AN: I would like to dedicate this chapter to my adoring fan, AnneElliotsCat, without whose pestering reviews I would not have been drawn back to this story. Destiny may be abandoned, but this story won't be!
There was no doubt as to what Jayne would do in response to the alien's snarl. As his companions stumbled back in fear at the sight of a real life alien (which Jayne would justify himself by the gun-like thing it was raising), Jayne manifested his fear in a different manner. A shot from Vera rang out, catching the alien squarely between the eyes.
Simon managed to compose himself enough to protest the mercenary's ideals, as per the usual, "Jayne" he breathed, "you just killed an alien!"
"It was pointing somethin' at us!" Jayne snapped back, attempting to calm down. "'sides, didn't Mal say there was humans on this ship, not aliens?" He argued.
"This is an entirely new species, think of what-"
"That's quite enough, both of you." Book's voice broke in, "besides," he examined the alien, bending down to pick something up, "it did appear to be pointing a weapon at us." Book held up a strange kind of pistol, studying it carefully.
"How about we find the bridge and get the hell out of there?" Wash cut in, hand keeping a tight hold on the gun he had taken for himself, "I don't want to meet another one of these guys"
The group was about to move on in agreement when more footsteps could be heard. Two sets, by the sound of it, rushed. Jayne raised Vera again, finger on the trigger, and fired at the first sign of movement.
Matt had only the time and sense to quickly jump back at the first sight of the man holding a gun in his direction, the bullet narrowly missing him to impact, and thankfully imbed itself, into the far wall. "Woah!" He waved frantically, displaying human hands, "alright, hold your fire!" he shouted down the hallway before slowly peeking out, Zoe right behind him.
Jayne had quickly lowered his weapon, and Zoe stepped in front of her guide, about to scold him for firing at them when she noticed the blue corpse on the floor. "What...is that?" She addressed Scott without looking, somehow keeping her calm.
Matt stared for a few seconds before looking back at Zoe, "that's an actual alien, they've been following Destiny for a while. One of them must've got onboard somehow."
"Ain't you supposed to be protectin' your ship?" Jayne sneered. Right away he didn't like this guy. He had the military aura about him, as if he was dedicated to it more than anything else, and thus believed himself to be more important than everyone else.
"Well, we've been somewhat busy" came the resentful retort. He focused less on the burly man and more on everyone else "My name's lt. Matthew Scott, I'm here to take you all to the bridge."
"A pleasure to meet you, lieutenant" Simon replied, beating Inara to beginning civilized introductions, "I'm Simon Tam, mr. grumpy mercenary here is Jayne, Inara, Wash, and Shepherd Book" He said, gesturing to each of his fellow crew members in turn. Simon already had a good impression of the man, especially since he was sensible enough to disagree with Jayne, who fumed at Simon's description of him. "I was told the captain had found my sister" He attempted to appeal to the man's sentimental nature, "I'd like to be taken to her"
The slightest hint of a smile manifested on the lieutenant's face, "that can be arranged." He turned to Jayne, "as for you," he began, Jayne getting an annoyed look on his face, "As the current ranking military officer on this ship, I'd have to ask you to keep from shooting anyone else on our way up to the bridge" Scott laid down the rules for the man, feeling he was a bit of an issue. On the bright side, at least Greer would have something of a new friend when he woke up.
"They put a lieutenant in charge of a ship like this?" Zoe asked, not exactly liking the idea of her fellow crewmates being put down by someone from another ship (then again, it was Jayne, which lessened the urgency somewhat). She gripped her rifle carefully, not wanting to provoke anything.
"Our leader, Colonel Young, is in charge of this vessel" he explained, "however, as I and two others are the only ones currently brought out of stasis-"
"You're in charge here?" Jayne grunted, wringing his fingers around the barrel of his gun as he interrupted Matt's quickly thought up lie. "Well, ain't that just-" he grumbled, launching into another string of curses.
Matt managed to keep his expression as he pulled his radio from his vest pocket.
River and Eli were the only ones not staring, transfixed on the patterns of Faster-Than-Light travel from within the bridge. The one called Lt. Scott had just left with Zoe to retrieve the rest of the crew, lost somewhere in the bowels of the massive ship between the bridge and "engineering", as Eli had called it.
Ever since the moment when it seemed that reality had shifted for what seemed like an eternity, Mal felt weird. Every moment of shuddering as if something had shook his soul throughout his entire life was nothing compared to what he had just felt. Still, he forced himself to speak, "what the Zhen Mei Nai Xin De Fo Zu was that?" He looked to the boy who seemed around Simon's age, possibly younger, who seemed to know what was going on and disregarded it entirely.
