"Back in the Saddle"
Thomas Peterson had gotten into the Alliance military primarily to pay for dental school. A simple job as an MP, on a quiet research base on Osirus… No fuss, no danger, no excitement. And the training sure had kept him in shape.
But now, after getting the gose kicked out of him without anyone in sight, as he lay semi-conscious on the hard, cold floor, he began to reconsider his future with the military.
"Guard's down, sir," Zoe whispered, sneaking behind her captain as they looked around a corner of the facility. They may have been invisible thanks to the cloaks, but old habits died hard.
"Hide him?" Mal asked, stealthily creeping down the now-empty hallway. Zoe nodded.
"Broom closet."
"Don't you just love those?" The captain asked with a slight smile. His first mate rolled her eyes, as the two came up to a large, steel vault door. There were no humans guards on this level-Except for the one, who kept an eye on the hovering, laser-armed defensive drones buzzing above them like white, fat bees. The drones were unable to detect them through the invisibility cloaks, but Mal was not so confident in magic as to take any chances.
One of the drones was abruptly shoved into by another. The victim drone's AI construed the impact as a miscalculation on the part of the offending robot, and sent a request for the attacker's AI to undergo a full diagnostic-In other words, a complaint. The drone that had hit the complaining drone logged it's own report, complaining that the other drone had not been watching where it was going. And the rest of the swarm began updating the main server with their own reports, resulting what amounted to an electronic pileup.
Mal grinned underneath the cloak, as he stealthily pressed a hack-chip into the vault's lock. The drones, too preoccupied with the incident that did not compute, failed to notice the vault open and close all on it's own. The main server processing their information was beleaguered by the robot's frantic requests for data on the collision. Being very simple AIs, with simple jobs, all this humbug was not entirely unexpected.
Which is what Mal and Zoe had counted on in the first place.
Coming to an airlock, Mal input an access code. The steel airlock opened, finally letting the two brigands into a much larger, dull white room that just screamed Alliance architecture. It also screamed "Alliance Lab", due to the fact that it contained something that certainly did not belong amid the sterile, eggshell walls.
"Woah… How big do you think it is?" Mal asked Zoe, as he stepped lightly to the large, stone ring supported in the center of the cavernous room. His first mate hummed thoughtfully.
"About six meters across… Headmaster said it weighed over sixty tons." Mal shook his head, laying an invisible hand on the smooth, inner ring covered in strange, arcane symbols.
"That much? Can't be… Looks like synth material. Plastic." Mal rapped his knuckles on the ring, and winced.
"Definitely ain't plastic," he muttered, rubbing his aching knuckles. "Zoe, how we set for time?"
At Zoe's silence, Mal turned around. The invisibility cloak had been charmed so that you could see others wearing cloaks, which allowed the captain to see Zoe looking up, blankly. Mal followed her gaze.
"… Woah." Serenity hovered above them, silently, even though her thrusters were burning at full to keep her completely stationary over the huge ring. Mal's radio crackled.
"Uh… Yeah?"
"Hey Captain… We took one of the service shafts down. This whole facility used to be a mine, with ships coming to and fro, in and out. Wasn't too hard to maneuver through," Kaylee stated brightly. "Jayne's ready with the winch when you are!"
"Huh… This may actually work," Mal noted with a smile.
Ten minutes, and a snapped winch assembly later, Mal was no longer smiling.
"Little Kaylee… You told me that we could lift it with our winch," Mal growled through the radio. "That ain't lifting." The winch cable hung, shredded, from the belly of the charmed Serenity.
"Well, how was I supposed to know the weight limit was exactly 60 tons?" The mechanic complained. "That little control console's to blame! You didn't say we were bringing that along!"
The little control console came up to Mal's sternum, resembling a stone mushroom with dozens of symbols covering it like the inner ring of the artifact. And in the center of it was a large, spherical jewel.
"… Will the whole thing fit through our cargo hatch?" Mal asked. There was a moment of silence.
"I could charm the Ring to float… Then we could maneuver it into the ship," Harry spoke thoughtfully. Mal nodded.
"Allright, land and let's get to it."
"Complications"
"Grrrr… You were s'posed to… make it light!" Jayne gasped, struggling with the rest of the crew to push the massive ring into Serenity's cargo hold. It hung suspended a few feet off the ground, at the perfect height for pushing. However, that did not change the fact that there was considerable reluctance on the part of the ring to go anywhere, even with all of Jayne's strength behind it.
"I made it float… It's still got its mass," Harry groused, pushing ineffectually against the ring alongside Kaylee and Mal. "This just gets it off the ground!"
"Gorramit, kid! You're s'posed ta make it so's we can move it!" Jayne snarled, his face red from the exertion. Inara groaned, Mal sucked in a deep breath, Zoe grimaced, Simon panted, Kaylee squeaked, Harry shook his head, and River, contentedly, leaned against the huge ring.
The entire crew came together, all looking out of sorts (aside from River), in a circle near the ring.
"Allright… Hook up the mule… We can tow it in, cause' this certainly ain't doin' nothing," Mal panted. He shook his head and took a deep, rasping breath.
"If I may?" Mal, Zoe, Jayne, and Harry all had their guns out and pointed at the head of the speaker in an instant. The operative blinked, looking rather amused.
"Where the hell have you been?" Mal snarled breathlessly. The operative shrugged.
"The Headmaster had me otherwise engaged. If I may?" He repeated. With a slightly less murderous look from Mal as an affirmative, the operative walked over to the massive ring. Looking it over, he went to the small console that came with it, and pushed a few buttons. A burst of light emerged from the side of the ring, followed by a few more, which slowly but surely steered the massive artifact into the Serenity's open cargo hold. The operative then simply pushed the console along, nestling it alongside the larger ring. He turned and saw the entire crew staring at him.
"The artifact apparently has a means of maneuvering… Potentially, for placement in space," the operative explained. Kaylee groaned.
"Why didn't I think a' that?" Mal merely contented himself with muttering violent oaths under his breath as he stalked past the operative. The rest of the crew followed him, as the cargo hatch closed soundlessly behind them.
"A Silencing Charm? Well done, Mr. Potter, well done indeed…"
"BEE-tzway!"
53 more to go… Hang on!