Chapter: 14
On the Serenity, Jayne laid in his bed as he heard a nock from the upper deck. He was sleeping, cuddled in his warm bed as when next didn't come a nock but the sound of someone climbing down the ladders. "Jayne!" Kaylee shouted. "I thought you were dead!" Jayne leaned up with a sense of grogginess that overpowered him. So he decided any attempt of getting up was futile so he just laid back down. "It takes a lot to kill this guy," Jayne smiled as he saw Book approach his side. "It is good to see you again, Jayne," Book smiled. "Yeah, it's good to be seen. Looks like I was on someone's good side, uh?" "A true miracle." "Are you okay? You need anything?" Kaylee asked. "I'm fine," Jayne said before he erupted in a yawn. "Jaycee's tired, Kaylee. He's had a rough day. May be we all have had a rough day." "Jayne, I'm really sorry." "Don't worry about it. You're here, I'm here." Jayne said as his eyes opened as he remembered something he would do if by some chance he survived his three hour space walk. "I've gotta go," Jayne said as he stood from his bed. "You need your rest, Jayne," Book tried to settle his friend down. "I need to see, River. Where is she?" Jayne asked as he noticed as he spoke her name gave a sense of uncomfortableness to them. "What? What I say?" "River's, Kaylee paused as she tried to gather the words but couldn't. Book placed his hand on her shoulder. "Jayne, River's back in her stasis crate." "What?" Jayne asked as his world was being turned upside down and thrown around. "What you talkin' about. Doc said she was getting' better. Much better he told me." "There's no way to explain it, Jayne," Book said as he could see the tragedy hitting the man who was blessed with a second chance very hard. Jayne turned around and headed for the ladder and up to the upper level as Kaylee and Book decided to leave Jaycee's cabin. As they left the cabin, Kaylee realized she had decisions to make. And she didn't much care for them. Not after what Simon had just gone through. Or maybe she shouldn't tell him anything. At least not until River got better. She didn't want to risk clouding Simon's mind when he needed it the most. As she and Book went to separate ends of the ship, as soon as Kaylee decided that she wouldn't tell Simon anything about what happened, her conscious would chime in and tell her that he had the right to no. "Why can't things ever be easy?" Kaylee asked as she headed to the one place that she could find comfort and solitude, engineering.
The hatch to the storage bay opened, and Jayne could see River's stasis crate in the middle of the deck. "Oh, little girl," Jayne said. Thoughts of all the times he was cruel and malice to her filled his mind. All the times he made fun of her when she was hurting inside like no one could believe or ever imagine reminded him that he did not let River's presence on the Serenity a pleasant one. "River, I ah, I know that you know what happened on Aerial," Jayne said as he paused for the words to flash in his mind. This task being the most difficult task he had ever had to perform. You wanted someone dead, Jayne would do it in a heartbeat without trouble. You wanted Jayne to interrogate someone, he was the man for the job. But if you wanted Jayne to apologize to someone, he was lost. "I wish I could had told this to your face while you were still alive, I mean awake. Sorry about that. I just want you to know that ever since we left Aerial, knowing what I did was wrong has been eatin' me away. It's been a very long time that I've wanted to, ah, be saying this to you." Jayne paused and took a deep breath. As the breath came and went, in a flash he saw what happened on Aerial. The crew deciding to rob an Alliance medical facilities with medicine while Jayne escorted Simon and River to an imager where Simon could finally find out what happened to her at the Academy. Jayne, Simon, and River leaving through the back door and being surrounded by Alliance Federals. Federals that Jayne had called. And before he could get his reward he was being locked away too. "Ya' see, Mal knew what I did. He locked me in the airlock and was threatening to vac' me once we left atmo'." Jayne paused as for the first time in his life he was scared to die. The moment when the air was getting thinner in the airlock and the hatch was partially opened. "I wished he did," Jayne said as a tear rolled down his cheek. "It would had put me out of my misery. The misery I've been dealing with since Aerial. River, I'm sorry." Jayne knelt on his knees beside her crate, looking at her still form. Seeing how innocent River was for the Academy to do whatever experiments they were doing to her. "If I ever catch the ones that did this to you, I swear, I'll kill 'em. I'll kill 'em all if I can. I swear to you. I swear," Jayne said as he realized that he wasn't big on keeping promises and oaths. But this one was different. This one was different.
