Title: Frelling Wormholes

Author: Valoki

Timeline: 'Into the Lion's Den' (Part 2), AU during and after this.

Archiving: Name the place.

Disclaimer: Plot idea is mine but nothing else. (Wish it was, Farscape would still be on air).

Notes: This is the first fanfic I've done so constructive criticism is welcomed. Beta'd by Daisee Chain

Chapter 2 – Time is all we have

"You will regret this Crichton." growled Scorpius still furious with the destruction of his project and his chance to defeat the Scarrans.

"Already am Scorpy, already am. I would much rather have stopped your project in another way that left me with my friends, but as per normal, the Peacekeepers managed to frell that up and I was left playing it fast and loose." Sighed John tiredly. "The question now is, are we going to survive the wormhole and the carrier falling apart on top of us as it's torn apart and if we do where the hell are we going to end up? Because I have no clue."

"You did all this just to stop the Peacekeepers from getting wormholes?"

"Yep. There's no way you and yours should have that kind of power, not even to take out the Scarrans, High Command would use it against everyone they considered an enemy. So I screwed us both over to make sure of it, and I have no idea if we are going to survive this little trip down the rabbit hole, although chances are we won't."

"It seems we do have something in common after all, John, besides wormholes - determination no matter what the opposition. So do you have the same determination to live as you do to stop the use of wormholes?"

"Yeah, I'd like to live through this if at all possible."

"Then stop wasting time and avoid the carrier that is about to hit us."

John looking out the window saw what he meant. The carrier was getting very close and was breaking up under the strain of the wormhole and his sabotage. "I'll do my best. This could be very interesting, not to mention damned bumpy…" He flicked the module over on its side and began to fly a directed course. "The interesting question of course, is how long our fuel is going to last, given how much we've already used."

Suddenly the module jerked sideways and shuddered smashing John sideways leaving him bloody and dazed.

"John, snap out of it, John you must redirect our course…"

Barely conscious, John looked out as the side of the wormhole approached and parts of the carrier fell past "Damn why is it always frelled…."

The module bucked as another part clipped it….

"Starburst completed. We have completed the longest single starburst Moya is capable of and are now deep in the Uncharted Territories moving away from both Peacekeeper and Scarran Territories."

"Pilot we have to go back there. He could make it back through."

"No, Officer Sun, Commander Crichton was very specific that we not go back to that location, which is why we undertook such a long starburst. He insisted that he would find us and that we not attract the attention of the Peacekeepers for some time after the loss of the carrier. He believed that this would allow us, all of us, to disappear into the uncharted territories and as he put it 'fall off their radar'."

"But the module doesn't have enough life support to survive over a long period…."

"I am aware of this Officer Sun but I will not endanger all of us and waste the opportunity the Commander has given us. Aeryn…, if he can, Crichton will find a way to get back to us."

"Pilot's right, Aeryn." D'Argo said softly steeling himself against her agonised silent look. "John made sure we could escape and that the Peacekeepers were less likely to come after us now he is gone. He made sure it was visible to their sensors that he and Scorpius were sucked down the same wormhole that destroyed their carrier – we can not waste the opportunity John gave us."

"Aeryn, if anyone can survive going down a wormhole, it's Crichton." commented Chiana looking sadly at her. "We have to hope that he can do it and come back."

"Crichton sacrificed himself for us, for you, and to make sure that no one would be interested in wormholes after such a deadly accident." Rygel stated quietly "Both Crichtons made sure that no one could easily carry on with wormhole research and after this that any such attempt will be slow, if at all. He wanted everyone to be safe. Not just us, but all those people or worlds, which might have been affected by the use of wormhole weapons or even wormholes. On behalf of the Hynerian people, having seen the terrible power of wormholes weapons and knowing the kind of threat wormhole transport would be, I can only thank the Hynerian gods that he had the will to make sure that it would not happen. We will all miss Crichton. All we can do is hope that things will work out. I think I will go and rest now and remember him as he was and for who he was."

"Then I will take my prowler and find him myself since the rest of you're too frelling cowardly to do it" Aeryn yelled heading out of the chamber.

