Categories > TV > Farscape > The Road Home
Chapter Two
0 reviewsWhen John was pulled down the wormhole at the end of Unrealized Realities a series of events is set in motion that will change the balance of power in the Uncharted Territories forever.
1Ambiance
Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Medical Bay
THS Atlantis
John Crichton groaned as consciousness returned. Slowly he opened his eyes and groaned as the overhead light hurt his eyes, he closed his eyes again against the discomfort.
"Relax the pain will pass in a moment," an unfamiliar female voice with an unmistakably English accented voice said. John's eyes flew open again in astonishment and he blinked rapidly until his vision cleared to see a fit looking young woman in a blue uniform, with a white doctors coat over the top, standing over him smiling softly.
"Where, where am I," John said weakly. "Who are you?"
"You're aboard the Terran Hegemony starship /Atlantis/," the woman replied. "I'm Doctor Kirsten Roseberg. And who might you be?"
"Don't joke you know who I am I'm not falling for these illusions again," John said realising that this was probably all an illusion being created by another alien who was after the secret's of wormhole technology from his brain. Or else it was Einstein still playing around with his perceptions.
"I'm afraid I don't know who you are," Kirsten replied. "And I assure you this is no illusion. We picked you up in space. Who are you?"
"Fine I'll play along with your little game," John replied. "I'm Commander John Crichton."
"John Crichton," Kirsten repeated, the name seemed familiar to her from somewhere, but where had she heard it before. Then it registered and she stared in honest disbelief. "That's impossible. That can't be. You would have died long ago even if you survived the accident in space that resulted in the old I.A.S.A scrapping the Farscape project."
"No I'm not dead rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," John answered looking closely at this Doctor Roseberg, she seemed honestly surprised to hear his name, in fact surprised was an obvious understatement. She was absolutely astonished and he could tell somehow that it wasn't an act. "What do you mean I would have died long ago?"
"A question first. What year do you think it is?" John frowned and did some calculations in his head working out what year it would be since the Farscape had been pulled into that first wormhole.
"Two thousand and five," he answered a little uncertain. "Why do you ask?" He looked Kirsten straight in the eye. "It's not two thousand and five is it?"
"No," Kirsten answered.
"Then what is the date today and what year is it?"
"It's the twenty first of March," Kirsten answered, "twenty nine eighty four. Now do you see why I'm surprised you left Terra nearly a thousand years ago."
"A thousand years," John repeated shocked and glad that he was already lying down or he would have surely collapsed. Then he closed his eyes in pain realising that his father, his sisters, DK, everyone he had known and cared about back home would all be long dead, long ago turned to dust.
The knowledge that they were all gone made his eyes sting with unshed tears, but his pride wouldn't let him show them. A hand touched his shoulder and he opened his eyes to see Kirsten looking down at him with a look of sympathy in her eyes. She could tell that what she had just told him had upset him greatly.
"I'm sorry," she said softly.
"It's not your fault," John replied feeling a tear begin making its way down his left cheek. "It must have been that first wormhole, the one that sent me to the Uncharted Territories in the first place, it must have been a wormhole through time as well as space."
"Some wormholes are like that yes," Kirsten replied. "It depends what type they are as there are a dozen different kinds that we know again. The wormhole you came out of here is a basic or class one wormhole a simple bridge across space that's all. What I don't understand is how you've been able to survive."
"It's along story," John answered.
"I look forward to hearing it but first we have something a bit more immediate to talk about. Your life is in danger, not yet but in about fifty years time it will be."
"What do you mean?" John asked.
"You have a neural implant correct," Kirsten said. "Some of it has been removed surgically, quite an impressive achievement considering it was a purely surgical procedure. But the rest of the implant remains."
John nodded he knew that already, how else would Harvey still be in his head even though the chip that supposedly had housed the neural clone Scorpius had implanted to get at the wormhole technology had been removed.
"I know. It wasn't put there voluntarily," he replied. "What about it?"
