Fragile by Proxii Blue
(Note: This story is actually turning out to be longer than I thought! I hope everyone likes it, and more reviews would be greatly appreciated :)
X
"You're up late." Mal didn't turn away from the viewscreen in Serenity's cockpit as Zoe wandered into the small space. The rest of the crew was basking in the glow of a job well done after having delivered their second run, now the only thing that was left to take care of was learning where Selma and her son wanted to be dropped off, but Zoe had known Mal long enough to realize that he was probably wondering whether or not just to dump them off on the nearest inhabitable rock.
Then again Mal might not go through with that plan given everything he had learned in the past day or so, and that was most likely the reason why he was up late in the first place. The Shepard for once not the only person wandering Serenity's empty halls long after the rest of the crew had gone to sleep.
"Shouldn't you be resting yourself?" Zoe shrugged, and came over to stand next to Mal in front of the window. She could see her reflection, just barely among the backdrop of stars, but staring out into space was not why she was there. In many ways she kept Mal sane, and vice versa. But if he did give into the stresses that plagued him, well Zoe wasn't quite sure what she would do, but she didn't dare entertain the thought.
"I would but Wash wanted to rub my feet, then bury me with pillows, and I figured you wouldn't appreciate it much if I re-broke his arm."
"Nope, would probably ruin my day."
"More than it already has?" Mal didn't say anything, instead he just set his jaw into a hard line, and continued to stare out at the stars. There was so much knocking around in his skull right now, that it felt as if his mind were going to explode.
"Zoe, I can always trust you, right?"
"Of course sir, why do you ask?"
"Because I need to tell you some things, disturbing things that for once I just can't keep to myself."
"Does this involve River?"
"That, and more." Mal sat down on the edge of the console that was usually manned by Wash and filled Zoe in on everything from River's tale about PSIOPS, to how it fit in with everything Selma had told them earlier that day. He finished it off with his suspicions about Niska, and noticed that Zoe was staring at him hard.
"What?"
"You left something out." The disc. Mal had told her about everything except for the disc, but at the moment he didn't feel that it was of any importantce.
"I did, River bought a toy at the market."
"It's important."
"No it's not." Zoe didn't press the issue. If Mal wanted to disregard it for the time being, that was his perogative, but she could tell that it was bothering some part of him, just not one large enough to weigh on the rest of his mind yet.
"Well what do you think sir?"
"I think that we stepped into a pile of it when we took River and Simon on, but if what Selma said in there is true about people, especially out here, then it's a damn good reason for us to keep them out of Alliance hands."
"You're not bothered by what she told you?"
"Hell yeah I am bothered by what she told me! Do you know what that means? All those readers running around, not to mention not knowing which one is a seer? I hate to play the Devil's advocate here, but I can see why the Alliance feels scared."
"Scared enough to do what they did to River to innocent children. Does that seem right to you Mal?"
"No, it is not right, and that is not what I'm saying. It's just that-"
"You're afraid that she might be right about Niska?" Mal sat down hard in the pilot's chair. Zoe had hit the nail on the head so to speak. He was afraid that Selma was right, he was afraid of everything that he might be in the middle of, and also he was afraid that he might not be able to handle it once things started to get out of hand. Then again he had handled everything until now.
River was a mind-reading genius who was part of a small population who had her specific gift. the majority of the human race was turning empathic, and controlling these special types was only a small part of whatever agenda the Alliance was trying to fulfill. Subconsciously, a little voice told Mal that it was part of that damn gold disc somehow, but consciously he refused to acknowledge it.
However, if he looked at it his mind was no more complicated then it had been a day ago. Yet he was curious about this whole underground faction thing that Selma claimed that she was a part of. Searches on the Cortex revealed nothing except her certifications as an archaeologist, but there was nothing else there that could be used to completely identify her.
The records said that she had been born on Keelwaters, her approximate age was thirty-seven, she had one son, was widowed, and listed as a neutral with neither Alliance or Independent ties. In other words, she was a free agent, but that still didn't explain her ability to keep from being caught by the Alliance all this time.
It wasn't likely that she was working for them, if that was true she wouldn't have been able to get within two feet of River. Her ties to the underground group was the only logical explanation, but answers were not forthcoming since according to Simon her mind was experiencing electrical disturbances, almost as if something was actively interfereing with her ability to function on a conscious level.
There was not way of knowing whether or not River was behind it, but Mal suspected that she wasn't, and if that were true who was? Mal looked up at Zoe who was now staring out of the viewscreen, and pulled himself to his feet.
"Zoe, could you do something for me?"
"What?"
"See if you could get Simon to help you put River up in a different room for the night."
"May I ask why?"
"It might be nothing, but I just prefer that she be kept somewhere safer than her room."
