Firefly: The Geshen Wars: the Rrift

Chapter 14: A Voyage Begins

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Don't own, etc.

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Chapter 14: A Voyage Begins

He rejoined them shortly thereafter. Rive looked at him with concern; of them all, she knew what he'd had to do, what he'd felt like he had to do. "Are you...okay, John?"

"Yes," he replied. "Now...about those bombs…" At that exact moment, the sky went crazy.

As seen from the ground, it looked like a million flashbulbs had gone off in the sky. Rrift ships were rocketing about, but every so often, some about them seemed to explode. "Hurry!" urged Inara, "this is our chance!"

Already pre-warmed, the engines of the Serenity flared to life, falling out of the hatch in the side of John's ship. "Mal? Head's up!" shouted Kaylee into her communicator.

The Serenity came in like a falling star, so fast that Mal worried about decel gees. But Wash braked expertly, turning the ship so as to put the lock on their side. They practically threw themselves into the hold, and the ship began rising almost before the lock doors fully closed. "Don't know what's happening," shouted Wash, "But it's big. Seems like every Rrift ship is going bonkers."

"It must be my people," said John, calmly, climbing to his feet, in spite of the heavy gees. Just how fast was Wash going? Wondered Mal. But frankly, as long as it got them to the Angel One in one piece, he didn't care. Anywhere was better than where they'd been. He noticed the drone seemed to be having trouble getting to its feet, and, grasping it by its shoulders, assisted it in rising. "I thank you," it said. Mal noticed John looking away. His estimation of the Geshen was beginning to lower somewhat.

…..

High overhead, its presence masked by the exploding Rrift ships, the Ge'shen scout flew in a long parabolic arc straight through the alien armada. Its sensors were at max capacity, but they were not seeking out the Rrift. "Commander," said the helm officer, "I am picking up a non-anomalous signal, far out, nearly on the other side of the system's homestar. It could be an error in the sensors' computations, or a solar disturbance…"

"I am sure you recalibrated them for that possibility."

"Uhm, yes, Sire."

"Then that is not likely," finished the commander. "I must alert the homeworld."

…..

Wash had nearly rammed the Angel One in his haste to dock. Mal let him drive; high-gee maneuvers were what he was best at. "Everybody grab onto your butts!" shouted Kaylee, as Inara activated the drive.

Propelled by its space drive, the Ge'shen vessel slammed its way into the very space most populated by the Rrift ships. Those ships were having hard times of their own, but still, fully indoctrinated as they were, some turned in pursuit. John reached the control area and slipped into the command seat Inara hastily and gratefully vacated. He initiated a series of spiraling maneuvers designed to throw off Rrift ballistic ordnance and warbeams...but the pursuers had also let fly with homing missiles. "I do not know if I can outrun them," grated John to the others. "Our only chance is to activate the star drive-if it is functional."

"And if it's not?"

"Then we will soon be nonfunctional, Malcolm Reynolds."

Up and outward the Ge'shen vessel tore. "Strap in," John advised them. "There will be side effects."

"What sort of side effects?" shouted Jayne. But he strapped in as best he could.

"You will soon see!" And the Ge'shen star drive powered up.

In the middle of the central hollow something very strange happened. Energies unknown to man coalesced, forming a singularity, a place where all the known laws of physics broke down. As is the nature of things, an event horizon formed around it. More energies focused, teasing the event horizon into two separate parts: what humans would call a "black hole," as well as its direct opposite: a "white hole," shining so brightly, it was hard to look at. Even more energies teased / formed them into rings.

One such ring-the hungry black vortex-moved through the cavity to the front of the ship. The other, a repelling white hole, moved, simultaneously, to the rear, matching the black one centimeter for centimeter. All in the ship could feel the passing gravity waves as they did so, but the dampeners held.

The black ring in front began to pull them towards itself, as was its nature. The ship moved, and the ring, tethered by electromagnetic forces, moved outward, a carrot on a stick. Meanwhile, its white counterpart pushed the ship from the rear.

Now the converted freighter really began to move. "What about those missiles?" asked River, nervously. The missiles had continued to home on them.

"They are of no matter now," replied John. "The white repulsive ring to the rear repels with the same force that a black hole attracts. Even if they were able to catch us, they will be unable to get through its event horizon." And, even as they watched, the missiles deflected, by some invisible force, some ramming into random asteroids, or just shooting off into space, directionless. "Now," said John, "Now we are safe. Relatively speaking, of course." He glanced at the drone, who simply stared back, expressionless.

I'm really gonna have to have a talk with him about some things, thought Mal. And he wondered.

Specifically, he wondered if their alien friend could really be trusted.

And if he could not...what about the rest of his people?

Mal had always been suspicious of others, a lesson hard learned in the forge of war. But now he was becoming familiar with a new kind of suspicion: contacting John's people, revealing their presence...might not be the wisest of decisions.

But for now, it seemed like the decision had been made. They were headed for the stars.

And there was no turning back.

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"Commander, we are receiving a communication on one of our old frequencies."

"One of our old frequencies?" said the commander of the Ge'shen scout. "Whoever it is, they are plainly revealing their presence to the Rrift. Surely no Ge'shen would be so foolhardy, with matters as they are."

"Nonetheless, Sire, it is there. Outward from the main homestar, many squarans from here. Here, Sire. See." And he sent the information to the commander's tactical readout.

