed appropriate for the occasion.


John watched the growing wormhole. It's swirling colors weren't the peaceful blues and white that he was used to, but had a swirling violet and red as well. It looked poisonous. It was the first time he thought that the character of the wormhole might be effected by the character of the wormhole summoner.

"SCORPIUS!" John yelled suddenly, as close to the Scarran hybrid as he could get. "What the HELL do you think you're doing? Do you want to kill us all? We're not even close to Scarran territory!"

There was no response from Scorpius. He was still enthralled by the wormhole, by the power of what he had created.

Rygel had trailed in after Aeryn, and was sitting in his throne chair twiddling his thumbs, at a loss as to what to do to help. Aeryn was looking to him, he knew-Chiana entered carrying baby D'argo, and started swearing under her breath. Chiana spoke briefly to Aeryn and handed her the baby, then went to the edge of the room and sat on the ledge, looking out into the wormhole as if she couldn't wait for it to swallow her up.

What to do? He was the one who was supposed to know about these things, who had designed the machine, who traveled wormholes. He had never considered how to stop someone from creating the galaxy eating wormhole because he hadn't wanted anyone to stop him in his game of chicken. But this wasn't to get anyone to back down first. Scorpius seriously wanted the world to go to Hell.

"Can you stop the visuals, Pilot?" John asked.

"What do you mean, Commander Crichton?" Pilot's voice was shaky-John could tell that he was frightened.

"Cloud the front window? Make it so that we can't see the wormhole from here?"

"Certainly." The world went dark outside of Moya. It didn't improve the situation-John could still feel it, like a giant malignancy at his back. It was hungry, and wanted to eat them up like the big bad wolf at the door. But it did remove the glee from Scorpius's face. He frowned in disappointment. John knew from experience that Scorpius still had unbelievable power coursing through his veins, taking over his thinking mind, but he was more in the present than he was before.

John chose his words carefully. "You don't really want to do this, Scorpius." He was sure he didn't-by John's reasoning he was like the kid who wanted to make everyone sorry by dying before morning of some dread disease, but never thought about the fact that he wouldn't be there to enjoy their remorse. "You don't really want to make the entire universe go away. Where's the profit in it for you?"

Scorpius glared at him with red eyes, still drunk on anger and power.

"Answer me this-why did you take me with you on your trip through Wonderland?"

"You-have the knowledge. The knowledge born of experience," Scorpius replied, as if he had just relearned speech.

"Or maybe it's because it's lonely going alone. It's not good to at least have a flunky, a lackey like Braca-or an opponent, someone to match wits with. It's no fun playing chess by yourself."

Scorpius muttered and looked away.

"And you don't want to destroy a fine specimen such as yourself. There's never been the like, and never will be, even if the universe starts over again. And so what if you destroy the Scarrans? You won't be there to enjoy it. Just-stop the wormhole, and I'll help. We'll get your revenge, go after the Scarrans together. And survive the attempt! That's the goal, isn't it?"

John realized he'd gone too far immediately. Scorpius growled and strained against the machine. "No, you wouldn't. You don't believe in revenge."

"No, I don't," he fessed up.

"Because it doesn't work," Scorpius said bitterly.

"It never fixes anything. It doesn't bring anyone back, doesn't make whatever evil happened not to  have happened," John agreed. "It doesn't make you feel better."

"I have been living my life for revenge for so long that I don't know any other way to live. I don't know what to do with the rest of my life."

Despite the situation, or perhaps because John felt for the first time that Scorpius was not going to go all the way on his path to self-destruction, John's strange sense of humor asserted itself. "Have you ever thought of taking up piracy?" he asked. "You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Yes," he said. "How could I destroy a world that produces such as you?"

He settled back into the machine and closed his eyes. It was still touch and go-John knew that it was far more difficult to put the wormhole genie back in the bottle, and he didn't know how large the wormhole had grown. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, either, so he didn't ask for the view screens on Moya to be opened again. He looked around for Aeryn, who to his surprise was sitting on the floor, braced against one of Moya's walls, nursing the baby. He walked over and sat down beside her, putting an arm around her and the baby. She rested her head on his shoulder and they waited together for the world to end. Or not.

John knew it was over when Scorpius slid out of the machine and pitched forward onto the floor.

He was dead. Not in a coma like John had been, not buried in a pit to be resurrected, not blown up in a shadow depository only to reappear intact at a later date. By all the physical signs they could detect for Sebaceans or Scarrans, Scorpius was no more.

John felt the familiar tug of a supernatural summons as he stood over Scorpius's prone body. "Oh, no," he said in response. "I'm not going anywhere. If you want me, you gotta come here to talk, Einstein."

The cadaverous figure appeared on the other side of Scorpius, looking as if he had come to pick the body up for the funeral home. Or perhaps to take him to other places-he made a credible imitation of an Angel of Death.

"Did you kill him?" John asked.

"No. Some minds are not as strong as others. He was not able to survive creating the weapon."

"Well, where the Hell where you?" John asked angrily. "when I needed you? Aren't you supposed to keep the riffraff out? Aren't you part of the answer to why Prowler Pilots turn to goo in wormholes? Because you wanted them to?"

