The Fantastic Journey Fic: Towards The Rising Sun

[badly_knitted]

Title: Towards The Rising Sun
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Varian, Fred, Scott, Liana, Jonathan Willaway, Sil-El.
Rating: PG
Spoilers/Setting: After the series.
Summary: It’s a long journey, but the band of travellers finally reach their destination.
Word Count: 1928
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Weekend Challenge Big Break at 1_million_words, using The Long Way Home & Stuck at the Gates.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
 


 
Arriving in Atlanteum and learning that Scott’s father and the two women had already been sent back to their own time, a sense of elation had filled the three remaining travellers. Even knowing that the Transfer Generator had suffered some sort of damage that would need repairing before they could use it hadn’t dented their mood; Varian, Fred, and Scott had been perfectly happy to wait, enjoying the Atlanteans’ hospitality until they too could be sent home.

 
Their hosts had seemed most considerate, courteous, and generous, providing them with food and a room to sleep in. They’d been allowed to go wherever they wanted within the city, and had been given no reason to suspect the Atlanteans’ motives were anything but benevolent. They’d believed it would only be a matter of time, a few hours, perhaps a day, before they would say their farewells and be returned to their respective times.

 
But that had been before they discovered they were being deceived, that the Source, who ran Atlanteum, intended only death for all three of them. Scott was to provide energy to replenish the Source, whose energy levels were becoming dangerously low, and the other two were considered collateral damage, surplus to requirements, obstacles to be removed so that they wouldn’t interfere. The plot might well have succeeded if Liana hadn’t warned Varian of their danger.

 
Unfortunately for all three of them, the only way to save Scott’s life had been to destroy the Source, and without the Source, the Transfer Generator was inoperable. Nobody else in Atlanteum knew how it worked; the Source had invented it, had supervised its manufacture, had controlled it, just as he had controlled everything in Atlanteum. With him gone, the Atlanteans would have to learn to run their own city, their own lives… Helping two men and a boy, strangers who were not, strictly speaking, their responsibility, get back to where they belonged was understandably not on their list of priorities. Perhaps in a few years they might figure out how to use the technology the Source had invented, but that would be of no help to the stranded trio.

 
There was nothing else for it, they would simply have to take the long way home, just as they’d originally intended to. It would mean making a long and possibly dangerous journey across the island, on foot and with only such provisions as they could carry, but as difficult as that might be, surely they could manage it. They wouldn’t be alone, they had each other for support, protection, company, and Liana would be going with them, meaning they would be four people, each with their own abilities, against whatever problems they might run into along the way.
 

That didn’t mean it wasn’t a daunting prospect, of course. They had no idea what might lie ahead of them, in terms of the terrain to be crossed, the people and civilisations they might encounter, the weather, the availability of food, potential hazards… Other people must surely have made the long trek to the east coast and the place called Evoland before them, but they never came back to tell of their journeys, which was rather the point. Reaching Evoland, they would have passed through the portal and been returned to their own time, their own planet, or both. It was, of necessity, a one-way trip.
 

Still, it was the only chance any of them had of getting home, there was now no other way to leave the island, so they’d set out with a sense of purpose, as confident as they could be, given so many unknowns, that perseverance would get them where they wanted to go. Along the way they’d been joined by Liana’s cat, Sil-El, and Jonathan Willaway, a stranded scientist from the Sixties, and the six of them had continued their slow progress through the island’s various zones.

 
As expected, it wasn’t any kind of walk in the park. Oh, some zones were easy enough to cross, and some were home to kind and helpful people who fed them, offered them a place to stay so they could rest for a few days, provided them with fresh supplies before showing them to the next gateway… Other zones proved less welcoming, more hazardous, and some they barely escaped from with their lives, but they didn’t give up, even if they were occasionally tempted to when the weather turned against them, or food was scarce, and the whole endeavour began to seem hopeless.
 

Always, no matter how bad things got, they picked up their belongings and travelled on, until at last, after months of walking eastwards, they finally found themselves within reach of their goal. From the top of a ridge, they could see the ocean down below, bordered by white sands, and between themselves and the water, a gleaming construction of polished metal, golden stone, and crystal, set in the middle of landscaped gardens, and surrounded by a tall stone wall. There seemed only one place it could be: Evoland, where the way home awaited them.
 

After taking in the sight for a few moments, marvelling at the fact that the end of their long journey was at last in sight, the six travellers headed for a wide, paved road that cut across the flank of the hill they stood on. They followed its winding course to the bottom, then straight towards massive metal gates that blocked their way… and there, they stopped. The gates were shut, sealed against entry, and though Fred hammered on them so hard that they rang like a gong, they remained firmly closed. Shouting proved just as ineffective.
 

From the ridge top, they hadn’t seen any sign of life beyond the wall, no people going about their business, so perhaps no one was there to let them in. The portal itself might well be automated, if it even involved anything resembling technology. It could be that the only people who ever entered the place were people like them, travellers seeking a way home.
 

“Well, that’s just great.” Fred leaned his back against the sun warmed metal. “We come all this way and nobody’s home. Now what?”
 

“I suppose we’ll just have to wait. It could be that the gates only open at a certain time of day,” Varian said, trying not to sound as defeated as he felt. “We can camp beside the road until they do.”
 

