Firefly
Chapter 11
Rick went through first and stepped into the dark. His lights, however, showed that it was a corridor. The walls looked to be rather gray with whole panels of a beige color to offset all that gray. Rick motioned for Kate to follow him into the space. Now he had to decide to go left or go right. The ceiling height looked to be a little taller than average. The floors didn't look like metal but he wasn't sure just what it was. There was a pattern to it so maybe tile.
Rick was still debating just which direction to go when suddenly the entire place lit up with lights. The lights themselves appeared to be in vertical columns between panels in the wall.
Then they both saw someone walking their way. Rick was thinking female since he was pretty sure she had breasts. She was wearing a uniform he'd never seen before. The body was dark blue and gray with black lines. The arms and legs had the same colors and they also had lines of silver.
When she stopped in front of both of them Rick raised both eyebrows high. She was blue! Okay, maybe blue/gray in color. All of her was that color. Her eyes were a shining bright blue. Though mostly it was her hair that had his attention; he wasn't sure she had any.
Her head looked like it had ridges, perhaps bone. In-between the ridges were slim lines of black. He took this to be hair though it was cut really short. It was the same as her eyebrows so it left him thinking hair. Save for the color and the head she looked human.
Then she started talking and Rick didn't understand a word she was saying. Then she stopped talking and just looked at both of them. Rick had noticed that she didn't look armed so maybe him not being armed, even if by accident, was a good thing.
"I'm sorry I don't understand a word that you say." Rick tried using his hands and arms to help show that he wasn't a threat.
The face she made at this showed surprise. "English. As you wish. Identity please." She switched to English easily.
That caught Rick by surprise but she didn't appear to be threatening.
"I'm Richard Rodgers and this is Kate." It was only now that Rick kicked himself for never asking her what her last name was. Granted as a slave she only needed a first name. However, before being sold she would of had a last name. A name that he might have been able to use to search for her parents. He'd been so stupid.
"COMMANDER RODGERS!? My apologies, Commander. You have been gone a considerable length of time. We were not expecting your return. If you will follow me, please, I will escort you to your suite. Then I will inform the others." She turned and walked away.
"Rick?" Kate questioned him softly.
"I have no idea. I'm a captain not a commander. At least they're not upset with us or attacking. I think we follow for now." Rick followed her and made sure Kate was behind him.
Rick looked at his arm and saw that the space had oxygen, gravity that was 96% of normal with less than 1% radiation. He also had over 7 hours of oxygen left on his timer.
Rick watched her open a manual door and step through; she held it open and waited.
Rick stepped through and saw much larger corridor. He walked into the middle and looked around in awe. It was well lit and was basically the same colors as the smaller corridor. What he didn't understand was why the airlock was where it was. Access looked to be limited.
"Follow me, Commander." Rick turned and noticed Kate standing right next to him. She'd been doing what he'd been doing, looking everywhere.
She walked away so Rick followed with Kate right next to him. "May I ask your name?" Rick heard Kate snort then realized that he'd basically done what Kate had done, ask a question to see if he could ask a question.
"It has been a long time. I am Doctor Liara T'Soni." Then she stopped at a door and pressed a panel.
"My apologies but just how long has it been?" Rick was assuming that she had confused him with someone else and needed to make sure of his questions so that he didn't give himself away.
"200,000 cycles. Myself and the others have done our best to keep this outpost operational since you and the other organics left." She and the others had been doing this since their last orders.
Then the door opened and she went inside and waited. Rick with Kate right behind him stepped inside. Rick and even Kate recognized it immediately. It was an elevator.
"Command deck," she called out and lights started to blink though they didn't feel anything. It didn't really last all that long until the lights stopped blinking and the door opened.
It was a very short corridor that had only two other doors though there was a staircase going up and down.
"The command room." She pointed at one door and opened the door across from it. "Your quarters." She motioned for them to go inside. "I will assemble the others and meet you in the command room in two centaiis. I can assure you the atmosphere is safe." She had naturally noticed that they were still wearing a type of space suit.
"Thank you, Liara." Rick went inside followed by Kate and waited for the door to close.
"What's going on, Rick?" Kate had been so scared and didn't understand any of this that she hadn't even noticed her tag touching her clitoris the entire time.
"I really don't know." Rick looked at his arm that told him it was safe. However, the suit had its limitations. It couldn't tell you if there were any diseases, viruses, or any other contaminants. Regardless he cracked his helmet open and didn't instantly die so he sniffed the air. It smelled fine to him so he finished taking off his helmet and finally began to look around.
Rick heard Kate's voice and turned that direction. She was standing in front of glass that was looking out onto space. Yes, it was black and they didn't see much, but it was obvious.
What he saw was three of these panels. Up against the center one was a sofa that had a coffee table and two chairs on the opposite side. To his left was what to him said work station. There was a large desk with a small monitor on it along with a chair. On the wall behind that was a much larger screen though it was dark at the moment. On either side of this large screen were two smaller screens. Outside of that were shelves filled with items.