"No, Officer Sun. You will not, I have sealed the hanger bay doors, and the DRD's have locked down all craft. Crichton was very specific about not letting you take any action that would harm you and that included trying to fly back to that location."

"Frell you!" Aeryn pulled her pulse pistol on Pilot "Open the doors and ready my prowler now. I'm going to find Crichton whether you like it or not. And frell Crichton if he thinks I'm just going to stay here while he gets himself killed. Again."

"Sorry, Aeryn," D'Argo sighed and knocked her out with his tongue.

"You realise she is going to shoot you when she wakes up." Chiana commented looking at Aeryn slumped on the floor.

"Hopefully by then she'll have calmed down." Winced D'Argo.

"Hezmana, you'd better hope so." Jool said "I for one am going to have the med bay ready. I think she is going to hunt you down and kill you."

"Pilot, any idea where Talyn and Crais starburst to? Maybe they can talk some sense into her."

"No, Ka D'Argo, I have no idea where they ended up, although it was on a similar vector to ourselves so it should only take a few arns to establish a rough location and head in that direction. We have tried signalling them but have not had a response as yet."

"Alright. We should try to get in contact with them as soon possible as our first move. Then we can try and establish where we are in the Territories. We should be able to purchase some maps from a commerce planet which will enable us to keep away from Peacekeepers, Scarrans or anyone else who might be a problem."

"Very well Ka D'Argo I will notify everyone when we have news."

"Fine, Pilot. We'll get something to eat and get some sleep."

Aeryn woke with a start "What the frell?" She noticed instantly she was in her cell but the door was closed. D'Argo had knocked her out damn him he'll wish he'd never been born. Frell. He's taken all my weapons. "Pilot let me out of here NOW."

"I will let Ka D'Argo know you are awake."

"Pilot! You said we were able to leave whenever we chose, yet you've locked me in and stopped me from doing so."

"I am aware of this, Officer Sun, but Moya and I promised Commander Crichton that we would not allow you to endanger yourself by attempting to return for him. He was very determined that should not happen."

"Crichton does not make my decisions for me, Pilot."

"I am aware of this, Officer Sun and Commander Crichton was aware of this as well. He left you a message. The chip containing it is sitting by the display unit."

Aeryn looking around and saw the display unit sitting on the shelf. Grabbing the chip she jammed it into the player, and waited fuming for the message. "Crichton I'm going to frelling shoot you when I find you for putting me in this situation."

Aeryn watched as the image of Crichton shimmered into being before her. "Aeryn, I'm leaving this for you - hopefully to stop you from making a mistake in coming after me. While there is a chance Scorpius and I will survive this trip, there are no guarantees. I'm aware that I'm causing you pain, always reminding you of what you've lost, and I want to stop that. The only way I can do this is to leave and hopefully in the way I'm doing it get the Peacekeepers and Scarrans off your backs. Also by making sure Talyn and Crais survive you'll have something to focus on, helping Talyn heal and become more himself. Crais will need someone else to help guide Talyn - give him a sense of what is right. Scorpius has probably reported the problems Talyn has to High Command, and that they stemmed from the PK half of his nature and even they can't get much use out of an uncontrollable ship. You became more Aeryn, please don't lose that, I'll always love you. I know we don't usually say goodbye but I think this time is such a time. Goodbye, Aeryn."

Aeryn stares blindly where Crichtons form had been. "Oh, frell you Crichton, why didn't you tell me? We could have sorted something out. I didn't know how to do it all over again and I couldn't watch you die again. It hurt too much…." Aeryn started to cry.

A shadow fell over the doorway. "He couldn't Aeryn," Chiana said softly, "he loved you too much to stay and more than enough to go."

"Go away Chiana." Aeryn looks up stifling her sobs.

"No Aeryn. I won't go away. You wander off with the other Crichton and fall in love and frell each other senseless. Meanwhile our Crichton is still here, still loving you and all he's got are wormholes to keep him company. And then the other one dies you come back here and don't even want to be around him and make it clear that being around him is too painful. What choice did you leave him?"

"You don't understand, I didn't choose to be with one John over another it just happened that way. Nor did I intend to start a relationship with one over another. But I lost the John I knew, the one I loved and I don't know to deal with the fact that exactly the same person was here and alive."

