bladefax--Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Only one more chapter to go after this one.
simply Eric--Yes, this whole fic was written to propose that Mara Jade was Vos and River's child. I've been questioned about the differences in appearence, and I've had to admit that Mara's red hair was actually a careful dye job.
sandcrawlr--Thank you, and who knows, they might actually take up your suggestion.
Tarva--Indeed. Thank you for reading.
Notorious JMG--I did indeed. And no, they're not going to Earth. They're going to another world that has an interesting future ahead.
larsbards08--A very well thought out response, and not one I could easily argue with. The premise was sufficiently difficult that this is actually a complete rewrite of an original version I posted over at for a while. But you're right that the two universes had different focuses, aims and charms. That was the reason I narrowed the perspective of the crossover to a single character at first, only gradually exposing the greater mixing as the story progressed. I appreciate that you gave it a try even if it didn't quite work for you. Thank you.
Chapter Twenty-Six: What Now?
"I thought hyperspace was fast," Mal muttered as he walked across the gantry. Below, his cargo hold had been converted into a tent city. Despite best efforts at sanitation, the whole ship began to stink with the crush of humanity.
Beside him, Vos moved with a somber expression on his face. "There have been several worlds we could have stopped at, but I believe we agreed a human population would aid in these people adjusting better. The world we are going to is sparsely populated with human colonists, and has a small community that I've had contact with in the past. It is the best place for us all."
Mal shrugged. In the week since they saw everything they knew destroyed, the ship had remained in hyperspace while they tried to figure out what to do next. Eventually they went through the charts provided by Valorum. It was Vos who picked their destination.
"Just a few more minutes," the Jedi now said.
They arrived on the bridge. Wash and Zoe were sitting in the pilot and co-pilot's seats talking. They both looked up as the captain and Jedi emerged. "Need your seat, Captain?" Zoe said.
Mal shook his head. "Nah, you look too comfy there."
Wash's panel started beeping at him. A moment later a blue-green planet rushed up at them with astounding speed as they reverted out of hyperspace. The four of them stood in silence for a long while, staring at the beautiful orb. "So that's Toprawa," Mal said.
Vos nodded. "It should not have a strong Imperial presence on it as of yet. More importantly, it used to have a small community of Antaran Rangers on it. Paramilitary forces friendly to the Jedi." He leaned forward over Wash's shoulder and pointed to a spot on the northern continent. "There should be a small community there. A simple space pad and a few ships. Set us down there."
Wash nodded and began the process of dropping down into the planet's gravity well. Vos nodded to Reynolds, and left the bridge.
By the time he reached their cabin, Vos found River laying on her side staring forlornly into nothing. She did not respond when he dropped lightly down the stairs. Nor did he speak. He simply sat down on her bunk by her feet, and rested a hand gently on her hand.
"I can't see," she said after a moment of silence. Around them, Serenity shuddered as she entered the atmosphere. "I saw so much, but it's all black now. I can't see our daughter."
Gently, Quinlan reached down and gathered the girl in his arms, much like the first night after he took her off her psychotropic drugs. She sat there, clinging to his shirt, and after a time her shoulders began shaking as she sobbed. "I'm going to lose you too," she said into his chest.
"River…" Vos began.
She looked up with tear-streaked eyes and placed a finger over his lips. "You can't help it. You have a son. A woman waiting for you. They need you. They need you to survive."
"You need me too," Vos said.
River smiled weakly. "You gave me the Force. Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for life. You've taught me to live. You've given me the power to survive. You have done everything I hoped you would, when I first found you. But we both know you won't stay with me. If we had our daughter, I know you would. But she's gone."
"I love you, River Tam."
She nodded. "I love you too, Quinlan Vos. And it's because I love you that I'm going to let you go and be the father you need to be."
They said nothing else, and he continued to hold her until they landed.
A single man stood at the edge of the platform when the ramp lowered. The refugees formed a hesitant wall behind Mal, Vos and the rest of the ship's crew.
The man looked blessedly ordinary. He wore a pair of blue pants not so different from what Mal wore, with knee high boots, a matching blue shirt and a brown coat. He wore a blue cap that looked like it could have come right off the head of a Sihnon baseball player's head. In other words, he looked completely familiar and human.
Vos stepped down the ramp toward the man and smiled. "Uldrik."
"Master Vos," the man said. "We feared you dead."
"I almost was. The Empire believes I am."
"We as well," Uldrik said. "There are few rangers left. We're laying low for now. I got your message. You carry refugees?"
Vos nodded back to the people behind him. "One hundred and fifty total. They are all that remain of a civilization of several billion."
Uldrik stared in disbelief. "Billion? What happened?"
"Extra-galactic invaders and a new weapon of the Empire's. Between those two forces, their entire system was destroyed. Uldrik, these are primitive baseline humans. They know Basic, if just a little, but they know nothing else about the galaxy at large. They lived in complete isolation. They are scared and lost."
"In this galaxy, so many of us are," Uldrik said. "We'll make a place for them here. You were right to bring them here." He walked with Vos up the ramp. "Captain Reynolds?"
Reynolds nodded and took the proffered hand. "Uldrik Tomail. I am the administrator for this community." He looked past Mal's shoulders at the scared faces. "We don't have much, but what we have we will share gladly. You, your crew, and your passengers will all be safe her. Welcome."
At the edge of the pad, a hover bus arrived. With obvious relief and a lingering fear, the refugees started down the ramp. Before they left, though, the first in line stopped beside Reynolds. It was a woman shorter than River, with two young children clinging to her legs. Mal looked down at her, then nodded.
The woman's eyes watered as she wrapped the captain in a desperate hug. "Thank you," she said before she took up her children and walked toward the bus. Mal started to say something smart to shrug off the emotion when the man behind her wrapped him up in a hug, and said, "Thank you," as well.