Chapter: 15
Mal watched as former Alliance commander Marcus Devons picked himself up off the deck and grabbed hold of the bulkhead to keep him steady from the vertigo from Mal's punch. "Now, what the hell do you want?" "I told you," Devons said as he rubbed his jaw. "I need your help." "I don't help the Alliance much these days." "You must have some kind of hearing impairment since last we met. I'm not with the Alliance!" "What happened, Devons? Didn't get your quota of navigational violations? I hear those are a bitch." "I left the Alliance on my own free will." "Can't say I heard of an Alliance commander in charge of his first deep range patrol boat resigning from the Alliance. Uh, you must be a first." "And I won't be the last." "What are you talking about?" "I'm talking about what's coming." "Oh, please tell me. What is coming?" "A change," Devons said as he removed a cloth from his robe and wiped blood from his busted lip on it. "You know, that hurt quite a bit." "Want me to do it again? Because that's what 'm gonna do if you don't speed things up for me just a little." Devons reached deep in his robe and caused Mal to jump to alert with Precious still aiming at the man. Devons slowed his movement and removed a data disk. "On this disk, is evidence that will start the fall of the Alliance." The words fall of the Alliance slowed Mal's world down to a crawl. Can he be trusted? He asked himself. Or is this just a trick. "I'm listening," Mal said as he holstered Precious and leaned against the bulkhead. "Seven months ago, we were on a routine deep range patrol when we came upon an unregistered Tau-3 transport. We were on the search for a transport smuggling contra band weapons to a near bye system. Everything checked out. We issued the appropriate fines and were setting off. Until I was ordered to destroy that transport." "Destroy? Why? Why a boat full of families." "I don't know. So I questioned the ordered. Something not many Alliance captains do these days. I was told to follow orders and destroy the ship." "Did you?" "No, so I was relieved of command and my executive officer took command and destroyed the transport." "Why destroy a boat full of civilians?" "A loyalty test," Devons paused as he gathered his thoughts. Remembering, re-living the events as he narrated to Mal. "I resigned my commission, and was able to download the flight recorder of the incident," Devons gestured to the data disk and handed it to Mal. "What's all on this?" "Everything. The gun-port sensors, system diagnostics, and the sensor scans of the boat showing that there were only families onboard." "Nice," Mal said as he attempted to hand it back to Devons. But Devons would not take it. "And what exactly do you want me to do with this?" "I'm tired of running, Captain Reynolds. My fight is over. I need you to give that to the appropriate individuals on Phara 3." "I ain't in this business, Captain. Your dung, you can climb yourself out of it. Have fun and best of luck," Reynolds said as he began to walk off. "You don't see it, do you Captain?" "Apparently not," Reynolds responded as he stopped in his tracks. "Do tell, please. Enlighten me." "The Alliance is corrupt and un-stable. Before we know it, we'll be having destroyers and flyer squads shooting boats for the hell of it. The de-stability of the Alliance is continuing. At first, it was a good idea to unite all the systems under one government. But the Alliance is becoming a dictatorship." "I could had told you that. Why do you think we were fighting for independence? Look at the history of humanity. Small groups try to separate from the ruling body, which results in bloodshed and a long costly war. Rarely do the Indies win. Most of the time they're defeated and re- integrated back to society." "I see this now," Devons announced. "I joined the Alliance to protect its citizens. Not shoot down innocent civilians," Devons began into a violent cough. "Don't sound good." "I'm fine. But you have to get this to the right people. I can't carry this on anymore." "Why?" "Because as soon as I revealed to you the details of the disk, I signed my own death warrant. And I'm tired of running." "You say this was intended to get to Phera 3. You seem to be headin' in the wrong direction. Phera 3's back five