A/N- Just trying to explore aspects of living under Alliance rule. Fleshing things out a bit I guess. Enjoy :)
No spoilers here, although River does allude to events in the BDM.
I don't own anything
The Alliance says: there are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year. Every year measured evenly in days and minutes, down to the seconds. Of course every man on every space ship knows it ain't so. Every moon, every colony, every planet and hunk of rock knows different hours and different days. Don't make a difference what time it is in the core, some colony'll see an endless night following months of daylight. But the Alliance says 24 hours in a day and so that's how Serenity measures its time. An endless clock- tick, tick, ticking.
According to Serenity's log, it's late afternoon on the 18th consecutive day of flying. Eighteen days and seventeen hours since anything remotely interesting has happened. Eighteen days and Malcolm Reynolds is bored. Usually he treasures these moments of peace and quiet, when he can stare out into the black and forget that the Alliance is there. But the endless quiet is taking its toll. Now all Mal can do is think about how the Alliance is still dictating his life, even hundreds of miles out in nowhere land. Telling him when to wake and when to sleep. Declaring what it is, even what month. He has a sudden irrational urge to reset the clocks; declare it midnight and make the day 21 hours long. Pointless and time consuming maybe, but then he'd feel a might bit freer for half a second. Pity Kaylee would kill him for messing with Serenity's engine parts.
Nothing to then, but wait.
He's not the only one noticing the time. Simon is in the infirmary, rearranging his cupboards for the umpteenth time. He thinks if this trip lasts much longer he might end up as crazy as his sister. He's almost longing for Jayne to come bursting in and upending the drawers again. That's when he realises that the crazy has already starting to hit. Shepard Book is in his room reading his Bible. While he loves times when he can sit and commune with God, even he is itching to walk upon the ground. In the engine room, Kaylee is laying in her hammock reading. Serenity is ticking away smoothly and Kaylee hasn't had to touch the engine in two days. She's run out of things to fix and tweak and now she's just waiting. Jayne is down in his bunk. Cleaning his guns of course, though they're already sparkling. The endlessness has sapped him of strength. No one wants to play hoop ball or exercise with him. So he waits.
The only people not going mad with boredom are Zoe and Wash, who declared the peace and quiet a honeymoon and haven't been seen in five days.
And River. Who is suddenly behind him.
"Doesn't matter Captain."
"Whats that River?"
"Time. It doesn't matter. Too much, too little. But they're running out. It won't be soon before long."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's coming. The big change. You'll see."
River smiled a cryptic smile. And the clock ticked over once again. Time, time, time.