Harvey sat on the medical table in the infirmary, surrounded by the crew he had stolen from just a few days previously. Mal had to admit it – he looked terrible. He looked as though he'd lost weight since he last saw him, and he looked like he'd just woken up from a long sleep, which he had, given that he had just recovered from a medical coma. Simon was fiddling with some instrument or another, getting readings from the tissue samples he had taken from the privateer. He turned to face the assembled people in the room after a few more moments of analysis.
"Medically, there's nothing wrong with you," he said to Harvey, and Mal breathed an inward sigh of relief. Part of the risk of bringing Harvey aboard was that he could be carrying some kind of virus that would spread to the others, but with Simon's announcement that possibility was reduced to nearly zero.
However, as always, there was someone looking to ruin a bringer of good news. "So why was he being kept in that medlab?" challenged Jayne.
Simon shrugged. "While I'd ask you to bear in mind that I know nothing about what was in that crate, my best guess would be that there was some kind of biological agent inside, but that Harvey possesses a natural immunity to it. That said, I can't find any trace of a foreign agent in his blood, so maybe he was sheltered from it somehow."
"What about the discs we picked up in the medlab?" asked Kaylee.
"I haven't looked at them yet, but I'll start analysis immediately."
Mal tipped his head in their guest's direction. "So how about it, Harvey? Why don't you tell us exactly what happened after you dropped in to see us."
Harvey looked apprehensively around him, and then started to speak falteringly. "Bef…" Something caught in his throat, and he coughed. "Before I start, I just wanna say that…"
"Save it, Harvey," said Mal. "Just be glad that Zoe is stuck piloting the ship, otherwise she'd have something to say back at you, and I suspect she'd say it with her fists."
Harvey nodded, and decided upon the better part of valour; namely, doing exactly what Mal told him to do. Serenity's captain always knew how to push the younger man's buttons; in a crowd he would take on the 'verse, but once you got him alone, especially against a larger number of people, he clammed up and became the picture of co-operation. It's why he was passed over for a promotion several times; no backbone when it counted.
Mal posed the million-credit question. "What's in the crate?"
Harvey gave Mal a look that indicated that he wasn't going to like the answer, but had to tell him anyway.
"I don't know."
Mal smiled and shook his head. "C'mon, Harvey. Let's not play games, or I really will get Zoe down here, and she really will beat the tar outta you. So I'll ask again. What's in the crate?"
Harvey licked his lips nervously, and shot quick, anxious glances around the room before speaking again. "Really, I don't. All I remember is an alarm sounding in the cargo bay, and then…madness. There was screaming…someone released the seal on the bay. The air was rushing out of the ship, and I was running down the corridor to the emergency override and…" He shook his head, at a loss. "I guess I hit my head, because the next thing I know, I'm waking up in that lab to all of you guys."
Mal pursed his lips. "Let's say I believe you. Let's go through what you've just said. Why would someone open the seal on a ship in space? It's kinda rule number one."
"Maybe whatever's inside was worth doin' it," rumbled Jayne, and Harvey just nodded mute assent.
Mal, however, didn't buy it. "If they opened the seal, then why are you sittin' here? It doesn't quite add up."
"I'm not sayin' it adds up, Mal, but that's what happened," insisted Harvey. As bizarre as his story was, however, Mal believed him. Something about his eyes that made him look years older than when Mal had last seen him…something that gave him the appearance of not having the energy to argue anymore.
"Okay. Let's skip the airlock part. Doctor, did you find any head trauma on your patient?"
Simon shook his head. "Like I said, medically, there's nothing wrong with him. No concussion, no signs of infection from foreign bodies. The only things are that he's slightly malnourished and dehydrated, but that's what I'd expect from someone who's been in a coma for several days. Especially in a battlefield hospital."
That would explain the rasp lurking in the back of Harvey's throat. It sounded like he was rubbing two stones together back there.