"My scans indicate that the implant is slowly but surely breaking down," Kirsten answered him. "The implant is still along way from full breakdown but when it breaks down completely it will break apart and severe many key nerves and blood vessels in your brain. It would kill you. Unless something can be done about it."
"Don't listened to her John it won't," Harvey/Scorpius' voice said to him.
"Shut up Harvey," John snapped back then he responded to Kirsten.
"I was told that nothing could be done to remove the whole implant," he said. "That it was too deeply integrated with my brain."
"Surgically yes there is nothing that can be done. The risk of brain damage would be far to great," Kirsten answered. "But we can remove the implant without risk to you. But there would be a side effect, a permanent one."
"Which is," John asked.
"In order to remove the implant I would have to inject you with nanites. They would recognise the implant as something harmful and deal with it."
"What are nanites," John asked. "They sound like somekind of nanotechnology."
"They are," Kirsten answered. "The kind of nanites I'm on about are biomechanical organisms in that there a mixture of organic and inorganic technology and are easily small enough to enter living cells. Nanites are found everywhere in our society these days, in our machines, our computers and in us."
"You mean you've got billions of tiny biomechanical machines inside you," John asked startled by the concept. Though the scientist in him was fascinated with the idea and wondered what kind of effects the presence of nanites would have on the human body.
"Yes. Everybody does," Kirsten answered inwardly smiling at the scientific curiosity that she could see in John's eyes now. "Once inside the human body nanites provide a variety of benefits including lengthened life span, greater physical attributes like speed and strength, superior sensory perception, perfect health and so on. Since the technology became widespread at the end of the twenty-first century people have been injected with nanites at birth. But there is one slight snag. Once there in you and become a part of you nanites can't be removed, they body becomes dependent on its biomechanical helpers to keep functioning. You can change one type of nanite for another but you can't remove them."
"I see. So if you put nanites in me they would get this implant out of my brain but they'd also become a part of me," John said. "They'd enhance me as they enhance you."
"Precisely. The choice is yours commander as it will effect the rest of your life from this point onwards."
John leaned back on the bed and thought about it ignoring the silent protests and threats from Harvey at the back of his thoughts, the neural clone of Scorpius couldn't really do anything to him anymore with the main part of the chip gone. It would definitely be nice to no longer have the neural clone in his head and put up with his constant two cents worth of comments on everything. Sometimes he had to admit the comments were useful but most of the time they didn't make much difference. The news that the chip was eventually going to kill him was another mark against Harvey, he wanted him gone. Truth be told he quite liked the idea of a longer life span as it would give him more time with Aeryn if he could get back to her and Moya and the enhanced physical abilities would probably help a lot to survive in the chaos of the uncharted territories.
"Aside from the dependency on the nanites to stay alive are there any catches to having nanites," John asked.
"Not really. You need to eat a little more to satisfy the nanites energy needs but not that much really," Kirsten answered.
John sighed and thought about it a little more; this was the moment of truth when he had to decide if this was real or if it was all just an illusion. Part of him was cautioning him that this could still all be a deception but his instincts were telling him that this was no illusion, that it was real. He didn't know what to do what to decide. He remembered something that his father had once said to him 'if you're ever in doubt John,' Jack Crichton had told him, 'if you ever find that you don't know what to do go with your instincts. Trust them and trust yourself and you will make the right decision.'
"Alright," he said at last resolving his internal battle with the aide of his father's advice. "Do it." Kirsten nodded.
"As you wish," she replied with a smile. "Lie there quiet commander I'll be right back."
"Ok and doctor please call me John," John replied. "It sounds funny being called by my rank all the time." Kirsten chuckled.
"Alright John it is," she replied then moved out of John's immediate vision. John turned his head and followed her movements as she moved over to somekind of storage cabinet and open it. He saw her take something out though he couldn't make out what it was from here and carry it over to a workstation of somekind where she seemed to fiddle with something.
