With ongoing thanks to jpdt19 for beta-reading.
Sorry it's been a while since the last update; I've had writers block.
The Sleeper Awakens
Part 4: Home Is Where The Truth Is
"Okay, spill." Mal stood in the doorway outside the infirmary, a fresh mug of steaming hot coffee in his hands, "You've come over all quiet ever since the Doc disclosed his big family secret. Why?"
"It just threw me, that's all." Jack sat on the couch, rubbing his eyes, "Telepathy isn't that common among humans, not at this point in time. I mean, yeah, there are a few out there, but nothing like River. And I've been around them; most of them can't read me at all; I'm some kind of psychic black hole to them."
"But not River?" Mal nodded, "That girl's always been a might strange; normally something I put down to what the Alliance did to her, but Simons told a few stories about their childhood that makes me wonder" he continued, answering his own question.
"I just wish he knew where she had come from." Jack leaned back and looked up at the ceiling bulkhead, resting his feet on the table, "He's from Osiris, right? Is his family still living there?"
"Yes, and if you're thinking of going there, then you're crazier than River is around goram Reavers!" A dark look came across Mal's face, "The Alliance is after you, which means that they're after us. Now I told you what would happen if you brought that kind of trouble down on me and mine."
"There's something I need to know, Malcolm, something I have to be sure of." Jack sat back up, rubbing his hands together nervously, "I want to believe that River's just a kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I do. But the things I've seen, I've lived through, I can't take the risk."
"The risk of what?" Simon appeared in the other hatchway as if by magic, and the room fell awkwardly silent "No, don't stop on my account: the risk of what?"
"When..." Jack took a deep breath, "When your parents adopted River, what did they tell you had happened to her original family?"
"They'd been on the Oregon Trail when it went down over New Constantinople." Simon wracked his brain to try and drag up the old memory, "They said her parents must have gotten her into an escape pod just before the ship broke up as it entered the atmosphere."
"Good place to hide a fake history." Mal nodded, realizing where Jack's train of thought was headed, and cutting it off at the pass, "Lot of people on a colony ship that big, and only a handful of survives; wouldn't take that much to falsify a report or two, if you knew what you were doing."
"Biggest shipwreck of the prewar years." Jack nodded in agreement, "Was there anything else, anything that came with her?"
"A few blankets." Simon shook his head, then snapped his fingers as a memory flashed through his mind like a bolt of lightning, "Wait, there was one thing; a fob-watch, something they said had been found with her..."
Jack sprung to feet and crossed the room so fast he seemed to blur, grabbing Simon by the shirt collar and slamming him up against the bulkhead so hard he knocked the wind out of the young doctor. Mal instinctively reached for his gun, only to realize that he'd left it in his bunk in his quarters.
"The watch; old, slightly tarnished silver case with a pattern made up over overlapping-circles on the case, yes?" Jack asked, a strange edge to his voice, "The sort of thing you wouldn't look at twice, probably forget about most of the time?"
"Yes." Simon nodded, equal parts terrified and confused, "How did you..."
"Da-shiang bao-tza shr duh lah doo-tze!" Jack let go of the other man and started to pace back and forth across the room, hands pressed up against the side of his head, "We are in so much trouble it isn't even funny anymore!"
"Why?" Mal asked, feeling like he was several pages behind everyone else in the room, "What's the big deal about some old watch?"
"How many people are there in this system?" Jack asked almost rhetorically, "Seven, eight billion?"
"A little over seven-and-a-half, according to the last census." Simon rubbed his throat, "Why?"
"Imagine them all, every last one of them, dead. Or worse." The was a haunted look in Jack's eyes now, "I want to believe that it's all just some cosmic coincidence, that I'm wrong and that it really is just a watch, and that River is just a kid born at the wrong time in the wrong place, but I can't take that risk."
"I'm not sure I want to ask this, but what if you're right?" Mal asked.
"Then pray; pray harder than you ever have in your entire life." Jack collapsed back down into the armchair, "Because if I'm right, then there are two possibilities; the demon or the angel. And believe me, sometimes it's hard to tell one from the other."
"How can we tell?" Simon asked, "Please, whatever else River may or may not be, she's still my little sister; I have to know if she's in any danger."
"If we're in this, then we're in it to the end." Jack looked at the other two men in turn, "There'll be no room for half-measures or chickening out at the last minute."
"All the way." Simon nodded, a look of resolve on his face.
"Hell, you two are as crazy as each other." Mal frowned, "I'm still not comprehending what's so bad about an old watch" he added stubbornly, becoming increasingly unhappy with the whole situation. Tweaking the nose of the alliance, as the Sheppard used to say, was one thing, this was very different.
Jack glanced at him. "It means the alliance might have been playing around with something older and larger than they can possibly comprehend, something potentially catastrophic."
"Still not comprehending exactly!"
"I don't care" interjected Simon, "she's my sister, if she's in danger, then I'm going, with or without you Mal!"
Mal bit back a silent curse. He had a feeling this was going to prove a monumentally bad idea. He glared at his former CO, trying to make up his mind. He had a feeling Zoë was not going to be happy with him later.
