Small World, a farscape fanfic

Disclaimer: I don't own Farscape, 7 Days, X-Files or Invisible Man. Anything or anybody that you recognize belongs to Rockne O'Bannon, the Jim Henson Company, Paramount, etc. Por favor, please don't sue me, I promise I'll put the characters back when I'm done with 'em (albeit maybe they'll be a little happier).

Rating: PG-13 (In case you're really young or have never heard swears before. For one use of the word "ass," maybe some other things that I haven't noticed yet.)

Author's note: What, you think that with all these 'secret government agencies/projects' that they would never find out about each other? This started out as one of AerynQ's stories ("Home"), but I sort of took it over and improved... um, wrote some more when she got stuck. She continued on to finish the story, but I kept my version.

Archiving: Please, just send me a link to the archive.

Category: Crossover.

Timeline: Pre-Requiem, for X-Files fans.

Small World

By Erin Cale

When John Crichton first stepped aboard Moya all he had wanted to do was return to Earth. He had longed for his friends, and his home. Now, as he stood with Pilot staring at a wormhole– no, not just any wormhole THE wormhole- he wasn't sure he wanted to leave. In his two cycles aboard Moya it had become his home, and Zhaan, D'Argo, Chiana, Rygel, Aeryn, and Pilot were the best friends he had ever had. More than just friends, they were his family.

"Commander Crichton?" Pilot's voice took him from his reverie.

"Pilot, how long until the wormhole closes?"

"Approximately five arns…" he paused for a moment before asking, "Will you be leaving?" John nodded quickly, and was surprised by the brief expression of anxiety that shot through the multi-tasking bug's face.

"What is it, Pilot?"

"Moya and I will miss you commander. You have been a good friend."

"Believe me, the feeling is mutual," The human smiled sadly, "Goodbye Pilot."

~~~~~

Crichton walked slowly through the halls of Moya knowing that this would be his last time. Slung in a bag over his shoulder were his few belongings as well as a small golden chain Chiana had given him only a few microts earlier, as a going away present. He had already said his goodbyes to everybody except for Aeryn. He knocked lightly on her door.

"Go away Crichton."

"I'm leaving soon." No answer. John opened the door cautiously, half expecting a little blue volt of light in the head. None was forthcoming. Aeryn was standing looking at the wall, her back turned to him.

"I thought I told you to leave."

"I didn't want to go without saying goodbye." Crichton placed a hand on her shoulder and she spun around fiercely.

"Fine. Goodbye! Is that what you want?!"

"Aeryn I…"

"I don't care, you'll be gone in a few microts any way."

"Fine!" He turned to go.

"John wait…" Aeryn whispered grabbing on to his arm. "I don't want you to leave," she whispered hating the tears that were beginning to well in her eyes.

"Then come with me." She shook her head in reply.

"I can't"

"You can…"

"No, I don't belong there."

"Goodbye then." He kissed her lips and then he left. Twenty microts later Aeryn was in her prowler heading towards Earth.

~~~~~

(My part begins here)

John woke up in a hospital. From the looks of it, an army hospital. He was alone- for now. He sighed.

"John?" A voice came from the other side of the room.

"Hi dad." John did a double take. "Dad?"

Jack Crichton gave his son a watery smile. "How ya feelin'?"

"Like I got beaten up by a Sebacean."

"What?" His father's face was confused.

"Um, I'll explain later. You wouldn't believe the past two cycles- years, I mean."

"Well, if my son can come back from the dead two years after his shuttle was supposedly blown up, I can believe anything."

"Do you believe in aliens?"

"I do." Another voice interrupted their conversation. "Hi John, remember me?"

"Fox Mulder. I haven't seen you since High School. How in the hell are ya?"

"I'm good," Mulder replied, stepping towards the bed. "But I should be asking you that question."

"I'm bruised, but I'll live with it. Dad, you remember Mulder, don't ya?"

"Sure, you got my son into his first fistfight." Jack smiled as Mulder grinned sheepishly.

"I guess it was my fault; associating with a weird senior when I was a freshman."

"He called me Fox, and I'd told him that I liked to be called Mulder. Can't say I didn't warn him."