“But we’re so close!” Bitter disappointment filled Scott; hardly more than an hour ago, he’d been sure he’d be back in 1977 with his family before the day was over. But now, after months of walking, just when everything had seemed within reach, here they were, stuck at the gates, with no idea what to do next.
 

“Aren’t we forgetting something?”

 
All heads turned towards Jonathan, who stood in the middle of the roadway, facing the gates.
 

“Like what?” Fred straightened up, looking at the smaller man curiously.
 

“The key? We do still have it, I hope.”
 

The expression on Varian’s face was as close to embarrassment as any of the small band of travellers had ever seen. He’d been carrying the stone for the past six or seven months, yet he’d completely forgotten about it. He scrabbled in his bag, digging down to the bottom where the crystal lay, and pulled it out, still wrapped in a red cloth. Unwrapping it, he studied it, turning it over in his hands as if trying to learn its secrets, then held it out to Jonathan.
 

“Jonathan. You found it, so perhaps you should be the one to use it.”

 
Jonathan hesitated for a moment before taking it. “Thank you.” He frowned at the multi-faceted stone. “Does anyone know what I’m supposed to DO with it?”
 

“Well, if it’s a key, shouldn’t there be a lock of some kind for it to fit into?” Scott asked.
 

They turned to examine the gates, massive slabs of smooth, highly polished metal, each of them a good fifteen feet wide, that shone almost blindingly bright in the light of the lowering sun.
 

“I’m not seein’ a keyhole,” Fred said, shrugging helplessly.
 

“Perhaps one of the gateposts…” Liana suggested.
 

They split up to look, Fred and Scott going one way, Varian and Liana the other, leaving Jonathan standing alone in the middle of the road, clutching the ‘key’ in both hands.
 

“Nothing that I can see,” Varian said at last, defeat starting to creep in again.
 

“No joy here either,” Fred reported from the other side of the road. “Maybe you should give your magic wand a try.”
 

“Yes, perhaps.” Varian’s hand dropped to the sonic energiser in its pocket.
 

Jonathan held up a hand to stop him. “Not just yet. We’ll hold that in reserve a little longer.” He weighed the crystal in one hand. “If this is supposed to be a key, then there has to be some way of using it.” He walked slowly towards the gate, and when he was almost within arm’s reach of it, an all but invisible panel slid aside, revealing a niche just the right size and shape to fit the stone in his hands. “Hah! You see? There must be sensors built into the gate, or the gateposts, that are triggered when one of the keys comes within range. Is everyone ready? We don’t know how long the gates will remain open, and I wouldn’t want to accidentally leave anyone behind.”

 
The travellers snatched up their bags from where they’d dumped them on the road, and clustered around Jonathan. Hearts were beating fast, mouths suddenly dry, perspiration, from nervousness and excitement, prickling across brows and between shoulder blades. All but the cat collectively held their breaths as Jonathan eased the key into its niche. The panel slid closed, there was a rumbling sound they could feel through their feet, then slowly, ponderously, the gates swung open. The five people stepped forward as one, passing through the gap as soon as it was wide enough, and mere moments later, they heard a clang as the gates closed behind them.
 

They didn’t look back, just kept walking along the pathway towards the building at the center of the gardens. None of them said a word until they reached the entrance.
 

“The portal must be inside. Unless this is it.” Varian gestured at the archway before them.
 

“So, what happens now?” Jonathan looked from one of his travelling companions to the next.

 
“Now… I suppose we say our goodbyes and go home.” Varian’s smile was warm yet wistful.
 

“Never to see each other again.” There were tears in Scott’s eyes.
 

“I know.” Varian sighed. “That’s the hard part. But we always knew it would end like this.”
 

Scott nodded. “And I do want to go home, see mom and dad, but… I’m really going to miss you guys. I’ll never forget any of you.”

 
“I think that’s true for all of us. I know I’ve never had better friends.” Varian rested his hands on Scott’s shoulders.
 

Group hugs were inevitably awkward, what with too many arms, and the disparity in heights, not to mention a slightly disgruntled cat caught in the middle, but no one, except possibly the cat, cared. They smiled through their tears as they finally stepped apart.

 
“How we gonna do this?” Fred asked. “Take turns or what?”
 

“All together.” The archway was certainly wide enough. Varian draped one arm around Scott, resting his hand on Fred’s shoulder, the other arm around Jonathan, who took Liana’s hand, then together they stepped through the archway, and were gone.

 
 
The End


 
 
 
 

Comments

[mrs_sweetpeach]

Did it work? Or where they sent somewhere/sometime else as a group?

[badly_knitted]

Well, this never happened on the series, they were still travelling when it was cancelled, but I wanted to write at least one where they DID all get back where they belonged. It just breaks my heart a bit, because it means they'll never see each other again. Fred and Scott will, they know each other back in their own time, 1977, because Fred is a friend of Scott's father's. But Liana will go back to her mother's planet, Jonathan will return to 1963, and Varian to 2230. How do you say goodbye to people who have become closer to you than family, knowing you can't even phone them or write them a letter? Makes for a seriously bittersweet ending.

Thank you!