Chapter 1: Falling Down and Setting Up
Five hundred years and one week before the prologue...
A black sphere plunged toward Earth. Designed to channel energy on a level which could warp time and space, its unbroken shell not even changing color as it plunged through the atmosphere. It finally crash
landed on the Salt Flats of Utah, where it laid for barely an hour before it was picked up andtransported to a secure, private facility...
Five hundred years before the prologue, but five subjective minutes LATER...
Mal opened his eyes, slowly. "I'm up... Zoe, y'can stop shaking me... ."
"Glad to hear it, sir," Zoe responded. "But I ain't not the one shaking you."
To an outsider she may have sounded calm, but after so many years watching each other's backs Mal was able to pick up on an underlying stress to her voice. His eyes snapped open wide, more spurred on by concern for his crew then for himself.
Mal looked around. He was still sitting in the pilot's seat, strapped in tight. Zoe was in the copilot's seat, similarly strapped in, fighting the controls with both hands. Outside, the view screen showed Serenity locked into a collision course with a planet. The entire ship was shaking, as if some giant's infant had seized the ship and
was using it as a rattle.
"Wuh duh ma huh ta duh fung-kwong duh wai-shung doh...," (Holy mother of God and all her wacky nephews) Mal swore. "What's going on?"
"Don't rightly know, sir," Zoe gritted. "We hit something 'n' I passed out. When I come to, the ship was already a'shake."
"Pull up!" the captain also clutched the controls pulling the yoke toward him as hard as he could, stating the obvious, 'We're fixin' t'crash!"
"Really, sir? I hadn't noticed." Zoe said, sarcasm heavy in her voice. Mal realized she was already straining at her side of the controls, and had obviously been doing so for some time. She had Serenity's engines running full, being red-lined... every possible erg of thrust being directed at trying to either slow the ship down or to push it away from directly striking the planet.
* * *
"You know, that's the fourth time we've gone out to see TranceFormeders," Janet commented. She was twenty years old, but with her brown hair pulled back into a pony tail and dressed as she was, in frilly white sweater and blue and yellow plaid skirt, it would be easy to mistake her for someone much younger.
"Yeah, maybe next time we'll actually watch some of the movie." Her date, Scud, spared his attention from driving enough to smile. In another few minutes he pulled up in front of the house which Amy shared with two other girls.
"Hey, look! A shooting star!" the girl pointed. "Two of them!" She closed her eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"Ssh, I'm making a wish," Janet said. After a moment, she opened her eyes again.
"So, what did you wish for?" he asked. "Let me guess, a new sweater?"
"No," she giggled. "I wished that you'd kiss me again."
"Oh, if that's all... ." Flashing his roguishly boyish smile, he leaned over with lips puckered.
Grinning as well, Janet leaned into his motion, meeting and eagerly returning the kiss.
* * *
"Ugh. Zhey're kiszing. Right in front of our houze," Dominique frowned at the monitor which was showing the feed of a low-light security camera pointed right at Scud's car.
"That's rich, considering what you and your boy toy du jour get involved in practically every night," commented Max. "I never kizz them on ze mouth," the French-raised Asian girl sniffed primly.
"She's getting out of the car. Better switch to another camera," Max said.
"Oui, right."
* * *
"Looks t'be we're not going to make it, sir!" Zoe swore, glancing at the displays which showed how fast they still were travelling toward the planet surface, the landscape rolling under them all a blur.
"We'll make it," said Mal, with more optimism than confidence, and with more than a dash of denial. He stared at the night-shrouded landscape below, trying to find anything which might improve Serenity's chances by even a fraction. "There! That lake!"
"Sir, how d'you know if it's deep enough?" Zoe asked.
"Well how do you know it ain't?" he retorted. "Head f'r it!"
"Aye sir!" Regardless of whatever her own thoughts were, the black woman obeyed without question, turning the craft for the indicated body of water.
"Deflector?"
Mal glanced at the back of the cockpit. River was sitting in the back corner, her eyes strangely calm, hands and bare feet braced to hold her in place. He turned back, flicking the controls to activate the feeble shielding designed only to protect them against space particulates no larger than peas. Right, better'n nothing! Then, eyes catching the next control over which pivoted the engines on their sturdy mounts, set them to pointing down at the ground. Now why didn't I think'a that sooner?
I wish Wash were here... his crashes being s'much safer than anything I c'n do...
Still traveling at speeds normally reserved for sky-divers and unsuccessful real-estate investors, Serenity plowed into the lake.
* * *
Janet walked into the house the three girls shared, to discover Dominique and Max at the couch, each holding a handful of cards.
"Got any threes?" Max asked.
"Go, how you say, fist yourself," Dominique said.
"It's 'fish'. Go FISH," said Max with a sigh. She reached to the deck to pick up an additional card.
"I don't believe this!" Janet said. "You two were totally spying on me!"
"No we weren't!" said Max.
"Yes you were," said Janet, accusingly. "The only time you two play cards is when you're just pretending to hide the fact that you were doing something else."
"That eez re-dic-u-lous!" protested Dominique. "We have been zitting heere all night, playing cardz!"