"I'll remember that." Jack looked back down at his son. "I've got to be going. I'm picking up D.K. at the airport, then I'm bringing him here. His plane should be landing in about ten minutes."

"Alright. See ya later, Dad."

Jack walked to the door and said, "Excuse me." He proceeded past a redhead that was watching them from the doorway and continued down the hallway.

"Hey Moldy, who's your friend?"

Mulder looked behind him and gestured for the woman to come in. "John Crichton, Dana Scully. Scully, this is John, an old classmate of mine."

"How do you do?" Scully reached out a hand and John took it. He pulled back, startled.

"Good grip," he said, shaking his hand. Scully smiled and looked at Mulder.

"Are you going to tell him why we're here, or are you going to sit around trading High School horror stories all day?"

Mulder's grin disappeared and he turned to John. "The FBI is investigating how you were able to come back after two years of supposedly being dead. That's one reason why we're here. The other is that the NSA wants to talk with you and we're supposed to go with you."

"Something that we've found out is that you weren't alone when you brought your ship down in the Caribbean Sea. Another ship followed you, but it crashed somewhere in the Middle East. The NSA wants to know who was on that vessel, and if you can close this wormhole of yours," Scully added.

"I can tell you that there were at least," John paused to count, "two people who'd've come down after me. Maybe someone from Moya, if they needed me back for some emergency. Otherwise, it's either Scorpious or Crais. Both of whom either want to kill me or dissect my brain."

"Made a lot of friends out there didn't you?" Mulder commented.

"Yeah, I made a few friends. Let's see, there's Zhaan, D'Argo, Chiana, Pilot, Moya," he paused slightly before the last name, "and Aeryn. I don't know if I'd count Rygel though. Rygel was just there, always trying to steal my stuff."

"Well, that's at least six. Who were those friends of yours?"

"And how did you come to meet them in the first place?" Scully asked, starting to become interested, but hiding it well.

"Why don't you two sit down? This is gonna be a long story." He waited until they had pulled up two chairs, then he began by saying, "Well, I had just gotten the Farscape 1 into position when Canaveral started telling me about an electromagnetic wave coming at me. I tried to abort, but I couldn't. I got pulled into the wave, which turned out to be a wormhole. I don't know how far that wormhole took me, but it was definitely nowhere near this solar system. First second I exited the wormhole, this black vessel came flying past. It veered away at the last minute, but it hit a nearby asteroid instead. I flew in the direction that it came from, hoping somebody would tell me what the hell had just happened. I found a swarm of the small black ships surrounding this huge vessel. It was..." he parted his hands, trying to describe Moya's size, "big. Anyway, I ended up on board, and being guided towards what I would later learn was Command. I saw this large brown alien with tendrils around his face and a blue one with no hair. He yelled something at me that I didn't understand and I tried to tell him so. The brown one- D'Argo- picked me up by the throat and pushed me against the wall. Then a little yellow robot- a DRD- injected me with these, um, translator microbes. When I was able to understand him, he demanded that I tell him how to unhitch the collar that kept the ship from moving. They thought I was a Sebacean, the race that was attacking the ship- Moya. They look incredibly similar to us. You wouldn't believe it."

When John paused a moment, Mulder took the chance to break in. "Listen, I want to hear the rest, but you've been unconscious for about 5 days. Get some rest. We'll be back later to take you to see some more old friends." John gave him a confused look, but Mulder just left, leaving John to ponder the possibilities. Scully followed and stopped him when she thought they were out of hearing range.

"Mulder, I thought you'd be chomping at the bit to get John's story."

"I am. I can hardly wait until he gets better, but, you know, I just can't push him. If you knew him like I did, you'd see why."

"Tell me."

"When John was a young kid, there was this bully at our school. Every day, he'd beat John up for his lunch money. I ended up bringing extra money to school so he wouldn't have to starve every day. Anyway, one day John couldn't take it anymore. He snapped. When the bully came to take his money, John was just sitting on a swing, talking to himself. He looked up and saw the kid and before I knew it, the boy was lying on the ground, unconscious. The teachers came and took John to the Principal. He was suspended and forced to take therapy. His therapist told his dad that what made him flip out was too much strain or pressure. John had been pushed past his limits."

