*Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and ideas….and the plot bunnies in the corner. Please don't sue, I'm a poor college student that has no life and way too many video games.*

"You don't have to understand 'here' to be 'here.'"

-Charlie Crews

0~Page_Break~0

The Consequences of Anything

Chapter Summary: Day 87 - We have finally found what we are looking for, but something seems to be stopping me from getting back to Aeryn and to my son. It does not matter. I will find a way, no matter what. I will do anything and damn the consequences.

0~Page_Break~0

Solar Day 87

Uncharted Territories

Quadrant D-041/R

The transport class leviathan warship designated Rovhu orbited an uninhibited ice planet in a forgotten sector of space. The white sun nearly blinding as halos of light pulsed from its surface. Arms of light ascended from the burning gas giant, the rays ranging in colors from white to red as they spread, opening like wings as the star pulsed like a heartbeat. The sensation danced upon his hull leaving his synapses tingling, tiny circuits of pleasure racing down into his neural nexus.

He was larger now though his growth was slow. He had two tiers completed, functional and accessible though Crichton has never ventured to explore much. The human made use of his maintenance bay off of the hamman side hanger, but other than that he showed no interest outside of the mess hall, command, and his own personal room.

The hallways between each chamber was covered in writing, equations in words that Rovhu did not understand but still catalogued. Every few solar days he would catch the meaning of one cypher and match it with the corresponding translation, though they became rarer still as the human began to speak less and less.

The deaths of their family had taken a heavy toll on both of them, but Crichton more so. Rovhu could function without his mother, though he was loath to do so, but Crichton forgot many things, things in which were vital to his survival. He forgot to eat, forgot to sleep…not much later he forgot to even feel hunger, forgot what tired was as it was his only state of being.

Rovhu on the other hand was lost. Location wise he knew exactly where he was, but he did not know where to go, how to get there, anything of the sort really. John tried to guide him but the human was even more lost then he.

The little colored DRD would follow the commander around, playing that same song over and over and occasionally Rovhu would chirp along with him. But now he just listlessly floated from one solar system to the next as John sought his wormholes.

The leviathan had never seen a wormhole before, the concept behind it baffled him. Crichton had tried to explain it to him, but the human finally stated that once he saw it the narl would understand. The one thing Rovhu did understand though was that the wormhole would bring back his mother, so he searched as Crichton taught him how. His short range scanner was recalibrated, searching for some variable that Crichton could smell.

To one born in space the concept of scents were beyond his understanding. He did not have a nose, did not have any olfactory senses in which to smell. Trying to find something by scent when one did not have the organ was proving must difficult, but they did not lose hope.

On the war table within the side chamber that Crichton used for planning and storing documents laid the maps that the human had been meticulously drawing. The stack was thick, each quadrant getting its own pile. As every sketch was complete one of Rovhu's DRDs scanned them and they were entered into his database to be later compiled into a three dimensional rendition.

Together they had mapped much of the Uncharted Territories. When supplies were low Crichton would sell copies at the station they docked at. As there was little desire for the tedious labor of plotting stars and planets, maps were in great demand with little supply. They fetched a high enough price to keep them well provided for.

Rovhu sent out another ping to check his long range scanner and continued to drift aimlessly as it came back negative. If a leviathan could sigh then he would have done so in relief. John was sleeping for once and Rovhu was unwilling to wake him short of an impending invasion. The human did not rest enough as it was.

He slept on his back in the now furnished private quarters. The top sheet covered his lower legs but not much else. Both of his pulse pistols were holstered on his thighs, Winona on the right and Amanda on the left. He slept fully dressed and armed as if expecting to enter battle at any moment.

They had docked near a colony on the moon of Lestbar IV not long ago and had a weapons specialist remake the grip on Amanda so it could be easily handled with Crichton's left hand. That had cost almost more credits than he was willing to part with. What bothered him though was not the price but how much time it had taken, time that was wasted from his search for wormholes.

Each solar day seemed to eat away just a little more from the man, turning him into a shell of the person he once was. As weekens and then monens passed he became less and less hopeful, less and less sure that his plan would work…he just became less and less.

Rovhu's short range sensors pinged at him and Crichton rushed into command as if drawn by an unseen force. Trilling curiously, he watched as the human pulled up charts, hands shaking in a combination of fatigue and adrenaline.

"This is it," he whispered, voice hoarse and frantic. "This has to be it. Rovhu, break orbit and proceed four degrees on the vector briko."

