Disclaimer: Don't own Chuck. Some doofus in a nice cushy office does.
"The operative has failed. We have no one left to send," a man in a dark room informed the others at the table he sat at.
"We still have... them," another at the table suggested, his voice becoming hesitant and almost afraid at his own suggestion.
"Are they ready?" a third asked.
"The clones have been fully grown for a month, the past month has been testing to ensure their minds are exactly as they were. It wouldn't do to ruin their effectiveness by tampering with what works," the second responded, his voice slowly becoming more confident. "They... could work."
"What about the third's neurological problems? Did our scientists address that?" the first man asked, they didn't want a faulty product after-all.
"There were notes found of a device which regulated the problems and neutralized them, in his time it was a watch, our scientists implanted it where it was not so easily removed," the second man responded with a nod.
The first and third shared a look before the first looked back, "Very well. Send them."
Across the verse on a firefly class ship called the Serenity the crew was sitting down for one of the rare sit down dinners they had every so often. Mal walked in and raised an eyebrow at the extra-moonbrained look on the young reader turned pilot's face, "Mind tellin' me what's going through that head of yours little albatross?"
"They wanted me so they sent the three. The three are not what they seemed to be," River replied, focusing back in to turn toward him as she finished.
"Gorramit," a big, bearded, mercenary named Jayne swore as he laid his head against the back of his hand on the tabletop.
Simon ignored Jayne's outburst and turned to his sister. "River? Who are the three?"
River cocked her head, as if unsure how to answer. "A team with a perfect record."
"That sounds wonderful," Zoe piped up from her seat at the table, her voice dripping in sarcasm.
"What did you mean they aren't what they seemed?"
"They thought the three were simple tools, tools who knew not to question."
"So we're not dealing with three Operatives then?"
River shook her head.
"That's... comforting?"
The reader tilted her head in slight thought and frowned but said nothing. The reader wasn't yet sure but didn't want to say. The three were unlike the Operative or the hands of blue. More complex, increased difficulty to predict patterns. Ultimately their motives proved too complex for the river to carry much past the extreme present.
Meanwhile, in a medical facility hidden on a small asteroid three people woke with a start, nearly in unison, coughing wildly as they sat up on the cold metal and rubber beds they were laying on, clad only in hospital gowns. When the coughing subsided their eyes found each others.
One of the two males, the younger of the pair with four inch long curly hair summed up all of their thoughts fairly well, "Where the hell are we?"
At that moment a man entered their room, greying hair and glasses were the first things the trio noticed, the girl and the grizzled male looked at the curly haired who shook his head. "That's a good question Mr Bartowski. I'm sure you have a lot of those. This is the Massa Asteroid. I am Doctor Winstley."
"Asteroid? You mean asteroid crater don't you? We can't be on an asteroid," the blond woman emphatically stated.
"I'm afraid Miss Walker that the world is not the same one from your memories. We are indeed on an Asteroid," the doctor replied.
"That's not possible." the gruff man growled.
"Oh I'm quite certain it is, since we are," the elderly doctor replied with a raised eyebrow. "Now, if you'll wait here I'll go retrieve my superiors, they were quite anxious for you to awaken."
The moment the door closed behind Doctor Winstley the trio were off their beds and huddled together
The curly haired male turned to the other two as he slid off his bed, an ounce of focus later, which would appear to those who were unaware to be him crossing his eyes he started speaking in Farsi, a language he knew both of the other two would understand, but prayed those watching wouldn't, "Casey. Look at the room we're in. I don't know about you but I'm not flashing on anything in here, and I don't recognize it otherwise. While I don't suggest we trust these guys completely I do suggest we play along. If we find we can't trust them we can always fight our way out."
Casey grunted again, this time of acknowledgement.
"Anyone have any idea how we got here? Last thing I remember is Morgan dropping Shaw's trigger device. Chuck?" the blond woman questioned, turning to the first guy to talk.