systems behind us." "I joined the Rising Star to get away from the Alliance patrols. Where we are there aren't many patrols. By time the Rising Star returned to civilized space, in three months I would make my way to Phera 3 as soon as I knew I could make it. Because right now, if I set foot on Phera 3, I'd be discovered and executed on sight." "Ever since Serenity Valley, I've learned that the War was long over. This is just meaningless attempt to bring the mighty Alliance down. And it'll fail." "You've lost your hope, Captain. The torch is yours, sir." "I've never accepted no such thing, Devons." "I was to meet a contact with the people who were interested in this data t the Nova Tavern on Phera 3's southern complex." "I'm not doing this," Mal said. "I'm just a starship captain. I keep flying." "And so you will," Devons said as he raised his hand and a paralyzer dart shot out of a wrist gun on his right wrist that was hidden by his robe. The hyper velocity dart penetrated Mal's chest. Before Mal could remove the dart his conscienceness began to deteriorate. "You son of a bitch!" He said as he slowly fell to the deck as he was leaning against the bulkhead. "The contact data is on the disk," Devons said as he helped Mal up off the deck and back to the airlock where he labored to get him back to his ship. To get Mal off the ship before it was too late. "What the hell?" Jayne shouted as he exited the storage bay and saw Mal limp as Devons helped him on the ship. He pulled his sidearm from his holster and aimed it at Devons. "Get the hell out of here! Now!" Devons shouted. "You don't have much time." "What are you talking about?" Jayne asked as he walked to examine Mal as Devons was retreating back to the Rising Star. "What's going on, Cap'?" Jayne asked Mal who was un-responsive. As he began to lift Mal up off the deck the deck beneath them began to shake. "What the--?" "I'm picking up explosions coming from the Rising Star," Wash announced over the comm as he was on the bridge with Zoe as he started at his console. "They're loosing reactor containment." "How soon until it blows?" Zoe asked as she buried her nails In the back of wash's chair. "Forty seconds," Wash reported as his eyes were open wide. "Call the captain back. Jayne, get the captain back onboard!" Zoe shouted in her comm. "He's already onboard. And the airlock's sealed. "Separate!" Zoe ordered her husband and the best pilot in the system. "What about the Rising Star?" Simon asked as he stepped on the bridge. "They're already containment leaks on the ship," Wash reported as the Serenity shuddered as he activated the twin engine nacelles and burned them. Trying to get away from the dying Rising Star before it took them with them. "They're already dead," Zoe said. Thinking of all the families that were onboard the transport. The children. Oh, God the children, Zoe cried within. "Twenty five seconds until their reactor breach," Wash announced. "Hard burn. Kaylee, ready the impeller for hard burn!" Zoe ordered. "Standing bye, Zoe," Kaylee replied from engineering. "Do it!" Zoe ordered. "Here we go," Wash announced as he activated the particle drive impeller as it illuminated and in a flash, the Serenity was leaving a particle trail from the build up of particle energy that pushed the Firefly away from the blast zone as the Rising Star erupted into flames and spinning debris thrown in all directions. The crew were silent as they stood on the bridge as Jayne entered the bridge with Mal slowly regaining conscienceness. "What happened?" Zoe asked as she rushed to Jayne and Mal as Simon reached them first and began examining their captain. "He's been drugged," Simon announced as he looked into Mal's dilated eyes. "He'll be okay in a few hours. Nothing really I can do for him." "Who did this, Jayne?" "I don't know. All I saw was someone dragging the captain into the cargo bay and warning me to get us all off the Rising Star." "You seen this person before when we were on Rising Star?" Zoe asked as she signaled Jayne to help her get Mal to his cabin. "Can't say I did. But there were a lot of people onboard." "And they're all dead," Simon stated as calm slowly began to return to the crew. But their thoughts belonged to everyone that died right before their eyes in a flash.