Rovhu did as instructed as 1812 rolled into the room, carapace chipped and worn from age. Crichton had told him the DRD came from a leviathan named Elack who had been dying from old age at nearly seven hundred cycles old. The thought of being so old seemed to thrill the narl. The knowledge they must have gained, the things they must have seen.

Several microns later and the empty space before them ruptured, light fracturing as a hole ripped its way into existence. Rovhu looked upon his first wormhole and he understood as Crichton had told him, but he also feared. The thing terrified him like no other, not even a long existence without his mother by his side. But Crichton did not fear. When Crichton looked upon the blue hole in space he had a look of glee upon him. For the first time in a long time he was not less, he was whole.

They stayed there for nearly a weeken. Crichton filled Rovhu's walls with even more of the strange marks and Rovhu flirted with the gravitational pull of the wormhole curiously. He would edge forward, enough to feel the tug and then back off as if daring himself to go too far, to take the plunge.

Finally, on the sixth solar day since the wormhole appeared, Crichton came into command dressed as if he was about to go to war. His pistols were strapped to his legs, long coat on under the rifle slung across his back. Eyes clear and head calm he walked up to the window, stopping just before the circle on the floor.

"Activate manual control," Rovhu chirped questioningly as the manual flight controls rose from the ground. "You can't fly through that thing by yourself so I have to. Don't worry," John murmured in reassurance as Rovhu's whole body trembled in fear. "I've done this before, you are going to be fine."

They approached the wormhole and blue filled Crichton's vision as gravity started to pull them in. Taking the joystick, John took a deep breath and took the plunge.

Flying through the wormhole was rough. The turbulence threatened to throw them into the wall of false liquid but Crichton kept them on course. Seconds later they came out the other side.

The stars that surrounded them were vastly different than the ones they had just left and Rovhu felt a thrill of excitement for the first time. He did not like his first wormhole experience, but he did not dislike it either. As John gathered himself, a notebook by the window seat starting to be filled with writing, Rovhu wondered at what all he would see before he died and the thought delighted him.

When John had taken all the notes he could they turned around and went back. Rovhu was almost as eager to take the dive as he was hesitant. In the end his curiosity won out and Rovhu turned his sensors on full to gather as much data as possible while he trusted his commander to see him out safely to the other side.

0~Page_Break~0

Solar Day 406

Peacekeeper Territories

Location Sector Pylon

Nearly a cycle and a half of searching and finally John had what he needed…who he needed. He awoke, groggy and disoriented he reached for Winona as his hand fisted into the ground to propel himself up. He paused there, part way into the motion as surprise and something else seemed to freeze his muscles.

Snow, his hand was fisted around snow.

Releasing the grip on his gun he pushed himself to his feet slowly, muscles aching in a way that left him hesitant to confront the being he knew was waiting. Blue eyes darted around the tiny little ice cap, blue chasing behind his vision. And there he was: Einstein.

The blue covered nearly everything, from the curve of the iceberg to the ripples in the water and each snowflakes trajectory. But Einstein was a hole of nothing. The blue seemed to bow around him like a force field, as if something physical was keeping the cyphers from touching him. So John looked at him, eyes unwavering as he took in a sight without blue for the first time in a cycle. It left him breathless.

"Time…" he spoke, black eyes unblinking as the human approached.

"Hidey ho, neighbor!" John greeted, voice joyful even as his expression was anything but.

"Time…" Einstein replied, voice unchanged and face unmoving.

"Listen, you and me…we're gonna have a chat. Because I-I have some words-"

"Time…"

"Would you shut the frell up about time?!" He shouted, waving Winona around as if to threaten the other being with it. His gaze caught onto his pistol and wondered curiously when he had pulled it out. Sighing softly, John quickly holstered it before turning back.

"You are not to be here, John Crichton," Einstein's voice seemed to echo, coming from every direction even as the man stood before him.

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know. I thought that you pulled all this dren outta my head!"

The being before him seemed to frown, lips twitching downwards more than they were as if his facial muscles were unused to being moved in such a way. John fought not to flinch as the Ancient approached him. A pale hand reached up, fingers hovering over his head and John clenched his eyes tightly shut, bracing for pain. Instead he felt a cool pressure above his brow that trailed to his cheek.

