Title: Back to the Uncharted Territories
Author: Paradox761
Email: Paradox761@mail.com
Website: members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns Buffy; SFC, Jim Henson Productions, and Rockne S. O’Bannon own Farscape; and Universal Pictures owns Back to the Future. No copyright infringement is intended, so please don’t sue. I don’t have any money anyway.
Summary: Sequel to “A Sympathetic Ear”, John Crichton finally makes it home only to discover that the life he left behind is no longer there. His father, DK, and Xander Harris are all dead. Then he meets an extraordinary man in a bar, a time traveler, with an extraordinary proposition. Will John risk it all to go back in time to save his father’s life? And what happens when the consequences are much worse than he ever could have imagined?
Author’s note: Takes place directly after the third season of Farscape, after that it’s an AU. Also, for the sake of this story, Farscape takes place in the near future (2017), and some of the modifications made to the DeLorean in the second movie, namely Mr. Fusion, came from further into the future then when the movie took place (2015). Also, some dialogue has been lifted directly from the Buffy episode “Grave”, no plagiarism intended.
Dedication: To Jordan and Jessica, my angels. May they rest in peace.
Special thanks to A. Grandt, greywizard, Wayne, Rob Clark, Danielle, Goblin, Calen, DaBear, Obi, Gareth, Troy, David, and Lafe for the feedback and support.
(Farscape/BtVS/BttF, Xander/Chiana, John/Aeryn)
Rated R for language and violence
Guest Cast:
Guy Pearce as Dr. Julian Martin Brown, PhD.
James Remar as Lakas

(4/6)

Xander powered down the DeLorean once it touched down on the deck of the hangar bay. He took a deep breath. “This is it, Harris,” he said aloud to himself. “Moment of truth. From this moment forward, nothings ever going to be the same.” He wasn’t necessarily going to miss his old life, just the familiarity he had with it. Nothing could surprise him there, he was ready for anything. But out here, it was a whole new ball game. He was about to step out into a whole new world. He glanced over to the passenger seat at his meager pile of belongings. One box, one duffel bag, and a sword in a leather scabbard. Xander shrugged. He would face this the same way he faced ever challenge he’d been given, head on. He grabbed his sword and popped the gull-wing door open, stepping out onto the deck of the Leviathan. He slipped the sheath onto his back and walked over to where John was climbing out of his module.

John hopped down onto the deck. He watched as Xander walked up to him. He could see the nervousness in his eyes, even if he hid it well. He put a hand on his friend’s shoulder and gave him a smile. “Welcome aboard,” he said.

“Thanks,” Xander said. He felt a sharp pain in his foot all of a sudden, and when he looked down he saw a little yellow machine pressed up against his boot. He resisted the urge to pull away, knowing that he had just been injected with translator microbes. He waited for the machine to finish and scurry away on it’s own. What did John say they were called? DVD’s? No, DRD’s, that was it. Xander felt a wave of dizziness come over him. He reached out and leaned on the module for support.

“It’ll pass in a moment,” John said. “The microbes are just incorporating themselves into your brain.”

Sure enough, Xander’s head cleared after a few seconds. Just as two people came jogging into the hangar bay.

“John!” one of the called out. She was tall, with fiery red hair and a raised forehead. The second was a shorter woman, and definitely much older, with a third eye on her forehead.

“Jool!” John called out, intercepting her and pulling her into a hug. “God, it’s good to see you again,” he said, spinning her around.

“It’s good to see you, too. What the frell happened?”

“I was just about to ask you the same question. Is this where the wormhole spit you out?”

“I’m not exactly sure. Our memories are a little fuzzy after that thing opened and sucked us in. The next thing I remember after that is waking up in Pilot’s den, and him telling us that we were in orbit over Earth. We picked up what we thought was your module, but then the signal disappeared. It took us nearly twenty solar days to scan the whole planet, and when we thought we finally found you, you disappeared too.” She paused. “We gave up on you. We were preparing to head home the long way.”

“Thank god we found you before you starburst.”

“So what happened? Did you open that wormhole?” Jool asked.

“I’m not sure. I don’t see how I could of, but the fact that you’re here tells me that I must have had something to do with it. I don’t know why you wouldn’t remember anything though.”

“I think Pilot remembers something, but he hasn’t been very specific. Just adamant that we needed to find you.”

“I need to talk to him then.”

“Are you going to be able to get us out of here?”

“I should be able to open another wormhole, but I need to know how this happened.”

