CHAPTER FOUR

"Sir?" Zoe's voice rang over the intercom. "Got your lady on the line."

Mal set his drink on the table and stood up, heading for the cockpit. "Faster than I expected," he muttered to Zoe as he slid into the seat that was normally occupied by River. It always smelled like her, too, a faint scent that reminded him of fruit of some sort, something he could never quite pinpoint. Right now it only reinforced his anger that she was down in the infirmary instead of in her chair where she belonged.

Facing him on the monitor was the same regal face that had sent River a message days earlier. "Captain Reynolds," Ari Velgese said as he faced the camera. Zoe listened silently from Mal's seat. "I must say that I was surprised to hear you wished to speak with me."

"Well, I'm a mite surprised you ain't too busy to talk."

"Your name holds quite a bit of weight," Velgese said dryly. "But that's not why you waved."

"No, it ain't. My reason's an eighteen-year-old lyin' in the infirmary—been stabbed and poisoned by two of the kids from the Academy that was supposedly shut down."

Ari Velgese definitely paled at this. "Lao-tian, bu...but she is alive?"

"Yes. They weren't lookin' to kill her, far as we can tell."

Velgese looked more disturbed by this news. "I was hoping they wouldn't find her; you've been flying under the radar…"

Mal leaned forward, staring hard into the camera. "You knew this was gonna happen?" he asked in a dangerous voice.

Velgese straightened. "Not entirely. I was hoping to speak with Miss Tam soon, but I was away on business until last evening."

Mal's eyes narrowed. "Well, I'm a bit particular on those what wanna talk to River. Seems that most Alliance folk wantin' to chat with her aimed to have her dead or locked in some hole where they could play God with her brain. I ain't keen on either of those scenarios, so if you got somethin' to say, you'd best say it to me first."

Velgese closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them. "Captain Reynolds," she said, slowly and clearly, "as I told Miss Tam in the last wave I sent, I serve a new Parliament."

Mal scoffed and settled back in the chair. "You want me to believe you're different."

"We are," Velgese said emphatically. "The old Parliament members approved the Academy project. I will not condemn them for it; they saw a need for defense and believed that could be the next best step in keeping our universe safe. However," she said forcefully, as Mal opened his mouth to retort, "I do not necessarily think the doctors at the Academy went about the project in a proper fashion. Nor do my comrades newly elected to Parliament."

"Hm," Mal said. "Which part did you determine weren't proper? The part where you kidnapped kids, or where you cut out parts of their brains and tried to take away their consciences?"

"Captain Reynolds, I have no need to answer to you for the actions of the previous members of Parliament. We shut down the Academy. River Tam was one of nineteen subjects of the defense project. Out of those nineteen, six are dead, from various…causes. River, obviously, is on board your ship. Ten were put into psychiatric facilities to receive the best care possible to help with their…conditions."

"That leaves two unaccounted for," Mal said in his best would-be calm voice.

"Yes," Velgese said. "Yes, it does. Bennett Anderson and Iain Chen. We couldn't find them when we shut the Academy down, and we have been unable to locate them since."

"Why did they attack River? And while we're at it, how the hell'd they find her?"

"I don't know," Velgese said, spreading her hands. She looked at Mal for a long, hard moment. "I honestly don't even know that it was the two of them that attacked her."

"What's that supposed to mean? You just said—"

Velgese interrupted him, which only served to aggravate him further. "There are many factions of the government, Captain Reynolds. The Academy was sponsored by the Alliance, observed by the Parliament, but a lot of the funding and internal support came from a branch of the government called Blue Sun."

"Blue Sun sells lots of products," Mal said suspiciously. "Hell, Jayne wears a Blue Sun—" And it suddenly clicked. That day, more than a year gone, when River had sliced Jayne with that butcher's knife, he'd been wearing that Blue Sun shirt, and she'd cut right across the writing. "He looks better in red…" No damned wonder it'd had an effect on her mind at the time, if those were the loons that chopped her up.

"Their outward influence is very widespread," Velgese agreed. "Internally, they have motivations of which not even my predecessors in Parliament were certain."

"Why're you tellin' me all this?" Mal asked guardedly.

"Because you need to know. The operatives of Blue Sun, the ones deep in their system, had a strange way about them. They're the ones that first put the warrants out for Simon and River Tam. It was the Parliament that sent the operative after her during the Miranda incident—"

"To kill her," Mal said.