Eli perked up a bit, having been focusing on the fluency which River Tam operated the foreign console with, "oh, River here engaged the FTL drive, and that happens every time we go into FTL, so you get used to it. You can never seem to sleep through it, oddly enough"
The blank looks he got were fairly standard. He had naturally assumed that, being spacefaring themselves, they would automatically understand the lingo. He hadn't said anything too scientific for them to get confused about, but he quickly narrowed in on their confusion, "FTL, Faster-Than-Light travel? You do have a spaceship, right?" Eli had begun to piece together the possibility that their society hadn't developed hyperdrives, but then how had their ship gotten all the way out in the middle of nowhere? There was also the question of how the hell they had happened upon Destiny, of all ships. Encountering one of the ships from Earth, like the George Hammond, in a dormant state, would've been far more likely, considering the undeclared war with the Lucian Alliance. As Malcolm Reynolds opened his mouth to reply, Eli mentally filed the question away for a later time.
"Thought light was one o' those things you couldn't travel faster than" Mal had begun to piece together a bit of what Eli said. The idea of travelling faster than light wasn't too hard to grasp, but actually going faster than it?
Eli gave Mal a look he didn't like, almost as if he thought he was better. Granted, with the ability to travel faster than light, he probably was, "then how'd you guys get out here in the middle of nowhere? As far as I know, you kinda need a hyperdrive to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time"
"We have a gravity drive" Kaylee began, still adjusting. As the ship's mechanic, she had the responsibility of knowing what was within the realm of possibility and what was impossible, and figuring out how to make the impossible things a little less impossible in a short time. This in mind, Kaylee's curious mind immediately wanted to know how it worked. "I suppose it would be a...hyperdrive of sorts" She smiled, remaining positive about her beloved ship's capabilities.
"Gravity drive" Eli repeated, Kaylee nodding in response, "as in, it uses gravity to move the ship forward?" Kaylee nodded again, and Eli furrowed his brow, intrigued. "that's not a hyperdrive, actually, seems like more of a general propulsion system, but it seems interesting. I know a couple guys on the ship that'd love to see how it works"
Kaylee smiled as Eli's radio came alive, left absently on the console next to River, "Eli, this is Scott, come in"
"Excuse me," Eli hurried over, his finger immediately holding down the button as soon as he grabbed the radio, "Matt, I take it you found the rest of our guests?"
"Yeah, they seem alright, but we got a bigger problem. One of our alien friends crossed their path, and he didn't get to say much" Matt's voice came through somewhat concerned, "it was just the one, but I don't wanna chance it. We need to wake up some people to do a sweep of the ship once we recharge our power, make sure there aren't any more that latched on sometime during the journey"
"But-" Eli stopped, beginning once more with a hushed voice, "what do we tell them about our guests? I know Colonel Young or Greer could take the idea that the earth we knew is gone, but Wray's gonna freak out, if I know anything about her" Eli had considered momentarily how Rush would react, but then settled on the likely premise that he wouldn't really care.
"Then we'll only wake up security personnel, since they're all we're gonna need for the moment, and Eli?" Matt's voice became hushed, as Eli's had just now, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'd appreciate it if you weren't the only other one on the ship"
Eli glanced over at Kaylee, looking over River's shoulder, and Captain Reynolds, pacing near the door. They didn't seem like your typical bad guys, but he'd seen Star Trek, and felt wary recalling all those times when the Enterprise had helped people with hidden goals of their own in mind, people without a moral compass. Kaylee definitely wasn't one of those people, and River seemed to be the only one of Reynold's party that didn't answer to him. That only left the man himself, who surely was a mystery to him. "Yeah, I hear ya" Eli said, "we're almost to the nearest star, you know how to crack open one of the stasis pods?"
"I'm sure I can figure it out" came Matt's reply, "I'll head down there. You can walk me through anything I can't wrap my head around"
Eli smirked slightly, "hey, you got the light bulb analogy, didn't you? Eli out" Eli put his radio back down, turning to make eye contact with Captain Reynolds.
"Problem?" he asked, leaning forward with both hands on the rail.
"Nope!" Eli said contently, "a slight alien issue, sure, but apparently your crew took care of it"
Second AN: Alright, I'll mention at this point that I've had some serious go shi going on in my life, and I've been distracted even further than normal from writing. No, I didn't do any writing over spring break like I planned, but I managed to wrap up the most recent chapter this morning, so that's that. I'd also like to mention that AnneElliotsCat's reviews got me back into the writing groove, and you all could learn from her example. I'll make sure to write more this week, and publish (hopefully) by the end of this week (knowing me, hope for the end of next week and be pleasantly surprised).