Title: In Their Shadow - Chapter 13
Author: Robert Cox (smeghead_76@dodo.com.au)
Disclaimer: Buffy is owned by Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy productions. The Night's Dawn trilogy is owned by Peter F. Hamilton. At least until the copyright runs out, anyway. Since that won't happen for a long time at the least, I've just gotta hope that no-one takes offence.
Summary: Xander has been transported to the 27th century. Can he adapt to life in the future? Can he ever return home? And, more to the point, can the guy stay out of trouble for once?
Rating: M-15+ (Australian system)
AN: Thanks to Grossclout, who volunteered for beta-ing duties in the later parts.
AN2: There are a couple of non-standard methods of communication used in this story, represented as follows: Affinity and {Datavises}
Habitat Romulus
Saturn orbit, Sol system
14th June, 2614
Syrinx.
The response was a somewhat incoherent mumble.
Syrinx.
Go 'way.
The habitat personality considered the options available to it, before deciding that it wasn't worth the aggravation trying to wake Syrinx, and simply left the message in her mind, where she could 'read' it once she woke up, which she did about an hour later.
Of course, she wasn't in the best of moods, feeling rather annoyed with the personality for interrupting her sleep like that. The first thing she noticed was the fact that the reason her sleep had been disturbed was that a message had arrived for her, from Ione Saldana. Breakfast first, she decided. Hopefully, she would be more coherent after a good meal and some coffee.
Beside her, Ruben stirred into wakefulness. "Good morning, Syrinx," he said, sounding far too cheerful. Her ire was dampened somewhat when he gave her a quick kiss. "Sleep well?"
"Up until the point when the personality decided to try to wake me up with a message, yes," she replied.
"A message?" he asked, obviously curious.
"Uh-huh. It's not marked as urgent, though, so it can wait until after breakfast," she replied. Mornings, bleah! She was on holiday, dammit, and therefore, should be allowed to sleep in until whatever time she felt like. Throwing on a robe, she made her way to the kitchen of the house, shambling like a dead thing.
"Morning, Syrinx," her mother, Athene, said, sounding cheerful enough that Syrinx wondered if she was still asleep and trapped in a nightmare where everyone but her was able to go from sleep to full wakefulness in less than five seconds without the help of coffee. Oh wait, that was reality.
She was about to reply when she saw that breakfast had been laid out on the table for her, including the life-preserver known as coffee. Seeing her daughter's attention focus suddenly shift, Athene chuckled lightly. "I had the housechimps serve up breakfast for you when I heard you coming," she said with a smile.
Mumbling her thanks, Syrinx absent-mindedly patted the housechimp on the head as she passed it, even though she knew that it was pointless - they were all controlled by the habitat personality - but, as a child, she'd found them cute, and even at the age of thirty-seven, she was unable to shake the childhood habit. Then again, she hadn't tried too hard, either.
The housechimp - which did, indeed, look somewhat like a small chimpanzee, although no chimp ever had golden fur, or human hands and feet - shivered slightly, and made a quiet 'ook' sound, which she had always interpreted as 'you're welcome', as she sat down at the table and, temporarily bypassing the food, reached for the coffee pot and poured herself a mug.
"What's on the agenda for today?" Athene asked, taking a seat opposite her daughter as Ruben entered the room. "Morning, Ruben."
"Good morning, Athene," Ruben replied, taking the seat next to Syrinx, and a housechimp served up breakfast to him as well.
"Not a lot," Syrinx said, answering Athene's question. "There's only two more days to go before I have to get back to work, and I want to enjoy them." As more brain cells were kicked into life by the coffee, she remembered the message she'd received earlier. "Hold that thought," she added, and accessed the message.
It was a request from Ione that she pick up someone from Norfolk and take him back to the Sol system, for which, she'd be paid half-again the normal charter rate. There weren't too many more details, but what details there were was enough to catch her attention. The question was; would she do it? The money would be good, and she was willing to do a favour for Ione, but was she willing to cut her holiday short?
In the end, the answer was 'yes'. Ione was a friend. And besides, how stressful could a simple trip to pick someone up and take them somewhere be?
Oenone?
Yes? The voidhawk's tone was eager. Syrinx couldn't blame it; after all, it had been nearly three weeks since they'd flown, and the voidhawk was getting bored.
