What Goes Around... (R)

[imloco2]

November 7, 2003 is when I posted this on the bunny board. Thanks to Chaz for writing a fic with the same name and reminding me I had written this. *g*


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I found it! The sequel to The Healing Touch. Only it was actually the first story posted so... oh well. It's a future fic. It's long. I just have one question..why does Alex always show up?

Rated: R to be on the safe side 'cause I don't remeber what's in here.
Future fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine

“What goes around…”

Crais' first thought was that Crichton attracted trouble like flera to a prygne light.  They had been here less than an arn when Talyn had discovered the ship, though he could see no sign of it yet. In fact, the only thing he could see was a far off view of a Brown Dwarf. A dark star that gave no light, no warmth, no life, to the frozen planets surrounding it.  Talyn sensed nothing in that area and concentrated on his latest find.  Crais continued to stand at the console looking out at the view from Talyn's bridge, searching for the ship he knew was there.

“Talyn, activate your long range scanners and do a complete scan of the ship.  We must know what is out there!”

Talyn beeped and hummed as he began scanning the strange ship, trying to identify it, communicate with it.  There was no answer to his inquiries, only silence.

Crais decided it was time that he comm'd the others.

“Crichton.  I recommend you come to command at once. There is an unidentified ship in the area and Talyn is getting no response to his signals.”

He waited a microt. Nothing but silence on this end too.

“Crichton!”

“Yeah! Crais.  I'm here. You...you just have really lousy timing, man. Or perfect timing.” John sighed. As incomprehensible as that was, Crais could hear the frustration in his voice.  “All right, I'm on my way.”

“Please ask Officer Sun to accompany you.”

“Ah....yeah.  I'll just...um...find her and let her know.”

Crais knew perfectly well that, where one was, the other was sure to be close by. They were never obvious about it, as she had been with the other Crichton, but it was not a secret either. After nearly a cycle together it seemed they had found some peace.

It wasn't long before they both entered the room, John pulling on his vest. While Aeryn checked the panels John went to stand beside Crais.  John absently fingered the large scar running vertically down the left side of his neck. It was becoming habit, feeling the rough skin under his fingers.  Their campaign to bring Scorpius down had almost killed him, now the scar was a reminder of what he'd lost and, he glanced over at Aeryn, what he'd gained.

He looked out at the view in front of him expectantly, and saw...nothing. 

“Crais? I thought you said there was a ship?”  If this was some kind of a joke he wasn't laughing.  It was hard enough to get some alone time with Aeryn, he really didn't need Crais playing games.   He glanced at Aeryn who glanced back before giving her full attention to the controls.  No one would believe that just a few minutes ago....

Talyn was beeping again. “Yes, Talyn. I concur.” Crais turned to the others.

“Talyn says the ship is still too far away to view. Apparently, it has suffered massive damage. Talyn cannot determine if there are any life signs on board. I recommend we maneuver closer and deploy the docking web.”  He looked to John and Aeryn for an opinion.

“Can Talyn tell what kind of a ship it is? Peacekeeper maybe?” John knew their track record sucked when it came to visitors.  After their last encounter with the Peacekeepers the thought of another was... unpleasant.

“Talyn says not.” He paused a moment to listen and a puzzled look came over his face. “He says it more closely resembles your module than any other known design. And its energy signature is reading the same as your ship.” He looked over at John with eyebrows raised.

John's heart picked up its pace.

“Really?”

Same as his ship? No, it couldn't be.... No, of course not. Calm down, John. No need to get your panties in a knot. The chances of another ship from Earth being out here in the UT and them finding it would be astronomical. But no matter how hard he tried to stop it, the thought leaped from one nerve ending to another. After all, those disrupted spatial patterns that Talyn had discovered might mean a wormhole was close by. That's why there were here in the first place, wasn't it? He took a deep breath.
Aeryn's voice interrupted his fevered train of thought. “Does Moya know our location?” The question was directed at Crais, but her eyes didn't stray far from Crichton.

“Yes. She has contacted Talyn and they will be meeting us here in approximately three solar days.  Jool has found what she needed to treat Ka D'Argo.”

“So, there's no problem, right? Jool said he'd be fine if they found the...the...stuff.”  John's excitement over the ship momentarily gave way to concern for the Luxan. The illness that had struck his friend had started slowly at first. But, by the time D'Argo had been feeling bad enough to tell someone he was sick, it had progressed to serious. Lucky for him, Jool had read of similar symptoms and thought she knew how to treat it with some plant. She and Zhaan were alike in that, if nothing else.  He, Aeryn and Crais had come ahead to investigate the readings Talyn had discovered, while the others went to the commerce planet to find what Jool needed to help D'Argo.

“She will be starting the treatment immediately. There is no cause for concern.”

“Famous last words.” John took a deep breath. “Ok, Crais. Tell Talyn to bring that ship in. Aeryn and I will do the meet and greet.” He looked at Aeryn and she nodded. They took off at a run, heading for the hanger to see what kind of trouble they had brought on board this time.

*          *          *          *

The hanger doors opened as John and Aeryn entered with their pistols drawn.  They were just in time to see the ship being lowered by the docking web to the floor of the hanger. With a gentle swoosh, it landed and was still. 

It had obviously seen better days.  The hull of the ship was intact but a wing was sheared off and it looked like the whole thing had been run through a Bunsen burner, with smoke coming out the sides. From the look of things, Aeryn was afraid they were too late to save the pilot.   

For John, the moment he laid his eyes on the ship, time seemed to stop. He was no longer aware of anything around him. The ship was all that he saw. The resemblance to his module was unmistakable. It was a bit bigger, perhaps carrying a two man crew, and the design was a little sleeker, but what had captured his attention was the writing on the side of the craft.  It had been partially burnt off, but there was no mistaking what it said.

“Farscape Two...”  He hadn't realized he'd said it out loud until Aeryn turned to look at him.

“It's like yours.” Her gun was still pointed at the cockpit. 

What the frell?!  Another ship from Earth?  As she watched John's reactions, she felt something she didn't understand and didn't have time to examine.  The excitement and yearning were apparent on his face.  He looked like he'd never seen a ship before.  She didn't know who or what was on board, but suddenly she was ready to pounce on the first one out of the cockpit. The only problem with that was... no one was getting out.

She looked over at John at the same time he looked at her,  both thinking the same thing.  It was something that happened so often now, they didn't always notice it. Aeryn gave John a hand up and he scrambled up on the wing.  He held his hand out to pull her up with him.  She covered him with her pistol as he climbed to the top of the ship and began inching his way towards the hatch. 

He stared at it a second, unnerved to see it was a match for the one on his own ship. It was fogged over and it was impossible to see anything inside. He reached down and pulled Winona out of his leg holster, placing it in front of him and started working on getting the hatch open. It didn't take long. It came up suddenly, the smoke escaping with a hiss. As the fog cleared he could see two figures, pilot and co-pilot. Both appeared to be unconscious or worse. No way to know without getting a closer look.

“Well, hell.” He muttered. “Get a chance to maybe meet some homeboys and look what happens.....?”

“Are they alive?” Aeryn still had her pistol trained on the hatch.

“We'll see in a minute.” He leaned in and checked the pilot. He'd never seen the man before, thank god.  He'd been half afraid that he'd see DK sitting there in the pilot’s seat. It looked like he had been trying to seal his suit, but lost the battle with time.  There was no pulse and, judging from the stiffness, it felt like he'd been dead for a while. 

John turned his attention over to the form behind him. Unlike the pilot, this one's suit was intact. The mask was fogged up and John undid the helmet just enough to slide two fingers in.  There!  A faint, but unmistakable throb beneath his fingers. He was alive! 

“Aeryn. I need you.” He nodded for her to join him on top of the module, and slid into the cockpit while she came up from behind.

“What is it? What's wrong?” She was unsure of what was happening.

“Well, the pilot's history, but the...” he grunted as he bent to undo the harness “...co-pilot is still alive and kickin'. Give me a hand here.”

With some maneuvering they managed to get the limp form out and down to the hanger floor.  Breathing heavily, John reached down to pull the helmet off and see who had survived.  If the ship was what he thought it was,  they would be the first real human he'd come across in 5 cycles.  He had no idea who or what to expect, but in all the universe, the person he saw as the helmet came off, was the one least likely to be there.

“Alex?”

*          *          *          *

They were in Talyn's medical bay, and Crais had been doing his best to find out what was wrong with the human woman and help her.  His knowledge was limited but he had learned a great deal from Jool in the time he had spent on Moya.

“The pilot seems to have been killed almost instantly, apparently from a broken seal in the craft.  If your...friend, hadn't been wearing her suit she would have died as well.  As it is, she seems to be suffering from some internal bleeding and has sustained a severe blow to the head.  I have done everything I know to do. We will have to wait until we rendezvous with Moya. Talyn has contacted her and relayed the situation here. She will starburst and should be here within the arn. Hopefully, Jool will be able to repair the damage.”

John hadn't known quite what to feel since seeing Alex, but he knew he was on the edge of losing it. Hearing that calm dispassionate voice was all it took.  To John, Crais' words had all the urgency and feeling as  “repair the toaster”.

“Repair the damage?!” Outrage rang in John's voice. “We're not talkin' bout some machine here, Crais.  That's a woman. A living, breathing, human woman. My....” He stopped short of finishing. What had he been about to say? His woman? She wasn't his, no matter why or how she was here. Aeryn was his.

His breath came out as a ragged sigh.

“Look, I'm sorry.” Man, he hated having to apologize, to Crais of all people.  When was he going to get used to the way ex-Peacekeepers talked anyway? 

“It's just...seeing her again, here of all places, has got me freaked okay?  Back on Earth we were... close, once. But that was a long time ago.”

Crais nodded. He wasn't sure what he had said to anger Crichton, but that was nothing new.  He had come to expect the unexpected when it came to the human. You never knew what would bring on a fit of anger or have him suddenly burst out laughing. After a while you just gave up trying to figure him out.  He was just Crichton.

“I'll be on the bridge if you need me.”

John watched as Crais walked away, leaving him alone with Alexandra.  He couldn't even begin to understand all the thoughts and feelings going on inside him as he stood there, watching her still form lying there on the bed.  She was so pale.  Her blond hair was damp with sweat and he bent down to smooth a few stray strands away from her face. How had she gotten here? Why? The questions burned in his mind.  As far as he could tell, this wasn't a test, it wasn't a Scarren playing tricks, and no Ancients anywhere around.... this was for real. She was here.

