I'll Be Home for Christmas.
Disclaimer:I don't own any material contained within this story. All copyrighted content remains the property of the person, people, or organization that holds the copyright. This story is solely for fun.
AN:Written as a Christmas Present for LiLa (Lion in the Land). For this story Italicized writing is used to indicate flashback sequences being remembered by our protagonist. Oh, and not all the flashbacks are in chronological order.
A burley man sat alone in a bar on some two-bit dust ball in the hind-end of the galaxy. Such a sight was not uncommon, but there was something about this man. The way his long coat was pulled securely around his body in this heat gave the impression that it was there for more than just mobile shelter from the elements. His face was deeply scared, markings of a disgraced doctor's botched attempt at cosmetic surgery perhaps? Whatever the cause, the scares and out of place features twisted what otherwise would've been a fairly carefree looking face into a creepy contrast of endearingly goofy and absolutely terrifying. And as he stared over the bottles, at the reflection in the mirror which was not his own, the man thought back...
XXX
"Well, finally awake, are we?" an unknown feminine voice inquired as the inky darkness gave way and the haze began to clear.
"I..." a gravelly voice strained out "Wh-ere am I?"
"Talking already?" the woman commented then smiled in triumph. "I knew it! Sustained low amperage, high voltage pulses can still stimulate the cell regeneration but without all the synaptic damage. I just had to find the right frequency! And the rest of my family told me it would never work." She gigled. "Can't wait to show them my data!"
"Wh-at's go-ing on?" the man struggled to raise himself from the cold slab of metal his body was laying on, only to discover he was strapped in. "Let... let me go!" He pulled against the restraints.
"Now you stop that before you pop a seem and ruin my stitching," the woman ordered. "I can imagine this must be quite a shock, but really that's no excuse for such uncivilized behavior."
"I-I'll kil-l-l-l you! C-Cut you open, an-" The man's ranting was cut short as the woman flicked a switch and a burst of electricity flooded his body. It flopped, unconscious, back down unto the slab.
"Hmmm, I wonder if the violent outburst was the result of the dominate personality or the donor parts?" she mused aloud.
XXX
The man caught sight of a few flakes of ash, burn from a take-off in the busy port adjacent to the bar, drifting outside a nearby window. It was amazing how closely ash could resemble snow when one was in the right mindset. And anyone who cared to listen, would've been able hear the man in the long coat mumbling a song as he swished an off-putting yellow concoction around in his glass. "I'll be home for Christmas. You can plan on me. Please have snow and mistletoe... And presents on the tree."
The man took another swig from his drink and grimaced. It just didn't taste right. Granted he hadn't expected much from Holiday Nog purchased in a place like this. But it wasn't just the sharp, high alcohol content of the moonshine they called Bourbon here, nor the rehydrated eggless nog so common in the fringes of the Black. It didn't just taste sharp and bad; it tasted like an almost completely different drink with only the vaguest hints of what he remembered from his life... before.
XXX
"So, when do I get to leave?" the man asked as a woman in her mid thirties hovered over his face with some type of scanning instrument he neither recognized nor cared to ask about.
"Once my tests are complete you can leave if you want to," the woman replied with a detached tone. She slowly passed the green scanning beam over another section of her subjects face before adding, "But I should warn you that there are dangers. Things have not always gone well for our... creations. The outside world tends to take a grim view of them, and those who leave tend not to last very long."
XXX
"Christmas Eve will find me, where the love light gleams. I'll be home for Christmas... if only in my dreams."
The jingle of a gun and other various piece of mettle rubbing up against each other broke the man in the long coat from his mind wandering as the one he'd been waiting for sat down beside him.
"I hear you're looking for a Firefly?"
"One in particular. She's named Serenity."
"Captained by a Malcolm Reynolds, right?"
"Yes, that's it," the man in the long coat responded, excitement evident in his tone despite his best efforts to hide it. It was never a good idea to give too much away to people you'd just met, especially when they were claiming to have something you wanted.
"Well then, you're in luck. I know where you can find them."
"Where?"
The second man grinned a slimy smile. "Nothing in the 'Verse is free. You want the info? You've gotta have what I want to exchange."
The man in the long coat reach into his breast pocket and pulled out a small bag of contraband. He held it out to the second man, whose eyes seemed to dance. He snatched the bag and peered inside. "You actually did it. How'd you get past the blockade?"
At this the man in the long coat's lip curled. "Best pilot in the verse," he bragged in a tone that seemed all together too light for the face it was coming out of.
"Indeed. Well... here you go." The second man handed over a data chip.
"This has the location?"
"Sort of. It's a copy of the database from the last port the ship was docked. It should have the flight plan for the ship you're looking for, just take a little digging."
The man in the long coat scowled. Mal wasn't known for his strict adherence to filed flight plans. More than half their jobs were smuggling, and smugglers weren't too keen on people knowing where they were headed nor how they planned to get there. And even if the they were going where Mal said, depending on how large the database was, they might be there and gone by the time Serenity's course was located in the data base. Even still, the man in the long coat had to acknowledge it was more than he had before. Anything was more than nothing. He got up and left the bar unhappy, but without calling the other man the cheat he suspected he probably was.