"Interesting…" Einstein murmured as Crichton peeked his eyes open, watching the other as the being trailed a bloodless hand down the side of his face. His fingertips just barely grazed the human's skin, no pressure behind his butterfly of a touch. Although it tickled, it had been so long since someone had simply touched him and John fought not to lean into the gesture. "This knowledge," the deep voice brought John's focus back as the other returned his hand to his side. "You should not have retained it."

Scoffing, Crichton raised an eyebrow in both curiosity and challengingly. "And yet here I am."

"So you are…" Einstein trailed off, gaze shifting to something behind the human.

Crichton turned with him, blue eyes looking out into the darkness. It took him a moment to see what the other was so fascinated by, but slowly Rovhu's hull became distinguishable from the rest of the black that enclosed him. The young leviathan was floating in the water, his dark skin almost blending in perfectly with his surroundings.

Shifting uncomfortably, Crichton cleared his throat to gain the other's focus. He did not like Einstein's attention on his ship. He almost regretted the action when the emotionless black voids that the being before him called eyes focused once more upon him.

"Why are you here, John Crichton?"

"You were the one who brought me here, why don't you tell me," John could have cursed his wayward tongue if he was not so busy trying to gauge how angry the comment had made the other.

"Yes," it appeared the answer was not at all. "You were searching for something, a path through the wormholes."

"I couldn't find it," John admitted. Gaze riveted to the snow that had started to cover his boots. He had spent over a cycle looking for the wormhole with the correct exit that would take him to his universe before Moya's destruction. But every time he came close it was as if someone was slamming a door into his face, denying him access. Blue eyes darted back up into black, glaring with accusation.

"Yes," Einstein answered the unasked question. "I kept you from finding what you seek. I had hoped you would give up."

"They're my family!" Crichton bit out, taking a daring step forward as his hands clenched into fists. "Do you understand the concept of family? Nothing else in this universe matters but them!"

"This universe?" The alien questioned, head cocking sideways curiously. "What about all the others…your actions would destroy many universes, not just this one." Einstein began to pace around him, his gait even and soft as he circled the human. Crichton noticed that the Ancient did not leave footprints in the snow. "Would you really be so selfish?"

"I would do anything!" Crichton shouted, his voice ringing into the silence. It did not echo like the other's did.

"Anything?" Einstein asked enquiringly and Crichton fought not to turn as the being stopped behind him. "I could give you what you wanted, a path through a wormhole moments before the deaths of the family you seek."

"Please," John whispered desperately, turning to the man and falling to his knees.

"There will be consequences. You will not like them."

"Anything!" With that one word, John felt like he had condemned himself, but if it would mean the life of his family then he would honor it.

"You do not understand that of which you ask, but very well." Einstein bent down, cold fingers gripping his arm as the being hauled him to his feet. "I will allow you to save your family. But know this, if you save them, they will be with John Crichton, but you cannot be with them."

John did not understand the words, mind lost as he tried to muddle through what the ancient was telling him. "I don't care," he finally murmured, hope settling into him as he blinked away tears. "As long as they live I don't care."

Einstein blinked for the very first time and John forgot how unsettling it was to be around him. "Come then, we have not much time."

0~Page_Break~0

Solar Day 407

Uncharted Territories

Location Moya's Burial Site

Rovhu exited the wormhole with ease, his flight steady as Crichton had used the ancient knowledge to reengineer the stabilizing device that Neeyala's crew had, allowing the leviathan to fly in the 'zone' as the human called it. Either way it reduced turbulence and allowed for Rovhu himself to pilot the wormholes when Crichton was unable or unwilling to do so. There were days when Crichton simply did nothing and both 1812 and the leviathan knew to leave him to his thoughts during such occurrences.

John stood in command as the strange being gazed out the front window. Rovhu did not know what to make of the creature, and John's fear of the man made the leviathan wary. But the being was helping to return their family to them so Rovhu allowed his presence where none other than his commander had been. Even so, he did not like having someone else aboard.

Crichton hushed him, fingertips grazing the golden light and pulsating purple as he soothed the narl's worries. The human had to reach on the very tips of his toes to do so. Soon he would not be able to reach at all. The thought both saddened and excited the gunship. It would not be long before he would be large enough to carry all of Moya's crew if he needed too.

"There," Einstein pointed, pale finger upon the glass. Finally they had gotten it right. After eleven tries, looping from one exit to the next it appeared that they had exited at the precise location and moment that they were intending.

Crichton joined him at the front window, a sharp inhale prompting Rovhu to run a scan of the area. They came to a stop at the edge of the system, no planets in site. At the center was a blue sun, tiny and still growing - much like the leviathan. And orbiting that sun was Moya, her golden hull undamaged.

