Full Summary:

A girl fleeing the FED's lands in the custody of a FED on the run as well. Two people, one map. The girl is the key to finding a better life out among the stars. Born with a map in her head, she is the last of her race, before the people of Earth showed up in her Galaxy. What happens when the FED and the girl come upon Serenity and enlist her crew to get them to their destination? Will a new world, free of all the anguish that the people of Earth have caused be found? Or is it Earth the girl is trying to get to?

A Shadow of The Past:

A Girl Named Shadow:

Shadow, a girl not unlike River Tam a girl hunted by the FED's. Shadow had escaped from the FED's Academy the same way River had, only she had done it alone. She didn't have a brother or sister that cared enough to get her out. She had no parents that were looking for her. She had no one except that constant nagging in the back of her mind that told her that she needed to get out. She had been on the run since then. She'd been able to steal some clothes and some money from a member of the FED team that she had taken out. When she'd gotten a safe distance away from the Academy, she ditched the clothes but kept the money. She used her mind to produce clothes from her surroundings and had a full outfit by the time five minutes had passed. She even had shoes, constructed of the rocks beneath her feet.

She had been River's roommate at the Academy and they had tried to get out together only once. They had failed and then River had reverted to writing her brother for help. She'd had no one to help her. River had Simon to get her out and once she knew that River was safe, she blocked her from my mind set so that they wouldn't catch her communicating with her. They had pared them together because they could read each other's minds and though we hadn't quite gotten the hang of it, they had also formed a much deeper bond, one that they didn't know of yet.

With the FED's after her, she knew that she needed to blend in as much as she could and though it wasn't easy, she did get the hang of it quite quick. With her ability to morph into her surroundings, a gift she had inherited from my original people, she was able to stay one step ahead of the FED's as well as their hunting parties. She hadn't smelled the way most people had smelled since escaping the Academy. She did hope that sooner or later she would run into River and her brother Simon, but she knew that if that ever happened, they would all be arrested and then they would really be in trouble.

As she made ready to leave the area she was hiding in at the moment, a FED cruiser ship, accustomed to flying in outer space with maybe one or two people on board, landed next to my hiding spot. A female FED got out and walked around, & by her outfit, she could also tell that she was on the run. She came out of hiding and the FED nodded at her before taking her arm and walking her to the back of the cruiser. They both got in and then the FED headed the cruiser into space. She ate the food that had been set out for her and she knew that what the FED had done would get her killed if she was ever found with a fugitive.

A FED On The Run:

Aaron Sportling had heard about the two escaped teens from the Academy and though she knew that nobody could track the last escape back to her, she still knew that she had to get out and fast. She bought herself a four person cruiser, something nobody would be looking for and stocked it with enough food and water to last a long time. She made sure that she had enough money to keep anyone with her comfortable for a long time (in fact, she had drained her entire account). When asked by her superiors why she needed all her money, she'd told them that she had finally found the perfect place to put down roots and that she needed it to buy her spread of land. They were never the wiser.

Aaron left that day, with enough clothes, food, water, mechanical parts, money and whatever else one needed to stay sane in long periods of time in space and then departed. She knew exactly where to find Shadow. Aaron had been Shadow's guard while she was at the Academy and she knew that Shadow was the last of her kind, the last of a race first found in the galaxy while the terraforming had been going on. Aaron was to be Shadow's ride to planet she needed to get to in order to procure her people's safety. She was the key that they needed to thrive once again among a race where they weren't wanted.

She kept her mouth shut as she listened to Shadow eating behind her. When the girl had had enough to eat, she turned around and looked at Shadow. Shadow grabbed two cups of water and walked to the front of the cruiser. Shadow handed a cup to Aaron and then sat down in the seat next to her. This was going to be a long trip for the both of them so they might as well get comfortable living together.

A Map To Another Time:

Shadow was sleeping when all of a sudden she was awake, or was it a dream. She could no longer tell her dreams from reality. The planet was calling to her, begging her to return. The cruiser was definitely not going to be able to make it to the planet by itself. Shadow's home world was too far out in the verse to be able to get there with a small cruiser that was only meant to fly short trips. By using the map in her head, Shadow knew that once within the planet's sight, all that were with her would understand why she so desperately needed to get to the planet. She wished that it wouldn't just be the two of them going and she knew that if it was, then they were going to need to upgrade to a bigger ship and soon.

Aaron had noticed Shadow sitting up and though she looked awake, knew better than to wake her. Shadow used her sleep to locate their place on the map in her mind. It was a map back to her home world and she knew that if anything was ever to happen to Shadow, an entire race of people would be forgotten about. This is why Aaron had risked her life and career to making sure that Shadow was able to escape. Because like Shadow, Aaron needed to escape as well.

It had been nearly two weeks since they had escaped and now they were definitely well off on their own. No reavers had attacked and Aaron was still trying to figure out why. Aaron figured it had something to do with the fact that Shadow was keeping them away, but couldn't really pinpoint the real reason. She kept the alert system activated just in case something came up while the two of them were asleep. So far, nothing had appeared and they were able to get some sleep before heading off again.

Who will Aaron and Shadow come up upon? Will there be any one that is willing to help them in their quest to find Shadow's people? Are any of Shadow's people still alive?

More to come in the next chapter…

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