RSTC/ Firefly:: Lost
Chapter 6: A Big Hard Sun
The smartly dressed man eyed his opponent as he raised his fists. He charged ready to hit a still young girl into submission. There was a loud but brief scream followed by the clanging of the metal floors. A groan echoed through the cargo bay walls as Zoe Washburne did everything in her power to keep from chuckling unlike her two companions beside her. The younger girl, Dizzy Flores, placed her foot lightly on their medic's chest looking down at the fallen Simon Tam. "And that's how you use the enemy's force against them." She declared. "Got it?" She asked grinning victoriously.
"Captain, you might want to stop this now. He ain't looking too good." She frowned eying the medic rise to his feet.
It wasn't a surprise to her when Malcom Reynolds merely shrugged innocently. " Hey, I didn't say nothing about him having to learn how to fight. He wanted this." He answered washing his hands off the whole ordeal.
"'Bout gorram time if you asked me." Jayne chuckled watching the doctor slowly straighten in pain.
The Captain nodded in agreement as the three leaned against the same crate. "Besides, with the current situation being more than half of them are injured, their lieutenant still out cold, and Kaylee's still recovering, it could help if the young doctor knew how to protect himself." He argued.
Zoe sighed in dismay as the fiery young girl attacked while Simon attempted the move-- a bit too late. Dizzy's hand connected with his jaw before he could even move an inch. "He's going to kill himself." She stated just as the doctor collapsed to the floor.
"Ain't my funeral." Mal said.
"The question is," A young reporter sitting on the floor beside her interrupted. "why Dizzy?"
Zoe eyed the younger trooper confused about the comment. In her opinion, the red head was just as good as anyone to teach the older Tam self defense. It's a wonder how Jayne hasn't won a single round with the much smaller girl. The fact that she was one of the few uninjured troopers around made it even better. "What's that child?" She asked.
"Why ask Dizzy?" Robert Higgins repeated motioning to another fallen doctor scene. "Dizzy's... not a hundred percent right now." He cringed when the doctor collapsed one more time.
"That's not a good thing?" The Captain asked. "If she's not a hundred percent she's less likely to be hurting the good doctor." He reasoned.
"I think what Paperboy is trying to say is that Dizzy's distracted with the thing with Rico. Distracted equals dangerous." The mechanic beside the reporter explained.
Higgins flinched at another throw down. "Exactly."
Zoe gave the captain an expectant look which the he simply chose to ignore. She sighed stepping forward with her hands on her hips. But before she could say anything, a voice broke through from the infirmary. "Hey, Flores!" Max Brutto called out adjusting the sling on his shoulder. "Maybe you should teach him how to fall first before you kill him." He suggested as he entered the cargo bay.
"Yeah? Well, falling isn't going to save your life." She argued putting her hands on her hips.
"Betcha it'll save his." Brutto smirked. "From you."
"Oh. No." Zoe heard the reporter mumble. "This isn't good."
"Not good? Not good, how?" Mal demanded off the wide eyed boy.
"Diz--" He was about to answer but a much louder voice caught everybody's attention.
"What's that suppose to mean?" Dizzy Flores' eyes narrowed in anger.
"Means that it's the first thing you would've taught him if you weren't too busy playing Rico's wife." The injured trooper spat back.
Zoe's eyes widened in surprise watching the girl charge her own squadmate. To the injured Brutto's credit, he had managed to dodge the initial punch by crouching down and tackling the Dizzy Flores with his free arm. She was just about to go at the young boy again when Gossard rushed in to try to hold her back. Unfortunately, Dizzy elbowed the man on the stomach sending him reeling backwards.
"What's going on?" Inara's voice asked, her hands full of groceries, from the catwalk above. Ashley Anderson, the trooper that had accompanied the companion to a small space station, quickly placed the bags she carried on the floor and made her way down the stairs to help split the two up.
"Entertainment." Jayne answered grinning. "Got some peanuts?"
Zoe shook her head and placed her attention back to the feuding soldiers. To her surprise, Jeffrey Gossard had caught Dizzy's punch and twisted her arm behind her. "Quit it." He growled. "Fighting Brutto isn't going to help Rico." He grunted trying to hold the still fighting girl.