"Parliament has been dealing with the Blue Sun organization since we disbanded the Academy."

"What? They weren't happy about you shuttin' their little butcher shop down?"

"They fought it, but…"

"It was a threat to your regime," Mal guessed. "If River exposed it, your grip on your utopia would've slipped even more'n it has since Miranda. Goes back to what River said to your friend Mathews about the Alliance appeasin' the people, except this time, you're just tryin' to appease her and cover your own asses. Am I readin' you right?"

Ari Velgese chose not to answer that. She cleared her throat and continued. "Since shutting down the Academy, every single student that we put in psychiatric care has disappeared. Some of them were in highly secure facilities. The security feed doesn't show anything; it was always disabled during the time the disappearances occurred."

"'Course it was." Mal suddenly felt very, very tired. Beyond tired. This fei hua of people screwing around in River's life was getting old, and the effect it had on him and his crew was getting even older. "And what's your excuse for not tellin' us this in the last message you sent?"

"We were only just starting to get reports on the disappearances. I didn't want to raise any unnecessary flags until I was certain something suspicious was truly occurring."

"Shiny. Next time you feel like helpin', do us all a favor and don't." Mal was about to cut off the communication, but Velgese stopped him.

"Wait! Please, there's—" She sighed heavily. "River Tam is our last connection to the Academy. We were…" She hesitated.

"I don't got all day."

"We were trying to get some sense out of the other students. Trying to learn what, if anything, they knew about Blue Sun's inner regime, but some of them were rather unstable, and the ones lucid enough to talk were unwilling to do so. It still remains a mystery to us. There has to be one—or more than one—person at the top, controlling the whole agency. You don't understand how dangerous they've become of late. If they're the ones that have been abducting the former subjects of the defense project, then they have ten, possibly twelve, under their control. Twelve young people just like the one you have on your boat. Do you have any idea what that means?"

"I do," Mal replied. "I really do. It means the people that your government kidnapped and tortured and twisted into assassins were kidnapped back from you, and they can be used against you now. Don't feel nice bein' on the short end of the stick, does it?" He leaned forward again. "And there's a big difference between your assassins and River Tam, one that's a mite more worrisome than you might expect."

"And what is that?"

"River's been outta that place for a good long time. Enough time that she's herself, more or less." He stared intently into the camera. "I recall what she was like when she first got out of that place, and well…I wouldn't wanna be in your shoes, especially takin' into account that some of your kids must've been there a lot longer'n River."

"River might know something that could help us put a stop to Blue Sun before they get too dangerous to stop," Velgese said. "At this point, we don't even know what they want, if they even have an ultimate goal. She might be able to help us figure out how to find the missing students."

"You think I care about the battles goin' on in the Alliance's factions?" Mal asked in disbelief.

"There has to be some sort of balance," Velgese said quickly. "Blue Sun obviously hasn't given up on trying to find River."

"You just said you wasn't even sure it's Blue Sun that's got the others," Mal reminded her.

"If it is, then this is your problem, too, Captain Reynolds, whether you want to admit it or not."

"And it's a problem we've dealt with before."

"Not like this. You can't hide from them forever, as was obviously just proven to you. In fact, given how fast they tracked River down, you should be a bit more concerned. River might be able to—"

"You want River's help, you'll have to talk to her. Oh, wait. You can't. Some idiots created weapons who hunted her down and poisoned her. Looks like you're outta luck for now." Before Velgese could protest again, Mal cut off the wave. He heaved a sigh, then turned to Zoe, who had remained silent the whole conversation. "Has the whole 'verse gone mad?"

"Seems like. So what's the plan?"

Mal had already considered this. "We're just gonna sail for a while. I don't wanna set down nowhere till River's better."

:-:-:

Mal was down at the infirmary as soon as Simon informed him River was awake. River heard them speaking just outside the door. "She's all right, but she's very tired," Simon said quietly. "Don't be surprised if she dozes off—that toxin was strong."

"Right." Mal appeared in the door. "Go get somethin' to eat, Doc. Or sleep. Do somethin'. You been in here a day and a half."

There was a moment of hesitation, and then Simon said, "Call if she needs anything."