Rovhu chirped and tweeted in excitement and Crichton could feel the smile stretching across is his face. His cheeks hurt from his grin as it had been such a long while since he had used the muscles. A ping on Rovhu's radar had the smile sliding off like it had never been there in the first place.

John moved around to the war table where a holographic three dimensional image of the system displayed before them. Moya and another smaller vessel were orbiting the sun and it took a long while for either of them to realize that the tiny ship was Rovhu. He could not have been more than a few arns old, a solar day at most.

Reaching forward as the image zoomed, John could almost touch the holographic image of the ship. He was tiny, the image fitting in his hand while Moya was nearly the length of his entire arm. Crichton could not help but gaze at it in amazement.

Rovhu trilled at him inquisitively and John smiled softly, not turning from the image. "That's you," he answered softly, voice filled with emotion and words unsaid.

That's you before. Before you witnessed death, before you learned how to kill, before you became an expert at flying through wormholes…that is you…when you were innocent.

Over a cycle old, John was proud that Rovhu had yet to actually witness combat. Unlike his long deceased brother, the leviathan gunship had yet to shed blood. Even so, the controls for his external weapons was still completely under Crichton's control, not that it bothered Rovhu any, as he had not had the displeasure of ever having to actually use them.

The internal weaponry on the other hand was Rovhu's alone. Not long after they began their hunt for wormholes, Crichton had released the failsafe's put in place when it came to internal security. There were long stretches of time where he simply could not be aboard and Rovhu needed a way to defend himself if someone had boarded.

Another ping drew there attention away from the baffling sight of Moya with her newborn son. The holographic image zoomed out rapidly and three ships were coming upon radar, approaching from the other side of the sun.

"Power up the main cannon," Crichton whispered, his voice overriding the safeguards. "Take us around Moya's blind spot, stealth mode, come up behind them." He hesitated in giving his last order as Rovhu shut down all unnecessary lighting and systems, cloaking his signature to appear as debris. After a long moment though Crichton finally spoke. "Shoot to kill, no hostages."

Rovhu trilled in confirmation, the ascendency cannon deploying and rail guns dropping. Rovhu was not even two cycles old, and today he would bloody himself in battle for the first time. Crichton prayed it would be the last as well, but he knew his luck would never hold out.

The raiders did not even see them coming. Hidden behind the star, Moya and her crew detected nothing as the ascendency cannon fired, vaporizing one ship into dust as the rail guns activated, covering them while the cannon recharged. Within less than a micron the battle was over and all that was left was debris too small to be recognized as pieces of a ship. Rovhu's shields had protected him from any damage, although he would have been fine without it. The second ship had been dispatched before it could even fully turn to lock on target, the third barely got a couple of shots off that would have done no more than graze his hull.

Sighing in relief, they retreated back to the edge of the system as Moya crested around the curve of the sun, her newborn child tucked beneath her and it was in that moment he understood what the ancient had spoken to him. John Crichton would be with Aeryn and their child, but he would not…because now (again) there were two John Crichtons.

Cursing, John slammed his hand onto the console and both 1812 and Rovhu beeped in concern, the action startling the narl enough to deploy interior weapons. The guns whirred as they flitted about the room, settling on nothing. After a moment they retracted and Rovhu trilled questioningly at his human. Crichton just hung his head.

"You knew," he accused, blue eyes gazing through the fringe of his just slightly to long hair at the being who stood so calm and serene at the window. "You knew and didn't say!"

"I did say," was his only reply.

"There can't be two John Crichtons," he whispered as Rovhu continued to trill softly at him. "Aeryn Sun already has her Crichton, Moya already has her son…"

"Yes."

Blinking back the tears, John scrubbed a hand down his face. "There were two of me before-"

"You were twinned - copied. This is not similar. You are the same," Einstein began, voice neither harsh nor compassionate. "This universe cannot handle a paradox."

"Where does that leave us?" John whispered as he tried and failed to keep the brokenness out of his tone. He was just so tired of always fighting, being the last man out…the last man standing.

Einstein finally turned to him, eyes black and gaze a void, an abyss empty of all emotion. "If either of you were to come into contact with your counterparts, if they were to ever learn of your existence, this universe would unravel."