Aeryn watched him from the doorway, unnoticed.  She saw John bend over and brush the woman's hair back, saw the look he gave her as he gazed down at her. So that was Alex. John had told her once about the Earth woman he had wanted to marry. It had seemed an important event to him at the time.  Apparently the woman had left him to do some kind of tech work. Obviously she wasn't that intelligent. But watching him with the woman was giving Aeryn a strange ache in the region of her chest. She didn't know what it was, but it had been with her since the ship had arrived and they'd found...her. 

She entered the room carrying a basin of water and a cloth.  Sitting it down beside the bed she turned to John.

“Perhaps this would make her more comfortable until Jool arrives.” The look on John's face when he saw her eased that ache she had developed.  He smiled at her and the thought touched her mind as it always did, how beautiful he was. She would never tell him that, but she always thought it.  The love in his eyes brought an answering smile to her face and she moved closer to bring her lips to his for a quick kiss.

A small sound came from the bed and they both turned to look. Alex groaned as she twisted in bed and her eyes came open.  It was hard to tell if she awake or delirious as she looked over at them. 

She glanced uncomprehendingly at Aeryn, dismissing her, not knowing who she was.  When her look fell to John though, the light of recognition danced in her eyes.   She licked lips that were dry and cracked and her voice was unsteady as she whispered.

“J..John. You're here? Help me! ....love you.”

He looked over at Aeryn to see her looking at him with an eyebrow cocked questioningly. He could feel the blood rushing to his face. He looked back over at Alex to see she had closed her eyes and once more fallen asleep.  What the hell?!

Aeryn saw the confusion on his face and decided to make it easy on him.

“You stay here and take care of....Alex?  I'll  meet with Jool when she returns and bring her here.” 

“Aeryn.”  He was at a loss.  What could he say anyway? That she was delirious, out of her mind and didn't know what she was saying?  That she had never meant anything to him?

“It's fine, John. Really.” She leaned forward and lightly touched his lips with hers. They lingered there, her lashes drifting closed as she sank into the sensation of his mouth.

She broke the kiss reluctantly saying “I'll let you know when they arrive.”  She glanced at Alex.

“Aeryn.” He said her name again, but this time his hands came up to hold her arms and pull her close once again.

“Come here.”   He let his head fall until his forehead touched hers.  Noses rubbing lightly, breathing each others breath, it was one of their most intimate gestures, and the one she'd had the hardest time getting used to again.  It reminded her of the other John, always.  It had hurt at first, remembering, but now it gave her comfort.

“I love you.”  She felt his whisper against her face.  She closed her eyes enjoying the feel of him.

“I know.” Another kiss and she was gone.

Alone again,  he sat down next to the bed and looked at the woman he had once wanted to spend his life with.  How had she gotten here? From the looks of her uniform she had been co-piloting the module, but she had no rank. Not that he expected her to. Last time he'd heard, she'd been in California with her precious Stanford medical research. What had happened to bring her here?  There were so many questions he had to ask her when she woke up. If she woke up. He just hoped he liked the answers.


*          *          *          *

John had been sitting motionless for too long. His muscles were screaming at him, but he couldn't stop looking at Alex and thinking.  'What' he was thinking, even he didn't know. His thoughts were a jumbled mess and he had given up trying to make sense of them. He just continued to stare.  He jumped up and almost fell when Jool entered the room.  She carried a small medical kit and was talking non-stop to Aeryn as they crossed the room.

“I can't believe it. No sooner do I figure out what is wrong with D'Argo, then we have to come here to fix  up another one. Do I look like a diagnosn? Do I get paid like a diagnosn? No. I don't. You'd think I could get treated just a little bit better if I'm so...”

“Shut up.” Said in unison it carried much more weight.  The sudden quiet was a blessing.
Lest she be too offended, John came around the bed to take her hand.

“Jool, listen. I appreciate you. We all do. But right now I need to know.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to look at Alex. “Can you help her?”

Jool relented and began examining the strange woman.  It was hard to stay upset with the human. She'd grown awfully fond of him and if the truth be told, although she never would, she was glad he had survived instead of her cousin. She'd never liked Stanis that much anyway.   John had proven himself a trusted friend many times over and no matter how frelled up his ideas were, his heart was always in the right place.  Besides,  he was just so frelling cute. For an alien.

She turned her attention to her newest patient to see what could be done. Addressing the two over her shoulder she said, “Okay. I'll have to run some tests and it could take a while. Fortunately I have some idea of human physiology because of John.  Why don't you go to Moya and check on D'Argo for me. He's been trying to get out of bed even with my strict instructions not to. Maybe he'll listen to  you. He doesn't listen to me. I've told him over and over he needs to stay in bed if he wants to get well, but he seems to think he knows better......” Her voice trailed off as she realized they had already left during her little...talk.  Why did they always do that?

*           *          *         *

Back on Moya,  John soon discovered Jool had been right. D'Argo's bed was empty and he was nowhere to be seen. John discovered him in the dining hall trying to eat with shaking hands.

“Hey, big guy! You're up! I thought Jool said you needed to stay in bed for a while to get your strength back?” He walked over and pounded the Luxan on the back, almost sending him to the floor.

With great effort D'Argo righted himself and glared at the human. “I do have my strength back.”  At John's raised eyebrows,  he growled. “Well, most of it. You just caught me off guard. It won't happen again.”

“Yeah, right.” John settled down next to him. “Did you hear about the ship?”

“Chiana told me about it on one of her arnly checkups. I swear if I 'ever' see another bowl of Ra'thdrop soup again I'll.......”

“She's just makin' sure you're okay, big guy. You know how she feels.” John wasn't sure he should say anything, but he wanted to put in a good word for Chi. After all she'd been instrumental in helping him and Aeryn get back together. How long could D'Argo hold out anyway?

D'Argo just grunted.

“Have you found out yet how another Earth ship came to be here? You don't think there will be more do you?” He was slightly alarmed at the prospect of more Crichton's popping up out of thin air. He loved John like a brother, but he didn't know if the Universe could handle too many humans like him.
“Nah. I haven't found out anything. Alex is still unconscious and the recorder on their module is damaged. It'll take a while to fix.”

“Chiana said you knew the woman?”

“Yeah, I knew her. A long time ago.”  John grew quiet and still.  “She was the one I told you about. The one I was going to ask to marry me. I can't figure it out. She was supposed to be doing research, why would she be flying Farscape Two? And on Talyn she said....”

“She said what?”

“She said she loved me.” He ran his hand through his hair, remembering. “I know she wasn't in her right mind, but.... why would she say that? Now?”

“Perhaps, she thought she was back on Earth and remembering those times with you.”

“Yeah, well, she was the one who left me.” John got up and started to pace. “I wonder what's keeping Jool. Shouldn't she have found out something by now? I think I'll just go back over there and....”

“John, stop. Jool is doing the best she can. She will let us know when she finds out something. Besides, the further away from me she is the better. I never knew there were so many places to stick a...” He stopped and looked around. “Uh...John. Where's Aeryn?”

“She was going to ask Chiana to help her try and find some more clothes for Alex to wear. The stuff she had on was pretty bad off.”

D'Argo snickered. “Aeryn and  Chiana are going to find clothes for your former girlfriend to wear? This ought to be good.”

John grimaced as the realization hit him. “They wouldn't....  Ah, man.”

D'Argo started to laugh as he watched John run out the door. Laughing soon turned into a coughing fit and he decided that, just this once, maybe Jool was right.  His bed was looking awfully good, if he could just get to it. But he'd be frelled before he asked for help.

Thinking about the human he couldn't help but wonder, how the hezmana did John manage to get himself into these messes? Somehow, it always ended up their mess too. Only time would tell whether this was one of those or not.

*          *          *          *

After a change of clothes, a conversation with Pilot and a squealing reunion with Chiana, John was back on board Talyn. Jool had comm'd and told them Alex was awake and he was needed there, right away.  Aeryn had elected to stay on Moya for a while and catch up on what had happened there while they were gone. At least that's what she said. He had a feeling she thought he wanted to be alone with Alex for a while. Whether that was true or not, he wasn't sure. But he had tried to make sure she knew how much he loved her. He smiled to himself, still shivering at the memory of their goodbye.  He was pretty sure she knew.

He carried the small bundle of clothing with him to the medical bay. He'd been just in time to stop Chi from turning Alex into the UT's version of the happy hooker, while Aeryn looked on in amusement. He was hoping to talk to Jool before he saw Alex, but at the sudden screams coming from inside, he put on a burst of speed and entered the room at a run.  Alex was still in the bed.  Only this time she was backed up against the wall, terror in her eyes and drawing a breath for another scream. He looked around to see what had terrified her, but only saw Jool standing there looking confused and not a little angry. 

Jool gave him a pleading glance, her hair bobbing as she talked. “Do something! The welnitz won't shut up.”

“Alex! No. Stop.”  He ran over to the bed and sat down on the side next to her. “It's okay. Look at me!” He grabbed her shoulders and shook to get her attention. “It's okay. I'm here. I'm here.”

Her eyes focused on him at last. Relief at seeing a human face, John's face,  replaced the fear and confusion and she collapsed into his arms, crying. 

Jool came closer and started to explain to John that she had repaired some of the damage, but she still had more work to do.  At the sound of Jool's voice Alex only cried harder and moved closer to John, seeking the safety of the familiar.

Looking up at Jool he said softly, “Give us a minute okay? Let me talk to her. Try and make her understand.”

“All right. But don't take too long.” She kept up a running monologue out the door. “I can't be responsible if the patient refuses to act with even the smallest amount of  cooperation or gratitude. Not that I've had a lot of that around here, but you'd think....” Her voice faded as she walked away.

He turned his attention to Alex, smoothing her hair. “Shhh..It'll be okay. You're safe here. That was a friend. She was just trying to help you. You've been hurt and needed a doctor. Okay, she's not exactly Marcus Welby, but she's the best we've got. Alex? Look at me.” He lifted her up so that he could see her face.

“Do you know where you are?” He grimaced at the question. “Hell 'you' don't know where you are John. Good question.” He tried again. “Do you know me?”