It looks like you won't be bored any more; we've got a charter. Will you inform the rest of the crew and tell them to meet at Athene's house in three hours, please?
At last! Yes, the voidhawk was definitely eager. I will pass on the message.
Thank you.
"You're looking suspiciously happy all of a sudden," Athene remarked.
"Ione Saldana has offered me a charter," Syrinx explained. "Nothing overly complicated - pick someone up from Norfolk and bring him back to the Sol system, for which, she'll pay me half-again the normal charter rate."
"I don't suppose that your eagerness to accept has anything to do with the fact that you might get a chance to see Joshua, perhaps?"
"Mother!" she exclaimed, startled that Athene would suggest such a thing. She blushed hotly when both Athene and Ruben chuckled. "I thought you agreed to stop that."
"Why should I?" Athene said with a small smile, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Because you promised, perhaps?" Syrinx pointed out.
"Oh yes, that's right."
Syrinx sighed. She doubted that her mother would ever stop seeing if she could embarrass her. Deliberately changing the subject, she asked Ruben, "What do you think of the charter?"
"I think it's a good idea," Ruben said. "Although the holiday has been a nice break, it'll still be good to start flying again." Athene nodded her agreement.
"I told Oenone to get the crew to meet here," Syrinx told Athene, more out of politeness than anything else. "They should be here in about three hours or so, and then we leave for Norfolk."
****
Cricklade Manor, Stoke County
Kesteven Island, Norfolk
16th June, 2614
Xander crawled out of bed, feeling like a thousand hoofed animals had stampeded around his skull before leaving through his mouth, pausing only to graze and defecate on his tongue. His only coherent thought was a vague wish that he would die. At least his head wouldn't hurt so much.
He managed to get through the normal morning clean-up processes without too much difficulty, before dragging himself to the dining room. On the way, he cursed the birds that were singing at the windows, both for being so cheerful, and for daring to make noise.
Upon arrival, he made a bee-line for the coffee pot, somehow finding the energy to scowl at Joshua. How dare he look so fresh? He'd had at least as much as Xander to drink last night... probably more, actually. Then again, he also had the advantage of neural nanonic programs, and probably a medical nanonic as well.
Xander was even more determined to get neural nanonics now.
"Good morning, Xander," Joshua said cheerfully.
Xander mumbled something that could be taken either way as he poured himself a mug of coffee. He's too damn cheerful, Xander thought sluggishly. Why can't he be miserable and hungover like I am?
As if to prove the universe was out to get him, Louise and Gen entered the dining room. "Good morning, Xander," Gen chirped.
Somehow, he wasn't able to be as sullen to Gen as he was towards Joshua. "Morning, Gen," he managed to say, while Louise shot him a sympathetic look. She knew the tendency of Joshua to have a few drinks at the slightest pretext. Remembering the last time Joshua's brother had dropped by for a visit made her shudder at the memory. Both Calvert brothers had attempted to out-drink each other, and made complete fools of themselves. Looking back on it, though, there was some humour to be found, but not in this situation.
Taking pity on Xander, she went to one of the side cupboards and opened one of the doors, extracting what she called the 'emergency hangover treatment kit', used when Joshua forgot to activate his neural nanonic detoxification programs before he went to bed after a few drinks.
From it, she plucked a medical nanonic, which she handed to Xander. "Wrap this around your throat, Xander," she said. "Make sure it isn't too tight, and make sure the ends meet."
He gave the green rubbery substance an odd look before he decided to trust what Louise had just told him. It wasn't that he didn't trust Louise; it was that he was leery of wrapping something around his neck in general.
Seeing his look, Louise explained. "It'll get rid of some of the nasties in your bloodstream, and infuse a mild analgesic, which will make your hangover seem less painful."
Following Louise's instructions, Xander wrapped the medical nanonic around his neck, and felt a slight tingling sensation as it activated, sending tendrils through the skin of his neck and into his bloodstream, with the intention of filtering out the metabolic by-products of the alcohol he had consumed last night. He sighed in relief as the mild painkiller was infused into his bloodstream, reducing the amount of pain he was feeling.
"Thanks, Louise," he said gratefully, and then a concern bored home. "How much of an idiot of myself did I make last night?"
"Not too bad," Louise reassured him. "Particularly compared to the last time Liol visited," she added, glancing at Joshua.
