You know what I just realized? I forgot Book! Where was he when everything was happening! I'll fix it, I promise! And also, Kaylee's eyes are more a hazel color, so I'll change that too.
Lennexa – I know, I just wanted to cry! I was heartbroken! Which is why we're only post-OiS.
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Chapter Two: The Stand off, well sorta
Sitting in the dark of Serenity's insides, her crew called out to each other. Simon was now the one asking the question he'd dreaded earlier. Kaylee, River, Inara were all fine, maybe a bit bruised from a bumpy landing that should'a hurt them all something worse. Simon unhooked the strap holding him down and hobbled over to Jayne's body, the crash definitely hadn't done his leg a world of good.
"He isn't bleeding…" he pushed his hand into Jayne's neck, checking his vitals; Inara came over and kneeled next to him, "We still need to get him to the infirmary though."
"I'll see to the others. I'm sure they all found a seat, but-" she was doing as much for herself as to help the doctor…Mal was on the bridge.
"Yes, thank you. I'll be there in a moment." She stood and made her way through the debris of the kitchen. Simon turned to the two women that meant so much to him. Kaylee was helping River leading her through the mess toward her brother.
"So close to what was Simon. Can we go there?"
"Uh…I don't, I don't know River, mei-mei, you have to stay with Kaylee. I'll be back." He quickly placed his hand on her cheek, smiled, and then gave Kaylee the same thankful smile, and he moved toward the bridge, "Let me know if he wakes up." Then he was moving down the dark hall as quick as his leg would let him. He'd made it half way there when Inara came rushing back.
"Mal, Zoë, and Wash are okay, but Book – he says he's fine but he didn't have anywhere to sit." He didn't have to say a thing, it was one of the things he liked about Inara, he didn't have to do any yelling towards her about what to do, she just did it. She pulled his arm over her shoulder and helped him along to where Book sat in the hall near to bridge, his head in his hands.
Simon did his darndest to squat by the older fella, but had to sit due to the pain in his leg. He heard the captain rattle off commands to Zoë and Wash – "You find how banged up we are, if we're humped I wanna know how bad. Zoë you and me gonna check out the rest'a Serenity. KAYLEE!" he shouted coming out of the doorway. He looked down at Simon and Book, "Doc?" he asked, he knew Simon was going to answer him, hell he wanted to hear what the boy had to say, but there was things to be done, and the doc knew what he was doing, Book was safe in boys hands so Mal went on his merry, lookin' for Kaylee. He passed Jayne by figurin' him to be ok seenin' as he was left, and found Kaylee back in the engine room, where he was gonna send her anyhow. River was sitting in Kaylee's hammock, while the mechanic scrambled about the engine room lookin' for damage.
"How'd we fair?"
Kaylee looked up at her captain; she couldn't quite figure how it was he was always so calm. "She's shorted a bit in some places…" she trailed off, her eyes dropping to the ground. He hated when she went an' did things like that, meant only something worse could come of it. Sure enough, she looked up and said, "Cap'n…we, she got busted a bit. A few things. And I'm scared to think how she's lookin' on the outside."
Damn. Ta ma duh! Nee ta ma duh tyen-shia sou-yo duh run doh gai si. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Broken? This ship, his ship, his baby…broken? He 'sposed it wasn't the first time, but hell if it wasn't the worst. He couldn't even rightly say where they were. "Well we ain't going nowheres, so keep a sharp eye and make sure we ain't to worse off."
He made his way back up to the bridge, past Jayne, then Inara, Book, and Simon. He stepped through the door just a Zoë was coming back up from the underside of the bridge.
"She ain't prettys lookin' Sir." Zoë said, stoic yet concerned.
"Zoë, you an me is gonna help the doc get the Shepherd and Jayne down to the infirmary, make sure you got yourself a gun, we're taking a look outside then."
"Yes Sir."
By the time they'd made on down to the infirmary, Jayne, was nearly walkin' on his own, complain' a back pain; Simon came behind them, wincing with every step he took but kept silent, Mal was fair impressed with the Doc, not sayin' a word, him not being one to get injured much and there Jayne was, wounded more than most – howling like a dog. Inara and Book brought up the rear; they settled everyone into place all proper and headed for the air-lock.
"Sure we should be goin' out there just us two, Sir?"
"I ain't never sure 'bout nothing Zoë, I thought you knew that by now. 'Sides ain't no one else of much help, all hurt and bleeding. We can do this, like old times." Old times, like during the war, when the only one they could depend on was the other. Neither one of them much cared to remember the warring times they'd shared, so instead'a lingerin' on it, Mal pushed the button to open the air-lock.
--
John split his team in two, Teyla and Ronan, himself and McKay. On one hand he was glad to not have to worry about Teyla for the moment. Since the brief and awkward apology he'd offered for something he only regretted the context of, he'd been trying to stay away. He wasn't sure if she'd been so abrupt because she wasn't interested, or because she didn't know what to make of it, or maybe it was that 'context' again. But there was always the other hand, and right now that hand was talking up a storm just a few feet back.
"I can't believe we're looking at this. We should be looking at that gate. That was an eight symbol address, Colonel, do you have any idea what that means? What that could potentially lead us to?"
"Tell me…" John muttered under his breath. McKay was about to continue his rant when Teyla's voice sounded in his ear.
"Have you reached it yet?" it might have been wrong of him, but for just a moment John wished they'd been somewhere else, and that that had been a sweet nothing, and that Ronan wasn't so keen to know Teyla.
"No." damn their natural swiftness. Having lived with the threat of the Wraith all their lives, and especially the last seven years for Ronan, they'd learned to move quickly.