To one side was a dining table that could seat four people. The far wall on the side held something he couldn't recognize.
Looking to the right he saw two more chairs and a small table along with what was obviously a door.
Rick left Kate to look at the blackness. He walked to the door and pressed a panel next to it that got it to open. Inside he found a single large bed, two night stands and two more doors. "Kate." He thought she should be following him so she could see all this.
Rick took the door to his right first. He opened it the same way and saw a large walk-in closet filled with clothes. It was a real mix of clothing, too. Men's on one side and clearly women's on the other. Each side held what he would say were uniforms that matched what Liara had been wearing while other clothes were far more civilian looking.
"Clothes!" Kate was right behind him. Rick left her at the closet and opened the last door to find a bathroom. It had a shower, two sinks, a toilet, and some storage.
"Rick, what's going on?" She'd kept quiet just like he had suggested. To act like she was a slave and to keep quiet and not speak unless spoken to.
"I have no idea, Kate. I truly don't know." He didn't get it. "Let's get your helmet off at least." Rick reached out to twist it, unlock it, and lift it over her head. Then he places hers on the bed next to his.
"I don't really smell anything," Kate commented as she sniffed and breathed deeply.
"The air's definitely filtered and cleaned." Then he walked to the sink and turned on the water. "There's water." He wasn't willing to test it just yet so he turned it off.
"Might as well get out of these since it doesn't look like we need them." Rick had Kate turn around so he could undo her and help her out of her spacesuit. He knew how to do his own so he stripped himself.
Then into the closet he went with Kate right behind him. He opened drawers on her side and soon found lots of lingerie. "I think I'll let you chose what to wear." Rick left her to it. He opened drawers on his side and found mostly the same.
Rick came across underwear and realized that they actually fit him. He tried on socks and a few shoes. Then he grabbed a uniform. If he was a commander he decided he might as well keep up the deception for now.
Kate was pleased that most of the bras would fit her as would most of the panties. She selected a top, slacks, and spun a carousel filled with shoes. She smiled as she saw it didn't just spin, it went into the wall, then turned and came back. Kate selected some heels that coordinated with the rest.
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Rick got dressed faster and Kate found him standing at the chair in the living room. "What is it?" Kate questioned him.
"It looks like a workstation. Maybe a setup to monitor what's happening around this place. The problem is that I don't recognize what any of this says. It's just a bunch of lines to me." Rick decided to sit in the chair and look around. "There doesn't appear to be anything specific. None of this really makes any sense.
"A hollow base deep inside the Rim. Except for an occasional section that keeps changing no one would ever find it. It clearly has power, water, and people living here. Yet that main corridor was really wide suggesting… I don't know.
"And how did I become Commander Rodgers after we made it inside? None of this makes any sense to me." Rick looked around again trying to make some sense of this.
"A place to live. A place to eat. A place to sleep and a bathroom. And windows." Kate returned to looking out them.
Rick kept looking at all the symbols. "She was blue," he commented.
"I noticed. …And no hair. Why did she switch to a language we could understand?" Kate kept looking out into space. There really wasn't anything to see. It was just a lot of blackness.
"Well, don't you look nice." Rick had finally noticed what Kate was wearing.
Kate smiled. She was still learning that Rick was special. He didn't treat her like a slave and while that was nice it also made her uncomfortable. He may not treat her like one but she was still a slave.
"Thanks. It even all fits me." Okay, maybe not all since she hadn't tried on everything but what she had chosen did fit. "Do you know who she was? She said doctor." Kate was thinking medical doctor now knowing that there were all kinds of doctors. Not all know anything about medicine.
"The name isn't known to me. Maybe if she tells us who she represents that might help. But no, I don't know her." Rick didn't recognize the name.
"She wanted us in the Command Room. Shall we go see if she wants to provide us with answers? Since I'm apparently a commander around here." Rick got up out of his chair, opened the door to the corridor, and crossed to the other door.
It had a large panel on the wall that had in white the outline of a hand. "Uh-oh." If it wanted a palmprint they were in trouble. The chances they had his palmprint were so tiny to be impossible.
"What?" Kate wasn't following.
"It wants a palmprint. I've never been here before so how would it know my palmprint?"
"Oh… Do we go back instead?" She meant strip, put on their space suits, and try to find their way back to their ship and leave.
"The most it could do is deny us entrance." Rick dismissed there being an explosive or some other booby trap. The most it could do was signal an alarm and armed guards would come rushing to arrest them and lock them up. Followed by hours upon hours of questioning.
"Let's find out." Rick placed his right hand on the scanner just like the fingers on the display asked for. In just a moment he saw green lights and the door opened. Rick was too shocked to even go anywhere closer to the door.
"It opened. I thought you said–" Rick interrupted her.
"It shouldn't have. I swear I've never been here before. We can always close it again and you can put your hand on the panel," Rick offered. If it opened for her, maybe it would open for anyone.