"So explain how you lapsed into this coma."
Harvey shrugged, at a loss and not looking particularly keen on thinking up an answer. "No idea. Maybe I hit my head, I was infected by this virus, fell into the coma, and woke up in the hospital." It wasn't a proposition.
"Okay. That's not getting us anywhere. Let's work back. Why did you get sent to steal from us?"
At this Harvey looked slightly more animated, but probably only due to the reminder of the actions he had perpetrated against the crew he was sitting in close proximity with.
"Like I said at the time…we got word that you were carrying something worth stealing; some kind of bioweapon. We were tasked to retrieve it and take it to Hera, possibly to deploy against the Alliance."
"You were gonna use bioweapons against a civilian planet?" asked Kaylee, aghast. Harvey tried to defend himself.
"No, probably not. It was just to use as leverage against them. You know what they're like; closed minded, not open to change. We needed something drastic to get their attention. A virus deployed from space would have been ideal, because it's not something they can cover up."
Mal didn't mention Miranda, an entire planet that had dropped from the face of history, and instead chose to ignore Harvey's naiveté. "Okay, I suppose I get that. I don't agree with it, but I get it. Where did you get your intelligence on the crate?"
"I don't know. The reason we've survived for so long off the radar is because we're split into cells. Some intel gets passed along and you never know where it's from. Other times you get a full briefing. This was one of the times I didn't know."
"You don't know much," snorted Jayne, but Mal ignored him.
"Nothing? Not even who shipped it in the first place?"
"No. Nothing. I just got told to intercept your ship, and that's what I did."
Mal huffed. "Seems to me like there's nothin' so ridiculous as everybody chasin' a crate, and nobody knows what's in it," and there were general nods of agreement from his crew. He sat in silence for a few more moments, pondering to himself.
Kaylee finally broke the silence. "So…what now?"
"Harvey stays here while we all go through the data we snatched from our trigger happy, trap settin' previous employer. Jayne, you and the Doctor keep an eye on him down here. We'll be on the bridge."
Mal led Kaylee and Inara from the infirmary, and started up the stairs to the upper level. River was seeking refuge in Inara's shuttle, not being happy with their guest, as demonstrated when she ran out into the path of hundreds of Reavers rather than share a ship with him, and of course Zoe was piloting. Stepping onto the bridge, Mal could sense his first mate had some tension in knowing Harvey was below, but she stayed to her post with admirable constraint. Mal also guessed that her being the unofficial pilot of the ship would be wreaking havoc with her emotions, it being the station her late husband manned. But there was no time for any of that right now – Zoe had performed admirably escaping the battle above Hera, so she was stuck in the position for the time being. They would have to find a new pilot at a later date.
"Anythin' chasing us?" enquired Mal, but Zoe just shook her head. It appeared they had made a clean getaway.
"Good. Kaylee, call up that mission report. Let's see if we can't find somethin' the Doctor missed."
Mal observed the engineer while she worked the console. She didn't appear to be affected by what those soldiers were about to do to her back on Hera, but it didn't mean to say she wasn't. Kaylee would hide her own trauma if it meant making everyone else feel better, and Mal reminded himself to keep an eye on her.
The engineer slumped at the console, her forehead creasing. "Okay. I pulled up what Simon found; Blue Sun job, dummy front, blah blah. I'm gonna try digging around in the background, see if I can unearth something new."
Zoe, who looked so out of place seated constrained behind the pilot's console, turned to talk to Kaylee. "How is it there's so much intel on something that's tryin' to keep itself hidden on our end now?"
Kaylee replied as she worked. "When I opened the data entry point for you, I threw a net around all of the operational reports in his database. It only pulls in certain types of files…ones with certain keywords, and if there's any flagged links it pulls in those files, too. We ended up with most of the related reports to our job."
"Anything yet?"
