NirSighted Chapter Eighteen: A Good Day to be Born
"Everybody off the ship!" Nir said, her voice steadier and loud. "Everybody off!"
"Let's go, ya heard th' wee 'un," Jayne said to Jimena, helping to pull her out of her chair.
"Get off, find a safe place," Nir ordered, pointing towards the hatch.
"Baby faster," River said. "Baby come soon."
"Go, go, Catie, River, off Serenity now," Nir said, putting Catie's hand in River's and pushing the both of them towards the exits. "Kaylee, let's go assist Dr. Tam. Zoë, get Wash! Mal, get Inara and make sure Kolya and Antony get off!"
People began running every which way. There was a mad scramble as everyone tried to get off the ship safely. When the commotion and the dust from their landing had cleared, everyone was off the ship, a hundred meters from a copse of scrubby-looking pine trees.
"Listen here," Mal said, shouting to be heard over the other ships, which were flying above them, "Zoë and I are going to get 'cross the border while there's still time! We'll be back soon as we've found our contact, his name's Albert Paulsen, you remember that if ya get in trouble. Jayne, yer in charge!"
Jayne nodded, his mind too preoccupied with the imminent birth of his child.
"Nir, you take care o' 'em," Mal said, giving them one last backwards look.
"Now, sir," Zoë said, pulling at Mal's arm. "We have to go now. News blurbs say the border's closing fast."
"Let's get t'wards those trees!" Jayne said once Zoë and Mal had disappeared into the thickness of the dark surrounding the crash site.
"No!" Nir tried to yell, but it was already too late. There was a great flash of light and a whirlwind of dust was stirred up. Something shiny and pointed flew through the air. A man's yell broke through the noise.
When the dust cleared, it was plain that no one was in a good way. All three of the women were only moments from giving birth, and now, Jayne and Simon had both been shot – Jayne in the shoulder, Simon in the knee. Their compatriots from Stoïque had faired much the same; Antony nursed a stubborn knife-wound in his arm while Kolya lay unconscious on the ground, blood pouring out of his neck.
"Doctor Tam, stay with me," Nir ordered. "We need to bring the babies, it's time."
Simon grit his teeth and pursed his lips; his gunshot wound hurt, but he had the necessary pain-killers in his bag, right beside him. They would bring the babies and then he could administer pain-killers and stitch up his friends.
"Okay," he said thickly, "Emilia is closest to crowning, we'll bring hers first."
The Companion was lying on the ground, moaning and panting in labor. Simon dragged himself towards her, Nir following with his bag and a sheet for draping purposes. "Emilia, can you hear me?" Simon asked. "Go ahead and push whenever you're ready, the baby's crowning."
It was the first of the deliveries, but within twenty minutes, Emilia had a son tucked in a blanket and Nir had delivered the placenta.
"Thank God it was quick," Simon managed to say.
"She was already dilated all the way," Nir reminded him. "The next will be harder. Miss Sage, name your son."
Emilia looked up at the little girl and said, "Rand. His name is Rand."
"A strong name," Nir commented as Simon dragged himself over to Carole.
After a quick examination, Simon pronounced, "You're all the way dilated. I can see the head."
"Can I push?" Carole asked. Without waiting for an answer, she immediately began to bear down, Simon counting out loud.
Something large and explosive fell on the other side of the hill. Carole grit her teeth and pushed harder, grunting at the end of her pushing. She fell back, breathless, and another newborn cry broke the noise.
"A son," Nir said, wrapping the second baby in another blanket.
"Gabriel," Carole murmured, receiving the baby, closing her eyes. Inara patted her on the shoulder, trying to soothe the new mother.
Jimena was last, her hand still gripping Jayne's tightly, even though Jayne's shoulder was gushing all over his shirt.
"It's gonna be fine, lovey," Jayne murmured to Jimena, even though he was groggy with pain and blood loss.
Jimena nodded; she had been a soldier, she knew pain.
"Mr. Washburne, Miss Frye, if you could help me?" Nir said, seeing that Simon was quickly becoming lost to pain.
"Don't know anythin' 'bout birthin' babies," Wash muttered as he came towards Nir and Jimena.
"All right, Jimena, let's get this over with," Nir was saying as Kaylee and Wash knelt next to her. To Wash, she said, "You don't need to know much. It pretty much handles itself. We're just a hand in the matter."
Kaylee said, "Nir, are we gonna get outa here? Things are gettin' a mite unpredictable."
As she said such, something hot and heavy whizzed past Serenity's downed figure, slightly behind them over the rise of the low hill, and exploded into hot and slightly less heavy things with a great BOOM!