After a moment though Kirsten returned to his side carrying a hypospray into which she had loaded an emergency nanite replacement pack. They were necessary from time to time as even nanites could be damaged though it took something major to do it. If the nanites couldn't repair themselves then they would have to be replaced by undamaged nanites, that same function made the pack an ideal way to first introduce nanites to John Crichton's system.
"You'll feel a slight tingling," she said to John. "Followed by the urge to go to sleep. Don't fight it just let yourself go. When you wake up everything will be fine the implant will be gone and you'll feel better than ever." John nodded.
Kirsten gently pressed the hypospray to the side of John's neck and pressed the button to fire sending the contents an initial load of several thousand nanites into John's bloodstream. John winced slightly at the initial sting in his neck from the injection then stiffened slightly as he felt the warned about tingling sensation spread from the point of injection. As the tingling spread further John felt his eyes grow heavy. Slowly he closed his eyes and relaxed and in moments was asleep.
Kirsten watched as he fell asleep then sighed and returned to her diagnostic console, she would have to keep a very close eye on her patient for the next few hours as the nanites went about there replication and integration phases. She would have to be ready to intervene if something were to go wrong, it was very unlikely but still she would have to be prepared to intervene, and she fully intended to be.
***
Moya
Zhaan walked onto Moya's command deep in thought. It had been almost one and a half arns since D'Argo and Aeryn had taken /Lolaan /into the wormhole and there had been no contact with them since, and Zhaan was getting concerned. Assuming they had survived transit through the wormhole they should have found and retrieved John by now.
"Still no news yet Pilot," she asked as she heard the sound of Rygel's hoversled coming into the command followed by footsteps that would have to belong to Chiana.
"Not yet Zhaan I'm afraid," Pilot said as his hologram appeared in the clamshell on the wall. Chiana frowned as Pilot spoke.
"I would have thought they would be back by now," the Nebari girl said a note of concern in her tone of voice. Zhaan turned in place to look at the impulsive grey skinned girl but before she could speak an explosion shook Moya violently. Another blast shook Moya and the lights flickered as a moaning sound the air.
"Pilot what is it," Rygel demanded to know as Moya rocked under the impact of a third explosion. When Pilot appeared in the clamshell again and spoke there was a note of panic in his voice.
"We're under attack from Peacekeeper Prowlers," Pilot reported as Moya convulsed as she was attacked again, "neither Moya or I detected them they must have approached on a stealth trajectory. A Peacekeeper Command Carrier has just appeared on Moya's sense horizon."
"We should starburst immediately," Rygel said as another round of pulse cannon fire from the attacking Prowlers rocked Moya.
"I am afraid that we cannot Moya has insufficient energy reserves at this time," Pilot said dismay in his voice as Moya shook again. "Peacekeeper carrier approaching firing range their frag cannons are powering up."
"We don't have a choice," Zhaan said. "Pilot take us into the wormhole." Pilot nodded and disappeared from the clamshell.
After a moment Moya's hetch drive started and the leviathan began moving towards the wormhole. The Prowlers continued firing aiming for the long tendrils that trailed back from the main body of the living ship trying to knock out the propulsion system even as Moya picked up speed.
Zhaan kept her gaze focused on the huge screen at the front of the command watching the wormhole as it grew larger and larger outside, so the softly glowing and rotating silver and blue vortex seemed to dominate space. Quietly Zhaan uttered a prayer to the goddess for protection and mercy as Moya shook under another attack from the pursuing Prowlers.
The wormhole loomed large and strangely beautiful in front of them and then Moya entered the event horizon of the wormhole. A completely different vibration to the violent shaking that had occurred during the Prowlers assault began to be felt through the deck of the living ship as space outside Moya became a long, twisting, glowing tunnel through space/time to some other point in the galaxy. Somewhere that would hopefully be beyond the long grasp of the Peacekeepers.
***
Peacekeeper Command Carrier
Captain Tykol Larsh frowned slightly when the fugitive leviathan they had been fortunate enough to notice in the area disappeared down the wormhole that it had been holding position close to.
"Sir the leviathan," Lieutenant Makol started to say.