“John?” She touched his face with her fingertips. “Is it really you? You're here in my nightmare?”

“It's not a nightmare Alex. This is for real. I'm real.” He took the cloth and wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks. “I'm sorry you woke up and I wasn't here, but you're going to have to get used to the unexpected.  That's all there ever is around here.” He smiled to himself at the understatement.

“John?”  If she wasn't dreaming then.... “That...that, woman...thing, that was just in here...? Those noises.....”

“That was Jool. She's a friend, not a 'thing' and she's going to help you. You can't understand her because we haven't given you the translator microbes yet. When she comes back in she'll inject you and you have to let her, okay?  They'll help you understand everyone? Just...trust me on this.”

Alex nodded slowly, still unsure but willing to trust him.  After all, what choice did she have. She was starting to get herself together and her mind seemed to be working again.   The strange looking woman was named Jool and John was here. Oh my god, John was here!  That was her last thought as she watched John's face fade until all was black.

tbc...

[imloco2]

Pt 2


 *     *    *     *

Crais was in his quarters playing a game of Bak'Nok. It was a game of strategy and kept his mind sharp, because if you lost at this game you remembered it for a long time.  He absently rubbed the scar on his right hand.

He heard a noise outside his quarters and turned just as Crichton entered the room.

“Hey. Can I come in?” It was said with a jaunty grin as he came and sat down at the table opposite Crais.

“Obviously, you can.” He sighed to himself. The human could be most annoying.  Their relationship had developed into one of tolerance and even a grudging respect, but they never missed an opportunity to get on the others nerves.

“What can I do for you?” He watched as Crichton studied the game pieces and searched for a way to say whatever it was he came to say. Crais was always amazed at how little Crichton tried to hide his feelings and yet how little he actually knew about him. Even after all this time.

“Umm...I was just wondering.... You busy?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Alex..” he waved a hand upward “..the woman we brought on board...well, she's kinda new to all this, you know. I mean, she's not used to...um... other life forms and I was wondering..” he uttered the last in a hurried low mumble “..if you'd stay with her after Jool finishes up.”

“I'm sorry. What was that?”

Now it was John's turn to sigh. There was no way out, but to come right out with it. He needed a favor. From Crais. The thought was galling.

“Will you stay with Alex after Jool gets done? In case she wakes up, you know.” There, that ought to be clear enough.

“I am not a nurse, nor am I an infant sitter.” What was Crichton trying to pull now?

“Babysitter.”

“That's what I said.”

“Yeah. Well, I've got to try and work on the flight recorder from the new ship and see if I can salvage any of the data. It might give me that missing piece of the wormhole puzzle I've been searching for. I just thought it might make her feel better if she saw another... um, human looking face.”

Before Crais could say no John countered with a sure thing.

“If she keeps screaming every time she sees Jool, Jool's gonna start screaming back.” God knows, nobody wanted that.

Crais opened his mouth to speak, but John cut him off.

“She practically promised me she would.”

“But...”

“Really.”

“I...”

“She will.”

John tried unsuccessfully to hide his glee when he saw the resignation on Crais' face.

“That's settled then. Thanks, man. I owe you one.” He bounded up out of the chair. Before Crais could warn him not to, John had picked up one of the pieces and moved it up and to the left to rest on an empty spot on the game board.

“Checkmate. Cool game.” And with that he left quickly, whistling a nameless tune. Crais could only look at the board in disbelief.  There was no Checkmate in Bak'Nok. There were only right moves and pain. He shook his head. The human’s luck was either totally frelled or frelling awesome. There didn't seem to be much in between.

*          *          *         *

A few arns later and John was standing in front of the door to the med bay.  He'd done as much as he could to repair the flight recorder and would have to sit down later and go over the new data he had downloaded. But first he had to make a stop to see Alex. Jool had finally finished and said she was awake and wanted to see him. It sounded like Alex might have calmed down a little, maybe now he could get some answers. For some reason the rattlers in his stomach were back. They hadn't bothered him since before his run in with Scorpius.  Surely one ex-girlfriend wasn't that bad?   He rubbed sweaty palms on his shirt before he entered.

His first glimpse of her made him pause in mid stride. Jool must be a miracle worker.  This was not the same Alex he had seen just a few arns ago. The weak and crying woman who had fainted in his arms had been replaced with someone very different. Her face was clean and had a healthier glow, her hair had been washed and was now shining like burnished gold in the light.  This woman was sitting up in bed and calmly chatting away to Crais who seemed to be having a great time. Maybe it wasn't Jool who was the miracle worker. He laughed at something she said, prompting John to clear his throat.

She looked up to see John and smiled.

“John! I'm so glad you're here. Captain Crais....Bialar” She threw a quick smile at Crais. “...was just telling me about this place and the um... different people here.”

“Crais, what are you doing? I said watch her, not ask for a date!” He wasn't sure why, but seeing her with Crais was just... annoying.

Crais mouthed tightened at the insult but softened as he turned to the woman.

“Unfortunately, I have duties to attend to. It's been a pleasure, Alexandra.” He smirked at John as he took his leave. “Crichton.”

John forgot about him and went to sit down next to Alex. He took her hand in his. 

“You look better.” Oh, great John, that was good. Just tell her she looked like dren. “I mean...”

She smiled. “I was pretty out of it before. Sorry for the whole screaming thing. I just wasn't expecting to see... anyway, thanks for saving my life.” She grew still. “Captain Crais told me about David.”

“David?”

“The pilot. My friend. We trained together for 2 years. I can't believe he's dead.  If you hadn't been there” She looked down for a moment before pulling herself together again.  “Well, you know.”  She lifted her head.  “I suppose you're wondering how I got here?”

He nodded and grinned. “Yeah. The thought had crossed my mind.”

“Much like you did I'd think. The wormhole has been appearing at random intervals since you left.  We thought we had figured out the problems of the gravitational pull and had enough power to resist entry into the wormhole. It didn't work, obviously. There goes 2 years of research down the drain.”

“But, how did 'you'....?”

“Well, the how is easy enough. Your dad and DK pulled some strings. After you disappeared I convinced them to get me into the IASA and the wormhole project. They've been pulled off of it for being too close to you to be objective and being pains in a whole lot of  asses....” they both grinned at the thought “...but they still have a lot of pull. I had to tell the brass we dated briefly, but I let them believe you'd talked to me about the Farscape Project and I might know things others wouldn't. And they liked the idea of someone with a Stanford medical research background going up. I could cover a lot of bases for them.”

“Ok.  You quit Stanford and joined the space program. But why? You don't even like flying, and you left me to go to Stanford. That was your dream, the only thing in the world you wanted.”

“No. Not the only thing. I wanted to be with you too. I just didn't realize how much until it was too late.” A grin came over her face. “And once I got to IASA, I found I had a knack for this 'space' stuff.” She reached up to stroke his cheek. “You might not remember, but I meant what I said that day. I'll always be there for you.”

He caught her hand. “Alex...”

She looked away. “I know.  I didn't do a good job of that before.” She looked up, into his eyes. “But, I've been trying.”

For once, John was at a loss for words. It was too much to take in. She had given up Stanford and joined the space program because of him?! Because of some half baked promise to be there for him? Not that he didn't remember it. He remembered everything. The ring, the unasked question, the rejection.

“Okay, there's lots more to tell, a thousand things I'm sure you want to know, but first I want to hear about you.  I still can't believe you're here. I found you. Or you found me. Either way.” She shook her head with a laugh. “A lot of people thought you died when you disappeared in that wormhole. Your father and DK were among the few that believed there was a chance you survived, but still....you know them.  They've been worried sick.  It's been almost 5 years John. I need to know, where are we?  And how did you get that scar on your neck?

*          *          *          *

John had lost all track of time, it had been arns since he'd sat down next to her and they had started to talk. He tried to tell her as much as he could about what had happened to him after he'd entered the wormhole. He'd had to leave a lot out though. If he had tried to tell her everything they would have been there for days. Not to mention she would have run screaming.  He told her of Crais and his turbulent beginning here in the UT.  Scorpius was harder to talk about and he left out the worst of it. No need to make her think it was worse here than it was.  Besides, Scorpy wouldn't be bothering anyone again.

When it was her turn, he could only be grateful that Alex had kept up with what was going on in the Crichton household.  She told him that his sister Lizzie had gotten married last year. From the sound of it, her new husband hadn't made much of an impression on Alex, but then she and Liz had never gotten along that well anyway.  She must have seen the alarm on his face when she told him about his dad being in the hospital.  She was quick to let him know that his dad was a lot better now, it was just exhaustion that had sent him there, and Mary was making sure he took care of himself.  It seemed DK was still with the space program, but since being kicked off the Farscape Two project he'd become disillusioned with the whole thing. The only thing that kept any of them going seemed to be trying to find out what happened to him.

He knew logically there wasn't a damned thing he could have done about any of it, but that was small consolation.   He'd known it would be hard on his dad and friends, but to hear about it first hand was worse than he thought.

He looked at Alex and noticed the faint circles under her eyes, the tired lines around her mouth. They had been talking for a long time, and he should leave and let her get some rest.  Besides, Aeryn would be waiting for him.  Aeryn.  He hadn't told Alex about her yet.  He'd never thought he was a coward before, but he was beginning to think maybe he was.  He should just go ahead and tell her now.  It had to be said, even if it hurt. And it's not like she'd never hurt him.

The quiet seemed odd, as they both fell silent at the same time. 

“Alex, listen...I”

“John, I just wanted....”

Nervous laughter filled the room. Alex tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“You first.” John wondered if she could sense what he had to say.

“I just wanted you to know that, well, I know five years is a long time. A lot has happened and I would understand it if you never forgave me for leaving you, but I...” She stopped as his fingers came to her lips.

“Sshhh.”  Oh God, she was going to say it again. He couldn't let her do that, no matter what she had done to him in the past.

“Alexandra. You should know something.” He paused a moment. “You're right, it has been a long time and....” Man, he hated this. “...things are different now. I've made a life for myself here. I have friends, and...” Okay, just tell her. “...I have Aeryn.”

“Aeryn?” He watched as the light in her eyes dimmed and her face grew still. That was probably the same expression he had had when she told him she was going to Stanford.