"And you think that if you try to get his story from him now that he'll go crazy again?"

"If he really has experienced all this, then he's got to be in a very tenuous emotional state right now."

"I see." Scully paused for a moment, taking the time to sort through the information that Mulder had just given her. "Well, let's get out of here. We've got work to do."

Back in the hospital room, John was looking out the window. For a moment, he thought that he saw a shadow pass over the sun. "Moya... Aeryn." But the shadow was just a cloud precluding a thunderstorm. And as the first raindrops fell, John lay his head down and let his tears be soaked up by his pillow.

~~~~~

"I'm going to ask you one more time. Who are you and what was that plane that you were found in?" The man gestured, trying to get the point across even though Aeryn knew what he was saying.

"I'll nev-" she began, but then she remembered that this human didn't have translator microbes. Nobody on this entire planet did, except for Crichton and the Creators only knew where he was. Instead, she called upon her memories of John. She spat at her interrogator and said something that he wouldn't understand. The man looked at her in confusion and frustration. Aeryn smiled. If he had been able to understand what she had just said, she'd probably be dead right now. He apparently understood the intent, for he slapped her across the face. Aeryn sighed. Training for being a Prowler pilot had been harder to take than this.

She watched as the man left the room. Because her sense of hearing was better than the average human's, she was able to hear snatches of his conversation with his superiors, even though this was supposed to be a soundproof room. "...can't... you never... me... might as well... outer space... seems to understand, but..."

After a few moments, another man came in. This man looked almost afraid of her. When he held up a syringe, Aeryn didn't recognize it for a moment.

"Don't worry," the man said, trying to gesture that everything would be all right. "It's just a sedative, so they can move to another place." He looked around the cramped interrogation room. "One a little more comfortable." He smiled and reached for her arm. Aeryn tried to fight back, but her hands were tied. She did succeed in biting his finger, however. He cried out in pain, but kept a firm grip on her. Quickly, he stuck the needle in her arm. Aeryn managed to almost knock him over by rocking back and forth in her chair. The man scurried out of the room. She smiled; at least one person around this place was afraid of her. That was when she started to notice that her vision was getting blurry.

"John..." she murmured just before her head dropped and she gave in to the sedative.

~~~~~

John sat quietly, gazing out the window at the scenery that he had been searching for for so long. So why did he feel so alone? Why did he long to go back up to Moya, back to the Uncharted Territories? He knew the answer, he just didn't want to face it. He missed his adopted family, Aeryn especially. He abruptly turned his gaze away from the window. Mulder was due to be here any minute, and he hadn't even gotten out of his hospital attire yet. He changed quickly, trying to avoid some bruises and cuts that hadn't healed yet. When his dad had returned with D.K., they had also brought some fresh clothes, knowing that John had very little to wear. They had just left and he was just now getting dressed.

He was just in time too, for Mulder came in 10 seconds later. With a grin, Mulder gestured to the door. "Time to face the music."

John returned the smile and replied, "Hey Mulder, if they end up killing me to cover up some strange government conspiracy-"

"I know." Mulder said, rolling his eyes. "Besides, I don't think they'll kill you. At least not before they've squeezed every bit of information they can out of you."

John gave him a mock glare, then he followed him out the door, down the hallway and into the elevator. After a few seconds, John asked innocently, "So, who are we going to see?"

"Nope." Mulder pushed the button for the lobby. "I'm not telling."

They stayed silent for the rest of the ride, while John contemplated the elevator itself. Was it just him or had elevators gotten a little faster since he left? Finally, the elevator stopped and Mulder went right up to the desk to check him out. Once finished, he led the way to the parking lot, where Scully was waiting with their car.

"Hey, umm, what did you want me to call you again?" John asked as they got into the car.

"Scully's fine. There are very few people who call me by my first name."

"Alright. So will you tell me where we're going Scully?"

She glanced at Mulder. "I don't know. I think it's a not widely known government base. Other than that, ask Mulder."