At the same time, Andy grabbed the Brutto's ear from behind and twisted it. The boy's eyes grew wide in pain as he turned slowly lowering himself to his knees unable to do anything from arms length. Zoe noticed both the Captain and Jayne cringe at the sight of a twisted ear. Jayne, in fact, had one hand to his ear as if he were the one under attack. "Anderson! Let go!" A red faced Brutto growled.
"You're an idiot." She stated dryly.
"Andy, I'm taking Dizzy to the clinic." Gossard informed the trooper while pushing the angry red head along towards the infirmary.
"Cool. Brutto's going to help me cook." She let go of the troopers' ear when the pair was already paces away.
Zoe smirked at the aghast expression the boy had on his face. "The hell I am! Why should I?" He exclaimed.
"Because I'm hungry!" The girl raised her voice for the first time inside the firefly. "And it's at the opposite end of the ship where Dizzy will obviously be nowhere near." She added hitting the back of the boy's head in annoyance and pushing him towards the stairs.
"You should've said that first." Brutto yelled at the girl while taking the groceries out of Inara's arms before disappearing into a doorway. Suddenly, the cargo bay was quiet.
"What just happened?" Mal asked the boy rising to his feet.
"I don't understand...They just left." The doctor walked towards them carefully.
"Ain't there a second part? Nobody won." Jayne pointed out.
"Jayne." Zoe sighed in her warning tone. She couldn't understand it either. First, they were fighting. Then, there was nothing. In her experience, someone at least gets shot at times like these. Or at least, a warning shot would be fired before anybody would stop throwing punches. She half expected a threat of punishment but none really came. They just disappeared.
Higgins merely scratched his head in uncertainty. "Things tend to get weird when Rico's..." He trailed off with a sigh. " I know it doesn't look like it but we're all on edge about Rico's condition. Dizzy, Carl and Carmen pretty much grew up together. The one who has it the worst is Dizzy... because they're a thing." He revealed carefully much to Zoe's amazement. "Normally, Dizzy would just tease Brutto back. But her fuse is shorter than usual and Brutto doesn't have a filter. I mean, the last time Johnny was out like that the whole squad turned on each other. He wasn't even lieutenant then. If Lieutenant Raczak wasn't there..." He stopped pressing his lips into a fine line.
"Are you telling me you're all going to shambles without the lieutenant?" Zoe asked.
"Not exactly shambles." He answered tentatively.
"Well, who's in command after Rico?" The Captain questioned.
The boy eyed them all sheepishly. "Sergeant Zim."
-- -- - -
Sergeant Charles Zim could barely feel the hand of Sky Marshal Redwing squeezing his as the gun salute ended the ceremony. This was not how he imagined his return to Earth would be. He thought he would at least be able to watch the troopers he had spent so much time with walk away from headquarters as proud citizens. He actually had looked forward to sitting through annoying phone calls and visits and small talk for years and years to come.
It never occurred to him that he would survive them all.
Slowly, the crowd thinned. He somehow knew he shook hands with Rico, Dizzy, Carl and Carmen's parents. It barely registered when he talked to Doc Lecroix's and Jeffrey Gossard's friends. He knew he mumbled a few words about how courageous Bobby Higgins had been despite not being a trooper to his parents. He remembered telling Citizen Sean Lavigne he would attend a memorial concert for his best friend Andy. It was just a blur to him-- a sea of people he didn't know very well.
So he stood there under light spring showers of San Francisco staring at the fresh graves with coffins filled with memories and momentos from loved ones in place of bodies. Nine graves surrounding a monument of the Hero of San Francisco, Jean Razak. Miriam had mentioned that Rico would have his own monument in time. But for now, it seemed fitting that he would be laid to rest with his fellow Roughnecks.
Razak's Roughnecks-- more or less.
"Zim." A familiar voice called out. He didn't need to turn to see who it was. A hover chair stopped right beside him.
"Sergeant." A soft alien stood beside his friend.
"Ambassador Brutto." He greeted not able to meet his gaze. "Council member T'phai."
"It's Sergeant Brutto." Sergeant Brutto corrected bluntly.
"Here, I am just Private T'Phai." The Tophetti followed suite.
And that was all there was. No words were spoken between the surviving Roughnecks. They didn't need it. He knew they were all thinking the same several things. It was the unnatural order of events. They were older-- they should've passed before all of them. At the very least, he should be with them. He shouldn't be standing over them.
