AN: Alright guys! I might've forgotten to post the chapter earlier this weekend, so don't blame my lack of productivity, but my forgetfulness. I've gotten questions about what exactly is up with Destiny, where they are exactly, and further questions about inconsistencies with either scenario. Here's my answer: yes, I have something in mind, but we haven't gotten to that point yet. Even the characters would make sure the ship was completely safe before confusing themselves with said questions. You'll find out, I promise, and the answer does have something to do with the stargates. Now go crazy thinking about it, read the chapter, and review. Thank you.
"So, you're the ship's doctor?" Simon asked, glancing over the ship's infirmary as he set his bag on one of the beds. Lt. Johansen, or TJ, as she had called herself, had been apparently sent by Col. Young to the bridge to retrieve Captain Reynolds' doctor, and to bring him to the infirmary should the worst happen. Simon understood, even a random security sweep of a ship that had apparently been boarded by aliens could result in injuries, injuries they'd have to be ready for.
"More of a medic" the blonde woman followed Simon in, "I don't officially have enough medical training to be a full-on doctor just yet..." TJ trailed off, trying to ignore the fact that she might never get medical training through the stones, now that Earth wasn't even there. Captain Reynolds had been clear on the fact that they had left earth decades ago in light of a disaster that befell the planet. The Lucian Alliance, when Destiny had slept, had been on the brink of official war with Earth, and despite Earth's ingenuity, the Lucian Alliance might've had a good chance of wiping out the whole planet
She pushed herself to swallow it down, forcing herself back to reality. She was a battlefield medic, naturally able to stay in action under fire. Whether physical or emotional, it was fire nonetheless. "I wonder where I could possibly get training now" she spoke rhetorically, trying to make a joke out of it. Jokes always hid the pain.
"Well, it took most of my life so far to become a decent doctor, much less a skilled one" Simon glanced in the cabinets, almost expecting alien medicinal treatment items of some kind, but relaxed when seeing standard medicine bottles with English on them. Some things never changed, it seemed. "you said you had no official training" Simon continued, "I'm guessing that means exactly what I think it means"
TJ leaned against one of the beds, "well, when a hallucination of a paraplegic guides you through a kidney transplant when you lose the only actual doctor onboard, it should technically count"
Simon furrowed his brow, curious, "there was another doctor?" he asked, "how exactly did she...?"
"oh, she wasn't actually here" TJ explained, making Simon even more confused in the process, "the people who made this ship had these...stones, that basically allow two people to switch bodies, no matter how far apart. Our surgeon got disconnected mid-surgery, and I had to take over"
"so...a paraplegic appeared and told you how to continue the surgery?" Simon asked, remembering Kaylee had told him about River's casual conversations with thin air.
"Well, she wasn't a paraplegic when she appeared. She was using the stones, died, and got trapped in them somehow. She and the other person manifested when someone else tried to use the stones, and we downloaded them into the ship's computer" TJ crossed her arms, expecting to get radioed by Col. Young any minute. Relaxing times like these were usually when disasters happened.
"But she was in a wheelchair?" Simon asked, realizing Reynolds' theory of his sister being a reader could be more correct than they all thought. Even when the bounty hunter, Jubal Earlie, had snuck onboard and held him hostage, River had told him afterwards there were pictures on his windshield. He had assumed she had guessed his personality type with her superior intelligence, and used that to get under his skin, and wasn't actually psychic. However, with what Lt. Johansen just told him about the ship being able to appear to people when necessary, this seemed to be another one of those occasions when they had no idea what was going on with his sister.
TJ nodded, "yeah, that's why she seemed to enjoy the stones, she could move for once" TJ continued, deciding it was her turn for a question, "so...exactly how far has medicine advanced since we went into stasis?"
Simon opened his mouth to respond when the radio crackled to life, interrupting the quick moment of silence between them he had used to consider his reply.
Jayne's head turned at every sound, every hiss of the ship's mechanics, his mind off who knew where imagining all sorts of possibilities of dark and scary things, jostled back to attention as the door whirred before them, Scott patiently waiting the three seconds for it to open fully. Greer brought up their six, glancing around in his usual calm way. The two men had adjusted fully to the environment in the two years they'd occupied the ship, not paranoid in the slightest. In another part of the universe, people in a city from the ancients' height of power fell asleep to the waves so far below, and yet right outside their windows. The same could be said for Destiny, the Icarus Base survivors easily drowsy at the sight of FTL outside their quarter windows after a long day. It was as if the ship somehow helped them to relax.
Matt pushed himself into the doorway, raising his gun as he scanned the room, the familiar whine of a Kiino easily heard as it flew past the Lieutenant, scanning the room without worry. The Kiino they'd brought with them was controlled by Sergeant Greer behind them, and monitored by Eli on the bridge.