"Allright." Zoe left to take care of what her captain wanted, while Mal made his way to his own quarters in order to try and get some sleep. Ever since they had started on this run something had been interfering with his ability to actually pass out into blissfull blackness. and tonight he intended to break the cycle, and actually get some shut-eye.
Walking down the short steps into his quarters, Mal pulled off his shirt, pants, and climbed under the sheets in his boxer shorts. There was someone in the bed next to him, someone that squeaked when he rolled on them in the darkness.
"Son of a Bitch!" hopping out of bed, Mal turned on the lights full-strength revealing a confused River sitting pressed into the corner that formed the juncture between the wall and his bed.
"River what the hell are you doing in here?"
"Staying safe."
"Why not stay safe with your brother?"
"He can't protect me from the vulture, he couldn't when the viper came."
"I'm guessing you're talking about Jubal Early?" River nodded. Mal looked down at the floor, and thought for a few minutes. Throwing River out might cause more problems than it was worth, but Mal also didn't like the idea of staying in the same bed with him. He suspected that something in Jayne's mind had set her off during the whole knife incident, and given his range of nightmares he was worried that he might wake up with the girl's hands firmly wrapped around his neck. At any rate he was damned no matter what he did.
"I'm stronger now, I won't hurt you." Mal looked over at River. There was a clarity in her eyes, which meant that for the time being she had gained control over the ability that her mind had harnessed. The archaeologist had claimed that she had helped her, but River was still acting strange. Not unless...Well with River you could never tell.
"Well thank you for the consideration, but I much rather prefer that you sleep in your own bed."
"I feel safer with you."
"That so?"
"That's so." Mal sighed, and reached around in his drawer until he found a shirt. Walking back over to the bed, he climbed in leaving a blanket between them, and turned out the light.
"Now don't be a wiggle worm, get it all out of your system now, or I'll turn you out." River scooted around until she found the sweet spot, and spooned up against Mal's backside. Letting out another sigh, Mal closed his eyes, and prayed silently to whoever was listening that none of the other crew came in during the night.
It just wouldn't do to have to go through life knowing he got his butt whipped by Simon Tam for sleeping (innocently) with his little sister.
River just giggled.
***
Selma Ennes lay semi-conscious on the table in medbay under Simon's watchful eye. She could feel him watching her, and sense the turmoil in his mond as he turned over everything that she had told him. She hadn't lied to him, the truth was what it was, but there were just some people in the 'verse who couldn't handle what was right in front of them.
If she were better she would talk to Book, or try to calm down the young doctor, but her energy was slowly draining. When she had used her abilities to interfere with River and Simon's fight she had let down her defenses to far, and as a result had picked up on every emotion of the crew as well as the insanity of the man that River called the vulture. She knew what he was, a seer like her, but the 'verse, and his own sick mind had turned him into a monster that fed off of the pain and suffering of his victims.
There were some sensitives wou were just naturally predisposed to becoming social deviants, and the man - Niska - was one of them. They were evil incarnate, something that was most likely the result of mutations on their thirteenth chromosomes, that led to an occurnence of mental disorders that ranged from simple depression to becoming a full-fledged psychopath.
Personally, Selma didn't know how why the man was after the crew so badly, but she did know that just picking up on him was enough to cause her to shut down. Now her only hope was to remain calm, and conserve energy for the fight that was about to come. However, if she was unable to repair her defenses in time, she would slip into a coma as her mind did the work the hard way, and there would be now way for her to protect both River and her son Jordan.
He too was like his mother, but young, and too inexperienced to be of much help. If anything the vulture would get him first. Taking a few deep breaths, Selma refocused her attention, and tried to concentrate on something else that would aid with what she was trying to do. There was so little time left, hours at most, and that wasn't long enough.
She hoped that River and her son would be okay, she needed them to be. Ennes couldn't afford to lose someone else.
XI
"Come on baby. Come on." Kay Winnit Lee Frye, better known as Kaylee sat in the hallway outside of the cockpit trying to recalibrate the artificial gracity filters after Simon had already tinkered with them. He hadn't done too badly, only set them off to the point that if one stepped hard enough, they could propel themselves into the ceiling. While that had been funny when it happened to Jayne, Zoe had a different opinion, and now with her pregnant Wash had been almost hysterical.
Now, she had to fix what Simon had already messed with, and as a result it was taking her longer than it would have if he had just left well-enough alone. Sometimes the man could be so gorram infuriating, but she knew why he had done it - as a way to make nice with her.
"But if he wanted to do that," she muttered. "He could have just bought me a new calibrator so I wouldn't have to use this old one."
"Sometimes when we care about someone, we try to make them happy by helping them with something that is close to their heart." Kaylee jumped, and let out a small shriek. Jordan Ennes stood half-in, half-out of the shadows watching the ship's engineer with a small smile on his face. He had his mother's eyes, but his father's dark hair. From what she had seen of him when he joined the crew in mess, he was a thin young man with pale skin, and an aptitude for silence.