Miriam called it Survivor's Guilt.
But it couldn't be helped. In time, even Sergeant Brutto and T'Phai left wordlessly. He still stood there just watching over his troopers. "Charlie, we have to go." He felt Miriam Redwing lead him away from the graves slowly through the rows of cherry blossom trees just ready to bloom.
He took one last look at the monument and closed his eyes bitterly. "Do you know what's ironic?" He suddenly asked with a humourless smile forming on his lips. "I just convinced Marlowe and Blue leader to let the squad go."
-- -- - - -
Carl Jenkins watched River Tam take a deep breath and closed her eyes just like he told her to. "Now try to clear your mind. Just think of one single colour and hold that thought." He instructed. He finally caved. He had tried everything to block out her shouting mind from his. Everytime he thought he had it contained like everybody else's in this ship, she would break through the barrier even louder than before.
"Like green?" She asked opening one eye. Carl nodded encouragingly.
He decided he had to cut it off from the source. He had to teach River Tam how to at least control her abilities. First one on the list, is how to calm down-- to think of one single thing instead of the myriad she's been furiously going through. One central thought would help them both at least for some small time.
It was working. All he could read from her now was a picture of a well- maintained garden. This, he could block out immediately. For the first time since they had boarded Serenity, he felt much better.
"You can't blame it on me." Brutto's voice drifted into his consciousness.
"Maxi, you baited her." Andy reminded the boy. "Way to kick someone when they're down. Pass the salt, please."
The Intel psychic sighed. The trouble of being in an enclosed ship was that there weren't a lot of places you could be alone without attracting scandal. The best place he thought to do this with River was the dining area-- which was just a few steps shy of the small kitchen currently occupied by the two youngest troopers in the squad.
"Stop calling me Maxi." The boy complained.
"Stop being an idiot." The girl retorted smirking.
Brutto may say he dislikes the girl quite a bit. It might have been true when Andy was transferred in but Carl knew it wasn't exactly true had the kind of love- hate relationship siblings had. In fact, he was sure that the girl was one of the few people Brutto actually listens to. She certainly was one of the few that could call him Maxi without receiving a threat of some kind of force back. And as fond as he was of the two, he couldn't help but wish that they just weren't in the space. Just like any other sibling relationship out in the universe, the two bicker.
"Stop calling me an idiot!" Brutto huffed. "Geez Anderson, what is that blue stuff? Did you melt a smurf?" He asked.
Suddenly, Carl's head felt like it was melting. A series of memories came flooding in. There were blue hands, and needles, and computers and hospital rooms and tests of some sort. He knew they weren't his memories. "Stop it!" He ordered grasping the edge of the table. He didn't know if he actually said it or not.
However, someone was definitely screaming.
-- -- - -
He stifled a grumble as the council members seated in the auditorium voiced their complains. He tried to look unaffected by the whole ordeal as he adjusted the Chinese collar on his grey dress suit. Wearing this particular suit, he now realized, was a mistake. Sure, it had the loveliest gold leaf patterned embroidery this side of the verse, but it was highly uncomfortable underneath the heat of bright white lights. He gathered that he also looked a bit washed out against the dull backround. He decided that next time he would wear the western wine coloured suit-- same stellar embroidery plus he would pop out from the boring backdrop.
He was relatively new in this bigger arena. He knew there ought to be some sort of a learning curve. He just didn't expect it to be a lesson in fashion.
"It's absurd!"
"What kind of bendan would even suggest hiring these sort of men?!"
"Nothing has worked so far." His interest piqued. Apparently, he had a supporter he didn't know he had.
"We cannot align ourselves with these... these..."
"Untrustworthy folk?" He supplied managing to sound somewhat bored. "Qiedao?" He added with a small knowing smile. "Gentlemen, Ladies. What I propose isn't such a novel idea. Didn't the great Ramsees II employ mercenaries when he waged his wars? The Byzantine Empire had the Varangnian Guards, all of which were of the sort of men you discourage, guard the royal family. We can go back further to Xerxes if you wish, but the facts are there." He feigned a shrug just for the effect of it. "Sometimes, you just have to beat these men at their own game. And who would know the game more than someone who leads this kind of life." He argued.
