Firefly

Chapter 18

It is now 6 months later

Frankie and Rick were actually looking over their fighter in the Landing Bay. Several of the modules had been put together and they were both now getting an idea of just what the size of their fighter was going to be like. It was actually bigger than either of them were thinking. Yes, they'd seen the drawings that had dimensions. However, seeing it was totally different.

"Fighter, huh?" Frankie looked at Rick as they walked around it.

"Well it's supposed to have room for just the pilot. Doesn't that qualify it as being a fighter?" Rick argued.

"Save for any bombs, this thing is big for even a fighter bomber we ever had," Frankie replied.

"How are the simulator missions coming?" Rick changed subjects since the size was what it was.

"I get one more item failure and I'm going to scream. Beyond that this thing is positively amazing. You don't actually fly anywhere. You just jump from place to place, then jump home.

"I've only ever seen simulations of what this weapon can do. I'm really interested in just what it can really do to an actual target." Frankie wanted to see his first Alliance ship blow up and not know a thing since they didn't see anything.

"How are you sleeping?" Rick changed subjects again.

"Sleep? What's that? She's at least three months old but she still isn't sleeping the night through. Liz insisted on breastfeeding and this place doesn't have a breast pump so she has to get up every time. Both of us sometimes feel more like the walking dead." Frankie laughed at himself.

"Sounds like Kate and I. He at least doesn't cry when someone's holding him. Kate won't listen to me about letting him have formula and take some of the burden off of her.

"We do, however, have one tiny concern that Liara's still looking into." Rick sighed since he hadn't planned this far in advance. So if something went wrong it was going to be all his fault. "We don't know what that drug I gave Kate has or is doing to the baby." Rick hung his head. "If I've inadvertently done something to the baby I'll never forgive myself.

"I just wanted… I was only trying… I may have screwed up big time this time." Rick was still kicking himself. He really hadn't taken Kate getting pregnant into consideration. If they lost the baby he was going to have a new demon haunting his soul. This one might actually kill him.

"This place has technology I've only ever dreamed of. Give them a chance before you go off the deep end," Frankie cautioned him.

"I should go. Kate and Caleb are due in medical again soon and I need to be there," Rick told him and left Frankie to finish looking over their not so tiny fighter.

"Firefly. Hopefully you'll live up to the name." Frankie patted it and headed for their room where he was betting Liz was getting some sleep.

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Rick was a little late since the scanner bar was just going across the baby on the medical bed with Kate standing right there. Rick walked up and put an arm around her.

Kate loved her drug since it meant lots and lots of sex with Rick. They had in fact been having sex up to the day before she gave birth. Then it wasn't even two weeks yet and she needed him badly.

"What's the news?" Rick asked, unsure whether he wanted to know. He also felt Kate take a strong hold of his arm. She was clearly worried as well.

"The baby clearly has some of this drug in his blood. What it is doing to him I am not certain. I am going to need to study the results more clearly. However, much like the drug is not affecting any of Kate's internal organs it does not appear to be having any detrimental effects at this time.

"What it is doing to his brain chemistry is another matter. The drug is affecting Kate's brain chemistry which I believe is its intent. We may not know if there is any damage taking place for a few months if not years.

"I will need to see the baby in another month, please. Until then you are both free to go. When I learn anything I will let you know." Liara freed them to leave and went over to her desk so she could analyze what the drug was doing to the baby.

Kate picked up her baby bag and hurried out of the medical bay.

Rick caught up to her. "I'm sorry, Kate. I'm really very sorry." Having something wrong with the baby was not his intent.

"There is nothing wrong with him," she said fiercely. "There has to be nothing wrong." Kate stepped into the elevator, let the door close, and stood there a moment. "Park."

Kate stepped out into the large green space, went to her favorite spot, and sat down with her baby. She loved him. She loved him more than anything. She loved her drug because it got her closer to Rick. Her drug couldn't possibly do anything to her baby.

Kate let him rest on the grass, lay down next to him, and kept her face close so he could see her and feel her and hear her voice.

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Rick walked dejectedly to their room. Kate would show up eventually. There were only just so many places she could go.

He sat down at his desk and returned to searching for Kate's parents. He'd initially started with just where ships could go from that planet and searching those planets. Now he was searching planets where they could have gone from any of those planets.