"No…wait…hang on, I think I got something." The screen flickered and then threw up some new information. Kaylee's adept eyes scanned the page. Something was clearly bothering her, as she wasn't being as completely cheerful as before. Maybe she was just concentrating. "It's a related file in the records of the dummy corporation. It dates back to…Earth-That-Was," she said, her eyes going wide.
"What does it say?"
"No wait…two files. This can't be right…"
"What?" asked Inara, held in suspense.
"One of them is dated after the Exodus. It means that someone is still talking to Earth-That…well, Is, I guess."
"How long ago?" asked Mal, and Kaylee pointed to the exact date on the screen. "That ain't so strange," he said. "It was sorta common practice for big corporations to keep an eye on us just after we moved out. Over time, though, it's moved to nearly nothing. What do the files say?"
"They're heavily encrypted…I don't think I'm gonna be able to break it. I'll try and get fragments. Here – something about a planet Erebus in the Styx system." She turned to look at the others. "I didn't know Earth-That-Was had other colonies."
Inara nodded. "I studied ancient history at the Academy. At first, the people of Earth mined the asteroid belt in the Sol system, but it became quickly evident that this would not help the matter of overpopulation. So colony ships were despatched with terraforming units to make rocks in space become habitable. Around that time, someone discovered this system we inhabit, and everyone's problems were solved. The Exodus left Earth, and over time we dropped out of contact because of the vast distance between them and us. The fact Earth-That-Was could still be there is a fact most people don't seem to realise, but it's likely."
"What did it say about this colony?" prompted Mal.
"I don't have much of the passage decoded…but what I do have says something about a disaster, terraforming units failing…and the second file looks like a mission to find out what went wrong."
"Maybe the same virus as whatever is in the crate?" put forward Inara, but of course no one present knew the answer.
The comms panel started blinking, and Mal moved to answer it as Zoe called, "Incoming wave."
He flicked a switch and a stranger appeared on the monitor. "Captain Reynolds?" he said.
"Who's askin'?"
"I'm Captain Andrews of the New Independents. Please, listen to what I have to say."
Mal's hand stopped halfway to deactivating the cortex.
He got straight to the point. "I have been charged by my superiors with two tasks. I'm aware that you have an officer of our Navy on board your ship. My mission is to find your ship and to recover our officer, but as I'm also aware, you are a man who, if you do not desire to be found, you won't be."
"That's about accurate."
"So at first glance, my task is an impossible one. However, I believe we can come to some kind of arrangement."
"I'm listening."
Andrews' eyes lit with emotion, and Mal saw something of himself in the younger man. Suddenly he could see all of this man before him; a volunteer, full of ideals, not yet scarred by the brutal reality of what it is he must do. Old enough to know better, but young enough to do it anyway.
"I joined the Independents because I do not believe what the Alliance is doing is right. I wasn't old enough to join up first time around, when you fought your war, so when this opportunity presented itself I jumped at the chance. They gave me a small ship because of my background, and my role is scouting and tracking certain targets. However…lately, some of the things I'm hearing tell me that this new Independent movement is closer to the Alliance than they would care to admit. Cover ups, covert operations, assassinations…you get the picture."
"I do. I've been the focus of their more recent activities."
"So when I was assigned to track you down, I was eager to make your acquaintance. I've seen your service record, Captain, and though I will not claim to know you, I will say that I think I know what kind of a man you are. One who does not intentionally get involved in shady affairs such as this."
Mal straightened and folded his arms. "I think I sense a point developing here."
Andrews nodded. "I'm willing to use a little…flexibility…in carrying out my task. I don't believe that my superiors have an objective viewpoint to make a proper assessment of the situation; they should be working with you, not assigning a tracker to hunt you down. Therefore, I propose an exchange; I will help you ascertain exactly what is going on, and in return, you will return Captain Harvey to me."
"In that order."
"Of course."
"If you can get me answers, I'll be more than happy to return your Captain."
"Very well then," said Andrews. "Within reason, of course, I am at your disposal."