John barked in laughter, the harsh sound devoid of any amusement filling the room as he pressed the heel of his palms into his eyes until his vision turned white. His breath came in short and quick, the lack of oxygen making him light headed. After a moment he calmed, opening his eyes revealed that he had fallen with his back against the console.

Einstein looked upon him as if he were a bug that had done something slightly curious. They could not stay here…in this reality. If they interacted with anyone and somehow word got back to this Crichton, the one that had yet to turn a narl into a weapon (had yet to lose his family), then that could mean the end of everything that they had just fought so hard for.

"Where are we supposed to go?"

Einstein blinked slowly, his upper eyelid pulling away revealing a nictitating membrane that pulled back to the inner corner of the eye. "Time…"

John sighed, but eventually he answered. "Heals all wounds."

"Time…"

"Management," he tried again, hoping to get the right answer.

"Time…"

"Ends, begins, is relative-"

"Time…"

"Unending." Einstein blinked again and John knew he was right.

"Yes," the ancient replied slowly, turning back to the view out of the window. "I will close all the wormholes in this universe. This John Crichton will no longer retain the memory of them."

His hands were sweating when he gripped the edge of the console, using it to pull himself up. Wiping them on the leather of his pants, he approached hesitantly. "And what happens to us?"

"Consequences," Einstein replied.

"You mean-" he cut himself off, swallowing around the thick lump in his throat. "What? Are you going to kill us?" Rovhu twittered in distress but did not deploy his interior guns again.

"No," an almost frown appeared upon is inhumanly still face.

"Then what…" John stopped, confused as his vision darted between the obtuse being and Moya. Aeryn and his son were right there, and yet they never felt so far. It was then that it came to him, the ancient had stated that this universe's John Crichton would retain no wormhole knowledge, but that meant nothing for him personally. "You intend for us to use the wormholes."

"Yes."

"And go where?!" He shouted, fists tightly clenched. Crichton was beginning to feel light headed and he sat heavily upon the bench before he collapsed.

"Consequences, John Crichton. You said anything." Einstein looked upon him as if puzzled by his outburst. "You and this ship will never return to this universe."

John wanted to scream, he wanted to grab the ancient fekkek by his fragile neck and squeeze until he crushed it, mostly he just wanted Aeryn to hold him and tell him it would be okay and that they would figure something out. "How can you possibly close all of the wormholes in this universe?" John questioned instead.

"My last task," Einstein began, turning his gaze back to the window. Crichton felt a weight lift from him now that he was no longer under the ancient being's scrutiny. "The rest of my kind have settled somewhere far from here. I have been given the task to no longer protect the wormholes, I am to close them."

"How long will it take you?" John wondered how much time he had left to just exist in the universe that he was born in.

"The rest of my lifetime, many of yours," the ancient replied before he turned and regarded the human once more. "Or it should have. I cannot risk that you return here, I will not allow the destruction of a single universe. I will close all of the ones in this universe the moment you leave."

"Can you really do that?" Crichton gazed up at him with both wonder and fear.

"Yes, although the action will kill me."

John blinked in surprise. "Then why-"

"I will not risk the destruction of a-"
"-single universe, yeah," John interrupted, biting his lip as he turned away in anger and frustration. "How are you supposed to close the rest of wormholes in the other universes if you are dead?"

"I will not, you will do so for me."

He stood suddenly, recoiling away as if struck. "What, excuse me? Like hell I will!"

Einstein approached him slowly and Crichton retreated until his back hit the console. The other being continued to approach until he was just millimeters from touching him, too far into Crichton's personal space to be anywhere near comfortable.

"Consequences, you will do as must," his tone, though flat and without any sort of emotion or inflection broke no argument.

"But-" John started, hands pressed onto the top of the console behind him as if he was trying to sink into the very metal to get away. He wondered at Rovhu's lack of reaction, but a glance behind him answered that question quickly. The purple strands of light with the gold that filled the room were unmoving - frozen as time had stopped for all but the two.

"You will do as must," the ancient reiterated.

"You said," Crichton cleared his throat as the first words were all but squeaked out. "You said it would take all of your life time…many of mine, remember. I won't live that long, frell, not even Rovhu will live that long."

Another almost frown from the ancient had Crichton wondering if he even had muscles under the skin. "I am aware, but that is easily fixed."

"Fixed…" Crichton murmured, gaze returning to the being. Too late he noticed the hand approaching his face and he would have flinched back if there was anywhere to flinch too. But none of that mattered as the next moment all Crichton knew was pain as stars shown in his blue eyes.