“Yeah....”  He broke off as he noticed familiar sounding footsteps entering the med bay. "Aeryn." He couldn't stop the smile.  He didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

Alex watched as he shifted to look at the woman striding into the room.   She saw the change come over him,  his face softening and eyes shining with an emotion she'd never seen.  Oh god, he had never looked at her like that. Ever.

Well, what had she expected?  To find John and live happily ever after? If she were honest, she'd never really expected to see John again. She suddenly realized that her time at IASA had more to do with her finding herself than finding John. It had been exciting, being a part of the space program and trying to solve the mystery of the wormhole. Suddenly though, the grand adventure didn't seem quite so grand anymore.


*          *          *          *

Aeryn had waited for as long as she could. She knew John needed some time with the woman. Alone. There was so much that John needed to know. About his family, his friends. About his world.  She had kept Chiana from coming over and getting in the way. She had planted herself outside in the corridor and even Jool had backed off when Aeryn told her in no uncertain terms she wasn't going in.  And so she had waited.  And waited.    Okay, giving him time was one thing, but this was fahrbot.  She had no idea what they were talking about now and she didn't give a  frell.  By her calculations they'd had plenty of time.  And time was up.

She moved into the room quickly and stopped at the foot of the bed.  She heard her name, as  John stood up next to the bed.   The look he gave, filled with pleasure at the sight of her,  pleased her and made her angry at the same time. If he was so frellin' happy to see her he should have left sooner. And just because he smiled at her didn't mean he was off the hook. Yet.

“John.” She looked over at the woman in the bed expectantly.

For some reason the voice of his mother whispered in his head. *Mind your manners, John. Introduce her.*

“Oh, a....Aeryn, this is Alexandra Kimberly O'Connor. Alex, this is... Aeryn Sun. She was with me when I found you.”

Alex forced a smile. “Oh, so I should be thanking you too. For saving my life.”  So this was the woman John was involved with. She took in the tight, black leather outfit and the lean muscles standing before her.  She appeared annoyed, whether it was at John or herself she couldn't tell.  She was different than she'd expected.  Not exactly pretty, but strikingly beautiful, with her chiseled cheekbones, dark brows and pale skin.  She wouldn't have thought her John's type.

As Aeryn looked at Alex the thought crossed her mind that she reminded her of someone. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but....Gilina. She reminded her of Gilina. Blond, pretty and...soft. Funny John would have been attracted to two women who looked so alike. Nothing like her.

“Oh, you don't have to thank me. I'd have probably left you out there.”

“Okaaaay. Now that you've been introduced, I think Alex needs to rest.” John grabbed Aeryn's arm and pulled her towards the door.  Turning back to look at Alex he said  “I'll be back tomorrow.  I want to go over some of that flight data.   And you can tell me how your module got torn up.”

Alex  settled down under the covers, watching the two of them, still puzzled at the affection John obviously had for the woman. No point in thinking about that.

“Oh, that's simple. We hit something coming out of the wormhole. One minute we were fine and the next....  If I remember right, I think it was a space ship.  Although, it seemed pretty big for a ship.  Do they have space stations out here?” She yawned.  She really was tired.  “Sorry, but I don't remember much more.”

John and Aeryn looked at each other.  “Oh, Frell!”


*          *          *         *

They entered Talyn's command center at a run.  They had comm'd Pilot immediately after questioning Alex, and Moya and Talyn had already started searching the area.  Crais was there waiting for them.

“Crais?”

“Moya and Talyn have detected no sign of another vessel in this area.”  Crais turned away. “Talyn. Bring up the schematics for this solar system.”  The other two came over to look, as the blue holographic grid changed to include the nearby Brown Dwarf  and its satellites.  “This is the only place a ship could hope to remain unnoticed, but it is a large area to cover, with many places to hide.”

Aeryn went for the weapons panel, while John tried to decipher the read outs that Talyn was sending back.  “I know it's out there. I can feel it.  I'll bet dollars to donuts that there's a ship out there with our name on it.”

“Why would there be a ship out there with our name on it?” And what was a donut?  Crais knew better than to ask, but couldn't help himself.

John was thinking. “There's got to be a way to.....”  Inspiration hit him suddenly and he comm'd Pilot. “Pilot. Can you have Moya issue a baryon pulse at one of those planets? Use it like a sonar or something.  Maybe she can pick up anything unusual in the echoes that might indicate a ship.”

“Moya is sending out the pulse now, Commander.”

“Thanks Pilot.”  John looked over at Aeryn. “Why don't you get Alex and Jool and get them on board Moya. She can starburst and Crais and I will stay here and look for, whatever.”

He knew the moment he said it she'd never agree to leave.  He had long ago come to terms with the fact she was a soldier and would be in any battle they found themselves in.  Usually he wouldn't want it any other way, but he had a bad feeling about this.

“Jool can take her.” Her face was set as they stared at each other. She wasn't going anywhere.

“I'm afraid that is no longer an option.” Crais was listening intently to Talyn as he moved over to the weapons console with Aeryn. “Moya has found something.”

Pilot's voice returned. “The feedback from the baryon pulse indicates that there may  be a ship hiding in geostationary orbit behind the 4th ice planet.  Commander!  The ship appears to be moving out of position and accelerating in our direction.”

“Cat's out of the bag, boys. Here they come!”

“Sensors indicate the ship is armed and has gained weapons lock on....Moya!” Pilot could hardly get the words out fast enough.
“Can we Starburst?” Aeryn threw the question at Crais as she continued to prepare Talyn's weapons.

“Yes, but unfortunately Moya is between Talyn and the other ship.  Moya will be within firing range in.... 30 microts. I suggest we use Talyn as a decoy and let Moya Starburst to safety. As soon as she is safe, we can follow.”

John sighed.  He didn't like it, but couldn't see an alternative.  “Pilot! Have Moya Starburst as soon as the other ships guns are redirected! She can send her coordinates to Talyn and we'll meet you there.”

“Moya does not wish to leave, but she will comply.”

Crais straightened and turned his full attention to Talyn.  “Talyn, head full speed at the approaching ship.  We must draw its attention away from Moya.   As soon as she has escaped, Starburst immediately.”

All his systems were at full power as Talyn came around Moya, picking up speed as he went, straight towards the ship.  His drexim levels  increased and he put on an extra burst of speed. The ship ahead would not hurt his mother.

“Their weapons are no longer targeting Moya.” Aeryn looked around at the others. “They are targeting us.”

“Pilot! Starburst!”

“Yes, Commander. Starbursting...Now!”

Behind them, the blue energy net covered Moya and she disappeared, leaving them behind as they drew closer to the enemy.


*          *          *          *

They were a 1000 metres away when Talyn's sensors registered what it was they were heading for. It didn't mean much to him, but Crais was not happy. “Talyn's sensors indicate that the ship is a Y'Therri cruiser.”

“What the hell is a Y'Therri?” John looked over at Aeryn who shrugged. She had no idea either.

“Not much is known about them, except they are travelers.  They never stay in one place too long and they keep to themselves.”

“Then why the hell are they trying to kill us?”

“Unknown. However, now is not the time to ask. We will be in firing range in 5 microts!  Talyn,  you must starburst immediately!”

They looked at each other as nothing happened.

“Talyn! You must Starburst!” Aeryn's voice was stern.  Now was not a good time for him to have a tantrum.  How long did it take a Leviathan to mature anyway? It was a question they asked often.
“Crais, why aren't we hauling ass out of here?”

Crais didn't bother to answer, he was too busy with......   “No, Talyn! You must Starburst. We don't know what kind of weapons they have. It's too dangerous. You must turn back now!” Talyn didn't respond and he gave a frustrated sigh. He looked at the others.  “Talyn doesn't want to run. He wants to fight. We are now in firing range of the Y'Therri ship and gaining speed.”

“God, I thought the boy was growing up! Now he wants to play chicken?” John threw his hands up.  “All right. If that's what he wants, chicken it is. Crais, tell Talyn to keep heading straight for the ship. No detours.  And don't do anything until I tell him to.  Will he do that?”

“Yes. Talyn will do as you ask.” He paused. “I think he likes this game of....shickan.”

“Yeah, well. Now we get to see who blinks first.”

*          *          *          *

“Looks like we're only going to get one shot at this.” John was growing more alarmed as they got closer to the other ship. It was a lot bigger than he had thought. Well, hell, nothing was ever easy.

“Steady, Talyn.  Straight ahead.” Aeryn was hoping she could keep him calm, although why she was directing him directly towards the enemy, she wasn't sure. It was bad enough that Talyn wouldn't listen to Crais, but John had to come up with another one of his plans.

“Okay! Here we go.” John's voice went up a few decibels. They were nearing the ship at full speed and the other ship had not backed off.  Perhaps the Y'Therri didn't realize what a Leviathan gun ship could do. Or maybe they didn't know what a Y'Therri ship could do. The thought wasn't comforting.

“Wait. Not yet.” John glanced at Aeryn. “Get ready to fire.”

She nodded, hand hovering over the control panels and hoping that John knew what he was doing.

They were almost on the ship.  A few more microts and it would be too late. 

“Now!” John barked the word.

“ Now, Talyn. Pull up!” Crais shouted.

“Fire!” Crais and John yelled at the same time, but Aeryn had already let loose the cannon.

Both ships fired at the same time as Talyn made a sweeping arc directly in front of the cruiser.

Talyn shook, as they took a direct hit from the Y'Therri ship, but the polarity shield that they had recently installed proved to be worth the barillium they had paid for it. 

The Y'Therri took a direct hit was well, though it was impossible to tell how much damage they had sustained.  Since their ship was larger and less maneuverable than the gunship, Talyn had a head start as he streaked past the cruiser.

Crais informed the others. “The polarity shield is holding, but there is some damage on tier 3.  The blast seems to have disrupted some of Talyn's power cells.  They must be repaired before we can Starburst.  I am sending some drd's to assess the damage.  What....?”  He cocked his head as he listened to Talyn's next information. “There appears to be a transport pod leaving the Y'Therri ship and headed this way.”

Aeryn went to stand next to John, “Do we shoot it.... or bring it on board?”

“Good question.  They could want to talk.... ”

They looked at each other before shaking their heads. “Nah.” 

Suddenly there was a flash of light and they realized that the cruiser had fired on the pod. Whoever was flying the pod was either incredibly lucky or an excellent pilot, because their evasive maneuvers saved them from being killed instantly.  It didn't save them from taking a hit, however, and the pod was now floating lifeless in space.  It wouldn't survive another hit.