"What you couldn't figure out was that you had a second chance with the one person you could trust in all things."

"It wasn't that simple Chiana. Just go away, I want to be alone."

"Fine, I'll go, Aeryn. But remember Crichton did all this for you. So don't frell it up just because you're feeling guilty." Chiana turned and stalked away.

Aeryn couldn't move from the bed. It was all so wrong. She loved a man who was dead but still alive and she couldn't just transfer all her feelings to another John. She was totally out of her depth. The only two people who might have been able to help explain her feelings, and help her understand it all were gone, with one of them the source of the confusion. Now there was no time for anything. Just memories.

Chiana finally found D'Argo on Command but she made herself calm first before talking to him. "Hey, D'Argo, Aeryn's awake."

"Thanks, Chiana." said D'Argo wincing.

"Don't worry, I don't think she wants to kill you, at least not yet anyway. She's feeling way too sorry for herself to be angry at the moment."

"What?" D'Argo turned to look at Chiana.

"I talked with her, and she's feeling all sorry for herself that Crichton went down the wormhole, and wants to throw herself after him or something."

D'Argo growled. "Chiana, I thought we'd agreed that I would be the one to talk to her."

"Well I was just passing her quarters when she woke up and she was yelling for Pilot to let her out. So I tried talking to her. It… it didn't go so well. What are we going to do D'Argo? Now that John and Scorpius are gone, and no one will be interested in us, are we free or are they still going to be hunting us?"

"I don't know. John was right that without Scorpius to drive the search they will probably not be interested in us. Also he made it look like an accident with the wormhole when he destroyed the carrier so they probably won't blame us for that. That just leaves escaped prisoners and we just aren't that important to them - embarrassing yes, but nothing more, so if we do nothing to antagonise them they should gradually lose interest in us. At least we can hope that is the case."

"I suppose so. Does that mean you're going to look for Macton now?" said Chiana, carefully not looking at D'Argo.

"Yes. It is time I settled that old debt, I couldn't leave it any longer, after which I will be able to look to the future. And you, will you seek out your brother Nerri? Risk the Nebari capturing you again?"

"I need to find him, D'Argo. I need to know he's alright at least, and to help him if I can, or know it isn't going to work and find something else."

"And Rygel is going to try and go home to see if he could throw his cousin off his throne. So that will just leave Jool, Noranti and Aeryn keeping Pilot company on Moya."

"Yeah, Jool is gonna look for a way to find her people I think. The old bat is crazy so I have no idea what she'll do. And as for Aeryn, well without us here she'll probably go looking for Crichton, that or give up entirely."

Chiana turned toward the clamshell. "Hey, Pilot?"

"Yes, Chiana." Pilot's image appeared.

"Is Aeryn still yelling to be let out?"

"No. She has not asked to be let out. I have assigned a DRD to look in on her and so far she is just lying on her bed staring at the bulkhead."

"Oh, Okay. Thanks, Pilot."

"You are welcome Chiana."

D'Argo sighed. "Well I had best go talk to Aeryn and find out what she is going to do."

"Good luck."

Reaching Aeryn's quarters D'Argo looked in at her and saw she was still just staring at the bulkhead. Taking a deep breath he unlocked the door and walked in. "Aeryn."

"Go away D'Argo. I don't want to talk."

"Fine. Then I will. Now that John has given us a chance at travelling peacefully, some of us are going to use it to leave and travel, to deal with unfinished business. I don't know what you intend but I thought given your relationship with Pilot and Moya you would stay and help protect them against threats and perhaps help get the others to wherever they wish to go."

"So you are just going to give up on John? So much for friends and allies - just leaving him to die with that frelling lunatic Scorpius." Aeryn sneered.

"I'm not going to get in a fight with you, Aeryn. Chiana and I have made our decisions. We can't help John, there is no way we can reach him, but we can use the opportunity he's given us. The question is what are you going to do? In all likelihood John will not even come out at the same point he went in. We know that there are multiple openings in a wormhole, we found that out from those frelling Pathfinders, so it's likely he could appear somewhere else entirely which is why I think he told us not to go back there looking for him."