"It is…" there was an intake of breath over the radio, it was that sound she always made when she saw something incredible, "very…were it not damaged I am sure it would be quite stunning."
"It? There's an it? What kind of it?" Rodney's panicked voice asked as he stepped farther and faster to reach Sheppard's side.
"We'll be there. Hold fire."
"Yes."
Teyla lowered her hand back to her P-90, she glanced at Ronan a few feet away, she wanted to make sure he'd heard that he was not to fire. He acknowledged her with a nod and set his prized weapon to stun. She remembered what that gun blast felt like, and it wasn't a very good memory.
She wasn't sure if that meant he'd do as he was told or not, sometimes it seemed he had trouble doing as John – Colonel Sheppard asked. She looked back out at the great ship that had fallen, it was a sight, and it stopped her mind from wondering other paths. It was, she noted, quite elegant in its design. Almost birdlike, though dented and clearly missing some "feathers" as it were. There were what seemed to be several large holes, though none apparently deep enough to breech the ships inter sanctum. Which may or may not be a good thing, only time would tell.
On the other side of the clearing, or what passed for a clearing, that the ship had made she spotted movement in the brushes.
"Colonel?"
"Here. You were right…wow."
She laughed to herself, for a man with such military background he did seem to often posses the qualities of someone…less inclined to be defined by a certain role. She was about to question him as to what they should do when a movement to her left caught her eye, Ronan, had disappeared into the woods, and as she tried to say this, something else happened. The ship's door opened, into what she could only guess was the hanger.
The door touched down, creating a ramp, which two human people, a man and a woman, walked down, weapons in hand, eyes scanning. She crouched lower to the ground, if they saw her, they may just open fire. Their pants were of the same design. Were they some kind of military force? The man long brown coat moved with the breeze, as did his brown hair. The woman wore a red shirt and a brown vest over it. They must be a military.
"Teyla, when I say, you and Ronan stand, got it?" it was like him to not even wait for a reply.
Across the way she heard his unmistakable voice call out. "WE COME IN PEACE." In a second both hand their weapons trained on John's body, his arms in the air to show he meant what he said. Friends before enemies.
"What! What are you – are you crazy? Do you want them to shoot at us?" McKay said, desperately trying to pull John's body back down.
"Stand up." He looked down at McKay, "Get up. TEYLA, RONAN, GET UP." Slowly both McKay and Teyla stood, one gun swung around to Teyla's direction.
"Teyla?" John said, knowing that if Ronan were to do something foolish he may very well get them all killed.
"Come out here, all you." The man said, he waved his gun toward the center of the "clearing", and then they'd be directly in font of the ships hanger doors.
"Their minus one, Sir." The dark skinned woman said as they all came to stand in front of the pair.
"Now, we're peaceable folk, and you seem to know how to go about keepin' you and yours from getting' shot." The comment was directed at John, the man in the brown coat knew he had to be the leader, "So do your self a favor, get your other man out here 'fore someone gets hurt."
John gave a little smile and a shake of his head, hopefully this wouldn't be something he regretted. "RONAN…GET THE HELL OUT HERE."
"Hey, Mal, what we got?" a third man came hobbling out from the ship, a very large gun in hand. "Hostages?"
"They ain't hostages." Mal said.
"Look like hostages. Why else you Zoë'd have gun on em?"
Mal closed his eyes in exasperation, John could relate, he looked over to McKay, who was none to pleased with the situation Sheppard had landed them in. Then Mal spoke to the other man, "Jayne. Why ain't you in the infirmary? Doc say you could be out here?"
"Hell, that boy can't tell me what to do. Heh, sure'd like him to try though."
Ronan chose that moment to walk from the bushes, hands up, doing as he knew Sheppard wanted, but the lines of displeasure were clear on his face. The third man, Jayne, trained his gun on Ronan's moving figure until he stood next to Teyla, just as still.
"My name is Colonel Jo-"
"I tell you to talk? Zoë did I tell him to talk? Did I ask something?"
"No Sir."
"We gonna shoot em?" Jayne asked with a slight smile, his finger closing just a bit tighter over the trigger of his gun. "Ain't fired Vera in some time." He shifted the gun lovingly in his hands, "Done slept through everything last night…look at that one" he thrust Vera in Rodney's direction, "he looks dai ruo mu ji." He started laughing.
"Bee-jway Jayne." Mal said, Jayne tried to say something but was cut off. "I'm Captain Malcom Reynolds as you know since Jayne there likes to yell my name to all the folk we come across, and this here is Zoë, first mate. Now here's how this is gonna play out. I ask, you answer. I'm a simple man, so don't go tryin' to complicate things none."
McKay rolled his eyes, he felt like he was suck in a bad western, where the good guys lost – due to faulty planning, he wanted to shout.
"What's the name of this rock?"
"PX6-771." John answered, "Mind if we put our arms down? Getting kinda tired here."
"Tell me the mane of this and sure."
John took a deep breath, "PX6-771, at least that's what we call it. If anybody lived here they may have called it something different." He slowly lowered his arms, followed by the rest of his team. The three people with the upper hand, and the big ship, started blankly at them, when the captain lowered his weapon, so did the others, Jayne reluctantly.
"Don't make no sense Mal."
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Ok, sorry I know it's like a lot of nothing, but next time will be better, I swear, there's gonna be a nice sit down and everything. In the mean time R and R people!
Oh and translations in order for which the Chinese appears in the story:
F- me blind. F- everyone in the universe to death.
Shut up.
Dumb as a wooden chicken, paralyzed with fear.
Oh and P.S. I hate WORD's red squiggles.