"I tried, he wouldn't tell me." Scully smiled in reply and looked out the window as Mulder started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

~~~~~

Aeryn woke up in a harshly lit chamber. The only furnishings were a toilet, sink, and bed. She noticed that there was a tray of food sitting in one corner and, realizing how long she had gone without food, brought the tray over to her bed. At least there, she could sit comfortably. As she brought a piece of bread up to her mouth, she noticed something. She wasn't bound. She could move freely. That was another difference between her people and John's. With her people, prisoners were put in bare rooms with handcuffs binding their wrists. They had only water, and then very little of it. The Peacekeepers disliked wasting anything on prisoners.

"Ahh, I see you're up," said a cheerful voice from the doorway. Aeryn looked over to see that a young woman had opened the door just a little and was poking her head through. "May I come in?" Then, she muttered, "Wait a minute, she probably doesn't understand a word I'm saying." Aeryn looked at her and nodded. With a confused frown, the redhead asked, "You can understand me?" Another nod. "Then can I come in and talk to you?" Aeryn paused, thinking that it would probably be best to cooperate for now, nodded once. The young woman came in and shut the door behind her. She sat on the floor across from Aeryn. "Hi, I'm Erin."

"I-" Aeryn began, then tried to say it in a way the human would understand. "Aeryn," she said, pointing to herself.

"Where are you from, Aeryn?" Aeryn kept silent, unable to translate her planet's name for somebody without translator microbes. "Are you American?" When Aeryn was still silent, she said, "Am I even close?" Aeryn shook her head no. "Can you tell me where you're from?" Another shake. "Why are you here?"

"John Crichton," Aeryn said, being careful to pronounce it the way John would. She remembered one of the few other words John had managed to teach her. "Friend."

The young lady leaned closer, as if to tell her a secret. "He's the reason I'm here. If he's really your friend, then he'll be wanting to see you again. That's where I come in." She stood up and handed Aeryn a red fruit. "This should hold you over until the next meal." Then she exited the room, leaving Aeryn alone with her thoughts once again.

She looked at the red thing, sniffed it carefully, and then took a bite out of it. It was sweet, yet tangy, and very juicy. She smiled as she chewed. John was alive and maybe, with Erin's help, she'd get to see him again.

~~~~~

After an hour, John was getting tired. "Are we there yet?" he asked Mulder.

"You sound like a spoiled brat. We'll be there in about a half an hour."

"Can't we stop and get something to eat?"

"Like what?"

"Anything. I've lived for the last two years on food cubes, basically. Now, I get hospital food. I don't care what I get, as long as it's real food."

"What do you think Scully, should we get him some real food or let him starve?"

"Be nice, Mulder," she said with a smile.

"Alright. We'll get him some food." He turned the car into a convenience store parking lot. He got out and ran in. He returned 2 minutes later with a package of Skittles and a soda. He got in the car and handed them to John. "Eat up."

"What? You don't trust me with the keys?" John asked when he noticed that Mulder had taken the keys with him. "I wouldn't have taken Scully too far, just to a nice beach not far from here..."

Scully smiled at the possessive look that Mulder wore on his face for a split second. "No," he said as he started the car back up. "You drive worse than I do. I mean, have I ever crashed practically destroyed the most expensive shuttle ever made by man?" He pulled the car out of the parking lot. He saw that the light up ahead was yellow. Pressing down on the gas, he muttered under his breath, "I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it." The light turned red. "I'm not gonna make it." He slammed down on the brakes and narrowly missed a turning car that had crossed right in front of him. All three felt their car jolt forward as the car behind them hit the brakes a little too late.