Kate showed him that she was brave and went through the door. "WOW!"
Rick groaned since none of this was making any sense to him and now Kate was out in front instead of him. He stepped inside and was right behind her. "WOW!"
He could honestly say he'd never seen anything like it in his life. Or even heard of anything like it before. Maybe the Alliance had something like this but then again, maybe not.
The floor was black and the ceiling was gray. In each case there were two long lines of lights from end to end. It was a large, long room that had an enormous screen on the far end. On the right and left side there were four chairs with huge screens in front of each chair.
In the very center was a large rectangular table that presently had a 3D image of his ship sitting on it.
Each of the chairs were manned and there were two more people standing at the table looking at his ship. Then one of those two spotted both of them.
"Welcome, Commander. Please join us." She motioned them over.
Rick and even Kate were trying to look everywhere all at the same time as they make it to the middle. Some of what Rick saw on each side looked very familiar. Others were a total mystery.
"This is my ship." Rick made it to the middle next to what he took to be Doctor Liara.
"Correct, Commander. We have been monitoring your ship ever since it entered this parsec," Liara admitted.
Rick's temper flared. "You knew we were coming. Yet you didn't send any signals."
"This outpost is meant to be a secret and not be found. If we had sent a signal more than you would have intercepted it. We were forced to remain silent," Liara said calmly.
"Well we wouldn't have found you at all save that we could scan parts of you on occasion," Rick said since lying sounded like such a bad idea.
Liara bowed her head. "We have been having a few errors of late. Certain parts are breaking down from age."
"You said something about 200,000 cycles. Did you mean years?" Rick questioned her.
"You left here roughly 200,000 cycles ago when you were recalled. All organics left this outpost at that time," Liara informed them. "We remained behind to monitor and maintain the outpost."
"You remained?" Kate put a hand over her mouth. She'd forgotten to act like a slave and remain silent.
"We are androids. All of us here." Liara waved an arm at all of them. All 10 of them.
Kate wanted to ask another question but she remembered to remain silent and hoped Rick would ask the question she had.
"How? You can't be 200,000 years old." Rick didn't see how that was possible.
"We are powered by rechargeable sarium krellide cell packs, augmented by biochemical and electroplasma micro-reactors," Liara explained. "We are designed to last another 200,000 cycles."
Rick had no idea what any of those things were. How they were made, how they were recharged, let alone replaced.
He started with this. "Let's go backwards. Why can't this place be found? It doesn't show up on my scanners or visual scans let alone eyesight."
"This outpost is artificial with a power core in the very center that is designed to last forever. However some of the power conduits routing power to the cloaking device need to be replaced. We are in the process of replacing them but our fabrication facility is small so it is taking time. Until that is complete certain sections will become visible at random.
"We estimate it will be complete roughly a year from now," Liara added.
Rick walked up to his ship and just for fun he put a hand through it. Then he looked behind him and watched as the display changed. "Wait, wait." He walked up behind the person manning that area.
"I know that area. That's an Alliance core planet." Then he looked down at the screens that were just floating in front of the person or android sitting there. "Those are Alliance ships." No one had this kind of scanning range. That planet was almost unbelievably far away.
"I can't take it. Neither of us have ever been here. We're not androids and we're not going to live for 200,000 years. So why did you call me Commander Rodgers?" Rick knew they would never be able to keep up the pretense. They would screw up eventually.
"We are aware you are not directly Commander Rodgers." Liara walked over to the table and suddenly a face in 3D replaced his ship. "This is Commander Rodgers. Taking 200,000 cycles into account for biological drift we were able to go from our original Commander to you."
Suddenly a number of heads showed up in a ghostly looking 3D. Like the other 3D images there was no color. It was basically shades of gray.
"Our original commander was an Iconian. Given 200,000 cycles of drift you are the direct descendant of our commander. In Iconic culture that makes you our commander."
Kate stood next to Rick as they looked at the original Commander Rodgers down to what Rick looked like now.
The original had maybe a little more bone around his eyes and more bone on his forehead and his hair was far more receded than Rick's was now. Looking down the row it told the story of how he had changed over 200,000 years.
"But we both look more like Alliance members than this." Rick accidentally waved his hand though the Iconian head. "Oops." He hadn't meant to do that.
Liara had an explanation for that. "Interbreeding."
"Doctor," Kate offered softly since while she was having a hard time following, Liara had said she was a doctor so maybe that helped explain it.
Rick looked at the head and the entire area one more time and saw the Alliance planet had been replaced with something else. He glanced at Liara. "You've been monitoring all this for the last 200,000 years?"
"Correct, Commander." Liara answered instantly.
"So what happens now?" Liara and her other androids had been in charge. Rick was thinking they should just stay in charge and maybe help him and Kate just a little. Maybe fill his cargo hold with something then move on.
"By Iconian law you are our commander. We await your orders, Commander. We are here to serve." Liara bowed her head again.