Firefly

Chapter 16

Frankie and Liz were busy putting their food into crates and sending it through the Gateway which would eventually make it to the kitchen. Rick was helping to move the crates.

Kate was doing what she thought she could which was going to the kitchen and making sure refrigerators and freezers were operational and ready for the food that was coming. She found the only way she could do that was to use both hands since her hands were all wrapped up.

Going back down to the Gateway she saw crates on the floor and Rick coming through to drop off another one. "The kitchen's ready," Kate said as he waved and went back to get another one.

Kate had no idea just how much was coming here so she walked over to Nassana. "Is there a chance we could get some help? Get these up to the kitchen?" Kate asked as Nassana monitored the Gateway and made sure it remained active.

Kate heard the doors open and saw two more female androids walk in. Each easily picked up a crate and walked out, leaving the doors open.

"Thank you." Kate smiled at Nassana who kept monitoring the Gateway.

Rick finally noticed he was falling behind. Not that Frankie and Liz were loading crates too fast for him, but that the Gateway deck was getting empty and he knew it wasn't Kate doing it.

They were still at it. "One hour remains, Commander," Nassana announced and Rick noticed that the Gateway deck was now empty. It probably meant the cafeteria room was filled with crates but at least they were out of here.

The next things through were the four crates Frankie had containing Neutronium ore that he had mined.

"All done for now, Nassana. You can kill the Gateway," Rick said tiredly. "These crates contain Neutronium ore so if you could have someone come get them, please? We're going to go load the kitchen with everything." The job with getting it all here was done. Now they had to get it back out of the crates.

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Rick, Frankie, and Liz were spread out on chairs in the cafeteria. It had taken hours to get all the food they had from their moon to here. Yet they still weren't done. They had to move their clothes out of crates and into their cabin that they were now going to call home. However, they were dead tired.

"You think it'll work?" Rick sat forward a little and used the table he was at to provide support.

"The idea's sound," Liz stated though she didn't move an inch. "The trick is finding their ships and destroying them. What we could really use are the locations of their spaceship factories which are all at their core planets. This is going to take some time. What we can't do is to ask them to come to the table too soon. They may decide to start using the population of planets as target practice and tell us unless we stop they will kill even more."

"Yeah, I was kinda afraid you would say that." Rick let his head rest on the table just as Kate walked in to see three very tired people.

Kate ran her fingertips through Rick's hair. "You okay?"

"Just tired," Rick told the table and didn't move.

"We need to go to medical. Liara said I should come back before the end of the day and I'm hungry, too," Kate said as she gently ran her fingertips down his back. Rick groaned but he got up to take her to medical. Kate hadn't meant for Frankie and Liz to come with them but they did.

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"Kate, let me take a look at your hands and rewrap them. Sit on the bed for me." Liara ignored the others for now. They weren't her patients, only Kate was. Liara physically cut the old school bandages off of her hands. "Do not panic when you see your hands." Liara worked at removing the last of them.

Kate couldn't help it. She yelped when she saw her hands. They were red and angry-looking. The tattoos were indeed gone but her hands looked terrible.

"Relax, take deep breaths." Liara picked up a hand unit this time, ran it over her hands, then did it again.

"I find no signs of the material so that is all gone. The burns they did to create a cavity to apply the material to are severe. I find no damage to the bones in your hand. Your tendons that control your fingers are all healthy.

"However, what you are missing in the area of the burns are nerve endings. Those once your hands start to heal and we apply new skin over your hands the nerve endings should mostly regrow. Though there will be a few areas where they may not.

"I find no signs of infection. Are you not scratching at them like I told you?" Liara challenged her.

Kate wanted to say yes, but Rick was standing right there making the same face she likely was as she looked at her hands. Kate relented and told her that she had been scratching from time to time.

"I am going to have to do something to prevent you from scratching your hands. The more you scratch the more likely it is that your already damaged nerve endings will not recover. Stay right here." Liara left her to gather the materials she was going to need now.

Kate expected Rick take her hands in his. But it turned out to be Liz.

Liz saw the outlines of where her tattoos used to be. Her hands were indeed ugly-looking. "They'll get better. Maybe just a few scars," Liz said and made way when Liara returned.

Kate watched Liara and saw her do everything.

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"There, that should stimulate growth which is going to be itchy. However, I have forgone the use of bandages alone this time. These," Liara tapped them to show just how hard and stiff they were, "are meant to keep you from scratching your hands. I will need to saw these off when you come back. I expect to see you in three days.

"Now lie back for me and I can run a scan on your new Fallopian tubes." Liara patted the bed and waited for Kate to comply.

"Fallopian tubes?" Liz questioned since she had never heard of this before.

"When they made her a slave they removed them," Rick whispered.

"BASTARDS!" Liz whispered a little louder. Liz was now seriously onboard with attacking the Alliance. The Alliance needed to make changes to how they treated the other planets.

Yes, that final fight that they'd lost had cost the Alliance a lot of ground personnel though the Browns had, in the end, lost. Leaving them almost completely with no ground units.