"The only thing I need from you is a video feed lookin' into the open crate Harvey's crew took from us."
"That's all?"
"Yup. All I need is a little curiosity satisfyin', and then I'll be on my way. After returnin' Harvey, of course."
Andrews nodded. "Then I'll contact you when the feed is ready."
Mal flicked the switch, and the wave went dark. Zoe raised her eyebrows at him.
"Seems like the only trustworthy Independents these days are ones we don't know."
"We don't know if he's trustworthy yet," said Mal. "That seemed a little too easy. But he seemed to be on the level. More concerned about his missing man than getting viruses to set loose on civilian worlds." He stared at the deck for a few moments, and then realised something. "I'm famished," he said. "Let's go eat."
The crew, plus Harvey, bustled excitedly around the mess table, having missed their last meal by several hours. Inara stood in the kitchen, preparing several bowls of food, and River darted back and forth between them depositing items on the table.
Mal took the seat at the head of the table, and following suit, the others clattered chairs back and sat on them.
Harvey went to take a chunk of bread, but Jayne's hand snapped around his wrist, stopping him from retrieving it.
"Nobody eats til we say Grace," he growled, and Harvey was quick to remove his hand from the proximity of food.
"You don't strike me as a particularly religious man," he said, frowning, and for a moment nobody met his eye or responded to his comment.
Finally, Mal spoke for the rest of them. "The Grace isn't for us. It's a tradition we continue out of respect for an old friend who ain't with us no more. Somethin' I wouldn't expect you to understand."
"The same way I don't understand why you left my old friends to be torn apart by Reavers in that hospital?" asked Harvey, an edge creeping back into his eye.
Mal met his glare. "You're lucky I brought you at all. You're only here so I can figure out what's goin' on out there against me and mine. Now shut the hell up – I hear another complaint from you, and I'll throw you out of the airlock."
Inara deposited the last bowl on the table, and took the only remaining seat. They all hunched over their plates, eyes to the table. Kaylee spoke out loud.
"Thanks for the food, most of the company, and even though we're havin' a bit of a rough time of it lately, thanks for keepin' us in one piece. Amen."
The others muttered the final word of her prayer, and then began to take items of food enthusiastically.
None so enthusiastically as Harvey, however. He shoved the chunk of bread he had just tried to take into his mouth, and placed items of food seemingly at random on his plate. Before long, he was attracting faintly disgusted glances from both Simon and Inara, but Mal simply looked mildly amused, his momentary hostility all but evaporated.
"Hungry, Harvey?" he asked. His former squad mate nodded.
"Be careful," warned Simon, his warning stemming not from concern but from duty. "You'll get something stuck going down having not eaten for so long." Zoe, who had been strategically placed on the other side of the table, glowered in their guest's direction.
"Why aren't we throwing him out of the airlock?" she asked.
Harvey caught the edge in her voice and, not wanting a confrontation, slowed down a gear on his food consumption.
"Because even though he's done us wrong, he's here, and we gotta take care of him," said Mal. "To a basic level, anyhow."
"Would that involve not beatin' the tar out of him?"
Mal grinned at Harvey. "See? I told ya she'd do it. And yes Zoe, it would involve not doing that."
Satisfied she had scared Harvey enough for the moment, Zoe withdrew back into herself and started eating.
"Where are we on looking through those files?" asked Simon, but Kaylee waved him to silence.
"Not now, we're eatin'. I'll tell you all about it when we're finished."
"Good call," muttered Jayne. "I'm gettin' tired of all this talk of crates and viruses 'n stuff. I just wanna chow down in peace."
"This is really good," said Mal around a mouthful of food. Inara nodded her head slightly at the compliment.
"Thank you, although I'm no culinary genius. River is showing herself to be quite adept at it, however."
"How did your therapy go?" asked Simon.