Something that was rather out of character for him since he seemed to be so friendly, yet reserved. Maybe because it was his father had died.
"I just keep to myself." he said softly. Kaylee frowned, and then remembered what she had overhead Zoe and Mal taking about when they had been in the cockpit. Jordan looked down at the floor as Kaylee's thoughts reached out to him from her spot in the hallway.
"I think I should go."
"No, it's okay, I have some readers in my family. I just never met a-"
"Seer?"
"I guess so. I mean I don't mean to be rude or nothing, I'm just not used to being around someone who can read my mind, and know what I'm going to say before I can say it." Jordan smiled, and came over to where Kaylee was. Sitting down, he watched as she tried to recalibrate the air filters.
"It's allright, I'm not used to being around someone who doesn't really mind that I can read their mind." Kaylee smiled, and put the filter back in the compartment in the hall floor. Securing it in place, she tapped a few keys on her diagnostic console, and whooped softly as the filter came online.
"Good as new."
"Shiny." Kaylee put her tools away, and leaned back against the cool surface of the wall behind her. She was tired to be sure, but after her run-in with Jubal Early she wasn't capable of sleeping really at night, and working seemed to take her mind off of what had happened.
"He scared you really badly didn't he?"
"Yeah, he was a bad man."
"Many people who are like that don't know right from wrong. It wasn't right that he used your fears against you." Kaylee looked at her hands in the dim light from the grates in the ceiling.
"Doesn't it ever get hard for you sometimes, knowing what everyone is thinking, and knowing what a person is really like."
"You mean do I ever wonder what it is like to be like everyone else?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, sometimes. Then again it really pays off when I play poker." Kaylee let out a short bark of a laugh, and ran her fingers through her red hair.
"You remind me of my cousin Mary Joe who-" both youths looked up as a loud clank sounded from the rear of the ship. It was too early yet for Book to be up, and too late for Jayne. Kaylee knew every sound there was to be heard on the ship, and that wasn't one that she was familiar with.
"Is someone there?" she called into the darkness. Jordan rubbed his temples, and stared over at the darkness down at the end of the corridor at something that Kaylee couldn't see.
"Yes, I can see them, but-" Jordan was cut off as a short 'puff' cut through the silence, and his shirt rippled into a mess of blood. Falling backwards, the boy lay on his side as blood gushed from his shoulder. Rusing over to his side, Kaylee held pressure on the wound as a figure stepped out of the darkness with two other shadows behind them. Kaylee's eyes widened as Niska stood over her grinning with a still-smoking gun in his left hand. The tip of it equipped with a silencer.
"Why hello Miss. Frye, I do believe that you and your gentleman friend will kindly oblige me by retiring for the evening." Kaylee didn't even get a chance to scream as Niska fired a round into her chest.
***
Simon Tam sat in the small medbay of Serenity reading Selma's book of poetry. It had been a long time since he had been able to enjoy some of the works of Ray Bradbury, and the small red volume was proving to be a welcome treat for the doctor's tired mind. He had just turned the page to another sonnet, when he noticed that there was someone standing in front of him.
"Mal can I-" Niska smiled as Simon dropped the book, and hastily backed away from the older man. The gun was level with the doctor's throat, the trigger almost back to the hilt as he motioned for the younger of the two to walk over to the cabinet where Tam kept his drugs.
"Take out the hiprovaline." That particular drug was a powerful sedative. Simon did as he was told, Niska pointed to a pack of syiringes on the table. Shaking heavily, the doctor withdrew one, almost dropping it in the process.
"Calm down doctor, I am not going to kill you, I just want you to give the good patient here a reaso to stay quiet for a little while." Nervously Simon approached Ennes, and slid the tip of the needle into her arm. The plunger depressed, and for the next six to eight hours Selma was going to be in a nice drug-induced coma. Niska smiled, and twitched the gun indicating that he wanted Simon to drop the used instrument. To doctor did so, only to have the deranged murderer point to the drug again.
"Fill another syringe." Tam did as he was told. "Now give it to me." Carefully Simon handed it over to Niska. One of his men stepped into the doorway, whereupon he was given the needle containing the drug.
"Put our good doctor to sleep for me."
"Wait!" Simon moved fast, but not fast enough. The tiny sliver of metal stabbed through the back of his neck, and his world went black as the chemicals took effect. Tam hit the floor with a heavy thud, Niska shaking his head as he stared at the youth.
"Idiot." he muttered, before searching through the rest of the ship.
***
"I'm hungry." Wash looked up from his spot on the floor as Zoe got up, and put on a black robe. Normally he would have gotten up to get whatever she needed, but the two had been having a little 'fun' earlier in the evening, and as a result Wash was too tired to even speak.