What it did was vastly increase the number of places he was forced to search. The problem was that several of these place were actually out on the Rim and the Rim was notorious for not keeping track of just who was out here.

Several of the planets that the Alliance didn't go to were also notorious for not caring who came or who went. Even he could easily get lost if he wanted to.

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Rick watched Kate and Caleb enter their room and he abandoned his desk to intercept them.

"You okay?" Rick had let her have some time alone. He was concerned but he didn't need or want to be overbearing and rule her life.

"No…yes…maybe. What are we going to do?" Kate held her baby tight to her. He meant the most to her. She loved Rick but a baby was somehow different in her mind.

"We wait. We let Liara do her job. This place is advanced. Maybe advanced enough to help. I'm so very sorry. I never considered… This is all my fault." As if he didn't have enough ghosts and demons after his soul.

"I like my drug. I still like my drug. I just…" Kate just didn't get it.

Rick escorted both of them to the bedroom where Kate could put Caleb down so she could get ready for bed and a little sleep.

Rick tucked her in, kissed her head, and stayed for a moment. "I'm going to go back to finding your parents." Rick kissed her this time.

"Still haven't found them?" Kate really wanted her parents to see where she was now.

"I think I've cleared all stops from the planet they'd been on. I can't find them, they're not there. So now I'm taking one planet at a time where each of those have access to. It's time consuming. It's just that almost all of these places don't keep track of who comes and who goes. For all I know they're out in the Rim somewhere now. But I'm still looking." Rick kissed her again.

"Get some sleep while you can." Rick left her and went back to his desk to continue his search.

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It is now one month later

"On the medical bed for me, please," Liara asked Kate who was with Rick and brought Caleb for his next checkup.

Just as she did Frankie, Liz and their little girl Kateryn walked in for their monthly checkup.

They all watched Liara run the scanner bar across Caleb and checked her handheld unit then left the baby on the bed and retreated to her desk.

Kate picked up her son and she and Rick followed Liara to her desk. Then the two of them waited impatiently since neither of them could stand still.

"The drug is still within his system. Your system was connected to his so it is to be expected. The drug as I understand it, is meant to increase a woman's desire for sex. While it will also affect a male it will not work as it was designed to do. The drug in both of you appears to be permanent. Perhaps over an extended period of time the drug in you will diminish, however, it will never actually go away.

"The amount of drug in the baby will be the same. It will not ever go away unless it is removed on purpose. Since his brain is presently generating connections for memory and sending signals to the rest of the body I am afraid it will be impossible to tell you what that will mean for his future.

Based on its design I can rule out brain damage or genetic problems later. However…" It was not that Rick groaned loudly. This was his drug and he had done this to his own son.

"When the baby reaches puberty and his body starts to generate and introduce increased amounts of hormones, beyond what the baby is already generating, will be another matter.

"Since the drug is designed for one purpose that is when it will manifest itself and begin to interact with all the additional hormones. My best guess is that he will have instant erections that may conceivably last too long which will be bad. If a male penis has a full erection that means no new blood will flow into that part of his body. Parts of the cells in his penis will start to die. The damage will be irreversible and permanent," Liara warned them both.

Kate held him too tight to her and patted his back. So far it was all bad news.

"There is more. Sex is not just a physical action, it is also mental. Hence the purpose of the drug. It is possible that the drug it will interact with a male's hormones. This may produce a quick and violent response if he perceives any rejection," Liara explained.

"Rape." Liz and Frankie couldn't help but hear every word and she clapped a hand over her mouth for saying anything at all.

"NO!" Kate cried and began to sob. She knew exactly what rape was. She herself had been raped by her previous master a number of times and knew what that felt like.

"Can you remove the drug? Clean it from his system somehow? Something," Rick pleaded.

"That was going to be one of my suggestions. Though simply filtering his blood will not remove 100% of the drug. What he would benefit him the most is an exchange transfusion. We would need to do it in stages to prevent his brain from being deprived of blood.

"We will also need to filter his blood at the same time. Since his system has this drug we cannot simply remove all of his blood and replace it at the same time. That will mean the drug will be able to spread itself though his system and contaminate the new blood. We may likely have to do this procedure more than once since filtering the blood will not be totally effective." Liara waited for them to respond.

"What do you need?" Rick loved the idea. Anything to save his son and not have another ghost in his future eating at his soul.

"His blood type. Many, many units of his blood type. Which we don't have."

