Firefly
Chapter 15
Rick came out of the shower naked and saw Kate was asleep again.
Kate had finally woken up in the medical bay and had smiled when the first thing she'd seen was his face. Next she had looked at her hands and found them to be all wrapped up. Rick had told her that her tattoos were gone, however, she had really wanted to see them. She was just one step away from not being a slave any longer. One step closer to be a married woman.
Kate didn't get why but just getting from medical to their room had tired her out and she was asleep almost instantly when her head hit her pillow. Since he had been up most of the day, unlike Kate, he got into bed and pulled her in close to him so he could sleep.
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Rick snapped his eyes open for some reason. He began to smile since Kate was naked and right next to him. "Stop that!" Rick freed his hands and grabbed hers. "No scratching!" It had been one of Liara's comments when they had left medical.
"They itch," Kate complained. They burned, they itched, she was totally uncomfortable.
"If you keep scratching you'll do damage and end up with another operation or permanently lose feeling on the back of your hands. So stop!" Rick pulled her hands down to his chest and held them there.
"Did it work?" Kate asked him since she wasn't so sleepy any longer. Anything prior to now felt like a dream. She wasn't sure just what she'd been told.
"Liara said the material was removed and she'd repaired the burns. She said she was growing skin for your hands. They should eventually look like you've never had tattoos at all." Rick was happy for her.
That had Kate smiling. "I can't wait." She meant it, too. She didn't want to wait a week or longer. She didn't even want to wait for tomorrow. She wanted it to work today.
Kate took her hands from Rick's chest and looked at them. "How am I going to touch you?" She liked touching his skin with her hands. The feel of his hard cock. The sound of him moaning while she played with his cock.
"How am I going to eat?" All she could see was her fingertips.
"I can hand-feed you," Rick offered, his smile a wide one since he could picture it now. "Or not." He saw the look Kate was giving him.
"Unless it's finger food you may not have much choice." Rick didn't see her holding onto any utensil to feed herself. "Besides itchy hands how do you feel?"
"Fine, maybe a little hungry actually." Kate looked at her hands after that yet again and groaned. Even finger food was going to get her bandages messy.
"I need to pee," Kate suddenly noticed and got off the bed while trying not to use her hands.
She was back a moment later. "They removed my tag!" Her tag did at least two things. She couldn't get separated from Rick and losing him would kill her. However, her tag also kept hitting her clitoris and combined with her drug she loved all the sex she was getting.
"If you're no longer a slave you don't need it. A wife should know how to reach her husband if she gets lost or he how to find her," Rick argued. "Besides wearing a tag is a slave thing and you're no longer a slave."
Kate's smile threatened to break her face wide open as she walked up to Rick and put her arms around his neck. Then she saw her bandages. Kate lost her smile. "I don't even have fingers to put a ring on to."
"We'll get there, have a little faith. …Now are you ready to let me feed you?" Rick was smiling wide.
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Kate was full even if she was totally embarrassed about letting Rick hand-feed her. They were to never discuss this with anyone for as long as they both lived.
"Where are we going?" Rick was being mysterious about something and not answering her questions.
"You'll see. This is the biggest thing I've ever seen in my life." Rick still just wasn't sure what to do with it.
Kate followed him out the elevator into a small space that had stairs going up only and a pair of double doors. She watched him place his hand on a panel and the doors open. Inside there was a large room with a number of things around the edge. Kate followed him over to one of the androids
"nassanna, thanks for joining us. I need you to explain the Gateway to Kate for me, please. Perhaps include a demonstration?" Rick asked her.
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Kate had listened and watched and was still standing there with her mouth hanging open. If she understood it correctly it was like walking though a door and ending up literally anywhere you wanted to go. She was next to Rick and standing right in front of what she was seeing and even started to reach out to touch it but pulled her wrapped hand back. "Anywhere?" Kate looked the entire Gateway over yet again then turned to look at Nassanna.
"If the site can be scanned it can be anywhere. Though even our scanning system has limitations," Nassanna explained since anywhere wasn't literally anywhere.
"So what are we looking for?" Kate questioned as she stepped back after Nassanna killed the view but didn't leave.
"Well while you were undergoing an operation I did some research and found that these guys, or gals, really, are capable of building a very advanced fighter even though it might take a couple of years before it's ready. I was thinking that if I used the fighter and started attacking Alliance warships, I might be able to force them to the table and get better terms for all the planets outside of the Core planets. It might be a dream but it also just might work," Rick said excitedly.
"So you want to use this thing to bring people here to do that?" Kate inquired, if she understood this thing correctly.
"No, that would be a violation of their this-place-must-remain-unseen law. Too many people that I don't trust would mean we could possibly end up being spotted. Besides we only have space for the one fighter." Rick beat Nassanna to it and nixed that idea.
"So what do we use it for?" Kate couldn't think of anything.
"A couple of things come to mind. One the kitchen still works but all of the food's gone. We just need to figure out how and where to buy more so we can turn the kitchen back on. Another is that in order to make my fighter we need material. They used the Gateway to get the material for their power conduit that they're working on that I haven't actually seen yet. What I need is where to get the material from," Rick explained.