"It's not for me to decide what is real and what is not. I don't live in your world, your time."

"Time...passes you by."

Einstein nodded.

"You don't play the game, you don't make the rules. Okay, I guess I can get that. But this is still-why? Why let this madman run loose?"

"It was thought that you needed to learn what risk still existed for your reality with your having declined wormhole knowledge. Having all the facts, you might want to reconsider that decision."

John sighed. He'd suspected as much. "Let me think..I need to think about what's happened. I need to talk to Aeryn..."

"By all means," Einstein said, as if they had just been discussing a job offer. "But there is one thing you should know. This is not your Scorpius."

"Not-MY Scorpius. Then who the Hell's Scorpius is he?" John was shocked.

"One from one world over. A reality so close to yours that it's only a small step to get here."

Einstein disappeared without any fanfare.

"This is a test, "John muttered as he stood over the body. "This is only a test. If this had been a real emergency, you'd have been told what the frell was going on." This was certainly some warning. Scorpius was out there, who knew how many Bizarro Scorpy's were still out there..Stark still might or might not be carrying dangerous info in his head. And the doomsday weapon he had had built to his own specifications was still on Moya. John realized that he was completely unsure as to how much knowledge it actually took to run the thing-he knew that he had needed specialized knowledge to build it, but it could be that anyone with rudimentary wormhole knowledge could use it. Well, at least that was something he could do something about. He could destroy the device, and Pilot could wipe the plans from his memory. It wasn't much, but it was something.

-----

Later that evening, after every scrap of the device had been jettisoned into the sun, John and Aeryn were talking quietly in their room. D'argo slept soundly in Aeryn's arms, one chubby hand grasping a fistful of long raven hair.

"I missed you," John said, grabbing a lock for his own and twisting it around his finger, making it curl.

"I didn't get a chance to miss you." Aeryn's mouth quirked. "You were back before I even knew you were gone."

John didn't feel like giving a blow by blow of his journey. Maybe later, after he'd had a chance to think about it all. But there were some things that needed to be said.

"We need to find Stark and make sure he's all right."

"All right," Aeryn agreed.

"It wouldn't hurt to keep tabs on Scorpius, you know. I mean, the real Scorpius."

"I gathered that," she said. "I figured that out when you were talking to thin air."

"Thin air? Oh, I guess you couldn't see Einstein."

Aeryn shook her head as if she couldn't believe that John hadn't known that.

John watched her as she stroked the baby, careful not to wake him. He wanted to be discreet about this issue-after all, there was no use in his getting into trouble for his alternate's libido. "And-uh...," he said casually, "maybe we should talk about family planning. You know, spacing children."

Aeryn gave him the look he hadn't seen in a while, the one that said he was a crazy alien. "Oh. You mean how long between children? Why don't we wait and see how this one turns out first? You know, in twenty cycles or so?"

"I can't wait that long," he said. "Remember? Fragile human? Short life span?"

"Maybe it doesn't have to be a short life span," Aeryn said seriously. "We should talk to the Eidelons. If they made humans into Peacekeepers, maybe they can modify you."

John stared at her. This was a possibility he had never considered.

"Since it appears that we are actually going to live, I don't really want to be a young widow."

"You may have something there. But some modifications are not so good. Have you ever considered..I mean, with the next child, having a regular pregnancy? Not geometric or any kind of fancy math?"

Aeryn would have raised her voice had she not been afraid of waking the baby. As it was, she squeaked. "You want me to be pregnant for MONENS? Forever?"

"Well, you were pregnant for a cycle that you knew and had to worry about. That's longer than you'd be pregnant with a normal human pregnancy. I don't like the demands the geometric pregnancy makes on you..and let's just say that I have reason to know that there are other drawbacks to it as well."

"I'll think about it. I don't want another child right away, John," she said, holding little D more closely to her. "I want D'argo to have my full attention. I want to know that I'm doing a good job as a mother first."

"I know. I know you do,' he said softly, impressed with her earnestness. He kissed her lightly on the brow, being careful not to disturb the baby.

Aeryn unwrapped the little fist from her hair, checking the fingers to make sure that no stray hairs were wrapped around them, and went to put the baby down for the night. John reflected that he'd really had no reason to worry. A different reality, a different him, an Aeryn that might be being sapped more by the demands of motherhood, but one that was putting more into it. He'd definitely gotten the right one.

"Glad to be home?" she asked as if reading his mind. She crawled into bed and John spooned around her, amorous thoughts on his mind but he knew that not only had he missed her more than she missed him, she was too tired to do anything other than sleep.

"Dirty diapers, night feedings," he yawned, "Moya needing repairs everywhere..mourning my dead friends. There's no place like home. I mean it, Aeryn. You have no idea what I went through to get back. This is the best of all possible worlds."

"I love you, too."

"And Aeryn?" he said softly and sadly into her neck. "I don't think wormholes are done with me."

There was a small pause. She put her arm over the one around her waist and stroked his hand. "I never thought they were, John."