On the Serenity, Jayne laid in his bed as he heard a nock from the upper deck. He was sleeping, cuddled in his warm bed as when next didn't come a nock but the sound of someone climbing down the ladders. "Jayne!" Kaylee shouted. "I thought you were dead!" Jayne leaned up with a sense of grogginess that overpowered him. So he decided any attempt of getting up was futile so he just laid back down. "It takes a lot to kill this guy," Jayne smiled as he saw Book approach his side. "It is good to see you again, Jayne," Book smiled. "Yeah, it's good to be seen. Looks like I was on someone's good side, uh?" "A true miracle." "Are you okay? You need anything?" Kaylee asked. "I'm fine," Jayne said before he erupted in a yawn. "Jaycee's tired, Kaylee. He's had a rough day. May be we all have had a rough day." "Jayne, I'm really sorry." "Don't worry about it. You're here, I'm here." Jayne said as his eyes opened as he remembered something he would do if by some chance he survived his three hour space walk. "I've gotta go," Jayne said as he stood from his bed. "You need your rest, Jayne," Book tried to settle his friend down. "I need to see, River. Where is she?" Jayne asked as he noticed as he spoke her name gave a sense of uncomfortableness to them. "What? What I say?" "River's, Kaylee paused as she tried to gather the words but couldn't. Book placed his hand on her shoulder. "Jayne, River's back in her stasis crate." "What?" Jayne asked as his world was being turned upside down and thrown around. "What you talkin' about. Doc said she was getting' better. Much better he told me." "There's no way to explain it, Jayne," Book said as he could see the tragedy hitting the man who was blessed with a second chance very hard. Jayne turned around and headed for the ladder and up to the upper level as Kaylee and Book decided to leave Jaycee's cabin. As they left the cabin, Kaylee realized she had decisions to make. And she didn't much care for them. Not after what Simon had just gone through. Or maybe she shouldn't tell him anything. At least not until River got better. She didn't want to risk clouding Simon's mind when he needed it the most. As she and Book went to separate ends of the ship, as soon as Kaylee decided that she wouldn't tell Simon anything about what happened, her conscious would chime in and tell her that he had the right to no. "Why can't things ever be easy?" Kaylee asked as she headed to the one place that she could find comfort and solitude, engineering.
The hatch to the storage bay opened, and Jayne could see River's stasis crate in the middle of the deck. "Oh, little girl," Jayne said. Thoughts of all the times he was cruel and malice to her filled his mind. All the times he made fun of her when she was hurting inside like no one could believe or ever imagine reminded him that he did not let River's presence on the Serenity a pleasant one. "River, I ah, I know that you know what happened on Aerial," Jayne said as he paused for the words to flash in his mind. This task being the most difficult task he had ever had to perform. You wanted someone dead, Jayne would do it in a heartbeat without trouble. You wanted Jayne to interrogate someone, he was the man for the job. But if you wanted Jayne to apologize to someone, he was lost. "I wish I could had told this to your face while you were still alive, I mean awake. Sorry about that. I just want you to know that ever since we left Aerial, knowing what I did was wrong has been eatin' me away. It's been a very long time that I've wanted to, ah, be saying this to you." Jayne paused and took a deep breath. As the breath came and went, in a flash he saw what happened on Aerial. The crew deciding to rob an Alliance medical facilities with medicine while Jayne escorted Simon and River to an imager where Simon could finally find out what happened to her at the Academy. Jayne, Simon, and River leaving through the back door and being surrounded by Alliance Federals. Federals that Jayne had called. And before he could get his reward he was being locked away too. "Ya' see, Mal knew what I did. He locked me in the airlock and was threatening to vac' me once we left atmo'." Jayne paused as for the first time in his life he was scared to die. The moment when the air was getting thinner in the airlock and the hatch was partially opened. "I wished he did," Jayne said as a tear rolled down his cheek. "It would had put me out of my misery. The misery I've been dealing with since Aerial. River, I'm sorry." Jayne knelt on his knees beside her crate, looking at her still form. Seeing how innocent River was for the Academy to do whatever experiments they were doing to her. "If I ever catch the ones that did this to you, I swear, I'll kill 'em. I'll kill 'em all if I can. I swear to you. I swear," Jayne said as he realized that he wasn't big on keeping promises and oaths. But this one was different. This one was different.