"Ok. You're on my crew, so I'm in." he turned and pointed at Jack, "but I'm holding you responsible for the safety of my crew! Dong Ma!
"Then we have to go to Osiris, just the three of us." Jack lent forward, "There's a possibility, no matter how remote, that your parents might know more than they told you. And I need to make sure that that watch is somewhere I can keep an eye on it until I can get it to someone who might now more."
"And who would that be?" Mal asked, "Come on, you can't hold out on us now."
"A friend." A faint smile played across Jack's face, "One of the few people I truly trust."
"Sir, this is not the first time I have had to ask this, but have you been drinking?" Zoë asked as she followed Mal and Jack down the staircase to the living room outside the infirmary, "Osiris is a Core World, full of Alliance forces. Not to mention the fact that we have legitimate cargo to deliver."
"We can find someone else to drop the cargo off for us." Mal shrugged, "It's going to cut our profit margin down from slim to none, but it'll keep the law off our backs for a little while longer."
"I may be able to help there." Jack smiled as he crossed the room and stopped in the hatch leading to the cargo bay, "I set up a couple of blind accounts, years ago, in case I ever needed money fast without using my real name: they're the kind where you only need to know the account number and the password to access. Assuming we can get to a terminal, I should be able to lay my hands on enough cold, hard cash to see this through to the end."
"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't appreciated..." Mal stopped dead in his tracks, his head cocked to one side, "Do you guys hear music?"
The three of them made their way into the cargo bay, and stood momentarily stunned at the sight of Simon and Kaylee dance between boxes and crates. Inara and River were sat up on the mid-level walkway, an ancient looking music system between them, the graceful tones of a full orchestra playing Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz filling the air.
"Now that's something you don't see everyday." Zoë commented, perfectly deadpan.
"I'll say." Jack pulled off his jacket and undid the first button on his shirt before stepping forward, "Do you mind if I cut in?"
"Not at all..." Simon started, but was shocked into silence when Jack took his hand and started to lead him around the room in a much closer and risqué fashion. Kaylee couldn't help but laugh at the look of utter shock and borderline terror on her boyfriends face, or the boyish grin on Jack's. There was a likewise amused expression on Inara's face, while River had the same look of equal parts confusion and revulsion she always had when she was in the same room as Jack.
"You stick to the plan; stay in a wide orbit while we tack a shuttle down." Mal spoke in a hushed tone, "Try and act as inconspicuous as possible. If you don't hear from us within 24-hours, or the Alliance starts to take an interest, then you be gone and you stay gone. If there's trouble and we manage to get away from it, we'll find you. Do not come looking for us, no matter what."
"Sir." Zoë nodded, realizing that this was one of the times that there was no point arguing with him, no matter how strong their friendship.
The sound of Kaylee and Inara laughing interrupted them before anything else could be said.
"It's like I always say." Mal turned away with what could have been either a smile or indigestion, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
The remainder of the journey to Osiris was thankfully quiet and uneventful, and true to his word, Jack was able to get hold of more than enough money to ship their cargo to Dyton by express shuttle, and still leave a healthy operating reserve. As agreed, Simon, Jack and Mal took one of the shuttles down to the surface, leaving Zoë in command of a slightly worried crew. It had been nerve wrecking, descending down towards a core planet in a slow and utterly defenseless craft, but it drew far less attention than landing Serenity herself would have.
Simon insisted on a short shopping excursion before they proceeded, pointing out that they had to look like they belonged if they wanted to avoid arousing any suspicions. He selected a well made suit and silk shirt for himself, and a pair of much cheaper outfits for his two companions, his reasoning being that anyone who saw them would think that they were just a young man and two hired retainers, possibly bodyguards. Jack had at least managed to get himself a suit and overcoat of similar color and material to his old RAF uniform. It lacked the insignia, and the .45 automatic Mal had lent him lacked the comfortable and reassuring weight and familiar feel of his old Webley Mk. VI.
Leaving the shuttle at a small local airstrip, they took a cab to the outskirts gated community that housed the Tam's estate, and Simon used his family access code to let them in through an automated service bay. Being careful to avoid anyone who might recognize him, he led his two companions up the hill to the house that had been his home for most of his life. Long ago, he had managed to piece together his father's personnel security override code from having seen parts of it entered over the course of many years. Thankfully, it hadn't been changed, and the laser perimeter fence powered down on command, allowing them safe and easy access to the house itself.
Taking one last deep breath, Simon knocked on the door, only hoping that his parents were not entertaining, as they hadn't had the time or opportunity to run any reconnaissance.
"What the Devil..." Gabriel Tam opened the door, one hand holding his rob closed around his body while the other rubbed sleep from his eyes. He stopped dead in his tracks, utterly dumbfounded, when he recognized his son, "Simon?"
"Father." There was a cold smile on the young doctor's face as the family patriarch found himself looking down the barrel of two pistols, "I hope you can understand why this isn't a social visit."
To Be Continued...
"Da-shiang bao-tza shr duh lah doo-tze"----"The explosive diarrhoea of an elephant"
