A Mercenary's Tale
Chapter 2
Osiris
Dr. Mathias was having a really bad day; but nowhere near as bad as Dr. Caron. The Operative had killed her, as casually as if she were a mosquito. Mathias was certain he was next, but a communication had arrived for the Operative-just in the nick of time-and everything changed. Now, he, and the Operative, were here, in a secret, spy-proof chamber deep in the bowels of the Senate House, with Senator Maxwell Jameson in attendance.
"Believe me, sir," Mathias addressed the Senator, sending a pointed glare in the Operative's direction. "Ms. River Tam's reading ability is only surpassed by her utter and complete psychosis. In her mental state, if she picked up any of Senator Singh's thoughts, she very likely wouldn't have been able to correctly interpret it."
"So…the blind leading the blind…" Jameson grunted.
"Sir…" the Operative cleared his throat, and Jameson motioned him to silence.
"Senator Singh has just been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He's been hospitalized but, by now, everyone has heard his beliefs concerning…Miranda."
"Well, I haven't," Mathias demanded. "I think I have a right to know, especially considering you were about to kill me when Senator Jameson's message arrived."
"Miranda…" the Operative's eyes sought out Jameson's.
"He's cleared to know," Jameson affirmed. "Tell him."
The Operative nodded.
"Senator Singh told me," he began. "He had been in charge of a program years ago, that involved the use of a drug called PAX, on the entire population of Miranda. According to him, it had been a disaster. Most of the populace had died, but a significant segment of the population became what we now call Reavers."
"That's…ridiculous." Mathias stated. "Believe me, I've been involved in most scientific studies these past twenty years, and, if there was a drug called PAX, I would've known about it. Besides, I've done autopsies on the few Reaver bodies we've been able to find intact, and it's caused by a virus, not a drug."
"Are you sure about that?"
"He's sure," Jameson answered the Operative. "There never was any drug even remotely like PAX. That was just Senator Singh's psychosis manifesting itself. We don't know what happened on Miranda. But we do know it wasn't us."
"But you took Miranda off the planetary maps," the Operative said. "You must have some idea what's going on there."
"Suspicions, yes," suddenly, Jameson looked weary. "And this is why I had to interfere with Senator Singh's orders. We couldn't afford to lose Dr. Mathias. He's the only one left who was involved in Project Lazarus."
"Project Laz-"Mathias had to stop and clear his throat. "Are you reinstating Project Lazarus?"
"Yes, we are, Dr. Mathias; and, seeing as Dr. Lorenzo is no longer with us, you are the only one who knows about Lazarus…"
"Johnny," Mathias corrected him. "His name was Johnny. Are we to make another clone?"
"Yes, we will see to it that you have all the resources you need"
"Bear in mind that it was very difficult-almost impossible-to create that first clone."
"What was the problem?"
The Operative had been keeping silent for most of this.
"It was the magnetite in his blood, bones, and brain," Mathias was warming to his subject. "We made around a thousand clones all told. Most of the fetuses spontaneously aborted during the first trimester. Some managed to survive to around five months; but showed severe and deadly deformities. Those we euthanized as quickly as possible. It was the magnetite that was interfering with proper development, you see. Only Johnny made it through the whole gestational period. But he was perfect…"
"Perfect..." the Operative raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, he was perfect," Mathias insisted. "Due to the magnetite, his bones were virtually unbreakable, and he also displayed immunity to practically every virus we know about-including the Reaver Virus. Further, the magnetite had also apparently had a salutary effect on his brain, which was strengthened by certain…enhancements…done while he was in vitro. At one year of age, Johnny was so far in advance of other children his age, it was almost terrifying. Then, he was stolen from us, and we were back at square one…"
"As I've already said," the Senator spoke up. "We will make every resource available to you."
He turned to the Operative.
