Title: Home and the Second Wave Part 2
Author: Meridian
Disclaimer: As much as I'd like to say I own these characters (hell, as much as I'd like to just own Ben Browder and Sebastian Spence), I don't. They belong, I suppose, to the Sci-Fi Channel or whoever sells them the episodes. Whatever, they sure as hell don't belong to me, nor do I have express written or oral permission to use them. Um, not suing me would be greatly appreciated, as I am not making any money from this story, nor do I have much to begin with…thanks so much.
Spoilers: Oh boy, spoilers! Well, none really for the First Wave portion of this story, just you have to know the basic characters there…Farscape Spoilers? Let's see…Nerve, The Hidden Memory, and Bone to Be Wild…that should cover most of it, save for vague and infrequent references to past eps…Oh and one more thing? These events occurred in a reality separate from the Farscape world that ended with Family Ties (I began before the episode altered reality a bit, so please, just through Bone to Be Wild, thanks)
Note: This is a crossover, so knowing both shows would greatly aid in your understanding of events. It's not necessary, but it helps. Thanks to my story consultant Michelle (what would I do without her?) who proved that you don't have to watch either show to follow and yes, even like the story.
Formatting Notes:
[[…..]] Indicate memory
Italics…thoughts
********* Indicate change of scene
------------- Same setting, only separate from the action taking place previously
HOME AND THE SECOND WAVE
Part 3
Salem, Massachusetts
May 13 (2 am)
"How much further? Oh, sorry," Lita caught herself when she realized Aeryn could not answer her. "Is it a lot longer?" Aeryn shook her head and returned to staring out the window. Lita sighed, her mother repeated that gesture, and Cade sat in pensive silence. The trip had only taken a half hour this far, but in that short time, he had come to resolve his suspicions.
Aeryn is an alien. That one thought spoke above all. Then right now, assuming that was true, they were headed to help another alien, another Gua. Right into the lion's den, hey Daniel? It was Cade's turn to sigh. The prospect of examining a wounded Gua outweighed the danger of exposure, but not by much.
A wounded Gua. He had not thought it possible. The had always healed themselves, their husks returning to pristine shape provided the wound was not fatal, of course. This intrigued him. From what Aeryn had described, the injury was one that transcended that healing, something neither he nor Eddie had ever considered. A head wound, perhaps, which would explain the lapses of consciousness, and the shock might keep the alien from regenerating.
A golden opportunity. He felt that realization soak through his body. A golden opportunity…provided I don't get killed trying to make the best of it.
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25 Arns Ago
"Aeryn?" The former Peacekeeper turned on her heels to see Chiana looking eagerly at her. Aeryn sighed. How had she planned on keeping the little thief occupied while she searched for a doctor? Aeryn could not remember even considering this complication, which was not like her.
"What?" The word held real command, the kind of steel that only the warriors possess and the brave can pass down as law. Chiana did not step away nor did she advance. For a minute, she regarded Aeryn with respect and curiosity and a slight smile.
"How will you tell these people who you are?"
"I don't plan on telling them. All anyone need know is John is in need of a doctor." The Nebari's smile turned to a playful grin.
"And how will they understand you?" This time, Aeryn had the grin.
"I wrote a message for them. Stay here and protect Zhaan and John, Chiana. Zhaan must not be disturbed in her efforts to free his mind from this torture. John is not well enough to defend himself. He made himself your protector once. You should return this gift." To prove her words, Aeryn tossed Chiana her pulse rifle, another move that was so uncharacteristic of her. Nonetheless, she felt comforted to know at least one being would be on armed guard duty. From the serious look that now possessed Chiana's face, Aeryn knew she had made the right choice.
"Yes, sir." The words were spoken in awe. Aeryn nodded and started off down the hilly terrain that lay beneath the pod's landing site. Chiana had never bothered to ask how Aeryn had learned to write in human language. Aeryn realized this later, setting off a series of memories she had tried so hard to erase. These memories came unbidden and dominated as boredom laid claim to her.
[[[ "Why the frell do I have to know how to do this?" She sighed internally, but to Crichton, as ever, she was rigid.
"If something should happen to you, you may need to rely on the fact that you look Sebacean to survive. Knowing written language will help. Just do it, Crichton." He sneered.
