A Message from the author: Been watching firefly and serenity and was inspired to wright this.
Intro
POV: Annabeth
So here's how it is, Earth got used up so we terraformed a whole mess of Earths across the galaxy. The planets in the center formed the alliance. They believed all planets should join them and brought a war to make it so. A few idiots tried to fight them, among them was my father, Malcom Reynolds.
After the independence lost the war he got himself a boat called Serenity and a crew to fly it. They flew together for a long while before they went to a planet called Maranda and learned what the Alliance did. They told the verce about where Reivers came from and started a whole new war. The new Independence lost but put up a good fight. In the midst of this new war though my father lost Jane, Simon, Kaylee, Zoe, and his wife Inara. The only upside was he met my mother, Athena.
I know my mother's name sounds like the Greek goddess, well, that's cause she is. I'm nineteen now and on my own. My father died a few months ago in his sleep, leaving me all alone on Serenity. I've debated selling her and settling down. Try and build something permanent, but I can't stand the thought of letting her go. So I brought on a crew. A group of demi gods who hate the Alliance as much as I do.
I've got Leo, our mechanic and son of Hephaestus. Then there's Jason, son of Jupiter and my first mate/ back up pilot. Our muscle, Frank, son of Mars. Our medic, Will, son of Apollo and his boyfriend Nico, son of Hades, who is very connected in the criminal underworld as well as the actual one. Then there's Nico's half-sister Hazel, daughter of Pluto. If there's something valuable to be had she knows where to find it due to her powers. Our silver tongue on board for those sticky situations, is Piper, daughter of Aphrodite. Finally, there is Percy, son of Poseidon.
Once man expanded past the Earth and into space, the Black was rolled into Poseidon's territory because we humans think of it as sailing. The sky still belongs to Zeus' but once you leave orbit of a planet and enter the black you are in Poseidon's turf. That being said Percy has the ability to navigate space without instruments. He just knows where he is and how to fly the ship. He's the best pilot we could have asked for.
So that's my crew, and as my father used to say,
You got a job, we can do it. Don't much care what it is.
Que the music
"Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me.
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me.
There's no place I can be
Since I've found Serenity
And you can't take the sky from me."
Chapter 1: A New Job
POV: Annabeth
"Are you kidding me?!" Will screamed at me. "That is a horrible idea!"
His voice echoed around the cargo bay of Serenity.
"It's not the worst one she's ever had." Jason pointed out.
"Hay!" I protested. "My ideas aren't bad!"
"You want to space walk from one moving ship to another." Leo said. "I can't see anything going wrong there!"
"Captain!" Came Percy's voice over the speakers. "We're approaching the freighter, trying to match their speed now."
"Suit up." I ordered. "All of you."
And so we quickly suited up in our space suits and stood in the depressurized cargo bay as Leo opened the front ramp.
Outside was an Alliance freighter with plenty of profit on board. Medicine, rations, weapons, and best of all was the shipping containers filled to the brim with fuel cells and other vital ship parts.
"Remember the plan." I told my crew. "Jump on, disable their ship and take the cargo. Knock their crew out if you can but kill if you must."
"Does this feel wrong to any one ells?" Will asked.
"They're Alliance." Jason said. "They're the enemy and I have no problem hurting the enemy."
"Don't get too trigger happy." Frank cut in. "You heard the captain, don't kill them if you don't have to."
"Why is it that the muscle on the ship is the least trigger happy of all?" Leo asked. "Does anyone ells find that disturbing?"
"I ain't no pacifist." Frank said. "I'll knock some heads if it comes to that but I ain't gona kill if I don't gota."
"Guys!" I cut them off. "Jump on three. One, two, Three!"
We ran towards the edge of the ramp and jumped out into the black on a collision course with the freighter.
"Get ready!" I called out as we drew closer.
I reached out my hand and grabbed onto the ship. I nearly lost my grip as I slammed into it and for a moment I pictured myself drifting off into the black with no way of getting back to Serenity.
"Everyone good?" I called out as my crew confirmed that we all made it. "Then get inside!"
So we found a hatch and Leo rigged up an explosive to blow the airlock open. A lot of air came rushing out of the ship when we blew the hatch.
Once inside we sealed the door in back off us, hopping the temporary lack of oxygen knocked out the crew of the freighter.