Chuck shook his head, his curls bouncing slightly as he did so, "Not a clue Sarah. That's the last thing I remember too. Casey?"
Casey frowned and took a moment to think before he sighed, "Same."
All three fell silent, knowing speculation was pointless and occasionally dangerous, while they waited.
Shortly enough Doctor Winstley returned, this time with a man who just screamed politician, and two armed guards dressed in... why was their body armor purple? That just oozed 'Insult Me!' Fortunately, before Casey could do what the guard's armor clearly demanded, the politician spoke, "Oh good, you're awake. I'm sure you have plenty of questions."
Casey replied with a grunt then spoke, "Yea, like where are we and how did we get here?"
The politician inclined his head in admission of those being the most important questions, "We are in a facility in the Massa Asteroid. You got here when we cloned you."
"You... cloned us? Isn't that still somewhere between extremely illegal and massively illegal?" Chuck asked with a raised eyebrow.
Politician nodded, "It was when you died. The Alliance declared it justifiable in cases of need a hundred years ago."
Sarah raised her eyebrow, "When we died? A hundred years ago? Gonna have to explain a bit more than that."
Now the politician checked a data-pad he had hidden behind his back with a frown on his face, "The details of your death are unknown to us, a fire in 2156 destroyed most of the records that included your team. The year is now 2519 as you would know it, or 8AU in our records."
Chuck's eyebrow rose again, "If it's been so long, and forgive me if I'm skeptical of it having been so long, why would you clone us now? Any information we would have would be utterly useless to you."
The politician nodded, "You're correct, the information you contain as the intersect is useless to us. No, the reason we brought you back is because one of the few things written on your team that survived the fires was that you never failed, that you three were the best your agencies ever saw. We need that."
Casey, Chuck, and Sarah traded glances, all slightly tense with the revelation of Chuck being the Intersect. Chuck finally spoke for the group, "What would be in it for us? Nothing personal but all our reasons for fighting were back in 2010."
"Completely understandable," the politician waved off. "We will arm you, pay you, and leave you alone for the most part. In exchange you will continue your jobs as if we're the same government that employed you on the day you died."
Chuck found a question he felt needed answering. "Why do we remember everything? I'm no geneticist but I wouldn't imagine memories are something that can be cloned normally."
This time the doctor answered, "It's complicated, I'll admit. You're right that DNA doesn't hold memories in it, but they are imprinted on the cells themselves. If done correctly the brain forms in a clone exactly as it was at the time the cell used split from it's parent cell."
The politician spoke again, "We actually have a gift, of sorts, for Mr Bartowski. When the files were found our scientists attempted to recreate the intersect but were never able to find a person capable of absorbing the intel so we gave up. There is, however, still a copy of the database that has been recently updated. We would like to implant it into your brain, if you're amenable."
Chuck exchanged glances with Sarah and Casey again. All three were feeling a little uneasy with the politician who'd apparently come to recruit them. Ultimately deciding that the potential information far outweighed the risk he turned back to the politician and nodded, "I'll take the update. Just one thing though, could we get some clothes?"
Soon enough the trio was dressed, though all of them were caught off guard at the kind of clothing they were given. They ended up dressed in brown pants of varying shades because they seemed to be the most common of their choices, Casey managed to get a tight-fitting black t-shirt that more or less matched his fashion sense in 2010. Sarah picked out a blue long sleeve shirt and a vest that matched the pants she had. Chuck picked, or rather Sarah picked for him, a simple light blue striped short-sleeve shirt and a dark brown vest.
All three were given a badge they could show people to get extra assistance and Chuck was handed a small chip to play through a data-pad, designed to destroy itself after the one use. the team was also given money and an almost new transport, designed for a crew of three with a room for each crewman and a modest sized cargo-bay.
They were told their first assignment was to find, and take into custody, River Tam, an escaped and extremely dangerous girl.
A/N: The Alliance is just desperate enough to hurry Team Bartowski into the field... wonder if that'll bite em in the ass.