"You were saying?" John muttered, wiping Skittles off his shirt.

~~~~~

After the police had come and taken care of the situation, Mulder and company decided to go into a restaurant to wait for their rental car to arrive. As the three of them walked into Benny's Diner, they nearly ran down the couple coming out of it.

"Sorry," Scully apologized, then walked a few steps further before she turned around. "Wait a minute, aren't you-?"

"Dana Scully? Wow, you've changed," the blonde interrupted, her accent somehow accentuating her words.

"Claire! How nice it is to see you." Mulder cleared his throat slightly. "Oh. Claire, this is my partner, Fox Mulder, and his friend, John Crichton. Mulder, John, this is Claire. She was a roommate of mine back in college."

Claire's companion looked at her questioningly. "Darien, this is Dana Scully. Dana, this is Darien Fawkes, my latest," she gave Scully a superior look, "project.

Scully smiled and chuckled lightly. Claire caught her look. "No! Not that kind of project!"

The men looked to Scully for an explanation. "Claire was quite a player in college."

"Dana!" she exclaimed, blushing a deep red, especially when she saw the look on Darien's face. "Don't you dare get any ideas into that pig-headed brain of yours!" Darien held up his hands in mock surrender and gave her an innocent grin. Quickly trying to change the subject, Claire said, "Do you want to come with us to get something to eat. I lost a bet, so I have to take Darien to lunch."

"But you just came out of the restaurant, didn't you?"

"Just to make a phone call. So?" Darien saw the trio's hesitation. "Ahh, come on."

"All right. We can tell you all about the accident that Mulder just caused."

"An accident? Down at the light?"

"Yep."

"You caused that? You made Claire ruin my car."

John noticed the angry look in Darien's eyes. Turning to his companions, he said one word, "Run."

~~~~~

Erin was back again, this time with a mug of hot brown liquid. Aeryn took a sip out of it and had to work hard not to spit it out.

"It's coffee, do you like it?" As Erin saw Aeryn's face, she laughed. "That bad, huh? I'm told it's an acquired tas-"

She was cut off as two men burst into the room, each carrying a formidable-looking gun. "What are you doing here?" one demanded.

"I'm giving her food," Erin replied, as she stood up and faced the two men.

The man who had spoken was now silent, but he wore a malicious sneer on his face that Aeryn didn't like. The other moved forward and hit Erin roughly in the stomach with his gun. Aeryn's new friend doubled over, gasping desperately to try to get some air in her lungs. Aeryn sprang to her defense, easily knocking out the two guards. As Aeryn hauled her friend off the floor, Erin pointed the way in which they should run.

They ran down the hallway, with Aeryn supporting the injured human, pausing only slightly when they heard footsteps starting to close in on their position.

"Hold it!" came a harsh voice from behind them. When neither one stopped, the owner of the voice raised his rifle. Two shots and the two women lay dead on the floor. The guard sighed and murmured, "Damn. They were cute too."

~~~~~

Darien didn't stop until he had herded everyone into Pizza By Benny, at which point he turned to Claire with a devilish grin on his face. "I think you owe me a pizza."

"Pizza?" Crichton echoed hopefully. Claire sighed at the puppy like look on his face.

"Fine. Does anyone else want some?" The entire group nodded. Darien then turned to Mulder, the grin still plastered on his features.

"Alright. You ruined my car, you're buying." Mulder grimaced but nodded anyway. A waitress seated them at a booth and brought them some water.

The tall brunette brought out her check and looked at them. With a grin so wide it was almost fake she said, "What can I get for you today?"

"Umm," Mulder looked around the table for help deciding.

"I'll have a few pieces of cheese," Scully said.

"I'll have half of the same," Darien agreed.

"A few more pieces for me," Claire said from beside him.

"Everything!" John exclaimed, practically drooling on the table.

"And I'll just have a piece of both. I guess that makes one large cheese, one large everything." The waitress wrote down their orders and hurried off into the kitchen.

The five people looked around at each other, trying to figure out something to say. Darien was the first to think of something. "Hey, uh, Dana, tell us more about Claire's college days."

Scully opened her mouth to say something when Claire interrupted, "Don't you dare, Dana Scully."

Darien smiled and looked at Claire. She turned to him and whispered so that the others couldn't hear, "If you ever try to figure out anything about my college days, I will personally see to it that you never see another shot of Quicksilver ever again."

Darien's face paled, but he was in luck. John chose that moment to ask, "So what have I missed the last two years?"

"Where have you been?" Darien asked in return, eager for a reprieve from Claire's burning gaze.

"It's a long story. Suffice to say that I was far away from here."

"Well, umm, let's see. Did you hear about the election?"

"No, what happened?"

"Well, we still have yet to elect a president."

"What?!"

"Yeah. It's between George W. Bush and Al Gore. They had to recount Florida's ballots because the difference was a few hundred votes. Whoever wins Florida wins the election, but there is so much stuff to go through that many people just started to ignore the whole thing."

"Jeez." Crichton shook his head, then he thought of something. "Wait a minute, who's running the country while we're doing all this?"

Mulder piped in, "Who knows? Probably still Clinton."

"Heads up," John said, motioning to their waitress, who was approaching with their pizzas. She placed the pizzas down onto the table carefully.

Each person reached for a piece simultaneously. One by one, the others stopped as they realized what John was doing. He had grabbed a piece just moments earlier and already the last portion of it was disappearing into his mouth. He chewed a couple of times, then he gulped it down and grabbed for another piece.

Mulder took a piece from the everything pizza before John could devour the whole thing. The others wore surprised looks on their faces. "Wow," Darien commented, "He must be hungry."

"Oh yeah," John commented between gulps, "It's been so long since I had 'home cooked food' so to speak."

The others nodded slightly and let John continue eating. For the rest of the meal, nobody talked about anything. Finally, the waitress came back with the bill and Mulder took out his wallet. He handed her the money and muttered, "The tip is included in that."

The waitress nodded and left. Mulder and Darien, who had been sitting on the edges, got out and held out their hands for the ladies sitting next to them. Scully and Claire got up and stretched their legs, John following suit a second later. They walked to the door and out into the fresh air.

"Well, it's been nice seeing you," Claire said as Mulder, Scully and John got into their rental car. She turned and got in her own car. "Darien? Darien, that's enough. Stop playing with the Quicksilver and show yourself." When nobody answered her appeal, her face paled considerably. "I'm in trouble."

Darien stepped out from behind a tree. As Claire reached into her purse and pulled out her cellphone, Darien ducked back into the restaurant. He chuckled as he considered what was about to happen.