"So you're the new spokesman for Nike?" She frowned, unable to understand. It obviously annoyed John, who threw up his hands in defeat and went back to tracing characters, studying the patterns of commands, and learning to 'talk the talk' as he phrased it.
It had been hours since they had started, and despite his protests, Crichton had learned every character she had thrown at him. Soon he was spitting out commands and answers faster than she could think of prompts for him to respond to. However successful they had been, Aeryn pushed onward, through more frustrating and difficult lessons with which not only would Crichton know the basics, but also he would be nearly fluent.
"When is it my turn to play teacher?" This abrupt question had actually come in written form, something that surprised her beyond measure.
"When you have something important to share." Right then, he had smiled. As always, it was the most radiant and impish grin she had ever seen. His species seemed incapable of disguising even the slightest mirth. As soon as the moment had come, it had passed, the grin disappearing as he leaned back, closed his eyes, and laced his fingers under his head.
"Did you like the rain, Aeryn?" This had caught her off guard, something she knew Crichton was good at.
"Yes."
"If I could let you see it again, safely, would you want to?" Rain, real rain. It wouldn't be possible, she chided herself.
"It can't happen, Crichton." His smile returned.
"Suppose it could."
"What of it?"
"Well, you'd need to blend in. I would hate to think of you being discovered because you couldn't make the most out of the fact you resemble a human, Aeryn." He was using her words…that was cheating.
"What are you proposing?" The smile never left his face, not for the next eight arns while he went over letters, grammar, and sentence construction in English. The language was completely frivolous, simple, but ornate in certain functions. As a battle language, it was deficient. John was insistent, as much as she had been, and she was soon taxing his limit on English grammar just in revenge for his having done the same.
Fifteen arns from the start of the lesson, she knew as much as he could teach her, though her structure and foundation were still elementary. It frustrated her to no end to see that even a being of an inferior race could challenge her thusly. Crichton pocketed his studies of the Peacekeeper characters for safekeeping.
"See yah, Sunshine." ]]]
And that had been it. No more lessons, just that one. That memory was pleasant, though it evoked competition within her soul that confused her. This confusion, now released, ebbed out of every memory she had. John Crichton was the only human she had ever really met…and he was different in so many ways from every Sebacean male that she had ever met…and she had no idea how to reconcile the two facts with this confusion.
She hiked in silence, hoping to reach a place of commerce before too long.
**********************
Salem, Massachusetts
May 13
"I think she wants you to stop, Lita." Sylvia had noticed almost upon the instant that Aeryn had begun to perk up, knowing that the silent woman recognized the terrain. Lita nodded in response and killed the engine. "Where to, Aeryn?" Aeryn gestured to the woods that lay in front of the vehicle. "Figures," Lita sighed as they all climbed out.
The three companions were quick to discover that their guide had not chosen this site for the sake of comfort or expedience. The terrain was rough, rocky and loose, and while Aeryn flew over it, the three guests could not. Cade watched her take a sizable lead and seized upon this chance to take his gun out from the holster and slip it into his pocket.
A wounded Gua…proof! His mind was focused on this one direction, so much so that he began to tail Aeryn more closely as he picked up speed in his haste. Briefly, he wondered how this discovery would end. It never worked; it was never ended so he succeeded in doing more than revealing the truth to a few. Never any evidence, never any way to convince the world, or at least the law on his tail, that he was not a criminal.
In his past year and counting, Cade had learned to read up on everything that had any remote connection to space. It seemed too giant of a coincidence that his troubles began around the same time an astronaut had disappeared during a test flight, the first-ever casualty in space. Cade knew everything about John Crichton, lost hero, all-around space expert and lover of all things technical. The disappearance of Farscape 1 had stunted the growth of similar programs since then, and retrieval missions, exploration missions, and especially test-runs were shut down. NASA was in a worse position than the President.
Cade and Eddie had argued their own theories about this one. Cade had been certain that the Gua had eliminated Crichton to prevent him from telling the world about their ships waiting in the wings. Eddie, ever the optimist, Cade thought sarcastically, argued that Crichton's mission was a Gua tactic to keep humans out of space and that Crichton had never actually gone anywhere but into an early, unmarked grave. Given the fact that NASA was crippled by this defeat, Eddie's theory was the winning one thus far.
Until now.
And the missing hero will be delivered by the wings of angels to a town of witches for salvation.