"I'm fine, Simon," River called out to him, her voice heavy with fatigue. She didn't think she had ever felt so weak in her entire life. When Mal walked in and stood beside her bed, she smiled lethargically, and it was all she could do to lift her hand up to him. "Hello."

"Got yourself in quite the predicament here," Mal said with a small smile, taking her hand. "How you feelin'?"

"Mmm." River shrugged noncommittally. "I've been better. I've been worse, too, so I can't complain." Then she frowned at him. There was something shifting around in his mind, something he was trying hard not to think about. "What is it? You know something."

"We'll get to that in a minute. First I fancied a word 'bout those two friends of yours. You know exactly who they were?"

"Yes. Iain and Bennett. They both came to the Academy after me."

"Any notion why they were after you?"

"No logical hypothesis yet." River's tongue felt thick and uncooperative, but she did her best to speak coherently. "Their minds…strange. Not like I imagine it would be if they were triggered. I remember what my mind felt like when I was triggered. There were no extra thoughts, no jumble of psychosis. Like a dream, just you and what you had to do. This wasn't like that." She reached for the water that Simon had left on her table, but her arm felt like a wet noodle, and it sank against the bed before she could get the water.

Mal released her hand and gave her the cup. River smiled her thanks and took a drink before settling the cup in her lap. "Chaos. Confused, they were reaching for something, but I don't know what," River said. "Hide and seek. Wanted something, searching…." Her eyelids were feeling particularly heavy, but River fought closing them, wanting to convey to Mal everything she had learned. "They were trying to get my attention."

"Think they succeeded at that. Any idea why?"

River shook her head. "I don't know. I saw…they only put me in the way of your shots because they wanted to live. They didn't want you to shoot them, and knew you wouldn't shoot me."

"You did get shot, River."

"Just a scratch. Nothing vital hit. It was the same with the knife—a surface wound. They could have killed me. They could have taken down everyone in that house, but they didn't. Simon said they ran away."

"They did."

"You still didn't tell what you know."

"Had a word with your friend in Parliament." Mal studied her for a moment, and she heard the question in his mind before he spoke it. "She made a great big deal about Blue Sun."

River blanched, her fingers clenching her sheet. Her reaction did not go unnoticed by Mal, who frowned slightly at her. "They—" Her voice died, and River cleared her throat and tried again. "They were the ones who funded the Academy," she managed. She closed her eyes, wishing that she had the ability to push away the fear—two by two, hands of blue—that was dancing around her brain, but as that was no longer possible, she had to function through it. She opened her eyes and spoke slowly and clearly, "They handle a lot of the Alliance defense, but they make their money through a lot of merchandizing."

"That's what that Ari Velgese said. Seems to think they're some sorta threat to the Parliament or some such."

River looked straight into Mal's eyes. "They're very important," she said. "Very powerful. What Blue Sun wants, Blue Sun gets. They are a huge part of the government. They pull strings, and Parliament tries not to play the puppet. It's a power struggle."

"Seems the Parliament's decided to take control into its own hands," Mal said.

River continued to watch Mal seriously. "I don't know if they can win." She saw something in his mind, then, what he'd been trying not to think about. "Especially if they have the others. So the Parliament really did shut the Academy down," she murmured.

"All this is accordin' to that Velgese woman," Mal reminded her. "Could be tellin' half-truths, and I ain't aimin' to play the fool by trustin' what she says."

"Tell me the rest, please?"

So Mal did, outlining his conversation with Ari Velgese. River's eyelids were incredibly heavy, but she knew how important all of this was, and managed to stay awake long enough to hear him out. She wasn't surprised to hear that there had been six deaths—three of them had occurred while she was still at the Academy. One had been because of the experiments. Two 'students' had managed to kill themselves, before the doctors took greater precautions against that.

River's eyes were closing of their own accord. She fought it, knowing she still had things to say. "Strange," she murmured. "Bennett and Iain…wanted something different…don't know…" Her eyes shut, and she felt Mal's hand smoothing her hair back.

"You just rest a spell," he said. "We'll talk more later." The weight of the cup on her lap lifted, and she heard Mal's footsteps heading for the door.

"Mal…" she mumbled.

The footsteps paused.

Her voice was so quiet as she slipped into sleep that she wasn't sure Mal heard her. "They'll be back."