DISCLAIMER: I don´t own any of the characters or Serenity…….I wouldn´t mind taking one or two of them home with me though…but they belong to Joss Whedon and Fox
Notes: I forgot to mention that the quotes from Chapter 14 were of course taken from
" Macbeth" by the immortal William Shakespeare…Sorry! There are two more Shakespeare quotes in this one too …couldn´t resist!!!
Malcolm Reynolds woke up with the distinct feeling that something was awfully wrong. He just could not remember what it was. He got dressed as fast as humanly possible.
It all came rushing back when he climbed the ladder to open the hatch that led to his bunk…..and found that he could not open it. About a split second before his hand reached the handle the hatch locked with a deep hissing sound.
" Gorramit!" Mal heard himself yell. He could hear her moving about, her light footsteps in the corridor……
River moved quickly from hatch to hatch, manipulating each keypad that controlled the hatch, effectively locking the crew of Serenity in their quarters.
" What in heaven´s name do you think you are doing River?"
Mal yelled at the closed hatch.
He could not believe that the situation had played out like this ……that little girl had locked him up in his own cabin! He needed to talk some sense into her ……he knew what she was planning and it was completely insane.
" I cannot let you do this River!"
River breathed deep, putting Jayne´s leather pouch down next to her, to stop in front of the captain´s hatch.
" I´m sorry captain ……but you don´t really have a say in this!" she told him through the steel of the hatchdoor.
" What about your brother or Jayne?"
Mal thought he could almost feel her hesitating, a slight rustling sound indicated, that she was leaning against the hatch. River swallowed hard, she could feel her heart flutter in her chest like a little bird.
Jayne ……
O, but for my love, day would turn to night!
" None of you….. I´m doing this for all of you,….. to protect this ship!"
River leaned her forehead against the cold, rough metal of the door.
She needed to go, but she also needed someone to understand……someone who would make Jayne understand.
" The bad thing about what they did to me at this place…..the really bad thing is that in a way they took away my opportunity to decide. Simon was right when he said that I can't not feel……but I also can't not see! And I see too much. There are things that once you have seen them, you can never close your eyes to them again. You know what I mean, don´t you?"
Mal inhaled deeply, his fist hitting against the wall of his bunk. He knew she was talking about the things she had seen in his dreams, the fights, the dying…….
How did Jayne deal with this, with her being able to see through everything….right into someone's core?
His respect for the mercenary had grown a lot in the last few days.
It took a lot of courage and gut to face the fact that the person one was drawn to was in many ways like a mirror of one´s own soul. She saw …everything. Not just the façade they had built, she saw beneath all that …..saw all deeds, good and bad, weakness and fear and most likely everything that haunted them. Jayne had known all that, known that once she knew all about him, his deepest secrets, she might just turn away….run scared or maybe even disgusted. And still …he had taken that risk.
And River ……she had not run, quite the opposite…..she had stood her ground against Simon. She had accepted Jayne with all the baggage that came with it. She knew exactly what kind of man the mercenary was and she had embraced it.
" Yes….." Mal answered finally.
" In know what you mean!"
"I cannot close my eyes to the truth. And you know what the truth is, captain?"
" Why don´t you tell me?"
Mal´s thoughts were still racing, he could maybe stall her for a while …..there had to be a way out of his bunk!
River laughed almost bitterly. She knew what he was thinking, she could not help but admire the captain …….he and Jayne were more alike than any of them would ever admit. They both never accepted defeat, the never gave up !
Their pride would not allow it ……they´d rather die.
And she would never let that happen!
My house, my honour, yea my life be thine……
" The truth is if I don´t do this, we will all die!"
" You don´t know that!"
" As a matter of fact I do …."
Mal shook his head, beating his fists against the hatch door again.
" River …I know that you believe that it´s true, but no one can now the future!"
He could hear her sigh at the other side of the door, her weight shifting.
" Captain, believe me…….I have thought this through!"
she explained evenly.
"I know that you believe that we decide our own fate and that is true to some extent, but there are things that once they have been set in motion not a soul in this ´verse can influence. You think there is no destiny….no predetermined future but there are things I can predict. "
" How ……with that thing inside of you? She telling you to do this? She could be lying River!"
" I am aware of that, captain…..but this is not her decision, it is mine. If it were up to her……she´d rather have all of you dead! It would make things much easier for her.
Things have been set in motion a long time ago, captain. When you escaped the Reavers the first time …..it´s like a pattern, like a puzzle …….what I do is predict the likelihood of a certain outcome, add up the numbers."
Her voice became very low, almost impossible to hear through the steel hatch.
" You don´t know what´s to come if things proceed the way you´d chose them to be, that is why I have to go! You don´t know the things she has shown me, the nightmares I´ve seen! I cannot let them come true!" River whispered empathically.
Then she pressed her hand against the hatch for a moment.
" Goodbye , captain …."
" River!" Mal threw his whole weight against the door, but it did not move.
" This is suicide, you can´t do this!"
" Hopefully I won´t die ……remember when the time comes."
She threw the pouch that contained the weapons and a few rations over her shoulder and left.
" She took the shuttle…." Wash muttered, staring out into space from his pilot seat, the whole crew crammed in the cockpit behind him.
All of them were still anxious and pretty rattled after the experience of being locked in their own cabin´s or even drugged. The doors had unlocked themselves after five hours.
Simon hadn´t stopped shaking his head for the last few minutes. He still couldn´t believe that his baby sister was capable of concocting and executing such a perilous and insane plan.
Jayne´s face had been bare every expression ever since he had woken from his drug induced sleep to find River gone and the whole ship in upheaval.
" Is there any way we can track her maybe?" Zoe asked her husband, one hand on his shoulder. After the incident with Niska, she did not like the idea of any sharp or pointy object coming to close to her man. She still could not believe that River drugged him.
" Of course we can …." Kaylee interrupted.
" The shuttle´s have a tracking device, I installed it myself! That´s how we found that ……Saffron!"
Jayne pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. He snickered.
They all looked at him.
" Whatcha´ looking at me like that for? I know at least Mal´s been thinking it to ……I´m willing to bet Vera that the first thing she did after taking off was disabling that ruddin´ device…."
" He´s right, Kaylee…" Wash told her.
" I tried to pinpoint the signal, but there is no signal!"
Despite of how he felt about all this, Jayne couldn´t help but laugh.
" There ya´have it …that´s my girl, she plays for keeps……."
" But what do we do now?" Book asked into the silence that followed Jayne´s statement.
" We cannot just leave her out there all by herself ….if you really believe that she is trying to …."
" She is!" Mal interrupted him.
" Believe it preacher, she´s going after the Reaver´s! She´s got about four hours on us …also sent Serenity´s autopilot in the opposite direction!"
" But Mal …." Inara cut in
" She´s a just a girl……we can´t abandon her like that! She´ll get killed!"
Malcolm Reynolds shot a look at Jayne, who stared out into space, his brow furrowed.
" You know her best , Jayne……" Mal said, ignoring Simon´s furious look.
" What do you think?"
" She´s no little girl." He answered finally, trying to keep the feelings that were tearing at him out of his voice.
" No little girl planned all this…….she knows what she is doing, at least that's what she thinks. We´ll not find her before she wants to be found."
Then he turned around and left the cockpit……..
Next Chapter " Into the Void" ……am, already working on it!!!
Hope you liked this one, even though it was short!!