"You're not going to let me live that down, are you?" Joshua said with a slight wince.
"Not for a while, no," Louise replied with a small smirk, and Xander snickered at Joshua's expense.
Joshua turned a pleading expression towards his wife, and she relented. "All right, I'll stop picking on you," she said with a smile.
"What about you, Xander?" he asked.
Xander shrugged. "I suppose so," he replied in a tone suggesting that he was doing Joshua a favour.
"Thanks."
Breakfast was eaten pretty much in silence, and Xander's condition improved as the medical nanonic worked on filtering the toxins from his bloodstream. Just as Joshua was about to rise from the table to start the day's work, he felt an affinity hail, with Syrinx's identity trait.
Hello, Joshua.
Hi Syrinx, and hello to you too, Oenone. What brings you here?
Hello, Joshua, the voidhawk said.
A charter. Ione asked me to pick someone up and take him to the Sol system, Syrinx replied. There wasn't much in the way of details, though. Would you happen to have any idea who the passenger is supposed to be?
As a matter of fact, I do. In fact, he's sitting across from me right now. Why don't you come on down and meet him?
Will do, Joshua. See you in about an hour or so.
The affinity contact ended, and Joshua blinked to see both Louise and Xander looking at him with curious expressions. "What was that about?" Xander asked.
"Syrinx called," Joshua replied. "Apparently she's been sent by Ione to pick you up, Xander."
"I guess that means my holiday's over," Xander said with a touch of sadness. He'd really enjoyed his time on Norfolk, and was somewhat reluctant for it to end. Joshua, Louise and Gen had helped him adjust to his new surroundings quite well - as Ione had hoped when she'd brought him to Norfolk - although there were still a couple of things that they were unable to adequately describe, such as what he would experience when he had neural nanonics implanted or what he would see when he arrived in the Sol system. They'd taken him along to Boston when Gen had had her neural nanonics implanted, but having them implanted himself would be a completely different experience.
Looking around the table, he added, "I just want to say thanks for everything, I guess." Words failed him at that point, as he had to swallow to clear a lump in his throat.
"It was a pleasure, Xander," Louise said with a smile.
"What she said," Joshua agreed, and Gen nodded.
"Still, you guys have helped me a lot," Xander said in mild protestation. "Especially in helping me to adjust to where I am now. If that doesn't deserve thanks, I don't know what does."
"It was our pleasure, Xander," Louise repeated, and Xander bowed to the inevitable.
Suddenly, Joshua grinned and left the room, coming back with a bottle of Norfolk Tears and four glasses. "Oh, crap," Xander moaned. "No more... please."
"Don't worry, Xander," Joshua said. "This is just a toast."
"That's not much of an improvement," Xander muttered as Joshua opened the bottle, poured four glasses, and handed them around.
With a hint of reluctance, Xander accepted his, and waited for Joshua to make the toast. "To Xander," Joshua said simply, raising his glass. "May he continue to kick arse, both on Earth, and when he gets home."
"To Xander," Louise and Gen chorused as they drained their glasses, with Joshua and Xander following suit.
"C'mon," Gen said. "I'll help you pack your stuff." Grabbing Xander by the hand, she practically dragged him from the room before he could even think of protesting.
Joshua and Louise watched them leave. "She likes him, doesn't she?" Louise commented.
Joshua shrugged. "He's a likeable enough bloke," he replied.
"That isn't quite what I meant," she pointed out.
"Oh," he said, and thought about it for a moment, before shrugging. Although there were parallels to his first visit to Norfolk, he doubted that anything had happened between Xander and Genevieve. Apart from anything else, there hadn't been that many chances for anything to happen. There was also the fact that Gen strongly reminded Xander of one of his friends back in his time.
Also, his intuition told him that nothing had happened between the two, and his intuition had yet to lead him wrong.
"I wasn't saying that anything has happened between them," Louise pointed out. "It's just that Gen might mope around the house for a few days after Xander leaves, and she'll more than likely be reluctant to talk about it."
"Fair enough," Joshua said simply.
****
Although Xander had left most of his belongings packed away, he'd used enough to require most of the hour to pack them away, even with Gen's help. The enthusiasm she showed for the task made Xander feel slightly uncomfortable. He'd noticed that she'd developed a crush on him about five days ago, which he supposed was slightly flattering, but the situation was too similar to that with Dawn back home to allow him to do anything about it. There was also the fact that she had only just turned sixteen to take into consideration, not to mention the fact that Joshua would quite probably kick his arse if he did. Not something he wanted to happen.