“Well, that makes it easier. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” John moved closer to the view screen. “Crais, have Talyn swing back and deploy the docking web and then Please get the hell out of here.”

Talyn made a loop and as soon as he had a lock on the pod they raced away.  Unsure of how much damage Talyn had sustained and whether the other ship would overtake them they decided that it was their turn to hide.  Crais guided him to one of the Dwarfs' larger ringed planets and dipped down to join the rocks and space debris floating around it.  Talyn was still small enough to be mistaken for one of the larger pieces and with any luck they would have the power cells repaired and be able to Starburst out of there before the Y'Therri ship could find them.


tbc

[imloco2]

Pt. 3



*         *        *         *

John and Aeryn met Jool at the transport hanger to watch as the pod slowly touched down.  Smoke and sparks were coming from the craft and with the damage the pod had taken it was unlikely to have left the pilot in one piece.

Jool looked at the pod dubiously. “You really think someone is still alive in there?”

Their guns were drawn and ready when the pod doors opened and slowly lowered. The first thing they saw were the brown boots and pants, followed by the shapeless top covering the large form.  As the person slowly descended down the ramp, staggering from the gaping wound in their shoulder, Jool noticed the odd expressions on the faces of her two companions.

John's was full of confusion at first, followed by anger. His voice was so low, she barely heard him. “I guess the enemy of my enemy, is my enemy.” 


But, it was Aeryn that had captured her attention. Jool had never seen her look like that.  There was combination of anger, hatred and pain on her face that was like looking at an open wound. For an instant Jool thought Aeryn would lose control of herself, and Jool decided she shouldn't be in the way if it happened.

“Do you know each other?” Jool asked, as she backed up a little to put some distance between herself and the others.  She didn't know why she bothered though, no one was paying attention to her.

As Aeryn realized just who they had rescued, all the pain and devastation this one person had caused came rushing in. The cycles rolled back and she was on Dam Ba Da again, watching as John flew off in his module on his suicidal mission to stop the Scarrens. No time for radiation treatments, just time enough to him to be a hero and die. All because of this ‘thing’ right in front of her. She broke free of the hand John had lifted to restrain her. She walked slowly over to the wounded pilot who she had hoped and prayed she would see again one day. Saw the fear in her eyes.

“Hello, Furlow.” 

John could barely hear her, but what he heard scared him. “Aeryn.” She looked back at him. “We need her.”

Furlow, was obviously in great pain, but still managed a sneer in Aeryn's direction as she realized she wasn't going to die just then. She gave John a sickly smile and drawled.

“Hey, flyboy, miss me?” At his look of disgust she shook her head.

“You're not mad because I ran off are you?  I knew you'd be okay.” She obviously had no idea this wasn't the same John she had left on Dam Ba Da.

“We need her?” Aeryn smiled. The sneer on Furlow's face disappeared as she focused on Aeryn.  It didn't look like the Sun woman was understanding what young Johnny was saying.

“He's right, you know.  You need me. How else are you going to find out why the Y'Therri are here? And why they want you dead? I got a dead one in the back you can take a look at.” She grew cocky as the woman made no move towards her. “Hey, I'll tell you what. I'll trade him for that one.” She nodded in John's direction with a smirk.

“Fine. I don't see a problem with that.” Aeryn voice was calm as her fist came up and made contact with Furlow's face. She held nothing back delivering the blow.  As Furlow fell, a tooth flew out and blood flowed from her mouth.  Aeryn leaned over and was about to land another blow, but felt John's hands grab her arms and jerk her back. 

“Let..me...go!”  She tried to shake him off, but he was just a determined that Furlow live, as Aeryn was that she die. 

He turned her around and pulled her close.  He brought his lips close to her ear and whispered  “Aeryn. Not now. Trust me.” He lifted his head and their eyes met. Hers, stormy and defiant. His, pleading.  Slowly the fire died down in her eyes.  It was still simmering just beneath the surface, but she was in control now, and she 'did' trust John.

He glanced down at Furlow, and something caught his eye. A faint light seemed to be around her neck. What the hell?
“What is that?”


She flinched as he bent over her, but he wasn’t interested in her so much, as he was interested in what was around her neck.  A thin metal band with no discernable latch firmly encased her throat, cutting into the voluminous flesh of her neck. A faint light pulsed around it at intervals.

He looked up at Aeryn. This was getting interesting.


*           *          *          *

*Boom*  The huge chunk of rock close by exploded into millions of pieces and caused the people inside Talyn to catch themselves as the Leviathan shook.

“Damn. That was closer.” John mumbled as he walked along the corridor to the med bay. They had locked Furlow up on tier 2 after John and D'Argo had talked to her. Aeryn wasn't invited to that talk since they wanted Furlow alive. He only trusted her so far when it came to Furlow. Jool had patched her up as best she could, but the wound in her shoulder was pretty bad. Furlow had told them the collar was put on her by the Y’Therri to make sure she didn’t escape. During the skirmish, she’d managed to get far enough away, quickly enough, that the collar hadn’t done its job. They still couldn’t find a way to get it off, but Jool was working on it.     

The Y'Therri had continued to fire randomly amongst the debris surrounding the planet. They had been patrolling the area for arns, searching for the gunship with no luck. The interference from the planet was keeping them hidden from the Y'Therri sensors. So far Talyn and his crew were safe, but it was only a matter of time before they weren't so lucky.

John walked into the med bay without pausing to see if Alex was presentable. No time for niceties right now. “Alex! Rise and shine! Jool says you're okay to go.” He stopped as he realized the bed was empty and he turned around until he spotted her. She was wearing one of his tee shirts and some of Chiana's pants.

“There you are.  You okay?” He walked over to where she sat, sitting at the far side of the room, looking lost.

She nodded, grimacing slightly as the pain came again.  Alex's head still hurt, but she felt a lot better than she had. At least she thought she did. She had almost fallen out of bed when the ship had taken the hit. Thank God Jool had been here to tell her what was going on. Although, she wasn’t sure knowing made her feel any better.  She couldn't believe they had actually been fired upon and were still in danger of getting blown up. She was going to wake up any minute now and have a good laugh about the crazy nightmare.  But, seeing the tension on John's face made it clear that this was no dream. They were all in danger and she was just sitting here.....

"Jool told me what happened earlier. Is there anything I can do to help?”

John smiled at her in approval. “Yeah, I was hopin' you'd volunteer. While Aeryn and I try to repair the damage to Talyn's power cells, I was wondering if you were feeling up to helping Jool.  She has a dead critter in the lab and we need to know all we can about it. Like, is there any way we can hurt them from here? Lob a grenade? Throw a gas bomb? Leave a trail of cyanide pills? Anything. You know, reach out and touch someone…and kill them.” He ignored the look she was giving him.

“We've never come across this particular species before, and I thought... with your medical background....  Are you up for it?”

A dead alien. If she discounted the horror of the whole thing, this was a dream come true.   The thought of what she could learn was heady stuff. Or would be, if she didn't throw up at the sight of the dead creature. She was just getting used to Jool. What other kinds of life were out here? No way to find out except to get up and go see.

“Yes. I'm up for it.” She hesitated, knowing now wasn't the time to talk about things, but needing to anyway. She needed him to understand. She reached out and put a hand on his arm. “John. I want to thank you, for earlier.”

John was at a loss. “What...?” He shrugged his shoulders questioningly.

“For being kind to me. For trying to keep me from making a fool of myself, even if it was too late.” A small laugh escaped. “For making me take a look at myself and why I wanted to join the space program to begin with. I thought it was because of you, but I realize now, that was only part of it. It's something I'm good at, that interests me. I'd never have known that if not for you.” She looked down for a moment. “But, I still meant it.” They both knew what she was talking about.

“Alex...”

She shook her head, stopping him before he could say anything else. She stood up and stepped closer, looking him in the eyes.

“Are you happy here?” It was a soft whisper.

“Happy?”

The question surprised him, but on second thought, it shouldn't have. Alex had always been smart and she had always known him too well. It was one of the things he had loved most about her. She had always seemed to know what he wanted even before he did.  Was he happy?  He thought back on all that had happened to him. Crais, Scorpius, leaving a daughter behind, Aeryn dying, being twinned, rejection, destruction. The list seemed endless. How could he say he was happy, when every remembrance brought some sort of pain with it? He had spent most of his last five years trying to find a way home and get away from here.

And yet... he was happy. He had gotten used to dentics, he could open doors by himself, he knew what a drannit was and Keedva barbeque had replaced pizza in his dreams. He loved the stars. No matter how he complained about his only view being the endless nothing of space, he loved it. Every star, every nebula, every new planet they came too, brought its own kind of wonder. And he had made friends here. Not the kind of friends he had on Earth. The kind you lost touch with because it was just too hard to make the effort. No, these friends would die for him as he would for them. And then there was Aeryn. Since the destruction of Scorpius and John's last brush with death, she had been by his side. It had been hard at first, on both of them, but they had found a way to live with the memory of his other self. They were at a place now, he hadn't believed possible that day she had walked off Talyn.

It was amazing what one simple question could do. It could make you reassess your priorities, question your goals, change your life. John felt like a rug had been pulled out from under him. He'd have to think about this some more. But for now there was only one thing to do.

“Yes. I'm...happy.” The smile he gave made her heart skip a beat. “Thank you.” He bent and touched his lips to hers in a soft kiss that broke her heart, because she knew what it meant. It meant, goodbye.

It was over almost before it began. They were standing there looking at each other when they heard a noise.

“John.” Aeryn was standing in the doorway, taking in the scene, but gave no indication whether or not she had seen the kiss or that she was disturbed by it.

John couldn't help the guilty start at the sound of her voice.

“Jool is waiting.”

“Yeah. We're coming.” Man, why did everything always go pear shaped just when he thought he had it figured out?

*      *      *      *

He left Alex and Jool chatting over the body of the dead Y'Therri they had brought in from Furlow's module. After a few squeamish moments, Alex seemed really glad to be able to help and was full of questions that Jool was more than willing to answer. It looked like he wasn't the only one who could find friends in this neck of the woods.

Their main concern now was fixing the damaged power cells so they could Starburst out of here and find Moya. 