"Your task will be the more difficult one," he said. "Forget River Tam for now. I want Johnny found and brought back to us. He would be around fifteen Standard years old now…"
"Actually…" Mathias held up a hand. "The investigators who searched for Johnny back when he disappeared were able to prove that the theft of a medical-grade stasis cubicle, and some age accelerant, were connected to Johnny's kidnapping. Assuming the person in charge knew what he-or she-was doing, and made no mistakes, Johnny could be any age at all."
"So, his profile could read as white male, age indeterminate…" the Operative snorted. "It would be like looking for one needle in a thousand different haystacks…"
"I wouldn't worry," Mathias assured the Operative. "As I recall, some of the experiments we did with Johnny dealt with his ability to retain visual information. I'm sure we could adapt that to suit your needs…"
Senator Jameson called for tea for three. If this worked, he would have a weapon against the Reavers, a human weapon that wasn't insane; like River Tam had turned out to be…
Serenity out in the Black
Simon Tam extracted blood from his sleeping patient; put it in the Analyzer for testing. His head was still spinning over the recent discoveries.
Someone deliberately reduced Jayne Cobb's intelligence…
At least the Neural Inhibitor was out now, and maybe Jayne would gain back at least a little of what he had lost.
"The boy's brain came to terms with the Inhibitor years ago," River's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "His brain forged new paths instead of trying the paths blocked by the Cruel Device; so, instead of academic excellence, his brain now specializes in sensory and tactile excellence. His nose knows, his eyes perceive, his ears hear all, and he lives in his skin. No one better at tracking than the boy, and even better now that he has slipped the leash."
She was staring at the sleeping mercenary.
"Deeper now," she said. "More filled with…himself. You'll see…"
With that, she skipped away, executing a complicated pavane around Shepherd Book, and Captain Mal Reynolds as they entered Sickbay. Mal looked grim.
"The Shepherd told me what was done to Jayne," he said. "You got anything you want to add?"
"I've done an in depth brain scan," Simon replied. "And, I'm analyzing his blood even as we speak. The surprising thing is that there doesn't seem to be any long-term damage done by the Inhibitor."
"No brain damage?"
Shepherd Book looked startled at that.
"No sign of any functional damage to the brain," Simon agreed. It was surprising, though, and just a little worrying.
Does our Big Dumb Merc have any more surprises waiting for us?
One of the medical machines gave a discreet-sounding beep.
"That's the Analyzer," Simon announced. "It's finished doing the analysis of his blood."
He went to a machine, pressed a button, stared at the readout scrolling down the screen.
"Son of a bitch!"
Mal raised an eyebrow at Simon's sudden exclamation.
"Last time I hear you say that," he said. "We were all staring at a statue of our favorite Merc. Ain't a statue here, so I conjure there's another reason for your imaginative language. Care to fill us lesser mortals in on the situation?"
Simon was staring at the readout.
"It's Jayne's blood…" he said at last. "It's full of…magnetite; lethal levels of it, I'd say. He shouldn't be alive with that much magnetite in his blood."
"So…" Mal looked down at Jayne. "We got us a Merc who was dumbed down by persons unknown, and his blood is chockfull of a toxic substance that ain't even close to killing him. How does all that happen to the son of dirt poor farmers out on the Rim?"
Simon bit his lip. The answer was simple, really. That sort of thing didn't happen to the son of dirt poor farmers out on the Rim.
It shouldn't happen at all, at least not naturally…
Blood like Jayne's would poison any mother's womb. Simon was also pretty sure that conception wouldn't be possible either. So…
Jayne was created in a lab somewhere, created in a test tube, brought to term in vitro; and I thought I was horrified before. How did Jayne end up here?
He knew he couldn't tell any of his suspicions to Mal; at least not yet, not until he had gotten some answers. Mal had a suspicious nature, and something told him that telling Mal would be a monstrous mistake; at least for now…
Fortunately, a groan interrupted the sudden, tense silence.
"Wha' the gorram hell?"
Jayne Cobb was waking up…
His head didn't hurt anymore; but everything else did. He felt like he had been tied to the nether end of a horse, and dragged a good country mile
Back in Doc Simon's Sickbay again…
"What happened?"
