Firefly: The Geshen Wars: The Rrift: The Rescuers
Chapter 4: Stronghold
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I don't own the "Firefly" franchise, of course. But here's hoping you enjoy the rest of the characters, which are of my invention.
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Chapter 4: Stronghold
The Present: I transport the brigands back to their home base. "So," says Lloyd, "I suppose now you'll just take what you want."
"No," I say, "That would be theft. I am not a thief. I will not take from those who can ill afford to lose what little they have." And my eyes traverse over their sparse belongings. Clearly, they have seen some hard times. Are seeing some hard times.
I try to not judge people by what they have. Obviously, these persons live hand to mouth, as the saying goes. I come from a somewhat wealthier culture, so perhaps I cannot understand the forces that drive them.
I reach up and take down a small cylinder, opaque on the outside. "Here," I say, "A parting gift."
She looks at it warily. "What is it?"
"A portable food replicator. Simply fill it with the necessary components; carbon, nitrogen, and what other trace elements you require, and it will produce edible food, mostly protein, though I cannot guarantee the taste." I cast a sideways glance at Smaller Man, who shivers as my eyes track over him. "I am fairly certain it will not taste like chicken, though."
"Why are you doing this?" asks Lloyd. And, in truth, I've been asking myself the same question. "We don't want your pity, if that's what this is all about." She moves to hand the replicator back to me.
"I do not offer pity. I offer what I have to those who need it. It is not pity. Consider it additional payment for saving my life, regardless of your reasons." With that, I turn back to my shuttle. I've so many things to do…. "There is someone I must rescue from the Rrift. Nothing must come between me and that goal. Nothing." My shuttle's door is closing. "I bid you all farewell." And I'm gone, up into the sparse atmosphere. The woman, Lloyd, is looking after me with the oddest expression on her face. She is probably angry that I outmaneuvered them. But her expression does not look like anger…
Well, no matter. I must find the Serenity, and I must find it soon. I switch on the beacon….
…..
They took an exhausted River down from the rack. Sweat was not just dripping off of her, it was running off in streams, and she was barely conscious. Later on, she supposed they were gentle enough, if only to prevent damage to their test subject.
But if this was the initial tests, she wasn't sure she wanted to know about the advanced ones.
The cell she was incarcerated in bore a striking resemblance to human holding cells. There was a sink and an oddly-designed toilet fixture, combined into one. She only hoped the water from the toilet was not routed into the sink.
There was no bunk. But then she remembered that, after the others had satisfied themselves that John would not harm her, they'd quite frequently allowed the two of them to sleep in the same room. And John had, in his native form, simply curled up on the floor, apparently feeling perfectly comfortable there. Evidently the Rrift felt no need to provide their captives with such amenities as bunks. Or sheets and pillows, either.
But such was her relief at having been released from her crucifixion, that even the floor felt good. She lay down upon it and was promptly asleep.
…..
"…my shuttle was designed to automatically evade the Rrift, and, to that end, it quite literally dragged me back inside, sealing the hatches. But aside from the fact that River was outside its field of influence, its automatic function was not programmed to recognize her as an ally, a matter I have now corrected. I confess," sighed John, in his sibilant voice, "that that is my fault. I did not think of it before. I was so used to thinking of her of as…."
"Never mind," said Mal. Jayne didn't need any excuse to get any angrier or more suspicious at the alien.
But suddenly, completely unexpectedly, Simon leaped at the alien, bludgeoning him to the ground. "Damn you!" Simon didn't have much street fighting skills, aside from what he'd picked up since he'd joined the crew of the Serenity, but he was in good shape and reasonably strong. "Damn you, damn you, gods damn you!" He continued his pummeling of the reptiloid. "You left my sister to the mercies of those, those monsters! All you cared about was yourself, your own skin—your own scales! No spot in hell is hot enough for—*" It took Zoe, Derrial, and, surprisingly, Jayne to pull him off of the unresisting alien. "C'mon, man, this isn't helping."
Mal turned to John. "You okay?" The reptiloid still hadn't risen. "You alright?" For all he knew, Simon might have hit some nerve center or broken a critical bone.
"No. I am not alright. But not for the reasons you suppose." He rose smoothly to his feet. "There is nothing Simon Tam could have done or said to me that would have hurt any more than..." He rubbed his wrists with his hands, cracking the bones audibly. "…what has already happened. But I believe I know where the Rrift base is, and that is where she almost certainly is. I will go there, alone, if I have to, and rescue her. Or, it goes without saying, die trying."
"A bit melodramatic, aren't we? You know you aren't going alone. Why do you think you would?"
"Because of where she is."
"Where's that?"
"Miranda."
…..