"Quite well for a beginner." At some enquiring glances from the others, she elaborated. "I tried to instruct River on how to meditate earlier. Although she had difficulty maintaining her composure, I believe there were moments when she achieved a serene state of mind."
"Careful Doctor," said Mal. "There are some practices I'm sure you don't want River to pick up from Inara." River, sitting as close to Zoe as possible, offered no indication she was paying attention to what they were saying.
"She seems to be progressing down the road of petty thief fairly well based on her success piloting the ship," returned Inara coolly. "I thought perhaps she could use instruction on the other end of the spectrum." Mal just smiled lopsidedly to himself. He hated to admit it, but he did enjoy his sparring sessions with Inara.
"Maybe you can take her with you to meet your next client," he said. "I imagine there are a few men out there willing to pay a whole lot of cash to share company with two ladies the likes of you and River."
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about River like that," said Simon.
"A client pays for a Companion's company, not just physical intimacy," said Inara loftily.
"What's not to like about River's…"
Harvey coughed loudly, breaking Mal's train of speech. He afforded their unofficial prisoner an annoyed glance, and then started to speak again.
"What's not to…"
But he was cut off again, Harvey coughing and staring at the table in an odd manner.
"Shouldn't be shovellin' food into your mouth like that, else you're gonna end up chokin' on it," said Jayne from beside the man.
Harvey's coughing degenerated into him wheezing instead of breathing, and he brought his hands up to his throat, looking around the table, pleading with his eyes.
Simon stood up and put his hand on Harvey's shoulder, looking mildly concerned. Their unwelcome guest merely drew distracted glances from the others, who continued eating.
"What's wrong?"
"What do you mean, 'what's wrong,' you said it before, he just ate too much food is all."
Harvey's breath seemed to stabilise into a series of shaky breaths in and out, and his hands now gripped the table, his knuckles white. He trembled with his whole body.
"What's wrong?" asked Simon again, and Harvey moved only his eyes to look at the Doctor.
"Cramps…" he managed to say.
"See?" said Jayne.
"Try drinking some water," suggested Inara, handing him a glass from where she sat opposite. But the proffered glass remained untouched in her hand.
"Getting worse…" said Harvey from in between clenched teeth.
"That'll teach ya to…" said Mal, but Harvey let out a long groan that cut him off mid sentence. No one was touching their food now.
Suddenly he lashed out his hands, sending the glass of water Inara was holding smashing to the table, showering Kaylee and Mal with the clear liquid. They sprang from their seats as Harvey screamed, chilling the blood of everyone present.
He rose from his chair, one hand clutching at Simon's shoulder, the other waving manically, as if trying to balance himself against falling over. He turned and fell back against the surface of the table, Jayne pinning him down as Simon called for the others to back away. Suddenly everyone was standing, looking on in hair-raising alarm. River had started to cry, and clutched at Zoe's arm for protection as she looked on in child-like horror.
"Somebody run to the infirmary and get my…" called Simon, but Harvey screamed louder than before, drowning out all conscious thought with the insanity behind it. Liquid gurgled up his throat and the scream erupted in a fountain of blood from his mouth.
"What the hell's the matter with him?" cried Jayne, but all motion was ceased when blood sprayed from Harvey's chest, showering Jayne and Simon in a fine mist. Stunned silence descended upon the mess, the only noise coming from River sobbing in the corner.
His chest convulsed, but the man lay still, prostate on the table. With a sharp crack, his rib cage splintered open from within, and a thing spawned in the worst of nightmares emerged from within it. A long, white head that ended in rows of impossibly sharp teeth emerged, followed by two arms that ended with scythe-like claws; and no external organs of any kind, even eyes. It was a sickly pale, streaked with crimson blood and pieces of skin and bone.
There was a moment of stunned, horrified inactivity, but then River screamed, a long, manic scream with no thought behind it, only terror. The creature hissed at Simon, its jaws moving apart to reveal what appeared to be a secondary set of teeth within its mouth, and then it hauled the rest of itself from inside the still twitching Harvey.
