"Fear" (provisional title) by Mike@PilotsChamber

------

Please note - this is rated PG13 just in case.

I own none of the Farscape characters (though I wish I did) and this story is entirely fictitious and all the standard stuff.

I'm writing this hopefully to be episode-length, taking off from the ending of the fourth season.

By the way, this is my first fan-fic. Hope you enjoy it.

-----------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3 - The Cavalry

------

The thoughts of the human managed to collect themselves. This human had been through a lot. Life. Death. He'd done it all, at one point or another.

Somewhere there was a key point - something to anchor the thoughts to. A name - that was it. If only he could remember his name, his thoughts would be able to connect and operate the shell that was known as a body.

It was James something...

Or Jonathan...

Or John...

John something...

John Kryten? Nope, but nearly. Just a spelling mismatch, mixed up with a character from somewhere else.

John Crichton. Yep, that was it. John Crichton. Astronaut. Shot through a wormhole. Bit of an unlucky sod really. Lost in God knows where with a bunch of escaping prisoners, convicts and exiles. But things had taken a turn for the better. He had fallen in love, a baby was due, and he'd found his place in the universe.

Or so he thought.

The thoughts of John Crichton managed to find his body. Everything was wrong. He tried to move his arm, and ended up moving his jaw. Perhaps it was because he was so groggy. His thoughts quickly shifted round, got used to his body again.

And opened his eyes.

The first thing John Crichton noticed where the grey, tall, muscular, imposing forms around him.

Scarrens.

Lots of Scarrens. Particularly those with heads shaped like horse heads, John thought. Lots of functionaries, lower-order Scarrens.

He looked around a bit more, not recognising the area. He was restrained to a wall, held up against it at ninety degrees. Unfamiliar machinary around him, and a smell of efficiency, the humming and beeping of various computers and consoles, all planned for one purpose.

Destruction.

The room appeared to be a large, semi-circular dome. All around was glass, giving a view of open space, and a single planet.

Earth.

"A magnificent sight, isn't it Crichton?" John heard a voice, and turned his head to his left. Fortunately the restraints still allowed free movement of his head.

He saw a huge figure, the head ridged, and body set in large red armour. John recognised him as Emperor Staleek.

"You..." John managed to gasp. His body was still not used to itself yet, and he drooled and spat slightly. "You..."

"Yes, me." Staleek said. "And the rest of us." He gestured to his side, where the Scarren Minister Ahknar stood. John could never help laughing at her, as her hat was the more imposing feature of her.

But John did not laugh this time.

"What... what are you doing... to my home?" John managed to ask.

"Why, cultivating it." Staleek replied. "Or at least we will do. Soon. You know, we really have to thank you Crichton, for so much. Though you destroyed the Matriarch flower on Katratzi, you allowed us access to wormhole technology."

"How..." John began to ask, but Ahknar cut him off.

"Ka D'Argo's vessel contained logs and coordinates to the wormhole to Earth." she said. "As for yourself, we found out enough during our interrogations."

"What..." John said, but he managed to remember. He remembered interrogations, drugs administered by Ahknar herself in a masochistic orgy. She had enjoyed every minute of watching Crichton's pain. Sweat was pouring down his face, and he spat with every word. A side effect of a Scarren drug, he decided.

"Hello John." a new voice said.

John looked around. All the Scarrens seemed to be frozen in their place. Nothing at all moved.

Bar one figure, clad in a black, seemingly leather material.

"Harvey!" John felt as if he shouted the name, but the words were barely audible. "Harvey, what's going on?"

"I don't know John." Harvey replied, direct and to the point. "This should not be happening."

"You're telling me."

"No, I mean it should not be happening, because none of the events to lead up to this has occurred. I live inside your subconscious remember, and none of this happened! Returning to Earth for the wedding, the Scarren invasion, the interrogations - none of it! This all seems to be the crackpot ideas of another force wanting to make you afraid, John!"

"Harv, it's real..." John gasped. "Real... they re-opened the wormhole to Earth and -"

"Re-opened! Ha! John, you collapsed the wormhole in on itself, you saw it vanish, and the wave you saw as you exited it will have been it's energy being blown apart by it's own destruction! Nobody can re-open a wormhole once it is dead!"

"But they can be directed..."

"Oh they can be directed certainly!" Harvey said. "Your other self knew this when he destroyed a Scarren dreadnaught! But to be able to target Earth so precisely would be nearly impossible, and that still does not explain the other abberations! It is as if your mind was planted with the memories of the wedding, the invasion and the interrogation! You're fortunate I was able to find your mind in this state!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, John, that it does not appear you are living these moments. Sure, your mind is experiencing them and they seem real to you, but this is not your body you are in now! Something is feeding you these moments!"

"Who?" John asked, then selected a more pertinent question. "Why?"

Harvey sighed. "I don't know John..." he said. "The last moment I can remember before this occurance was on Qujaga, and I have never encountered an interrogation method such as this."

John looked around from his restraints. He could see that the Scarrens had shifted in their positions slightly. "They've moved..." John said.