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Kate was walking out of medical with Rick who had an arm around her along with Frankie and Liz.

"Come on, I'll cook. I need to learn how to use this fancy kitchen eventually. Might as well start now. While I cook my husband can set up his precious homemade beer equipment somewhere," Liz offered.

"Yes!" Frankie was all for that. "Last month was a good month."

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Rick and Frankie were sitting in the cafeteria drinking a bottle of Frankie's beer and watching Liz working in the kitchen.

"You want me to hold your beer for you?" Rick watched as Kate was using two hands to try and hold her beer bottle. She couldn't even bend her fingers with what she was wearing now.

"NO!" Kate managed to hook her two thumbs and lift the bottle. She drank some of it, decided once was enough, and set her bottle down, leaving it there. Apparently she wasn't a fan of alcohol.

"Marriage," Frankie commented. "It'll do wonders for you, Rodgers. Give you someone to focus on instead of worrying about people you mistakenly think are dead because of you. Admiral Kona was an ass and you know it. It was a trap, we just don't know what the trap was," Frankie argued again. "If there was ever anyone who deserved to die, it was him."

Rick didn't say a thing. He would like to believe him, but he didn't.

"So who's going to be at this wedding? Just the two of us?" Frankie questioned them both.

"You're the only two people I know." Kate said.

"The outpost has to remain hidden. We violate it and we're all out." Rick didn't know that for a fact but he was betting on it.

"So where's your ship?" Frankie queried, hoping that he hadn't gotten rid of it.

"I haven't looked or asked but it should still be attached to one of the two airlocks," Rick answered and thought about it. Not being spotted was obviously paramount here. Having a ship attached to the side might destroy that.

"Be right back." Rick got up and walked quickly to the access corridor that led to his ship.

Liz had heard everything while she cooked. "Where are your parents? Can we bring them or at least go there maybe?"

Kate sat up straight since she'd forgotten all about her parents. "I don't know. Last time I saw them was when they sold me. They should still be in the same place, I suppose."

"Maybe that Gateway thing can find them," Frankie suggested since it seemed to be really powerful.

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Liz had to stay behind so dinner didn't burn and Frankie stayed with her. That left Rick and Kate going to the Gateway then waiting for someone to work the device.

Rick was standing there and watching Zillah work while Kate was pacing back and forth until that changed to pacing round and round.

"Nothing?" Rick asked which had Kate joining him to find out what was going on.

"I have the parameters you provided though I am unable to located the individuals you are talking about. It is possible that your view of them is incorrect. It is possible that they have changed too much over time between then and now." She kept trying but was getting nowhere.

"It is also possible that they no longer live. This device is not capable of searching for data that would tell us if that has happened. It is most likely that they have changed enough that they do not match what you remember and have been able to portray to me." She stopped working. "I am sorry, you are going to have to think of something else." Zillah left them standing there.

Kate stood there, staring at this thing. It had gotten her Frankie and Liz, why not her parents?

Rick heard her crying. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and held her tight. "Why!?" Kate tried using her hands to wipe away her tears but thanks to her new bandages she couldn't even do that.

"We'll think of something. Maybe Frankie or Liz can do a search for records about them." Rick wasn't sure he should do it since if he was recognized it might lead to trouble for him. "It's just our first attempt. We'll think of something."

Rick gently turned her so he could wipe away her tears for her then kiss her. "Come on, we need to eat something. You're going to need the energy if you want to try and keep up with me tonight." Rick grinned at her then nipped her earlobe.

It was just what Kate needed and got her to smile. She knew Rick was talking about sex and she found she was really interested in having sex with him again.

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"So the fancy machine has limitations. Doesn't mean a thing, honey." Liz put an arm around her and hugged her for a second. "My husband would be happy to go there and do a search. Wouldn't you, honey?" Liz wasn't really questioning him nor was she suggesting it.

"I would?" Frankie didn't remember volunteering.

"See, it's all settled. Just as soon as we come up with a plan he can go search for where your parents are now." Liz was glad her husband had seen it her way.

"You sure you want to get married, Rick?" Frankie asked him softly. He was teasing and they both knew it. It was just something for Rick to look forward to.

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Frankie and Liz chose to go back to the green park since living where they'd been ever since the war had ended meant they hadn't seen anything like it. It was refreshing and beautiful.

"What do you think?" Frankie wanted to hear her thoughts about all this.

"I think I was right the first time. They're both so hurt and timid that it's almost amazing that they're getting married at all. They wouldn't if not for this place. Thanks to those tattoos Kate was doomed.

"If, however, you mean what they did in that operation, I don't think I've ever been so angry. The mere thought that someone would remove my tubes so I couldn't get pregnant makes me so furious. Tying them so they could be untied is one thing, but to literally remove them and render me forever sterile!" What she wanted to do was kill someone.