~~~~~

"Welcome to the base," Mulder said as the guards at the gate made them get out of their car so they could search it.

When the guards were satisfied, one of them nodded and muttered, "Thanks." The gate was lifted and the car proceeded into the side of a mountain. Scully parked the car and they started inside.

"See?" John asked as Mulder opened the door. "Scully did much better at driving the car here without ruining it."

Mulder glared at him. They told the secretary inside that they were here to see a Mr. Talmadge. She raised her eyebrow but made a gesture to one of the corridors that branched off the room. "He'll meet you in the last room on the left."

"Thanks," Mulder nodded and the three walked down the brightly lit hallway. John stopped every once in a while to check out what was going on. Scully finally noticed and cleared her throat. John looked back at her and grinned sheepishly. She turned back just in time to see Mulder go into the conference room and sit down. Scully and John followed suit, quietly.

"So," John said, trying to break the silence, "What do you think they do here anyway?"

The FBI agents shrugged. "We were just told to bring you here," Scully answered.

Mulder added, "Don't know why they picked us... except for the fact that I know you from a long time ago."

At that moment, an older man with a beard entered the room. He was followed closely by a man in a wheelchair and two more men behind him. He stretched out his hand to the three. "I'm Bradley Talmadge."

Mulder shook the man's hand, then introduced his companions. "Special Agent Mulder. This is my partner, Special Agent Scully, and my friend, John Crichton."

"Pleased to meet you." Talmadge looked to the man in the wheelchair.

"I'm Ballard."

The gentleman beside him said, "I'm Isaac."

Finally, the cynical looking middle-aged man said, "I'm Nathan Ramsey."

Talmadge looked back at the guests. "The rest of my team should be in in a minute."

As if waiting for a cue, three more people walked in. A redheaded woman was the first to walk in. She shook hands with them, then said, "I'm Olga Vukavitch." Almost immediately behind her were two men, one of whom appeared to be in the middle of a joke.

"...then the first guy looks back at him and he says-"

"Uh, Frank?" his companion gestured to the full room that happened to include his superior and two FBI agents.

Frank stopped in the middle of his sentence, looking a little proud when the two women in the room turned to raise an eyebrow at him. Olga rolled her eyes, sighed heavily, and took her seat. But only Frank missed the longing look that she shot at him.