"Clear" Greer's softened voice sounded as Jayne followed Scott into the room, eyes peeled for any danger. Vera comforted the mercenary at this time, his fingers wrapped tightly around the handle.
"'xactly how much more o' this we gotta go through?" Jayne breathed, wary for anything remotely blue.
"You in some kind of hurry?" Greer remarked slowly, his MG-36 held lightly in hand. The man in the light green shirt was tense, he could tell. Then again, if he had a girl's name, he'd likely be a bit anxious, too.
"Bit nervous is all" Jayne tried to ignore the man, keeping his eyes forward
"First time on an alien ship?" Scott asked, though he already knew the answer. He'd have preferred to be stuck with another of Reynolds' crew, possibly Zoe, but hadn't argued when the colonel assigned him with Jayne. Maybe later on, sure, but he barely knew the man, so he didn't want to immediately assume he was the brash gun hand he knew him to be. However self-absorbed the man seemed to be, Scott could tell the man was afraid, and he couldn't blame him. He was on edge himself, and his military discipline (the kind Jayne obviously didn't have) was what kept him together.
"I suppose, if reavers ain't aliens" Jayne remembered the derelict with the man-turned-reaver onboard, jumping him in the mess with his back turned. Even before he knew about the bodies in the hold, something had been off about that ship, especially how the doctor's moon-brained sister kept whispering about a ghost when one of the passengers hit the windshield of Serenity. This ship was almost just like it, waiting to get'cha when you wasn't looking. He could tolerate the military men if it meant that nothing on the ship would catch him unawares.
Greer turned his head slowly towards Jayne, "reavers? You mean like the boogeymen?" He almost smiled at the thought. Of course Earth's space-faring descendents would have some kind of horror story to scare children, although he'd expected the name to be something more sinister.
Jayne gave Greer a look, "reavers ain't men" he almost whispered, "they go 'bout rapin' and murderin', and always hungry"
The group moved on through the room as Greer muttered his reply, "I'll take your word for it, big man", and stopped immediately in his tracks.
Scott's fist had shot up, Jayne and Greer freezing in place, fingers curling around cold triggers. Scott and Greer both reached forward to turn the flashlights on their guns off, darkness enveloping the room.
The silence lasted forever before the radio came alive, "Matt, you got something?" Eli's voice rang out as Matt fumbled for the radio.
"Radio silence, Eli!" he hissed, turning it off as the other two men heard what Scott had picked up moments before: the clicking conversation of two blue aliens.
Footsteps on metal rang out from the hallway behind them, close to the doorway. The three men spun around, firing at the first sight of the translucent jelly that might've been the aliens' skin. One went down and Scott, Jayne, and Greer used their spare moment to dive for cover, barely daring to lift their heads past the crates that hid them before they ducked down once more to avoid the many bursts of green that flew through the air.
Scott glanced over at Greer, who had already looked to him, waiting for his readiness. Scott might've been close friends with Eli, hell, maybe even best friends, but Greer was a different kind of friend than Eli. Greer was the kind you could communicate your insane plan to with a mere glance, the kind you could depend on to jump in the fire with you in order to haul your ass out of it. Greer was the kind Scott would die with in that fire, if his ultimate fate wasn't peacefully in a rocking chair in some slow retirement home.
Since they were half a universe from Earth, Scott always had some inkling that Greer would be the one to hold his hand while he bled out, sooner or later, later rather than sooner, but he'd been surprised before.
Greer gave the classic three fingers on the handle, ready to remove a finger with each passing second. Scott glanced back at Jayne, the mercenary still unable to let off a shot with the onslaught of fire from the aliens.
They had entered the room now, advancing with their adversaries, the adversaries who had stolen their claim to the vessel. They had come, they had attempted to fight their way through into the ship, doomed to fail over and over. Then the adversaries came, entering the ship without so much as a fight, taking the vessel in days when they had laid siege to it for generations. It had taken generations more to find it, sure of direction while unsure of distance. They had found it, however, scattered across several galaxies already. Their kind had searched, both then and now a great sect within their species, a sect drawn to the technology of a race far beyond them. Some of their sect travelled both forward and back along the portals, which had rendered useless to them without the proper control mechanism, searching desperately for those who left them.
All they had found was the vessel, which travelled along the path left by the portals. The adversaries could use them, so they learned, passing through the portals with their devices that they had failed to acquire. Boarding parties always failed before the adversaries due to the ship's automated defenses, and afterwards the adversaries had taken over, so the same passed. The adversaries called themselves "humans", so the one had provided with it's mind. Much information on the ship was also given, and their language, enough to communicate orders to surrender that were never followed.
The adversaries never surrendered, but nor would they. The Nakai Altera would finally fulfill their claim.
