Chapter 1

"Crichton, the wormhole knowledge in your mind is the only thing that can stop the Scarrans.
Why won't you help me?"

Crichton stares into the eyes of his enemy.

Scorpius looks back.

He almost seems - human.

"I have nothing to do with this." John said to him.

"But you must..."Scorpius tried to say. "...you are the only one that has this knowledge! This power! You are the only one..."

"Who can stop the Scarrans?"John shouted back at him. "Who can open wormholes? Who can create a wormhole weapon?
No,...I'm just the messenger.
And I say no."

"The Scarrans will destroy everything."Scorpius went on. "They are monsters..."

"Aren't you part Scarran Scorp?" John shouted back.

Scorpius eyes begin to glow.

"Doesn't that make you a monster?"

John looks at him one last time and walks away.

"You can trust me, John."

Scorpius blocks his path.

"Help me...and I help you."

"How's that Scorpy? Gonna fetch me a stick and stroke my belly?
I will not help in mass-destruction, Scorpy."

"But what about the Scarrans? They will destroy everything!
Isn't that mass-destruction?"

Scorpius's eye twitches.

"I don't see any alternatives, John." Scorpius finally said. "Help me, or die."

John looks at him again.
"No."

"Don't be so ignorant, Crichton. I know you can be reasonable."

"I am reasonable, Dracula. You know my answer. Now get out of my way."

John pushes Scorpy aside and Scorpius hisses.

"What's going on?"

D'Argo enters the room and John faces him.
"I was just..." John tried to say, but when he turned around, he saw the room was empty.
"Frell." he whispered.

He was going insane.

"What's the matter John?" D'Argo asked.
You didn't answer on the comms so I came to check on you."

"I'm fine."John said with doubt in his eyes.
"I'm just...hallucinating."

"Hallucinating?"D'Argo asked.

"Never mind...it's just..."
Suddenly he was struck by an insane painful feeling in his head.
It felt like a lightingbolt hit him.
But he knew this feeling.
He felt it before.

With a flash he was back in the Aurora-chair.
"Are you comfortable, John?" Harvey said to him, looking at him with a terrible grin on his face.
John screamed his lungs out.

"Open your mind, John Crichton! Tell me everything!"

Flash.
He was standing in front of a door.
He looked around and he was on earth.
It was the 50's and he wore a bright white salesman's jacket and sunglasses.
The door opened.
Scorpius stood in the doorway.

"Hi."John said. "I was wondering if you would be interested in..."

"Wormholetechnology?" Scorpius asked. "Please do come in."

"On second thought..."John said, "Perhaps later..."

FLASH.

John leaned back into the Aurora-chair. This time the cuffs were loosened.
Harvey stood before him, leaning on the iron chair that went round and round and round.

"Wormholes."Harvey said and smiled.

"Why stop the ride!"John shouted. "Why not continue this torment?
I've been down this road before. You of all people know that!
Scarrans and Delvians and Ancients and,...well you!"

"Your mind has grown stronger since the last time you were probed." the neural clone of Scorpius' bright and colourful personality said.

"So what now, Harvey?"John asked. "You've seen the others have their go at me, and now yóu want to give it a shot?"

"It's not like that, John." Harvey told him nicely. "Orders have been given, and I'm not a person who disobeys command."

"Sure you ain't."

John looked his nemesis in the eyes.

John knew it wasn't him. He looked like him. He talked like him. He killed like him.
But he wasn't the real thing.

The real thing, Scorpius, was on his Command Carrier, snooping the Unchartered Territories like a bloodhound in search for John.

But now that John has his neural chip in his brain, and his neural clone in his mind, he will never go anywhere without Scorpy watching him.
John could feel his breath down his neck.

"I'm going to ask you again, Harvey..."John said and stepped out of the Aurora-Chair.
"Get the frell out of my brain or..."

"Or what?" Harvey said to him.

John wanted to finish his sentence, but he didn't.
The look in the eyes of his enemy hit him with an impact of a hypnotizing meteorshower.
Or a sudden jump into a wormhole.

Suddenly John realised that resisting the neural clone wouldn't have any effect.
He's already in his head; already in the fortress he's trying to create to save himself from Harvey's sudden jolts into his brain.
John's had them before. It was his subconcious, making John aware there was something wrong with him.
Something Scorpius had done.
The jolts were only remembering him that Harvey was searching for the wormholeknowledge that was hidden in his brain by the Ancients.
Something that shouldn't have been there in the first place...

John felt Harvey digging deeper into his mind.
"Screw you!"John shouted at him, trying to stop him, like he has always done before, but this time it wasn't enough.
"No John." Harvey said. "Quite the opposite..."

FLASH.

"John!" D'Argo shouted and grabbed his shipmate as he fell to the floor.
He tried to wake him up, he tried smacking him in the face and tried shaking him, butJohn wouldn't wake up.

"Zhaan!"D'Argo shouted trough the comms. "Get down here, quick!"

Zhaan was having breakfast with Aeryn and Rygel and awoke from her heated discussion with Rygel about Hynerian food and stood up.

"What's the matter. D'Argo?" she asked over the comms.

"It's John!"D'Argo said and dragged his body over the floor. "He's fainted! Something must be wrong!"

"He could be asleep."Aeryn said casual, overhearing the conversation and joining in.

"How can you tell the difference between Crichton awake and Crichton unconcious?"Rygel said.

Zhaan looked at him from the corner of her eye, but did not stray from the subject.

"Take him to infirmary!" Zhaan said and rushed away, and Aeryn followed her.

"What's the matter?"Chiana said when she and Jothee walked past Zhaan and Aeryn.

"There's something going on with John."Aeryn said, whilst quickly stuffing a footcube in her mouth and grabbing her gun.
She quickly added: "Probably nothing." before turning the corridor.

She hoped there was nothing wrong.

"Yeah." Chiana said to Jothee "Probably nothin'."

"D'Argo!" both Zhaan and Aeryn shouted simultaneously.
Zhaan and Aeryn found D'Argo unconcious on the floor, about to wake up with a headache.

"Where's John?"they asked.

"I don't know."Ka D'Argo answered with his hands on his head.
"After he hit me on the head, all the lights went out and I saw myself hitting the floor.
Frelling son of a ...#hyrscha!"

He hissed and turned his head, bfore realising that thismovement with his head frelling hurt.

"John?"Aeryn said through the comms, hoping that John didn't just knock one of their shipmates to the ground.
"John, can you hear me?"

She sighed.

"His comms must have broke." she concluded.

"There's nothing wrong with his comms."D'Argo said and pulled himself off of the floor.
"He's just not answering them."