"Do any of you know why you're here?" John, Mulder and Scully shook their heads. Talmadge pulled two photos out of his jacket pocket. The first showed an aerial view of a complex of some sort. "This is a base in the Middle East. We have had a spy working here for the past year. A couple weeks ago, her superiors captured what they believed to be an American plane, along with its pilot. However, when our spy looked at the plane, she figured out that it wasn't American. It wasn't of a design that she had ever seen before. She decided to befriend the prisoner, to find out where the plane came from. The pilot didn't speak English or any other language that our informant knew, but she did understand what was said to her. She figured out, through coaxing information out of the pilot very carefully, that both her and the plane were from outer space." John's head shot up, but Talmadge continued, "Six days ago, she was caught bringing the pilot extra food and they were forced to make a run for it. They didn't even make it to the gate before they were shot." He held out the second photo. "She was able to smuggle out a picture of the prisoner beforehand. Do you recognize her?"

John took the picture from his hand warily. He looked at it and a solitary tear ran down his cheek. He sniffled, wiped the tear and looked back up at the men and women who were watching him intently. They were surprised to see the redness of John's eyes. "That's Aeryn, a friend that I met during my time..." he searched for a word to describe it. "Away."

"We thought so."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"We have a program that allows us to send one human back in time 7 days. That would be Frank. It's much too late to stop her from crashing in the Middle East, but Frank can go back and get them out safely." John looked skeptical, but nodded his head anyway. "We figured that, since she came to Earth so close to the time that you showed up again, that you must know her. Is there anything that you can tell us about her?"

"Well, if she's in the middle of breaking out, then she's not going to have much of a choice but to trust, uh, Frank. But she's not going to like it, and once you get out of immediate danger, she's going to give you a first-class interrogation. After that, if she trusts you, she'll 'request' that you take her to me. It would probably best, if her plane isn't damaged too much, to take her transportation."

Frank nodded, already working out what he'd do when he got back in time. "Anything else?" Talmadge asked.

"Yes, there is. She respects smart and aggressive warriors. Can you at least imitate one?" he asked Frank.

Frank pretended to be offended, but before he could say a word, Ramsey said, "Smart-ass is more like it."

"Okay," Talmadge continued, not bothering to acknowledge what Ramsey had said. "Let's do this. Would you like to come watch the process?" Mulder nodded eagerly, happy for the chance to see a well-kept government secret in action. Scully shrugged, then nodded. John muttered assent and they left the conference room. The Backstep team hurried ahead to get the sphere ready. Mulder followed closely, practically dragging Scully along with him. Frank, however, stayed behind to walk with John for a moment.

"You know, I might be able to do something about this."

"About what?"

"Oh, come on. You're not fooling anyone. You're worried that when I save your girlfriend, she's going to go from one cage to another. I can probably get the spy to change her story so that your friend is just a mute American pilot, who happened to find some wonderful new technology."

"What about the Prowler? Are you going to give that to the government?"

"Are you kidding? She was able to follow you down to Earth, unnoticed by all our satellites. That is something that I'd be willing to bet she won't part with easily."

"You're right about that." John laughed slightly. "But what about the information the spy sent, claiming that Aeryn was from 'up there'?"

"That was sent the day before they died. If I leave now, I'll be able to make her change her story." Frank noticed John's somber face. "Don't worry. I'll be able to do it."

"Thanks."