Far across the universe, a Geshen commando team watched in horror as a Rrift drone whipped a cadre of slaves carrying a poorly-shielded container of highly radioactive material into a Rrift munitions plant. The skin on the slaves' backs were already hanging in bloody strings and getting more so. They were not slacking in their work; the drone assigned to this task was simply enjoying himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, the commander of the team saw one of the junior members raising his gun, aiming at the Rrift drone. "No," he 'spered, through the internal telecom unit they all carried, pushing the barrel of the gun down with his left lower arm.
"One shot," begged the junior member, "Just one shot and the slaves might have the chance to escape! Please!" The captain hauled him over out of sight. "We may not like our orders but we have them. We are here to sabotage the Rrift nanobot factories. We cannot do that if they know we are here. The secrecy of our presence here is vital. It is vital. We dare not take the chance." He gestured with his tail at the slaves. "You saw the radionic readings; you took them yourself. Those men are already dead. They just haven't stopped moving yet." And the junior grade could see the boils and festering cancers on the skins of the doomed slaves. The same was true of the drone overseer, but the Rrift couldn't be bothered to care about an easily replaceable drone. So what if it died? There were billions of others. And in dying it might give valuable information as to how well the drones were able to resist radionics. Perhaps the species could be improved. "We have our duty. That duty may save more lives than these, these that are already dying. You know this. You know this."
"I….know." The Geshen warrior glanced back at the slaves, some of which had already fallen from blood loss and pain. Those fallen were being collected by other, higher level Rrift, either for experimental purposes, or for food. Or both. These warriors dodged in and out as fast as they could, so as to minimize their exposure to the lethal radiation. "I only hope…that if that were us…that somebody would do…something."
Be careful what you wish for.
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Out on the outskirts of the solar system, something dropped out of hyperspace. It resembled a huge flattened sphere, over three kilometers wide, with a ring not visibly attached to the main mass around its equator. Although there were no organic beings on board, there were nonetheless internal communications between one part and another. {{Organic lifesigns detected on the fourth planet out from the sun. Two different species. One does not appear to be native to this system. These will bear investigation. }}
{{Acknowledged. Launch probes.}}
…
"Miranda? Are you kidding?"
"My kind do not kid. No. The last readings I got indicated a distinct ion trail leading back to the world you call Miranda."
"Makes sense," said Zoe. "The one place in all the 'verse where the Alliance wouldn't go, and nobody else would, either. But what do they hope to do there?"
"Most probably, study humans who won't be missed. No matter what you think of these 'Reavers,' they are essentially human, and subject to human frailties. And of course, could they get some line on this Paxilon Hydrochlorate 23, it would no doubt give them a large advantage in their eventual conquest of the solar system. Beings that can barely think won't prove to be very effective strategists. Plus, as I understand it, the vast majority of those exposed to this substance died, did they not? So even better.
"Nor are the Rrift above chemical and biological warfare."
Mal turned to the group. "Anybody know if the Pax would've washed out of the ecosystem by now?" Blank looks were all he got. "Yeah, that's what I figured. No data. Nobody in his right mind would go there to find out. So yeah, it makes a perfect first stop for an invading alien fleet." He straightened up, looked around at the group. They looked back; they knew what was coming. "I'm with John, here. Anybody wanna back out, now's the time to say so. Nobody'll blame you, not going to Miranda. But speak up now."
In the silence that followed, one could have heard the proverbial pin drop.
"Hey," said Jayne, with a grim smile, "one good thing about this little trip. There won't be but one person who isn't a target."
"I only hope," said John, sadly, "that we can still recognize her when we get there."
….
The next series of tests involved River's brain activity. She got the distinct impression her captors were annoyed that she was not a standard human, brain-wise. Still, although she could sense their annoyance, they nonetheless calmly ran through a battery of tests, seeing what did what. Evidently, an annoyed Rrift is no more vicious than the unannoyed variety.
Of course, the unannoyed version was nothing anyone really wanted to meet.
They hadn't asked her any questions, which she thought was odd, but then, perhaps they had never bothered to learn the language. John had said he'd had to study for years to comprehend all the variables of the human tongue, and even then, he'd made the occasional slip. But perhaps the Rrift would rather gather their information from machines that couldn't lie.
These tests were just as grueling as the physical ones, and, furthermore, she could feel herself slipping back into that strange disconnect that had characterized her life ever since the "treatments" at the Academy. John, with his mental powers, had been able to bring her to some semblance of normality, but John was not here.
An odd thing: several times, she'd noticed, the Rrift had tried to interface with her mental functions, as John had, but had apparently been unable to. Had that been due to John's influence, or the damage done to her brain, or some other feature? Maybe Rrift mental abilities simply didn't work that way. In a way, it would be surprising if they did.
Again, they dumped her back in her cell. There were no facilities for cleaning, just the sink/toilet combination, and there was no soap or other such items. She did the best she could, using her clothes as washrags, knowing full well her nudity meant nothing to the alien Rrift. But she couldn't clean the clothes very well…
She wondered just how long she could hold on. After, all, from what John had told her, the worst was yet to come.
To be continued…