Cover-Up Conspiracy (PG-13)

Title: Cover-Up Conspiracy
Rating: PG-13 for language
Disclaimer: Farscape is not my creation and I'm not making a dime off this fic
Beta: None

Author's Note: I don't knw if this could even be feasible or not, but this hit me today and I had to write it. I would love to hear what you think, if you think this is plausable or just my imagination run wild.

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"What was the concern, doctor? Is he healthy?"

"That depends on your idea of healthy, Admiral. I'm not sure I'm qualified to make that judgment." The man in the white lab coat walked around his desk and slapped an open file on the blotter.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"I'm not entirely sure that John Crichton is still human."

The admiral thought about that answer for a moment, trying to keep panic from overriding common sense. "Are you trying to tell me that the man living in Jack Crichton's house is an imposter?"

"No, no, nothing like that."

"Good."

"I'm merely saying that his physical attributes have been changed dramatically. He still has all of the basic human organs and tissues, but there seems to have been extensive alterations to his chemical composition, along with medical procedures and new technology added."

"Explain yourself."

Sighing, the doctor lowered himself to his plush seat. "There was evidence of two separate lobotomies, one at the neck, one at the skull; both repaired by an expert."

"Dear mother of... lobotomies?"

"His neural pathways have been completely realigned, as if someone took out his brain, mixed the pieces around and put them back together as best they could."

The admiral had to sit. The awful horror of what John had gone through was just starting to become a terrible reality.

"There were implants on his eyestalks and the expected translator microbes colonized at the base of his neck. But the most curious change of all was the chemical change of his blood and other body fluids. His blood is now made of a combination of human blood and other components we've never seen before."

"Is there any idea how this change occurred?"

"None whatsoever. Maybe it was a side effect of the food and exposure to alien atmospheres that did it. It is possible that his body evolved to survive. But with the extent of medical tampering we've seen, he could have been deliberately altered at some point as well."

"Do you think he knows?"

"If he does, he's not talking about it."

"A lot of things are starting to make more sense about him now."

"I'm due to give a press release in two hours. How much do I say?"

"That he's a healthy red-blooded American hero who's survived the unknown conditions of space in perfect health. I don't need a panic on our hands."

"I figured you'd say that, but I wanted to inform you of the facts."

"Thank you. Damn. I've got a meeting with Jack tomorrow."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"Tell him that his only son is not entirely human anymore? There's no way in hell I'm going to be the one to deliver that message. John can tell him"

"We need him in for more tests. We need to know how much of it was natural adaptation and how much of it was the torture."

The admiral sighed. "I'm the poor bastard who's going to have to convince him, too."

The doctor flashed a half smile. "Why do you think I told you?"

"Give me two days. I'll talk to him right after Christmas. Let him at least have that day with his family."

"Thank you."

There was a long pause as both reflected on the results staring at them from the file on the desk. "We'll never really know what happened, will we?" the doctor asked.

"Probably not, Jim. Probably not. Let's just hope that his fate won't be all of ours." The admiral stood and, lost in his own musings left the room.

The doctor sat back in his large seat, his eyes never straying from the file. Would he have survived? Would he have wanted to? One thing he was sure of, the admiral was right. There was no way in hell that earth was ready to know what was possible out there.

It was bad enough that one poor bastard had to find out for all of them.