THE ANCIENTS
When Moya and I detected a wormhole that apparently led to Crichton's home planet Earth, the Human insisted on flying there in his Farscape Module despite the cautions offered by the rest of us. ![[ THE ANCIENTS ]](images/ancient_main.gif)
He later discovered that the Earth he was visiting was an elaborate construct by a nearly extinct group of aliens called The Ancients. Needing a new home, these aliens thought Earth might be suitable. However, through their testing of Crichton, they concluded that humankind wasn't yet ready for an alien visitation.
The Ancients, perhaps as partial atonement for playing such a cruel and elaborate ruse upon Crichton, implanted information about wormhole technology so deeply within Crichton's mind that he couldn't access it consciously. Apparently, they reasoned that if Crichton wasn't intelligent enough to discover it himself, he wasn't intelligent enough to handle the knowledge wisely. What they gave him would serve as a guide, nothing more. Crichton found this both encouraging and frustrating. After all, creating another wormhole might be his only chance of ever returning home.
Two cycles after Crichton's first encounter with the Ancients, the twinned Crichton on Talyn encountered the Ancients for a second time. Having touched Crichton's mind once, they were able to contact him psionically, directing him to specific coordinates in space. Once Talyn arrived there, Jack — the Ancient whose real name is unpronounceable, and who manifests himself to Crichton as the Human's father — appeared onboard. He told Crichton that The Ancients finally had settled in a new home, but he was fearful that Scarrans, Charrids or other ill-intentioned beings with wormhole technology might threaten his people — or worse, the security of the entire galaxy.
To stop the Scarrans from gaining this power, Jack needed Crichton's help. First, Jack "unlocked" the information in Crichton's mind, rendering it fully accessible. Then, Crichton helped Jack translate their mutual theoretical knowledge into a working weapon, a Displacement Engine, to destroy a Scarran Dreadnought. In the process, Jack revealed his species' amazing immunity to deadly radiation. A simple pulse blast proved too much for him, however, and he died before the mission was completed.
The encounter that shed the most light on this mysterious species was one that nearly cost Crichton his life. He was spacewalking a safe distance from Moya while testing his newfound ability to predict wormhole activity when a wormhole appeared and swallowed him. In a nexus between our universe and another, he encountered a being he dubbed "Einstein," who feared Crichton because of the human's growing talent for navigating wormholes.
Einstein told Crichton that the Ancients originally were members of a species from a different universe. This unnamed species "modified" some of their own kind, altering them at a subatomic level so that they could survive in our reality. Their mission in our universe was to monitor the use of wormholes and prevent aggressive species from unlocking their secrets; they feared an incursion by our universe's "biologics" into their realm.
Unfortunately for them and Crichton, the Ancients appear to have abandoned their mission and retreated into seclusion. Because the Peacekeepers and Scarrans are both actively seeking the secrets of wormhole travel, the Ancients' progenitors now look to Crichton to defend their universe — and our own — from those who would abuse the power of wormhole technology.
JOURNEY LOG REFERENCES
A Human Reaction
The Hidden Memory
Infinite Possibilities, Part 1: Daedalus Demands
Infinite Possibilities, Part 2: Icarus Abides
Unrealized Reality
STARBURST TO ANY LIFEFORM
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