“Aeryn. Hand me the screw driver.” She was slightly worried that she knew what he meant by that, as she handed him the backstead. She still hadn't spoken since finding John and the Earth woman...together. She'd seen the kiss of course.

She didn't know the reason behind it, but it hadn't caused her to doubt John. Not really. They'd been together too long and gone through too much to let a little thing like that come between them.  However, knowing their history and the fact both came from Earth made it impossible to ignore. John was so close to finding the key to the wormhole technology he had been searching for the last 5 cycles. This Alex, might very well hold the key and when he found the missing piece there would be no reason for him to stay here. No reason except herself and she couldn't ask him to do that.

She had agreed to go with him to Earth cycles ago, when they had been on board Talyn.  She had never regretted making that decision and would always be grateful she had told him so. And she had meant it at the time, she would have gone, and frell the consequences. But his death had changed everything, including herself. She was no longer the person she had been back then, and she knew that the time had passed when she could have gone. She belonged here now. So were did that leave them? Leave him?

It left him with Alex. Frell!

John looked over at Aeryn. She was attacking the power cells like they were a particularly vile critter she wanted to smash. Maybe it was him she wanted to smash. He was pretty sure she'd seen him, but she hadn't said a word so far and John was afraid of pushing it. Maybe it was better to just work together in silence.

Screw silence! He couldn't take it anymore. He looked over at her and opened his mouth to speak.

She spoke before he had a chance to. “Does Furlow know about....? That there were two of you?”

She wanted to know, but what she wanted more was to distract John from the inevitable discussion of what she had just seen.

“No. she still thinks you were overreacting to her trying to steal the stabilizer.  I don't think she'd have been as cooperative if she knew.”

“No. I don't suppose she would.” The tone was cold as ice, whether from anger at Furlow or him he couldn't tell.

“Aeryn.”

She knew that tone of voice. He wanted to talk about it. Well, she didn't.

“Did she tell you why the Y'Therri are here? Why they want to kill us?”

He sighed in defeat. “Oh, yeah. She sang like a lark. Seems the Scarrens laid part of the blame on her, for the destruction of the dreadnought.  She's been hiding from them ever since, but decided it was safe enough now. She was on a commerce planet, selling her wormhole data to the highest bidder.” He put down the backstead and reached for another instrument.

“Unfortunately for her that was the Y'Therri. Looks like they didn't trust her though, imagine that.” He shook his head.

“They brought her along with them just to be sure she was telling the truth. When Alex's module came through the wormhole they were already here.  The crash damaged their ship and they were repairing it when we showed up.”

“Did she say why she tried to escape their ship?”

He knew Aeryn needed to know this, especially since she hadn't been there to question Furlow herself. He also knew why she was insistent on asking about it now. She didn't want to talk about what she saw and she wasn't going to give him a chance to explain.

Damn it all to hell! He took a breath to calm down. All right, he'd go along with her, for now. Maybe when she'd had a chance to calm down it would be easier.

In a pig's eye.

But, there was something he thought she needed to know.

“She said the Y'Therri ship is a research vessel. That's why we're still alive. They don't have a full compliment of weapons on board.”

She raised her eyebrows at that news. They had been lucky.

“Anyway, she got the idea that after getting everything they knew from her they were planning a little personal experimentation. When we attacked, she found a chance to get away. She's got the devil's own luck, that Furlow.”

“Yes, well. Until now.” No mistaking that tone.

Ordinarily he would have a problem with what he knew was coming, but the last few cycles had taught him a lot. No one really knew how much the death of his twin had affected him. Hell, he wasn't even sure Aeryn knew. But the memory of his other self sitting across from him, face wasted from radiation, telling him what Furlow had done, was seared into his brain.   Not to mention what her greed had done to Aeryn. No. He would not help Furlow when the time came. And one look at Aeryn's face assured the time would come.

“They’re messing with some very dangerous stuff Aeryn. Furlow mentioned that one of the experiments they have on board the ship involves testing on singularities.” John’s memory of that was clearer than Aeryn’s since he was the one who had lived it over and over again. The Ilanic’s ship being sucked into oblivion just before Moya had Starbursted was etched in his mind.

The ship shook again as another blast hit something close by. Time was running out.

“You almost done?”

“Yes. Just a little longer.”

It was time to turn their attention to the repairs in earnest.

*   *   *

They had almost completed the repairs when John couldn't take it anymore. He needed a break. 

“Come on, let's see what Jool has found out.” He took her arm and pulled her up from the floor where she was bent double working on the bottom power cell.

“But, we haven't fin....”

“I know. I know. But, it won't take long. Maybe they’ve found the critters Achilles heel.” He grinned expecting her to respond, but was confused by the brief look of pain on her face. What had he said this time?

They entered the room where Jool and Alex were finishing up their examination of the Y'Therri. Watching the two of them chatting like long lost friends made John pause a moment.  Perhaps he'd have to rethink his ideas on what Earth's reaction would be to finding out about life out here in the wild blue yonder, if Alex was any example.

“Hey, you two. Find out anything interesting about our friend here?” He patted the smooth elongated head of the alien laying on the table.

Alex had watched John come in with the woman, Aeryn, though she made a show of not watching.  Seeing the ease with which John handled the alien and the obvious affection he had, not only for the woman he came in with, but for Jool as well, she had to admit he had changed. 

She knew he had left a lot of things out in the telling of his adventures here. She saw it in the new lines in his face, the slight hardness behind the bright blue eyes. He looked like a man who'd seen a lot and lived through more. The fact that he had managed to find some happiness here in a place where he had been so alone, was something she was grateful for as well as jealous of.

She continued to watch quietly while Jool told the others of their findings. It didn’t look like the Y’Therri were going to fall down and play dead from a flu bug. Their immune systems were working over time as well as the large cranial lobes in their oversized heads.

“So what you’re telling me is that they’re super smart and they never get sick?” John was looking at the extra arms the creature had attached to its side. He picked one up and examined the hand on the end.

Jool's curls bounced in a mad riot as she shook her head “Yes.”

He laid the hand down. “Gives new meaning to ‘I could use a hand.’”

“Any way to make them sick? A stomach virus or something.” He was still hoping for a way out that didn’t involve little yellow bolts of light.

“Sure. I could make something.” She said brightly. As their faces perked up she continued in exasperation. “If I had a full medical lab here with all the equipment I need and, oh, say at least a cycle to figure out the genetic structure…”


“All right, all right.” John held up a hand. “Nevermind. I get the point. We’ll just have to think of something else.”


He turned to Alex. “If you're through here, are you up to going over the module data with me? I repaired the recorder, but you might need to give me some details about how it works and help interpret the information.”

“Sure, John. You know I'll help anyway I can. Just show me the way.” The thought of spending a little time with him was obviously not displeasing.

“I'll go help Crais finish up the repairs to the power cells.” Aeryn tried to keep her voice neutral, but John knew her too well to be fooled.

“No. Listen. I can do this later. I'll help you finish up the repairs.” It suddenly struck him that going off with Alex after Aeryn had seen that kiss was not a good idea. Too late now though. Aeryn would have none of it.

“No, I said you go.”

He knew better than to argue when she used that tone. Mama Crichton's baby boy could be foolish sometimes, but he wasn't stupid. He turned to Alex, who had been watching all this with interest.

“All right, let's go then.” It was said with a sigh, as he guided Alex out of the lab, feeling Aeryn's eyes on him the whole way.

*          *          *          *

It wasn't long after that Aeryn comm'd and told John she and Crais had finished repairing the power cells and Talyn was now ready to Starburst at their command.

“Well, hold on a minute. We've got a little time left and there's some interesting stuff here that I might be able to use. Meet me in the bridge in half an arn. I have an idea. I think we found a bug for the critters after all.”

tbc

[imloco2]

Pt 4

*         *          *          *

Crais, Aeryn and Jool were already waiting in Talyn's command center when John and Alex came in still deep in conversation. They were discussing wormholes, stabilizers and effects of gravity and Aeryn felt a hollow place open up deep inside.  She was just beginning to understand what it had been like for him all these years, with no one to understand him, where he came from, things he talked about. It was something she couldn't do for him. She would never be able to understand his Earth jokes, laugh with him over a childhood memory. Frell she didn’t even know what chocolate tasted like, though she’d heard him speak of it a hundred times. And since Alex had come, every time he uttered one of his Earth sayings the point was driven home harder. She knew deep down what was coming, must come. She just didn't know if she was strong enough to let him go. She'd lost him once and it had almost killed her, she didn’t know if she could do it again.

She straightened up and forced herself to shut out the troublesome thoughts. She would do what she had to do, but right now, she had to try and concentrate on John's plan and how she could keep them from getting killed.  Suddenly a name echoed in her head and she realized he had been talking.

“....Furlow.  So that's the plan.” John looked around the room, his gaze coming to rest on Aeryn. “Anyone have any objections?”

Frell her for not listening. It wasn't often she was embarrassed. “Actually, c..could you go over that one more time?”

Now he knew something was wrong. It wasn't like Aeryn not to pay attention to a battle plan. He wished he knew what the hell was going on in that head of hers.

He moved to stand next to her, looking her in the eyes. “You okay?”

She straightened her back and nodded. “Yes, I'm fine. Go on.” Her voice was brusque and didn't invite comment.

He sighed. Sometimes, getting her to talk was like pulling teeth.  Without an anesthetic.  He started again, this time concentrating on Aeryn.

“Well, I've figured out a way to kill two birds with one stone.”

He didn't miss the small grimace at his words, but he couldn't guess at the cause. This wasn’t the first time he’d noticed her reacting to something he said. He was beginning to think maybe his little Earth quips were annoying her, though they hadn’t seemed to before. One more thing he was going to have to get to the bottom of sooner or later.  Right now, he was just hoping she'd go for his plan. After all she had more at stake with Furlow's fate than anyone and if she didn't like it, it was back to the drawing board.

“The way I figure it, the Y’Therri, being a research team, would give a years’ pay to get a hold of the Farscape Two module. It came out of the wormhole, of course they’re gonna want it.  Okay, it’s pretty busted up, but with a fresh coat of paint and a little cosmetic surgery, we could probably fool ‘em into thinking it’s in operating order. It shouldn’t take long to install a modified drive in the module. That should give us enough power for propulsion and steering.  We can use the manual override from here.”  His hands were nervously trying to draw pictures of his words.

