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
Xander awoke the way he did every morning, with the sun on his face. His mattress sat on the floor in the far corner of the training room, next to his dresser and under the only window in the room. By the time the sun was high enough in the sky to hit his face, it was usually around mid-day, which was when he liked to get up anyway. He didn’t have any blinds or curtains on the window, he preferred sleeping close to sunlight, he felt safer that way. Looking up at the clock that sat on the corner of his dresser, it read 11:02.
He rolled out of bed and pulled his jeans on from where they sat on the floor from the night before, his belt still in the loops. Remaining shirtless and barefoot for the time being, he walked out to the kitchen for his morning caffeine fix. It all seemed so normal, routine. Just like every morning. For a moment, the events of the night before were shrouded in such a haze, they were like a dream. Maybe it was just a dream. But that hope was crushed when Xander walked out of the training room and saw Jules standing over a whistling teapot in his kitchen. A quick glance toward the front of the shop, and he saw John asleep on the table.
“Shit,” Xander muttered.
“Well, good morning to you too,” Jules replied.
“I thought maybe it was a dream.”
“Well, I hate to disappoint you,” Jules said, pouring the boiling water into his teacup.
Xander just waved him off as he pulled his own mug out of the sink and dropped a teabag into it. “It’s ironic, for the longest time I was the only one without a destiny, without a path. I just sort of bounced around from one thing to another, taking things as they came, going with the flow. I always had a feeling that it would come and bite me on the ass one day.”
“I don’t know that I would call this a destiny,” Jules said. “It’s just a series of events that have led us all to here. Nothing’s been prophesized or preordained. You still retain your free will. What you do next is your choice.”
Xander looked down at the amulet that hung from his chest, not meeting Jules’ eyes as he spoke. “I can’t save them, can I?”
“I assume you mean your friends,” Jules said after a moment. Xander just nodded. “The DeLorean is yours now, to do with as you wish.”
“But I can’t do both, right?”
Jules paused before answering. “No,” he said solemnly. “If you go back and save your friends, then you wouldn’t have died in that cave, and John would have had no reason to come back to save you, and none of this will have happened.”
“So that’s my choice. My friends lives, or the lives of 100 billion people, some of whom won’t even be born until centuries after I die.”
“It’s difficult, I know.”
“That’s the thing. It’s not difficult, that’s what makes it so hard.”
“I’m afraid I don’t follow.”
“100 billion lives, not to mention centuries of galactic peace and prosperity, versus four lives. That’s not a difficult choice. It would be easier if it were. But to have this chance to save them so close, and yet so far…it’s just a cosmic kick in the nuts. There’s no choice.” Xander laughed sadly. “Another irony. I’m the one with no destiny, no path. An entire life filled with choices. But I always did what I had to, what I thought was right. I never felt like I had a choice.”
“Real heroes never do.”
Xander shook his head. “I never thought of myself as a hero.”
“Real heroes never do,” Jules repeated.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Why do so many horrible things happen?” Jules just looked puzzled. “What I mean is, if the people you work with, if you can go back in time and fix things, why don’t you fix everything? Why don’t you go back and stop the holocaust, or the September 11th attacks, or a million other things?”
“As I said before, there are some things that simply cannot be changed. There are unseen consequences. But on the whole, the reason we don’t go back and change all of those things is because they are necessary for humankind’s evolution. We need adversity in our lives, barriers to break through, walls to climb. Without it, there’s no reason for us to strive to become better people. Advances in science, technology, education would never come to be. We would become complacent, lazy, unintelligent, unprepared. And when some unfriendly alien force comes along, we’d be ripe for the plucking. Not to mention the danger of paradox, if Earth’s scientists become so complacent that the very technology used to travel back in time is never developed. But more important than any of that I believe, is the desire to better ourselves. Take yourself for example. If you hadn’t gone through the hardships that you have faced in your life, than you wouldn’t be the man you are today. And you wouldn’t be in the position you are today, to help make the galaxy a better place.”
“So the reason you don’t change everything, is so that you can change some things?”
“In a way, yes. Largely though, it’s so we never lose what we’ve become as a people, what we’ve fought so hard for. The greatest sin is not to make mistakes, but not to learn from them.”
“I think I understand.”
“Think of it this way. Your friends’ deaths were not in vain. Their sacrifice allowed all of this to come to pass.”
“So what happens next?”
“Well, we teach you how to pilot the DeLorean. Then I’ll provide John with another Mr. Fusion and help him fit it to his module, and then the two of you will be off.”
“Wait a minute, we couldn’t have taken both vehicles in the original tangent with only one Mr. Fusion.”
“No, you didn’t. John fitted it to his module and you both took that after he hid the DeLorean.”
“So why are we bothering taking the DeLorean and teaching me how to fly it?”
“Well, there is one thing in the original tangent that we’d like to change. Someone was killed, shortly after you arrived in the Uncharted Territories. We ran a few scenarios through the computer and with the DeLorean, that death doesn’t occur. The ultimate result, that is the Peace Keeper/Scarren war not taking place, still occurs however.”
“Who died?”
“It’s not important. I really shouldn’t tell…”
“Jules, please. Who died?”
Jules paused. “It was Chiana.”
“The DeLorean it is then. So what exactly am I supposed to do in the Uncharted Territories anyway? How am I supposed to change things?”
“Honestly, we don’t know.”
“But what if I screw it up?”
“You won’t.”
“But what if I do?”
“You won’t,” Jules insisted. “You just need to have a little more faith in yourself. Don’t second-guess your decisions, and don’t run off half-cocked trying to change the universe. Just let it happen naturally. You have it in you Xander, there’s no question of that. It has, is, will happen. There’s no pressure. I’m going to go wake up John, we’ll begin training you right away.”
Xander watched Jules walk over to the table and shake John awake. “Oh, yeah,” he muttered to himself, dropping his mug in the sink and heading back into the training room to get dressed. “Only 100 billion lives hang in the balance, no pressure at all.”
Next Chapter