"I… I hadn't thought of that." said Aeryn looking suddenly uncertain.

D'Argo's shoulders slumped. "Well I had. I didn't just assume John was lost, until I remembered about multiple exits. Even he may not know where he is going to exit if he can get back at all. I've also checked with Pilot and Moya for their records of that time and they agree there is no way we can predict exactly where John will exit. So will you consider what I said?"

"I'll think about your suggestion, D'Argo. I had considered doing something else, but you're right Moya and Pilot will need someone to make sure they don't get put back in a control collar."

"I'll leave you to think about this. We should be reaching Crais and Talyn's most likely position soon although we haven't heard from either of them yet."

Pilot activated the general comms. "We have received a message from Talyn and he will reach us in seven arns. He reports he and Crais are well and have had no signs of pursuit and no trouble in local space."

D'Argo looked up from his shilquen. "Very well, Pilot. Could you let us know when they are in sensor range?"

"Of course, Ka D'Argo."

Chiana looked at D'Argo. "Decision time then, going or not going. Wonder who'll be left?"

Everyone looked out the Command display window and could see Talyn has suffered some damage during his escape from the carrier but in general he seemed intact.

Pilot listened as Talyn communicated with his mother and noticed with a fraction of his attention the approaching pod. "Crais is coming across from Talyn he will be here in 30 microts."

Everyone assembled in the maintenance bay to meet with Crais, waiting to hear his information on the region and to make their decisions for the future.

Stepping down from the pod Crais looked at Moya's crew.

D'Argo stepped forward. "Crais, I see that you and Talyn came through mostly unscathed."

Crais smiled grimly. "Yes, mostly, but we lost part of Talyns' hamman side fin during starburst when the carrier lost control. He will recover in a few monens. Where is Crichton? I would like to thank him for the success of his plan. Without it Talyn and I would not have survived."

"Crichton's plan was fahrbot as usual. He sacrificed himself and went down the wormhole just in front of the carrier. He said it was the only way to make it work and save as many people as possible." Said Chiana sadly.

"I see. I offered to have Talyn starburst inside the carrier, which would have achieved the same end, but neither Talyn nor I would have survived. Crichton obviously sought to keep anyone else from dying."

D'Argo grimaced. "Crichton always took it upon himself to make a plan work with as few deaths as possible."

"He was an honourable man willing to do what it took no matter what the cost to himself. He did not like or particularly trust me, but I grew to respect him and I would have liked the chance to make sure he knew that." Said Crais thoughtfully.

"Crais we need to talk about our movements. Some of us will be travelling to take care of unfinished business. Leaving Moya with less crew than normal could be dangerous I wondered if you would travel with her for a while. It might be good for Talyn as well."

"Yes Ka D'Argo Talyn will be travelling with Moya for a while. It will help his recovery to be with his mother and I have no particular place to be at the moment so it works out for both. What of Officer Sun? Where is she?"

"Aeryn is considering what she will do next. We have managed to talk her out of trying to go back and find Crichton, since there is no guarantee he will even come out of the same entrance, if he comes out."

"I see. I will talk with her and see if I can determine what she plans." Said Crais looking concerned.

"That would be good. I don't want her to throw her life away and neither would Crichton."

Crais activated his comms device. "Officer Sun. It is Crais. Are you available to talk?"

"Yes. I am in my quarters."

"Very well. I will see you there shortly."

Aeryn looked up as Crais entered her quarters. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Your decision on your future. I was wondering what you were going to do?"

"Given that D'Argo reminded me of the problems with wormhole travel I will have to wait and hope that he can make it back." Said Aeryn staring blindly at the bulkhead.

Crais wondered what she was seeing. "Aeryn, I thought you were going to leave after the carrier and get away from Crichton. That being around him was not… comfortable for you."

"Humans have this saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder', one of so many I didn't understand. Now I do. I realised that even though I've loved and lost the other Crichton that I don't want to be without him. I can't be without him. Watching him go down that frelling wormhole, knowing he'd sacrificed himself again, was like Dam Ba Da. They are one and the same and I will find a way to be with John Crichton again however long that takes."