So he'd acted as if he simply didn't notice, remaining friendly towards Gen, while ignoring her attempts at flirtation - to be honest, some of it had been fairly clumsy - and the times she 'accidentally' brushed up against him, although that had trailed off over the last couple of days, which had caused him to wonder if either Louise or Joshua had spoken to the teenager.
Now she was enthusiastically helping him pack, although he suspected that it had more to do with the fact that it was a legitimate opportunity to spend an hour alone with him than the fact that he was leaving. His suspicion was proved when they'd finished packing and the domestic staff had carried the bags downstairs.
"I wish you weren't leaving," Gen confessed suddenly, sitting down on the edge of the bed and looking like she was on the verge of tears.
Not knowing what else to do, he sat down beside her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm not too happy about it either, Gen. But I've got to go to Earth," he said.
Gen turned slightly, so that she was facing him. "No, you don't," she said sternly. "You don't have to prove anything to anyone. So why are you so insistent on going?"
Shrugging uncomfortably, he replied, "It's not so much as me wanting to prove myself, as the fact that I can't sit back and not try to help. I can't really explain it, it's just... something I have to do," he finished weakly.
"You've been fighting evil for over four years," she pointed out. "With no special abilities or powers to help you. Don't you think you've earned the right to step aside from the fight?"
If she'd used a different tone of voice, he would have bristled at those words. Instead, he felt somewhat touched by the concern in her voice. Sighing, he answered, "When I first started fighting vampires, I made a decision to stay with it until the end, and I intend to stick with that decision. Even if my friends have been less than friendly of late, it's my decision, and it should be up to me as to whether or not I stay with it."
Gen nodded, but he could tell that there was more than a hint of reluctance in the gesture. "I understand, Xander," she said, before scowling suddenly.
"What's up?" Xander asked, feeling a little nervous for some indefinable reason.
"Louise just datavised me to let me know that Oenone's flyer has just landed," she replied. Her scowl abruptly vanished, to be replaced with a despondent expression. "I wish you weren't going," she said again.
"I know, Gen. But I might get a chance to come back here before I have to go back to my time," he said gently, which caused Gen's expression to brighten somewhat. "Might, Gen," he cautioned. "I'm not making any promises." He stood up, and offered her a hand, which she grabbed and use to pull herself into a standing position, holding on to it for slightly longer than was strictly necessary. "C'mon, let's get downstairs before Joshua and Louise become suspicious."
****
Joshua met Syrinx at the door of the manor house. "Hi, Syrinx," he said, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek.
"Hi, Joshua," she replied, returning the hug. "Hi, Louise," she added, giving Louise a hug as well.
"Hello, Syrinx," Louise replied. "It's good to see you again. You too, Ruben, Serina, Oxley."
The other Edenists returned Louise's greetings, before taking seats at the table. "So, who's this passenger that I'm supposed to pick up?" Syrinx asked.
"His name is Xander Harris," Joshua replied. "And..." his voice trailed off when he saw that the Edenists were staring at him with amazed expressions.
"You mean the same Xander Harris that was the originator of the Harris File?" Ruben asked slowly.
"Well, yeah," Joshua replied. "But how did you - oh, Consensus, right?" All four Edenists nodded. "So you know about his story, then?"
All four Edenists nodded again. "It's pretty amazing, too," Syrinx said. "I thought the possessed were bad enough, but this is worse."
"What strikes me as being disturbing is the fact that up until the late twentieth century, young women were basically forced to battle against vampires and the like by themselves," Ruben said. Seeing the looks that were sent his way by Syrinx, Serina and Louise, he added, "The key part of that last sentence being 'by themselves', of course," which caused the women to nod their agreement, Syrinx and Serina in particular. Thanks to affinity, no Edenist was ever truly alone, so long as there was another Edenist within affinity range - one hundred kilometres for individual Edenists; thirty Astronomical Units for voidhawks and habitats - because one of the most important things about affinity was the ability to share thoughts and emotions. Sorrow was reduced, and joys were reinforced, which led to most Edenists being incredibly stable, emotion-wise, and having a degree of self-confidence that most Adamists envied. In fact, a lot of Adamists so envied the poise displayed by Edenists that they labelled it arrogance.