"Oh yeah?" said Janet. She walked over to the monitor Max had been watching and put her hand on top of it it. "How come the monitor is still warm?"
"Congratulations!" the black senior declared, thinking fast, "You just passed a situational awareness test!"
"I did?" Falling for it completely the brunette beamed excitedly, "Really?"
"Really?" Dominique whispered sotto voce.
Max quickly elbowed the French girl in the ribs.
"Oui, really!" Dominique added hastily. "Weel done!"
"Great!" said Janet, happily. "Awesome!" She impulsively moved over to the couch and bent down, hugging her house mates. "You two are the best, helping me with all this testing."
"Don't mention it," said Max.
"We are alwayz ready to 'elp."
The next morning, a loud alarm sounded through the house.
"Let's go, girls!" Max called, jumping out of bed. She checked the other two's rooms. Dominique had reformed. Since Amy's leaving the team bumped Dominique up to the new second in command, it now seemed like she only found someone sharing the Asian's bed every other morning. This was one of the girl's good mornings; she was alone, so it only took a few seconds for the team leader to get her awake and moving. Janet, being an eager beaver, was already getting dressed.
Satisfied her team was getting ready, Max went back to her room. Changing from the soft shorts and short-sleeved shirt she normally slept in to put on the DEBS uniform of white blouse, blue plaid tie, and matching blue plaid skirt. She took her private weapon, a silver revolver outfitted with a telescopic sight oversized for the weapon, out from under her a quick inspection to double-check the weapon was in working order and loaded, she tucked it in the back of her skirt and hurried downstairs.
A few minutes later found the trio in their car, a modem black convertible VW bug. The casual observer would never suspect it to be outfitted with a number of hidden 'extras'. From habit, Dominique and Janet sat in the back, leaving the front passenger seat -- Amy's seat -- empty. Max drove, and within minutes they were in front of the DEBS Academy diner.
Mr. Phipps, their academic adviser, was waiting at the central table.
"Good morning!" said Janet, as she slid in next to the giant black man.
"Bonjour, Mr. P!"
"Hi, Mr. P," said Max as she and Dominique took their own seats.
"How many times have I asked you to not call me that?" he rumbled rhetorically, ignoring further comments as he pulled out a remote control. A hologram of a black sphere appeared above the middle of the table, rotating slowly.
"Girls, you have been chosen for a mission," Mr. Phipps said calmly. "This crash landed into the salt flats of Utah eight days ago. It was spotted by visual examination and by atmospheric disturbance scanners."
"What eez eet? Zome zort of zpy zattelite?"
"There's no obvious sensor or communication arrays," said Max, studying the smooth, featureless orb. "Also, no markings."
"What it is, is unknown." said Mr. Phipps. "We have no idea what its intended purpose was, or who made it."
"Is this from before it crash landed?" asked Janet.
"No, after the impact," said Mr. Phipps.
"Wow, it's not damaged or anything," Janet said with awe.
"Correct," the man confimed. "Also, this had no radar return; our radar didn't pick it up at all. No known agency, US or foreign, has anything similar to this. We're worried this may be some sort of new spy device or weapon."
"You mean like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?" said Janet. "Fired by catapult?"
She became aware that the other three people were staring at her. "Scud has me reading science fiction," she explained.
"So, we need to drive out to the salt flats and pick this up?" asked Max.
"Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that." He clicked the remote, causing the holographic image to change to the rotating bust of a man with salt and pepper hair and a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. "This is Dr. Spindle. He is the head of a team of scientists who are doing a private project examining asteroids with
the express purpose of trying to find signs of alien origin. They found the 'asteroid' and have it under examination in their laboratory facility."
"How did you find out about this so fast?" asked Janet, curious.
"We have been monitoring this group for some time," said Mr. Phipps. "Mainly in case they did discover something that was of top secret origin."
"Like from a US spy satellite or plane," offered Max.
"Or from a UFO like the ones at Area 51!" the junior-most agent added.
"I am not authorized to comment on that," said Mr. Phipps. "If the US government acts officially in this matter, it could set off a chain of conspiracy theorists and attract publicity. Rather than risk that, theDEBS organization has been tasked with covertly getting the object back."
"Jou mean stealing eet," Dominique interpreted.
"That's one way of looking at it," the big man admitted.
"Wow, it's too bad Amy and Lucy Diamond aren't here," said Janet. "What with stealing and all, this would be right up Lucy's alley."
"We can handle this without Amy," declared Max. "Don't worry, Mr. P. We'll take this assignment."
"Excellent." He turned off the hologram generator and placed a thick folder on the table. "This contains the address and blueprints of the group's lab facility. I also took the liberty of getting the homework assignments for you girls' next week of classes, so that you'll be able to keep up with your coursework while on this mission. Good luck."
Before the girls could say anything else, Mr. Phipps vanished in a flash of light.
"Too bad we cannot uze a transpor-ter like heem," Dominique grumbled wistfully.
"You know that DEBS restricts use to that technology to only command staff," Max admonished picking up the folder. "Besides, it only works on DEBS grounds." She was a little apprehensive about the team's first
big mission with Amy on her 'extended undercover mission', but she hid it behind a facade of calm confidence. "Let's take this back to the house and get busy planning."