He tried to force himself into full wakefulness, tried to sit up; but a hand on his chest-Shepherd Book's hand-gently pushed him back.
"You had a seizure," the preacher explained.
"A seizure…" Jayne frowned, a sudden fear crawling up his spine. "I got epi…epee…"
"Epilepsy, and no, you don't have it," Simon assured him. "It was just a one-time occurrence."
"So, it was the zappin' I took from that gorram flying trash can when we got the Lassiter?"
"Not exactly," the Doc sighed, and Jayne didn't like the sound of that at all. "When it electrocuted you, it also shorted this out."
Simon held out something in his hand, and Jayne peered at it. At first he thought it was shrapnel. Most mercs Jayne knew collected shrapnel like writers collected ink stains. Shrapnel weren't anything for anyone to get excited about.
'Sides, the Doc wouldn't be looking at him with that unnerving…compassion…if that tiny thing were just a piece of shrapnel. So Jayne looked at the thing more closely, and now that he was looking at it, it didn't really look like shrapnel at all. It had a machined look to it, and it reminded him of those little things you found in the innards of automated machines…
"A chip? What the gorram hell? Where did you find that?"
"In the back of your neck," Simon replied grimly as he turned and put the thing away. "It's a Neural Inhibitor, Jayne, and it's sole purpose is to lower a child's intelligence, so you've been living with that…thing…in your neck for a long time now."
Again, there was that compassion in Simon's eyes, a compassion Jayne had often seen for other members of the crew, but never even once aimed at him. Now that it was aimed at him, he had no idea what to do. Then, Simon's words, what he had said, caught up with him…
"Someone made me dumb?"
The look in Simon's eyes-angry and sad at the same time-was all the answer he needed, and it made him want to break things…
All his life, Jayne Cobb had been the slow one. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, had come slowly, if at all. And Jayne remembered the anguish he had felt when all the kids his age at school had surged ahead of him, as all the younger kids-including his baby brother, Mattie-passed him by too. The hurt of it had never really gone away. But all those years, he had been forced to accept life as it was…
Some folks were born smart, and others were born dumb, and there was nothing you could do about any of that…
Until now…
"Someone made me dumb and stupid? Why the fuck would anyone do that?"
"Ain't no one sure on that," Mal spoke, and there was compassion in his eyes and voice too. "We're gonna visit your Ma, Jayne, see if she can help us piece this puzzle together."
"Don't be harsh on my Ma!"
Jayne did sit up now, leveling a stern glare at Mal.
"She ain't got a mean bone in her, and that's a fact. How she got a mean hun dun like me, I can't even tell…"
"We know, Jayne," Simon hastened to explain. "But, she might know something…a face…a name…Something. Someone committed a terrible crime against you, when you were just an infant; and I'm sure your Ma would want to help get some justice for you. Besides, wouldn't it be nice to see her again?"
"Yeah…" Jayne nodded shakily, ashamed of his outburst at Mal. "I'd like to see her again, and my little Brother, Mattie, too. It's been a powerful long time since I saw them last."
"So, let's go see your folks," Mal said. "They live on Harvest, right?"
"Yeah," Jayne nodded. "Just a few miles south of Bethany."
He started to get out of that hospital bed.
"Oh, no you don't," Simon glared at him.
"Aw, Doc! I feel fine!"
"Just one more day," Simon insisted. "You can go back to your bunk tomorrow morning."
"Aw…hell…" Jayne groused. "I got your word on tomorrow?"
"If nothing happens between now and then," the doc nodded.
"Yeah…okay," Jayne agreed reluctantly. "But I'm gonna hold you to that."
Then the others left; Simon into his office, to go over his medical inventory, Shepherd Book off to his bunk, and Mal off to the cockpit, to inform Wash of his new destination. Jayne lay back in the bed, staring at the ceiling. Simon's news, that someone had done that to him was like to put him in a towering rage, but for the fact that he was gonna see his folks again, after so many years…
Ma and Mattie will sure be surprised, seeing me there, all unannounced…