Kate knew she couldn't help him with his fighter. She didn't know the first thing about them. Though she did know how to cook. However…, "Why do we need the kitchen? We have that thing in our room."
"Because I'm thinking of adding Frankie and Liz to the party. Frankie knows how to fly a fighter and I don't. Liz knows tactics and I don't. I was just a sniper. Basically a stupid grunt that had a skill." A skill that got him all the ghosts that he believed haunted him.
Kate walked over to him and thanks to her hands she decided not to hug him but she could press herself against him. "You're not stupid and I love the idea of Frankie and Liz living here." Kate looked up at him. She didn't know how he did it but she loved him even more.
"Can we do it now?" She liked Liz and she had a lot to tell her now.
"I was thinking of waiting until your hands were better and that we had the food to feed them with," Rick contended.
"They have food. Liz cooks and she taught me a little while I was there. Why wait? Can't we just do it now? Have them empty their kitchen and bring anything else," Kate wheedled.
"We do have spare rooms and I could use the help," Rick agreed. "Nassanna, can you scan for Neutronium out here in the belt? It will be in a zone of artificial suns and have a number of atmospheric devices as well as moisture capture devices. There should be only two humans on the planet." Rick gave her all he could short of going to his ship and looking up the coordinates.
"Scanning. …There appear to be a number of places that contain Neutronium. But there is only one that meets the other criteria that you mentioned," Nassanna reported.
Rick saw the Gateway start to blink then settle in on a site that had a massive old rusty building and two domes.
"That's the place. Where are Frankie and Liz?" He needed to know just where they were.
Suddenly they were inside one of the domes and he saw both of them sitting at a table eating.
"How long does this remain open and if we go through how do we get back?" Rick queried since he didn't know exactly how this thing worked. If it was one way, that would be a problem. Yet they had stated that they had used it to gather the materials they needed for their power conduit.
"You have 6 hours, Commander, and once you go through you and they will be able to see the Gateway and step through. There is one thing to consider. Personal weapons on this outpost are not permitted and you cannot counter that order," Nassanna informed him.
"Six hours, should be enough time. Provided we don't spend all of it explaining how we got there and why they see what they do." Rick reached for Kate's hand. But Kate didn't take it since her hands were still bandaged. Instead Rick put out his elbow and waited for Kate to link her arm with his.
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Frankie panicked for a moment while Liz whipped out both of her weapons at the two of them. "Christ, Rodgers! You trying to give me a heart attack?" Frankie slapped his hand over his heart and willed it to slow down.
"I damn near shot you two!" Liz put her weapons away.
"So what brings you back anyway?" He didn't have much worth them taking. "And what is that behind you?" Frankie finally saw something beyond the two of them that didn't make any sense.
Rick grinned. "We sort of found something and gained some new friends."
Kate added her voice. "We want you two to join us. It's nice."
"Join you at what?" Frankie wasn't following though he was still trying to figure out what had just happened.
"Maybe we should just show you," Rick offered. "Follow us, it's perfectly safe."
Soon Frankie and Liz were next to them. "No weapons, you two. That's one of the rules." Rick motioned for Liz to get rid of hers and waited for her to put them on the table and rejoin them.
"This way." Rick and Kate walked through then turned and waited for Frankie and Liz to join them.
"How, what, where, what the hell is going on?" Frankie sputtered after stepping through with his wife into the Gateway room.
Then they both spotted Nassanna. "That's Nassanna. She's one of the androids that man this outpost. Nassanna, these are my friends, Frankie and Liz."
"Android?" She looked more alien, real alien to Frankie than an android, but whatever.
"We should show you a couple of things. You can kill the Gateway, Nassanna, just don't leave, we'll be back soon," Rick said.
Frankie and Liz watched as the view of their dome vanished. "I will be here, Commander." nassanna confirmed.
"Commander?" Frankie turned on Rick.
"Part of a really long story. Come on, I have something to show you. Even Kate hasn't seen this yet. For that matter neither have I." He hadn't looked yet so this was going to be a surprise for him, too.
Rick took them out of the room and into the elevator. "Park," Rick said and the elevator began moving. The second they arrived and the door opened they were all shocked at what they saw. There was green grass, plants, dwarf trees, and even a small pond in front of them. "HOLY SHIT!" Frankie walked out with his wife right behind him. Even Rick and Kate walked out with their mouths hanging open. The air here didn't feel filtered. It smelled like live evergreens.
"Where are we?" Frankie had no idea. No Brown base of any type that he knew anything about had this.
"This is an Iconian outpost," Rick told him.
"A who outpost?" Frankie had never heard that name before.
"Ready for a long explanation?" Rick knew this was going to take a while.
"More than ready," Frankie said since none of this made any sense to him. How they had gotten here? Just where here was? Why that alien called Rick, Commander? You name it, he was ready.
Liz, however, had spotted something else. "Kate! Your hands!" Liz was ready to reach out to hold them but if they were all wrapped up it was for a reason and she didn't want to hurt her.