"Ss," said the later, thoughtfully rubbing the side of his neck below the ribbed fringe. "So it is. Can you pick up anything more besides this one repeating signal?"

"I believe I can, Sire, but it will require some time, additional time spent here in this system. Do you wish me to conduct such an investigation, given...how matters seem to be?"

"If it is a Ge'shen signal, then it surely must be from one of our people, perhaps one who has been stranded here, for reasons and circumstances unknown. We must make the effort to perform such rescue as we can...but should the other matter become a greater threat, then we must break off, and inform High Command." Again he thoughtfully rubbed his neck. "They will definitely need to know of the high probability of Crystal infestation here in this system. Our people may be called upon to rescue more than one individual." He let out what was, for his kind, a resigned sigh. "This star system is greatly populated. If there is Crystal here...that will soon change. Our resources will be strained to a much larger degree than to prevent these Rrift from conquest." He gestured to the lieutenant. "Do what you can but take no more than forty-nine ourans." The lieutenant gulped nervously, and hurried to comply. He did not fear for himself, but for the countless sentient creatures they had detected. After all, as the commander had, should there truly be Crystal infestation here, the entire star system would be under a far greater threat than that of mere war.

A Crystal infestation was regarded by both races as an extinction level threat, and rightly so.

….

The Angel One: Shepherd Book stood by one of the viewing ports along the passageway, his ever-present Bible in his hands. There was an indescribable look of pure joy shining from his eyes. "Looks like you're enjoying the show," said Simon, coming up alongside him.

"You've no idea, young man. Ever since I was a boy, barely able to know what the stars were, I've dreamed of traveling to them. Now, it's happening. I...I can hardly wait to see this new world, the world of the Geshen."

"You know," said Simon, resting his arms on the side of the port, "I actually would have thought you'd be disappointed, or, or put off, in some way, by something like this."

"Oh? Why so?" Shepherd Book turned to look at him.

"Well, your holy book...it says God created man. Now, here we have proof that we aren't the only intelligent beings out there...out here, actually. Had we discovered there were no other intelligent beings...wouldn't that have, sort of, fortified your position on things? But that's not happening."

Shepherd Book chuckled, slightly. "Oh, Simon. I can see this is something you haven't given a lot of thought to. The very fact that we aren't alone in the cosmos simply means the Creator has had other creations. And why shouldn't He? What would be the point in creating just man, alone?

"We were told to tend to his garden. We failed at that, and so were cast out of Paradise. Try as we might, we can never seem to overcome that.

"But now we know there are others. Other beings like us, who have their own connection to the Infinite, I'm sure. Perhaps we can learn from them? We might never regain the Paradise we sought, but perhaps we can learn to make a better garden than the one we have so far?

"And you know what? At the very least, we've found...relatives, relatives in the sense of being sentient creatures. Even if some prove hostile, we've still discovered that we aren't alone in the Creator's universe. That is a wondrous thing.

"Perhaps...perhaps He's been busy preparing another Garden for us?"

…..

"I think I had it working there, for a minute." The smaller of the two men, whom they called Jimbo, told Lloyd. "I couldn't be sure, you know. I mean, this is totally alien tech. But I'm sure I found a way into the circuitry through a back-door type a' thing. I detected current flow. But it's bass-akward from anything we use."

"Doesn't matter," said Lloyd. "What matters is, you were able to make it work, right? Even if only for a minute or two?"

"Yeah. An' I think I kinda figured out some'a how it works. Given time and the materials, I think I could make something like this I mean, it's not hard." But here he frowned. "But...you think we should?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, this guy, this alien guy warned us about these, what'd he call 'em? Rrift? Maybe we'd attract their attention?"

She scoffed. "If there was anything to that, we'd a'heard about it by now."

"But why would he lie? I mean, the guy had the drop on us. He didn't have to do anything, once he got his ship back."

Lloyd frowned. To be honest, she'd wondered about that. "He was lying to save his own skin. Had to be." But in the back of her mind, she still wondered. The creature hadn't had real reason to continue his deception, after all. And he had (he'd said), freely given them the communicator, the gadget, whatever it was after he'd stopped being their captive. "Go ahead with building this thingy." He continued to look worried. She bridled slightly; she wasn't used to being questioned by an underling. But she was used to dealing with people on their own level. "Besides," she said, "look at it this way. If their are these things in this system, we need more than ever to be able to contact somebody, right? Even the cops. And if they don't exist, if he was just having some kinda alien fun with us, then there's nobody to alert, right? You said yourself it was omni-directional. We'd have to give our coordinates away for anybody to even know where to find us. And we just don't. Until we're ready, I mean. Same way we've gotten by all these years, ever since we escaped. So...we just be careful. Right?" He looked relieved, but then he frowned again.

"But his ship was hit by something, boss. I know damage from weapons fire when I see it, an' it didn't look like anything we've got."

Shrug, even as she fought to control her own fears. "Doesn't mean it was aliens, though, does it? If it'd been the feds, then they probably know about where to find him, anyway. Sheer probability: there's more of us running around than alien invaders. So it was probably feds...and they couldn't find him. And if feds do come looking for him, well, we'll have a bargaining chip. So quit worrying about it. So there. Now, get back to work. I want off this ice ball more than any of you."

He couldn't deny her logic...but he still worried.

To be continued...