Leo, Jason, and Piper mad their way to the bridge as Hazel, Nico, Will, frank, and I made our way to the cargo hold.
"We took the bridge." Jason said through the mic. "Cutting the engines now."
"Piper," I began. "Get the crew to surrender."
"On it." She answered as the PA blared to life.
"You should all lay down your weapons and let us take your cargo." Came Piper's voice over the PA.
'Dam she's good.' I thought as I fought the urge to drop my pistol that my dad left me.
It was at this time that we reached the cargo hold and found a group of Alliance troops standing around in the hold with their rifles on the floor.
"Frank, keep an eye on them." I said. "The rest of you, help me move this cargo."
It was then that I heard a thunk on the hull of the ship and a hiss of an airlock sealing to another.
"Will," I said. "Get the door. Hazel, find the good stuff."
They both nodded.
Will opened the airlock in the cargo bay to reveal Serenity's airlock as Hazel went from crate to crate, picking out the valuables.
Then Jason, Leo, and Piper joined us and we moved the whole hall back to our ship and sealed the airlock in back of us.
"Percy," I said into the intercom in our cargo bay. "Get us out of here."
"On it." He answered as I felt my ship begin to move.
"You disabled their engine, right Leo?" I asked.
He nodded.
"Set our course for the drop point." I told Percy.
"That actually went well." Leo said in surprise.
"Don't sound so surprised." I told him. "Athena always has a plan."
Time Break!
POV: Annabeth
I squinted as the ramp lowered to reveal bright sunlight.
"I forgot how great fresh air smells." Will commented as he stepped onto the ramp to disembark Serenity with one of the cargo boxes.
"Yah," Hazel said as she set down a box at the base of the ramp. "I missed that smell."
I picked up a box and placed it at the base of the ramp as well when a familiar voice called out to me.
"Annabeth!" Chiron called out to me. "It's good to see you."
I gave him a smile, glad to see the old centar.
"Hi, Chiron." I greeted as he spotted the crates.
"Those are the supplies I requested?" He asked as I nodded. "Should I ask how you managed to acquire them?"
"That depends if you want to sleep well at night." Percy said in back of me as he set down a crate.
"It's good to see you, Percy." Chiron greeted as Percy approached us and gave Chiron his signature grin.
"Is there any way I can repay you all for what you have done?" Chiron asked.
I shook my head.
"Just give us a cut of the profit from this stuff and a place to lay low for a few days while we repair Serenity." I said.
Chiron nodded.
"Of course." He said. "You are always welcome here."
I nodded my thanks and turned back to my crew.
"Leo," I began. "You have two days to swap out any bad parts with the new ones before I want this boat in the air."
He gave me a nod and returned to the ship.
"As for the rest of you I want this ship restocked on all supplies by the time we're ready to leave." I said as they nodded.
"I'll be going through our nav computer in the meantime." I said as I walked up the ramp into my ship.
"I don't get why she does that." I heard Frank whisper as I left. "Percy never uses it anyway."
I ignored him and went up to the bridge to try and get some peace and quiet. While sitting in the pilot's chair, however, the computer monitor alerted me to an incoming communication video.
I shrugged and answered.
"Hello?" I said as a woman came into view.
"Hello there," The woman said. "You're Annabeth?"
"Who wants to know?" I asked, getting suspicious.
Was she Alliance?
She smiled sweetly.
"You can just call me C for now." She said. "I was hoping to hire your crew for a job."
"How much you payin'?" I asked, leaning back in my chair.
"Don't you want to know what the job is?" She asked.
"Don't much care what it is, so long as you ain't alliance." I said.
She smirked.
"That's what I heard your policy was." She said, chuckling. "In that case I will pay two hundred thousand credits to transport some of my black market beagles from Meda to New Athens."
Two hundred thousand! To transport some stupid beagles! Meda and New Athens were only a day's ride through the black from each other. Hell yah!
"Sounds good." I said, keeping my cool. "A little too good."
"I assure you that this is the job of a life time." She said.
"Why you payin so high?" I asked, not trusting this offer yet.
"Let's just say I need to get rid of them quick and my last crew is quite incapable of transporting them now." She said with a small smile.
"See, it's talk like that, that makes me a little twitchy." I said. "So I want half the pay up front so I know this is legitimate."