"Mmk." Was all he said as she climbed the short stairs that led out of their quarters, and into the ahllway. No sooner had the door closed behind her when Zoe sensed that there was something off. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she could tell that something was tainting the atmosphere of Serenity as she started heading for the mess.
With each step her sense of foreboding grew until she decided that she wasn't going to take any chances, not until she went back to her quarters first, and got a gun. Turning around she was stopped bu the barrel of a gun pressed against her throat. Niska grinned at her from the shadows, as he backed her towards the door to the room she shared with her husband.
"So nice to see you again Zoe."
"Can't say the same for you Niska."
"Ah, I can't blame you I did try to kill your captain and husband."
"I'm guessing that's why you're here? To finish the job?"
"In a matter of speaking, except this time there isn't going to be anyone to get in my way." The hammer of the gun cocked backwards.
"W-wait. You don't want to do that."
"Why not?"
"I don't care what argument you have with Mal, but I - I'm pregnant. I'm no threat to you." Wash who had heard the thumping as Zoe was backed down the hallway, had been carefully opening the door to their room.
"Pregnant? Ah a little one of your own hmm?" Zoe nodded. Niska smiled, and backed up just enough to kick the woman in her stomach hard enough to send her flying backwards down the stairs of her own quarters. Wash let out a startled shriek as he tried to catch Zoe, the door sliding shut, and clicking as the lock was set.
"ZOE!"
***
Inara sat with Book in her shuttle playing cards. The Shepard was quite good at the game, even though he claimed that he had never played before. Jayne was consistently losing, and after the fifth game he quit. Now the mercenary sat on the sidelines watching with a sour look on his face, and his arms folded.
"You sure that you don't want to try again?" asked the Companion. Jayne just huffed loudly. Book laid his hand on the table showing three kings, and a three.
"Three rings." Inara smiled, and put down her cards. Four queens.
"I do believe that this round once again goes to the ladies." Book stretched, and looked at the time on the small clock on Inara's dresser.
"I think that I'm going to get some sleep." With that the Shepard got up from where he was sitting, and headed for the door when he stopped to listen to something.
"Hear something preacher?"
"Yes, there is some sort of device on the other side of this door that's beeping." Inara frowned and rose from her seat. She joined the Shepard where he was standing, and craned her neck.
"You're right, but what do you think it is?"
"Well," Shepard cracked the shuttle door a little by tapping the button, and used a small mirror to see around the corner. "Oh my God!"
"What?" asked Jayne and Inara in unison. Book shut the door, and turned around to look at the other two occupants of the shuttle.
"There is a bomb on the door."
"A what?" asked Jayne.
"A bomb on the door, from the looks of it it's tied in with the mechanism that activates the release."
"How do you know it's a bomb, you're just a preacher?" Book stared at Jayne with a look in his eyes that Inara had never seen before.
"If you want to take up the argument with that 10-17-A concussion grenade out there, be my guest, but the shockwave isn't powerful enough to destroy the shuttle. I figure that if Inara and I take refuge in the cockpit, at most we'll be splattered with your entrails as they are blasted through the door." Jayne looked back at the shuttle entrance, and then at Inara and Book.
"10-17-A concussion grenade's can be deactivated by pulling the pin on their power sleeve." said Jayne.
"True, except to get to the power sleeve, we have to be on the other side of the door." Jayne looked over his shoulder again.
"Aw shit."
***
Mal rolled over in his bed contentedly, it was unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night for a few minutes, but as he turned over something told him to open his eyes. Normally he would have ignored this urge, yet some part of him picked up on the urgency of the movement, and slowly he cracked open his lids just enough to see someone holding a forty-five.
"What that-?" Instantly awake Mal sat up to see River standing next to the bed with her head titled on an angle towards the door, her hand forming a death-grip on the handle of the weapon.
"River, what the hell are you doing?" The girl looked down at the gun, and then back over at the door again.
"The vulture is here, he's already plucked the warm carcasses of the guards at our door." Mal pulled the gun out of her hands, and stared over at the entrance to his quarters. Thinking about the correlations between River's code, and the things that had been happening on the ship he knew that he couldn't just ignore what she was saying. Walking over to the table in the corner he picked up the writing pad, and handed it to River.
"Tell me what is going on." River hastily wrote something down on the flexi, and handed it back to Mal. As she did so the captain caught a glimpse of her eyes and saw total fear in them. Whatever was on that silicone slip, he knew it wasn't good. Turning it over he read her message:
"Niska is here, he's already killed some of the crew, and now he's coming for you." Mal dropped the flexi, and turned towards the door when he heard someone scratching about on the other side. Both froze in the room as the heavy slab of metal began to lift upwards, and someone began to enter the room.