"Yes, I know." Harvey replied. "I cannot stop time such as this. Remember, this is a state of mind. I merely hastened your thoughts. To them, you are moving absurdly fast, speaking to me. To us, we are moving immensely slow. This is yet another proof that this is all taking place inside your mind."

"Okay..." John said. "Got any advice."

"Since this method of interrogation - if it is that - relies on fear, you must try not to fear. As convincing as any of these shams are, remember that they are indeed just a sham. Remember - your enemy will find what it is you most fear, because that is often the most important thing to you. And then they will use it against you."

"And where will you be?" John asked.

"Watching, and waiting to offer advice." Harvey said. "I must go now, they will notice you talking and get suspicious if we carry on any longer."

With that, the Scarrens returned to normal speed. John looked around to see that Harvey had indeed vanished.

"With your planet able to support the Crystifirium plant so well..." Staleek said, as if nothing had happened. "We shall purge it of all sentient life for the good of the Scarren Empire, then turn the whole planet into a complex for growing the Crystifirium plant, resulting in the dominance of the Scarren Empire."

"Speaking of cultivation..." Ahknar said, "they're going to be arriving in just a moment."

The whole room began to turn, and John figured out that he must be on a Scarren dreadnaught - one that was doing a one-eighty to turn away from planet Earth.

When it stopped, John could see two familiar vessels... Moya and Lo'la. Moya was stuck in space in front of the dreadnaught, nowhere to go, and D'Argo in Lo'la was trying his best to protect her from a small fleet of three Scarren strikers, to little avail.

A smirk appeared on Staleek's face, and he opened his hand in front of John, revealing John's comms badge linking him to the rest of Moya's crew.

"Yours, I believe?" Staleek said.

A chirrup came from the comms, and Pilot's voice could be heard. "Crichton, if you can hear us, please help! We urgently require assistance!"

"Cut him down!" Staleek ordered. Two Scarren underlings cut John's restraints and he fell to the floor, managing to pull himself up.

Staleek looked around. "Do we have target aquisition on the Leviathan and the Ancient Luxan vessel?"

"Affirmative, Emperor." a Scarren replied from a nearby console.

Staleek reached over to a console, and handed John a pulse pistol.

"Winona, I believe it's called..." Staleek said. John was barely paying attention, concerned over the voices from his comms badge. Moya was now immobile, and Lo'la was barely making any ground in the fight against the strikers.

"You can end this John..." Staleek said to the terrified human. Staleek signalled towards the Scarren who had announced target acquisition from a nearby console. "You see that Scarren? He is at the targeting console. You have ten microts."

John did not hesitate. He got up and aimed at the Scarren's head, shot as many rounds into the grotesque creature as he could. Sparks flew off the Scarren's body, as well as some smoke and scorch marks.

Winona clicked, out of ammunition.

The Scarren was still standing, slightly scratched but barely fazed. It pressed a button on the console, and John saw two huge green pulses emanate from below the bridge, hitting Moya and Lo'la.

Both vessels instantly blew into pieces. Over the comms John could hear Pilot's final words - "Commander! Comman-"

John fell to his knees.

Ahknar bent down beside the hopeless human, and whispered in his ear. "You should have shot the console."

"Now that that is over with..." Staleek announced in a grand voice, as if making a public speech, "Let us take this moment to welcome in a new era in the Scarren Empire, and thank the human John Crichton for his valiant scientific breakthroughts. If it were not for him, the technology to create and manipulate wormholes would still be a distant dream! Canak to John Crichton!"

"Canak!" all the Scarrens in the room roared, their fists in the air.

"This can't be happening..." John said, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Oh but it is..." Ahknar hissed in his ear. "Wouldn't it have been so much better for your shipmates and your pathetic planet if you'd have just done something so easy... as die?"

And John had to admit to himself - she was right. The lives of billions were about to be curtailed, because of him.

Staleek continued his short speech. "And now let us welcome those tireless souls who shall re-model this world for the good of the Scarren Empire!"

With that, there was a flash of blue from outside the dreadnaught. John saw it then.

A wormhole, opening in space. A stable wormhole.

After a few seconds, a Scarren dreadnaught appeared, and another, and another... John counted twenty dreadnaughts appearing through the wormhole, before it finally closed two minutes later. To John it seemed like an age.

Harvey's words had gone right out of John's memory. It didn't matter that this could all be fake. It looked too real, and it was his worst fear finally being fulfilled.

Staleek slapped John on the back. "Congratulations John!" he said, as if John was a brother to him. "Your wormhole technology works! This is, after all, your knowledge at use!"

And Staleek was right. This was John's knowledge. He could do this. He knew it.

All of it.

"Stop the interrogation!" a voice announced. John managed to hear it - it sounded like a voice with a natural, deep roar, and as if the speaker was breathing in at the same time.

Then everything went dark. There was total blackness, and John couldn't even see himself. There was a huge feeling of tiredness, of wanting to sleep. There was nothing John could do - he drifted off to a fitfull sleep.

He just managed to catch a few words before his mind drifted. "No need to bury any more. I think we have found what we need."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry it's been so long - uni coursework and stuff. But we're building up to the main part of the story now.