Chapter 2
One Week Later
The crew had gotten together several times already to try and see if they could shed some light on the man's past. The crew had already given the man a name, Miles Frye. He would pretend to be Kaylee's cousin if anyone asked. Jayne had already given Miles the nickname Moonshine, after they talked about Kaylee's homemade alcohol.
"Moonbrain and Moonshine. Too much crazy fer ten Serenity's I say."
The parts of Miles' memory that did work were things such as recognition of basic things, basic knowledge of the 'verse and in depth knowledge of some really strange things. Anything that wasn't found in the Cortex had to be explained to him, and most things that were in the cortex were just as puzzling. This led Mal to believe that Miles' memory was artificial, made up by the doctors that did the experiments to Miles and River.
Miles actually had a lot of trouble fitting in because of his artificial memory. He did not know any slang vocabulary, his Chinese wasn't as good as the others, and he tended to talk about things that didn't make any sense, except to River. Simon had come to a conclusion that River understood him well because they were both reader's, though Miles only did emotions. Miles said more through his connection with River than he said verbally, which made conversations with everyone else very difficult.
Miles' connection with River was extremely close. They understood each other extremely well and had shared pasts, though Miles' memory did not recall it. In fact, Miles had unintentionally started to work parts of River's past into his own. He would occasionally bring something up that had happened to River when she was a child as if it had happened to him. Miles had shown childlike behavior when they had first let him loose, not knowing any better. He had aged considerably through the week, probably through his connection with River.
The crew had decided that Miles was about the same age as River, which would make sense if he were part the same sort of experiment. Miles did not show the genius intellect that River had. He did absorb strange skills exceedingly well, better than River. He already knew the exact time needed for nearly every dish to be put into the micro-oven. He could clean weapons extremely fast, though his shooting ability would still have to be put to the test. He had spacewalked once and was able to do things in zero G that no-one on board had ever seen. His most frightening ability was his skills with explosives. He had made fireworks out of Kaylee's liquor, motor oil, and some other materials. He cooked toast by lighting it on fire with cooking oil.
Mal was certain that Miles' ability's would be extremely useful, especially with the way he picked up strange things, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something would go wrong. He had had the same discussion with Zoe four times over the past week. "Why did the Alliance send him here if they knew he had the safe-word imbedded in his mind? They should have known we would find it. His attempted attack on the ship was absolutely terrible; he just ran up the deck and got shot. I hope Doc finds some answers when we reach that hospital."
"You know what sir, what if Moonshine wasn't actually attacking us? What if he just happened to be there for something else?"
"You know what Zoe, whatever the Alliance deployed an unfinished, untrained psychic to do, I don't want to know about. Actually I lied; I would want to know about it. I really hate these gorramn mysteries."
"Let's just get to the hospital where Simon can make some scans for now. And hope he doesn't pick up too much from River."
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Kaylee desperately need some alone time with Simon. The new arrival had changed things up quite a bit. Having River around wasn't too bad, but having two? Miles wasn't even a girl, couldn't share what Kaylee and River had. I just need to get some me time. With Simon. Long gorramn week.
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Jayne was actually fine with Miles being on Serenity. He wasn't too annoying, and he kept River happy. When River was happy she wasn't annoying. Jayne did notice the toll it was taking on Kaylee. Bein' happy all the time must be tough. Jayne couldn't imagine being happy all day. 'Less I was rich. His eyes widened at the thought of that.
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Simon was actually glad that Moonshine had been taken on board. River spent most of her time with Moonshine, and less doing something dangerous. 'Course I don't know if they're doing something dangerous. Simon was bored, no doubt about it. He had nothing to do with River occupied. He would be spending most of his time with Kaylee, but she usually had something to do, engine work if River didn't ask for her.
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Miles was loving the Serenity. He had no knowledge of a lot of things, so the cortex was a huge library for him. Any spare time that he had was spent there. Most of Miles's time was spent with River. Their shared connection was heaven sent for Miles, who just liked the company. Spending most of your life in the Academy wasn't much fun.
At the moment River and Miles were sitting back to back on the catwalk, River's old favorite spot. "Aunt Kaylee told me a story about the time you took down a whole bar. You think that I can do that?"
River snorted through her nose. "Keep dreaming, you're better at other things."
"And those would be..."
River sighed "Oh, I don't know, nothing." With a squeal she stood up and ran down the stairs, laughing on the way down.