"When you go look for her parents I want to look for who did that to her. The doctors, the nurses, that bastard that bought her. Everyone, they need to pay and death is too good for them." Liz didn't want them dead. Dead meant they didn't have to pay like Kate was paying.

"Yeah." Frankie could see that and would do it happily. "I meant this place. Just think, this place has been here for over 200,000 years. Their technology is so far above what we have now 200,000 years later.

"Think about what we were doing 200,000 years ago." Frankie still wasn't sure he believed it.

"I'm still working on how Iconian blood got into ours but only a few families have it. Do you know the odds that Rick would have it AND be the one to find this place." Liz was sure she couldn't formulate just what the odds of that were. "And then that same person finds Kate." It all boggled her mind.

"You really think his fighter plan has a chance?" They were alone now and she could speak freely.

"Destroying their ships alone isn't going to work. They'll just build more and hide their losses from the public. No, the only way this is going to work is if the Core planets feel the heat. I don't mean bombing civilian targets, I mean destroying military targets that the Alliance can't hide. Maybe a few power plants to hurt both military and civilian. Once the privileged civilians start suffering, maybe, just maybe.

"There's an old book from old Earth that no longer exists. Sun Tzu's Rules for Warfare. We were doing fine, even with our losses until we got stupid.

"First rule of Sun Tzu. The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. We don't need to destroy all of their ships, we need to destroy their will to fight. Civilians have been and always will be the weak link." Liz knew just what to do.

"A fighter that can't be seen and even if they do it has energy shields in addition to armor. Rodinium, I've never even heard of that material. Then jump in and attack followed by jumping away. We plan this right and they'll never know there's just one attacking fighter that they can't find." Frankie liked that best of all.

Liz smiled. "We attack a major power plant on each of the six core planets on the same day. Do it again a few days later. Eventually they'll pull back their military ships leaving the outer planets lightly defended. Then we attack those ships.

"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity." Liz sported a wide smile. "You think you can fly this fighter, babe?"

"A simulator would be nice. We still have 2 years if I heard correctly." Frankie knew he was going to need to learn how to fly it and a simulator would be necessary. "It's been a while since I've been in any fighter and I'm not as young as I used to be." The young had better reflexes.

Liz stopped and put her arms around his neck. "If they can give Kate new tubes, you think they could untie mine?" Liz thought she was ready, giving where they were living now, even if they hadn't yet spent an entire day here yet.

"Hear the pitter-patter of little feet." Frankie smiled. "And all the crying because he's hungry or has a dirty diaper or doesn't feel good. No more sleeping the night through."

"I'm the one who's going to get as big as a house here," Liz argued.

"We can talk to Rick in the morning." His answer earned him a heartfelt kiss. They could even get in some baby-making practice tonight as they broke in their new bed.

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What Kate wanted to do was take her clothes off so they could have the sex she really needed. Yet she was standing there still fully clothed since her hands were useless. Rick watched her try and undo just one button let alone the others but she failed miserably. He had his shirt off already so he stepped up to take over and slowly undid her buttons.

"You're enjoying this," Kate grumbled since he was taking his time. Thanks to her drug she was more than ready for sex. She wanted him inside her and she wanted it now. "Rick, please!" She'd had enough of being teased.

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Rick's eyes snapped open; he was unsure just what was going on. His first good clue was seeing Kate with his erection in her mouth and that was when he finally felt it.

Rick was moaning then whimpering. Kate was getting really good at this and had obviously learned just when to back off before he climaxed.

"Kate!" Rick was feeling tears starting to run down his face. He really needed for her to finish him off. However instead of doing that she got up and worked at lowering herself down on him.

While Kate knew that she really wanted to slam herself down on him and feel him plunge deep inside her, she feared that would cause him to climax too soon and that wasn't what she wanted. It wasn't what she needed.

After grinding herself on him she suddenly found his hands on her breasts. Then he was rolling her nipples between his fingers and it had her on the brink of an orgasm.

God, but she loved sex. She loved Rick and she loved her drug that caused her to love having sex with him.

Then suddenly he pinched both nipples really hard and it had her screaming out her orgasm.

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Last night had been really nice given the fact that she couldn't use her hands; yes, they still itched a little. This morning had also been really nice.

Kate was now lying on her back willing for her heart to slow down.

Rick knew from practice that after all that sex her breasts were just a bit sensitive and she didn't want them touched. However, that didn't mean he couldn't work his way down, put his face between her legs, and start licking.

He could hear her moaning until suddenly that stopped but that was only because Kate had found a way to put his cock in her mouth.

Rick knew just the right spot. Kate couldn't keep her attention on his cock any longer and was whimpering as she was just moments from yet another orgasm.

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This time Kate was now lying on top of Rick as they both slowly recovered from a morning filled with sex.

Kate lifted a hand to look at it which just happened to be her left hand in this case. "Do I have a ring yet?" She was ready to no longer be a slave and be a married woman who had a future.

"Not yet, I'm still working on that. Hopefully by the time you lose these I'll have one to put on your finger." Rick raised a hand to hold hers. "We'll get there."