Chapter: 15
Mal watched as former Alliance commander Marcus Devons picked himself up off the deck and grabbed hold of the bulkhead to keep him steady from the vertigo from Mal's punch. "Now, what the hell do you want?" "I told you," Devons said as he rubbed his jaw. "I need your help." "I don't help the Alliance much these days." "You must have some kind of hearing impairment since last we met. I'm not with the Alliance!" "What happened, Devons? Didn't get your quota of navigational violations? I hear those are a bitch." "I left the Alliance on my own free will." "Can't say I heard of an Alliance commander in charge of his first deep range patrol boat resigning from the Alliance. Uh, you must be a first." "And I won't be the last." "What are you talking about?" "I'm talking about what's coming." "Oh, please tell me. What is coming?" "A change," Devons said as he removed a cloth from his robe and wiped blood from his busted lip on it. "You know, that hurt quite a bit." "Want me to do it again? Because that's what 'm gonna do if you don't speed things up for me just a little." Devons reached deep in his robe and caused Mal to jump to alert with Precious still aiming at the man. Devons slowed his movement and removed a data disk. "On this disk, is evidence that will start the fall of the Alliance." The words fall of the Alliance slowed Mal's world down to a crawl. Can he be trusted? He asked himself. Or is this just a trick. "I'm listening," Mal said as he holstered Precious and leaned against the bulkhead. "Seven months ago, we were on a routine deep range patrol when we came upon an unregistered Tau-3 transport. We were on the search for a transport smuggling contra band weapons to a near bye system. Everything checked out. We issued the appropriate fines and were setting off. Until I was ordered to destroy that transport." "Destroy? Why? Why a boat full of families." "I don't know. So I questioned the ordered. Something not many Alliance captains do these days. I was told to follow orders and destroy the ship." "Did you?" "No, so I was relieved of command and my executive officer took command and destroyed the transport." "Why destroy a boat full of civilians?" "A loyalty test," Devons paused as he gathered his thoughts. Remembering, re-living the events as he narrated to Mal. "I resigned my commission, and was able to download the flight recorder of the incident," Devons gestured to the data disk and handed it to Mal. "What's all on this?" "Everything. The gun-port sensors, system diagnostics, and the sensor scans of the boat showing that there were only families onboard." "Nice," Mal said as he attempted to hand it back to Devons. But Devons would not take it. "And what exactly do you want me to do with this?" "I'm tired of running, Captain Reynolds. My fight is over. I need you to give that to the appropriate individuals on Phara 3." "I ain't in this business, Captain. Your dung, you can climb yourself out of it. Have fun and best of luck," Reynolds said as he began to walk off. "You don't see it, do you Captain?" "Apparently not," Reynolds responded as he stopped in his tracks. "Do tell, please. Enlighten me." "The Alliance is corrupt and un-stable. Before we know it, we'll be having destroyers and flyer squads shooting boats for the hell of it. The de-stability of the Alliance is continuing. At first, it was a good idea to unite all the systems under one government. But the Alliance is becoming a dictatorship." "I could had told you that. Why do you think we were fighting for independence? Look at the history of humanity. Small groups try to separate from the ruling body, which results in bloodshed and a long costly war. Rarely do the Indies win. Most of the time they're defeated and re- integrated back to society." "I see this now," Devons announced. "I joined the Alliance to protect its citizens. Not shoot down innocent civilians," Devons began into a violent cough. "Don't sound good." "I'm fine. But you have to get this to the right people. I can't carry this on anymore." "Why?" "Because as soon as I revealed to you the details of the disk, I signed my own death warrant. And I'm tired of running." "You say this was intended to get to Phera 3. You seem to be headin' in the wrong direction. Phera 3's back five