"I saw lieutenant," Larsh responded. "They're not going to escape us that easily. Recall all Prowlers then lay in a pursuit course through the wormhole."
"Yes sir."
Chapter Two
Medical Bay
THS Atlantis
John Crichton groaned as consciousness returned. Slowly he opened his eyes and groaned as the overhead light hurt his eyes, he closed his eyes again against the discomfort.
"Relax the pain will pass in a moment," an unfamiliar female voice with an unmistakably English accented voice said. John's eyes flew open again in astonishment and he blinked rapidly until his vision cleared to see a fit looking young woman in a blue uniform, with a white doctors coat over the top, standing over him smiling softly.
"Where, where am I," John said weakly. "Who are you?"
"You're aboard the Terran Hegemony starship /Atlantis/," the woman replied. "I'm Doctor Kirsten Roseberg. And who might you be?"
"Don't joke you know who I am I'm not falling for these illusions again," John said realising that this was probably all an illusion being created by another alien who was after the secret's of wormhole technology from his brain. Or else it was Einstein still playing around with his perceptions.
"I'm afraid I don't know who you are," Kirsten replied. "And I assure you this is no illusion. We picked you up in space. Who are you?"
"Fine I'll play along with your little game," John replied. "I'm Commander John Crichton."
"John Crichton," Kirsten repeated, the name seemed familiar to her from somewhere, but where had she heard it before. Then it registered and she stared in honest disbelief. "That's impossible. That can't be. You would have died long ago even if you survived the accident in space that resulted in the old I.A.S.A scrapping the Farscape project."
"No I'm not dead rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," John answered looking closely at this Doctor Roseberg, she seemed honestly surprised to hear his name, in fact surprised was an obvious understatement. She was absolutely astonished and he could tell somehow that it wasn't an act. "What do you mean I would have died long ago?"
"A question first. What year do you think it is?" John frowned and did some calculations in his head working out what year it would be since the Farscape had been pulled into that first wormhole.
"Two thousand and five," he answered a little uncertain. "Why do you ask?" He looked Kirsten straight in the eye. "It's not two thousand and five is it?"
"No," Kirsten answered.
"Then what is the date today and what year is it?"
"It's the twenty first of March," Kirsten answered, "twenty nine eighty four. Now do you see why I'm surprised you left Terra nearly a thousand years ago."
"A thousand years," John repeated shocked and glad that he was already lying down or he would have surely collapsed. Then he closed his eyes in pain realising that his father, his sisters, DK, everyone he had known and cared about back home would all be long dead, long ago turned to dust.
The knowledge that they were all gone made his eyes sting with unshed tears, but his pride wouldn't let him show them. A hand touched his shoulder and he opened his eyes to see Kirsten looking down at him with a look of sympathy in her eyes. She could tell that what she had just told him had upset him greatly.
"I'm sorry," she said softly.
"It's not your fault," John replied feeling a tear begin making its way down his left cheek. "It must have been that first wormhole, the one that sent me to the Uncharted Territories in the first place, it must have been a wormhole through time as well as space."
"Some wormholes are like that yes," Kirsten replied. "It depends what type they are as there are a dozen different kinds that we know again. The wormhole you came out of here is a basic or class one wormhole a simple bridge across space that's all. What I don't understand is how you've been able to survive."
"It's along story," John answered.
"I look forward to hearing it but first we have something a bit more immediate to talk about. Your life is in danger, not yet but in about fifty years time it will be."
"What do you mean?" John asked.
"You have a neural implant correct," Kirsten said. "Some of it has been removed surgically, quite an impressive achievement considering it was a purely surgical procedure. But the rest of the implant remains."
John nodded he knew that already, how else would Harvey still be in his head even though the chip that supposedly had housed the neural clone Scorpius had implanted to get at the wormhole technology had been removed.
"I know. It wasn't put there voluntarily," he replied. "What about it?"
"My scans indicate that the implant is slowly but surely breaking down," Kirsten answered him. "The implant is still along way from full breakdown but when it breaks down completely it will break apart and severe many key nerves and blood vessels in your brain. It would kill you. Unless something can be done about it."