"The room that you're looking for is down that hallway to the right. Can't miss it." With that, Frank left to change into the suit required for a backstep.

~~~~~

Frank sat in the back of the dark compartment chatting with Erin. From the front, they heard an urgent noise. Both of the humans stepped closer to Aeryn, watching her fingers fly with practiced ease over the controls. "All right," Frank said, motioning to a hill. "That's the base we're supposed to go to. Find a place nearby, in the woods if at all possible and hide the ship." Frank caught the look on Aeryn's face and added quickly, "Please."

She made a quick but soft landing, and the occupants exited the Prowler. They looked around quickly to make sure that nobody had seen them and then threw a large camouflage tarp over the vessel. Since the canopy was too dense to see the nearby mountain, Frank took out a compass to help him search for the base. "That way." He pointed in a direction.

After walking for about a half-hour, they came to the mountainside base in which the Backstep program was housed. "Let me do the talking," Frank said as they came to the gate.

"Hey, Frank," the guards said.

"Hey, you gonna let me in?"

"Yeah, but we have to search your friends first." One of the guards saw Aeryn's frown. "Sorry, Miss..."

"None of your beeswax," Erin spoke up for her friend so that the guards wouldn't find out that she didn't speak an earthly language. Aeryn looked at her questioningly, obviously not quite getting the statement.

After a thorough search, they were deemed safe and allowed to go into the building. The secretary nodded when she saw Frank and said two words, "Conference room."

"Thanks. Come on, girls."

They each glared at him, but followed as he entered the room, surprised to already see Crichton, Mulder, Scully, and the Backstep team already there. John looked down at the table, obviously having heard the news that someone had followed him into Earth's atmosphere. The others looked up at Aeryn's soft, but heavily accented, "John?" The man being addressed lifted his head slowly, as if unable to believe that the woman speaking was alive.

"Aeryn? W-what are you doing here?" he asked, hurrying over to hug her, even though he knew she disdained such things. To his surprise, she hugged him back fiercely for a second, then pulled away.

"So," Erin said, eager to watch romance in action, "This is John." She did a fairly good approximation of Aeryn's accent. She gave them a wide grin, winking to John. She handed a Zip disk to Ballard, who immediately moved over to the computer and opened it. "Wow!" he exclaimed, surprising everybody with the loudness of his voice. "This-this is absolutely wonderful. This has to be years ahead of our time, decades even."

Frank, John, Erin and Aeryn smiled. They were the only ones who knew where the technology was really from. Talmadge looked over Ballard's shoulder as the wheelchair-bound scientist continued, "With this, we might be able to cross our solar system in a matter of days. Finally explore what's outside this solar system."

A strange look crossed John's face. "In the wrong hands, that could be dangerous."

"Yes," Ballard replied without looking over his shoulder, "But that is true with any new technology. Besides, we've kept this base and its project a secret, we can keep this a secret." Talmadge took one look at Ballard's face and just rolled his eyes in amusement at the depth of Ballard's excitement.

"Let's hope this isn't a repeat of the Farscape experiment," John said.

"Oh, I'm sure it won't be..." Ballard's voice trailed off. By now, everybody else in the room was watching over his shoulder, totally engrossed in the prospect of new technology.

John took the chance to pull Aeryn aside. "Aeryn, why did you follow me?"

"Because I, uh, had to make sure you were safe."

"Well, while you're 'making sure that I'm safe' will you live with me?"

Aeryn seemed to think about it for a moment. Finally, she said, "Why not?"

"Aeryn, I think you're going to like it here." He laughed for what felt like the first time in ages. "Just think of it this way. You'll be superior to everybody on this planet."

This time she did smile. "You know what? I think I will like it here."

Epilogue:

Lieutenant Shannon Mills and Commander William Jamison sat down in the cockpit of the newest NSA project, code name: Terra Nueva. They went through the pre-flight check. "Everything is all set," Lieutenant Mills stated.

"Okay," Jamison replied. "Let's start this baby up."

The engines came online at Jamison's command and, after checking in with Control, they pulled off the ground and gently rose up through the atmosphere. Once in orbit, they started the second stage, the one that allowed them to cross space quickly. However, they didn't plan on the big blue vortex that suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Commander? I think that's the same thing that John Crichton encountered while working with the Farscape experiment."

"What? Abort! Abort now!"

Mills's face was grim as she reported, "Too late, Sir."

"Aw, hell. Hold on tight, we're going in!"

When the two humans came too, they were being watched by a blue woman who had no hair.

"Who are you?" Jamison asked.

"I am Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan. And you are?"

"Commander Will Jamison. That's Lieutenant Shannon Mills."

"You are humans, aren't you?"

"Yes..." Jamison's voice trailed off, not liking where this was headed. How did this woman know what species he was?

"I am a friend of John Crichton," Zhaan said, as if sensing his thoughts.

Lieutenant Mills gave him a frightened, yet eager, look. She gave him the impression of a kid in a candy store who is afraid that she would be caught if she stole some candy, yet she wanted to do it anyway. Finally, the excitement won over the fear. She looked at him with confidence.

"Something tells me this is going to be the coolest time of our lives."