Inara moved up behind her man and, as the next person hugged him, whispered, "They need this, Mal."
And so Captain Malcolm Reynolds, who as a matter of habit, choice and upbringing absolutely despised public shows of affection, stood and allowed one hundred and fifty parents and children to give him hugs. Some were crying, some weren't. Some seemed almost upset, but still they hugged him and said thank you before walking down the ramp to the bus. Finally was the man who on Londinum asked the captain to save his son. The boy stood by his father with a strangely quiet, stunned expression on his face.
The father looked down at his boy, then at the Captain. "I owe you my life," the man said. "I will never forget that."
The man nodded one last time at the rest of the crew, gathered the boy up, and left. With that, the last of the passengers were off Serenity. Uldrik tipped his hat at them and then followed the refugees to oversee their integration into the community.
That left the crew and Jorj Car'das.
"Now what, Captain?" the smuggler asked. "Empire or not, the galaxy still has commerce and trade. You have to earn your living. What are you going to do now?"
Mal looked over the faces of the people who had become his family. Jayne looked as confused as the rest. Afolabi said nothing, but Mal and the rest knew that the former Operative grieved for the loss of Derrial Book.
Kaylee stood next to Simon and clutched his arm possessively. Simon did not appear to mind at all. Wash and Zoe stood side by side. Zoe waited for orders from her captain, and Wash waited to follow wherever his wife led. River stood near Vos, but he noticed they did not touch or hold hands.
Finally his eyes fell on Inara, so beautiful and calm.
Only then did he look over them at his ship. "This is my home," he said with a nod to Serenity. "These folks are my family. I don't need a world to settle down on."
"She's a fine ship," Car'das said. "Even by galactic standards, with hyperdrive and weapons she's as good a cargo ship as any you could hope for. A man could make a living with a ship like this. If, that is, he had the right affiliations."
"You're offering such affiliations, Mr. Car'das?" Mal said.
Jorj shrugged. "Well, you did save my life on Greenleaf. And you didn't have to give me a ride off Londinum, but you did. And truth is, Captain, I could always use an honest freighter captain. A man like you I would trust with the most sensitive shipments. And that, I can assure you, has money in it."
Mal held out an arm and placed it across Car'das's shoulders as the two walked back into Serenity. "Well then, I think we have some business to discuss," the captain said.
The others turned and walked up the ramp without hesitation, all save River and Vos. They stood staring at each other on the surface of the planet, close enough to touch and yet parsecs apart.
"The future is always in motion," Vos said. "We may yet see each other again."
River smiled weakly. "I wish I could see," she said. "I wish I could see past the blackness."
"Don't look with your eyes, or the Force," Vos said. Finally he stepped to her and took her hands in his. "Look with your heart. It might be months. It might be years, or even decades. But someday, we will see each other again."
She looked up into his dark, powerful eyes, and nodded. "And I will love you on that day, Quinlan Vos, as much as I love you on this day."
He bent over and kissed her passionately. Behind them, the thrusters of the ship roared to life. Their lips parted as the backwash from the thrusters caused a storm to whip around them. He said nothing as she backed away onto the ramp of the ship. He watched as she turned and disappeared further into the ship. The ramp rose and sealed shut behind her.
As the Jedi stood, Serenity rose into the Toprawan sky, turned, and soared back into the black where she belonged.
That night on Toprawa, a young boy sat crying in a corner as the man who looked like his father touched a corner of his nose. The boy choked, paralyzed by terror, as his father's skin pealed back to reveal a monster.
The monster leaned forward until his sharp teeth nipped the boy's nose. "You are not worthy to sit in the same room as Nom Anor."
Uldrik Tomail and his staff found the boy's body the next morning, but found no sign of the father. They also noted one of their skiffs was missing.
Khaleen Hentz sat quietly in the cave and stared at the holocube as the message from Quinlan echoed in her ears. She looked over to the last vestiges of the Jedi Order to survive—Jedi Masters Tholme and T'ra Saa.
Both had been with Hentz on Nar Shadaa when Order 66 spread through the galaxy like a disease. Vilmarh Grahrk squatted beside the two Jedi Masters along with a pair of Wookiees that had accompanied them upon their landing. "He said he would see you in nine months," Grahrk said. "Before I got him on that transport out, he said he would return."
"It has been ten months now," Khaleen whispered. She looked down at the child wrapped securely in her arms. Korto was sleeping peacefully.
The Wookies that had accompanied them since they arrived on Kashyyyk snuffled among themselves. They smelled something, Grahrk said.
Everyone stood and looked from the bonfire to the darkness surrounding the great wroshyr trees where they gathered. Slowly, from the edge of the platform, they could see a figure silhouetted against the night.
Khaleen felt her breath catch as Quinlan Vos emerged from the shadows into the flickering firelight. "My love," she whispered.
She ran to him, and they came together in a desperate hug. She felt his grief as if it were her own, and attributed it to not seeing the birth of his son. "This is Korto," she said. "This is your son."
Quinlan stared down at the child in silence for the longest time, before tears welled in his eyes. "I thought I would not make it," he whispered. "It's been so long. I thought I missed you."
"We waited, my former padawan," Master Tholme said. "For you we would wait." The venerable Master turned a prosthetic eye on his former pupil closely. "Much happened to you while you were gone," he observed.
"Much," Vos agreed. He held Khaleen tightly to him. She was so different than River. She was lush and ripe, with a body that screamed WOMAN and an attitude that demanded all around her respect that womanhood. She was everything he thought he wanted.
By Kiffar tradition and the birth of their son, she was his wife. "I am where I belong," Vos finally said.