(Note: This story is actually turning out to be longer than I thought! I hope everyone likes it, and more reviews would be greatly appreciated :)
X
"You're up late." Mal didn't turn away from the viewscreen in Serenity's cockpit as Zoe wandered into the small space. The rest of the crew was basking in the glow of a job well done after having delivered their second run, now the only thing that was left to take care of was learning where Selma and her son wanted to be dropped off, but Zoe had known Mal long enough to realize that he was probably wondering whether or not just to dump them off on the nearest inhabitable rock.
Then again Mal might not go through with that plan given everything he had learned in the past day or so, and that was most likely the reason why he was up late in the first place. The Shepard for once not the only person wandering Serenity's empty halls long after the rest of the crew had gone to sleep.
"Shouldn't you be resting yourself?" Zoe shrugged, and came over to stand next to Mal in front of the window. She could see her reflection, just barely among the backdrop of stars, but staring out into space was not why she was there. In many ways she kept Mal sane, and vice versa. But if he did give into the stresses that plagued him, well Zoe wasn't quite sure what she would do, but she didn't dare entertain the thought.
"I would but Wash wanted to rub my feet, then bury me with pillows, and I figured you wouldn't appreciate it much if I re-broke his arm."
"Nope, would probably ruin my day."
"More than it already has?" Mal didn't say anything, instead he just set his jaw into a hard line, and continued to stare out at the stars. There was so much knocking around in his skull right now, that it felt as if his mind were going to explode.
"Zoe, I can always trust you, right?"
"Of course sir, why do you ask?"
"Because I need to tell you some things, disturbing things that for once I just can't keep to myself."
"Does this involve River?"
"That, and more." Mal sat down on the edge of the console that was usually manned by Wash and filled Zoe in on everything from River's tale about PSIOPS, to how it fit in with everything Selma had told them earlier that day. He finished it off with his suspicions about Niska, and noticed that Zoe was staring at him hard.
"What?"
"You left something out." The disc. Mal had told her about everything except for the disc, but at the moment he didn't feel that it was of any importantce.
"I did, River bought a toy at the market."
"It's important."
"No it's not." Zoe didn't press the issue. If Mal wanted to disregard it for the time being, that was his perogative, but she could tell that it was bothering some part of him, just not one large enough to weigh on the rest of his mind yet.
"Well what do you think sir?"
"I think that we stepped into a pile of it when we took River and Simon on, but if what Selma said in there is true about people, especially out here, then it's a damn good reason for us to keep them out of Alliance hands."
"You're not bothered by what she told you?"
"Hell yeah I am bothered by what she told me! Do you know what that means? All those readers running around, not to mention not knowing which one is a seer? I hate to play the Devil's advocate here, but I can see why the Alliance feels scared."
"Scared enough to do what they did to River to innocent children. Does that seem right to you Mal?"
"No, it is not right, and that is not what I'm saying. It's just that-"
"You're afraid that she might be right about Niska?" Mal sat down hard in the pilot's chair. Zoe had hit the nail on the head so to speak. He was afraid that Selma was right, he was afraid of everything that he might be in the middle of, and also he was afraid that he might not be able to handle it once things started to get out of hand. Then again he had handled everything until now.
River was a mind-reading genius who was part of a small population who had her specific gift. the majority of the human race was turning empathic, and controlling these special types was only a small part of whatever agenda the Alliance was trying to fulfill. Subconsciously, a little voice told Mal that it was part of that damn gold disc somehow, but consciously he refused to acknowledge it.
However, if he looked at it his mind was no more complicated then it had been a day ago. Yet he was curious about this whole underground faction thing that Selma claimed that she was a part of. Searches on the Cortex revealed nothing except her certifications as an archaeologist, but there was nothing else there that could be used to completely identify her.
The records said that she had been born on Keelwaters, her approximate age was thirty-seven, she had one son, was widowed, and listed as a neutral with neither Alliance or Independent ties. In other words, she was a free agent, but that still didn't explain her ability to keep from being caught by the Alliance all this time.
It wasn't likely that she was working for them, if that was true she wouldn't have been able to get within two feet of River. Her ties to the underground group was the only logical explanation, but answers were not forthcoming since according to Simon her mind was experiencing electrical disturbances, almost as if something was actively interfereing with her ability to function on a conscious level.
There was not way of knowing whether or not River was behind it, but Mal suspected that she wasn't, and if that were true who was? Mal looked up at Zoe who was now staring out of the viewscreen, and pulled himself to his feet.
"Zoe, could you do something for me?"
"What?"
"See if you could get Simon to help you put River up in a different room for the night."
"May I ask why?"
"It might be nothing, but I just prefer that she be kept somewhere safer than her room."