XXX
"You're going?" the woman asked, a bit of concern seeping into her voice.
"You said I could go once you were finished your tests. It's been six months. I don't think there's any part of me left that you haven't poked and prodded at least twice. What more could you possibly have to check?
"Yes, I did say that," the woman agreed. "And you can go, if you're sure. But remember, as I've warned you before, the pilot's memories and feelings are not the only ones housed in that body. Genetically imprinted memories are present within each of the body parts present. And some of those body parts came from men quite... volatile. You may be the most successful subject to date, but that doesn't mean you're completely stable, physically or physiologically."
"I appreciate the concern, Doc, but I haven't had the urge to eat any raw meat in a while. And I've got some place I need to be."
"The people from your past life... they may not accept you the way you are now," the doctor cautioned.
"Some may not," the man replied. "But she will, and that's all that really matters."
XXX
The man in the long coat held it close to his body as he slogged through knee deep snow. This time it was pulled tightly for shelter from the bitter cold. He wasn't sure if it was a good sign that Serenity's next scheduled port of call was having its winter season on December 23rd, or simple irony. This would've been so much easier if engine on the rust bucket he'd been piloting hadn't conked out coming through the planet's atmosphere. Another crash. A least he walked away from this one. What was the sang, 'any landing you can walk away from'? Course he'd only been able to get the ship within twenty kilometer's of the planet's port. That meant a twelve mile hike through a blizzard to reach his destination. Would it all be worth it? Would this turn out to be the best Christmas of his life, or another in a long series of disappointments since he'd begun his quest.
The blinding wind began to fade as the man in the long coat drew near his destination and buildings provided an increasing amount of shelter. He reached the port and stared out from beneath the hand raised to his brow. And then he saw it. Serenity! And his heart leaped. He ran the rest of the way and pounded his frozen fist against the hatch. He was reminded of that song again, and couldn't keep from singing it. "I'll be home for Christmas. You can plan on me. Please have snow and mistletoe, and presents on the tree."
The hatch opened and he was greeted by a muscular man wielding a cut-off shotgun and an annoyed scowl. "Alright, you'd better have a good reason for banging in the hull, or I'm going to turn your gut into a bowl of jelly," the merc threatened in a smug tone, only to be surprised as the intruder suddenly wrapped his arms around him, pulling the gun toting killer into an incapacitating hug.
"Jayne! So good to see you again, ya' ornery bastard."
"What's going on here, an authoritive voice broke in as a tall woman entered the room."
"Get this lunatic off me!" the merc exclaimed from the grip of a bear hug that seemed unnaturally strong.
Under other circumstances, the woman would've laughed at the scene. But instead she raised her weapon and sighted in on the intruder. "I'm only going to say this once. Put him down, now."
The man in the long coat was quick to comply. He turned on the woman as Jayne's body hit the floor with a sudden thump. "Zoe, it's me," the long coated man replied, and the woman stared at him. There was something familiar about him, something beneath the layers of scares and distorted facial features. Something... and then recognition dawned on her, and her gun joined Jayne on the cargo hold floor, as she ran to the best Christmas present she'd ever gotten.
XXX
"Now, let's see if you can keep civil this time. No more threats to cut me, or you'll get another jolt."
"S-sorry. I... I don't know why I said that," the man responded with a genuinely perplexed tone.
"Don't worry about it," the doctor replied. "There are always side effects to the procedure."
"Side effects? What procedure?" the man laying on the metal table asked.
"Your speech continues to improve," the doctor commented. "A very good sign. Your synaptic patterns must be mostly intact, and your muscles and organs seem to be meshing nicely."
"What are you talking about?" the man asked, excitement creeping into his tone. "What procedure!" The doctor's eyes narrowed. "Sorry. Look, I'm not g-oing to try to hurt you. But give a guy a break. When you wake up in a strange place, strapped down, and with electrodes stuck into your body... well it's easy to freak out."
The doctor sighed. "Alright, Mr. Inquisitive. You know the other subjects weren't nearly as demanding. Hmmm, guess there is a downside to the improved recall and synaptic health. My name's Oliva and I'm a Dcotor. I brought you back... from the dead, that is."
"I... What?!" The man suddenly felt a very cold pain stabbing in his chest. "The crash..."
"A crash? Oh, is that how you died? Tell me, what else do you remember from your previous life?" The man smiled warmly as thought back and images of his life began to flood his mind for the first time. "Happy memories, I see. Good. I always hoped my first success would be someone worth bringing back. Do you remember your name from before?"
"Wash."
"Good to meet you, Wash."
"Why, why did you bring me back?"
The lady doctor shrugged. "Call it a family hobby. We've been trying to prefect the process for centuries. And I think you might just be the closest any of us Frankensteins have come. My brothers are going to be so jealous."
Well, hope you liked it, LiLa... and anyone else who may have read. Mercy Christmas to all, and Jesus bless.
Metropolis Kid.