A Universe of Change: Realized Probability
Disclaimer: see chapter one.
Author's Notes: Hope u enjoy this.
Summary: The Enterprise C and D blunder into the borderland between the Scarren Empire and The Peacekeepers. This fic is a part of AlbertG's Ruinations series and has been written with his express permission.
Chapter Four Yeah right, pull the other one.
John Crichton stood in Command waiting for them to come out of Starburst; this was supposed to be the final Starburst before they took Lo'lan and left for Katratzi, to rescue Scorpius from the Scarrens.
To Rescue Scorpius from the Scarrens.
To Rescue Scorpius!
"Man, that sounds so frelled up, no matter how many times I say it…" John Crichton said to himself.
"What John?" asked Aeryn, looking up from the pulse pistol she was cleaning in preparation for the upcoming unexpected rescue mission.
"Aeryn, we're going to rescue Scorpius," John stated shaking his head, it still didn't sound right.
Aeryn frowned, "And?" she asked in confusion.
"Aeryn. WE are going to rescue Scorpius from the Scarrens," John repeated.
"What's your point?" Aeryn asked still not understanding his point.
"Sunshine, there are so many things wrong with that sentence…I don't know where to begin!" John said exasperated that Aeryn was missing the point.
Aeryn shook her head, "We're not going to rescue him. We're going to stop your wormhole knowledge from falling into Scarren hands."
"So the rescue is just an unwanted byproduct, huh?" said John with a snort of derision.
Aeryn gave him a weak smile, "Unfortunately so," he may have saved her life earlier that year, but his neural clone had taken it several years before. If it hadn't been for Zhaan, she'd have stayed dead. As far as Aeryn was concerned they still weren't even. She finished cleaning her pistol and continued speaking, "I'm going to see if the others need any help." She stopped by him and gave him a kiss before leaving Command.
Once John was alone in Command, he thought to himself, the next few days were going to be very weird.
With a sudden lurch Moya came out of Starburst. The stars reappeared in Command as they reentered normal space.
There were two of whitest cleanest ships that John had ever seen. They were also had the weirdest curves that John had ever seen on a non-organic ship. One was smaller than the other and the big one was Moya's size. They both had large saucer sections that tapered into a narrow long neck-like section that extended behind them with two strange long glowing protrusions extending parallel to the main neck like section, but most worrying of all was that they were now directly in Moya's path, as if waiting for her…and them!
"Pilot! Starburst now, get us out of here!" shouted John urgently.
"Commander must I remind you that Moya requires time before she can Starburst again!" came Pilot's immediate response, with an edge of panic it.
John shut up and waited for the two ships to send the inevitable surrender or we will blast you into oblivion message that people so like to use in the Uncharted Territories.
It didn't come-which John took as a good sign, he opened his mouth to talk to Pilot again, "Hey Pilot have you sent the 'don't shoot we're pathetic' message yet?"
"Uh, that won't be necessary, I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation warship Enterprise, we have no hostile intentions towards you," came a deep male authoritarian voice that John didn't know.
What the frell? Jean-Luc? Enterprise? Okay so the weirdness was starting early today with an extra topping of unbelievable and impossible.
Human names someone was trying to mess with him…again. As always John Crichton took the direct road, "Ha ha, very funny but the human name gives it all away. I may always walk into traps headfirst but even I'm not dumb enough to fall for this-let's start again. Who the frell are you?" John asked irately he was not in the mood for a mind-frell.
The voice came again, the man seemed taken aback at John's reaction, "Excuse me?"
"Cut out the human act, who the frell are you? And who sent you? I'm not in the mood for any games!" continued John, as if it wasn't enough that he was going to save Scorpius, (it still sounded weird and disturbing no matter what Aeryn said) and now someone wanted to screw with him. Today of all days! It was just too much.
"I can assure you, we are who we say we are, nobody sent us," assured Picard.
"Are you claiming to be human?" asked John suddenly.
"Yes, in fact a large percentage of my crew are-" Picard started to answer.
John cut him off, "Well there's your first mistake, boyo, Earth is a little backwater planet and humanity ain't got no shiny nice ships like yours, no Star Destroyers or Battlestars, nada…" his tone dripped with sarcasm, "hell the only reason I'm out here is a freaking accident."
"Ah, I see your confusion. To clarify we are not from this dimension, we were in the middle a firefight if you will, when our ships were caught up in a subspace temporal distortion, in one of the micro-fractures to be exact, that ripped apart our quantum structures and reconfigured them and stranded us in this dimension and time," said Picard placatingly then paused before adding, "we're lost and searching for a way home…we were hoping you could help us."
John stopped for a second before retorting, "So you're what? From another dimension and from the future?" he chuckled and shook his head, "I'll give you points for the story, this is the most original bunch of dren that I've heard yet. Not to mention the sympathy card for the whole 'I'm lost can you help me?' shitich," the last part was said in John's best impression of a little girl.
Silence descended, as Picard didn't have an answer to all of John's accusations until Pilot broke into the conversation, "Commander, I've got the visual working and I've notified the others of the situation."
A holographic display lit up on Command and John got his first look at the man he had been talking to. He was a middle aged bald Sebacean male with cold eyes clouded with confusion. He radiated charisma. He was wearing a strange pajama like uniform with a metal insignia over the left breast.
Standing next to him were two people, one was a taller bearded man in the same uniform while the other was middle aged woman in a different uniform. This one was predominantly red but had the same insignia as the others. All three wore expressions of confusion.
John took in the rest of the sight in front of him, they were standing in a dark ominous-looking command center. John could see various Sebacean crew members working around the central three. At the forefront of the image were two others sitting at consoles at both sides of the hologram, one barely looked out of his teens but the other was most clearly not Sebacean. He had gold hued skin and unblinking golden eyes.
Between what John was seeing and Picard's attitude, he came to conclusion about who was behind this. The bald man John assumed to be Picard opened his mouth to say something but John cut him off, "Listen baldy, I've figured out your game, so why don't you go back and tell Commandant Cleavage, that she's not going to get her claws into me a second time-once was more than enough!" he said vehemently.
If anything they looked more confused now (and Picard looked a little ticked off about being called baldy), that caused John to begin to have doubts, usually the trap would have been sprung by now, so either they were even stupider than they appeared or else…they telling the truth.
The female spoke up after a short pause, "Look I don't know who you believe us to be, but we are telling you the truth," she said fiercely, "Ever since we arrived in this dimension people have been mistaking us for something we are not! At least have the curtsey to allow us to prove who we are," she then demanded steadfastly.
"Aggressive thing ain't you? You want to prove yourself-fine. You can come over. Just you and one other, and that's none negotiable…and no weapons as well!" he laid down the terms in an uncompromising tone.
"As you wish we will be there shortly," the woman said quickly before Picard could demand anything and antagonize John more.
"Sure sweetheart, whatever you say," John closed the channel.
Aeryn and Dargo rushed onto Command just after John had finished the conversation.
John turned to look at them and said softly, "You missed it."
"What happened?" Aeryn demanded.
"Some new guys trying to be smart" was John's succinct reply.
"And what happened?" demanded Dargo.
John shrugged, "We got company coming guys, break out the welcome mat…and the heavy artillery," John quipped humorlessly.
Author's Notes: Hope you like this chapter, Sorry for the delay and as always Read, Enjoy and Review!