"Don't listened to her John it won't," Harvey/Scorpius' voice said to him.
"Shut up Harvey," John snapped back then he responded to Kirsten.
"I was told that nothing could be done to remove the whole implant," he said. "That it was too deeply integrated with my brain."
"Surgically yes there is nothing that can be done. The risk of brain damage would be far to great," Kirsten answered. "But we can remove the implant without risk to you. But there would be a side effect, a permanent one."
"Which is," John asked.
"In order to remove the implant I would have to inject you with nanites. They would recognise the implant as something harmful and deal with it."
"What are nanites," John asked. "They sound like somekind of nanotechnology."
"They are," Kirsten answered. "The kind of nanites I'm on about are biomechanical organisms in that there a mixture of organic and inorganic technology and are easily small enough to enter living cells. Nanites are found everywhere in our society these days, in our machines, our computers and in us."
"You mean you've got billions of tiny biomechanical machines inside you," John asked startled by the concept. Though the scientist in him was fascinated with the idea and wondered what kind of effects the presence of nanites would have on the human body.
"Yes. Everybody does," Kirsten answered inwardly smiling at the scientific curiosity that she could see in John's eyes now. "Once inside the human body nanites provide a variety of benefits including lengthened life span, greater physical attributes like speed and strength, superior sensory perception, perfect health and so on. Since the technology became widespread at the end of the twenty-first century people have been injected with nanites at birth. But there is one slight snag. Once there in you and become a part of you nanites can't be removed, they body becomes dependent on its biomechanical helpers to keep functioning. You can change one type of nanite for another but you can't remove them."
"I see. So if you put nanites in me they would get this implant out of my brain but they'd also become a part of me," John said. "They'd enhance me as they enhance you."
"Precisely. The choice is yours commander as it will effect the rest of your life from this point onwards."
John leaned back on the bed and thought about it ignoring the silent protests and threats from Harvey at the back of his thoughts, the neural clone of Scorpius couldn't really do anything to him anymore with the main part of the chip gone. It would definitely be nice to no longer have the neural clone in his head and put up with his constant two cents worth of comments on everything. Sometimes he had to admit the comments were useful but most of the time they didn't make much difference. The news that the chip was eventually going to kill him was another mark against Harvey, he wanted him gone. Truth be told he quite liked the idea of a longer life span as it would give him more time with Aeryn if he could get back to her and Moya and the enhanced physical abilities would probably help a lot to survive in the chaos of the uncharted territories.
"Aside from the dependency on the nanites to stay alive are there any catches to having nanites," John asked.
"Not really. You need to eat a little more to satisfy the nanites energy needs but not that much really," Kirsten answered.
John sighed and thought about it a little more; this was the moment of truth when he had to decide if this was real or if it was all just an illusion. Part of him was cautioning him that this could still all be a deception but his instincts were telling him that this was no illusion, that it was real. He didn't know what to do what to decide. He remembered something that his father had once said to him 'if you're ever in doubt John,' Jack Crichton had told him, 'if you ever find that you don't know what to do go with your instincts. Trust them and trust yourself and you will make the right decision.'
"Alright," he said at last resolving his internal battle with the aide of his father's advice. "Do it." Kirsten nodded.
"As you wish," she replied with a smile. "Lie there quiet commander I'll be right back."
"Ok and doctor please call me John," John replied. "It sounds funny being called by my rank all the time." Kirsten chuckled.
"Alright John it is," she replied then moved out of John's immediate vision. John turned his head and followed her movements as she moved over to somekind of storage cabinet and open it. He saw her take something out though he couldn't make out what it was from here and carry it over to a workstation of somekind where she seemed to fiddle with something.
After a moment though Kirsten returned to his side carrying a hypospray into which she had loaded an emergency nanite replacement pack. They were necessary from time to time as even nanites could be damaged though it took something major to do it. If the nanites couldn't repair themselves then they would have to be replaced by undamaged nanites, that same function made the pack an ideal way to first introduce nanites to John Crichton's system.