He motioned towards the Alex, who was standing close by.

“I’ve used a few things we have around here to rig up an electronic virus for their ship.  Alex can help me download it into her module. If the Y’Therri take the bait like I think they will, they'll want to take it apart, study it, download information. And as soon as they start retrieving information from the ship the virus goes to work.” 

Aeryn snorted. “And you think the Y’Therri will just accept the fact that an unmanned ship would fly out of here and head their way? That they’ll take it on board after that?  Really Crichton, this has got to be your worst plan yet.”  She crossed her arms and glared at him.
“Well, it wouldn’t exactly be unmanned.”

Her eyebrows raised and she waited for him to elaborate.  This was the part he wasn’t sure she’d go for.

“Not if Furlow escapes and is on board.”

“Escapes?” 

Okay. Here it comes. He’d seen that look before. She was gonna take some convincing. Come on brain, don’t fail me now.

“No. She’s not going anywhere.” She practically spat the words out.

John saw Alex’s eyes widen at the vehemence of the statement. He knew how she felt.  A mad Aeryn could be very intimidating. Even now it wasn’t something he wanted to happen often. This time, though, it couldn’t be helped.

He took Aeryn’s arm and pulled her away from the group. Her face was set with that stubborn look she got when she knew he was going to try and talk her out of or into something. Sometimes he’d win and sometimes not, he just prayed this time was a win.

He kept his voice low. “Baby, listen to me. I know how much you want to see her die. I ‘know’ what she’s cost you. Us.” He held her arms as she tried to pull away, not wanting to hear.

“No. You’ve got to listen!  She’s dying anyway.” That got her attention. 

“Jool ran some tests on her. That collar she’s got on, whatever it is, it released some kind of toxin into her blood stream.  Apparently, she was already dying when she got here, she just doesn’t know it yet. She doesn’t have much time. She said the Y’Therri want her back and with the collar they know they have to act quickly.  If she’s on board the module they’ll be more likely to take the bait.”

Aeryn frowned, unconvinced. “And what would this ‘electronic virus’ do to their ship?”

He detected a slight weakening, but he wasn’t home yet. “If I’m right and it works, it will wipe out every piece of information stored in their ship. All their experiments....weapons.... poof.” He snapped his fingers.

“They’ll be lucky to have enough power to keep a breathable atmosphere.” His face grew deadly serious. “And if Furlow was telling the truth about their experiments on the singularity, well…they won’t be worrying about anything for long.” He just hoped they could get away if the singularity was freed. They had barely gotten away with their lives the last time.

“And what if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not wrong. Not this time.” He couldn’t be wrong. If he was, then Furlow would still be dead but the Y’Therri would have the wormhole information and they would have to be on the look out for one more race out to conquer the world. He had to catch a break sooner or later.

John moved closer to Aeryn and his voice softened.

“What do you say? We can disable the Y'Therri ship or worse, get the wormhole knowledge wiped out, and we can get rid of Furlow all at the same time. It's up to you.”  He waited, unable to read what she was thinking. Could she let Furlow go without personally killing her? He knew in his heart that it couldn’t be a good thing, no matter what she thought now, but it was her choice. For both of them, it had to be.

Frell, she hated when he did that.  Her decision?  Everyone was standing there waiting, so she took her time. Killing Furlow was something she had dreamed about in the cycles since John's death. She had gotten over her own guilt at sending him ahead of her to his death. No, the real murderer was Furlow. She had taken the wormhole technology and exploited it. Made deals with the Scarrens and Charrids, betrayed them by stealing the displacement engine and finally leaving John to die. Slowly and painfully. If Stark had not been there to ease his suffering, she thought she might have died too, for she could not have borne his pain. Furlow deserved to die, and there was nothing preventing her from taking a pulse pistol, going down and killing Furlow on the spot. She knew he would not stop her.

He was trusting her to make the best decision, for her.  But what was best? The peacekeeper in her demanded the satisfaction of killing the trelk herself, seeing the life drain out of her and being certain she would never cause any more trouble. Make her pay for the pain.  But there was another part of her, one that had almost disappeared when John had died, but had sprung back to life when she had realized she had a future with this John after all.  And it said no, she should not do this, that it would, somehow, only bring her more pain. If nothing else, it might come between John and her, if only in the remembering of it. This plan of John's should be enough.  Whether he stayed with her or not, she didn't want any memory of Furlow to spoil anything. She would still die and they would never have to think of her again. It was a good plan.

John saw the acceptance in her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't care anything about the bitch they had locked up, but he did care about Aeryn, and for her to kill Furlow in cold blood was something she didn't need to live with the rest of her life. There was a time when it wouldn’t have bothered her in the least, but she had changed in the cycles since he had first known her. The less thought they gave to Furlow, the better everyone's life would be.

“All right. Do it.”


*         *          *          *


It was time.  He and Alex had finished programming the virus into the ship and he had made enough superficial repairs that it no longer looked like a burnt out wreck.

He stood in the shadows of the hanger bay and watched as Furlow crept in a quietly as she could, pulse pistol in hand.  It seemed his plan was working. It had almost been too easy to get her this far. All he had done was make sure she knew what they knew. That she was dying and the Y’Therri were her only hope. After that is was just a matter of making sure she knew there was no way they were letting her go. Aeryn had been very convincing when it came time to play her part. He had started to wonder if she had changed her mind when she had turned and given him a wink.  She was somethin’. He grinned to himself in the darkness.

Satisfied that no one was in the hanger with her, Furlow began to mumble to herself as she got closer to the module.

“The stupid welnitz. What does he see in that trelk anyway? We coulda had somethin’ special Johnny, if you had just listened to reason.” She grabbed a few boxes and made a platform for her to reach the hatch. Talyn had made sure that this was the only hanger she could get into and John had stripped all the new equipment that he wanted from the module, so there was plenty of room for her ample form as she settled into the cockpit.

She seemed to be breathing hard, but John couldn’t tell if it was because of the exertion of getting into the module or the poison in her veins. She flipped the switches she recognized from his module and the ship began to hum. 

“So long Johnny.” She shook her head as she looked around. “There’s a frellnik born everyday.” She pulled the hatch down over her.

He watched as the ship lifted off and began its run down the hanger to the outer doors. He barely had time to get inside before the air was sucked out with a swoosh and the ship was gone.

*         *         *         *

They were all on the bridge when he got there, looking out at the darkness, watching Farscape Two navigating the debris as it tried to reach the Cruiser.

John went to stand by Aeryn at the control panel where she was working on mirroring Furlow’s commands to the module. Fortunately, it wasn’t hard. Go forward, speed up, that was all that was required.  She turned and they looked at each other for a moment, him silently thanking her for going along with this, before turning their attention to the view screen.

“Shouldn’t we fire at it or something? At least give the appearance that we want to stop her?” It didn’t seem right to Aeryn to just let the module go without a hint of a fight.

”Nah. Let it go.  We don’t want to give our position away to the Y’Therri by firing at it, and if we try and contact her it would pinpoint our location. Furlow’s not stupid. She knows we won’t dare try anything. She’s probably laughing her ass off right about now.”   

The Y'Therri ship had stopped firing into the planets rings as soon as it discovered the module heading towards them.  Talyn detected their weapons had locked on the module as the ships scanners were activated and it swept the approaching craft, checking for weapons, explosives and life forms. Apparently, they were satisfied that the module posed no threat, because as the module grew closer it was caught and slowly pulled into their ship.

The tension on Talyn’s bridge was palpable as they looked at each other, waiting. This was it. The Y’Therri had taken the bait and it shouldn’t be too long now before something happened. Since the repairs had been completed, Talyn could Starburst at anytime, assuming they could get out of the planets rings before they were fired upon, but they had voted to stay and see what happened. There was no immediate danger and nobody wanted to be left wondering if they had another bad guy on their tail again. 

Alex moved closer to John as she began calculations in her head. How long would it take them to begin a download? If they started retrieval immediately how long would it take for the virus to go to work? A minute? An hour? Then what? What was Furlow telling them?

Is this how John lived, always asking questions, being in the middle of life or death situations, never knowing what was going to happen next? No wonder he had changed. Looking at him now she thought he had adapted very well. He was taking charge like he had been doing this all his life. Most people wouldn’t have made it this far she thought. She only hoped she could get along as well as he had. Perhaps with him to guide her, it would not be so hard. She shuddered to think what it would have been like for her to wake up here without him.

Beside her, John felt her shiver and reflectively reached for her hand. She glanced at him and threw a grateful smile his way, as her hand tightened around his before letting it go.


He knew how Alex felt better than anyone. In fact he was the only one who could know. He was amazed she had handled this whole thing so well, waking up here in the middle of nowhere, everyone and everything she knew, gone. Surrounded by aliens and living ships, being attacked. Oh, yeah. He knew how she felt. He only hoped he could help her get through it. There had been no one for him when he had gotten here, no one to talk to, to laugh with. No one to understand.

A small movement to the right made him turn his head to look at Aeryn.  With the module safely inside the Y’Therri ship she had flipped the controls over and out of the way and was gazing out the view screen expectantly.

Please God let everything go right for once. With the enemy ship, with Aeryn.  He still hadn’t had a chance to be alone with her since just after Alex had arrived. When this was over, he’d make a point of sitting down and talking to her. She could be stubborn when it came to something she didn’t want to do, and she hated to talk. Not all the time, but about certain things, feelings mostly.  That wasn’t going to stop him though; he could be just as stubborn as she was about that.

He turned his attention on the Y’Therri ship hovering high above them in space. As they watched the ship slowly turned away and was moving towards the Brown Dwarf. A small sigh of relief was felt around the room.  It looked like they were in the clear. The Y’Therri were cutting their losses and running. The question now was, what was happening with the virus, and what would happen to their ship.

*          *         *         * 

Furlow looked around the Y’Therri ship, where her captors had placed her. She’d been screaming at them to do something about the toxins eating their way through her blood stream from the moment she was brought on board, but they had ignored her in favor of the frellin' module. For some reason they seemed to think that it was more important then her.

She sat on the floor watching the welnitzs’ working on the ship. She didn’t feel too good.  It was getting hard to breath, and she was sweating like a drunken nakan.  She saw a couple of techs passing by and called out.