"They removed my tattoos. I'm not a slave any longer." Kate smiled a bright smile and tears trailed down her face. She had someone to celebrate it with besides Rick and that meant a lot to her.
"They? Just who are they? Are you sure they're gone?" Liz asked her.
"Well, they said they did. I haven't seen what's under the bandages yet but I'm supposed to go back to have my hands looked at tomorrow. They do itch like mad, though." Kate was using all the will power she had to not scratch them even if rubbing them under her armpits when she had hid them that one time was something she'd done.
"They?" Liz tried again.
"Let's walk," Rick suggested since he wanted to see what was here while they talked.
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Frankie and Liz had seen the kitchen and what could be their room if they approved. Right now all four were sitting at their dining room table after going back and watching the Gateway open up and showing it to them.
Rick took a deep breath. He was desperate for them to join him. "I have a plan and I need both of you to help. They have technology that the Alliance has never heard of, let alone have. There's only room for one but I think it might work. Eventually."
"It will take about 2 years but they can build a fighter, but not just any fighter. It will have energy shields, a jump engine that they say can cause the fighter to jump from place to place so long as that space can be scanned first. It will also have the same cloaking device that hides the outpost and weapons that can take out an Alliance cruiser in a few shots. Or at least it sounds like it can.
"It may take some time but maybe if they lose enough ships we can bring them to the table and negotiate a better deal for the planets. We might even be able to attack the core planets directly. Stir up the population and get them to force them to accept a new deal."
"You realize that the Alliance has a great many ships. There have to be 26 or more in this quadrant alone and that doesn't include fighters." Frankie wasn't so sure of this plan of his. Then he reminded him of the ship classes the Alliance had. "At least one will be a Crete Class."
Heavy ships
1. Crete Class – 10,000,000 tons
2. Tohoku Class – 5,500,000 tons
Medium ships
1. Longbow Class – 640,000 tons
2. Ocula Class – 48,000 tons
3. Trebuchet Class – 190,000 tons
4. Victoria Class – 80,000 tons
Light ships
1. Alliance Landing Ship for Tanks – 750 tons
2. Alliance Patrol and Enforcement Cutter – 390 tons
3. Alliance Patrol Boat – 3,955 tons
4. Alliance Short Range Enforcement Vessel – 40 tons
5. Arrowhead Class – 400 tons
Fighters and bombers
1. Alliance Fast Attack Ship – 25 tons
2. Alliance gunship – ? tons
3. Alliance skiff – ? tons
4. A.V.-Sparrow – ? tons
5. Foxbat Class – 100 tons
6. Warhammer Interceptor – 15 tons
Rick was aware of that but was undaunted. "They've talked about the fighter having 3 different control interfaces. One is the obvious: someone mans it and works the controls. Which is where you come in. Another is a remote control system using the Gateway to keep track of it while flying it from the control room that you haven't seen yet, which is still where you come in. Or the fighter is flown by a computer program.
"What needs to be maintained is the invisibility of this outpost. They may call me commander and I'll be in command but there are limitations."
"And exactly how is it that you are suddenly their commander?" Frankie was dying to hear this.
"Two hundred thousand years ago the organics left this outpost for parts unknown that I haven't questioned them about just yet. However, they have proven to me and Kate that I have an ancestral connection to their 200,000-year-old Iconian commander. They called it interbreeding. A few humans will have Iconian blood lines. In my case it was the commander of this outpost before he left. According to Inconian law that makes me their new commander. And as strange as it sounds so far they have treated me as if I am their commander." Rick could hardly believe it himself.
"And you believe all this?" Liz looked at Kate to see if she agreed to all this.
"They fixed my hands." Kate raised her hands. "Granted I haven't seen them yet but I don't think they've lied."
"There's one more thing. According to Iconian law slavery is not allowed. So fixing Kate's hands puts her more in line with Iconian law," Rick informed both of them.
"They have technologies that the Alliance doesn't have. The androids in this outpost have been here for over 200,000 years. They expect to be here and viable for another 200,000 years.
"While I haven't seen it yet the main power source is in the middle of this outpost and I can attest to the fact that there is indeed something in the middle."
Frankie studied his friend's face. "For sake of argument say I believe you. Where do we come into this, besides you wanting someone to pilot this fighter of yours that hasn't even been built yet and won't be completed for another 2 years?"
"You have contacts in the Browns that I don't have and can't. If this works and the Alliance wants to talk about a ceasefire since they haven't killed anyone that's attacking them, I will be up to someone to talk to them. Liz knows tactics and you both know people willing to negotiate a new deal. I just have an overall plan. I need her to make it work using my one and only fighter.
"And they need preferably refined material to make my fighter. Raw ore like you have will work but take more time. Again, you two have contacts that I don't. So what do you think?" Rick was hoping they would help him with this.
Kate added her 2 cents. "Please. It's just Rick and me. And I need someone to attend the wedding." Kate wanted someone to be there and Liz was the best friend she had. Almost the only friend she had actually, as sad as that suddenly sounded to her.
"Married?" Liz looked at Kate.
"Married?" Frankie looked at Rick.
Both Rick and Kate had huge grins.