systems behind us." "I joined the Rising Star to get away from the Alliance patrols. Where we are there aren't many patrols. By time the Rising Star returned to civilized space, in three months I would make my way to Phera 3 as soon as I knew I could make it. Because right now, if I set foot on Phera 3, I'd be discovered and executed on sight." "Ever since Serenity Valley, I've learned that the War was long over. This is just meaningless attempt to bring the mighty Alliance down. And it'll fail." "You've lost your hope, Captain. The torch is yours, sir." "I've never accepted no such thing, Devons." "I was to meet a contact with the people who were interested in this data t the Nova Tavern on Phera 3's southern complex." "I'm not doing this," Mal said. "I'm just a starship captain. I keep flying." "And so you will," Devons said as he raised his hand and a paralyzer dart shot out of a wrist gun on his right wrist that was hidden by his robe. The hyper velocity dart penetrated Mal's chest. Before Mal could remove the dart his conscienceness began to deteriorate. "You son of a bitch!" He said as he slowly fell to the deck as he was leaning against the bulkhead. "The contact data is on the disk," Devons said as he helped Mal up off the deck and back to the airlock where he labored to get him back to his ship. To get Mal off the ship before it was too late. "What the hell?" Jayne shouted as he exited the storage bay and saw Mal limp as Devons helped him on the ship. He pulled his sidearm from his holster and aimed it at Devons. "Get the hell out of here! Now!" Devons shouted. "You don't have much time." "What are you talking about?" Jayne asked as he walked to examine Mal as Devons was retreating back to the Rising Star. "What's going on, Cap'?" Jayne asked Mal who was un-responsive. As he began to lift Mal up off the deck the deck beneath them began to shake. "What the--?" "I'm picking up explosions coming from the Rising Star," Wash announced over the comm as he was on the bridge with Zoe as he started at his console. "They're loosing reactor containment." "How soon until it blows?" Zoe asked as she buried her nails In the back of wash's chair. "Forty seconds," Wash reported as his eyes were open wide. "Call the captain back. Jayne, get the captain back onboard!" Zoe shouted in her comm. "He's already onboard. And the airlock's sealed. "Separate!" Zoe ordered her husband and the best pilot in the system. "What about the Rising Star?" Simon asked as he stepped on the bridge. "They're already containment leaks on the ship," Wash reported as the Serenity shuddered as he activated the twin engine nacelles and burned them. Trying to get away from the dying Rising Star before it took them with them. "They're already dead," Zoe said. Thinking of all the families that were onboard the transport. The children. Oh, God the children, Zoe cried within. "Twenty five seconds until their reactor breach," Wash announced. "Hard burn. Kaylee, ready the impeller for hard burn!" Zoe ordered. "Standing bye, Zoe," Kaylee replied from engineering. "Do it!" Zoe ordered. "Here we go," Wash announced as he activated the particle drive impeller as it illuminated and in a flash, the Serenity was leaving a particle trail from the build up of particle energy that pushed the Firefly away from the blast zone as the Rising Star erupted into flames and spinning debris thrown in all directions. The crew were silent as they stood on the bridge as Jayne entered the bridge with Mal slowly regaining conscienceness. "What happened?" Zoe asked as she rushed to Jayne and Mal as Simon reached them first and began examining their captain. "He's been drugged," Simon announced as he looked into Mal's dilated eyes. "He'll be okay in a few hours. Nothing really I can do for him." "Who did this, Jayne?" "I don't know. All I saw was someone dragging the captain into the cargo bay and warning me to get us all off the Rising Star." "You seen this person before when we were on Rising Star?" Zoe asked as she signaled Jayne to help her get Mal to his cabin. "Can't say I did. But there were a lot of people onboard." "And they're all dead," Simon stated as calm slowly began to return to the crew. But their thoughts belonged to everyone that died right before their eyes in a flash.