As it moved, so did Mal. He drew the pistol concealed beneath the table of the mess, and fired at the retreating creature.
It was deceptively fast, however, and Mal missed with the first shot. The second and third shots also missed the mark, but with the fourth he managed to clip the creature, and yellow liquid burst from its ruptured skin, spraying the deck as it disappeared out the door towards the engine room.
The metal of the deck hissed violently, the liquid eating into the otherwise sturdy hull of the ship. Pitted marks sank into the floor, acrid smoke rising from the wound.
Mal stormed across the mess and slammed the door to the rear section closed.
"What the hell just happened?" demanded Jayne, his voice straying towards manic. No one besides Mal was moving. Kaylee stood staring blankly at Harvey's mangled corpse. River clung to Zoe, crying hysterically. The metallic smell of blood filled the room, drowning out the more pleasant aroma of recently prepared food. The smell of blood, and something nastier and much more substantial; freshly butchered meat.
"It must be…" said Simon, staring dazedly at the bloody hole in Harvey's chest. "It must have gestated inside of him…like a parasite…"
"It's the Void!" cried River, Zoe placing an arm around her in an almost futile attempt at reassurance. "Can't get a reading! The butcher has been born from the children…"
Simon half snapped out of whatever trance he was in and walked across to where Zoe cradled River, taking his sister from the first mate. "River," he said, holding her gently by the shoulders. "Are you saying that that…thing…was in the cargo crate we were carrying? Remember? The one you couldn't get a reading on?"
She looked up at him, tears streaking her face, but now she was calmer, as if she had been sedated. "The children were in the crate," she said, letting Simon almost fully support her weight. "The butcher was inside him."
"Will you get her to shut up?" demanded Jayne. "We've got a bit of a situation here."
"Jayne?" said Mal evenly, expressionlessly. He was staring intently at River. "Shut. Up."
"What children, River?" asked Simon.
"Lost from their mother…They told me they wanted to go back. They were hungry. They wanted to be with me. They needed to be hollow." Her face creased with tears again. "No thought. There was no thought. I couldn't get a reading. But they still spoke to me!"
Mal, who had seemed to have slipped into some kind of catatonia, dropped onto one knee and observed the pitted holes the creature's…blood?…had left in the ship.
"Sir!" called Zoe in warning as Mal's hand reached towards the remnants of the fluid, but he broke away, picked up a discarded knife from the table, and poked the fluid with it.
After several moments, he withdrew it. The point of the knife had blackened and was smouldering with potent, acidic smoke. He observed it for a few moments, and abruptly dropped it.
"Everyone onto the bridge," he almost shouted, and the rest of the crew obediently filed out of the mess without any comment. Mal, the last one into the command centre of the ship, closed and locked the hatch behind them.
"Cap'n…" said Kaylee, gripping Simon's hand tightly. Unshed tears shone in her eyes, shock refusing to allow her to cry in terror. "What's on our ship?"
He glanced at each of them, taking in their faces. Out of everyone, Zoe and Simon seemed to be the only ones keeping it together completely, though their eyes were a little wild. Jayne, Inara and Kaylee seemed shaken up, but not to the point of being rendered useless. River was roving between mania and alarming calmness, but her unstable mental condition was nothing new. They were all looking to him for an answer he didn't have.
Before he had to say anything, the comms panel beeped for attention on the side of the pilot's station. He ignored the question and moved to answer it. It was Andrews.
He wasn't on his ship, however. He stood in a dimly lit room, in the view of a poor quality video capture device. "Captain Reynolds, I have your video feed set up," he said, and Mal just nodded. The view swung from Andrews to focus on the interior of Harvey's ship; more specifically, the cargo hold.
The long pursued cargo container sat with its lid ajar, and the camera operator's companions flipped it to one side, exposing the interior.
"What in the name of God…?" whispered Simon, and the others were all similarly dismayed.