"Allright." Zoe left to take care of what her captain wanted, while Mal made his way to his own quarters in order to try and get some sleep. Ever since they had started on this run something had been interfering with his ability to actually pass out into blissfull blackness. and tonight he intended to break the cycle, and actually get some shut-eye.
Walking down the short steps into his quarters, Mal pulled off his shirt, pants, and climbed under the sheets in his boxer shorts. There was someone in the bed next to him, someone that squeaked when he rolled on them in the darkness.
"Son of a Bitch!" hopping out of bed, Mal turned on the lights full-strength revealing a confused River sitting pressed into the corner that formed the juncture between the wall and his bed.
"River what the hell are you doing in here?"
"Staying safe."
"Why not stay safe with your brother?"
"He can't protect me from the vulture, he couldn't when the viper came."
"I'm guessing you're talking about Jubal Early?" River nodded. Mal looked down at the floor, and thought for a few minutes. Throwing River out might cause more problems than it was worth, but Mal also didn't like the idea of staying in the same bed with him. He suspected that something in Jayne's mind had set her off during the whole knife incident, and given his range of nightmares he was worried that he might wake up with the girl's hands firmly wrapped around his neck. At any rate he was damned no matter what he did.
"I'm stronger now, I won't hurt you." Mal looked over at River. There was a clarity in her eyes, which meant that for the time being she had gained control over the ability that her mind had harnessed. The archaeologist had claimed that she had helped her, but River was still acting strange. Not unless...Well with River you could never tell.
"Well thank you for the consideration, but I much rather prefer that you sleep in your own bed."
"I feel safer with you."
"That so?"
"That's so." Mal sighed, and reached around in his drawer until he found a shirt. Walking back over to the bed, he climbed in leaving a blanket between them, and turned out the light.
"Now don't be a wiggle worm, get it all out of your system now, or I'll turn you out." River scooted around until she found the sweet spot, and spooned up against Mal's backside. Letting out another sigh, Mal closed his eyes, and prayed silently to whoever was listening that none of the other crew came in during the night.
It just wouldn't do to have to go through life knowing he got his butt whipped by Simon Tam for sleeping (innocently) with his little sister.
River just giggled.
***
Selma Ennes lay semi-conscious on the table in medbay under Simon's watchful eye. She could feel him watching her, and sense the turmoil in his mond as he turned over everything that she had told him. She hadn't lied to him, the truth was what it was, but there were just some people in the 'verse who couldn't handle what was right in front of them.
If she were better she would talk to Book, or try to calm down the young doctor, but her energy was slowly draining. When she had used her abilities to interfere with River and Simon's fight she had let down her defenses to far, and as a result had picked up on every emotion of the crew as well as the insanity of the man that River called the vulture. She knew what he was, a seer like her, but the 'verse, and his own sick mind had turned him into a monster that fed off of the pain and suffering of his victims.
There were some sensitives wou were just naturally predisposed to becoming social deviants, and the man - Niska - was one of them. They were evil incarnate, something that was most likely the result of mutations on their thirteenth chromosomes, that led to an occurnence of mental disorders that ranged from simple depression to becoming a full-fledged psychopath.
Personally, Selma didn't know how why the man was after the crew so badly, but she did know that just picking up on him was enough to cause her to shut down. Now her only hope was to remain calm, and conserve energy for the fight that was about to come. However, if she was unable to repair her defenses in time, she would slip into a coma as her mind did the work the hard way, and there would be now way for her to protect both River and her son Jordan.
He too was like his mother, but young, and too inexperienced to be of much help. If anything the vulture would get him first. Taking a few deep breaths, Selma refocused her attention, and tried to concentrate on something else that would aid with what she was trying to do. There was so little time left, hours at most, and that wasn't long enough.
She hoped that River and her son would be okay, she needed them to be. Ennes couldn't afford to lose someone else.
XI
"Come on baby. Come on." Kay Winnit Lee Frye, better known as Kaylee sat in the hallway outside of the cockpit trying to recalibrate the artificial gracity filters after Simon had already tinkered with them. He hadn't done too badly, only set them off to the point that if one stepped hard enough, they could propel themselves into the ceiling. While that had been funny when it happened to Jayne, Zoe had a different opinion, and now with her pregnant Wash had been almost hysterical.
Now, she had to fix what Simon had already messed with, and as a result it was taking her longer than it would have if he had just left well-enough alone. Sometimes the man could be so gorram infuriating, but she knew why he had done it - as a way to make nice with her.
"But if he wanted to do that," she muttered. "He could have just bought me a new calibrator so I wouldn't have to use this old one."
"Sometimes when we care about someone, we try to make them happy by helping them with something that is close to their heart." Kaylee jumped, and let out a small shriek. Jordan Ennes stood half-in, half-out of the shadows watching the ship's engineer with a small smile on his face. He had his mother's eyes, but his father's dark hair. From what she had seen of him when he joined the crew in mess, he was a thin young man with pale skin, and an aptitude for silence.