‘Hey! You over there. Come here.” She motioned weakly for them to come next to her.  She watched as they came closer and was slightly startled to see them merge into one. Hmmm, she thought idly, if I could only get that effect in a vid gram I could make a tidy profit. Oh, well, maybe later. 

“I got a proposition for ya.” She reached down and before the hapless tech could move away, pulled a long thin blade from her boot.  She grabbed one of the Y’Therri’s arms, holding the blade to one of his hands. Its large eyes widened at the threat. She had discovered the worst thing you could do to a Y’Therri was damage their hands.
“You make sure I get a cure for this dren you carpoids got in me and I’ll be sure and not cut off a hand or two.” She moved the blade closer till it was cutting into his hand. “Frell, you’ve got so many of ‘em you’d think you could do without a few.” She waited as the tech spoke into his communicator and nodded.

“Yep. You just gotta know how to deal with people.” She was feelin’ luckier by the minute.

*          *          *          *

Unbeknownst to Furlow and the Y’Therri, the virus data was already beginning to do its deadly work. It moved silently through the Y’Therri computer systems, disabling low level systems first and began replicating itself, each new program going further into the system.

Temperature, environmental controls were the first to be affected.  A general alarm sounded, but no one was too concerned yet.  Alarms were a frequent occurrence on the Pu’nok.  With all the experiments they had going, any breach of security or malfunction was cause for concern.

Junior technician Krabic was on duty in the singularity lab when he noticed the giant, round, containment toroids had malfunctioned. It was his duty to make sure the twin singularities they had on board never came near each other.  As he tried control after control, each one as useless as the other, he began saying the ancient prayer of the traveler in his mind. With no power, it was too late to do anything else. Helpless, he watched as the massive shapes began moving closer together. He knew the unthinkable would happen if and when they got too close. Unfortunately, the alarm he hit was just one among a cacophony of sounds now echoing throughout the ship as system failures cascaded.

Vraliss the Senior arrived shortly after Krabic's alarm to find his junior a quivering mass reciting the prayer over and over again, and it only took one look to realize why.  The toroids were now within the danger level, the magnetic orbs containing the singularities were shutting down.  As he stood there stunned, the airlock doors began to open between the atmosphere and the vacuum section of the labs. If the usual security measures had been in place there would have just been a momentary decompression. But, all the safe guards were down and as the air made contact with the singularities, it vanished.  The microscopic points of light that were singularities, became an endless gravity well, sucking up air and crew members indiscriminately.

In a matter of microts the air in the ship roared down the companionways and halls, sucking up everything in its path. Furlow, sitting in the hanger and silently laughing to herself, never realized that her time had finally run out. She was torn apart and sucked into the singularity along with the rest of the Y’Therri crew members.  Everything vanished into the black hole that used to be the lab.


The cruiser that had been headed, temporarily, towards the dead star in an effort to turn around and sling shot itself away from this place, was now headed on a direct course into the dead star and with no controls, and no one on board to stop it, it continued on it’s path directly towards the massive Brown Dwarf.

Inside the ship the magnetic fields holding the singularities in place, finally decayed to the point where they could rip themselves free.  And once free, they combined to become one, and it began to do what it was made to do. It ate. It was insatiable, and nothing was safe from it’s appetite as it consumed everything within and without.

To the people watching from Talyn’s bridge it looked like a rapidly crumpling tin can, falling in on itself, and in moments the ship was gone as if it had never been.  Only a few stray atoms remained.

John watched as the last of the Y’Therri ship vanished without a trace and he moved closer to Aeryn. So softly that the others couldn’t hear he whispered. “She’s gone baby. She’s finally gone.” He didn’t miss the sheen in her eyes as she stared out at the empty space. He knew she was letting go of another piece of the past.

Everyone was quiet then, stunned into silence, but suddenly John’s mind was working overtime.  He had seen the ship very close to the huge Dwarf and if his calculations were correct they were about to have a close encounter with a new born sun.

“Umm…Crais, have Talyn get us out of here. Now! Don’t Starburst yet. Just get us a good long distance away.” Talyn left the debris field where they had been hiding and flew away from the planets, until John thought they were far enough away.

Unseen, the singularity plowed through the Dwarf’s core without slowing, gulping matter as it went. As the singularity passed through the star's center, the spike in self gravitation caused the star to begin to collapse.

A chain reaction started with the increase in pressure, and the star’s mass exploded into an impossibly bright flare that arched outward through the darkness. As impossible as it seemed, where once a dead and lifeless star had stood, now was a bright shining orb. A sun.

From a safe distance, Talyn’s crew watched as the formerly dead star shot out flares that lit the sky, dipping and swirling, blindingly bright. It had been an amazing experience to see a sun come to life. John was once again reminded of the uniqueness of his life. How many times did you get to see a sun born? It was a chance no one had ever had before and one that would never come again. Well, he could hope couldn’t he?

They were all quiet for a few moments, still reliving what they had just seen, until normalcy started to return. Jool was the first to recover and she began telling everyone about the terraforming classes she had taken back when she was on her home world.
“You know, this would be the perfect place to study terraforming. Once those ice planets surrounding the sun melt, and the oxygen is released, there’s really no limit to what could be done. I remember when I was back home on…” She stopped suddenly realizing that no one was listening. As usual, she thought with a pout. Crichton was busy with Aeryn and Alex and Crais was… oh, he was looking at her.

“Talyn, set a course to rendezvous with Moya.” Crais smiled and held out his arm. “Now, tell me more my dear. It sounds fascinating.” She smiled happily and continued to share her knowledge of terraforming, as they walked out together.

John suddenly realized that he was now alone with Alex and Aeryn.  Now that the effects of what they had seen had started to fade, he was left wondering what to do next.

Apparently, so was Aeryn.  “Right. I’ll just...go...” Her voice trailed off.  What the frell was she doing? She’d just go where? Down 3 tiers to sulk while John was up here with Alex? She didn’t like the feeling of uncertainty that was attacking her.

“I’ll go check on Talyn’s power cells, make sure they are holding up.”

“Okay.” John was at a loss. He knew there was nothing wrong with the power cells. Aeryn had been acting strange since Alex had shown up, and he didn’t know why. It wasn’t like Aeryn to be jealous, but he couldn’t see another reason for the strange behavior. It seemed like their little talk was way past due. He had wanted, no, needed to talk to her since that conversation with Alex. It had been something of a revelation to realize that in spite of everything, he could say he was happy here. He had never equated happiness with the Uncharted Territories.  But the more he thought about it, the truer it was. He was happy with his life, happy with her.  He wouldn’t change it for the world, and it was past time he told her so.

Right now though, it looked liked he’d have to wait until later. He sighed. There was nothing to do but wait until Talyn caught up with Moya, might as well get some work done.

He focused his attention on Alex. “If you feel like it, I guess we can get started on trying to find that missing piece of wormhole data we need to get you home.” He smiled over at her reassuringly.

She smiled back sweetly. “I’m ready anytime you are.”

As Aeryn watched their exchange, the uncertainty she had been feeling since Alex had been discovered, faded, and she made a decision.  She wasn’t sure if it was a right decision, but, by the Goddess, it was hers.  Correction, ‘he’ was hers.  She had resigned herself to the fact that he would go back to Earth one day without her, and that that day might come soon. But standing here, watching him smile at Alex, she suddenly realized, it was one thing to send him back to Earth for his own good, it was another to push him into the arms of his former love while he was still here. And as long as he was here, he was hers.

She didn’t care how many Earth memories Alex could share with him, or how much she understood him, she had given up her chance with John a long time ago. He had different memories of a new life that he shared with her now. And she knew he loved her. He might be comfortable with Alex, but she knew it was noting compared to what she could make him feel. And there was no time like the present to demonstrate that.

“John.”

He gave her a questioning look. What was it this time? His breath caught in his throat as he saw the expression on her face. He’d seen it before, but never when others were around. She had been careful since they had resumed their relationship, not to let her feelings show, except when they were alone. Apparently, times they were a changin’
 “Yeah?” He asked cautiously. He didn’t want to take that look for granted.
“I could use some help with the power cells on tier 2.”

“Tier 2?” There were no power cells on tier 2. That was where their sleeping q... Oh! “Yeah. Right. Tier 2. Power cells.”   He coughed nervously, and glanced quickly at Alex, wondering if she knew what was going on.  Well, hell, ‘he’ didn’t know what was going on,  but he wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth.  Not that Aeryn was a horse…he shook his head. Stop it John! Just stop. His breathing increased slightly and  he felt his body come alive.  He wondered if she’d ever quit surprising him.  He didn’t think so. 
He watched as Aeryn moved slowly towards the door, looking over her shoulder.  He realized he had to say something to Alex, but it was getting hard to think.  His mind was already down 2 tiers below. “Listen, Alex. Sorry, but I’m gonna  have to take a rain check on that... I really need to...um... help Aeryn.” He was almost stuttering in his hurry to leave.

He looked around. “Tell you what. You can get acquainted with Talyn. Or look around the ship. Just…not …tier 2.” Aeryn had vanished around the corner of the door and with a few quick skips John was close behind. “Holler for Jool if you get lost.” He threw over his shoulder, as he too disappeared from sight.

Alex sighed and looked around at the now empty bridge. She wasn’t sure what just happened, but she had a feeling she wouldn’t be seeing John for a while.  She sank down with her back against a console and thought about everything she’d seen since she’d been here.  Suddenly the whole thing seemed too much to cope with and she felt the burning in her throat as tears threatened.  John had been here 5 years already and hadn’t made it home yet.  What chance did she have? What if she never made it back?  Never saw her family or friends again.  “Alexandra O’Connor…just stop it!”  She used her shirt to dry her eyes.  No, she wouldn’t give in to self-pity.  Whatever had happened to her, it had been far worse for John and he had survived.  He’d made a life for himself here, found some happiness.  And if it came to it, so could she.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw lights flash overhead and heard a trill.  What was it John had said? A living ship? 

“Talyn?” She said it tentatively, not really expecting a response. There was silence for a moment, then the lights and sounds again.

If only the boys at IASA could see her now.  They’d never believe this.  How could she explain a living ship? How could she explain any of this?  Her natural curiosity began to reassert itself.  There was a lot she could learn here.  Maybe she would go exploring after all.  There were a lot of tiers if she remembered correctly; she just hoped she didn’t end up on tier 2.


The end


Chris
imloco2