Xander remained quite during the conversation, standing behind John. Jool finally looked up and caught his eye. “Who are you?”

“Xander Harris,” he answered. “I’m a friend of John’s.”

“I’m sorry, where are my manners. Xander this is Jool and Wrinkles. Guys, this is Xander, he’s come to help us out.”

“Help us out of what?” Jool asked.

“That’s kind of a long story too,” John replied. “First things first, I need to start going through the equations to get us back.”

The old woman brushed by John and Jool and walked up to Xander. She pushed herself up on her tip-toes, studying Xander’s face from a mere inch away. Xander looked awkwardly between the old woman and John. John just shrugged. “Um, hi,” Xander said.

The eyelid on her forehead opened slightly, revealing a deep blue colored eye with seemingly no pupil. “You have a purpose here,” the old woman finally said after a moment. “You’ve come to seek your destiny.”

“That’s right,” Xander said with surprise. “How did you know that?”

“I can see your colors,” she replied mysteriously. “Don’t worry, your destiny will find you. You need only let it happen.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” Xander said.

She smiled as she backed away from Xander. Again, Xander looked to John, who again shrugged.

“Don’t look at me, translator microbes can only do so much. Come on, we have to get to Pilot’s den,” John said, starting down the corridor. The others followed.

*

“We were taken by something, and…studied. It’s all rather unclear. It was looking for you, Commander,” Pilot said. John and the others stood gathered in front of him.

“For me? What did it want with me?”

“It did not say. When it discovered that you were not aboard, we were released.”

“But why did it send you to Earth?”

“We were sent to you, Commander.”

John thought for a moment. “I was probably on Earth by then. They couldn’t grab me there, so they sent you back to me. They knew that I would come back.”

“What are you thinking, John?” Xander asked. “Do you know what did this?”

“The only other beings that have power over wormholes are the Ancients. What they want with me now, I have no idea.”

“If we open another wormhole, do you think they’re going to grab you?”

“There’s no way of knowing what they’ll do,” John said. “They stuck this wormhole tech in my head, who knows why they doing anything. I don’t see that we have much of a choice though. I’m not waiting sixty cycles to get back to Aeryn and the others.”

“I’ll second that,” Jool cut in.

“So we’re all agreed then? We take the risk and go back?” John asked, looking around at the others. They all nodded. “Pilot?”

“Moya wishes to return to familiar space. She does not relish another trip though a wormhole, but she trusts you.”

John smiled. “I appreciate that Pilot, thank you. I have preparations to make, I’ll let you know when we’re ready.” Pilot nodded and John headed for the door.

“We’re going home! We’re going home!” Jool exclaimed, jumping up and down excitedly, grabbing Wrinkles and smiling.

Xander followed John out into the corridor. “John, wait up,” he called, catching up to him and walking with him. “There’s something else going on here, isn’t there?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re worried about something and it’s not just these Ancient guys.”

“If they want me, they’re going to take me. There’s nothing I can do about that.”

“So what’s the up?”

John stopped walking and turned to Xander, letting out a sigh. “Scorpy’s test pilots.”

“What?”

“Scorpy’s test pilots, they were all liquefied. None of them survived travel through wormholes. The only vehicle that did, was my module.”

“So?”

“So how did Moya survive? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe the Ancients protected them some how,” Xander speculated.

“Which means if we fly through one on our own, we’re screwed.”

“Or maybe Leviathans have some kind of natural immunity. Did Scorpius use Leviathans in any of his tests?”

“Not that I know of. I suppose it’s possible that bio-mechinoid technology reacts differently to wormhole stresses. But there’s no way to know for sure, we don’t have all the facts here.”

“So what can we do?”

“Cross our fingers and hope for the best. Just to be on the safe side though, I want all of you to stay in Pilot’s den while we’re in the wormhole. It’s more protected than any other part of the ship. Jool and the old woman were there when Moya got sucked in the first time, it’s the safest place to be.”

“What about you?”

“I need to pilot Moya manually, and those controls are in Command.”

“I don’t know about this.”

“It’s a risk, but there’s no reason to believe that we won’t make it.”

“How do you figure?”

“The tangent. We made it the first time.”

“That’s not a guarantee, we don’t know everything that happened in the tangent,” Xander pointed out.

“What choice do we have?”

Xander thought for a moment before nodding. He clasped the other man on the shoulder. “I just hope you know what you’re doing,” he said, turning and heading back down the corridor toward Pilot’s den.

“So do I,” John said to himself.




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