Something that was rather out of character for him since he seemed to be so friendly, yet reserved. Maybe because it was his father had died.
"I just keep to myself." he said softly. Kaylee frowned, and then remembered what she had overhead Zoe and Mal taking about when they had been in the cockpit. Jordan looked down at the floor as Kaylee's thoughts reached out to him from her spot in the hallway.
"I think I should go."
"No, it's okay, I have some readers in my family. I just never met a-"
"Seer?"
"I guess so. I mean I don't mean to be rude or nothing, I'm just not used to being around someone who can read my mind, and know what I'm going to say before I can say it." Jordan smiled, and came over to where Kaylee was. Sitting down, he watched as she tried to recalibrate the air filters.
"It's allright, I'm not used to being around someone who doesn't really mind that I can read their mind." Kaylee smiled, and put the filter back in the compartment in the hall floor. Securing it in place, she tapped a few keys on her diagnostic console, and whooped softly as the filter came online.
"Good as new."
"Shiny." Kaylee put her tools away, and leaned back against the cool surface of the wall behind her. She was tired to be sure, but after her run-in with Jubal Early she wasn't capable of sleeping really at night, and working seemed to take her mind off of what had happened.
"He scared you really badly didn't he?"
"Yeah, he was a bad man."
"Many people who are like that don't know right from wrong. It wasn't right that he used your fears against you." Kaylee looked at her hands in the dim light from the grates in the ceiling.
"Doesn't it ever get hard for you sometimes, knowing what everyone is thinking, and knowing what a person is really like."
"You mean do I ever wonder what it is like to be like everyone else?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, sometimes. Then again it really pays off when I play poker." Kaylee let out a short bark of a laugh, and ran her fingers through her red hair.
"You remind me of my cousin Mary Joe who-" both youths looked up as a loud clank sounded from the rear of the ship. It was too early yet for Book to be up, and too late for Jayne. Kaylee knew every sound there was to be heard on the ship, and that wasn't one that she was familiar with.
"Is someone there?" she called into the darkness. Jordan rubbed his temples, and stared over at the darkness down at the end of the corridor at something that Kaylee couldn't see.
"Yes, I can see them, but-" Jordan was cut off as a short 'puff' cut through the silence, and his shirt rippled into a mess of blood. Falling backwards, the boy lay on his side as blood gushed from his shoulder. Rusing over to his side, Kaylee held pressure on the wound as a figure stepped out of the darkness with two other shadows behind them. Kaylee's eyes widened as Niska stood over her grinning with a still-smoking gun in his left hand. The tip of it equipped with a silencer.
"Why hello Miss. Frye, I do believe that you and your gentleman friend will kindly oblige me by retiring for the evening." Kaylee didn't even get a chance to scream as Niska fired a round into her chest.
***
Simon Tam sat in the small medbay of Serenity reading Selma's book of poetry. It had been a long time since he had been able to enjoy some of the works of Ray Bradbury, and the small red volume was proving to be a welcome treat for the doctor's tired mind. He had just turned the page to another sonnet, when he noticed that there was someone standing in front of him.
"Mal can I-" Niska smiled as Simon dropped the book, and hastily backed away from the older man. The gun was level with the doctor's throat, the trigger almost back to the hilt as he motioned for the younger of the two to walk over to the cabinet where Tam kept his drugs.
"Take out the hiprovaline." That particular drug was a powerful sedative. Simon did as he was told, Niska pointed to a pack of syiringes on the table. Shaking heavily, the doctor withdrew one, almost dropping it in the process.
"Calm down doctor, I am not going to kill you, I just want you to give the good patient here a reaso to stay quiet for a little while." Nervously Simon approached Ennes, and slid the tip of the needle into her arm. The plunger depressed, and for the next six to eight hours Selma was going to be in a nice drug-induced coma. Niska smiled, and twitched the gun indicating that he wanted Simon to drop the used instrument. To doctor did so, only to have the deranged murderer point to the drug again.
"Fill another syringe." Tam did as he was told. "Now give it to me." Carefully Simon handed it over to Niska. One of his men stepped into the doorway, whereupon he was given the needle containing the drug.
"Put our good doctor to sleep for me."
"Wait!" Simon moved fast, but not fast enough. The tiny sliver of metal stabbed through the back of his neck, and his world went black as the chemicals took effect. Tam hit the floor with a heavy thud, Niska shaking his head as he stared at the youth.
"Idiot." he muttered, before searching through the rest of the ship.
***
"I'm hungry." Wash looked up from his spot on the floor as Zoe got up, and put on a black robe. Normally he would have gotten up to get whatever she needed, but the two had been having a little 'fun' earlier in the evening, and as a result Wash was too tired to even speak.