"It seems that Alexander was the first to break that cycle," Serina said, "by offering his help to the Slayer of the time, Elizabeth Summers. In fact, without his help, she wouldn't have survived very long at all."
"True," Oxley agreed. "In fact-"
He stopped short when Xander and Gen appeared in the doorway, where they stopped dead as every eye in the room was turned their way.
****
Xander came to an abrupt halt in the doorway as he laid eyes on two of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen in his life - and that was saying something, considering some of the women he'd known. Both were wearing figure-hugging blue tunics and leggings - of course, he didn't know that one of the requirements for clothing that was to be worn by those in the spaceflight industry was that it had to be almost skin-tight, so that no creases could form, particularly under high acceleration - which accentuated the fact that their bodies could only be described as 'trim'.
The one on the left had rich auburn hair that hung to just above her shoulders, and as she turned to face him, he was fairly certain that her eyes were a deep jade-green, and she had a slight Oriental cast to her features.
The other one had skin darker than anyone else he had ever seen, curly black hair that also hung to just above her shoulders, brown eyes that were a couple of shades darker than his own and features delicate enough that he couldn't help but think of a porcelain doll.
The auburn-haired woman spoke up in a rich contralto voice, and Xander could feel more parts of his brain go into shut-down as she said, "I'm assuming you're Alexander Harris, correct? I'm Syrinx, captain of Oenone, and Ione asked me to take you to the Sol system."
Bullying his brain and vocal cords into some semblance of functionality, Xander replied, "Yeah, that's me. But I'd prefer it if you called me Xander. I only get called Alexander when I'm in trouble."
Syrinx nodded. "Fair enough, Xander. I'd like to introduce you to some of my crew. This is Ruben, who looks after the fusion systems; Serina, who maintains the life-support systems in the crew toroids; and Oxley, the spaceplane pilot for Oenone." As they were introduced, each crew-member smiled and said 'Hi'. Ruben appeared to be in late middle age, while Oxley looked about the same age as Syrinx, maybe a little older.
Xander nodded to each crew-member in turn and said, "Pleased to meet you all."
"Are you ready to go?" Joshua asked.
Xander nodded, with a touch of reluctance. "Yeah," he said.
"No sense in prolonging it, then," Joshua said as he rose from the table and led everyone outside. The cases with Xander's belongings in them were stacked neatly at the foot of the stairs, forming a considerably smaller pile than when he had arrived. Over the last two days, Louise and Gen had helped him go through the things Ione had bought for him, and reduced the amount of clothing he would take to Earth enough that only three bags were required, an amount Xander could carry himself.
This time, however, he didn't have to, as Joshua, Louise and Gen each grabbed a bag and carried them over to the base of the ion-field flyer's airstair. Dumping the bags, they made their final farewells. Joshua shook Xander's hand, saying, "Kick arse on Earth, okay?"
Louise hugged him and said, "Take care of yourself."
Gen also hugged him, and then she stood on tiptoes and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Be safe," she said in a near-whisper, before releasing him and running back into the manor house.
"Well, that was unexpected," Xander muttered as he hauled his bags up the airstair, and Joshua and Louise retreated to a safe distance before the ion-field flyer took off.
After stowing the bags in the small internal cargo area, he strapped himself into the seat Serina guided him to, following her instructions as to how to use the restraint webbing fitted to the seat. Not that it was difficult; it was simply a matter of pulling the webbing down so that it sat over his body - it would tighten or loosen automatically as required.
"Everyone strapped in?" Oxley called back from the cockpit as he brought the flyer's engines on-line.
"Ready," Serina answered.
"And away we go."
Xander felt heavier as the flyer lifted off from the ground, headed straight up - towards orbit. Towards orbit, he realised. I'm going into space. Technically for the second time, but the trip from Tranquillity to Norfolk didn't count, as he'd been in zero-tau for that. He didn't know what to expect once they docked with Oenone, but he doubted that it would be anything like what he'd seen on 'Star Trek', somehow.
So he simply resolved to take things as they came, and hope there was nothing too surprising in store.
****
From her bedroom window, Gen watched as the flyer lifted off and headed towards orbit. She wasn't crying - not exactly - but a tear did trickle down her cheek. "Goodbye, Xander," she whispered.