Chapter Four

After everything that he had been through, especially since the Tam's came aboard his ship, there wasn't much that could surprise Mal these days. But the blonde stranger, Luke he called himself, actually managed to make him speechless with his next words.

"Essentially, we're aliens to this galaxy," he said the words distinctly so there was no misunderstanding, "we were at the edge of our own galaxy, something happened, and then we met up with you."

Wash was quickest to comprehend, "A different galaxy, you traveled across the black?"

"The black?" questioned the red-headed woman.

"You call your galactic barrier the black?" the foreign pilot added, "then yes, I guess we did."

"Wormhole?" Simon spoke up, "I know they're theoretical."

"Observed gravitational attraction between masses results from the warping of space and time by those masses," River answered her brother in her usual mono-tone. "Gravity is technically theoretical."

"They don't look like no aliens," this came from Jayne.

"And how many aliens you seen?" Wash retorted.

The mercenary turned on Wash, "They look human!"

"Why shouldn't all God's creatures look the same," the Sheppard interjected.

Simon raised his hand as he sometimes did when he wanted to speak, "Their physiology does not differ from our own on a general level."

"Wei," he silenced his crew, having a chance to consider what was before him and addressed the three. "Now, as you can see, we're not exactly strangers to the incredible, but besides the big one here we're not easily fooled neither."

"Yeah," Jayne agreed with him, then paused, "wha?"

"You could be telling the truth, that you're aliens," Mal ignored the hired gun, "but could be that you're spinning a tale. Excuse us that we don't just take your word for it being the former."

"I understand," the leader replied with a sigh, "but I don't know how we can prove it to you other than we know nothing of this galaxy, many of your places and words foreign to us."

"Speak English mighty-fine," Jayne had one of his rare intelligent thoughts.

"English? Oh, Galactic Common is what we call it," the man nodded in thought. "Strange though, yes, that it would be the same here."

Zoe voiced herself for the first time, "What where you speaking earlier then?"

"Huttese," the man blushed, "native tongue of the Hutts, it's also the language of smugglers. Please forgive our wariness earlier, as I said, this is a strange situation for us to be in."

"Smuggler language, huh?" Mal had to grin at that, "so what were you smuggling?"

"We weren't smuggling anything," he furrowed his brow, "it's just a common second language in the Outer Rim."

"Outer Rim," things were matching up a bit too easily, "got a Core too I bet."

"Yes," he nodded, "that is where our government, the Alliance, resides."

"Alliance, huh," he almost laughed, seeing his pay day go out the airlock unless there was some kind of reward for a bunch of escaped loonies.

"He's not taking us seriously," the darker haired man, Corran, spoke up.

"I noticed," Luke gave the man a look.

"No one taking farmboy here seriously about being an alien from another galaxy," the red head, didn't catch her name, laughed, "imagine that."

"Mara," he admonished her, "we can't just lie, that will gain us nothing."

She rolled her eyes at him, "You'll be rethinking that when they lock us up in some sithspawn asylum."

"War's over," River smiled at them, "you don't have to fight anymore."

"You don't know what you're talking about," the woman shot a hard glare at the younger girl.

No, that made perfect sense, if these were soldiers from the Unification War, he'd seen men go mad with what they had to endure. Could be a bunch of them flocked together and that was what he was looking at, so Mal decided a different approach. "She's right, the war is over, Alliance won, no need to be thinking about it anymore."

Of course the hypocrisy of that statement would register to the crew, but these strangers didn't have to know that.

Mara now set her hardened eyes on him and he was familiar with what he saw there, of someone who had been to hell and back, and he was man enough to admit it unnerved him a bit. "You don't have to believe us, but patronize us again and I swear by the Emperor's black bones I will end you."

"Jade!" Luke snapped at her, "We are guests here and that is not how a Jedi acts."

"Jedi?" she angrily laughed the word, "How can we be Jedi without the Force and don't spout the code and some nonsensical drivel about faith to me."

The dark haired man glanced around at all of them, "Mara, this might not be the best time to get into this."

"Shut up, CorSec," she spat at him then turned back to Luke, "I trusted you. Now look where we are. Cut off from the Force, from everything, with a bunch of thieves and sith knows what else with no hope of getting back."

"This is getting good," Jayne grinned, leaning forward, and Mal had to admit that it was pretty entertaining, even if he didn't understand some of the words.

"I'm sorry," the blue-eyed leader said softly, "I know how much this must hurt but you still need to trust me. We will get through this, we will get home."

"Home," her laugh was one of defeat, "funny how you keep destroying my home out from under me… and I keep letting you."

"Mara…"

She stood up sharply from the table, Mal's hand automatically dropping to his holster, but all she did was glare down at her fellow 'alien'. "Go to kessle, Skywalker."

With that, the woman stormed off out of the common area.

"What just happened?" Wash asked.

"On it, sir," Zoe replied before Mal could even ask her to keep an eye on the woman. Zoe kissed her husband on the cheek quickly before following the firebrand out.

"I have to apologize," Luke said with a sigh, "but it's been difficult for Mara even before all this."

"You don't say," Mal shook his head, going back to his dinner. He'd contact Inara after he ate, see if she could locate if these guys had actually been locked up. They could use the Companion as a front to return them if any reward was available. If not, well, Persephone was a good a place as any to dump them.

"Perhaps," Sheppard turned to the two strangers, "I could speak with the young woman. If she's having a crisis of faith."

"Noble thought," Corran patted the man on the shoulder, "but Mara's psychosis is one best left to those who won't look at her like she's a mental patient."

"All God's creatures are unique and special," the holy man explained, "and should be treated as thus, and no one is saying that you are mental patients."

"The captain is," the dark haired stranger shook his head and took a few sips of water, his words registering after a moment.

Mal cleared his throat, "Now I never said you were mental patients."

"You didn't have to," the man shrugged.

"They are speaking the truth," River started to get agitated, her arms beginning to flail as if she was trying to grasp the very words she was speaking, "aliens, their war, lost in the woods, no one hearing them scream for help but me."

"River," Simon grabbed her arms gently, trying to calm her down.

"Am I hearing this right?" Jayne glanced between River and Mal, "Moonbrain here thinks these folk are really aliens?"

Mal considered that for a second, the girl was psychic, but possibly also psychotic. However, "Seems she does."

Luke spoke up sadly, "I thank you all again for helping us, we owe you our lives, but I do not believe we can repay you as we have no means of payment and only the clothes on our backs."

"What about those fancy things on your belt?" Jayne chimed in with a mouth full of protein bar.

This question caused the man to visibly stiffen, "They are symbols of our order, worthless to you."

"Your order?" Mal asked, "That Jedi thing you were arguing about?"

"Yes," he nodded in all seriousness, "we are members of the Jedi Order, I am a Jedi Knight, as are the two in your medbay. Corran and Mara are students."

Jayne snorted, "Sounds like you got discipline problems."

"Mara has… special circumstances."

"If she don't want to be a Jedi," Kaylee finally added her two cents to the conversation, "then why make her?"

"I'm not making her," he assured the mechanic.

Mal tilted his head and gave the man a bit of a smirk, "Didn't look like it to me."

"Being a Jedi," Luke paused, choosing his words, "it's not about faith or a life-choice, being born with the ability to touch the Force, it's a part of who you are. You don't choose to have it, only how you wield it."

"The Force?" now that was the silliest name for a god he had heard in a long time.