"I see what you mean, Miss Frye," Nir agreed, though her attention was focused on Jimena. "Ready when you are."
Jimena closed her eyes and gripped Jayne's good hand. The bleeding man grunted, but made no other acknowledgment. "Now?"
"Now," Nir agreed, and Jimena pushed.
The whir of ships above them had grown to a desperate, whining level. Looking up into the blackness, Kaylee could only see the barest outlines of the ships, caught in profile by the falling and exploding boom-stones. "Wash, why's ever' body throwin' stuff at us?"
"Don't know," Wash replied, taking his communication device out of his pocket. He turned the volume up and held it close to Kaylee's ear so she could hear the commotion occurring on the transmitting end. The garbled news reports all sounded very loud and very scared, and were all mostly focusing on the Love-Bot crisis, which had apparently flooded all of Branford-Tobar and Machielli with rebelling robots.
"We're never gonna get outa here, are we?" Kaylee murmured. No one heard her, which was just as well. She immediately felt ashamed for thinking such things; of course they were going to get out of here. There would be a way.
She snapped back to reality, handing Wash his communication device, just as Jimena gave a hearty push and a baby's head broke into the world. "It's a good day to be born," Nir said with a laugh.
"Good a day as any, I s'pose," Jayne muttered, his eyes still closed.
"It's a girl!" Nir said as the baby squirmed the rest of the way into the world. She caught it up and wrapped it in the third blanket. "Name your daughter," she said to Jimena, who had leaned back, her eyes closing.
"Tessa Grace," Jimena said as Nir laid the baby on her chest.
"What now?" Wash wanted to know.
"We need to get to the Kushya Bridge as fast as we can."
"Can't… be… moved," Simon managed to gasp out.
"Not you," Nir agreed. "River, Catie, Kaylee, we'll go and bring back Mr. Paulsen to help us get across the border into Branford-Keene, to get word to Captain Reynolds and Mrs. Washburne about our position. Mr. Washburne, Companion Serra, you must take care of everyone while we're gone."
She looked at the group huddled in the underbrush. Jimena's eyes were still closed. Jayne was holding her free hand, but his opposite shoulder was gushing blood. Emilia was still moaning softly, Antony next to her, his eyes worried and cold. Carole was sitting up against the tree trunk, Kolya's unconscious body a dark hump in the moonlight a few feet away from her. Wash went over to Carole, speaking gently to her as he came. Simon's eyes were glassy with pain as he rummaged through his med-kit for supplies to help them all.
"Kaylee, come on," Nir said, beckoning with her hand to the mechanic, who was kneeling next to Simon. "They'll be all right until we can get back, but if we don't get to the border soon, Mr. Paulsen will have no idea as to our position."
"We can't just leave them!" Kaylee wailed. "They're not safe…" Her voice trailed off.
"We have to go," Nir repeated. She moved to the packs they'd brought from Serenity and removed the baby carriers. Pulling one onto her body, she said, "We'll take the babies."
"You can't just...!" Jayne started, obviously irate.
"We can't leave them here, either," Nir snapped at him. "Three of you are recovering from birth, three of you have been either gunshot or knife-wounded, one of you is unconscious, and the rest of you are needed to keep the others safe. You cannot keep these children safe. The babies will be safer with us."
She handed the other two carriers to Catie and Kaylee. The mechanic began showing the younger crazy girl how to put it on, snapping the straps into place. "Kaylee, take Gabriel. Catie, you take Rand." She leaned down to Jimena and whispered something in the woman's ear. Jimena relaxed and allowed Nir to pick up Tessa, the younger woman putting the baby gently into her carrier.
"How're we gonna keep track o' River?" Kaylee wanted to know, her face pale.
"Here," Jayne said, his voice little more than a grunt. He gestured to his pack with his non-injured shoulder. "Rope."
Nir moved quickly to the pack, the baby moving along with her body. She removed the length of rope and deftly tied one end of it to the metal ring on the strap of her pack. The other end she tied around the fabric loop of the closure on the pack around River's waist. "River? You hear me? You're going to stay with me. We're going to have to move fast."
"She hears," River said. Her wandering fingers found the rope attached to her pack.
"How will we know you've made it?" Carole managed to ask.
"You'll know," Nir said. "I promise."
As though to seal the promise, she removed something small from her pack and pressed it into Carole's hand. "When we reach the border," she whispered, "this will glow and you will be certain that help is close."
Carole looked down at the small round object in her hand as the four women moved off through the underbrush. She clutched the disc and sent a silent prayer heaven-ward that they would make it, that Mal and Zoë would bring help in time, that all three of the babies would make it back, that she would live to see her son grow up.