"Mmk." Was all he said as she climbed the short stairs that led out of their quarters, and into the ahllway. No sooner had the door closed behind her when Zoe sensed that there was something off. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she could tell that something was tainting the atmosphere of Serenity as she started heading for the mess.
With each step her sense of foreboding grew until she decided that she wasn't going to take any chances, not until she went back to her quarters first, and got a gun. Turning around she was stopped bu the barrel of a gun pressed against her throat. Niska grinned at her from the shadows, as he backed her towards the door to the room she shared with her husband.
"So nice to see you again Zoe."
"Can't say the same for you Niska."
"Ah, I can't blame you I did try to kill your captain and husband."
"I'm guessing that's why you're here? To finish the job?"
"In a matter of speaking, except this time there isn't going to be anyone to get in my way." The hammer of the gun cocked backwards.
"W-wait. You don't want to do that."
"Why not?"
"I don't care what argument you have with Mal, but I - I'm pregnant. I'm no threat to you." Wash who had heard the thumping as Zoe was backed down the hallway, had been carefully opening the door to their room.
"Pregnant? Ah a little one of your own hmm?" Zoe nodded. Niska smiled, and backed up just enough to kick the woman in her stomach hard enough to send her flying backwards down the stairs of her own quarters. Wash let out a startled shriek as he tried to catch Zoe, the door sliding shut, and clicking as the lock was set.
"ZOE!"
***
Inara sat with Book in her shuttle playing cards. The Shepard was quite good at the game, even though he claimed that he had never played before. Jayne was consistently losing, and after the fifth game he quit. Now the mercenary sat on the sidelines watching with a sour look on his face, and his arms folded.
"You sure that you don't want to try again?" asked the Companion. Jayne just huffed loudly. Book laid his hand on the table showing three kings, and a three.
"Three rings." Inara smiled, and put down her cards. Four queens.
"I do believe that this round once again goes to the ladies." Book stretched, and looked at the time on the small clock on Inara's dresser.
"I think that I'm going to get some sleep." With that the Shepard got up from where he was sitting, and headed for the door when he stopped to listen to something.
"Hear something preacher?"
"Yes, there is some sort of device on the other side of this door that's beeping." Inara frowned and rose from her seat. She joined the Shepard where he was standing, and craned her neck.
"You're right, but what do you think it is?"
"Well," Shepard cracked the shuttle door a little by tapping the button, and used a small mirror to see around the corner. "Oh my God!"
"What?" asked Jayne and Inara in unison. Book shut the door, and turned around to look at the other two occupants of the shuttle.
"There is a bomb on the door."
"A what?" asked Jayne.
"A bomb on the door, from the looks of it it's tied in with the mechanism that activates the release."
"How do you know it's a bomb, you're just a preacher?" Book stared at Jayne with a look in his eyes that Inara had never seen before.
"If you want to take up the argument with that 10-17-A concussion grenade out there, be my guest, but the shockwave isn't powerful enough to destroy the shuttle. I figure that if Inara and I take refuge in the cockpit, at most we'll be splattered with your entrails as they are blasted through the door." Jayne looked back at the shuttle entrance, and then at Inara and Book.
"10-17-A concussion grenade's can be deactivated by pulling the pin on their power sleeve." said Jayne.
"True, except to get to the power sleeve, we have to be on the other side of the door." Jayne looked over his shoulder again.
"Aw shit."
***
Mal rolled over in his bed contentedly, it was unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night for a few minutes, but as he turned over something told him to open his eyes. Normally he would have ignored this urge, yet some part of him picked up on the urgency of the movement, and slowly he cracked open his lids just enough to see someone holding a forty-five.
"What that-?" Instantly awake Mal sat up to see River standing next to the bed with her head titled on an angle towards the door, her hand forming a death-grip on the handle of the weapon.
"River, what the hell are you doing?" The girl looked down at the gun, and then back over at the door again.
"The vulture is here, he's already plucked the warm carcasses of the guards at our door." Mal pulled the gun out of her hands, and stared over at the entrance to his quarters. Thinking about the correlations between River's code, and the things that had been happening on the ship he knew that he couldn't just ignore what she was saying. Walking over to the table in the corner he picked up the writing pad, and handed it to River.
"Tell me what is going on." River hastily wrote something down on the flexi, and handed it back to Mal. As she did so the captain caught a glimpse of her eyes and saw total fear in them. Whatever was on that silicone slip, he knew it wasn't good. Turning it over he read her message:
"Niska is here, he's already killed some of the crew, and now he's coming for you." Mal dropped the flexi, and turned towards the door when he heard someone scratching about on the other side. Both froze in the room as the heavy slab of metal began to lift upwards, and someone began to enter the room.