"You've found someone haven't you."
"I have." He nodded solemnly. "He is educated. He is quite powerful and money. And most of all, he has a reputation." He bowed and took a step back motioning towards the properly dressed elder that has been standing beside the door inconspicuously since the meeting began.
The crowd focused their attention to him for the first time as he walked forward to take the center stage. "You must be wondering why I am willing to do this." He said with his thickly accented diction and eyes gleaming beneath his glasses. "As the great Machiavelli said on the subject of love and fear. 'It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.'" He quoted without falter or mistake.
"And you," Someone in the crowd spoke out. "You want to be feared?"
The elderly man smiled. "I have a reputation."
-- -- - -
A scream pierced through Serenity pulling Simon Tam from his inspection of his new bruises. His eyes widened in panic quickly running out of the infirmary and making his way towards the dining area. He wasn't even there yet when he saw a female trooper toppling back towards the small sitting area through a doorway. A chair was thrown in the air.
"Get out of my head!" Another scream turned the medic's blood cold.
"Was that your sister?" The Captain suddenly appeared climbing up from his quarters. "Are they trashing my gorram ship?" He asked running towards the melee but stopped just when a knife zipped just inches from his nose towards a pale trooper. Max Brutto pulled him away just in time for the knife to embed itself on the panel where Jenkins was crumpled infront.
In an instant, the young River Tam leaped from the dining table aiming to grab the injured trooper's sore arm. But Brutto was just as fast in evading the oncoming attack. He headed towards the door exiting to the bridge as Zoe stepped into the room and River brandished a new knife from the block. Simon helplessly watched his sister attack the injured trooper while the injured trooper tossed the gun Zoe wore on her thigh across the far end of the room. "Anderson!" The boy called out. The gun skidded against the metal floor. The young girl managed to scamper after the gun. She turned, gun in hand. Brutto raised his free arm to protect himself from the coming blade.
Simon felt his heart stop when a single shot was fired.
The knife fell in two pieces. Brutto pushed the girl away and quickly placed distance between them. River fell to floor hugging her knees and sobbing. "River." He finally passed the Captain who was still in shock at the doorway. "River... are you hurt?" He repeated kneeling down right infront of her but she wouldn't lift her head to meet his gaze.
"She's fine. I shot the knife." The trooper answered as she made her way to her own crumpled psychic friend.
"You could have missed!" He growled angrily.
He saw Brutto roll his eyes as he gave back Zoe's borrowed gun. "Don't be stupid. Anderson doesn't miss." He snarled.
"Don't you ever take my gun again you hear me private?" Zoe Washburne sternly eyed the young boy. "Now, you might want to explain what's going on?"
The trooper shrugged. "I don't know. One minute she was sitting with Jenkins meditating or something and the next thing I know, she goes berserk. Takes it out on whatever Anderson was mixing." He watched the sobbing girl warily. "Then, she takes it out on us. We're just defending ourselves from her." He pointed.
"It's not my fault Simon. It's not my fault." She sobbed rocking herself. "You don't understand. They're everywhere. Everywhere! We're not safe. We can never be safe." She shook her head earnestly insisting on her convictions.
Simon simply took her into his arms like he always did. "It's okay meimei. It's okay." He murmured.
"For you." Andy said running a nervous hand through her hair. "Maxi, CJ's not responding. He seems fine. His heart rate looks pretty normal and he's breathing. I don't think he's in shock. But he won't wake up and I don't know..." She turned to face her squadmate looking pale and lost. "Please, call Doc." She finished.
"On it."
"I thought you said little sister here was fine after Miranda." Simon heard the Captain kneel down beside him to have a private conversation.
All the doctor could do was to bravely stare down the Captain. "She was. She is. They must've triggered something." He explained.
"And you ain't got an idea what it is." Mal rose to his feet eying the mess that was left while biting down on his lower lip trying to control his frustration. "Great."
Jayne suddenly appeared on the doorway with a disappointed expression on his face. "Aw... did I miss round two?" He stepped in the kitchen dragging a finger through the spilt batter. "Mmmm...Blueberry pancakes. Eating time yet?" He grinned unaware of what just happened.
-- --
translations :D
bendan= idiot
quedao= thief
meimei= little sister