Finally written, I hope you enjoy!
Oblivious to both River's actions and whereabouts, the rest of Serenity's crew had gathered in a small circular room with an access terminal attached to the base of a pillar-like object in the center, two separate access terminals were closer to the wall. The pillar appeared to be old, rusty, and had no covering, so the outer components were open to view. Either smoke or steam gently curled upward from the top of the pillar, not enough that Malcolm Reynolds would consider it dangerous, but he was wary all the same.
He looked toward where Zoe, Inara, and Simon were hunched over one of the terminals, attempting to find something they could use. He didn't think at first that Simon would be any use, but then remembered Simon's previous life in the core and thought it might be worth a shot. "Anything?" He asked impatiently, though it had only been a few minutes.
Inara shook her head, her short, dark bangs following her example, "well, a little" she said, causing the crew to raise many an eyebrow in interest, "however, most of it is in some unknown language that nobody's seen before, so that's an issue."
"However it appears some of it is already translated," Simon picked up, "the name of the ship, for example: Destiny." A slight hush went over the crew, having already informed each other of River's vague premonition.
"So River already knew the name, but couldn't sense anything else? She's psychic, and I don't think distance was much of an issue" Wash leaned against the wall, his arms crossed in almost-boredom.
"Actually I think there must've been something onboard preventing River from sensing anything apart from the ship's name from outside the ship" Simon replied calmly, addressing Wash, although the rest of the crew only stared at Simon in laughable disbelief as Simon explained his theory "I mean, it makes sense, given she only knew the name of the ship until she took one step inside, and she collapsed and...I don't know how but suddenly she knew. She just...began talking to Destiny as if she knew it, as if it was an old friend" He looked up to several expressions of disbelief, several of contemplation, and one of spiteful mockery, which proceeded to make itself known to the crew.
Jayne shook his head with his usual scowl and said mockingly "well, whaddaya know? We got ourselves a worthless piece of junk out here that's made River even more shiang jing ping."
Jayne's harsh remark sent several pairs of eyes his way. While Kaylee looked mildly offended at Jayne's opinion of a ship she was mighty interested in, Simon merely looked mildly annoyed, as if he had expected nothing less from the burly mercenary. Mal himself found it necessary to open his mouth to discipline his public relations officer when the lights flickered.
Lights flickering wouldn't have frightened any of the crew on any other ship, not even the reaver-hit derelict they had encountered many months prior. Here, however, the lights flickered for several long seconds, everyone looking up at them before they finally stabilized.
"Well, it seems the worthless piece of junk has spoken" Book said humorously, smiling at Jayne, then looked back at the three at the console, "anything else you've found?"
"Ship's running low on power, sir" Zoe said calmly, as if it wasn't a problem at all, "should have the lights on for a while, though"
Mal frowned, "how much power's left?"
Inara pressed a couple of buttons cautiously, "about...a week's worth" she said, not looking up, "the flickering lights seem to be because of a power surge in..." she trailed off as she pulled up some kind of map to answer her implied question. "...In this section" she finally said, pointing at a location on the map which had flashed for a moment.
Zoe peered over the other woman's shoulder as Inara zoomed out to reveal the section in relation to their current location, "doesn't look too far away from here, sir", she looked up at Mal, who began considering his options.
"Alright" Mal said a moment later, "we currently have three days to shave off our schedule, 'less of course we change our minds about our rendezvous with Badger's associate. Zo-"
"With all due respect, captain" Simon interrupted, crossing his arms, "this ship is much more important than any cargo you could be carrying right now. Don't tell me you've ever seen a ship like this before"
"He's got a point, captain" Kaylee spoke up, "nobody's ever seen a ship like this before, it's barely even got our language anywhere. It's as if it was made by aliens" Kaylee had a sudden flashback to when she and Simon paid 15 credits each to gaze upon a mutated cow fetus and realized that they would likely be dealing with real live aliens now.
Mal thought a moment and made the quick jump in the other direction to appease his crew, who appeared to be taking sides against him "okay, then I guess we'll be stayin' a while. For now, at least" He said, much to Simon's unspoken relief. "Zoe, Kaylee, we'll be checking out that power surge, make sure nothing too wei shan's going on, and maybe have to fix it so it don't"
"I can guide you there" Inara said, making eye contact with Mal, "this interface doesn't seem to be too challenging, although I probably wouldn't be able to do anything too complicated, or much at all" she shrugged subtly, looking back at the screen
"That'd be good enough" Mal nodded, turning to the rest of the crew, "Jayne, Simon, Preacher, you're to be checkin' out the nearby areas, see if you can't find a supply room somewhere, anything we can salvage. Wash, contact Badger, we might be spendin' more time here than the job..." The lights once again flickered, causing Mal to hesitate "...requires." He finished
Simon looked at the captain expectantly, "and what about River? We need to find he-"
Mal's reply cut Simon short. "We'll find her eventually, doctor, 'sides, she seems to know what she's doing, even if we don't"
"Now we're talking" The burly man said with a grin, eyeing the weapons in the storeroom as he stood in the doorway
Simon glanced past Jayne, not afraid to express his disagreement, "I think we have plenty of guns aboard Serenity, Jayne" He said, looking to the Shepherd for reinforcement as Jayne stepped forward.