She nodded.
"That's understandable." She said. "When can I expect your arrival?"
"Give me four days." I said. "Makin repairs on Serenity now, should be a couple of days and then one or two days to travel to ya."
She nodded.
"Then I'll see you then." She said. "I'm sending you my location now."
One of the screens to my right beeped as a Nav location appeared on it.
"I look forward to doing business." I told her as I hung up. "Nico!" I called out. "Get your but up here!"
There was a pause before Nico entered the room.
"What's up?" He asked.
"I got us a possible job but it seems fishy to me." I told him. "See what you can find out from your connections about a woman named C on Meda who's looking to sell black market beagles."
"Beagles?" He asked, looking taken aback. "Why are they black market?"
"That's what I want you to find out." I told him as I stood up and walked out past him.
Time Break!
POV: Annabeth
Later that night we were sitting amongst the camp, enjoying the camp fire and talking with our siblings we haven't seen in forever.
The fire was a bright orange, crackling warmly as children of Apollo sang. All around me my crew was celebrating.
Hazel and frank were laughing on a log a few feet away from me, Piper and Jason were dancing, Leo was waving his arms around excitedly as he regaled his siblings with some of our funnier exploits, and even Nico was smiling as he watched his boyfriend sing with the other Apollo children.
It was nice to be able to relax for a while.
As I sat on the log, tapping my foot along to the music, Percy plopped down next to me.
"And how are you tonight cap?" He asked, shooting me his signature grin.
"Fine." I answered through a chuckle. "You?"
"Doin' great!" He answered. "Shame we gota leave here."
I nodded in agreement.
"Yes, it is." I said. "But we got a job waiting on Meda and so once Serenity's all patched up and stocked we have to go."
He nodded.
"I get it." He said. "Still though, it's nice to have a place to call home."
I glanced over at him, knowing what he was saying.
"I'm not forcin' ya onto Serenity." I told him. "If you wana stay then stay."
Percy looked hurt at my words.
"I don't want to leave Serenity." He said. "I was just wondering what it would be like to not travel. You know, settle down and find a home."
I nodded, contemplating his words before I spoke.
"I used to think the same thing." I said, staring into the fire. "Before I realized what Serenity truly is. She's freedom. She's our beacon in the black. No matter what happens, or how bad things get, she's always there to see us through it." I paused. "To be honest, I think my home is the black."
Now it was Percy's turn to nod in contemplation.
"Smart and deep." He said with a nod. "I tell ya, Annabeth, you sure are full of surprises."
I gave him a small smile.
"Don't judge a book by its cover, Seaweed Brain." I told him.
He nodded.
Time Break!
It's been two days since we landed and we were all onboard, ready to take off.
"How's our systems looking?" I asked Leo as I passed the engine room.
"As good as it ever will." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.
I nodded and headed up to the bridge where Percy sat in the pilot's seat with Jason opposite him in the co-pilot's seat.
"How we looking?" I asked them as I entered the room.
"Nav charts look good." Jason said, reaching to his left and messing with some dials. "Not that we'll need them." He added under his breath while shooting Percy a glance.
"Serenity seems ready for the black." Percy said. "Whenever you're ready Captain."
I nodded.
"Then take us out." I said, placing a hand on the back of Percy's chair and watching out the window to see the sky rush past.
All at once the sky faded to black and stars appeared on the horizon as we exited the atmosphere.
"Where are you going?" Jason demanded from his chair. "The chart said to head out to Kay and hook around to Meda. We're pointing the wrong way."
"No we're not." Percy said calmly. "We're going to get our gravity assist from an asteroid half way between us and Meda. It'll save us half the time this way."
"What asteroid?" Jason demanded.
"You're sure there's an asteroid out there?" I asked Percy.
If he was wrong, we might wind up drifting in the black.
He nodded.
"I can feel it out there." He said. "It's moving fast but I can get us on an intercept course and use its momentum and gravity to boost us to Meda in half the time then if we went to Kay."
I nodded.
"Then do it." I told him as I turned around to head back to my room.
"One of these days you're going to have to properly explain how a son of Poseidon is this good at flying." Jason said to Percy as I left.
I could hear them both laughing as I descended the latter to my room, happy to be back in the black.
A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Like it? Then post a review to let me know you want more!