"Blood banks, hospitals. Browns or Alliance," Frankie suggested. "A fast midnight raid on an Alliance core planet. Get in and get out using the Gateway before the police can respond. Nothing to show how we got in or how we got out."

"Most surveillance cameras are outside trying to keep people out, not aimed at the people that are inside, usually. Even if they do identify us they don't know where we are," Liz said.

"My parents are dead and I have no brothers or sisters any longer thanks to the war," Frankie stated.

"Same here," Liz offered up.

Rick added his voice. "I'm an only child and I have no idea where my mother is now. I haven't even thought to look. I've been spending all my time trying to find Kate's parents. To no avail so far."

Kate smiled and kissed his cheek. Though she did feel sorry that he hadn't tried looking for his own mother.

"Can we scan for a blood bank of an Alliance core world and get the blood we need from them?" Rick looked at Liara.

"You will need to discuss your request with Nassana. If you can show that this outpost will remain hidden while obtaining the blood that is required to perform this procedure she should approve it. However, you will need to present your plan to her."

Liara in the meantime returned to her medical bed. "Place Kateryn on the medical bed for me, please." She patted the bed and waited for Liz.

"Wait for me before you plan anything, especially if it's going to be an Alliance core planet," Liz told Rick and her husband. She was the planner around here and she didn't want those two to design something that didn't stand a chance.

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Liz still had Kateryn with her when she showed up at the Gateway where Rick and her husband were already waiting. She didn't question where Kate was. She had enough on her mind already.

Nassana was also there. "We want a blood bank location on planet Londinium. One will do." Liz watched Nassana work the controls. In a few minutes they were shown an exterior view of the building Liz had asked for.

"That's what we want. Now we need to wait for the middle of the night. First show me a chemical factory that's closest to any blood bank on this planet," Liz asked her.

Liz saw the look her husband was giving her. "We want a site all the first responders will respond to before we raid any blood bank. First rule: attack where they're weakest. We want to give them something to think about. Get them to go where we aren't," Liz explained.

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Liz had to nurse and change her baby girl's diaper while they waited.

"Have you got it? Go in and knock them unconscious." Liz was sure her husband could take three unarmed untrained civilians. "Then start pressing buttons for everything you can find and get out. Enter the bathroom and come out. Then go back and come back here. The place will have surveillance cameras but none of them will be in the restroom.

"They'll eventually identify you and probably send a ship to our planet to pick you up. We'll both be gone so they've got nothing. Then as that place starts to erupt in the biggest chemical factory fire in history we take the blood and get back here.

"Then you two can stay and watch the fire if you like but I'm taking the blood to Liara so she can get started."

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Frankie had changed and had even found one of Liz's scarves to place over his face to make it harder on them. "You get caught and I'll divorce you." Liz smiled at him to show she was teasing him.

"Piece of cake." Frankie stepped through and was soon lost from sight. To keep the Gateway open for him to make it back, Nassana had to maintain this view.

All four of them, not Kateryn was asleep so wasn't watching, they watched him vanish from view and didn't see him do anything. But Liz was watching the time to see how long it was taking him.

Liz was starting to get worried that he was taking too long when suddenly he burst into the room and ran through the Gateway. "Might want to end that view fast," Frankie called out and Nassana did but not before they saw a flash of fire.

"I stayed just long enough to make sure it worked. Boy, did it ever!" Frankie was impressed.

When Liz was satisfied with the time lapse she got Nassana to open the Gateway on the blood bank and went inside. The blood would be refrigerated so the correct room was easy to spot.

Liara and L'mimi were here to receive the blood and take it up to the medical bay immediately.

"Go! Make it quick and fast and don't linger." Liz watched her husband and Rick go through the Gateway with their containers and used a tool to bust through the glass in the belief that the glass doors would be locked.

They only needed one blood type but both were in such a hurry, thanks to Liz, that they took others as well. Though they did take all they had of that one blood type. Then they ran back through. Nassana killed the view and Rick and Frankie handed off their containers.

"I will summon you and Kate when I am ready, Commander." Liara and L'mimi left with the blood and went up to the Medical bay.

"This thing is amazing!" Frankie looked over the Gateway he'd just gone through twice now. "This plan of yours just might work, Rodgers." He was still in the simulator, however, the ship itself was getting closer to be done and ready for testing.

Then it was look out Alliance!