Miles gave a yelp and stood up to chase after her. Instead of taking the stairs he looked at River's route down the stairs. Miles gave a running leap onto the handrail of the catwalk, running along the bar for a second, before front flipping to the cargo bay floor, right in River's way. River crashed into him, both tumbling on the floor laughing.
"Things like that," smiled River, shaking hair out of her face.
Jayne stood in the doorway of the cargo bay, staring at them. "What's so wrong 'bout the stairs? Cap wants you anyway Moonbrain, we're coming in to land. Gonna be weird coming back to Ariel."
River jogged past Jayne, dancing around him then back up the stairs, headed for the cockpit.
Miles moved past Jayne, up the stairs and into the dining area. Loud noises were coming from the engine room, meaning Kaylee was working on some last minute repairs. Or Simon. Miles didn't want to take the chance, so he plopped himself down on one of the couches in the back. Not much to do now for a while until they landed. He pulled out a Cortex data pad that he usually left on the table for times like this.
Zoe walked through the room, on her way to the bridge. Miles looked up from the pad. "Hey Zoe, your gray has receded since yesterday. And someone put in their food for a minute too long."
Zoe stopped, gave an awkward smile, not knowing exactly what to think. She stopped at the micro-oven, a burned smell. Hey, the kid may not be as smart as River, but he's useful for some things. Zoe gave up trying to figure out what it was exactly that she was looking at in the micro-oven, flashing a smile at Miles as she left the room. Little kid doesn't act up half as much as River did when she first joined up.
Zoe walked down the corridor, stumbling when the ship made a little jolt. Either Kaylee and Simon bumped something in the back while...exercising, or they were entering atmosphere. The glow from the cabin ahead told her it was the latter. Zoe let out a slight sigh of relief, glad she didn't have to be the one that had to break up Simon and Kaylee's exercise session. Zoe entered the cabin, looking over to River, who gave a slight smirk. "We almost on the ground yet sir?"
Mal straightened out, "Gorramn it Zoe, one of these days I'm going to say...think something that isn't so nice for River to hear when you do that." He gave a pause, looked over at River. "Ten minutes?"
River tilted her head a little bit to the side. "Eleven minutes and forty three seconds. Approximately."
Miles popped out of the doorway, "No they set it on seven minutes, burned it all to hell."
River gave a nod.
Mal spun his chair around a look of confusion on his face. "Are we talkin' about the same thing?"
Miles looked up from his datapad. "Bank in Boros has a better exchange rate than Persephone."
Mal stopped, looked at nothing for a moment, spun his chair around and examined his sensor panels. I can see why Jayne calls him Moonshine.
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The ship settled with a dull thump. Simon walked out of the engine room, adjusting his shirt. Kaylee followed soon after, beaming with happiness.
Kaylee stopped for a moment, looking at Simon, who turned around. "Is this gonna involve the same plan as last time? I don't think I can remake that ambulance alone."
Simon smiled, "Not my plan this time. Mal came up with is this time."
Mal appeared in the doorway of the mess "Yeah, and it's a lot easier my way. 'Course this time the machine is off on it's lonesome."
The whole crew had already assembled in the mess. Kaylee and Simon took a seat next to each other. Kaylee took a bite of whatever it was that was on a plate in front of her. "Ugh, someone burned this 'un."
Mal started to look over, shook his head, and began to address the crew. "Okay this should be a lot easier than last time. I did some research, one hall of the hospital is closed for maintenance, and it just so happens to have a brain scanner whatsit inside. I'm not planning on sendin' a lot of people, it'll be Simon, River, Miles, and Zoe. I'm going to stay here and see if I can pick up a job for us to do we need the money.Jayne and Kaylee can guard the Serenity. Kaylee you might want to finish whatever work it was that you were doing on the engine, I could hear you clanging around back there when we came in for landing. You should be able to handle that without Simon helpin' you." He gave a smile, obviously aware of what was going on in the back prior to landing.
"Move out people we'll see you in a few."
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Zoe strapped her lever action to her leg, and another pistol to her side.
Miles asked her, "Zoe I thought this was a milk run why are you strapping all those weapons on?"
Simon shot a glance at Zoe. "I don't think that the Captain knows what a milk run is. Things always go wrong."
"Ain't that the truth." Zoe knew better than everyone that the Captain's plans always involved shooting, but it was usually worth it. Usually.