"You'll feel a slight tingling," she said to John. "Followed by the urge to go to sleep. Don't fight it just let yourself go. When you wake up everything will be fine the implant will be gone and you'll feel better than ever." John nodded.
Kirsten gently pressed the hypospray to the side of John's neck and pressed the button to fire sending the contents an initial load of several thousand nanites into John's bloodstream. John winced slightly at the initial sting in his neck from the injection then stiffened slightly as he felt the warned about tingling sensation spread from the point of injection. As the tingling spread further John felt his eyes grow heavy. Slowly he closed his eyes and relaxed and in moments was asleep.
Kirsten watched as he fell asleep then sighed and returned to her diagnostic console, she would have to keep a very close eye on her patient for the next few hours as the nanites went about there replication and integration phases. She would have to be ready to intervene if something were to go wrong, it was very unlikely but still she would have to be prepared to intervene, and she fully intended to be.
***
Moya
Zhaan walked onto Moya's command deep in thought. It had been almost one and a half arns since D'Argo and Aeryn had taken /Lolaan /into the wormhole and there had been no contact with them since, and Zhaan was getting concerned. Assuming they had survived transit through the wormhole they should have found and retrieved John by now.
"Still no news yet Pilot," she asked as she heard the sound of Rygel's hoversled coming into the command followed by footsteps that would have to belong to Chiana.
"Not yet Zhaan I'm afraid," Pilot said as his hologram appeared in the clamshell on the wall. Chiana frowned as Pilot spoke.
"I would have thought they would be back by now," the Nebari girl said a note of concern in her tone of voice. Zhaan turned in place to look at the impulsive grey skinned girl but before she could speak an explosion shook Moya violently. Another blast shook Moya and the lights flickered as a moaning sound the air.
"Pilot what is it," Rygel demanded to know as Moya rocked under the impact of a third explosion. When Pilot appeared in the clamshell again and spoke there was a note of panic in his voice.
"We're under attack from Peacekeeper Prowlers," Pilot reported as Moya convulsed as she was attacked again, "neither Moya or I detected them they must have approached on a stealth trajectory. A Peacekeeper Command Carrier has just appeared on Moya's sense horizon."
"We should starburst immediately," Rygel said as another round of pulse cannon fire from the attacking Prowlers rocked Moya.
"I am afraid that we cannot Moya has insufficient energy reserves at this time," Pilot said dismay in his voice as Moya shook again. "Peacekeeper carrier approaching firing range their frag cannons are powering up."
"We don't have a choice," Zhaan said. "Pilot take us into the wormhole." Pilot nodded and disappeared from the clamshell.
After a moment Moya's hetch drive started and the leviathan began moving towards the wormhole. The Prowlers continued firing aiming for the long tendrils that trailed back from the main body of the living ship trying to knock out the propulsion system even as Moya picked up speed.
Zhaan kept her gaze focused on the huge screen at the front of the command watching the wormhole as it grew larger and larger outside, so the softly glowing and rotating silver and blue vortex seemed to dominate space. Quietly Zhaan uttered a prayer to the goddess for protection and mercy as Moya shook under another attack from the pursuing Prowlers.
The wormhole loomed large and strangely beautiful in front of them and then Moya entered the event horizon of the wormhole. A completely different vibration to the violent shaking that had occurred during the Prowlers assault began to be felt through the deck of the living ship as space outside Moya became a long, twisting, glowing tunnel through space/time to some other point in the galaxy. Somewhere that would hopefully be beyond the long grasp of the Peacekeepers.
***
Peacekeeper Command Carrier
Captain Tykol Larsh frowned slightly when the fugitive leviathan they had been fortunate enough to notice in the area disappeared down the wormhole that it had been holding position close to.
"Sir the leviathan," Lieutenant Makol started to say.
"I saw lieutenant," Larsh responded. "They're not going to escape us that easily. Recall all Prowlers then lay in a pursuit course through the wormhole."
"Yes sir."
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