There was a neat arrangement of leathery pods lining the inside of the container, four rows of two; eight in all. Six of the pods were hollowed out and looked withered, however two remained closed, and glistened with an organic malevolence. Mal wondered if they actually looked menacing, or whether he was simply associating the contents of the crate with the creature that had just…appeared...in the mess.
His train of thought was cut short when one of the men behind the camera shone his torch on one of the remaining pods. It reacted to the light.
"Andrews!" called Mal, but his fellow Captain had already made the instruction. The light returned to the pod, and it became almost incandescent, showing a twitching, reacting, chillingly biological interior.
"Andrews, I don't think it's such a good idea to excite that thing," warned Mal, but the pod's cover had already began to react to the human presence around it.
The…lips of the shell curled back slowly, almost seductively, to reveal a mess of oozing, flowing tubes and lumps of organic matter.
The camera operator leaned in towards the object, to get a better view of the interior.
A shock of activity burst from the pod, and the crew standing observing the events remotely were afforded a horrifying glance at what the secondary storage containers enclosed.
Almost human fingers sprouted from a central 'mouth', of which a tube-like 'tongue' emerged, seeking something that all of the observers instinctively knew they possessed. A long tail propelled the monstrosity forwards, towards the camera, and the nightmare wrapped its 'hand' around the piece of equipment, affording the operator a chance for survival.
With a startled yell, the man dropped the camera, and the creature was shaken free from the impact as it hit the deck. The sight sickened Mal, and someone started to retch behind him. He felt bile rise in the back of his own throat. Perhaps it was instinctive, as the reason behind the automatic reaction occurred to him just seconds later; the creature had been groping for the camera operator's face, and the real purpose of the tongue that reached desperately from the centre of the monster on the screen could be inferred from there.
Startled cries echoed through the speakers around the bridge, and a couple of gunshots fired. The shape of the creature darted past the camera, crawled up the leg of one of Andrews' men, and mercifully left the camera shot. The man screamed, beyond madness, and his legs fell horizontal to the floor.
"Oh my God…Oh my God…" someone was repeating over and over again like a mantra on the screen, and a second, now horrifyingly familiar shadow scampered across the camera lens.
"Shoot it!" cried Andrews manically over the commotion, and although a few gunshots fired off, another scream burst from the speakers.
"Get it off me!!" screeched another male, and it was unclear what had happened afterwards because all noise from the cargo bay ceased, replaced by an eerie silence.
Nothing happened for what felt like an eternity; not even footsteps were echoing on the deck of the other ship. Mal didn't even want to breath.
A virus? There was never any virus in that crate. Only creatures that hibernated inside leathery eggs – because that is what they must surely be – waiting for their time to strike. With one mention of a bioweapon, and one mention of the word 'virus', everyone's focus had been so directed on obtaining it that they never once considered there might be something else inside. Mal cursed his own stupidity for ever accepting that job; ever walking into that bar; ever allowing Harvey on board his ship; ever returning to Hera. He wished this calamity on anyone else; he wished time itself would turn back one week, and that this would never occur. And lastly, strangely most of all despite all of his previous thoughts, he wished that there was someone left alive on the other end of this transmission.
Finally he thought that he should break the silence, but so intense it was that he felt intimidated from making a noise that would breach it.
"…Andrews?" he said.
A shape flickered onto the screen and the camera juddered. The crew collectively jumped at the sudden movement, but Andrews' face soon came into focus, making them realise it was no cause for further alarm.
"Captain Reynolds," he said, his voice sounding muffled. The microphone must have been damaged in the confusion. His eyes were wide, and he looked slightly unhinged. "As for the contents of the crate, I think you have your answer."
Next on Void
"…Now I'd appreciate it if you could return my soldier, and if you could tell me what the hell is going on, that'd be great."
Thanks to MAndrews, epm0001 and Tyramir for your reviews.