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Despite herself, Aeryn liked these humans already. True, they had no idea she was not human herself, but they were especially friendly and willing to come to her aid. In case of less fortunate circumstances, she had planned on bribing her way to success, but it had not proven necessary.
Her only dilemma now was the introductions. Per her instructions, Zhaan would bring Crichton outside the pod, start a fire, and watch over him until she returned, ahead of her contact or contacts. Such planning was meticulously done, and Aeryn thought she had considered every option.
All except the human element. To her, John had always been special, a remarkable creature, strange but singular. Her admiration for him was owed to his own merit, not anything she had attached to his species. In passing, she had wondered what his people were like, but her mind was always distracted when she thought of Crichton, which made serious thinking next to impossible.
The problem was the human male. He followed too closely, was too fast and too sure of his footing for her to keep her distance. It nearly drove her to the brink of turning and using the Pantak jab on him to slow him down. Aeryn sped up, tripping up more in her effort to beat him to John. All in vain.
When Aeryn Sun stepped into the clearing, Cade Foster was right on her heels.
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"Holy shit! That's John Crichton!" It was a face no self-respecting UFO 'loony' could or would forget. Aeryn spun at the name, startled to the point of speech. Her garbled words of question made no sense. Cade pulled his gun as she took a step toward him. "Don't move!" She stopped, confused and unsure. Cade worked around in a circle to move closer to the man slumped against a tree limb near the fire. As he closed the distance, Aeryn growled menacingly.
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"Don't you touch him!" Her words were lost, and she knew it, but Aeryn Sun was a warrior now and forever. No weapon scared her; no opponent was fierce enough to shake her, yet she was quaking underneath her stern façade. The possibility of a human hurting John had not been taken into much more consideration than had the idea of the human keeping up.
"Don't touch him! How do you know him? Who are you?" Aeryn wanted to pound this man, beat him with her fear for John's life and her rage at being held at bay by a primitive weapon simply because she could not risk her compatriot.
From the corner of her eye, Aeryn saw Chiana creep behind this crazed human. There was something secreted in the crook of her arm. It's a DRD! So, the little thief stole something right for a change! Aeryn nodded, pretending to back away from the human, while sending the message to Chiana.
"He can't understand, Chiana. Do it!"
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There was a challenge or an order in the intonation of Aeryn's voice, but Cade paid no attention to it. He bent down, while keeping his gun trained on Aeryn's midsection, to feel Crichton's throat for a pulse. His fingers found one, a weak and pitiful pulse, but a pulse at least. A better sign was Crichton shrugging away from him, moaning. He was alive then and possibly conscious enough to talk.
"John Crichton? My name is Cade Foster, and I'm here to help you. Can you hear me?"
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Chiana crept forward slowly, careful beyond measure to avoid making the slightest hint of a noise. The human who had come with Aeryn looked frightened of her, which meant he would panic. She had seen species do this before…panic at the sight of an alien. But how the frell had he known?
He knew Crichton's name, said he wanted to help, but Aeryn was the only one she trusted right now. While this Cade person tried to communicate with Crichton, she brought the stolen DRD to within an inch of his heel. The DRD acted immediately, piercing Cade's skin, flushing the wound with the microbes that would hopefully calm him down, and if not, at least allow him to understand.
He could not kill Aeryn. That alone would undo all that John had suffered for, and would, in all likelihood, kill John, too.
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Cade felt the biting sting at the back of his foot, hissed and immediately reacted by spinning to grab his heel. He came nose-to-nose with a pale creature, a female creature that was staring at him with surprise but not fear. His peripheral vision showed Aeryn moving closer, so he spun around quickly to stop her.
"Yatsoo hah-weh," she began, in the same strange garble she had been using, but mid 'weh' the words changed. "Hah-wehhear me now? You must stop this if you do. John is in need of help, you could hurt him." Perfect English. Cade blinked and dropped the gun, mouth agape. The woman from behind him spoke.
"I did something right, see? You needed my help." Aeryn actually smiled.
"Yes, Chiana, you did. Thank you." Cade watched the exchange, perplexed. Lita and Sylvia arrived a moment later, out of breath and very confused. They had heard Aeryn's address to Cade, her language foreign in their ears, as it had been in Cade's only a moment before.
"What is going on here?"
End of Part 3