Firefly

Chapter 6

Kate watched as yet again the tunnel went away and was replaced with mostly blackness. However there was a fair amount of light for a change. "What's with all the light?" They were kind of close already and Kate strained a little to see three of them.

"Those are miniature suns. They're artificial." Rick began looking for the mining planet he needed to reach. "Remember to think three dimensionally." He showed her a ball using his hands. "There are a lot more than just three of them."

"Artificial suns?" Kate had never heard of such a thing.

"An artificial sun aims to release nuclear fusion like that of the sun by using deuterium and tritium, which widely exist in sea water. Unfortunately I'm not built to carry any of those or we might get rich keeping them going. Deuterium is a gas while tritium is a radioactive isotope. A low level beta emitter.

"During the war or actually just before, an Alliance scientist came up with the theory. Then we stole it and built them. Without them this entire area would be just dead space. I can only imagine what secret sites are hidden out here thanks to the war." This was all Brown territory.

"Looks like we're all alone. I'm not finding anyone. Guess we can go see if our miner has something for us." Rick changed course a little and headed for that planet.

"Rick, how do they live out here?" Kate didn't get it. To her way of thinking an artificial sun was just light, wasn't it? If it made gravity wouldn't everything go around them like everything went around a real sun?

"It's not easy or always safe. A number of places out here are under domes and everything gets shipped in. Just like that station we just left," Rick said. "You can grow things but it's limited there. Planets are better but only if the artificial atmosphere emitters hold. Homes are nothing but domes as a precaution."

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After going over what looked like a pair of domes, Kate watched him land close to a big pile of crates. Those same crates were in turn next to a really large rusty building that looked like crap to her. What she didn't see was a mine, but maybe it was on the other side of this huge pile of rust.

Rick shut everything down and released his harness, getting Kate to do what same thing. She followed him far more carefully than Rick was walking.

Then she watched him strap something around his waist; out of a wall came an object that went into a slot that he had tied to his thigh. "What's that?"

"This little thing?" Rick pulled it back out and spun it a few times before putting it back. "Protection, just in case. It's a long barrel model 85, modified. Go put on your coat, it looks cool outside." Rick got out his long leather coat, put it on, and buttoned just the two top buttons.

Kate came back just as she was zipping it closed. "How do we get out?" She had always used the airlock to get in and out, so what did they do now?

Instead of answering her he took her over to a portion of the floor and pressed a panel. Kate shrieked a bit just as the floor she was standing on began to go straight down.

"This is how we get the cargo on board, if he has any." Once Rick's head cleared he looked around. He had surely seen him coming then landing so he could be anywhere and he knew he would be armed.

He could be in that pile of rusted junk he called a mine, but if it was him he wouldn't be in there. Yes, it gave him a height advantage and he would want that badly and would use it. Though he couldn't risk having his precious mine damaged in a shoot out so he would be somewhere else.

Rick's first guess would be the crates. If they were full of ore for processing his rounds wouldn't be able to penetrate them making them a good place to hide behind.

"Okay, time for rule number 3. Don't freak out. It's highly likely that there's a gun pointed at both of us right now."

"SERIOUSLY!?" Kate yelled at him. "Don't freak out he says." Kate had been fine until he told her that. So yeah, now she was seriously freaked out.

"How about we talk about this, Frankie," Rick yelled. "Or do we have to go through that photo shoot all over again?"

Suddenly the floor between two crates erupted in dust. Up popped a man holding what Kate saw was a really big gun and it was pointed that both of them.

Kate was ready to pee herself. "Rick?" A slow turn to look at him while keeping an eye on the guy with the big gun, she saw Rick had his gun out and it was pointed at the guy with the big gun.

"Where's the wife, Frankie?" Rick knew he wasn't alone, or hadn't been alone the last time he was here.

Kate didn't understand when the guy Rick kept calling Frankie suddenly broke into laughter. "Captain Rodgers. I was all set to shoot holes in you."

"Now is that any way to treat a friend?" Rick holstered his weapon which had Kate ready to freak out even more.

"Come on out, baby. Rodgers is here." Frankie shouldered his weapon.

"A shotgun, Frankie? Really?"

"It's new. A charged shotgun."

Rick raised an eyebrow at that. Then he noticed Frankie's wife walk out onto the top of a crate and put both hand guns back in their holsters.

Kate only had eyes for Rick as she watched him walk up to Frankie. They shook hands then hugged each other.

"It's good to see you, Frankie." Rick was all smiles that he was still here.

"Rodgers!" Frankie stepped back to look him over. "Not so invisible this time."

Rick smiled since he had survived the war doing his best to be invisible. "Old times long gone."