"Ain't nothing wrong with taking a quick look, young man" Book said calmly, proceeding after Jayne into the storeroom while Simon hesitantly remained in the hallway for a moment, before following suit.
Jayne, as anyone who knew the man would expect, immediately went to the biggest-looking gun of them all, which wasn't that bigger than his own prized rifle, Vera. Taking it into his hands for inspection, he smiled as he examined the long automatic. "Whoever this here ship belonged to" he said, bringing the attention of Simon and Book, "they sure had good taste"
Simon frowned, thinking, his eyes coming to stare at Jayne's vaguely familiar find "if this is an alien ship, and it doesn't bear any alliance signature, and it's completely unlike anything we've seen" he picked up something beside the other guns, "why is a classic old earth handgun onboard?"
"told ya'" Jayne glanced beside him at the young doctor, "aliens had good taste." He raised the gun towards the wall, getting into a firing pose, testing how the weapon felt in his grip.
"it looks military" Book's deep voice appeared behind the two, "not Alliance, you'd see the standard engravings on the trigger and the plating on the barrel. I'd old earth military, given it's completely black, but the question remains..."
"How'd it get here?" Simon wondered aloud, "we left earth over 500 years ago. This ship looks way older than that, more like 5000. Even if this was one of the ships that made the departure from earth, how'd it get lost? And where are the people? I doubt this ship could've been attacked by reavers, so where are they?"
"One thing's for sure" Jayne put the gun down, "this here ship ain't nothin' normal"
"You're telling me" Book said, having looked around some more during Simon's soliloquy. He raised the collar of a tactical vest that had been left there, peering intently at the tag. "You might want to take a look at this"
Simon and Jayne stood beside book, looking at the tag on the collar, Simon breaking the silence moments after as he stared at the cloth in the flashlight beam. "2012?" He gasped in shock, as the three exchanged a glance of confusion.
"what do you think these aliens look like?" Kaylee mused, walking behind Mal and Zoe, who led the way with their guns drawn
"Don't rightly know, don't rightly care" Mal said, not really intent on listening, "point is we find out what's draining the power and make sure it's nothin' too serious"
"Take a right here" Inara's voice sounded over the communicator, "all the way down the next hallway"
The three of them walked down a lengthy hallway, small trails of smoke being emitted by jets somewhere in the ceiling lights.
"c'mon captain" Kaylee pried, "surely you're not the least bit curious, aren't ya?" Kaylee smiled her usual happy smile, although feelings of hidden fear slowly crept into her as she tried to stop imagining what they would find.
"Take a right at the end"
Mal listened to Inara's voice as she relayed directions to them. Another sound hit his ears, however, the sound of one of the doors opening in front of them. The familiar spin of the gears of a door halted around the corner, and Mal didn't need to ask Zoe if she heard it too. It might've been River, sure, the reader girl was still missing, but Mal pushed Kaylee back behind them, not wanting to risk it.
Voices engaged in casual conversation replaced the sound on the whirring, young male voices seemingly engaged in a dispute. Even more surprising was the cultured english they spoke. A lot could be told from a voice, the way someone spoke. Anyone who heard Jayne and Simon speak separately could easily tell where they had grown up. Jayne was quite obviously from the rim, while Simon from somewhere civilized.
Mal had been all over the known 'verse, but he had never heard the types of voice were speaking in. It was definitely familiar, definitely similar to the civilized way Simon spoke, but they didn't have the usual Anglo-Sino tone that could be found even on the desolate rim worlds. Everyone in the alliance spoke with the same accent, more or less with differences, but the tone was uniform across the known 'verse. These were not people who were of the alliance.
"...didn't automatically revive us when we dropped out, it was done manuall-" the voice was that of a teenager, and quickly interrupted by a slightly older, more authoritative one.
"None of the other stasis chambers were open, Eli, it means there's someone else aboard, maybe even one of those aliens" the footsteps drew closer
"right, right, but don't you think that they'd actually be at the stasis pods waiting for us?" The footsteps stopped, a mere pause, as the younger man-Eli, as the other man said, must've stopped him.. Mal and Zoe exchanged a glance, thankful for Kaylee's silence behind them. Both men spoke as if they knew exactly who they were talking about. Neither of them wanted to find out who the two were referring to. "better yet, why actually revive us at all?"
A second passed. Another. Finally after a third before the other man spoke again. Military, Mal assumed.
"Alright, let's just get to the bridge" he said, the footsteps resuming.
Mal and Zoe were soldiers, Zoe more so than Mal, although neither of them ever gave up the instincts that made them soldiers. The two nearly jumped back, their grips on their firearms tightening as the two men came around the corner.
And the most noticeable thing Mal could see was the gun quickly raised in his own direction.
AN: I could seriously use some reviews for this, guys. I wanna know how terrible I'm doing, or better, how terrible I'm not. I could also use some suggestions on where the story could go. I have a basic outline planned out in my head, but I could easily change it if I get wind of a better idea. Also I could do with knowing what the hell you think of it, although I have a pretty good idea.