"And who is this?" Frankie shifted his eyes to Kate who was just standing there, though freaking out had diminished a bit for her.

"This is Kate. Kate, meet Colonel Red "Frankie" Reacher, my commanding officer. Well my direct commanding officer, anyway." Rick grinned. "And this is his wife, Lieutenant Commander Reese." His wife had joined them and stood behind her husband.

"Leave it to you to find the most beautiful woman left in this quadrant." His wife didn't count since they were married and she was no longer available to anyone but him.

"Don't go getting any ideas, Frankie, she's with me and she's tagged." Rick wasn't interested in sharing with him or his wife.

"Duly noted." Frankie walked past him and headed over to Rick's ship. "Where did you get this thing? This is new." Frankie looked it over. "Railguns above and below, four thrusters and I'm guessing a cargo hold or you wouldn't be here. So what else?" He was curious.

"She's a modified Firefly. She has the twin railguns forward, twin swing out missile launchers aft and a P52 stored in the bottom and four thrusters. All four are capable of rotating up to 33 degrees." Rick was right to be proud of his ship.

"Well color me impressed!" Frankie almost couldn't believe it. "You've been busy."

"I try. So have you got some cargo that needs to get out of here?"

"Babe, you want to show Kate our home while Rodgers and I discuss business?" Frankie looked at his wife. "We may be a while."

"This way, Rodgers." Frankie walked him into the rusted out mess that was part of his mine.

"Come with me, honey. You can call me Liz." She took Kate toward one of the two domes.

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"So tell me how you two met," Liz said to Kate after getting her something to drink.

"My previous master hit me for breaking something and Rick found me. Took me to his ship. Bought me clothes and had me tagged so he could get me back if I got lost." Kate made it simple.

"That's not the whole story, though, is it? You've started to really like him." To Liz, Kate was glowing but there was something else. She looked uncomfortable.

"I'll take that blush as a yes. Rick's a good man but he's hurting." Liz knew something. "Tagged, huh? May I ask where he had you tagged?"

Kate was used to answering questions with the truth, however, she wasn't used to answering questions that didn't come from her master. Though she did look down.

"I see." To Liz that certainly explained why she was glowing and looked uncomfortable. She was betting with just a bit more stimulation she might have an orgasm right in front of her.

"I'm going to tell you something and you need to keep this to yourself. Rick obviously likes you but there's something you should know." Liz wasn't sure just where to start.

"Rick was a sniper during the war. The best. The very best you, I, or anyone is ever going to see. The war had been going for over a year. Then out of the blue the Alliance said they wanted to talk. Put an end to the war. They weren't offering anything, only that they were willing to talk." Liz and almost everyone else who was on the Brown's side still didn't know just what.

"Red's commanding officer gave him an order. Said it came from…, well, it doesn't matter who it came from. He ordered Red to arrange for the Alliance representative to be killed. Red selected Rick to do the job. He was the best.

"It was an impossible shot. Almost 3 kilometers. Between buildings, without being spotted by Alliance surveillance, and still escape to keep fighting. But he did it. No one knows how but he did it. The Alliance Admiral was even wearing body armor so all he had was a head shot. But he did it and got away.

"It was Admiral Kona himself that was willing to talk. None of us found that out until long after it was over." Liz sighed since what came after what was utter devastation.

"It's believed that the war could have been over, but we killed him. Rick killed him. The Alliance erupted like a volcano. They stopped bothering to take prisoners. Instead they killed everyone. Whole towns. Men, women, and children." Liz paused and saw the tears forming in Kate's eyes.

"Then they caught us. The battle of Market Hill." Liz huffed out a laugh. "The slaughter of Market Hill, more like it. Not just the hill that killed thousands of us but the little villages around us. I'm betting the entire area still can't support life. Any life." Liz paused again and watched Kate wipe away tears. It told her that Kate cared a lot. Maybe enough to actually love him.

"Then Rick found out who he'd killed and knew what happened after that. Then he went mad. It's the best way to describe it. He hunted down the two admirals that had ordered that Admiral Kona be killed. He killed two of his own. Then none of us ever saw him again.

"Suddenly he showed up here in this little cargo ship working for a shipping company. He was a shadow of his former self. He was a ghost, really. It wasn't even his fault." Liz was done explaining.

Liz eyed her. "What has he told you?"

"He was in the war. That he killed someone and that tens of thousands of people were dead because of him." Kate felt her heart ripping open for him. She didn't know Rick meant this much to her so fast.

"He would. If, and that's a really big if, if he hadn't killed Admiral Kona the war might have ended right then, but it didn't." Liz wasn't even sure just how many died after that, just that it was a lot.

"Rick said it was orders. That he was just following orders." Kate knew all about orders. Her life was all about taking orders and doing what she had been told.

"Yeah, orders. Except then he hunted down and killed two of his own. The ones he had decided had issued those orders. Now he's hunted by not just the Alliance but anyone who's a Brown and figures out who he is." Except for a few that knew everything, Rick was a hunted man, those that knew anything about him, that was.

Liz watched as Kate wiped away new tears and shook her head.

"You like him, don't you? I get that he found you and that you're a slave. His slave, though I'm betting he isn't treating you like one, does he?"

Kate shook her head. He was the nicest man she had ever met.

"Then do him a favor. Give him a reason to live," Liz urged. "Use your imagination. He isn't the type to just kill himself. He might however decide to do something impossible that will get himself killed. You're just a slave so maybe he might think one more death won't mean anything. He's already going to go to hell and suffer for what he has done or thinks he has done, forever."

Kate nodded. She would think of something.

"Good. Come on and help me with dinner while those two decide how much we have, how much Rick can hold, and what my husband is willing to pay him." Liz took her to the kitchen.

Liz quickly learned that Kate didn't cook and never has cooked so she began teaching her.

"Can I ask a question?" Kate asked and bit her lower lip. She'd done it again.

"Of course, what would you like to know?" Liz would answer if she could.

"Why do you live way out here and what are all those things in the ground?" Kate had seen a few of these devices sticking up out of the ground. They looked about maybe 8 feet tall and had this really tall rod sticking high up out of them.

"Some are moisture farms and others are atmospheric devices. It's kinda dry here and we need all the water we can suck out of the atmosphere. As to why here?" That question was an easy one even if it might not mean anything to Kate.

"This is about as far away from the Alliance anyone can get and not end up in the middle of nowhere. Way out there where almost no one knows what's out there except maybe for a select few of us Browns. A place where the Alliance doesn't go. Too scary," Liz said.

"You hate them. The Alliance," Kate meant.

"With every fiber of my body. The Alliance used us. Use planets and the people on them. They always have and likely always will." Liz knew she needed to explain so she stopped what she was doing.

"The war was about independence. To be able to go where we wanted without Alliance interference. Without being used. Rick treats you great, doesn't he?" Liz asked her straight out and Kate nodded. "I'm betting your previous master didn't." Kate shook her head.

"Well the Alliance is like your previous master. They treat everyone that's outside of the core planets like shit. Something to be used up and thrown away. Without care one about what they're doing to people. To their lives. You're a tagged slave. To the Alliance everyone outside of the core planets is an untagged slave. To be used up and thrown away and we lost." Liz went back to what she was doing; she put it in the oven, turned it on, and set the timer.

"Rick tagged you to save you. To him you're not a slave. He's a Brown and we know full well what being a slave is. What it does to people's lives. Just how many choices we all have. So long as he lives, so do you," Liz said. "You somehow get separated from him and he might just manage to get you back. To make sure you never are a slave again. Not to him and certainly not to anyone else, especially the Alliance."

So he doesn't want me as a slave. Then what does he want me as? Or is it just the sex? Kate questioned herself. She certainly did love the sex and she was even presently ready for more already.

"Is there such a thing as a sex slave?" Kate asked her since she was getting a lot of answers from her.

"Like prostitutes?" Liz's eyebrows went up. "Those have been around since the beginning of man and always will be. They're paid to have sex, though. Real sex slaves? They've existed and probably still do even today. A few might even be what is called a whore. Someone, usually a woman, is willing or forced to have sex with everyone and anyone their master tells them to. Those, however, are extremely rare.

"If you're thinking Rick might be one, remember who he is. Why he fought for the Browns. What did he think of your previous master?"

Kate made a face. "That he was an idiot for not tagging me so he could get me back."

"The chances that Rick wants to be a sex slave owner and turn you into a whore isn't happening. He hates people being slaves as much as anyone I know. Now does he want a lover? Some he can love and be loved back? Who doesn't. Just how is Rick going to go about that?" Liz shrugged. "I have no idea. Men are usually fairly easy to figure out. It takes a pretty rare one to be difficult to read.

"Women on the other hand are far more devious. Men think with their dicks and use their muscles to do all their talking with. Usually. Women like to play games with your head. Men get mad, women get even.

"Men like guns and women like more subtle means. Save for me. I happen to love guns and know how to use more than you've probably ever even heard of. I also happen to be very good with them just like my husband.

"No, I'm betting that Rick could be putty in your hands if you worked at it. You just have to give him a reason to live. He might already be searching for it for all I know.

"We should go find our men. Dinner will be ready soon and since they're men they're probably already dirty from doing something." Liz laughed at herself and her husband.